Wake the Deaf

Japandroids - Celebration Rock

When I heard that Japandroids were releasing a new album I was unsure as to which direction the Vancouver band would take. In hindsight it was incredibly stupid of me. It’s called ‘Celebration Rock’ for Christ’s sake! It picks up where Post-Nothing left off - there’s no revolution in sound, no synths or string sections, just good honest rock music with shout-along choruses. While not as narrative in their style, Japandroids remind me of a noise rock version of The Hold Steady; songs which rely on energy and goodwill while retaining an intelligence and depth, celebratory songs. Hence why Celebration Rock could not be more aptly named. They sing of glorious nights and chances missed, bringing to mind that awfully human phenomenon of waiting for the golden days, even as we live through them. An inability to live for the moment (at least without self-destruction). Again I find myself thinking of the wisdom of David Foster Wallace: The idea that all of the way through life we are looking for a door, a door we must reach and pass through in order to be happy. What happens when we finally get there? It opens inwards and we discovered we have been inside what we desired all along. Japandroids seem to urge you to do otherwise.

Exactly how Brian King and David Prowse manage to make as much noise as they do was a bit of mystery before I saw them live myself. I was lucky enough to catch them in Cardiff on the first date of their current UK tour. Firstly, seeing them live allows you to appreciate that they really are just two men with a guitar and a drum kit and the relative simplicity of what they do becomes apparent. Secondly, these guys give it everything. King declared that they give ‘every fucking drop’ and they dutifully obliged, alternating between new songs and old to keep things fresh (also including Darkness on the Edge of Gastown, a personal favourite and a killer live). Just brilliant. Don’t take my word for it though - if you find yourself in London tonight (28th May) drag yourself along to the Old Blue Last for a free show.

Celebration Rock is available to buy from Polyvinyl Records. Order it now for an instant MP3 download of the album to enjoy.

The Wandering Lake

The Wandering Lake is Brian Kupillas from Fayetteville, Arkansas. His sound is a lovely mix of meditative ambience and experimental folk (bringing to mind a range of artists from Grouper to Fleet Foxes, Animal Collective to Meursault), capped with his superb vocal work. There is a cathartic element to it, in a lonely late night headphones kind of way, but also in a freaky psychedelic, shamanistic campfire sort of way (if that makes any sense, you’ll know what I mean when you listen). Kupillas himself describes the work as “about scaling back, and building a stronger self and immediate community around oneself”. 

His Bandcamp page currently has two releases, last year’s In Passage and Ashame, which was released in April of this year. Both come highly recommended and are available on a pay-what-you-like download basis.

Úlfur - White Mountain

Icelandic has become the unlikely home of a whole genre of music over the last decade or so. The success of artists like Sigur Ros, Múm and Ólafur Arnalds has put Iceland on the musical map. The frozen and beautiful ambient sounds providing an embodiment of the landscape of the country itself. The music of Úlfur Hansson generally conforms to this trend, indeed he even plays bass in Sigur Ros frontman Jónsi Birgisson’s solo shows. What sets Úlfur apart from his compatriots is his desire to experiment, taking sample based electronic music and merging it with this Icelandic ethos. The results are very interesting and are certainly pretty. His debut album was, from what I can find, released in Japan back in February (on After Hours) and has recently been released in Europe on Kimi Records. The only problem is that the album doesn’t appear to be available on the online shop yet, hopefully it will be soon. Until then, check out the track below from his Soundcloud page and also the nice video for a track called Black Shore.

P.S. Also check out Úlfur’s previous project Klive. 

Port St. Willow - Holiday

Nick Principe, AKA Port St. Willow, caught my attention a while back with his EP ‘Even // Wasteland’. A multi-intrusmentalist, Principe creates vivid soundscapes complete with a beautiful falsetto. I really don’t want to over-do this but growing up he spent a lot of time playing and recording with Peter Silberman (of The Antlers) and I think the parallels between their work is somethign special. I really like the idea that two men worked together from a young age (although I confess I have no idea how young, I’m going by the PR blurb) and developed style that they have since mastered. Obviously both have different methods (and therefore sounds) and each is very much his own artist which makes it all the more noteworthy. I in no way intend to pigeon-hole Principe, in fact quite the opposite. The way in which he has stayed true to what is obviously the type of music he excels at is admirable and the link to Silberman is an interesting (and heartwarming, in a way) tale of two talented friends who are now receiving acclaim.

