Koen Holtkamp - Field Rituals

Koen Holtkamp
Field Rituals
(10.2008, Type)
Verdict: Good for spacing out.

I rarely take baths. After the initial moments of relaxation settle in, I realize I'm just sitting in a pool of my own dirt. My first attempt at listening to Koen Holtkamp's debut took place in one of these rare bath taking moments. And to Koen's credit I was spaced out enough by the vibes of Field Rituals to make it through a good portion of the album before having to bail on my bath. Now that I've had several bathless listens to this gem, I think it's safe to say while Koen's not necessarily bringing anything new to the ambient-drone table he's defiantly holding his own in a genre's that's been pretty much exhausted by anyone who knows how to work a laptop. Field Rituals has a nice blissful dreamy quality that finds its self sharing time with tempo stretched guitars, ear panning bells, psyched-out synths, acoustic strums, and you guessed it, field recordings. The prime example of Koen's abilities to space out the listener without being overtly spacey is nestled between the 14 minutes of "Sky Flowers." The track opens with multi-delayed acoustics and bells sliding from speaker to speaker while a slowed down guitar chord ushers in a scene of wild children escaping their parent's grasp to run free with their playmates in a city park. The scene changes as the children are panned out and we are left with a wandering synthesizer and a new round of bouncing acoustics. One of my favorite tracks of the year fo sho. And while the whole album doesn't ride the same high that "Sky Flowers" produces, there are definitely no crap moments. If you've got a patient ear, I'm sure you'll be rewarded by this near hour long trip.

-Wooly Mammal

Koen Holtkamp on Myspace

caUSE co-MOTION - It's Time! Singles and EPs 2005-2008

caUSE Co-MOTION!
It's Time! Singles and Eps 2005-2008
(10.2008 Slumberland)
Verdict: Rock n' Roll fun for the whole family!

Sassigrass is pretty pumped for 2008 to end. Her hope is that with the change a new year brings, we will all get over poorly recorded pop music. While I do fear young white America's new found infatuation with gutter scraping recording techniques being applied to pop tunes may result in a boat load of bands who can't actually write songs getting undeserved attention, I will gladly sift through their lack luster offerings if I keep finding stuff as delicious as caUSE Co-Motion!'s new singles and ep's collection It's Time! Now before I rant on about how radtastic this album is please let me preface that I'm not a total lo-fi pop whore. I find Eat Skull to be pretty crappy and Sick Alps getting more cred than they deserve. But that preface aside, I'm still a sucker for a bit of clang and clatter in the production of my pop fused rock n' roll. And caUSE Co-MOTION! is total rock n' roll! While most reviews I've check out for this album reference 80's band after 80's band, I find myself wanting to grease my hair, put on a leather jacket and groove the night away with my poodle skirt clad baby (if I had one). These tunes are just as influenced by Jackie Brenston as there are by the 80's post punk underground. These tunes are super hopin', catchy as anything you could hope for, and most of all fun. It's the type of album I can listen to on repeat as I boogie the night away, and at an album length of just over 20 minutes there will have to be a great deal of repeating going on.

-Wooly Mammal

caUSE co-MOTION - "Who's Gonna Care"

Dylan Champagne - New Equation

Dylan Champagne
New Equation
(04.2008, Self Released?)
Verdict: Pleasant with a few exceptional stand-outs

Dylan Champagne is starting to get some pretty attention for his album New Equation. It has taken a while for this coverage to come about, sort of like it has taken me a long time to finally getting around to writing this review. The problem isn't that the album isn't good. It is definitely good, but something about it keeps it washed a little below the surface so it never really becomes great. When I listen to his singer/songwriter tunes I find them very enjoyable and relaxed, definitely worth listening too, but there is nothing in them that keep me coming back. They don't get stuck in your head or make you want to repeat them. They aren't very catchy, but that isn't always a bad thing. I just really can't out my finger on what makes these songs slip into the background, but that is what happens. You listen to the album and love it, and then you forget that it exists until it comes back on your shuffle and then you think "who is this again?" and when you see you love it again until the song is over. It really is a solid pleasant album, and if you own it you probably really enjoy it. Champagne's vocals have the deadened monotone and pitch of Why?'s Yoni Wolf. The songs have well written melodies, but overall the instrumentation is too sparse and lacking anything to really set them apart from slow songs that any kid writes in his/her bedroom when he/she is bored.

