LP

Discovery, whose name pays due respect to Daft Punk's inspirational 2001 disc, is a collaboration between Vampire Weekend's Rostam Batmanglij and Ra Ra Riot's Wes Miles that sounds nothing like either group's music. Their first LP, entitled LP, is an experiment in electronic pop and auto-tune effects that shows the urgent necessity for the keyboardist and vocalist to develop their side project. When I first heard the album, I absolutely hated it. I thought the idea was sound, but the execution left a lot to be desired. After listening to it a few more times, though, I started to get hooked by each individual track, and now I love the album for exactly what it is: a cute, friendly, and fun romp through beeps, synths, and smoothed-over, half-human, half-machine crooning.

The first song I heard, "Osaka Loop Line," is now one of my favorite tracks, combining an abrupt, pounding bassline with a shimmering cascade of chime-like electronics. It's a perfect example of the off-kilter yet still excruciatingly catchy compositional approach found on each of the short album's 10 melodies. Another track that shows off the duo's finest is "So Insane," which takes one main chorus and turns it all over, starting out with a more danceable club tune (which incidentally borrows a line from "The Electric Slide") and slowing it down to form more of a romantic number, then repeating it all over again on the next chorus. Additionally, the increasingly featured artists Angel Deradoorian of Dirty Projectors fame and Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend both contribute to the album, though on separate tracks. Deradoorian plays an androgynous role when she sings both "I wanna be your boyfriend" and "I want a boyfriend" on the aptly-titled "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" while Koenig's voice is later overly distorted on "Carby." As for the rest of the vocals, both Rostam and Wes take turns and both have pretty decent voices, especially when enhanced by auto-tune and vocoding technology on tracks like opener "Orange Shirt" and "Swing Tree." The two also offer an interesting take on Michael Jackson's "I Want You Back," though I vastly prefer the original. Discovery's music has a very futuristic and hip feel, and I can sense that this album is going to get incredibly popular within the next few weeks, so watch for it. It deserves most of the praise.

Hello Mom!

While cruising the streets of Miami, my friends and I stumbled across a remarkable little track by Modeselektor being broadcast from UM's equivalent to our BSR. The song, "Silikon," completely dissects and rearranges the hip hop vocal performance of guest Sasha Pereira, and the result was so interesting that I had to get at the whole album.It turns out that the rest of Hello Mom!, Modeselektor's 2005 debut, is just as intriguing as the track we first heard. Though it starts out with some weaker, more typical techno dance grooves, the album takes a turn toward the more bombastic with a creative splurge at around track seven. Sampling anything from human breathing to baah-ing sheep, Modeselektor manages to produce some incredible beats with impeccable technical ability. "Earth (UPS Edit)" is a perfect example of such a beat. Other tracks, like the synth-washed "In Loving Memory" and the breathbeat of "My Anthem," show a more mellow end of the range of emotions on the album and are just as beautiful to the ears. "Hasir" throws some arabic influences into the mix, "I Love You" adds some shimmering Studio-esque tropicalia, and "Dancing Box" does the same to French rapper TTC that "Silikon" does to Sasha, creating breakbeats from his fragmented speech. All show off the diversity and originality in Modeselektor's music and vouch for the necessity of this album in any techno junkie's collection.

"Hold The Line"; "Zumbi"

Two singles from Major Lazer, the new collaboration between recent popular remix DJs/producers Diplo and Switch (or Sinden) are available for free download on music blogs everywhere, and if these tracks show any inkling for what to expect from the debut album Guns Don't Kill People... Lazers Do, it's going to be one hell of an album.

The first single from the album, "Hold The Line," featuring vocals and rapping from Mr. Lexx and Santigold (who has become quite the trendy artist to feature on singles), is an example of the variety, ambition, and strangeness we can expect from the two DJs. It samples horses, phone lines, operators, and various other random things while keeping a quick pace with a rockabilly "Misirlou"-like background. It's crazy, it's weird, and it's extremely addicting and an all-around pleasure to listen to.

