|
Welcome to A&A. There are 12 full reviews in this issue. Click on an artist to jump to the review, or simply scroll through the list. If you want information on any particular release, check out the Label info page. All reviews are written by Jon Worley unless otherwise noted. If you have any problems, criticisms or suggestions, drop me a line.
|
|
|
A&A #285 reviews May 2007
 Boy in
StaticViolet (Mush) Minimalist electronic pop by Alexander Chen. Well, electronic with plenty of guitar and such. Chen isn't so much married to his sound as he is to the idea of the song. That is, he's not at all abstract when it comes to how his songs work. They pretty much hew to the pop construction ideal, if you allow for the odd bit of stretching here and there. And while I'd classify a lot of the background noise as experimental, Chen makes some really pretty music. These are songs for savoring, not necessarily pondering. I like it when someone can challenge convention even while sticking to it. I guess some would call that rocking the boat while you're still in it (or some other cliche), but I dunno. I just like the way this stuff sounds. It's almost achingly beautiful. And then your heart breaks. Just like it should.
Contact:
 The Chris and Joylene ShowPupa's Window A Family Portrait split CD (Beechfields) Two Baltimore bands sharing one drummer (who doesn't normally play with either, if I read the liners right). And it's kinda hard to call Pupa's Window a "band," since Michael Nestor pretty much does everything (except, you know, the drums). The Chris and Joylene Show play pleasantly involved music, fine pop songs that tend to spin around a particular theme. Not quite so complex as, say, Floating Opera (an obscure reference, but what the hell), but good enough. Light tunes with just enough kick to satisfy my wandering mind. I love Pupa's Window. It is precisely my sort of geeky laptop pop. Too clever by half and melodic to the point of being cloying, there's just something addictive about these songs. Very cool. A good split. These bands contrast well with each other, and the combined contributions make for a fun album. Quite nice now that the winter is finally threatening to make itself scarce. Contact:
The Hero CycleLakes and Ponds EP (self-released) Five songs from some nice Vermont folk. Fine, softly bashing tunes. I suppose this is more "rock" than "pop," but I'll let you decide. I'm not that particular, myself. The key for me is quality, and the songs here are simply showered with the stuff. It took me about fifteen seconds to glom on to what these folks are doing, and my enthusiasm never wavered. I guess that immediate infatuation makes this more "pop" after all. But it's hardly ephemeral. I'd be curious to see if the band's energy could hold up through an entire album. Probably. There's more than enough craft and elan here to carry the Hero Cycle through just about any travail.
Contact:
LopsideWhen You're Finally Through Being Responsible (self-released) Speaking of minimalist electronic fare that doesn't strictly adhere to pop song construction...okay, that's a cheap opening, but Lopside kinda asks for it. Because there are songs here. Sometimes they're hidden within some sort of protective noise layer, but they're there nonetheless. The noise isn't white; we're talking more samples and found sound. But it tends to obscure rather than enlighten. I think that's cool. This is music for pondering--at great length, with a couple top shelf gin and tonics, I'd say--and not for enchanting a prospective bedmate. Well, unless your paramour happens to really dig abstract sound. Then this might send you two into paroxysms of ecstasy. Which reminds me of the time a radio DJ friend of mine dedicated some Einsturzende Neubauten to "my honeybunch," but I fear I'm way off the track here. Then again, the only thing to do with Lopside is get off the track. And don't worry about when you get back on. Contact:
The New RagsTake Jennie to Brooklyn EP (Silent Stereo) Tom Merrigan on Rhodes and vocals and Andy Pierce on drums. The rock duo can often be a maddening trip through the limitations of sound. Or it can something of a liberating experience. You might reference the White Stripes; I'm more of a Flat Duo Jets kinda guy. Either way, the key is to play as energetically as possible. As long as the songs stay in motion, it's a lot harder to notice that there's only a drum kit and an electric piano. The New Rags know this and fill each of the six songs here with raggedy hooks and plenty of vavoom. The slowest song is a peppy midtempo, and most of the pieces here simply race by. Which makes for a fine (if short) set. The New Rags have a fine handle on the whole duo thing, and these 60s garagey songs are the perfect antidote to a cloudy day. This disc is guaranteed to raise your spirits.
