This week we really scratched. We reached as far out as we could and we listened and we listened and we listened. Nothing got in unless it was perfect. Out of the hundred or so songs that we listened to these were the five that were perfect. Listen to them. Buy their album. Show them to your friends. Take them as your own.
Listen to all five, with the reason that they made the cut, on the Soundcloud link right under this sentence.
Dub Thompson- No Time
I have a theory that when a song is described as cosmic, or spacey, that what is really being described is what it doesn’t sound like. It means that it doesn’t fit into the little labels we have for “genre” “era.” It doesn’t sound like 50’s rock ‘n’ roll, or 80’s synth pop, or new electro- R&B. Maybe its got elements of some of these, but it doesn’t fit just one. It also has a connotation of progress, like the space race did in the early 60’s. Spacy and cosmic is exactly how I would describe Dub Thompson’s new song, No Time.
Dub Thompson’s debut album, “No Time,” is out this Tuesday (June 10 th.)
Listen if you like: progressive sludge dub, Timber Timbre, youth
Jack White- Just One Drink
My album of the week this week is Jack White’s Lazaretto, and its because of the physical album itself. The album’s got all these bells and whistles. It plays at three different speeds, there are two tracks that actually play on the label of the album, side one plays from the inside out instead of the outside in, there is a hologram in the dead space between the last track and the label. Some people are going to say, “Yea, that’s just a bunch ticky-tack garbage to get to buy the album.” That’s one way to look at it, sure, but I see it different way.
I think that Jack White sees the importance that physical albums have had historically, as more than just records, but as articles of cultural importance. His record label, Third Man Records, places a reverential significance on the physical LP. Every album that they release is meticulously catalogued and preserved, and treated like it part of something bigger. Third Man is not just making music, it is making history, physically.
Jack White’s album, “Lazaretto,” is out this Tuesday (June 10 th.) I know that Dan at Rush Mor has a buch of copies if you want one.
Listen if you like: Jack White, honky tonk, Nashville
Cathedrals- Harlem
26 seconds into this song a beautiful female voice coos “Baby don’t worry, I’ll never let you down,” and even though I’ve never met her, I’ve never heard her voice before this song and I don’t even know who she is, I’m in love. And it’s silly, I know. But isn’t that what you want too? Someone to say don’t worry, Ill never let you down. Reassurance, comfort, and love. Even if we have this in our lives, its good to hear someone say it. And if we don’t have it in our lives, we can all have it, for 4 minutes, in this song.
Cathedrals does not have a full length announced yet, but you can get this single on iTunes.
Listen if you like: Sylvan Esso, lo-fang, electronic loops with female vocals
Hawk House- Chill Pill (Experiment 2)
Music can be a hype game. Like children, vying for the attention of their parents, whoever yells the loudest gets the most attention. Literally. This song…(Turn Down For What)….has 55 Million youtube hits right now. And when this happens there needs to be a voice of reason. A level head. In 1987 while Run DMC, The Beastie Boys, & 2 Love Crew yelled loudly into microphones, Eric B. and Rhakim took a journey into sound, and with level heads, devised the master plan to get Paid In Full. That plan was to speak softly so that the audience would lean forward with bent ear and actually listen. Eric B is to Run DMC what Hawk House is to Li’l Jon. An antidote. A Chill Pill.
Hawk House’s new album, “A Handshake to the Brain,” will be available on June 23 rd.
Listen if you like: The Fugees, british hip hop/R&B, chill
Glass Animals- Pools
Dave Bayley, the lead vocalist in Glass Animals, is a scientist. He finished his degree in neuro-science before officially starting Glass Animals. Science is a word that tends to be on the other side of the disciplinary spectrum from art. Science is hard, cold, rigid. Art is thought of as soft, warm, and abstract. Science is a means to an end. Music is an end to its own means. But Bayley bridges the gap. In this album he recorded, carrots crunching, bird calls, swishing trees, a wall being punched, and people laughing. He experimented with these natural occurances, seeing if these subjects can coexist together into a system, like a scientist would. By using all of these natural sounds, he takes the chaos of the world and organizes it into a song.
Glass Animals’ new album, “Zaba,” will be available this Tuesday (June 10 th.)
Listen if you like: Jungle, rhythmic grooves, tune-yards