2015 – Aglet Eaters

Spin with me: How I met Peripheral Vision

The strength of Peripheral Vision lies in the indisputable fact that it is perfect.

I dont even know why I bother to keep up with new music when:

a) it’s impossible

b) we all know I’m going to miss out on whatever’s really meaningful because:

it’ll be drowned in the infinite deluge of daily new releases
my desperate yet passive listening habits mean I’ll blank on it even if it does find its way to my headphones.

Despite the hopelessness of the situation, I do keep a tiny, irregularly updated, and frequently overlooked list of bands/tracks that have caught my attention. It’s a list written on actual paper and therefore prone to the vagaries of the physical world eg. spilled cups of milky tea, inkstains, and general wear and tear from natural forces of erosion.

One of the tracks written on this loved-but-not-consulted scrap of paper is ‘Diazepam’ by Turnover – a song I heard more than once on DKFM, duly noted/confirmed on my list each time and did not research any further for reasons I can only ascribe to the non-existence of free will (just roll with it, Sartre).

One eternity later, still listening to DKFM, I find myself captivated by a dreamy little song that I learn is called ‘Dizzy on the Comedown.’ I see that it is by a band called Turnover that I have obviously never heard of before, because if I had I would surely, definitely, 100% have looked into them immediately.

If you think I am lying to myself, you are correct, and have been paying attention. I appreciate this, let’s be friends, but please stay where you are. I dont think either of us enjoys meeting new people.

I turn to my trusty parchment, yellowed with age and crumbling to dust, and raise my quill – but wait! what’s this? Staring back at my myopic eyes is the name Turnover, already inscribed not once but TWICE!

Ooo, you didn’t see that coming.

It turns out that not only had my past self already made a note of ‘Diazepam’, she had also had the good sense to add ‘Humming’ to the list. Yet my idiot future/present (and now also past) self needed to be struck by ‘Dizzy on the Comedown’ before making any sort of move towards further exploration. At this point, the shoegaze universe had moved way past ‘giving a sign’ and gone straight to ‘we’re going to have to hit her with the signboard.’ (it’s super effective, btw)

Coincidentally, yet unsurprisingly, all three songs are off Turnover’s iconic album Peripheral Vision. My dawdling has meant that I’m way too late to the release party but I’ve made up for that lapse by listening to it incessantly since then.

The strength of Peripheral Vision lies in the indisputable fact that it is perfect. It is a vial of nostalgia that hasn’t aged a day since 1994 – which is impressive because it was released in 2015. Though it is never overtly implied, the throwback hangs heavy in lyrics like carelessly you pass the hours, humming songs you used to sing when you were young as well as in familiar themes of anxiety and frustration. Like the 90s, it pits impossibly cheery melodies against lyrics that are nothing short of tragic or, of course, angst-ridden.

But this isn’t your garden variety existential, adolescent angst. And why should it be? It’s 2020 and we’re no longer deluded enough to believe that ‘angst’ is a phase reserved for frustrated teenagers. If anything, the angsty kids of the 90s have grown into the still-angsty adults of the 2000s. In a world that’s progressively going to pot, ‘New Scream’ is an ode to adult ennui, to the obligation and pretense that ‘everything’s ok’ when clearly, evidently, it is not:

Can I stay at home? I don’t want to go
I don’t want to wake up till the sun is hanging low
Stay up through the night, sleep away the light
Just another dream I had that’s better than my life

Adolescent dreams gave to adult screams
Paranoid that I won’t have all the things they say I need
What if I don’t want a pattern on my lawn?
All I know is something’s wrong

‘New Scream’ is a lot more subtle than ‘Diazepam’ and ‘Dizzy on the Comedown’ when it comes to talking about mental health, but the latter two hide these bleak references behind delightfully upbeat melodies. ‘Diazepam’ has guitars twinkling over it from start to finish, but it’s someone sinking into depression and worrying about how much of an emotional burden they are to their partner who they’re convinced will eventually have had enough and leave.

