New Music Reviews

Reviews

Caribou: Our Love

On Dan Snaith’s latest record as Caribou, he retains the punchy synths and ethereal vocals that made Swim such an incredible record while simultaneously intertwining feelings of love and loss. Yet, these emotions emerge from the bass, deftly placed samples, and soft vocals that make this the best crafted Caribou album to date. While Swim offered the groovy 80s bass and cowbell on tracks like “Odessa” and “Leave House,” many of the songs were stretched and left bare. With Our Love, Snaith fills these previous voids with the minimal loops and growing synths that envelop the listener even more than his previous material. This further engagement with the listener is key for Snaith, since he uses this record to convey emotions and thoughts that are comparatively lacking in other Caribou records. This elevated level of communication makes Our Love a more accessible and revealing record all while retaining the craftsmanship that defined his previous records. In pursuing this accessibility, Our Love does lack the experimentation that his other records are known for, but it is a necessary sacrifice.

(Look on Pitchfork for a number score) -- Alex Adamczyk

Zammuto: Anchor

Nick Zammuto, one half of legendary glitch-hop meditation outfit The Books, returns with his sophomore release, Anchor. With The Books, Zammuto created a unique aesthetic of sample-based collage that framed their melodies in an almost spiritual aura. When Zammuto embarked on his solo career, he set out with a simple goal: to make music that could actually be played by humans. His self-titled 2012 debut showcased his pop hooks, and while enjoyable, felt less cathartic than the musical and verbal dissociation of The Books. Last summer’s single “Great Equator” marked Zammuto’s retreat into a subtler, near-Booksian sonicsphere, with a pleasant though not particularly evocative melody. Anchor’s release proves that Zammuto intends to keep pushing the envelope, though in some unexpected ways, notably his forays into synth pop. Certain tracks, with their vocal distortion and Pac-Man synth lines, sound almost like Black Moth Super Rainbow songs. “Hegemony” is the standout here - kicking off with a short prog metal breakdown, it succumbs to a tangle of vocal harmonies eerily like those of Dirty Projectors. Zammuto seems to be taking a direction not unlike Son Lux, applying chamber composition techniques to an electronic pop ensemble. At times, we near chrome-plated power EDM, while at others, he delves meticulously into quantum soundscapes. Sadly, beginning with abomination that is “IO” - a Zammuto doing Jack White doing new wave type-thing—the album falls off and never recovers. Ultimately, when Zammuto succeeds, he does so with a balance of gratifying hooks and groovy puzzle-piece beats. Especially apparent here is that lyrics were never the focus of his music. Anchor does exhibit increased musical maturity from his last release - I mean, “Zebra Butt…” - but his artistic aims are nowhere near as esoteric as on any of the four mystical Books records, and that’s something I cannot let go of. There are some fine moments on Anchor, but no real consistency. Zammuto is nothing short of a compositional genius, but a return to form could do him enormous good.

The Barr Brothers: Sleeping Operator

Alright, so picture this: it was Labor Day Weekend in Seattle and I was sixteen years old, squashed between my best friend and some dude who had just stumbled over from the beer garden, watching a man play a bicycle wheel with a violin bow. These were The Barr Brothers (or, as NPR calls them, “a band of friends and neighbors”), a Canadian act I accidentally came across that weekend. I’m a sucker for layered shit, so it’s not surprising that I was instantly intrigued by the whole bicycle wheel situation. It was a sound unlike anything I had heard in concert before, scratchy like an old record but smooth like the sound guitarists’ fingers make between chord changes. To get the full effect, I suggest you put down this article right now and listen to ‘Beggar in the Morning.’ Just the intro will do it. But anyway, yes, The Barr Brothers. This small act from Canada is comprised of Andrew and Brad (lead vocalist) Barr alongside “vibes-maker” Andres Vial and harpist Sarah Page. They’ve been together since 2011 and have produced two full albums: ‘The Barr Brothers’ and ‘Sleeping Operator.’

I find The Barr Brothers to be like the Chex Mix of bands: always a safe choice to bring out in your room when people-you-sort-of-know-butmostly-want-to impress / become-friends-with are there, as well as a go-to when it’s one in the morning and you’re wondering if you should start working. I will always cry when I hear ‘Beggar in the Morning,’ and ‘Give the Devil Back His Heart’ and ‘Lord I Can’t Keep from Crying’ are like their Canadian lovechildren with The Black Keys. Their first album is a gem to me, full of comfort-induced acoustic licks and odd mechanical whirring noises. Add golden harp sounds and I’m basically salivating. It’s comforting, hypnotic and the mellow-est of mellow. So imagine my insane joy when I learned a new album, Sleeping Operator, would be out October 7th.

