By Luke Carrell
Alec Koone is best known as the too-young-to-drink Ithaca undergrad behind the expressive sample work of Balam Acab. As helpful as that information is in establishing some context for the music, half of it won't even be true in a few years. And though already months in the past (or decades, in "blog years"), the underground musical climate surrounding the release of his See Birds EP, his first release using the moniker, was similarly perishable. The mono-mixed EP hit at a time when spacey, dark electronic music was a fresh phenomenon to many listeners and critics. Haters hated, and the buzz grew as artists struggled to differentiate themselves. Micro-genres began to proliferate, bud, bloom, fold in on themselves, die, and generally confuse and perturb. Balam Acab managed to dodge most of the shrapnel, and See Birds, with its arresting title track, continued to gain momentum and win fans with its brand of drone-heavy not-pop, even as Koone himself began to step out from behind his non-persona.
With Wander/Wonder, Balam Acab spreads his usual palette of atmospheres, twisted vocals, and tactful beats across a diverse range of song structures, creating an album that is at once cogent and constantly surprising. W/W carries more emotional weight than its predecessor, and speaks to complex, often contradictory sentiments. Twin tracks "Await" and "Expect" condense an afternoon of love-sick pining into two, convenient little 4'46" packages. "Motion," full of shimmering orchestral samples that would feel at home in a Swedish sample pop track, has a melancholic undercurrent strong enough to counteract its starry-eyed veneer. The homonyms chosen for the title of the album also express the same type of intentional, complementary duality that many of the songs seem to embody.
The much-discussed vocal sample manipulations have gained a heightened drama as well, with the producer opting for less chopping and more operatic flourishes, as exemplified by the slow-burning opener, "Welcome." His vocabulary of basic phrases and phonemes alternately calls to mind warbly pop and infantile cooing; it gives the songs a more distinct structure, and is responsible for the long-from '90s R&B pop tune feel of tracks like "Now Times" and "Oh, Why." The vocals and other breathy exhalations also offer an organic allure, simulatanesouly drawing the ear away from the simply rooted rhythmic and melodic elements, upping the atmosphere, and adding layers of hushed percussiveness. Likewise, the use of splashy reverb and samples of sloshing water complement the more rigid swells and breaks while invoking the liquid-based metaphors that are becoming so ubiquitous in attempts to describe this music. And the H2O only flows more freely as the album goes on. By the time hard-hitting closer "Fragile Hope" comes around, the slow drip has become a steady stream, outlasted only by a final, wistful vocal melody. To continue with the tired metaphor, this album can easily form itself to fill any space, be it a daily commute, special man/lady time, or an afternoon spent staring out a window.
Balam Acab: Selections from Wander/Wonder
Wonder/Wander drops August 30th in LP, CD, and digital formats via Tri Angle Records
[photo by Erez Avissar]
We're psyched about Balam Acab's upcoming Wander/Wonder LP and Sleep ∞ Over's Forever, so it was like an unexpected, delicious combination of two of our favorite pizza toppings when Balam Acab's remix of Sleep ∞ Over dropped today. This reworking of "Romantic Streams" gives the ethereal original a darker, murkier edge. --Jasmine Zhu, Altered Zones via Stereogum
Here’s another beautifully haunted lullaby from Balam Acab. This late night staple's lush and otherworldly full-length, WANDER/WONDER, is out August 29 on Tri Angle, and it’s amazing. --Chris Cantalini, Gorilla Vs Bear
[photo by Erez Avissar]
Balam Acab posted this remix of Ghost Town DJ's' "My Boo" on his twitter after midnight while all the normies were sleepin'. Producer Alec Koone's game has been on since last year's See Birds EP, and even this lighthearted, spur-of-the-moment rework feels on point. If the little that has trickled from the forthcoming Wander/Wonder EP is any indication of the producer's talent, we'll be getting our freak on to Koone's pitch-shifted croons for quite a while longer. --Ric Leichtung, Altered Zones
