Electronica can be a cold, dark, and desolate place sometimes. Then the wind comes in and blows everything away. Since 2007, Darkstar have been releasing singles and receiving acclaim far beyond their dubstep community. Their 2009 track, "Aidys Girl is a Computer" (included here), managed to sneak into Pitchfork.com's Top 100 Tracks of 2009. As Darkstar were recording their debut album, they scrapped the entire project and recruited in vocalist James Buttery to shore up the original duo of James Young and Aiden Whalley. Instead of a typical dubstep release, the trio instead came out with one that has more in tune with trip hop and downtempo.
"In The Way" starts off North with a sound reminiscent of an 80s horror movie before the strings and piano are brought in midway through to bring in some light. An old Human League B-side gets the cover treatment with "Gold". A compressed, slow roll through the original's upbeat facade gives North one of its standout tracks. "Under One Roof" contains a beat that sounds like a spastic ping pong ball being knocked back and forth and features the album's finest vocal performance. Elsewhere, glitchy vocals are hung over quiet, hymnal like tracks with the odd synthesizer wash.
On a whole, North can at times get bogged down by its own bleakness. However, Darkstar clearly have their sights set on knocking down genres and blurring lines. Here's to hoping they never take the path that is expected of them.
1. Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights Perhaps a bit of an odd choice considering our love of Kate Bush that seems to grow every year and the fact this is her biggest hit having gone to #1 in several countries in 1978. After playing The Hounds of Love over and over and over again in the last few years we finally branched out to pick up her debut, The Kick Inside, featuring the centrepiece "Wuthering Heights". Written, of course, about the famous Emily Bronte novel, the song "Wuthering Heights" is able to capture the emotion of the book as well as the damp, bleakness that it often conveys. Written from Catherine's point of view, it is easy to picture her wandering the desolate moors of not so jolly old England. 'How could you leave me when I needed to posses you? I hated you, I loved you too'.
I read the book in and around 1999 but it didn't resonate with me at the time so I re-read it again a few years later. I told a friend I was re-reading it to which she asked, "isn't that a book for teenage girls?". Yes, it probably is but after listening to this song endlessly in 2010, I'm going to read it again... and perhaps get a Wuthering Heights tattoo. 'Heathcliff, it's me Cathy, I've come home, I'm so cold, let me in in a your window'. Please do, Heathcliff, she's clearly earned it.
(Two vidoes were made for "Wuthering Heights", we prefer the completely bizzare red dress version made for the US. And to think she was only 18/19 years old at the time...)
#2 Cocteau Twins - From the Flagstones Originally released on the Sunburst and Snowblind EP in 1983 and was then included on the Pink Opaque compilation as well as the BBC Sessions and Lullabies to Violaine which is were we rediscovered it. We would have originally heard it 10 years earlier on the BBC Sessions released in 1999 but could never get into that double disc... like a number of the Cocteau Twins releases. Their early 90s album Heaven or Las Vegas will most likely forever be in our Top 50 of all time but the rest of the Twins' catalogue can be hit or miss to our ears, or at the very least take a long time to really penetrate our hearts and minds.
It was the same with the Lullabies to Violaine compilation. Purchased early in 2010 it didn't get full spins until that summer. I remember specifically walking to a lounge in the sweltering heat to watch the World Cup final with The Cocteau Twins playing on the ipod. It was here, while walking down Nassau that "From the Flagstones" finally hit. Coming in with shimmering bells and a flanged out guitar, Liz Fraser's voice comes in almost right away. The track has us reach for the dictionary as we try to follow Fraser's vocal gymnastics. With their usual vague lyrics that mean everything and nothing all at once, the sadness of the track comes through.
