Posts Tagged ‘mmmlele’

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Mount Kimbie at The Drake Underground

October 2, 2010

30 September 2010

Dom Maker and Kai Campos, better known as Mount Kimbie, made their Toronto debut at the Drake Underground this Thursday night and did not disappoint. The young UK duo played a live set free of laptops, using a Native Instruments sampler, a Roland SP-555, and a KORG Kaoss pad, as well as, real guitar, synth and drums, they managed to create an interesting and varied live version of their clipped paced dubstep sound. Tracks like “Carbonated”, “Field” and “Ode to Bear” sounded great live, with tweaked samples, live instrumentation, additional beats, and deep bass. The opening seconds of “Maybes” sounded downright cavernous in the dark and packed Drake Underground, and the vocal samples swirled and panned around the room. The live version of “William” featured Dom singing the muted lyrics with his thick British accent, which I thought was a nice touch. Although their set was relatively short, and perhaps at times just a bit too low on the bpms for the ravenous crowd, it was great to see these guys play live in a small venue. Nice stuff.

Local hero mymanhenri got the show going, playing great tracks by all our faves including FlyLo, Floating Points, and Onra, who will also be making his Toronto debut at the Drake Underground on Oct 10th. Another one you should not miss. Check it.

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Foals at Lee’s Palace in Toronto

October 2, 2010

27 September 2010

UK indie rockers, Foals, returned to Lee’s Palace on Monday in support of their sophomore release Total Life Forever and played to a sold out crowd. The band got off to a moody start with a somewhat choppy version of “Miami”, as it seemed to take frontman Yannis Philipakkis a couple tracks to get into the mood of the set. Also, guitarist Jimmy Smith suffered from constant technical difficulties with his guitar, which halted the momentum of the show on quite a few occasions. Still, Foals blasted through tracks off of Total Life Forever and Antidotes to the crowd’s delight. The crowd danced and screamed and sang along, reaching frenzy during the kick in “Spanish Sahara”.

I thought it was a good show, but wasn’t as impressed as I was after their first stop at Lee’s in the spring of 2008. And I’ll tell you why: firstly, they did not play “Black Gold”, which is my favourite song off of their new album, and arguably the strongest song they have written to date. Secondly, I found the show to go completely against everything the band has claimed they have become (more mature, dynamic, and understated) since the release of Antidotes. At this show, Yannis acted like a bit of a rockstar, kicking over mic stands and beer bottles, running into the crowd with his “wireless” guitar, jumping on the bar and (accidentally) smashing a light. Sure, it’s all good showmanship, but there was something in his overall manner and attitude that took away from the authenticity of it all. To me, it seemed like he would’ve rather been somewhere else. The rest of the band fulfilled their duties well, bass and drums as tight as ever, and keyboard dude still just as superfluous.

Lastly, and perhaps this is what irked me the most, was that instead of nurturing this new maturity and dynamism on stage, their live show was overly loud, prone to drawn-out jams, and at times down right sloppy. I had expected their live performance would have gotten tighter and stronger since their first trip across the pond, but instead they relied on older material and amplifier volume to fill in the blanks and in the end it fell flat. Nevertheless, Total Life Forever will still be up there on my end of year list and it was a good show, but Foals still have some growing up to do.

Peace.

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Gold Panda – Lucky Shiner (Ghostly)

September 20, 2010

For Juno Records

The buzz has been building for fledgling Chelmsford, Essex producer Gold Panda for awhile now, and after lauded remixes for the likes of Bloc Party, Simian Mobile Disco, HEALTH, and Lemonade (to name a few), as well as the release of some quality singles, Gold Panda has dropped his debut album Lucky Shiner on the cusp of autumn.

For those of you unfamiliar with Gold Panda’s sound, an immediate reference point could be imagining the gifted lovechild of Four Tet and The Field. But this is not to imply that GP sounds too much like either of these artists, just that his music evokes them. Therefore, beatier tracks like “Vanilla Minus”, “Snow & Taxis”, and “Marriage” will no doubt remind listeners of The Field’s knack for hypnotic loop-based techno. Yet what makes it different is Gold Panda’s talent for adding a distinct emotional element to his songs, one that is quite strong but doesn’t fully reveal itself until repeated listens.

