The Most Serene Republic is an indie septet from Toronto, Canada and ...And the Ever Expanding Universe is their third studio album. TMSR certainly does not sound like a standard indie band, both in terms of tone colors as well as varied influences. In their music, there are shades of prog, 60s pop, electronica, psychedelia, even classical chamber music as indicated by "Patternicity". This instrumental piece is clearly the highlight of the album, raising their penchant for orchestration to a new level. If TMSR really wanted to, they could easily transcend the trappings of indie rock and create something phenomenal. Hopefully this album points the way towards future development.
The Mars Volta call their fifth album Octahedron their "acoustic album". The music itself is rather semi-acoustic in terms of instrumentation. However, one can find less excess and more focus here in comparison to TMV's other albums. Experimentation seems meaningful and well integrated, for example the interesting free-jazz piano workout on "Halo of Nembutals". And some of the songs, like "Since We've Been Wrong", are well written, even beautiful. A modest opus by TMV standards, but good music does not have to be noisy nor bombastic. Sometimes less is indeed more.
Boston multi-instrumentalist/composer Toby Driver's first band maudlin of the Well played progressive metal with touches of contemporary classical music. The band released three albums, until Driver disbanded the group in 2003, founding Kayo Dot instead, that continued in even more avant-gardist vein. Recently, however, no less than 87 fans donated enough money to make the fourth album. The band upped the result on the internet for free download.
Part the Second is undoubtedly more listener-friendly than Kayo Dot's Blue Lambency Downward. While that album was almost devoid of metal, then here one can still find elements like shredding solos or double bass drumming. But compared to early works the emphasis is more on what is played, instead of the volume it is played with. PtS also contains less woodwinds than BLD and more piano and strings. Where BLD sounded dark and difficult, PtS sounds more brighter, especially on the album opener with a cumbersomely long title. Toby Driver has earned his status as one of the most inventive composers of modern day progressive music.
Third album from the US synth-prog duo Zombi titled Spirit Animal adds guitar into their mix of bass, synths and drums. The ensemble has been compared to Rush circa Moving Pictures. Still, no trace of virtuoso show-off in their music, even though the duo is certainly proficient on their instruments. Guitar is just one instrument among several. Who does not like soloing for soloing's own sake, would certainly accept Zombi's work.
The record starts out strong. 14 minute title track is a masterful space-prog epic, sounding haunting and transcendent in its multi-sectioned structure, which sounds still coherent, held together by its gloomy mood. Other compositions are also well done, but not on par with the album opener. The album closer, the longest track "Through Time" (17 minutes) deserves attention for its particularly aggressive and apocalypcit synth-rock attack. Overall Zombi demonstrates that there is still some life in progressive rock.
LA avant-gardist's crazy performance at Club Tapper
Eccentric pop musician and avant-gardist from LA, Ariel Pink, was warmed up by Galaktlan and his live group, who are rarely seen performing. One different aspect about their gig was the presence of a guest vocalist, Kadi Uibo, for one of the songs. Galaktlan's quartet played a short set, for approximately 40 minutes.
Shortly before 10pm Ariel Pink made it on the stage with his backup band Haunted Graffiti. The protagonist was dressed in drag (with red skirt and all), his stage movement was chaotic and coggling and his between song stage banter was mostly stream-of-consciousness type nonsense. Just by his stage presence, marked by special feel of drunkenness, it was clear that Ariel Pink is a truly eccentric musician type.
Pure garage rock
In case of musicians with distinctive (home) studio sound one always wonders, how will they sound live? In the five member performance of Haunted Graffiti, Ariel Pink's lo-fi pop-psychedelia gained a heavy garage punk exterior. The band could sound like an authentic obscure garage rock band from the 60s, while having little to nothing in common with today's neo garage rock imitators.
Some of the tunes in the live setting, such as "Trepanated Earth" acquiered at places a level of intensity compared to heavy metal, or at least Boredoms type noise-rock. It also seemed that Haunted Graffiti can easily out-punk most punkrockers, if they want to. In terms of dissonance, synthesizer sounds and improvisational implications there was also some affinity to krautrock. A rare rendition of the rarely performed "Life In LA", where the clarinets of the album version were replaced by kazoos, suggested Zappa style weirdness.
