Some recent CD reviews

POST-ROCK

Yesterday Was Dramatic – Today Is OK – Múm [Morr Music]

This hard-to-find debut album from Icelandic post-rock band Múm saw an original limited release in 2000, and has now been re-released on German label Morr Music. A combination of wistful, ambient electronica, cut-up beats, and a diverse array of instruments (including accordion, glockenspiel, guitar and harpsichord) it reveals the early Múm to have been more reliant upon synthesisers and harmonies than they are today, yet still displays the sense of experimentation evident on the band’s more recent albums. While primarily of appeal to Múm’s fans, Yesterday Was Dramatic – Today Is OK will doubtless delight anyone with an interest in Iceland’s innovative music scene.

'Glõsõli' – Sigur Rós [EMI]

‘Glõsõli’, the first single to be released from Sigur Rós’s forthcoming fourth album Takk… was one of several new songs the Icelandic post-rock band previewed at their rapturously received Melbourne show during their recent Australian tour. It opens with the soft chiming of tiny bells and an insistent yet moody guitar. These instruments are quickly joined by the tender falsetto of vocalist Jónsi Birgisson, who in the words of a six-year old fan of the band, "sings like his heart is broken". As the song builds, deep bass drums and suddenly surging guitars urge it on towards a spectacular crescendo. A single this good promises a magnificent album to come.

Horses In The Sky – Thee Silver Mount Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band [XXX]

Thee Silver Mt Zion, a side-project for several members of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, relies less on that old post-rock standard, the thunderous crescendo, and more on the nasal vocals of Godspeed’s guitarist Efrim Menuck. The band’s latest album is a protest album of sorts, composed of fragile and spacious tunes picked out on guitar, piano and violin, sparse droning, and solemn and contemplative melodies. Dissonance, acapella, and yes, even sudden, swooping crescendos play their part. As with Menuck’s anxious, semi-falsetto, some will find The Silver Mt Zion’s music maddening. Others will regard it as an expression of emotional purity. Either way it’s an acquired taste.

AnimaminA – Amina [The Worker’s Institute/Universal]

Icelandic quartet Amina enchanted audiences at Melbourne’s recent Sigur Ros concert with their delicate and organic approach to post-rock, both in their all-too-brief support slot and also as the band’s touring string section. Now Amina’s debut EP has been given a limited local release, with a second pressing expected shortly. Cello, viola and violin are combined with ambient sounds including a crackling fire, the hum of a wineglass and the soft chimes of a child’s music box. The resulting four tracks on AnimaminA are haunting, fragile, and utterly graceful.

ROCK-POP

'Sister Sneaker Sister Soul' – My Latest Novel [Bella Union]

My Latest Novel are the Next Big Thing to emerge from Glasgow’s indie music scene. Despite having been in existence for less than two years the young quintet are already supporting the likes of Teenage Fanclub and the reformed The Pixies. This single, lifted from a debut album to be released later this year, demonstrates their deconstructive approach to song-writing by breaking apart the familiar verse-chorus-bridge-chorus structure of most pop-songs. Violin, cello, shared vocals and tight drumming contribute to a slow-burning, deceptively simple single, and aptly demonstrates that the hype building around My Latest Novel is far from unfounded.

'Trouble with Dreams' – Eels [Universal]

‘Trouble with Dreams’ is the latest single from the band that gave us the JJJ hit ‘Novocaine for the Soul’ some 10 years ago, and hails from the new double-CD Blinking Lights and Other Revelations, the magnum opus of Eels frontman Mark Oliver Everett, aka E. All lilting drums, off-kilter calliope-like keyboards and a lyrical concern with the question of when to abandon your childhood hopes, ‘Trouble with Dreams’ displays the typical Eels ability to mask miserable themes behind catchy alt-pop tunes. It’s an austere yet shimmering track that is sure to have the music-loving public pricking up their collective ears.

