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Neutral Milk Hotel — In the Aeroplane over the Sea

Nov 26 2005
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 Title: In the aero­plane over the sea
Artist: Neu­tral Milk Hotel
Style: “In the Aero­plane Over the Sea is a per­so­nal album but not in the way you expect. It’s not bio­graphy. It’s a record of ima­ges, asso­cia­tions, and threads; no sin­gle word desc­ri­bes it so well as the beau­ti­ful and ove­ru­sed “kalei­dos­cope.” It has the crac­ked logic of a dream”
Review: Pitch­fork
My Rating: 9/10

Paavoharju — Yha hamaraa

Sep 21 2005
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 Title: Yha hama­raa
Artist: Paa­voharju
Style: “Rag­nar Rock, Olli Ainala, and Lauri Ainala hail from the island town of Savon­linna. The asce­tic born-again Chris­tians recor­ded Yha hama­raa bet­ween 2001 and 2005, set­ting their Emer­so­nian lyrics (all sung in Fin­nish) to a fluc­tua­ting electro-acoustic back­ground that threads short-wave, field recor­dings, reg­gae beats, pin­ball sounds, sun­ken sea shan­ties, Sublime Fre­quen­cies radio scram­bles, the som­ber choir of a back­woods con­gre­ga­tion, ope­ras made of cheap elec­tro­nics, spec­tral female voi­ces (with the occa­sio­nal male bird song), cham­ber muses, mid­night ambiance, and omni­pre­sent crac­kles.”
Review: Pitch­fork
My Rating: 8/10

Before The Blues — The Early American Black Music Scene, Vol. 2

Sep 6 2005
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 Title: Before The Blues: The Early Ame­ri­can Black Music Scene, Vol. 2
Artist: Various
Style: “Given that the his­tory of recor­ded blues corres­ponds roughly with that of the record industry, the com­pi­lers of the three-part Before the Blues series may as well be dig­ging around in the Gar­den of Eden for old records. The digi­ti­zed scratches on many of the 69 songs inc­lu­ded say one thing about this music: it’s old! And won­drous. We tend to attri­bute babe-in-the-woods inno­cence to music recor­ded under the shor­te­ning sha­dow of the 19th cen­tury, when William Howard Taft was still wadd­ling about and auto­mo­bi­les and air­pla­nes were novel. But these songs pro­vide evi­dence that bloodshed, subs­tance abuse (mostly drin­kin’ and cokin’), and com­plex human emo­tions were hardly taboo sub­jects for rural America’s musi­cal pio­neers. Volume 2 of the Yazoo triad of CDs is high­ligh­ted by selec­tions from a few august blues­men (Blind Lemon Jef­fer­son, Char­lie Pat­ton) and a bunch of long-forgotten black enter­tai­ners (Geeshie Wiley, Gol­den P. Harris). In tan­dem, they pro­vide a win­dow upon a time when recor­ded music was just fin­ding its foo­ting” — Ste­ven Stol­der
Review: Ama­zon | Yazoo Records | AMG
My Rating: 8/10

“A fas­ci­na­ting and highly enter­tai­ning explo­ra­tion f the early roots of black music in Ame­rica. This pio­nee­ring pro­ject depicts the rich Ame­ri­can musi­cal scene that exis­ted throughout the 1800s with clas­sic per­for­man­ces of rag­time, old modal songs, break­downs, ballads, reli­gious music and more. Fea­tu­red here are great per­for­man­ces by many of the most legen­dary names in Ame­ri­can music his­tory, and this pro­ject follows the evo­lu­tion of blues from its early modal pre­cur­sors and early fun­da­men­ta­list reli­gious music. Exten­sive notes and pho­tos com­mu­ni­cate and exci­ting sense of dis­co­ver, and outs­tan­ding remas­te­red sound qua­lity brings these rare old recor­dings to life.” — Yazoo Records Blurb

