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Kristin Hersh: Speedbath

Kristin writes that this song is “all about half steps and rhythmic skips.” For the first couple of listens you clearly detect the parallel rhythms that slide over each other, but not in the manic Muses way – it’s slow, methodical, beautiful music. Math rock has nothing on this song – this is all about unpicking and rebuilding the DNA of western music.

I marvel at how the song hangs together. I half-expected some of it to run on beyond the end of the tape – some of it is unsettling, but it’s great to feel your brain trying to work out the sense within it.

Speedbath – Free Download

No Comments | Permalink | Tracks of the Day | Music of 2008
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Pluramon: The Monstrous Surplus

I’m very late with starting the reviews of my favourite albums of 2007. In this respect I find it vulgar to reduce my opinion and feelings of an album to a mere review and to consider one better or worse than another. But I do so because it allows me to more easily recall exactly how I felt about an album and where my head and the rest of me was at that time. It builds relationships between albums, between artists and when other albums are released it allows me to appreciate them more and perhaps place them in my pantheon of ‘best loved’ music. Carrie Brownstein has another view. My favourites of last year’s music (which traditionally encompasses everything I’ve heard that year, not only released that year) realise something else too: that how frequently I play an album doesn’t correlate to how much I like it. An album – more than just a single song – requires a context before being listened to. The time invested in listening is irrelevant, the emotion however is not. There needs to be a match and emotions are subtle creatures. Some albums require a more defined head state than others, which is why some of the albums on this list of 2007 surprise me with their appearance. Including this one:

Number 10 of 2007 — Pluramon: The Monstrous Surplus

Pluramon: The Monstrous Surplus: Pluramon
This is the fourth album from Marcus Schmickler’s shoegaze project. But to earmark it thus is slightly inconsiderate. I’ve listened to a lot of Lush’s work over the past two days, re-encountering the gradual transplanting of their original sound into its Britpop vision. Like their final version, Pluramon’s sound doesn’t over-exploit its most obvious references, nor does it totally consume other styles. Instead – particularly with this album – it turns inwards, refining the genre through the benefit of technology, reducing the attendant emotions from ‘dream pop’ towards only dreams. Despite its four vocalists – three female, the other from Marcus, all gorgeously employed – and its lyrics, this is an album which is experienced by how you respond to it, a place that AR Kane got to visit on their 1989 album, “i”. It wants to be pure pop music but the layers of sound which slide, grind and collide, burying individual songs, ensures it isn’t, although an awareness of the way pop is felt and constructed is obvious.

Turn On opens the album sounding like Alison Shaw fronting mid-career Lush, but when the enveloped vocals of Julee Cruise hide beneath the expanse of string-like noise (or noise-like strings) the tone of album is set. On Border, there’s no such foreplay. We land directly where Marcus wants us to feel. Just when we’re comfortable with this, an organ picks up the main melody to tweak the emotional connection with the song still further. Elsewhere there are more obvious reference points to genre: the portmento guitar slides that characterised My Bloody Valentine’s sound is mimicked on If Time Was On My Side, but without the expected queasiness. Similarly, the collapsing frantic drumming of their music is ignored. Instead Pluramon uses traditional rock percussion that serves to emphasise the rest of the music.

Drowning In You turns vocals into noise, the guitars and bass simply swirl and cut, this is where sensation comes from. For some songs it’s not necessary to internalise what is sung (that comes later), initially just the notes and how they’re sung will suffice. Language is unimportant. For others, particularly in the standout cover of Sham 69’s The Kids Are United, the lyrics are critical. This is also true for Fresh Aufhebung, which features Jutta Koether’s spoken words, taking the drone-pop of Loop and turning the dreams nightmarish.

When the noise drops as it does on crossover between K-Land and Can’t Disappear – essentially one song split in two – piano, strings, high hat and vocals – it arrives more beautifully than if it had appeared without its predecessors. Even the clichéd thunderstorm feels right, complementing with its own bassy rumble. Perhaps these couple of songs are merely a lead to the key point of the album. Once you know what’s coming, the drawn out conclusion of Can’t Disappear teases further. If The Kids Are United strikes home immediately with folky tambourine bashing. The vocals, sometimes just adding a layer to the other songs, take centre stage for this song, choral and chorused they bring a sublime blissful state. This isn’t enough however – the pop desires of this album push forward once again with a masterly key change.

After this the final two tracks are unsatisfying, but this album is clearly at the front of the continued evolution of the genre. I never expected the celebration to last this long.

The Monstrous Surplus – iTunes UK
Pluramon – Official Website

1 Comment | Permalink | Music of 2007
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Jo Gabriel: Tinderbox

Island, Jo Gabriel’s fourth full-length album (released in 2005) is probably an ideal introduction to her work because it holds new songs and others from earlier releases. Jo takes the indulgences of This Mortal Coil and weaves them inside traditional and otherworldly piano pieces, accompanied by strings, fretless bass, guitar, her sometimes unusual vocals and Linda Mackley’s perfectly balanced percussion. Whilst the results are obviously off-centre, they remains deliciously melodic and listenable even if the lyrics travel to other places.

Live:


Island – iTunes UK
Jo Gabriel – Official Website

No Comments | Permalink | Tracks of the Day | Music of 2005 | New Music
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El Perro del Mar: Do Not Despair

Despite what we were led to believe, El Perro del Mar’s third album turned up on iTunes last week. From the Valley to the Stars rarely visits the classic 60’s girl pop of its predecessor, instead preferring to turn in a couple of these songs, minified to their barest essence, alongside what can only be described as ‘pop hymns’ – pairing focused soul-full lyrics with church organ – and drive-by instrumentals. Opener Jubilee holds just two words (and yes, one of them is Jubilee).

