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Dalek
Abandoned Language
When we last left off with Dälek, they had released Absence, a dark and dirgy romp through hip-hop's underground that left countless listeners and critics in awe. However, while it would probably be a good career move to replicate that album's noisy charm, Dälek have once again reinvented themselves with their fourth and most accomplished full-length, Abandoned Language.
"We've been making wall of noise records for a long time and I think with Absence we realized that was as far as we wanted to go with that sound," dälek (the MC/producer) explains. "That sound was just so heavy and dense, but the new one is about composition and notes we are playing. The layering is still there, but the instrumentation is totally different." In fact, from the sinister strings in "Lynch" to old-school hip-hop flavor of "Isolated Stare" to the heady melodicism of "Tarnished", Abandoned Language is complex enough for fans of avant-noise, but accessible enough for mainstream hip-hop audiences.
In case you're unfamiliar with Dälek, here's a short version: dälek began MCing and Djing in the late-80s, the current incarnation of the group didn't exist until the mid-'90s when he brought co-producer Oktopus into the mix. Since then the duo have tirelessly toured and worked with countless other DJs and musicians to create some of the most challenging music in the underground. However, it was 2005's Ipecac Recordings Absence that brought them national press attention while confusing the hell out of people, eliciting comparisons to the X-ecutioners, whose DJ Rob Swift is featured prominently on Abandoned Language, My Bloody Valentine, Pink Floyd, Eric B and Rakim, Penderecki, and countless other disparate yet groundbreaking acts.
"This album is very deceiving," dälek explains, likening Abandoned Language to a David Lynch film. "When you listen to it the first time, you kind of get into it for the melodic reasons, but the more you listen to it the more fucked up you realize it is," he continues, laughing. "I think a lot of people could get into it for the wrong reasons and not really realize what’s being said or what’s going on sonically or compositionally, and by the tenth listen you realize you’re sucked into this bizarre world, you know?" he explains, pausing for a second to collect his thoughts. "We want to embrace you with the sound and then suffocate you." -CP
Release Date: 02/27/07
Label: Ipecac
Genre/Style: Hip Hop / Experimental
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CD: $12.98
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Ben Davis & The Jets / Des Ark
Battle of the Beards
The line between project and band is sometimes very faint. Over the years plenty of side projects have blown to full wonder. Postal Service for sometime far outsold the then humble mix of Death Cab For Cutie and DNTEL. The same goes for metal mavens Perfect Circle and their older brothers in Tool, or cartooned Gorillaz and their fleshy braintrust in Blur. So when Aimee Argote of Des Ark and Ben Davis got together to collaborate, the idea of was simple enough but the resulting record has set the bar so high for both artists that they might want to reconsider ever working “solo” again.
Ben Davis, formerly of punk bands including Sleepytime Trio and Milemarker, has developed into a musician with diverse interests and influences. His solo career evolved from a quiet four-track project into a full band ensemble with over a dozen releases including singles, compilations, two full length CDs.
Over the last three years Des Ark has recruited an overwhelmingly devoted army of fans with their stripped down, take no prisoners live performances, and unique take on punk rock song writing. Now after the release of several well received singles, compilation track submissions, and a critically acclaimed EP, this Durham, NC duo blessed the universe with the release of their debut full length album in 2005.
Of course both Argote and Davis had worked together before. On Davis’ 2004 solo record, Aided and Abetted, Argote co-wrote two tracks and sang on the majority of the release. Furthermore this collaboration find solace as Aimee recorded with Jonthan Fuller whom Davis played with in Bats & Mice. So goes the incestuous world of independent rock, but what’s important here is the music and as the songs unfold it becomes clear that the bond the two share is much bigger than the sum of it’s parts.
