Working For A Nuclear Free City - Jojo Burger Tempest (V0)

WFANFC’s JoJo Burger Tempest is like a more upbeat Dead Cities, Red Seas, & Lost Ghosts (by M83), and well... I wish there was more to say about the album but really that’s what it is. It contains all the “epicness” of that album, a similar instrumental focus as that album (only saying similar because this one actually makes use of vocals a LOT), and the major difference being that it’s happier. It’s not an “everyone drink up and be merry” kind of happy but it’s definitely a lot more optimistic than M83’s soundtrack to the beginning of the end. In fact, the first line of the M83’s album is a pretty good estimation of what this album is (quoted at the bottom, as the download link).

It's not like me to so bluntly pull out tracks, but I need to for this album.

One is the final track, with the same name as the album title. It’s 30 minutes long, and to explain what it is in words is best expressed in the following statement:

It’s an audio only interpretation of the movie Space Jam.

Other than that, Alphaville and Brown Owl are damn well the top tier choices of the album, Alphaville focusing on a more dream-pop setting than the rest of the album (and eerily similar to something out of The Radio Dept.'s Pet Grief), and Brown Owl which plans to bring optimism so bright that it could make you believe a movie like “You Again” might be worth seeing.

Sun is shining. Birds are singing. Flowers are growing. Clouds are looming and I am flying.

Funeral Party - Funeral Party (V0)

This year has been a fine year for music. Some of my favorite albums in my entire music collection are from this year, and surprisingly I can say that I actually am having to be selective in making my "best albums of 2010" list. Big Echo, Wild Nothing, Nolens Volens, Ruth, and even the new Have a Nice Life EP were all spectacular in my eyes, so there's no complaints on this end.

I wasn't sure if it was just a phase or an accidental obsession, but there has been one album so far this year that has gone from being unknown to me to being my new musical infatuation in less than 2 months. That would be Funeral Party's self-titled, a new dance-punk masterpiece that has carved the band their own niche in what is otherwise a still developing genre of music. While it lacks the primal rock-and-roll feel of Death From Above's music, it presents itself with a much more cutting edge and chilled out style that hooks you from the beginning. The opening track, NYC moves to the sound of LA, while somewhat different from the rest of the album, is undoubtedly the most fitting opening track, in that it captures the style and message of the band in the first thirty seconds.

The album gets better each time you listen to it, and over time you develop a very thorough knowledge of the songs due to the sonic richness and stunning clarity. This album is the dark chocolate of modern alternative rock. Carwars, Just Because and Youth in Poverty are a couple of the best songs of 2010.

If my description doesn't do it for you, at the very least have a listen to the album, which you can get here, and make sure to buy it from them when it's finally released sometime soon. You could even be like me and go to any of their shoes supporting Two Door Cinema Club at this time. They are cheap and will be nothing short of amazing.

Bark Psychosis - Hex (FLAC)

The title of Bark Psychosis' Hex, the first album ever to be described as "post-rock," seems to be as simple a descriptor for it as possible; Hex is a mystifying and often baffling combination of instrumentals, varying musical textures, and Graham Sutton's quiet but foreboding and judicious voice. Each element is complemented by structure, and each relationship between these elements folds inward on itself as a song progresses. Listening to Bark Psychosis is an experience that can only be likened to hypnosis.

Get it in FLAC here.
Get it in 320 here.

The Dear Hunter - Act I: The Lake South, the River North (V2)

The Dear Hunter is one of those bands that reminds me how well music can be used as a medium for story-telling.

Act I: The Lake South, the River North is the first of what is planned to be a six part concept album. Only three of these "acts" have been released thus far, with the fourth one under TBA. It's certainly an ambitious goal, with equally ambitious music. This album is eight tracks long, with the most of them being about six minutes in length, often incorporating breaks and intros that often sound very orchestral and rock-opera-esque before going right back to the heavy guitar and drum work. In it's most basic form, the story itself is that of a boy born to a prostitute and his life that follows. Not the most unique of premises, but the music gives it a depth you wouldn't expect. There are plenty different moods and emotions spread across this album expressed through the almost bipolar song construction to keep your mind busy and entertained. At times it feels like you're listening to the soundtrack to a rather bizarre musical.

