Winner of January's Album of the Month

Funny old world! I’ve been listening to these five albums (you remember, the latest from The National, Salem, Oneohtrix Point Never and Wire plus an oldie, Cluster ’71 by Cluster) since the start of January and my thoughts about almost all of them have changed several times.  At least I didn’t rush out and buy them all: chalk one up to the experiment!

I had planned to write an interim posting of thoughts on the albums so far, but in fact time has overtaken me: this post announces the winner of the January album of the month instead. Before announcing the winner, what of the other albums?

King Night the debut album from Salem: I had high hopes for this one. I like it. It has the sort of ‘dark’ sounds I find appealing, but if anything it’s just not dark enough. Nevertheless it has quite a unique sound somewhere on the fringes of dubstep, dark core drum ‘n bass and industrial electronica, much of it slowed down to a crawl.  On the basis of ‘King Night’ I’ll keep a look out for the next from Salem – maybe it will hit the spot.  I appreciate ‘King Night’ but it’s neither album of the month nor ‘Wish List’ material.

Red Barked Tree, the first from Wire in some time: initially I was pretty disappointed with this, and certainly considering their best albums like ‘154’ and ‘Chairs Missing’ this pales by comparison.  It has the distinctive Wire sound, but maybe it’s a bit like Wire ‘by numbers’. Don’t get me wrong,  I’m glad they’ve made it – it is good they are around and not just reforming to play the old stuff (I hate that).  Lots of people that supposedly ‘know’ really rate it, so I’ve listened several times. Even though there are some OK tracks here - I like ‘Please Take’ and ‘Down To This’ – I’m still underwhelmed.  It’s not a winner and it isn’t for the ‘Wish List’ either.

High Velvet the latest from The National: From the off I was pleasantly surprised by this one – especially as I had some preconceived ideas about them based on heaven knows what.  I like the consistent mood and tone of the album. It reminds me of early Tindersticks.  After a number of plays – and I have to admit maybe not enough – I still feel that not all the songs are strong enough, much as I like ‘Terrible Love’ and ‘Anyone’s Ghost’.   In the end I couldn’t make it album of the month, but with further listens expect it will join the ‘Wish List’.

Oneohtrix Point Never and Returnal: What can I say? Dreadful ‘band’ name (I say band, actually it’s just a bloke and his synths) but thankfully the music manages to atone for that.  Apparently the name is a ‘play’ on 106.7 the frequency of a “well-known” (not to me!!) Boston soft-rock radio station. Now that is disturbing!  Luckily the opening track, ‘Nil Admirari’, is as far as you could wish to get from soft-rock without being Einsturzende Neubauten, and that is definitely a good thing. After that the remainder is pleasant but uninspiring electronica - not bad, but no better than many past and present exponents such as Boards of Canada, Mouse on Mars, Too Rococo Rot and Klaus Schulze. The music is interesting enough to make me seek out some of Mr. Never’s previous efforts – a compilation called ‘Rifts’ sounds a lot more varied and involving.  Maybe some other time? Overall, it doesn’t become album of the month, though it probably came closest. It doesn’t make the ‘Wish List’ either but the compilation just might.

So, assuming you’ve been paying attention, album of the month for January 2011 is thus Cluster ’71 by Cluster. What can I say? It’s 40 years old, has three tracks which have no titles (some give the track lengths as the titles), has neither melody nor any real rhythms, contains few (if any?) conventional instruments but sounds absolutely amazing.  Neither ‘Returnal’ nor ‘King Night’ would exist were it not for the pioneering experimentation of bands like Cluster.  It’s a million miles from the Cluster of ‘Zuckerzeit’ or ‘ Sowiesoso’ – so far it might just as well be a different band altogether. The only way I can describe the music is the sounds you’d hear if you were locked overnight in a factory that was at the intersection of the worlds of the films ‘Blade Runner’ and ‘Terminator’ filtered through the imagination of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. I love it.

January album of the Month:

If you want to know more about Cluster including samples from this album click here and page down to the December 2010 releases.

Next posting, the long list of albums for February 2011.