The folks from Wolf Parade are certainly very busy people. As soon as Wolf Parade go on an indefinite hiatus, the bands member rush to their other projects and commitments and quickly produce brilliant music under other monikers. I am loath to call these works ‘side projects’ as that implies a superfluous nature to the creations, whereas in actual fact they are of equal quality to Wolf Parade themselves.
Dan Boeckner’s Handsome Furs (who I wrote about briefly back in April) have produced a strong contender for my album of the year in Sound Kapital. They have taken their work onto a new level and seem to have found their perfect niche – somewhere between indie rock and industrial music. This may sound a curious mix but rest assured, it works, both on record and live. I was lucky to catch the couple on tour back in April and was blown away by their ability to combine thumping keyboards with the familiar vocals of Boeckner, neither was required to be subdued to allow the other to be heard.
Sound Kapital is out now, available on Sub Pop and from all the usual outlets.
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Moonface is the latest of an ever increasing list of works involving Spencer Krug. If you are unfamiliar then all are worth checking out: Sunset Rubdown, Canadian ‘supergroup’ Swan Lake, Frog Eyes (now ‘Krug-less’) and the instrumental Fifths of Seven. Sunset Rubdown, originally used to release solo recordings, have formed into a fully fleged band so Krug has established Moonface as his solo moniker.
Organ Music not Vibraphone Like I’d Hoped is only six songs long but seeing as the shortest track is over 6 minutes long you don’t feel it is too short. Experimental is the obvious blanket term for the album but this doesn’t really explain the sound very well. High tempo electronic sounds are interspersed with Krug’s characteristic vocals (prehaps not at their yelping best but unmistakable nonetheless), producing what a few other reviewers have described as reminiscent of late 70s experimental music with the retro sounding drum machines. It’s probably best you just have a listen and decide for yourself, the highlight of the album ‘Fast Peter’ is available to download here.
Organ Music not Vibraphone Like I’d Hoped is available from Jagjaguwar.
Both Moonface and Handsome Furs are on Spotify for you to sample if you so wish.