Album De La Semaine

[alan nagsworth]

I can't post in Song Du Jour! I just can't, I don't have particular favourite songs for particular days. If I'm in the mood for something, I'll listen to a whole album of it and buzz off that for about a week, so... here's Album De La Semaine (Album Of The Week) for those of you who are, well, like me basically.

Write a little review for your choice as you can't upload or youtube a whole album, obviously.

This week for me it's Boxcutter - Oneric


This album is fucking great! It's everything I was looking for in the alternative side of dubstep and more. It could be called Dubcore in this age of constantly-new genre invention. Glitchy ever-changing hats, slamming snares, pitch shifting rides and plenty of heavy resonance and hi-filtering, the beats seem to be trademark Boxcutter* and are a heavy standout point of this album. It's dark and mysterious, yet it's also beautiful and spacious. Astounding! Fans of Vex'd, King Cannibal and Bionics should be all over this.


*They might just be trademark Oneric but I've only heard this one album.

[Don_Preston]

I'm currently making a mixtape of my favourite melodies for the Common Room, as some fucker broke the CD part of it. Making it/deciding what to put on it/hearing songs not heard for a while is bloomin' great. No other bugger'll like it, but who cares!

[Neville Chamberlain]

I'm currently making a mixtape of my favourite melodies for the Common Room, as some fucker broke the CD part of it. Making it/deciding what to put on it/hearing songs not heard for a while is bloomin' great. No other bugger'll like it, but who cares!

I've got a strange feeling I'd listen to it...

Anyway, my Album de la Semaine is Murder's Only Foreplay by the mighty Pigment Vehicle:



Hyperactive punk meets twisted jazz! It's like NoMeansNo...on acid! And lots of it! Twisty basslines combine with jittery, impossible-to-follow rhythms and mental guitar riffs! Don't try and dance to it or else your legs will all fall off! If you do want to dance to it, then you'll have to grow another set of legs!

Check the band out on these slightly poor-quality video clips: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=pigment+vehicle

[The Boston Crab]

These both sound bloody brilliant, especially Boxcutter! Nags, I reckon we both listen for the same good bits - 'check out the pitch-shifting rides!' sounds like exactly the kind of thing I'd be slobbering to some long-suffering mates in the pub. Nev, if I can steal yours, I'll be sure to check it out too, sounds like a jazzier more mental Polysics. Ich habe ein hard on!

Time will tell if you're a pair of charlatans or Charlotte Annes (that's good, in this case).

[alan nagsworth]

Murder's Only Foreplay by the mighty Pigment Vehicle

This is manic, I like it a lot.

Crabby, three free mp3s on this Last.fm page plus previews of the rest of the album tracks, but you need the Last.fm software to preview those.

Which reminds me, if you haven't already got an account with Last.fm, I think you should right now.

[The Boston Crab]

Will all the porn show up? I've got an account but rarely use it.

Anyway, I like this thread already because I can't take in all the info from Song du Jour, plus the selections aren't always very good because people think 'meh, I can always do better tomorrow...'.

Ooh! Bitchy!

[The Boston Crab]

If anybody here actually likes electronic music, you must must must check out that Boxcutter album that Mr. Nags was bigging up.

This is exactly the kind of record I'd hoped dubstep would all be about. I'll be honest, stuff like that Burial album bores me to tears, as much as I appreciate the production and the unique feel he's created. Compared to this though, it's absolutely primitive (in a shit way). This is heavy dubby, griminal atmospheric and slots together more crackling click-and-splash beats than a Popping Candy and Coke cocktail. Forget about that shit though, it's dubstep from an absolutely Mongo IDM perspective. It makes me want to knock a horse out cold.

Great choice.

[buttgammon]

I'd heard good things about Boxcutter but still never got round to getting it. However, the praise of it from Nagsworth and The Boston Crab has reminded me of it and really made me want to hear it, so I'll check it out.

Sounds excellent.

[alan nagsworth]

You know what? His latest offering is pretty fucking awesome as well!

[buttgammon]

Come to think of it, the new one is the one that I had heard about. But the other one sounds brilliant too from the recommendations on here.

[alan nagsworth]

Yeah, Glyphic is nothing compared to Oneric but it's still great. I've only played it through once so far but from what I can gather it's not quite as complex but he touches on a few different styles, ie. jungle, so it's well worth checking out also.

