Actress - Ghettoville
I rarely visit Pitchfork these days, but out of curiosity I checked the score for Actress's
Ghettoville. They gave it a 6.7. So no, they don't exactly love it.
Not sure how I feel about it as a whole. It's definitely far less engaging than
Splazsh to which it's supposed to be a direct sequel, and the recording quality is far into the shit-zone even compared to a lot of 'garbage-fi' and 'shitgazer' stuff. What strikes me the most about it is how lethargic it sounds compared to the usual bouncy skitterscapes of his past stuff. Rather than a lot of small squiggles and plankton (to borrow something from Marv's lexicon...), everything gets compressed into a single plane and is presented in broad patterns. Everything is narrow band and forced down a tunnel, like looking through a telescope the wrong way. It's evident from the artist's own words that this album is meant to present the bombed out remains of a genre.
If there's anything to be said for the album it's the vibes it gives off however, definite throw-backs to 80s and 90s underground dance floors, echoes of acid house and Detroit techno, horror vogue ghetto synths and Screw (see "Rap" with its play-on-words refrain and "Rule"). It's the type of album that surveys the artistic landscape that spawned it, much like last year's
With Love. In that case, the entirety of underground techno was put through a filter of Zomby's sensibilities, and it ended up being a love letter of sorts to DJs, providing skeletal tracks for other artists to remix. Though it's similarly barren,
Ghettoville is far and away more self referential. It's not so much a love letter as it's the barely decipherable torn pages of a notebook, and rather than celebrate its influences it celebrates their smoldering wreckage. More high concept than enjoyable listen, though I can still appreciate that.
Sunn O))) and Ulver - Terrestrials
Side note: The volume on the CD is quite low; I'm having to turn it up quite a bit.
This material seems like a direct continuation of their recordings from Monoliths & Dimensions, though it ventures even further into the symphonic realms that accentuated their last full length. Opener "Let There Be Light" sounds like a much fuller, more lush take from the White sessions. Its jazzy undertones are especially nice and evoke their collaboration with Nurse With Wound which remains a favorite of mine (
The Iron Soul of Nothing). It builds into a percussive and horn laden crescendo, and then the ominous second track "Western Horn" comes in like a rolling cloud bank of drones, jangling guitars and---what sounds like---mandolins.
The centerpiece though is the melancholy third track, "Eternal Return," which is the most distinctly Ulver-ish moment of the album. The mournful strings and bells and overall tone come across like Sunn O)))'s take on funeral doom. Eventually this calms and some synth lines pick up, providing a backdrop for some Tears For Fears-esque vocals courtesy Ulver. The delivery of these vocals is perhaps the only real fumble for the collaboration, and I imagine some Sunn-fans cringing, but in a way it makes the experience all the better for me; it shoots for genuine emotion---even if it's overwrought---and that's what makes traditional funeral doom (Candlemass, et al.) what it is. Only it's here on an abstract Sunn O))) album. The track draws to a close with more mandolins playing a really great minor coda.
As a whole,
Terrestrials is a great addition to both band's catalogs. To me it evokes some kind of hyperdimensional funeral procession, complete with tesseracts as grave markers. Whatever your mental imagery though, this is definitely Sunn's more abstract and adventurous side, and this is precisely the side of theirs I like most. Even though they never go into major riff mode,
Terrestrials manages to sound very heavy nonetheless.
I also highly recommend checking out Ulver's latest material, namely their
Messe I.X-VI.X release which has the same intriguing combination of instrumental passages and electronics as the final moments of
Terrestrials.
Dum Dum Girls - Too True
For those of you unfamiliar with Dum Dum Girls, they're part of a new wave of girl-fronted garage rock groups including Vivian Girls and Best Coast. For their latest album, their style has shifted somewhat into more stargazing pop rock, more dreamy and whispering. They sound a lot like School of Seven Bells at times. Which isn't a bad thing. However I wish they split the difference a bit more with their older style as they did on their most recent EP,
End of Daze. As it stand the tracks end up running together a bit when you listen all the way through rather than small doses, something I often find to be the case with dreampop bands (even the best of them like Beach House). I suppose I find myself asking if I really want yet another dreampop practitioner on rotation. So yeah, I hope Dum Dum Girls continues to explore their sound and don't sit still in this new phase for long. The tracks on this album are very solid and well executed, but perhaps ever-so-slightly devoid of spark for me despite lead singer Dee Dee's energy.
Warpaint - Warpaint
Experimental rock group Warpaint has released some really fantastic tracks, though I can't help but feel like their albums as a whole are a bit inconsistent and don't sustain that creative energy all the way through. Their self-titled album is perhaps the most ambitious of their releases so far with twelve tracks clocking in at nearly an hour. Once again though , I find myself struggling to sit through the entirety of it from start to finish, however there are some real downtempo gems throughout. This album is a definite slow burner. You need to give it time.
"Love Is To Die" is minimal yet propulsive, a brooding indie ballad. "Hi" sounds like Portishead and PJ Harvey getting into a spat. "Biggy" shimmers in synthetic loops and clouds of droning ambience. "Disco // Very" is an off kilter dance floor jangle with a groovy beat and refrain, complete with crazy lyrics. Meanwhile "Go In" drifts along with echoplex Hurdy-Gurdy Man style vocals.
Kinda like a shot of high proof alcohol. Best in small doses.
Mogwai - Rave Tapes
I can't help but love Mogwai. From their first monolithic slab of brilliance
Young Team which is in some ways still my favorite thing they've ever done, to their breakout hit
Happy Songs For Happy People, to their more recent albums like the brilliantly named
Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will ... I love it all. For their latest full length,
Rave Tapes, the band is decidedly less blown-out than on the aforementioned
Hardcore, though they sound just as anthemic as always and manage to encapsulate much of that
post rock majesty in bite sized pieces.
Highlights for me include the heavy synth rockers "Simon Ferocious" and "Remurdered," the soaring "Hexon Bogon" and "Blues Hour," and the lovely, sprawling "No Medicine For Regret." My two favorite tracks however are "Repelish" which features dive-on-in guitars a really great vocal sample of someone ranting about satanic messages in Zep's Stairway to Heaven, as well as album closer "The Lord Is Out Of Control" which sounds like a Thrones composition with its angelic vocoder hymnals and hard pounding programmed drumming.
It's more of a slow grower compared to
Hardcore, and the more I listen the more it endears itself.
Beastmilk - Climax
This was actually released last year, but it fell through the cracks for me, and I've only just now discovered it. Had I done so sooner it would have made my 'best of' list last year f'sho.
Really propulsive goth punk rock, featuring moody---but not too whiny and not too overwrought---vocals, fantastic heavy hitting rhythm, and frantic guitars. Reminds me of Veil Veil Vanish to a degree, but it has more angular riffing and minor key melodies, almost a hint of black metal at times. Which makes sense actually because the guys behind this were in the avant black 'n' roll band Code. Oh, and the blackened folk group Hexvessel. I'm really fond of both as well.
Beastmilk have this great apocalyptic quality to their sound, all gloom 'n' doom, but still rock out and deliver a great level of energy in spite of the sullenness. Their compositions really hit the spot. Part of a new gloomy punk brigade that includes bands like His Electro Blue Voice, Grave Babies, Holograms, Iceage, Naomi Punk, etc.
