Silent Land time Machine - & Hope Still

Silent Land Time Machine
&Hope Still
(2008, Time-Lag/Indian Queen)
File under = Experimental chamber folk

Attention artists: packaging is important. The visual images and materials you choose to associate with your music can be paramount to the attitude of your listeners when deciding whether to buy or even listen to what you have created. Sure, the internet has provided a powerful argument suggesting the downfall of physical packaging. To me it is just wake up call to artists and labels alike: step it up! (but not like the movie of the same name.) I would like to provide you with two contrasting examples. First, Kurt Weisman. Weisman’s debut solo album, Spiritual Sci-Fi, is without a doubt my favourite singer-songwriter album of the year and will most certainly be on my top ten list next week when we post our year ends for 2008. The cover of Spiritual Sci-Fi; however, is terrible. Like, laughably terrible. I apologize to Weisman if there is some personal resonance associated with the illustration that dawns the cover of his record, but seriously, it is humorous at the most. So terrible is this album art that, despite my consistent and unequivocal ravings concerning the genius of the record, Sassigrass (my FG cohort/spouse) will not touch the thing with a twelve foot poll. I’m not sure if she listened to it that she would like it as much as me, but now she will never even have the chance because she can’t get over that ridiculous cover. Now for my second example and true subject of this review, Silent Land Time Machine’s &Hope Still. This album was sent to me by the wonderful folks at Indian Queen who co-opted with Time-Lag on the packaging and it is stunning. Here at FG we receive a fair amount of promos. Some more visually attractive than others, but none that have held my attention so singularly as &Hope Still. I simply had to hear what kind of music could be associated with the luxurious cotton sleeve folded inside a sepia-toned outer cardstock fold filled with various abstracted images. I could go into more detail, but I don’t have the packaging on hand as I’m writing this (at my other job that actually pays real money). Suffice it to say that it was the quickest that I have ever desired to listen to a promo and the most excited as well. I guess the second thing to announce to artists is this: make good music. Novel, huh? Well, fortunately for me, the packaging of &Hope Still was an absolute spot on visual/physical introduction to the music of Silent Land Time Machine. &Hope Still is all shades sepia via sound. Built on layers of acoustic instrumentation combined with various audio ghosts and samples, Silent Land Time Machine is a chamber folk orchestra of beautiful construction. Similarly wonderful, is the fact that this “orchestra” has been constructed with only two hands. It is another nod to an era filled with individual artists achieving wonderful ends by their own unique vision. &Hope Still is a vigorous, winding adventure, a ghostly post-rock mystery and a wonderful summer day wrapped into one beautiful package; one most definitely worth obtaining a physical copy of!

-Mr. Thistle

Silent Land Time Machine on Myspace

Alan Licht & Aki Onda - Everdays

Alan Licht & Aki Onda
Everydays
(05.2008, Family Vineyard)
File Under = albums by Alan Licht & Aki Onda titled Everydays

I did this last year as well I think. That is: tried to sneak in reviews of everything I’d left unremarked before the year-end listing came to a head. And in regards to Everydays particular, it has been a grave sin to keep it to myself. You can’t blame me totally, despite its title, Alan Licht and Akie Onda have created something that you don’t hear everyday – I don’t care who you are. Everydays isn’t the type of album you can pigeon hole. Only the broadest terms can be used to blanket the ideas of Everydays. So, using those tools, Everydays is first art, second music (this could probably be argued) and third experimental. After that you would probably have to follow this thing minute by minute to try and pin it down. Everydays is noise, drone, found sound, post rock, instrumental folk, jazz, electronic, avant-garde, doom, pfft – I don’t know. Everydays is everything, but it is also nothing like anything. Everydays is within itself an artistic statement of epic proportions. In fact, this is ridiculous because I just said that Everydays is “nothing like anything,” but it is probably most similar in my mind to The Kallikak Family’s May 23rd, 2007. Just so you are aware, I think that that Kallikak Family album is probably my favourite record, period. What the albums share is a narrative quality combined with an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach (though I wouldn’t be surprised of a kitchen sink was actually used in the recording) that is actually cohesive. As far as narrative goes, I really have no idea what Everdays is supposed to convey, but if you asked me to imagine a story to go along with the sounds it would no doubt be amazing. Well, how about if you asked someone who could actually write. I think a little bit of Faulkner mixed with Lewis Carol would be fitting. Alan Licht and Aki Onda have created a massively creative tour de force here that must be experienced from beginning to end. It is surely one of the most incredible records I have heard this year and one that I would recommend to anyone looking for something utterly unique, oddly poignant and perpetually confounding.

