Chicago Illinois based electro-indie-pop group Helicopters have released an excellent new album entitled “Sizing up the Distance”. What is unique about this project is that the electronics stem from the melodies and the organic elements of the music rather than a beat defining and predicting all other elements. Kind of like how the Notwist accented their tunes with electronic ornamentation on their latest album “The Devil, You + Me”. Imagine that kind of sonic mix, now think straight up indie pop with guitars blazing. Imagine the Postal Service or The Burnside Project with a little more fire on the fretboards.
April 16, 2009
Helicopters Take Off on "Distance"
March 31, 2009
Logan Lynn Provides some Electronic Emo that’s just Dandy!
Logan Lynn is an artist out of that aural metropolis we call Portland, Oregon that has recently been signed to the Dandy Warhol’s “Beat the World” label. His new album “From Pillar to Post” is an emotional journey through sprawling soundscapes of sparkling pop melodies and jagged glitchy beats. As the press release on his page says; “He Puts the “Disco” back in “Discomfort”.
Even though Mr. Lynn’s music is just now coming to my attention, he has been at it a while. He has released 2 albums since 2000. The first was entitled “Glee” and was a combination of optimistic beats and electronics with heart wrenching lyrics and themes. His self-titled sophomore effort was released in 2006. Following a collaboration with Carlos Cortes of the Portland DJ collective ‘Assemble’ on the track “Feed Me to the Wolves”, the two decided to work on a full album together. This album is the aforementioned “From Pillar to Post”.
The lead single “Burning Your Glory” plods along with ethereal guitar melodies accented by synth tones that drop like pins in a silent room. Each crystalline tone has the potential to send a chill down your spine. Other tracks like the excellent “Feed Me to the Wolves” pick up the pace, but don’t expect all out dancefloor funkiness, but rather mood pieces that whirl by like streetlights on a long drive home.
There hasn’t been a release with this level of “bloody heart on sleeve” emotion tied to an electronica project since The Postal Service’s “Give Up” in 2003. Others have matched The Postal Services musicality over the years, but Logan Lynn’s lyrics and delivery drip with digitized drama and pathos.
November 6, 2008
Mason Proper’s "Lock and Key" Video Premiers on MTV’s Subterranean
The video for Mason Proper’s “Lock and Key” is set to debut on MTV’s subterranean tonight really late. The video features the band walking through an urban metropolis encountering many mannequins along the way. Some are drivers and some are suicidal, so keep your eye out. The way the video is shot super low budget with all the effects in camera casts a great feeling over the video that will have you thinking “business as usual… or is it?” As always the track is great indie rock fair as Jonathan Vigr’s voice charms and delights over a backdrop of quirky guitar melodies, ethereal arpeggios and slide whistles. That’s right. Slide whistles. Check them out.
P.S. Mason Proper is playing the Bug Jar in Rochester on November 15th! You should be there because I will be too!
September 5, 2008
Eugene Francis Jnr
Eugene Francis Jnr has the most confusing profile information I’ve read on an artist in quite a while. He is Welsh, but his parents were Apache and Inuit. People think he is American. He describes his blue eyes as “pulchritudinous”.
Backed by his bionic band the Juniors, Eugene Francis Jnr professes to discard effects and “21st century bunk” and play with a weak voice with a strong passion, the latter I don’t doubt, but the man’s sonics are akin to The Flaming Lips, with a distinct electronic psychedelic edge. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. In fact, his modest vocals, optomistic lyrics, and penchant for clear crisp melodies sound pretty good.
His latest album is “The Golden Beatle” is available at Amazon.
Eugene Francis Jnr – Poor Me (Radio Edit)
March 23, 2008
Alaska in Winter
I realize that now it is spring and the last thing many of us want to do is revisit winter, but take heart, there are good things about winter, well, the word “winter” at least. Like Brandon Bethancourt’s musical project Alaska in Winter. Mr Bethancourt and company have graciously sent me a mix of their new CD Dance Party in the Balkans, featuring the vocals of Beirut. It’s an eclectic trip.
March 22, 2008
Science for Girls
Science for Girls is the brainchild of Darren Solomon, a producer with roots in Jazz and Brazilian music. His debut album features a slew of guest vocalists over the course of 10 downtempo electronica songs. Fans of expansive textured synthpop like DNTEL will find something to like here. Often times the songs bloom like a flower in slow motion in the spring. Conveniently for my previous analogy there’s even a song called “Violets”.
While I was looking over the bands Myspace I noticed that one of the influences was Wendy Carlos who was a pioneer of electronic music and recreated many classical (Ludwig Van Beethoven) works in the early seventies with a Moog synthesizer, perhaps most noticeable in the cult Kubrick film A Clockwork Orange. The same kind of classical tones come through even in the distorted electronics making for what I regard as the most sophisticated down-tempo electronica I’ve heard in a long time.
Not to be pigeon holed as a one trick pony, Science for Girls has a couple standout indie-pop tracks that are too cute to not be mentioned, most notably “Australia”. If you know anyone from Australia, no doubt you’ll be playing this track for them within 10 minutes of your knowledge of its existence.
Science for Girls – Northern Lights
Oh! Custer
Oh! Custer is a Swedish Shoegaze/Pop band from Sweden. The band formed when Josef and Esbjorn decided to start a band in the summer of 2005 in Lund Sweden. They’ve just recently released their second EP entitled States, which also has the songs from their first EP, Leaves, as bonus tracks.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there’s something going on in Sweden. Either they’ve replaced the fluoride in the water with some songwriter enhancing drug or the Swedes are genetically engineering a superior race of musicians that will soon take over the world. Which might not be a bad thing considering the quality of their health care… Musings aside, Oh! Custer wields chiming guitars that evoke the best of those moments in between waking and sleeping. That moment of perfect satisfaction before the alarm goes off, and perhaps the 5 minutes after hitting the snooze. The beats are driving but never jarring, the reverb is as soft and gentle as a violin and the vocals calmly replay the events of our days through a hazy projector.