All of these stylistic nuance variations refer to the music critic consensus that in Ariel Pink's music one can recognize quite a bit of which has been intriguing and inventive for the last five decades in underground rock. It was particularly evident on this concert. Which was really long, over two hours, including many songs that Haunted Graffiti usually does not perform. And arguably this was even crazier than Ariel Pink's average gig.
How eccentric
This gig was a rare case in Estonia not only because of seeing an act at his peak live. But also because the public got the taste of how eccentric the best sort of underground-rock can get. A lot of contemporary acts seems so restrained, compared to the exuberant charisma imbuing from Ariel Pink's stage presence. Then again, imitating him would also prove itself as a pointless perspective. Because natural authenticity (which Pink had plenty) is impossible to copy successfully.
Acid Mothers Temple, led by guitarist Kawabata Makoto in its various incarnations has become the flagship of Japanese neo-psychedelic rock during the last decade. Makoto is staggeringly prolific, to the point that one loses count of how many records he has put out. Nonetheless, Lord of the Underground: Vishnu & The Magic Elixir is a pretty good record. It consists of three tracks. The 15minute album opener "Eleking the Clay" sets the record going with its memorable Turkish psychrock guitar line, on which the band cruises powerfully propelled along by kraut-motoriks. "Sorcerer's Stone of the Magi" is a slower, folkier ballad and the shortest on the album (three minutes). Far longer, 25 minutes, is the duration of the third track, Ash Ra Tempel styled jam "Vishnu And The Magic Elixir". It begins slow and druggy and eventually develops in faster, noisier and weirder directions. A well done record in the area of cosmic psychedelia.
This year's Kumu Night festival was more modest in terms of selection of artists. Still, good music was heard even this time. Although with less diversity than before. There was more emphasis on improvisational and electronic music.
Electronic music was presented slightly less and the quality level varied. Kosmofon with its vintage retro synths and four-four disco grooves created an 80s vibe in a good way. On the other hand, Data with its sterile synth-prog trappings (and extremely tasteless synth sounds) sounded stuck in its own time in a bad way. The Battle of Skweee, comprised of Mesak and Joxaren, brought us danceable, yet deep, bubbly electro.
Music based on improvisation dominated more and this varied more in terms of stilistic variations.
Estonians did free-er improv. Liis Jürgens shined with intriguing concoctions of sounds from harp, piano (played by Liisa Hirsch) and live-electronics. Electro-acoustic free-improv at its best. Rainer Jancis contrasted the song based nature of his All album with a dual-bass (electric + acoustic) quartet improv, sounding a little like a slightly jazzier the Dildos. Triophonix' psychedelic electro-jazz with its blend of acoustic instrumentation, looper and samplers was really enjoyable at its best, but near 3AM it could sound tiresome.
Two foreign bands however did kraut jams. Wooden Shjips (USA) was energetic and rocking, but all of their songs sounded the same. Also, they focused on the arguably least interesting flavor of kraut-rock: straight guitar-rocking, but more drawn-out.
The Finnish K-X-P, however, embodied the more adventurous aspects of krautrock: electronics and metronomic drum grooves. Their drummer could hold a groove very insistently and propulsively, but he also possessed a formidable playing technique. The rhythm formed as a solid backbone for K-X-P's technoid psychedelia that flirted with monotony, yet was never one-dimensional.
A good aspect about this event was improved sound quality compared to the last year. Not that the sound balance was absolutely ideal even now, but there was nothing ear-grating. Feedback was minimal to non-existent. Even this is an improvement.
Mother is the most vocal-based albums by the prolific Japanese electronic musician Susumu Yokota. Featuring a whole legion of guest singers: Nancy Elizabeth, Kaori, Caroline Ross, also members from The Chap and Efterklang. Then again one should not expect a real pop/electronic symbiosis. Mother is in fact very ambient, even loungy in nature. For the more skeptic ear it may sound nice, but wallpaperish background. Which doesn't mean the album lacks interesting tracks. Instrumentation is quite varied for this bedroom electronica. The most unidimensional element may be the vocal frontline. Especially given that the most utilized vocalist is Nancy Elizabeth, who manages to sound the same practically everywhere. The tracks with others are more interesting ("Love Tendrilises", "Reflect Mind", "Meltwater", "Tree Surgeon"). The album closes with the pure piano-ambient piece "Warmth". The sole instrumental here. But what instrumental!
