Category: Long Player of the Day

LONG PLAYER OF THE DAY: Altar Eagle, ‘Mechanical Gardens’

August 27th, 2010 | File Under: Long Player of the Day | Leave A Comment

The Artist/Album: Altar Eagle, Mechanical Gardens (Type, 2010)

The Reason(s) We Can’t Stop Listening: Considering his last effort was a nihilistic noise record (The North Sea’s Bloodlines LP), it’s a bit disorienting to find Brad Rose suddenly making moody pop music with his wife, fellow Digitalis founder/singer/multi-instrumentalist Eden Hemming-Rose.

Disorienting but damn good. While its memories-will-fade artwork is hazy enough to pass for a Washed Out cover, Mechanical Gardens is an impeccably-produced descent into a dream world that hints at everything from dark-wave-derived narcotics (“Monsters,” “Pour Your Dark Heart Out”) to driftwood-y drone tones (“Breakdown,” “You Lost Your Neon Haze”). HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

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LONG PLAYER OF THE DAY: Moritz Von Oswald Trio, ‘Live In New York’

August 13th, 2010 | File Under: Long Player of the Day | Leave A Comment

The Artist/Album: Moritz Von Oswald Trio, Live In New York (Honest Jon’s, 2010)

The Reason(s) We Can’t Stop Listening: While New York audiences need to learn how to shut their beer traps during shows like this—enough of the “yeah!”’s, broham—there’s no denying how special the set is. After all, where else can you hear a true Berlin techno legend lead Carl Craig, Vladislav Delay, Francois K., and that other guy right past the limits of what electronic/experimental music’s supposed to sound like? Simply put, this is the kind of shit Miles Davis’ would be playing right about now…had he not been a self-destructive cokehead.

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LONG PLAYER OF THE DAY: Cocteau Twins, ‘Head Over Heels’ / ‘Snowburst and Snowblind’

July 7th, 2010 | File Under: Long Player of the Day | Leave A Comment

Cocteau Twins Head The Details: Cocteau Twins, Head Over Heels / Sunburst and Snowblind (Vinyl 180 reissue, 2010)

The Reason(s) We Can’t Stop Listening: When people talk about the transformative power of heavyweight vinyl reissues, they’re referring to records like this—a double pack pressing of Cocteau Twins’ second album and its followup EP, Snowburst and Snowblind. With bassist Will Heggie no longer by their side, singer Elizabeth Fraser and resident sound sculptor Robin Guthrie dive right into their first recordings as a duo. Their effortless chemistry produces endless shades of pedal-pushing dream-pop, enough to serve as a primer for the entire Cocteau Twins catalog. Considering how crucial they are to melancholic strains of gothic/shoegaze music, this is certainly saying something.

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LONG PLAYER OF THE DAY: The Chemical Brothers, ‘Further’

June 22nd, 2010 | File Under: Long Player of the Day | Leave A Comment

The Details: The Chemical Brothers, Further
(Astralwerks)

The Reason(s) We Can’t Stop Listening: I never thought I could love a Chemical Brothers album. Crush on a few tracks perhaps. Swoon over a night of live festival favorites maybe. But true love is something you never want to share, and the Chems’ reliance on radio-friendly guest vocalists has always meant feeling like you’re not the only other person in the relationship. After all, mass adoration doesn’t blend well with intimacy.

So upon learning that the duo’s eighth full-length would be devoid of guests, it suddenly seemed like Tom and Ed were out to seduce us all first hand. Which is mostly the case, from the pulse-quickening bleeps of “Snow” straight into the tantric throb of lead 12-minute single “Escape Velocity,” this is the attention we’ve always craved from these electronic gigolos.

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LONG PLAYER OF THE DAY: The Caretaker, ‘Persistent Repetition of Phrases’

June 21st, 2010 | File Under: Long Player of the Day | Leave A Comment

The Details: The Caretaker, Persistent Repetition of Phrases (History Always Favours the Winners, 2010 reissue)

The Reason(s) We Can’t Stop Listening: One of 2009’s most sprawling/stunning releases (Leyland Kirby’s triple-CD set, Sadly, the Future Is No Longer What It Was) is chased with a limited gatefold digipak pressing from Kirby’s other dark ambient guise, the Caretaker. Originally released in 2008, Persistent Repetition of Phrases has the snap, crackle, pop quality of a stack of 78s, as filtered through the disintegrating loops of William Basinski and the sepia-toned soundtracks that only exist in the deepest, darkest recesses of our muddled minds.