Playing up the bizarre side of things is the other single, "Zumbi," which is not actually on the tracklist for the album but should still be downloaded. Featuring incredibly distorted and mechanical vocals from Andy Milonakis, whose growth hormone deficiency leads to some incredibly creepy thoughts considering the subject matter, the track is pretty minimal in its elements (rhythm is kept only by something that sounds like a laser gun and a repeated groaning in the background) but so intriguing that it's hard to stop listening. The lyrics are both corny and bad-ass at the same time: the song is from the perspective of a zombie who repeatedly refers to eating brains as a sexual act. Some of the more hilarious lines include "you can't test me, 'cause I eat your zombie blood like Nestle Quick, and you'll suck my zombie dick" and "me, I'm zombie and me don't eat gays 'cause I don't like the HIV." At certain moments in the song (like the former of the two lyrics I just mentioned) Andy's voice dissolves in an infinite reverb loop: these are the big payoffs that make the song incredibly worthwhile.

The album drops June 16th, and I hope to get a copy ASAP.

Manners; Chunk Of Change

Passion Pit has been getting a lot of attention lately, and people have been likening them to groups like MGMT or even calling them "the next Animal Collective." While I wouldn't go that far (I'd actually never go that far), most of the attention is deserved: Passion Pit really knows how to make good music. Both the full-length debut Manners (set for release on May 19th) and last year's Valentines-gift-turned-widespread-EP Chunk Of Change contain some incredibly catchy pop melodies that are sure to please casual listeners and aficionados alike.

The comparison to MGMT is actually very accurate, as Manners is very similar to Oracular Spectacular in that it has a few stand-out tracks (like lead single "Moth's Wings" and "Eyes Like Candles") that are climbing the ranks of my favorite songs of all time, while the other tracks aren't nearly as good but are still pleasant to listen to. The vocal performance is also very similar in both groups, and Michael Angelakos' falsetto is just as endearing and distinctive as James Mercer's and Zach Rogue's. That being said, Manners is a much stronger album as a whole than Oracular Spectacular was. From "Kids"-esque opener "Make Light" to the retro-dance influences on "The Reeling" to the high-pitched vocoder distortion on "Sleepyhead," the tracks on this album all offer different facets of the band while at the same time fitting together in a logical way to make a cohesive pop album that dabbles in the electro genre.

The Chunk Of Change EP sounds quite different, evoking dance-punk acts like Hot Chip and LCD Soundsystem on tracks like "Better Things" and soft electronic artists like Kelley Polar and Junior Boys on opener "I've Got Your Number." In case you didn't know the story, Angelakos recorded a few tracks for his girlfriend on Valentine's Day and once it circulated through his group of friends, it got so much attention that the group was signed and released the EP only a few months later. Anyway, all of the tracks on the EP, except maybe "Cuddle Fuddle," are heartwarming, genuine, and excellent ear candy, and when combining forces to form the sum of the parts they pretty much top the debut.

The Bachelor

With album artwork that evokes (at least in my mind) a cut-scene from the classic Playstation RPG, Final Fantasy VII, Patrick Wolf's follow-up to 2007's critically acclaimed The Magic Position finds his music taking on a darker, more adventurous, and more dangerous sound, making the fanboy reference all the more appropriate. The Bachelor, the first in a duo of releases making up the former double album Battle, is a concept album named for the Sussex town in which it was recorded and will be released on June 1st.The darker, more disturbed sound of the album hearkens back to Wolf's debut, Lycanthropy, which incidentally features the musician in a very similar pose on the album cover. The font and placement of the artist name and album title further enhance the similarities, making it evident that the return to form was Patrick's intent. A few of the tracks, such as the incredible opener and second single "Hard Times," are as upbeat as some of the tracks on Magic Position, but there is a stark difference in tone achieved by the instruments used and the electronic manipulation applied in collaboration with pioneer Matthew Herbert. Most of the tracks, however, are slower and more introspective, resembling the more subtle "Augustine" and "The Stars" of the previous album. "Damaris," "Thickets," "Who Will," "Blackdown," and "Theseus" (on which actress Tilda Swinton speaks the "voice of hope") all exemplify a new trend of a gradual build-up of tension followed by an overwhelming release at the very end of the song through use of epic piano and string arrangements. At the same time, some tracks like "Oblivion" have more of an off-kilter electronic beat, another aspect which reminds us of Patrick's earlier work. All in all, the album is an incredibly cohesive exploration of themes of love and warfare, and I for one am already excited for The Conqueror, the second part of what promises to be an incredible double album.