I had pretty high expectations for this album after my experience with the first one, and while it pains me to say that it isn’t nearly as good as the original, it’s still definitely worth a listen.

Some of the tracks really are standout quality. The first, ‘Static Orphans,’ sounds like it should be in an online fantasy game, which is weird but also really intriguing? In typical Barr Brothers style, it transitions seamlessly into track 2, ‘Love Ain’t Enough,’ aka the track WHERE MY DREAMS STARTED TO COME TRUE. The music soars and swells and I’m sure if I saw them perform this track live I could feel it in my very soul. ‘Even The Darkness Has Arms’ is my new ‘Beggar in the Morning,’ a return to their folk roots. ‘England’ is a really nice I-was-just-destroyed-by-my-calc-exam-last-period-I-need-to-curl-up-in-the-fetal-position-and-sob song, while ‘Valhallas’ is a refreshing rendition of your typical “I love acoustic! I love life! I love daisy chains!” track.

Other tracks are nice too, but… that’s just it. They’re nice. Sleeping Operator lacks the truly diverse range that was very apparent in ‘The Barr Brothers.’ I found too many tracks on here that reminded me more of other songs rather than being originally memorable, which is disappointing but maybe inevitable. Overall, the album as a whole wasn’t as cohesive as the first (plus I mean I’m biased), but is still chock full of the Brother’s typical sweet notes and golden harps, still deeply rooted in folk with some of the chillest electric guitar and raspiest percussion. My advice? Sleeping Operator has some gems, but if you’re new to the Barr Brothers and want the best introduction to their stuff then their self-titled LP is the one for you. If you’re even more inclined, check out the brother’s original band, The Slip.

Oh, and heads up! They’ll be in Minneapolis (Cedar Cultural Center) November 15th!

-- Katie Williams

Julian Casablancas and The Voidz: Tyranny

If you’re a Strokes fan, you’ve probably been pretty upset with the band lately. After touring to promote their fourth album Angles in 2011, they receded to the studio for a couple of years and released 2013’s Comedown Machine with zero promotion—no pictures, no TV appearances, no interviews, no shows, and no tours. ’Twas a dark time for Strokes lovers. Finally, they came back together and played a grand total of four shows in 2014. I know, I’m pissed too. Even worse, if you’ve been paying attention to music news, Julian Casablancas said in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine that he doesn’t “feel anything” when singing older Strokes material. Crushing. Thankfully, he took to Twitter to clear things up, saying that “I very much enjoy playing with [the Strokes]!” Phew!

Let’s be honest though, Julian must be sick of singing “Please don’t slow me down, if I’m going too fast!” night after night, all over the world. He’s probably been growing bored of the Strokes’ hits for some time now. The same thing happens to all band members after some time, and in response, they launch their solo career and start playing with other musicians. Hence, the birth of Julian Casablancas + the Voidz, consisting of Jeramy “Beardo” Gritter (guitar), Amir Yaghmai (guitar), Jake Bercovici (bass/synths), Alex Carapetis (percussion), and Jeff Kite (keys). I expect them to be the hottest boy band of 2015. After making their live debut at Governor’s Ball early this summer, they released their debut album Tyranny on September 23.

Right off the bat, it doesn’t sound like the Strokes at all. Maybe, maybe, it contains echoes of Comedown Machine, but those echoes are heavier and more outlandish. It sounds a little like Julian’s 2009 solo album Phrazes for the Young, but honestly, it’s a stretch to make any comparison at all. I like calling it Julian’s very own Yeezus, in light of the fact that he pretty much did what ever the fuck he wanted on it. Musically, there actually are similarities between Yeezy’s latest album and Tyranny— they both push the boundaries of music and contain complex and unorthodox beats and rhythms, and I would imagine it is not easy to sing/rap over them.

The album did not appeal to me at all the first listen through, but after the second and third, I came to appreciate it. As you can imagine, I’ve been listening to Tyranny quite a bit in order to write an educated review of it, and I’m still not bored of it—it gets better with every listen.

