Hell Is Around The Corner

With an exam coming up friday (yikes!), my playlist of late has been dominated by music with a relaxing quality to it. Two songs in particular have been on near- constant rotation over past few days, and they are Hell Is Around The Corner and Electric Relaxation. They are the sort of songs that make you sit back, relax and, for a brief moment, forget about everything else around you. Fantastic songs with great lyrics and even better production.

Tricky - Hell Is Around The Corner




A Tribe Called Quest - Electric Relaxation

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

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,
(...)

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
 

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
 

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.

We Are Water

Having made what was ostensibly last years best video in Die Slow, HEALTH have followed up with We Are Water. A video full of blood and gore, yet stunningly beautiful in the way it is shot and edited. Definitely not for the faint of heart, but definitely worth watching.

HEALTH - We Are Water


The contrast of soft-spoken vocals on top of brutal noise is so effective. Add in their knack for having actual tunes underneath all the noise, and you have the reason for why HEALTH is one of the most interesting yet oddly approachable noise bands.

And in case you have missed it (boo!)...

HEALTH - Die Slow


Are they good live?, you ask. Definitely looks like it, I say.

My Basketball Team's Name Is Gay Human Bones

There is something strangely addictive about the loose almost sloppy guitarplay in Harlem's songs. It has a really happy feel to it and is perfectly suited to the nonchalant delivery of the lyrics. It sounds like they were having a lot of fun doing the song and that feeling really transcends the music. The shout-along chorus and loose-yet-tight drumming makes for great songs.  Case in point; Gay Human Bones (below) and personal favorite Someday Soon.

Sidebar: Look out for a cameo from Hunx from Hunx and his Punx in the video.

Harlem - Gay Human Bones


Golden Triangle is an all- girl group, and, much in the same vein as the excellent Vivian Girls and Dum Dum Girls, they play garage rock with a punk and surf twist. The off- key harmonies and the apathy with which the lyrics are sung (lyrics about "hanging heads" no less) makes this an unlikely call to arms, but at the same time gives off a vibe of effortless cool.

Golden Triangle - Neon Noose

Best Albums of 2009

2009 was a great year in music. There was new music from great new bands (The xx, Japandroids, etc.), bands we already knew and loved (Grizzly Bear, YYY's, etc.) and surprisingly great music from bands that some of us had almost written off (The Horrors, The Maccabees, etc.). People keep saying that the album format is dying or, more drastically, that the whole music business is dying, but from the evidence of the past few years it is only getting better.

1. Wild Beasts - Two Dancers
In a year of many great albums, Two Dancers was the one that really stood out. Wild Beasts caught my attention with their debut album, but it was with this, their sophomore, that I became a fan. Admittedly, the band is very much an acquired taste with the extensive – but never excessive – use of Hayden Thorpe’s falsetto. However, I personally find that it adds both quirkiness and a lot expression to the music. Over the ten songs on the album you get the finest indie rock of 2009, with one of the best rhythm sections I have heard in a while. The bass is always sharp and bubbly, while the drumming is simply fantastic (case in point; This Is Our Lot). Wild Beasts may be an acquired taste, but what fantastic taste it is. 

Wild Beasts - This Is Our Lot


2. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
Grizzly Bear was all over the place this year and was – along with Phoenix – the indie break-out of the year. When you have got Jay-Z and Beyoncé singing your praises, then you know you have made it (yes, you have). This acclaim could come to no more deserving band, as the music really is fantastic. Veckatimest has no weak points and to top it off contains three of the best songs released in 2009 with While You Wait For The Others, Two Weeks and Ready, Able.

Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks


3 The Horrors - Primary Colours
When Sea Within A Sea was released as the first single off The Horrors' second album, Primary Colours, it was a very pleasant surprise. Gone was the horror-punk schtick of their first album and instead they treated us with some of the finest krautrock heard in years. Even better, the rest of Primary Colours did not disappoint either. The album mixes psych-rock with post-punk with brilliant results and shows a band that has matured immensely since their debut. Musically, without a doubt the best surprise of 2009.
  
The Horrors - Who Can Say

4 Au Revoir Simone - Still Night Still Light
Personally, I have a bit of a soft spot for Au Revoir Simone (I am smitten). There is just something so great about seeing and hearing three girls, each with their own keyboard, sing about love and love lost. But it is not just that, they also write brilliant songs with great melodies and beautiful harmonies (smitten, I tell ya). Every single song on the Still Night Still Light is a great pop song from the lush synths on opener Another Likely Story to the very organic and sparse Take Me As I Am to album closer Tell Me. From beginning to end a great album (so very smitten).

Au Revoir Simone - Shadows


5 The xx – xx
The xx draw on a lot of contemporary genres in their music, but somehow manage to sound like nothing else. The music is minimalistic indie rock with a definite R’n’B influence carrying through (underlined by their cover of Aaliyah’s Hot Like Fire). What makes the music so interesting, though, is the band's use of space in their songs. The songs are sparse and very restrained in their instrumentation, which allows for the music to sink in. It is this, which makes xx such a great and personal listening experience. In 2009 there were a lot of great debuts – several on this list even – but one was just a cut above the rest.

The xx - Basic Space


6. Micachu and the Shapes - Jewellery
7. Japandroids - Post- Nothing
8. Lushlife - Cassette City
9. Washed Out - Life of Leisure
10. Girls - Album
11. Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport
12. Antlers - Hospice
13. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz
14. The Thermals - Now We Can See
15. Snake and Jet’s Amazing Bullit Band – Peace Boat
16. Harlem Shakes – Technicolor Health
17. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
18. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
19. Taken By Trees - East of Eden
20. tUnE-yArDs - BiRd-BrAiNs

Honourable Mentions:
Bear In Heaven - Beast Rest Forth Mouth, Staff Benda Bilili - Très Très Fort, Jim Callahan - Sometimes I wish I were an Eagle, Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeues Phoenix, Neon Indian - Psychic Chasms, YACHT - See Mystery Lights, Fever Ray - Fever Ray, Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Part II, Oh No Ono – Eggs, Crystal Antlers – Tentacles, HEALTH – Get Color, Doom - Born Like This, Cass McCombs - Catacombs

We're Breaking Out This Time

Before I come with my best albums of 2009 post (I know, it's been a long time coming) I just had to blog this song. It just makes me happy.

Free Energy are the least DFA-like band on DFA and that is great. This song is sounds like the great stadium rock songs of the 70's and I love it.

Fun fact: Two of the band's members used to be in the equally great (and very Pavement- inspired) Hockey Night.

This song (/album) is going to be great for the summer...

Free Energy - Free Energy