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AgroCrag
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Re: The Indie Album Thread (moved) [Re: AgroCrag]
#8858604 - 09/01/08 12:49 AM (15 years, 4 months ago) |
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On the heels of brilliant success from early remixes and 2007's Reset, Flying Lotus releases yet another little gem of a record with Los Angeles. Lovingly adorned FlyLo by fans, Flying Lotus has always produced a fresher than fresh (mostly instrumental) electronic hip-hop sound. Ultra cool, futuristic, and representative of everything at the forefront of the title city's hip-hop and electronic music scenes, Los Angeles continues FlyLo s tricked-out lounge vibe just as well, if not better, than their previous releases. The liquidity of the tracks flows so well that it feels like a continuous stream and the next thing you know you re listening to Track 17. The EP's best new tracks include the outerspacey ''Beginners Falafel,'' the percussive and janky ''Camel,'' the lush and complex neo-soul ''RobertaFlack'' featuring Dolly (reminiscent of FlyLo's delicious remix of Mia Doi Todd s ''My Room Is White''), and the culminating pulsating ''Auntie s Lock/Infinitum'' featuring the soft vocals of Laura Darlington. Los Angeles is a beautifully complex and widespread full-length from one of LA's most creative and perceptive music producers. --Urb
Flying Lotus - Los Angeles http://www.myspace.com/flyinglotus

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Cinematic Orchestra's fourth studio album, Ma Fleur soars from start to finish. The disc opens with the all-too-brief "That Home" which showcases a new guest vocalist brought into the Orchestra clan, Montreal native Patrick Watson whose Coldplay-meets-Jeff-Buckley fragility fits inside the folds of the sparse melody perfectly; his contribution to the sweeping soundscape of closer "To Build a Home" proves equally spectacular, adding an increased vulnerability and richness to the music. "Time and Space," featuring enigmatic Lamb frontwoman Lou Rhodes, offers the perfect combination of vocal ache with the lushness of cello and violin, eventually expanding into a full contemporary-classical-meets-downtempo vibe. Former contributing vocalist Fontella Bass once again brings her timeless soul to the mix ("Breathe" and "Familiar Ground") which will delight longtime fans of the U.K. band. Fans of Cinematic Orchestra's more upbeat hip-hop and jazz numbers from previous releases will discover that there is nothing especially uptempo on this disc; in certain respects, the evenness of Zero 7 discs may provide a more apt comparison, contextually. While that may frustrate some, the power of Ma Fleur from beginning to end is a holistic package of sensuality and softness that makes for a nearly perfect, perfectly timeless release. --Denise Sheppard
The Cinematic Orchestra - Ma Fleur http://www.myspace.com/thecinematicorchestras
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AgroCrag
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Re: The Indie Album Thread (moved) [Re: AgroCrag]
#8858648 - 09/01/08 01:05 AM (15 years, 4 months ago) |
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When I started listening to Mono in VCF's self-titled album, I found myself becoming very curious as to what the next song might sound like or say. I felt like I had stepped back in time where people were holding up peace signs and speaking of free love. Their psychedelic sound has echoed voices, synthesizers, guitars, drums, and beautifully orchestrated strings. When all of these sounds come together, they mesh so well. Kim Miller's vocals will have you meandering through each narrative story that the band as a whole tells so well. Whether it is through the lyrics or the sound, Mono in VCF is a band worth watching. I believe that this band has potential to have great success.
Mono in VCF http://www.myspace.com/monoinvcf

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In keeping with the theme of yesterday's post, let me present to you another electronic act, this time of the electro-pop variety, Ms. John Soda. The band consists of Micha Archer ( The Notwist/13 & God) and Stephanie Bohm (Couch), and combines gentle grooves and the requisite blips and clicks, with Bohm's breathy vocals, which have an undeniable sex appeal.
Ms John Soda - Notes and the Like http://www.myspace.com/msjohnsoda
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AgroCrag
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Re: The Indie Album Thread (moved) [Re: AgroCrag]
#8858684 - 09/01/08 01:15 AM (15 years, 4 months ago) |
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The Sub Pop debut by this LA duo is succinctly all encompassing, from the faux simplicity of the title to the beautiful distortion of its sound, to the packaging that includes a 68-page full-color book packed with photos and art pieces. The record opens with a symphony of noise and sometimes creeps, sometimes smashes through a sonic headlock befitting "Daydream Nation"-era Sonic Youth, Kiwi pop, My Bloody Valentine, and experimental noise.
No Age - Nouns http://www.myspace.com/nonoage

