Finally a full length from the amazing Timesbold! We first discovered them as the opening act for AQ fave Greg Weeks last year and loved the shit out of their debut ep. This full length fufills every promise their ep made and then some!! A dark and lonely trip down some very familiar paths, but the scenery is quite different and the company is much better. Taking the mournful, bleak country rock of Palace or Songs:Ohia, the lush melancholia of the Flaming Lips or Mercury Rev, and the classic songsmithery of Neil Young or the Band, Timesbold emerge with something at once totally timeless and classic, but also fresh and unique. Piano and acoustic guitars are the foundation for these expansive and gut wrenching tales of misery and hopelessness. Spare and sparse, evoking wastelands, both physical and spiritual, these tunes are so intense and brutally poignant, furtive peeks into the souls of men damned by love and loss. Breathtaking and intense, dark and dreary, but gorgeously recorded and produced. Thick throbbing low end, wisps of shimmery harmonium and that voice, a warbling, cracked cry to the heavens for forgiveness and salvation. So so good. This is probably the saddest, most beautiful, best sounding record we've heard in a really long time. Fans of Woven Hand, 16 Horsepower, Palace, Songs:Ohia, Souled American and all that sort of rickety, dreamy, country/folk/rock will LOVE this as much as we do.
MPEG Download: "Giniwin" [/audio/timesboldginiwin.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Giniwin" [/audio/timesboldginiwin.m3u]
"Mit Gas" is the second album from these heavy friends, not so different from their first self-titled one. Fans won't be disappointed, it's good. Thus, perhaps it will suffice to print here our review of their debut disc, translated via Babblefish into German and back again...
Do a type of "supergroup" not have to tell itself release on the Ipecac label of microphone Patton, Patton even (marking we that you not are it the voice of gentleman of bad work, belief no longer and Fantomas, true?) as well as the always astonishing guitar of the Jesus lizard Duane Denison, formerly cows/presently Melvins bass Kevin Rutmanis, and percussion John Stainer of the helmet. The results are no surprise, but perhaps type of a disappointment: this lizard sounds actually like a cross between belief no longer and the Jesus! That is not bad, but enthuses not either. Patton/lizard follower it should obviously inspection from, although.
MPEG Download: "Birdsong" [/audio/tomahawkbird.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Birdsong" [/audio/tomahawkbird.m3u]
The fourth in series of live performances, published by Touch although lacking Jon Wozencroft's elegant design touches, "Engine 03_04_03" was taken from Rafael Toral's performance at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. Continuing his experiments with the guitar as a complex dronemaking device, the Portuguese sound artists overlaps slow moving glissandos and sinewave modulations from "two guitars, one bass, twin modulated feedback circuits, motorized strings, analogue modular system, routing audio mixer, and several other devices." Similarities run rampant to Phill Niblock, Steve Reich, and Jim O'Rourke.
MPEG Download: "Engine 03_04_02" [/audio/toralengine030402.mp3]
This is record number two from AQ fave Scott Tuma and it's just as beautiful as last year's Hard Again album that we couldn't stop raving about. For those who don't know, Tuma spent the majority of his career as the guitar player for stoned country deconstructionists Souled American. And Tuma has continued to deconstruct that sound even further. Taking the glacial slow motion country of Souled American as a jumping off point, Tuma manages to remove most of the distinctly 'song' elements and focus more on sound, and the impression of that sound. Slow and dreamy, full of space and even more purposeless in terms of song structure than ever, but consequently more effective at creating moods, evocative and stunning, epic and totally timeless. The instrumentation is simple, acoustic guitars, banjos, harmonica, organ, with plenty of ambient clatter, instrument buzz, foot steps, chairs creaking, breathing and shuffling all add to the spare beauty. Wheezing chords underpin purposeful notes gently plucked and left to hang momentarily in the warm air, before drifting gently out of earshot. Melodies slowly reveal themselves from a smattering of notes introduced slowly and sporadically somehow knowing that they will all eventually fall snugly into place. Lush, slowly shifting drones with barely-there melodies suspended within like insects in amber. Warm blankets of sound, woven simply, but perfect in their simplicity. Completely mesmerising and so soothing. Like Phill Niblock composing for Palace, or Godspeed backing up John Fahey, or Philip Jeck and a handful of country 78's. Simply amazing.
