ALBUM REVIEW: James Blake - Enough Thunder EP

By Steve Jones.

Critically acclaimed, buzzed, and hyped dubstep/post-dubstep artist James Blake has returned with Enough Thunder, a follow-up EP to his debut self-titled album earlier this year.

Full disclosure: I was not blown away by James Blake, but it did possess moments I liked quite a bit, such as the opening track "Unluck" and all of its fantastic chord progressions.  And I did, on a artistic level, appreciate the fact he was obviously a forward-thinking guy who wanted to pave his own musical path.  I may not have been in love with that album, but I was anticipating his next move.

Cue eight months later, we now have his next move, and it feels like a step back, or at least a step to the side.

My favorite aspect of this EP is the way Blake creates some very evocative soundscapes with a fairly minimal amount of instruments.  The opening track is once again my favorite track here.  With a desolate and delibrate sounding piano and some apocalyptic electronic wailings, "Once We All Agree" achieves a darkly chilling atmosphere.  It sounds like Blake is singing to an empty planet.  The song itself is simplistic, but it works on the images it creates, and I would not mind at all if we see more of this direction from Blake in the future.

Unfortunately, the rest of the EP fails to be quite so evocative.  "We Might Feel Unsound" becomes too busy in an uninteresting way.  Similar to the preceding track, the structure is simplistic, but this time Blake layers on clicking and popping and that super-wub bass trick he used in "Limit to Your Love," but none of these effects feel like they add anything to the song.  I'm a huge sucker for complexly arranged and layered music (remember my glowing review of the newest My Brightest Diamond?), but the arrangements still have to have some place being there.

The Bon Iver collaboration "Fall Creek Boys Choir" is neat in concept, but the execution just bores me.  And I have no idea what is going on with that effect that sounds like a dog barking.  Is it supposed to be a dog?  Is that why it's placed with no regard for time signature or anything else that is going on?  Seriously, it seems like Justin Vernon and James Blake are taking a piss at the audience.  Now, I'm sure they're nice guys, but that's what it sounds like to my ears.  If anybody can help enlighten me, please do so.

As with the opener, the piano once again comes to the forefront in "A Case of You," but in a much different fashion.  Blake's cover of Joni Mitchell's lovely song is also quite lovely.  I think the piano and Blake's voice mesh together well, and the song is definitely a standout in that sense.  But that is also the track's problem, because Joni Mitchell's songwriting completely eclipses Blake's.  When he tries his entirely own hand at piano balladry in the last track, "Enough Thunder," it just pales in comparison to the memorability and emotionality of the song he did not write.  "A Case of You" is a lovely inclusion, but it also highlights the flaws of the rest of the EP.

"Not Long Now" has a killer first 20 seconds, and I actually like its use of space within its first half.  Rather than create a sense of openness, it seems to bury everything else in the song, which I find to be an exciting dynamic.  But as the song becomes busier, it loses that unique quality and just turns into a not-all-that-interesting piece of dark minimal electronica.  And, to completely contrast the first 20 seconds, the I don't like the last 20 seconds at all.

Enough Thunder is unfocused and all over the place in terms of style and quality, but I can forgive an EP for being exploratory, especially when the artist has already released a full length not too long ago.  I just wish the ideas I liked weren't so few and far between.  For me, the first track and the first half of "Not Long Now" are the most reflective of what I'd consider an interesting place for Blake to continue to explore.  Essentially I want more depressing and echo-y piano glitch jams.  As for the rest, I am looking forward to the day when Blake's songwriting is as good as those of the artists he covers, but that day has not yet arrived.

Score: Decent 5

What do you think?  Let me know in the comments!

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ALBUM REVIEW: Björk - Biophilia

By Steve Jones.

After the disappointment that was Volta, Björk has once again returned however briefly to Earth to give us her seventh LP Biophilia, a high concept, tree hugging, iPad soundtracking, melody wandering, precious sounding, and pretentious sounding beast of an album.

But is it any good?

