Portugal. The Man is one of the most hard working bands right now. Don’t believe me? Look at their back catalog, they release a stellar album every year and tour like nomads. The kind of hard work can be rewarding for the listener and certainly is with their fifth studio album, American Ghetto. Those signature drum loops and neo-soul beach sound is back from last year’s Satanic Satanist, but more prevalent and noticeable. It’s almost like they took a poll of what people loved the most about their last few albums and created American Ghetto. A bit of tease for those of you wishing for warmer weather, but once it comes, this will be playing in your car stereo non-stop. Highly recommended.
A-
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[mp3] Portugal. The Man – The Dead Dog from American Ghetto (2010)
With Embrace, the Santa Cruz-based retro-rock act Sleepy Sun has really worked through its influences, delivering a classic portion of new stoner/headphone rock. The band’s suitably named debut treads through the catalog of many a classic rock and folk artist’s greatest hits album, picking the best bits from Rainbow and Black Sabbath here, Mountain and Wishbone Ash there, as if these kids’ folks had good taste in 70’s classic desert rock, but not much else. It’s alluring to call the extensive, mesmerizing White Dove an “epic jam,” simply because it’s over 9 minutes long. But the song’s great male and female vocals find Bret Constantino and Rachael Williams howling like wolves of rock while hugely massive in some parts and quiet and moody in others. Besides which, it really is a great epic song, not quite up to par with the song suite from Rush’s2112, but surpassing anything similar by Uriah Heep. The rest of the record is eclectic without ever straying far from heavy, psyched-out prog-rock with touches of contrasting folk. The album is however, teasingly too short. It’s quite apparent that this album got the magic touch of producer Colin Stewart, who made Black Mountain’sIn The Future such a blazing rock record.
The Antler’sHospice is a smart, quaint, and often transcendent little pop record. The roots of the album seem to lie in Bear, a woozy, gorgeous song that sets the up-down emotion of the record. Lyrically it’s a breezy and hypnotic piece of work that relaxes the listener. The music is an elastic and very smart update to synth-pop and the melodies are crystal clear, while the unmistakable layering of each song is spartan and pretty. Forget the tags that have been thrown up against this music—Poptronica, Slow-Core? What the hell is that anyway? The tension of this album builds and releases at incremental moments. It just might haunt you hours after listening to it—begging you to return to get it’s message heard.
A -
The Antlers – Bear from Hospice (2009)
Sleepy Sun and The Antlers play at the Independent in San Francisco today at 9pm with Misty Mountain. The Antlers then go on to support Minus The Bear.
I wrote a short blurb about this band a few months back seeing potential in a whimsical and well structured act that could easily fill a room as soon as they establish an audience. I bought their album when it was only a buck ($1) and put it off to the side for the time being. Then I got a promo copy in the mail and put the hard copy in my car for those short drives to town.
So after several full listens, the album grew on me and is now more than just a combo of Arcade Fire and Beirut. While it may sound like an entire Swedish gypsy marching band playing modern songs as mournful ballads and upbeat rock, Fanfarlo’s first album, ‘Reservoir’, is largely a cumulative effort of many talented musicians soaking themselves in culture and genuine folkpop and danceable marches. Throughout ‘Reservoir’, the band augments its five-piece lineup with brass and string sections, weaving near-cinematic, folk-influenced chamber pop that slots in somewhere between Andrew Bird delicacy and the robust creative honesty of Neutral Milk Hotel. All of this builds and breaks the melodies under Simon Balthazar’s deep-voiced crooner vocals, swaying to the dreamy beats like a whacked out gypsy space-folk band that has experienced all the heartbreak, love, and death as one would at the end of their life’s journey.
Loud and gloriously heavy, the UK’s Band of Skulls’ ‘Baby Darling Doll Face Honey’ is scattered with cultural influences that give away the fact it was recorded with care. Produced, recorded, and mixed by Ian Davenport (Supergrass, Badly Drawn Boy) the album sometimes comes off overproduced but quickly makes up for it with some uniquely catchy tunes.
Just listen to the New Orleans blues-rock on “Light Of The Morning” or the swampy croon on “Blood”. But while there are a few twists here, from bassist/vocalist Emma Richardson’s commanding voice to the cat walk armageddon of “Death By Diamonds And Pearls”, ‘Baby Darling Doll Face Honey’ is nowhere near a dull album. Check out the startling, Stoogies-inspired “Hollywood Bowl,” while the deep bass line on “I Know What I Am” makes it a classic blues-dance track. But while some songs fly off into heavier realms, there’s plenty of mellower songs, notably the overtly melodic “Impossible.” And then there’s Russell Marsden’s plaintive, resolutely modest and yet theatrical voice that makes Band of Skulls’ ‘Baby Darling Doll Face Honey’ this year’s ‘Attack & Release’ (Black Keys).
B
Pre-order ‘Baby Darling Doll Face Honey’ here. (release date: 28th of July)
“Last year was a hard for such a long time, this year is going to be ours.”
You know when a huge movie blockbuster comes out the same weekend as a little no-name film? Like when Star Trek came out the same day as Next Day Air? Well that’s not a perfect example at what I thought of Akron/Family’s latest album, “Set’em Wild, Set’em Free,” but it’s close. When it comes to making free spirited folk-rock accessible, no one is doing it better than Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear right now.
Enter the well-respected and always diverse Akron/Family. If you’ve listened to 2007’s “Love Is Simple,” you know that this band is up there with the giants when it comes to experimental folk music. However this year’s “Set’em Wild, Set’em Free” seem to try to ride the accessible experimental folk train but end up barely hanging on. This does not mean it’s a bad album in the least bit. In fact that album is a blast with a host of unlikely instruments. The results are stunning, the complete antithesis of modern folk rock. Even that understates the depths of the now trio’s effortless vocal harmonies and gently woozy, dream-like feel. Of their contemporaries only the enigmatic Midlake and My Morning Jacket at their most rocking come close, but neither could have cooked up the Zeppelin-esqe spiritual of “Everyone Is Guilty” or its more emotionally epic companion “Gravelly Mountains of the Moon”. In fact Akron/Family’s “Set’em Wild, Set’em Free” is not about trying to be the “best indie folk band of 2008,” they’re more or so doing their own thing despite this influx of experimental folk coming down the pipe. It’s a dedication to ancient English folk songs and their later American descendants as well as 70s balls-out classic rock. They might get swept under the rug this year, but don’t let that stear you away.
Kata Rokkar is a place where you can download free mp3 from artists and bands that I currently love and listen to. They are only for sampling purposes and to influence you to go out and support these artists by purchasing their records and going to their concerts. If you are a record company or an artist that is displeased with a song being displayed, feel free to contact me and I will remove it ASAP. Thank you and enjoy!
