MUSIC: Summer of "Neon"

It looks like my last post was waaaaaaaay back in March and it was for another music release that's near and dear to my heart, my man Matthew Mercer's second full-length solo album, 'Supernatant,' an album of winter beauty, ambient, droney, and melancholic. It was an album for that season and a beauty you should check out here.

Winter gave way to spring gave way to the hottest summer on record in Portland, Ore. (so far; we did break the June record for heat.) Summer gives way to partying and dancing and fun and shaking off those rainy blues. We, as a band, welcomed the chance to bring out something shiny and new. It had been two years since our last album release, 2013's AggroPastels. We'd been making tracks since the Christmas holidays and perfecting a ten-song release that moves away from the more complex, lush, and sometimes downbeat, sometimes broken beats of the last album. Less pastel, more neon.

For this new album, '1,000,000 Neon Hz' we decided to make the songs more streamlined, less noisy and full, and more sleek, slick, and glossy. Hence the title's operative word: neon.

We start the album off with 'If You're Waiting for That Kiss (You'll Be Waiting for the Rest of Your Life)' a fun, housey jam reminiscent of Basement Jaxx but with less clutter; we made an eye-popping lyric video for the single (above).

We wanted to make a ten-track (our shortest album since our debut) piece that really concentrates on the dancefloor. No ballads or midtempo songs. Even the haunting sounds of the closing track 'Unreliable Narrator' has a 4/4 beat underneath. The whole album has that cold, bright glow of neon. That was the goal. Mission accomplished.

You can buy the album on Bandcamp for $9; on iTunes for $9.99. If streaming is your thing, take a listen at Soundcloud.

We appreciate you listening and purchasing if you can. We're a DIY, word-of-mouth band and this is how we keep going. Please support if you can. Thanks! xo MK

MUSIC: 'Supernatant' is Supernatural

Matthew Mercer releases his second full-length album 'Supernatant' today. Where his last full-length, Pianissimo Possibile was a collection of beautiful pieces based around cut up piano recordings and stuttering electronic beats, Supernatant is an even starker collection. Waves of ambient drones and tones, beatless and haunting, flow through 11 tracks.

This giant mood piece definitely shifts in subtle ways. Headphones and patience are a must to really immerse yourself in all the detailing that Mercer has put into each track. The press release asks the listener to "play loud" and I agree.

If the audio only atmospherics aren't enough for some of you visually needy out there, Mercer has filmed a video piece for each track. Yes, that is 11 separate video pieces that satisfy the filmmaker in Mercer and the idea of soundtracking such an immersive headphone trip. Natural snow coated forests, urban transportation tunnels, stormy intense skies, desolate ocean shores, twinkly city lights, menacing stark woods, every one of these makes appearances in the video album. The full video playlist can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNJQIqf8idY&list=PLvV_NsZF_UopVJKLfXTYElY66g24KdgQN

As winter fades into spring (or fades back to winter for the East Coasters), Supernatant plays a perfect soundtrack.

Listen/buy the album here: https://matthewmercer.bandcamp.com/

If you enjoy it, please repost about the release. Word-of-mouth makes these musical adventures work.

MUSIC: Bjork's Bjroken Heart and Vulnerable 'Vulnicura'

Due to this modern world of thieves and impatient peoples (sometimes two-in-one), we have a lot of superstars' music and albums being leaked early. First it was Madonna and Rebel Heart (but c'mon, you wanted to hear the quality before you put money down on her songs, hoping for some return to form and not Hard Candy + MDNA.)

Now, Bjork, just days after announcing her new album Vulnicura is to be released in March, saw it leaked all over the internet, spreading faster than a speeding volta.

Like Madonna and her last album, this is apparently Bjork's "breakup album" with her partner/husband(?), former fashion model turned performance/video/installation artist Matthew Barney.

Just nine tracks, albeit many of them lengthy, I strapped on my iPod to get lost in her universe again, and with trepidation. Her last album, 2011's Biophilia left me cold. It wasn't her first album to be difficult listening or challenging (that was 2004's Medulla for me) but the whole construction of the enterprise (the apps, the educational elements, the instruments being built) put the music in second place to the "project" at large. It was the first Bjork album where I felt she seemed lost in the murky depths and noise and bluster swirling around her.

From Vulnicura's opening track "Stone Milker" I was hooked. The voice, up front and center, the wall of lush strings pulling her along and the warmth building with each minute. She was singing about her heart, feelings, emotions and not about rocks and viruses and moon particles. The excitement and hurt is palpable.

Buzzed about producer Arca handles most of the tracks co-production but his very distinct sound (present on last year's Xen album) only bubbles up on the excellent track "History of Touches." Gloomy British electronic soundscaper The Haxan Cloak handles production on only one track "Family," a statement of intent about her current situation. "The death of my family...the mother and the child...the father and the child." No doubt about her daughter with Barney.

The Antony-assisted song "Atom Dance" is a return to their Volta duet but beamed from the moon, all cut-up vocals and skittery strings and beats, where "The Dull Flame of Desire" sounds like a well-oiled showtune in comparison.

The centerpiece of the album is "Black Lake," a ten-minute epic that starts with chamber strings and halfway through leads to 4/4 beats before splintering again and slowing down, the strings (on this song and the album) always omnipresent with the force of waves.

Bjork seems to have finally dropped her love of shrieking horn sections for a return to a string-based world that envelops every song on Vulnicura, much to my mutual surprise and pleasure. "Mutual Core" no more.

Bjork seems to be heartbroken on this album and that couldn't make us more pleased, horrible audience that we are. This is a true return to form we've been waiting for for ages.