Major Speedy Deals 90s In The Arcane

This week I'm finding myself posting about bands that were sending me stuff when they were but minnows in the pond, likeminded souls scratching each others' backs (see: FIDLAR, Tape Deck Mountain, Weekend, Forest Swords...). And to see these artists blooming and getting deserved praise and adulation whilst Sonic Masala plugs away - it brings a tear (of pride) to the eye. Run forth and prosper, you crazy kids...

One such outfit is Boston-via-NY's Speedy Ortiz. After a lil email to-and-fro with the lead Sadie Dupuis I finally got round to taking in their Sports EP and really dug it, especially songs like 'Indoor Soccer' which took me back to my childhood (90s angular indie rock when it was still indeed independent). Now Speedy Ortiz are riding high after the successful release of their debut album Major Arcana (out on Carpark Records), and the fleshed-out production has done nothing to hide the raw aggression in the compositions, the sardonic sneer in Dupuis' lyrics, the mirrored image of Liz Phair and Louise Post, sanctioned angst. The deliberate wonky nature of songs like 'Plough' (the fact they have a song called 'Plough' feels very 90s too...) They even have an elongated spiked meltdown closer in 'MKVI' that stretches almost over double the playing time of their other songs! As if I wouldn't be a fan of this. So many great tracks... Hurry up and come to Australia guys!

You can buy Major Arcana here.

Baldi Loses Sentiment, Cloudy Disposition

Many of the detractors of Dylan Baldi's latest output under his moniker Cloud Nothings, Attack On Memory, attest that he has flagrantly thrown out the old without any clear reference as to why, or at least without paying respect to the fans who had been enamoured with his glowing version of sugary pop rock. But the title itself heralds Cloud Nothings' album as a complete wiping of the slate - and how.

I loved much of Cloud Nothings' oeuvre, the insane ADHD infectiousness of it all, yet Attack On Memory is much more my cup of tea, and the fact it's a polar opposite to everything that has come before isn't the astonishing part - it's that it is so fucking good. Produced by Steve Albini you would expect it to be loud, bottom heavy and abrasive, yet it is the insidious way that Baldi and his cronies eschew their pop machinations for a far more sinister, stalking rhythm that surprises.


Attack On Memory is out on Carpark Records.


Cloud Nothings - No Sentiment

Record Store Day Residue - Toro Y Moi/Cloud Nothings,Beach Fossils/Wild Nothing

Here are two more nice packages (both splits) that were brought out over Record Store Day last month...

First up is Gruesome Flowers: A Tribute To The Wake (out through Captured Tracks), the split 7" by likeminded lo-fi troubadours Beach Fossils and Wild Nothing. These tracks, following on from their team up on track 'Out In The Way', are beautiful examples of what these kids are capable of, with Beach Fossils' 'Plastic Flowers' offering a nice slice of sunny pop whilst 'Gruesome Castle' is more akin to the melancholy shimmers that is indicative of Jack Tatum's signature sound. Even if you haven't heard of The Wake, after hearing these two covers you will be scrambling for the reissues of this Scottish forgotten indie band.

Beach Fossils - Plastic Flowers
Wild Nothing - Gruesome Castle

This second 7" split release (courtesy of Carpark Records) is in a similar vein, as you'd expect from Chaz Bundick and Dylan Baldi AKA Toro Y Moi and Cloud Nothings. The two tracks, again, are what you'd expect from these participants - 'For No Reason' is Cloud Nothings at their infectious best (seriously, I shouldn't like these guys, but they are proving to be a major vice of mine!) whilst Toro Y Moi furthers the slinky smooth synth sounds displayed on this year's album Underneath The Pine on the track 'I Will Talk To You'.

Toro Y Moi - I Will Talk To You
Cloud Nothings - For No Reason

A Lil Bit Of Youthful Carpark Magic

Carpark Records - responsible for putting out Toro Y Moi's Underneath The Pine (gee, this album really made an impression on me today...), pointed me in the direction of Young Magic, an Australian one man psych-synthostrobic act, and his 7" release You With Air/Sparkly. Its a slick groove-laden release, both songs evoking a sense of dark ambient electronics that are akin to Sonic Masala faves Forest Swords, especially in 'You With Air', in their disparate and hypnotic take on the soundscapes that many drag/witch house labeled acts have tried to commit to tape and have consequently eviscerated beyond repair. I mentioned earlier that there are bands to have come out of the murk that was chillwave to evolve into altogether more ethereal musical beings - Young Magic barely touched the rancid waters, which may speak wonders for his future.

Young Magic's 7" can be bought here - the debut LP is on its way - Im looking forward to it with bated breath. If you are heading along to South By South West in Austin this March, you can see what the fuss is all about - he's on the Carpark/Paw Tracks Showcase, where he'll take the stage alongside such esteemed acts as Prince Rama, the aforementioned Toro Y Moi, and Cloud Nothings - nice.

