.NEW.MUSIC.FRIDAY is almost here but reviews of all you need are already here!
and reissues too!
MADI DIAZ - History of A Feeling [LP/CD](Epitaph/AMPED)
With just three albums and a slew of EP’s under her belt, Madi Diaz has a sweet, confident voice that does wonders with her clever, biting lyrics. “Nervous” could be a standard Phoebe Bridgers-ish confession, but Diaz lets her lyrics dance around the rhythms. Also, Diaz as the writer really knows how to sell a chorus. The Big Thief-esque “Forever” really sails on her steady wail. However, it’s the slow burn of “New Person, Old Place” that best sells her mixture of intimacy and registering pain. What could largely be yet another triumphant song about leaving the past behind finds a quiet majesty and consistently stands out.
FANA HUES - Hues [LP/CD](Bright Antenna)
Fresh from Tyler. The Creator’s latest album, Fana Hues's soulful singer shows some real promise with her balladeering over beats. “Hues” is a very pieced-together debut with several short songs that show off Hues’ vocal skills (“Ends”) and we will dub “sellable Soul.” Her backdrops can be alluring yet spartan. “Death On The Vine” rolls through some classic Soul arpeggiated guitar giving her a chance to reach her highest highs. With a solid beat, “Yellow” drifts like Minnie Riperton singing above a Hip-Hop beat. “Lay Up” drives the rhythms a little harder and turns a simple Mariah-esque verse into a Lauryn Hill-ish chorus. However, it is the Midnight Cowboy-ish sample spinning on ‘Icarus” that poses the most success. While all these other women in Soul take charge, Hues only has to turn her melodic sigh into the greatest statement about how it really feels to fall.
DAL:UM - Similar But Different [LP/CD](tak:til/Glitterbeat)
The gayageum and the geomungo are both traditional Korean stringed instruments that when laid flat look similar. However, the duo Dal Um uses them to achieve an almost stark difference. Plucked and picked in arpeggiated style like a classical guitar (“Trace”) then build a lot of tension that finds its release in a single strike that sounds like the inside of a piano. When played off of each other on “TAL,” they cross from dissonance into harmony through near-percussive strums until they build their chords to a peak only to gently drift back down to get even more dramatic on the next iteration.
SØLYST - Spring [LP/CD](Bureau B/The Orchard)
Thomas Klein has a lot of interesting rhythmic ideas on display on this almost Industrial-very Minimal Electronic album. There are experiments in syncopation (“Flex”) and the addition of Eastern motifs (the off-kilter chill of “Zone”.) However, his most interesting idea is to mix the electronic drum rhythms with live drums. “Flex” pulls the beat back and forward until a dizzying double hit or a single hi-hat pull centers the phrase. Also of note his Tangerine Dream-esque compositions like the new wave pulse of “Sheroes,” the glimmering “Thief” and the grinding closing title track.
LESLIE WINER - When I Hit You - You’ll Feel It [LP/CD](Light In The Attic/The Orchard)
Winer is a model, musician, mother of five, and credited as the first to make Trip-Hop. “When I Hit You” is an intoxicating overview of her career and her handful of releases. As far back as 1983, Winer began stitching together bass-heavy grooves with dance beats. By 1990, “Witch” came to fruition. It still sounds surprisingly futuristic (especially compared to most of the subgenre she spawned.) Unlike the normal Trip-Hop (with exception of Tricky perhaps,) many of the spoken word pieces here are about the discomfort of storytelling. “Hold On Postcards” feels like an art piece with her low voice challenging her high voice. “He Was” is the long-awaited arrival at Dub. Once you have digested “N1 Ear,” “Dream 1” and the New Orleans polyrhythms of “The Boy Who Used 2 Whistle, ” even her Dub sounds like the methodical strut of Trip-Hop.
MAXINE FUNKE - Seance [LP](A Colourful Storm AUS)
There is something so light about “Seance,” Maxine Funke hides her melodies in her sung parts yet draws you ever closer to listen to these whispers. Backed by very minimal instrumentation, “Seance” is a deep listen that can be soothing (“Lucky Penny”) and slightly dissonant (the synth waves and hushed acoustic guitar on “Quiet Shore.”) These murmured words are definitely more mysterious. “Moody Relish” is a spoken-word piece about nature, while “Homage” then documents nature in revolt. When she arrives at the wispy “Goodbye,” Funke sings in the echoes of childhood when everything was simpler and we all “wished to be seen.”
POLE - Tanzboden [12”](Mute)
In just these two songs, Stefan Betke stops time. Six-plus minutes of “Tanzboden” bobs along on waves of static, light synths, heavy reverberating bass, and the most uneasy pitch-shifting bell. His accents are all more Dub-based (think On-U) than previous memory, but this cut could go on forever to me. Some of the Industrial additions to “Tanzboden” set the stage for more awakening “Rost.” If Pole’s goal was to lead you into a trance, then allow the smallest non-musical parts of his tracks to mystify you - “Tanzboden” does its job and then some.
Let us race through some cool reissues...
