keyCMND

Artist Feature: Mi Ami

For this new section of keyCMND, we are introducing a monthly feature of an artist we are excited about or have been totally into ever since their tunes crossed our ears. They may come in the form of an interview, or an editorial piece, or a series of photographs, because its the internet, and we can do what we want. We hope to continue expanding our coverage to fit more pieces such as this one.

Recently, keyCMND scribe Giovanni De La Cruz had the privilege of spending part of his afternoon speaking to Daniel Martin-McCormik of San Francisco’s Mi Ami. They conversed about the origins of Daniel’s band after Black Eyes disbanded, the group’s new album, Steal Your Face, and the state of America and how it relates to Mi Ami’s continually challenging music.

keyCMND: Your band started out as a two-piece. How did the band evolve into getting the last piece of the puzzle?

Daniel Martin-McCormik: We were playing as two piece and it was going pretty good for awhile, but we had this sort of idea when we started that it would be kind of like disco or something like that. You know we listen to a lot of Detroit techno, house, and disco and [wanted to] kind of be this amalgam of like dance genres that we were into. So we used drum machines, live percussion, guitar, keyboards and stuff. Then the band started to form its own identity. We were losing patience in our own set up. Our drummer didn’t have a kick drum and we had a drum-machine going with us.

So he was just playing snare and cymbals?

Yeah, and rotary toms and toms and we had the drum-machine going with the rest of the beat, and we wanted to play the beat on our own after a while, so we added a kick drum and we realized we still needed more of a full sound. Anyone that has played in a band with synthizers knows that they break all the fucking time, especially when you’re traveling. So it’s like we had this set up that was super precarious and worked very well in our practice space and didn’t work very well live. It didn’t give us the kind of freedom that we were hoping for, so we started to talk about, “Oh, what should we do?” Then it got kind of frustrating, so we kind of put out the word that we were looking for a bass player, and then Jacob got in touch. And it was kind of like, “Ahh man, we could have been playing with Jacob the whole time.” It’s like we were trying to make a sandwich with out bread.

How many shows until you realized that this two-piece thing is not conducive to your ideas?

I’d say about a year of playing shows before Jacob joined.

Wow! I didn’t know you guys were around for that long beforehand. So when you guys were doing the two-piece thing, was that on the East Coast or the West Coast?

It was in [San Francisco]. The band has been entirely SF.

I think the first time I saw you guys was at a house show in West Oakland with Casy and Brian and Religious Girls, but you guys were already a three-piece by then.

Yeah. That was when we played in the kitchen right?

Yeah. It was in the bottoms of Oakland. I didn’t even know who any of you guys were, and then a friend of mine mentioned your backround and I just couldn’t believe it. You guys were defiantly more bitchin’ live that night than any of the times I saw Black Eyes. What was your reason for moving to SF?

Well, I just wanted to live out here because it was really nice. And you know, living in D.C. and growing up in D.C. after a while—it was just time for a change. I was able to get this weird grant that was available. See, there’s no real public universities in DC, and this grant paid for your out-of-state tuition to go to any university in the country, so I figured I’ll go to SF and do music out there.

So was your grant to go to school for music or just to go to school?

It was just to go to school out here. The timing was right. I wasn’t in a band. It just kind of happened.

That’s awesome I didn’t know they did stuff like that in D.C.

Yeah, rare.

So when you moved out here you met Damon first?

Yeah, we were both playing this show he was playing with these two other guys. It was this trio and I was playing solo. We were both playing this experimental abstract music, which was way more angular. This was in 2006. I was playing guitar and he was playing synths, keyboards, and drums with contact mics and stuff. We were talking afterwards and we were both talking about dance music and feeling each other out, and then I mentioned that we should jam because it seemed like both out heads were in the same place. You know, we were both playing weird music and both listening to a lot of dance music, which to me sounds a lot weirder than a lot of experimental music. As soon as I met him I thought we should be in a together. And it’s funny cause the guys he was playing with, they came to see us later and they had no idea he could play like that. He’d never busted it out before. He was excited.

Sometimes you don’t really get to your full potential until you start playing what you really like listening to. That’s funny, so you guys were listening to a lot of disco house and techno? Like Derrick May, Juan Atkins, and Richie Hawtin?

Less Richie Hawtin, more Derrick May. Two years earlier, I’d just started getting into electronic dance music. Patrick got into it and Jacob also. We all listen to lots of stuff, not one thing. Patrick also listens to a lot of new age and Jacob listens to a lot of reggae and ’90s rock. I don’t think what we listen reflects on what we write. It doesn’t just have to be dance music. The internal dynamic of the band really has it’s own momentum.