-Sassigrass

Dylan Champagne on myspace

Jaguar Love - Take Me To The Sea

Jaguar Love
Take Me To The Sea
(08.2008, Matador)
Verdict: Fun!

How about another umm..... pop punk album? Jaguar Love is what you get when you take two of the most enjoyable deceased umm... punk bands and sew the remnants into a spaz rock super group. Being the descendants of Blood Brothers and Pretty Girls Make Graves, Jaguar Love had some big shoes to fill, and at first I wasn't buying it. I was initially uninterested because the distinct twee vocals from Blood Brothers Johnny Whitney make it hard not to expect just another Blood Brothers album. Once I finally separated the bands in my mind and allowed Jaguar Love to be their own band I started really enjoying Take Me To The Sea. It has all the retarded frantic brutality that you have come to love from the previous bands releases all written into hook heavy rock n' roll songs for you to finally get your experimental umm... pop punk side down to this year.

-Sassigrass

Portugal. The Man - Censored Colors

Portugal. The Man

Censored Colors

(o9.2008, Equal Vision)
Verdict: Don't write it off just because it's sold on SmartPunk

Lately a lot of bands have been labeled as "cross-genre." It is usually true. Bands no longer fit into the perfect little molds formed from the English language by which we try to classify and make sense of things. Music is morphing in every direction. There are more obscure start up record labels out there now than Mr. Thistle has cousins, and yet some certain labels and/or bands get promoted so heavily to a certain genre of people, that the other genres of people ignore the bands, even if they supposedly support "cross-genre" artists. Such is the way with the heavily promoted and widely loved Portugal. The Man. Their love is in the wrong place. People that listen to As I Lay Dying and Underoath love Portugal. The Man, and for some reason that makes people that listen to Black Mountain and Dodos not listen to Portugal. The Man even though they fit more with the latter bands than the former. All I am saying here is, give this album a chance cause it deserves that and much much more. Portugal has consistently blown me away, but this time they have morphed into a beautifully orchestrated composition-heavy rock band of complete enjoyment. Singer John Baldwin Gourley said it best when describing this albums' accomplishments by stating: "We've always wanted to make a really heavy record mellow." The aesthetics of this album are a gauzy ballad struck classically composed Led Zepplin in the year 2008. It's beautifully refreshing and instantly enjoyable.

-Sassigrass

"Colors" performed accoustically

Dwayne Sodahberk - Fjärilsfalu

Dwayne Sodahberk
Fjärilsfalu
(06.2008, Kning Disc)
File Under = A lot of stuff

As the year begins to wind down with just a couple months till 2009 (!) I realized that I have subconsciously categorized the music I have listened into various groups based on similarities in mood and style. For the most part, I have been able to tidily categorize everything into neat little mental compartments for easy access. When I’m in the mood for some darkly introspective beauty, instantly The Fun Years, Scott Tuma and Machinefabriek are running through my headphones. Some easy going, atmospheric pop? A Faulty Chromosome, Deerhunter and Evangelicals to save the day. How about some brain melting, Agrocrag destruction? Enter Hospitals, MoHa! and Black Pus. I could go on and on. However, sometimes when I’m just too indecisive and shuffle is running out of magic, those little categories seem to implode and I just want to listen to everything and nothing all at once. The remedy has revealed itself as Dwayne Sodahberk’s Fjärilsfalu. In general terms, Sodahberk is one of the most criminally unsung heroes of organic electronica and crossover electronic indie pop, however, with Fjärilsfalu, Sodahberk has become one of the most criminally unsung musical geniuses of the year, regardless of genre. Shedding any dominating aesthetic, Sodahberk has evolved from his mostly electronic past into an artist that must simply be approached on his own creative merits. Spanning the gamut from guitar driven indie pop to guttural atonal feedback to hushed woodsy folk to solo acoustic guitar layered with field recordings to, well, just about anything else you can think of. on Fjärilsfalu, Sodahberk proves that these disparate parts can come together in creation of a powerfully cohesive whole. It’s magic really. Sodahberk is a voodoo artist. Even the closing track and album namesake, “Fjärilsfalu,” veers, ending the album with a glitchy, pitch-shifted soundscape that would fit perfectly on Fennesz’s Endless Summer. It is an experience all its own. Most people will probably sleep on this, but for those who don’t, Fjärilsfalu will prove itself as one of the most refreshing releases around.

