Kurt Vile – b’lieve I’m goin down… (Matador, 2015)
Steeped in melancholy and embracing a more sober sound, Kurt Vile’s b’lieve I’m goin down… is a fitting album to close out the summer season. While Vile’s signature lackadaisical approach to folk rock is still intact—his lyrics at times resembling a blasé word salad—the psychedelia has been diminished in favour of a more immediate sound. Although the immediacy does little to hide his exhausted songwriting template—even treading dangerously close to self-plagiarism on “Kidding Around”—Vile and his band bring forth a new dimension to their jam-based songs by increasing the repertoire of instruments. “Lost my Head there” is stunning, its bright keys signalling a sunny reprieve before bursting into the album’s most inspired arrangement. It’s these moments that make b’lieve I’m goin down… come to life.
Deafheaven have been caught in an unenviable spot; reviled by the most ardent of metal fans as being too “soft” and dismissed by more casual listeners for their black metal ties. Many were eager to see which side the band would cater to on their follow-up to 2013’s acclaimed Sunbather. Though New Bermuda doubles down on the austerity and largely omits the textured shoegaze that permeated their breakthrough album, Deafheaven ultimately adhere to a tried and true formula of blast beats and blissful post-rock crescendos, for better or worse. While some of the album’s most cathartic moments, such as the breathtaking second track, “Luna,” represent Deafheaven’s strongest, most focused songwriting yet, the band still manages to undercut too many of these passionate moments with the most nondescript of sappy post-rock and soft rock interludes, using them as an underwhelming crutch. For every sign of growth New Bermuda showcases, there’s a frustrating stumble just around the corner.
If you need new bands to listen to, look no further than Samuel Provost-Walker’s recommendations
Finding new music in 2015 can feel pretty overwhelming. As we slowly embrace our impending all-digital future, discovering new artists has become increasingly difficult to prioritize, with many smaller, weirder gems falling through the cracks. For some, digging is the fun part; for others, it’s grunt work. In an effort to save time and energy, here are five lesser-known artists and groups of various countries and genres to look out for! Happy listening!
Kairon; IRSE!
Hailing from the small town of Kaustinen near the western reaches of Finland, Kairon; IRSE! are anything but slight; A heavenly cross between the noisy, textured theatrics of early 90’s shoegaze acts (My Bloody Valentine for one); the crescendo-based tension and release of post-rock and the dense; psychedelic atmosphere found on early Spacemen 3 records; the results of this massive concoction are nothing short of spectacular. Though their 2011 debut didn’t make much of a splash upon release, 2014’s Ujubasajuba was a late year discovery that forced many music blogs to reconsider their year-end lists. With haunting, timid vocals reminiscent of Sigur Rós’ Jónsi laid atop a dynamic wall of wailing guitars and powerful, walloping drums, Ujubasajuba deftly balances the cosmic and the cacophonic to deliver a potent and incredibly consistent dose of reverb-drenched chaos. Without sacrificing cohesion, Kairon; IRSE! have successfully distilled their influences into a massive, cathartic sound, providing a thrilling example of shoegaze done right.
Trial track: “Tzar Morei” from Ujubasajuba (2014)
Bölzer
Can someone please explain to me how in the hell Zürich-based blackened death metal band Bölzer are a duo? Sounding like Beelzebub himself rising from the ground, the duo has a real knack for crafting absolutely immense-sounding death metal with just enough black metal to lend their music a thick, billowing atmosphere. The duo themselves have likened their name to “a powerful force or blow or strike that has no regard for the consequences or repercussions.” Armed with a 10-string B.C. Rich Bitch electric guitar, a drum set and a mixture of low gutturals and tortured howls, the duo explore a myriad of pagan and occult themes while creating some of the most distinctive and atmospheric metal of its kind. Though their catalog isn’t exactly sprawling, with only three short EPs under their belt, all of it is deliciously frenzied and massive, their 2013 sophomore Aura being a personal favorite. With a full-length reportedly in the pipeline, Bölzer are well on their way to becoming a staple of their respective genre.