MP3: Ghost Town DJ's: "My Boo (BALAM ACAB Remix)"
Wander/Wonder is coming soon from Tri Angle Records, which turned one year old yesterday
--Previously
Tri Angle Records has been on a roll of late, and the new Balam Acab is no exception. Premiering just after the mid-year recap of our favorite songs thus far-- with Balam's "Oh, Why" sitting comfortably on top-- the second track off his upcoming debut album kills it with the signature pitch-shifting, beat-breaking, reverberant sounds we've come to know and love from him. --Ian Pearson, Altered Zones via NPR
Wander/Wonder is out on Tri Angle Records come August 29th
[image by Max Capacity]
In celebration of one full year of Altered Zones, we're going back to where we began and observing our very favorite tracks of 2011 thus far. We pulled together all of AZ's contributing blogs' top picks and assembled a 25-song list of cuts that can't missed. --Ric Leichtung, Altered Zones
Balam Acab: "Oh, Why"
Bill Callahan: "Baby's Breath"
Clams Casino: "I'm God (Instrumental)"
Devin Gary & Ross: "Four Corners"
Dirty Beaches: "Lord Knows Best"
Ford & Lopatin: "Emergency Room"
Gang Gang Dance: "Glass Jar"
Grimes: "Vanessa"
Holy Other: "With U"
Iceage: "White Rune"
John Maus: "Believer"
Julian Lynch: "Terra"
LA Vampires Goes Ital: "Streetwise"
Light Asylum: "Dark Allies"
Matthewdavid: "Like You Mean It"
Panda Bear: "Alsatian Darn"
Peaking Lights: "Tiger Eyes (Laid Back)"
Protect-U: "U-Uno"
Pure X: "Don't Wanna Live, Don't Wanna Die"
Purity Ring: "Loftcries"
Puro Instinct: "Stilyagi"
Sic Alps: "Do You Want To Give $$?"
Sleep ∞ Over: "Casual Diamond"
The Weeknd: "The Morning"
Woods: "Pushing Onlys"
We've been waiting patiently for something more than a 20-second teaser to come from Alec Koone, aka Balam Acab, and finally that day has come. In the first track from his follow-up to last year's See Birds, "Oh, Why", we hear a distant, eerie voice from the past pleading for answers, like an unheard prayer that begs for salvation and deliverance from a cold, cruel world. --Ric Leichtung, Altered Zones
Wander / Wonder will be available soon from Tri Angle Records
Balam Acab is gearing up for a new release with Tri Angle Records has graced us with not one, but two 20 second teasers!! There's no word on when or whether we'll see these tracks on a full-length or a single, so keep your eyes on this space for updates. --Ric Leichtung, Altered Zones via FACT Magazine
By Noam Klar
Balam Acab - Dream Out by TriAngleRecords
The voice of Alec Koone, aka Balam Acab, was more or less how I had imagined it: intelligent, slightly drawling, and flowing with the kinds of words one might expect from someone at the tender age of 19, like "weird" or "I guess." There was no mention of the Mayan semi-gods from which his name derives, or the arcane mysticisms of a reclusive shadow producer-- only the earnest observations of a young artist who enjoys experimenting with sounds, and spends a whole lot of time in his bedroom.
I first came across Balam Acab in January 2010, along with with his other project, Etherea, which share’s BA’s cavernous aesthetic, but takes a more beat-oriented approach. His debut EP, See Birds, was released last August to notable fanfare on Tri Angle Records; it was the debut release for a label that is now home to the similarly gauzy oOoOO and How To Dress Well, among others.
Koone hails from a new generation of internet-savvy musicians, one that draws equal inspiration from the electro-psych of Animal Collective and the beat-driven atmospherics of a Madlib or J Dilla, and privileges mood and imagistic ambience over any specific message or narrative conceit. I spoke with Alec over the phone about his sound-paintings, his reclusive public image, and his forthcoming full-length on Tri Angle.
As 2010 draws to an close, Altered Zones brings you its collective year-end recap. Today, we list our favorite tracks of the year, with favorite albums due tomorrow. You can also check our list of the year's favorite music videos here, and don't forget to stay tuned through the holiday break for daily year-end mixtapes from our favorite artists.
