Some words about: Owen Pallett – Heartland

Owen Pallett – Heartland
Domino 2010

[tags: indie, orchestral, contemporary fiction, 2010]

Listen while reading:

Lewis Takes Action (from Heartland) download it!

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There is not much left to say about Owen Pallett’s recent release Heartland and I don’t want to make this post too long for everyone should have heard that the record is in stores now and got much praise from all around the blogosphere. But then I think that Heartland is such a great piece of music, that it seems essential at least to write some words about it.

Even though I knew that there was a band by the name Final Fantasy (Owen Pallett’s former moniker) I never spend much time with its music and so Heartland is some kind of debut to me. And after many hours of listening to it I call this one of the best, if not the best release of January 2010. Overall it took nine months and the superb support of the Czech Philharmonic to record the album wherefore the end product is just awesome both in sound quality and songwriting.

Pallett’s music is mostly characterized by (looped) violin and synthesizer melodies with decent percussions – the recorded version maybe sounds fuller and stronger due to having the Czech Philharmonic in the back, but also on stage Pallett is really great and it is a pleasure to watch him perform as well as to listen to his compositions. The label calls the music contemporary fiction, highly orchestrasded. And I will stick with that even though my first impression was that of a typical indie record with lots of weird synthesizer melodies and even more classical instruments. But however you want to call it, the music speaks for itself and shows its greatness above all tags and classifications.

Along with all the praise I owe to Heartland, it is also one perfect example that the album as a medium is not dead at all – and maybe will never be. The whole conceptualization keeps you prisoner from the beginning to the end and the endless variation of the tracks is sheer overwhelming. I have not listend to such a compact album in a very long time and I think Heartland will have a great impact on the scene, maybe like Of Montreal’s Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? had in its days. Owen Pallett, up yours!

Buy the record directly from Domino and listen to the full album stream by clicking here. Visit Owen Pallett’s MySpace and personal homepage too.

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Review: Slow Six – Tomorrow Becomes You

Slow Six – Tomorrow Becomes You
Western Vinyl 2010

[tags: post rock?, electronic, dreamy, orchestral, 2010]

Listen while reading:

These Rivers Between Us (excerpt) (from Tomorrow Becomes You) download it!

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One month earlier and I maybe wouldn’t have done a review on music like Tomorrow Becomes You by Brooklyn, New York based band Slow Six which just recently released their third full length album via Western Vinyl. But the experience I had with Nils Frahm’s Wintermusik changed me and now I start discovering music I did not listen to for some reason – best example for this is the fascinating debut album Docile by Peter Broderick which I had ignored for too long. Simple acoustic piano music – dreamy and very emotional.

But let’s not drift away from the real topic of this article, the new Slow Six album. The first lines maybe gave you the impression, that Slow Six also play acoustic piano music, but this isn’t the case. I just mentioned that because the neo-classical character of the above mentioned albums can also be found in Tomorrow Becomes You. The execution is totally different though and one can easily say that post rock may be the right tag to classify the music in a first step. But everytime I hear post rock I have to think of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and that’s not quite the best compare to Slow Six for they don’t sound as apocalyptical but more often dreamy and floating.

The best example for this dreamy and floating sound are the magnificent tracks Cloud Cover (Part 1) and Cloud Cover (Part 2). Over 12 minutes of pure beauty leave you breathless yet relaxed. Especially Part 2 is very introverted and calm. But this serenity doesn’t describe the whole record, even though tracks like Because Together We Resonate are very near to the sound of Cloud Cover (Part 2). I’m talking of the more aroused aspects of Slow Six that you find realized for example in The Night You Left New York with more orchestration and sonority and therefore a more epic sound or in These Rivers Between Us with enhanced electronic influences but also highly orchestral sound.

Somehow I see parallels to one of the last Western Vinyl albums I reviewed (Sleep Whale – Houseboat) – no stylistic parallels but structural ones. Sleep Whale combined elements of folk with instrumental electronic sound and Slow Six combines the instrumental electronic sound with neo-classical string arrangements and rock features (see Sympathetic Response System (Part 1)). The result of both bands cannot be more different, but one thing unites them: the uniqueness of their music – at least for me – and it shows once more, as I also said in the review for Houseboat, that Western Vinyl has a knack for releasing great music form very dfferent genres.

As I’m not quite a connoisseur of post rock or however you want to call Slow Six’ music, I can’t name bands playing a similar style. But what I can say is, that I’m really surprised of how great Tomorrow Becomes You works for me and I’m sure this one will be a lasting reminder of the musical year 2010. But one thing is not quite to my taste: the mp3 sample Western Vinyl provides, for it doesn’t capture the character of the album in the best way (apart from that it is just an excerpt). Keep this in mind and really give Tomorrow Becomes You a few listens and feel it grow on you.

To buy the CD version, directly visit Western Vinyl’s shop and additionally spend some time on Slow Six’ MySpace for another sample from the album (The Night You Left New York) and head over to their personal homepage for any further information.

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Review: South China – Washingtons

South China – Washingtons
Peapod Recordings 2009

[tags: acoustic, folk, pop, no pop, orchestral, 2009, great]

Listen while reading:

Painting (from Washingtons)

Sun Sets On Washington Ave. (from Washingtons)
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I wrote about South China before and I had the impression that Washingtons will be one of the best albums of 2009 – and well, today I received my copy of the album and what can I say: I was totally right with my first impression and Washingtons is one of the most intense listening experiences I had over the last time.

The band around Jeremy and Jerusha Robinson from Biddeford/Main writes music in its own unique style combining acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar, accordion, cello, piano, ebow, glockenspiel, trombone, vibraphone, viola, clarinets, percussions and Snuffy the cat to an impressive mix of folk influenced, mostly acoustic orchestral pop with indie flavor gving you the impression of listening to something special that is neither folk nor pop or indie at all. I think they created their own little niche and I bet if they continue to make such great music they will be known to everyone in a short while.

Photo taken by: Bryan Bruchman

On the album you find tracks with vocals as well as instrumental tracks (Shiny Their Shoes, Squirrel or Sister (even though not completely instrumental)). And if you ask me, they could not have made a better decision as to not include lyrics to some of their tracks because the pure beauty of the instruments speaks for itself and Shiny Their Shoes is one of the best tracks of the album. But speaking of best tracks maybe sounds like that there are weak tracks – and this is clearly not the case.

They simply can’t do wrong – the instrumentals, as I said, are a great success, more experimental tracks like Sun Sets On Washington Ave. with the little improvised sounding part in the middle or the gigantic 8 minute ending song Terryhead, that grows to a shockingly thrilling uber tune, are just example of their feeling for melodies, rhythms and arrangements.

One thing is clear for me: if you want some of the finest music of 2009 and clearly on of the best releases of the end of the year, you don’t have a chance to not buy this album. Check South China’s MySpace for more details and free streaming and order your copy of Washingtons right here. (Note: if you love the sound of cellos this is something you want to hear.)

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