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Albums Thread - 2016



Herr Tubthumper

Herr Tubthumper

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 11, 2003
62,731
The Fatherland
Buzzer said:
Eval - 'Weval' - I reckon this will be right up [MENTION=409]Herr Tubthumper[/MENTION] or [MENTION=13]CHAPPERS[/MENTION] street. It's the new album from Dutch duo Weval who are signed to the ever-brilliant Kompakt Records and should give a clue to the type of music too. To my ears it sounds like Pantha Du Prince meets Art Department, it's understated, quirky without ever being w@nky, it's very listenable and works with either headphones on or blasting out of the speakers.

I can't find any video streams but there's a decent link to their stuff on Soundcloud. https://soundcloud.com/weval
Click to expand...

Thanks for this. I have one of their tracks called Gimme Some which is a glorious bit of weird, possibly deep-ish house. And if there is one thing we can agree on it's that Kompakt is "ever brilliant". I'll investigate their album.

PS the video doesn't work for me due to GEMA.
 




Buzzer

Buzzer

Languidly Clinical
Oct 1, 2006
26,121
For anyone who is a fan of 70s disco then the Jimmy Somerville 'Club Homage' is well worth checking out. It's a collection of remixes of tracks from his 2015 album 'Homage' but he's gone for the proper disco sound so rather than a Daft Punk modern version he's turned the bass right down for a very authentic feel. He's even roped in superstar producer Tom Moulton who pioneered the disco sound and invented the 12" for one of the mixes. My one complaint is that I would have liked to have had a full remix album with each track appearing just once. Instead, we get 3 tracks appearing no less than 3 times and 2 others to make the full 11. I think it takes away some of the shine because when you've got the same track so many times on an album, it feels like I've bought a 12" remix together with B-sides.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGthnxGN5wQ
 


Theatre of Trees

Theatre of Trees

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
7,839
TQ2905
Let's Eat Grandma - I, Gemini

A release I've been waiting with interest for a while and after a few listens still can't decide if it's a work of demented genius or sixth form over indulgence. A whiff of Marmite can be detected. The duo, aged 16 and 17, are hugely talented multi-instrumentalists - the album alone has keyboards, saxophones, glockenspiels, cello and recorders, all played by the pair, liberally spread throughout. The songs themselves are stuck in a strange child like world and have been developed since their time at school maintaining a kind of innocence that is punctuated by a creepy oddness that seeps out of the sides of each composition. Their influences are many with often two or three cropping up in a single track, their songs rarely clock in at under four minutes and the duo love a long intro. Imagewise they have been compared to the twins in The Shining, something they play upon, using their long hair to hide behind whilst observing everything going on.

Opener 'Deep Six Textbook' is the most conventional song on the album being a stately, etheral glide built on a trip-hop backbeat with added glockenspiel and finishing with a saxophone solo. The fun starts with next track 'Eat Shiitake Mushrooms' which builds from its music box opening then heads off into a house backbeat with added rapping reminiscent of late 90s teenage bubblegum pop. They change direction once more for the next track 'Sax in the City' which, as the name suggests, is built on stabs of saxophone. 'Chocolate Sludge Cake' is the strangest track, the opening is built around school recorders with a sound that would not be out of place on the soundtrack to the Wicker Man before exploding into a wild cacophony of sound and lyrics contemplating the baking of a cake. 'Chimpanzees in Canopies' is a folky madrigal and possibly the weakest track here. 'Rapunzel' is Angela Carter in musical form, a delicate piano driven opening leads into darkness, a fairy tale that turns into a nightmare - 'My cat is dead, my father hit me, I ran away' - for the seven year old narrator of the song. 'Sleep Song' continues the dream and nightmares theme with a bit of sleepwalking adding to the fear of the unknown, built on a sea shanty backing punctuated by random voices shouting within the dreams of the sleeper. Reminiscent of an Ariel Pink track. "Welcome to the Treehouse parts 1 and 2' are two separate songs but really part of a single suite. Part one's backing synth track has a feel of Angelo Badalamenti before the jungle drum rhythms of part two kick in. The last track is a reworking of the opener, speeded up and played on glockenspiel and ukelele a joke of theirs regarding the outside perception of how they should be filed under folk because of their love of using these instruments.

With many bands these days their influences are often singular, not strayed to far from and fairly easy to pick up, on this album there are so many, often within a single song, that have been picked up and blended into others; classical, modern pop, folk, electronica. Their compositions head off in a variety of different directions, intros are often two or three minutes long, yet it all somehow works. For once it is a sound of band experimenting and producing something of their own that isn't easily pigeonholed. Where they go from here is hard to predict only because they have a number of directions they could possibly travel in.


 




M

Machiavelli

Well-known member
Oct 11, 2013
17,779
Fiveways
5ways said:
Final point on Moon Shaped Pool - it meanders from Daydreaming onwards, like you're floating down the liffey. Like a nice walk in the woods. TKOL did it too. One ramble into the next. Contrast this with OK Computer / Kid A tracks. One masterpiece following another, and each song totally different from the one preceding it.
Click to expand...

