[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds: September 15

From: Jeremy Schlosberg <fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxx>
To: fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:43:11 -0400

THIS WEEK'S FINDS <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/this_weeks_finds.htm>
September 15, 2009

*There's a new contest online, as of late last week. One winner will receive
the newly expanded, two-disc versions of three classic Radiohead albums: Kid
A, Amnesiac, and Hail to the Thief. And yes I'm calling Hail to the Thief a
classic; I'm pretty sure it's been undervalued by fans and critics alike, so
far. Maybe you'll win a copy and see for yourself. Go to the Contests
page<http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/contests-radiohead.htm>for more
information; deadline for entry is Friday, September 25.
*

"My Heart" - Wildbirds &
Peacedrums<http://media.nme.com.edgesuite.net/audio/2009/july/My%20Heart.mp3>
For a voice and percussion duo, Mariam Wallentin and Andreas Werliin
create music with great texture and charm. It's still pretty
idiosyncratic--okay, very idiosyncratic--but you don't listen to "My Heart"
and think, "Geez, where are all the real instruments?" because Werliin does
a beautiful, canny job finding not just beats but notes and motifs in a
variety of things that are struck with a stick or a mallet. Wallentin in
fact sounds like she's being accompanied by a small, quizzical orchestra,
not just a drummer.
The song's many and varied structural and compositional and artistic
quirks may well be why a listener's ear is distracted from the basic
instrumental peculiarity at the core of the duo's sound. There's the
stop-start-y melody (I dare you to sing along for very long); the shifting
rhythmic foundation (the same melody happens over drastically different
percussive backgrounds at different points in the song); the
art-song-meets-pop-song sense of development (note for example that odd,
extended interstitial moment--beginning at 0:49--of being neither in verse
nor chorus); and, payoff, the unexpected but brilliant choral finish.
"My Heart" is a song from *The Snake*, the band's second album, which
came out in Sweden in 2008 and was released earlier this year in the UK on
the Leaf Label <http://www.theleaflabel.com/en/index.php>, and finally also
in the US last month by the Control Group. MP3 via
NME<http://www.nme.com/mp3blog>
.

"The Sea Is A Good Place To Think Of The Future" - Los
Campesinos!<http://www.wichita-recordings.com/download/The%20Sea%20Is%20A%20Good%20Place%20To%20Think%20Of%20The%20Future.mp3>
Like the rare actor who can pull off comedy and drama with equal aplomb
(I'm looking at you, Meryl Streep), the Cardiff septet Los Campesinos!
herein announce that they are capable of steering their large-scale,
unfettered, exclamation-pointed sound in the direction of serious fare just
as knowingly as they have engaged in good-natured mayhem (see "You! Me!
Dancing!," This Week's Finds, February
2007<http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/TWFjan-feb07.htm#LosCamp>).

In both cases they utilize the full dynamic range of music--soft to
loud, uncluttered to cluttered, solo vocals and gang singing--and an
inventive sense of drama and production. This time around the band produces
an almost industrial racket in service of the somber, subtly seafaring mood,
and yet it's also somewhere within that noisier-than-you-realize ambiance
(check out that odd, squawking sound that punctuates the rhythm at the
outset of the second verse, for instance) that something redemptive emerges.
Sad, but redemptive. Maybe. The lyrics seem to have to do with the singer
trying to make sense of a troubled woman he probably loves. The song isn't
fun but it's powerful, and all but demands repeated listens for full effect.

"The Sea Is A Good Place To Think Of The Future" is a song from the
band's forthcoming CD, *We Are Beautiful, We Are Damned*, set for an October
release on Witchita Recordings <http://www.wichita-recordings.com/>.

"Tied to the Mast" -
Secondstar<http://secondstar.bandcamp.com/track/tied-to-the-mast?action=download>
Meditative, wistful, harmony-laced, and lacking any introduction
whatsoever, "Tied to the Mast" (sea theme continues, inadvertently) envelops
us instantly in its welcoming vocal layers. While reminiscent, clearly, of
the sorts of harmonizing that Fleet Foxes abruptly brought back to
rock'n'roll last year, what you'll hear here has a smaller-scale and less
architected feeling. Liam Carey, the Brooklyn-based driving force behind
Secondstar, uses an accumulation of fragile vocal tracks to create something
decidedly unfragile, anchoring it all on a simple acoustic rhythm guitar and
some oceanic percussion, nicely evocative of the "ever-hooded,
tragic-gestured sea," to quote a landmark poem that comes to mind as I'm
listening to this. The guitar, by the way, may be uncomplicated but the
chords are so hospitable, the sound so warm and plush that I am newly
reminded that complication isn't everything.
"Tied to the Mast" is one of five songs on Secondstar's *Teeth* EP,
self-released this summer. A follow-up EP is due some time this fall, says
Carey. Note that the link is via Bandcamp, and is not direct. Follow
instructions from the link above and you'll have the MP3 in no time.

* * * * * * *

"But remember that there always has been good
Like stars you don't see in the day sky
Wait till night..."

* * * * * * *

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[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds: September 15

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