I only brought it up because we were talking about the beginning of the band, and you said that’s what you and Jacob were listening to. Your music now sounds nothing like that, especially with Steal Your Face, which I want to get into next. So tell me about the cover? Did you guys have to pay any royalties? It’s such a bold and iconic cover.

Well, I made the cover, and had them print it up. So far no one has asked for anything. We haven’t tried to clear it with them or anything. The picture is a collage. I think there’s some law.

The Fair Use Act. Yeah, we don’t have to get into the logistics. I was just wondering if you had to pay big money.

So far we’re good.

That’s good. So you guys have been playing together for three years now. You guys recorded a bunch of stuff on your own, you put out a 12”, and then Watersports happened, and it got a lot of publicity for being kind of an abstract album. When I listen to it, it sounds like a jam band having a good time. Tell me about how all that happened with like recording with Phil Manley and stuff. Was it really comfortable? Or was it just natural? Or was it a lot of work?

Nah, it was pretty natural. Those are all loose songs on that record, and we wrote them that way. Going in there and recording and mixing it in five days, which is the same thing [we did] for Steal Your Face. I don’t know. I haven’t listen to it in a long time . You said it sounds comfortable and loose?

Watersports does. The new album, even though it’s still a loose album, sounds more focused to me.

Why would you say that?

Well the songs almost sound more poppy, almost.

Oh, OK. Well, with Watersports, the main difference that I could cite, and this is not speaking for everyone, [is that] when we recorded Watersports Jacob had been in the band for just under a year. We toured for like two weeks on the East Coast, and we had started writing new material at the beginning of 2008, so we recorded in August of 2008. That was like the first eight months of writing new material together, and probably would have been consistent if there wasn’t heavy touring. Our ideas would come together and gel, then we’d tour for 12 weeks. Seven weeks straight in New York, and then 5 weeks in Europe after that. And I feel like those songs on Watersports… Like, someone sent me a YouTube clip of us playing one of them, and I was like, “What song is this?” And then later, I could figure out what we were playing, but they got to this point where it was like they had a life of their own. Not that they would change everything. It was just a gradual change and revision [with] the live dynamic and the roles that everybody plays. The songs have filled out a lot more, and we have just become a lot tighter. So we wrote most of the album after we got back. That’s the main difference I hear. You know, cause live you want to be full on and play energetically and, like, get excited and engage the audience. I admire bands that stretch out live, and kind of be cool. It’s hard not to go for it totally and play as hard as you can, because if it’s exciting for you everyone gets excited.

So what sparked the seed for the album. What are most of the songs about on Steal Your Face? Lyrically, is it just what sounds good with the music or are the lyrics personal?

Half and half. It’s not a concept album. There is not an overarching theme. Our lyrics kind of pair off 50/50 into sort of more personal songs and then songs about living in America. They kind of fit hand in hand. The main theme is an examination of loss. One form of loss is loss of closeness in personal relationships: romantic and friendships. Watching people grow apart or violently break apart from each other.

That’s really apparent in your song “Secrets.” That’s such a great song.

Thanks! One of the other one I feel is the climate of America. What it feels like to live in America, how it bares down on you. You know, it’s difficult to be optimistic about the state of the planet today. Not to be a naysayer, I just find it hard to be optimistic about the direction humans are going in as far as our role in environmental and economical destruction. We may be out of the Bush regime, but it’s like America is still—even though it’s a very safe and amazing place to live in—it’s also a very terrifying and violent presence in the world and in each of our own lives in ways that are not so obvious, like the food that you eat everyday. It’s everything. You know, when you’re a kid you’re like, “America is the coolest place to live,” and as you grow older, it’s very slowly taken away from you if you allow it to be.

So basically, you’re saying you feel a lot of anxiety and hopelessness in your country right now?

Yeah, exactly. It’s really the two responses that, in a way, seem not necessarily healthy but obvious and totally understandable responses to living in America right now.

I can even hear it in your music. Just like chords you guys pick and whatever like dissonance sounds you guys are making. It’s there.

Interesting. That’s cool.

