Top Albums of 2011

These are not just collections of random songs; these are albums in the traditional sense that we lost ourselves in hour after hour. (Just a note, all of the albums are in alphabetical order according to album title, but we decided for the first time to single out our top pick at the bottom of the list.) Enjoy!

Golden Gardens’ “Between the Amulet and The Siren”



[Video: “Ghostwood” from the gossamerruby YouTube Channel.]



Brett Anderson’s “Black Rainbows”



[Video: “Brittle Heart” from the BrettAndersonVideo YouTube Channel.]



Second’s “Demasiado Soñasores”



[Video: “N.A.D.A.” from the secondmusic YouTube Channel.]



PJ Harvey’s “Let England Shake”



[Video: “Let England Shake” from the letenglandshake YouTube Channel.]



Architecture in Helsinki’s “Moment Bends”



[Video: “Contact High” from the ArchitecureIHVEVO YouTube Channel.]



Kevin Pearce’s “Pocket Handkerchief Lane”



[Track: “Don’t Fall Down” from Kevin’s Pearce’s Soundcloud.]

DONT FALL DOWN by kevinpearcemusic

Matthew Mercer’s “Pianissimo Possibile”



[Video: “And the Sky Opened Up” from the matthewdmercer YouTube Channel.]



Amazing Electronic Talking Cave’s “Radio Psylence”



[Video Teaser: “Permanent Black Marker” from the aetcvideos YouTube Channel.]



Erasure’s “Tomorrow’s World”



[Video: Live Rehearsal of “I Lose Myself” from the erasureinfo YouTube Channel.]



Album of the Year: Diego Garcia’s “Laura”



[Video: “You Were Never There” from the diegogarciaTV YouTube Channel.]

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Golden Gardens and The Living Arches

I could not let the year close out without writing about the last two releases by Golden Gardens. The first is a split four-track EP with songs by both Golden Gardens and The Living Arches. When I heard that they collaborated on an EP, I immediately remembered the phrase “the scene that celebrates itself.” Though the phrase was originally intended to be insulting, the reality is that it described one of the most fascinating aspects of shoegaze. The original shoegazers all had connections to one another, celebrating each other’s music. And that is what Golden Gardens and The Living Arches are doing now … collaborating on a project, celebrating their music. The second is an EP of covers. Any collection of covers is a tricky thing that usually fizzles down to clichés and silly attempts at covering a “hit” song. But Golden Gardens stayed true to form, assimilating these songs right into their repertoire with ease.

“The Living Arches/Golden Gardens Split” (24 September 2011)



I know little about The Living Arches (though I plan to educate myself thoroughly during the holidays), who offer up the first two tracks of the EP. Touted as “electrified-acoustica,” I could not have been happier with my introduction to this duo of Michael Hooker and Jensen Kistler, who hail from Tampa, Florida USA. Minimalist in approach (essentially guitar and vocals with some musical accents), these tracks are not bare in the visceral sense at all. From the allure of the guitar playing to the lusciousness of the vocal arrangements, these two tracks are enrapturing. “Our time is limited,” are the first words of “500 Years,” the first track of the collection. Folk meets dirge, with an incredible pop sensibility, this is one of those heart-tugging tracks you will hit repeat on various times. The bluesy “The Serpent and the Bird” has one of the most interesting vocal harmonies. It just has this ability to make you listen to every word, as their singing accents exactly what they want you focus in on.

(The Living Arches’ “500 Years” from Golden Gardens’ Bandcamp.)



The last half consists of the two Golden Gardens’ tracks, “In the Rosebuds” and “An Apparition.” If ever Golden Gardens mixed the same amount of dream pop and shoegaze into one track, it is “In the Rosebuds” – wispy and distorted, layered and ethereal, what I really like about this track is how classic dream pop/shoegaze it sounds. The final track on the EP is “An Apparition.” Just like Cocteau Twins and The Cranes, these vocals are more than just conduits for lyrical expression; they are intricately woven into the musical arrangements, like another layer of music. Though ethereal, Golden Garden manages to “darken” the mood with this track, bringing them closer to their post-punk influences.

