After the unlikely commercial success of Folk Implosion from the Kids soundtrack and the lackluster last Sebadoh album, it's good to know that Lou Barlow still spends some of his time getting bummed out and documenting his thoughts on a four track with just a guitar and his voice. Sentridoh has always been the outlet for these kind of Barlow-in-the-bedroom recordings, capturing the charming pathos of a grown man still wallowing in teen angst. Musically, "Loobiecore" is the familiar Barlow array of songs: some are sweetly sensitive and romantic, some a bit ramshackle hillbilly folkish, some rambunctious and cacaphonous. "Loobiecore" may not have that odd magic which makes Sentridoh's "Winning Losers" so amazing, but this album is easily Barlow's best effort in years.
I think French people have a different idea of what is scary. Take for example the French black metal band Seth. Makes you wonder if there are other French black metal bands called Todd, or Josh, or Erik, or Simon. Who knows? How about these song titles: 'Addicted To Psychotropic Angeldust' or 'Into The Spheres Of Spirtuality' or 'The Sons Of Seth'. Not so scary. But Seth do play some mean and -very- scary black metal. Fast and furious, with a really strange production (almost industrial at times) and some really weird playing/parts that make Seth stand out from their black metal contemporaries. Definitely fits comfortably next to your Immortal, Emperor, and Marduk records.
Charles Kin's (Pinetop Seven/Boxhead Ensemble) instrumental project, featuring Ken Vandermark as well as members of Wilco, Handsome Family, Vandermark 5, Isotope 217 and the Chicago Underground. The sound is gorgeously lush and cinematic, falling somewhere between the Pinetop Seven, Calexico and the Coctails with lots of lonely strum, deserty twang, jazzy skiffle, melancholy melodies, thrumming upright bass, chiming vibes, muted late night horns and a mysteriously noir ambience. Really nice.
Still active in the San Francisco avant-drone-improv-rock ensemble Thuja in spite of his move down to Los Angeles, Steven R. Smith quietly presents another fantastic solo album of his distinctively cinematic psychedelia. In a better world, Smith's work would get the same universal acclaim as the syrupy melodramatic glop of Sigur Ros or the socially conscious marches of Godspeed! You Black Emperor. But as it stands, Smith's revelatory instrumentals of bittersweet leitmotifs and sublime crescendos remain one of the greatest secrets in the expansive realms of avant-rock. Where Thuja explores the theatre of atmosphere, Smith's solo work is firmly grounded within a simple, yet very expressive use of melody. Smith announces the beginning of each of the songs on "Lineaments" (as with his previous recordings) with a lilting melodic stanza for fuzzed organ or drone guitar which repeats itself throughout the entirety of the song. Around this basic structure, Smith builds incremental layers of sound through complementary overtones, golden applications of spring reverb, and scribbled flourishes from additional organs, guitars, violins, and other less typical instrumentation. While Smith's solo process involve a considerable amount of multi-track production, he -- like Thuja and the interconnective Jewelled Antler gaggle -- relies upon spontaneity in the construction of these scores to give his music a floating effortlessness. "Lineaments" is no exception to Smith's outstanding body of work, and definitely gets the thumbs up from Aquarius.
Yet another archival release of stuff by this still-relevant 'Canterbury' band, one that wedded jazz fusion to prog rock to pure avant-garde invention (file 'em between Miles Davis and King Crimson, unless you're a stickler for alphabetization like me). The majority of this disc (three tracks, about 40 minutes) is live material from 1970, circa their album "Third", recorded by the 'classic' Soft Machine line-up of Elton Dean (sax), Hugh Hopper (bass), Mike Ratledge (electric piano, organ) and Robert Wyatt (drums and vocals). That's followed by two more live tracks, from 1969, recorded by the barely-documented septet version of the group (more sax, and trombone). This disc wraps up with an epic 20-minute demo version of the Wyatt-penned "Moon In June" from '68/'69. This composition was later recorded for "Third" and also appears in an abridged live form as track two of this disc. The 1970 live stuff sounds great, the '69 tracks a little rougher (but very immediate). The "Moon In June" demo was rescued from an apparently quite fucked up acetate, but is miraculously listenable. Liner notes and photos enhance the experience. Ok, that's the basic info...if you're a Softs fan you probably want this. If you have yet to investigate this band's voyage from British psychedelic/prog rock to experimental jazz realms (a voyage also undertaken by many Krautrock bands, probably inspired in part by these guys), you probably want to get "Third" to start with (other suggestions welcome, but that's the one I'm most familiar with). But, as this stuff is from that era, it's also recommended. True, the Soft Machine's style of fusion has its dangers, but whenever the jazz element threatens to get too polite, or the prog too twee, some distorted bass or organ or sax wailing saves the day.
