Honey Is Cool: Early Morning Are You Working?

    If you'd ever heard of Honey Is Cool before now, I'd be surprised. I'd be less surprised that you knew who The Knife was or heard of singer Karin Dreijer Andersson, but even then I'd still be surprised. Honey is Cool is a now defunct Swedish indie alternative rock pop (pop not so much) group from Gothenberg who formed in 1994 and was popular in the late 1990's though CD sales were unsuccessful. Karin has since the break up in 2000 gone on to other projects, mainly The Knife, an "electronic emotional pop" group, which is what her and her band mate and brother Olof call it, but is really a new wave electro synth pop group that wears bird beak masks when performing. The knife has become much more famous than Honey Is Cool, having won a number of Swedish Grammis awards, an American Grammy equivalent. They actually refuse to attend the Grammis awards as a protest against male dominance in the music scene and did not performed live until 2006, when they first did so in 1999! Karin also put out a solo album, Fever Ray, in 2009, which has received critical acclaim, as an ambient experimental electronic album and she likes to also wear masks and do theatrical "artistic" things (seems common to Scandinavian artists i.e. Björk).

    So, Early Morning Are You Working is a little off the beaten track, meaning it's pre 2000 by a year, and it is self-produced by Rabid Records, owned by the members of Honey Is Cool. It also sounds a little grungy at times, especially with Karin's vocals, which can be whiny or scratchy or in your face with no apologies. So, along with the lo-fi style that isn't quite lo-fi on purpose perhaps is some unique music. The beats and rhythms are simple enough, but they are in little repeated sections, meaning a simple beat is established and then repeated along with a chord change or change of timbre in the instrumentation. But, what the rhythms are not is that same old boom chick basic rock beat that drives me nuts and screams for something more interesting and in my opinion a band might use because they have no real creativity or just don't know better. I do like how they use the organ on a few tracks, on "My Love is a Bell" in particular and the opening of the first song. There is a jungle animal "hidden track" just before that track and a lot of the tracks progress to jamming mode, just heavier, but not 10 minute solos or cacophony. There's good thought out progressions and fairly tasteful drumming, plus melodically they are pleasing to listen to, like "Something Above the Mountains". They also try and incorporate some non-traditional sounds, like bells or something that even might be trying to replicate a sitar or harpsichord on "Bolero". The only times I don't care for this group is when they are too grungy, Karin's voice sounds like it hurts to sing or they use electronic or synthesized sounds that are too distorted and overpowering in their attempts to be immersive like that last song on the album "The Giraffe".
    Honey Is Cool's two other main albums are Focky Focky No Pay (1995) and Crazy Love (1997) which has one song, "Then He Kissed Me", I quite like. I've uploaded "Bolero", which is nice and upbeat, and "Early Morning Are You Working?", which is more down tempo the second half and shows off the rest of their electronic grungy heavier style pretty accurately as well the first half, but with the cool organ section to start.

Just in...Omar Rodriguez-Lopez: Sepulcros De Miel

    I should preface this post by saying I love Omar Rodriguez-Lopez's creativity and music. That being said, I'm not that into Sepulcros De Miel (the May 30th release is a bit late for Just in...but it's still pretty new). Other recent albums, however, like Old Money (2008), Megaritual (2009), Cryptomnesia (2009), Xenophanes (2009), Solar Gambling (2009) and Ciencia de los Inútiles (2010), are fantastic! Yes, he put out that many albums within 2 years, and then three more: Despair (2009), which is more like sludgy ambient electronic music from John Cage; a live album Los Sueños de un Higado (2009) and a collaboration Omar Rodriguez-Lopez & John Frusciante (2010). Plus, another is in the works for a July release, Un Escorpion Perfumado. 
    Omar is a self producing artist, under Rodriguez-Lopez Productions (http://rodriguezlopezproductions.com/) but also produces for other bands family related or that include members of one of Omar's groups. The above albums have been put out under the guise of Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, El Trío de Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, El Grupo Neuvo de Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Quintet--all depending on the formation of the group. He does collaborate quite often too, and those albums are usually just titled like the above John Frusciante, who is the former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist. Omar is for sure most famous for being one of the two main members of The Mars Volta, with which he put out, most recently, The Bedlam in Goliath (2008) and Octahedron (2009), with another album rumored in the works. I've never known a more active multi-instrument musician, composer/songwriter, producer, film director or actor (yes he even starred in his latest 2010 directorial debut of The Sentimental Engine Slayer). All of Omar's albums with their really cool cover art can be seen at http://omardigital.rodriguezlopezproductions.com/, plus they can be downloaded, some for free with an optional donation to benefit "Keep Music in Schools".
    Sepulcros De Miel is hard to categorize as a type of rock. It is definitely progressive, experimental, somewhat psychedelic, somewhat funk or fusion and somewhat electronic. The eight tracks are labeled Part I-VIII and flow seamlessly together, which will make choosing one to put in the MixPod difficult. For me, the character of this album can be too chaotic, almost like free jazz can be, with too much echo, reverb or distortion (not in the typical sense with a guitar, but just kind of muddled with perhaps everything else going on). There are no lyrics, it's purely instrumental, which I miss (even if most of Omar's albums lately have been in Spanish) and has very little discernible melody. This is truly avant-garde rock music and if I could be so bold as to say, at it's best. I can honestly bet that you will not hear any other group quite like Omar Rodriguez-Lopez or the Mars Volta or any of his collaborations or side groups. Free download, or contribute to "Keep Music in Schools" at: http://omardigital.rodriguezlopezproductions.com/album/sepulcros-de-miel. "Part VIII" is in the MixPod and ends with an electronic beat that the album started off with. Enjoy...or at least expand your definition of music I guess.

