Sky Needle
If you’re going to do something, do it all the way. If you are going to make music, and you want to make that music your own, then do it. Sometimes you have to build your own instruments in order to make the music that you need to make; the sounds available to you with the traditional arsenal may not speak to you, or may not be able to speak properly for you.
SKY NEEDLE are a band of humans living in Brisbane, Melbourne and Kyogle, Australia. They were founded in 2009 at the foot of the Brisbane ‘sky needle’, a strange architectural extravagance left inexplicably derelict since its construction for world expo 88. In honour of this giant phallic absurdity, Sky Needle vowed to only perform using their own home-made instruments.
The idea of using custom instruments reminds me of Buke and Gase, but listening proves to take every shred of that comparison away. Sky Needle are more percussive, more experimental, more jumping off buildings without a net. Basically, Sky Needle is most at home in unfamiliar territory.
A track like “Stars Rain Outside” recalls bits of Sonic Youth’s “Lee is Free,” with the addition of soulful singing overtop and gamelan sounds underneath. Then there are other tracks that sound like Jandek is making a guest appearance with detuned strings chugging along before the entire thing just falls about only to become reassembled as a completely new idea all together.
Sky Needle still shines in some of their less scattered orchestrations like “A Tourist” with Sarah Byrne’s voice sliding ably between sweet and soulful one second to shaky and crazed the next.
As I’ve mentioned before: how often is it that you get to hear sounds that you have never heard before? Here is another opportunity to do just that.
The “Debased Shapes” LP, the group’s 2nd, was released about a month ago, on September 11 and is currently available from Bruit Direct Disques. Check out the album in its entirety in the soundcloud embed above.
Sonic Youth – “Confusion is Next + Kill Yr. Idols”
Sonic Youth is undoubtedly the most important band to me personally for a number of reasons. First off they were the first band that I listened to that not many other people I knew were listening to, and more importantly after hearing them I realized that a rock band can do literally whatever they wanted. Why weren’t more artists being as unique as SY? That uniqueness and individuality translated to “this band doesn’t give a fuck!” in my mind and that was a good thing. A very good thing.
I decided that since this band has been such an important part of my life, and I can say in complete honesty that I would not be where I am today if it weren’t for this band, that I would write up a post for each of their albums. Though I’m not aiming to review them (that’s been done, obviously, as some of these albums are almost 30 years old), I would rather go through them chronologically recalling how they affected me when I first heard them, or what I think about when I return to them over and over again after all these years. The posts most likely will not appear day after day in sequence, but I’ll keep the series going until it’s done.
I was still pretty young when my brother got “Confusion is Sex/Kill yr. Idols” (too young to have any money of my own). DGC was in the process of re-releasing SY’s entire back catalog and I remember there was an ad in Spin that had a list of all the albums (up to “Experimental, Jet Set, Trash and No Star”…which will give you some idea of the timeline here) and we were dutifully trying to get all of them.
One of the things that I remember about hearing this album for the first time was that I couldn’t stop listening to it. It was so curious to me. It “sounded like shit,” was my first thought as I was still deep in the throes of a Smashing Pumpkins “Siamese Dream” obsession, with it’s meticulously clean, “perfect” guitar tone and crystal clear production. Sonic Youth, in comparison, sounded dark, mysterious, evil, scary in some ways. Walking to school listening to this album (on a Memorex that I dubbed from the CD) on my Walkman as I walked to school I remember listening to “Shaking Hell,” and the power of Kim Gordon’s voice, with the sparse emptiness of the hollow accompaniment echoing in the distance, coming off as cold, perfectly matching the brisk Fall of Western New York.
“Freezer Burn/I Wanna Be Your Dog” was a favorite, and I sure as hell didn’t know that this was a cover song, let alone who Iggy Pop was. The sheer energy and noise of “Inhuman” was the first time that I heard a song that just used noise as an instrument. Thurston’s atonal yelps sounded at once wrong and perfect. This sounded like music that anyone could do, but at the same time I knew that only Sonic Youth could. This sounded like music that I wanted to make, or at least it was music that wanted me want to make music, but I didn’t know where 90% of the sounds were coming from.