Bromst

OK, I knew this was going to be good, but I didn't know exactly how good. Bromst, the new album from Dan Deacon which will officially be released on March 23rd, turned out to be one of the best things I've heard in quite awhile.
Spanning approximately 70 minutes with 11 tracks, Bromst is an album of truly epic proportions. If you liked "Wham City" from 2007's Spiderman Of The Rings, you'll love the 7-9 minute tracks that anchor the album amidst the frenzied, chaotic pieces we've come to expect from Dan Deacon. It seems as if he's taken all the best elements from Spiderman and expanded and reworked them into a masterpiece of pulsating chipmunk-synth dance music. Just like he promised, however, a much greater range of emotion is included, and new tricks and experiments were also thrown into the mix to create a sound that is both familiar and new. Fans of "The Crystal Cat" will love the fast-paced, chirruping sounds of "Red F," "Padding Ghost," and "Woof Woof." Tracks like "Surprise Stefani" and "Baltihorse" are much gentler compositions, with beautiful layers of synthesizers, bells, and chimes (like "Big Milk" except on a much larger, more grandiose scale.) The centerpiece of the album, however, is the pair of back-to-back epics found a few tracks in. Both of these feature new styles and new source material for Dan Deacon: he arranges tiny segments of sound and arranges them in a rapid sequence, similar to "Orphaned" by Max Tundra (to which I dedicated a much earlier post), in the grand finale of "Snookered" and uses a chorus of tribal vocals as the backdrop for "Of The Mountains." The only new thing that didn't work out amazingly well was "Wet Wings," which consists of several layers of the sounds of women wailing and not much else. It feels out of place amidst the highly-polished, carefully constructed electronica that comprises the rest of this incredible album. I'm sure there's going to be a lot of hype about this album as it gets closer to the date, but you can be assured that it deserves every bit of it.

Ferndorf; Infinite Leagues

During our show last weekend I dug up a few CDs that were ignored when they first came in the mail toward the end of last year (our reviewing system is sadly very disorganized.) I'm lucky I decided to go through the bin, because I found two really good albums from last October: Ferndorf by Hauschka and Infinite Leagues by Golden Birthday.

Ferndorf is the third album by neo-classical minimalist composer, Volker Bertelmann, who makes use of a technique called "prepared piano" to create his short pieces of warm, melodic goodness. The technique involves putting random objects between the strings of the piano, and it was first explored by early pioneers of experimental music like John Cage. The result, in addition to the other string and percussion instruments layered over the repetitive piano backdrop, is a folksy, earthy sound that quickly progresses around the musical ideas. The album is named for Bertelmann's hometown, and it actually captures what I imagine to be the feeling of riding a bicycle around some Eastern European country. Very pretty, especially "Rode Null" and "Eltern."

Infinite Leagues had "For fans of early Eno and New Order" written on the distributor label, which is what immediately drew me to give it a listen. The voice does sound like Eno, but that was about the extent of the comparisons. The music is very touching, however, as it combines layers of lo-fi electronic pop to create a sort of surreal environment, again using repetition to set the mood. The closing track, "Good Guys," is especially phenomenal, most probably due to my affinity for vocoder experimentation. Side note: is it just me or does the cover look almost exactly like the cover (at least in idea) of Dan Deacon's upcoming Bromst LP? And, if the similarity was intentional, who copied whom? This one came out last October...

Finally, I somehow managed to get a copy of the new Junior Boys album that is scheduled for release in April, Begone Dull Care. Basically, it's amazing. Fans of Last Exit and So This Is Goodbye will definitely not be disappointed, and at the same time the duo manages to progress into new territory and refine their sound. "Dull To Pause" is just as heartbreaking as "Like A Child" while "Parallel Lines" is just as thrilling as "Teach Me How To Fight." Bravo! I'd post a picture, but unfortunately it's so premature to its release that it doesn't even have album art yet.

March Of The Zapotec And Realpeople Holland

Another item from the list of things to look forward to has arrived: the double EP from Beirut, March Of The Zapotec and Realpeople Holland, though the second disc should actually just be called Holland and credited to Realpeople, another of Zach Condon's musical projects. The rationale for this is that the two EPs are completely different from one another, and Holland is completely different from most of what Beirut is known for.


