AWmusic

Having heard him for the first time live at the Cute is What We Aim For concert, I knew I was in for a solid album, and it definitely delivered. The live performance was pretty amazing in itself, and the album solidified me as a fan. One of the songs that stood out most from the performance and the album is the very first track, Reaction. Classified as an indie/alternative band, Reaction comes off very mellow, but has a lot of optimistic pop underlining it. With a catchy chorus, and the general flow of music starting slow and climaxing, it is a very easy listen and extremely entertaining. Though the sound is very bright, the lyrics are serious and meaningful, which creates that soulful atmosphere. The simple guitar riffs, drum beats, and catchy piano further add to the sound. It’s a relaxing song, and I think to enjoy it most, you have to be in that relaxing state.

The same can be said for most of the albums on this song. Body Like Mind, is another favourite of mine off the album. It is much less vibrant than Reaction, and has a very serious tone throughout the song. The vocals are a little more aggressive and the instrumentals are very laid back, but progress through the chorus and various hooks. This song is a very classic song, but again it’s a relaxer and if you’re not in the mood it might sound really dull and boring. But when I’m lying down on my couch just reminiscing about the world, I couldn’t think of a better tune to listen to.

Much of the album follows the whole indie/alternative laid back feel, save for Motion, which is an acoustic melody, and my favourite track Bring Back Love. Bring Back Love is the last song on the album, and is such an amazing little tune. Nothing complicated about it, but the whole theme and execution of what it represents was nothing short of perfect. Bring Back Love is a song about just that, bringing back love. It has a beautiful melody, the vocals are on point and completely graceful, and the lyrics are so elegant. Perhaps one of the most inspiring songs I’ve heard in a very long time, this is what music is all about. Spreading messages from the heart, and judging from this song Ace Enders has a heart bigger than most. A perfect way to end the album, it is an amazing song.

Ace Enders is awesome no doubt about it. His down to earth nature can be seen in his music, and he’s all about the music. His work speaks volumes and it’s the kind of music that can inspire others. The Secret Wars was a steal at the very affordable price of nothing, and I’d recommend it to just about anyone and everyone. At the very least give Bring Back Love a listen and be inspired in whatever it is you do in life.

Check out his Myspace for official tour dates and album info.

Get the album fuse.tv

Ace Enders – Reaction

Ace Enders – Bring Back Love (Year 2020)

The only tracks I’ve heard were their songs on their myspace, Black Cat, Ghosts, Deep Blue and Versus but otherwise my knowledge is limited from this electroband from England. I’m admitting here that I don’t have any album as a basis for comparison and thus a sort of lackluster/incomplete review. I should probably check out Witching Hour though.

I wasn’t sure what to expect but with their fanbase and the ever popular electro genre. I was thinking more of the lines of something more dance-able and poppy so I was a bit surprised. Not that it’s a bad thing to not have electronic music totally danceable.

There’s a sense of quality to their music without a sense of urgency for you to like their music. I found this album very mellow feeling and was able to enjoy while multi-tasking quite easily. I thought the dream pop label was somewhat funny at first…but I guess understand that now.

Ladytron also features two tracks, Black Cat and Kletva entirely in Bulgarian. I actually thought it was French because of how beautifully it’s sung. Musically there are a ton of elements that you expect of an electro-band but the way they put everything together is special.

I’m admittedly having trouble coming up with much to say, other then it’s a pretty good album. I don’t love it that much but it’s worth noting that there is a lot to like about it and unlike a lot of electro, I don’t see this album becoming annoying in the future and I feel like I can be in any mood to listen to this album.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Ghosts by Ladytron

Burning Up by Ladytron

Predict the Day by Ladytron

Buy the album at: Insound/ CD Universe / Crapazon
P.S. The Nettwerk label rocks for their stand against the gay-RIAA.

Static of The Gods first single of the their soon to be released 2008 album is Peluche which features two other tracks Jaguar Song and Tarnished Cities.

Static of The Gods are a bit different from the typical female-fronted indie rock bands. I generally like female-fronted bands either way but SoTG has more of a shoegaze feel to it which is weird because they list bands like Metric, Weezer and even The Foo Fighters as influences.

