Maniacal Silence

Friday, February 4, 2011

JAMES BLAKE

James Blake has been a bit over-hyped to be sure, especially in the UK. Most of the acclaim in my opinion is well deserved though. He was able, with 3 Ep's last year to jump all over the producer/dub-dance/r&b-esque/minimalist electronica map and did surprisingly well in all of those arenas. All at the age of 22 I may add..
With his first full-length though, he has decided to make an even bigger change and incorporate an instrument that has only showed up on a few songs to date, his own voice. And even when he has used it in the past, it was being sent through digital effects, flattened out and was chopped-up to a point you weren't even able to discern whether or not it was his. Not now though, his voice is front and center and you wouldn't be too far off calling this an electronic singer songwriter album. The most surprising thing about the album to me though, is the fact that you would be hard pressed to find one song on here that would be considered club friendly. I think some people are going to like it less because of that and other will prefer it. One thing for sure, the hype will only continue to buzz because he is definitely an extremely talented artist and his music is really good, sometimes difficult and a lot of the times - polarizing. Personally, I love it and am about to put the headphones back on and jump back in... Right now, the last two songs ("I Mind" and "Measurements"are hitting me the hardest after the first few listens.

Below is the first video "The Wilhelm Scream"

Thursday, August 12, 2010

New Order - "Every Little Counts"

this song just slows me down and sits with me the same way some of Velvet Underground/Lou Reed's slow and steady, maybe even sentimental songs do.. especially the calmer stuff on "Loaded"

Wire

Heartbeat

Monday, July 12, 2010

playlist - 71210

this list may not exactly jump out at you as being the quintessential summer playlist but today it combined perfectly with the 101 temperature and the hot asphalt.......

Deerhunter - "Fluorescent Grey" First heard this one on a split 7" that Reatard and DH did together. Each took a song from the others upcoming release and gave their best shot at the cover. So, the version of this particular song that I heard first was actually played/sung by Jay. Fell in love with it immediately although it should be noted that i do in fact like the deerhunter version a little more. don't worry reatard fans, he'll have another chance.

Pavement - "Shady Lane" - Just so very right on so many levels, the main one being that in just under a couple of months I'll be in NY watching them in Central Park.

Jay Reatard - "It Ain't Gonna Save Me" - favorite Reatard song. i have literally listened to this song 30+ times in a row on several occasions. Repeat!

Guided by Voices - "Tractor RapeChain" - it took me a long time to really get into BEE THOUSAND but this summer my ipod genius app is bound to be busy pulling 2 minute long gems from a non-lead singer that makes writing great low budget pop songs seem so unbelievably easy at times.

Japandroids - "The Boys are Coming Home" - This album just continued to grow on me in 2009. at times I found myself enjoying it even more than the other DIY punk band out of L.A. Nouns is probably better as a whole but songs like this not only competes with noAGE but they will destroy all of others

David Bowie - "Jean Genie" -Just sounded perfect today and with a song as good as this, that's all that matters.

XTC - "Summer's Cauldron" & "Grass" -for a band as good as XTC and more specifically an album as great as Skylarking, you just don't hear enough bands citing them as key influences. Especially in the current 80's craving indie environment. "Summer's Cauldron" and "Grass" are excellent and coincidentally it reminds me of the first two tracks from Animal Collective's Feels "Did You Hear the Words" & strangely enough"Grass".?