Mort Garson's Mother Earth's Plantasia is one of those quirks of history resurrected by the internet - and we're glad it has been rediscovered by a new generation.
Plantasia was originally conceived as an album of music for house plants to listen to (yup) and was given away for free to shoppers when they bought pot plants and other foliage friends from Mother Earth on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles.
Now more than 40 years on from its original 1976 release, Plantasia is being officially reissued for the first time in its history, and that means we can all enjoy Garson's plant-potty compositions on the iconic Moog synthesiser.
In all seriousness, it's a delightful and soothing retro listen that's already available digitally, with a physical release due to follow on June 21st 2019 that we suspect is likely to become a collector's item within a matter of a few years.
Garson's daughter, Day Darmet, says: "My dad would be totally pleased to know that people are really interested in this music that had no popularity at the time. He would be fascinated by the fact that people are finally understanding and appreciating this part of his musical career that he got no admiration for back then."
So why now? Interestingly enough, it's thanks to the discography database and marketplace Discogs, whose community have expressed growing interest in Mother Earth's Plantasia over the years.
Due to this exceptionally high demand, Discogs and Sacred Bones Records have opted for a formal reissue of the album, making it available both for digital download and in the upcoming physical print run to fill the gap in record collections around the world.
Sacred Bones have made the album available to listen on YouTube, along with all the usual streaming sites, so just hit play above to give it a listen and drift off back to the 1970s.
The back story to Laura Gibson's Empire Builder, released on April 1st on City Slang, is quite astonishing. Back in 2012, she released La Grande, and in the summer of 2014 she decided to relocate from Portland to New York - taking a break from music to study creative writing instead.
Her journey began with a trip on the Empire Builder, a rail route between the Pacific North West and Chicago that has legendary status in the US. This part of her story - a journey in the literal as well as the figurative sense - might be enough in its own right to inspire a collection of new songs, but it was eclipsed by the events that followed.
At the end of March 2015, a gas explosion blew up Gibson's apartment building, destroying almost everything she owned, including most of her recent work and all of her musical instruments. Two people were killed in the blast.
Empire Builder becomes a metaphor for this entire chapter in her life, from the initial rail ride, to the time spent completing her studies while sleeping on friends' couches and spare beds, and all while literally rebuilding her own empire, replacing not only the instruments she had lost, but the lyrics and music too.
The result is a quite incredible album, ten tracks that almost alternate between punchy defiance and melancholy reflection, lyrics that speak of loss, and of recovery, and of simply refusing to quit. These are the big feelings of every human life, and I think most listeners will find at least one track that resonates almost uncannily with their own life and experiences.
Not Harmless
The first of our preview tracks is Not Harmless, one of the more defiant tracks on Empire Builder, with a similarly feisty video you can watch below.
From the first second, Not Harmless is punchy in an instrumental style reminiscent of some of the best Tom Waits songs - heavy on percussion, on rhythm rather than melody, a slap beat that sustains through the whole track, creating a sense of time passing, a second by second tick-tock effect.
Gibson's own description of the song is similarly no-nonsense:
"In very simple terms, Not Harmless is about standing up for myself: defining womanhood on my own terms. It may be a critique of social expectations, but more so it's a critique of my own behaviour and insecurities. I must add that I have always, always wanted to write a song in which I was the villain, to hold that sort of agency, to reimagine myself in my most self-serving no-fucks-given form. So lines like, 'I'll be the thief you forgot to chase, the bramble sprung back in the hero's face' gave me great pleasure to write."
As for the video, director Derrick Belcham puts some context on the physical assaults suffered by Gibson throughout, as a metaphor for the assaults that come from within:
"It's an attempt to capture a multi-angle viewpoint of the various aspects of the singer's insecurities in the music video environment. Each of the dancers embodies a specific discomfort or complex that raises its head during the process of being on camera, exposing oneself through songwriting and 'being' in the world in general. Their actions reflect the shifting battle that an ego faces when the spotlight is turned on it."
