5/2 new arrivals

Some great leftovers from yesterday’s haul.

Nonloc, Between Hemispheres: So Neil Young has written a minimalist, post-rock album. Okay, you got me, not really, but that’s what this Nonloc album keeps conjuring for me. There are also elements of Neu, Eno and the Riley/Cage/Reich axis. Oh and also Tortoise and end-times Don Caballero. God, this is starting to read like a CMJ review. But seriously, this is very, very good. Nonloc is one dude, Mark Dwinell, from Brooklyn who has only 274 MySpace friends and who deserves your love. Give it to him!

I just realized that Todd mentioned this album in yesterday’s new arrivals. Oh well, it deserves the two-day treatment.

Day for Night, Day for Night: This is where I open with a very big, stinky disclaimer: my girlfriend is the singer for this band. So yeah, all precepts of objectivity were left back at the door ages ago. That out of the way, Day for Night are a trio from NYC — guitar, drums, voice — that play tight, pensive dream-rock (note “rock” rather than “pop”) wherein each element has a clear purpose and is of equal importance. The relationship between the instruments isn’t exactly traditional: the guitar — more than the drums — acts as the anchor for the songs, the six-strings drop-tuned for a deeper sound, bass-like. The drums, for me anyway, provide a surprisingly emotional focus, at times eliciting the same visceral response as the vocals. And the vocals float in between the two other parts, in certain sections emerging from the wooshy jangle to punctuate, in others disappearing into the swirl, sounding more like some ethereal keyboard preset than a human voice.

My favorite song on the EP is “The Mess We’re In.” For me, it’s the clear standout, the sparse fullness of the drums (I’m just full of nonsensical descriptions today!), the elongated snarl of the vocals, that little swoosh before the chorus. But I am in the minority on this one: across the board, everyone seems to love “Badlands” the most. They dig the epic feel, the swaying rhythm, how direct it is. So maybe start with that one. Anyway, thanks for bearing with me on this. Just trust me as much as you can that this is very good. It really is.

The Race, Ice Station: Totally solid indie-pop/emo record. The songwriting and arrangements are very much based in the Gary Numan school while the performances are more in line with straight indie rock. Not as gloomy or dramatic as Interpol, but I can’t help thinking of them as I listen to this.

The Narrator, All That to the Wall: Both the Race and this album are from Flameshovel, a Milwaukee label that has become really, really kick-ass the past year or two. This is ramshackle indie-pop-punk stuff. You’ve heard it before, but you could also care less.

Poem Rocket, Invasion!: All hail the return of Poem Rocket! In the late ’90s, Poem Rocket were one of NYC’s premier Sonic Youth tribute bands, their original songs loyal denizens of the Daydream Nation. I was very excited for this new double-disc album, but, on first listen at least, it is a huge disappointment, a soft, generically indie album without any of the drone and squall of the earlier stuff.

The Wooden Stars, People Are Different: A bunch of silly dance-rock songs (that is not an insult), some of them alright (”Microphones”), some of them limp (”Pretty Girl”).