Editor's note: If you missed any of yesterday's selections, you can check them out here.
Jon Krol
Album: David Bowie - The Next Day
This pick should come as no surprise to those who know me. I pretty much worship at the altar of Bowie-anything, and, despite his relatively weak output in the nineties and early 2000's, looked forward to this album with hot anticipation. Let's just say I wasn't disappointed. The Next Day hearkened back to Bowie's bygone era, the Berlin Trilogy, which was arguably his strongest moment as a songwriter and creative provocateur. After his limelight faded a bit in the late seventies, Bowie moved to Berlin and released Heroes, Lodger, and Low, three criminally overlooked albums in the pantheon of rock history. During that time, Bowie experimented with soundscapes and angular post-rock. The end result was something rock had rarely seen, a truly unique exploration of the medium. Listening to The Next Day, I felt like Bowie was continuing this journey. The songs were undeniably rock-oriented with pop hooks and guitar crunch for days. They were something more though. Vibe and attitude as only Bowie can pull off, the songs were interesting, and they felt fresh and new. After ten years off, it was as if Bowie re-discovered that inner spirit. Still exploring, in search of that perfect pop song, Bowie pushed himself and the end result was an album that ranks amongst his very finest.
Song: Ghost - "Year Zero"
Ghost (or Ghost B.C. as the lawyers call them), are undeniably retro. Dressed as faceless, robed monks and led by a ghoul known only as Papa Emeritus, it is easy to write them off as a hokey throwback and a gimmick. However, Ghost is anything but. Their refreshing brand of melodic, proto-metal reminds me of Gypsy-era Mercyful Fate if Mercyful Fate had a pop singer instead of King Diamond. The band's popularity skyrocketed recently and that is as much due to their unbelievably catchy songs, as it is their persona. Check out "Year Zero" for instance, off the excellent Infestissumam, a creepy, crawling track that is as epic and fun as it is enthralling. Their appeal has no bounds and neither does this song. You either get it or you don't. I grew up with Venom and KISS. I get it.
Michael Moretti
Album: Camp Counselors - Huntress
I don’t know if Buffalo has always been this talented or I have just been more in-tune with what has been emerging between writing for this blog and doing the WBNY Local Show but 2013 saw impressive releases from JOHNS, The Malones, Merchants, Bearhunter, Aircraft, Jack Topht, Space Wolves, and Tony Flaminio. It is going to be very difficult for the committee to narrow down the top 20 songs for Buffalo in December 2013. Although all of those albums are strong in their own right, my absolute favorite local release of 2013 is Camp Counselors’ haunting horror-movie inspired full-length, Huntress. Camp Counselors is the side-project of Cemeteries mastermind, Kyle Reigle. Huntress plays out exactly like the score to an 80’s horror movie, at times brave and motivating- at others eerie and sullen. It is almost as if it is a dreamy electro musical for ghosts. I could not understand or tell you one lyric from Huntress, as Reigle ghoulishly wails and doesn’t really enunciate any of the lyrics, but that makes it surprisingly stronger. If you are a fan of The Knife, M83, or the xx, then you need to hear Camp Counselors’ Huntress.
Michael Moretti
Album: Camp Counselors - Huntress
I don’t know if Buffalo has always been this talented or I have just been more in-tune with what has been emerging between writing for this blog and doing the WBNY Local Show but 2013 saw impressive releases from JOHNS, The Malones, Merchants, Bearhunter, Aircraft, Jack Topht, Space Wolves, and Tony Flaminio. It is going to be very difficult for the committee to narrow down the top 20 songs for Buffalo in December 2013. Although all of those albums are strong in their own right, my absolute favorite local release of 2013 is Camp Counselors’ haunting horror-movie inspired full-length, Huntress. Camp Counselors is the side-project of Cemeteries mastermind, Kyle Reigle. Huntress plays out exactly like the score to an 80’s horror movie, at times brave and motivating- at others eerie and sullen. It is almost as if it is a dreamy electro musical for ghosts. I could not understand or tell you one lyric from Huntress, as Reigle ghoulishly wails and doesn’t really enunciate any of the lyrics, but that makes it surprisingly stronger. If you are a fan of The Knife, M83, or the xx, then you need to hear Camp Counselors’ Huntress.