JESU - Heart Ache [LP](Avalanche)
BORIS - Flood [LP](Third Man/The Orchard)
Back to the beginning of these two projects for a pair of records that abandon song length parameters and set out to arouse feelings from their music in opposition to constructed writing. In 2004, Justin Broadrick post-Godflesh kicked off Jesu by handling all the instruments and production in this tidal wave of sound. Limited to two songs originally, this remaster adds a thrilling remix of “Ruined” by Closure and a live rendition of it with Aaron Turner from ISIS. “Heart Ache” still strikes at the heart of Industrial dissonance with its massive drum-machine beats and fills. The guitars lead from buzzing chords to looped synth notes without you knowing. The blending of the metallic first portion and the voice/synth switches opens up what might be the first example of Metal meeting Shoegaze.
Boris’ magnum opus “Flood” was designed to play continuously for an hour and ten minutes. In the age of “Akuma No Uta” and the still awe-inspiring “Pink,” the band lets a wild guitar loop basically unleash a wall of percussive sound (“1,”) then drift beautifully into 14-minutes of Pink Floyd-ian guitar where the opening loop is played for real (“2,”) before the drone of the guitars slowly develops into a mountain of Doom/Sludge-ian slow riffage (“3” always ending on that beautiful major chord, ) before it goes dangerously subterranean with the underwater conclusion.
BE BOP DELUXE - Life in the Air Age [3CD or 15CD BOX with DVD](Esoteric/Cherry Red)
Bill Nelson remains one of the most underrated guitarists of all time. Listening to his move from his Yorkshire Bowie-esque beginnings to the experimental Eighties is one thing. But 15 discs of live Be Bop Deluxe is their prime is another. After years of trying to nail down his band and their ever-changing sound, this 1977 tour sees the quartet at the top of their game
Nelson's newly corrected, the new running order on the original double album (their highest charting release in England) makes sense. Opening with the whoosh of “Life in The Air Age” (an AOR staple here in the US.) Moving the lengthy showcase on “Shine” (with percussion from Cabasa El Dubova) to the middle is a far better fit leaving the shimmering science-fiction of “Adventures In A Yorkshire Landscape” and “Blazing Apostles” sails out as a bookend to the title cut. (Originally, the release was an LP with sides 1 and 4 with an EP functioning as sides 2 and 3.). As a bonus, you also get the Jazzy instrumental “Still Shining (aka Shine)” and brilliant “Mill Street Junction” (with great backing vocals from Charlie Tumahai) and “Yorkshire Landscape” from a January 1977 Peel Session.
The Leicester show that opens the tour sees Be Bop on fire. The twinkling opening before “Life In The Air Age” really draws you into the concert. Nelson’s solo on the almost-hit “Fair Exchange” is amazing. On to Leeds where they steamroll through a fast version of the aforementioned track, “Ships In The Night” is a knockout, and “Terminal Street” leads to a big finish. After the second show in Leeds, they settle into their setlist pushing three epics (the exploration of America on “Modern Music Suite” gets tighter while “Blazing Apostles” grows as Bill rips the solo in the middle before the massive close.)
Fifteen discs are for the completist, true. But most of “Life In The Air Age” has aged very well. Listening to Be Bop Deluxe develop their command over the audience on both softer sections and louder ones is well worth going through every concert.
PENTANGLE - The Pentangle/Basket of Light/Cruel Sister [LP](Renaissance/AMPED)
When the premiere British Folk artists of their day joined together with a Jazz rhythm section, magic happened and Pentangle was born. Bert Jansch and John Renbourn were already singer/songwriters well-appreciated for their guitar skills and voices. Bassist Danny Thompson and drummer Terry Cox were an airtight rhythm section well-versed in Jazz improvisation and controlling tension. The glue holding them all together was the expressive, ethereal vocals of Jacqui McShee. While Fairport Convention was still formulating their change from West Coast Folk/Rock to traditional English Folk in a modern light, 1968’s “The Pentangle” sprung from these five and surprised everyone with its combination of traditional Blues (“Way Behind The Sun,”) airy Folk (“Let No Man Steal Your Thyme,”) and riveting Jazz (the Eastern-leaning middle section of “Bruton Town”) interspersed. For their second album, Pentangle grew closer to Prog and their harmonies tightened. “Basket of Light” from 1969 delved further into Jazz and Renaissance voicing (the dynamite “Light Flight” whose appearance as a TV theme helped vault them into the UK Top 5) while breaking down girl-group music (“Sally Go ‘Round The Roses”) and finding the soaring emotion in the Folk standard (“Once I Had a Sweetheart” with Thompson’s beautiful bowed bass.) Jansch’s beautiful low voice on “Springtime Promises” lends a traditional tone to what is largely a modern interpretation. That embrace of tradition led to the underrated “Cruel Sister” in 1970. Audiences split on the album. Some found the dense, Folk-based arrangements were beautifully interwoven. while others thought the entirely public domain set was less colorful than the previous two. Still, it was a brave move, esp the twisting and turning magnum opus “Jack Orion” that takes the entire second side. While music quickly became more orchestrated and more involved as technology-aided production in the early Seventies, “Cruel Sister” was ignored. With one more album, Pentangle began to unravel around label issues and personal commitment. Still the original lineup over these three albums remains one of British Folk’s finest.
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!
T-BONES Records and Cafe is a full-service fast-casual restaurant and record store in Hattiesburg, MS. We are a member of the Coalition of Independent Music Stores and are the longest-running record store in the state of Mississippi. If you have questions - we have answers … and probably a lot more information just waiting for you at:
tbone@tbonescafe.com
Visit our website for more information and shop in our ONLINE store if you wish.
T-BONES ships the best music all over the United States daily. We also specialize in Special Orders. Let us know what you are looking for - we are thrilled to help.