Jimmy Tamborello of DNTEL a.k.a. James Figurine has released a new song for the holiday season entitled “Can’t be Sure”. The track is full of synthetic pop goodness, from Tamborello’s almost spoken word vocals filtered through a high pitched vocoder and his trademarked bendy sinebass grooves to some full on feel good 80′s new wave synths and minimalist German ticks. This is the kind of electro that sticks to your ribs in the cold months of winter.
The musical artist known as “Boo Hoo” is a 24 year old man named Bernhard Karakoulakis from Frankfurt Germany. He describes his music as “an antifolkish indietronic version of Simon and Garfunkel”. That’s not far off, his music is full of charming melodies and introspective lyrics. On his second release “Hypermarché”, Synths wash over glockenspiel and lo fi drum beats carry the whole affair like cartoon ants at a picnic. The songs featured here were recorded at his home and are mostly about shopping save for one song about robots. This song, called “Gakutensoku”, is “is partly inspired by the japanese robot Gakutensoku, partly by the movie “Brave Little Toaster” and partly by the “Wesley the Robot” strips” created by me, AZLTRON!
Gosh, I feel all important! But don’t think that I’m bias due to flattery, although I am honored that a man this talented would look to Wesley for inspiration, “Hypermarché” is the most complete crossover of two of my favorite genres that I’ve heard to date. Those two genres being lo-fi electro pop and melodic chamber pop. Boo Hoo glides effortlessly between the two. My only complaint is that the song “Nothing” really is nothing, two minutes and ten seconds of nothing. Other than that, this is an album of compelling beauty that is entertaining and insightful.
The Age of Rockets are a small unsigned band with a huge signable sound. Vocalist, programmer, keyboardist and guitarist, Andrew Futral, drummer and trumpet player Saul Simon Mcwilliams and bass, synth, glockenspiel and flute player Bess Rogers hail from New York Ciry. The three of them love making music together and have just recently released their sophomore album “Hanna”.
Their sound inhabits the space between orchestral pop and glitch heavy ballads. The album begins with sweeping synthesizers that give way to glorious harmonies and eventually gentle guitar and glockenspiel. Andrew Futral recently posted that he wanted to take the band in a more organic direction from their previously heavy electronic sounds. If the sound of the first few tracks is any indication, they have accomplished their mission. The soft melodies, harmonies, and understated glitch beats work together to create an album that is the most comprehensive successor to the Postal Service’s “Give Up”.
While the melodies, harmonies and rich lyrical content are the primary draws to their sophomore album “Hanna” there are some great pure rock moments here as well. Like the eruptions of guitar riffs on “H. Soft Escape”. Or the towering strings and ultra glitchy breaks on “Ship to Shore.”
The biggest pitfall The Age of Rockets could fall into is sounding to the passing ear as “Too Alike” to The Postal Service with Futral’s soft voice not sounding terribly different to Ben Gibbards saccharine croon. If anyone takes the time to listen to more than 10 seconds of a song, it should be readily apparent that their songs have greater cohesion and depth than that of the groundbreaking 2003 subpop collaboration between James Tamborello and Ben Gibbard. There’s not an unpleasant sound to be heard on “Hanna” and that’s sure to make them on many short lists for album of the year.
There’s something about Halloween that just syncs up with so much of the music that I listen to. The airy atmosphere, chilling winds and bright colors of fall just go together with rich arrangements, luminescent melodies, and poignant lyrics. Halloween also allows for a rich palette from which to carve a political pumpkin, or in this case a political cartoon. Here are a few songs to accompany the winds of change that are sure to shift to our backs in the next eight days.
The duo of Matt Mercer and Matt Keppel from Portland Oregon make up the group Microfilm. The two released a minimalist German Techno style album entitled “After Dark” in 2006 to surprising acclaim. They were featured in the Boston Phoenix’s “Top 20 Bands to Watch” feature. Their debut single off of that album was featured on the weekly BBC Radio 1 ‘One Music’ broadcast run by DJ Rob Da Bank. Chicago’s “Time Out” Magazine enthusiastically stated that the band “slides up comfortably to Fischerspooner or Goldfrapp.”
Fast forward to two years later, Microfilm is on the verge of releasing their second full length album (The Album drops Nov 11). The blog-o-sphere has taken increasing notice of the band due to their indie crossover covers of both Sufjan Stevens and The Magnetic Fields. Their EP “Teenage Symphonies” is on sale now and there is an excellent music video for that catchy tune. The main jump forward for the band that got it’s start in Chicago is that this time around the songs feel more fully formed instead of a DJ mix. The melodies soar, the vocals slide in and out like a vacuum tube at the bank. The minimalist elements are still there, but it’s clear that the band has listened to a fair share of indie melodies and owes a bit to Jimmy Tamborello of the Postal Service for their most shining moment “Teenage Symphonies”.
Microfilm at their core are an electronic machine, built out of monstrously simple beats and samples, but their new release shifts slightly to go for a more human sound. Featuring prominently soft keyboard melodies and even strings. They utilize these in a typically electronic structure to make the songs build and soar, groove and grind. Give “Slingshot Orchestra” a shot, it’s a diamond in the rough.
