D. Lissvik is one half of cosmic-Balearic-disco gods Studio, which this album shares obvious comparisons with. It sounds slightly odder than Studio, sans vocals and with added Eastern and Spanish undertones, but there's no mistaking the trademark production. They say "Imagine Durutti Column, Perdurabo, Klaus Schulze and Bo Hansson on an extended occult trip filled with Eastern-infused instrumentals ranging from meditative to upbeat." I say "Like playing Dire Straits dubs through an echo box on the beach!" - this is a good thing!
What a find! I chanced upon this CD in Oxfam at the weekend, it catching my eye amongst the usual flotsom and jetsom of dodgy albums and Dodgy albums. Static Caravan released the debut self titled album by Smile Down Upon Us this summer; a project between Tokyo based singer moomLooo and Keiron Phealan and David Sheppard from London. The story goes that neither side met during the recording, bouncing ideas and recordings back across the Internet.
“I don't speak any Japanese and moom's English is so-so,” says Phelan. “In order to understand each other, we had to use simple language, and our emails began to look like a dialogue between two hyper-enthusiastic nine year-olds. We could only discuss things in a very ‘primary colour’ way and the music seemed to become extremely vivid too. Dave and I had the idea that this was sounding like a Chagall painting looks. That seemed a really strong and suitable feeling for the band, so we pushed it along that road.”
That the trio mananged to create such a magical album is accentuated by the childlike charm that surrounds each track, a warm mixture of strings, ukelele, banjo and flutes combined with moomLooo's beguiling lyrics and field recordings. All in all it took fourteen months to complete, an arduous task for even the most studio hardened band, let alone one that had never spoken.
'Twenty Systems' by Benge is a fascinating release by Expanding Records. The twenty tracks showcase twenty different synthesizers, one from each year, covering the period 1968-1988. You might expect this deliciously geeky premise to overshadow the music, but Benge has been careful to not get sidetracked by the multitude of knobs and faders. Drones and tones sit comfortably alongside more melodic compositions, culminating in a wonderfully atmospheric album that can be enjoyed from both a musical and technical standpoint.
The CD is presented within a sixty page book containing photos and diagrams of the instruments along with a detailed history documenting the development of synthesisers between 1968 and 1988.
'Presented here are twenty pieces of music created on twenty different synthesisers, one from each year between 1968 and 1988. The purpose of this record is to demonstrate the development of the the synthesiser from the first commercially available systems in the late 1960s to the introduction of fully digital systems in the late 1980s. This is not intended to be a comprehensive history of synthesisers. However, the listener will hopefully gain some insight into the character of each instrument, and on a more general level experience the evolving sound of synthesis over the years. What you hear on each track is the pure sound of an individual instrument. No additional processing, sequencing or effects were applied to any of the recordings. If a system was equipped with an in-built sequencer I made use of it on the particular track, and I often used the process of recording sound-on-sound, where a track is made up of multiple layers of the same synthesiser recorded in parallel. To put it simply, I wanted to let the instruments speak for themselves as much as possible; to let the instruments influence the way I composed the pieces.' Ben Edwards (Benge)
There is no band more Proper than Steely Dan. Six Million Steps have posted a great mix of classic Dan interspersed with talky bits by main men Donald Fagen and Walter Becker.
Strumming its way into contention for the best album of '08 is 'Microcastle' by Deerhunter. The Atlanta band's third long player is a distillation of what's loved most about late 80s/early 90s indie - jangly detuned guitars, half-buried vocals, lots of reverb and a penchant for sonic experimentation - but dragged brightly into the 00s. Ranging from ambient and fragile to dense, pounding noise; the songs are beautifully constructed, appearing immediately familiar but possessing more than enough to hold the ear. 'Microcastle' sounds like a band at the height of their powers.
Stones Throw seem to have a knack of picking up odd artists and ingratiating them into their family. Koushik melds sample based hip hop, 60s LA hippy folk, shoegaze and enough resident oddness which, when combined with his hushed vocals drenched in reverb, creates quite a unique sound. Opener 'Morning Comes' actually sounds like it could have originated from the early 90s Thames Valley had the sun shone a little more often. The fact that the lead track from his 2005 EP 'Be With' (still sounding brilliant) pops up hints that his output isn't quite as prolific as label mate Madlib, however you can't keep a good thing down and the album provides more than enough joy for it to have been worth the wait.
Having been criminally unaware of One Little Plane I chanced upon her last month after finding out my friend Henry was actually the live band's guitar player. The summer release of OLP aka Kathryn Bint's album 'Until' snuck out on Kieren Hebden's Text label in June. Hebden, who also produced the album, adds a subtle influence that removes it from just being "female singer with acoustic guitar" and lets the quirkiness of the songs breath; 'Lotus Flower' (on this weeks podcast) being a particular highlight. Songs, including 'Sunshine Kid' the title track and 'The Snails Are Out Tonight' are off centre, perfect summer pop...for winter too.
I'm not sure quite why I like this album so much considering every track on it basically follows the blueprint of all the slow Spiritualized songs (minus the noise bits)...actually that's probably the reason why I do like it so much. Brightblack Morning Light somehow manage to capture that feeling, translate it over nine tracks and, amazingly to their credit, keep it interesting. Refreshingly, its the slowing down that captures your attention more than you might expect. Band members Naybob Shineywater and Rachel Hughes, along with a set of fine guest musicians, recorded the album powered by solar panels at their hut on a mesa in New Mexico, which goes someway to explaining the sun-beaten, lo-fi sound and languid tempo.
III is the first studio album (following two live albums) from far out San Francisco trio The Alps. The Alps draw on soundtracks and the most progressive - in a good way - aspects of funk, rock and folk before giving it a good old squeeze through the box marked 'weird'. Played on headphones, the peak time for this is sunrise, preferably without any sleep for a least 24 hours. It's the kinda thing NASA should have on the playlist to prepare astronauts for being shot into space. If The Verve hadn't gone rubbish after 'Northern Soul' and jetissoned Ashcroft, maybe into space, in favour of working with Kieran Hebden and chilling out *a lot*, they would've gone halfway to sounding as good as this.
Apollo Sunshine were completely unknown to me until I came across their latest album on a Rough Trade 'If you like My Bloody Valentine, you'll probably like...' wall display. Always the bargin hunter, it was actually the big "LP includes CD album" sticker that caught my eye and moved me to take it to the listening post. 'Shall Noise Upon', the group's third album, doesn't posess much MBVness but does roll out woozy, psychedelic folk alongside amped up freak-outs, sitting somewhere nicely between Fleet Foxes, Spiritualized and The Black Keys.
1. Apollo Sunshine - Breeze (Headless Heroes) 2. Deerhunter - Agoraphobia (Kranky) 3. Koushik - Laying In The Sun (Stones Throw) 4. One Little Plane - Lotus Flower (Text) 5. Alps - A Manha Na Praia (Type) 6. Bright Black Morning Light - Oppressions Each (Matador) 7. Dr Dog - The Rabbit, The Bat And The Reindeer (Park The Van) 8. Bomb The Bass - Black River (!K7)
Direct Download: Proper Songs Podcast #001 (right click/save as)
"Proper Songs". That's what I've started saying when people ask what music I like. Truth be told, it's a bit of a lie as I like many sounds that couldn't be described as a "proper song" by any stretch of the imagination, but its a turn of phrase that immediately emphasises a certain standard required to make it onto my approved list. Proper Songs: The Blog is my outlet to blab about fantastic music and hopefully turn you on to something new. With great music comes great responsibility.
So yeah, a load of toss but with good intentions at heart.
