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.

Key & Peele - Jazz Duel

Key & Peele are the bomb.  Yes, I'm from the 80s so I can say that.  Here's a great take on the jazz soloist.  

Video: Key & Peele - Jazz Duel

Bombay Bicycle Club new single "It's Alright Now"

About a year or so ago, I met Bombay Bicycle Club at a small club in Houston after the put on one of the better shows I've seen in awhile.   Great guys.  Funny to say but if you'll excuse Jack Steadman for a moment for his Fred Perry shirts and conservative nature - and look behind the dressings of an everyday North Londoner - you'll realise what a genius he is.  When I met him, he had his mind deep in his headphones listening to Art Blakey.

On their new single "It's Alright Now", the guys have really branched out, incorporating quite a bit more in the way of acoustic instrumentation.   Completely different sound and from my understanding the new album (out soon) is terrific.  This has a chance to be the first big album of the year and I'm eager to hear more.

Here's a link to the new single: BBC - It's Alright Now

Tim Hecker - Virgins

Another late discovery in 2013 is Tim Hecker's Virgins album.  An acoustic ambient piece that will challenge your speakers and your mind.  I know in both cases, mine are not where they should be, except for the giant vacuum tube that breathes sound out and in. 

Tim lives in Montreal, Canada and is a noted ambient musician but in an evolved pattern.   To understand ambient/abstract music from an artistic perspective, think of this as fairly evolved modern abstract with no discernible figure or edge but a complexity and beauty or horror or like emotions that are easily within grasp with plenty of room for interpretation.   Tim has collaborated with some of my favourite acts including the alt metal band Isis and the amazing Sigur Ros.  So if you've heard these, you might explore a bit here. 

On this album, Tim takes a more acoustic approach (lots of piano, flute, etc) with limited and subtle techno elements.  There's a definite post-apocolyptic feel to the tracks, but often in a bit of a colourful light. thanks to the piano work  Listening to these tracks actually makes me less afraid of the pending apocalypse (lol).    Definitely exciting if you like the genre. 

The opening track - Prism - introduces us to several themes repeated throughout - with stabbing elements leading to "plugging in" and "starting up" sounds.  I'm not sure the intent here but I think the point is to not stab things literally but to plug in quite specifically to that first bit and emphasise it - that imperfect intersection of electronic before the music is played.  Plugging in electronics is a form of stabbing, no?  Also the sexual references to virginity?  Am I onto something or just lost?

But I digress.  The first introduction into the harpsichord/piano elements is in the second track Virginal I.  It's a lovely bit of baroque that also dances in and out of various tracks.  This is the warm grounding of the album that gives it a more happy feel as needed.  Radiance is another early stand out track exhibiting the lighter and lovelier side of this album.  

Two tracks later - Live Room Out is scarier, but remarkable - featuring the thump of the piano (imagine a piano that sounds like train track bells) on top of a very layered piece including a masterful fresh take on bass sound.  The track is finished with gorgeous keyboard sounds and distortions and to my ear, a true standout as a fully finished piece.  Extremely aggressive and powerful.  I expect to hear bits of that one stolen by the hip hop world somehow.   

Obviously I have an affinity for 10 minute songs, but on the other side of this lengthy masterful track is a shorter, lighter note - Virginal II - which again picks up the piano thumping.  This time in an entirely cleaner and louder way.   The piano is now clearly at an aggressive forefront, but the aggression here is softened about half way through into a glimpse of a rather pleasant but complex post apocalypse.  

Black Refraction is just a lovely piano digression - the melody tickling out and retreating like a slowly evolving rain storm.  I also love the cut and chop and start/stop effects used in Stigmata I and Stigmata II, the latter track standing out for bringing beauty to the fuzzy sound that emanates when you first plug in an electric guitar.  Or at least that's what I think that sound is.  

Stab Variation literally takes the prior tracks and starts stabbing at them.  It's either a murder or a mockery of the entire album.  I didn't know what to think of this track at first, but then thought - maybe he's taking a piss at all the hard work that comes before it.   Kind of funny in a way because it makes me think that the orchestra is warming up at the end of the show rather than the beginning.  But I'd like to think of it as maybe a punk rock band destroying its instruments at the end of the show.  Truth be told it's probably only my odd and wandering mind that thinks this way.  

Ah, the glory of the abstract art form - it's either murder or a bit of mockery and play on words.  You decide.  