Slack stringed weirdness at the beginning of the title track serves as uneven punctuation as the near-steady (-ish) accelerando throughout the song gets a start before another loud and squealing guitar comes crashing into the track. An entire song, on an actual album, that I was hearing for the first time, that used just cluster chords and gesture as the entire harmonic structure (though I definitely didn’t think of music in these terms when I was 13). Why do you need chords anyway? The song is tense and then to increase the tension they speed it up to a frantic pace after a section in the middle that breaks the song up a little bit. It all makes sense to me now, but then I was just in awe. I guess I still am but in a bit of a different way.
“Brother James,” listening to it now shows more the direction that the band would head in as they moved toward “Bad Moon Rising,” with verse/chorus/verse structure and guitar lines that, though off-kilter and de-tuned, are actual riffs.
Listening back to this now I am left thinking something that has been on my mind for a long time. It’s not the elements of a song – the melodies, harmonies, structure, lyrical content etc. – that a person connects with instantly, it’s the timbre. That’s the most exciting part of listening to music, in my opinion. Think of it this way: how often in life do you get to experience something that you have never experienced before, or didn’t think was possible? How often do you get to see something that you have never seen before? Find out that something you couldn’t even conceive of actually exists? How often do you get to hear something that truly doesn’t sound – actually sound – like anything you have ever heard before?
To me, it seems that that is going to be the dividing line for people. The first thing one is confronted with when listening to music is the sound. For some it’s an impenetrable barrier, while for others it is a welcomed change from everything else that we’ve ever experienced. That element of otherness is something that continues throughout most of Sonic Youth’s discography, and I still remember my 12 or 13 year old self getting excited about music stripped to its most basic elements, and how powerful that could be.
Another day, another new release from Portland’s Field Hymns recordings. When they sent out the notice for their new Fall 2013 releases I couldn’t resist either of them, so that’s the reason for the two in a row one day after the other deal.
Pretty much the stark opposite of the Mattress tracks that you may have heard here yesterday. Where Mattress is heavy, dense and dark, Oxykitten is buzzy, bright, and full of energy and motion. Portraying a purposeful anachronistic sound with analog synths that conjure images akin to Blade Runner, depicting a futurist film-noir ambience.
The press release reads “Recommended if you like: Dr. Octagon, Add N To X, minimal synth,” which of course I agree with, but I would also add to that list RJD2′s album that he did under the moniker The Insane Warrior, “We Are The Doorways.” A lot of the material on “Escape from New Amsterdam” create similar sounds, or at least work with similar timbres as The Insane Warrior’s album. All instrumental, buzzing saw-waves pulsating into focus and shooting from one direction to another, like some sort of 8-bit sunbeam.
Dance grooves are omnipresent, and a little hint at Boards of Canada shows up in “Beholding.” I guess, in short, if you are into analog synths, dance grooves, and catchy hooks this is definitely an album worth having.
Quick close: my favorite tracks are “Dick Ray,” “Springtime for the Dead,” and “40oz. Nipple.”
Do yourself a favor and pick this one up from Field Hymns right now. Follow the link below to check out 2 more tracks and to order the tape. And follow Field Hymns on twitter, because they are releasing a non-stop steady stream of awesome all the time, so don’t miss anything.
Portland’s own Field Hymns Records has some new fall releases from two of the city’s own.
First up is Mattress with 6 tracks of deep baritone and synths swirling around creating a dark haze. The release is bottom heavy, pulsating and drowning in a sea of menacing sounds. Rex Marshall’s voice can sound like James Murphy one second (“Beautiful Moment”) and then Scott Walker and Nick Cave’s lovechild the next. He inhabits a world somewhere in between the two. Yes, that would be a truly strange world, like the strangest dance party in history.
The title track picks up the pace a bit, with bouncier analog synths. Marshall’s voice on that track gets anthemic as he states the refrain, “fuck the future. fuck the future,” with an urgency in his voice before returning to a flatter affect. Most of the other tracks are built in a similar manner to this one, where there is a basic repeated pattern that circles around the penetrative vocals. At times it can sound as though all hope is gone, while at others it’s perhaps maybe open to the idea that maybe at one time there was a memory that there was a possibility that there may have been hope at one time or another, but now is currently not that time.
The soundworld in which the songs exist fall somewhere between the Cure and Joy Division. The guitar in “Arrested” points toward the former while “Pretend” is evidence of the latter.
