Dylan LeBlanc, Cast the Same Old Shadow

If somebody writes songs that stick in the mind, and it's moody fare, and there's something about the voice and the arrangements that put it above the rest, then I'm there. That describes Dylan LeBlanc and his new album, Cast the Same Old Shadow (Rough Trade). I wont say Tim Buckley is what he sounds like, but he does have that upper range, his lyrics have something to them and he plays a kind of folkish guitar in accompaniment.

It has a slight country feel to it, especially when the petal steel is going, but it's more in alt rock territory with its quirkiness and edge.

Songs are what it's about. Songs about dreams, stories, movies for the ear and imagination....

Efterklang, Piramida

The latest Efterklang album Piramida (4AD) is both a fascinating concept album and a musical triumph of sorts. Essentially they went on a nine-day expedition a year ago last August to the island Spitsbergen, located near the North Pole. They explored the falling-to-ruin ghost town Piramida, which was rapidly abandoned in the '90s and now stands unoccupied.

This trip and the enigma of the ruin, through samples and general inspiration, form the concept around the album.

The music itself is a kind of alternative masterwork. It has the songs, synthetic or otherwise fullness of arrangement, and a haunting way about it. It is a lyrical joy and a definite innovation in the rock-post-prog world.

The music leaves me a bit speechless, so I don't have a lot to say about it right now. It has an elegant emptiness, a hollowed-out feeling of loss to it that reverberates with a world mood, or at least a personal one. It's pretty damned brilliant, I would say. But you listen and judge for yourself.