It's...NEW MUSIC FRIDAY with a host of reviews spanning coast to coast, well-beyond and into distant galaxies.
Also, this week. We award TWO releases the first HIGHLY RECOMMENDED designations ever (on this feed.)
LUNARETTE - Clair De Lunarette [CS](Babe City/Topshelf/Redeye)
As the Gingerlys move on more heavenly sweet SynthPop, Lunarette comes out with an outstanding debut EP that blends rich hooks ("Messing") with buoyant writing ("Lucky One," one dark horse of a single.) The male/female harmonies Jackie Mendoza and Brian Alvarez are the right kind of close. The upfront electronic beats and sparkling synths make "Clair De Lunarette" one to spin around to again and again.
GREG FOAT GROUP - Dark Is The Sun [LP](Jazzman UK)
UK organist Greg Foat has grown into an excellent composer/performer (check out "Symphonie Pacifique" from last year.) This 2011 album recorded in Sweden is how Foat got started. The same hallmarks are here: the inventive melodies ("Dark Is The Sun" is actually composed around a common theme as well) and the jazz-laden bubbling funk ("Pt.1 - Main Theme" is a career highlight.") Also, his synth work is outstanding on the Jean-Jacques Perrey-esque "Yeah You Are." When he plays harpsichord it is not for ornate decoration or as a timepiece - instead he swings hard on "Pt. 4 - Harpsichord Waltz." "Dark Is The Sun" is a welcome return and likely to make this true talent even more fans.
GARAGE A TROIS - Calm Down Cologne [LP/CD](Royal Potato Family/The Orchard)
When you listen to a Funk band that has been playing together for over 25 years, you listen for the natural aspects of communication. The changes on the swirling “The Epic” are the best indicator of how well drummer Stanton Moore is not just a feel drummer, but instinctive. As he plays off of the changes that guitarist/organist Charlie Hunter and saxophonist Skerik put out, you can hear how well he pushes the song along like its engine. In fact, “The Epic” runs almost seven minutes and Garage A Trois sees no need to solo - Skerik and Hunter skillful play along with each other. The majority of the album runs away with its ideas and leaves you feeling like the trio is improvising with you. The most “composed” cut, the title track is a marvelous Meters-esque strut. “Calm Down Cologne” drills down to the essence of Garage A Trois and leaves you feeling like you are attending one of those post-Jazzfest shows where bliss comes from knowing “this thing could go all night.”
JUGA-NAUT AND MICALL PARKINSUN - Twelve Bricks [LP](Tuff Kong ITA)
Hip-Hop has long been the voice of the working class. From New York, it radiated both street toughness in its poetry and a magnetic attraction to use samples and beats that rebuilt the present from pieces of the past. Nottingham’s Juga-Naut has a killer flow that switches from rhythmic guttural syllabics to precise rhymes that never take the easy way out. One of the best aspects of “Twelve Bricks” is how Juga-Naut brags about his Hip-Hop and how important it is and then uses atypical means to reveal itself. (Case in point: the Wu-Tang rager “The Juice” with Tommy Nova and Scorzayzee where Jugz lays down: “I ain’t never been told any truth/I ain’t never been sold other proof/Leave seven, eight holes in the booth/You know the day-to-day goal is the juice.)” Then there are Parkinsun’s samples, drops, beats, and backgrounds. Usually, a Hip-Hop song is constructed to overwhelm. Listen at it rolls out, announces itself, and twists reinvention around the same hook (think: the late X’s “Ruff Ryders Anthem.”) However, like RZA and Dilla, Parkinsun can quickly frame a song (“Stained Glass,”) score it like a film (the brilliant slow-rolling menace of “Dodgy Dealers” which borrows from Southern Hip-Hop,) or lighten the spectacle of it all (the luminous samples and switches on “Gaudi Gang.”) “Twelve Bricks” rolls hard like Hip-Hop used to and is not to be missed.
