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Flowers of Hell, a Space Rock Symphony in 16 Parts

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on March 24, 2009

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Flowers of Hell, a Space Rock Symphony in 16 Parts

Big day at the blog office. We’ve heard two amazing records just today, which is amazing considering that all three of us are total haters – the new Lotus Plaza, and this mysterious offering from a massive cluster of trans-Atlantic musicians called Flowers of Hell.

I don’t care if no one told these guys that it’s not the late ’90s anymore and post rock is no longer en vogue and/or what the kids are listening to these days. Fuck the kids. The Flowers of Hell’s Come Hell or High Water is one of the sickest, most moving collection of songs I’ve heard in some time, and is unequivocally the first great album of 2009.

Actually, that’s not fair. Flowers of Hell are not exactly post rock in the strictest sense. Sure, the music is instrumental and tends to gravitate toward tension-and-release compositions. Make no mistake, though, there’s a fresh, revelatory element in their sound. I saw someone describe the record as “classical music for shoegazers,” and I have to agree.

“Opus 66″ opens the record right, taking a few pages out of the Do Make Say Think book, cultivating a crescendo that you could only measure in axehandles. All the ingredients for chamber rock is here – strings, piano, lots of reverb, tremolo-saturated guitar, et al. Where Flowers of Hell carve their niche, though, is the incorporation of electronic flourishes and psychedelic boogie reminiscent of Spiritualized’s mid-career work. This makes sense, as good ol’ Sonic Boom performs on the album – not to mention members of British Sea Power, Bat For Lashes, Broken Social Scene, John Cale’s touring band, The Earlies, Guided By Voices, The Clientele, Do Make Say Think, The Hidden Cameras, The Ecstasy Of Saint Theresa, Tindersticks, The Early Years, and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. To add to the general radar blip this group exudes, band member and producer Greg Jarvis is a synaesthetic. Something to the effect of 3% of the world’s population has this gift: “The composing, recording, arranging, and mixing of Come Hell Or High Water was done largely by following timbre-to-shape synaesthetic visions. Synaesthesia is a neurological phenomenon where two senses are intermingled… With timbre-to-shape synaesthesia, sounds involuntarily trigger a translucent visual layer of moving shapes which follow a consistent audio-visual language. ‘I see sounds,’ explains Jarvis, ‘When I hear sounds, I see each timbre in front of me as shapes that follow patterns, often gliding, pulsing, and swirling with the rhythm and timing interlocking them all. Each timbre behaves differently, and that’s the main reason we’ve got such a variety of instruments on this album.’”

“The Inovcation” adopts a tribal rhythm with vintage electronic pings and pulses in the vein of the BBC Radiophone Workshop. “The Strength of String” is pure cinematic score – the foreboding mood of Morricone, but with a lot more melodic quality. “Bleumschen” ropes in a Faust/Neu motorik meets Loop-style fuzz sludge climax that totally slays me. Well-placed moments of dissonance (i.e. “Forest of Noise”) are peppered throughout the record as well, helping to establishing an overall experience as jarring as it is pleasant. The minimal beauty of Mogwai’s EP+2 is stretched across a full band canvas on album closer “Occasional Tears.” Considering the amount of musicians involved – 16 total – expect to hear a little bit of everything, including but not limited to: chamber pop, post rock, space, ambient, drone, and heavy fuckin’ metal. Basically, you’re an asshole if you don’t like Come Hell or High Water.

And zounds! Czech this video. The 8mm projections in this live performance really add the visual ambience that I wish more artists offer. I think this was recorded from their opening set for My Bloody Valentine. I might be wrong. Either way, my evening would’ve been a lot of better if the Flowers opened for MBV’s Chicago show instead of that shitty-ass Hopewell band.

Not to sound lame, but The Flowers of Hell offer everything I, personally, enjoy in my music. Fuck guitar solos, fuck wankery – make your music sound awesome. Sure, it’s nothing that you haven’t heard before, but Flowers of Hell offer the lush soundscapes, thick melodies, panned psychedelia known in the state of California to cause brain melting, and movements that, I would say, are rather triumphant.

Come Hell or High Water is out April 6 in Canada/The UK. Can’t tell if it will be available in the states or not, but you can grip it here.

Fagen-Becker Quality Rating
steelydan1 Flowers of Hell, a Space Rock Symphony in 16 Parts

MP3 :::
Flowers Of Hell – Opus 66 (Part 1)
Flowers Of Hell – The Invocation

Lotus Plaza – The Floodlight Collective

Published

Michael Hansen

on March 24, 2009

in Praise and Malaise

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51UL6AxTPrL._SS500_ Lotus Plaza - The Floodlight Collective

Lotus Plaza is the solo outing of Deerhunter guitarist Lockett Pundt, and yes, it does sound like band mate Bradford Cox’s project Atlas Sound, but Pundt’s balmy atmosphere on The Floodlight Collective stands in direct opposition to Cox’s self-described fall/winter sound. Pundt, having been the inspiration for many of Deerhunter’s tender moments, proves to be wholly capable of producing his own brand of sedate nostalgia.