Well, to get this sentiment out of the way first, I couldn't care less about this being is an "iPad" album with "apps" for each "song."  I'm sure they're cool to watch and to play around with, but I don't own an iPad, so I have no frame of reference there.  When I listen to this album, as with any album, all I care about is the music and how it affects me, so that is what this review will reflect.  It neither gains nor loses points in my book for anything else.

I had my best experience listening to Biophilia while taking a walk a few weeks ago on a crisp and cool autumn day.  All of my attention was focused either on the music or on the beautiful Boulder fall foliage, and it was this experience which prompted me to write a review.  Prior to that day, my feelings on the music were pretty lukewarm, and I wasn't passionate enough about it to consider writing anything.  And that highlights one of the "flaws" of this album, namely that the music is extremely restrained, subtle, abstract, minimal, and perhaps too sparse for its own good.  Any enjoyment a listener is going to get from this album is going to be dependent upon their patience for 20th century compositions.  If enjoy the airy and plinkety-plink kind of material by people like Toru Takemitsu, you'll be in much better shape to enjoy this record right away.

The best advice I can give you otherwise is to get a pair of headphones and take a walk with Biophilia, like I did, because then the music unfolds into a delicately beautiful and haunting experience.  The harp on "Moon" resonates, the brass in "Cosmogeny" is warm and full, and the explosions of sound on "Mutual Core" are quite chilling.  But many of the songs here are not so much what I would call "songs" as "sketches" or "text-setting."  It hearkens back to the day when composers would set a poem to music and try to match the themes of the poem with the sound of the music.  For example, "Crystalline" really has what I would call a crystalline sound, one which is delicate yet multi-faceted, with sounds bouncing around like light bounces in and out of a diamond.  One could also argue that the electronic sounds in that track are in reference to the fact that crystals can be manufactured these days.  The sparse organ and layered vocals of "Dark Matter" hint at the mysterious and eerie nature of actual dark matter.  And so on.

Many of the complaints I've heard about this album are that it is too pretentiously half-baked and just sounds like the desperate cry of an aging artist begging to be relevant again.  Talk about cynical!  I do think this album is pretentious, but I actually appreciate it being so, and I wish more artists were willing to ask too much of their audience.  The majority of the tracks ("Moon," "Hollow," "Dark Matter," "Solstice," etc.) have cyclical arrangements, wandering vocals, and don't conform to a modern, normal song structure.  Those which do possess accessible elements are those which more immediately pop out on your first listen.  "Cosmogony," for instance, actually has verses and a chorus, as do "Virus" (kind of), "Sacrifice," and "Mutual Core." "Mutual Core" also has the most obvious piece of text setting, with the climaxing vocals, instruments, and electronics reflecting the explosion of a volcano.

But my favorite track is "Hollow."  Yeah, the one that has Björk pounding on an organ and doing little else for six minutes.  First, I love the organ sound in the beginning, where it barely sounds like an organ at all and just sounds like air being blown out of a tube, with only the hint of pitch.  Unfortunately, I don't know too much about the instrument, so I don't know exactly how that effect was achieved, but it sounds so cool and new to me.  And I love how incessant a presence the organ is throughout the piece.  It keeps playing without regard for establishing a melody or time signature, and even when it cuts out for those brief moments, I can still feel its presence looming.  The song creates a lot of excellent tension in a very nontraditional way, and that makes it stand out to me.

Before I conclude I feel I should clarify--when I say a song is nontraditional, or when I say a song is conformational, I am not implying that either one is better than the other.  I believe Biophilia is a very exciting record, and I do think you have to possess a certain mindset about music in order to appreciate it, but I don't believe that enjoying this record makes you a "better" music listener.  People enjoy and dislike music for all kinds of reasons, and I am sure there are plenty of people who hate this album but still "get" it, while there are also people who like this album simply because Björk's voice is in it (and it is stellar as always).  Neither is more correct than the other, so no need to get all up in a huff because I am championing pretentious music.  In fact, one of the most accessible songs on the album, "Virus," is also the most gorgeous one, and I could her Björk sing that refrain all day.