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Since their debut in 1997, Wax Poetic have been mentioned numerous times as the "hip-hop" or "downtempo electronica" band where superstar vocalist Norah Jones got her start. She returns for two cuts on their sophomore effort, and they do still have elements of hip-hop and electronica, but my have they grown. Leader/saxophonist/all-around-visionary Ilhan Ersahin has shaped a loose collection of sidemen and a revolving door full of guests into a smart, adaptable unit of players who act as a modern day version of Motown's Funk Brothers or Lee "Scratch" Perry's Upsetters. The band benefits from their breeding at Ersahin's Manhattan club Nublu, a club/performance space that has Brazilian parties one night and a broken beat DJ the next. Nublu Sessions comes off as a weeks' pass to the club with reggae, house, jazz, samba, and just about everything else that is cosmopolitan, mixing together with Ersahin and Wax Poetic's vision and spirit holding it all together. Norah Jones' high profile appearances are more humble than expected and should cushion the blow for jazz-heads if her next album is full of atmospheric pop. Gruff reggae man U-Roy sounds as effervescent as ever, and N'Dea Davenport's turn gives the album a sparkling disco detour. Saul Williams' kinetic narrative commands his track as expected, but his message serves to break up an otherwise enigmatic album. Slow electro-click and smooth house numbers show up towards the end, and they're just as captivating and moody as the organic tracks. The Hollywood soundtrack gloss throughout the album may put off the underground snobs, but Wax Poetic understand both the sleek and the deep, and are smart far beyond their merely clever name. One listen to the warm and smooth, refined yet exciting Nublu Sessions and you'll wonder how you ever slinked across the loft without it. David Jeffries, All Music Guide
Wax Poetic - Nublu Sessions http://www.myspace.com/waxpoetic
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AgroCrag
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Re: The Indie Album Thread (moved) [Re: AgroCrag]
#8858701 - 09/01/08 01:23 AM (15 years, 4 months ago) |
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The band is known for their potent combination of sing-song boy-girl vocals, acoustic guitars, keyboard accents, and a tap dancer instead of a drummer, but this is their most sonically experimental album yet. They toyed with more instruments, voices, and bodily percussion than on previous efforts and have begun to forge a new musical path for themselves. The band invited everyone in their community to contribute to the cover art for this record, and every month it will have limited edition runs of handmade prints by different artists; or you could even create your own. This is a record into which you'll want to pour yourself.
Tilly and the Wall - O http://www.myspace.com/officialtillyandthewall

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Oh Man, after some serious anticipation and a bit of a delay the first Blank Dogs album is upon us. On Two Sides mines the very same nauseous deep space rot that his slew of 7 and 12"s laid down in the past year. Still chock full of drain pipe synths and tin-foil scorched vocals but with that ever-present burble of a catchy melody just brimming under the surface; each second of this album reverberates like tarnished chrome and nerve gas shocked into life by a low current bleed from bare wires. Seeing as up 'til now Blank Dogs rarely scratched the 4 track mark its great to see how cohesive he is on the long player. Chem-roasted synth punk bleeds its way into tortured bouts with narcoleptic dance paranoia up to its knees in yesterday's blood. This is the second release of the year and its only April (though this was slated for March), and I've no doubt in my mind that the dominance of '08 by Blank Dogs begins here.
The Blank Dogs - On Two Sides
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AgroCrag
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Re: The Indie Album Thread (moved) [Re: AgroCrag]
#8858721 - 09/01/08 01:30 AM (15 years, 4 months ago) |
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On these eleven tracks, the two headstrong musicians dabble in the principle of contingency by taking on the connections between techno and IDM, yet they extend the original horizon with their thoughtful way of production. Ellen Allien's keen sense for a heavy bass-keynote gives Apparat's melancholic superstructure its cathedral of sound-adhesion, and with the involvement of Apparat, Ellen Allien's "brainish" music comes alive again. Together, the two interpenetrate, empathize and move their own artistic borders.
Ellen Alien & Apparat - Orchestra of Bubbles http://www.myspace.com/berlinettte