Gold Panda’s ability to eke out emotion, coupled with a quirky, more abstract air, is where the Four Tet comparison comes in — with tracks like “Same Dream China”, “After We Talked”, and the already revered “You”, being excellent examples of this side of Gold Panda’s musical palette. “Same Dream China” is an early highlight, which features Steve Reich chimes that build on a loop, subtle bass, and a tweaked sample of a traditional stringed Chinese instrument. It’s one of those tracks that might elude you at first, but after a few spins have you playing on repeat.

There really is something infectious with Lucky Shiner, which simply comes down to the fact that it invokes an introspective yet warm mood in the end — one that seems to correspond snugly with the beginning of the autumn season. There are no lyrics throughout the album, but it still plays out as deeply personal, and judging by the track titles this seems to be the case. Hence, what we have is a smattering of Gold Panda’s autobiography thus far, told aurally rather than orally, with a touch of his passion for Eastern cultures thrown in for good measure. Lucky Shiner is a solid and diverse debut, and worth every bit of anticipation and hype bestowed upon it. Check it.

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Mux Mool – Wax Rose Saturday EP

September 16, 2010

For Juno Records

Hot on the heels of his critically acclaimed debut album “Skulltaste”, Brian Lindgren aka Mux Mool returns with an EP of remixes, one new track, and his own remix of “Wax Rose Saturday”, which he has dubbed a “remux”. The album opens with Mool’s remux, and you’d never know it came from the original track if he didn’t tell you. This new “Wax Rose” is pure analogue and a much warmer affair than the bleepy original, sounding a bit like labelmate Dabrye, with some smooth vocoder thrown in for good measure. It gets one’s head bobbing, and segues nicely into new track “Valley Girls”, which is one of the best songs he has released to date — a simple slow jam with a subtle yet spooky synthline that bumps so nice you’ll want to play it twice before moving on to the remixes.

Daso’s remix of “Enceladus” is the clear-cut highlight here, a sprawling 7 minute 4/4 banger that has the dancefloor in its sights from the get go. Hints of house and disco are meshed in with Mool’s original dirty funk to smashing effect, creating a definite hitter for all you late-night DJs hoping to carry the party until the wee ones. Shigeto’s take on “Morning Strut” switches the rhythm around while still maintaining the original track’s piano line, while Paul White tweaks “Wolf Tone Symphony” and Alex B tries his hand at “Hog Knuckles” by upping the pitch and tempo, but in my opinion that track is arguably already pitch perfect in its original form. Nevertheless, this is an excellent addendum to Mux Mool’s sound in 2010, and definitely worth checking out.

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Arcade Fire – The Suburbs

September 14, 2010

When Arcade Fire exploded out of Montreal with their acclaimed album Funeral, I had just left la belle province myself for school in the Maritimes. And even though I enjoyed Funeral’s intensity and emotion, personally I was still heavily entrenched in electronic music and was willfully allowing most new “rock” music to pass me by for looped blips and deep bass. Around that time, I was getting into the poppier side of electronic music with Hot Chip’s first album Coming on Strong, and now five years later, I’ve done a complete 360, where I’m allowing the new Hot Chip to pass me by (and dismissing it as tripe) and falling headlong for Arcade Fire’s third full-length album The Suburbs.

And what an album it is. One that blossoms a bit more with each successive listen, and one that is full of dynamic and proper indie rock songs that subtly recall your favourite musicians from the last 30 years. A small list: The Boss, The Beatles, The Byrds, The Who, The Doors, Heart, Cyndi Lauper, U2, Yo La Tengo, Broken Social Scene, Bon Iver, David Byrne, oh yeah, and Arcade Fire. It is an amazingly calculated and mature collection of songs that immediately churns up a strong sense of nostalgia and emotion. But for this listener, the reason The Suburbs is such a genuine winner, and the reason it will most likely top my list for 2010, is the lyrics. They really resonate with me.

