CD Reviews

La Big Vic | Actually

Underwater Peoples (2011)

By LIZ PELLY | August 3, 2011

4.0 Stars

La Big Vic's Actually is thus far the most compelling avant-pop record to emerge from Brooklyn's inspired 2011 underground. The trio's laid-back retro-futurisism is urgent and new, rooted in classical and experimental influences. Vocalist-violinist Emilie Friedlander covers experimental music on her popular blog Visitation Rights and is the co-editor of Pitchfork sister site Altered Zones; synth player/guitarist Toshio Masuda is a former hip-hop producer who played with a major label J-Pop boy band; synth player Peter Pearson studied classical music and previously worked as an apprentice to Pink Floyd's live-sound producer Jeff Blenkinsopp. With this eclectic background, their first full length is appropriately diverse: seven Prismacolor kosmische-influenced soundscapes; a melding of swirling synths, atmospheric guitars, bright violins that soar like horns, the occasional hip-hop beat, and minimal, muffled vocals. The album starts with the two most melodic tracks — the metallic, blippy "LYNY" and infectious "Heyo." The violins stand out most when they create minor-mode Eastern filigree on "FAO" and on the instrumental track "Chinese Wedding." The album ends with the slowest, darkest song: the droney, 10-minute "Musica." Each of these genre-bending tracks is essential listening, each bursting with ideas.

Cymbals Eat Guitars | Lenses Alien
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Trans Am | What Day Is It Tonight? Trans Am Live, 1993 - 2008
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Various Artists | Where the Action Is: Los Angeles Nuggets 1965 - 1968
More than three years in the making, the most recent installment of Rhino's legendary archival garage-rock series offers an amazingly comprehensive excavation of an absurdly fertile scene.
Various Artists | Nippon Girls: Japanese Pop, Beat & Bossa Nova 1966–1970
Girl-group records are great and everything, yet the countless compilations out there were becoming a little hit-or-miss until 2005, when the great Girl Group Sounds Lost and Found box set finally gave this diverse genre a proper taxonomy.
Various Artists | Casual Victim Pile: Austin 2010
The notion that regional musical flavors exist independently in American cities is quickly becoming an archaic truism, seeing as how the world really is a stage these days, at least in the digital sense.
Bearstronaut | Broken Handclaps
There's a distinct absence of wildlife or astronauts on Lowell electronica quartet Bearstronaut's latest release.
Avi Buffalo | Avi Buffalo
Look, I get it: the last thing we need right now is yet another band who can be described as “sun-baked,” “reverb-soaked,” or even just “psychedelic.” But Avi Buffalo (I know! An animal name to boot!) are worth your attention for a few reasons.
Review: Brandon Flowers | Flamingo
Brandon Flowers has gone on record saying he brought the songs on Flamingo to his fellow bandmates for the next Killers album and was given the brush-off.
Review: Kevin Dunn | No Great Lost: Songs 1979–1985
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Review: Crocodiles | Sleep Forever
With remarkable swiftness, Crocodiles tick off all the key characteristics of a band in the thriving lo-fi indie/punk/garage scene.
Review: Teengirl Fantasy | 7AM
If the demise of traditional record making is designed to foster any band’s fruitful existence, it’s that of Teengirl Fantasy.
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