Confetti Safari

WHY ARE YOU SO BORING?!

Is this why Yo la Tengo’s meandering And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out is so highly regarded? I don’t get it.  I don’t see why I’d listen to this over Slowdive or something. The chords are simple and sound like when I was taking guitar lessons in grade 10 and recording myself. They were really drab guitar workouts that my mother suggested sounded ‘spanish’. But they were bad and they weren’t spanish. And repetitive, hanging on the same ‘groove’ (sans groove). The vocals are those same, timid lifeless vocals I’m beginning to have a problem with. Just think Helmet has vigor, Animal Collective has manic yelping, Peter Green has the blues real bad and a devil on his shoulder, Slowdive even have a stoned guy with an angelic presence singing alongside. Jimi Hendrix illicites sex, Marvin Gaye’s got soul, David Gilmour’s guitar sings for him. What the hell do these indie blow-hard type singers got going? They’re those type of slack jawed unaffected teens from the Hullabalooza Simpsons episode.

I can see the appeal here and I intend to listen to another record from the outfit, and the vocalist is nice when he stops talk-singing and meanders with wordless crying. The first two tracks have sort-of cool drumming (all the tracks do, but that’s the best I could say about the opening cuts), but the vocals sound like when I woke up the lead singer of the Violent Femmes (not reviewed here) at 4am.

Oh, and reading all with the lyrics thinking I missed something here made me dislike this more. Sorry.

Bad chords.

… the most daring outing thus far from one of the most daring bands on the planet.

Even when former Blur frontman Damon Albarn is failing, he is compelling. His Gorillaz project is no failure. Against all odd his and  Jamie Hewlett’s cartoon band of misfits surprised everyone when they turned out to be much more than Clint Eastwood one hit wonders. Especially when Gorillaz where a band/project that couldn’t find a particular style so they tried them all on for size. Demon Days brought even more praise, both critically and commercially with Feel Good Inc even landing an iPod commercial; which made bands instantly famous at the time. The album went to go sell more than 2 million in the U.S. of A alone. Since then, Blur reunited and toured, Damon had fun with his superfriends in The Good, The Bad and the Queen, rumours that Noodle was dead circulated and Jamie and Damon both seemed to hint that the project had run it’s course and Jamie went so far as to say he was bored with drawing the characters and the next project would be something competely different.

But here we are 2010. It’s mid-March and Plastic Beach came out not but a week and a half ago. Sure, it’s old news in the blogosphere now, but it’s strong first week sales and heated debates keep it alive. This record won’t have legs the same way Demon Days did. In fact, I’m hard-pressed to find a single after they release Superfast Jellyfish, the second De La Soul outing with Gorillaz. The guest list is just as jaw dropping and head scratching as Demon Days. How they got Lou Reed for this I’ll always wonder. And they got Bobby Warmack out of indefinite hibernation because his granddaughter thought the Gorillaz were “cool”. Cool. Unfortunately, some of the guests are not suited to the proceedings much like watermelon should not be consumed whilst drinking milk. Snoop Dogg is too big of an ego to mesh well with the group and the De La Soul collab is a case of having lost the magic; the song is saved by Gruff Rhys, the frontman of Super Furry Animals, but it may as well be 2D singing. The record doesn’t really hit it’s stride until the fourth track in my mind. First there’s a nice orchestrated intro that’s not nearly as effective as Demon Day’s creepy zombie movie kitch introduction, the Snoop joint and then a track with some popular grime artists. Grime is a bit more managable for my ears than the other flash-in-the-pan trend that has engulphed this island like a locust: dubstep. I am so fucking sick of dubstep and all the venues that could be housing good tunes pushing this crappp… step away. Oh, uh… ANYWAYS, Rhinestone Eyes is next in sequence and this where the engine finally starts a-revin’. Nice to hear 2D (Damon) again. It’s weird that he’s noticibly absent from the first almost fifth of the album; Demon Days eased you into the guest filled fun, but Damon is more composer/producer extraordinare here. Anyways, Rhinestone Eyes is fairly low key compared to the rest and I love the way Damon sings ‘plastic power!’. Stylo was our first taste of the album and it’s a barn burner to say the least. Bobby Warmack brings the house down with his earth shattering appearance and Mos Def’s removed from the planet rhymes of ease keep him as the ephiphany of cool. Seriously, he’s probably one of my favourite rappers around. I’m not big into rap but Gorillaz seem to tap into the best of the genre that celebrates itself (okay, that was shoegaze, but d’ya hear of the way most conceited rappers talk of themselves?!) by finding actual talent. I really should by Black on Both Sides. Both artists on Stylo appear elsewhere; Mos Def on one of my other favs from PB, Sweepstakes, the longest entry and just a helluvalotta fun. SWEEPSTAKES… you’re a winner! That was stuck in my head all day at work. Some may find it a repetitive track or be waiting for 2D’s vocals to emerge for a catchy chorus but the song is all I’d want from a ‘rillaz single. Bobby’s other appearance in Cloud of Unknowing is pretty heartbreaking like being lost in the wilderness of plastic trash. Or something. The concept of this album is sort of lost on me except for the fact that plastic is littering our coasts and such and people are bitchin’ and moanin’, but plastic is a natural resource, I dunno. I’m starting to type like I’d speak; that’s nooo good!

