Scott Morrow and Patrick Hajduch, Author at ALARM

Morrow vs. Hajduch: Jacaszek’s Glimmer

Scott Morrow is ALARM’s music editor. Patrick Hajduch is a very important lawyer. Each week they debate the merits of a different album.

Jacaszek: Glimmer (Ghostly International, 12/6/11)

Jacaszek: “Dare-gale”

[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Jacaszek_Dare-gale.mp3|titles=Jacaszek: “Dare-gale”]

Hajduch: I first heard Polish composer Michał Jacaszek when his music shuffled onto my headphones at an ungodly early hour while walking through a very crowded airport, and it was all at once calming and perfectly fitting. Jacaszek’s compositions make moody, atmospheric ambience using a classical palette, with bowed strings, operatic voices, and chimes to construct a brooding build.

His new album, Glimmer, is his first for Ghostly International, whose ambient compilation SMM: Context featured Jacaszek alongside like-minded modern/gloom/ambient merchant (and MvsH alumnus) The Fun Years, among others.

Morrow: Though this might be misclassified as an electronic album — partly due to its affiliation with Ghostly — it’s almost entirely an ambient classical release. There’s enough digital treatment and rearrangement to warrant a partial electronic tag, but it’s otherwise a very organic album. Jacaszek wrote and recorded the acoustic-guitar and mellotron passages, and then he enlisted a number of other Polish musicians to play the harpsichord and clarinet parts. It’s all a very stirring mix, with the harpsichord, bass clarinet, guitar, and vibraphone — not to mention the washes of fuzz — creating a richness of texture.

Morrow vs. Hajduch: Keep Shelly in Athens’ Campus Martius EP

Scott Morrow is ALARM’s music editor. Patrick Hajduch is a very important lawyer. Each week they debate the merits of a different album.

Keep Shelly in Athens: Campus Martius EP (Planet Mu, 12/5/11)

Keep Shelly in Athens: “Campus Martius”

[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/KSIA_Campus_Martius.mp3|titles=Keep Shelly in Athens: “Campus Martius”]

Morrow: Hailing from Athens, Greece, Keep Shelly in Athens (whose name is a play on the Grecian suburb Kypseli) is a down-tempo/chill-wave electronic two-piece that has garnered steady ‘Net buzz since last year. The hype, to this point, might be a tad undeserved, but the duo’s recent In Love With Dusk EP demonstrated potential across a spate of digitized genres, even if it was heavy on the Ibiza influence.

The major appeal here is the interplay between singer Sarah P and producer RPR (mysterious!), whose styles seem to be coming into their own. With Campus Martius, the duo’s first release on Planet Mu, there’s less of the beach-y nightlife and ’80s cheese; instead, there’s an urban, industrialized, and ambient vibe to better fit Sarah’s elongated and reverberated vocals.

Morrow vs. Hajduch: Polinski’s Labyrinths

Scott Morrow is ALARM’s music editor. Patrick Hajduch is a very important lawyer. Each week they debate the merits of a different album.

Polinski: Labyrinths (Monotreme, 11/8/11)

Polinski: “Tangents”

[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Polinski_Tangents.mp3|titles=Polinski: “Tangents”]

Morrow: Following its first three albums, England’s 65daysofstatic took a step away from its experimental beginnings — when it collided instrumental post-rock with glitchy breakbeats — to craft an album that was more a fusion of rock and dance. (Think of Holy Fuck, only moodier and with more of the band’s core elements.) Now 65DOS computer dude Paul Wolinski has headed straight to the dance floor for his solo debut. It’s purportedly inspired by the darker synth sounds of 1970s and ’80s sci-fi flicks, but even though there is the occasional John Carpenter moment, Labyrinths is much more clubby than scary.

