MELOMANIA's Spring Double Issue!
Well, we have brought forth 14(!) new records that we hope will play perfectly on these sunny days and cool nights.
RENATA ZEIGUER - Picnic In The Dark [LP/CD](Northern Spy/Redeye)
ALYSSA GENGOS - Mechanical Sweetness [LP/CD](Egghunt/Redeye)
Here for your listening pleasure, a pair of new chanteuses. While they both write excellent songs (Gengos’ title track and the stunning “Sunset Boulevard” from Zeiguer,) they do even better work with imaginative production surrounding them. Zeiguer’s world is dreamy and distant. Her vocals purr yet are often frosted by echo and chorus to the point she not only has Sixties post-Catwoman (think Eartha Kitt) growl but could also sing with Stereolab. That familiar Fleetwood Mac pull of “Evergreen” in Zeiguer’s hands is more otherworldly as its chorus peels back a layer to let you hear the drum machine and a charming synth part. The title cut does even more with less as Zeiguer eases into this electric piano ballad and lights up its Seventies Pop chorus. “Picnic In The Dark” is a beauty.
Alyssa Gengos is a different brand of breathy. Gengos never hides behind her music, instead, it works best when it completely envelopes her. The charmer “Gothenburg English” shows its construction almost too well - then, she hits the heavenly chorus. With her slight vibrato and innate sweetness, the Seventies-esque production really shows the depth in her voice and delivery. The almost ABBA-esque title cut builds over its elegant chord changes to a startling chorus. Zeiguer and Gengos prove themselves good writers, better vocalists, and artists that could easily cross into popular waters.
EMILY JANE WHITE - Alluvion [LP/CD](Talitres)
Like Kate Bush with a deeper voice, Emily Jane White offers these dramatic meditations that mourn what is lost but still unidentifiable in all our lives. With the cinematic backdrop and the frequent musical swells, White is most effective when she delivers her best lyrics in the stops and silences. The Tori Amos-ish personal politics of “Body Against The Gun” delivers a knockout punch. The metered piano ballad “Hold Them Alive” stretches its central words (“So how do I walk while holding/some kind of words that morph from bereaving”) over its melodic phrase like a line in a poem stretched across the page to capture all the spacing. While the Gothic Western approach of “Poisoned” encapsulates pain and anguish with pinpoint accuracy, you never feel that way - only the mourning of another loss(t.)
GOOD LOOKS - Bummer Year [LP/CD/CS](Keeled Scales/Secretly/AMPED)
With his coyote drawl and wicked sense of humor, Tyler Jordan writes Country-ish Indie Rock songs that consistently juxtapose sincerity with sarcasm in a promising way. “Almost Automatic” carries itself like early Wilco with building verses, a soaring chorus, and a great pulldown post-guitar solo. The title cut is a brilliant exploration of how our opinions guide us away from people. Then we realize that we not only need them (“Because they’re the kind of people you want with you in a bar fight/Even when you caused it - cuz you talk too much s#!t,”) we are just like them too. One of the best songs of the year so far. “Vision Boards” has a little more swagger and a neat Eighties-esque twangy lead. Jordan does a lot with repetition here to force it forward until it builds to a litany of things “just not working out.” Like MAITA’s “Road Song,” “Vision Boards” encapsulates the ongoing tactical campaigns that comprise artistic lives and the frustration that leads to the stellar “Bummer Year.”
PILLOW QUEENS - Leave The Light On [LP/CD](Royal Mountain CAN)
Irish band Pillow Queens have always packed their songs with emotion. “In Waiting” cloaked a good portion of it in spacey chorus and let the lyrics (“Holy Show”) or the dramatic musical spiral (“Liffey”) speak for their tension. “Leave The Light On” is more straightforward than its predecessor but pulls no punches. “Be By Your Side,” “The Wedding Band” and especially the nearly Big Thief-esque “Hearts and Minds” sail on Sarah Corcoran’s powerful voice. Switched into full confession mode, they deliver both unique instrumentation and effects but never take an atom away from their message of the grip that loneliness, doubt, and confusion can have upon us all. When the proceedings slow down for the sweet slow dance “House That Sailed Away,” it is to twist the knife in relationships (“you’re pretty strong for someone with no powers.”) Once the group joins in vocally, it is a banshee wail of complete power. “In Waiting” was only their introduction, “Leave The Light On” is the Pillow Queens unleashing not only thrills - but accessible ones.
CHASTITY - Suffer Summer [LP/CD](Deathwish/Sony CAN)
TREE RIVER - Time Being [LP/CD](Big Scary Monsters UK)
Chastity takes a definite turn into emotional guitar Rock (a la Diiv and even Weezer) on their second album. Crunchy choruses have nothing to hide (“When You Go Home I Withdraw”) and are primed for audiences to shout with them. It’s not that the abstract ideas of “Death Lust” are no longer present (the opening of “The Barbed Wire Fence Around Happiness” could easily fit into their earlier album with its tacet guitar and vocal work,) Brandon Williams is clearly driving at some manner of breakthrough. The closest “Suffer Summer” gets to it is the delicious Nineties swishy “Somersault” with its sunny-but-bittersweet chorus.
