Richard Jankovich is a producer from Los Angeles who goes by the name Pocket. He is also the front man of electronic pop outfit the Burnside Project who have put out two excellent albums; 2003′s The Network, The Streams, The Harmoniesand 2005′s The Finest Example is You. Under the Pocket name, Jankovich has has remixed Beck, Radiohead, Kristin Hersh, Of Montreal, Elk City, Joanna Newsom, Mendoza Line, Dirty on Purpose, Eskobar, Cat Power and others, always with groovy results.
Now, Jankovich has taken his music production skills one step farther, enlisting the aid of current and classic vocalists and musicians for a series of singles for online release. Among the collaborators are Yuki Chikudate from Asobi Seksu, Steve Kilbey from The Church (Known for their single “Under The Milky Way”), Mark Burgess from the Chameleons (Another influential post punk band!) Danny Seims from Menomena and many others. I’ve been able to give a listen to three of the tracks so far, and I can really hear how Jankovich’s songwriting and music production have evolved over the years. I think it was a good exercise for Jankovich to distance himself from vocal and lyrical duties because while his vocals are innovative and his lyrics are insightful his actual vocal abilities aren’t his strong suit. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, case in point Bright Eyes, James Figurine, Casiotones for the Painfully Alone etc. don’t’ have exceptionally strong vocals but make great music. On the new EP, free from those duties, the melodies soar, The arrangements are more lush, and the sound just envelopes you like a warm blanket.
Well here it is, the wrap of the best albums of 2008. Here are the links to part one and part two.
30. Black Kids – Partie Traumatic
Black Kids were kind of the Gnarls Barkley of this year, except… without the high powered up and coming producer and and dependable veteran performer. They did however come out of nowhere with a killer single named I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You, despite the title being ridiculously long and well… ridiculous as well, it caught on like wildfire and the kids ate it up like hot cakes. The band uses a bag of tricks including funky guitar solos, warbly synths, cowbells and a Robert Smith-like warble. The rest of the album is full of rich pop tunes and a Robert Smith-esque warble detailing tales of adolescent woes and throes of passion. If you’re looking for a non-stop androgynous dance party look no further than Jacksonville Florida’s own Black Kids.
Speaking of Gnarls Barkley, Beck teamed up with that prodigious producer DJ Danger Mouse for his latest release Modern Guilt. The atmosphere that Danger Mouse brings to the album fits perfectly with the multi-layered stylings of Beck. In fact, many are calling this album Beck’s first album that’s moved forward stylistically since his seminal release “Sea Change”. While “Guerro” and “The Information” did look back back for inspiration I felt that there was some innovative work there that marked progression. The fact that Modern Guilt doesn’t use too much superfluous instrumentation or loops and for the most is composed with ample reverb and less is more composition makes the album Beck’s most raw and intimate release since Sea Change.
Bloc Party’s latest release Intimacy is something of a return to form for the band from their experimental conceptual sophomore album A Weekend in the City. Its like the catchy tunes off of Banquet fused with the jarring emotional content from A Weekend in the City with a pinch of electronic wizardry that can be traced back to the Chemical Brothers and even the Bravery in some spots. There are arpeggios fueling ultra fast ticking drum beats, and even keyboard horns fueling stuttering vocals. There are a few songs where the formula works out a delicate balance of ferocity and melody like the perfect song for the subway Your Visits are getting Shorter and the Cure influenced melody of Letter to My Son. This is the most aggressive collection of songs Bloc Party has ever released. I could see many of these songs playing over loudspeakers during heated UK Soccer games.
27. Flight of the Conchords – Flight of the Conchords
Think “Tenacious D” for the indie rock crowd. Brett and Jermaine bring something special to the table here with their high low harmonies and clever songwriting. All the songs here have been played before on their hit HBO series, but they’re here with renewed vigor. Some songs even have new parts. Like on the homage-hit “Bowie” the end of the song explodes in a “Let’s Dance!” fashion. Likewise, “Robots” puts on it’s dancing shoes for a “Robo-Boogie” segment. They rifle through a lof different genres and crazy ideas and are talented enough to pull them off musicall and lyrically. If you’ve never heard of the before, prepare to listen to nothing but them for an entire month. For real.
Ruby Isle is the flagship property of the Kindercore record label. The lineup is composed of the all-star cast of former beat maker for “We are the World Trade Center”, Dan Geller, rock wild man Mark Mallman, and drummer Aaron Lemay. If you’re looking for an album to get the party started regardless of the crowd Ruby Isle has something for everbody. It’s true it’s dance music, but the ever present guitar riffs and and crazy synth is enough to even get grandma to do the twist. There’s a couple uses of great guest vocals, like the uber low voiced youtube phenomenon Tay Zonday, and the powerful reworking of “Solsbury Hill” featuring Amy Dykes. If you’re looking for a band to play a kicking set during the apocalypse, look no further than Ruby Isle.
