So we don't usually do much mixing of music and praising the lord around here... unless it's the dark lord that is... but when Soul Jazz hits us with the follow up to their amazing Soul Gospel compilation we can't help but get on our Sunday best and raise our arms in complete surrender to these totally irresistible sounds. Spanning the late 60's to the end of the 70's these 20 songs go beyond beyond simple soulful songs in the gospel tradition. When Louise McCord tells you "you better get a move on" you've pretty much got to. When the Marion Gaines Singers tell you to "Do Your Thing" you dang well better. When Marion Williams belts out tales of "Bad News, Bad Times", you can't help but feel her pain. Songs that soar so high, with vocal delivery that's just so right on. As always immaculate packaging, liner notes, and photos make this a total must-have. Are you a Believer? We think that maybe after these 20 songs you'll be a convert like us. Amen!
Plastic Crimewave along with the ever so busy Arthur Magazine curated this great fest in Chicago which took place earlier this year. A fest with AQ faves all over it. And this comp of bands who performed at the fest is a nice consolation for those of us who couldn't be there. Festival or no, this is simply one badass compilation! With everyone from Mountains to Josephine Foster, Tony Conrad to Hototogisu, No Neck Blues Band to Jack Rose, you can tell this was a fest put together with great taste and a sense of how important varied sounds is to keep folks' attention. None of the bands sound exactly the same, but there is a definite stylistic thread that runs throughout. Maybe we'll make it to the next Two Million Tongues Fest...until then we'll be hanging out right here with this.
Another great ish of Wax Poetics, the magazine devoted to "hip-hop, jazz, funk, & soul" whose pages (138 this time) are stuffed with articles, reviews and interviews covering tons of badass and often obscure music. And of course there are loads of graphics and pictures, tons of photos and plenty of full-color album cover repros!
This time, it's the "Hip-Hop Issue" (more than usual, that is), and it's got two different, random covers: one's got the late Jay Dee on it (to go with various rememberances found in the magazine), the other Public Enemy in their heyday ('cause there's an oral history of Hank Shocklee and the Bomb Squad production team inside). Lots more of course...we should just mention that there's an article about Bay Area hip-hop history wherein you'll find out just what "hyphy" is if you didn't already know.
Post-rock gets a little metallic when We Be The Echo are around. Although their central sound is one of Chicago style mathy post-rock, the SF band does muscle its way outside of its boundaries from time to time. Whereas the music that falls under those two genre umbrellas is for the most part about precision, We Be The Echo play it loud and loose. Ultimately this serves to alternately benefit (high energy level) and hinder (somewhat muddled math parts) the impact of many songs on Stanislaw Stories. Nine propulsive instrumentals.
Although the front cover photo suggests Ms Whalen has transformed from Squirrel Nut Zippers' retro-styled swing jazz lead singer into slightly taudry, contemporary shag haircutted Sheryl Crow or Lucinda Williams (an image that doesn't quite fit her, much like it didn't Sally Timms on her last solo album cover photo -- both seem unintentionally uncomfortable), musically Dirty Little Secret situates itself more in the elegant slightly clubby female chanteuse territory populated by the likes of Bebel Gilberto. She's joined on songwriting duties by multi-instrumentalist David Sale who also played all of the music and produced the whole affair. Perhaps it's his presence that spurred Whalen to embrace such a surprising blend of easy-breezy fruity cocktail sippin' resort numbers ("Meet Me By The Fire") occasionally embellished with saucy '70s soft rock horns and pretty, slower piano-driven ballads ("Follow"). On the latter occasionc it recalls her heartmelting performance of The Sixths' song "You You You" on their Hyacinths And Thistles album. That said, her sweet voice is unmistakable throughout and although there are definitely some 'ouch' songs on this album where she gets a bit uncharacteristically funky, her vocals' enchanting loveliness still somehow makes everything alright.
A new issue of the new music Bible. The price jumped a bit, not sure if it's the exchange rate or what, but it's still well worth it, especially considering this month's issue comes with a cd on the cover including tracks by this week's Record Of The Week recipient Machinefabriek, as well as last week's Hwyl Nofio, fancy that. Also Lawrence English, Dub Trio, Leafcutter John, Giuseppe Lelasi, Gerritt & John Weise, Herbert and a bunch more. Inside the magazine you'll find Terry Day, Harry Rag, Jutta Koether, an Invisible Jukebox with Rob Mazurek, a Global Ear focusing on Athens, big articles about Yellow Swans, Ekkehard Ehlers, Sonic Youth, a John Fahey primer, then as always, tons of magazine, book, music, film and performance reviews (including a page of Outer Limits by our very own Jim Haynes) and so much more.
If there were any justice in the world we'd be speaking of Peter Wright in the same hushed, reverential tones reserved for the more well known minimalists and dronologists. Chalk, Coleclough, Berry, Kneale, Milton, all fantastic, but they have nothing on Milton. In fact, if anything, Milton takes the subtle drones and the amorphous soundscaping of his brethren and uses those concepts and sounds to make actual songs. Like on the opening track "The Chain Bridge", Milton lays out a thick wash of warm cathedral guitar, slow moving and stately, so thick with reverb and delay that the melody sounds submerged in some warm viscous sound, the overtones so rich and thick they seem to overwhelm the notes that produced them. But that doesn't keep Milton from unfurling the mightiest of drones. Take the 13+ minute "Offa's Dyke" a chiming reverberating slow moving mass, glistening black, shot through with all the colors of the rainbow, but so subtle as to only be barely glimpsed through the whir and rumble of the mighty drone. But even in full drone mode, there are layers of melody, subtle shadings, even little song fragments and sonic swirl. Then there's tracks like "Bannockburn", one of the most gorgeous, and emminently listenable pieces of modern minimalism we've heard in ages, a circular series of repeated motifs, slowly shifting and gently overlapping, the best Steve Reich piece that never was. A 21st century new-weird-underground cd-r Terry Riley even. Wow.
Yellow Horizon is that rich in sound, heavy in emotion, just beautiful to listen to, all the way through, alternately droning and lilting, slow and smoldering, shimmery and effervescent.
Easily one of the most gorgeous records of the year so far!
We're not going to go into too much detail with this as it is limited to 612 copies worldwide of which we managed to get 10 or 15! Not sure we'll be able to get more. So act fast. A match made in heaven. Assuming heaven is packed with broken amps, detuned guitars, beat to shit drum kits, cheap beer, and all manner of freaked out smashstomp noise rock! And lots of us are praying to Jeebus it is!!! In one corner we've got SF's total destruction unit, Total Shutdown, guitar, bass, keyboards, drums, harmonica and double sax!! In the opposing corner we've got the East Bay's (that means Oakland) new wave angular swat team XBXRX. Two 5" vinyls, one red, one blue, each vying for the noise rock crown, we're leaning towards a good ol' fashioned tie, the kind that after the post battle hug, once the opponents turn their back they each lurch back into action wielding flaming drumsticks and spiked axes (that means guitars). Dig in if you dare!
Utterly amazing packaging. A massive fold out, technicolor acid drenched cartoon freakout, all creatures and shapes and clouds and elves all on cool fuzzy paper, the inside is similar just with all the color sucked out, with little sleeves for each of the 5" vinyls. COOL!!! ----* ----* Compilations : ----*
