June Of 44 "Four Great Points" (Quarterstick Records, 1998)

Artist: June Of 44
Album: "Four Great Points"
Release Date: 28 January 1998
Label: Quarterstick Records
Genre: Math-Rock, Post-Rock, Indie-Rock, Post-Hardcore, Noise-Rock
Mood: Cathartic, Brooding, Nocturnal, Detached
Reminds Of: Slint, Tortoise, Rodan, Gastr Del Sol, Trans Am
What People Think: MusicCity
Definitely Worth Buying: CdUniverse, Amazon

Tracklist
1. Of Information & Belief
2. The Dexterity Of Luck
3. Cut Your Face
4. Doomsday
5. Does Your Heart Beat Slower
6. Lifted Bells
7. Shadow Pugilist
8. Air #17

OK. I'll admit it. I cried during "Titanic." So laugh, tough guy! I won't be in the theatre while you're watching "Firestorm."

But like yourself, I also thought it really kicked ass when all those people died. Come to think of it, Four Great Points' opening track is pretty analogous to the emotional ebb and flow (and sink) of America's celluloid zeitgiest extravaganza, "Titanic." Twin guitars sparkle off each other like Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. The bass (arctic water) splashes and upholds the gargantuan drums (steel hull). Beautiful, breathy vocals waft over the bow... Lookout! The Chorus! (Iceberg!) Guitars scree distress signals and resonate cacophonous pangs! Lead vocalist Sean Meadows (cruel fate) screams, "Your time! Has come!" Then the baby blissfully sinks into Aqualand. June of 44's rock proves there is grace in disaster.

Songs like "The Dexterity of Luck" and "Cut Your Face" are standard math rock, but these equations are fueled by chaos theory and funky fractals; they're not the sleepy pre-Algebra of JV bands. June even dabbles in dub (ala Tortoise) without trying too hard. I could go on and on about the bands June of 44 brings to mind -- Rachel's, Fugazi, Tortoise, Polvo, Slint -- but they rise above simple fusion. If indie rock is Greek mythology, June of 44 is Neptune.

OK. I'll admit it. I wept to the opening melody and lyric, "This is the greatest place on earth." So laugh, tough guy. I won't be in the room while you're listening to the Deftones. But hey, I also air guitared and ruptured my third vertebra headbanging to the thick riffs.

(Source: PitchforkMedia)

June of 44's fourth full-length, Four Great Points, is their most experimental effort to date -- fractured melodies and dub-like rhythms collide in a noisy atmosphere rich in detail, adorned with violins, trumpet, severe phasing effects, and even a typewriter.

(Source: AllMusicGuide)

“June Of 44s’ name refers to June Miller, wife of author Henry Miller, and the year author Anaïs Nin began writing about June in her diaries…”

Slowdive "Just For A Day" (Creation, 1991)

Artist: Slowdive
Album: "Just For A Day"
Release Date: September 2, 1991
Label: Creation
Genre: Dream-Pop, Shoegaze, Indie-Rock
Mood: Intimate, Ethereal, Gentle, Bittersweet
Reminds Of: Ride, Mojave 3, My Bloody Valentine
What People Think: AllMusicGuide, Boomkat
Definitely Worth Buying: Boomkat, Amazon

Tracklist
1. Spanish Air
2. Celia's Dream
3. Catch The Breeze
4. Ballad Of Sister Sue
5. Erik's Song
6. Waves
7. Brighter
8. The Sadman
9. Primal

Named after a word in one of Nick Chaplin's dreams -- not from a Siouxsie and the Banshees single -- Slowdive formed in Reading, England, in late 1989. The group orginally consisted of Neil Halstead (guitar/vocals), Rachel Goswell (guitar/vocals), Christian Savill (guitar), Adrian Sell (drums), and Chaplin (bass). Formed when they were mostly in their teens, Slowdive was initially lumped in with the remainder of the early-'90s British shoegaze scene; Slowdive's later releases extended upon the likes of the Cocteau Twins and the more atmospheric sides of post-punk, and they closed out their career with an excellent and misunderstood ambient LP.
Signing with Creation, Slowdive's early singles received glowing press and chart placement. Their debut single, Slowdive, thinly veiled an indebtedness to the Byrds and My Bloody Valentine, with no traceable punk influence. (In fact, they were probably amongst the first batch of young rock bands to ignore the movement.) Just after Slowdive's recording, Sell left for university. Neil Carter subbed for less than a year, lending his skills to the follow-up single, Morningrise; former Charlottes member Simon Scott hopped on board prior to the band's third single, Holding Our Breath. The sleepy escapist psychedelia of both Morningrise and Holding Our Breath made significant impressions on the British indie chart. The press dubbed them part of "The Scene That Celebrates Itself" -- a small, loose, conglomerate of like-minded bands who could be seen at each other's shows, frequently hanging out together within the same circle. This "scene" included Lush, Moose, Swervedriver, Curve, and Blur. Not associating with themselves as a move of self-importance, grandstanding, or high society, it was merely a means for those involved to get into shows for free. Most of those involved were university dropouts on the dole. A dastardly move by the press, the tag just made it easier for them to lasso a group of bands into the to-be-expected derision. With the Brit-pop trend close behind, they could cast aside their champs of yesterday with one fell swoop.
For some, Slowdive will always encapsulate all that is wrong about the so-called shoegazing movement. The disaffected vocals, bowl-headed haircuts, the over-reliance on FX pedals and their vague lyrics were all at odds with the music media's then obsession with grunge and Britpop. Certainly, Slowdive weren't to everyone's taste but in a relatively short time they produced three largely excellent albums; each of which featured a signficant development in their sound and now well-respected as essential references in the dreampop movement. As if to prove that Slowdive were always more concerned with melody than they were given credit for, founder members Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell now ply their trade in the spare, more countrified work of Mojave 3.
Their debut album 'Just For A Day' has - on the whole - aged surprisingly well and is a more focused effort than one could reasonably expect from the band members who were still in their early twenties at the time. Granted, the vocals tend towards the effete but there were already signs of the tougher, more robust effects which would be perfect by their second album. Evidence of this is plain to see on the sinister finale 'Primal' and three minutes in to 'Catch The Breeze' as the floating melody is cruelly overtaken by a heavier, darker surge of guitar. In contrast, at this stage of their career, Slowdive were more comfortable with glacial soundscapes of which 'Celia's Dream', the mournful 'Ballad Of Sister Sue' and the gorgeous instrumental 'Erik's Song' stand out the most.

