.NEW.MUSIC.FRIDAY. coming at you with a trip around the world
and your onboard baggage is stuffed with the new and the newly reissued. Feel free to roam around the cabin.
BAD WAITRESS -No Taste [LP/CD](Royal Mountain CAN)
The last few years have seen a number of new “girl bands” surface with punky fervor and melodic thrust firmly in mind. Like Death Valley Girls, this Toronto quartet goes for that cavernous production that makes the highs ring out and their shrieks spread from speaker to speaker while you listen (“Strawberry Milkshake".) However, their real shining facet is the ability to vault from quiet desperation to blood-curdling anger (“Delusions Of Grandeur”) or finding a groove that then lets in their lacerating scream (“Rabbit Hole.”) “Taste” shows promise.
CASIOPEA [LP](Great Tracks JPN/Light In The Attic)
Despite having a stellar lineup of guests (Brecker, Sanborn, this Japanese Fusion band makes some furious and very well composed on their own. The lightning-fast guitar solos and Thundercat-ish bass runs need a moment of adjustment. However, once you settle into how well all the instruments trade-off, Casiopea is that defiant last breath of 70s Fusion that actually works.
BROSELMASCHINE [LP](Pilz GER)
Formed in 1966 during the nascent days of Musik Kosmiche, this Folk group that emerged from that scene still has that hippie haze of 1971 on their debut. But, imagine Pentangle (they also have male and female vocalists) trading the Jazz underpinnings for something more Cosmic. “Schmetterling” takes its Anne Briggs-ian “Black Mountain Side” riffing into a raga close, “Lassie” bravely goes for the English Folk purity before giving everyone (even the bass player) a short solo, and the charming but haunting “The Old Man’s Song” feels like Jacqui McShee fronting Incredible String Band.)
JK GROUP - What’s Real? [12”](La Sape AUS/URP)
We have talked so much about the burgeoning London Jazz scene, it is only fitting that there are several wonders from Down Under. JK Group is structured like a Fusion group but plays like a Funk group complete with gurgling electronics. The title cut on this single always simmers and lets its melodic form around a fantastic sax solo from JK himself - Josh Kelly. “Kempton” fits Coltrane-esque changes into a very Lonnie Liston Smith vibe (thanks to Rhodes player Lewis Moody.) The rhythm section here is supertight like the aforementioned London types - although they are most comfortable with pocket rhythms and end-of-phrase accents. A very promising start.
THE TOPICS - Giving Up [LP](P-Vine JPN/Light In The Attic)
All of your favorite Seventies vocal Soul groups started out fairly raw before finding just the right production to make their sweet sounds crystallize. The Topics have a fantastic backlog of singles dating back to 1966. While they never charted, as Seventies Soul groups did - they had a few regional hits (1972’s “All Good Things Must End” - included here.) The Topics also recorded for several small labels before their 1973 single for Mercury - “Booking Up Baby.” So this 1976 album recorded for T.S.G. is a real prize. While it does sound timely in places, their harmonies and (again) the visceral quality of songs like “God and You” (originally recorded for Noodle in 1975) and their Spinners-like medley of “Wichita Lineman/Rainy Night in Georgia” makes this reissue a true Soul lovers prize.
BATHOUSE [LP](Happiest Place SWE)
Curious as to how members of the effervescent shoegazer bliss of Mary Anne’s Polar Rig (reviewed here 5.13.21) could also function as this noise Rock bunch, dive into Bathouse prepared or unprepared and you return a changed person. “Hell” is a blistering mess of guitar dissonance with subterranean vocals. “Bathouse” - their theme song if you will - is a squelching explosion of angst and fright. While “Chemical Violent” channels Sonic Youth with an oft-kilter drum break beneath its cloud of shred. This one only slows down for the track pauses and resonates like a barbaric scream.
POREST - Cancer In The Soft Breeze [LP/CD](Discrepant UK)
Iraqi/American sound manipulator Mark Gergis is out to make music with the most unmusical sounds. “Cancer In The Soft Breeze” is dense, frightening film-like journey. Even when tracks are slow and methodical (“Debis”) they are masqueraded with abstract sounds and recorded noise - that is further manipulated. The combination of hearing “normal sounds” next to other sounds being bent, spindled, and reshaped is disassociative. The rapid kalimba mixed with Industrial noise and insistent rhythms on “No Terracotta Relief” sounds like a possessed didgeridoo piece at times. While “Permanently Imminent” mimics your speakers overmodulating until the sound coming out is remedied by the static cut-and-paste leading into the Turkish “(Terlok.”) “Cancer” is haunting but rewarding.
PAULINE OLIVEROS/STUART DEMPSTER/PANAIOTIS - Deep Listening [CS](Important)
There is something beautiful about listening to quiet music. Most music needs to envelope you and overwhelm your senses. Ambient/Minimal music is rarely out to dazzle. However, when done correctly, it can be like an out-of-body experience. This 1989 release has been reissued and in hindsight, it sounds like both Neoclassical and the beginnings of the uneasy Doom-y side of Metal. Using live electronics, accordion, and trombone, “Deep Listening” works to help you achieve that mental state where long, legato notes from the trombone guide you between the swells of the accordion and the electronics. Compositionally speaking these drone “songs” play with natural echo and denouement the same way John Cage did. However, “Deep Listening” is not about one instrument. It is about all instruments playing as one. A transcendental idea that works any year.
dbh - MOOD [LP](Thread Recordings UK)
As a solo record, dbh goes everywhere instrumentally. “Think” is a short piano piece. “Blues For the Read Sun” is a heavy-filtered Delta Blues flatpicking experiment with several deep bends among its pitch playfulness. The simple acoustic pieces ring true. “New Anthem” is a Fahey-esque beauty with pull-offs and quick slides. “Shed Light” goes a little darker and is recorded to sound like you are in the room with him. While the closer “Revelation Drift” sends you out on a cloud of dreamy lap steel. Experimental and intimate, “Mood” makes dbh one to look out for.
RORY GALLAGHER - 50th Anniversary Edition [4LP/3CD+DVD](UMe)
Normally a reissue like this would be reduced down to one or two albums and all the focus driven elsewhere. However, consider that Rory Gallagher’s 1971 debut went nowhere (its follow-up “Deuce” barely sold 17,000 albums in its time) but found its way to live as an unconventional guitar influence to so many. The remixes and the outtakes here say a lot about how spontaneous Rory was with his band (bassist Gerry McAvoy and drummer Wilgar Campbell were chosen over ex-Jimi Hendrix rhythm section Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell.) Most trios try to do so much and pull their songs in a variety of directions, McAvoy and Campbell are rock steady and give Gallagher all the room to play amazing leads. The surprises here come from the addition of several cuts that could fit into the British Folk canon. “At The Bottom” (like the original album’s “Just The Smile”) shows Gallagher’s playing in line with both Davy Graham and Bert Jansch. The turn that Gallagher takes on “I Fall Apart” from elegant chording to a lyrical solo is inspiring. The addition of extra takes of the searing “Sinner Boy” is a must for a British Blues guitar aficionado. Listen as he builds it up from Delta Blues-inspired fingerpicking to a Zeppelin-esque rave-up with a slide solo that is beautifully driven uphill by McAvoy and Campbell. The recent Clapton set and its numerous mixes were definitely enlightening, but the complete “Rory Gallagher” is the one to truly study.
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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