When will the “Gloss Drop” by Battles?

                Battles helped me through 2007, one of the first years I had at work. Each time I re-visit “Mirrored” I think about the first time I truly felt independent. What I liked about Battles was how many different, somehow difficult snobbish genres into a likable whole. Usually I found myself forcing experimental music onto people. Now that Battles existed, I had a good ‘starting point’ to help people begin explorations of weirder genres like Post-Rock, Math Rock, or Experimental Rock. Certainly it helped when I tried to get people into Don Caballero. 

                People liked their sense of humor. For a purely instrumental band to have such a well-developed humor is rare. Trans Am had this as well, though Battles avoided that level of irony. Songs like “Atlas” and “Tonto” were full of life. They managed to both rock and experimentation with certain silliness. Actually, this used to be a lot more commonplace. Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart would be the two best examples of humor walking hand-in-hand with musical experimentation. I don’t know what happened to that sense of giddy discovery, but there seems to have been a halt to such things happening for the most part, at least on American soil in US-based bands. 

                Battles were here to defeat the po-faced experimental snobs. I thought how wonderful it was Battles broke down this wall between the two concepts. Countless times they visited New York City, usually for free. Each and every time I missed them, due to conflicts with time and space. As I heard they were releasing a second album, I grew excited at the prospect of it. Figuring they would be back, I felt happy. Gloss would drop. 

                Well, Battles are going to every place on Earth except New York. Shoot, they are even headed to Iowa City before they get to New York. I don’t want to say I’m insulted but I sort of am. Also, Tyondai Braxton, the wonderful guy who did the awesome electronic tricks (such as the vocal distortions on “Atlas”) has left the group as well. For a little while I wondered what kind of sound Battles might have without him, as I enjoyed his contributions. Tyondai brought levity to a group of people more familiar with Post-Rock than anything approaching fun.

                Some things never change. Warp Records still does an extremely poor job of preventing leaks. I don’t know why they are so terrible at it. Perhaps the fan boy network which grew up listening to Autechre has taught their offspring how to pirate music.  Whatever the reason may be, you can’t ignore that “Gloss Drop” leaked so badly morons who still use KaZaa could find it. The leak coming out so early boded well. Bands who leak early are generally beloved enough and the album worth it enough, particularly if the leak is of high sound quality. 

                How’s the album? It is still fun. After giving it a listen-through it will make “Best New Music”. I mean, there are members of the Boredoms at work on here. Will it get above its last score on Pitchfork? Considering they last got a 9.1 I doubt it. I think it is a good album but not as good or revolutionary. They basically hone their craft on here and continue to have fun. Pitchfork will probably give this album somewhere in the low to middle 8s for it. Most realistically it’ll get an 8.4 which appears to be their default best new music score. Everyone will remain happy if slightly disappointed at Battles’ inability to innovate beyond their original sound.

                An album roughly as good as a debut is nothing to worry over. Considering the quality contained within, it is still something I imagine will get trapped in my brain. I’d recommend it. Every second there’s about 80 different things happening. The prog rock tendencies haven’t been tempered. Just think of it as a polished version of their first album and you’ll be fine.

Gescom – Gescom EP 7.5

For me, Gescom appealed to me as the place where I got to hear Autechre cut loose. Usually they concerned themselves with making another extremely relevant and critically acclaimed album in their day job. Gescom allowed them to explore more of their impulses, so you could get a better idea of what they’d do if nobody was watching.

This particular release ends up being probably one of my more beloved Gescom releases. Containing some excellent melodies and that beautiful smell of early 90s IDM, before IDM became extremely stuffy, it works. Only four tracks long, it manages to keep out all filler, leaving only the ‘best of’.

“Dan One” sounds a lot like “Djarum” from their Anti EP of the same year. No worries, it is fine to have two different variations on the same theme. This take has a bit more on it compared to the sparser Autechre version.  “Five” has one of those builds on it. You know, one of those fantastic layers upon layer. Each little segments snaps so perfectly into place, with the slight melodies being embellished more and more as the song grows. 

Finally, the latter half is a bit more ambient in scope. It isn’t the boring type of ambient, it remains teeming with life. Honestly, the latter songs could be placed into an early Future Sound of London album and I don’t think anyone would notice.

I’m thankful that throughout the years they’ve kept up this little side project. By hearing them with some of their defenses down, it shows just how talented they really are in such a crowded field.

The Death of my first Musical Genre (IDM)

Yes, that means there were at least 16 volumes before this.

