Album Reviews on TLChicken.com
Here are some of my album reviews published in the online arts & culture magazine TLChicken.com.
Abstract and unapologetic, the shoe-gazer genre tends to be far too weird for the casual listener, as it is written as an aesthetic bitch-slap to the verse-chorus-verse blueprint of pop-rock. The shoe-gaze movement–started in the U.K. by Brian Eno, My Bloody Valentine and the Cocteau Twins in the late-Eighties–lives on as second-generation artists employ new technology to discover new sounds and textures.
Rotations, the first full-length album by U.K. multi-instrumentalist Michael Walter working under the moniker mwvm, is an opus of single-note volume swells, synthed-out loops and thunderous layered texturing with no melody, no drums, no apparent structure and no lyrics. But that’s the beauty of it. The ten-minute opener (“Context. Where?”) introduces the recorded-in-a-cathedral vibe that fans of Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible will find familiar. It features lots of echo-y organ washes and gothic harmonic layering, from which the rest of the album flows like a stream from a snowcapped mountain.
By track four (“Negative Pole”) the cathedral vibe has transformed into more of an abducted-by-aliens texture, with lots of low-end digital droning and Doppler-effect organ. The album peaks in the twelve-minute “Oratory Clout,” humming like a swarm of digital cicadas until giving way to a clean, David Gilmour-style guitar vamp, exposing Walter’s affection toward Meddle-era Pink Floyd.
Though Rotations isn’t anything experienced shoe-gazers haven’t heard before, it’s still a solid debut effort. Surely, things will only get weirder (read: better) from here.
THE GRADE: 3 STARS
KARMIC WHIPLASH – “NERVOUS SYSTEM” (City Duck Records)
Guitarist-songwriter Brendan Themes got tired of playing bass on the Twin Cities punk and metal scene, and decided it was time to change direction. He picked up an acoustic guitar, wrote some folk-y tunes and recruited multi-instrumentalist Travis Lund to bang out the drums on his solo debut that he recorded in various basements and living rooms.
What’s cool about Karmic Whiplash is that it isn’t typical singer-songwriter fare; Themes wears his punk roots on his sleeve, penning melodic up-tempo tracks that sound somewhere between the Violent Femmes and, at best, an unplugged version of the Descendants.
Some highlights: The sudden, unexpected hook in “Second Brain” is a welcome shot to the solar plexus, proof that Themes might be onto something with this unlikely punk-acoustic hybrid. Brit-pop fans will appreciate “On A Wire,” with its Kooks-like chord progression and swift storytelling, something Themes replicates on “Getting To No.”
Some gripes: Sometimes Karmic Whiplash treads dangerously close to Dave Matthews, especially on mellower tracks like “Detox” and “Blindfold.” They’re at their best when they play acoustic punk. Punk-ish acoustic doesn’t suit their sound.
THE GRADE: 3 STARS
THE DETAILS – “DRAW A DISTANCE. DRAW A BORDER.” (Parliament of Trees)
Before their debut album came out, Winnipeg’s The Details already gained the reputation of one of western Canada’s hardest working bands. The indie-rock quartet has been on the road extensively since forming in 2005, twice embarking on coast-to-coast winter tours across the frozen Canadian countryside.
Draw A Distance. Draw A Border embodies the great things about a DIY debut album, namely that air-tight quality songs get only after being played hundreds of times at no-name bars in towns named Saskatoon and Halifax. Even if emo-ish Canadian indie-rock isn’t your bag, at least they don’t bullshit you with songs that won’t hold up live.
Some highlights: “Reunion Souvenirs” is a straight-up stomper, despite the “long-distance-relationships-are-hard” lyrical sullenness. The tasteful banjo and trumpet parts on “Underground” acknowledges the band’s artistic range without getting all uppity about using weird, old-timey instrumentation like some Canadian art-rockers. *cough* Of Montreal *cough* And what would a debut record be without small-town angst? “Height of Land” fulfills that requirement dutifully.
Some gripes: The album is an honest piece of music, but that doesn’t mean you’ll suddenly like the emo-pop genre that the band (intentionally or not) creates within. But it is unfair to knock a band for being itself. The Details will have plenty of time to break this mold.
GRADE: 2.5 STARS
