A few lists back, we reviewed a newly released collection of odds and ends from stoner doomlords Acrimony, a UK band, who combined all the best parts of many of our favorite bands, Electric Wizard, Kyuss, Monster Magnet, Hawkwind, Church Of Misery, Boris, Bongzilla, that list alone should have many of you already leaping for the 'buy' button, and that's as it should be. These guys destroy. Unbelievably heavy, crazy catchy, killer riffs, hooks galore, and plenty of spaced out druggy drone.
But YEARS before that comp, Bong On- Live Long!, we were already huge fans of this here disc right here, Tumuli Shroomaroom, now reissued with new improved sound, maybe one of the best stoner rock records EVER. High praise indeed, but not unwarranted we think. The guitars are massive, downtuned and crunchy, spitting out groovy Sabbathy riffage, but way more psychedelic, plenty of wah guitar, streaks of wild leads, all over a super dense rhythmic foundation. The drums heavy as fuck, pounding away, the bass throbbing and buzzing and holding it all together. The vocals a rough raspy, but melodic caterwaul. And the songs, as catchy as they are heavy, super charged and blown out, like someone took perfect pop songs, dipped them in LSD, rolled them in broken shards of Monster Magnet, wrapped them in thick sheets of Hawkwind, lit them on fire and smoked them, and then picked up guitars and this was the result. Not sure why these guys weren't huge.
Besides being a kick ass band, heavy and catchy, they also have a serious thing for repetition, and drone, most of the songs have long stretches of churning riffage that just repeats and repeats, mantra like, mesmerizingly headbanging, lots of them also lock into some sort of endless groove near the end, the song often transforming into an ultra heavy hypnorock workout, looped over and over, repeating sometimes for minutes, and then sometimes unexpectedly slipping right back into the song. Definitely part of what gives them such a druggy vibe. The best example of that is the track "Motherslug (The Mother Of All Slugs", a massive stoner rock jam, that is constantly locking into perfect looped grooves, so tight and hypnotic they almost sounds like the cd is skipping, a single riff churning again and again, so completely trancelike, while all around the main riff, other guitars swell and swoop, shimmering in little squalls pf psychedelic FX, sort of like those kick ass spaced out Hawkwind outros but way less spacey and more relentlessly and repetitively rocking, until the track suddenly and effortlessly slips back into the main groove again, eventually drifting apart into some awesome spacious doom jam, the guitar and drums locked in big crashes, spaced way far apart, the guitar chords crumbling and fading almost completely before the next crash comes, finally fading into some throbbing drone, buzzy and muted, maybe a didgeridoo or faux throat singing or something, finally fading out into the space-rock Sabbath riff that opens the next track.
Hard to know what else to say, one of our favorite heavy records ever, every track on here is a killer. Heavy and groovy, droney and hypnotic, druggy and spaced out, the ultimate stoner rock doom disc for sure. As we mentioned above, folks into Monster Magnet, Sleep, Electric Wizard, Ufomammut, Orange Goblin, Kyuss, Black Sabbath, Spiritual Beggars, Nebula, Bongzilla, Green Machine, Boris, Lowrider, Spirit Caravan, Solarized, Fu Manchu, Dozer and Mammoth Volume and have somehow made it this far without hearing Acrimony, might just have discovered their new favorite band.
There are very few black metal bands we can think of from Turkey (although metal archives lists a bunch), this one man outfit delivers a unique take on black metal, which like many of his Dusktone labelmates is probably more commonly (and often derogatorily) referred to as post black metal. But around here we love this stuff. What could be better than post rock mixed with black metal? Here however, the mix is at times decidedly on the post rock side of things. The opener is mostly piano, drums and dramatically crooned vox, but quickly the sound erupts into something much more metal, but not necessarily black metal, sure there's buzzing and blasting, but the vibe is almost more like math rock, and with the bits of weird percussion, and unlikely melodies, it also reminds us of local drum and dulcimer weirdos Botanist, in fact the second track sounds like it might actually include some dulcimer. The song soon stutters to a halt, and transforms into a weird sort of spaced out math rock groove, all atonal guitars, and stop/start arrangement. The rest of the record splits its time pretty evenly between pounding blasting and buzzing, and more abstract, avant rockisms, with strange vocal harmonies, droned out layers, still more piano, even accordion (!!), one track that sound like jazzy slowcore, and a closer that sounds like some lost downer rock goth jam, and ends up being crazy catchy in spite of itself, all of that is balanced by some truly mesmerizing (post) blackbuzz.
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Southern psychedelic post-metal heavies Across Tundras are another one of those bands, that for whatever reason we've neglected on the aQ list, even though some aQ-ers have been big fans for a while. This trio's latest, Sage, is another riffy, mathy, psychedelic sprawl, a bit like a less sludgey Neurosis, the same sort of instrumental heft, and moody epic heaviness, but spread out into something a bit more spacious, the postrock outweighing the metal, but only just barely, the songs slipping smoothly from downtuned bombast to spidery lope, from hazy psychedelic drift to almost Southern rock sounding stomp. The label references Neil Young and Johnny Cash, and we definitely hear some Crazy Horse going on, even weirdly enough some Raging Slab, even some Skynrd or Outlaws, as the record unfolds, the songs definitely reveal themselves to be some sort of metallized modern variant of classic Southern Rock, and it's a pretty bad ass mix, unlike most metal, where it's about the tone and the riffs and the distortion, Sage is definitely as much about the songs, melding hooks and killer choruses, actual singing, with stretches of soaring epic crunch, as well as moody minimal drift.
