Foxygen - We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic (2013)

Foxygen es un dúo multiintrumentalista compuesto por Jonathan Rado y Sam France que se dedica a hacer rock psicodélico con muchas referencias al pasado. En su primer EP "Takes The Kids Off Broadway" lograron de una manera muy distintiva sonar a muchos artistas a la vez, cada canción progresaba y tenía cambios inesperados, lo cual hacía del EP una mezcla interesante de influencias y ritmos caóticos pero agradables. Para su álbum debut repiten la fórmula pero esta vez con las influencias mucho más canalizadas y canciones mucho más cortas pero mejor organizadas y compuestas.

El álbum comienza dando la bienvenida al que escucha con la canción "The Darkness", aunque irónicamente muchas de las canciones del disco hablan de cultos y Dios y cosas simplemente abstractas como un buen disco de música psicodélica de los sesentas.

En el álbum la banda se centra en darle una influencia a cada canción, fácil de distinguir en la historia, nostálgica, pero con calidad suficiente para que se sostengan por sí mismas. Sí, es un álbum que fácilmente pudo haber salido en 1974, pero eso no le resta relevancia o calidad en 2013.

"The Destruction", la segunda canción, es una balada que evoca música de Velvet Underground con una cadencia similar a la de Bob Dylan, además letra juguetona sobre necesitar alguien que venda drogas en el metro pero queriendo no seguir con una personalidad adicta, de todas maneras la música suena muy inductiva a drogas como para ser muy firme la intención; sin duda una canción que marca el tono al resto del disco y se mantiene como una de las mejores.

El segundo sencillo de la banda "San Francisco" también destaca con una influencia mucho más difuminada del rock psicodélico de principios de los setenta o finales de los sesenta. La letra es un poco más abstracta con demasiadas referencias de cosas sin conexión entre ellas y con una música infantil que ha tratado de ser recreada por otros artistas nuevos como MGMT pero nunca respetando la pureza inicial del género.

"Shuggie", el primer sencillo destaca por ser una de las canciones más cortas del disco pero a la vez la que más variedad y cambios tiene, excelente balada que pone en evidencia la capacidad que ha desarrollado el dúo en crear diversidad en cortos espacios de tiempo, además ejecutada de forma impecable; mucho más parecida a la influencia de Bowie que otras de las canciones del disco.

También tiene coqueteos con música de garage en el interlude instrumental "Bowling Trophies" y la balada "Oh Yeah" pero con la pureza del sonido y variedad de instrumentación que resultaba ser más común en bandas antañonas como The Kinks. "On Blue Mountain" y "We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic" coquetean con el Rockabilly, "On Blue Mountain" evocando por momentos la versión de "Suspicious Mind" de Elvis Priestley.

"On No 2" es una balada espacial, momento que influenció mucho la música picodélica de principios de los setenta, David Bowie o Jefferson Airplane, y llevó la música a sonar al futuro aunque que ahora suene al pasado.

Extrañamente Dios también parece ser un tema constante del álbum pero nunca de forma moralizante o verdaderamente religiosa; tal vez por eso habla de dar la bienvenida a la oscuridad en la primera canción, pero la verdad es que nunca llega a adentrarse en una oscuridad intencional o real. Con este álbum Foxygen demuestra su habilidad para cruzar géneros y para que suene nostálgico pero relevante en estos tiempos.

Tracklist:

1. In The Darkness
2. No Destruction
3. On Blue Mountain
4. San Francisco
5. Bowling Trophies
6. Shuggie
7. Oh Yeah
8. We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic
9. Oh No 2

Rate: 9/10

Puro Instinct - Headbangers In Ecstasy (2011)

The girls of Puro Instinct are two young sisters that dropped out of school to make music; they got into the Shoegaze inspired sounds and (one more line to the tiger) entered the world of Lo-Fi artists; for their first full length, they teamed up with none other than critically acclaimed underground artist Ariel Pink, and that alone created a huge expectation. The bands original name was Pearl Harbor, under that name they released an EP, but when they changed to Puro Instinct some things started to change.

