Addressing the Backlog - a long time coming - volume 1

I listened to so much last year that there were a number of albums I never got to. I thought I'd start by running some down in a short-form to save on time for myself and readers. Hopefully you guys see some of your favorites in my collection. I might even hazard a 'best of' list eventually.  

The Bloody Beetroots - Hide - released Septemeber 2013

(Electronic, Dance) Noisy, aggressive, unapologetic and brimming with energy - is a good description of this gonzo dance-metal album, at one hour in length it doesn't hold attention all the way through but in parts or in small doses - it's a lot of fun. This is one of the most memorable of the year if nowhere near perfect - it tosses off genres with reckless abandon and humour - 3/5

Bobby McFerrin - Spirityouall - released April 2013

 

(Gospel, Jazz) Quietly creative and simply beautiful would be two ways to describe this album. McFerrin is singing on spiritual music and standards, he subjects these stuffy old tunes to his wide ranging rubber-voice (sometimes wordlessly) with tasteful accompaniment that allows the subject matter of less importance than the greatness of the songs, which is prefect for a cynical Atheist like myself. His version of 'I Shall be Released' and the ending song 'Rest/Yes, indeed' are magic. 4.5/5

John Legend - Love in the Future - September 2013 

(R'n'B, Soul, Pop)  More electronic and less soul than before but it does this well by wrapping everything with flashy Pop music confections that actually stick. There is a point where Legend's prideful singing starts to irritate but thankfully that only happens on the weaker numbers towards the end of the album, mostly he knocks it out of the park. 4/5

Bonobo - The North Borders - released April 2013

 

(Electronic, Dance, Ambient) Chilled-out and tuneful with a steady but not propulsive beat. The music feels suited to small club shows, or in the background at trendy coffee joints, but has plenty of rewards for headphone listening as it elevates itself over being disposable with an interesting musical palette. Excellent vocalist  choices (Grey Reverend, Erykah Bahdu, Szjerdene, Cornelia) make their appearances the highlights but the ball doesn't get dropped on the instrumental tracks - this disc is worth repeated listens. 4.5/5

Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest - released June 2013

(Electronic, Ambient) I have been a fan of Boards of Canada's slightly eerie down-tempo music for a while and this album doesn't sound a hundred miles from their previous work, which is to say, it might not win new fans. Nothing on the disc is truly disappointing but nothing truly exciting is going on either. The mood is colder than before but the highlights like 'Palace Posy', 'Split Infinitives' and 'Nothing is Real' are worthy of a few listens - 3.5/5

Wire - Change Becomes Us - released March 2013

 

(Punk, Post-Punk, Alt-Rock) Aging with fire, Wire have been at it since the late seventies, this is one of their strongest releases. This disc sees them rediscovering and rearranging older unreleased material. The new creations are great! Conflicting, driven and clever-as-hell - hopefully they keep making music for a while yet. 4.5/5

Finally, something else! - (note: this is a bit old)

I have been writing this blog for almost a year (April 2013 was the start) and I have skirted away from writing anything but music reviews. I have listened to more than a years worth of albums though I'm a little behind in writing-up what I thought about all of them while some albums were discarded because I didn't feel anything in particular about the music (The Bronx, I'm looking at you). I had always been reluctant to buy online because I thought it went against the premise of the blog, that of spontaneity and that different stores may hold different gems.

I saw this report on the ABC about vinyl sales in Australia and musicians digging out their favourites. Just imagine, one day, a few years from now, there will be the next generation of musicians doing the same for compact discs and how the physical purchase of the disc is somewhat superior to the purely digital download.

To be honest, there is absolutely nothing I hear on a vinyl recording of a song that I don't hear on the other formats of that same song. I haven't got the nostalgia of those big black discs because I was born too late, audio cassettes were the thing when I was born and they would slowly be phased out for CD. Vinyl has the kind of charming obsolesce that is built into everything these days and might kick-on for a few years yet.