Trial track: “Entranced by the Wolfshook” from Aura (2013)
Fire! Orchestra
Ever wondered what it would be like to spend an hour inside the mind of singer/songwriter Scott Walker circa 1995 onwards? Look no further than Sweden’s experimental big band group Fire! Orchestra. Pushing the big band model to its most deconstructed, nightmarish extreme while throwing in a smattering of free jazz dissonance and the feverish vocal performance of one Mariam Wallentin for good measure, the aptly-titled 28-musician ensemble present a wild, uncompromising vision as gritty as it is rewarding. With the push of a sole, mesmerizing bass line, the band clash zealously with a myriad of sharp sounds and increasingly unruly tones before reaching a screeching fever pitch and collapsing into themselves. In fact, many of the band’s song structures share more in common with Krautrock than anything else, crafting a hypnotic backbone for the orchestra to battle over. By no means “easy listening,” Fire! Orchestra are about as challenging as they are fascinating, showcasing the raw power of free jazz through pristine, vintage production and spellbinding arrangements.
Trial track: “Part One” from Exit (2013)
GridLink
Though they’ve recently experienced tragedy and been forced to go on hiatus indefinitely, New Jersey’s GridLink have amassed what might be the single most consistent and uniformly impressive catalogue in grindcore. Assembled from the ashes of seminal grindcore band Discordance Axis, and featuring Mortalized’s Takafumi Matsubara laying down some absolutely blistering guitar riffs without ever catching a break, GridLink dare you to take a breather. Without wasting a second, the band delivers a veritable onslaught of blast beats and violent percussion, incredibly precise buzzsaw-like licks and the inhuman shrieking of singer Jon Chang in a matter of seconds. Only four songs in GridLink’s entire catalog live past the two-minute mark. Bringing Discordance Axis’ anime and science-fiction themes to a more abstracted extreme, GridLink masterfully blend ferocity and unbridled, manic energy with a surprisingly melodic and even emotional core. Though their recording career may be over, their legacy has only just begun.
Trial track: “Look to Windward” from Longhena (2014)
Juçara Marçal
Taking the popular Bossa Nova and Samba-inspired sounds of Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil that have come to define popular Brazilian music and stripping them entirely of their percussive elements, Juçara Marçal has truly gone the distance on her solo debut. A Brazilian-born singer-songwriter and lead singer of acclaimed experimental group Metá Metá, Marçal is no stranger to tackling the most traditional of music through unconventional means; her 2008 collaborative album with Kiko Dinucci, Padê, was as danceable as it was forward-thinking. Encarnado, her solo debut, is an entirely different beast altogether, sharing more in common with contemporary math rock bands than the likes of Jorge Ben or Tom Zé. By eliminating all percussion and highlighting the tinny, brittle guitars and their angular rhythms, the songs take on an alien form while somehow feeling much larger than the sum of their parts. If that’s not enticing enough, the entire album is available as a free download on her official website. While the avant-garde music movement of 1980’s Brazil wasn’t exactly a commercial storm, it’s nonetheless reassuring to see it live on over 30 years later.
Ought – Sun Coming Down (Constellation Records; 2015)
Evoking Television by way of Talking Heads and Wire, comparisons were unavoidable on Ought’s promising debut, More Than Any Other Day; what it lacked in general originality it made up for in spades in personality, delivering an impressive, nervy and succinct art punk package. Sun Coming Down finds the Montreal-based band truly coming into their own, delivering a more refined post-punk suite popping with jagged, angular riffs and dripping with raucous, textured backdrops, never veering too far in either extreme. Singer/guitarist Tim Beeler Darcy remains as eccentric and electrifying as ever, muttering his way through songs as if David Byrne were fronting Joy Division; his vocal performance on “Beautiful Blue Sky”, the album’s towering centerpiece, is simply astounding. Though less springy than its predecessor, Sun Coming Down serves as an exhilaratingly concise example of Ought’s prowess and maturation within their field. This is economic art punk of the highest order.