Self Titled – Clap Your Hands Say Yeah [independent]

This delightful album from Brooklyn’s Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is currently only available from the band themselves, and locally in the few rare record shops who have been wise enough to import it. It skips, jumps and twirls through 12 tracks of exuberant indie-pop, referencing artists as diverse as Talking Heads and Tom Waits without sounding contrived. Add in some downright manic melodies and the occasional introspective interlude, and you have an album that some overseas critics are calling the best new release of the year. Vocalist Alec Ounsworth’s slightly strident voice might grate on some people’s ears, or the lo-fi production sound a little muffled, but such criticisms aside Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s debut album is a bold and memorable introduction. Let’s just hope that they can sustain both its momentum and their careers.

Illinois – Sufjan Stevens [Asthmatic Kitty/Spunk]

The sweetly strange, inspired, and compelling Illinois is the second in a proposed series of 50 thematic albums, one for each state of the USA, from singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens. Rich orchestral arrangements sit comfortably beside neo-folk banjos, and the whimsical is effortlessly juxtaposed with the heartfelt as Stevens sings about everything from Superman to the deaths of friends. From song titles such as ‘They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbours!! They Have Come Back From The Dead!! Ahhhh!’ to a truly poignant song about serial killer John Wayne Gacy, Illinois is a engaging work of idiosyncratic genius.

Bang Bang Rock & Roll – Art Brut [Fierce Panda/Shock]

Simple, sharp chords reminiscent of The Buzzcocks or The Fall are coupled with semi-chanted lyrics from vocalist Eddie Argos on this debut album from Art Brut, London’s answer to Franz Ferdinand. Balancing social realism with wry humour, these 12 songs may lack originality, but they definitely entertain.

Arcade Fire - The Arcade Fire [Arcade Fire Music/Merge]

Following the worldwide acclaim of their 2004 debut album Funeral, Canadians The Arcade Fire have re-mastered and re-released its predecessor, 2003’s seven track Arcade Fire EP. While it displays some of the rich song structure and tormented beauty of Funeral, this EP is clearly the sound of a band in their formative stages. Songs such as ‘I’m sleeping in a submarine’ and ‘The Woodlands National Anthem’ lack the tension and grace of The Arcade Fire’s latter works, and the band’s influences are more obvious. While ‘No Cars Go’ (a rousing, driving number and an audience favourite at the band’s gigs) comes close to achieving the balance and finesse found on Funeral, this EP is definitely just one for the fans.

Notes From A Ceiling – The Mess Hall [Shock]

The second album from Sydney duo The Mess Hall, following on from their little-known, home-made self-titled 2001 release, sees this young Australian band trying to outdo The White Stripes with their bluesy rock swaggering, and they almost pull it off. Production is clean enough to be listenable without losing the grit and growl that makes The Mess Hall so much fun, and while the slower numbers such as ‘Skyline’ are less successful, and reveal the band’s limitations, there’s plenty of great rock moments on display elsewhere on this CD to make up for these occasional flaws.

HIP-HOP

Tales of the Drift – Hermitude [Elefant Tracks]

Tales of the Drift, the second collaboration from keyboardist Luke Dubs and drummer/turntablist Angus ‘Elgusto’ Stewart under the moniker Hermitude, seamlessly combines the best elements of hip-hop and electronica. It features the jazz-influenced, instrumental grooves for which the Blue Mountains-based duo are renowned, as well as occasional appearances from guest MC’s including the seductive Blu MC. From the evocative and exotic sounds of ‘Nightfall’s Messenger’ to the coolly minimal electro of ‘Plunge’, Tales of the Drift is a diverse and masterful album. That two such divergent tracks can sit comfortably beside each other on the one CD is testimony to Hermitude’s accomplished musical dexterity.

Secret House Against The World – Buck 65 [Warner]

Canadian Buck 65 (aka Richard Terfry) is a thorn in the side of conventional hip-hop. He spurns the macho posturing common among MC’s in favour of tales of rural struggle, while his music incorporates country and folk. On his latest album Buck 65 sings that "Hip hop music ruined my life", and while this may be a pose adopted for a particular song, it’s true that Secret House Against The World is his least-hip-hop friendly album yet. It is also his most diverse. There’s the melancholy, piano-haunted ‘The Floor’, the banjo-plucking folk-hop of ‘Blood of a Young Wolf’, and the off-kilter electro-rock of ‘Le 65isme.’ These tracks and others combine to form an album that is not always easy to listen to, but whose diverse, disconnected charms grow steadily apparent with time.