POPMATTERS SPONSOR -- Just as folk music provides a basis for the synth music of Au Revoir Simone, so too does Erika’s striped sweater act as a basic essential: a starting point from which the artist builds and transforms, dazzling audiences along the way.
Photos by Nicky Digital / Makeup by Erin Green POPMATTERS SPONSOR -- Some in the music industry have labeled the musical style of the three-woman band Au Revoir Simone, started in 2003, as “folk”. Though this may be at the heart of their sound, many layers of other elements combine, making it impossible to categorize their music strictly in this way. Vocalist Erika Forster herself once described the vibe of the band’s album Still Night,…]]>POPMATTERS SPONSOR -- Much like her music, Erika’s look here combines unexpected and playful pairings in a cohesive way to create a style that’s bold and unique.
Photos by Nicky Digital / Makeup by Erin Green POPMATTERS SPONSOR -- Erika Forster, pictured here in a versatile leather jacket from GAP’s upcoming spring collection, represents one third of the talented all-female band known as Au Revoire Simone, which broke onto the musical scene in 2003. Along with bandmates Annie Hart and Heather D’Angelo, Erika is responsible for creating a musical style that is perhaps best described by British Vogue as “dreamy synth-pop”.]]>Rappers have always wrestled with the question of how to succeed in a society where the odds are stacked against them. The biggest difference now is that their middle class listeners have the same worries.
Last year, a few thousand protesters in New York’s Zucotti Park have captured the attention of the nation. Occupy Wall Street’s slogan, “We Are The 99%”, has tapped into mass public discontent over the widening amount of income inequality in the United States. On their tumblr page, people have been posting stories of their struggles with student loan debt, inadequate medical coverage and a lack of job opportunities. Many of these young college graduates grew…]]>To create something or to create something that creates something; that is a question. But if you lead an electric horse to art, does it dream of the avant-garde?
The goal of metacreative artists is to endow computer programs with creative behaviors, to create computer algorithms that have the same ability to make artistic decisions within certain frameworks as human beings. To this end, metacreative artists employ the tools and techniques of artificial intelligence and machine learning, the same used in cognitive and life sciences. 1 Metacreative music composers create virtual performers who can generate new and unique compositions, often in real time, with…]]>The way we heal is a huge part of the sweet exhaustion of Tramp, but it is a double-edged affair.
As the digital world gives us more and more opportunities to interact from afar -- i.e. not really interact -- with each other, the singer-songwriter feels more and more like an alien being. With no project name to hide behind, and often digging into personal, sometimes uncomfortably confessional stories, the world of the singer-songwriter has always been difficult and yes, sometimes cloying. So that Sharon Van Etten has garnered the attention she has, particularly for…]]>It leaves you with the impression that Bentley has made something special here -- not just his most consistent album and 2012’s first great country album, but even more.
“Home”, the second single and title track off Dierks Bentley’s sixth album, uses a black-and-white photo of the American flag painted on a building for its digital-single cover art, immediately making you think it’s a patriotic song. It is, but it’s the rare patriotic hymn that isn’t strident and acknowledges that the United States can do wrong, that we’re still in the process of growing into the sort of democracy the founding fathers wished to…]]>Math whiz Lawrence Ball adds another baby step of progress for Pete Townshend's "Lifehouse" project.
If Pete Townshend's "Lifehouse" project never actually comes to a full realization, he's at least prepared to watch it grow through various stages in his lifetime. What exactly is "Lifehouse" and how does it relate to Lawrence Ball and this supposed Method Music? If you are a big fan of the Who and are already familiar with Pete Townshend's various aborted musical narratives, then you can probably skip the following paragraph. "Lifehouse" is a grand-scale…]]>First single from the Danish indie-dance outfit's forthcoming album is tense and mesmerizing.
WhoMadeWho follow up their exceptional 2011 Knee Deep EP with the promised album. While Knee Deep saw the band stretching their sound into more experimental territory, Brighter is tipped to feature more straightforward material. You know, the "tunes" album. This lead single is indeed streamlined and straight ahead, but is no less powerful for it. You get two versions of "Inside World". The original version is built on a robotic electronic pulse and rhythm that…]]>While heckles are raised when terms like "vintage" and "retro" are tossed about, the Devil's Blood has undeniably evoked the electrifying rush of '60s and '70s occult rock. What other sprits they have invoked along the way, well, that's a whole other story.
