NMT: Simian Mobile Disco's 'Delicacies'

This is the third studio album from the UK based electronica band and it definitely sets it self apart from the previous two electronic pop albums. This is sans-singing electronic album that sounds it best at loud volumes on headphones.

What you can take from the name and the names of the tracks is that this may have something to do with food, seeing as each track is named after some form of edible that at least some culture in the world would deem a 'delicacy'. Seeing that and keeping track of my foods as the album plots along let me really feel how these pieces all seemed to be composed with that particular dish in mind. Now without lyrics, how would you do that?

Well with track one "Aspic", the beat has a noticeably bouncy quality. I know. A bouncy beat and that is easy to bob ones head to. That sounds like electronica. True, but its particular bouncy-ness adds a bit of wiggle with some of the more interesting synth effects used. This only lead me to look up/remember what exactly aspic is. A gelatinous meat-salad of sorts. Needless to say, I laughed a bit and it only made me appreciate it even more.

The rest of the tracks follow this same sort of concept. If you pay attention to the title and keep mind of it, you'll be able to come to your own conclusions on how you see the dish in mind exemplified within the music. These are sonically interesting and full sounding and have no lack of thumping bass, thus this album shouldn't turn off old fans too much, though I could see how the lack of a more easy to pick out pop song could distract some listeners. It is definitely album thats more rewarding with the more thought you put into it, unlike many musical peers of the artist duo.

As far as the instrumentation goes, it is still as aggressive and dark as most of their previous work, just minus the pop-song structuring. Taking away the voices has allowed them to explore more as electronic artists and this is what Delicacies really is. An electronic music concept album thats succeeding at getting you to bob your head while simultaneously allowing them to explore their own artistic thoughts without having the pressure of delivering a new club hit like "Hustler".

But they aren't one to go down with an album that doesn't have something that is immediately applicable to playing in front of the wanting crowd, so the second disc (51 minute long 9th track on digital download) is a mix of Delicacies prepared properly for mass consumption.

Simian Mobile Disco - Delicacies -> 4.1/5

If you're interested in an... interesting video of theirs, watch this. Though if you're a vegetarian, you would probably prefer to not watch. It has one of those "I want to stop watching, but I keep watching for some reason" vibe. So yes, its a bit creepy and probably not safe for work unless you want some judgmental looks.

*Bonus* NMT: Smashing Pumpkins' 'Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, Vol. 2: The Solstice Bare'

The second volume of the Smashing Pumpkins' *cough* (Billy Corgan's), massive 11 volume project by the name of Teargarden by Kaleidyscope was released in limited edition vinyl and cd sets. This makes the overall title of the four song piece, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, Vol. II: The Solstice Bare. Yes. Thats a mouthful.

Only two of this collection have been released for free public consumption and downloading via their website ('Freak' and 'Spangled'), but it is possible to listen to the first and third tracks on YouTube.

Since there are only four songs I'll do individual reviews of each.

'The Fellowship' starts off this selection of four with an erratic keyboard riff that builds up the powerful chorus belting out "are you with us tonight?", which, thematically, is a pretty good way to draw the listeners in and get them excited for the rest of the package. Fortunately the song itself escalates enough in sound and presence to earn the songs title and chorus. Its appropriately bombastic and grandiose, similar to (but not nearly as epic sounding as Vol. I's first track, 'Song for a Son').

Following up 'The Fellowship' is the current single 'Freak' that has apparently been floating around. For those of you who did not thumb your nose at Zwan, you'll like this track. Its ability to be heavy and uplifting at the same time, coupled with Corgan's signature voice just immediately launches pictures of white backgrounds with rainbow guitars flying every which way. Not much to say other than 'Freak' could have easily been squashed between 'Endless Summer' and 'Baby Lets Rock!' on Mary, Star of the Sea.