Hajduch: I like how the promo MP3s came all in ALL CAPS and look like the music of a CRAZY PERSON. The tunes are a bit busy and energetic for the Carpenter comparison – they’re more like a Rustie that’s been toned down. Opener “1985-QUEST” sounds exactly like the title. You could watch VHS end-credits to it, or maybe do some aerobics. If anything, the clubby bombast here sounds a lot like Gatekeeper, which does the “horror disco” thing about as well as anyone could hope to.

Morrow vs. Hajduch: Oneohtrix Point Never’s Replica

Scott Morrow is ALARM’s music editor. Patrick Hajduch is a very important lawyer. Each week they debate the merits of a different album.

Oneohtrix Point Never: Replica (Software / Mexican Summer, 11/8/11)

Oneohtrix Point Never: “Replica”

[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Oneohtrix_Point_Never_Replica.mp3|titles=Oneohtrix Point Never: “Replica”]

Hajduch: One-man experimental electronic project Oneohtrix Point Never is discussed in the same breath with all the other John Carpenter / kosmische / synthesizer music that has garnered attention the past few years (most notably, the oft-mentioned-here Emeralds). However, during that time, the Oneohtrix sound has wandered further and further from the reservation, incorporating blistering noise and looped samples. Replica continues this trend, layering the mournful polysynth washes with odd, clipped samples from television commercials.

Morrow: We talked about Daniel Lopatin‘s collaborative Ford & Lopatin (with Joel Ford of Tigercity) back in June, but that was a much more ’80s-influenced and synth-heavy album. Replica is very ambient, and though it may seem shapeless at first, there are all sorts of sampled melodies percolating beneath the surface. To those unaccustomed to this style, the album can come off as inaccessible or difficult to appreciate, but if you spend some time and immerse yourself in the waves of sound, it should grow on you. The subtlety of the music is best served with repeated listens.

Morrow vs. Hajduch: Justice’s Audio, Video, Disco

Scott Morrow is ALARM’s music editor. Patrick Hajduch is a very important lawyer. Each week they debate the merits of a different album.

Justice: Audio, Video, Disco (Ed Banger, 10/25/11)

Hajduch: When Justice emerged in 2007 with †, it signaled the logical end of Daft Punk‘s arena-house takeover. Chunky Ratatat riffs and absurdly compressed samples, all blown out as loud as possible — it was a tacky 4/4 onslaught that just made absolute sense. Justice was a “rock band” inasmuch as it was loud and had black leather jackets (and maybe lip-synched?) and made dance music that was very clearly informed by the trashier end of the rock-and-roll spectrum.

So now it’s 2011 and the sophomore release is out. For the talk about it being more baroque/prog/(insert term of choice denoting “wanky” here), it doesn’t sound like much else but another Justice album. Every song sounds at least a little bit like Night on Bald Mountain, and everything is loud. Also, “Ohio” pretty clearly samples the throb from NIN‘s “Closer,” which is a really good choice.

Morrow: I like the Fantasia / Modest Mussorgsky association, but I think that those baroque elements are more pronounced. “Horsepower” puts the classical influence front and center, basically from the start of the disc, “Ohio” uses harpsichord flourishes, and “Canon” sounds like, well, the type of composition for which it’s named.

Of course, you’re right that the whole thing still sounds like Justice with its French electro sound and disco bits. But I would echo that it sounds less like future-ized funk and party jams and more like Johann Sebastian Bach writing simplified dance-floor burners (for fame and women, of course).

Morrow vs. Hajduch: Bastard Priest’s Ghouls of the Endless Night

Scott Morrow is ALARM’s music editor. Patrick Hajduch is a very important lawyer. Each week they debate the merits of a different album.

Bastard Priest: Ghouls of the Endless Night (Blood Harvest / Pulverised, 9/3/11)

Bastard Priest: “Ghouls of the Endless Night”

<a href="http://bastardpriest.bandcamp.com/track/ghouls-of-the-endless-night">Ghouls of the endless night by Bastard Priest</a>

Hajduch: Ghouls of the Endless Night is the new LP from Swedish duo Bastard Priest, which plays fast, crusty D-beat / death metal. The album is streaming at Invisible Oranges, which is a must-read for all things metal (and which will hopefully continue to thrive following the recent departure of creator/editor Cosmo Lee).

