Talking A Broken Dream

As the winter's thawed away to welcome Spring, my taste for the coldest of sounds has done so as well. Since moving to Portland, I'd been primarily investing myself in more obscure and abrasive sounds of industrial, gothic and experimental artists. However, with the passing of seasons , I find my natural inclinations towards dreamier sounds becoming evident again. Furthermore, I believe the Sun is a siren, because these favorable sounds all feature female voices. I'll start with the newer and end with some well-established favorites.



Young Prisms “Floating In Blue”



Pins “The 11th Hour”



2:54 “You're Early”



2:54 “Scarlet”



Masquer “Happiness”



I Break Horses “Winter Beats”



Still Corners “Endless Summer ”



Still Corners “Into The Trees”



Cerise “Smoke Screen Dreams”



Blouse “Videotapes”



Tamaryn “Love Fade”



The Proctors “Sunlight Satin”

Tender Rain Comes Falling Down

(image via Brooklyn Vegan)

Several months have passed since my last update and it isn't for lack of consideration. I could spiral off into a tangent about the importance of focusing on and absorbing real-world experiences, but I think that most everyone gets the concept of just tapering off every now and again from digital means. Most of all, my priorities changed and keeping up with this blog just hasn't been one of them. Between my father's heart-attack, spending a month in a hospital, losing my job, my sister getting married, my girlfriend moving in for a month, gaining a new a job, packing everything I own and relocating to Portland, my sister getting pregnant, and settling into my new house, it's safe to say I've been a little all over the place mentally and physically. However, one thing that always manages to keep things tied together is music. It's also the one thing I always feel is important enough to discuss and share via these sorts of means. So here we go, my annual year-end list of the top tunes and related music miscellany.

In comparison to 2010, this year has more than made up for the quantity of quality releases that were lacking last time around. There's been so much new music as of late, I feel like I can barely keep up. From brilliant debuts to dazzling follow-ups, it's been a non-stop barrage of aural treasures. Now, if you've been a follower of this blog or know me much at all, you won't be surprised who I've crowned with the top prize - Grouper (Liz Harris). However, to be completely honest it was a really close call. HTRK delivered a stunning sophmore effort in the wake of their late bassist, Sean Stewart, that was an amalgamation of melancholy, depravity and sexual compulsion. I think it'll be looked back on as true milestone in the noir-minded independent music genre. Similarly dark and eerie was the proper debut of Weyes Blood, who'd only been kicking around lo-fi limited cassette releases prior. On their The Outside Room LP, they tapped into a descriptive I'd already tagged fellow 2011 champions Tropic of Cancer with (“heroin-induced Nico”), while sounding quite dissimilar stylistically. Where Tropic of Cancer hit the nail on the head of the emerging goth-gaze genre, Weyes Blood stands to lead a new sect of the freak-folk scene by filtering their sound through a Carnival of Souls aesthetic. If there's a happy medium between the two, London's Still Corners may just be it. Their SubPop-backed LP Creatures Of An Hour has steadily been pricking up the ears of those who've stumbled upon it. The British four-piece have crafted a record that captures the shimmering aspirations of the much-missed Broadcast, while carefully infusing enough of their own identity to ensure it won't be mistaken as pure idol worship.

I'm going on far too long, so I will sum it up as I always generally tend do about these things: give 'em all a-go! Though I may have singled out the darker tones of the year in this summary, there's been plenty of lighter pop-shades too (see this year's releases by: Bleached, The Drums, Girls Names, Veronica Falls, etc). I'd highly recommend giving all of these releases a spin if they're unfamiliar to you. So, without further ado, here is the list of my favorites of the year...


