Album Review: Atlas Sound - Logos

Logos
Atlas Sound
4AD / Kranky, 2009
Paul’s Rating: 8.5/10

             

I’ve listened to this album many times over during the past several weeks, yet it’s difficult to know where to begin reviewing it. I think I’ve figured out why: Writing about any Bradford Cox project almost invariably turns into a biography on Cox himself. Atlas Sound – arguably even more so than Cox’s more famous band, Deerhunter – Is the Bradford Cox project. At least, this is the one for which Cox is sole proprietor. As Cox’ Wikipedia bio indicates, it has been since he was a child. And this time, he’s brought some friends along, most notably Animal Collective’s Noah “Panda Bear” Lennox and Stereolab’s Laetitia Sadier.

From the very start, if not for the distinct tremor of Cox’s voice, this would not easily be mistaken for a Deerhunter album. Opening track “The Light That Failed” slowly churns around a delicate acoustic guitar riff, incorporating high-pitched bells and thundering bass with not a lot in between. In doing so, it trades Deerhunter’s shoegazey wall-of-sound density for an expansiveness traditional rock instrumentation could not easily create.

The guest appearances do stick out. The two opening tracks almost go out of their way to avoid hooks. They manage – barely – to dovetail into “Walkabout,” in which Lennox makes his appearance. Catchy and melodic, it sounds like a Panda Bear song, not an Atlas Sound song. It makes the album difficult to parse, because it’s a great song.

It’s at this point one gets the idea that if Cox the auteur does have some grand vision, it’s much more apparent through Deerhunter, while Atlas Sound might represent a separate avenue for experimentation. Most of Logos does bear some of Deerhunter’s trademarks. Atmosphere, ambience, all woven through with threads of driving rhythms and clanging guitars – are present throughout, although accomplished with different instruments and different methods. To fault the Logos for the one thing it lacks: cohesiveness, would seem unfair. Part of its strength is its diversity. It doesn’t seem Cox was trying to create a magnum opus, and that’s okay.

There is something to be said for the overall quality of Cox’s various projects, which is very high, prolific as he is. On top of that, Atlas Sound speaks to his shrewdness for marketing his music. By giving it a separate name, he allows Deerhunter its own identity. It’s fortunate that he hasn’t done so by keeping the rest to himself.

Album Review: Deerhunter: Rainwater Cassette Exchange EP

Rainwater Cassette Exchange (EP)
Deerhunter
4AD / Kranky, 2009

Paul's rating: 8.0/10

Just so you're aware, if you buy Rainwater Cassette Exchange on vinyl, it's a 45-RPM disc. Normally I wouldn't feel the need to point this out, even though it's indicated nowhere on the labels or sleeve. But anyone who's listened to Cryptograms, Deerhunter's first album, might think the sound at 33 RPM is exactly what Deerhunter was going for. The sort of thing my dad calls "gas music from Jupiter." It took me a few minutes to figure it out. It's a 12-inch disc, so I started with the assumption it was a 33.

As it turns out, RCE is poppy and accessible, absent the long, droning, trippy instrumental tracks that comprised most of Cryptograms. Which is not to say it's exactly uplifting. Two weeks of misery / Capture my heart and destroy me / Destroy my mind and my body / Invade me like as disease and conquer me are the opening words, contrasting against the sunny, almost tropical jangle of of the guitars.

This seems to be the trend of Deerhunter's work - Introspective and scary as ever, but increasingly accessible. Well, relatively accessible - It's not like they're in any danger of cracking the Top 40.

What I like about EPs is their lack of commercial motives. They can offer insights into an artist's creative process, being such an opportunity for unfettered artistic freedom. This seems the case even in instances when the EP may be an outlet (or less euphemistically, dumping ground) for songs that didn't make the cut for the full-length, and there's some evidence that may be the case here, as the track "Famous Last Words" echoes the motifs of "Never Stops" from Microcastle/Weird Era Continued, the band's most recent (double) full-length, which is absolutely a better fit for that album. Nonetheless, it stands on its own, as do all five of RCE's songs. The fact that they share some of the previous work's devices for mood, hooks and atmosphere can lend a fan like myself a better understanding of just what makes Deerhunter, especially the prolific frontman Bradford Cox, tick. All the songs are rewarding, but "Disappearing Ink," the second track, is as good as any song Deerhunter has yet released, and it demands to be heard over and over. It has a hooky, driving beat, and it evokes the earliest work of another eponymous Georgia band, R.E.M..

Overall, Rainwater Cassette Exchange is an excellent listen. While the unassuming album artwork and the presence of detailed information about the songs are uncharacteristic of Deerhunter's presentation style, they offer some clues how the band creates atmosphere and 60's psychedelia (Swamp guitar! Theremins! Lap steel! Congas! Spring reverb!) The fact that it's not a very high-quality pressing and a somewhat lo-fi recording in the first place give it a gritty "underground" feel. And despite being only 5 short songs, RCE plays through with as cohesive an arc as any good album should.

