// Category Archive for: Reviews

Sparks: No. 1 Songs In Heaven

By Matt Keeley

Sparks are awesome.

This is a given.

And, finally, Sparks have joined the rank of awesome things that have books about them. Two books, actually: Talent Is An Asset has already been reviewed in Popshifter, so now we bring you the other unauthorized Sparks bio, Dave Thompson’s Sparks: No. 1 Songs In Heaven.
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Candy Claws, Hidden Lands

By John Lane

I happily stumbled upon the duo named Candy Claws (now a sort of band) not too long ago. Their 2009 album, In the Dream of the Sea Life gives off a Wes-Anderson/Steve-Zissou vibe, from the quirk,y mostly-instrumental cinematic sounds right down to the design and packaging.

Sound architects Ryan Hover and Kay Bertholf return this year with Hidden Lands, an album that represents somewhat of a sideways progression. For hipsters clamoring for another boy/girl duo-combo (i.e., Beach House, She & Him), this will satisfy that need. What separates Hover and Bertholf from the pack, however, is the fact that there is a certain joyous naiveté that seems to guide them and makes their existence all the more curious and appealing.
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Los Lobos, Tin Can Trust

By J Howell

It speaks volumes about a band when, after 30 years and 19 albums, they remain vital. Los Lobos is just that, as Tin Can Trust demonstrates. For listeners who’ve slept on this institution of American music, or only know the cover of “La Bamba” from the 1987 movie of the same title, you’re missing out on one of the most consistently great bands, well, ever.

Don’t think you like Latin music? The cumbia “Yo Canto,” with its Marc Ribot-esque guitars, is brilliant. The norteno-flavored “Mujer Ingrata” bounces with such a joyous spirit that’s impossible to dislike. While the band does good by its Mexican-American roots, Los Lobos have always been masterful at incorporating all manner of American roots music into their work; Tin Can Trust is no exception.
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GOLD: Before Woodstock, Beyond Reality DVD

By Matt Keeley

GOLD: Before Woodstock, Beyond Reality is a 40-year-old lost film starring a comedy hero, Del Close. Like another film by a comedy hero, Savages (a Merchant-Ivory film written by Michael O’Donoghue), it’s a noble failure.
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JG Thirlwell/Manorexia, The Mesopelagic Waters

By Ann Clarke

JG Thirlwell’s The Mesopelagic Waters was released on John Zorn’s Tzadik record label during the spring of 2010. This is the third installment of Thirlwell’s Manorexia project, but it’s not a block of new songs. It is, in essence, an acoustic re-arrangement scored for tactual instruments, performed by virtuosos. However, that’s easier said than done!

So if you were hoping to hear new songs on this album that weren’t on Volvox Turbo or The Radiolarian Ooze . . . that’s not going to happen, so nix that thought! So now, if you are thinking, “Why bother?” read on, and I’ll explain why you should!
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K-X-P, S/T

By Ben Sullivan

In our current cultural moment of sonic permissiveness and fraying mainstream consensus, instrumental rock is no longer ghettoized to the skinny aisles of sub-genre. Prog is no longer a four letter word; electronic/rock hybrids are old hat. Even when the guitar is de-emphasized à la Out Hud—or completely absent, as with Add (N) to (X)—vocal-light bands specializing in sturdy rock grooves now enjoy growing audiences and heightened festival appeal.

That being said, the ubiquity of the guitar and the immediacy of its musical heritage still pay dividends. The six-stringers in Battles can still reliably benefit from stage-side guitar-nerds slobbering over their nervy chops. Post-rockers Mogwai and Explosions in the Sky have proven accessible enough for big-budget soundtrack work. So: whither the synthesizer in the expanding landscape of post-pop?

K-X-P’s synth-centric self-titled debut is redoubtably Teutonic. Driving, unfettered motorik grooves undergird a tasteful array of analog modules bubbling, reverberating, and panning towards dawn. Founder and lead wavesmith Timo Kaukolampi manages the density of his arrangements skillfully and with rockist panache, patiently staging his modulations over the insinuating groove of “Mehu Moments.” Kaukolampi expertly samples (and simulates) a gate-reverb-drenched guitar in “18 Hours (Of Love),” a credible club rave-up caught somewhere between Depeche Mode’s shuffle grooves and Alan Vega’s solo output.
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Billy Squier, Don’t Say No 30th Anniversary Edition

By Christian Lipski

When there’s a re-release of anything to be reviewed, the question is always there: what am I actually reviewing? Am I revisiting the material, or the re-packaging?

I have a feeling that what I should focus on are the new features, in this case the liner notes, the mastering, and the bonus tracks. But before that I will say there’s a reason Don’t Say No was chosen for reissue, and that’s because the songs are loud and ballsy but also sassy. I didn’t pick up the album for myself for many years after its release in 1981, but by that time I already knew most of the songs by heart. Like Foreigner 4 or Journey’s Escape, it permeated the airwaves that year.
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Inception‘s Deception

By Less Lee Moore

“Yet both directions, though not without meaning, are equally useless.”
—M.C. Escher on his lithograph Ascending and Descending, 1960

Filmmaker Christopher Nolan has only been making features for a little over a decade, but he has already established a singular style, both visually and thematically. Nolan deals in dreams and memories, in morality and duality. His latest film, Inception, is no exception to this trend.
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Mister Fusty, Connect EP

By John Lane

In the interest of full disclosure, right off the bat, Mister Fusty (a.k.a. Rob Gibson) is a musical comrade-in-arms who collaborated on a track from my recent album. That out of the way, I was a fan of Mister Fusty long before I mustered up the nerve to ask him if he would work with me.

I discovered him somewhere between his first album Honest Blundering (November 2006) and the follow-up Sparkle Darkly (August 2007). These two instrumental-only albums knocked me off my feet and made me reconsider the whole idea of what it means to write a melody line.
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Wild Beasts, Two Dancers

By Ann Clarke

Its not often that I’m ever impressed with any new band. I rarely am . . . but occasionally something crosses my radar that is worth further investigation. Wild Beasts are one of those oddities that I probably would’ve overlooked due to their stupid name. However, the stupidity stops right there with their name, and after listening to them, it is ironically appropriate.
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