Posted in Music chat

Top Albums of 2014

Posted on by nolankane706

Singles done… now lets get to the albums:

Here are my picks:

Nick Mulvey – First Mind

For me this is my stand out album of the year for the pone fact it is what has been most listened to throughout 2014 and I still keep coming back to it.

Dilated Peoples – Directors of Photography

Hands down their best effort to date and the best thing that the world of Hip Hop has produced in 2014.

Future Islands – Singles

Hit my radar this year as an album of the month and took a while to grow on me. Infact it still is but I seem to find it getting better and better.

Caribou – Our Love

This lived up to all my hopes. Best album of the year… tough to say. Is in my top three though.

Chet Faker – Built On Glass

This was an un-epected surprise for me. Many sunny days were spent listening to this album over the summer.

Statik Selektah – #whatgoesaround

20 tracks jammed pack with some outstanding beats and MC’s. Even if Hip Hop isn’t your thing this is worth a listen.

Bombay Bicycle Club – So Long, See You Tomorrow

Released early in the year this album had a big part of my listening time for the first half of the year.

Banks – Goddess

Did banks live up to all the hype around her? I’m not sure. Having her album delayed for almost a year didn’t help her cause. With that it may have been worth the wait though it seemed to sneak below the radar of many.

SBTRKT – Wonder Where We Land

I like it when and artist moves to the next level on their second album and this was the case with SBTRKT for sure. For me it lived up to expectations.

Erol Alkan – Fabriclive 77

I know this a a compilation but it had to get a mention. What a fantastic mix, worht checking out.

Posted in Album of the Month

DECEMBER: Young Fathers: Dead

Posted on by misterstory

young-fathers-theonepointeight

Can we forget about the Mercury? Probably not but I fear this may descend into a critique of the Mercury decision rather than critique of a piece of music. Anyway, let’s have a roll and see how this works out?

For me, this is an album of 11x 3 min pop tracks (no song under 2 min 50, none over 3 min 51). I am sure we will debate the word ‘pop’ as I think at least one of us will struggle with that definition? I would argue that you can’t have as many hooks in one album of 3 min tracks and it not be a ‘pop’ album.  It doesn’t matter  that the group choose to deliberately sabotage their own ‘pop’ credentials in dark, dystopian, discordant, choral chants, nose-diving bass lines and berating beats.

This isn’t easy listening. Having said that I found it effortless to get into (not bragging I just think this ticks loads of my boxes). But I understand that most people find the opposite to be true. I’ve recently gone back (album released in Jan 2014) and read loads of reviews of this album and most say that it is difficult to penetrate but massively rewarding when you do. I always bang on about ‘when’ I can listen to music and this is a distracting listen that really requires you to engage in its finer points. Background music this is not. Tunes to play while working? Nope. Driving, public transport etc, Yep. I listen to it most when training.

Much has been made about the multi-cultural make up of the band which all feels a little ‘Mercury’ to me until you start listening to the lyrics and picking through the subject matter.  ‘Ak47 take my brethren straight to heaven’ is pure hip hop cliche in an LA accent but it appears more impactful and evocative in an African (Young Fathers = Liberian, Nigerian. Scottish) accent and preceded by the imagery conjured up in the opening verses of ‘No Way’, the albums opening track. If you like this album then I would suggest spending some time with the lyrics of these tracks.

http://genius.com/artists/Young-fathers

I think this album avoids the ‘worthiness’ which it could have created with its multi-ethnic (Scottish included) influences and a lyrical topics. It feels like all of the constituent parts (ethnic background: check / socially conscious lyrics: check / eclectic influences: check) make for a cliche-ridden horror show but at each opportunity to fall into that hipster trap is swerves either lyrically or sonically and avoids the cliche. As if sat in the studio they felt it a track was getting a bit too nice so they chucked in a massive tribal rhythm and discordant drone to scare off the ‘wrong crowd’.

Who does this sound like? Anti-Pop Consortium, TV on the Radio, Shabazz Palaces, New Flesh, Saul Williams … New Fathers?As mentioned before this ticks loads of my boxes and I love all of the artists listed above (Shabazz excluded – sorry David may be I need to try that one again?).

So, similar to FKA Twigs, at the point of winning the Mercury, they’d only sold 3,000 units. Its now at least 3,004. But does this matter? Sales does not correlate to quality. Just look at the Cinema Box Office.

