Apologies for the recent onslaught of Sufjan-related posts—and it isn’t over yet: my review of All Delighted People is coming soon—but hey, it’s Sufjan Stevens we’re talking about. “I Walked”—the fourth track from his upcoming The Age of Adz full-length—has just been posted to Sufjan’s Bandcamp site, and you can listen to it below.

Immediately obvious is that the track is almost entirely electronica-based, which is in keeping with Asthmatic Kitty’s press release. The next thing that comes to mind is Björk’s Vespertine, particularly in the choral vocals that come drifting through the cold, brittle beats in the song’s second half—if you replaced Björk’s pixie-like voice with Sufjan’s hushed intonations.

The Age of Adz will be released by Asthmatic Kitty Records on October 12 (CD, MP3) and November 9 (2xLP). You can pre-order your copy here.

That Sufjan Stevens has been a busy little boy. First, he announced an ambitious autumn tour. Then he released a nearly 60 minute EP entitled All Delighted People that can be listened to for free (or bought for a nominal price). And now, he’s announced a new album entitled The Age of Adz that is coming out this fall. From the Asthmatic Kitty website:

The Age of Adz (pronounced odds) is Sufjan Stevens’ first full-length collection of original songs since 2005’s civic pop opus Illinois. This new album is probably his most unusual, first, for its lack of conceptual underpinnings, and second, for its preoccupation with Sufjan himself. The album relinquishes the songwriter’s former story-telling techniques for more primal proclamations unhindered by concepts: there are few narrative conceits or character sketches; there are no historical panoramas, no civic gestures, no literary maneuvers, no expository illustrations drenched in cultural theory, no scene, setting, conflict, resolution, or denouement. Sufjan has stripped away the fabric of narrative artifice for a more primitive approach, emphasizing instinct over craft. The result is an album that is perhaps more vibrant, more primary, and more explicit than anything else he’s done before. The themes developed here are neither historical nor polemical, but rather personal and primal (if even a little juvenile): love, sex, death, disease, illness, anxiety, and suicide make appearances in a tapestry of electronic pop songs that convey a sense of urgency, immediacy, and anxiety as never before seen in this songwriter.

The complete tracklist is below:

1. Futile Devices
2. Too Much
3. Age of Adz
4. I Walked
5. Now That I’m Older
6. Get Real Get Right
7. Bad Communication
8. Vesuvius
9. All for Myself
10. I Want To Be Well
11. Impossible Soul

Other details worth noting include:

• The Age of Adz is “unhindered by concepts”, which makes sense given Sufjan’s earlier statements regarding the futility of conceptual albums.
• The album is more electronic-oriented, à la Enjoy Your Rabbit, but still contains brass, string, and choral arrangements.
• It is partially inspired by the artwork of Royal Robertson, a schizophrenic sign-maker and self-proclaimed prophet.
• The album ends with the 25-minute “Impossible Soul”, which doesn’t surprise me given Sufjan’s foray into super-extended compositions on All Delighted People.

The Age of Adz will be released by Asthmatic Kitty Records on October 12 (CD, MP3) and November 9 (2xLP). However, if you pre-order the album in the next three weeks, you’ll receive an MP3 download on September 28. (I’ve already pre-ordered my copy.)

I have a hunch that when most people hear the term “instrumental rock”, they think of that particular strand of post-rock that’s given to sweeping orchestral arrangements and long, expansive compositions. Even bands like Explosions in the Sky and Mogwai, which certainly plant their flag in the louder end of the spectrum, are difficult to think of as actual rock bands, due to their experimental tendencies.

Atlanta’s Gold Standard, on the other hand, is “instrumental rock” in the most literal sense of the term: their songs are all sans vocals and they’re not concerned so much with experimentation and intricate arrangements as they are with melting your face. That’s not say that their music is simple, though. There may not be any elaborate string arrangements embellishing their songs, but the band will still knock you over with a flurry of blows from their power trio set-up.

The late, great Roadside Monument comes to mind on tracks like “Church Bells”, particularly in the rolling, hypnotic bassline: like Johnathan Ford, Chris Ware coaxes a stunning amount of grace and finesse from his instrument without ever sacrificing the low-end. Lee Corum’s drumming is a paradox: it seems to be going all over the place and this close to falling apart at any moment, and yet rather than distract, the chaotic-ness adds a jazz-like energy and vibe to the music.

Meanwhile, George Asimakos’ guitar is the band’s secret weapon. Most of time, he’s content to wind his way through the band’s songs, providing some extra tonal color here or subtly affecting the song’s course there. But on “Motor Skills… Are Hard To Control” (interesting title considering the band’s music wouldn’t survive even an ounce of imprecision) and the aforementioned “Church Bells”, his guitar slowly emerges as the focal point, and providing a necessary emotional catharsis in the midst of his bandmates’ tumult.

Gold Standard recently released an EP entitled, appropriately enough, CD-EP: download it here or listen to it on the band’s MySpace page. They are currently recording their debut full-length, which will be released this fall on Room 10 Collective. More info can be found here.

As I was catching up on Twitter this morning, I came across this tweet from Mark Van Hoen linking to Cherry Red Records’ recent reissue of Slowdive’s Pygmalion. Which ought to be welcome news to many shoegazer fans, seeing as how Pygmalion—the band’s final album, released in 1995—has been out of print for quite some time now.

The reissue is a two-disc release that includes the remastered original album, a second disc of Pygmalion demos (which, up until now, have only been available via less than legitimate channels), and new sleeve notes courtesy of Kieron Tyler (who also compiled the recently released Slowdive anthology The Shining Breeze).

The complete tracklist is below.