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As with jazz-oriented departure Duper Sessions, Phantom Punch is a group effort. Sure, Norway's favorite son is still at the center of the action, but his fourth is billed as Sondre Lerche and the Faces Down. In other words, this isn't a singer/songwriter affair, but rather Lerche (vocals, guitar), Ole Ludvig Krüger (drums), Morten Skage (bass, percussion), and Kato Ådland (guitar, keyboards) on power-pop pills. (Inara George from the Bird and the Bee contributes backing vocals.) While the album isn't a complete change of pace, it does represent a shift into slightly harder-edged territory. Like shoes that haven't been broken in yet, the results are mostly successful (they look sharp, but pinch a bit). Lerche has never denied a debt to tour mate Elvis Costello, but now he’s sounding a little like Costello's pals in Squeeze, surely one of the most tuneful acts to emerge from the new wave era. If Phantom Punch has a flaw, it's that Lerche's hooks aren't as pointed as they could be, a problem with his work since auspicious debut Faces Down. Granted, it isn't a major matter, and beautifully sung numbers like "Say It All" and "John, Let Me Go" are among his best. But he hasn't yet drafted a ditty as memorable as, say, "Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)," and there's no doubt he's got the talent to do it. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Sondre Lerche - Phantom Punch http://www.myspace.com/sondrelerche
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AgroCrag
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Re: The Indie Album Thread (moved) [Re: AgroCrag]
#8858761 - 09/01/08 01:49 AM (15 years, 4 months ago) |
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Fans of Death Cab for Cutie will remember how the Postal Service seemed to put Ben Gibbard on a cloud of keyboards, away from the grit of Death Cab's guitars and drums, making the singer seem almost ethereal. With Handsome Furs, you have a similar musical concept, pairing Wolf Parade singer Dan Boeckner with Alexei Perry (as Gibbard did with Jimmy Tamborello), but the effect is stunningly different. Here, Boeckner isn't calmed down by the spare synthetics and drum machines. Instead, he's dystopian in his lo-fi bellow, ricocheting between electro-drums with mid-tempo guitars either strummed acoustically (as on "Snakes on the Ladder," awash in synths and yet clattering) or laying down a thick-set distortion that's a fine foil for all the electronics. The nine tracks run a tad samey-same, but that's at least part of their charm. They and assert Boeckner anew as a prescient, skeptical voice, coarsely toned and draped in machine-sounding music even as he inveighs against the post-modern world--technology and urban living and traffic and so on. --Andrew Bartlett
Handsome Furs - Plague Park http://www.myspace.com/handsomefurs

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A friend of mine saw this group open up the show for Iron and Wine in Brussels a few weeks ago and suggested I check them out and so I did and I found a great album of subtle songs nearly as minimal as the Daisuke Miyatani album I mentioned a couple of weeks ago here on 50ft only add singing to the mix. Here you will find sparse instrumentation and whispery singing gentle enough to lull you to sleep. Listening I was reminded of an old favorite, Corina Repp. The name of the album I have is Polar Life and I believe it is a fairly recent release and is worth checking out for those of you who love quiet minimal music as much as I do.
Sleeping Dog - Polar Life
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Walking paradox
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Re: The Indie Album Thread (moved) [Re: AgroCrag]
#8858771 - 09/01/08 01:55 AM (15 years, 4 months ago) |
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thanks for the myspace links man! hate to say it though, but your thom yorke ep doesnt work, needs itunes validation.
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AgroCrag
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Re: The Indie Album Thread (moved) [Re: AgroCrag]
#8858777 - 09/01/08 02:00 AM (15 years, 4 months ago) |
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On this release, the duo move beyond their trademark wall of sound with additional instrumentation, including lush strings, guitar, and horns to back up their already honed melodic songwriting.
Mates of State - Re-Arrange Us http://www.myspace.com/matesofstate