It’s still surreal to think Richard D. James is back to his usual self; having already released two EPs under two aliases and owned up to a slew of Soundcloud recordings in the year since Syro, it’s as if he never left. orphaned deejay selek 2006-08 is the latest treat from James’ AFX alias, a burst of wild, intricately arranged acid techno of the highest order. Deeply reminiscent of his own Analord series, orphaned deejay selek 2006-08 is a fat-free yet plentiful package brimming with nostalgic sounds and a thumping, fervent energy only an AFX release could deliver. While many would argue James’ latest output hasn’t been especially innovative or transformative, it doesn’t have to be. This is a man whose work has come to define an entire genre and gone through innumerable transmutations already. To expect anything more would be to ignore what’s already there; some of the most alien and unique sounding acid techno around and, arguably, some of his best in years.
Dâm-Funk – Invite the Light (Stones Throw Records; 2015)
Sprawling and brimming with glitzy, vibrant energy, Invite the Light is a sci-fi infused synth funk journey only the likes of which eccentric crate-digger Dâm-Funk could produce: gleefully bizarre, faithfully funky and laden with enough phat synths to make even George Clinton grin. Indeed, Dâm simply provides too much of a good thing; the album’s colossal 96-minute runtime undermines some of Invite the Light’s strongest elements by simply wading in them for too long. It’s made all the more disappointing given just how consistent and arresting most of these tracks are; the wonderfully visual “Surveillance Escape” blends kooky distorted radio chatter with an unapologetically funky groove before collapsing into the serene jazz-funk of “Floating on Air,” a song that recalls Flying Lotus’ jazzy recent works. It’s clear that Dâm knows his funk; he lives and breathes it, proudly wearing his influences on his sleeves while crafting something notably otherworldly. Perhaps he’s a bit too in love with the funk.
Dense and clouded in a thick, billowing fog of dread, Abyss is appropriately titled to say the least. Chelsea Wolfe continues to be unclassifiable in five albums, this time treating her trademark darkwave sound to a welcome dose of doom metal and roping in a secret weapon: Mike Sullivan of Russian Circles. While Wolfe is no stranger to guitars herself, Sullivan’s crunchy tone feels like a real master-stroke at times; lead single “Iron Moon” lurches along with jolting vigour, its guitars plodding with immensity at every down-stroke before unfurling into a cacophony of shrill noise. Wolfe and her band refuse to let up, filling nearly every song with so much brooding atmosphere that it almost becomes overbearing. Later tracks “Survive” and “Color of Blood” while solid, nonetheless offer a familiar dynamic in light of opening track “Carrion Flowers” thundering ballet of eerie silence and deafening pads. Even in spite of this, Abyss remains as impressive as it is downright filthy.
Enlisting the likes of Dev Hynes, celebrated Taylor Swift producer Shellback and Vampire Weekend’s Rostam Batmanglij among many others, Carly Rae Jepsen and co. have crafted an infectiously catchy record in E•MO•TION, faithfully honouring the synthwave and sophisti-pop sounds of yesterday while in turn sounding modern and sincere. The result is a collection of sugar-coated synthpop completely lacking in pretension, brimming with earnestness and, perhaps most importantly, unapologetically FUN; title track “E•MO•TION” soars thanks to its vibrantly layered percolating synths while the Sia-penned break-up anthem “Boy Problems” kicks off with an impeccably funky bassline before providing one of the album’s most rousing choruses. While E•MO•TION’s A-side is virtually irreproachable, late tracks “LA Hallucinations” and “Warm Blood” prove particularly unremarkable, the latter seemingly lurching endlessly in search of a hook. If Jepsen and co. don’t exactly stick the landing, they’ve nonetheless provided one of the year’s most convincing arguments for mainstream pop in E•MO•TION. Nearly four years after “Call Me Maybe” burrowed its way deep into our minds, Carly Rae has done it again.
