popwreckoning

The Holy Ghost! story begins in 2007 – when Alex Frankel and Nick Millhiser, childhood friends and mutual lovers of dance beats, released a song that quickly became a dance classic, “Hold On.” It’s hard to believe it took them four years, but here we are in 2011, and the dance duo is finally releasing their self-titled debut album. No surprise they’re releasing it on their good friend James Murphy‘s DFA Records. Actually, you can trace James Murphy‘s influence in this first release of Holy Ghost!‘s: Murphy asked Frankel and Millhiser to tour with LCD Soundsystem in 2010, which forced the duo out of their comfort zone (usually presiding over the decks at dance clubs as DJs, never playing live) to come up with a Holy Ghost! live show. Interview Magazine has called their sound, “Michael Jackson meets New Order at a 1979 disco.” Right up my alley.

Indeed, songs from their debut album are currently being played while the duo, with three additional musicians, are opening for Melbourne’s Cut Copy on their North American tour, now in progress. However, Frankel has said, “I didn’t want to limit myself to making an album that could only be played in clubs,” with Millhiser adding, “we were trying to make something that people would want to listen to, front and back, at home.” Their self-titled debut album is a testament that this can be done – and can be done well. Two of the 10 tracks on this effort (“Static on the Wire” and “Say My Name”) are from the band’s Static on the Wire EP released last year, and the aforementioned “Hold On” also figures on this album. All three are superb tracks; it’s not hard for me to imagine these being played for sweaty masses on a dance floor, albeit possibly in clubbier, more drawn-out versions.

But you’d be remiss to only focus on those tracks. The album opener, “Do It Again,” is mesmerizing, with its relentless driving rhythm and shimmery synths. “Wait and See,” which DFA is giving away as a free download on Soundcloud, is clear evidence of the band’s ’70s disco / ’80s new wave and electropop sensibilities. “Hold My Breath” is cut from a similar cloth. “Jam for Jerry” is an upbeat yet wistful tune, likely to be a loving homage to the late Jerry Fuchs, drummer of LCD Soundsystem and !!!, disguised as a dance love song.

The best track on here is “It’s Not Over” – here is where I’m guessing any New Order comparisons began. The synthesized bass line sounds like it was yesterday that Bernard Sumner was surreptitiously pushing Peter Hook out of the band with programming, only that with Alex Frankel’s soulful vocal delivery and tribal drum patterns, it’s something very unique that you won’t quickly forget. As a dance record, Holy Ghost! is not in your face, and that’s a good thing. Most dance recordings are overproduced, overwrought jumbles of sound with no direction. This one hits all the right buttons.

Tracklisting
01. Do It Again
02. Wait and See
03. Hold My Breath
04. Say My Name
05. Jam for Jerry
06. Hold On
07. It’s Not Over
08. Slow Motion
09. Static on the Wire
10. Some Children

Holy Ghost!‘s self-titled debut album will be released on April 12 on DFA Records. The band is currently on tour as support for Cut Copy. The band will also make appearances this month at Coachella on April 15 and at a headlining gig at Brooklyn’s Music Hall of Williamsburg on April 29.

Tour Dates
Apr 04 – House of Blues / Boston*
Apr 05 – Club Soda / Montreal*
Apr 06 – Terminal 5 / New York City*
Apr 07 – Sound Academy / Toronto*
Apr 08 – Riviera / Chicago*
Apr 09 – First Avenue / Minneapolis*
Apr 12 – Showbox SoDo / Seattle*
Apr 15 – Coachella / Indio, CA
Apr 16-17 – Grand Ballroom @ Regency / San Francisco*
Apr 20 – Granada Theater / Dallas*
Apr 22 – Stubbs / Austin*
Apr 23 – Republic / New Orleans*
Apr 29 – Music Hall of Williamsburg / Brooklyn*
*supporting Cut Copy

Holy Ghost!: website | myspace | Friendly Fires / Holy Ghost! – 12” Split Single| Interview with: Alex Frankel of Holy Ghost! | @ U Street Music Hall | @ 9:30 Club | ‘I Know, I Hear’ video | DFA Records Curating NYC DJ Residency Free to the Public

For two sold-out nights, Londoners The xx proved that a minimalist approach can work, when it’s done well.