Remixes of Figurine Songs, some very nice sounds on this album
Figurine - Reconfigurine http://www.myspace.com/figurinedatacenter
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AgroCrag
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yea, just don't use itunes for it, I use winamp so some of the albums might be DRM protected and I don't know, but thanks
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AgroCrag
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Re: The Indie Album Thread (moved) [Re: AgroCrag]
#8858818 - 09/01/08 02:15 AM (15 years, 4 months ago) |
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Velvet Underground meets the Stooges in a Sonic Youth tribute band on an AM station just barely in range. The vocalists sound like those whiny little kids from "The Wall" when they hit their late-teens. If you like Guided By Voices, Yo La Tengo, Pavement, or Man Man, you will probably like Times New Viking. Most bass lovers will hate this album. In fact, most people will hate this. "That's the point, man! You're not supposed to 'get it.'"
Times New Viking - Rip it Off http://www.myspace.com/timesnewviking

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The second album from Pacific Northwest pop group the PARENTHETICAL GIRLS--ZAC PENNINGTON and DEAD SCIENCE members SAM MICKENS and JHEREK BISCHOFF (who also is a regular contributor to XIU XIU and CASIOTONE FOR THE PAINFULLY ALONE). Beginning where their previous (((GRRRLS))) album left off--on the same sweat-and-menstrual-blood-soaked summer lawn--the album takes a sonic leap forward, pitting Pennington’s plainspoken and startlingly corporeal apparitions with kitchen sink experimentation and dark pop arrangements. Creepy, dirty, and beautiful.
Parenthetical Girls - Safe As Houses http://www.myspace.com/parentheticalgirlsband
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AgroCrag
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Re: The Indie Album Thread (moved) [Re: AgroCrag]
#8858847 - 09/01/08 02:27 AM (15 years, 4 months ago) |
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Comprised of master crate-digger Joel Martin and rising dance-music star Matt Edwards (aka Radio Slave), Quiet Village make the old sound new and vice versa. Influenced by Italian film soundtracks, BBC library music, disco edits, acid rock, vintage soul and easy listening, they combine the most unlikely elements- bluesy guitar, chamber strings, air-raid sirens, shuffling breakbeats, even flutes and seagull cries--into an hour-long reverie with in soft focus.
Quiet Village - Silent Movie www.myspace.com/quietvillage

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"Belle and Sebastian are from Glasgow, but fellow Glaswegians Frightened Rabbit are nothing like B&S. Instead, they display their city's love of another sound: rough-edged, unpolished indie rock. On their charismatic debut Sing the Greys, Frightened Rabbit keep the instrumentation simple-- drums, bass, guitar, and straightforward washes of keyboard and accordion. The arrangements, too, are linear and humble, often blending shaggy elements with rigid ones to create a sense of purposeful drift. Setting loose guitar jangle against a tight bass pulse, the excellent "Yawns" finds singer Scott (just Scott) wrapping his coarse moan around some stirring moments of relationship inertia ("She yawns because she's bored/ He yawns because he can't sleep any more"). "Go-Go Girls" starts off tightly coiled, with a hellacious circular bassline zipping through volleys of percussion, before cascading into a triumphant garage-pop shuffle. "
Frightened Rabbit - Sing the Greys www.myspace.com/frightenedrabbit
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AgroCrag
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Re: The Indie Album Thread (moved) [Re: AgroCrag]
#8858876 - 09/01/08 02:33 AM (15 years, 4 months ago) |
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This is the second album by Electric President (Ben Cooper & Alex Kane), made in the same shed in Jacksonville Beach, Florida as their previous records and in Alex's bedroom. The wind blows the sounds away. It's foggy. Beads of dew glisten on the leaves. Outside, in the small tool shed, the light is still on. The ocean is not far away. Concentration and contemplation: for over 13 months, Electric President recorded what Ben Cooper calls a ''middle of the night record;'' his "12 pop songs about dreams and nightmares." Dreams and nightmares is what Sleep Well is about -- shadowy and inscrutable atmospheres, the border landscapes of our existence where the fog and the wind passes the sounds over to us. As British as sea-shanties, these songs seem to disappear into echo spirals.
Electric President - Sleep Well www.myspace.com/morrelectric

