Interview With The American Dollar

The American Dollar released a fantastic new record, Awake In The City, at the end of March. Even while weighted down with touring and looking towards the future, they were kind enough to answer some questions for MuzikDizcovery about the album and the band.

Album Review: Tycho - Dive

Album Rating: B

If there’s one thing that electronica artist Tycho does well, it’s making smooth music. Now this isn’t a velvety, sultry R&B, nor is it some form of ‘cool jazz’, no, this is a lush, gorgeous blend of electronic sights and sounds that goes down easy. Scott Hansen has been making this type of music under the Tycho moniker for nearly a decade but surprisingly Dive is only his sophomore record; a follow up to 2006’s exceptional A Past is Prologue. Hansen hasn’t really learned a whole lot of new tricks since then, but hey, when it’s this good there really isn’t a problem. Heavily borrowing from the legendary Boards of Canada, Tycho manages to create incredible compositions with a life all their own, all whilst making it seem so effortless. It’s a beautiful sound, and one which transports the listener into an absorbing world that only Tycho could create.

Album Review: Radiohead - TKOL RMX 1234567

Upon discovering Radiohead had dropped their newest album a day early, I proceeded to immediately download it. Granted, it was announced a mere week before then, but the anticipation was already too much to handle. Sure I was late to my first class, but I had The King of Limbs on my mp3 player, and ready to listen. Less than forty minutes later, anticipation faded and disappointment set in. I was sure what I had just heard wasn't Radiohead, but a tamer, more forgettable band. A band who'd let vapidity replace creativity. A band that wasn't the one I had grown to admire.

Although seven month's time made me reflect more kindly on Radiohead's most divisive album to date, I still couldn't help but feel like something was missing, something bold and daring, something more like the band I had fallen for when I was a teenager. That something is TKOL RMX 1234567.

Album Review: Lights - Siberia

It's not often that I stumble upon an artist's image dozens of time before I actually know they make music, but that was the case with Lights. Lights, known not only for her infectious pop music but for her looks as well, has her visage plastered all over the internet a la her many admirers. Once discovering that she did indeed create music, I jumped in expecting shallow, forgettable pop....and I was right. That's correct, my first impression of Lights was one of disdain; a revulsion at the synth laden music that neither challenged nor impressed me. Well I decided to give Lights a second chance, picking up her sophomore release, Siberia, almost immediately.

And thank God I did, because Siberia is an improvement in every single way possible, and a damn fine album in its own right.

Album Review: M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming

The first album we've heard from Anthony Gonzalez in three years, and what a refresher. M83 comes roaring back, as much as a shoegaze band can, with Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, a diadem of a double album that easily exceeds the hype that was started for in back in June. The feel for the record is pretty true to the title - Gonzalez himself told Spin magazine that it's "mainly about dreams, how every one is different, how you dream differently when you're a kid, a teenager, or an adult". The album has a lot of great musical moments that connect to those visions of dreams that Gonzalez has, and adopt a mixture between the styles of Saturday = Youth and Before the Dawn Heals Us, with plenty of both synth-pop and dream-pop interchanged with the tracks, and plenty of variety to go around the 22-track double-album.

Album Review: Balam Acab - Wander/Wonder

It seems as though for years electronic and I have been struggling, all with an insurmountable ferocity that I can almost admire. It isn’t because I expressly despise the genre, not in the least, but there’s something about the stark, cold inhumanity of it all that keeps me at arm’s length. The “bleeps” and “bloops” strike me as unnatural—sounds that are as intangible as they are impersonal. However, every so often an album comes along that disassembles these feelings, and ends up being wholly personal, passionate, and more importantly, beautiful.

Album Review: Satnamri - Delve

Not much is known about the band Satnamri. Wherever you go, whatever you try to research, all you can find is their genre and their Bandcamp, which is brimming with five releases, Delve being their latest, all packed full of experimental electronica. The band itself is unsigned, releases all of their albums for free download, and doesn't speak too much for itself, but nonetheless releases music that is both fantastically layered and interesting to listen to.

Album Review: World's End Girlfriend - Seven Idiots

We’ve known for awhile now—World’s End Girlfriend fans that is—that Katsuhiko Maeda is utterly, fantastically, and irrevocably insane. Really, that’s what’s made his music such a joy to listen to for the past decade. Unpredictable, it’s impossible to foresee whether he’s going to delve into depression and macabre, sheer beauty, or jazz infused seizures. We’ve dealt with such dichotomies as his debut; Ending Story was a fleeting, fun excursion into upbeat and jovial melodies. Just five years down the road, however, he would go on to create The Lie Lay Land, a dark and somber affair that blended beautiful sweeping moments with unsettling passages. With his tenth full length, Seven Idiots, we see Maeda, more than ever, teetering on either side of that thin line that separates genius and madness, and it’s all the better for it.