marino

"crayon"

all this caribou talk has gotten me hot and bothered, and i've spent the better part of the last hour and a half rewatching the marino videos, all of which are happily found on youtube. the videos, all designed by irish collective delicious 9, were originally backdrop visuals, but were so good (no joke) that they were collection for dvd production, and bundled with 4 songs from the milk of human kindness's sessions.

i think delicious 9 have really captured a beautiful part of caribou's essence - "jacknuggeted" and "pelican narrows" especially capture the music's optimism and naivete, that sense of everything feeling new and rather exciting. one of my favorite features common to most of the videos is their thematic link - the characters all belong in a conjured world with dancing canaries, organ-pounding grandmas, and xylophone-rocking teddy bears, a world i could certainly use a lot more of. the videos, of nearly every song on both the milk of human kindness and up in flames, are almost without fault. "hello hammerheads" and "a final warning" shade in the darker parts of caribou's music, the latter an animated rollercoaster ride to the other side, the former a redemptive, if mischievous, look at sacrifice. "hendrix with ko" is, as one commenter puts it, "muppet slander," and is one of my favorite videos, along with the adorably-animated "skunks."

i feel it's a shame that the best praise i can give marino that it's worth your money. i think these videos are an important part of caribou's overall aesthetic, and super fucking cute at the same time. this feels a lot more like art than just music videos or projections.

watch them all here, and marvel, marvel at their awesomeness!

"marino"
buy marino from the leaf label. (do it, cheapskates!)

"jacknuggeted"

parades

"in a parallel universe, songs like 'mirador' and 'caravan' would be number one forever..."

bold claim.

efterklang - "mirador" "caravan"

buy parades from the leaf label.

"mirador"

situated somewhere in the bermuda triangle between sufjan stevens, the postal service, and sigur ros, there is efterklang. the danish group, which has five core members and four additional touring members, puts a lot of emphasis on how "otherworldly" their sound is (as you can tell from the quote above). to my ears, however, parades sounds a lot more like the bizarre creation of an indie pop mad scientist than hot alien jamz.

the name "parades" come from the album's creative mission, a desire to link song sections so they parade through a listener's ears, but, oddly enough, parades itself has more than a little marching-band feel. "mirador," the album's first single, actually features a brass quintet, playing with raucous cheer, and the sheer exuberance of efterklang (and their assorted contributors, a string quartet and three separate choirs as well as the brass) inspires visions of dance troupes backflipping down city streets. parades dances past you with a nervous energy, awesome in its eccentric majesty, melodies, harmonies, singalongs bursting from its seams. like symphonic shoegaze on speed, efterklang has redefined "over the top" in the best possible way. songs range from the reflective ("mimeo") to the reckless (the excellent "maison de réflexion") as efterklang synthesizes their mutant pop, weird yet wonderful.

battle and victory

i've been a bad blogger lately. i apologize. i picked up some new jobs, and some other ones reached fruition, and i've had barely a minute to write anything but concert reviews. i'd like to make it up to you by telling you about nancy elizabeth cunliffe.

cunliffe, who records as nancy elizabeth, is the newest jewel in the crown of the leaf label, an extraordinarily prescient label where many well-received artists have begun their careers. i (and you, perhaps) know them best as manitoba's spiritual home, the place where his opus up in flames has a home, but the leaf label reaches far and wide, dedicated to unearthing talent anywhere, in any form. in addition to manitoba, boom bip & doseone, efterklang, psapp, and critical faves a hawk and a hacksaw have all released albums through leaf as well. the leaf label maintains its reputation as a diviner of excellence with nancy elizabeth's first long player, battle and victory.

nancy elizabeth is a songstress with an impeccable musical pedigree, her ethereal work instantly generating comparisons to artists like sigur ros and nina nastasia. her songs are spun like merino wool, sheer and light, and are yet heavy, dense, substantial. battle and victory walks a rail, counterbalancing cunliffe's high, thin voice with sweeping, delicate melodies that still resonate with power and forcefulness. central to her sound is a 22 string celtic harp, its plucked notes creating austere, minimalist soundscapes. in addition to the harp, cunliffe wields a bouzouki, harmonium, appalachian dulcimer, and khim, in addition to a much more traditional acoustic guitar, though battle and victory also features percussion and horn sections on some songs, though cunliffe's shimmering string work is always the album's focus. the circumstances surrounding the recording of battle and victory are a significant part of its sober allure as well; cunliffe shut herself up in a 17th-century welsh cottage and a village hall outside manchester, using only the barest of recording equipment to capture her multi-layered sound. the result is an album that charms with its intimate preciousness and still manages to incorporate a tremulous undercurrent of anxiety and intensity.

i find myself imagining a forest when i listen to battle and victory, though it changes as quickly as the album's songs. it is no coincidence that celtic and nordic music has such strong ties to paganism and the supernatural; on battle and victory, as on other, stirring records, it is easy to hear the power of nature in every note. cunliffe's song titles often allude to the natural realm, albeit in circuitous ways, as songs like "i'm like the paper," "8 brown legs," and "coriander" suggest, though "off with your axe" or "the remote past" evoke more of a tolkien feel.

the fantastic is never out of reach on this album, especially for "hey son," one of battle and victory's two singles. cunliffe's dramatics and naturalism have earned her comparisons to radiohead, mogwai, and talk talk, but the clearest point of reference i have for "hey son" is godspeed you! black emperor. while the artists fundamentally unalike, "hey son" builds in a very gybe fashion. beginning with cunliffe's breathy and restrained voice singing over a simple guitar melody, "hey son" reaches a satisfying climax in less than three and a half minutes, as cunliffe adds something new for each verse, starting with a small chorus and including an angular guitar, timpani, and lots of cymbal crashes. it is clearly one of battle and victory's best songs.

i am also quite fond of "i used to try," the album's other single, draped, as it is, in taut strings and a focused, progressive sound, though its neighbor, "off with your axe," is battle and victory's hidden gem. here, cunliffe incorporates more vocal harmonies over a restless guitar, looping it before adding the harp and an off-step delivery that captivates and intrigues. lots of albums have one song that is so unlike the others that it must be the single (i'm thinking of summerteeth, mostly), but "coriander," the "can't stand it" of battle and victory, is not its single. "coriander" is a radical departure from the rest of battle and victory, clothed in a sound more parisian than pixie. a waltzing harmonium and horn section are the song's flesh, and one of the few cuts on the record that doesn't fit into the progressive mold.

battle and victory is a tenacious debut, so often haunting and insubstantial that cunliffe's voice seems to exist on its own. the distance is palpable, no doubt a result of her innovative recording locations, and adds an unexpected depth to the record, again evoking mysterious environments. dark without being brooding or sinister, battle and victory is transportive, an album that inspires creativity as much as enjoyment in the listener.

nancy elizabeth - "off with your axe" & "hey son"

battle and victory was released in september 2007 by the leaf label. it is available for purchase here.