5dots (in brief)

  1. [Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

    By now many of you have already heard The xx’s album, but for those that haven’t, it’s really fantastic. Low-key, kind of new-wavey, male/female vocals, and so much space. There’s some fantastically natural sounding reverb here, and every track is restrained enough that it has extra room to stretch out and breathe. The drums are sampled (but apparently tapped out in realtime when they play live, which is neat), but that extra room makes them sound much more organic; it’s a really lovely effect.

    The xx - Islands

    The xx - VCR

    The xx - Stars

    2. comments

    1. Wale (13) 
    2. Gold Panda (12) 
    3. Girls (12) 
    4. Squarepusher (12) 
    5. The xx (11) 
    6. Ramona Falls (11) 
    7. Ducktails (10) 
    8. Adore (10) 
    9. HEALTH (9) 
    10. JJ (9) 

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    3. comments

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    Today I started listening to this record by jj, and it sounded like some pretty typical Swedish balearic pop - really enjoyable, and worth sharing, but not too surprising. But then I got to this track.

    It’s a version of Lil Wayne’s “Lollipop”, recorded in echoey, spacey balearic style, with lyrics changed to be entirely about ecstasy. The beat grabbed me at first, because it’s super weird to hear American rap influence in this kind of music in the first place, but when the lyrics came in and I finally placed where I recognized the song from, I kind of flipped out a little.

    The rest of the record is good, but this is the peak:

    jj - Ecstasy

    For comparison, here’s the first track on the record (which I’d already been planning on putting up here before hearing the rest of the album):

    jj - Things Will Never Be the Same Again

    4. comments

    1. Mad EP (24) 
    2. The Very Best (12) 
    3. Built to Spill (11) 
    4. Broadcast (10) 
    5. Slingshot Dakota (10) 
    6. Murder by Death (7) 
    7. Hauschka (4) 
    8. The Magnetic Fields (2) 
    9. Celer (2) 
    10. () 

    Via Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz

    5. comments

    1. The Flaming Lips (18) 
    2. Jahdan Blakkamoore (14) 
    3. Dwayne Sodahberk (14) 
    4. Annie (12) 
    5. Baroness (12) 
    6. Lullabye Arkestra (11) 
    7. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (11) 
    8. The Boats (10) 
    9. Shackleton (9) 
    10. iTAL tEK (5) 

    Via Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz

    6. comments

    1. Monsters of Folk (15) 
    2. Universal Studios Florida (13) 
    3. The Mountain Goats (12) 
    4. Lullatone (12) 
    5. Lake Heartbeat (10) 
    6. Music Go Music (9) 
    7. The Drums (6) 
    8. Plaid (4) 
    9. Autechre (4) 
    10. Clark (3) 

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    7. comments

  7. [Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

    This is a great EP - seriously, I’m really enthused about this. The Drums are doing a breed of that reverby lo-fi that’s big with the kids right now, but with a couple twists. Most notably and awesomely, there’s a clear oldies influence on their sound: at least one of the songs on this EP made me think of Ben E. King. Secondly, there’s a more subtle new wave shimmer in a few places that really makes things click.

    I put “Saddest Summer” as the streaming track, but ”Don’t Be a Jerk, Jonny” might actually be my favorite, so listen to both, eh?

    The Drums - Saddest Summer

    The Drums - Don’t Be a Jerk, Jonny

    8. comments

  8. [Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

    Guys, I’m not going to lie: I am a fan of Abba. If you are too (especially the more rockish songs) you will probably like Music Go Music.

    I’ve been hearing a lot of people talk about these guys, and the word “disco” gets used a lot, but I barely hear it. I guess there’s a disco beat in there? Mostly, it’s those melodramatic 70s vocals. And sure, I’m pretty sure Abba never put out a nine minute song, so I guess it’s not exactly the same.

    Music Go Music - Light of Love

    Music Go Music - Just Me

    9. comments

  9. [Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

    I wrote a bit about the Warp20 releases when they were announced; now they’re out and I’m listening to them. I was primarily interested in the new content: two discs of Warp artists covering other Warp artists, a disc of unreleased stuff. I was actually even more excited about the vinyl box’s disc of locked grooves, but those are a little disappointing - they’d be very easy to grab from the original songs myself.

    This song is an unexpected gem. I’ve never been too fond of Mira Calix, as her stuff is a little more abstract then I usually care for. But this cover of one of my favorite Boards of Canada songs is really lovely. The beat’s been mostly removed, and the synths replaced with somewhat plaintive strings. It’s even more low-key than the original, and really very pleasant. (I clearly have a weakness for strings like these).

    Mira Calix with Oliver Coates - In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country

    Similarly, I wasn’t too impressed by Leila’s output, but this piano version of Aphex Twin’s “Vordhosbn” is quite nice. The original is again a favorite of mine, but this version takes away all the aggression and frantic percussion, revealing a somber and moving melody.

