By Jesse Cataldo
Mastodon – Blood Mountain – Reprise Records
The extremes of most genres of music often veer into self-parody, but metal, viewing itself as the most extreme of the extreme, easily tops them all. It pushes beyond tongue-in-cheek to some absurd bastion of hyper-masculinity where swords clang in a mix of fur and leather and bearded warriors slay fell beasts with axe-heads mounted on soloing guitars. Or in the case of Mastodon, a three-headed wolf-buck-hybrid rises from the earth to block out a rising sun.
This is not to say that Mastodon compares with the most cartoonish of metal’s excess, but their take on high art (2005’s Leviathan was a musical retelling of Moby Dick) contains enough throaty growls and fantasy tropes to insure them an honorary position. It’s the complexity of their music that sets them apart; the band shares as much with a jazz trio as they do Manowar. But technically proficient as it may be, Blood Mountain fails in the main objective of crushing everything in its path, something 2003’s Remission was able to pull off masterfully. Attached too faithfully to its themes of earth, forest and the thrill of the hunt, Blood Mountain ends up sounding strained and weak ??1/2
Grizzly Bear – Yellow House -Warp Records
While Mastodon’s vision of the forest is one of thundering hooves and evil sentient trees Yellow House, Grizzly Bear’s second album is instead smokily redolent of simmering campfires and drafty log cabins. Delicate, even fragile sounding, songs like “Easier” and “Lullabye” drift by like a gentle wind through a pile of fallen leaves.
As a whole, Yellow House is akin to a scaled back, poppier Animal Collective. The closest comparison seems to be Akron/Family, with the ghostly whispers and fond sound replaced with an even more organic, earthy sense of tone. Breezy and light while still substantial, Yellow House sounds like it could have been recorded outside; you can almost feel the shady ache of tree-filtered sun sinking through the speakers. ????1/2
Masta Killa – Made in Brooklyn – Natural Sounds
They may have released one of the most undeniably classic rap albums of all time, but the Wu-Tang Clan will always be best known as a factory for solo careers. They’ve been prolific in this aspect, with all nine original members reaching some level of commercial or critical success. Of these, Masta Killa has been one of the quietest, second only to Inspectah Deck in terms of anonymity.
Made in Brooklyn, his second album, suffers from that same lack of identity. While the lyrics and production are admirable and all the standard Wu-Tang flourishes (Kung-Fu samples, blaring funk horns, numerous in-house guest appearances) are here, Masta Killa inevitably lacks the personality of a Ghostface or a Method Man required to bring it all together.
In this way, Made in Brooklyn comes across as a competent, if unspectacular, effort. ???
Midlake – The Trials of Van Occupanther – Bella Union
Simple and understated, The Trials of Van Occupanther is the kind of album that sneaks up on you. There’s nothing inherently special about the album, the band’s second, even ‘Midlake’ suggests the middling mediocrity of a thousand indie bands whose names you can never remember. The music at first seems no better, warm and vibrant, but inevitably the kind of sound that’s relegated to the background. Lead singer – Tim Smith’s voice has a similar quality, repeatedly taking on the tone of something you recognize but just can’t place. It’s only after repeated listens that Van Occupanther finally blooms, its subtle charms finally come into focus; it’s the rare case of a work being better than the sum of its parts. ????