Top 50 Favorite Albums of 2011

1. Grouper “A | A: Alien Observer & Dream Loss” 2 x LP
2. HTRK “Work (Work, Work)” LP
3. Weyes Blood & The Dark Juices “The Outside Room” LP
4. The Drums “Portamento” LP
5. Dirty Beaches “Badlands” LP
6. Blouse "s/t" LP
7. I Break Horses “Hearts” LP
8. Minks “By The Hedge” LP
9. Pink Playground “Destination Ecstasy” LP
10. Still Corners “Creatures of an Hour” LP
11. S.C.U.M. “Again Into Eyes” LP
12. Papercuts “Fading Parade” LP
13. Pains of Being Pure at Heart “Belong” LP
14. Veronica Falls “s/t” LP
15. Puro Instinct ”Headbangers in Ectsasy” LP
16. Iceage “New Brigade” LP
17. Young Prisms "Friends for Now" LP
18. Belong “Common Era” LP
19. Chapel Club “Palace” LP
20. Widowspeak "s/t" LP
21. Craft Spells “Idle Labor” LP
22. Crystal Stilts “In Love With Oblivion” LP
23. David Lynch "Crazy Clown Time" LP
24. Elite Gymnastics “Ruin” LP
25. Atlas Sound “Parallax” LP
26. Chelsea Wolfe “Apokalypsis“ LP
27. John Maus "We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves" LP
28. Tim Hecker ”Ravedeath, 1972” LP
29. Leyland Kirby “Eager To Tear Apart The Stars” LP
30. Ringo Deathstarr “Color Trip” LP
31. Tomorrows Tulips “Eternally Teenage” LP
32. Selebrities “Delusions” LP
33. Sandwell District "Feed Forward" LP
34. The Horrors ”Skying” LP
35. Dum Dum Girls “Only in Dreams” LP
36. Girls Names “Dead to Me” LP
37. The Raveonettes “Raven in the Grave” LP
38. Vum "Nightsun" LP
39. The War On Drugs "Slave Ambient" LP
40. Brain Idea "Cosmos Factory" LP
41. Comet Gain "Howl of the Lonely Crowd" LP
42. Cut Copy "Zonoscope" LP
43. Cats Eyes “Cats Eyes” LP
44. Oneohtrix Point Never “Replica” LP
45. Real Estate “Days” LP
46. Sleep Over "Forever" LP
47. Phantom Payn Days “Phantom Payn Daze” LP
48. Slug Guts “Howlin’ Gang” LP
49. King Blood "Eyewash Silver" LP
50. TV Ghost "Mass Dream" LP

Top 30 Favorite EPs (12"/ 10"/ 7"/ splits) of 2011

1. Tropic of Cancer “Sorrow of Two Blooms” EP
2. Rites Wild ”s/t” EP
3. Grouper “Water People” 7"
4. Pink Playground “Sunny Skies” 7"
5. Pink Playground “Come Find Me/Ten” 10"
6. Dum Dum Girls “He Gets Me High” EP
7. Bleached ”Think of You” 7"
8. Bleached "Searching Through The Past" 7"
9. Mood Rings “Sweater Weather Forever” EP
10. Die Jungen “$” EP
11. Catwalk “One By Words” 7"
12. Blouse “Into Black” 7"
13. Colours “s/t” EP
14. The KVB ”Subjection/Subordination” CS
15. The KVB “Into The Night” 10"
16. Tropic of Cancer “Be Brave” 10"
17. Tropic of Cancer “The End of All Things” EP
18. Crystal Stilts “Radiant Door” EP
19. Dirty Beaches "Lone Runner" 7"
20. DVA Damas / Le Face split 7"
21. Les Demoniaques “Teenage Lust” 7"
22. Minks "Araby" EP
23. Petra Schelm/Warm Hands split CS
24. Visitor “s/t” EP
25. Zodiacs “Faraway Friend” 7"
26. Dirty Beaches / Ela Orleans split 12"'
27. Psychic Ills "Hazed Dream" EP
28. The Soft Moon "Total Decay" EP
29. Psychic Dancehall “A Love That Kills” 7"
30. Der Ventilator “s/t” 7"
    

Top 10 Favorite Shows of 2011

1. Dum Dum Girls / Minks / Dirty Beaches at The Casbah
2. Iceage at The Echo
3. HTRK / Tropic of Cancer at The Echo
4. Still Corners at Mississippi Studios
5. The Radio Dept / Young Prisms at The El Rey Theater
6. Veronica Falls at The Echo
7. Crystal Stilts at The Natural History Museum
8. Bleached at The Smell
9. DVA Damas at The Prospector
10. Crocodiles / Tamaryn at The Smell
    

Top 10 Favorite Record Labels of 2011

1. Captured Tracks
2. Mexican Summer
3. SubPop
4. Downwards
5. Slumberland
6. Blackest Ever Black
7. Sacred Bones
8. Clan Destine Records
   
9. FLA
10. Art Fag

Note: I've still yet to really listen to the new Tom Waits and PJ Harvey releases this year. Having admired both for quite a while, I'd imagine this list may get revised in the future. Oh, and Happy New Year friends!

A Blue Dahlia, A Black Tulip

I finally scored an affordable vinyl copy of the 1993 gem Dirty Pearl by Anita Lane that's alluded me for far too many years. For those unfamiliar with this overlooked classic, it was the first musical output by Lane, whom is supported here by her then boyfriend, Mr. Nick Cave, and his gang of compatriots (Barry Adamnson, Blixa Bargeld, Alexander Hack, and The Birthday Party). It's a collection of songs she'd put together with the aforementioned pack over the course of 10 years. Stylistically, its influences are all over the place thanks in large part to the varied interests of the contributors.

