Mrs Magician – Strange Heaven

What if Black Lips were from California, instead of Georgia? I know that I’m leaving myself open to accusations of lazy journalism and that the comparison is a bit of a superficial one but there isn’t any getting away from what was my first and abiding impression of Mrs Magician and their debut album. They trawl similar depths to the Atlanta band, utilise similar methods and structures in their music and while they don’t really sound very similar, Mrs Magician do sound like the same type of band as the creators of 200 Million Thousand.

This isn’t, as you might discover, a very bad thing. If Black Lips are taking the burnt-out rooftop romanticism of Johnny Thunders and channelling it through a half dozen rusted effects pedals (which is what I thought 200 Million Thousand sounded like) then Mrs Magician are doing something very similar to the legacy of Brian Wilson, alongside excursions into 60s garage punk, bewildering dreampop hallucinations, powersurging rock n roll escapades, and the result is thirteen tracks of retro fuelled guitar excess that barely stops to take breath throughout its 32 or so minutes.

My music player messed up the track listing and starts the album with “Dead 80s”, which has some traditional sounding boy meets girl lyrics and also a notable mid sixties influence – its keyboard riff can probably trace its lineage right back to the Seeds and ? And The Mysterians – and that’s what Mrs Magician really are, a no holds barred beat group whose West Coast origins imbue them with unrestrained surf pop sensibilities and “Don’t Flatter Yourself” could slip onto the soundtrack of some beach musical of five decades ago practically unnoticed. The same could not be said of “Actual Pain” which thumps out of my stereo like Mrs Magician’s sometime labelmates Crime covering a Jan And Dean number in an SF waterfront dive at some long forgotten after hours gig in the late 70s while “Prescription Vision” is summery psyche pop distorted almost beyond recognition.

What holds Strange Heaven together is Mrs Magician’s tightly scored musicianship, which accurately recalls the suited up and reverberating guitar epics of the Surfaris, Dick Dale and countless others, and I hope if any of the band read this they’ll forgive my making a blatant comparison with Black Lips, whom they don’t really resemble very much aside from their retro obsessions and string shredding guitar performances. This summer, don’t just think about going surfing, listen to Strange Heaven instead.

www.swamirecords.com

Single from Chocolate Robots out now

“Summer Krushhh”:
http://www.bantermm.com/tracks/ChocolateRobots-SummerKrushhh.mp3

“A family that plays together, stays together.”

To the Chocolate Robots – brothers Mike, Mutt, and Marcus Giresi – this is no empty cliché. It’s the simple truth. What you probably don’t know is that this trio has its roots in pizza. “It’s our family business!” says band front-man and lead guitarist, Mike. “The pizza shop has been the cornerstone of our band and our family since the beginning.”

“Dad put me in charge of organizing a staff Christmas party for our pizzeria,” Mike explains. “We made up a few of our own tunes, and bought some lasers and smoke machines. That was our first gig: a bowling alley during our Christmas break.” Their fathers influence to the band didn’t end there. “He had a very modest four-track studio where he would write his Italian love songs. We started out by raiding his gear, and have filled out our arsenal with circuit bent toys and analog synths.”

PiZzA fAcE likely owes some of its energetic diversity to the natural tension which exists within any group of siblings. It’s an aggression which these three learned to channel into creativity. PiZzA fAcE weaves together the girl groups of the 60′s, while flirting with the playful spirit of The Unicorns’ lo-fi debut. Although the results will tickle your brain and make you wiggle like a mechanical dancing daisy, it remains frayed enough to kick a little dirt in your eye.

http://www.chocolaterobots.com/

Best Coast – The Only Place

Bethany Cosentino’s love affair with California is not exactly clandestine.  From the name of her band to the inclusion of the state’s likeliness on two consecutive album covers, the BestCoast frontwoman’s obsessions with all things Golden State is so profuse that it practically rivals the Beach Boys.  In fact, it’s pretty much a given that if you know who Cosentino is, then you’re also fully aware that the only thing on this earth that matters to her more than the country’s most populous state is her cat, Snacks.  California and Snacks were part of the artwork template for BestCoast’s 2010 debut, Crazy for You – an apt title for an album that wholeheartedly embraced wide-eyed teenage musings.