Many of the tracks don't get heavy at all, or at least conventionally heavy, instead, brooding and dark, dense and layered, sounding more like True Widow or the most recent Young Widows, that same sort of creeping post rock slowcore, while in places, the sound even drifts into Woven Hand style apocalyptic folk, all muted percussion, urgently strummed acoustic guitars, twang and jangle, even some boy / girl harmonies. Not to downplay the heaviness entirely, cuz plenty of this record IS heavy, big riffs, pounding drums, slow building metallic crescendos, shades of Neurosis (Crossed with Godspeed), sludge via Morricone, doom via Barn Owl, but all woven into their own distinctive sound, one that should most definitely appeal to any of the above mentioned outfits, as well as anyone into, sprawling psychedelic heaviness of any stripe.
Yet another new band looks back to the eighties, this East Coast boy / girl duo is all about THAT decade, but unlike the hordes of lo-fi weirdos whose take on that sound is warped and woozy and fractured and fucked up, Acrylics seem to be approaching that same sound with their heart in hand, or on sleeve, with a genuine reverence for the synth pop that so defined our growing up. Like a less shoegazey M83, these two take teen angst and teenage growing pains, and translate them into mixtape (not cd) worthy retro dream pop. Opener "Counting Sheep" is moody and wistful, the boy girl vocals perfectly balancing the swoonsome synths and the handclap percussion, it's almost like a eighties prom slow dance slow jam. And while the rest of the rest of the record evokes the same mood and vibe, the more propulsive tracks conjure up walking hand in hand home from school, or driving with the top down for a weekend trip to the city, the sound and songs here are strangely romantic, much like their labelmates Violens, but not nearly as avant or edgy, instead conjuring up pure retro pop dreaminess.
"The Window" is a sweet bit of bedroom folkiness, with subtly soaring strings, and some sweet boy/girl harmonies, "Sparrow Song" glistens and sparkles like the soundtrack to every movie montage ever made, "Nightwatch" is some old school jangle pop, and "Tortoise Shell Shades" is like the Raveonettes with some of the buzz and fuzz peeled back, while "It's Cool Here" is a warm intimate strummy bit of acoustic slowcore folk, and "Asian Pear" is another bit of brooding romantic strum heavy electro fuzz pop�
It's easy to imagine this being way too earnest for the lo-fi lysergic eighties obsessives, but if M83 and the Raveonettes and that sort of classic retro /electro pop is your thing, you will no doubt dig Acrylics.
A curious title since so many elements of this album remind us of other things that are riding a cresting wave of popularity. Depeche Mode sounding keyboards meets The Faint's vocal stylings meets an onslaught of angular dark wave guitar riffs. Its production quality is quite polished, and apparently they used a Univox Super Fuzz pedal that The Who's Pete Townsend owned and used on the recording of Live At Leeds. I don't really think that's a selling point for the record, but if you're into the dark wave scene that's been going on lately, you'll dig this for sure.
We described the 2012 R.I.P. album from Actress, aka Darren Cunningham, like this: "subtly detailed, psychedelic sonic prisms drip playfully onto murky haunted fuzz-drones, other worldly squelches and squiggles interplay with analog drum machines, and science fiction melodies get tangled up with hazy, half remembered samples, creating an electronic alchemy that of which this world has never seen!" Tall praise for sure, but that record, was a unanimous store fave, and got played to death in the shop. So the prospect of a new record had us all pretty excited. And while we were expecting, maybe even hoping for, more of the same, the sound on Ghettoville is much darker and more minimal. Which if you know anything about us, is most definitely not a bad thing AT ALL.
Things do still get woozy and alien and psychedelic, the sounds are in constant flux, but at least for the first half of the record, the vibe is super chill, low slung, and washed out. "Forgiven" sets the tone, with a sprawling, slo-mo slither, a gorgeous bit of downtempo slowcore, laced with field recordings, and little bits of gristle and rumble, but all anchored by a glitchy skeletal rhythm, and bolstered by some thick low end swells, it's the sort of dreamlike dirgery that could have stretched out for the entirety of the record, and we would have dug it just as much. If not even MORE!!! But this is Actress after all, so sonic restlessness manifests itself in the form of constant sonic shifts, although as we mentioned, things stay pretty murky in the early stages, so "Street Corp." is more of the same, an almost jazzy skitter, wreathed in crunchy crackle, a submerged bass pulsation, eventually, some soft billowy shimmer surface in the background, but again, a track that ends WAY too soon. "Corner" adds a bit of lo-fi hip-hop swagger, but casts it like those first two tracks in shadow, the edges blurred and smeared, everything sort of hazy and darkly druggy. "Contagious" is another beauty, almost metallic, industrial, a heaving distorted dirge, heavy and haunting, still super lo-fi, but with a different production, it could rival outfits like Nadja or the Angelic Process, bleary metalgaze churn that takes the dubbed out murk of Burial, and adds some serious heft.
It's right around here, that Actress starts sonically drifting into less shadowy spaces, with some chiming, almost Pop Ambient shimmer, some dreamy prismatic electro, even some almost new wave-y sounding house music, but even then, the sound remains gorgeously woozy and washed out, a little bit alien, and for every moment like that, there's another one like "Frontline" near the end of the record, that takes some groovy house, and submerges it in thick, tarpit murk, gristly static, hazy thrum, and again recasts it as something swirly and shadowy and sublime!
