Sister Mantos, "Tough Love or the Fands of Hate"
New tunes in the INCHES column! Fantastic fuchsia wax was photographed! A free song offered up for the jeep! Top ten vinyl sales chart shared by Vacation Vinyl! Plus, music critique-ry! Get over there already!
Konono No. 1, 'Assume Crash Position'
This album finds Konono, the Congolese thumb-piano posse, only subtly building upon the sound pioneered on 2004’s Congotronics.
Grade: A- (via The A.V. Club)
Rooney, Eureka (Geffen)
Rooney, 'Eureka'
This self-released LP is Rooney’s chance to make Rooney’s dream record. But it appears Rooney’s dream record is a lot like every other one the band has made — melodic, upbeat, mightily derivative — except with less catchiness.
Grade: D (via The A.V. Club)
Blitzen Trapper, Here’s To Taking It Easy (Sub Pop)
Blitzen Trapper, 'Destroyer of the Void'
It takes guts to open a record with a six-minute song that splits the difference between the soft prog of ELO and the folk pop of America…
Rating: 3.5 stars (via Spin)
Want more Blitzen? Here’s a Q&A, and a Black River Killer EP review.
Phosphorescent, Here’s To Taking It Easy (Dead Oceans)
Phosphorescent, 'Here's To Taking It Easy'
The Phosphorescent sound—a typically gossamer thing that revels in spare moments and reverbed vocals—is bulked up with Houck’s full-time lineup.
Grade: B+ (via The A.V. Club)
Want more Phossy? Read my 2009 Q&A with Matthew Houck.
Mike Patton, Mondo Cane (Ipecac)
Mike Patton, 'Mondo Cane'
A one-off that finds Patton remaking Italo-pop standards backed by a 40-piece orchestra, the record is flagrantly enjoyable from first gasp to final croon.
Grade: B+ (via The A.V. Club)
Jaga Jazzist, One-Armed Bandit (Ninja Tune)
Jaga Jazzist, 'One-Armed Bandit'
The cover of Jaga Jazzist’s One-Armed Bandit features an interchangeable set of slot-machine symbols, and the music inside offers truth in advertising…
Grade: A- (via The A.V. Club)
Four Tet, There Is Love In You (Domino)
Four Tet, 'There Is Love In You'
These songs make no bones about their rhythmic inspiration. Most are four-on-the-floor, built atop recurring samples, but only the single, “Love Cry,” outwardly indulges in Ibiza-flavored house. (Even then, it’s under a dark cloud of dubstep digitalia.)
Grade: A (via The A.V. Club)
Beach House, Teen Dream (Sub Pop)
Beach House, 'Teen Dream'
In 2008, Devotion removed some of the molasses, uncovering a handful of sing-along moments and a whole lot more fans, thus paving the way for Teen Dream’s Sub Pop release. Beach House is still a duo. That duo still lilts through its haze. That haze is still gorgeous as all get-out. So what’s changed?
Grade: A- (via The A.V. Club)
A brand new installment of L.A.’s taste-making vinyl column, INCHES, has officially dropped. New and recent, some deluxe, wax releases from doom kings Sunn O))), Low End Theory figurehead Flying Lotus, Detroit producer House Shoes, Chicago post-metalleers Russian Circles, and Britain’s old fashioned Langley Sisters. MP3s, photography, reviews.
Behold, the first release to earn a space-swallowing vertical shot:
Sunn O))), "Monoliths & Dimensions"
Chris Writes Things 