The Devil's Blood is a dedication to principles and principals more ancient than Time, a branch of a tree greater than the World, an exclamation of both the profound and the profane. The Devil's Blood has always been one of the many vessels through which the Light of the Devil shines upon the darkness of the world and shall always be the possible entrance to a path walked alone. But only for those who have…]]>Mixed bag, mostly good, from Chicago chanteuse
Chicago's rootsy chateuse Martha Berner possesses a rich, soulful voice which serves her well in her latest offering, Fool's Fantasy. Opening with jerky cello before a swift segue into bluesy-jam territory, "Fool's Fantasy" establishes the terrain of the record, both sonically and lyrically. Follow-up "Brave" is the best song here, with its spitfire lyrics and bouncing, throbbing beat; other highlights include the rough-and-tumble "Adore Me II" and the almost industrial backdrop to the otherwise low-key…]]>The former steppa TRG offers up some Berlin-inflected interstellar inflight entertainment.
When I began hearing new music by an artist called Cosmin TRG, I didn’t quite connect the dots that this might be the same artist as the garage-infused dubstepper TRG. There’s no real reason I should have. Cosmin Nicolae’s new TRG exists in a completely different earspace from those jittery early singles, which spanned just about every hot dubstep label one can name (Hessle Audio, Tempa, Rush Hour, Hotflush, Hemlock, Subway, et al.). One could…]]>Orchestra of Spheres should be recognized for its willingness to take chances and experiment with instrument-construction and sound in general. Unfortunately, the band’s ratio of hits to misses on this album is right about 50/50.
New Zealand’s Orchestra of Spheres doesn’t seem much interested in traditional songwriting. Nonagonic Now, the group's debut album, is packed with tracks based around rhythm-centric ideas, from driving basslines to afrobeat-style percussion. Sometimes there are lyrics, and sometimes they’re in English, although those lyrics are more likely to be employed in the form of a chant than a melodic hook or a narrative. Adding to the eccentricity, the band mostly plays on homemade instruments, which…]]>Too kicky for dadrock, this middle-aged crew churns out dependable college-reunion rock.
Forget "college rock"; with seven albums of quirky indie guitar dribbed and drabbed out over the course of nearly a quarter-century, the affable crew led by Don Ralph have spawned a whole new genre: "college reunion rock". Said Album Number Seven, Homewrecker Spoon, from this slow-moving collective -- whose members have worked with everyone from They Might Be Giants to Patti Smith -- celebrates the freewheeling, anything-goes indie vibe that hasn't been heard much since,…]]>Stalactites in the canyons of your mind.
Leyland James Kirby is one of the more intriguing figures occupying the musical landscape of the past decade. His guises include the Stranger, V/VM, Leyland Kirby and a project to illuminate the relationship between memory and sound: The Caretaker. My introduction to the Caretaker was Stairway to the Stars, specifically the release on lovely blue vinyl - a true fetishistic object of desire.The music appeared to be hanging in the air at an intersection where…]]>With Justin in control, a great pre-existing catalogue and their highly promising new material, The Darkness has exactly what it takes to get back into the limelight.
When The Darkness exploded onto the British music scene back in the early 2000s, I could never decide with any certainty whether or not the 4-piece glam rockers were serious about the music they made, or just out there having a laugh. The constant radio play of the 2003 single "I Believe In A Thing Called Love", featured the piercing operatic falsetto vocals of front-man Justin Hawkins, and was a drastic departure from all other…]]>In the wake of Madonna'a ostentatious Super Bowl halftime performance, PopMatters presents a rundown of the Queen of Pop's 15 finest singles.
To date, Madonna has released 75 singles across 13 albums, four soundtrack albums, and six compilation albums, with “Give Me All Your Luvin’” (from the upcoming LP MDNA) being her latest. She has had 12 number-one hits in both the United States and the United Kingdom (with different sets of songs), plus 24 chart-toppers in Canada, and 38 US, 60 UK, and 49 Canadian Top 10 hits. Madonna has dominated the radio and video airwaves…]]>It isn't really a song about video games, of course. However, it is interesting for what it implies about games by taking gaming for granted as a normalized cultural practice.
