You know Steven Ellison, you just haven’t realized it yet. The beat-and-bass-heavy producer who goes by the mantra Flying Lotus has been creating the bumper music on Cartoon Networks’ Adult Swim programming block for some time now (yet uncredited). Now he is looking to get some studio energy out into the crowds after completing his latest. His upcoming album, Cosmogramma, is set for release May 4th via Warp Records but he’s breaking free from those studio shackles to trial his new material and get some much deserved street cred starting with SXSW this year.

Flying Tour:

03-17 The Phoenix [Warp SXSW Showcase] - Austin, TX
03-27 Mezzanine - San Francisco, CA
03-30 Le Poisson Rouge - New York, NY
04-01 Magic Stick - Detroit, MI
04-02 Double Door - Chicago, IL
04-03 BarFly Loft - Minneapolis, MN

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Dane’s Create Their Opus

Breaking down airy music is a tricky trap. It’s glacial pace always seems to offer a peg for us to hang our critical hats upon. Barring actually finding the artist’s touchstone, it’s easy to disconnect and criticize. Much is the case with Efterklang and their mellow watercolor art; creating enough atmospheres you could choke on its stuffiness. In their latest, Magic Chairs, they do well to quiet their detractors by understanding the score on the album is more important than any assessment score given.

While the band’s previous releases were much weightier on the rock, Chairs is supplemental ambience - like a pop adaptation of MuteMath. But to their detractor’s surprise, these Danes have grown. Something different this time around is a focus on melodies flanking their orchestral echoes. Where their 2007 Parades release had the landscapes down to a science, it came unglued once they tried to build on vocals. Not the case with Chairs. Instead this time they do right by indulging in the composition of each track as an overall emotionally traverse magnum opus. Take ‘Mirror Mirror’ as the perfect example: with its swooping chorale and building bewilderment – a faint cry from its delicate opening violins. This is an album that can tug at every string of emotion without batting an eye.

It’s true; you won’t have to squint to recognize their signature lush chamber sounds like ‘Scandinavian Love’ with playful horns and sweeping strings. And while ‘Modern Drift’ shows how they’ve evolved, a creation crammed with vigorous strings and keys, there are undeniable aloof growing pains as heard in ‘Alike’ or ‘Raincoats’ that can leave a void between track and the listener – a rare case in Chairs.

Efterklang are more of a musician’s artist. You can heed the shades in each work and it can easily be seen as complicated brush strokes to the jaded ear. Perhaps we should come to expect this. And like a piece of art, not everyone is going to understand it. But you should definitely take the time to marvel at Magic Chairs.

Sean Kendall

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Influential but long since defunct Chicago punk emo group Cap’n Jazz has announced an official reunion show. For those who are taking notes, the January 22nd reunion show was never official – more of a surprise to play alongside Joan of Arc’s variety show (a band they notably influenced) at the time. The upcoming July 17th event at Chicago’s The Bottom Lounge promises to be grander in every aspect. You can grab your tickets here.

The band’s cult-like following is especially impressive when you take into account that they only released one full-length album: Burritos, Inspiration Point, Fork Balloon Sports, Cards in the Spokes, Automatic Biographies, Kites, Kung Fu, Trophies, Banana Peels We’ve Slipped on and Egg Shells We’ve Tippy Toed Over – better known as Shmap’n Shmazz - way back in 1994. Jade Tree is reissuing on vinyl not only this album but also combining material from early singles, compilation tracks, and split releases: all of which the band did a plethora of in their short but active years. The double LP goes beyond the original compilation CD’s release several years back by offering bonus material not included on its original issue including never before seen photos, show fliers, and new liner notes by Tim Kinsella. The deluxe reissue, entitled Analphabetapolothology, will be available on vinyl only care of Jade Tree on June 15th.Check out one of the tracks below.

stream: ‘Oh Messy Life’ by Cap’n Jazz
from Analphabetapolothology

Tracklisting:

01 Little League
02 Oh Messy Life
03 Puddle Splashers
04 Flashpoint: Catheter
05 In the Clear
06 Yes, I Am Talking To You
07 Basils Kite
08 Bluegrassish
09 Planet Shhh
10 The Sands Have Turned Purple
11 Precious
12 Que Suerte!
13 Take On Me
14 Tokyo
15 Ooh Do I Love You
16 Hey Ma, Do I Hafta Choke On These
17 Forget Who We Are
18 Olerud
19 We Are Scientists!
20 Sea Tea
21 Troubled By Insects
22 Rocky Rococo
23 AOK
24 Sergio Valente

Bonus Downloads:

25 In the Clear
26 Soria
27 No Use For A Piano Player When You Got A Player Piano
28 Scary Kids Scaring Kids
29 Bluegrass
30 Winter Wonderland
31 Geheim
32 Easy Driver
33 Theme to 90210
34 Ooh Do I love You

