Diagrams: Black Light

Nothing like the early new year wave of new releases to inspire a recently lackluster blogger. And early as it is, I am confident that Diagrams’ debut album is gonna go the distance and be recognised as one of the best of 2012. Essentially the work of ex-Tunng man Sam Genders, Diagrams is so much more than a solo project, and it is surprisingly sharper and more succinct than his previous band’s material would have suggested.  If it retains anything of the proggy experimental nature of Tunng, it does so in easily digestible bite size chunks, aka pop songs. In this respect I was immediately reminded of Field Music, unlike other reviewers who draw comparisons to Hot Chip and Elbow. Frankly this music  is far more interesting than anything Elbow have released and has a warm beating human heart unlike the work of Hot Chip.

The combination of real instruments and programmed beats places the album somewhere between a live band sound and that of a bedroom musician, surely the ideal place for experimental pop on record.  There is a joie de vivre quality to the melodies in keeping with reports that Genders took some time out to reassess and rethink his musical place in life. In Dylan terms it has a New Morning feel. Like the album title suggests, lyrically he plays with the seemingly opposing nature of human experience. There is no black and white, and if there is black, then it too is light. Rhythmically angular and sonically clean the sound comprises strange shapes which add up to wonderfully unified wholes. Diagrams as it were.

Diagrams: Tall Buildings

Needle Hits The Groove: Radio Show 20.04.11

This is the Needle Hits The Groove radio show from 20.04.11. TV On The Radio Show’s Nine Types Of Light is the Release Of The Week, Níall talks about The La’s album in Record Collector and we put The Spotlight on Phil Spector. New music from Keren Anne, Mazes and Thurston Moore. Also lots more great tunes and music discussion.

The Parting Gifts: Strychnine Dandelion

Every now and then an older, world wisened bunch of musicians come along and show the young pretenders how it should be done. Much like The Jim Jones Revue did with their take on faster, harder rock n roll so too have The Parting Gifts done with their own brand of garage rock. While I am a huge fan of the bible that is the Nuggets box set, I usually wince when I see it referenced in reviews of new releases as it has unfortunately spawned a slew of unworthy wannabes over the years. No such worry here. In fact this is only one facet of The Parting Gift’s sound which has surprising breadth .

Greg Cartwright has been around a block or two. The Memphis native has played a relatively unnoticed but highly active role in the underground U.S. garage rock scene. Formerly of The Oblivians and Reigning Sound , he has honed his songwriting chops over many years and his production credits include The Detroit Cobras. On this outing he is joined by Coco Hames of Nashville outfit The Ettes as well as Dan Auerbach from The Black Keys and Patrick Keeler from The Raconteurs and The Greenhornes. While billed as a collaborative work the guts of this album is Cartwright, and it’s all guts, packing a serious visceral punch. However having said that the addition of Hames as a female counterpoint is also essential to the mix, as it brings the often much lacking female perspective to the male dominated garage rock idiom.

There is echoes of Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood on Born To Be Blue and Motown in the classic pop song craft of the organ driven I Don’t Wanna Be Like This. Elsewhere there are psychedelic country flourishes and even girl group intimations. It adds up to a cracking album of instant satisfaction; impassioned and defiant, lo fi and loose but wonderfully accomplished in all its ragged glory.

Don’t Hurt Me Now

Sleepy City (Rolling Stones Cover)

Wye Oak: Civilian

A boy/girl duo from Baltimore, Maryland who make some of the most endearing, inviting and beautiful music of the last year. Nope, it’s not Beach House it’s their folk tinged cousins who bring a gentle touch of the hazy pop of the aforementioned success story of last year. Despite sharing a place of origin and a structure, it is not entirely fair to constantly compare the two bands –  at least not fair for Beach House. Wye Oak’s third album radiates a warmth unrivalled by many other two pieces and their sound harks back to both seminal soul records and classic country releases as much as hazy pop or shoegaze. It’s this mix that makes the album such a treasure in the current musical climate as it produces a sound that is distinctive but ebbs and flows enough to keep the listener interested.  Jenn Wasner possesses one of the most beguiling female voices that manages to shift between whimper to wail effortlessly all while never compromising melody or mood. Civilian is a thoughtful, exciting, beauty of an album  which has set the standard for the more awaited releases of the year.

Wye Oak: Fish

Wye Oak: Dogs Eyes

Yuck: Yuck

Yuck’s eponymous debut album has been getting critical acclaim and slating in equal measure over the last few weeks. The fact that the album plays like a “Greatest Indie Bands of the Ninties Mixtape” can be taken either as endearing or just uninspired. However it is how the band, who have been together just a year, merge these very obvious influences that make the album so enjoyable and more than a few steps beyond the mere plagiarism they have been accused of.

The most conspicuous similarity is that to Pavement or Dinosaur Jr however they also encompass the lo-fi groove of Slowdive and the pop sensibilites of the Pixies. Also due to two of the members being from Cajun Dance Party, the music always has a polished melodic feel akin to Teenage Fanclub. That’s not to say that the album only has one tempo or flow, tracks such as ‘Sunday’ have the lonely mope of Yo La Tengo from their ‘And Nothing Turns Itself Inside Out’ album. Indeed the album is sloppy, stroppy and mopey in all the right places, the exact music you want to hear from a band in their early twenties. It is easy to dismiss all music as being a rip off of something from the past in the current age of music where everything seems to be branded as a revival of something or “post” something else. Bands such as Deerhunter and Pains Of Being Pure At Heart have made it pretty obvious they were probably scribbling the same band names on their school books but have made, or are in the making of, a nice little career due to their unashamed brandishing of their influences.

I don’t believe the music here will change anyone’s life and the band may not have as much to say as those they are in homage to but they do merge all of their influences together beautifully and bring a genuine freshness to the sounds many of us have lived with and loved previously.

Yuck: Get Away

Yuck: Sunday

Glasser : Ring

 

The insistent percussive persuasion of the opening track Apply on this debut sets the tone for the wondrous and accomplished work that follows. Glasser aka Cameron Mesirow the Californian via Brooklyn (where else?) self styled ‘one woman orchestra’ has here created the blue print for a magical sound completely of her own. The sloppily bandied about lazy comparisons to Kate Bush, Bjork, etc totally miss the point…because the point is…this is an artist of singular talent and a talent finely realised. Within this short song cycle we are sucked into a world where simple and delicately weaved whistful melodies have at their pulsating heart a relentless sense of self. The voice here asserts itself as a conduit for pure emotion. What ensues is nothing short of a tour de force… this really is top drawer stuff. The playful synthesized backbeats offset with organic flourishes compliment the restless and haunted vocals beautifully, conjuring up an intoxicating, heady brew. Drink deep from this well. For this is the stuff of musical dreams.

Glasser: Apply

Glasser: Mirrorage