Twilight Sad remixed

Not essential, but not bad either...an album of remixed tracks from the Twilight Sad's No One Can Ever Know.

THE TWILIGHT SAD
No One Can Ever Know: The Remixes
(FatCat)

The Twilight Sad's third full-length, No One Can Ever Know was noticeably chillier and synthier than the debut Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters or its follow-up Forget the Night Ahead. Even before getting the remix treatment, its cuts couched the band's aesthetic in harsher, more industrial terms. You heard James Graham's floridly mannered singing, Mark Devine's stomach-shaking drumming reverberating in krautish dystopias.


As a result, it is not a very big stretch to bring in contemporary electronic artists - Lithuanian dubstep DJ Brokenchord, 1980s synth revivalist Com Truise, Brighton-based DJ Ambassadeurs, as well as EDM-leaning indie artists like Liars and the Horrors' Tom Furse - to rearrange and reimagine these tracks. The nine-track remix album includes three versions of "Sick" (two from BrokenChord, one from Com Truise), and two each of "Nils," "Not Sleeping" and "Alphabet."

More

Here's the Liars' contribution.


Speaking of Liars, I just broke down and bought the year-end Mojo, mostly because in its free CD tribute to Fleetwood Mac's Rumors Liars are inexplicably chosen to cover "The Chain." Haven't played it yet, but that's why I bought the magazine.

Best faves through january

So I think I'm going to do this once a month or so, just to remind myself about what I was liking a few weeks ago and how it compares to what I'm liking now...also I'd love to hear what everyone else is into early on in 2012, if there's anyone out there anymore. Anyway, here are my favorite records through January.

Shearwater, Animal Joy (Sub Pop)...way out in front, more visceral than you'd imagine Shearwater could be, but also incredibly fragile, spiritual, delicate. I've got a PopMatters feature in the works on this (by which I mean, it's all done and god knows when they'll decide to run it...June would be about par for the course).

Sharon Van Etten, Tramp, (Jagjaguwar)...wrote about this one for Dusted, an almost ideal consolidation of her beautifully vulnerable, spare debut and her lusher, guttier Epic.

Damien Jurado, Maraqopa, (Secretly Canadian)...Jurado's second collaboration with producer Richard Smith is warmer and more immediate than Saint Bartlett, marginally more rocking, but still has a core of unknowability and mystery...the songs sort of glow in the dark. (I've got a slightly more coherent review in the pipe at Dusted on this.)

The Twilight Sad, No One Can Ever Know (Fat Cat)...Just finished my review of this one, and kind of too exhausted to try to find another way to say that this one is chillier, dryer, more rhythmically intense than previous outings, but with a really intriguing overlay of synthesizers.

Mark Lanegan Band, Blues Funeral (4AD)...I've barely started on this, but what can you say...that voice...chills. (also, did you ever think you'd hear gated snare on a Lanegan record? Me neither.)

Fruit Tree Foundation

A couple of summers ago, it seemed like I was listening to nothing but Scottish music, the two early albums by Twilight Sad and Frightened Rabbit, a bit of James YOrkston, some reissued Fire Engines, Sons & Daughters...and it wasn't a bad thing at all. The Fruit Tree Foundation brings together a few of these artists -- plus a few others (Rod Jones from Idlewild, Emma Pollack from the Delgados, Alasdair Roberts -- to raise money and awareness for the Scottish Mental Health Arts & Film Festival.

Unlike a lot of benefit records (and even for-profit compilations), this one is not made up of cast-offs from earlier sessions. The artists actually went to a house in Perthshire to write the music, consciously focusing on themes around mental well-being...The songs fit together rather well as a result, and, moreover, there are lots of interesting pairings. I like this one, particularly, which puts Scott Hutchison from Frightened Rabbit and Rod Jones from Idlewild together, in a fairly compelling blend of vulnerability and guitar shimmer...

"I Forgot the Fall"

I went to Mogwai on Saturday…

…and realized that, despite liking the band and owning more than half of their albums, I could hardly tell one song from another and really had no business trying to review the show.

But I did anyway. Here’s the write-up, which posted yesterday at Blurt. (It’s actually a pretty decent review of the Twilight Sad, about half of whose set was new material.)



“BatCat” from the Hawk Is Howling.