March 2009

Royksopp - Junior

Royksopp - Junior
[Wall Of Sound, 2009]

I’ll start with the main thing: The Girl And The Robot would have been on my top list in 2008 if it was released then. We’ll see by the end of the year, but this is probably the first definite candidate for my 2009 favorites list. And the whole album is really good. Junior is the third “child” of this Norwegian duo. Surely better than the sophomore, The Understanding (2005) - at the end of the day, you’re basically left with What Else Is There. It’s harder to compare with their debut, Melody A.M. (2001), as it had the main competitive advantage, the charm of new. Junior is stylistically somewhere in-between the two. The “airiness” and lightness (which the second album lacked) is back, and the density (not present on the first album) added.

This is a great masterful shoot with featurings too. Not uncommon for Royksopp Anneli Dreker. Karin Dreijer on This Must Be It - as always easy to recognize, a bit sickly vocals on the poppy disco-trance canvas. She also appears on Tricky Tricky. If Dreijer is basically Royksopp’s “business card”, then Lykke Li (on Miss It So Much and Were You Ever Wanted) and Robyn are more like fashion appearances. Though not just for the fashion’s sake at all. Robyn’s featuring on The Girl And The Robot is simply perfect and, I’ll say it again, the song itself is fantastic. Immersing into the deep and gloomy, a speedy electro rhythm, very dancefloor-friendly and piercing vocals of Robyn. One of the best tracks of the season - so far. Hard not to mention the first single, Happy Up Here - it reminds of Royksopp’s debut album. Here, from the very first seconds, rises the infantly electronic popcorn - exactly what these guys can make. The track itself if not primitive, it’s masterfully constructed of small parts, quite a few of them - but it’s not heavyweight, the whole sound remains light and balanced.

All in all, you can’t get away from a very familiar French taste - here and there it’s a distinct Air sound, especially visible on Royksopp Forever, Vision One, Miss It So Much - that is, on slower tracks. The flexibility of music lines and lightness are there. Faster and slower parts of the album are very well connected, they sort of flow into each other and are supported by the general atmosphere. Junior is a very strong album, it’s like a night sky - with lots of constellations and one or two brightest stars - beautiful separately and inside the whole sky.

Read & Listen:
Official website
Happy Up Here video
Royksopp - The Girl and the Robot (stream)

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Metric - Fantasies

Metric - Fantasies
[Self-Released, 2009]

Metric was formed in 1998 in New York, then moved to Toronto, Canada. And the music for Fantasies album was written in Buenos Aires. Emily Heins (just in case, Broken Social Scene) says it was good to write in a new place, where she didn’t know anyone. The album is supposed to kind of open a new page in her life, or at least, be a reflection of her inner paralysis and fear (such moments do happen in life). All in all, a highly contextual album… One of the first songs she wrote, the first on the tracklist, and a single for the album is Help I’m Alive. The rhythm of a heartbeat and lyrics to match:

I tremble, they’re gonna eat me alive
If I stumble, they’re gonna eat me alive…
Help, I’m alive
My heart keeps beating like a hammer

The album, by the way, is starting to get negative feedback in blogosphere. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s going to be receive reviews like “nothing new” and “uninteresting”, but somehow I really liked it. Maybe it’s the mood/state you’re in for it - again, the context.

Frisky guitar indie-rock, sticky melodies and a tender female voice on top. The vocals sometimes reminds of the Cardigans’ Nina Persson, sometimes of Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O - something in-between, and thus original. Sick Muse and Gimme Sympathy are probably two of the most memorable songs. Twilight Galaxy is a slow electronic interlude, almost dreamy, but right after it comes Gold Guns Girls with guitars gaining new strength. Gimme Sympathy, again, with catchy lyrics and the “question of questions”:

After all this is gone
Who’d you rather be,
The Beatles or the Rolling Stones?

