Qualities of Taste

~ am I really all the things that are outside of me? ~ a music dump run by jesse rolfe

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Beautiful, natural, emotive music. Manatee Commune kind of sounds like the clean, shimmery pop of Soda Island mixed with the naturalistic, summer vibes of Bibio. Digging all of the incredibly intricate, gorgeous tunes on this EP.

[slopeslopeslope]

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Really into this album and this track in particular at the moment. I don’t know what it is about Montreal, but they sure crank out some really excellent bands. These guys have such a smooth, easy sound, I wish I’d heard about them earlier in the winter. Kind of reminds me of Japanese Wallpaper, but more pop-y and uptempo. Still all of that primo moodiness tho.

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Brooklyn-based Alpenglow, one of my favorite folk/indie-style bands, is back at it again with their newest album, the fantastic Callisto. With an expanded palette of instruments (synths!) and a mixing style that’s super open and spacey (Beach House-esque!), the songs on here are super refreshing and signal a perfect progression for Alpenglow’s down-to-earth yet ethereal, heady style. It’s like Fleet Foxes in space. Still digging into this as it just came out today, but thus far I don’t think theres a song on here I don’t like. Shaping up to be one of the best of 2016 thus far in my opinion.

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I don’t how I haven’t realized this by now, but dream-pop and shoegaze are genres that I’m really really into. These guys remind me a bit of The Depreciation Guild. They’ve got the same impeccable pop sensibilities, but with a Mac Demarco guitar melt. The chorus on this song is absolutely gorgeous. Sink into this if you will.

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Jazzwave brother-sister duo Tennyson make some of the best electronic music on the world wide web. Chances are if you enjoyed the chill style-jams from the last post, you’re going to love Tennyson’s new Like What EP as well.

(free download here: we.tl/MIhVXg54dJ).

I’ve been in love with Tennyson ever since my first taste of their smooth, jazzy synth lines and lush sound design (by way of their remix of Smother by Daughter). Their music is ridiculously intricate, employing wicked chord progressions (matched only by the OG chordslayer, Maxo) and ample jazz solo-ing, while still maintaining an incredibly laid back vibe.

Seriously though. Throughout all six tracks on Tennyson’s newest effort I simultaneously feel like I’m in a 60s airport lounge listening to the greatest jazz band in the world perform for me *and* lying down in a forest beside a creek with some golden late-afternoon sun rays streaming through the trees and splashing across my fool face. The sound design on this thing is ridiculous. From the incredibly innovative door sequence in the second half of “Like What” to pretty much the entire song of “7:00am” (potato chip snares, yawns, snoring, a babbling brook, doorbells, panting, the ever present alarm clock, etc.). Everything is expertly layered and blended, to the point where I’m still hearing new things even on my 15th, 16th listen. These are stories as much as they are songs, and I don’t think I’ve heard such powerful use of sound sampling since bo en’s album Pale Machine.

I’m also glad to hear Luke (the production half of Tennyson) doing more vocal work on this EP, though I think there’s definitely been a page taken from Ryan Hemsworth here.

Regardless, check this shit out. These guys are great. I’m all about all of this. Also check out their short film “Snowball Fights Are Such a Particular Thing”, it’s a really interesting companion piece with some beautiful visuals to boot: http://yourstru.ly/stories/tennyson

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For a while now, the as-of-recently-unfortunately-named Real Cosby has been without a doubt my favorite beat maker. I’ve been hooked ever since his Earl Juice EP, which I believe I discovered through Purr Tapes, a since-discontinued Portland-based tape label. Real Cosby has got this really nice minimalist style that takes the soft vibe of Mount Kimbie and 123mrk and overlays it with the frenetic vocal sampling style of TAPES or Pogo. Gold Braid, his latest EP, progressed this sound to over the course of four beautifully organic-sounding electronic dance tunes, which I even hesitate to call dance tunes…they almost operate more like rhythmic sound collages. The title track on that EP is one of my favorite songs, so I’ll most likely post a separate review for it at some point in the future. 

Anyway, today is an exciting day because Shoeboxx Records, the Denver-based net label that Real Cosby co-founded, has released their third compilation album. And it includes a new Real Cosby track titled “Like Ya Do” (or “Like Ya Da” as the bandcamp typo suggests). And I’m fucking jazzed about it.

