A Review in Haiku: Sleigh Bells - Reign of Terror
If you must go soft
More songs like “You Lost Me” and
“Never Say Die” please
Reign of Terror is out next week. Stream it now.
On the Right Track: Gang Gang Dance - “Romance Layers”
Haven’t done one of these posts in a while and I couldn’t think of a better track to relaunch them with, so here we are. I’ll admit that I thought the year started off a little slow (some may even venture to say weak) musically, but with Spring finally in full bloom, we’re finding ourselves ensconced in great new releases. And with their exhilarating new album Eye Contact, Gang Gang Dance may have just released my favorite album of 2011. Oh screw it. There’s no may about it. They turned this shit out.
The band flirted with a new pop accessibility on 2008’s Saint Dymphna, an album that remains one of last decade’s best. Here, that flirting has turned into full-blown passionate love-making, and the results are indeed orgasmic to behold. But even amidst the several single-worthy highlights - the new dawn opener “Glass Jar,” the portable MTV Party to Go “MindKilla,” the seven vails sweep of “Thru and Thru” - there is one quieter triumph that I find myself revisiting most.
Following the aforementioned “MindKilla” isn’t an easy task (though placing one the record’s three instrumental interludes after it helps take the edge off), but “Romance Layers” emerges as an equally enchanting number in its own right. Nearly at the opposite end of the spectrum, it’s a fun, funky R&B slow jam caught somewhere between Prince and Hot Chip, which is fitting since it features none other than the latter’s own Alexis Taylor on guest vocals. He and Lizzi Bougatsos (whose name I will never tire of typing) circle each other in a seductive slow dance, with her vocals showing new shades of subtlely that have scarcely been heard before. For a such a cool number, the prevailing feeling throughout is one of heat. Hear it for yourself below. Just make sure to open a window.
Gang Gang Dance - Romance Layers by ganaz
Eye Contact is out now on 4AD. You can read my fuller review of the record over at MXDWN.
Celestial Navigations
New York synth-pop duo Konnichiwa drop their scintillating debut album Visions today on Rainbow Body Records.
One of the most pleasant surprises of the year so far, it’s full of sounds that are at once familiar and fresh. Opener “Orange Sky” is an icier take on the chillwave of Neon Indian, for instance, while previous single “Fortress Field” almost sounds like The Neverending Story scored by Fever Ray.
It’s the club tracks that have the most impact, however. The perky percolations of previously posted highlight “Maiden China” and pounding, Propaganda-esque peak “Constellations” will either call to mind some time-warped alien rave or the soundtrack to the best SEGA game you never got to play as a child.
A lot of the album’s character and spontaneity can be attributed to vocalist Kaela Noel, whom a lot of bloggers are comparing to Karin Dreijer Andersson but for my money still sounds more like Gang Gang Dance’s Lizzi Bougatsos in the way her borderline breathless delivery conveys that singular sense of giddy euphoria. Don’t let that distract from D.V. Caputo’s slippery dance textures, though, as they’re more than up to the task of keeping up with her. Or maybe it’s the other way around. The interplay is so tight here that it’s hard to tell.
Simultaneously hot and chilled enough for those crisp hints of Spring that are finally starting to greet us outside, I can’t recommend this enough for your first evening deck dance party.
Hear another highlight, the pulsing, slithering “Celestial Navigations” below, then buy the rest.
Konnichiwa - Celestial Navigations
And in case you missed it the first time around…
Headbang On
I had the pleasure of catching Los Angeles’ Puro Instinct open for Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti last summer, right around the time they decided to change their name from Pearl Harbor, if memory serves. I was instantly taken with the tight but playful interplay between sisters Skylar and Piper Kaplan, which to my ears recalled Split-era Lush more than any of their current Californinan contemporaries. Since that performance, I’ve been highly if cautiously anticipating their debut album Headbangers in Ecstasy, which is finally out today on Mexican Summer.
The album more than lives up to its label as “Fleetwood Mac, Bobb Trimble, and Lush in a champagne filled jacuzzi.” Its woozy guitar textures, dream-coated vocal harmonies and ability to skip across multiple genres (indie pop, post-punk and disco in “Silky Eyes” alone, posted below) make it perfect for early evening chillaxation and early morning bedroom dancing alike. Songs that have appeared on past releases like “Slivers of You” and “Luv Goon” have been tweaked and enhanced with higher production to match their energetic live counterparts with more confident rhythms and riffage, while new ones bath in soft synth twinkles and ethereal electronics worthy of 4AD.
Single “Stilyagi” remains a standout, even if Ariel Pink’s assist on it is hardly noticed (or needed). Close behind it in the new department are the dusky dance rock of “No Mames” and the jangly “Escape Forever,” which transforms mid song into a churning Krautrock instrumental.
Elder Kaplan Piper has billed this album as a “greatest hits that never happened.” I think that might be a little limiting. Though the album is clearly, lovingly bathed in nostalgia, it also sports enough modern and forward thinking tricks to make it more than worthy of future hit status as well, regardless of what certain taste-making music websites may say other wise…
Magic, indeed…
Took me more than a hot second to finally hop onto the Julianna Barwick bandwagon, but I’m glad I finally did.
Named after a tree at her childhood home in Louisiana, Barwick’s new album The Magic Place is something of a revelation. Filtering Victorialand-era Cocteau Twins through Sigur Ros’ () with washes of Grouper and Panda Bear, she loops her wordless vocals over top one another again and again with heavy layers of reverb and only occasional instrumentation (piano on “Vows” and drums on “Prizewinning,” both of which are highlights) to create otherworldly hymnals that are tranquil yet transcendent
Though there’s nary a lyric to be found anywhere, Barwick’s melodies are subtle but serene, even sensual in waves. How well they’ll hold up in the future remains to be seen, but for now, I can’t think of better late-night listening.
The Magic Place is out now on Asthmatic Kitty. Listen to the title track below if you haven’t already.
Halfaxa
I’ve been more than a little taken with Canadian “cosmic-pop deity” Grimes — aka Claire Boucher — for several months now, ever since I discovered her Geidi Primes cassette (still available for free here). As good as that release was and still is, its quality felt almost skeletal, the bare bones of what Boucher was capable of. With her enchanting new full-length Halfaxa, unveiled today at the Pop Montreal festival, those bones have taken on more meat and more muscle.
Styles on the record run the gamut from sighing synth-pop (“Weregild”) to propulsive post-punk (“Swan Song”), from haunting Hounds of Loving (“Devon”) to harrowing, Burial-esque dubstep (“Hallways”). Boucher is able to slip into each style like a glove, with her ethereal, almost alien vocals capable of luring sailors into jagged rocks. Instrumentally, she makes the most out of as little as possible, often using little more than deceptively simplistic drum loops and a few subtle shimmers of keyboard. The result is music one might imagine hearing as they enter or exit a dream. It’s simultaneously soothing and unsettling, seductive but illusive. Think less dance music than trance music.
The subtle layers of each song demand and deserve multiple listens, with each one revealing something new to fall in love with. Turns out the cosmic pop label was no empty boast. Between this album and the aforementioned Geidi, Grimes can now take credit for two of the most beautiful, unique and rewarding albums of the year so far.
Hear two Halfaxa highlights below and then grab the album through Arbutus Records.
And here’s a mini-documentary about the lady herself called Human Heart.
