BATTLES: Mirrored (Warp Records)

BATTLES
Mirrored
WARP156
Warp Records 2007
11 Tracks. 51mins52secs



Buy it: CD | LP
Battles | Warp Records

The problem with such a stellar live act as Battles is that, whether they try to capture the energy of their performances or polish their music in such a way that it becomes a completely different entity, they are likely to ultimately disappoint. Battles are certainly in such predicament. Hailed as one of the best contemporary live acts around, the band’s fist three EPs, released between 2004 and 2006, never really sought to showcase their stage performances, yet they clearly informed the relationship between the four musicians, and consequently cemented the music. But Battles were still to demonstrate their ability to carry this onto a full length, which is now done with this debut album.

Labels don’t serve Battles well. The one that seem to have been created for them especially, ‘math rock’, being the most incongruous of all. As the quartet effortlessly dispatch mind-bending pieces one after the other, debris of rock, jazz, funk, metal and electro fly by without ever sticking up for long, clearly indicating that the point of the band is somewhat well beyond pigeonholes.

Nothing is quite as visceral and essential as the anthemic tribalism of first single Atlas. With John Stanier’s flamboyant drumming firmly at the centre of the piece, echoing the band’s traditional stage formation, the rest of the band massage acerbic guitar sections, rumbling bass lines and twisted electronics into a relentless groove, with reluctant front man Tyondai Braxton adding filtered vocals, at times reminiscent of early Animal Collective, over it all. Over the course of the track’s seven minutes, Battles fast-forward, slow down, pause, rewind and start all over again to create a true classic. In comparison, the incendiary Ddiamondd is abrasive and arrogant, as if the band had spontaneously combusted and were rushing to get through the track before going up in smoke.

The next three tracks are more subtle and show some restraint, starting with the surprisingly level headed Tonto, a magnificent slice of sturdy modern rock with enough balls to withstand a drastic change of pace in its second half without showing any sign of losing focus. Next, the short and sweet Leyedecker is refreshingly tuneful and damn catchy. This is the calm before the many stormy circumvolutions of Rainbow, an ambitious tale of avant-rock on which the quartet change direction almost constantly, juggling melodies and fiery arrangements with disconcerting ease. The piece concludes in somewhat subdued fashion as the band reach an atmospheric shore on which Braxton’s vocals resound with impressive magnitude.

On tracks such as the engaging opening Race: In, or the dramatic Tij, the band establish a clear groove from the outset and pretty much stick to its incandescent driving force all the way through. The album concludes with the brooding Race: Out, with Stanier originally forcing rumbling drums onto the scope before Ian Williams and David Konopka begin an exchange of phrases from their respective sides.

Battles is like an ego war in reverse. While each member contributes essential components to the overall sound, the sum of their collaboration is greater than any single intervention, which pushes the focus solely on the music. This is a state of affair with Battles live, and it is on this record too. Although Mirrored might surprise and disconcert, its impeccable cohesion and visionary perspectives reveal a band at ease with its experimentations and willing to push ahead.

MIRA CALIX: Eyes Set Against The Sun (Warp Records)

MIRA CALIX
Eyes Set Against The Sun
WARP150
Warp Records 2007
10 Tracks. 62mins37secs



Buy it: CD
Mira Calix | Warp Records

Hot on the heels of her collaboration with pianist Sarah Nicolls and arranger David Sheppard as Alexander's Annexe and over three years after the stunning Skimskitta, Mira Calix returns with her most ambitious record yet. Building on her orchestral work with the London Sinfonietta and with Alexander's Annex, she presents here a rather diverse and expensive collection of complex electronica.

Calix, real name Chantal Passamonte, has been digging her own singular groove on the electronic scene deeper with each release, pushing further into field recordings and experimentation. The former Warp PR girl's unique blend of miniature sound collages have been made up of everything from urban pollution to insect noises, although, since relocating to Suffolk, the bulk of her sound stock comes from the countryside surrounding her studio. Her instinctively adventurous work has led to commissions coming thick and fast in recent years, from Geneva's Natural History Museum with the infamous Nunu, to London's Barbican Centre, which were compiled on Three Commissions, released two years ago to pieces for art installations and dance companies.

