Print Edition: September 18, 2013
Hate dept.
New Ghost
New Ghost is the fifth release from industrial rockers Hate Dept. Their previous album, Ditch, was released almost a decade ago. New Ghost feels like a “best of” compilation of new tracks from the band. The album bounces back and forth in style, from machine funk-like Rob Zombie to gothic tunes in the vein of Sisters of Mercy. There is more melody than scream, but enough of a hard rock edge to get heads banging. Often referred to as a pioneer of the ‘Cold Wave’ genre, Hate Dept. is a rock band at heart. Bulletproof tracks to watch out for are “Disconnector,” “New Son Army,” “Broken Rule,” and “Subordinates.” On the EBM side of the genre is the dance floor-friendly “Hard Times” and trip-hop styled “Amanda Jones.” For those who have never heard of this 20-year-old band, this is a good place to start. New Ghost is heavy, focused, and fully powered. The record lands somewhere between a crazy house party back in the 1990s and a political rally in the year 2084. If you want something old and new at the same time, Hate Dept. is your ticket.
Pixies
EP-1
Aside from a few stray tracks, EP-1 is the first proper release from the Pixies since their 1991 record Trompe le Monde, and this collection takes the form of a brief four-song EP, ending the band’s nine-year exile as a simple touring nostalgia act. The question then becomes: Will the new music be worthy of the name? Unfortunately for fans of the group’s previous material, EP-1 sounds like a polished, professional rock-group. Aside from the recent departure of bassist Kim Deal, the original lineup is still intact. Frank Black, Joey Santiago, and David Lovering all participated in the recording of EP-1. Longtime Pixies producer Gil Norton sat at the helm. Yet, despite this encouraging lineup, this is not the Pixies. The Pixies died out more than 20 years ago in the last few measures of Trompe le Monde. The songs on EP-1 are essentially outtakes from Frank Black’s solo career played by his longtime friends and bandmates. All traces of humanity have been removed from the lyrics. The music lacks inspiration. The magic is gone. And the sad part is, the title of the EP suggests more releases in the near future.
Julia Holter
Loud City Song
One of the most important conditions of music is how we listen to it – stationary or moving, in tranquility or drowned by a dozen voices. Julia Holter’s Loud City Song, which foregrounds a single voice and silence, could seem to thrive only in a sheltered, esoteric setting. “World,” the album’s opening track, alternates surges of Holter’s voice and familiar (from last year’s Ekstasis) tuning runs of horns and strings with repeated stops, a strategy that folds into, rather than disappears with the rest of the album. But it isn’t fragile. On Loud City Song, Holter is still introspective to a degree (a city symphony … only she can hear), but these songs, structured by the rests, exclamations, disappearing titles, and new patterns of Holter’s voice, are the kind to snake through headphones and change surroundings, rather than being about their images. Holter’s lyrics occasionally repeat from song to song, placing emphasis on the creative expression of walking, and how “I don’t understand”: the motion and confusion of a city let in by the spaces in “World” and “Maxim’s II,” observing contemporary life not by standing outside and judging, but experiencing and repurposing a culture of alienation.
The Naked and Famous
In Rolling Waves
One of the bigger bands to explode onto the North American scene in 2010 was The Naked and Famous, a band hailing from New Zealand. What made them stand apart three years ago was the way they perfected their hauntingly clean, synthesized, upbeat, and youthful indie-pop sound. Also striking was how Thom Powers and Alisa Xayalith both share lead vocals. The worry was their follow-up could easily have been just an extension of it. Luckily, that’s not the case. In fact, there’s quite a bit of exploration to be found on In Rolling Waves. As the album opens with “A Stillness” it’s evident right away that things have changed, given that the track doesn’t include any detectable synth – it’s backed with true instrumentals. While the other tracks do, for the most part, move back into heavy synth use, the closing track is again almost entirely instrumental. There are also a number of tracks that are dark and dirtied like “Waltz” and “We Are Leaving,” permeated with uneasiness. Of course, there are still those standard pop tracks, and they’re hard to resist, but it’s the fact that the album is varied that makes the rest of the album’s tracks that much better, to the point where “The Mess” is a personal favourite. At just under 56 minutes it’s hard to deny that this is a statement album.
