Sub Pop, 2008

Like Tenacious D, but considerably funnier, Flight of The Conchords are a comedy duo that balance their humor with their music. From a musical standpoint, their work is unremarkable, but solid. To a degree, the band has developed their own sound, but because they are working in parody, they are extremely limited in what they can do. To support their humor, Flight of the Conchords sacrifice art to exploit musical clichés. They do a song that is inspired by the French New Wave of the 1960s (“Foux Du Fafa”), they work in R&B (“Ladies Of The World”), they play the role of sensitive rockers doing a guitar ballad (“A Kiss Is Not A Contract”), and they even touch on World Rock (“Prince of Parties”). Their treatment of this is self-referential, and this makes the parodies even funnier. For example, in the song, “Boom,” a cheesy 80s Dub Pop song, McKenzie quickly commands, “I need my 1987 DJ-20 Casio Electric Guitar, set to mandolin”, immediately before the instrument is played.

The songs work on a basic level because of catchy choruses and addictive verses. Almost every song on the album is fun and hooky. Robots, with the infectious chorus of ”The humans are dead / the humans are dead” moves into a well-timed melodic bridge, (the ”binary solo”), before ending with an equally addictive ”robo-boogie” outro. The song will get stuck in the listeners head like a virus on a hard drive.

If the music is adequate, the comedy is outstanding. “Hiphopopotamus Vs. Rhymenocerous”, one of the standout tracks on the album, introduces the artists under their Hip-Hop personas. Every line of this track is hilarious, and every lyric hits with tight delivery; “My rhymes are so potent that in this small segment / I made all of the ladies in the area pregnant. / yea, sometimes my lyrics are sexist / but you lovely bitches and hoes should know that I’m trying to correct this”

The wit and delivery makes this work as well as it does. The comedic timing of Bret McKenzie and Jermaine Clement is dead on. A Good example of this would be the opening line of “The Most Beautiful Girl (In The Room)” where the duo harmonize the line, “Looking on the room / I can tell that you / are the most beautiful girl in the /…room / (in the whole wide room)”. The line is strong, the delivery is impeccable.

The songs are good. The comedy is brilliant. The main problem with this release is that, aside from a few tweaks here and there, everything here has been heard before. And yet some of The Flight of The Conchords’ best material, like the poppy “If You’re Into It”, or the Beatles-esque ballad “Pencils in the Wind”, are absent.

In all likelihood, if you are a fan of the band, you have already purchased this album and it is already on your iPod. But if you are unfamiliar with The Flight of The Conchords, I would recommend starting with the DVD and then moving to the CD/Mp3.

Confined Media, 2008

Ryan Xristopher launches his Dregs EP with lovely layers of intersecting rhythms. The time changes are clear, but delicate, as groups of beats shift together in different directions. The first few movements of this first track, entitled “Shredded Head”, introduce this as an EP with a lot of potential. Unfortunately, it is a potential that is never met. As various keys and guitars slide overtop this song’s rhythm, it is clear the melodies are as weak as the beats are strong. Somewhat generic and tired, notes chase one another in manner that is predictable, but not catchy.

Track two, ”Smoking on Newspaper”, suffers a similar casualty, but its injuries are much less severe. Once again, the beats far outwork the melodies. This time, however, bending notes and sonic manipulations play into the work, adding another level of detail. The note-bending, which is loose and organic, compliments the more mechanical approach to the beats.

After the third song, a fun, sample-heavy groove, the Dregs EP hits its most impressive peak. This fourth and final track, entitled “Lost A Day”, uses melodies in a more beat-like fashion. Quick notes hit in brief successive patterns and move in a way that better complements the rhythms. Underlined by synth washes and mushy bass, the tempo shift toward the end of the song increases the severity of the track as it propels it forward. The change is not abrupt or jarring, but it is intentionally obvious. And it keeps things from getting dull. The track is seven minutes of excellence.

There are some moments on this EP that are mundane and typical of the genre. There are other moments that are fresh and exciting. It averages out to be an okay listen, but it also promises of something much stronger from this artist in the future.

