at war with walls and mazes

i got excited about son lux back in the day (february) and then didn't really do a whole lot about it, because, frankly, i thought the single "break" was significantly better than the rest of the album. i listened to at war with walls and mazes for a couple weeks without getting hooked, and it eventually got retired to the pile of "what could've been" records without me really noticing it. but i woke up today, with exciting plans about riding my new bike to the olafur eliasson exhibit at moma, and of course it was fucking raining. goddamnit. so, wallowing in my own self-pity, and with my music player pointed at the "S"s, i kinda accidentally found myself listening to at war with walls and mazes for the first time in a long time, and i've realized it's definitely a better album than i originally gave it credit for.

the major issue i had with it originally was how indistinguishable the music is, the songs often identifiable only when maestro ryan lott's lyrics change. assembled from his library of aural scraps and fragments, the album is cohesive to the point of nearly being interchangeable - though each song is uniquely constructed, they, as a whole, lose their individual character and blend together into a sonic haze. when i saw son lux open for why? in march, i had been listening to his album for several weeks, yet i couldn't identify a single song until he started singing verses. the problem stems, i think, from lott's graveyard of sounds, which are all different notes, or noises, or whatever, but all have the same aural integrity, the same neologic, electronic quality. his sounds have the same effect, so their nuances are like a tree in a forest - their very sameness makes them universally reductable. and even when lott uses organic sounds, like violins or pianos ("war," "stand"), they can are so disembodied that these snippets don't transmit the inherent atmosphere of such instruments. this problem, however, has been reconciled through ignorance though - since regaling it to the bench, so to speak, my ear is less anxious and more content to absorb than critique. so even though i find at war with walls and mazes's sameness occasionally oppressive, now that it's unhitched from the playing cycle i finally appreciate son lux.

the singular tonal hue of at war with walls and mazes can be jostling, as it was for me, accustomed to constant musical variety as my ear is. but then i started to perceive the album as a whole symphonic work, and the one-word songs as movements within the piece. every movement on at war with walls and mazes is titled by one evocative word ("betray," "wither"), lending the album a conceptual feel, and, for a while, i tried closely concentrating on lott's lyrics to see if it was. certainly, themes of doubt and unfaithfulness and revenge run through the work (and are evident in lott's vocal croak), but it's unclear what he is referencing, and it seems far too pedantic for lott to have written an album of love and loss. whatever its meanings, at war with walls and mazes is certainly a more successful work as a whole, a song's individual vagaries taking on greater meaning and significance. at war with walls and mazes's uni-hued tones are not recycled limiters, but an overarching stylistic choice, emblematic and representative of lott's fundamental message. and while i'm not 100% on what that message is, maybe it's not a verbal one at all, and merely a forceful reminder of the polarity of albums wholly conceived.

at war with walls and mazes has lots of good moments, some of which are songs and others which span songs. i think the second half of "raise" (starts at 3:27) is the single most compelling section of the album, a sizzling crescendo into a theme that could soundtrack a hollywood explosion. my personal preference is for son lux's most damaging tracks, the chaotic escalation and freak outs, epitomized by "weapons" and "wither," though it is the mellower songs that endure longer. "betray" and "stand" are twins here, easy and, at times, more conventional fare in a work that simultaneously provokes and soothes (in its defense, "stand" has an incredible mid-song choral eruption). however, i maintain that at war with walls and mazes shouldn't just be boiled down to its "best" songs - it's not the type of thing to listen to piecemeal. it is unified by an excellent cadence, lott's sound collages dipping and rising (without drifting) regularly, climaxing in the middle of songs or not at all with impunity; at war with walls and mazes tests new ground, defying and reigniting the stagnant expectation of the album in independent music.

"break" & "raise"

buy at war with walls and mazes from anticon.

son lux has been getting a lot of press lately for his remixes. stereogum just published his vocal-only remix of jamie lidell's "little bit of feel good," his remix of radiohead's "nude" is popular, and my brightest diamond is selling his remix of "inside a boy."

also, don't forget that there's a free unreleased track called "do" available from anticon as well.

anticon. offers up unreleased son lux track!

anticon. have been busy boys. in addition to the superfabulous alopecia they dropped yesterday, awesome mr. mammoth fave son lux released his at war with walls and mazes through the collective as well. i'm still digesting the record, but at first blush, it is spectral, slightly haunting, and idiosyncratic, and very very good. to celebrate its release, anticon. is offering the unreleased track "do" for download. grab it below and see son lux at his multiple sxsw dates or opening for why? on march 22 in nyc.