While OneOnOne was quite a dry affair and Skimskitta had a very organic feel, Calix follows yet another path for this third album as she magnifies intricately woven minute sound formations and turns them into vast pastoral symphonies. Where others spend their energy cleaning samples and polishing their production, she thrives on trials and errors, going as far as adding grit and 'accidents' to her compositions to accentuate the realism of her music.

The album opens with the delicate and acidic Because To Why, which features a school choir recorded while rehearsing with Alexander’s Annex. The composition appears very much an extension of her more recent work as Chantal Passamonte applies gossamer sonic layers, alternating between treated vocal elements and a lonely violin while running water and environmental drones can be heard in the background. Later, Protean works in similar fashion, with its birds and forest noises placed against a dense orchestral theme. The epic The Way You Are When is even more intense, blossoming from a light string section into a more complex array of voices, creaking interferences, clattering industrial matter and orchestral debris, which, although rarely crossing paths, all seem connected and impacting on each other.

The Stockholm Syndrome is a rather more unhealthy proposition. Sounding like a nasty experimental Siouxsie Sioux clad in distorted electronics, with Calix lazy voice weighing the atmosphere down, there is an element of discomfort here which makes the track stick out uneasily. Elsewhere, the litany of Eeilo offers a stark contrast to the rich formations of aforementioned pieces with its lone piano and minimalist settings, while One Line Behind uses treated sections of the school choir heard earlier layered over a dense orchestral framework. The closing hidden track is a short sequence of the choir chanting the album title.

While her two previous albums collected a great number of often short compositions, Eyes Set Against The Sun shows a move toward more expensive pieces, which undoubtedly coincides with Mira Calix's increasing involvement with contemporary classical music. The album doesn’t actually seem quite as coherent as Skimskitta and sometimes feel as the reflection of a transitory period in Calix’s work. Yet, there is much to explore on this record as she continues to craft elegant sonic tapestries, ensuring her music remains as challenging, intriguing and entertaining as ever.

WARP:2006 - What A Rapturous Party!

Warp have published the 2006 release summary I wrote for them. It is available on the Warp website as two pieces. The first one, reviewing their releases for the first part of the year, including Prefuse 73, Battles, Jimmy Edgar, Nightmares On Wax, Plaid and a few more, was published last week, and the second part, with bits on Broadcast, Grizzly Bear, Clark, The London Sinfonietta and the rest of the label's releases for this year, was published this week.

You can check the full article here:

Part one | Part two

SQUAREPUSHER: Hello Everything (Warp Records)

SQUAREPUSHER
Hello Everything
WARPCD148CD
Warp Records 2006
12 Tracks. 63mins41secs



Buy it: Ltd Edition CD | CD | LP
Warp Records

Four years ago, Tom Jenkinson was asking 'Do You Know Squarepusher?' If the album that hid behind this title lured you to think that you did, think again. With his eighth album in eleven years, Tom Jenkinson shakes off his compulsive beats and driving grooves in favour of a much more chilled and eclectic sound.

Tom Jenkinson burst out on the electronic scene in the mid nineties with a series of EPs for Spymania, Rephlex and Worm Interface, and a debut album published on Richard D James's Rephlex. A seasoned self-taught bass player and drummer, Jenkinson's particular blend of experimental drum'n'bass dipped in a bubbling bath of digital jazz and acid house and his seminal live performances rapidly brought him a huge following, Since, he has cleverly set the pace for his contemporaries with each new release by cleverly dodging expectations.

Hello Everything marks the most radical revision of the Squarepusher template since Music Has Rotted One Note. While there are echoes of the frenetic electro-bop of past releases, more prominently on Hello Meow, Planetarium, Welcome To Europe, Plotinus or The Modern Bass Guitar, the emphasis has overall switched to the melodic aspect of Jenkinson's work, revealing in the process more than ever his spotless production skills. Here, Tom Jenkinson scatters jazz crumbs in the most conspicuous way (Theme From Sprite, Bubble Life, Rotate Electrolyte), injects elements of folk on the wonderfully delicate Circlewave 2, revives his interest for avant-garde sonic explorations on Vacuum Garden and Orient Orange, scissors his way through epic rhythmic patterns and febrile synthetic waves on Plotinus, all with the same consistency and devotion.