This review strikes me as far too indulgent and rambling, but writing it is the first thing I am doing after sleeping for over 12 hours, so I'm feeling punchy and loquacious.  The point I would like you, the reader, to take away is that I really like Biophilia.  It is an ambitious and pretentious and demanding, but also full of great sounds, great images, and great songs.  Maybe Björk can no longer write the kind of pop songs that gained her the fame she enjoys, but she can still create some fantastic art, and that is what Biophilia is.

Score: I don't have one. Listen to it. That is an order.

Since the nature of this album exists outside of the realm of what I have been assigning scores to for the past year, I don't feel comfortable putting a number to Biophilia.  A hearty recommendation is what it gets from me.  I hope you listen to it, and I hope you tell me what you think in the comments!

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JAM DESHO: Mono & World's End Girlfriend - Palmless Prayer / Mass Murder Refrain

By Steve Jones.

This week on the Samsonite Samurai, we feature a bit of a departure from last week's psycho-synth pop.  Palmless Prayer / Mass Murder Refrain is one of the most starkly gorgeous pieces of music you are liable to find.  You will cry, you will love it, and it will carry you through a cold winter.

The quality of the album should come as no surprise; it is a collaboration between two giants of the Japanese music scene.  Mono is a post-rock group which has gained a sizable following and reputation outside of Japan.  World's End Girlfriend has not quite reached that level of fame, but he is still rather well-known as a composer of eclectic pieces which span from glitchy IDM to post-rock to modern classical.  When these two come together, it is like Nutella and peanut butter--so good and beautiful that you cannot help but think of an early death.

Palmless Prayer / Mass Murder Refrain functions as one 75 minute long piece which, for convenience's sake, is split into five untitled tracks (usually referred to as "Part One," "Part Two," etc.).  Its main tools are a string quartet and a rock band, although a piano, saxophone (practically a World's End Girlfriend trademark), and some female vocalizing are also used.  This is an instrumental work, and it is composed like a modern classical piece with post-rock elements.  The music is slow moving and patient, and it will function just fine if you want to put it in the background, but you will be cheating yourself out of an experience.  What causes this album to grow is a pair of headphones and your own thoughts.

I am drawn to PP/MMR due to how beautiful and depressing and dark everything moment of it is.  It isn't dark in the modern angst-ridden sense, but more so in a bleak, traversing a wasteland at twilight sense, much like how the cover art looks and feels.  Although this is an album which takes its time, it is a journey and does exhibit an emotional progression from wholly upsetting to cathartic, reflective, and, finally, sad but optimistic.  The first two parts build tension with both sound and space.  The third part eventually releases this tension.  The fourth is quiet and ponderous.  And the fifth part acts as a microcosm of the entire album, again moving the listener in and out of various emotions.  The tension of the strings, the competing fragility and intensity of the guitar, and the pacing make every note resonate with feeling.  Sometimes an entire movement will rest on one impeccably placed note, and when it arrives you can feel your heart heave in your chest.

As with all instrumental works, everybody's interpretation is going to differ, but to me this album is about death.  It is black but not harsh, quiet but not ambient.  It is a requiem mass, a dirge, and a call to attention towards the rough beast, terrible yet awe-inspiring, slouching towards Bethlehem.  It is a reminder that there is much fear and beauty to be found in the inevitable unknown.

The mixing of post-rock and classical elements is nothing new or original, but no other band has wielded these elements in such a heart-wrenching way.  This is perfect winter music, as well as a great introduction to Mono and/or World's End Girlfriend.

You can hear the first track below, but I recommend listening to the entire album unbroken.

What do you think?  Is this music overwrought, or is it passionate?

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ALBUM REVIEW: My Brightest Diamond - All Things Will Unwind

By Steve Jones.

My Brightest Diamond is the stage name of Detroit's Shara Worden, and All Things Will Unwind is her third LP.

I like baroque pop.  And when I say baroque, I mean baroque, as in I want my songs to sound akin to the way the interior of a 17th century church looks.  Lots of colors, flourish, details, intricacy, cherubim--and to a practically garish extreme sometimes.  Many people seem to think you can add a violin and french horn to your band and BAM you have chamber pop.  For me, however, baroque is more so about attitude than instrumentation, and All Things Will Unwind is full of great attitude.

