Extreme Spotify Galore - Extended version!

[FalloutBoy]

Ett bortglömt svenskt album från förra året:


Fort Fairfield - The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Tale About Love In Retrospective (2010, Acustronica)

Once upon a time there were two brothers named Tom and John Lück who lived in a mystical-magical kingdom called Jönköping on the southern tip of Sweden’s storm-tossed Lake Vättern. For much of the year it was dark and cold and the mountains loomed and the wind howled and the water turned to ice and the landscape was desolate and bare and the first step outside your door yanked the will to live right out of your shivering chest.

A conventional reaction to the cold would have been to wait it out on the couch with reruns of The Brady Bunch while noshing breakfast cereal out of the box, but the Lück brothers chose instead to contemplate foreign films, local birds, world subcultures, and the beauty of the great luscious void that is reality. And to create weird, introspective washes of electronic sound punctuated with sound bites culled from God knows where. (I didn’t want to know—that would have spoiled the mystery—so I didn’t ask, but they sound like snippets from police scanners, ‘60s soul tunes, films, and overheard conversations.)

The track titles are poetry (e.g., “The Forest Awakens at Night to Reveal Another World”), enhancing the evocative nature of the sounds, and the cover art is a delightful black and white ‘50s memorabilia photo of a man and a toddler on a beach, apparently having little to do with the album title or, as far as I can see, any of the content. I love it.

I remember listening to this kind of slow, sweeping synthesized music during the ‘80s on Brave New Waves and Nightlines on the CBC when I was working the night shift at the local airport. If another dispatcher happened to be present then three in the morning bore witness to the most bizarre conversations I’ve ever shared in.

My favourite was when a middle-aged father of two turned to me from a bastion of shiny, humming buttons and knobs and mused: It makes you wonder what life is all about. And where are the descendants of Jesus Christ?

With synthesized musical angst droning on in the background, such questions were unnerving but utterly appropriate.

Lots of similarities between Swedes and Canadians, like latitude, love of the outdoors, a melancholy streak, and, best of all, the tendency to feel like you’re not really alive unless you’re experiencing bitter cold, physical exhaustion, and the fear of death.
-- http://www.voicemagazine.org/articles/c ... p?ART=7179

http://open.spotify.com/album/6lTkezQlcI5q6zjiYvRWJq

[FalloutBoy]

Ett annat fint svenskt album från förra året:


Wildbirds & Peacedrums - Rivers (2010, The Leaf Label)

På Rivers, Wildbirds & Peacedrums tredje album, samlas låtar som tidigare givits ut på två vinyler.

Den första heter Retina och innehåller fem låtar inspelade tillsammans med samma kör, Schola Cantorum Reykjavik Chamber Choir, som Björk använde på magiska Medùlla. Gissa om mina förväntningar sköt i höjden när jag först fick veta det.

Andra delen gavs ursprungligen ut som Iris och är fem låtar inspelade i den form vi är vana att höra Wildbirds & Peacedrums. Som slagverk och sång alltså.

Alltihop är inspelat under fem dagar i januari 2010 på Island med Ben Frost och Paul Evans bakom spakarna. Hildur Gudnadottir från Múm har hjälpt till med körarrangemangen.

Det var den torra redovisande delen.

Min kärlek till den här duon känner inga gränser. Jag tycker att Wildbirds & Peacedrums är alltigenom fantastiska.

På låtarna från Retina är stämningen mer högborgerligt kyrklig än jag är van. De mäktiga, men i fösta hand utsmyckade, körarrangemangen svävar som slöjor runt Mariam Wallentins djupt bluesiga röst och lockar fram en helt ny sida av duon. Det är ödesmättat, vackert och andäktigt. Här är det Wallentins röst som står i centrum, allt annat finns där för att bära upp den.

Inte heller låtarna på Iris är riktigt lika köttigt primala som de på The Snake. Andreas Werliins rytmer tar ändå betydligt större plats här och det är svårt att göra annat än att ryckas med. Trummorna är fläskigare och mer utmanande. Tempot generellt relativt lågt.

Allt är alldeles, alldeles underbart.
-- http://dagensskiva.com/2010/08/25/wildb ... ms-rivers/

http://open.spotify.com/album/58yJIyMbqcKTfglDvRg9E0

[phloam]

Ambient!

O Yuki Conjugate - The Euphoria of Disobedience

http://open.spotify.com/album/71zPV75qwg2vmKDgwrRV4m




Ej genomlyssnat men gruppen/plattan verkar intressant.

[FalloutBoy]

O Yuki Conjugate - The Euphoria of Disobedience

Ej genomlyssnat men gruppen/plattan verkar intressant.

De är ganska ojämna, men stundtals bra. Har inte hört just det albumet, så tack för tipset!