'Tom Tom' starts off smoothly and flows into a chorus more along the vibes of that of Infinite Sorrow era Pumpkins, while not sticking to old formulas. Lyrically mystical and distinctly Corganesque, this is my favorite of the four. Hopefully a higher quality is available for download on the website soon? (I'm talking to you Billy. Streaming from YouTube doesn't do you justice.)

Rounding out The Solstice Bare is 'Spangled', whose harpsichord love song beginning sets you up for a music genre meandering song that borders on a medley of musical styles. Just listen. Strings come in and out, horns mutedly accent the pre-chorus and then it all ends in an intimate sounding, warmly distorted measure on the guitar. This is a well crafted song and a great pop piece that would appeal to a lot of different people.

Smashing Pumpkins' Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, Vol. II: The Solstice Bare-> 4.7/5

If you go to their site, you can download the 7 of the 8 total tracks off of Volumes I and II.

NMT: Röyksopp's 'Senior'

Röyksopp's latest album Senior is the follow up to last years fun, guest heavy, pop-electronica album Junior in more ways than chronology.

The Norweigan duo used Junior as a platform for exhibiting and displaying the raucous, energetic, all frills side to their music which has been present since the beginning. The addition of vocals and heavier, faster, danceable, and hook laden tracks showed a dimension that the duo had alluded to on past albums Melody A.M. and The Understanding. With those moods fully fledged and explored, they were aptly named Junior to exemplify the youthful energetic aspects of their musicality.

Where Senior comes in is as more of a counterpoint, than a follow up. A yang to Junior's yin. Where Junior was youthful and exuberant and sporadic, Senior is a carefully developed electronic soundscape virtually devoid of any of the dance beats and youth of the previous album. It is an example of a sound maturing not unlike (at least to me) the comparison of Brian Eno's work with Roxy Music, and his later ambient albums. Its not better or worse. Its an evolution. You can hear in the album, Röyksopp exploring with many of the methods they used on their freshman and sophomore albums. Applying their earlier sensibilities to the more developed Junior pallet, has their sound ending up sounding wiser. Slowed down, toned down, with hardly any hooks other than the retouching of Junior's 'Tricky Tricky' with 'Tricky Two'.

Another way you could compare these albums and thus understand Senior more as a whole would be to relate Junior to the first two thirds of a party. Its all energy, dancing, exciting, but it gets followed up with the more downplayed introspective end to the party. When most of the people have left and people are really sitting down and talking and getting to know eachother. Its cathartic and ends up feeling a bit deeper. This is how Senior feels to me. Its definitely meant to be ingested as a whole and leaves me feeling how I think Röyksopp meant for it to.

'The Alcoholic' at five minutes long, sounds as if it has been at least a bit influenced by the Boards of Canada, and that is not a bad thing. This track and 'Tricky Two' are the most standout tracks on the album, but that doesn't undermine its value as a whole. If you want an album experience that allows you to really think a bit introspectively, as well as wonder what their motivations and inspirations were, you will love Senior.

Röyksopp's Senior-> 4.4/5

Oh and the video for 'The Drug' is pretty interesting. Check it out.

Cold apartment? Time to bake.

In the interest of furthering my ever-behind culinary skills, I picked up some cake mix and icing mix at Trader Joe's about a month back. Then I wanted to make the cake. This was when I realized that I didn't have any cake pans, making me delay my baking expedition even moreso. Needless to say, after getting the pans and realizing I was not too worried about an upcoming test, and motivated to make something nice for Becca, I finally followed the instructions and made an actual cake.

For the first time.

Yes, taking a picture was an afterthought of chowing down.

Yes, I've helped people make cakes and cupcakes and muffins over time, but I've never really held the reigns and I was a bit intimidated coming into my first time doing so. I know. No biggie. But considering the love and lust I have for baked goods, let alone CHOCOLATE baked goods, you have to understand realizing that I have the ability to churn out my own morsels of happiness is an exciting thing. This is not the end of this. It feels like the floodgates have opened, and its honestly more exciting than cooking to me. While I like thinking of various sauces and experimenting a little with food, the sugary-baked things are just a bit more tantalizing to me than the cooking. This could change. But for now I'll blame my Mom. And my Dad for giving me all the trouble for not getting the cooking merit badge while I was in Scouts.

