Vava Voom!

Sometimes you just gotta say, "what the bleep" and choose something kinda surfacey, indulgent, and mainstream for a listen. Last we I had Madonna, this week I have selected Bassnectar's Vava Voom. Perhaps I am fixated on my upcoming mini-vacation, but I want to hear some tunes that evoke fun, feeling carefree, and evocative of warmer weather. I found nothing terribly gripping this week to review, but the new Bassnectar is out and I say, "Hail to Bassheads!!"

Bassnectar is the stage name used by DJ, producer, and remixer Lorin Ashton, one of the more popular and influential figures in California's electronic music community. Bassnectar's music is known for its eclecticism, embracing elements of extreme bass, dubstep, breakbeat, and other IDM styles, as well as shifting tempos, contrasting moods, and dynamics that go from gentle to bruising and back during the course of a set. A significant amount of Bassnectar's music also has a strong activist streak, and Ashton uses his work to promote social and political causes and to foster a sense of community.

In 1996, Ashton started learning how to DJ, and coupled with his earlier experience in percussion, he recorded four-track demos with his band and studied electronic music at the University of California in Santa Cruz, soon mastering the basics of spinning and producing dance music. He started producing recordings for other acts in his spare time, and in 2001 he was invited to remix a track by Michael Franti & Spearhead for a single. Later that same year, the first Bassnectar album was released, Freakbeat for the Beatfreaks, which Ashton produced and released on his own label, Amorphous Music. While his first few albums earned him a buzz on the indie electronic scene, the fourth Bassnectar album, 2004's Diverse Systems of Throb, expanded his audience and influence, and since then, Bassnectar has issued a steady stream of albums, singles, and podcasts on which he has collaborated with artists including KRS-One, Ellie Goulding, Perry Farrell, Buckethead, and Gogol Bordello, as well as producers Diplo, BT, DJ Vadim, and Rjd2. Bassnectar also became a popular live attraction, with Ashton spinning up to 150 nights at year at venues ranging from clubs and warehouses to festivals such as Coachella, Bonnaroo, and Lollapalooza. In 2010, he got into the festival game himself, staging his first Bass Center Festival in Broomfield, Colorado, featuring sets by Dan Deacon, That 1 Guy, Brother Ali, and many more, as well as Bassnectar.

Compared to his other albums, Vava Voom seems like the most thrown together just for the fun of it--not a clear directional flow, many guest spots, and offering the producer at his most commercial (the club hit, title track with Lupe Fiasco), his most headphone-oriented (the otherworldly "Laughter Crescendo" sounds like a '70s sci-fi soundtrack outtake), and surprisingly, his most sexy (thousands of little dubstep babies are going to their own "drop" to "Nothing Has Been Broken" and Tina Malia's breathy vocals). Sometimes you just gotta fuggedabouttit. Besides, this is the music that's right on the pulse of the most popular electronic dance festivals and the cross-genre guest spots assure the greatest possible audience and I like that.

Ya might as well watch the video while listening to the first single, with Lupe Fiasco.
Kinda ridiculous, but it even had moms bopping in the shop yesterday! Cheers!



Buy your copy of Vava Voom here.

PS--he is coming to Rochester's Armory on Record Store Day, April 21!!

PPS--We will be opening on 9am on Record Store Day! Come early, get the first picks!!

I'm Addicted

Perchance I am predictable in that I'd have to feature the new Madonna, MDNA.
It seems trendy these days to spell your album or band name without vowels; we had MSTRKRFT, MGMT, SBTRKT, TRST and now Her Madgesty has jumped the bandwagon, in addition to playing with the acronym for the chemical compound in ecstacy, MDMA. She has always been a clever gal and perhaps she wants us to think that listening to her music will soar our spirits into the upper echelons of bliss.

