Rodney O & Joe Cooley - Me & Joe (1988)

Country: U.S.A.
Genre: Hip-Hop
Label Number: DMSR 00777
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© 1988 Egyptian Empire Records
AllMusic Review by Alex Henderso
When Rodney O. & Joe Cooley's first full-length album, Me & Joe, came out in 1988, many hip-hoppers were re-evaluating the Los Angeles rap scene. In the early to mid-'80s, L.A. wasn't famous for hardcore rap; many people associated Southern California with the high-tech, synthesizer-driven electro-hop sounds of the Egyptian Lover, the Arabian Prince, Uncle Jam's Army, and the World Class Wreckin' Cru (the group that Dr. Dre belonged to before N.W.A.). But in 1987 and 1988, the disturbing gangsta rap of Ice-T and N.W.A. was giving people a different impression of L.A. rap -- and all of a sudden, hip-hoppers were expecting hardcore rap to come from Southern California. Although Rodney and Cooley both had electro-hop credentials, Me & Joe is essentially a hardcore rap effort. The LP isn't gangsta rap -- Rodney doesn't rap in the first person about gang fights or drive-by shootings -- but even so, it sent out a message that South-Central L.A. could provide aggressive hip-hop (as opposed to crossover stuff). While some of Cooley's scratching shows an awareness of New York DJs like Jam Master Jay and Cut Creator, Me & Joe doesn't sound it was recorded in the Big Apple. Rodney flows like a West Coast rapper -- he doesn't sound like he's from Brooklyn, Queens, or the Boogie Down Bronx -- and the production tends to be cleaner than what many New York hip-hoppers were favoring at the time. Me & Joe isn't a masterpiece; as far as L.A. rap goes, it isn't as important or as challenging a record as Ice-T's Power or N.W.A.'s Straight Outta Compton. But it's a decent and often catchy, if slightly uneven, footnote in the history of West Coast hip-hop.

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Rodney O & Joe Cooley - Three The Hard Way (1990)

Country: U.S.A.
Genre: Hip-Hop
Label Number: 7 82082-2
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© 1990 Atlantic Records
AllMusic Review by Ron Wynn
Moving from Egyptian E. to Atlantic, Rodney-O Joe Cooley tried again for hip-hop stardom with this 1990 album. It again mostly avoided gangsta-style material, although "Three the Hard Way" did try to tap into the "hood" ethic. But the problem wasn't so much the production as the fact that cuts like "Party" and "See Ya" weren't very interesting.

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Mew - Frengers (2003) ☠

Country: Denmark
Language: English
Genre: Alternative Rock
Label Number: 511023 2
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☠: Selected by Lass

© 2003 Epic/Evil Office
AllMusic Review by Jon O'Brien
Following two critically-acclaimed limited edition studio albums, prog-rock quintet Mew finally allow audiences outside their native Denmark to hear their mesmerising blend of crunching guitars, lush operatic production and Jonas Bjerre's stunning girlish vocals, with their first major label release. Frengers: Not Quite Friends But Not Quite Strangers lifts five tracks from its 2000 predecessor Half The World Is Watching Me and a sole number from 1997 debut A Triumph For Man, and adds four brand new compositions to produce a breathtaking and ambitious epic which echoes the experimental post-rock of Sigur Ros, the ethereal avant-garde pop of Mercury Rev and the emotive bombastics of JJ72, occasionally all at the same time. None more so than on the opening track "Am I Wry? No," which combines haunting choral verses, blistering military rhythms and distorted My Bloody Valentine-esque riffs with a sweetly melodic pop chorus and a sweeping orchestral middle-eight to create the feel of a particularly schizophrenic mini rock-opera. "156" is just as eclectic, opening with some Pink Floyd-inspired trippy atmospherics, before merging into a driving attempt at soft-metal, complete with razor-edged guitar solo, and ending in a flurry of hypnotic robotic chanting, while "Snow Brigade" is a thrilling fusion of eerie space-age synths, frenetically paced beats and intense post-grunge hooks which also finds time to incorporate a clubby house-influenced breakdown into its multi-layered four minutes. Things calm down with the sparse piano-based ballad "Symmetry," an enchanting duet with Becky Jarrett, a delicately-voiced unknown fourteen year old from Georgia, and the jangly shoe-gazing "Behind The Drapes." But their impressive ability to effortlessly blend contrasting sounds re-appears on "Her Voice Is Beyond Her Years," a brooding bass-driven indie number featuring the angelic vocals of Swedish singer-songwriter Stina Nordenstam, "She Spider" which effortlessly shifts from glacial folk to falsetto-led psychedelic rock, and the closing track, "Comforting Sounds," which encapsulates all of the above in one dramatic nine-minute epic. However, the album's highlight is provided by its most conventional moment. "She Came Home For Christmas," whose lilting piano chords and anthemic chorus masks its rather dark and distinctly non-festive lyrical themes, is a gorgeously melancholic ballad which shows that despite their experimental tendencies, the band are no strangers to writing the odd big pop hook too. The meandering and pretentiously-titled "Eight Flew Over, One Was Destroyed" aside, Frengers is an album of pure beauty whose textured soundscapes and other-worldly vocals has produced a truly rewarding and captivating musical experience.