The Gorillaz are typically the most Gorillaz they can be when they are being least typical. “What an odd sentence” I hear you say. And they really get away from themselves and drift into the notherworld when they take off in a rocket to the Glitter Freeze, which would sound more at home on Daft Punk’s Homework. And the bouncy Lou Reed cut, Some Kind of Nature. I know I said it already… but how’d they coax Lou into this? It’s so good even if it ain’t particularly hooky. The most coazy, familiar track comes in the form of On Melancholy Hill, which isn’t as melancholy as, say, El Manana. It’s chirpy synths prevent it from being Think Tank-esque, but it does sound familiar to the aforementioned Demon Days highlight. And I can’t go without mentioning the title track, which I had most looked forward to as it features two members of The Clash! Mick Jones and Paul Simonon everybody! Take a bow… but wait I can hardly hear you guys… are you singing Mick? What are you playing on this joint, bro? Is that your bass Paul? Okay, I think I hear that, yes, oh definitely, yes. It’s still a good track and the opening bars sound sort of along the lines of Sandinista, but the vocals are so processed it could be Curtis Mayfield singing with Albarn. Yes, I know, he’s deceased.

This is Gorillaz’s most ambitious work to date and really shows Damon coming to the forefront as producing whilst retreating a bit from being the central voice of the band. It’s saying a lot that it’s their most ambitious because just look to the debut! But it’s a bit more muddled and definitely less pop, less immediate. In such a disposable world many will discard this much too soon, but for the patient people left in the world, there’s much to uncover following repeated listens. It ain’t perfect, not even close, it’s definitely no Demon Days, but this is better than most bands are producing to open this decade…

Endless countdown: 110

hm…hmmm? HUH? Ohwhatthe!?!?

I paid for a tribute album? I paid for and willingly listened to a tribute album?

I was on a Miles Davis kick so instead of purchasing another one of his epic offerings to the world of evolving jazz I bought a tribute album? Well, this is a special tribute album. Instead of merely aping Miles’ style, the musicians relocated to India and hunkered down for 11 months to recreate and record. Well, really it was just the producer; the musicians came in and out over the duration… lots of different line-ups to represent Miles’ revolving door of talent. But still, not quite how Miles operated now, is it? Anyways, the most special thing is the musicians revolve around talented peeps that actually worked with MD; Chick Corea and John McLaughlin and a bunch of cats I’d have to look up. But they are there.