Claire Records, 2007

Ifwhen veers from the sounds of multi-instrumentalist Merc’s previous band, All Natural Lemon & Lime Flavors. That group, now disbanded, challenged the conventions of Shoegaze, Mathrock and Pop by moving past those genre’s musical boundaries. Ifwhen looks back at where All Natural Lemon & Lime Flavors left off, and keeps going forward. Merc, along with bassist Kentaro and keyboardist Mary Macdowell, sludge their way through and intentionally nauseating sea of exploration and discovery.

“Fantastic Maneuver”, the album’s opening track, begins on a groovy baseline moving up and down through sticky keys. The beats skitter on underneath. Then, at 57 seconds into the song, the sound takes a dramatic and unexpected turn. Still murky, but now in different waters, instruments clash against each other as hollow vocals cling overtop. Those first 57 seconds into the album prepare the listener for what’s to come: a beautiful kind of motion sickness.

As all good Shoegazers do, Ifwhen creates an atmospheric wall of sound. With this band, however, that wall is unlike any other. It is impossibly thick and it is dizzyingly with movement. The ambience is purposely disrupted by abrupt, dramatic changes in motion and tone. These thin slivers of time-changes punctuate the noise and accent its ever-changing direction. The perpetual movement blurs the 10 tracks on We Will Gently Destroy You, causing parts of the album to sound slightly redundant. In spite of this, as each song trudges though its many changes in frequency, it still retains a sense of self.

It’s the separation of instruments, voice included, that really make this album work. On one side is the keys, guitar and voice, blurring together into a thick field of soupy sound. Meanwhile, a deep and flowering bass pulls itself away from the muck. As do the penetrating, almost obnoxious, drums. The instrumentation almost sounds as if the individual band members are playing different songs that somehow manage to occasionally align. The balance is well-realized and very well executed.

Metropolis, 2007

I’ve been a Snog fan for years. The early EBM material is flawless, and 1997’s Buy Me… I’ll Change Your Life, ranks among my personal favorite albums of all time. That said, I found The Last Days Of Rome to be disappointing and upsetting.

For those unfamiliar with the band, Snog began as an Industrial/EBM project, but quickly warped and transformed to something less classifiable. Inspired by a number of different musical sources, artist David Thrussell began to fuse seemingly unrelated genres together and, in doing so, created his own kind of Post-Industrial music.

The Last Days of Rome continues this melting-pot tradition. Once again, Thrussell stitches different styles of music to his own sensibility. The title track blends harsh electronics with Disco, and tinges of Hip-Hop. The song even has bizarre sort of break-down where Thrussell’s gravelly voice mutters the kitschy line, “I chewed the chewing gun of hate / I chewed it long / I chewed it late / And I chewed that chewing gun of hate / munch munch / great great.”

Other genres come in on other songs. “Lost At Sea”, for example, shuffles in on an Electroclash drum floor and guitar riff. “City” is a hollow, Depeche Mode influenced track where Thrussell abandons his signature vocal style in favor of a cleaner sound. “Vaguely Melancholy” is an Electropop number. The ballad, “I Do Now Know”, is propelled by synth washes and an acoustic guitar. “One Speck Of Dust” closes the first part of the album (before the bonus features) with a foreboding churchlike hymn.

Lyrically, Thrussell, once again scores big. He sings of his corporate and political observations with a sly tongue. The witty and sarcastic words allow the listener a cynical smile. For example, “It’s all Lies”, a song about how the media uses fear gain ratings for corporate advertisers, goes as follows: ”The guy who’s there on the T.V. screen / he’s not really human / not really a robot / he’s in-between / Vaguely melancholic /as i sleepwalk all day / hum a tune / it gets me through / the hustle and decay.”

Sometimes he’s less subtle. “Unwrap that delightful cluster bomb / Hundreds of splinters / fall all around / They rip and shred that tender brown flesh / Oh it’s just too delicious / and it’s all smiles / in the white house. The overt political message in “Christmas Everyday” isn’t quite as funny (though it does encourage me to better appreciate the ugly sweater that I received as a gift from my unfashionable aunt).

Throughout his career, David Thrussell has taken risks. Fans have grown to, ironically, expect him to deliver the unexpected. The Last Days of Rome certainly hits that mark, but misses on what is most important; the songwriting. Most of the songs on this album, especially when compared to the artist’s other works, are unmemorable. The songs that work, work well. They are worth buying the album for. But the songs that do not work, disappoint. Still, kudos should be given to Thrussell for not resting. He never repeats a sonic formula. While that may hurt for an album or two, it also builds an impressive catalogue overall.