It was always a dream just to know you
Sometimes I find I can hardly speak your name
I know one day I’ll come home and I’ll find you
It’s just a matter of time till you break from the strain

‘Diazapam’ finds a mirror in ‘Dizzy on the Comedown’ . You’d be forgiven if, even by the twentieth listen, you hear nothing on ‘Dizzy…’ but the innocent euphoria of young love. But listen a little closer and you’ll realise something’s been off from the very beginning:

Up and down like a red rubber ball,
You’re always back and forth like a clock on the wall
…
If I stay do you think you could change your routine?
I know a trick I’ve always got a few up my sleeve

And right to the chorus

Won’t you come here and spin with me?
I’ve been dying to get you dizzy.
Find a way up into your head,
So I can make you feel like new again.

But it’s still a charmer. It’s a reversal of the dynamic on ‘Diazepam’, with our protagonist doing all he can to support his partner’s moods and insecurities, and it’s only with this reading that we realise that this isn’t quite the naive infatuation initially perceived, but a sturdier, almost desperate, kind of love.

There’s a sketch in an old MAD magazine from back when it turned out quality content that pins 23 as the age when you hear of an artist on MTV and go ‘who?’. I don’t have to explain this but I will – the joke is that by the time you hit the ripe old age of 23, you’re no longer cool enough to be in on the music scene. It also (unintentionally?) implies that there comes a time what’s when you’re no longer the target audience for mainstream media houses.

It’s likely that, had the internet not shown up, us 90s kids would have nothing but our withering, overplayed CDs (and DVD-Rs burned to a crisp) to turn to for a hit of nostalgia. But the internet did show up – and conveniently enough, it did so IN the 90s. And so, while the erstwhile 90s kids aka millenials, may not be the target audience of mainstream music programming today, some of them are taking the sounds they grew up with and reinventing them for the 21st century. Some others are writing words of praise to these revivalists on Pitchfork or Aglet Eaters (an unfair comparison, as P4K comes nowhere close to the superior quality content you find on AE). And everyone else is mesmerised by our absolutely objective, unbiased and 100% correct opinion and is buying Peripheral Vision on Bandcamp.

Video Premiere: We Meet in Dreams – The Microdance

It’s no secret that New Waves of Hope has been the album I’ve been looking forward to the most this year. Not least because I’ve known it to be in the making for about two years, and living off snippets, and whatever sneaky crumbs Alex threw my way.

New Waves of Hope released earlier this year, and while I was too busy earning a living (down with capitalism) to write a full blown article about it, I have still managed to land the chance to premiere the video for ‘We Meet In Dreams.’

‘Inspired’ by Mario 64 if Mario 64 had drug dealers and shots of Mario staring pensively at the user on a Shoreditch sidewalk, the video’s making full use of the cool-factor brought in by TMD’s skateboarding bassist, Cheryl, and the unshakeable Gavin (not even clomping through a metre-deep lake fazes him).

Where and why Alex/Mario got those overalls will remain a mystery forever.

Ce fut quand même notre histoire: Une entrevue avec Milanku

Milanku, groupe Québécois, marqué par un son qui juxtapose les mélodies les plus douces contre des voix enragées, viennent de sortir leur premier album après 4 ans. De Fragments, comme son prédécesseur, n’a rien à voir avec les débuts du groupe. Lorsque Demo et Convalescence étaient presque ‘punk’ ayant donné la brutalité de leurs sons, ici, maintenant, on voit – on écoute – les compositions beaucoup plus structurées. De Fragments possède la même complexité que Prise A La Gorge. Cependant, ce dernier est peut-être moins lourd.

Ce mélange n’est pas très diffèrent que celui d’Alcest – groupe français enraciné dans le black métal – où on écoute clairement l’influence de leur ascendance même quand les chansons restent assez éthérées.

Bien que, au niveau de leur esprit, les deux groupes sont presque pareils, musicalement, ils ne se ressemblent pas du tout. En fait, comme Alcest, je trouve qu’il n’y a aucun groupe comparable à Milanku.