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti: "Round and Round" [4AD]
MP3: Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti: "Round and Round"
Balam Acab: "See Birds" [Tri Angle]
MP3: Balam Acab: "See Birds (Moon)"
In a year when many artists explored the meaning of image and identity in an age of faceless, over-abundant information, Balam Acab was initially lumped in with a wave of internet-dwelling producers who put more weight on artifice and presentation than substance. "See Birds" (and the ensuing EP) quickly dusted off any scene associations, and distinguished itself by actually owning a deep-rooted, intoxicating groove. From the triplet sway and watery reverb of the beat, to the the ghostly keyboard stabs, to the feedbacking, echoing sample that drives it, "See Birds" stood out by employing dub for it's sonic palette. Its use of vocal samples as an independent instrument rather than a reference, besides resulting in one of the years most bizarrely memorable "hooks," also strips it of any sense of irony, coming off rather like a heartfelt transmission from someone who, at the moment, would really rather be left in the shadows. --Noam Klar
Baby Jazz: "Michael Jordan" [self-released]
MP3: Baby Jazz: "Michael Jordan"
Baby Jazz's very first track, "Michael Jordan" is a 12-minute megamix collaboration between Golden Chow (Samuel Cooper of Sunglasses) and Teen Wolfe (Elgin Braden of Aux Arc). The track starts with a cacophony of angular, glitchy samples and reversed female harmonies. But after 80 seconds of rising and waning sonic patterns-- usually lost the moment they are grasped-- a beat finally organizes the chaos. From there on in, Baby Jazz skips from genre to genre and sample to sample like a mini pop culture role call of feel-good cues. We hear Chris Tucker screaming on the phone in Rush Hour, some rando screaming "NOBODY TURNS DOWN DRUGS", orgasms, and the intro to Dolly Parton's "Don't Drop Out". A hilarious and joyful musical rendition of my YouTube history. --Ric Leichtung
Blondes: "You Mean So Much to Me" [Merok]
MP3: Blondes: "You Mean So Much To Me"
Along with Teengirl Fantasy, Brooklyn electronic duo Blondes pretty much led the pack this year in re-envisioning the electronic music pioneers of the 20th century as music the rock kids could get down to. “You Mean So Much To Me,” the 9-minute opener of the duo's Touched EP, sounds like something Juan Atkins, E2-E4-era Manuel Göttsching, and Cluster might come up with if they convened for a late-night bump-and-grind on an autobahn ride to nowhere. Sam Haar and Zachary whisper synth ribbons and ethereal vocal samples into a delicate cymbal patter until they unleash the eternal techno 4/4. You can read it as an invitation to dance or permission to sink deeper into your beanbag; either way, it's proof that the millennial generation is making headway on a new, glitch-free strain of intelligent dance music. --Emilie Friedlander
Dead Gaze: "Take Me Home or I Die Alone" [Fire Talk]
MP3: Dead Gaze: "Take Me Home Or I Die Alone"
Cole Furlow, aka Dead Gaze, has been churning out one fantastic jam after another this year, but few tracks anywhere have struck me the way this one does. Through the first half, Furlow sounds like he's pleading with someone. More importantly, it sounds like he really means it. As the track progresses, the song gets brighter, leaving us to believe that someone must have finally taken him home. --Jheri Evans
Games: "Planet Party" [Hippos in Tanks]
It's been nine months since Games first arrived via "Planet Party." Needless to say, a lot has happened since, but the original genus for the duo's work still holds true. "Planet Party" is a diabolical excursion into midi-funk through the backdoors of our collective computer love, culling our internal memory for sampled bits and progenerated synth scapes. If there was ever a definitive sound of the past year, and counterpoint to "proto-chillwave," this was it. --Michael McGregor
Girl Unit: "Wut" [Night Slugs]
Counting local club producers such as Mosca, Kingdom, and label founders L-Vis 1990 and Bok Bok among its ranks, the artist collective and upstart UK label Night Slugs had one of the most influential and consistent runs of releases this year, presenting an assimilated and innovative take on UK bass music. Girl Unit's "Wut" was easily its defining moment, in which the disparate elements of Southern rap, electro, grime and Baltimore club crystallized into one bold, forceful statement of intent. With its 7-minute sprawl and cyclical structure, the track oozes confident craft, coming in with a deceptively innocuous melody, before dropping a down-tempo bombshell of sub bass, air horns and pitch-shifted cries over a backing of buzzy, minor synth chords. --Noam Klar