Veckatimest is third album by US psych-folk group Grizzly Bear, that initially begun as Ed Droste's solo project, playing all the instruments himself on the debut Horn of Plenty (2004). By the time of Yellow House, the critically acclaimed second album (2006), GB had morphed into a full quartet.
Compared to other neo-indie folkers GB is more chamber like, baroque and less rural sounding. Their sound stands out for intriguing melodic and harmonic tricks, multi-part vocal arrangements, along with strings and even woodwinds. All of it sounds especially good on here. Each tune is different, some are folkier, others more psychedelic and others develop into directions on their own (like "Two Weeks" pure pop bliss). Some tunes sound brighter ("Cheerleader") others more melancholic ("Fine For Now"). Thus GB has balanced the material's eclecticism and cohesiveness. Grizzly Bear sound introverted, but expansive and beautiful.
Faust is one of the most mythical groups from the German Kraut-rock scene, who released four studio albums in the seventies and then disappeared off the radar. Reappearing in the mid-90s. C'est Com...Com...Complique, their newest release indicates that Faust is not only one of the most innovative and influential German ensembles, but they are still on such a good level that younger neo-kraut performers have a good reason to envy them.
Here, their trademark mind-bending brain-searing psychedelic hypnotism and dadaistic weirdness are firmly in place. This time the band sounds particularly vital, the compositions particularly inspired and the experimentation sounds natural. The result is the best sort of avant-garde rock'n'roll, that isn't merely juxtaposition of intriguing, weird tones. But also includes a special kind of transcendence.
Take the opening piece "Kundalini Tremolos". It clearly is their best hypno-psychedelic epic track since the 1973 classic "Krautrock" from their fourth album. Therefore, Faust can still up themselves. Thus their activity for the last 15 years is not merely a nostalgia trip. Even as old and vintage performers, Faust is still a vital avant-rock act.
Dark Days/Light Years is the ninth studio album from the Welsh ensemble Super Furry Animals. The band arrived at the scene on previous decade as one of the most remarkable acts from the Welsh indie/pop scene, blending pop and rock with electronics, hinting at prog and psychedelia and creating more than a few memorable brit-pop melodies. This new album indicates that SFA is still a vital act today.
The record contains twelve tracks that last for an hour. Contrasting the previous album Hey Venus, a shorter and poppier record, this album contains longer songs as well. Some of them are almost like jams, based on riffs and grooves the band has played for the last couple of years.
Dark Days/Light Years begins with a psychedelic rock jam "Crazy Naked Girls", that itself starts with studio chatter and false starts. Almost as if hinting that this is an album that doesn't start right off. Indeed, first listen exposes the beginning of the album as somewhat uninteresting. As if the songs weren't memorable. The second song "Mt" stands out for a slide-guitar sound that sounds almost saxophone like (perhaps humorously hinting at their saxophone ban?), doubled by strings.
"Inaugural Trams" evokes contradictory feelings. On first listen it sounds like a silly throwaway novelty track with its childishly jovial mood and Nick McCarthy's (Franz Ferdinand) German declamations. Lasting for five minutes, it may seem like a joke that gets old fast. Still, it takes guts to compose something in that vein. Besides, SFA has always flirted with kitsch. "Juxtaposed With U" anyone?
And as it often appears in the case of SFA, is that the repeated listenings tend to do justice to their material. SFA is being uncompromisingly themselves, despite what may seem hip or trendy. This makes it somewhat difficult to understand their music for the average indie fan. But the more reason for the listener to dedicate oneself to the band. Thus, even the opening songs on this album open themselves after repeated listenings.
In any case, the record really gets it going from the fifth tune, the energetic blues rock jam "Inconvenience". Sixth track "Cardiff In The Sun" is the first really masterful composition here - Beach Boys meets krautrock, pop poured into the motorik groove and form, an everlasting memorable melody.
