CD Reviews for January's SLUG online at SLUGmag.com or in print at chillaxed joints along the Wasatch front and cooler zine venues nationwide.
The Capricorns
River, Bear Your Bones
Rise Above Records
Street: 11.25
The Capricorns = Tamerlane (- vox) + Philip Glass (Koyanisqaatsi era)
The Capricorns rarely miss on their third release and give new depth to the UK metal/hard rock catalogue. They blessedly do not stray too far from more well-worn construction patterns that have been mostly rejected by the sometimes scatterbrained songwriters of this style, yet they still manage a fresh take that I found better-than-decent every spin around. No vocals are needed (or used) to really shove this stuff in your brain, and it is a welcome change to the too-earnest lyrics you can find trawling through the depths of this genre. Opener "Broken Coffin of the Venerable King" is a perfect primer for this band and album. The whole work is stellar stuff to play as background music for some of your more devious adventures that don’t need lyrics busying things up.
–JP
Hooray For Earth
Self-Titled
Dopamine Records
Street: 01.13
Hooray for Earth= The Revolution Smile + Muse + Abandoned Pools
Hooray for nothing (sorry, that was too easy). These guys are so-so. A band like this may transform live, but this release is a little too bad/poppy for my taste. Hooray for Earth’s staccato drumming and song style gets wearisome fast. And the grungy guitar on tracks like "Want Want Want" doesn’t do anything to hide the fact that the electronica in this group is the overriding player in the musical equation and no amount of distortion will hide that and make it fly. The vocalist’s whiny delivery rubbed me raw, like a dry raincoat after two hours of exploratory "body working" on tweak. Sounds like a great idea on paper, but unless you have buckets of KY, this shit won’t lubricate your ears proper. The exception is the superb third track, "Heartbeat," which has nothing much to do with the rest of the album.
–JP
Various Artists
Arriba La Cumbia
11.18
Crammed Discs
Arriba La Cumbia = Buena Vista Social Club + Ozomatli
Cumbia, a Colombian take on the styles of South American music, gets a supercharge of R&B (rhythm and bass) on this release, and makes for awesome mole-making tunes. This compilation features a slew of old- and new-schoolers representative of this style. World music lovers will recognize Basement Jaxx and Pernett & The Caribbean Ravers on some of the more banger tracks. If you have ever salsa-ed at a club (or thought about it) DO NOT PUT THIS ON, or you will be looking to find some hot shit to dip or be dipped by. All the classic hallmarks of Central and South American music are here: horns, Spanish lyrics, accordion—but with a little more spice courtesy of some DJ scratches/samples, electronic keys and pumping, sometimes reggaeton, beats. It’s muy, muy bueno.
–JP
1.03.2009
Top 5 Albums, 2008
Usually I don't do too well with lists but this one was short enough I didn't spazz out on it. Angela Brown, SLUG's editor, is a genius like that.
Original List of Top 5's from Everybloody body at Slug
My top 5 albums of 2008
Jon Paxton
Writer
Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dymphna
Johann Johannson - Fordlandia
Tricky - Knowle West Boy
Andale! - S/T
Portishead - Third
Check these out if you haven't yet. I've listened to hundreds of albums this year and thousands of songs and these made the cut out of all of them. That is saying something, in my humble opinion.
-jp
Usually I don't do too well with lists but this one was short enough I didn't spazz out on it. Angela Brown, SLUG's editor, is a genius like that.
Original List of Top 5's from Everybloody body at Slug
My top 5 albums of 2008
Jon Paxton
Writer
Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dymphna
Johann Johannson - Fordlandia
Tricky - Knowle West Boy
Andale! - S/T
Portishead - Third
Check these out if you haven't yet. I've listened to hundreds of albums this year and thousands of songs and these made the cut out of all of them. That is saying something, in my humble opinion.
-jp
National CD Reviews for SLUG (Dec)
Location at SLUGmag.com also available in print at hipster places.
Greyboy
15 Years of West Coast Cool
Ubiquity
Street: 11.04
Greyboy = Nightmares on Wax + DJ Shadow
Fifteen years is a big chunk of time for a DJ to be around and have survived the decline of the solo turntable spinner that boomed and busted in the 80s and 90s. Greyboy, Andreas Stevens, made it out alive and long enough to release this best-of to fans of the hip-hop-spliced jazz he is respected for ushering in. I enjoy this shit and don't have many gripes with it. I could do with just the instrumentals, though; I respect the guy's ability to sample without having MCs and vocalists—which a few of the tracks do feature. If you could imagine a release of such chill beats and mellow interludes that would render your being utterly jazzed, you have Greyboy's latest. This is fine spirit drinking music meant for makin' rugrats and memories and not for those fiending for Adderall and tricked-out club computery.
–JP
o'death
Broken Hymns, Skin and Limbs
City Slang
Street: 10.27
o'death = Gogol Bordello – the accent
I don't know how to accurately describe such a blatant lifting of style, but I'll try. Something can always be said for imitators, all music deriving from works before in this century of repeated styles—not this time, though. At least o'death could have tried to throw in some Russian, or whatever the hell hodgepodge it is that Eugene Hutz speaks, to add some real "gypsy-ness" to the sound-byted fiddle they employ. No such luck. So what do you get with a Gogol Bordello "cover" band with no true Slavic influences? A Bordello cover band with no soul. I can't imagine these pseudo-gypsy rockers spend any time anywhere close to the kind of enclaves you see Hutz journey to in the fantastic documentary, The Pied Piper of Hutzovina. For a real glimpse at gypsy music, don't look to New York hepcats like o'death for realism. Look to the source.
