Led Zeppelin recorded in mansions, but today’s rock progenitors are recording their music in barns.

But you can’t tell that Oliver Perry, otherwise known as D.D Dumbo, recorded his debut by a stable. There isn’t a single whinny anywhere on the record, and he’s not making country music.

What’s he making? I suspect only Perry knows.

D.Dumbo is hard to define, and harder still to contextualize. Songs like “Satan”, which is about a UFO landing and the aliens among them (who are unaware of our own concept of Satan), completely defy our expectations for songwriting. Partly inspired by video game music, and largely inspired by alt-rock prog-rock geniuses like Radiohead, D.Dumbo’s debut is hard to predict.

This isn’t just about the music, either. In case you haven’t gathered, the lyrics are equally strange. Perry is writing about the modern-day “paranoid androids” of our future, about the end of the world and the death of religious tradition. And if you asked him, he might tell you the future is a dystopian utopia — an unpredictable cacophony. That’s how I’d describe his vision of where we’re going. It’s also how I’d describe his music.

Take the really weird songs, like “King Franco Picasso”, which has an industrial beat and an Alt-J like flow from verse to chorus and bridge. I don’t really even know how to describe his music, although “alternative” seems like an appropriate enough label.

I’m a particularly huge fan of “The Day I First Found God”, which reminds me of Radiohead and U2 and modern worship music all at the same time. (It could easily be argued that U2 is modern worship music, so there’s that.)

It blows me away that this is D.Dumbo’s debut record. Musically, his ideas are fully fleshed — if bizarre — and lyrically, he’s got the whole world as his oyster. Utopia Defeated is one of the best albums I’ve heard this year, and certainly among the best debuts I’ve heard this year. I’m eager to hear where he goes next, but I’m also eager to listen to Utopia Defeated again.

There’s depth to every track on this record. That means the album isn’t easy to absorb on first go, but it’s worth repeated listens. It rewards them. If you want to be surprised by an album, and you want something you can sink your teeth into, look no further than D.Dumbo’s Utopia Defeated.

The post D.D Dumbo: Utopia Defeated appeared first on Unsung Sundays.

And it’s going to be hard not to give it to them.

It’s obvious from “Move”, the album’s first track. Saint Motel is interested in writing pick-me-up music that grabs your attention and keeps it. The catchy chorus, the hook-filled verse, and even the production on the record are all punchy.

In a lot of ways, Saint Motel is beginning to feel like the spiritual successor to the harmless party music of yesteryear, like “Mambo No. 5”. I’m not saying that Saint Motel’s music sounds like “Mambo No. 5”. I’m arguing that they share the same spirit, the same mood, the same joy — and yes, they want the same thing. They want you to move to the groove.

Almost every track has the same level of catchiness and enthusiasm. I love the sax flairs in “Destroyer”. (And the lyrics are hilarious: “I don’t break hearts; I destroy them.” I flat-out giggled when I heard it the first time.) “Getaway” sounds like the sort of tune people would have danced to the old iPod commercials (and I’m looking forward to seeing the music video, which I hope times the cuts to the beat).

It’s not just the opening tracks that are catchy, either. Even the later tracks on the record, like “Local Long Distance Relationship (LA2NY)”, are inescapably catchy. Almost every song is danceable, and nearly every song will compel you to roll down the window and sing along. (My mark of a great sing-along record is one that I want to belt along with in the car.)

But the inarguable highlight of the record is “For Elise”, a Queen-like track that riffs off “Für Elise”. It’s everything that Saint Motel does well: it’s catchy, naturally, but it’s also lyrically clever. And the way it combines modern pop with Beethoven’s piano composition is very smart songwriting. It’s hard to discuss the track without superlatives, because it’s a flawless pop song.

With that in mind, there’s only one thing that saddens me about saintmotelevision. Not every track is as good as “For Elise” (although that might have been an impossible ask). That’s literally my only complaint about the whole record.

For fans of Jukebox the Ghost (and a few of the other indie pop darlings of the past decade), it’s impossible not to recommend saintmotelevision. It’s easy to put saintmotelevison on repeat and never turn off — which makes it, in my books, a stupendous indie pop record.