Track Listing
1. 500 Years – The Living Arches
2. The Serpent and the Bird – The Living Arches
3. In the Rosebuds – Golden Gardens
4. An Apparition – Golden Gardens

“The Covers” (9 December 2011)



As I said above, covering a song is a tricky thing. When I think about collections of cover songs, I immediately think of two collections that have become the measuring rod for all cover collections in my book. The first is Siouxsie and the Banshees’ “Through the Looking Glass” (1987). With some completely unexpected songs (for example, “Strange Fruit” and “Trust in Me”), what makes this an incredible collection is how the band was able to at once expand their sonic repertoire and eerily “own” the songs. The second is Annie Lennox’s “Medusa” (1995). Lennox proved that one of the reasons to cover music is to save a song from obscurity (for example, “No More I Love You’s”). (I have always imagined that the meaning behind the album has to do with the fact that mythological Medusa transmutes people into other (stone) versions of themselves, just has she has transmuted those songs.)

The first cover of this collection is of The Creepshow’s “The Garden” – gone are the tinges of rockabilly, as well as the upbeat tempo and all that goes with it. Golden Gardens transmute this song into a minimalist dream pop faire that is elegantly haunting. The second cover is of Morrissey’s “The Loop” (one of the last songs by Morrissey I thought anyone would cover!). The opening of the cover is reminiscent of the opening of The Smith’s “How Soon Is Now,” but then the intact lead guitar arrangement is juxtaposed to an ambient key background and vocals that could not be more disparate from Morrissey’s. It is this juxtaposition that really brings out a new dimension to the song that could not have been imagined from the original. And if “The Loop” was a curve ball, then the third cover of Red House of Painters’ “Summer Dress” is surreal! Never in a million years would I have thought of Golden Gardens covering this track, which they really interpreted á la post-punk – down to the early Simon Gallup-esque bass sound.

Golden Gardens then ambitiously goes for Tears For Fear’s “Pale Shelter” on the fourth track. I have always thought that Tears For Fears should have explored their new wave and post-punk influences, which they forsook after their debut album. Golden Gardens concentrates on the mournful, ambient aspects of this song that Tears For Fears did not. The fifth track is a cover of Hole’s “Violet.” Like the first track, their interpretation forgoes the upbeat tempo (and angst). Golden Garden’s interpretation is much more pensive and reflective, loaning itself to deeper introspection than the original. The final cover is of Julee Cruise’s “Into the Night,” a song that I have not thought about in more years than I care to admit. This is homage to dream pop! In many ways true to the original version, but more ethereal, the vocal arrangements are sung in tandem with the musical arrangements, as opposed to above them as in the original.

Do Golden Gardens pick at least one unexpected song? Check. Do they own these covers? Check. Do they save at least one song from obscurity? Check. “The Covers” is an excellent cover album, which meets with all of my personal expectations for cover collections. I for one am really happy that the band did not tread down the road of clichés; not that I have anything against anyone covering Cocteau Twins, but that would have been too easy! They engaged music that was not in their realm of references, continued to keep dream pop and shoegaze alive, while simultaneously paying homage to the past and pushing the classic form a bit further – and these two releases are just further reasons to delve into the world of Golden Gardens.

(Golden Gardens’ cover of Red House Painters’ “Summer Dress” from the Golden Gardens Bandcamp page.)



Track Listing:
1. The Garden
2. The Loop
3. Summer Dress
4. Pale Shelter
5. Violet
6. Into the Night

Keep up with The Living Arches at their Tumblr and Facebook. Head over to their Bandcamp page where you can keep track of future releases.

Keep up with Golden Garden at their homepage, Facebook, and Twitter. Head over to their Bandcamp page where you can check out both of these EPs and the rest of their discography. Read more ...

Golden Gardens: "Between the Siren and the Amulet"

My many thanks to Golden Gardens for keeping SDM Blog in the loop!

Quite often, I use music as the ultimate escape from the wear and tear of everyday life. I usually opt for music that creates a netherworld of sounds, where the expected is rarely realized and beauty, in so many forms, abounds. So it is no surprise that recently, as I so often do, I turned to dream pop and shoegaze to suspend reality, but I did not immerse myself in the soundscapes of yesteryears. Rather, I finally found the time to sit down and listen to Golden Gardens’ debut album, “Between the Siren and the Amulet” (23 August 2011). Though I hate to truncate or give the illusion of hybridity, this luscious album could easily be called “dreamgaze.” From the opening track, the instrumental “Peisinoë,” the dream like trance generated by compressed guitar sounds and synthesizers lulls you away into nearly an hour of music that is unconventionally alluring and emotionally engaging.



