65daysofstatic
We Were Exploding Anyway
(Hassle)
4/5
Do not drive while listening to this electronic post-rock Brit band: you will speed and/or attempt to pull off dangerous driving maneuvers.
65daysofstatic’s album starts off slow and simple but quickly builds to a mastered delivery of their chaotic yet smoothly orchestrated sound.
The album highlight is “Come to Me,” which features Robert Smith of The Cure, though you might not recognize him as his vocals are looped and altered almost beyond recognition.
The whole album sounds like the soundtrack to an action-packed movieŃeerie, intense, and adrenaline pumping.
Looking for music to get you going in the morning? This album will have you feeling like you could kick ass and take names all day long. Need workout music? Your gym sessions will feel like montages of you training for the fight of your life.
-Clorisa Simpson
Tori Amos
Night of Hunters
(Deutsche Grammophon)
4/5
Tori Amos’ maturity and playfulness shows through on her twelfth album, Night of Hunters, in a way that will continuously involve any listener’s imagination.
With her characteristic piano solos and strong vocals, as well as brass, strings, and woodwind instrument combinations, the 14 songs blend together to create a modern and realistic love story that comes true following a journey to Ireland’s mystical past.
Night of Hunters is an album that is youthful, timeless, beautiful, and contains aspects of Amos’ passion for classical music, inspiration from composers like Bach and Chopin, and the young voice of her 11-year-old daughter.
Amos’ album is intriguing, and it also offers what many people look for: an escape. Through the sounds and descriptions in Night of Hunters, any listener can be taken from their daily life and transported to a wonderful, relaxing evening at the theatre.
-Chesley Ryder
Das Racist
Relax
(Greedhead)
4.5/5
Das Racist’s third full-length and first commercially available album, Relax, is a solid follow-up to last year’s Sit Down, Man mixtape. Although Relax is a lazier effort than their first two mixtapes, it still hits a lot harder than most modern hip-hop albums. And, like all their albums, it’s fun.
Relax is like a movie about a family vacation that goes astray, half the family goes missing, and the youngest member of the family ends up robbing a major swimsuit conglomerate; cut to the end of the movie where he’s 10 years older and owns a moderately successful Midwestern night club. In other words, Relax is like, “What am I watching? Okay, fuck it, sure.”
American hip-hop has been getting a serious revamp for about three years, and along with BBU, Wugazi, Shabazz Palaces, The Weeknd, Death Grips, Big Krit, Lil B, and Oddfuture, Das Racist is at the forefront of that change.
-Adam Price
Greg Rekus
The Dude Abrides
(Rekus)
2/5
Winnipeg’s Greg Rekus puts together a solid and modern mixture of indie, punk, folk, and rock on his debut album, The Dude Abrides, but the end result isn’t going to win him too many new fans outside of his prairie hometown.
Rekus makes use of constant guitar strumming, stomp box rhythmics, and his characteristic vocals to create a sound that’s strongly influenced by eastern Canadian artists.
The 10 songs that make up The Dude Abrides have themes that range from politics to friendship to drinking. Every song on the album manages to stay true to Rekus’ alternative style, which, it must be said, has a lot of energy to it.
Rekus’ passion for what he does is all over this album, and it showcases his style well. Unfortunately, that style may not be able to find a place on peoples’ home stereo systems or iPods, but it will remain welcome in a small-town bar.
-Chesley Ryder
Wolves in the Throne Room
Celestial Lineage
(Southern Lord)
4/5
On Celestial Lineage, Wolves in the Throne Room’s fourth full-length release, the Olympia metal/ambient band delicately lay down the bones of a four-year trilogy.
When Wolves in the Throne Room came on the scene in early 2003 they were universally hailed as either heretics or prophets, and although they didn’t create ambient Cascadian black metal they were able to popularize it with the release of Diadem of 12 Stars and Two Hunters.
Like all Wolves in the Throne Room albums, Celestial Lineage conjures forth images of seasonal loss, trees and roots in un-calculable patterns, and earth regurgitated by earth.
The addition of female vocals was wise and further grounds the album between harshness and melancholic levity. “Thuja Magnus Imperium,” “Astral Blood,” “Woodland Cathedral,” and “Prayer of Transformation” are all stellar examples of that contrast.
-Adam Price