Posts Tagged Matana Roberts

I did not review a single new release in 2013, and didn’t even finish a top 10 before the end of the year. Both of these things are fine, because I am irrelevant as a real music writer. Which is also fine. (Everything’s fine!) But I listened to a lot of stuff and added a lot of new albums to my review queue that I liked to varying degrees and I’m going to tell you about all of them at once.

Top 10 Most Played in 2013

1. My Bloody Valentine | M B V

   Came out way back in February so it’s had the longest to marinate. Ordered the vinyl from the website, which also gets you the CD and the download. The mp3s went in my iPod, the vinyl went on my turntable The CD stayed in the car all year. It’s not only a great album, I find it calming, which is sometimes needed in the car. Dogs seem to love it. I often find myself in the dog transporting business, which is not a business so much as a thing I have to do, which neither myself or the dogs find calming. So we listen to the album together, chill, stare into space, maybe stick our heads out the window…
   
   Why not just float along among incomprehensible layers of distorted guitar fog, narcotic slo-mo guitar solos that seem to go on forever, you don’t mind—but these are the things you probably don’t want to start your album off with if you are a lesser band. Then there is the blatant tremolo abuse, or is the tape speed being changed? How was this recorded? Why would you sing like that? What the hell is that background vocal doing? I love all of this. That’s just the first three songs. Did I mention I never listened to them before this? Just decided to jump right in.

   The guitar-less track Is This And Yes closes out side one. I barely messed with the second side on the vinyl. I would not say that the vinyl sounds better overall, but the bass is much more present, which makes the slower tracks of the first side even more dreamy and mind-melting. In particular, the end of the first track She Found Now ends in a final huge wash of bass frequencies that are barely audible on the other formats. (Even if you turn the bass way up, it’s just not the same.) I was planning to do a lot of A/B comparisons of the whole thing, but I got too busy just enjoying the songs. I feel like this ended a long streak of listening to music that could not possibly be made out to. I did not find anyone to make out with of course (wait, why of course?–ed.) but I feel like it’s half the battle. (Def not, buddy! How about getting a real job? –ed. Fuck you, Ed. Wait, I know, I’ll just join the editors union. You just sign up, right? Anyone can join. Uh…nevermind. Just finish the review. You don’t even need a real job, kid. You’re doing great.–ed. I’m 35, Ed. Go fuck yourself. Look, forget it.–ed. I’d like to forget it, you keep reminding me. Alright, jeez, you writers are touchy. No wonder you can’t finish a post on time.–ed. Every Wednesday it is now. I make the schedule. And it’s just a dumb blog. And you’re not even a real person. Fair enough. But you mean Wednesday…everywhere?–ed. Goddammit, Ed.)

   Side two has the very Stereolab-ish New You & In Another Way. Of course, I listened to Stereolab for years while ignoring this band, so that’s maybe a bad comparison. Used to play Stereolab tapes to death in the car, so these tracks were great for that for that old feeling I used to get from that other band, that is younger than this band. This band has come here, from the semi-distant past, to the future that we call the present (that is the past now, it’s last year) to resurrect the medium-distant past, that was really quite derivative of the slightly more distant past, really. But it was all in good fun.

   I was a little disappointed in the packaging. You don’t really expect anything but some abstract art from a band like this, it just feels a bit flimsy. Nice vinyl tho.

2. Perfume | Level 3

   If you like J-pop I can’t even deal with this not even being on your list. Momoiro Clover Z’s 5th Dimension? There’s an album that’s way too long with only a few good songs. Thought the same of Kyary’s album. I don’t even like all of her singles. She’s not purely a novelty act, but get real, man. People really think she’s getting better songs out of Nakata than Perfume? You can make that argument, but can you walk around listening to her all day? Oh, you can. Well, I can’t. I got a limit and a whole album of her is across it.