When I first reviewed Golden Garden’s “Somnambulist” EP (link), I wrote of days when incredible EPs and mini-albums were being released; now I remember those amazing days when fledging shoegaze bands were releasing amazing debut albums. But what really makes “Between the Siren and the Amulet” distinct is how Golden Gardens weave the earthly with the ethereal, the post-punk with the dream pop, the shoegaze with electronics. Furthermore, most albums released nowadays are merely a collection of new songs, not connected sonically or thematically in any premeditated way, and simply mixed to give the verisimilitude of cohesiveness to the songs. “Between the Siren and the Amulet” is an album in the traditional sense: there is sonic cohesiveness in how the music was conceived, written, and recorded. The listener simply glides through the musical journey of soundscapes, to the credit of multi-instrumentalist Gregg Alexander Joseph Neville; each song effortlessly flows into the next, even when the tempos and textures are different. This is most obvious between the broody “Amthemusa” and the near-poppy “Ghostwood.” There is no disconnect in the experience, and the change in tempo and style is part of the cinematographic feel of the music.

Aubrey Rachel Violet Bramble’s vocals are stunning! Of course, the lazy comparison would be with Elizabeth Fraser (the amazing vocalist of Cocteau Twins), but the more apropos comparison would be with (early) Alison Shaw (of The Cranes) – but dare I say that Bramble’s are more beautiful! She uses her voice not just to create vocal melody and deliver lyrics, but also as another layer within the musical arrangements. Even when the background music is more earthy and guttural, her vocals elevate each song into ethereal euphoria. Take “Three Jewels” for example; musically one of the “earthiest” moments on the album, and though Bramble’s vocals are not as high-pitched, her vocals adds the airy / ethereal counterpart to the music. In a nutshell, the music itself is a perfect example of classic shoegaze, her vocals dream pop.

“The Empress” is one of the most mesmerizing sounds I have ever heard. The guitar-arrangements are as haunting as the vocals, the languid beat accents the anxiousness – it is the perfect example of how to generate visceral power in a song without being bombast. The other track I must mention is “Night Never Ends.” With a nice dose of post-punk “gothicness,” this is the epic track of the album – as well as my favorite track and latest obsession. Like all great epics, it never feels as long as it is actually is (nearly seven minutes). The perfect bass line, even paced beat, ambient keys, and cinematic guitar arrangements all conspire to be the perfect soundscape for the airy vocal arrangements to lull and mesmerize the listener.

Golden Gardens is the exemplar of dream pop and shoegaze in today’s music. “Between the Siren and the Amulet” is not the replication of music of yesteryears gone by, but rather a relevant collection of music that keeps the tradition of the “album” alive in this post-broadband revolutionized world, while bringing the power of two musical traditions to contemporary audiences in a new and vibrant way. Golden Gardens is one of those truly independent bands that treads where others might not, because it is obvious that they place the emphasis on the artistry of the music, like all those nascent shoegazers of two decades ago. If you are obsessed with dream pop and shoegaze as I am, this is an album you will most definitely treasure. If you have no clue what dream pop or shoegaze is, then take the plunge with this album, suspend your expectations, and lull away an hour to this visceral catharsis.

Track Listing:
1. Peisinoë
2. The Empress
3. The Golden Dawn
4. Anthemusa
5. Ghostwood
6. Little Birds
7. Shimmerine
8. Amethyst
9. Three Jewels
10. Night Never Ends
11. Cimaruta
12. The Death of Lovers

Keep up with Golden Gardens at their homepage, Facebook, and Twitter. Head over to their Bandcamp page, where you can preview and purchase “Between the Siren and the Amulet.”

Here is Golden Gardens’ video for “Ghostwood” from the gossamerruby YouTube Channel.

