HealeyIsland
On Ponzi Bridge
White Label Music

Frances Fukuyama’s book The End Of History, published in 1992, went directly against Jacques Derrida’s Spectres of Marx, predicting the global triumph of Capitalism and of the Spectacle. Greg Healey’s music, as HealeyIsland, is the soundtrack of sprawling shopping complexes and virtual dating sites.

This is the world predicted by Walter Benjamin, in his unfinished Passagenwerken (The Arcades Project): the birth of the pop culture, the beginning of the shopping mall, of commerce, of virtuality. It’s the simulacrum’s smug satisfaction that it is real, that it has it all under control, under wraps. It’s a dustbin museum, full of never-ending card catalogs, everything dated and numbered, and we are told to go pilfer, go explore. But the museum is not real life; Healey remembers the outside, the sunshine and dirty gutters. Healey both pays reverence to and makes a mockery of high-definition, high-gloss early-’90s CGI utopianism in On Ponzi Bridge. Healey loves and hates the spectacle, and fights back with the keenest of British weapons: sarcasm.

On Ponzi Bridge is an enjoyable listen, and increasingly so. It’s a solid collection of songs that works both as a whole, and as individual components. The first couple of tracks are more vocal-oriented, sounding like Bryan Ferry collaborating with James Ferraro, before segueing into the more instrumental latter half, that recalls some of Fripp’s interludes on Another Green World. It also sounds like menu music for a video game, like you fell asleep with your NES console on pause — super sharp and high-defintion, but still with a funkiness, a hip-hop groove. Like Duke Ellington said, “That’s cool. But does it swing?”

But,all the double entendres and smirking menace aside, the music that Healey makes is astounding: so many subtle layers, different keyboard sounds, drum pattern variations. He’s a legit electronic producer, and is using many of the deft tricks available to the discerning beatsmith to create a new New Romanticism, a bedroom synth-pop library music floor banger. On Ponzi Bridge is the amphetamine-fueled, cynical take on Boards Of Canada’s wistful reminiscence; it’s sharp, rather than blurry, competitive while still being reverential. It’s the sound of a generation of kids determined to make the illest beats imaginable on a hacked PlayStation council. Precocious and hungry, they defy the people who say that everything has been said and that we are doomed to endlessly vomit and regurgitate our parent’s generation. If the past was so great, why isn’t the present perfect?

Healey is refining the past, melting it down to purest ore, taking what he wants, and laughing at the rest. He is using every trick at his disposal, including great songwriting, musicianship and production. On Ponzi Bridge is a model Edwardian village to wander around in, to transform your days and nights into smooth gleaming pleasure cruises, on your way to the launchpad.

Ω

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HealeyIsland – On Ponzi Bridge Album Review

Haiku Salut
Tricolore
How Does It Feel To Be Loved? (2013)

Unless you closely follow the little known — but still robust — musical sub-genre of folktronica, Haiku Salut’s Tricolore will likely be unlike anything you’ve heard before. In their full-length debut, Haiku Salut — made up of musicians Gemma Barkerwood, Sophie Barkerwood, and Louise Croft — explores the genre and their place in it, and in doing so, presents us with both an exciting and playful plethora of sounds and a feeling of potential.

The band’s major influences, including Yann Tiersen, Amestub, and early Múm, are prevalent throughout Tricolore, as the purely instrumental album engages various sounds and multicultural elements. Each track features layers upon layers of instrumental dynamism: light and playful piano parts, rhythmic and precise guitar and ukulele fingerpicking, dense accordion arrangements, and the occasional energetic percussion. These various parts ebb and flow across the album, sometimes peaking, sometimes falling, and always working together to give the songs momentum and intrigue.

It is obvious the three musicians have amply soaked up various Western and Eastern European musical influences, which are particularly pleasing to an unaccustomed American ear. Moreover, Tricolore‘s incorporation of electronic effects, including electronic instruments, looping, and modulation, distinguishes Haiku Salut’s music from classically-composed soundtracks or instrumental folk albums. Its satisfying machine-like sounds, for example, whir, click, tap, and crunch, so that you can almost feel them through your headphones. These fine details, along with the accordion’s high notes in “Sounds Like There’s a Pacman Crunching Away At Your Heart”, the build-ups in “Six Impossible Things,” and the wall of sound most notably created in the beginning and end of the album, allow Tricolore‘s content to stand out.

