5dots (in brief)

By now many of you have already heard The xx’s album, but...

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:17:51 -0500

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

Wale (13) Gold Panda (12) Girls (12) Squarepusher (12) The xx (11) Ramona Falls...

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:41:04 -0500

Via Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz

Today I started listening to this record by jj, and it sounded...

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:12:42 -0400

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

Mad EP (24) The Very Best (12) Built to Spill (11) Broadcast (10) Slingshot Dakota...

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:25:45 -0400

Via Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz

The Flaming Lips (18) Jahdan Blakkamoore (14) Dwayne Sodahberk (14) Annie (12) Baroness...

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:57:41 -0400

Via Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz

Monsters of Folk (15) Universal Studios Florida (13) The Mountain Goats (12) Lullatone...

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:21:28 -0400

Via Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz

This is a great EP - seriously, I’m really enthused about...

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:10:07 -0400

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

Guys, I’m not going to lie: I am a fan of Abba. If you are...

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:38:09 -0400

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

I wrote a bit about the Warp20 releases when they were...

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 17:41:39 -0400

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

Antipop Consortium (17) Vitalic (13) Islands (12) You Say Party! We Say Die! (10) Greg...

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:18:00 -0400

Via Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz

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.

I’ve written before about Islands (and their previous...

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 21:01:09 -0400

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

Drakkar Sauna (13) múm (12) Mount Eerie (12) Tigercity (11) belladonnakillz (10) Fuck...

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 05:17:43 -0400

Via Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz

Having long been a fan of The Microphones/Mount Eerie, and...

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:17:22 -0400

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

Magnolia Electric Co.’s new record, Josephine, does not...

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:28:45 -0400

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.

I really wish I wasn’t doing this, but with all the Beatles’ reissue talking I’ve...

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:13:05 -0400

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.

I found out about this song months ago, and seriously thought...

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 21:59:12 -0400

I found out about this song months ago, and seriously thought about putting it up here, but decided instead to hold onto it and put it in the next mix I put online. Now, of course, it’s months later and I still have no idea when the next time I’m going to do any mixing is.

So: weird soul song with fantastic falsetto vocals. The voice is just weird enough to be really interesting without being off putting. Also, there’s a tempo change going into each chorus that kind of throws me off every time and would have been kind of a pain for DJing, but I like it anyways.

Renaldo Domino - Not Too Cool to Cry

Also, The Decemberists

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 21:48:19 -0400

I forgot to mention also that I love this Decemberists song that did make it onto Pitchfork’s list:

O Valencia

… but I don’t think I love it more than this song which didn’t:

The Crane Wife 3

(and yes, I know I’ve put both of these up here before, shut up)

Pitchfork's best of 2000s

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:16:00 -0400

Some of you may have seen last week that Pitchfork was releasing a list of the top 500 songs of this decade (you can read this from the beginning here, if you like).

I like making lists and seeing other people’s lists, and I also have a terrible soft spot for waxing nostalgic, so a list like this was bound to get me thinking. Then B decided we should make a playlist of all the songs on the list that we already had and listen to it in chronological order, so as to suss out the “narrative” of the decade. This has been both amusing and enlightening, and so I wanted to note a few things here.

• Jay-Z can probably be fairly called the rapper of the decade. While the last ten years definitely have been about the rise of southern rap, who’s been more, well, important than Jay-Z? (Ignore of course that he hasn’t really done anything worthwhile since the Black Album, but come on, that record was massive)

• I think I like the Arcade Fire more than I thought I did. I should probably relisten to their first record.

• Daft Punk haven’t made a decent record since 2001, but the three standouts from Discovery are still totally phenomenal. To me, they don’t sound the least bit dated, and I could probably keep putting them in mixes for another ten years without anyone complaining.

• One time I went to a Postal Service show primarily to see the opener - Cex - and left right after that. What the hell was I thinking? There’s an opportunity that’s probably never going to happen again.

• Songs which I still totally love: The Microphones’ “The Glow”; Joanna Newsom’s “Peach, Plum, Pear”; Bright Eyes’ “First Day of My Life”; plenty of others.

• There’s an odd thing about this list, which is that it tries to straddle the line between “best songs” and “songs of the decade”. In that the former is about quality irrespective of time, and the latter is about music which typifies its time.

• As such, there are a lot of songs on the list which I hear and think “there is a much better song on this album that I would have chosen instead of this one.” E.G.: Songs: Ohia’s “Blue Factory Flame”, Comets on Fire’s “The Bee and the Cracking Egg”, David Byrne & Brian Eno’s “Life is Long”, Stars’ “Romantic Comedy“ or “Time Can Never Kill the True Heart”, Vitalic’s “Poney, pt. 1”, and others, I’m sure.

Finally, I should note that I have absolutely no intention of producing any kind of end-of-decade material for this blog - I simply don’t have the time to do a proper job of going through every record I have from the last ten years. That said, you can expect the same year-end wrap-up I did last year, with plenty of downloadable goodies. But, uh, not until the year’s actually almost over.

Lullatone

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 17:35:24 -0400

Lullatone have been making consistent records for years now. They’re rarely exciting, but that’s sort of the point - they make tiny little songs for quiet/sleepy times. Their early stuff was all plinky sine waves, which was nice, if a little limited, but they’ve expanded their palette really pleasantly.

They have a new record out which is quite nice, but I didn’t want to share anything from it, specifically. Instead, go play with this flash thing they made. From the style of it, I’m guessing it’s a few years old (maybe from 2004?), but it’s still a reasonable introduction to their sound, and it’s easy to make something pretty with it.

Lightning Bolt

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 20:22:32 -0400

You guys: can we all get stoked about a new Lightning Bolt album coming out this year or what? It’s been four years, apparently.

They’ve leaked a song from the new album (“Earthly Delights”), and it’s, dare I say, reasonably accessible. The first half of the song features actually normal drumming (which isn’t necessarily a recommendation, just a comment), and on the whole, it’s quite rhythmic. Still spazzy at the end though, and how accessible is any song over seven minutes?

Bodes well for the rest of the album, if you ask me.

Colossus