I think it’s because I’m at about the same age and same place mentally as the band — this liminal space between the end of youth and the start of adulthood — where I can now look back on my life with some real perspective, and the idea of “settling down” is actually beginning to seem like something valid, and something I’ve always truly wanted for myself yet up to this point have constantly denied.

So yes, the lyrics strike a definitive chord with me, and (depending on the day and my mood) I can barely make it through the opening track without my eyes glossing over. When Butler sings: “I want a daughter while I’m still young / I want to hold her hand and show her some beauty, before this damage is done…” it turns the emotion button churning deep in my guts, and I feel like his lyrics are suddenly speaking for me.

I’m unsure if a twenty-year old listener would feel the same, but lines like “All my old friends, they don’t know me now” and “You cut your hair, I never saw you again” from the Springsteen influenced “Suburban War” send me reeling back to high school and images of old friends loved yet forgotten who have gone on to start families of their own and get real jobs and move into freshly built houses in cities and suburbs across Canada and beyond.

And I guess, besides the reprise at the end of the album, this would be where the main Beatles influence comes in. John and Paul knew how to lyrically hammer down the emotion as well as speak to the kids of an era. And I wonder: What contemporary album has had lyrics that actually, truly speak to my generation? “A mulatto, an albino, a mosquito, my libido?” I think not. The Suburbs is the Nevermind of twenty years later, where we no longer want to oh well, whatever, nevermind — now what we want to do is remember the past, and take hold of all the stupid mistakes and amazing strides we made to get to exactly where we happen to be now.

And sometimes I think to myself, what the fuck have I been doing for 30 years, because I ain’t quite there yet. Not by a long shot. And I start to freak out and panic and wonder what the hell went wrong? But then I take a deep breath and realize that it’s all right, because I am getting there, just not as fast and sure as I had initially (and naively) expected. Patience, persistence, and resolve are tough little bastards to hone, but definitely worth continually pursuing . . .

But I digress. “Month of May”, “Ready to Start” and “We Used to Wait” are solid and tight rockers that you can blast in your living room and get swept away in. “Modern Man” and “Rococo” are also great songs with strong lyrics, and “The Suburbs”, “Deep Blue”, “Suburban War”, “Sprawl I / II” pack the emotional wallops with tight changes and great orchestral accompaniment to boot. And then the lyrics of the end reprise sums it all up beautifully:

If I could have it back
All the time that we wasted
I’d only waste it again
If I could have it back
You know I’d love to waste it again
Waste it again and again and again

Check it out if you haven’t already. Love, ml.

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I Walked – Sufjan Stevens

August 27, 2010

Quick to get the hype machine started for the October release of The Age of Adz — Sufjan’s first full-length release in half a deck — he has kindly leaked a track for us. It’s called “I Walked” and I gotta say I’m loving the mix of electronic and organic production going on. I’ll be seeing his show in Toronto at Massey Hall in the fall, and this new song has got me pumped already. Have a listen below. Peace.

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Peeping Tom, Stalking Stew

August 25, 2010

Once upon a time, my best friend Dave was friends with a really hot girl on Facebook. And one day while visiting Dave’s wall, I happened to notice a thumbnail image of this really hot girl. So I clicked on it. This lead me to her own personal page, which she had left wide open to the virtual world. Her name was Amy. She had long brown hair and blue eyes. I clicked on her photos and scanned through every one of them. I watched two years of her life flash by in grainy mobile uploads and over-exposed digital. I saw her at school in a dorm wearing sweats and a baseball hat. I saw her all stumbly on Bloor Street after having one too many at The Dance Cave. I saw her outside of Union Station in a big winter parka. I met her parents and her dog Barkley, and was given a tour of her childhood home from her Christmas trip to Saint John in 2008. I met her ex-boyfriend Brian. Saw them on a camping trip in Fundy National Park, saw them embracing in Times Square in the summer of 2009, I even saw them under the covers in bed. I was able to gather from her “likes” that she was a fan of graphic novels like “Tales from the Farm” and “The Walking Dead”. Her favourite TV show was “Battlestar Galactica” and she loved Sufjan Stevens. I knew her favourite coffee shop was Ezra’s Pound on Dupont. And I knew she had spent last weekend at the Arcade Fire show on Olympic Island. In just about every photo, Amy had a big toothy smile, which seemed to me to reveal a genuine happiness that I could easily idealize.