    Leila - Vordhosbn

    10. comments

    1. Antipop Consortium (17)
    2. Vitalic (13)
    3. Islands (12)
    4. You Say Party! We Say Die! (10)
    5. Greg Davis (7)
    6. Boris (2)
    7. ()
    8. ()
    9. ()
    10. ()

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    Notes: I didn’t pick tracks from them to share, but I did want to note that the new Vitalic and Antipop Consortium records are both pretty great. If you like OK Cowboy (or Justice, or any other Daft-Punk-biting aggro-techno outfit), you’ll like Flashmob. And while I was prepared for Fluorescent Black to be a huge letdown (considering Arrhythmia might be my favorite rap record ever), it’s totally solid - not rehashing the same stuff they’ve done before, but staying enough in their mold that you still know who you’re listening to.

    11. comments

  11. [Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

    I’ve written before about Islands (and their previous incarnation, The Unicorns), so I won’t go into details here, but their new record Vapours is really solid. I think I’ve said before that they were a weird pop band that was gradually getting less weird, and while their last album didn’t really bear that out, this one does. The sound is a little more dancey, and the lyrics are still pretty oblique, but they’ve become a really solid pop group.

    And while everyone’s pretty much over autotune in rap and r&b, how do we feel about it in our indie-pop/rock?

    (Sidebar - I definitely feel that, no matter what you think of how it sounds, autotune pretty much has to be considered the sound of popular music right now. It’s no doubt going to sound dated quite soon - the way gated drums sound like the 80s - but in a way, I think it’s important in defining what this time period sounds like.)

    Anyway, autotune is used to really swell effect in this song - it’s not gaudy; it isn’t just there to cover up lousy singing. It does a thing like it did on Kanye’s last record, where the juxtaposition of human emotional themes with a digital/synthetic sound yields something worthwhile.

    Islands - Heartbeat

    And this other song is a little more indicative of what the album as a whole sounds like:

    Islands - No You Don’t

    12. comments

    1. Drakkar Sauna (13) 
    2. múm (12) 
    3. Mount Eerie (12) 
    4. Tigercity (11) 
    5. belladonnakillz (10) 
    6. Fuck Buttons (7) 
    7. No Age (4) 
    8. Sean Na Na (3) 
    9. Bright Eyes (3) 
    10. () 

    Via Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz

    13. comments

  13. [Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

    Having long been a fan of The Microphones/Mount Eerie, and recently become a fan of black metal, I’ve been really eager for a while to listen to Wind’s Poem, the new “black metal” Mount Eerie record.

    If you’re familiar with the noisier stuff Phil Elverum did as The Microphones (think “I Want to Be Cold” from The Glow, Pt. 2), a lot of this record will make sense to you. The black metal influence is pretty clear on several of the tracks, and they’re good, but the non-metal songs are a bit more interesting to me.

    Previous Mount Eerie releases have seemed, to me, a little unfocused and dashed off. One of the things I’ve always loved about The Glow, Pt. 2 is the way you can hear all the overdubbing - you can tell the songs were labored over, even when the playing sounds sloppy. The Mount Eerie releases haven’t had that feeling as much, but these songs do, a bit. Not the ramshackle overdubs of The Glow, Pt. 2, but more detailed arrangements which make the songs more memorable.

    Especially to my liking is this song, which samples “Laura Palmer’s Theme” from Twin Peaks (which is pretty awesome, and a very unexpected trick from Elverum):

    Between Two Mysteries

    14. comments

  14. [Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

    Magnolia Electric Co.’s new record, Josephine, does not hold too many surprises for you if you’ve heard their other records. On the whole, it maybe rocks a little less; the Neil Young comparison isn’t quite as obvious.

    There’s also some organ on a few songs, which I don’t remember being part of the band before, and adds a nice extra. But this song, “The Rock of Ages”, has a great old-fashioned guitar lick, and a slower pace that reminds me a bit of some of the Songs: Ohia records. It almost plods a bit, but that’s what makes it good: the notes have space to stretch out and be heard.

    15. comments

  15. I really wish I wasn’t doing this, but with all the Beatles’ reissue talking I’ve got songs stuck in my head, and so I will put them here to get them out:

    Please Please Me

    Carry That Weight

    The thing is, I have come to appreciate the Beatles, but I can’t revere them the way my parents’ generation can. They made some really good records that have endured, and a lot of their songs I am happy to listen to and willing to defend. Not all of them, though. This song, however, is probably my favorite Beatles song (and I’m not sure it’s anyone else’s):

    Lovely Rita

    I have been considering for a few years now getting a pinup tattoo of Rita.

    16. comments
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