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Mew - No More Stories Are Told Today I'm Sorry They Washed Away No More Stories The World Is Grey I'm Tired Let's Wash Away (2009)

Country: Denmark
Language: English
Genre: Progressive Pop
Label Number: 88697199422
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© 2009 Columbia/Sony Music
AllMusic Review by James Christopher Monger
Mew's fifth full-length offering presents audiences with another meticulously crafted, highly melodic, and maddeningly esoteric collection of volatile Danish indie rock that replaces the dusky uncertainty of 2005's And the Glass Handed Kites with a sunnier disposition that owes more to Soft Bulletin-era Flaming Lips than it does the icy, audio cave paintings of Sigur Rós. From the opening notes of "New Terrain" (which if played backwards reveals an entirely new song called "Nervous") through the Yes-inspired closer, "Reprise," Mew have crafted their most alluring collection of songs to date. While a handful of tracks ("Beach," "Tricks of the Trade") do veer into more commercial territory, it's the epic scope of cuts like "Cartoons and Macramé Wounds," "Hawaii," "Silas the Magic Car," and "Sometimes Life Isn't Easy" -- the latter two complete with a children's choir -- that provides listeners with enough sustenance to survive through to the next album. Despite its ominous (and lofty) title, No More Stories/Are Told Today/I'm Sorry/They Washed Away/No More Stories/The World Is Grey/I'm Tired/Let's Wash Away is a dreamy blend of circular melodies and odd time signatures that requires multiple listens (this is par for the course with any Mew album) and a significant amount of cinematic stamina from the listener, and though it may not appeal to the masses, its mass is definitely appealing.

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Mew - + − (2015)

Country: Denmark
Language: English
Genre: Progressive Pop
Label Number: PIASR775CDX
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© 2015 Play It Again Sam
AllMusic Review by James Christopher Monger
Spare in name only, Mew's sixth studio long-player is even more ambitious than 2009's loftily titled No More Stories/Are Told Today/I'm Sorry/They Washed Away/No More Stories/The World Is Grey/I'm Tired/Let's Wash Away, doubling down on the shimmery, light/dark Passion Pit-inspired electro-pop that served as the foundation for their last major-label outing, while bringing back some of the angular post-rock angst of earlier works like Frengers (2003) and And the Glass Handed Kites (2005). It's the latter work that looms largest on + -, their first release for Belgian independent label PIAS (Play It Again Sam), due in large part to it being a reunion with producer Michael Beinhorn and bass player Johan Wohlert, neither of whom had worked with the band since their 2005 outing. Beinhorn and Wohlert's contributions add some sonic weight to the proceedings, as does, to a lesser extent, Bloc Party guitarist Russell Lissack, who provides the album with its meatiest offering, the blistering "My Complications," which he co-wrote. New Zealand electro-soul pop star Kimbra lends her mellifluous voice to the soaring "Night Believer," but as per usual (mew-sual?), it's frontman Jonas Bjerre's distinctive croon that sets the tone. Mew have always been at their best when mining beauty from existential horror, and that heady mix of childlike wonder and general uneasiness (which Bjerre excels at) is the electrical current that powers + -'s best moments, which arrive via the knotty single "Satellites," the aforementioned "My Complications," and the album-closing epics "Rows" and "Cross the River on Your Own." Free from any sort of major-label constraints, the band sounds both invigorated and restless, and while deciphering their skewed Danish pop sensibilities can often prove challenging, it's well worth the effort, as the results can just as often be breathtaking.