Ça fait deux mois que je leur ai envoyé quelques questions à propos à leur histoire, leur son atypique, et leurs pensées au sujet des téléchargements gratuits. Voilà – tout que vous vouliez savoir de Milanku mais n’aviez jamais demandé.

1. Pouvez-vous me parler de l’histoire de la formation du groupe? Y avait-il quelque chose en particulier qui a réuni le groupe ? Et comment avez-vous trouvé votre son ?

L’année 2016 marquera les 10 années de Milanku. Ayant tous évolués au sein de différentes formations dans le passé, à cette époque, nous avons fondé le groupe avec le désir de sortir des sentiers battus en comparaison des groupes plus hardcore, voir punk, qui dominaient alors la scène. Nous voulions un son plus mélancolique et évocateur, mais tout en gardant un son lourd et pesant.

<a href="http://milanku.bandcamp.com/album/pris-la-gorge">Pris à la gorge by Milanku</a>

2. Votre son a beaucoup changé depuis vos débuts. Demo et Convalescence étaient plus bruts que Prise A La Gorge. Ce dernier est plus lourd, mais, quand même plus raffiné que ses prédécesseurs. Pouvez-vous me raconter l’histoire autour de cette transformation ?

Je dirais que simplement l’évolution normale du groupe. Nous n’avons pas produit beaucoup d’album depuis notre formation et avons toujours voulu garder l’indépendance dans notre son. Nous avons voulu prendre notre temps pour créer. Nous avons aussi beaucoup de matériel qui a été crée et qui n’a pas été sorti sur album. Peut-être qu’un jour nous produirons un album avec seulement des bootlegs ou des idées de local! En fait, nous avons toujours voulu garder le son de Milanku aussi près possible de la base de la musique rock, sans trop d’arrangements. Guitares, bass, voix et drums, what you see is what you get. Nous misons plus sur les mélodies et les harmonies entre les guitares que sur des arrangements liés au matériel ou aux équipements.

3. Personnellement, au niveau du son, je n’ai jamais rien entendu qui ressemble à Pris à la Gorge. Quels sont les groupes qui vous ont le plus influencés?

C’est difficile à dire…Je dirais que nos mélodies viennent comme idées au début et on garde ce qu’on aime, on fait des compromis, et s’ajuste en fonction du « vibe » général. L’ambiance et les textures sont ce qui nous importent. Il faut que les sentiments véhiculés nous rejoignent et je dirais qu’on n’a pas d’influence particulière….. Chacun dans le groupe écoute des trucs différents et je crois que c’est ce qui apporte le son et la particularité de Milanku.

Nous allons sortir notre nouvel album, De Fragments, l’automne prochain. Le lancement à Montréal est prévu pour novembre 2015. Le son de cet album est différent de ce qu’on a fait jusqu’à maintenant et on le voit un peu comme un renouveau.

4. Il y a une pause de 4 ans entre Convalescence et Prise A La Gorge – qu’est-ce qui s’est passé pendant ce temps ?

Des soirées au local à lancer des idées, à créer et essayer des choses. Il faut dire que Guillaume (drummer) est aussi parti à l’étranger pour un an. Nous avons alors jouer avec un autre drummer à cette époque. Nous avons fait plusieurs concerts.

<a href="http://milanku.bandcamp.com/album/convalescence">Convalescence by Milanku</a>

5. Des nouvelles à propos de votre prochaine sortie… ?

Comme je l’ai mentionné précédemment, notre album, De Fragments, sortira en novembre 2015. Cet album est le fruit du groupe avec un nouveau guitariste. Les chansons sont plus courtes et je dirais plus dynamiques. L’ambiance et le « vibe » Milanku est toujours là, mais je crois que nous avons amener le groupe vers d’autres horizons.

L’album sortira sur plusieurs étiquettes, notamment Moments of Collapse (Germany), Tokyo Jupiter Records (Japan), Grain of Sand (Russia), L’Oeil du Tigre (Montréal, Canada), Replenish Records (US) et D7I (Quebec, Canada).

