This years The Books/Animal Collective/Junior Boys?

[Woebot]

OK so maybe this years Junior Boys is the Junior Boys etc, but you know what I mean. Obv one can't get enough Street Beats, but what about the music being made by our tender bourgeois colleagues, is it so readily dismissed this year?

Things I have picked up include: The Eternals record, Avey Tare & Panda Bear's Sung Tongs (thinks hard), but that's about it. What am I missing? Or is the bohemian axis as withered as I sometimes fear?

 

[Melmoth]

The Fiery Furnaces new one is worth looking into

 

[jwd]

Dear Matt-bot
Please define 'our bourgeois friends'...
I would think Panda Bear's new one "Young Prayer" fits this list rather well. Astonishingly beautiful record.
I've been increasingly driven mad by the sheer amount of... well... DULLNESS in this whole field though. If I hear one more creaky post-Current-93 doom-folk outburst I will shave David Tibet's profile into my temples.

 

[Woebot]

Please define 'our bourgeois friends'...

Well, without wanting to slide into meaningless generalisations, many of the peeps here might not be classed as your "average grime fan", don't we tend to be from the "right side of the tracks"? Isn't part of the frisson of listening to Grime (beyond it's undeniable righteous hard rockin' nth power and poptasticity) a slight thrill at practising a bit of healthy social transgression? Not that there is anything wrong with that in my book, I mean if everyone was more open to the full panoply of culture, surely society would benefit from a greater mutual comprehension.

Having said this, and perhaps in consequence of this, it can't be right to ignore de facto the products of one's own social milieu, the culture produced by "people like us". And that culture needn't negate, or attempt to be superior to street culture (see cLOUDeAD/Squarepusher) to be valid alongside it.

 

[bun-u]

I’ve liked Devandra Banhart’s offerings this year…I found the Fiery Furnaces LP a little over-egged, I love ‘sung tongs’ (haven’t heard the Panda Bear thing yet). Also enjoyed the DAT politics LP. Matthew Dear and the Eternals sound promising

 

[Woebot]

I’ve liked Devandra Banhart’s offerings this year…

i keep meaning to check that. you've pushed me into aktion dave.

Also enjoyed the DAT politics LP.

will also check.

------

this erosion of the "middleground" must be partly down to:

a) the collapse of jockey slut (if a bit flabby/cheesy theoretically, they often had good taste)

b) the situation at "fortress" wire (where for reasons best known to themselves we'll never see a junior boys article)

c) a general unease for people to stray outside the grime zone (the avant-yob agenda triumphing at the cost thereof. though NB reynolds has been vocal in support of (amongst others) the animal collective

d) most of it is pretty shite (seriously! can you remember a weaker time for indie/electronica?)

 

[mms]

i really liked richard longs album, river thru howling sky,
and i've enjoyed the music of mathew jonson .

personally i don't really always get the big things i like the smaller stuff

 

[hint]

d) most of it is pretty shite (seriously! can you remember a weaker time for indie/electronica?)

I disagree that this is a weak time for indie.

off the top of my head, I'm currently enjoying:

joanna newsom - everything I had been led to believe devendra banhart was
art brut
bloc party
help she can't swim
the others

 

[jimbackhouse]

Richard Youngs definitely seconded. All 3 (?) of his Jagjaguwar albums are sublime!

Also Sunroof! is well worth checking - it's Matthew Bower (from Skullflower). The one album i have, 'Cloudz' is much in the vein of mid 70s krautrock (cluster / harmonia) perhaps more drone orientated, skittering off-kileter drum machines, askew melodies, etc. Really beautiful stuff. And whaddyaknow he's interviewed by David Keenan in this month's wire...

I was dragged along to see Subtle (part of the anticon / clouddead axis) last week and it truly was a soul-sapping affair. Nicely co-ordinated costumes aside, I swear I've never heard any music so simultaneously joyless and smugly superior. Horrible.

 

[mms]

oh man even if those anticon lot did a good record people would think it was an ironic injoke.

 

[Melmoth]

I’ve liked Devandra Banhart’s offerings this year…

a bit twee though, a bit ... 'fey'.

 

[jwd]

Richard Youngs thirded - although when I sent Matt the 4CD 'avant-folk-whatsit' set, he didn't seem too keen on Richard Youngs. Or Alasdair Roberts for that matter. But "River Through Howling Sky" is incredible, the 'sequel' of sorts to Keiji Haino's "First Let's Remove the Colour!" as far as the grey-scale/night-time hermetic blues goes. (So glad you liked it MMS.)

