New Music: TV on the Radio, Mountaineer, Instrumental Quarter

TV on the Radio - Hours (El-P Remix) - Return to Cookie Mountain (Interscope US Edition 2006)


Mountaineer - A Town Called Ivanhoe - When the Air is Bright They Shine (Type 2006)


Instrumental Quarter - A Beautiful Shopping Day - Traffic (Sick Room 2006)



TV on the Radio – Return to Cookie Mountain / Interscope

With OK Calculator, TV on the Radio raised many a curious eyebrow with their 4-track antics, with Young Liars they emerged as an amazingly innovative band with infinite potential, with Desperate Youth, they began to realize their musical prowess with intriguing experimentation and finally, with Cookie Mountain, they blossom as the most inventive, interesting and indefinable band in quite possibly the entire music industry. In retrospect, the biggest void in early TotR was the restrictions set in by using a mechanical drum machine, but a void no more as Jaleel Bunton finally gives the band a human enough backbeat, whether it be in the style of marching bands or mile-a-minute prog, to complete the textural centrifuge already stirring between Adibimpe and Malone’s swirling vocals, Sitek’s embankment of sound and the barrage of instrumentation that encompasses each song. And to appease the delayed U.S. release, three bonus tracks that include a decisive remix of Hours by Def Jukie El-P and the amazing afro-pop influenced Things You Can Do.



Mountaineer – When the Air is Bright They Shine / Type

When the Air is Bright They Shine opens with delectable dub-inspired groove of melodica, lightly picked acoustic, a shallow cymbal ride and Henning Wandhoff’s hushed coos; just from these opening seconds, you know that you’re in for a treat. The Hamburg-based singer/songwriter who goes by the moniker Mountaineer decided to flesh out his sound after his well-received debut, Sunny Day. Collaborating with a new quartet of like-minded musicians, Wandhoff set out to achieve that hard to define pop aesthetic of late ‘60s, early ‘70s wispy folk records that subtly complicated a simple genre with outside influences. He does an amazing job embodying this spirit without flat out mimicking with his leftfield folksy pop songs crafted from meandering tropicalia, tweaked americana and quiet flares of southwestern sunspots. A hushed record of slyly complicated arrangements, if I had stumbled across a used unmarked vinyl copy of When the Air in some dingy record shop, it would quickly become my most cherished find.



Instrumental Quarter – Traffic Jam / Sick Room

Italy’s Instrumental Quarter, obviously an instrumental quartet (so much for a mysterious moniker), combines influences from the traditional music and mountainous backdrops of their hometown in Saluzzo with the experimental post-rock and urban sprawl of their second home in Chicago. Featuring three of the four members of the late 90s alternative pop/rock ground Kash, who teamed with Steve Albini for a 2001 release, IQ finds a comfortable niche between the acoustic guitar driven Pele, the meandering and dramatic Six Parts Seven and the liberal violin usage of the Dirty Three. Their most appealing aspect is the ability to accentuate straightforward rock arrangements with jazzy avant-garde and fusion experimentation without straying too much from either genre. Traffic Jam is a solid album from start to finish, but I doubt it will emerge from the shadows of the sensational Midwestern post-rock scene; nonetheless IQ puts together an enjoyable album of innovative instrumental warmth.