‘Holiday’ is the new LP from Port St. Willow and continues everything that was so so good about his previous work. Each tracks blends into the next conveying an almost loop-like sense of continuity, the feeling that you could put the album on repeat and let it cycle around and around. Again his vocals are earnest against the electronic sounds and has no problem raising to the occassion when the drums kick in and the tempo is lifted. As he suggests himself, I’d say this would sound even better looking out of a train window or half asleep on an overnight flight. The sort of record which takes you to a different place or brings some sense of meaning to the place in which you are in. The very same effect that I got from Silberman’s Hospice. I would love to see how the songs take shape when performed live since there was a very real difference between Hospice on record and in a show. I wonder if he sticks to the ambient style or leans towards rock songs a bit more? Either way I bet it would be a real spectacle in the right environment.

Holiday is out now. It can be streamed from his Bandcamp page or downloaded for a meagre $7. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Trouble Books - Concatenating Fields

Akron, Ohio’s Trouble Books (husband and wife, Keith Freund and Linda Lejsovka) have recently released their new album, named Concatenating Fields. The band’s style continues to progress and is here clearly influenced by their work with Mark McGuire (of Emeralds fame), with whom they released a superb collaborative effort last year (NB. this album is sadly out of print but an electronic version is available for free download via the Bark & Hiss Records archive).  There is a great blend of experimentation, noise/drone/ambient aesthetics and pop structures which combine to provide a deep, layered and highly intelligent record that never gets over-pretentious and remains listenable. The duo’s trademark sweet alternating vocals return, perfectly complimenting the dreamy atmosphere of the album.

The band say the inspiration for the album came from the minimalism and abstract geometry in the work of visual artists such as Bridget Riley and Julian Stanczak. Although I am no art (or indeed music) critic, I can certainly see (or rather hear) what they’re getting at; the comparison serves as a good description of the feel of the record. The band’s other description of the album is that it’s “not meant to be super conceptual or anything, just a cool album of nighttime grass thoughts”. That works too.

Fellow Europeans can get the album from MIE Music and North Americans from Bark & Hiss Records. Be aware that the LPs have a very limited release so hurry up if you want one!

JBM - Stray Ashes

Canadian songwriter Jessie Marchant, better known as JBM, is releasing his second album ‘Stray Ashes’ on May 22nd. Follow-up to ‘Not Even In July’, the album sees a continuation of the haunting vocals and engaging lyrics that were so rewarding of repeated listens. Marchant’s voice would probably make any string of words seem poignant but if you really listened to his first album and contemplated what he was saying then you realised that the whole thing had a cohesion that made it feel right in that order - the sort of record that is made to be listened from start to finish. Not Even In July’s overarching theme (at least for me, but I seem to find this sort of thing in lots of stuff as I really like the idea) was that of hope in bleakness. Lines such as ‘And every time you catch a side of your relfection, can’t decide of you should cry of if it’s time to live’ (‘Cleo’s Song’) and ‘If I was older now I could give you advice//If I was younger now I’d still know how to smile’ (‘In a Different Time’) are morose but weighted in reality, not to mention the fact that they are suceeded by ‘But if you’d hold my hand and we’d look to the sky//I think that there’s a chance we’d once again feel alive’. Pin points of light in the gloom.

Stray Ashes follows similar threads and is the sound of a man very much in his element. Again the vocals are stark, echoing to the listener as if across an empty room. I heard ‘Only Now’ a few weeks back and at first I thought there was some departure from the norm with the inclusion of beats but it takes seconds to be reassured. Desperate piano kicks in and builds up to a climatic line which is belted out: ‘Mother, is this how we lie? Alone in our frozen beds//I am only now, and a long way out//Don’t you feel it now more than ever?’ This song perfectly sums up one of my favourite things about this album - the juxtaposition of barren, ghost-filled landscapes with the charged deliverance of certain lyrics give a feel of intense introspection, of sitting alone in silence, head awash with anger and sadness and hope. 

