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Good stuff from 2006:
Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies
Hot Chip - The Warning
Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
Bob Dylan - Modern Times
Nellie McKay - Pretty Little Head
Fiery Furnaces - Bitter Tea
Loose Fur - Born Again in the USA
Espers - II
Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
Sonic Youth - Rather Ripped
Ellen Allien & Apparat - Orchestra of Bubbles
Anthony Braxton Sextet - Victoriaville (2005)
John Zorn - Moonchild
Koby Israelite - Orobas: Book of Angels Vol. 4
Favorites of 2005:
Missy Elliott - "The Cookbook"
Opeth - "Ghost Reveries"
Stephen Malkmus - "Face the Truth"
Fiery Furnaces - "Rehearsing My Choir"
Fiery Furnaces - "EP"
Misha Mengelberg - "Senne Sing Song"
Devendra Banhart - "Cripple Crow"
Ellen Allien - "Thrills"
New Pornographers - "Twin Cinema"
M.I.A. - "Arular"
Jenny Scheinman - "12 Songs"
Scott Amendola Band - "Believe"
A-Frames - "Black Forest"
Koenjihyakkei - "Angherr Shisspa"
Konono No. 1 - "Congotronics"
Brazilian Girls - "Brazilian Girls"
Fast N Bulbous - "Pork Chop Blue Around the Rind"
Fantomas - "Suspended Animation"
Jennifer Gentle - "Valende"
Calexico with Iron & Wine - "In the Reins EP"
Laura Veirs - "Year of Meteors"
Living Things - "Ahead of the Lions"
"Believer Magazine 2005 Music Issue (included CD)"
Jason Forrest - "Lady Fantasy EP"
Gorillaz - "Demon Days"
Best of 2004:
Blood Brothers - "Crimes"
Joanna Newsom - "The Milk Eyed Mender"
Devendra Banhart - "Rejoicing in the Hands" and "Nino Rojo"
M.I.A. and Diplo - "Piracy Funds Terrorism Vol. 1"
N.E.R.D. - "Fly or Die"
Magnetic Fields - "i"
Black Keys - "Rubber Factory"
Jason Forrest - "The Unrelenting Songs of the 1979 Post Disco Crash"
Keren Ann - "Not Going Anywhere"
A.C. Newman - "The Slow Wonder"
Jewels & Binoculars Plays the Music of Bob Dylan - "Floater"
Air - "Talkie Walkie"
Lali Puna - "Faking the Books"
Fiery Furnaces - "Blueberry Boat"
Nellie McKay - "Get Away From Me"
The Streets - "A Grand Don't Come For Free"
Ghost - "Hypnotic Underworld"
Dave Douglas - "Strange Liberation"
Sonic Youth - "Sonic Nurse"
The Futureheads - s/t
Wolf Eyes - "Burned Mind"
Jenny Scheinman - "Shalagaster"
Pig Destroyer - "Terrifyer"
Jerry Granelli w/Rinde Eckert - "Sandhills Reunion"
Mihaly Dresch Quartet - "Egyenes Zene"
Bill Frisell - "Unspeakable"
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Tuesday, September 12, 2006
I put up this list on RateYourMusic of the best albums of the year so far (as I currently see it):
http://rateyourmusic.com/list/o_nate/best_albums_of_2006
- o. nate
Thursday, June 8, 2006
Fiery Furnaces - Bitter Tea
This album is exasperating and invigorating in equal measure. Matthew Friedberger (who wrote the songs, plays most of the instruments, and produced) is clearly some sort of prodigy. He has a restless musical imagination that can pull off quirky key changes, instantly memorable melodies, and unusual chords that display a sense of sophisticated popcraft that leaves most indie bands in the dust. So while he has the natural talent to be an Irving Berlin or Hoagy Carmichael for the 21st century, he also has an infuriating tendency to sabotage his own best work. His insatiable need to fuck with each and every element of a song is reminiscent of the hyperactive ADD of Aphex Twin on The Richard D. James Album. And, like that album, it alternates between brilliance and annoying self-indulgence. Bitter Tea is largely keyboard driven, and the sonic palette for this album features heavily a rinky-dink spinet sound and piercing, squelchy synth tones. Also, there are too many moments on here when Friedberger interrupts the action to indulge in noisy swooshes and music-box-gone-mad swirls of sped-up notes. It might be funny the first time, but it starts to wear thin. The lyrics also (with a few notable exceptions) are too smugly clever for their own good, with the sort of hyper-literate knowingness and deliberate obscurantism made popular by McSweeneys magazine in the literary world. Eleanor Friedberger has a lovely voice and good interpretive instincts, but too often she is fighting to be heard over the clutter (she should have been mixed louder) and saddled with the task of reciting her brother's quirky lyrics. Although there are frequent flashes of brilliance, the best sustained moments on here are, not surprisingly, also the most direct, both lyrically and musically: "Benton Harbor Blues" and "Police Sweater Blood Vow".
