2: Caribou - The Milk Of Human Kindness [re-visit]

There is still something that keeps me at a distance from this album, and I think it's because the album doesn't have a very satisfying flow. Those short tracks littered throughout the album are annoying, too abrasive, too short and the fact that a lot of the other tracks are quite long at 5 mins plus, coupled with the drowsy nature of the music, makes this a difficult album to get on with sometimes. Which isn't at all to say that I don't like it still, it does nail a tone, or vein, consistently, it's just a bit too disjointed for me.

If you're looking for an ultimate summertimes experience, play Black Moth Super Rainbow's Dandelion Gum, then Milk Of Human Kindness and the then The Bees (or Band Of Bees, for the US) Octopus, all three albums have the same spectacularly chilled summer-time analog charm about them. A nice way to spend the first few hours of my 22nd birthday!

6: Gui Boratto - Cromophobia

It’s strange how a thing described as ‘minimal’ can sound so maximal. And I can see other weird contradictions in minimal techno, down-tempo chilled songs can also be loud and up-beat, tracks can be void of any emotion or melody, (‘Terminal’), and then full of those things, (‘Acrostico’), within the same album, and all supposedly performed under one style. The tracks on Chromophobia certainly don’t sound minimal, they are full to the brim with clicks, clacks, beeps and bops, a giddying amount of information and at lengths of 6 or more minutes. Which makes me think that maybe the ‘minimal’ refers to the way the sounds are programmed, with normal techno you get broader strokes and bigger beats, whereas with minimal you get truncated hard little bits and pieces, and it’s more about the tone and singularity of those pieces than it is about any overwhelming body-suffusing rush, as you would get in normal techno. But I’m not sure about all that, I don’t have enough knowledge or empathy with techno to really know what I’m on about.

What I do know is that Gui Boratto’s Chromophobia is an excellent album, a mixture of dour, chilly, warm and gorgeousness. It’s one of the first few minimal techno/electronic releases that I am comfortable in calling brilliant, or confident in saying that I know well, hopefully it is a gateway album for me. The title means a fear of colour, and the album certainly starts out that way with the first 5 tracks an expressionless group. Which, as I have mentioned, isn’t a bad thing, the very texture of the components of each song are a joy to listen to, I found myself singling out particular sounds and following their progress with great interest, and they are so busy that there is a lot to keep you occupied, the dourness and chilliness only adds to the fascinating texture. Even so, it is a relief when the two middle tracks ‘Chromophobia’ and ‘The Blessing’ mark a change in tone, (it could start to get wearying listening to that first texture alone for a whole album I feel), the former has a dollop of funkiness to it and a slow analog, feedback-synth sound winding away in the background and coming to the fore near the end of the track. The latter has an orbiting synth and keyboard sound that sounds a lot more like ‘typical’ techno, but in a muted playing-in-the-next-room way, we get the usual bits and bobs littering the front of the track, razor sharp and shiny. After those tracks we get the warmer side of the album, songs are generally shorter and perhaps a little less bursting at the seams. ‘Mala Strana’ is a slow ambient surge, with piano playing, which comes as a bit of a shock when you remember the front of the album. Next is ‘Acrostico’ which continues with the ambience-laden long tones, but the melody here is more pronounced and very positive sounding, gorgeously blissful and content. ‘Xilo’ sounds like a Ms John Soda track sans vocals, ‘Hera’ returns slightly to the former tone of the album, but with a cave-like production and synth pads supplying some melody, ‘The Verdict’ is a bassy meander, with a skittering static beat and a new-wave keyboard riff 2/3rds through.