'At times I've seen you from the balustrade At times I've seen you from the flagstones'
#3 Absolute Body Control - Figures Somewhere along the way in 2010 we discovered the genre of Cold Wave (or Minimal Wave) which lead us right to The Minimal Wave Show on East Village Radio.com hosted by the effortlessly cool Veronica Vasicka. Within a few months of each other, two cold wave compilations were released in 2010 - The Minimal Wave Tapes vol 1 and Cold Wave and Minimal Electronics vol 1 both of which could be looked at as the Northern Soul of late 70s/early 80s electronica, overlooked gems that deserve further investigation.
The first track on the Cold Wave compiltion was from the Belgium group, Absolute Body Control with their 80s track, "Figures". The compilation is solid top to bottom with many treasures buried within. We're not sure what it is about "Figures" that makes it standout, perhaps its the familiar synths, the catchy '12345' build up in the lyrics, or perhaps its just because its the first track. Either way, its fast become a favourite of our 80s synth pop to be held up alongside Depeche Mode, The Human League and New Order.
(The video version is slightly different from what appears on the compilation listed above)
#4 Dave Brubeck - Blue Rondo A La Turk Last August we made our first trek to Chicago from our homebase in Winnipeg, Canada. With that we made a stop at the legendary Jazz Record Mart. Now, we're not going to claim to know much about jazz or jazz stores other than the usual indie rock entry points such as Miles, Coltrane, Mingus, etc. However, what we have, we love so this stop was essential among attending Lollapalooza, and seeing the Cubs, Sox, art galleries, etc.
After searching the racks for close to an hour we then walked over to the "Killers" section for the essentials. There we purchased more Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, and The Dave Brubeck Quartet's classic Time Out. This album contains the jazz standard "Take Five" which is undeniable with its ultra cool 50s groove. However, by the time we get there our hearts have already been captured by "Blue Rondo A La Turk". A frenzied piano to bring in the low riding bass then the accompanying sax to match the piano lines. Ooooohhhh, this is magic. The cymbal ride, the piano which sounds like the theme to W5, and then at the 1:52 mark the tension finally lets up to bring in a relaxed swing. This is truly a wonderful piece of music.
#5 Red House Painters - Katy Song Last summer we flipped through one of our Uncut magazines and read up on the ins and outs of the various recordings by Mark Kozelek - his solo work as well as Sun Kil Moon and the classic 90s band Red House Painters. RHP are a band we read about all through that decade but never really heard their music even though I'm sure we danced around them many times. With a stop at Minneapolis' Cheapo Discs, we threw the self titled disc (aka Rollercoaster) from the band in our basket.
What we discovered from that moment, that others knew 17 years earlier, was the beauty of the track "Katy Song". Coming in at over eight minutes, the song feels like it lasts about three. The crushingly heartbreaking lyrics are what first grab hold - 'I know tomorrow you will be somewhere in london, living with someone, you've got some kind of family there to turn to, and that's more than I could ever give you'. Meandering guitar lines, the subtle smacking of a drum, and the sung harmonies that close the song with several minutes to go brings an end a memorable journey.
The Re-discovery:
National Velvet - Flesh Under Skin Back in the late 80s, early 90s MuchMusic in Canada would run hours upon hours of videos which seems foreign now... I assume, I haven't watched the station in years. The best were always the Spotlight shows featuring a full half hour of videos from one band. It's here we discovered and fell for The Ramones, Jesus and Mary Chain, Jane's Addiction, R.E.M, etc. Another band that would feature quite often was Toronto’s National Velvet.
We purchased their Courage tape in 1990 and listened to it quite often while delivering newspapers on our skateboard. There was one song though that always caught our attention that was on their first self titled debut, it was “Flesh Under Skin”. The track sounds of its time combining goth, dance, and hard rock all given a pop sheen. The video featuring singer Maria Del Mar, who could not be more sexy yet somehow approachable at the same time, was quite memorable to young eyes. “I feel flesh under skin, I feel the conflict of sin, I feel lava turn to ice, I feel… no one’s love tonight”. If I was a 20 year old living in Toronto in 1988 I’m sure this would have been my soundtrack. National Velvet is one of those bands where looking back its still a wonder they did not hit bigger if even for a moment. Here’s our small way of giving them at least a bit of their due.
