Here’s how this segment works:
I’ll listen to as many albums as possible throughout the week, break down buzz-worthy choices and then stamp them with either; Unripe (intriguing), Ripening (gratifying) or Ripe (choice of the week).
Albums I listened to that I didn’t feel warranted a discussion:
- Au Revoir Simone – Move In Spectrums
- CHVRCHES – The Bones Of What You Believe
- Crystal Stilts – Nature Noir
- Deer Tick – Negativity
- Drake – Nothing Was The Same
- Dustin Wong – Mediation Of Ecstatic
- Fort Romeau – Stay/True
- Frankie Rose – Herein Wild
- Keep Shelly In Athens – At Home
- Machinedrum – Vapor City
- Manic Street Preachers – Rewind The Film
- MGMT – MGMT
- Sky Larkin – Motto
- Touché Amoré – Is Survived By
Haim – Days Are Gone
- Released : 30 September, 2013
- Label: Columbia
- For Fans of: CHVRCHES , HAERTS or Cults .
- The Harvest: Unripe
I really wanted to enjoy this album, I really did. I know it’s going to be a commercial success with its crossover appeal of 90s pop influences brushed with a modern indie make over. I wanted kids who only listen to linear pop music to develop a greater appreciation for dynamics and the effects of adequate instrumentation and Days Are Gone provides most of what I hoped for. It’s also marked, however, by standard pop downfalls, where the vocals are thrust into power and bury sharp instrumentation or even worse, leave it sounding like a backing band at times.
This wouldn’t be a big issue if this was St. Vincent , Tune-yards or Dirty Projectors whose choruses tackle subjects in a far more distinct and creative manor. Haim ’s choruses can be disrespectfully cringeworthy at times. The opener ‘ Falling ’s’ line “ never give up ”, for example, has the imagination of someone staring at a mirror, drunk, crying in their undies at 4am. Even if you ignore lyrical moments that are regular, Haim often stuffs too much into their choruses and that’s why ‘ If I Could Change Your Mind ’s’ uncluttered chorus works so effectively, because it allows the band to float on par in the mix and the strong harmonies to breathe.
The strong group vocal harmonies are one of their many engaging weapons that they may learn to control on further releases, along with sharp interplay between the instruments on most of the verses, where the band is clearly more comfortable and sound like a band and not a one dimensional, second fiddle backing band on tracks such as ‘ Forever ’, a track that should never have made the album.
They struggle at times to diversify the arrangements, with several bridge sections copping out for festival handclap moments or the guitar solo on ‘ The Wire ’, which has nothing to do with the song. The swaying, islander sound on ‘ Honey & I ’ tones down the diva, but only to dwell on another bland subject with lines such as “ See I’m not afraid no more ” and the chorus “ My honey and I – D-doing just fine, yeah ”. They do manage to break the teenager-singer-in-her-bedroom look on ‘ Don’t Save Me ’, which is full of creative hooks and harmonies to make any pop singer jealous. It reminds you that at least one member of the band is 27 years old.
The band element almost completely disappears on the Fleetwood Mac influenced ‘ Days are Gone ’, which ruins a rather playful bridge section. Finally, the guitars are set free on ‘ My Song 5 ’ and their presence is evidently more powerful, but it chokes on a chorus that clunks the lyrics along its dull beat. It’s not until track nine, ‘ Go Slow ’, for the drums to come alive and its effectiveness only makes you wonder why it took so long to happen.
Unfortunately, the closing tracks ‘ Let Me Go ’ and ‘ Running if You Call My Name ’ present themes that simply aren’t that original. Sure, they’re more modern versions of their 90s inspired RnB melodies, but just like CHVRCHES , Sky Ferreira , Icona Pop , Charli XCX or Alunageorge there just aren’t enough layers here to be discovered, assuring that this album will grow stale, fast.
The Field – Cupid’s Head
- Released : 30 September, 2013
- Label: Kompakt
- For Fans of: Blondes , Fuck Buttons or Andy Stott .