Not Harmless is not the most 'listenable' song on Empire Builder, by any means - other tracks are more melodic, less confrontational on the ear, but of course that's not what everybody will be looking for from this album anyway. What the song does offer is a kind of inclusive defiance, almost a justification of relying on the darker side of your character when you need to find your inner strength, and I think that's something a lot of people will relate to as well.
Empire Builder
The title track is one of the most astonishing songs I've heard in recent years, a fist of emotion to punch into the chest of anyone who's ever lost somebody, and hoped to someday reconnect. I'm delighted to be able to preview this one below.
I had goosebumps within seconds of the start of the song, before Gibson began singing. There were tears in my eyes after the first few lines. Maybe the lyrics just hit home with me on this particular day, and there are certainly personal reasons for that, but I think I would have loved this song just as much if I had heard it for the first time on any other day. It's elegant, gentle, with a more muted percussion track that still echoes that sense of passing time; the inevitability of change.
"Oh, forget I said love.
And also don't forget I said love.
We are not alone
and we are more alone than we've ever been.
So hurry up and lose me
hurry up and find me again."
There's no long, slow fade at the end of the track, as you might expect, but an equally elegant end to the beat and a soft cymbal crash. It's a small symbol of the authenticity of this album - songs where the acoustics are held almost in a kind of reverence, given their own voice, not simply faded to silence when they are no longer needed. There's love here, and hope.
I'm in love with Empire Builder - the song and the album. It tackles the biggest emotions in all our lives without becoming pretentious. Musically it's beautiful, the very best qualities of its own time, with hints of half a century before it, the occasional lingering note that wouldn't be out of place in Unchained Melody or something similar. This is timeless subject matter, with enduring acoustics, and I look forward to revisiting Empire Builder time and again in the years ahead.
Bones is the latest album from Son Lux, AKA Denver-born musician Ryan Lott. It's his first album on Glassnote, after leaving Joyful Noise Recordings in 2014, but it bears all the hallmarks of an artist whose work is probably more widely known than his name is.
If you're not familiar with Son Lux, take a look back at our review of Lanterns in 2013; you can also hear Lott's work on the soundtrack to the Bruce Willis time-travel movie Looper, and on Ned Benson's 2013 trilogy The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby.
Bones is typically dramatic and fast-paced, an energetic and acoustically rich tapestry of music that yet again proves Lott's talent for composition in a genre he has all but made his own.
If you're the kind of person who likes to say "They don't make music like that any more," then Ex Hex are the girls for you.
The Washington DC trio are rock'n'roll in its truest sense, all cymbal crashes and clanging guitars, and it's really, really good to hear some new-old 'proper music' still being made, well into the 21st century.
Drums come courtesy of Laura Harris; Betsy Wright is billed as an 'ace piano player' and all-round performer; and Mary Timony is the driving force behind the songwriting.
The result of the collaboration is a slick performance across a dozen tracks with killer hooks and enough rock'n'roll heritage to leave you wondering if this really is a debut album, or a group who have been around for years.
The new record from Son Lux, 'Lanterns', is an energetic and uplifting fabric, a kind of musical weave that envelops the listener and begs to be played again and again.
Complex and thought-provoking, it's a symphony of instruments and voices that helps to drown out any stresses left over from the day, and lull you off to sleep - or help you relax or, contradictorily, help you prepare for a night out by creating a musical buffer between the working day and the evening's festivities.
Whatever you use Lanterns for - even if just to provide a soundtrack to your morning commute or journey to school - you definitely won't be bored by its detailed soundscapes and often haunting refrains, particularly in the case of Easy, which although minimalistic is one of the most sit-up-and-listen tracks on the record.
Click through to our full review below to preview Easy and other tracks from Lanterns.
It may be more than two years since Love Inks last featured on Popsiculture, back around the release date of E.S.P., but now they're back with Generation Club, and there's a whole ten more tracks to fall in love with.