“Fuck the Future” is music for people that have made peace with the fact that everything is coming to an end. But the album is only, maybe, that dark on the outside. There are some hints at light, like the chorus of “Pretend,” that provide a contingency plan. Check out the track “Arrested” below and then head over to Field Hymns and grab the tape.
Smith Westerns have traveled an interesting course across their 3 album output. Their first release was noisy, awash in reverb and tape noise. The songs themselves were rough around the edges, energetic and brash. That’s a great place to start. After the follow up, “Dye It Blonde,” it became apparent that the band was not happy with letting things stagnate, or letting their sound grow tired.
And it definitely isn’t as if they scrapped everything and started over. The sound of “Soft Will” was buried under all of the noisy elements of their debut. This most recent release is calmer, more confident, moving away from the glam- and punk- influences and trading those for the sounds of something somewhere in between dream-pop and chill-wave. I know, I know, I hate those labels too. To be more specific, comparing them to other bands one would have to place Smith Westerns in the company of Real Estate, or MGMT at their loftiest.
Or maybe they are letting some other influences shine through. There seems to be a clear Pink Floyd influence on the song “XXIII,” that piano line sounds very similar to Dark Side of the Moon era Floyd, specifically “The Great Gig in the Sky.” The classic rock vibe doesn’t end there either. The guitar line (and the tone for that matter) in “Best Friend” is taken right out of that era, think Badfinger.
The laid back vibe of Pink Floyd, or Real Estate permeates the entirety of “Soft Will.” Even when tracks like “Only Natural” pick up the pace a little bit beyond mid-tempo, it still manages to emit the chilled out aura that matches Cullen Omori’s vocals. His near falsetto doesn’t quite hide behind the instruments, but his breathy delivery certainly exudes the kind of shyness that isn’t really shyness at all, but more like someone that is more mercurial, reflective and lost in thought.
“Cheer Up” is maybe the song on “Soft Will” that is least like any of the others on the album. The minor turn that the song takes when Omori sings the lyric “cheer up” presents an interesting juxtaposition that is only righted in the bridge of the song, an exciting and lofty section that carries through to the end of the song. My one critique would be that they need to write more songs like “Cheer Up,” and “Only Natural.” I think that the band is at their best when they move away from their comfort zone. As their sound is solidifying along these lines I think that they need to learn to rely less on melodic lines, changes and chord progressions that they have already explored. This album could be a step away from something truly great.
Smith Westerns know how to write a single, that is for sure. Any of the songs that appear on “Soft Will” could easily find a large audience. They’re are all catchy, very well written and interesting. Hopefully the band will continue to release albums on a regular basis. As it is now we are getting a new Smith Westerns album every 2 years, and not a bad song on any of them.
The band is currently on tour through the end of November, where they will conclude with a show in their hometown of Chicago.
Oct 11 Austin City Limits Music Festival – Austin, TX
Oct 12 Emo’s – Austin, TX Tickets RSVP
Oct 26 Life Is Beautiful Festival – Las Vegas, NV
Nov 11 Webster Hall – New York, NY
Nov 13 Paradise Rock Club – Boston, MA
Nov 14 Wescott Theatre – Syracuse, NY
Nov 15 First Unitarian Church – Philadelphia, PA
Nov 18 9:30 Club – Washington, DC
Nov 20 Magic Stick – Detroit, MI
Nov 21 The A&R Music Bar – Columbus, OH
Nov 22 High Noon Saloon – Madison, WI Nov 23 Vic Theatre – Chicago, IL
“Soft Will” is currently available in the iTunes store, or on vinyl (comes with a CD).
I’m sure I already said this, but I’ll say it again: every time that of Montreal releases an album I get nervous. I don’t know why this is. I have never been disappointed by anything that the band has ever done. Even obscure B-sides, EPs, old stuff, early 4-track recordings, I absolutely love all of it.
Well, now that I have my absolutely unabashed bias out of the way I’ll get to the part where I actually talk about the album.
Yes, Kevin Barnes has ditched his entire band that he’s worked with for almost 10 years. I think that some of them (Dottie Alexander, maybe B.P.?) have been with him even longer. It makes total sense though, considering what this album is all about. Something else that I’ve talked about is the psychological story arc that takes place from “Hissing Fauna…” all the way through “Paralytic Stalks,” and that is over now. I guess that was the first thing that I was happy about when I listened to the album all the way through for the first time, which was actually yesterday when it was streaming for free on some other music blog. I’m not happy because that’s over, I’m happy because this album, working the way that it does, strengthens my thesis of the story arc in that it does not continue through this album. Georgie Fruit is dead. Kevin Barnes is back.