(source: Leonardslair.co.uk)

“For all that I have is written in waves…”

Deerhoof "Milk Man" (Kill Rock Stars, 2004)

Artist: Deerhoof
Album: "Milk Man"
Release Date: 9 March 2004
Label: Kill Rock Stars
Genre: Indie-Rock, Noise-Pop, Experimental-Rock
Mood: Energetic, Irreverent, Naive, Innocent
Reminds Of: Erase Errata, The Microphones, The Breeders
What People Think: SplendindMagazine, DustedMagazine, PopMatters
Definitely Worth Buying: CdUniverse, Amazon

Tracklist
1. Milk Man
2. Giga Dance
3. Desaparecere
4. Rainbow Silhouette Of The Milky Rain
5. Dog On The Sidewalk
6. C
7. Milking
8. Dream Wanderer's Tune
9. Song Of Sorn
10. That Big Orange Sun Run Over Speed Light
11. New Sneakers

Deerhoof follows Apple O', an album that won the group ever-growing critical and popular acclaim, with Milk Man, an album even more conceptual and song-oriented than its predecessor. Inspired by the spooky yet adorable work of illustrator Ken Kagami -- whose art graces the album's cover and liner notes -- Milk Man tells the tale of a masked, pied piper-like being who lures children into his dreamland and then traps them there. The vision and the visuals surrounding the album are a perfect fit with Deerhoof's music, and, perhaps befitting Milk Man's status as a concept album, this time around the band incorporates more prog rock-like keyboards and other electronics into its sound. The pretty ballad "Dream Wanderer's Tune," with its lyrics about kings in castles in the sky and its playfully elaborate keyboards, exemplifies Deerhoof's move to more intricate, contemplative music. Since the album is relatively restrained, it's not quite as buoyant as Apple O' or Reveille, and it lacks a little bit of the delirious overload of Deerhoof's earliest work, but that doesn't mean that it's less distinctive. "Desapareceré" is one of Milk Man's best and most unique tracks, mixing clicking and shuffling electronic drums with sugary synths and Spanish lyrics into a very different take on electronic pop; "Dog on the Sidewalk" consists mostly of bubbling and fizzing electronics and Satomi Matsuzaki's deceptively simple vocals. Milk Man does have its fair share of noise, particularly on the instrumentals "Rainbow Silhouette of the Milky Rain" and "That Big Orange Sun Run Over Speed Light," as well as on "Song of Sorn," which starts out as a burst of noise and ends up oddly, but distinctly, poppy. This poppiness is responsible for many of Milk Man's best moments, including the sunny title track and "Milking" -- which are among the most straightforwardly melodic songs Deerhoof have ever written -- as well as the sweet final track, "New Sneakers," which does indeed capture the childlike glee of new shoes in lyrics like "Skipping all over with these shoes/Oh speed." Milk Man isn't all sweetness and light, though: Greg Saunier's lumbering drumming adds an extra edge to the monster party that is "Giga Dance"; "C"'s brittle vocal melody is mirrored by guitars that are pretty at first but then turn loud and thrashy. But even in its louder moments, Milk Man is a surprisingly subtle album, and one that takes Deerhoof's music in quietly exciting new directions.

(source: AllMusicGuide)

“A perfect album, except perfect is the wrong word for a band so dedicated to kitchen-sink oddness.” [SPIN, Mar 2004, p.96]

“So horribly untrendy it’s a new-black must-have, ‘Milk Man’ is the essential oddity of 2004, and a more-than-worthy successor to 2003’s magnificent ‘Apple O’’.” [LOGO]

“The album is most similar to Apple O', but while Apple O' seemed to have a somewhat lethargic quality, Milk Man sounds fresh and fully inviting. And it's a lot better.” [TINY MIX TAPES]

“Near-telepathic singularity of thought…”

Frog Eyes "The Golden River" (Animal World, 2003)

Artist: Frog Eyes
Album: "The Golden River"
Release Date: 1 July 2003
Label: Animal World
Genre: Indie-Rock, Experimental-Rock, New-Wave, Post-Punk
Mood: Nihilistic, Manic, Angst-Ridden, Theatrical
Reminds Of: Destroyer, Captain Beefheart, 16 Horsepower
What People Think: AllMusicGuide, DustedMagazine
Definitely Worth Buying: InSound, Amazon

Tracklist
1. One In Six Children Will Flee In Boats
2. Time Reveals Its Plan At Poisoned Falls
3. Masticated Outboard Motors
4. Miasma Gardens
5. A Latex Ice Age
6. Orbis Magnes
7. Time Destroys Its Plan At The Reactionary Table
8. Soldiers Crash Gathering In Sparrow Hills
9. World's Greatest Concertos
10. Picture Framing The Gigantic Men Who Fought On Steam Boats
11. The Secret Map Flees From Plurality

