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Five tracks of blissfully organic ambient drones. Not your cuppa tea? No problem, I understand - you can look away now.
Emeralds' back catalogue over the past three years contains a treasury of self-released CDR's and tapes, though you might discribe What Happened, released in April on the No Fun Productions label, as their third album "proper", following Allegory of Alergies (2007) and Solar Bridge (2008). Like Terry Riley, Tangerine Dream and Brian Eno before them, Emeralds tread a crunchy analogue path through abstract soundscapes. It is interesting that after more than a decade of a vibrant ambient techno scene, some artists are now returning to the retro approach of the original pioneers to evolve their music. Here, Emeralds' sound is not made up of minimalist, digitally sequenced samples, but is wide, psychedelic and sprawling - music that can be played live and which has developed through collective improvisation. Why does that sound like a radical idea these days when contemplating electronic music that isn't in the rock or jazz mould? Of course it isn't really, but it does seem on this evidence that a group of musicians using instruments designed for performance as well as composition does add an extra quality that is sometimes missing from digital pieces. Warm blood rushes through the arteries of this music, and there is real communication between the layered tracks. These songs are written to be heard live and loud! That's not to say it is an improvement on the wonderful music of contemporary solo ambient composers such as Eluvium or Fennesz - it's just different - music for another mood.
One thing about Emeralds that is worth noting is their origin and emergence from the bristling Ohio noise-scene, which might seem surprising, when all the indications would point towards a 'home birth' in some tripped-out California' happening. The battle lines have finally been rubbed out of the dirt and the cultural deliniations fuzzed - it is now absolutely fine for a punk to trust a hippy!
lastfm/emeralds - what happened/
Japandroids, two just lads from Vancouver, officially released their debut album on Unfamilar in August, though it seems to have been doing the rounds for a while now - Pitchfork gave it a gushing review in April. It is the follow up to two very promising self-released EPs, All Lies (2007) and Lullaby Death Jams (2008). They have decided to forego the services of a bass player and instead deliver garage power-pop - lead guitar, drums and hoarse harmonies only. Though this is not posed or post-rationalised garage rock, sparse and refined à la White Stripes or The Kills, this is a wall of sound. It is classic heart on sleeve twenty-something guitar angst, delivered with feeling. Early Lemonheads or Dinosaur Jr would be a fairer comparison.
Post-Nothing, as the title hints, ruminates over a contemporary politicised world, where politics itself is swamped by issues we'd rather not concern ourselves with. Within this landscape are young kids who just want to meet girls, get laid and have fun and this album is their frustrated soundtrack, "We used to dream, now I worry about dying. I don't want to worry about dying, I just want to worry about those sunshine girls". In a way it is a throw-back album, both in musical style and content, but when it sounds this good, and this tight, and this intense, who cares? I love it - my playcount informs me that it is the album I have returned to most this year.
There are no singles planned for release yet but I would wager that there are enough strong contenders amongst these eight tracks to make it worth a stab for airplay somewhere, "Young Hearts Spark Fire" and "I Quit Girls" being the pick of a rich crop. A short tour of the UK is planned for the end of October/November. I am free-ing up my diary to catch them in London.
http://japandroids.com/myspace/japandroidsyoutube/japandroids - live on KEXP - crazy forever/heart sweatslastfm/japandroids - post-nothing
Imogen Heap's last album, Speak for Yourself (2005) was something special. It was cute, delicious and bubbly. After moving on from Frou Frou, she proved that she would remain a very desirable presence in her own right. Mainstream airplay for two gorgeous singles, Goodnight and Go / Hide and Seek, good sales in the states, grammy nomination - a fantastic triumph! With a success like that comes a demanding fanbase desperate for more, and in the years between albums Imogen has been kind to us. We have witnessed blog upon blog of her gap year chill-out travels, and blow by blow accounts of the building of a studio in her basement. We watched her piece this new material together in detail, sharing her excitement as she played us fresh ideas and her low points when she suffered from self doubt. Never has the creative process been so well documented! Her YouTube blogs (all 40 of them) have been great to watch. They could easily have come over as narcisistic but they were simply a down to earth, self-effacing portrayal of a creative musician at work.
So after this investment of time - hers and mine - the album better be good right? To be honest, it's difficult to be too critical of something when you have witnessed the work that has gone in to producing it and here is the crunch - following up something as wonderful as Speak for Yourself is nigh on impossible. In Ellipse, she has produced a new body of work that is very good but not "great". This is still slick left-field pop, the arrangements are still playfully crafted, and lyrically it follows and expands on themes discussed on the previous record. The highlights are First Train Home - the single, Canvas and Tidal. She is now promoting the album in North America, her primary source of income, the obligatory appearance on Letterman already under the belt. No tour dates in the diary yet, but a whizz around the UK is promised once she has delt with the yanks. She is a great ambasador for the country, we should send her to meet Obama - I bet she would give him a nice hug - diplomacy restored.
As there is a backlog of material I have been listening to recently, I am going to dedicate the next series of posts to briefly describing some of the more interesting releases of the past nine months. Here is another.
I don't possess too much South African indie guitar music in my library, which is good enough reason to talk about BLK JKS. An even better reason would be the fact that they have released one of the more promising debut albums of the year.
BLK JKS are four musicians from Johannesburg and Soweto. Having pricked people's interest with their home released debut single "Lakeside" two years ago they were snapped up by the ubiquitous Secretly Candadian label who hired Brandon Curtis (ex Secret Machines) to produce their debut album which was released in March. They are now in the middle of a gruelling US tour whilst the label get the PR wheels greased with predictable soundbites such as "BLK JKS, the South African TV on the Radio".
Their music is a successful hybrid of influences including post-rock, new wave, prog, reggae and indigenous afrikaans. It is meadering and subtle in a pleasing way rather than explosive, which is probably just as well as these songs are not intended to hook you immediately, and if they are, they should write some better hooks!
They will be touring the UK in November, check out their website for details.
Where was I? Looks like I have some catching up to do!
Dan Deacon released his new album, "Bromst" in March. As a graduate in electro-accoustic and computer music composition from The Conservatory of Music, New York (now that sounds like a cool course!) until now Dan Deacon has kept us interested by offering up different slices of digital experimentation. These have included self-released CDR's full of minimalist frequency variations, and compilations of gloriously glitchy "dance" records culminating in his indie-breakthrough album, "Spiderman of the Rings" (2007).
Bromst is a different, dare I say it, even maturer recording. Yes, there are the same helter skelter moments where the beats re-sync and spiral out of control ("Woof, Woof", "Padding Ghost") but these swarms of sound are now tempered with moments of reflection, quietness and beauty which contribute to creating a much more balanced record. The music is allowed to slowly build then wane, rather than processed to relentlessly pummel you. The best track on the album is "Surprise Stefani" written for his tour manager. The fact that he even has a tour manager seems like a revealing sign. Dan Deacon has stopped fucking about and he means business!www.dandeacon.com/
myspace/dan deacon
youtube/dan deacon - surprise stefani
Five tracks of blissfully organic ambient drones. Not your cuppa tea? No problem, I understand - you can look away now.
lastfm/emeralds - what happened/