Matt, I was bein' playful with the 'bourgeois friends' thing. I agree re: the frission of listening to Grime, social transgression and all that. I'm quite suspicious of that in some ways, which is why I don't a) write about it ever and b) listen to it an incredible amount. But then I wonder if my finger to the wind, 'research or knowledge base purposes' listening to things like Grime just perpetuates certain ideas that're circulating about listening-as-social-transgression/non-engagement-with-the-full-sweep-of-culture/aesthetix.

There's so many subdivisions within subdivisions... Animal Collective does not necessarily 'trace' particularly well onto the space mapped out by Matt Valentine & Erika Elder, but their recent splurge of CDRs have been incredibly righteous vis. post-Fahey guitar roughed up w/Indian classical tactic and Elizabeth Cotten song-power (beautiful cover of "Freight Train" on one of the CDs that almost tops the version Opal did in the 80s). Time-Lag just reissued the two "Futuristic Folk of the Tower Recordings" CDRs on one beautiful double LP, that might be up yr alley Matt.

Devendra Bongload is alright but a bit too Marc Bolan/Karen Dalton/John Davis to really count as anything too fascinating, his duet with Vashti Bunyan is lovely though. If mainly for Vashti's presence. The Charalambides records are always great - "Joy Shapes" quite harrowing - Simon R is quite a fan of this stuff (to further yr observation re: his 'patronage' of the current crop.)

Someone I know recently compared the Animal Collective to They Might Be Giants! (After I simiarly compared Joanna Newsom to Cyndi Lauper.)

At the risk of having my ass whupped I think Haino really is the dream ticket for this stuff, such a unique presence, and the "Black Blues" sets are phenomenal. But he seems quite the definition of the 'acquired taste' (plus I imagine The Wire's continued patronage of Haino must really put some backs up.)

 

[mms]

devendrah benharrt is pretty good, , he's got his good looks too, but i got sick of it after a short while, the things that make it refreshing, (the charm and childish imagination, the voice that sounds like the dragonfly off those crazylegs crane cartoons that were in the middle of the pink panther cartoons,) become the reason you get tired of it.
on another, other good looking people related to devendrah tip, some of that cocorosie record hit the spot, other parts of it didn't.. but it was fresh anyway, apparently they are good live.

 

[jwd]

I guess there's a definitional shift there between, say, the folk/Haino/etc. brigade and the indie/electronica/bourgeois team that Matt was originally talking about. Maybe something closer to what Matt's after... I thought that new Mouse On Mars record was quite brilliant, but I feel as though I'm alone in thinking that. There really hasn't been that much good from that indie/electronica 'scene' for a while now has there. Radian? Dean Roberts' new band, Autistic Daughters, their album is fantastic. Not quite as close to Talk Talk c.-"Laughing Stock" as Dean's last record was.

 

[Woebot]

Richard Youngs thirded - although when I sent Matt the 4CD 'avant-folk-whatsit' set, he didn't seem too keen on Richard Youngs. Or Alasdair Roberts for that matter.

Ha ha ha ha. Oh Dale it's you! Everyone's avatars are so obscure! No he's quite right I wasn't mad on the Richard Youngs (splutter)

Matt, I was bein' playful with the 'bourgeois friends' thing.

Yeah I should have known!

I agree re: the frission of listening to Grime, social transgression and all that. I'm quite suspicious of that in some ways, which is why I don't a) write about it ever and b) listen to it an incredible amount. But then I wonder if my finger to the wind, 'research or knowledge base purposes' listening to things like Grime just perpetuates certain ideas that're circulating about listening-as-social-transgression/non-engagement-with-the-full-sweep-of-culture/aesthetix.

Well it's shameful to admit really isn't it! One's supposed to just love music without this kind of thing. And sure it's a lot easier for us in London to feel like we're "in" Grime, even if the truth of the matter is that we're as much spectators as anyone else outside Bow and "the scene". I maintain it's no good worrying too much about being an outsider, it's so paralysing!

There's so many subdivisions within subdivisions... Animal Collective does not necessarily 'trace' particularly well onto the space mapped out by Matt Valentine & Erika Elder, but their recent splurge of CDRs have been incredibly righteous vis. post-Fahey guitar roughed up w/Indian classical tactic and Elizabeth Cotten song-power (beautiful cover of "Freight Train" on one of the CDs that almost tops the version Opal did in the 80s). Time-Lag just reissued the two "Futuristic Folk of the Tower Recordings" CDRs on one beautiful double LP, that might be up yr alley Matt.