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DaVinci
The Day the Turf Stood Still
Sweetbreads Creative Collective (2010)

Genre: Hip-Hop
Rating: B-

“No one that I knew called it Western Additon, they called it Fillmore,” the sample understatedly roars seconds into the DaVinci’s new album, The Day the Turf Stood Still. It’s a strong statement made by San Francisco-raised John DeVore. His fierce record grabs you and throws you into the issues of gentrification, urban renewal, and financial mishaps without giving you any time to wonder what happened to the ‘bitches and bling’ of rap’s usual suspects. It’s apparent right away that Turf is not about ego. It’s about self-preservation, DaVinci’s and his beloved Fillmore district’s, much like Harlem’s renaissance in the ’20s.

Sonically, The Day the Turf Stood Still harkens back to the days of conscious backpack rappers Jurassic 5 and Blackalicious. The raw MPC-created grooves are brought confidently and tastefully by Al Jieh and Ammbush. Their sample-heavy jams leave behind the big production ethos of radio rap, and simply put, keep it raw. Songs like “Ben”—rocking a Jackson 5 sample—and “Whiplash,” with it’s hook “DaVinci the one who sold dimes with no baggies / You know how many niggas sell dimes with no baggies,” put both the solid production and fiery vocal performance in the forefront. Though, it wouldn’t be accurate to call Turf a throwback record. Let’s say, it’s part of the Western Addition renaissance.

-Giovanni De La Cruz

Listen:
“What You Finna Do?”

DaVinci on Last.fm

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Javelin
No Mas
Luaka Bop (2010)

Genre: Electronic
Rating: A-

Boomboxes, cassette tapes, immaculate taste, and a pair of quirky cousins—all coming straight outta Brooklyn—sounds like an exciting combination, and Tom Van Buskirk’s and George Langford’s latest album together, No Mas, proves it is. The duo, better known as Javelin, has made a record out of sampling warped secondhand tapes, chopping up the source material, and transforming the sounds into a universal frolic. Simply put, Javelin has crafted your new favorite party record.

8-bit waves are surfed by high-pitched vocals on “Oh! Centra,” one of many songs that’ll stick in your head for weeks thanks to their ultra-catchy, caffeinated swagger. Tracks like “Susie Cue” sound like they could have been produced by revered vinyl archeologists The Avalanches or veteran electronic producer Howie B, if he ever got a bit funkier. Occasionally, Mas weighs in a bit heavy on the cheesy side, but somehow does so without losing its best qualities. “Moscow 1980” sounds a bit too much like it was taken from one of Harold Faltermeyer’s film scores, and “On It On It,” a disco-tinged ballad, has enough sugary synth hooks and rubbery sound effects to make Les Rhythm Digitales blush. And yet despite the nearly overbearing ecstatic energy of Javelin’s music, there’s something deeply lovable in the duo’s heart-on-sleeve sentiments and ‘dance like no one is watching’ attitude.

Essentially, what makes No Mas so enjoyable is Javelin’s dedication to the simple idea of sampling something catchy and familiar, and then turning it into something that is completely original and even more lovable. No matter where the sounds are pilfered from, Buskirk and Langford will make it fun through and through. It’s a feat that few records can come close to accomplishing, especially with music that sounds so casual and off the cuff; it’s as if the songs had always existed within the producers’ collective mind. With No Mas, Javelin has taken the sample-obsessed styles of late-’90s and early-’00s dance and pop music, and revitalized that sound for its own private party.

-Giovanni De La Cruz

Listen:
“Vibrationz”

Javelin on Last.fm

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Lusine
Twilight EP
Ghostly International (2010)

Genre: Electronic
Rating: B

Receiving Jeff McIlwain’s new EP as Lusine—released on the always reliable Ghostly International label—was a bit lackluster since the tracklist is made up of only one original, a reworked bit from the producer’s A Certain Distance album, and a couple remixes of the title track tacked on for good measure. It was a bit off-putting, and I ended up focusing on the Lusine’s original material—straying from the remixes for the time being. Eventually, I warmed up to the EP’s other tracks, and was pleasantly surprised.

Jeff Samuel’s near nine-minute remix of “Twilight” moved my various appendages with ease throughout its whole runtime, and proves to be a standout addition to McIlwain’s own single. “Twilight” in its original form moves Lusine’s production from a more straightforward minimal house and techno sound into a defiantly more spacey pop direction. The lush female vocals which almost swallow the song bring Ellen Allien to mind. It’s nice to know that a former Cal Art’s electronic music major can take himself a bit less seriously, and go in a more simple and human direction. The single’s b-side, “Crowded Room (Type A),” is what you’d initially expect from McIlwain’s production: elegantly dark and hard hitting beats accompanied by a stripped down synth melody and warbled vocoder sounds. The EP rounds itself out between dancefloor hits and thoughtfully composed headphone numbers, and proves to be a fresh and challenging addition to Lusine’s melodic and minimal style.