I recieved Desmond & The Tutus album “Tuckshop” in my inbox and was immediately intrigued. First off they are named after a famous African holy man that I was not aware of (Thanks Wikipedia!). Secondly, the band is from South Africa. Although all the members are white. This was kind of a let down until I listened to their music. There are few releases that I listen to all the way through beginning all at one time, but the uplifting nature of their guitar rock compositions and borderline satirical lyrics made me listen to this thing the whole way through. From criticizing electro loving geeks (hm) to the best song about swimming I have heard ever. There’s a lot to love here.
The Kindness Kind is a new band out of Seattle, Washington who employs careful guitar work over beautiful piano melodies topped off with the excellent vocals by Alessandra Rose and a pinch of electronica to make some of the most listenable indie pop this year. The Highlight of their self titled album “Houndstooth” starts off with gentle feedback before the jazzy keys and bendy synths are rocketed forward by the paced drums, that navigate the song through several soaring melodies. If you’re looking for a complex but extremely listenable new indie rock band to love, The Kindness Kind should be first on your plate.
If you’re looking for an album released this year that was as filled with youthful elation as much as it was filled with talented instrumentalists and vocalists, look no further, Unicycle Loves You is for you. Each one of their songs explodes in catchy accessible pop with layers of guitars and keyboards atop bangin’ beats. If I had to use other bands to describe their sound I would say they’re like all the fun songs by the Arcade Fire, channeled through The Cars and the Stokes all peppered with a pinch of Lou Reed. That said, there are so many rocking pop songs here that it would be a crime if these guys didn’t get more popular. Long live Unicycle Loves You!
The Slingshot Orchestra has made a distinct progression from their previous release. This time opting for a more lush sound rather than the minimalist german techno sound that people might know them better for. But fear not, there are beats and synths galore here. In addition to those glorious tones, there are also strings, piano, and plethora of other instruments that might sound completely natural but are actually synthesized and played by the band, but you’d be hard pressed to know that just by listening to them. In short, if you’re looking for a tasty slice of electro/synth pop pie, you better order up The Slingshot Orchestra.
Cut Copy’s 2004 release “Bright Like Neon Love”, became one of the sleeper hits for me in the year following. Which led me to be really anticipating their new release “In Ghost Colours”. On “Neon Love”, they showed that they were capable of combining garage rock and electro in a powerful way, but on “In Ghost Colours” they’ve somewhat abandoned that idea in favor of some really poppy electro songs. It marks their progression as a band that they use guitar more for melody than for a slamming riff. All this talk about style changes and guitar might confuse you as to whether or not you can dance to the album. The overwhelming answer is “Yes!”.
Ohgr, or Nivek Ogre, is a unique pressence in the music community. He started off making experimental electronic music that took a life of it’s own with the creepy and transcendent industrial band Skinny Puppy. He utilized his unique growl and perspective to sing/shout grotesque stream of thought imagery. Some of their music is very disturbing, but some of it is very beautiful too. Since the band’s inception the band have crossed into so many different genres, from dance, to metal, to ambient, and nearly everything in between.
After collaborating with original Skinny Puppy member cEvin Key on two albums that their fans thought they might never see, Nivek Ogre returns with another solo album following 2003′s SunnySyOp. So what do you expect from the third solo album of a man whose vocals have sent chills down the spines of many music connoisseurs? Would you expect piano and real singing? Well if the lead single off of “Devils in My Details”, “Timebomb” is any clue Ohgr is set once again to defy expectations. There’s still a significantantly creepy feel to this track, and a mind warpingly dark intro, but it’s growing musicality is mesmerizing.
Some artists like to stay safely within a sound, to work with what they’re comfortable with to create songs. Dieter Schöön from Sweden is not one of those artists. On his latest release “Lablaza” he combines classical sounding horns, accordian, strings and guitar with lo-fi blips, beats and beeps that sometimes shoot past you so fast they give you whiplash. His sound is something like if Beck and Peter Bjorn & John collaborated on an album with Clor producing. His songs don’t always hit the sweet spot but you’ve got to hand it to him, there’s not anything else out there that sounds exactly like him and that’s admirable.
