SEVEN NOISES

Ilyas Ahmed published last month his new LP, Goner, which is supposed to be his second proper distributed album after lots of CDRs, a double CD compilation and his first album last year. If you read the little information about him that is online, what everybody agrees about is that it would remind you of Six Organs of Admittance, and probably they are right.
He was born in Pakistan but has been living in the USA for most part of his life, recording the majority of his first songs while isolated in a farm in the middle of nowhere. If you have his nationality in mind you could probably distinguish some middle east influences in his compositions, arrangements and the instruments he uses in the songs, mainly acoustic landscapes that he usually completes with his not so exciting voice which is palpable once you reach the last song of the record, Exit Twilight, sung by Grouper and definitely the best song on the album.

It is kind of late for a review of these two seven inch splits as both have been sold out for a while but they have such interesting music that, even you cannot get the original records, at least you can listen and enjoy these songs or even discover these bands if you still don't know them. I don't own them myself as I knew about their existence when they were already out of print but was able to find the mp3s on line.
I've known Grouper for a while and loved last year's Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill. This name's been the alias of Liz Harris since she started publishing records in 2005, combining drone music with pastoral sounds in a perfect balance, experimentation and classicism, echoing voices and echoing sounds. False Horizon, the song on the City Center split, is where you can listen to her with a more classic approach to music while the song on the Pumice split, Rising Height, has a more ambient and phantasmagorical arrangement, blurring the instruments and the voices into a solid and unified sound.

I've discovered City Center through this record and it's been a good surprise, as I've traveled to their first proper LP, also called City Center, released after some out-of-print CDRs, singles and cassettes. If the song here, This Is How We See in the Dark, can melt with the acoustic and droning philosophy of Grouper, the record expands their ideas to multi-diverse territories, mixing lo-fi electronica, sometimes up-beat and sometimes just as a detail, with luminous pop and folk, using samples and traditional instruments, putting them as close to High Places as to Panda Bear but melting everything until their songs only sound as City Center. I'm pretty sure that in a while they could even be mentioned as influences.

Pumice is a one man band from New Zealand that can sound very annoying until you get it, playing with out of tune sounds that don't fit together, strident organs and distorted guitars that after a while create a harmony. I was pretty amazed when I checked and found that he's been publishing stuff since 1997 and, taking into account how lo-fi and spontaneous sounds in this song, I have no idea how his early stuff can sound.

Released January and April 2009

Grouper - False Horizon.mp3



City Center - Bleed Blood.mp3



Pumice - Twin Neck Double Kick Bum Chin.mp3

This very limited 7' single of Bust, only 250 copies, comes from Abstentee's front man new project, Dan Michaelson and the Coastguards, and it's a beautiful song that would inevitably remind you Bill Callahan's Smog. The song starts little by little, starting with just a soft guitar pluck and his extremely beautiful low voice adding the rest of the arrangements as the song moves forward. This is the standout track from his first LP Saltwater and the only way you can get this song on vinyl. The vinyl comes in a beautifully hand-painted carton envelope, the type of envelope people use to send 7' singles on ebay if they are slightly professional, and it's only available through the label's website at Memphis Industries. The single is backed by Now I'm a Coastguard, another of the best songs on the album. I particularly consider these two songs better than anything he's done in his main project although the album is not as good as what you can expect after listening to these songs.

I mentioned Kurt Vile in a previous post but I had to dedicate a full post to him as it looks 2009 is going to be his year. He was first known for his work with The War On Drugs, his band published by Secretly Canadian. Last year he published what we can consider was his first proper solo LP, the magnificent Constant Hitmaker, but it's just been released on vinyl by Woodists. Another two EPs, The Hunchback and God is Saying This to You have been published this year but, as far as I know, they are already sold out. And a 7' single, Fall Demons, is on the way via Skulltones, no release date or pre-orders taken yet. It also has been announced that the following LP to be released later this year, is going to be through Matador, which will probably favor his break-through.

