Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Monoland - Ben Chantice CD
This isn’t your ordinary shoegaze. This is shoegaze with a twist. And the twist lies with the drums. It’s a clever way to deviate from the shoegaze genre of the past, while maintaining that ever-so-loving distant, isolated, shimmering guitar. Lots of sampled loops make this album some kind of electrogaze.
The poppy vocals will slip up on you. Sometimes not even making a presence until a few minutes in. A beautiful mix of up-close-and-personal lyrics with not-so-personal whispers lies within.
There’s a lot of ambient solitude mixed inbetween songs. Like a train working to get up to speed, some tracks take a while to break out of the intro into a beat.
Saturday, December 10, 2005
Galerie Stratique: Horizzzons (CD)
Pygmalion on eBay
I was looking for Pygmalion on eBay and found this wonderful review of the album:
Stock review by Ned Raggett 10/99 Bliss. Out. This one might as well be called the death of shoegazing for the simple reason that it did more or less herald the end of a certain era where ‘Creation’ = ‘MBV and after.’ A couple of months later Oasis scored its first UK number one single, and from then on it was left to the North American, European and Australian obsessives to fly the flag on their own. To a great degree they’ve succeeded; from Bethany Curve to Silvania to Sianspheric, it echoes on and on and along.
Ned Raggett 10/99 But this album, then. Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell turned their back on electric guitar wash firmly after this point, forming the not bad at all but nowhere near what it could be Mojave 3 instead. The overdrive of their early singles was long past. Here was nothing much if you called Sheer Outright Beauty nothing much. Opening track “Rutti” doesn’t immediately give as much away, even if it is a spacious, empty track that takes up a full fifth of the record’s running time. And it is nice, to be sure. But then “Crazy for You” hits and you remember if you were me why the Scene That Celebrates Itself wasn’t just Steve Sutherland japing in the pages of Melody Maker as you searched for something mindblowing with Manchester being a joke and Nirvana and Suede being unknown nonentities. If you were me, you were Anglophilic to a fault and didn’t damn well care how bad things might really be over there or not, because you were in LA and hearing albums that sounded like gentle storm washes and grey post-goth moodiness were exactly the difference in style and scene you needed, so you thought. You were probably right too. And is it any coincidence that a song on this record is called “Visions of LA”? Or is that “Visions of La”? Works either way. “Crazy for You” builds and builds and builds, but never amps up; the feedback reverbs and echoes and reverbs again, the drums quietly but firmly pound along, there’s a lovely acoustic riff repeating itself that you can hear if you listen carefully, and Neil gently sings the title again and again and you feel lovedrunk if you really are and transported away even if you’re not. It makes you wish that they had toured instead of breaking up, you cling to the regrets. You have to. The tunes are generally simple, minimal, lost and calm. They have gentle guitar pluckings at the center and oceans of reverb around them; cue the music critic metaphor overdrive! Caverns, fog-bound forests, it’s no wonder Slowdive were post-goth, for what else could fit what they were really doing (and what could be expected from a band named after a Siouxsie song and that worshipped at the feet of the Cure and New Order by their own particular confession?)? Rachel’s and Neil’s voices get exquisitely lost and dislocated as much as the music, and what more could I want in the mid-decade? The most basic of guitar strums sound momentous in context, thus the start of “Trellisaze.” Wonderful, wonderful. Gregg Araki had the good taste to license “Blue Skied an’ Clear” for The Doom Generation soundtrack, ensuring that at least something made it over the States officially. I would have just gone ahead and done the whole album. Music for Fitzgerald adaptations if he was from the 90s. And why not? I’m into beautiful, resigned loss. Love the drama.
Friday, December 9, 2005
Oh, Passionate Me
I’ve been trying my best to find surprises for the people I love this holiday. I think I hit a jackpot. I ended up spending around $200 on vegan stuff from alternativeoutfitters. I must say that I never knew vegan (cruelty-free) products could be so nice. But, when I think about it, I realize that the people who make this stuff truly care. They aren’t solely focused on trying to make a buck like a corporate pig, they want to provide vegan (cruelty-free) products for everyone.
I’m splurging this holiday. It may be the only time I’ll ever be able to.
Be on the lookout! for new articles involving my attempt at album reviews from a well respected store that I adore. I just wish I could help re-code their site. That would be fun and rewarding.
Wednesday, December 7, 2005
You Can See Me Listening
Hey. Look at the slick new chart to the left. Thanks Last.fm!
I’m not happy with the audioscrobbler sidebar plugin that comes with Typo. This is a lot nicer, but it isn’t very interactive. It’s just a static image. I’m not complaining!
If you haven’t already, I highly recommend getting an account at Last.fm. It gives you a detailed analysis of what you listen to. Charts, graphs, recommendations, the whole nine…all transparently! Be wary though, some recommendations are waaaay off. That’s to be expected, until quantum computing and holographic memory, of course.
EDIT: The new recommendations system, codenamed Pony is proving to be quite resourceful and more accurate. They are really starting to add in lots of cool new features.
Labels: music
Friday, December 2, 2005
Say What You Can... Or What You Mean
Help me Jessamine… I’m addicted.
After listening to The Long Arm of Coincidence several times, it is apparent to me that they are widely influenced by some major artists.
First, it was Stereolab. Second, Sonic Youth. Third, Flying Saucer Attack. Fourth, Yo La Tengo. Fifth, Trans AM.
So combine all those together, and you have Jessamine. Where has Jessamine been? Why haven’t they contacted me earlier? Oh well, get some.
After they broke up, two of the members went on to form the artist known as Fontanelle. I must hear them now.
Labels: music
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