I know that Lana Del Rey is receiving all kinds of critical backlash at present from the music community about her authenticity as an artist, her botched SNL performance, and the like. However, one way or the other, “Video Games” is a rather beautiful song. It strikes a pretty, but mournful tone that is full of a melancholy, uncertain nostalgia from a twenty-something-years-old artist, and it has managed to solder itself into my consciousness pretty…]]>After eight years spent growling for others, Mark Lanegan returns with his most musically diverse album to date.
On “Deep Black Vanishing Train,” the penultimate track on Blues Funeral, the first album in nearly a decade from former Screaming Trees frontman Mark Lanegan, the sandpaper-voiced singer wearily growls, “I’ve finally freed myself / But it’s been hard to break away”. If you’ve followed Mark Lanegan’s career since The Screaming Trees’ brief flirtation with mainstream success in the early 1990s, you know that the singer has spent more than his share of time in…]]>Die Antwoord may be strange and engrossing, but are they making good music? Yes and no.
I have to confess that until recently, I had no idea what a Die Antwoord was. But I learned. Oh, how I learned. I learned about them via YouTube, and I learned about them from message boards. I heard endless discussions of Ninja's flow and Yo-Landi's grating high-pitched whine. And here's the thing: I can't make up my mind about them. I don't love them, and I don't really even "like" them that much, but…]]>A modern take on disco music; an old-fashioned take on male wish fulfillment.
Escort is thoroughly devoted to disco. Its self-titled, self-released debut album (new to CD, but digitally released last November) struts through disco’s many subgenres and lifestyle accoutrements. You can have a ball just picking out the blatant influences: “Caméleon Chameleon” sounds uncannily like Michael Jackson’s “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough”, for instance, while “A Sailboat In the Moonlight” goes all Dr. Buzzard on a Guy Lombardo tune, with a little bit of the Ohio…]]>Veteran DJ and techno producer Matthew Dear releases a short non-techno EP as a prelude to his upcoming full-length.
Matthew Dear could never be accused of staying in his lane or playing the conservative. During more than a decade in the electronic underground he's touched on Afrobeat, mastered minimalist techno, and used the strictures of dance music to create techno-tinged tracks that don't really feel like techno. On Headcage EP, Dear shucks techno almost entirely for shifting, ambient soundscapes that might herald yet another change in artistic direction. "Headcage" opens the EP with a…]]>Lost rock 'n' soul classic from spiritual seeker.
Born in rural New Zealand, Doug Jerebine had already showed great musical promise by his teens, making a name for himself in bands such as the Embers and the Brew. Lured into the deeper soul-inflected sounds emanating from England via the sounds of Steve Winwood and Jimi Hendrix, Jerebine left behind his role as a Hank Marvin acolyte and dove even deeper into the experimental sounds of Ravi Shankar and Vilayat Khan. Before long he’d…]]>These British sonic explorers make like Los Campesinos! Jr on their charming three-song introduction.
About these three beyond-charming tunes from a hopefully forthcoming 2012 LP, my notes read (edited for clarity): "Colin Meloy if he grew up on C86 and XTC instead of the Smiths and R.E.M." and "Los Campesinos! Jr?". Looking back, that pretty much sums up the Alphabet Backwards' British Explorer EP: The buzzy pop with hidden forlornness of "Big Top" ("All I can do is think about you"); the disco bassline, burbling keys and smart aleck…]]>Sultan blends together his doo-wop, garage, and punk influences, presenting himself as a peerless artist.