   I’m not trying to be negative. It’s just I heard negative things about the album before I got it. I didn’t get mad cause I didn’t like Triangle as an album when that came out. The album versions of songs on there are unnecessary and don’t make sense, and some of the songs are obviously just the jingles that they are. People gave a pass to the mediocre album of the group they still had a crush on from the first album and now can’t see the albums after that are better because that crush wore off. This is understandable for a pop group to have turnover like that with the kids, but some people are trying to be serious adults talking about music. You’ve gotta listen to the music. Like this song about chocolate BBs or whatever:
   

   It’s great! It’s got a ton of lyrics actually that are not about candy or laxatives or what are those things. Doesn’t matter.

   The important thing is…the whole album is great. I’m not gonna waste your time. The only thing really wrong with this album is Mirai no Museum the damn cartoon theme. (It’s a fine cartoon. It’s a fine theme. Everything’s fine.) It’s real easy to skip the track. The segue from 1mm to hard dance track Party Maker is actually perfect. A little too perfect…

   The obvious thing to do would be to buy it on iTunes and delete that track. $11.99 for 13 songs is still a good deal. But maybe, maaaybe, some people would buy all of the tracks except that one, for a total cost of $16.77. Including an extra track on CD and digital format costs the label almost nothing, why not. That’s my Perfume conspiracy theory. The Japanese CD will run you a little over $30 w/ S&H. I got a Taiwanese Deluxe version for about 20 total

3. Melt-Banana | Fetch

   Ah, I’m so glad this album came out. Really kinda straightened my head out. I was kinda trying to make sense of the chronology of when I listened to different types of music. The first M-B albums came out when I was halfway through high school and I was into them thorough college. Yadda yadda yadda, I listen to happy J-pop in a PTSD haze for a few years, then eventually I get back into the Metal I liked as a Freshman. There’s a temptation to simplify life and call that whole middle, post-Freshman to pre-life-ruining-trauma as “bullshit”. Well it wasn’t bullshit, and not only is Melt-Banana a great band, this is not even a record that’s a good as their first albums, it’s way better. So they programmed a lot of it, it’s clear I don’t hold that against anyone anymore. Saw them live with the original drummer tho. Great it was. Two snare drums, had he. Dillinger Escape Plan opened. But they do things different now, that’s cool too. Didn’t see them this tour cause I was in “am I really gonna do that again” mode. That was before I got the album. So, mistake.
   

4. Carcass | Surgical Steel

   Carcass was not a band I listened to in high school. I got into them later in college, totally random. It was when I peeled the sticker censoring the cover of a tape of their comp album Wake Up and Smell the Carcass and the guy at Tower Records made me buy it. Glad he did. I think it was in the cutout bin anyway, I had enough on me to buy it. I was taking a stand against censorship, man. (I think, whatever.) I got into it, but it’s a terrible place to start. It was years before I got more of their records and found other people that liked them. Carcass seems very popular with metalheads now but it’s definitely revisionist to say that was always the case.

   Anyway, this album has the best intro of any record this year. A lot of people are into the “what is Metal?” thing. This is it, no question. There’s little question about the subject matter either. Supposedly they were always inspired by their commitment to Vegetarianism, but the earliest stuff seems intentionally humorous in it’s over-the-top descriptions of non-species specific gore, and the later (pre-reunion) is about politics and relationships. (Well, some of it is.) This one’s a lot less ambiguous.
   
   Build your vocabulary with Carcass! I myself just looked up “Acceles and Shelvoke Cash”. That’s something. And here is a “Hilti DX 750”. Wow. Another song The Granulating Dark Satanic Mills has a chorus of just the numbers “6026961”. Which is really showing off your songwriting skills, first of all. They can make the lyrics anything at all and it still rocks. Googling that one comes up with a few competing theories, and this article which does not contain the numbers. Google thinks it’s pretty smart. Carcass does too obviously. It doesn’t really matter, the album rules.

5. CAPSULE | CAPS LOCK

   It’s possible I’ve listened to this more than Carcass, but it doesn’t feel like it belongs near the top. (It’s gotta be one of the most listened to cause it’s the only full album I bought straight from iTunes, so it’s the only one that lives permanently on the iPod.) I am a fan of a good album intro, as I said, but every other track on this thing sounds like an album intro. Maybe he had a bunch he was saving up. Actually this album reminds me of some of those Pizzicato Five albums that only have like 5 real songs and a bunch of long interludes. I like those albums but this one is weird, it’s like he’s giving the singles and the filler equal ground. But it’s all pretty good.
   
