Category Archives: Electronic
The Twilight Sad- No One Can Ever Know (Fat Cat)
The Twilight Sad
No One Can Ever Know
Fat Cat
Links:
The Twilight Sad on Facebook
The Twilight Sad on Myspace
Fat Cat Records home
Melancholy and sweet, borrowing much from the mid-80s British alternative/proto gothic music scene, The Twilight Sad released No One Can Ever Know earlier this year.
Occasionally energetic and aggressive, most of No One Can Ever Know features a wall-of-sound presence recalling their Scottish compatriots Idlewild, yet at other times the it is more like a mopey, shoe gazer version of lo-fi Bauhaus or Joy Division. The most obvious difference, aside from the 30-year time frame, between these bands is the absence of infectious hooks with The Twilight Sad. They’re one clear, repetitive and catchy line per song away from bringing the glory days of black nail polish and exploded hair-sprayed jet-black big hair.
Their third LP, the gloomy No One Can Ever Know is a breath of fresh air in these stale days of reverb non-surf indie rock that currently floods and washes out the music scene. Generally adhering to the modern lo-fi sound with the occasional clipping of vocals or instruments, the album stays consistent without overdoing the sound or lyrical feel.
The third track, “Sick,” is a standout song. As a perfect example of the influence from the 80s alternateen music scene, “Sick” uses muted, rapid-fire electronic drums and lightly distorted guitars to carry singer James Graham’s heavy Scottish accent. Toward the close of the song, strong, building synthesizers add a strong crescendo to off set Graham’s dying words “Until the party ends, until the part when we retire.”
“Don’t Look At Me” is the strongest song on the record. Heavy bass lines lay over an accordion (sounding much like a synthesizer in its relentlessness) and odd-timed drums carry the song through four minutes of near-constant aural massage. Lacking an obvious chorus to repeat, opting instead to repeat a changing set of lyrics over a more defined musical chorus, “Don’t Look at Me” never allows the listener to get to an easy ending point. This matches the lyrical content as well. Leaving out the beginning of the story by starting with “And I still watch you/ It’s not the right thing to do,” Graham moves to repeat “I hated watching you grow old” near the middle, and circles back to asserting “and I still watch you,” the song never fully starts or resolves—forcing the listener to hit the repeat button.
Atari Teenage Riot – Collapse of History Remixes (Dim Mak)
Atari Teenage Riot
Collapse of History
Dim Mak
Links:
Steve Aoki wrote a song for his Wonderland album titled, “The Kids Are Not the Same.” Atari Teenage Riot begs to differ. On Collapse of History, the aggro-electro punks charge at us with the accusation that the kids are indeed the same progressive, rebellious youth that have been with us for decades, and indeed fans of ATR will agree that things better not change for this band. And they don’t. If there are problems in the world, the kids are going to riot, and ATR will be their soundtrack.
Within this three-song onslaught of anarchy-infused energy, it’s like they have had pent-up aggression built up for years and just now released it. What makes this band still tick is that every album they have done has that same sentiment. They just won’t slow down.
Through chanting of what sounds like a sample ripped from a live show and electro speed power, the song will instantly send your pulse into a rapid procession of quick fire beats and loudness. And if you think that’s all fine and dandy, the second version of this song doubles the level of intensity. It’s no surprise that Mustard Pimp can do that to a song. If you have ever experienced Mustard Pimp, you know just how far they are willing to push a song while keeping the core essence in tact.
The Tits & Clits Remix is null and void compared to Mustard Pimps re-working, but it’s still a version of the song to take note as it does not deviate far from the tree. It’s all about perspective and proof that this band feels increasingly viable.
Nedry – In a Dim Light (Monotreme Records)
Nedry
In a Dim Light
Monotreme Records
Links:
Two years after Nedry released (and later re-released) Condors, they are back with a powerful and passionate LP In a Dim Light, a new 10-track album to keep your ears nice and cozy.
When one thinks of the trip hop genre, the names Portishead, Morcheeba and Massive Attack usually come to mind. Too slow to dance to, too fast to just sit still, trip hop blends warm, room-filling bass with smooth electronic hip hop beats, usually smoothed over with a post-lounge singer. Like sexy piano bar music for the 2000s.
Fitting nicely into this group, enter Nedry with In a Dim Light. Forming in London in 2008, releasing an EP and an LP, the trio return. True to trip-hop form, the music is slow (for dance music), grooving, sexy and low-key without losing the listener’s attention. Overall, In a Dim Light is the perfect soundtrack to a lowly lit martini bar or a steamy make-out session. Trip-hop should be mandatory make-out music.