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After being crowned by the fans and indie scene – not to mention Billboard – as one of the best new electronica acts, NYC outfit Glint is setting their sights and hopes high for 2010. Finishing up a tour that saw the band across Europe for most of 2009, the Muse-meet-Radiohead group is back in the studio working on their follow to 2007’s studio debut Sound in Silence. Expected sometime this year, the album is said to be mixed by Michael Brauer of Ben Folds, My Morning Jacket, and Wilco credits and who also aided the band on their upcoming self titled EP due out in March stateside. Check out the single ‘Freak’ off of the upcoming EP, filled with booming howls and larger-than-life chamber rock.

stream: ‘Freak’ by Glint
from Glint EP

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Texan Battles Id and Ego

All things being alt-country: whiskey, horses, women, sorrow – Rocky Votolato sings a lot about trying to move on from it. Truth be told, he’s been trying to for awhile now and we’ve just taken his last decade for granted. From his rocking early days with the Chris Walla-produced Suicide Medicine to his awkward disconnection with reality’s-unplugged Makers, it’s been a malevolent Texas dirt road he’s traveled. And regrettably for him, the likes of Iron & Wine and Damien Jurado seemed to get their shit together long before (on similar paths we might add) consequently stealing the air from his fragile little lungs.  And so all these demons rose to the surface, literally asphyxiating him into seclusion and depression since we last heard from him in 2007’s The Brag & Cuss. We’re not one to reward gloom and doom, but his hitch is our reward.

On True Devotion, his 8th studio album, Votolato immediately lays the groundwork of where he’s been for the last three years with ‘Lucky Clover Coin’, wallowing about “a world I want to leave behind”. Yet, he’s not being honest with us. He checked out even before then. By moving away from his country rockabilly over the years he came up empty handed all too often with flat acoustic litter - hampered even further with tired lyrical contrasts about life. He’s learned a lot on Devotion. While in seclusion, he studied existential philosophy, history, physics, and theology to deconstruct his demons… whatever that means. Who the fuck knows. But what we get in return is one of his smartest confessionals to date.

Casey Foubert (Sufjan Stevens, David Bazan) and John Goodmanson (Blood Brothers, Sleater-Kinney) helped what could have easily been a jumbled mess. Perhaps they are the hint of glow and hope hidden in each song. Or Votolato is making headway; he’s actually starting to get it. The Elliot Smith nod ‘Sparklers’ may lament about its inevitably ending flicker, but he also talks about letting go to move on without sounding metaphorically cliché. A significant problem he suffered in the past. ‘Instrument’ has him playing his desire to get out of this funk or later admitting fault in the bountiful sounds of ‘Sun Devil’. Is he getting older or wiser? Whatever this groggy awakening is, True Devotion makes it appear like Votolato’s day - and livelihood - have a ray of optimism.

Sean Kendall

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For those of us who didn’t get the warm and fuzzies this Valentines Day and are looking for wtf answers to our life, the UK has some insight. Electro poppers Viva City plan to answer that question with the release of their new single ‘Have You Ever Felt So Messed Up’ off the forthcoming album of the same name (due out March 22nd Stateside) as well with as a handful of US dates leading up. The Newcastle band has pegged the dance floor banger sound by making those Depeche Mode influences their own personal Jesus and enough synchs to make Prodigy green with envy. Ok so that last part isn’t hard to do but you get our point.

stream: ‘Have You Ever Felt So Messed Up’ by Viva City
from Have You Ever Felt So Messed Up

Electro Poptastic Tour:

03-12 Road 34 - Fort Collins, CO
03-13 The Meadowlark - Denver, CO
03-15 The Roxy – Hollywood, CA
03-17 SXSW – Austin, TX
03-18 SXSW – Austin, TX
03-19 SXSW – Austin, TX
03-20 SXSW – Austin, TX

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With A Little Help From Her Friends

We all have pressures of becoming someone but holy Holly Miranda! This southern crooner not only overcame a music crutch (religion allowed only Motown in the house), had the mob after her at one point (note: know who you’re signing a music contract with), but then ol’ Kanye West had to go and give her a shout out on his blog. Thankfully Holly Miranda knows just the right peeps on the music scene to keep her cool and plenty of tricks up her sleeve for her solo debut.

The Magician’s Private Library plays like a slowburner Tegan & Sara; bare of pop crap but blistering with MPC, synth, and bursting with pain. But without TV On The Radio’s Dave Sitek’s production fingerprints all over the album, it would easily be forgettable. That’s not meant toward Miranda; her vocals are as powerfully heartbreaking as Cat Power and gorgeously suspended like Feist. But that can easily be lost in today’s crowded record bins. Sitek knew what he had and in so unwound her anxiety care of minimalistic beats, echoing bass, flat horns. By catering to her sultry voice, Sitek masterminds all of Oz by playing the mayor behind the studio glass mussing up her journey. Only opener ‘Forest Green Oh Forest Green’ strays from this formula with its candyland-trot masking the cyclic vocals. Revisit the track with a shovel and you can unearth so many layers: unplugged strings, thumping basslines, and more.