Contact:
No Second TroyNarcotic (self-released) Melding together all sorts of "serious rock music" sounds--many of them from the late 80s and early 90s, when indie rock trended toward the intense--No Second Troy manages to make an album that ought to kick in some nostalgia for geezers like me and still prick up the ears of the kiddies. I don't know why Aztec Camera keeps popping into my head, but the rhythm guitar work here does remind me of that sorta thing. There's also more than a bit of the Unforgettable Fire U2, though the production smooths out more of the rough edges. Do people still play music like this? I mean, many people? I haven't really heard it in a while. No Second Troy does whip out some nice piano bits and garage breaks to update the sound. but even so I keep going back to the mellower side of Peter Gabriel and, well, Mike + the Mechanics (though without the dead solid perfect hooks). I dunno. I can't really put my finger on it, but I like this disc. There are lots of little things that sound cool to me, and the band has sewn all that up into a solid sound. Interesting stuff.
Contact:
One LeftWayfaring (self-released) One Left has changed up its style a bit over the years, but the guys have settled into a fine groove. These laid-back travelogues (of a sort) go down smooth and satisfy immensely. The songs range the world ("Girl from Montreal," "The Road to Santiago," "Scandinavian Girl," etc.), though they're mostly love songs with locales sorta tossed in. That's not a criticism, really. These are rock songs (or, perhaps, country-blues-rock songs), not travel scholarship. This album reminds me a lot of Dire Straits or, perhaps even more so, the Notting Hillbillies. I think these guys devotion to the roots of rock and roll is better integrated into to the sound, but that rock-steady beat and smooth sound is certainly reminiscent of Knopflerian panache. The feel is key here. I found it impossible to resist the easy chair, and after a couple songs I stopped worrying about it. I mean, if One Left wants me to kick back, relax and enjoy some good music, who am I to protest?
Contact:
 PalomarAll Things, Forests (Misra) Ooh, give me shimmer pop. With a really keen dark edge. Palomar likes its melodies sweet and slightly complex, with the aforementioned shadings. There's often a vague sense of doom hanging over everything, though it never really materializes into anything specific. But the tension is nice. It helps to assuage my guilt at falling in love with such gorgeous hooks. Damn, these folks build hooks into the verses as well as the choruses. It's an embarrassment of riches, but somehow it never becomes cheesy. Quite the opposite, actually. The complexities underlying the music become clearer as the album goes along. A second listen reveals a whole lot more than the first. That's when you know you're on to something spectacular. It's not a crime to make pretty music. But when you make pretty music with a soul, then you've really done something. Palomar did that, and all we have to do is listen.
Contact:
 SaturnaSome Delicious Enemy (self-released) Sophisticated sleaze. Hair slicked-back, chords-ringing-over-cowbell, fuzzy gang vocals on the chorus kinda stuff. Oh, and just enough electronic accouterments to make it sound big time. Shit, works for me. This is precisely the sort of music that, to my ear, ought to have mass appeal. But whenever anyone tries something like this on the big stage (Girls Against Boys, for example), it falls flat. Maybe it's the fact that this isn't just ear candy, that there's some substance behind the tasseled pasties. If I knew what the problem was, I'd be running the world's most successful record label. There are moments where Saturna ventures into the fringes of Loveless territory. That's not exactly commercial nirvana, though skipping through distortion has a certain sonic appeal to my ears. It's pretty, kinda like watching a woman walk through fog. You imagine more than there is...and by using your mind, you get attracted that much quicker. But this isn't all mind games. Saturna's stuff is most pleasurable. And you won't have to go to the doctor three days later.