On this new disc, the Starfuckers do a song called "Eternal Soundcheck", demonstrating an awareness of what most people are going to think about 'em...and it's true, most folks just aren't gonna get this. But, we urge you, give it a chance!
Italy's Starfuckers, if you're not familar with 'em, play an abstract, sparse, and totally unique brand of what they term 'rock concrete', something that kind of sounds like This Heat falling down the stairs, but trying to be really quiet about it. Percussive and full of near-silences, their almost-randomly-improvised-sounding music uses guitar, drums, and electronics to take the 'glitch' aesthetic out of the laptop arena and into that of the live band. It's as if they played 'normal' songs, then removed about 70 percent of the music, and shuffled the remaining sounds around. It's counter-intuitive, disjointed stuff, yet every dissonant chord played on the guitar, every bassy electronic rumble, every drum hit seems to have meaning, unknowable meaning. Attentive listening will reveal compelling rhythms and structures. If you dig the likes of US Maple, Supersilent, Kevin Drumm's solo guitar stuff, or that last guitar-less Fushitsusha record, you'll enjoy the Starfuckers. Indeed, you probably already do.
Ok, let's talk about "Infinitive Sessions": the first three tracks ("Blues Off", "Drive On", and "Off Blues") seem to follow on pretty directly from the stuff on their previous album "Infrantumi", kinda being more of the same (which is fine, 'cause there's not nearly enough of this stuff wethinks). One difference though: "Infinitive Sessions" is wholly instrumental, there's none of the Italian spoken in sinister whispers that cryptically caressed your ears on their prior releases, which perhaps is a pity.
Then the aforementioned "Eternal Soundcheck" ups the crackly drone quotient quite nicely for the next 12 minutes, before the final two tracks ("Funked X" and "Vamped X") reveal that the Starfuckers have gotten into a new and unexpected 'funk' bag! Not funk in any accepted form, of course, just the suggestion of funk via a 'funky' guitar sound. This caused their label to compare this record to The Contortions, Big Flame, and James Brown, but that's going way too far. They're MORE 'no wave' than The Contortions, and if the JBs ever laid down 'grooves' like these, The Godfather of Soul would have fined them, fired them, rehired, then fined and fired them again. Maybe a jazz cat like Miles Davis coulda gotten into this 'funk', but even he never took THIS much drugs. These tracks sound a bit like "Rated X" from Miles' "Get Up With It" turned into a 'Glitches' Brew' of funk fuckery.
We've never liked the term 'post-rock', as applied to such bands as Mogwai, Slint, A Minor Forest, and Shellac, however it seems to us that what the Starfuckers play is trully 'post-rock', in a very literal sense, and apparently that's the idea. The Starfuckers website (www.nanananan.it/starfuckers/) features the following statement from one Henry Clitus Colagetti, the President of something called CAMC (the Commitee for Abolition Of the Middle Class): ROCK IS DEAD, WHAT DRAGS ITSELF FOR MORE THAN TWENTY YEARS IS NOTHING ELSE THAT ITS CORPSE CONTINUOUSLY EXHUMED BY CULTURAL INDUSTRY.
ROCK IS DEAD IN 1975 WHEN LOU REED PUBLISHED "METAL MACHINE MUSIC" THAT DECREED THE END OF ROCK MUSIC.
"INFRANTUMI" BY STARFUCKERS IS THE FIRST ROCK ALBUM AFTER "METAL MACHINE MUSIC".
THE NEW ROCK, RESPECTING THE BASIC ELEMENTS THAT CONSTITUTE WHAT WAS ROCK MUSIC - REPETITION AND SIMPLICITY OF PLAYNG - RISES AGAIN BASING ON THE PRINCIPLES OF ASYNCHRONY, UNTUNING AND NEGATION OF EGO.
FUTURE IS ALREADY BEHIND YOU.
He's talking about "Infrantumi" but the sentiment applies to this new release as well, of course.
Best band ever? Well, WE rate these guys with Reynols, the Thai Elephant Orchestra, Fushitsusha, Faust, and few others in the pantheon of fucked but totally original and brilliant musical units.
San Francisco's Seth Horvitz aka Sutekh returns with the follow up to 2000's "Periods Make Sense" for Mille Plateuax. After a handful of tech-house singles on various labels like Force Lab, Delay, Plug Research and his own Context Free Media label, "Fell" sees Sutekh fleeing from the confines of the dancefloor, pursuing an exploration of texture and the nature of sound through electroacoustic analysis. Fractured timelapse rhythms collide with clinical pulses and piercing tones in a superdistorted faux exotic world of minimalist dub and triphop. A microcosmic journey into the anatomy and dissection of pure sonics. Slow paced and expansive, yet highly cerebral and thoroughly engaging. Another beautiful release from the enchanting folks at Orthlorng Musork.