-Giovanni De La Cruz

Lusine on Last.fm

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Mux Mool
Skulltaste
Ghostly International (2010)

Genre: Electronic
Rating: B-

A quick skim through Mux Mool’s debut album, Skulltaste, didn’t reveal much that caught the attention of my ears. None of the songs seemed to stand out initially, but after a long night of playing raucous disco and buzzing bangers out at the bar, the 15 tracks that make up the record were exactly what I needed to hear while laying in bed and staring at the ceiling.

The celestial born sounds of opening track “Ballad of Gloria Featherbottom” helped me unwind from a long day, slightly relaxing me all through its three minutes. Did Brian Lindgren (the Brooklyn-based producer behind Mux Mool) have these intentions of affecting one’s mood while he crafted his involved sample-based hip-hop and electro beats, or did this happen simply by chance? The fact that Lindgren has mentioned how he lives off energy drinks—the sugary elixir keeps him going while he works obsessively on his tunes—has me leaning towards “no,” but such stunning and majestic sounds found on the thoughtful orchestral bounce of “Dandelion” and the head-nodding melodic anthem of “Get Better John” have me thinking “maybe.”

With Skulltaste, Mux Mool’s intentions seem to be primarily focused on delivering the party-rocking jams while keeping at-home headphone listeners drawn in by his intricate and varied textures. It’s a welcome surprise from a label such as Ghostly, whose focus lies mostly on minimal techno and moody electronica, and offers a great addition to both the beat scene and club-ready electro-house circle.

-Giovanni De La Cruz

Listen:
“Ballad of Gloria Featherbottom”

Mux Mool on Last.fm

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Mi Ami
Steal Your Face
Thrill Jockey Records (2010)

Genre: Indie
Rating: B-

It’s hard to know exactly what San Francisco’s Mi Ami contributes to the dub relics of their obvious influences (i.e. ESG, Liquid Liquid, etc.). It could be the slightly vexatious vocal stylings of Daniel Martin-McCormick—whose membership in D.C. experimental post-punk band Black Eyes is revered by many who were teenagers of the early ’00s—even though it’s not always conducive to the band’s tastefully crafted latin-flavored dub-punk sound. That’s not to say that the sounds on their new album for the Thrill Jockey label, Steal Your Face, don’t work well together. The record is definitely a step in the post-angular direction of the outfit’s previous incarnation. Each track is more defined than those on Mi Ami’s previous effort, Watersports; a debut full of songs made for transcendental live performances. Though, when translated to record, they failed to capture the fiery essence of what kept the crowds sweating and asking for more.

Steal Your Face delivers much more in the unbridled energy and insanity departments. Songs like the beat-heavy “Latin Lover” and album stand-out “Secrets” are instantly likable. Many of the six tracks on Face might move your body from side to side without any recollection of your telling it to do so, as they are soaking in the kind of the weirdo swagger and dirty guitar sounds blaringly apparent in classics like Iggy Pop’s “Passenger.” Though this latest offering is not by any means a pivotal moment for Mi Ami, it is a reminder that they have one goal: to make you dance until you’re in a bloody pool of sweat.