- The Harvest: Unripe
If you’ve never heard any of his previous work or never had any appreciation for minimal music, go back to his universally acclaimed 2007 debut album From Here We Go Sublime . It may be a music changing experience for you – I know it was for me back then. Instead of focusing on looping you in with layers upon layers, Swedish producer Axel Willner masters the art of simplicity while avoiding sounding dull or boring. The key was his sensitive ear for a loop that’s fascinating at its core and alternating it every 16 bars, back and forth between two similar evolving ideas. He manages to keep tracks engaging, even when they run nearly ten minutes long.
After repeating this formula on his second album Yesterday and Today , Mr. Willner’s unique sound began to feel limited in dynamics, so he decided to move lightly away from entirely minimal music on 2011’s Looping State of Mind . While it retained his signature alternating-swapping formula, often the extra layers were hit and miss, leaving the album too diverse in contrast over its entire length.
On Cupid’s Head the contrast isn’t as physically wearing but there are two distinct sounds cutting the album in half. The first half draws back to the original The Field (his stage name) material. ’ Black Sea ’ carries Four Tet percussion but it’s still clearly the majestic journey of only The Field. Although ‘ They Won’t See Me ’ is less minimal than his debut album, his ear for basic engaging loops is still present, though it gets lost in too many ideas, bleeding the sound into the area of many other current artists, which was the same problem on the album Chewed Corners by µ-Ziq back in July.
Then the second sound takes over on ‘ Cupid’s Head ’ and the problem becomes clear – his decision to use entirely “ real ” gear (as he calls it) has replaced all the brilliant details he once created on his computer. The keys should shimmer here but are hidden behind a clunky Fuck Buttons dryness and not in the cinematic way John Talabot pulls off. In fact, the Fuck Buttons industrial influence is all over the back half of the album.
If I was dancing to ‘ Guided Tour ’ live at a festival, I could understand the drum-kicks thickness, but in the flow of this album, it suffocates its beauty. Even for somebody with my patience, ‘ No. No… ’ is a challenging experience with no reward. The loop just isn’t that interesting and would only work in a shorter form contrasting a previous emotional track. His signature details are completely unrecognisable by ‘ 20 Seconds of Affection ’ to the point where it’s hard to tell what exactly he was aiming for with the album’s overall concept. Raising the chords in the background as it progressed could have saved the track, but he instead focuses on drilling the 4/4 beat to death.
At least his new ideas on Looping State Of Mind were memorable for different reasons, but for the first time a The Field album is a dragging experience. He needs to bring back the computers.
65daysofstatic – Wild Light
- Released : 29 October 2013 (US), 16 September 2013 (UK)
- Label: Superball Records
- For Fans of: Mogwai , Explosions In The Sky or God Is An Astronaut .
- The Harvest: Ripening
When you’re a band who’s already released three epic albums, or anytime when your last album closes on the track ‘ Tiger Girl ’ (arguably the most emphatic song of not only 2010, but the past decade), or if you’re a post-rock band reliant on tension and release tactics, not only is the bar raised ridiculously high for any further epic build ups, but you can find yourself scraping for alternative formulas to keep your next album interesting.
It appears this hasn’t phased the four piece from Sheffield, England. While there aren’t any ‘Tiger Girl’ moments, they have highlighted that albums weakness (inconsistency) and noticeably focused on correcting it by carrying the momentum from start to finish for album number five, Wild Light .
In the field of post-rock there isn’t a whole lot that separates 65daysofstatic from everyone else, at least on the surface. They’re aware of this and try to mix it up by incorporating a big-beat sound of The Chemical Brothers on ‘ Prisms ’. Its swallowing sound does win you over, despite the fact that the interesting industrial drum arrangements feel as if they’re only positioned as decorations and not to enhance the experience. Despite the drums snare sounding flat again on ‘ The Undertow ’, you can’t help but want to turn it up really loud. The guitars are so naturally noisy and soothing. The only down fall is that the track could’ve been recorded by This Will Destroy You , If These Trees Could Talk or Mono for all I know.