Super technical, brutal and melodic black/death metal with a slight industrial tinge. Lots of keyboards, blast beats, churning downtuned riffs, Emperor-ish guitar melodies and howled/growled vocals. Nothing earth shatteringly original but still really good. This is the kind of stuff my housemate Erik goes crazy for. So if you dig In Flames, Soilwork, late era Carcass, and that sort of thing, this is right up your alley.
Wyatt Cusick is the skilled scribe of some of the sweetest, smartest tunes around!! And he's in two of the brightest pop bands around - the Aislers Set and Trackstar. Purveyors of all that is sensitive, peppy and charming, tempered with a balanced dose of fuzzy and jangly guitars. His fellow Track Star Matthew Troy is certainly no songwritin' slouch either. After so many years of making music together its clear their chemistry is capable of brewing up a melodious storm. Each fellow brings his distinct approach to the group, Wyatt all warm, soft and boyish, and Matthew a bit more feisty and gritty. The faster songs are driving power pop whereas the slower ones have a definite Belle And Sebastian-esque fragile lilt and sigh to them (such as on "Green To Gold" a song that also appeared on their late 2001 Omnibus Records 7"). This is made even more pronounced on the song titled "The End" by the added honey-sweet vocal grace of Alicia Vanden Heuvel (of the Aislers Set and Poundsign). This release also marks drummer Brian Girgus' (formerly of Lowercase) full length debut for the Trackstar team.
Trans Am unleash their new synth rock assault in the form of TA. And it appears they've really gone and done it... crossed the point of no return. Taken up permanent membership in the league of joke bands. With irony and silliness in full effect, there's no more trying to camouflage it. Although it sounds really great, a total hi-fi quality recording with a good synthy dance sound to it too, musicianship and production values can only carry it so far. This just sounds like an '80s parody utilizing 2002 technology. Geez, the first track "Cold War" sounds just like ZZ Top circa "Legs". I know I'm not alone in totally embracing that decade's keyboard dance music, and welcoming any current valiant attempts at its revival, but come on! Some quality control please! There's an enormous difference between the fun yet vacuous Dead or Alive or Animotion and the brilliance of artists like Gary Numan. Although the term 'new wave' has been bandied about lately with offensive, reckless abandon, distinctions need to be made. Not all '80s music was fluff and cheese! When Trans Am perform live they're a lot more guitar heavy and less synth-laden, and in my opinion sound sooo much better. I wish they could capture that energy on their recordings. Anyways, while I was listening to this and criticising it, some nice customer came in, loved it and bought it right away. Me, I'm extra disappointed that I can't even applaud their band photos this time around as Miami Vice dudes. You may recall their past press shots, so amazingly, so hilariously composed and executed.
Initial has been heading toward Vagrant territory putting out way more pop than punk lately. But who are we to complain. Especially if it means we get records this good. Super produced, kick ass, totally catchy power pop. Haven't dug a straight up pop record this much since the last Get Up kids record or since we discovered The Stereo. Think midwest emo, blossoming into gorgeous four chord pop punk, but not pop punk like Green Day/Blink 182, but punky pop like Weezer or the Posies or any of the Vagrant bands (GUK, the Anniversary). Huge guitars, hooky melodies, scratchy Elvis Costello-ish vocals, and a great production. For anyone in need of a fresh dose of pop, this will definitely hit the spot.
Inspired by past compilations of avant-garde guitar explorations assembled by John Fahey and Fred Frith, the Bay Area's own well-known guitar experimentalist Henry Kaiser has put together this collection of acoustic solos by many of today's most amazing guitar innovators, 19 of 'em in fact: Duck Baker, Stefan Basho-Junghans, Raoul Bjorkenheim, Jean-Paul Bourelly, Nels "AQ Loves Me" Cline, Janet Feder, Fred Frith, Michael Gulezian, Richard Leo Johnson, Mike Keneally, Peter Lang, Scott McGill, Shawn Persinger is Prester John, Rod Poole, Gyan Riley, Miroslav Tadic, Richard Thompson, U Tin, and Kaiser himself (hey, why no Eugene Chadbourne?). These guys (yeah, they're all guys except for Ms. Feder, but what can you do?) hail from around the world and have unique, personal approaches to playing.
