Lasso - Lasso'd (Double Phelix, 2011)

It's a magnificent album of Psychedelic Rock that would be a sort of symphonic Garage mixing very well dirt and greatness. But it's also Psychedelic Rock merged with numerous genres. All these genres aren't mixed together, but they are used according to the tracks and many tracks alternate various mixes. The evoked genres are for example, Country, Western Spaghetti, Soundtracks, Cabaret, Pub music, Classic, Gypsy, Asia, Surf, Mass, and more.

It's very diverse and very well merged and chained, so despite all this diversity, the album keeps a strong unity. The result is an original and very varied Psychedelic Rock Garage with a dirty greatness. A magnificent album, for me it's a classic that I store with the greatest Rock classics.

You can listen it on bandcamp, but I suggest skip one or two minutes of first track beginning because it's a part difficult to appreciate without a good sound quality. Or you can preview it here but at a quality only a bit better than standard streaming, and be fair, if you like dig it, support the artists and don't forget to buy the album.

To support the artists you can buy the cassette, the CD or the digital album at Lasso bandcamp page.

Organ Eyes - Multibody (Bruised Tongue, 2013)

This is the first EP of this Canadian band, but with six tracks and 24 minutes it's almost a short album. This band is from Ottawa like Boyhood for which When I'm Hungry was reviewed in the blog, and both was released on the label Bruised Tongue. Multibody was released at the end of 2012 as a video. But it's only at beginning of 2013 that it's been properly released through the label.

At first listening I heard Dream Pop and though, again Dream Pop, an approach overused in many very popular genres... sigh. But without to understand why, I was glued and couldn't stop listening. At second listening it was obvious, it's far beyond a classical Dream Pop. There's an intense work on sounds, it's not flashy but it's constant and it changes significantly the music. This work is on the music as well as on the varied and relatively complex singing.

This work on sounds creates touches of originality, effects creating small gaps, oddities, changes of atmosphere, or simply additional games on sounds and textures adding another dimension to the music. All this adds a lot of depth to the music but also it builds a discrete but in-depth originality.

The compositions are very good, this is elegant without being too clean, on the contrary. The music brings some energy and some power building a contrast with the more aerial singing. The result is rather staggering and of an exceptional quality.

You can listen it on Bruised Tongue label bandcamp page. Or you can preview it here but at a quality only a bit better than standard streaming, and be fair, if you like dig it, support the artists and don't forget to buy the album.

To support the artists you can buy the digital album at Bruised Tongue label bandcamp page and at a minimal price rather low. It seems that the cassette isn't available yet. But to buy a cassette perhaps you can try contact the label or the band through their facebook page.

Black Bug - Reflecting the Light (XVIII 2012, Hozac 2013)

This album of this Swedish group currently based in France was initially released in vinyl at the end of 2012 on a French label, XVIII. Recently Hozac re-released the album, at the same time for an American distribution of the vinyl but also for the CD and digital versions.

It's the second album of the group, but it is very different from the first one, and the composition of the band changed a little with the departure of the female singer. The first album was drier, a bit minimalist and more violent. This new album isn't minimalist, it is darker, more roundish and more powerful than violent. Sometimes it is a bit dancing, while keeping a Punk aggressiveness and dirtiness.

It's Post Punk with some New Wave elements but it hasn't the classic New Wave sonorities. It would be more between the first album of Chrome and a little the first album of The Sound while being very different to both. Another way of seeing its genre, it's powerful Synth-Punk a little Cold Wave that is a bit tenebrous but also a little bit dancing and catchy. It is a bit in the lineage of Joy Division including this dancing aspect on some tracks as in Joy Division's first album. But there too it is very different from what made Joy Division.

It's the quality of the tracks which makes this album excellent. It begins by chaining eight varied tracks and all are a slap. The track 10 is also excellent. On the other hand, for my ears, the tracks 9 and 11 are less strong without being bad. Anyway this album is listening in one breath and it is intoxicating so much it is excellent.

You can listen it on XVIII label bandcamp page. Or you can preview it here but at a quality only a bit better than standard streaming, and be fair, if you like dig it, support the artists and don't forget to buy the album.

To support the artists you can buy the vinyl either to XVIII label for Europe, either to Hozac label for America. You can also buy the CD to Hozac label. And you can buy the digital on the various standard places.

Thee MVP's - Philly Jammin (Stolen Body, 2013)

This is the second EP of this UK band and it is much better than the first. It's Garage Rock of an unusual style in contemporary Garage. Those last years Garage music was often dense which strengthens the Garage aspect. Here it's a Garage with more space and more variations of sound intensity. It gives it a very pleasant 70's color.

This space is in the structures of the tracks as well as the music with less sound density but with an excellent work on the dirty aspect to compensate.

