Hi This is Flume: A Journey into Madness

Written By: Kirk Kitson

Hi This Is Flume is the soundtrack to your wildest parties and your worst nightmares. It’s raw distillation of color in auditory form; the personification of a hot desert summer while simultaneously harboring the iciness of a brisk winter. It’s symbolic of our growing culture of ironic detachment due to our newfound need for constant entertainment and distraction, which will only grow (get worse) as technology and capitalism both continue their constant, trudging march; a fantastic argument for the importance of poptimism while also appearing to be an outright rejection of it.

Avant garde and unknown yet conventional and familiar, Hi This Is Flume has managed to create the rawest version of Flume’s signature sound, having more in common with Amnesia Scanner, Arca, and Oneohtrix Point Never than his usual forte of mainstream dance music, a space he had previously found massive success in with 2016’s Skin.

However, it’s still unmistakably Flume – every song here still carries his stadium-filling pop aesthetic, only twisted into grotesque, primal behemoths. While it could still sound at times as if it could fit in a phone commercial or at Rolling Loud, it demonstrates more of an interest towards experimentation. Moreso, along with other works such as Charli XCX’s Pop 2 and Sophie’s Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-insides, Hi This Is Flume is indicative of pop music’s clear desire to innovate and evolve beyond its expected norms while also serving as a deconstruction of itself.

Perhaps one of the most fascinating parts of Hi This Is Flume is how it constantly has one foot planted firmly in the history of electronic music. Every song here is a mosaic of electronic music’s past, present, and future; an exciting tapestry of footwork, dubstep, ambient, drum and bass, grime, trap, future bass, IDM, witch house, the list goes on. Above all that, Hi This Is Flume is maddening, unadulterated fun. Every song here is a madhouse of ideas that flow so perfectly into each other, heeding itself to repeated listens not only because it’s incredibly dense but also satisfying.

In this regard, a fair comparison would be to Playboi Carti’s Die Lit in how they both bounce around between different forms and open themselves up to unconventionality yet can still keep the listener’s attention otherwise through pure dopamine rushes. This is what Hi This Is Flume delivers in spades – from the constant trading of sleek keys and harsh horns on Ecdysis to the maddening drop on the Is It Cold In The Water remix that carries a brutal, teeth-grinding level of distortion, to Upgrade which starts with distorted 8-bit keys yet evolves into a straight up footwork track (and a damn good one at that), Hi This Is Flume proves itself to be diverse and engaging, even when not everything works.

One of the most important things to note about Hi This Is Flume is while it does nod to a history of both conventional and experimental forms of dance music, it is also very of the moment. It becomes apparent that Hi This Is Flume is intrinsically tied to our modern psyche, a project not only made in but made for 2019. From the first track being a commentary on the artistic process and the vapid nature of dumbing that down for a mainstream audience who ignore entire aesthetics of albums for instant gratification Spotify “This is” playlists to the more obvious references of various pop culture bastions like vlogging and Game of Thrones from rapper JPEGMAFIA, Hi This Is Flume is surprisingly reflective of the various changes of this last decade, however loud or subtle. It speaks to our dysfunctional relationship with technology and consumption, serving as a raucous celebration of fleeting youth and chaos. And through this, Flume has managed to create something beautiful yet freaky and avant garde, something harsh and raw yet endlessly listenable.

 

A New Album with a New Era of Cherry Glazerr

Since their debut album in 2014, Cherry Glazerr hit the music scene with a punch (in a good way). Clementine Creevy started the band in high school and as she grew up so did her sound. In their new album “Stuffed & Ready” we can see a massive shift in their music as it takes on a more deeply personal tone. “Stuffed and Ready” explores Clementine’s emotional vulnerability in a mere 10 songs. We first start off the journey at the song “Ohio” with a striking lyric “I wish myself the best, but I’m broken” complemented by heavy guitar riffs. It delivers a bold intro song but I’m soon to be unimpressed, as the song “Daddi” comes on. “Daddi” fails to capture my interest as I feel it’s a little generic but I’m stricken by the next song “Wasted Nun.”

