Post-Exams Update: Thoughts and Murmurs on Orchestra of Bubbles and Kensington Heights

I need to work on some long-overdue reviews for Audrey (sorry Audrey!), but here's some quick thoughts on some things I've been listening to lately (please make use of the imeem player above to sample the songs I mention, and let me know if it's working for you!):

Ellen Allien & Apparat - Orchestra of Bubbles

It's been exam-studying time, and that means a greater than usual dose of instrumental music. Last semester it was Tortoise; this time I went with the Disintegration Loops, Stereolab (vocals, yes, but it's only distracting when you can understand what they're saying; unintelligible French cooing presents no distraction) Aphex Twin and recently, this album. I find it hard to put my finger on what separates engaging, interesting and listenable dance and electronic music from its less fortunate brethren. The album is melodically and rhythmically strong, sure, but there is also a pure pleasantness and organic warmth in the sounds themselves. On album standout "Jet" for example, the warm pulsing synth that mirrors the bass pulse and the delightful little scuttling noises that strafe across it like tiny crabs on a sandy beach, exemplify how the best tracks on the album build tension piece by piece, with simple melodic elements that display an exceptional sonic tautness. Not every track is as successful, but some are, "Turbo Dreams", among them.

The Constantines - Kensington Heights

Still delving into this record, but it sounds promising so far, an interesting development in the wake of the surprisingly sparse and trad-rock influenced Tournament of Hearts, both expanding on that sound, and re-integrating more of the spikier post-punk of earlier albums. Opening track "Hard Feelings" is the perfect example of this melding of worlds: The song has classic rock swagger and even a decent straight-up guitar solo(!), but also an unmistakable angularity and metallic bite that evokes Fugazi, not Fogerty (in fact, the band's sound has often been pegged as "Springsteen fronting Fugazi"; an application of the "Band X meets Band Y" device that music critics often overuse at the expense of actual insight or description. This particular descriptor is stubbornly persistent as a lazy shorthand for the band; it's like the statement just gets copy and pasted from review to review). The song channels its ample energy into stuttering, interlocking keyboard and guitar riffs, which contrast nicely with Bryan Webb's always-satisfying rasp of a vocal delivery. Also deserves mention: the awesomely pounding repeating post-chorus riff that evokes both an air siren and some giant machine press crashing down and resetting itself over and over. The rest of the album I don't know as well, but some other preliminary thoughts: "Million Star Hotel" is a formidable second track; where "Feeling" took a horizontal approach (barreling forward momentum) Feeling is more vertical: the tempo more deliberate as riffs soar, tower and crash. "Trans Canada" rides a chunky bass riff to an impassioned climax, although the build is so brief, I'm not sure the payoff is fully earned. "Shower of Stones", the first misstep, is sung by Steve Lambke instead of Webb, and confirms just how effective Webb is as a vocalist, and how much the band loses in his absence. And I'll agree with Pitchfork's Jason Crock, that I could do entirely without the odd, cheesy keyboard effects on "Credit River". I still haven't quite parsed the lyrics on the album; although I'm not a big lyrics guy, lyrics are usually a plus point for the band, who employ a hyper-romantic sort of street poetry tempered by rootsier, blue-collar sensibilities. Sometimes I feel like they can overdo the affected poetic mannerisms, but Webb's impassioned vocal delivery is so effective, he tends to make almost anything work. A sample of some nice lines at the front end of the "Trans Canada" climax:

"I had that vision, brother/the one about you, brother/we did ride, ride on the shining path together"

I will say that I don't particularly like the album cover, though. For what sounds like, so far, such a lively record, that cover is surprisingly drab and dull, and the airplane propeller silhouette, unless I'm really missing something, just seems like a total non sequitur. Really, it looks like something slapped together in Photoshop in about 45 seconds. But minor gripes aside (and I'll admit, I'm actively searching for them because I am a bit biased towards the Constantines; "On to You" is a personal favorite of mine), initial impressions suggest thatKensington Heights just may eventually prove a worthy development and extension of the Constantines' already accomplished oeuvre.

Alright! For now it's back to work on that Jesus Lizard piece, and maybe even the Stereolab one I was hoping to do. I'll post them here after I'm done. I've got a lot of ideas for this blog that I'm excited about implementing, and now that it's summer, I might actually have the time to implement, but we'll see!