Trac­klist:
1. Dallas Rag — Dallas String Band
2. How Long — Frank Sto­kes
3. Skin Game Blues — Peg Leg Howell
4. K.C. Moan — Memphis Jug Band
5. Just A Spoon­ful — Char­ley Jor­dan
6. Dog­gone My Good Luck Soul — Hat­tie Hud­son
7. There’s A Brown Skin Girl Down The Road Somewhere — Eck Rober­tson
8. You’re Going To Leave The Old Home Jim! — Lulu Jack­son
9. Deep Blue Sea Blues — Tommy McC­len­nan
10. Cold Mor­ning Shout — South Street Trio
11. Been Lis­te­ning All The Day — Blind Joe Tag­gart
12. Mis­sis­sippi Bo Wea­vil Blues — Char­lie Pat­ton
13. I’ll Lead A Chris­tian Life — Gol­den P. Harris
14. The Old Folks Star­ted It — Min­nie Wallace
15. Vine Street Drag — Ten­nes­see Cho­co­late Drops
16. It’s Nobody’s Fault But Mine — Blind Willie John­son
17. Last Kind Word Blues — Geeshie Wiley
18. Gui­tar Stomp — Roland & Scott
19. Jack O’Diamond Blues — Blind Lemon Jef­fer­son
20. Reu­ben Oh Reu­ben — Emry Arthur 

M83 — Before the Dawn Heals Us

Aug 22 2005
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 Title: Before the Dawn Heals Us
Artist: M83
Style: “Anthony Gon­za­lez goes it alone for album three, upping the drama by laye­ring electro-acoustic sci-fi back­drops atop […] dia­lo­gue (writ­ten by his brother), and then buo­ying it all with a mas­sive noir choir. From the buz­zing night­time Blade Run­ner sky­line of the cover art to lyrics inves­ti­ga­ting car wrecks and dis­lod­ged brains, this is a mam­moth collu­sion of synth gasps and dis­tor­ted swirls, dar­ker and more urban than its meadow-bound pre­de­ces­sor. ”
Review: Pitch­fork
My Rating: 8/10

Various Artists — Camping (Bpitch Control)

Aug 3 2005
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 Title: Cam­ping (Label: Bpitch Con­trol)
Artist: Various inc­lu­ding Kiki, Ellen Allien, Mode­se­lek­tor, Smash TV
Style: “A sim­ple mix-and-match of the best cuts from the label’s dis­co­graphy, Cam­ping show­ca­ses six years worth of per­mu­ta­tions of Ber­li­nes­que techno and techno-pop. From the goofy bass­li­nes of Housemeister’s “Do You Wanna Funk” and the gloopy voco­de­red pop of Smash TV’s “Sad” to the razor-sharp techno of Feadz’ “Lt Replay” and the per­sis­tent glitch of Modeselektor’s “Don’t Panic”, it pole vaults from one style to another, with only a stead­fastly Ger­ma­nic spi­rit hol­ding it together.”
Review: Pitch­fork
My Rating: 7/10

Trac­klist:
01 kiki — luvv sikk 3:54
02 syl­vie marks & hal 9000 — we elec­tric 3:19
03 paul kalk­bren­ner– stein­beis­ser 3:28
04 ellen allien — wish 3:42
05 mode­se­lek­tor — don’t panic 3:52
06 syl­vie marks & hal 9000 — blu­tens­pab 3:31
07 sascha funke — forms & sha­pes 3:53
08 paul kalk­bren­ner — queer­fe­llow 3:36
09 kiki & sil­ver­sur­fer — wasp 3:50
00 10 ellen allien — sehn­sucht 3:50
00 11 hou­se­mei­ser — do you wanna funk 3:58
12 tim­tim — atwa­ter ca appa­rat mix 3:19
13 feadz — lt replay 3:50
00 14 tomas anders­son — numb 3:41
15 ellen allien — stadt­kind 3:23
16 smash — tv sad 3:46
17 sascha funke — when will i be famous 3:35
18 kiki — end of the world 3:49
19 smash tv — what about me 3:49
20 tim­tim — patron of the bad come­dians 3:24

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