I probably haven't done a music update in close to 6 months. It's long overdue. Anyway, I've found a lot of good new stuff over spring and summer, and here's the best of it:
Junkie XL - Today - JXL is a Dutch guy named Tom, but his sound seems to live in a very broad realm that somehow encompasses BT, Oakenfold, and The Sushi Club all in one. Up until this release, he hadn't done a studio album since the turn of the century, but this result is to him as Emotional Technology was for BT - it's heavy on vocals, heavy on emotion, but in it Tom somehow manages not to lose his identifying sound. If you're a fan of any kind of electronica, from high-adrenaline trance sounds to ambient blankets in which to wrap up some smooth vocals, you'll find something to like here. (Side note: If you like what you hear, make sure to go back and grab 4 of JXL's mix sets - they're called Radio JXL and are titled 7am, 7pm, 3am, and 3pm, and each one is done in a certain style.) I was content to call "Today" the techno album of the year, until...
Paul Oakenfold - A Lively Mind - Hooray, a new Oakenfold studio album! This album's even more of an analogy for Emotional Technology. There's less of the Crystal Method sound going into here and more experimentation with new styles of stuff, much in the same direction that BT himself went. But that said, it's not a cheap knock-off. The lead-off track, and single, is "Faster Kill Pussycat" with - of all people - Brittany Murphy (yes, the actress) doing the vocals. And she *kills*. It's hot. And it's even hotter when you watch the video. No, I'm not kidding. She really can pull off the whole techno vocals / hottie in a music video thing. But it gets better, as on some tracks it starts to sound like Oakenfold is taking direct stabs at other artists. There's two tracks featuring Ryan Tedder, who sounds strangely close to a certain Mr. Transeau, and the track "Sex and Money," despite featuring the one and only Pharrell, is just an aural parody of Benny Benassi and it's hilarious. All in all, it's every bit as good as Bunkka, just without the tracks that were, well, bunk.
Crazy Ken Band - 777 - Somewhere between Stevie Wonder and the Katamari Damacy soundtracks, there's Crazy Ken and his Band. It's a Japanese take on funk music and the result is a huge, indescribable palette of styles of music. But if your tastes occasionally stray outside the bounds of normal music, or music in English, then you just might be pleased to find yourself here. It's my new music for cruising with the windows down on a nice, sunny day. And other people at traffic lights, man oh man are they confused.
Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere - You knew this was coming, didn't you? After the absolutely ridiculous success of "Crazy" all around the world, I really couldn't avoid this album anymore. It's an avant-garde take on hip-hop, and that's all I really need to say about it to get the point across. It seems like you'll either love it or hate it. I can't decide.
Feist - Open Season - Don't get excited, it's just a remix album from the woman who brought back lounge music. Aroon and I had a huge argument over the worth and validity of this album. He thinks it's brilliant; I think it's garbage. Half the album alone is mixes of "One Evening" and "Mushaboom." At the very least, I can see where Aroon's coming from: the VV mix of One Evening is brilliant, and though decidedly having a heavily programmed sound, it still comes across as lounge music. It's the cool, "trendy-sounding" music I'd want playing while I threw a small party for incredibly cool, chill people. That song is worth the 99 cents on iTunes. That song is what this whole album should have been. Ya know, like Feist, but remixed. What we end up with is one cool song and 13 tracks in the vein of the Postal Service mix of Mushaboom. Instead of sounding cool and trendy, it sounds like The Postal Service putting a new backbeat behind Mushaboom and throwing on a couple of those shitty, whiny, tenor vocals from the singer whose name I don't care about - ya know, instead of the good, thoughtful, baritone vocals he laid down on the newest Death Cab album. I'm confused. Oh, and then throw on the top an untouched version of Tout Doucemont - while a good song, I already have it - and a B-side song from a folk singer you've never heard of that just happened to feature Feist. A remix album should deconstruct songs and reconstruct them in completely new ways, like building new cities out of the same Lego blocks - new places, but made with familiar materials. For examples on how to do this well, see Dzihan and Kamien, or Nine Inch Nails. For examples on how not to do this, see Feist.
Zero 7 - The Garden - Uh, what? Everyone fell in love with Zero 7 when it was the trendy, cool music to play in ultra-chilled bars and sushi places. Then came When It Falls, the second album, and it went unplugged. It sounded much more folksy. Then came the solo album from front-woman Sia, which made it clear that the folksy Zero 7 was her doing. Now with The Garden, we have another album that sounds identical to Sia's solo album. I won't insult people who listen to folksy music, as it's artistically as valid as anything, but due to my personal quirks I just can't stand the sound of it. But for fans of Sia, or Beth Orton, or Jeff Buckley, you're probably in for some kind of treat.
