Your Listening Pleasure
Portishead, Animal Collective and Fuck Buttons deliver us some new music.
Portishead – Machine Gun - Forget the smooth, film noir-evoking, "trip-hop" Portishead of yesteryear. Vocalist Beth Gibbons still sounds fantastic in the wake of the group's ten-year silence, but the new sound of Portishead is much more harsh and bleak than ever before. Distorted snare drum rolls and menacing sound effects complement Gibbon's melancholy, almost helpless vocals throughout the aptly titled "Machine Gun." And while this new direction might disappoint some long-time Portishead fans, "Machine Gun" proves that the band still has a few tricks up its collective sleeve.
Third will be out on April 29th on Mercury.
Animal Collective – Water Curses - On one hand, "Water Curses" is exactly what you'd expect from Animal Collective – a frantic collision of all kinds of strange noises and rhythms set to 3/4 time, driven by falsetto male vocal melodies that sound like they're going everywhere at once. On the other hand, the song has a distinctly nautical feel, from the prominent synthesizer and steel drums to the overall "watery" phaser effect used on the backing sound samples. Either way, "Water Curses" is one of the group's best songs to date, and strikes a good balance between the styles they explored on their previous two albums, Feels and Strawberry Jam.
The Water Curses EP will be out on May 6th on Domino.
Fuck Buttons – Bright Tomorrow - Even from the name alone, the premise behind this UK-based duo sounds like a joke. However, amid the cheap keyboards, drum machines, Gameboys and other unusual instrumentation; Fuck Buttons create drone-heavy and noisy tunes that are surprisingly warm and entrancing. "Bright Tomorrow" starts out with a simple bass drum beat; complementing staccato patterns of syncopated noise, and a repeating electric piano riff, only to be blown wide open midway through the track with a layer of noise and barely audible screams. Despite their gimmicky approach, Fuck Buttons make some seriously impressive music.
Street Horrrsing is out now on ATP.
STREAM: Portishead – Machine Gun
STREAM: Animal Collective – Water Curses
STREAM: Fuck Buttons – Bright Tomorrow
Posted by Jason Prechtel on Mar 21, 2008 @ 12:00 am