The way that this album works is as more of a singles collection than the album oriented rock that the band had been exploring for at least the past 6 releases. It’s as if the band clipped off its trajectory after “Aldhils Arboretum,” became an electro pop band for like 10 or 11 years and now they are back again with concise songs.
The personal lyrical content is, of course there, but the sound is certainly more immediate. Less studio wizardry is involved. The album feels more like an actual live performance than anything they have put out recently. It’s a nice balance between, on the one hand, albums like “Sunlandic Twins” or “Hissing Fauna…” that added that element of lysergic haze generated through synthesizers and dance beats, and their early whimsical works like “The Gay Parade” or “The Bedside Drama.” The songs are written for a “rock band” (ie guitars, keys [acoustic], bass, drums) like the earlier material, and for that matter the Beatles influence shows through on a couple tracks of “Lousy with Sylvianbriar,” but the lyrics discuss personal relationships and still have the intricate basslines that came out of the middle-period works.
I think that this album starts off a new era for of Montreal, where there was the early material from “Cherry Peel” through “Coquelicot Asleep in the Poppies…” as the first period; the middle-period would be “Satanic Panic in the Attic” through “Paralytic Stalks,” [and yes, I know that that covers a ton of music and a lot of changes, but I think that the main thing that I am thinking about is the movement from mostly acoustic, retro and poppy to more synth-dance based with more personal lyrical content] and now “Lousy with Sylvianbriar” beginning the most recent step in the bands evolution.
The pedal steel has stayed from “Paralytic Stalks,” as has Kishi Bashi on violin, which is a good thing; and verse-chorus-verse structure has also become a constant element once again on this album. The addition of Rebecca Cash on vocals is the first time that someone other than Kevin has sang on an official release (“Keep Sending Me Black Fireworks” appeared on the Sunlandic Twins bonus EP, featuring Nina Barnes [Gemini Tactics] on vocals). Cash’s voice is most certainly a welcomed addition most notably on “Raindrop in my Skull”, adding a smooth and relaxed approach to singing that contrasts nicely with Barnes’ sneer.
And as far as the overall sound of the tracks goes, I don’t think I have ever heard the drums on an of Montreal record done so well. The bass drum is nice and dry, adding to that element of presence and live performance sound that I mentioned earlier.
In my opinion the second side of “Lousy with Sylvianbriar” is the side to beat. That side is stacked with driving, edgier songs that show the band really stretching out. The echo and brightness of a country twinge comes across loud and clear on “Hegira Émigré” with extensive pedal steel solo combined with a speedy and clean solo guitar work (sounds like a Les Paul). The album ends on a bombastic note with “Imbecile Rages,” with Barnes’ showing off his vocal stamina, holding his final note across 5 measures with a raspy, powerful yell.
Once again of Montreal has not disappointed. Considering that I have had the album for about 7 hours and I have already listened to it 6 times, I think that it is going to remain in heavy rotation around here and most likely on the year end best-of list. And I’m sure that I am not the only one that is going to have it on their year end list.
The album is out now on Polyvinyl. It’s also streaming on Spotify.
Portland’s Red Fang will release its 3rd full length, “Whales and Leeches,” next week (October 15 to be exact).
Right off the bat you should know that if you like Mastodon then you would be very interested in giving this album a try. Though there are some pretty key differences in their sound (even if they do seem to both like whales), the overall bone-crushing guitar assault as foundation is pretty much the same, but Red Fang tends more for the straight ahead riff based tunes than Mastodon’s comparatively prog-heavy tendencies.
“Whales and Leeches” finds a lot of room to move from one side of the metal genre to the other. A song like “Blood Like Cream” finds strength in a major key with an anthemic chorus, and an uplifting bridge, resembling at times the qualities of hard-core punk. But then take into consideration a track like “No Hope” that follows. It starts off with jarring dissonance before launching directly into another wall of pummeling guitar distortion. Nothing but metal on this track. Full on, take no prisoners thrash metal.