On Battle Of The Beards, The slow builds and soft confessionals of Argote’s tracks play perfect counterpoint to Davis’ pulsing songcraft. Themes weave in and out of infidelity, botched love affairs, and late night rolls in the hay. Aimee belts wherein Ben whispers, a single piano or acoustic guitar is butted up against a lush orchestra, and by the last note of these 12 tracks you begin to realize the potential of alliance and the unspoken compliments of friendship-CP
Release Date: 02/27/07
Label: Lovitt
Genre/Style: Rock / Pop
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CD:$17.98
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Dean & Britta
Back Numbers
Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips are best known for being one-half of Luna, one of the most critically acclaimed rock bands of the past two decades. Wareham is also known for fronting the seminal indie band Galaxie 500. As Dean & Britta, they have scored for films (the Academy Award-nominated The Squid and the Whale among them) and worked with producer Tony Visconti (David Bowie, T. Rex) on their lauded debut album, L'Avventura. Back Numbers, also produced by Visconti, picks up where L'Avventura left off, with the spotlight on Dean & Britta's laconic, dreamy vocal interplay on originals like "Words You Used to Say" and "Wait for Me," along with covers of '60s gems such as The Troggs' "Our Love Will Still Be There" and Lee Hazlewood's "You Turned My Head Around." -CP
Release Date: 02/27/07
Label: Zoe
Genre/Style: Pop
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CD:$16.98$11.98
LP:$19.98
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Do Make Say Think
You, You're A History In Rust
Since Constellation issued their self-released debut record in 1998, Do Make Say Think have made one critically-acclaimed album after another. They are one of the most consistently inventive instrumental rock bands of the past decade, and one of the most self-realised: DMST members themselves have recorded, mixed and mastered all the band's work, developing a highly original and finely detailed approach to audio production. You, You're A History In Rust is the fifth record by Do Make Say Think and a brilliant extension of the band's unique sonic narrative.
In many ways the new album picks up where Winter Hymn Country Hymn Secret Hymn (cst025, 2003) left off - acoustic fingerpicked guitars are the recurring compositional anchor, with drums and percussion fluttering around these campfire themes while horns and electric guitars gather in swarms. The songs on You, You're A History In Rust develop like moths drawn to a flame, instruments tracing erratic circles around a flickering, elusive centre. This organic non-linearity will be familiar to fans of the band, as DMST has been honing this kind of overlapping, multi-thematic ebb and flow over the last couple of records. And as these fans know, DMST's approach to musical deconstruction is never academic, forced, or played merely for effect; it is always a matter of weaving the captured elements together with the mixing desk played like a master instrument. As with previous releases, DMST set up in remote locations for the main recording sessions, tracking these new songs at a cottage and barn in rural Ontario, Canada and returning to their Toronto homebase at th'Schvitz studio for overdubs and mixing by production wizards Charles, Ohad and Justin.
Album opener "Bound To Be That Way" puts all these elements on fine display: recorded rhythmic and melodic figures fade in and out along with found and recovered sounds, lead instruments slide and shift in the mix, and the band's dual drummers deploy separate channels of syncopated stutter. "A With Living" will surprise hardcore DMST followers, as it features full-on verse-chorus-verse singing that builds towards lovely massed vocals before breaking down again into a beautiful modal horn denouement. "The Universe!" and "Herstory Of Glory" serve as tight, snappy firecrackers set off within the rest of the album's pensive, dusky atmosphere. Constellation is thrilled to release this fifth album by one of our most creative, thoughtful, challenging and accessible groups. The CD is available in a 6-panel cardstock jacket and the LP features DMM mastering at Abbey Road and is pressed on 180g virgin vinyl. Thanks for listening.-CP
Release Date: 02/27/07
Label: Constellation
Genre/Style: Post Rock
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CD:$13.98
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Dr. Dog
We All Belong
With all due respect to their previous recordings, it's safe to proclaim to every man, woman, and child: "DR. DOG HAS ARRIVED!"
In the early part of 2007 as music listeners get real comfortable with this record, many of us may have to remind ourselves that it's not 1967. This masterpiece is crafted from that same heart that folks like Brian Wilson, Neil Young, Robbie Robertson, John Lennon and Paul McCartney were masterfully culling from to create some of the most important songs ever recorded. Dr. Dog have written a classic that is not only timeless, but rich in soul, at some times eerie with its familiarity, and wholly unique in sonic experimentation.
The production on "We All Belong" lends as much to George Martin as it does to Jeff Mangum. The songs written by the young gentlemen in Dr. Dog could be considered a grand homage to the brilliance of an era long gone, or even a wake up call to a generation of uninspired and tiresome indie rock. This is where many will find a new appreciation for Dr. Dog which can easily last another 40 years or more. -CP
Release Date: 02/27/07
Label: Park the Van
Genre/Style: Rock
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CD: $9.98
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The Feeling
Twelve Stops and home
This is the U.S. release of their debut album which is already double platinum in the UK, where they were also the most played band on radio.
