Wild Nothing - Gemini [2010]

Though some of indie's brightest leading men have come through Virginia's halls of higher education (Steve Malkmus, David Berman, Travis Morrison), your average college rock band in the Old Dominion area probably sounds more like Agents of Good Roots. So if you live in a place like Blacksburg, Va., home of the Virginia Tech campus and not much else, and you want to be in a tropical punk act (Facepaint), an introspective singer-songwriter project (Jack & the Whale), or a band that covers Kate Bush instead of Dave Matthews (Wild Nothing's breakthrough rendition of "Cloudbusting"), you'll probably have to do what Jack Tatum did and start them yourself.

Gemini finds Tatum constructing a striking, solitary monument to just about anyone who moped, sulked, or bedsat their way through the 1980s. His love of dreamy, fuzzy, handcrafted guitar-pop isn't far removed from the Radio Dept. or the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, but he displays a more comprehensive and widespread commitment to classic indie pop sounds. Revivalism notwithstanding, his craftsmanship is undeniable and the details are spot-on: Check the reflective bell tone in "Live in Dreams", the Cocteau Twins-like, artificial synth tom in "Drifter", and the Johnny Marr homage in the twinkly guitar fade-in that begins "Our Composition Book".

While Tatum plays hopscotch with his collection of 4AD, Factory, and Slumberland records, Gemini has plenty more to offer than sonic verisimilitude. On album opener "Live in Dreams," he sings, "Our lips won't last forever and that's exactly why/ I'd rather live in dreams and I'd rather die," and the lyric plays out like Gemini in miniature: While Tatum's words can edge on maudlin, his delivery is more romantic than dreary, and there's a sly, understated, and subtly addictive melody that gorgeously frames his sentiments. And melodies like that one, which the album features in spades, are ultimately what make Gemini more than just another indie pop record, and often more than the sum of its parts. Of course, that's not to say that each of them connects instantly. Though a handful of immediate standouts reward first listens, the record's debt-to-influence ratio may initially seem to overshadow the strength of the music. However, repeat spins reveal Tatum's strikingly innate sense of songcraft, as these tracks gradually earworm their way into daily life.

Similar to Bradford Cox's early work as Atlas Sound or the more similarly indebted Nick Harte of Shocking Pinks, Wild Nothing doesn't feel like a facile genre exercise so much as honest personal expression borne of intense musical fanhood. And in a strange way, it becomes something of a deceptively joyous affair, a reminder of why so many songwriters retreat to bedrooms or garages to lose themselves in the music-making process. Gemini is grand when it sulks, and even better when it's in motion-- check the falsetto hooks of "Confirmation" and "Summer Holidays", or the clattering, kinetic "Chinatown". Tatum carves a tunnel from Ibiza's beaches to Manchester's rain-soaked fairgrounds, and in the process, captures a lot of what is exciting about underground music's current classic indie-pop fixation.

pitchfork.com

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THE RADIO DEPT. - CLINGING TO A SCHEME [2010]

Swedish dream-poppers shrug off the 'nu-gaze' tag for good on this charming winner of a full-length.

Nu-gaze. Like glow-fi, it’s one of those manufactured terms that is apt to make a music listener, be it indie rock critic or just casual fan, groan with annoyance. As a rule, people’s backs go up at the idea that some convenient, shorthand taxonomy could sum up a band’s entire artistic aim. Usually it’s the sort of thing that’s terribly inaccurate, not even appropriate for a record label’s press kit, and it’s the kind of dangerously short-sighted laziness that can actually keep potential new converts away from a deserving band. Nu-gaze? Really? I’ve even heard Titus Andronicus saddled with this term, and I can’t picture a less shoegaze-sounding band if I tried.

Call the Radio Dept. another unfortunate victim of this trend. Their earlier two efforts,Lesser Matters and Pet Grief, were instantly compared by salivating journa-clones to everyone from the cherished My Bloody Valentine to the Cocteau Twins to the effing Pet Shop Boys. Do the Radio Dept. really sound like these bands? That’s up to you. I say no, not really. But one thing’s clear, our Swedish friends are up to far more interesting work on their latest, Clinging to a Scheme, then just aping the nostalgic genres of ‘90s past.