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Nina Hagen - Nina Hagen (1989)

Country: Germany
Language: English
Genre: Pop Rock, Pop
Label Number: 838 505-2
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© 1989 Mercury Records
AllMusic Review by Stacia Proefrock
At her best Nina Hagen was deliciously abrasive -- an East German post-punk princess whose brash delivery was coupled with real musical talent and a wide vocal range. By the end of the '80s, however, she had descended into pop trash, rehashing the same kinds of synth-enforced songs again and again. Her self-titled album is no exception. Largely sung in English, it contains mostly questionable covers, including Janis Joplin's "Move Over," a version of the gospel classic "Hold Me," and a truly awful rendition of "Ave Maria." Two small bright spots on the album are a metal version of "Viva Las Vegas" and a odd rap song about Gorbachev called "Michail, Michail."

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Mew - A Triumph For Man (1997)

Country: Denmark
Language: English
Genre: Indie Rock
Label Number: EXLCD 30058
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© 1997 Exlibris
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Mew - Half The World Is Watching Me (2000)

Country: Denmark
Language: English
Genre: Indie Pop, Indie Rock
Label Number: EVL001CD
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© 2000 Evil Office
*No professional reviews are available for this release.

*About this recording: This is the first U.S. pressing. This album has an unlisted hidden track that can only be accessed manually by rewinding the first track past the 0.00 mark on a CD player. Due to the location of the track, most PC's cannot play or access this track and thus, this rip does not contain it despite many attempts at trying to rip/access it. This rip contains 8 tracks total
 

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Mew - And The Glass Handed Kites (2005) ☠

Country: Denmark
Language: English
Genre: Progressive Pop
Label Number: 82876 82593 2
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☠: Selected by Lass

© 2005 Columbia

AllMusic Review by James Christopher Monger
Danish quartet Mew's dense and occasionally difficult And the Glass Handed Kites is old-fashioned only in the sense that it's meant to be eaten in a single sitting. This is not a single-driven record -- though "Special," with its bouncy, moody chorus and octave vocal delivery, sounds like an emission from a time machine parked dead center within the heydays of early-'90s alternative rock -- rather, it's a single organism. Kites takes the wisdom and volatility of the Delgados ("Chinaberry Tree"), the sonic scope of Sigur Rós ("White Lips Kissed"), and the angular guitar attack of early Ride and Dinosaur Jr. ("Circuitry of the Wolf") and melds them all into a cathartic post-rock epic that's so electrifying and unpredictable that it's almost impossible to take in with one or two listens. Fans of OK Computer-era Radiohead, My Bloody Valentine, and Disintegration-era Cure will find And the Glass Handed Kites one of the most breathtaking things to come along since the dawn of the dream pop/post-punk genres themselves.

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Big L - Return of The Devil's Son (2010)

Country: U.S.A.
Genre: Hip-Hop
Label Number: SMC462
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© 2010 Distrolord Inc.
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Big L - 139 & Lenox (2010)

Country: U.S.A.
Genre: Hip-Hop
Label Number: FBE 111
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© 2010 Flamboyant Entertainment
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The X-Ecutioners - X-Pressions (1997)

Country: U.S.A.
Genre: Hip-Hop, Turntablism
Label Number: Asphodel 0977
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© 1997 Asphodel/Audio Soul
AllMusic Review by Sean Cooper
X-pressions is the first full-length release by the relatively new phenomenon of the turntable orchestra. Like the first efforts of other young genres such as trip-hop and drum'n'bass, the album tends to be overlong and lacking in variety. Restricting themselves to the sounds of hip-hop past (old-school references and battle-wearied scratch noises dominate), the group nonetheless manages a sufficiently engaging full-length debut, switching between group and solo performances and even pulling a few rappers (strictly underground, no big names) in on the fun.

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The X-Ecutioners - Built From Scratch (2002)

*A photo of the disc is included in the RAR file.