Not three days later: turning around from the cash register at the bar I work at, there she was. Wearing the same green blouse I had admired so much in one of her recent photos. She smiled and asked for a gin and tonic. Her voice was gentle, yet dry, dusty. Like she’d just had three smokes. I blushed. Made her drink. Lemon instead of lime. I glanced at Amy’s face, wanting to see that grin again, the one from her photos, where she was all teeth and gums, and full of a brightness that I believed could illuminate even my worst thoughts. She tipped me 50 cents. “I uh, like your top,” I said, my face flushing crimson as she said thanks and turned away from the bar. I watched her join her girlfriend at a table by the front window, and felt like a peeping, perving Tom. A sleazy, stalking Stew. Because I knew this woman. This lovely Amy from Saint John. Or at least felt like I did. And she didn’t have a goddamn clue. All because I clicked on a tiny thumbnail image of her and then followed a series of clicks and links that were openly, publicly available to me on the world wide web. And although I was convinced that she could love me, there was nothing I could say to her in real life.

Thanks Facebook. You’ve become wikipedia for people I don’t know. Visual fodder for a laptop dream. Shame on us all.

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POLVO at Lee’s Palace in Toronto

August 14, 2010

13 August 2010

Post rock legends, POLVO, played a tight set at Lee’s Palace on Friday night in Toronto, giving aging fanboys one last chance to get their rocks off to the twisted tunings and weirdo time signatures that made Polvo revered and adored in the mid-nineties. Polvo called it quits in 1998 after the release of their sixth album Shapes, but returned last year with the excellent In Prism, and luckily Toronto was one of the stops on their brief summer tour with Versus.

On paper this line-up is my high school wet dream: Polvo and Versus playing together! It seemed too good to be true . . . and in the end, it was. Versus’ drummer, Ed Baluyut, was a no-show because his wife had a baby, so the drummer for opening band Soft Copy filled in. Under the circumstances, he did a great job, but was obviously hesitant. They managed to play hits “Blade of Grass”, “River” and “Be-9” from The Stars are Insane, which ended up sounding pretty good, but overall it just wasn’t how I imagined it.

Polvo hit the stage next and were amazingly tight. Ridiculously tight. Hard to explain how good they were. They opened with an extended version of “Fast Canoe” that varied from the original but sounded fantastic. They debuted a new song, and played “The Pedlar”, “Right the Relation” and “Beggars Bowl” off of In Prism, “Thermal Treasure”, “Lazy Comet”, and “My Kimono” from Today’s Active Lifestyles, “Bombs that Fall from your Eyes” from This Eclipse, “Feather of Forgiveness” from Exploded Drawing, “Enemy Insects” from Shapes and other hits. In short, it was a great show. You really couldn’t complain.

But overall it made me feel strange. As if I shouldn’t be allowed to see Polvo again after all these years. They are a memory and should stay that way. All these reunion shows over the last few years have us churning up nostalgia in massive quantities, watching older versions of the heroes of our youth trying to relive the days of their youth — and even though it’s wonderful to be able to see your favourite band again, it’s just never quite the same.

Ian Cohen’s review on Pitchfork of The Suburbs by Arcade Fire says that the main focus of their new album is on the “quiet desperation borne of compounding the pain of wasting your time as an adult by romanticizing the wasted time of your youth.” There is something very profound in this quote that resonates with me, and my experience of seeing a decade older Polvo blast out the hits made me think of this. You see, I’m a sucker for nostalgia, a goddamn sap, I love to stir up old feelings that I can’t quite comprehend anymore, love to secretly get weepy over times gone by — but now as I’m figuring out how to step confidently into my early thirties, I feel it’s time to leave this old stuff behind, it’s time only for constant steps forward and further and onward.

Sure, it’s nice to go back every now and again, but that was it for me. The clincher. Seeing Polvo and Versus was the culmination of the very end of my youth. There. It is done. I am a motherfucking adult. Finally.

