Five Spot: Five Album Reviews

Once in a while, I’ll be writing short reviews of things on my hard drive that are probably already old but I haven’t gotten around to. They’ll be very informal and less analytical. The music will be chosen at random, too, so complete disorganization is assured.
Archive – Controlling Crowds – This is the first release [...]

Album Review: Tortoise – Beacons of Ancestorship

Beacons of Ancestorship brings Tortoise’s sound firmly into the future. Once known for their majestic, open-ended post-rock instrumentals, the band have turned engineer John McEntire’s fascination with breakbeats and off-kilter rhythms into an altogether new venture.
The album gives listeners a clear indication of where Tortoise’s sound is probably headed. Change is manifested in dense, [...]

Album Review: Prefuse 73 – Everything She Touched Turned Ampexian

Listening to Prefuse 73’s Everything She Touched Turned Ampexian is like putting your brain in a musical room of spinning mirrors. This release takes the listener on a startling trip full of sudden stops and subtle direction changes that somehow still gets you to a destination, albeit an unknown one.
Everything She Touched Turned Ampexian [...]

Album Review: Charles Spearin – The Happiness Project

Charles Spearin, founder of Canadian experimenters Do Make Say Think and sometime contributor to Broken Social Scene, has artistically one-upped himself with The Happiness Project. While it will probably never tug at the heartstrings of as many people as BSS, The Happiness Project is an accomplishment that other musicians will find themselves wishing they had [...]

Album Review: Bell Orchestre – As Seen Through Windows

If there’s room in the musical cosmos for another classically inclined, genre-welding Canadian group, then Bell Orchestre is in luck – their place in the galaxy is safe. Including full and part-time members of the popular Canadian art rock outfit Arcade Fire, Bell Orchestre takes the “rock” in “art rock” and replaces it with impressively [...]

Album Review: Mountains – Choral

Milking words out of an album such as Mountains’ Choral (CD – MP3) is never easy. Ambient-leaning sounds such as these are applicable to nearly any situation the listener can dream up, and that means that it takes the dedication and imagination of the listener to complete the artistic picture. While I wouldn’t rush to [...]

Emeralds – What Happened

If you’re a musical explorer – someone who’ll give the time of day to just about any offering, no matter how daunting it may seem – you owe it to yourself to experience the cinematic experimentation of Emeralds’ What Happened (CD). Just make sure you aren’t driving or operating heavy machinery (the album is, however, [...]

Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion

Few and far between are albums like Merriweather Post Pavilion (CD – MP3) – albums that vehemently deny easy categorization, but possess enough mass appeal to become revered and beloved. Animal Collective brilliantly combines freakish waves of psychedelia with tuneful, hooky vocals and beats, making the Baltimore band’s eighth studio album the closest, purest example [...]

Circlesquare – Songs About Dancing and Drugs

Circlesquare’s sublime, drowsy songs march languidly out of your speakers like disaffected schoolchildren, and you can feel them pulling your body downward like some sort of rhythmic gravity. Elements of psychedelic rock, ambient, trance, and downtempo can all be discovered among creator Jeremy Shaw’s melodically sparse, densely packed aural creations, and there’s a bizarrely pleasing [...]

Talkdemonic – Eyes at Half Mast

I haven’t met too many Talkdemonic fans personally, but the band’s supporters must be out there somewhere, because their new album sold out of its first pressing in a week. Upon listening to Eyes at Half Mast for the first time, it’s easy to see why folks are pining for their sound – they succeed [...]