On BestCoast’s new The Only Place LP, Cosentino has replaced the image of her precious Maine Coon with that of aCalifornia grizzly bear cuddling an atlas cutout of its home state.  Subtlety, this isn’t.  But then again, high falutin’ dashes of allegory have never been a part of the draw here.  People listen to Best Coast because sometimes it’s just way easier – and a lot more fun – to absorb a strummy 3-minute pop song about unrequited love on the beach than it is to, say, critically analyze a leviathan piece of art that draws its inspiration from the Greek myth of Hyacinthus.

Like a majority of the BestCoast catalog, The Only Place succeeds on a blueprint of brevity and conspicuous sentimentality.  Cosentino claims that her turbulent mid-20s were the catalyst for the more mature themes presented on the new record.  The tidier production – handled deftly by Jon Brion – bespeaks this fact, but elsewhere there’s a pervasive naivety that will have people of all ages lusting for their adolescent years again.

And, sure as a sunny day in Orange County, The Only Place opens with the sprightly title track – a little summertime pop nugget that asks pressing questions (“Why would you live anywhere else?”) while introducing the first of many bits of West Coast braggadocio (“We wake up with the sun in our eyes / it’s no surprise / that we get so much done”) over a jovial country rock groove.  Similar waters are charted on “Let’s Go Home,” a strummy tune filled with the anticipatory joy of returning to California after an extended hiatus: “There’s a place I can go / where all my secrets / no one knows / I’ll meet you there / cause I don’t wanna be anywhere else / but home.”

While there’s certainly something to be said for BestCoast’s paeans to the utopian side of life near the Pacific, the subtle shifts in Cosentino’s songwriting are best experienced when the rays of sunshine are muted.  “Last Year” smacks of pubescent histrionics (“I used to believe in you and me / but now I believe in nothing”), but there’s also something oddly satisfying about a song that feels like it was meant to be sung by Sandy Dumbrowski.

Many of the other tracks that deal with less convivial fare find Cosentino placing emphasis on atmosphere.  “Dreaming My Life Away” is a swirling reverie replete with unorthodox drum patterns from Bobb Bruno and undulating vibraphone arpeggios.  The extended harmonic colors make this the closest brush BestCoast has ever had with jazz music.  “No One Like You” is a slice of star-crossed dream pop, featuring Brion’s lush work at the controls, reverb and tremolo effects, and Cosentino’s schoolgirl entreaties (“If I pack up my things and leave / can I still be the queen to your king?”).  Though the textures are slightly grittier, “Why I Cry” explores similar themes of woe, as our heroine laments her post-breakup lifestyle: “Walk in around a haze / seems to be the way I spend my days / I’m stuck in the gray.”

As with its predecessor, it’s Bethany Cosentino’s ubiquitous California dreamin’ that’ll produce the greatest yield on The Only Place.  Nostalgic ruminations on teenage drama have been around since Frankie laid his first blanket down next to Annette, and Cosentino knows it.  Rather than take derisive or pretentious swipes at that iconic piece of American pop culture history, Best Coast celebrates its legacy ardently on The Only Place.

Struck By Lightning – True Predation

Befitting their name, Struck by Lightning stimulates the listening senses with a punishing first “strike” (no pun intended; well, maybe pun intended). “Sickening Reality”, the first track, enters with a flourish of feedback coined by a slow, heavy climb to what then becomes a punk drumbeat with unblemished guitar chugs. The natural transition from the build-up to the verse is executed with ease and Struck By Lightning then surprises by trading the punk-ridden mid-section of the song for an ending that balances both the slow beginning and the furious verse and chorus like that of a tightrope walker juggling fire. True maturation is seen already just in this first track as the musicianship and musical choreography wholly sets the tone for the rest of their sophomore release, True Predation.

On April 24th 2012, Columbus, Ohio’s Progressive punk/metal quartet, Struck By Lightning released their second full-length album, True Predation on Translation Loss records. Vocalist, Gregory Lahm, heads the collective up. His visceral but penetrating scream is haunting yet very applicable to the genre and compliments the overall sound of his fellow band members effortlessly. What is even more impressive is that he also carries an axe and showcases that ability on the record as well. On my personal favorite track, “Stalk and Prey”, not hitting the two-minute mark doesn’t seem to bother the band as their true musical capabilities emerge. Although holistically I wouldn’t classify this band anywhere near Between the Buried and Me, this track definitely has some similar qualities, which they perform very well. The full and driving bass drum and tom-ridden fills pitter-patter the backdrop while the rhythm guitar and bass respectfully position themselves at a place where they all sonically unite into a progressive punk riff.