MPEG Download: "The River 1" [/audio/tumariver1.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "The River 1" [/audio/tumariver1.m3u]
These Norwegian bad boys are back, after a several year hiatus, with a new album (and a tour with Queens Of The Stone Age!). We love Turbonegro -- doesn't everyone? -- but we have heard some negative comments about this new album. And we have to agree to some degree, that "Scandinavian Leather" is just not nearly as dark as we've come to expect from these denim demons. Some of it could pass for MTV pop-punk until you pay attention to the deviant/innuendo-filled lyrics -- actually, maybe this *will* get on MTV, in which case it's wonderfully subversive. Now, Turbonegro's never been a metal band, but their Alice Cooper influence has led them down some darker alleys in the past than what you get here. But, dammit, it IS damn catchy and (of course) campy and also boasts excellent cover art from ex-Plastic Ono Band drummer Klaus Voormann... And what they really sound like is KISS. So, no complaints. And more power to 'em that they apparently got a Levi's sponsorship -- that denim cape the singer's wearing is sweet!
MPEG Download: "Sell Your Body (To The Night)" [/audio/turbonegrosell.mp3]
The fourth volume in SF's mid-priced "Classic" series. This time the label takes on the loosely connected genre of "Old Time" music. It's important here to stress the word *genre*, because while the moniker of Old Time can be applied to any number of early American string bands and solo musicians who's myriad styles and repertoires eventually found their way into the more recent genres of country, bluegrass, blues and folk -- as in the folk revival, it also can be applied to modern musicians who play in the old time style, like much of the musicians of the folk revival did in the sixties and still do to this day. Included on this disc are tracks (recorded between 1958 and 1998) both by the original artists who served as inspiration such as Doc Boggs, J.E. Mainer's Mountaineers, Roscoe Holcomb, Maybelle & Sara Carter, Doc Watson, Sam & Kirk McGee, Wade Ward, Etta Baker and Gordon Tanner (a.k.a. Gid Tanner & His Skillet Lickers) and the artists who most directly championed their music like The Iron Mountain String Band, The New Lost City Ramblers, Mike Seeger, The Old Reliable String Band, The Spare Change Boys and more.
MPEG Download: LEE SEXTON "Pretty Polly" [/audio/leesextonpretty.mp3]
MPEG Stream: LEE SEXTON "Pretty Polly" [/audio/leesextonpretty.m3u]
"Locations Volume One" is the first in a series from the Chain Tape Collective, a global community of field recordings artists who actively explore the indigenous sounds around them and apply any number of compositional techniques to those field recordings. I've never heard of any of these artists before, except for San Francisco's Matt Davignon, who has been responsible for some interesting experimental music events throughout the Bay Area and had coordinated the release of this album. The end results are far from the purist field recordings of Chris Watson or Douglas Quin; rather, all of the artists revel in digital tricknology which punctuates the various recordings of water, rain, geese, crickets, etc. Thus, it's not uncommon to hear bursts of crowd noise, or obvious varispeed manipulation, or erratic, Mego-like digital mulching, or mechanical concrete loops. In the liner notes, each artist offers his thoughts and insights into the contexts of the recordings and all the gear that went into making the pieces.
MPEG Download: PETR DOLAK "In The Shade of Jan Hus" [/audio/petrdolakintheshade.mp3]
This release seeks to recognize the Florida studio T.K. Records/ Tone Distributors and their roster of artists as a regional force in the funk & soul world, with its grouping of talented in-house musicians, songwriters and producers paralleling the succesful recipes of labels like Motown in Detroit, Stax in Memphis and Philidelphia International. "Miami Sound" collects big hits and regional rarities by artists like Gwen McCrae, Timmy Thomas, Little Beaver, and Clarence Reid-- who many people might know better as nasty comic Blowfly (the funky backing music on the Blowfly records being played by the same T.K. in-house musicians as appear on "Miami Sound"). Highlights include both Frank Williams & The Rocketeers and Helene Smith's versions of "You Got To Be A Man," a total funky gem of a hit that never was; the smooth n' sexy vibe of George McCrae's "I Get Lifted;" mellow grooviness laced with string arrangements infusing Gwen McCrae's "90% Of Me Is You;" and the sweet sadness and motown heartbreak of "A Woman Will Do Wrong," another cut from Helene Smith. This collection sticks to 1967-1974, before many of these same artists went on to have disco hits. Some sweetly soulful tunes and seriously funky shit is unearthed in another winning compilation from Soul Jazz!