I'll be honest, stuff like that Burial album bores me to tears

Ah, I've always been a bit cautious to say this but yes you're right, it bores me quite a fair bit as well. I always thought, 'Am I missing something epic here?' but the more I try to pick it up the more distanced I feel from it.

[Don_Preston]

This semaine, I've been playing "Some Call It Godcore" by Half Man Half Biscuit a lot, something I rarely do with a single album. I've bought more of their albums over the weekend so I'm still awaiting their arrival.

[alan nagsworth]

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - s/t


Not heard much mention of these chaps on here before. When I first heard their name I thought, NEW RAVE. Their name reminded me of those crappy band names like Cajun Dance Party and Does It Offend You Yeah? HOW WRONG I WAS.

Turns out this band take influence from 80s indie pop stuff, since my uncle is always saying "I can hear my youth in this band." I personally can't recognize any direct influential links since I'm still a young'un but I know enough to know that this album is raw genius. Jangly indie pop roughed up round the edges.

Some people might be put off by the vocals, which could be argued as "shit", however I find them humble and very carefree, adding a nice feel to their loose-sounding instrumentation. It all just sounds very joyful and gives you a nice warm-inside feeling not unlike sipping tomato soup when you're bed-ridden with the flu. Absolutely lavverly!

[Mindbear]

I like you because of the things you hate Nagsworth. It makes me feel warm inside.

My album that I'm obsessing over, yet again, for the trillionth time is The Unicorns - Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone.




Islands, of course, are great, but I haven't loved a band they way I loved The Unicorns since I first found Pavement back in the early nineties. They came to one of my nights and I didn't realise till they'd gone, which was annoying because I wanted to look at them with wide adoring eyes.

[alan nagsworth]

Oh yeah, top choice. One of those records that turned up in my tiny local branch of HMV, I had to snatch it up before it got took off the shelves again. If they get something even slightly obscure or non-charts like Deerhoof, they'll sell the few they put out and then that's it, gone into the mystical basement to rot.

That album is excellent though, a weird legacy for a band to seem so interested in songs about ghosts and dying young like superstars to actually die off so young after one successful album. Plus the sleeve's fucking brilliant, with the lyrics to every song wrote on just one page, all scribbled over each other in different colour crayons for each song.

[Vitalstatistix]

Any opportunity to try and force this album on complete strangers, and I will jump at the opportunity!

I speak, of course, of Ships by Danielson



Put the effort in with this album and you will be repaid tenfold. This is a joyous, epic, wonderful collection of music, the binding thematic theme being the 'ships of relation and friend type. Get past (and get to love) the manic singing by Daniel Smith and you get addicted to this criminally overlooked masterpiece.

These are songs which start in one place and travel large distances in short spaces of time, taking unexpected detours and left turns off cliffs. They surprise me, thrill me, scare me and make me laugh.

EDIT - Here's a taster: Danielson - Kids Pushing Kids

[Mindbear]

Oh yeah, top choice. One of those records that turned up in my tiny local branch of HMV, I had to snatch it up before it got took off the shelves again. If they get something even slightly obscure or non-charts like Deerhoof, they'll sell the few they put out and then that's it, gone into the mystical basement to rot.

That album is excellent though, a weird legacy for a band to seem so interested in songs about ghosts and dying young like superstars to actually die off so young after one successful album. Plus the sleeve's fucking brilliant, with the lyrics to every song wrote on just one page, all scribbled over each other in different colour crayons for each song.

The album is just perfection from start to finish, I love how creepy they get, how happy, but completely sinister at the same time. I found it hugely disappointing that they couldn't bear to stay together past one album, but Islands are good obviously, just not near the level of genius that the Unicorns reached. I cross my fingers for the future, because they had the whole package!

[The Boston Crab]

Fucking crumbs. You guys are doing well.

That Unicorns album is absolutely fantastic! I acquired it last night (in flac, of course) and I must have listened to it all the way through about eight times in bed. I'm knackered today at work because I didn't get to sleep until after three (Ja...Ich bin hardkor!)

I think 'kaleidoscopic' is actually an appropriate description here. Clusters of wonderfully weird and catchy melodies colliding with each other and ricocheting unexpectedly. I think even if you don't listen to the lyrics, the strange slightly-clashing harmonies convey that sense of naive excitement and joy underpinned by something quite sinister, as you say. I wish I could blast it out now at work. I guess I'll have to wait for the bus ride home.