We only just discovered one man UK electronica outfit Actress a few weeks ago, when we reviewed their (his) record Splazsh, and we flipped, proclaiming it electronic record of the year, describing it as "a dizzyingly varied and truly curious collection of post techno minimal skitterscapes, abstract rhythmic mystery, and playful electronic weirdness, looping and repetitive and hypnotic, truncated vocals worked into strange circular figures, and then laced over muted thumps and shuffling laid back pulses, fields of glitch and squelch rain down on glimmering fields of chiming melody and twisted Pop Ambience."
So of course we immediately tracked down the first Actress records, and goddamn if it's not just as good. Another tripped out assemblage of fucked up sounds and fractured beats, so weird and wonderful, in some ways we wonder how this stuff ever appealed to regular dance music / e-music folks at all, hell, maybe it didn't, or maybe we're not giving folks enough credit. Be damn difficult to dance to this stuff, but if you're in the market for some head nodding, psychedelic, warped electronic ear candy, then this is for YOU.
Right from the start, you can tell this is not a normal electronica record, with muted muddied loops swirling and whirling beneath mechanical skitter, and strange chopped up voices, constantly shifting, but never really going anywhere, but why would you want it to? It's a heady tranced out weirdo loopscape. Which leads directly into the appropriately titled "Hazylude" which is indeed a hazy blissed out dronedrift interlude, that segues into "Doggin'", a warbly, skitter-laced bit of woozy electronic ambience, sounding like the tape is warped, and the drum machine is malfunctioning, but it's all wrapped in a gauzy big of shimmer and whir, making it hypnotic and dreamlike as well as twisted and tweaked.
There's no real way to describe Actress except by going song by song, there is a thread that connects all the various sounds, but we're not sure exactly what it is, and even if we did know, not sure we could describe it. Probably better to just go with it, get lost, let the sounds push and pull, drag you wherever they may, whether it's some loping locked groove exotica, or some beep-click Rater-Noton style minimalism, or warm washed out hazy heroin house, or squelchy avant electro, or even blurred prismatic outsider IDM, it's all gorgeously twisted, and like Splazsh, we can't seem to get enough.
Now we have to figure out what year this came out originally so we can retroactively proclaim this the electronic record of whatever-that-year-was. Can't wait for next year now...
Welcome to the next bejeweled terrace in the hypnogogic sonic cave that is the music of Darren Cunningham, aka Actress! And holy shit, R.I.P., his third full length, is a wonderful terrace indeed! A beautiful and unique sound world in which subtly detailed, psychedelic sonic prisms drip playfully onto murky haunted fuzz-drones, other worldly squelches and squiggles interplay with analog drum machines, and science fiction melodies get tangled up with hazy, half remembered samples, creating an electronic alchemy that of which this world has never seen!
R.I.P is a musical expedition through a bizarre alien landscape. Starting off with the title track and moving into the second, titled "Ascending", you feel as though your entering some sort of strange galactic portal. The kind of "relaxation" music you might hear if you were stuck on the space station from Tarkovsky's Solaris. The soothing synths rub up against analog hiss, everything ping ponging blissfully inside the caverns of your space brain head, headphone magical to be sure. "Holy Water", the third track, starts to introduce a stronger rhythmic element, although we haven't entered the club yet. As the title suggests, everything is dripping and cascading on this one. There's a consistent hi-hat upbeat, and a load of squelchy hyper color drifting atop. Its all blippy and beautiful, clicky and ice cavern reverberated. The sounds transporting and trance inducing, rippling outward, and perfectly easing the listener in to the first beat we hear, "Marble Plexus".
This one is all hiss and dub, with a four on the floor pulse to anchor the proceedings. That warm hiss is the glue to the R.I.P. sound. In a lot of ways "Marble Plexus" is classic Actress. We hear all the echoes of ghostly rave-tones that made their former Record Of The Week Splaszh and earlier Hazyville so special. Inhabiting similar territory as Burial, albeit from a more dreamy dark Detroit kind of perspective (as opposed to UK Garage ghosts). It's not so much dance music, but more of an extraterrestrial reinterpretation of the common tropes. There's equal amounts of glistening bubble as there is dirty texture. And it organically flows along, a beautiful synth solo floating over the rhythmic miasma, adding a lovely touch of personality to the tune.
Before long we are back out on the open Martian frontier, where the cricket chirping and plucked strings of days on Earth long gone remind us of our isolation in this desolate new world. "Jardin" is a gorgeous respite, plinking and plonking electric piano melodies whirling around the mind's ear as bits of lovingly placed static provide the rub. Honestly reminding us of a more brightly hued and less earthbound approach that Circle took to cinematic soundscapery on their double cd Miljard from a few years back. An infectious sonic cloudburst, enveloping and strangely emotional.
"Shadow From Tartarus" is by far the heaviest tune of the bunch. And by heavy, we mean HEAVY!!!! This is another 4/4 adventure, but the chord progression is wrought out with a sort of droney, dare we say it "metallic" fuzz bass line. Imagine a buzzing SUNNO))) like monolithic noise underpinned by a dirty bass drum thump, laced with the kind of cosmic synth drift arpeggio sounds propagated by the likes of Oneohtrix Point Never and Pulse Emitter, flying upward and upward into an endless heaven of sound. A beautiful and unique combination to be sure!
