Posts Tagged ‘chillwave’
Album review: Small Black - S/T
Thursday, April 29th, 2010
Small Black Small Black [Jagjaguwar]
Originally self-released in the tail end of 2009 and now re-released by Jagjaguwar, the debut EP by Long Island’s Small Black (Ryan Heyner and Josh Kolenik) was concocted during a winter-long session that consisted of downing Crystal Light and watching Waterworld, of all films, in the attic of Kolenik’s uncle. This imagery of the recording process goes hand in hand with the sounds that trickle from this self-titled EP.
Having found their music to be lumped in with the much loved/hated chillwave, Small Black’s sunkissed melodies and blissed out, lo-fi production can rival the likes of scene poster boys like Washed Out and Toro Y Moi. But there’s something about Small Black that sets them apart.
The songs on this EP feel far less restricted and to an extent, quite fragmentary, like a demo, especially the half-formed, harmonica hallucination called “Baby Bird Pt. 2.” The much blogged about “Despicable Dogs,” with its scratchy textures, has industrial strength melodies in its affecting chorus and hook-filled, undulating synth lines. Were it ever polished to a blinding degree, it could easily be a leftfield breakthrough hit à la with MGMT’s “Kids.” Having added a full-time drummer to the line up, you have to wonder if the number of the rudimentary drum machine on “Bad Lover” is almost up; but it’s this bedroom style of intimacy that makes Small Black part of their community.
Remastered and enhanced with two bonus tracks, Small Black’s chilled sound doesn’t come with the baby-butt-smooth consistency of their peers. Sure it’s a minor characteristic to call their own, but it’s enough to let them have their own identity in a subgenre with a reputation for sameness.
Rating: B+
-Cam Lindsay
Tags: chillwave, Small Black, Washed Out
Posted in Reviews, The New Music | No Comments »
Album review: CFCF - Continent
Thursday, November 26th, 2009
CFCF Continent [Paper Bag]
In the age where any teenage kid can remix the likes of Radiohead and get thousands of hits on his/her blog for it, Montreal’s Mike Silver is one of the few who’s actually launched a career out of it. After winning a Crystal Castles contest by transforming their bratty electro punk anthem “Air War” into a pulsating barrage of rainbow synths, the attention positioned him to remix others like HEALTH, Justice and The Presets. But it’s his own compositions that really show his true colours.
The debut album by CFCF fulfils the promise he first showed on the You Hear Colours 7-inch on Acephale and the Panesian Nights EP at the beginning of the year. While rumours circulated that Silver rushed into completing Continent, the outcome doesn’t suggest anything as such. And the timing couldn’t have been better, what with the ripple of “chillwave” acts like Neon Indian, Washed Out, Memory Cassette/Tapes and Toro Y Moi clogging our ears.
CFCF is arguably the most multifarious among that group of artists, to the point where he’s more unclassifiable than anything. As the title indicates there is a long list of influences at work here and surprisingly, the mixed bag helps things flow and even give it some cinematic depth.
“You Hear Colours” embarks on a blissful journey that then becomes bombarded with squelching guitar licks that unfurls like something from one of Goblin’s soundtracks; “Monolith” leisurely transcends into a splash of Italo house; “Break-In” follows more of an intergalactic ambient path with arpeggiating synths; “Letters Home” dives right into the Balearic euphoria with woodwinds and strings complementing the shimmying rhythms; “Summerlong” is a pithy, tranquil interlude built from an acoustic guitar and crackling air; and most surprising is a straight cover of Fleetwood Mac’s late ‘80s hit “Big Love,” which Silver unwinds into cosmic disco.
If Continent is about taking us on a journey, then Silver certainly thinking more about a transatlantic trip instead of a short connection flight. Nine of the album’s 12 tracks hover around and above the five-minute mark, which makes giving it your full commitment trying if you’re not in the mood.
That said, CFCF is unmistakably mood music bent on channelling a class of verdant, picturesque scenery that most of the time takes you to a luminous, white sandy beach. And who doesn’t want to be swept away to that sort of destination every now and then for 65 minutes?
Rating: A
- Cam Lindsay
Tags: acephale, CFCF, chillwave, Continent, Crystal Castles, Mike Silver, Paper Bag
Posted in Reviews, The New Music | 1 Comment »
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