Holy shit this track. The percussion alone in this one I could listen to for days. I can almost hear a bit of Toro Y Moi influence in here, especially his latest beat-tape Samantha, along with the incredible, more than ever TAPES-style vocal chopping. The synths are smooth as all hell, the breaks hit in all the right spots, and I’m absolutely digging the vaguely melancholy chords. I’m also really really into the tightly controlled structural shifts in here, most of all the breakdown about two minutes in that develops into this gorgeous orchestral-sounding line that carries into the final chorus. What a tune, what a tune. I encourage you to listen to the rest of this compilation if this track is your cup of tea. All of the artists associated with Shoeboxx are incredibly talented and really brought the fire with their tracks on this. A few personal favorites from my first listen through: 

Imprintafter - Don’t Wanna See Ya // Cam & Hands - Won’t You Cry // LWNMWHR - Loom // Slowbro - All Alone // BLNDSGHT - Bonsai // Sundrenched - Critical Mass

http://shoeboxxrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/vol-three

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My first reaction to Songs for Dads (probably the best name for an EP that I’ve ever seen) is that this is what I wish Cruel Runnings by Miniature Tigers was. Lo and behold, when I went into the Related Artists tab, Charlie Brand was the first suggestion. In all honesty, I don’t think The Walters are really all that much like Mini Tigers, besides a similar penchant for off-kilter, yet catchy pop melodies and chords. Their singer has that really standard indie rock kind of nasal quality, but somehow it works really well in this context. I’ll chalk it up to really solid songwriting. Regardless there’s another guy in the group who covers singing duties on “New Girl” and “What’s Left” whose has a more understated singing style that I really dig. But yeah. While I don’t love everything on this EP, specifically the super bright track “Old Friends” and the strange country-ish track “Fancy Shoes” that sounds oddly similar to “Mushaboom” by Feist, I do appreciate the variety these guys manage to map out and explore in a relatively short run time. The flexibility keeps you guessing and makes for a really entertaining listen (I love the little flares of trumpet peppered throughout here). ...in fact now that I think about it “New Girl” legitimately sounds like it could be a Cruel Runnings track.

But I digress. This track. “I Love You So” is one of those perfect pop tunes. Lyrically simple, melodically simple, cleanly recorded, and hits all the right spots. Not much more to say here, it’s a tune that speaks for itself.

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This is a really good song.

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In honor of Halloween, I’m revisiting Avey Tare’s Slasher Flicks, because the first time I listened through this, I got caught up on “Little Fang” and never really got around to listening to the rest of the album. Which kind of happened again this time. Because Little Fang is a fantastic tune. It’s got a disco flair, an incredibly catchy melody, great lyrics, and just the right amount of Halloween kitsch, an aesthetic mode I can’t get enough of. This album is something of an enigma. Sometimes it plays like Avey Tare trying to make a Panda Bear album. Sometimes it’s just a straight disco record. Sometimes it delves into some really strange places. Regardless, all the tunes are much more dance-y than a majority of Avey Tare’s solo work, and it works to mixed results. Upon further listens through, I find it really enjoyable though. It’s refreshing to hear Avey Tare’s versatile vocalizations and melodic sensibilities against a more traditional backdrop in terms of both instrumentation and song structure. But if there’s anything we can all agree on, it’s that Little Fang is a SOLID ass tune (and catchy as all hell).

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To inaugurate this music blog-type project thing, which may or may not see the light of day, I’m going to post a song that I just found through Spotify and I’m pretty ambivalent toward...but have been enjoying. Most of what I can find about Boardwalk on the internet involves how much their style is a cop of Beach House. Personally, I don’t really think this track sounds like Beach House at all, but a few of their other songs do I guess. Regardless, this is definitely a really solid dream pop song with a really nice lo-fi grungy feel and killer melody, so in the meantime I’m content to jam out to it. I also really resonate with the wishy-washy “I don’t know who I am or what’s going on" feel of the lyrics, but maybe that’s because I’ve been reading a book called The Self After Postmodernity and it’s been coloring my perspective lately.