nickels in the oven

Tristeza - A Colores
Released Nov. 22, 2005
on Better Looking

Sometimes music speaks louder than words. So go ahead and preview the entire new Tristeza album via the band’s e-card, or grab an mp3 of the lead single, “Bromas.”

If you’re looking for a little background information and some subjectivity, read on.

The review

Noticeably absent of any vocals, Tristeza’s sound relies on pure instrumentation. Cascading guitar lines woo moody synthesizers. Organic drum beats add another texture to the laid-back sound. Emotive and atmospheric, the entire album speaks volumes.

As the sticker on the outside of the plastic-wrapped CD cover notes, A Colores is “a colorful journey beyond instrumental post-rock, delving into the darker realms of modern psychedelia.”

Bassist Luis Hermosillo said to expect the band to add vocals in the future. He also explained the new direction:

We wanted to make the music more focused within its notes, grooves, timing, spacing, layering, etc. We want to dial into the whole aspect of composing—and most of all, we wanted it to be honest.

Even though Tristeza translates into “sadness,” the music often evokes an undeniably hopeful feeling.

Co-founder Jimmy LaValle left the band in 2003 in order to turn The Album Leaf into a full-time project. Many assumed his departure would mark the end of Tristeza. Instead, the three remaining members pushed on, picking up a new guitarist and a keyboardist along the way.

A Colores marks Tristeza’s first album sans-LaValle, and everything has fallen perfectly into place. I saw The Album Leaf this past spring, and the whole show was mesmerizing. Both groups have developed beautifully, and neither seems to be slowing down.

Currently on the road, Tristeza wraps up its fall tour in support of the new album on December 3 in Tijuana, Mexico, where much of A Colores was written. That same month, Jimmy LaValle will be recording the follow-up album to The Album Leaf’s In a Safe Place.

Coldcut - Everything is Under Control
Released Nov. 14, 2005
on Ninja Tune

The British duo known as Coldcut haven’t released a proper album since 1997’s Let Us Play. This month they unveiled Everything is Under Control, a CD single and a preview of what’s to come on Sound Mirrors, set for a January 2006 release date.

The song features Jon Spencer of Blues Explosion and emcee Mike Ladd, whose conspiracy-theory diatribes set the political tone for the track. The original version is an electronica-based hybrid of rock guitars, left-field hip-hop vocals and big drumbeats with cowbell.

The CD also includes five remixes with varying tempos, instrumentation and arrangements. There’s a downtempo version stripped of the guitars; others were sped up to heart-stopping speeds. I recommend the original, though a few of the remixes are worth listening to.

Listen to all the tracks for yourself, or check out the video, also included on the enhanced CD — probably not worth buying. Wait for the full-length.

Keeping busy

Despite the time it has taken them to announce a new album, Jonathan Moore and Matt Black have not been running quietly at idle.

These pioneers of sample-based electronic music began working together in the mid-’80s and have been making noise ever since. In 1988, they hosted the Solid Steel radio show together, which then ran on Kiss FM in London and is now available online and syndicated worldwide. In 1991, they founded the prolific Ninja Tune record label.

Taking their cut-and-paste compositions beyond music, Black is also one of the directors of NOW!, an intriguing and collaborative film project.

The duo also had a hand in Revolution:USA, a multimedia political art project allowing visitors to assemble and contribute their own audiovisual commentary on the States’ political climate.

An updated version of the real-time video manipulation software that Coldcut helped create in 1997 will be released early next year. A demo version of VJamm3 will come with Sound Mirrors.

Kind of Like Spitting - In the Red
Released Nov. 1, 2005
on Hush

These songs resonate with the kind of vulnerability of a boy trying to find himself, equipped with just a guitar, some like-minded friends and pages torn from a weathered diary. Only this boy has grown up — or at least gotten older. But his voice still cracks, and he stills sings with the kind of honesty that would make most adults blush.

Singer-songwriter Ben Barnett, 30, has been writing songs and searching for himself since he was a teenager, playing his first show in a metal band at 14. He has long since shifted his focus to folksy, do-it-yourself indie rock.

In the Red, his eighth full-length album, explores a range of emotions and instrumentation. Some songs are just Barnett and his acoustic guitar. Others find him playing the electric guitar backed by a full band. The pace is always changing, and the whole affair is hardly consistent.

Perhaps the label describes it best:

This is an artist that can both invigorate an audience with rare energy then turn around and demand rapturous silence and reflection. This is an artist taking a look in the mirror, wrestling with demons, and after a knock-down drag-out brawl, finding some peace.

The songs are unpolished and imperfect, desperate and unapologetic. You can hear it in the way his voice sometimes sounds like it’s about to break or in the similarly-impassioned guitar playing.