As the title suggests, highlighted by a selection of pictures of instruments ranging from an acoustic guitar and a drum machine to a xylophone, a drum kit and a bass guitar, all played by the same person, the ubiquitous Tom Jenkinson is once again responsible for playing every last instrument on here and also assumes full production duties. This certainly contributes to Hello Everything feeling extremely consistent, despite the varied approach adopted. Here, Jenkinson appears more liberated and opened to new influx of ideas. Rumours has it that he is, since the release of Ultravisitor, free from contractual duties with Warp, which could have contributed to the liberated feel of this album. Whatever the reason, Tom Jenkinson has produced with Hello Everything his most accomplished record since Music Has Rotted One Note, and perhaps his best record to date.

CLARK: Body Riddle (Warp Records)

CLARK
Body Riddle
WARPCD149
Warp Records 2006
11 Tracks. 42mins21secs



Buy now: CD
Throttle Clark | Warp Records

It’s been three years since Chris Clark unleashed his Empty The Bones Of You box of delights and promptly reaffirmed his position as one of Warp’s most promising talents. This sophomore effort wasn’t so much revisiting his early musical escapades, as heard on Clarence Park, as totally reinventing his sound, turning it upside down to strip it out of its puppy fat and refocus. Having since lost his first name so people wouldn’t ‘wasted oxygen on “Chris”’, Clark returns with Body Riddle and once again goes right back to the roots and settles new scores.

On first listen, Body Riddle shares more than a few similarities with its predecessor: fat synthetic sounds, rolling rhythmic patterns, heavy bass lines and acute melodic sense. Yet, as his limited Throttle Furniture EP, released earlier this year, pre-empted, everything here is more detailed, more fine-tuned, as if the man had spent the last three years locked up in a studio manually building every single bar of this record. This is fine craft. Here, Clark layers his sounds with incredible precision, at times blending strings, electronics and beats into one big conglomerate of textures, at others assembling infinitely small sonic details into magnificently light and airy compositions. Shimmering melodies appear from nowhere and infectious grooves rise from the most unlikely soundscape without disturbing a single moment the dense fabric of this record.

Right from the start, Clark hits hard and scores high. Her Barr is remarkably ambitious and complex. Built on countless tectonic layers, the mood persistently changes from dream-like sequences to dark and gritty industrial noises, incorporating the main melodic line in a variety of forms and tones. This constant shift sends shockwaves throughout Body Riddle, infecting even the more minute details and resulting in sound constellations unexpectedly erupting in convulsions, beats patterns morphing into complex organic formations and random noises melting into lush melodic plains. On Herzog, a whirlwind of electronics debris crashes down on an uplifting melodies to rise again and again, while a clunky beat and distorted keyboards drive Ted to the border of futuristic disco heaven. Elsewhere, Springtime Epigram and Dew On The Mouth offer more tempered timbres, surprisingly evoking Boards Of Canada in part. Night Knuckles is wonderfully frenetic and spasmodic while The Autumnal Crush charts vast spaces and draws the night in to reveal delicate iridescent noise formations.

All this infinite detailing could have well been the death of this record, but Clark is way too smart not to continuously inject playful touches throughout and retain the sheer entertainment value of his music. Sharp, incisive, accessible and thrillingly enjoyable, Body Riddle reveals Clark at his most confident and masterful yet.

CLARK'S EXCLUSIVE FREE MP3 SITE

Clark


Clark | Warp Records

The artist formerly known as Chris Clark has a new album, entitled Body Riddle out on Warp on 2 October, and, over coming weeks, he'll be offering three exclusive non-album tracks to download for free on this site, starting now with this serious revised version of Herr Bar, which was originally featured on the ultra-limited Throttle Furniture EP earlier this year, and also features on the album, with space-age Brummies Broadcast.