While I did on some level appreciate Shara Worden's dark shade of art pop in her past two albums, I never found myself enjoying them a whole lot.  The music came across as too muddy and melodramatic for me to take in 40+ minute chunks.  All Things Will Unwind, on the other hand, is a welcome change of pace for Worden and for me.  The songs are much brighter, though still caustic, and the arrangements are the most diverse and most baroque that I have heard all year.  The modern chamber ensemble yMusic (who have also worked with Sufjan Stevens, Grizzly Bear, Ryuichi Sakamoto, The National, and others) give a wonderful performance which proves integral to the album's full and fun sound.

The change in direction is apparent from the first moments of the opening track "We Added It Up." A simple conversation between a steady rhythmic guitar line and the various members of the ensemble reflects the incessant back-and-forth between certain members of certain opposing political parties in a certain country.  And I cannot stress enough how smartly arranged the "extra" instruments are.  It's not quite text-setting on the level of a Schubert lied, but the instrumentation is more often than not a reflection of the subject matter.  Warm strings and tense woodwinds punctuate the struggle within the lyrics of "Reaching Through to the Other Side," which sounds the most like an older MBD song.  And if you think baroque necessarily means you have to have a lot of different things going on at once at all times, then the hymn-like "In the Beginning" should show you that ornamentation can be minimal and still just as effective.  Again, this is not necessarily complexly arranged music, but it is smartly arranged and a wonderful complement to the always impressive and distinctive vocals of Shara Worden.

My Brightest Diamond's songs have always resided more on the "art" side of "art pop," but the much brighter sounds to be found on this album make it her most accessible foray yet.  Several songs, particularly "There's a Rat" and "High Low Middle," are evocative of older forms of popular music, such as cabaret and musical theater, and that may be a turn-off for some listeners, but I find it rather refreshing.  The highlight of the album is "Everything is in Line."  The arrangement creates tension and beauty, and the desperate duet between Worden and labelmate DM Stith is the butteriest of icing.

The performances by yMusic are simply stellar all around.  Their presence adds volumes to these songs and detracts nothing.  The only place where I feel that the instrumentation takes away a bit from the song is in the closing track, "I Have Never Loved Someone."  Worden's performance is heartachingly pretty, but she plays a pump organ.  It's actually quite nice and makes for a good album closer (a la Kid A) until you listen to it on headphones, and every squeak of the pump pedal can be heard loud and clear.  It's not so noticeable on ordinary speakers, and I can appreciate it as an artistic decision that adds to the intimacy of the piece, but I found it pretty distracting.  Still, it should say something when a small squeak is my biggest issue with the music.

All Things Will Unwind is just a gorgeous album full of colorful strings and woodwinds, powerful vocals, and an overall affecting tone.  There seems to be an attitude that richly arranged music like this is somehow less "authentic" than your typical 4 piece band, but that is pure bullshit.  If you are a fan of Owen Pallett's Heartland, Simon Bookish's Everything/Everything, or classical music in general, you will find a lot to enjoy in this album, which is one of the most beautiful, most diverse, and most interesting of the year.

Score: Strong 8/Lite 9

Listen to the entire album courtesy of the awesomeness that is Bandcamp, and let me know what you think in the comments!

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SPOOKY KABUKI: A Momus Halloween Playlist

By Steve Jones.

If there is one thing I love more than the macabre, it is the celebration of the macabre.  Therefore, it is not surprising that Halloween is my favorite holiday.  The costumes and candy are nice, but I just really enjoy a day dedicated to death, monsters, superstition, and overall spookiness.  There is a lot of fun to be found in fear.

I wanted to make a slightly unusual kind of playlist for this holiday, and I settled on restricting myself to the discography of the Scottish artist Nicholas Currie, better known as Momus.  Of course, doing so was not much of a "restriction"--he has almost thirty years worth of material to dig through, and he is a fantastic storyteller.