This, of course, is not for everyone. Many will cringe at the description alone. It’s nothing exceptional, really, and I think he has done better. But I have a feeling that he’s doing this for himself.

For an introduction to the artist, I’d recommend Nothing Makes Sense Without It (mp3s: “Blue Period,” “Birds of a Feather“), One Hundred Dollar Room (”26 Is Too Soon“) or Old Moon in the Arms of the New (”Boy Cries Wolf“). Or you can just listen to Barnett’s cover of GZA’s “Labels.” Bet you didn’t see that coming. It’s gettin’ drastic.

O.C. - Smoke & Mirrors
Released Nov. 1, 2005
on Hiero Imperium

Maybe one day “O.C.” will be widely associated with more than a popular Fox television show, and Omar Credle can finally get the attention he deserves.

I doubt that this will be the record that does it. Veteran rapper O.C.’s fourth proper album fell short of my expectations.

When I saw that it was being released on the Hieroglyphics label, my hopes blossomed. The Brooklyn-born emcee finally found a worthy label, run by a like-minded collective.

But this is not the O.C. album I’ve been waiting for. Another post-Jewelz disappointment. It remains far from essential.

Smoke & Mirrors suffers from trivial production, handled almost exclusively by Mike Lowe. The generic beats are a collection of nondescript loops built from uninteresting synthesizers and cliché soul samples. Okayplayer calls it great. If the album was produced by someone else, I might be singing its praises. No luck.

The lyrical content ranges from defensive braggadocio to introspective confessions as O.C. proves that while he may be in his mid-30s, his timeless flow remains intact.

Maybe the next O.C. release will be the one that pulls everything together for one of the most slept-on emcees of the past 10 years. Hopefully then he can step out of the shadows of his ´94 classic track “Time’s Up” and prove that his clock hasn’t stopped.

Skalpel - Konfusion
Released Nov. 1, 2005
on Ninja Tune

These two deejays dissect and reassemble sounds from old Polish jazz records with the precision of surgeons. The carefully-crafted, downtempo Skalpel songs fit in perfectly with the aesthetic of the Ninja Tune collective.

While many eastern European bands try to emulate Western styles, Skalpel’s Marcin Cichy and Igor Pudlo work instead within the framework of their native country and its history to produce a more unique sound.

It’s the sort of thing you’d expect to hear in a smoke-filled, dimly-lit club. It’s the sound of a bygone era reinterpreted through the ears of two audiophiles — an era when musicians held on to artistic freedom despite communist pressures.

In an interview with Pixelsurgeon, Cichy said that they did not start out to be ambassadors for Polish music and culture, but they could sense that it was happening. “We didn’t plan to be, but now we know that we are,” Pudlo added.

One thing mentioned in the album’s press release holds true for the best in sample-based music:

…this is a record brimming with ideas, with atmosphere, with the kind of intelligent cut and paste that makes it an artform instead of a form of theft.

The album comes with a bonus disc of remixes of tracks from the duo’s debut Ninja Tune release.

Thrice - Vheissu
Released Oct. 18, 2005
on Island

With Vheissu, the members of Thrice refuse to pigeonhole themselves, constrained to the limitations and expectations of a certain sub-genre.

They may not be quite at the level of shape-shifters like Radiohead or Cave In, but Thrice is leagues ahead of most of its Warped Tour contemporaries.

The overall sound has become often atmospheric and experimental. A more melodic direction was hinted at on 2003’s The Artist in the Ambulance, but the expansive, cinematic nature of Vheissu remains unprecedented.

Moody keyboards and ambient electronics lend to a spaced-out, dramatic mood. One song builds from a haunting Japanese music-box melody. Singer-guitarist Dustin Kensrue explains the band’s intentions:

Our biggest goal was to make something different, even if we didn’t know at first exactly what that meant. We just knew we wanted it to be atmospheric and create a space you could kind of live in. Our records have been kind of flat and two dimensional in the past, so we definitely wanted to try to do something more open sounding.

Rolling Stone gave Vheissu just two out of five stars, while Kerrang Magazine gave it a full five. It may be less than perfect, but it is by no means average.

Fans of breakthrough album The Illusion of Safety may be disappointed. Teppei Teranishi’s piercing guitar solos are noticeably absent. The screaming is sparse, and the tempo is often slower. But Thrice has not sold out — just progressed. Call it a reinvention.

A contest that ends in January provides fans with the tracks to lead single “Image of the Invisible” and gives them the chance to reinterpret it. The band also made the entire album available for listening on MySpace.

Thrice donates a percentage of the album’s proceeds to 826 Valencia and is currently on tour with Underoath, The Bled and Veda.