Most of the tracks here are a wall of sound, but there’s a lot of interest in the spaces carved out. The melodic breakdown on “Enter Eternal Nightmare” (I think — the stream isn’t segmented by track) is one of many standout moments.

Morrow: These dudes are from Umeå, the home of Meshuggah, but they couldn’t sound further from the latter’s mechanical mastery. Their songs are raw, gruff, and to the point — a lo-fi metal-head’s dream.

Ghouls of the Endless Night is chock full of push beats and breakdowns, and it’s effective for what it is. A handful of solos give the tracks a much-needed other dimension, but I can’t help but feel a little bored. Also, I’m far from an audiophile, but the recording quality leaves much to be desired.

Morrow vs. Hajduch: Sahy Uhns’ An Intolerant Disdain of Underlings

Scott Morrow is ALARM’s music editor. Patrick Hajduch is a very important lawyer. Each week they debate the merits of a different album.

Sahy Uhns: An Intolerant Disdain of Underlings (Proximal, 10/18/11)

Sahy Uhns: “Anticipation of the Night”

[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Sahy_Uhns_Anticipation_of_the_Night.mp3|titles=Sahy Uhns: “Anticipation of the Night”]

Morrow: Sahy Uhns (pronounced “science”) is the solo moniker of electronic/hip-hop producer Carl Madison Burgin, whose debut CD comes as part of a 5″ x 5″ book with photographs of the California deserts. The deserts are said to have inspired the album, but the glitchy, beat-ridden sounds therein are more the soundtrack for robots break-dancing than cactus needles rustling in the wind.

Though at times it simply resembles another detailed IDM album, An Intolerant Disdain of Underlings stands out with highly melodic phrasings and nuanced differences in timbre. It’s a beautiful, danceable sound collage that’s good for the car or the dance floor, falling somewhere between the styles of Warp recording artists (Chris) Clark and Harmonic 313.

Morrow vs. Hajduch: Craig Wedren’s Wand

Scott Morrow is ALARM’s music editor. Patrick Hajduch is a very important lawyer. Each week they debate the merits of a different album.

Craig Wedren: Wand (Nerveland, 9/27/11)

Craig Wedren: “Are We”

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Morrow: In 1994, Shudder to Think scored a brief and unlikely radio hit with “X-French Tee Shirt,” a quirky rock anthem with a crescendo-building three-minute chorus/outro. Though the mathy post-hardcore four-piece had an established résumé, including a release on Dischord, a move to Epic Records gave it a chance at radio exposure, introducing impressionable alt-rock listeners to front-man Craig Wedren and his breathy, fiercely belted falsettos.

Since his time in Shudder to Think, Wedren has spent a lot of time writing themes for film and television, and he released a pair of solo albums (one entirely of ambient tracks) in the 2000s. Wand is “official” followup to the 2005 album Lapland.

Morrow vs. Hajduch: Junkyard Empire’s Acts of Humanity Vol. 1 & 2

Scott Morrow is ALARM’s music editor. Patrick Hajduch is a very important lawyer. Each week they debate the merits of a different album.

Junkyard Empire: Acts of Humanity Vol. 1 & 2 (Mediaroots, 7/12/11)

Junkyard Empire: “We Want”

[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Junkyard_Empire_We_Want.mp3|titles=Junkyard Empire: “We Want”]

Morrow: Based in St. Paul, Minnesota, Junkyard Empire is an emphatically political five-piece hip-hop/jazz/rock crossover ensemble, topping a groove-heavy amalgamation with scathing rhymes and spoken-word speeches.

