Album reviews (in short): heat-ray, Pictureplane, Vicious Cycle and Fruit Bats
August 21st, 2009
heat-ray loveallover [Pop Echo]
The pedals strewn all over the album cover really says it all for this Calgary band. A supergroup of sorts featuring Matt Pahl of The Floor, Aaron Smelski of Hot Little Rocket, Sheila Mann of Lotus Galaxy and Jon Pynn and Joel Tobman of Shiver, the fivesome dig deep into fuzzy sonic blasts that recall the late ’80s/early ’90s shoegaze and noise pop scenes. Pahl has been knee-deep in reverb and distortion for years now, but heat-ray’s line-up is the strongest foundation he’s ever had to help flesh out his vision to find that perfect sound. Though you can hear their effects hard at work, the band don’t lose themselves in their pedals, and keep their focus on solid rock song structures, making loveallover more than just a straight-up shoegaze homage. But you can certainly hear traces of My Bloody Valentine (”make me”), Swervedriver (”come closer”) and even fellow Canadians Mystery Machine (”take it down”) creeping into their oeuvre, which should definitely excite fans of any of those bands. Rating: B
Pictureplane Dark Rift [Lovepump United]
Travis Egedy first appeared under the name Pictureplane last year when he contributed a remix to the HEALTH//DISCO remix album. And after a few self-released CD-Rs (one of which included a song with Beirut’s Zach Condon), he’s come up with Dark Rift, his first album to receive a proper release. Using the blog house template, Egedy’s approach is more about fusion between electronic, punk and pop and feeding it through a lo-fi filter. Electro, break beats, distorted noise and sampling all find their way into this ragged mosaic. Though that sounds like a recipe for disaster, Pictureplane doesn’t fall into any sort of pitfalls taking on such a heavy load. “5th Sun” pins flashy Italo house keyboards and vocals up against a fierce dancehall beat, and though it’s a bit hyperagressive, it’s an amazing combination. “Goth Star” is a bona fide hit that chops up vocal snippets and pastes them in scattered patterns for the type of disjointed rush that Girl Talk bases his whole shtick on. “Time Teens,” on the other hand, sounds like Prince got his hands on a sampler and cut some late night demos with Diplo. A mixed bag, no doubt, but anything else and Pictureplane would have just fallen by the way side. Rating: B+
Vicious Cycle Pale Blue Dot [Deranged]
It’s probably just best to get it out of the way: George Petit of Alexisonfire and Damien “Pink Eyes” Abraham of F**ked Up appear on the debut album from Sudbury’s Vicious Cycle. Try your hardest and you might pinpoint their cameos, but doing that would detract from the band’s own savage rumpus. With producer Jonah Falco (also of F**ked Up) at the boards, Vicious Cycle use ’80s hardcore, proto-punk and Motorhead as their origins, but they’re careful to challenge themselves by breaking free from the usual hardcore trappings. “In Tranquility,” a fired-up punk’n'roll anthem and “Blur,” some straight-up hardcore are examples of what they dp best. But the strenuous momentum is broken up by “Death,” two minutes of scrawling guitar noise, and even more of a surpise, “For Carl,” some dour post-punk that demonstrates there’s much more to this band than meets the eye. Rating: A-
Fruit Bats The Ruminant Band [Sub Pop]
Fruit Bats have always been one of the more underappreciated bands on the Sub Pop roster, despite the fact that they’ve always been one of the more dependable bands. Their fourth album, The Ruminant Band, took four years for a reason: band leader Eric Johnson has now officially joined The Shins. Whether that is what led him to make this album more of a band effort than ever before, who knows, but they’ve certainly benefitted from it ten years in. The arrangements sound fully fleshed out, while releasing some of that control has allowed his bandmates, which includes Califone’s Tim Rutuli and Jim Becker, to run off on their own a little on breezy ’70s throwback “Tegucigalpa” and the jaunty skip of “Being on Our Own.” And while labelmates Fleet Foxes might be the flagship for Sub Pop’s folk rock, Johnson has the chops to compete. He has a true, undeniable talent for sliding melodies into his songs without knocking you over the head, and the fact that he’s never been given his fair shake is truly one of indie rock’s bigger oversights. Rating: B
-Cam Lindsay
Posted on Friday, August 21st, 2009 at 5:27 pm by Cam and is filed under The New Music.