Hearts of Palm UK, is that girl that introduces herself to you under the wrong name at a party, but through perseverance, wit and charm you will find out on the third or fourth date. I say this because their name itself is something of a red herring, they are from Echo Park, California. That’s pretty far from the UK. Either way, the female electro-pop brandishing trio fires off some touching and danceable tracks on their debut album “For Life”.
Songwriter Erica Elektra originally wrote the album on her acoustic guitar, and fantasized about remixing it into a more electro style. So she did, and the results are gorgeous. These are three girls after my own heart, incorporating sweeping keyboard melodies, emotional bass, glitchy beats and even vocoder over their lovely voices. Another contributing factor in the sublime sound featured on this album is sure to be that it was mastered in Sweden by Henrik Jonsson who has mastered the likes of Peter Bjorn and John, Robyn, The Knife, and Lykke Li. I’m telling you, those Swedes know where it’s at. All this and they have a Brian Ferry cover. What are you waiting for! Sample tracks below!
The groundbreaking German indie-rocktronica band, The Notwist, fresh off of the release of their first album in six years, “The Devil, You, and Me” are kicking off their new tour of North America tonight at Lee’s place in Toronto.
In celebration of this, we’ve received a few goodies. One of them being a video of the Notwist and the Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra together performing “Boneless”, which also happens to be the Notwist’s latest single.
The next goodie that we’ve got for you is a “radical reworking” of track by Panda Bear of Animal collective.
To top it all off, I’ve even got the album version of “Boneless” to share with you all.
Microfilm has released a new EP featuring the first single, “Teenage Symphony”, from their anticipated new album “The Slingshot Orchestra”. Just as the cover of the album would suggest the song is very much like a relaxed beach, with synthesizers and piano ebbing and flowing over the gentle crashes of the beat. This song is a strong step forward for the band, the vocals and instrumentation sound much more human than their previous releases. They’ve definitely learned a lot from their excellent Magnetic Fields and Sufjan Stevens covers. I look forward to the full length album, it may be one of the best of 2008.
Computerization a.k.a. Derek is a one man band from Brooklyn akin to the likes of Figurine. This comparison is particularly strong on “1Point14Me” where the artist’s friend Ashley does a fantastic job of imitating Meredith Figurine. The rest of the self-titled album realizes just how low-fi an electronica project can be. Aside from the opening track there is no vocoder within earshot, instead there’s an off kilter warbling whisper of sometimes too intimate lyrics. Some songs come out as straight up awkward like “MyBody” which sounds like a rejected carnie’s struggle with narcissism or “Fukuwinicu” which you can decipher by looking at for a little while. It’s not as eccentric and self indulgent as early Panther and Treasure Mammal releases, if you can get past the voice, there’s some nice melodies and analog keyboard sounds. That opening track is particularly sweet. Check it out.
My appreciation for the Notwist stems out of my quest during my freshman year of college to find as many artists that were comparable to the Postal Service as possible. You might say that that quest continues to this day. Anyway, along the course of this quest I found such artists as Styrofoam, Lali Puna, Ms. John Soda, Console, and of course the Notwist. I remember being compelled to purchase their album “Neon Golden” along with a copy of The Faint’s “Wet From Birth” when I found it in a Rochester record store. Their sound fascinated me, because it’s not outright folk/rock songwriting, and not outright experimental electronica. It’s some strange combination that is at once all and none of those things, engineered to be profoundly moving. I still can’t listen to “Neon Golden” without reliving all of those freshman year emotions.
For me, it doesn’t seem like that long since the Notwist released an album because I discovered them in 2004, and their co-album with Themselves under the name “13 + God” was released in 2005. Also the same time I’m reviewing their new album “The Devil, You + Me” I am also listening to their earlier records “12” and “Shrink” which are also excellent. You wouldn’t think it, but The Notwist were forged in the fires of metal and grunge in the late 80’s. Their early work is especially interesting for singer Marcus Acher’s gentle croons bumping against waves of guitar rock riffery.
The new album “The Devil, You + Me” at times hearkens back to that guitar driven sound, like on album opener “Good Lies” and “Alphabet”, but the distinct electro-symphonic style of Neon Golden is more prevalent here, and expanded upon. It’s hard to pick favorites at this point, but the tracks that are really speaking to me are “Boneless” and “Gone Gone Gone”. Overall, this is the experimental German band’s most fluid release to date, there are some glitchy adventures to be had here, but the best the album has to offer are the smooth melodic numbers enhanced by acoustic guitar and violin and of course Marcus Acher’s gentle voice imbibing us with pensive optimism. With each release the band gains more depth and produces new and interesting sounds, I’ve only listened to the new album a few times, but I think it’s their most satisfying and fluid release to date.
Jimmy Tamborello of DNTEL a.k.a. James Figurine has released a new song for the holiday season entitled “Can’t be Sure”. The track is full of synthetic pop goodness, from Tamborello’s almost spoken word vocals filtered through a high pitched vocoder and his trademarked bendy sinebass grooves to some full on feel good 80′s new wave synths and minimalist German ticks. This is the kind of electro that sticks to your ribs in the cold months of winter.
