The 2011 Nully Awards: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of The Past Year’s Music
Posted on | January 2, 2012 | No Comments
The Good:
Epic Tales of Epic Epicness Award
Florence and the Machine – Ceremonials
Another big, brash, over-the-top album from Florence Welch and company. Big drums, lush orchestrations and arrangements, wailing vocals, but surprisingly much more cohesive and “album-like” than her debut. It holds together well, but still manages to have single material like “What The Water Gave Me.” Also, the bonus tracks and demos on the limited editions are nearly as good as – in some cases, even better than – the album tracks.
Epic Tales of Epic Epicness Award II: The Epicness Strikes Back
M83: Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
This album is exhausting. It’s great, in small doses. Big gorgeous walls of sound, much more confident vocals than on previous efforts, catchy tunes, but at 22 tracks, it’s the sort of album you really need to set aside a block of time for. Also the newfound love of vocal yelps and embellishments gets a little much after about 7 tracks. Still, it’s kind of an insanely breathtaking endeavor.
Rainbows, Suns and Moons Award
Above and Beyond: Group Therapy
A&B has always put out solid chunks of big room trance, from their collaboration with Oceanlab to the excellent Ajunabeats mix series. But this is something…different. It’s big, expansive trance, yes, but the instrumentals maintain a filmic quality (not the least of which is the track “Filmic”) and the vocal tracks do something rare for trance music: spotlight the vocals. Instead of random Hawkshaw-esque sopranos dreamily singing about dreaming dreams over 4-on-the-floor beats, we instead get the sultry alto of Zoe Johnston front-and-center, and the crooning of Richard Bedford. It’s refreshing, and catchy.
If This Is Selling Out, I’ll Take It Award
Camo & Krooked: Cross the Line
C&K jump to the awesome Hospital Records for their full-length debut, and in doing so took a lot of flak from critics accusing them of commercializing their sound. Yeah, their older stuff was harder, more neuro-funk stuff, and their new stuff is poppier and more in-line with what’ll get play on Radio One, but you know, I’m okay with that. The title track is catchy as hell, “All Fall Down” dabbles in dubstep without devolving into bass-wobble cliché, and “Breezeblock” has an offkilter jump-up beat that helps keep the track interesting while guaranteeing hours of entertainment watching drugged-out club kids fall over.
Okay Music, Good Plugin, Awesome Advertisement Award
Dada Life
Dada Life has been making some waves in the electrohouse community, and they do write some bangers. I wouldn’t consider them doing anything groundbreaking, but they’re fun. However, they’ve teamed up with a software developer to emulate their processing chain to produce a plugin called “Sausage Fattener” (well, they ARE Austrian, so you knew a sausage was going to surface eventually). The plugin is great, but likely to be overused to suck the dynamic range out of basslines for years. Better still, though, is their promo video for the plugin, which shows racks of outboard gear patched into what I believe is a knockwurst. Brilliant.
South London Party Music Award
Toddla T: Watch Me Dance
I don’t even know how to classify this album. Elements of house, reggae, rock, old-school rave, breaks, grime, 2-step all sort of collide into a bunch of bangers, there’s not really a bad track in the bunch. Not every one hits it out of the park the way the title track does, but every track would be at home on a boombox at a house party.
Dance Savvy Award
Katy B: On A Mission
The full-length by Katy B finally got a US release this year (even though it’s been out in the UK since mid-2010). It’s all straight-up dance music. A lot of it feels a bit calculated – hey look, here’s a UK Funky track with everything that entails – but whatever, it’s well-calculated, and she’s got a soulful diva voice that belies her young age and small stature. She’s been smart enough to recruit top producers like Skream, Benny Ill, Benga and Geeneus to put together one banger after another, even if some of them are sort of cliché.
Next Best Thing Award
DJ Fresh Feat. Sian Evans: Louder
I’ve wanted a new Kosheen album for a while. And I’ve wanted one with as much punch as their debut, but they’ve been busy trying to write rock songs and pop songs and the like. So now their frontwoman is collaborating with dubstep/dnb artist DJ Fresh, and I couldn’t be happier. “Louder” takes us through a range of tempos, glued together with Evans’ soulful croon.
Best Remix Album I Was Involved With (long player edition)
The Dark Clan: All My Ghosts
I mean, for real. I was particularly pleased with the mix I was involved with, partially because I got to coin the term “Chaalstep” – but there are some mind-numbingly good mixes on this disc, including a frenetic stormer by a resurgent Boole, and mixes by Ego Likeness and Wade Alin that are mindblowers.
Best Remix Album I Was Involved With (extended player edition)
Little Red Wolf: If Only We Were Remixed
A sweet, all-girl country-folk-pop-americana band happens to have a fondness for electronica and related dance musics. So they recruit their friends in the genre to remix their tracks. It’s kind of a brilliant move. In the five tracks on the album, they cover indie-tronica, dubstep, bolllywood, symphonic metal, and industrial noise.
Production! Award.
Caustic: The Golden Vagina Of Fame and Profit
Matt was savvy on his debut for Metropolis, recruiting a number of his friends and connections to co-produce his tracks. There’s still the manic energy and usual mix of rage, introspection and goofball humor, but with more polish than previous releases, thanks to Faderhead, Dan Clark, and others.