For those of you who bought or remember E.S.P., Generation Club continues in the same style - an almost sensual combination of electronic sounds and purring vocals that perfectly show off lead singer Sherry LeBlanc's range.
If you're new to Love Inks, prepare yourself for something a little different from the norm. Think end-of-the-night slow-dancing on the greatest dancefloor of your life, but in the middle of the day and stone-cold sober, and... actually that sounds like a nightmare, but what I'm trying to say is, Love Inks feel like the crescendo of a great night out, but can be enjoyed at any time of day.
Nature Noir is the new album from Crystal Stilts, due out on September 16th through Sacred Bones, and it's currently having aural sex with our earholes here at Popsiculture.
It's an effortlessly stylish, stereophonic masterpiece that begs for a decent pair of headphones or set of speakers - so do yourself a favour, and give this one a listen on something other than your laptop or phone's built-in speakers; you won't regret it.
Ceremony, a spectacular, triumphant album from Sweden's Anna von Hausswolff, defies description and explanation - although naturally, I'll give it my best effort.
Let's be under no illusions though that this is not a sequence of compositions that's best heard, rather than discussed; so take full advantage of any previews you can get your hands on, or just take the plunge and buy it outright.
If you don't know what to expect of Anna von Hausswolff, then you're in for the greatest treat of all - and you may as well enjoy it, as you'll only get to 'discover' her for the first time once.
New this week, Limits of Desire is the new album from Small Black, and it's not easy to find the words to describe it, but I'll try.
If, like me, you're a fan of expansive soundscapes of music, of soaring synth, haunting vocals and pulse-like beats, Limits of Desire will transport your mind to a place it's likely never been to before.
Even if you're not so hooked on electronic instruments and 'big sound', there's enough here to drown out the world around you, if only for a while.
Who are Small Black?
Small Black have a distinctly northern European sound, but actually come from Brooklyn. You may have heard them several times over the years, with a self-titled EP released in 2009, studio album New Chain released in 2010, and their free mixtape download Moon Killer made available in 2011.
Retro Stefson's self-titled debut album hit the stands in the UK on March 25th, and it's well worth a listen, if only so you can name an Icelandic music act besides Bjork.
It's pretty funky stuff, probably best suited to have on in the background at your trendy cocktail party or, if you're cool, at your house party.
There's a decent chance of hearing it on a dancefloor too, although again it's more of a city centre sound than a cheesy suburban late-bar.
Decide for yourself with a preview of Glow below, which gives a pretty good indication of what you can expect from the album as a whole.
Portasound's four-track EP Sacrifice was out on February 11th, and while we've been a bit quiet here recently, it's an energetic production that helps to kickstart things with a bang as we get back into the swing of things for 2013.
First of all, if you're thinking four tracks is what you'd expect to get on a CD single, then in principle you're right, but in practice Sacrifice is very much an EP.
In this case, though, the 'extended' part of the play time comes not from having six or seven tracks, but from each track being at least four minutes long - not operatic in magnitude, but a long way from being just a handful of radio edits.
Combined, the play time is almost 20 minutes of auditory bliss, and the individual tracks are epic if not in terms of duration, then in their progression, layering, and sheer complexity of sound.
Give them a listen, and you'll spot the places where a different artist might have put an extra track break, and added to the playlist with a one-minute 'song' simply called 'Intro'.
For the best example of the acoustic genius that underpins this EP, skip straight to Ascension, the final track on the EP.
This could easily be lifted straight from the finale of an 80s sci-fi movie - and from me, there isn't much higher praise I can give to a tune than that.
It has the sense of a virtual world being stripped away to reveal the reality beneath, of elements interacting outside of any control, either human or otherwise.
Good electronic music has been making a resurgence in the past year or so, and this is definitely good electronic music, complemented by all of the necessary cymbal crashes and other such elements needed to flesh it out into being more than just a pre-sequenced synth track.