A lot of the album is more meditative than Miles’ work. I haven’t given the second disc as much airtime yet, but I’m liking Miles Runs the Voodoo Down in this form most. The first disc brings In A Silent Way and It’s About That Time together stunningly, even if IASW is truncated, it makes the perfect bridge of two different planets. The percussion on most tracks is awesome, but some may find additional vocalizing on a few numbers troubling. I think it adds a nice new texture, but I’m not sold on the longest song of the set: Spanish Key. Surely not lacking in the intensity the Bitches Brew take had, the song’s vocals leave me a bit cold. But maybe it’s because I was using this as my ‘night listening’ record a lot last week and the unsettling chants woke me up with a start every time the disc would repeat.

This will go down in history as the way to do a tribute album in my eyes. If I ever go to India, this will be my preferred listening until I see some live music there.

4/5

When I finally (after one and a half years) found somewhere to download this elusive creature, I found that it was sub-titled Tracts Left By Herd Of Instinct, which I knew all along, but what I was hoping for was some great untapped genius displayed on the only full lengths the band/duo/collective did. Lee Harris and Paul Webb explored many sounds and genres on the two records and I always found Herd to be the more concise, so naturally there’d be some gems here. What we have hear is an edited Nahoojek, followed by the India sketches on a sound collage, Charabanc D.I.P. (whatever that implies!)… it’s got some nice dub bass work and possesses some interesting albeit meandering violins and the like. It’s not often that I complain that a song go on too long, however this song panders too far along and loses it’s way a little bit in the mid-section. Next up after the no-beat offering is a song ripe with beat. Borrowing sounds from Herd’s best piece Little Brother… or is it vice versa… this is a stomper with some interesting whale sounds in the beginning and some voice samples, it’s kind of… piddly…

The house beat is a little old hat, I guess it sounded fresh back in ‘94. Anyway the details from Little Bro are far overused and missing the rising action. Again, I’m not sure if this EP came before or after Herd or a companion piece, but knowing the source track so well renders this track unnecessary. If only the ocean itself had been explored more fully as the title suggests, a la Moby’s Underwater suites , then we’d have interesting sonic territory.

Core explores the middle eastern motif and has more promise than the other half baked tracks, but still it is less necessary than Talk Talk`s Laughing Stock era b-sides.

So was this white whale worth the effort? Sure, why not. Would I buy it for an outrageous price like the .O.rang`s main quests? Hell no.

3 out of 5

Endless countdown: 114 (made some progress! Ya-ho.)

This shouldn’t have worked so well but it does.

That was my initial thought when I had first listened to this and that was on a bus where I missed some of the nuances found in these two recordings. Shoegaze and electronica are now a oft-matched pairing, but back in the 90s when electronica was still in it’s enfantry… hmm, not so much you’d think. Most of the pre-Chemical Bros/Prodigy stuff is embarrassing at best with house and trip hop generally more appealing and well aged. But the point is, the remixers that worked on Slowdive’s In Mind for a single made the track into a dreamy altar of longing and lust and a frantic space rave, with sexy results on both fronts. And who knew it could happen a second time. Wait, this was before?

Anyways, the first impression I got of the title track is how much they funked up the bass. These are some funky grooves, boy. The tired vocals over the pulsating synths is a nice contrast.

The remix of Precious One, surprisingly, one ups the star attraction, beautifully using those ‘oooooohs’ (you have to hear the track) to startling effect. After 25 seconds of bubbling synth work, it sets into a Primal Screamesque drumbreak and in march the rolling guitars. The vocals are the same timid, sleepy vocals the band is known for and the remix toys with them just enough without disrespecting the source material like some remixers do…. mash up artists are most guilty speedy up and slowing down vocals to the point of them sounding like cartoons for the sake of the voice jelling to the unfit beat. Cocteau inspired strumming runs amuck around 3:33, brilliantly making away for those aforementioned heavenward ‘ooooohs’. Lovely. I know Rachel Goswell sang on a couple of their tracks; I’m not sure if this is one, but it’s pretty breath taking.