Disc 1 - Original Album

1. Rutti
2. Crazy For You
3. Miranda
4. Trellisaze
5. Cello
6. J’s Heaven
7. Visions Of La
8. Blue Skied An’ Clear
9. All Of Us

Disc 2 - Pygmalion Demos

1. Miranda
2. Watch Me
3. Yesterday
4. To Watch
5. Option One (Instrumental #1)
6. Carfo
7. Sinewaes
8. Ambient Guitar
9. Crazy For You (Alt Version)
10. Krautruck
11. Changes
12. Red Five

Sufjan Stevens is embarking on a pretty ambitious tour this autumn, and to help set the stage—so to speak—the man is releasing a brand new EP entitled All Delighted People. Sufjan has never been known to do anything small, so his EP is 60 minutes long—and you can listen to the entire thing for free.

From Asthmatic Kitty’s announcement:

The EP, All Delighted People, is built around two different versions of Sufjan’s long-form epic ballad “All Delighted People,” a dramatic homage to the Apocalypse, existential ennui, and Paul Simon’s “Sounds of Silence.” Sounds delightful, yes! The song was originally workshopped (oh we hate making workshop a verb, but time is money!) on Sufjan’s previous tour in the fall of 2009. Other songs on the EP include the 17-minute guitar jam-for-single-mothers “Djohariah,” and the gothic piano ballad “The Owl and the Tanager,” a live-show mainstay (and Debbie Downer if you ask us; what’s it doing on a “Delighted” EP?).

And here’s the complete track list:

1. All Delighted People (Original Version) - 11:38
2. Enchanting Ghost - 3:39
3. Heirloom - 2:55
4. From The Mouth Of Gabriel - 4:03
5. The Owl And The Tanager - 6:39
6. All Delighted People (Classic Rock Version) - 8:07
7. Arnika - 5:14
8. Djohariah - 17:03

I’m still making my way through the EP, but at first blush, it sounds like Sufjan is attempting to blend the huge, lavish orchestrations that he’s become known for with quieter, intimate moments à la Seven Swans. The Steve Reich-isms that he’s so well known for are diminished, if not entirely absent, with Stevens going for a more abstract, experimental sound which flows quite nicely into choirs and folksy acoustic guitar/banjo ballads.

My apologies for the attention-grabbing headline. However, give Shamantis’ ultra-slow version of Bieber’s “U Smile” even just a cursory listen and tell me the thought doesn’t cross your mind. Using some software called PaulStretch, Shamantis slowed down Bieber’s track by 800%, turning the three minute pop single into a thirty-five minute piece of droney ambience, with Bieber’s voice transformed into a wordless angelic choir.

This isn’t the first time someone has used extreme time-stretching to completely alter a pop song: a couple of years ago, someone turned Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone” into a My Bloody Valentine-esque track using similar techniques (though in not so nearly an extreme fashion).

When I first heard “Wetlands”, one of the tracks on The Green Kingdom’s upcoming Prismatic album, I found it completely engrossing—which some might chalk up to the fact that it was nearly two in the morning at the time. However, I’ve listened to the song many times since, and the fascination remains.

I won’t lie, though: being in a bleary, partially awake state isn’t a bad thing when it comes to music like this. Digitally manipulated soundscapes, spectral drones (imagine a choir Gaussian blurred a couple of times), groaning violins, simple piano figures, and acoustic guitar all combine to create a truly intriguing sonic environment, one that brings to life the rainy setting of the song’s title.

Obvious points of reference include Tujiko Noriko and Múm, but there’s a pensiveness and melancholy at work within The Green Kingdom’s (aka Michael Cottone) music that gives it a singular emotional heft all its own. In other words, at five minutes or so, “Wetlands” is too short: it’s the sort of ambient track that you want to meander around within and explore for awhile.

Prismatic will be released by Home Assembly Music on September 6, 2010.

There’s something especially frustrating about a band that’s gone on an apparently “permanent” hiatus, as opposed to simply breaking up, calling it “quits”, etc. If the band packs it in, there’s at least some measure of closure amidst the overall suckiness of the event—the band members are (theoretically) moving on, which makes it easier for fans to do so (mostly). However, when a band doesn’t ever “officially” disband, there’s always the tantalizing but ultimately frustrating hope that they might, someday, get back together and release some new music.

Such is the case with Virginia’s Labradford. Arguably one of the most important and influential “post-rock” bands, the trio of Mark Nelson, Robert Donne, and Carter Brown haven’t released a new album since 2001’s Fixed::Context but they’re still listed as part of Kranky’s current roster. Their Kranky website bio even concludes with:

Although the members are now dispersed from their Richmond, VA point of origin, Labradford is, in our minds at kranky anyway, an ongoing project.

Their first album, 1993’s Prazision, never did much for me. It wasn’t until their 1996 self-titled album that their sound really clicked with me, and did it ever. The self-titled album is still my favorite, from the opening ghostly sounds of chains being dragged over Co2 canisters to the fragile organ melodies and haunting lyrics of “Pico”, from “Scenic Recovery”‘s glorious, sepia-tinged guitar/violin waltz to the cinematic denouement that is “Battered”.

The follow-up, 1997’s Mi Media Naranja, delved deeply in Morricone-esque soundscapes, and their final album, the aforementioned Fixed::Context, may have only been 37 minutes long, but it still managed to sound vast and endless. After that, however, the mighty Labradford fell silent—which seems ironic considering how the band’s music had grown progressively quieter and more sparse with each album.

The three members have moved on to other projects: Pan-American, Spokane, and Aix Em Klemm. But there’s still a part of me that holds out hope that the trio will reunite for a proper farewell, and delve once more into the haunting, graceful-yet-ominous ambience that they have explored with such skill and effect in years past.