British Sea Power – The Decline of British Sea Power 8.9

One of the most schizophrenic debuts I’ve ever heard. I really don’t know what possessed them to veer from almost thrash “Apologies to Insect Life” to moody ballads “The Lonely” to extended jam pieces “Lately”. Perhaps they felt bored a lot and wanted to do as much as possible in less than 50 minutes. Whatever the reason, the strangest part is how well it all works. 

Comparisons to other bands don’t help you figure out what they are about. The Pixies and the Cure often come up in discussion, which is weird. You should be prepared for what is about to enter your eardrums and watch the volume. At times this goes from very quiet to very loud in a few seconds.

The front end is filled with the more brain burner type of songs. Blasting away through “Flavors in the Beetroot Fields” it only begins to let up around the end of “Fear of Drowning” which offers some breathing room. What “The Lonely” offers is pure tenderness. I dare you to find a song that uses the phrase “Casio Electric Piano” in such an affectionate way. 

“Lately” is easily the winner here. Taking up about a third of the entire playing time, it is worth it. Build-ups are things often forgotten or fudged, but British Sea Power makes it sound genuine and real. A slow burning track, but when it burns, prepare to watch the volume. It hearkens up images of a jam of the best kind, unencumbered by ego or pretension. 

Probably one of the most adventurous approaches to pop music I’ve heard in a while.

Mark Fell – Ten Types of Elsewhere 7.7

Mark Fell is a pretty accomplished interdisciplinary artist. Besides being one half of “SND” he also does live performances of both sound and vision. This particular release “Ten Types of Elsewhere” deals with his installation work. Despite the disparate nature of the works, it does have its own unifying theme.

44 tracks might seem like a lot to wade through, but really it is more like 9 tracks, since some of these come together like suites. Rhythm is important on here, though there’s none of trademark SND beats. Beats do pop up occasionally, most notably in the “Storage” and “Ideation” groupings. In fact, each one of those suites seems to have heavily influenced parts of SND’s more recent output.

A lot of the track offer glitch treatments and various scraped guitar sounds. Since so much of it feels cyclical, there’s a certain Zen feeling that is achieved, particularly in the more ambient works. L-NE definitely changed its rules around for a bit for this releases, since a lot of the sounds on here are quite loud, so mind your volume controls, as the bursts are almost at random.

Experimentation is in full force throughout the disc. Towards the end though, that experimental edge is given a soul. Using panning to full effect, the music begins a gentle playfulness, removing all previous harsher edges. “Remote Systems” begins this process, popping from right to left, left to right. 

“Commuting” ends things on a high note. This is one of Mark’s most tender tracks. A soothing ebb and flow of a track drifts along as you float with it. Listen to this one on very, very good headphones. Going on in the background of the ebbs are additional echoes of what you’re hearing. Usually such large scale acoustic experiments are purely academic, but this one feels pure, feels genuine.

I really liked this.