On MDNA, she is back with producer William Orbit and goes full throttle into the current pop-dance likes of DeadMau5, Benny Bernassi, or David Guetta. It's fist bumping anthems that only Madonna can do--references to turning the radio up, to boys, to girls, to being a sinner. Honestly, I cringe at her referring to herself as a "girl" when she is 53, but hey, she's in shape and doesn't look her age (maybe with some dermatological help?) and can still get men half her age, so mazel tov. I don't care for the single," Gimme All Your Luvin", but the opener, "Girl Gone Wild" gets my attention, as let's remember, I had my come-uppins while listening to dance music and raving with candy necklaces and UFO pants. On a whole, we are told the story of divorce, that Guy Ritchie only wanted her for her money, that there is not enough love in the world for her, that she would give anything and everything of herself for a man willing and capable of providing her with an endless and unconditional love right back. Instead, she is having fun with younger and very handsome males, in a sense bringing her full circle, back to her beginnings as a Boy-Toy.

If you are any sort of music snob, or hate dance music or Madonna, then this might not be for you. If you are a lifelong fan such as me, or looking for something fun to listen to while getting ready for a night on the town or having dranks with friends, give the Material Girl your time and money.

Here's my Jam, "I'm Addicted" (the other hott track, deep cut is "Some Girls", by the way):



Buy your copy of MDNA here
PS--vinyl comes out mid month!

Four Gardens

Los Angeles-based composer/multi-instrumentalist Julia Holter blurs the boundaries between indie music, modern composition, and electronic music in her own work as well as her collaborations, which include work with Nite Jewel's Ramona Gonzalez and underground folk icon Linda Perhacs. Holter grew up in a musically inclined family -- her father is a guitarist who once played with Pete Seeger -- and studied electronic music at CalArts. After graduation, she began releasing music at a prolific rate: in 2008, she contributed tracks to Monika's 4 Women No Cry, Vol. 3 as well as a Human Ear compilation and released the CD-R album Cookbook on Sleepy Mammal Sound. The following year, Holter began working with the Dublab collective, appearing on a volume of their In the Loop series of vinyl compilations and performing with the Linda Perhacs Band.

This album is haunting and full of reverberations and the ghostly quality of her voices harkens Kate Bush but updated. She makes me think of Phillip Glass' compositions but less harsh and with a feminine touch. I didn't expect to like this, but with these sparse soundscapes Ekstasis (greek for out of the body, or ecstasy) makes for great background music or else, to be enjoyed on headphones. She is unique and if you give this album a chance and let it go a little bit world music/new age but yet very 2012, you will be rewarded. It also makes a great companion piece for those who enjoyed last year's Tim Hecker output, Ravedeath, 1972. Ekstasis has similar mood, with more upbeat segments yet an album that would be labeled as conceptual.

Listen to Four Gardens here:



Buy your copy of Ekstasis here.

Prey

It's About time we got this in!?!?!?!

The third proper full-length by the London DJ collective is very different from its predecessors, as one might hope after a dozen years. The change-a-minute beats-and-pieces approach taken on their early work, which competed with their Ninja Tune peers Coldcut for complexity and willingness to throw just about anything over a beat, has been largely abandoned in favor of actual songs and a relative degree of conceptual unity. As its Heavy Metal-ish (the magazine) cover art might indicate, this is a somewhat sci-fi album, with a movie trailer announcer's voice muttering stuff about falling stars and space on the interstitial tracks, like a sampladelic take on Robert Calvert's poetry from Hawkwind's Space Ritual. Guest vocalists like The The's Matt Johnson and J.G. Thirlwell sing about fear and alienation ("How could anyone know me when I don't even know myself," asks Johnson) over backing tracks that combine futuristic momentum with an almost retro-Manchester feel (the keyboards on "Giant" may put some listeners in mind of Charlatans UK) and thick beds of polyrhythmic percussion. "The Illectrik Hoax" is even built around a '60s-ish garage guitar riff. Surprising as it may be, coming from masters of the quick-cut DJ collage, The Search Engine is a journey worth taking from beginning to end, uninterrupted.

Kev's blog is way awesome and worth checking out:
He is spinning on Record Store Day in England!

Now, Listen to this song with J.G. Thirwell:



Buy your copy of The Search Engine here!

Dressed For Space

When we first received the TRST CD for our listening stations I thought, who is this hot mess tranny? Did Twiggy from Marilyn Manson get bloated and start a solo project? No and No! This no-frills cover photo is very telling: they're not messing around! Hailing from Toronto, Trust is the electro-goth duo of Robert Alfons and Austra's Maya Postepski. Not very much is known about them other than they formed in 2009, released their first singles, "Candy Walls" and "Bulbform" in 2011 before signing with Arts & Crafts for the 2012 release of their debut full length, TRST.