Thank you Polvo and Versus for helping me affirm this once and for all.

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Marc Leclair – Musique Pour 3 Femmes Enceintes

July 14, 2010

An absolute and understated classic from Marc Leclair, “Musique Pour 3 Femmes Enceintes” was released in 2005. Leclair is probably best known for his work as tech-house wizard Akufen, but with “Musique” he tapped into something special, and overall it exceeds his work under the Akufen moniker, because it’s much broader in scope and so much more subtle in execution. Yes, I love “My Way”, and when I first saw Akufen play in Detroit in 2002 with Luciano and Dandy Jack at The Works, I thought I’d witnessed the future of techno music. I remember smiling and dancing non-stop and being proud that he was representing Canada and MTL, the city I would move to a year later. And for awhile, Akufen was indeed the shit — his tracks were meticulously produced, uber-groovy, and they bumped hard and heavy — but he was never able to match the grandeur and finesse of “My Way”. His releases afterwards fell flat or felt samey in comparison.

Yet with “Musique Pour 3 Femmes Enceintes” he tapped into a whole new vibe. Leclair seamlessly meshed the ambient with the minimal, and the organic with the digital to smashing effect, and tossed in the conceptual aspect of his wife’s (and 2 friends) pregnancy to go along with it. The album features nine tracks, one for each month and begins almost clinically with “1er jour”, a collaboration with Rechenzentrum featuring very dark and digital programming, presumably signifying the child’s conception. By “64e jour”, the album begins to warm up, with organic ambience and Steve Reich inspired piano patterns. The next two tracks feature the sounds of water, rain, thunder, and begin to slowly open — as if he’s trying to recreate the experience of the nascent child growing in the womb. By “150er jour”, Leclair’s aesthetic palette expands exponentially, adding in guitars, loops, glitched beats, and by the end of the track a soft rolling 4/4 beat.

The album slowly unfolds and evolves from quiet minimal ambience to full on Akufen-inflected tech house by the album’s last track, “236e jour”. The baby is being born, it’s amazing and joyous, and you can’t help but wanna get up and dance. Throughout, Leclair’s knack for production is flawless, and as an album its flow is perfect in execution. I have fallen asleep countless times to this album, but I have also put it on many times as the precursor to a great night out. “Musique Pour 3 Femmes Enceintes” is truly a fantastic electronic album and one that needs to be listened to by more people. It’s never too late to check it.

Peace.

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Beach Fossils – Beach Fossils (Captured Tracks)

July 6, 2010

This just in: yet another up and coming band quietly explodes out of the over-saturated borough of Brooklyn, but instead of having “wolf” in their name, they opt for “beach” instead.

I can only imagine that Brooklyn has the highest concentration of hipster douche bags in the entire world. I bet there are more tattoos, bicycles, deck shoes, moustaches, and “bands” in Brooklyn than in all of Western Canada. It must be a seriously disgusting sight. As if VICE Magazine created a hipster machine and it overheated and exploded, barfing out fey dudes in skinny jeans by the thousands, and lovely, distracted and disinterested girls, all of them smoking cigarettes and talking about Godard or Palanhiuk or something useless like that.

Nevertheless, young band Beach Fossils have emerged out of the hipster muck and crafted a beautiful self-titled debut album, that effortlessly plays out as a soundtrack to your summer. Comparing them to the xx seems a bit of a stretch, but just as the xx’s debut was the soundtrack to the grey days of last summer, Beach Fossils’ debut plays out as a pristine pop album for your pool party on a sunny day. There’s a bit of a surf rock feel, a bit of indie rock, Halifax pop, and a touch of Joy Division, making it an incredibly easy and fun record to listen to. That said, it breaks no new ground or boundary, but it’s a definitive grower of an album and comes highly recommended for a day at the beach or with a few drinks round the campfire.

Catch them in the U.S. and Canada on tour with Warpaint and Javelin in July and August. For those of you in Toronto, don’t miss their show at Wrongbar on August 11th. I’ll be the dude wearing an American Apparel t-shirt with a moustache in the front row.

Peace.

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