   Then there’s the song 12345678. (What is with this with the numbers?) This ruins the album for me as a driving album. Once the melody kicks in I kinda dig the song. But did he really need the car horn? How does that even fit the theme? Is it a system sound buried somewhere in a Mac or what.

   Part of the lyrics sounds like some dialect of Chinese. I hope it is Chinese because I feel like it’s making fun of Chinese if it’s not. Can’t understand a single word on the whole album except for some counting. (Again with the counting!) Aside from CONTROL (It bugs the hell out of me that iTunes doesn’t get the case right, them of all people.) SHIFT is the only other real pop song on here. I don’t mind, I’m just telling you.

   Album closer RETURN sounds like a bit of an homage to Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence. I can’t be the first person to notice that.

   Internet trivia bonus: here is the AllMusic review mistakenly attached to this album in iTunes for another band of the same name. Since the album came out they've added a correct bio, but the wrong review is still there as of this writing.

6. Umiuma | Kaiba

   Found this band through Ian F. Martin’s blog but I guess he didn’t feel as strongly about it as I do cause it didn’t make his year-end list. Unlike a lot of indie mathy type bands that can also be called “jazzy”, it’s usually meant in a fairly abstract way. This band explicitly uses jazz chords and rhythms tho. Not all the time, sometimes they sound a little like Deerhoof.
   
   So, you can listen to the whole thing on Bandcamp but you can only buy it legit on iTunes Japan or on CD here but I got it on Amazon used. It’s mostly laid back so it’s good at home on repeat.

7. Melvins | Everybody Love Sausages

   
   An album of all covers. Yes, I choose this one over their other album this year. I can’t really come up with any fancy justification for that. It just feels right. It’s a go to album for not feeling like shit, if you’re into that kind of thing. That’s all I got.

8. Tricot | The

   Another J-indie band. “Indie Rock” to me me always meant this style of mathy, dissonant, abstract, maybe personal, maybe poppy, but overall, rocking music. (I feel like music that doesn’t rock, sounds like regular stuff, or isn’t indendept should be called something else but that’s just me.) This band is a lot more pro and I’m guessing successful than Umiuma and a lot more energetic. They are pretty typical tho. I don’t wanna bum anyone out just getting into this kind of thing cause they are good but I give Umiuma a few more points for originality.

   Tricot (it’s a French word, btw, pronounced to-ri-co in Japanese) fits snugly into the old indie box without ripping any specific bands off, but without breaking any new ground either. Their songs and playing are pretty good but not mindblowing. The lyrics mean nothing that I can tell, in the classic style:
   

   There were several bands like this that put out some good stuff this year but didn’t make full albums, so they just get posted to tumblr or whatever. Hard times.

9. Motörhead | Aftershock

   In 2011 I put the last Motorhead album at 9 and this one is no better or worse. Some people made a big deal out of it cause Lemmy got sick and suddenly they were not taking him for granted anymore, I guess. Same old Motorhead tho, staying the course:
   

10. In Solitude | Sister

    I didn’t go totally crazy for this one but it is pretty catchy. Ghost sure went in a dumb direction, huh? I mean if you’re going for the retro thing, this is the band now. What else can you say? Oh right, the intro sounds like Hotel California. It gets better.
    

Other Records of Importance

1. Matana Roberts | Coin Coin Chapter Two

   This is the closest thing to a Rap record on my list. It’s strictly a Jazz and Spoken Word album about slavery. It’s not at all Hip-hop, but you could say it’s a form of Rap, like Gil-Scott Heron or the Last Poets.

   It’s not exactly a party record. More the kind of thing you listen to once a year and think about it.

   Speaking of which, thinking is something I clearly need to do more of because I only bought part one of this series this year. So I just bought chapter two today and therefore did not listen to it yet. Since it is not really the thought that counts in the review game, I’ll have to do a separate review of the first one. But it’s a no-brainer that each chapter of this series is gonna make the year end list.

