Glitchy, techy, not too upbeat but not too down… this is a great album. It pulls together quality elements of the likes of Dntel and Royksopp while retaining a distinct enough sound to be interesting. Listening to it, one feels both comforted by its familiarity and yet uncertain of quite where it’s going next.
Thievery Corporation has a sixth album out called Culture of Fear. Surprising no one, it’s good. Sadly, though, it doesn’t really push the boundaries.
One could argue that trip hop as it stood in the mid-90s simply should stay in the past, and that Karmacoda is an evolution of that sound. However, other bands disprove that point: to wit Halou and arguably the Thievery Corporation, and others have beautifully picked up the trip hop banner, regardless whether they carry it explicitly.
The Prodigy have always had the sound of a band that should be captured live; they radiate an angry energy, wielding music seeping a hint of dangerous power. Their new live double DVD, World’s on Fire, filmed mostly at the Warrior's Dance festival, would seem to prove that those who haven’t seen The Prodigy live are missing the fulfillment of that livid promise.
When’s the last time you heard an album that was both familiar and refreshingly new? Buzz hip hop act Shabazz Palaces have just created exactly that.
The Graduation Ceremony grabs the listener from the start with its emotional immediacy, the flow from one beautifully-crafted song to the next. It doesn’t break new ground, specifically; long-time appreciators of Joseph Arthur will find much here reminiscent of past work. For example, the album’s second track bears beautiful memory (and nearly a guitar riff) of his earlier work “Honey and the Moon,” from Redemption’s Son; that song, by this writer’s ear, is a true gem of melodic, folk-inspired pop, and “Horses” successfully follows in its footsteps.
It’s safe to say that, along with Faithless, Underworld created the soundtrack for the mid-90s for this writer, a time of club music and club going, of raves and dance parties and general electronic carrying on. To this day, their breakout hit “Born Slippy” can send shivers down my spine. So how does a duo who’s been playing together since 1979 (seriously, that long) fare releasing an album in 2010 that is remarkably true to that mid-90s sound, if slightly updated? Not badly at all.
Penny Sparkle's release date is perfectly timed, because in many ways this album is a perfectly reflective album for the transition to fall and winter; it is an album by which to contemplate things of heady nature over a glass of something dark and swirling, a fire in the background, the wind howling outside. It is an album that pushes the listener to find a mechanism for uplift in sonically-downbeat mining of the human experience.
Upon first listen to The Red River’s Little Songs About The Big Picture, I was grabbed by its nods to Iron and Wine, Sufjan Stevens, the Cave Singers, and Animal Collective (and even occasional hints of early Bright Eyes, as on “Grand Fasse”). However, it’s got something more… it feels like something one could listen to on one’s porch, happily sipping some summery drink while rocking back and forth. It carries a melancholic joie de vivre, if that’s possible – a sense of awareness of things beyond one’s vision, carried all the while on a melody that reminds one of life’s short, bittersweet nature.