Profound Lore, 2007

In 2001, Mike Blenkarn and Brooke Johnson collaborated to record over two hours of drudgy, lurid soundscapes, but ultimately found result unsatisfying. While it was clear that they had created something worthwhile, unfortunate sampling prevented the duo from attaining exactly what they wanted. Meanwhile, another band, the whipping black metal The Axis Of Perdition, pulled their focus away. Aside from a couple tracks on a split release in 2002, Pulsefear laid dormant for the next few years. Then, in 2006, the project was reborn. The artists removed the shoddy samples, added additional textures, and glossed the sound through proper mixing. 50+ minutes spread over 5 tracks, Pericoresis finally brings forth the artists audial vision. The album was quickly picked up by the excellent Profound Lore Records and was released in mid-2007.

Pericoresis opens with “Gauze” as echoes of heavy low sounds build a muddy foundation while scampering highs convulse overtop. The piece slowly climbs forward as whines of guitar stack into a wall of audio. “Lighthouse pt1” continues down the same path as sonic washes and reverberated tones fill a darkly howling space. Midway through the track, punches of sound start to force their way through the mist to the forefront. Sounding like blocks of wood smacking together, the rhythmic noise is intentionally slow and creepy. It is a feeling that never retracts, regardless of how the music changes as the album progresses. After two more songs of perpetual apprehension, the album comes to a climatic ending with “Under”. Thick noise drones through deep breathing layers of feedback while metallic claps stumble underneath.

Every aspect of this album is expertly mixed. The threatening hisses, menacing smacks, and abrasive feedback give this album an impressive depth of atmosphere. Hints of the groups other band, The Axis Of Perdition, lie underneath this record, but the two acts are only faintly similar. Pulsefear will be more attractive to fans of Atrium Carceri and Raison d’être. They are also akin to Sunn O))), Wolf Eyes, and Lustmord.

If there was a sound used to define horror, this would be it. Dark, rough, and freakishly uncomfortable, Perichoresis is a triumph in industrial-ambience.

Just Music, 2007

Skechbook starts off strong with a comfortable mesh of pleasant synths and liquidy bass. The first track, entitled “Cause and Effect” swims forward over the delicate pop of its cushiony snapping beats. Superb vocal editing mixes voice into the song as if it is another instrument. As the track progresses, its sound subtly changes. By the track’s end, it is a different arrangement entirely.

“Cause and Effect” sets up the framework for the rest of the album. Skechbook is a record of shifting structures. It is an output that grew from Dominic Hoare and Andy Gillham’s cumulative years in music. The two have a long history. They met in the orchestra, but soon moved from classical instruments to synthesizers and computers (the ZX spectrum, specifically). They started to get into House and began hitting raves and DJing parties through the 1980s. The mid-90s brought them to Drum n Bass and beat experimentation. As they moved forward, they were promoting bars and clubs, DJing and producing. Other styles started to pour in. It wasn’t just House or DnB any more, it was everything. The artists continually remained open to new sounds and expanding ideas.

After some time apart for music production and independent growth, the duo got back together in 2004. They started experimenting with a new sound derived directly from live performances. Echaskech was reborn. Three years later, Skechbook was released.

Skechbook gracefully moves from Techno to Acid, from Ambient to IDM. It works off of an inspiration by Kraftwerk, it shows an appreciation for Oribital, and it even digs a little deeper and touches on the warm, melodic soundscapes of Plone. The skill that Echaskech displays is not just the marrying of different influences and genres, lots of electronic artists do that, the real accomplishment is how smoothly these transitions take place.

There are only a couple of exceptions to this. One is the drawn-out sample that trudges it way through the first minute of “Unsynchronised Swimming”. Another is on the track “Popstars”. Here, the fuzzy vocals pull on the listener a little too hard when compared to the cottony feel that floats through the rest of the album. But these moments are too brief to detract from Skechbook as a whole.

Overall, this is an album that is, simply put, well done. It embraces its many influences with an intelligent disregard for any specific genre. The result is something that is both strangely comfortable and familiar while still remaining unique and exciting.