For me, there is a bit of monotony in this genre towards the end of albums where bands can’t seem to find their own unique way to fill a ten to twelve song recording, but Struck By Lightning doesn’t seem to struggle with this. From track to track, there is a progression that not only befits their name but their musical endeavors. It is loud, furious and unrelenting but in the end is something I believe that they should be proud of. A punishing listening experience is not always a bad thing and in this case getting Struck By Lightning could be a welcome change to any progressive metal head’s musical existence.

Interview with RYAT

Hey there RYAT!  You’re music has been on my mind on ‘n’ off for the past couple of years, after I heard some songs off your entrancing electo-pop album Avant Gold, which was released in 2010 on Obvious Bandits.  Your new album, Totem, is coming out in early June on Brainfeeder and I can’t wait to hear that!  What’s the vibe like for you these days, before the impending album release?

Hi there!  Thank you for the interest.  Right now, I am just gearing up to tour a ton when the record comes out.  I am performing as a solo act now, so I am just working on a lot of fine-tuning with my live electronic set.  As an instrumentalist at core, I prefer to play as much live as I can with sampling, so I am working hard on getting in ‘octopus brain’ mode in switching parts and instruments and such.  I am excited for the Brainfeeder release.  The vibe of this record is very different.  It is much more compositional and not as poppy as Avant Gold.  Avant Gold’s concept was an avant-pop record, with more political subject matter.  This record, Totem, is based off of spirit animal guides from Native American teachings and transformation in my personal life.

When I first read about you a couple of years ago, you were based in Philadelphia and had a good thing going, collaborating with Philly luminaries like King Britt.  Since then, you’ve relocated to California.  What prompted the change of scenery?

I am really into nature and the winters were just hard on me in Philadelphia.  I am really into my garden and have been wanting to move somewhere that I can have an organic garden all year round.  I was also really into beat production and wanted to indulge in the California scene a bit.  I feel like the freshest beat-making is happening out here right now.  I don’t know if California is somewhere I will call home yet though.

RYAT has actually been a duo, with you being the lyricist and main songwriter, and with Tim Conley balancing the other half of the equation.  Is he still in the picture at all for Totem?  Did he make the move with you to California?

I started doing RYAT in the early 2000s and have had lots of permutations since.  Tim Conley joined me full-time from 2009-2011, touring in the US and Europe and collaborating in the studio.  Tim is on the album cover for Avant Gold because I really felt like the live show and live image at the time was more duo-oriented.  Although RYAT is my solo project, I really enjoy collaborating with different artists on every record.

Tim is now focusing on his solo project Mast, so I took this next record mostly to myself, which is where I really wanted to be this time around.  In solitude.  I did collab with him in the beginning stages and then I took it over for the final stages of producing, arranging, and composing.  Tim and my VJ Annapurna Kumar and another friend Brandon Trude (PCOAT), who I used for some beat programming on two songs for Totem, came to California with me just to make a fresh change.

I am touring with Tim’s new project called Mast this month and am so excited to promote anything he does.  He is my best friend in the world and an undiscovered genius.  I can’t wait to watch his solo career unfold.  PCOAT will put out a really dope record soon too.  I came out here with a really fresh crew.

At your official site at http://www.ryat.info/RYAT/RYAT.html , you mention that you’ve been through a healing process this past year, and that your new album is part and parcel of that healing.  I don’t want to pry too much, but what’s been going on in your life these past couple of years and how has the creation of Totem guided you to a better outlook?

Well, my life has been full of intensity since the day I was born (on the Fourth of July).  One day I’ll write a book about it, no doubt.  I would rather not go into details, because it would seriously be an epic and crushing novel.  Just know that a lot of things were suffocating me one after the other and they were very serious life, death, and abusive situations.

With Totem, I took a more universal outsider perspective on the trauma and where it came from in society.  I rooted myself in earth and the garden and started meditating a lot while working on this record.  A lot of animals came to me in real life and in visions and I started to look up the Native American meaning of each animal’s spirit lesson.  I used these lessons to come into my own as a strong independent woman, who was creating a new life out of many deaths and moved forward from my heavy past.  Totem gave me the quiet time and solitude I needed to really express and dig into that healing.  Although this record is not a purging.  This record is a realization and personal transformation for me.