The challenges a band faces in composing an instrumental album — and a genre-bending one at that — are great. Successfully conveying emotion, consistently keeping the audience engaged, and effectively differentiating your sound and each individual track are all pressing concerns, to which Tricolore is not wholly immune. At some moments, such as in “Rustic Sense of Migration,” the various instrumental layers feel somewhat chaotic; moving without a center, they suffer in their ability to convey real emotion or cohesive narrative. The fact that the album’s “plot” or focus is purposefully opaque, moreover, makes it difficult to grasp moments like these and to glean meaning from the album’s track changes and general arc. Coupling this obscurity with the album’s partial lack of a certain atmospheric quality, which perhaps only comes with age, moderately holds the album back from reaching its full potential.

That being said, potential is certainly present, sweating and beating at the heart of Tricolore. Because of the trio’s musical abilities as well as their adeptness with instrumentation and composition, Tricolore manages to grab you and let you go without demanding your full attention, so that its melodies grow on you the more you listen. Additionally, the album has several high points that are truly emotive, such as the chord constructions on “Glockelbar”, and that more satisfyingly embrace and successfully incorporate the band’s electronica side, like the explosion of big sound on “No, You Say It”. These impressions indicate that we will have much to look forward to in Haiku Salut’s future, and much to enjoy as we let their first full-length soak in.

Ω

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Haiku Salut – Tricolore Album Review

!!!
Thri!!!er
Warp Records

!!! are by definition FUN. Once you move past the confusion of how you pronounce their band name (it’s “Chk Chk Chk”), you realize that it just adds an extra emphasis on maximum excitement. Their musical goal in life is to get you pumped, get your body moving, and maybe even get you dancing. And this they have achieved, with every one of their previous records; they’ve been shaking booties since 2001, and they don’t plan on stopping now.

Their fifth full-length, Thr!!!er, definitely has a dance rock element similar to the band’s previous releases, but there seems to be a unexpected pop music emphasis to this album. The opening track, “Even When the Water is Cold,” is an odd choice for a start. It sounds off-kilter for !!!, who always struck me as a band who didn’t really care what you think (hell, they don’t care if you can’t figure out their band name) — but now seem to be heading into more mainstream territory. This is a new realm for the band: making normal pop songs, with no synthy dance tangents, or spaced out surreal moments of zen.

ALBUM REVIEW CONTINUES BELOW
!!! – “Slyd”

The second song, “Get That Rhythm Right”, is more of what we are accustomed to for the band, with long, slow buildups to the chorus, wildly sprawling harmonies, and a sense of that something odd is going on that you can’t quite put your finger on. “Slyd” is the best example of a more (and I use this word loosely) traditional !!! song, with sparse vocals intermixed with heavy bass, percussive synths, and a repetitive (but never boring) chorus. “Except Death” is one of my personal favorites from this record, because it reminds me of a track from Myth Takes, my most favored !!! studio album. The band gets extra-funky on this track, and I can’t resist doing a few shoulder bounces in my office chair. Twangy basslines abound, and vocalist Nic Offer turns it up on octave or two on his chorus vocals.

“One Girl/One Boy” is probably the stand-out “pop” single on the album; this could be played on national radio and no one wouldn’t even guess that it is !!!. Albeit a pop song with a very noticeable disco-funk angle, it’s still quite accessible considering the band’s previous material. It’s a love song, to boot. The chorus sings, “When I hear that song/I think about one love/ I think about you.” !!! are not typically known for their romance or pop-accessibility, but you could play this for your momma, and she probably wouldn’t blink an eye! “Californiayeah” is the same sort of song — one with a more traditional song structure, and an extremely hooky chorus.

