Music

So, let's continue summing up the major records I got over the last months.

The Horrors, "Skying" is not the continuation of their previous album which I liked a lot. There are some similarities in style, of course, but it doesn't have the same focus and there are not so many convincing titles. (6/10)

I also got the new record from Äl Jawala, "The ride" for review, which, while mainly instrumental Balkan-Beat style has a wild variety of other influences, also didn't quite fit in. I like the record, but it's hard for me to keep going all through it. But they made me search for similar records from other artists. (6/10)

Then I recently reviewed Deep cut, "Disorientation" for plattentests.de which is a nice shoe-gaze style band, with some guitar pop thrown in for good measure. Think Lush or Sing-Sing, if that means anything to you. (7/10)

Wild Flag, "Wild Flag" is an ex-sleaze riot girls afterthought, more guitar power-pop oriented, but also a lot less interesting. (5/10)

Very interesting is "In the pit of the stomach" by We were promised jetpacks: its alternative crusade between noise and more quiet tones reminds me a little bit of Broken Social Scene, although the references to bands like the Twilight Sad are also appropriate. (8/10)

Another addition is "Belong" from The Pains of being pure at heart which sounds to me like a more pop-oriented variation of "We were promised jetpacks". A nice and light record, recommended. (7/10)

Similar in style is the self-titled album from Yuck, which has some voice-coder stuff, which I typically don't like at all, and also some low-key songs but is overall a pretty nice album. (7/10)

And then we have the christmas special "Anthology" by my long time favourites The Throwing Muses. I reviewed the two CD set, which is a nice and non-obvious collection of their material from 25 years. If you like complex accoustic and electric guitar songs (from Independent style to alternative rock) with great female singers (Kristin Hersh/Tanya Donelly) this is for you. (8/10)

Just by chance I found out that Carlo van Putten has two new records out: White Rose Transmission, his former collaboration with Adrian Borland released "Spiders in the mind web". Adrian is clearly missing but it's still a nice record. (6/10)

The other one is with his new band Dead Guitars who released "Stranger". Actually, I find it hard not to mix up the two records, because they are stylistically quite similar, although difficult to classify. Certainly an alternative sound, but alternative what? Guitar-pop? Wave? (6/10)

Records from the crypt:
Another missing piece filled in, I finally have a best of collection by The Rolling Stones, "Rolled Gold". It contains two CDs full of hits. Unfortunately, it focusesses pretty much on the older stuff, the newer songs from the end of the last century and the newer songs are missing. (6/10)

I let too much time pass in between writing these overviews. Which of course results in even more stuff to write about, which makes me delay it even further. As this post would get rather long in the mean time, I'm going to split it into this winter edition into a part one and a second part, which I will probably post next week. Okay, 'nough said, here we go:

Arcade Fire, "The suburbs" is a Grammy award winning record of the canadian band. It's also the first by Arcade Fire which doesn't drown in pathetics, although it's still not too light hearted -- which implies that this is really a nice one. (7/10)

Amplifier, "The octopus" is a heavy beast of a record. It's easy to imagine the arms of the octopus playing a multitude of guitars. But it's an alternative rock drama which I don't have the patience for over two discs. (6/10)

Mogwai, "Hardcore will never die, but you will" is another rather heavy and constructed sounding record, quite like Amplifier, although it has some more lighter moments. It's also only a single disc. (6/10)

I reviewed Lotus Feed, "A different place" for plattentests.de, which is a rather classical gothic/wave record. It's a good one but too close to more famous bands to really stand out. (6/10)

I have the impression that Radiohead with each new record try to come up with even stranger song structures. "King of the limbs" is the latest and greatest step on that mission. (6/10)

I admit it, I have a weak spot for the low-fi two-piece sound of The Kills. On the other hand, I think they get better with each new record. "Blood pressures" has a pretty broad range of song structures, while still mostly sticking to their typical two people setup. (7/10)

