New Music: Langhorne Slim, Vietnam, Amiina, Forro in the Dark

Now that the buffet of new releases and tours that is the fall season is over, labels are putting out more EPs and singles to tease the upcoming spring feast, hence what you see here. Also, Audioblog has not yet updated their program to work with Blogger Beta, but hopefully not too long after the holiday break. Once they get that up and running, I will post all of the mp3s that were missed. Also also, the Columbia, SC (where i went to school) CBS affiliate is syndicating my reviews for their website thanks to my good friend Dennis. I'm pretty sure I am going to be exposing the regular readers of that site to some very unusual music (for them), which makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.



Langhorne Slim - Honey Pie - Engine EP (V2 2006)



Langhorne Slim – Engine EP / V2

I’ll be honest, I don’t get down to backwoods Americana and bluegrass nearly enough, but then again, how many artists are really making that kind of music nowadays? But then of course, Langhorne Slim is not really your typical contemporary artist; he actually sounds as if he accidentally time warped about 80 years into the future and embraced his new surroundings with open arms and boyish charm. Taking the major label plunge after his amazing 2005 album, When the Sun Goes Down (which was pretty high on my end of year best of list), the twenty-something singer/songwriter builds upon his enthusiastic combination of bluegrass, stomping blues and mischievous folk, but for the first two tracks of the 4-song EP are a bit slower than I want to hear. Honey Pie on the other hand is a classic Slim get-up-and-dance track which relentlessly plows forward with punk drumming, wailing organs, guitar solos and shouts of “ain’t no girl gonna tell me, she don’t wanna be my honey pieeeee.” Rounding out the set is Sweet Olive Tree, the kind of slightly humorous, slightly worrisome campfire ballad that makes Langhorne so endearing. A brand-new full-length is due in 2007 and I for one will be eagerly waiting its release date.





Vietnam - Welcome to My Room - Welcome to My Room EP (Kemado 2006)



Vietnam – Welcome to My Room EP / Kemado

Two springs ago, I was joyfully (ahem, drunkenly) stumbling around pre-hurricaned Bourbon Street on a hot, muggy and very New Orleans, New Orleans evening. For most of the afternoon, I waded through the sea of camera-clad tourists seeking out street musicians, cheaply priced drinks and muffulettas when the space-time continuum ripped open before my bloodshot eyes and four dingy looking vagabonds seemingly from the 70s stepped out and crossed the street in front of me. Luckily I recognized Joshua Garrett, Michael William and gang instantaneously because I had just happened to be obsessing over their bohemian stained debut EP as Vietnam. Now two years later, they are finally releasing a full-length album of their brooding Velvet Underground meets Dylan meets Smog rock and roll. Now a fleshed-out quartet, Vietnam fill this teaser EP with the lively, fuzzed-out hippy-soul of Welcome to My Room, the smoke-stained drawl and lyrical electric guitar led Hotel Riverview and a live rendition of the non-album Goodbye which wrenches both the heart and the ears in it’s rawness. Their timeless sound hasn’t… well aged a bit in the last two years and I for one am very excited to hear an actual LP from the band.





Amiina - Seoul - Seoul EP (The Worker's Institute 2006)



Amiina – Seoul EP / The Worker’s Institute

Iceland has become renown for their very melodic music scene as of late, and after hearing Amiina, four lovely ladies from Reykjavik, I’m pretty sure that no one on that wintry wonderland of an island has ever heard a discordant sound in their entire life. The former string section of Sigur Ros continues to move out on their own with their second EP under the moniker. Like Sigur Ros, their sound is almost otherworldly in it’s intertwining of so many gorgeous melodies, but unlike Sigur Ros, their music isn’t dragged down by over-dramatization. I think if the bright Icelandic sun ever decided to make music by refracting light through a glacier then translating the resulting light waves into sine waves, it would sound pretty close to Amiina. During Seoul, xylophones twinkle over quiet synth nods, glockenspiels glimmer over theremin woos, and tightly wound strings pluck delightfully in between light drum patterns like an intricately designed kaleidoscope pointed directly at the sun on a crystal clear day. If fairies, elves and unicorns exist, they call Reykjavik their home and more than likely on a sugarplum farm run very lovingly by the ladies of Amiina.




Forro in the Dark - Indios Do Norte - Bonfires of the Sao Joao (Nublu 2006)



Forro in the Dark – Bonfires of São João / Nublu

Picture this: it’s an exceptionally hot, muggy night in the heart of Northeast Brazil. While the ambient forest and wildlife sounds engulf most of the region, a bright rhythmic pulse beats out of a large, illuminated dance club. A sweaty group of men and women, who should be exhausted after a long week’s work, dance exuberantly pelvis-to-pelvis in a waltz-meets-salsa like motion to a colorful vibrant band effortlessly performing a style of music centered around the bass-like thump of a zabumba, the awkward wail of an accordion and a large metal triangle rattled so quickly, you’d think the musician was having a seizure. Well ok, Forro in the Dark is not quite that type of traditional forró band, instead they are bringing an updated style of the music to the hipsters and club-goers of NYC, but the sweaty, excitable vibe is still undeniable. Supplementing the traditional instrumentation with electric guitars, an array of flutes, modern percussion and other contemporary instruments, along with the help of David Byrne, Bebel Gilberto and Miho Hatori, Forro in the Dark capture the immediate, pleasure-craving core of forró for modern audiences to relieve their stress on the dance floor just like the Brazilian workers of the early 1900s.