Moods here range from the pastoral idyll of Brit folkie Thompson to the minimalist soundscaping of Frith, from the faux-raga like slide work of Bjorkenheim to the authentically Robbie Basho-like exotica of U Tin, from the country pickin' of Lang to the percussive melodicism of Bourelly, from the scraping drone-folk of Feder (we want to hear more!) to the repetitive trance-induction of Rod Poole, from the sprightly, jazzish jingle of Persinger to the melancholic classical playing of Gyan Riley. The disc ends with Steffen Basho-Junghan's epic, experimental, fucked up but lovely sounding "Part 1 from the Virgin Orchestra No.1", a piece that Kaiser cites as the cornerstone of this comp. And it's the pretty great finale to this gorgeous, fascinating album.
Kaiser intends "156 Strings" to highlight those carrying on the work of iconoclastic instrumental steel-string guitar pioneers like Fahey, Basho and Kottke, a tradition driven underground by the more commerical, less challenging New Age guitar genre those same folks helped create.
Also, funnily enough, a portion of the proceeds from the sales of this comp go to benefit H.E.A.R. (Hearing Education and Awareness for Rockers). Don't worry, there's no need for earplugs with this one!
When we first ordered this, we imagined it would be a compilation of rapping in African music, or more like the roots of modern rap in Africa, but instead this is a collection of some of the most popular contemporary rap groups in Africa, and it's pretty great. It's interesting to hear how the music, while obviouly reminscent of American hip hop, incorporates all sorts of traditional African musics as well as modern music (especially Mbalax or African commercial pop), as well as rapping in French and Wolof and a heavy political/religious bent as 90% of African rappers are Muslim. As a simple hip hop compilation, this stands up pretty well. Fans of MC Solaar and the Le Flow hip hop collection from a few years back will love this. But as a musical and sociological document, complete with Trikont's excellent liner notes, this is essential.
Sometimes you just have to know when to say "No Corky!" and lift the needle from the record or press 'eject'. This compilation is one of those times. Hate to say it, but it seems ol' Crippled Dick have let us down this time with Between Or Beyond The Northern Lights. A shame considering how we've applauded and eagerly anticipated their ecclectic array of artists and compilations (including the super groovy, kitschful Pop-Shopping and Shake Sauvage collections as well as releases from Oxbow and Peter Thomas). Subtitled "Rare Fusion From Scandinavia 1967 -1978, this sort of sounds like the bland jazz you'd hear seeping out of the cocktail lounge of a '70s hotel. A bevy of poodling saxophones and muted trumpets, an occasional burp of analog synth, omnipresent tik-teeek-tik hihats, and tootily flute... you get the idea! Eck.
Besides being one of the best collections of metallic grind (or grinding metal) in a while, this compilation is also notable for having perhaps the largest collection of vocalists that grunt and growl in a remarkably bowel loosening, rib cage rattling almost inaudible (except maybe to dogs) subsonic slowed-down cookie monster gurgle. It really is amazing. Plus all of these bands are from the Czech Republic! Had no idea it was such a hotbed of metal/grind. Of the 5 bands represented, only one (Contrastic) fails to please, lacing their grind with some sort of Red Hot Chili Peppers neo-funk. Ugh. But the other four bands more than make up for it, with some of thwe most punishing metal we've heard in a while: blazing tempos, impossibly fast drumming, crushing downtuned guitars, and those aforementioned sick, growled vocals. Check out the sound samples and you'll be sold.
We haven't had a new Kill Rock Stars comp in a while (after a pretty steady schedule of almost yearly installments). It seems like maybe they've been saving them up! 2 cds of KRS stuff that is all over the place. But with so much varied stuff there's bound to be a lot of good and bad. My reactions varied from super stoked to "what the fuck is this shit?!". But as compilations go, this one is pretty good with a lot of not-so-well-known bands getting some good exposure like Beehive and the Barracudas or the Dishes. Plus unreleased tracks by by current hyped bands of the moment Erase Errata and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Other notable contributors include The Aislers Set, The Rock*A*Teens, The Bangs, Red Monkey, Neko Case, Quails, Deerhoof, Quasi, Stereo Total, Comet Gain, and loads more. Kill Rock Stars seem to be slowly but surely getting back on track releasing the kind of cool off kilter indie rock that made us dig them in the first place.
Another installment in this series of fringe electronica compilations from the very cool Planetsounds label, who like AQ faves Fflint, continue to dig up amazing and obscure electronica that in a perfect world would send Warp and Lo and all those other labels crying home to their mommies. There are a few recognizable artists represented, Tele:funken (they did a split with Flying Saucer Attack a few years ago), Illuminati (see elsewhere on this list) and the Irritants, but all the others are veritable unkowns. The sound ranges from throbbing low-fi ambient technoscapes to fluttery chiming gurgle and buzz to static-y skittery electronic clatter to creepy shimmery high end skree and hiccupping drum stutter and all point in between. Any one who has been digging Berkowitz, Lake And Dahmer, Cousin Silas and all that Fflint stuff should check this out.