Just in...Tokyo Police Club: Champ

    Here is the day you've been waiting for! Well, maybe just the day I've been waiting for, the arrival of Tokyo Police Club's sophomore release, Champ. Tokyo Police Club is a group I ran into somehow because of Vampire Weekend, maybe surfing wikipedia. I sometimes like to discover new groups by seeing what a band's "associated acts" are on wikipedia, to see who they tour with or what other groups members are in. Going back, I see that Vampire Weekend's "associate acts" are Discovery (who I already had heard of through WBER 90.5 "The only station that matters") and Ra Ra Riot (who I'd also heard of through Vampire Weekend and is actually a Syracuse band). Then, checking Ra Ra Riot's page, you can see not too far down that they supported Tokyo Police Club's North America tour, so that's how I stumbled on the goodness that is Tokyo Police Club. Sorry if that was a long winded, extraneous explaination!

    Before Champ, Tokyo Police Club put out two small EPs, A Lesson in Crime (2006) and Smith (2007), prior to their first full album, Elephant Shell in 2008. Their EPs are definitely more garage rock and punky with the heavier bass sound and I honestly haven't listened to them extensively like I have Elephant Shell, which has some pretty good stuff, short but memorable. I realized one day that I liked the Tokyo Police Club because I kept humming this riff in my head one day at work or something and went home on a mission to find out what song was driving me nuts! In short order I found it to be "Tessellate" which has a killer cool arpeggiated guitar riff start to the song. So my fondness for Tokyo Police Club grew out of that experience.
    Tokyo Police Club is an Ontario band, out of Newmarket, Canada. There's some good stuff coming out of Canada these days it seems...though I couldn't give you prime examples if you asked--it just seems like the music scene these days is more alive in originality in other countries than in the states. Ok, like Bend Sinister from Vancouver, who played for the Olympics, they're a rockin' band imo. Or, the fact that most of my posts so far have been about foreign bands or at least foreigners that now live in the U.S. Prove me wrong! That's a rant for you... Back to the topic at hand, Tokyo Police Club is of course tied to Graham Wright's album posted below and Champ is on the Mom + Pop record label, which I think is a cool name (like Frenchkiss Records who has the Freelance Whales).

Tracklist:
1) Favorite Food
-the opening uses some pretty cool dual speaker stereo effects (remember that thing you call a stereo is not because it plays music, it's because it doesn't have a mono speaker setup). Starts slow and amps the tempo suddenly and appropriately for the rest of the album.
2) Favorite Color
-the first five chords come straight out at you and are head bangin' awesome, this is a great song and those chords have already gotten stuck in my head. Tokyo Police Club has a thing for cool beginnings to songs and this is no exception.
3) Breakneck Speed
-The steady ostinato guitar sounds kinda like Pinback in this one. This was a single and is their longest (unmixed) song to date coming in at 3:44!
4) Wait Up (Boots of Danger)
-Upbeat with a fun get as close to the mic when recording for the falsetto chorus section. This was their other single.
5) Bambi
-I like the unique sound effect they got out of the...guitar...or synth, not quite sure.
6) End of a Spark
-This kind of takes the twangy guitar sound of perhaps a steel folk guitar and converts it to their indie style. There's a lot of different guitar sounds in this album actually, keeps it interesting.
7) Hands Reversed
-Honestly, not my favorite song of theirs, it's kind of dopey with its mellow "hands reversed" chorus.
8) Gone
-Almost a slow ska rhythm (just imagine a trumpet or trombone added) or reggae feel to this with some electronic sounds and harpsichord baroque pop sound-a-like too, pretty cool mix.
9) Big Difference
-Another cool guitar solo, not super technical but fills the gaps between most of these voice heavy--but not too much just enough to hear the lyrics clearly--verse or chorus dominated songs. I actually like that aspect of their song writing.
10) Not Stick
-This has like a syncopated synth pop sound with some lyric content unsuitable for all ears (if I'm even discerning what they say correctly).
11) Frankenstein
-Interesting harmonic line progression going on at the start with the distorted effect switching to clearer background guitar and then more muffled electronic muffled block chords.

