Yeasayer + Clock Opera
So... It'd be quite the understatement to say we're rather excited about this one. While hip bands in Brooklyn tried to be the next Strokes, Yeasayer set about being as untrendy as possible. The plan has backfired: now they are the hottest gig going. According to aggregator website the Hype Machine, they are now officially world's most blogged-about band.
/// YEASAYER
Yeasayer aren't just an experimental rock band based in Brooklyn, New York. They're crossover behemoths, hook laden "middle eastern-psych-snap-gospel" purveyors.
The band was formed in 2006 and consists of three core members, Chris Keating, Ira Wolf Tuton, and Anand Wilder. They first came to attention after appearing at the SXSW festival in early 2007. Their debut album All Hour Cymbals was released in October 2007. To mass critical acclaim.
International tour dates and festival appearances followed, during which the band honed its blend of live instrumentation and prerecorded samples. When it came time to record a second album, Yeasayer traveled to Woodstock, NY, and rented out the country home of percussionist Jerry Marotta. The resulting record, Odd Blood, appeared in early 2010 and showcases a different side of the band, with synthetic sounds and dance-inspired production playing a much larger role.
Massive singles 'Ambling Alp' and 'O.N.E' have seen the band propelled into the conscious of music lovers around the world. This will be the last time you'll be able to see this band in this small a venue. That's right, it's going to be arenas from here on out.
Their new album is ODDBLOOD.
“otherworldly pop music to make the head spin’ Q
“Wilfully odd, beautifully hypnotic and with a wonderful lightness of touch” Mojo
“undulating pop masterpiece… thrillingly inventive, brilliantly ambitious, a monumental return” The Fly
“Our latest musical obsession, Packed full of indie-pop gems” Grazia
“[ODD BLOOD has] already set and ingenious marker for 2010” Loud & Quiet
Since the release of their critically acclaimed 2007 debut All Hour Cymbals (We Are Free), Yeasayer has been around the world and back again. While their first record was conceived in total artistic isolation, constant touring forced Yeasayer to engage with their contemporaries, making them strive to set themselves apart as the most exciting and forward thinking pop group working today. Never content to maintain the status quo, Yeasayer aims to exists ahead of the music curve, inspired equally by musicians hell-bent on sonic experimentation as well as their peers more comfortable in a pop context. With this ethos in mind Yeasayer emerged from the studio with their new full length aptly titled ODD BLOOD.
If All Hour Cymbals was Yeasayer’s attempt at global and ambient cultural mash-up then their new record ODD BLOOD takes place on an off-world colony sometime after the singularity. Glimmering reverb haze is eschewed and replaced by a cavalcade of disorienting pitch effects and flickering ectoplasmic wisps. Instead of layered vocal harmonies the penitent processed vocals congeal into blots and blobs of otherworldly chatter. Many organic elements are left behind and replaced by truly unique sounds and rhythms that inspire the body as much as the mind. At times Yeasayer sound as if they would be at home playing live in scene from Blade Runner or inside one of Oscar Neimeyer’s concrete modernist temples from the 1960s.
ODD BLOOD is an album divided into two halves. The album's opener “The Children” is a bold departure from their previous work, laying to rest any prior appraisals of the band beneath a pile of debris, as the sounds of prison labor support a damaged chorus of formant-shifted vocals. These musicians have a new set of studio tools at their disposal, and aren't content to rest on their laurels, constantly experimenting with novel ways of using instruments and effects units. The rhythmic onslaught continues as towering pop songs like “Ambling Alp” and “Madder Red” butt up against each other, struggling for dominance, each song having its own distinct emotional identity, and all maintaining a uniquely Yeasayer approach to the anthemic sing-a-long.
The latter half of ODD BLOOD is more experimental and playful in nature. It finds the band exploring more paranoid motifs, but never deprives the listener of persistent hooks and ear candy. Their songwriting runs the gamut of saccharine dance-pop, confessional dirges, character based story songs, and love ballads. Lyrically, this is a more mature and honest album than the first, as the band demonstrates a confidence to explore more personal themes amidst vividly depicted tales. This plays out at a blistering pace; clocking in at under forty minutes, ODD BLOOD embraces brevity without sacrificing depth or content.
One thing remains constant: Yeasayer are accomplished audiologists who are willing to pilfer decades of pop sensibilities to find pieces of cultural history to include in their songs. The band sprays out a very cosmopolitan, very New York psychedelic, dubbed out, electro-pop vibe without ever seeming derivative or contrived.
“a band whose breadth of sound and vision has the potential to be here with us for quite some time” Spinner Music
“ODD BLOOD comparts styles and sounds of the world into an easy duty-free package, and, in doing so, absolutely throbs with vigour.” Guardian
“the spirit of sonic adventure is real and invigorating” The Independent on Sunday
“one of the most innovative releases of the year so far….” Sunday Times
/// Clock Opera
They’re almost as eccentric as Jackson-as-Jacko. Not that they sleep in hermetically sealed tents and hang around with hominoids, just that their approach to music-making is rather unusual. And they do remind us of how much we wished Michael had chosen Aphex Twin or Squarepusher to be his production accomplices towards the end of his life instead of Will.I.Am. We say “they”, but Clock Opera is really a he: Guy Connelly, who used to be in bands called The Corrections and The Fall Out Trust and now cuts and dices found sounds and instrumental segments with psychotic finesse.