And what about the music? Most of it is played solo, with acoustic guitar and a drum kit, exploring different styles, from free-folk, to a more traditional folk-rock or pop using the drone as a beautiful background, putting emphasis in the melodies and making accessible what it should be weird.

I had to talk about Chromatic Flights after posting about Blind Man's Colour because this is the side project of Kyle Wyss, one of its members. He says that in his solo project he's urged to create more experimental sounds and I would say it's more electronic based.

He's released three different EPs so far, all free downloads through: http://www.mono211.com/content/releases/mtkmp211.html

The first two EPs are mainly instrumental bedroom electronica, a bit like early noughties Morr Records but more psychedelic influenced. His last EP Favourite Cat though, and also his most interesting one, has moved forward closer to his other band's sound, incorporating lyrics and more acoustic sounds and dropping beats. I would say that both of Kyle's projects are getting better with time so we can possibly be in front of two bands that will grow little by little in the following years if we keep an eye close.

Everytime I hear from a project some 19 year olds have that not only doesn't suck but actually is good I kind of feel I threw away all my youth years being lazy, drinking, going out and being unproductive and untalented. So well, here we have another one to make me feel this way as Blind Man's Colour is a project from two guys that still are in their teens and have been making music for a while, some better, some worse, but always trying to find a sound and experiment with different instruments, techniques and sounds. They have been giving out some stuff for free in their blog
http://blindmanscolour.blogspot.com/
that you can still download in form of EPs or single tracks, and they will release their first proper LP in August this year, consisting of new songs not posted in their blog and published by Kanine Records. At first listening you will probably think of Animal Collective, even more if you listen to the three covers they do, but they are also influenced by 60s psychedelic stuff, electronic music or shoegaze, playing keyboards, acoustic guitars, and sampled sounds and distorted voices. Still have to listen to the whole album but the tracks I've heard so far are their best by far. Here you have an advance.

Blind Man's Colour - Heavy Cloud Hustle.mp3

And yet another record from Capture Tracks, this time from the band everybody's talking about at the moment thanks to great reviews of their last album, Songs of Shame, so probably you'll heard of them before. Even one song on this 7',The Dark, was reviewed in Pitchfork receiving an 8 and the category of Best New Music, the same as the album. So probably there's not much more new things I can say about it they haven't said before apart from recommending to buy this record, mainly for the B Side, The Dark, a perfect catchy summer song about hope that is one of their best songs. And I enclose you to check the label that they run themselves called Woodist that has brought us so far releases from Jana Hunter, Kurt Vile, Blank Dogs, Vivian Girls, Wavves or some of their own records.

Released 16/03/09

If you have been following this blog, and I hope you have, you may probably realised that I've been a bit obsessed with most of the releases Capture Tracks, my new favourite label, has been publishing lately. And looking at what is coming, probably this post is not going to be the last about one of their records. The Bitters are from Ontario, Canada, and a side project of Fucked Up's Ben Cook together with Aerin Fogel. They declare their name comes from a straight forward love to Amaro, an Italian drink that means bitter, and they say they are cave pop stars of the future.
The four songs on this record are great but I'm specially in love with Warrior, the first track on this EP. The songs are pretty accessible even the sound is demo quality, and the combination of both voices blend perfectly with Aerin's reminding me of Siouxsie's circa The Scream. And they have a bunch of new things coming up: a new 7' in Capture Tracks in some weeks and many cassettes in different labels.

The Vivian Girls have been lucky. They got a lot of media attention with a couple of singles and one LP and they probably were the first ones who didn't expected. Their music is simple, they don't offer anything new or different from many other bands but they make songs that stay with you forever after a couple of listenings. And they have been touring since they started playing. I was lucky to see them in their first ever non USA gig here in London and the gig was fun even they were incredibly nervous and couldn't believe they were here.
Between gig and gig they have already managed to record their second album to be released later this year. And this single, not sure if it's going to be included in their new record, has been put out this week. And as with many of the new songs I heard at that gig, they have put the tempo a bit down and I have to say it works so well with them. These two songs are the closest they've been to a ballad and are also two of the best tunes they have done.