With longplay2, pacificUV return w/ their strongest effort to date. In a friendly, honest, and lighthearted question/answer session, I asked Clay Jordan, Jessee Robert W., and Matt Kline about the new album, the new line-up, and the future of pacificUV. Some of their answers were surprising…

CLAY: Like classical music played by people who only know two chords.

JESSE: It is a record that definitely doesn’t stay in one place for very long. As critics have been very eager to point out, there are a lot of undisguised dream-pop and post-rock influences contributing to Longplay2, as if having influences is some kind of musical sin. It won’t shock anyone to learn that we all listen to Spiritualized. What most critics fail to mention though, is how little the record actually sounds like any of those influences. Yes, the elements are there, but I have yet to hear anyone argue a strong case we’re a carbon copy of any band. Spiritualized doesn’t even sound like Spiritualized anymore, so I doubt we could pull it off, even if we wanted to.

Clay, there were a lot of changes made in pacificUV in the last few years. A new line-up, a new city. How did these changes transpire?

CLAY: Let’s blame it on a girl named Liz and guy named Howard. I co-founded the band with Howard a few years ago and after the EP was recorded he decided that he no longer wanted to be in the band. The split was very friendly. He went to medical school and I moved to Portland for a change of scenery. I also moved from Athens because I had just broken up with my girlfriend at the time. I am actually thankful to both of these people for spurring me into action!

Did the changes affect your approach to what you felt pacificUV was?

CLAY: Well, for a very long time after I moved to Portland, pacificUV did not exist. I was done trying to play music. But slowly, you meet the right people and it becomes fun again. After working on Longplay2 with this new lineup, I am very excited about what we could do in the future.

How did you recruit the talent that you did? How did you all meet?

CLAY: Friend’s of friends / Craig’s List / etc.

Did the new line-up change your writing and/or recording process?

CLAY: To be honest, both records have taken far too long to record and were both exhausting. Longplay2 was a bit more organic in that we recorded more of it live and had vocal melodies written with the song, not after it was over. But the songs on both records usually started with a guitar line or sound…….I don’t think we have ever had a song that started with lyrics or a vocal melody.

That is something I want to change on the next record, I want to have songs that can be written on an acoustic guitar and then can be taken in and fleshed out in the studio. I also want the new songs to be more immediate and visceral. We can do the whole delay/ambient/drone thing in our sleep now.

Was it challenging or intimidating to make a follow-up record for an album that Rolling Stone called a “masterpiece”?

CLAY: I didn’t give it a second thought. Some dude from RS liked it -great… but I feel no obligation or pressure to live up to that subjective praise. As soon as you start basing how you feel about your music based on the reviews, you are in trouble.

Do you have any tours planned?

CLAY: We only formed this band so we could play Japan, so maybe that will be in the future. We do have a west coast tour in the works for late summer… and a few shows around Portland/Seattle until then.

I’ve been told that your live performances are truly worthwhile (a friend of mine saw the band perform a few years back). How would you describe a typical show?

MIKE: We’ll be doing a couple of songs from the first record and from the EP, but because this is a completely different lineup, those older pieces have necessarily changed and evolved with the band. Of course, we’ll be playing material from the new record as well, and it’s been fun to slightly re-imagine some of those to better suit a live performance situation.

CLAY: We are very adamant about providing a complete experience when we play live. This means projections and other multi-media elements that will hopefully enhance the show. Our goal is to shoot a video for each of the 8 songs from the new record and then use this footage behind us, but we will see how that turns out.

JESSE: The lineup changes will definitely change how the band and pre-Longplay 2 songs will come across in a live setting. Different band members means different chemistry, and ultimately a different sound than the previous lineups. The live shows are more organic, and frankly, probably not what a lot of people would expect from us. Our level of intensity usually supersedes anything on the records, and while we’re still pretty minimal at times, we’re not interested in being CD-soundalikes. If people simply wanted to hear us play everything exactly like it sounds on the record, they would just stay home and listen to it. We’re not very good at being one-dimensional, so audiences will be in for some surprises.

Can you tell me about an atypical show? Any amusing stories that you’d care to share?

MIKE: Other than nearly getting in a fistfight with some band who thought we were taking too long to set up, not really. We’re total pacifists, but we talk a good game.