-Mr. Thistle

Sample from Everydays - "Tip Toe"

Invincible - Shapeshifters

Invincible
Shapeshifters
(09.2008, Emergence)
Verdict = Best hip hop of 2008

Shapeshifters provides modern urban literature at its finest. Llana Weaver or Invincible as she has dubbed herself, acheives a sort of Woolfian androgyny that propels her work into a realm free of the patriarchal grips of a largely misogynistic art form. Stylistically, Invincible’s flow owes a lot to Talib Kweli in both tenor and speed and subject matter; however, lyrically she manages to top Kweli in both consistency and depth which speaks volumes about the weight of her lyrics because to call Kweli’s lyrics low in either of the afore mentioned categories is hip hop blasphemy. Shapeshifters is just that good. Invincible is invincible due in part to her approach. Rather that taking the road most easily traveled for emcees – speaking about themselves – Invincible addresses people, more specifically the people of Detroit. Detroit has long been the central scene of social dissolution, so it is only appropriate that Shapeshifters contain a sharp social critique. Invincible is the perfect voice to attack injustice from every aspect: class, sex, race, gender. It is an overwhelming discourse and the most amazing part is that Invincible manages the discussion without a hint of the peachiness that her topics inherently imply. Shapeshifters isn’t just lyrics though; the beats here underscore the aural mentality of the message. With production credits from Black Milk, Waajeed, LabTechs, House Shoes and Belief, Ivincible is in good hands. Each producer lays unassuming working class beats that find strength in their spare, classically urban air. I still don’t claim to have my finger on the pulse of hip hop, but this is definitely the best hip hop album I have heard this year and worth a listen for anyone looking for substantial content in their hip hop rather than the standard bells, whistles and fluff.

-Mr. Thistle

Fennesz - Black Sea

Fennesz
Black Sea
(11.2008, Touch)
Verdict = A Fennesz without borders

Don’t worry; you aren’t going to get any water comparisons here. It’s been referenced to death already. Yes, the last three Fennesz album covers have had images of water; yep, the new one is called Black Sea. We get it. Anyway, it’s just nice to hear from Mr. Fennesz again. The last time the world received a full length album from (Christian) Fennesz was 2004’s Venice, so when I caught news of Black Sea a couple months back I was most definitely excited. A little too excited, maybe. Almost surreal excited. From my view, Venice and its predecessor, Endless Summer, were pretty much the catalysts for the musical landscape of present day glitch and electro-acoustic composition. In only a few years the influence of those albums has blossomed into a market overflowing with every conceivable form of electronically manipulated acoustics imaginable. At least, it gave a place for such albums to be recognized in the wake of Fennesz’s accomplishments. Now, Fennesz hasn’t been silent in these intermittent years. Collaborations with Sakamoto have certainly kept him busy. But, something about a solo release just reeks of expectation. Well, I don’t plan to drag this out forever. Consider all expectations met. Black Sea is glorious. Fennesz’s distinguishing digital touch is intact and as lush and compelling as ever. As far as composition is concerned, Fennesz has removed all the fences. Instead of the tightly controlled, buzzing masterpieces of the past, Black Sea contains expansive, free roaming bliss-scapes. Yes, some water comparisons would fit quite nicely, but promises are promises. Suffice it to say that if you liked the Fennesz of the past, you’ll love Black Sea. It isn’t a carbon copy, which is part of the reason it succeeds. Black Sea takes the touchstones of Fennesz and stretches them to glorious new ends. Hopefully it won’t take another four years for Fennesz to set his magic to tape; however, if it does, Black Sea will definitely stand to fill the space inbetween.