‘ Blackspots ‘ takes a Savages post-punk bassline, far punchier drumming and really injects itself inside you. The melting section in the middle is a reminder that 65daysofstatic are a world class band. Although the track doesn’t need the squeaking noise in the background, it gets thankfully buried under stabbing dramatic guitars and its transfixing pacing. ‘ Sleepwalk City ’ is the only track where the band isn’t entirely sure of what direction to take the track. It starts full of continued momentum only to slowly burn out as the band decides it needs to break the album up a bit. While that’s the correct decision, the track fails to drive the quiet emptiness on display hard enough.
Mixing issues plague ‘ Taipei ’, which is an otherwise uplifting change of pace. The ballads piano is too low in the mix and the drummer tries to do too much. Then ‘ Unmake The Wild Light ’ happens and you struggle to remember everything you’ve just heard. It’s dark and mysterious like a Mew track and when the track drops into a bass heavy scene from Pacific Rim … wow. Then they throw beauty on top of it with numerous memorable guitar layers; it’s incredibly effective.
65daysofstatic are complete professionals at what they do. However their blue-collar professionalism does come at a cost. The closing track ‘Safe Passage’ is the best example; it’s moving and effective but it’s formula by now is predictable, choosing again to hide its core writing under a multitude of layers. In a year that’s weak for post-rock releases, I’ll continue to play this album, but it hasn’t broadened my principles of what you can do in post-rock.
Oneohtrix Point Never – R Plus Seven
- Released : 1 October, 2013
- Label: Warp
- For Fans of: Emeralds , Tim Hecker or Actress .
- The Harvest: Ripe
Change the way you approach music.
Because of radio, music videos and SoundCloud links, we expect modern music to hit us straight away in a rather linear form. It usually contains at least one of these four elements: melody, lyrics, rhythm or noise. Of the four, noise is considered near impossible to tell stories with as it’s designed to be unsettling and thought-provoking, like an art exhibition. The only element marginally noticeable on R Plus Seven is noise, but not the typically harsh abrasive sounds of noise, rather the replica sounds of a robot coming to life. It’s story telling at it’s most conceptual and futuristic.
Replica was the title of Oneohtrix Point Never ‘s previous album, where he mastered natural noise. R Plus Seven succeeds its predecessor simply because it allows the listener to approach it, whereas Replica often tried too hard to impress.
The story comes to life with ‘ Boring Angel ’ through swirling keys and frenetic textures; it’s the birth of a robot, the moment a newborn panics and starts crying in confusion. Only this is the beginning of the end; Daniel Lopatin has just created SkyNet. It begins to process old memories during ‘ Americans ’, which rewinds itself. The robot begins to function and discover its feet on ‘ He She ’. It remembers a beautiful world on ‘ Inside World ’ only to feel lonely in the middle, turning into a complex and emotional robot like GLaDOS.
‘ Zebra ’ is the brief sign of non-robotic life in this new cold world, as it’s running for its life only to be killed and the world becomes even darker and reality sets in, although the robot tries to learn from the animal at the end. The darkness continues on ‘ Along ’ as it slows everything down and is learning to think, but ends up struggling with the darkness. The robot begins to breathe like a human on ‘ Cryo ’; Daniel uses space between the notes as heavily as the notes themselves creating powerful layer – silence. Now adjusted to being a robot, it sits down and flicks through its own thought channels on ‘ Still Life ’ and begins to turn aggressive and frustrated with contentment. Then ‘ Chrome Country ’ is the cameras fade out shot from the robot to view the entire planet now covered in scared robots. It’s the end of the world as we know it as the organ creates a funeral service atmosphere.
Where most artists make electronic music mathematical and calculated, Daniel Lopatin has finally created his vision for an electronic music machine to replicate human emotions with a realistic story to match.
WORDS BY Marcus Rimondini
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