2. Gorguts | Colored Sands

   More seriousness, in death metal form. Altho somewhat less intelligible than a series of spoken word pieces, this album is about another historical atrocity, China’s oppression of the Tibetan people. It’s hard to get more serious than death in general, which is what death metal tends to be about. But specific kinds of death could take it to the next level. The obvious precedent is Slayer’s Angel of Death but even that is hard to call “serious”. It’s more an endgame of one-upmanship to write about the most evil stuff. (It’s also not Death Metal.) The Communists in China are not quite as diabolical as the Nazis, planning one huge event to try to wipe out a race of people; it’s more a lot of little events that add up. I haven’t really looked at a lyric sheet, tbh, I’ve just heard and read the interviews with Luc Lemay for the thing. And you get the gist from the song titles. I’m not that into picking apart the subject matter too much at this time. That’s mostly the attention grabber, but the thing about this is the overwhelming density that still maintains clarity of individual instruments. And you got some great players on those instruments that’s the other thing, this fully established guy recruited young players from the Metal scene, so that’s like a real thing now. I mean, that’s exciting. It’s really like a Jazz scene almost. Except when he brings in a classical string quartet for a whole song. You know what I mean, right.

3. Deafheaven | Sunbather

   OK, but this the one “everybody” is into. It’s good. I first heard it streaming and thought it might be an album of the year. I never think that. But you know, after I got the CD I listened to it only a few more times. It’s typically not how I listen to music if I think it’s great; definitely not the album I would call album of the year. It’s gotta take over my life almost. Maybe that happened for some people. The best part on this album for me is the fucking drill solo on Please Remember. That is brilliant. It’s so great. It’s sheer noise but it’s timed very musically. And really, if you check out the waveform even that part that seems so loud is not brickwalled. Excellently recorded and mastered. BUT, that cannot happened more once a day. I didn’t really make an attempt to get at the “real” songs individually. It’s really about jealousy, right? I think that’s what people are connecting to. People are trying to say this is not real metal or whatever cause it does some different stuff. That’s really nonsense because to say it’s crossed a point of not being Metal would mean there’s been some kind of compromise to cross over into something more popular. I don’t hear any compromising on this thing. What’s a more popular genre in the last few years, Black Metal or Shoegaze? What was the token shoegaze album LAST year. How about Noise? Oh shit, I made a list and there’s not even one Harsh Noise album. What’s the Noise album everybody likes this year? I need to pretend like I’m connecting to it emotionally. This is very much an album people are getting emotionally. I think this album is about people realizing they aren’t getting a prize for showing up anymore. That is on some level as gut-wrenching as the fear of death to a lot of people.

4. Black Sabbath | 13

   I think there is a considerable importance gap just previous to this entry. Having said that, I liked this album. I thought it sounded alright musically. I didn’t care that Bill Ward was not part of it. You gotta be in shape to play drums at that age, and he ain’t. Sucks, but that’s the truth. No disrespect but these are old ass men. Can the rest of them do it? Yes, they can. They can play the music. The weak point I thought was the lyrics. They are more like solo Ozzy lyrics. He gave it a shot and tried to get in that mindset, it almost works. There’s really a moment when I first listened to it when I forgot, it really created a brief illusion of listening to an old record you haven’t heard yet, but then the words come and it was like, oh right, years and years of solo Ozzy, remember? Some good solo Ozzy stuff but it’s not Black Sabbath. He’s not that dude anymore. But I like that they did it. And I like that I got it and am reviewing it before any of them died because I still feel bad about Dio. And also, you gotta cut this some slack if you hate it. Cause think about it, this is what the band of the future looks like. These are the guys that can afford to retire. Every musician you like now, if they don’t die soon is gonna have to keep playing until they do. Get used to it.

5. Cinchel | Quiet Nights, Lonesome Woods

   This is the only bandcamp-only album this year I was really knocked out by. Heard a song on Jon Solomon’s show and looked it up. Pure ambient electronics that neither goes in a New Agey feel-good direction or a Harsh Noise feel-bad one. Forget trying to listen to this one on laptop speakers at all. I don’t think I even have big speakers good enough to do this justice, but it’s really nice on earbuds that can handle the sub-bass.

