The Quarterly Review: Jan-Mar '10

So we are already at a quarter-past 2010, and I've decided that 4 times a year I will do an overview of the year's releases. 2010 started out relatively slowly (nothing of Merriweather Post-Pavilion proportions came out within the first couple of weeks of January), despite Pitchfork's best attempts to convince me otherwise (they hand out Best New Music awards on a seemingly daily basis these days). However, the year is now starting to shape up quite nicely; I've made no secret of my love for the new Titus Andronicus release which, alongside new Liars, Besnard Lakes and Gorrilaz records, made for one of the best weeks for new releases in recent memory. The new Xiu Xiu album also threw up a pleasant surprise, with Jamie Stewart's quirkiest set of tunes for some time, whilst These New Puritans are early contenders to be this year's Band I Least Expected To Be Listening To (last year's winners, The Horrors).

Album Of The Quarter
Titus Andronicus: The Monitor

On Heavy Rotation
The Besnard Lakes: The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night
Liars: Sisterworld
These New Puritans: Hidden
Xiu Xiu: Dear God, I Hate Myself

Doing The Rounds
Animal Collective: Campfire Songs (re-issue)
Beach House: Teen Dream
Clipd Beaks: To Realize
DeathPodal: Exu-Wow EP
The Delta Mirror: Machines That Listen
Moonface: Marimba and Shit-Drums
Thee Silver Mount Zion Orchestra: Kollaps Tradixionales
Vampire Weekend: Contra

On the Shopping List
The Low Sea: Las Olas
Owen Pallett: Heartland
Pantha Du Prince: Black Noise
Spoon: Transference

On the Discard Pile
The Magnetic Fields: Realism
The Ruby Suns: Fight Softly

Galaxie 500: The greatest one-trick pony ever?

I've been listening to a lot of Galaxie 500 lately, and as much as I love them, they are a band that are so easy to tear apart for so many reasons. Their songs consist of the same basic chords, arranged in predictable patterns, and crudely strummed, and aside from the occasional neat solo, the musicianship of the band never rose above workmanlike. Most of the songs are played at the same sedate tempo. Singer/guitarist Dean Wareham couldn't really sing, and always seemed to play with the same guitar tone. So aside from being early protaganists of what's become known as dream-pop (which, with the likes of Beach House, Atlas Sound, Sunny Day In Glasgow et al. is going very strong, thank you very much), why is it so easy to overlook the band's shortcomings?

Perhaps it's because the band had the good grace to call it quits before it became they ran their trademark sound into the ground. Galaxie 500 released just three LPs, and perhaps they realised that they had peaked with second album On Fire. For this reason alone, AC/DC are exempt from the title of "Greatest One-Trick Pony",

Maybe it's because everything about Galaxie 500's sound is so endearing and likeable. The guitars glow with warmth on the verses and the choruses, whilstthe solos have just enough squall and bite to be truly satisfying. The tempos are leisurely and inviting. Wareham may not have been in possession of the finest voice, but still had the ability to make you swoon with a well-placed "aaaaaah".

Or maybe it's because closer inspection of their seemingly indistinguishable song collection reveals songs that are nevertheless individually memorable, thanks to some subtle but crucial sonic detail: a forlorn sax (Decomposing Trees, arguably their finest moment); vocals bathed in delicious echo (Tugboat); a vocal turn from bassist Naomi Yang (Listen, The Snow Is Falling, one of a number of terrific cover versions the band recorded), or just an endearingly daft lyric about eating twinkies (Strange). These are small touches, but in all cases define their respective songs.

Whatever the reason, Galaxie 500 got a lot of mileage out of one formula, and are rightly loved for it. And if you missed them first time around, now's the time to invest your time and money; all three albums have been re-issued as 2-CD deluxe editions by Domino.