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The third release by Seattle cult-faves Carissa's Wierd (do not adjust your spell-check) is as emotionally uplifting as a drizzling, endlessly gray day in the Pacific Northwest. But then that seems largely the metaphorical point: whose spirit hasn't felt this dampened? This is sensitive, sophisticated acoustic pop as an ever-troubled Brian Wilson might have imagined it in some alternate, sun-deprived universe--sad and depressed, yet spiritually resonant and beautifully realized. There's a crucial fine line between morose and moody, and the band pirouettes with grace along its boundaries here. The delicate vocal harmonies and counterpoint of "You Should Be Hated Here" and hypnotic, minimalist-inspired interplay of strings and keyboard on "The Piano Song" belie the album's seven-day, largely in-studio gestation, while shuffling dirges like "Silently Leaving the Room" and "Farewell to All These Rotten Teeth" tap into a seeming stream-of-subconsciousness vein that's seductively mesmerizing, while the nervous "Sofisticated Fuck Princess Please Leave Me Alone" suggests there's still something seething beneath the album's languid mood and dreamy, musical torpor. Produced with understated grace by Death Cab for Cutie's Chris Walla. --Jerry McCulley
Carissa's Weird - Songs About Leaving
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AgroCrag
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Re: The Indie Album Thread (moved) [Re: AgroCrag]
#8858909 - 09/01/08 02:42 AM (15 years, 4 months ago) |
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If P4k and Stereogum spazz out about some new buzzworthy band, I could care less. But I relate to, uhm, Fuck Buttons. And as strange as it sounds, their melodic take on noise is nothing entirely new, yet at the same time their sound is refreshingly indulgent. What the buttons do best on Street Horrrsing is simply that; they make melodic noise accessible.
Not to mention, this album has some of the best transitioning I've heard in a while. As smooth as it flows it's a wonder how this mixture of laptop breakdowns and circuit bent instruments equals such etherealness. I really want to see these guys preform with Caribou during their US tour to see how they translate live. I believe there's a certain refined intelligence leaking within the sound waves of the preschool toy microphone, where the static of ironic screaming is blissful in the sense of musical progressivism.
Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing www.myspace.com/fuckbuttons

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This record finds the band skipping sampling antics in favor of a lighthearted "cosmic pop" record made entirely out of synthesizers. The exotic and antiquated synths used here heavily spotlight the classic 60s/70s/80s consumer electronic rigs of Arp, Korg, Roland, Waldorf, and Moog. But there are also one of a kind curios present
Matmos - Supreme Balloon www.myspace.com/matmos1
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AgroCrag
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Re: The Indie Album Thread (moved) [Re: AgroCrag]
#8858939 - 09/01/08 02:52 AM (15 years, 4 months ago) |
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While the Deftones were racking up millions of album sales around the world and collecting Grammy Awards on the back of their apocalyptic metal sound, front man Chino Moreno was endlessly tinkering away on this side project that seems to owe more to the ethereal-electronic moods of Radiohead. Team Sleep may not add any extra decimals to his bank account but it reveals that the singer is not just another testosterone-fueled crybaby. Working with guest singers Mary Timony (ex-Helium) and Rob Crow (Pinback), plus DJ Crook and Hella drummer Zach Hill, Moreno has made a beautifully crafted album that doesn't employ a single note of distortion or angst without complete intellectual engagement. Really, it's hard to imagine the dude from Papa Roach coming up with a sideways tribute to ivy-league schools ("Princeton Review") or a song inspired by an Edgar Allen Poe poem ("Tomb of Liegia,") --Aidin Vaziri
Team Sleep www.myspace.com/teamsleep

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It's not too hard to imagine what the Besnard Lakes' record collection might look like after hearing the eight songs here--the Beach Boys and Spiritualized taking position somewhere near the front--but that doesn't break the tantalizing spell cast by the Montréal husband-and-wife team of Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas. A dreamy cocktail of West Coast harmonies, glum strings, and fuzzy psychedelic arrangements, the disc is something of a bleak masterpiece that takes after the Arcade Fire's Funeral. Songs like "Disaster" and "Devastation" (it's not too hard to detect a theme, either) rattle around on wobbly guitars and shimmering electronic effects until they spill over in a big rumpus, driven on by a six-person band and five-piece choir. The group's main attraction, however, is Goreas, who has a softly sensual voice pitched somewhere between Hope Sandoval and a wet, warm kiss behind the ear. --Aidin Vaziri
The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse www.myspace.com/thebesnardlakes
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AgroCrag
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Re: The Indie Album Thread (moved) [Re: AgroCrag]
#8858942 - 09/01/08 02:53 AM (15 years, 4 months ago) |
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the rest will be put up tomorrow, for now its time to sleep
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AgroCrag
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Re: The Indie Album Thread (moved) [Re: AgroCrag]
#8860395 - 09/01/08 12:55 PM (15 years, 4 months ago) |
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The Notwist make music that's at once impossibly personal and hugely inviting. This release is their most important and moving to date, in the band's nearly 20 year career. Markus Acher's singular voice surrounds you with all the comfort of familiarity, the euphoria of re-acquaintance. It takes a while before the words and the scale of the musical language sink in. The deluxe limited edition is a hard-bound book with full color 24-page insert.
The Notwist - The Devil, You + Me www.myspace.com/notwist