---

Ny EP från Finlands bästa folktronicaband:


Paavoharju - Ikkunat Näkevät EP (2011, Fonal)

One of Finland's most precious musical exports, Paavoharju, have been far too quiet of late, so Fonal have rounded up seven tracks including exclusive and alternate versions from their two peerless albums. Covering cherished older ground, you'll find a slightly abbreviated mix of the sparkling, Kylie-esque 'Kevätrumpu' and the swelling folk rock of 'Aamuauringon Tuntuinen', but fans will probably be almost over-familiar with those by now, as lush as they are. The new material is worth the wait, sashaying from ghostly coastal ambience in 'Tulilehtisade', through deliciously frothy piano and mossy atmospheres of 'Tuonen Marja' and the crackling embers of 'Mista Hän Oli Tullut', sounding uncannily like a spiked Clams Casino cut. Highly recommended.
-- http://boomkat.com/downloads/424449-paa ... at-n-kev-t

http://open.spotify.com/album/061TRS80QPgZ1NIXNV1Axx

[FalloutBoy]

Larsen - Cool Cruel Mouth (2011, Tin Angel Records)

Larsen, from Torino, Italy, may be a new name to many DiS readers, but over the course of 15 years and 13 albums they’ve collaborated with enough avant-rock royalty to make Will Oldham jealous. This writer’s first encounter was the XXL pairing with Xiu Xiu – a relatively tranquil, synth-led affair – but they’ve also worked with Michael Gira and Jarboe of Swans, the mainstays of Supersilent, Nurse with Wound, Johann Johannsson, and on Cool Cruel Mouth Little Annie on vocals, and Baby Dee on piano.

'Authenticity' is as much a cringeworthy term as almost anything prefixed 'avant-' but it’s fair to say that Larsen are closer in spirit to Seventies krautrock than most current post-rock groups, and hence closer to what Simon Reynolds originally meant by 'post-rock', writing about Bark Psychosis, late-Talk Talk, Tortoise, and others in the mid-Nineties. Personally, I love formulaic crescendo-rock from Texas as much as loopy German hippie collectives, but often find myself thinking how few Anglophone bands right now dare to be as eclectic as those pioneering Europeans. It’s in that respect that Larsen are 'authentically' Seventies, eschewing the safety of stylistic homogeneity. In a nutshell, this record sounds like Can, Neu!, or Harmonia with the acid-freak ranting replaced by a torchsinger (which is a good nutshell to be in). But it’s also so much more than that.

Many of the tracks here slide into a loose, jazzy groove, and Little Annie’s nicotine-roughened croon (reminiscent of Laurie Anderson) provides that missing link to the nightclub; the woozy late-night moment when the glitterball makes you believe you’re seeing galaxies swirling around you, before you go back to being in the club, and it's no less visionary. Opening with ‘It Was a Very Good Year’ (an excellent, if not superior rendition of Frank Sinatra’s standard) Larsen establish the one pole of what they’ll be doing here, but the undercurrent of dread – the possibility the singer’s viewing everything through the bottom of a glass – make it a perfect fit. The second track (‘Existential Joe’) establishes the opposite pole, riffing on images of Fifties Beatnik / Rive Gauche cool that replaced Sinatra’s generation, over a near-cover (or affectionate rip-off) of Neu! Sure, this sounds excessively retro, but the secret agenda here seem to be to trace the continuities between the sounds and signifiers of hipster cool across almost a century, meaning that Harmonia are as much a reference point here as (excellent Fuck Buttons spin-off) Blanck Mass.
-- http://drownedinsound.com/releases/1635 ... ws/4143045

http://open.spotify.com/album/3KY5I5toPW3xF26RzBgMKH

[shifts]

Oj, Larsen med nya skiva är alltid en liten happening. Hade ingen aning, det
var ett mycket välkommet tips!

[shifts]

En klassiker och om jag skulle välja en enda skiva som favorit, skulle det
nästan utan tvekan bli denna. Har länge saknats på Spotify.



The Microphones - The Glow pt. 2:
http://open.spotify.com/album/33q3xs0W6Q1ww9pr8Iiwfe

[FalloutBoy]

Oj, Larsen med nya skiva är alltid en liten happening. Hade ingen aning, det var ett mycket välkommet tips!

Han verkar vara inne i en produktiv period för han släppte faktiskt ett annat album tidigare i år. Ett samarbete med Z'ev som delvis är inspelat live.
Betydligt mer experimentellt:
http://open.spotify.com/album/0YHEh1RlYYJE1zEmeqYEqu

En klassiker och om jag skulle välja en enda skiva som favorit, skulle det
nästan utan tvekan bli denna. Har länge saknats på Spotify.

Instämmer. Det är på tiden att herr Elverum blir ordentligt representerad på Spotify.
Och förutom "The Microphones" finns också fler album med "Mount Eerie":
http://open.spotify.com/artist/4Sw0SFu1fFdYXdAEVdrqnO

---

Och när jag ändå håller på så kan jag tipsa om några aktuella EPs, bl.a. från en viss österrikare.