It's the electronic/deconstruction touched within the Animal Collective's music that set them apart from others as far as I'm concerned. It's the implied futurity of what they're doing. Eh up I shall look out that reissue. But (sighs) it's not new this year is it? I'm really after some bleeding edge stuff. Try again Dale

Devendra Bongload is alright but a bit too Marc Bolan/Karen Dalton/John Davis to really count as anything too fascinating, his duet with Vashti Bunyan is lovely though. If mainly for Vashti's presence. The Charalambides records are always great - "Joy Shapes" quite harrowing - Simon R is quite a fan of this stuff (to further yr observation re: his 'patronage' of the current crop.)

Charalambides, right, OK. Takes note.

Someone I know recently compared the Animal Collective to They Might Be Giants! (After I simiarly compared Joanna Newsom to Cyndi Lauper.)

Lol

At the risk of having my ass whupped I think Haino really is the dream ticket for this stuff, such a unique presence, and the "Black Blues" sets are phenomenal. But he seems quite the definition of the 'acquired taste' (plus I imagine The Wire's continued patronage of Haino must really put some backs up.)

Well I've never ruled out Haino, but it just seems like a massive step backwards. I know (the oft-celebrated) Mr Keenan thinks that we should abandon this particular concept of the future but I'm just never gonna be convinced.

 

[xero]

talking of things that sound like laughing stock, I enjoyed Bark Psychosis' Codenameustsucker which seems to be on the 'bourgeois' axis that this thread refers to. I sought it out after realising from his picture in an article in the Wire that Graham Sutton works in my local video shop.

 

[DavidD]

I don't know how it is in Cologne, but I certainly would assume Kompakt is pretty bourgie. So yes, I quite like Kompakt this year.

 

[jwd]

Well it's shameful to admit really isn't it! One's supposed to just love music without this kind of thing.

Yeah, but that's rather impossible, ultimately. Actually there's nothing more frustrating than that 'music's just music, man' line. Not saying that YOU do that, Matt, but I still cop it from many sides, and it's a bit puzzling.

It's the electronic/deconstruction touched within the Animal Collective's music that set them apart from others as far as I'm concerned. It's the implied futurity of what they're doing. Eh up I shall look out that reissue. But (sighs) it's not new this year is it? I'm really after some bleeding edge stuff. Try again Dale

Matt, dare you accuse me of being BEHIND the eight-ball? This year's actually been quite thin on the ground re: all this stuff, you're right. The usual gripe, you know, it's formed into a 'scene', it's codified, etc., the energy isn't rampant anymore. You should look at my pile of lame folk/noise/improv/blather promo discs. I'm gonna have me a nice bonfire. Alternately I'll put them in a Christmas stocking... Of someone I hate.

That would seem to be quite a limited definition of the relationship between electronics/deconstruction and pop/folk/etc., though. You would know from hearing Tower Recs Folk Scene that the Animal Collective don't have the monopoly on that approach. That new Black Dice record, I dunno, it seemed a bit dull, there must be some more stuff from that 'circle' that's worth following up? Maybe bands like Gang Gang Dance and Excepter?

If anything what fascinates me about the Animal Collective is their adoption of Tropicalia/Brazilian pop at times. And that Panda Bear sounds a bit like Arthur Russell sometimes. I believe someone at ILM made this point, too.

Well I've never ruled out Haino, but it just seems like a massive step backwards. I know (the oft-celebrated) Mr Keenan thinks that we should abandon this particular concept of the future but I'm just never gonna be convinced.

Right. For me Haino is one of the very few characters that exists outside of that concept of time/futurity/etc.. As long as no-one is saying that Keenan is abandoning ANY concept of the future.

Re: David D's post, Matt, I simply can't begin to imagine what you'd have to say about Kompakt...

 

[DavidD]

I'm not sure wht that means - he dislikes kompakt? Anyway I like it (or rather, the more pop-oriented part of it) because the songs are quite evocative I think. Relaxing yet they make me want to dance. It'll be interesting when I make a top singles list this year and "Timecode" is rubbing shoulders with "Knuck if you Buck".

 

[Woebot]

I'm not sure wht that means - he dislikes kompakt?.

Hey DavidD! What I like isn't of monumental consequence. Yeah I probably ought to look into Microhouse a bit more...I just tend to put a lot of energy into it (when I'm hunting) and come back with only a few things that tickle my fancy. It's a personal thing y'unnerstan.