"do"

alopecia

if you're a sensible person, you downloaded alopecia back when it leaked in january, and if you're a smart person, you've been absolutely floored by it since then. it's deft, snide, totally off the wall, and super super good.

here are some reasons why?

1. "the vowels pt. 2" - i'm not a ladies man, i'm a landmine

2. "good friday" - sucking dick for drinks tickets at the free bar at my cousin's bat mitzvah

3. "these few presidents" - i thought 'there is no paved street worthy of your perfect scandanavian feet'

4. "the hollows" - i curse the last six months i've been hiding behind a mustache

5. "song of the sad assassin" - i feel like a loop of the last eight frames of film, before a slow-motion lee harvey oswald gets shot in the gut and killed

6. "gnashville" - sometimes i claim to know a guy but can't tell you what his hands look like

7. "fatalist palmistry" - you countin' blessings cuz your net worth oughtta be less cream than your best dream

8. "the fall of mr. fifths" - i'm unavoidable like death this christmas, is this twisted?

9. "brook & waxing" - if some divine simon spoke, or came down to find us caught here in a our labcoats but without a science, would we see light?

10. "a sky for shoeing horses under" - rain goes perfect with a nosdam mixtape

11. "twenty eight" - tell me, are you single yet? my heart's as big as texas

12. "simeon's dilemma" - you're the only proper noun i need

13. "by torpedo or crohn's" - today after lunch, i got sick and blew chunks all over my new shoes in the lot behind whole foods, this is a new kind of blues

14. "exegesis" - "no stack of yoga mats or foamcore cushion pads, to lessen the pressure of the phone cord choking my neck

"the hollows" & "the fall of mr. fifths"

buy alopecia from


stream their cover of "close to me" at their myspace.

awesome song & dance day! - "break"

awesome song day! is a spontaneous feature, when i am moved by a song's singular awesomeosity and feel the urge to share its awesomeness with all of you. the song below is awesome.

son lux - "break"

well, i certainly don't need to tell you how much i fucking love anticon., but in case you haven't been paying attention, i do. a lot. the new why? is fucking excellent (no surprises there), but i'm even a little more excited for at war with walls and mazes, the debut album from anticon.'s newest signee, son lux. back in november, i went to see sole at the knitting factory, where son lux opened - their first nyc show. i liked their set a lot, just never got around to writing up the review, though my notes tell me they were really good - they traveled with their own visual-effects operator, which they projected on the wall, were "abstracted & fluid," and had some "maggot brain"-esque funkadelic sounds, and were still "unmistakably glitchy." sounds like a good recipe, no? well, "break," the first album track released to the public, has just had its video released, and it's fucking awesome. directed by finbar mallon (another name i'd kill to have), the video is done with stop-motion and sped-up-motion, and follows the numerous, awesome adventures of pieces of string, imaginatively capturing "break"'s tender dissonance.

peter travers of rolling stone calls it a "must-see."

the previous statement is a lie.

preorder at war with walls and mazes from

why? @ knitting factory, 10/14/07

with cmj coming up (and all the trappings of free music that go with it), frugality is definitely in vogue. but why?, the oakland folk-hop trio, played their hand wisely: instead of getting lumped in with the torrent of music that commences on tuesday, the shot their load early, playing a surprise show just for new yorkers. the nearly free ($1) show had been announced late on friday, but word got around - why? played to a full house earlier, an interesting mix of stingy voyeurs, hardcore fans, and, yes, every blogger in nyc (or so it seemed with all the flashbulbs exploding). a one-off show to build excitement for their new ep, the hollows, why? rocked, soothed, and then rocked again in what turned out to be a bummer of a short set, though the trio played many old favorites as well as exciting new songs.