Beck’s latest release, “Modern Guilt”, is also his first collaboration with Gnarls Barkley member and Gorillaz producer DJ Dangermouse. The album features a remarkable synergy as both Dangermouse and Beck have created a retro-future psychedelic 60′s sound. Under the production of Dangermouse, Beck’s ethereal backing vocals, chugging bottomless bass, and impeccable ear for melody take on a much more tangible form than they have in the last two albums. Not that at times Guero and the Information weren’t hard hitting, but those albums and their many overlapping layers and rubbery reverb effects created a dream like atmosphere, particularly on the Information. Which to me is a good thing. And reverb and rubbery bass are still present on Modern Guilt, there’s just something more straight forward and weighty about them. The fuzzed out bass, beats and crisp production (including the spectacular use of a folky violin) make Modern Guilt seem more ‘real’. Like waking from a neon light show of a dream to the sun bursting through the pastel pallet of dawn. Beck – Chemtrails
I went and saw Juno, it is a wonderfully cute film. Ellen Page is cute, Michael Cera is cute. I want to somehow visit their world and be part of the overwhelming cuteness.
On a different note I’ve largely neglected the Secret Machines on my blog. This is unfortunate because they are one of my absolutely favorite bands. I saw them in Syracuse a year ago. Fantastic show even though it was small and on campus. They hit a spot somewhere in between Beck, the Flaming Lips and Led Zeppelin. One of indie rocks most underrated bands I’d have to say. Ten Silver Drops was a fantastic album, even if critics kinda panned it. Their Dylan cover “Girl from the North Country”, despite being eight minutes long, doesn’t get old and the sparse soundscape amplifies the tender ache of love long since passed.
It’s Thanksgiving, so that means I am going to do a little extra today by posting my radio show track by track, including my custom little promotional advertisements, which I enjoy way too much. Keep an ear out for next week, there’s going to be even more ridiculous promos, which are my favorite thing ever right now. AZLTRON Station ID #1
I don’t know whether it’s the fact that the weekend is approaching rapidly or that I don’t have to work tonight, but I am in the mood for some funk. Luckily, Miss Fairchild, a band of white boys from New England with enough soul to take on Parliament toe to toe has recently come to my attention. Their album “Ooh La La Sha Sha”, is chock full of of feel good get downs, utilizing horns, flutes, and of course the funkiest basslines this of Kool and the Gang.
Fans of the Scissor Sisters, Sly and the Family Stone, and Midnite Vultures era Beck will find something to love here. Highlights include “Vanilla Place” a groovy party starter if I ever heard one, “Number One”, a plea and a play for love out on the dancefloor, and “Cheatin’ Man” is the no holds barred freak out funk fest complete with jazz flute breakdowns. That’s right, jazz flute.
Billy Harvey’s new album “Bearsick”, is an intriguing unconventional acoustic romp through unsettling and strange yet compelling soundscapes. The sound is lo-fi, while at times recalling the intimacy and bass thump of various eras of Beck and the off kilter piano of Ashes to Ashes era David Bowie. Above all though, there is real heart behind every track.
Calvin Harris is a fly spectacled up and coming electro dance/funk musician that recently was a featured artist on Myspace, and rightly so, since his infectious dance anthems echo the late Rick James while seeming to inhabit the space between power pop slams and twinkling electro funk jams. I don’t know what it is about music in 2007, but there’s so much of it that’s so good, especially the new artists like Calvin Harris. The resurgence in electro-dance music this year is as much quality as it is quality.
Anyway, back to Mr. Harris, his music glides on 80′s inspired nostalgia and a variety of electronic instrumentation like computer voices and a virtual bunker full of synthesizers. The bass in particular rises and falls to induce maximum dancefloor accessibility. What stands out the most though is the intense personality that he conveys through his alternating classy British singing voice and flirtatious falsetto. The track “The Girls” features some of that flirtatiousness as he describes all of the different types of women he likes, needless to say the list is quite complete. Another song that explodes with woozy dancefloor drive is the nostalgic “Acceptable in 80′s” which utilizes the awkward hits and backwards synths that might remind you of Thomas Dolby. Calvin Harris isn’t just a nonstop party monster, he takes the time to slow it down and play some jams for the ladies like smooth, smooth “Love Souvenir” that could easily be mistaken for Beck when he’s seducing Jenny and her sister. The sweeping rhythmic ballad “Electro Man” shows how much range an electro artist can have while still inhabiting that precious space we like to call “Electro”. That and it sounds like a David Bowie techno remix, so how can you go wrong? You can say what you want about Calvin Harris, but the man knows how to harness the power of the 808 cowbell, and that power is mighty.
The Girls Video (Best Video since the Rakes’ “22 Grand Job”):
Richard Jankovich is a producer from Los Angeles who goes by the name Pocket. He is also the front man of electronic pop outfit the Burnside Project who have put out two excellent albums; 2003′s The Network, The Streams, The Harmonies and 2005′s The Finest Example is You. Under the Pocket name, Jankovich has has remixed Beck, Radiohead, Kristin Hersh, Of Montreal, Elk City, Joanna Newsom, Mendoza Line, Dirty on Purpose, Eskobar, Cat Power and others, always with groovy results.
