Santosh – The Book Of Moron (2007)

Peppermill

Free Music Archive

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• Art pop 
• Comedy 
• Indie pop 
• Alternative 
• Lo-fi 
• Psychedelic 
• Electronic music 
• Funk 
• No Wave 
• Funk 
• Hip-hop 
• Crossover 
• Avant-garde 
• Leftfield

Comment: Santosh is a Canadian Santosh Lalonde whose 18-notch outing reveals many facets with his own idiosyncratic touch. First of all, it is subjugated to playful, frenzy aesthetic algorithms where the definition of a genre is dismissed. Indeed, all one could hear from there is somehow transgressive and keen to destroy and extend beyond the stylistic boundaries. Although the issue is excessive it is not redundant. Maybe the title of the release loans you an additional hint. Let’s take some tracks to be analysed. Don’t Send Me To Hell chimes like a macabre, desperate country song as if one being totally drawn out of the context to a degree you cannot take it seriously anymore. Fantastic is a downbeat punk funk composition, which is exaggeratedly cheerful as if mocking about a contemporary human type, who is enslaved by political correctness, loans and idiotic TV shows. On the other side, these monkeys are enslaved by other monkeys having no different quality in fact. Morally they are even more inferior. That’s the moral of the case. By listening to the next song Funny People and all of that ultimately reminds of Lalonde`s compatriot Bruce Haack whose electronic pioneering many decades ago was similarly frantic and staggering and frequently transcended stylistic borders. At times it seems to sound like funk or hip-hop or indie rock or music hall or comedy yet blurring remarkably the borders of the aforementioned compartments that one startles to say something definitive about it. In a word, the result is overwhelming and needs to be listened many times before to get spotted on the artist`s precise core. Highly recommended. The issue is a part of the catalogue of Vancouver-based Peppermill Records.                   

Various Artists - Hi and Ho, We Plant Trees (2008)

Peppermill

Free Music Archive

Lastfm

• Alternative pop
• Alt-folk
• Singer-songwriter
• Lo-fi
• Crossover
• Ethereal pop
• Indietronica
• Psychedelic pop
• Bluegrass
• Country
• Indie rock

Bombay Laughing Club - The Golden Years (2007)

Peppermill
Lastfm

8.8

/Avant-blues, Improvised music, Avant-garde, Experimental indie, Psychedelic, Crossover, Experimental pop/

Comment: This is a off-kilter blues-based album by a loosely related Canadian treeplanters combo filling their resting time between the job. Most of the songs seem to run in the vein of improvised jams reminding of the Captain Beefheart and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion or The Doors`s La Woman at its more ordinary moments. Sometimes the combo`s experiments used to crisscross the borders of the blues music, reaching out the realms of krautrock, raga music, just a case of proper indie rock (You Want It All) and even the cases of humour (for instance, Blue Berry which sounds like a mocking version of the kind of Rednex`s eurobeat disco). Or Slippery Sleep which is an immense run on the Stereolab-alike art pop/experimental indie in the first part.

Power und Beauty The Gnome EP (Peppermill)

Behind the Spokane-based, Washington, US-quartet Power und Beauty are four women (Anna Collins-Wakeman, Sarah Moyer, Karli Fairbanks, and Caroline Fowler) playing up an interesting, New Weird America-esque folk conception on 4 tracks by using more or less conventional musical instruments (a battery sustained second hand keyboard, tambourine, vegetable steamer(!), glockenspiel, accordion, guitars, tambourine, shakers), yet basically being actualized via at times magnificently glee vocal harmonies, conjuring sublime overtones as well, for instance at Author Of The Spring, the strongest notch on the issue, accompanied only by some sparse guitar fingerpickings. The opening track Beggars and Felons, on the other side, is a whimsical, accordion-backboned groove outlook, and the following one, Lavender, is a light run of fast-paced progression on the accordion, having made out the impression with the help of barely heardable yet affectively touching shaker shuffle on the backdrop. Peaches is a (more) synth-chorded, half-droned folk occurence. A fine workout indeed.

Listen to it here

8.7

[Vana ning oluline] Volumina Ciencia Ficción (Peppermill)

Benjamin Zàrate aka Volumina on järjekordne kinnitus veendumusele, et hetkel löövad latiinod-segaverelised tugevate elektrooniliste mõjudega avant-indie`s laineid. Ühemeheprojektid nagu Neon Indian, MillionYoung, Toro Y Moi ning Wonder Wheel (viimane postitas oma Myspace´i leheküljele traktaadi tuleviku popmuusika tehnilistest võtetest) loovad 21. sajandi teise kümnendi popkehandit. Chillwave/glo-fi, shoegaze, dream pop, lo-fi, psühhedeelia ja elektrooniline tantsumuusika on siiani olnud peamised vahendid, milledest on uusi muusikalisi universume vormitud.