I was lurred by the praising review on plattentests.de into buying the punk rock opera "David comes to life" by Fucked up. The music is fine, but I have a hard time standing the singer. (5/10)

A jazz record by Nicole Jo, "Go on" and a very nice one, too, came to me from plattentests.de but didn't fit into the thematic range. Which doesn't make it a bad record, not at all, I like it very much. (7/10)


Records from the crypt:
Billy Talent, "Billy Talent III" was a cheap buy, but a very nice one. If you like Green Day-style punk rock without the pop part, you'll also like this one. (7/10)

So, 2010 is already over (just like the yearly poll on plattentests.de) and I haven't shared my latest additions to my CD collection.

The last review I did last year was about Kim Wilde, "Come out and play". Kim Wilde is one of the artists I really enjoyed in the eighties, but I can't really say the same thing about her latest album. (4/10)

I also got The Superbees, "Top of the rocks" for review but as it's just a mini-album it didn't get published (nor written). If you like punk rock with a rolling "R" like the New Bomb Turks this is a very nice little record. (7/10)

Till Brönner, the German (jazz) trumpet player has published "At the end of the day", an album consisting of covers of well-known pop songs like "Space Oddity" (D.Bowie) and "Human" (Killers). Till should really stick to playing his trumpet. (4/10)

Les Savy Fav is one of my favourite bands with their music somewhere between post-hardcore, noise and danceable indie sounds. "Root for ruin" sees them a little lighter, less aggressive but still powerful. (7/10)

Interpol surely had a lot of influence over the last ten years, bringing back some of favourite music from the 80s to the indie scene. Their last album "Interpol", however, continues what they have been doing like forever now and I'm getting more and more bored with every new record. (6/10)

I have to admit, that they have been a rather new discovery for me: Belle and Sebastian play their lovely indie folk tunes on "Write about love", but only now I've been able to appreciate the beauty in their songs. (8/10)

Deerhunter, "Halcyon digest" is a record that resonates firmly within the plattentests.de universe but for me the mix between esoteric music style and indie rock needed some getting used to. There are some really strong songs on it, but also some more obscure stuff as well. (7/10)

Iliketrains is another band well received by the crowd over at plattentests.de and "He who saw the deep" sounded interesting with it's music somewhere between Interpol and The Whitest Boy Alive. However, I can't really stand the singer. (5/10)

I am not too much into trip hop, but Massive Attack, "Heligoland" was a cheap buy and I do like some of their older stuff. Their new record contains a lot of complex songs and it takes quite a while getting into them. No hit though. (6/10)

The last record from 2010 that's worth noting is of German indie rock band Tocotronic, "Schall & Wahn". It's actually my first Tocotronic record, although I otherwise have a lot of similar stuff (e.g. Blumfeld). A nice record with heavy lyrics. (7/10)

This new year has brought me three new records so far.

First one is Gang of Four, "Content", their comeback after 16 years which I reviewed for plattentests.de. A very strong record that clearly shows why bands like Bloc Party or Franz Ferdinand have good reason to still name them as one of their main influence. Post-punk indie music with a funk note and strong political texts. (8/10)

Years ago I have been listening to quite a little bit of dark wave and some times I still like such music. Esben and the Witches, "Violet cries" have been getting hyped somewhat in the indie media and rightfully so. Pretty dark and haunting sounds, with the occasional heavy guitar. (7/10)

And then there is the latest album "Tao of the dead" by ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead. I must admit that I still haven't managed to get a key to it. It's a very homogenic record, but nearly consistently Kraut Rock-style with very few noise core attacks being left. Given that "Madonna" is still my favourite album of them, it is probably no surprise that I find this record to be their weakest one so far. The evolution had been apparent but so far I could always find some interesting stuff to take from the records in between, but I haven't been able to it this time. (6/10)

Now for the Records from the crypt section:

Sophie Hunger first album released under her own name, "Monday's ghost", isn't that old, but still. It's pretty similar to last years "1983" and contains some very beautiful tracks like "Shape" or "Drainpipes" which are difficult to classify (most likely under Jazz). (7/10)