Hmm, what to say about this exactly? It's a 24-minute cd-r collecting stuff recorded by 'developmentally disabled' kids (ages 6 to 22) at the Ala Costa Center in Northern California who participated in a twelve week music workshop run by San Francisco's The Dancing Tree organization, which seems like wonderful fun for them. The kids are let loose with tom toms and kazoos and and xylophones and slide whistles and sticks etc., and these are some of the results. Funny and silly, sweet and innocent and full of creative enthusiasm (if not skill). Musically, it's primitive stuff, with lotsa playful percussion and singing. We really like all the pieces that utilize "sticks on playground structure". File with the Tangerine Awkestra and the Kids of Widney High in the untrained and/or differently-abled avantgarde section. "Trees And Whistles" is pure beat poetry, while the single-minded abandon of several of the tom tom jams outdo Amon Duul and Crash Worship. Well, maybe.
Another compilation (number four, duh) of fast and furious, pummelling fastcore/grindcore/metallic punk rock. Some bands you know: 324 (from their recent split with Corrupted), Ruido, Unruh, Damad, Lack Of Interest as well as a ton of bands you don't: Haymaker, I Found God, Overpowering, Self Inflicted, Progeria, Halo Epidemic, Dudman, Pretty Little Flower, Inspite, Hawgjaw, Low Threat Profile and lots more. If you like this kind of stuff, you probably gotta have this.
It seems there's a "Rough Guide" for practically every kind of music from every inch of the world. Sort of like those "Idiot's Guide To..." or "... For Dummies" books which I have to admit are pretty darn helpful and informative, if somewhat insultingly titled. Luckily this compilation series isn't as unfortunately named, but is however less in depth and fulfilling. Certainly it's doesn't proclaim to be more than just an introductory tutorial, but although key figures are included like Asha Bhosle, Udit Narayan and Mohammed Rafi, it really barely skims the surface of this amazing genre. So if you're just looking for a basic sampler history lesson in Indian film music, this might do ya fine, but for those looking to delve a little deeper, don't wait another moment to check out the following titles: Doob Doob O'Rama Volumes 1 and 2, Vijaya Anand's Dance Raja Dance, Bollywood Funk, and The Best Of Asha Bhosle. Although these titles focus a lot more on the "golden age" of Bollywood than the more recent decades, they're much more thorough collections.
The Rough Guide's primer here on the music of Indonesia should not be mistaken as a definitive sampler of the music from this archipelago -- even Philip Yampolsky's thorough 20 disc "Music Of Indonesia" series on Smithsonian Folkways could hardly claim that distinction -- but focuses more on those genres arising out of Indonesia's urban centers, music that has a distinct western influence. Which isn't to say that the music is limited to a western bias when it comes to the elements which inform it. There's CBMW, from Western Java which blends together local degung style gamelan with a bamboo idiom from Jakarta along with Balinese elements and even Brazilian samba rhythms. The example presented here is, while bordering on the NPR-segue-music side of things, is unlike anything else you're likely to hear. There's the wacky, Indian film music influenced Dangdut with its genre bending, frenetic energy. Then there's the beautiful kacapi and suling (plucked zither and bamboo flute) duets in which the zither accompanies while the flute, in place of singing, plays improvised melodies. Can't leave out the mudic of Ibu Maimunah Mochtar & Group which combines Malay, Portuguese and Middle Eastern musical elements on accordian, frame drum and vocals. 15 tracks, representing as many styles are included here, though a few out and out pop tracks made the cut as well and I can't say they were crucial additions. 12 pages of liner notes on the artists, source listings for the tracks and a brief introduction to the islands round out the package.
Inspired by the Wu Tang (hence the title), here's yet another set of seventies soul compilations. We can't argue with their selections. 21 tracks, awesome stuff to put you in the mood from the likes of Ann Peebles, Al Green, Syl Johnson, Lyn Collins, Booker T & The MGs, Barry White, Marvin Gaye, O.V. Wright, and others... Both vol. 1 and vol. 2 have a good mix of classic tracks, for the most part not-too-obscure yet not-too-obvious stuff. Syl Johnson, Ann Peebles, The Emotions, and Al Green make appearances on both volumes, so I guess they're the compilers favorites or something.
