Is it possible to be original and not creative? Or, is it possible for something to be more original than it is creative? I don’t think I ever tried to deviate those two terms—they correlate so frequently that it never came up. But, I think this is the case with James Blake’s eponymous debut. I think this is what Pitchfork writer Mike Powell meant when he wrote of James’ work, “..it’s like I’d walked into the kitchen and saw a big prickly triangular fruit in the fruit bowl.” That’s exactly it. This album is fresh, it’s brand new, and you’re sure not to find anything like anywhere else. But, it is ultimately new because it combines elements of what you know, and what Blake knows you love, in ways that haven’t been combined before.

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I tried to pick up a girl in my philosophy class once. I was like, “I will Kierkegaard your heart forever.” She didn’t dig it. Now I don’t know what Patrick Riley said to Alaina Moore when they were studying Philosophy together in Denver, but it must’ve been special. Yeah, she married him, but that’s not what’s impressive.  What’s impressive is that they built a bond so tight that they agreed to live the life of philosophers for a while by dropping everything and sailing the eastern seaboard. They crawled along at five miles a day, and had no prior knowledge of how to sail other than what they picked up from a couple DIY videos. Looking for an outlet to express the experience of the trip that a travel blog couldn’t satisfy, they formed a band—Tennis. Now they have an album, named after their boat—Cape Dory.

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In case you haven’t noticed, things have slowed down here a bit on The Rotation. That’s because the semester is wrapping up, and the editors and writers are going home, not to mention they stopped liking music. I made that last part up. We’ve got some teary-eyed farewelling to do.

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I like to say that I’m not really into surf/beach rock, but there’s something about finding tracks so pleasant in the deathly hallows of the blogosphere that is immediately encouraging. To be fair, Teen Daze isn’t a project that exclusively wades in this genre, but as the ever-mysterious Canadian points out on his tumblr, “I really came to fall in love with the whole lo-fi pop scene this summer, and I wanted to see what I could come up with. After writing ‘Let’s Fall Asleep Together’, the last three just sort of happened in the span of a few days.” His EP, now available for download at a price you see fit, holds that fluid, emotive quality of a work completed in a constricted amount of time. There is an uncharacteristic distance between Teen Daze and the listener, but the distance isn’t discouraging, it’s seductive. In the fuzz we find space to observe from safety and approach the material at a pace we’re comfortable with. Give it a try for yourself below:

–Igor German

Tryptophan sounds like either a date rape drug or a diet pill. It’s neither. It’s the stuff that makes you sleepy after stuffing your gullet with the makings of an all-American Thanksgiving Feast. Personally, I find repelling the barrage of questions from relatives a lot more tiring: “What year are you in school now?” “Are you going to Law school?” “Why don’t you have a girlfriend? What are you, Gay?” “Where are my grandchildren?” “Why did you dye your hair pink?” “How many tattoos is enough for you?” “In Soviet Russia, Leonid Brezhnev himself would shoot us personally for rebelling.”

Yeah, whatever, old people. You’re questions have made me sleepy, and the GHB substitute isn’t helping. Here’s a lullaby of sorts to help you take the edge off the holiday frenzy and recuperate before another round of interrogations. Click Through for Tunes. Read More »