Anyway other then what I said there isn’t much I can say to give off some much needed praise. The talents of Jen Johnson is apparent as she has a great voice more comparable to the Jenny Lewis side of things as it is a very sweet soothing voice. She doesn’t overpower the music and really allows herself to blend into the music despite not putting in maximum effort. Sort of soft but in such a great way. Musically it almost challenges you to find all the intricate moments that would seemingly be lost in a supposed relaxing feeling.

Static of The Gods make wonderful music that puts me into a trance or sedated like state that I don’t want to get out of. Whether they have new or old stuff, it’s all great and I look forward to their new album.

Check out the video to Peluche and some mp3s:

Peluche by Static of The Gods

Tarnished Cities by Static of The Gods

The main reason I checked out this album was in fact due to the strategy of accepting any amount for the album. With all the surrounding hype around the album, why wouldn’t you check it out?

Girl Talk’s music strategy is simple take music samples from a million different tracks to create new songs. All these songs are usually recognizable pop songs to make one “epic” dance song. Epic depending on your tastes and I can see this being a hit or a miss for someone else.

One of the more fun things to do while listening to this album, is doing the test of how many songs you recognize. I personally recognized most (err if you count half as “most”) as there were ton of those guilty pleasures used like Len’s Steal My Sunshine, The Cardigan’s Lovefool to recent guilty pleasures if Avril Lavigne’s Girlfriend or Kelly Clarkson was your secret thing.

The most endearing quality is that while a lot of songs that I end up hating (mainly due to annoyance) work incredibly well in these songs. As well as the mesh between hip-hop rock is done incredibly well. Check out Jay-Z’s rap over Radiohead’s Paranoid Android riff on Set It Off (some very cool stuff).

I personally enjoyed this music very well. However it’s really hard to define other then putting mixing and sampling tons of music what make’s this so great. It’s mixed well etc but I can see many really hating this and I’d personally have trouble saying one certain song is better then the rest as it’s more of a personal aspect of which tracks you once liked.

There is that argument that sampling isn’t that great and it’s not of his own stuff. I think that one is fair but I also understand that sampling and mixing tracks together is one ridiculously strenuous process (I’ve tried to it as well but scrapped it after just getting a beginning of a track lol).

There is also the fact that people may get tired of Girl Talk’s novelty as he hasn’t changed the strategy of his mixing like his past albums. It’s unlikely that if you disliked his previous efforts I won’t see how this effort will do anything else for you.

Rating: 4.5 I still like it a lot I guess even though I know others may not. It’s something that I can probably show my friends as I know they’ll like it.

Set it Off by Girl Talk
No Pause by Girl
Hands in the Air by Girl Talk

Anyway, I’ve had this album sitting on my computer for some time. Since mid-April…I’ve really tried to listen to it and while some critics gave it high marks (including Pitchfork and PopMatters) the album itself has garnered a real quiet amount of blogging hype outside the Canadian’s blog that I read on occasion.

This review was never meant to be written once I have all but decided to not like this album. Thanks to Nancy for peer-pressuring me and mocking me into asking why do you seem to like everything? Well I don’t and I guess it’s time to let loose with no victims spared (you’ll see me hating some of your favorite records that I’ve tried my best to like).

What makes me dislike Parc Avenue? Well I guess you can argue that they are genre-bending as they don’t have a typical style that one can label with ease. However, the sense I feel like, is that I don’t want to label them anything. There’s a little bit of everything but not enough of one thing for me to say: “hey, this shit is amazing”.

Pitchfork threw a comparison to Blitzen Trapper and while it may be an alright comparison with a band being indefinable by genre, this album has nothing interesting nor the same risk-taking involved.

For the most part this album is safe, 615 condom safe to be exact (slight exaggeration and 615 condoms is not very safe). I think what gets me the most is that Plants & Animals choose to be safe, soft with nothing to the forefront on the tracks that are 6 minutes long (4 of those). I was not a fan of “Good Friend” or “Faerie Dance”. I want to see much more experimentation on 6 minute tracks, we live in a world of attention deficit disorder kids (you could include me…).

This album does have it moments but I can barely find those moments and it just becomes another album that lost in my increasingly growing music folder. Definitely overrated by critics. I just don’t see what’s great about this album.

