he Lumineers is an incredibly impressive opening statement from a band with a lot to say, but who is determined to say it with a level of emotional integrity that is bound to resonate across genre.
In the five years since his debut EP, CB Radio, Chris Burns has transformed from a loop pedal-wielding solo musician to front-man The inherent risk in such a change is to go from a raw, intimate sound to overproduced pop alchemy. In the case of Burns’ full-length debut, Out of the Well, those pitfalls are largely avoided.
Constantly experimenting with a mélange of sounds and styles, Aufheben finds the band cooly combining an instrumental hybrid of modern garage rock, moody electronics, eastern-influenced dub-lite, and Velvet Underground cool.
Landline may not be the absolute best album in Laswell’s already impressive discography, but it’s pretty damn close. Landline is an emotionally resonant, musically diverse and vocally superior record that is easily one of 2012’s best.
Following the success of their 2008 debut, Jackson Square, which had Arkells touring with the likes of Pearl Jam and Them Crooked Vultures, the Ontario indie rockers garnered acclaim for their energetic live shows. Michigan Left, the band’s second full-length album, is an attempt to capture that stage show on record.
There will be hundreds of records to choose from on Record Store Day, and hundreds of hands pawing through them. Over in the 45 bins you’ll run across a box set that soul, funk and 45 fans that might be a bit much to process during the feeding frenzy, so here’s a heads-up: Never to be Forgotten: The Flip Side of Stax 1968—1974 brings together ten Stax 45s that are both overlooked and memorable
Buried beneath the clunkiness of this project’s name is Spencer Krug, well-known as the noodling, keyboard-playing, co-leader of Wolf Parade. Yep, you remember them: the versatile Canadian indie-rock outfit who rocked hard over the course of a handful of solid albums and EP”s before taking an indefinite hiatus last spring.
Noctourniquet is undoubtedly the most accessible Mars Volta album yet, one that replaces the overreaching bloat of their last two or three titles with the most DIY display of prog-rock dazzle since Adrian Belew toured with Talking Heads. If The Bedlam in Goliath was their Tormato, then consider this excellent outing to be their 90125. And I mean that in the best possible way.
It’s not often one hears a new recording that immediately grabs the listener as something to which you’ll need to listen over and over. However, Norwegian Ane Brun’s new (and eighth) album, It All Starts With One, does exactly that.
Carnivale Electricos straight through represents one of the group’s famous Lundi Day concerts, playing the jambalaya funk til sun up. Galactic are already ambassadors to the town, but now they add one more staple to their collection and in doing so show the rest of the world just how vital New Orleans is to the sound of life.