Born in the Dominican Republic, raised in Florida and now living in Brooklyn NY (of course), George Lewis Jr. , aka, Twin Shadow released this debut in the late fall/early winter of 2010 to much critical acclaim. Catching the attention of Grizzly Bear's Chris Taylor, who produced and released the album on his Terrible Records imprint in North America, Forget explores the classier side of electronica and would not sound out of place alongside late 70s/early 80s Bowie, Roxy Music, OMD, etc.
"Tyrant Destroyed" ushers in the listener with the use of a slow, slightly distorted bass drum to create a woozy dreamlike sound while the lyrics recall a fading love ('love and darkness, such a tyrant destroyer, as you sat sinking in my head).
"Shooting Holes" aims for the dancefloor with its shuffling beat, a synthesizer that may have been swiped from Grand Master Flash's "The Message", and lyrics that would make Morrissey proud - 'Bite the hand I know she doesn't care, leave a trail the hounds will find us anywhere'.
While many of the sounds found on Forget recall the 80s, songs such as "Castles in the Snow" and "Tether Beat" have hazy, ghost in the machine synthesized moments that have much in common with 2010 chillwave bands Salem and oOooOO. "For Now" on the other hand sounds like it could have been written by fellow Brooklynites, Yeasayer.
There is much to like on Twin Shadow's debut and would be one of the top albums of 2010 if it had one or two hits such as Sam Sparro's "Black and Gold" or The Postal Service's "Such Great Heights". Without those songs though, sometimes it feels like looking at a calm lake that resembles a sheet of ice; very nice but could use a few waves of excitement to break it up.
Over 30 years ago The Ramones combined their love of 60s girl groups, surf rock, and bubblegum pop to straight ahead lyrics and sped the whole thing up. Voila, instant classics. In 2009 Bethany Cosentino returned home to LA after attending school in New York City and immediately started a new band with Bobb Bruno called Best Coast. The songs on the debut, Crazy For You share similar influences as The Ramones but with a dash of early 90s college rock thrown in for good measure.
“Boyfriend” would not have sounded out of place leading off Liz Phair’s classic album, Exile in Guyville. The straightforward lyrics capture the uncertainty of liking someone while wondering how they feel, the worry of not measuring up and the dreaming of what it would be like to be with them. Entire novels are written about the same topics and “Boyfriend” manages to cover the same ground in under three minutes. Elsewhere, much has been said of the instant classic line of ‘I lost my job, I miss my Mom, I wish my cat could talk’ from “Goodbye”, another track that hits the slacker generation of the late 20th century square in the heart.
With most songs coming in at about two and a half minutes, they come fast and furious but will stick in your head for days. The entire album is held together by Cosentino’s wonderful voice which could hold its own with any of the great singers of the day for the past 40 years. There is a longing and something country like in many of the vocals especially in songs such as “Our Deal” and “I Want You”. It would not be surprising if in years to come, that is the direction that Cosentino follows similar to the path that Neko Case has walked in the past decade.
In the hands of others, this Keep It Simple Stupid approach would be of zero interest but with Best Coast it works wonders as they constantly hit the right notes. Without a week track on the album, Crazy for You holds up as one of the best albums of 2010. Would it have hit our Top 15 if listened to earlier? With a bullet.
Electronica can be a cold, dark, and desolate place sometimes. Then the wind comes in and blows everything away. Since 2007, Darkstar have been releasing singles and receiving acclaim far beyond their dubstep community. Their 2009 track, "Aidys Girl is a Computer" (included here), managed to sneak into Pitchfork.com's Top 100 Tracks of 2009. As Darkstar were recording their debut album, they scrapped the entire project and recruited in vocalist James Buttery to shore up the original duo of James Young and Aiden Whalley. Instead of a typical dubstep release, the trio instead came out with one that has more in tune with trip hop and downtempo.