Contact:
 *SonsViracochas (Fractured Discs) This information comes straight from the website: "*SONS is a Chapel Hill/Carrboro band featuring current and former members of Boston's SUNTAN (Kimchee Records) and A Problem of Alarming Dimensions." I'm not sure how you can be a Boston band and an NC band, but then, BC is a member of the ACC these days, so maybe that's they explain it... What a stupid little tangent. But the music inspires it. *Sons plays that languid, ringing sort of pop I associate with New Zealand (Straitjacket Fits, particularly in "Down in Splendour" mode). The press notes mention Swervedriver, among others. It's all good, 'cause we're talking about the same damn thing. Music that drives your mind to new and interesting spaces, even while it blisses out the pleasure centers. Pretty stuff that manages to inspire, well, inspiration. Or something more insipid perhaps, judging by the dross of this review. Oh well. I dug it, even it didn't exactly inspire genius to flow from my fingertips. The ride is well worth the journey. Or something like that.
Contact:
Astrid SwanPoverina (Minty Fresh) The sort of piano-based, proto-Bacharachian pop stuff that Minty Fresh is known for propagating, only more so. Astrid Swan hasn't heard a variation on the "do-do-do" background vocals she doesn't like. Despite this seemingly silly affectation, she imbues her songs with a sense of drama so overwrought you'd guess she did her dissertation on the effects of Wagnerian sledgehammer blows to the brains of audiences. So, you know, I think it's great. This album drips with excess, but Swan's voice itself is such an ordinary and simple tool that she comes close to making these songs feel like campfire ditties. Almost. But not quite. It's impossible to ignore the bombast behind those vocals, and really, who would want to? I mean, it's great fun to get overrun by a flood. As long as you don't die or anything. This is kind of the opposite of Tori Amos. Amos tortures her voice while playing relatively conventional music. Swan kicks out some seriously contorted songs and then adorns it with straightforward singing. I think I like this better. In fact, I know I do. Pretty sweet.
Contact:
 SyrupSyrup (Feedback Symphony) Somewhere between Grand Funk and Kiss (though certainly leaning a bit toward the latter) lies Syrup. Here's a line that I think sums up the boys nicely: "Don't give up that 'tang, just shake that funky thing." It's not lewd, exactly. In fact, there's a certain gentlemanly air about it. If, you know, you were inclined to think that way. Of course, there are lots of pile-driving riffs (played with just a hint of twang) and enough energy to power most developing nations. The sort of thing that inspires teenagers to roll down their windows, crank up the stereo and start gesturing incoherently. At least, that's what I did 20 years ago back in New Mexico. I see kids doing it here in D.C. today, so I'm guessing it's something hormonal. It's a little sad to see a thirty-something guy with two kids in the backseat doing the same thing, I guess, but I've never been one to worry about shame. If the music moves me, it moves me. And Syrup, well, it moves, period. Puerile? Um, sure. But so much fun (especially when turned up to eleven) that you don't even notice. You can't take these boys seriously, but then, who would want to do that? Don't think about Syrup; just enjoy it. Anything else would be a waste.
Contact:
Also recommended:
Arlon Bennett Summer's Voice (Red Sea)
Bruford Rock Goes to College (Winterfold)
The Cringe Tipping Point (Listen Recordings)
Earthless Rhythms from a Cosmic Sky (Tee Pee)
Terry Garland Whistling in the Dark (Silvermoon)
The Gena Rowlands Band Flesh and Spirits (Lujo)
Headquarters O and O EP (self-released)
Karrie Hopper An Unusual Move (Nobody's Favorite Records)
Charlotte Kendrick North of New York (self-released)
Little Aida Mad Country (Second Shimmy)
Morningbell Through the Belly of the Sea (Orange Records of
Gainesville)
Oblio Joes Let's Decompose and Enjoy Assembling!
(self-released)
Of God and Science Of God and Science (Detach)
Luther Russell Repair (Ungawa/Adrenaline)
Richard Trosper The Ocean CD3 (Public Eyesore)
Yukon Mortar (Terra Firma)
| |
return to A&A home page