First single “David” has the kind of surreal trip-hop bounce of latter-day Blur, another group once tagged as indebted to the ghosts of shoegaze past (as hard as that is to believe in 2010). Johan Duncanson has one of those voices that is utterly affecting in its disaffectedness, the apathetic lack of attachment sounding more emotional and harrowing in its defeated glory than any more ragged, extroverted effort by many of his contemporaries. There’s not a hint of over-driven walls of guitar here, just ambient keys breathing away over the beat, spinning into air.

Elsewhere, opener “Domestic Scene” nestles down on a beautiful bed of gently picked guitars before a sample cuts in at the start of “Heaven’s On Fire”.  “People see rock and roll as youth culture, and when youth culture becomes monopolized by big business, what are the youth to do?” a concerned voice asks, before the band answers with a good-time party jam that seems to snipe back: “just relax and enjoy it.” 
The album holds up this sort of consistency remarkably well over its brief thirty-five minute running time, moving from JAMC-Joy Division style mash-ups on “This Time Around” to mellow IDM on “A Token of Graditude”. The only hint of shoegaze influence here comes on “The Video Dept.”, which honestly bites more from Chapterhouse and Ride than heavier bands like MBV or Slowdive. The only real misstep here is “Four Months in the Shade”, which comes across as a feedback-soaked Crystal Castles experiment and little more. Thankfully, gears swiftly shift before gorgeous opener “You Stopped Making Sense” takes the wheel. If not for some of the more modernistic instrumentation, this could be one of Belle and Sebastian’s mellower jams, and ends the album on a perfectly appropriate high note.

Hopefully, Clinging to a Scheme will be enough to finally dispel the nu-gaze tag for the Radio Dept., and maybe it will help prove the futility of boxing bands as talented and unique as these into a tiny, neatly-labelled box. Probably not, at least not on the last count, but the fact remains that this is a solid, feel-good winner of an album that applies enough variety to feature in a number of your day to day routines and make them that much more special by association. Isn’t that what all great albums, nu-gaze or not, should do? Make no mistake, this is a very good, and very nearly great, album. So skip the one-sheet classifications, pick it up and judge for yourself.
popmatters.com
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FOALS - TOTAL LIFE FOREVER [2010]

Very shortly after their just-fine debut album, Antidotes, landed on these shores, the young Brits in Foals up and decided the record wasn’t any good. They said it wasn’t “insurmountable by any means,” and they publicly complained about TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek’s production, which for some people was the only reason to give Foals any thought. Too many times before, we’ve heard the “but this isn’t the album we wanted to make!” argument from bands who underperformed out of the gate, which is why Foals' shtick feels so tired. But that’s also why it’s surprising that Foals’ sophomore album, Total Life Forever, is basically Antidotes 2.0: No Antibalas Horns. These guys apparently disliked how they sounded on their debut so much they decided to replicate it.

Because of that similarity, it feels like I’m reviewing Antidotes here, because the reasons why that album never completely connects are the same reasons that Total Life Forever doesn’t either. Lyrically, Foals are often cliché and direct (requests to go to someone’s arms, to come back, to “be there,” for example), but singer Yannis Philippakis, who clearly studied at the alter of Bono, is also sometimes hopelessly oblique and is often not saying anything at all (“Miami” has no references to the earth’s sweatiest city, and the phrase “total life forever” is unclear even after it gets shouted a bunch in the title track).

Foals still play with styles -- they can veer between poppy math rock and rocky angular post-punk -- and it still feels like they’re on the verge of a stylistic breakthrough that has yet to happen. For every sonic experiment like the vocal-sample built “This Orient,” there’s a sub Bloc Party-jack like “After Glow.” For every soaring, ready for ad placement jam like “Black Gold,” there’s a “Miami,” a song that lifts from Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and Snow Patrol in equally awful measure.

The one thing Foals did succeed in on Total Life Forever is removing any sense that they’re a Dave Sitek studio creation, because his formerly heavy sonic fingerprint is nowhere to be found here. But what that actually means is that horns from Sitek’s pals in Antibalas aren’t around, and the guitars don’t sound as much like they were computer programmed. Everything else is in its right place.

