ComfortComes

Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks – Real Emotional Trash

I’ve found Malkmus’s past work hit and miss myself, not always a fan of drawn out guitar for lengthy periods personally so admittedly i approached this cautiously. I was pleasantly surprised in general. Typically, there are long instrumental parts but Real Emotional Trash is full of psychedelic and of guitar improvisation that really works. Also prominent is the electric piano and poetic lyrics that sometimes work but largely it’s the music which is the focus and makes up for some lacklustre lyrics.

Opening track “Dragonfly Pie” sets the tone for the album, crackled guitar accompanied with electric piano and it works this time for Malkmus. This is an album he has been searching for and his persistence has paid off to some degree. “Gardenia” is different though, a short jangly pop-esque track, which fails to interest much. Sometimes the guitar riffs are overdone however and like his past work, descends into an uninspiring ramble that just doesn’t interest. Fans of Stephen Malkmus will enjoy this no doubt as it isn’t much different to his past work. I personally found some of the tracks on this effort more enjoyable than the past stuff i have listened to. As a consequence to it sounding similar to previous work, it sounds somewhat stuck in the past sometimes. Yes it is melodic, yes it contains some interesting lyrics, albeit rare but overall it just isn’t quite as good as it may have could of been. Nevertheless i enjoyed it. I’m not really inclined to say whether it’s good or not, I’m on the fence so to speak. For fans of Malkmus this will no doubt be a good listening experience. For somebody new to him, they maybe put off by some of the lengthy instrumentals. “Cold Son”, “Dragonfly Pie” and “Out of Reaches” are my personal favourites. Plenty to be enjoyed but takes a while to appreciate it at times.

By John Siwicki

The Epochs – The Epochs

The definition of an “epoch” suggests a new point in history, and in a musical era where nearly everyone sounds the same, this Brooklyn quartet are certainly something refreshingly different.  Opener ‘Thunder And Lightning’ could be seen as the band’s genesis or big bang – a heavily drummed introduction to a debut that will be anything but predictable from start to finish.  Beyond the fittingly thunderous, irregular pulse of the drumming, ‘Thunder And Lightning’ is otherwise stop-start crunching guitars, slowly throbbing bass, and laidback rock vocals with an occasional snarl reminiscent of Supergrass’s Gaz Coombs, voicing such apocalyptic proclamations as “the floods dry up” and “cities will burn under the sun”.  While atmospheric and musically interesting throughout, the track quite deliberately never takes off, and this grows to be a regular feature of The Epochs’ debut.

Electronic flourishes crop up occasionally in the first track, in the form of synths and jittering clicks and beats, but it is not until second track ‘Opposite Sides’ when harder edged, squelching beats echoing Radiohead’s ’15 Step’ gain prominence in the mix.  Here and on many other tracks, vocals are pitched higher than before, with falsetto harmonies accompanying a lead vocal barely more prominent than a chesty whisper (the singers, Hays and Ryan Holladay are brothers, which goes some way to explain their impressively synchronised vocals).  Throughout the album’s fifty-minute duration, the vocals remain laidback, morphing from lethargic rock into a soulful croon reminiscent of Beck’s less energetic moments – particularly on album closer ‘Giving Tree’.

All tracks here dabble with electronic intrusions, including vocoders; synths; string samples mimicking white noise; and artificial chimes and beats that squelch, clap and clatter.  These musical components, alongside the more conventional drumming and electric and acoustic guitars, all remain pointedly reserved.  On the rare occasions when the band do seem to lose their cool, such as during the finale of romantic ‘Picture Of The Sun’ – which likens the highpoint of a relationship to “sunlight all night long” – or during the keyboard and sample-heavy choruses of ‘Mouths To Feed’, the musical crescendos tend to be cut prematurely short, or soon return to a calmer pace.  All this suggests a band willing to rely on their musical adeptness and diversity of styles over conventional scaling choruses and solos.  In fact, The Epochs often evoke Maroon 5’s smooth R&B without the mainstream compromise (and basically much, much better), or The Postal Service’s prominent electronic element, without the overt indie/emo tendencies.

By Ryan Daff