Four Tet - There Is Love in You

Four Tet
There Is Love in You
(2010, Domino)
RIYL = Burial, Pole, Pantha du Prince

It doesn’t take long when listening to There Is Love in You, Kieren Hebden’s fifth Four Tet album and first in half a decade, to recognize that things have changed. Of course, how couldn’t things have changed? The past five years have seen his Four Tet moniker remixing everyone from Radiohead to Bloc Party to Madvillain, Hebden performing live and recording with legendary jazz drummer Steve Reid, and the completion of a stint as resident DJ for London club Plastic People. And that’s the short list. Still, after only two tracks and fifteen minutes have passed on his latest LP, the changes seem almost shocking in their distance from the Four Tet of old. Gone are the ‘organic’ sounds of the past, the folktronica (which, admittedly, have been on their way out for some time), gone are the hip-hop informed break beats, and what we have left is a classic minimalist house/techno rhythm with splices of female vocals whose quality and timbre feel as though they’ve been jacked from an electronic album released in the early to mid nineties. An evolution has been had. But, again, this is only the first two tracks, the first fifteen minutes. As the changes start to settle, Hebden proceeds to exhibit a world of influences he has consumed and regurgitated in purely Four Tet fashion. The depth and variety of sounds and moods that Hebden achieves on the album is nothing short of astounding, and his consistency in terms of quality is the evidence of a master at work. Hebden’s latest Four Tet album is also his best, and is easily one of this writer’s favourite pure electronic albums, period. Listening to this album, it is much easier to understand of the influence and contributions of Hebden in his collaboration with Burial from last years 12”. And, for those who were as keen on that majestic slab of wax as I was, There Is Love in You will not disappoint. With the new Pantha du Prince just around the corner, minimalist electronic music is driving an early trend setting stake in the music world for 2010.

-Thistle

91.

Manitoba (Caribou)
Up In Flames
(Domino, 2003)

It is still weird to me to see the reissue of Up In Flames with Caribou as the artist moniker. I guess that is why I've posted this image. However, whether Dan Snaith is calling himself Manitoba or Caribou, Up In Flames is his psych pop masterpiece. Equal parts Elephant 6, Four Tet and (at the very least in terms of sound quality) Dungen, Up In Flames contains psychic percussion mixed with flurries of synthisized goodness, all on top of Snaith's smoothly reverberated vocals. It is a lovely mix.

-Thistle

Jon Hopkins - Insides

Jon Hopkins
Insides
(2009, Domino)
RIYL = DoF, Pantha du Prince, Four Tet

Every once in awhile, usually a long, long while, I am lucky enough to experience a certain type of album, an extra-ordinary piece that “clicks” with me so much that (and maybe you’ve had this happen to you… or maybe I’m crazy) on first listen, I feel like I’ve heard it somewhere, sometime in the past or in a dream, a place I can’t quite spot. Not, you know, “Oh, this Jet song sounds just like the Beatles,” or, “Oh, this Jet song sounds just like Iggy Pop,” or, “Oh, this Jet song sounds just like the Rolling Stones.” More like, “This music is the fulfillment of something that my life, my hippocampal experience, has been moving towards for years. This album was composed in my mind, all the clicks and clacks, instrumentation, white noise, harmonies and chord structures, and then folded up, tucked in an envelope, and stashed under a rug in the front room of some cortical fold, only to be recalled if certain choices were made, certain turns were taken; the right cards played, the right events played out.” And, as you might know or can certainly imagine, this is a freaking sweet experience. It’s illuminating. Poignant moments, maybe even ones imagined, are replayed in the mind’s eye; flashbulb emotions thought to be extinct show up in full force. The music becomes transcendent: it is felt, seen, sometimes even tasted as it pumps through headphones, and all as I’m only beginning to become familiar with it. It’s like receiving an album pre-programmed with all the associations that we generally attach only after years of meaningful, memory-creating listening. It’s awesome.