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This is a nice one. Beautiful, easy lisening, electronic music. I would apply the term "chill", if that didn't conjure up images of over-packaged, completely generic compilation albums featuring glossy cover shots of sunsets and leather chairs. There is also something very organic about this music. The opening track, and album highlight, is enough to convince you that this stuff is worthwhile. I would compare the slow build of "Broken Monitors" to a band like Broken Social Scene. In fact, some of the tracks on here could have almost fit on their last self-titled album (BSS). There is a warmth to these recordings that is truly commendable. Forget "bleeps" and "glitches", and other sounds of digital technology gone awry. Sometimes it's nice to just have songs. Chilled-out electronic tracks for people that like rock music. Throw this on next time your waiting for your flight at the airport. You won't be disappointed.
B. Fleischmann - The Humbucking Coil www.myspace.com/bfleischmann
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AgroCrag
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Re: The Indie Album Thread (moved) [Re: AgroCrag]
#8860428 - 09/01/08 01:01 PM (15 years, 4 months ago) |
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The Pirate Ship Quintet have recently been causing quite a stir in the UK and further afield post-rock community. Incorporating trumpet and cello into an inventive post-rock line-up, TPSQ have stumbled across a gorgeous sound that they alone hold. The band come from Bournemouth and Bristol, a member of the band splitting their time between TPSQ and The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (!), and are planning to tour extensively after the mcd is unleashed. Whilst there are others in the genre that seem to shape a similar atmosphere in their music the eight members that comprise The Pirate Ship Quintet are masters of it, creating entrancing, rapturous epics that sweep one away on waves of emotion. Worryingly for their contemporaries this is only their first release, so they can only get better!
The Pirate Ship Quintet www.myspace.com/thepirateshipquintet

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There has always been something about John Darnielle’s lyrics; even when you’re not exactly sure what he’s talking about, it always feels like he’s telling it like it is. Not that metaphor is a major player on The Sunset Tree, the latest album from the Mountain Goats (of which Darnielle is the founder, frontman, and once only member.) Songs like "This Year," "Dance Music," and "Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod?" are painfully honest about his traumatic childhood and abusive stepfather. You might think that an album about child abuse would be hard to listen to, but as always, hearing Darnielle's lyrics is an honor and a privilege. Trying experiences are captured with deceptively simple statements (is there any better expression of determination than "I will make it through this year if it kills me"?) On this CD, Darnielle also remembers revered (yet cocaine-addled) reggae star Dennis Brown. ("It took all the coke in town to bring down Dennis Brown. On the day my lung collapses, we’ll see just how much it takes.") Though the Mountain Goats have apparently done well enough for Darnielle to quit his day job as a nurse, they don't yet have all the fans they deserve. Don't wait to join the fold. --Leah Weathersby
The Mountain Goats - The Sunset Tree www.myspace.com/themountaingoats
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AgroCrag
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Re: The Indie Album Thread (moved) [Re: AgroCrag]
#8860469 - 09/01/08 01:09 PM (15 years, 4 months ago) |
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With his premiere release on Lookout Records, Ted Leo makes a significant creative leap forward from the body of his substantial catalogue. By fusing the punk and retro-pop elements of his musical history with a noisy affection for 60's blues rock formulas, The Tyranny of Distance showcases some of Leo's best songwriting to date. Laden with falsetto hooks and overtly romantic observations of the world, he is able to control combinations of aggression and sentiment and focus them into highly melodic expressions of pure emotion. Leo places himself next to songwriting greats such as Billy Bragg and Elvis Costello through lyrical wit and intelligence and with The Tyranny of Distance proves that he is one of the most creative, forward thinking songwriters in the underground. ~ Nate Cavalieri, All Music Guide
Ted Leo and The Pharmacists - The Tyranny of Distance www.myspace.com/tedleo

