Modern Horses - Extra Happy Ghost!!!

Modern Horses

Extra Happy Ghost!!!
Saved By Radio/Saved By Vinyl Records.


SCQ Rating: 76%

As 2009 embraced the grey shapelessness of a dim November, I became invested in Extra Happy Ghost!!!’s one-man fantasy project. The EP was titled How the Beach Boys Sound To Those With No Feelings and its bipolar mood, its battered psychedelia, conspired to form a twisted mood that kept me company those dreary days. As its title suggested, songwriting Matthew Swann was after a particular type of gloom, something largely uncharted amid this generation’s influx of laptop-addled mopers. Swann wanted to lay all of his numbness, boredom and introverted inspirations on the table, backed by a stark assortment of lurching effects and negative space. Turns out Chad VanGaalen was also a fan of that EP's about-face, as he's joined forces with Extra Happy Ghost!!! for Modern Horses.

Now some of you are no doubt still reading for the sake of summing up Chad VanGaalen’s handiwork. Yes, the man from Yoko Eno Studio manages the dual task of finding an ideal sonic swamp for Swann to dwell in without, you know, having it sound like Women. But championing VanGaalen’s production ultimately proves complimentary to Extra Happy Ghost!!!, since Modern Horses mostly refines Swann’s established sound. Make no mistake: the smoother production still suspends us over chasm-esque depths without completely abandoning Extra Happy Ghost!!!’s lo-fi origins. But the focus here remains unequivocally on Swann’s disaffected songwriting, the same voice that toiled between styles so convincingly on How the Beach Boys Sound To Those With No Feelings.

Modern Horses not only finds Swann ironing out his EQ levels but fully indulging each songwriting whim as well. Gone are the fragmented hooks and experimental clouds of noise that would amble comfortably before dissolving a minute-and-a-half later; here Extra Happy Ghost!!!’s sneakiness doesn’t belie the bigger picture. Both ‘Mercy Mercy’ and ‘Fire On Fire’ showcase the rigidity of Swann’s riffs, not to mention the surrounding instrumentation that grows restless over time. Sometimes that edginess boils over into free-form noise (like the bleeding organs that blare over ‘Pitiful’); otherwise it curls into the melancholy groove of ‘Feed Wolves Luck’ like reverberations of a cocoon – safe and impenetrable. Modern Horses’ mesmeric qualities sustain it through pockets of self-abuse (namely the cabin-fever of ‘J23439’) and reward listeners whose idea of mood-music doesn’t hinge on expensive synthesizers. You'll be hard-pressed to find a more honest indie-rock record this year.

Night Gallery - Displacer

Night Gallery

Displacer
Tympanik Records.


SCQ Rating: 79%

Some artists thrive on an uphill challenge; as if Night Gallery wasn’t enough of an evocative title, Displacer’s cover-art offers a display of constellations and star clusters dazzling just beyond our evening’s atmosphere. Without even a whimper heard from composer Michael Morton concerning his record’s context or inspiration, it’s been unanimously decided: Night Gallery will delve into and soundtrack the nocturnal spirit or die trying.

Luckily for us demanding electronic fans, Displacer doesn’t let glossy images and sleek titles do the talking. Instead, the Toronto-based producer enunciates the shifting moods of night through the parlance of IDM filtered with Tympanik’s reputably kinetic beat-work. Early highlight ‘Invisible’ loops serene ambience into a textured break-beat whilst ‘Radioactive’ lends a more progressive techno rhythm to those transient night vapors. Despite its propulsive demeanor, Night Gallery is most fascinating for its temperament, which soaks up the mystique of dusk without leaning on creepiness or paranoia. Its lovely attributes – as when ‘Orchid’ settles like a bass-heavy Four Tet track – interplay with Displacer’s bolder beats in a way that nods to both the anticipation and tranquility of darkness.

Displacer’s tightrope walk between muscle and gracefulness encounters the odd stumble – like the awkwardly late introduction of vocals in the record’s last quarter – but there’s value in an artist who doesn’t rest on their laurels. In a more successful turn, ‘Ice Cold’ turns to effect-drenched guitar in a bid to lionize the finale’s throbbing undulations. It works beautifully and proves that playing marvelously within the confines of IDM styled electronica is often better than trying to breach the subgenre’s limitations.

Sings Shenandoah and Other Popular Hits - Frederick Squire

Sings Shenandoah and Other Popular Hits

Frederick Squire
Blue Fog Recordings.


SCQ Rating: 70%

When you grow an appreciation for an artist based on a handful of contributions to other people’s work, it seems like a discovery that can't disappoint. In the case of Frederick Squire, who’d collaborated within Shotgun & Jaybird, who’d sung on Mount Eerie’s Lost Wisdom and who’d stood out as Fred in Daniel, Fred and Julie, I admit that my appreciation for his countless drop-ins on friends’ records snowballed into hype for Frederick Squire Sings Shenandoah and Other Popular Hits. But hype’s the enemy to a full-length as humble and reserved as this one. What Shenandoah requires is anti-hype, the reservations upheld by a patient ear and, perhaps, a healing heart.

Once you’ve whetted your palette to its lone-man folk, these nine songs begin to reward our company with songwriting that’s gentle yet unshakable, arrangements both stubborn and fluid. Where ‘Lucky Number Seven’’s devastating narrative feeds off of sympathetic organ work, ‘All Things Past Serve To Guide You On Your Way’ ends on a choral of mournful vocals. These unexpected flourishes that interrupt Shenandoah’s acoustic-or-bust framework may arrive suddenly but they wisely bleed some slow-moving gusto from such austere arrangements. These unassuming highlights - of which we can add the bittersweet 'Peaceful Valley' - make good on Sings Shenandoah's less accessible stretches of loneliness but, the fact remains, this record wasn't made for summer BBQs or weekend hangouts. Squire's words and music are to be coveted like a love-letter to one's own company, almost by necessity; I doubt the album could find suitable oxygen without an intimate environment.