Brothers, your thoughts?

Posted in Uncategorized

Do we need to talk about Young Fathers?

Posted on by misterstory

I think we do. Can we get over the Mercury hype? Do we need to if its justified?

I am very impressed with this album. Shall we do this as next album of the month? I can save my shortlist for my next go.

Brother David – do you remember the New Flesh album?
Brother Nolan – do you remember me endlessly playing Anti-Pop Consortium whilst on mushrooms?

All of the above plus much more is in this album.

Posted in Album of the Month

November Album: Caribou – Our Love

Posted on by nolankane706

After last month’s SBTRKT album which brought very mixed reviews I have chosen to stick with a dance driven album and select Caribou’s ‘Our Love’.

This for me has been the most anticipated album release for 2014. I was a huge fan of his ‘Swim’ album and loved his in-between project under the alias of Daphni. The first single off the album ‘Can’t Do Without You’ was my summer anthem, soon followed by the second single ‘Our Love’.

This album has so many layers to it but as I want to hear what the rest of you think so I’m just going to hit on the main two for me:

1 – The music!! Structure wise, composition, production…. All I can say is OOOOFFFFFF! It’s all I hoped for and more. I have read a few articles saying that this album is more of a Daphni album than a Caribou album but I disagree. The Daphni releases are much more basic compositions than this album. Sure there must be massive influences from playing clubs and festivals for the last three years, but this isn’t a Daphni album. On swim I felt that he left you wanting more from a few of the songs and he has reached that point on this album. Some of the songs build and build which I love. Some bring you fully into their world. Once again, OOOOFFFFFF!

2 – The Lyrics. I listened to this album for about two weeks before even paying attention to the lyrics. Musically it is that strong. When I took the step to get into the lyrics this album then started coming across in a different way. For me this album is about love and relationships (in a very basic way). Compared to ‘Swim’ Caribou seems to have opened up much more which has aided his album structure for me. On ‘Swim’ I thought he gave us a taste and left it at that.

There is much more I could get into but I want to hear your thoughts on this.

Album of the year, possibly? I reckon it’ll be in my top three for sure.

Posted in Album of the Month

OCTOBER: Wonder Where We Land by SBTRKT

Posted on by David Allison

Funny how an artist can make something that doesn’t grab you, and then make something else that isn’t so different – and it blows you away.

I *liked* the first album – or rather, I *loved* the singles and another track or two, and I thought the rest of it was a little undercooked. I expected this album to be a re-run of that experience – I *love* the Ezra Koenig tune and the Sampha single, and on first listen, I had a feeling of deja vu. Nice, inventive, soulful, but downbeat and – yup, maybe a little undercooked.

Wow, was I wrong? Every single time I played the album, it opened up a little more. Until I couldn’t stop playing it, and the songs started ringing round my brain even when I wasn’t listening to them.

This record is such a huge step forward from his debut. He was always clearly insanely talented, but he’s honed that talent very quickly, and this genuinely feels like an artist firing on all cylinders. And like all musicians of any note, he seems to create a sound that makes you wonder where the fuck it even came from.

What I like about it is that he doesn’t feel like a guy immersed in some hipster culture or trying to create something to do with fashion. It is *soul* music in the broadest sense. I knew nothing about the guy until I read this interview:

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/oct/02/sbtrkt-wonder-where-we-land-interview

– and it really informed my listening of this album. He does sound like an outsider, someone who’s willing to try anything out and see where it leads. A song like Look Away, featuring the Chairlift singer, could easily come across as repetitive or moribund – instead it feels insistent and melancholy. Higher, the Raury track, feels a bit like a slap in the face the first few times you hear it, coming as it does quite early in the tracklist. But again, it became something quite different after a few listens. He sure as hell knows how to get the best of Jessie Ware, an artist I *really* like but who can easily drift a little into bland territory without the right material. Best of all is the album’s closer, Voices in My Head, a terrifyingly real drug psychosis song delivered with paranoid genius by ASAP Ferg.  Again, you struggle to imagine how a collaboration like that came about. And then I read this:

http://rock.genius.com/Sbtrkt-voices-in-my-head-lyrics

And this kind of sums up what I love about this. He’s a collaborator – a proper one, who can bring out the best in everyone he works with – but one who at the same time has a complete musical vision.

This, Brothers, is undoubtedly one of my albums of the year. I look forward to your thoughts.