Aphera Music

With our horrendous track record for regularity, I don’t doubt that many of you readers are like, “How I gonna hear about new music if George and Larissa are so irregular.” My solution, BBC Radio 1 host Gilles Peterson. He’s part DJ, part record collector, part record label owner, and simply the most knowledgeable man I’ve ever heard speak about music. His radio program airs weekly and can be streamed from his site here. It’s nice to be able to tune in and be completely engaged for a full two hours in music that I’ve never heard but thoroughly enjoy afterwards. I’ve discovered a whole ton of new music because of this guy and I’d love to share some of it with you.

Firstly, Little Dragon. Remember that chick that sings in “Empire Ants” from Gorillaz’s Plastic Beach? Yeah neither did I but this is her band and now that I know they’re capable of putting out songs as fresh and groovy as this I’ll be sure to keep them on lock. The track, “Nightlight”, is from their new album coming out in June.
Next is the Stepkids. Their track, “La La”, is the catchiest thing on this side of 60s pop throwback futuremusicIdon’tknowwhereI’mgoingwiththis… Anyway Gilles showed me this one too and I instantly fell in love with the catchy catchy chorus, where Mama and Papa-esque vocals sing the namesake “la la’s.”
The Stepkids ‘La La’ (Stones Throw) by cmjct
So remember kids: Gilles Peterson. He’s as solid as a high fiber diet and sure to keep you, or your listening habits, regular.

Oh hey!

PMA was spot on in point out the Radiohead influence in The Antler’s recently released singles. In fact the influence is so strong that “Parentheses” could be an early version of Radiohead’s “Up On the Ladder” from In Rainbows 2. The same distorted guitar motif sweeps under a pitchy, whiny, thom-like vocal line and minimalist drum work (but a steady beat) gives the song a slow, chugging along tempo. I wonder if the Antlers were aware of the similarity not just to Radiohead but to “Up On the Ladder” specifically? George once wrote a song that sounds so much like “India Rubber” that I thought he was writing a cover – he, however, had no idea that the resemblance was so obvious.

That being said, I don’t hold anything against “Parentheses” for sounding just like a Radiohead song. I mean it detracts for the “originality” of The Antlers, but the song sounds great. Many people have tried to sound like Radiohead and failed. It’s no easy thing to do – otherwise everybody would be doing it right?

The 90s: when major labels were still producing good music; when music videos were broadcast on MTV; and when boy bands coexisted with grunge, punk, and rap. A few weeks ago NPR predicted the return of the 90s: NPR’s “The 90s Are Back, Or Whatever”

George and I have been forecasting the revival of the 90s since the beginning of Aphera.

NPR missed some of these winners…

Marilyn Manson “Sweet Dreams”

Weezer “Say It Ain’t So”

Eminem “My Name Is”

Elliott Smith “Sweet Adeline”

Dr. Dre “Nothin But A G Thang”

Radiohead “Paranoid Android”

The Offspring “Pretty Fly for a White Guy”

Green Day “Longview”

Fatboy Slim “Rockafeller Skank”

Korn “Freak On a Leash”

Beck “Where It’s At”

House of Pain “Jump Around”

Bjork “Unravel”

Beastie Boys “Intergalactic”

Sublime “Doin Time”

DJ Shadow “Number Song”

The Smashing Pumpkins “Soma”

Not that there’s anything wrong with relistening to Spoon Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga and Gimme Fiction on a rainy Sunday but I feel it’s more out of coercion that choice. I complained to George while “I Summon You” gloomily reminded me of the “weight of the world”, that there were simply no decent recent releases!

By this time last year, I remember incessantly playing LCD, Beach House, Vampire Weekend, Yeasayer, and revisiting Passion Pit, Discovery, Metric… the list is longer! And forgive me if I’m a bit anachronistic, the point is, the array of choices didn’t force me to comb through my massive itunes library and rekindle old flames.

