Hott Summer Traxx
During the summer great albums always drop like rain and I usually seem to have less time to talk about them, so here is a superpost full of tracks from the records I’m loving right now accompanied by a nano-review:
Dark Night Of The Soul
It seems Danger Mouse‘s best work is destined to be illegal, and this teamup with Sparklehorse and a vast cast of music superpowers is going to give the other “dark night” record a run for its money as best compilation of 2009:
Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse : Revenge
Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse : Little Girl
Dark Night Of The Soul website
Bibio
Bibio takes his ’60s folky electronica into a J Dilla direction creating maybe the best summery album of the year:
Bibio : Fire Ant
Bibio : Lovers’ Carvings
Buy Ambivalence Avenue
Bibio myspace
Sonic Youth
The greatest band of the last three decades drops yet another gem that holds up to their cornucopia of a discography, this time showcasing their mastery of extended guitar jams:
Sonic Youth : Antenna
Sonic Youth : Walkin Blue
Buy The Eternal
Sonic Youth website
DD/MM/YYYY
Canadians get mathy with this intricate record that surprisingly sprawls into a lot of different territory in 35 minutes:
DD/MM/YYYY : Bronzage
DD/MM/YYYY : Sirius b
Buy Black Square
DD/MM/YYYY myspace
Woods
Folksy, psychedelic rockers that are too good for their lo-fi branding, and this album allows them to display their proclivity for writing great, succinct pop songs and occasionally letting lose a long meandering jam.
Woods : The Number
Woods : Military Madness
Buy Songs Of Shame
Woods myspace
Sunset Rubdown
Spencer Krug’s most consistent outlet produces yet another “grower” album that I love more and more with each listen.
Sunset Rubdown : Black Swan
Buy Dragonslayer
Sunset Rubdown myspace
The Mars Volta
TMV take a left turn from the velocity of their career so far, and it turns out they do soft, down-tempo and nuanced just a good as they do everything else.
The Mars Volta : With Twilight As My Guide
Buy Octahedron
The Mars Votla myspace
- Posted by Davy Minor on July 6, 2009 at 5:52 am
- 3 Comments
A Themed Mp3 Trilogy: Nels Cline, Bibio, The Appleseed Cast
Theme for today: Texture
Wilco‘s greatest hired gun returns with the newest installment to his vast catalogue. It is hard to compare this record to others I have heard that he has been involved with, because all of them have been completely different, but this one seems to be the most reserved in terms of his shredding abilities I have come across. Instead of simply utilizing feats of technical prowess like the typical solo guitar record, Coward is more about creating carefully crafted soundscapes that are challenging enough to engage the listener, but melodic enough to be accessible to anyone. The track I’m posting is of course the one named after Sonic Youth‘s Thurston Moore, and it channels his sound flawlessly (give it a few minutes to develop, it is worth it):
This is my first foray into the world of Bibio, aka British musical mastermind Stephen Wilkinson. The songs on his newest are just simply gorgeous, somehow injecting ’60s psychedelic folk jams with something hipper and fresher than most of today’s indier-than-thous. Whether you are looking for the perfect soundtrack to your good vibes, magic mushroom camping trip, or you just want to simulate that experience in your living room, look no further than Vignetting The Compost:
I’ll admit that I am a post-rock junkie, so I am loving The Appleseed Cast‘s continual movement in that direction. I enjoyed their previous, more straight forward rock stuff, but it never stood out as something special to me. While Sagarmatha‘s certainly building on the Explosions In The Sky foundation and is arguably just as derivative as their earlier starting points, their sound feels more authentic to me now. This album carves out a new micro-niche, but will probably get mostly overlooked by the masses too impatient to dive into lengthy, mostly instrumental arrangements:
The Applessed Cast : South Col
- Posted by Davy Minor on March 11, 2009 at 4:05 am
- 1 Comment