When we did the photo shoot for this record, my closest girl friends were there, blasting the record so loud in a room full of people I barely knew from Brainfeeder at the time.  Mitra Starseed, my stylist, came up to me and got in my face while I was posing and said, “Stop the bullshit posing!  What does this record really fucking mean to you?!”. She grabbed my shoulders so hard and would not look away from my eyes and would not let go… until I started tearing up… and then Theo Jemison started shooting me.  The album cover is me sitting for 50 minutes listening to all the transformation in ultimate sadness and gratefulness and peace at the same time.

Totem is actually your third studio album, with 2009’s Street Noise Orkestra being your debut.  How has your sound evolved from that first foray into your latest? 

Street Noise Orkestra was move of a live band sound.  I wrote and produced that one on my own and used a lot of instrumentalists on it in the studio.  I was not so into beat-making then, so there are a lot of live drums on that album.  That record was more of a purging for me at the time.  Avant Gold was when I started feeling more comfortable improvising with electronics and decided to make electronic experimentation the focus on the next record.  I wanted to make an avant-pop record and that’s what I did.

Totem is much more compositional and less poppy.  It’s more conceptual and I look at it like a classical record in its themes.  I wrote almost the entire music before any words were written at all.  It was more about vibe and energy and sound.  I later meditated on the compositions and each song’s meaning and lyrics slowly appeared in poem form.  Each of these records had a completely different artistic process and conception.

You recently participated in SXSW 2012.  What was that experience like?  Did you play new material or older songs, or a mix of the two?  What acts did you get the chance to see?  What was the best food, best drink, best get-together, and the like?

SXSW was incredible.  I was asked to do a Ninja Tune and Warp Records showcase with Brainfeeder.  I performed showcases with some of my favorites like Daedalus, Thundercat, and Lorn, so I was very honored.  I was and am performing half of the new record and some of Avant Gold on tour for 2012.  My live set is much more energetic and heavy beat oriented for this time around.  If I wanted to perform Totem in its entirety, I would need a budget for a full band and string ensemble, which I do not have.  Therefore I am focused on just having fun and bringing an emotional and wild set with beats for all my music.  It’s all a bit remixed and is an extremely high energy show.

The best thing about SXSW was touring with another Brainfeeder artist, Jeremiah Jae, and Tim’s new project Mast.  Those two are incredible humans and so talented.  We all got along so well!  We juiced every day, went for jogs, and did yoga.  The owner of the juicebar Juice Box saw us at a boat party and gave us free juice all week.  It was incredible!  We all had so much fun.  My favorite performers hands-down were Dan Deacon at the NPR showcase and my old friend Sharon Van Etton, and of course all the people I performed with are my faves.  Oh, and this random band Zorch I saw at Cheer Up Charlie’s (which is my favorite spot to hang at SXSW) was incredible!  SXSW is always a crazy blast.

But my highlight this year for festivals was Coachella.  I performed with PureFilth Sound and got to hang and meet some of my favorite artists.  A few chats with St. Vincent, Ed O’Brien (of Radiohead), and even a few words with Thom Yorke can really inspire and fuel your entire year.  Also, a good friend of mine is producing the next Beirut album, so we hung with that crew, who is so beautiful and inspiring for me in composition and songwriting.  I felt so honored to be performing at festivals with such developed and creative artists and to be able to talk about art and life with them.  It really gave me so much inspiration for the next record which I am already writing and conceptualizing in my head.  I’m so ready to get back to the studio now after Coachella.

You’ve been oft-compared, mainly vocally, but sometimes sonically, to Bjork.  Does it bother you or delight you to be frequently compared to her and certain other female artists?

I am honored that people compare me to amazing female artists if they feel the need to categorize.  The Bjork thing can be misleading because I do think our backgrounds, style, and musical approach are extremely different, but I take it more as both Bjork and I think ‘outside the box’ without really trying, which is why I think I get that comparison.  We are both very conceptual as well, so I understand the comparison.  Bjork is very real, deep, and talented, so in the end I am extremely honored to be compared to her.

What I love about your songs, besides your captivating vocals, is that you combine the smooth and the chunky so effortlessly.  Somehow you marry flowing, looped rhythms with jittery, skittering beats into a hypnotic whole.  From what I’ve read, you use analog equipment and aim for an organic vibe to your sound.  What is the difference between creating an album via analog methods versus digitally?  Does this hold true for Totem, or have you now crossed the digital divide?

