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WHOOP-Szo, Qallunaat/Odemin

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qallunaatodemin

Qallunaat/Odemin, the latest from WHOOP-Szo (this incarnation: Adam Sturgeon, Kirsten Palm, Gnathan and Starr Campagnaro), is a double album, recorded mostly in the village of Salluit, in the Québécois part of the Canadian Arctic, while Sturgeon and Palm were running a screen-printing program with Inuit youth.

The songs are, collectively, an odd but dazzling musical kaleidoscope. Here, you hold it, I’ll spin the wheel for you:
 
Amaruq (feat. Larry T) is the first song on Qallunaat, and is a low-fi pop song.
 

They’ve built their nests, in the chimneys of my heart; those swallows that you’ve lost is both the title and an appropriate summary of this delicate, sweet little song, also from Qallunaat:
 

Kirsten Time is the second song on Odemin and it is an eccentric, dreamy ambient delight limned with the perfect amount of distortion and fuzz.
 

And finally, Mirror North, the last song on Odemin which starts out – not boring, certainly, but – like the soothing routine of necessary tasks done against the background of snowscape – and ends in the unexpected cracking of the pack ice.
 

For the rest, stop by their bandcamp page.

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Wax Fang, The Astronaut

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Wax Fang - The Astronaut Cover

The Astronaut, by Wax Fang, is everything you would want from a space opera: lush, sweeping, majestic, a little bit mysterious, and, since it’s about a lone space traveler who gets separated from his vessel, sucked into a black hole, and made into an interstellar god, a little bit tragic, too.

After I had listened to it a couple of times, I had some questions for the band:

Why a space opera?

We wanted to do something big and bold, something experimental and transcendental that was in accord with our tastes in art and music. A metaphysical musical adventure set in the deep reaches of outer space just seemed like a perfect fit for us.

At first I thought the three singles [The Blonde Leading the Blonde, Hearts Are Made For Beating, King of The Kingdom of Man] were independent of the space opera, but after repeated listenings to both works, the singles now sound, to me, like they should be part of the space opera. Were they conceived separately, or in conjunction with the opera? Why were they released separately?

The singles were all written long before the idea of the Astronaut came to be and, as such, have little, if nothing, to do with one another, save that they all come from the same place, that is, us.

How, if at all, does Alpha Man fit into the narrative universe of the space opera?

In my mind, each of our songs is its own microcosm. Therefore, Alpha Man and the Astronaut inhabit separate universes (or alternate dimensions of the same universe, perhaps?). But who am I to tell you what to believe?

And with that, dear readers, here is The Astronaut, in its entirety, so that you may decide for yourselves:
 

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A Good Read A Good Listen and a Good Drink: Klassik

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It’s a simple yet sublime pleasure, and just thinking about it can make you feel a little calmer, a little more content. Imagine: You bring out one of the good rocks glasses (or your favorite mug or a special occasion tea cup) and pour a couple fingers of amber liquid (or something dark and strong or just some whole milk). You drop the needle on the jazz platter (or pull up a blues album on your mp3 player or dig out that mixtape from college). Ensconcing yourself in the coziest seat in the house, you crack the spine on a classic (or find your place in that sci-fi paperback or pull up a biography on your e-book reader). And then, you go away for a while. Ah, bliss.

In this series, some of NTSIB’s friends share beloved albums, books and drinks to recommend or inspire.

YRP (Young Rising Phenoms) is Klassik’s follow-up to In the Making, and it is a heady, ambitious mixture of hip-hop, jazz and soul. The first single, Boogie, is built around a sample of Blame it on the Boogie by the Jackson 5 and will definitely make you want to put your dancing shoes on.
 

Klassik “Boogie” Music Video from DADO on Vimeo.

 
But there is more than one way to party. And so here is Klassik to tell us about some of life’s quieter pleasures.

A Good Drink
A sazerac will do me just fine. Unless I have to make it (I am not handy behind a bar, in a kitchen, or really in any food & beverage capacity haha). Then it’s just Black Label on the rocks. Scotch is perfect for all occasions; well, at least that’s what I tell myself. So, I’ve got my two ice cubes, and I’ve got my glass about a quarter filled. Step one complete.

A Good Listen
Now we need tunes? I’m gonna have to say one of the multitudes of Steely Dan greatest hits collections. I grew up loving that particular blend of jazz/progressive rock and immaculate production. The songwriting was always beyond my comprehension as a youngster, but with scotch in hand, I can relate to the darkness, beauty, and irony of a song like “Deacon Blues”. The horn arrangements, the sax solo at the end. Bliss.
 