Everyone remembers growing up with a certain musical genre, one they truly could call their own. For me, that meant the Intelligent Dance Music, or IDM moniker. Used generally for electronic music that remained classified only by its unusual structures and lack of actual dancing, it served as the perfect gateway music for budding music snobs. The price of admission into this genre remained very low, basically anyone with a sense of melody and an interest in non-rhythmic music could join, so long as they had some ultra-cheap music software. 

Intelligent Dance music had to be the first musical genre created by and for the internet. Created in the US of A for the IDM list it was probably one of the first obsessive email lists dedicated exclusively for a specific type of music. Due to its origins in the US, a great deal of artists often described as “IDM” declared the term to be an American construct, particularly Richard D. James (Aphex Twin). Rather than just come to peace with the fairly stupid term, he decided to coin an even stupider term “braindance” and used that heavily for his own Rephlex record label. For whatever reason, the term “braindance” never caught on, probably because it looked so dang awful.

The weird thing remained how I never saw or heard the term “IDM” anywhere besides the internet. Even in what is commonly referred to as “reality” rarely did people bring up any artist who might have been considered “IDM”? What was going on? I later learned that this was an ultra-nerdy sub-sect of music which involved large doses of gear worship and familiarity with various avant-garde composers.

Just as I got it all together, that vast web of interconnected artists, it ended. That knowledge became useless, how this artist related to that one, when this one last put out a record, what record label released their first album. Genres never end swiftly, there’s always a few stragglers, a few artists who continue to follow their path. Listeners are even worse, I can’t tell you how many fans of Aphex Twin I’ve met, of undetermined ages, longing to stay young by listening to the music of their youth, when they were last relevant. 

Putting a year on it, I’d say 2004 marked the end. By then, only a few artists continually brought out a solid product, like Autechre, O9, and Venetian Snares. Most of the others had begun moving in other, more boring, directions. Squarepusher had passed his prime, Aphex Twin remained quiet. Pan Sonic came out with that absolutely monstrous Kesto 4 disc set, but those Finns could easily move themselves into the Glitch/Noise category if push came to shove.  

Snobby music changed in 2004. The indie renaissance began. Whoever were the arbiters of true taste decided that elitist music didn’t need to sound as masochistic as IDM. Instead, dance became simply dance music. DFA records confirmed that it was alright for us to re-explore the past, of what had gone on in that period between 1978-1989 in New York City. Dance music flourished, indie rock flourished. Even those who went the more masochistic route, by taking on noise, found that noise remained a less heavily curated genre than IDM ever was. Lacking the pretention of IDM while maintaining the weirdness, it fit those looking for something less accessible like a glove.

I remember releasing this genre had ended around 2004. As I looked around at the beach I was wandering around my friends put on Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and I simply danced. No longer did I have to use obscure terminology for what I listened to. Instead, simple words like ‘dance’ and ‘rock’ became usable words again. I felt human, like part of a real community, a community that didn’t exist exclusively online. 

Part of me still misses the deeply weird musings of IDM. For that I have a few artists left who occasionally let out a great hurrah every now and then. But for the most part the scene left without announcement into cataloged internet posts, various dusty corners of the web, still keeping them warm with the music of the past.  

What was the hardest genre death for you to handle? Will Chillwave live? Is Witch house a real genre? What will 2011 bring, new genre-wise?

Downliners Sekt – Hello Lonely, Hold the Nation 6.2

Downliners Sekt comes off like communism does for many people: great in theory, bad in practice. Mixing multiple tempos with often juicy bass ought to be a formula for success. Occasionally they do reach that point, of being dubstep meets Autechre, especially on the opening track “u gumbu”. 

Unfortunately, that quality is not maintained for the duration of the EP.  Each track, though not particularly long, outstays its welcome. The attempts to create tension fall flat, most noticeably on the closer “negative green”. 

This isn’t the worst thing I’ve heard, not by a long stretch. But a lot of what has been said about their skill is overstated. Parts of this EP lead me to believe that they will get it together, but they aren’t quite there yet.

SND Week

Yeah, that looks pretty cool.

SND remain a true favorite. When other artists ‘jump the shark’ SND has stayed tried and true to its roots. If they felt that the scene they worked in had grown too overbearing, they simply dropped off the planet. In 2002 they did this and came back about six years later to basically start right back up.

This week I’ll be reviewing almost everything SND-related. Whether that is Mark Fell’s solo work or Mark Fell’s work with other musicians, they are all fair game. As I sorted through the various projects, I noticed how little information exists about what Mat Steel does in the duo. I know they specialize in minimalism, but he takes it to a new extreme. No actual side project or writing from him. Anytime there’s an interview, Mark handles it. Mat’s job might be the ‘weaker link’ of the duo.

Mat: Hey Mark, I added a single beat on that last track. You like it?

