Galaxie 500

/ David James / 1 Comment

Galaxie 500 are one of the greatest bands of all time.

Yeah, I just said that.

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Standing as one of the highest monuments to the phrase “criminally ignored in their lifetime,” Galaxie 500 perfected the blueprint for absolutely blissed-out hazy love sounds in a mere 3 albums before acrimoniously splitting in 1991.  Existing for five years and releasing music for just three, their acknowledged impact on music has grown exponentially in the intervening quarter-century.

Presaging shoegaze with their opioid rhythm section and warm liquid guitar tones, and possessing the unquestioned lineage of anything labeled “slowcore,” they could be unjustly mistaken for Music To Fall Asleep To.  That’s a crying shame.  Although oftentimes I would be hard pressed to think of a better time than lying in bed all day listening to Galaxie 500 on repeat, this music demands close attention.  Allowing oneself to drift off to the narcotic tug is indeed a divine pleasure, but greater rewards await those who sit up, pay attention, and maybe get out in the sunshine while they’re at it.  There is a spiritual element to this music that touches everyone who truly absorbs and becomes absorbed by its spare grace.

This is not to imply it is in any way religious, because it is not.  This is music to truly uplift and affirm.  To warm the soul, soothe frayed nerves, and leave the listener on a higher plane than before he pressed play.  These songs have infinitely larger meaning in their feel than in anything so pedestrian as lyrical content.  In fact, the lyrics are often vague, dreamlike,  and understated; concerned with basic themes of disaffection, longing, ennui, and of course love, the words themselves are not groundbreaking.  The heavenly atmosphere is engendered by the perfectly interweaved instrumentation, the egalitarian balance of every element in the mix, and the effortlessly captivating and timeless melodies Dean Wareham, Naomi Yang, and Damon Krukowski captured on record nearly two decades ago.  These records can accompany a bicycle ride, day at the beach, even a nap perfectly.  It’d be an even larger criminal offense if that’s all they are remembered for.  Galaxie 500 carry the mind and soul aloft, to dance with ideals and hopes and dreams far above the day-to-day reality of earth.

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Today, 1988

Key tracks: Flowers, Don’t Let Our Youth Go To Waste (godlike Jonathan Richman cover), Tugboat

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On Fire, 1989

Key tracks: Blue Thunder, When Will You Come Home (one of my absolute favorite songs of all time, no question), Ceremony (excellent cover of early New Order single, arguably better than the original)

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This Is Our Music, 1990

Key tracks: Fourth of July, Summertime, Listen The Snow Is Falling (towering, gorgeous cover of a Yoko Ono track – undeniably, exponentially superior to the original), Way Up High, and the bonus track Here She Comes Now (a thundering, aggressive, majestic cover of the Velvet Underground original.  I am a huge VU fan yet still consider this better than the original, again, by a long shot).  Also, hopefully you’ll notice the album is named after a certain Ornette Coleman classic, and aptly so.

Please remember, the ‘key tracks’ are to conjure interest.  They’re entry-points, if you will.  Each of these records are of a piece and meant to be heard as such.  Not that you’ll have any trouble letting them spin after hearing the first track (which I’ve included as ‘key’ for each) and being comfortably locked in for the duration.

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So these are the three studio albums released in the lifetime of the band.  Dean went on to form the much more successful Luna, and Damon and Naomi formed, well, Damon & Naomi, but no matter how they tried, never eclipsed the sonic glory of this brief engagement.  As for the music, no individual description is necessary.  I will simply offer that they are one of the most consistent bands to have ever existed.  Though constantly evolving and updating their sound, breaking through subtle barriers with each subsequent release, the entire ethos and drive of the music remained rock solid from day one.  From the moment you first hear Galaxie 500, these tones will have unrivalled distinction as unique as a fingerprint.  Nothing else aproximates the quietly triumphant bliss conjured here.

[purchase Today, On Fire, and This Is Our Music separately at amazon, but keep an eye out at your local independent record shop, as I’ve found the CDs at entirely reasonable prices.  plus you’ve more chance of finding the Peel Sessions, the Uncollected, and Copenhagen (Live) sets as well]

DJ /rupture – Uproot

/ David James / 13 Comments

DJ /rupture is a flat-out musical genius. Preternaturally adept at crafting singularly pure mood explorations whole-cloth out of disparate samples, producer Jace Clayton is nearly as well known for his insightful writing on music.  He’s one of my favorite electronic artists working today.  One of my favorites of all time, in fact.  He’s often lumped in with the humble ‘mash-up dj’ category, which is a grave disservice to the prodigious talent he displays, especially on this album.

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First things first:  just put the album on now, with a set of headphones (or good stereo with some bass presence).  Press play.  Absorb.  This way, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Uproot is an album which feels so cohesively unified, hypnotically of-a-piece that one could be forgiven for assuming it’s not sample-based upon first listen.  Every single moment has so much attention paid to the connections and frictions between beats and vocals, synths and strings, pacing and flow, there are simply no seams in the production.  That fact alone places this lp miles above anything traditionally recognized as ‘mash-up’ – this resides on a level closer to Endtroducing or Avalanches than Girl Talk.

Conjuring the ghosts of reggae, dub, afropop, techno, grimy hip hop, dubstep, idm, and even post rock precedents/outliers like Dif Juz or Seefeel, Uproot is a smoky mix of pulsing, impulsively grounded head-nodding beats and extraterrestrial atmospheres.  Vocals and orchestral phrases shift in and out of the mix while a constant bed of low-end throb envelops perception.  The deeply narcotic sense of comfortable oblivion is overwhelming.

By the final withering reverberation Clayton has taken a journey from flute-peppered break beats through modern avant composers to melancholy post-apocalyptic ambience, conveyed en route by dub ideals and echo-laden empathy.  This is an evolution of the soul.  A journey of the mind.  A fucking incredible mix.

