Purchased High Places' new self titled album on Thrill Jockey today and I am quite smitten. This is encouraging as I've been feeling remiss about not listening to enough 'new' music lately. It also confirmed a trend I have noticed in contemporary avant-rock/free folk; a conscious or perhaps unconscious homage to late 1990s/early 2000s click-n-cut style electronica, or what was shamefully called IDM (intelligent dance music).I'm quite enjoying this short-term-memory retro-ism. Its been making me feel nostalgic (and only slightly embarrassed) about my college days. While young white men with guitars were all the rage (even more so after 9/11) I voraciously consumed a great deal of music from the record labels TigerBeat6, Morr Music, Carpark and Hefty among others. I put together a few sweet jams, old and new alike. Listening to Cex, Slicker, Marumari, etc. again reminds me of living in Sunset Park and getting all stoked to be voting for Ralph Nader in 2000, his election feeling entirely possible for one brief moment.
Perhaps there is some inscrutable and bizarre historic correlation to be etched out between collective fetishes for melodic low tempo dance music and pre-election anxiety, I don't know. I just hope the results are better this time around. Until election day High Places will be constant rotation, soothing my frightening psyche.
Electronic Glossolalia
1. yacht 'so post em all' (2007)
2. paavoharju 'kevatrumpu' (2008)
3. slicker 'bindusky' (1998)
4. high places 'namer' (2008)
5. valet 'streets' (2008)
6. cex 'theme song to cex' (2000)
7. e-vax 'glacier' (2000)
8. kid cudi 'heaven at nite' (2008)
9. cex 'callmewhenyouneedsome' (2001?)
10. high places 'a field guide' (2008)
11. marumari 'untitled' (1999)
12. high places 'from stardust to sentience' (2008)
-Jams are not in order, my apologies.
Image: High Places courtesy of the amazing Todd Seelie
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