Melody Gardot with "Worrisome heart" is Jazz, sometimes with a pop tune. Very nice record from another Jazz artist getting quite some hype last year. (7/10)

Athlete's "Beyond the neighborhood" is a record somewhere between radio music and indie rock. Just the same I can't really say how much I like it. (6/10)

Then we have Mando Diao and their 2009 album "Give me fire". Besides the hit single "Dance with somebody" (which seems to be much slower and mellow in the album edit) there are several rather boring but also some more interesting songs. (6/10)

And now to classics:

The debut of the Stray Cats, "Stray Cats". This record basically defined what Rockabilly is. One might say, well Rock'n'Roll is known a bit longer, but Setzers guitar and the mixin of Ska elements still makes the record sound fresh. (9/10)

And finally the one defining German punk band, Slime with "Alle gegen alle". Of course, some texts look rather silly today and the music is, well, simple, but still this record kicks some serious butt. (8/10)

Neulich wurde ich von einer Freundin an eine der deutschen Punkbands überhaupt, Slime, erinnert, die dann auch kurze Zeit später die LP "Alle gegen alle" ausgrub, auf der sich --neben anderen großartigen Songs wie "Religion" -- gleich zu Beginn das schöne Stück "Linke Spießer" befindet. Ein schöner Anlass mal über Positionen und deren Veränderungen nachzudenken. Um so witziger finde ich, was ich heute beim Websuchen dazu fand: eine schicke Neuauflage des Stücks in Originalbesetzung, aufgenommen in Guantamano:



Sehr lustig. Außerdem fällt mir noch zu dem Stück eine alte Werbung ein:



BTW: Slime spielen am 28.10. in Freiburg (im Crash, wo sonst). Update:Es gibt einen Konzertbericht bei fudder.de.

Long time no post -- I've been overwhelmed with work and afterwards on holidays. In the mean time, I've somehow still managed to obtain some records, but I've had no time to write any review for plattentests.de.

Let's start out with Sophie Hunger, "1983", which I first heard of on a Verve Jazz Today sampler. Her music is not easy to describe: some tracks are certainly jazz influenced, others more folk oriented and there some tracks might be guitar pop. But beware: this is not the next radio hype. A very nice record overall. (7/10)

Another lady, but a totally different style is Melissa auf der Maur. "Out of our minds", her new album after a four years delay nethertheless sounds as if nothing has happened in between. Rock with a touch of wave, but the hits are sadly missing. (5/10)

The National, "High violet" is a record I needed some time to get used to. The band not only looks but also sometimes sounds rather as if you're grandpa has gone recording an alternative album after having sucked in a great pipe of Sigur Ros, Radiohead and Morrissey -- take away nearly all of the noisy feedback, leave the slighly melancholic glistening shimmer remaining. Sometimes even iery, sometimes nostalgic, never rushed. No hit singles but a very homogenous beautiful album. (7/10)

I also have difficulties with the new Broken Social Scene, "Forgiveness record". While the alternative collective hasn't changed its style too much, I'm not as easily lurred into this one as with the previous records. And I'm also not as fascinated. (6/10)

A stark contrast is, of course, Gogol Bordello, "Trans-continental hustle". Finally, a record that smells like Pogues, but isn't irish at all. This gypsy-punk is fascinating world music (mostly) on speed. And no, they're not from East Europe. (8/10)

Die Zukunft, "Sisters&Brothers" is an album that didn't make it to being reviewed for plattentests.de, despite the fact that the band consists of several noteworthy German musicians: Bernadette La Hengst, Guz (from "Die Aeronauten") and Knarf Rellöm. Pretty strange and interesting texts throughout, but the mix between chart aiming dance pop, soul and rock'n'roll leaves me uninspired. Pretty difficult to judge overall. (5/10)

