This Music Wins (24/3/2012) on Resonance 104.4 FM. Every Saturday at 6.30pm.
Listen again to the 38th show here…
ALBUMS OF THE YEAR #9 Bon Iver - Bon Iver
So many of Justin Vernon’s critics are stirred by this record’s content into scathing dismissals; but though ‘Bon Iver’ is an entirely different entity to its predecessor, Vernon somehow artfully pins together an instrumental repertoire expanded beyond anything ‘For Emma..’ could have conceived of, to form his most complex and instrumentally dense work to date.. Read the full length album review from 1st June.
Bon Iver - Towers (MP3) Buy from Jagjaguwar
Interview: Erik David Hidde (Housewarming Records)
Erik David Hidde is the man behind Housewarming Records, a worldwide digital label and home of several bands featured on these pages, namely, 17-year old London producer Jamie Isaac, downtempo IDM project IVVVO from Portugal, Austin’s Gladius The Fertile, Berlin’s Freakish Atlantic and a little closer to home, Brighton’s Birkwin Jersey. As this interview goes out, Housewarming is digital, free and and able to be checked out in more detail at the Housewarming Records website.
P: Tell us a little bit about Housewarming Records. What inspired it? Do you run it alone?
E: Housewarming Records is (as of now) a free, digital record label that I started in the beginning of May 2011. I run it alone, and I am very pleased with how it’s going so far. The real reason I started it was because I was always raving to my friends about all this great underground music, and I wanted to do all that I could to help it reach the surface, or at least help them get more listeners. I am friends with a lot of independent music lovers, musicians, and some people who write for blogs, so I would initially show them what I was releasing and go from there. My basic goal is to keep the music as consistent as possible while maintaining a high quality. Right now I have over 15 acts from all over the world, and it is an eclectic mix of artists/bands and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I have made many special relationships with people I have never properly gotten the chance to meet, and I try my hardest to keep in close contact with them. I couldn’t do this by myself without the help and guidance of my Lord and savior Jesus Christ, he gives me all the insight and keep me going strong to do everything that I can to help these musicians succeed . I am very thankful for Housewarming Records, for it has shown me a lot about myself, as well as the kindness and determination of others. Many Housewarming artists inspire me, and in turn, push me to make my own music that much better. I feel very blessed to be working with such great musicians, and people, and I thank them for their trust in me. I am also very grateful for everyone who has supported me, and everything that they’ve done to help my label reach a wider audience.
P: How would you describe the music on your current roster and how do you choose new artists?
E: I would describe the music on the current roster to be eclectic, emotional, and very promising. I choose new artists basically the same way I would choose what music is on my iPod, it’s music that I thoroughly enjoy listening to. I usually come across the musicians when I am searching through loads of music on bandcamp, and then I narrow down the releases that affect me the most and go from there.
P: I love the Housewarming Records selection of art. Do you think there’s as much of a place for beautiful artwork with the decline of physical releases?
E: I am very happy to hear that you feel strongly about the artwork, for I am very grateful that the artists on Housewarming have such good taste in artwork selection. I think that with digital releases artwork goes a long way, just like it does with physical releases, especially when using a site like bandcamp as a platform, because they have a place for artwork on every release that you upload, and it truly has a way of speaking to you, even before you press play.
P: Any plans to showcase Housewarming Records? Plans for the new year?
E: I have been thinking about putting together a Housewarming showcase/show at some point or another, but to be honest I don’t see that happening any time soon. It’s hard to get the artists/bands involved when they are located all over the world, but hopefully the pieces will come together in the future.
I am very excited for the new year, but only God knows what 2012 will bring. I’m just very thankful Housewarming had 22 successful releases in 2011 since May, and there are some amazing new releases coming in the new year, including full length releases by some amazing musicians.
P: What kind of music do you make yourself?
E: I have two solo projects, one is Not a Thing to Believe In in which I have released a full length, two singles, a number of unreleased songs, and I also have a new full length in the works. I would classify the music as lo-fi pop/rock and some of my influences for the project include Sufjan Stevens, The National, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, and The Antlers. My other solo project is Beater Ban in which I have only released one song, but I was very pleased with the initial response and kind reviews I’ve received. I am currently in the process of putting finishing touches on my first proper Beater Ban release, which I am extremely excited about. I would classify this music as electronic beat music, and some of my influences include Four Tet, Nathan Fake, and IVVVO (who is an artist on Housewarming Records). Both projects are very emotionally driven, and rely heavily on the atmosphere of the tracks. I am also involved in other outfits, but I am not the sole member like in these two projects.
P: Favourite records of the 2011?
E: 10. Miracle Fortress “Was I the Wave?”