ALBUM REVIEW CONTINUES BELOW
!!! – “One Girl/One Boy” Music Video

The album in general continues this way: one rather straight-forward pop song, with one song that could have been a b-side from Louden up Now — but even these b-sides are slightly less boisterous and irreverent than anything from the band’s previous albums. There is still a familiar sense of glee, excitement, and rowdiness that comes from listening, but it feels tempered, with much shorter songs. The longest track on this record clocks in at about five-and-a-half minutes, which is unusually quick in comparison with previous albums, which had song lengths averaging seven or eight minutes, at least.

!!!, whose numbers generally hover around at least 8 members, have all been playing music since the mid-’90s. Their original decision back then to transition from post-hardcore band to an electronic dance music outfit was a rather shocking one; perhaps the band is still transitioning into something different. This is definitely not meant to be their swan song. !!! have plenty of fight in them left.

THR!!!ER Tracklist
1. Even When The Water’s Cold
2. Get That Rhythm Right
3. One Girl/ One Boy
4. Fine Fine Fine
5. Slyd
6. Californiyeah
7. Except Death
8. Careful
9. Station (Meet Me At The)

Ω

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!!! (Chk Chk Chk) – Thri!!!er Album Review

FIELDED
Ninety Thirty Thirty
Captcha Records

When composing her second album, Lindsey Anne Powell of FIELDED wanted to make vocals the star, while getting back in touch with her “deepest love for Pop music”. In Ninety Thirty Thirty, the soulful yet edgy singer-songwriter does both those things beautifully, blending the best elements of futuristic, experimental music and retro pop to create her own unique sound.

Ninety Thirty Thirty is a very enjoyable album, and that’s largely due to Powell’s amazing vocal control. Many of the album’s exceptional tracks, including its break-out “Chapel of Lies,” feature powerful vocal modulations by Powell that slip and slide satisfyingly across her wide range while supporting full and edgy emotion. Either framed by precise harmonies or set against the backdrop of heavier instrumentals, Powell’s voice lends sass and personality as the album’s backbone. The combination of captivating vocals with dense layers of samples and instrumental parts creates an interesting wall of sound. In “Gabrielle,” for example, Powell’s vocals both float over and pierce through an industrial-sounding backdrop, while the lush harmonies in “Eternal Hour” are supremely gratifying against the song’s sparse and energetic instrumentation.

The album’s multi-generational pop influences also propel Ninety Thirty Thirty‘s energy and originality. Beats, melodies, and vocal and instrumental flourishes reminiscent of ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s popular music are scattered throughout the album. For example, “Arms of Heaven” features a head-bobbing ’80s-style beat, and the ethereal background vocals and guitar licks of “Eurynome” recall grooving pop ballads of the ’60s and ’70s. “Eternal Hour,” moreover, one of Ninety Thirty Thirty‘s best tracks, expertly combines the album’s vocal emphasis and use of retro elements through powerful ’90s-reminiscent female vocals that spike and flow over a tumbling ’80s-style beat.

The incorporation of futuristic, experimental instrumentation amidst the album’s satisfying vocals and pop influences brings the album to a new level and highlights its darker undertones. Ninety Thirty Thirty relies heavily on electronic components, including synth parts, samples, and vocal loops, which infuse and re-ignite the album’s retro-pop feeling with contemporary elements. Moreover, several tracks feature unsettling and creepy spoken parts and other ‘inorganic’ samples, like footsteps and telephones ringing, as well as occasional modulated or off-color harmonies incorporated into background vocals. These experimental elements surface throughout Ninety Thirty Thirty, but are more apparent after the album’s transitional a cappella track, “Let it Out,” which showcases weighty and interestingly strange harmonies. Without overwhelming the album, Ninety Thirty Thirty‘s experimentation brings depth to Powell’s music, and underscores its thematic thread of bottled desire.