You can hear a familiar sound to their other albums in “Wasted Nun” but this time it’s more polished. The lyric “I’m an unproductive sin” is well pretty damn relatable. “Self Explained” gives the freshest and pop-ish sound compared to the rest of the album but still delivers Clementine’s emotional reprise. Stupid Fish” is good but delivers too similar of a sound to the rest of the album to catch my interest. The song that really blows me away is “Distressor”. “Distressor” hits with amazing guitar riffs as a hybrid of all of the sounds given to us in previous songs. In this song it’s apparent how much Cherry Glazerr has grown and Clementine as well as a lyricist. It’s the perfect victory lap for the album. Overall, I personally dub this a very solid album. Seeing them grow from a feminist powerhouse to a feminist powerhouse with a polished sound has been an amazing journey.

Stream here!

Stream Hovvdy’s new single “Late”

Hovvdy, a two-part duo from Texas, have released “Late”, a new single from their upcoming album Cranberry, set to be released February 9th, 2018. The release of “Late” follows their earlier release of “Petal”, which debuted back in October. Both tracks are melodic and slow, with introspective lyrics, reflecting on past situations.

In addition to their two releases, they are currently finishing up a fall West Coast Tour, leaving fans excited in anticipation for Cranberry‘s full release. You can preorder the album here.

Stream “Late” below:

 

Sam Smith Enthralls on The Thrill of It All

Written by: Kitty Modell-Rosen

Last week, 2014’s breakout singer/songwriter Sam Smith released his long awaited sophomore album The Thrill of It All. Smith has certainly outdone himself, stripping much of this release’s songs down to just his powerful vocals, a simple piano and when necessary, a gospel choir to add layers of strength and spirituality to his already angelic voice.

The album’s first track, “Too Good At Goodbyes” served as the album’s lead single and ushered in this new era of music for Smith and his patient fanbase. The first half of the song finds Smith accompanied by just a subtle piano playing the simplest chords, joined by finger-snapping. As emotions build and tensions rise, a beat kicks in and eventually Smith is flanked by a gospel choir, echoing his verses to the heavens.

On “HIM”, Smith tells the beautiful story of a young boy coming out to the most important men in his life – his father, and the “Holy Father”, God. Outlined within the song’s lyrics is a boy standing up for the love he holds for another boy, as well as the love he insists he deserves from God and his father despite this supposed religious transgression in the form of engaging in a homosexual relationship. The track is empowering, and brings chills to the spine when the gospel choir joins Smith, adding another layer to the religious battle the boy is fighting.

“Midnight Train” takes a somber note and flips the perspective to Smith making the painful decision to break a lover’s heart this time, as opposed to allowing his heart to be broken as he usually does. The track takes on a Doo-Wop-esque feeling and sound at the chorus, as Smith contemplates whether he is a “monster” for making the selfish decision to put himself before his now ex-boyfriend, what his lover’s family will think of him for leaving and how to put into words why he must depart for good.

The Timbaland-produced “Pray” served as an additional promotional release for the album, and was inspired by the time Smith spent in Iraq with the charity War Child. The song’s opening fools the listener into thinking the song will be upbeat, when in reality, it openly and emotionally details Smith’s naiveté regarding the state of the world – citing a lack of completed education, his young age, his ignoring of the news and having turned away from religion. By the end of the track, Smith concludes that despite all of this, we all end up praying, at one point or another, for a “glimmer of hope” in the darkness of our current world.

Additionally of note is “Scars”, exclusively available as one of the album’s special edition bonus tracks. Serving as a kind of dual letter to his mother and father in response to their divorce, “Scars” is poetic, heartwarming and heartbreaking, all in the span of three minutes. Smith sings that his parents’ newfound happiness without each other as husband and wife, as well as their assistance and guidance to their children through that tough time, has healed his metaphorical scars.

Smith’s debut release In the Lonely Hour is nothing when in the shadow of this powerful and emotional sophomore release. As a whole, The Thrill of It All is hauntingly raw and real, as Smith reveals to his listeners – layer by layer, track by track – how heartbreak of all kinds has affected him and culminated in this painfully honest collection of ballads.