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Golden Gardens Answers 5

After listening to Golden Gardens’ EP “Somnambulist” (link), I immediately thought of the heydays of when then nascent bands like Cranes and Curve were coming into their own. And as any release that intrigues me, the process of setting up an interview was to follow. Let me just say that after Aubrey Rachel Violet Bramble mentioned The Cure, Nabokov, Marie Antionette, and Salvador Dali in one response, I think I may have fallen in love! With that said, I would like to thank Aubrey and Gregg (Alexander Joseph Neville) for taking the time, coordinating responses from two coasts, and Answering 5.

(Golden Gardens / Photographer Ariana Dominguez)

1. Who are your musical and non-musical influences?

[Aubrey] Musically, my biggest influences are Cranes, Cocteau Twins, Curve, Max Richter, The Innocence Mission, The Sundays, Bauhaus, The Cure, Julee Cruise, Nancy Sinatra and classic Bollywood singers like Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle. Other trinkets that inspire and excite me are the films of Matthew Barney, David Lynch, Fritz Lang and Maya Deren; fairy tales, Greek mythology, ancient haiku, and books by Murakami, Nabokov and Raymond Buckland; art nouveau, art deco, crystal vibrations, Marie Antoinette, silent film sirens, unicorns, Salvador Dali, Native American spiritualism and mermaids.

[Gregg] Musically, I would say The Cure, Cocteau Twins, Slowdive, Joy Division, Roy Orbison, Bauhaus, Roxy Music, Tom Waits. I'm inspired by surrealism in art and literature, comics especially those created by Alan Moore, Grant Morrison (who changed and in many ways saved my life), Warren Ellis, Charles Burns, Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby, weird horror, ghost stories. David Lynch is a major influence on my creative output, Werner Herzog, Kenneth Anger. Night.

2. Who is Golden Gardens? And is that rumor of being bicoastal true? (If so, how does that work?)

[Aubrey] Golden Gardens is Gregg Alexander Joseph Neville and Aubrey Rachel Violet Bramble. Gregg is the musical alchemist, weaving lush tapestries of sparkling sounds; I am the medium, conjuring secret messages from other worlds.

[Gregg] Currently we are located on opposite coasts of America. Aubrey is located in Seattle and I am in Tampa, Florida. Both are coastal towns - which in its own way I feel is important for Golden Gardens. I'm currently in school here, but I will be making it to Seattle when I can for shows.

[Aubrey] We develop our songs by sending ideas back and forth to one another (we each have DIY home recording studios) and then building complete tracks from there. Gregg sends me a riff, I add a little something, he fleshes out additional instrumentation, and I add some more vocal parts and so on until we have a finished song. It's an insanely enjoyable process, creatively.

3. You have intriguingly described yourselves as “messages of alchemy and wisdom.” Could you expand on what you meant by that?

[Aubrey] Our goal is to seduce our audience with this magickal sound, invoking a trance-like state and elevating their spirits to a heightened level of mystical awareness. What we transmit is transcendent and should therefore have an alchemical effect on the mind and soul, inspiring inner knowledge and calm reflection.

(Golden Gardens / Photographer Ariana Dominguez)

4. As a nascent independent band, what challenges are you faced with and how are you overcoming them?

[Aubrey] Personally, I feel more liberated than challenged with our independent status. Yes, we have to actively work at promoting our own music and convincing bookers/promoters/DJs/etc. to support us, but we're so passionate about what we're doing it becomes a labor of love. I actually enjoy emailing bloggers and journalists, posting on message boards, and generally "getting the word out" about Golden Gardens. It's nice to build personal relationships with the people who will be listening to and playing your music (as music is inherently a personal endeavor), and to have total control over your own path is very luxurious. We're not looking at this project as a cash cow or fame rocket; we simply wish to share this thing we love to do with those that hopefully enjoy it. That's the best reward.

[Gregg] While Aubrey is certainly the more outgoing of the two of us, I have to agree. I really enjoy the social aspect of being a band in this day and age. Knowing that people are hearing the music you make, and then those people having the ability to interact with you past the superficial "I like your tunes" level is wonderful.