Volume two of "Shaolin Soul" features Teddy Pendergrass, Al Green, Sly Johnson, Baby Huey, Mad Lads, Ann Peebles, Jackson 5, Detroit Emeralds, The Emotions, Black Ivory, The New Birth, Southside Movement, Eddie Holman and more (20 tracks). Again, lots of gems here, as with vol. 1 it's mostly lush love song soul rather than blaxploitation car chase funk, more smooth than gritty.
More electronic-ambient-out-there fuckery from Campbell Kneale, sole member of Birchville Cat Motel and head honcho of Celebrate Psi Phenomena. And as I'm sure you already surmised from the title this is indeed a Prince tribute record. The versions are all over the map, From Birchville Cat Motel's almost straight rock version of 'I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man' to Afghan Cyborg Predator's 13 second noise blast version of 'Let's Pretend We're Married' to B.C.'s droned out, blissed out, almost ambient version of 'Little Red Corvette' to A.Ra's stumbling acapella version of 'Sign O' The Times to Antony Milton's glitched out melancholy powerbook version of 'When Doves Cry' to the C.M. Ensemble's sparsely gorgeous, reverb drenched version of 'Nothing Compares 2 U' and on and on and on and on. Two discs, over two hours, of Prince songs fucked with, fucked up, chopped up, rearranged, destoyed, honored, digraced, torn apart, turned inside out, played note for note, made completely unrecognizable, respected, disrespected and plain ruined!
In case you've been curious about one of the Hyped To Death compilation cd-r series, Stragglers #1 is here to save the day! It's sampler drawing from four of H2D's series: Teenline (tracks 25-28), Messthetics (tracks 16-24), Homework (tracks 12-14) and Hyped To Death (tracks 1-11). Actually, this is only sort of a sampler, not a 'best of' at all. What it really is (and why it's called Stragglers), is "offical addenda": a collection of stuff that H2D curator Chuck Warner has recently ADDED (or plans to add) to various volumes from the aforementioned serieses. You see, he's constantly upgrading the H2D comps, so they actually exist in multiple additions, with newly-discovered tracks being added in to whichever volume to which they alphabetically belong. What a dedicated fellow, that Chuck, always making fixes and corrections. Kinda confusing, but just pick up Stragglers and you'll be updated. This debut Stragglers volume features plenty o' early punk male and female caterwauling and sunny power pop gems from the U.S. and the U.K., including Slight Seconds, Spys, Rebby Sharp, Babylon Dance Band (added at the behest of none other than David Grubbs!), Nick Pagan, Stolen Power, and other obscurities. Oh, and St. Louis legends the Screamin' Mee-Mees show up here too. Visit www.hyped2death.com for more information, the track listings found there should help owners of older H2D volumes to figure out if they need this disc or not. But if you don't have (m)any, this is a great intro for sure.
Soul Jazz does it again. This time the label tackles the classic DJ cuts produced by Coxsone Dodd at Studio One from the beginning of the 60's through the early 80's. Unlike the common DJ of repute who was content to merely play records, Jamaican DJ's have always been of a mind to persistently interject their own thoughts, off the cuff remarks, vocal sound effects over what they played. Such was the heavy competition between Sound Systems in Jamaica, that merely having the freshest cuts would win an audience. A charismatic master of ceremonies was crucial drawing crowds. Out of this developed the Jamaican DJ: U Roy, I Roy, Big Youth, Dennis Alcapone, Count Machuki, Prince Jazzbo et al. Coxsone Dodd, having already been the owner of one of the biggest sound systems in Jamaica by the end of the 50's, continued in the capacity of producer to become the institution he is today with vaults of the most popularly versioned rhythms in Jamaica. 'Studio One DJ's' takes a look at not only some of the most successful DJ's to work with Coxsone, but also some great obscure one's that you may never have heard. You won't find either U or I Roy on this collection, but that shouldn't dissuade you (we can set you up with great discs of either) as their's no shortage of awesome tracks on here from the sparse interjections of Count Machuki to the non-stop-almost-out-of-breath toasting and cocka-doodle-dooing of Dennis Alcapone, to the ever so gruff and foreboding chanting of Prince Far I, there's an impressive variety of artistry represented here.
Wow! And we also just discovered that there's a short video on Studio One included on the CD that you can watch on your computer. Brief interviews with Coxsone and Norma, plus footage of notable DJ's Lone Ranger and a pissed off looking King Stitt. Looks like it's a sneak peak of a full length documentary that Sould Jazz will be releasing on DVD and video in the near future. We're all waiting on the pins and the needles for its release!
