Record Reviews: Usher, Lurker of Chalice

 

Mezzanine Owls | Mezzanine Owls EP | Jax Art 

The Mezzanine Owls always had good songs, what they didn’t have was a sound of their own. Originally recording under the name the Few, Jack Burnside & Co. got their start riffing off the old Replacements’ songbook, penning catchy, caffeinated three-minute burners that were always fun but rarely interesting. A lineup and name change later they dropped their sophomore LP, 2006’s Slingshot Echoes, which reflected a sonic shift toward Jesus & the Mary Chain worship and gauzy pretty noise that did little to demarcate themselves from the Black Rebel Motorcycle Clubs of the world. But Mezzanine Owls, their EP on the L.A.-based Jax Art imprint, reveals a major step forward, with the band learning to fit their epic intentions into cozier constructs — the record’s four songs check in at just more than 13 minutes. Indeed, the quartet has come into their own, finding a balance between Burnside’s haunted caterwaul, Jonathan Zeitlin’s soaring guitar lines and ethereal keys, and Pauline Mu, who isn’t just one of the best female drummers making music today, she’s one of the best, period. (Jeff Weiss)

Frightened Rabbit | The Midnight Organ Fight | Fatcat Records

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Frightened Rabbit follow up the off-kilter underground raved debut Sing the Greys by fleeing the ship of shambles. They worked with Peter Kalis, producer of tastefully quirky modern indie hits for the National and Spoon, and this album bears similar signature dramatic, if mannered, layers of acoustic accompaniment blended with keen studio sense on songs utterly well-rehearsed. In the foreground, singer Hutchison’s melancholic words lilt with a round Glasgowian accent that mostly saves him from likeness to Adam Duritz by way of Conor Oberst. The first half modern-rocks over either awkward or inventive sparse shuffle beats. The second half unwinds with gentle fingerpicked ballads like “Poke,” a song so sweet it’s possible to forget how earlier, Hutchison sounded equally sincere singing, “I might not want you back, but I want to kill him” on “Good Arms vs. Bad Arms.” While low-level romantic dread permeates, it’s seldom that he breaks so wonderfully bare. (Daphne Carr)

 

Air | Moon Safari 10th-anniversary edition | Astralwerks

Belatedly, we were hipped to the iffy fact that Air stands for Amour, Imagination, Rêve, or Love, Imagination, Dream. A oui bit redundant, perhaps, but were we to start slighting the quintessentially Parisian duo for romantic indulgence, well...that’s one glasshouse that needn’t be disturbed. Ten years later, the monument that is Air’s debut, Moon Safari, still stands, even if it’s fluid-damaged in parts (a glass van might be a more apt metaphor). “Sexy Boy” remains a vamping bit of electro bliss, and sprawlers like “New Star in the Sky” remind us how unexpectedly timeless this synth-driven music really is. Slightly more dated is this edition’s bonus CD, where radio performances out-umph the remixes (Beck’s included) and demos. But the accompanying DVD, showing the boys French-ily bumbling around New York City, and the illustrated book that binds this collection together round out our hormonally fogged memories of Air pre-acronym — just a fantastic “French Band” (as the album art explained) grasping at the great ethereal. (Chris Martins)

 

Various Artists| Anthology of Noise & Electronic Music, Volume 5 | Sub Rosa 

This series of releases digging into the roots of an art that has somehow evolved in a popular genre called “electronic music” (which now means dance music) is invaluable if only for an explanation of how the most radical of art forms generally do come to inform and even define contemporary art and culture. Volume 5 highlights electronic explorations of the voice, not as a melodic instrument or vehicle for literal communication, but as an excellent sound source through distortion, electronic filtering, musique concrete (tape-collage) and other techniques. The pieces are grouped as a conceit according to particular techniques, country of origin, characteristic studio sound, historical relevance and as predictors of future directions. An international spectrum of artists working in widely varied approaches includes Charlemagne Palestine; Pere Ubu; Léo Kupper’s stunning “Electro-poème”; and Japan noise master Masonna’s awesome “Spectrum Ripper.” Two magical hours of educational wonder, the double-disc set’s deluxe digipack, which includes a 54-page booklet, is a thing of beauty too. (John Payne)