6 Music Reviews

Candy Bars, On Cutting Ti-Gers in Half and Understanding Narravation (New Granada)

I'm not sure which is more likely to draw cries of "pretentious!": the title of this Candy Bars album, or the band's description in the liner notes of their intention to "show how our sing-song was sung" through that title. The music, though, is mostly quite alluring and graceful. Lead vocalist/guitarist Daniel Martinez sings often surreal descriptions and half-stories in a perpetually anguished, warped whispery tone, while cello steers the way through a forest of song: thick, pretty, and probably haunted. It certainly feels haunted, the way the music resembles a horror-film experiment born of breeding a lovely classical minuet and a drugged-out bohemian psych-folk group. The detailed and casually perceptive lyrics are fanciful, yet also cling tightly to real-life fears and hopes. When Martinez starts a song with "Oh my god I'm awake and blinking all the time," it's scary. When a few lines later he's complaining "oh my God it's somebody's birthday again," it seems humorous and mundane. Candy Bars is constantly walking the line between real life and a fantasy one, between deep anxiety and indulgent dreams. And in that straddling they're constantly uncovering unique ideas, both lyrical - riddles like "holding on to someone's arms is going to be the fall of the twenty-first century" - and musical, like the truly crazy, but gentle, maelstrom that is this weird hybrid of styles that they've dreamed up. - dave heaton

Diktendo, Sweet & Tender As We Are EP (Melodrama)

Sweet and tender, this EP is. It opens with Magnus Wahlström (also of Citylights) singing introspective lyrics gently over guitars: "this is an open letter / the search for something better." It sounds like a long-lost Sarah Records relic, and is incredibly comforting for it. The music is built of melodic guitars, and occasionally synths, and they often join together as a cloud, giving the songs the demeanor of a dream. Diktendo maintains this sleepwalking vibe but also keeps the songs catchy, vibrant, full of forward motion. This is true all the way to the end, as the instruments take over and glide away with a soft sort of urgency. - dave heaton

John Ellis, By a Thread (Hyena)

By a Thread is a truly pleasant jazz album, of a quintent led by John Ellis on saxophones, bass clarinet, and ocarinas (a kind of flute), playing compositions by Ellis himself. Now by "pleasant" I don't mean dull, but comforting, enjoyable...and definitely not earthshaking-ly original. Ellis plays with a smooth kind of energy and grace, and the rest of his quintet is just as skilled. Aaron Goldberg often stands out on piano and other piano-like instruments, but Reuben Rogers' bass is the important foundation for many of the tracks, Mike Moreno's guitar often sparkles (again in a rather smooth way), and Terreon Gully is certainly no slouch on drums, as he both keeps a careful pace well and lightly funks it up nicely from time to time. Some of the compositions themselves are more compelling than others - while a number like "Wishing Well" has a sense of space to it that allows the players to build a truly compelling mood, a track like "Little Giggles" is a sunny day wisp that serves more as an empty vessel for decent enough solos than anything more substantial. Substantial, though, isn't a word I'd use to describe very much of this album. Light, sometimes gently surprising, but not particularly substantial. - dave heaton

Manta Ray, Torres de Electricidad (Acuarela)

"Hey, hey, hey, hey please don't push me," Manta Ray intone like a chant at the start of their latest album Torres de Electricidad. And then, "beware of me." The darkly tinged mood and seriousness of the vocals might drive that warning home, but the music - a more driven sort of lullaby - invigorates, feeling welcoming instead of scary. As much is not true when Manta Ray really gets going though, when they build into this domineering stormcloud of dark energy. Torres de Electricidad on the whole feels even more driven, more electric than their previous albums. When horns come in on "No Tropieces", they serve as one more dose of fuel to the fire, already blazing strong from the thick walls of guitar. Sometimes this electricity translates into a larger-than-life sort of art-rock theatricality that's a bit bombastic for my tastes, but just as often Manta Ray's music seem ruled by a strident kind of creativity - an "anything goes" avant garde spirit that's also been reined in tightly enough to make them musically resemble a fierce animal more than a free spirit. - dave heaton

New Grenada, Modern Problems (Contraphonic}

It's an over-simplification, but sometimes it seems to me that Detroit's one of the places in the US where bands are still making straight-ahead, down-and-dirty rock sound like it's something fresh and new. New Grenada's third album Modern Problems takes a rough, guitar-heavy, but still melodic approach to the problems of the modern world, in songs that take a casual snapshot of people and their issues....and we've all got issues. John Nelson sings lyrics that sound like observations of people he sees on the street every day, like the girl who's "trying to find her niche" or the one with ADD who writes to TV stars. Nicole Allie sings lead on a couple especially punchy/spunky numbers, like the great "Parting Shots." Mostly, New Grenada offers transcendence in the form of loud guitars and unleashed rock music that has a keen pop sense underneath; think of Superchunk and their legions of followers, but with an extra punk-blues sort of grit. - dave heaton

The 1900s, Plume Delivery (Parasol)

As a '60s-inspired, freedom-touting, seven-member pop-rock collective, the Chicago-based group The 1900s definitely earn the comparisons that they'll likely receive to The Ladybug Transistor, Essex Green, Of Montreal, etc. But they've also got their own keen sense for melody, one that makes the majority of the songs on their Plume Delivery EP quite enjoyable, making the comparisons to other groups not unwarranted but somewhat beside the point. "Bring the Good Boys Home" kicks off the CD with a fierce sort of infectious bounce, keyboards driving the melody home while guitars occasionally crash through with force. Even better are "A Coming Age," where the group's three vocalists share the spotlight over a lovely pop stroll that breaks off into a dream at the end, and the soft lullaby "Whole of the Law." There's some other moments, especially "Patron Saint of the Mediocre," where the 1900s seem a bit lost in the muddle, but at its sharpest and most refined, Plume Delivery is quite a joy. - dave heaton