Conquering Animal Sound...Kammerspiel

     Conquering Animal Sound, comprised of Anneke Kampman and James Scott, is a duo out of Glasgow and is receiving a lot of critical praise for their February 7, 2011 debut release, Kammerspiel. BBC reviewed the album as such: "By doing a lot of little things well, without making any grand gestures, Glasgow duo Conquering Animal Sound have here crafted a delightful debut album which tinkles and buzzes, chimes and crackles with real promise. It feels like a debut in the senses that one senses there’s plenty more to come – but at the same time, it’s a satisfyingly complete listen, a fully rounded full-length which rewards repeat listens with the discovery of charming new details and nuances." Fairly high words for a freshman LP, as most introductions are just tastes of the real genius a band is, most of the time, only able to produce after another album or two. The only other work offered thus far by Conquering Animal Sound is a single, "Bear/Plinch". Both are produced by Gizeh Records.
    German for "Intimate Play", Kammerspiel, is a fitting name for the album. Each track is a sublime form of ambient background, electronic loops and glitches, metallic chinks and clanks and the carefree child-like innocent singing voice of Anneke. Her voice is even immediately being hailed as a fitting counterpart to the likes of female experimental electronica pop singers Björk (particularly her earlier albums such as Homogenic--1997, and Vespertine--2001) and Karen Dreijer Andersson (known from Fever Ray,  electronic duo The Knife and former alternative indie band Honey Is Cool). As with Björk, are often split into multiple parts,  creating intricate harmonies and counter melodies too.
    If there is any criticism I might have of the record, it is that overall the tracks blend together because of fairly similar ideas, repetitive instrumentation and song structure. There are a few songs that delve a little deeper into a minor key, which is nice, "Bear" and "Neanderthal" for instance. Even so, most songs do not blossom naturally as they could; rather, they seem to shift in and then fade out as they came.
    Regardless, Kammerspiel is worth a listen or two. While the first might have you puzzled as to its true nature or beauty, subtlety, the second might find you rather enjoying Conquering Animal Sound. Listen through full songs too, as just flipping through does not do any justice. Check out the entire album here on Gizeh's website, streamed through SoundCloud. Nothing in the MixPod as I am again having difficulty with the file hosting site disappearing off the face of the internet and simply not loading (as you may have noticed many of the tracks in the MixPod are not playing off and on...) EDIT: started working again, check out probably my favorite track, the opener "Maschine" in the MixPod, which reminds me of Freelance Whales; anyway, enjoy!

Upcoming...Clock Opera: Belongings

    Relative newcomers to the music scene, it appears, Clock Opera could start to garner more and more attention after a recent appearance at SXSW (South By Southwest) and with the release of their upcoming single, Belongings. Slated for a May 9th (download available) release, through Moshi Moshi Records, Belongings is two tracks, "Belongings" and the b-side "Let Go the Lifeboats". To date, Clock Opera has only put out singles, such as White Noise (Dec. '09), A Piece of String (June '10) and Once & For All (Nov. 1, 2010). The music video for Once & For All was also presented at SXSW along with a concert (see it here), though I do not know what their set list consisted of.
    It does not appear that Clock Opera has actually released more than a handful of songs. They are quite well known for making remixes of various artists songs along with their own, a few of which have recently released, such as Architecture in Helsinki's "Contact High" and Tracey Thorn's "You Are A Lover", which just came out Saturday the 16th. The song I came to know Clock Opera through was on Chuck, season 4, episode 19; "Church Vs. the Muurrder", titled "Move to the Mountains". Somehow the song is not available to the public yet, and no word was announced of its existence until it just showed up. Some fans have started a Facebook petition to have the song released, pledging that they will be willing to pay $$ for it. Doubt that is going to happen, but kudos to them for trying (and creating another useless Facebook petition).
    A little bit about the group, Clock Opera is a four man electronic pop band from London. They are: Guy Connelly, vocals, guitar and samples; Andy West, bass, guitar and synths; Che Albrighton, drums and samples; and Dan Armstrong, samples, synths, keyboards and backing vocals. They particular point out admiration for the music of Steve Reich and Phillip Glass, both minimalist composers, though Steve Reich is especially known for his use of tape loops, or pieces that play along with a pre-prepared tape. The whole idea with a tape is that it does not change, so everything with Clock Opera, I assume, is exactly how they want it. They are also self-classified as concrete, or with editorial liberty, musique concrète; which means that it is not limited to voice or instruments that the listener can see. In fact all electronic music could be labeled as such, but musique concrète is linked to using machines that pre-date computers, synthesizers and midi. I think the intention behind calling themselves musique concrète goes back to the precision of created sound and use of more organic materials to do so. They also say on their MySpace that they are Dutch pop, which would be basically a subgenre of hardcore techno called gabber, but that is certainly not true; so I guess they were joking [about that and melodramatic popular song].
    Hear "White Noise", "A Piece of String" (fantastic!) and some remixes on their Facebook page here. The remixes are under the 'BandPage' tab on the left panel. Yes, a lot of bands are making Facebook one of their many homes--along with MySpace, PureVolume, a regular website--theirs is here btw with a free download of "Once & For All (Little Loud remix)". Since Belongings is not out yet, instead of having their song in the MixPod, I'll send you to SoundCloud, where Moshi Moshi has the 7" available for listening; enjoy it here! (P.S. I hope you noticed the 'Upcoming' tag, maybe I'll try to do more of this in the future)