It's my personal high point on an overall great EP - and one that I'm delighted to finally get mentioned on Popsiculture.
Lesser Evil is the debut album from Doldrums, AKA Airick Woodhead, and while this is the first time those names have been mentioned on Popsiculture, we've been hearing them for a while here.
From the eerie opening strains of Lesser Evil - an album that starts with its own dedicated Intro track - it's clear to see why Doldrums is a name that's been whispered in our ears a few times already.
Lesser Evil is not a cynical, carefully constructed crowd-pleaser however, and in many instances it makes for quite challenging listening, while paradoxically demanding that the volume be cranked a little higher.
Each new track is pleasingly dissimilar from its predecessor, and yet there is a common thread that links the whole of this album; perhaps not anything tangible, but a general sense of identity that is there from first to last.
This album of contrasts is well worthy of 38 minutes of your life and at least one full, uninterrupted listen - and luckily for you, it's available to stream in full on SoundCloud.
So, what are we liking about Lesser Evil? For me, it's the quilt-like, patchwork nature of the piece. Individual tracks each with their own identity, yet serving as part of a coherent whole.
Track lengths vary from (not including the 1:07 Intro) 1:15 to 5:54 - tracks 2, 5, 6, 8 and 10 are the ones to buy from the standard track listing, if you judge your 'money's worth' in those terms.
And it's actually not a bad way to assess this album; track 5, Egypt, crams a remarkable audio landscape into its almost-six minutes of vocals, instrumentals and distorted breakdowns.
For once, it seems, the longer tracks really do have more to offer, and are not simply extended by virtue of repeating their chorus and/or last verse - both of which are almost meaningless concepts on the musically contortionist Lesser Evil.
Does a shorter track mean a let-down, though? Certainly not. Track 7, Singularity Acid Face, is the shortest other than the Intro, and still manages to twist and develop during its minute and 15 seconds, creating a hypnotic, serene syrup of noises that lead perfectly into its follow-up track, the album's second-longest song, Live Forever.
Listen out in this for a casual name-drop of the album title, followed by a trance-like layering of vocals, synth and drums that is so much more complex than any description could accurately convey.
If you didn't already hit play on the SoundCloud player above, now's the time - it's well worth it, even if you only listen once. And if you like Lesser Evil, click the iTunes button below to download it.
You can't always spend eight years on an album, but that's what Benjamin Gibbard did with Former Lives, his debut solo release.
You may know Benjamin better from Death Cab for Cutie - but Former Lives is an opportunity for an intimate glimpse into some of the landmark moments of his life from recent years.
"These songs span eight years, three relationships, living in two different places, drinking then not drinking," he explains. "They're a side-story, not a new chapter."
However, they're also more than just a release of pent-up angst - and while some of the music and lyrics are admittedly simplistic, I don't see that as anything of a problem.
Some of the greatest love songs ever written are equally free from complexity, and there's definitely nothing 'basic' about Former Lives.
Instead, this is an album with a charming honesty to it, lacking in the commercial cynicism that you may have become accustomed to.
Gibbard is both a storyteller, and the subject of these stories - making for a uniquely tangible character to this solo debut that you're unlikely to find in much of the album chart.
What did you do with your summer? Did you spend it in the sun (what there was of it, at least...), with an ice-cold cider in a beer garden? Or trapped indoors, watching the flood waters rise?
Given the weather, it's no surprise that Macclesfield four-piece Racing Glaciers spent their time working on this six-track EP that draws plenty of inspiration from rivers and the darker hours of the day.
Named after the group, Racing Glaciers was recorded in the summer of 2012, not in a recording studio, but in a living room - but there's plenty of quality underpinning this release, and it would be harsh to call it an amateur effort.
From the haunting opening of the EP's Intro, which leads directly into the anthemic South, to the energetic closing track Little River, there are more than a few goosebump moments if this is your kind of music (and enough to keep you listening, even if it's not).
