As amateur criticists and aspiring musical demagogues, it seems that those of us who pass judgment on an artist’s musical statement may be losing the ability to fully understand the words or phrases that we use in referencing certain musical styles or influences. [...]]]> Artist: Lower Dens
Album: Nootropics
Label: Ribbon Music

As amateur criticists and aspiring musical demagogues, it seems that those of us who pass judgment on an artist’s musical statement may be losing the ability to fully understand the words or phrases that we use in referencing certain musical styles or influences. It’s becoming harder and harder, if not entirely impossible, to say something new about any given album. We may reposition the words and structure the intent a bit differently but we’re just saying the same things that have been said for decades. Can we honestly say that we’ve said anything new or revelatory regarding, say, Animal Collective that people in the 60’s weren’t saying about The Incredible String Band or The Holy Modal Rounders? I’m not saying that we should stop trying, only that we should try to understand what we are saying as opposed to merely mimicking those writers or websites that we admire or strive to emulate. Musical criticism basically exists to allow one person to describe what is essentially a deeply personal experience and turn it into something that can be interpreted and understood by the reader. That seems to imply that this act of evaluation is very static and even as I write this, I can see how my point could be taken as such, but it shouldn’t be. Because in all honesty, didn’t we start writing about music because we felt deeply about what it meant to us on a personal level and how we wanted to share that with others.

Now what does this have to do with Nootropics, the new album from the Jana Hunter-fronted dream-pop band Lower Dens? Well the more that I listen to this album, the more it appeals to me in some unconscious, intangible way. Every time I think I have a grasp on what makes this record so appealing, it slips away from me. The closest I’ve come is to acknowledge that it just feels right to me, that it’s a record you want to get lost in. But the more I thought about my descriptions, the more I felt that they were inadequate, that I was merely copying other, better known writers and their styles. Was I using the terms atmospheric and textual just because I had read it in an old Radiohead review? What was my honest opinion of the record, outside of past or present musical context? After listening to Nootropics multiple times, I came to a conclusion. I like this record.

Nootropics plays host to a wide variety of sounds. These sounds swirl around Hunter’s expressive voice, alternately alienating and comforting her depending on the mood of the song. This album deals in aural components and how these different aspects interact with each other. No other album this year has dealt with creating such an exacting and detailed headspace, and it’s this care for detail and notion of spatial construction that, in part, gives this record its own unique sound and feel. I know that I’m falling victim to my own criticisms about using atmosphere and texture as abstract descriptions but in this case, it’s apt to do so, as this record deals almost exclusively in those things that critics sometimes have such a hard time wrapping their heads around.

Opener “Alphabet Song” has a beat that sounds like it could have come from some late 80’s Casio keyboard. Things begin to slowly pile up and soon bass and moaning guitars start to slither around Hunter’s ethereal voice as the beat continues to guide the song forward. The song evokes the barren emptiness of some great sadness. It’s quite a feat and a hell of a way to start the record. “Brains” again places the beat in prominence before the other instruments come forward to join in. The guitars have a buried feel, a distorted echo-y sound, and the mechanical feel of the beat is offset by the emotionally compelling vocals. Nootropics revels in this ability to wring emotional nuance from its musical and lyrical content. We may not always understand what the song is about but we always know that there is an intent and gravity which carries it along.

Other songs like “Candy”, with its striking piano line and airy vocals, and “Propagation”, a somber, dream-like song that bears more than a striking similarity to The Jesus and Mary Chain, maintain this ethereal sense of expanse effortlessly, almost as if the songs are breathing, which is actually not a bad way to describe this album. I could compare it in some ways to the Julia Holter album Ekstasis that was released earlier this year in regards to its use and execution of a very particular spatial folk/pop sound, though Nootropics is a good deal thicker in sound than Ekstasis. It successfully incorporates the same sense of aural space that Holter developed. These songs seem intimate while also feeling expansive. Those same musical aspects are used to great effect in “Lion In Winter, Pt 1″ and “Lion In Winter, Pt 2″. These two connective songs, the first part being an instrumental, feel full without being overworked and the sounds which pour from Hunter and the band are cohesive and fully realized.

The idea of allowing a song to unwind naturally plays with the bands execution of classic dream-pop mixed with angular electronics so that Nootropics seems to be the realization of years of effort and influence, though it’s done with such an air of ease that it’s hard to believe that this is only their second album. The culmination of all this comes in the form of “In The End Is The Beginning”, the 12 minute closer that manages to encapsulate all that makes Nootropics so creative and wholly original. The barely-there electronics scratch away at a slight, though persistent, beat until an entire world of sounds blend together in a slow burn catharsis that sustains itself over the last third of the song. The music ebbs and rises amid clashes of drums, electronic flourishes, and shimmering guitars, with Hunter’s voice stalking the listener, waiting for that last gasp before you close your eyes and the music ends.

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

written by Joshua Pickard

buy it at insound!