It's unfortunate that imagination is so frequently seen as antithetical to sincerity. We expect personal truths and broad revelations from musicians, but we often expect these insights should be delivered through a mundane, relatable form of honesty. Sure, singers often borrow words, ideas and emotions from the experiences of others, ranging from friends and family to long-dead or non-existent cultural and historical figures. But these identities are almost always kept somehow separate from that of the singer, who in turn manipulates these secondary personas into acceptable personal statements and observations. Though Carey Mercer's voice is heard throughout The Golden River, the identity of the album's narrator always seems to be shifting and slipping. The album is less a work of cognizant storytelling than a fever dream. Personal and cultural memory bleed together, as Mercer spins fractured images lifted straight from the pages of Grimm Brothers fairy tales and Homeric Epics. And yet, nothing about The Golden River seems contrived or gratuitously literary: its otherworldly sonic and lyric richness is matched at every turn by the striking immediacy of Mercer's wide-eyed delivery. The result is a record every bit as stunning and imaginative as it is memorable and affecting, and one of the most unique and interesting I've heard in ages. "One in Six Children Will Flee in Boats" opens the album with a flimsy, strummed guitar figure that's immediately, strikingly overshadowed by Mercer's breathy gasp. Suddenly, a rich swell of guitar, drums, and keyboards evokes a grandiosity bringing to mind glam-era Bowie; Mercer captures the Thin White Duke's anthemic and melodic delivery, but couples it with a frenzied, grizzled intensity and the gruff, world-weary sensibility of Tom Waits. Mercer matches this intensity lyrically, singing "Over that ridge, a hunter lives/ Stake him out with broken gifts/ By the light, by the merry men/ Who gave his lives when he gave knives to children/ Raise him up, stake him up/ Grab the sun and drink his blood in cups!" Out of context, it may seem nonsensical, but the conviction with which Mercer sings renders it an unnervingly powerful image. After an ethereal instrumental break, "Time Reveals Its Plan at Poisoned Falls" plays up the operatic nature of Mercer's voice, as he rattles off funhouse mirror images of a royal court and hissed accusations of jealousy. Rather than simply sounding crazy, he conveys the doomed frenzy of a prophet. About halfway through the song, he sings as if possessed by the spirit of the monarch whose death he has forseen: "I'm the head of the queen/ I float around the night unseen/ And I know when to scream 'oh baby wake up!'" At a mere 1:29, "Time Reveals Its Plan at Poisoned Falls" is both a vivid fantasy and a desperate plea to return to consciousness and reality, a potent juxtaposition that Mercer hints at throughout the record. A procession of similarly strong songs follows, each one sonically rich and brimming with melody and imagination. Only "Orbis Magnus" temporarily shifts the tone of the record to one of unadulterated, introspective sadness. In a subdued mumble, Mercer intones: "You can have boyfriends, but not men/ You want your words to be penned/ There's women on the barge, on the waters that bend." Here, Mercer seems to embody the timeless trope of the lonely monster, his previous outbursts reduced to a barely-contained air of self-loathing. The Golden River closes with two of its strongest tracks. "World's Greatest Concertos" is a fit of gleeful self-destruction, as if Mercer has finally been driven mad by the images he has seen, shouting "Encapsulate the body and emasculate the body/ And hold the burning waters, the tubs of burning waters/ Holiday!/ The trees are bones and dipped in wazing burning cones and call a celebration/ The master's burnt in his burning station." Mercer's shrieking falsetto it segues into the sublime "Picture Framing the Gigantic Men Who Fought on Steam Boats", the most beautiful song on The Golden River and also quite possibly the most unsettling. The vocals are slightly more subdued here, cushioned by breathy backup singing provided by Carolyn Mark. Right before it ends, "Picture Framing" takes on a somber and ominous tone, as Mercer repeats, "I'll keep on sailing on/ Until the rosy-pink dawn," cleverly citing a Homeric epithet to suggest that his voyage will, in fact, never really end. It's a stunning moment of resignation, as the narrator accepts his place in this terrifyingly vivid fantasy world. This album seems to exist in a world apart from our own. From Melanie Campbell's insistent, simple, and often strangely cartoonish drumming to Carey Mercer's fantastical lyrics and overwrought delivery, The Golden River taps directly into your imagination, short-circuiting any traditional notions of what should constitute "sincere" and "emotional" music. These songs are the lost soundtracks to those frantic, epic dreams that you can never remember in their entirety, but stay with you for the rest of your life.

(source: PitchforkMedia)

“It is all about a world that is both idiosyncratically imagined and unsettlingly relevant...”

Dungen "Ta Det Lugnt" (Subliminal Sounds, 2004)

Artist: Dungen
Album: "Ta Det Lugnt"
Release Date: July 21, 2004
Label: Subliminal Sounds
Genre: Indie-Rock, Neo-Psychedelia, Psych-Folk
Mood: Dreamy, Dramatic, Spacey, Exuberant
Reminds Of: Animal Collective, Neutral Milk Hotel, The Apples In Stereo
What People Think: AllMusicGuide, StylusMagazine, TinyMixTapes
Definitely Worth Buying: Insound, Amazon

Tracklist
1. Panda
2. Gjort Bort Sig
3. Festival
4. Du E For Fin For Mig
5. Ta Det Lugnt
6. Det Du Tanker Idag Ar Du I Morgon
7. Lejonet & Kulan
8. Bortglomd
9. Glomd Konst Kommer Stundom Anyo Till Heders
10. Lipsill
11. On Du Vore En Hackthund
12. Tack Ska Ni Ha
13. Sluta Folja Efter

