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Below is a list of new releases that we either listened to and love, or expect you to care about. Let us know if we forgot anything in the replies.
Later this year LAPKO will unveil their new album, A New Bohemia, in the US – for now all we get are teaser videos and cryptic messages from the band. You can also check out a new track “A New Bohemia Melody” on their MySpace.
Abyss in B Minor, the latest album from Oslo natives Serena Maneesh, is a stellar and challenging follow-up to their self-titled debut. Incorporating electronic and industrial elements, Abyss creates a haunting, shape-shifting atmosphere.
In order to fully understand what you’re getting into, two points of note are in order. First, Abyss was recorded in a cave. Second, it was mixed by Rene Tinner, longtime dedicated engineer for krautrock masters, Can. The result is that the album frequently sounds like Can, recorded in a cave.
That’s not to say Serena Maneesh ditches the familiar (some would say too familiar) elements of their first album. In fact, the album seems to alternate between its new, heavier influences and their older, more Shields-laden style. But the ubiquity of that sound (especially after the MBV reunion), makes those tracks sound particularly staid.
The standout tracks here are, conveniently, the odd numbered ones. The album opener, “Ayisha Abyss,” is a sonic expedition. It features dark, haunting chords, chopped vocals, undulating bass, and layers of percussion that build and collapse over nearly eight-minutes, never quite releasing, never quite resolving. Serena Maneesh has always been best in its opening moments, and this album is no different.
Fan Death, why did you leave us? Originally from Brooklyn, the now Vancouver-based disco-pop duo just released their first EP, A Coin for the Well, on Pharmacy Records. In 2008 they released their first single Veronica’s Veil, and while it was the string-driven disco I’ve now come to except from them, it still felt right playing it alongside the likes of CSS and Yelle. With the release of this EP, however, I’m not sure I still feel comfortable saying that. A Coin for the Well is straight, unadulterated disco.
Their second single and the first off this album, Cannibal, displays this best. Actually the first five seconds may be the most disco part of the album, and if for some unfathomable reason that is a turn off for you I insist that you listen on. Just before lead vocalist Dandilion Wind Opaine chimes in, a somehow fitting, Middle-Eastern influenced violin line drops to conclude the opening. Opaine’s blasé voice carries the rest of the most pop track on the record.
The rest of the album leans more disco on the disco-pop spectrum. Power Surge is the unheralded anthem, which I hope turns into the next single. Sans the retro synth, Soon plays like a R&B ballad that ends with a sax that can’t settle on being too cool or too sultry, a problem this album has in droves. Instrumentally, The Son Will Rise is the closest Fan Death gets to Hi-NRG, but Opaine remains unmoved even as the synths beg her to kick it up a notch during the chorus. Finally, the first track, Reunited, may be my favorite thanks to the epically eccentric video below. What can I say? I’m a sucker for any Purple Rain shoutout.
The duo, now with backing band, is currently on tour overseas opening up for Vampire Weekend. If you’re heading to Austin next month you can catch them during SXSW though. Their debut album Womb Of Dreams is scheduled for a May release.
Who doesn’t want to jam the fuck out in a taxi? Die Antwoord does just that in the Taxijam series (which seems to be videos of different artists each week singing in a taxi). It’s slightly frightening.
“Why is Congress saying one thing and doing nothing?” asks Joanne Herring, wealthy Texas socialite played by Julia Roberts in Charlie Wilson’s War. “Well, tradition mostly,” replies Tom Hanks in the lead role as the recently deceased Congressman Charles Wilson. Given the present political impasse on Capitol Hill you might think Ms. Herring is referring to current health care reform efforts, which will be the topic of discussion this Thursday during Obama’s big televised “summit” meeting. It seems like the line could also refer to just about anything, implied by Wilson’s response. In fact, the film is set in the 1980s and tells the true story of the most expensive covert operation by the American government (that we know of). Such incisive, poignant dialogue matched with solid, straightforward filmmaking and an all-star cast makes Charlie Wilson’s War the most dangerous political drama to come out of Hollywood in the last decade.
Charlie Wilson’s War is especially effective because it’s a subversive exposé on American politics wrapped in a pretty Hollywood package. It’s got sex, drugs and political intrigue, a minor reference to then U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Rudolph Giuliani, not to mention Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts and the always-awesome Philip Seymour Hoffman. Aaron Sorkin—well known for his careful handling of American politics in films like A Few Good Men and television series like The West Wing—excellently adapts the story from George Crile’s 2003 book. Director Mike Nichols brings Sorkin’s scintillating script to life with a modest yet skillful approach.