Spotlight Artist: The Delta Mirror

Spotlight Artist is a section I run on my radio show CUR1350 Breakthrough to highlight the cream of the up-and-coming crop, into which the Delta Mirror fit quite nicely. Their debut album, Machines That Listen, came out this week on Lefse Records, and is available to listen to in full on both Spotify and Lastfm. The LA trio acknowledge that their sound is in keeping with the atmospheric electronic fuzz of the likes of The Big Pink and F**k Buttons, whilst the album's concept (each song is set within a different room of a hospital) is reminiscent to Hospice, last year's terrific offering by The Antlers. The monotonic baritone of singer Craig Gordon , and the dark tone of their music also bears obvious comparisons to early Interpol.

The band have just finished doing the rounds in Austin, Texas for SXSW, and have more dates in the US. Hopefully a european tour will be on the cards in the not-too-distant future.

Review: Titus Andronicus - The Monitor

On their debut The Airing Of Grievances, New Jersey band Titus Andronicus were every bit as visceral and bloody-minded as the Shakespeare play from which they took their name. On their second album The Monitor, the band put their bristling energy to a concept loosely based around the American Civil War (the USS Monitor was the first american ironclad warship) and extend it to a 65 minute magnum opus, culminating in a 14-minute closer entitled The Battle of Hampton Roads. The end result is as exuberant and overblown as you might imagine. It's also absolutely brilliant.

Musically, as with their debut, the Monitor is a similar heady mix of E-Street Band and the drunken swagger and jiggery of the Pogues, whilst the spleen-venting of Patrick Stickles still closely resembles the Conor Oberst of Desaparecidos (and thankfully not that of the Mystic Valley Band). There's a greater range of instrumentation here, including horns, honky-tonk piano, and even a bagpipe. In keeping with the album's premise, Shakespeare quotations are out in favour of quotes from various historical figures of the US Civil War. In truth, the album doesn't even need its concept to hold together as well as it does (and whilst Springsteen's getting on a bit, I think name-checking him in an album based 150 years in the past is stretching it a bit), as it's literally rife with drunken singalongs and reprises which stitch everything together. Inspite of the rich instrumentation, the Monitor feels like it could have been laid down in a single alcohol-fuelled session.

Half of the brilliance with Titus Andronicus is that they juxtapose misery and self-loathing with the most rousing music possible. It's the sound of a band with their backs to the walls and nothing to lose. "I'm at the end of my rope, and I feel like swinging" scowls Stickles on the slow-burning intro for A Pot In Which To Piss, before the track kick-starts into life. That's just one example of the many quotable lines from this album, with every listen seemingly throwing up fresh ones.

Not that the band are unable to throttle back once in a while. The aching lament of To Old Friends And New (featuring Vivian Girl Cassie Ramone) is particularly affecting, and is a welcome moment of calm before the storm of the aforementioned closer The Battle of Hampton Roads where the band throws everything at the wall: ukeleles, military-style drums and ultimately a bag-pipe solo. Amazingly, everything sticks.

Quite simply, this is the most fun I've had with a new release since I don't know when. To maintain such levels of catharsis over an hour-plus running time is some feat, but Titus Andronicus have pulled it off with ease. Better still, it's an album that can be enjoyed communally: not only does Theme From Cheers sound like an endearingly drunken karaoke session amongst friends, it sounds like it should be enjoyed in the same spirit. From start to finish, an exhilirating album, and a landmark moment for this young band.

92/100

CUR1350 Breakthrough: the place for unsigned and up-and-coming artists on CUR1350

Hello, and welcome to my blog! To kick things off, let me introduce you to my student radio show, CUR1350 Breakthrough. It's the station's flagship show for unsigned and up-and-coming music artists, and frequently features live in-studio sessions. CUR1350 Breakthrough goes out live every Sunday 8-10pm: well, actually, the show's currently taking an Easter break breather, but will return in full swing in late April. In the meantime, you can listen back to earlier shows by visiting the station's archive (and check out some of the other fine shows that grace the station's airwaves whilst you're at it):

http://cur1350.co.uk/index.php?section=43

You'll be hearing plenty more about the artists I play on Breakthrough on this blog!