Live Room Out: Tim Hecker Live Room Out

Epitaph: I forgot to mention the most provocative song title on the album, maybe because the song was initially so dry to me.  But I can't resist at this point.  The track is Incense at Abu Ghraib.  The title of course connects with the imagery of the cover art and is part of the duality of the entire album in a sense, right?  Virgins, Abu Ghraib, enough said.   The word incense is a duality - is it to make angry or a state of being incensed or is it the lovely scent of incense used to cover the stink.  After hearing the track, I'm going with the latter in main interpretation.  Why?  Because Abu Ghraib is a famous "fail" if you will for the genre of musical torture.  Instead of the usual bits of hardcore Metallica and the like, the torturers at Abu Ghraib chose David Gray's Babylon as the song for musical torture.  Quite bizarre as Babylon is a song that would tend to uplift someone.  I do think it's remarkable that this track on the album is so unremarkable musically, but pleasant.  You could hit repeat and not know that you are on repeat because its clearly background.   Here's a play on the entire ambient/techno genre: is repetitive loop based music no more than musical torture that's accepted for some reason? But don't think that Tim is dismissing the subject completely here.  Remember our penetration theme?  And recall  the purpose of use of incense as both a pragmatic malodorant or a mystical deterrence for demons.  The conflict is great, great, great to think about.  How the sounds of Bablyon may have uplifted the torturer in the way that Tim hopes his music may have an uplifting effect.  Note that in this case its an effect and not a purpose.   Tim plays dark themed music that most people think as background - you put it on in the background for the effect it has on your mood, etc.  Tim's work is not likely played to you to be uplifting (like the ambient you might get at the spa) but there's no doubt that the positive is hidden there and deeply there.  

Toy - Join the Dots

TOY - Join the Dots

With 2013 out of the way . . . ok I realise we are still in 2013 . . . I wanted to start up some reviews. First up is the new release from the Brighton based psych rock band Toy.  This band typifies and really exhibits the best of modern British psych music . . . the kind of stuff you might hear on any given Psych Sunday at the Lexington.

I first picked up Toy last year when my friend sent over an a copy of their self-titled debut.  The initial release had some killer songs, but a drone about it that I was afraid would pretty much turn believers off no matter what I said - the songwriting drowned emotionally with a dull thumping regular bass sound.  In isolation, songs like Dead & Gone are as good as they get.  Immediately upon inspection, the thought Black Rebel Motorcycle Club came to mind.  This is a band that may build on you with songs that last the test of time, but it's not likely to impress at the outset.

On their second album, Toy spend a bit more time on their psych guitar sound and also have brought in some gimmickry on the hopes of capturing the feel of their live shows --- which I understand are a good bit of fun.  There is something I'd call the Toy romp which is a steady long bobbing up and down paced bit of psychedelia that makes them fun and gives their music a distinct signature.  It's what makes them rock.  The issue for Toy has always been the roll . . . not the rock.  And on this album, it seems a bit the same.  Still a bit short of better noisy psych acts like A Place to Bury Strangers.

Highlights

The big hitter for me is the title track Join the Dots.   This multi dimensional psych track starts slowly then explodes like a bomb using loads of jet engine guitars and super fast bass leads.   This is the kind of music Toy was built to make - multi dimensional and powerful.  I don't care how long the song is, they could play it on and onward, then on again.  The best psych rock has this feel and this song counts in my mind.  It has the romp, but there's so much more here this time.  Get at least 4 minutes in before passing judgment.  You won't want to miss that bit.  This is a signature song for them and definitely will keep their live shows packed.

It's Been So Long reminds you how great this band is when put to paces.  By ticking the meter up a level, you've got a Jesus and Mary Chain vibe going with a very danceable middle/end.  They need more like this.

Too Far Gone to Know starts up as a slow track - clearly about being too high - then blips into a good Toy pace mid way through until it splinters into a Gary Numanesque keyboard dominated finishing job.  Mildly experimental track for these guys as it has more than a few parts to it, but not really transcendent in their overall mix.

The albums final track, Fall Out of Love, initially sounds like it could have been a leftover from their first album but then brakes into a whole new vibe for them - choppy and strong music with no droning bass line followed by a solid Toy romper that just builds and builds to its finish.    Again, you start to see in this track the future for Toy.

Also good

A couple of other good songs.   You Won't be the Same and To A Death Unknown have distinct melodies reminiscent of the better works of The Replacements but slowed down to a Connor Oberst pace.  Extremely enjoyable song writing here, although the lyrical content is a bit muted.  Excellent guitar moments and breaks in both.  Endlessly starts off as a weakened muted Cure song but manages to break its way into rarified air about midway turning it into a classic Toy swinger.  Again the aerial psych guitar display bringing out the best in this band.

Lowlights

The real negative here is the filler tracks that seem designed for nothing and nowhere.  They appear and create the impression of a band going through the motions and plum out of ideas.  The worst of these, As We Turn, could be a tune used for a department store advertisement if not for psych guitar tricks.  I also can't believe they used a boring instrumental like Conductor to open the album.  Just nothing really to it.  Left to Wonder is much too sappy with a weak early 80s keyboard 101 feel to it and a lazy guitar solo hurts my ears.  Frozen Atmosphere is a lazy tasteful (read boring) Floydesque song that teases with a nice Cure like middle giving way to more lazy drone.  Unlike the aforementioned dynamic tracks, this track lacks any coherent or interesting direction throughout.

Conclusion

Again, a band with SOOOOO much potential for creating something amazing.  They have the skill to continually frame and reframe their music.  But there's room to grow here.  The filler is just not worth it and I get the feeling they just needed to get this album out for whatever reason.  Its a bit unfortunate as the title track "Join the Dots" is just breathtaking and shows why so many, including myself, love this band.

Video for Join the Dots: Toy Join the Dots