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A universally epic sound, gradually swelling songs in a rare-double length LP and the controversial use of a saxophone marked out M83’s return to the public sphere.  Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming could have been the album title for about 40% of all indie releases since the summer of 2010 but at least Anthony Gonzales’s effort tries to capture the urgency in the beginning of that statement whilst letting the latter drift as your imagination wanders the way of the second part of the album (i.e. into the distance).  

Part of the 2011 winter clearout - albums not reviewed when they came out but still worth sharing before the end of year lists hit.

Original release date: 18 October 2011

Still Corners have taken the concept of pillow talk to another level - listening to Creatures of an Hour (and we can only assume that that hour is the Twilight Hour) is like being transported to the top of a mountain, shrouded in the clouds with lead singer Tessa Murray whispering delicately in your ear.  The atmospheric paradox the band creates from behind the covers is a simultaneous equation of lightness equaling murkiness, of the diaphanous suddenly seeming as weighty as the mountain itself.  

On his third album, Wolfman (well, Wolf Parade man) Dan Boeckner drops the guitar and strips things down (maybe inspiration for the artwork?!) to just the machine elements.  This puts the keyboards of his wife and band member, Alexei Perry, to the fore and in doing so creates a warmer, dancier album than their previous spaced-out records.  Inspired by travels to Eastern Europe and Asia it is in equal parts inspired and poignant and even takes a card out of James Murphy’s pack on some strong tracks such as What About Us and Serve The People.

It’s exciting to be reporting on this, Austra’s debut album, which is sure to make some waves.  Lead singer Katie Stelmanis’ strong, sweet voice floats over synth-ified dance beats with bits and pieces of classical and operatic influences woven in between.  At times graphic-novel-epic, at times, melancholy pop, it’s addictive. 

Tom Vek disappeared for a long time. Maybe there’s something symbolic about the solitary glasses behind the simple artwork on his return, Leisure Seizure.  While the intervening period between We Have Sound and this has seen his peers move on and move away, Vek’s second album is remarkably similar to his first and still as relevant.  Off kilter beats and powerful bass lines thunder in the background as he sings in his semi-disillusioned, semi-outraged style over the top.  It might’ve taken six years to arrive, but lo-fi anthems of cynicsim like A Chore or You Need To Work Your Heart Out are well worth it.

This review is part of English week on HotSpotMusic. See ‘em all ‘ere.

Everyone’s favourite Liverpudlian New Wave band present a best of the remixes album less than a year after their full-on best of collection.  There’s few tracks on here that are better than the originals (Ladytron have an uncanny knack of crafting a perfect hook around a dark cover of electro night) but there are some stellar names on show.  Check out the Soulwax, Ewan Pearson & Hot Chip remixes for starters.

It’s blippy, it’s bloppy, it’s so cool you can’t even handle it.  But yes, you can; you can and you will.  Three cheers to this instrumental electro-ambient masterpiece hailing from the Cleve’.  It’s like airplanes dancing.  It’s like a robot’s sex dream. Just don’t get the band confused with these guys. Disclosure:  Had trouble rating this one.  Ambient music just doesn’t require immediate play, but you’ll see - it’s good. 

This record, the first from the LA-based duo, was only released quite recently but it already feels like it’s six months behind where it should be.  Everything, from the sugar-coated, synthpop melodies to the cover art has a summery vibe much like the rest of this year’s blog crop - Washed Out or Delorean for example.  It’s a little too well-produced to be chillwave though and despite the somewhat morose lyrics it is, quite unashamedly, a dance record that’s a lot of fun.

If you thought Skeletal Lamping was a fairly nutso tangent for Of Montreal to boogie down after Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer then you’re likely to be both pleased and disappointed with this one.  Kevin Barnes and co certainly seemed liberated with the critical success of HF and whilst the last record was one of extreme indulgence and fantasy this one at least manages to pull some of that exuberance down to a few tunes.  So that’s a blessing and a curse - the tunes are kinda fun when honed a bit but remind you of the times when their 3 minute pop gems were touching, lo-fi gems instead of epic, sex-funk operatic odysseys.

If you’re anything like me, the idea of Brooklyn’s extraordinarily cool synth-pop trio, Au Revoir Simone, being remixed and re-imagined by the likes of Jens Lekman, Neon Indian and Angel Deradoorian is a pretty appealing idea.  Keeping the same tracklisting as 2009’s Still Night, Still Light, this record is quite distinctively a new piece of work and the impact of each remixer comes through well, particularly in Lekman’s string-laden re-interpretation of Shadows.  Not a remarkably fresh one but this seems to be worth dusting off from earlier this year. 

Sunday Sermons

When I started doing the Sunday Sermons, Odd Blood was one of the albums I had in mind.  The idea was to give a second opportunity to albums (past or present) and to reflect upon how what you hear over time changes with the record.  When I first reviewed this I criticised it for being too poppy but, in retrospect, that’s exactly it’s greatest asset.  It’s a pure, unabashed pop album and the hooks just grow and grow until you can’t remove it from your mind.  For me, that makes a good set of tunes.  The ideas and creativity weren’t dropped after all, simply morphed and translated onto a different easel.  Yeasayer might’ve just rescued themselves a slot on my coveted end of year list.

Kele Okereke, henceforth known by his solitary forename which we can only hope will be further shortened to just a symbol sometime soon, releases his first solo album this week and with it makes a foray into the electronic music that is consistently hinted at in Bloc Party’s bolder moments.  Lead single Tenderoni is a pounding and euphoric club-ready anthem for the summer, whilst other tracks show a sensitivity and attention to detail similar to what you’d find on a Bloc Party release, albeit in a slightly shifted aural context.  Over the course of eleven tracks, some of the effects and samples become a little crass and repetitive at times but there’s a definite freedom, from lyrics and perceptions, to be found on this record.  Solid debut.

The Go Find are a band from Antwerp, Belgium which began as a side project by Dieter Sermeus whose previous gig fronting Orange Black brought supporting slots behind Pavement and Stereolab.  These influences come out strongly in Stars On The Wall (2007) which has a clear penchant for slow, chilled out indie.  A new album due out very soon.