–JP
Richard Cranium
S/T
Self
Street: 11.11
Richard Cranium = Bedouin Soundclash vox + We Versus The Shark guitars
This is one of those rare groups I don't "get" right away, but along with stretching my ears and musical grey/white matter, I find a happy medium in most of these situations. If I can temporarily remove the sanctions placed on my old standards of what makes music inherently and immediately likable, I usually find that it is worth the time. Richard Cranium is a group that may require some aural calisthenics to really resonate, but they certainly do. Only so much can be written about some of these songs that lack a certain cohesion, but at least half of this EP is solid and inventive—something most seriously lacking in "modern rock" music. Investigate the first track, "Bury St. Edmunds Behind the Royal Exchange," and its awesome guitar and bass meanderings, which will definitely stretch the bounds of most brains. "Televangelist" is also a track that I enjoy, especially the intro.
–JP
Slaraffenland
Sunshine EP
Home Tapes and Rumraket
Street: 10.11
Slaraffenland = Sufjan Stevens + The Vile Blue Shades
There is a big problem with this release—it's too short. And the cover of A-Ha's "Take on Me" infused with a flute—a fucking flute!—isn't the first track. I say open with A-Ha, who wouldn't? Perhaps they are trying to shake that much covered song's reputation, but they change it up enough to not warrant unfavorable comparisons. Slaraffenland's style in general is pleasurably unique and well-rounded. The layered choruses of soft noise, horns and electronic bips add to the aural mystique of these Denmark denizens and make me interested in their full-lengths. This is one of four releases, so there's opportunity to dig deep into their past catalogue before this EP as I have begun to. And that isn't by mistake. This is one of those random-ass releases that I was really excited to listen to the first, second, and every other time.
–JP
Location at SLUGmag.com also available in print at hipster places.
Greyboy
15 Years of West Coast Cool
Ubiquity
Street: 11.04
Greyboy = Nightmares on Wax + DJ Shadow
Fifteen years is a big chunk of time for a DJ to be around and have survived the decline of the solo turntable spinner that boomed and busted in the 80s and 90s. Greyboy, Andreas Stevens, made it out alive and long enough to release this best-of to fans of the hip-hop-spliced jazz he is respected for ushering in. I enjoy this shit and don't have many gripes with it. I could do with just the instrumentals, though; I respect the guy's ability to sample without having MCs and vocalists—which a few of the tracks do feature. If you could imagine a release of such chill beats and mellow interludes that would render your being utterly jazzed, you have Greyboy's latest. This is fine spirit drinking music meant for makin' rugrats and memories and not for those fiending for Adderall and tricked-out club computery.
–JP
o'death
Broken Hymns, Skin and Limbs
City Slang
Street: 10.27
o'death = Gogol Bordello – the accent
I don't know how to accurately describe such a blatant lifting of style, but I'll try. Something can always be said for imitators, all music deriving from works before in this century of repeated styles—not this time, though. At least o'death could have tried to throw in some Russian, or whatever the hell hodgepodge it is that Eugene Hutz speaks, to add some real "gypsy-ness" to the sound-byted fiddle they employ. No such luck. So what do you get with a Gogol Bordello "cover" band with no true Slavic influences? A Bordello cover band with no soul. I can't imagine these pseudo-gypsy rockers spend any time anywhere close to the kind of enclaves you see Hutz journey to in the fantastic documentary, The Pied Piper of Hutzovina. For a real glimpse at gypsy music, don't look to New York hepcats like o'death for realism. Look to the source.
–JP
Richard Cranium
S/T
Self
Street: 11.11
Richard Cranium = Bedouin Soundclash vox + We Versus The Shark guitars
This is one of those rare groups I don't "get" right away, but along with stretching my ears and musical grey/white matter, I find a happy medium in most of these situations. If I can temporarily remove the sanctions placed on my old standards of what makes music inherently and immediately likable, I usually find that it is worth the time. Richard Cranium is a group that may require some aural calisthenics to really resonate, but they certainly do. Only so much can be written about some of these songs that lack a certain cohesion, but at least half of this EP is solid and inventive—something most seriously lacking in "modern rock" music. Investigate the first track, "Bury St. Edmunds Behind the Royal Exchange," and its awesome guitar and bass meanderings, which will definitely stretch the bounds of most brains. "Televangelist" is also a track that I enjoy, especially the intro.
–JP
Slaraffenland
Sunshine EP
Home Tapes and Rumraket
Street: 10.11
Slaraffenland = Sufjan Stevens + The Vile Blue Shades
There is a big problem with this release—it's too short. And the cover of A-Ha's "Take on Me" infused with a flute—a fucking flute!—isn't the first track. I say open with A-Ha, who wouldn't? Perhaps they are trying to shake that much covered song's reputation, but they change it up enough to not warrant unfavorable comparisons. Slaraffenland's style in general is pleasurably unique and well-rounded. The layered choruses of soft noise, horns and electronic bips add to the aural mystique of these Denmark denizens and make me interested in their full-lengths. This is one of four releases, so there's opportunity to dig deep into their past catalogue before this EP as I have begun to. And that isn't by mistake. This is one of those random-ass releases that I was really excited to listen to the first, second, and every other time.
–JP
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