Country: U.S.A.
Genre: Hip-Hop, Turntablism
Label Number: CK 86410
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© 2002 Loud Records
AllMusic Review by Kenyon Hopkin
Though it's a clever play on words, the title of the second record from the X-ecutioners is somewhat of an overstatement. The New York turntable crew reworks a few notable songs from rock and hip-hop's history (Tom Tom Club's "Genius of Love" being the best known), while including several familiar sounds and vocals from the genre's early days. Still, Built From Scratch is a sharp ode to old school hip-hop that focuses on the roll of the turntable rather than the vocals of an MC. That has been the group's intent since the early '90s, and Built From Scratch provides a great showcase for the quartet's turntable skills. However, those skills are sometimes overshadowed by the many collaborations from big names such as Pharaoh Monch, Xzibit, Everlast, Inspectah Deck, and the seemingly out of place Linkin Park. That doesn't mean that these cuts are commercially friendly. These are nitty-gritty rap ventures that stay true to the X-ecutioners' roots and are free of any deliberate pop hooks. [The disc was also released with a bonus remix courtesy of Lo Fidelity Allstars.]

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Stone Temple Pilots - Stone Temple Pilots (2018)

Country: U.S.A.
Genre: Post Grunge
Label Number: R2 565812
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© 2018 Rhino Records
AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stone Temple Pilots is the second Stone Temple Pilots album to be titled Stone Temple Pilots, following the first by eight years. A lot happened during those years. At the dawn of the decade, when STP issued their first eponymous album, the group reunited with their erstwhile frontman Scott Weiland, but that revival didn't last long: They fired the singer in 2013, hiring Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington in his stead. Bennington lasted two years before amicably parting ways in 2015. Not much later, Weiland died of an accidental overdose, but the remaining three STP were already gearing up for an online search for a new vocalist. By the end of 2017, the band revealed they'd hired Jeff Gutt -- a runner-up on the third season of The X Factor -- as their new lead singer. Gutt debuted on the 2018 self-titled set from Stone Temple Pilots and, from a certain perspective, he could be mistaken for a well-behaved Weiland. He nails how the late singer could slide from a snarl to a sigh, conjuring a bit of a snaky sexuality while still seeming a bit safe. In other words, he's a good fit for the DeLeos, because he can articulate their musical interests without causing a ruckus. That's not a bad thing at all. While there may not be much tension between the singer and the band -- which was a defining characteristic of STP during their heyday -- this ease feels earned and welcome, not least because it makes it possible to appreciate the craft of the DeLeos. Whether it's psychedelicized hard rock or candied melodies, the pair not only know how to construct melodies, they know how to showcase these hooks with layered productions that skirt the edge of being ornate. These skills were evident as early as Purple, but on this album, there's not only no Weiland, there's also no Brendan O'Brien to credit. Stone Temple Pilots are now clearly lead by Robert and Dean DeLeo, and this 2018 album shows they haven't lost their knack for hooky-heavy hard rock that wedges its way into the subconscious. The album can't be called a comeback -- the group were toiling away during the 2010s, after all -- but it certainly opens the door on another act in their career, one that is sonically tied to their past but feels brighter (and more relaxed) than their first chapters.

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Bush - The Kingdom (2020) ☠

Country: United Kingdom
Genre: Post Grunge
Label Number: 538609672
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☠: Selected by Lass

© 2020 BMG
AllMusic Review by Neil Z. Yeung
Fresh off a tour celebrating the 25th anniversary of their classic post-grunge debut Sixteen Stone, longstanding English rock outfit Bush returned to the studio to record their eighth album The Kingdom, a fresh burst of a record that revitalizes the band's late-era discography. The timely connection to their no-frills early days resulted in one of the strongest releases of their post-hiatus era, capturing the catchy melodicism and buzzing heaviness that attracted fans to the songwriting in the first place. Hook-heavy and hungry, The Kingdom is aggressive and addictive, recalling the best of Sixteen Stone, Golden State, and The Science of Things on tracks like the anthemic "Crossroads," "Flowers on a Grave," and "Our Time Will Come." It also boasts some of the crunchiest riffs in the Bush catalog, at points wandering into System of a Down ("Quicksand") and even early Tool ("Send in the Clowns") territories. Highlights include the expansive title track, which splits the sky open with frontman Gavin Rossdale's soaring vocals and a precision, near-metal attack by bandmates Chris Traynor, Corey Britz, and Nik Hughes. Aside from one moment of peace (the tender, "Glycerine"-esque "Undone"), The Kingdom is an absolute bounty of riffs that showcases the twin attack from Rossdale and Traynor. Flipping the unevenness and sonic confusion of their three 2010s albums on their heads, Bush take this opportunity to prove that they've still got enough in them beyond '90s nostalgia.

