Chinese American Bear - Dim Sum & Then Some - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Gold-Bears' second full-length, DALLIANCE is a record about regret. In the past two years since Gold-Bears released their debut album, ARE YOU FALLING IN LOVE?, main Bear Jeremy Underwood gathered a new crop of friends to carry out his fuzz-filled visions. DALLIANCE is more focused and abrasive than that 2011 debut, combining their noise-pop influences from forebears like Boyracer and the Wedding Present with shades of the post-hardcore, emo and post-punk on which the band all cut their musical teeth. This not to say the Gold-Bears gave up impossibly catchy song-writing, just that their signature indie punk anthems are now even sharper, the guitars even more slashing, and the songs even more harrowing and heartfelt than ever.

Johannes Brahms drew texts from various Biblical sources for his Deutsches Requiem. As we hear in his choral music, he had a passion for polyphony and was inspired by models from the great Lutheran tradition of the late Renaissance and the Baroque. Ricercar and Vox Luminis have explored this early repertoire with the same passion for many years now, although with no less admiration for Brahms's masterpiece. It is no surprise that some of the texts that Brahms chose had already been set by his illustrious predecessors; it simply remained for us to trace a path through these earlier scores, so many meditations on death, and to assemble a very different Deutsches Requiem one animated by the emotions of the Lutheran Baroque.

Minus the Bear is a product of the first two decades of this century. From their first show in 2001 to their impending dissolution at the end of 2018, the Seattle band thrived on the musical awakening in the era of the MP3, the internet, poptimism, and the crosspollinations generated from an expanded consciousness of new music forms. With their final EP, Fair Enough, Minus the Bear closes the book on their hybrid of art-rock, indie pop, and warehouse party appeal. Opener InchFair EnoughInch went through a variety of permutations before the band found new meaning in it's lyrical lament of lost passions and finding Inchthe exact moment we turned it off.Inch The other songs are a continuation and culmination of Minus the Bear's diverse sounds. The up-tempo drumbeats, rich electronics, and nimble guitar work that initially set them apart are on full display during InchViaduct.Inch InchDinosaurInch has the groove of early hits, but is crafted with the understated Steely Dan-eque delivery of their more current slow jams.