A predictable playlist - Hear
HEAR is the enema your iTunes needs. Bringing you the most thought-provoking and up-to-date music reviews this side of Lester Bangs, HEAR sifts through the ever growing mountain of press releases and promos to only feature albums, EPs, LPs and mixes that we want to, not that we have to. Also, we try and make things make sense in 200 words or less so that you can just listen to the music.
The Besnard Lakes, 'Are The Roaring Night'
Sometimes I wish I didn't have to tell you about music via a flashing computer screen.
I wish I could just play you something at a party. Or make you a mix CD. Some things are better if you find them out by accident, or from a friend. The Besnard Lakes have too much personality for the impersonality of a computer screen.
Spoon, 'Transference'
The fact that this is the first self-produced Spoon album was a surprise to me. They've always been so ridiculously full of sound-purpose and sound-awareness. As you might expect, it sounds just as good as anything that they might pay some dude with a massive beard and a concerned look on his face to record.
Kitchens Floor, Self Titled 7"
Brisbane's very own band of doomed youth takes timeout from dwelling in apathy and distressing furrow-browed mothers to deliver a three-song 7" record. Their first foray into vinyl sees Kitchen's Floor continue to carve out dank and mould-ridden outsider pop with a raw, primitive temperament.
'Popular Songs', Yo La Tengo
There's a strange ramshackle formula to every Yo La Tengo record, a vow of consistency to the inconsistent. Kind of like that oddball friend you have who's liable to blow your mind and do anything at any time, but you just don't know when or where or how or why. And so the veteran group's twelfth album Popular Songs continues in that same vein, but it's a glorious rut to be stuck in.
HEALTH interview
HEALTH operate on a visceral plane. There is emotion apparent in their recordings but it is not made clear for you in words. It comes through in sound abstracted, voices affected and tempos flailing. They are able to connect to the audience on a basic level without having to sacrifice their complexities.
Grizzly Bear interview
Here's a band! Ethereal, psychedelic pop infused with a tidbit of Gregorian chant, texturally rich, dense, colourful, not too gay, a little bit gay. These dudes don't fuck around at band practice, so to speak... Chris Taylor (bass/clarinet/flute/vocalist/producer) imparts upon me a couple of ‘fun facts' from the Seattle Airport.
Phenomenal Handclap Band interview
Heralded as the ‘perfect mix of of everything from the past 40 years of popular music' the Phenomenal Handclap Band collective started when Daniel Collás and Sean Marquand, two New York underground club DJs, with an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of esoteric music ranging from Brazilian soul to vintage psych-rock got restless with playing other people's music and decided to produce their own.
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