On its newest album, Acts of Humanity Vol. 1 & 2, MC Brihanu is incensed from the get-go, using the opening verses to cite a barrage of America’s fucked-up foreign policy while referencing the School of the Americas, the backing of military juntas and death squads, and support for dictators such as Augusto Pinochet, Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, François “Papa Doc” Duvalier, and Manuel Noriega.

Though a handful of other tracks take a more personal approach, the vast majority is just as biting, addressing American imperialism, capitalism, Israeli aggression, and much more. The music and delivery, for the most part, are above average, but a bit of cheesy funk/R&B seeps into the mix — including a very “Shoop”-esque “hey-eee!” on “Regla.”

Morrow vs. Hajduch: Dave Douglas’ Orange Afternoons

Scott Morrow is ALARM’s music editor. Patrick Hajduch is a very important lawyer. Each week they debate the merits of a different album.

Dave Douglas: Orange Afternoons (Greenleaf, 8/30/11)

Dave Douglas: “Solato”

[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Dave_Douglas_Solato.mp3|titles=Dave Douglas: “Solato”]

Morrow: Without room to properly bill it in our title, Orange Afternoons is the new installment of the Greenleaf Portable Series, a return to the informal jazz sessions of yore. Though all of the compositions are credited to all-star trumpeter Dave Douglas, it features a similarly famous/standout cast, including saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, pianist Vijay Iyer, bassist Linda Oh, and drummer Marcus Gilmore. It’s a traditional but engaging display of jazz melody and dexterity.

Morrow vs. Hajduch: Noxious Foxes’ Légs

Scott Morrow is ALARM’s music editor. Patrick Hajduch is a very important lawyer. Each week they debate the merits of a different album.

Noxious Foxes: Légs 2xLP (Broth IRA, 7/26/11)

Noxious Foxes: “Doth Shalt Noth”

[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Noxious_Foxes_Doth_Shalt_Noth.mp3|titles=Noxious Foxes: “Doth Shalt Noth”]

Morrow: In the vein of Hella and other masterful duos that overachieve with layered loops and hot licks, Noxious Foxes is a pair of like-minded guitar/drums artists. The music, though technical, is rooted more in melody and groove than Hella — somewhere closer to Spencer Seim spinoffs The Advantage or sBACH if you were to further force the comparison.

Guitarist Justin Talbott pulls double duty with synths and electric pianos over the guitar loops, adding a tinge of the Blood Brothers aesthetic to the mix. (There isn’t a pair of sassy-as-fuck vocalists, however.) And the occasionally 8-bit-esque synths add to the video-game vibe that the guitars give off, making the Advantage comparison more apt, even if there are no Contra covers.

Morrow vs. Hajduch: Beastwars

Scott Morrow is ALARM’s music editor. Patrick Hajduch is a very important lawyer. Each week they debate the merits of a different album.

Beastwars: s/t (5/9/11)

Beastwars: “Damn the Sky”

[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/BEASTWARS_Damn_the_Sky.mp3|titles=Beastwars: “Damn the Sky”]

Morrow: Hailing from New Zealand, Beastwars is a four-piece stoner/sludge-metal outfit that specializes in down-tuned guitars, deep grooves, and gruff wailing. The group remains unsigned for now, but after hearing this self-titled album (which you can do for free at Beastwars’ Bandcamp page), it’s only a matter of time before an indie label picks them up. (Hello, Tee Pee?)

The music isn’t groundbreaking, but it’s a fist-pumping, head-banging good time — part Unsane, part old-school Soundgarden, and part High on Fire.

Hajduch: There is a major, major grunge influence at work here. “Lake of Fire” sounds a whole lot like a burlier “School” by Nirvana. The way the vocals interact with these huge riffs carries a definite Pacific Northwest influence. There’s also something about the riffs that remind me of Undertow-era Tool but with more of a classic-metal gallop to them.

I’m definitely shocked at how little exposure this band has gotten. This is a really solid stoner-metal album that should appeal to everybody who even slightly likes this kind of thing.