Payday Albums: 2/1/13 & 3/1/13

I started this Payday Albums project in January. By February, I’d already fallen behind. So, let’s play catch-up:

Today’s payday. These are the albums I bought.

Payday Albums: 2/1/13

FaltyDL: Hardcourage (LP, Ninja Tune)

Chromatics: Night Drive (LP, Italians Do It Better)

Solange & Blood Orange: True (LP, Terrible Records)

Lee Gamble: Dutch Tvashar Plumes (LP, Pan)

Nosaj Thing: Home (LP, Innovative Leisure)

Vessel: Order of Noise (LP, Tri Angle)

Christopher Owens: Lysandre (LP, Fat Possum)

D’Angelo: Voodoo (LP, Light in the Attic)

***

Payday Albums: 3/1/13

James Ferraro: Sushi (LP, Hippos in Tanks)

Circuit des Yeux: CDY3 (LP, Magnetic South Recordings)

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Push the Sky Away (LP, Bad Seed)

Unknown Mortal Orchestra: II (LP, Jagjaguwar)

Matmos: The Marriage of True Minds (LP, Thrill Jockey)

The Asphodells: Ruled by Passion, Destroyed by Lust (LP, Rotters Golf Club)

L. Pierre: The Island Come True (LP, Melodic)

Darkstar: News from Nowhere (LP, Warp)

All of these records were purchased at Other Music, except for D'Angelo's Voodoo, which was purchased exactly one block away from Other Music, at In Living Stereo.

COMMENTS
Ariel Bitran's picture

...posting from the abyss!

Devil Doc's picture

 Whatever makes you happy.

Doc

Stephen Mejias's picture

That might be the most ignorant and most useless comment of all time. Congratulations. It's exactly that attitude that gives audiophiles a bad reputation.

Devil Doc's picture

I took the time to listen to it and gave my opinion without calling you names. There's something inhuman about the quality of that music. There's no soul. No emotion. No air being blown. No drum being struck. No string being bowed. No musicians interacting with one another. It's not music. It's an abomination. It ain't natural.

Doc

Stephen Mejias's picture

 No air being blown. No drum being struck. No string being bowed. No musicians interacting with one another.

If that's the conclusion you came to after listening, you obviously weren't listening closely. Because, while there is a lot of electronic music on this list, there's also a good amount of music here that's been more traditionally composed, performed, and recorded -- with acoustic instruments, played by talented musicians, together, in beautiful spaces.   

moog man's picture

Dude. Nice haul. I'm jealous. Will have to check out a few of those titles I don't recognize.

LM2940's picture

I may have a hard time getting into the music that Stephen posts as I'm a bit stuck in the past as far as music goes but right now he is my ONLY connection to what is happening now in the underground music secne. Keep on buying and posting Stephen!

chuck's picture

check out the cover of the falty DL album !!!! awesome- thanks for introducing me to darkstar as well. i miss the artwork from the vinyl- that was a major part of the package- like seeing the detail such as pauls armcrest on the inside picture of sgt peppers-which many thought said "OPD" (officially pronounced dead- fueling the "paul is dead" rumours..it is actually an O.P.P. crest (ontario provincial police) i may get back into vinyl just for the artwork !!  good work stephen

Stephen Mejias's picture

Thank you, Chuck. Yes, I absolutely love that FaltyDL album cover. When I first saw pictures of it, I thought it was a bit too cheerful, too bold, but, upon holding the record in my hand, I fell in love with the art -- it's printed on gorgeous matte paper and the image continues across the the gatefold.

The Darkstar album art is also beautiful. The album doesn't have a traditional outer sleeve, but is instead housed in a thick poly sleeve. The LPs themselves are then tucked neatly into an enormous poster which folds down to create the album cover. Very cool.

Bill B's picture

Stephen, wow, nice.  I wonder, since much of this music is bass-y, with low frequencies being the foundation of much of it, would you consider bigger speakers or a subwoofer in your rig?  I enjoy my set-ups much more since I added subs.

(btw, Doc, if you can't hear the soul or emotion or human thought and interaction in some of this music, the problem is you.)