Fennesz - Seven Stars EP (2011, Touch)

Fennesz's first formal solo release since 2008's Black Sea LP is as impeccably wrought and moving as you'd expect from the Austrian master, comprised of four pieces that are short in duration but cosmic in scope. He really is at the top of his game at the moment, making some of the most naturalistic, melodically generous but texturally complex music of his career to date: 'Liminal' projects his aching, echo-drenched guitar phrasing across a smoky screen of stirring strings; 'July' is a visceral yet carefully modulated drone piece, with desert-blues inflections rising slowly and elegantly out of forbidding scorched earth ambience. 'Shift' heads into deep space, its stargazing organ tones layered with such grace and authority as to put all those young kosmische chancers to shame, but the best is saved for the closing and title track: there's a return to the plangent, reverbed guitar chords and liturgical strings of 'Liminal', but this time brushed drums and bass are deployed to give all that yearning some extra movement and direction. Most artists would struggle across an album to achieve the depth, range and all-round grandeur that Fennesz compresses into this superlative 10".
-- http://boomkat.com/downloads/430611-fennesz-seven-stars

http://open.spotify.com/album/69obTYUXQI5RzMZjDe12cM

---


Barn Owl - Shadowland EP (2011, Thrill Jockey)

San Francisco's Barn Owl follow their widely acclaimed Thrill Jockey debut 'Ancestral Star' with the arrestingly evocative evolution of 'Shadowland', a truly outstanding record matching the panoramic visions of Ennio Morricone or Stephen O'Malley. For the past five years it's been a rare pleasure to witness the duo of Jon Porras and Evan Caminiti plane their majestic sound to a transcendent blend of panoramic guitar vistas and levitating synth music which they can proudly call their own. Each new transmission from their perch is greeted with bated breath and consumed like the lushest mid-winter fruit by a range of listeners who hear the genius in their scope and ability to pan the trace elements of drone, americana, black metal and ambient music into a dissolute, distinctive whole. Recorded by Phil Manley of Trans Am, and mastered at Berlin's D&M, 'Shadowlands' is a sumptuously rendered trip gliding from the Popol Vuh-like choral synth ascension of 'Void And Destruction', through the hallucinatory guitar mantra of the title track, and over to the remote wilderness of 'Infinite Reach'. This record is a monolithic episode in Barn Owl's catalogue and one we urge you to spend some time with. Recommended.
-- http://boomkat.com/downloads/416898-barn-owl-shadowland

http://open.spotify.com/album/4mJibmX8aNIeIqL01ZoIor

---


Eternal tapestry & Sun Araw - Night Gallery EP (2011, Thrill Jockey)

Raw but focussed, searching psychedelia from two beautifully attuned producers on Thrill Jockey. They first met as participants of NNF's Neon Commune festival in 2007, a label with whom they both share a great affinity, working deeper into those mutual similarities through four tracks oscillating between head-lolling ambient psych and more motorik krautrock. The Dub influence of Sun Araw is largely left at home in favour of a more linear lean, growing from swirling organ and guitar in 'Night Gallery I' to tentatively find a more percussive groove, so you're stomping by 'II', clawing at the sky by 'III' and on a dizzily slow descent by the epic conclusion of 'IV'.
-- http://boomkat.com/downloads/428025-ete ... ht-gallery

http://open.spotify.com/album/5rXuj2yA0AOoBzSgXlT5fN

[shifts]

Fenneszvinylen är redan beställd, men lite störigt att den redan finns på
Spotify, då CD-versionen ännu inte är släppt. Hade gärna sett att jag fått ha
juvelen ett tag. Ägandets glädje liasom.

Edit: Med tanke på den återkommande knäppningen skivan genom på Spotify,
antar jag att det är en vinylripp som ligger där. Hoppas inte samtliga exemplar
är så skadade som det där.

[FalloutBoy]

Edit: Med tanke på den återkommande knäppningen skivan genom på Spotify, antar jag att det är en vinylripp som ligger där. Hoppas inte samtliga exemplar är så skadade som det där.

Jag vet inte vad de gjort, men något allvarligt fel i överföringen är det i alla fall. Båda kanalerna har ett periodiskt knäppljud som ligger konstant över alla spåren, men det är betydligt starkare i den vänstra.

Här ser det ut i ett tyst passage (mellan två spår):


Köpte FLAC-versionen för att jämföra och den har inte det här problemet, så den kommande CD-versionen borde också vara oförstörd.

[xeizo]

Edit: Med tanke på den återkommande knäppningen skivan genom på Spotify, antar jag att det är en vinylripp som ligger där. Hoppas inte samtliga exemplar är så skadade som det där.

Jag vet inte vad de gjort, men något allvarligt fel i överföringen är det i alla fall. Båda kanalerna har ett periodiskt knäppljud som ligger konstant över alla spåren, men det är betydligt starkare i den vänstra.

Här ser det ut i ett tyst passage (mellan två spår):


Köpte FLAC-versionen för att jämföra och den har inte det här problemet, så den kommande CD-versionen borde också vara oförstörd.

Det där ser ut som ett sample-rate konverteringsfel, månne har de utan eftertanke konverterat en 24/96-FLAC till ogg 16/44.1 rakt av utan att provlyssna, sånt där händer nämligen ibland med vissa converters. Om det är vinyl kanske de har rippat i 24/96, och sen ...
Fast då borde det iofs varit lika starkt i båda kanalerna tycker man.