Pavement, "Quarantine the past" is starting the section "records from the crypt", although the record is from 2010. But it's a best-of album of one of the most influential alternative bands of the late 90s/early 2000s. In hindsight, I can't say I enjoy the slackness of most songs. This doesn't imply that the album isn't worth the money, though, quite to the contrary. (7/10)

Pennyless People of Bulgaria, "Velocity" is not new, it was released in 1993. I recently found this record by chance in my local record store and immediately bought it. If you like Husker Du-style punk/Bob Mould rock from the no-longer hardcore area, this record as well as it's even greater successor "Mould" is definitely worth listening. (7/10)

While this year is still young, I just finished writing my second review for the (German) plattentests.de. But it's been some time since my last post, so I'll also go over records from the last months that I hadn't mentioned previously.

One of the nicer surprises of last year was the new album by the Editors, "In this light and on this evening". Much less reduced pathos in comparision to their last album "An end has a start" (see my more detailed discussion of the old record here). And they still try to find new ways to vary that one old song. (8/10)

The same can not be said for Dial M for Murder!, "Fiction of her dreams", which I received for review for plattentests.de. They, too, are in the Interpol/Joy Division/etc.-sound-a-like genre, but the singer has a sometimes unnerving voice. Add 80-style keyboards and you have a record that nobody misses a review for. (5/10)

But it can get even worse: Echo & the Bunnymen, "The fountain", which I reviewed in more detail for plattentests.de, is a real disappointment, especially as their former album was a real nice comeback for this 80s heroes of guitar wave. This time all they come up with is another weak attempt of becoming the little brother of the Simple Minds. (4/10)

The Church show on "Untitled #23" (also reviewed for plattentests.de) how to just keep going constantly without losing credibility over a time about as long as the Bunnymen. A nice trip into the blue sky between the green earth and the dark cold universe, as usual. (6/10)

And the last of the records I reviewed last year, was The Xx, "The Xx" which is a very reduced low-tone record with a very nice, although cold ambiente. The young couple are not really comparable to, say, the White Stripes, as their music is much more electronic, although they are clearly grounded in alternative music. A very concise and atmospheric record, but also sometimes a little too cold and without much variation. (7/10)

But 2009 had even more to offer: The great Sonic Youth also made a new record, called "The eternal". What can you say? You get what you can expect, basically. I find the record more interesting than the last one, which is in part because the guitars are this time often so catchy instead of noisy. It's probably safe to call "The eternal" the most poppy sounding record Sonic Youth have made so far. (8/10)

Of course, I couldn't ignore Them Crooked Vultures, "Them Crooked Vultures": If there has ever been an Alternative super group, this is probably it. But the nice thing is that it's also a fantastic rock record. (8/10)

The first record for review this year was The Black Box Revelation, "Silver threats". These two guys make music somewhere between alternative rock and blues ala Jon Spencer, and nobody will be missing anything (instrument-wise, I mean). Overall, a fine record, although some songs are a little bit overdone. (6/10)

Finally, my review of the Die Aeronauten, "Hallo Leidenschaft" is just online. This Swiss band makes German pop roughly according to the so-called Hamburger Schule (school of Hamburg), which means that you can intelligent texts and catchy guitar takes. But the Aeronauten add a lot of brass sounds and do a lot to not get stuck with this not exactly new style. (6/10)

It's this time of the year again: Jahrespoll @plattentests.de again. You can still participate until 31. December 2009 and maybe win one out of 25 packages with CDs, shirts etc.

Here are my votes for this year:

So again quite some time has passed since the last record overview, but at least I'm writing the second one this year, which is more than I managed the last two years. Hey, you've got to set reasonable goals, don't you? Okay, here we go.

