Saturday, May 29, 2010

With Your Voice My Belly Sunk

There is a great expressive quality to Taylor Kirk’s (Timber Timbre) voice and the way he enunciates every word carefully on Demon Host. His voice conveys a palpable sense of vulnerability with the trembles and the soft moans of oh. Throughout the song he is accompanied only by acoustic guitar and piano, which makes the song a very intimate listening experience, while also complimenting the eerie ghostly feel that permeates the song. 

"Oh reverend please, can I chew your ear? I have become what I most fear
and I know there is no such thing as ghosts, but I have seen the demon host"

Timber Timbre - Demon Host

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Talking Like Jerk Except You Are An Actual Jerk

Melancholy really suits Future Islands. The weathered and characteristic vocals of Sam Herring, oft resembled to Tom Waits, adds a lot of weight to the words. He sounds like a man who has been through the rough, and therefore, the sentiment conveyed is much stronger when he sings lyrics such as the opening line "you couldn't possibly know how much you mean to me" and the repeated "I am the tin man" on the chorus.

... I am also a sucker for the sound of steel drums.

Future Islands - Tin Man


Dance Yrself Clean surely has to be one of the best album openers of the year. Slowly grinding away for the first three minutes, with no indication of living up to the word dance in the title, it suddenly kicks you in the gut with a massive synth. It is surprising in the best possible way, and serves brilliantly to emphasise the narrative of the song. Lyrically, the song seems to deal with the experience of growing older. The feeling of somehow being past your prime and the frustration that comes along with that feeling. The lyrics are ever so well written (extract below video) and really shows what great a lyricist James Murphy is - although, we already knew that with songs like All My Friends and Someone Great.

LCD Soundsystem - Dance Yrself Clean


Extract from lyrics: 
(...)
Don't you want me to wake up?
Then give me just a bit of your time.
Arguments are made for make-ups,
So give it just a little more time.

We've got to bring the resources,
I'm gonna play until the time comes,
Forget your string of divorces,
Just go and throw your little hands up.

It's late, I miss the way the night comes
My friends know how to make it feel good
The basement has a cold glow,
Though better than a bunch of others…

So go and dance yourself clean,
Go and dance yourself clean, yeah,
You're blowing marxism to pieces,
Their little arguments to pieces,
(...)

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

I Know That You're Not Here

There's an almost Beth Gibbons-like quality to the vocals on Warpaint's Elephant. It is like a shoegaze croon, which also fits extremely well with the hypnotically spiralling guitarplay. This all blends to great effect with the hazy psychedelia of the song, which, combined with the almost frenetic drumming, gives the song a striking immediacy and sexiness.

Warpaint - Elephants
 

Monday, May 17, 2010

Wonder What Your Boyfriend Thinks About Your Braces

It has been said before, but Sleigh Bells have taken loudness to a whole new level. The mix of hardcore riffs with hiphop beats, as a concept, at first sounded like something which could be horrible, but they pull it off brilliantly. From Crown on the Ground to Rill Rill (below), Treats is going to be the loudest feel- good album of the year (or any year).

Sleigh Bells - Slayer Intro/ Tell 'Em (Live at Ridgewood Masonic Temple 11/5/10)


Slayer really is the perfect intro for this band... and now for this year's summer jam.

Sleigh Bells - Rill Rill
 

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Dance 101: Percussions

In dance music the drums are paramount as the beat is what drives the song. Too many dance artists build their songs around nothing but a repetitive bass drum, and predictably the results are horrible. Skillful programming of the beat makes a world of difference and the three songs below are great examples of just that.

Fake Blood - Fix Your Accent


Kicking off with the bongo- drum sample, which instantly makes me think of the legendary The Incredible Bongo Band, is a great way to start a fantastically fun house song. Fix Your Accent is all grooves and funk, making it a joyfully vivrant listening experience and great for the dance floor.

Another track  off the Fix Your Accent EP is I Think Like It, which is definitely also worth checking out. Why? It samples '70s German all-girl disco trio Arabesque's song In the heat of a disco night. Cue awesomeness. 

BURNS - So Many Nights


I was introduced to So Many Nights as bringing a new meaning to the word "funky", and it could not be any more true. There is the funky bassline, the mellow guitar sample - which just somehow works in a very uptempo song -, and then there is the drums. The percussioning is wonderfully crisp and has a great live feel to it, which just lifts the whole song.

Kenton Slash Demon - Khattabi


Kenton Slash Demon are masters of percussion and building rhythm. The bass drum is there, but instead of relying solely on it for rhythm, they have added several layers of percussion. This gives Khattabi a very organic feel, which ties in excellently with the arabian sample used.