opening for why? was the parisian quarter neimo. the post-wave imitators sounded more like their age-old enemies from across the channel than they might comfortably admit (especially with france's home-turf upset over the weekend) as they postured and strutted through their set. in town for cmj and clearly out to make an impression, neimo played with universal dance-punk energy, singer brunojoedallesandro (probably not his real name) throwing himself on the floor of the stage at every possible opportunity. even though they sounded like every other band on radio 1, neimo played well, cranking fans at the foot of the stage into what could pass as a frenzy in new york. sounding dreadfully alike, most of neimo's set blurred into sounding like one long song, though single "hot girl" stood out for two reasons, the most notable being its abysmal lyrics (the chorus was "hot girl hot girl!"), but also because neimo dropped a couplet from "daft punk is playing at my house" right into the middle of the song, jerking me out of my rather vacant daydreams. unfortunately, neimo's set dragged on and on, hitting at least the forty minute mark, but seemed to take much longer, thanks to brunojoewhatever's penchant for talking way too much. obviously, neimo isn't for me, but, hey, if you like athlete - take note.

half an hour after neimo left the stage, full of gallic cheer and thanks, why? was barely halfway into their setup. as frontman yoni wolf joked once their set had gotten underway, we had gotten the chance to see the behind the scenes footage - fifty five minutes of shifting drums, keyboards, mics, and all of why?'s other gadgets, of which there seemed to be at least four hundred thousand. by the time they were finally set up, utility fielder doug mcdiarmid's station was cluttered with an array of indescribable music thingys, with just enough wires and antennas to broadcast the entire concert on a ham frequency. despite the mess, the men of why? played with a happy efficiency, though they never ventured out of the few feet of space they had cleared around them.

highly idiosyncratic, why? were just as stylized as subtle had been a week ago, albeit in entirely different ways. doseone and yoni, brothers in cLOUDDEAD, obviously used wildly different tools to forge their individual sounds. incarnated as a three-piece just two years ago (why? operated as a solo yoni wolf project for two albums), mcdiarmid and the two wolf brothers performed together flawlessly, and (more commendably) equitably. while there is no doubt that yoni fronts this band, why? shared vocals, both harmonies and melodies, across the board. they worked together with an almost unrivaled fluidity, each man sticking to his own instruments, but drawing no such lines musically. i was often impressed by the license josiah wolf took on the drums - his crashing assault of skins and cymbals, to say nothing of the dexterity with which wolf intertwined his xylophone parts with his regular kit, frequently upstaged his brother on vocals. yoni was the only contributor of the raps that blur why?'s definition, but both mcdiarmid and the other wolf occasionally took lead vocals on choruses, and yoni and mcdiarmid traded leads on keyboards, bass, and guitar with a casualness that belied its uniqueness.

why? is firmly an anticon band, but their music frequently strays from the collective's mold. only a few new songs reflected the anticon aesthetic of sinister monotonic verses and eerie harmonic choruses, backed by offbeat drums; why?'s general attitude was one of positivity. wolf's lyrics rarely communicated emotion, but the group's music often sounded nearly twee, though without the cutesy connotations. the mind-boggling number of gadgets why? employed were used to make their sound cheerful, like a roomful of r2d2s whistling with pleasure, instead of thundering with anxiety.

why?'s set was nearly perfect - yoni candidly joked and interacted with the crowd, but never at the expense of the music, which was succinct without feeling quick. i found the new songs to be more appealing than why?'s older ones - more dramatic climaxes and electronics - but both were performed, and received, well. the night's probable highlight was a guest spot from james mcnew, who is probably more famous for his work with yo la tengo than as a why? coverer. credited as dump, mcnew's cover of "yoyo bye bye," from 2005's elephant eyelash, is set to appear on november's the hollows, and we were treated to a sneak peek of what it would sound like. basically, it's why? without yoni rapping. but mcnew did the song justice and the crowd was obviously thrilled to have him there, though his introduction by yoni was nearly drowned out by repeated calls for "stockholm syndrome."

there's no publicity like $1 publicity, and why? definitely earned themselves some earlier tonight. they delivered a solid, to the point set, to a crowd that came to hear something new. not an avowed why? fan before tonight, i will certainly pay more attention to this band in the future, and why bother with anything more than that?