In the spirit of SPOOKY KABUKI, I have chosen 13 songs which I think reflect the dark masks, themes, and sounds of a Halloween playlist.  We have disasters in space ("Landrover"), lamentations of monsters ("Dracula"), some droogs having fun ("Symphonies of Beethoven"), a pirate shanty ("Is It Because I'm a Pirate?"), classic Halloween tales ("Ichabod Crane"), the revolt of a creation against creator ("Pygmalism"), and plenty of other unsettling topics.  Put this on when you're handing out candy and expand some minds.

Here's a YouTube playlist, because I don't know about you, but I use YouTube more than any other service when it comes to checking out new and unknown songs:

Playlisting (all tracks by Momus):

1. Death Ruins Everything (from Hypnoprism)
2. Cibachrome Blue (from Voyager)
3. The Rape of Lucretia (from Circus Maximus)
4. Sinister Themes (from The Ultraconformist)
5. The Symphonies of Beethoven (from The Little Red Songbook)
6. Landrover (from Timelord)
7. Dracula (from Joemus)
8. A Complete History of Sexual Jealousy: Parts 17-24 (from Slender Sherbert)
9. The Thunderclown (from The Thunderclown with John Henriksson)
10. Is It Because I'm a Pirate? (from Oskar Tennis Champion)
11. Ichabod Crane (from Joemus)
12. Bantam Boys (from Otto Spooky)
13. Pygmalism (from Folktronic)

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LIVE REVIEW: Dan Mangan

by Mark Gillis

Cold, dark, rainy, hardly ideal conditions to be wandering around in uptown Waterloo when I probably should have been studying for midterms. When I'm wandering around waiting for a concert though, it all seems worth it. I was fortunate enough to catch Vancouver native Dan Mangan this past Tuesday at Starlight in Waterloo, Ontario and he did not disappoint.

Dan has made quite a name for himself as a Canadian folk hero over the past couple of years. He released his second full length album 'Nice, Nice, Very Nice' in 2009 to rave reviews and he even got a Polaris Prize shortlist nomination for it. That album really launched him into the upper echelon of the indiesphere in Canada. Fast forward to today and his third LP titled 'Oh Fortune' has been out for a month and just like 'Nice, Nice, Very Nice' it has been accepted very generously.

There were two opening bands, The Crackling (Who are actually Dan Mangan's band) and Molly Rankin. I won't comment a lot on them other than that I found both to be enjoyable. The Crackling played more of a folk style while Molly Rankin played some nice catchy pop tunes. It's nice when opening bands don't bore you to death so it was a pretty good start to the night.

Everyone was obviously there to see Dan though. It got quite busy before he was about to come on so I was glad that I staked out my usual spot in the front, just right of center. Throughout his set he played a good mix of songs from 'Oh Fortune' and 'Nice, Nice, Very Nice'. He has such a rough and aged sounding voice that everything he sings sounds so genuine. He might not be the best singer out there but he sings and plays with a ton of passion, (as does the rest of his band) and that translates into a great live show. He was also quite funny, which is always a plus.

So, I basically breezed through the description of his set to get to the encore that he did, because that was when all the magic happened. I'm a big believer that crowd involvement at shows is necessary to keep people coming back. If you're just going to stand there and play songs exactly as they are on the album then I may as well save myself the 20 bucks and stay home to listen to the album. The encore that Dan did really showed why he's such a beloved figure in Canadian music.

He started out with 'The Indie Queens Are Waiting' by himself, with no band. It was cool because the recording of the song has some parts with female vocals, which the crowd instinctively took over. Next he said he was going to try a cover. I've found in the past that live covers can really be hit or miss. It's tough to know whether or not a cover will get the same reception from the crowd as an original song would. He only prefaced it by saying it was an important song to him and it was probably important to lots of other people in the crowd so he'd try not to screw it up, then he started playing the first few chords to 'In The Aeroplane Over The Sea' and I subsequently began to freak out. I think everyone knows how drenched in melancholic emotion that song is, and coupled with Dan's passionate vocals, the song was a highlight of the night to that point. Although, it wasn't the highlight for long.

