It's hard to describe NY five-piece Cloud Becomes Your Hand. Best just jump wholeheartedly into their world then. Their latest release is Rocks Or Cakes, out now on Northern Spy Records. A cross between Animal Collective ADD energy underscored with the more Xanax-sprinkled undercurrents of Inner Islands releases, with a bunch of quirky, deliberate missteps along the way, Rock Or Cakes is a pretty good album title for what lie within. There are traditional pan pip folk from a mechanical Hell ('Bees Going Postal'), Dirty Projectors on acid in a paint mixing machine ('Felt Beetle'), Mr Oizo on downers in a vat of formaldehyde at the penultimate scene of a Paul Thomas Anderson film ('Theme From Baby Age') - its a fantastic yet mind bending sojourn into a rancorous world. (I realise that this review is pretty ridiculous - but I did warn you they were hard to describe...plus they are on Northern Spy, that should have been all you needed to know)...
I didn’t know who Aa was until I saw them at Woodland in 2011. I was with my mate Andy, and we were debating the current conflagration of auxiliary drummers in indie rock. We had seen some Aussie bands who shall remain nameless whose use of the extra percussion was at best a novelty and at worst a waste of time, poorly masking the basic nature of the band’s music with what was deemed as “tribal rhythms”. Tropical pop? Don’t make me laugh. Yet Aa are a percussion tour de force, continual drumbeats layered over each other until the resultant cacophony is a myopic catharsis, a trembling pummelling. When they brought out more drums onto the floor, I was swept up in the theatrics, commandeering one to join in myself. Such audience participation can become a nightmare, but like the Boardrum experience, Aa kept everything loose yet precise, with every “drummer” attuned to their worldview. It was a killer show and showed that there are a few bands out there where more than one drumkit isn’t just warranted yet essential.
But after their great 2011 release mAate (itself a combination of their 2007 debut GAame and their Glossy EP from 2009), I hadn’t kept track of the Brooklyn collective. Now Northern Spy Records has released their new album, VoyAager, and…well, I don't know. It goes without saying that change is good in the world of music, but also without saying that change for change's sake is bullshit at best. I'm not saying that Aa are doing something wrong with mixing things up, but the more Battles-esque tracks here (I'm talking Tyondai Braxton-era Battles too, just listen to 'Drug Mom') bewilder me more than energise. The paring back of older track 'Glossy' does give a sense of distilled acidity, yet the elongated tension was what brought this band into their element. The kaleidoscopic hallucinogens were part and parcel to Aa's MO, I know, but it just all seems too saccharine. Still, there are ominous freaks like 'Pug Pit' to look forward to.
Maybe I'm the one who's changed. I bet these tracks kill live, which to be honest is the only way to experience em. Istill have their drumsticks at home too, so we're still mAates.
First Video Vacuum of the year, so some of these may not be “new” as such. Nevertheless I've chosen three tracks because their film clips are awesome (so are the tracks) – and one because I like the band/song (although the vid is deliciously lo-fi and nerdy…)
I'm kicking it all off with a loooong one. Those crazy bastards Foot Village have a new record coming out next month called Making Memories (on Northern Spy), so they have released this music video for ‘The End Of The World’. Luckily for us the Mayans were wrong and we are still kicking on – but if I was doing a death march into fiery oblivion, these manic tub-thumpers would be my little drummer demons. Foot Village must feel the same – it is far more sedate than anything they have thus far done, which is not a detractor – it is beautifully constructed. It reminds me a little of Deerhoof’s ‘Hallelujah Chorus’, whilst the video is all anarchist slow grind. And the last minute and a half? Well, as far as streaming the new album goes, it’s pretty ingenious – if you live in America that is.
James Boyd is one busy cat. He is a part of garage centipede Velociraptor, garage commies The Majors – but he is tapping into something really special as a pop troubadour. James X Boyd and the Boydoids (great band name) are promising something truly special with their debut 12” through Long Gone Records later this year, this “video” for single ‘Elissa Says’ is all about kids fooling around in Brisbane sharehouses – a simple, innocent time where dreams are had and intermittently reached for. They haven’t played heaps of shows, but I'm hoping that 2013 puts Boyd and his ‘oids up at the top of the Brisbane pops.
Those twisted Liars certainly aren’t strangers in this neck of the woods. Sisterworld was one of my favourite albums of 2010, whilst WIXIW, although it’s shift had many people shuffling their feet, is a dark, sinuous grower, with ‘No 1 Against The Rush’ being my pick as song of 2012 (with an ace video). The title track from that album has become the trio’s third single, with a slick video to boot. A longhaired stoner type continually trying to dunk a ball but failing? Lots of people standing around, either bemused or confused? And that pagan god? Doesn’t really make sense – although the band love basketball apparently. Fair dues. Its still pretty intoxicating.
Finally we have UK band Darkstar. Now I haven’t had the chance to hear their album News From Nowhere yet – its getting some favourable reviews – I have listened to and watched the clip to single ‘Amplified Ease’ a multitude of times. It’s got that mantra-esque lyrics and warped rhythms that Animal Collective have claimed as their own (although you can name a huge number of other acts that now incorporated such elements), but with the film clip of the boys jamming their faces up against a tank (at Pinewood Studios, no less!), it heightens the experience. The song itself has an undulating presence that buries into your brain – a hypnotic pan flute of a track, leading you children away from the village, never to be heard from again.
