Silver and Gold

In Girl Scouts, we were told to "Make new friends but keep the old/One is silver and the other gold." This same approach applies wonderfully to music, and for the rest of the week I'd like to post about one old (to me) and one new album I'm enjoying. Fall is here and with it the usual avalanche of new releases. Because my new release for today is so badass, and not available for another week, I'm posting about two old releases you can get your mitts on now.

The first, above, is Panda Bear's Person Pitch, which I came to pretty late in the game (it was released this April). Someone did play it for me around that time, but only now am I feeling the Brian Wilson-underwater vibe of this Animal Collective dude's solo project. It's the perfect length (45 minutes) to go with a mild painkiller, though you'll feel relaxed even without one. Panda references a mind-boggling array of artists in the liner notes (Luomo, Sam Cooke, Kylie, Villalobos, Duran Duran, Bob Marley, Ghostface Killah, etc) but Basic Channel is the first and, I think, most resonant- besides Brian Wilson, underwater. It's amazing.   

Gold album #2- London dub producer Burial's debut from last September. I also came to this waaay late, after everyone proclaimed it last year's best, but that's perfect because I'm not sick of it now, when it most goes along with our increasingly crap weather. This is one of those that I paid $17 for and it was worth every penny. If you haven't yet heard this and you have any sort of affinity for "Teardrop"-style Massive Attack, outer space reggae, and/or ambient, you'll be very, very pleased.

Finally, the Silver pick of the day is Anders Trentemoller's Chronicles, a double-disc of the minimal/tech-house producer's best work and remixes. You can pick this bad boy up on October 9th, the day after he performs at Neumo's. It's better than his recent artist album The Last Resort, with one CD of tracks previously only found on 12"'s, and one CD of remixes. Highlights: a killer reworking of Royksopp's "What Else Is There," Sharon Philips' "Want 2/Need 2," which should have been this year's summer jam, and Filur's "You and I," which I've just listened to 12 times in a row. Even Moby's "Go," which people have tried and failed to improve on for about 15 years, is given a bizarrely beautiful treatment. Check him out on Myspace, and see you at the show!

Happy listening!