Movies, Deep Cuts, Francois, George Fitzgerald, Music For Thought, The Waiting, Full Circle, Debut, Boxed In, Lawrence Hart, Soundtracks, The Aftermath Muzak,

George Fitzgerald – The Waiting (feat. Lawrence Hart)

George Fitzgerald’s debut album, Fading Love, is careering and moody. While the sound and temperament of the songs are consistent, many of the tracks are instrumental, which places the album in the choppy waters of the soundtrack genre.

Some movies have memorable soundtracks, where a particular song or suite of songs, evoke acute memories for a specific film and the time(s) and place(s) we watched them. Drive, The Darjeeling Limited and Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid, come to mind for that reason. Yet, removed from their original contexts, movie soundtracks become adaptable, translated as the background music for deep concentration or travel.

No doubt, Fading Love has many of those qualities. The lead single, “Full Circle (feat. Boxed In), is a well-balanced, mid-tempo, blend of synthesizer pops and drumming over which a skulking voice broods about heartbreak. Maybe someone should cast it in the next sci-fi love story à la Her or Ex Machina.

Like many of Fitzgerald’s songs, “The Waiting” is driven by a scaling melody, that is, neither complicated nor over-produced. Not quite as pop-sensitive as Disclosure or as overwhelming as Caribou, George Fitzgerald has created a more somnambulistic sound. Though I’m unsure whether it’s the stuff of summer festivals, his songs should be a presence on your Deep Cuts playlist.

Deep Cuts, Francois, Music for Thought

Gayngs – The Gaudy Side of Town (Live)

Last to the concert gets a bad seat. How come, in this age of overshare and well-populated search engines, do I still get to good bits of news late? Then again, I could of sworn I was listening to 10cc. Maybe it’s the ghost in the machine? Whatever it is, Gayngs, which indeed sounds ethereal, ghost-like at times, was worth ‘discovering’.

Gayngs is one out Justin Vernon’s many bands. The term side-project may not do the man justice, for, unlike his friend and collaborator Kanye West, Vernon has scuttled his main project and looks to venture into new musical acts so long as they feel right.

As such, best known from his high-pitched goodness as Bon Iver, Vernon left that identity in 2012, telling as much to Rolling Stone:

I look at it like a faucet. I have to turn it off and walk away from it because so much of how that music comes together is subconscious or discovering. There’s so much attention on the band, it can be distracting at times. I really feel the need to walk away from it while I still care about it. And then if I come back to it – if at all – I’ll feel better about it and be renewed or something to do that.

Previous and concurrent acts Vernon has been associated with include, in no particular order: Shouting Matches, Volcano Choir, Bon Iver, Eau Claire Jazz Memorial Ensemble, DeYarmond Edison & Mount Vernon. Robert Durst didn’t even have that many alibis.

Now, Gayngs which some may describe as a mega group, seems more like a collaborative act to me if we focus on Vernon’s role in the music. Vernon, who appears fond of 80s sounds — see “Beth/Rest” and The Outfield cover Bon Iver played of “Your Love” — hits the soft noise and electronic poings! and reverberating croonings of that decade to great effect in as a Gayngs member.

Some of their songs could have been the backdrop to a scene of Twin Peaks.

Others, update a vintage sound with modern preferences for noise, solos and rap-singing.

Then there’s “The Gaudy Side of Town,” which is a combo velvety-trancey-smokey record that does justice to the classic front man-backup singer dynamic, Vernon filling the rafters with his high-frequency wails. It’s a great listen, but, what’s next?

Chayed Out, Francois

Miracle Fortress – Maybe Lately

Miracle Fortress sounds like the name for a place in Adventure Time, the cosmic-psychedelic children’s television show I’ve never seen an episode of. It could also be the title of a redoubt that a very plucky army won a decisive victory in.

What it is, at least for this blogger’s purposes, is a band name. Miracle Fortress, whose groovy and accessible songs remind listeners of the Beach Boys. A band with a sound that suggests a quirky hypothetical: What if the Beach Boys never existed? Presuppose Fleet Foxes, MGMT, Tame Impala, you know, bands of a pop/folksy/electro tone, came together for a seaside bonfire?

Together, the best and worst elements of those musical acts would sound something like Miracle Fortress. Here’s “Maybe Lately,” a jam with summer vibes so strong it almost sounds like a Beach Boys knock-off. But that’s the case with music today anyway. Everything echos and repeats.

Chayed Out, Deep Cuts, Francois, Music for Thought, Playlists

Recent Drops

New albums out by Jungle, Caribou, Glass Animals & TOPS. Time to crack into Indian Summer.

They’re bonafide!

Bangers and Mash, Deep Cuts, Francois, Playlists

Ezra Koenig, Schoolboy or Party Monster?

Vampire Weekend frontman and New Jersey native, Ezra Koenig, takes his polite, first date voice, to a suite of edgy and dark songs. Below, Ezra channels his inner Jersey Boy in three featuring roles. However, this isn’t the first time Ezra, pop star that he is, performed to club music.

Irony be damned, this is dance music.