[shifts]

Oj! Det ligger inte konstant starkare i vänster kanal heller, utan förflyttar sig
ibland mer mot mitten av ljudbilden.

[FalloutBoy]

Det där ser ut som ett sample-rate konverteringsfel, månne har de utan eftertanke konverterat en 24/96-FLAC till ogg 16/44.1 rakt av utan att provlyssna, sånt där händer nämligen ibland med vissa converters.

Det verkar mindre troligt. Har aldrig stött på en SRC som beter sig på det viset. Jag skulle gissa att felkällan (trasig komponent/trafo?) ligger innan A/D-omvandlingen (om källan nu var vinyl).

Oj! Det ligger inte konstant starkare i vänster kanal heller, utan förflyttar sig ibland mer mot mitten av ljudbilden.

Ja, störningen i den högra kanalen märks mer när musiken blir starkare. I den vänstra är den såpass stark hela tiden att det inte märks lika mycket.

[oljud]

....

Och när jag ändå håller på så kan jag tipsa om några aktuella EPs, bl.a. från en viss österrikare.


Fennesz - Seven Stars EP (2011, Touch)

Fennesz's first formal solo release since 2008's Black Sea LP is as impeccably wrought and moving as you'd expect from the Austrian master, comprised of four pieces that are short in duration but cosmic in scope. He really is at the top of his game at the moment, making some of the most naturalistic, melodically generous but texturally complex music of his career to date: 'Liminal' projects his aching, echo-drenched guitar phrasing across a smoky screen of stirring strings; 'July' is a visceral yet carefully modulated drone piece, with desert-blues inflections rising slowly and elegantly out of forbidding scorched earth ambience. 'Shift' heads into deep space, its stargazing organ tones layered with such grace and authority as to put all those young kosmische chancers to shame, but the best is saved for the closing and title track: there's a return to the plangent, reverbed guitar chords and liturgical strings of 'Liminal', but this time brushed drums and bass are deployed to give all that yearning some extra movement and direction. Most artists would struggle across an album to achieve the depth, range and all-round grandeur that Fennesz compresses into this superlative 10".
-- http://boomkat.com/downloads/430611-fennesz-seven-stars

Oj jäklar den hade jag helt missat, tack för det tipset. Dock mycket irriterande med klickandet, blir nog till att lägga en beställning på denna istället.

Fin tråd med mycket bra som man inte visste att man saknade. Så mycket bra musik, så lite tid

-o

[shifts]

En av mina stora ambientfavoriter och den största anledningen till att jag skaffade mig stora basmoduler, Tomas Köner:

Tomas Köner- Teimo
http://open.spotify.com/album/76FkQcJMz7ichnvIUZoYRm

Tomas Köner - Permafrost
http://open.spotify.com/album/2ZpPLucGp86PKzgFiqahGw

Tomas Köner - Nunatak
http://open.spotify.com/album/1ITk3cbPT4Ar4w1d5xEler

[sensei74]

Nu är jag äntligen nöjd. Contemporary Country -- bara de bästa låtarna, och dessutom i optimal ordning.

http://open.spotify.com/user/sensei74/p ... Qg3DF73nMp

Enjoy.

[FalloutBoy]

The War On Drugs - Slave Ambient (2011, Secretly Canadian)

Slidin'. Ramblin'. Driftin'. Movin'. Strugglin'. The War on Drugs frontman Adam Granduciel is all of these things on Slave Ambient, the Philly outfit's second full-length release. Given these professed feelings of restlessness and uneasiness, it's no surprise the band's hypno-roots-rock is all about forward motion and momentum, favoring steady, locomotive rhythms that rarely pause or waver-- elements that reinforce Granduciel's efforts to make his problems disappear in the rearview mirror.

Slave Ambient shares several qualities with its 2008 predecessor, Wagonwheel Blues: a sense of open-freeway abandon and splendid isolation set against a glorious expanse; an unabashed admiration for FM-radio Americana icons of yore (Springsteen, Dylan, Petty); and a willingness to buff the band's gritty edges with serene, if randomly deployed, instrumentals and reprises. In other words, the War on Drugs still deal in "excellent road trip music," as Pitchfork's Stephen Deusner described Wagonwheel Blues. However, this time Granduciel is less interested in documenting the environmental and economic travesties he sees unfolding outside his window as he is the internal dramas swirling around in his head. Nearly every song here expresses some desire to get outta town and start anew.

The band responds by amplifying the more textural qualities of their sound: dreamy synth drones, liquefied electric-guitar leads that linger and fade like raindrops rolling down the windshield, and the most tasteful use of smooth saxophone this side of Kaputt. (Interestingly enough, Slave Ambient was recorded without founding member Kurt Vile, who applies a similarly lysergic approach on his latest solo release, Smoke Ring For My Halo-- for fans of rustic rock'n'roll, the two albums collectively yield an embarrassment of riches not experienced since Wilco and Son Volt released A.M. and Trace in tandem.) When the band's wide-screened psychedelic flourishes are fused with Granduciel's well-worn Dylan- and Petty-isms, songs like "Brothers" and "It's Your Destiny" wondrously conjure nothing so much as the Traveling Wilburys recording for mid-1980s 4AD. Or in the case of the excitable "Baby Missiles" (a holdover from last year's stop-gap Future Weather EP), it's as if the Spiritualized and Springsteen albums filed alphabetically next to one another in your record collection had melted together on a hot August afternoon.