Anybody who has heard of Dan Mangan has probably heard his song 'Robots'. I'll just say right now that in a live setting that song is the best sing-a-long I've ever heard, bar-none. The lyrics are simple and so readily repeatable. The crowd sang “Robots need love too / They want to be loved by you / They want to be loved by you” over and over again while Dan weaseled his way into the middle of everyone. It was an awesome moment, so have a look for yourself.

I figured that the show would be over at that point. I knew that Robots was usually the last song they played so I was prepared to leave, but then he said he'd play one more song if everyone in the crowd helped sing. The song he played was 'So Much For Everyone' and it created such a cool atmosphere. He basically got the whole crowd to be kind of a backing choir while he sang the song. It's tough to describe how awesome it was so just have a listen for yourself.

When I left it was still cold, dark and rainy outside, but I didn’t really seem to notice after the musically cathartic experience I just had.

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ALBUM REVIEW: LITE - For all the Innocence

By Steve Jones.

LITE are an instrumental math rock band from Tokyo, and For all the Innocence is their third LP.

Allow me to predict your initial reaction to this album:

"Hey, cool, is this some Battles material I haven't heard yet?  Oh, it's just some band from Japan called LITE.  I guess that must be short for 'BATTLES: LITE,' AM I RIGHT?"

Well, maybe I'm just extrapolating from my own first impressions.  I was so ready to write off this band as a Battles clone and be done with it.  But, on the other hand, if you're going to clone a band, Battles are a pretty good and unexpected place to start. I also just liked how this album sounded, so I listened to it one more time, then several more times, and now I am writing about it.

The Battles parallels are definitely present, in that we have an instrumental math rock type band who, with this album in particular, seem to have a lot of fun playing around with intricate interlocking melodies, solid performances from all members, and general silliness.  The track "Duck Follows an Eccentric" also has a guitar tone very reminiscent of the recent Battles tune "Futura," and its spastic melody with a penchant for odd time signatures just screams Mirrored to me.  But LITE do have a sound that is their own, and For all the Innocence actually marks a rather pointed shift in style.  After listening to their previous two efforts, Filmlets and Phantasia, this new LP strikes me as the brightest and poppiest this band has ever sounded.  Those looking for a song to match the relentless hard rock riffs found on Phantasia opener "Ef" are going to be disappointed, but not necessarily in a bad way.

Most songs here get built layer by layer: one instrument will supply a groove, then another will add their voice, then another, and so on.  It's a very minimalistic approach, with melodies and rhythms coming in, evolving, and fading over the course of the track.  This means there isn't much room for jarring tonal shifts or neat surprises like that, but it nonetheless creates an array of songs which are distinct, interesting, and accessible.

"Rabbit" builds upon a simple piano arpeggio, and, initially, it sounds precious enough to soundtrack a documentary, but then the guitars hit hard and bring the song back for me.  "Pelican Watched as the Sun Sank" is an excellent example of the kind of layering I just mentioned, with each instrumentalist basically doing their own thing and creating a neat, interlocking groove.  The mixing is also mercifully clear enough to distinguish each guitar.  The post-rock-esque explosions of sound and color on "7day Cicada" propel that track to "on repeat" status.  But my favorite track is "Pirate and Parakeets," which I can only describe as blissful Caribbean math rock.  It's an exercise in excess, with lots of tropical sounding instruments, hand claps, "oh oh oh oh" vocalizing, and a danceable beat that crescendos, pulls back, and crescendos even more. Maybe you won't like it, y'know, if you don't like fun.

My biggest issue with the album is that I really wish most of these songs evolved and progressed and just did more with their running time.  There are subtle changes which occur, sure, but for the most part the beginning of a track will sound similar to the end.  Consequently, your enjoyment of the album is going to depend heavily upon how much you like the grooves this group lays down.  Personally, I enjoy most of them, but I still wish LITE had been more adventurous and played off each other more.  And while I appreciate the fact that there are quieter moments on the album, namely the opener, closer, and short interlude "Rebirth," they feel even less developed.

