Keith Canisius - This Time It's Our High
Here’s a bit of fun, engaging shoegazey stuff for you. It’s Keith Canisius, dream pop craftsman, with something from his second release, This Time It’s Our High. Check it out; it comes highly recommended.
Keith Canisius — “The Beach House” from This Time It’s Our High | download
[audio:http://www.musicgeek.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/KeithCanisius-TheBeachHouse.mp3|titles=Keith Canisius – “The Beach House”]
Few things change your working environment more than good music. In my experience, music is often an essential part of work, whether I’m working on some routine data entry, trying to plow through that last line of code, or getting a last-minute news feature ready for publication. Here’s a short list of some of my favorites.
Pavement – “Spit on a Stranger”
When I’m working, I need something that will capture my attention but not demand it — Pavement’s “Spit on a Stranger” somehow hits on the right side of the line: It’s something rare. A catchy melody and evocative guitar work define this song, and over the past few days of working, I’ve not been able to turn it off.
Released Feb. 19, 2008; self-released.A Faulty Chromosome, previously the subject of a Feb. 19 MusicGeek.org spotlight, is an unruly shoegaze group; while they do pull from a variety of influences — and it’s evident, it’s not just some blurb on the band’s MySpace — they create music that sounds as if it’s all essentially the same song, repeated ad infinitum. It’s not a bad song, though, just a bit on the repetitive side.
A Faulty Chromosome — “Jackie O” | download
[audio:http://www.musicgeek.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/afaultychromosome-jackieo.mp3]
A Faulty Chromosome produces fairly engaging music that, while pulling from a variety of influences, maintains a fairly distinct shoegaze tone. At times a little offsetting, the band doesn’t “pull any punches,” per se, with their usage of several slightly grating guitar tones. Still, the two tracks I’ve posted below, “Jackie O” and” Them Pleasures of the Flesh” are interesting and worthy of a listen, but if you’re looking for the melodic tendencies of Lush, it’s probably best to work elsewhere. This band isn’t going to be known for ethereal, beautiful vocalizations, but more a more-or-less gentle sort of repetitivity that, while not the high point of musical achievement, does provide something interesting and surprisingly listenable, considering. Two tracks are posted below for listening and downloading, and a video is posted after the jump.
A Faulty Chromosome — “Jackie O” | download
[audio:http://www.musicgeek.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/afaultychromosome-jackieo.mp3]
A Faulty Chromosome — “Them Pleasures of the Flesh” | download
[audio:http://www.musicgeek.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/afaultychromosome-thempleasuresoftheflesh.mp3]
It’s not often I come across something so compelling as this: Cryv is a Japanese shoegaze and electroclash group — they’re twin brothers — that, well, are far from bad. Yes, that’s really just a roundabout way of calling this band good, and they are deserving of more than such clumsy trepidation. Cryv isn’t well known outside Japan, it seems, as a cursory web search will reveal. It’s a pity, really, because this band is really very good. A video for “Lonliness” [sic] from their 2007 self-titled debut is posted below. Check out their MySpace for some tracks.
Experimental Aircraft are an interesting group (there are plenty of those out there) that’s releasing their third album, Third Transmission: Meet Me On Echo Terrace on Feb. 26 on Graveface Records. Maintaining a healthy combination of psychedelic influence, dream pop, space rock, shoegaze, and indie seems a difficult feat to juggle, and I’m sure it is — but Experimental Aircraft seem to hold up just fine. Of the four tracks posted below, two are from Third Transmission and are likely to find a home in most playlists of engaged listeners. They’ve found that nice realm of sonic beauty between My Bloody Valentine and driven indie rock, of which there may not be some easily accessible example like MBV — and if there is, I apologize for not simply making something up. The Jesus and Mary Chain, on second thought, might be a nice fit, so let’s shove them in that square hole. Perfect.
At any rate, Experimental Aircraft provide more than a simple, fun listen, though they are undeniably enjoyable; Third Transmission looks to be a release that will be well accepted by the well-intentioned populous.
Experimental Aircraft — “Stellar,” from Third Transmission | download
[audio:http://www.musicgeek.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/stellar.mp3]
Experimental Aircraft — “Upper East Side,” from Third Transmission | download
[audio:http://www.musicgeek.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/upper-east-side.mp3]
Experimental Aircraft — “Symphony,” from Love For the Last Time | download
[audio:http://www.musicgeek.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/symphony.mp3]
Experimental Aircraft — “Electric Surgery,” from Thank You For That Perfect Day… | download
[audio:http://www.musicgeek.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/electric-surgery.mp3]
In the time since the writing and subsequent posting of my previous column, in which I probed for quality shoegaze, I have been offered a small variety of options by which I might discover more of this music I’ve found myself so enamored with.
First, I must offer my appreciation to those who answered my call; the suggestions have been greatly appreciated, and I’m putting effort into exploring these artists more.
In my own search, I’ve found some interesting things. The first is a group I discovered not terribly long after admitting to the internet that I was — and still am — on the clueless side of things as far as proper shoegaze is concerned. The group, The Depreciation Guild, is composed of two musicians and a certain device entertainment-happy children in the mid-1980s and, indeed, most anyone who’s spent time in the confines of American popular culture: the Famicom, or, as it’s more popularly known in the United States, the Nintendo Entertainment System.
The Depreciation Guild – “Butterfly Kisses”
[audio:http://www.musicgeek.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/butterflykisses.mp3]
After writing a rather useless column — “Football and post-rock” — I thought it may just be time to venture again into the range of uselessness and write another useless column, so as I might best continue my run of things here.
Now, I hate to admit that I may just be aiming for something that’s not totally desirable: Uselessness, you might say, is bad. I’m not convinced, but for the sake of argument, let’s assume that, yes, things should have some sort of utility. I hope, then, that these columns, despite being useless on the very surface, will be found as something that provides at least something. What that something is, we have yet to see.