Despite the constant influx of catchphrase-coordinated marketing campaigns that would lead you to believe that life-affirming records are released daily, it's forever rare to stumble upon one as consistently mind-blowing and aesthetically far-reaching as Dungen's Ta Det Lugnt. Because of this scarcity, when such an unexpected (and immediate) discovery does take place, it's like being struck by indescribable melodic lightning: Unlike discs that warrant facile disses or mediocre passing grades, the countless reasons for its boundless successes remain ineffable and shadowy despite repeat late-night close-listening sessions. Simply put, Dungen exhibit all the signs of legitimate, hard-won staying power. Ta Det Lugnt is an exceedingly triumphant psych-pop oddity that evokes Keith Moon's drum fills on The Who Sell Out, the wraiths of unsung bedroom psyche celebrants, and the acoustic sustain and harmonizing of The Byrds' Younger Than Yesterday, Ta Det Lugnt feels less like a new release than some ancient tome, a fully formed masterpiece dropped unexpectedly on corduroy laps from some blue-brown sky. It's so aesthetically tight, jangly verdant, and musty that even carbon dating insists that it could not be post-millennial.To be sure, there's a major difference between retro and somehow embodying your parents' vintage zeitgeist: It's damn-near impossible to believe that the humming tubes, crackling drums, smoky backdrop, and complexly interwoven melodies on Ta Det Lugnt were birthed in a quick-fix iPod age. But perhaps even more impressive is that, despite the music's headiness and intricacy, its anachronistic results feel unusually effortless, earnest, and unpretentious: Dungen seem driven to this sound not for bloodless cred points, but out of a very sincere devotion to the music from a bygone era. Accomplished beyond his years, 24-year-old Swedish multi-instrumentalist Gustav Ejstes is the pin-up mastermind behind Dungen's vibrant polish. For the full duration of his third album's 13 bracing tracks, he perfectly inhabits-- and then expands upon-- his homeland's late-60s/early-70s acid-rock scene. Ta Det Lugnt particularly taps into the expansiveness of his Swedish psych predecessors, Parson Sound, while maintaining a murky rocker edge: Imagine that band colliding with The Kinks, or Amon Duul II with Olivia Tremor Control, or Comets on Fire with The Zombies on their way to Terrastock.Interested in pushing pop glitter to its limits, Ejstes doesn't go as far afield into psych-pop cliches like chirping birds and hippie atmospherics as his elder brethren, but his equally vintage garage sound allows a definite space for ethereality in the form of funereal dew-drop strings, free jazz breakdowns, brief whiffs of AM radio tuning, flute minuets, lushly cascading pianos, prog time changes, florid medieval chimes, sky-melting freakouts, church organs, fuzz-guitar jousts, doubled mountain-top whistles, roaring six-string solos, and autumnal instrumental interludes. It's obvious his songs are painstakingly arranged with a sense of depth, gradations, and tonal three-dimensionality redolent of something as off the charts as Pet Sounds. Continually, there's a perfect push-and-pull between catchy melodies, roaring solos, and spaced-out dramaturgy-- the band's output is consistently upbeat even when heartbreakingly tranquil and melancholy. "Gjort Bort Sig" flutters and drifts, reaching for the outer realms, before catching a subtle hurricane of quicksand spirals behind doubled astronaut vocals. The sweet arboreal folk of "Festival" appears straightforward until it unleashes an echo-chamber bridge that absolutely shimmers. And the title track feels like chamber-pop expanded to include a psych history lesson. Because I took Latin and not Swedish in high school, I have no idea what Ejstes is singing about, but I like the verbal opacity-- the way syllables meld to the Hammond, flute, violin, bass, drums, guitars, and the way it masks any potentially subpar lyric that might detract from such brilliant arrangements. Indeed, as the summer finally turns to dying leaves, Dungen's lush palette of mystical earth tones and trade winds seems the ideal soundscape. This has been one hell of a year for psych, folk, et. al., but even with such fine releases as Animal Collective's Sung Tongs and Comets on Fire's Blue Cathedral, I doubt 2004 will birth a more blissful sonic encounter than Ta Det Lugnt.

(source: PitchforkMedia)

“A richly rewarding passage through the last five decades of American music history.” [SPIN, Aug 2005, p.99]

“With the sonic reach of Pink Floyd and convincing, explosive pop in the vein of Rogue Wave and the Apples in Stereo, "Ta Det Lugnt" is thick with variety.” [BILLBOARD]

“A classic of modern psychedelia.” [UNCUT, Jun 2005, p.113]

“The aural face of this album is frighteningly flawless: a technical perfection that only lends to the mythic proportions of the songs, behemoths so pregnant with ideas and so rich in sound that they seem to stretch for miles.” [TINYMIXTAPES]

"A titanic, bleeding plodder whose languid melodrama looms a hundred feet over your cowering, unworthy soul."

The Sonora Pine "The Sonora Pine" (Quarterstick Records, 1996)

Artist: The Sonora Pine
Album: "The Sonora Pine"
Release Date: 26 March, 1996
Label: Quarterstick Records
Genre: Post-Rock, Indie-Rock, Experimental-Rock, Math-Rock
Mood: Autumnal, Literate, Brooding, Suffocating
Reminds Of: Culs De Sac, Gastr Del Sol, Jim O' Rourke
What People Think: RYM
Definitely Worth Buying: NormanRecords, CdUniverse

Tracklist
1. Owl's Nest
2. Compass Lure
3. The Gin Mills
4. Hoya Carnosa
5. Goldmund
6. Ooltenah
7. The Hook
8. Rungs
9. A Couple Of Ones
10. One Ring Machine

Following the late-1994 dissolution of Louisville math rockers Rodan, bassist Tara Jane O'Neil moved to New York City and founded two separate bands: the rootsy indie pop duo Retsin (with Cynthia Nelson of Ruby Falls) and the more experimental Sonora Pine. O'Neil's chief collaborator in the Sonora Pine was guitarist Sean Meadows, a former member of Lungfish who'd also joined ex-Rodan guitarist Jeff Mueller's new band, June of 44. O'Neil and Meadows soon added improvisational violinist Samara Lubelski, and played a series of shows around New York. After a break to work on their other projects, the Sonora Pine reconvened in Louisville, this time with Rodan drummer Kevin Coultas in tow, and recorded a self-titled debut album that appeared on Quarterstick in 1996. Although the off-kilter sensibility of Rodan was present, the album had a much gentler chamber ambience and folk-pop influence; it also featured guest piano from Rachel Grimes of Rachel's, the post-rock chamber ensemble found by yet another ex-Rodanite, Jason Noble. Indeed, most critics placed the Sonora Pine's music in between the orchestrated sensibility of Rachel's and the angular math rock of Rodan and June of 44.

