Dntel Releases a New Album, Finally

Headphone-loving romantics, pay attention. After a six-year absence, Jimmy Tamborello’s alter-ego Dntel is back, this time with Dumb Luck, his debut album for Sub Pop.

It’s unfortunate for Tamborello that his success in the Postal Service has all but eclipsed his other efforts. In reality, he has crafted some of the most thoughtful bedroom-pop tracks out there under his James Figurine and Dntel monikers. But while the focus of Figurine has always reflected a techno-pop sensibility, Tamborello’s incredibly occasional work as Dntel is a quieter, more understated affair.

Dumb Luck consists of just under 10 polite four-to-five-minute tracks. The music itself alternates between a more accessible version of the fuzzed-out, chaotic compositions of Fennesz, psychedelics milder than Animal Collective, and something that would fit nicely on Berlin’s number-one laptop rock label Morr. It also consists largely of collaborative work, which is par for the course for Tamborello. Rilo Kiley’s Jenny Lewis, Valerie Trebelijahr and Markus Acher (Lali Puna), and Christopher and Jennifer Gunst (Mystic Chords of Memory) all contribute. The Postal Service will probably always pay the bills for Tamborello, but what he produces on this record seems both more personal and more personable.

Dumb Luck is out April 24, 2007 on Sub Pop.

Cameron Octigan

Photo by Robin Laananen

Tracklisting
1. Dumb Luck
2. To a Fault
3. I’d Like to Know
4. Roll On
5. The Distance
6. Rock My Boat
7. Natural Resources
8. Breakfast in Bed

The XLR8R Office Top Ten Album Picks, Feb 12

Radical FaceGhost Morr
Who would have guessed Morr could put out another legit electro-pop release? Well, us. Radical Face is a one-man operation known to friends as 24-year-old Ben Cooper, a multi-instrumentalist with a love for piano-driven songwriting. Ghost will haunt you in all the right ways.

SkatebardMidnight Magic Digitalo
This is utter disco madness from Norwegian pop explosion Annie’s roommate. Midnight Magic is13 songs of psychedelic, synth-heavy, Italo-warfare. If you want your friends to invite their friends to your party, keep this album on repeat.

The BlowPoor AIM: Love SongsK
On Poor AIM: Love Songs, the Portland duo known as The Blow sheds light on a new type of minimal electro that’s as poppy as it is punk (but in no way pop-punk!). If you’re down with humble, female vocals and simple drum programming, then The Blow will capture your heart.

VariousSC100Secretly Canadian
After 11 years and 100 releases, Secretly Canadian remains on point. SC100 explores some of the label’s past treasures, from sensitive rockers like Jens Lekman, Swearing at Motorists, and Songs: Ohia, and others. Break up with your significant other and play this loud.

AlexDeliveryStar DestroyerJagjaguwar
Like Xiu Xiu, Nick Forté, and Can having a metallic drum circle, Alex Delivery plays some weird jams. In other words, this is unclassifiable business that we love.

Mother MotherTouch UpLast Gang
While Last Gang is infamous for putting out records by MSTRKRFT and Death From Above 1979, Mother Mother stands a world apart from such usual suspects. This chirpy Vancouver five-piece plays mathy pop that showcases the band’s jazz and classical training. Heavy guitar strumming and dual vocals make Touch Up worth checking out.

Maximo ParkOur Earthly PleasuresWarp
The new Maximo Park record has been in the office less than a week and it’s already made the top ten. Our Earthly Pleasures is more of the band’s driving rock that will make the kids dance throughout 2007.

PterodactylS/TBrah
Like a bat out of hell (or a bat from Load Records) comes Brooklyn’s Pterodactyl. The band’s spastic noise-punk is so harsh they could put xbxrx or Lightning Bolt to shame. Earplugs are unfortunately not included with this release.

Foreign IslandsRestart Now! Deaf Dumb + Blind
We love it when disco-punk acts sound nothing like LCD Soundsystem impostors. Foreign Islands is a prime example. This duo melds danceable beats with chopped-up, heavy guitar licks for maximum party power.

VariousFabriclive.32Fabric
Fabric has gone and brought tears of joy to our eyes. Tayo’s dub, dubstep, and hip-hop mix is lethal, with cuts from Skream, Ursula 1000, and Digital Mystikz. This is all bass, all day.

Recent Office Top Ten Album Picks
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Grails Debuts on Temporary Residence

Burning Off Impurities, the fourth full-length from Portland, Oregon’s Grails, sounds a bit like the soundtrack to a grainy film set on desolate country roads where ominous forces lurk. Which is to say the four-piece band from Portland continues its exploration into the dark side of instrumental rock, this time adding chords akin to Tibetan chants and elements of psychedelia. It’s not all gloom and doom though, and the careful listener is rewarded with hints of uplifting ambiance that surface in unexpected places on the tracks.

The band turned heads in 2004 with Black Tar Prophecies, another album of portentous build-ups and reckless chord progressions. Burning, which hits record stores on May 1, 2007, marks the guys’ debut on Brooklyn’s Temporary Residence imprint, also home to the likes of Explosions in the Sky, Eluvium, and Cex.