Listen below:

Peach Pit- Being So Normal

Peach Pit, a four-piece act from Vancouver, released their sophomore album Being So Normal on September 15th. In February 2017, a YouTube channel sent their self-titled track, “Peach Pit” viral after discovering it on their Bandcamp. The group quickly started to amass a following, and are now on a worldwide tour (stopping in NY at Baby’s All Right Oct. 8th!). Self-described as ‘chewed bubblegum pop’, their latest album flows along with melodic guitar riffs and dreamy vocals. Each track sounds a bit different than the last, a clear experimentation with sound while progressing in their music-making.

Listen to a track off the new album below:

Album Reviews: Cloud Nothings, Real Estate, St. Vincent

Cloud Nothings- Here and Nowhere Else

Release Date: 04/01/2014

Grade: A

The last time that we heard from this Cleveland based noise-rock band they gave us one of the best albums of 2012 in Attack on Memory. That album captured the attention of many critics because of it’s consistent energy from song to song while shifting between pop-punk and garage, and a lot of the followup after this release said that future sounds from the band were going to lean more towards the garage-rock sound since they felt that was more of a strength and natural noise for frontman Dylan Baldi to sing in. This is what makes the accessibility of Here and Nowhere Else a bit of a shock. You knew that the energy was going to be there, but the band has made a point of not sacrificing their hooks in the process along with a pleasantly surprising amount of vocals being present. It’s a Cloud Nothings album which you could mosh to, the probable preferred method if you were to ask the band, but it’s also a fun and energetic album which the listener can enjoy passively. I highly recommend giving Here and Nowhere Else a listen as this is the album which I’d call my favorite album of 2014 to this point.

Favorite tracks: “No Hear In”, “I’m Not Part of Me”

Real Estate- Atlas

Release Date: 03/04/2014

Grade: B+

Real Estate is one of the premiere easy listening bands that you can turn to today, but there were some reasons to be cautious about what approach the band would take with it’s third studio album. As the band becomes more established they will continue to find themselves in situations where they could understandably flirt with the idea of changing their style for a more vocalized approach, but there hasn’t been much of an indication that this is something which the band is looking for. On the surface that seems disappointing because nobody wants to hear a band release the same album under a different name, but Atlas is better described as being an album with the same sound in new ways.

Real Estate stuck to their strengths here by making a soft-pop album which makes the room feel like a suburban escape, and they try out some new approaches to the sub-genre in the process to show that the band is still further exploring the style which they fit into so naturally. “Talking Backwards” is a surprisingly upbeat and pretty tune to prepare you for the upcoming spring, while “Crime” has an interesting duality to it with progression existing alongside passivity. “How Might I Live” is the most unique track on the album featuring guest vocalist Dean Wareham and sounding similar to one of the softer tracks by Noah and the Whale.

Track Picks: “Talking Backwards”, “April’s Song”

St. Vincent- St. Vincent

Release Date: 02/24/2014

Grade: B-

Annie Clark’s released a difficult product to review for her self-titled fourth album, as it can be a frustrating experience where the music is focused more upon variation of noise sources rather than creativity in rhythm. The music could improve in that aspect substantially, but there’s also a lot of techniques here which St. Vincent does impressively which deserve to be praised. For starters, Annie Clark has a terrific sense how to sing pop with her pitch and phrasing fitting seamlessly into her tracks, and she deserves a large amount of credit for releasing an album which is very detailed in how it’s layered and well-produced (An important accomplishment since a wide array of instruments and a full background choir are added to the final product cleanly). Annie Clark is a very confident musician who’s had the incredible fortune of being able to work with talented artists such as David Byrne and Sufjan Stevens among others up to this point in her career and she has taken advantage of these circumstances to become a well articulated songwriter in the process. St. Vincent isn’t a showing of the genius which her music seems to hint she has the potential of reaching though, instead it’s another tease to place some terrific musical qualities into an album which is good but never great.