Cunningham's work is always solid and original, but as is widely recognized by the blogosphere as well as the critical vanguard (blogosphere elite), R.I.P. represents his finest work to date. It is an album that is constructed as a whole work, a true piece of modern electronic music. We kind of imagine this music arriving on Earth buried deep within the remnants of a wayward meteor, clicking and pulsing from inside the cosmic rock, beckoning the discoverer to chip away until the full sonic transmission is exposed! Or better yet, R.I.P. would make the perfect time capsule of jams to be discovered by some highly intelligent, and futuristically funky race of alien space travelers, perhaps long after we're gone, if only to prove that in the year 2012, on this rock called earth, there was a dude by the name of Actress making some super groovy and hyper evolved, deeply personal yet transcendentally universal, glistening, yearning, and overall BEAUTIFUL sonic tapestries for his fellow earth dwellers (and perhaps for said Martians as well)! TIP! BEYOND RECOMMENDED, ESSENTIAL ACTRESS!!!
When it comes time to pick our favorite electronic record of the year, it's gonna be seriously tough to narrow it down... Pantha Du Prince's Black Noise, that killer T++ 12" of African sampled dubstep, the hazy expansive ultra lush dubstep of Clubroot, the shoegaze-y haze pop of Walls, the Vex'd Record Of The Week from a while back, that amazing Thomas Fehlman soundtrack to Gute Luft, Klimek's latest pop ambient masterpiece, Oneohtrix Point Never, Emeralds, we could go on and on and on, but we may not have to, cuz Splazsh, the second record from UK electronic one man band Actress might just trump them all. A dizzyingly varied and truly curious collection of post techno minimal skitterscapes, abstract rhythmic mystery, and playful electronic weirdness, looping and repetitive and hypnotic, truncated vocals worked into strange circular figures, and then laced over muted thumps and shuffling laid back pulses, fields of glitch and squelch rain down on glimmering fields of chiming melody and twisted Pop Ambience.
The sound is definitely on the chill out side of the spectrum, with most of the beats muted and washed out, the overall feel hazy and dreamy and dreamlike, but there's so much going on, deep slow burning synth swells, little squalls of lazer like bleeps and bloops, thick fuzzy warbly bass, strange clipped beats, and female vox all over the place, but less like vocals and more like another instrument, like a more psychedelic, more groovy take on the second Burial record, but augmented by lurching angular new wave-isms, blissed out streaks of soft focus prismatic shimmer, but underpinned by more-felt-than-heard bass throbs, twisted future funk, laced with alien hi-hats and lo-fu four on the floor thumps, lurching gnarled rhythms, liquid and amorphous, wrapped around jagged shards of synthesizer crunch, and woozy low end melodies, some tracks get all vintage retro soundtrack, sounding like Carpenter or Goblin, as if Daft Punk was scoring seventies Italo thrillers, or cheesy eighties MTV, like Michael Jackson or even better Rockwell, all chopped up and smeared into new warped shapes.
There are definitely some more straight up style Kompakt techno/house jams, but even those tracks are pretty twisted, with the synths wrapped in wah wah's, or the beats constantly changing timbre, slipping from crisp and sharp to muffled and muddy and back again, often dragging the whole track with it, but most of the tracks veer wildly in their own freaked out direction, spinning off into strange swirls of tweaked melody and stuttering chopped beats, or mutated Oval style cd skip skitter, or lumbering machine disco with distorted vocals and wild squiggles of space age glitchery, or super tripped out minimal techno crafted from what sounds like fields of white noise static and heavily chorused piano...
Holy shit this record is amazing. Weird as hell, and not necessarily something that will fill the dancefloor, but then that was never really what it was about for us. This is some truly unique, far out and freaky, avant outsider electronic weirdness, that will definitely be vying for our electronic record of the year top spot, but just might just be a contender for the top spot, electronic or otherwise!
Leave it to John Zorn's Tzadik to unearth the most absurd and maddening Japanese underground groups for our amusment/amazement. Certainly this one qualifies in that regard. Composer Adachi Tomomi leads this eight-member vocals-only ensemble, who don't let their lack of instruments hold them back musically! Nope, the human voice is the only instrument they need. Perhaps you remember the accapella Ruins side-project Zubi Zuva that also had a Tzadik release some years back? Well, this is kinda like that, but with more than twice as many voices, both male and female. Adachi's songs oft utilize a complex overlap of voices and precise arrangements that sometimes fall into a repetitive Minimalist compositional zone, and at other times will remind you of Warner Bros. cartoon scores. It's zany conceptual experimental stuff that touches on a lot of sounds and styles of singing, both with words and wordless. There's a certain amount of humor at play as well -- one of the highlights here is "Gu", an 8-minute epic of sleeping, snoring sounds!
MPEG Download: "Ganzin" [/audio/adachiganzin.mp3]
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Solo album from Mommyhead's frontman Elk.
Oooh. So utterly blissful, beautiful, and contemplative. In The White Silence is a musical evocation of the endless white Arctic tundra. John Luther Adams lives in Alaska and this piece, like much of his work, is inspired by the remote Alaskan wilderness, in all its vastness and stillness, what he considers exploration in "sonic geography". We thought at first that sounded like it might be a bit too New Agey or something but as soon as we heard this we couldn't help but fall in love with it!
