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THE STROKES
Angles
RCA
Angles is an elusive little record
that finds The Strokes experiment
ing with their tried-and-true formula
while expanding their sonic palette.
Unfortunately, after years of re-writes
and a completely scrapped record,
what we are left to contend with is a bit
of a grab bag.
While some songs, like first
single "Undercover of Darkness’ and
"Gratistadion," bounce with the same
back-to-basics garage-pep of The
Strokes’ first two albums, most of the
record has the band trying something
new—with mixed results.
Album opener "Machu Picchu" is
all tropical pop with bongos with a faux
dub riddim. And oddities like The Cars
sound-a-like ‘Two Kinds of Happiness’
and the labyrinthine ’Games’ success
fully explore ’80s synthpop territory.
Still, while lead singer Casablancas’
bored-cool ’vibrato has never sounded
better, it can’t save the meaningless
Castilian-sounding suites of “Call Me
Back’ or the meandering ‘You’re So
Right.’
With 10 songs that feel much
longer than the album's 34-minute
run-time, the real problem is a lack
of locus. As the first Strokes record
where every member is credited in each
song—and perhaps most significantly,
without the creative diredion ot Julian
Casablancas—Angles is the sound of
a band looking for its voice outside of
the well-defined aesthetic that it estab
lished with 2001's watershed Is This It.
However, considering the undeniable
strengths of at least half ot this very
disjointed record, it seems that while
Angles is sure to please some, The
Shokes are certainly capable ot better.
Christopher Joshua Benton
LOUD VALLEY
Loud Valley
Independent Release
OrlandoS Loud Valley sounds
more suited to the currents of
California than its Florida homeland.
This self-titled debut sticks to a strict
diet ot slow, breezy, lo-fi rock that has
more reverb in it than 3 Benedidine
monastery. No surprise that halt ot
it was recorded with the Futurebirds'
Thomas Johnson here in Athens
Opening track ’Pensacola* start'
with the line ’IIS why I’m headed lor
the coast/ ttS the only place I know.’
The ocean/beach/escapist references
are aplenty here, as are appropriate
instrumentation: layered trumpets (or
are they French horns?), exquisite
harmony vocals and slow, ska-esque
guitar accents
Take these elements, teed them
some prescription-strength cough
syrup, and you begin to get an idea ot
what Loud Valleyls dreamy, druggy aes
thetic is all about. This is good stuff
Listen to it at the beach.
Mark Sanders
CRYSTAL STILTS
In Love with Oblivion
Slumberiand
Brooklyn’s Crystal Stilts h3ve
shifted away from the relatively atonal
bleakness ot their debut, Alight ol
Night, and settled comfortably into the
tuneful darkness of psychedelic blues.
Although never reducing their sound
tc noisy minimalism 3 la Spacemen 3,
there’s still a heavy debt owed to that
band as well as The Creation, primitive
Pink Floyd, el al.
Opening track "Sycamore Tree’
sets the tempo quickly with its carnival
atmosphere. “Through the Floor’ fea
tures a nice doo-wop melody. ‘Silver
Sun’ would place nicely next to any
early paisley underground record, as
would “Flying Into the Sun.* It’s all just
so predictable and. basically, faceless.
If there’s such a thing as being
too well schooled in one's influences,
Crystal Stilts are guilty. I throw this
record on and lorget which band it is
in the space of 10 minutes. On one
hand, pop music requires a measure
of disposability. Without it we’d have
never gotten “Sugar, Sugar’, ’Louie,
Louie’ or ’Yummy. Yummy, Yummy’;
each ot which has, ironically, endured.
On the other hand, it also needs a
certain amount of personality, which
Crystal Stilts seemed to have on their
debut but tost somewhere on the road
to this album.
Gordon Lamb
Crystal Stills are playing at Farm
255 on Sunday, Apr. 24.
on
Mir
Independent Release
OTT may be the best dubstep
producer you've never heard of. Hell,
he may be the best dubstep producer
working today, period. Only the third
in a series ot studio releases that have
grown exponentially more complex
since his 2003 debut, Mir feels like a
culmination ot the myriad electronic
ideas that he has been exploring
throughout the past decade. His com
positions have taken on a life ot their
own. They are the musical equivalent of
Chinese parade dragons propelled by
a hundred different motions—twisting
and weaving in a hundred different
directions but always moving forward
with a singular purpose
Drawing from traditional dub.
jamtronica. IDM. new age and even
traditional Eastern and Bollywood
music (“Mouse Eating Cheese’), OTT
can begin to teel a bit maximalist, not
unlike his ADD contemporary Flying
Lotus, but by always keeping one pedal
firmly planted in his dubstep roots, his
songs never abandon their danceability.
no matter how exquisitely complicated
they get
With a maestro's touch on the
fader and a bigger bag of digital tricks
than Joker and edIT combined. OTT
unquestionably delivers a lush, cosmic
voyage ot spacey effects, squelchy
bass and beats that'll have you grindin’
your bones to make his bread. But
ultimately, what he has created with
Mir 'rs a much rarer artifact in a field
thatls quickly becoming overcrowded:
a dubstep album that is just as reward
ing in the headphones as it is on the
dancefloor.
David Fitzgerald
GIOVONM PRATT
The Beautiful Mind
Umbrella Coded Music
Thai hip-hop is no longer an
intensely regional art form is detrimen
tal to its development. As it continues
its journey towards the center of the
mainstream, it becomes increasingly
difficult to differentiate Dirty' South
bombast from New York City backpack-
rap and Cali swagger; as such, the
music loses some of what always made
it so significant: its sense of self
Bronx-bred Marietta dweller
Giovonni Pratt seems stuck in a spe
cific time and place; specifically, his is
a distinctly mid-*90s East Coast style
of hip-hop that calls to mind Digable
Planets or the superb early work of The
Roots (before they were a late-night TV
house band; after all, they could really
get down on some shit).
His backing tracks, courtesy ot DJ
Fu Beats, are fluid and soul-centric.
But The Beautiful Mind falls short,
for though Pratt’s heart and ears are
in an inspired place, there isn’t much
inspiring lyricism to be found. Among
the requisite posi-rap epistles and too-
frequent guest spots, the record fails to
find a memorable foothold.
But the dude is on the right track.
The Beautiful Mind is enjoyable, it not
totally remarkable, and at the least,
he's head and shoulders above most
modern rap*stars in the personality
department. That’s personality, not per
sona. Giovonni Pratt is quite honestly
someone.
Gabe Vodicka
18 FLAGPOLE.COM • APRIL 20,2011