Frankly, I love it. I didn't know what to expect, all I heard was that it was electronic. Immediately it grabbed me with its deep synth hooks, with similar qualities to Crystal Castles, only without the shouting. It's very catchy, if you can stand the vocals which are somewhere between David Gray and Paul Banks. You can clearly imagine this as fist-pounding music played at a goth club, but there is far more to it than playing into a genre or nostalgia or anything cheezy. The songs feel like sordid tales into a dark mind and we are present for the diagesis, boxing through the thoughts to make it outside. Recommended if you like early synthy Ministry, Front 242, Crystal Castles, or John Maus.

Listen to Dressed For Space here



Buy your copy of Trust--TRST here.

It's not often that a talent like Andrew Bird comes along and sweeps me off my feet. Now, I don't normally go for the singer-songwriter thing because I'm typically more inclined towards instrumental music or genres where the lyrics aren't that important. For me, the best songwriters can be summed up by Bob, Tom, Johnny, Leonard, Bruce, and Vic (Dylan, Waits, Cash, Cohen, Springsteen, and Chesnutt). Perhaps I'm a bit reductionist, but I haven't heard much in the ways of newer writers that tops the old vanguard. Enter Andrew Bird: a Chicago songwriter/violinist that blends jazz, Gypsy, folk, and rock elements into his distinctive style. Believe it or not, he's been at it since 1996 and Break It Yourself is his twelth album!

Recorded mostly live at his studio barn in Western Illinois, Bird, drummer/percussionist Martin Dosh, and guitarist Jeremy Ylvisaker have crafted a sunny, unpredictable set of tunes that reflects the pastoral Mississippi river valley that birthed them. Meandering and soulful, the album relies on the usual pizzicato loops, orchestral flourishes, and oddball subject matter that's preoccupied Bird since 2003's Weather Systems, but for the first time since his Bowl of Fire days, it feels less like a one-man band. This album really struck me with its sense of honesty, urgency, and the sensation that I was listening to someone playing for me in their living room. I tend to be cynical of overly lyrical songwriters, but in the case of Bird I am beaten by his integrity--his panache cannot be feigned.

Listen to Lazy Projector, with it's lush strings, here:



Watch a performance from 2009 here:



Buy your copy of Break It Yourself here.

Lafaye

My favorite current Dream-Pop is baaaaack with their third release,Ghostory. School Of Seven Bells formed in 2006 as a trio (including Claudia Deheza) and released their debut full-length, Alpinisms, on Ghostly International in 2008. The group’s appeal grew exponentially, with their signature sounds stemming from pieces of electronic subgenres and shoegaze bands before them. By 2010, the group released the critically acclaimed Disconnect From Desire on Ghostly International and Vagrant. Ghostory is truly their defining work, beautifully crafted and haunting, with the story of Lafaye permeating the psyche long after the music stops.

Recorded in-between tours, Ghostory exemplifies a fervent progression of SVIIB’s growth as artists, preserving the common themes found on their last two releases but exposing them in different fashions. The familiar ethereal and enigmatic tones are omnipresent, surrounded by layers of influences from ’80s pop, shoegaze and ambient electronic sounds. However, Ghostory comes with a story in mind; the tale of a young girl named Lafaye and the ghosts that surround her life.

“Everyone has ghosts”, says Alejandra Deheza; “They’re every love you’ve ever had, every hurt, every betrayal, every heartbreak. They follow you, stay with you.” This detailed storytelling is evident from start to finish on the record, weaving a tale that moves between a fervent synthesized adventure and spacious lyrical euphoria. Tracks like “Love Play” and “Show Me Love” create a hauntingly indelible atmosphere that grab attention with the ambitious wordplay in the center of it all. Surrounding tracks like “Lafaye” and “Scavenger” entice the vibe of previous School of Seven Bells releases with their steadily dance-centric tempo and uplifting melodic progressions. Ghostory flows seamlessly and effortlessly, a result of the shared songwriting process.


Take a listen and watch the video for "Lafaye":



Buy your copy of Ghostory here.