I would have done this article yesterday, but there were freaking purple chipmunks stealing things out of my closet all day long. They’re always in there moving things around and… Well, forget about the purple chipmunks.
Anyway, today I’ve got a little underrated rock band from Vancouver.

This Frequency We Share

If you can’t guess the name from the album cover on the right, today is Retrograde day. A few years back I remember finding their self-titled album (released in 2001) and listening to it over and over again. In September of 2005 they released their second full-length album — “This Frequency We Share”. This one I haven’t listened to nearly as much as I used to the other, but these days my music library is considerably larger than it was back then; a couple hundred tracks just doesn’t seem to cut it anymore does it?

The recent album features some killer instrument work and the dual vocals Retrograde is getting known for sporting. It’s got first-rate production and the structuring of the songs can easily outtake a lot of mainstream stuff out there. The first single “Letting Go” ended up on a lot of ‘Top 100′ lists from stations it was played on in 2005; the second single, a cover of Peter Gabriel’s “Digging in the Dirt”, is still in heavy rotation on a lot of Canadian radio stations. These guys are still unsigned and are building a strong underground following — plus they’re currently writing material for a new album. Chances are we’ll be hearing a lot more on them in the future.

I did try to find the old music video from ‘Complicated’ to stick on here, but didn’t have any luck.
Links:
Retrograde Site
Retrograde on Garageband
Merch

Tracks:
Retrograde/Retrograde/Complicated
Retrograde/This Frequency We Share/Letting Go
Retrograde/This Frequency We Share/Digging in the Dirt
Retrograde/Watching the Clock

Today my local artist — though I suppose Retrograde was a local artist as well — is Woolly Mammoth. This short-lived two piece band from Victoria only released a demo before breaking up. As dirty and unpolished as the demo may be, it does have a pretty cool sound to it.

Tracks:
Woolly Mammoth/Dirty Clean
Woolly Mammoth/Hahaha

Sorry we didn’t have anything for you Monday, at the time I realized nothing was written it was already like 11 and I didn’t want to start anything at that point in time.

Here’s a confession for your dance floor.

I decided on Stuart Price AKA Jacques Lu Cont AKA The Thin White Duke and a handful of other names. Although he has his own band, Zoot Woman, he’s probably most famous for writing most of Madonna’s new album and his Thin White Duke remixes. I’m not so hot on Madonna (except for Get Together), but the remixes are where he really shines. Back in 2004 when I first heard his remix of The Killers’ Mr. Brightside I was suddenly addicted and got curious to see if he had more. Indeed, he did. Besides for being nominated for two Grammys in 2004, one of them being that remix I loved, he’s also been nominated for several others from 2003-2006 — more recently, for his Talk remix.

Price’s remixes usually take an already decent song and just buff it up and give it more of an electronic flavour. The Mr. Brightside remix for instance, keeps the original lyrics and for the most part, underlaying bassline but adds a nice little melodic riff overtop of it and a clubby rhythm with some extended length to keep the beats bumping. As soon as I heard it I couldn’t listen to the original anymore because this was just that much better. For the most part that’s how he does most of his remixes and they all turn out fantastic. I even found myself listening to Britney Spears… remixed of course.

Madonna - Get Together video, co-written by Stuart Price.

Links:
Wikipedia: Stuart Price

Tracks:
The Killers/Hot Fuss/Mr. Brightside (Thin White Duke Mix)
The Killers/When You Were Young Single/When You Were Young (Thin White Duke Radio Edit)
Coldplay/Talk Single/Talk (Thin White Duke Remix)
Royksopp/The Understanding/What Else Is There? (Thin White Duke Remix)

My name is Al Di Meola. Who cares? No one.
So anyways, I get tired of rock and pop music a lot. Why? Enough of it is contrived and just-plain-bad enough that I can hate associating myself with even the better side of the genre’s wide spanning personality and approach. For these times, I keep a collection of favorites from artists like Davis (at his peak), Coltrane, Parker, Corea, McLaughlin and other greats handy; and of these, there is always an album I feel I can fall back on, which was probably the one that really got me into jazz and fusion in the first place a few years ago. That is bassist Stanley Clarke, guitarist Al Di Meola and violinist Jean Luc Ponty’s album The Rite of Strings.

Suave.

So yeah… The Rite of Strings was released in 1995 as a collaborative effort between the three master musicians named on the cover. In case you hadn’t realized, the three players seem to all play tonal instruments. The only strictly percussive elements are the seemingly random and not wholly necessary fingersnaps and claps, presumably provided as an afterthought. Due to the lack of percussion, there is a wider frequency range that the musicians are allowed to span over, and the guitar playing (more than others) in many songs is especially rhythmic and filled with muted strumming to establish a galloping swing or a straight feel. The increased headroom also allows for the listener to pick up so much more on the subtle nuances of the players’ style and sound. As Steve Vai would say, it allows you to hear “the strings hitting the frets.” Once you realize this for yourself, if you are even slightly musically inclined, it adds another impressive layer to the composition and overall presentation of the album.

