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HOT OFF THE PRESS (#21) – Midori Hirano & Skeletons
It’s Wednesday, and that means it’s time for Nick Courtright’s weekly first glance at music discovered in the last seven days, whether it be just-released, just-leaked, or some long-lost gem that has remained under the radar. Click here for other recent editions of Hot Off the Press, featuring acts such as Deerhunter, TV on the Radio, Deerhoof, Cold War Kids, of Montreal, Juana Molina, Crystal Stilts, Final Fantasy, Peter Bjorn & John, White Denim, and Grizzly Bear.
Midori Hirano – Klo: Yuri
released October 14th on Noble Japan
Report Card: B
Midori Hirano feels like what happens when all the nerds in school get together and try to make pop music. It might not always be pretty, sometimes it’s just plain awkward, there are instances of pleasant surprise, but in the end, at least they’re giving it their best shot. And Klo: Yuri, Midori Hirano’s sophomore release, feels like the progressive culmination of all this, as its gathering of music theory books and computer savvy results in an academic and sometimes brutally modernist approach to post-classical music. And if you ignore the fact that Midori Hirano is a well-educated and worldly Berliner from Japan, picturing her as the leader of a band of clumsy Americans isn’t a huge stretch.
While it’s true that obscure musico-intellectual structures often seem emphasized over enjoyment on this album, some pretty good things come of Klo: Yuri. Nice tracks such as “Feathers” and “Null” get to the root of the strange nature of the solo effort, with monotonously counting in German acting as a contrast to what are often lush and complex arrangements. And digging further finds more fine moments, such as album lynchpin “Out,” a subtly mechanistic take on pretty-pop that acts as the collection’s cutest and most single-worthy track. Stripped of orchestral strings and most of the ornate elements present in other songs, the tune is left unexpectedly bare and held together by incidental pieces of percussion—in essence, it’s a gentler, cuddlier center to what sometimes feels like an over-thought graduate school thesis. And when it all comes down to it, this is an intriguing little mess of an album—not always pretty, a little awkward, and maybe, just maybe, put together by someone who sat by herself at the middle school lunch table.
Listen to music by Midori Hirano here
Skeletons – Money
released November 4 on Tomlab
Report Card: C+
There is a really great album dying, just dying, to escape from this 53-minute minefield. Because, sure enough, excellent sounds abound here, and perhaps even enough for an LP, but, unfortunately, they are burdened by a slew of headache-inducing sonic experiments no less than difficult to tolerate, let alone enjoy. And while it’s not uncommon to find innovation a bit tough to palate, this band—a New York via Illinois, Colorado, and Hawaii quartet—sabotages their own manic effectiveness with what seems an irrepressible urge to mutilate the loveliness of their sound with all brand of aural offenses.
As an example of the neurotic nature of this album, leadoff “Fill My Pockets Full” is a frustrating assault of car horns and other exasperations, and it’s followed by “The Things,” a rollicking afro-doo-wop success, which is then followed by more noodling obnoxiousness. And so it goes, all the way through: for every instance of goodness, such as slow-burning “Stepper, a.k.a. Work” (which perhaps acts as the apex of potential for the band to make great music when they so choose), there is a huge misstep, such as “Eleven (It’ll Rain),” the largely-creepy and unenjoyable nine minute finale. With contrasts like that, Money, through lack of discrimination, is mired in the dregs of hit-or-miss status.
In a sense, this album is one that would have benefited from a judicious sounding board—if a staff of post-postmodernists were standing by with discerning ears to tell the band when they were being derivative and unfortunately outdated in terms of caustic innovation, the leftovers—also known as the parts of the endeavor that double as actual music rather than as a study of non-musical sounds—would have made for a pretty nice album. But, alas, it is what it is, and as that, you’ll have to hire on your own editing software to chew through this dissertation.
Listen to music by Skeletons here
Read more of Nick Courtright’s writing—writing that doesn’t have anything to do with comparing musicians to students or artistic movements—here