-Mr. Thistle

Dwayne Sodahberk on MySpace

Hospital Ships - Oh, Ramona

Hospital Ships
Oh, Ramona
(10.2008, Graveface Records)
Verdict: Cute-tastic

Hospital Ships is the "solo" project of little Jordan Geiger. You know little Jordan, he is the lead singer and keyboardist for that band that was really mediocre and then got really way awesome and then got mediocre again, Minus Story. Oh ya, he also is the victorious trumpeteer for that one band that has always sucked, what's their name, Shearwater. Anyways, you've probably seen little Jordan before. He is the one that is, you know, pretty little. He looks like he is constantly on the verge of death, and he sounds like it too. I don't know what it is about dying things, but they are usually pretty endearing. Cute even. Yes, Jordan has that really cute death frailty working for him. On Oh, Ramona, even the songs sound pretty close to dissipation, with little triumphant moments of lingering vibrancy. Don't take this wrong, it works out fantastically on Oh, Ramona to make a very personal light pop album worth a thousand listens. The sequencing may be the biggest downfall, all though, even with differing sequencing the album may still feel a bit like a collection of singles rather than a complete holistic effort. But, then again, they are pretty great singles! So, feel free to skip and repeat tracks like crazy and soak in the layered simplistic cuteness in whatever order you wish!

-Sassigrass

Deerhunter - Microcastle

Deerhunter
Microcastle
(10.2008, Kranky)
File Under = Instant classics

It seems that it is becoming increasingly uncertain whether a given band will be able to deliver a viable follow up to any breakthrough success. Deerhunter left us with promise after by following up Cryptograms with the Fluorescent Grey EP, but you never know, you know? Oh happy day! Deerhunter has done it with Microcastle. They have outgrown their awkward teenage stage and grown into their only slightly less awkward young adulthood. Fortunately, with Bradford Cox at the helm, it is the kind of endearing awkwardness that garners giddy fanaticism rather than uncomfortable silence. With this maturing growth has also come a more confidently stripped version of the goodness of Cryptograms, which for me sat squarely on the second half of that disc. Frequent FG readers know that I’m all for quality drone and textured soundscapes like the ones found on Cryptograms, but it was those anxious pop songs that really won me over when I first heard Deerhunter. With Microcastle, those most delicious and more widely regarded moments are on display throughout and carry an additional little umph in the songs structure department. I mean seriously, is there a much better musical moment than the climactic closing minute of “Microcastle”? The band has set a new standard for themselves here and if their current track record is any indication, things will only be getting better in the future. If that rings true, Deerhunter is bound for the same kind of indie stardom hawked by contemporary staples like The National or Arcade Fire. If that turns out to be the case, it will be attention well earned.

-Mr. Thistle

Bird Names - Open Relationship

Bird Names
Open Relationship
(04.2008, Unsound Records)
Verdict = Ridiculously awesome

A band like Bird Names only shows up on the radar a couple times a year, if that, so it is important that I catch my breath and fan myself before I start so as not to get too wildly out of control. By checking the release date, you’ll notice that this album has avoided me for the better part of year. That is probably for the best because if I would have got this in April I may not have listened to much else throughout the year. Hailing from the musically affluent city of Chicago, it’s a wonder that more dust hasn’t been kicked up over Open Relationship. The album is a colorful blend of art-damaged folk pop that never loses its charm amidst its brash juvenility. It’s jagged and playful, inventive and hook-laden and overall happily odd. Open Relationship’s fifteen tracks are packaged like bite-sized candy bars and then deep fried just for fun; each is a super rich exciting blast of fricasseed creativity. The great part about Bird Names is that they aren't content to simply rehash the same song fifteen times. Though they rarely stray from the two to three minute time frame, the band still manages to wrangle in touchstones that read like noise pop pedigree chart. From Pumice to Ariel Pink to Times New Viking to Animal Collective, Bird Names encompasses the best of each and more, creating a one-stop shop for all things awesome. Open Relationship is the kind of introduction that will have you scrambling to snatch up the back-catalog; sooo grood.