A pleasant benefit to the baking was its ability to act as another heater in the apartment. These are colder times in Portland, with the high this past weekend being 38 and tomorrow's high being 30! You know what that means? Snow. I finally live in a place with snow. Albeit its only supposed to be a couple inches, but rest assured I'm taking pictures tomorrow. It should be nice lighting too as its going to be partly sunny after the snowfall of the night.

Another pleasant side effect of a colder apartment are scenes like this:

Becca-made curtains in the back! Oh, and a cute cat and girlfriend.

Anyways, I'm glad to be trying to get this writing more consistent than just music reviews. Though I enjoy those too and I'm looking forward to tomorrow's new album. I'll be reviewing Senior, Royksopp's follow up to 2009's Junior (a personal favorite).

NMT: Stereolab's 'Not Music'

The last Stereolab album I had was Emperor Tomato Ketchup and it served up at least a few months of repeated listening when I first discovered it my freshman year of college. That was an amazing album that I would rate at about a 95%, so, with my limited knowledge of the rest of their work, that album will be my reference. Now I know this album is made up from the remainders of the recordings used to make 2008's Chemical Chords, but I'm aiming to look at this objectively as its own album.

Now I do like the general whimsical quality of their more standard tracks, I do get a little bored with the opening track, 'Everybody's Weird Except Me'. While I like Stereolab a lot already, hearing a song that sounds like their sound generalized and homogenized down into an odd summary of the sound just doesn't work for me. It sounds more like someone trying to describe their sound, than it actually sounding like them.

Moving past the negative part, the entire album is not at all in line with this.The second track is a bit tame until it evolves at the break down with a bit of Herbie Hancock-esque funky instrumentation. This is when the album really started to grab my attention a bit more. 'Silver Sands' is another hi-light of the album embracing a bit more experimental sound for them with some thumping synths sounding like it'd be at home in a TRON landscape.

While the album itself is definitely a pleasant listen, I have just had a hard time being 'wowed' by it. It has its high points that you would likely be different than what I notice, but as far as having a funkier, jazzier pop album to listen to when you're not really paying attention, you could do better and listen to one of their older albums. Its still enjoyable, but leaves me feeling a bit unfulfilled.

Stereolab's Not Music-> 3.4/5

But who knows, with the way things go for me, I could see myself coming back to this entry and adding that after numerous listens I realized my previous feelings were completely unfounded. Meh.

High Fidelity

Finally getting around to a life-related update as opposed to the impersonal NMT reviews I've been doing, here is an update.

Rebecca and I have been putting a lot of work into sprucing up our little downtown Portland apartment to really feel more like home so we've done a little IKEA-ing and a lot of simplifying and reorganizing. Highlights are Becca's beautiful curtains she made for the front room, some bought light-eliminating curtains for the bedroom (sleep tight :)), a much-needed bookshelf, wall hangers for my guitars, and a nice lamp for ambiance and such. Pictures of all of these changes and such will follow, hopefully with some pictures of the pretty fall colors before they're all slimy on the ground.

What this update really is more about is that I finally got to set up my record player that I bought a couple months ago. Along with that, I found the old poster sticky material I still have left over from the dorms for helping me lay the cables for the surround sound around the room. I have to say. Nice smooth vinyl sound through the well set-up (imho) surround system coupled with a good amount of hard surfaces makes for a decent listening room.

Record player. Cheap, but good old records. Becca's cool gold-painted stand. Good times.

A side effect of having the record player available for ready use meant that we had to go raid a local record store for more records. Luckily we found Everyday Music's bargain section. 50 cents a piece with Oregon's lack of sales tax makes collecting old beat up records not very harsh on my wallet. With my nine records for $9.60 and Becca's eight for $9.00 even, I'd say we did pretty well.