In other words, these aren’t songs so much as profound statements—ones that’ll remind you of carnival rides and cough syrup, funeral processions and flower arrangements, and the last time you desperately needed a reminder that everything’s going to be alright. Looks like Kirby chose “/selectedmemories” as his MySpace domain for a reason.

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LONG PLAYER OF THE DAY: Jóhann Jóhannsson, ‘And In the Endless Pause There Came the Sound of Bees’

June 3rd, 2010 | File Under: Long Player of the Day | Leave A Comment

The Details: Jóhann Jóhannsson, And In The Endless Pause There Came The Sound Of Bees
(Type, 2010)

The Reason(s) We Can’t Stop Listening: It works every time; it being the brain balm effect of neo-classical LPs like Jóhann Jóhannsson’s latest film score. Written with an animated short (a devastating adaptation of the award-winning picture book Varmints) in mind, And In the Endless Pause… is melodramatic but moving—a mood-destabilizing mix of fallen sopranos, rich strings, sustained minor keys and subtle electronic flourishes. As cliched as the terms “epic” and “sweeping” are on the critic speak scale, there’s really no better way of describing this record.

Check out the trailer for Varmints and a streaming version of Jóhannsson’s entire record after the jump…

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LONG PLAYER OF THE DAY: Alice Coltrane, ‘Universal Consciousness’

May 21st, 2010 | File Under: Long Player of the Day | Leave A Comment

The Details: Alice Coltrane, Universal Consciousness (Impulse!, 1972)

The Reason(s) We Can’t Stop Listening: Wow, talk about an album that cracks open your subconscious and consumes you. No wonder why Flying Lotus has been obsessively compiling a documentary on his great aunt the last couple years—because records like this are the missing link between Lotus’ psychedelic beatscapes and a bloodline that’s on a different plane than the rest of us. Whether you’re into free jazz or not, this is one rabbit hole worth exploring, a slightly mad downward spiral of loose grooves that’ll you want to keep locked down long after they fade into the shadows.

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LONG PLAYER OF THE DAY: Broadcast and the Focus Group, ‘…Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age’ (Warp, 2009)

May 9th, 2010 | File Under: Long Player of the Day | Leave A Comment

The Details: Broadcast and the Focus Group, …Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age (Warp, 2009)

The Reason(s) We Can’t Stop Listening: As creepy as this ‘mini-album’ (it’s actually 24 vignettes that add up to 52 mesmerizing minutes—Broadcast’s Donuts, if you will) is, it’s also quite beautiful. Most of it lives up to the title, recreating the disjointed transmissions of a radio dial and our own collective subconscious. And that’s fine/exactly what we expected, considering the involvement of graphic designer/Ghost Box owner Julian House, a guy best known for channeling the sleeves and sounds of long-lost library music. That said, singer Trish Keenan emerges from the ether at least a couple times (“The Be Colony” being a key example) to remind us that five years have passed since Broadcast’s last proper LP, the equally-essential Tender Buttons.

Um, get on it guys. Or at the very least, put on another show like this.

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LONG PLAYER OF THE DAY: The Black Dog, ‘Music For Real Airports’ (Soma, 2010)

May 4th, 2010 | File Under: Long Player of the Day | Leave A Comment

The Details: The Black Dog, Music For Real Airports (Soma, 2010)

The Reason(s) We Can’t Stop Listening: As you can probably tell from the title, this record was written as a rebuttal to Brian Eno’s most popular ambient album. And while its sci-fi sleeve art suggests a sterile listen, the entire thing is a dark but delightful exploration of just how debilitating airports can be. Simply put, the Black Dog make Eno’s masterwork sound rather safe, as if the producer/multi-instrumentalist had literally been hired to score The Terminal. (Yes, the Tom Hanks movie.)

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