The album continues to flow smoothly - "The Very Best Of Neil Diamond" is another good example of eccentric pop, both in terms of humorous songtitle as well as the blend of soul groove and eastern guitar lines. Towards the end, a more rocking SFA emerges. English "Where Do You Wanna Go" and Welsh "Lliwiau Llachar"arre moderately fast rock songs that show that rock done SFA style is quite enjoyable. The album closer "Pric" however is a brilliant kraut-jam, if excepting the last four minutes of ambient techno that cool it all down. Despite their veteran-band status SFA still makes intriguing records.
Super Furry Animals - The Very Best of Neil Diamond
28th of April saw the second concert in Estonia by the Canadian indie-duo Handsome Furs. Husband and wife band performed at club Juuksur as part of the concert series Odessa Pop.
Warm-up act was Mirabilia by ex-Dallas Holger Loodus (with Tanel Paliale - bass, Liis Jürgens - back vocals, FX and Madis Zilmer - drums). Mirabilia played pretty chamber-like indie pop that this time had a more acoustic flavor due to the absence of electric guitar.
The chamber-likeness of Mirabilia was a contrast compared to the intensity that soon was unleashed on stage by Handsome Furs. The duo played heavy music marked by wailing guitar and sharply pulsating beats and synths. HF's music was rather physical, as one could tell by their stage presence. The band lived into the music so much that sweat was pouring in creeks.
HF's performance was powerful and uncompromising. Even perhaps too much. The duo played with the same intensity throughout, except for one tune that saw the male part ditching his guitar. Inevitably, this makes their repertoire a bit samey. Then again, it is evident that they believe in themselves and enjoy being on stage.
The contact with public was good. As immediate communicators, they often threw compliments about how fantastic the public is and what a cool place to play Juuksur is. Despite their concentration mainly on the intense rocking, Handsome Furs is one of the most exciting acts in today's indie scene. And as one could tell, the second encounter with Estonian public was mutually pleasing.
Vinonaamakasio is the second album from the Finnish psychedelic post-rockers Shogun Kunitoki, who also performed in Estonia in 2005. Shogun performs retro psychedelic instrumental music with hints of krautrock and minimalism. They mainly use vintage electric organs as well as archaic tone generators and ring modulators. There are many bands with krautrock influences in today's music scene. Then again, the band sounds interesting compared to the others. Unlike making long monotonous guitar jams or emulating the old sounds (done with more awkward technology) on the computers, Shogun stands out for the hypnotic analog organ sound that sounds a bit rough and gritty, but nonetheless human and warm. Then again one could expect more from the band in terms of composition. Still, hopefully the band manages to develop in more interesting directions.
Everything She Touched Turned Ampexian is sixth studio album from the electronic musician Scott Herren under Prefuse 73 moniker. Prefuse 73's work (the moniker, by the way refers to jazz fusion before 1973) is underground hip hop laced with experimental techno leanings, where MCs are just one of the crazy textures among many, rather than a focal point. On this new album there's even more electro and the album is mostly instrumental. For those who like the late J Dilla, Prefuse 73's work is kind of like a more electronic and digital version of what Jay Dee did. The album contains 29 tracks and lasts for less than 50 minutes. Most tracks are short fragments. Therefore it is a record to be listened from start to finish. Prefuse 73 is certainly recommended for music fans sick of hip hop in its conventional stereotypes, but nonetheless open to the notion that even in the hip hop idiom it is possible to create something exciting and inventive.
Seeland was formed in 2005 by Broadcast's founding member Tim Felton and Bill Bainbridge from Plone. Influences: space-age pop, BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Joe Meek and sixties eccentric library music. In other words, one can expect from this group, now a trio with bassist Neil McAuley, kind of a retrofuturistic indie pop with electronic tendencies. Almost like Stereolab, but still in its own way.
Tomorrow Today is the first full length album following a single and an EP. The record combines 60s psychedelia, 80s new-wave and modern indietronica and the result is a charming, a bit of naive avant pop work. There are several strong songs here, the most likely candidate for a single is "Burning Pages". Experimental, yet accessible. Modern, but harking back to past. Mechanic, but warm and natural sounding. This is Tomorrow Today by Seeland.