buy all why? releases directly from anticon.

why? feat. james mcnew - "yoyo bye bye"

subtle @ warsaw, 10/5/07

this show was a new experience for me, the first time i went to a gig purely to see an opening band. but what an opener! subtle, "the alpha band of doseone & jel," the masterminds behind mr. mammoth faces 13 & god, cLOUDDEAD, and themselves, brought their twitchy, spastic rap-rock to warsaw last friday night, supporting seattle's minus the bear on their national tour. still touring in support of last year's for hero: for fool and yell & ice (their upcoming remakes and remixes collection), subtle may also have dropped some songs from the forthcoming exitingARM. i was worried that subtle would have difficulties adapting their studio sound to the live environment, but they navigated those waters most successfully. fronted by doseone, a charismatic rap maniac, subtle ferociously tore through their forty-five minute set, doseone's rhymes blasting and the music churning.

i was (and remain to be) sincerely perplexed at subtle's spot on this tour. the college-rocking post-emo popsters in minus the bear bore no musical semblance to subtle's sound, and, were it but for subtle's far-too-infrequent touring schedule, i imagine most of their fans would have skipped this show. bookended by ela, a band that can be best described in the words of one audience member ("i think you're ok!") and minus the bear, subtle's inclusion in this tour can only be called bizarre. i got a chance to talk to doseone after the show, and he said he really appreciated the chance to get to meet new people, and, indeed, i overheard a passerby asked "who is that?" despite for hero: for fool's brilliance, it's critical reception was lukewarm at best, and subtle's desire to branch out is justified and understandable. however, minus the bear? i couldn't understand it at all.

subtle opened the show by paying suitable homage to brooklyn, to which the crowd reacted with expected positivity. while brooklyn is home to every other band in existence, it seems, and crowds enough to match, few expected the guest who came onstage for "deathful," a leaked track from yell & ice. maybe doseone needed to introduce tunde adebimpe, since so few people cheered when he announced the tv on the radio vocalist. adebimpe appeared and disappeared without a word or a wave, but their collaboration spoke volumes.

subtle's mystique is all-encompassing. from the eerie skull bust (painted with black and white stripes) at the front of the stage to doseone's velvet sash of plastic forks, subtle is stylized. enigmas permeate their live performance, their recorded work, their artistic presentation. yet, despite their seeming inscrutability, subtle (especially doseone) were accessible and friendly, chatting with fans before and after the show and manning the merch table, filled as it was with a half-dozen subtle releases, three or four solo efforts from doseone (including a book of poetry), and a solo album from jel. so rarely has prolific seemed such an understatement. killing time, i flipped through doseone's poetry, finding an image of the fork there as well. doseone was happy to explain the significance of one of subtle's most universal props, a piece of iconography cherished by fans. "the fork is the spirit animal of the american consumer," he explained, after having pelted the crowd with fistfuls of the utensil.

subtle's black and white aesthetic is visually profound and arresting, visible on both for hero: for fool's cover and doseone's chest (and, of course, the skull). less complex than the fork mythology, doseone explained subtle's preferred color scheme in a typically enigmatic fashion, calling black and white "the only real colors." though patently untrue, the stark juxtaposition of the two accentuates and emphasizes their aural dissonance. the skull is said to be of hour hero yes, a character who appears on both subtle LPs.

necessarily different from their studio work, due to the crippling injuries programmer dax pierson received several years ago, subtle's live performance is nonetheless captivating. with the exception of cellist alexander kort, every player in subtle multitasks, whether it is jordan dalrymple's triple duty on drums, guitar, and vocals, or marton dowers' mix of synth and sax. it was exciting to see subtle trade instruments every few minutes, let alone every song, but what was most compelling about the show (unsurprisingly) was doseone, and his seemingly endless array of props. the forks were really only the beginning. he frequently interacted with the bust of hour hero yes, going so far as to mime cutting its throat with a knife during one song. he toyed with a set of false teeth, another skull (this one resembled yorick), and a handful of other toys and gadgets too small for me to see. doseone twitched with an energy that could not be human - even cokeheads aren't this spastic. his veins standing out on his forehead, doseone continually vaulted from one side of the stage to another, rapping with incredible energy. in fact, getting pictures proved to be something of a challenge, as he rarely stayed still long enough to get a shot off.