6. Darkthrone | The Underground Resistance

   You either get it or you don’t I guess. These guys can do anything. Sometimes they can’t do it very well, but they do it, alright. Everything about the song Leave No Cross Unturned is goofy. But it’s Metal. It should not work. The ambition, the execution—I think I feel the same way about Darkthrone the way some people feel about Daniel Johnson—the intention is so pure there’s no way it could be any better. And an unambiguous anti-Christian message without any kind of bullshit right-wing twist to it is genuinely heart-warming to me, like the end of a Kurt Vonnegut novel.

7. Vhol | S/t

   This band more or less picked up where Ludicra left off. It has that same “grey metal” vibe. And the epic-sounding layered choruses that avoid any previous Metal cliches, but don’t sound influenced by any other genre. Seemed like it would be higher in my list at first. Possibly they only had an idea for one song and tried to make it a whole album. Well the idea was pretty good. And the cover’s maybe my favorite. Had to think about that for a minute but a lot of people are just are not caring about their album covers right now. (Wait what am I saying, the Darkthrone cover rules.)

8. Russian Circles | Memorial

   If this band made some slightly different aesthetic choices, no one would be calling them a Metal band. While people are arguing about whether an album with 10-minute long songs with full-on black metal death shrieks is inaccessible enough, instrumental post-rock is not given a second glance. Really? No, not really. I’m a bit tired at this point. There is a song with words, but you can’t tell what the words are. It’s like post-metal Cocteau Twins. It is pretty.

9. Tricky | False Idols

   This is not the greatest album, but I liked more than one song on it, so it’s a lot better than the last several Tricky albums. Except there’s no standout songs at all, it’s just one block of That Mood. That late-90s mood. Yes, it’s real, we’re fully going into late-90s retro. But people can’t be serious about Rock and Metal from that period. Hell no, every band that was good in the early and mid-90s was fully out of ideas at point. Get those first Tricky albums, maybe Massive Attack, Portishead, DJ Shadow, UNKLE. And then Shibuya-kei was the same thing but not dark, Cibo Matto, Cornelius, Kahimi Karie, the last Pizzicato Five albums on Matador. (Then the exact middle of the two, Hello Nasty.) The only Metal band that was any good from the late-90s was Deftones but you know what’s better than any Deftones album? Any Bjork album from then. PJ Harvey. Listen to that.

10. V/A | Yellow Loveless

    Yes, the Japanese My Bloody Valentine tribute album. Ranges from slavish imitation (first track by who cares) to inspired (Shonen Knife’s When You Sleep). At some point there’s a dubstep bass drop, because, 2013. Well, it was interesting.

10 Other Metal Albums I Liked a Lot

1. Big Business | Battlefields Forever

   In the category of bands that sound like the Melvins but are not the Melvins, I have to go with the band that features the most members of the current lineup of the Melvins.

2. Sadgiqacea | False Prism

   Whoops, this band also sounds kinda like the Melvins (not really…you know what bands I’m talking about) they’re more like Sleep. I reviewed their 1st album, remember? This one is not a whole lot different. Maybe the recording is better. But maybe I like the recording on the 1st one. There’s really not a lot of difference in the sound. And the songs themselves are the same kind of songs. But the vision is more cohesive. Does that sound like I’m just bullshitting to say something? Both of these things are true. It’s a clear second step towards…probably another album that also sounds the same but is also better in some intangible way. It’s a refinement of technique.

3. Castevet | Obsian

   Heard a lot about this band and this album. Good things. Things like, “check that band out, the album is good”. It’s of the Brooklyn Black Metal…squad. One of those guys. Some of those guys. They throw in some interesting touches. Like some clean singing, but not the horrible clean singing that some of these guys (not these specific guys, other guys…Metal guys, the ones who can’t sing) will try to pull off. It’s more of a Goth-type vocal. Not full on Goth, but it makes sense. Like it’s going from Black Metal to something semi-related in tone so it makes more sense than incorporating Folk or Power Metal. And they’ll throw in a weird chord here and there. A different kind of weird chord. Could’ve worked on the cover a bit more tho I don’t know what the hell that’s supposed to be, but I like the name.

