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.

Animal Collective - Feels
Released Oct. 18
on Fat Cat

Feels finds core Animal Collective members Avey Tare and Panda Bear reunited with Geologist and Deakin, both decidedly absent from 2004’s Sung Tongs. And yes, those are the names they go by. They’ve also been known to perform in animal costumes and masks.

This may all sound like the formula for a throwaway novelty act, but don’t shy away just yet. The music is often just as weird but not without direction or attention to detail.

Geologist explained the group’s antics in a recent interview:

Over the years we’ve done a little dress-up and make-up. It’s sort of about just having fun and a loss of ego. It’s not something we take too seriously, though.

Instead, the Collective focuses on sonic explorations. Slow-strummed guitars and cascading piano lay atop primal drum beats. Found sounds and electronic drones add to the atmosphere. Often-indistinct lyrics and wordless, memorable vocal harmonies soar atop it all.

Of course, not everyone will “get” it. Slant Magazine seems rather unimpressed. Yet last week the group was SPIN.com’s band of the day, and Feels was Stylus Magazine’s album of the week.

You may just find it strangely brilliant.

Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene
Released Oct. 4, 2005
on Arts & Crafts

Broken Social Scene credits 17 musicians on its self-titled third album. That’s not including the four guests.

The combined sounds they produce are just as colossal, which can be the album’s best or worst attribute. It depends who you ask.

Despite high expectations following 2002’s acclaimed You Forgot It In People, the band refused to include single-worthy material. The album steers clear of any typical pop song structure, and the vocals often get buried in the mix.

Singer/guitarist Kevin Drew told MTV News, “Singles don’t really exist for our band; we don’t live in that world.”

Some will find the songs too busy. The New York Times said, “Broken Social Scene confuses integrity with indulgence, burying good songs under way too much studio tomfoolery.”

But the BSS Collective isn’t aiming at accessibility, and I think that the self-indulgence works.

Drew described the album as an “ethereal, distorted garage-pop record,” adding that “people are gonna (sic) think their speakers are busted.”

The songs swirl and burst. From the more delicate moments to the life-affirming crescendos, the densely layered songs sound best loud and in surround sound.

Sigur Rós - Takk..
Release Sept. 13, 2005
on Geffen Records

Listening to the latest album from Iceland’s enigmatic Sigur Rós can be like drowning in the same sounds that ultimately save your life. Perhaps then it is fitting that the group’s recording studio is a converted swimming pool.

As the songs build, break and fall perfectly into place, the music is at once accessible and experimental, simple and complex, sinking and floating. From the depression of a piano key to an explosion of orchestrated sound, it all comes together and flows gracefully.

The band’s ethereal sound is perhaps best characterized by the bowed guitar and otherworldly falsetto of front-man Jónsi Birgisson, though this record seems to emphasize the cascading piano more than before. Some may find the band’s songs formulaic by now. Others remain intrigued. I’m with the latter.

This album is sung mostly in Icelandic instead of the made-up language of Hopelandic that marked the band’s previous work, but Takk.. ironically sounds like the band’s warmest and most hopeful record yet.

In a brief article that preceded the new album’s release, Birgisson describes some of his lyrics:

There’s one called ‘Glosoli’, and [the central character] wakes up and everything is dark outside and he can’t see any light. He thinks that the sun is gone and somebody has taken it from the sky, so he makes a journey to look for the sun. He finds it in the end.