Gold Panda - Lucky Shiner

Hey dudes. I'm really sick today, I've been coughing and sneezing all week plus last night I woke up at around 5 AM and could not fall back asleep. So I laid in my bed for 3 1/2 more hours trying to sleep, but I couldn't. So in addition to the sniffles and a headache I was also fatigued throughout my whole body to the point where I couldn't stand for longer than 3 minutes, and I could barely keep my eyes open. I'm a little better now, but I still feel pretty crappy, so I'm gonna keep this post short so I can go relax a little.

Derwin Panda, more commonly known as "Golden Panda", is an electronic music producer from London, and though I haven't heard any of his music prior to "Lucky Shiner", judging from this I can tell you his music is composed mostly of really vintage synth effects arranged in a manner that sounds more like a modern House song; with a four-to-the-floor beat and a lot of repitition. Another thing I picked up on is that a few of the songs also have a bit of an Asian/Indian vibe to them. The tracks are catchy and danceable, yet still maintain an element of Lo-Fi in them, which I dig, as that is what's gonna probably keep it from entering a lot of cheesy clubs.

What makes this album so good to me is how there is almost nothing like it right now in the current electronic music realm, a lot of groups that use vintage sounds don't make songs that I could dance to (Neon Indian, Ariel Pink) and I'm sick of most of the good danceable electronic music, as it's getting really played out now. "Lucky Shiner" could possibly be my electronic album of this year. So give it a listen, it might be yours too.

9/10

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Salem - King Night

Hey, it's me.

I've finally gotten around to actually making new posts almost every day, how exciting! I feel like over the past few months my writing capabilities have greatly increased. Partly because I've been taking writing courses in school which resulted in me writing a lot more, but also because I've been reading and writing a lot of reviews, so the quality (in my opinion), and quantity of my posts have increased. I can now write a whole review in the time that it took me to write a brief bio for a band in one paragraph. Turns out writing more makes you better at it, who knew?

The album we have here is Salem's debut album "King Night". Salem is an electronic trio from Traverse City, Michigan. They have been garnering a lot of hype with this album because of the band's unique combination of electronic and shoegaze with dirty south rap, resulting in the creation of what could possibly be the most unusual genre of music I've seriously ever seen in my entire life: Witch House (also known as Crunk Shoegaze). In theory, this new style of music seems like it would sound like shit, but you'd be surprised at how differently you'd think it would sound prior to actually listening to songs of said genre.

I actually really enjoyed the first track on the album "King Night", which is also the title of the album, and it gave me a really good first impression on what to expect for the rest of the album: dark, gloomy, atmospheric electronic music backed by what sounds like opera singing, and if the rest of the album sounded like this I'd think they'd really have something going for them. The following tracks "Asia" and "Frost" also really impressed me, keeping to the same characteristics maintained on the first track, with Frost even having some swirly, hollow female singing that really made that particular track that much spookier.

Then it happened. I got to the fourth track "Sick", and I heard those sampled "Yeeuhs" found at the beginning of any hip hop song, only they were slowed down, and then some slowed down, deep voice started rapping over the track, and that's where the album died. The fact that they slowed it down a lot did make it sound a little better as it gave it a sort of more horrifying sound, but it still doesn't change the fact that they just had to throw some rap in there. At first I hated it like sickness, but since I listened to it over and over for the sake of reviewing, I started to like it more and more. So if you don't like it at first, you might like it after a few listens.

I think most of the tracks on this album would kill at a Halloween party, and this album should definitely be on your autumn playlist. I don't think it'll be much of a spring/summer album though, so enjoy it now!

8/10

(I had to take the download link down, the record company complained to blogspot, perhaps it's a sign you should purchase the album instead!)

Sufjan Stevens - The Age Of Adz

I remember when I first heard that Sufjan Stevens was undergoing a "50 States Project" in which he was going to release one album for every U.S State after the releases of "Greetings From Michigan" and "Come on, Feel the Illionoise!". I got really, really excited for further albums as those two are probably still my favorites. I remember wondering which state would be next, would it be California? Or Minnesota? Or Maine? Then he released "The BQE" around this time last year, and suddenly I wasn't so excited anymore. I hated The BQE and I began to dread any further disappointing releases, at that point I didn't care which state was next. To my relief I later learned that the 50 States Project was just a joke, and many months later he released "All Delighted People" this past August, and I liked it. I began to look forward to release of "The Age of Adz", which isn't to be physicaly released until tommorow but has been released electronically to those who pre-ordered it, so naturally now it's all over the internet.

I'm going to get the obvious out of the way and just say that this is his first album with elements of electronics. There's use of drum pads and synthesizers all over the place. Of course in theory the idea of adding electronics to his trademark baroque orchestral/folk music sounds like it only go one of two ways: disastrous or incredible. Rest assured; he incorporates it in very well, as it appears enough for me to be aware of it's existence, however I can tell he still made sure not to allow it to take charge, overpower and become the primary focus of the album (minus the track "Get Real Get Right").