Special mention, (it’s own new paragraph and all!), must be made of ‘Beautiful Life’, which comes between ‘Xilo’ and ‘Hera’ at the back of the album. This 8 minute song is much more like what I would expect of a piece of music labelled techno. A looping, loping two chord strum that sounds a little like processed guitar serves as the base of the song, with a simple steady beat appearing front and centre, while a keyboard riff (that sounds a bit like Kraftwerk’s ‘Tour De France’ theme) is played over and over. What really makes the song, though, is when these elements fade out and then back in again at about 2 minutes, the beat is somehow harder and more insistent and the guitar-like riff suddenly expands into a chord progression, a soaring fist pumping validating anthem. And then Boratto’s wife sings ‘What a beautiful life, what a beautiful life, what a beautiful life’, with a rising of intonation on the last ‘beautiful life’, a happy and blissful delivery that is obscured by a bit of static or something, which only adds to it’s power. These elements explode and collapse periodically throughout the song, the repetitious and, yes, minimalist quality of the song lend it an implacable propulsion. I can well imagine pogoing like crazy in a dark, sweaty and baking hot club, losing my shit to this life-affirming piece of brilliance.

Well, this is many more words than I was expecting to write about this album, but it obviously made a good impression on me. I feel more confident now about delving into minimal techno/IDM/micro house because I know that I can love an album’s worth of the stuff. I think I’ll be checking out Pantha Du Prince this coming week as someone said that it is like the Gui Boratto album, but with more swing and flexibility.

Gramm - Personal Rock

Gramm is like the slow gush of morphine into your body, blood rushing, sluggish heart thumps, overlaid with metallic pinpricks, oily pings in high definition, an aural embrace. Jan Jelinek (the man behind Gramm) is pretty damn good, I have found. I'm familiar with Kosmischer Pitch, (under his own name), which came after this Gramm album. It has similar characteristics: an overall drone threaded throughout, a sort of druggy insulated atmosphere, but without minimal techno's shards of beats. Personal Rock is orgasmic to listen to, I can sometimes forget that music doesn't need melody or emotion for me to really connect with it, the masterful craft that has gone into this album is clear. I will work my way through this guy's work in the next couple of years - his stuff under the name Farben and as his own name (especially Loop-Finding Jazz Records, which I really like the idea of) - I think I have possibly found a new favourite artist here.

This Mix Doesn't Exist - Vol. 1

New feature! I shall talk briefly and at length about various tracks that I have recently come across and enjoyed, but, at the risk of making these posts worthless, I won't be offering any actual music because I am a lazy boy and I'm not 100% on the legality of such a thing, (or even on the possibility that anyone would find out and prosecute me for it). But you will find the band names link to their myspaces or last.fm pages, where you can usually find some of their stuff, if not the actual track I'm banging on about. The label names will link to the label websites where there might also be some music hosted.

This Mix Doesn't Exist - Vol. 1

1) "Modern Leper" by Frightened Rabbit from The Midnight Organ Fight on FatCat Records from 2008

A leper is used as a metaphor for a social leper. It's about not fitting in, feeling other from scoiety. The music is played in such an uplifting euphoric way, it leaves you with a sense of triumph about feeling this way, about feeling fucked up inside but being able to deal with that, and finding whatever silver-lining you can from it.

2) "Right Hand On My Heart" by The Whigs from Mission Control on ATO Rcords from 2008

Sweaty rock, chiming notes and churning riffs and powerful rhythm section with a catchy chorus. All more nuanced than you might assume, I would say "intelligent songwriting" if I could be sure of what I meant by that.

3) "Precursor (Feat. Quadraceptor)" by Amon Tobin from Supermodified on Ninja Tune from 2000

Brazillian born electronic artist, mixing hip-hop, drum and bass, jazz and shit. The album is imposing and heavy, but somehow I still find it really accessible. This track's molested jazz is different to the rest of the album in sound, but the spirit is definitely the same. The scat squeaks run through my head at unexpected moments during the day.

4) "Way Out" by Ellen Allien & Apparat from Orchestra Of Bubbles on BPitch Control from 2006

Really exciting electronic/techno stuff. The album is a mixture of textural glitches and fragments married to over-arching melodies and overt pop sensibilities. Allien's vocals don't appear often on the album, and although she can be great at singing, you don't really miss it because there is so much going on in each track you never get bored.

