Scion, "Arrange and Process Basic Channel Tracks"

If we assume that all mixed albums are required to represent what is hot at a particular time (a contentious assumption to be sure, but I think there's something to it), then it should be very rare for a mix to keep getting better with age. In this case, the increase in minimal techno's popularity over the past few years might be responsible for this album feeling more timeless than it does right now (i.e. the style wasn't hot at *its* particular time, but it is hot at *this* particular time). Because in 2006, "Arrange and Process Basic Channel Tracks" is sounding like the greatest mixed CD ever.

You wanna talk about timeless? This mix was released nearly a decade after the original recordings and instantly became the antidote for people who were bored shitless of Basic Channel and couldn't be bothered to sit through all 12 minutes of "Octagon" one more time. Its style fits midway between a couple of extremes. The first are the microassembled mixes by the likes of Ritchie Hawtin and Algorithm, who used familar source material to create something that sounds extremely unfamiliar. The second are the tastemaker comps, exemplified by Michael Mayer whose approach to mixing entails playing individual records from start to finish, with clean but straightforward mixing between tracks. Scion's mix feels like a greatest hits comp (everything on it sounds instantly familiarity) but in fact it takes old tracks and twists bunches of them together into new shapes. Hawtin's work contains hundreds of cleverly hidden details, but the simplicity of the Scion mix is awe-inspiring -- technically speaking, you could perform most of this by yourself using three decks and a mixer. Their new creations are continuously morphing, but the overall piece isn't cluttered (or busy) in the least. There's always just the right amount of "something" going on.

American Idol Gala Extravaganza!

Ten seconds into his audition, I knew I wanted to see Taylor Hicks in the top twenty four, and figured he was just enough of a unique fringe talent to end up there after the Hollywood cuts. Even as recently as the top six, I didn't expect him to win once "goofy older brother" syndrome caught up with him and the voting public realized that he was a bit too eccentric. But in the end he pulled it out easily (note the lack of on-air talk about the voting results -- when the vote is close, AI always plays it up) as Katharine was back to wearing the "I know I'm fucked" expression all over her face as the results were read. Unlike the week when Chris was eliminated (the five seconds that followed that announcement, complete with Kat and Chris' priceless expressions, will stand out as the most oft-remembered moment of the season) she was entirely at peace with her all-but-certain fate this time around. And why not? Every actor on TV would have killed for the audience that had tuned in to watch her sing, making the finale had earned her a debut single no matter what the result, she'd starved herself for months to slim down to her season-ending scrumptious self and become probably the most gorgeous person on TV in the process.

Wednesday's finale drew 36 million viewers in the US, with a peak of around 45 million. In Canada, those numbers were 5.2 million and 8 million, respectively. That means roughly 1-in-6 Canadians watched the show compared to 1-in-8 Americans. Does the Idols summer tour come to Canada? Er, maybe it should?

Best of all, they ditched the usual format for the finale (which included an hour of waiting around backstage for the real show to start) and made it a full-fledged musical gala. The quality of the performances and guest artists rivaled the Grammys or the MTV Music Awards, and everyone was having so much fun onstage that it was easy to forget that we were supposed to be nervously waiting to find out who the winner was. Ignoring the silly but entertaining mock award segments and other miscellaneous taped/review bits*, here's a look at the performances:

*OK, I have to mention the Puck & Pickler segments, which were adorable and if FOX TV executives have any brains then they're hurriedly planning a role-reversed version of "The Simple Life" for the fall season.

1. Carrie Underwood returns again this season to capitalize on her country music awards momentum lead Taylor and Kat through Barry Manilow's "I Made It Through the Rain" (one apropos track among a spate of them during the final week) with the rest of the top twelve backing them up. Everyone is wearing white outfits and by the end of it I could swear that I'm watching, I don't know, "West Side Story".