Insides is one these albums for me. It is the embodiment of a dream album, a gorgeous, perfectly crafted piece that has been playing—unbeknownst to me—in my mind for some time now. It’s been almost five years since Jon Hopkins’s last release, and, truly, the new album is worth the wait. I won’t bother you listing all the things Hopkins has been doing over those five years (producing, composing for modern dance shows, scoring films, blah blah blah), but know that he is a busy man and he is blowing up—and not on an esoteric-music blog scale, on an international, multi-disciplinary scale. It’s a recognition that is well deserved. The songs on Insides accomplish a flawless mix of diverse electronic sub-genres, maintaining complete and total cohesion as an album. There are prominent elements of minimalism and ambience, but also moments of dubstep force, glitch anxiety and fervent, swelling strings. There is a very complete range of styles hinted at, but no one is ever unleashed to the point of pastiche; the album, despite all its ambition and grandeur, is a triumph of restraint, control, and technical finesse. Insides is a moving, arresting work, an out-and-out beautiful, successful, great album.

—Mantis

The Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca

Dirty Projectors
Bitte Orca
(06.2009, Domino)
Verdict = Merriweather Post Pavilion is 2009’s only other album of this caliber

Bitte Orca is a prophet, an eight-foot tall shining wet black killer with a shoulder-mounted grenade launcher in one fin and a colonial cannon in the other, and it is screaming its unusual song and it sounds like triumph, like a realization, an actualization, and this whale is a machine, a beast, muscle built on muscle, taught with restraint and bearing all the explosiveness of nature, all the finesse and efficiency of a torpedo, and yes, the blasts do come, and this uncommon thing is huge, this thing has a center of gravity, it’s brimming with dynamism and craft, and its white teeth gleam and they have points like razors, real atom-smashers, and in it are past and present and future, and in it are grace and peace and in it are power and violence; it will make you swoon and make you smile and the glow of its being will warm the darkest corners of your soul; it will sit you down and break your heart and make you think about that and think about that again; it will snap with freight train force and bowl you over, bend you to fit its curve, challenge you, drop destroyers on your head; this creature has been to the summit, it has stood atop vistas and looked out over kingdom and culture and specie, and it has done its note-taking; this creature has english and deutsch and mbaqanga and alchemy, this creature is the desert and the sea, the mountains and the moon, this creation, this revelation, this thing is beautiful, and it is on a mission and it is well-equipped and well-traveled and well-learned and it is determined and it is coming for you, coming to shed some light, coming to demolish, coming to jubilate, coming to take you away.

– Braying Mantis

Stream of Bitte Orca on NPR

Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion

Animal Collective
Merriweather Post Pavilion
(01.2009, Domino)
Verdict = The greatest working band alive

Remember how Feels was Animal Collective’s “pop” album? And then Strawberry Jam was AC’s “pop” album? And now Merriweather Post Pavilion. I think it is about time that we recognize that Animal Collective have always made “pop” music, granted their version of pop music is decidedly, um…how to put this – unique. It’s by no means the type of pop music you’ll find buddying up to Britney Spears any time soon. However, yes, of course it’s pop. I don’t know if the band has really become that much more accessible either. I just think that the general indie public has become more accustomed to AC’s idiosyncrasies over time and therefore increasingly accepting of their particular brand of mutant pop. It’s not just that though. It seems that ever since the success and utter genius of Sung Tongs, little Animal Collectivisms have permeated the landscape of modern pop, stretching it to its outer most bounds. Even so, Animal Collective is a singular beast that will never be duplicated. The only other active band that I am aware of who have maintained such a high level of creative output over such a long period of time is Radiohead. And so it is that we here at (the appropriately named) Forest Gospel have drooled incessantly over the news of this most recent and definitely most hyped Animal Collective album the band has ever released. I would like to note that my ears remained virgin to any Animal Collective sound attributed to MPP until the needle of my turntable properly touched down on the delicious 2LP I purchased yesterday. That means, for better or worse, that no leaked singles or Christmas rips once caught my ears to prepare me for the ensuing rapture. Rapture indeed! Not that we didn’t already know, but it bears stating that we here at Forest Gospel (most likely unanimously) agree that Animal Collective is most definitely the greatest working band in all of music today if not in the last twenty years. That’s right, bring on the backlash because there is nothing that can dissuade me from this sentiment. The thing I don’t understand is those people I see posting on message boards and what not that are all: “I don’t get Animal Collective, there is just no melody” or “it just sounds like noise to me” or “how can people even call this music.” I’ve seen quite a few likeminded comments lately and all I can think to myself is that these people have absolutely no idea what music is if they can’t hear the melodies, harmonies, time signatures and appreciate the utter magnificence that comes to bare in Animal Collective’s song structures. I realize that I am starting to come off like a belligerent fanboy, but seriously, it doesn’t make any sense. This is pop music people, it’s not that difficult. Anyway [soapbox descended], MPP: this thing has already been and will for a long time in the future be dissected song by song and instrument by instrument within said songs; so I’ll be relatively brief and properly incoherent. It’s like: shazam – bass! And: move over Beach Boys, Animal Collective is vocal harmonies. Or: was that a Person Pitch b-side with unicorns shooting rainbow lasers out of their ears? And also: welcome back vocal effects, we’ve missed you. Plus: Avey Bear and Panda Tare are great, aren’t they? Conclusion: Animal Collective sure know what the kids like, AKA, metaphysical Navaho raves must be something like this. Anyway, it’s just going to be hard to focus for the rest of 2009 knowing that I’ve already heard the best album of the year and we’re only 7 days in. I guess that’s what you get with a “9.6.”