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Brand New - The Devil & God Are Raging Inside Me (2006)

Country: U.S.A.
Genre: Indie Rock
Label Number: B0008034-02
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© 2006 Interscope/Tiny Evil
AllMusic Review by Corey Apar
When Brand New released Deja Entendu in mid-2003, it caught a lot of their fans off guard. It found the band taking a stylistic leap forward from the clever (albeit cookie-cutter) pop-punk of their 2001 debut, exploring expanded sonic textures and indie rock overtones, their urgent choruses tempered by acoustic musings and softer introspections. It all seemed very deliberate yet completely natural all the same, and the record was an underground smash. Something even more substantial was definitely brewing beneath the band's emo façade, and as a result, Brand New's follow-up was hotly anticipated for the three years it took the band to release it. The resulting The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me is the completion of their pop-punk molting process and one of the best surprises -- that isn't really a surprise at all -- to come out of 2006. Even when they were playing straightforward pop-punk ditties, Brand New had an edge to them that made them seem smarter than their peers; now they sound even older and stronger (and like they've been listening to a lot of '90s college and indie rock). This record is dark and dense, yet accessible, a shadowy air permeating every crevice where Jesse Lacey's plaintive and often tortured lyrics aren't already residing. He draws listeners in with vulnerable ruminations and questions of love, death, self, and religion, and his vocal inflections bring as much meaning to the table as his carefully chosen words. The opening "Sowing Season" ebbs and flows steadily, moving along under light guitar before exploding with percussion, Lacey ably switching from a hushed delivery into an anguished cry of emotion before falling back down again effortlessly. With it, Brand New sets up the somber intensity of the record straightaway. Textural and sonic layers unfold at every turn -- punching drums and trembling guitars here, aching vocals and subtle touches of string there -- and the album moves with a directed force that seems so naturally powerful and uncontrived, it's almost ridiculous to think that the band cut its teeth with poppy anthems like "Jude Law and a Summer Abroad." The Devil and God is not an album of hooks; the excellent percussive stomp of "The Archers Bows Have Broken" is the most immediate here, but songs get stuck in the brain nonetheless and demand repeated spins. Old fans especially smitten by Deja's "Play Crack the Sky" have no excuse not to love everything about this record, as even lengthy tracks (like the near-eight-minute "Limousine" or the chill-inducing beauty of "Jesus") are completely compelling. People who were ready to discount Brand New into the emo/TRL heap of the 2000s better rethink their stance; Brand New seems to know exactly what they're doing and this record is a testament to their ability to stay true to themselves. Whether they want to stay underground or fully break into the mainstream, this album has the potential to do either. Either way it doesn't really matter -- whatever happens, there's no denying how excellent this record is.

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The UMC's - Fruits of Nature (1991)

 

Country: U.S.A.
Genre: Hip-Hop
Label Number: CDP-7-97544-2
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© 1991 Wild Pitch/EMI Records USA
AllMusic Review by Stanton Swihart
On their debut album, Fruits of Nature, the UMC's -- Hass G and Kool Kim -- are endlessly imaginative, witty, and effervescent by disposition and lyrical flow, and always intelligent. When it came to the music, co-producers Hass G and RNS decked it out in vintage soul and old Blue Note-styled tracks, with reams of obscure, idiosyncratic vocal samples tossed in as hooks, breaks, and bridges. The resulting effort is yet another vastly underrated rap album out of those banner years in hip-hop, 1991 and 1992, when commercial and economic instincts had yet to turn the music formulaic. The ironic thing is that nearly everything on Fruits of Nature is sing-along catchy and so ebullient that it would have sounded great bounding out of radios or from MTV. Unfortunately, it is also the sort of hip-hop that is too idiosyncratic and brainy to garner a widespread audience. Instead of alchemizing their jazz-tinged sensibility into a more earnest and reverent underground hip-hop extension of the jazz tradition, UMC's twist their jazzy inclinations into what are essentially pop songs that, even while generating a singular style all their own, cover the full range of the catchiness spectrum: ingratiating melodic tunes ("One to Grow On"), carbonated word play ("Blue Cheese"), cleverly disguised boasts and straight rhyming ("Kraftworks," "Swing It to the Area," "Any Way the Wind Blows"), loping urban anthems ("You Got My Back," "Jive Talk"), and more serious-minded cuts ("Morals"). There's even an urban take on storybook tales ("Never Never Land") and a sort of ballad ("Feelings"). The commercial failure of the UMC's and groups like them opened up hip-hop to the same sort of Top 40-ready and cookie-cutter artistry in the latter part of the decade that had previously swallowed rock and pop music. For a brief couple years, though, rap as uniquely excellent as Fruits of Nature could be found around every urban corner.