-Mr. Thistle

Fennessz web site

Volcano! - Paperwork

Volcano!
Paperwork
(09.2008, Leaf Spain)
File Under = Baroque Post Punk

In some ways, writing about music is inherently limiting, at least in the current critical atmosphere. I just feel like I personally don’t have the tools with which to properly indentify and describe some music without inadvertently boxing it into some premade category that really does nothing to help you understand what it is that makes that particular band or artist worth investing some time in. Volcano! (yes, another exclamation point acting like a letter of the alphabet in an otherwise generic band name) is certainly one of those bands that set themselves up to be misunderstood. Not necessarily by those who listen to them. There is really no way to confuse the fact that you are listening to really awesome, original music when you hear it. But, from a critical or reviewerly standpoint, Volcano! Simply employ too many reference points and new ideas to come out of a 500 word puff piece with anything more than confusion or misunderstanding. With that said (or written), my intent is to convince you, the reader, on whatever false premises that I can, to listen to this record; because, while it may end up sounding nothing like what I have described, at least it will still be good. You can hear a little of Ted Leo in there, some of The Velvet Teen, a little indie jazz ala Extra Life or Skeletons, some Colormusic, maybe even some Mars Volta (!?), but to leave it at that would be to underwrite Paperwork by about a bajillion times. Volcano! Is of course their own band and with that many reference points that is usually the case. Paperwork is simply a workout; it’s super energetic, kind of theatrical, super baroque post punk/indie rock that is playful and muscular. Have I over-described it yet? Whether or not that is the case, I am going to leave it at that. There is no use right now. I’m too fried trying to finish studying for all my finals this week. Suffice it to say: Paperwork contains all the caffeine I’ll need to help me make it through the week.

-Mr. Thistle

Volcano! Myspace

Francois - Virot - Yes or No

Francois Virot
Yes or No
(09.2008, Frenetic)
Verdict = Sung Tongs-lite with added accessibility

What to say about Francois Virot? Um, he’s French…er, he plays guitar and, uh, sheesh, you know what? I really don't know a whole lot about Mr. Virot. From what I understand he also plays drums in some band or something, but really I don’t know. However, something I have come to find out is that his debut album, Yes or No, is awesome. What I know about you is that you’d like it if you heard it. Ok, I don’t know that for sure. In fact, I probably don’t even know you. But if you were me, yeah, you would love it because Francois Virot enjoys playing music and you can tell. I would too if I had songs like Virot’s. Yes or No is a relatively breezy affair that is instantly likable and insidiously addictive. Taking vocal cues from Thao Nguyen and Avey Tare, Virot’s vocal delivery holds a hook like nobody’s business as it warbles and transforms to fit every conceivable concoction he dreams up. The instrumentation is spare. Pretty much just an acoustic guitar, but that doesn’t mean that the songs are necessarily sparse. Virot layers his vocals and incorporates beautiful rhythms out of hand claps and beating on his guitar to fill each song. His repetitive acoustic strumming and distinctive vocal intonations, carries a sort of Sung Tongs-lite feel. It is just really great outsider pop and a truly satisfying listen. So, I don’t really know you Francois Virot. I mean, we’ve never really met or anything, but you’re pretty cool…we should be friends. Maybe on MySpace? Who wants to join me? http://www.myspace.com/francoisvirot

-Mr. Thistle

Francois Virot - "Not The One"

