Best New Albums Archive

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Himanshu – Nehru Jackets – Album Review

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down.caster
– 03/04/2012Posted in: 4.5, Album Reviews, Best New Albums, Downloads, Featured, Hip-Hop, Songs
Das Racist emcee Himanshu (aka Heems) slowly emerged over 2011as the group’s MVP with solo contributions to buzz-happy mixtapes by Small Black, Lushlife and Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire. He also dropped several rad cuts on his own, “Womyn”, “I Want It Bad”, “Alien Gonzalez”, “Computers” and (Strokes cover) “NYC Cops” among them.

To start off 2012, Heems combined those cuts with a bunch of other odds, ends and bad ass beats to form the Nehru Jackets mixtape (free download). It’s a lush, VHS-hazed excursion filled with samples lifted from Indian pop culture, booming hip-hop beats, glitchy loops and digitized textures. The wonderfully patchy mess is narrated by our reluctant hero, Heems, and his stoned, wandering flow that masterfully straddles the line between nonsense stream-of-conscious and smart, revealing wordplay.

When we first saw the tracklist for Nehru Jackets, we were concerned the previously released material was going to end up being the best material. But that’s not the case. “You Have to Ride the Wave (f. Danny Brown and Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire)” is probably the best song here. New cuts “What Do I Do When I’m Alone”, “Yo What’s Good New York (f. Action Bronson, Lakutis, Kool AD)” and “Jason Bourne” are pretty dope, too.
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Buildings – Melt, Cry, Sleep – Album Review

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down.caster
– 03/04/2012Posted in: 4 Stars, Album Reviews, Best New Albums, Downloads, Featured, Rock, Songs

Download “Invocation” from Melt Cry Sleep

Minneapolis three-piece Buildings continue experimenting with an asymmetrical, high-strung breed of punk and hardcore on Melt Cry Sleep. The Jeusus Lizard, Melvins and Fugazi echo through a barrage of anxious riffing, rigid dynamics and tortured guitar squalls.Structurally, most of Melt, Cry, Sleep alternates between bouts of seething tension and waves of cascading riffs. Through the swings, singer/guitarist Brian Lake narrates with his boxed howl and bassist Sayer Payne (one of the newest additions to the band) unloads a relentless churn. But as with most music this aggressive and jagged strain, it’s the controlled chaos of the drums that separates Melt, Cry, Sleep from much of the common, uninspired pablum that passes for “rock” these days. High-five to drummer Travis Kuhlman for that. In fact, high fives all around for making one of the best rock records of 2012.

4 / 5
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Grimes – Visions – album review

By
down.caster
– 02/27/2012Posted in: 4 Stars, Album Reviews, Alternative, Best New Albums, Featured

Download “Genesis” from Visions [via Pitchfork]

Grimes latest, Visions, is a pop record in the sense that it’s vocal-driven music with catchy beats and cascading melody. But the vocals are strange and buried, the melodies are modest and songs wander without conventional structure. So maybe it’s not a pop record? Whatever it is, we like it.

Across Visions, Grimes (aka Claire Boucher) layers robotic, post-industrial beats with shadowy synths and her echoing, falsetto to create an unfamiliar, strangely beautiful landscape. We’re pretty sure all of the songs on Visions started as bright, conventional numbers. But through Grimes’ curiosity and restlessness, we’ve ended up with something mostly obscure and totally gripping.

As contradictory as this sounds, Visions is not a pop record meant for mass consumption (though we’re sure NPR and your local newspaper will act like it), but it is a wonderful serving of synth candy for fans of cyber ambience, goth wave and the like. And it’s one of the freshest sounds we’ve heard in fringe pop for quite a while.

4 / 5
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Gangrene – Vodka & Ayahuasca

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down.caster
– 02/27/2012Posted in: 4 Stars, Album Reviews, Best New Albums, Hip-Hop

Download “Dark Shades” from Vodka & Ayahuasca [Spin]

Producers Alchemist and Oh No have combined forces again as Gangrene on Vodka & Ayahuasca. This time around, it’s a rad dose of gritting, slashing underground hip-hop doused in shadowy samples, thumping beats and menacing loops.

Not only do Alchemist and Oh No provide the beats on Vodka & Ayahuasca, the pair also do most of the rhyming. We know what you’re thinking. And normally, you’d be right. But these guys actually do a better-than-expected job behind the mic here, helped by strategically placed verses by guests Kool G Rap, Roc Marciano, Prodigy and a few others.

