Ashes Grammar - ASDiG

Remember me saying that I missed a lot of awesome albums last year? Yeah. I bought Ashes Grammar, the band's second album, two or three weekends ago, at the same time I got Hush, and have been listening to it endlessly since. I also just went through the band's very amusing tour diary and downloaded some live tracks, free mp3s, etc etc etc from their website. Not only are these guys one of the most overlooked shoegaze acts I can think of, but they also sound a very cool bunch of people. Probably my favourite band at the moment.

...But getting back to the actual album. To be completely straightforward, it's just mind-blowing and beautiful. Sure, there are little things wrong with it, most notably its having about 51894486 million songs, but that only pushes it a little past an hour. And let me tell you, that is one enjoyable hour.

ASDiG describe themselves as making "dreamy pop" music and I suppose this is a better way to label their style than "shoegaze". From the very beginning of the album, which opens with some shorter tracks before launching into the first actual (regular length? solid?) track, we can tell that this will be very dreamy indeed. Faint, echoing voices float above a background of droning something-or-other before a tambourine enters, stirring up the ambient atmosphere for the upcoming song "Failure".

"Failure" is one of the more eccentric songs on the album— Not to say that the others aren't as creative, but this one is... well... you listen to it. It's bouncy and weird and makes you want to jump up and start clapping and chanting. Annie and Jen sing "Fall forward / Feel failure". Sort of inspirational in a non inspirational way. How this band manages to write a song this weird and get it away with it is beyond me, but hell, it's a blast.

"Curse words", which is what I just said when my computer after my computer randomly decided to crash a second ago and I remember I may or may not have saved a draft of this entry (I did), is some more whispery stuff. It acts as a beautiful interlude before "Close chorus", quite possibly the greatest song on this album. Here, you start wondering if what you're hearing is even real. If maybe all these unearthly sounds you're hearing are just fragments of thought passing through the mind of a dreamer. One who speaks in colour and sees in emotion. Who may not even remember his dream once he wakes up, but will faintly remember the rush of ecstasy and confusion he felt during it. "I don't understand why it's wrong to feel happy...". Ashes Grammar as a whole is very emotionally distilling, although you don't always know exactly what you are feeling.

It's hard not to say the same for the next few songs. "Shy" always gives me chills when I hear it. The layered vocals buried beneath the blurred instruments create such an airy effect that you almost think you'll disappear into it... But then that fiddle jumps out of nowhere and you're back on the surface. And if I honestly had to pick a favourite song on this album, I think it would be "Passionate introverts". It's absolutely flawless and loses me every time. I've been listening to it every morning before school while I'm half asleep and still dreaming...

You could say that "Failure" to "Passionate Introverts" is the greatest section of the album and possibly be right, but there is no excuse to saying that the rest is not worth listening to. Perhaps the largest climax has passed (and really, it's hard to beat that stuff back there), but the album continues its creative streak and churns out some more gems.

"The white witch" starts off sounding like some regular rockin' shoegaze, but is still subject to ASDiG's spell. It's simple and lovely. The band has this distinct sound they stick to all of their songs, but this mold is rather flexible and it gives their music virtually no limitations.

"Close chorus" had a nice little deconstruction and crescendo, but it really doesn't beat what's going on in "Nitetime Rainbows". This song is running all over the place dropping little uncertain hints of this and that, but it definitely knows where it's going (don't question it). By the end you'd think it had already run out of innovative juices, but at around 5:00 we hear the greatest crescendo known to man (don't question that either).

...But before you get a chance to even think on that, "Canalfish" jumps out from its canal and snaps its vicious jaws at you, reminding you that you're just a visitor here. Don't get so comfortable!

Toward the end of Ashes Grammar, the songs start to display some overused concepts repeated throughout the album. Extensive intros, predictable song structure... I can see why people would say it's somewhat monotonous at times. While these last songs don't add much to the album, there were rather high standards set at the beginning and I, personally, wasn't expecting them to be beat. Another (somewhat irrational) disappointment for me was that the title track wasn't anything special.