A great deal of guitar angularity is to be expected from any project involving former members of Rodan, but the Sonora Pine shoots straight past this -- the angularity is certainly delivered upon, but the band's connections to Rachel’s show themselves as well, in the form of lighter, string-augmented, and more orchestrated segments that offset the band's rock side perfectly. The Sonora Pine alternates between these two sides on a track-by-track basis, and the results are occasionally close to exquisite.

(source: AllMusicGuide)

“You might get an infection of depression (these hooks are hard to get rid of…)"

Bell Orchestre "Recording A Tape The Colour Of The Light" (Rough Trade, 2005)

Artist: Bell Orchestre
Album: "Recording A Tape The Colour Of The Light"
Release Date: November 8, 2005
Label: Rough Trade
Genre: Post-Rock, Indie-Rock, Instrumental, Experimental-Rock
Mood: Ethereal, Suffocating, Brooding, Autumnal
Reminds Of: Arcade Fire, Godspeed You!Black Emperor, Rachel's, The Books
What People Think: SplendidMagazine, DelusionsOfAdequacy, AllMusicGuide
Definitely Worth Buying: Amazon, BoomKat

Tracklist
1. Recording A Tunnel (The Horn Plays Underneath The Canal)
2. Les Lumieres, pt. 1
3. Les Lumieres, pt. 2
4. Throw It On A Fire
5. Recording A Tunnel (The Horn Plays Underneath The Canal) (Continued)
6. The Upwards March
7. The Bells Play The Band
8. Recording A Tape...(Typewriter Duet)
9. Nuove
10. Salvatore Amato
11. Recording A Tunnel (The Invisible Bells) (Frost)

Recording a Tape the Colour of the Light is everything instrumental post-rock should be and nothing it shouldn't: it sounds live but hardly loud and is brimming with sound but uncrowded. Renouncing formulaic bombast, Bell Orchestre dazzles by finesse, not force. Call it blank slate music-- oceans of negative space awaiting colonization-by-imagination. Bell Orchestre, led by the Arcade Fire's Richard Reed Parry, sparks memories of critically maligned early-decade instrumentalists Ghosts & Vodka and Telegraph Melts-- bands derided, in part, for their lack of distortion. Bell Orchestre is more frictional than the former, less NPR-arty than the latter, but its general drift is similar. From the stertorous, semi-electronic horn swells of prelude "Recording a Tunnel (the Horns Play Underneath the Canal)", the album worms into focus. Less like rain than a slowly gathering fog, "Les Lumieres Pt. 1" builds from a murmur to a klaxon. To follow its development is to watch bacteria conquer a petri dish: New threads twist off somewhat chaotically from the brass nucleus-- an awakening string trill here, a gingerly bell flourish there. On "Les Lumieres Pt. 2" the ecosystem hits full flower. Sultry, echoing horns chafe against skittish strings and fast, charging beats, a textural contrast reminiscent of Godspeed You! Black Emperor. (The bands, as Recording demonstrates, also share a penchant for ungainly titling.) But Bell Orchestre are on a much happier tip. Where Godspeed ride an abandoned train through a miserable wasteland, Bell Orchestre gallops across rich, rustic landscapes. Like Lumen or Explosions in the Sky, it's all a bit fantastical, but the band goes easy on the symbolistic dalliances. Bell Orchestre is all about freeing our neural pathways, not directing them. And hey, here's an idea: concision. Five of Recording's 11 tracks undershoot four minutes. Despite a couple of longer, jammier pieces the album is a still a breezy listen. That's because, unlike lost siblings Do Make Say Think, Bell Orchestre largely avoids ambient pussyfooting. Voluminosity and slenderness rarely cohabitate in instrumental post-rock, but here both are integral. Nuggets "Recording a Tunnel" and the chilly "The Bells Play the Band", which imagines Boards of Canada piped through ham radio, would become boundless gorges of nothingness in the hands of many similar bands; Bell Orchestre wisely consigns its most shapeless passages to short stopgaps and segues. Meanwhile, instrumentally verbose songs like "Throw It on a Fire" are kept asteer by bedrock percussion. Recording is designed to underwhelm. It rewards repeat listens and nurtures those lulled by its intoxicating spumes. Whether the album achieves its titular synesthesia is debatable, but Bell Orchestre tap into a wide, mesmerizing range of the spectrum.

(source: PitchforkMedia)

“[Bell Orchestre] varies its cunningly sequenced, gratifyingly brief instrumental tracks with such old-fashioned amenities as textured melodies, pleasing dynamic shifts, and passages that, if they don't actually r-o-c-k, at least bound down the road in an excited manner.” [VILLAGE VOICE]

“Capacious, intimate and brimming with both whimsy and tension, Recording A Tape is what classical music might sound like from some advanced alien civilization.” [MAGNET, #70, p.86]

“A timely twinkle of apple crisp bells, hearth-warming handclaps and belly-rubbing brass.” [JUNKMEDIA]

“A simply devine collection of free-flowing pieces that range from voluptuous widescreen imaginary soundtracking to a cacophonous blend of instruments jammed in an arthouse basement…”

Rodan "Rusty" (Quarterstick Records, 1994)

Artist: Rodan
Album: "Rusty"
Release Date: April 1994
Label: Quarterstick Records
Genre: Math-Rock, Indie-Rock, Experimental-Rock, Post-Rock, Post-Hardcore
Mood: Cathartic, Self-Conscious, Somber, Gloomy
Reminds Of: June Of 44, Slint, The Sonora Pine, Sonic Youth
What People Think: AllMusicGuide
Definitely Worth Buying: Amazon, CdUniverse

1. Bible Silver Corner
2. Shiner
3. The Everyday World Of Bodies
4. Jungle Jim
5. Gauge
6. Tooth Fairy Retribution Manifesto