Today, out of boredom more than curiosity, I listened to everyone of Pitchfork’s songs on their “Playlist”. And as usual, I was disappointed with every pick except Radiohead’s “Give Up Ghost”. Pitchfork seems to be promoting this, let me quote, “twinkling, moonlit R&B protestation all made the more sensual by an anonymous, butter-dripping voice challenging a lover’s relationship with suggestive come-ons.” In other words, most of the stuff on the playlist is either really poor 90s grunge revival or this “slow-syrup” swanky lounge music. I can only imagine myself in D.C., sitting in a red velvet couch, sipping a drink, and watching a victorian chandelier twinkle above dancing people’s heads. This is not where I want good music to take me.

Good music can create various vignettes of emotional experiences, like The Knot, one of our 2009 Top Ten Albums did. Breaking my music doldrums is Wye Oak, releasing their new album on March 8, 2011. Celebrating this release, they are playing a free show at Baltimore downtown record store, The Sound Garden. Their blog announces the show to begin at 730 pm on Tue evening. Although, I’m too busy to make this show – I may skip our of my previous obligations in order to dive into a fresh music scene. Check out this album titled single!

I <3 NPR so much when they offer exclusive first listens for great bands like Wye Oak. Click for  NPR’s first listen to the new album.

Wye Oak – Civilian by cityslang

They played Junip in Starbucks today and I took it as a sign that it’s about time I sit down and write this post.

Junip must be mentioned for creating a notable album in 2010. We sure had a lot more albums like Fields on our list last year. These are albums that are solid but not necessarily special in any other way. They’re the folky, rock, chill albums that you can listen to on repeat for about a month before you move on and then return to on somber days. They may not stand the test of time, but fill so many voids before you’re done with them.

“Wouldn’t you like to figure out what’s making you howl?”

Junip “Howl”

jj “Hopes and Dreams”

Deerhunter “Desire Lines”

The Walkmen “What’s in it for me”

Choir of Young Believers – “Why Must it Always Be this Way”

The simple yet beautiful melodies pulled through the strings of violins are similar to those heard in Wye Oak’s The Knot. Choir of Young Believers is a largely overlooked band. Their 2008 album, This is for the White in Your Eyes, may lack cohesion (especially with songs like “Action Reaction” included in the repertoire), and some songs are a little too reminiscent of Fleet Foxes. However, the beauty and creativity of this band should not be discarded – now more than ever, since Kid Cudi has suddenly made them relevant.

Animal Collective – “Cuckoo Cuckoo”

I wrote off Strawberry Jam a long time ago. However, when I by happenchance heard the melancholy piano sample that begins “Cuckoo Cuckoo” I was taken back to the days of learning “Clair de Lune” on my piano at home. It also, strangely enough, reminded me of George’s sample in “Not So Visions Fugitive”. They say familiarity is likeable.

Choir of Young Believers – “Claustrophobia”

Speaking of sampling, let’s talk about Kid Cudi. He samples “Claustrophobia” in his song “Mojo so Dope”. I can’t decide which version I like better.

Aphex Twin  - “Avril 14th”

While Kid Cudi is sampling obscure indie, Kanye is sampling the 21^st century schizoid man… Sampling is fun when it’s a competition to see who can dig up weirder stuff. Props to Kanye though for upping the ante by using this Aphex Twin sample in “Blame Game”.

Maximum Balloon/Little Dragon – “If You Return”

The Maximum Balloon album is all about collaborations. In this song, you may recognize Little Dragon’s sizzling voice from Gorillaz “To Binge”.

St. Vincent – “The Strangers”

Kid Cudi samples this song at the lyrics, “Paint the black hole blacker”. Although the lyrics fit perfectly into Cudi’s “darkness” theme – “Make it darker, give me a marker” – this piece is, stand alone, mystical enough without Cudi’s maudlin interjection.

Avey Tare – “Oliver Twist”

Who needs drugs when you have Avey Tare’s solo album? It’s trippier than standard Animal Collective. More importantly, it raises two questions. Is Animal Collective separated forever? Is Avey Tare actually the mastermind behind Animal Collective?

LISTEN by clicking on the player on the right

Alexander is no ordinary 14 year old, but Boards of Canada are sophisticated (is that the right word?) even for him.