Hush is third studio album by the NY-based shoegaze group Asobi Seksu (japanese for "casual sex"). The first two albums were more in the vein of MBV styled noisy guitar pop. Then the band shrunk to a duo - Japanese chanteuse Yuki Chikudate and guitarist James Hanna - and grew sick of guitar noise. New album is more centered on atmosphere and melody. The result is more similar to Cocteau Twins, despite how much the critics can see Asobi as the new MBV. For those who regard all neo-gaze bands as mere copies of original shoegazers, Hush won't convince them. Otherwise it is a fine atmospheric dream pop. Softer approach pays off, considering how quickly the possibilities of making noise become exhausted. This new album is certainly less guitar-centric, showcasing instead the tasteful layers of synthesizer. Hush may not be a genuine masterpiece, but it's certainly more masterful than, say Pia Fraus.
Tim Hecker is an ambient composer from Montreal, Canada and An Imaginary Country is his sixth studio album. Arguably one of his more accessible albums, this one's nonetheless a good indicator how to compose ambient-music that is more than a dull wall paper, something that absorbs the listener. Like Fennesz, one can detect the integration of noisy surface and melodic undercurrents. Unlike him, Hecker does not submerge the melodic elements under the noise, but allows the white noise to float above them, like nebula. The listener perceives the textures created by mellotrons, synthesizers and occasionally guitar and piano as well, as nebulous and hazy. The result bears some affinity to what shoegazers have achieved, but firmly in ambient vein. The album opener "100 Years Ago" and the album closer "200 Years Ago" contain a theme based on dramatic and memorable mellotron line that gives the album a bookend effect. Between the bookends there are ten more compositions that are good examples of the best sort of ambient-noise music.
Estonian fusion band BF has taken an ambitious approach on their new album Klob: to combine studio and live recordings as well as composed and improvised materials into a complex avant-rock work. The results are mixed. Weakest spots come across as random noodling, confirming the notion that free-improv is difficult to do well. Another matter is composed material. Particularly successful are the two compositions with brass section: "Jaanalind Diana" bears affinity to Phlox' "Rebimine+Voltimine" album thanks to that band's reedman Kalle Klein's soprano saxophone lines (intertwined with trombone). The horn theme of "Vapper Tinasõdur" is simply gorgeous.
While the improvised material is anything but easy listening, there are moments. For example, the intensity during the beginning of "Korrektor" that resembles Fred Frith's avant-rock power trio Massacre. Or the chaotic trombone and backward sounds during "Kadunud Päev". Klob may not be a masterpiece, but it's often an intriguing record. And its cover artwork is superb.
Baikonour is Frenchman Jean-Emmanuel Krieger residing in Brighton, England. He has been compared to Air, the most famous French indietronic act, but it's rather misleading. Contrasting the mellow-sounding naivete of Air, Baikonour refers to psychedelic kraut-rock instead. There may be slight similarities to be found with Fujiya & Miyagi (their drummer actually plays on this album too).
In terms of neo-krautrock Baikonour is definitely more masterful than many other performers in that idiom. The fusion of ambient, prog, indie and psych comes across naturally and there are several good tunes to be found, particularly on the second half. If there is something to criticize, then it is that the listener may get the feeling of oft-traversed territory. Baikonour certainly has potential, but more distinctiveness may be required to truly stand out. Who likes Your Ear Knows Future, should also check out this one man band's debut For the Lonely Hearts of Cosmos, which is even better.
Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq's live performance in Kumu served to prove two. First, exotic type of folk music and avant-garde experimentalism can be amazingly compatible. Second, that the power of music lies beyond convenient labeling.
The avant-garde composers and performers have always looked towards the folk traditions to create, in a seemingly ironic way, something new and exciting. For example, minimalist composers have often adapted the principles of Eastern music for their own conceptions. Avant-garde vocalists have often used their voice as an instrument rather than a tool to convey message. Tagaq's throat singing technique proved that voice-as-an-instrument approach stretches back to the legacy of archaic folk music.
Also, the entire concert was based on improvisation between Tagaq and Michael Red (electronics) and Kenton Loewen (drums). Improv and avant-garde have often gone hand in hand. Then again, folk music can also rely on improvisation very well. In short, the merger of folk tradition and the avant-garde seemed logical and natural in Tanya Tagaq's performance.
