Nov 2022 - In Which the US Sanctions Against Russia Prevent Me From Buying a T-Shirt
Albums
Otyken - Kykakacha
A friend turned me on to this Siberian band that has a lot going on. There's like, electro, throat singing, some non-Western melody lines, what I assume are traditional Siberian rhythmic tropes, a little hip-hop maybe... and not as like individual tracks, but all at once. I wasn't totally sure after the first track, but was really convinced on "My Wing" when she does the big wailing "ah-ah-ah-ah" on the first time through the chorus, then unexpectedly drops to a more subdued lower pitch the 2nd time around. That's a pretty cool composition choice imo. Kind of a dodge-and-weave. And, it stays fresh all the way through the album. I love it. Unfortunately, it seems like they only tour in Siberia. Summer trip 2023? (jk)
Usually, when I find a new band, I try to buy some kind of merch. Both because I want to support them and also because it makes me feel cool and relevant. This time, I quickly got a response from Otyken explaining that they can’t process my payment because of the US sanctions against Russia. Never ran into that before. They also helpfully provided three different ways I could get around the sanctions anyway. I guess this must happen all the time. Anyway, I didn’t do that. I’m not sure in what way that t-shirt would support the Putin regime, but it’s not worth it for the sake of a shirt.
The Wants - Container
This album lives somewhere in the territory of post-punk, noise rock, and some kinda no wave industrial thing. The front-man is also the guy from BODEGA, which you can really hear on "Container" just based on his cadence and the way his lyrics are so aggressively on-the-beat. But that's about as far as the comparison goes, I think. This has none of BODEGA's tongue-in-cheek irony. It feels a lot more raw. And they love doing the thing where instead of having a traditional chorus, the main vamp just gets bigger and louder until the track ends (see "Ramp" and "The Motor"). Also, Depeche Mode? Cake?
Röyksopp - Profound Mysteries I-III
Well, it's been an awfully long time since Röyksopp did a full album, so I guess that's some kind of explanation for why they did three of them at once. Maybe they were like "oh right this huge pile of tracks we've been making for the past 7 years. Guess we should do something with those." Anyway, this is pretty much what you'd expect out of Röyksopp: warm and pleasant majory tones like a warm bath, lots of Air-esque melodies, lots of bass that goes "eeyowwww," and way, way too many collaborations with vocalists. Fortunately, a few of those collabs are with Alison Goldfrapp, who's always good, and if nothing else, between Röyksopp and Goldfrapp you'll get plenty of the letter "p."
Bob Vylan - Bob Vylan Presents: the Price of Life
Awhile back, I went to see Amyl and the Sniffers and caught a few minutes of these guys’ awesome opening set. It's a blistering blend of punk and hip-hop that I don't always have an appetite for but when I do, I love it. I recently had a conversation in which a friend was mad that there was too much money in punk music for it to be about class issues without being hypocritical. Well, this album is very much about class in a way that feels legitimately angry and dangerous. "Wicked & Bad" is the single, but I think the rest of the album is probably better. Particularly note the electroy "Take That" and also "Health is Wealth", which includes a complete recipe for lentils, justified by the importance of nutrition when waging a class war. I don't think he's joking.
El Búho - Cenotes
There's a lot of reggae beat happening in here... maybe some cumbia. But it's all in interesting electronic sounds. Sometimes piratey, a lot of chill. I've been using it as kind of late-night driving music.
Audiobooks - Astro Tough
I fully expected this band to be a one-trick pony with their joke/not-joke "The Doll" but I found that this album is pretty consistent in having lyrics that are both hilarious and beautiful. Like when "The Doll" suddenly goes from a convoluted story about a little girl losing her toy to the melancholy "We wеre both just there, standing there/
Wet from the rain in Coventry" or in "English Manipulator" when she's so mad at that guy for mansplaining about Monet and Manet. The compositions also get a little more varied once you get past the opening few songs. Skip track 2.