CLAY: Once I got a bit too inebriated and spray painted the doors of a club in Texas that I thought was giving us the shaft, but that was in my more youthful days. I quickly learned this is not a good way to endear yourself to club owners.

It’s always fun when people do the “hippie dance” during our slow songs. it makes me feel like I am in Widespread Panic.

I’ve read that the original album was originally entitled Longplay1, but then the title was changed when repressed. Why did this happen?

CLAY: The first record was self-titled but the press release called it Longplay1, but Howard didn’t like that title so we nixed it. I have always loved simplicity and minimalism in art and music…..why not call it what it is- our first record, our second record? …Though I doubt the third one will be Longplay3!

What albums by other artists are each of you listening to right now?

JESSE - The new Two Gallants disc is pretty amazing. I’ve been listening to it pretty consistently for a couple of months now. I’ve also been digging back into The Catherine Wheel catalog. I heard KEXP play one of their songs which I hadn’t heard since I was 15. I had forgotten how absolutely amazing that band is.

CLAY: Right now, I am in love with the Graham Nash record Songs for Beginners. The new Raveonettes is cool as well. -Oh, and the 2nd Buffalo Springfield record. -And Ricky Nelson. He was kind of in the shadow of Elvis, but he has a killer voice.

I want the next pacificUV record to have more of a 50’s influence. I am, frankly, sick to death of “dreampop” and “post rock”. The next record will be a radical departure.

WARM Records, 2008

Originally coming out of Athens, Georgia, pacificUV released their first album on WARM Records in 2002. The album was a success as it earned critical praise and positive reviews. From here, however, the path changed and the band peacefully broke apart as recording for a follow-up EP was underway. Founding member and guitarist Clay Jordan moved from Athens to Portland, Oregon. Here, Jordan teamed up with some new musicians and revived the pacificUV name. With this new line-up, the band approaches a similar sound, but from a different angle.

A slow build of crawling instrumentation is balanced by slow and heavy chords. A warm melody walks atop as softer components shudder underneath. The layering is perfect. “Alarmist” is a great start to Longplay2, but track 2 is even better. “Need” begins on a loud bed of buzzing noises and whining guitars. Voice and instrumentation play a game of cat and mouse as the stacks of sound shift in and out, alternating with a sleepy voice. There are a number of reasons why this song is so good; the somber vocal melody, the layering of the instruments, the tension between parts, the emotive movement, and the overall combination of sounds. This track alone is strong enough to justify the purchase of this album.

Of course, there are other tracks on this album. Six other tracks, actually. And while none of them quite reach the heights set by the first two, none really fall short either. Longplay2 is one of those rare albums where every track is solid. Every track is diverse as well. This could be because the album carries a number of influences that are elegantly mixed into a completely new recipe. Pieces of The Jesus and Mary Chain, Mazzy Star, Spaceman 3, Múm, Sigur Rós, MBV, and Godspeed You Black Emperor are all lightly sprinkled throughout the work. Lightly sprinkled. This album never borrows too heavily and keeps its own sound throughout.

Overall, pacificUV deliver a deep album that rewards repeated plays. It seems that there is always something new to discover as braided layers of sound elegantly wrap themselves around the listener. With its graceful builds, sweeping structures, and beautiful noises, Longplay2 is a recording to listen to closely. And the band, pacificUV, is a band to watch closely. They will only move up from here.

Creative Space Records, 2007

Fans of author Neal Stephenson will recognize the name behind Phillip Thomson’s breackcore act, The Nam Shub Of Enki. In Stephenson’s cyberpunk novel Snowcrash, the author popularizes ancient Sumerian mythologies regarding language. In the original myth, the god Enki changed human language from one to many, leaving people unable to effectively communicate. This resulted in confusion throughout the world.

With his deranged breaks and jumbled samples, Thomson, like Enki, unleashes a wave of audio chaos to confound his listeners. Destroy Everything is Similar to Jason Forest’s Cock Rock Discostyle of breakcore, with its “everything but the kitchen sink” approach to sampling. Thomson moves from glitch to jungle to hard trance to gabba to a number of other electronic subgenres without ever slowing down enough to commit to one.