The post Saint Motel: saintmotelivision appeared first on Unsung Sundays.

For Before the Flood, a new documentary about global warming from Leonardo DiCaprio, Trent and Atticus have expanded their traditional boundaries. Before the Flood is the first time they’ve worked with “outsiders” on music, bringing in Mogwai and Gustavo Santaolalla (the composer behind Brokeback Mountain).

This lends an additional touch to the compositions. Gustavo’s horn work and textural abilities are a good match for the aesthetic qualities of Reznor and Ross. Mogwai’s tracks feel as if they come from an entirely different perspective, but rather than clashing with the other compositions, they add a variety that otherwise wouldn’t exist.

What’s most interesting about Mogwai’s tracks is how optimistic they sound, by comparison. Reznor and Ross are known for making uneasy music — or music that starts laid back and quickly decomposes — but Mogwai has a whole different feel. Check out “Ghost Nets”, a Mogwai track that’s bookended by the Reznor and Ross’s more “traditional” “And When the Sky Was Opened” and “Trembling”. “Ghost Nets” is an entirely different track, without the same elements of unease that riddle the others.

This is the variety that makes the record work as a whole. Unlike Trent and Atticus’s soundtrack for Gone Girl, which was both beautiful and exhausting, Before the Flood is easy to absorb as a whole. I firmly believe this is because of Mogwai’s contributions — the unsung heroes of the record.

You don’t need to watch Before the Flood to enjoy the music on stage here. In fact, I didn’t (and haven’t). I’m not even sure the documentary has premiered yet (I think it’s a television premiere to boot, and we don’t have cable). But even without seeing it, the level of sobriety on hand here — the hope for our planet’s future and the fear of its potential destruction — is plainly evident.

This is, in my opinion, the best work that Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have done together since The Social Network. It’s already become a staple in my ambient music collection.

The post Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross: Before the Flood appeared first on Unsung Sundays.

Corbin told me R & R was six years in the making, and put together entirely digitally over two countries in that time (Corbin is Canadian and Harmon is from Tennessee). As life changed for both rappers, so too did the record. Corbin and Harmon met each other at Flavor Fest in Tampa in 2010, and immediately knew they wanted to work together.

So this collaboration began in an effort to work long distance, put it together, and get it done. Six years later, after a number of highs and lows, the collaboration is over. There’s no chance you’ll see these guys tour together — the logistics won’t work — but making the project was a victory for the two family men.

And it’s a tremendous record. It might have taken six years to come together, but it doesn’t sound like it took that long. There are no signs of gestation anywhere.

More importantly, these two sound great together. They’re both great rappers with positive outlooks on life, and it’s refreshing to hear rappers who are focused on positivity.

In one telling moment on “Real Thugs” (my favourite track on the record), the duo samples Count Bass D. They turn the rapper’s one-off line “Real thugs don’t rap” into a fantastic, honest chorus. “Real Thugs” is one of those songs that works because of its reference to vintage hip hop. It strips the genre bare and naked, removes its showboating, and focuses on reality.

“Still Building” is my other favourite track on the record. The beat is great, the lyrics are clever, and the message is poignant.

I love it.

Lyrically, this is Christian hip hop. But I don’t think non-Christians would be bothered by it. If anything, this is a call for us to all get along together. It’s a reminder that we’re all humans, and that we all have to live and work together. The message is simple: we need to stand together when times get tough, and rejoice when things are good.

The whole album feels like a long period of rejoicing. There’s no negativity to be found here. These two guys are just glad to make music, and you can tell when you listen to it.

The album also packs together instrumental versions of each track, which is a great way to hear the record. The beats are definitely vintage, but they’re excellent. They sound ‘90s, but that style is still in, right? I’ve made a playlist with the instrumental tracks exclusively for work, and they make excellent music for focusing.

For a couple of independent rappers, R & R is a surprisingly strong record. It sounds indie — after all, this project spans six years and two countries — but it’s also at another level of creativity and talent. Travis Harmon and Jon Corbin have made a tremendous and positive record — and it’s nice to hear that music like this in a genre like hip hop.

The post R & R: Travis Harmon and Jon Corbin Are R & R appeared first on Unsung Sundays.