Tracklisting
1. Soft Temple
2. More Extinction
3. Silk Rd
4. Drawn Curtains
5. Outer Banks
6. Dead Vine Blues
7. Origin-ing
8. Burning Off Impurities

Following the release of the album, the band takes their show on a short tour through selected U.S. cities with World’s End Girlfriend and labelmates MONO.

Tour Dates
05/03 Austin, TX: Emo’s Jr.
05/04 Houston, TX: Mink
05/05 Baton Rouge, LA: Spanish Moon
05/07 Orlando, FL: The Social
05/08 Jacksonville, FL: TSI
05/09 Birmingham, AL: Bottletree
05/10 Atlanta, GA: The Earl
05/11 Mt. Pleasant, SC: The Village Tavern
05/12 Chapel Hill, NC: Local 506
05/13 Charlottesville, VA: Satellite Ballroom
05/14 Baltimore, MD: Ottobar
05/15 Washington, DC: Rock and Roll Hotel
05/16 Philadelphia, PA: First Unitarian Church
05/17 New York, NY: Bowery Ballroom

Video: Paper Rad “Don’t Worry Be Happy”

If you’ve picked up a copy of XLR8R‘s Jan/Feb issue or spent time perusing the latest art news, you’re no doubt familiar with Paper Rad, the DIY art collective that hails from the Northeast and is synonymous with the new rave movement. The trio–which consists of Jacob and Jessica Ciocci, as well as Ben Jones–released Trash Talking this past summer, a DVD packed with familiar cartoon characters traversing psychedelic landscapes and enough flashy colors to send causal viewers into epileptic seizures. The “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” clip from this DVD sees Bobby McFerrin’s famous tune getting a bizarre yet stimulating remix. Head to XLR8R‘s Video Section now to catch this wild ride.

Cyann & Ben Sweet Beliefs

Put a set of headphones on and Sweet Beliefs will hurl you into outer space; not a surprising feat for the Parisian quartet that already has three albums of noodly, starfield post-rock under its belt. With each record, C&B has made changes on the microscopic level, refining their winding washes down to the core. Sweet Beliefs seems to be the distillate, the end result of all this toiling. And while it’s tempting to fault the band for seeing their sound through to its logical end, or neglecting to push things anywhere else, there’s just too much heartbreaking beauty (“In Union With”), too much spookiness (“Words), and way too many sonic treats at work to damn it. Can a band get too good at being itself? In the case of C&B, the answer is a resounding no.

David Karsten Daniels Sharp Teeth

There’s a tremendous amount of grief at the core of David Karsten Daniels’ debut Fat Cat release, Sharp Teeth: a Bible belt despondency and Southern gothic guilt that fellow beard-bard Will Oldham has made a career of underscoring. So Sharp Teeth is heavy stuff, both lyrically and musically. But the record’s charm lies in each song’s (not-so-hidden) silver lining. Whether it’s a boney acoustic number (“Jesus and the Devil”), a lush and crowded boiler (“Minnows”), or a permutation of both (the rest of the record), Sharp Teeth never sags under its own weight, balancing light and dark masterfully.

Denzel & Huhn Paraport

Denzel & Huhn can whir and glitch like it’s 1999. That may sound glib, but there’s no denying this Berlin duo’s fondness for thickly layering the textural grit and digital effluvia that marked Mille Plateaux’s infatuation with sonic errata. Championed by To Rococo Rot, Bertram Denzel and Erik Huhn often mirror that band’s mesmerizing pulsations, understated menace, and winsome melodiousness. D&H serves up eerie, sub-aquatic dub as viscous and prickly as Pole’s and artfully smears crackling tones like Farben and Fennesz. This IDM is a cut (and a click) above.

David Daniell Coastal

Drone music is difficult to make-and keep-captivating. But it’s something that Coastal achieves in its best moments, notably the delicate eight minutes that open “Palmetto,” where a shimmering mid-tone and a low, oscillating pulse play tag with silence. But Daniell-who plays with Tim Barnes, Thurston Moore, and many other “out” music greats-really shines when he pulls out the acoustic guitar. On “Sunfish,” he riffs and loops into thick psychedelia, then leaps into soulful, bent notes, while on “Glasswort,” a little blues guitar turns dark dirges and rustling into a song you can follow.

Detalles Micros Mornings

Seattle-based Kupei Musika’s first full-length release, Micros Mornings by Detalles (classically trained Chicago composer Kate Simko and Chilean techno master Andres Bucci), is an auspicious beginning. The 11 tracks here ooze class and intelligent restraint; Simko and Bucci are minimalists who pack every facet of their music with the highest quality ingredients. This is microhouse with exquisite percussion and keyboard timbres, mellifluous melodies, expert arrangements, and soft-cushioned yet insistent beats. One can imagine Michael Mayer mulling over which tracks to include on his next Immer mix. (May I suggest “Distance” or “Hello Donee?”) Yes, Micros Mornings is that sublime.

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