Reviews

King Krule - King Krule

Debut Ep from buzz-worthy British crooner Review by richard

King Krule is the project of Archy Marshall, a 17-year-old from Britain, slight in stature with orange hair, a Tilda Swinton-esque severity in facial lines, an adolescent androgyny in some ways, visually but not vocally.
In Marshall's debut EP under this moniker (Donkey Kong Country fans will get it), there exists that kind of distinctly British ennui, laced with melancholy, anxiety, resignation. Marshall's voice and guitar are at the centre of this music. (You could probably call him a singer-songwriter in that Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, blah blah blah kind of way and not be too far from the mark.) His vocals sound aged--his is a voice beyond his years and one that is bigger, deeper, stronger than his small frame seems capable of. The delivery and the introspective nature of these songs carry traces of the blues and hip hop. At the same time these five tracks recall the dreamy traipse of Felt or The Durutti Column. It's all quite sparse but there is warmth in there: in the untrained vocals, in the beautifully conceived, rising and lilting, guitar lines that never quite take you where you expect them too. The sublime guitar is cushioned in the brand of carefully finessed electronic music recently championed by James Blake, Nicolas Jaar, Jamie xx et al. Vocals often emerge from the background--there is something beneath the surface in this music and so it is at times harrowing, but also mostly harmless. There is pith in this EP. For all the talk of this guy's remarkable voice, the first thing we hear emerge from his chest is not a note but a cough, the guy clearing his throat... but, for whatever inexplicable reason, even this seems somehow important.

(Posted on 6/02/12)
Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica

Peculiar and intriguing album from Oneohtrix Point Never Review by Richard

Daniel Lopatin is known both for his prolific output and his fondness for '80s synth. His latest album as Oneohtrix Point Never is a peculiar creature. For one, it displays a slight shift towards narrative, as compared to his earlier more conventionally ambient works. The samples from this album are sourced largely from television commercials from the 1980s. Not wholly surprising, but definitely peculiar given that the songs that result sound organic in spite of the relentless manipulation that is occurring. The manufactured sounds of television culture become kind of naturalised through abstraction. It's a very peculiar album because it swings from the achingly beautiful and alien--such as the title track featuring a Budd-and-Eno-esque piano line that is slowly submerged in electronic beeps and groans and Low-era-Bowie-esque buzz before emerging again only to be once more submerged--through to wildcat growls, Street Fighter-ish grunts, tribal chants, cringe-worthy choral lines and breathy new age cawing, isolated syllables repeated ad nauseam and so on and so forth...all cushioned by a plane of ambient drone. Peculiar, indeed.

(Posted on 12/12/11)
Shabazz Palaces - Black Up

a ‘very hip hop’ album but one that articulates the evolving sounds and attitudes of the genre Review by Richard

Over the course of 2009, two EPs and a video appeared on the internet and were attributed to a little-known outfit going under the name Shabazz Palaces. We knew they were from Seattle and we were later told that Sub Pop was releasing their album and that the front-man/only-credited-member was previously of ‘90s hip-hop duo (nee trio) Digable Planets. We still know this and not much else—a rarity these days given that an artist’s narrative has usually been formulated, disseminated and mythologised on the internet before the album is pressed. Though, for all intents and purposes, Shabazz Palaces’ mystery is their narrative and this adds a fascinating element to the amorphous sound of their debut album, Black Up.

The album’s lyrics and beats come out of left-field, incorporating vocal and horn lines as well as samples that recall the more expressionistic facets of Madlib or Dilla’s oeuvre. The use of these sounds often echoes the sparseness of dubstep and the presence of snippets of industrial noise, carefully broken beats and cosmic peals result in sounds that would be at home on a Brainfeeder or Stones Throw release. Lyrically the album is at one end all paeans for girls seen in clubs and at the other it’s an often derisive examination of the representation of hip hop within contemporary music and culture: “Things are getting blacker, but blacker’s getting whiter”. Black Up has the dark undertones and abstract leanings of Cannibal Ox and the often unrelenting seriousness of El-P. It’s a ‘very hip hop’ album but one that articulates the evolving sounds and attitudes of the genre—it’s growth in a post-“hip hop is dead” world, if you will…
(Posted on 30/11/11)
HTRK - Work (Work, Work)

No one else aches like HTRK, no one else winks like HTRK Review by CP

From the instant the first 16rpm-ed 808 beat hurtles you to their own private black hole to the second Jonnine Standish opens her mouth and her unmistakable lush grey voice envelopes you, there's no mistaking you're anywhere but inside a HTRK album. There are few current bands that sound like nothing/no one but THEMSELVES (suck it, Pitchfork). No one else aches like HTRK, no one else winks like HTRK. No one else combines wryness with horror with pleasure with simplicity with eternity with dull, numb edges with razor sharp hurt the way they do. This record makes me visualize (among other things): Lizzie Borden's 'Working Girls' on Xanax, 'Blade Runner' directed by Maya Deren, the famous kiss in 'A Place in the Sun' played on a dying projector, etc. etc. I could go on. Basically this band is on their own plane, and it's a much, much better plane that whatever psuedo-hypnagogic spoilt-child sheeit is clogging up the bloggyveins or whatever they're called. Album of the year? If you're into time-constructs, my homey. (Posted on 30/11/11)
Laura Jean - A Fool Who'll

a record as lovesick as it is prickly, a record not afraid to be ugly & honest Review by CP

I often complain, complain, complain about music that doesn't push itself, doesn't challenge anyone, and doesn't have a worthwhile word to say. My co-workers have had it. I'm on the verge of being fired. But! This Laura Jean record comes along and I can only shut up and gnaw on my words like the satisfied little rodent I yearn to be. Everyone is happy. What we have here is a record as lovesick as it is prickly, a record not afraid to be ugly & honest (& therefore exquisitely beautiful). A record both humble and bold, fantastically arranged and played, that reminds me loosely of great things like Bridget St. John, Robert Wyatt, Mary Timony, Dirty Three, & the Raincoats. Oh, also the Gareth Liddiard record from earlier this year, i.e. "Australian" in a way that sounds rare, thoughtful, tender, and effortless. (Posted on 30/11/11)
Dick Diver - New Start Again

Melbourne’s foremost tenants of terrace house poetry Review by Richard

Dick Diver, Melbourne’s foremost tenants of terrace house poetry—all damp rising in the walls and beer and hummus in the Kelvinator and overgrown grass skirting since off-kilter bluestones—have here honed their brand of lazy confidence, cynical optimism and inspired smart-assery. The album is framed by a sincerity that is charming and, in its own relaxed way, galvanising. Forster and McLennan comparisons are of course justified (though one might dig a little deeper justifiably liken both these bands to lesser known Australian greats such as Even As We Speak or The Moles), but this band has its own voice and its own narrative, one that is unique to a bunch of 20-somethings in Melbourne’s inner north in 2011. The role of each member is fluid and much of joy in this album comes from hearing and sensing the four of them interact (both overt and covert); instruments, lyrical sentiments and wisecracks are shared and outdone...until we reach that line, which references Kerri-Anne, Wet’n’Wild and Geelong in one breath... (Posted on 3/11/11)