Heart-Sick Groans – Look!!! These Three Painters of Hits Have Done It Again 7.7

                   Sweden exports a great deal of cheerful bands. Perhaps there’s a certain struggle with the dark cold place to bring happy joyful music. If that’s the case, then Heart-Sick Groans work tirelessly to make the environment a little warmer, a little happier. With only 15 minutes, they make you wish they had written a few more songs. 

                No worries though. Their music is as casual as casual can be. All the arrangements are ideal, perfect. Right from the beginning “Ballajero Beach” you’re brought into the beginning of summer. Every promise that beginning offers is displayed on this collection of six songs. It breezes by with a smile.

                My favorite song on here would have to be “Last Night Out with the Gang”. Yeah, don’t worry. The song titles give you a pretty good idea of the hanging out vibe existing all over the place. Vocals match the mood set by the instruments themselves. As a personal preference, I enjoy the more low-key, slower tempo songs. 

                The whole thing is great. Reading that they’ve been around since 2007, I hope they continue to keep putting out sweet little gems. For while I would enjoy every group releasing albums, I understand that may not work out the best for all bands. Heart-Sick Groans do this music out of a sense of love for the sound, and you can really hear it.

Airliner – None LP 7.8

                 Airliner is described as “Slow Motion Funk”. Think of Boards of Canada and imagine if they decided to dabble in funk. Yes, it is that good. While Seth Haley (better known as Com Truise) has been working with these kinds of sounds for a while, this may be the best stuff I’ve heard from him yet.

                The melodies get struck in your head. Each song sounds pristine, crystal clear. Bass-wise, it is a real treat, as he focuses mostly on the deeper sounds. So when you listen, the beats hit hard. If you have headphones, I’d strongly recommend them for this album which breezes by in its 30 minutes.

                “Everyday” sounds fantastic and is probably one of my favorites. As I listen to it, I’m kind of amazed at how perfect the sounds are. It makes me wish for more a clear blue sky to look up at as it plays. This is clearly meant for warm weather and the song positively radiates warmth. My other favorite would be the longest track on here “Illuminism”. Actually, when I hear this, I’m a bit surprised at how few electronic artists are able to capture funk properly. Usually I hear something a bit overdrawn like Dam-Funk’s work. 

                Where Airliner succeeds is with the execution and editing of these songs. Melodies are memorable, the beats are great, everything’s clear, and the bass is smooth. This may be the best thing I’ve heard from Seth Haley yet, which is saying something considering all the good work he’s done. Please give this a listen on his bandcamp.

Girlhood – Epilepsy Overview 7.7

               Edouard Urcadez’s solo project focuses on some heavier, noisy sounds. The second release in the cryptic weirdness of the ongoing experiment called “HolyPageRecords” it is surprisingly moving. I found it moving for the huge amount of patience Edouard employs in the pacing and sounds he uses. Usually noise artists are keener to explore pointless aggression, but his ability to infuse a kind of longing, a certain tragedy, is a nice flair. 

                “1995” introduces things with a rather calm approach. As an introduction, it works well, but by being the calmest track of the bunch, it doesn’t really prepare you for what’s going to come. For whatever reason, the sounds of “No Ammo” remind me of a lo-fi Salem. Maybe it’s the blurred lyrics, or the most straightforward beats you find on the album. It might also be the menacing feel of the bass as it hits, distorting things virtually beyond recognition.

                Sometimes though there’s a song in an album which kind of serves as a “thesis statement” or “artist’s intent” and explains everything. For me, that song was “Body Heat”. On here, Girlhood gets into a good mixture of longing and tenderness. The song begins off quiet and slowly builds. Rather than just have it blast off into noise, he keeps its barely restrained, allowing the slight changes in rhythmic impulses do more speaking than any increase in volume could hope to achieve. 

                After that song, everything else on the album starts to make sense. Even the closer “Victimize” presents more tragedy than outright violence. It’s a good, noisy, but oddly endearing end to this rather bizarre EP. Get it free here.

Grandfather – Why I’d Try 8.1

Grandfathers are known for being kind, caring people. They are the sort of people who spoil their grandchildren with diabetes-inducing candy and feigned interest. But this Grandfather is a bit different. Rather than do that cutesy nonsense, he drinks heavily and tells you about how he got into bar fights when he was young, punching multiple people in the face. His closest contemporary would be the grandfather in “Little Miss Sunshine”, shooting up heroin in the bathroom and being extraordinarily cynical.

“Why I’d Try” was produced by Steve Albini at his famed “Electrical Audio” studio over the course of three days. It sounds just as crotchety and warm as they had probably wanted, so their efforts of raising the money to do it were not for naught.

This has a nice range of dynamics. Not only do they focus on the bombastic like “You’re Strange”, but they also work well on the spacious “Caught off Guard”. I’m a bit surprised that Grandfather is from Brooklyn, as they don’t really share the sound that’s popular there right now. It has a good, rough, early 90s sound to it. You know that sound that got ignored as people obsessed about mediocre grunge music. 

My favorite songs would probably be the aforementioned “Caught off Guard” and “By Myself”. The lumbering bass throughout these songs is a pretty nice treat as someone who does have a sort of soft spot for it. Hopefully these guys will get a bit more attention, since I’m sort of digging the sound and the fact that there isn’t a weak spot. Also, that my hopes for a 90s revival is coming closer.

As an added bonus Grandfather offers there entire album for download free on bandcamp. Plus, the album artwork is weird as hell.

Free Download

Light Leak – Thoughts of Mirth 7.0

Hailing from Germany, Light Leak knows how to keep it mellow. Perhaps this is the result of Germany’s welfare state, which dictates that each newborn child be given either a copy of Ableton Live or a vintage synthesizer. This is to ensure Germany’s supremacy in the non-shitty techno market. Fortunately, Germany faces little challenge in the international techno industry.

Listening to this, I hear a little bit of an Ulrich Schnauss influence, mostly his earlier stuff, like “Far Away Trains Passing By”. The sounds are gentle, tender to the touch. Even the percussion used sounds small and delicate. Songs like “Disposable” use stuttering beats to get their point across.

Generally speaking, I like the more atmospheric, quieter songs. “Holga”, “Fin” and “Reversal” are probably my favorites of the bunch. Hopefully he continues following his muse with this sort of stuff. Also, although it is technically labeled as “chillwave” it sounds more like something that would be found in your average City Centre Offices release, so he’s moving towards the right direction. This is a strong debut.

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