The album concludes on a somewhat somber note, with the detached and dreamlike final track, “My Hand, Meant Only for You”. While listeners may find themselves craving the album’s earlier energy by the end, as a whole, Ninety Thirty Thirty displays Powell’s impressive musical range and indicates that she is definitely experimenting with and honing her sound. Its intricate combination of pop and experimentation allow Ninety Thirty Thirty to be accessible, empowering, and catchy at the same time that it is mysterious and elusive. And while we may hope for even more variety on FIELDED’s next album, in the meantime, we are free to dive into the shimmering world Powell creates on this expressive record.

Ω

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FIELDED – Ninety Thirty Thirty Album Review & Full Album Stream

Olafur Arnalds
For Now I Am Winter
Mercury Classics

Imagine yourself walking down a deserted street. It’s late in the day; the sky is dappled and mottled with clouds. The sidewalks are littered with the soggy remnants of December, slush and old receipts. Your thoughts uproot, displaced in time, remembering, projecting. A fine, chill mist falls; you turn your face to the sky, baptized like a thirsty young plant.

For Now I Am Winter, Olafur Arnalds’ fourth LP (and major label debut) is a poetic meditation on the coldest season. It sounds like a dubstep opera, with crisp electronic flourishes framing gorgeous orchestral arrangements (with the help of American composer Nico Muhly), and a trembling libretto by Arnór Dan Arnársson (of Agent Fresco), with a fragile ethereal quality similar to that of Sigur Ros’ Jonsi. Tense minimalist strings counterpoint chamber music romance as Arnalds conjures feeling of regret, longing, desire, and wanderlust, with the final result being an elaborate reflection on the season, as complex and layered as real life. The record works best as a whole, but tracks like “Reclaim”, “This Place Was A Shelter”, or the title track serve as a fine illustration of this album’s mission statement, and are fine places for the curious to begin. The music itself could be seen as the elements at work; biting winds, sleet, slush, and snow, while the operatic vocals serve as an inner dialogue.

Olafur Arnalds has established himself as an accomplished composer with a deft understanding of moods and tones, and it’s exhilarating to watch him expand his palate to include tasteful beats and tasty synth ambiance. For Now I Am Winter stands at a crossroads in time, between the ancient and modern. Clearly, the composer is not content with lo-fi stark modern classical minimalism, and is training his gaze on the future.

Some reviewers have made this record out to be ambient background music, and I feel this to be a mistake. People forget that it takes a great deal of time and resources to record and produce a wide array of orchestral instruments, and this alone separate Arnalds from the legions of laptop hacks. He has clearly put in the time, aspiring towards mastery, and it shows. Both the classical and electronic aspects measure up against the competition, and it suggests a way forward for both genres. The only downside, with Arnalds’ smooth-as-Chinese-silk pop arrangements, is that he has sandblasted all the difficult edges off of both styles; there is nothing avant-garde about this release. It will appeal to a wide variety of listeners, but removes the difficult, forward-thinking complexity of the truly cutting edge.

OLAFUR ARNALDS – FOR NOW I AM WINTER ALBUM REVIEW CONTINUES BELOW

Winter can be a time of loss, death, deprivation. In a lot of ways, the first decade of the 21st century seemed like one long freeze, with no thaw in sight. Talk of apocalypse was on everyone’s tongue, as our foremost thinkers predicted economic and cultural collapse. Despair ran rampant, while hope was the scarcest of commodities. Olafur Arnalds’ new record could be seen as a simulacrum of the last 10 years, and it suggests a break in the weather — rays of sunshine cracking over the horizon. His attempt to marry the beauty and mastery of classicism with the deft control available to electronic music suggests a way forward, a future for us all.

It’s difficult to talk about things as they’re happening; you’re too immersed in it. It lacks perspective. The fact that Olafur Arnalds is daring to speak of the coldest months mean that they are drawing to a close, and we all can reflect on where we’ve been, and where we’re going. Here in Portland, where this review is currently being written, the trees are bursting like crimson fireworks, but the wet and gloom are still hanging on. We are at a standstill, a stasis, but a new day is nearly upon us. It feels like there is hope for all of us yet, and For Now I Am Winter is a beautiful elegy for the passing seasons.