    After writing up all this, I find the creative use of guitar or synth sounds and effects is really what makes this album enjoyable, fresh each time listening and keeps me coming back; they are definitely not like Pinback, for example, which only uses one guitar sound and the same singing voice in all their songs. Tokyo Police Club is a worthy bearer of the torch of post-punk revival. Enjoy the track "Favorite Color" I added to the MixPod.

Massive Attack: Heligoland

    Trip-Hop is not a genre that I know much about, but apparently, Massive Attack, who's been around since their first album release in 1991 with Blue Lines is one of its forerunners. In fact, trip-hop is often referred to as the Bristol sound, which is where the band is from, Bristol. To better give an understanding, trip-hop is sort of a down-tempo electronic music, like Björk's music most of the time.
    Massive Attack is made up of duo Robert Del Naja (a.k.a. "3D" or just "D")and Grant Marshall (a.k.a. "Daddy G" or just "G"). One former member is Andy Vowels (a.k.a. "Mushroom" or "Mush"). The threesome originally met in the mid 1980's as part of a Bristol group, or "sound system", called The Wild Bunch, a group of DJs and artists that played various club scenes in Bristol and London and sound-clashed other sound systems. Another aspect of the Bristol underground that became popular in the early 1990's was graffiti and Robert Del Naja was in fact a graffiti artist turned MC.
    Heligoland is Massive Attack's most recent album, coming out just this year (2010), and from which I heard the song "Girl I Love You" on WBER, 90.5 Rochester "the only station that matters". I figure this album was a long time coming, as their previous album 100th Window was put out in 2003. Nevertheless, there are some unique songs on this album that are worth checking out:

Track listing:
1) Pray for Rain
-vocals by Actor/Singer/Director Tunde Adebimpe, who is known for his role as the groom in Rachel Getting Married alongside Anne Hathaway; Brooklyn based band, TV on the Radio; and created the music video to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs song "Pin".
2) Babel
-vocals by Martina Topley-Bird, British vocalist who has a small solo career and has collaborated with Tricky, another trip-hop act. Her voice works really well with the atmosphere of this album.
3) Splitting the Atom 
-additional vocals by Reggae artist Horace Andy. This song has clear reggae influence and it is interesting to hear the different styles of all 3 voices as Del Naja and Marshall sing too.
4) Girl I Love You 
-vocals by Horace Andy again. Cool driving song with this deep deep bass plugging away throughout and an interesting set rhythm during some points.
5) Psyche
-vocals by Martina Topley-Bird again. This is like a splash of Muse thrown in, with arpeggiated chords
throughout and some really cool progressions that are so reminiscent of Absolution.
6) Flat of the Blade
-vocals by Manchester band Elbow member Gus Garvey. This has perhaps the most electronic base with lots of samplings and break beats. It sounds like Radiohead and Björk too when the synthesized string and brass sounds comes in.
7) Paradise Circus
-vocals by Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star and Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions. There is a cool
chord progression played on the vibes and piano in this song.
8) Rush Minute 
-vocals by Robert Del Naja. This is another driving song with growing intensity and nice use of syncopation in the drum set that makes it sound like mixed meter.
9) Saturday Come Slowly
-vocals by Damon Albarn of the virtual band Gorillaz. This is a more melodic song that continues to grow as layers are added.
10) Atlas Air
-vocals by Del Naja. He has such a whispered but deep raspy voice. This uses some cool electronic manipulation as the song kind of fades away.

    Well, all that said, it is very difficult to explain how this group sounds, but they are definitely imo worth a listen with how unique they are and just the history behind trip-hop and the Bristol scene and how this group had such a large part in that. I especially love how they collaborate with so many different artists and how they seemingly carefully select the exact vocal sound they want for each song and its individual style. A fun fact about Massive Attack is that their song "Teardrop" from their album Mezzanine is the opening theme to the hit TV show House. Finally, make sure to scroll through the MixPod player to find two tracks: "Psyche" and "Flat of the Blade".