I had no idea who Boards of Canada were until Alex made his post. And coincidentally enough, as I was combing through P4K’s 5-10-15-20 interviews yesterday, I came a across, well, Boards of Canada. They were specifically mentioned by German electronic producer, Apparat, who talked about his experience with them during his 20s. This was a time of his life during which he became disenchanted with his previous life-style laden with dance-floor techno, raves, and drugs. Apparently the album, Music has the Right to Children, was his breath of fresh air…kind of…

We already listened to stuff like that– to early Autechre and stuff. We listened to this when we did after-parties, after the rave, when I was 18. I don’t remember exactly the first time when I listened to Boards of Canada, but I definitely remember that my best friend used to have a basement flat without windows and all of us were sitting there, smoking weed like crazy. We started in the morning, and this stuff was our soundtrack. It’s kind of hard to imagine if you listen to this music these days. But every time we listened, it it was totally mindblowing. I miss the feeling; it never really happened to me again. I think that was the last time when I didn’t understand how stuff like that could happen at all.

Despite (or because of) this maybe biased association I make between BoC and raves, drugs, and techno – I decided to give them a listen. I downloaded the album both Alexander and Apparat suggested, Music has the Right to Children, and as I brought it up on my itunes I found another little song I already had by BoC – a remix they did of Beck’s “Broken Drum”. And after giving this a listen, I realized they even made Beck sound good. And so I was hooked.

Or maybe the future?

On this chilly and windy day in Chicago I feel like sharing. Gonjasufi’s 2010 album, A Sufi and a Killer was released back in March but for some reason it took me this long to get into it. On the playlist I’ve included two tracks. The first, titled “Sheep”, is an example of the really dreamy 60s pop production that is featured on some of the songs while the second, “Ancestors” is an example of the FlyLo production featured on many of the tracks on this album. But more significantly, “Ancestors” features Gonjasufi’s incredibly soulful vocals. His voice is like detached from my normal perception of what vocals should sound like. And the production in general swarms around your head flies on a hot day (but it’s chilly and windy in Chicago…) WHATEVER.

Okay I gave in; “Kowboyz&Indians” is actually better than the two songs I put on the playlist so I’m putting this youtube embed here for prominence and just in case none of y’all check the playlist (because I have this creeping suspicious none of you check it but I just put google analytics on the player so now I can check fo sho).

PS Even though this post is hardly timely, I decided to post it because this album has the potential to show up on some end of year lists, including ours and this is an important thing to think about yo.

Active Child, a largely new age electronic duo, has been tailing School of Seven Bells around the country. These bands made it all the way from LA to the Otto Bar in Baltimore where I watched them while Brandon shot photos. I was most impressed with the warm-up act, Active Child – Patrick, the lead singer and self-taught harpist, mesmerized the audience with his angelic voice and martyr image. They filled the whole room with purpose.

School of Seven Bells, on the other hand, sounded timid. The lead singer, although enchantingly beautiful, sounded as fragile as she looked.

Click here to open the player and hear Active Child

These are Brandon Medrano’s visual representations of the show. They are more than photos. From them, emotion, meaning, and story emanates. For more of his work go here… http://brandonmedrano.com/

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click on player on the right to listen

Belle and Sebastian – “I Didn’t See it Coming” “Expectations”

You may recognize this indie pop group from their contribution to the oh-so-loved Juno soundtrack. Their sound is upbeat, tween, but always paired with darker, sadder undertones. “Expectations” is from the Juno soundtrack whereas “I Didn’t See it Coming” if from their 2010 released album, Write About Love.

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Twin Shadow –  “Castles in the Snow”, “Shooting Holes”

Twin Shadow is a new group that just recently released their first album Forget, produced by Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor, and manages to keep all Grizzly Bear influence away from their final product. “Shooting Holes” is a disco song and “Castles in the Snow” is explained by P4K, “Tracks like these create a mood that is nostalgic, regretful, and even sinister.”

School of Seven Bells – “Iamundernodisguise”, “Heart is Strange (active child remix)”

Active Child will be doing a show with School of Seven Bells tonight at Otto Bar. Coming across this remix makes me think they might get on stage together to collaborate. “Iamundernodisguise” is a new age choir with tribal drums and electronic layering. It’s all about pleasure, mysticism and echoes of the past.