Mark Sultan is a human paradox. One would be hard-pressed to find a musician that is more prolific as far as recording output is concerned, but also one who garners less attention from the media. And though so many of his tunes espouse a general sense of chaotic benevolence, dude is really quite reserved in interviews. He’s spent his past banging around cities like Berlin and Montreal under a variety of monikers with cats like…]]>Underrated Chicago bluesman knocks one out of the park
Bluesman Toronzo Cannon follows in the footsteps of Albert King and Lonnie Mack in using the Gibson Flying V as his guitar of choice, and the instrument's rich, throaty tone serves him well on such stompers as "She Loved Me", "She's Too Much" and "Earnestine". Cannon has been kicking around the Chicago blues scene for a while now and his latest full-length is an assured blend of moody rave-ups like "Come On", gentler tunes like…]]>Tuareg rock youngsters are fatally hampered by bad production.
Group Inerane is a new addition to the burgeoning "desert blues" or Tuareg rock scene coming out of North Africa, the same scene that produced Tinariwen, Terakaft, Etran Finatawa and, more recently, the likes of Bombino. Group Inerane is made up of three relative youngsters on guitar, bass and drums, with the addition of seasoned vet Absoulahi Maman on lead guitar. Not exactly a supergroup, the band nonetheless shows great promise. What a shame, then,…]]>Unstandard possesses appeal and surprise for fans of classic and modern jazz. It is steeped in tradition, yet free from constraint.
This album is a great reminder that there is no substitute for experience when it comes to jazz. Unstandard is a playful treatment of jazz standards performed by a group of veteran New York musicians. Bandleader David Berkman shows impressive breadth and confidence on the piano, and Tim Armacost, Gene Jackson, and Yosuke Inoue follow suit. Standards such as “How High The Moon” and “Summer Night” are seamlessly arranged in between four delightful interludes that…]]>The feeling that this is your neighborhood bar band gives the music a punch of energy that’s memorable. At the same time, the stories in the music, and the ways they’re told, are less distinct, even generic.
Bruce Springsteen has a new album out this year, but he’s never been too far away. In country music, he’s been in the air -- Kenny Chesney’s characters are listening to him, Eric Church named a song after him. On the Dirt Drifters’ debut he’s never far from the surface, especially on "Always a Reason", which starts, "word on the vine is Johnny got a job / three days a week at the auto parts…]]>Sinead O’Connor's newest album grapples with many themes familiar to the singer’s past work: love, loss, hope, redemption, and coming into her own, among many others.
Sinead O’Connor is well known for her soulful ballads as well as her colorful personal life and strong religiopolitical beliefs. O’Connor rose to international fame for her reimagining of Prince’s song “Nothing Compares 2 U”, which topped the charts in several countries and earned her multiple Grammy nominations, as well as one win for Best Alternative Music Performance. During her impressive 25 year career in the music industry O’Connor has released eight full studio albums,…]]>Performing as Azure Blue, Tobias Isaksson looks back to the 1980s for much of his sound on his new release Rule of Thirds.
Performing as Azure Blue, Tobias Isaksson looks back to the 1980s for much of his sound on his new release Rule of Thirds, and he considers three romantic break-ups as his lyrical inspiration. That doesn't mean he's just a nostalgia act, though, as his electro-pop takes its own turns and his emotional reflections reveal a certain amount of mature distance (even if he might be hiding some of those feelings in pop culture references). The…]]>Hundreds of disposable cameras? Alter-egos known as "Captain Tipsy"? Determining what makes a Tickhead? All in a day's work for Deer Tick, who tells PopMatters all about it while still basking in the critical glow of its latest disc.
Deer Tick: transmitter of Lyme Disease or a brotherhood of musicians with a penchant for rock 'n' roll and cheap beer? It may have started off as a disease, but since 2004 Deer Tick has represented singer/song writer John McCauley of Providence, Rhode Island. Originally a solo project specializing in East-Coast Americana rock with an indie-folk glaze, Deer Tick has gradually evolved into a full five-piece band with somewhat of a split personality. Deer Tick's…]]>House of Blondes is an up and coming electronic duo from NYC and their vibe is electro synth, and their sound is akin to the likes of Daedulus, Holy Fuck, Amon Tobin and Hot Chip.
