The Polyphonic Spree
The Beginning Stages of ...
Good Records
Led by ex-Tripping Daisy Tim DeLaughter, Dallas-based psychedelic gospel combo the Polyphonic Spree is not your average band. Crediting 23 members, packing its tunes with spiritual lyrics and clad in flowing white robes, the act have all the trappings of some mysterious long lost 1960s communal cult.
First released in demo form and distributed to fans during a holiday performance last year, the Spree's musically engaging and ethereal debut, The Beginning Stages of ..., is best described as a lo-fi choral-pop package that oozes warmth and joy.
In gathering together two dozen musical minds, DeLaughter has created an act that has the ability to combine the Beach Boys -- of the band's classic Pet Sounds days -- with melodies much like those of the less hard-drug soaked Flaming Lips.
However odd this combination may seem, the Spree's orchestral sounds prove to be some of the most euphoric, uplifting and joyful pop tunes one could imagine. The music is compelling and loquacious as well as addictive. In fact, it's an almost faultless debut.
With one exception. As gruesome on the ears as early experimental Tangerine Dream, the 30-minute A Long Day is a chilling combination of reverberating humming mixed with some rather nauseating electronic blips. All of which could be an indication of something more sinister lurking under the virgin-white starched robes of the happy-go-lucky Spree.
Apples in Stereo
Velocity of Sound
Spinart
Graduates of the artsy-fartsy Sonic Youth school of punk rock, Colorado-based Apples in Stereo has dropped the pomp and weirdness and, instead, tuned to simple four-chord guitar-driven pop-punk for its latest release, Velocity of Sound.
The album -- the band's seventh studio venture since 1995 -- certainly lives up to its title. Spewing forth one caffeine buzz-drenched tune after another; it hurries along in a flurry of energetic riffs and nasal vocals reminiscent of Pete Shelley and the Buzzcocks. Like Shelley's compositions, the Apples' tunes are laid bare and all of the album's 11 tracks are minimalist verging on the fringes of lo-fi in some way or another.
Although now a four-piece band, vocalist Robert Schneider, with his whiny vocals, candid lyrics and simple pop-riffs is still the band's guiding-light. Ensuring that even at its most condescending and facetious the Apples remain a cheerful combo possessing an honesty and charm rarely found in pop/punk crossover circles.
While numbers such as Rainfall, That's Something I Do and Mystery are of the American hi-fi guitar-laced ilk, numbers like Better Days and She's Telling Lies see the Apple's in equally raucous, yet somewhat milder retro-60s mode. The fact the band was a contributing act to a recent album featuring tunes inspired by the movie, The Powerpuff Girls, could almost be forgotten. Velocity of Sound proves that Schneider and his cronies are an act that deserves to be taken seriously.
Thievery Corporation
The Richest Man in Babylon
ESL
Lounge lizards and gurus of the dub driven mixing desk, Rob Garza and Eric Hilton -- aka the Thievery Corporation -- make a welcome return to record store shelves this month with the duo's fourth release, The Richest Man in Babylon.
Like its predecessors Sounds from the Thievery Hi-Fi, The Mirror Conspiracy and the EP, Lebanese Blonde, The Richest Man in Babylon is packed with dub-heavy, listless tunes which sees The Thievery Corporation blending Brazilian, Indian and Jamaican sounds with some truly laid back lounge vibes.
Although veering dangerously into Saint Etienne territory on the opener, Heaven's Gonna Burn Your Eyes, with guest vocalist, Emiliana Torrini baring a marked resemblance to Sarah Cracknell, what follows is a smorgasbord of fully-flavored, varied and euphonic lounge sounds.
On numbers such as The Outernationalist and The State of the Union, the pair utilize the tried and tested combination of bass-heavy ambient-dub. While on others, namely, Un Simple Histoire (A Simple Story), Garza and Hilton once again look to the Middle East for inspiration. The Richest Man in Babylon is not, however, without its unique moments.
The most moving, or rather numbing, of these is Exilio (Exile). A number on which the Corporation branches out from its dub-heavy roots and instead looks to Afro-Cuban percussion for inspiration.
Richard Ashcroft
Human Condition
Hut
After his 2000 solo debut, Alone With Everyone, great things were expected of Richard Ashcroft. Sadly, however, even with a lot of help from trip-hop/jungle wizard, Talvin Singh, and a duet with ex-Beach Boy, Brian Wilson, the ex-Verve mouthpiece has come up with an album that falls short of expectations. Whereas his emotionally seductive debut saw Ashcroft distancing himself from his Verve days by making use of a diversity of sounds which included stringed arrangements, simple brushing percussion, pop and even tripy grooves, Human Condition sees little experimentation.
Instead, Ashcroft appears to be stuck someplace between never-never land and the mainstream in which something that worked well with his drone-pop act The Verve leads the vocalist into dangerously tedious solo territory.
Of the album's 10 tunes there are only two exceptions to this tedium. The folk/pop guitar jangle of Ascroft's Bright Lights proves the album's only up-lifting moment. And even then it's a tune that comes a wee bit close to Shawn Mullins' 1998 hit, September in Seattle for comfort. Nature is the Law, a tune on which Ashcroft teams up with Wilson, on the other hand is a fantastically moving duet and by far the album's musical and poetic highlight.
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