Everyone seems to know a great deal about Rachel's and the Shipping News, two of Jason Noble's most recent projects. Most seem to know about June of '44, Jeff Meuller's pre-Shipping News project. Many know whom Tara Jane O'Neil is, and that she's played with Retsin and the Sonora Pine. Hell, some even recognize Kevin Coultas' name from the time he put in with Come. But what most people don't realize is that all four of these talented people came together to form Rodan. Existing briefly - less than three years - Rodan managed to amass a small, devastating catalogue. The cream of their crop was Rusty, their only full-length album. A combination of all things good from the realms of hardcore, jazz, math-rock and the then-unnamed post-rock, Rusty is a six-song masterpiece that deserves the same respect as anything Slint, Shellac or Godspeed You Black Emperor! have ever released. And that is exactly the terrain Rodan used to excavate: noisy, scrappy post-punk stretched to its emotional and sonic limits; tremendously long arrangements that never relied on repetition and that beat every drop of meaning and worth out of their every second. And "beat" is the right word. Rusty is heavy. It is violent. Imagine if you will, the Dillinger Escape Plan melding with Slint. You may have noticed that I have dropped the S-word twice already, and I really should take a moment to address this. Yes, Slint and Rodan both hailed from Louisville, KY; yes, each band was made up of expert musicians; and yes, they both wrote lengthy, dynamic songs, but the similarities end there. Slint wrote sparse, jarring pieces that made use of space, subtlety and those wonderfully crushing volume shifts. Rodan, on the other hand, wrote busy, turgid, churning songs that rarely used volume as a dynamic because the music was almost always loud as fuck. Yet I still see the words "Slint" and "Rodan" used synonymously almost everywhere I look. And perhaps that's why I needed to write this, to remind people that Rodan was unique, and that Rusty has held up as well, if not better, than the other indie rock classics of the early '90s. It is nothing less than 43 minutes of painstakingly, lovingly, expertly assembled thunder: alarming as it shudders above you, soothing as it rolls in the distance. The album opens with the rich, chiming layers of "Bible Silver Corner", a guitars-and-bass instrumental that sees the members of Rodan work through several gorgeous, distinct movements, provoking tears with its beauty, paranoia with its dissonance, wonder with its whole. It never gets loud, forcing you to pay attention to every note and echo. Picture modern-day Fugazi playing a Rachel's composition in a candle-lit cathedral. Is the hair on the back of your neck standing up yet? If so, prepare for it to be singed off by the alarmingly harsh "Shiner". In two-and-a-half minutes, Rodan blasts through six alternating movements, each one an off-kilter, complex blow to the head. Fierce and visceral in all the places "Bible Silver Corner" was haunting and delicate, "Shiner" sets the stage for the poetic brutality that is the rest of the album: dual-guitar mangling, an other-worldly rhythm section and Jason Noble's bark-wail-whisper vocals. I wish I could describe his screaming of "Shoot me out the sky", but without being able to show the words ripping in half, italics will have to do. The final four songs are an unthinkable amalgam of the first two. "The Everyday World of Bodies", a twelve-minute exercise in tension, shifts seamlessly from punishing, percussive math-rock to quiet, albeit rough-hewn, mazes of plaintive tenderness. It's a constant juxtaposition that never grows tired, but it does run its course, and that's when the variations begin. Guitars begin fluttering and clashing in different ways, time signatures are hacked at and the crucial refrains - "everything changes", "come on, come on, come" and "I will be there" - are unveiled, expanding the song's revolving structure while exposing "Bodies" for what it is, a love song. And when those lovers' promises are finally unleashed in Noble's ragged bellow, they are as chilling as they are lovely. "Chilling" can also be used to describe Tara Jane O'neil's vocals, fully introduced in the early stages of "Jungle Jim". A lonely, disturbing groan, it's a perfect contrast to Noble's voice, and floats like a dense fog over the dissonant, spooky verses. But this is Rodan, so the quiet soon erupts into a scraping whirlwind. "Jungle Jim" does the quiet-loud dance, but avoids redundancy by changing tempo and tone. Every dynamic is used, so it's not just a matter of rising tension and release, it's a matter of true contrast. It's an unpredictable, frightening song, replete with a distant feedback and screaming outro that you shouldn't listen to if you're alone in your house. "Gauge" opens with a discordant, sludgy introduction that begins to take shape just as it ends, making way for a very clean, linear structure over which Noble and O'Neil layer cryptic words. "An anthem designed to take care of you", is how the song is described in the liner notes, and I tend to agree. "Gauge" is simpler and more melodic than most of the material on Rusty and there is a definite feeling that the song is an attempt to cope with loss. How better to accomplish healing than with passionate, abrasive art-rock? "Tooth Fairy Retribution Manifesto" begins with a battered music box and a considerably funky drumbeat, bringing to mind Noble's recent, excellent Permission project. The funk disappears and waves of distorted guitars crash through, loud but beautiful and soothing. A brief quietness ensues, making use of another unsettling vocal performance from O'Neil, and then come the riffs. A brisk, absolutely filthy groove drives the song forward. No blindsiding shifts, just a straight-ahead, ass-kicking track that ends explosively and unexpectedly. And sadly. Only one other person I know owns this album. I have still only read one review of it in my entire life, and that was when I was in tenth grade. If you don't own Rusty, you need to. Please buy it. Together we can teach people that the words "Slint" and "Rodan" do not represent the same things, that Rodan stood on their own, and that Rusty is indeed one of the finest independent albums ever released.