5. Word has it that a second Golden Gardens’ EP is in the works. What can we expect?

[Gregg] The new Golden Gardens EP is in production as we speak. A couple of songs are completed. A couple more are in the middle of the composition process and there are one or two that are still being "hatched" from bare ideas. The concept of this was to take the ideas that spawned "Somnambulist" and imagine a dark mirror image of them. What sort of songs would that inspire? We took this concept and are building this new EP. It has been an odd process. The songs have been harder to write in many ways and there have been a few discarded ideas that may make their way into future material. The songs have come out sounding lusher and more powerful and the "darkness" we are striving for in this release isn't coming through in an angsty or menacing way, but in a much more romantic and resplendent manner.

Keep up with Golden Gardens at their homepage, Facebook, Twitter, and Bandcamp, where you can preview and purchase the "Somnambulist" EP.

Here is the video for “Paresseux” from the gossamerruby YouTube Channel.

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Golden Gardens: "Somnambulist" EP

I remember a time when if you wanted great music, you had to turn to EPs and mini-albums. Whether it was My Bloody Valentine’s “Ecstasy” (1987), Cranes’ “Self-Non-Self” (1989), Ride’s “Ride” (1990), Curve’s “Cherry” (1991), it was these nascent, underground bands that were defining the upcoming music scenes and carrying on musical traditions (from post-punk to noise pop) that were completely abandoned or ignored by the mainstream. Golden Gardens is one of these bands, who recently released their “Somnambulist” EP (6 December 2010) and are (re)educating an audience on what trippy, shoegazey, dream pop is all about.



I admit near complete ignorance about the band’s biography, but here is the little I do know: the band is a duo, which hails from Seattle, Washington USA and apparently named after Golden Gardens Park. Though the band uses electronic equipment to generate their music, I would hardly call them an electronic band. For that matter, I would not call them a dream pop or shoegaze band in the classic sense of either of those genres. And of course, all this dream pop/shoegaze revival is getting some of us really happy about what a 90s revival could sound like, but Golden Gardens is not rehashing that classic form. It is fair to say they are expanding it, reconfiguring it, and producing something fresh and urgent. But if you need a comparison, think of Cranes, in the sense of having so much focus on a female voice lifting up from the music, and Curve, in the sense of generating powerful undertow in the dichotomy between how the vocal and musical arrangements interplay with one another.

“Somnambulist” is the perfect name for this collection. The music is lost somewhere between a dream world (that trippy, dream pop) and those barely conscious, but epiphanic twilight moments when we are stirring. The opening track is “Paresseux” [French for lazy], and this track definitely has a laziness, slow-moving quality to it, that allows you fall back into contemplation – a perfect way to ease into this musical journey. “Cloudless” has a bit of trip-hop to it, but retains its ethereal dream pop. “Elizabeta” has a beautifully thick wall of sound in the background and that feeling that the song is either going to explode or implode into something different, but never does – and it is in that denial of major shift that the song gains this amazing visceral undertow. “The Uses of Enchantment” is the closest song to post-punk, working on subtle shifts and repetitions. “The High Priestess” is the standout song of the collection, and of course an amazing study on epic music! It is a bit more experimental in arrangements than the other songs; it really captures the qualities of being somnambulistic. It moves in a daze, is shadowy and ethereal, as you are subtly swept into its soundscape for a near seven minutes. “Heartbeats” closes the collection, and like the opening, the music wallows gracefully though lethargy, as the focal vocals (at one point in a cappella) completely arrests your attention. The music is only meant to heighten the urgency of the vocal arrangements; this is the most haunting song of the year thus far!

For the sake of a bit of disclosure, I want to say that Golden Gardens came into my radar on Twitter, when I got a heads up from the band in the form of a few words. Not the first time I got a heads up from a band, which more often than not ends in a disastrous listening experience, I checked out their music on Bandcamp and could not stop listening to the “Somnambulist” EP. Trust me, if you had an affinity and love for dreamy shoegaze, or your curiosity is even slightly roused, check out Golden Gardens links below and support the band.

Track Listing:
1. Paresseux
2. Cloudless
3. Elizabeta
4. The Uses of Enchantment
5. The High Priestess
6. Heartbeats

Keep up with Golden Gardens at their homepage, Facebook, Twitter, and Bandcamp, where you can preview and purchase the "Somnambulist" EP.

Here is the video for “Paresseux” from the gossamerruby YouTube Channel.

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