-Mr. Thistle

"My Girls" live at Coachella 08'

Juana Molina - Un Dia

Juana Molina
Un Dia
(10.2008, Domino)
Verdict = Looping pedals are fun! (AKA - I don't know what to write)

On first listen, Un Dia has a deceptively light, airy feel that can give the impression of music that’s meant to be leisurely, however, a closer listen will reveal a depth that is near unrivalled in both its composition and strength. Molina has long been developing a sound that is all her own and with Un Dia she pushes it into even further. Continuing to rely more and more heavily on loop pedals, on Un Dia Molina has crafted a hypnotic barrage of overlapping vocal chants, field recordings, acoustic guitars and electronics. The slow building repetition combined with Molina’s effortless touch is undoubtedly entrancing, but larger rewards are lurking in the details with subtle melodic shifts and brief instrumental appearances emerging under the flow of the loops. With only eight tracks this time around, Molina has dropped standard song structure in favor of a more organic, meandering feel on the album. Lyrically, everything is still undecipherable to me. Despite the fact that I am in my third semester of Spanish at the University of Utah, the only apparent meaning in Molina’s songs are achieved in terms of vocal melodies. Though I have my inadequacies in translation, I get the impression that most of the lyrics would probably be difficult to decipher even in Molina’s native Argentina. She definitely relies on her layered vocals as an integral instrument in her compositions so there is no loss for those who ‘no habla espanol’. Un Dia is pretty seamless throughout, containing consistently enchanting moments that beg for repeat listens. Don’t be surprised when you see this album popping up again at the year’s end.

-Mr. Thistle

Juana Molina - "UnDia"

The Notwist - The Devil, You + Me

The Notwist
The Devil, You + Me
(06.08, Domino)
Verdict: Welcome back

Remember that great German indie rock meets gorgeous electronica album; Neon Golden? Yes, we all liked it. Well, now you can blow the electronic dust off your iTunes catalogue to prep yourself for a great follow up. The Notwist’s long awaited release entitled The Devil, You + Me picks up where Neon Golden stopped six years ago and begs the listener’s ear to pay more attention to the subtle genius that made us fall in love with Neon Golden. It is catchy and rhythmic and pretty as ever. The tasteful mixture of electronic and orchestral paints a canvas of dark foreboding colors like a good William Turner. The songs (there are eleven) aren’t based on many peaks and valleys. Singer Markus Acher keeps a poker face throughout that feels like a good friend talking softly through the telephone. He doesn’t call a lot of attention to himself rather he compliments his surroundings and lets the chips fall where they may. I suppose what I mean to say is that they are catchy not because of his vocals. The songs bounce around in your head because of the instrumentation. The title track may be my personal favorite, but that is a quick judgment and could easily change over time. It sounds like a song that Wilco should have made. I also found the track “Alphabet” really interesting. Markus sings “I won’t sing you algebra, I won’t sing anything” over some really awesome drum samples and sleigh bells. And the main groove on “On Planet Off” reminds me of a Dust Brothers background. Every track has something special to offer and forms a very polished and complete whole. The Notwist is has given us all another invitation to fall back in love with them.