(Their own answer is following right after:

Come on baby, play me something
Like Here comes the su
n)

Emily Heins and James Shaw (with the rest of the band, of course) have made a truly seamless album. Not boring, not overly high-voltage. The vocals are counterbalanced by the guitars, the rhythms is dynamic - however, not too fast-forward. Altogether, Fantasies is good both for fast driving and slow walking in an urban landscape. “Is it ever gonna be enough?” (from Gold Guns Girls) Not sure yet, probably, I’ll get enough of it, but for now, that’s just what’s good to listen to, “more and more”…

P.S. Acoustic version of Help I’m Alive is an inspiration too. Can be downloaded if you tell them your email at ilovemetric.com

Gimme Sympathy
Gimme Sympathy

Read & Listen:
Official website
Myspace
Full album stream at Spin

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Metric - Help I’m Alive

Help I’m Alive by Metric is the song of the day for me, probably, like the whole album. I’ll write about the album sometime later, for now, here’s Emily Haines on the song and creative process:

Read & Listen:
Metric website
Help I’m Alive mp3

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Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It’s Blitz!

Sorry, this entry is only available in Russian.

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Science Fiction Jazz Vol. 11

Sorry, this entry is only available in Russian.

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Diplo - Decent Work For Decent Pay

Sorry, this entry is only available in Russian.

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Morrissey - Years of Refusal

Sorry, this entry is only available in Russian.

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Franz Ferdinand - Tonight

This one and probably a couple of following posts will be in Russian only - these are copies from the magazine reviews that I’ve been writing recently…

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Moderat - Moderat

Moderat - Moderat
[Bpitch Control, 2009]

Moderat is not only the combination of names (Apparat+Modeselektor), but also, probably the best that comes from their music. Sascha Ring together with Gerton Bronsert and Sebastian Szary bring electronic thorns and polished metallic parts in their new self-titled album. A perfect soundtrack for seasons when you don’t really want no deep dub rhythms, or tracks loaded with vocals, or complicated arrangements. Just naked structures and nothing else. This minimalism in music always makes you feel the architecture of it.

Not the first collaboration, the album brought the three guys to a legendary Berlin studio about a year ago, in spring 2009, with vintage analogue instruments from the 70th - they were bought from auctions and specially restored for recording the album. Special toys for special experiments.

Rusty Nails is a definite favorite - with Sascha’s vocals, mechanically working beats and the flow of the main melody. A mostly instrumental album has several vocal tracks - with Delle, Paul St. Hilaire and Busdriver (apart from Sascha Ring). A visible minimum of means with the maximum depth of expression.

Read & Listen:
Myspace
Moderat on Last.FM

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A Shoreline Dream - Recollections Of Memory

A Shoreline Dream - Recollections of Memory
[Latenight Weeknight, 2009]

Beautiful shoegaze, melodic psych pop - A Shoreline Dream call themselves “melodipsych rockers” - hard to categorize, as always, fine music. Once gotten to your ears, it quickly, like a tender gimlet, makes its way straight to your heart. The sophomore album is a combination of oldschool “dirty” sound of My Bloody Valentine and melodic mastery of Ulrich Schnauss - he is present, by the way, on three songs of the album. neverChanger EP, recorded with this German music magician, is one of my personal favorites of the season. Honey-dripping, watercolory song with guitar blades. The first ASD’s album was self-released by the band, and for the second they already started a label, Latenight Weeknight Records - had to put a house on the line on the way to the dream - luckily, it did come true.

Speaking of the music on Recollections of Memory, the shoegaze background doesn’t interfere with the melodic side: each track is very expressive and atmospheric, the main theme does not get lost in the retouch, and the main paintbrush strokes stay vivid. The guitarist/singer Ryan Policky’s vocal is manly but soft, a bit drowned in the instruments (like it should be considering the genre), and the sharp edges of the guitars are leveled with his voice - which only adds to the rock feeling of the music.

Hypermode

Read & Listen:
Official website
A Shoreline Dream Myspace

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