Track Picks: “Prince Johnny”, “Regret”

Album Reviews: Broken Bells, Guided By Voices, Angel Olson

Broken Bells- After the Disco
Grade: B
Release Date: 2/04/14

Broken Bells has been a success story so far, something which shouldn’t have surprised reviewers like myself because of the talent of James Mercer as a lyricist and Danger Mouse’s history of successful collaborations. Their self-titled debut back in 2010 was a refreshing medium for Mercer to be displayed within and one of the more enjoyable releases of that year, but After the Disco feels like it falls short of the achievements of it’s predecessor. There’s something to be said about the novelty of a sound, it’s what made tracks like “The High Road” and “The Mall and Misery” become so easily enjoyable and immediate, but the duo doesn’t seem to have enough variation in their repertoire to continue releasing albums which are unique from each other, and that’s an issue. Everything on After the Disco sounds a bit too familiar for my liking, and because of that the interest diverts away from the actual product and instead focuses upon how Mercer and Danger Mouse influence each other from track to track from an experimental perspective.

All of this being said, a lot of the positive qualities of the band have survived to this second album and it’s no surprise that it has already found commercial success. The pop qualities are still very present and Mercer is still a good frontman for the project, but the lasting impression from this one is that the group might have benefitted from taking an approach similar to what The Postal Service did when they released Give Up and then returned to other projects.

Top Tracks: “After the Disco”, “Leave It Alone”

Guided By Voices- Motivational Jumpsuit
Grade: B+
Release Date: 02/18/2014

Guided By Voices was in the news for some not so great reasons recently, as their ‘classic’ lineup ran into some tension once their drummer Kevin Fennel attempted to sell his drum-set from the Bee Thousand years in an auction to the chagrin of Robert Pollard. It caused a pretty ugly feud between the two which led to Fennel’s publicized dismissal from the band, but the entire altercation has once again proven that the music of Guided By Voices will stop for no man. Motivational Jumpsuit is the first of two albums which are scheduled for release in 2014 by the band, and it captures Guided By Voices’ energetic, interesting, and diverse musical style well. The single is the first track in the album titled “Littlest League Possible” and it leaves an impression for it’s immediacy before seamlessly transitioning into “Until Next Time” which offhand references Mario Andretti in the opening lines. Pollard knows what he’s doing when he creates an album by this point in his career, and Motivational Jumpsuit strikes me as an album which was created with more attention to the details then it’s predecessors in this new revival-esque era for the band, a good effort by them.

Top Tracks: “Until Next Time”, “Some Things Are Big and Some Are Small”

Angel Olson- Burn Your Fire For No Witness
Grade: B
Release Date: 02/18/14

A more difficult listen than the other albums, Burn Your Fire For No Witness is a soft, intimate album about the longing for social independence after the break up. She does this in a similar style to what Sharon Van Etten did on Tramp in 2012 where social anxiety was discussed by stripping down the music and making the vocals sound narrative in nature. The honesty in the lyrics is the best quality of a well-produced album, creating an interesting listen which asks the listener to remain patient with the slower portions outside of tracks like “Forgiven/Forgotten” and “Hi-Five”. An area for improvement for future releases would be to find a way to reach a song’s peak more easily and consistently, something which can be achieved through improved lyricism or well-planned song form. Qualities like that are rarely present at the beginning of an artist’s career though, and we may see that progression become a natural occurrence for Angel Olson, for now she is a good artist with the potential to be very good.

Top Tracks: “Enemy”, “Stars”

Album Reviews: Bombay Bicycle Club, The Dum Dum Girls, & Modern Baseball

Bombay Bicycle Club- So Long, See You Tomorrow

Grade: B+

Release Date: February 3, 2014

Bombay Bicycle Club’s become pretty gigantic recently as this album’s already hit number one on the UK albums chart, and it’s difficult to have an issue with that when their last release A Different Kind of Fix was as impressive as it was. What the band does is an experimental and electronic style of music where they attempt to complicate the pop elements being displayed by adding more instruments, studio effects, and vocal layering to the final product. This is something which they are extremely good at managing, as I’m not a believer that Bombay Bicycle Club is one of the premiere artists in music but they are one of the best out there at enhancing their music with the modern technology that’s available to them. It doesn’t become over-complicated or lose it’s pop roots, and because of that everything remains immediate and direct so it’s a naturally appealing sound which has plenty of unique qualities to it. This is what has provided them with such a large fan base in all likelihood, and as long as they continue to release albums which are as well thought out and well produced as So Long, See You Tomorrow then they are deserving of it.

