Not that nostalgic for Fleetwood Mac...

...but this Liars cover of "Chain" (from the latest Mojo giveaway CD) is awesome. It's dark, claustrophobic and stalker creepy which is quite possibly more in line with what was going on with Fleetwood Mac around Rumours than the sunny covers. Also worth hearing on the disc -- Julia Holter's ghostly, attenuated "Gold Dust Woman" and the Besnard Lakes' sweeping, space-rocking "You Make Loving Fun."



It's always bizarre when stuff you'd change the radio station for, whenever it came on, that you couldn't stand to hear even one more time becomes a touchstone. Though I guess if I can survive the Bee Gees revival, this should be easy.

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."

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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.

Liars' palindromic new album

Pretty sure this is in the new print issue of Blurt, which came in the mail yesterday, looks great and will soon be on newsstands everywhere(ish).

Liars
WIXIW
(Mute)

Liars don't tread the same ground twice, but WIXIW is less of a jump than usual. The sixth full-length continues progress towards a chilled, incantatory electronic sound that has been in motion since Drum's Not Dead. Kraut-ish influences drift in and out, but here they are muted to a Beta Band-like hybrid of soft melody and twitchy beat.

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Pitchfork is streaming the whole thing.

Liars go quiet, evocative with WIXIW

Finished a review of the new Liars' album WIXIW, and while I can't tell you what I said, I will say that the spasmodic, funk-damaged Liars (i.e. "Mr. You're on Fire Mr.") is probably never coming back. Instead we've got a chilled, kind of beautiful aesthetic, heavy on the machine-beats, but inward looking and hardly hedonistic at all. And, as ever, worth checking out.




It's out on Mute next month.

Liking, not loving the new Liars

Sisterworld is all woozy menace, downtempo paranoia, creeped out organ drones and freak folky croons …There are no catchy tunes, but that shouldn’t surprise you since Liars have been done with catchy tunes for a while. I’m kind of liking it, though not in any extreme, omigod you gotta hear this, kind of way. Also bearing in mind that some people think it’s crap (hi Michael!), here’s “Scissor.” What do you think?