This was recommended to us by one of our customers who said that it was basically the closest any modern composer had come to making "Pop Ambient" music (as in, the Pop Ambient compilations released by the Kompakt label, stuff like Gas, Markus Guentner, and Klimek). But it's not electronic, it's chamber music, performed by the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble. That means lots of sweet strings -- violins, violas, cellos, bass, harp. Also some additional coloration (and this is colorful, in the way that white is all colors) from vibraphone, celesta and orchestra bells. Although of course this composition has a beginning and an end, it seems like something that could go on forever, though it really only lasts about 75 minutes -- slowly unfolding, built from layers of cloud-like tone clusters and barely-shifting rhythms. The musically learned liner notes (which will tell you a lot more about the musical theory behind the construction of this piece than I could ever hope to do) speak of "static textures of densely layered sound, sustained tones, short repetitive patterns, and long rising and falling lines." All true, but you have to hear it to understand how NICE that can be. If the Arctic really sounds like this, we're all set to fly up there and strap on the snowshoes... A gorgeous, extended, and immersive piece of minimalist, "pop ambient" chamber music indeed!!
We've always loved the blissful and beautiful work of John Luther Adams, one of the great American modern composers. His album In White Silence is a bonafide all time AQ favorite but truth is, Adams has plenty of other records that are equally worthy of our attention. Red Arc / Blue Veil blew us away the first time we heard it as it shows a much more intense side to the Alaskan composer then we were accustomed to. Yes, it's still stunningly crisp and beautiful, but there is a velocity and urgency to this work that struck us immediately. In some ways this is the darkest recording we've heard from Adams, yet within this music, there is still a shining mystical light beaming so brightly. Whether it's the dueling pianos in "Dark Waves" or the monumental bass drums pounding to the heavens in "Qilyuan" or the majestic vibes and keys that close out the record on the title track "Red Arc/Blue Veil", Adams has created a piece of music that demonstrates again that as a supposedly "academic" or "modern classical" composer, he's capable of creating some of the most beautiful and sublime sounds imaginable, regardless of genre.
Percussion-centric composition from the guy who brought us the lovely In The White Silence.
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We couldn't be happier about the disco revival that has swept through the music scene over the last year or two. It's exciting that a whole new generation is discovering the high energy and sexually charged dance floor burners that were such important anthems for so many underrepresented communities in popular culture (queer, African-American, Latino, etc.). While producers like Giorgio Moroder and Patrick Cowley have finally been rediscovered by a whole new generation of kids who dig stuff like Justice, Glass Candy and the Chromatics, we're hoping it will happen for Patrick Adams too.
Born in Harlem in 1950, Adams is an amazingly rare breed of producer, having managed to stay fresh and vital for more then three decades. He has worked with everyone from Astrud Gilberto to Eric B. & Rakim, Sister Sledge to Salt 'n Pepa, Eddie Kendricks to The Salsoul Orchestra. Maybe best known for the irresistible disco jam by Musique "In The Bush", Adams was one of the few producers of the disco-era who continued to make cool and innovative records throughout the '80s and well into the '90s.
Master Of The Masterpiece 2 digs really deep into Adams' vaults, as none of these tracks have been available on cd before, and finding original vinyl versions is damn near impossible. From the playful disco of Bumble Bee Unlimited, the strong and soulful stylings of Debbie Taylor, the electro robotic sounds of The "P" Crew and the breezy funk of the Universal Robot Band, all 12 tracks here show how carefree sounds can be made with backbone and conviction. So when you wanna dance in style or ride around town with the top down, we can't think of a better of a soundtrack than these Patrick Adams gems!
This fella can't be stopped, can he? When does Ryan Adams sleep? When does he eat? Crikey! This album's title could very well reflect the number of releases the man has put out... well, not quite! Yeesh, he's no Jandek nor Bob Pollard, but you get the picture. Released in very early January 2006, it almost marked Adams' third album in one calendar year (and actually if you're goin' by mere number of months, it is his third in eight!). That said, as has been somewhat problematic with Adams' musical output in the past, there's always the sticky issue of quantity over quality. As such, 29 is definitely the weakest of his past three albums. Geez, and he was doin' so well... the first of the trio, the excellent Cold Roses double cd, truly resurrected our long waning appreciation of Ryan Adams. Things were sounding... er, rosy (groan!). Next was the more country rockin' Jacksonville City Nights, which wasn't nearly as solid as Cold Roses, but was quite good nonetheless. Now we reach 29, and frankly it's pretty darn lackluster. There's a few sparks here and there but overall it comes across as tired and uninspired. As the first track begins we find Mr. Adams playin' the blues, but that dour mood doesn't linger too long. The rest is rooted in the old country folk earthiness and seems almost like leftover tracks from the recording sessions for his last album. Really, the best thing about this album is the cover art -- a drawing of the Grim Reaper approaching a gate. Too bad it was wasted on such a disappointing album. A damn shame!
This new album from Ryan Adams compiles a baker's dozen of the demos from his Nashville, Hollywood and Stockholm recording sessions of the last couple of years. Nice to hear his music at this stage before every speck of immediacy and grit were swept away in the recording process (which seemed to be the downfall of his 2001 Gold album). Reportedly each song was recorded in one take without overdubs. That said, they do already sound very very polished, full and finished. Overall, he sounds much older and more weathered than on Gold or his fine debut Heartbreaker. Some of these songs completely resemble the catchy college rock of the Replacements - he *really* sounds like Paul Westerberg! - while others are more in the Americana vein of Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen. Actually those latter songs really reminded me of the Traveling Wilburys too which says a lot considering the caliber of artists on that group's roster. The standout track however is the final one, the solemnly moving "Jesus (Don't Touch My Baby)". So beautiful, it veered away from any of the other songs and reference points, and left me wishing the rest of the album were more along those lines.
