Lambertwhite

This set is just awesome...i just love listening to them..

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DriveYourCarDownToTheSea

@Surrel,

OK I finally got around to listening to your two tracks.

Panic - Hmmmm. Let's just say that, 1) it should be some sort of background track for a scene in a movie, and 2) the last couple minutes caught the attention of my cat. I have a lot of respect for my cat's aesthetic preferences, so there must be something interesting about it!

Shabazz Palaces - This, too, sounds like it would be great for background music in a movie scene (at least parts of the song). It was OK, but not really my "thing." Not really a rap fan.

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Surell

Animal Collective definitely follow their muse to just about anywhere, and I think they blend more diverse elements together in more unusual ways than most of their contemporaries. Those bands are very good though, and if you dig them, you'd probably like Foxygen too. Not nearly as experimental in the psychedelic spectrum, but they do make top notch 60s/70s original tributes, in a sense. We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic is mainly what I refer to:


You may also like MGMT, but I'm not so hot on them. Great production, though, and some interesting sounds, a little more like if psychedelic music began in the 80s.

EDIT: Missed your last post, "Panic" is definitely more of a track based around the ambience, most of Indian is really, but that track always makes me perk up, I guess it's the vibe combined with Panda Bear's yelp. A more lively track would probably be "Hey Light." And I understand if you didn't dig Shabazz as much, it's very low key and hip hop oriented. If you dug anything about it, though, I would recommend the song "Are You... Can You... Were You?" it's good.

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DriveYourCarDownToTheSea

Those 3 Foxygen songs went to the other extreme for me - being too conventional almost to the point of being boring.

That's what I like about MPP so much, the perfect combination of pop music approachability/familiarity and interesting/creative/complex musical stuff.

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Surell

((( i'm sorry to hear that, but I understand that you are very well versed with that form of music, especially the originals. They get my goat just because it is so familiar, it's like hearing an echo or something, but I can only loosely piece together certain aspects of the songs (though sometimes it is pretty blatant).

Btw have you listened to any Panda Bear yet? His breakthrough/super acclaimed album Person Pitch was called a deconstructionist vision of Brian Wilson by one publication I can't recall (it said so on my vinyl copy). I'm sick of youtube right now, but if you're interested, my favorite cuts are "Bros" and "Take Pills," but it's only 7 tracks long (however, two are 12 minutes long).

Also, I just stumbled on the structure issue you addressed from the last page, and while some noise stuff is pretty ridiculous I think that not only do some of the songs justify themselves because it's not random notes so much as tone setting (like how Penderecki used to use awkward noises to ellicit harsh emotions (he was a bit of an influence on them from what i've read)), but for the most part they also an ear for some sort of melody or hooks, so usually that comes through a little bit.

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DriveYourCarDownToTheSea

Yeah I've listened to Person Pitch a few times now. Great album, I intend to listen to his other stuff as well when I get a chance.

When I listen to music, I'm usually interested in something that engages me. Tone-setting usually doesn't interest me for that reason. Often I'll listen to Bach or maybe some sort of spacy stuff if I want some background music, but weird, atonal stuff isn't the kind of thing I'd want for that purpose.

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DriveYourCarDownToTheSea

OK I listened to both for a second time just a short while ago. I'll have more later, but while it's fresh in my mind I have the following observation:

I can understand why some long-time AC fans weren't fond of MPP. If you liked, and were expecting, stuff like Sung Tongs and Feels, and then listened to MPP, it would be like having gotten used to and enjoying PDQ Bach, and then suddenly having Beethoven's 9th Symphony thrust upon you. The two older albums are, well ... quaint, for lack of a better word, while MPP is vastly more ambitious, almost grandiose, by comparison. Someone not used to such epicness from their favorite band might be turned off by MPP.

More later ...

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DriveYourCarDownToTheSea

Alright, brief synopsis ...

After listening to both albums again, my initial impression that Feels was a bit silly stands, though I think I liked it better the 2nd time around. One guy who sang a lot of the songs sang in the tone of voice which was just, well ... dumb. Otherwise there were some interesting things and nice passages, but nothing really jumped out at me too much. It's not a bad album, but not great either.

Sung Tongs I liked a little better, but not by much. It seemed a bit more serious. However, I just can't get through the last song, it just sounds too dumb.

It's not that I don't like a silly or un-serious song now and then, but when it seems to pervade an entire album, I can't help but wonder if they were trying to produce serious music, or just goofing around.

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DriveYourCarDownToTheSea

Really gotten into this today. Fascinating song!

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Surell

I personally found Strawberry Jam to be a more grand album and more engaging on the whole, mainly because of the production and because it felt like there were no wasted moments - every song on the album is at least very good, where MPP has lesser songs like "Bluish" and moments that don't hit as hard (I know you'll hate this but i really hate that part near the end of "Also Frightened"). But the main reason I also like MPP slightly less besides lessened experimentation (which SJ reigned in just enough) is that it didn't mark very much progression as their albums usually do. Every album up to that point could not be mistaken for any other album, and MPP seemed to recycle former musical ideas, which sounds pretty harsh but is how i feel. It does have a very smooth flow and bright atmosphere that makes it, like, the quintessential summery album, but that could also go for Beach House's Bloom which is not a great album but has good evocation of blissful feelings (and occasionally existential dread maybe).

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