Caribou – Swim (2010)
Genre: Minimal House/Chill-wave
Oo don’t touch me there it hurts, no no do actually I like it I’ve just never been touched there before
Thank God Caribou made the move from progressive indie to progressive indie house (or chillwave as NME describes the album. I prefer house, as that actually tells me something about WHAT IT WILL FUCKING SOUND LIKE). Previous albums have certainly been interesting, but never quite burrowed themselves into your head never-to-be-expunged, often failing to hold attention by sprawling out into what sound like extended jam sessions.
But I’m so glad he’s arrived at this album through the musical trajectory he has. There’s a real organic feel to the album which could only have been created by someone well versed in the rawness of live instrumentation (see the multi-layered percussion section on ‘Bowls’ to get what I mean). Atypically for Dance music, almost all of the instruments are played live rather than sampled.
The sheer originality of this album is what marks it out at first: if there’s a house song as challengingly off-kilter yet imminently danceable as ‘Bowls’ then I haven’t heard it and ‘Sun’ is just one of the best songs of the year. Throughout, Caribou manages to create unexpected mixtures of sound, getting away with shrill squawks and squeaks through subtle counterbalancing with softer sounds and textures. He introduces noises which should be jarring or out of place so seamlessly that the whole thing is elevated to a higher level, as is always the case when you’re made to work that little bit harder for your aesthetic satisfaction.
The album isn’t without its low points, tracks like Kaili are just annoying, largely due to the primacy of Daniel Snaith’s (Caribou’s) voice, which, though ethereal sounding when used sparingly, is too thin and sharp to be placed at the forefront of a song. This is a large drawback on the album, since Caribou’s indie leanings mean that he often strays into the sort of lyric led song-writing absent from most dance. (For good reason in my opinion, it’s hard to sound emotionally sincere with the ski-chalet slickness of house). However, it is a testament to the dizzying high points of this album that such a large flaw is merely consumed within the tapestry of the album as a whole, swallowed up as if it doesn’t even matter by the time you get to the end.
3rd review: 21/08/11
Pantha du prince – Black Noise
Oo stop it stop it don’t touch me there it hurts no no do actually I like it I’ve just never been touched there before
This album is absolutely sick right from the off. Album opener ‘Lay in a Shimmer’ is a perfect indication of what is to come, all shimmering tones and crisp percussion. That is in no way to say that you’ve heard it all once you’ve heard the first song, simply that if you like it, you’ll like the rest of the album. Such is the restless inventiveness of Pantha du Prince that each song constantly keeps you occupied, but steers well clear of the sort of chin-stroking pompousness that that sort of creativity can sometimes bring. If you are someone who likes intelligent dance music that you can dance to, each song with a subtle hook which the rest of the song shifts amorphously around, this is for you. To be honest if you’re not that kind of person, why aren’t you? Doesn’t that sound really good? I used the word amorphously and everything.
Another stand-out track is ‘Stick To My Side’ featuring Panda Bear of individual and Animal Collective fame. His yearning, child-like calls wrap elegantly over the undulating rhythm as the listener is transported to some blissed-out beach out in the ether. Welt Am Draht and Behind the Stars are also highlights.
One qualm I have, and this is clutching at straws made out of soap, but Black Noise is a pretty misleading album title in my mind. Maybe a sort of highly polished black onyx that had come from the heart of a rainbow beast, but I don’t think that’s what he’s getting at. By this I just mean the production is so light and delicate, with each sound and instrument standing alone whilst also blending seamlessly into the whole, whilst Black Noise makes you think of the opposite. Or am I thinking of white noise? Is that the point, that it's the opposite to white noise? My point is that the production’s dead good.
Anyway, literally every song on this album has something to offer and any further description I could give will just fall short. If you like ambient, euphoric, minimal techno then this album is an absolute must.
2nd review: 10/08/11
Janelle Monae – The ArchAndroid
Oo don’t touch me there, no no actually do I like it, I’ve just never been touched there before
What. The. Fuck? One of the most ambitious and varied albums you will hear all year, Monae’s magnum opus is a sci-fi headfuck of the most grandiose proportions. It should fall flat on its oversized, garish head but instead it bursts out of your speakers in celebration: of war, faith, mental health, love, and robots.
