JUNE: This Month’s Releases In Full
words: Jamie Milton
The highlight of my month was seeing the lead singer of Friendly Fires sweat it out on the new turf of the Glastonbury Other Stage with the campest dance routine for some time. It worked, and the crowd loved it. It goes to show, all you need is energy, enthusiasm and people will find it difficult not to warm to you. Even though the greatest entertainer alive has passed, there’s still room for his take on wowing an audience. Hopefully in time, the crop of stars who merely look uninterested, staring down blankly will be abolished. It’s not one of the biggest problems in music, but it might be for live music.
In the recording studio however, things have brightened up. June has been our busiest month to date, releases coming in from all sides. Results vary, but the uniting feature of all, bar a couple, is this sense of determination to make something not just special, but vastly different. This was highlighted first and foremost in our album of the month, Dirty Projectors’ ‘Bitte Orca’. Dave Longstreth incorporated an “accessibility factor” into the record which I declared “makes the whole listen stick in your head rather than forcing you to scratch it in bewilderment.” Kasabian, a less likely act to twist and turn in such style, also produced a forward-thinking record that made no mistake of attempting to abolish a lager-swigging status thrown at them so early in their career. However, I saw it as an unsuccessful move: “It’s when the band stick to their guns that they become a more formidable prospect.”
A couple of “veterans” did indeed stick to their guns, with mixed results. Eels returned to some hostility and criticism towards his latest ‘Hombre Lobo’ concept album. Often deemed safe and restrictive, for an album that covered one single subject, ‘desire’, more could have been made of it. On the EP front, Deerhunter returned after only a short while with their surprisingly tight and coherent ‘Rainwater Cassette Exchange’, a project that provided an “even more accessible Deerhunter than the band exposed on the last record.”
Debut albums came thick and fast, artists ranging in the size of hype that upheld them. La Roux produced the finest debut of the year to date, a real shock to the system, a record refusing to be dictated by a couple of hit singles. We Were Promised Jetpacks followed a trend of emotional, Scot-bred songwriting, tweaking the sound of Frightened Rabbit and producing something more damaged and edgy. Let’s Wrestle released their first album proper: one “prolonged, aggressive but intelligent chant of triumph.”
The surprise of the month came in the form of Jack Penate – a previously interesting pop star but never one to make a fuss about, his Paul Epworth produced sophomore album inhales African guitars, drums and spirits, carrying the soul and confidence he exited with from his debut. Future Of The Left also turned more heads that previous with their latest. Matt McDonald put it best: “Future of the Left are still nowhere near a headline slot at Glastonbury and a multi-million pound sponsorship deal with Pepsi. But each and every one of their songs communicates the idea that they would never want to be.” That was June.
JUNE’S RELEASES, IN SCORE ORDER:
Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca 8.8 [mp3: Two Doves // alt ]
La Roux – La Roux 8.8 [mp3: Colourless Colour // alt ]
Jack Penate – Everything Is New 8.3
Future Of The Left – Travels With Myself And Another 8.3
Deerhunter – Rainwater Cassette Exchange 8.0
White Denim – Fits 7.9
We Were Promised Jetpacks – These Four Walls 7.9
Broken Records – Until The Earth Begins To Part 7.9
Sunset Rubdown – Dragonslayer 7.8
Eels – Hombre Lobo 7.6
Let’s Wrestle – In The Court Of The Wrestling Let’s 7.5
Dinosaur Jr – Farm 7.1|
Amazing Baby – Rewild 6.7 [mp3: Invisible Place // alt ]
Regina Spektor – Far 6.7
Kasabian – West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum 6.1
Little Boots – Hands 5.0
The Gossip – Music For Men 4.3
ALBUMS + TRACKS: 140 character reviews
words: Jamie Milton
It’s about time we at MFM actually made use of twitter instead of just declaring to our followers how much we hate the BNP all the time. This feature might be a one-off, we’ll see what the response is like. Here, we’ll review this week’s notable album releases as well as any new tracks that have exposed themselves over the last few days. Excellent, let’s begin…
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ALBUMS (kasabian + dirty projectors)
mp3: Kasabian – Where Did All The Love Go? [alt]
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TRACKS (blk jks + jay z)
mp3: BLK JKS – Molalatladi. [alt]
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That took longer than I expected…Anyhow, was quite fun so look out for more of these as well as the bog-standard, “I’m quite intelligent” types that we much prefer.
