Explosions in the sky: Take Care, Take Care, Take Care (Temporary Residence)

It has been three years since their last album and so i was expectantly excited about this album. Having had two wonderful experiences with long established bands moving forward in new directions fantastically with their albums this year (Grails & Mogwai - i've just realised that i didnt write about the Mogwai album, will get to that soon) i was hoping that EITS would make it a trio.

Well......they didn't.

EITS have gone away and come back with pretty much the same sound that they left us with. On one sense, this is no bad thing - EITS are a great band, with a great sound, and this album is very very good. But on the other sense, it's a bit of a let down - i wanted to hear something different, some sort of expansion, a sign that they haven't been treading water for the last 3 years. On looking for signs of where any movement has occurred, i have found isolated moments where they don't do what i expected of them - the part in 'Human Qualities' for instance, where it all drops down and doesn't immediately go BANG! (as expected) but goes into a quasi-ambient interlude before drifting back in with electronic drums and a very pleasant bass line; but generally it is a case of more of the same. The loud bits aren't quite as loud as before and the quiet bits are quite so near-silence, they are existing in the post rock purgatory  - which, i suppose, is a sort of new direction (but i only noticed that because i was searching for it, it's not that different to the mood of their last album).

This album looks like the one to push EITS into the limelight more and give them access to a new fanbase and so i wish them well in their future, but fear that this will also push them further into a corner whereby they've next got to please the new legions of listeners who will expect more of the same next time - as this will be the first time they have encountered the band.

What a whingeing, curmudgeonly old bastard i am - i actually really like this album but i spend my time moaning that they upset my notion of how I feel they should be progressing, instead of actually concentrating on how good it is. Or how utterly ridiculous the packaging is.

And i mean this in a good way. If you haven't already seen it then this is how the sleeve (literally) unfolds:
You have a nice slipcase, from which you extract the sleeve. The sleeve then folds out in 4 directions (a quad-gatefold to be precise) so appears to be a cross. In these four openings are 2 slabs of coloured 180gm vinyl - each in it's own sleeve that has been artfully created to look like, errrr, a plain white inner sleeve (albeit stained and creased), a postcard with the details on, and a huge poster of a garden. The trick is to fold the four edges of the sleeve up so that you have a cube shape - the outside of the sides are painted to resemble the inside of a house (the inside of the cube now resembles the inside of a house) and then place this on the poster to look like a house, in a garden.

All of which has nothing to do with the music contained therein, as far as i can see. But is an interesting talking point for dinner parties and other social gatherings.

Julianna Barwick: The Magic Place (Asthmatic Kitty)

I'm pretty sure there's the odd piano note on here but, apart from that, the whole sound is Barwick's voice swooping and looping like a choir of angels who have come to remove you from this mortal coil. The last 4AD-esq term of reference was deliberate as any part of this haunting album could've been a short integral piece of the 3 TMC albums.

Let me try to explain the sound here, it's a bit tricky and i read the term 'indie Enya' in a review somewhere and that has stuck in my head as it's not entirely incorrect. So, here goes: take the whole cocteau twins collection and remove all traces of instrumentation, so you are left with Elizabeth Fraser's voice and nowt else. Now cut the vocal track into little bits so that you have no discernible words (even the seemingly invented ones that EF used to fill Cocteau albums with) and reassemble in tone order, so that the sound moves up and down the scales. Now multitrack this sound again and again until you have a choir of tones that move and reshape with each other, similar to some of Panda Bear's music but much less grating.

That's what this sounds like.

And a bit like an indie Enya as well.

Maserati: Pyramid Of The sun (Temporary Residence Limited)

Maserati have come on hugely since their earliest recordings, when they were a decent enough psych rock band but, ultimately, nothing very special. Various line up changes have brought us to this place - a driving piece of progressive psychedelia with occasional nods to the twin worlds of disco and early 80s soundtracks. Steve Moore co wrote a couple of tracks here and, stylistically, he is all over this album - to such an extent that i'm not sure what they'll do next if he's not involved next time. Like Moore's band Zombi, the key to this album's overall power is the drummer. Jerry Fuchs sadly died in an accident whilst making this album but his solid dependable motorik drumming is what leads this album into being an absolutely fucking wonderful piece of music. The life affirming nature of the sounds within make it doubly tragic, although I hear A E Paterra from Zombi/Majeure is now playing with Maserati - possibly the only drummer capable of taking Maserati even further forward. I didn't want this piece to be merely about the drumming but it really is the keystone that holds the sound together - when the beat is so full of power and energy, yet so subtle in places (think Steve Reid with discipline) then the other guys can push their own individual envelopes outwards into new territories.

