Archive for February, 2008

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Spotlight: Colin Stetson | Frantic jazz evocative, but dangerous to public

Matthew Montgomery

Colin Stetson / Courtesy of Fanatic Promotion
New History Warfare, Vol. 1 Releases March 4 on Aagoo Records

Let’s get one thing straight: it’s not everyday one runs into music like this — nor should it be. Colin Stetson performs a frantic, solitary-instrument jazz on the bass clarinet and bass saxaphone, and while it’s certainly not bad, it ventures far into the realm of experiment: This may be a good thing for you and I, but if the common man were to hear things like this on a regular basis, a backlash not unlike reactions to Frankenstein’s Monster might be unleashed. Still, the two tracks posted below, “Letter to HST” and “Groundswell” are interesting, evocative, and all those other adjectives you look for in music. Be warned, though: It’s not your grandpa’s jazz.

Colin Stetson — “Letter to HST” | download

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Colin Stetson — “Groundswell” | download

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February 27, 2008 Tags: ,
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Review: A Faulty Chromosome — As An Ex-Anorexic’s Six Sicks Exit, …

Matthew Montgomery

A Faulty ChromosomeReleased Feb. 19, 2008; self-released.

A Faulty Chromosome, previously the subject of a Feb. 19 MusicGeek.org spotlight, is an unruly shoegaze group; while they do pull from a variety of influences — and it’s evident, it’s not just some blurb on the band’s MySpace — they create music that sounds as if it’s all essentially the same song, repeated ad infinitum. It’s not a bad song, though, just a bit on the repetitive side.

A Faulty Chromosome — “Jackie O” | download

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February 25, 2008 Tags: ,
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Music Geek #9: Pre-mature expectation of spring cues mixtape musings

Matthew Montgomery

Matthew Montgomery wears funny glasses in a Cedar City, Utah park.As winter slowly phases out of season here in southern Utah, I’m drawn to the shocking realization that spring will soon be taking its place (as it does every year.) This, I suppose, isn’t actually shocking, but I am quite excited. What does this mean for me?

Well, for one, I’ll be able to go outside and take photos again. I suppose there was nothing stopping me, but I am a bit of a “wuss,” if you will, and am not terribly interested in having my hands freeze off. Can you blame me?

For two — and why don’t we ever say that? — it allows me to create a new playlist devoted to my regular walks from home to university and back! Now, I haven’t created one for winter, but I have realized that I often listen to the same styles of music when walking along snow-strewn sidewalks in the biting cold. So, rather than just trying to find styles that match these foreign weather patterns and attempting to conform to them a set of music, I’ll take it one step further.

I’ll make a mixtape!

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Spotlight: MEN

Matthew Montgomery

MEN / Courtesy of Girlie ActionJD Samson and Johanna Fateman of Le Tigre fame are making music under another name: MEN. Funny, I thought only one was a man. All bad joking aside, MEN produce a distinctive, fun electronic sound. “Make It Reverse” and “Shake Off,” both posted below for listening and download, are fun, addictive tunes that safely balance a modern perspective (or is it post-modern?) and a 1980s throwback feel (you know, in the vein of electroclash.) MEN are currently touring North America with Hey, Willpower.

MEN — “Make It Reverse” | download

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MEN — “Shake Off” |download

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MEN on MySpace

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Spotlight: Apillow | Ambience, minimalism make mark in small-run release

Matthew Montgomery

Apillow / via MySpaceLet’s get one thing straight: I like ambient, I like shoegaze, and boy, do I like post-rock. That said, you may have found many of the posts here to be of such a nature. What can I say? At any rate, today’s spotlight focuses on Apillow, a band with elements of all three styles I just expressed an affinity toward. Patrick Lacharité, of Below the Sea, is the sole producer of this quiet, uninvasive minimalism created in the fall of 2007. Leaves Winter Alone, released in October 2007 on thisquietarmy records, is limited to 200 initial CD-R copies by the label, so clearly, this isn’t out there to make a quick buck. Apillow embodies that appealing independence that too often goes missing from music generally: Even notoriously independent artists worry about making money from their music. For better or worse, Lacharité seems untainted, providing a fair bit of clarity to the world through soothing ambience.

Apillow — “The Dark” | download

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Purchase Leaves Winter Alone
Apillow on MySpace

February 21, 2008 Tags: ,
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Review: Palmer’s Medic – In a House, Surrounded

Matthew Montgomery

Palmer’s MedicPalmer’s Medic, an electronic recording project of a certain Seth David-Andrew Hubbard from southern Utah — Cedar City, Utah, to be precise about things — produces young, fresh music vaguely encapsulatable under genre titles of ambient house, trance, trip hop — terms of that nature. Ambiguous, isn’t it? But that’s the beauty of electronic music, I suppose. At any rate, from the get-go, In a House, Surrounded is an adventurous album: It doesn’t much fit under most specific categorizations (though some would argue that about all music, I am not one of those), which is a bit of a refresher from what’s come to be expected. Of course, most specific genres and descriptions are applied post hoc, so it may be a bit early to consider things of such a nature.

Palmer’s Medic — “M-900″ | download

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February 20, 2008 Tags: , ,
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Spotlight: A Faulty Chromosome

Matthew Montgomery

A Faulty Chromosome / Courtesy of Fanatic PromotionA Faulty Chromosome produces fairly engaging music that, while pulling from a variety of influences, maintains a fairly distinct shoegaze tone. At times a little offsetting, the band doesn’t “pull any punches,” per se, with their usage of several slightly grating guitar tones. Still, the two tracks I’ve posted below, “Jackie O” and” Them Pleasures of the Flesh” are interesting and worthy of a listen, but if you’re looking for the melodic tendencies of Lush, it’s probably best to work elsewhere. This band isn’t going to be known for ethereal, beautiful vocalizations, but more a more-or-less gentle sort of repetitivity that, while not the high point of musical achievement, does provide something interesting and surprisingly listenable, considering. Two tracks are posted below for listening and downloading, and a video is posted after the jump.

A Faulty Chromosome — “Jackie O” | download

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A Faulty Chromosome — “Them Pleasures of the Flesh” | download

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February 19, 2008 Tags: ,
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Spotlight: Cryv | Japanese shoegaze, huh.

Matthew Montgomery

Cryv / via MySpaceIt’s not often I come across something so compelling as this: Cryv is a Japanese shoegaze and electroclash group — they’re twin brothers — that, well, are far from bad. Yes, that’s really just a roundabout way of calling this band good, and they are deserving of more than such clumsy trepidation. Cryv isn’t well known outside Japan, it seems, as a cursory web search will reveal. It’s a pity, really, because this band is really very good. A video for “Lonliness” [sic] from their 2007 self-titled debut is posted below. Check out their MySpace for some tracks.

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February 15, 2008 Tags: , ,
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