Although some songs build to an affecting gracefulness, Squire’s decision to close the disc with a live recording of a scant instrumental (‘Theme From a Small Towne Movie’) suggests an indifference to the gravitas he’s just laid down. Mixing heavy doses of sparseness with shrugged-off asides doesn’t make for a landmark release in traditional (re: minimal) folk. And while nobody claimed that Sings Shenandoah was aiming for such a title, Squire’s careful approach throughout the majority of this album often suggests otherwise.

SCQ's SUMMER ALBUMS 2011

Summer operates like a volatile seesaw for me; from May through June, I’m excited about all of the season’s benefits – namely warm sun, longer evenings and the heightened chance of a good thunderstorm – but by July’s humid peak and early August, I’m already eager for auburn shades in the trees. So it’s sort of fitting that SCQ’s Summer Albums of 2011 feature arrives on the cusp of an impasse since each of these records feel tied to the warm weather only through circumstance. Best heard in the evening while watching a bottle sweat in your hands. Enjoy these titles and thanks for reading.

Love SCQ

Demolished Thoughts - Thurston Moore (SUMMER 2011)

Demolished Thoughts

Thurston Moore
Matador Records.


SCQ Rating: 81%

Two summers ago, Sonic Youth – with their matchless and storied history – began to lose the plot. For all of The Eternal’s lovely John Fahey cover-art and intellectual mind-traps posing as contextual support, the music itself often felt slight, pushing forward without discerning what the present moment meant – in hooks, verses, breakdowns, whatever. From the outward perspective of a music writer, The Eternal suggested that Sonic Youth’s period of tangible influence was slipping from active to retrospective, and forthcoming records would be met with unanimous lip-service but few ripples in the landscape of indie-rock.

Following that scattershot full-length of forlorn ideas and Sonic Youth trademarks, Thurston Moore’s third solo outing bears a lark of a title. These thoughts aren’t demolished; they’re actually quite similar to the grunge poetry Moore has written in Sonic Youth for the past few decades. Only, what propelled his visceral wordplay toward the violent, abstract and frenetic has been replaced by a lush intimacy that anchors on acoustic guitar and symphonic accents. Masterfully focused without sacrificing the bite or psychedelia of his band’s best work, Demolished Thoughts feels more like a guided meditation, seamless and humbly awe-inspiring.

The abstractions thankfully remain. Samara Lubelski’s violin and Moore’s plainspoken acoustic open with the decidedly delicate ‘Benediction’, something that sounds almost fluffy against Moore’s prior work. But it’s a quietly stirring song that leads us toward more fertile songwriting, like the woozy, harp-laden ‘Illuminine’ and the deep orchestral chasms of ‘Mina Loy’. And I don’t lead with those highlights simply because the likes of Lubelski and harpist Mary Lattimore convey loving inflections upon Moore’s six-string work (although yes, they fill out a single-minded ensemble alongside some synth-playing producer I’ve never heard of named Beck Hansen). I mention these songs, as well as the ferocious restraint of would-be rocker ‘Circulation’, because Moore owns them. Demolished Thoughts’ songwriting stands on its own two feet, even though many of its sonic avenues would’ve remained in the dark without this great supporting cast. In the cases of ‘Orchard Street’ and ‘Space’, it’s hard to ignore the impulse to declare this Thurston’s Astral Weeks; it’s that contemplative and layered, if rarely so spritely. If there’s any room left for veteran statement-records in the blogosphere, Demolished Thoughts will be remembered.

03 Circulation by Thurston Moore

The Errant Charm - Vetiver (SUMMER 2011)

The Errant Charm

Vetiver
Sub Pop Records.


SCQ Rating: 79%

Vetiver’s reputation as a folk-rock outfit is partially hammered out on the promise that each full-length will feature a dominant amount of unplugged, slow-moving grooves. That truth remains unwavering with The Errant Charm but it’s worthwhile to point out that such a reputation couldn’t blossom without the band responsible delving into these slow grooves with considerable panache. And that’s precisely what bandleader Andy Cabic saw to, wandering his city of San Francisco’s Richmond District with rough takes and edits of The Errant Charm playing in his ears. The end result is a finessed set of sun-kissed pop songs refined to mirage-like effect; blurs of ambience sprawl beneath ‘It’s Beyond Me’’s poignant raison d’etre while subdued keyboards add to the breezy Byrds-ish jangle of ‘Hard To Break’.

Unsurprisingly, The Errant Charm captures that summery vibe one desires for walking the downtown stretches on a hot afternoon. But defining Vetiver’s fifth LP is the band’s careful ear, which seeks not to milk a good idea dry while recognizing – seemingly from conception – how to keep a mid-tempo record like The Errant Charm from growing tired. Alongside the buoyant support of ‘Wonder Why’ and the druggy skitter of should-be hit ‘Can’t You Tell’, Vetiver artfully emphasizes the benefits of lackadaisical songwriting without drowning listeners in the aural cover-up of reverb and effects. By the time ‘Soft Glass’ closes with an Appalachian-sized stunner, The Errant Charm has morphed from a barbeque-ready FM soundtrack into something more conducive to a lazy afternoon by one’s lonesome. The prospect of such an event sounds better as we age – something I think Andy Cabic knows already.