SAM GENDEL - DRM [LP/CD](Nonesuch/Warner)
Saxophonist Sam Gendel seems like he is most happy with music when he can deconstruct it and rebuild it from the ground up. “Satin Doll” eradicated standards using wild ideas and wilder instrumentation. That train of thought continues on the genuinely strange “DRM.” The songs here are short and sometimes disconcerting. His wavering voice and the twang of a sixty-year old classical guitar make his tracks bend the strict time of his forty-year old Electro Harmonix drum machine. For example, the blend of sick-sounding synths and his bouncing voice uttering sounds and syllables but few words on “FFLLYYDADA” is still fly, but very, very dada. Gendel makes a ton of inventive yet spartan sounds here. Like Seventies Eno, “DRM” wants to make music with weight - but is never afraid to make you listen more intently. The plucky “SOTD” is closest to a structured song. However, even with its dominant riff, Gendel works backward with his voice circling it like a doctor eager to take the patient apart and see what is inside. If that is what “DRM” is truly after, Gendel makes us all want to make music with the least musical items in our arsenals. Now, let’s hope they bring out the funk-filled “Fresh Bread.”
THE ARMED - ULTRAPOP [LP](Sargent House/Redeye)
On their first album in three years, Detroit’s The Armed are taking their Punk Rock to a frightfully loud chaotic, and industrial extreme. The songs of “ULTRAPOP” are literally hidden in squelchy noise and crazed bursts of technology. However, once you tune into their alien frequency, you will have a tough time shaking the drive and changes they pound into “An Iteration” and the melodious yowl of “Average Death.” “ULTRAPOP” is The Armed making music that reflects our tangential-thinking society.
C R O W N - The End of All Things [LP/CD](Pelagic GER)
The French SynthRock duo C R O W N is equal parts Depeche Mode and Tool. Their technology is sometimes so well-recorded on tracks like the opening “Violence,” the mixing of the non-vocal parts can overtake you. More melodious than their idols Godflesh and Ministry, C R O W N really best build their song construction around a hardcore growl/synthpop combination on “Shades” and the odd-time drums/synth wash of “Illumination.”
SAINT RAYMOND - We Forgot We Were Dreaming [LP](Cooking Vinyl/The Orchard)
Having opened for Haim and Ed Sheeran, the UK's Saint Raymond is earmarked to be another successful soulful Pop singer/songwriter exported to our shores. Saint Raymond's big plus is that he has the anthemic draw of Sam Smith ("Alright" - a potential single to break him here) and then the push-pull of intimacy common with The 1975 (and Emo bands.) "Dreaming" is a Pop record but Saint Raymond demonstrates a real knack for catchy choruses and breaks ("Right Way Round.")
BRONTEZ PURNELL - White Boy Music EP [CS](Post Present Medium/Secretly/AMPED)
The curious mixture of Punk, Pop, and little Goth that Los Angeles artist/writer Brontez Purnell conjures up is a little bit of the magic of thinking you are going in one direction only to wind up elsewhere. "Forgive Me, Philip" reframes the up-and-down see-saw melody of The Cure's "Boys Don't Cry" to construct a messy love song for you to sing along with. The center of the three-song EP is the brilliant "Leave Me Out Of This" with its TV On The Radio-esque bark and wheezing harmonica. When the chaos of the chorus fuses the words together and the phrase "But Leave Me Out Of This" and the pleas of "Believe Me" combine - that is a true star turn. "White Boy Music" may have been written for humor and mockery, but Purnell absolutely nails the angst, frustration, and longing all those other songs miss. Highly recommended.
DECLAN O'ROURKE - Arrivals [LP/CD](Rhino/WEA UK)
With his beautiful low voice, O'Rourke has a mellow, almost Soulful voice dotted by the lyrical lilt of his Irish brogue. That would be reason alone to listen to his latest album produced by Paul Weller. However, like the rest of us, the 44-year old O'Rourke clearly spent a lot of time in quarantine trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together. "Arrivals" deals with a long look at life within, and how the questions we ask ourselves spell out how we feel about our world, our friends, our family, and ourselves. The title cut and the opener "In Painter's Light," neatly frame O'Rourke as a Leonard Cohen-esque storyteller. However on the bracing pair "Have You Not Heard The War Is Over" and "Convict Ways," O'Rourke cuts through to the political quick. In his hushed tones, O'Rourke channels Phil Ochs and Bruce Cockburn. Still an import, one hopes that they bring O'Rourke's voice and writing to our shores soon.