-Mr. Thistle

Chartreuse - No More Paths To Sounder Sleep

Chartreuse
No More Paths To Sounder Sleep
(10.2008, Thor's Rubber Hammer)
File Under = Moody drone/ambient

No More Paths To Sounder Sleep sounds like a murky machine whose components are created completely from clouds. Now that sounds nice, doesn’t it? Well, if you agree then you’re obviously thinking of the wrong kind of clouds. The clouds in Chartreuse’s machine are the dark, graying, polluted kind that are as dense and heavy as they are soft around the edges. There is a pervasive feeling of anxiousness, the kind you might feel navigating a decrepit industrial factory (again, if it were made of clouds). Yet, even while Chartreuse’s eerie machine pumps away rhythmically with clouded droning loops, there is an elusive sense of comfort in each piece, something familiar. In the press packet for No More Paths To Sounder Sleep, Eluvium, Nadja and Brian Eno are identified as similar artists and that’s a pretty spot on assessment. In fact, the Chartreuse sound is like an accumulation of endearing traits from the aforementioned artists. The arsenal includes an organ style drone that shifts slower than the tectonic plates, sparse occasional field recordings and an intermittently emerging guitar. Using these tools, Drew Smith, the man behind the cloud machine, creates dense textures that are drowsily layered and looped like a self propelled toy that has been wound and let loose to amble along aimlessly. There are no real climactic moments, just slow realizations and tiny epiphanies amidst the haze. No More Paths To Sound Sleep is a devastating trip that increases in beautiful with each step.

-Mr. Thistle

Chartreuse on Myspace

Blank Dogs - On Two Sides

Blank Dogs
On Two Sides
(2008, Troubleman Unlimited)
Verdict = Oh no! Run! It’s more lo-fi pop! J/k, pull up a seat and stay awhile.

Lo-fi outsider pop is 2008 as far as I’m concerned. It’s a bell I’ve rang about a million times by now and it’s become a pretty lazy tagline. Blank Dogs, a one man bedroom project, is certainly Lo-fi pop and he’s most definitely an outsider, but not of the trendy 2008 kind. First off, while No Age, Time New Viking and the Siltbreeze roster mine punchy punk influences, Blank Dogs finds a little more by way of new wave and The Smiths. Secondly, while the aforementioned trendsetters (and seriously, despite how trendy they are, I still love ‘em to death) produce jagged bits of feed back and occasionally abrasive, scuzzed out soundscapes, On Two Sides turns inward, producing hazy, muted pop gold topped with vocals that seem to be wrapped extensively with audio gauze. I'm kind of painting the record into a corner here because while the majority of the record unfolds in this manner there are still blissed out punk anthems wrapped in barbwire interspersed, granted, the barbs are a little sparser. However, the differences are clear and Blank Dogs is a completely unique project, following no path but its own. On Two Sides is essentially a sugary pop record that has been set out in the sun for too long, warped and melted into a syrup mess that is even more delicious as a result. Troubleman Unlimited has produced a limited run of the album on vinyl and tape so scrape one up while you can, you won’t regret it.

-Mr. Thistle

Blank Dogs blog

Hauschka - Ferndorf

Hauschka
Ferndorf
(10.2008, Fatcat)
File Under = Piano based neo-classical

Hauschka, now on his fourth full length release, has become quite the reliable outlet for beautifully inventive piano based neo-classical music. Ferndorf is simply another example of an incredible ear for melody and an adept arrangement skills. Hauschka’s steadily stunning output may not be as loudly proclaimed as similar artists like Rachel’s or Max Richter, but that certainly doesn’t mean that his music is any less amazing. In fact, quite to the contrary, if anything Hauschka is exceeding those afore mentioned indie-approved neo-classicalists by producing even more immediate, arresting and talented compositions. One of the keys here is Haischka’s ability on the piano. While the past decade has seen a waves of avant-garde and modern classical composers try their hand at solo piano, the majority have turned in overly simplistic attempts that have rarely risen above the status of nice background music. Hauschka, on the other hand, is a pianist who knows his instrument well, manipulating it nimbly with skillfully engaging melodies that belie any inherent simplicity and constantly demand your full attention. In addition, Ferndorf carries a subtle percussive undercurrent, equally engaging string sections and, occasionally, some well placed brass. Hauschka uses each instrument to add layers and layers of melody that somehow find a way to merge into a beautiful whole. It’s a full package of deftly executed chamber music that should be universally appealing to those who simply can’t deny great music, regardless of the genre. Quaint, powerful stuff.

-Mr. Thistle