Well, I have been in the digital world big time for all the records, but I like to use more analog ‘plug-in’ sounds that give it more of an older and raw live feel.  I like the old Mini Moogs, live sampling of instruments (strings/melotron/vibraphone/guitar), and also digital guitar pedals in a lot of my production.

Totem is definitely a digital record that was put through a lot of analog plug-ins. I did record one violinist over all of the midi string arrangements and I also recorded Tim on live guitar.  It’s amazing what you can do with plug-ins in order to make it sound like you recorded a whole orchestra or band.  For the next album I already know that I am going back to the basics and sampling all live environmental sounds and instruments.  The next album will be very environmentally oriented.

A few of your songs on Avant Gold contain piano notes and strings, like “The Fish That Lived Out of Water”, “We Walk Slow, But as Fast as Their Rush” and “Equipoise”.   Were these sounds sampled from somewhere else or were the instruments played in the studio? 

These instruments were all actually played live by mostly using Reason Software, who endorsed me back in 2009 to try their new sounds.  I have been sold ever since.  Although I do miss using analog instruments, which I am sure I will get back to as my career moves forward.  I create everything in my bedroom, which is essentially why I chose to use software.  It’s really all about working around the budget I have at the time.

You appear to have a fascination with Radiohead and have covered several of the band’s songs live.  What makes Radiohead a go-to band for you, and not, say, Portishead or maybe the brooding songs of Muse, as far as sound and mood go?

I like covering Radiohead because they play with different time signatures.  They do not always use typical 3/4 or 4/4 and always are extremely poetic.  It is way more musically challenging and fun for me to learn a Radiohead song than those other bands.  When I choose to cover a song, I want it to teach me something musically as well, otherwise there is no point in learning it if I already understand what is happening musically.  Honestly, I am just a music nerd.  It’s about math and emotion for me and putting them together in a new and fresh way to communicate things.  I enjoy making and covering tricky music.

You’ve played live in the U.S. and internationally in countries like Italy, Spain, and Portugal.  Was there any difference in audience reception to or perception of RYAT?  Did you have enough time to explore the surrounding cities or countryside before or after your shows?

Touring Europe is always great because they seem to really want to listen and not just get wasted when they go to shows.  I feel like that is changing in America on a bigger scale, but in the clubs, when you are a small band, you are definitely “the weird act” when you are playing eccentric music.  Europe embraces the weirdness and buys all your merch.  I did explore Gaudi in Spain and some of London with friends and I had a day off in Portugal which I think may have been one of my favorites.  I love the oldness of Europe.  I would really love to hit Asia soon.

I  noticed that on SoundCloud a company named Waterfront Licensing has posted Avant Gold in its entirety – as well as instrumentals of all those songs!  Are the instrumentals available anywhere else to buy or download, like on an album or in digital format?

I made the instrumentals for licensing and I am in the process of mixing Totem instrumentals as well.  I never thought about releasing instrumentals, but that is a great idea!  Thanks.

Earlier I mentioned that you’ve collaborated with King Britt, and you’ve also worked with Taylor McFerrin, The Disco Biscuits, and Sun Glitters, among others, and you are also part of the band As Human.  Are you still a member of that band?  Have you been working with other artists recently on more collaborations or has your focus been totally on Totem?

As Human was an amazing project but hasn’t been active in years.  Although I am still working with members of As Human.  Tim Conley was part of As Human.  Jason Fraticelli, Mark Guiliana, and I will be doing East Coast shows where they play Totem live with me and my electronics.  They are so brilliant.  I will never stop  working with those guys, but my focus is RYAT.  They love being part of this too, so I am amped to play Totem with them.

Dreamers debut album out end of May

On an unseasonably warm Spring day, Megan Gold skipped 5^th & 6^th period during her junior year of high school and headed to the new coffee bar hang out with her punk rock friends in Tacoma, WA. It was then that she first met Robbie Williamson. He made her coffee & when he looked at her with startlingly blue eyes, she entered through a porthole. A wormhole. A vortex.

In time, Robbie dropped his bass and picked up a QY70 and later, Logic. Stomping around wet Seattle streets, tape man in place, Megan found what she was looking for in Robbie’s beats. She kissed her Ronnie Wood, Patti Smith, and Plastic Ono Band records good bye for now.

