Kranky S&D

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awesome cd. i'm a big fan.

i've been ignoring kranky for years but i went and listened through their last year's releases on emusic and well fuck me if there isn't a bunch of really great stuff that's been flying beneath my radar. dig the cloudland canyon stuff, the latest valet album is lovely too, lotus plaza, strategy.. nice.

^ otm... Jonas Reinhardt is great, too

I just saw Windy & Carl / Benoit Pioulard the other night. Windy & Carl put everyone to sleep, which is to say they were wonderful!

Hahaha.

The new Jonas Reinhardt album 'Powers Of Audition' is all kinds of awesome. I'm really digging this. It's instrumental kosmiche synth-laden prog of the highest vintage-appreciating order, with a wee handful of totally propulsive krautrockers to get your head nodding, before you're transported back to soaring warmly on the higher astral plain... very nice.

The new Loscil album 'Endless Falls' is also rather lovely. Looks like I'm back on the Kranky collecting train when these ones filter through properly.

This new one, 'Endless Falls', is inspired by the hefty rainfall in Loscil's Vancouver hometown, and I think is really evocative, both musically and aesthetically (it has a great cover shot, apparently by his 4 year old daughter), of those long, slightly melancholy days when you're inside listening to and watching the rain blurring the world outside the window, immersing yourself in your house-bound self.

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drn500/n582/n58297nkvdn.jpg

Will have to check that Loscil, I really like what I've heard previously.

I can't claim this is an impartial recommendation, because he's a dear friend, but Chris Herbert's Mezzotint from a couple of years back is a slow-burner of the highest order. This is more recent than the album, but is a fair representation, and is wonderful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK-HL64XXaY

(it has a great cover shot, apparently by his 4 year old daughter)

Love this.

Ha, the other I just did a search to see if anyone had been talking about Loscil on ILX and there was absolutely zip in the search. Now there is, and good. Have really been enjoying the new one, and thought Plume was pretty good too. Wasn't actually aware he was from Vancouver (or part of Destroyer) until last night. Huh!

I seem to remember back in the mid-90s the big acts on Kranky were Labradford, FSA, Stars of the Lid, and Jessamine. Jessamine really seems to have been forgotten...

Did they tour much? Can't remember. A very good band for sure, maybe rediscoveries are nigh.

But wait, FSA? They were VHF and Drag City unless I've completely misremembered.

No, I'm mis-remembering. Coulda swore they were on Kranky but I'm mistaken.

Jessamine were hit and miss but when they hit they were terrific.

Really fond of Jessamine, but I wonder if they got overlooked a bit due to vocals (which were kind of ordinary indie-schmindie compared to their sound). Totally amazing drummer, whose name I don't know. I still play "You Have Ugly Talents, Martha" and "You May Have Forgotten" and "Pilot-Free Ignition" on a regular basis.

new Belong record on kranky is really really great

YES! New Belong! <3 I´ve only heard the one song they released online, I´m waiting for the vinyl to arrive!

Is the album pretty much like that song, ´Perfect Life´?

This band is so criminally overlooked. One of my greatest musical discoveries of the last decade I think. Somehow they found a place between all existing music and made it so uniquely their own. I know no other band that sounds like them, not on a deeper level.

I caved and downloaded the album. All your fault Ilxor! ;-)

Enjoying the shit out of this. Cannot wait for the vinyl!

hah nice, i have done my good deed for the day!

yeah loving the belong album. quite difft to the EP of theirs i have. like a more gentle soft moon

wow i am listening to this song

http://www.futuresequence.com/article/review-belong-common-era/

goddam this is great

WOW,thanks for this recommendation, the part at 2:15 on the very first song ("Come See") blew me away. new shoegaze that doesn't suck, and doesn't feel like a lesser copy of some antecedent. sold.

yeah it's really good! glad everyone's latching on so easily. every year there's basically 1 or 2 great shoegaze/dream-pop albums. this year it's Belong (for me anyway)

It's odd but I've never really linked Belong to shoegaze, not directly. For me they emerged mostly out of noise and reverb-drenched pop echoes on previous records. Seems that pace-wise they are stepping it up on this record though, it's less "druggy and slow, and suddenly it really is very shoegazey. Amazing.

just listened last night. very good!

will order this tomorrow night.
listening to Kranky Kompilation now, what a consistently kickass label

my full thoughts on new Belong album here

this is highly OTM:

Somehow they found a place between all existing music and made it so uniquely their own.

Thanks. That's a great review ilxor! The Cure reference makes total sense too.

thanks! people can say "shoegaze" til they're blue but the main touchstone i hear is '80s cure :)

which is total ilxor-bait but hey...

ilxor otm - I gave this a quick listen today (it's now up on Spotify), and the Cure was one of the first things I thought of. Need to hear it again, but this does sound like a big step up from their previous.

what did the pitchfork reviewer get wrong?

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/15235-common-era/

if he wants them to retread October Language, he might as well just put on October Language again, iirc

Really enjoying this Implodes album on first listen. Anyone know anything about them?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2O4cVxQINk

Loving this, and probably preferring it to the Belong album, although it's not all that dissimilar. Hearing traces of Slowdive and Flying Saucer Attack and Low and good stuff like that.

...but duh it is on kranky after all

saw em live about a year ago and was kinda ....bored
the record sounds much better though im not quite sold on the vocals yet

Implodes includes Matt Jencik from Don Cab and Hurl

Dunno why it took me so many damn years to find this out, but this first Jessamine album is just fucking great.

Damn right.

My cd copy of it skips :((((((

Their whole catalog is on Spotify.

Yeah it's great! What's people's favourite one? And what do the Jessamine folks do these days?

Yeah it's great! What's people's favourite one? And what do the Jessamine folks do these days?

Fave Jessamine release is the Another Fictionalized History singles compilation. Great great stuff. The two team-up albums with Sonic Boom are also well worth tracking down (especially the A Pox On You EP)

After Jessamine, Andy (keyboards) and Rex (guitar) went on to form Fontanelle (couple of albums, also on Kranky). Andy also records as Southerning. Dawn Smithson (bass, vocals) has a couple of albums out too.

Unexpectedly, just about all of Jessamine has been part of Sunn O)))'s touring band at one point or another. Couple of them appear on Monoliths & Dimensions

Thanks Chris!

The two team-up albums with Sonic Boom are also well worth tracking down (especially the A Pox On You EP)

funny, i thought Pox was the only one! hmmmm

first Fontanelle album is excellent

enjoying the new disappears record. no massive departure.

my favourite label circa 99/02.

been digging some of it's older releases these past few weeks (trip down memory lane?). tho some of it hasn't aged that well (1st dissolve record, amp, bowery electric, etc), there are still a couple of underated gems in there : doldrums, flies inside the sun or pan american...

never heard the first jessamine. only ones i have are 'don's stay too long' and 'long arm of coincidence'. don't recall them that well (same with spiny anteaters, also).

First Jessamine rules. First Kranky release I picked up.