Soulwax - ESSENTIAL
Soulwax isn't as cool as they think they are. But... pretty close. And I have to admit that the "essential" conceit is pretty funny. This album is Soulwax being Soulwax: loud, noisy progressive electro that rolls over the one and glitches non-stop. A little pretentious, but undeniably great. And yes ok fine, I admit it, I love them.
Yann Tiersen - 11 5 18 2 5 18
This guy must think he's Nils Frahm or something, giving his album a name like that. And well, I guess it actually is kinda like Nils Frahm. It's all intellectual and weird, starting from almost nothing and building into some Philip Glass-esque arpeggiations.
Holy Fuck - Deleter
It's what you'd hope for out of Holy Fuck: driving, weird, psyechedlic, noisy. I saw them open for Hot Chip pre-pandemic and Alexis Taylor came out to do a song with them, which is also included here. Good stuff.
Tracks
Ghostpoet - I Grow Tired But Dare Not Fall Asleep
Quite the cover on this album, innit? Ghostpoet reminds me of Gil Scott-Heron, especially on this album, which mostly sticks to jazzy instrumentation. Usually he gets some squarewaves in there, but I might actually prefer this. I debated putting the whole album here bc it's all great, but tbt I've always tapped out halfway through just bc I want more music and less lyrics.
Jane Weaver - Oblique Fantasy
I'm really glad that Jane Weaver is doing something a little darker and weirder again. She describes herself as a pop artist, so I wasn't exactly surprised when Flock didn't grab me as much as Loops in the Secret Society did, and I was afraid that was just a one-shot. "Oblique Fantasy" is (I assume) from a forthcoming album, so I'm cautiously optimistic.
DARKSIDE - Ecdysis!
This kind of mid-tempo rock thing makes me think of a travel montage, like Indy searching for someone in an exotic city. To my surprise, I think the guitar solo is interesting (I have a whole thing about guitar solos).
Bonobo & O'Flynn - Otomo
Remember when Bonobo was the hottest shit on the planet and then he got real boring all of a sudden? It's nice to see him return to form here, even if it's the only track on the album that I care about. My brother once complained that "Everything Burning Man people listen to is all mystical and shit," but like, mystical is great?
Go_A - Kalyna
Go_A - SHUM
Grouping these songs together. Tidal noticed how much I liked Otyken and correctly surmised that I'd like to know about this weird Ukranian electro/club/Ukranian folk group that appeared on Eurovision in 2021. I can't find much else by them. They had an album back in 2016 but I don't really like it? These two tracks are much later, so maybe they just got better since then. 99% sure that this has nothing to do with goa, the subgenre of psytrance. See also: https://youtu.be/U7-dxzp6Jvs
James Holden & The Animal Spirits - Each Moment Like the First
There's something really epic about the way this swirls and gets more and more loud and distorted as it goes on. James Holden also has a great album from 2006 called The Idiots Are Winning, which I have no memory of at the time. It's real electroy and full of negative space.
Nicola Cruz & Uji - Inversions
Best boing sounds of 2022. Or 2018, rather, since that's when it came out.
Sorry - Starstruck
A recent ex had this on heavy rotation, and I’m prepared to admit that it’s pretty great. I love that "blegh" is part of the hook. There's some other good stuff on the followup album, Anywhere But Here, with some dissonant guitar twangs like Beck's Odelay period. But it's not quite enough to put on the ALBUMS section. "Let the Lights On" is a good one.
Kumzite & Lee "Scratch" Perry - ANTIGRAVITY
Lee "Scratch" Perry has one of the coolest voices in music, and here they're making it even more interesting by adding distortion effects. Neat!
FISHER & Shermanology - It's A Killer
The only thing I have to say about this is "bang-diggity-dang-dang stickup".
El Alfa, Darell, and Noriel - 4K
I heard this while I was getting ready to go out on the last night that I was in New Orleans, so I'm a little attached to it in that way. But also, El Alfa's high-pitched rasp is almost percussive, and with ping-pong effects it kind of sounds like a trippy snare drum.