MPEG Download: FRANK WILLIAMS & THE ROCKETEERS "You Got To Be A Man" [/audio/FrankWilliamsBeAMan.mp3]
MPEG Stream: FRANK WILLIAMS & THE ROCKETEERS "You Got To Be A Man" [/audio/FrankWilliamsBeAMan.m3u]
Last list one of our 'Records-of-the-Week' was the awesome "Wild Dub" compilation of punk-era dubs. This week, we've got another culture clash -- though, like "Wild Dub", it's less a clash than a perfect match -- with this mix of reggae meets hip hop mixes.
Not to be confused with Heartbeat's venerable compilation of disco-mixes which bears the same title, Soul Jazz's "Nice Up The Dance" is no less of a great collection. While the earlier genres of Jamaican music have drawn inspiration from the States in varying degrees since the 1950's, it's only recently that tables have turned and artists from the U.S. have begun importing ideas from Jamaica -- so much so that rap and dancehall are practically joined at the hip. Dancehall artists are not only cameo-ing on albums by prominent rap artists, but even getting some major label attention of their own. Along comes Soul Jazz to bridge the not-so-wide gap between hip hop and dancehall. On the one hand you have Jamaican artists here like Sean Paul, who has apparently been enjoying some MTV and major label attention right now. His 1996 track "Infiltrate", which has some sick sub-harmonic bass for those of you with subwoofers (the "Playground" riddim), is included here. And on the other you have American artists like J-Live with his track "Satisfied" which pays homage to Jamaican music by using Augustus Pablo's "East of the River Nile" as its foundation, and NY producer Kenny Dope with his trunk rattling dancehall/hip hop crossover classics "Boomin' In Ya Jeep" (featuring Screechy Dan) and "Gunshot" (featuring Shaggy). The best thing about this collection is that it's not some academic attempt to point out the missing links between hip hop and dancehall, but -- like Soul Jazz already has demonstrated time and again -- to collect some of the best tracks into a mix that will stay in your system this summer. This is going to be the album to blast at your next bar-b-q, or in your car on the way to the beach/park/club through the coming hot months (for those of you who are blessed with warm summers). Along with the aforementioned tracks is Cutty Ranks' kick ass come back tune "Who Say Me Done", a fucking wicked Tuva-drone toast from Pompidoo aptly titled "Synthesizer Voice", Steelie and Cleevie's electro-bass remix of Dawn Penn's "No, No, No" (admit it purists, this mix grows on you), another mix of the ever so popular "Ring The Alarm" by Tenor Saw and more. But the absolute bestest, most kick-assessed track on the album is Ward 21's gut pounding, steamroller of a bassline "Petrol" (from 2002 -- no it's not on the Mentally Disturbed album) which features tag team vocals from both the growling baritone and the 200-words-per-minute auctioneer cum toaster. And for those of you that can't live without it, there are some nice liner notes tracing the paths of Jamaican and American music here for you. Highly recommended!!!
Not new, or newly reissued, but we still figured it was just about damn time we put some Van Der Graaf Generator on our list/website. After all, we know lots of AQ customers who've been digging our Italian Prog recommendations -- like Osanna -- and buying slews of Magma reissues and of course who love the good ol' Krautrock, and you're just the types who'd probably like VDGG (if you're not already fans). As you may know, Andee and Allan and Windy and some other folks here are pretty big into the '70s prog thing (despite having been but little kids back then) and one band we really all agree on is the mighty Van Der Graaf Generator. Definitely a bit out of the ordinary... So, here's a couple of good ones, "He To He Who, Am The Only One" and "Pawn Hearts" (reviewed nearby).
