Review Thursday: Dirty Projectors/Bjork, Gravemaker and La Dispute!

July 8 2010 // Magazine // Music Reviews

The Dirty Projectors/Bjork
Mount Wittenberg Orca
Self-released

I'm not mad... I'm just disappointed. With awesome and venerable expirmenters such as Bjork and the Dirty Projectors I honestly expected for Mount Wittenberg Orca to do something for me. Instead I listened to it and felt cold. This is almost entirely an a cappella album, so any instruments are secondary considerations at best, however, I don't feel that that is a proper excuse for how boring these parts are. The vocal portions of this album aren't much more interesting either. All in all the sound of the album is a lot of a-tonal hooting over mediocre and minimal instruments. The lyrics are all about whales, so that bit is good. Mount Wittenberg Orca has been gaining a lot of critical praises, but honestly it feels like an indulgent and lazy pet project. The product of auteurs who have forgotten to push themselves to do something new, it only serves to reinforce the fallibility of even good artists.

(Gareth Sloan)


La Dispute
Somewhere at the Bottom of the River Between Vega and Altair
No Sleep

Occasionally we can get caught off guard by an album. We have become so accustomed to the status-quo of music that when we hear something that pushes the boundaries of contemporary sound we stop listening; I suggest cranking the volume. Punk and hardcore get stuck in a rut at times, band after band releases albums by numbers, a punk rock formula if you will. La Dispute have burned the formula and started from scratch. Take equal parts Jazz; Hardcore; Punk Rock; Spoken word, add a pinch of calculus and you might get an idea of what La Dispute are attempting. The fusion of all of these aspects are overwhelming to think about, yet Somewhere at the Bottom of the River Between Vega and Altair accomplishes it while leaving you with a question mark floating above your head. The band must realise this, and have offered to stream all of their albums via their website (with 7” available for free download). In any case, you have nothing to lose and a lot to gain.  

(Mat "Runt" Barrot)

Gravemaker
Ghosts Among Men
Smallman/Victory Records

Vancouver’s Gravemaker have deftly filled the three major criteria for hardcore album; (1) short, (2) fast and (3) bloody loud! Ghosts Among Men tears through 12 tracks in a blistering 27 minutes of hostile intensity. Previously released through Smallman Records in Canada, Gravemaker have made enough ripples in the lake to have hardcore giants Victory records take notice and sign the band. Though the album can be compared to many hardcore albums released in the recent past, Gravemaker have a uniqueness in their delivery and dirty riffs, occasionally pulling sounds akin to eighties thrash punk like DRI and sharing vocal duties enough to keep it sounding fresh. The true beauty of Canadian hardcore is that is does not succumb to the traditional east coast/west coast vibe that has consumed the genre, instead it creates its own sound with a mix of everything that fits, plus a bag of chips. 

(Mat "Runt" Barrot)