Monday, July 4, 2016

Aereogramme - Sleep and Release (2003)


One of my all-time favorite alt rock records, from Scotland's sadly defunct Aereogramme. It's angsty and musically all over the place, and they make this clear right off the bat with a 1-2-3 punch that jumps from flawless, layered guitar crunch ("Indiscretion Number 243") to starry-eyed, string-saturated dream pop ("Black Path") to dark, electro-tinged post-rock ("A Simple Process of Elimination.") But it all flows quite well -- thanks in part to atmospheric vignettes that tie most of the tracks together -- to create a dynamic, engaging, and moving whole.

Track listing:
1. Indiscretion Number 243
2. Black Path
3. A Simple Process of Elimination
4. Older
5. No Really, Everything Is Fine
6. Wood
7. Yes
8. In Gratitude
9. A Winter's Discord
10. Untitled

The reason we're all disfigured

You might also wanna hear:
Hum -
Downward Is Heavenward (1998)
Matthew Sweet -
Kimi Ga Suki (Raifu) (2004)

3 comments:

  1. This is a great album, perfect mix of beauty and force. I was actually lucky enough to catch them live at the time, maybe 10 people there, they killed. I think one of these guys is in Chvrches now.

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  2. YES! I love this album too, and I'm jealous of Bill for seeing them live! Iain Cook was the lead guitarist in Aereogramme, and is now in Chvrches. Craig B, singer/guitarist for Aereogramme, was in the great math rock instrumental band Ganger. Stars Of The Lid took their band name from a Ganger song title.

    "In Gratitude" from Sleep & Release is a great one for romantic mixtapes. Somewhere I have a strange cover version of MJ's "Thriller" by Aereogramme. "Loud quiet loud" is a cliche, but Aereogramme achieved a wonderful balance that I might call "beauty noise beauty" (until I think of a better phrase).

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