Looking for Trouble
in All the Right Places
Trouble Will Find Me hearkens back to High Violet, The National’s 2010 album, where perpetually brooding frontman Matt Berninger tells us in his distinctive rumbling baritone, “Sorrow found me when I was young.” And from The National’s extensive discography, it’s easy to understand the band’s long, unraveling history and the various troubles that have always dogged their steps, from their self-titled debut in 2001 (think “29 Years”) to the depressive paranoia of High Violet’s “Afraid of Everyone.” On Trouble, the band’s sixth studio album, the quintet dives deeper into a dense morass of meditative worrying and subdued gloom, and it’s just as wonderfully somber as anyone could wish.
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By Charlee Redman Posted in High Fidelity, Reviews the National
Can’t Beat Daft Punk
House music superstars Daft Punk are back with another album. Random Access Memories, released on Columbia, is the French duo’s fourth studio album since 1997 and the first one since 2005’s Human After All. Daft Punk began writing the album in 2008 as they were working on the film Tron: Legacy without specifying release dates– but now, five years later, the time has finally come. The album draws on ’80s pop music and contains thirteen tracks ready to be devoured by fans of all types. So: how does the album hold up under the keen ear of review? Pretty damn well, actually.
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By Julie Hall Posted in High Fidelity, Reviews Daft Punk
Daydream Beginning
Eluvium: Noun.
1. Residual deposits of soil, dust and rock particles produced by the action of the wind.
2. One stage name of Matthew Cooper, experimental electronic musician.
Nightmare Ending is Cooper’s most recent album, a meandering collection of thickly atmospheric pieces that are as naturalistic as the artist’s pseudonym implies. Here, Eluvium composes the score of his own unknowable film. This soothing, meditative record combines several genres into one constantly evolving whole, gently brushing elements of shoe-gaze, classical romanticism and ambient music over a quiet landscape.
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By Sean Taras Posted in High Fidelity, Reviews Eluvium
Media Plow-er
All you need to know about math-metal masters, The Dillinger Escape Plan’s latest, One of Us is the Killer, can be told by Microsoft’s Windows Media Player. The psychedelic designs that aver to represent your music visually is at a loss when it comes to these songs. Sharp straight lines? Rotating stars shooting jagged Fallopian tubes? Spinning flattening spirals? Each of these and all of these images describe the experience of listening to this album: violent, confusing, schizophrenic, but also compelling.
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By Chad Gorn Posted in High Fidelity, Reviews The Dillinger Escape Plan
The Finest in Jaz
Joy Division. Adam & the Ants. Judas Priest. Pet Shop Boys. Midnight Oil. Nirvana. Pop Will Eat Itself. Tool. What do all these musicians have in common? At some point on The Singles Collection 1979-2012, you can draw a direct line to something in their sounds—and the sounds of countless others—from something in the work brought together here from the famed British rock collective, Killing Joke. Centered around oddball lead singer Jaz Coleman and guitarist Geordie Walker, with longtime partners Paul Ferguson (drums) and Youth, a.k.a. Martin Glover (bass), even the questionable parts of their expansive career influenced something in your MP3 collection. Read more…
By Adam Blyweiss Posted in High Fidelity, Reviews Jaz Coleman, Killing Joke, Youth
Same Guitar, Different Sound
The sound of Los Angeles local band TORCHES is the sound that the world has agreed to refer to as “indie.” Jangling and chiming guitars dominate every song, accompanied by swooping low key male/female vocal harmonies and fuzzy bass lines. All throughout If the People Stare, the band’s latest EP, that new-world indie feeling is hard to ignore. In spite of the fact that this is a band covering familiar ground in well-traveled lands, TORCHES has somehow managed to avoid becoming boring. It would be easy to get lost in the sea of indie-rock bands that ebb and flow all over LA every weekend, but a few always find ways to stand out. TORCHES sets itself apart by being a band that offers something more than the expected guitar hooks and the sweet harmonies.
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By Sean Taras Posted in High Fidelity, Reviews TORCHES
Standing Out from the Pack
Arguably one of the best fusion genre bands out there today, New York trio Thinning the Herd has successfully combined a brand of music that incorporates the sound of traditional heavy metal, punk, and psychedelic music since 2006. They are notable for providing high energy headbanging tunes injected with a ton of attitude. Their latest release, Freedom From The Known is arguably one of the best releases of 2013.
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By Juan Hurtado Posted in High Fidelity, Reviews thinning the herd
Dynamic Duo
Aesop Rock and Kimya Dawson join forces as The Uncluded on their new LP Hokey Fright, and the result is not unlike Batman and Superman using their individual superpowers to save the day. Each of these artists is unique and has established his or her own unmistakable style of music. Aesop, with his skillful yet often complex word play, and Dawson, with her distinct guitar playing and penchant for clever allegories, combine to create a sound that this world may not be ready for.
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By William Hannan Posted in High Fidelity, Reviews Aesop Rock, Kimya Dawson, The Uncluded
Power Pop Perfection from a Glorious Garage
Mikal Cronin is one of those unabashed music-maker types. He has no problem being in a variety of bands, playing multiple instruments and writing tons of music. The sky’s the limit, really, until he grows tired of it all and chooses another endeavor. Whether this is likely or not would only be speculation. And all this is unimportant when you consider what’s important: The new Mikal Cronin solo endeavor, an album simply titled MCII.
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By Matthew Stolarz Posted in High Fidelity, Reviews Merge Records, mikal cronin
Thoughtful EP Shows Beautiful Restraint
Ilan Rubin is a one-man army. Best known by Nine Inch Nails fans as Trent Reznor’s drummer extraordinaire and a returning player to the industrial rockers’ string of festival dates, Rubin had a hand in fellow moody bands Paramore, LostProphets and supergroup Angels & Airwaves. Under his solo moniker The New Regime, he’s a player of all instruments, an expert arranger and composer crafting what may become your new favorite album until the next Exhibit rolls around. Exhibit A is a sturdy introduction to the inner workings of one of rock’s most prolific multi-instrumentalists. The tightly wound EP unravels spools of minimalist electronics, rich harmonies, and varied textures that are thicker than a wool coat.
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By April Siese Posted in High Fidelity, Reviews Ilan Rubin, The New Regime