Drawing heavily from the rich harmonies and melodies of '70s soft rock, British band the Feeling includes vocalist/guitarist Dan Gillespie-Sells, bassist Richard Jones, guitarist Kevin Jeremiah, keyboardist Ciaran Jeremiah, and drummer Paul Stewart. Longtime friends, the five members spent time as session musicians on various recordings as well as playing as a cover band. Realizing they wanted to create their own classic rock-inspired pop, the group remodeled themselves as the Feeling, signed to Island, and released Twelve Stops and Home in June 2006. -Kenyon Hopkin (allmusic.com)-CP
Release Date: 02/27/07
Label: Island
Genre/Style: Rock
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CD: $13.98
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Money Mark
Brand New By Tomorrow
Money Mark was due for a vocal album after the instrumental Change Is Coming, and he was long due for any kind of release, considering it had been five and a half years since that record. So, praise is due to Jack Johnson for green-lighting the recording of Brand New by Tomorrow on his Brushfire label after he heard some early demos. (The two share a friend and producer in Mario Caldato, Jr.) Although Johnson and Money Mark don't seem to have much in common on the surface, their laid-back approach to the music of the '70s is similar -- be it singer/songwriter pop or funk -- and their one collaboration here, "Pick Up the Pieces," is a happy marriage. (Fortunately, Johnson's help is limited to the songwriting.) Elsewhere, Mark is just as spot-on with his songwriting and his gadgety one-man-band playing, although the vocals take more of the limelight than on past records. (Apparently, the drums on the early demos were a little harder before Caldato produced a mix that had, as Mark put it, "more wrist and less forearm.") He's only improved as a vocalist, often double-tracking his vocals for ghostly harmony, and keeping his instrumental prowess to just a few tricks per song. Mark described this as a post-9/11 record (Change Is Coming was released in early September 2001), and there are elements of sadness or melancholia to songs like "Everyday I Die a Little," "Summer Blue," and "Color of Your Blues," but Mark's laid-back stride keeps the affair surprisingly buoyant. -John Davis (allmusic.com)
Money Mark is a member of 1% For The Planet. This is the first cd package released to include 100% recycled F.S.C. paper and the first 100% recycled plastic tray.-CP
Release Date: 02/27/07
Label: Brushfire
Genre/Style: Pop
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CD:$9.98
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Pagoda
Self-titled
I had first encountered Michael Pitt in 2000 while composing music for Larry Clark’s film Bully. Of the ensemble of young and crazy actors, it was Pitt who made the most resonant impression on me. His character was of a teenager I had remembered from the recesses of High School USA; giddy, feral and recklessly alluring. Two years later I was introduced to him through filmmaker Gus van Sant when Gus was developing the film concept which became Last Days. Michael arrived at my New York apartment and we immediately hit it off. He was very anxious to work with Gus on the character of Blake, based on Gus’ impressionistic take on Kurt Kobain’s final hours. Michael talked about his band PAGODA which prompted Gus to ask him to play me a song. All I had lying around the apartment was a crummy electric guitar and after some hesitation Michael took it and began to belt out a solo rendition of Lesson Learned, the first track off the Pagoda CD. I was taken aback. Not only by his rag-tag confidence in playing to an audience of two but by the song which was hook driven and emotionally genuine. It was at that moment that I said, “dude let’s do a record.”
After the release of Last Days Michael brought Pagoda to Italy to spend a solid month in Luca Amendolara’s studio to record most of what has become their premier CD. Over 40 songs were recorded as well as a handful more back in Pagoda’s hometown of Brooklyn. By the end of 2004 we had whittled our initial selection down to the tracks which exist on this first disc. Since this time Pagoda has changed radically as a band with almost all new members in place of the recording unit but the intense musical mind of Michael Pitt remains constant.
From what I glean from Michael, he was young kid from New Jersey who migrated to New York City to play rock n’ roll. He fell into a drama workshop of some sort and was cast in a few television programs, and then theatrical film. His star has always been on the rise though his ambitions do not lie in the Hollywood meat market. Pagoda is not a part time job for Pitt; he is not an actor out on vacation here. He is an artist with living expression as his goal and music is where he thrives. And Pagoda as a live band kicks much ass.
The end
Thurston Moore-CP
Release Date: 02/27/07
Label: Ecstatic Peace!
Genre/Style: Rock
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Silversun Pickups
Canavas
This is the limited vinyl release of Silversun Pickup's break through album, Canavas. 2xLP that includes bonus 7" and a download code for two unreleased bonus tracks.
Their debut full length, following the EP Pikul. Using Pikul as a blueprint, Carnavas seamlessly continues the moody nature of Silversuns signature sound fuzzy guitars, driving bass grooves, ethereal keyboards, angular drums, and raspy vocals.-CP
Release Date: 02/27/07
Label: Dangerbird
Genre/Style: Rock
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