Devil Doc's picture

Of course, the problem is me.

Doc

Stephen Mejias's picture

I wonder, since much of this music is bass-y, with low frequencies being the foundation of much of it, would you consider bigger speakers or a subwoofer in your rig?

Actually, I did just add a subwoofer to my system -- I write about the experience in our April issue -- but I did it to address problems with my new listening room, rather than build the system to my music.

I think a good two-channel system, properly set up in an appropriately sized room, will work just fine with all sorts of music. And while adding a subwoofer to my current larger, more live room has resulted in better bass, focus, space, and impact, I still wonder whether I could have managed just as well with bigger speakers or a more powerful amp. Hmm . . .  

Bill B's picture

I hear you and I went for decades before adding a subwoofer.  My speakers were ostensibly full range, but adding a sub gave me what was missing, and I now I would cry if the sub disappeared. Look forward to reading your April article.

John Atkinson's picture

Hey Devil Doc, was that you who introduced himself to me Thursday night at Definitive Audio's Music Matters event in Seattle? If so, good to meet you in the flesh and thanks for posting to our site.

John Atkinson

Editor, Stereophile

dalethorn's picture

I get a mild shock sometimes by new things I try out from these postings. But hey, Varese didn't get into Schwann by posting his work on the refrigerator for family and friends. There's another way to get into some of this without hitting your head on the rocks diving into muddy water - you can collect a few samples from Amazon or iTunes and use them to test your new speakers or interconnects, then sit back and be surprised at how some of it actually grows on you. Unless of course your emotional flexibility isn't flexing this week.

_rcadog_'s picture

Stephen don't bother with negative posts! This Payday is a great idea... It would be nice to see from others too.

Big bad Bill's picture

Stephen has helped me find some really good music. I still sort of wish for some descriptions to accompany the images here (and by the way, is there something wrong with CDs now?), but anyway this gives us a starting place for investigating new stuff.

I can recommend two CDs:

Jon Leifs: Saga Symphony (on BIS). A totally original voice, uninfluenced by anyone as far as I can tell. Not Beethoven or Mozart, or Bartok or Stravinsky. Or even Sibelius. This Icelandic composer paints pictures of journeys through rugged, bleak, powerful landscapes with his soaring, pounding, gnashing music. And the recording is perfect.

Ametsub: All is Silence. To quote a review of another Ametsub album by someone who has the vocabulary for this (since I can't keep track of all of the claimed new genres and sub-genres proliferating today):

"Ametsub’s music masterfully incorporates precision glitch into modern classical and future jazz. An accompaniment of tight bass lines and micro programmed rhythm is dominated by Ametsub’s beautiful piano playing. The gorgeous and melancholic melodies have been in turn re-sampled, re-looped, and re-triggered to create frantic digital errors that skip across my dazzled memory. The light grooves incorporate elements from trip-hop, dub and abstract idm."

All is Silence was a discovery for me. Maybe you all already know about Ametsub. The first few seconds had me thinking, "Another CD of experimental electronic noise-making." But the fragments soon resolved into pastiches and collages and became real music.

Stephen Mejias's picture

I also enjoy All is Silence. Thanks for the recommendation, Bill. The CD is on sale now at Experimedia, if anyone is interested.

Big bad Bill's picture

Two more CDs I've enjoyed lately, though I think they date from a year or so back.

Stephen Mejias's picture

I haven't heard Tycho, but I've loved everything I've heard by Walls. Great stuff. Thanks again.

Et Quelle's picture

I am collecting cds the same way. I will collect trad. jazz on LPs later this & look at phono stages  & turntables after the Newport show! Just bough AT95 cartridge (onThorens turntable ) its recommended. Cannot wait 2 hear it.

TheOctavist's picture

my favorite new releases..

http://open.spotify.com/user/sean.courtney/playlist/10LYJIMKxlcLKyJf5t0UEo

 

 

many of them i have on CD and vinyl

TheOctavist's picture

and John Murry- the graceless age

 

and Wooden Wand- blood oath of the new blues

 

X