Ω

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Olafur Arnalds – For Now I Am Winter Album Review

James Blake
Overgrown (2013)
Universal Republic

Few artists are as conscious of their position in the music industry as James Blake. Seemingly spawned from the hype of music blogs and the irresistible “Limit To Your Love” cover which made him famous, Blake knows how volatile and fickle the wicked cycle of fame can be. But such awareness is not necessarily a bad thing; in fact, it is what has driven him to be successful even when the situation was unfair. At the time of his debut album — a record which he was pressured to piece together by his record label — Blake felt cheated out of the ability to craft an album he could truly call his own. On Overgrown, however, Blake has crafted a world all his own. And it’s as beautiful as anything he has ever created before.

In setting the scene, it’s important to note the kind of relationship(s) Blake has been in since his bedroom producer days. Much has already been made of his long term relationship with Warpaint guitarist Theresa Wayman, but it’s an important development that even Blake has admitted to be an influence on Overgrown. In a recent Guardian interview, when asked about being in love and if it affected his process, Blake responded, “Yeah, it did. And the uncertainty also did. The uncertainty of the nature of the relationship. The uncertainty of touring. The uncertainty of the music industry, and the uncertainty of my position in it.” It’s an important shift in lifestyle that bears its weight on the whole of Overgrown, a record more grounded in soulful, downtempo electronica than the booming stretch of dubstep EPs he began his career making. Be it the sound itself or the record’s lyrical content, Overgrown is the natural evolution of a brilliant artist in his early twenties.

Where tracks like “CMYK” and “Love What Happened Here” — some of Blake’s most infectious work to date — began with the tick of a drum pad or the scaling of a piano key, Overgrown is rooted in Blake’s ability to charm with his voice. From the very first croons on the titular track, Blake sets a precedent that remains in place for the rest of the album, a kind of calming feel. “Retrograde”, the album’s first single, carries itself with a vibrancy unmatched by anything else on Overgrown, as a tense examination of just how far a twisted synthesizer tone can bend without breaking. Intensified by Blake’s line, “Ignore everybody else/ We’re alone now,” the track stands alone as something altogether more powerful than Overgrown as a whole. That’s not to say that rest of the album pales in comparison, but few tracks harbor the sort of punch that “Retrograde” relies upon.

What this means for the rest of Overgrown is that the devil truly lies in the details. Much has been made about Blake’s collaboration with RZA on “Take A Fall For Me”, but it ultimately falls flat when RZA’s usually vigorous verses come across as restrained. “Voyeur” relies upon Blake’s ability to sample his own vocals, layering them over the drum kick and tight snare beat that eventually bursts into a dark, claustrophobic club anthem. Whether it’s the sound of sirens or steel drums, Overgrown manages to weave together a myriad of styles and influences in such subtle ways that they come across as completely organic. “Wilhelm Scream”, one of the most memorable tracks from James Blake’s debut, sounds comparatively empty when up against anything from Overgrown. And sure, there was a beauty to the way Blake crafted his songs on his initial release — but Overgrown is the kind of maturation that Blake ultimately deserved: a lively, inviting effort that assures he won’t be left in the digital urn of post-dubstep.

Overgrown could benefit from a bit more flare and vibrato, the kind of genre indeterminate madness that makes “Retrograde” stand out — but ultimately it’s the perfect Sophomoric album for Blake. With an understanding of how his music comes into, and so quickly out of, the world, Blake appears more confident than ever in making music that makes him happy, regardless of outside noise. It just so happens to be that it should make his fans happy as well.

Ω

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James Blake – Overgrown Album Review

I am a Man with a St Tropez Tan
Just A Ghost
Hangman Ho Records

In a world where much of the music we come into contact with is homogenized corporate mulch that lacks any discernible human input, those artists who offers us personal and intimate truths are to be cherished. I am a Man with a St Tropez Tan is one such artist.