I don't know if this is true at all, but I can imagine LITE being ridiculously killer to see live.  Like I said, the songs here are just begging for some extended real time improvisation, and a live setting could definitely bring that out.  As is, though, this is a solid collection of jams that are almost as colorful and diverse as the animals which inspired them.

Score: LITE-to-decent 7(day Cicada)

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JAM DESHO: Guernica - Kaizo he no Yakudo

By Steve Jones.

The Samsonite Samurai will be a weekly(?) column in which yours truly will highlight music from Japan.  It ain't all sugary, doe-eyed pop or Visual Kei, so you best prepare yourself for an education.

Guernica's (ゲルニカ) album Kaizo he no Yakudo (改造への躍動) is a boon for anybody actively seeking uniquely strange music (as if I had to tell you that about a Japanese band named after one of Picasso's most famous paintings).  I qualify "strange" with "uniquely," because there are plenty of strange artists you'll hear who still sound like other strange musicians, but I have yet to hear a band which goes about music quite the way Guernica does.

For ease of communication, I'm going to divide Guernica's sound into two facets: the arrangements and the vocals.  My closest approximation to what the arrangements sound like are mostly synthesized reinterpretations of early 20th century cabaret and film soundtracks, but even that is lacking.  The production is unmistakably eighties, but this is not your dad's synth pop.  The nearest this album approaches a "marketable" single is during the second track (video below), and even that is somewhat undermined by the second thing I wanted to talk about--Jun Togawa's vocals.  She is the lead singer, and her style is, ah, distinctive.  Very high in the register, nasally, and with lots of vibrato.  I know that sounds terrible in print, but trust me in that Togawa's voice is an asset to any band, not a drawback.  Her theatrical delivery is especially appropriate for the narrative form that Kaizo follows.

I guess a good label for this record would be synth unpop.  It certainly has the ingredients of a pop album, but the music is far too adventurous and unpredictable.  There aren't many catchy melodies to be found, but it is nonetheless a wholly memorable and enjoyable experience.  It's a nightmare to think of "similar artists," but I recommend this especially if you want a change of pace from modern sugary synth pop--the sounds used here are dated, harsh, and distinctive.  Some kindred spirits might be Dirty Projectors and Joanna Newsom, but that is in terms of approach, not sound.

Oh, and if you can, check out the remastered edition with two bonus tracks.  The instrumentals in those are actually fully orchestral and gorgeous, particularly the last track.

Listen to the remastered album on YouTube, starting here.

Do it RIGHT NOW, and let me know what you think.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Born Gold - Bodysongs

by Mark Gillis

For the past year or so I’d always heard about the band Gobble Gobble but I never put very much effort into trying to listen to them. Gobble Gobble recently changed their name to Born Gold and released a new album called Bodysongs. I have no idea what the reason for the name change was, but for one strange reason or another it made me pay attention and I finally decided to give these guys a shot. I’m so glad that something finally prompted me to listen to them because I was definitely missing out.

I had always known Gobble Gobble to be kind of the “kings” of the under-underground music scene in Canada. It’s weird how a perception like that can influence what I thought Born Gold would sound like. I figured I’d hear some dirty lo-fi pop or rock music, I’d give the album a few listens, and then I’d be on my way to listen to something bigger and better. I could not have been more wrong.

Right from the first track “Lawn Knives” this album is an all out assault of electronics that is far more suitable for a 24/7 dance party than the small club shows that these guys normally play. The best musical comparison I can think of is Crystal Castles just because of how skittery and scatterbrained the electronics are. I’ve listened through this album multiple times and I still find myself trying to figure out exactly what is going to happen next because there are so many sounds going on at once it gets a little bit overwhelming to the ears, but in a good way.

Even though I do feel that there is a Crystal Castles comparison to be made, I don’t feel like it’s necessarily a very comprehensive comparison, it really only represents one aspect of the music for me. The mood surrounding Born Gold’s music is much more upbeat and happy. It’s a mood that I’d associate with the energy of any number of upbeat electro-pop bands, but these guys take that energy and amplify it by a factor of ten, which makes the album some of the most enjoyable 28 minutes of music that I’ve listened to this year.