Released 11/05/09


Vivian Girls - Moped Girls.mp3

I never was a Belle and Sebastian fan. Actually I never payed much attention to them as I used to hate their fans. Sometimes it takes something as stupid as this not to like a band but this was the case until long after they stopped making any good albums, by the time of their fourth I think, that a friend of mine insisted I should listen carefully to the red album (Belle and Sebastian fans don't call their albums by their names, they do it by the colour of the covers and they also used to wear shirts and ties in Spanish summer festivals at more than 40 degrees) and I really enjoyed it but never aroused my curiosity to check the rest of the records. But now, Stuart Murdoch has a new project, God help the Girl, and I felt I could give it a try. And it feels so Belle and Sebastian from the beginning; the cover is 100% his style, two melancholic girls thinking, but this time is not monochrome, the same as the song on the A side, Come Monday Night, full of string arrangements, pretty 60s sunshine pop with female vocals, pretty catchy and beautiful and pretty "red album though" which I think it's good. The B side though, Howard Jones Is My Mozart, is the most experimental you can imagine this guy to be, being a kind of recited diary page of one of the melancholic girls of the cover, I imagine, with different musical parts of different styles, sometimes more folky, sometimes more jazzy but interesting anyway. And yes, all the songs in this project are going to be sung by girls, none by him, and are supposed to be the soundtrack of a musical film.
Who knows, maybe one of these days I'll try to listen to another colour...

I got to this project when I saw that Hektor Fontanez, the only official member of the band, is also a member of Twi the Humble Feather, previously commented in a post here, and was surprised by the delicacy of his compositions, getting most of his influences from underground Japanese music and even singing in Japanese in some songs and being helped by other people in some occasions. These influences are filtered through a contemporary point of view and different recording techniques or instrumentation, from more traditional pop songs to electro-acoustic landscapes with complex arrangements.
I've been a long day trying to find as much information as possible of this project and it's been hard to find out if he has ever published anything as some records are mentioned in some websites but couldn't discover if they were already published and how you could get them. The thing is that finally I could see he's published two CDRs, As Toys We Made and Bee Sider, and a collaboration EP, 3 Little Stones ( Toy Piano Fanfare with Steve Dacosta ) and the My Pal Foot Foot + Alias Pail split album, that was the result of a pen pal relationship between both bands that end up in a collaboration. After listening to some songs of both bands you can understand why. Everything's only been released on CD unluckily, in the last couple of years. You can check in his LastFM profile to see how to get some of them. I haven't been able to listen to all these records but the songs I've managed to listen to on line are worth the effort of trying to get these releases and wait for more to come, hopefully on vinyl.

Thee Oh Sees is not a new band, actually they have many albums and EPs released but it's not been since last year's The Masters Bedroom Is Worth Spending A Night In that they've had a bit of international success. Over the years and the records they have had some transformations: while at the beginning it was a scape for John Dwyer to create instrumental and experimental tunes, they have developed into a more traditional band influenced by 60s garage bands like The Sonics, surf, punk and twee indie noise bands to create catchy songs to sing and dance. And this is definitely their year with the recent publication of Help, their best album to date, and many EPs and singles on the way. It's already a cult band with many crazy fans paying huge amounts of money on Ebay for old, deleted and limited hard to find stuff which only means they are a step further to reach a wider public.

Thee Oh Sees - Carol Ann.mp3

Yes, it looks like we can never have enough of bands coming from Brooklyn this year, even more if they are pure DIY, Lo-Fi and inspired by Guided By Voices or Beat Happening. And yes, there's a Brooklyn scene or at least this is what it seems from the distance in a year that London is particularly quiet after a couple of years of really interesting new stuff. And this time, once again released by Lost Music, Kevin Alvir (formerly of Lil Hospital) is fronting Knight School, his new project with two more members whose debut The Poor and Needy Need to Party is already a secret sensation. Simple songs and simple arrangements, no production and 14 songs in less than 30 minutes about unpredicted pregnancy, Oprah Winfrey or vampires that are going to transport you on time to the first time you listened to Jamboree or Bee Thousand.