The production is high enough quality that members Chris Amblin and Matt Parker could very well have had their music stripped out of a motion picture—like a lovemaking scene in Tron. Vocalist Ayu Okakita’s hymns are not simply overlaid as in low-quality electronic music, but weave in and out like fog through an open door at a country cabin. Okakita’s breathy Japanese vocal accent comes across like Björk (without the childish squeaking) mixed with Beth Gibbons of Portishead (without the forced sultriness)
“Violacea” (scientific name for a number of violets and morning glories—you’re welcome) is a standout in the mix. Okahita’s repeated taunt “let the dark come” ebbs and flows on semi regular cycle over the sound of rainfall with a down tempo beat. Heavy on bass, as trip hop should be, and featuring a repeated de-crescendo of synth keys is both intriguing and mesmerizing. This would be the music for “Second Base” in the make-out session.
“TMA” is unique in the mix if for nothing else than its sheer intensity: more electronic dance rock than trip hop. It wouldn’t be such a standout out track if it wasn’t on In a Dim Light, but it would still be great. The low-tuned bass drum beneath simple repetitive lyrics “what I want is what I know/what I know is what I don’t,” with layered and distorted guitars come off like a Garbage song from their glory days without Butch Vig’s overproduction. Okakita’s frustrated and winding vocals build and drop in presence, clipping the production levels at their peak, recalling the intensity of Leslie Rankine from her days in Pigface. “TMA” would be the make-out artists going for home.
Dirty Ghosts- Metal Moon (Last Gang Records)
Dirty Ghosts
Metal Moon
Last Gang Entertainment
Links:
- Dirty Ghosts Official Site
- Dirty Ghosts on Myspace
- Dirty Ghosts on Facebook
- Last Gang Records Official Site
Dirty Ghosts drift their way from San Francisco with Metal Moon, a ten-track LP dropped from Last Gang Entertainment. Experience in the music world (Parchman Farm and Teen Crud Combo) has trained primary member Allyson Baker’s Dirty Ghosts to emerge after a five-year period of planning and plotting.
Metal Moon is a fun and infectious pop-rock-disco-electro hybrid album produced by Aesop Rock. With plenty of hooks, plenty of upbeat dance-rock beats and riffs and plenty of repeated vocals; this is an interesting, yet slightly disconnected album. Most songs have a great presence all their own, but most never seem to burst; instead the songs mostly feature continuous crescendos that never quite get to ecstasy.
The opening track, “Ropes That Way,” is a perfect example. The nice and tight 4/4 beat (à la Song #2 from Blur) with alt-blues bass line bouncing about starts the song out energetically, and the break downs leave nice breathy spaces for throwing down some funky dancing. The lyrics “And on a better day/Gonna finally say/That I’ll never gonna leave you with / The ropes that way” are repeated over again, building up to a catchy bridge, but in the end, the climax never gets there.
Borrowing the bass from late ’70s pop funk and the drums from disco, “No Video” uses alarm samples and dirty single-note blues guitar to deliver the most structured cut. “No Video” has one of the l The fuzzy vocals and echoes blend very well with fuzzy strings so well as to evoke a hot and sweaty roller disco.
The production on Metal Moon is clear and bright, sounding very much like an updated version of 90s darlings Luscious Jackson, mixing in a touch of the White Stripes. Putting “Ropes That Way” on the front of the LP shows good production and planning.
The songs individually sound pretty similar but not to the point of a fully coherent album. The tempos are similar, as are the very warm and stand-out bouncing post-hip hop bass grooves, and Baker’s vocals are clean with plenty of multi-tracked vocals and occasional overuse use of echo effects.
Allyson’s smoky and passionate voice sounds well-suited for dance-pop and takes to digital manipulation so well; I’d be surprised if she isn’t hounded by DJs and electronic music producers asking to sample her voice for music samples.
RIYL: Luscious Jackson, pop-funk, any female-fronted Grand Royale Records release from the 1990s.
Gosteffects – Kick the Bass (AFTERLIFE)
Gosteffects
Kick The Bass
AFTERLIFE
Gosteffects brings the warehouse right into your ear holes with an EP that has all the big beats that you need and tranced-out insanity that will control your emotions like a witch doctor.
Gosteffects revisits and transcends the ‘90s DHS chant on “The House of God.” What you get out of it is a trend towards a progressive movement of retaining Classicism with movement that mimics the Futurist movement in the early 20th Century.
The title track to the EP ups the beats and builds a power trip on the dancefloor. You become engulfed with the pounding in your head and the tribal aspects that explode into a mass effect of House anthem.
But what gets to me is “Tear the Club Up.” This is where Gosteffects shine with one of the greater trance-induced anthems I have heard since the Harthouse scene in the late ‘90s. The song is so infectious, you find yourself bobbing your head to the beat so intensely, someone may mistake you having a convulsion. The repetitiveness really works in this case and would send any club into an orgy of dance moves if mixed in to any repertoire. And it’s a good transition piece to “Slave to the Sweat,” an industrialized dance number that will delight any EDM fan.
Gosteffects wants you to feel something familiar yet take you on a trip to a new dimension. “Yeah!” proves that point, gently touching on Dubstep to get to its destination.