Ashes Grammar seemed to generate mixed reactions among its listeners. Many seem to find the album messy and sort of a disappointment, while others thinks it's rather brilliant. While I can agree that it seems to drag on at some moments, mainly due to lack of extreme variety amongst the tracks, it honestly takes a few listens for it to all sink in. On first listen, only several tracks seem to stand out and yes, those are the ones of regular length. The developed ones. You only ever really remember certain parts of a dream, don't you? But what about the stuff floating amongst that? To be honest, I think the majority of it is necessary to complete the album. Ashes Grammar is not so much about individual songs as it as the entire impact. Listening to it in one go and giving it your full attention is a must. Rating: 8.9/10

Whether or not the band can recreate the magical effect this album gives live is a different question. But from the looks of this and this, it seems rather promising. I'm seeing these guys on March 9th. I'm so stroked!

Sorry for the obnoxious length of this review! I'll be updating with other (shorter) interesting things soon.

[currently listening to: keep your splendid silent sun - sleepmakeswaves]

Hush - Asobi Seksu

So I've been going through a big "shoegaze phase" lately. A lot of what I've been listening to are recommendations given to me by others (A Sunny Day in Glasgow, Sweet Trip, The Depreciation Guild) and others are bands I heard a while ago, but for some reason didn't make a large move into until now. Asobi Seksu would be one of those bands. I heard "Thursday" again last month and remembered the pure magic of that song. Since then I've been hooked.

I don't remember Hush making it onto very many lists last year. In fact, I hadn't even heard about the album until the end of December (I could just be really oblivious though). I think people tend to overlook it, because Citrus was considered such a masterpiece. It's a shame though, since Hush is a fairly decent album. I won't spend too much time making comparisons between the two, but I think a few are necessary.

I haven't listened to Citrus as much as Hush, but I can tell that the latter took much more of a pop-ier direction. Citrus is straightforward rockin' shoegaze. Hush is borderline shoegaze, leaning more towards some creative sounding dream pop.

Hush doesn't really have a "Thursday" on it. That song is the obvious climax of Citrus, because it's simply captivating and addictive. It's like one of those fuzzy dreams where you're running and then leap into the sky and find that you can fly. And everyone loves those, right? There are little highlights on Hush; my personal favourites are "Familiar Light", "Sing Tomorrow's Praise", and "Glacially", but nothing that stands out that much. And this is just because the album as a whole is more laid back than Citrus.

Sometimes I feel like the track order wasn't thought out very well. It opens kind of confused with "Layers", and ends with one of the more upbeat and outspoken tracks, "Me & Mary", followed by the slow, but teasing "Blind Little Rain". It makes it kind of different from Citrus though. I feel like that album sort of runs itself down a bit.

The other songs are scattered in between, not completely nonsensically, but not in a particular order either. "Transparence" always catches me off guard. And "Risky and Pretty" following it? I mean it's a cool song, but I don't even know how it got there. I'm guessing it doesn't either.

Some individual songs on sound rather polished, like "Glacially" and "Sing Tomorrow's Praise", but the album as a whole doesn't seem absolutely complete. Yuki's vocals help to reach climaxes and despite her voice being so fragile and beautiful, the album hits some dull, undeveloped points that could have been better. The chorus of "Gliss" is a weird contrast from the eerie whisperings of its beginning. "Meh No Mae", one of the few times on Hush that we hear Yuki sing in Japanese, uses that same overused sound and adds nothing to the album. Each song takes on a similar structure, and a lot of them try to end the same way (bloop bloop bloop dee bloop bloop bloop... )

If you try not to read it too deeply, it doesn't really come off this way. I think I've been unnecessarily over-criticizing a bit, but that's the only way I've been able squeeze everything out of it. But maybe that's not how this album works. Maybe it's just shy. Maybe it doesn't want to tell me everything. Because really, a lot of the melodies on here are downright sweet, nice-sounding, and overall satisfying. And if you're listening for pleasure that's all that matters, right?

Rating: 7.2/10

Jónsi: radio debuts and live tracks

Last December, Jónsi of Sigur Ros released the song "Boy Lilikoi" off his upcoming solo album Go as a free download. This is old news to a lot of us, but if you happened to miss it, the song is still available for download on .

"Around Us" is definitely my favourite song at the moment! I apologize for the abrupt endings though. I tried to keep as much of the song in while leaving out that guy's voice. He interrupted Jónsi too much.

Jónsi is releasing his solo album in March (not April... dunno what Mr. Schaefer is smoking :). He also revealed in an interview that he will be touring in the US this coming April and in Europe during May! It all seems so far away!

EDIT: lolsorry for accidentally deleting this entry for 10 minutes. How embarassing.

[currently listening to: Walking with his earphones - Frakkur]