(Anita Lane and Nick Cave)

While the overall album has a cohesion to it, thanks to Mick Harvey's production, the specks of experimental pieces shine brightest compared to the more traditional pop structure of other songs. The standout piece being the creepy-cool slither of “Blume”, which is literally more of an Einsturzende Neubauten track (as it also appears on their own Tabla Rasa LP) featuring Lane on vocals. It's ping-ponging harmonic notes deliver an icy, industrial chill while Lane purrs out sultry floral poetry. Bargeld lends his own German-tongue to deliver section titles between passages, giving the song a male/female contrast that only adds to its appeal.



Other highlights include “Jesus Almost Got Me”, a country-tinged ballad that brings to mind Mazzy Star's warm-haze filtered through an Ennio Morricone landscape, “Subterranean World (How Long?)” a dreamy, shoegaze-like shimmer that was penned by Die Haut and appears on their own Head On album, the slurching racket of “The Fullness of His Coming”, which is what you'd expect any Birthday Party-related tune to be akin to - loud, primitive and punishingly good, and “Picture of Mary”, another Bargeld mind-morpher that sounds like a lost contribution to a David Lynch production.





I'd highly recommend snatching this up if you ever see it, as its vinyl edition is most certainly long out of print and fetches quite a dollar on the Internet. Any and all Birthday Party or Einsturzende Neubauten enthusiasts pretty much need this for their files too, as its a key piece in the history of that whole incestuous Melbourne-Berlin-London post-punk scene. If format isn't your thing, then you can easily scour the web for a quick and easy version. The CD release came with the bonus Dirty Sings EP tacked onto it, which some could say makes a good case for the that version. I'm a vinyl guy at heart, and quite content with the originally intended format - even moreso now that this has finally landed in my possesion.

Exit Everything

This smokes anything I've been anticipating to see or hear all year. Now if we could only get a U.S. screening of it - immediately.

Throw Yourself Apart

The time to bury ourselves to avoid the scorching sun of Summer is fast approaching. I might burn through June, but come July my love will be at my side to keep me cool. In the interim, a video soundtrack to prep for the sweltering days ahead.

The World Was On Fire, No One Could Save Me But You

Nostalgia and music go hand-in-hand, and it's an age-old concept that is quite easy to grasp. The soundtrack to our lives is most frequently the melodies of our favorite songs and the lyrics that eerily echo our experiences at a given time. So it seems natural that, at some point or another, the musicians of the world would use the feeling of nostalgia to dictate their musical directions. Now, don't be confused by what I'm implying. There will always be the retrograde trend of “what is old is now new”, its an ethos bands like The Strokes have made a career off of. Re-popularizing the fads of a previous era and applying a modern twist is almost a necessity in pop-culture, it's how we learn and diversify incrementally. However, nostalgia isn't as much the idea of 'retro' chic as it is an ache for better times. It is not about a sense of style so much as a depth of feeling.

As of late, I've been attracted to music that provides the aforementioned quality - much of which being in the original form of the artists of the 50's and 60's. I've been tracing the lineage of some of my favorite newer influences down to the originators, a process that's opened my ears to a lot of acts I'd never heard of along the way. Rather than outline a list of my discoveries from that experience, I'll instead point to several newer acts who evoke that sense of nostalgia so well. I hope giving them your attention might send you on your own little musical-discovery road-trip through some dusty, old used-records crates.

(Cover of Dirty Beaches ”True Blue“ b/w “Sweet 17” 7" on Zoo Music)

First and foremost, there is Dirty Beaches. Alex Zhang Hungtai can single-handedly be held accountable for a boom in used records sales this year. His homage to 50's and 60's era rock n' roll pioneers has made him a modern-day Elvis amongst the indie-world. His music is as evocative as his persona, matching lo-fidelity recordings with a high-fidelity one-man stage show. On last year's “True Blue” single, he stamped out some of his earlier, more experimental and instrumental-only recordings for a guitar-loop-based love-lament on which his croon became the focal point. It marked a new direction that was further exemplified on his terrific Badlands LP and In U.S.A. tour-only CDR, and his since garnered him with endless praise and attention nearly everywhere you look.

(Dirty Beaches ”True Blue“ video)

(Dirty Beaches “Golden Desert Sun” video)

With the stakes now raised, it seems Huntai's working even harder to keep up with the rate people seem to be consuming his music at. He's released several more singles, live sessions, a soundtrack to an upcoming independent film and still manages to compile mixes of his friends bands and imaginary Wong Kar Wai film scores while traversing the world. It's a beautiful and dedicated work ethic from a man whose sense of pride in tradition is as strong as his commitment to trend-rebellion.

