Dorks And Losers

What kind of band waits nine years to record an album? You’re close if you answer Guns N’ Roses, but no I’m not talk­ing about for­mer rock super­stars. I’m actu­ally talk­ing about The Music Tapes, the side project of Julian Koster (Ele­phant Six, Neu­tral Milk Hotel).

Koster spent the past decade work­ing on it spar­ingly when he had time, a stark con­trast to Axl Rose’s van­ity run amok. Another key dif­fer­ence is Koster’s use of the mod­est and more inti­mate bed­room as his record­ing stu­dio rather than the swank top-of-the-line pro­fes­sional (and per­sonal) record­ing stu­dio that Rose is accus­tomed to.

Enough bash­ing Rose, and I am look­ing for­ward to finally lis­ten­ing to Chi­nese Democ­racy. But you know­ing how Music Tapes For Clouds And Tor­na­does was recorded, you could guess as to what kind of album Koster has cre­ated even if you’ve never heard a Music Tapes song.

Yes, it’s indie. And yes, it’s as min­i­mal­is­tic as you could get mak­ing a sopho­more album in a seldom-permanent bed­room that has criss-crossed around the East­ern seaboard, and landed in “coin­ci­den­tally by the ghosts of old amuse­ment parks who’d passed away” (press release). That’s Koster-speak for Maine, Mass­a­chu­setts, and New York’s Coney Island.

Hav­ing been recorded over a very long period of time, Music Tapes For Clouds And Tor­na­does is a sur­pris­ingly con­sis­tent album. Koster chan­nels Daniel John­ston (Yip/Jump Music) for much inspi­ra­tion, choos­ing an inno­cently raw voice for his sto­ry­teller and a some­what stream of con­scious­ness mind­set for his muse.

The album doesn’t refer to “clouds” and “tor­na­does” for noth­ing. Some­times, the songs (like the first three — “Saw Ping­pong And Orches­tra,” “Schedrevka,” and “Free­ing Song For Rein­deer”) are sim­ply there for no rea­son, like a sin­gle white cloud in an end­less blue sky. Other times, there are songs (“Free­ing Song By Rein­deer” and “Man­i­fest Des­tiny”) that bor­der on being sim­i­lar or rep­e­ti­tious, like a cir­cling whirl­wind try­ing to catch every last bit in the air.

It might not be for every­one, but even the most inat­ten­tive lis­ten could reveal the kind of gem reserved for a ran­dom Arcade Fire song [“Cumu­lonim­bus (Mag­netic Tape For Clouds)”] or a brief Peanuts remem­brance [“Nim­bus Stra­tus Cir­rus (Mr. Piano’s Majes­tic Haircut)”].

Daniel John­ston would be the eas­i­est com­par­i­son to the lat­est Music Tapes album, but there are sub­tle hints of Koster’s appre­ci­a­tion for Joanna New­som. The bare bones style does suit him well, but it’s also nice to hear more well-rounded music like the clos­ing “In An Ice Palace” that gives you an idea of not only his musi­cal sen­si­bil­ity but his musi­cal vision as well.

[pho­tos via Merge Records]
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Track list:

1. Saw Ping­pong And Orches­tra
2. Schedrevka
3. Free­ing Song For Rein­deer
4. Majesty
5. Nim­bus Stra­tus Cir­rus (Mr.Piano?s Majes­tic Hair­cut)
6. Free­ing Song By Rein­deer
7. Tor­nado Long­ing For Free­dom
8. Song For Oceans Falling
9. Kolyada #1
10. The Min­is­ter Of Lon­gi­tude
11. Man­i­fest Des­tiny
12. Kolyada #2
13. Cumu­lonim­bus (Mag­netic Tape For Clouds)
14. Julian And Grandpa
15. In An Ice Palace

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