music-and-concert-reviews-you-wont-see-anywhere-else
#15 album of 2013 – Diseases of England by the Indelicates
Artist: the Indelicates
Album: Diseases of England
The Indelicates, first of all, have a brilliantly chosen band name. “Indelicate” is, especially in their native England, a judgment of improper behavior, misbehavior. To brag of indelicacy is to forward naughtiness, rebellion. But it’s to do so in an environment where decorum and olde standards apply: an upper class, at least a schooled upper-middle one, and one largely vanished by the time of the Indelicates’ 2008 debut. It is […]
#16 album of 2013 – Multipurpose Trap by Birds and Buildings
Artist: Birds and Buildings
Album: Multipurpose Trap
Birds and Buildings classify their second album Multipurpose Trap as “jazz-rock, progressive-rock, zeuhl, rock in opposition”, which seems about right for those of you who’ll understand all that. If you’re stuck after jazz-rock, that’s still a useful starting point, and I’m happy to add that King Crimson (’70s and ’80s versions both) seems like a significant influence. Their music is mostly high-energy; their five-piece lineup includes a trumpeter, a violinist, […]
#17 album of 2013 – Magic Trix by Xenia Rubinos
Artist: Xenia Rubinos
Album: Magic Trix
Xenia Rubinos’s debut album Magic Trix lays out its niftiest tactics quickly — many of them within the five minutes of its opening song Help. Her lilting voice, which by later in the album will suggest to me Bjork as a rowdy young NYC Latina, starts out cautiously by itself, picking its way up scales like Little Engine up a big hill: “My name is Rosa/ I live under the bridge/ […]