Posts tagged: Emeralds
Haunted Ghost’s Chanson du Jour :: completely lost edition
Mark McGuire :: Get Lost
I am a very intense enthusiast of the whole Ohio , especially when it comes to the Emeralds camp (Mark McGuire, Jon Elliot, Steve Hauschildt, and fringe crew like Radio People’s Sam Goldberg, Hanson Records’ Aaron Dilloway, Trouble Books, and Cylindrical Habitat Modules’ Julian Gulyas) so when I saw the Editions Mego is going to release a new Mark McGuire album, Get Lost, in a month, needless to say, I was stoked. Upon listening to it, I was awash with the same wispy and emotional affectation that I experienced the first time I heard Goes By… off the 2010 Emeralds full length Does it Look Like I’m Here? The track builds slowly with McGuire’s signature guitar sensibilities and a shimmering synth dancing around in the background, but then a bit over halfway comes the classic distorted guitar static and beautiful acoustic strumming that conjure, as McGuire describes “the spirit of the summer night sky.” Listening to this for some reason recalls the memory of when I was a young child moving from California to North Carolina, sitting on the trunk of my parent’s car in the middle of the desert, crying from fear of change and looking up at the falling stars like smears of light streaking through the water of my tears. Powerful, raw, emotional, massive, beautiful. This is going to be one of those albums…
Pre-order at Editions Mego or wait for the more nicely priced domestic order on Forced Exposure or Experimedia.
Haunted Ghost’s Chanson du Jour :: beauty be together edition
Mark McGuire & Trouble Books :: Song for Reinier Lucassen’s Sphinx
Two great forces of the Ohio music scene collide with this sprawling, beautiful work of electronic drone songs and soundscapes. Trouble Books is a couple who started their label Bark & Hiss not too long ago and have since put out two full length albums and an EP. They play slow, entrenching, and melodic synth ingrained music, the kind of stuff for summer storms and rainy beaches. Mark McGuire is one of my current and possibly all time favorite musicians. He lends his soaring, looped guitars to the brilliant Cleveland based trio Emeralds and has been releasing myriad solo albums for the past 6 years. His influence on this collaboration is incredibly dynamic and creates a huge sonic atmosphere more full and sustained than Trouble Books’ earlier releases while more controlled and melodic than a lot of his Emeralds and solo works. The single off the album, is an ode to the Dutch painter Reinier Lucassen’s work show above, the Sphinx, was one of his less known though still influential pieces from the figurative expressionism he helped to create. Perhaps that is why the song is so beautifully ethereal and a bit surreal, not completely immersed in reality yet not entirely out of reach.
For my 100th post and to welcome the end’s nearing finale, I’ve finally broken down and decided to make my top 25 releases of the year. So, here we go:
Power experimental-pop duo from Florida bring a stunning debut of bristling electronic beauty.
- 24. Candy Claws :: Hidden Lands (twosyllable)
Amazing album from Colorodo natives in which every song uses parts of different songs to make a whole.
- 23. Geographer :: Animal Shapes (Tricycle)
San Fran trio’s second release, full of huge hooks and soaring vocals. Also, killer cello lines.
- 22. Future Islands :: In Evening Air (Thrill Jockey)
Hailing from Baltimore, FI’s powerful vocals, new wave style bass lines and fresh beats make this one a 2010 must.
Solo debut for lead singer of Iceland’s Sigur Ros. An intimate and grandiose ode to growing up and growing old.
Tight production, killer guest spots, and the unstoppable fire that is Big Boi’s lyrical and vocal style makes for one hell of an album.
- 19. Kordan :: The Longing (Last Bummer)
Dream pop of the highest, coziest caliber. Dark, fire place songs.
- 18. Glass Vaults :: Glass EP (Jukboxr)
New Zealand based duo bring a fresh and melancholic EP of ambient tribal music. The end result is a fantastic foray through a collapsing relationship.
- 17. Javelin :: No Mas (Thrill Jockey)
After a string of 12”s on Thrill Jockey, the duo releases their first full length full of old funk hooks, feel good beats, and helium vocals.
Will Wiesenfeld of Los Angeles released his debut album on Anticon and it is all glitch pop of the most personal and introspective caliber.
- 15. Sufjan Stevens :: Age of Adz (Asthmatic Kitty)
The weird robot opus that officially revives and destroys the use of auto-tuning in 25 minutes. Amazing composition, existential lyrics, and a brave live show to go with.
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Mind blowing new release from UK producer Kieran Hebden that takes the slow build of electronic music to a whole new level. This release solidifies Hebden’s place in the electronic world.
- 13. Gem Club :: Acid and Everything EP
Heartbreak, loss, pain, purity, hope, glory. All in just 6 tracks.
Foals dark, almost operatic at times, sophomore full length finds them in new territory where their old math rock sensibilities blend into a heavier and more desperate context.
- 11. Mount Kimbie :: Crooks & Lovers (Hotflush)
Minimalist dub-step virtuosos released their debut full length this year to much anticipation and acclaim. A tour-de-force entrance into the underground post-dub scene hot on the heels of two amazing 12”s. Group to watch 2011 right here.