5) "Brief Candles" by The Zombies from Odessey And Oracle on Repertoire from 2008 (expanded anniversary edition, original album released in 1968)

Brilliant album, a psychedelic, folky, r 'n' b, British Invasion sound with some of the most sublime melodies . This song feels like a partner to The Kinks' "Waterloo Sunset", loneliness in the prettiest sense.

6) "The Swimming Song" by Vetiver from Thing Of The Past on FatCat Records from 2008

This song is originally by Loudon Wainwright IIIrd, from 1974. I Love the lyrics, about being in a bad way, but pulling through, empowerment. Softer and better recorded than the original.

7) "Ohio Heat" by Super Furry Animals from Love Kraft on Epic/Sony BMG from 2005

I Picked up this album for cheap (£1.99 brand new), presumably because it didn't sell as much as the record company expected. I probably wouldn't have bought it otherwise because SFA never really interested me. But it is a really solid album, playful and interesting. Great chorus here, and overall atmosphere.

8) "Move On Up" by Curtis Mayfield from Curtis on Rhino from 2000 (a reissue)

The contrast of his sweet falsetto smoothness and the busy funk filled track is brilliant. The horn hook slays, I never get tired of hearing it. What really propells this track is the percussion, bongos on a rapid pace, with drum kit and a latin feel to it all.

9) "Screaming Hand" by Jay Reatard from See/Saw 7" on Matador from 2008

Bit of an odd transition, but there is a similar propulsive energy, I feel. He has previously done garage rock/punk stuff, but it didn't really grab me. But a new 7" series on his new label Matador have been distinctly more pop oriented. Love the twanging chiming guitar near the end.

10) "Colorado" by Grizzly Bear from Yellow House on Warp from 2006

Strange ephemeral feel, slippery and hallucinatory. Beautiful, in it's way.

11) "Opened Space" by Grouper from Cover The Windows And Walls on Free Porcupine from 2006

This album has knocked me out. It seems like guitar-based solo songs, electronics and tape manipulation are used. Basically, a shit-ton of reverb and/or echo is used to layer notes so that they merge and slide about each other, with the vocals so indistinct as to be wordless chanting. Yet the emotional core of this solo-songwriter guitar music makes it's ghostly way through the murk, unsettling and lulling.

12) "Jesus Walk With Me" by Club 8 from The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Dreaming on Labrador from 2007

Swedish duo making soft pretty and bittersweet pop music. While I can't support the specific lyrical message, I can the jist. The line "Well if God made me/Well then Jesus saved me" is delivered brilliantly.

13) "Cigarettes" by Russian Red from I Love Your Glasses on Eureka from 2008

Spanish singer/songwriter who sings in English with a country twang which makes her voice sound a little like Joanna Newsom. Fragile and powerful song.

14) "No Need To Cry" by British Sea Power from Do You Like Rock Music? on Rough Trade from 2008

This is by secondary songwriter Hamilton, who is brother of main songwriter Yan. I usually prefer Hamilton's voice and songs, not sure why. This is buried near the end of the album, but it is one of the best songs. I think it perhaps gets over-shadowed by the crashing brashness of the front of the album, but some of those grandiose songs leave me cold. There is a strange soul influence to the music of this song, and a great late night under water production job. Lovely and weary.

5: Awesome Color - Electric Aborigines

Woops, a day late.

This album ties into the mid to late 60s garage rock stuff I’ve been getting into lately, it was released earlier this year on Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace label and is their second full length. From what I’ve read, their last album was influenced by The Stooges and that is still in the sonic make up of the band, powerful throbbing rock that blurs into towering interlaced riffage, not unlike Sonic Youth, and a more grooving r ‘n’ b feel is in there too, check ‘Come And Dance’. ‘The Moon’ is a totally kickass track, the best results of all the different parts that make up the band’s aesthetic, firing on all cylinders.

I really like this album, but I think the constraints of listening for a week then putting down my thoughts about the album is showing through, I don’t know it as well as I’d like to before writing about it. So maybe I’m going to be a little looser about when I post stuff from The Album-A-Week Project.

their myspace