NEW MUSIC FRIDAY coming at you with some adventurous music
a n d m o r e c o m i n g f o r y o u
MASTON - Souvenir [LP/CD](Innovative Leisure)
PEARL AND THE OYSTERS - Flowerland [LP/CD](Tip Top UK)
In what could be the beginning of a new iteration of “Lounge” music, here are a pair of new artists who have their ears on sounding like the groovy past while spiking their cocktails with mostly new technology. Maston has already released a pair of albums that embraced Sixties California Pop textures (2013’s" “Shadow”) and KDM Library culture (2019’s “Tulips.”) It’s only fitting that given these albums, “Souvenir” should find its way to be a more continental style of Cocktail Pop. In 2018, Frank Maston was living in Paris and met the enchanting Swiss band L’Eclair (their single “Dallas” is one of the coolest singles of the past few years.) So they mixed L’Eclair’s jazzy textures with Maston’s Morricone-meets-Umiliani lyrical melodies. Voila! “Swiss Franc” is both swishy and twangy with a hint of Eighties keyboard ooze. “Ghost” is a shimmering ballad just looking for crossover play and the title cut is the perfect synthesis of Keith Mansfield-style Library music with groovy 60’s sounds.
Joachim Polack and Juliette Davis met in high school and fell in love over Bacharach and Bossa Nova. They moved to Florida and discovered their knack for space-age Stereolab-ish Pop. On their newest album, the duo moved to Los Angeles and found themselves inspired to write a set of songs that always sound familiar (“Wizzo” resembles Laura Nyro’s “Stoned Soul Picnic”) and yet fresh. With a glossy mix of keyboards, drums, and Davis’ vocals, “Flowerland” is 14-song almost nostalgic trip to another land. “Soft Science” recalls Cardigans but steps it up with a lovely duet style of singing between the pair. “Bit Valley” builds up masterfully from ancient drum machine patterns to a Technicolor stream of near Motorik melody and rubbery bass. All in all, “Flowerland” is a trip you have to take.
HOMESHAKE - under the weather [LP/CD](Sinderlyn/AMPED)
Peter Sagan’s long-brewing solo project has already produced a lot of music that could sound like “the pandemic album.” The ambiance of “Helium” gave him a lot of space to return to the grooves of “Fresh Air.” That revised sensibility makes “under the weather” a warm grower. Its songs move patiently. “I know I know I know” carefully reveals itself like a Holy Hive track. “Vacuum” builds up slowly but without you knowing it until it is finished. This is an album that needs the right place and time to dig its hooks in you. When it does, you will not let go.
SAMI YAFFA - The Innermost Journey To Your Outermost Mind [CD](Livewire/Cargo)
The Finnish musician/presenter trades in his journeyman status (New York Dolls, Johnny Thunders, Michael Monroe, Hanoi Rocks) for an Iggy-ish solo album that de-Glam’s Glam back into punchy Rock N’Roll. “Armageddon Together” might knock you better than the new Stooges. “Rotten Roots” is that rare Rock reggae-ish song that does it (and sounds like) Joe Strummer style. “Germinator” even brings back that Hanoi Rocks rumble and “Down at St.Joe’s” even pushes out Eighties Power Pop. “Innermost” feels a long time in the making and shows Yaffa as both a keen observer and his own artist.
BASEMENT BENDERS - Shrapnel Songs [LP/CD](Dead Broke Rekerds)
Chattanooga-based searing Punk from former members of several bands including This Bike Is A Pipe Bomb. The trading-off between the male and female singers is very X, but they really only slow down for Melvins-like sludge on “Lil’ Ruby” or sparkle on the Clash-ian “Snakes of Bensonhurst.” Elsewhere the most fun you can have with the Benders is when they purposely let songs like “I Do,” “In A Grove,” and “That Day In The Back of the Parking Lot.” The Spirit of ‘85 is alive in them, here’s hoping they have some more on the way.
FRVITS - Stupid Era EP [7”](Slovenly)
In six sizzling minutes, Montreal’s aggro Noise/Punkers FRVITS bring new meaning to shred. “Magiciens Hardcore” adds synth squeak and squeal to the ripping jeremiad. “Stupid Vacation” is both pit-ready and witty. “Repeat The Mistake” professes its love of Jazz over blaring Post-Punk played at 200 MPH. The thirty seconds of synth Punk that is “Blues Detector” is a pallet cleanser for the dandy double whammy that closes it. My best advice: buy commercial time on YouTube with all these brilliant beasts of song.
WOMBO - Keesh Mountain EP [CS](Fire Talk/Redeye)
While we previously reviewed their 2020 release “Blossomlookdownuponus” as Deerhoof-inspired jams, this EP really pumps up the bass and drums interaction and pushes them more toward a new Pylon-ish drive. Though not as angular as Pylon and not as sweetly ethereal in places like “Blossom,” “Keesh” aims for more flight. “Ida Mae” is muscular New Wave, while “Just Like Time” takes that rhythmic confidence and allows Sydney Chadwick to “speed-talk” above it giving the whole experience of Patti Harrison fronting The Minutemen. Finally, they close it down with a pair of true singles in “Dreamsickle” and “Situations.” “Dreamsickle” updates the airy sensibility they had on “Blossom” to sound tougher, while the propulsive “Situations” could play side-by-side with Public Practice and really shows off guitarist Cameron Lowe. While the love for “Blossom” has no way diminished, “Keesh” moves the Louisville band way up on the list of bands set to breakthrough.