ALBUM REVIEW: Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca
words: Jamie Milton
originally scribed for thisisfakediy
Making what you do best ‘user friendly’ is a horrible process, bordering on torturous. From a reviewer’s perspective, it takes talent and guts to become a Smash Hits writer. From a musician’s perspective the same blood, sweat and tears have been necessary for Dirty Projectors in transferring their inventive, exploratory ideas into something more simplified and accessible. It’s not as if record sales are at the edge of Dave Longstreth’s lips – perhaps it’s merely another chapter in their adventure as a band, to explore lower heights. But any criticism towards their previous releases was concentrated in at their, some would say, unnecessarily complex songwriting.
In ‘Bitte Orca’ they maintain a sense of superiority over an everyday modern pop act, whilst incorporating one outstanding detail into each and every song, an accessibility factor, shall we say, that makes the whole listen stick in your head rather than forcing you to scratch it in bewilderment. Said moments come in the form of Longstreth’s passionate outburst of “Bitte Orca! Orca Bitte!” over and over in ‘Useful Chamber’, a move you can anticipate slightly due to the occasional burst of energy from the raw guitars. There’s also the opening sound on the record, the warped, swerving chord-section on ‘Cannibal Resource’, setting the agenda of what’s to come from a surprisingly, instantaneously impacting record. Or more noticeably, there’s ‘Stillness Is The Move’, an unnerved attempt at a fully fledged R’n'B hit, assisted by Angel Deradoorian’s hypnotic and tuneful vocal delivery, akin to the likes of Carey and Aaliyah and proud to declare it. Crystal-clear background adds any sparkle and glamour required, to obstruct the dominant, acute guitar riff that somehow adds to the sense of innocent pop.
Variety in songwriting (from ‘Sleepyhead’-esque blogosphere wet dreams to more gently applied acoustic numbers) plays copycat with the individual moods reeking out of each of the nine tracks. ‘Two Doves” homage to Nico with the lyric “Don’t confront me with my failures” is just a minor part of what comes across as a joyous tribute of love – building in momentum until an interruptive string section suddenly jumps into the heart of the song. These gradual changes are most evident in ‘Useful Chamber’, dipping in and out of the pop glitz of ‘Stillness…’ the blissful acoustic plucking of ‘Two Doves’ and the full-frontal obnoxious furore of the opening two tracks – it’s the testing point for any casual listener just arriving for an addition to a house party playlist, the definitive album highlight and the absolute example of Longstreth’s determination in applying ridiculously innovatory artistry into more commonplace song textures.
But the most noble achievement of ‘Bitte Orca’ is its maintaining of every ounce of integrity and pride the band came into the studio with before they even considered making this gutsy move. In comparison, yes, ‘Bitte Orca’ is a strong streamlining of what they’ve made previous, but when looking at the big picture, it’s still the most inventive and at the same time, provocative album any band has released for a heck of a long time.
8.7
mp3: Dirty Projectors – Useful Chamber [alt]
mp3: Dirty Projectors – Remade Horizon [alt]
TRACK REVIEW: Dirty Projectors - Stillness Is The Move
words: Jamie Milton
Diverse instrumentation, verging on the point of showing-off, is the consistently taken route on ‘Bitte Orca’, an album that’s heading straight towards becoming Dirty Projectors’ ‘breakthrough’ of sorts. It would be plain stupid to think any of these songs could come close to being Radio 1 favourites, commercial successes, but ‘Stillness Is The Move’ is the closest thing we’ll get.
It’s funny how such complex pop songs can be so instantaneous and likeable on sheer merit of the perfectly placed vocals. They’re at their most terrific in this song, backed by sharp drum patterns and the disjointed guitar hooks that become close to home on ‘Bitte Orca’.
The vocals are such an integral part of this song but they remain free spirits, going as they please, aiming towards flawless pop but staying disfigured because of the hectic, sporadic background. It’s clever stuff.
82%
mp3: Dirty Projectors – Stillness Is The Move (zshare)
MFM @ HYPEM