Thanks, that's two corkers I've got so far from this thread.

At some point, I'll talk about what I was going to post, what I was listening to before this thread. For the record, it's Johann Johannson's 'Englaborn'. Absolutely gorgeous.

[Don_Preston]

This week it's: "New Boots And Panties!!" by Ian Dury. After seeing him on the Stiff documentary, it reminded me just how good he is, so bought this classic with a live DVD as a bonus.

[olafr]

Any opportunity to try and force this album on complete strangers, and I will jump at the opportunity!

I speak, of course, of Ships by Danielson

Put the effort in with this album and you will be repaid tenfold. This is a joyous, epic, wonderful collection of music, the binding thematic theme being the 'ships of relation and friend type. Get past (and get to love) the manic singing by Daniel Smith and you get addicted to this criminally overlooked masterpiece.

Is this the Christian guy who did 'Potty Mouth'?

[Mindbear]

I get genuinely excited when people like The Unicorns, they're up there with Pavement for me, and could have probably been just as big had they bothered to try to get on with each other more!




This is my current obsession for the week. No one seems to know them really, but apparently Justice put them on their last mix, so that sounds like hope! Please check out Into The Galaxy if you can, it's bliss!

[Vitalstatistix]

Is this the Christian guy who did 'Potty Mouth'?

Yeap, that's from Tri-Danielson, Vol1 by Danielson Famile. Ships is their strongest stuff imo.

[fanny splendid]

The new Stephen Malkmus record, Real Emotional Trash, is superb.

[Cack Hen]

Can we review awful albums, too? Good:



Urgh. There's a couple of Belle and Sebastian songs, and a Cat Power song, but the rest is absolute shit. There's this girl called Kimya Dawson who's seems to pop up every other track, which turns out to be not entirely dissimilar to boiling marmite and then pouring it over your face. It's the very worst kind of twee bullshit that gives twee a bad name, just talentless, whiny bitches wallowing in their own self-deprecation as if it didn't get old the first time. The nightmare peaks with Kimya, but still hangs heavy over your hot, sticky face with poor choices of very good bands like The Kinks, Sonic Youth and Velvet Underground. If it wasn't for the Belle & Sebastian, I'd say this is the single worst soundtrack ever. And what's more, it made me not want to see the film. 

[The Boston Crab]

Kimya Dawson is one half of The Moldy Peaches, who've actually done some great little songs, quite funny and catchy. The other half is/was Adam Green, who's big on the anti-folk scene. Her solo stuff has been pure shite, admittedly, his has been patchy. I saw them supporting The Strokes on their first UK gigs, good fun.

[olafr]

Yeap, that's from Tri-Danielson, Vol1 by Danielson Famile. Ships is their strongest stuff imo.

Cheers, I might check this out then as I actually liked 'Potty Mouth'.

[Mindbear]

Kimya Dawson is one half of The Moldy Peaches, who've actually done some great little songs, quite funny and catchy. The other half is/was Adam Green, who's big on the anti-folk scene. Her solo stuff has been pure shite, admittedly, his has been patchy. I saw them supporting The Strokes on their first UK gigs, good fun.

I was going to say, tut tut Cack Hen for not knowing who the Moldy Peaches are!

I was actually amazed to see that Sonic Youth cover (which I love) was the same version on that If I Were A Carpenter compilation from the early nineties. It'll probably mean Kimya Dawson finally gets more exposure, but my confusion is that there isn't one new track on there, they're all really well known already, which disappoints me.

[Cack Hen]

No, I know The Moldy Peaches and Adam Green, I just didn't realise that's who she is.

I like Adam Green's solo stuff (a couple of shit albums, but some pretty good ones, too) but The Moldy Peaches weren't an awful lot better than the tripe on that record.

[alan nagsworth]

I like Adam Green's solo stuff (a couple of shit albums, but some pretty good ones, too)

Which ones are the good ones? An artist I've been dying to get into more but have been put off by the comments and reviews similar to the above.

[Beck]

If it wasn't for the Belle & Sebastian, I'd say this is the single worst soundtrack ever. And what's more, it made me not want to see the film. 

The film's just as irritating so I wouldn't worry about it.