Death Magic is at once peculiar and wholly expected. Their first album in six years, HEALTH have decided to trade in their searing guitars and deafening drums for a mostly digital framework steeped in dance and pop music. While this digital reinvention is a sound one on paper, the end results are surprisingly dated and flaccid. Drowning in pulsating EDM synths and revelling in obnoxious hedonism and casual nihilism, Death Magic sounds about a decade too late. Rather than provide a compelling case for their transition, HEALTH perform self-sabotage, bringing their signature disembodied vocals to the forefront and settling for a swath of cold, middle-of-the-road dance numbers; by focusing principally on the album’s dance-floor burners, the band have essentially reduced their noisier, arguably more interesting elements to brief stopgaps between the percussive raves. While it’s easy to see a glimmer of a good idea amongst the hodgepodge of nauseatingly “edgy” rave music and occasionally cringe-worthy debauchery (see “LIFE”) on display, the fact remains that Death Magic just isn’t very memorable. Like its lyrics, it’s pure surface-level theatrics.
On their aptly-titled fourth album, bubblegum stoner sludge outfit, Torche, have effectively started anew. Taking cues from front man Steve Brook’s other recently reunited sludge metal project, Floor, Restarter brings back the thick, chunky guitars heard on Meanderthal while eschewing most of the harmonious pop-punk trappings found on 2012’s ever-so-catchy Harmonicraft. “Annihilation Affair”, the album’s thunderous opener, pounds the listener into submission with a single, unrelenting riff before calling upon a deafening feedback bomb to remind you tinnitus is a very real thing. While Torche just wouldn’t be Torche without a helpful dose of melodic, arena rock chants and choruses even your dad would sing along to, Restarter finds them doubling down on their sludge component, sometimes to their detriment. The band’s shift towards Melvins-like riffery unfortunately comes at the expense of overall catchiness, one of Torche’s most striking and distinctive features. In spite of this, Torche have conjured up yet another tasty, candy-coated and merciless sludge assault. If Restarter feels a tad one-note, it’s a damn good one nonetheless.
For what seemed like a no-brainer, it’s unfortunate just how disappointing Sour Soul is. A joint album by rising Toronto jazz fusion trio BADBADNOTGOOD and prolific, cartoonishly rugged Wu-Tang mainstay, Ghostface Killah, the resulting collaboration ignores either party’s strengths and instead settles for an incredibly brief and insubstantial assortment of lukewarm jazz-rap. While BADBADNOTGOOD provide a reliably intimate backdrop and occasionally demonstrate flashes of inspiration, their signature, energetic sound feels compromised in favour of pared-down arrangements more in line with the previous two Ghostface Killah records; it’s an unfortunate decision given BADBADNOTGOOD’s effortless penchant for controlled, moody chaos. Ghostface, on the other hand, simply sounds bored, vanishing from most songs after a single verse while providing an ambitiously stunted version of his enigmatic persona. While Sour Soul isn’t particularly bad or entirely without merit, the lack of cohesion and synergy amongst its two halves renders the entire project limp and airless. It’s less sour and more milquetoast.
Bob Dylan – Shadows in the Night (Columbia Record; 2015)
There simply isn’t anybody like Bob Dylan. The idiosyncratic singer-songwriter’s 36th studio album represents another odd detour, eschewing his greatest skill, his writing, in favour of his most polarizing trait; his signature, nasally wheeze. While that wheeze may now resemble a weary croak, Shadows in the Night is nowhere near as tangled or confused as Dylan’s last left turn, 2009’s Christmas in the Heart. A collection of traditional pop standards, Dylan is stripped of the over-zealous trimmings that have sometimes jeopardized his more recent works; sparse, intimately minimal arrangements provide a hauntingly moody backbone to the singer’s vulnerable vocals. Brittle and raw, Dylan’s voice feels surprisingly relaxed and at home, transforming traditional mid-tempo standards into drifting, melancholic ballads of downtrodden vulnerability. Despite encompassing no original material, Shadows in the Night never feels like a meager tribute album; Dylan turns these classics into an atmospheric noir tableau, infusing each song with experience and effectively making them his own.