Body Riddle is Clark's third album, and it is also his best to date! Full review coming soon.

While you wait for it all, listen to Throttle Furniture!

BROADCAST: The Future Crayon (Warp Records)

BROADCAST
The Future Crayon
WARPCD146
Warp Records 2006
18 Tracks. 69mins31secs



Buy now: CD | LP
Broadcast | Warp Records

Transmitting from Birmingham, Broadcast have, in the ten years they have been around, progressively crafted a very unique place for themsleves on the British music scene. While their first EPs, originally released on Wurlitzer Jukebox and Duophonic and later collected on Work And Non Work for Warp, showed similar inspirations to those of long-term friends Stereolab, from the DIY avant-garde of the seminal BBC Radiophonic Workshop to the psychedelic of The United States Of America or the Silver Apples and the sweeping cinematic beauty of Ennio Morricone, Broadcast have progressively developed and refined their very own blend of experimental pop, which they have deployed over three albums and countless EPs.

Alongside their Microphonics releases, Broadcast have always favoured a more experimental approach on their EPs, using this shorter format to push their own boundaries and test new ideas. The Future Crayon collects eighteen tracks released between 1998 and 2003. If the band’s first album, The Noise Made By People (2000), took years to take shape, the accompanying four EPs released during the following year was the demonstration of a rather prolific period of bubbling creativity for the band, with tracks such as Illumination, Daves Dream, Hammer Without A Master, Test Area, Poem Of Dead Song or Locusts reinforcing the band’s vision as they were uncovering new sonic territories, while the revised versions of Unchanging Window (Chord Simple and Unchanging Window/Chord Simple) revealed the original’s multiple layers and gave it an entirely new dimension.

The Future Crayon is not just a collection of rare tracks for fans but a deeply honest and sincere document of the band’s evolution. These tracks bridge the gaps found in between each one of their albums and provide a more accurate vision of how the changes have happened. It is, for instance, possible to hear the premise of the barer, more abrasive sound of Tender Buttons in the songs taken from the 2003 Pendulum EP. Small Song IV in particular appeared to catalyze the transformation from cleverly ornate pop to minimalism, but Minus Two or Violent Playground equally introduced a wide section of new elements which would later take centre stage in the band’s work.

There is something truly organic in the way Broadcast have evolved over the years. Sometimes dictated by members leaving, at others the result of hour after hour spent refining exactly what defines them, this process is ultimately intricately linked to the band’s sound. It is therefore surprising to notice how well these apparently disparate tracks work well together, despite the fact that they are presented here in non-chronological order. Unlike Work And Non Work, which at times felt disjointed and lacking direction, The Future Crayon is extremely consistent all the way through and could actually pass for a piece of work in its own right. This is no mean feat, and is a strong testament of Broadcast’s ability to finely balance pop and experimentations.

GRIZZLY BEAR: Yellow House (Warp Records)

GRIZZLY BEAR
Yellow House
WARPCD147CD
Warp Records 2006
10 Tracks. 49mins49secs


GRIZZLY BEAR: Yellow House (Warp Records, out 4/09/2006)

Buy this CD now

The urban Brooklyn continues to spill oddball folksters onto the world, one of the latest additions being the magnificent Grizzly Bear. Originally the solo project of singer songwriter Edward Droste, the project has since grown to a full band with the addition of multi-instrumentists Christopher Bear and Chris Taylor and singer Daniel Rossen.

Droste began shaping up Grizzly Bear at home, recording songs inspired by a then-recent break-up in his Brooklyn apartment. Christopher Bear came in late to add some more textures before the songs were collected into an album, Horn Of Plenty, originally released in 2004. Harking back to a bygone era when melodies and how they were interpreted were the most important things on a record, the fourteen songs hinted at delicate psychedelic folk structures and melancholy-drenched melodies.


