Still here...

I think that I overwhelmed myself trying to keep up with an album each week and once I was a few weeks and eventually months behind it was too much to get caught up. I still like the idea of keeping this blog and updating it when I get a chance, but I'm scrapping the idea of album of the week and will just write whatever, whenever I want, as long as it is about music. Whew, the change feels good already.

Album Of The Week: Feb. 15th

The Moon and the Melodies by Harold Budd, Simon Raymonde, Robin Guthrie, Elizabeth Fraser

I'm about to date myself, but I've been listening to this album for close to 15 years, since my first year of college. I listened to it practically every day, since it was the perfect soundtrack for studying. Not to say that the music is boring or easy to ignore--it's spacey, dreamy, and very soothing. That's why it continues to be a regular, even though I am finished with school. Not only is it good for when I'm working, it's wonderful to put on if I feel like having a cup of tea and taking a little nap.

Released in 1986, this album was created by composer Harold Budd and the Cocteau Twins. I don't know much about Budd, but I'm a big fan of Cocteau Twins, and much of the album sounds like them, which is fine with me. It is mostly electronic with swirly guitars, keyboards, and depending on the song, nice strong drumming or none at all.

Elizabeth Fraser's voice is beautiful as always on "Sea, Swallow Me," which starts the album and is upbeat, with a more rounded-out sound than some songs on the album. The flowing piano and airy keyboards on "Why Do You Love Me?" is quite therapeutic, and I very much enjoy the sparse, reverberating piano and saxophone layered over the shiny guitar on "The Ghost Has No Home."

This is an excellent album to play while you are doing just about anything. Or if you are doing nothing at all. Definitely worth adding to your collection.


8.5/10 By Scarlett L.

Show 2/17

Four Tet @ Le Poisson Rouge

I had a couple of problems with this show from the get go. First of all it was on a Wednesday night and the doors opened at 10pm. Second there were 2 acts before Four Tet. The first was Bird Show and all I gotta say is no beat+no notes=garbage. Nathan Fake was next and he was alright for about a half hour but then he went on for another half hour and at the end I just hated him. The crowd at shows usually bothers me and this show was no exception. It honestly felt like everyone there was a rich NYU kid with a healthy drug habit. There was so much skunk smoke in the air it was unbelievable.
Anyhow all of that aside Four Tet finally came on at 12:30 or so. His start was great but as the show went on it just seemed like he was DJing at another club and it felt much more techno than his albums do. Sorry Four Tet, but you just weren't brilliant live. At 2am the show finished, I bought Four Tet's new album on record and walked to the subway where on the platform I had to keep chasing a rat away from me. So I guess I can say I've been to better shows, but once I came home and listened to the new album I felt fine. It's amazing.

6.5/10 By Chris L.

Album Of The Week: Feb. 7th

Donuts by J Dilla

J Dilla, may God rest his soul, has had a quiet hand in everything from A Tribe Called Quest to De La Soul, Common to Busta Rhymes, Erykah Badu to Talib Kweli. You may not have heard of J Dilla but you've heard him. He is a mastermind hip hop producer.
J Dilla, also known as Jay Dee, is from Detroit just around the block from Emenim. The son of an opera singer and a jazz bassist he found a love for music at an early age and started collecting vinyl. In fact, in almost every picture I've seen of Dilla he is surrounded by obscene amounts of vinyl. He has tried his hand at rapping, DJing and producing and did quite well with all, but producing was his real talent.
The album Donuts is an instrumental album that was mostly made in a hospital room. It was released in 2006, 3 days before J Dilla died of a rare blood disease called TTP. At the time Dilla was steadily gaining popularity but most of his success was unfortunately postmortem. He inhabited a strange basement corner of hip hop not unlike Madlib, but both of these producers have made hip hop astoundingly more interesting, creative and down right weird.
Donuts is an album of mini masterpieces with songs not usually longer than a couple of minutes. Although sampling has been done countless times over the years it's never sounded quite like this. Dilla takes an old dusty record, blows it off, cleans it up, adds a few samples and beats and gives you a polished unique song. The samples are drawn heavily from old soul records and they have all kinds of groove, tremolo, and guts but they sound 100% fresh today. J Dilla was among the most prolific producers and has left behind a long line of work to be released in the future, which I very much look forward to.


9.0/10 By Chris L.

Album Of The Week: Feb. 1st

Brazil Classics 1: Beleza Tropical by Various Artists

I bought this record a few months back for two reasons; it was compiled by David Byrne, and it looked like a great way to become familiar with some Brazilian music that I had heard of, but not actually heard. I was a little bit more familiar with Antônio Carlos Jobim, João Gilberto and Bossa Nova in general than its successor Tropicália.
Tropicália music hit Brazil at a turbulent time in the 60's. The music of Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, two of Tropicálias leaders, was very political and opposed the military government in Brazil at the time. As a result they were put in jail, released two months later, and forced into exile in London. A few years later they came back to Brazil heros.
Some of the performers on this compilation are Jorge Ben, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Chico Buarque, Milton Nascimento and Gal Costa. I think this compilation is a perfect introduction to Tropicália. The first song Ponta De Lança Africano, by Jorge Ben begins with a rock 'n' roll guitar riff which eventually gives way to african percussion and vocals. Ben is joined by a small choir and the lyrics pay homage to a soccer player, very appropriately. The drums and the chorus become addictive and after a listen I was hooked.
The compilation continues with catchy songs, classical guitar, and lots of percussion. The African influence is easy to notice throughout the record. The song Leãozinho by Caetano Veloso is possibly my favorite song on the album and is beautiful by any singer/songwriter standard. The themes in the songs on this compilation revolve around freedom, dreams, longing, love, sadness, soccer and faith. That's Brazil in a nutshell. Not every song on this compilation will blow your mind but enough of them will to keep you coming back.


