Thee Silver Mt Zion Memorial Orchestra - Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light on Everything

Fuck Off Get Free - Need they or I say more.  This is my kind of post-punk release.  I don't even feel inspired to write anything cool about it at all.  But just some flavor - 10+ minute expansive tracks that don't seem to care if you like them from a bunch of the Godspeed You! Black Emperor Canadian lot.  Frankly, its way less serial than a Godspeed album so I am shallow enough to like this better.   Jack White would dream of writing something this cool frankly - not that I don't dig Jack White's cool vibe.

The songs here are expansive, brash, and they don't care if you like them.   And so, by the title you might imagine this music is clearly not for everyone.  But I liked it right away.  A bit of folk, a lot of rock guitar, psychedelic  but not on the annoying clawing edge, not bound by structure.  Messy rock.  They call this music post-rock.  Whatever, it's rock that's just been twisted a few times around and free of heavy forms.  More like jazz.  The sound is subversive in an era where even hard rock is conformist and scream-o, death metal and the lot are boring.   F'n cool and rare in that way.

At one time in my life, I didn't like Canadians.  How times have changed.  Canadian bands define the edge these days.  Who would have thunk it?  Maybe it's global warming that's caused Montreal to become Seattle.

Here's a link to the killer track Austerity Blues:  Damn It You Don't Have to Like This Shit But I Do

Efterklang & Copenhagan Phil - The Piramida Concert

Efterklang & Copenhagan Phil - The Piramida Concert

Efterklang is a genius indie rock group hailing from Sonderborg Denmark.  In 2012 they delivered an amazing work on 4AD entitled Piramida.   Piramida is a small former Russian mining colony, now ghost town, edging towards the North Pole.  Desolate and isolated.  The story goes that the members of Efterklang travelled to this remote location to record sounds in the field.  They then used these hollow sounds to help create the deeply ambient desolate mood for the original album.   Take a listen to the 2012 album and then listen to this amazingly brilliant orchestral concert recording - released in June 2013.   Bordering on musical perfection, I envy those who attended the live version - greatly.

The original album received mixed reviews and frankly a lot of poor reviews.   Pitchfork came up with a 5.7.   The reason - not enough risk taken.  Meanwhile, they dole out 9s to Justin Timberlake for basically putting an album out of relatively normal funk.  Nothing against the aforementioned Timberlake, who I think is a terrifically funny actor and talented entertainer,  but fuck that!  Efterklang's original album is a work of art, not some desperate attempt at originality and risk.   Musical subtlety is often lost on reviewers as they troll through stacks and stacks of records daily to try and select the next big thing.  I feel for them.  I'm sure they'd like to have this review back.  This is the hit or miss nature of music critique and why you have to dig a bit further sometimes.  (not meant to be a huge knock to Pitchfork as, absent Pitchfork, I probably would never heard of Sufjan Stevens or Petit Fantome)

Further in fairness to the lame Pitchfork review, the live version of these tracks is so much better than the original.  Recorded in Denmark in October 2012 with the Copenhagan Philharmonic orchestra, the concert versions of the original tracks are no longer stuck to the limited format of a label produced LP.   Efterklang is amazing at opening sounds and here their normally brilliant but short openings are often stretched out into entire vignettes.  Each one building and building until the song bursts forth.  Chilling and very exciting.   The opening track "Hollow Mountain" is stretched from its original 5:26 to 7:32 - two additional minutes to build on such a brilliant opening.  Brillant is an understatement to describe the10 minute version of the track the "Living Layer" inclusive of Vaelv - a classical piece commissioned by Efterklang and composed by Brooklyn composer Karsten Fundal.  Honestly, I won't go through it all because there's so much richness here, it's best to take it in yourself.

Overall, its' Efterklang.  It's orchestral and darkly ambient with elements of many darker moods - lonely, industrial, desolate, precise - joined together with the natural moods - symphonic, acoustic, lilting and beautiful - a true cacophony of contradiction.  Scott Walker like vocals.  Dramatic and beautifully constructed song structures.   I can't help but think of one of my favourite 4AD bands when I hear them - Australia's Dead Can Dance.  But this is actually on a bigger scale in many ways - at least I think it is.

Efterklang are splitting up and playing a final concert in their Danish hometown at the end of February.  I am hoping to join my friend Todd Eckert to see this final bit.

Enjoy this video from the original album.  Should give you some idea:

Efterklang - Hollow Mountain video

New Discovery - Petit Fantome - Stave

Petit Fantome - Stave - Available for Download here: Petit Fantome

So my first real discovery of 2014 is the French indie band Petit Fantome.  I like the French plain and simple.  I really like the language because I believe I understand at least every other word.  For instance, "petit" is small.    "Fantome" is phantom.  So I guessed correctly.   Small fantom.  I speak French now.  At least paranormal French.   Is a small fantom a midget phantom or dwarf phantom?  Unknown.

What I do know is that the nice thing about the newest wave of French indie bands is that they actually sing in their native language.  No longer muttering through English phrases awkwardly. Lets face it though, even when we hear lyrics in English we really only listen to few words or phrases, don't we?  I mean who knows what the hell Eddy Vedder is singing half the time.  Yet, Pearl Jam is everyone's favourite band anyway.  So what's wrong with a little French.  I get more than I do listening to a song in Vedderese.  And it really is an elegant language.

So I won't bore you too much with descriptives, but this 2013 mix tape is a bit of hip hop, some swanky keyboards and really distorted guitars, maybe some Neil Young vocals thrown in.  Just  cool, cool, frais.   I'm really not sure what's not to like other than that the record is just too short.  Oh well, it's free so  you aren't giving up much.  And you get  a load in return - really organic modern original stuff.  I didn't feel bothered listening to it to have to come up with linkages.  The language barrier allows this to be exotic and melow.  The first track "Peio" is fantastic.  It appears to be referring to a mountain in Italy or it could be the Political Economy of International Organizations.  Google can only take me so far.  So you decide.  I'm thinking probably the Italian mountain?  The fourth track "Le passage" has some killer freaky French rap.  For a second, I thought I was back in H-town.  Just brilliant.

Also check out their 2011 LP "Yallah".

Petit Fantome is making the rounds of the Indie festival circuit the past two years.  So hoping to catch them at one of those or around London.