- o. nate
Wednesday, June 7, 2006
I recently created a profile on RateYourMusic.com. It seems like the sort of thing that a music nerd like me would have done a long time ago. I haven't rated/reviewed much yet, but my profile is here.
- o. nate
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Some recent highlights from blogs that I read (many of which are listed at the right):
Food may not be the first thing that most of us think of when we think of Brian Eno, but Geeta of The Original Soundtrack uses food and recipes as a lens to see how Eno's mind works, and the results are fascinating.
In an earlier post, Geeta discovered some back issues of a 1970s electronic music magazine called Synapse. Make sure to follow the links through to the actual pages of the magazine hosted online. A real time warp.
Finally, Flaming Pablum's Alex in NYC takes a trip down memory lane and pays tribute to the glory of R.E.M.'s first EP, Chronic Town.
- o. nate
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
I recently watched Agnes Varda's 2000 documentary called the Gleaners and I. It starts from the colorful and quaint tradition of "gleaning" in which French farmers and landowners are required by law to allow people to pick up the left-overs that remain in fields and orchards after a harvest, and proceeds to a wide-ranging exploration of stories from modern France having to do with people that gather junk from sidewalks, eat from garbage bins, or basically make use of other people's trash. There are also little digressions in which the film-maker, Agnes Varda, stops to show us things that happened to catch her fancy, though they might have little to do with the main theme. The movie has a very loose, informal feel to it - kind of like watching someone else's home video. At times this can seem self-indulgent: as for instance when we see several seconds of the lens cap swinging beneath the camera which was inadvertently left on. This might be Varda's attempt to extend the theme of "gleaning" to include the idea of reclaiming "waste" footage - but reclaiming waste is only interesting if the waste has some value, which is not clear in this example. In any case, her theme is timely and relevant, and there are plenty of interesting characters whose confidence Varda gains and brings to life for us. So overall the film is a success, and it might just make us think a bit about the things we throw away or pass by.
- o. nate
Wednesday, April 5, 2006
There have been a few notable 2005 releases that I've discovered since writing the list below. The Brazilian Girls self-titled album is a diverse stew of electronic and dance music styles with polyglot lyrics sung by a Euro-indie-diva type that displays an imaginative compositional sense and a dancefloor-ready rhythmic sense. Laura Veirs' Year of Meteors is a Helium-esque singer-songwriter folk-rock outing with lots of pop-friendly melodies and some distinctive violin playing by Eyvind Kang.
Perhaps the most notable overlooked 2005 release that I've come across so far has been Misha Mengelberg's Senne Sing Song. You'd have to go back to Thelonious Monk to think of a pianist that displays such a knack for finding the right "wrong" notes. Like Monk, Mengelberg is always thinking of something, and his intuitive flashes will dazzle you, just as his wit and style will charm you. Greg Cohen and Ben Perowsky lay down a remarkably sympathetic and lively rhythm section. This is incredibly civilized music with an indelible streak of roguish impropriety.
- o. nate
Friday, December 23, 2005
Okay, I'm going to do this fast because otherwise I'd never do it all.
Top 11 of 2005
Here they are folks, the best 11 albums that came out this year, according to yours
truly:
11. Koenjihyakkei - Angherr Shisspa
Frantic jazz-prog-opera from Ruins mastermind and chief glossolalist.
10. Ellen Allien - Thrills
Cool, sleek, and muscular synth-pop-tech-noir from reigning Berlin DJ diva.
9. Fast N Bulbous - Pork Chop Blue Around the Rind
Loving arrangements and tight musicianship reveal new colors in the Captain's tunes.
8. Konono No. 1 - Congotronics
A percussion-driven street party that sounds like Vooredoms with thumb piano.
7. M.I.A. - Arular
Savvy, self-mythologizing electro-hip-hop delivers on the hype.
6. Devendra Banhart - Cripple Crow
Sprawling and easy like Sunday morning but there's a lot here to keep coming back to.
5. Fiery Furnaces - Rehearsing My Choir
What could have been bizarre self-indulgence combines formal innovation with humanism and
tunefulness.
4. Jenny Scheinman - 12 Songs
Compositional tour-de-force by elegant and preternaturally-poised violinist.
3. Stephen Malkmus - Face the Truth
He's gotten older and wiser but hasn't forgotten how to take chances.
2. Opeth - Ghost Reveries
Epic prog-metal grandeur.
1. Missy Elliott - The Cookbook
"Missy be the name and y'all should already know" - indeed.
- o. nate
Wednesday, November 2, 2005
Nick Sylvester dares to imagine a world in which the Beatles never existed.
- o. nate
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Perhaps you've heard of or even experienced certain mountain roads where it's possible to put the car in neutral and it will mysteriously roll uphill. Perhaps you've wondered how this phenomenon can be reconciled with known concepts of physics. Well wonder no more, as Mark Sinker is here with the definitive explanation.
- o. nate
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