New York’s Tree River is definitely not afraid of the dreaded E-word. Their songs have that sway underneath massive guitars and adenoidal harmonies. Like Nineties Jawbreaker (again mixed with a little Weezer,) Tree River songs are mostly straightforward with complex bridges and late-song heroics. For all their crunchy riffing, Tree River slips in some cool vocals (“Laughing With”) and the Superchunk-ian “Thought Bubbles” is a textbook example of a single. The moody “Catalyst” offers a great comedown with Julie Rozansky’s shoegazer-esque vocals and some challenging bass counterpoint. Whether you consider yourself an E-fan or not, both of these albums are not typical, but do feel familiar and could be instrumental in another wave.
HOME FRONT - Think of the Lie [LP](La Vida Es Un Mus)
Icy goth/synthpop from Canada that heats up around some very Cure-ish intensity (“A Bit of Dust”) and a great penchant for anthemic choruses. “Security” is dark and desperate during its almost Suicide-ish verses, but the synths release a downward progression where you wind up shouting “small reminders” with them. Home Front is clearly a little bit Punk as well. However, the mid-tempo burst that is “Focus” would have been a hit back in 1986 and richly deserves to be tracked now.
GHOST TRANSMISSION - Get Me High [LP](El Genio Equivocado ESP)
This Valencia, Spain duo clearly comes from the same black leather/velvet cloth that gave us the twangy guitar/girl-group woooooo’s of The Raveonettes (and in turn, The Jesus and Mary Chain.) The drum machine beats blend nicely with the black cloud songwriting (“Get Me High” features a great tradeoff between both vocalists.) Where they really shine is the Fifties Les Paul/Mary Ford style duetting on "Heartbeat” (which also plugs in a fantastic guitar solo,) and her heartbreaking vocals driving the ballad “I Move The Stars For No One.” When Ghost Transmission matches their classic twang with a Cocteau Twins-ian reverberating musical backdrop and those heart-grabbing dual vocals, they fit perfectly into the constellations with their inspirations.
WEB OF LIES - Nude With Demon [LP](Wrong Speed UK)
This noisy and intoxicating project from Neil Robinson of Buffet Lunch and Edwin Stevens of Irma Vep has some of the coolest guitar twangs you will hear this year. Instead of just twanging it out like a nouveau Duane Eddy or even detuning into blistering Sonic Youth chime, Web of Lies wields its axes in a most inventive way. “Receiver” (one of the best singles of the year so far) is a spellbinder that sounds like a less stumbling Gallon Drunk playing with classic Pop Group. The rubbery bass is everywhere and really puts you in the mood for something devilish on the Rats On Rafts-ish “RnR Resurrection.” Once the guitars sneak in, Web of Lies speeds things up and even creates a Steve Shelley-ish Daydream Nation-style build that you hope never ends. The songs themselves are all scrappy and still have that electricity from members just joining into just make noise. “Crossed Arms” beautifully lunges out of one iteration of its riff into the other before a brief cacophonic burst. Finally, when they bring in the violin on “The Golden Road,” their lo-fi moan of a verse reveals a sweeping almost Pop chorus. An outstanding debut that is like very little else you will encounter this year.
THE MONSTERS - Du Hesch Class, Ig Bi Trasch [LP](Slovenly)
Garage Punk with a dose of Thrash acceleration (and deceleration) from these longtime rockers from Switzerland. No holds barred here. In its best moments, “Du Hesch Class” is a lot like discovering you are riding the rollercoaster and the lap bar was not locked when you departed. Songs are impressively fast with full-speed guttural howling and blistering guitar. “Schmoksch mi Zunga” makes you thankful for the choreographed stops, “Mitfahr Glageheit” erupts from a near Sabbath-like acidic opening to expand into both a lockstep verse and Mudhoney-esque fuzz chorus. When they actually return to the heavy part, it is to go crushing phantasmagorical and end with an echo-drenched acoustic conclusion. Even more devastating is the Ty Segall-esque overdriven sprawl/jazzy guitar chorded “Tod” which pulls in a Gothic chant note. The Monsters clearly follow no rules and have only one rule: Does it ROCK? There are ten more answers awaiting your evaluation. (Hint: The Monsters also toss in a twangy acoustic drinking song “Gauba Schnee Drink.”)
RXM REALITY - sick for you [CD/CS](Hausu Mountain/Redeye)
Chicago’s Mike Meegan writes tracks that are out to overwhelm you. His beats are speaker-shredders (check out the blasts on the dizzying “What’s Crappening.”) However, if you listen closely and patiently, you can hear these great cleansing washes of synths in the background (“Ox”) or even these hints of melody that slip into your consciousness (in between the Scorn-like screams and explosions on “Be Not Afraid.”) “sick for you” is at its best when it feels like two songs are playing at once. But Meegan, turns them and twists them until you actually have to rewind to see what just slipped into your subconscious mind.
MICHAEL SCOTT DAWSON - Music For Listening [LP](We Are Busy Bodies/Redeye)
WHATEVER THE WEATHER [LP](Ghostly Intl/Secretly/AMPED)
Ambient music when it bridges the gap between acoustic sounds and Electronic textures provides an environment for music. Michael Scott Dawson uses guitar, treated piano, and loops of natural sounds (like William Basinski) to create Eno-esque backgrounds that swallow you in their brief track times. On the other side of the fence is Loraine James’ purely EDM-based chopped-up Hyperdub-style skittering Dance music. Like a Blue Room-ish Leon Vynehall, “Whatever The Weather” is just showers of vocal sampled synth melodies and beats that often juxtapose massive bass drum kicks with the nearly-artificial skating of EDM high-hats. Both releases are rooted in the familiarity of the artists’ inspiration - but push the needle to other new vistas.
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