“Ciencia Ficción” on mehhiklase järg samal, st 2009. aastal ilmunud debüütalbumile “This Is Our Home, Please Come In!” (mõlemad üllitatud Kanada leibli Peppermill all). Seos ei ole üksnes kronoloogiline – harmooniatest-meloodiatest laetud indietronica/electro-indie hüljatakse enamuses ning täidetakse ja segatakse avant-proge/zeuhl`i, 60ndate-70ndate kummituskogumike helide ja space age pop-mullistuste kollaažiks. Justkui Mort Garson-abielupaar Barron`id ja Magma-Eskaton leiutanuks oma tippaegadel ajamasina ning maabunuks kolm-neli kümnendit hilisemasse aegruumi. Paraja koguse müstika ja ängiga segatud teatraalne element ajab kombitsad kuulaja alateadvusesse. Näituseks vastupandamatud ava- ja lõpurada.

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[Artistid] Volumina

Peppermill
Peppermill
Myspace
Lastfm

[Vana ning oluline] Volumina This Is Our Home, Please Come In! (Peppermill)

Vaatasin mehhiklase Benjamin Z alias Volumina myspace`i lehte - rubriiki Sounds Like kaunistavad sekventseri/rekorderi ja süntesaatorite pildid. Muie kiskus sundimatult näole - kangastusid Maarjamaa indie-ikoonide Dallas`e (ühe albumi ümbrisel 90ndate lõpus) ja Pia Fraus`i (ühes videos) paljakstiritud sünteka-fetiš pluss saate Nestor & Morna lehte kaunistav klahvpillipilt R2 kodukal. Ümberpositsioneerimine - rokipeerud versus indiemehed, kitarrid versus süntesaatorid. Vanade ettekujutuste ümberkultiveerimine rock-kehandis. Või on see mäss? Rock-muusika mallide järgi ikkagi.

Tõsi, Volumina muusika on märka rohkem süntesaatorikeskne kui eelpoolmainitet auväärsetel Eesti puntidel, mistõttu klahvpillide kujutamine mõjub kindlasti transitiivsemalt. 8 lugu, mis üllitati eelmisel aastal Kanada leibli Peppermill Records`i poolt, tekitasid siinkirjutajas vastupandamatut soovi laulda kiidulaulu guadalajarase debüütalbumile. Tüüp demonstreerib imeteldavat oskust leida indie-muusikast üles eikellegimaa konarused ja vaikelu. Siin on nullindate alguse elektroonilist rock`i a la Simian/või siis 80ndate alguse pulbitsevat kosmilist elektrodiskorock`i a la lõunanaabrite Zodiac (The Rock & Roll Space Band), lo-fi`likke teatraalseid tembutusi-keerutusi (Twist), eksperimentaalset Moog-klahvkade sulnidust (Hide and Seek) a la High Llamas ja Stereolab. Träkid Love ja Study For A Pop Band on ühtaegu ekspressiivsed ja intiimsed, demonstreerides mehhiklase tervet ja elurõõmsat poptunnetust. Old Family Photo Album oma õrnalt riivavate meloodiate ja harmooniatel surfimise kaudu toob meelde Wild Honey ja Space`i - mäletate ehk veel seda suurepärast popansamblit 90ndatest? Loo lõpuosa kriibib justkui Kevin Shields löö(nu)ks kaasa konkreetses loos. Lõpetav Turn On The Music on sarnane albumi avaloole My Best Friend - umpa-umpalikult janditav šedööver, milles on ka psühhedeeliat ning indie soul`i elemente. Kahtlemata meenutab träkk (eriti selle algusosa) Blur`i The Debt Collector`it. Kui ma vaatan Benjamin Z`i suurimaid eeskujusid - biitlid, Queen, Bowie, Radiohead, Björk -, on lõplikult selge, kust tüüp on oma loomingulise koherentsuse üles korjanud.

Geniaalne debüütalbum geeniuselt. Kui vaid saaks seesugust tautoloogiliselt tüütut tõdemust rohkemate puntide puhul kasutada!

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