Listening To The Lost, Part 2

I am continuing the goal of listening to the unplayed on the hard drive. I mostly listen to the album before looking up its vitals.

Next up D, E and F albums.

Django Django- Django Django (2012)

Where this came from, I don't know. Probably read about it somewhere. Don't know what to expect, all I know is that it's alphabetically its between Diver Down by Van Halen and Djangologie - a Django Reinhardt box set; and will probably sound like neither.

They possibly sound like another band (MGMT??), but I'm not positive, since I'm not exactly sure what they sound like. Are they an American band? Is it a side project from someone in a more popular band?

A couple good songs. "Wor" is Duane Eddy mixed with Bow Wow Wow and generous echo. "Love's Dart" is a gallopy acoustic ride. Towards the end it gets kindy samey. "Skies Over Cairo" an instrumental with Egyptian sounds and "Silver Rays" sounds like it could have been recorded by The Silver Apples, and, is the song title an homage to the late 60s band?

The highlight is "Hail Bop", an absolute beast of a song, that shines above the rest of the album like its cometary name sake. It also gets an instant 6star qualification.

So, a 4-piece british band. One member is brothers with a dude from The Beta Band, with whom they share some sonic qualities. It was nominated for a Mercury Prize (British version of Grammy for Album of the Year, kind of) and was probably on a year end list I scrubbed to acquire some new music. Not the worst. Can't say much more than that.

Everybody - The Sea And Cake (2007)

Pretty sure they are an American band with ties to Tortoise and the other post rock bands from Chicago that share members. And I was correct; John McEntire the drummer for Sea and Cake plays in Tortoise.

I was not expecting a jazzy-lilting duel-guitar attack, perfect for a late morning Sunday afternoon listen; or end of a long Friday night to wind down.

Sam Prekop and Archer Prewitt weave wonderful guitar lines together; while Eric Claridge bass lines bounce around what McEntire lays down on the drums.

"Middlenight" and "Left On" stood out on first listen and this record is definitely a mood listen.

Everybody sits in the middle of their discography, most of which sits on my hard drive. Will return and check out more; maybe go back to the beginning and listening to it in order to see how they evolve. 

Faust IV- Faust (1973)

One of the pioneers of Krautrock (I knew that). Their fourth album (pretty obvious). It would get them dropped by their record label (did not know, now can't wait for first listen). 

The album starts with the song "Krautrock", which, if someone asked you what the genre sounds like, you would be hard pressed to find a better example. It's everything you would find on any album classified as krautrock. Eleven minutes plus of long repeating motifs that fade in and out, chugging bass/percussion lines that slowly shift up and down in the mix but are ever present and droning swirling sounds on top of everything from an instrument that could be a fuzzed out guitar or heavily modified keyboard.

"The Sad Skinhead" is just waiting to be covered by the Violent Femmes. "Jennifer" is five minutes of the slow part of "Creep", finished off with 2 minutes of someone trying (badly) to play piano like Thelonious Monk.

A few noise collages fill up the second half of the record, but it also contains the wonderful "Picnic On A Frozen River, Deuxieme Tableux". A very krautrock song with the obligatory sax solo, followed by a tempo change and a guitar solo which gets a very repetitive 80s keyboard riff stamped on top of it for the final three minutes.

The albums is an uneven as 'w' written by a preschooler; the good on this record is great, the rest is meh or worse. It did lead me to create a new smart playlist, "5 Star Krautrock." Two other Faust albums reside on the drive, Faust and Faust So Far. Will check them out later.