"He To He..." was the group's third album, from 1970. It's a great example of their bombastic, dark power and unique instrumental formula. Saxophone (with "devices"), Hammond organ, and tympani are the sort of thing that dominates VDGG's sound, along with the crucial component of Peter Hammill's dramatic, declamatory vocals of course. He's had his own successful solo career running in parallel with Van Der Graaf from the band's very earliest days, and clearly he's a cult figure, a frontman that some will love and some will hate. His wide-ranging voice courses like blood through the flesh of this album's five epic conceptual tracks (the shortest song here is over 6 minutes, the longest more than 12), tracks that must have elicited many a "heavy, man" comment at the time. The heaviest might be opener "Killer", the sad saga of, yes, the lonely killer whale. Other songs, like "House With No Door", are more gentle and melodic, yet still quite gloomy and bleak. Please don't mistake our use of the term "heavy" here -- although Hammill's voice will sometimes rise into a metallic shriek, the Generator have more in common with jazz than heavy metal, being way more Soft Machine than "Machine Head".
MPEG Download: "The Emperor In His War-Room" [/audio/vdggemperor.mp3]
"Pawn Hearts" was Van Der Graaf's fourth album, originally released in 1971. Like its immediate predecessor "He To He Who..." it's certainly one of their classics, equally as epic, emotive, and extravagant. These guys were outrageous musicians, ambitious lyricists, and definite prog rock nutters who made music so outre and intense at the time that it should appeal to weirdos today just as much as it did back in the early 1970s.
The side-long, ten-part "A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers" is one of those prog rock suites that belongs in the pantheon alongside "Karn Evil #9" and "Supper's Ready" and "Gates Of Delerium" for sure. Next to King Crimson (whose Robert Fripp contributes some guitar work on both of these albums), VDGG is the darkest, weirdest, most "outside" commercially-popular '70s prog rock band we can think of from the UK. A worthy contemporary to the likes of Magma, Amon Duul II and Goblin from the Continent.
All right, more VDGG to come on future lists...and then maybe we'll move on to Yes, Caravan and ELP!
MPEG Download: "Lemmings (Including Cog)" [/audio/vdgglemmings.mp3]
After a couple of insanely hyped singles which altogether clocked in at about 18 minutes total, New York's garage-punk trio The Yeah Yeah Yeahs have mustered enough material to warrant their debut, full-length album "Fever To Tell." As expected the car-crash of thuggish rockabilly licks and punky-disco grooves guided by vocalist Karen O's snarling sexuality and blackened humor are present and sound an awful lot like a female fronted Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, or perhaps more appropriately Boss Hog when they were good. However, there's only about 15 minutes worth of sneering rock 'n' roll on the album; and the remainder of the album comes as a huge, but certainly not unwelcome surprise, as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs round out the album with a handful of slower, darker, and sentimental ballads. These later tracks are not unlike the recent works of PJ Harvey, transforming raucous punked-up energy into emotive songsmithery; however, they may not be exactly what fans of the previous EPs would expect. Hey, don't be discouraged though, "Fever To Tell" still has those 15 minutes of possessed blues to match those previous EPs.
MPEG Download: "Date With The Night" [/audio/yeahyeahyeahmaps.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Date With The Night" [/audio/yeahyeahyeahmaps.m3u]
A 20th-century (not 21st, as it specifically references Schoenberg and others from the 1900s) chamber piece composed by avant-jazz-maestro John Zorn in 2001. Scored for virtuoso female voice along with various combinations of piccolo, piano, flute, celeste, violin, cello, percussion (hi Willy!), organ, clarinet, etc. Conceptually, Zorn employs an Oulipo-inspired conceit here: each movement is prohibited from using a particular pitch, making a musical lipogram of sorts. Sonically, this is quite nice, if you're partial to soprano wordless aaaa-aaahh-ah-ah operatic type vocals continually soaring over mysterious horror movie strings, atonal piano, randomly struck bells, everything very ominous and dramatic and high-art beautiful. There's sound effects (wind machines??) and rustling percussion that add some pleasing "glitch" to the proceedings. Maybe you don't buy a 20th century classical disc everyday, but this would be nice one to keep your Jonathan Bepler "Cremaster" soundtracks company...
This does make us wonder, do academic composer aficionados feel about Zorn doing stuff like this the same way some of us felt about Faith No More's Mike Patton doing "Zorn" type stuff?
MPEG Download: "Five" [/audio/zornchimeras5.mp3]
