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When Tommy asked me to write a few things for Sound Doctrine I was intrigued to say the least, and when I heard that my cut would be a full 50% of the $0.00 this weblog makes daily, I considered myself headhunted. However, feeling I’ll never be able to keep up with this guy on a new music front makes for some apprehension on my part. Out of respect for my most Jewish friend I still took the job, despite feeling somewhat like the blogger Carlton to his Fresh Prince, or the musical Haddock to his TinTin (which I’m seeing tomorrow – keen).
And thus without segue I give you Forest Mountain Hymnal, a pretty pleasant husband and wife duo that use a banjo and some voices to great effect on the folk standard (I’d never heard it) Buckeye Jim, below. It’s always a shame when a band’s best song is a cover and it’s possibly true in this case but their EP Fitcher’s Bird and Other Tales of the Macabreis worth a listen nonetheless, and shows a dedication to storytelling not often seen in today’s folk scene. I promise never to say scene again in my Sound Doc career.
Forest Mountain Hymnal – ‘Buckeye Jim’ [FREE MP3]
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Purchase/Hear more at the Forest Mountain Hymnal Bandcamp
Last week/last night, depending on when I get round to posting this, I saw the movie Drive. It was the best film I’ve ever seen (this year), though hotly contested by Richard Ayoade’s Submarine. In short, Ryan Gosling (who I didn’t previously have much time for) is brilliant as the nameless protagonist in this black, Tarrantinesque (ish), noir (ish), crime thriller. Events suddenly spiral out of control mid way through the film and the ensuing graphic violence polarises the tense peacefulness of the film’s first half. I haven’t seen a similar treatment of dialogue in any film I’ve seen to date. I strongly, strongly recommend you see this movie.
I’m not here to review movies though, I’m here to get paid share tunes. There’s an overarching 80s sensibility to Drive that’s evident in costume, car, cinematography but to point, in soundtrack. I’ve chosen a few of the most poignant tracks but even without their cinematic significance, these songs would be stand-alone awesome. Throw your hands up if you feel me.
This year was the year that we all got a hold of Smoke Ring For My Halo, the most recent album from Kurt Vile, and then smugly pretended we’d been tracking his career since 2008. “Yeah, Smoke Ring is cool”, we’d say, “but have you heard Childish Prodigy? No? Oh dude, you’ve gotta hear it, it’s waaaaaaay better, you can’t even imagine.”
Kurt Vile – ‘Blackberry Song’
Well, I haven’t even given Smoke Ring For My Halo a proper listen since I’m such a reactionary cat, but what I have listened to is his 2009 album Childish Prodigy, which they say is way better – you can’t even begin to understand. The album administers a healthy dose of 70s DIY psychadelia that would lend itself to a week long roadtrip. Sometimes inaudibly mumbled, other times yelped through stoner drawl, Vile’s lyrics are simple and picturesque, concrete enough to speak of real experience, broad enough that they’re not alienating. The record has such a strong sense of coherency that you really should listen to it through, start to finish. I’ve picked the most accessible song from the record, the beautiful ‘Blackberry Song’ for you to partake of in a quiet place at a quiet moment. Please buy this album. Do it for me but do it for you.
Sures were guaranteed a write up, mostly because Matt Hogan sings in a little band called Sleepyhands (and he’s a swell dude) but also because this track Poseidon draws a straight line from the Beachboys to the present via The Explorer’s Club. Big ol’ harmonies deepen up the effect heavy guitar line, which itself cuts free at the tail end of the track. Good things with a promise of better things from Sydney’s Sures.
Sures – ‘Poseidon’ [FREE MP3]
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I hadn’t heard of Apparat before he released his most recent album The Devil’s Walk about a month ago. He’s a German with a penchant for focusing on the minute sounds that make up the rich knitwork of the bigger audio and the attention to detail yields heavy dividends on the newest record (and maybe on the earlier records, I haven’t heard them, get off my back about it).
Apparat is a structural disciple of the slowbuild, layering vocal atop choral atop orchestral atop instrumental atop ambient noise, finally underpinned by underplayed beats. It won’t give you that immediate nothing to everything moment that dubstep is famous for [over]providing but it’ll give you a more gratifying experience of listening to an artist that is rewarding for more than the very short term.
The album is across-the-board solid but here are two highlights from The Devil’s Walk.
Apparat – ‘Ash/Black Veil’
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Apparat – ‘Escape’
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Artists you need to know rn
| 1. 1300 |  |
316 |
| 2. Voidhood | |
259 | 3. jamesjamesjames | |
186 | 4. Zan | |
174 |
| 5. Sesame Girl | |
147 |