The Walkmen - You & Me

The Walkmen
You & Me
(08.2008, Gigantic)
Verdict = Classy and super solid

2008 is fading away fast and there are already a few year end lists upon us, so now is the time to tie up the loose ends and quickly post about albums that will most certainly be gracing my own year end list. This one is kind of unexpected. No doubt you have already heard of The Walkmen and their third album, You & Me. Of course you have, they’re pretty much an indie mainstay after Bows + Arrows. Well, I never listened to Bows + Arrows, or the follow up to that record for that matter. Yep, I’m a fresh faced bandwagoneer on The Walkmen and You & Me is the first thing of theirs that I’ve ever heard. Initially, I just listened to the record just to give myself a good survey of any album that received marginally positive reviews this year. You & Me has definitely received those. In fact, you’ve all probably heard it already, am I right? Well, I like to pretend I'm a humble fellow, and though my musical taste usually veers toward noisier, more abstract music, I think I can appreciate a well made, old fashioned indie record as well as anyone else. The Walkmen’s You & Me is a testament to that. What began as a cursory listen slowly grew into a marginal interest which then advanced into a genuine enjoyment and subsequently into a full blown appreciation for a superbly solid, intrinsically classy album. Turns out I love this album. It’s nothing I can describe aptly. I’m better equipped to champion records that sound like transmissions from outer-space. Yet, You & Me fits all too perfectly into my head, like the dusky soundtrack to a generally OK life. It is not that my life is really any different than any other, but You & Me is like the songs at the end of the movie that let you know that, despite the cringe worthy and stressfully depressive times, everything is going to be OK. This is the kind of album you want on vinyl. You know - the kind of album that is perfect all the way through. The kind of album that provides the perfect ambience to late night conversations and snowy days coupled with hot chocolate. I don’t know. Maybe that is just me. Anywho, thought I would just reveal my little hearts content with this one, because despite me adoration for difficult-to-pronounce audio oddities like Raccoo-oo-oon, Lau Nau and Kemialliset Ystavat, sometimes you just need something like You & Me to watch the flakes fall. So good.

-Mr. Thistle

Stream of You & Me

Raccoo-oo-oon - Raccoo-oo-oon

Raccoo-oo-oon
Raccoo-oo-oon
(11.2008, Night People/Not Not Fun)
Verdict = Earning their oo’s with an expansive swan song

2008 has been miraculous as any year of music in regards to exciting new tunes from fresh new faces and inventive musical genius from old torch bearers alike. However, despite all the standard pomp, there has been some casualties along the way that have been particularly devastating for me. As I mentioned in my review of Millipede’s Hyrule, experimental stalwarts, Yellow Swans and Wzt Hearts, both announced their respective dissolutions this year (though Yellow Swans have promised their last word in a release for 2009). No band can continue forever, and personally I wouldn’t want them to, but it is still sad to hear of bands bowing out in the midst of such wonderful output. Unfortunately, Raccoo-oo-oon, the eponymous noise rock troupe has added themselves to the list of glorious bands who went their separate ways in 2008. Wooly Mammal alerted me to this first in a somewhat bittersweet announcement of Raccoo-oo-oon’s most recent and final release. It is hard to reconcile the great excitement of a new full length Raccoo-oo-oon album with the fact that it will also be the last that we’ll ever hear. It has been a relatively brief, though richly fertile run for the band and the idea of this being their swan song brings with it some hefty baggage. The album contains seven untitled tracks, the first of which threatens, quite literally, to devour the whole of music released in 2008. After meandering unassumingly for about three or so minutes, the band locks into a primordial groove reminiscent of A Silver Mount Zion when they’re bearing their teeth, granted, Raccoo-oo-oon carry a few extra rows of teeth. It’s just ferocious. However, in the midst of their powerful fit of rage, the band members seem to become confused and disoriented on subsequent tracks like wild animals in the grips of some mortal wound. With gaping bloody holes Raccoo-oo-oon spends the remaining hour+ passing in and out of consciousness, staggering and hallucinating, amassing grizzly strength only to suffer its gory depletion in a harrowing scene of wide eyed grief and frenzied rage. It’s simultaneously exciting and bewildering. The band hasn’t pulled any punches here. Every raw ounce of energy has been summoned and funneled into these tracks and, for better or worse, they have filled every last second available on the disc. It is a hard album to eff with. You really have to know what you are getting into when you get started or you’ll probably get injured - mentally and physically. It is simply unpredictable. One moment the band is locked into a furious jam that seems fit to tear down the wall of China by sheer audio fervor alone and the next minute the group has wandered, each in opposite directions creating some incomprehensible instrumental jargon. At first I was elated, I mean that first track is just about the best thing the band has ever done, but then I was disappointed by the magnified disorder that directly followed it. My feelings continued to fluctuate after through that first listen, however, with a patient and open ear, and several repeat listens, I believe that Raccoo-oo-oon has done something brave here. The album is the emotive embodiment of the celebration and sorrow of a band in the twilight of its life. Without the desire to please not a soul but themselves, Raccoo-oo-oon has thrown themselves and all the blood and sweat that they contain into a glorious requiem fit for the microcosm of noise rock of which they were deities. I would offer a “rest in peace,” but I hope that the ghost of Raccoo-oo-oon continues to haunt the souls of men for a long long time.

