Asthmatic Kitty Records

Mythomania

admin — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:55:00 +0000

There’s always something quirky about the artists signed to Asthmatic Kitty Records. For Cryptacize, who joined the Asthmatic family about two years ago, their quirkiness is in their simplistic, clever sound and carefree, humorous presentation of themselves. Their first music video, “Cosmic Sing-a-Long,” featured a glorified cowbell scene and kumbaya still shots of the band members playing together.

The band’s non-serious, comical image of themselves was matched with their first album’s simplicity, but as Cryptacize continues to find themselves, their second album, Mythomania, reveals new dimensions and depth, which only build on their initial signature sound. Though many artists have suffered from a lost disjointedness in their second albums, Cryptacize elevates the dreamy quality to their music, reinventing themselves with fresh vocal and instrumental relationships, while maintaining the unique qualities that brought them to their prolific record label in the first place.

Mythomania, presents a band recognizing and coming closer to fulfilling their talent. The first track of the album, “Tail and Mane” starts off in a complicated hurry with guitars imitating the sound of accordions and ruined cassette tape. When the song gets going, the instrumentals carry on with eager excitement, while Nedelle Torrisi’s vocals glide with unassuming ease and freedom. Her voice floats above the background, airy but not breathy, like many of her fellow female indie rock musicians sometimes are guilty of. The juxtaposition of speedy instruments with slow, melodic vocals is a consistent component of the album, creating a sound that can make you either want to groove, sing along passionately, or both, simultaneously.

Though the tone of Torrisi’s voice remains calm and placid regardless of subject matter, a closer listen reveals intriguing lyrics and piques one’s curiosity. In “New Spell,” she sings, “The world may want to change/But for now it’s still the same,” a striking proclamation—yet the significance of which is masked by her languid exterior. Overall, the use of this tone creates an interesting relationship with the theatrical giddiness of the instrumentals, off shooting it so that it remains theatrical and exciting, but clever instead of ridiculous.

With every listen of Mythomania, more and more is revealed about Cryptacize. While other albums can become one dimensional and lose depth after listened to more than a few times, Mythomania unfolds to display ideas and depth too great to take in on one listen, or even two. This album is one that a listener can grow with just as the band itself grows into their own sound.

Written by: Marielle Mondon, June 22nd 2009

A Thousand Shark's Teeth

admin — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 23:39:00 +0000

By My Brightest Diamond

Asthmatic Kitty Records

Late last November, My Brightest Diamond came through my town. I'd heard the name before and was slightly curious, even read a bit about them in the music press. Nevertheless, I didn't go to the show. In hindsight, my decision to skip the concert was a big mistake.

But let's back up for a bit. To refer to My Brightest Diamond as a "them" is both right and wrong. While the official MySpace page cites over a dozen contributors, and the CD liner notes are jam-packed with names, the captain at the helm of this sonic ship is thirty-four year old Shara Worden. My Brightest Diamond is her project, and her polished poperatic (that's pop operatic) style permeates everything she touches. A Thousand Shark's Teeth—an album six years in the making that Worden wrote, produced, and arranged herself—is the second installment in this multi-talented musician's grandiose vision.

Hailing from a musically-inclined family, Worden was raised on a steady diet of classical music, gospel, and jazz. As an adult, she went on to earn a degree in opera from the University of North Texas. She plays at least ten instruments—including piano, accordion, guitar, ukulele, and kalimba (African thumb piano). While her classical influences range from Debussy to Pierre Boulez, her pop music sensibilities stem in part from her love of Edith Piaf and Threepenny Opera composer Kurt Weill. She is also an acolyte of the late Jeff Buckley, a musician to whom she is routinely compared. Her cabaret sensibilities are reflected in her stage shows, which often incorporate elaborate costumes, puppetry, and dance.

A Thousand Shark's Teeth is an engulfing record, steeped in luxurious orchestration and seemingly infatuated with all things heavenly; each of the eleven songs is full of words to indicate this. Take, for instance, "Inside a Boy" ("We are stars colliding/We crash like lightning/into love") or "Ice and The Storm" ("I want a storm to blow it out"). There's a windblown rainstorm brewing in "Black and Costaud." You can hear it in the music. It's a tune full of swollen clouds and sweeping cinematic menace, the sort of song that seems well suited to illustrate the inner turmoil of a character in contemporary ballet.

For all of its grand swelling opulence, My Brightest Diamond also embrace the everyday minutiae of love, especially with the charmer "If I Were Queen," a song that relishes even those meaningless quarrels every couple has: "We'd collect things and we could argue where to put them."

I cannot help but think of A Thousand Shark's Teeth as a headphones-at-home-on-a-Sunday-afternoon sort of album. I should know. I've tried to listen to it under more active circumstances, such as while riding the bus or on walks around the park. There's just too much going on in Shara Worden's musical microcosm to take everything in when there are distractions. Worden savors the little details, and in doing so, creates music that must be appreciated with the same sort of intimacy and zeal.

Written by: M. Brianna Stallings, February 13th 2009

Split Lips, Winning Hips, A Shiner

admin — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 03:07:00 +0000

By Shapes and Sizes

Asthmatic Kitty Records

The self-proclaimed neat-freaks in Victoria, British Columbia-based quartet Shapes and Sizes have crafted a genre defying sophomore album that begs you to rethink the way that you listen to music. Split Lips, Winning Hips, A Shiner is a perfectly whimsical combination of lowbrow tartiness and heartfelt emotional awareness.

Released on Sufjan Stephen’s label, Asthmatic Kitty Records, Split Lips is already eligible for a Quebec Independent Music Award. Lead vocalists Caila Thompson-Hannant and Rory Seydel color outside the lines of what is traditionally considered masculine and feminine with their often sugary sweet vocals melding together so flawlessly in some songs that you almost forget both genders are at play. To say this album is all over the map would be an understatement, but that proves to be both its greatest strength and weakness. The vocal experimentation on “Highlife (I Had Been Duped)” exemplifies Split Lips, with Thompson-Hannant coercing the listener into the song with her slightly off-key poppy ramblings followed by orgasmic screams and a makeshift bar-room sing-along followed by what vocally sounds like a nervous breakdown. The emotionally vulnerable track “The Taste In My Mouth” makes a socially poignant statement about domestic abuse, while the track “The Horse’s Mouthy Mouth” deals with nothing more than, “generally fucking shit up.” Split Lips is refreshingly avant garde in a manner that is so intellectually taxing that it requires your undivided attention.

Written by: Claire Ashton, June 15th 2007