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Tortoise is a band for whom it is very hard to nail a description. Instrumental post-rock? Electronic? Jazz? Sure, all of it... and then some. TNT begins in a very organic fashion with a strong jazz foundation and gradually becomes increasingly electronic through the end of the album. It's becoming quite rare to find albums released within the past 10 years that actually qualify as a genuine "listening experience," but this is certainly one of those albums. TNT takes you on a ride, one in which you cannot predict where the ride is taking you because of the music's highly unpredictable nature.
Tortoise - TNT www.myspace.com/tortoise
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AgroCrag
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Re: The Indie Album Thread (moved) [Re: AgroCrag]
#8860556 - 09/01/08 01:22 PM (15 years, 4 months ago) |
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The first entirely non-Broken Social Scene related signing for Arts & Crafts, Most Serene Republic are like their younger cousins from Milton, Ontario. A band who practice at the end of a dirt road and have lovingly sponged elements of indie rock from the last 15 years and made it their own--their sound is innocent and wide-eyed, raw and idealic. Rocking with a youthful spirit & optimism. Will be touring with Broken Social Scene.
The Most Serene Republic - Underwater Cinematographer www.myspace.com/themostserenerepublic

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King Khan: the wig-wearing half of the King Khan & BBQ Show, a former Montrealer, and current Berliner. Along with his eightpiece Shrines, he's one of the most promising contemporary welders of genuine psych and soul. Progressing from 2002's Three Hairs and You're Mine, the band, electrified by horns and organ, zaps the 14 songs of What Is?! like James Brown's voodoo child, especially the vintage licks of "69 Faces of Love," "I Wanna Be a Girl," and "Fear & Love." Khan's sly humor ("Gimme something loud and proud!" he demands as horns purposely skronk out dischord) only adds to the bizarro vibe that keeps What Is?! from sounding jokey. Even when "Le Fils de Jacques Dutronc" rips the riff from "You're Gonna Miss Me," the rest of the song rides a wave of sublime Nuggets fuzz.
King Khan and The Shrines - What Is www.myspace.com/kingkhantheshrines
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AgroCrag
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Registered: 11/11/06
Posts: 858
Loc: Imaginationland
Last seen: 12 years, 8 months
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Re: The Indie Album Thread (moved) [Re: AgroCrag]
#8860604 - 09/01/08 01:32 PM (15 years, 4 months ago) |
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Luke Fischbeck has been making Lucky Dragons music for almost seven years. He is an industrious tinkerer, and very clever with words. He has made so much great music in the past seven years that States Rights Records recently released a retrospective of his work entitled Sewing Circle. Fischbeck's latest album, Widows, was recorded on three separate occasions, then endlessly torn apart and mashed together over the course of a year. One of the things Fischbeck discovered with this album was "a tradition of American culture that I agreed with, even felt inspired by. This is my attempt at making American music - music that describes and remembers and criticizes and embraces and expresses and illustrates and ornaments and digests and shits out what it means to be American." With an impressive array of instrumentalists and Fischbeck's established talent, Widows is truly mythical, mystical, and amazing.
Lucky Dragons - Widows www.myspace.com/luckydragons

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You Make Me Feel" is an album which has found itself in near constant rotation every morning in the offices. When Mike sings, “something good is going happen” you can’t help but feel he’s right. His melodic, electronic vignettes are like blossoms unfolding in darkness. Even songs seeded in sadness are lined with bright, melodic hope. Mike Milosh expertly manipulates notes to take on fresh life and sounds - having erased his classical music training, in favour of unique self-construction. Throughout the album, light tones and static-clad drums roll under intricately treated vocals. His voice floats in on delicate waves that explode into exhilarating being. Milosh crafts emotional tones to stir strong reaction. You Make Me Feel is an album that guarantees instant and lasting attention. Ears glow and heads nod to the caress of each romantic composition. The more you listen the deeper you drift. Mike Milosh pulls all the right strings without forcing a thing. Lovely.
Milosh - You Make Me Feel www.myspace.com/milosh
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