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Note:  when you obtain Uproot the tags may be crazy – a predictable result with complicated artists like this.  For the proper version check (strangely enough) the last.fm page and simply copy what they’ve got.  This will help you know the prominent sample(s) on each track as well as the proper names.

Be sure to read his blog as well:  mudd up!

[purchase this, as Clayton himself offers:  at iTunes or amazon]

Boris – Flood

/ David James / 1 Comment

Boris Flood

Boris. Often mistakenly considered simply a doom/stoner/sludge outfit, the Japanese band has managed to subtly weave in varying textures throughout their discography. On this particular record, they keep things on a minimal page and emerge with their most powerful, transformative work in the process.

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ROVO – Mon

/ David James / 4 Comments

ROVO.  Get familiar. Featuring electric violinist Yuji Katsui and guitarist Seiichi Yamamoto (of Boredoms), this group has built a rock solid career releasing consistently vibrant, energetic, forward-looking, impeccably arranged tribal/jazz/electronic/noise/funk/dance-fueled records.  Yes, I just made a reductive chain of genre names.  Read on to know why…

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Mon is an unequivocal masterpiece.  Currently in the center of ROVO‘s ever-expanding discography, this is, to me, their most representative album – an absolute highlight of effortlessly addictive yet experimentally-tinged instrumental groovy goodness.  I truly hope you give it a listen.  For your own sake.

For many people (like myself), discovering this band is that *aha!* moment when they realize there is, in fact, a group making the kind of music that resembles what they’d subconsciously love to hear.  This is dream music in the most literal sense; it’s a perfect combination of previously-unrealized elements brought together in a cohesive, ambiguously, strikingly original sound.  Still, there’s a warm familiarity bred of the intuitively catchy, effortlessly hypnotic beats.  Even if it’s not horizon-expanding for you, this album has my guarantee as an invigorating wave of narcotic bliss.  Jump in, the water’s warm.  You’ll be back for more.

[this is a reasonably difficult album to track down, but I’ve found copies on amazon.jp (don’t worry, it can be read in english) and ROVO’s myspace has more info]

Gnarls Barkley – The Odd Couple

/ David James / 3 Comments

Gnarls Barkley is the explosive combo of singer Cee-Lo Green and DJ/producer wunderkind DangerMouse. Known for his work with Gorillaz, MF Doom (the [adult swim] associated DangerDoom project), and his breakthrough Beatles/Jay Z mashup Grey Album, DangerMouse proves an apt foil for Cee-Lo’s bipolar delivery of frantically urgent yet smoothly seductive vocals.

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Most of you are probably familiar with this chart-dominating duo.  Some may have already written them off as one-off pop hit makers, based upon the former ubiquity of their explosive hit Crazy but that would be a grave mistake.  The name may have diminished in album-sales stature, but Gnarls Barkley only grew in the years since that particularly inescapable summer jam.  Filled with the kind of soul entirely devoid from virtually any modern pop release, and the pure loose fun which latter-day r&b classics exemplify, The Odd Couple is a shaggy, eccentric cousin to your father’s soul classics collecting dust on the shelf.  Updated with modern bells & whistles in the production department, lyrical idiosyncrasies previously unexplored, but kept strictly old school in sensibility and mood, it’s a true generational crossover.  Head’s in modern times, while the heart mercifully resides in a more earnest era.

[a recent wide release, pick this up anywhere – amazon can help]

Omar Khorshid melted my face.

/ David James / 4 Comments

Omar Khorshid And His Guitar conjure pure six string wizardry. This sound is perversely incredible. It’s unconscionable. The deep well of feeling I’m overcome with while hearing this – how much I must have been missing out on all these years! The change starts now. Prepare cochlea for imminent eargasm.

Rhythms From The Orient took me by complete surprise. A certain nice young fellow at Everything’s Exploding shared a raft of information about Khorshid which led my ears to this utterly sublime alchemy. It’s Dick Dale-ian surf guitar rumble meets mooged-out spacey atmosphere over a floor pounding belly dance groove. In fact, it’s everything that statement conjures and then some – hammering accordion and hand drums electrify several moments, and a sense of joyous abandon colors the entire project. It honestly sounds as if it were as fun to make as it is to listen to.  Which of course, is a blast.

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I’ve looked around for legit copies of this album in any form and this place seems to be the only source. If you can help it would be greatly appreciated!

Disco Inferno – D.I. Go Pop

/ David James / 5 Comments

This is not your mother’s disco. It’s one of the most innovative yet short lived bands in the last 20 years!

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Disco Inferno are pretty much the definition of “post rock” – though certainly not in the mould of nearly any band currently saddled with the oft-abused label.  DI made records truly beyond the rock idiom in nearly every way, and paid the price of an untimely death with slim recognition and anemic sales.  Of course now, in the internet age, they’ve been somewhat resurrected… for another generation to ignore.  I’m trying to rectify such a musical travesty.

D.I. Go Pop was the band’s second LP, issued after a string of increasingly brilliant singles and EPs which took them from the humble roots of post-punk also-rans to the heights of rock experimentatation.  Although the title begs otherwise, this is probably the most ‘challenging’ DI release.  However, it’s not a reaction against pop forms.  These 8 songs feel like someone broke the model for modern rock and, after forgetting how it originally went together,  decided to assemble the pieces into something new and different.  They don’t simply de- or reconstruct it, but fashion something more ambiguous, personal and interesting.  I won’t try to describe the sounds other than, generally speaking, they were far ahead of their time in the use of sampling, presaging everything from Matmos to The Books to Animal Collective‘s later albums.

[grab this truly worthy yet well-hidden gem at amazon]