Grizzly Bear by Tom Hines
As you may have noticed, I've been on something of a Warp kick lately. To me, Warp will always be first and foremost an "electronic" imprint -- after all, the label served as my main introduction to contemporary electronic music 15 years ago, via Autechre's Amber and then other Warp artists like Aphex Twin. (I wrote at some length about my first encounter with Warp eight years ago, when the label's cofounder Rob Mitchell passed away; you can read that piece here.)
But in recent years, Warp has arguably had its most surprising successes outside electronica, in hip-hop, avant-pop and indie rock. I've already talked about Jamie Lidell, Battles and Flying Lotus. Here are a few more crucial albums from the guitar-wielding weirdos warping Warp's aesthetic in wild, white-knuckled ways.
Grizzly Bear, Yellow House
You may have heard a thing or two recently about a certain Brooklyn quartet and its hotly tipped new album, Veckatimest. But don't sleep on the band's previous album, 2006's Yellow House. It's rooted in the same spongy delta where the waters of folk, psychedelia and post-rock mingle; you can hear bits of Simon & Garfunkel, Gastr del Sol and Leo Kottke in their intricate, cobwebbed and dew-glistened dream-pop. A synaesthetic's dream, Yellow House is a yellow house in afternoon light, the smell of cut grass at the seaside in springtime, a banquet of garlands and honey.
!!!, Myth Takes
!!! may smell like a jam band -- they're alleged to have done an entire U.S. tour without showering between shows, carving a wide arc of empty space into the audience -- but their musical cues come straight out of early '80s post-punk. Their bass- and cowbell-heavy grooves often draw comparisons to Liquid Liquid or A Certain Ratio; on the title track to 2007's Myth Takes, they're straight-up Bauhaus. "Funk-punk" doesn't have quite the ring it did a few years ago, but returning today to Myth Takes, the things that make these trisyllabic rockers different stand out even more, especially on oddball rave-ups like "Sweet Life" and "Yadnus."
Duncan Lloyd, Seeing Double
When Duncan Lloyd stepped out of Maximo Park's shadow with his 2008 solo debut, Seeing Double, it was clear that he'd been keeping some of the best songs for himself. Steeped in '60s harmonies and punk simplicity, Lloyd's stripped-down rock makes the most of electric instruments that jump out of the mix with a kind of knuckleheaded vulnerability. His songwriting tends toward a mixture of Sebadoh, New Order, and just the right amount of Velvet Underground, but songs like "Victory and Surrender" show that he's got a few tricks of his own up his sleeve.
Gravenhurst, The Western Lands
Swinging between the poles of acoustic melancholy and searing rock, Gravenhurst's 2007 album The Western Lands feels a little like a one-band rendition of a Sofia Coppola soundtrack. There's a Nick Drakey number ("Saints"), a My Bloody Valentine blast ("Hollow Men"), a plug for L.A. Chicano rockers (and Repo Man soundtrackers) the Plugz ("The Western Lands"), JAMC-meets-M83 fuzzout blissout ("Farewell, Farewell"). Add a little bit of the Smiths and Sarah Records; what saves it from being Now That's What I Call Indie! Volume 54 is the wide-eyed earnestness of it all.
You may have heard a thing or two recently about a certain Brooklyn quartet and its hotly tipped new album, Veckatimest. But don't sleep on the band's previous album, 2006's Yellow House. It's rooted in the same spongy delta where the waters of folk, psychedelia and post-rock mingle; you can hear bits of Simon & Garfunkel, Gastr del Sol and Leo Kottke in their intricate, cobwebbed and dew-glistened dream-pop. A synaesthetic's dream, Yellow House is a yellow house in afternoon light, the smell of cut grass at the seaside in springtime, a banquet of garlands and honey.
!!!, Myth Takes
!!! may smell like a jam band -- they're alleged to have done an entire U.S. tour without showering between shows, carving a wide arc of empty space into the audience -- but their musical cues come straight out of early '80s post-punk. Their bass- and cowbell-heavy grooves often draw comparisons to Liquid Liquid or A Certain Ratio; on the title track to 2007's Myth Takes, they're straight-up Bauhaus. "Funk-punk" doesn't have quite the ring it did a few years ago, but returning today to Myth Takes, the things that make these trisyllabic rockers different stand out even more, especially on oddball rave-ups like "Sweet Life" and "Yadnus."
Duncan Lloyd, Seeing Double
When Duncan Lloyd stepped out of Maximo Park's shadow with his 2008 solo debut, Seeing Double, it was clear that he'd been keeping some of the best songs for himself. Steeped in '60s harmonies and punk simplicity, Lloyd's stripped-down rock makes the most of electric instruments that jump out of the mix with a kind of knuckleheaded vulnerability. His songwriting tends toward a mixture of Sebadoh, New Order, and just the right amount of Velvet Underground, but songs like "Victory and Surrender" show that he's got a few tricks of his own up his sleeve.
Gravenhurst, The Western Lands
Swinging between the poles of acoustic melancholy and searing rock, Gravenhurst's 2007 album The Western Lands feels a little like a one-band rendition of a Sofia Coppola soundtrack. There's a Nick Drakey number ("Saints"), a My Bloody Valentine blast ("Hollow Men"), a plug for L.A. Chicano rockers (and Repo Man soundtrackers) the Plugz ("The Western Lands"), JAMC-meets-M83 fuzzout blissout ("Farewell, Farewell"). Add a little bit of the Smiths and Sarah Records; what saves it from being Now That's What I Call Indie! Volume 54 is the wide-eyed earnestness of it all.
- Portions of Album Content Provided by All Music Guide © 2008 All Media Guide, LLC.
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