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The UMC's - Unleashed (1994)

Country: U.S.A.
Genre: Hip-Hop
Label Number: 7243 8 27340 2 4
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© 1994 Wild Pitch Records/ERG
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School of Seven Bells - Alpinisms (2008)

Country: U.S.A.
Genre: Indie Pop
Label Number: GI-81
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© 2008 Ghostly International
AllMusic Review by Andy Kellman
Ben Curtis' desertion of Secret Machines and the breakup of On!Air!Library! was justified by this group's first single, a sky-gliding confection that modernized the sighing, swirling, private dancefloor sides of Medicine, Seefeel, and My Bloody Valentine. Included as the finale on Alpinisms, the debut album from Curtis and O!A!L!'s singing Deheza twins, "My Cabal" has the feel of a bonus track; the later recordings that precede it, despite remaining squarely within the domain of late-'80s/early-'90s dream pop in terms of inspiration, are relatively individualist, going well beyond the lucid psychedelia and discreet flickers of Afro-beat and contemporary pop. What pushes these songs past mere worship involves cunning collisions of robust rhythm, caressing noise, and heavenly melody, with each element equally crucial. Good shoegaze/dream pop bands mastered one of them; the most exceptional of the heap, like this group, had all three down. The most striking example here is "Wired for Light," seemingly spawned by Siouxsie and the Banshees' "Peek-A-Boo" and M/A/R/R/S' "Anitina," full of clacking percussion that rattles the ribs, Middle Eastern accents, gale-force atmospherics, and layered vocals that could be casting a spell. Other than a trip on the Krautrock railway to oblivion that occurs throughout the 12-minute "Sempiternal/Amaranth," not much resembles any of the members' past work. The Dehezas have found their true calling, their voices a better match for these crisp supernatural bliss-outs than the jagged, thorny sound of their former band. Unsurprisingly, there's a touch of otherness to the lyrics, apparently written as communications between (evidently English-speaking) members of a mythical pickpocketing academy -- called School of Seven Bells -- located in Colombia. No, you wouldn't know it without being told, and though most of the words can be made out, they're secondary to the sound of the absorbing voices swarming throughout these impossibly vibrant songs.

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School of Seven Bells - Disconnect From Desire (2010)

Country: U.S.A.
Genre: Dream Pop
Label Number: VR597/GI117
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© 2010 Vagrant/Ghostly International
AllMusic Review by Andy Kellman
On their second album, School of Seven Bells cast themselves as an update of a specific kind of misfit band. Alpinisms reconstituted late-’80/early-‘90s shoegaze. Disconnect from Desire, however, updates the sound of a kind of band that would have opened for Peter Gabriel and Eurythmics, or headlined over Revolver, rather than tour with the likes of Lush, Ride, and Pale Saints. Here, a focused songcraft and central placement of the Deheza twins’ alluring vocals -- which tend to be lower and more earthly than they were on the debut -- disallow School of Seven Bells from being squarely shoegaze. At the same time, the band is too left of center, too odd, to be considered anywhere near the mainstream. Their cleaner, less wispy, more muscular sound, combined with more traditional songwriting, is not that radical a change. It’s closer to a slight shift that registers after a couple spins, once it becomes apparent that deeply emotive and relatively sparse songs like “I L U,” “Joviann,” and “The Wait” would have made excellent tracks buried throughout Sire’s Just Say series. They have shoegaze lyric-generator staples like wind, waves, ocean, storms, and even talk of “slipping away.” And yet, the words are not merely functional, written solely for the sake of complementing the sound as an additional instrument. They’re either poetically vague or vaguely poetic -- stuff like “Let me will the dial to turn and gild the air with silver pearls of rain” and “When’s the wait a cradle in which you’re lulled from time to time, soundly spun into an insensate lie.” The thicker, more driving songs resemble a polished, warm Curve, whipping up squalls of noise over robust played-and-programmed rhythms that soar more often than batter. No matter the amount of layering, not a single element is obscured. This vivid directness suits them very well.