Young Magic - You With Air
Young Magic - Sparkly

(NB It transpires that Isaac, the brainchild of Young Magic, used to be in a flamboyant and ever-so-slightly shit Brisbane act called Flamingo Crash, but is now based primarily in Brooklyn. This may explain a lot for his heady evolution in sound...)

Dont Put Moi Underneath The Pine

Chazwick Bundick hasnt graced the hallowed halls here yet, which is probably not a surprise. What may raise some eyebrows is the fact that neither has his musical stage name made an impact here. Toro Y Moi has been the toast of the blog intelligentsia over the past twelve months, and for whatever reason I have been able (or willing) to let his musical stylings slide by. Now there is a reason why all hyped bands do not make these pages - Bear In Heaven, seriously, what the fuck? - and especially as for some time (and in some some quarters it is still insistent) that he is part of the chillwave movement. Im not against chillwave at all - apart from the name of course - but there are too many bands lumped in this genre who offer absolutely nothing other than some elongated samples, effects noodling...and no soul. They are blatantly enveloped by the notion that being hip is all it takes - and with his current album being streamed on the Urban Outfitter's website, Toro Y Moi is teetering perilously close to that abyss.

That said, Underneath The Pine (out through Carpark Records 22nd February) blew all preconceptions out of the ballpark. It is a beautiful progression out of the vexed chillwave into a much warmer, soulful place, where melody and song structure holds sway with a definitive wink and nod to 70s funk, with some 60s psych pop colouring the edges. The album is more complete than his counterparts have shown over the past year, which is helped in no small part by acquiring live instrumentation. Songs like 'How I Know' and 'New Beat' brings Jackson 5 kicking and screaming into the 21st century, before busting out the boogie; whereas 'Good Hold' is a warped piano ballad that trips just left of the rainbow fields; 'Before Im Done' is Elliott Smith if he'd grown up in 1960s California; and 'Divina' has a decidedly psychedelic guitar groan at the beginning before become a sunkissed meandering pop track a la John Lennon (!). Yet every track here is bound by two factors - the shimmering soundscapes of the sadly-named chillwave movement, and a decidedly overt basis in funk and soul that pushes each song to a danceable limit. Even the aforementioned 'Divina' will have you swaying like a cloudy-minded hippie -

Now I cannot write off anything that has come before now, being a TYM virgin before now, but Underneath The Pine celebrates both the origins of his synth laden sounds and the record collections of his youth in a beautiful transmogrification of a "then is now" dynamic. This elevates itself above the ambient nadir that chillwave has inevitably become, and chooses to embrace the future. Toro Y Moi may have been besmirched by the notion that he helped start this stylistic zeitgeist (along with Washed Out, who are another amazing band that are undeserved of the ball-and-chain elements of the genre moniker), but he has broken these shackles to shine in the spotlight - or, surprisingly, the centre of the dancefloor.

Toro Y Moi is about to embark on an Australian tour, where he'll touch down at Brisbane's Woodland on February 24th (buy tix here), just before the Queensland capital is inundated with hardcore pundits vouching for the Soundwave festival and all it contains. If you want to get your shimmery groove on, this will be the time! He toured the UK at the end of 2010, but he will be breezing his way through there again later in the year.

Underneath The Pine is out February 22nd.

Toro Y Moi - New Beat
Toro Y Moi - How I Know

The Clouds will leave you for Nothing

Dylan Baldi is a vivacious young fellow. Under his umbrella guise of Cloud Nothings, Baldi had pumped out many releases and scraps of material that has flooded the world with his brand of bedroom bliss punk pop. We mentioned his split with Kevin Greenspon on Bridgetown Records last week. As I stated there, Baldi had laid his claim that his sound was going to be cleaner from here on out, and although his latest release, the Leave You Forever Ep (out through True Panther Sounds) is steeped in the lofi sentimentality that many of his ilk have fashioned their sound with, the briskness and lack of unwarranted fuzz has actually opened the songs to a new level of saccharine beauty and fun that were thus far buried and left to find with a heavy duty metal detector. There are few that are within shouting distance of writing such great pop songs - Beach Fossils maybe? - and the fact that Baldi is only 19 and is constantly pushing the boundaries of his vision is inimitably exciting. (Oh, and if you havent already, check out his album of last year Turning On - its damned fine).

Cloud Nothings are, after playing a brace of US shows supporting the likes of Wet Hair, Prince Rama and the aforementioned Beach Fossils, will hit the UK with local outfit Veronica Falls, taking Electrowerkz by storm on the 5th of November. A good way to celebrate blowing up Parliament, no? Also, Electrowerkz is in Angel, a warehouse club, so a strange venue choice, which should make it all the more interesting and fun. Then after all THAT, they open for Les Savy Fav across the European continent. Yep, that Baldi character is one vivacious fellow. And its about time that people started bopping along to his tune.

Cloud Nothings - Leave You Forever

Cloud Nothings - Weird Son