Obviously all of this is subjective and open to any interpretation (Sorry Jesse if I have it all wrong!) so don’t take my word for it. Stray Ashes can be streamed in full over at The AV Club so head on over and see if you agree. The album will be released next week on Western Vinyl.

Jai Paul - Jasmine (EXETER Edit)

Jai Paul has been making all the right noises for quite a while now. His debut, BTSTU, dropped back in April 2011, earning him the new track of the week award from Pitchfork. Whispered falsetto vocals battled with decaying synths for overall aural supremacy. You’ll have to listen to it yourself to determine who came out on top.

He followed it up last month with Jasmine, again earning himself the new track of the week award from Pitchfork and seeing him compared to Prince by the NME. While Jasmine is very good, it’s missing something that BTSTU did not; drive. 

That’s where the EXETER edit comes in. Clearly, having had the very same thought I had, EXETER decided to do something about it, adding a metronomic beat and thumping bass. Check it out above.

P.S. - The EXETER edit has also been included in our May mix. Check it out here.

May Mix

We have been considering ways in which to boost our output here at Wake the Deaf and maybe get a few more of the bands we listen to a bit of a plug. One of the best ways I can think of is to create a monthly mix of songs that we have been enjoying to share with you. These mixes will contain 10-15 songs from artists we have written about, some we plan to write about in the near future and some which we will probably never get a chance to fairly review but enjoy nonetheless. The songs may not fit perfectly together (although we will try and get some cohesive structure if possible), will most likely be a hodgepodge of different genres (as we hope to get all of our writers involved) and will probably bear no relation to the month in which it is featured. Hopefully it will be entertaining all the same. The periodic themed mixes will still be made as appropriate.

First up, May. Here is a selection of what we have been enjoying:

1. Lorne Park - Dan Griffin

2. Jasmine (EXETER edit) - Jai Paul

3. Sad Girls - Big Troubles

4. Winter Solstice - Cold Specks

5. Great Lakes - Eamon McGrath

6. Grot - St. Vincent

7. Crystal Caverns 1991 - Lone

8. Graceland (Paul Simon Cover) - The Tallest Man On Earth

9. Taking Alcatraz - Field Report

10. Warm Ridin’ - Diarrhea Planet

11. Sing Me a Reprise - Hip Hatchet

12. Where I’ll Be Tonight - Jake Klar

13. Slime - Sleeping Bag

14. Leaving Pt. I - Zachary Lucky

15. Continuous Thunder - Japandroids

*DOWNLOAD*

Please please please remember to support the artists. Hopefully this mix pricks your interest and you will purchase an album or go to a show as a result. Each of the artists’ name in the tracklisting above will take you to their webpage so finding out more should be very easy.

Like a Villain

Like a Villain is Holland Andrews, a Portland-based minimalist musician. Port St. Willow post a video on his Facebook showing the below video which caught my attention. The juxtaposition of the beautiful with the maniacal makes for an extremely interesting listen.

I know very little else about her other than she is an dual-instrumentalist (she plays the clarinet and tenor saxophone) and draws influence from minimalist composers such as Arvo Pärt and more familiar artists such as Bjork. She has a Soundcloud page with a few more tracks with equally arresting exchanges of dreamy quiet periods and nightmarish shouting. Excellent.

One Little Plane - Into The Trees

One Little Plane is Kathryn Bint, psychedelic folk songstress and native of Chicago, whose new album is set for release this month on Kieran Hebden AKA Four Tet’s Text label. In addition to vibraphone duties, Hebden also produced Into The Trees.

I wasn’t familiar with Bint’s work until I heard the teasers for this release, but I’ve been quickly converted to her bare bones approach to song construction. That’s not to say the songs and melodies aren’t complex - they are. But Bint’s success is to allow the harmonies and raw instrumentation to speak for themselves, and create aural depth without contrivance.

For an illustration, listen to Hold You Down, above.

The release date is currently a little unclear - it was set for a couple of days ago, but never materialized. Nonetheless, if Bint’s voice tugs at your heartstrings, you can preorder it from here.

- Matt -