For starters, the sound keeps being very California, a lot of sun and beach and boys and heartache, The difference is that in Pearl Harbor the sounds where clearer, and this time around the message gets lost in too many production tweaks, the voices are unattainable, hidden far away behind reverb and overwhelming bass line, and on top of it the singing is always a little bit out of key, something that did not happen when they where Pearl Harbor. Now is just sloppy and lazy, and it seems on purpose; just not cute like in the Scarlett Johansson cover record of Tom Waits (for example). For this new project they relied on the reverb and the sounds happening and not on the quality of what was coming out. Of course, even this fact doesn’t make the LP a terrible one, just never nails a pretty high up. In the “California Shakedown” track, for sure one of the already known ones of the LP, accompanied with very somber guitar arpeggio, a very protagonist bass and a guitar solo with a very shy singing under that overdone reverb, the song still doesn’t come out with the same freshness as the ones in the Pearl Harbor EP.

For an album called Headbangers In Ecstasy, it comes a moment when the headbanging and the ecstasy just gets lost, the interludes hardly make sense or accomplish the idea of making the album sound like a complete music experience. The songs go from sexy and fun to somber, or overwhelming lost between production tweaks; for example “Lost At Sea” has the beach summer love tune, with a lot of indie pop of the late 80’s and early 90’s musical references singed slightly out of tune, still the naivety of the music reflects a lot of immaturity and stand on the production and not on the quality of the song on its own.

In the somber sides of the LP, when the headbanging and the ecstasy is already lost, great moments appear, but they are not well used, take for example “Escape Forever”, when the use saxophones starts to make the song rather sexy, airy and kind of resembling a wet dreamy, and then you hear chilled guitars on top of dry drums that don’t seem to mix with the rest of the instrumentation at times, the airiness you where feeling just starts to fade away, but still all the variations are interesting and enjoyable, making possible to overlook everything, but the singing is what really kill the song (for me) , once again shy and out of tune voices hidden in the background. If the album was called “Slightly Out Of Tune” everything would have made a lot more sense.

I love the fact that this girls are young and interesting, and are not afraid to embrace psychedelic noise and mixing it with dream pop and indie pop, the idea of not wanting to do a straight forward album and complicate it a little is very respectable. What’s actually good about this album is that it is very South Carolina but didn’t settle to do another Lo-Fi record following the steps of Best Coast, these girls are very promising and I’m sure I’ll be expecting to hear more from them, for a debut of two young high school dropouts they demonstrate that they can do something productive with their time. The LP is not mind-blowing but is pretty descent, not a single song I hated, nor a really solid, excellent one.

Tracklist:

1. KDOD 1

2. Everybody's Sick

3. Lost at Sea

4. KDOD 2

5. Silky Eyes

6. Slivers Of You

7. KDOD 3

8. Stilyagi

9. Escape Forever

10. KDOD 4

11. No Mames

12. Vapor Girls

13. California Shakedown

14. KDOD 5

15. Luv Goon

Rate: 6/10

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Fergus & Geronimo - Unlearn (2011)

Unlearn of Fergus & Geronimo captures the magic of vintage sounds of classic rock and a lot of consciousness of being in the vanguard. You can easily distinguish new and old influences. For starters, they come from Texas (and I'm not saying that if it comes from Texas is good...but if it comes from Texas is good) where the scene if very indie oriented and there are a lot of different streams running around allowing wonderful creative force.

They mix fun in a kind of Of Montreal way of making lyrics in songs like Wanna Know What I Would Do? and also mix very classic rock vintage melodies with straight up love songs like Powerful Lovin', followed right back with the psychedelic mood changing Baby Boomer/Could You Deliver, and then the 70's 90's vibe of with a dash of british post punk BMichael Kelly, followed by the kind of Rolling Stone sound of Baby Don't You Cry and so each and every song keep bringing new colour, almost each song could easy be related to one different influence and sound, but overall the LP doesn't lose it's cohesive discourse, only talent can make each and every song different and still sound like every song was meant to be.

Despite the previous garage sound they had in their 2009 singles, this time around they deliver a much more clean and produced sound, still with the feeling of being made in a garage but without the Lo-Fi sound of that sort of production.