2. Paris Bennett and Al Jarreau sing "We're In This Love Together", and Paris' huge voice utterly dominates Jarreau's in his very own song. As great as this was, by the time the night is over I'll have forgotten about this completely, which is a puzzling aspect of Paris' consistently fine performances, at least for me.

3. Chris gets to fulfill his dream by singing "Your Mystery" with Live, keeping in line with his usual habit of performing songs that nobody cares about when he could have sung "Lightning Crashes" instead. He easily outsings Ed Kowalcyk, which convinces me that as a "pure rocker", he probably does surpass Bo Bice. Bo is a versatile talent who can sing rock, blues, and soul in a multitude of styles. Chris can only sing "pure" mid-90's angst rock. Yes, he still sucks.

4. Has it really been fourteen years since "Bat Out of Hell II"? Time for Part III already? Realizing this has to be one of my top five all-time "damn, I'm getting old" moments. This oddly atonal arrangement of "It's All Coming Back To Me Now" is validated by Meat's typically manic intensity and Kat's spectacularly cleavage-enhanced dress, the latter of which will be making pleasant appearances in my dreams for the next few years. In all seriousness, if all else fails (and even if it doesn't!) then she needs to tour with Meatloaf as the hoochie sidekick who duets with him on songs like "Paradise By the Dashboard Light".

5. During the guys' group medley, Taylor busts out his harmonica for the first time since the final Hollywood cuts. Last year's Idols were talented individually but never seemed to gel when singing together. This year's group doesn't have that problem. Bucky sounds about a million times better than he did at the start of the season.

6. Elliott and Mary J. Blige try to recreate her "One" moment with Bono from the Grammys. Elliott doesn't have a "big" voice, so once MJB gets going he smartly doesn't try to compete with her. In fact, he was mostly a spectator once she stepped on stage, standing off to the side and looking thrilled to be sharing a stage with MJB.

7. If Pickler could sing like Carrie, she'd have been in the finale with Taylor. If Carrie had Pickler's personality she'd be the greatest Idol winner ever. Although if Kat was half the singer she wants to be (= Mariah Carey) then she'd wipe the floor with them both. Hey, it's only been three paragraphs since I've mentioned how hot Kat is.

8. The evening's biggest trainwreck is Taylor and Toni Braxton struggling through "In the Ghetto". It wasn't Taylor's fault though -- Braxton sounds horrible, possibly because the song is in the wrong key for her. And call me a prude if you must, but rubbing oneself against Taylor's leg when singing a song about poverty feels a tiny bit inappropriate.

9. The female Idols parade through about 194 songs with the word "woman" in the title. OK, I get it, they're all women. Say it loud, they're women and they're proud. Nobody remembers Melissa McGhee anymore. I feel bad for her when she sings and nobody cheers for her. The whole medley felt like a diva display for Kat, unlike the guys medley where Taylor just blended in.

10. Michael Sandecki, AKA Clay Aiken's #1 fan from the auditions, is invited onstage to sing and can you see the Clay Aiken surprise appearance coming from ten miles away? Apparently Sandecki didn't (in post-show interviews, Seacrest states that he had to hold him to keep him from falling down, contrary to my suspicion that the entire segment was elaborately staged). I like Clay's new look, with his hair grown out and dyed brown, so sue me. At this time, let us recall that Simon Cowell, whose image of a pop star has been enforced by his work with Il Divo and Westlife, passed on both Clay and Taylor. He started by feeding them his "it's not just about the voice" criticism (i.e. "you're too ugly to be a star"), and berated their singing styles the whole season. With Clay it was "I feel like I should be hearing you on Broadway, not on the radio" and with Taylor he regularly interprets anything with soul as a drunk wedding performance (fine, Taylor's dancing doesn't help).