Rating: 2.2 out of 5.
If you don’t like my review, fuck you! just leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Bye Bye Bye by Plants and Animals

Feedback in The Field by Plants and Animals

Even with the bad review, support your artists and buy records (Don’t need to buy from me)!
Buy Parc Avenue here: CD Universe/ Insound / Amazon

So while catching up with some of my favourite post-rock bands, I came upon an indie label called Dynamophone Records. Most of the music is experimental electronic/post-rock/ambience; pretty awesome. Anyway, I came upon the band Disinterested, who released their second album (but first on Dynamophone Records), Behind Us last year. Disinterested originally started off as a guitar project by a man named Matt Brown, who wanted to test the depths and limits (or limitlessness?) of the guitar. What resulted was some pretty good post-rock music! In a similar tone to that of Mogwai, Disinterested definitely fulfills every post-rock lover’s dream. I’ve been listening to more “avant-garde” post-rock as of late, so listening to Behind Us was definitely a nice break—to just sit back and let the music flood my ears.

That being said, it was pretty hard to critique this album because it’s just too enjoyable. You can definitely tell that the main focus is the guitar instrument—it is the melody of the songs. Synths help back up the melody nicely without stealing too much focus. Generally, this is a mellow album with lots of experimentation of synthesizers and guitar riffs that will hook you in. This albums proves that a mere strum of a chord can sound so good. One song, “Felt Leaves,” features a bit of soft female vocals, very fitting for the general ambience of the song. Other than that, you won’t hear much vocals…pretty much on par with the fundamentals of the genre (except for maybe the fact that the songs are pretty much at a standard pop song length, nothing going past 5 minutes).

The album starts off with “Dissonance,” a song with lots of reverb and synth use. Reminds me of a typical Sigur Ros song, a very slow and mellow tempo. Additional instruments are introduced in a sort of fading in manner for the build up. There is the use of the crescendo-decrescendo style, but it’s pretty much subtle and doesn’t linger on. “What You Wanted” has a similar style to “Dissonance,” what with the reverb and the addition of instruments as the song progresses. “January” has a more explicit sense of guitar instrumentation with a pretty catchy riff a la Mogwai. “Sunnydayafter” is pretty awesome; pretty awesome use of the whammy. Again, pretty mellow. “Blankets” is kind of creepy sounding, like something out of a Silent Hill soundtrack. The synth riff reminds me of the song “Time” by Pink Floyd (on their Dark Side of the Moon album), but it sort of just ends the song off abruptly with the synths. I felt like there was really no closure there. “Felt Leaves” is the next song, and is the song I mentioned earlier that has a bit of vocals. It fits. I like it; it’s a bit creepy and is sung in a similar style to that of Sigur Ros, except with all the falsetto and unintelligible lyrics. Musically it is very similar to the other songs on the album (starts of with synths with a slow addition of instrumentation and build up). I’m not going to go into detail about the other tracks, stylistically they are similar to the tracks I have mentioned. It’s a pretty solid album.

So yeah, if you really like Mogwai or just mellow ambient music that focuses on guitar, I would definitely recommend Behind Us. I’m sure you’ll like it. You can order the album or download it iTunes at the label’s site.

Disinterested – January

Disinterested – I Wish It Were the 90’s

Watershed is the ninth album by Swedish progressive death metal band Opeth. Being only exposed to one Opeth album before, Still Life, I thought this album started off a bit soft. By soft, I don’t mean bad. The first track on Watershed is ‘Coil’. It is an acoustic song with two clear vocals. It’s a good track but I felt that it just didn’t have the Boom factor and the build-up suspense needed for an opening track like ‘The Moor.’

The singles on this album are ‘Porcelain Heart’ and ‘The Lotus Eater’. ‘Porcelain Heart’ sounds a lot like old Opeth stuff to me; lots of Tool-like melodies, lots of repeating riffs, not so much randomness. ‘The Lotus Eater’ offers much delight to my ears. It starts off as a quiet hum which suddenly shifts to a death metal song. The song also proceed to drift to Floyd ish solos and 70s funk jam. In fact, the song never stayed the same for more than a minute. Another song I like is ‘Burden’. It’s got clear singing vocals throughout the whole song and sounds really Lord of the Rings ish. Anyways, have a listen for youselves:

The Lotus Eater

Porcelain Heart

Burden

That time came and went but I still had a place for them. I knew they weren’t all that cool or great but they were what they were and they made some great songs. I still get made fun of…”remember when you used to like Coldplay? Lol” or even the line for 40-year old virgin in the Do You Know How I Know Your Gay scene…the ending line was “Do You Know How I Know Your Gay? How? You like Coldplay!” conversation over….