The 7+ minutes of “Dawn Rising” slows things down a bit, multiplying the heaviness exponentially. I think that it has been proven (though I don’t have the formula handy at present moment) that the slower a song and the lower the tuning (sounds like they are all the way down to C or something on this one) the heavier the song. I’m trying to place the guest vocal on this one, but I can’t quite do it. It may very well be someone else in Red Fang and I’m just not in the know, but whoever it is they have a perfectly gnarly metal sneer and an awesome, powerful high register. Think Bon Scott crossed with Dio.
Really though, I think that the breakout riff-rocker on this one is the album opener, “DOEN.” Great way to start off an album. It’s a punch right in the face. Heavy. Fast. Unrelenting.
The entire album is like that. Heavy and unrelenting with riffs to spare. It’s the way that metal is supposed to be, in my opinion. It’s not formulaic and not every song needs a guitar solo, but in the tracks that do have one they are done particularly well.
“Whales and Leeches” is out on Relapse Records on October 15 (October 18 Germany, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg. October 21 in the UK and rest of the world), available as a CD/Deluxe CD/LP/Deluxe 2xLP/Digital or Deluxe Digital. Check the links below to order the album. Limited Edition deluxe CD and LP contains a lenticular/moving cover, expanded packaging and TWO bonus songs.
***All dates from Oct 09- Oct 18 with Helms Alee***
Oct 09 Sacramento CA Harlow’s w/ Dog Shredder
Oct 10 Los Angeles CA The Troubadour w/ Dog Shredder
Oct 11 San Diego CA Brick by Brick w/ Dog Shredder
Oct 12 Tucson AZ The Rock w/ Dog Shredder
Oct 13 Albuquerque NM Launchpad w/ Dog Shredder
Oct 14 Denver CO Bluebird w/ Dog Shredder
Oct 15 Salt Lake City, UT Urban Lounge w/Gaytheis
Oct 16 Boise ID Neurolux w/Gaytheist
Oct 17 Spokane WA The Center w/Gaytheist
Oct 18 Bellingham WA The Shakedown w/Gaytheist
Nov 09 Seattle WA Showbox at The Market
Nov 10 Vancouver BC Rickshaw theater
***All Dates w/ The Shrine. Nov 30 to Dec 14 with Indian Handcrafts***
Nov 30 San Francisco Slim’s
Dec 01 Santa Ana CA The Observatory
Dec 02 Tempe AZ Club Red
Dec 04 Austin TX Red 7
Dec 05 Houston TX Fitgerald’s Downtairs
Dec 06 New Orleans LA Siberia
Dec 07 Atlanta GA Drunken Unicorn
Dec 08 Raleigh NC Kings Barcade
Dec 09 Philadelphia PA Underground Arts w/ Cancer Bats
Dec 10 Cambridge MA The Middle East w/ Cancer Bats
Dec 11 New York NY Bowery Ballroom w/Cancer Bats
Dec 13 Montreal QC Cabaret Mile End w/ Cancer Bats
Dec 14 Toronto ON Lee’s Palace w/ Cancer Bats (Announce Cancer Bats 10/21)
Dec 15 Detroit MI The Shelter w/ Cancer Bats, Radkey Dec 16 Chicago IL Logan Square Auditorium w/ Cancer Bats, Radkey
Dec 17 Minneapolis MN Triple Rock w/ Radkey
Dec 19 Colorado Springs CO The Black Sheep w/ Radkey
I’ve been listening to this album a lot lately, and though I don’t typically like to do reviews this long after an album has come out (“Exai” was released back in February), some things came to mind when I was listening to it last week (not necessarily related only to this album, but to their other work as well) and I thought that they were worth sharing. I also feel that a duo such as Autechre that creates music that is unique, thoughtful, challenging and intricate is always worth talking about.
On “Exai,” more so than on past releases, Autechre finds a balance between repetition and eccentricity. Unlike the tracks on “Confield” (my personal favorite of theirs, though this album is working its way up the ranks, for sure) where the object of each song, or most of them anyway, seems to be to explore temporality and shifting time-streams. Though these explorations are not done in the same way as phase music, rather they do so in way that is akin to the work of Elliott Carter or Conlon Nancarrow where melodic lines of different lengths are performed at different tempi only to line up at a specific, calculated point.