This cd was still in its shrinkwrap and yet it'd already gotten our hackles (and chuckles) up. Now nine albums under the bridge, we don't really need to go in depth about our love/hate feelings for Mr. Adams, do we? If you need to know the nitty gritty, go ahead and peruse our past reviews of his albums. Simply stated, we've long admired his songsmithery, but have questioned the motivations behind some of his creative and marketing decisions. Fickle? In the case of Easy Tiger, well, we could go on about the sci-fi font and the strategic use of spot color on the album cover by Adams' design team, to focus on his wristwatch, sporting the time 4:20, umm, yep, the only color on the cover... 4:20 DUDE!!! But... see for yourself. Targeting a new market perhaps? Aww, let us not waste any more energy grousing. The music, the music! Is this Adams' most consistent, wholly alt-country rock album since his solo debut Heartbreaker? Yes, it just might be! Back in 2000, that album's blend of well crafted roots and pop won many of our hearts, and while this album can't possibly erase the interim sore spots, it does possess a number of songs that have unearthed the lil' Adams' lovin' spot in our chests long buried. Now, we won't go into how Cup has a violent aversion to people yelling "gee-taaar solo!" which Adams does on the fourth track "Halloweenhead" 'cause then he turns around and presents one of the sweetest sensitive songs on the album ("Oh My God, Whatever, Etc"). Pardon us if we're keeping a sidelong gaze on our sincerity meter. He still changes his country boy vocal delivery at the drop of a hat -- adopting some Neil Young-ish yearn/bleat inflections on the sing-along-with-the-guitar-melody number "Off Broadway" then switching to a deeper George Jones-esque intonation on "Pearls On A String". He does it all very well indeed, but it does leaving you wondering if he's multiple personality'd or is a well versed human mockingbird. Nonetheless, stick around for the closer, the sweetly introspective "I Taught Myself How To Grow Old".
"Gold" is Whiskeytown vocalist Ryan Adams' second solo effort, and with each release both in solo and band mode, his songwriting's gotten progressively more and more accessible and radio-friendly, and much less rootsy. And quite honestly, much less appealing. Adams previous effort was a breathtaking Beatlesque rock record with just the right amount of twang. Unfortunately, this record
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SORRY.
Solo record from singer of alt-country darlings Whiskeytown. Rambunctious and relaxed, more intimate, and a little less polished than his Whiskeytown stuff. The sound is a bit more Beatlesy pop than Hank Williams twang. Nice.
Ryan Adams has been a very busy, prolific man, and the fruits of his labor are two new full lengths (well, technically one is a lengthy 8-song ep). With both, he stretches out and takes another sizable step away from his Whiskeytown / alt-country rock past. Through the first few songs of each release, it seems they're quite drastically different from one another, however as they progress the two draw closer and closer. Released concurrently with the the slower paced and more dramatic Love Is Hell Pt. 1, this one, titled and themed Llor N KcoR (yep, that's Rock N Roll backwards), is filled to the gills with anthemic rock - each song packed with high wailing lead guitars, chunky rhythm guitars, a solid driving beat, and plentiful cymbal crashes. However, it's not completely the Americana type (akin to Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen and Paul Westerberg) for which he's well-known. Many of the songs have a decidedly British rock flair. Take the fifth song "So Alive" for instance, a very U2-ish flag waver. Gets the blood pumpin'. Just as he does on Love Is Hell, Adams throws a single song into the middle of Rock N Roll that's a bit incongruous with the rest. Oddly enough it's actually the title track. Set amid the raucousness of the other thirteen songs, it's a subdued, intimate voice and piano number laced with a quiet texture of sampled dialogue. Nice. A final note: we have to say that, surely much to his chagrin, vocally Mr. Ryan Adams seems to be drawing nearer and nearer to the hoarse rasp of Bryan Adams (no relation, right?).
A sticker on this cd proclaims: "The complete album as Ryan originally conceived it."
And we've gotta say is: "How fucking lame!!!"
If this was the way he "originally conceived it", he and/or his record company sure wasted everyone's time and money this past year releasing these songs on two separate EPs (Love Is Hell Pt. 1 and Pt.2). Oh, there's one non-EP song on here called "Anybody Wanna Take Me Home"? Big whoop! It's not like some great amount of time has passed (during which time those EPs went out of print, etc) or something else to warrant this. Shame on you Ryan Adams/Lost Highway! But if you never got the ep's, here are the reviews from when they came out:
Love Is Hell Pt. 1:
Ryan Adams has been a very busy, prolific man, and the fruits of his labor are two new full lengths (well, technically this is actually a lengthy 8-song ep). With both, he stretches out and takes another sizable step away from his Whiskeytown / alt-country rock past. Through the first few songs of each release, it seems they're quite drastically different from one another, however as they progress the two draw closer and closer. Released concurrently with the one titled and themed Llor N KcoR (yep, that's Rock N Roll backwards), the slower paced and more dramatic Love Is Hell Pt. 1 (part two coming next year, apparently) seems to be the album on which Ryan Adams decided to don Rufus Wainwright's somberly introspective brocade coat for a few numbers. The results are mixed, but of the two releases this one is definitely the stronger. Furthermore, it's leaps and bounds better than most of his recent efforts (which consistently fell short of the high caliber set by his debut Heartbreaker) revealing a much more mature, composed, heartbaring Adams. Amid the smoky, lush instrumentation he howls, croons and emotes much like Wainwright and on occasion like Thom Yorke ("Afraid Not Scared") or Bruce Springsteen ("This House Is Not For Sale") too. As the centerpiece of this release, he delivers a stirring cover of "Wonderwall". He successfully makes the song his own (and sets it apart from the other seven songs) by stripping away Oasis' melodramatic grandeur to bring the focus solely on his voice and picked guitar.
