Album Reviews Archive

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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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yU – The Earn – album review

By
down.caster
– 03/01/2012Posted in: 3.5 Stars, Album Reviews, Hip-Hop
Diamond District MVP yU returns with his second solo LP, The Earn. It’s another hazed and chopped dive into yU’s R+B, soul and funk record bin, and an excellent departure from the over-produced and over-cooked dribble that dominates the hip-hop charts. That said, The Earn has a more polished feel than the Washington DC spitta’s killer debut, Before Taxes. And although it’s shorter on hooks, The Earn has a more familiar feel (the key to sample-driven hip-hop is combining noises in a way that sounds foreign).

While we dig The Earn, it’s less of a step up than it is a natural extension of Before Taxes. But despite that, there are still surprises here, and yU’s flow is one of the dopest in the game.

Sure, yU sticks to his comfort zone on The Earn, but that’s not a bad place to hang out.

3.5 / 5

Stream “I Belive” from The Earn

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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

By
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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Dustin Wong – Dreams Say, View, Create, Shadow Leads – Album Review

By
down.caster
– 02/26/2012Posted in: 3.5 Stars, Album Reviews, Rock

Download “Pink Diamond” from Dreams Say, View, Create, Shadow Leads [Pitchfork]

Dustin Wong (Ecstatic Sunshine, Ponytail) debuts this month as a solo guy with the wondrous and geometric Dreams Say, View, Create, Shadow Leads. Although the album is limited to echoing, layered guitars and the occasional, minimal percussion, Wong creates a complex, robotic persona that seems incredibly wise and infinitely curious.

Much of Dreams Say, View, Create, Shadow Leads plays like a soundtrack for the mass production of simple, elegant and useful things. It’s the creation of three-dimensional patterns against white space. It’s just one man and a guitar, without vocals or temptation. It’s something that, on paper, should bore us to shreds (and there are many one-man-and-an-echo-pedal acts that do that), but we’re pretty impressed with Dreams Say, View, Create, Shadow Leads‘ lasting vitality and exceptional range.

3.5 / 5
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Miracle Days – Something for the Weight – Album Review

By
down.caster
– 02/26/2012Posted in: 3 Stars, Album Reviews, Genres, Rock
Despite what the name suggests, Los Angeles duo Miracle Days’ debut, Something for the Weight, kind of isn’t really that heavy. It’s breezed, willowy indie pop loaded with soft hooks and familiar melodies, and something that we haven’t been able to get out of our heads since we first heard it a few weeks ago.

Although (ultra-sticky) album openers “Miracle Days” and “Time Spent With You” set a sunny tone, there’s a charming melancholy that creeps into Something for the Weight’s second half (see album standouts “Never Know” and “Black Ice”). It’s a welcome turn that gives the LP an excellent balance. Along with shifting tone, Miracle Days give depth to Something for the Weight with a range of guitar textures (acoustic and electric, finger-picking and chords) and rhythms (“Time Spent With You” waltzes, “No Place” has a bossa nova vibe).

While singer Dre Babinski’s voice is the star of the show, the album’s modest keys and dramatic strings are what drive much of the album’s emotional edge. Yet perhaps the album’s strongest element is honesty. Something for the Weight isn’t trying to catch any trend or break any new ground, it’s a straight-forward, comfortable demonstration of two people’s passion for making music. And that’s a pretty cool thing.
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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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Suuns – Zeroes QC – album review

By
down.caster
– 01/15/2012Posted in: 4 Stars, Album Reviews, Rock

Stream “Arena” from Zeroes QC

There’s something entirely vital and magnetic about Montreal four-set Suuns’ debut LP, Zeroes QC. So much so, we thought it was important to write a review for this album more than a year after its release. At a time when rock music is struggling for an identity, when forward leaning groups seem uninspired and backward-facing teams seem tired, Suuns leads the former camp with its droning, apocalyptic rock deconstruction. It’s shadowy and tense, bleak and experimental, but infused with a pop sensibility that makes it hard to turn this record off.

Although Zeroes QC wanders with a worthy purpose, it does meander quite a bit. In the end, the LP sounds like a collection of studio outtakes rather than a trimmed and polished effort. But despite the wandering, Zeroes QC never slips off the cliff that separates lazy experimentation from focused experimentation.

Standout Tracks: “Armed for Peace”, “PVC”, “Arena”

 

4 / 5
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Danava – Hemisphere of Shadows – Album Review

By
down.caster
– 01/09/2012Posted in: 3 Stars, Album Reviews, Rock

Portland 70s-bent prog dudes Danava grabbed our attention in 2008 with the mighty Unonou, a killer album jammed with jagged, wandering riffs and epic, spiraling rock architecture. We were floored by the band’s daring psychedelia, and their ability to make songs that clocked in close to ten minutes pass so effortlessly. On their latest, Hemisphere of Shadows, the epic sweep of Unonou is gone, and the songs are a lot shorter. This should be a good thing. But Danava are big, complicated thinkers. And they don’t succeed as well with shorter songs (we’re as surprised as you are). The riffs are still bitchin, but Hemisphere of Shadows starts to feel repetitive before the mid-point.

Standout tracks: “The Illusion Crawls”, “Shoot Straight With a Crooked Gun”
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Jacques A. Robin – Statuettes – Album Review

By
down.caster
– 01/09/2012Posted in: 3.5 Stars, Album Reviews, Rock
Northern Italian-born David Ariasso debuts his Jacques A. Robin alter ego on the spare, haunting Statuettes. It’s a delicate, overcast collection of baroque pop reflecting on stuff like loss and death, but without the typical, overwhelming density that you might expect art revolving around such themes. Fans of Antony and the Johnsons and Jens Lekman will be fast fans of Jacques A. Robin’s lush, dramatic musings and his steadfast fascination with the darker facets of seasons past. Although Statuettesfeels like an album written from a dark place, it’s infused with enough hopeful melody and moonlit arrangements to give it a balanced, inspiring temperament.

Standout tracks: “Josephine and the Lantern”, “Cathedrals in the Sun”

3.5 / 5

 

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