(source: StylusMagazine)

“Gorgeous, distinct movements, provoking tears with its beauty, paranoia with its dissonance, wonder with its whole…”

Erase Errata "Nightlife" (Kill Rock Stars, 2006)

Artist: Erase Errata
Album: "Nightlife"
Release Date: July 25, 2006
Label: Kill Rock Stars
Genre: Experimental-Rock, Post-Punk, Indie-Rock, Riot-Grrrl
Mood: Aggresive, Cathartic, Whimsical, Visceral, Menacing
Reminds Of: Deerhoof, Chicks On Speed, Le Tigre
What People Think: DrownedInSound
Definitely Worth Buying: BuyOlympia, CdUniverse

Tracklist
1. Cruising
2. Hotel Suicide
3. Another Genius Idea From Our Government
4. Take You
5. Dust
6. Tax Dollar
7. Rider
8. Beacon
9. He Wants What's Mine
10. Giant Hans
11. Wasteland (In...A)
12. Night Life

Political pundits, when discussing the United States in relation to the rest of the world, like to frame things in a particular context. We are in a post-9/11 world, where American citizens hoard duct tape and look for suspicious crop dusters, where we are at war, the powers-that-be deliberately confused and conflated the reasons for this war, and the most prominent members of the fourth estate long avoided asking important questions. A few musicians have taken to asking some of these questions in their own work, with mixed results. Erase Errata-- frontwoman Jenny Hoyston in particular-- has never shied from topical issues, though a direct route from expression to meaning was rarely taken. But, as President Bush has said so many times, things change. Back in the day (2001, to be exact), Erase Errata were a four-piece quartet mixing and mashing together all sorts of skronk and skree to create a glorious racket reminiscent of a no-wave group going for the new-wave brass ring. Hoyston spit out imagistic lyrical fragments in a fashion that mirrored the fret work of both guitarist Sara Jaffe and bassist Ellie Erickson, while Bianca Sparta rumbled across her drumkit. They recorded two albums, they toured, they kicked ass. But they hit a speed bum when Jaffe decided to leave the group to attend graduate school. Hoyston took over on guitar, and while the group temporarily experimented with a new (male) singer, the remaining trio decided to go it alone, and spent two years trying to rediscover and, ultimately, redefine themselves. The result of that search is Nightlife, a focused and more powerful version of the group's scattershot aesthetic. While it's not a drastic departure from previous works, this album finds the group marshaling their powers to cut to the quick both musically and lyrically. Previously, Hoyston's voice was just another off-kilter instrument, joyously bounding about the racket her bandmates created. Her fragmented musics, while still audible, were often subsumed either by the ruckus, low production values, or megaphone static. Now, Hoyston's words are exacting and precise, and her voice is front and center. Eli Crews and especially Chris Woodhouse (a producer for the A-Frames) deserve credit for getting the new Erase Errata down on tape so successfully, working perfectly in tandem with Hoyston's lyrical approach. When she says “Yes, I really got away/ With murder, manslaughter/ All funded by my tax dollar,” or “They've got a law in the desert ...where everybody has a gun/ Everybody has a knife,” you hear what she's saying-- literally and metaphorically-- without question. Any advantages lost by Hoyston eschewing her trademark oblique phrasings are regained by the blunt impact of the words. In her most brilliantly simple moment, Hoyston gets monosyllabic on the lesbionic love song “Take You”. “I'm gonna take both of you/ To my secret cave,” she coos, subverting the clichéd caveman-dragging-girl image (and, by proxy, traditional gender roles) in multiple ways while the music behind her bangs and booms like rocks on logs. Even on more impressionistic songs like “Giant Hans” or “Cruising", Hoyston cuts to the quick. Hoyston's trumpet is also employed sparingly, but precisely-- it sets a mournful tone for the beginning of “Hotel Suicide”, and provides some recognizable bleats on “Another Genius Idea”. This less-is-more approach also applies to her work as a guitarist. While Jaffe played guitar in a showy fashion, Hoyston uses the instrument more often to accent the song with scrapes or brief squalls. Still, there are moments where she puts her foot on the monitor to shred, such as the Sabbath-like break in “Dust”. Nightlife, much more than the other Erase Errata records, is all about the rhythm section. If there's a guitar hero to be had on Nightlife, it's Erickson. Her off-kilter plucking and mangling, in tandem with Sparta's locked-down drumming, defines this album right from the beginning. It's to their credit that this mostly mournful or menacing-sounding album rises above its own morass. Sunshine and lollipops aren't in great supply when denouncing U.S. foreign policy or wiretapping programs, but the band's work on “Tax Dollar” and “Another Genius Idea” keeps the message from ossifying. Make no mistake, however-- there's a message to be had on this record, and it's hard to ignore. Erase Errata might not be as playful as they once were, but they're much better.

(source: PitchforkMedia)

"They've got a law in the desert / they've got a law to protect their children..."

Motorpsycho "Phanerothyme" (Columbia, 2001)

Artist: Motorpsycho
Album: "Phanerothyme"
Release Date: 2001
Label: Columbia
Genre: Indie-Rock, Neo-Psychedelia, Progressive-Rock, Art-Rock
Mood: Colourful, Versatile, Confident, Ambitious
Reminds Of: Small Faces, Spirit, The Gun Club
What People Think: Ssmt-Reviews, RYM
Defnitely Worth Buying: MusicStack, CdUniverse

Tracklist
1. Bedroom Eyes
2. For Free
3. B.S.
4. Landslide
5. The Slow Phaseout
6. Go To California
7. Painting The Night Unreal
8. Blindfolded
9. When You're Dead

Over the past ten years, motorpsycho and their on-board producer, that nice mr deathprod – actually former member helge sten – have metamorphosed from wacky thrash funsters to this current peak of genre mangling. Their soundscapes abound with interwoven melodies, layered harmonies, stunning orchestrations, doors-y keyboards and fuzzed-out duelling guitars, not to mention the occasional cittern, glockenspiel and guitarmando (12-string, of course). Miraculously, the elements of this sonic cornucopia tumble together and form themselves, more often than not, into eminently hummable pop tunes about girls with bedroom eyes, california's blue skies and how everything is great when you're dead. As good for the dancefloor as ice-skates are for mountaineering, every twisting, turning track requires – and rewards – a little patience.

(Source: q4music.com)

"Satan stole my teddybear..."

