Interpol - Interpol
Interpol - Interpol
[Matador, 2010]
The fourth album in NYC’s Interpol discography became a self-titled one. There was talk about returning to the debut, but Paul Banks dismissed it, saying that the album will have “elegant, orchestral quality” and “some really classical stuff”.
The album is of a gently kind. There’s as if more space and air than there was in the preceding Our Love To Admire (2007).
On Summer Well the music shakes off the remains of the sleep and starts to get pumping. Just in time - the following track is the album highlight, Lights. Upbeat, with a hint of the ’70s art rock, but less pretentious and with more focus on melodies. Barricades shows some raw sounds, without much noise in it, but with a forward rhythm section, after which Always Malaise (The Man I Am) the guitars give way to beautiful keyboards and everything drowns in slow and somewhat sad beauty. All Of The Ways in a while catches up the slow tempo, adding transparency to the album.
Stylistically Interpol is a step forward compared to its predecessor. The 2007 album was more “about noise”, here its about keeping you involved and in-the-mood throughout the whole album. There’s the post-punk meat to it, and at the same time your ears aren’t overloaded with noise, but pick up the narrative part of it. You follow the story of the album and the change from the beat to the slow, from the raw indie rock to the compliments towards shoegaze and dream pop, in the middle and towards the end of the album.
Read & Listen:
Interpol Myspace
Fredator is five Finnish guys in suits and neckties, playing jazz. Eight tracks lasting for 3/4 of an hour make Bad Jazz album. The name is quite untrue, as this jazz is really exquisite and good. Music rooted in the ’50s and sounding ever as fresh and fun today. Jussi Fredriksson is the main hero and the composer in Fredator, and he is to blame for transforming dull reality in a colorful weekend and celebration of life.
It’s been three years since we heard from these Seattle indie kids, Math and Physics Club. And here it is, their new album I Shouldn’t Look As Good As I Do, where everything, from cover image to songs (and album) titles screams indie pop!
When it gets hot outside, the need for a cooler, night music grows. Max Richter is by far the best soundtrack for making the summer heat stop and meditate about the eternal things to piano chords in minor.
Gravitoni is literally the latest and possibly the last work of the Finnish duo Pan Sonic. lpo Väisänen and Mika Vainio decided to close (or at least freeze) what has been one of the best experimental electronic project of the past two decades. The classic Pan Sonic sound is of abrasive, harsh and inedible nature. This metallic cold and massive presence of non-organic structures in music makes a great impact on summer heat, letting your melting brain get back to a thinking mode. Static electricity is transmitted into your biological organism and lets it better cooperate with equipment - from computers to toasters. If you’re not going on vacation to the sea, for chill-out relax, Pan Sonic is exactly what a modern-day robot of the office environment needs.
If the roots of music are in the ancient human instints towards noise and reaction to it, then the new M.I.A. album appeals to the primal in us. She grew in agression and “non-music” sounds. Metal-loaded thunder, with music derived from unpleasant at first sight noises.
Matthew Herbert is a recognized experimenter with sound. Music, harmonies and mood are not enough, that’s why in each album he releases there are additional layers of interpretation and meaning. He makes you not only listen to music, but to focus, single-task,… think, after all. He already used sounds of chicken farm, industrial processes, human sounds, music recorded at a substantial height or underground as deep layers. His current album, One One, is the first volume of a trilogy and should represent a day in the life of… The following albums will be One Pig (sounds sampled from one pig) and One Club (noise of a club crowd). The tracks on One One are named after places – from Valencia to Tokyo, from Manchester to Milan. The geography is pretty wide, so are the patterns used in music. Herbert prefers to paint his soundscapes with a few strokes. You only see general, brighter lines at first, guessing the silhouettes. And then you start looking into a seemingly monochrome grey background, where you find the subtlety of lines and the artist’s mastery.
ceo is Eric Berglund, one half of the Swedish duo The Tough Alliance and founders of Sincerely Yours label. His solo album, “White Magic”, is mostly built on great melodies, memorable as they are and with characteristic features of TTA – like a radio-effect on the background of the main sound and recognizable vocals. The brightest song, Come With Me (also a single), is located towards the end of the album, but I never wanted to fast-forward to it, listening from the first sounds of the opening All Around, for almost 30 minutes of the album.
The Swedish superstar that went from indie to pop status, Robyn showed high class, again, in mass entertainment, bringing electronics to life. Body Talk has an extension, Pt. 1, with two more parts expected to be released later this year.