Well you've got to hand it to Trojan since they cut the price on these box sets it's hard to go wrong. But with this new Upsetter Box, if you have any of the many Perry / Upsetter collections already (especially any of the trojan anthologies), you'll be getting a whole lot of redundant material. Disc one covers Perry's pre-Black Ark days, with tracks dating back to 1968, recorded Randy's and Dynamic Sounds. This disc is contains not only the best material in the set but, unfortunately, also the most oft released tracks. Disc two contains tracks from Perry's Black Ark period and collaborations with King Tubby dating up to 1978. The third disc would be a great disc, containing several rare extended mixes of some of Perry's late seventies work including the Congo's "Neckodeemus", but it's soured by the addition of some of recently recorded tracks, including one from this year's awful 'Jamaican E.T.' album.
The third and final (?) installment of soundtrack music from East Germany's notorious Indianerfilmen. The film genre was popular in the sixties through the seventies and consisted of the basic American Western film turned upside down -- with the Native Americans as the heroes battling the evil colonial Europeans. Great concept, albeit surreal execution since all the actors in these films were German (in dark makeup) and the terrain is all Germany, Czechoslovakia and Poland. **As an aside, local AQ customers can now rent these films on video (with subtitles) across the street from us at Lost Weekend Video. Everyone else should bug their local video store to pick them up, if just for kicks.** Musically, "Wigwam, Cowboys, Roter Kreis" is the most successful collection in the series. The bulk of the tracks here are taken from four films, the scores for which are all equally off kilter in their influences. The score for the film Tecumseh sounds akin to Isaac Hayes' Shaft but augmented by faux-native flutes and motifs. Then there's the bizarre Apachen which boldly attempts a "Latin" feel with it's marimba, flute, trumpet trios backed by orchestra, percussion and even wah-wah guitar. The odd jaw-harp percussion duet "Todesrennen" from the film Blutsbruder is without compare. And, of course, no Indianerfilmen collection would be complete without at least one Morricone homage, and included on this disc are a few tracks from the film Severino which lifts the theme to Once Upon A Time In The West with only the slightest in melodic adjustments. As a bonus there are a few vocal songs including an alternate version of "Love Your Brother" (which was featured on the first Wigwam collection) and a couple other Gram Parsons-on-the-Eastern-bloc cuts. Liner notes covering the composers and the film genre in general are included in both German and English.
Always a pleasure to hear and to see is the fellow who goes by the name John Vanderslice. Hot on the heels of his second full length Time Travel is Lonely, he's brought forth another concept album. This time he sticks closer to home, telling an equally lonesome tale... of home recording (hence the four-track mentioned in the title). One wonders if this is, in part, autobiographical . An increasingly skilled arranger, he knows the value of a subtle, slightly off-kilter detail. Some well-placed gentle twang here, some sparse, faint piano there, and over it all, John's lilting, earnest voice. There's still a very prominent Jeff Mangum / Neutral Milk Hotel influence that flows through the proceedings, but he's tempered it with the input from a bunch of his Barsuk labelmates and fellow music pals, namely members of Spoon, Death Cab For Cutie, Mates Of State, Beulah and the Mountain Goats.
Approaching 30 years of making music, Tom Waits presents two wonderful albums at once, Blood Money and Alice. This collection, actually recorded many years ago but only now seeing its proper release, richly evokes particular moods and sounds of a world long gone, yet also captures a pure timeless beauty just like that of the Lewis Carroll tale. After all these years, it's truly a pleasure to see that he's still quite the wise, eccentric and immensely romantic fellow. There's such a consistency to all that he does, and that is made no clearer than when you stack these two albums up against one other. Alice is a mournful, weathered variety of songs one might just as fittingly hear coming out of a shady speakeasy or from a roaming band of minstrels. Twisting strings, subdued horns and piano, plodding rhythms and his unmistakably sandpaper-raw, billy goat's gruff voice. Smoky, sinister jazz and blues numbers entwine with looming, somber waltzes and darkly creeping, gutwrenching ballads. Although the music is definitely much more fleshed out than his great works like the Spare Change or Swordfishtrombones, this album offers many moments reminiscent of those releases. So enveloping and theatrical, if anyone's music can transport you spiralling down rabbit holes or indeed through the looking glass, his most definitely can. Recommended.
Of Tom Waits' two freshly released albums, I think the needle of my recommendation meter is leaning towards Alice rather than Blood Money, but that's mainly because his slow, dream / nightmare ballads (which I personally prefer) outnumber his more cacaphonous numbers full of craggy howls and shouts. More weary sighs than strange, wizened grunts and mutterings. However, that's not to understate the strength and beauty of this release. In fact, I'm sure neither of these albums is gonna disappoint. He so very seldom does. Once again, he co-wrote and produced all the songs with his wife and long-time collaborator Kathleen Brennan. So wonderfully carnivalesque. We catch glimpses into the shadowy, tattered tents of circus freak shows. Often unsettling and sinister, Blood Money scrapes and scratches at the dusk's scarred underbelly with its tumbling piano and marimba, squelching harmonica, madman beat poet bongos, and sweet melancholic clarinet. Recommended.