Love Is Hell Pt. 2:
Hot on the heels of his Llor N Kcor album and Love Is Hell Part 1 ep comes Part 2. We were expecting it in the new year, but it appears he (or his record label) just couldn't wait. Geez, if he continues at this pace his fans will have to set up a whole separate shelf for just his albums... not that they haven't already! Anyways, Part 2 is comprised of seven new lushly produced songs on which Adams' voice very unsettlingly resembles that of other vocalists -- for instance, we heard more than a little Glen Campbell and Elliott Smith. Weird! Perhaps he's trying to reach a wider audience by diversifying his vocal delivery since he's already done so with the different musical styles. Now don't get us wrong, we're not harshing on Adams for stretching out in different directions and trying new things. That in itself is great. Other artists venture out all the time, but when Adams does it, somehow it just seems calculated and less than sincere. Give 'er a listen and assess for yourself. That said, of his three newest releases, we still favor L.I.H. Pt.1.
Ryan Adams has been a very busy, prolific man, and the fruits of his labor are two new full lengths (well, technically this is actually a lengthy 8-song ep). With both, he stretches out and takes another sizable step away from his Whiskeytown / alt-country rock past. Through the first few songs of each release, it seems they're quite drastically different from one another, however as they progress the two draw closer and closer. Released concurrently with the one titled and themed Llor N KcoR (yep, that's Rock N Roll backwards), the slower paced and more dramatic Love Is Hell Pt. 1 (part two coming next year, apparently) seems to be the album on which Ryan Adams decided to don Rufus Wainwright's somberly introspective brocade coat for a few numbers. The results are mixed, but of the two releases this one is definitely the stronger. Furthermore, it's leaps and bounds better than most of his recent efforts (which consistently fell short of the high caliber set by his debut Heartbreaker) revealing a much more mature, composed, heartbaring Adams. Amid the smoky, lush instrumentation he howls, croons and emotes much like Wainwright and on occasion like Thom Yorke ("Afraid Not Scared") or Bruce Springsteen ("This House Is Not For Sale") too. As the centerpiece of this release, he delivers a stirring cover of "Wonderwall". He successfully makes the song his own (and sets it apart from the other seven songs) by stripping away Oasis' melodramatic grandeur to bring the focus solely on his voice and picked guitar.
Hot on the heels of his Llor N Kcor album and Love Is Hell Part 1 ep comes Part 2. We were expecting it in the new year, but it appears he (or his record label) just couldn't wait. Geez, if he continues at this pace his fans will have to set up a whole separate shelf for just his albums... not that they haven't already! Anyways, Part 2 is comprised of seven new lushly produced songs on which Adams' voice very unsettlingly resembles that of other vocalists -- for instance, we heard more than a little Glen Campbell and Elliott Smith. Weird! Perhaps he's trying to reach a wider audience by diversifying his vocal delivery since he's already done so with the different musical styles. Now don't get us wrong, we're not harshing on Adams for stretching out in different directions and trying new things. That in itself is great. Other artists venture out all the time, but when Adams does it, somehow it just seems calculated and less than sincere. Give 'er a listen and assess for yourself. That said, of his three newest releases, we still favor L.I.H. Pt.1.
If you're a regular AQer, you're probably more than a little familiar with our love/hate relationship with Ryan Adams' music. His albums have proven to be a source of much frustration around here. There'll be an absolutely fantastic song that you immediately fall in love with right alongside something unbelievably bland and generic. His latest release being a double cd had us wondering if he simply has difficulty editing himself. However, we were happy to find that this is perhaps his most consistent work in ages... and it's really not all that lengthy. The 18 songs could have fit on one cd, but Adams' choice to split it up harkens back to those '70s classic rock double albums from which he clearly draws much inspiration. The embossed gatefold sleeve and LP-looking disc art only add to this feel. Music-wise, for the most part, Adams keeps to the sorrowful country rock road, and this mid-tempo pace suits him well. Cold Roses reveals a more mature Adams who's not out to prove anything nor hop aboard any bandwagons. Oozing with confidence, not cockiness, and conveying a level of sincerity and expressiveness previously unheard from him since his Whiskeytown days. In fact, it seems he may have finally (re)discovered his own voice on this album. Although his music is still very much in the same stylistic vein as a number of his seniors, his vocal delivery this time sounds the least like those other folks (Westerberg, Springsteen, Petty). Perhaps all of this goodness is the result of his finding a new group of musicians for his backing band? It sure seems like they've clicked well, he actually co-wrote all of the songs with The Cardinals. Nothing like some new faces to recharge one's creative batteries, and even better when the end results are as good as this!
Can't get enough of Ryan Adams? Well, he definitely makes sure that you never have to wait too long for something new! It's like clockwork. Sometimes this can be a bit problematic when a release seems rushed out and uninspired... and some have indeed seemed so. Still, his last few releases have been surprisingly consistent, and consistently good. The only gripe we've had recently is with his major label style generic artwork. Anyhoo, four months after his Easy Tiger album, here is his new seven song ep which include two new songs (the title track and "My Love For You Is Real"), the song "Blue Hotel" which was written by Adams and originally recorded by Willie Nelson for his own most recent album, a cover of Alice In Chains' "Down In A Hole", new versions of "Dear John and "This Is It" as well as one other song "If I Am A Stranger". The latter five were recorded live in the studio. A solid country rock fan pleaser.