Mr. Thistle

Raccoo-oo-oon Website

Wavves - Wavves

Wavves
Wavves
(9.2008 Woodsist/ eff it tapes)
Verdict: Heck yeah!

I'm quite fond of fuzzed out guitars, punk rock, garage band effects, spacey drones, ear bleeding cymbal crashes, guitar solos that require no skill, slacker vocals, hooks galore and teenage super parties. And guess what!!!!? Wavves new self titled album consists entirely of the above mentioned list of amazingness. Now I know about a million other bands have been doing the same thing this year as they ride the lo-fi wave (pun intended) to fame and glory, but Wavves puts most of them to shame. Seriously, this ain't no half hearted amp destroying affair. These songs are fun city and there's enough variety packed into this 29 minute album that it's far from falling flat. The only thing that would make it better was if I had a jeep to go moto surfing in while I blasted this on the way to school.

-Wooly Mammal

Wavves Myspace

Lau Nau - Nukkuu

Lau Nau
Nukkuu
(05.2008, Locust)
File under = new weirder Finland

I don’t know what kind of water they have running through the taps in Finland, or the greater Scandinavia as a whole for that matter, but I think it is about time that we had some of that fresh icy H2O diverted to these shores. Something about it - something which I can only assume really - must be utterly refreshing and beautiful, that is if quenching thirst can be beautiful. If you don’t quite know what I’m getting at, then Lau Nau (formally Laura Naukkarinen) is the perfect introduction. Nukkuu, her second solo album, is this metaphorical water personified, a kind of living water if can excuse the Christian connotations. The album is utterly refreshing, starkly beautiful and satisfying in the same way that you might imagine a pure mountain stream would be on a hot summer day. I know, the comparison is a bit much, but it is hard not to be hyperbolic. There is something absolutely transcendent about the album, something gorgeous, something untainted and pure, something. It may not be easy to identify the otherworldly spiritual undercurrent that Lau Nau has coaxed into her recordings, but there are definitely identifiable ingredients to the success of this album. First and foremost must be the voice. Lau Nau’s vocal delivery is enchanted, child-like and pastoral. I don’t know what language she is singing in so lyrics are a non issue, only pure angelic tones. The effect of her voice is actually not all that dissimilar to some of our American Sirens out of the northwest like Grouper and Inca Ore, though her associations with Islaja and Kuupuu might be a better starting point. However, for my money, Lau Nau reaches loftier heights on Nukkuu than most have in the whole of their recorded output. The instrumentation is key as well. Various plucked and bowed instruments mix with what I can only assume are instruments from the communal musical toy box of Finland. It is a perfect fit to the otherworldly/child like/pastoral feel I was talking about earlier. In fact, this is probably the reason why I prefer Nukkuu to other albums of similar ilk (though, I love 'em all). Oh, and just as a little qualifier (if you haven't figured it out already), this stuff is weird, but weird is often the most beautiful and you won’t find anything much more oddly beautiful than this browsing the pages of FG.