But as much as the War on Drugs make music to accompany an escape to something better, they're the sort of band that believes the journey is more important than the destination. The songs on Slave Ambient don't necessarily end in a place very different from where they began, but through subtle sonic manipulations and layering-- like in the last two minutes of opener "Best Night", where the guitars, piano, and melodica start to blur into the same blissful wavelength-- they give the impression that a great distance has been traveled. The really amazing thing about the album is how anthemic and affirming it feels despite the near total absence of proper sing-along choruses. Case in point, centerpiece track "Come to the City" is all about ascension, rising out of the miasmic haze of preceding interlude "The Animator" and gradually accruing all the confidence and verve of Live Aid-era U2. But rather than work up a chest-thumping, Bono-worthy wail, Granduciel is happy to sit back and ride out the song's dense waves of sound, to prolong the euphoric feeling of anticipation-- the road trip he's soundtracking is very much his own, and he's as much a slave to the ambience as we are.
-- http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/157 ... e-ambient/

http://open.spotify.com/album/4136oTfNt4X3nw0zP1w2NG

[FalloutBoy]

Siinai - Olympic Games (2011, Splendour)

Finska kvartetten Siinai debuterar på norska Splendour med en försiktigt magnifik liten skiva präglad av tydliga ekon från kultbandet Spacemen 3 och vidare bakåt till episkt glimrande tysk sjuttiotalskraut och amerikansk garagepsykedelia. De har därmed nära själsfränder i göteborgska Ikons och frossar liksom dessa i syntetiska körer, skira syntljud, monotont malande boogiegitarrer och raka motorikrytmer som strävar mot horisonten som en solblekt autobahn. Temat på den helt instrumentala skivan kretsar kring München 1972 (när och var annars) och ger en stilfull inramning till ett stilfullt album att försjunka i och ryckas med av.
-- http://www.gp.se/kulturnoje/musik/1.684 ... mpic-games

http://open.spotify.com/album/7aAKNVyRhMmspG7rEYKVUU

[FalloutBoy]

The Paradise Motel - I Still Hear Your Voice At Night (2011, Inertia Records)

The Paradise Motel have never been ones to do things the easy or the obvious way. Since their first album in 1997, they have chosen to follow in the footsteps of classic Australian bands such as The Go Betweens, in creating subtle, intelligent pop music, with albums built to last and songs that reveal themselves the more that they are listened to.

This is the case with their most recent release, I Still Hear Your Voice at Night, their second since the group’s reformation in 2008, a comparatively lush affair to last year’s Australian Ghost Story.

Once famously described by The Melody Maker as ‘a deliciously unsettling proposition’, I Still Hear Your Voice At Night is all about the spaces in between words, just as much as it is about the physical and philosophical spaces across this country. The sparse nature of the arrangements, somber lyrics and very particular phrasing of Merida Sussex’s vocals has an unsettling effect indeed. Her almost spoken, breathy incantations occasionally recalling Nico at her most androgynous.

On songs such as “Bear Never Left Her Home” the band take their motto of ‘the violence and the silence’ to a new plateau whereby the melodic instruments take turns in playing single note melodies, the arrangements so sparse, the performance so understated, that the music occasionally threatens to stop completely, leaving just a softly brushed snare drum or Sussex’s voice to continue. Eventually, this amount of tension has to give, and the full band and string section appear for the chorus sections, which is far from ‘violence’, but it is indicative of the delicate level of restraint shown throughout the album. The silence, it turns out, can be much more powerful than the violence.

On “Memory of Leonski” the band manage to make strings, organ and guitars sound dangerous, as Sussex repeats the hook line ‘have you ever lost a lover?’ over and over. The effect is threateningly spooky, the drum beat and the string swells building tension to an almost unbearable point. The song is a definite highlight among a series of great tracks, leading on to “Moonlight and the Scrub” in which songwriter Charles Bickford duets with Sussex, his almost whispered vocal proving a welcome counterpoint to the vocalists own understated style.

On “The Exiles” the fast jazz shuffle beat and surf rock guitars married with strings and violin recalls simultaneously The Boys Next Door and Warren Ellis-era Bad Seeds while allowing the band to cast off some of their built up energy. But this sudden burst of movement is only momentary, as on the title track, abbreviated to ‘Ishy Van’, Sussex and Bickford are accompanied by softly plucked guitars and child singers. They repeat themes and refrains from throughout the album, singing together ‘don’t think of me as someone you knew’ in what must surely be the most melancholy sing-a-long ever recorded. Eventually the guest singers and guitars give way, leaving just Sussex repeating over and over ‘I Still Hear Your Voice at Night’, bringing an album that is a lesson in minimalism to its eerie conclusion.

