Black Mountain - In The Future (Jagjaguwar, 2008)

In the 1990s, groups of young men with long hair would often congregate in places where they could go about their business unnoticed (the southern Californian desert was a favored meeting spot); smoke a lot of pot, listen endlessly to riff-heavy rock from the 70s, and, eventually pick up instruments and make music of their own. The music they made, heavily influenced by the likes of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, came to be known as Stoner Rock - and, for the most part, it was good. The preeminent force in Stoner Rock, was the legendary Kyuss, whose lead guitarist, Josh Homme, would later go on to form Queens Of The Stone Age and bring his rock sound to a far greater audience.
While the term Stoner Rock fell out of favor at around the turn of the millenium, the reverberations of the genre's sound are still being felt today. Case in point: Black Mountain.
Released on what is fast becoming In(High)Fidelity's label of choice - Jagjaguwar - In The Future is an album of epic proportions, yet one that never over-plays its hand. This is no small feat, given that one of the tracks - the mighty Bright Lights, clocks in at just under 17 minutes.
To call Black Mountain's sound derivative, would be to sorely under-estimate the power and urgency the band brings to their sound. This is the best of what heavy rock has offered throughout the years, re-imagined for a time where war rages in foreign countries, while our own governments employ scare-mongering tactics to keep the population paranoid and sedate.
Black Mountain, however, are no one-trick ponies, and some of the finer moments on the album, the winsome Stay Free in particular, are those where the band pick up acoustic instruments and expose themselves for what they truly are: fine songwriters who are unafraid to where their hearts on their sleeves.

Check Out: www.myspace.com/blackmountain

Key Tracks: Stormy High, Tyrants, Stay Free, Bright Lights

MGMT - Oracular Spectacular (Columbia, 2008)

Could this be the first great release of 2008? How about one of the best releases of the new millennium? No stranger to hyperbole, I am inclined to answer both of these questions with an emphatic "Yes".
Having garnered plenty of attention amongst the indie cognescenti in recent months, MGMT have released their debut on the very non-indie label Columbia; which I can only attribute to an Oracular Spectacular decision on the part of their A&R department. Who says major labels don't know their ears from their arses?
While it seems Brooklyn can do no wrong at the moment - see bands such as Yeasayer and The Dirty Projectors - it seems that MGMT are destined to take their sound to a world audience. Immediately captivating, MGMT defy simple genre-categorization, as they incorporate influences as disparate as Bowie, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd and Daft Punk.
The album's lead off track, Time To Pretend, is a ridiculously catchy, psych-pop fantasy of the rock'n'roll lifestyle: complete with models, shooting heroin in Paris, and, inevitably, choking on one's own vomit. Kids, which is the album's centerpiece, is an electronic track with a beat that you can't help but dance to; it should be the dance anthem of 2008.
MGMT jump between styles throughout the album, from guitar rock, to dance-floor filling electronica, to acoustic balladry; and they pull it all of with a finesse that belies the fact that this is their debut album.
Having recently seen the band live and being suitably blown away, I can attest that in 2008, MGMT is the shape of rock to come.

Check Out: www.myspace.com/mgmt

Sounds A Bit Like: An early contender for album of 2008.

Perfect Black Swan - Perfect Black Swan (Ambulance Records, 2006)

Having named his band after a Dirty Three album, one could safely assume that Australia's Toby Burke is well aware of the myriad of emotions that can be expressed in music without words. For those of you unfamiliar with the Dirty Three, they are a brilliant instrumental band - also from Australia - led by violinist and Nick Cave cohort Warren Ellis. The name of the Dirty Three album from which Burke took his band's name is Horse Stories. Knowing all this, however, will not prepare you for the tender, sublime beauty that lies within the music of Perfect Black Swan.
Following three albums with the aforementioned Horse Stories, that garnered praise for Burke's songwriting abilities from critics in the U.K, the U.S. and Australia alike; plus an excellent solo album, the aptly-titled Winsome Lonesome, Burke decided to put down his pen - at least as far as lyrics were concerned - and create a song cycle of six plaintive, guitar-based instrumentals.
Each of the songs has its own character, though as a whole, the album has a pastoral feel about it. Perfect Black Swan is awash with the feeling of wide open spaces; a feeling that has carried through the music of many of Australia's best songwriters, from The Triffids, to Paul Kelly, to Tex, Don & Charlie.
As a limited release available only through the mail, Perfect Black Swan is like a safely-guarded secret, that is far too good to keep.

Check Out: http://www.myspace.com/perfectblackswan

Le Loup - The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millenium General Assembly (Hardly Art, 2007)

I like to wake early in the morning. I like to hide under my covers as the sun chases away the cowering night yet again; taking comfort in the knowledge that Mr. Sun has done it many times before, and certainly doesn’t need my help. I like to turn on the radio on these early mornings, and listen to the various news pieces on NPR, letting myself drift in-and-out of sleepy, hazy consciousness. I love the sense of disorientation; the not-quite knowing of what is real and what is imagined as the stories on the radio and the dreams still floating around my head inter-mingle, becoming one and the same. Le Loup's music invokes the same feeling within me.
Springing from the mind of Sam Simkoff - the creative force behind Le Loup - The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millenium General Assembly is an exercise in catharsis. Song titles such as Planes Like Vultures and Outside Of This Car. The End Of The World, may lead one to believe that this album is a solemn affair, however, as with much great art, Simkoff has used a difficult period in his life, to inspire something that is anything but difficult. Inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy, the album spins tales of despair into songs that are somehow life-affirming.
Recorded straight onto Simkoff’s laptop, the album has a distinctly lo-fi feel and sparse instrumentation. The instrumentation there is – all of which is played by Simkoff – is used to great effect; particularly a trusty old banjo and electronic sound that would not sound out of place on an Atari 2600. Le Loup, now fleshed-out to a seven-piece band, are sure to garner plenty of attention in 2008.

Check Out: www.myspace.com/leloupmusic

Sounds A Bit Like: The Books