The Halcyon Digest

Cloud Nothings - Attack On Memory

http://soundcloud.com/carparkrecords/sets/cloud-nothings-attack-on/s-SDzTo

The new album from Cloud Nothings, “Attack on Memory”, is now streaming on Soundcloud. Give it a listen because it is excellent.

A big departure from there previous lo-fi pop sounds, this album is bold, honest, bare and gripping at all times. The group enlisted grunge icon Steve Albini (Big Black, The Pixies and Nirvana’s In Utero) to produce and has obviously helped the band perfect the sound of their new direction. 

intangiblesolidus:

You called Justin Vernon a knob. I don’t think we can be friends. 

#you have pretty dope music taste otherwise 

(via leavingandoceans)

20-1 Best Songs of 2011

So here is the top 20:

20. Levels -Avicii

The three lines of lyrics in this song some up the euphoria perfectly, “Sometimes I get a good feeling”. And boy, do I get a good feeling listening to this, I was never one to enjoy electro house, but I sure enjoy this. After 2 months of listening to it, even hearing it at nightclubs I still feel as excited and happy as the first time I heard it. Party song of the year.

19. No Future/No Past - Cloud Nothings

From pure electronic euphoria at number 20, to a 4 and a half minute nihilistic, angsty lo-fi rock song at number 19. The futile wail of the opening “Give up” tugs at your shirt and brings you into the despair of the distorted guitars of the chorus. This song demands your attention.

18. Weekend - The Smith Westerns

“Weekend” is the opening song on the Smith Western’s debut “Dye It Blonde”. The jangly distorted guitars of the opening riff paint an excellent picture of what is to come, songs of nostalgic love, Friday nights and days at the beach. This song was the soundtrack of my last summer, and I would happily make it the soundtrack of this summer.

17. Wildfire (Feat. Yukimi Nagano) - SBTRKT

If Post-Dubstep music was to break into the mainstream, it would be entirely because of this one track. Yukimi Nagano of Little Dragon fame’s voice fits perfectly with two step beats, fragmented synth lines and beeps and whirls of the most talented producer to come out of England this year.

16. Rano Pano - Mogwai

The thing I love most about this song is how I feel like I am being taken on a journey as the song progresses, yet the one guitar line plays throughout the entire song. It just shows the magical talent that the Scottish Post-Rockers have with layering sounds, Rano Pano is the highlight of their fairly lacklustre 2011 album.

15. Polish Girl - Neon Indian

I first heard this song as part of a Stereogum mixtape back in August, but I didn’t really take much notice of it, partly because I had became so infatuated with Skying. But the moment I really took notice was their performance on Jimmy Fallon, as soon it was over I went online looking for the youtube video. The brilliance of this song is not only that wonderful synth, nor Alan Palomo’s hazy vocals, but the magical production which he casts over the song. The Flaming Lipsesque sounds that overlay that pulsing beat, that is what really makes this song special.

14. Bizness - tUnE-yArDs

This song represents the frivolity of the human life, freedom from the serious, an escape from all of the negativety in our everyday life. The African influence of the instrumentation just wills us into dancing, wills us into feeling passionately as Merril Garbus pleads for those other forces to “Don’t take my life away”.

13. Calgary - Bon Iver

I’ll have to admit before I write about this, that as much as I find Bon Iver’s catalogue devoid of any interesting material (and the fact that Justin Vernon is a knob), I did actually feel chills in my spine the very first time I heard this song. So many chills actually that I may have had a slight tear in my eyes, it has something to do with the way the layers of voices all culminate into a single all powerful note. It get’s me every single time.

12. Fakest Year Ever - Clam’s Casino

Mike Volpe - AKA Clams Casino - is the most talented beatmaker in the entire American indie hip-hop scene. After working with some of the biggest internet rap sensations in Lil B and Soulja Boy, he released an instrumental mixtape this year. The standout track for me was definitely Fakest Year Ever, a meandering acoustic piano mashup in which it’s repetition creates constant interest.

