Tenacious D - you want a rawk album guaranteed to raise the dead and consign your everlovin' soul to Satan? This might be it. Fat guys
rule! Seriously, I can't recommend this for everyone. Some of you are actually afraid of the glory of Satan.
Goldfrapp - okay, this is something out of the "Portishead" pit, I suppose; imagine a bunch of "Goldfinger"-era Shirley Bassey-belted James Bond themes with lush trip-hop music and you've got a good idea what this holds for ya. It kinda satisfies my craving for "film-noir" trip-hop stylings, but not completely. So I'm still out there, daily, looking for
the perfect sound.
Matmos - . this is holding me whilst I await the new Aphex Twin. Matmos is deep into the "glitch" sound, wherein all kinds of noises from industry and life are sequenced into choppy melody; but then, they go and throw in a cello and eff up all your preconceptions. And like Aphex, the melody doesn't stay choppy for long. Hidden in the "blips" and "tweets", but eventually obvious to even the most wooden-eared, is something... pretty. I think Noddy talked about Matmos a month ago or so. Check out his review, it's bound to be more concise
Bjork - Vespertine. Matmos does a bunch of the production here, so see above for some thoughts. Here, though, the sound is even more organic, despite what you might think a bunch of "blips" would deliver. Here, as in the best "electronic" music, you see melody in a macroscopic form, wherein the fundamental "particles" of song are frozen, magnified, isolated... As with Thelonius Monk, the music rests as much in the space between "notes" as in the notes themselves and their relationship to one another. Bjork herself is as oddly captivating as ever; the simplicity of her lyrics should not be mistaken for a simplicity of idea, but rather, take it as a distillation of the thought to a purer form. And never mind that she wears a swan as a dress.
Good News D'partment: the two
Tool shows I'm attending in early November will be opened by none other than
Tricky, the inventor of trip-hop (who subsequently left his offspring to founder for itself in the unqualified hands of most everyone who tries to use it). And to further muddy the waters of what Snooker's listening to, Tricky used to date Bjork, almost married 'er as I understand, and did a bunch of her music, too