I've just picked up my copy, and am half-way through. First impressions are extremely positive -- especially Decks Dark and Ful Stop -- and I like your 'meander' characterisation.
 




Theatre of Trees

Theatre of Trees

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
7,839
TQ2905
Some more recent stuff

Lakker - Struggle and Emerge

More an extended EP than an LP but a cohesive whole all the same. Irish noise duo combine techno, jungle, industrial, soundtrack and Dutch field recordings to intepret the relationship between the Netherlands and water. 'Maeslantkering Gating' is all manic industrial noise set to the tempo of a pneumatic drill reminiscent of the hard Belgian and Dutch techno of the early 90s; the elegiac 'Emergo' drifts along at a more sedate pace as if in rhythm of the tides; 'Ever Rising' mixes the industrial sounds of the docks ominous in their warning of future dangers. The closing 'Open Clouds' recalls the dark brooding of an Angelo Badalamenti/ David Lynch collaboration.

Hanging Freud - Motherland

Anglo-Brazillian duo's EP appears to be a commentary of singer Paula Borges' relationship with the politics of her homeland. Multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Perez imbues songs with drone like guitars and sinister electronic twiddlings which augment Borges' dispassionate, montone voice. Influences include indie dance, shoegaze, art rock and electronica. There is a sadness that runs through the entire six songs. Stand outs include the title track with its child like backing vocals and despairing closer 'Centuries'. Limited cassette release but available on Spotify.

Patience - The Church

Roxanne Clifford, formerly of Veronica Falls, first single eschews her indie past and delves into synth pop, the opening wobbling synth and 1980s metronomic drum beat announcing immediately that Veronica Falls mark II this isn't. The same harmonic and melancholy voice remains but is wrapped in warm electronica with a hint of Italo-disco that is wistfully bittersweet yet nostalgic.

Carla Dal Forno - Fast Moving Cars

A recent single from sometime Tarcar collaborator starts with a crack of thunder before settling into a dare to the singer's boyfriend, shyly pushing him to do something out of the ordinary to create excitement within the relationship. Dal Forno's vocals are muted, sometimes drowned by the heavy bass and swirling spacey electronics before becoming overpowered by them and disappearing into the ether. A lesser producer would add autotune to lift her voice above the mix but Dal Forno's subdued and occasionally out of tune vocals give the song an air of danger and thrill that would be lost by overproduction. One of my favourite songs of 2016 so far.

Dal Forno's song opens the mix below,
Mixcloud playlist
that also includes tracks from the EPs reviewed above along with recent releases by Goat, Andy Stott, Liminanas and Tobacco.
 








Buzzer

Buzzer

Languidly Clinical
Oct 1, 2006
26,121
Here's one for Nick Cave/Leonard Cohen/Mazzy Star or just generally steel-string blues fans.

Hugo Race Fatalists - 24 Hours to Nowhere
Former Bad Seed with a fantastic new album. I had it on repeat all last night and I'm listening to it still, this morning. It merges blues/folk/Americana in a very cool and languid manner. He sounds a bit like the lead singer of Alabama 3 but without the rasp and definitely without all the bass and sarcastic angst. The Leonard Cohen comparison is quite valid as he does like female harmonies too. My new favourite album of 2016.

https://soundcloud.com/glitterhouse/02-hugo-race-fatalists-the-power-of-you-and-i


(The only gripe I have is one of pedantry. The title of the song should be "The Power of You and Me".)
 
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BBassic

BBassic

I changed this.
Jul 28, 2011
13,062
Buzzer said:
Has anyone mentioned the Trashcan Sinatras 'Wild Pendulum' album? It's pure unadulterated indie guitar heaven. Most of the tunes on the album sound like they could have been written in 1990 and for someone like me who loved that era for music it's a huge nostalgia buzz.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph74Udc6lSQ
Click to expand...

Oh, I am all over this like a fat man at a buffet.
 








tinycowboy

tinycowboy

Well-known member
Aug 9, 2008
4,004
Canterbury
Albumen said:
I've just assembled this:

http://www.whathifi.com/audio-technica/lp5/review

It's beautiful. An old fashioned design, but sounds friggin great and solid (comes with dust cover). I'm ditching my old phono preamp for the internal phono option, and if you choose to buy it, it has USB for all of your pesky so far undigital 7"s . . . .
Click to expand...

Hmmmm. Interesting. Thought I was definitely going to go for a Rega, but may reconsider. Easy assembly? I hate non-easy assembly....
 




Superphil

Superphil

Dismember
Jul 7, 2003
25,680
In a pile of football shirts
My most recent purchases have been:

Monster Truck - Sittin' Heavey
And
Black Stone Cherry - Kentucky

I'm really quite enjoying this current Southern Rock style revival (did it ever really go away?)

Next will be Motörheads sawnsong, a live album recorded less than 2 months before Lemmy died, 'Clean Your Clock', I might just have to go for the vinyl version.
 






spring hall convert

spring hall convert

Well-known member
Nov 3, 2009
9,608
Brighton
Finally listened to the Radiohead album all the way through today. Not massively impressed on first listen.

If you've been into the last two Swans records, I'd say it's a fairly safe bet you'll be into the new one.
 




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