more things reviewed

Maybe I'll be a critic when I grow up. The next Roger Ebert or whatever. Oh but I like eating food some times, dang.

Anyways, here's some albums and such that I pretty much like.

LAKE R▲DIO - The Weather

So this is what they call "witch house", which (lol) I guess has been around for a few years but I've only really taken a notice of it lately. It seems to be getting more and more popular, but I could just be thinking that because I've been looking for it now. Anyways, this stuff is tons of fun. Typical sort of house beats and such subverted with all sorts of "enthusiastic but not too serious" occult stuff and minor minor twists that still manage to give a very "spooky" feel in the same way that the soundtrack for Disney scenes with the villains do. The difference between this and regular house stuff seems similar to the difference between The Unicorns and regular pop music, but I'm not sure if I can fully understand why I think that. It seems like this might be "the next big thing" in the same way dubstep and dnb and electro and indie were, in that a whole glut of albums will come out in the genre for a few years and then by the time I'm getting sick of it it'll show up on the radio. Not trying to sound cynical, though! Also all good witch house bands seem to have weird Unicode characters in their names.

That's what I think of the genre, anyways, but admittedly I've only heard a few albums from the genre and most of my opinions are hinging on this one here, probably my favorite thus far. It's just a little 20 minute 7 track EP, but there's an impressive amount of variety here while still having central themes and styles that appear in all tracks. Opening track "13093" has been established in my mind as one of the definitive tracks of the genre, with all sorts of spookiness and cryptic number counting, but also some silly samples and a reassuringly catchy beat. "VCR Operation" and "Joining You" follow a similar pattern of samples and beat but with more legitimately atmospheric results, the latter's sampling of the legendary "Gloomy Sunday" being especially haunting. This leads quite nicely to the excellent closing track, "▼▼▼@†H is Fundamental". This track wouldn't seem too out of place on a Boards of Canada record, with hypnotizing chord progression on every one of its many layers, captivating samples and memorable effects. I still find the highlights of this album to be the second and fourth tracks, despite the maturity and potential shown on the closer. The latter of these is the confusingly named "Martin Hannett's Ghost", which reminds me distinctly of "The Great Gig in the Sky", although obviously not on that tier of quality quite yet. The song is still quite powerful and memorable, and the subtlest of eerie effects go a long way in flavoring the entire song with something distinctly uncomfortable. Also strangely named "кулинария" (Russian for cooking?) is my favorite song on the album by a decent margin, though. A remix of the pretty popular (I think?) La Roux song "Bulletproof", LAKE R▲DIO strips everything from the original except for the basic chord progression and her memorable lyrics, although the latter are almost impossible to hear underneath the definitely "witch-y" distortion. This is the sort of song that lives in your head for weeks.

Wow, didn't really plan on writing that much about this album. It is quite good, though. I have a few minor quibbles with a few of the songs, but this is obviously a record where the artist succeeded in every attempt they wanted to make and I think my issues with pacing and concept development are more of a differing opinion than real flaws. I look forward to hearing an LP, and more of the genre in general, if not only so I can get more chances to come up with a "which house?" "who's on first"-esque routine. 8.6/10

NiT GriT - Synthetic Heaven

So I mentioned earlier that I thought dubstep was getting popular. I based this belief off like, seeing official dubstep remixes of pretty popular tracks, some video game is going to have a pretty much all dubstep soundtrack, etc, etc. But I lied, because it isn't dubstep that's getting popular, it's brostep. YUP, DUBSTEP ELITIST COMING THROUGH, HIT THE DECK. Actually I think I'm just an ANY SUBGENRE OF MUSIC ELITIST now or maybe just ELITIST. Sorry in advance. Anyways this brostep stuff, I actually do absolutely love it. Tomba, Bogore, Mt Eden, whatever, I'll blast that stuff and scream about how filthy it is, even though in my heart I associate dubstep much more closely with atmospheric and ambient stuff like Burial or Spaceape or whatever. Then there's stuff that walks the line between them, still getting that dark richness we saw in early dubstep but never stopping themselves from running with a huge, wobbly, disgusting, bass-punching beat that gives you whiplash in 4/4 time. This is the stuff I'm hoping eventually becomes popular, stuff like 16bit and The Widdler and such, and I'd happily count this guy in the category too.

NiT GriT has one full album out, I think, but I haven't heard it much and both of the tracks I were recommended of his are on this little EP, so I figured I'd get comfortable with it first. It didn't take too long: this is quality work, catchy and powerful, but with a lot of restraint and atmosphere. The thing seems to have a little narrative that I can piece together from the song titles: drug usage ("Dimethyltryptamine") leads to crazy visions or whatever ("Synthetic Heaven") and finally a full existential breakdown ("What Am I"). Although the songs themselves aren't really bound by this line of thought, it is interesting to keep in mind as you hear the songs. I actually found the thing to kind of stall out in the middle on the title track, though. The first and last songs are focused, with definite progression and themes that he wants to express, while the middle seems a bit more content with just meandering. Does that fit the plot of the album? I dunno. Anyways, I can't think of a whole lot wrong with the album outside of it just being a bit repetitive. There's some nice progression and a good variety of samples and distortions, but the underlying beats and melodies are fairly same-y through all the songs. On a short EP like this it doesn't matter all too much, but I'm hoping he displays a bit more of an innovative spirit on his LP. 7.6/10

"A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" - James Joyce

So I've been reading a few books with few or no pictures in them too. Most of them are books some list told me were good. Whatever, who am I to disagree with the Modern Library or whatever? I'm aware of the stigma Joyce has with, well, pretty much everyone who isn't making lists of the top books, but I've been reading him for so long now that I feel safe talking about it and avoiding whatever labels people give those that read weird old literature in an attempt to be "cool" (would this be called a "hipster" thing?).

So, Portrait. One of his easier books, if not his easiest, if not just because the entirely of the text actually reflects things happening in the story and the section of notes and explanations on the back is only about half as long as the novel itself. Seriously, though, this book is not a difficult read. The plot moves at a pretty decent pace and never stalls out long enough to bore the average reader, characters are introduced in such a way that keeping them straight is simple and the jumps in time are easily followable. These successes make it something that the rest of Joyce's works cannot claim to be: a comprehensible novel. And it is primarily a wonderful and fairly simple novel that follows the development of Stephen Dedalus, his triumphs and struggles, his developing artistic sense and his perspective on religion. It is what is known as a Künstlerroman, a novel chronicling the development of an artistic mind. I have tried several times to understand what makes a novel a Künstlerroman or Bildungsroman instead of just a novel of someone's life, but I can never really put my finger on it. It is something subtle about the style of it that makes it so, and it is one of the best I have ever read.

The novel is also strong on the level of commentary and other such subtext not directly relating to the story. I can't pretend to understand the political, religious and political-religious conflicts of Ireland at the beginning of the 20th century, but I feel I can also make the claim that true understanding of the situation is not as important as simply having a sense of it. Despite my ignorance on the actual subject, I can spot where commentary emerges from the story. Furthermore, my knowledge actually often mirror's Stephen's current understanding and my interest his, and the ways that the issues presented as passing early in the book have ramifications directly related to the plot in the later arcs in a way that lets the reader understand the issues from his perspective. Much of Joyce's commentary is more timeless, as his opinions on schooling, religion, the nature of sin, the great poets before him, etc, etc are still very relevant and insightful today. However, I find the best "lessons" Joyce hid in the book were the talks Stephen has with his peers near the end of the novel on subjects such as beauty and the nature of love.

I will finish this soon but right now I am tired. Sorry. I also want to review M.I.A.'s new album but I haven't listened to it yet.