Label: Dedicated / Arista

Slapping an ephemeral moniker like “folktronica” onto the incredibly lush music of Beth Orton would be severely limiting to what should, theoretically, be a massive audience of sophisticated music fans. On Orton’s second record, entitled “Central Station,” she has picked up pretty close to the gentle ethereal landscape she left us off at on her sparkling debut “Trailer Park.” The orchestrations are quite a bit more realized this time around, substituting the hypnotic, electronic loops with a fuller slate of guitars, piano, and lightly swept drums. In addition to her slice-of-heaven vocals and poetic lyricism, Orton has managed to assemble a phenomenal cast of guests on this album: Dr. John on piano, Ben Harper on electric guitar, Terry Collier on some backing vocals, and Everything But The Girl’s Ben Watt to string together the beats on the album’s final track.

More than almost any female vocalist since Cocteau Twin Liz Frazier, Orton uses her voice as an instrument that just seems to linger leaving the chords effortlessly hanging long after she has finished the thought and the guitar note has disappeared. Vocally she sounds like one part Joni Mitchell, another Karen Carpenter, a dash of Nina Simone and a little Natale Merchant. This may provide you with an unjust description of her range and intent, but more than anything she has a very distinctive sound and approach to making music. On “Couldn’t Cause me No Harm” Orton practices her habit of mesmerizing us with the flowing repetition of simple choruses.

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Label: Flydaddy

Over the past decade there have only been a couple of bands that have been able to interpret and pay tribute to the Beatles mid-60s pop in a completely new and innovative way. For every ten Zeppelins or Doors knockoff bands there was only one who dared to attempt the Beatles. While Guided By Voices took Paul and John’s penchant for the intelligent pop hook and pared these hooks down to the barest essence, the Atlanta musical collective Olivia Tremor Control took Paul and John by the hand and then had the audacity to sprinkle on top a little Brian Wilson as well. The result is an artier, slightly less accessible melange of the two aforementioned bands.

On “Black Foliage,” the OTC’s predictably ambitious 27 track newest effort, there are definitely a few throwaway tunes that you could program out of the CD. But by pulling out sounds from just about anything they can get their hands on (saws, plates, bells, brass, strings, guitars and a whole bunch of unidentifiable stuff) you tend to hear just how creative and ambitious they are.

“Black Foliage” isn’t quite as consistently poppy or accessible “Cubist Castle” but with all the other Elephant 6 projects the band has been a part of (Beulah, Elf Power, The Minders, Neutral Milk Hotel, Apples In Stereo, etc.) this is definitely the kind of product that results from a 2.5 year recording schedule. Still this is a remarkable pop record as dense and light as a record can be.

Director : Thomas Vinterberg
With : Ulrich Thomsen, Henning Moritzen, Thomas Bo, Paprika Steen

According to the Danish filmmaking manifesto penned by Lars von Trier a few years ago, a film should have 1) no genre stories or superficial action. 2) no special lighting or extra sound 3) no dressing up the location with props 4) no optical tricks 5) no camera work that isn’t hand-held 6) no black-and-white or Flashbacks and 7) no actual credit or personal imprint for the director. “The Celebration” manages to follow these rules perfectly, a fact that might seem like a recipe for “boredom” for some people, however, like von Trier’s masterpiece “Breaking the Waves,” these rules actually force a director to be more creative and spontaneous than a more “produced” effort.

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