Do Not Despair is based in walking organ chords, a soft bass line and Sarah’s chorused, quietly optimistic vocals. And horns.

From the Valley to the Stars – iTunes UK

No Comments | Permalink | Tracks of the Day | Music of 2008
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The Groove Corporation: Rain

I may have been a little unfair on The Groove Corporation when they released their debut album Co-operation back in 1994. I was smarting from the demise of Electribe 101 – its non-Billie remnants formed this more dub oriented alternative. Missing Billie Ray Martin’s distinct vocals, lyrics and musical flourishes turned their sound into mere normality, echoing the housey feel of dozens of other bands and DJs around at that time. Rain is an illustration of this, but in the context of 2008 it sounds brilliant.

Co-operation – Amazon UK

No Comments | Permalink | Tracks of the Day
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Chantal Kreviazuk: Asylum

Two of Chantal’s albums – the only ones I currently own – have been sitting unopened since I received them late January. But with the arrival and setup of my new Mac mini and Time Capsule, my music setup is now properly revived and reliable.

Asylum comes from Ghost Stories, an excellent album which easily sits in the same box as Charlotte Martin’s more commercial work. Asylum lushes up the production with strings, but finds the right balance to her piano.

Ghosts Stories – Amazon UK
Ghost Stories – Allmusic Review

No Comments | Permalink | Tracks of the Day | Music of 2006 | New Music
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Nine Inch Nails: 14 Ghosts II

Cursory listens to Nine Inch Nails’ new album – the 36 track Ghosts I-IV – could reveal it to be a collection of half-finished ideas, or worse, deliberate off-cuts sold at $5 to prove that people will buy anything. Neither of these opinions would be correct. Ghosts I-IV is probably one of the most interesting and successful compositions released since Aphex Twin’s Select Ambient Works, Vol. 2 and easily Trent Reznor’s best work.

Because it lacks vocals and obvious melodies and rhythms it is firmly rooted as an ambient soundtrack, but unlike most such music, it cannot be experienced this way. Ghosts I-IV demands and rewards listening. The tracks have no titles except for their number (even SAW2 had photographic textures) so it’s up to the listener to attach meaning to each track and link them together.

14 Ghosts II begins with distorted electronic beats and buzzy guitar pads before sickeningly warped slide guitars pick up the tune, jamming around each other. That’s about as pretty as it gets – the introduction of skewed electric guitars knocks the track sideways.

Nine Inch Nails – Ghosts

No Comments | Permalink | Tracks of the Day | Music of 2008
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iPhone SDK: Death of the Desktop

Good. Now I have your attention. We learnt yesterday what the iPhone Software Development Kit is all about and what developers will be able to do with it.

The ever reliable Fake Steve Jobs called it a little unsubtly with a long list of companies that he now deems ‘dead’, perhaps over-egging the consequences, but even at this beta stage, the iPhone SDK hints of a truly practicable move away from the desktop. The whole video from the launch is available here. Here’s why it marks the Death of the Desktop – in no particular order:

OS X

Apple, predictably, has leveraged and built upon the operating system seen in its desktops and laptops. This means developers can produce desktop quality applications but specialise them for mobile usage. The free SDK builds upon Apple’s Xcode developer tools, but with an additional simulator and remote debugger and an Interface Builder for quick realisation of an iPhone friendly user interface. The result will be rapid migration of existing desktop-bound Mac OS X applications to the iPhone.

The Thick-Thin Client

I’m a great fan of web applications and I had no problem with Apple declaring Web 2.0 as the choice application development solution when the iPhone was launched last June. However, with limitations on network speed (when outside of wireless internet connectivity) and Javascript performance, together with Web 2.0 applications becoming more client-centric (moving more business logic over to the client rather than the server), some web applications are clunky with the iPhone.

The SDK provides an alternative solution: Develop an iPhone client application that provides the presentation logic but keep the business logic on a server on the internet. That’s ideal for applications that require co-operation amongst a number of users.

But the way software development is going, particularly on the web, is agile, which means releasing updates often. What happens when the presentation logic needs to change? This is where the Apple App Store comes in.

The App Store

Living alongside the iTunes Store, the iPhone will include an application store, allowing owners to browse, buy and download applications on their iPhone, either through EDGE or Wi-Fi connections. Moreover, the App Store will notify users when their application has been updated and allow them to download the update. Apple handle the storage, billing and downloading of the application, in exchange for 30% of revenue. Free applications won’t cost anything to their developer. Some people are complaining about this 30%. Tough – it’s nothing.

Casual gaming

Casual gaming is a huge growing sector of personal entertainment. If you’ve watched the video you’ll see what can be achieved on the current iPhone technology: ‘minor’ things like a three-dimensional accelerometer, three-dimensional audio, Core Animation etc. Now think what will happen when the internet comes in: social casual gaming. The social and casual nature of gaming will draw more players away from their desktop.

The Mac-only SDK

Oh yeah, perhaps one use of a desktop or laptop will remain – developing iPhone applications. That means more people buying Apple kit and less people developing for other platforms, because once you’ve developed for OS X, you probably won’t want to develop for any other operating system.

The $99 obstacle

If the 30% revenue cut is one obstacle to developers, the $99 fee to test on an actual iPhone is another. That’s cool, because it stops the store being swamped with stupid simple applications. Hopefully, we won’t get 100 RSS readers when the App Store launches, which brings me onto:

The June launch

I know people are complaining the App Store (along with the rest of the iPhone 2.0 software) won’t come until June. That’s a smart move, because it gives developers three months to get their applications developed and tested. We should get quality applications immediately when iPhone 2.0 arrives.

The iFund

That’s $100,000,000 to support new business ventures centred around the iPhone. If you’re a start-up, that’s money offered to iPhone development rather than desktop development or other mobile devices.

No Comments | Permalink | All things Apple

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