March Of The Zapotec continues Condon's experimentation with foreign music that began with his trip to the Balkans that inspired Gulag Orkestar and continued through to Western Europe in The Flying Club Cup. This one takes place in Mexico, and while it maintains the typical Beirut sound, I feel like it lacks a lot of the charm and good songwriting that was found on the aforementioned recordings. In contrast, Holland, though it shakes the foundation of what we've come to expect from Zach and is more electronic than anything else, actually retains the charm and is full of beautiful, emotional tracks. It's almost as if Condon was torn between what was expected of him, the traditional world-influenced folk music, and what he actually wanted to make, the synth-pop. He ended up making a little of each, but you can easily tell where his efforts and excitement were focused. "My Wife, Lost In The Wild" is a gorgeous, melancholy piece that is of the same vein as the previously released "My Night With The Prostitute From Marseille," only better, while "No Dice" is an incredibly catchy rollercoaster of a track that moves farthest away from the rest and still captures the emotion inherent in Beirut's music without taking advantage of any of Condon's vocals or typical instruments. I have so much respect for him right now because of his ability to convey the same essence in two vastly different genres of music, and I'm excited to see in which direction he'll go next.

Fever Ray

So I just recently gave a few listens to an album I mentioned in one of my "things to look forward to" posts, the self-titled debut by Fever Ray, aka Karin Dreijer Andersson of Swedish electronic duo The Knife (it's out now digitally and I think in stores in March.) The more I let it sink in, the better I feel about it as a record, and now I'd like to take the opportunity to share my newfound excitement with you all.

Though the album art is extremely ugly and unappealing, the music is quite the opposite. The repetitive synthesized elements that characterized most of The Knife's work are also found here, yet more natural percussion is also included on some tracks, forming a concoction that is actually surprisingly similar to Animal Collective's "My Girls". While that alone could make for a good album, the real key with Fever Ray is Andersson's off-kilter, piercing vocals. She uses effects similar to Laurie Anderson's vocoder manipulations, and similarly has two separate "voices": one shockingly smooth and deep and the other her usual screechings. The layering of the two works beautifully and creates a richer, more lush feeling for each pop melody.

Most of the tracks are actually really good, but I guess my top picks would have to be "When I Grow Up," "Triangle Walks," and "I'm Not Done." Definitely one of the better releases so far this year, which I guess isn't saying much but whatever. Happy listening!

Endless Summer; I Need You To Hold On While The Sky Is Falling

Prompted by its surprise appearance in a very vivid dream, I gave another listen to Endless Summer by Christian Fennesz, considered one of the masterpieces of the glitch genre. As I usually am when something inexplicable compels me to listen to something, I was blown away. The album is subtle genius: it combines fuzzy glitch electronics with acoustic guitar strumming to create something that is both artificial and yet deeply human. The result is an awe-inspiring soundscape of pure nostalgia, for what I can't quite place. All I know is that this music perfectly expresses the same feeling of bittersweet hopelessness that settles in when something reminds me of times past. I don't know how Fennesz captures the feeling of good things coming to an end (hence the title) so well, but it's really beautiful.

Another intriguing album I revisited toward the end of my winter break was Kelley Polar's I Need You To Hold On When The Sky Is Falling. When I first listened, I was surprised by 1) the fact that Kelley Polar is actually a man named Michael Kelley and 2) the sparseness of what I thought was going to be a lush album of layered electronics. Having been compared to Junior Boys, it deserved another chance to really sink in, so I gave it one to no disappointment. The songs, like those of Fennesz described above, are bittersweet in that they have dance synths and club beats but also evoke melancholic feelings of emptiness and isolation. Despite the colors of the album cover, the album is actually quite dark and a bit disturbing, especially the track "Chrysanthemum." But the music is still really affecting throughout, just not in the way I initially expected.

"Orphaned"

It's Christmas (on the East coast) and in the spirit of giving, I decided to share with you all a neat little tune that I just recently discovered. It's "Orphaned" by Max Tundra and it's awesome for two reasons: one because it's a lovely piece of the quirky electronic indie pop we've come to expect from Max and two, more importantly, because I think I know exactly how it was created.

One of our assignments in my electronic music class this past semester was to create a rhythm generator (like a simple drum machine) using Max/MSP software and then feed audio samples from other songs into the system to make a more interesting beat. Mine used 200 millisecond clips from two different songs, one by Dirty Projectors and another by Van Dyke Parks, and an interesting mix of vocals and percussion arose. "Orphaned" sounds just like this: Tundra's piece is based off of a few simple rhythms built with tiny clips of other sounds. I feel like the best songs are those that make you want to create your own music when you hear them, and this one makes me want to go back and play around with my drum machine again. Unfortunately, my free trial of Max/MSP just recently expired and I'll have to wait until I can purchase a student version. Lucky for me, though, I'll be able to pass the time just by listening to this song. It's a shame the rest of Parallax Error Beheads You somewhat falls short, but hey, I'll take what I can get.