-Mr. Thistle

She and Him - Volume One

She and Him
Volume One
(03.2008, Merge)
Verdict: Just because M. Ward produced it doesn't mean it sounds anything like his music.

Actress Zooey Deschanel enters a musical venture with notable singer/songwriter M. Ward as her producer/collaborator. Upon listening to this album, I was unaware of the surge of alt-country within the independent music scene, so when I heard twangy guitar and a sultry drawl surfacing in her vocals I was a bit confused. Volume One comes across as a stylized album intended to replicate the feel of Dolly Parton-eque country, although it also ping-pongs between a style that emulates sixties girl-pop groups and also the later music of Carpenters. It has everything you could ask for (and I'm sure you would) from chorus girls to handclaps to male/female vocal call-and-response. The album starts out with "Sentimental Heart," and although it is a definite contrast from the rest of the album, it segues into the next song perfectly. I think it's because of the simplicity of "Sentimental Heart" that I was confused when the album changed to something resembling a composite of warm country and sixties pop. The guitars wade in and out of most of the songs, and the lyrics stick to a strict sappy love song agenda, using phrases such as "if he burns you let him go," "don't try to woo me" and "you really got a hold on me." The song that is the best combination of sixties pop and seventies country is "I Was Made For You," the album's seventh track, as it has chorus girls, a heavy bass line supported by the poppy drum beat, and bouncy keys. The album closes with the song "Untitled" which is Zooey singing her own version of "Swing Lo, Sweet Chariot." I think this song best highlights her vocal abilities, as she more fully delves into lower vocal tones, which brings up the notch of her sex appeal more significantly than anything else in the album. M. Ward deserves props for producing a successful pop album, the type that constantly gets stuck in your head and you really want to dance to, so you almost can't help but like it. When listening comparatively to the production quality between his solo work and She and Him, it's similar to what M. Ward puts out on his own albums, with vocals pulled in front of everything else, but meshed well enough that it is totally cohesive. Despite not quite grasping the album the first time I listened to it, I ended up somewhat addicted to it, and, for lack of a better phrase, wanting more. Basically if you want to put Dolly Parton, Diana Ross and Karen Carpenter in a blender to listen to, She and Him is it.

-Fastidious Fungi

Skeletons - Money

Skeletons
Money
(11.2008, Tomlab)
Verdict = Ridiculously ambitious and surprisingly wonderful

My goodness, here is a surprise. Usually around late-November/December everything is on cruise control which makes an album like this one all the more shocking when it blips on the radar. Skeletons (formerly with various addendums attached to their names but now gloriously bare) have created a monster with Money, their fifth or sixth full length album and first for Tomlab. So what’s the big surprise? We are pretty familiar with monsters here at FG. Why is this album so surprising? Well, I guess an intrinsic part of it is that Money embodies something fresh so it is kind of hard to classify. Money is just alive and I don’t know if there is any other way to put it. There is a fluidity here, something “organic,” something with pulsing lungs, a beating heart and, happily, a brain. Another part of it is that it is big. Not necessarily in size (though it clocks in at a healthy 50 plus minutes) but in its philosophical breadth and creative makeup – Money is just big, like monstrously big. As such, you might imagine that Money isn’t any breezy fast food pop. Skeletons have created something that requires a bit of digestion, but don’t confuse that with indigestion cuz Money’s got nutrients! The album uses the ten track album format to encase a sprawlingly ambitious fusion of avant indie rock with R&B, jazz and world music. Its is definitely odd, but after an introductory trial run, the prancing guitar lines, flush brass, skittery drum passages and thick rhythms will have undoubtedly sparked an intrigued grin. Delving deeper into Money will only expand that intrigue into satisfaction and then to elation. It is just one of those rare ambitious albums that has been fully realized; a classic that can be enjoyed front to back. Skeletons have continually proved themselves to be in the same blissful, forward thinking realm as equally creative bands like The Dirty Projectors or Zs and should be likewise celebrated. Money is their evidence.

-Mr. Thistle

Skeletons Myspace