It’s been a while! I stealthily skipped last month’s Musical Box, so newer readers might not know that I usually do a monthly post full of listening suggestions. The holidays are a busy time, especially for students, so here’s some music to cram to.
December is also a great time to be a music fan. All the music journalists are coming out with their top 10 album lists and you get to discover all the cool stuff you missed that year. This is how I discovered Janelle Monáe‘s debut EP Metropolis: The Chase. It caught my eye for exploring science fiction themes with a quirky Blade Runner inspired android love story. Her sound is a wonderful experimental blend of R&B, funk and spoken word, reminding me quite a bit of Outkast (she was featured on two songs off Idlewild.) Altogether a terrific start, I look forward to her first full length album.
I first heard of Max Tundra‘s latest album Parallax Error Beheads You from Chris Dahlen, who has already called it his favourite of 2008. I’ve been on a bit of a lo-fi kick these past few months, so it really hit the spot for me. Composed entirely on a Commodore Amiga 500, I would categorize it as progressive pop (you can’t get away with extended synthesizer solos without someone throwing in the “prog” word.) It may not suit everyone’s tastes, but I love it.
Nav may currently be on blogging hiatus (working on his PhD, which I’m told involves writing long essays and purchasing a tweed jacket), but that hasn’t stopped him from sharing interesting music on Google Reader. The latest is a band called The Happy Hollows, whose recent EP Imaginary is “free” if you’re willing to spam five friends about it. However, the album is so good that it’s almost worth losing respect in the eyes of your peers for. Fitting somewhere between the Fiery Furnaces and the White Stripes, they tell rambling stories and like to mix up the tempo. The Happy Hollows are another new band to watch.
7/10 – The Doyouinverts [download]
Finally, a comedy song about the romantic woes of a video game reviewer that Kieron Gillen described as “my life, basically.” This song is so funny that the very though of some of you not clicking through to listen to it compelled me to transcribe it:
That’s it for December, happy listening!
Volume 12… I suppose The Musical Box is now one year old! Here are some fab tunes to celebrate.
Many thanks to Chris Dahlen for linking me to TV on the Radio‘s latest album Dear Science, because it’s one of the loudest, freshest, funkiest records I’ve heard this year. His review over at Pitchfork says it better than I ever could, but it you like to think and dance (possibly at the same time) I wholeheartedly recommend checking it out. You can stream high quality versions of the album’s singles on their website.
I’m likewise indebted to Chris Furniss for introducing me to the music of Shugo Tokumaru. Fortunately I made this discovery early enough in the month for me to catch his show at Pop Montreal last Friday. He’s a virtuoso guitarist, and managed to coax such a rich sound out of six strings that you could have sworn he had an entire band backing him up. His latest album EXIT has been on repeat at my place for the last few weeks, it falls delightfully somewhere between Sufjan Stevens and the Katamari Damacy soundtrack. Another unconditional recommendation, pick it up and tell your friends.
Earlier this month I was browsing through Talib Kweli‘s back albums on Sven’s recommendation and I stumbled upon this gem, a 1998 collaboration with Mos Def called Black Star. It has everything you’d expect from a great hip-hop album: biting social commentary, fat beats and tight flow. Sadly this is the only album they’ve ever collaborated on, so you’ll have to check out their respective discographies if you want more.
Now if you excuse me, I believe I hear Mega Man 9 calling my name.
September certainly snuck up on us, didn’t it? Where the heck did summer go? To those of you starting classes again this week, here are a trio of debut albums (and one from a duo of veterans) to rock your commute / Labour Day / first day of Ramadan.
Straight out of Springfield, Missouri, Ha Ha Tonka‘s Buckle In The Bible Belt is full of foot-stompin’ roots rock about hardships in the Ozarks. While the rest of the album is great highway driving music, the track “Falling In” (embedded above) really stands out for its indie rock ballad sensibilities, strong vocal harmonies and overall catchiness. The bluegrass inspired “St. Nick on the Fourth in a Fervor” is also worth a listen.
I would place Apes & Androids‘ sound somewhere between the electric rock opera bombast of Muse and the low key funk of Beck. It’s a strange mix but they make it work. The track “Riverside” starts off with subdued folk guitar but crescendos into a cacophony worthy of a Final Fantasy boss fight. Their album Blood Moon is a mixed bag, but features gems such as “Hot Kathy” and “We Don’t Understand You.”
Love Is Where The Smoke Is is lead singer Jamie Fooks’ bedroom work of passion. The Calgary native taught herself to sing, play, compose and digitally record throughout the album’s creation. Jane Vain & The Dark Matter‘s debut is surprisingly well polished while maintaining the lyrical honesty of an enthusiast. Feist, eat your heart out.
Finally, I picked up David Byrne and Brian Eno‘s latest collaboration Everything That Happens Will Happen Today. While it’s more accessible than some of their earlier work (following the trend of the later Talking Heads albums), they’ve snuck in a few strange tracks such as “I Feel My Stuff.” The flash widget embedded above actually streams the entire album, a commendable move that certainly embraces the spirit of the digital music revolution.
It’s time once again for a Musical Box post, where I condense a month’s worth of personal recommended listening. However, this month I’ve handed the reigns over to my friend Navneet “Nav” Alang. Nav writes about technology, identity, pop culture and the Internet at Scrawled In Wax. I’ve been a big fan of his blog for quite a while now, and am thrilled that he graciously agreed to guest-blog.
Here are his top picks for this month:
As a regular reader of The Quixotic Engineer, I always look forward to the monthly Musical Box posts – so it’s quite the honour to get to do one myself! My thanks to Matthew. Without further ado, here are some of my recent musical faves.
Mark Kozelek has been making music for over twenty years, first with Red House Painters and most recently with Sun Kil Moon. I loved Sun Kil’s first disc, Ghosts of the Great Highway, and looked forward to their most recent release, April, with a great deal of anticipation. It was worth it. “Moorestown” (above) does a lot to showcase the bittersweet ache at the core of Kozelek’s work, which is littered with tales of love and loss, elation and pain. Fun fact: Kozelek played the bassist of fictional band Stillwater in the film Almost Famous.
I came across Jenny Owen Youngs in a simple 10 or 20 second clip from the second season opener of Weeds. The song, “Fuck Was I” is like much of Youngs’ music: dark, cynical and yet somehow sweet at the same time. It’s an oddly disconcerting yet disarming combination and I’ve literally listened to this track 50 times in the past few weeks. 2005′s Batten the Hatches, which this song is from, is well worth the listen.
Finally, someone combines my love of Indian classical music and long guitar solos! Niladri Kumar has become adept at melding the old and the new and is quickly becoming a rock star in the world of Indian classical, so much so that he has invented his own electric sitar, the ‘Zitar’. This short clip highlights both his virtuosity and capacity to mix rock star flash and classical rigour. Unfortunately, there is much less of Kumar’s more traditional work online, which is a shame as it’s also excellent. If you’re curious, I’d recommend starting with his disc Revelation, which you can hear clips of here.
Finally, in perhaps the most aptly named album I’ve heard in a while, we have From Here We Go Sublime by The Field. It’s spacey, electronic and yet somehow manages to remain remarkably organic and melodic. It’s perfect music for spending late summer evening watching time drift by. The clip here is a fan-made video, but it’s done by the same user responsible for the Girl Talk mashup vids.
That’s it for July, thanks again to Nav and be sure to check out more of his work over at Scrawled In Wax.