Now I should come out and say that as with most progressive rock, this isn't going to be everybody's cup of tea. They're part of that "love it or hate it" category. The main reason being the vocals/lyrics, which feel a bit lacking at times, with corny names such as Ms. Terri (bet you couldn't guess the word play there) and some songs being sung a bit more on the whiny side. I myself don't mind it, but I'm well aware that some people can't get past things like that.

So my suggestion is that you give this album a listen, even if you're feeling a bit skeptic after my previous paragraph. You just may be able to enjoy the vocals, or at least tolerate them. And if they just bother you too much I'll gladly take the blame for your wasted time, because I think this album is worth a try at the very least.

Highlights: City Escape, 1878, The Pimp and the Priest

Download here.

Sing softly, bring me to the lake.

Bowery Electric - Lushlife (V0)

Bowery Electric have been said to defy easy definition, but Lushlife, the final release by New York City Kranky comtemporaries Lawrence Chandler and Martha Schwendener proudly advertises its dizzying and seductive trip-hop roots. Schwedener's voice is heavily reminiscent of Beth Gibbons of Portishead rapport, only softer and more breathy. As a whole, really, Lushlife could be compared to a softer, breathier version of Portishead's Dummy. Where the latter excels in industrialism, the former excels in fluidity. Songs veer regularly into ambience, drawing images of cities late at night, lit up but devoid of any life, of walking along a corridor by oneself with nothing but concrete in plain view.

Bowery Electric is, like most trip-hop outfits, not meant to be shaken up or danced to, but here they seem to take that ideology to an extreme, preferring instead to use hip-hop instrumentals in much the same way Boards of Canada did; to move the listener across landscapes of sound, to allow the listener to appreciate them rather than being forced to interact with them.

God's on both sides,
Thank God we make them try,
Don't wake when the camera's on you,
You, you'll go out like a freedom fighter,
You're gone like a freedom fighter.

Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles (V0)

While the favorite Crystal Castles album of many is Crystal Castles (II), which was released this year, the experimental nature of Crystal Castles' eponymous debut has always managed to draw me inwards in a way that the sophomore never has. I know, and have been told by many a CC (II) enthusiast that Crystal Castles' first album was the one where they "tried to find their sound," and that it is messy and directionless, with too little structure and too much "filler."

I can understand how one could see the album as being disfigured and disheveled, but that is exactly what makes it so astounding. Crystal Castles, the album, never struggles to be something that it is not. It is perfect in its chaos and mighty in its power to produce strong, brash music that is also capable of being danced to. There are songs like Through The Hosiery and Xxzcuzx Me that seem to have been created to breed mosh pits, and other tracks like Untrust Us and Courtship Dating that were obviously made simply for the purpose of recreational dance.

With Ethan Kath delivering imaginative, abrasive yet catchy beats, and Alice Glass providing noise rock vocal styles that are almost impure and unclean in their rawness, this album is a brilliant mash up of dirty and clean. Even with the second Crystal Castles album being more accessible and party friendly, I still struggle to understand how it is at all better than its older brother.

Favorite songs: Untrust Us, Air War, Courtship Dating

My Rating: 9.0/10

Download.

Adam & Naïve - Every Starry Night (FLAC)

"Adam & Naïve is Konrad Kamm, Ken Korb, Omar Saeed, Greg Salwen, and Tyler Taormina. The members as a whole make up the Practice Room Records collective. They have been releasing music together since 2006. They are best friends and even though they are separated most of the year due to school, they always manage to keep the tunes popping. Their lifelong dream (collectively) is to be immortalized as a cartoon version of themselves in the theme of Frogerella."

It's very rare for me to compare any band to Animal Collective; it seems antiquated and hackneyed. But Adam & Naïve's work is, with all of its harmonies and major-key gaiety, not actually that dissimilar to Noah Lennox and David Portner's earliest recordings, like Campfire Songs and Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished. There's a pervasive sense of playfulness and familiarity here, as if the statement that Adam & Naïve are all best friends is not only meant to charm their listeners but also to define Adam & Naïve as a group.

Adam & Naïve have put this album up free of charge here.