Offering compositions that are uncompromising and mined from his own personal experience, the EP Just a Ghost is both sinister and powerful. The work of Rick Senley, it is the product of a varied past and a fascinating history. Film actor, journalist, award winning photographer, teacher and novelist, Senley is someone of many talents who has traveled widely. Unfortunately this trajectory was brutally interrupted when, injured in an accident, he was left unable to walk — a tragedy that was further compounded by the death of a loved one. Housebound and struggling to cope with his loss, he developed what he describes as a “growing fondness for booze and chemicals”. It was whilst suffering beneath this relentless rain of terrible setbacks that Rick discovered he liked making electronic music, and it is from this interest — and its interaction with those successes and setbacks in his life — that Just a Ghost comes. As his website says: “I Am A Man With A St Tropez Tan is Rick Senley and sounds”, and in a way, is a perfect description of this intimate set of recordings.

Just A Ghost is made up of tormented cacophonies of loops and melodies that have been made dirty and dark, and of machine beats and repetitive synths that are allowed to break their digital straitjackets to distort and crackle. This is music as pure expression, denying virtuosity in the traditional sense. With its screams and pulses, Just A Ghost is not an easy listen, but if one commits to the experience, the rewards are there.

The opening track, “There Is No Death”, begins with an aged sample of a psychic medium communicating with her audience, before sliding strings poke and scratch through an awkwardly mournful melody. This lament is soon overcome by the echoing wah of a tuneless and distorted guitar — a section that is also eventually overcome by rapid and nervy drums and bass. The strings make one final reappearance — a kind of miniature coda — before the sampled psychic medium challenges us one last time with the accusation that “something in your life is ridiculous”.

“Tea For Me 8″ is a circular and circulating mixture of bells and fanfares, that becomes lost beneath a layer of digitally distorted clipping before resolving itself in a charming melody of balalaikas and bells. This is followed by the dark, acidic and disturbing “Please Be Careful What You Do With Yourself”, in which all the nightmares of the subterranean city seem to rise to the surface.

I AM A MAN WITH A ST TROPEZ TAN – JUST A GHOST ALBUM REVIEW CONTINUES BELOW

Senley references The Chemical Brothers, Robert Smith and Depeche Mode on his website, but in truth, these influences are buried beneath layers of musique concrète to the point where they become not only indecipherable but invisible. There are moments reminiscent of Pierre Henry’s “Tam Tam” and “Astrology” and “Pareil a un voyageur perdu” by Francis Dhomont to be found on this short EP, though in Senley’s output there is more anger and personal angst to be found. Having said that, Just A Ghost does follow Schaeffer’s criteria for musique concrète by adhering to and understanding the necessity of jeu in the production of his music. It is this jeu (a French word meaning play or game in English) that lies at the heart of any successful piece of musique concrète. Senley enjoys himself and interacts with his surroundings, be they through found sound or recorded and looped instruments, and in doing so, he plays them as one might musical instruments.

In spite of the experimental pedigree of this collection of recordings, there are, however, moments when the production gets in the way of the listening experience. Although I understand that digital clipping is, in these days of glitch, as acceptable as tape saturation and distortion as a means of manipulating sound, it can become a little aurally tiring when overused, and this is the case in some sections of the release. Having said that, this is a fine EP that, in its creative intensity, is worth a listen by anyone interested in music that is challenging, personal, and goes further than most.

Ω

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I am a Man with a St Tropez Tan – Just a Ghost Album Review

Squalloscope
Soft Invasions
Seayou Records

A little over a year ago, Squalloscope — the second pseudonym of Austrian singer-songwriter-artist Anna Kohlweis — released her debut album, Soft Invasions. The beautifully composed album, which features expert mixing by Martin Siewert, stands out most for its personal lyrics and its intriguing combination of smooth vocals, instrumental samples, and electronic sounds.

A satisfying, if not somewhat melodramatic, introduction to the album is found in “Dust”, which establishes the character of Kohlweis’ voice and the album’s personal story of loss and transformation: “bring me my packed suitcase and all our favorite words.” Feelings of angst and frustration pervade and support the earlier part of the album, which emotively details a relationship’s deterioration and brutally awoken aftermath. Kohlweis’ voice ranges from smooth and silky to rhythmic and almost rap-like against contrasting bare instrumentals and industrial and electronic sounds. This musical backdrop intrigues while supporting Kohlweis’ emotional lyrics — but though angst drives the earlier part of the album, fluidity of genre and varied composition make each song relatively unique.