I only had one record for review in the meantime, "Dirty king" by The Clicks. This one seems to get a little bit of media attention on the other side of the ocean, but this alone isn't a convincing argument to write a review for plattentests.de: either the record must be liked by the reviewer or popular enough to justify writing a bashing. Neither was the case for this one, as The Clicks sound like just another boring radio aiming rock band. (4/10)

Up next is another disappointment, the "The pariah, the parrot, the delusion" by Dredg. It has to be said that the new album isn't any worse than their former one, but still it's too poppy and too half-hearted to be a great alternative album. (5/10)

Also not too convincing is "Wavering radiant" by Isis. Just like their previous records, Isis sound like a somewhat more subtle Tool cover band with the occasional shouting thrown in for good measure. Unfortunately, it's hard to see any difference to their previous record and the shouting goes a little bit on my nerves this time. The song structures are a bit too predictable, too. (5/10)

But there are The Horrors with "Primary colours" which make up the disappointment easily. One might say they sound like a mix of The Cramps and The Cure which results in some rather interesting songs. There is no real hit single on the record but a lot of great tunes. (7/10)

A lot of media attention has also been given to Gossip, in fact I became aware of them via a MTV clip, which I very rarely watch. "Music for men" is the name of their new record. There are some really great songs on it, some sound like a less pathetic second coming of Toyah, while others are even punkier. But on the other hand there are also some really boring pop tunes on it, so judging the overall record isn't easy. (6/10).

While I was buying some records, my favourite record store played Black box revelation's "Set your head on fire" which immediately struck a chord with me. References would include bands ranging from Jon Spencer Blues Explosion to the StereoMCs. While there are some not so convining tracks on the album, overall it's a perfect summer record. (7/10)

Finally, I've bought a best-of compilation called "Suck and swallow" by the Hard-ons, a pretty well known australian surf and hardcore band. This is clearly a you get what you pay for record, so nothing exciting can or needs to be said. (7/10)

In the section "records from the crypt" I've bought two new old records: First, that's "Elephant" from The White Stripes with the infamous "Seven nation army" which was indeed the reason I bought the record in the first place. But there always has been the nagging urge to try to further understand the hype behind the White Stripes. I think I get it now. Looking back it's pretty funny that I've liked both the Raconteurs and the Kills earlier than the White Stripes. (8/10)

Next, there is "Goo" from Sonic Youth. The other day I went out to my trusty old record shop to buy the new Sonic Youth album, but instead went home with "Goo". I can hear my shelf screaming "Oh no, not another Sonic Youth disc", as this is probably disc number six or seven in my collection. I bought it mostly because of its cover, having heard most of the songs as far back as 1990 on a lousy live recording on tape. One of the best records of Sonic Youth, including such hits as "Kool thing", which rightly deserves its own Wikipedia page. (9/10) The new Sonic Youth was just sold out, btw.

Finally in the section 'Found and lost', we have the new albums from The View and The Whitest Boy Alive: both have been tested and been judged as not required. "Which bitch", the album by the View, makes the Killers sound as if they would have learned something from the 80s -- the View surely haven't. "Rules" on the other hand substitutes electronics for guitars, which results in an album that just can't keep up with their first record.

Through this infoworld article on the greatest cults in IT I've discovered a new band: Press play on tape. The music isn't exactly what I'm listening to daily, but I have to admit I know probaby nearly all the songs they play: cover versions of old commodore C64 tunes. I also have to admit that I'm still not sure what to make of this, but the cover version of "Crazy comets" is quite cool.

I haven't written a lot under this title in the last year, mainly because I never felt like it. This doesn't imply I stopped writing for plattentests.de (German), but I didn't write as much as I did. That won't change, however, I'll see if I can write a little about the music I get my hands on. I won't cover here now the entire 2008, but 2009 is still relatively fresh, so I'll try to talk about the records I've heard of this year so far.

