So James Blake has me excited enough to maybe start posting again occasionally. Obviously his new self titled album has gone crazy and everyone is freaking out about him, so I’m not sure just how much I can add… Folks who love him are totally lit up, and folks who don’t like him accuse him of “stealing” some sort of dubstep aesthetic and packaging it in a poppy, palatable package.

To be honest I couldn’t get all that into Mr. Blake’s older stuff; though his melodies were occasionally interesting, his production was just a step too close to Burial for comfort. It seems like he’s finally accepted the fact that he’s a soul singer. Most of the songs on this album repeat one or two melodies, while the synths, harmonies and the rest of the production seem to play around those melodies; rather than have a backing band with the singer on top, James Blake is essentially looking at his own melodies as someone remixing something would. I fucking love it.

My favourite:
(♪)James Blake – Unluck

The hit:
(♪)James Blake – Limit To Your Love

I like the naïveté and wonder of a lot of older “cosmic” music, and find that it can work well slowed down and hardened up. Here is a mix I put together. Hope you enjoy it.

(♪)The Greatest Conversation  – Space

Tracklist after the jump.

1. Paris France Transit – Paris France

2. Alice Coltrane – Keshava Murahara

3. Space Art – Speedway

4. Zodiac – На горе Зилайскалнс

5. Flüght – Transparencias

6. Bernard Fèvre – Dali

7. Sauveur Mallia – Video Synthebass

8. Michel Colombier – Sunday

9. Shuichi Murakami – Absolute Space

10. Peru – Oriëntal

Sometimes forcing myself to work with a simpler palette is productive. And sometimes listening to a simpler palette is more revealing.

When I was seven I was in a violin maker’s workshop in Germany. His instruments sounded amazing, and in a corner he had a big ugly rock he called his “antiquing stone”; apparently lots of players won’t buy a violin that doesn’t look 300 years old, regardless of how good it sounds. That’s sort of how I’m feeling about all the bedroom artists out there who are trying SO hard to sound like dirty cassette recordings of giant synth studios from the late 1970s; why hide behind all that stuff? If the songs are good, step away from the “vintage” filters and the krazee field recordings. It’s like buying pre-faded jeans.

Kumon Plaza is some guy from the prairies, who puts out sleepy, catchy, simple tunes. After being on a bit of a Dimlite/1000Names/Ras G trip, it is kind of nice to not have to search for the melody. At some point it gets pretty brave to just put your melodies out there without any trappings.

(♪)Kumon Plaza  – Meet Me At Westmount

This quote from Marc Ribot was too good not to share.

I’m not anti-solo. I’m anti-cliché. I’m pro-solo when that’s the right thing to do, but there are default settings for jazz players—it’s the thing you do in your sleep that you hadn’t thought about. You play the head, then people take turns playing solos, then the drummer solos last, you break it up, play fours with the drummer, and then you play the head again. I think sometimes that default setting works, and sometimes it doesn’t. You do a whole night of that, your solos better be really something that’s never been done before. The players might be really into it, but me as an audience member—I’m not into it. To see people on the default settings. There are people who are brilliant soloists. Now, whether historically that’s what we need right now is another question. And whether it’s better than the brilliant soloists I can go out and buy CDs by—that’s a whole other question. Anything’s possible [laughing].

-Marc Ribot, from an interview with All About Jazz

I have a more serious post about Marc Ribot that I just need to finish up (which could take weeks given my ability to procrastinate), but in the mean time here is one of my favourite songs of his:

(♪)Marc Ribot  – No Me Llores Más

I had to drive up to Nanaimo for work yesterday and this song came on the radio. I’ve missed the boat on this whole Yacht band (no pun intended), and I’m not sure about most of the stuff they put out, but this song is amazing; I’m disappointed in any of my friends who have heard it and not recommended it to me. On repeat for now.

(♪) Yacht – Don’t Fight The Darkness

1. SolarBeat is a really neat little music box program that models the orbits of the planets in our solar system. Really ingenious—my favourite is when you turn the speed up and Venus is kind of a bass drum to nod your head to—. It also puts the solar system into perspective: I still haven’t heard what Pluto sounds like. (And yes, Mark Wilson, I know that Pluto isn’t a planet)
2. The Whitney Music Box is a more complicated implementation of a similar idea. It is a “musical realization of the motion graphics of John Whitney,” whose book I might have to go pick up. Shockingly, he was writing about the intersections of music and visual art through motion graphics in 1980. Anyway, of all the different options on the Whitney Music Box page, my favourites are the first one, the Microtonal one, the Chromatic Non-Prime one, and the Bell Carol one, but they’re all amazing.
3. P.U.D.G.E is yet another LA guy with a growing bit of hype. He’s pretty dynamic and big city, but his nonchalant approach is fun. Mostly though, I’m shocked at how awesome Bandcamp seems. I signed myself up, just in case I decide to release stuff. It seems like an amazing platform.

Considering how few people read this blog, I get ridiculous numbers of emails from PR people asking me to post their clients’ tracks. Plantagenet 3 is an exception to this: the main guy sent me a really polite email, and being a history nerd I wondered if his band was named after the Planagenet family. A few emails later and yes, he named his band Plantagenet 3 because his dad claims he’s named after Richard III.

Anyway, their music is awesome. They describe it as “a misguided combination of Spaghetti Western soundtracks, 1960s surf guitar and lo-fi post-rock” and that’s pretty accurate. The sound is interesting and the songs are fun and unpretentious. And they’re using Bandcamp too, hmmmmm.

(♪) Plantagenet 3 – Theme from an Imaginary Western

And, not that I care really, but PR people shouldn’t take this as a sign that emailing me a lot is an effective use of their time.

I just did a quick search for what people are saying about Lorn’s new album “Nothing Else” and obviously I’m a terrible music blogger because I’m shocked at what people are saying; I’m reading things like “ominous” and “creeping neurosis” and “oppressive atmosphere” but I’m not really hearing it at all. Aesthetically, Lorn sounds very tongue in cheek to me. The album is full of allusions to other sounds and ideas; from the One Step Beyond sound of Army of Fear and the comic book look of the album’s cover, to the Zomby-like tint to Void I and Void II, I’m not hearing the dark masterpiece that everyone else seems to be hearing.

Not that that’s a bad thing. Having such a wide scope and irreverent attitude towards aesthetic colouring seems to have given him the freedom to write some amazing stuff. I’m posting Grandfather, the opener from the album, because it sits deep in the pocket and will give you a good idea of the sonic breadth Lorn is playing with.

(♪) Lorn – Grandfather

I’m also posting my favourite song from the album: Glass and Silver. Obviously I’m one of those pansies that musicology students make fun of for loving obvious melodies so much, (and obviously I’m insecure about that) but that doesn’t take away from the fact that the track is great. Take a listen.

(♪) Lorn – Glass and Silver

Kate and I went to Vancouver on a whim this weekend, and stumbled on a really amazing bike swap meet. It was mostly crazies selling trash or bros selling new stuff that looked like old stuff, but there were a few exceptions. One guy in particular was amazing; not only did he have a fantastic mullet, he had some beautifully painted water bottles from the 1800s.

Hit the jump to see a few blurry photos from my phone, and if you get the chance, check out next year’s Old Bicycle Swap Meet.