Acid-infused progressive folk rock (the Californian sort) from the decade where such things were almost fashionable. The space rock and jazz influences that work their insidious magic through these arrangements make this something of a cult classic in my eyes, but let the cards fall where they will.
Gino Vannelli, whom Miles Davis once described as "the greatest musician the world", is also an incredibly fascinating guy. Enjoy his documentary below!
Modern science has concluded, years and years after everyone else knew it, that pop-oriented music is like cocaine to the brain. Hooks rattle and fire repeatedly like perpetual synapses, cycling through a manageable length of time with enough power to bring anyone back to life from the brink of spiritual annihilation.
Colton Holliday, a fellow Texan and talented to a degree that only the fewest of the few seem to reach, knows popcraft like some people know useless information: abundantly and uncannily. He's a jack of all trades who can do it all: write, produce, program, and rip into a guitar like a time machine tearing through the continuum.
And with his pet project The Panic Division's latest album, Eternalism, he has created a sleek modern masterpiece that will leave most rock bands smacking their lips in wordless envy. Blending the kind of dynamic energy that pulsed like a heartbeat through the 90's with the atmospheric drenchery of 80's AOR is no small feat, and yet its pulled off with sickeningly fun ease here.
Every track here is a rip-roaring single waiting to happen, with a couple in particularly being criminally infectious like opening gutpunch 'Silver Rings' and the industrialized rush of 'No Power Great Enough'. The overall production and songwriting approach is rather novel: Colton has a voice that's scarily reminiscent of Roland Orzabel (Tears For Fears), yet he uses it in such a way that makes one think of early Interpol or 2000's pop-punk upstarts like All Time Low. Quite a wonder to behear, in all honesty.
I own every album this maestro has set to record, but this third full-length is on another plane of excellence all its own. I can only listen through these songs in a state of bobbing, hypnotized awe and wonder why none of the Internet's top publications has gone crazy with accolades over this yet.
Looking for the perfect pop-rock album of 2012? You've found it, ladies and gents!
Paul's first foray into contemporary jazz territory, and his first full-length collaboration with the very talented Helen Rogers at the mic too. Although later projects under this particular moniker are more textured in some ways, this is the record that defined contemporary jazz over the next two decades and set a high standard for others to aspire to. Highly recommended!
One of the best pop albums of the 1990's by a hefty margin and a textbook example of how good power pop should sound without getting stuck into typical album pacing issues. Lots to love here, including the cool as cool strut of 'New Mistake", minor FM classics like 'Bye, Bye, Bye' and 'The Ghost Of Number One' and the plucky acoustics of 'Russian Hill' that blooms like a flower into vintage, glorious Brian Wilson territory.
In other words, an absolute classic from two decades back, and essential listening if you have any interest in alternative rock. Or, hell, if you have any interest in music at all.
My favorite album from today's #1 contemporary electronic jazz producer. Features some absolutely killer vocal House cuts, but the instrumentals are in a dimension all their own as well.
Need I honestly embellish some bullshit reason for you to stick this methanized-or-mayhap-robotized pop classic somewhere in that unsightly wreck you call a collection? Really now? *laughs maniacally whilst not so subtly sneaking away to somewhere with better whiskey*.
Synths galore from every hipster's favorite 80's group...and it'll throck your socks off.
A couple of drinks by the harbor, watching tides roll through the sand. Or maybe its some lucid dream in motion, flowing like rain through a cloudborne subwoofer. D's first guest-populated collection is one helluva dope enclave as far as jazz-hop is concerned, bolstered by versers of smooth, well-tread pedigree like Cise Starr, Substantial and the elusive Funky DL. Furthermore, the samples are out of this world, as well as the production values. Just...dayum!
A label mate of the late and great Nujabes (Hydeout Records), Hide-san specializes in Worldly, percussive instrumental hip-hop which proves a bit more hypnotic than your typical Japanese jazz-hop excursion, particularly on some of the drive-friendly longer cuts like 'Bridge Of Sunshine'. Steller!
Classic L.A. New Wave pop from the early part of the 80's. The more studious among you should recognize 'Only The Lonely', 'Take The L' and 'Apocalypso', but this whole set comes as keytastic and ear-catching as you could ask for from the time and place, so rejoice!
Hailing from the vulcan shores of Iceland and picked up by an independent American label back in 2005, these aren't your ordinary Police, no sirree! This fantastic debut is a fine honed arbalest of rock and wailing thunder, invoking at times the souls of more well known ancestors such as Atomic Rooster and Led Zeppelin, yet retaining a specialized gallop that makes them unique in a world full of bands who rumble and quake as hard as anyone in the last century.
Treasures such as this album are peerless things, styles aside. They pulsate, resonate, stand their ground no matter what era somebody decides to pluck them from beneath the layers of silt and forgotten press. Songs such as 'Mystic Lover' and "Thunderbird' would kick just as much ass on radio back in '75 as they would in 2012, and that should be good enough for all and any sceptics.