Even though according to the presskit Tagaq was said to blend the northern aborigenes throat singing with the indie-rock, such labelling seems misleading. Not only that the indie as such is a rather vague stylistic term by nature, but also because there actually were no elements in the performed music that one could associate with indie rock as an idiom understood in a certain way.
Rather, Michael Red's walls of sounds referred to the manifestations of the more cerebral kind of electronica (musique concrete, ambient, glitch, IDM) and Loewen's drumming spectre encompassed Jaki Liebezeit's hypno-grooving, Tony Williams' free-jazz touch as well as Chris Cutler's sonic conceptions (he used a violin bow on a cymbal, for instance).
Therefore, the power of music does not depend on stylistic frontiers or labels. However, it is found in sounds. And also performance, which was fantastic. Even if during the quieter parts Red and Loewen's accompaniment may have seemed a bit random, Tagaq still held attention with her impressive vocal technique.
The more intense parts however sounded almost danceable and hypnotic and in Tagaq's body movement on stage there was some sexual animistic suggestiveness.
For the "encore", they improvised again: it began with a melodic singing which proved that Tagaq can also sing quite beautifully without special tricks and it culminated with an interplay built on an even dancier rhythm. In summary, it was an exciting, new kind of concert music.
Lars Horntveth is the leader and multi-instrumentalist of a Norwegian ten-member electrojazz/post-rock/mini-bigband Jaga Jazzist. Kaleidoscopic is his solo album, where he performs with a drummer as well as members of Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, playing a long, continuous 37 minute composition. In this magnum opus one can discern less jazzy influences as could be expected of his main gig. The jazziest element is clearly Horntveth's bass clarinet work. Otherwise the composer combines influences from Bernard Herrmann style classicism (also referring to Steve Reich occasionally) as well as bedroom electronica and even folk, considering a section led by acoustic guitar towards the end. What we have is an interesting synthesis of classicism, orchestration and modern alternative music directions. Kaleidoscopic is a composition worth listening from beginning to end and it is also confirmation that Horntveth is one of the most forward thinking avatars of our current day progressive music scene.
Phantom Band is a new indie band from Glasgow, Scotland, that initially kept a low profile under other names. Their debut album as Phantom Band is produced by Paul Savage who is primarily known by the legendary Scottish indie group Delgados. The Phantom Band performs a rather rocking, with slight Scottish folk tinge, but nonetheless slightly experimental indie-rock wherein it is telling that the band is heavily influenced by Neu!. The sextet's songwriting skills are pretty good. What is more impressive is that the band can take their longer songs and make them not only capable of sustaining interest but even the highlights of the album, which is a great skill. "The Howling" is epic kraut-pop at its best, "Crocodile" a bold instrumental kraut-jam, "Island" visits the gospel folk paths a la Brightblack Morning Light and "The Whole Is On My Side" as an album closer is a fine slab of the best kind of avant-pop. A commendable debut album.
Austrian electronic musician Fennesz is arguably one of the most famous glitch-tronic artists, who has, combining guitars with laptop, created compositions where one can discern melodic beauty under the layers of clicks and cuts and white noise. It is the re-contextualization of melody under the digitally manipulated noise that made Endless Summer (2001) as one of the undisputed classics of the decade. This opus sounded like a pop album for the experimental electronica crowd. Even though the new album still features guitar as an easily recognizable element, The Black Sea is more ambient in nature. The pieces are longer, three of them over eight minutes. They, particularly the ten-minute title track, seem almost classical in construction. The album closer "Saffron Revolution" sounds quite transcendent. Not exactly the best Fennesz album, but nonetheless Fennesz has flair in his field.
American avant garde group Animal Collective, who also performed a memorable gig in Tallinn a couple of years ago, is one of the main acts associated with the nascense of the so-called freak-folk trend during the last decade. One can certainly note the folky tendencies on the album Sung Tongs (2004), that indeed presented the bold and crazy animal collective at its most acoustic.