Song: Smart House - "Car Ride"
I believe fellow buffaBLOG writer, Brian Gorman, clued me in on local electro musician Alek Ogadzhanov and his various projects (Alek Ogadzhanov, Bratya, and Smart House) late last winter. When I first heard Smart House’s “Car Ride,” I remember shaking my head in disbelief that this was coming out of Buffalo. “Car Ride” is a three minute and 32 second , driving instrumental track a la The Cure or Wild Nothing. For some reason, this track reminds me of packing into a car and driving far away to see a show. I picture myself Billy Corgan-ing in the “1979” video to this song.
Jeannette Chin
Album: Mount Kimbie - Cold Spring Faultless Youth
When asked about their second album, Cold Spring Faultless Youth, the newly signed to Warp duo, Mount Kimbie, reported that unlike their first album, the music was largely inspired by elements of live performance, the approach towards songwriting being stimulated by being on tour for months on end without interruption. This difference in approach is easily traceable for Mount Kimbie fans upon listening to Cold Spring Faultless Youth. Brought to the forefront are melodies driven by electric guitars and synthesizers, rhythms that compel listeners to bob their head, and, perhaps the most surprising, the unrestrained use of vocals. That's right, in this album, the duo take turns singing discernible lyrics to discernible melodies. Two of the songs ("You Took Your Time" and "Meter, Pale, Tone") even feature the vocal magic of their music peer, King Krule.
Despite having gravitated toward song-writing structures that some of us would lightly consider more "traditional," effectively stamped on each track is their unique signature, the sonic template of their style, whose appearance in 2009 had music critics speculating about the end of dub step. The duo was then listed among the list of artists leading what's left of it into a new era. Crackly textures, sudden transitions, idiosyncratic key signatures, scrambled drum patterns, and melodies that take multiple listenings to register, to fully coagulate inside our heads as listeners. It's all unmistakably packed in there. Moreover, their approach to vocals, to lyrics (with the aid of King Krule), is something that will be appreciated by those who pay homage to language considered to be poetry. Personally for me, out of any recent releases, it most closely resembles what I would imagine a Beat-Revival would sound like. Anyways, all this just scratches the surface of why, out of any album released this year, this one continues to be the most interesting for me to listen on repeat. Listen to it yourself and let me know what you think.
Song: Kurt Vile - "Girl Called Alex"
For me and many others, Kurt Vile is a significant songwriter because he effectively portrays the voice of youthful indifference. A sort of vague, widespread ideological climate that can puncture a generation. In my mind, his music listens like a halo of apathy; fueled by nostalgia and as tender as it is reckless. It is also impressive, in more ways than one, you can't help but admire his handle on the guitar, his intuitive songwriting, but you're also impressed that he managed to pull himself out of bed to record it. Overall, "Girl Called Alex" plays like a pure extract of everything Kurt Vile is good at, guitars that lull your head to the clouds, symphony moments, simple lyrics with bursts of rawness, and making you feel as though you are not alone in your strangeness. "I wanna live all the time in my fantasy infinity."
Josh Gordon
Album: Sonorous Gale - The Total Overcomers: A Saga
These have been some weird times for the Gale. Rumor has it they joined a cult who forced them to change their name and wear identical blue polo shirts in public. I hear tell they were ready to drink the Kool-Aid and rendezvous with the mothership floating somewhere above the southbound lane of the I-190, but snapped out of it just in time. Thank God (or Marshall Applewhite, if that's your thing). They've lived to tell the tale and their latest four-track EP is the result. Buffalo sludge has never sounded so good.
Song: Grouplove - "Ways to Go"
Maybe this is why I always get laid never get laid, because I'd be just as happy strapped into hip waders, slogging through the tarry peat bog of sludge rock with the stoners and the punks as I would be in loafers and salmon-pink shorts, drinking cheap beer with the "cool" kids. But neither clique will have me - and that's just the way I like it. I'm a rebel, baby, a real lone wolf. I'm also a sucker for synths, female vocals, and skeleton body suits - and Grouplove have all that in spades. The video for "Ways to Go" is the bee's knees (or the beloved leader's pajamas, if that's your thing). I've been pressing play every four minutes now for weeks. It's been days since I've heard from my family. But that's all right - this my family now. You are all my family. Hey, wait, anyone else feel funny? My eyes are burning. My legs are...No. Stop! This isn'tfunan y !!!more Don'tdoit,..,don't dtringk the Kool-