(Cover of Die Jungen's self-released $ digital EP)

Another one-man music machine rising in the ranks is the U.K.'s Klaus Von Barrel. The man whose initials define his dark-wave alterego, The KVB, isn't content with just one project at a time. He's recently released an EP entitled simply $ under the new moniker Die Jungen. Now whether or not the title of his release is too imply he's banking off the charm of sunny, beach-town drifter songs or he just was marking it as an item for sale is yet-to-be determined.

(Die Jungen's video for ”Drowning“)

(Intro to Dark Days 011 short video soundtracked by Die Jungen's “In The End”)

The new project doesn't seem to have much info on it, but it seems more visual accompaniment is springing out of Von Barrel's vimeo account - which is a promising sign. Hopefully he'll be able to balance the two projects simultaneously, as both are equally intriguing. Where The KVB is an exorcision of post-punk, goth and minimal-wave demons, Die Jungen is an homage to the period of music that accompanied archival footage of light-leaked 8mm daytrips. It sounds more like all things washed out than even Washed Out wishes he could.

(Cover of Mood Rings Sweater Weather Forever EP on Double Phantom Digital)

Lastly, one of the most promising new discoveries to emerge this year are Atlanta's Mood Rings. While not a one man show, this four-piece band delivered an impressive 4-song EP recently on entitled Sweater Weather Forever, that's already got them the attention of like-minded predecessors like The Raveonettes. Mood Rings brand of psychedelic, bubblegum-pop delves into the deep terrain of reverb-drenched melodies and lulling vocals, making it an easy pill to pop for fans of the Phil Spector catalog or anyone wishing Marc Bolan had gone through a heavy Buddy Holly phase. Of the three listed acts here, Mood Rings definitely sounds the most aware of their modern surroundings. Fortunately, they keep the fidelity at bay, ensuring their vintage sound doesn't get overglossed in production.

The Sorrow of Two Blooms

Last year I had simultaneous exposure to Downwards label owner Juan Mendez, fellow blogger Camella Lobo, and their band Tropic of Cancer within a one-week span. It was a domino effect that lead me to befriend the two characters that interplay in all three facets mentioned. I hung out with Juan one night while he was in LA for business, and we chatted up a storm while outting at The Echo for Part Time Punks. He opened me up to his world of influences, many of which were new to my ever-seeking musical ears (most notably, Robert Rental). Camella and I keep in correspondence via the Internet whenever we notice similar gushings over new emerging acts in the goth, post-punk and broader indie-sphere, and her amazing blog has struck me on repeated occasions as being the most similar in spirit and interests as my own. Both also share an aesthetic appreciation for all things dark and noir in theme, and have healthy work ethics I admire in an increasingly post-Internet, lazy-artist landscape. This blossoming acquaintanceship is certainly one that I've been eager to expand on, as the couple remind me in a lot of ways of my existing best friends, William and Brandie Hart - creative, stylish, cordial and impeccable art/music taste. Fortunately, it seems the two are migrating back to LA after a stint away, which means I'll be picking their brains in-person some more.

(artwork for the upcoming The Sorrow of Two Blooms EP)

So, with back story in mind, imagine my pleasure when my ears got a hold of the couple's newest musical offering, their upcoming 3-song EP The Sorrow of Two Blooms out soon on Blackest Ever Black. The release comes on the heels of a new Downwards single entitled “Be Brave” and 2009's “The Dull Age” b/w “Victims” 10". The three songs that comprise the newest EP are the duo's strongest to date, taking the minimal-wave and colder industrial elements of their previous releases and adding a dense haze of foggy atmosphere via synth-swells and heavily-echoed vocals. Opener “A Color” is already my favorite piece of music in their catalog, with a steady repeat cycle pumping through my digital music library. The track brings to mind ethereal qualities similar to some of my favorite drone masters. The classic 808-style back-beat clicks away as waves of Korg-strings wash in time with Lobo's lulling baritone. The continuous slow sway makes it feel like a lost Suicide and Spectrum collaboration fronted by a heroin-induced Nico. This, of course, is meant as a compliment, and knowing Mendez and Lobo a bit, they'll take the comparison as such. “Temporary Vessels” and “Dive (Wheel of the Law)” closely follow suit, giving the release a very cohesive quality overall and quickly moving it up the ladder as one of my favorite releases of the year thus far.

Give it a listen yourself, provided via SoundCloud:
Tropic of Cancer - A Color [Blackest Ever Black, 2011] by Blackest Ever Black

Do yourself a favor and don't sleep on this release. While they've already received attention and praise from several larger music blogs and magazines, Tropic of Cancer are about to become the buzz of the underworld crowd. Check out the official video for the tune “Be Brave”, currently available at select online music stores like Boomkat and soon to be available via the Free Loving Anarchists distro.