Stateless: Matilda

    Stateless fairly recent sophomore release, Matilda (Feb. 21, 2011), is a bit hit or miss for me. Started in 2002, the English group's trip-hop borders on hip-hop, with heavy bass akin to someone's car driving by blaring and shaking the entire road, when you wonder how the passengers have any hearing left, which is a style I care little for. Luckily, such implementations are left to a few tracks, and the rest reside more in the vocal focused haunting electronica background of trip-hop world. I am also drawn to intriguing harmonic uses, though, in general, they fall short of how well used they could be; because the harmonies do not develop enough past just a few interesting chords (i.e. "I'm on Fire").
    Overall, the alternative nature of this record is grungy and yet incorporates elements of clarity in its vocals that remind me of Elbow, which would have Britpop written all over it, if it contained more of a pop, less hop, sound. Clearly, Stateless is following a recent trend of more dance-like albums, not just in a club scene sense, but with waltz beats drawn from classical music; the track "I'm on Fire" (Shara Worden from My Brightest Diamond contributing vocals) is almost like a volga boat waltz, with moments of Radiohead and the simple pop song duo from the movie Once (2006). Adding strings, Romanian group the Balanescu Quartet, is a really nice touch on the later tracks on the album as well, though the quartet is not of a super high caliber (or are just not recorded very well--maybe they wanted it to sound very raw and slightly untuned, because the solo in "Song for the Outsider" is phenominal). I think Stateless had the folk aspect of the quartet in mind when they wrote songs, because there is a definite Balkin or Eastern European folk influence in some tracks, namely "Song for the Outsider", the single "Ariel" (almost a Balkin lute/guitar type instrument sound) and "I Shall Not Complain" (with accordion in the background).
    I am a huge fan of the cover art, the CD being released on the Ninja Tune label digitally with a bonus song, "Matilda", which I have not been able to hear--the rest of the album is on their MySpace here. A 2CD, 2LP physical release includes an all-instrumental version of Matilda as a b-side almost, like Rob Dougan did with Furious Angels. As a whole, the album progresses nicely from the more dance club oriented sounds to folk oriented, smoother and melodiously soothing, ending nicely with "I Shall Not Complain", as if saying: "everything may not be perfect, but I am content nonetheless".
    I have left you with "Song for the Outsider" in the MixPod, it encapsulates Matilda's overall style the best and I love the violin solo, enjoy!

Just in...Rubblebucket: Omega La La

    Amidst a lot of discussion I've heard lately--concerning the best course of action for contemporary bands, to maintain profits and survive, being to release shorter albums, EPs or just singles--Rubblebucket has decided to release a full album, their second studio LP, Omega La La. The album is actually due out June 7th, but last night, I believe, they posted the option on their website of a free download of its entirety. I'd wager that is a pretty bold move that will help them grow their fan base in the long run as well; because, in order to download you have include your e-mail and the e-mails of four friends, and Like the band on Facebook. It seems that free downloads requiring being added to mailing addresses or e-mail accounts to confirm the download are becoming quite popular with bands these days. I've downloaded a number of free tracks this way, from Scattered Trees (whose album Sympathy is out now!), The Strokes, and plenty of remixes of Tokyo Police Club (to name a few). Rubblebucket has also put together some nice pre-order packages and will be selling Omega La La at upcoming shows, see their site here for dates and locations (they are coming as close as Syracuse, where they have come before).
    Right away, I perceive a much lighter style with Omega La La compared to their debut, Rubblebucket. I hear more synthesizer chords that just lay out and provide harmony, along with less grunge alternative that you may remember from "Ba Donsa, We Did This"--still in the MixPod. They are still very folksy, with afrobeat and jazz-ish brass/saxophones, but particularly I hear more of a groove. The bass and rhythm sections are finding grooves and sticking with them, not as much complicated meters. The second track "L'Homme", for example, is that kind of ever present bass that goes back and forth and almost gets annoying after a while (I do love the French they sing in for that track though, as it makes me feel like I'm on the beach in the Mediterranean or something). "Silly Fathers" and "Triangular Daisies" are almost borderline synthpop, but mixed with funk and maybe a bit of psychedelica (not the long solos and jam type though, more the drifting atmospheric kind). "Came out a Lady" reminds me of the previous album the most, perhaps they wrote it first. This album even has some semblance of baroque pop, using the synth as almost a harpsichord sound in "Rescue Ranger", and broken or arpeggiated chords  in "Breatherz (Young as Clouds)" (which starts sounding just like a Mice Parade song!). The track that convinces me the most that Rubblebucket is growing and changing styles a bit is "Lifted/Weak Arms", in which the atmosphere is very ambient with synths and like a dark jazz club with the band playing contemporary progressive jazz the likes of Maria Schneider or something--there's even some feel of metal in the bass and guitars towards the end. The last track, "Pile of Rage", is also very different, slow, dream pop and space rock-ish, while completely psychadelic.
    Well, that is a pretty good preview of the 11 track LP, Omega La La, check it out and download it here. I will have the first track, "Down in the Yards" in the MixPod, because I love the middle sections with the jazz organ hits. You can hear more on their website, follow either links provided and make your way to the main page to hear "Silly Fathers" and "Came Out a Lady". Enjoy another solid new album release!