I Still Hear Your Voice At Night is a quietly insistent record, full of maturity and sorrow, and will surely grow upon its listeners with each subsequent play. The Paradise Motel are back, and we are all better off for it.
-- http://www.theaureview.com/albums/the-p ... ht-2011-lp

http://open.spotify.com/album/19TfocAkPOyAeChUI0mLax

[FalloutBoy]

Cough Cool - Clausen (2011, Not Not Fun)

I was really excited to see that NNF had released something from this great band.They have a handful of releases out there, on various labels like Beko and Bathetic, and all of them are worth checking out.Clausen is their most recent album, and also their most diverse.A nose dive into cavernous pop songs and minimalist gloom.Their sound has always been rather dark and looming, with their hushed, haunting vocals and foggy instrumentation.They often dip into big riffs, with walls of shoegazey guitars and swelling synths, but also make good use of open spaces and barely audible tones.Clausen has it all.Each song is completely different from the last, but they all carry this dense and hazy tone, and it makes this a pretty cohesive listen overall.Here we go.
Acid Classics starts things off with a swaggering drum machine groove, joined by layers of bluesy psych riffs, and a faint, distorted sample loops on in the background.It sounds like two men talking into a fan, in a giant metal room.It's easy on the ears, and a nice introduction to the album.Stolen is next, and this is the Cough Cool that I remember.Layers of gentle guitar melodies sneak into your ears, with a bit of wah sprayed over them, and it reminds me a bit of Real Estate.There's a quiet shaker keeping things at a laid back pace, and the vocals are pleasant and almost whispered.This one has a really loose and easy vibe, and I must have played it three times over.Things start to go dark on track five, Sucker, a slow and heavy tune, that barely changes key at all.The whole song is led by a single blown out chord and a syrupy, thudding beat, and the atmospheric harmonies just kind of build up around the two.This one reminded me of Earth's tamer moments.The vocals are again, just a notch above a whisper, but with a much dark and more serious delivery.It's quite hypnotizing, and probably the most addictive track on the album.
Clausen comes to a end with a hissy, daydreamer disco tune called And Nothing Happened.It's almost too perfect of an ending, with the ultra slow bump of the kick and snare, and the ethereal synth delays that sound like they will disappear at any second, but somehow find their way back before completely withering away.It's kind of like blowing bubbles, and just before they burst, you blow a few more to keep things moving.His voice is soothing and gray, and this could be a real bummer, if it weren't so pleasant.HIGHLY Recommended.
-- http://cassettegods.blogspot.com/2011/0 ... -2011.html

http://open.spotify.com/album/3TVnVOTRCDbKM9C7KjAVxV

[FalloutBoy]

He Can Jog - Songbook (2011, Listening Party Records)

Nearly 40 minutes of wonderful ambience from Milwaukee's Erik Schoster aka He Can Jog. Side A ("Saturday on Flushing / Bowing") is a glitchy folktronica anthem set to a slow beat in the vein of Four Tet, Side B ("The Fire Engine (for Mason) with Echo") is even better, a dreamy drone float, shimmering and ever ascending.
-- http://weedtemple.blogspot.com/2011/04/ ... gbook.html

http://open.spotify.com/album/0hdpO0mh2EI29CHMhOp6yN

[FalloutBoy]

Deaf Center - Owl Splinters (2011, Type Records)

It has been over five years since Norwegian duo Deaf Center released their debut album, Pale Ravine, yet the ripples of its impact are still being felt today, so much it has proved at the forefront of a whole movement in contemporary music, its dark textured orchestral bridging the gap between atmospheric electronic music and modern classical. Since, Erik Skodvin, one half of the duo, has, through his solo projects, continued to explore deeply cinematic soundscapes, and has fervently promoted other like-minded artists through Miasmah, the label he originally set up in 1999. Otto Totland has remained more discreet, but he was however noticed as one half of Nest, a project set up with Huw Roberts with whom he released a digital-only mini album a few years ago which they complemented with additional compositions and published as Retold through Roberts’ Serein imprint last year.

Recorded in Nils Frahm’s Durton Studio in Berlin, Owl Splinters is a much more ambitious and accomplished piece of work than its predecessor, yet, Deaf Center have retained much of its clair obscure ambiences and refined soundscapes. Owl Splinters opens with the grainy sound of a bow sliding on strings, solitary at first, then progressively layered into an orchestral drone, propped up by rumbling bass and upon which appears to hang a ghostly choir. Things take on an even more haunting turn with New Beginning (Tidal Darkness). In its first half, the piece is once again a densely layered droning form, but here, the strings appear more dissonant. In the second half, the mood is tempered by a piano, drenched in reverb. Surrounded by a continuous clutter of undefined found sounds and electronics and creeping string work, its spiraling melody sounds drowsy and slightly oppressive.