At its most simplified one can say that with its crazy eccentricity, shamanic suggestion and spirited affinity to nature, Animal Collective does embody everything that is both idiosyncratically charming as well as overblown and self-important in freak-folk. Then again, AC is too eclectic to fit in to any stylistic limitations as implied by a "scene". They've covered a wide territory actually, from neo-psychedelia and progressive folk to krautrock and noise-pop. Merriweather Post Pavilion, the band's ninth studio-album, demonstrates that these post-modern neo-hippies as critical darlings have reached to the phase of electronic dance music. Merriweather Post Pavilion itself is a concert venue in the USA, that the band members have particularly fond memories from the childhood, that they've tried to put into their music here as well. AC recorded this album as a trio (of Avey Tare, Panda Bear and Geologist), given that Deakin took time off from the band.
Does MPP imply that AC has gone techno? It would be a sin to represent this album in such an oversimplified manner. It's true that the band's already hypnosuggestive motorik groove is now fed by drum machines and sequences and thus the myth of AC as archetypal freak-folkies is now apparently shattered for good. Otherwise, Collective has stilistically stayed true to their trademark psychedelic atmospheres and the overabundant multilayered nature of their arrangements. And actually the more prominent electronic elements simply underscore the notion that the trademark AC style and the basic essence of electronica are very compatible.
Certainly, MPP is one of the most accessible AC albums. That the songs longer than six minutes are now gone is but one fact to demonstrate it. The same band, who could put fifteen minute jams on the record earlier on. Some of the tunes, "Brothersport" actually have some kind of a "hit" potential.
Still the style of AC is so dense that it remains challenging to the conventional listener. This is still not easy listening. MPP, in its own way, is even more avant-garde than previous albums. It's a great art and challenge to condense ideas into a shorter format that are all too tempting to be expressed during 20 minutes as is the usual wont of experimental musicians. Animal Collective has risen up to the challenge well and delivered their most subtle record to date.
Megan Quartet, led by Tarvo-Kaspar Toome, performed actively up to 2000, blending psychedelia, free-jazz and fusion as well as improvisation and experimentation already at the late 1990s, before other Estonian bands such as Phlox, BF, Luarvik Luarvik et al began playing in similar style. Even though acts like Phlox have developed this kind of a post-fusion sound in even more exciting directions, MQ's third album Roadside Picnic (Estonian for "Väljasõit Rohelisse") is nonetheless a worthwhile record. Since this record includes more professional jazz musicians than could be expected from the latter post-fusion bands (bassist Mihkel Mälgand, Aulis Nemvalts on saxes and even guitarist Iljo Toming for one cut), I expected a slightly more drier and scholastic approach. Actually the record sounds more interesting than much of conventional jazz-rock. In terms of dymanics, development and juxtaposition of textures, the interplay is masterful, but diverting and tasteful. For the fans of the MKDK scene in Estonia, Roadside Picnic is a priceless historical document.
Parallax Error Beheads You, third album by British electronic musician Max Tundra, is a fascinating listening. This is more than can be said about most music having pretenses for the title "experimental electronica". Even though it is increasingly more difficult (if not already impossible) to create something truly new in electronic music, it is still possible to have a fresh approach. Tundra, who does not even possess avantgardist pretensions, creates music that I would use the following epithet about it: eccentric electronica. Tundra assumes the role of a British eccentric who combines pop melodies, dance beats and the dense, multilayered nature of IDM to create songs full of childlike playfulness, absurdist juxtapositions and charming naivete. Songs like "Witch Song" could easily be pop hits, but the joke would still be on the mainstream pop listener. Whereas tunes like "Nord Lead Three" and "Entertainment" are crazy stylistic maneuvers while "Until We Die" is an unbelievable synth-prog parody that has got to be heard to be believed.
The Most Serene Republic is an indie septet from Toronto, Canada and ...And the Ever Expanding Universe is their third studio album. TMSR certainly does not sound like a standard indie band, both in terms of tone colors as well as varied influences. In their music, there are shades of prog, 60s pop, electronica, psychedelia, even classical chamber music as indicated by "Patternicity". This instrumental piece is clearly the highlight of the album, raising their penchant for orchestration to a new level. If TMSR really wanted to, they could easily transcend the trappings of indie rock and create something phenomenal. Hopefully this album points the way towards future development.
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