Whilst lead single ‘Tightrope’ is obviously superb, its RnB funk impossible not to tap a wigga foot to, this is just one of several highlights on the album, and what’s more each of these stands out for different reasons. The first track is a bite-size classical behemoth, somehow leading seamlessly into the slicked back funkiness of ‘Dance or Die’. This imperceptible shift between polar opposite genres is one of the enduring features of the album and never ceases to amaze. ‘Neon Gumbo’ sounding like an RnB Can (eg ‘Oh Yeah’), ‘Mushrooms and Roses’ a 21st century Strawberry fields, ‘57821’ sounding uncannily like Scarborough Fair etc. And that’s just to name a few.
The reason this all works is because of the sheer honesty of this diversity. As opposed to say, Julian Casablancas’ ‘Phrazes for the Young’, this exploration of the musical spectrum comes straight from the heart rather than the ego. In fact, the album can be nothing but honest because, its whole point is that we are being invited into Monae’s brain, and she’s fucking tapped! (In two separate songs she likens herself to a ‘schizzo’, and both times you’re like, ‘Yessssss you crazy bitch’).
What will lift this album above a ragtag collection of songs with a few standout points into one coherent piece is the listener’s willingness to enter Monae’s world, and, linked to this, to give time to the slower, more romantic songs. Anyone will be a fan of the upbeat dancefloor fillers such as ‘Tightrope’ or ‘Locked Inside’, but it is these other songs that hold the key to the album. Here Monae’s central preoccupation is revealed, namely love and its utter mysteriousness, even relative to the fantastical landscapes she creates. If we give her a chance, it is so easy to be sucked in completely, not least because on several tracks she refers to her lover as ‘you’: ‘imagine I’m holding your hand’ [‘ok’]. To hear this album is to cherish love if you’ve found it, or just to fall in love with Monae if you haven’t , as sad as that sounds. She manages to inject old themes with fresh romanticism through her wonderful, sci-fi imagery (eg‘the neon ballistrade on which we first met’) which allows the album to avoid cliché even when dealing with clichéd themes.
This album certainly won’t be for everyone, it’s about latching onto Monae’s personality as much as her musical vocabulary, and to be honest its camp as hell; a sci-fi ode to the beauty of love, hmm. All I’ll say is, give it a chance, and you’ll at least have an aural girlfriend to stave off the tears at night you pathetic bastard. What? I’m not even bothered, I can get a girlfriend whenever I want I just don’t want to. SHUT UP! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!
1st review: 26/07/11
Phaeleh – Fallen Light
Genre: Nightbus (ask NME), ambient dubstep
Bum sex, any kind
When I first listened to this album it washed over me a little, which I originally put down as a criticism. Even though we are dealing with what is essentially comedown music, which almost by definition is supposed to pass by barely stating its presence, I had put this vague impression down to the quality rather than the style of music. Suffice to say that if I’d written this review after my first listen it would have been very different. At first I listened to the album through Burial tainted spectacles, picking up on the general similarities in the tripping drums and mournful violins. Obviously, Phaeleh came up short, lacking the brooding, sinister ambience that lurks behind every Burial track. But if Burial’s album is for staring your comedown in the face, Phaeleh’s is for one last glorious stab at euphoria, teasing out the final dregs of mephedrone still stuck to the side of your nostrils. In place of Burial’s sparse urban landscapes are lush-tones and multi-tracked vocals that lift the soul. Unfortunately, I haven’t actually been able to test out my final-stab-at-euphoria hypothesis, since I couldn’t convince my employers (parents) that a gram of speed and some ketamine constituted legitimate expenses. Also, if you’re wondering why I keep comparing Phaeleh to Burial when they aren’t even that alike, it’s because I know about as much about Dubstep as Boris Johnson’s mum, but hopefully I’ve still got an ear for a good track and hey, we’re all learning right? Yeah, cheers.
In places, generic female vocals are overused, creating a Zero 7-ish cheesiness, but that’s more a personal preference than anything. The album could also possibly be criticised for a lack of identifiable hooks, there aren’t many ‘choons’ here. Phaeleh for his part shows that he is adept in this field [see ‘Plateau] but clearly isn’t really concerned with going down this route. The only issue I have with this is that when he makes songs which are a little more danceable, such as the excellent final two tracks, he really seems at home, casting an undeserved shadow on the rest of the carefully crafted album. The less in your face tunes still show the work of an incredibly talented artist, achieving the difficult balance of filling his songs with all sorts of beeps and squawks whilst never overriding the general ambience of the whole: you’re never bored, but you wouldn’t keep getting distracted if you wanted to fall asleep either.
So to sum it up, for the comedown album you’ll want to turn up to 11, there’s only one man for the job.