Keeping with the sock hopping doo-wop debuted on Microcastle, these ten tracks further explore the ambient tidings that narrated half of Cryptograms. We can hear Pundt drawing influence from Kompakt’s Pop Ambient series, especially through the evaporating synths and muffled incantations of tracks like “Antoine” or “These Years”. In addition to knowing when to pull the plug, these songs ascend their modest structures because of their spirited delivery that inhabits each layered track, saving them from turning stagnant. In truth, out of all Deerhunter related material, The Floodlight Collective is the most natural fit for Kranky Records thus far.

While these hazy reveries are the bedrock of the album, the standout moments are the ones with some kick to it. The blissful charmer “Quicksand” borrows the playful chaos and choral singing of Person Pitch and glues it to some over-exposed surf rock, creating an elevated garage rock hymn. Another highlight, the kraut-rock carousel “A Threaded Needle”, sounds like Neu! if they were Sunday drivin’ in the countryside instead of tearing up the Autobahn.

To our dismay, these cuts with a strong sense of identity out shadow the ones in a quandary. It can be difficult to seamlessly move from the bold tracks to the less confident ones like “What Grows?”, which evokes b-side Weird Era Cont., and without a full band, comes off sounding a bit irresolute. Floodlight Collective is fleeting, and hard to grab a hold of, but at the same time it is undoubtedly accessible, charming, and engrossing. If Brian Eno’s original intent for ambient music was for it to “accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular,” then Pundt’s debut effort is a success. There’s enough going on in the mix to warrant multiple headphone listens, but it gels together so effortlessly that it can serve as perfect background music as well.

The Floodlight Collective is available now on Kranky.

Fagen-Becker Quality Rating
steelydan2 Lotus Plaza - The Floodlight Collective

MP3 :::
Lotus Plaza – Antoine
Lotus Plaza – The Floodlight Collective

Tim Hecker – An Imaginary Country

Published

Kenny Bloggins

on February 25, 2009

in Praise and Malaise

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61VymBVPGlL._SS500_ Tim Hecker - An Imaginary Country

Tim Hecker is not nearly as celebrated as he ought to be, though this notion presents quite a dilemma. His influence stretches far and wide – you hear him in everything from ambient-minded Boards of Canada and Fennesz to pop-oriented M83 (before they sucked it) and Manitoba, to artists that blend the two extremes like Broadcast and Pram. Hecker’s vision and innovation is remarkable, but many of his interpreters have, in some ways, released superior material to him. It parallels the auto industry in a sense – Hecker is the GM to BoC’s Toyota, ya know? That’s certainly a bummer. To this end, Hecker may have realized that some of his more ambient wandering might benefit from a little pruning. Thus, An Imaginary Country.

Out on Kranky on March 10, An Imaginary Country is one of Hecker’s more concise works. However, the sound doesn’t deviate too much – Panopticon-sized swells of warm electronic architecture and lots of spacious, slow-burning textures. “Utropics” ropes in a rather fluid, shoegazey sound a la the Goslings (though less evil). “Currents of Electrostasy” features the aquatic, pinging electronic static hums with an Atomic Age twist that make Ghost Box releases fascinating to listen to. “The Inner Shore” hones in on the subtle melodic beauty that made Hecker’s previous project Jetone so remarkable to the IDM crowd (minus the rhythm, of course). However, very little sticks out beyond these aforementioned movements.

Though Hecker’s recordings are always a mysterious embryonic journey, I think he’s overdue to take back his tradmark sound and expand it into new sonic territories. There’s no doubt how exciting it would be. But An Imaginary Country is all old-hat, save for a slight but possibly insincere sense of urgency. Boreds of Canada indeed.

Fagen-Becker Rating for Quality:

MP3 :::
Tim Hecker – Utropics
Tim Hecker – Currents of Electrostasy

Odd Nosdam – T.I.M.E. Soundtrack

Published

Kenny Bloggins

on February 11, 2009

in Praise and Malaise

. 0 Comments

51yeJ1wqUOL._SS500_ Odd Nosdam - T.I.M.E. Soundtrack

I love Odd Nosdam. Love him. I love Clouddead. I think Mr. Dave Madson is a visionary musician, far beyond any and all labels ascribed to him. Odd Nosdam is incredibly prolific, and though I’ve loved every album, remix, and collaboration so far, an artist with as expansive of a repertoire as his is, statistically speaking, bound to misstep every now and again (for my taste at least). T.I.M.E. is that misstep… sort of.

