Louis Korom IV

Louis Korom IV is a writer and designer living in Denton, Texas.

ZOE.LEELA: Queendom Come

 Posted by Louis Korom IV  1 Response »
Jul 092010
 

Free Release Friday
ZOE.LEELA: Queendom Come
2010, Rec72
Download Here

Rating: 5.0

Dance music.  Yes, and not just any dance music, German dance music.  And what’s to say that hasn’t already been said by an American about their European counterparts?  Nothing.  Which begs the question, why dig this mine any deeper?

ZOE.LEELA is an emerging voice in the German dance music scene, and she plays that part conservatively.  She has an amazing single on this EP, “Destroy She Says,” a lively, catchy dance tune that would feel at home in any dance music collection.  Its fierce, yet textbook, rhythmic guitar hook keeps the tune straddling the great dance music chasm that separates annoying and brilliant.  And on this track, ZOE.LEELA seems to aspire to reach the brilliant side of the chasm, using textbook 90s dance vocals and a simple, understated hook that plays for your attention.  But this is the sole highlight on this EP.  ZOE.LEELA’s textbook approach to dance music reveals she plays her archetype too close to the hip. …Continue reading this entry

 Free Music Friday, Music

Kings Go Forth: The Outsiders Are Back

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Jul 072010
 

Kings Go Forth: The Outsiders Are Back
2010, Luaka Bop

Rating: 6.5

In the late 1990s, a ska revival began to sweep across the United States.  Like the years prior with punk, this seemed to be the time that America let ska break into the mainstream.  Enter Moon Ska Records, a record label via the Moon Ska record store and ska band the Toasters.  Moon Ska was a legendary ska label that put out some of the best third-wave and ska revival records of the time.  Mustard Plug, The Slackers, and the Pietasters all had records on the legendary Moon Ska label; however, Moon also put out some of the most sentimental ska-revival junk that ever was pressed to record.  There was a healthy dose of mediocrity throughout the label’s many releases, many of these records products of the revivalist culture that promoted and recorded boring, ready-made arrangements, ready to feed the ska revival culture.  These records made up the genre’s low point. …Continue reading this entry

 Music

Adam & Alma: Back to the Sea

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Jul 022010
 

Free Release Friday
Adam & Alma: Back to the Sea
2010, 23 Seconds Netlabel
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Rating: 7.8

Adam & Alma are a deceptive electronic duo.  They are equal parts American indie rock, European trip-hop, and 80s electronic pop nostalgia.  The group sounds like a thesis statement of all that is good about electronic music over the last 10 years.  The only problem is that they don’t sell themselves, literally and musically. …Continue reading this entry

 Free Music Friday, Music

why: THE SOUNDTRACK TO why’s (poignant) guide to ruby

 Posted by Louis Korom IV  1 Response »
Jun 252010
 

Free Release Friday
why (performed slapdash by the paper cups): THE SOUNDTRACK TO why’s (poignant) guide to ruby
self-released
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Rating: 8.2

I love lo-fi.  I count Pavement’s Slanted and Enchanted and Guided By Voices’ Bee Thousand among my favorite records.  I can get past the nastiness of the recording style, and no, it doesn’t bother me.  That being said, I do not make this recommendation to you without similar pretense.  You have to have a heart for the stuff I write below in order to be able to like this release. …Continue reading this entry

 Free Music Friday, Music

Broken Bells: Broken Bells

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Jun 222010
 

Broken Bells: Broken Bells
2010, Columbia

Rating: 8.3

Bands like the Shins have to be completely unforgiving for gifted songwriters.  You have a band that evokes a time, place, and aesthetic so skillfully that when they don’t execute the form, the album just feels flat.

The Shins’ 2007 effort, Wincing the Night Away, didn’t impress me because of this very fact.  I was one of the many caught off guard by James Mercer’s forays into a more diversely arranged version of the Shins.  Perhaps it was that I didn’t spend any real time with the record that made me turned off by the new endeavors, or, perhaps, it was that Mercer wasn’t executing with his band that seemed like it could do no wrong.  I suspect the latter. …Continue reading this entry

 Music

Kaneel: Here Is a Heart So You Can Remember How Much I Hate You

 Posted by Louis Korom IV  1 Response »
Jun 182010
 

Free Release Friday
Kaneel: Here is a heart so you can remember how much I hate you
2010, petite&jolie
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Rating: 8.7

Here is a heart so you can remember how much I hate you is an amazing gem of an electronic record.  It doesn’t flash the listener with deep bass, pounding sound textures, or sugary-sweet pop hooks.  This is a record for the pure examination of melody and textured percussion, an interplay so delicate that it feels like the electronic expansion of the classical sound palate. …Continue reading this entry

 Free Music Friday, Music

Exit Through the Gift Shop

 Posted by Louis Korom IV  7 Responses »
Jun 052010
 


Exit Through the Gift Shop
dir. Banksy
2010, Paranoid Pictures

Rating: 9.0

“What is art?” Sit around any artist, and they will endlessly ponder this question.

Allow me to suggest a definition:  art is any message that takes an individual (or group) to take extra-ordinary means to communicate a message. 

An artist’s great payoff is the audience’s reaction and, if that artist is blessed enough, some influence of the message will permeate the thinking of the audience.  The result is that the medium is a symbiotic relationship between artist and audience, each communicating in such a way that, if the art is successful, stirs emotions and thoughts that perhaps influences the world just a bit because that art exists. …Continue reading this entry

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