Can I go one shoegaze review without saying Slowdive or Rachel….?

A CHALLENGE!

4/5

Endless countdown: 134

It’s always challenging to describe bands like Amusement Parks On Fire, for there isn’t much diversity but at the same time they sound distinctive among the rest of one’s music collection. They are a part of the whole nu-gaze (seriously, who thinks of these shite terms) movement that exploded during the mid 2000s, except they really fuckin’ shred sometimes. Seriously, I’d love to see these guys live. Anyways, I was won over instantly when I was on a huge shoegaze kick in 2005 and found the song Motown Ritual and, thus, the debut from which it was plucked. After I burnt that one out, there was nothing. And then I began anticipating their new effort, which was to be their first real full band outing because the frontguy got some friends to record with. And then…. it never arrived on these shores; not only could I not pop in the shops to get it, I couldn’t find it on the web either to pirate!

So I forgot about them.

Then 3 years later I somehow found it on a site and scooped it up, but because I wasn’t on a shoegaze kick, I forgot about it again for another whole year.

Well, it was high time that I gave it some lovin’ on my mp3 player and it reminded me why I like these young upstarts so much. True, their sound hasn’t changed much, but they expanded just enough as to have more variety and a more cinematic feel in some of the “scene change” tracks, with the welcome addition of strings and keyboards. Blackout was held over from an EP (albeit polished a tad), but Motown Ritual surprisingly was not saved from the flames… instead it was dumped onto the Young Fight EP last year (that took a while) in a truncated form unfortunately.

Anyways, I can’t say anything negative about this band. Hopefully they got another storm brewing because, aside from the aforementioned EP, they’ve let their sonic tornado rest for far too long.

4 out of 5

Endless countdown: 142 to go

So, my buddy devinwl is doing this and since the whole concept of rateyourmusic is to rate music (!!), how did I end up with so many ignored, unrated releases. Let us (me) remedy this! Begin!

Not being entirely familiar with the group other than some choice songs and a full appreciation for their last album I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass, the only album I’d heard in full up to this point, I still didn’t know what I’d find from these Velvet Underground lovers (that’s what I pigeonholed them as, and well… sometimes… hmm). Turns out on the whole I like this band more than the influential Lou Reed juggernaut. The first song was waaaay trippier than I was expecting with thundering bass, violins, keyboard flourishes (oh no, don’t start again I hear you moan). The vocalist sounds cool and collected amidst the beautiful chaos, taking in a last breath before the apocalypse. The song is
incredible (hey, this guy sounds kind of like that timid guy from Sloan, amicrazy, amiright, am I illiterate suddenly?).

“I Know your worried, I’m worried too, but if you’re ready, I’m here to call

hm, says it runs nearly six minutes, seems like just three minutes fell away. Good sign.

Light spring vacation or this the holiday season with jingle bells? Still retains spacey keyboards and an indie asthetic but the punk attitude of not caring? Where is this? The female vocalist has a voice with the power of codeine here, but the song motors along held up by the backbone. Seems a bit of a shock coming off the tail end of such a monster track.

Since when did these guys do atmosphere? The third track is one of their most ethereal to date and it’s repetitive pulses with dreamy Hope Sandoval-esque vocals make for one sleeper hit for sure.

To avoid doing track-by-track reviews, here we are given more tracks that range from exceptionally great to just good. It’s weird though, every track I hear from this band makes me want to compare their hard work to another band. But it’s always a different one; there’s the VU refs, but at times they can be Mojave 3 overdrive, they can be a slinkier Sonic Youth, Flaming Lips freak outs, etc. etc. So at least they aren’t derivative, but they do like to wear their influences on their sleeves all the while working towards becoming one of the most influential working bands today. Well, ain’t that aces, boyo?

Very, very cool. I slept on this, but to remedy my fault, I’m gonna revisit it damn soon. Word.

4 stars