On the other hand, this album really suffered a lot in that it didn't have as many of those grand orchestral moments, where the power of all the instruments coming together wows you so much you feel like it should be the soundtrack to a montage of you trekking through the wilderness of North America. I found those moments were a lot more common in his previous works, this album doesn't feel as full in sound as often as before, with the obvious exception of the 25 minute masterpiece "Impossible Soul", which, despite it's long length (it's a well known fact that I'm not a fan of long songs) is my favourite song on the album. Having both it's quiet, minimal and loud, full moments, of both classical and electronic instruments (even including a vocoder), it was a great way to conclude this album.

I was really liking this album by the time I finished listening to it, especially the introduction of electronic instruments, and it reminded me that despite how bad The BQE was, Stevens has still got it.

7.5/10

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Two New Music Videos

Over the past 3 days both Crystal Castles and Japanther have both put out new music videos for two of their most popular songs, Crystal Castles "Baptism" off of the 2010 album "Crystal Castles" and Japanther's "The Dirge" off of their 2008 album "Tut Tut Now Shake Ya Butt". Check them out:

Grass Widow - Past Time

Since I have a huge soft spot for bands that sound like the Vivian Girls, Grass Widow and their lastest album "Past Time" naturally caught my attention, with catchy female vocals, garage rock/punk instrumentation, and short song durations. Nothing is worse than when you have a song that sounds really good, but then overstays it's welcome by dragging on for 5 minutes. Grass Widow did a good job keeping their songs short, with the longest song punching in at around 3:32.

Grass Widow obviously were obviously influenced by a lot of '80s Post Punk acts, resulting in a lot of stringy guitar and plucked bass, with the former having being a little soft and sometimes featuring a bit of distortion in some songs. They make it work though, as it's not like they're trying to sound like the bands, but rather they're simply drawing inspiration from it, which everyone does.

What really made this album stand out was the strong use of vocal harmonies; the vocalists (all three band members sing) would sing the same notes at all times yet kind of weave their voices together by singing in different octaves. Another thing about the vocals is how much they contrasted the instruments. While the instruments sound like a tranquilized Mika Miko, with lyrics which are softly sung and not yelled.

What I didn't like was how some of the songs on this album felt like they lacked a quick hook and that it took a few listens for me to like it. Usually with songs of this nature it should take a shorter amount of time for me to be hooked in and either instantly know whether I like or dislike it. I also felt like the guitars could have been a little more aggressive, but at the same time their passive sound helped to make this album stand out from it's peers.

I enjoyed listening to Past Time, I really did, it was quite solid throughout, and because of that I'm going to have to give this album a solid 7. I think you should check this album out because I'm looking forward to more releases from Grass Widow.

Download

No Age - Everything In Between

I have been awaiting the release of this album for quite some time, not because I wanted to listen to it (it leaked in August so I've already been listening to it for a while) but rather just to see what everyone else thought about it. Though I wasn't surprised with the ratings it got, which were quite positive overall, it wasn't quite as acclaimed as the ratings the band's previous album "Nouns", which you should definitely check out as that album was amazing. Listening to this album, I can see why.

The thing with Everything in Between is that it isn't nearly quite as aggressive as the previous album, even on the tracks meant to be fierce and loud, such as "Fever Dreaming", "Depletion" and "Shred and Transcend" (which definitely has gotta be a reference to skateboarding, as No Age are avid skateboarders themselves and even designed their own skate shoe for the brand Emerica). Yes they are all good songs, however they pale by comparison to more punk-ish songs that we came to love by No Age such as "Teen Creeps", "Board Burner" and even "Sleeper Hold", all of which were released on "Nouns". Perhaps it was just a result of a poor producer or it was how No Age intended it to sound; either way I didn't like it.

This album does also draw into No Age's more shoegaze-y side, which they really developed in their 2009 EP "Everything in Between", which if any readers can recall I placed in my top 10 for 2009. They definitely delivered in this area. Those songs were very dreamy, swirly, and layered, and were really well written and produced and I really liked them. Especially "Katerpiller" and "Positive Amputation" which were absolutely amazing.

Finally, I felt the album's opening track "Life Prowler" did a fantastic job at setting the mood for the rest of the album. It really gave me a really accurate and good feeling of what to expect from the rest of the album, kind of like: "get excited, because something big is about to happen, but it won't always be fast and exciting." For some reason it also kind of sounded to me like it could've been written by New Order, really early in their career. Like around the time shortly after Ian Curtis' death when they still kind of had a Post Punk sound, before the synths became dominant.

I was generally pleased with this album, it had a decent balance of three-chord-punk songs and shoegaze, keeping the two seperate in different tracks but at the same time having an even balance of both. They didn't go and try anything new with this album, but that's okay because I like what they're doing right now and I hope they stay like this.

I've gotta give this album a solid 8/10. You might be reading this and thinking that I would've thought more of Everything In Between had I not compared it so much to Nouns, but I kind of had to, as that album really set a high standard for them that they didn't really reach at all parts of this album, they definitely did at some parts, but not all throughout.

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?9r9ek2dl9s09sm1

PS: Two things. 1: I've decided that I'm gonna start rating the albums,

2: If you liked this album, or any of their previous ones, come see No Age with me on November 18th in Toronto, it'll be a blast! The event page for it on facebook can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=159263184089384