Mercury Rev "Boces" (Columbia, 1993)

Artist: Mercury Rev
Album: "Boces"
Release Date: June 1, 1993
Label: Columbia
Genre: Noise-Pop, Dream-Pop, Neo-Psychedelia, Indie-Rock
Mood: Spacey, Trippy, Rousing, Dramatic
Reminds Of: Pavement, Yo La Tengo, Sparklehorse
What People Think: AllMusicGuide, IndiecateRecords
Definitely Worth Buying: CdUniverse, Amazon

Tracklist
1. Meth Of A Rockette's Kick
2. Trickle Down
3. Bronx Cheer
4. Boys Peel Out
5. Downs Are Feminine Balloons
6. Something For Joey
7. Snorry Mouth
8. Hi-Speed Boats
9. Continuous Drunks & Blunders
10. Girlfren

Mercury Rev are strange. Out of all the messy, out of control, and chaotic noise-rock albums to come out during the 90's Boces is pretty much the craziest. Not just because it’s overly filled with feedback and distortion, but because the band will go from playing light hearted dream pop to boisterous noise-fests. The mellow guitar lines and dreamy vocal melodies will lull you in and then the band will go crazy thrashing away at their instruments blasting hard hitting guitar riffs and thumping bass lines. Just take the first track Meth of a Rockette’s Kick for example. The group lulls you in with David Bakers hypnotic voice and the female la la la la backing vocals. The first part of the song resembles a demented Sesame Street theme song as it hypnotizes you with it’s whimsical beauty. However towards the end of the track Mercury Rev take you by surprise as they pump up the volume and ruthlessly pound out noisy guitar distortion. Blending dream-pop, psychadelica and shoegaze influences Mercury Rev create the ultimate stoner anthem with Meth of a Rockette’s Kick...and that’s only the first ten minutes of the album.Fortunately the opening track is not the only redeeming quality of Boces. The band continues to attack their instruments on tracks like Bronx Cheer and Snorry Mouth where Donahues raging guitar verses dominate the vocals and bass. You just can’t beat production like this, the double dueling guitars take over the music as the vocals are buried deep in the mix. Boces is both dreamy and out of control at the same time and that’s what gives it such a unique and interesting sound.But Mercury Rev can do more then turn up the volume on their guitar amplifiers. Boys Peel Out incorporates an xylophone into the music as it’s compelled by Bakers childish voice and whimsical lyrical imagery. While the tune is drastically different from anything else off of the album it does not sound out of place due Bakers trance inducing voice. The single, Something For Joey resembles a rusty Pavement song as its scratchy guitar riffs and dreamy, summertime atmosphere takes control of you. Mercury Rev even throw in a wiry flute solo during the instrumental chorus creating another strange yet satisfying effect. Possibly the eeriest song that the band has ever composed Girlfren takes away all the chaos and distortion that the album features and focuses on something entirely different. It showcases Baker mumbling indecipherable words over simple piano chords. Out of the ten tracks on Boces most of them have at least a few minutes of noise filled pop but Mercury Rev change things up occasionally and experiment with their already unique sound.If you combine the Flaming Lips, My Bloody Valentine, and the Melvins you have Mercury Rev in a nutshell. Boces is certainly not the most accessible album out there but it sure is one hell of a trip. The intricate blend of psychadelica, metal, shoegazer, and dream-pop creates such a trippy and chaotic atmosphere that it’s hard not to like. If you want something strange and experimental or if you just want to rock out then you cannot go wrong with Boces, the ultimate noise album.

(source: Sputnikmusic.com)

"Your fume, baby soon baby, kaboom kaboom kaboom...Tonight I'll dig tunnels to your nightmare room..."

Jim O' Rourke "Insignificance" (Drag City, 2001)

Artist: Jim O' Rourke
Album: "Insignificance"
Release Date: November 20, 2001
Label: Drag City
Genre: Indie-Rock, Post-Rock, Chamber-Pop
Mood: Refined, Gentle, Springlike, Laid-Back
Reminds Of: Gastr Del Sol, Smog, Mice Parade
What People Think: PitchforkMedia, SplendidMagazine
Definitely Worth Buying: InSound, Amazon

Tracklist
1. All Downhill From Here
2. Insignificance
3. Therefore, I Am
4. Memory Lame
5. Good Times
6. Get A Room
7. Life Goes Off

All pretensions of modesty -- and allusions to Nicholas Roeg films -- aside, Insignificance, Jim O'Rourke's third solo album for Drag City, reaffirms that he is not only a fine composer, arranger, and producer, but a gifted, creative songwriter as well. As with Eureka and the Halfway to a Threeway EP, O'Rourke continues to find as many possibilities in singing and songwriting as he does experimenting with pure sound. However, this time O'Rourke adds a few twists to the formula he pioneered on those two efforts. He sings on each of Insignificance's tracks, his frail voice providing a sharp contrast to the lush arrangements and sardonic lyrics of songs like the wryly titled opener, "All Downhill From Here," where he observes, "If I seem to you just a little bit remote/You'd feel better if you call me a misanthrope/Or whatever floats your boat/But as for me, I'd rather sink my own." On songs like "Get a Room" and the finale, "Life Goes Off," which, like "Halfway to a Threeway," are twisted yet poignant odes to the strange things we will do for intimacy, Insignificance recalls the sweet sonics and sour sentiments of O'Rourke's work with Smog. Beautifully arranged pop epics like the title track are clearly descended from Eureka's breezy brilliance, but the surprisingly insistent, crunchy rock guitars on the excellent "Therefore I Am" and "Memory Lame" add an extra bite and urgency that O'Rourke's pop-oriented work has lacked previously. Though each of the album's tracks is meticulously crafted, none of them feel overworked. That's probably because Insignificance was recorded in just under a month; it has the warm, immediate feel of an album that only took as long as necessary to make. Fans of O'Rourke's more avant-garde material may dismiss the album as too mainstream, but its endlessly listenable songs are just as significant as any of his more experimental work.

(source: AllMusicGuide)

So sharply tuned to the dark inner-workings of the human psyche; applause is due...