a r t i s t : The Mae Shi
t i t l e : Hlllyh
d a t e : 2008
l a b e l : easel
g e n r e : Indie
r l s. d a t e : Mar/2008
t r a c k s : 16
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 70,4 MB
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Japanese Edition with 2 Bonus Tracks!
Listener beware: If indie affectations such as tides of vocal
harmonies, video game MIDI programming and Casio beats,
concept albums, religious themes, or concept albums with
religious themes give you ulcers, then HLLLYH might sent you
running to your nearest message board to brag about how many
songs it took you to erase it from your hard drive.
But for anyone who's followed the Mae Shi, this has to come as
some sort of payoff. The band has quit cramming as many
breakneck riffs as possible into each convulsive track,
chilled the fuck out, and begun to focus on linear songs. More
than that, the L.A. six-piece has finally made an album that
matches their grand ambitions, one that weaves most of their
songwriting tricks together with some new ideas, and manages
to be listenable and cohesive.
This is the band who sold "mixtape" CD-Rs containing several
hundred of their favorite songs at a few seconds each and DVDs
with 30-plus videos, built their own synths, called previous
albums "hip-hoperas" while sounding like the ugly rejected
bits of new-wave at 77 RPM, and talked all sorts of shit while
reigning spaz-rock terror on any club, supporting slot, or Bar
Mitzvah that would have them. No longer; they now walk the
walk.
Vocalist Ezra Buchla (late of the excellent Gowns) has left
the group, and his strangulated squall has been replaced by
Jonathan Gray, who's got a slightly calmer yet still excitable
voice. The band itself retains a caffeinated anxiousness that
can make the hairs on your arm stand up, and Gray's self-
harmonizing sounds desperately cheerful and pained to
persuade, like the last plea for everyone to take the first
sip of spiked Kool-Aid. That's no accident: Many of these
songs aim for "inspirational." But even with the relentless
perk and the seemingly Bible-thumping lyrics, they're still
subversive and individualist.
"Run to Your Grave" is the best summation of the record, and
its high-water mark. Here, the lyrics sidle basic can't-take-
it-with-you sentiments next to more subtle observations
("Emotion is a simple test to the synapse/ Don't let it fool
you into thinking that you've got brains"), while the
keyboards are sunny enough to burn flesh. On this track and
elsewhere, Gray over-eagerly pushes us towards rapturous
surrender, including a maybe-too-excited call for some old
fashioned soul-reaving on "Pwnd" ("Do it fast! Make it hurt!")
and a lockstep denial of emotion and independent thought on
"Grave". Likewise, the singer of "Young Marks" praises holy
war as "noble and divine" through enough Autotune to induce
laughing fits, and the campfire over-assurances of closer
"Divine Harvest" (which let us know "It'll be over when you
die," with a rousing clamor at the end) are hardly calming.
Even without those themes, the Mae Shi run through a gauntlet
of gaudy ideas without ever losing steam, like the fleet-
fingered riffs of "Boys in the Attic" (see what they did
there?) or the community-theater shuffle of "7xx7", while
memories of Nintendo loom large on "The Melody" and the
ominous closing minutes of "Leech and Locust". All the shrill
exultation and greasy glisten of hyper-compressed guitars and
loping Casios build up to something like an album-length
musical for the tweakers in after-school detention by a band
that sounds the way Ecto-Cooler tasted.
But it wouldn't be the Mae Shi without pushing themselves just
beyond the reach of their ability, or letting listeners get
too comfortable for too long. To wit: "Kingdom Come" is an 11
-minute techno megamix of every song on the album, and it sits
right in the middle of it. It's awful. But it would have been
an enormous cop-out to put it at the end of the record or bury
it as a hidden track, which they're probably aware of. Kudos
to them for running headlong into their ambitions; they've
earned the privilege.
(http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/48567-
hlllyh)
american labelsite:
(http://www.moshimoshimusic.com/releases/the-mae-shi/hlllyh)
japanese labelsite:
(http://www.easelmusic.jp/maeshi.html)
myspace:
(http://www.myspace.com/themaeshi)
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01-Lamb & Lion [02:24]
02-Pwnd [02:49]
03-Boys In The Attic [01:25]
04-7 x x 7 [02:03]
05-The Melody [02:18]
06-Leech & Locust [02:45]
07-Run To Your Grave [03:53]
08-Kingdom Come [11:37]
09-I Get (Almost) Everything I Want [03:44]
10-Party Politics [02:14]
11-Young Marks [02:06]
12-Book of Numbers [01:56]
13-HLLLYH [04:56]
14-Divine Harvest [02:15]
15-Boes (Jap. Bonus Track) [01:58]
16-Run to the Facts (Jap. Bonus Track) [02:36]
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50:59 min