The byproduct of such variation is unavoidable; Destroy Everything occasionally wanders too far and gets lost in its own excesses. “Louisiana Whores”, for example, trips over itself in its attempt to lay down the next break. And the harsh feedback of “Untitled” doesn’t necessarily coincide with the vocal samples laid throughout.

However, the frantic mix of sounds succeeds more than it fails. Look at the album’s first three tracks. On the first song, entitled “The Prisoner”, Snog/Black Lung mastermind David Thrussell lends his whispery throat while guest guitarist Chucknee adds some melody to Thomson’s driving beats. From here, “Bleed” takes over on a wave of industrial beats and hard electronics. The third track, “Corruption” introduces itself with a light, tribal rhythm which is soon trampled by heavy pounding noise. These three tracks exhibit such a range in style that by the time track 5, “KiKi Theme”, launches itself off a bed of Middle Eastern sampling, the listener is hardly surprised. The dissimilarity between tracks, in a sense, gives the album a kind of rugged flow.

Another string that hold the Destroy Everything together is Thomson’s use of vocal samples. The album is peppered with humorous, and often vulgar, voices to add a theme of dark playfulness. The vocal clips in “Coldrock” are so unapologetically kitschy that even the most conservative listener will cross her/his fingers to mimic devil horns. “Deemed Offensive” cuts a series of common English obscenities that are rhythmically linked in a way that is as fun as it is outrageous. The song “Vixns”, with its hilarious film clips, plays a similar game. This track will inspire many b-movie fans to weed through their DVD collections in search of their favorite soft porn.

Films, electronics, beats, feedback, samples, vocals, remixes; this album goes everywhere. The Nam Shub Of Enki’s delivers a dizzying array of sounds, and it does it in a way that works. Thomsom gives himself the freedom to let music take him where he wants without restrictions while he gives his listeners the opportunity to joyfully get lost in the chaos.

Benbecula Records, 2007

In 2005, Wounded Knee (Drew Wright) released Wee Reveries for Benbecula Record’s outstanding Mineral Series. In just under 50 minutes, Wee Reveries showed Wright’s skill with time and texture as the album crawled along its four tracks of gorgeous drones. With this new album, a self-titled release, Wright introduces his listeners to a different side of his talents. On Wounded Knee, Wright explores a more organic sound by adding live instrumentation and human voices to his recordings.

Vocals are sliced, looped and layered throughout the album’s eight tracks. Physical instrumentation, both traditional and unconventional, are combined with these human sounds to form a wonderfully unclassifiable work. Like his prior releases, Wounded Knee, it is an album that will appeal to fans of electronic experimentalism. The vocals, the instrumentation, the layering and the pacing of the album all unfold like a downtempo electronic work. In spite of the singing and chanting, it’s the percussion, movement, and texture that are the primary studies here.

The album is Lo-Fi. It hisses through every song with loud whispering cracks. The scratching is so loud, in fact, that it may be intrusive to listeners who prefer their production sleek and crisp. But this fuzzy approach also adds to its human feel. Wright is intentionally building a work that creates a sense of physicality. With decided placement of opposing sounds and careful mixing, a feeling of physical space is skillfully established.

An impressive part of this work is that is exists without cliché or pretention. In spite of the high concept and artfulness, the album has a sense of humor. The most obvious traces of his humor present themselves in the some of the song’s titles. “New Dawn Coda” is an amusing combination of words, as is “Mycology is better than yours”. Wright is clearly having fun(gi) with wordplay.

On some of the songs, the vocals that are used chatter with no distinct meaning, but on others, they move forward with recognizable English. “Anthem For The Call Centre Worker”, for example, begins on a bed of subdued cow-bell-esque clicks. Vocals soon joins in with, “You’re call is important to us”. The line is stretched, harmonized, and looped alongside the accompanying verse of “may be monitored for training and quality control.” Wright doesn’t allow the joke to get old. He quickly deconstructs the words, and feeds them into an intricate maze of layering. The individual words are blended to become a chant that is just as rhythmic as anything else on the album.

Wright has crafted his own sound on Wounded Knee. With the album’s blend of organic noises, and intentional cut-ups, he has developed music for both the headphones and the campfire (a synthetic, hallucinogenic campfire, but a campfire nonetheless).