Sbarro, Intelligence, Ekkehard Ehlers and Paul Wirkus

Man, I am getting pretty bored of writing about music lately. Music is still cool…I think, but writing about it just isn’t happening for me lately. I decided that, regardless of how brief, I am just going to start nodding at the albums I am listening to that are “post-worthy” and keep the frivolous opinions and to a bare minimum. I guess the logic is this: when I visit a music blog/website am I reading much? Not really. If you are different and actually find reading my poorly constructed critiques and praises of interest then, by all means, let me know. Otherwise, just know that what I’m posting about I’m really digging and that it is worth investigating. That said here are a few mainstays of the last month or more.

Sbarro
Floating
(2009, Smooth Tapes)
RIYL = Caboladies, Axolotl, Infinity Window

More sickness from Smooth Tapes cassette label. I believe this is a Caboladies side project and if you read my review of Constellation Deformity you know that I am absolutely smitten with those guys. My favourite avant/experimental/drone type bliss I’ve heard in a good long while. Anywho, Sbarro bust it out similarly with two sides of glib anti-bliss blissfulness. It’s a contradictory weirdness that ends up just being plain ridiculawesome. I almost love it as Constellation Deformity…almost. Smooth Tapes hittin' home runs all over the place.

Check out Sbarro on the Smooth Tapes MySpace page

The Intelligence
Fake Surfers
(2009, In The Red)
RIYL = Liars, Bird Names, Starlight Mints

The other day Sassi and I were rocking the iPod on shuffle and playing “name that band”. Well, a song from Fake Surfers came on and I erroneously guessed “The Starlight Mints.” Bad guess, I know. Or was it? I reviewed Crepuscule With Pacman earlier this year and Fake Surfers marks an additional year-end-list rankable album for the experimental lo-fi pop/indie rock troupe. Of the two, Fake Surfers just edges out Crepuscule as the go to Intelligence album of 2009…heh, “Intelligence album of 2009!” I’m an idiot. These guys are sick though. Screw Wavves and all that publicity break down ridiculousness – The Intelligence is where it is really at when it comes to arty pop with a no wave edge.

Intelligence on MySpace

Ekkehard Ehlers & Paul Wirkus
Ballads
(2009, Staubgold)
RIYL = Alan Licht & Aki Onda, Jan Jelinek

I am always happy whenever a new project from experimental guitarist/electronics mastermind, Ekkehard Ehlers, drifts my way. Always happy. And even though I have never heard of Paul Wirkus before (apparently he is a drummer or something) I am equally happy with his involvement. The reason being, Ballads just may be my favourite Ehlers release to date. Ehlers and Wirkus just attack everything with oceans of depth. I don’t know what type of drumming Wirkus does but he is obviously an all-around apt experimentalist because Ballads is mostly alien electronics and mostly not ballads – at least in the traditional sense. No, scratch that, not even ballads in the distorted sense. Lots of ebbing and friction and gloating, water-bowl tones and engines and lo-fidelity bells mixed with high end shrapnel in slow motion. And probably elephants. Love this stuff. One of my favourites this year.

Stream Ballads on Boomkat

-Thistle

Caboladies - Constellation Deformity

Caboladies
Constellation Deformity
(2009, Smooth Tapes)
RIYL = Oneohtrix Point Never, Axolotl, Vibracathedral Orchestra

Oh Caboladies, why have I not heard of you before now? Perhaps it’s your extremely limited runs that seem to only be available on CDRs and cassettes that has kept you from my ears. I’ve somehow known about you though. It seems that in these last couple of years in which you’ve been developing - sprouting effervescent leaves of alien beauty - I’ve had this gut feeling that something of your ilk was blooming and maturing somewhere out there; like this missing link in the world of underground ambience that just had to be. Someone had to be making this music and I knew that if I kept my ear to the ground long enough, eventually you’d stroll by and like those clichéd moments of love at first sight, we’d lock eyes, coyly look away and then in a more intense manner, reassert our gaze towards one another, confirming our wordless attraction for one another. The greeting would be awkward, sure. You are simply awkward in nature, and, well, so am I. But we’d stumble through those moments with the driving force of sheer excitement and unbridled enthusiasm for what was always mean to be: a wide-eyed boy and thick layer of Caboladies knifed onto two sides of a cassette. At least that is how I wrote it in my journal. “What is Caboladies?” you (the reader) might ask. Well, I really have no idea. As far as words go, Caboladies is simply nonexistent (right Dictionary.com?), but in the context of this band, Caboladies is a group concerned with creating layers of chirping, chiming, bubbling tones that are overwhelmingly powerful, overwhelmingly odd and overwhelmingly beautiful all at the same time. On this specific cassette, the title says it all. Constellation Deformity is certainly what this is. It is astral projections deformed into an internal catharsis and then regurgitated into a spacious blend of melodic weirdness that should probably be weirder than it is, but turns out being gorgeous and enlightening. I try not to do this so much, and especially after so clearly hyping that Burial + Four Tet 12”, but Caboladies are likewise in the running for album of the year. If Caboladies have one thing on the formerly mentioned all-star 12”, it’s a fresh face and a fresh sound. I am digging this in a HUGE way. A+++++++++++.

-Thistle

Caboladies on MySpace