Back on list 126, I (Allan) wrote about my belated discovery of the greatness that is Wishbone Ash's self-titled 1970 debut. Well, now it's about time to follow that up with a rave review of another Wishbone Ash record, this being the newly remastered and expanded edition of their third album, 1972's "Argus". Giving this a few listens, I've come to the conclusion that while their first album is certainly somewhat more of a "heavy rock" outing (think Cream meets Thin Lizzy), "Argus" is equally great, and is actually destined to be one of my ALL TIME favorite albums! Seriously, I'm becoming kinda obsessed with listening to this, with its absolutely gorgeous, gentle melodies and its extended instrumental workouts. Some internet investigation reveals that I'm not alone -- this record is in fact considered by many fans to be Wishbone Ash's absolute masterpiece. They just got everything right on this release, from the evocative cover photo of an ancient sentry to the achingly beautiful, stirring music. I can't get enough of the three-part vocal harmonies, the dual guitar leads, or the melancholic power of the riffs. Favorite tracks include the beautiful British folk of "Leaf And Stream", the anthemic "Warrior", and the shoulda-been-a-pop-hit "Sometime World". The whole album has a timeless vibe. Maybe you could call their style "rural progressive" rock? It's melodic, mystical and complex in ways that make it sound simple.
In addition to being remastered, this new 30th anniversary edition includes three bonus tracks: the entire "Live From Memphis" promo-only EP. These live-on-the-radio versions of "Phoenix" (from their debut) and "Jail Bait" and "The Pilgrim" (from their second album, "Pilgrimage") add another half-hour to the disc, being even more jammed-out and epic than the original studio cuts! So even if you already have the old cd of "Argus", you should consider replacing it with this disc, these bonus tracks are worth it! The loud-soft dynamics and interlocking instrumental loveliness of the live "Pilgrim" are positively 'post-rock', but better of course.
Truly 'classic' rock that needs to be rediscovered. My advice for this week: pick up that new Champs album, and order a copy of this as well. You'll be set for a while then!
Another stab at success for the Wu-Tang's second stringers, and surprisingly it's not a total bust, it's actually pretty cool. It's all about the RZA, it always has been and it always will be. No matter how good the rapper, it's the loop and the beat that make the sound distinctly Wu-Tang. That still holds true here. While some of the rappers do shine, most of them are pretty by the numbers. Not bad, just sort of same-y. But the awesome production manages to pull this out of the pass pile and making this definitely worth checking out. Plus there's a bonus Wu-Tang track that smokes, with all the big hitters, which, while it makes this disc even more worthwhile, it does make the other lower tier Wu-Tangers pale just that much more in comparison. Just check out the sound clips.
I'm predisposed to dismiss all of the text that Tzadik prints on their obi's as hyperbolic bullshit. Most of the records that John Zorn releases on his label rank at the bottom of the avant garde oeuvre, and the accompanying text rarely comes even close to accurately describing what kind of tripe is found within. So am I supposed to believe that Charles Wuorinen's "Lepton" features "Four absolute masterpieces by one of the world's greatest composers. Spanning over three decades, 'Lepton' presents New York born Wuorinen at his radical best, pushing the limits of instrumental and electronic music." Yup, total bullshit, but at least in this instance, Tzadik has released a decent piece of academic electronic music, planted within the tradition of '60s 'new music' alongside Tod Dockstader and Vladimir Ussachevsky. "One of the world's greatest composers?" Whatever.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
An obscure late-sixties ahead-of-his-time visionary gets his due with this LP reissue. A while back, the Get Hip label released two songs by Michael Yonkers on a 7" and a compilation and that started the buzz. Yonker's stuff was like nothing anyone had heard back then (or even now, really): fucked up garage psych with dementedly genius lyrics and crazy acid-fried guitar. Now Destijl has released the whole LP, that was originally recorded in 1968 but then quickly shelved almost before it had a chance to be heard. Yonkers, a legendary Minneapolis-area figure, built his own effects pedals, cut his Fender Telecaster down to a plank, and played like no one else ever. I'm at a loss of words on how to describe this. It's sort of like a fusion of stripped down Black Sabbath, The Troggs, Pere Ubu, and The Cramps?? Or something like that. Definitely something to check out. Vinyl only.
