Diving Over The Freaking City
Tycho: Dive– While comparisons to Boards Of Canada will always follow him, Tycho has definitively distinguished himself from others in his ever-growing genre with Dive. With all of the great things I can say about this record, its difficult to know where to begin which is always something I want to say about someone whom I respect musically. It was hard to know what exactly this album would sound like after hearing Coastal Brake, his best song up to this point in my opinion. Its almost as if he took all the elements that made that song great and used it as a baseline formula for this record. The results are stunning. In fact, my only criticism of the album is that Daydream and Adrift were already released as singles with songs from Past Is Prologue. That’s it. Other than that, this essentially is a perfect record. Basically if you liked Coastal Brake, you’ll love what he’s done with Dive. Perfectly crafted and flowing melodies laced with thick beats and shimmering keyboards make this Tycho’s best release to date…10/10
Casiokids: Aabenbaringen Over Aaskammen– Once you’ve made a thoughtful and original record, its hard to follow it up with something that continues to amaze people. Somehow, Casiokids have done exactly that with their 2nd record. While I thought their debut had plenty of high points, I thought it was missing something. I couldn’t really put my finger on it at the time and now that I’ve heard this album, I realize what it was: Maturity. Good bands will always take what they did on their debut and expand on it without losing what elements made it great to begin with. While their melodies were good before, these melodies surpass their older ones in nearly every way. Lets face it, bands have their entire lives to come up with a great debut record, but it takes far more talent to come up with an album that’ll meet expectations soon after… in this case, 1.5yrs later. I definitely think Aabenbaringen Over Aaskammen surpasses their debut in almost every way and it makes me excited to hear what they’ll do after this…9.2/10
M83: Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming– I have to admit that though I’m more than just a little bit of a fan of electro, I never was really that impressed with M83. When I heard his single for this record, I knew I had to have this. When its all said and done, I was impressed as much as I was unimpressed. The question was, which factors would ultimately tip the scales? I suppose the answer is that this was more impressive than not. Its not exactly the greatest recommendation I’ve given for anything, but it does have it’s merits. The biggest problem I have with the record as a whole is it’s length. I have to admit that once I get to the 40min mark of any record, I wonder if its ever going to end. When you have a 73min record staring you in the face before you even start listening to it, it’s a bit discouraging. If there’s one thing you can say about M83 its that he certainly likes to take his time. If he was going for epic, it didn’t quite come off that way. I think it would have been a better record if he cut out some of the slower, uninteresting songs that merely repeated themselves and though that still would mean this would be a lengthy record, it would be much more consumable. The other upbeat songs are all pretty great in many respects– His vocals work really well with the beats and synthesizers and paint some very interesting pictures at times. M83′s creativity and talent are definitely clear… even if its muddled by slow, echo-y, filler songs that stretch the record to an almost intolerable length…7.3/10
Toro Y Moi: Freaking Out EP– Before you think that this is a typical Toro Y Moi release, let me stop you before we go any further. Freaking Out is a perfectly apt title for a project like this primarily because its a completely experimental record. It turns out that the title is more deliberately descriptive than conceptual. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, lets talk about the pros and cons– Pros: Toro Y Moi showing his range and experimentalism capabilities. Cons: Not particularly that great of an album. While the idea for a purely experimental record sounds like a fun thing to do, it won’t always turn out that great. If one thing stands out from this record, it has to be the use of delay. Aside from being something different musically, the overuse of delay on his vocals and just about everything else is pretty dizzying. (NOTE: Notice I said dizzying and not dazzling which I think was the intention) While this shouldn’t be anything that sours your taste for Toro Y Moi in the future, it also shouldn’t be something to be taken too seriously either…5.7/10
Seapony: Go With Me– There’s more than one reason to love what Seapony has done on Go With Me. First of all, the airy and simplistic vocals are charming all by themselves. Add some shimmery guitars and poppy drums and that pretty much rounds out everything you need to know about Seapony. Simplicity is what makes and breaks this band. On the one hand, the formula works exceptionally well and gives their sound a very charming quality. On the other hand, the lyrics can be overly simplistic and the lead guitar lines are sometimes so simplistic that they’re borderline ridiculous. A more thoughtful lyric here, a more creative lead guitar line there and this could be quite remarkable. Fortunately, I think that their follow-up will probably be much more thoughtful because they clearly have the potential for it to be. So while there are a couple of bumps once in a while, the singable melodies abound and they clearly leave an impression that they have plenty more beautiful things to show us…8.0/10