These intricate, premeditated rhythms became the basis of “Confield.” Songs like “VI scose poise” bring out these temporal shifts to a degree, opening with a delicate timbre that resembles a spinning top, or a ceaselessly spinning quarter on a table. This track in particular, its opening, makes use of metric borrowings, switching to tuplets, and sometimes tuplets inside other tuplets, which gives the the listener the impression of varying tempi despite the constant pulse (remember what I said about Pink Mountain?). In this way our sense of time, our temporal footing, is disturbed. Not too many artists take full advantage of realizing the potential of this kind of effect, or manipulating this dimension in music.
Moving to “Exai” the foundation of the tracks relies mostly upon shifts in complexity, from the fairly straightforward “bladelores” to the densely layered and highly complex “jatevee C.” The trick with listening to Autechre, and this album in particular, is to listen for things one may not usually listen for in music. For example, changes in density, subtle color shifts over melodic lines akin to klangfarbenmelodie. Speaking of those color shifts, the overall timbres used throughout “Exai” are, for the most part, decidedly darker. I mean darker in the most specific way possible, referring to the characteristics of the soundwaves and where the harmonics are amassed.
Although there are brittle, piercing resonances. For example throughout “YJY UX” there are sounds in the extremes of the high register that are balanced by other melodic lines in the mid-range. This, to me, is an interesting component of Autechre’s music and the way that they construct songs. When there are extremely high sounds, the complex percussion often creates the low foundation which leaves a nice bit of space in the mid-range for any motion, or melodic activity.
Listening to “YJY UX” one can hear certain bands of frequencies dropping out to make room for other melodic lines that are of more interest to fill in those spaces. The highest pitched material does serve as simply a ceiling of repeated high gestures that soar over top of everything, yet they are not rawn to the ear as a melody. The line is the highest, and in some ways periodically the loudest as a result) and yet it manages to steer clear of becoming the primary focus. By and large this is not the case in most other songs – not just most other songs on the album, I mean in general.
The music of Autechre is a music that resists all passivity. One can not listen to anything by Autechre passively. The activity and complexity of the music demands our attention. Listening passively is nearly impossible, and certainly pointless. The duo has even made it difficult to recognize songs by track name, often times appearing to be random letters, numbers and other ASCII characters. A lot of the track names apparently come from file names of samples that are used in a song, while others may be from inside jokes between Brown and Booth.
Album opener “Fleur” begins with a wildly energetic rhythm that eventually fizzles to near silence. “T ess xi” features some nice chord voicings at the beginning that make use of different resolutions of a suspended pitch to create motion through a standard 8 bar phrase. The first 4 bars end with a dissonant resolution, and that is finally resolved the next time around in the final measure of the next phrase, connecting it to the beginning again. After each cycle of this chord progression another layer is added. From skittering drums to bright syncopated stabs in cyclical rhythmic patterns that are lined up such that they accentuate the aforementioned suspensions. The melodic material shifts and swirls around these elements, building to its highest density before taking a step back by stripping away material. The final section of the song distills the essence of the opening chords to only two alternating harmonies that work to accomplish the same forward motion as the beginning, this time re-appropriating it as closing material.
“nodezsh” resists all attempts at finding a steady pulse, but the more that the song comes into focus the less it can hide. The track features similar metric borrowing as “VI scose poise” but the hi-hat sound keeps the rhythm a bit more honest, giving the listener something to hold onto at points. There is also another element at work in this song and that is the manipulation of distance. Some of the timbres in this song are notably more echoed, providing the listener with a sense of distance, we feel that the sound is coming from further away than some of the other elements that may be up front. This is not just a result of levels in the mix, but about changing the profile of the sounds. Think about the doppler effect, or how distant sounds in the real world are effected by the space between you and the sound. Certain frequencies travel further than others, so the more distant a sound the fewer frequencies will make it to our ear, subtly altering the overall sonic profile of the sound. It’s about overall volume, but it is more about the ratio of certain frequencies to one another.
Though some may disagree, I think that “Exai” is one of the group’s most enjoyable albums. Clocking in at just over 2 hours it’s safe to say that the scope of the album is epic. Three tracks break the 10-minute mark, while there are several over 6 minutes. I don’t see this as putting the album at a disadvantage though. There is so much to listen to and so many interesting ideas flowing through each of the tracks, though not necessarily one overarching m.o. If you’ve been scared to get into Autechre, or haven’t really heard much by them that grabs you, start with “Exai.”