Coldplay isn’t known for their originality at all. Their songs are on the simpler side of things anyway (pop) so it wasn’t a big deal that their music isn’t original. The hiring of Brian Eno had my eyes rolling…what next a U2 like album? It almost doesn’t surprise me that Coldplay has been accused of plagiarizing. That argument is for another day though.

Viva La Vida or Death and All of His Friends starts off with a surprising ambient/post-rock track that I ended up really liking. I wanted to cast it off as not being a Coldplay song but hey, it’s a great track. I really hated the transition though to Cemeteries of London, like the awesome ambiance is completely halted. It takes awhile to pick up and while it’s not so much of an amazing song, it’s very solid and it almost feels as if it were a good fit on X & Y. I’m still more then glad it’s over before long.

The next track is “Lost” and once again I hate the transitioning, abrupt silence isn’t really your friend. Musically I don’t like the drum/clap beat at the starting and it takes too long for the spacey guitar to come into fruition for me to like the track. I’m tempted to skip the track before long though it has those “Coldplay” moments, soft, good singing and some decent guitar lines. “42” starts with soft piano playing that goes well with Coldplay’s style and Chris Martin’s vocals. The track though has an impromptu progressive-rock like vocal-less moment which I’m not too fond of. It just didn’t go well with the beginning of the track.

Lovers in Japan – Reign of Love starts off like a great catchy pop song but with it being almost 7 minutes long, it’s dense as hell. Yes is another 7 minute song, it starts with classical violins incredibly dense with some pretty amazing guitar lines.

The next two tracks are probably their best two tracks (though the previous two tracks are better critically) for the masses and rightfully so, it’s easy accessible yet remaining to the new standard that Coldplay has set for themselves. The song writing is pretty well done as well though one small issue I had with Viva La Vida is that I’ve heard David Choi’s cover and its sung better with much better flow then Chris Martin who seems to force it a bit. Violet Hill has been talked about a lot and I’ll just leave it as that. A good rock song.

I think I’m done reviewing the album, the other 3 tracks all pretty good as well with some space rock added in between (thanks to Brian Eno) and it caps off a new re-modeling of Coldplay.

The Coldplay hype in the past month is a bit annoying but you can’t really argue with a solid album. I’m still no longer the Coldplay fan I once was but I’m pretty satisfied with this album whether or not I was fan of their “crappy” stuff.

Rating: 4.25 out of 5
A great effort despite the plagiarism (the melody is close but it’s such a generic melody…)

Viva La Vida by Coldplay

Violet Hill by Coldplay

Life in Technicolor by Coldplay

Buy this album at Insound/CD Universe/Amazon

I hated the track Pork and Beans, as it was crappy pop with the lack of good guitar use and clearly poor writing. The album starts off with Troublemaker, admittedly better then Pork and Beans as they decide to use some actual guitaring. The song writing however absolutely reeks. “Put me in a special school because I’m such a fool”, lyrics like this don’t leave a lot left to the imagination.

The next track The Greatest Man That Ever Lived is a little more reminiscent of old Weezer, at least musically. Lyrically I just have to shake my head again though it is sung pretty well. There’s no real insulting this track, a pretty decent one at least. At almost 6 minutes, it’s incredibly dense with experimentation, you’d have to wonder why the hell they didn’t have this idea for the rest of the album.

You already know my thoughts on Pork and Beans or can check out my thoughts that pissed off a handful of people.

Heart Songs starts off slow with a reference to Canadian Gordon Lightfoot. The problem with this track is that because it’s slow compared to the rest of a mainstream/pop album it’s really hard to grasp. The song is better that it’s slow, with so many references I don’t really care for this song. I’d say this track doesn’t fit well at all on the album and isn’t really the typical Weezer song anyway.