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School of Seven Bells - Ghostory (2012)

Country: U.S.A.
Genre: Dream Pop
Label Number: VR707;GI-154
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© 2012 Vagrant/Ghostly International
AllMusic Review by Andy Kellman
Claudia Deheza's exit from School of Seven Bells was not a typical case of shrinking band membership. It claimed a rare attribute and a significant attraction: sibling harmonies, once shared with remaining twin Alejandra Deheza. That's not something that can be replaced or covered up in the studio. While the absence of the twins' harmonies are missed on Ghostory, School of Seven Bells' third album, the sound of the group -- now a duo of Deheza and Ben Curtis -- is as lushly layered as ever, with spectral textures and propulsive dance rhythms, both programmed and played, equally affecting. Deheza's vocals are multi-tracked and arranged so effectively that some listeners might not long for her sister's presence. According to Deheza and Curtis, Ghostory is "the tale of a young girl named Lafaye and the ghosts that surround her life." If this concept was developed prior to the material, it evidently pushed the two to write their most open and direct material to date, evident from the album's first lines: "The light of day gives me no relief/Because I see you in everything." Past comparisons to Curve were drawn due to sonic similarities; while they would still make sense, there is a new, comparable frankness when it comes to addressing exes. Like Curve's Toni Halliday, Deheza doesn't recoil from confrontation ("You wanna take, 'cause you're a coward"), but there's a certain sense of lingering vulnerability rather than glaring bitter numbness. The album also features some of School of Seven Bells' finest light and heavy material, from the all-synths/percussion-less ballad "Reappear" to the racing "White Wind" and pummeling "When You Sing" -- the latter two of which form a potent, closing section that is cathartic and uplifting, yet palpably haunted nonetheless.

tags: school of seven bells, ghostory, 2012, flac,

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School of Seven Bells - SVIIB (2016) ☠

 

Country: U.S.A.
Genre: Indie Pop
Label Number: 538183882
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☠: Selected by Lass

© 2016 Vagrant Records
AllMusic Review by Andy Kellman
SVIIB is an atypical posthumous release. Although the fourth and presumably final School of Seven Bells album was released in 2016, over two years after the death of the duo's Benjamin Curtis, almost all of it was conceived in 2012, before Curtis learned that he had cancer. Only "Confusion," a placid lament, was written after the diagnosis, recorded during a brief hospital respite from treatment. Over a somnolent, almost Angelo Badalamenti-like synthesizer wash and a muted keyboard melody, Alejandra Deheza is mystified and numbed by the present, unsure of the future: "We spent so long facing the days together that I forgot how to be different from us." At some point during deep mourning that involved a relocation from New York to Los Angeles, a restorative move inspired by a desert trip to shoot a video for the duo's non-album cover of Joey Ramone's "I Got Knocked Down (But I'll Get Up)," Deheza evidently remembered and regained her creative strength. She opened Curtis' laptop, and with help from his brother Brandon, organized the raw materials of SVIIB. Shaped and completed in the studio with Justin Meldal-Johnsen, a multi-instrumentalist and producer known most for his work with Beck and M83, SVIIB smoothly succeeds Ghostory and the Put Your Sad Down EP. Those 2012 releases involved an increase in the use of drum machines and synthesizers, and here, the duo's sound is more electronic-oriented, neater, and more muscular than ever. None of the nine fully formed songs here, however, completely forsakes its dream pop origin. The best synthesis occurs on "Signals"; the verses have all the booming low end and lustful assertion of classic freestyle, while the chorus slams into a combination of storming guitars and twinkling melodies as dazzling as any moment on Alpinisms or Disconnect from Desire. What clearly sets this apart from previous School of Seven Bells releases is the absence of characters and spirits. It's all about Deheza and Curtis, a decade-long partnership, split in romantic and platonic halves -- and creative throughout -- that is radiantly illustrated with expressions of bliss, frustration, consolation, reassurance, and, ultimately, grief. It ends School of Seven Bells in moving form and suggests a new and vital start for Deheza.

tags: school of seven bells, sviib, 2016, flac,

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