The first single released was “Human Sadness”, a near eleven minute song with the oddest structure. It starts off quiet and melancholy as you would expect, but around three minutes in, there’s this scary and maniacal laughter, and once you’re five minutes in, you’re pretty much listening to a different song. It was the perfect track to release as the band’s first single, foreshadowing what was to come with the full album. Soon after, the music video for “Where No Eagles Fly” was released, which is just something else. It gives a good visual representation of what the album is supposed to evoke, a kind of post-apocalyptic sense of doom and emptiness. Directed by one of the guitarists Beardo, it features the strange thing you would see in a found footage horror film and just overall dark images of the band: blood even drips down the lens as we get a nice close up of Julian’s uvula. The song also features a sick bass line.

The album flows seamlessly from one song to the next, but that’s not to say that each track doesn’t stand well on its own. I like the singles, but my personal favorites are “Business Dog” and “Crunch Punch”. When the drums come in on “Business Dog”, it’s just…whoa. There’s also a dope fill around halfway through the song that’s bound to cause a couple eargasms for those of you out there that love a nasty drum fill. The percussion in “Father Electricity” sounds like an entire population of indigenous islanders smacking away. That’s probably one of the best features of Tyranny—Alex Carapetis’s percussion work (FUN FACT: he filled in for sickly Nine Inch Nails drummer Ilan Rubin on one of their tours).

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“Crunch Punch” starts off with a woman giving a tragic news report that sounds like a zombie outbreak has just occurred. The song has barely established its melody when all of a sudden the band performs a truly surprising stop-start; they just cease playing and you’re like “What’s going on?!?”, which makes the resumption of playing so satisfying. There’s a video of the band performing the song at Governor’s Ball on YouTube—check it out!

Overall, Tyranny is an acquired taste. It definitely falls under the category of “Music that I listen to by myself”. I still haven’t showed any songs to my friends for fear that they will cower like a frightened rabbit, cornered by the weird wolf that is this album. If you fancy yourself as one who enjoys non-traditional music, this album is certainly for you. It’s definitely an indicator of the change Julian Casablancas is going through. Sorry, Strokes fans, but you’ll have to look elsewhere for something that sounds like Is This It, because you’re not going to get it from Julian— he’s moved on. It makes me sad too, but the Strokes are certainly winding down, with the other members of the band also pursuing solo projects. But you have to respect a man who isn’t afraid to make his music as strange as he wants to in an age where popular music is literally engineered to sound all the same. Julian may have been one of the saviors of rock and roll and a trailblazer for indie rock, but thirteen years later, he is exploring the furthest realms of music. As he sings in “Where No Eagles Fly”, “the rhythm is for you but the song is for me”, meaning Julian doesn’t give a rat’s ass about making music that is catchy or even accessible to the casual listener. You go Julian! If you like the album, be sure to see JC + the Voidz at First Ave in Minneapolis November 17. I know I’ll be there.

-- Julian Palmer

Pearl Jam: 2014 Tour

It has been my mission over the years to see as many amazing bands as I possibly can. I’ve done a pretty handsome job in only 21 years of living and on a limited salary. For about six years now, Pearl Jam has been on the list, so when the venerable Pat Gordon informed me of their upcoming tour, I marked the date to buy tickets. I was five minutes late to purchasing the tickets at 10am on a Friday morning, and Ticketmaster wasn’t working. I refreshed it for a solid 30 minutes before giving up and paying the higher price of scalped tickets. As such, it was even more important to me that Pearl Jam fulfill the expectations I set before them.

And they fuckin’ killed it. The concert was just over three hours long and they played 32 songs. My seats were shit and I was pretty far away, but the whole thing was beautiful. Instead of taking a more classic approach of starting fast and trying to maintain a high level of energy throughout the whole concert, the band started slow, built over the first sixteen songs to a ten-minute rendition of “Rearview Mirror,” and then slowed down again for the first encore. Finally, they blew the house down with the second encore, playing “Imagine” by John Lennon and “Alive” and “Betterman” back to back. They even brought a Minnesotan doctor out on stage to raise awareness for a special form of childhood bone marrow disorder. If I had one criticism, I would say that they shouldn’t have finished so slowly. They took a lot of high-energy songs and then dropped off with the long and slow “Indifference.” Maybe that was the more artful thing to do, but I wanted to keep jumping up and down.

Overall, the experience was absolutely fantastic, and Pearl Jam never disappoints.

-- Henry Southwick