I have bought online, many times, and this method of distribution has more longevity. The CD shops will not cease to be but there influence has been declining and will diminish further over-time.

There may be nothing 'cool' about a digital download and music needs 'cool' things to happen so it can make lots of money in one place but I, for one, believe that is a good thing. Since the advent of MTV in the 1980's (the old kind that showed music videos and not the new version that just shows a certain type of show) meant that musicians has a visual format with which to promote their songs and they could take a visual style to match their music or promote themselves as a style and then sell that to people with musical accompaniment. 

Trombone Shorty - Fire and Brimstone - from the album Say That to Say This

This post is because there was no official music video from Trombone Shorty's album the last time  posted or simply I was too slack to type the correct search-term, either way, here is a video for the track 'Fire and Brimstone' from the excellent album Say That to Say This. Enjoy. 

 

Trombone Shorty - Say That to Say This - released September 2013 on Verve records

Genres: Rhythm and Blues, Funk, Soul

The more I listen to album, the more I like it. It is one of the best of the year. These tightly packed ten songs fly-bye very quickly (just over 35 minutes) but each one forms a part of a whole that is satisfying. The band has the attitude of a live band, the rhythm section always pushes something to move-to but there are sure signs of production work with soaring echo on the vocals and the instruments all sounding separate. A cover of The Meters 'Be My Lady' is in the middle of the set and it fits perfectly as an updated version of the late seventies African-American music scene. It is no surprise that Raphael Saadiq, who has been reviving that sound with his solo records for years, is co-producer of the record and steps in on backing vocals for some it. The instrumentals are all precise and leave you hungry while the original songs are tight modern versions of an era of organic pop-music that has passed. Troy Andrews, who is Trombone Shorty, has surrounded himself with very skilled musicians and has drawn from them immense focus. So much focus that some of the songs, the ones with more prominent guitar work, border on hard-rock.

I didn't think this was much when I first listened to it but repeated listens reveal this one to be a joy.

RATING: 4.5/5 STARS 

Here's a 'video' of the track 'Get the Picture'  by Trombone Shorty of the album Say That to Say This

nine inch nails - Hesitation Marks - released September 2013

Genres: Alt-Rock, Electronic

Considerably brighter than the other work by nine inch nails and noticeably less indulgent, this is a very solid set of songs. Back when I was a teenager, nine inch nails, or more correctly Trent Reznor who is the man behind the music, appealed to the emotional extremes that age group has to endure. This is how I have seen his musical output  under the nine inch nails name since 1999's The Fragile, relegated to appealing only to a time and place in someone's life but not to be held onto and easily overcome with a bit of maturity. Reznor seems as if he left behind the nhilism seen on his most notable works Pretty Hate Machine from 1989 and The Downward Spiral from 1994, personally he has gone through addiction problems and record label woes, so it is refreshing to hear brighter moments like the song 'Everything' in the middle of this set with a bright pop-hook that signals a departure from the tortured subject matter. The excellent work with Attricus Ross on The Social Network score from 2010 and the soundtrack for The Girl with Dragon Tattoo from 2011 has carried over to his nine inch nails work. There is professional restraint shown on this album and the artist seems less afraid of major keys and more hopeful lyrics than in the past. This is still definitely in the 'alternative' music mindset with lingering angst but this time out the lyrics suggest acceptance rather than loathing. Songs like 'Copy of A', 'Disappointed', 'Came Back Haunted' and 'Satellite' have beats that are designed for the dance-floor  and they are much more enduring because of it. Guitars are really pushed to the back in this production and lessening their presence and taking away that compressed guitar noise that alternative and metal acts loved in the 1990's and early 2000's forms a good way to show off that Trent Reznor is in the business of making good music and not just indulging his extremes to music.