subtle is art. you can disregard the mystery, the enigmas, the self-wound mythology, and you'd still have a fantastic band, but it would be only half of the band. subtle traffics in appearance - they really put on a show, an act for the viewer. it winds its way around your head, asking questions and posing hypotheses that are as much a part of subtle as their music. the live performance should always give you something more than a copy of an album; that's why you bother to see a band live. subtle brings everything they have to the table, throws it at you (along with a fork or two for good measure), and let you work it out. subtle is as much a visual and intellectual stimulation as an aural one, a provocative aesthetic they vehemently believe in. it's not a stretch to say that subtle stands alone - the only bands that sound like them have subtle's own members in them. if this tour is directed at new fans, and i don't doubt that it is, then subtle certainly deserves them.

subtle (feat. tunde adebimpe) - "deathful." buy all subtle merchandise direct from their store.

subtle - "f.k.o."

i fucking love anticon.

i don't think it can be much more obvious than that. my love is newfound, however - i didn't start enjoying anticon. releases until march of this year - a shameful admission, possibly, but it hasn't been for lack of trying. for years previous, i gave multiple anticon. artists multiple listens, without any of them resonating. why? was the first anticon. artist i listened to, only because the person who first reviewed his sanddollars ep for my college radio station was absolutely smitten with it. needless to say, i was not. but ears mature, thank god, and mine are evidently at the age where acerbic beats, stream-of-consciousness ramblings, and utterly insensible combinations of sounds and words are exactly what the doctor ordered. for years, i had looked at the cLOUDDEAD lp in my record store in wonder - what a strange name for a band, i thought. well, no shit, it's a strange fucking band. to be fair, cLOUDDEAD isn't on anticon, though that seems to be more of an accident than anything else, as all three members of the group (doseone, why?, and odd nosdam) are independently signed to the label. anyway, so cLOUDDEAD's self-titled full length had stared back at me from the shelves of my local record shop, and, finally, earlier this year, i gave in. since then, basically, it's been non-stop. 13 & God, telephone jim jesus (who i'd also been interested in for a while, because of this) - a friend turned me on to sole, (whose recent poly.sci.187 is excellent), subtle (another technically "non-anticon" band featuring doseone and jel, two of anticon's most prominent artists), buck 65 (whose 2006 ep dirty work is available in its entirety for free) - so frequently it seems that anticon. is more than a label - more than the collective that they call themselves, even - anticon. is (dare i say it?) a state of mind. few labels have anticon.'s commitment to genre-busting, to encouraging such dramatic and lucid reimaginings of hip hop.

which brings me to two pieces of "news," called such because they are definitely not, but are to me. the first is that anticon has a podcast, and a bitching one at that. it seems to be updated with no regularity at all - sj esau dropped a mix early in july, and dax pierson (of subtle) did on in april, but before that was a christmas mix, a september one, and two from may 2006 - a collection of unreleased tracks by jel and a pre-album teaser by alias. my limited and irregular internet access means i've only had the chance to download one of the podcasts, and my appetite has been whetted.

the second piece of news has me close to salivating (not just because i haven't eaten lunch) - there's a new telephone jim jesus album coming out! really, i am so fucking excited for this - the track available for DOWNLOAD, "a mouth of fingers," is just as full-bodied and layered as anything off a point too far to astronaut, and is even more exuberant in its complexity. there are times, as a writer, when you are just thrust into the verbal shadows by what others have written on the same topic, and that is the case with anticon.'s description of the work - "a multihued textile of living song that can be admired both for its constituent parts—mini opuses with aural narratives unto themselves—and as a subtly evolving whole." whether TJJ's new album deserves such lauding remains to be seen - anywhere out of the everything doesn't come out until september 25 - a date that is turning into one of the most promising tuesdays of the year.

normally, i hate things that are just available for streaming, but this is most definitely better than nothing -

telephone jim jesus - "a mouth of fingers" from anywhere out of the everything

UPDATE: paper thin walls has "a mouth of fingers" available for download! read the interview here, and enjoy the direct link to the mp3 here.