This band is a rare one that I discovered not in Canadian campus radio, but at KEXP in Seattle. I tend to listen to KEXP when work is slow, or I have nothing to do at home but clean up the house or play video games. Every time this band came on, I had to stop what I was doing and see what the heck the song was that was playing. Idles, from the UK, are a hybrid of post-punk precision, punk-rock bravado and working class British values. Their second album has a cocky swagger to it that rivals the best of UK 77 punk, and the teary vulnerability of mid 80s UK pop, backed with a wall of sound musicality that would make David Gedge or Mark E. Smith twist up their face a little. Political, raw, loud, unapologetic, unrelenting. They released a thunderous live album in 2019 and are set with a follow up in 2020, which is bound to be in consideration for my albums of the year for 2020.
Best of 2019 is coming next week!
Showing posts with label Best of 2018. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Best of 2018. Show all posts
Monday, December 30, 2019
Tuesday, December 10, 2019
Best of 2018 #2: Actors - It Will Come to You (Artoffact Records)
When this album came out in March, I knew it was going to be one of my favourite albums of the year. Actors have the retro precision of classic post punk, but also have a modern post punk sound. It's a modern sound, but not a brutal sound. That isn't to say it's not driving and difficult in places (it is), but it's more melodic, more instrumental and more electronic laced than a lot of modern post punk and noise rock. "Hit to the Head" and "Bury Me" are more the driving style, pummelling, insistent and draining. "Face Meets Glass" is brooding, electronic and dark. This is their debut album, so they brought their best to the table. Their second album will be the test. This is an amazing album that deserves multiple, active listenings.
Saturday, November 9, 2019
Best of 2018 #3: Low - Double Negative (Sub Pop Records)
Low has been an institution in experimental and indy rock for decades. Recording since 1993 with a trademark style of slow, droning, noisy rock, it's been amazing that they've kept their sound fresh. 2018's Double Negative saw then re-invent themselves, ditching the largely vocal based approach they've been using since 2005's The Great Destroyer, replacing it with a pulsing electronic drone, backed by barely-discernible vocals. Double Negative is a sparce, lo-fi electronics album that lingers in the background of your mind as you listen to it, almost like a Brian Eno album, with Mimi Parker's haunting voice rising up above the ambient noise. Low remain one of the more vital voices in experimental music today, remaining accessible with a disturbing edge to their music.
Tuesday, August 13, 2019
Best of 2018 #4: Freak Dream - Into the Sun (Artoffact)
Vancouver's Freak Dream are just a few years old, but have already established hefty credentials in the experimental rock world. Frontman Elliot Langford has already clocked time with many great Vancouver bands, including The SSRIs, The Rebel Spell, Spring and Big Evil. Into the Sun is their first for Artoffact Records, another Canadian label that has been filling their roster with Canadian and international talent. The album is a indescribable mess of post-punk, electro-punk, synth-pop, disco and noise. Some songs verge into almost melodic 80s pop fare, some are straight up electro-noise. "8 Billion" especially is a good display of their range, starting from a brutal hardcore punk riff, into a death metal scream fest, then ending with pummeling break-beats. This is one of the most innovative bands I heard in 2018.
Monday, August 12, 2019
Best of 2018 - #5: Peach Kelli Pop - Gentle Leader (Mint)
Peach Kelli Pop are a wonderful 60-style garage rock band centred around former White Wires drummer Allie Hanlon. The band is mainly her with touring musicians. Formed around 2010, they put out three EPs (2 on the California based label Burger), before putting out an EP single, Which Witch, on Mint, then following up a month later with Gentle Leader. Peach Kelli Pop are kind of like a mix between Canadian indiepop legends cub, The Supremes and The Muffs: soulful, gruff and cute. The almost only clocks in around 30 minutes, but you don't need much more of what they give you. Fantastic pick up for Mint, and another in a long line of fantastic bands they've discovered.
Sunday, August 4, 2019
Best of 2018: #6 - Alpha Strategy - The Gurgler (Antena Kryzku)
It's been a long time since we've seen a noise rock band approach the genre with the wild disregard that the Jesus Lizard used to. Toronto's Alpha Strategy seem worthy enough to take up the mantle. Lead singer Rory Hinchley has David Yow's demented, howling scream down pat, and the band takes noise to the extreme, brings it back to quiet, then back to the extreme again. Add in the noise rock pedigree of Steve Albini in engineering the record, and you've got one of the best noise recordings of 2018.