11. The entire top twelve performs a masterful ten-minute medley of Burt Bacharach songs, accompanied by Burt himself on piano. Gorgeous. Timeless. Who thought it would be a good idea to have Chris sing lines from "Arthur's Theme"? Chris sounds like shit when he's forced to do anything other than mid-90's angst rock : Exhibit ZZ. Dionne Warwick's walk-on is predictable but necessary, as is the closing "That's What Friends Are For" with the entire troupe. I've always hated this song, but in pro wrestling, this would be called "great booking".

12. The Brokenote Cowboys are surprisingly decent and not at all embarrassing. There's magic in the air tonight, folks.

13. Shocking doesn't begin to describe the appearance by Prince. He's a notoriously reclusive character who avoids awards shows like Ruben Studdard avoids exercise ... and he turns up on American Idol? Remember how big a deal it was when he performed on the Grammys with Beyonce in 2004? For whatever reason (Prince's ego?) this is a solo gig, which makes me wonder why he's here other than for self-promotion on one of the most watched shows of the TV season. Yes, Taylor and Katharine would both show him up height-wise, but that doesn't mean he couldn't have done a duet of "Kiss" with Paris.

14. Taylor's voice is completely unsuited for something as bland as "I've Had the Time of My Life". I'm overcome with new admiration for Bill Medley for somehow making this song work. It's a perfect song for Kat though.

15. The results are in, David Hasselhoff is crying (!!?!?!?!?!!!!), and I've now decided that Taylor's single, "Do I Make You Proud" is kinda awesome after all ...

SunnO))), Oren Ambarchi @ The Music Gallery

As Oren Ambarchi's adds layer after layer to his gentle bass tones, building them into a cavernous noise and then back to near silence again, he addresses a serious concern of mine: the volume in the Music Gallery. I've never been pleased with the sound system in this converted church, but the piles of amps on stage that augment the comparatively wimpy speakers in the venue help to put my fears to rest.

Between sets, smoke begins to fill the room to a orchestral soundtrack of suitably impending doom, almost like Wagner mixed with the theme to "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". By the time SunnO))) (plus Ambarchi) begin playing, the entire church is filled with an opaque haze. The light from the lamposts on the street are shining through the windows, cutting through the smoky air like sharp white daggers. The entire front half of the building could have collapsed into a smouldering husk for all my eyes can see, and a red glow softly illuminates the area around the stage. Thunderously loud guitar drones are a lot scarier when you can't see the people standing six feet away from you, let alone where that terrorizing sound is coming from. I've heard that this is music you feel in your chest cavity, but the hardwood floor at the Music Gallery ensures that I mostly feel this gig in my feet.

Adjectives like "good" or "bad" aren't really descriptive of one's opinion of SunnO))) live. Their gigs are not something you enjoy inasmuch as they are to be endured. Everyone is forced to stand and take in the shared ordeal. The darkness, save for the soft red and/or blue illumination through the thick smoke, recalls the scenes from "Superman II" when Superman is able to remove his (and later the villians') superpowers. We're all standing in a funnel of sound while some kind of intangible energy is slowly sapped from our bodies.

Gradually, I inch closer and can soon make out the shadowy, black caped figures in the band. Emerging from the onstage mist, a clenched first slowly pumps along to the beatless music. Perfect.

Bardo Pond, "Ticket Crystals"

It's time to add Bardo Pond to the list of bands that made an unexpectedly great album in 2006.

Yes, Bardo Pond, the same band that made my third favourite album of 2003 plus a couple dozen hours of East Coast hippie delights that currently clog my music collection. Despite all this, great bands don't always make great records. This particular band is great despite their patchiness, often succeeding through sheer force of volume (e.g. there's a very good album lying within a carefully edited set of "Dilate"'s 70-plus bloated minutes) or by sheer force of mood (e.g. the Tom Carter/Bardo collab is fairly boring, but is a useful listen if you're just chilling out with several hours to kill listening to music).