09. The Antlers “Burst Apart”
08. Grandpa Was a Lion “The Whalestone Tapes”
07. Future Islands “On the Water”
06. Coldplay “Mylo Xyloto”
05. Kurt Vile “Smoke Ring For My Halo”
04. Mogwai “Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will.”
03. Bon Iver “Bon Iver, Bon Iver”
02. Radical Face “Family Tree: The Roots”
01. Apparat “The Devil’s Walk”
Visit the Housewarming Records website, and download two releases by HWR-associated artists below.
New: James Vincent McMorrow - Higher Love (Stevie Winwood Cover)
Evidently there are exceptions to my general aversion to the singer-songwriter tag; James Vincent Mcmorrow is singing proof that there’s life left in the term yet. In a cover strikingly reminiscent in sound and context to Bon Iver’s double drop on live American TV a few months ago, he’s recorded what can only be described as a heart-wrenching piano cover of Stevie Winwood’s classic ‘Higher Love’. The Music Ninja perhaps put it best:
Guaranteed to send shivers down the spine of even the stoniest-hearted anti-romantic, ‘Higher Love’ is a must for all folk-lovers.
James Vincent Mcmorrow - Higher Love (Stevie Winwood Cover) (MP3)
Justin Vernon’s iconic “Bon Iver” project, famed for its aura of tranquil obscurity and desolation as much as its immeasurable emotional scope, was taken in to such an extent by the music listening public not least for its story-line, that of a man recoiling from a break-up and retreating in to the woods to write a lonely and conceptual folk album, but also for its stark 4-track recording style, the ambience of which having been accessed by means of solitude and detachment (in the Wisconsin wilderness) and realised in to music through a universally-acclaimed debut LP, “For Emma, Forever Ago”. Four years on, and the album’s apparently undying reception remains self-sustaining; Vernon however, shows not a sign of complacency. 2008 and onwards has seen his orchestrating further with collectivist folk group Volcano Choir (to whom he has brought considerable media interest), similarly crowded “super-soul” band Gayngs, and even the lending of his collaborative instincts to select recordings from Kanye West’s 2010 album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, amongst numerous other song-writing and production endeavours.
The self-titled follow-up, “Bon Iver”, arrives in one entirely different context, one where from the frenzied, fast-paced, and ultimately urban realms of mainstream success, the weight of expectancy and anticipation are this time present. The last record was recorded in a log cabin, this one in a desolate swimming pool attached to a veterinarian clinic, which Vernon bought and converted in 2008. In terms of sound, that same solitude and emotional recluse shine through the mist, but under a slightly different light than has been shone up to now. The sound, though coloured by the same grey-scale palette, is markedly fuller and more expansive. For an artist who started with very little, Vernon has done a stunning job of working in new instruments in line with his former ideas. Though “Bon Iver” sees electric guitar, synthesisers, increased vocal layering and an array of brass incorporated, nothing about this record sounds, even remotely, contrived.
“Perth” is titled in solidarity with most of the record, after locations, real and imaginary, and emerging from the atmospheric and reverberant flails of overdrive and snare-heavy military percussion, is a vocal more defiant in intention than ever before; “I’m tearing up, across your face // move dust through the light, to find your face”. Following is “Beth/Rest”, an exercise in timeless song-writing in the vein of Vernon’s recent spate of covers, indistinguishable as such if it weren’t for his distinctive and idiosyncratic multi-instrumental touches. Possibly some of the record’s strongest elements however, are that of its abstract structure and conceptual oneness. Lisbon, OH is a 90 second ambient introduction to the fully fledged and gentle arrangement of “Michican’t”, in to which it flows absolutely and seamlessly. ‘Holocene’ is similarly strangled and sentimental, toying with a set of angular harmonics and acoustics in light of something heart-wrenchingly intimated in “For Emma…”, yet ever so slightly re-carved.
It is the dusty stylistic corners of “Bon Iver”, however, which prove the most satisfying; from the formal and ghoulish vibes of the electronic organ, “Calgary” grows fruitfully, into the extension of a steady beat in the mid-section, and a grainy, sparse and gain-heavy ending. The icy and rousing guitar sound with which “Towers” ambles forth further demonstrates this succinct appreciation for tone in Vernon’s latest work, this perfectionism alone preventing the band’s natural progressions from overcrowding the mix. The vocals are impeccable and thick, as expected, and by the sole force of their melancholy clout, are accentuated. What is to be found on Bon Iver’s self-titled sophomore album is nothing to be confused with his last; what we have instead is a sound expanded, a record pursuing something similar, but by a different set of means. Certainly, the brand associated with the moniker is the romantic’s ideal, but sustained in part to a second album, “Bon Iver” is ambiguous in its revelation of entirely different, and ultimately more courageous, traits in its developer.
Bon Iver - Calgary (MP3)
What do you think? Will Bon Iver ever live up to the hype created by “For Emma, Forever Ago”? Share your thoughts on twitter @thismusicwins, or via facebook, in the comment box below. Easy as that.
UPDATE: (June 9th 2011) Bon Iver’s Bon Iver is now streaming in its entirety, below.