8.0/10 By Chris L.

Album Of The Week: Jan. 25th

Rounds by Four Tet

Rounds begins with an irregular thump, thump, thump which sounds like the beating of a heart. It seems appropriate that each time I hear It consider my own mortality. The song works its way to a simple keyboard part that repeats and ties the entire song together. The song unfolds beautifully with erratic cymbals and tom rolls which rest on the keyboard part and are eventually joined by a steady snare beat and an electronic bass throb that grows and fades in volume as if done manually on a knob. There is no verse or chorus, no bridge or coda; but this song is kinda perfect without any of that.
Four Tet is the side project of Kieren Hebden, a member of the band Fridge. Kieren uses keyboards, samples, loops, guitars, pianos, harps, vintage keyboards and loads of percussive elements to bring together his signature sound, which is easily recognizable after a listen or two. Many of the songs have an abrasive cut up quality to them that can carry you to the edge of chaos but then bring you safely back to the core of the song, which I find more fascinating than annoying. I think that you'd be hard pressed to find any two measures of a song that sounded the same because of the endless layers and variations in percussion and virtually every other element of the song.
Rounds is a great album that I keep getting stuck in my head and coming back to. All of the songs are instrumental and span styles from hip hop to ambient to rock. But to tell you the truth Kieren Hebden really just invented his own sound, because no one else sounds quite like him. I'm going to see Four Tet play this week and I am excited about the show, thanks to this album (even though its a few years old).


9.0/10 By Chris L.

Album Of The Week: Jan. 18th

Homework by Daft Punk

I've never really liked techno. I've never really liked going clubbing and I can't tell you the difference between Jungle, House and Trance. A few years ago I wouldn't have given Daft Punk the time of day, but a couple of months ago I bought their first album Homework and it has really grown on me. I have thought for years that making this kind of music requires very little talent, but I have also realized that for this type of music to stand out to me it must be done by someone who is very good at it, and Daft Punk are good at it. They are good at putting pieces of a song together and looping them modifying parts of the basic beat and melody to create songs that are interesting and that mimic traditional song structure. There are many that may say the songs are boring because all they do is repeat, but repetition is a huge part of this kind of music. Also if you listen to this album and say that it is just the same thing over and over you aren't listening very closely. The first 6 tracks on the album are golden but the album can get a little hard to get through in places simply because it is long and occasionally a song can grate on you, but it can sound so good along the way.
I like Daft Punk. I like their robot outfits and their mysterious identities. I like that they put on live shows in a huge pyramid with lights, fireworks and smoke machines built in. My first exposure to Daft Punk was probably Michel Gondry's music video for the song Around The World, which if you haven't seen youtube it now. Sometimes when I hear Daft Punk I think that this is what the soundtrack to a robot porno might be. It's sexy, fun, and you can certainly dance to it.



8.5/10 By Chris L.

Album Of The Week: Jan. 11th

David by The Radio Dept.

I have a confession to make; I'm obsessed with The Radio Dept. In my opinion these 3 Swedish lads are doing something incredible. Most of those familiar with the Radio Dept. probably heard them first on the soundtrack to the film Marie Antoinette. After I saw the film I searched out and bought as many of their albums, singles and EP's as I could find. There is something about their music that I can't quite put my finger on that really hits home with me. Comparisons have been made to The Jesus and Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine and even though their music feels like it could have been made in 1985 most of it (at least the good stuff) was made more than 15 years later.
With the release of David I feel like the band has turned a new page. Some have referred to their music as dream pop which I think fits this release perfectly. It is full of sweeping harps, catchy xylophones, soul guitars, 80's drum machines, and distorted synthesizers. The first 3 songs are brilliant and the last is just great. One of the 4 tracks is a Rice Twins remix of the song David and is one of the best remixes I have ever heard. It is easily as good if not better than the original. You can go to the band's website and download a free copy of the song David as well. After all, what have you got to lose?

www.theradiodept.com

9.5/10 By Chris L.

Album Of The Week: Jan. 4th

Resurgam by Alias

Brendon Whitney AKA Alias is a bit of a beat genius. He got his first drum machine at the age of 16 and never looked back. In the early 90's he met an MC named Sole and they quickly became friends and hip hop collaborators. Alias made the beats and Sole did the rapping. With a few other friends they went on to start Anticon records, which singlehandedly turned my world of hip hop upside down.
On Alias' 5th album Resurgam the hip hop has been diluted and even though the beats are big, which I love, they work with the music which has become increasingly ambient and expansive but also structured in traditional songwriting. In the past Alias has relied on mostly electronic elements to construct songs but he has broadened his sound on this record with pianos, guitars, and layers of other instruments. On the song Autumnal Ego the structure is simplified to a vocal part and a piano part which is astounding. The album starts out great with New To A Few and keeps going strong with the Well Water Black, but my favorite two tracks on the album are Resurgam and Autumnal Ego. I could listen to these all day long. This just may be my favorite Alias album.

8.5/10 By Chris L.

The triple B is back!

I think that maybe I got in a little over my head last year with this blogging business and then I pulled the plug quickly without a word to anyone. I didn't think anyone would care but enough people complained that the blog was gone that I've decided to give it another go. I'm in the process of putting images back up and writing the first album of the week. This year I've decided to have guest writers to make it a little more interesting. More music to come.