Top Tracks: “Whenever, Wherever”, “It’s Alright Now”

Dum Dum Girls- Too True

Grade: B-

Release Date: January 22, 2014

The Dum Dum Girls’ latest release before this came back in 2012, when their EP End of Daze was actually one of the better releases of that year. That release demanded your attention with it’s beautiful production, surprising song variation, and a terrific finale in “Season in Hell”, but the mentality of those tracks doesn’t seem to have been carried on to the group’s third studio album. The sound has gravitated more towards what former Dum Dum Girls member Frankie Rose has been doing in her solo work, which could still work beautifully as Franke Rose proved with Interstellar, but it doesn’t seem to have quite worked out in this instance. The product is good and the production is excellent once again, but the songs lack the necessary qualities which allow them to be identifiable, and this hurts the product in two ways; It’s difficult to find the peaks on this album which you search for as a listener, and the product tends to bleed from track to track so that you’re susceptible to mindless listening. Too True is a fine album, but it’s starting to make more sense why their most easily enjoyed release was an EP.

Top Tracks: “Evil Blooms”, “Too True To Be Good”

Modern Baseball- You’re Gonna Miss It All

Grade: B+
Release Date: 2/11/2014

There’s a lot of things which can be easily held against You’re Gonna Miss It All. It’s a very in-the-moment album filled with with an Instagram reference, conversational lyrics, and similar song structure from track to track. These qualities mean that the sound probably won’t be relevant for years to come, but this is a  release where that might not matter so much anyway. Some of the reasons for why that may be is how they fit perfectly into today’s pop-punk scene, and how they bring so much energy to the table while singing about potentially relatable self-defeating stories. There’s also a good amount of wit present in the lyrics as well, like the well-stated attack in “The Old Gospel Choir” which states “Sharp as a tack, but in the sense that you’re not smart, just a prick”. It’s difficult to say how long people will be interested in listening to this latest Modern Baseball release, but in the moment it’s a breath of fresh air which provides an easily enjoyable listen.

Top Tracks: “Your Graduation”, “The Old Gospel Choir”

Album Reviews: Jake Bugg, The Pixies, Tennis

Jake Bugg- Shangri La
Grade: B
Release Date: 11/18/2013

Jake Bugg has become one of the premiere English artists recently, and on Shangri-La you get a heavy dose of his folk-rock side. The label folk-rock is what probably makes the ‘Dylan’ label seem so applicable to him as an artist, it’s a genre which Bob Dylan single handedly brought to the forefront, but Bugg has heard that comparison many times by now and is on record as saying that he wasn’t heavily influenced by the man. Even if neither side probably enjoys hearing the comparison as this point, the label does do a good job of displaying Bugg at what he’s best at: being a singer-songwriter who’s well-versed in song form.

The lyrics in his works are good but I’m a believer that this is an area where he’s going to still improve as an artist, as right now his less meaningful songs sound like wasted efforts among their peers. “A Song About Love” seems like a good example of one of these as the song just asks Bugg’s perceived loved one if they want to hear songs about love, before Bugg settles on saying that he just want to learn where she is. There’s worse songs out there surely, but in a genre that boasts it’s story-telling ability the bar for Bugg should be set higher than that, especially since he can reach it. His Beatles’ influence also clearly shows itself at one point on this album, as I wouldn’t allow anyone to tell me that the beginning for “All Your Reasons” wasn’t created with “Don’t Let Me Down” in mind.

Track Picks: “Me and You”, “There’s A Beast And We All Feed It”, “Messed Up Kids”

The Pixies- EP2
Grade: C
Release Date: 01/03/14

The Pixies were probably the most disappointing reunion of last year, as an underwhelming EP1 and a failed attempt to replace Kim Deal with Kim Shattuck has left us with this band which doesn’t sound like what it’s name promises anymore. A lot of the original appeal of the band had to do with their energy and willingness to shock their audience with controversial topics and stances, but EP2 stays pretty tame throughout and doesn’t take advantage of the group’s strengths. I won’t blame any band for reuniting if they’re getting offered good money to play the music that they love, but I think in the long-run these EP releases are only doing damage to the legacy of a band which was set up to leave something great behind. If Deal is already out, then it only makes sense to do the return under a new project: get a new name for the new style of music that you’d like to play.