Mark: Yes, I mean, there’s about 597 different beats on there, but yours really sounded great in that particular section.

Mat: Anything else I can help with? Perhaps I might assist you with some of the programming?

Mark: While that does sound helpful, you could help me out in other ways. Remember art school? Man that was fun. How about you go downstairs and get me a beer and we’ll talk about it some more.

Mat: Sure thing!

                I’m assuming that their average recording sessions go something like this. But that’s all irrelevant who contributes the most to the music. What their music focuses on is as much what’s there as what isn’t.

                If anyone needed a light introduction into electronic minimalism, they could do worse than this. Containing the same muscle as Autechre without the ornate imagery, they incorporate influences of garage, techno, hip-hop and glitch. I don’t mean glitch in a “aw, how sweet” sense which a lot of musicians use. Rather, it is meant as an easier way to get into the chance rhythms offered up by the experimental musician Yasunao Tone (indeed, that’s what Mark Fell stated inspired his latest album ‘Multistability’).

                 SND in general appears to be in full swing after such a hiatus. Having released an album on the prestigious Raster Noton label last year, they released an EP this year. Solo work-wise, Mark has been busy. Not one, but two full lengths are expected, with the first one on Raster Noton just dropped about a week ago. Then, and hold onto your hats here, there’s another one in December on Editions Mego. Most likely that one will be the harsher, more abstract of the two, but lately Mego’s been harder to predict.

                Yes, I know how infinitely nerdy this duo is. But consider it a testament to the inner nerd that lives in us all.

2010 end of year list begins

Just randomly picked this after googling "2010". This sort of embodies Canada's true colors.

As October reaches an end, I wonder what will make my year end list. Writing each one of these reviews, I kind of get the impression that 2009 was some sort of “bumper crop” kind of year. So many great bands came out of the woodwork, and we even got a new, actually good genre. I’m still going through all the stuff I have from the year prior, and am shocked at the quality. Definitely I shall include an “apologies for 2009” section in the top list this year. 

Sure, I think that hype was uneven distributed this year. Best Coast was an alright debut, but nothing ground shaking. Same goes for the weak genre known as “Witch House” which barely registers as different enough to count as a new category. Other bands from this year mostly got hyped more than needed (like Vampire Weekend or WAVVES, neither of which is bad but not like some sort of musical savior). 

2010 wasn’t a complete wash though. I got to finally see one of my favorite bands (Beach House) get the kind of respect that they deserved.  Autechre made up for being sort of irrelevant lately with their surprising “Move of Ten”, which had some of those melody beat workouts I adore. And yeah, LCD Soundsystem came out with another album, which is pretty much a big deal anyway you cut it. Fortunately I got to see them live as well so that was a big bonus. 10 years later people care about Ariel Pink, but that should’ve happened much sooner. His style just kind of allowed for him to be proclaimed the founder of chillwave, etc. No worries though, he’s at least going to continue to get the needed attention.

Even in such a quiet year things do get overlooked. I though Keith Fullerton Whitman’s work was absolutely stunning this year, particularly the “Generator” release, but barely anyone paid attention. Toro Y Moi got passed over too, which I was disappointed about since so many other “chillwavers” got much more thumbs up. The Chris Weisman and Greg Davis collaboration got zero attention, even though it was a deeply weird and original take on ambient music. Women did get noticed, but a bit more underappreciated than I would have liked. Oh well, I guess I’ll take what I can get. 

A few old faces came back from the cold. We got the much missed Gil Scott-Heron, who put in a solid performance. Oval returned as much and perhaps flooded the market with too much product. No one had heard anything from you in about 8 years, so multiple EPs and a double disc might come off a bit strong Mr. Popp. Speaking of too much, Uffie finally released an actual album, complete with all the disappointment that was expected. And No Age came out with an album that showed an evolution towards a maturing phase without fully abandoning all that chaos that made me like them so much in the first place. 

I feel that the music I listened to and liked the most tended to be either very ambient or dance based. Deepchord Present Echospace ruled so much, as did the brand new project VHS Head, which only teased us with an EP last year.  Indignant Senility came out of nowhere with its ultra-depressing Lynch-informed doom. 

Before I write any of these bands down, I’m going to give the year some time to hand over a few last albums (cough, Panda Bear, cough). Plus, I want to give some albums a chance to shine. Arcade Fire grew on me over the album, and I feel there may be one or two albums that I’ve already listened to but perhaps not fully connected to yet. Sometimes I think bands fail to realize that music is in fact seasonal, and that realizing a sunny cheerful album over the winter is usually a terrible idea. We’ll see what other albums come my way over the next few weeks, but I feel as if most of my top list has already been made.