gray/matter

eMusic Picks - Dec

December 12th, 2007 @ 8:11 pm by gray

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Guest Selections

Due to an impromptu drive to California, I ran out of time to highlight specific releases. So to supplement the long bullet list, here are three recommendations I received from my friend TNG.

Burial, Untrue (13)

The second album from anonymous Londoner Burial in the style called dubstep evokes the kind of tongue-twisting homage previously reserved for philosopher/turntablist DJ Spooky or essays in a literary criticism journal, e.g. “To formally address the qualities of dubstep is to paradoxically do damage to its most evocative parts — the parts that aren’t there, the haunted parts, the spectral spaces that surround the tangible sounds and make it all happen through the force of their very absence.” Yet perhaps the best description I’ve seen is the more evocative listener review of his self-titled debut (13), “Listening is like being lost in a lonely, futuristic city filled with madmen prophets and constantly searching out the distant sounds of other humans.”

To focus on the merits or demerits of dubstep is to get caught up in the mirror game of modern electronic music categorization, with its tangled ancestry through microgenres like grime and 2-step garage, second cousins to drum n’ bass and its jungle progeny, all the way back to reggae dub and techno. The eMusic spotlight on Dubstep instead uses Burial as the gateway to the sound (as does a later spotlight on Burial), with its dark overtones and urban decay reminescent of Massive Attack’s Mezzanine. Yet for all that, the music is actually calming, a cool cavernous space to calm the back of your mind while you focus on other things.

Kiln, Dusker (11)

Another back-of-mind listen is Kiln, slices of glitchy melodica in a slightly warmer climate than Burial.

various, The Cake Sale (9)

Although billed as a single artist, The Cake Sale is a charity collective put on to support Oxfam’s “Make Trade Fair” (also recently featured in Massive Attack’s Collected compilation). The main songs were built out by members of Bell X1, with contributions from The Cardigans’ Nina Persson, The Frames’ Glen Hansard, Lisa Hannigan (former collaborator with Damien Rice), Gemma Hayes, Josh Ritter, and others.

Featured Selections

These will mostly have to stand up for themselves, but I thought they deserved some focus out of the pack.

Handsome Family, In the Forest of Missing Airplanes (3)

Like too many others, recent Handsome Family albums (In the Air) have made only temporary appearances on eMusic before disappearing again. Catch their new EP before it does the same.

Insides, Euphoria (9)

An overlooked 4AD dreampop release, with sweetness overlaying some rather stark sentiments of relationships in disarray. (Conversely, their latest work after a long hiatus suggest they’ve overcome those demons, replacing the gauzy undercurrents with sunny happy-jazz.)

Love and Rockets, Love and Rockets (14)

This is one of those nostalgic selections that makes it hard to characterize separate from my memories. I ordered it originally through the BMG Club on cassette and therefore experienced it holistically which served to embed certain albums in my subconscious, plus developed a continuing affinity for the so-called ‘deep cuts’ on albums dominated by one or two high-profile hits (cf. Duran Duran’s Big Thing). In retrospect, I can’t recall if my purchase predated the saturation of “So Alive” on radio, but that didn’t change how I listened to it. I didn’t associate it with the comic, its roots in Bauhaus, or the three previous albums by the band and somehow I’ve never managed to listen to any of their other work. It simply remains a compelling touchstone for that time.

Emiliana Torrini, Fisherman’s Woman (12)

A softer, more acoustic and folk-flavored outing after the Björk-esque Love in the Time of Science.

Kristeen Young, Enemy (15)
-, Meet Miss Young And Her All Boy Band (13)
-, Breasticles (14)
-, X (12)

The uncompromising spectacle that is Kristeen recently cost her the plum opening spot on Morrissey’s tour, but I suppose that only plays into her maverick sense of identity.

See Also

Quite the laundry list this time, including a number of darkwave back-catalogue titles.

Amelia Cuni (composed by John Cage), Solo for Voice 58 (15)

Alio Die, Under An Holy Ritual (11)

ATB, Seven Years (1998-2005) (20)

Bauhaus, Crackle (16)

Heidi Berry, self-titled (11)

Blutengel, Labyrinth (15)
-, Labyrinth bonus (7)

Broken Social Scene, Feel Good Lost (12)

Cinerama, This Is Cinerama (14)
-, Va Va Voom (11)

Collection d’Arnell-Andrea, Exposition (11)
-, Un Autumone a Loroy (13)
-, Tristesse des Manes (14)

Delerium, Lost and Found Remixes (7)