As for the music itself, all the compositions are originals (no standards here) and they are all thoughtfully written and played. Al Di Meola provides his signature guitar doubled with synth (via midi pickup) sound that he has been using for decades. An interesting sound and another timbre too add to the mix. All parts are meticulously well performed, be they the most simple drone parts or bubbling, mindbogglingly fast polyrhythmic passages, these guys don’t miss a beat. And what would you expect? Stanley Clarke (Chick Corea and Jaco Pastorius), Al Di Meola (Chick Corea), and Jean Luc Ponty (Frank Zappa) are some of the most respected jazz and fusion musicians around. So… I can’t think of anything else to say. Here.

Tracks:
Stanley Clarke, Al Di Meola, Jean Luc Ponty/Rite of Strings/Song to John
Stanley Clarke, Al Di Meola, Jean Luc Ponty/Rite of Strings/Morocco

Links:
Buy Rite of Strings

Looks like RHPro is going in a new direction from now on, which should be pretty interesting to see. This time I’m sure we can keep this updated on a regular basis; I’ll try to get in something at least once a week myself as well.
So, this will be Issue 1 of uh… my posts. This article should be pretty cluttered, but you don’t really care all that much.
There are complimentary bagels in the lobby.

Shadow of the Beat - Nanokaravan

First order of business today is ‘Shadow of the Beat‘, one of the many side projects of Gisle Martens Meyer. The man behind Ugress, which I know most of you reading this have heard before. Shadow of the Beat was originally an idea to be released after the first Ugress album in 2002, but was pushed back and back until being released in 2006. If you’re interested in looking into the other projects, you can download a lot of his work through the website of Uncanny Planet, Meyer’s own record label.

Shadow of the Beat and Ugress have many similarities in the vibe of their presentation; though the sound is considerably more… eccentric on Nanokaravan.
Some songs on the debut album (released May 2006) come close to edging onto the style of dDamage (Ape, give him some more vinyl!!). Several others are a bit less chaotic, but hold up with the general theme of the album itself. I’ve attached two songs off of Nanokarvan, as well as a “chistmas song” recently uploaded to Shadow’s site, for your consideration.

Tracks:
Shadow Of The Beat/Nanokaravan/Nervous Rain
Shadow Of The Beat/Nanokaravan/Propaganda
Shadow Of The Beat/SXYaleetet(Reformat)

Links:
Shadow of the Beat
Uncanny Planet

Next up we’ve got something I feel like doing. Every time I make a post I’ll have some local artist or unknown band mp3 stuck in underneath for you to check out. Since I’m doing something on an electronic artist this week and there are little bug guys in the image, you’ll get Roche Limit, an artist from Vancouver who seems to be a moth.

Tracks:
Roche Limit/White Light/I’ll Be Alright

I didn’t put in a youtube video. Oh, I’m such a rebel.

Gregor Samsa huddled in the cold.

Originally I was going to do this article on Gregor Samsa, but since I noticed that Saxon Shore is also an East Coast band and equally as good, I decided they could share a post for the betterment of the blog. To start off, yes these are both Post-Rock bands, but they share a major difference. Gregor Samsa has vocals. Yes, I know it may seem a bit odd to have English vocals in a Post-Rock band, but sometimes you need to be different to stick out, and stick out they do. Based in Virginia, front man Champ Bennett along with singer #2 Nikki King and the rest of the band are a force to be reckoned with, being compared to such bands as Sigur Ros, Mum, GY!BE, and even Brian Eno. Saxon Shore on the other hand doesn’t stick out so much. They aren’t quite as popular as many other of the bands, even in such an obscure genre, but their sound rocks. Founder of the band Matt Doty knows a thing or two about perseverance; In the summer of 2004, the band suffered a split leaving him with nothing but his guitar, keyboard and name. Almost a year later in January 2005 he finally got the entire band he was looking for, releasing the album The Exquisite Death of Saxon Shore, named after the death and resurrection of his band.

I’m giving you two tracks from each band. Both of the Gregor Samsa songs document the great vocals of each of the singers, as well as give you a taste as to the style of their music. Slow and meaningful, liking taking a bite of pie and savoring the flavour in your mouth. Definitely not a lot of faster and skillful guitar playing here; Gregor Samsa’s guitar gives the songs a soft and somber mood, and can sometimes even be depressing. Both of these songs are also available on their site. I chose to throw in their rendition of Silent Night for the holiday season - Definitely something worth checking out.

Both Saxon Shore songs have a very catchy melody and good backing rhythm guitar. A much more lighter mood than the Gregor Samsa tracks. I decided to throw in both a track from Be a Bright Blue and The Exquisite Death of Saxon Shore so you could compare how the older band was and how the new band is. In my opinion, the older band had a more emotional sound. I find myself listening to the former much more than the latter. Don’t get me wrong, they’re both great albums with little differences but… well, I guess I’ll just let you be the judge.

Saxon Shore live, playing “Isolated By The Secrets of your Fellow Men” from The Exquisite Death of Saxon Shore. Bad quality video, decent quality sound.

Links:
Gregor Samsa Official Site
Gregor Samsa Myspace
Saxon Shore Official Site
Saxon Shore Myspace

Tracks:
Gregor Samsa/Gregor Samsa/I
Gregor Samsa/Site Releases/Silent Night
Saxon Shore/Be a Bright Blue/Twilight is our Advocate Tonight
Saxon Shore/The Exquisite Death…/The Shaping of a Helpless Joy