Buke and Gase

[Jeremy Blackman]

I think they deserve a thread.

Watch this and try not to fall in love with them.

[matt35mm]

I did fall in love.

[Pedro]

That's some impressive and challenging stuff.  I really enjoyed it.  How does the performance compare to the records?

[Jeremy Blackman]

If the album were more consistent, it would have been in my top 3. There are a lot of experiments and throwaway tracks. They put all their best songs in that performance (except Medicina), which is promising, because they know those are their best songs. When they're good, they're amazing.

In terms of sound, the album is almost identical. No additional instruments. (None are needed.) They're sharp performers, so you won't see much difference in their playing or the vocal performance. It's a better mix (obviously), louder where it should be, and the vocals come through better.

[RegularKarate]

Yeah, I really like this.  I'll have to check out the album.

I love the structure and instrumentation... not so big on her voice, but she still really sells it.

[Jeremy Blackman]

Medicina is shaping up to be one of my favorites. It's a three-part song (arguably four) delivered in under four minutes, and it totally works. My favorite is part two, in which this line is convincingly sung:

"I stayed here hatin', achin', weepin', hiding my head in my underarms..."

It's funny, people get hung up on the homemade instruments, but I think Arone's voice is one of the highlights of the band. When a unique vocalist works for me, they really work. See also: La Roux...

[RegularKarate]

It's funny, people get hung up on the homemade instruments, but I think Arone's voice is one of the highlights of the band.

I'm not "hung up" on anything, I just think her voice is just kinda so-so.  She does what she can with it, but she doesn't have a naturally expressive voice.

"La Roux"... haha... I loved that album for two months then had to delete it because of how much I hate to hear it now.

[Jeremy Blackman]

I'm not "hung up" on anything, I just think her voice is just kinda so-so.  She does what she can with it, but she doesn't have a naturally expressive voice.

True. It's a highly affected, somewhat nasally voice... yet it completely works for me. I think she can be very expressive with it, but you're right, it's not really "natural" when that happens.

"La Roux"... haha... I loved that album for two months then had to delete it because of how much I hate to hear it now.

I completely understand that, and there was probably a 50% chance of me going the same way.

Re: Getting hung up on the instruments. I meant that it's the main focus of all the news stories on them, and all the interviews, which annoys me to a degree, because I think their songwriting and vocals are more impressive than their sound.

Nevertheless, it's a two-way street, as they say—their homemade instruments probably account for the existence of 90% of those news stories and interviews.

[Jeremy Blackman]

Their latest album, General Dome, is very good.

It's more consistently challenging and intricate than Riposte. I've had two listens and I feel like there's still a lot more to dig into. Everything is really twisty, and the melodies are often fighting through dissonance. Very interesting stuff.

Favorites so far:

Contortion In Training
Hard Times
Cyclopean
Houdini Crush
Twisting the Lasso of Truth

[Jeremy Blackman]

No takers? It's a pretty amazing album. Perhaps some filler here and there, and some of the outros are too long, but when it's great it's transcendently great. "Contortion In Training" and "Hard Times" are so so good. A new one I really like is "In the Company of Fish."