The single Where The Walls Are Made of Grass is probably the most experimental with sort of ethnicaa Peruvian folk on the down with a very rock on the top and a drunk trumpet appearing every once in a while an acoustic guitar makes little interventions every now and then. From that moment on there's another rock, another ballad another new, another old, everything sounding in its right place and in the precise moment. I'd say this LP is not only one of the fun ones of the year, but also one of the best making seriously good music without taking it so serious, it shows that this guys are having fun but producing good thins out of it.

Tracklist:

1. Girls With English Accents
2. Wanna Know What I Would Do?
3. Powerful Lovin'
4. Baby Boomer/Could You Deliver
5. Michael Kelly
6. Baby Don't You Cry
7. Where The Walls Are Made of Grass
8. The World Never Stops
9. Forced Aloha
10. Could You Deliver
11. Unlearn

Rate: 8.6/10

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Sonic Youth - Simon Werner a Disparu OST (2011)

The guys from Sonic Youth need no introduction, they are a band well know in the indie and mainstream scene doing what they do best...experimenting, they switch from one genre to the other always leaving a mark of their signature style everywhere, they are so unique that even when the members do individual stuff, the mystique and power of the band rises above and creates a personality of its own.

Sonic Youth might be known for a lot of guitar jaming and reverbed introductions to songs that build around the presence of Thrustone Moore, but for the Simon Werner a Disparu the instrumentation it’s all we got, and let me tell you its fantastic! The music has mystery and life, lonesome, despair, angst. Everything with the Sonic Youth trademark, very psychedelic and experimental, reaching high levels of noise and then echoic mysteries, but also use very dry drums and fun classic rock vibes, like in the track Dans les bois \ M. Rabier, the music in here has it all except voice, but remember after all it is a soundtrack, and a very good one. When people listen to scores like Tron with mega bands like Daft Punk you cant help but wonder what would people think of the work made by the duet in the score when compared to their previews work, and the thing is that one listens to Tron's score and there are very few moments you feel Daft Punk's presence, but in Simon Werner a Disparu this is not the case, there is a very traditional Sonic Youth sound made for the purpose of looking good in the screen and in for the image.

I say job well done, and they stayed true with who they always have been taking the opportunity to d0 something different with their signature style, not compromising their vision with the vision of the director.

Tracklist:

1. Thème de Jérémie
2. Alice et Simon
3. Les Anges au piano
4. Chez Yves (Alice et Clara)
5. Jean-Baptiste à la fenêtre
6. Thème de Laetitia
7. Escapades
8. La Cabane au Zodiac
9. Dans les bois \ M. Rabier
10. Jean-Baptiste et Laetitia
11. Thème de Simon
12. Au Café
13. Thème d'Alice

Rate: 7.6/10

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Tame Impala - Innerspeaker (2010)

The band Tame Impala is an australian band that evolved form another band called "The Dee Dee Dums" both lead by Kevin Parker.

The sound of this secund LP of Tame Impala "Innerspeaker" is much more dreamy than the previous one, making of this one a real psychodelic journey with coloured haze.

This has the regular band formation (guitar/bass/drum) and this is not an impediment for the experimentation in setting a mood for a song.

A really classic rock song like "Expectations", an instrumental Psychodelic piece like "Island Walking", a fun swirling guitarr in "Solitude Is Bliss", are what expected from a Psychodelic band but they do it in a less obvious way. Pitchfork reviewd is as "an album's album-- it sounds best as a piece, where you can get lost in its heady expanse", and this is because the album has a lot of influences that come through and to all the stoner 60's and psychodelic music lovers this album is the better reference of 2010.

Tracklist:

1. It Is Not Meant To Be
2. Desire Be Desire Go
3. Alter Ego
4. Lucidity
5. Why Won't You Make Up Your Mind?
6. Solitude Is Bliss
7. Island Walking
8. Jeremy's Storm
9. Expectation
10. The Bold Arrow Of Time
11. Runway, Houses, City, Clouds

Rate: 8/10

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