RATING: 4/5

Here is the epileptic seizure inducing video for the song 'Came Back Haunted' by nine inch nails

Hiatus Kaiyote - Tawk Tomahawk - released July 2013 on the Flying Buddah label

Genres: Soul, Rhythm and Blues

At best, this is a promising debut from an Australian act that should produce greater stuff in future and at worst it is kind of frustrating in that it doesn't play to its strengths. This Australian  soul outfit who formed in 2012 try very hard, possibly too hard, as the production choices on this disc saps energy from their talent and the lead singer fights the music to be heard. The ever present bass has an enveloping hazy sound that seems lifted from dub but it doesn't quite fit the most prominent singing style chosen here which is indebted to soul acts like Nina Simone or a slightly freakier equivalent.There is also keyboards that are way to far to the front of the mix and guitars that are buried too far in it. The vocals sound at time behind the bass and keyboard which makes the music sound like it should be center stage leading to the feeling that the songs were an afterthought.  This may have been the case, I don't know. It's just a strange fit. It would probably make more sense in a live setting and if I see this band playing near me I would definitely check them out.

I knew very little about this group past what I read in the linear notes, where I gleamed that the lead singer goes by the silly moniker of Nai Palm, but I had very high hopes on my first listen through the tracks. I was pleasantly surprised that it had the uber-cool sound of a producer like Flying Lotus, who apparently has been promoting this band, but he doesn't deal in songs much and is more in the realm of stay-at-home with headphones dance music.What is here is songs and occasionally aimless instrumentals. Overall the lyrics are stream of consciousness rants but that isn't a problem, even when the lyrics get really strange, it's that the singer seems to want to desperately stand-out  but hasn't got much to say. She caterwauls and then croons, she tries everything to fights the monstrous bass sound and the result is a knotted up album that would work better in snippets in a mix-tape or DJ set. This isn't too harsh a criticism as there is good stuff here, the track 'Nakamarra' is the least complicated by intentional weirdness and it sounds competent. The singer does, for the most part, go up and down her register and all across a wide range of vocal styles effectively but like any young act it lacks refinement.

A very promising new act but the album is mixed. If you're a DJ you'll get more out of this disc than a casual listener who will find it something worth admiring but not something to love.

RATING: 2.5/5 STARS 

Below is the song 'Nakamarra' by Hiatus Kaiyote.

Edgeland - Karl Hyde (Universal Music) - released April 2013

Genres: Electronic, Ambient, Alt-pop

Former vocalist for the electronic act Underworld, Karl Hyde's first venture into a solo recording starts with an absolute stunner in the song 'The Night Slips Us Smiling Underneath Its Dress' that has the same transcendent post-modern feel that typified his previous act's best work but with a greater focus on his lyrics. This track is filled with drugged excitement, a cold echoed piano eventually turns the corner into a warm guitar solo. The lyrics seeming to detail in a pastiche fashion a night out in Lewisham at 2am involving laughter, African Queens, a car crash, drugs and some lonely time travelling through it as a passenger in a black Mercedes with a very tired driver. It is a great start but nothing else gets to this song's high but some do come close. The following song 'Your Perfume Was the Best Thing'  is almost a standard pop song save for a few abstract lyrics and has the pronounced chorus to prove it, it is memorable. 'Shoulda Been A Painter' is a bright sounding song filled with wonder. 'Boy with the Jigsaw Puzzle Fingers' has a kind of unfurling wonderment in the face of the chaos of modern city living.

The feeling of wonderment seems to be the main feeling of all the characters on this album and it seems that these characters are all travelling somewhere in a city somewhere watching life around them. It has the perfect ambient backdrop of keyboards with electronic clicks and beeps to underscore Hyde's lyrics with copious amounts of filters over those. If I had a distinct criticism of this music it is that it drifts a bit like ambient music can, it becomes mood-music that only appeals to people in that mood, the lyrics can occasionally become meanderings. There seems to be only a few tracks that take hold of the listener but overall the album hits its mark without exceeding it.

RATING: 3.5/5

Here's the video for Karl Hyde's single 'The Boy with the Jigsaw Puzzle Fingers'