- 10. Gold Panda :: Lucky Shiner (Ghostly Int.)
Gold Panda is having a hell of a year. Two singles and a full length, a world tour, and a number of festival runs. His brand of electronic finds influence from Eastern and Indian music while holding onto the glitch/IDM sensibilities that are flying around the UK. A solid, heavy hitting record in which every song is different but all meld into one perfect piece.
- 09. Active Child :: Curtis Lane EP (Merok)
With a voice like an angel and the harp lines to match, Los Angeles based Pat Grossi has been picking up steam doing jaw dropping remixes and crooning around the country. His 6 song EP takes him to the next level with heavy handed catches, powerful lyrics, and an ethereal weightlessness.
She Was A Vision by Active Child
- 08. Thee Silver Mt. Zion :: Kollaps Tradixionales (Constellation)
Montreal rockers have found the perfect blend of post-rock, classical, stoner metal, and desert for their new album. Masters of massive, this album feels like the longing culmination of the group’s ground breaking body of work. Simply amazing.
Kollaps Tradixionales - THEE SILVER MT. ZION by Constellation Records
British upstart sounds like he’s taking notes from aspect of electronic, with an Amon Tobin found sound quality at times to almost direct cues from Burial. A beautiful minimalist electronic debut. This kid is going places, and fast.
Pariah - Prism by luciusanorak
- 06. Tame Impala :: Innerspeaker (Modular)
Aussies out of nowhere, delivering one of the best, most brilliantly produced rock and roll albums of the past decade. Flawlessly capturing the sound of old 60s and 70s psychedelic, Innerspeaker brings it back to a time when people just wanted to rock out and have fun.
Tame Impala - I Don’t Really Mind by defacto
- 05. Wild Nothing :: Gemini (Captured Tracks)
What began as a solo outfit at just the beginning of the year has evolved into a band that rocks like their from England, talks like they’re from California, and is actually from Virginia. Awesome music to groove to, in whatever sense of the word you want.
Wild Nothing - The Witching Hour by halloweengum
A change in form for the Montreal producer, but certainly in a solid direction. Dark, moody ambiance, entrancing pianos, solid remixes and heavy drum hits, this EP was a stand up knock out of the year.
CFCF - Before and After Light by RVNG Intl.
- 03. James Blake :: CMYK EP (R&S)
One of the most brilliant names to emerge this year, the British minimalist dub-step proved his weight in gold with the CMYK EP, which sampled enough R&B and pulled enough beats to make it the stand out electronic release of the year. This is definitely the name to watch for 2011. Things are going to get massive.
- 02. The Soft Moon :: The Soft Moon (Captured Tracks)
Brooklyn’s own Captured Tracks made an amazing discovery when they found San Francisco based The Soft Moon (aka Luis Valasquez). A brilliant, brooding dark-wave piece, this album quickly became a defining album of my year, turning the bright and colorful streets of New York into a gritty underworld reminiscent of things I had only seen in photos from the 70s and 80s. Intense, driving bass and guitar with raw noise and energy that takes this debut to higher realms. A journey, a piece of music, a work of art.
Say what you will, but Cleveland experimental ambient art outfit have created one of the most emotionally loaded, brilliantly composed, and artistically crafted albums. For being wordless, shapeless compositions, so much is expressed in such a short amount of time. Beautiful, poignant, reflective, moody, atmospheric, dark, bright, glorious, exalting. Emeralds have always been affective but this album is their opus for sure. Soundtrack of the future.
Emeralds - Goes By by Haunted Ghost
So, there it is, my list for the top 25 of 2010. Say what you will, feel free to argue or comment or add to it.
Oneohtrix Point Never :: Wayland Lincoln Border
02 - oneohtrix point never - wayland lincoln border by Haunted Ghost
Volume two of Get B-Side Me is here to touch upon the other aspect of the 7” record - the split. The split is a beautiful thing, a union of two concepts or themes, sounds or arrangements, by two different bands to create one piece of musical art. London based record label Alter decided to put out a super-limited split for Finland’s performance art, glitch-sculptor Tomutonttu (the A-side) and Brooklyn’s own sound artist/aural collage master Oneohtrix Point Never (the B-side) in support of their recent UK tour. OPN is Daniel Lopatin (who is also picking up steam with his side-project Games) has been putting out limited releases since 2007, his first release Betrayed in the Octagon on Deception Island (CS) / No Fun Records (LP) jettisoning him almost immediately into the experimental/drone scene. Since then he has been perfecting his sound, and with the release of his newest full-length Returnal on the ever growing Editions Mego (who have in their cannon such experimental/drone/ambient groups as Fennesz and Emeralds). Wayland Lincoln Border is the culmination of those three years of work and sound crafting, a pulsating, evolving synth piece that piles on enough static, hiss, and melody to make Flying Saucer Attack jealous. It acts as a perfect counter balance to the erratic, experimental Tomutonttu track on the A side, giving the 7” eclectic and harmonious closure. Righteous.