Deaf Center show a much more acute level of complexity in their compositions this time round, and while the above prove highly effective, this is nothing compared to the progressive soundscapes of The Day I Would Never Have. Spread over nearly eleven minutes, the piece is not without recalling the more intense moments of Murcof’s Cosmos. The piece finds its source in a somewhat peaceful and pastoral piano sequence, with little more than distant found sounds echoing in the background. Things take on a more formal tone past the three minute mark as increasingly domineering strings are infused with occasional flashes of feedback until the density of the soundscape becomes such that no individual sound can filter out anymore. The piece deflates rather suddenly a couple of minutes before coming to a close to reveal once again the flicker of a gentle piano theme. Skodvin and Totland apply a similar process to Close Forever Watching later on. Although nowhere near as developed or ambitious, this composition relies on much of the same elaborate clustering of sounds, reaching a point where its entity is much greater than the sum of its components, before slowly collapsing on itself until there is nothing left. Closing piece Hunted Twice is in comparison much more peaceful, especially in its second part where the piano oversteps the strings, with only the melancholic hum of a cello left as an accompaniment.

In between these, the pair insert more stripped down shorted compositions, often centred around one predominant instrument. Time Spent and Fiction Dawn for instance are wonderfully light and sober piano piece, while, streaked by a cutting cello, Animal Sacrifice appears more mournful and angular, as if it was still feeding from the intensity of The Day I Would Never Have which it follows.

If Pale Ravine proved a defining record, Deaf Center have, with Owl Splinters, greatly expanded on their original template, bringing their stunning compositions to life with deeply organic textures and soundscapes. Owl Splinters is a truly accomplished collection of timeless cinematic music.
-- http://www.themilkfactory.co.uk/st/2011 ... ecordings/

http://open.spotify.com/album/0UCWmdeObrNjjW92mA6bRn

[shifts]

Neurosis - Times of grace: http://open.spotify.com/album/4YSycbGhpYOCpumCTtJTj9

En av mina absolut favoritskivor alla kategorier. Synd att den inte är så bra
inspelad som den skulle kunna vara. Hyfsat bra är den dock och magnituder
bättre än de flesta metalalbum jag hört.

Har man dåligt tålamod kan man börja med låten Under the surface, som då
helt enkelt är en av mina favoritlåtar. Så vansinnigt bra och lyfter ju längre in
i låten man kommer.

Isis, Tool, osv. är mest blöjor jämfört med detta.

[FalloutBoy]

Neurosis - Times of grace: http://open.spotify.com/album/4YSycbGhpYOCpumCTtJTj9

Isis, Tool, osv. är mest blöjor jämfört med detta.

Verkligen.
Det bästa de gjort dessutom, så jag instämmer i rekommendationen.

---

Och nu över till något helt annat:


Lanterns On The Lake - Gracious Tide, Take Me Home (2011, Bella Union)

Newcastle sextet Lanterns on the Lake have been quietly honing their sweeping, cinematic songs for a few years now, emerging with a debut LP refreshingly out of step with any current musical trends. The 11 songs that comprise Gracious Tide, Take Me Home source inspiration from the likes of Sigur Rós and Low; they unfurl slowly and deliberately, awash in melancholy and of a keen, natural beauty.

Hazel Wilde and Adam Sykes handle vocal duties, the latter’s deep Geordie burr complementing Wilde’s feathery, plaintive tones. The two combine wonderfully on If I’ve Been Unkind, against a tapestry of swooning strings, guitar, glockenspiel and synth of the kind that forms the backdrop to most of the songs here. "I sailed the seas; you were never even there" they intone – a line that sums up the direct lyrical approach and preoccupation with the elements felt throughout the record.

Ships in the Rain is one of the highlights here, Wilde taking on the voice of a doomed sailor over a spectral wall of backing vocals; equally effective is ode to friendship I Love You, Sleepyhead, subtle for its first few minutes before mournful strokes of Sarah Kemp’s violin haul it into a rousing finale. Opening song Lungs Quicken furnishes Lanterns’ sound with skittering beats and an insistent, circular glockenspiel shape, while A Kingdom ups the tempo considerably – a sweet, graceful pop song where the violin dances nimbly around interweaving guitar lines. Not to slight the record too much – for it is genuinely gorgeous and played with admirable conviction – but a few more steps in this direction might have given it a welcome jolt, leavening the generally sorrowful tone a little.

Yet that sadness is inseparable from the band’s aesthetic, and going on this and its two preceding EPs (where many of these songs originated), they’re only going to get better at fashioning it into delicate yet sometimes muscular music. Gracious Tide, Take Me Home is a luminous, lilting, lovely debut album, and a perfect mood piece as the nights begin to draw in.
-- http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/pn9p

http://open.spotify.com/album/1zRIx14J26U6SANgfShypH

[FalloutBoy]

Syntaks - Nachtblende (2011, Parallax Sounds)

Hailing from Denmark, Syntaks aka Jakob Skott and Anna Celilia previous releases with record labels like Benbecula, Darla, Ghostly International, Morr Music have all been great pieces of musical works in themselves and so is the musical projects they been involved in with the likes of Jonas Munk of Manual and all.

This latest offering on Parallax Sounds Records is perhaps the broadest ranging Syntaks album to date. It is a massive effort in terms of both style and length, cultivated over the past three years. Nachtblende is the fully realized scope of two danish lover's vision. A vision far removed from the minimalist design and grey skys of Scandinavia.