The Hell With Oversaturation Award
Ellie Goulding: Lights
It’s kind of fluffy, she’s got a vibrato that can cut glass, and she’s becoming ubiquitous enough to have toured with Katy Perry. But dammit, “Lights” is just a hooky album. Good songwriting, good production, good performance.
Compilations I’ve Really Enjoyed
UKF Bass Culture (drum-n-bass, dubstep)
Hospitality Drum & Bass 2011 (drum-n-bass)
Shogun Audio Presents: Way of the Warrior (drum-n-bass)
The Bad:
Skrillex Fatigue
I like Sonny Moore. I really do. He’s getting a bit repetitive, yes, but he’s entertaining to watch, and knows how to write (for better or worse) the kind of twitchy bass drops that get the dancefloor moving. But he’s EVERYWHERE, and not in a good way. It doesn’t bother me if he’s remixing La Roux, but when he’s collaborating with Korn, well, that’s a bridge too far. And he’s on the cover of Spin, Mixmag, and everywhere else. Yawn.
“Complextro”
Did we really need a name for this? It’s electrohouse guys who like chopping bits of basslines up. We get it. I think we’re on the 5th name for this genre in 15 years.
Katy Perry is a Brand
And not just Russell Brand. The fact that she can host Saturday Night Live and NOT be a musical guest, despite any discernible acting talent, pretty much says it all. Plus she was on the Simpsons making oral sex jokes. Really?
Justin Bieber Has a Perfume
WTF.
“Friday”
Further proof that nobody has any idea why things go viral.
The Ugly:
The Resurgence of Twee Pop:
Look, I spent much of the 90’s listening to pop bands fronted by pixie-ish british girls, and the first decade of the new millennium with Imogen Heap and others like her, so I’m generally okay with the twee. But it certainly feels like every new indie rock band is some guy with a sensitive neckbeard, a cardigan, and a ukulele trying to be “quirky” and writing painfully delicate, breathy, sugary, wispy melodies about nothing in particular.
Justin Vernon’s Goddamned Cabin.
I’m not a huge Bon Iver fan. They’re decent at what he/they do/does, I admit, but it’s just not my thing. But for the love of god, I cannot bear to read another piece of press about them, because it is rare to find one that doesn’t dwell on the fact that he recorded the album in a “cabin in the woods of northern WI.” Oh my god, a guy recorded something in a home studio. Quel surprise! First off, they do have things like “power” and “internet access” and “indoor plumbing” in the outskirts of Eau Claire – just because he’s not recording in New York City doesn’t mean he’s in a Unabomber shack. Second…so what? Is that the entire narrative? It was recorded in a cabin? That’s all you got?
“Witch House”
Conitnues. To. Be. The. Worst. Genre. Name. Ever. Additionally, I generally dislike genres that as a rule spend an awful lot of time and effort sounding like they spent no time and effort. Basically it’s a bunch of hipsters who found a 12” of “In The Flat Field” thinking that nobody else has done this since. What’s interesting is that they seem to be reinventing goth and industrial from first principles, seemingly unaware of the existence of the years between 1980 and 1997.
Korn Invented Dubstep
No. No they didn’t. Just because you use half-time drums doesn’t make you relevant. You still suck.
On Supper Clubs
Posted on | October 21, 2011 | 6 Comments
Prime Rib, with horrible tablecloth.
When you live in the upper Midwest, you quickly become steeped in the culinary tradition that is the Supper Club. They’re peculiar places, usually on the outskirts of town or in rural areas, in somewhat unassuming and rather dated buildings, often near travelers motels advertising “free color TV.” A brief revival has sent some of them into more upscale digs, and the nouveau supper club has become an entity of its own, usually offering fine-dining equivalents of the standard fare. Sometimes, you will find one in a strange part of the city, nestled between warehouses or parked in the middle of an urban stripmall – these are places that doggedly hang on, that were there when the land was little more than trees and meadows, before urban sprawl built up around them. They hang on either because of their reputations or because of a tenacious clientele, one that is progressively aging. A supper club of that vintage rarely advertises, and if you visit one you’re unlikely to find anyone under the age of 70 at the bar. You can count on such a place to have an inexpensive and at the very least serviceable menu.
And wood paneling. These will always have wood paneling.
These menus are vast, and a tribute to culinary Americana. While you may see an entry for “spaghetti and meatballs” or possibly some german specialty, this is not a place to go for ethnic or experimental food (although generally if you spot a northern European dish on the menu, it’s a recipe direct from someone’s grandmother and is likely to be good). This is hearty, down-home fare, heavy on meat and every now and again some sort of cream sauce. Roast (or sometimes broasted) chicken, steaks, and the less-adventurous fish. Occasionally surf-n-turf.
However, one generally doesn’t go to order off the menu. The nightly specials are the main reason one visits a supper club. And these specials are nearly identical from restaurant to restaurant.
Goodbye, Steve.
Posted on | October 6, 2011 | No Comments
It was only appropriate that I found out about the death of Steve Jobs while checking the news on my iPhone, during a band practice where my Macbook Pro was triggering samples from Apple MainStage.
This might lead you to believe I’m some sort of an Apple fanboy. This isn’t strictly accurate. The fact is, I’m an Apple Fanboy the way I’m an Indoor Plumbing Fanboy – it’s simply something that’s been an omnipresent part of my life for so long that it almost doesn’t register anymore.
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