CINDERVOICE

“The Passenger” is now streaming at the Cindervoice MySpace page. Enjoy!

Finally. More soon.

I recently performed vocal percussion on a new song by truly gifted experimental composer Vincent Bergeron. The song, entitled “Je m’imaginais,” is now released on Vincent’s new CD, Philosophie Fantasmagorique. Check out a few sound samples from the album on Vincent’s Myspace page. Do yourself a favor and delve into his amazing work.

The first GODHEADSCOPE CD, A CITY OUT OF SIGHT, is released today on God Is Myth Records!

Head over to the Cindervoice MySpace page to hear the first full mixes of “Cinders in the Throat” and “The View Above”… the mixes will be tweaked a bit before it’s all said and done, but you can now hear what Cindervoice sounds like with full instrumentation. Special thanks to John O. and Adam Russell for their extraordinary and sensitive contributions to the songs.

Britain’s legendary The Wildhearts thrive on conflict. Muscular and pounding riffs blend with catchy vocal harmonies. Tight songs with grand choruses and pop sensibility give way to cavernous sequences of riff after riff after . . . well, you get the picture. These tensions make The Wildhearts riveting. They also make the band volatile. Their history is littered with more break-ups, reformations, addictions and recoveries than most bands could withstand.

Full disclosure: The Wildhearts are my favorite rock band. To be completely honest, however, their sporadic work over the last ten years has usually paled in comparison to classic recordings like Earth vs. The Wildhearts, Fishing for Luckies, P.H.U.Q., and the always controversial Endless, Nameless (the most gloriously nihilistic career-suicide album you’ve never heard). Their best material went into side-projects and post-break up bands like Honeycrack and Silver Ginger 5.

Until now. With their new self-titled release, The Wildhearts are meaner and tighter than ever. And, as always, they’ve got the songs.

“Rooting for the Bad Guy” sets the tone for the rest of the CD with a monstrously heavy opening riff. Ginger’s throat-shredding vocals during the verse give way to glistening pop harmonies during the bridge and chorus. Two things become clear immediately. First, this is the heaviest album the band has ever recorded. Second, The Wildhearts have achieved their best vocal performance on record. The interplay between Ginger and C.J. is glorious, and deployed with more expertise than on any previous outing.

Then, before you know it, the band unleashes an unholy torrent of riffs that somehow, against all reason and probability, make their way seamlessly back to the chorus. And so it continues for ten songs, without let up or apology.

Lyrically, the band returns to the themes that have always distinguished their strongest songs: interpersonal violence, political hypocrisy and the soullessness of the music industry. Leave it to Ginger to reserve the catchiest vocal on the album for an excoriating critique of the Bush/Blair Iraq policy in “The New Flesh.” Meanwhile, “Slaughtered Authors” features the band’s wittiest critique of the music industry since “Schitzophonic.”

The theme of interpersonal violence requires special mention. The Wildhearts have always explored the horrible ways in which we treat one another. Songs like “Bi-Polar Baby” and “Rooting for the Bad Guy,” which extols the virtues of such figures as Chupacabra and Yosemite Sam, explore this theme with wit and comedic flourish. “The Sweetest Song” and “Destroy All Monsters” are another story entirely, however. These songs feature the band’s most venomous and disturbing explorations of self-hatred and sexual humiliation. Even more disturbing: you will find yourself singing these obscenely catchy (and periodically obscene) songs absent-mindedly as you go about your day. You’ll feel horrible doing it—and yet the amazing songs will refuse to let you go.

This is the band’s power. For every elevating chorus, a devastating image. For every sugary vocal harmony, a pummeling riff. The conflicts make The Wildhearts great.

Buy it here.

Recording of Inertia Set Aflame continues at a slow but steady pace. Bass guitars are now complete for four of ten songs. That just leaves the remaining bass tracks, and a stray vocal here and there.

I must confess that, as long a process as this recording has been, the results far exceed my already high expectations. I continue to be surprised and delighted at how well it is all coming together. I am particularly grateful to Adam Russell and John O. for their work and their commitment to making this recording truly unique.

More soon.

Some additional news: the first GODHEADSCOPE CD drops June 2007 on God Is Myth Records.

My out-of-print 2005 collaborative release with Dead Raven Choir on Digitalis Industries — Matt Rosin & the Dead Raven Choir: Fire Mouth — is now available for MP3 download through the European indie distributor BOOMKAT.

Buy it here.

Those who love magical music from out of left field, rejoice: indie label Kranky built their entire house on the left side of the grass. Kranky’s discography includes such celebrated artists as Charalambides, Low, Godspeed You Black Emperor! and Stars of the Lid. Even amongst this illustrious company, Benoît Pioulard’s 2006 release, Précis, is something very special indeed.

Benoît Pioulard is the musical persona of Thomas Meluch. Hailing from the state of Michigan, Meluch treads an exhilarating line between psychedelic folk and dense atmosphere. Opener “La Guerre de Sept Ans” begins with a thick wash of reprocessed acoustic guitars. Their tones grow increasingly insistent and distorted over the course of three minutes, then descend rapidly into silence. Immediately, the waltz of “Together & Down” takes the listener gently by the hand. We are led into a world of layered guitars, glockenspiel, meditative vocals and subtle percussion. This back-and-forth dynamic continues throughout the entire CD, the overall lo-fi aesthetic binding the album’s two poles in a single forward movement. As the guitar lines of “Ext. Leslie Park” enter in another waltz pattern, the listener is now disposed to wonder at what will come next.

The vocals are another distinguishing aspect of the recording. Their volume and intensity never rise beyond mezzo-piano. The effect is stirring. Much like Katatonia’s recent The Great Cold Distance, one gets the feeling of being allowed to listen in on certain private conversations already in progress. You can almost see Meluch intoning his words into the microphone from the quiet repose of his bedroom, hard disk whirring excitedly in the corner.

For all its delicate atmosphere and orchestration, Précis is also an incredibly propulsive recording. The songs never sit still. This propulsive quality is exemplified on tracks like “Needle & Thread,” “Sous la Plage,” “Patter,” and the absolutely stellar “Palimend.” Acoustic and electric guitars loop in on themselves. Glockenspiels dance within and above the fray. Shakers and other percussion instruments maintain a steady pulse that carries the listener from one track to the next. Sometimes Meluch grants us another gift of songcraft; sometimes he leads us into tides of ambience.

With Précis, the journey is the destination. Buy it here.