6. Votre avis au sujet de la musique en streaming et des sites où on peut télécharger les albums, les discographies, etc. sans payer ? Selon vous, est-ce que ces sites aident ou sont néfastes aux groupes – surtout les groupes indépendants ? De même, que pensez-vous des sites Bandcamp et Soundcloud?

De façon générale, comme Milanku est un projet lié à une passion, celle de la musique, nous considérons que le plus de gens qui écoute et apprécie notre musique vaut beaucoup plus que quelques dollars que pourraient générer la totalité des albums ou chansons achetées. Ce qui est plus importants, ce que les gens viennent aux concerts et achètent nos t-shirts, nos albums, etc. C’est ce qui est le mieux pour nous.

De même, je crois que si les gens veulent aider les groupes indépendants, il est aussi pertinent de « donner ce que vous voulez » lors du download des albums ou des pièces en-ligne.

7. Quelle est l’ambiance idéale dans laquelle vous souhaitez que les gens écoutent Milanku ?

Dans toutes les ambiances! Chaque moment est englobé dans une ambiance et si les gens sont heureux et léger et écoute Milanku, c’est ce qu’on veut. À l’inverse, si quelqu’un marche seul le soir et est dans ses idées, et écoute Milanku, c’est aussi ce qu’on veut.

8. Un groupe que chacun des membres de Milanku écoute et que les gens seront étonnés de savoir que vous aimez ?

Haha, bonne question. De mon côté, j’aime beaucoup la musique électronique et tout ce qui s’y rapporte. Je pourrais te citer plusieurs artistes, mais j’aime beaucoup Kiasmos et Olafur Arnarlds (Iceland), mais aussi des trucs avec plus de bpm, ça dépend des jours! Mon groupe favori depuis maintenant près de 20 ans est Leatherface…J’aime aussi beaucoup tout ce qui est plus « crasse » comme des bands punks comme Nausea et des projets vraiment lourds comme Amenra et tout ce qui s’y rattache.

Frank (guitariste) écoute beaucoup Esa-Pekka Salonnen, plus précisément sont concerto “Out of Nowhere – Violin Concerto. Mais il a une grosse fascination pour l’époque où Brian Wilson a perdu la tête avec les Beach Boys (Pet Sounds, Smile & Smiley Smile). Godspeed You! Black Emperor et leurs projets parallèles, autant que l’époque psychédélique des ’60.

Guillaume (drummer) aime autant Future Islands que Cursed en ce moment il écoute beaucoup de Beatles et de Loud Lary Ajust

Guillaume (chanteur) est plus dans la musique lourde, comme Amenra, Sumac, Old Man Gloom, etc.

Milanku vient de sortir son nouvel album, De Fragments. Vous pouvez l’acheter sur Bandcamp ou iTunes.

Si vous voulez l’écouter avant de l’acheter, je vous présente: ‘L’ineptie de nos soucis’:

<a href="http://milanku.bandcamp.com/album/de-fragments">De Fragments by Milanku</a>

Outtakes: AE meets Blueneck (Part 2)

On (unlikely) Influences:

I don’t know how we skipped the usual suspects, but when talking about Blueneck’s influences, Rich throws a name at me that has me caught completely off-guard.

‘Phil Collins.‘

Pardon?

‘Phil Collins! You know Phil Collins?’

Yes, I know Phil Collins. Why are we talking about Phil Collins?

‘You’ve heard ‘In The Air Tonight’?’

Yes, I’ve heard ‘In The Air Tonight’. Why are we talking about Phil Collins?

‘Listen to the start of it again, and then listen to ‘Sirens’.’

I play ‘In The Air Tonight’ in my mind.

Dear god, it’s true.

<a href="http://blueneckuk.bandcamp.com/album/king-nine">King Nine by Blueneck</a>

—

The scourge of the One Song:

Rich calls on me to remember that dreadful ‘Rollercoaster’ track by Ronan Keating from a decade or two ago.

‘Do you remember how it went?’ he asks.

‘Yes, but I’d rather not.’

‘That’s OK. Do you know the New Radicals?’

‘Sure – that group with the one song.’