On the masculine side you got your wall of feedback guitars, swirling arpreggios and dead-pan dusty quater-time beats – all rising, crackling and disappearing into the hemisphere. But what brings the creative counter spark is the muted piano, haunted acoustic guitar picking and wordless soprano sighs of Anna Cecilia.

If making picturesque or cinematic music seems like a concept of the past, Nachtblende is an attempt to rewrite history on it's own terms. Forging a gap between overdriven circuitry and minimalist ambient repetition, Nachtblende moves through the past 30 years of music in it's own unique path.

Drawing on the milestones of Brian Eno & Steve Reich, as well as the Bibio / Takoma-styled folk guitar playing, the ambient textures of Syntaks doesn't stop there - film composers Ennio Morricone, Popol Vuh and John Carpenter flutters through the sonic architecture of the album as well. And then there's the full scope of multi-layered psychedelic pop and kraut-rock as well as the muffled shoegaze-esque cacophony of sounds, so expect similarities to artists like Boards Of Canada, Cocteau Twins, M83, Seefeel, Slowdive, Ulrich Schnauss etc. In the end everything is forged together in a phat inseparable synthesized mix, that is as delicate and fragile as it is dense and ear-shattering. The seemless mix of the turbulence on the surface and the pressure from the bottom is what makes Syntaks an uninhibited display of vibrant emotions, conjured by it's creators inner lives.

The german word Nachtblende is an aberration of the day-for-night filter previously used to taint movies shot during daytime into an illusion of night, also known as La nuit américaine (The American Night).
-- http://www.parallaxsounds.com/#/ps21-sy ... 4552183923

http://open.spotify.com/album/5PRErvSxelOvGm2ySu7kUW

[FalloutBoy]

Zola Jesus - Conatus (2011, Sacred Bones)

In the last three years, Nika Roza Danilova has gone from being an outsider, experimental, teenage noise-maker to a fully-fledged, internationally-celebrated, electronic-pop musician. It was a huge accomplishment, and, despite her age (young), her origins (mid-western, desolate), her accelerated scholastic achievements (high school and college were each completed in three years) and her diminutive physical size (4'11", 90 lbs), she has triumphed. She has emerged as a figurehead — a self-produced, self-designed, self-taught independent woman.

Zola Jesus is not a singer, she is a musician. Zola Jesus is not a band, it is a solo project. That is not to say the people who have helped her along the way were not deeply important. Her irreplaceable live band (whose drummer Nick Johnson lends a hand on several tracks here) and her friend Brian Foote (who co-produced this album), in addition to the live string players who contribute here (Sean McCann, Ryan York), were all crucial in the process. Still, Nika is a woman who can command a room — any room — without needing a band, a stage, or even a microphone. Her voice is unmistakable; it cuts right to the core.

Conatus is a huge leap forward in production, instrumentation and song structure. The definition of the title says it all: the will to keep on, to move forward. From thumping ballads to electronic glitch, no sound goes unexplored on her new record. It is an icy exploration in refined chaos and controlled madness, an effort to break through capability and access a sonic world that crumbles as it shines.
-- http://www.sacredbonesrecords.com/releases/sbr062/

http://open.spotify.com/album/79CumB7u528h1TXeZ2cOe5

[Ton]

Youth Lagoon, bestående av 22-årige Trevor Power har med sin debut "The Year Of Hibernation” gjort en av årets bästa plattor.


http://open.spotify.com/track/2q4gGYNmNYNyqgpVmGJH0c

[phloam]

Denna tråd är rent GULD Jag ska försöka komma ikapp och samla mig till lite lyssningsintryck. bbl!

[Ton]

Denna tråd är rent GULD Jag ska försöka komma ikapp och samla mig till lite lyssningsintryck. bbl!

Visst är den

Bara för det så slänger vi in sveriges bästa platta 2011

http://open.spotify.com/track/4fSq8d1N9PB1UVBRWDWCMj

[FalloutBoy]

Zavoloka - Vedana (2011, Kvitnu)

This album is a continuation of the "natural elements" cycle by Kateryna Zavoloka launched with the work "Viter" (Wind), which was dedicated to the atmospheric air. Well, and "Vedana" – this is already a dedication to water. It is quite logical to assume that the work will be performed in some, say, smooth-noise aesthetics – however, dozens of other assumptions would be logical as well. And what we have – a kind of idm on the verge of electro-rock, against the background of vast layers of sonic fog, with delicate green shoots of tasty "petty sounds", which sometimes turn into true lush thickets of this, that and every other electronic music-playing. After all, water is a very plastic, magical, universal thing. Whatever it is – steam, ice or liquid – it is always remains itself... The same is true regarding Zavoloka's music, which – and in the new album even more than before – tends to certain universality. The more, the easier it incorporates elements of various styles – absorbs, dissolves, combines, converts – and thus remains surprisingly recognizable, does not betray its native riverbed. But – it becomes lighter, more transparent, gentle... It seems that is paces now barely touching the ground. Still, perhaps it should be so with living water...
-- http://www.zavoloka.com/zavoloka_menu_review.htm

http://open.spotify.com/album/0MjbTnOGjWxoA9TkuZeifP