$18.60 worth of good decisions.

My purchases: 2001, A Space Odyssey score; Bad Company's 'Straight Shooter'; Jim Croce's 'Life and Times'; Dire Straits' 'Dire Straits'; The Doobie Brothers' 'Taking it to the Streets'; The Doors 'Strange Days'; Heart 'Little Queen'; Jethro Tull 'Aqualung'; Warren Zevon's 'Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School'

Becca's conquests: Donavon in Concert; The Best of the Lovin' Spoonful; Joni Mitchell's 'For the Roses'; Simon and Garfunkel's 'Bridge Over Troubled Water'; Cat Steven's 'Tea for the Tillerman' and 'Teaser and the Firecat'; a collection of Renaissance instrumentals; Puccini

Overall a good haul and lots of good repeated listening times are ahead.

Oh. And here's a picture of the cat looking for attention when we were taking pictures.

Silly Samwise.

NMT: Invisible Hand's 'Invisible Hand'

New Music Tuesday has become just NMT, since I do it consistently enough, I deem it worthy of shortening.

This week I found an exciting new band's debut full album (not to discount their various smaller releases over the past couple years). Fronted by Adam Smith (heh heh, get it, Adam Smith and the Invisible Hand), this band hits me in pretty much all the right places. This good impression was improved especially when looking them up and finding they would love to be described as influenced by The Kinks (a personal favorite). Though I don't find too much to be similar in their sound, I can see the influence of the spirit of that mid-late 60's garage-pop-rock sound, mostly exemplified by the energetic band accompanying the much more modern sounding voice.

While I don't think I could venture out and say that this is 'the new sh*&', I am definitely happy with this album. Witty lyrics coupled with solid production and composition fills the album with the more experimental sounds arriving in the first half of the tracklist.

'Two Chords' starts off the album with an introspective tone, and is appropriately followed by the energetic 'There's Room In My Will', which lets you know a little more of the tempo and sound they seem to be the most comfortable with.

I could talk plenty about the rest of the album, but I think I can just save you the time by just suggesting the album to you in that this is a great rock album. Not rawk. Just good rock and roll with solid songwriting, melodic hooks, fun tempo changes, and some decent harmonizing. You'll do yourself a favor dropping the $10 or so on this.

Invisible Hand- 'Invisible Hand'-> 4.6/5

And as a suggestion. Try listening loudly through a surround sound system. Theres a lot of the production you will miss without the proper listening device.

New Music Tuesday: Brian Eno's 'Small Craft On A Milk Sea'

Brian Eno is one of those guys I've known about forever. Heard about forever. Probably even laughed at jokes about his ambient records and talent in recording an album with everyone ever. Hell, the only album I listened to with his name on it before was his 2008 project with David Byrne. I tried to listen to some Roxy Music, but it didn't pull me in right away.

But this. Wow. When I heard 'ambient' and 'instrumental', I didn't think of music that would be very volatile or moody. I thought of light, thoughtful soundscapes barely above the par set by those Target ambient CD booths. Obviously I'm an idiot.

The textures and sounds on this album are full and all encompassing, no matter what the mood is. While I enjoy the more whimsical beginning, I REALLY enjoy the descent into the darker moods in the title (and third) track. The album itself works as an emotional roller coaster with '2 Forms of Anger' being the emotional downhill speeding car. It builds emphatically from a tense thumping to a cacophony of sound and adrenaline at ~2:09.

The album works itself back to a greater, but suspicious calm with the immediately following 'Bone Jump'. The most I can say about this album is that each song elicits a specific and intended emotion and I love the way this 'background' music and influence the particular mood that I am in face experiencing. A very interesting album to drive with at a loud setting, and it definitely should be digested as a WHOLE. Not in single track snippets.

Brian Eno - 'Small Craft On A Milk Sea' -> 4.4/5

Listen to the whole album streaming here.