[rayword45]

Day 60: Piramida by Efterklang (Album Choice: Gus V.)

It's the last multiple of 10 for the summer! Time for mini-reviews (yes, I'm going to be doing this pretty often)

1. Folktronica is a genre I always assumed one thing about, and never really bothered to listen to much. Now I've listened to one "seminal" folktronica album, Up In Flames by Caribou (formerly Manitoba). And I liked it! There were underlying folk influences but the main thing that came to mind was psychedelica. The entire album is swirling in layered sound with loads of IDM influence, like a more electronic and less falsely-orchestrated Flamings Lips. It's a short record (clocking in under 40 minutes) and still feels packed (in a good way). 8.5/10

2. Here's another album recommended to me because I liked Neutral Milk Hotel, but no comparison this time. Fevers and Mirrors by Bright Eyes is yet another folk-influenced album. I don't know why this one was recommended to me, it's way too bleak for me to draw a comparison. That's the only thing I get out of this album. Bleakness, complete with constantly wavering vocals and depressing lyrics. Well, the lyrics themselves are actually pretty good. The album as a whole, though, seems sort of self-indulgent. I mean, he inserted a praising radio interview into a studio album. What kind of move is that? Either it's a tongue-in-cheek joke or this guy is really self-obsessed. And if it's the former, I can barely take any of the album too seriously. Which would make sense, because this album really overdoes the bleak aspect. Still, the instrumentation is fair enough and the lyrics are nice. 6/10

And now the real review.

I said my sentiments about power pop yesterday, and I have the same sentiments about indie pop. However, because of the broadness of the genre, I'm going to avoid generalizations, or any really high predictions. So less disappointment for me! From Denmark, we have a indie pop group that formerly dabbled in post-rock with a sort of "rock orchestra" like many other post-rock groups that I don't feel like naming. Then they fired half their members. Now they switched to synth-heavy indie pop. Which is probably why they got signed to 4AD in the first place. I like a lot of 4AD though.

And yeah, it sounds like 4AD. Well, that's not completely accurate. Truth be told I don't think there's a definitive 4AD sound (like there definitely is with Touch and Go or Rise Records) but what I imagine is basically either folk rock (not this) or pop/rock with synth in it. That second one is pretty vague and we have people that don't fall under this tag like The Breeders, but I think it's fair to link it partially to this album. A fair amount of synths behind dream pop loaded with interesting instrumentation and field recordings. And that goes for every song. Except the synth part, that's only a few tracks. Almost every track incorporates aforementioned field recordings to an extent that captures some amount of interest, but as a whole the album feels really cold. Actually, that probably was the goal, considering they went to an abandoned Russian settlement near the north pole for this album. But still, the icy sound is kind of disappointing, with the well-crafted instruments feeling a bit underutilized (and that's pretty odd, they had a 70 piece girls' choir). Jesus this album is hard to review.

This is another case of "fair enough" music for the entire album. With all the field recordings and the lush instrumentation, and the extremely clear talent and effort put in (going to the north pole for example), this album feels awfully static in terms of risks taken. They could've made it sound a little warmer and this would probably be a very whole-hearted recommendation. As it stands, I'm probably missing the point with all the coldness. For me, the undaring sound throughout combined with sterility makes it oddly impenetrable. I'll give this another listen sooner or later, to see if my opinion changes.

I have to listen to 19 albums in 8 days to reach 100. I think that's pretty doable.