Though Vodka & Ayahuasca has the tone of a jagged mixtape, there’s a chemistry and attitude at play that put this collection a couple levels above most of the more polished hip-hop LPs we’ve heard in the last year.

4 / 5
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Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats – Blood Lust – Album Review

By
down.caster
– 01/15/2012Posted in: 4.5, Album Reviews, Best New Albums, Featured, Rock

Stream “I’ll Cut You Down” from Blood Lust

With an obsession for dark mysticism and grainy proto-metal, Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats’ second album, Blood Lust, plays like a droning, stoned version of early Black Sabbath. It’s a totally bad ass trip to the edge of an ancient religion with a coven of faceless, hovering witches. Song structures across Blood Lust are direct, riffs are pulled from a mythic black war chest and drums are applied with strategic simplicity as psychedelic solos and ultraviolet vocals brood overhead.Although many songs on Blood Lustare extended jams revolving around bluesy, driving riffs (“Deaths Door”, “13 Candles”), Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats do a good job of breaking up the album with sharp rhythmic changes (“I’m Here to Kill You”, “Ritual Knife”) and occasional dynamics (“Curse in the Trees”). The acoustic cut that closes the album is pretty cool, though it would have been pretty rad if they moved it to the middle.Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats have done an extraordinary job of capturing that moment in rock history when the blues took a turn for the savage under the direction of Black Sabbath. No, Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats aren’t breaking any new ground, but they’re approaching the past with such vital conviction that we can’t seem to get enough of Blood Lust.

Standout Tracks: “I’ll Cut You Down”, “13 Candles”, “Curse in the Trees”, “Ritual Knife”
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Charlotte Gainsbourg – Stage Whisper – Album Review

By
down.caster
– 01/05/2012Posted in: Album Reviews, Alternative, Best New Albums, Featured

Stream “Terrible Angels” from Stage Whisper

There’s a lot working against Charlotte Gainsbourg’s Stage Whisper. Where to start? Charlotte Gainsbourg is (mostly) an actress that is trying to be a musician. Strike one. Charlotte Gainsbourg is the offspring of celebrity (her mom is Jane Birkin, her dad is Serge Gainsbourg). Strike two. And her latest, Stage Whisper, is a collection of B-sides from an album (the brilliant IRM) recorded in 2009. Strike three. But you know what? Stage Whisper is an awesome collection of slightly bent, gently warped pop.

From bombastic techno pop (“Terrible Angels”, “Paradisco”) to slow-drifting atmospherics (“White Telephone”) and catchy little things in between (“All The Rain”, “Got To Let Go”), Gainsbourg covers a notable range in Stage Whisper’s first half. Oh, this is a double-LP. There’s a second disc full of live stuff, but we don’t remember it because we’re stuck on the IRM b-sides.

We’re not sure how much of Stage Whisper is Beck’s doing (he was the mastermind behind IRM), but we’re not sure it matters. We like Gainsbourg’s willowy, shy presence and reluctant urgency. Stage Whisper may be a team effort, but it’s Gainsbourg’s charm that gives this album its exceptional magnetism.

Standout Tracks: “Terrible Angels”, “Paradisco”, “Out of Touch”

4 / 5
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Martyn – Ghost People – Album Review

By
down.caster
– 01/05/2012Posted in: 4 Stars, Album Reviews, Best New Albums, Electronica, Featured

  Ohhhh, dubstep. [English accent] Whence thy was infused with testosterone and made master of ceremonies on Greek Row, how quickly the right people abandoned you and kicked you to the pile. [End English accent] Well, there still is some life in this genre, and one of the last guys waving around the dubstep torch with any integrity is Brainfeeder recording artist Martyn. On his latest, Ghost People, you’ll find a plenty of choppy, dub-stepping rhythms, glitchy house bouncers and mild techno psychedelics.

Ghost People is an easy-to-swallow pill, but it never feels cheap, and it never feels desperate (take note, you DJs that wonder why you’re always looking at a crowd of meat heads when you pull out your turn tables, er, laptops). It’s not easy to balance accessibility and integrity, but it’s something Martyn has gotten pretty good at in his 15 years of crafting beats.