Grizzly Bear

Having landed themselves a place amongst the Warp roster, Grizzly Bear, now in full formation, deliver a wonderful second opus, Yellow House. The shimmering multi-layered harmonies and psychedelic arrangements displayed here evoke the Beach Boys or the Incredible String Band with, at times, hints of early Pink Floyd, amongst other things. Delicate acoustic guitars and pianos, sporadic drums and wind instruments brush against discreet electronics and found sounds to form incredibly refined and dense structures. This tentatively places Grizzly Bear somewhere between the luxuriance of Animal Collective and the gentle restraint of Vetiver, yet the band’s nonchalant lo-fi approach and appetite for smouldering harmonies give their unruly pop songs a unique twist.

Yellow House opens with a cloud of wind instruments and a lonely piano leading to the airy guitar-led melody of Easier. With this brilliantly detailed piece, Grizzly Bear set the tone for the rest of the album. Lullabye, which follows, has a sharper appearance as electric guitars and voice layers progressively build up to an impressive coda to the tune of “Chin up! Cheer Up!”. Marla is said to have originally been written by Droste’s great aunt in the 1930s. Now rescued from obscurity and revitalised the Grizzly Bear way, this piano-led sombre piece takes Yellow House into a slightly mournful mood, but things lift up again with the deceptively simple melody and harmonies of On A Neck, On A Spit, which, despite a bout of seventies-infused twiddle in the middle, proves truly joyful and exhilarating. The album concludes with the epic and colourful Colorado, a piece that shows Grizzly Bear in all their glorious sweeping melodic might and brings this faultless collection of heartfelt glistening pop songs to the most fitting end.

BATTLES / ANIMAL COLLECTIVE LIVE

Although I was wondering what the hell was going on the first time I played an Animal Collective album (Campfire Songs), I very quickly realised that this was no ordinary band. Since, they have continued to deliver the goods with each new album, seemingly ploughing the same groove, but each time with different tools and in a totally new way. Somehow though, I’ve managed to miss them every single time they’ve come to London, and they have been rather generous with their visits. After seeing that they were due to come to London again, at the Astoria, some time ago on the Fat-Cat website, and subsequently being reminded by Andrew a few weeks ago, we decided that whatever happened, this time we would go. Scott and his girlfriend (who I cannot remember the name just now and am mortified of it) joined us.

Adem, who was/is in Fridge with Kieran Hebden, was due to play tonight but ended up not to. On the bill though was Battles. Andrew had seen them live before and has been raving about their live performances for a fair while now, and although I was only tepid about the compilation of EPs that was released on Warp a few months ago, seeing them live offered a totally different angle to what they can do.

Crammed in a tiny space at the front of the stage, the keyboard player, guitarist and bass player seemed strategically positioned around the drummer, as to freely feed from the vast amount of energy exulting from this most focal of points. The band’s hypnotic post rock thing felt a lot more organic and raw than what I’d heard of them previously. It was interesting to see the constant exchange happening between the four members during their set, and how together they appeared. There were some wonderful moments when time felt suspended while they were weaving increasingly tight loops and grooves together into trance-like structures.

As far as this evening was concerned though, the piece de resistance was always going to be Animal Collective, and boy did they deliver. The set was largely centred around Feels, with Grass, The Purple Bottle, Did You See The Words and Banshee Beat making particularly lively appearances. Yet, if Feels is most definitely the Collective’s most accessible record by a mile, it is when they dabble in primal trance and febrile drones that they are at their most mind-blowing. Cast against the poppier songs of their repertoire were intense sonic experimentations build around dense electronic structures and hypnotic drums, sometimes simply linking two songs, at others just left to develop to full motion, progressively bringing the crowd on the brink of ecstasy before dropping us back down to earth with a deceptively simple pop melody.


Ani-mask Collective

Animal Collective have provided me with some of the best and most exhilarating music I’ve heard for years, and this gig at the Astoria certainly didn’t disappoint. There could have some more of the iridescence of Here Comes The Indian or the subdued lights of Sung Tong for instance, but in tonight’s incarnation (full Collective on stage), they have achieve near perfect balance between experiments and catchy moments.

Animal Collective please, go on Top Of The Pops and save the world!