Anything from Odd Nosdam that one could consider a “misstep” is still unequivocally an enjoyable listen and decent record, something that cannot be said for 99% of indie rock right now. For me though, when an artist has truly carved a niche, or really mastered an original and brain-burnin’ sound, I hate to see him/her/them deviate too much. Though experimentation is the cure for stagnation, Odd Nosdam’s signature sound is so extraterrestrial that I don’t think he need worry about becoming stale… ever. Continue reading ‘Odd Nosdam – T.I.M.E. Soundtrack’

All Your Base are Belong to Belong

Published

Kenny Bloggins

on December 15, 2008

in MP3

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up-belong All Your Base are Belong to Belong

Sure, the best-of list is already out, but I would be remiss to not take this opportunity to admit missing a few pretty good recordings this year. New Orleans’ Belong was one of them, and I stumbled upon said artist by way of a time machine. I was rummaging through a stack of old magazines when I found a copy of Arthur from the summer of 2006 – the one with Brightblack Morning Light on the cover and their interview where they talked about how rad they think nature is. I had read “Heavy Air” before, a much better title for an article on Belong than the stupid Internet meme I referenced. However, something really struck a chord with me reading it this time around. But more on that in a minute…

Belong’s latest is called Colorloss Record. It dropped a while ago, actually. But I’m slow at the punch sometimes. Colorloss Record is a collection of covers, though you probably wouldn’t discern that from just listening. It doesn’t sound like any of the originals. Therein lies the power of Belong, covers or originals – Belong appropriates elements of shoegaze, ambient, minimalism, and drone without falling into or sounding like any of the aforementioned genres. They sound like a pop band through a thick filter, like listening to a neighbor’s stereo. Really unusual, and pretty exciting. The volatile surges and swells of balmy, warm analog noise peppered throughout invoke the eroded and washed haze of William Basinski’s The Disintegration Loops by way of Kevin Shields. Despite hailing from a warm and humid climate, I must say that Belong sounds quite majestic as the soundtrack to the silent and cold winter night we’re enjoying here in Louisville tonight.

Belong is Turk Dietrich and Michael Jones, and both gentlemen probably have a lot of love for Tim Hecker, Lichens, and the Goslings. But on Colorloss Record, they show a love for the likes of Syd Barrett, July, and Tintern Abbey, laying to tape some obscure covers in a completely unrecognizable, sonically aquatic fashion. Dig “Late Nite” and “My Clown,” por favor. Yes, the music really is supposed to sound something like the transmission of an extraterrestrial and/or underwater shortwave station broadcasting distant psychedelic pop music, and it’s unabashedly balls to the wall. Totally otherworldly. Continue reading ‘All Your Base are Belong to Belong’

10 Million Strong and Growing

Published

Kenny Bloggins

on August 20, 2008

in MP3 and News

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growing 10 Million Strong and Growing

Not to be one of those morons that likes to be nostalgic about the ’80s even though your hippocampus was not developed enough to hold many memories of it because you were fuckin’ five years old… BUT, if you were born in 1984 like me, the Flintstones Vitamins jingle has been permanently burned into your cerebral cortex. The person who wrote it made a lot of money, I’m sure. As such, every time I think of the band Growing, this melody pops in my head. Not exactly the tune you want to have circulating in your dome whilst Growing is ripping a hole in the sky immediately above you. Continue reading ‘10 Million Strong and Growing’

Cloudland Canyon Ain’t Nothin’ to Fuck With

Published

Kenny Bloggins

on August 15, 2008

in MP3

. 0 Comments

cloudlandcanyon Cloudland Canyon Aint Nothin to Fuck With

About 10 years ago, Art Bell, then host of late night alien and conspiracy theory-themed radio program Coast to Coast AM, aired the frightening urban legend recording “The Sounds From Hell.” It’s an unsettling clip, but also morbidly fun. It’s also completely a hoax (literally speaking, not theologically). The origin of this sound is as follows: Soviet scientists drilled a hole nine miles deep in the heart of Siberia to study plate tectonics. When they hit a heat pocket, their drilling equipment was destroyed, followed by the sound of millions of screaming souls. As any good scientist would do, they whipped out the mics and recorded it.

I tell this anecdote as it relates the feeling I get when I hear Cloudland Canyon, and subsequently, when I feel my face melt off my skull. I don’t believe in hell, but I believe in nine mile deep holes. And at the entrance of such a tremendous cave, portal, the dark and cavernous chasm reaching deep into foreboding stretches beyond our measly surface existence, is the sound of Cloudland Canyon. It’s huge, it’s beautiful, but it’s teeming with trepidation. If they ever make a film adaptation for Mark Z Danielewski’s House of Leaves, Cloudland Canyon should produce the sound of the ever-expanding house. This is the biggest thing on the planet. Cloudland Canyon, should their discography get too prolific, will knock our planet right off it’s fucking orbital plane. Continue reading ‘Cloudland Canyon Ain’t Nothin’ to Fuck With’