Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

1. MP3: Sri Aurobindo – Soul Vibrations of Man
2. MP3: Sri Aurobindo – Don’t Know

Sri Aurobindo are back again, this time with a release on Bmore Musically Informed‘s new imprint Friends Records. Cave Painting being their second full-length release, they really stepped up to the plate, delivering on expectations of a vital brew of psych goodness. The sound throughout the album oozes a primitivist feel, something less rooted in the realm of mind-altering psych and more in the ritualistic. You can easily imagine these songs soundtracking the Sris as a tribe, hovering around a billowing blaze barely contained by a stone circle.

Lead single “Soul Vibrations of Man” is a slice of classic psych, the blown out bass guitar line playing the foil to the lofty and crisp quality of the elevating guitar melody. Arinoldo’s vocals ring as if echoing through a metal canyon, and you get a solid sense of expanse and a bit of wonderment. “Don’t Know” roars to life with the rumbling storm of bass and rhythm guitars, a bed for the wailing the lead guitar to slowly percolate through. The doors are blown open when both guitars and bass tear into epic freakout solos near the halfway mark, gradually drifting off and dissolving into muffled, noisy moans. Easily my favorite track on the whole LP (aside from maybe the highly infectious “My Luv Is Stoned” with its ebullient, titular shouts).

Local psych enthusiasts already know they will love this (and most any) outing from the Sris, but this release manages to provide enough edge from other influences to make them sound much more unique than a simple homage to a genre. They continue to wrangle some fantastic guitar and bass tones (probably due in no small part to studio whiz Chris Freeland), yet this go-round they have crafted their most distinctive and cohesive offering yet. A blast to listen to, Cave Painting sounds ripe to give them broader appeal, something well-deserved and perhaps overdue.

Read the rest…

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

My roommate silently stalked over to my computer and asked what I was listening to.

“The new Title Tracks single,” I replied. Looking over my shoulder at the four or five possible concepts I had sprawled out on a sheet of printer paper, he asked if I was writing about this song. “Yes,” I said, trying to quiet his apparent suspicion. He began to chuckle as he stared at my notes. I asked him what he’s laughing at, to which he responded: “Nolan, it’s a freaking pop song.  Quit analyzing it like one of your David Byrne albums or something.”

He probably walked off mumbling something about a punk band, but I wasn’t listening. He was right about one thing there: Title Tracks (and their debut single, Every Little Bit Hurts) does not attempt to revitalize pop music.  In fact, I think it’s safe to say Title Tracks do nothing but add to the already-crowded guitar pop genre.

That being said, “Found Out,” the better half of Every Little Bit Hurts, shows a lot of promise from these DC indie-poppers. It stars some extra-tense guitars working like a loaded spring, only gaining a moment’s rest during the pop-standard chorus.

The sugar-soaked tune (clocking in at a whopping 2:35) is just long enough to allow a fair amount of familiarity, but somehow feels like it could still use some trimming. The first verse introduces itself like a walk through an uncomfortable neighborhood at 3AM, and before you know any better, it transforms itself into a liberating power-chorded refrain.  It just gets a little irritating when you hear the same chorus for the third time in less than three minutes, almost as if you know they simply decided to throw in the once-delightful bit wherever they could.

Title Tracks seem to have this issue all over their single. While each individual piece of any given song is strong, their copy/paste outlook ruins much of the enjoyability that may have been possible. If they clean up their song structure a little bit, I’ll be looking forward to see what these guys do with an album.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

MP3: The Presets – If I Know You

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

MP3: The Presets – If I Know You (Heartbreak Remix) (thanks Modular!)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

MP3: The Golden Filter – Solid Gold

I’ve already paid lip service to “If I Know You,” one of the Presets’ most triumphant, and definitely the most sublime, tracks off 2008′s Apocalypso.  Julian Hamilton’s lingering, sombre vocals gliding atop the distant, steadily pulsating backbeat and back-mixed synth chord progression gives the entire track a naked, vulnerable feel that stands hairs on end, like a brisk pre-dawn breeze drifting over your skin.  Subtle reverb lilts off the vocals, casting  a further haze over the track.  Three-fourths of the way through the track, the bottom drops out to give way to gorgeously appointed, understated vocal harmony that is crushing, reaching the apex of their weight and vulnerability.  The fact that they scored a tastefully edited, equally sublime music video showcasing a mixture of modern, ballet and various other forms of dance is just icing on the cake (video after the jump).  Not surprising, considering we found in our interview that Hamilton’s brother is involved in dance.

But even more great news just hit the wire: the Presets are releasing both a single for “If I Know You” (dropping early April and packed with remixes of the titular track, including a particularly fantastic instrumental by Tom Middleton) and a new collector’s edition of Apocalypso (dropping May 5th) that includes a second disc, also full of remixes.

The Presets are hitting the 9:30 Club in DC tomorrow, Wed Apr 1, with the Golden Filter.  The consensus from their tour opening for Oceania-mates Cut Copy seems to be that their live show regularly trumped the headliner’s, on all levels.  I can testify to it being a gloriously sordid and sweaty affair that really can’t be beat for good times and good tunes.

Vid, tracklist for collector’s edition and complete tour dates after the jump.

Read the rest…