-King Cotton

The Notwist - "Good Lies"

Robert Wyatt - Comicopera

Robert Wyatt
Comicorpera
(10.2007, Domino)
Verdict = Interesting but not fully satisfying.

Robert Wyatt is one of those enigmatic, overly productive and oddly enduring figures in the rock community that can be absolutely daunting to engage. When your solo discography starts in 1970 and moves forward steadily from thereon to the present, you’re bound to encounter those problems. This happened to me earlier in 2007 with Vic Chesnutt. Well, again, bowing to the forefathers of indie songwriting, I have taken my first step into the weird world of Robert Wyatt. Comicorpera is his umpteenth record (I’m not going to bother myself with release stats) and is quaint oddity to be sure (as I understand the majority of his releases are). Wyatt has an outsider voice similar to Scott Walker and on Comicorpera drifts (no Scott walker pun intended) jazzily through an array of difficult peaks and morose valleys. The whole of the record is oddly claustrophobic but still ekes out slithering, entrancing beauty. However, to these ears, even though admittedly enjoyable and of its fare share of redeeming value, the album just seems to chug along a bit too slowly and is too tiring. In small doses though, Wyatt can lay down some shazam!

- Mr. Thistle

Robert Wyatt on Mypace

Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam

Animal Collective
Strawberry Jam
(09.2007, Domino)
9.5/10

Worst album art they've ever had! Now that's out of the way- Strawberry Jam is the first four tracks of Feels with a bit less revirbing dream scape and a lot more melody. Strawberry Jam is all about melody throughout, somethings that Animal Collective usually only pays attention to on a handful of openers.The backwash of lulling noise is also paired down. Strawberry Jam is rowdier, more robust, and absolutely full to the brim with exploding layers of sound. This is the most accessible album we've seen from them. Avey's vocals have also transformed, or a least just seem to be more forced. On older albums his vocals seemed to have a greater range, now its pushed all the time with the occasional bursts of screaming that we have all come to adore so much. The lyrics are fresh. Avey appears to have written whatever was on his mind, there is no pretense there. Strawberry Jam is as creative as it gets, but I definitely miss having a long drawn out drone builder somewhere in the middle of the album, which made older releases feel a bit like soundtracks. Strawberry Jam is a solid record. The first time I heard some of these tracks (when they played In The Venue this summer) I wasn't so sure about the dance music infused pop melody contortions I was hearing. Listening to the recorded album was an instant hit though, and maybe that is what is missing in this release. All the tracks are hit tracks (thank goodness for "#1"), there is a lot of movement but it never seems to dip low into the piecing tracks, and although I love the new direction and I definitely love Strawberry Jam, I must admit I am a little worried that if they keep up the direction they are headed in they may just loose those special little things about them and become overplayed psych-pop. I highly doubt it, but I can't help but worry that the magic will fade with each "more accessible" release. 2007 is the year of AC, with Avey and Panda releasing acclaimed albums, The People EP rocking my world and another EP due out before year end, you would think one would get sick of the band, but it seems impossible when in so many people's eyes, including my own, Animal Collective can virtually do no wrong. Listening to them is a revelatory experience and Strawberry Jam is no exception, even though it isn't quite as wonderfully diverse as past releases.

-Sassigrass

Adem - Love and Other Planets

Adem
Love and Other Planets
(2006, Domino)
8.5/10

Love and Other Planets is the sophomore solo release of Fridge band member, Adem. On this album Adem takes the generally somber beauty of Homesongs and expands them into some more optimistic territory. The songs maintain the intimate delicacy that made Adem’s debut so entrancing and add many subtle instrumental embellishments. With hand claps, percussive vocals and odd clicks and bells, Adem creates something unique among most acoustic guitar based folk: strong songs with plenty of ear candy to keep you occupied. British by origin, Adem’s voice hints at his motherland but never pushes into novelty or annoyance for those not under British rule. One of the most enjoyable parts of Adem’s brand of introspective folk is that he is believable. His sincerity is paramount, there is no pretence here. Top ten of 2006.

-Mr. Thistle