Songs with a strong sense of progression and storyline to them are somehow still unafraid to return to their chorus to provide some continuity, while the musical motifs introduced along the way mix things up to prevent anything from getting stale - as if it even could.
Scissor Sisters are back this week with their new album Magic Hour, and it's a fan-pleasing 'more of the same' effort that's likely to fill a few dancefloors around the country.
Is it groundbreaking? Not really. But that's kinda OK. Instead, you've got a dozen tracks that will fit just fine alongside your existing Scissor Sisters collection - no need for separate iPod playlists here. There's also a fistful of bonus tracks just when you think it's all over, and those genuinely do add a bit more variety to the offering.
As I said up top, fans are likely to be more than satisfied, while critics (are there any??) will find little here to change their minds. Either way, it's a fine collection of up-tempo music that's well timed for the first proper days of summer sun, so get out there in your denim hotpants and shake that ass (boys, I'm talking to you...).
Today sees The Futureheads' a capella album Rant go on sale, along with the double A-side of Meet Me Halfway/The No.1 Song in Heaven, and the start of the group's UK tour to promote the album. The tour kicks off in Brighton tonight, ending in Manchester on April 13th after ten performances and just two nights off. It's a hectic schedule, and it's probably no surprise to see 'Glee Club' listed as the venue for both Birmingham and Nottingham, given the furore surrounding the TV show Glee.
If you're expecting senselessly uplifting, pseudo-a-capella power ballads, though, Rant is not for you. It's proper a capella, and that means no backing track, just a symphony of voices providing everything from the vocals to the instrumentals. It's a celebration of the human voice, and of a broad range of tracks including The Futureheads favourites, a reinvented Black Eyed Peas tune and a folk-rock classic from Richard Thompson.
You might expect a fairly confused result, with such broad influences, but The Futureheads' distinctive vocals are understandably even more evident on Rant than on some of their previous works, and the outcome is actually a very consistent and impressive album.
Attack on Memory is the new album from Cloud Nothings, a year after their debut and hot on the heels of their first UK tour. It's a coming of age for the group, who are a long way from their origins back in Cleveland.
It's a raucous racket, with strained vocals and deliberately heavy drumming, so prepare yourself for an energetic listening experience. If you like to shut out the world around you with loud indie music, this is the album for you. If the last album you bought was by Beethoven, you should probably steer clear of this one.
Boy Friend's debut album Egyptian Wrinkle snuck onto Popsiculture's pages back in December when we gave you a preview of the title track. Now the full thing is available and there are ten lush tracks to lose yourself in over the course of slightly-more-than half an hour.
In case you missed our December preview, Boy Friend are Christa Palazzolo and Sarah Brown, a pair who have worked together on several music projects during their 15-year friendship, but who only formed this duet in late 2010. Releases quickly followed - a self-titled EP at the start of 2011, and a 7" entitled Lovedropper in May 2011.
Egyptian Wrinkle is their first full-length album, but seems unlikely to be their last. There's a whole world of music wrapped up inside its jewel case, from the uplifting to the unnerving, and it's the kind of stuff that makes you really feel something - and that's always in demand, somewhere or other.
Intro to Fractions, the new album from Atlantan three-piece All the Saints, offers a melding of mellow guitar with heavy rock drums, yielding an invigorating yet relaxing 35 minutes of music separated into 12 bite-sized tracks for easy digestion.
Some four years since the release of Fire on Corridor X, the trio's debut, singer and guitarist Matt Lambert explains the extra thought that went into the compositions that made the Intro to Fractions shortlist.
"There wasn't much room for repeating ourselves - you can bury your instruments, your words, in effects forever, but eventually you'll have to say something," he says.
With Intro to Fractions, the group have made a strong return that is rich in a sense of their musical origins - recorded at numerous studios throughout the Atlanta area, and with the help of stalwarts of the local music scene.
Mort Garson's Mother Earth's Plantasia is one of those quirks of history resurrected by the internet - and we're glad it has been rediscovered by a new generation.