Until the release of "On the Ellipse", there weren't any truly outstanding Bardo Pond albums. They all had their fierce moments and their filler. "Lapsed" came closest -- their sound has never sounded so mammoth to this day -- but "Tommy Gun Angel" and "Flux" obliterate everything else on the album. Even if the overall level of quality is higher than their earlier albums, it's hard to think of an album as being great overall when it's highlights stick out that far above the mean. And with running times around 50 minutes, "Lapsed" and "On the Ellipse" are short records by a band that tends to indulge itself a bit too often. So when I heard that the new album was going to be 75 minutes, I wasn't expecting a second straight classic.

"Ticket Crystals" is a much looser album than "On the Ellipse", as Bardo Pond continue to come up with new ways to jam. The opener, "Destroying Angel", is the type of nine-minute guitar-revving monster that they can probably hammer out in their sleep by now. It's the type of track that made their last album so outstanding. "FC II" is a prog-dub marathon session that is usually reserved for their "Volume" collections of semi-improvised tracks, but very few of the tracks featured there are this good. "Father Jod" closes the record with a dizzy swirl of wailing, screeching guitars. Some people complain about the lazy, imprecise drumming on some Bardo Pond records, but intentionally or not, it feels as though the drummers arms are stuck in vats of oil here, making the beat lurch around like a drunken sailor (but in a good way -- think about PJ Harvey's "Goodnight" (even though there aren't any drums on it)).

They've never relied so much on acoustic and semi-acoustic elements on their albums, which suggests that their admiration for Charalambides (particularly this year's "A Vintage Burden") extends beyond asking Christina Carter to contribute guest vocals on "Ticket Crystals". I'm not quite sure where she sings on this record -- Bardo's traditional love of double-tracking Isobel's vocals makes it a bit difficult to tell -- but a good place to start is "Moonshine". Its wistful, starry-eyed psych-folk eventually explodes into a maelstrom of noise and back again. The gorgeous, sighing vocals might be the most hummable lines that Bardo Pond have ever done. In a similar vein, their semi-acoustic cover of the Beatles' "Cry Baby Cry" is another example of how they've collided singalong melodies with noisy improv, two elements of Bardo Pond's music that they usually keep separate.

They'll bust your ears apart -- but a bit more intimately this time. Bardo Pond have hit another home run with "Ticket Crystals", and I probably shouldn't doubt them the next time around.

American Idol Finale Anticipation!

I got what I wanted -- the Taylor/Kat finale -- but I found myself rooting for Elliott rather vociferously in the last few weeks. He was the perpetual dorky underdog who stepped up his game when it counted the most and became the easy sentimental favourite. It was like watching a low-seeded team go on a roll and come dangerously close to reaching the championship game. Eventually you start to forget about the finale you wanted to see all along and root for the megagigantic upset instead.

Taylor was outstanding this week, confirming that the competition is his to lose. Even though "Dancing In the Dark" is a song that needs time to build (no time for that when all songs are in the 1.5 - 2.0 minute range) but what we heard was inspiring. All that despite the fact that Paula's Courtney Cox moment seemed lost on the audience. "Try A Little Tenderness" allowed him to yell and scream to his heart's content. Oddly enough, "You Are So Beautiful", AKA the song that everyone had been waiting the entire season for him to inevitably sing, was the least remarkable (in my eyes), probably because he got a bit *too* involved in apeing Joe Cockers mannerisms and facial expressions.

Katharine's "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" was very good, but didn't deserve anything close to that sell job from the judges. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Elliot's "I Believe To My Soul" was vastly underrated. His other songs were underrated to a lesser extent (although his voice isn't big enough for something like "Open Arms" -- a poor choice by Clive Davis) but the cynic in me interprets that as the producers trying to influence the voting public and engineer the finale they want by feeding instructions to the judges. The best example of this was in Bizarro Season (#3), in which the judges engaged in a verbal blitzkrieg during final three week to prevent horrifically undertalented cutie Jasmine Trias from making the finals (and practically anointed Fantasia Barrino as the winner).