Another significant aspect is how the tracks are very catchy with numerous riffs, sequences and vocal parts that are very effectives and catch quickly and firmly the attention.

With a first mildly distracted listening this EP could seem a bit good Garage but a bit common, but with some attention and by enjoying the very catchy aspect, it shows all its qualities. It's an excellent EP and with a style not common for its time.

You can listen it on Stolen Body label bandcamp page. Or you can preview it here but at a quality only a bit better than standard streaming, and be fair, if you like dig it, support the artists and don't forget to buy the album.

To support the artists you can buy the cassette or digital on Stolen Body label bandcamp page. And you can also buy the cassette to Stolen Body label.

Walter TV - Appetite (Amdiscs, 2012)

For the anecdote, Mac DeMarco is a member of this Canadian band. It's really anecdotal because the music is totally different than the two albums of Mac DeMarco.

Some time ago I listened a lot this album and it was a shock. It is lively, dynamic and catchy but also very strange and with an excessive but heartening enthusiasm coming as well from the singing as from the music.

By listening it again with hindsight of a break of almost two months, I still hears the oddities, in fact mainly in the singing, but it seems to me much less strange but rather creative, original and varied. The strange singing became with hindsight a very original and not conventional approach.

It's a significant album, very special and full of enthusiasm, a kind of Arcade Fire first album in a Lo-Fi crazy version and probably more creative or at least more varied.

It's a "choose your price" download at bandcamp. So don't hesitate to put 0 for a free download, or to support the artists you can put the price you want. You can also buy the cassette at Amdiscs label.

Joy As A Toy - Dead As A Dodo (Cheap Satanism, 2012)

 

The original idea of this Belgian group was to have fun by making an album which mixes the zombies movies themes with Pop / Rock. But in the end it's much more than an amusement, it's an astonishing success, the best mixture of this kind which I ever listened. The Italian band Goblin did same kind of mixture and their best albums are doubtless more ambitious, but they sin a little by an excess of abstraction making them a little abstruse and a bit difficult to listen out of the context of the movie for which they were made.

So this Dead As A Dodo is a mixture of Pop / Rock with sounds and music themes from horror movies, and what is great is that it's a real mixture and not just some horror movies sounds pasted on a music. And even better, it is fun, very seductive and quite audacious which adds even more spice. This is a rare album and a wonderful success.

You can listen it on Cheap Satanism label bandcamp, or on various streaming sites, I noticed Deezer, Rdio and Spotify. Or you can preview it here but at a quality only a bit better than standard streaming, and be fair, if you like dig it, support the artists and don't forget to buy the album.

To support the artists you can buy the LP, CD or digital at some specific places listed by Cheap Satanism label. You can also buy the digital album at the various standard places, not only those listed by the label.

Maston - Shadows (Trouble In Mind, 2013)

It's the first album of Maston after two EP released in 2011 and 2012. It's also the first release of Maston on a label, Trouble In Mind. The second EP, Voyages, is rather psychedelic, but this is much less obvious for this album. In fact I have difficulty to pinpoint the genre of this album and I feel it out of any genre.

On certain tracks there's a light psychedelic touch. Often it evokes a soundtrack of an unknown movie. Sometimes there are subdued echos by a fanfare or a circus music but on a light mode which is contradictory with this music genre. Some faint echoes are from Country or Western music. And vocals often remind a 60's Pop a bit psychedelic, but it sounds more modern. However if it evokes many music genres, they are always fleeting echoes, and no track of the album belongs clearly to one of these genres.

In a way it remind me another Pop album, François Elie Roulin - Parade released in 2005 on the label Bizarbizar. I don't know why, perhaps because both are merging Pop with some genres like Soundtrack, Fanfare, old school Pop, or Western. But on Shadows those mixes are more echoes and on Parade the mixes are more obvious and it's more clearly pure Pop.

In comparison with the previous EPs the album has a denser music, it is better produced and has more vivacity. That's why it is probably ideal to discover this author a little apart. However for the fans of psychedelic, the second EP, Voyages, is probably more recommended because it is more clearly psychedelic.

It's an excellent album, it is original and of an uncertain genre. And in an improbable way, it is at the same time a bit dreamy and dynamic. Its genre is a little but not completely, a mixture of a slightly psychedelic Pop from the 60's, a Soundtrack which would be a bit from a Western movie but not really, and with lost echoes from a distant circus fanfare.

To listen: I noticed on bandcamp here, or on standard streaming sites. Or 115k vbr v6 preview.

To support the artists: Buy the LP or CD at Trouble In Mind label. Or the digital on the various standard places.

Where all of this is going if nobody buy the music? Be fair, buy the music you like dig.