If you head over to Animal Collective’s website here, you’ll be treated to a video announcing the upcoming release of Centipede Hz, their new album due from Domino Records in September.  This will be their first new LP since 2009′s Merriweather Post Pavilion, not inluding 2010′s [...]]]> Artist: Lower Dens
Album: Nootropics
Label: Ribbon Music

As amateur criticists and aspiring musical demagogues, it seems that those of us who pass judgment on an artist’s musical statement may be losing the ability to fully understand the words or phrases that we use in referencing certain musical styles or influences. It’s becoming harder and harder, if not entirely impossible, to say something new about any given album. We may reposition the words and structure the intent a bit differently but we’re just saying the same things that have been said for decades. Can we honestly say that we’ve said anything new or revelatory regarding, say, Animal Collective that people in the 60’s weren’t saying about The Incredible String Band or The Holy Modal Rounders? I’m not saying that we should stop trying, only that we should try to understand what we are saying as opposed to merely mimicking those writers or websites that we admire or strive to emulate. Musical criticism basically exists to allow one person to describe what is essentially a deeply personal experience and turn it into something that can be interpreted and understood by the reader. That seems to imply that this act of evaluation is very static and even as I write this, I can see how my point could be taken as such, but it shouldn’t be. Because in all honesty, didn’t we start writing about music because we felt deeply about what it meant to us on a personal level and how we wanted to share that with others.

Now what does this have to do with Nootropics, the new album from the Jana Hunter-fronted dream-pop band Lower Dens? Well the more that I listen to this album, the more it appeals to me in some unconscious, intangible way. Every time I think I have a grasp on what makes this record so appealing, it slips away from me. The closest I’ve come is to acknowledge that it just feels right to me, that it’s a record you want to get lost in. But the more I thought about my descriptions, the more I felt that they were inadequate, that I was merely copying other, better known writers and their styles. Was I using the terms atmospheric and textual just because I had read it in an old Radiohead review? What was my honest opinion of the record, outside of past or present musical context? After listening to Nootropics multiple times, I came to a conclusion. I like this record.

Nootropics plays host to a wide variety of sounds. These sounds swirl around Hunter’s expressive voice, alternately alienating and comforting her depending on the mood of the song. This album deals in aural components and how these different aspects interact with each other. No other album this year has dealt with creating such an exacting and detailed headspace, and it’s this care for detail and notion of spatial construction that, in part, gives this record its own unique sound and feel. I know that I’m falling victim to my own criticisms about using atmosphere and texture as abstract descriptions but in this case, it’s apt to do so, as this record deals almost exclusively in those things that critics sometimes have such a hard time wrapping their heads around.

Opener “Alphabet Song” has a beat that sounds like it could have come from some late 80’s Casio keyboard. Things begin to slowly pile up and soon bass and moaning guitars start to slither around Hunter’s ethereal voice as the beat continues to guide the song forward. The song evokes the barren emptiness of some great sadness. It’s quite a feat and a hell of a way to start the record. “Brains” again places the beat in prominence before the other instruments come forward to join in. The guitars have a buried feel, a distorted echo-y sound, and the mechanical feel of the beat is offset by the emotionally compelling vocals. Nootropics revels in this ability to wring emotional nuance from its musical and lyrical content. We may not always understand what the song is about but we always know that there is an intent and gravity which carries it along.

Other songs like “Candy”, with its striking piano line and airy vocals, and “Propagation”, a somber, dream-like song that bears more than a striking similarity to The Jesus and Mary Chain, maintain this ethereal sense of expanse effortlessly, almost as if the songs are breathing, which is actually not a bad way to describe this album. I could compare it in some ways to the Julia Holter album Ekstasis that was released earlier this year in regards to its use and execution of a very particular spatial folk/pop sound, though Nootropics is a good deal thicker in sound than Ekstasis. It successfully incorporates the same sense of aural space that Holter developed. These songs seem intimate while also feeling expansive. Those same musical aspects are used to great effect in “Lion In Winter, Pt 1″ and “Lion In Winter, Pt 2″. These two connective songs, the first part being an instrumental, feel full without being overworked and the sounds which pour from Hunter and the band are cohesive and fully realized.

The idea of allowing a song to unwind naturally plays with the bands execution of classic dream-pop mixed with angular electronics so that Nootropics seems to be the realization of years of effort and influence, though it’s done with such an air of ease that it’s hard to believe that this is only their second album. The culmination of all this comes in the form of “In The End Is The Beginning”, the 12 minute closer that manages to encapsulate all that makes Nootropics so creative and wholly original. The barely-there electronics scratch away at a slight, though persistent, beat until an entire world of sounds blend together in a slow burn catharsis that sustains itself over the last third of the song. The music ebbs and rises amid clashes of drums, electronic flourishes, and shimmering guitars, with Hunter’s voice stalking the listener, waiting for that last gasp before you close your eyes and the music ends.

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

written by Joshua Pickard

buy it at insound!