So beautifully peculiar are most of the tracks that it becomes odd when things sound distinctive. But when Sitek falls asleep, (‘Joints’) Miranda pulls down the curtains and lets loose making it her own. Behind that velvet drape lives glee (‘Sweet Dreams’) and weeping (‘Everytime I Go to Sleep’) transmitted well through her haunting echoes – cooing the shitty reality between what she dreamed … and what she lives. It may be her private real world but it’s nothing short of magic on her solo debut.

Sean Kendall

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When you are as talented as Roberto Lange, you need to spread your talent in as many ways as possible. Or if you are Roberto Lange, you create alter egos to play your talent as. As Epstein, he oozes beats heavy with muddled bass all on washed out upbeat electronics. And accompanied by El Conjunto, this band bleeds for his personal dance party. When Man Gets Full He Falls Asleep (due out March 10th) is a 14-track folk jam with some of today’s best to join the ride. The first single ‘A Lost Animal’ has Yeasayer member Jason Trammell’s drumming and moodsters School of Seven Bells as Epstein mixes his dangerous humanistic sounds and haunting jams.

stream: ‘A Lost Animal’ by Epstein Y El Conjunto
from When Man Gets Full He Falls Asleep

Tracklisting:

01 Arrival to New York (a short story about getting there)
02 When we Hide (this time)
03 Vilcabamba
04 El Condor Despierta (El Conjunto Edit)
05 I can Memorize you (can you?)
06 Una Tarde
07 Gallop
08 Needed
09 BgBgBg (offset tape splice)
10 Our Brain That Wouldn’t Die
11 Temporary
12 A Lost Animal - Featuring School of Seven Bells
13 Ting and Pinge
14 There’s a Way under (Here)

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• Unveiling Notes: School of Seven Bells Interview
• live: M83, School of Seven Bells @ Bottom Lounge
• stream: School of Seven Bells Get Remixed

Jazzy DJ Gets Personal

There Is Love in You is a spiritual awakening for Kieran Hebden. For the past five years since his release under the Four Tet name, he’s collaborated with jazz marvel Steve Reid. So to think his latest would somehow reflect heavily upon his experience would be a no-brainer. However, Love is completely different from anything he’s released prior. It’s soft, at times charming, other times dark, and completely organic; a new approach for the man who carved his name into the scene by mixing tracks of Radiohead and Aphex Twins years back. In fact, about the only thing present from his jazz-sabbatical on Love is Kiernan accepting his old collaborative beats as fusty.

The complicated coats piled on 2005’s Everything Ecstatic are suspiciously absent this time around. DJ tested and crowd approved, all tracks on Love feel like a measured energy channeling through a club or lounge. ‘Sing’ is full of warm 8-bit videogame memories full of bleeps, bloops and sly bass programmed faultlessly. ‘Circling’, despite stripped to its core, stretches well thanks to levelheaded use of opera arrangements and undersized female vocals; all of which climax on ‘Love Cry’ – a nine minute excursion surfing droning lows, angelic highs and bookended by arduous bedlam.

Love’s pestering points are its minimalist beliefs participating throughout wearing thin by the end. The fluffy cloud which upon it judges from, while full of soothe and sentiment, lacks sustaining oxygen.  Arguably it succeeds in setting out to do just that – something devotees of Kieran and Aphex Twins’ work will surely justify. But for the record: this album is purposely eccentric to the point of personal. So Love becomes a trade-off; the departed boring beats in favor of blend rather than buzy builds. There is love in here, but I wonder if we’ve already moved on.

Sean Kendall

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• Four Tet Set to Release Mini-Album

Most may have written Franz Nicolay off after high-tailing it out of Brooklyn and The Hold Steady’s camp. But apparently he had a ton of talents and plans up his sleeves … and in his mustache. Not only does he have a book of short stories, Complicated Gardening Techniques, hitting shelves February 11th to accompany his solo album that dropped last year, but he seems happy in his new digs as part of the gypsy-punk unit Guignol. The band is working out the details on a physical release of their recently completed collaboration with Mischief Brew entitled Fight Dirty. But in the meantime you can pick it up digitally over at Cottage Records as well as catch Franz on his solo of which he shares time along the way with Guignol.

Franz and His ‘Stash Tour:

02-19 Alfred University Knight Club - Alfred, NY
02-20 DC9 - Washington, DC +
02-21 Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar - Charlottesville, VA
02-22 Guest DJ on WNRN In The Morning - Charlottesville, VA
02-22 The Camel - Richmond, VA
02-23 Guest DJ on WTJU Afternoon - Charlottesville, VA
02-24 Otto Bar - Baltimore, MD +
02-25 Khyber - Philadelphia, PA ^
03-04 TBA – Boston, MA *
03-05 Bennington College - Bennington, VT *
03-06 Bat Barn - Great Barrington, MA *
03-08 Live on WUML - Lowell MA *
+ with Roman Kuebler of Oranges Band
^ with Ha Ha Tonka, Peasant
* with Guignol

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