SHEEP, DOG & WOLF - Two-Minds [LP](Aphrodite/Greco Roman BLDL)
New Zealander Daniel McBride takes the definition of one-man-band very far on this entrancing and haunting album of Folk-based emotional Pop with snatches of neoclassical music. McBride’s internal harmonizing is the main focus. He mostly sings in that heavenly high-range with lots of speedy wordplay (and elegant phrasing) paired with long, legato notes (“Periphescence.”) However, if his layers of multitracked vocalese were not enough, McBride finds a way to dub whole orchestral parts beneath his spartan mixture of chiming guitar and drums. “Cyclical” is composed like a suite giving McBride’s most lush melodies life before countering them with Philip Glass-ian trills and piano figures. McBride’s Pop is best when it sounds like nothing else.
DRIFTMACHINE - Spume & Recollection [CS](Umor Rex)
FATEN KANAAN - A Mythology of Circles [LP](Fire/Redeye)
The British duo Andreas Gerth and Florian Zimmer make near-ambient synth music that while paced to relax, has enough sculpted sounds to create some tension. Like their previous album, the best cuts build on a dialogue between machines (the throbbing closer "Soon I Will Disappear.") "Spume" differs from the others as it discovers a certain warmth in minimalism ("Albatros Follows A Killer Whale") and comfort letting subtle parts revolve.
Many of the new Ambient records edge ever closer to Electronic. Fateh Kanaan composes her music and lends it both the seriousness of a classical piece and the space to evolve and regenerate. Using her synths and sounds like an early 70's German synthesist, "A Mythology" is highly thematic and partially propelled by a sense of release. The tracks take all the time necessary to slowly introduce parts of complement and counterpoint. The Jarre-esque pieces like "Hesperides" beg for orchestral rendering and her more measured compositions (the guitar-based "Sleepwalker" and the film-like majesty and mystery of "Reve/Riviere") demonstrate the ability to change mood easily. Kanaan is on the cusp of delivering some film with a fascinating score.
PYE CORNER AUDIO - Black Mill Tapes [LP BOX](Lapsus ESP)
How this English ancient synth/Ambient master is not scoring films or at least collaborating with John Carpenter is puzzling. Martin Jenkins does it all on the Black Mill Tapes series. With his vintage electronics and haunting keyboard sounds, these five volumes of home recordings capture his act of creation as an escape from isolation and a testament to working with no distractions. Certainly, follow the pattern that emerges from these 52 (!) tracks (“Electronic Rhythm,” “Transmission”) but always be ready to detour into some dark corner where Tangerine Dream meets Throbbing Gristle.
OWEN MAERCKS - Teenage Sex Therapist [LP](Feeding Tube)
In the Seventies, Maercks (rhymes with barracks) played in Monster Island with Henry Kaiser. When Kaiser left, he suggested that Maercks make his long-discussed solo album. Without a contract (actually hoping for one,) Maercks’ self-made album of skronk n' roll was unleashed upon the world. For 1978, Maercks songs are reminiscent of The Gun Club, Captain Beefheart, and Pere Ubu. His ability to write a song that could be conventional (“Asleep and Awake”) and then turn the forces of guitar squall and violin shredding upon them makes this record a lost gem. Also, his singing brims with personality. While it is very New-York-in-the-late-Seventies, the rawness really makes you wish he could have been promoted alongside Lou Reed (circa "Street Hassle.") Saxes thunder in (three players!,) riffs are bashed out, guitars wail ("Nancy Calls Collect" has a brilliant Richard Lloyd-ish solo,) and Eno-esque basses ("Hands and Eyes") bounce beneath it all. Still, when Maercks leaves his structured writing for extreme textures ("!Hoh!",) it can raise those eyebrows happily. This is an Avant-Garde musician making a record that he hopes will fit into the changing world. Fortunately, that world is now ready to understand and comprehend its status as a missing link. Highly recommended.
On a final note, T-BONES would like you to know that Record Store Day is coming in two drops - June 12th and July 17th. This list of exclusives, reissues, and just awesome products will be invading our time shared here for the next few weeks. However, it is just another guest at the party. There’s no slowing us down. Tell your friends about us.
Enjoy. Share. And check out the entire RSD list and even WISHLIST us if you like. RSD 21 with TBONES
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