The early bird gets the worm

I’m a bit of a terror for missing support acts whenever I go to a gig (but I generally don’t stand down the back and talk once I’m there). This happened yet again on Thursday night, I keep hearing from everyone how good St. Vincent was. So my New Year’s resolution is to make it to gigs on time (and quit the smokes, again!). I’ve already got my eye on the Explosions in the Sky gig in Tripod on January 26th. I’m a big post-rock fan, and EITS fit nicely into this category. Dramatic, quiet/loud, instrumental, melodic music – they tick all the right boxes really. Considering I’ll probably be back on the tabs by then, I should get myself down there early and fulfill at least one resolution. Thankfully, support on the night comes from Mr Matthew Cooper, AKA Eluvium. I’ve been listening to some of his recent releases this week, and they are nothing short of gorgeous! I knew nothing about Cooper until the promoter brought him to my attention recently (cheers B!). He has dabbled in electronic composition, but seems to favour a more organic, orchestral approach these days. He has received a deluge of gushing reviews and critical acclaim. Metacritic lists his new album, Copia as the 17th best of the year, calculated by the average rating he has received from internet reviews.

Cooper is based in Portland, Oregon (a hotbed of talent, with an electronic scene as healthy as Berlin), a city that must have a low cost of living, or excellent facilities for artists and musicians, as so many interesting bands/musicians/artists/designers seem to reside there. Eluvium are signed to legendary post-rock label, Temporary Residence, also home to EITS, Cex, Tarantel, Fridge, and Mono in the US.

Recent reviews of Copia have compared Cooper’s work to Eno in his prime, Phillip Glass, and Gorecki. So the critics seem to love Eluvium, but there’s a worry that an artist of this calibre could still remain merely a blogging phenomenon or a well kept secret, as I don’t think the album has been picked up by a European label, and print reviews are still pretty thin on the ground. It’s worth getting there early and checking Eluvium out, Cooper may not be back for a while.

It’s also worth noting, the beautiful artwork for Copia and Eluvium’s previous EP, When I Live By The Garden And The Sea. Artist Jeannie Paske is responsible for both, you can check out more of her work here.

Before I was so rudely interrupted

So here I am, trying to catch up on some blogging (especially my irrelevant rant on the state of live music in Ireland), when all of a sudden I’m interrupted by a new album that arrived to my door yesterday.

Ladies and gentlemen, hold off on those end of year album polls, we may have a late contender. I don’t know too much about them yet, but I’m on my third listen already today of the new Le Loup album, The Throne Of The Third Heaven Of The Nations’ Millenium General Assembly, and it sounds really great. I don’t want to jinx it, but it sounds a little bit like Sufjan crossed with a hint of Maps, but in a good way. The singer’s voice is quite similar, and the trademark banjo features heavily. There are some great electronic bits too, lots of bleeps, squelches, soft synths, and vocoders. That’ll do me!

Here’s a link to an mp3 of what I think is the best song on the album, as it’s not on their myspace.

Let’s see if I still feel the same way next month. Anyway, back to moaning about gigs….