game fuel

halo 3 came out today. this picture pretty much sums up all my feelings here.

A Place To Bury Strangers

A Place to Bury Strangers - S/T
(2007, Killer Pimp)

a place to bury strangers is just rad. really freaking rad. upbeat, shoegaze, noiserock, darkwave. all elements written excellently. the singer of this band designs guitar pedals for a lot of other more famous bands. so he knows something about tones and noises. i picture him shrouded behind a curtain infront of a football field's worth of effects boxes with a malicious grin on his face. this record is really good, and very catchy. it has a nostalgia to it, with warm reverb and vocals that sound like they never made it out of 1989. i can't say it's incredibly original, especially with a track that starts out almost a note for note, tone for tone rip off of My Bloody Valentine's "Only Shallow". All its elements are borrowed, but borrowed from things so almost forgotten that it sounds very fresh to me, and reenergized by a definite seriousness here. i just want to know where in brooklyn this group finds a rehearsal space where they could possibly be this LOUD.

M83

M83- "Digital Shades, Vol. 1" (Mute, 2007)

a slow evening without anybody to hang out with except for my dog. so i gave her a bath, wrapped her in towels, squeezed her warm clean furry body in a bear hug, and listened to this. my first thoughts were that it didn't sound as qualified as other M83 releases, and couldn't possibly be an official studio album. i was right- it's really not- but in the end the difference was wonderful. m83 has been a favorite of mine for years, but i've sort of left them out of the player for awhile since their face melting 2005 release, "Before the Dawn Heals Us" (which is brilliant). i didn't anticipate them going anywhere BIGGER than they had achieved with Tony Gonzales' production on that record. it sounded immense and dramatic, amazing but also more guitar driven than ever before. m83's brilliance is in their invention of lush synthesized atmospheres- ones that sound like guitars but aren't. the title of this new record gives away its aim. it's a collection of more ambient pieces, assembled into a sort of compliation, the first of more, perhaps. in any case, it's warm, fuzzy, and totally eno (meaning Brian, not an "emo" with a typo). very simple, but inviting enough that i listened to it twice through tonight. it'll be on my regular rotation for my low key evenings for now.