How to Dress Well - Love Remains

A new generation of indie-minded musicians are emerging who wantonly tout their love for 90s R&B but for numerous obvious reasons, don't fit the profile of your typical pop star.  Last year a group of pale and not particularly attractive art students named the xx became an omnipresent enterprise thanks to their pleasant brand of easy-to-swallow pop, and though their masterful cover of Aaliyah's "Hot Like Fire" wasn't included on their debut LP, it was a prime example of where their song-writing sensibilities came from.  As the lines between amateur and professional recording become more and more blurred by accessible home recording technology, even a traditionally slick genre like R&B has become fair game for music geeks who operate outside the conservative hit-making machine.  This innovation allows individuals to redefine what facets of a song they believe are worth being accentuated.  

How to Dress Well's debut LP Love Remains is a collection of new material and songs that had previously  been released on the blog of philosophy student Tom Krell.  There's a distinctively somber tone throughout the entire record which nimbly erodes the superficial gestures of R&B lust and enraptures the listener into the haunting solitude of irretrievable longing.   Lyrically, the album is pretty unintelligible but this fact doesn't hinder it whatsoever in communicating the creator's ethereal state.  Instead of allowing his gripping melodies to shimmer, each apex is drenched in thick flux of reverb and distortion which is both elevating and upsetting.  By bravely wearing this humanity on his sleeve, we are invited to imagine the humble settings in which these songs were made and appreciate the grandeur in devotionally seeking a temporary escape from the ineluctable gravity of our own mortality.  

Salem - King Night

For every action there is a reaction.  In the past two years, a torrent of bands have appeared which revolve around the intimate allure of beach imagery to create a shelter away from the required doldrums of modern life.  Having been stretched to its extremes, "chill wave" now represents a spectrum of musical styles which adhere to a common aesthetic doctrine in which songs must unobtrusively glide without ever placing any displeasure onto the listener.  The emerging 'witch house'/'drag' genre directly clashes with this docile philosophy in that, though it incorporates similar syrupy texturing, rhythms are purposely slowed down to create an eerie and perplexing semblance.  Genre forefathers Salem mangles what could have formally been a robotic southern hip-hop beat into a majestically triumphant assault of "O Holy Night".  Imagine club music pulled away from the dance floor and thrown into a cathedral.

Salem - King Night by DISCODUST

Here We Go Magic - Pigeons

Luke Temple has undergone enough artistic transformations in the last few years that it's becoming more and more difficult to identify any singular trait that holds his work together.  Initially making his living painting murals, he began dabbling in music for more than a decade ago and has received praise from the likes of Sufjan Stevens and Ben Gibbard.  The most salient trait on his two albums released as a solo artist was his uncanny ability to carry a song along through the potency of his own Paul Simonesque nasally voice. On these early home-recored records, his vibrant melodies were a welcome contrast to his sporadic choice of arrangements and jerky rhythms.  Since then, he's put together a band using the forgettable moniker Here We Go Magic.

While Temple seems to have embraced all the sonic possibilities that working with other musicians can give, there still remains a highly personal quality in how he attacks the self-made boundaries within each arrangement.  It almost as if these antsy shifts, which are especially conspicuous throughout this latest record, were the catalyst of some sort of underlying restlessness which doesn't allow any enjoyable moment to last too long.  Not to say that Pigeons doesn't have it fair share of fun moments, it just doesn't leave the listener with much to hold on to.  Apart from the excellent single "Collector", it lacks the same effusive charms found on the band's debut LP.  This lack of congruency seems to lie in that the album is constantly crossing between the two contradictory extremes of wild chamber pop and lumbering ballads which at times can be frankly boring.  There are still however more than enough moments of swirly bliss, like on the Talking-Heads-inspired "Old World United", to redeem its numerous lapses.  It's undoubtedly commendatory that such an artist would abandon their comfortable origins and plunge themselves into new territory despite the risk of making a few missteps along the way.

Don´t Look Back #6 - Tiger Trap - Tiger Trap

By the time Tiger Trap´s first and only full-length LP gets through the instrumental number "Tore a Hole", it becomes blatantly obvious that pigeonholing them as just another twee group would be a doing a total disservice to the mesmerizing effort made in not sacrificing content or melody for power.  While the lyrical content remains in the familiar terrain of adolescent dilemmas and childish daydreaming, each song is approached with a surprising boldness that often pushes the expected softness of similar indiepop into noisier territory.  Clocking in at a little over half an hour, the album includes timely and unexpected changes of tempo with alleviating sudden losses of composure in the normally graceful vocals of lead-singer Rose Melberg.  Though every song may be recorded in a similar juvenile fashion, their masterful hooks feature a maturity and differentiation in structure which elevates this short-lived group to nearly legendary status. 

Tiger Trap - Puzzle Pieces

Plat de Jour Madness!