House of Blondes is an up and coming electronic duo comprised of John Blonde and Chris Pace, based in New York City. Their vibe is electro synth, and their sound is akin to the likes of Daedulus, Holy Fuck, Amon Tobin and Hot Chip. The group relies heavily on improvisation in the studio for their creative process. In fact, their current album began as 20 minutes of ambient riffing, and is inspired by GAS, an…]]>Crusty walls of distortion co-exist with pop hooks in the second and latest solo album from Liam Finn. Here the songwriter talks about taking a break from life on the road to write FOMO in far-off New Zealand, working with producer Burke Reed and percussionist Glenn Kotche to seriously tinker with his sound and taking inspiration from, of all people, Beyoncé.
"As a sonic thing, I really loved the way that bands like the Latin Playboys had made records that mixed that lo-fi thing with the high-fi stuff in a really beautiful way," says Liam Finn. "They showed how you could make your sound as interesting and crusty and wild as possible, but if you've got one element like a vocal, one thing that's recorded beautifully, it's an otherworldly element." Liam Finn has a feel for…]]>As musical interpretations of romance go, Kisses on the Bottom may only get you about halfway there, flowers in hand wondering whether a second date is on the cards, unsure if that’s even what you want at all.
Let’s get the good news out of the way first: Paul McCartney’s new album of old standards isn’t quite as disappointing as Rod Stewart’s “Songbook” series. Kisses on the Bottom, a… well… cheeky title taken from the lyric of the collection’s opening number, “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter", originally popularized by Fats Waller and possibly a song which made the young McCartney giggle like a loon when he was a…]]>The band name is silly. The album cover art is atrocious. The opening song is merely a wall of noise. But once you get past all of that, Ester is a rewarding slice of shoegazey dream pop that’s evocative of ‘50s R&B and surreal movie and TV soundtracks.
You might think that the London-based quartet Trailer Trash Tracys have a rather silly band name. You’d be absolutely right. It’s not exactly a name that reaches out to you and entices you in. (I'm not the only one to reach this realization; other online reviews have, well, trashed it as well.) What’s more, with a moniker like that, you might be expecting something a little on the surf rock or thrashy side, or someone…]]>The forte of this genial and energetic New York collective is not songwriting but jam management.
The forte of this genial and energetic New York collective is not songwriting but jam management. Each track on New Delihas a theme and a personal menagerie of instruments. "The Brain Surgeon's Wife Serves Lunch" is 1950s lounge. "A Crack in the Clouds" worships the rough liquid of Ben Huebner's shakuhachi. "Daddy Barracuda" is louche dirt. In TriBeCaStan, everyone is there for everyone else, the trumpet player who darts up to the microphone and squeals…]]>The preeminent Mexican guitar duo rattles Havana with a Cuban orchestra.
Rerecording your greatest hits with an orchestra seems like the uninspired move of a washed-up band who has a record contract to fulfill. Area 52 is not that, rather a genuine undertaking of self-rearrangement and ethno-musical immersion. For the uninitiated, Rodrigo Y Gabriella is an acoustic guitar duo from Mexico. They take 12 nylon strings as far as they can go: Rodrigo plays explosively fast leads that are equally inspired by heavy metal and Latin…]]>Absorbing Snakeoil is one of this "how did they do that?" kinds of experiences.
When it comes to great musicians who have disregarded boundaries to the point of becoming genres unto themselves, many of their back stories are auspicious. They seem to connect to music at a very young age, often prior to their teens, and their primary instrument lands in their lap soon afterwards. They get an early start and never slow down. The community of jazz greats is filled with lofty stories of promise, which is why…]]>The chamber music of today isn't known for being bright and jubilant. Enter the Musical Art Quintet to rectify the "problem".
"Chamber", "art", "classical" ... these are all very serious words. They often don't transfer a lot of warmth to the listener, especially when all of them apply to one body of music. Push the Musical Art Quintet's debut album Nuevo Chamber into your computer, and your media player will qualify it as "classical", but there's nothing stern about this art. It’s light, hummable, danceable and slightly joyful without being self-effacing or frivolous. Assembled of violins,…]]>One need not dread this album’s hazy production acting as a smokescreen to mask any shortcomings Spectrals might harbor as a songwriter or performer—his tunes would be just as fetching if recorded 40 years ago.
