New Music Video: Foster The People - Pumped Up Kicks

Given this morning's -22 degree wind chill, Foster The People's "Pumped Up Kicks" video could not have come at a better time. This video provides a timely reminder that summer is coming. Despite their immediately forgettable name, Foster The People have shown a ton of promise, and it's hard not to love the jaunty groove of "Pumped Up Kicks". It sounds like the beach...but in a good way. If you like this, check out Foster The People's EP that came out in January. Definitely looking forward to their full length this summer. The only depressing thing about this video is the fact that California is this nice all year long.

Michigan Made: Timeless

Great short from U of M student Rodney David Hyduk:

Timeless from Rodney David Hyduk on Vimeo.

Album Review: Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma (2010)

Steven Ellison, more commonly known as Flying Lotus, is a man of eclectic influences. He also has little desire to keep these influences from colliding with one another, which his newest album Cosmogramma proves. From start to finish, the album plays like a hallucinatory tour through Ellison's mind, encompassing past and present. Free-jazz saunters past 8-bit dub-step syncopations in some places, echoing both Ellison's musical heritage (his great-aunt and uncle were Alice and John Coltrane) and his obsession with classic video games-- here is a case where art and life are deeply entwined.

Flying Lotus draws from the J Dilla school of hip-hop and electronic production, although he helms a considerably darker, cerebral tone compared to Dilla's organic sound. The organic collides head-on with the digital in Lotus' work, more violently here than on past efforts 1983 from 2006, or his opus Los Angeles from 2008. Those could reasonably be described as earphone candy, a stoner's cool-down-- but Cosmogramma is far more unsettling than these past entries.

A dark, ethereal tone is established early on. On "Clock Catcher," listeners are bludgeoned with an urgent, galloping synth escalation before switching into a caffeinated race between insistent hi-hat and an alluring Eastern string section. Changing gears, "Pickled!" spins around a rushing drum loop and a unique bass section.

The bass line is slotted comfortably in the mix between drum hits, unconventionally flaring out gauche, atonal triplets on the downbeats-- but then it comes alive in a flurry of descending gulps and plucks, confusing our ears. Is this a human or a machine we're listening to? It takes a second to realize that it's a live performance, not a sample. White noise also creeps into the landscape, sounding downright abrasive at times.

This is well-intentioned sonic experimentation. It doesn't always sound completely cohesive, but it always grants a prismatic view into the creator's psyche. Careful listeners can deconstruct the tangled sounds and sense lucidity behind them. Ellison makes strange decisions here, but not without intent-- we sense this throughout the album, even when his scope becomes downright cosmic.

On "Arkestry," alien warblings start the track before a 1920's style jazz drummer takes over. It starts live before locking into a fuzzy drum roll. It pauses and locks into a rolling groove, masquerading as a digitized drum loop. We can almost sense Ellison grinning at us when the groove breaks and the drummer starts a new run. Soft piano and jazz saxophone weave their way in, but digital bleeps still sneak in at unexpected times-- it sounds like a meditative score for a neo-noir/sci-fi hybrid.

His artistry shines on tracks like these. The pieces he combines are jarring on first listen, but as listeners get accustomed to Ellison's dream-logic, the music settles into a profound, almost spiritual groove. Sure, most DJs are virtuosos when it comes to sound manipulation (although Ellison may be in a league of his own), but few have the soul that he does here. After a while, any rapid sonic shifts in his songs feel completely natural. These once-jarring twists eventually feel like the listless ebbs of static across a radio, with Ellison twisting the dial, searching for clarity.

On "...And the World Laughs With You," Thom Yorke's voice makes an appearance, chopped up over an uneasy electronic soundscape not entirely dissimilar from Radiohead's own Kid A (2000) or Amnesiac (2001). Yorke finds himself at home here. "I need to know you're out there," he moans. "I need to know you're out there, somewhere." There are very few words on the album, but these are on point. In a digitized age where everyone and everything is increasingly connected and plugged-in, we also feel more and more alone. Ellison seems to stretch towards this paradox on every track.

The humanity to be found on Cosmogramma is what sets it apart. Ellison wanders deep into the realm of the abstract and experimental here, but manages to evade the outright pretentious. The very persona of Flying Lotus was born out of mercurial times, and with the music on Cosmogramma, Ellison dives right back into that pensive, swirling pool. The result is a twisted romp through musical influence, fluctuating between the intensely personal and the bleakly alien. This balance he achieves, along with his ironic sculpting of disparate sounds, makes this album a resounding success.

     

Underappreciated Albums: Spoon - Girls Can Tell (2001)

No band makes me want to drop out of college and be a musician more than Spoon. Their penchant for raw, emotional music provides a refreshingly stark contrast with much of popular music's Auto-tune-drudged sound. The Austin-based quartet's distinctive, creative sound has earned them the respect of their peers and of critics -- Metacritic ranked Spoon as the most critically-acclaimed artist of the past decade in 2010. In addition, being featured frequently in television and film soundtracks has garnered them a widespread audience. 2002's Kill the Moonlight, and particularly the track "The Way We Get By", served as the band's breakthrough. Since then, Spoon has released three increasingly popular albums, with 2010's Transference debuting at #4 on the Billboard 200.

The attention and accolades bestowed upon Kill the Moonlight and Spoon's subsequent albums are well-deserved. It's nice to see the band get the attention that their talent merits. What is often forgotten by the casual fan, though, is that Kill the Moonlight was not Spoon's debut. In fact, the band released three albums prior to Kill the Moonlight, including the suburb Girls Can Tell in 2001. Girls Can Tell saw Spoon finally achieve widespread critical acclaim. In terms of public consciousness, though, it served as more of a primer for Kill the Moonlight than a truly appreciated record. This is a shame, because by neglecting Girls Can Tell, Spoon fans and rock music fans in general are missing out on one of the best albums of the past ten years.  This album showed Spoon in the midst the maturation process that has taken them from being a promising post-punk group to being one of America's biggest indie bands. Most of all, Girls Can Tell was when Spoon really developed the groove-based sound that they continue to expand on today. 

"Everything Hits At Once" establishes that groove from the get-go, with bouncy vibes and keyboards accenting frontman Britt Daniel's deliberate and almost anguished vocals. The song builds an unassuming intensity so poignant that by the time Daniel utters "I go to sleep and think that you're next to me" for the last time, you feel as if you've just been through the experience with him. "Me and the Bean" is another standout that opens up more and harnesses a pure raw energy. 

Spoon also show off their pop sensibilities without relying on cliches in "Anything You Want", the album's lead single. Simplistic but clever keyboard, organ, and guitar parts are fused to create yet another track that compels the listener's foot to start tapping. The music is the most optimistic on the album. As usual, however, Daniel's lyrics narrate the darker side of relationships.

The band speeds things up with the lick-driven "Take a Walk", followed up by the psychedelic folk tune "1020 AM."  The album concludes with "Chicago at Night", an eerie, organ-driven song in which Daniel proclaims, "Everybody's at disadvantage, speaking with their second language." For a band that experienced considerable disadvantage early in their career, Spoon is now certainly well-versed in success, due in no small part to Girls Can Tell. Nobody should keep missing out on this one.