Why mess with a good thing, right? Well, Ryan Adams' not known to be one to follow that advice, but it seems like he has with his latest full length. He's kept on track with his great backing band The Cardinals. Sounding totally at ease, they really seem to ground him with their exceptionally sound foundation. Although throughout his contrivance-riddled past we've been forced to be somewhat suspicious of the sincerity when he dons his 'sensitive guy' persona. Here, the haunting melancholia and sweet sentiments of some of the quieter songs such as "Cobwebs" and "Evergreen" ring true. Also, unlike his former tendencies to churn out album after album with nary a breath in between, he and the band took their time with Cardinology (*gasp* almost a year!). The album itself take its time too, unwinding at a laidback reflective pace. A hushed fine follow-up to the Americana goodness that was his Follow The Light cdep.
Seems like Mr. Flights-of-fancy, Ryan Adams is stickin' with a good thing. The ridiculously prolific singer/songwriter hooked up with The Cardinals for his last album Cold Roses, and it turned out to be a winning combination! Perhaps his most 'old country' sounding album to date, and a dandy one at that.
Adamson's previous records have intentionally been film scores for films that never existed, blueprints for him to explore the issues in his life, not the least of which is his biracial ethnicity. In his fifth solo album, the former bassist for the Bad Seeds and Magazine unveils his most song-oriented album. The trademark apocalyptic noir swing and murky production are present but with a sinister application of Leonard Cohen-style vocals. There's a point in the middle of the album (Here I Stand) where all of the ghosts and demons are scared up to intense peaks of aural chaos... and it sounds so good!
Mute U.K. Has finally seen fit to reissue this: hallelujah! This is his first soundtrack (of 4, 3 of which are for films that don't exist). Brilliant album from one of my favorite musicians in the whole world. The cd version adds 3 songs unavailable elsewhere, including the truly essential theme from the Sinatra-as-junkie film The Man With The Golden Arm. "In a black & white world, murder adds a touch of colour." Get this album first!
While we have in the past been fans of Adamson's soundtrack without a movie vibe, (most notably, the all time classic Moss Side Story) this more song-oriented and vocal heavy affair feels a bit late in the lounge. It still gives off a soundtrack sort of feel, but with synth-stabs, slap bass, as well as strange narrative elements from Anne Chancellor, which creates a soundtrack that seems to be from an eighties B-movie now shown only on the Spanish channel late at night. Perhaps its because Adamson plays all the instruments himself, which is a commendable feat in itself, but we wish that all that effort made for a more rewarding listen.
A huge Barry Adamson fan, I still maintain that he hasn't surpassed his first two albums, but nonetheless The King of Nothing Hill, his eighth proper album, is worth a listen or two. It's just that ex-Bad Seeds Adamson's musical trajectory (which involves the scoring of non-existent -- and on two occasions *existent* -- films) has evolved from the delicate, shiveringly evocative art noir scores Moss Side Story and Soul Murder to... well... these slightly more bombastic productions more suited to blockbuster status. I mean, the James Bond franchise should just give him a go already. He'd do a fine job. Anyway, here we've got smoky atmospheres laced with groovy vibes (RIP Lionel Hampton btw!) and Adamson's lounge singer / circus barker croon. Hovering helicopter noises punctuate the tension. At its worst it's like the soundtrack to Rocky XVII or something, but on the other hand at its best he'll pop out with, for example, a *gorgeous* song with pretty Chicago-style trumpet on it ("That Fool was Me"), definitely the album's highlight. Occasional samples include those borrowed from Ike Turner, Archie Shepp / John Coltrane, and Bob James, and Cypress Hill.
A "best of" collection from Barry Adamson's five solo albums outside of his work from the Bad Seeds and Magazine... filmic scores of very dark and moody jazz, rumble-ass basslines, brassy outbursts, and post-punk pop.
From its beginnings, the Icelandic arts organization Kitchen Motors has been pairing off interesting cross-platform artists who may not have otherwise had the opportunity to work together. "The Hymn Of The Seventh Illusion" was a commission by Kitchen Motors
Compounding the collaborative spirit, Kitchen Motors employed The Hafler Trio (whose solo member Andrew McKensie now lives in Iceland) to remix "The Hymn Of The Seventh Illusion." As McKensie has been moving further away from the fictional research projects and more towards the electro-acoustic studies from Luigi Nono, The Hafler Trio is a perfect fit. This remix has stretched and abstracted the polyphony of the chorus into a very creepy extended drone collage. Very nice work!
With the awesome explosion that Add N To (X) provided with the super limited single "Little Black Rocks On The Sun," there was hope that Add N To (X) would do something as good as the second album "On The Wire Of Our Nerves." But the two following releases including "Add Insult To Injury" proved that they only had about 90 minutes of good music in them. Right now, the UK trio has only been interested in the irony of using analogue synthesizers and vocoders... how boring.
Veering from the sci-fi bleakness of their last effort On The Wires Of Our Nerves, Add N To (X) have modernized the Moog exotica of the '60s with this propulsive collection of epic analog fuckery... Ignore the record-label hype that this is some sort of Stockhausen meets Motorhead experimental hard rock record (what were they thinking, it's not).