Steely Dan - Deacon Blues

 
A Good Read
We’re almost there, but we need a good read, huh? Admittedly, I don’t read nearly as much as I like to, but I really enjoy deep, philosophical and/or inspirational literature. My most favorite as of late, and a perfect balance to the deacon’s blues (see what I did there) would be Don Miguel Ruiz’s The Four Agreements. Chock full of guidelines to keep your spirit righteous, and ways to keep the positive energy flowing. Somehow all of that mixed together, the scotch, the Steely Dan, and some philosophical food for thought, keep me inspired and center me when life gets a little crazy.

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Three Songs From: Oiseaux-Tempête

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Photo by Michael Ackerman, Agence Vu

Photo by Michael Ackerman, Agence Vu

Oiseaux-Tempête, formed in Paris in 2012, is Frédéric D. Oberland (guitar, dark energy, keyboards, alto sax, field recordings, voice), Stéphane Pigneul (bass VI, sampler, analog delay, voice), Ben McConnell (drums, percussion) and Stéphane C. (field recordings, videos, photographs).

Their first, self-titled release is a multimedia (music and images) project that is a reaction to the recent, ongoing political and economical unrest in Greece. Their songs are not protest songs, but rather a dark ambient soundtrack for a revolution. In some instances, also a live recording of the revolution, as some of the tracks include field recordings made in Greence in 2012 and 2013. The images that form the other half of the project are included with the liner notes, and there is also a short film in the works.

Here are three songs – two long, one short – to serve as examples and enticement:


 

 

 

Oiseaux-Tempête Official Facebook

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Two Songs From: Passenger Peru

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Passenger Peru (formerly Pet Ghost Project) is: Justin Stivers (vocals, guitar, bass, synth, drums, drum machines) and Justin Gonzales (vocals, guitar, synth, piano, samples) and their latest self-titled release, due out next week, was recorded in Brooklyn and Alaska.

According to their bandcamp their genre is neo-psychedelia mixed with garage rock and noise pop, which I’d say is about right. There’s certain amount of dreamy noodling but it’s dreamy noodling with weight and discernible structure.

Here are two songs from the record:

Heavy Drugs: Because you can only escape for just so long; sooner or later reality will force itself to your attention. Here is a song you can listen to in the last few golden moments before the hammer comes down.
 

Dirt Nap: It is what it says on the tin – a meditation on death – but an oddly soothing one.
 

Passenger Peru is available on tape and digitally; the digital version comes with two additional songs, including cover of My Bloody Valentine’s Don’t Ask Why as well as four (!) free Pet Ghost Project records.

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Video: Foy Vance, Regarding Your Lover

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Foy Vance is from Northern Ireland, but has spent a good deal of his life rattling around the American South. Last year he released Joy of Nothing, which won the very first Northern Ireland Music Prize.

This year, he will, among other things, be appearing at the Shaky Knees Festival in Atlanta.

I’ve been listening to his Daytrotter session for the last couple of days, and while all of the songs are great, Regarding Your Lover is the one I really love.

 

Foy Vance - Regarding Your Lover // The Live Sessions

 

Want more? Head over to his Soundcloud.

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Video: Empires, How Good Does It Feel

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Empires, scrappy little band of my heart (Chicago division), is getting ready to release a new record, to be called Orphan.

As a preview, they’ve put out the video below, for How Good Does It Feel. The edges are a little less jagged than they usually are, but the propulsive energy is still there and Sean van Vleet’s voice is still the perfect seductive blend of silk and whiskey.
 

Empires - How Good Does it Feel Live From the Basement

 
In other Empires news, they will be headed out on tour of the Midwest starting in February:
empwintertour
 
For further updates: see their Facebook and/or Twitter pages!

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Song-Catcher: The Adventures of Blackwater Jukebox

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geordiebook_

Geordie McElroy of Blackwater Jukebox is one of my all-time favorite storytellers, and I am super excited to report he has gathered up some of his best tales of ethnomusicology derring-do – previously published in Schlock! webzine – and made them into a book called Song Catcher: Adventures of Blackwater Jukebox.

You can read a sample on the Blackwater Jukebox website.

The book will be available as a free download from Amazon today (January 16) through Saturday (January 18) so be sure to go over and get a copy.

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The Paraffins, Subhuman

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The Paraffins are from Glasgow and Subhuman is their second record.

It’s also a dramatic change of pace from their previous work. Created during and partially inspired by a long Ayrshire winter, Subhuman is dense, gloomy, and maybe a little bit claustrophobic. Like being snowed in, in an old house that creaks at random times and maybe has a ghost or two rattling crankily in the attic.

Hippopotamized is not the first song on the record, but it is the first one I listened to. Continuing the house metaphor: this would be playing when the door to the front parlor banged open of its own accord and you got a good look at some of the things on the walls.
 

Deep Space: for when you have put the kettle on and settled down to read the old journals you found in one of the bedrooms, while the wind whips the snow around outside.
 

Intrigued? You can listen to the rest of it at their bandcamp page.