She didn’t want to sing in another dude rock band. She wanted to feel her spine being realigned with magical sonic combinations.

Suddenly, every sound that every single thing around her made was a possibility via this new noise He was making.

Luckily, they were at the same party with a gypsy DJing their future. They were sick of the redundant dicklessness all around them. It was like the beach scene in the original Planet of The Apes with the Statue of Liberty poking out of the sand. Get me outta here! So they set out to make music that sounds like paint hitting a Pollock with beats that would make the African king in a Basquiat painting get loose, and Elvis make out with PJ Harvey in a dark corner. That was a while ago.

Since then these two Dreamers have painstakingly honed their sound and the result is an electrical storm of punk rock and minimal techno. Dreamers strive to push the electronic envelop while staying true to their anti homogenization heritage. Williamson’s driving, angular production coupled with Gold’s haunting tenor make for a Siouxsie meets Modeselektor double feature.

http://www.dreamersdreamers.com/

Silversun Pickups – Neck of the Woods

According to a recent interview given by Silversun Pickup frontman Brian Aubert, it was the singer’s Topanga Canyon upbringing that informed much of the material presented on the indie rock band’s third LP, Neck of the Woods.  Anyone who’s ever returned to their childhood neighborhood as an adult after a lengthy sabbatical knows full well that unexpectedly intense emotions cam sometimes surface.  In the case of this Southern California foursome, a recent pass through Aubert’s stomping grounds just outside ofLos Angeles provided the catalyst for some heady introspection and reflection.  For a band that so aptly embraces dreamy and bittersweet tones in their songwriting, it seems entirely germane that they’ve chosen this record to take stock of where they are and how they got here.

A passing glance at the new album’s cover – an indistinct residence in need of a paint job and some light landscaping – confirms that we do indeed have America’s storied suburbs being used as a vehicle for self-examination once more.  For a band so notorious ensconced in their 1990s grunge influences, the admittedly mild flavors of 80s pop that come through on Neck of the Woods mark a palpable shift in direction for Silversun Pickups.  One could argue that the likes of Neon Indian and M83 have all but made a cliché out of the music from the Reagan era, but it stands to reason that most anyone currently between the ages of 30 and 40 would view with that time with at least a modicum of nostalgia.

Neck of the Woods is no doe-eyed retrospective though.  This band’s calling card has always been a fine balance of menace and melancholy, and their latest offering delivers both in spades.  Lead single “Bloody Mary (Nerve Endings)” seems to tip the scale more toward the latter, with Joe Lester’s shimmering keyboard textures and bassist Nikki Monninger’s backup vocals accentuating the forlorn tone of lyrics like, “They drowned you out / and left you with the sounds of spoiled goodnights / replacing lullabies.”  At the other end of the spectrum we find “Mean Spirits,” which comes at you with barnburner force before settling into a muted blues riff, and “Simmer,” a 7-minute epic that allows for plenty of fretboard heroics from Aubert and inquisitions that suggest suppressed rage: “What am I waiting for / some army to break in?  / What am I aiming towards / a fight that never ends?”  The shoegaze predilections may have been dialed down so that the hooks achieve greater potency, but this is still unmistakably the work of the band that first wowed us some 5 years ago with “Lazy Eye.”

For all of the comforting familiarity of the aforementioned songs, Neck of the Woods also finds the group in experimentation mode.  “Make Believe” sports a taut groove in 7/8 from drummer Chris Guanlao that comes off with shocking levels of ease when paired with Aubert’s guitar arpeggiations and wordless vocal inflections.  “Busy Bees” utilizes an off-kilter guitar rhythm to create the illusion of shifting meters despite a propulsive 4/4 drumbeat.

Though anyone who’s seen SSPU in concert will be quick to tell you that the band is so much more than just Brian Aubert, their studio recordings often belie this fact; it’s all too easy to become entranced by the man’s swirling guitar tone and eccentric voice.  Neck of the Woods is the first instance in the group’s catalog where the songs feel as democratic as their live shows – Nikki Monninger’s dulcet voice provides a nice counterpoint to Aubert’s raspy tenor time and again, while Chris Guanlao lays down a number of electronic drum textures – heard to best effect on the ballad “Here We Are (Chancer)” and synth-pop gem “The Pit.”

