Day 0971 - Sounds of Silver

 LCD Soundsystem “Sounds of Silver” (2007)

I'd been introduced to LCD Soundsystem via their track "Daft Punk is Playing at My House".   They're one of those bands where I've enjoyed everything I've heard from them but for some reason have never made an effort to investigate any more of it.   I was hoping they'd pop up on the list to force my lazy, disorganised arse into listening to them.

The late-70s influence is all over this,  “Get Innocuous” feels like an update of Bowie’s Young Americans album, while “Time to Get Away” is like mid-era Talking Heads.   Actually TH is a definite presence here with the danceable rock and skittish intellectual vocal approach.

“Someone Great” is a bed of swelling synths with a perky lead line, all topped with Murphy’s repetitive melodic vocal on top.  Comes across kind of like if Kraftwerk’s music making robots found a little more humanity... and lethargy.

Much of the rest of the album occasionally touches on the above influences but falls more into a sort of indie rock sound with a few electronic conceits included.
The album ends well with “New York I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down” which starts out as a delicate piano piece sounding not unlike Lou Reed's 'Perfect Day'.   It eventually builds to an excellent crazed rock freak-out and then backs off again for the denouement.

Day 0856 - New Forms

Roni Size/Reprazent "New Forms" (1997)

Roni had grown up in the musical melting pot of Bristol, home of the trip-hop of Portishead and Massive Attack, but also a lot of dub and reggae.   Roni saw gigs by Massive Attack forerunner The Wild Bunch, learned to DJ at his local youth club and formed 'Roni Size and Reprazent.

Their debut album here is an interesting mix of high BPM DnB patterns with dub, soul, jazz bass, and electro tracks.   The songs are generally built on repetitive loops that are given a good 5+ minutes to develop with vocals featuring on some tracks.

I knew the name Roni Size, didn't think I'd heard any of his music but "Digital" sounds quite familiar, so I may have done after all.

Reprazent only released one other album, but Roni collaborated with other artists, did remixes and even contributed to the interesting soundtrack to the film "Spawn" that paired up metal and hard-rock acts with electronic producers and artists.

Day 0491 - Mask

Bauhaus "Mask" (1981)

 
I don't know if I'm maybe not in the mood, but this one seems just 'okay'.  On the face of it it seems like something that I'd be into; a gothy post-punk offering that mixes skittish whiteboy funk, electronic elements, gothic backing vocals and a number of other elements.  I enjoyed all of it and really wanted to LOVE it, but it just wasn't happening.

This was viewed as being Bauhaus' more poppy accessible album.  They released 2 more albums before going their separate ways with all the members pursuing separate music projects (testament to the combined creativity contained within the band).   They reunited and released an album in the 00s.