My latest review for plattentests.de is the new from Bob Mould, "Life and times". That's the guy who kicked punk from hardcore to post-punk with his band Husker Du and also the one whose alternative band Sugar was quite succesful in the first half of the 90s. The new record is a mix of more quite songs and the usual alternative rockers, sugar-style, so if you know Mr. Mould, I can assure you you'll get what you pay for. (7/10)

The previous review was about Demons, "Ace in the hole". If you like punk rock firing straight out of the garage, along the likes of New Bomb Turks or Turbonegro, these Swedes are going to kick your ass. (7/10)

This years favourite so far is the new album "The century of self" by ... And you will know them by the trail of dead. I'm planning to write a longer review of the record here (i.e. for my blog), but I can say so much that I like it much more than their previous record "So divided". The new record contains at least partly more noisy songs and is a little less pathetic, so over all well done. Although, I must admit the surprises are not so numerous this time. (8/10)

Another nice record is the new one by The Decemberists, "The hazards of love". It's somewhere between a folk and a traditional hard-rock album, but what I find interesting is that it's a completely interleaved story about "Margaret". Great story telling, nice music, what else do I need? (7/10)

Then there is the new Franz Ferdinand, "Tonight: Franz Ferdinand". Although I've become rather sick and tired of this kind of disco indie pop, Franz Ferdinand are somewhat of a special exception to me. And, hey, with "No you girls" in the advert every evening, everybody is going to talk about them anyway, so I'm kind of forced to buy it, no? However, I've probably shouldn't have give in to the urge. (5/10)

Okay, so far so few. There's still a lot of records I have to check out: Whitest Boy alive, Morrissey, Mando Diao, The View all have new albums and the White Lies also got a nice review on plattentests.de. And there's guaranteed more to come.

Ich selber werde am morgigen 20.2. nicht in Freiburg, sondern beim Skifahren anderswo sein, aber wenn ich hier wäre, würde ich mir das morgige Konzert im Waldsee von The Horror The Horror anhören. THTH machen Indie-Gitarrenpop im klassischen Stil, so zwischen den Strokes und den Smiths (Reviews auf Plattentests.de siehe hier und hier). Es ärgert mich fast ein bisschen, dass ich das Konzert verpasse, denn ihr letztes Konzert im Jos Fritz war überfüllt und von miesem Sound geprägt. Im Waldsee dürften die Voraussetzungen besser sein.

While the doors at plattentests.de are still open for voting on the best music of 2007, I'm going to be away for the rest of the year, so I'm going to post my favourites now.

Best records of 2007:

Just as with their first albums, "Turn on the bright lights" and "The back room", it's hard to ignore the impulse to compare Interpols new record "Our love to admire" to the new album "An end has a start" by The Editors. While I did reviews of the first two albums for plattentests.de (here and here), I haven't reviewed the new ones there, so I'm gonna take a step at an informed comparison here, generalizing a little and also taking into account the slew of other bands that people tend to ignore.

Auch dieses Jahr findet bei plattentests.de der Jahrespoll der besten Alben, Songs, etc. statt.
Und wie jedes Jahr gibt es auch wieder fette Pakete mit CDs zu gewinnen. Alles weitere findet ihr dann dort.

Last week I went to see "Broken Social Scene present Kevin Drew's 'Spirit If ...'" playing in Heidelberg. I hadn't written about it earlier because the concert wasn't very exciting. The reason I do so now is that, like most concert I visit, it made me listen more closely to the records of the band. I also bought "Spirit If ..." at the concert, right before the start. Afterwards, I was afraid to have made a classic mistake: generalize from previously nice records to a new one and buy it without a first try, and possibly wasting time, money and emotions.

Where was I? Ah, yes, the reason why I'm writing this entry now: the concert of last week was the first in a very long time in which the concert wasn't up to match the records at all. In particular, I thought that the reduced amount of band members playing and especially Kevin Drews ambitions might be responsible for the uninspired concert, as I left with the impression that Kevin was a little to self-loving and maybe even a little jealous when Branden Canning played and sung two songs that got a lot of applause. But after having listened to "Spirit If ..." now several times, I must conclude that it probably was mainly due to the reduced possibilities of only playing with six instead of the usual ump-teen players. And btw: adding volume doesn't really help -- too often I had to put on my ear plugs which only results in even more reduced distinguished tunes.