Over the past three years, the folks over at Plat de Jour have grown notorious for throwing eminently rowdy parties which always feature the rawest and most gleaming DJs to be found.  This year's off-Sonar affair is no exception as it will showcase the talents of one of the most important labels in electronic music, Hyperdub.  Not only will founder Kode9 be on the decks, Ikonika will be tearing things up with material from her excellent debut LP, Contact, Love, Want, Have.  Darkstar, Guido, Cooly G, the Plat de Jour crew, and a cadre of surprise guests complete this ace lineup which will undoubtedly supply more than enough ruckus to create an unforgettable night of Barcelona bass.

Tennis - Marathon

This Denver couple have ingeniously turned their sailing memoirs into one of the most unmistakably infectious pop gems to be released so far this year.  Drawing from the suave finesse of Motown, the song's full of swooning hooks that remain polished behind a strong blast of warm guitar fuzz.  Unapologetically bare in their delivery, the vocals are sung with such sprightly charm that you can't help but want to get on board.

Tennis - Marathon

Primavera Sound Wrap-Up (Saturday, May 29th)

A friend told me on the final day of Primavera Sound, that it was best to not to see the weekend as a race but rather as a marathon.  Having seen bits and pieces of probably over thirty concerts over the previous two days, it was hard to imagine how this night would compare to the others.  Free from any giant headliners(I'm sorry but the Pet Shop Boys don't count), this showcase seemed to be more about having select quality acts, than overwhelming the audience with a flood of names.

Atlas Sound (19:15)
Describing Atlas Sound's music as restrained or simplistic would be haphazardly inaccurate for an artist whose albums always feature an assortment of different styles.  However when Bradford Cox took the stage and it became clear that he would be playing alone, it became hard to visualize how he could reconcile his vast material with only an acoustic guitar, some loop effects, a drum machine.  The answer is that not only did he succeed in accomplishing this daunting task, he translated each piece in such way that it became a presentation on how he singularly constructs the dense layers that his songs are composed of.  By beginning on a more uplifting note and ending with only the repetitive looping of his own voice, the set seemed to a progressive dismantling of the elements that form his sound.

Nana Grizol (19:50)
One of the more pleasant surprises of the weekend, this outfit featuring Laura Carter of the Elephant Six Collective provided the instigative jolt that the initially disinterested crowd seemed to be in desperate need of.  The timely use of a small horns section and having two drummers on stage made, what at first appeared to be cookie cutter festival filler, an impressive flash of upbeat dance rock.

Grizzly Bear (21:55)
Baroque style pop which relies heavily on variable instrumentation, doesn't come off as something that would work well at a large festival.  Besides "Two Weeks", Grizzly Bear's repertoire doesn't have much in the way of instantly catchy songs or anthems that could inspire first time listeners either.  These factors seem like a perfect recipe for disaster, but seeing as how everything these Brooklyn protégés touch seems to turn to gold, their hour long set, unsurprisingly was perhaps the best performance of the weekend.  Indie might take a lot criticism for its stance that places style over musical expertise, but this idle judgment was discredited by the phenomenal artistry that was displayed throughout the show's entirety.  Each member possessed a profound command of their instruments and each part was so thoughtfully placed that those who were lucky enough to be close to the stage, were left mesmerized by the quenching resonance that these four were able to produce.  The complexity behind the composing of each score came off as fluid and effortless, while still delivered with a unique fervency and humility.  The highlight of the set came with a glowing performance of "While You Wait for the Others", which featured every member singing in perfect unison to create a more spirited version of one of last year's best songs.  By the time the show came to an end, one couldn't help but admire the diligence and perfectionism that was behind creating this extraordinary set.  

Built to Spill (23:00)
Plagued by sound problems from the start, Built to Spill's set never seemed to be able to gain any sort of momentum. Even after playing fan favorites like "Going Against Your Mind" and "Carry The Zero", any type of enthusiasm seemed forced for a band that I had hoped would be one of this weekend's best.  Doug Martsch was constantly complaining about the sound levels on stage in spite of the fact it sounded decent enough to those in the audience.  The three ax men on stage all played with an acute sense of time and place but didn't show any signs that they were taking in pleasure in being there.  Maybe it might have been better to just salvage what they could from the unideal conditions, instead of trying to force perfection at the cost of the everyone else's enjoyment. 

Liquid Liquid (00:30)
"Feel the groove!" "Get funky!"  Old guys running around stage and playing a wide assortment of different types of drums while some other guy beat-boxes.  Maybe it's because my feet were tired and that I had scored a good seat near the stage, but I still have no idea why I stayed for this entire set.

HEALTH (3:00)
Even heavier than on their grating records,  HEALTH's mammoth set was not for the faint of heart.  Intense focus was a requisite in order to appreciate the feedback tweaks and morose twists on analog sounds that were being made on stage. A willingness to head bang for hours on end also made the whole experience that much more gratifying.  The manic, and at times trancing, stage circus created a sense of chaos and disarray that seemed to resonate well with a crowd that was running on fumes.  By the time they played "Die Slow", there somehow appeared to be a clear harmony between the jerky rhythms and the idiosyncratic noises that hold HEALTH together.