There is also a new EP coming out on October 28th, “L-event,” which can be ordered by clicking the link below. “Exai” is out now as 2xCD, 4xLP or iTunes download.
The first time that I heard Bill Callahan’s music was in 2011, not too long after the release of “Apocalypse,” the album that (to me) featured the song “America!” That initial listening experience was something that I won’t soon forget. There was something about Callahan’s voice that was shocking to me at first. It seems strange to even say that because he has one of those unassuming voices, nothing overtly shocking about it, nothing over the top etc. Maybe that was just it for me. Maybe I wasn’t used to hearing such a bare, unencumbered voice.
And that quality of his voice is what the music is all about. There is a solid confidence and honesty present in all of Bill Callahan’s songs. His rich baritone sits somewhere between singing and speaking at points. It’s placed way up front in the mix, I don’t want to say invading your space, but it’s definitely placed perfectly to grab your attention. When you listen to Bill Callahan, he is speaking directly to you. There isn’t any echo placed on his voice, it’s stripped bare. That was what shocked me the first time I heard him. He is not hiding behind anything. If he were to sing a wrong note (he doesn’t) it would be right out there in the open, there is no room for mistakes in his recording style. There’s confidence without bravado. It’s modesty more than anything.
The songs themselves have that honest characteristic to them as well. In “Small Planes” he repeats “I really am a lucky man” in between short verses where his voice is heard to trail off at the ends of phrases, giving the impression that he is lost in thought, or maybe even thinking out loud. This is a common quality of his music; his songs are able to portray a sense of thought and thoughtful consideration.
Understated guitar, minimal percussion and most importantly his voice, that is what the sound is all about. Callahan’s music follows his words, and his voice is the anchor of his entire sound.
Though, it’s not always 100% understated on “Dream River.” The track “Summer Painter” builds to a somewhat loud and chaotic middle section, which is surprising coming from a song that begins with guitar and long, low flute tones. “Rich man’s folly and poor man’s dreams, I’ve painted these” he sings, later finishing the thought with “the rich or the poor, who am I working for?” There are so many moments of quiet contemplation and soul searching on this album. More so than the songs on “Apocalypse” that seem to come more from an observers perspective, from a man surveying his homeland and doing such in a way that only a folk storyteller can. Where “Apocalypse” looks out across the vast country, “Dream River” turn decidedly inward.
On “Winter Road” Callahan sings of persistence and learning to “just keep on.” When the music grows and starts to sway with his voice it’s quite a moving experience, but soon the guitar takes a bit of a turn, throwing everything into a bit of a different direction with a simple descending minor 6th. The perfect depiction of the song’s meaning. This, more than anything else on the album (though they all do to a degree) recalls the sound of Jason Molina’s Songs: Ohia/Magnolia Electric Co. album. The somber yet hopeful vocal, the violin that provides periodic commentary before turning into faithful accompaniment, it creates a very similar atmosphere. Though the songs on “Dream River” come more from a place of introspection and honesty followed by hope.
The album is out now on Drag City. Check out the tracks “Small Plane”and album closer “Winter Road” below and follow the links to purchase “Dream River.”
Hard hitting 2 song 7″ from Olympia, Washington’s Survival Knife. The “Divine Mob/Snakebit” 7″ will be released through Kill Rock Stars on October 15.
The band consists of Justin Trosper and Brandt Sandano from Unwound, Meg Cunningham from Blues Druid and Kris Cunningham from Western Hymn.
The quick one-two punch starts with the slightly sinister sounding riff of “Divine Mob,” that turns out to actually be upbeat, only to turn again after the addition of the vocals (and with the help of some palm muting). The great thing here is the way that the band shows themselves finding ways of adding to the basic initial idea. A contrasting guitar line is added as the song opens up, eventually landing in an extended bridge. The overall sound of the track is heavier than hardcore punk, bordering on metal.
The heaviness is brought out even more in the second track, “Snakebit,” which has Meg Cunningham taking over vocal duties. The choppy cut of the guitars moves to angular dissonant sounds, alternating throughout the verse. The highlight, for me, is the extended coda that takes us through the last minute of the song. Noisy, driving, and energetic.
Those three words actually nicely sum up the 7″ as a whole.
Check it out above, and then head to the Kill Rock Stars bandcamp page at the link below to pre-order the download for $2. Vinyl pre-orders are expected to begin shipping the week of October 15.
