The Weekly Froth #2
Los Campesinos!
Eighteen million blogs (I don’t know, but you get the idea), even more songs: it’s really hard to chart that. So lets not pretend to do such a silly thing here. Instead in this weekly column we go ahead and talk about a rather random take of six tracks that came to our attention through the blogosphere in the past week. The songs are collected from Wednesday to Wednesday, and we quickly and swiftly review them here. The Hypem links make sure that you can listen to the track if you haven’t heard it yet so you can instantly disagree (or in a stunning move, agree) with what is said about it. And hopefully you come across something you like but had overlooked in that ever-crowded internet.
Track of the week: ‘These are Listed Buildings’ by Los Campesinos!
Have there ever been songs more wordy than those of Los Campesinos! I sometimes wonder. Whatever the outcome of that questions may be, after a slightly more subdued song they are back in the jangly pop area with this one, of course with those catchy stanzas in which Gareth pours a waterfall of words onto his audience. If you are able to divert your attention from the lyrics you might also notice the pretty nifty guitar play that can be heard underneath it and which leads you right into the chorus. A chorus which even has some kind of “oe-ah-oe” backing vocals. It is less daring — or perhaps less of a departure is better wording — than the track that came out a few weeks ago, but it is nonetheless another fine addition to the ever growing oeuvre of this hard working band. Plus their tracks always give you some nice lyrics to work with, although my current interpretation on this one probably is too twisted, as usual.
http://soundcloud.com/loscampesinos/there-are-listed-buildings
’5th Sun’ by Pictureplane (Heliopolis Mix by Rainbow Arabia)
I saw Pictureplane live recently in Amsterdam and was not entirely convinced by his music. He occasionally finds a good beat, but more often than not he disturbs that by adding some additional noises. And probably there are some very valid and modernist reasons as to why he disturbs this flow, yet in my opinion the music doesn’t get prettier because of it. The reverse quite so actually. Naturally, as this is a remix, possible disturbing elements are taken out by Rainbow Arabia, but the song does now have to deal with some Arabic noises as part of the trade off. Personally I’m not the biggest fan of that genre, so those additions I could have lived with out. It also seems as if the synths have to take a step back on this one. It does sound better than the original, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it will be on heavy rotation in this house. Not at all actually.
http://hypem.com/track/928789/Pictureplane+-+5th+Sun+Heliopolis+mix+by+Rainbow+Arabia+
‘Love Like A Sunset’ by Phoenix (Animal Collective remix)
Animal Collective and Phoenix are perhaps the most critically acclaimed bands of this year. With that said – and I am sure you will not agree with me on this one – these two bands did not click with me at all this year. And the same goes for this remix really, not surprisingly now of course. To me it sounds as if Passion Pit is trying to do a “serious” song here. The vocals are too sterile and smooth for my taste, always a problem I have had with Phoenix. The remix seems to trot along going nowhere. Probably it is intended as an atmospheric song intelligently produced with every layer calculatedly starting and stopping at exactly the right moment. And perhaps it indeed does so, but with me it doesn’t click, and quite frankly I was fairly bored fairly soon with this remix.
http://hypem.com/track/924983/Phoenix+-+Love+Like+A+Sunset+Animal+Collective+RMX+Deakin+s+Jam+
‘Horchata’ by Vampire Weekend
To me, “sandals” is probably the least poetic word in the dictionary. Combine that with words as “horchata” and “balaclava” and I’ve already lost all interest just based on aesthetics alone. Vampire Weekend and me have never seen eye-to-eye though, as their style does not coincide with mine at all. So not surprisingly my opinion of this song isn’t very high. Vocally I don’t really like it as well, especially the way he lengthens the words on, for example, “handle” and “sandals”. The cheery music does not make me cheery at all, and at the end something which I can only identify as being flutists come in to do some happy slappy version of Patrick & the Wolf, or whatever they do. The appeal of this band has always escaped me with great vigour, so lets just say that if you weren’t a fan of the band already, this will not convince to be one now.
http://hypem.com/track/928376/Vampire+Weekend+-+Horchata
‘Pearl’s Dream’ by Bat for Lashes (Skream’s pour another glass of champers remix)
The good thing about Skream is that even if you don’t like the artist Skream makes a remix of, you might still like the track. This remix has a bit of a haunting atmosphere along with some hypnotizing beats. Natasha Khan’s voice sounds a bit on the fragile side here and there, but her vocals do suit the song and the atmosphere really well. If you are waiting for some break-and-go bit as Skream did on that La Roux one you can wait a while, but it would also have been quite inappropriate to put it in a track like this one. Although there is a bit at two/thirds of the song where Skream strips it down and the focus is solely on Khan’s vocals, but after that Skream puts on the same drums as before that intermezzo. But it does work good enough for it to make an interesting track.
‘Dust Cloud’ by Bear in Heaven!
Psychedelic rock group Bear in Heaven will release the album Beast Rest Fort Mouth, which is the follow-up to Red Bloom of the Boom released two years ago. With old-fashioned guitars and drums they build up the song instrumentally and try to sweep you along for the ride, and it succeeds in doing that quite nicely. The singing goes per word instead of per sentence, which nine out of ten times will annoy me to absolutely no end, but here it works fine. At the end he stretches the words quite long, but it suits the atmosphere. It is not really an immediate song, one that you can put on at any time of any day and in front of a few friends, but it does have a good structure and a good build-up. And the vocals fit the song quite nicely. I can see it working really well under certain circumstances.
http://hypem.com/track/926780/Bear+In+Heaven+-+Dust+Cloud
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