[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds: July 22-28
- From: "Jeremy Schlosberg" <fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2007 23:15:14 -0400
THIS WEEK'S FINDS <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/this_weeks_finds.htm>
July 22-28
"Elouise" - Maps <http://mp3.insound.com/download.php?mp3id=3151>
Buzzy, expansive, and richly melodic, "Elouise" is the work of
shoegaze-inspired one-man band James Chapman, doing business from his
Northampton (UK) home as Maps. But get this: unlike most if not all
21st-century bedroom rockers, Chapman developed his music entirely on a
16-track recorder in his apartment. Meaning he doesn't use computers. That
knowledge will change how you hear this one, as the drones and beats and
keyboards which drive the evocative, anthemic "Elouise" were all laid down
the old-fashioned way, not manipulated by a laptop. (Note that the strings
were added later; the album ended up being produced in Iceland by Valgeir
Sigurdsson, who has worked extensively with Sigur Rós and Björk.) I'm loving
the chorus in particular, with its simple but memorable descending melody
line, and then--I'm a sucker for this move--the addition of those two extra
beats in the measure beginning at 1:18 (the lyric when he first mentions
"Elouise"). Listen too to how the guitars drop out in the chorus, adding to
the lushness of the sound there. Chapman churns out humming, atmospheric
music that forces everyone who writes about him to mention My Bloody
Valentine, but to my ears this song has a lighter and more accessible feel
than, by and large, the music that seminal band produced in its day.
"Elouise" is from the CD *We Can Create*, which was released in the U.S. in
June on Mute Records <http://www.muterecords.com/>. (In the U.K., the CD
came out in May and was last week one of 12 albums placed on the short list
for this year's Mercury
Prize<http://music.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2128784,00.html>.)
The MP3 is available via
Insound<http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/siteindex.htm#Insound>.
"Sinking Ships" - the
Archibalds<http://www.breakfastmascotrecords.com/thearchibalds/TheArchibalds-SinkingShips.mp3>
Friendly, strumming acoustic guitars lead us into a good-natured,
back-country rave-up with an unmistakable zydeco flavor, minus the
accordion. And lookee here, as unlike as this one is from the Maps song
above, the zydeco feel is responsible for one distinct similarity: the
measure with the two extra beats, which you can hear here as soon as singer
Joey Thompson opens his mouth (at 0:23, as he sings "Hey there, Mister Boll
Weevil"). And once Thompson opens his mouth, extra beats or no, I'm
hooked--as a singer, he's got one of those round, personality-laced voices
that brings Ray Davies to mind, and as a songwriter he's got a casual, John
Fogerty-like knack for neighborly, classic-sounding melodies. A quartet from
Austin, the Archibalds play with the real-time gusto of a band that records
live (whether they do or not); "Sinking Ships" is a song from the band's
debut CD, *O Camellia*, which was released in March, jointly, by Breakfast
Mascot Records <http://www.breakfastmascot/> and Austin's Superpop
Records<http://www.superpoprecords.com/>.
The MP3 is courtesy of Breakfast Mascot.
"Horse and I" - Bat For
Lashes<http://www.toolshed-media.com/ts/bat-for-lashes-horse-and-i.mp3>
And it has inadvertently turned into Mercury Prize week, as Bat For Lashes,
like Maps above, is one of the 12 finalists for the U.K.'s Mercury Prize for
album of the year, as announced last Tuesday. As with Maps, Bat For Lashes
also sounds like the name of a band but is one person--in this case,
27-year-old Natasha Khan. Building off an unadorned, almost awkwardly plain
keyboard riff, "Horse and I" unfolds in an unhurried manner. Khan enters,
singing, after half a minute; a ghostly synthesizer joins in shortly
thereafter; and then, intriguingly, about halfway through, a military
drumbeat takes on the rhythm of the keyboard riff, which now makes further
sense in retrospect. Khan by the way has a marvelous voice--breathy and
vulnerable in the lower register, achy-urgent in the upper register. The
song has a fairy-tale vibe (horses, woods, destiny, etc.) that might be a
bit precious were it not for the formidability of the music and arrangement.
I'm especially taken by the juxtaposition of the other-worldly synthesizer
and the martial beat--it's a combination I can't recall hearing
simultaneously before (the short duet between the two sounds at 1:24 is an
oddball highlight here). "Horse and I" is the lead track from the debut Bat
For Lashes CD *Fur and Gold*, which was released last September in the U.K.
on Echo Records; its U.S. release is scheduled for next week, on Caroline
Records.
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