The stand-out track of Soft Invasions, “Domino,” brings the album’s style and concept to pitch, with some of the album’s most interesting and deliberate composition, and assertive lyrics that epitomize the album’s feeling of cruel confusion: “I’m the copy of the copy of the copy of a woman/ You’re the copy of the copy of the copy of a guy/ But the way we behaved towards each other makes me think that even this could be a lie.” This invigorating and all-too-familiar sentiment continues, threading its way into rhythmic “Legends,” bluesy “A.A.A.,” and similarly jaded “Bloodbath for Birds.”

Despite Soft Invasions‘ seeming fixation on the superficiality of relationships, its repeated references to water and storms — in track titles, lyrics, and samples — suggest that another current also permeates the album: that of transformation. By the middle of the album we’ve become accustomed to Squalloscope’s sound and the album loses some of its angst-driven energy; in doing so, however, it carefully begins to bring about resolution. In “Big Houses,” finger-picking and softly played piano notes support Kohlweis’ relaxed (but still rhythmic) croon: “I want trees instead of gravestones and nothing to confess… the wrong step would be not to start this exodus.” As the album unwinds, this track gracefully showcases Kohlweis’ amazing ability to carefully layer and harmonize vocal parts.

Though the album’s frustration still lingers by the time we get to “Rifle Scissor Stone”, it has been augmented by an honest sense of acknowledgement. The final track’s somewhat anxious vibe, in part due to its ominous sampling and underlying synth and string parts, manages to soothe in a strange way, as Kohlweis repeats, “It’s gonna be real hard to pull us apart” — a far cry from the controlled refrain of “Domino”, which contrasts, “Without you, I’m not only okay, but alright.” Though the latter part of Soft Invasions suffers a bit from its loss of momentum, the contrast it presents between denial and acknowledgement and the resolution it achieves by its conclusion thoughtfully balances the album, and encourages us to hit repeat and hear the story again.

Ω

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Squalloscope – Soft Invasions Album Review

Dreijer goes on to write in the same manifesto that the two were hoping to create “… [music] that is impossible to consume in a quick and easy way. Long difficult songs.” This idea forms a tension on the album, and one that wholly distracts from the bulk of the songs. The 19-minute “Old Dreams Waiting To Be Realized” is nothing more than the noise of a few industrial machines carrying on for about 19 minutes too long — though it is incredibly triumphant in its ability to achieve exactly what The Knife set out to do: dare the listener to turn it off. “Crake” and “Oryx” function as much shorter ways to create this tension, accomplished by the sounds of instruments pulling at each other in a way that’s both unsettling and generally discomforting, just as likely to be skipped as something nineteen times its length. These three tracks, which sorely stick out from the rest of Shaking the Habitual, so desperately fill the desire of the group to be subversive and counterculture that it detracts from the album as a completed work. The lack of structure or nuance — traits that have defined and enriched past albums — makes these pointless tracks all the more frustrating. But maybe this is the way both Olof and sister Karin purge their hatred of pop culture norms, creating something so insidious that regardless of its success there remains a sense of accomplishment; a weight lifted.

The rest of the album, which I should point out is most of the album, plays out tremendously. “A Cherry On Top” owes its debts to David Lynch scores, a haunting formation of organ sounds and indistinguishable loops played mostly in reserve before barreling towards a crescendo of what sounds like an oil drum being rolled down a hill, set to the sputtering of a tractor engine. In so many ways, Shaking the Habitual is like a car crash playing out on a fuzzy television screen. You wince and squint, never looking away for fear of missing an important human action or display of physics-defying mutilation. Even on tracks like “Without You My Life Would Be Boring” and “Raging Lung”, two of the more exuberant, dance-oriented songs on the album, Shaking the Habitual commands every bit of energy and attention a listener might have. Maybe it’s the way the group has positioned the album, what with the lengthy PDFs explaining the release and their mindset, that I feel guilty pulling even my eyes away from the ticking MP3s. Breathing too heavily, blinking too fast — any disruption in your normal routine seems to disrupt the organic music, but with songs as impressive as “Ready To Lose”, it’s hard to not play by their rules.