All in all, though, Total Life Forever is a slightly more assured record from Foals; this time out they sound like they’ve taken complete ownership of their music. They were originally called out for being a new version of the umpteen shimmery post-punk bands that came before them, but with Total Life Forever, Foals can now (mostly) be considered as an entity unto themselves.  
prefixmag.com
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JÓNSI - GO [2010]

The last Sigur Rós album was seen as the band's most commercial offering to date. The arrangements seemed to strive towards something that could be loosely termed as "pop". Band leader Jónsi Birgisson even sang in English on the final track All Alright. This ruffled a few feathers amongst those who preferred the abstract crooning that came with the nonsensical lyrics that Sigur Rós had employed down the years.
Some may find the use of English on this, Jónsi's debut solo album, abhorrent. Others may welcome the opportunity to gain a more direct insight into the meanings of these songs. Either way, Jónsi 's delivery is such that it's easy to get lost in what he's doing with his voice rather than what is being said.
Those with an ear to the ground will have already caught the wonderful Boy Lilikoi, a song which is naïve in its approach to life and succeeds with a flurry of childlike innocence. It grows and swells with warmth, imploring those lucky enough to hear it to enjoy life before it is too late, with "use your life, the world goes and flutters by" being the key refrain. The vocal harmonies collapse over each other in seemingly endless fashion, drums thunder and skip in equal measure, and flutes are playfully light as they flutter around the ever growing strings. Has 'pop' music ever sounded this wonderful?
Likewise, opening track Go Do features an exquisite vocal and, although it's possible to grab snatches of sense, it's far easier to get swept up in the layered tones. The bass drum pounds like the heart of someone who's just discovered what love at first sight means, while the flutes and piccolos flit around the central vocal like glittering fairies, adding a mysterious sparkle.
If there's a theme to be found in the lyrics of Go, it must be that life is fleeting and is here to be enjoyed. This much is clear in the joyful percussive stomp of Animal Arithmetic, where the simple pleasures of combing hair and riding bikes take on an almost sepia toned charm. Delicate woodwind touches are hidden behind a glut of pummelling drums and assorted other clunks and whirs, but they colour the track just enough to ensure that the magical quality remains in what is otherwise a thunderous track.
Supporting Jónsi on this project is increasingly ubiquitous composer Nico Muhly. His arrangements are vital in ensuring that these songs attain spectacular heights. Tornado, to take one example, overflows with beautiful strings complementing a solitary bass-drum kick, and transforms a rather sinister song into something approaching that familiar ethereal Sigur Rós sound. Naturally Jónsi's vocals soar into a higher register as the song builds to a climax, whereupon he sounds like an angel in the throws of sinful ecstasy.
Muhly's presence is more keenly felt on Grow Till Tall and Hengilas. The tearaway percussion that drives Animal Arithmetic and the madly danceable Around Us is absent, and mournful strings take their place. Fans of earlier Sigur Rós material will find enough here to keep them happy, with cellos creating the pulse of the songs while Jónsi's consonant-free vocal style returns to breathe life into them. If the likes of Boy Lilikoi are the life of Go's party, then the aching cellos of Hengilas are its soul.
Go is a phenomenal record with almost every bar bursting with beauty. It is soulful, fun, naïve and sad in its own fantastical world; if only life really were this good. This is a record that will make you believe it could be.
musicomh.com
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ASOBI SEKSU - REWOLF [2009]