11. Broken Bone -Iceage

Those angry kids from Denmark sure came up with a cracker of a debut, this two and a half minute song rollicks from start to finish. If you didn’t have energy before it started you sure will after it’s over.

10. Even In My Dreams - Pains of Being Pure At Heart

With a bandname like theirs, the Pains of Being Pure At Heart sure have a lot to live up to, what with all that pureheartedness that they have. But their name certainly isn’t ironic as Even In My Dreams certainly let’s us know. The dreamy chorus of “Even in dreams, I will not betray you” is enough to make any girl fall in love, and any boy wish he had a girl to sing like that too.

9. Abducted - Cults

This song begins full throttle and ends full throttle, and seems to capture every moment of that love that you didn’t see coming. It’s Shakespearean through and through, from the moment it begins with that beautiful metaphor “I knew right then that I’d been abducted” to taking a leaf right out of any great romance’s book by letting us know it is bound for despair “I knew right then that he would be breaking my heart”. Cult’s seem to have an uncanny knack for shoving those heartbraking situations down our throats without making us vomit.

8. The Great Pan Is Dead -Cold Cave

If Robert Smith was born in the 80’s and only started releasing albums in the mid-2000’s, then those albums would have sounded exactly like Cold Cave. The greatest thing about The Great Pan Is Dead is the sheer power that it creates, it’s not something I feel I have the talent to write about, so I will let it speak for it’self.

7. Codex - Radiohead

Much has been said about “The King Of Limbs” this last year, but the lesson we have learnt the most is that although they can pull of some great post-dubstep, ambient trance songs, it’s the piano based ballads that we will always treasure. Codex begins with an Ok Computer era piano riff and the classic Thom Yorke voice over the top. Although, at first look it seems as though it would be much more suited to Ok Computer rather than the King of Limbs, but on closer inspection the production values of Radiohead have changed their aesthetic completely. The almost non-existent drum machine has replaced the beating intricate drum patterns of Philip Selway and the ambient background noise has replaced the beautiful reverb that only a studio can produce. Radiohead haven’t changed, they have only evolved, constantly looking back at their roots, Codex will slide nicely into the Radiohead canon in years to come.

6. California - EMA

“Fuck California, you make me boring”, now that sure is one way to start a song. But when you have had the experiences that Erika M. Anderson has, then you would see no point in hiding from the truth. What is great about this song is the unrelenting honesty, the frankness and the complete and utter despair. California is pure, unadulterated emotion.

5. Ice Cream (Feat. Matias Aguayo) - Battles

Everything about this song is incredible sexual, from the panting build up to the unbelievable organ drop of ecstasy. To an English speaking listener, the lyrics are non-sensical, but that doesn’t matter, Ice Cream is all about the feeling. The jumping around, screaming and laughing, it doesn’t get much better than this.

4. Vomit - Girls

When Girls announce a new single, their is usually no fear that they won’t deliver one of the best songs of the year, and again they did. This time however, it sounded completely different (Distorted Pixieslike guitar solos and gospel singers) but all the same it sounded so much like Girls. Christopher Owens has an unnatural ability to be able to write songs like this. Bravo Girls, bravo.

3. Midnight City - M83

Electro anthems do not get more grand than Midnight City, M83’s greatest track to date. The perfect mix of extreme grandeur, pulsing bass, brilliant vocals and of course who could forget that incredibly saxaphone solo? The world sure needs more sax solos.

2. BTSU (Edit) - Jai Paul

I don’t care that this song may have been floating around for years, I only heard it in April (THANKS NME!) But it makes the list because the single edit came out in 2011, and it is just such a brilliant song. Bass heavy, wobbly and with maybe just as many utterations of the f word a song has seen since the glory days of Rage Against The Machine. BTSU is exhilerating, melancholic, euphoric and devasting all at once. An absolute pearl of a track, I only wish I had heard it all those years ago. Come on Jai Paul, make some more music, we all need it.