4. Kylesa | Ultraviolet

   I feel like I should have more friends who like Kylesa and we have like, Kylesa parties and uh, no that’s too far. But this should be like the band I don’t even have to have their records because they are just playing all the time, somewhere. Like you just walk in a room and the record’s playing and nobody asks who it is cause everybody knows. This is just a new Kylesa record for the pile of Kylesa records that should get constantly shuffled around on endless mixtapes, played in cars until they break, or you crash the car and then you make a new one and it barely even matters what song came from what record. Yes? Maybe?

5. Ulcerate | Vermis

   This is some excellent, murky, brutal death metal. Too murky for some. They like the cleaner sound. I can go for some murk. I like the fade-in, which is much like a wade-in. There’s no way to shock people anymore on the the opener with brutality and certainly not volume. It invites you to turn up the volume yourself. Pretty much a solid wall of brutality after that tho. There was a surprising number of albums in the style in 2013 that are I’m sure are all great but…hold on, is this Brutal or Technical? I think it’s both. It can be both right? Holy shit it’s almost 4am.

6. Sannhet | Known Flood

   More Brooklyn Black Metal. These guys remind me of Liturgy if that guy knew when to stop. I mean you can’t use every idea you have and stay within a genre. They’ve really got they’re artwork down, but don’t throw in as much variety into the music. They have some cool stuff going on that sets them apart tho. One of their songs ends with an almost Noise type thing, not harsh but the song itself ends into room noise like almost applause like it’s a live track, but it’s not applause, I don’t know what the hell it is. It’s creepy, but it’s probably something accidental they left in. I like it, but not as many points as intentional creepy weirdness. There’s no points really.

7. Skeletonwitch | Serpents Unleashed

   This record rules pretty hard. Only listened to it so far on CD on the home stereo tho. So it has only ruled for short periods of time. It just worked out like that this year.

8. Death Angel | The Dream Calls for Blood

   Solid Thrash, great intro. Not much to say about it, I just like these guys. First album I picked up. One of those bands that would be also-rans but they stuck around, I like that. You know, like Anvil, except good.

   They say it’s better to burn out than fade away, but you know who “they” is? Burnouts. That’s from a Neil Young song. He’s on tour right now.

9. Cthonic | Bu-Tik

   Thought this would be their big breakthrough album. It was for some people, but I didn’t really love it, like I love, for example, Sigh’s In Somniphobia or Scenes From Hell. Altho the two bands are not at all similar in sound, they are two Asian Metal bands that have been around for a while and are able to be held up as interesting in their own right, not just really good (or not) copies of Western bands. Cthonic is much more in the Modern Symphonic Black Metal camp of Cradle of Filth(+indigenous instrumentation) vs. Sigh’s Trad. Black Metal(+horror movie soundtracks). I appreciate what they’re doing but I never got into Cradle of Filth, that’s one thing. That production style I just can’t deal with unless I really can get into the songs. And that’s not happening here. This was another album that had some historical research behind it but it’s gotta be backed up with songs. I think I could come back to it later and see if I was missing something, I really crammed in a bunch of albums at the end of the year and I felt like this had to be one of those. The cover is pretty goddamn cool you gotta give that.

10. Palms | S/t

    This is one of those bands that sounds awesome on paper and it definitely does not suck; I’ve listened to it several times and will listen to it more times in the future…but I have a hard time trying to remember what any one song sounds like. I think the closest thing to a hook is “Whoooooooooaaaaa”, but that might be a Deftones song. I really can’t remember. Enjoyable while it’s on but doesn’t really stay with you.

Records I Didn’t Listen to At All But Plan to Get To, in Alphabetical Order

1. Beyoncé | S/t

2. Elvis Costello and the Roots | Wise Up Ghost

3. Fuzz | S/t

4. M.I.A. | Matangi

5. Namie Amuro | Feel

6. OOIOO | Gamel

7. Oranssi Pazuzu | Velonielu

8. Screaming Females | Chalk Tape

9. Shiina Ringo | Ukina

10. Shining | One One One

In conclusion, %