I actually think that if it weren’t for the mess of electronics, the vocals on this album would go over very well in front of a mainstream pop beat on any average pop/rock radio station. That being said, the spastic tendencies of the music really give this album so much raw energy, and for me, makes it so much more enjoyable than anything I’d ever hear on the radio.

So in short, if you just want an album that is straight up energetic, unrelenting, and fun, then give this thing a listen. You can even get it for a pay-what-you-want download (free) over at their bandcamp page.

Favourite tracks: Lawn Knives, Boring Horror

Score: Light 8/10

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ALBUM REVIEW: Mayer Hawthorne - How Do You Do

By Steve Jones.

(oh wow, my first review on this blog. better make it not SUCK)
(it's going to suck)

Soul is a multi-faceted genre, but part of what I listen for in any combination of rhythm and blues is (theoretically speaking) how much babymaking could get done to this music.  Therefore, it was a good sign when the opening track to Mayer Hawthorne's How Do You Do begins with our hero leading a young lady into his bedchambers so that he can "get to know" her better.

Mayer Hawthorne loves Motown.  One only needs to hear his 2009 debut A Strange Arrangement to figure that out. Although that album really wore its references on its sleeve and walked that fine line between "faithful" and "derivative," I still found it to be a breath of fresh air when compared to the kinds of revivalism being embraced by the masses (COUGH synth pop COUGH).  It was good, but not great.  Then, earlier this year, Mayer released a free EP of covers which expanded on his sound and overall seemed a step in the right direction.

That brings us to the album in question: Mayer's second LP and first major-label outing, How Do You Do.  To put it simply, if you enjoyed A Strange Arrangement, I see no reason why you won't enjoy this one.  The sound is still soaked in funk, soul, R&B, and other means of smoothness, but it improves upon many of the qualms I had with his first record.  Mayer's voice, which was nice and buttery with a soft falsetto to begin with, sounds more confident and more expressive on this record.  One of the lead singles, "The Walk," has him really playing with intonation, and it results in an amusing narrative about the end of a clearly destined-to-fail relationship.  The arrangements are still great, often layering strings and horns to create a lot of subtly interesting color, but they benefit a lot from the better production values on this album.  One of the weakness of A Strange Arrangement was that many songs didn't pack the kind of sonic punch their arrangements implied, but How Do You Do is a much fuller sounding excursion.

This album, while certainly no departure in sound, explores a bit in terms of genre and style, and this seems to be a logical step after the earlier Impressions EP.  The more contemporary flavor of R&B can be found in "Can't Stop," a track which features Snoop Dogg on vocals, but in such a way that I had no idea it was him on my first few listens.  "Dreaming" fully embraces pure sunshine pop, with a driving staccato piano line reminiscent of ELO's "Mr. Blue Sky."  The iTunes bonus track "Henny & Gingerale" veers more into the hip-hop instrumental side of funk.  But, again, the heart of this album is soul.

How Do You Do's strength lies in being a startlingly accurate modern interpretation of that Motown sound, but that also may be its weakness.  While I do feel Mayer develops more of a voice of his own in this record, this is still music deeply steeped in the past.  There is nothing really "new" here--no overt experimentation, no challenging of conventions (unless you consider saying "shitty fucking attitude" innovative).  There are hints of a merging of old and new, but the music here comes across more as a love letter to artists like Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye, Isaac Hayes, and so on.  It's fun, accessible, and great to dance to (having seen him live twice, I can personally confirm that last statement).  If I was seeing a bunch of "nu-Motown" records pop up, I'd probably be less enthused about this one, but, for the time being, Mayer Hawthorne is unique in his faithful revivalism.

There's absolutely nothing on this record I hate, but the songs towards the middle suffer from not being very memorable, especially when compared to stellar tracks like "The Walk," "No Strings," and "A Long Time."  "No Strings" is the best babymakin' track on here, because it's not about love or relationships--it's just about sex.

How Do You Do isn't revolutionary, but if you're a fan of smoothness, you should be listening to and loving Mayer Hawthorne.

Score: Decent 8

 

What do you think about this album?

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