Things got even more memorable the next night when the clips from the homecomings were aired. Katharine didn't get a parade thrown in her honour, ostensibly because permits are so difficult to obtain in the LA area. The true reason was likely a combination of urban sprawl and the "small fish in a big pond" principle. Attending a parade, even in a centralized part of the city, would be a transportation nightmare -- I still don't have a clue how the immigration protest were so big (where did all those people park?). There are also a million and a half things happening in LA on a given day. In Hoover, Alabama, a Taylor Hicks homecoming likely saturates the local news and becomes the biggest thing happening in the area that week. It's not that simple in LA, which is why Katharine's schedule involved her travelling to see other people rather than people going out of their way to see her. Twelve thousand people packing a shopping mall to get a glimpse of Taylor Hicks was an extraordinary sight, but even that didn't compare to the screaming hordes that packed the streets for Elliott, who showed more vigour and enthusiasm during that four minute segment than in the entire season combined. He came off looking like the most popular and likeable superstar in America, and the vote ended up being so close that I firmly believe that he'd be in the finale right now had the footage somehow been shown before this week's voting began. Very few of us can even imagine what it was like to live through that kind of attention -- I was practically tearing up just watching it.

Derrick May, "Innovator"

I used to accost people in person or in writing if they hadn't heard this album. I told them until they heard "Innovator", they shouldn't use the word "techno" in a sentence. In recent years I've softened my stance, but not because it's any less essential. It's still the blueprint, the Rosetta Stone for Detroit techno, and still sounds remarkably fresh and other-worldly considering that most of it is nearly twenty years old. The problem is this: I never feel like listening to it anymore.

I usually ignored its many problems (some worthwhile discussion) -- first and foremost its many edits, ranging from the confusing to the inexplicable -- and stressed the album's importance. Eventually I realized that I admired "Innovator" more than I loved it. It's one of those classic albums that remains a classic because everybody proclaims it to be so. It's famous for being famous. A bit like Paris Hilton. No, ew, I didn't mean that.

It's better to think of it like the first Velvet Underground album. Any thinking fan (casual or otherwise) will recommend it as the starting point, even if they prefer one of the their other albums (a lot of people do, including me). Or Led Zeppelin IV -- sure, you have to own it because it's got "When the Levee Breaks", but it also has "Four Sticks", which was practically invisible until Page and Plant reunited and started playing it for some puzzling reason. I obviously recognize and appreciate "Stairway to Heaven"'s gigantic status in the history of classic rock (particularly as a radio staple) but I could happily go through life without ever hearing it again.

The preceding paragraphs were brought to you by Joy Division's "Unknown Pleasures". Unlike the other albums mentioned here, it brings out my dual feelings of love and admiration, and has done so consistently for over fifteen years. I had to throw on the vinyl (do NOT listen to this album on CD, I'm warning you (except if you have it on the box set) because the mastering and CD transfer is complete shit, this is one of the ultimate "must-hear on vinyl" albums, even if your copy is becoming warn out from billions of plays, like mine) because Thursday was the 26th anniversary of Ian Curtis' suicide (NEVER FORGET, er, I guess, etc.).

Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited

You'd think I'd be more excited about an album of Gainsbourg covers by the likes of Jarvis Cocker, Marc Almond, and Portishead. Much like this tribute to the Free Design, I find myself liking it for about twenty minutes but eventually I feel like I'm sitting in a highbrow coffee shop. Fun and adventurous when you're sitting in the sun having a drink, but fairly bleh as far as home listening is concerned. Despite its impressive lineup of beatmakers, including Madlib and PB Wolf, "The Now Sound Redesigned" suffers from too many sterile, friendly hip hop beats. "Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited" overdoes it on the exotica aspects of Gainsbourg, but is lacking in truly inventive interpretation along the lines of Placebo's electro-funk makeover of "The Ballad of Melody Nelson". Some of these artists have forgotten that Gainsbourg could be queasy and creepy too (I'm looking at YOU, Tricky). In the battle of legendary mumblers (in turn covering a legendary mumbler), Michael Stipe ("L'Hôtel") wipes the floor with Tricky, providing the most faithful Gainsbourg impersonation on this record (truth be told, he's the only one who tries to do such a thing).