-Giovanni De La Cruz

Mi Ami on Last.fm

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$Xiu XiuDear God, I Hate MyselfKill Rock Stars (2010) Genre: IndieRating: B Jamie Stewart is relentless. Somewhere amidst relocating to Brooklyn from the San Francisco Bay Area, losing longtime band mate Caralee McElroy—a fixture of Xiu Xiu since Fabulous Muscles—to Philly’s Cold Cave, and touring as part of Freddy Ruppert’s Former Ghost project this past summer, Stewart somehow found the time to craft his most entertaining and ear-catching Xiu Xiu album in years. The provocatively titled Dear God, I Hate Myself returns to Stewart’s experimental roots—pushing listeners to screech and squirm about with delight while asking themselves, “Did he really just say that?” Dear God contains all the classic elements from past Xiu Xiu records that Women As Lovers, their last effort recorded as a full band, very much lacked. These attributes show up especially in songs like “The Fabrizio Palumbo Retaliation”; a shuffling piano diddy that will have you screaming along with Stewart’s reiterations of “Pink, pink, pink, pink, pink, pink, pink!” Other stand-outs include the lovable singsong of “Chocolate Makes You Happy,” which is complimented with an equally strange video featuring Xiu Xiu youngblood Angela Seo vomiting on Stewart as he eats a piece of chocolate. “Hyunhye’s Theme,” a song about a girl frightened by the ‘correct’ choices she thought she had to make to achieve happiness, lilts about with the band’s signature distorted electronics serving as a backdrop for acoustic guitars and sparse string arrangements, and sounds like something that would’ve fit perfectly on the esoteric ‘03 masterpiece A Promise. The title-track could be the most honest and introspective of the album. Lyrics like “I will always be nicer to the cat than I am to you” could drive one to wonder, “What kind of relationship would I have with Jamie Stewart?” Key Xiu Xiu players Ches Smith and Greg Saunier, along with his Deerhoof band mate John Dieterich, return to give Stewart’s fractured pop a thick and fully realized sound. Most tracks on Dear God, I Hate Myself were made in-part on an unlikely gadget: a Nintendo DS. The familiar bleeps and bloops might be the reason why even seven-year olds can sing along to the chorus of “Chocolate Makes You Happy.” Though, maybe these new songs are just that forthright and lovable. Better yet, it could be that Dear God sticks to the constants of classic Xiu Xiu albums, which could be argued are brutal honesty and evolving musical ideas matched with discomforting sentiments, lovely nostalgia, and, most importantly, constant jabs of dark humor. -Giovanni De La Cruz Listen:“Gray Death” Xiu Xiu on Last.fm$

Xiu Xiu
Dear God, I Hate Myself
Kill Rock Stars (2010)

Genre: Indie
Rating: B

Jamie Stewart is relentless. Somewhere amidst relocating to Brooklyn from the San Francisco Bay Area, losing longtime band mate Caralee McElroy—a fixture of Xiu Xiu since Fabulous Muscles—to Philly’s Cold Cave, and touring as part of Freddy Ruppert’s Former Ghost project this past summer, Stewart somehow found the time to craft his most entertaining and ear-catching Xiu Xiu album in years. The provocatively titled Dear God, I Hate Myself returns to Stewart’s experimental roots—pushing listeners to screech and squirm about with delight while asking themselves, “Did he really just say that?”

Dear God contains all the classic elements from past Xiu Xiu records that Women As Lovers, their last effort recorded as a full band, very much lacked. These attributes show up especially in songs like “The Fabrizio Palumbo Retaliation”; a shuffling piano diddy that will have you screaming along with Stewart’s reiterations of “Pink, pink, pink, pink, pink, pink, pink!” Other stand-outs include the lovable singsong of “Chocolate Makes You Happy,” which is complimented with an equally strange video featuring Xiu Xiu youngblood Angela Seo vomiting on Stewart as he eats a piece of chocolate. “Hyunhye’s Theme,” a song about a girl frightened by the ‘correct’ choices she thought she had to make to achieve happiness, lilts about with the band’s signature distorted electronics serving as a backdrop for acoustic guitars and sparse string arrangements, and sounds like something that would’ve fit perfectly on the esoteric ‘03 masterpiece A Promise. The title-track could be the most honest and introspective of the album. Lyrics like “I will always be nicer to the cat than I am to you” could drive one to wonder, “What kind of relationship would I have with Jamie Stewart?”

Key Xiu Xiu players Ches Smith and Greg Saunier, along with his Deerhoof band mate John Dieterich, return to give Stewart’s fractured pop a thick and fully realized sound. Most tracks on Dear God, I Hate Myself were made in-part on an unlikely gadget: a Nintendo DS. The familiar bleeps and bloops might be the reason why even seven-year olds can sing along to the chorus of “Chocolate Makes You Happy.” Though, maybe these new songs are just that forthright and lovable. Better yet, it could be that Dear God sticks to the constants of classic Xiu Xiu albums, which could be argued are brutal honesty and evolving musical ideas matched with discomforting sentiments, lovely nostalgia, and, most importantly, constant jabs of dark humor.

-Giovanni De La Cruz

Listen:
“Gray Death”

Xiu Xiu on Last.fm

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Yellow Swans
Going Places
Type Records (2010)

Genre: Electronic
Rating: C

It’s been written that Portland duo Yellow Swans’ (a.k.a. Gabriel Mindel and Peter Swanson) posthumously released album, Going Places, is their most introspective and personalized. In songs like “Opt Out” and “New Life” you hear faint moans and quasi-melodies buried deep in their muddy sound; noises which could represent a sort of pain or resentment. The album’s title-track presents the most promise of what this band was capable of in its slow-burning, distorted ambiance and repetitious melody. Yet the main issue with Going Places is the difficulty in hearing anything of substance underneath its shroud of washed out clamor.