Brilliant. Really, really brilliant.

Tape: Milieu Plus (Minority)

With a search-engine defying name, Tape are deliberately under the radar. I'm sure this is their intention but this Stockholm trio create such interesting pieces of sound that they deserve to be heard further afield. I'd expected a droney piece of ambience when i first bought this record and, at low volume, that is what i thought i'd got - but when i turned it up and really listened i realised that the album is made up of dozens of little instrumental pieces played on dozens of instruments (piano, harmonium, saxophone, banjo, harmonica, trumpet, violin, lots of others) that flow around each other but never collide. This is far from ambient music and, in fact, would be done a disservice if used as pure ambience - as you would miss (like i initially did) all the beautiful artistry that has gone into creating such an outstanding piece of work.

Low: C'mon (Sub Pop)

It took me quite a few frustrating minutes trying to get the sleeve into a protective plastic sleeve before i gave up. I could not understand why it didn't fit ANY of the different grade sleeves and was practically in tears when I casually laid another sleeve on top of this album and noticed that i could still see the Low sleeve underneath. "Hmmmm", I thought, "Let's line up the bottom left hand corners of the Low album and the Maserati album and see what happens...."

Holy Shit!

The Low sleeve is about 1/2 inch bigger!

To say I was shocked would be an understatement - an album sleeve is regimented size, an unwritten law but a law nonetheless. And where would we be without laws, ladies and gentlemen?

(It's a rhetorical question)

Having got over my shock, I decided to play it again as I had already casually played it 6 or 7 times and decided that it sounded not unlike all the other Low albums and thus was of a certain calibre but nothing new or exciting. So, listening to it again now, and taking great notice and concentration as Binky the cat is chasing a mouse outside the window, i find that it is indeed pretty similar to all the other Low albums but is incredibly beautiful at times ("Especially me" being a fine example) and has much more depth than the simplicity i heard the first few times. I found myself utterly captivated by the time i turned the record over and fell in love with Low all over again, the vocals are (as ever) beautifully harmonious and the instruments are never anything more (or less) than complementary - even with the addition of strings, banjo and Nels Cline in restrained mode.

Very special and a really lovely surprise when you take time to really listen to a band again and rediscover what you loved about them in the first place.

Binky never caught the mouse, but she did find a slow worm instead to carry around. There's a metaphor there but even i'm not crass enough to go there......

Efterklang: Magic Chairs (4AD)

Efterklang are a band that do not understand the concept of 'reigning yourself in'. Whereas some indie bands chuck in a cello of violin here and there to give their pathetic whimsy and perceived sense of gravitas, Efterklang seem to create the classical music structures and then graft the guitar/bass/drums/vocals on top. And by doing things with this singular vision they manage to transcend what would be a fairly bland musical style into something elegant and majestic. Having the family Broderick (Peter & Heather) on board certainly does not hinder their ability to produce a piece of pop beauty and to craft an intellectual niche in the music world.

I feel as though i should be listening to this album in a smoking jacket with a glass of port in hand, such is the overbearing feeling of high class quality. Lager and a T Shirt seems slightly disrespectful.

The Mountain Goats: All Eternals Deck (Merge)

Pre-ordered this from Merge ages in advance so as to ensure i got the coloured vinyl and the free cassette, only available with the first few. Cost a bit more than normal, what with the shipping from the States but i knew it would be worth it. Immensely fucked off to discover, on opening that i neither secured the cassette nor the coloured vinyl, even though i had pre-ordered it as soon as the pre-order was available. Some skullduggery going on here methinks. Am i just going to fill this piece with moaning about how Merge hate me because i gave one of their releases a bad review 20 years ago and how it's not fair, especially nowadays when i actually pay for most of my music?

Too bloody right.

Merge? They're bastards.

Although they did release this prime slice of Mountain Goats, whereby John Darnielle plays with a full band and lets rip with some of his finest lyrics yet, which is saying something indeed. If you know anything about this guy then you know that all his releases have a celestial quality and this is one of his best in years.