‘Yeah that’s them. Do you remember how that went?’

‘Sure,’ I’m about to start humming ‘You Get What You Give’ and it hits me.

‘It’s written by the same guy,’ he tells me.

‘They really only have the one song.’

—

The before-they-were-famous moment

‘I met Chris Martin’s parents,’ Rich tells me. I’ve been railing against Coldplay for about five minutes now. For a moment I feel like we’re two schoolteachers discussing a problem student. ‘I was at one of their early shows – there couldn’t have been more than 200 people there. There was this older couple sitting in the corner, and I got to talking with them. They told me their son was in the band. It was Chris Martin.’

—

Settling debates with Google:

‘My childhood dream was to be in a Right Said Fred video,’ I reveal.

‘Aren’t Right Said Fred gay?’

‘What? Surely not!’ I quote their lyrics to make my point.

Deeply dippy about those Spanish eyes,
Sierra smile,
Legs that go on for miles, and m…

‘Ah yes, one of them’s bisexual.’

—

On their name:

I’m so convinced about my own interpretation of Blueneck’s name, Rich doesn’t even get the chance to speak before I’ve launched into my exhaustive explanation the story behind their name. He hears me out patiently and after what must be a quarter of an hour tells me that I’m free to go with that as the story due to its overpowering glam factor. It’s not the real reason though. The Real Reason is so superbly unglamorous that I decide to keep my own illusions, and leave the truth shrouded in mystery.

Sorry, not sorry, but you’ll never know.

—

Heads Up: The Microdance – We Meet In Dreams

Not long till The Microdance‘s first full-length New Waves of Hope is out. I already know it’s excellent but you don’t so just take my totes unbiased word for it.

Out of the dozen or so tracks on the album, this one’s my favourite. That’s why they’ve decided to release it as a single.* It’s out tomorrow on Boxing Clever Records.

[*No, that’s not why]

Damn. It only took me a month to get that hook out of my head and now it’s wedged solidly in there again.

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

Echodrone – Five

“This one is different.”

I don’t know what my Echodrone SPOC, Eugene Suh, was on about when he introduced Five to me with those words, helpfully hooking me up with a download of the album a month before its official release.

(I realise I’m writing this two months AFTER the official release)

The announcement that Echodrone were coming out with a new album had been the highlight of my new year, but now I watched my download of Five near completion with increasing apprehension as E’s words reverberated in my skull forcing me to confront the awful possibility…

What if it sounds nothing like them?

I’d last listened to Echodrone when they released their marvelous album of cover songs, Mixtape for Duckie, in 2013. Their version of ‘Cry Little Sister’ is still my go-to mantra whenever I’m beset by rage, angst, or any emotion at all. In these moments, it’s Meredith’s voice that I need to say to me “Thou shalt not kill.”

But that version of Echodrone no longer exists. Original drummer, Mark Tarlton, and vocalist, Meredith Gibbons, have since moved on, and their absence is probably behind Eugene’s conviction that this version of Echodrone is nothing like the last. On Five we meet Mike Funk, Jim Hrabak and Rachel Lopez.

“We found Jim through his solo project, Slack Armada,” says Eugene. “he’s really added an electronic element that we were striving to achieve on previous albums.”

He goes on: “Rachel added a new set of vocal and vocal harmony ideas. She’s very much influenced by Siouxsie and the Banshees. And Mike’s drumming is just so solid – he really shaped the rhythmic backbone of Five.”

I can’t narrate the romantic trepidation with which I pulled the shrink wrap off before gingerly placing it into my hi-fidelity system and pressing play, because the only thing remotely retro about the entire experience was Winamp.

An hour later, I was typing out my response to Eugene. “Don’t take this the wrong way…” I found myself saying, “but Five sounds exactly like an Echodrone album.”

Someone more keen on picking a fight may have pulled me up for accusing them of unoriginality. Eugene, however, was stoked! “I’m blown away,” he said, “Honestly, it’s an extremely difficult genre to work in. Many shoegaze bands seem to want to rehash the past, and many fans want their favourite shoegaze bands to rehash the past. We always hope that our music comes across as a unique entry in the shoegaze arena.”