Were Going Places’ wall of sound a bit more stripped down you might be able to hear more of each track’s potentially interesting layers. The album isn’t so much the sound collage you may expect from a band leaving its final word. It’s simply a noise album made for noise music fans, and sounds more or less like a radio broadcast of a single droning guitar through a snowstorm.

Yellow Swans’ last record is especially strange because it’s nothing like seeing the band live, though the experience couldn’t truly be captured using only sound. Theirs is a sort of spiritual undertaking, best experienced when watching the soundscapes crafted in the moment by the Swans’ four hands. The saddest part of their final album is that you will only hear these songs, and never be able to see Yelllow Swans’ perform Going Places live, the best way to experience any of their music.

-Giovanni De La Cruz

Yellow Swans on Myspace

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Toro Y Moi
Causers of This
Carpark Records (2010)

Genre: Electronic
Rating: B

There’s really no way to describe Toro Y Moi’s album Causers of This without sounding like an eager cheerleader. Chaz Bundick, a South Carolina native, might not only have what it takes to be good, but could possibly be on the track towards joining the great artists he so apparently adores. On Causers of This, he takes his ideas from the choicest of influences, and utilizes them with a graceful and loving touch.

The album starts off with “Blessa,” a swirling baby-making jam ran straight through the filter of Chicago house with Bundick’s boyish voice featured front and center. The following track, “Minors,” wraps you in a warm cotton blanket of hazy euphoria with its smoothed-over soundscapes, and seems to harness within its sound the power to make even the gloomiest day just a bit sunnier. Causers’ best candidate for scoring an iPod commercial, “Talamak” tells a universal love story. With lyrical passages like “When can we get together again / Never mind I’ve lost you / How can I tell I love you anymore / Never mind, I know I do” you can’t help but relate to Bundick’s lovelorn confusion.

Toro Y Moi’s debut album is short and sweet, but altogether cohesive. Yes, Bundick sticks to a certain palette of sounds, though the album sometimes carries both the randomness and mystique of a mixtape, but these could be the attributes of a maturing, certainly focused, musician. In a nutshell, Bundick’s Causers of This is the culmination of a slab of Air, a tad of Animal Collective, chunks of Daft Punk, a pinch of Flying Lotus, and a dash of Green Velvet stirred into a vat of bubbling emotion and the memorable daze of summertime.

-Giovanni De La Cruz

Listen:
“Blessa”

Toro Y Moi on Myspace

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Pantha du Prince
Black Noise
Rough Trade Records (2010)

Genre: Electronic
Rating: A+

Hendrik Weber (a.k.a. Pantha du Prince) serves up dance music’s equivalent of herbal tea with his latest release, Black Noise. The album’s soft underbelly consists of field recordings and micro-sounds coalesced with live Swiss bell playing to create a strangely organic and inhuman sound. Yet its abrasive minimal-techno core keeps you asking quietly—so as not to disturb the sonic landscape—to have your warm cup refilled again and again.

Parts of the third album from Pantha du Prince are reminiscent of the early Detroit techno movement. The work of such prolific producers as Kevin Saunderson, Juan Atkins, and Derrick May, especially his track “Strings of Life,” come to mind on songs like “Welt Am Draht” and “Behind the Stars,” but with a heavier touch of humanity and emotion. “A Nomads Retreat” feels particularly good. It’s a cerebral track begging you to get lost within it during a long, aimless drive. “Im Bann” sounds like a collection of dark movements that Vladimir Ashkenzay could have conceived in a lucid dream. Noah Lennox (a.k.a. Panda Bear of Animal Collective) sings “Stick To My Side”; a feel-good number about letting go and embracing companionship. Not an easy sentiment to bring to the surface on such a focused and esoteric album.

One could say that, as Pantha du Prince, Hendrik Weber is a dexterous dreamer of soundscape—helping us stop and savor the beauty within ordinary objects and daily life by creating an immersive world void of such things. The swirling remedies born inside of Black Noise offer the soul comfort in its warming elixir; one most effective when applied to the ears and heart.

-Giovanni De La Cruz

Listen:
“The Splendour”

Pantha du Prince on Myspace

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Artist Feature: Mi Ami

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