Three songs totaling three-quarter hours. That’s a scenario you’d expect from masterful instrumental acts like Godspeed You! Black Emperor or early electronic geniuses like Klaus Schulze. In a way, on Aerial Roots CJ Boyd channels both artists. He has the instrumental aspects of the former and the minimalist drone of the later. “Everytime I Don The Ski Mask” mixes various loops and, for the most part, maintains a delicate balance between complex minimalism and meditative consistency. Aerial Roots is an expansive aural state of being on par with the metaphysical experience.

What makes Boyd’s music intriguing is his seemingly sole use of acoustics. There are loops, and ethereal electronic drones, but the melody is carried by what sounds like an acoustic bass, an acoustic guitar, and occasional percussion. There are moments of paroxysms in which sound build to explosive heights, but for the most part Boyd maintains the calm, reigns it in, and, in a way, tames it. Instrumental, Aerial Roots is a beast ready to pounce but it never quite does. Boyd has pieced together a sound that yearns for more but, as much as it wants to, never quite gives in to temptation.

CJ Boyd: We Know Time (Excerpt) [mp3]

Joyful Noise Recordings [CD, 2009]

1. Everytime I Don The Ski Mask
2. Pensive Pez
3. We Know Time

Dub and DIY punk are gaining in momentum, a natural progression of the fuzzed out pop that’s been inundating the indie airwaves. The new album, Bell Ord Forrest, by Kansas City dub-noise duo I Love You fits this classification. With an angst-generating array of synth melodies and tripped-out production, the album opens with an undeniable pinnacle, “The Colloquialism Is Simply ‘Gas’”. As the song dives into the repetitive closing synth and bass lines, one is treated to a drone of greatness.

As the album continues with “This Is The Best Birthday Ever”, it becomes clear that I Love You is a duo that knows and lives fun. There’s a chaos in the music they make, an unquestionable avant noise; but it’s backed by a consistency and an organization that assembles a makeshift order like the Fibonacci sequence in nature. This is a band that builds upon structure, as heard in the final two tracks, “Pillow Talk” and “Sorry I Drank Your Soda”, and they’re not about taking that order and fucking it up a bit. It’s a quality every single great experimental noise band possesses, and it’s one that I Love You has mastered.

From two brief instrumental forays (“Freelance Pedestrian” and “Graceland Is Better Without Elvis”) to an epic drug-referencing 8-minute noise-jam (“Making Snow Angels In Angel Dust”), there’s an inevitable conclusion here. I’ve heard several great albums from the Joyful Noise family over the past two years, and Bell Ord Forrest is the unequivocal favorite.

I Love You: The Colloquialism Is Simply “Gas” [mp3]

Joyful Noise Recordings [CD, 2009]

1. The Colloquialism Is Simply “Gas”
2. This Is The Best Birthday Ever
3. Freelance Pedestrian
4. Cliff Drive Nights
5. Making Snow Angels In Angel Dust
6. Graceland Is Better Without Elvis
7. Pillow Talk
8. Sorry I Drank Your Soda

What a strange batch of Greek inspired gypsies Hermit Thrushes appear to be. Their alt-pop/folk is as intriguing as a businessman at Hempfest. And their slightly obtuse yet captivating sophomore release Slight Fountain crosses forward and backwards between obscurity and acoustic purity. Their songs are short in length, but not in passion. A true testament to all confusing folk developers everywhere.

It seems to be no secret that Hermit Thrushes prefer a bit of a darker take on songwriting. With lyrics like Kiss the fish/ Let the poison drip down your lips or Tell me that my hair looks nice/ Scratch your ear across the string, it should be acceptable to think this. So, it’s not quite Danzig material but, still peculiar none the less. Even though this album’s moves through tracks faster than OJ on a busy freeway, it still has a very full and entertaining collection of tunes.

Though simple by nature, these guys take you on a smooth trip through the strange. Leave your folk rock premonitions at the beaded doorway when you flip your Zune to Slight Fountain. It is worldly but not wordy. It is painstakingly mature at moments. But, delightfully mild mannered at others. Hermit Thrushes is one of those bands you can continue to enjoy through divorce or wildfire. You just know they’re not going to upset you in any way possible.

Hermit Thrushes: Snowflake Heart [mp3]

Joyful Noise Recordings [CD, 2009]

1. Snowflake Heart
2. Ceci
3. Push
4. Golden Wounds
5. Broken Adze
6. Song From Boat
7. Black Cat
8. Older Trees
9. Headless
10. Found House
11. Gooseneck
12. Perla
13. An Oil Fruit
14. A Good Dream

Joyful Noise is set to release yet another great album this year, this time by fellow Indiana band Marmoset. Contrary to what you’d expect from a label titled Joyful Noise, the collective of artists rarely warrants the “noise” label. And Marmoset follows suit; their music instead clashes modern garage rock sensibilities with the hazy garage rock of the 60s and 70s.

Throughout Tea Tornado, Marmoset keeps the guitars clean but gravely and the percussion consistently abrupt. “Written Today” and “Come With Me” both have a bouncy feel but err you call them pop — many of Tea Tornado‘s tracks, like “Empty Room”, have the laid back swagger of a right true rock tune, but even at their most bouncy, Marmoset rarely enters the realm of pop. It’s too raw to fit that description.

“Strawberry Shortcakes” and “Peach Cobbler”, despite delicious titles, have the gritty, stripped-down sound made popular by artists like Vaselines. Still, Tea Tornado is not without a few surprises, like the bizarre, fuzzed-out “He’s Been Napping” and the layered vocal parts in “Run Away, Teri”.

Tea Tornado is an excellent window into a group that has weathered nearly a decade and a half (Marmoset was formed in 1995), and still has the ability to pump out an excellent album packed with tracks poised to make the underground garage rock fan drool with delight.

Marmoset: Peach Cobbler [mp3]

Marmoset: Run Away, Teri [mp3]

Joyful Noise Recordings [CD, 2009]

1. Written Today
2. Empty Room
3. Strawberry Shortcakes
4. He’s Been Napping
5. Come With Me
6. Toy
7. Hallway
8. Peach Cobbler
9. Musing
10. Gretchen
11. Run Away, Teri
12. You, Blueberry Muffin
13. I Love My Things
14. Oh’ Dear Handlebars

They call it Joyful Noise, and while the title is fit for an LP, it’s not the name of Hi Red Center‘s latest release. No, that was dubbed Assemble and it can be found on the record label of that name: Joyful Noise Recordings. It sure fits; Hi Red Center’s music is a bit out there, with wild guitars, barbershop quartet-like compounded vocals, and seemingly randomness when it comes to instrumentation, these guys have a very interesting but equally refreshing sound.

A good distinction for this band’s sound is their song “Symmetry Chameleon”. The music is symmetrical in that everything apparently fits in its proper place. Yet it has chameleon-like elements – it’s an eclectic being, always changing color and sound and it’s adding and subtracting things constantly. But it works and it’s what Hi Red Center does well. Assemble, as mentioned before, is out now on Joyful Noise Recordings.

Hi Red Center: Symmetry Chameleon [mp3]