Morrow vs. Hajduch

Morrow vs. Hajduch: PVT’s Church With No Magic

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

PVT: Church With No Magic

PVT: Church With No Magic (Warp, 8/10/10)

PVT: “Light Up Bright Fires”
[audio:https://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/PVT_Light_Up_Bright_Fires.mp3|titles=PVT: “Light Up Bright Fires”]

[Stream all of Church With No Magic on PVT’s website.]

Morrow: Formerly known as Pivot, Australia’s PVT was formed as an improvisational quintet in the late 1990s before transitioning to an electro-rock trio.  The group maintained a number of experimental, freeform elements, but it focused on synth grooves and a mixture of live and digital beats.

Its new album, Church With No Magic, is its most composed yet, seemingly dropping the improv parts while delivering some major pop melodies and vocal hooks.

Hajduch: Most of this album sounds huge and energetic, and surprisingly unique for how boldly the band wears its influences on its sleeve.  The echoed vocals of the title track, in particular, sound exactly like Suicide without coming off as mimicry.  (The best example of Suicide worship, by the way, is The Cars‘ “Shoo Be Doo,” which is terrifying and unexpected.)

Pop Montreal

Contest: Win tickets and a Pop Hopper wristband for Pop Montreal

From September 29 to October 3, the ninth annual Pop Montreal international music festival runs in dozens of venues and involves more than 400 musicians, visual artists, filmmakers, and independent cultural entrepreneurs.

This year’s five-day festival includes performances by Swans, Marnie Stern, Gotan Project, Holy Fuck, Municipal Waste, Menomena, Liars, Arrington de Dionysio‘s Malaikat dan Singa, The Budos Band, Portico Quartet, Xiu Xiu, Buke & Gass, Mount Kimbie, Immolation, and many more.

Mike Patton

Mike Patton: Anomalous Vocalist Tackles Italian Orch-Pop

Given identifiable credits such as Faith No More, Tomahawk, and Mr. Bungle, the words “Patton” and “incognito” don’t seem to follow each other. But Mike Patton‘s newest project, Mondo Cane, stems from just such a union — with Patton disguising his American accent and assimilating to a new culture.

Concert Photos: Ratatat @ the Riviera

Photographer Jon Shaft covered Ratatat‘s recent show at the Riviera in Chicago. Touring in support of their latest album, LP4, Ratatat’s Evan Mast and Mike Stroud worked the crowd with electrifying light and video displays. And though the band isn’t big on words, by using nostalgia-heavy clips from sources like Predator and Paul Simon, Ratatat managed to speak volumes.

Moses Supposes

Moses Supposes: Google in your pocket, Apple in your mind

Another chapter in the double standard of music and technology. Google protects its stuff, but the music and content biz should give it up for free?

While Google is hard at work trying to make it possible for the public to steal any creative work you can cache in a browser, they are also working hard to make sure that that same public doesn’t steal from them.

Tim Barry

Tim Barry: No-Bullshit, Stripped-Down Country Folk

Though his career began with melodic hardcore-punk band Avail, Tim Barry has been releasing solo albums — while existing off the grid — of bare-bones country-folk songs about injustice and the beauty of change.