Greatest Hits: "Danse Pop" [Olde English Spelling Bee]
MP3: Greatest Hits: "Danse Pop"
Greatest Hits lives up to their name. "Danse Pop" is a brief two minutes of sheer danceable ecstasy. The song wastes no time kicking into place and immediately has you sliding every which way across the hardwood floor. Just don't slip when it's all greased with the sweat of everyone else unable to contain this groove. --Jheri Evans
Hotel Mexico: "Its Twinkle" [Second Royal]
You can't not love the "Love Gun"-inspired riff that opens "Its Twinkle" by Japan's Hotel Mexico. But there's more to this song than that killer, 4-second, descending shredder of a hook. Layer upon layer of guitar, bass, samples, and tambourines build on that riff, as other melodic parts come in and out of focus like the phase of two droning tones. A soft falsetto emerges from the busy instrumental tapestry, changing the sonic climate with an added sense of fragility. The initial reason-- the "hot riff"-- that made you fall in love with "It's Twinkle" fades into the background. --Ric Leichtung
James Blake: "CMYK" [R&S]
A close relative of the cut-and-paste R&B hook Deadboy worked into his devastating "U Cheated," James Blake’s ubiquitous "CMYK" begins in a far more delicate fashion, before overwhelming with a 2-step wave at the drop. Starting with the notes on a synth falling like water in a fiendish Morse pattern of drops, you can’t help but be lulled into a moment of stillness before the fuzzy wall of sound hits. "CMYK" is so restless that its vocal snippets slip in and out of time, rushing around the track like echoes of its own past and future pitched forward and back before the energy of the whole collapses in on itself. --d
Nice Face: "I Want Your Damage" [Sacred Bones]
MP3: Nice Face: "I Want Your Damage"
Nice Face, the madcap bedroom project of Brooklyn’s Ian Magee, has been channeling some serious hyperactivity since he started self-releasing his first cassettes and singles back in 2008. “I Want Your Damage,” our favorite of the pint-sized psych-rock stompers that made it onto his Immer Etwas LP this year, combines the fuzzed assault of Wooden Shjips, Purrling Hiss, et al. with the off-color zaniness of the B-52s. We're psyched to hear someone actually rock out over a drum machine, and can thank Nice Face for the kind reminder that precision and lo-fi values are by no means mutually exclusive. --Emilie Friedlander
oOoOO: "NoSummr4U" [Disaro]
Though this year saw music's darker retreats illuminated by the likes of Salem, Nike7UP and Stalker, San Franciscan producer oOoOO conjured the most poignant image of C21st cultural pollution. His self-titled EP, released in autumn by Tri Angle Records, is a beguiling, obsessive collection of possessed pop poltergeists that may be veiled in an unsettling gothic sparseness, but still burn effervescent at the core with pure melodic feeling. Non-EP track "Nosummr4U" is the best gateway into the sensual shadow-world of oOoOo, though. Its disembodied lullaby hooks and super-sleazy soft-metal guitar shredding is simultaneously alienating and enrapturing. --Jack Shankly
Pure Ecstasy: "Voices" [Acephale]
In the past year I've gone from seeing Pure Ecstasy in the back parking lot of an Ethiopian restaurant on a dismal, cold night in Austin to the background music on an advertisement with a pale, stumbling Kate Moss-type. Both fit them perfectly. The understated-ness of this band must not be, well, understated. "Voices" is rife with blown-out blue notes and phantasmic guitar tones, backed by softened vocals which sometimes stretch out in love-lost angst. With its simple but steadfast lyrics, Pure Ecstasy's "Voices" reminds us that you dont have to be a TS Eliot to be affective. --Ryan Ellis
Salem: "King Night" [IAMSOUND]