If I have one complaint, it's that Kranky Records is not in the habit of offering download coupons with their vinyl releases (I paid good money for this, and I'm going to download it one way or another, so I can have it on my iPod), although Deerhunter is overall a fan-friendly band. Still, for the very reasonable price of $9.99, Rainwater Cassette Exchange is worth every penny and more. It has my recommendation.

Album Review: Built to Spill - There Is No Enemy

There Is No Enemy
Built to Spill
Warner Bros., 2009

Paul's Rating: 7.5/10

It would be unfair, absolutely a curse, for any band, to have Perfect From Now On in their discography. When you make an album like that, everything else you release is forever measured against it. With that in mind, the irony of that album's title is almost too much to bear. What a different time that was. "Indie rock" was not yet a pop culture fad in 1997. Back then, I didn't even know it existed. If "Indie" was ever a style, Built to Spill might have been its poster child. They're still generally categorized as such, even though they've been on a major label since that album's release. Yet clearly, Warner Bros. was not constraining BTS's creativity.

Even under those constraints, There Is No Enemy holds its own. True, nothing they've released since Perfect quite has that album's edge, but that's setting the bar impossibly high. If Perfect is any indicator of whatever kind of psychic tourism this band may have been engaged in, Enemy continues the trend. "Inside my mind, incessant chatter / When will these brain cells cut me some slack / Maybe I'm not smart enough to think of things to think about that matter / Afraid that once you think some things, there's no going back," frontman Doug Martsch sings in "Good Ol' Boredom." I think that's how he keeps things interesting, even though there are moments in this album when Built to Spill shows some slight wear with age. "Finally decided, and by decide I mean accept / i don't need all those of the chances i won't get," Martsch sings on "Life's a Dream."

Nonetheless, on songs like "Pat," BTS show they can still rock out with their cocks out. On their previous album, they proved it with epic 8-minute opener "Goin' Against Your Mind," but following that song, that album had a few that were a little droopy. Overall, Enemy is on a more even keel, and feels like it has a little more depth. It's no less than I would expect from a band I've seen live at least 6 times. A band that opened up a lot of musical doors for me once or twice in a very hot-boxed WOW Hall in Eugene, Oregon. Nice to see their originality is still going strong.

I wish I'd bought this one on vinyl, because the LP comes with CD copy (no jewel case) and boasts all-analog production, but alas, I bought it on CD.

Album Review: Beach House - Teen Dream

Teen Dream
Beach House
Sub Pop, 2010

Paul's Rating: 8/10

Dreaminess is Beach House's specialty. So much so that they're one of those rare bands that has stamped its sound as patently its own. What's even rarer is for an artist to do so without being pigeon-holed in their own creation. Having achieved the former, the Baltimore duo venture into further explorations of their sound in their 3rd LP. This being a stage of awkward adolescence in any career, the title seems descriptive of the band itself. Especially for one that never bothered having a sophomore slump.

The album itself is more adult. Victoria Legrand sings, "Don't forget the nights when it all felt right / Are you not the same as you used to be?" If she's referring to teenage experience, it's a retrospective look.

It doesn't hurt to have such a firestorm of talent as singer/keyboardist Legrand at the helm, and under her lead, Beach House show they're willing to try new things. It's not effortless, but they prove they carry two traits that make (or, if absent, break) a career: Great artistic ambition, and the lack of a single gimmicky note in their songs.

Mostly, Beach House stick to what's worked so well for them thus far: Legrand's sultry, low alto voice. Gentle drum-machine beats. Crawling tempos. Layers of thick, droning keyboard work. Clean, reverb-heavy electric guitar arpeggios. Until now, they have exercised this sound with restraint, lending a folksy appeal to their very electronic sound.

Teen Dream, unlike 2007's Devotion, makes some risky moves into more complex, dramatic territory. Swelling crescendos and soaring synth-strings appear, augmented with live percussion. Some folk appeal is lost, but the execution is never indulgent. "10 Mile Stereo" is the highest-flying song. It's late in the album, a climax, not a showpiece.

That being said, part of the magic of Devotion was Legrand's ability to create tension and drama with the sublest inflection of her voice or a shift in chord progressions. Having heard that before, one might question whether it was necessary to tug any harder on the heartstrings.

Whatever criticism might be due, there are moments of brilliance that erase any notion of this being less than a great album. Legrand's gift for melody and composition blossoms, and while firmly in command, she melds with Alex Scally's guitar work better than ever. While containing tracks more accessible than Devotion's, even its less catchy songs are the kind that grow on you eventually, and in the end, they're the most rewarding.

For the vinyl aficionado, Teen Dream is a real treat. It's double heavy-duty discs in a gatefold jacket, and while the outside artwork is nothing eye-popping, the interior is beautifully designed. It includes a coupon for an MP3 download direct from Sub Pop, plus a DVD with music videos for most of the tracks.