Having just arrived on the scene in 2009, The xx have earned a great deal of buzz and, judging by the crowd response, a sizable faction of ardent fans. Appearing shy, unassuming and a bit goth in their solid black attire, Oliver Sim on vocals and bass, Romy Madley Croft on vocals and guitar and Jamie Smith on percussion played to a packed house at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall.

To start the show, I was excited to see Phantogram, a New York duo that I have been hearing so much about lately. I had heard about comparisons to Portishead, influences from Serge Gainsbourg and descriptions of their energetic live show. Based upon the crowd response, I don’t think I am alone in my assertion that the performance was a disappointment. The band’s point of reference seems good but there was simply no cohesion and each track seemed sloppier than the one before. There was no trace of an energetic live show and their lighting, which consisted of little more than the incessant, annoying flash of strobes, certainly didn’t help things.

The xx, on the other hand, conveyed exactly the opposite effect. Stacking detached, hazy vocals and thumping bass parts along with “live” drum machine beats, each sound seemed as it were specifically selected to enhance the vibe. Sounding like something that Robert Smith, Ian Curtis and Peter Hook might have cooked up in long-forgotten shed during the wee hours of night, The xx delivered an hour-long set consisting of most of the songs from their eponymous 2009 album. From the syncopated, overlapping lyrics of “Crystalised” to the half-awake “Islands” and “Shelter” the band gave the crowd a peek into their natural, more-mature-than-it-should-be style. The set continued with “VCR,” the R&B influenced “Basic Space” before closing with an energetic version of “Infinity.”

The show felt very intimate, as if the crowd was voyeuristically peeking into their dilapidated practice space while the band played simply for their own late-night enjoyment. That’s really what is so striking about The xx and their music: it’s seductive and tense there’s nothing pretentious about it. You’re left feeling fortunate that you’ve experienced it unfolding before you, as if it could vanish in an instant. Showing the band’s great mastery of restraint, all of the parts have an organic space between them, letting the tracks breathe and evolve in a very satisfying way.

It’s certainly impressive to see such a young band have such a brilliantly realized sound. Making unique noise from pedestrian instruments, these newcomers just might be on to something.

Polyvinyl Records is proud to release Aloha‘s latest effort, Home Acres, on March 9, 2010. The band has announced a string of April tour dates in support of the album. After 2006′s Some Echoes and 2007′s Light Works, Aloha has put in three hard years for Home Acres, which pushes the tempos and dials up the guitars, with the band’s slow-burn intensity sometimes overflowing into huge moments. But even as the energy surges, Aloha casts an otherworldly glow, serving up ambience and attack with equal measure.

Album opener “Building a Fire” pairs gritty, persistent bass and drums with celestial, elusive melodies. An explosion of drums and a Peter Hook-high bass riff leads “Moonless March” into a minor-key catharsis. As the album hits its head-nodding, toe-tapping stride, you begin to realize that there’s darkness lurking under Tony Cavallario‘s luminous melodies. In “White Wind,” ethereal harmonies stoke the flames as an era burns to the ground. Everywhere things seem to be slipping away, fading from view, going in and out of focus. Fuzzed-out marimbas, reverb-soaked organs and floating strings decorate wistful, chiming guitar chords while Cale Parks pounds away, powering the proceedings from behind the kit.

Lyrically, Home Acres (named for a quaint old suburb of Rochester, NY) tries to sort through the wreckage of the Great Lakes region and a way of life. Left abandoned “waiting for a getaway car that never came” in the record’s arena-rock-by-way-of-Silver Apples closer “Ruins,” we re left to think that maybe we ought to have dreamt bigger and fought the urge to disengage. A suggestion that Aloha has taken to heart for its biggest, brightest record to date.

Download “Moonless March” and  “Waterwheel” from Home Acres here.

Tour Dates:
Apr 09 – Terrace Club / Princeton, NJ
Apr 10 – Kung Fung Necktie / Philadelphia
Apr 12 – Will’s Pub / Orlando
Apr 13 – Drunken Unicorn / Atlanta
Apr 14 – Local 506 / Chapel Hill, NC
Apr 15 – DC9 / Washington DC
Apr 17 – Knitting Factory / Brooklyn
Apr 18 – The Middle East / Cambridge, Ma.
Apr 21 – The Pike Room / Pontiac, Mi.
Apr 22 – Empty Bottle / Chicago
Apr 24 – Grog Shop / Cleveland
Apr 25 – Brillobox / Pittsburgh

Aloha: myspace

Photo: Shawn Brackbill