Uniqueness is all well and good, but there’s not much that emerges from a vacuum, so you have to wonder: what influences have to be fused together to create that uniquely Echodroney sound?

“It’s funny – we always start an idea based on an influence. ‘Disparate Numbers’ used to be called ‘Boards of Canada’, ‘Glacial Place’ used to be called ‘I Paddy’ cause I found a cool arpeggiator program on my iPad and built the song around it. ‘Less Than Imaginary’ used to be called ‘Vampire Weekendy’ (?!?!?!)). But I think we end up throwing all our influences into a melting pot and it always ends up sounding like Echodrone!”

Not one to ask a question without an ulterior motive I gently steer the conversation towards the more than passing resemblance I find ‘NoiseBed’ bears to a somewhat popular MBV track.

Here’s how you ask a subtle question:

So, um, did you ever listen to Andy Weatherall‘s remix of ‘Soon’?

It’s Mike Funk who responds: “I love that Andy Weatherall remix! It’s so hypnotic and groovy. Even Kevin Shields got caught up in the rave culture of the early 90s. He had that one famous quote back then: ‘The only innovation in music is in house music and rap music.’ ‘Soon’ definitely reflects that. Andy’s production is so distinct that you can’t imagine hearing classic tracks by Primal Scream and Happy Mondays heard in any other way.

“I have a funny story about playing the ‘Soon’ remix as a college radio DJ – a fellow DJ walked into the station MCR while I was on the air and spinning that 12″ single and he said, ‘Your record’s skipping.’ It wasn’t, of course, but that’s what’s great about ‘Soon’- it’s so strong in its rhythm and repetition that it’s almost euphoric but still loud and heavy.”

My cunning plan has fallen flat. I am left with no choice but to resort to open and honest dialogue. I mention the similarity between the two tracks and:

“Never even connected the two songs before, but I can hear what you’re talking about with the Soon remix! Jim was targeting a Fuck Buttons vibe with all his electronics…’Soon’ didn’t even cross our minds!”

I swear I’m not imagining it:

Moving on. I wonder about ‘Disparate Numbers’ – the synth-loaded opener with a vibe so electro, it could easily pull off being my age.

“‘Disparate Numbers’ is our first political-type song. It’s about how government and economic policies have created this huge, ever-expanding divide between the rich and the poor. We continue to let our governments and federal reserve representatives run free, implementing policies that extract money from the poor and provide risk-free capital to the rich (their friends). In essence, we end up ‘swinging lower, orbiting slower’ until we exist in a completely separate reality from the upper-class.

“I remember being really affected by the photos of Hong Kong’s underground city. Within a few city blocks, you have high rise luxury apartments filled with the city’s wealthy elite (Rurik Jutting is a perfect example of that excess lifestyle) and right underneath all that wealth and excess, you have some of the poorest people living a completely different life. So the people inhabiting the underground city and the people inhabiting the high-rise apartments – they are essentially disparate numbers, completely separated by an accumulation of wealth that’s really only a series of electronic ones and zeros. Just electronic numbers in a bank account.”

It’s fan favourite ‘Octopussy’ that steals the show on Five, though, proving (again) that Echodrone know just what to do with a cover. As a band, they’ve always been capable of exhibiting a muted magnificence – a superpower they do not reveal as frequently as I’d like. The last time they let the immensity of their sound shine through was on their crushing rendition of ‘Cry Little Sister’ on Mixtape for Duckie before which they could have knocked the breath out of a sizeable percentage of the world’s population with ‘Under an Impressive Sky’ and a good sound system.

‘Octopussy’ is undoubtedly the gloriousest track on Five. It makes you wonder – does having a set format make Echodrone bolder? Looking at Mixtape for Duckie and Five, I’d hazard a ‘yes’, but this is the band that made the sonic trump card ‘Under an Impressive Sky.’ What could possibly stop them from doing it again?

See for yourself… Pick up Five from Saint Marie Records.