So a big round of applause for the band but a big kick in the balls for the label - who failed to give me the extra bells and whistles that i deserved.................

Probably,

Nils Frahm & Anne Muller: 7fingers (Hush)

This one took a while to get to me. I've had it for a few months and, though normally a big fan of Mr Frahm's, found this one more of an irritation than a celebration. On paper it looks brilliant - Nils on piano/electronics and Anne on Cello - so how could this possibly fail? Well, initially i was put off by the fact that the electronics are much more frequent than the piano - he has smothered glitchy noises over everything, which just seemed out of place the first half dozen listens and, frankly, really got on my nerves. In fact, it is not until the beginning of side 2 that the piano makes a proper entrance and then it just reminded me what i had been missing all along. And i despaired of the whole bloody thing.

Then, after numerous plays, (and because i knew that there MUST be something that i was missing) it happened - the album made sense to me. I heard the dichotomy between the glitchiness and the cello and realised that Nils had not been fucking around at all - he had been accentuating the differences and this only made the whole thing much stronger. And i finally got it - which is testament to the whole point of this blog, it has made me listen to it numerous times so that i could make a comment. I've given the record the time it deserved and now i can place it on the shelf, like the coveted item it has become.

I'm not going to mention Nils' singing though. Just let's say that it shouldn't be on there and leave it at that.

Nemean Lion: Cast of the moon (Future Recordings)

First of all, it's on Future Recordings and thus was an essential purchase as their eye for detail, ear for quality, and sense of artistic beauty is pretty much second to none. I emphatically trust  the label to release only great music and try to buy everything they release. This album is no exception to the rule and slowly unfolds over piano and guitar, building towards a loud crescendo that never arrives - a rarity in the world of post rock, where the crashing climax (and the journey to and from) is everything. I really appreciated the fact that the music never did what was expected of it and, instead, followed its singularly original path. As always with Future Recordings, the artwork (hand screened & stamped gatefold sleeve, hand numbered) suit the contents beautifully and, again as always, the label have streamed the whole thing for free :(http://futurerecordings.bandcamp.com/album/cast-of-the-moon)
Do yourself a favour - go and have a listen to Nemean Lion and all the other great music there. And then send  the label your money. They deserve it, and so do you.

The Bug: Infected (Ninja Tune)

Four sides/four tracks - there's no extra width on this release, as per normal. Kevin Martin has never been one to fuck about and this EP is no different. 'Catch a fire' is closer to his King Midas Sound stuff than The Bug, in that the vocals are more soulful and do not have the sense of anger/menace that you normally find on Bug releases. Is this a sign that his aliases are beginning to blend into each other and that we can look forward to an album simply credited to Kevin Martin in the future? I sincerely doubt it, as the bugger like to keep us on our toes. Elsewhere, Roots Manuva shouts at us in the manner of a crazed preacher and autechre remix 'Skeng' into an anger-filled sermon over a buzzing headache.

Skallander: Skallander (Type)

Unusual release on Type, who normally go for the more droney/noisy/avant garde stuff (no complaints from here on any of those counts, obviously), with this first worldwide release by New Zealand duo Skallander. Prettily plucked guitars, very subtle electronics (almost imperceptible in many places) and soft vocals make this the album Nick Drake would've made had he been born in the 70s  and then  created music by playing noisy tuneless stuff for years before slowly deconstructing the instrumental morass until the bare bones of virtual nothingness survived. He then rebuilt the music slightly, adding only what was absolutely necessary and, as if by magic, Skallander appeared.

Zounds: Curse of the Zounds (Ruin Nation)

Bought at The Mob/Zounds gig in Bristol in April for an amazing £6. Not the original album release but a 23 track double album filled with pretty much their whole output. It was lovely to revisit songs such as 'Dancing', 'Biafra', 'Did he jump?' and ' Cant cheat Karma' again and remember what a brilliant band Zounds were, and still are. They were miles away from the rest of anarchist punk bands (which, to be honest, was because they weren't really an anarchist punk band) in that they had great melodies, subtle instrumentation, intelligent lyrics and a great lack of swear words. Still, i will file this in my 'Punk' part of my collection merely 'cos it is pure punk in spirit, if not in expectations - which, of course, makes it punker than most.