Saturday, July 27, 2019
Best of 2018 #7: Superorganism - Superorganism (Domino)
I love a fascinating band formation story, and Superorganism has one. Lead singer Orono Niguchi was a teenage exchange student in Maine in the US, but travelled back to Japan on a trip. She found one of her favourite bands, The Eversons, were playing a concert there, so she went and connected with the band. Through the internet, they began making music, which turned into the first Superorganism songs. The band was split up between the US, UK and Australia, but now all live in London in the UK. Their music is an oddball pastiche of corny pop, electronica, disco, lo-fi indy rock and slacker funk. It has a wonderful innocence and naiveity to it as well. This is their debut album and it's excellent!
Saturday, June 22, 2019
Best of 2018: #8 - Plains Apparition - Adrift (Independent)
I've stated and re-stated the importance of following unknown and obscure artists, because what you find can be startling. Plains Apparition are an enigmatic electronic group (or possibly an individual) from somewhere in Alberta. Adrift is an almost perfect series of ambient electronic compositions that seamlessly flow into each other. Think Brian Eno, but much much shorter. One of the best electronic albums of 2018.
Saturday, May 25, 2019
Best of 2018 #9: Confidence Man - Confident Music for Confident People (Heavenly)
For a band that came from kind of a one off joke, they turned out to make some really enjoyable music. Confidence Man formed in Brisbane, Australia in 2016 from three other indy rock bands to make silly dance music. Once they realized they had something more than a joke, the band really came into it's own. Confident Music for Confident People is a wonderful dance/electronic record, channeling parts of the groove-ridden style of Daft Punk, the off-kilter disco of Dee-Lite and the surreal groove of Beck. Highlights are the goofy swagger of "Don't You Know I'm in a Band" and the ultra-infectious "Boyfriend (Repeat)" This is one of the most solid dance and electro-pop albums of 2018
Thursday, February 7, 2019
DNTTA Playlist for January 18, 2019 - Best of 2018 Part II
Artist - Song - Album (Label) * indicates Canadian Content
Listen to Do Not Touch This Amp every Friday 8-9 PM Pacific at www.thex.ca
--
Mystic Bowie - Once in a Lifetime - Talking Dreads (Independent)
Body Lens - Value* - Body Lens EP (Independent)
Cope - Mother Russia* - EPs (Norwegian Blue)
Co-Op - Second View* - 2nd View (Independent)
Bruce Haack - Little Things* - Preservation Tapes (Telephone Explosion)
Severed Heads - Harold and Cindy Hospital - Brave New Waves Session (Artoffact)
Phleg Camp - Hog Bottom* - Brave New Waves Session (Artoffact)
cub - Cast a Shadow* - Brave New Waves Session (Artoffact)
Theoretical Girls - You Got Me - New York Noise (Soul Jazz)
Pete Shelley - Homosapien - Homosapien (Arista)
The Fall - How I Wrote “Elastic Man” - 50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong (Beggar's Banquet)
ba:zel - Marschfield - Scene 7 (Independent)
Listen to Do Not Touch This Amp every Friday 8-9 PM Pacific at www.thex.ca
--
Mystic Bowie - Once in a Lifetime - Talking Dreads (Independent)
Body Lens - Value* - Body Lens EP (Independent)
Cope - Mother Russia* - EPs (Norwegian Blue)
Co-Op - Second View* - 2nd View (Independent)
Bruce Haack - Little Things* - Preservation Tapes (Telephone Explosion)
Severed Heads - Harold and Cindy Hospital - Brave New Waves Session (Artoffact)
Phleg Camp - Hog Bottom* - Brave New Waves Session (Artoffact)
cub - Cast a Shadow* - Brave New Waves Session (Artoffact)
Theoretical Girls - You Got Me - New York Noise (Soul Jazz)
Pete Shelley - Homosapien - Homosapien (Arista)
The Fall - How I Wrote “Elastic Man” - 50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong (Beggar's Banquet)
ba:zel - Marschfield - Scene 7 (Independent)
Tuesday, February 5, 2019
DNTTA Playlist for January 11, 2018 - Best of 2018 Part 1