Standout Tracks: Horror Vacui, Popgun

4 / 5
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Elder – Dead Roots Stirring – album review

By
down.caster
– 11/29/2011Posted in: 4 Stars, Album Reviews, Best New Albums, Featured, Metal
Boston stoner rock trio Elder return with an epic psychedelic rock opus, Dead Roots Stirring, jammed with cascading riffs, cosmic melody and spiraling sonic architecture. All of it delivered with much greater focus and swagger than their self-titled 2009 debut. The songs are long and the guitar solos themselves wander longer than most trendy indie bands’ singles. But you know what? Dead Roots Stirring, all 5 songs clocking in at a combined 51-minutes, passes more quickly than most buzz-band-of-the-week’s 5-song, 17-minute remix EPs.

Lyrics on Dead Roots Stirring are applied sparingly, which is too bad as singer Nick DiSalvo’s vocals have evolved nicely over the past two years. And the last couple of songs could have been a minute or two shorter, but these are minor complaints for an album that’s full of highlights.

Throughout Dead Roots Stirring, Elder moves things along by shifting from tumbling riff-work and dizzying solos to desert-inspired acoustic breakdowns and guitar phrasing reminiscent of post-rock acts like Russian Circles and Mogwai. But Elder’s more rounded, organic temperament still owes its heaviest debt to deities like Tony Iommi and Dickie Peterson. Elder are taking small steps beyond their comfort zone, but combined with much tighter songwriting and focused jamming, Dead Roots Stirring is an excellent second step for this young group with an old name.

4 / 5
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Tyler Ramsey – The Valley Wind – album review

By
down.caster
– 11/10/2011Posted in: 4 Stars, Album Reviews, Best New Albums, Featured, Rock
Band of Horses lead guitarist Tyler Ramsey returns with The Valley Wind, a slow-turning collection of somber, rambling folk rock. Melody here is dusty, sharp and plentiful. Ramsey’s voice is shy but purposeful. And, quite frankly, we’re surprised how much we like this, his sixth solo album.

Sorry, we’re not big Band of Horses fans. Their music is a little too direct for us, and it’s always sounded a little too anxious for acceptance (but we wouldn’t say they sound as desperate for credibility as say, The Kings of Leon). But Ramsey’s The Valley Wind spins with a humble confidence that we find attractive and, occasionally, irresistible.  That said, Ramsey digs generously into a bag of classic rock tricks that you’re probably familiar with. Fans of Neil Young, Jackson Browne and, sure, Bruce Springsteen, echo throughout The Valley Wind. And no, we’re not complaining, all the borrowing here is done tastefully.

Our biggest complaint is that Ramsey didn’t revisit the American Primitive styling of the album opener, “Raven Shadow”. We wish he’d stretched the one-minute piece into about three, maybe four minutes.

Standout Tracks: “The Valley Wind” (free download), “When It’s Done”, “The Nightbird”

4 / 5
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Neon Indian – Era Extrana – album review

By
down.caster
– 10/03/2011Posted in: 4 Stars, Album Reviews, Alternative, Best New Albums, Featured
It’s still 80s-drenched techno pop, but Neon Indian’s Era Extrana is a more confident, heavier trip than his 2009 debut, Psychic Chasms.  Era Extrana is still delivered through a hazy VHS filter, but the synth riffs are thicker and frontman Alan Palomo’s vocals are delivered with more emotional clarity. The end result is something bigger and more shadowy than what we’ve come to expect from the chillwave pioneer, and a solid step in Palomo’s evolution.

Era Extrena is crossed with 80s-futuristic sound effects, synth melodies and driving rhythms. Songs range from gritty electro pop (“Polish Girl”, “Hex Girlfriend”) to yearning shoegaze (“Fallout”, “The Blindside Kiss”) and are broken up with a series of short amnesia-inducing interludes (“Heart:Attack”, “Heart:Decay” and “Heart:Release”). There are even a couple of cuts that carefully reach back to the Psychic Chasms era (“Suns Irrupt”, “Arcade Blues”) without sacrificing Era Extrena’s forward-leaning spirit.

Despite the range in songcraft and Neon Indian’s attention to pacing, there’s a density (almost clutter) to Era Extrana that dulls some of the melody and blurs the nuance between rhythms. Consequently, some of the album’s better moments are lost during the first several spins of Era Extrana. But if you keep the LP in rotation (try playing it on random, too), more favorites emerge.

Standout Tracks: “Polish Girl”, “Hex Girlfriend”, “Suns Irrupt”

More Neon Indian
Download “Polish Girl” and “Fallout”
Watch a hilarious infomercial for the PAL198X

4 / 5
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