The next song Everybody Get Dangerous is one of those tracks that has a weak chorus. I will always HATE or rile on songs that have choruses that are either repeating words or just repeating a sentence. It ultimately ruined a potentially solid song into a crappy one.

Dreamin’ starts off pretty well, with guitaring you’d expect from Weezer and a solid chorus. A great pop song until Rivers Cuomo starts singing his verses and the song writing is in generally quite weak but it does have it moments.

Thought I Knew is a song by rhythm guitarist by Brian Bell which is actually refreshing to see someone else on the hem. I must say I kind of dug this song. The song writing is noticeably better, it just feels so much more natural though it’s not so much more ‘complex’.

Cold Dark World is a duo of vocalists but the problem is that musically they just hit it up with bass and it the beginning almost comes off as a rap. Musically I absolutely hated this one…there wasn’t much to begin with.

Automatic features another vocalist and musically it’s pretty good. The only problem if anything is that this feels like another band due the vocals shifting. Good nonetheless and great experimentation musically that you’d like to see earlier on an album.

The last track The Angel and The One is one of those epic closers to an album and I have no problem with these tracks. Some album do end on shitty notes and ending with a 6 minute dense track is quite commendable.

Rating: 2 out of 5
Overall a passable album, it’s not the worst and while there is some quality music here, I can’t believe Pork and Beans was their first hit. Some people riled on me for hating the track but come on aren’t I justified? There’s tons of indie pop better than that and it’s the kind of crappy song that grinds my gears.

I’m not breaking new ground by insulting Weezer but it’s mostly an album with misses rather then hits. There’s been much worse written about this calling this album the worst ever but it’s not complete utter crap even if I’d do without a lot of tracks and possibly Rivers Cuomo himself .

Dreamin’ by Weezer

Thought I Knew by Weezer

Buy this album from: Insound/CD Universe/Amazon

The most unique aspect of the band is the dual vocals of Jessica Leplon and Justin Wiley. Although not incredibly rare in this day and age, it is somewhat of a minority among the pop rock scene. The Morning Of fuses mellow vocals and themes with grungy aggressive instruments to create a very surreal vibe. A third of The World As We Know It, the debut album released January of this year, consists of slowed down jazzy instrumentals with the help of a piano and funky guitar work, but usually the musical tones are very hard hitting.

The first track is really just an introduction to their album and a lead up to their second song. Although not really a song, it gives listeners a taste of the kind of serious but mellow vibe that underlines the entire album. With themes of equality and such, The Morning Of uses music to address issues and concerns of today’s age. But don’t worry, it is far from a politically charged album, more optimistically charged than anything. Listeners will still get that easy listening feel expected of most pop rock bands.

Getting right into the second track (or the first real song), Let Your Spirit Soar, a very fast paced song that’s uplifting and aggressive. The drums and guitars are very prominent in this track, and the piano makes for a very pleasant melody. The vocals are really awesome with the interchanging male and female lyrics. The interesting part is that Justin doesn’t have a very deep voice, and it is somewhat high pitched, so the contrast between vocals is not as large as many might think, but that’s what makes it unique and that much better. The chorus is really catchy, but in a serious kind of manner, and the vocals make the overall song feel optimistic and laid back. This song is predominantly Justin and shows the aggressive side to The Morning Of. (When I say predominantly it’s truly only a sixty/forty split.)

Skipping to track four, Reverie is a more of a classic, beautiful song. This time around, Jessica takes on some of the more powerful parts of the song, which is fitting, a female voice for a softer more classy song. This song is very uplifting and gives listeners a sense of hope and optimism. Although a slower start it does show glimpses of aggressive tones nearer to the end, which is the climax of the song. This pattern of building up the music is what gives the listeners an emotional trip, and I think suits the music very well.

The Morning Of plays a range of different songs, Smooth Sailing, has a jazzy guitar tone, coupled with relaxing drums and mellow vocals. The New Is In, is a much slower song, using primarily a piano, the vocals are very soft, and the tone is much more relaxed. The Morning Of does a great job of choosing when to use female and male vocals, and I think both vocalists are excellent, but together they are wicked awesome. With such a variety of styles, their first full length album is a remarkable listen.

Check out their Myspace for official tour dates and album info.

The Morning Of – Let Your Spirit Soar

The Morning Of – Reverie