VAN DER GRAFF GENERATOR - The Charisma Years 1970-1978 [BOX](Virgin Intl.)
Van Der Graff Generator is one of those misunderstood bands. With their machine-like name, some think they are Musique Kosmiche. Signed to Charisma and capable of writing several fantastic extended-length songs, some think they are Prog. However, with the experimental prose-like quality of Peter Hammill’s lyrics and the band’s tendency to push their limits - Van Der Graff Generator was there for the beginning of Art Rock.
Beginning with their second album “The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other” delves into a lot of mysticism, tribal drumming with a passion. Hammill’s Bowie-esque voice is an easy adaptation especially on one of their should-have-been-hits, the beautiful “Refugees.” “H To He Who Am The Only One” is darker. With more gurgling Hammond organ, the songs are definitely closer to Prog (the massive “Killer” and the slightly Soft Machine-ish “Pioneers Over C.”) 1971’s “Pawn Hearts” provided an early peak thanks to the guitar of guest Robert Fripp. These tracks are giant with Crimson-esque riffs (“Lemmings (Including Cog”) and the sidelong 24-minute magnum opus “A Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers.” “Pawn Hearts” was a huge step for Van Der Graff toward more dynamics and compositions that were cinematic in scope.
Hammill briefly went solo, but returned with the underrated and misunderstood "Godbluff” in 1975. As some bands were starting to shed the behemoth-sized songs, Hammill went full steam ahead with four epics in a row. Quiet in places, “Godbluff” is built around the expanded range and emotion in Hammill’s voice. While “Scorched Earth” is very Genesis-like, its build to its peak and jazzy denouement are like nothing else. If they were mixing themselves in and out of focus, this tug of war would slightly hamper “World Record” (save “Masks” and the closer “Wondering.”)
With his solo career taking a concise and almost Punk-ish edge (1975’s underrated “Nadir’s Big Chance”) and growing more introspective (1977’s heartbreaking “Over,”) Hammill put the band back together for “Still Life” and returned to their Psychedelic beginnings. From there, the moniker was shortened as were the song lengths. Van Der Graff would continue growth momentarily until they quietly walked away in 1978. Ten years in the life of any band is a lot, but for Art Rockers like Van Der Graff Generator they left unscathed as other Prog, Art, and even Musique Kosmiche bands were changing their music to be more contemporary. Van Der Graff Generator remains a band of their time.
CLOCK DVA - Horology 1-3 [BOX](Vinyl On Demand)
There is something so revelatory about listening to Industrial/Noise/Dark Ambient groups in the beginning. Before they could fully harness technology (and it dramatically advanced during their recording career,) their most primitive music is haunting and hard to deconstruct. Like Cabaret Voltaire, Clock DVA were not just interested in making music (or noise,) they were trying to capture their total dissatisfaction the same way Punk did. These nascent recordings on “Horology” heavily echo Throbbing Gristle in their love of looping and sounds that swell around you. Even at their quietest, Clock DVA is unsettling but keeps coaxing you back to explore the next track. Bleeping synthesizers and voices are your guides, but this is sound that cannot be explained. In the Seventies, Clock DVA was on track to make music for that group disaffected by society. Forty years later, that group has grown.
Various Artists - MADE TO MEASURE VOL.1 [LP](Made To Measure)
While it probably did not have the same impact upon its original release in 1983, this series of Free Jazz/No Wave experimental artists put artists like Arto Lindsay, Fred Frith, John Lurie, Harold Budd, and more together for neophytes to sample. This first collection gathers the strange loungey/electronic rumblings of Israel’s Minimal Compact (“Too Many of Them” conjoins electronic drums, saxophone, and doubled bass lines,) a very minimal composition from Benjamin Lew, and the unsettling violin meets Gothic bass (“Fanfare”) and soothing SynthPop (“Driving To Verdun”) from Tuxedomoon. The San Francisco group’s glass-shattering ambient journey into Goth “No One Expects The Spanish Inquisition” is here just in time for Halloween.
The main draw today would be seven cuts from Aksak Maboul who in 1983 were busy creating loop-friendly adventures (“Scratch Holiday,”) continuing their Middle Eastern infatuation (“Odessa,”) before getting at home on the Avant-Garde piano for four wildly atonal cuts. While “Made To Measure” is definitely a relic of the times, these instrumentals would still push the limits today.
Well, another week, another list of several different styles and pursuits in music for you. Enjoy. Listen again. Share as you wish.
NEW RELEASES lovingly compiled for you from this very week!
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