In many cases, I can't get past the English translations -- they feel intrusive and ruin the flow of the songs. Particularly Marianne Faithful, the Boomerang gang, and the Rakes version of "Le Poinçonneur Des Lilas" (the cadence of the words sounds ridiculous in English).

Placebo basically steal the show here, first with the aforementioned Gorillaz-y "Melody Nelson" and Brian Molko's sneering vocal on "Requiem For a Jerk".

Franz Ferdinand are a one trick pony and thinking about their shtick leaves me in a constant state of skepticism. Nevertheless, as far as real life is concerned (as opposed to my imagination's slight distaste for their sound and success) I'm usually pleased with the results, and their irresistible dash through "Sorry Angel" is no exception. Most of the words in the song are "sorry" and "angel", so the translations don't get in the way.

I hate the "Je T'aime" translation ("I go and I come / between you" ... between what? This doesn't even make sense grammatically), but Karen Elson and Cat Power sound sublime and overall I'll take it over the more claustrophobic Mick Harvey version. Maybe they can lez up to "Lemon Incest" next!

Mogwai, Torche @ Phoenix Concert Theatre

It was only a matter of time before Mogwai asked a real metal band to open for them instead of more metal-y versions of themselves (read: Aereogramme, Part Chimp). Torche thrash and bludgeon with songs that ressemble a succession of fake endings -- perfect (I suppose) for people who prefer the seemingly impossible combination of metal epics afflicted with ADD. As for Mogwai, what more can I say?

Either they're getting quieter, or I've gotten deafer. I used to be able to gauge this by watching the crowd and seeing when they cover their ears, but people know what to expect now so that stuff doesn't fly any more. Veterans, all of them. Thankfully, both theories are dismissed thanks to the scorching set closer "We're No Here".

Do any single girls attend Mogwai shows? Back in '99 there were quite a few of these creatures, but they've been slowly disappearing over the years.

Two songs in, they play "Friend of the Night" and that means I won't go home disappointed tonight. Five songs later, "Mogwai Fear Satan" (making an unusual mid-set appearance) reaffirms it.

After Torche lay down the gauntlet, I'm expecting Mogwai to counter by going metal crazy with multiple encores of "Glasgow Mega-Snake" and the like. Instead, they bring out some of their most melodic stuff, from "Acid Food" to "Hunted By a Freak" to "May Nothing But Happiness Come Through Your Door". Eventually, "Summer" shows that the RAWK has been there all along.

Nothing from "Rock Action" tonight. Maybe they really do hate that record.

"Mega-Snake" closes the encore, showing that Mogwai have finally discovered that they can close shows with the shortest song of the evening rather than one of their standard epics. It's their "Song 2"! Uh ...

Jesu, "Silver EP"

This is the kind of music that Mogwai should be making these days. This is the sound of Mogwai fleshing out the electronic frazzle of "Sine Wave" and going full-blown Nine Inch Nails. The real Mogwai wanted to rock so they turned up the bass and tried to sound more like Black Sabbath. With the exception of "Star", which is a virtual carbon copy of Mogwai's "Glasgow Mega-Snake"-ish hard rock direction, Jesu opted for industrial shoegaze with clanging pianos. "Dead Eyes" could have introed nearly any track on the latter half of "The Downward Spiral". But Jesu have truly outdone themselves with the title track, setting a new high point for shoegazer metal (or whatever you want to call it). Mogwai strove for this lurching epic feeling with the "Stop Coming To My House", the emotional closing track to "Happy Songs For Happy People". "Silver" sets the bar higher by cranking the guitars up higher and most naturally, doing what they do best by bringing the DOOM!.