"Asobi Seksu is an indie rock/dream pop band which formed in 2004 in New York City, New York, United States. The band consists of Yuki Chikudate (vocals, keyboards), James Hanna (guitar, vocals), William Pavone (bass) and Larry Pavone (drums). The band’s name in Japanese consists of two words, “asobi” meaning “play” or “for fun”, and “sekkusu” the Japanese imported word for”sex” .
Their sound has been said to draw influence from the shoegazing movement of the late 1980s to early 1990s, which was coined to describe the textured and effects-heavy sound of alternative rock in that era.
Asobi Seksu released their eponymous debut album in 2004. The band regrouped with a new rhythm section for their second album, Citrus, which was recorded in Gigantic Studios, New York City with producer Chris Zane.
One Little Indian Records re-released the band’s first album Asobi Seksu and the follow-up Citrus in 2006.
The band changed its name to Asobi Seksu from the previous name, sportf*ck, when they signed to their current label.
According to the band’s official website “James and Yuki have almost completed writing songs for the new record and will be hitting the studio, once again with producer Chris Zane, this summer (2008). The new album will be released on Polyvinyl Record Co., the band’s new US label.” LAST.FM

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A SUNNY DAY IN GLASGOW - ASHES GRAMMAR [2009]

"A Sunny Day in Glasgow began as a collaboration between friends Ben Daniels and Ever Nalens, both of whom had recently returned to Philadelphia after several years in the UK. The band name came from Nalens, who had been living in Glasgow, and Daniels kept it after Nalens left the project. In 2006, Daniels asked his twin sisters, Robin and Lauren, to start singing on the songs they had been working on. In March of that year the trio self-released The Sunniest Day Ever EP to great acclaim from college radio stations and blogs. Their debut release, Scribble Mural Comic Journal, came out February 2007 and received favorable reviews from Pitchfork and Drowned in Sound among others. Scribble Mural Comic Journal was recorded with one microphone in a bedroom in West Philly and pushed the boundaries of dream pop often drawing comparisons to My Bloody Valentine and Cocteau Twins. During the summer of 2007 the band toured the United States including in-studios on KEXP and Radio K and released a handmade tour only EP titled Tout New Age which was subsequently released as a digitally only EP. A year later the band emerged for a performance at the Whitney Museum as part of the Wordless Music Series and an in-studio performance on WNYC. A month later they toured across the UK and France which was celebrated with a string of 7”s coming out labels as varied as Slumberland, Disjuncture and Georgraphic North."

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SLOWDIVE - SOUVLAKI [1993]

"Though not as big and swirling as Just for a Day, there's more of an attempt to put advanced song structure and melody in place rather than just craft infinitely appealing, occasionally thunderous mood music. Everything is simplified, as if Brian Eno's presence on two songs -- he contributes keyboards and treatments and co-wrote one tune after turning down the band's invitation to produce -- hammered home the better aspects of "ambient" music. This is no Music for Airports though. On the opening "Alison," the largely uplifting "When the Sun Hits," and the darkly blissful "Machine Gun," Slowdive are still capable of mouth-opening, spine-tingling flourishes. They've found a way to be quiet, moving, and aggressive simultaneously, mixing trance-like beauty with the deepest delayed guitar sounds around, a sound at once relaxing, soothing, and exciting, and most of all harshly beautiful. [SBK released Souvlaki in the U.S. a full eight months after its English release on Creation, with three-quarters of the 5 EP tacked on the end, plus one unreleased track, a memorable, spacy run through Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood's "Some Velvet Morning."] " AMG

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MY BLOODY VALENTINE - GEEK! EP [1985]

SIMILAR/RELATED: SLOWDIVE, RIDE, CHAPTERHOUSE, PALE SAINTS, THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN, LUSH, ASTROBRITE

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MY BLOODY VALENTINE - YOU MADE ME REALISE [1988]

"Like the Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth, and the Jesus & Mary Chain before them, My Bloody Valentine redefined what noise meant within the context of pop songwriting. Led by guitarist Kevin Shields, the group released several EPs in the mid-'80s before recording the era-defining Isn't Anything in 1988, a record that merged lilting, ethereal melodies of the Cocteau Twins with crushingly loud, shimmering distortion. Though My Bloody Valentine rejected rock & roll conventions, they didn't subscribe to the precious tendencies of anti-rock art-pop bands. Instead, they rode crashing waves of white noise to unpredictable conclusions, particularly since their noise wasn't paralyzing like the typical avant-garde..."

SIMILAR/RELATED: SLOWDIVE, RIDE, CHAPTERHOUSE, PALE SAINTS, THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN, LUSH, ASTROBRITE

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MP3@256KBPS