Portia Winters "epicotyl" (Exotic Pylon)

[€10 for CD or Download // https://portia.bandcamp.com/album/epicotyl]

This is my first time hearing Portia Winters but for once I don't feel badly about that because this is said to be her debut album.     What you have to understand about "epicotyl" is that it's a pop album at its heart but the pop qualities of it are then chopped up and screwed.     It's that beauty of Polly Scattergood mixed with something that Bjork only wishes she could create.

Through strings, beeps, electro blips and a twisted water dripping sound comes some of the most delicate and wonderful vocals you will ever hear.    You're going to need to listen to this one multiple times to truly experience it because it is just that complex.     Though there is quite a bit of audio manipulation, especially with the vocals, a song such as "There My Rest" seems to go untouched and is more reserved, almost as if a lullaby.

A song like "Revolution" though can come out much louder, closer to something electronic and mechanical-- an anthem if there was one on this album.     Phil Collins drums and vocal loops do come into play though maybe not literally.    It's funny because on a song like "I Won't Be There" it seems as if there are no instruments until steel sounding drums kick in, yet on "Now Go Down" it feels like it will be strictly instrumental with something that sounds like spoons.    That is until the vocals kick in and overpower everything else in the world.

This is one of those albums that you're going to listen to and think about afterwards because you knew that these things were possible with music because they've been done before but they've never been done this way.    Certain elements might not be touched upon as much as others previously but this is a pure work of genius and one of the best albums I have heard in a very long time.

The Boy I Used to Be "Grip" EP

[£4.99 for Cassette or Download // https://pieandvinylrecords.bandcamp.com/album/grip-ep]

Video for "Try": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XglvILdz6gY&feature=youtu.be

I spent quite a while trying to think of the name of the band that sings "All the little kids with the pumped up kicks" because it's been quite a while since I listened to that band, but luckily for The Boy I Used to Be their name is still fresh in my mind and so they shouldn't suffer a similar fate of being that one hit wonder (Though it could be more a case of them having one EP I review and then they go unnoticed and forgotten after that)

In fact, this EP, "Grip", should solidify them as some sort of great rock band and since they have a habit of selling out of cassettes you're going to want to get your hands on this one early.    It's somewhere between Wheatus and Local H, Soul Coughing and Replacements.    There is a bit more shoegaze on here than I remember previously but then again the song "Rust" also has hints of Marilyn Manson's "Lunchbox" so it kind of balances itself out, no?

With other bands such as Silversun Pickups present the one thing you need to know is that for all of their rock influences none of them are bad and this mix of them makes for a stellar EP at that.   I'm not really laughing at the song title "Pissy Elliott" (probably created before the Super Bowl) but then again they also have "Maucauly Sulkin'" so who cares about song titles anyway, right?

Texas Never Whispers "Texas Never Whispers"

[http://www.texasneverwhispers.com/ // http://texasneverwhispersband.bandcamp.com/]

The term Americana can get used far too often these days but it's what Texas Never Whispers reminds me most of still.   That and I can hear a lot of The Wallflowers in here and I've never been a big fan of Jakob Dylan and company but Texas Never Whispers just somehow makes it work for them.

Like something off of the "Empire Records" soundtrack combined with a honky tonk there are elements of Counting Crows in these songs as well as Phantom Planet and The Hold Steady.    The singer can really belt out these melodic songs about being poor and making music.    One of my favorite lines on this entire album is about "the words we never figured out, we still sung along" as it does hit home for me.

I think there are a lot of songs out there that I've heard growing up from Nirvana to Pearl Jam to Smashing Pumpkins even and I might not have known the exact lyrics to the songs so I'd just sing it my way- something I still do to this day- and I'm not sure why.    I remember only really looking up lyrics to specific Nirvana songs maybe three or four years ago and thinking, "Is that what he said?"

There is a sort of mystery in that though-- making up the lyrics yourself as opposed to singing the correct ones.    When you learn the actual lyrics it's like the reveal of a magic trick or something, right?    It has that peaking behind the curtain effect which sometimes can make things seem less fun.

Texas Never Whispers is actually from Texas and they have that sound that you would expect to find from such a great state when you think of any sort of rock n roll or country artist such as Robert Ellis.     They don't lean as close to the country and western side of things as most artists from Texas do though, and that's okay by me, and they're not really folk either so I'm hesitant to call them Americana so... is there a genre yet for Texacana?   That would be where I put them.

Dan Deacon "Gliss Riffer" (Domino)

When I first heard of Dan Deacon he had just released "Spider-Man of the Rings".   As I look back at it now, I can see that was released in 2007 (really?) and so it's been about eight years since I last wrote about Dan Deacon.   I listened to his album that came before this, "America" (from 2012), but apparently didn't write about it.