When it hit the blogosphere last June, Salem’s “King Night” felt BIG. Huge, even. In fact, it sounded like these Chicago enfant terribles were trying to pull us out of the muddy highway ditch that their Water EP had dumped us into just a few months earlier. Setting aside the half-hearted white-boy rhymes and syrup-slow siren calls for a minute, Salem shocked us with a sample that seemed to be the electronic trio's antithesis: a heavenly, full-choir rendition of the Christmas carol “O Holy Night”, which speaks of a coming savior, and is bound to evoke the starry-eyed rapture of your elementary school Christmas pageant. Six months ahead of season, “King Night” set its source material to paper-thin beats and a bassline so blown-out it made you check to see if your speakers were broken. It was hyperbolic, a bit tacky, and almost tragically optimistic. --Emilie Friedlander
Teengirl Fantasy: "Cheaters" [True Panther]
MP3: Teengirl Fantasy: "Cheaters"
On "Cheaters", Ohio duo Teengirl Fantasy explore the more interesting peripheries of house and dance music, rather than these genres' more central, crowd-pleasing elements. As a result, the track feels like a careful distillation of all those subtle pulsations, innate rhythmic shifts, and density of sound that make the club such a good place to be. The vocal source material, culled from Love Committee's 70s R&B cut "Cheaters Never Win", appropriately swirls like some pained smoke-machine spirit through all of this anti-banger's small gaps. --Shea Bermingham
Teen Inc.: "Fountains" [self-released]
Teen Inc. found something special this Spring in the super-smooth sound of fusion and funk. "Fountains" comes off super epic and endlessly groovy, a supreme trip through wobbly synthesizer, slapbass, and plaintive falsetto. Perhaps part of the reason this song has bounced around so much in my head (and in my iTunes) is because of the unfortunately small sample size of Teen Inc.'s catalog: two songs, one solitary, self-released 7" record. However, give me an LP full of this sound on a long drive any day and I guarantee you'll see a satisfied dude. Fingers crossed for something similar to this fantasy in 2011. --Ian Nelson
Tjutjuna: "Mosquito Hawk" [Fire Talk]
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MP3: Tjutjuna: "Mosquito Hawk"
Tjutjuna's "Mosquito Hawk" opens with a whirling psychedelic synth vortex. It maintains this ethereal prog façade just long enough to fade up the hyper-motorik and bury the intro's transcendent affectations beneath a mountain of guitar fuzz. Then, something strange happens: crashing symbols and the raw power of a chugging riff struggle to find their form as subjugated arpeggios begin to infect their oppressor, and guitar solos rip skyward to a heaven full of patch-chord glitches. This shock and awe of this moment can't help but fade back into the shimmering effervescence of a seesawing keyboard until, finally, they're wed in a moment of 70s Germanic Rock bliss. --d
Ty Segall: "My Sunshine" [Goner]
I don’t think there’s a single other track that I’ve listened to more than “My Sunshine” this year. Ty takes his signature garage-pop and toughens it with a dose of classic 90’s grunge brilliance. The song tears itself apart, screams till it's hoarse, and then snaps back into place; always on the edge of self-destruction but never ceding to the crush of its own noise. It's songs like this that make me wish that the spirit of '91 was still alive on the radio waves. Were it only a few decades earlier, this one would have every kid in the country howling along in their bedrooms. --Andy French
Vacant Lots: "Confusion" [Ancient Hills Music]
MP3: The Vacant Lots: "Confusion"
The "psych" tag has been getting thrown around pretty arbitrarily recently (day-glo hypnogogia?), but in the classic sense, it could hardly apply more than it does to the Vacant Lots. "Confusion", one a handful of absolute burners from this Burlington duo, doesn't aim for any vast imaginary worlds (though it does nod to some monolithic/prog-temple vibes), instead preferring a dopesmoking hypnosis and half-disquieting/half-cozy drug-rug nostalgia borne of teenage garage jam thrills and more acquired tastes for drone and minimal guitar mesmerics. --Richard MacFarlane
WU LYF: "Heavy Pop" [self-released]
It's refreshing to hear such genuine, visceral soul on this out-of-nowhere hit from mysterious Mancunian outfit WU LYF. Such rawness and emotion tends to be absent from a lot of contemporary leftfield pop, but "Heavy Pop" stays true to its namesake, trudging through continual set-backs and triumphs, drum-rolls, guitar chimes, and gravel-throated howls. The climax comes in the form of a rambunctious, exhausted collapse; fitting of a track so emotionally invested, and as a result, so gloriously draining. --Shea Bermingham
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