Track Picks: “Greens and Blues”, “Magdelena”

Tennis- Small Sound
Grade: B-
Release Date: 11/05/13

Tennis creates a difficult sound to grade because it has to stay in the back of your mind that their last album Young And Old sounded pretty and melodic on first listen, but didn’t prove to be a lasting sound. The reasons for why that happens are ultimately guesses, but I would point to the lack of sophistication in a group which only contains a married couple (Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley) playing pretty basic rhythms. It’s indie-pop which is guilty of being overly-reliant on studio tricks to produce overlapped choruses, and ultimately I think that Small Sound fits into the same description as the previously mentioned release. It’s fun and nice on the first listen and will fit nicely into any type of ‘what’s new’ playlist, but there’s just not enough to actually learn about the songs to justify playing this EP repeatedly.

Finally, it should be stated that it’s difficult to trust the creative process in a band composed of a married couple. There are some things which they probably don’t feel comfortable saying to each other during recording which artists need to be able to say, and I’d have to guess that the benefit in increased intimateness in the music gets outweighed by this issue.

Track Picks: “Cured of Youth”, “100 Lovers”

Album Reviews: Destroyer, The Head & the Heart, Shearwater

Destroyer- Five Spanish Songs EP

Grade: B+
Release Date: 11/29/2013

Five Spanish Songs doesn’t contain any new Destroyer songs, rather it’s entirely composed of covers of a spanish artist named Sr. Chinarro. The purpose of the EP is to be a gesture of respect and market Sr. Chinarro’s music to an audience who otherwise wouldn’t have been exposed to them in likelihood, and it proves to indeed be very fun and melodic. The opener “Maria de las Nieves” is a soft and paced track which showcases extremely calm, narrative vocals by Dan Bejar (a member of the New Pornographers, it often gets forgotten in the U.S. how successful these musicians are outside of the supergroup). “El Rito” is the most fun and danceable one on the EP and a personal favorite, and the closer “Bye Bye” is a slower, soft and thoughtful track. Of course all of this is solely based off of the sound of the music and the manner in which the lyrics are stated because by all accounts the spanish courses I attended during schooling were unsuccessful in creating a fluent speaker out of me, and the title of this EP isn’t just an homage to what was translated. That’s probably for the better as some songs can lose their beauty in the process of translation (and some can become hysterical, like “Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand“), but it’s still frustrating to listen to a line and only be able to recognize the words “Franz Kafka”. Still, this is a very good listen that I recommend listening to even if you don’t understand the lyrics, because good music can be universal.

Track Pick: “El Rito”

The Head and the Heart- Let’s Be Still

Grade: C+

Release Date: 10/15/2013

The main word that come to mind is generic. Folk rock seems like a plague in the modern music scene with artists like Mumford & Sons (now on hiatus) and Of Monsters & Men actually rising to national attention with it. I don’t intend to point to those two as examples of poor artists, but I’m a believer that they are artists who got over glorified for an enjoyable but unspectacular sound. The Head and the Heart struggle on this album struggle to bring up interesting topics and consistently seem to end up writing about clichés over basic rhythms. Simplicity can be beautiful in music when used correctly, but we’re at the point where it’s the last thing which there’s a need for within the genre, and it would be sad to see folk rock become redefined in the same unfortunate way that country music has grown to be.

Track Pick: “Homecoming Heroes”

Shearwater- Fellow Travelers

Grade: B-
Release Date: 10/08/2013

The second release in this batch of reviews which is composed of covers, with Fellow Travelers it’s difficult to even tell though. The band set their eyes on songs by Xiu Xiu, Coldplay, St. Vincent and Wye Oak among others, but they don’t really bring the band to a place where they’re easy to relate to at any point. There’s a level of respect from me for the band’s continued attempt to be meaningful and write sadder, softer songs, but the songs have to differ more than they do. This seemed like a prime opportunity to do that with the range of artists they covered, but they all still ultimately blend into each other within the same Shearwater sound that’s been frustrating myself and other listeners on their recent releases. You can sense the talent of people in the project, but I would say they’d be better off separated from each other so that they could try to find other artists to work with, ones who would do a better job of highlighting their strengths and hiding their weaknesses.

Track Pick: “Tomorrow”