Artist - Song - Album (Label) * indicates Canadian Content
Listen to Do Not Touch This Amp every Friday 8-9 PM Pacific at www.thex.ca
--
Dumb - Hard Sea* - Seeing Green (Mint)
Confidence Man - Boyfriend (Repeat) - Confident Music for Confident People (Heavenly)
Plains Apparition - Frozen Belief* - Adrift (Independent)
Superorganism - Something for Your M.I.N.D. - Superorganism (Domino)
Alpha Strategy - I Smell Like a Wet Tent* - The Gurgler (Antena Kryzku)
Peach Kelli Pop - Black Magic* - Gentle Leader (Mint)
Freak Dream - Stray from the Path* - Into the Sun (Artoffact)
Low - Always Trying to Work it Out - Double Negative (Sub Pop)
Actors - Bury Me* - It Will Come to You (Artoffact)
Idles - Danny Nedelko - Joy as an Act of Resistance (Partisan)
Idles - Love Song - Joy as an Act of Resistance (Partisan)
Listen to Do Not Touch This Amp every Friday 8-9 PM Pacific at www.thex.ca
--
Dumb - Hard Sea* - Seeing Green (Mint)
Confidence Man - Boyfriend (Repeat) - Confident Music for Confident People (Heavenly)
Plains Apparition - Frozen Belief* - Adrift (Independent)
Superorganism - Something for Your M.I.N.D. - Superorganism (Domino)
Alpha Strategy - I Smell Like a Wet Tent* - The Gurgler (Antena Kryzku)
Peach Kelli Pop - Black Magic* - Gentle Leader (Mint)
Freak Dream - Stray from the Path* - Into the Sun (Artoffact)
Low - Always Trying to Work it Out - Double Negative (Sub Pop)
Actors - Bury Me* - It Will Come to You (Artoffact)
Idles - Danny Nedelko - Joy as an Act of Resistance (Partisan)
Idles - Love Song - Joy as an Act of Resistance (Partisan)
Monday, January 7, 2019
Best of 2018: Dumb - Seeing Green (Mint)
Dumb have only been around for three years now, and already have 3 EPs and 3 full length albums to their credit. Part of the vibrant Vancouver scene, Seeing Green was a solid effort and breakout for the band, their first album for the always forward-looking Mint record label. They call themselves a punk band, but they're more a demented mix of classic, sloppy garage rock and lo-fi indie. Think The Evaporators meet Devo.
Wednesday, January 2, 2019
Who we lost in 2018
Each year, I try to make a decent list of notable musicians who died in the past year. I also try to focus on lesser known musicians from alternative music as well as Canadian musicians. Links provided to music too.
Bill Hughes
Johnny Coswell*
Steve Foster
Mickey Jones (Kenny Rogers)
Craig MacGregor (Foghat)
Roy MacDonald*
Claudia Fontaine (Afrodiziak)
John “Jabo” Starks (James Brown)
Danny Kirwan (Fleetwood Mac)
DJ Fontana (Elvis Presley)
Conway Savage (Nick Cave)
Max Bennett (LA Express)
Marty Balin (Jefferson Airplane)
Monday, December 31, 2018
Top 10 Albums of 2018
1) Idles - Joy As an Act of Resistance (Partisan)
2) Actors* - It Will Come to You (Artoffact)
3) Low - Double Negative (Sub Pop)
4) Freak Dream* - Into the Sun (Artoffact)
5) Peach Kelli Pop* - Gentle Leader (Mint)
6) Alpha Strategy* - The Gurgler (Antena Kryzku)
7) Superorganism - Superorganism (Domino)
8) Plains Apparition* - Adrift (Independent)
9) Confidence Man - Confident Music for Confident People (Heavenly)
10) Dumb* - Seeing Green (Mint)
Honourable Mentions:
Single Mothers* - Through a Door (Dine Alone), Kaelan Mikla - Manadans (Artoffact), Dilly Dally* - Heaven (Dine Alone), US Girls* - In a Poem Unlimited (4AD), Beak> - >>> (Temporary Residence)
2) Actors* - It Will Come to You (Artoffact)
3) Low - Double Negative (Sub Pop)
4) Freak Dream* - Into the Sun (Artoffact)
5) Peach Kelli Pop* - Gentle Leader (Mint)
6) Alpha Strategy* - The Gurgler (Antena Kryzku)
7) Superorganism - Superorganism (Domino)
8) Plains Apparition* - Adrift (Independent)
9) Confidence Man - Confident Music for Confident People (Heavenly)
10) Dumb* - Seeing Green (Mint)
Honourable Mentions:
Single Mothers* - Through a Door (Dine Alone), Kaelan Mikla - Manadans (Artoffact), Dilly Dally* - Heaven (Dine Alone), US Girls* - In a Poem Unlimited (4AD), Beak> - >>> (Temporary Residence)
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