Alias & Tarsier "Brookland/Oaklyn"

I had very high hopes for this album and thought I was opening my eyes to a hip, cutting edge, lush, engaging, new vista. Not so.

At first because of my relative novice status in the genre of electronica in most of its contemporary forms, I listened for the good. I tried to enjoy the music for what it was. I came at it trying to learn a new lannguage, but this is boring and lame. If this were a new school of poetry, it would be representitive of the mediocre poets, who have some of the style of the good and great ones, but none of the deep artistry.

It seems that the indie scene in general places a higher emphasis on style than it should. So much indie rock seems fueled by the dubious maxim: "Rock is all about attitude". Attitude is an essential ingrediant in lots of good rock. I like garlic, but more garlic poured on doesn't make a crappy dish better most of the time, most of the time it makes it worse, and it makes the cook look like a jackass.

But that's really neither here nor there for "Brookland/Oaklyn". It's just typically-melodramatic electronica vocals over some uninteresting beats. The whole thing is competant, I guess.

Cibelle "The Shine of Dead Electric Leaves"

This is my first post on an ostensibly record-review oriented blog.

Apparently, this album is Cibelle's move to break out of the international electronical lounge ghetto, and good for her for making that move. I heard some samples from her first full-length, and while I am ignorant of the genre and closed-minded about it, I would say thank f*cking god. It exudes a sense of liberal, easy-going, self-satisfaction. There seemed to be nothing challenging about it. A product designed as a musical acoutremant for a market-researched audience, like a "funky" lamp from Unban Outfitters: "Come over to my place, we can drink wine out of my new Ikea glasses, burn some incence, and listen to some loungey down-tempo music that exudes a vague sense of international cool - while we chat and laugh!"

On "The Shine of Dead Electric Leaves" she seems to be going for some sonic textues more interesting than the soundtracks to yuppies' cocktail parties. The percussions kind of bounce around a lot from the background into the foreground, ping-ponging off the acoustics, creating a somewhat abstract melange with the gurgling electronics and processed vocals and harmonies.

On top of it all is her voice, though. She's a lovely and soulful singer, which I haven't made peace with yet. Sometimes it strikes me as something that smoothes out the music too much, milk-soaks it to absoluely make sure the music qualifies as "soulful", and goes down easy. But these are the pangs I go through with modern music of this type due to my predilection for the 'atonal'. Broadening my horizons is not usually an easy experience.

Though sometimes she does veer into outter territories of the banal.

P.S. I have just viewed the video made of 'London, London' the Caetano Veloso cover on the album, feat. Devendra Banhardt. Even before I saw the vid, this was fast becoming my least favorite song on the album. While Banhardt pulls off a nice approximation of the Veloso aura circa 1970 ( when the song was recorded ), the video doesn't really pull anything off, except a charming ending.