The real MVP on this record though, is keyboard player Joe Lester.  Maybe chalk it up to producer Jacknife Lee’s touch at the controls, but Lester’s contributions on the keys are more palpable than ever before.  It’s his lush piano chords that give “Here We Are” its hypnotic rush, and it’s his bizarre synthesizer mutations at the end of “Gun Shy Sunshine” that nearly sends the track into the psychedelic terrain most often frequented by the Flaming Lips.  His presence is so strong, in fact, that there are moments in the heavily atmospheric “Dots and Dashes (Enough Already)” – albeit brief – where you might think you’ve stumbled upon a lost Coldplay track.  I mean that in a totally complimentary way, too.

So does SSPU’s new album validate any journey of self-discovery as previous purported?  Hard to say.  It’s far from a revelation, but Neck of the Woods is nonetheless indicative of a band that’s examining its past so that history does not repeat itself.  In the process, they’ve retained their core qualities while also branching out into new sonic territory.  Neck of the Woods may not be album of the year material, but it’s the best album in this band’s catalog by a long shot.

New Album from Choir Of Young Believers out now

Choir of Young Believers, led by Jannis Noya Makrigiannis, garnered an imposing number of accolades in their Danish homeland and the U.S. for their debut full-length, This Is for the White in Your Eyes.

Now a proper band, the collaborative dynamic has imbued their sound with more authority and daring, as Choir inhabits a wholly unique space where intimate folk, classic Krautrock, big-sky Americana, avant-garde composition and bombastic theatricality seamlessly serve the same master. Like Choir’s music, Makrigiannis’ powerful voice unifies the ambitious scope of Rhine Gold by sounding at once dolorous and magisterial. The rich, enveloping production does wonders to corral such creative largess under a unified, sepia-toned song cycle.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Choir-of-Young-Believers/102892689747194?sk=info

 

Allegaeon – Formshifter

Fort Collins, Colorado’s Allegaeon stormed onto the tech death scene with 2010′s Fragments of Form and Function.  It was nothing short of a spectacular display of dynamic death metal. Formshifter on Metal Blade Records is the band’s latest offering and should reign as a beast of an album if it can top its predecessor.

The prevalent feature on Formshifter is the tight tremolo riffing encountered throughout.  On songs like “Tartessos: The Hidden Xenocryst” you can detect an almost Dark Tranquility-like feel on the guitar parts.  Don’t get me wrong, the heaviness was not sacrificed in favor of melody as it’s still heavy as lead, as evidenced by the song “Iconic Images”.  This track also contains what sounds like a classical guitar break down and outro.  Sick!

No need to worry about the vocals lacking as Ezra Haynes growls his ass off and complements the songs perfectly, although he may have overdid it on “A Path Disclosed”.  The song “Twelve” seems to pack all the elements into the most cohesive product with manic looping riffs and heavy hitting drums and bass.  It almost seems incomprehensible to pull it all off.

The one thing that always concerns me with technical death metal is in keeping everything concise and consistent.  Luckily, that is one of many things that Allegaeon have going for them.  The solos never get that far off course and the song structures flow evenly and precise.  The only low points were “From Stars Death Came” and “Timeline Dissonance”.  They just never really peaked for me and pale in comparison to the rest of the material.

Not being a huge death metal fan, Formshifter was able to make an indelible impression on me.  I think across the board of today’s death metal offerings you will find only a handful that can rival Formshifter in terms of execution and musicianship.  I would definitely recommend this album to anyone looking for some quality technical death metal with melody and aggression.

Annie Automatic – “Call Me Crazy”

French and company are back with the lead-off single from their upcoming EP titled Songs From The Center.  The L.A.-based alt-rock band released rockin’ debut album Don’t Look Down in the summer of 2011, but this new song showcases Annie Automatic’s softer and sweeter side.  While “Call Me Crazy” is definitely a 180 from the rock format, it’s just as emotive and engaging.

At the start of this ‘verse, chorus, verse’ song, French sings in a wistfully light tone against a bed of gently sung ‘Oohs’ and ‘Ahhs’ and spare, delicately picked guitar.  French’s vocals become progressively more emphatic, as he expresses his feelings in a deeper tone amid curling lines of slide guitar.  On the chorus he plaintively cries out “Call me crazy / Call me a hopeless fool / but I keep coming back to you.”

Song at Annie Automatic’s FaceBook profile:

https://www.facebook.com/annieautomatic?v=app_178091127385

Official Site: http://annieautomatic.com/

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