Gooey Drone

All The Way
Growing
Social Registry, 2008
4 stars

For me, All The Way sounds like a futuristic steam-powered locomotive being swallowed and digested by a huge, gelatinous space beast. It sounds like a thousand gyroscopes spinning on their axis' in perfect time, the sound of their moving parts reverbirating and warping and creating a noise audible only to dogs and visible to bats and mosquitos. Like '90s dance anthems forced through a filter of Black Dice and Boards of Canada, then slowly drizzled all over an electric guitar's fretboard. It's drone, but exciting, frightening and thoroughly electric drone, and I'm totally fucken hooked.

Artwork: A+
I like it, a lot. But after writing those last few sentences my brain hurts. Squares. I like squares. Squares are good. See? This just isn't good to read.

Gang Vibe

Something For All Of Us
Broken Social Scene presents: Brendan Canning
Arts & Crafts, 2008
3.5 stars

Kevin Drew’s BSS Presents solo album sounded like … yep, another BSS album. It wasn’t a bad thing, but those expecting something different were left looking elsewhere. Brendan Canning’s effort is much the same, but his vocals make a nice change from Drew’s and his subject matter is more indebted to late ‘80s and early ‘90s indie acts like Dinosar Jr and Sonic Youth. Something For All Of Us is still a unashamed pop album, its wide range of styles on par with that of BSS’ wonderful and far-reaching breakout album You Forgot It In People. Fans of the collective will lap up the textbook anthemic numbers though, full of horns and wall-of-sound guitars. All in all, this is a solid album – now that Brendan has found his voice, let’s hope we hear a bit more of it on further BSS records.

Artwork: B
If you ask me, Arts & Crafts have kind of shot themselves in the foot with their design template. Every digipak they release has the same 'spine' design, just with different colours and textures, and though it might form a strong brand, it's meaning that the album covers themselves aren't as strong. This cover, with its sketchy hand-coloured illustration style, would've looked waaay better without the strip of yellow running down the left-hand side (and for that reason I've left the spine off my crap hand-drawn version, above).

Published in mX, Thursday September 18, 2008.

Exhausting Trip

Remember
The Fiery Furnaces
Longtime Listener, 2008
3 stars

A Fiery Furnaces album can be a lot to take in at the best of times. The Friedberger siblings have forged a reputation for the unexpected, their songs skipping between genres, time signatures and instruments in schizophrenic fashion. Remember, a two-disc collection of live recordings, is accompanied by a warning “please do not attempt to listen to all at once”, and this should be strictly adhered to. The songs on Remember have been ‘reinterpreted’ (often beyond recognition) and mixed together into a series of exhausting mega-mixes that will challenge even the most die-hard of fans’ patience. One disc’s worth of this would have been enough – two of them is just way too much of a good thing. And if two hours of Fiery Furnaces isn’t enough, fear not – you can jump on the net and download special ‘bonus songs’! Sheesh. I’m spent.

Artwork: A
Not sure why, but I really like this. It's simple, vector-based cut-paper looking stuff, similar to the Bitter Tea cover. Maybe it's the colours. I think they probably figured there was enough happening on the discs themselves - and there is - so they didn't need to overcook the artwork too.

Published in mX, Thursday September 11, 2008.

Off & On

You & Me
The Walkmen
Gigantic, 2008
4.5 stars

The Walkmen’s early albums were brilliant. Choc-full of bright guitars, twinkling piano keys and crooning vocals, their echoing sepia tones exuded an old-world charm that hit all the right notes. The years that followed saw the New Yorkers veer ever so slightly off course though, resulting in a couple of albums that, while still good, didn’t quite hit the mark. But You & Me puts these guys right back up there, matching the free-spiritedness of the group’s early Recoys days with the urgency of Bows+Arrows, all the while maintaining the steady, modest swagger of a band that know they’re good and don’t particularly mind if you don’t agree. Well, for what it’s worth, I do – You & Me is a major contender for album of the year.

Artwork: B
Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone had the most amazing photo on it's cover. It was a bunch of '20s-era kids loitering on the street smoking cigarettes, all sepia tones and schoolyard tough-guy attitude. I'll say now, I'm a proud non-smoker - and I think smoking is a stupid, dirty, outdated habit. I mean, if you want an addiction get a Playstation or - fuck - a Blogger account. But, that said, this photo truly made smoking look cool as shit. Anyway, I'm wandering away from the point - the photo on the cover of You & Me has the same old-world feel to it, but it's more sophisticated and less angsty - kind of like the album itself.

Published in mX, Thursday September 11, 2008

Little Play

Playtime for John Mountain
The Rectifiers
Sensory Projects, 2008
4 stars

With the eclectic pop sensibility of the Flaming Lips and the sun-drenched harmonies of the Beach Boys, the third album from this Melbourne band is a gem. It’s anyone’s guess who John Mountain is, but Playtime is a great title for the twelve chapters of dreamy, impeccably-produced modern psychedelia on this disc. Don’t let the strange song titles scare you off though, this is as warm and inviting as music gets, with washy synths, layered vocals and an arsenal of instrumentation, physical and otherwise (it would seem hippies in 2008 are as comfortable with a computer mouse as their forefathers were with a tambourine). Apparently this is the first in a series of albums too, so let’s hope Mr Mountain and co. can back it up.

Published in mX, Thursday September 4, 2008

Value

The Bake Sale
The Cool Kids
Chocolate Industries, 2008
3.5 stars

As a kid of the eighties and nineties, I go to sleep when I hear people rapping about Rolexes and Bentleighs. But hearing two guys rhyming about hot BMX bikes and MacGuyver – you know, real items of value – really gets my attention. The Bake Sale is apparently an EP, but forget that – this is as solid as any hip hop album you’ll hear in 2008. Flat-brim baseball caps are tipped toward artists of the late eighties and early nineties such as the Beastie Boys and Eric B and Rakim, with blatantly-looped synths, rude vocoder effects and old drum samples making the perfect backing for Mikey and Chuck’s smooth, tongue-in-cheek rhymes. The Bake Sale is a lot of fun, and with a full-length LP coming later this year, The Cool Kids are about to take off - lets hope success doesn’t go to their heads.

Published in mX, Thursday September 4, 2008