Sparkling yet gauzy, Bad Penny is simultaneously breezy and ghostly, evoking pleasant recognition of--and nostalgia for--a dead pop sound that never really existed. Spectrals (known as 21-year-old Heckmondwike, England native Louis Jones in his daily life) politely acknowledges his debt to pop formalists like the Ronettes and Elvis Costello, and is keen to knit lounge music, doo-wop, and laid-back soul into concise pop nuggets that detail the ups-and-downs of his relationship with his girlfriend. One…]]>Driven to be better than what his former band was forced to become, ex-Sonic Syndicate vocalist Richard Sjunnesson has finally created what he had envisioned all along.
Redemption and second chances don't come easily in the music industry, especially in more recent years when one-hit wonders and single-release artists are becoming more prevalent than ever before. It becomes even more difficult when artists need to use new names or form new bands in order to find that redemption. Such was the path for vocalist Richard Sjunnesson after his departure from modern melodic death metal group Sonic Syndicate. Disgusted by the group's changed…]]>Nice enough music--but do you really want to listen to something "nice"?
Skytone's brand of pop-rock is good-natured and fun, if not particularly thrilling. Shining Over You's opening track, "We Are One", kicks off with thumping rhythms and vocals that switch between arena-rock anthemics and Queen-like harmonies (not that those two things are mutually exclusive, of course). This is followed by several tracks of perfectly serviceable, if forgettable, power-pop-rock. The vocals lack any rough edges, as does the music, so there's not much to hang onto. "One…]]>For any intent or purpose, you are encouraged to spend as much time as possible with this recording. It is as edifying as it is enjoyable.
Shuffle.Play.Listen - when an album name comes with such specific instructions, a larger point is trying to be made. And in the Matt Haimowitz/Christopher O'Riley case file, this means that indie pop can stand alongside 20th century classical music without a problem. Here are 27 tracks for cello and piano, largely arranged by O'Riley, which run the gamut of modern music to a degree that is almost too showy for its own good. Luckily, that's…]]>While we have to wait until summer for M.I.A.'s fourth album to drop, as of Friday, the heart pounding video for Bad Girls is available exclusively on VICE’s new original music channel Noisey, on YouTube.
M.I.A.’s new single "Bad Girls" hit airwaves on January 31st when the song premiered on Pitchfork to positive reviews, including a declaration that “her pop instincts and talents remain as sharp as ever”. That’s saying a lot for someone who has been nominated for an Oscar and two Grammys, hailed by Rolling Stone as one of the ten defining artists of the 2000’s decade, and labeled one of TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people in…]]>“The Sounds of Science” is essentially a three-movement suite about hip-hop bravado. Rarely has science sounded hipper.
It’s fitting that the most recognizable samples from “The Sounds of Science” come from the Beatles’ catalog. On this tune, the Beasties are experimenting with form and pushing the boundaries of their genre in a similar manner as the Fab Four did in the second half of their career. “The Sounds of Science” is essentially a three-movement suite about hip-hop bravado, and rarely has science sounded hipper. The central conceit of “The Sound of Science”…]]>In 1982, with the charts ruled by “Physical”, “Don’t You Want Me” and “Eye of the Tiger”, along came a low-tech record about killers, small-time thieves and other forgotten souls -- and it's still one of the best albums in American music.
I was sent David Burke’s thorough and incisive new book, Heart of Darkness, Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska, and was reminded that March is the 30th Anniversary of the release of Nebraska, so I figured that’s as good an excuse as any to muse on about one of the most extraordinarily brave records ever released by a major artist and the happenstance that helped bring it to creation. A little context. In the late fall of 1981,…]]>The concept of a “trilogy” is such an overdone thing. Be it film trilogies, album trilogies, book trilogies, video game trilogies… we have all seen trilogies in various forms of entertainment media to the point of it becoming banal. At the end of the Deathspell Omega experience however, do not be alarmed if you wake up to find yourself in Silent Hill.
Clandestine French black metallers Deathspell Omega are a rare breed; they have had their fair share of primitive black metal days just like most other black metal forces of the metal underworld had, and yet after only two albums of primitive black metal worship (2000’s Infernal Battles and 2002’s Inquisitors Of Satan), they were already at the frontlines of something new. They possess something so rare and different in the contemporary black metal scene that…]]>