1. Get Away - Yuck

There was no other place for Get Away on this list other than number 1, sure it may sound like a Dinosaur Jr/Superchunk/Pavement mashup, but maybe that is why it is so great. To me, this isn’t a song that copies all of those bands, this is a song that has a clear distinct style which seems to fit the band perfectly. This is the type of song which you would slot next to Freak Scene, Sugarcube or Slack Motherfucker, Yuck have a brilliant sound which is entirely their own, I mean look at the likeness between Dinosaur Jr and Superchunk, you don’t go around saying that Superchunk copied Dinosaur Jr do you? The belong together.

Things I love about this song:

1. The opening guitar solo, the melodic guitar, that brilliant melody.

2. The phaser on the rhythm guitar

3. The quite distorted vocals of the verse, brilliant production, just the right level

4. How the bass riff fits perfectly with vocals

5. The beauty of his voice in the chorus, the want, the need for his love.

6. “I can’t get this feeling off my chest, I want you, I need you”

7. How the above somehow sounds so genuine, but just never seems corny.

It is perfection.

The Top 50 Songs of 2011 (50-21)

It’s the middle of December, and that doesn’t just mean it’s Christmas time, it means it’s also end of year list time. That time of year when it we look back through our 2011 music collection to decide what our favourite releases were. What blew our minds the first time we heard it, what was extremely overated and which exciting new bands came and delighted the world.

There were a few rules to this list, songs had to of been released in Australia in 2011 to count, for example Jesus by Dom may have had US release last year, but only made it to Australia in 2011. And finally only one entry per artist, trust me between Yuck and SBTRKT’s debut, the new Girls and a double album of M83, the list would of been half finished right there, so I had to make it fair.

And so without any further ado, here is songs 50-21 in my Top 50 songs of 2011.

50. Promothug -  Dro Carey

49. Definite Darkness – Cymbals Eat Guitars

48. I Was Thinking – Gauntlet Hair

47. Te Amo – Atlas Sound

46. Cathode Girls – Com Truise

45. Huzzah! (Remix Feat. Despot, Das Racist, Danny Brown and El P) – Mr Muthafuckin’ Exquire

44. Dry Ice – Pure X

43. I Wanna Meet Dave Grohl – Wavves

42. Awkward – San Sisco

41. Lonely Boy – The Black Keys

40. Somebody That I Used To Know – Gotye and Kimbra

39. Need You Now – Cut Copy

38. Endless Blue – The Horrors

37. Share the Red – Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks

36. Misery – Big Troubles

35. Sore Spores – Bobby

34. Post Physical – Pictureplane

33. Jesus – Dom

32. Yonkers – Tyler the Creator

31. Einmal in der Woche schreien – Siriusmo

30. Black Night – The Dodo’s

29. Sweetest Touch – Gross Magic

28. Otis (Feat. Otis Redding) – Jay Z and Kanye West

27. Freedom for a Policeman – Chad Vangaalen

26. It’s Real – Real Estate

25. New Beat – Toro Y Moi

24. Lindisfarne I & II – James Blake

23. Benediction – Thurston Moore

22. Spitting Blood – WU LYF

21. The Morning – The Weekend

Excitement Ahead!

I know, I have not posted anything substantial for a very long time. But I have decided to jump right back on the horse. Beginning next week will see the new and improved Halcyon digest with actual regular updates.

Monday I will offer a review of Australian electronic outfit Canyon’s debut album Keep Your Dreams.

Wednesday will see the beginnning of the countdown of the Top 50 songs of 2011, from 50-21.

Thursday will have a detailed evaluation of songs 20-01.

The following Wednesday will see a countdown of the Top 50 albums of 2011 from 50-21.

Then Thursday will round out the year with a crowing of the best album of 2011.

I will then be back in January to keep my eyes on the pulse of independent music, with summer festival and gig reviews, track reviews, album reviews and other cool things like that.