From what I remember there was a lot of electronic experimentation on "Spider-Man of the Rings" and that doesn't seem to come out as much on "Gliss Riffer" or at least not right away.     On the first song this is more of a traditional distorted electronic rock with elements of pop and even female vocals accompanying him at times.     There are drum machines that offer up dancing beats and it kind of reminds me at times (on the second song at least) of "The Safety Dance".

But as this goes on it can shift from that rock sound of, say, Modest Mouse to what I remember in that far out way from Dan Deacon.    But I think the moral of the story here for me is that there were two albums released between "Spider-Man of the Rings" and "Gliss Riffer" so I should probably familiarize myself with both of them and maybe even the ones that came before "Spider-Man".

I don't remember much about "America" and am not even sure if I heard the one that came before that ("Bromst") but I will go back for them.     All I know is that I liked "Spider-Man of the Rings" and this seems like a bit of a jump from there (Again, missing pieces for me and all) but I still enjoy the hell out of it.

Braille "Everyone's Crazy" (Friends of Friends)

[$6 to Download // https://fofmusic.bandcamp.com/album/everyones-crazy]

When I looked up Friends of Friends I found out that they release music by Shlohmo who oddly enough was connected with Tropics and I've been listening to this EP with "Rapture" to the point where I want to put the two on a mixed tape together.    Can someone do that for me?  I really don't have the time right now.

In any case, this music is strange.   It's electronic manipulation with percussion that can make it feel like hip hop at times and other times it could be chillwave.     Synth progressions come out like jazz horns and by the fourth song I'm hearing C&C Music Factory which makes me want to get up and dance.

There are a number of ways to describe this but I just like to think of it as being weird.    Even if you only listen to the first song, which happens to be the titular track, then you should be able to enjoy this because even if I don't make that Tropics/Braille split cassette I might make a mixed tape and that would include the song "Everyone's Crazy" (or at least some sort of "Best of 2015" playlist by year's end)

Tropics "Rapture" (Innovative Leisure)

Perhaps one of my best reasons for liking Tropics is because I don't really listen to music like this and of course by my saying "music like this" it implies that other music of this nature exists and for all that I know it simply does not.    There is no good way to describe the music of Tropics using comparisons because there really isn't anything in my collection to compare it with exactly.

Right away I have this pegged as being somewhere between pop and soul.   It has that just overall non-threatening and pleasant vibe to it that I feel puts it somewhere on that pop scale.   Yet at the same time the music reminds me a bit of R&B and as such I can think of this as having soul if not directly being a reflection of soul music.

Between synthwave, new wave and just my banner of being smoov I really have no place to put this percussion filled slow jamz mix that can go from drums to drum machine.    On Spotify, some of the related artists include but are not limited to Giraffage, Com Truise, Mount Kimble, Balam Acab, Sun Glitters, Gang Colours and Shlohmo, who I've admittedly listened to and enjoyed but still don't recall hearing anything like "Rapture" before.

If not for that "it's unlike anything I've ever heard before" tangible, this is going to stand out as one of my favorite albums on 2015 simply because it is that good.    The fact that it is pleasing to the ears just makes me want to listen to it that much more, as it gets stuck in your head but in a good way.   Imagine if you could eat all the candy you wanted without getting sick.

Father John Misty "I Love You, Honeybear" (Bella Union / Sub Pop)

This is my second time hearing Father John Misty and I seem to recall the previous release "Fear Fun" coming with a lot of hype but me reducing it to simply being a mix of folk and psychedelic rock.    While this remains true on "I Love You, Honeybear" some other qualities are here that either weren't on "Fear Fun" or I was just eager to overlook them.

To say that this is folk meets psych is not quite a combination I've heard before but you can easily enough take bands from either side and put them together to get the general idea.   Or you could just imagine EFS if he had written an album that was explained to him in a dream by Jim Morrison, Jerry Garcia and John Lennon.

What I like most about this album that has an overall acoustic feel of melody to it though are perhaps the lyrics.   Having a chorus with the hook of "people are boring" makes me smile, and yet the other songs tend to tell stories of adolesence and sexual encounters.   That isn't to say that these are your traditional folk songs though, as there are a lot of f-bombs so they seem to have that dirty pirate tale feel to them.  (I believe one did reference a eunich slut)

A foul-mouthed Simon & Garfunkel (?), Father John Misty creates the type of songs that seem safe on the surface but deep down are found on records that kids would have to hide under their beds from parents.     And that is in a much more direct way than most of those artists like The Who and Hendrix who had implied lyrics and Father John Misty just flat out sings about being drunk and stoned.