But for all the album’s successes, from the whimsical flute interludes to the home-recorded hauntings and incredible live drums, Shaking The Habitual leaves little room for its listeners. It’s an entirely insulted experience, one that feels like it should be left alone and admired but never tampered with. To think outside of its predetermined box would be blasphemous. For an album so esoteric and politically-charged, it should, and likely will, warrant a deal of discussion from its fans. But to impose opinion on a piece of art so definitely set in its ways seems almost rude, in a way. For as much as The Knife question social norms, it’s awfully bad at questioning its own habits.

Shaking the Habitual could do a better job at teaching rather than preaching, but their music remains an industry outlier, and a good one at that. The ambient numbers are indeed challenging (don’t mistake that for a good thing), and the album as a whole requires a commitment few people are able to make. If you’re excited about Shaking the Habitual as a way to reaffirm the notion that The Knife are indeed the greatest electronic artists out there, as so many fans seem to think, then you’re no doubt going to fall in love all over again. But for newcomers, and those who are just curious, you might also find something worthwhile here. Just whatever you do, don’t call it “pleasing”.

Ω

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music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

The Knife – Shaking The Habitual Album Review & Olof Dreijer’s Manuscript

Leven Signs
Hemp Is Here
Digitalis (2013 Reissue; 1985)

Some records are made before their time.

Many things have changed in the 28 years since Hemp Is Here was first released – but even now, with an additional 3 decades of ethnomusicology under our belts, its thrift store Hindustani vibrations still sound freaky. This must’ve been entirely far out when it was first transmitted. You can hear strains of what would become hypnagogic pop, like James Ferraro’s funny globe-trotting uncle returning from Marrakesh with a stack of weird, sun-warped cassette tapes. Perhaps the finally time is right for Digitalis to rescue this one from the dustheap of history.

Hemp Is Here was initially archived on the popular pirate Mutant Sounds blog, which exposed millions of listeners to post-punk exotica from all over the globe, spanning the entirety of the recorded era. At Mutant Sounds, it would not be uncommon to find Aboriginal pygmy chanting next to a grindcore album, just down the hall from some French musique concrèt. In this way, Mutant Sounds was a microcosm of what it’s like to be a music devotee in 2013. Musical globe-hopping, and the emergence of the experimental underground, have paved the way and prepared our ears to appreciate the clockwork perfection presented on Hemp Is Here.

Presented here by the pairing of Peter Karkut and Maggie Turner, is a tapestry of Arabic percussion, cheap synthesizers, murmured vocals. It’s expertly sequenced, and this was during the analog era, when it was REALLY hard to multi-track. It’s clear that Leven Signs knew what they were going for, with a reckless mixture of confidence and exploration. What we’re left with is a party record from the interzone – a Moroccan bazaar leading up to a Byzantine cathedral, where an ancient ritual is about to commence.

Once you get a taste for funky, obscure records like this, there’s no turning back. Once the ergot and wormwood rush of corroded tape hits your blood, with the thrill of exploring uncharted musical continents, it changes you, and the way that you listen to music. Things that once sounded weird and cheap now sound new and novel; exciting rather than annoying.

This is the legacy of the music blogs, and post-punk mystics like Leven Signs, and this legacy is being carried on by the recent rush of outstanding reissue labels. The entirety of recorded music is now at our fingertips, and it’s hard to know where to begin. Quality blogs and music labels guide us, and Digitalis are exceptional curators. They’re really on to something with Hemp Is Here, about to blow the mind of a whole new generation.

Fans of Ariel Pink; The Skaters or any of their offshoots; Ghost Box records; old documentary soundtracks, listen up! This is your new jam.

Ω

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music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

Leven Signs – Hemp Is Here Album Review