.NEW.MUSIC.FRIDAY with some cool releases for these cool nights
and..as always, we take you EVERYWHERE.
YVETTE - How The Garden Grows [LP/CD](Western Vinyl/Secretly/AMPED)
These ten songs from Noah Kardos-Fein can sound like an updated Depeche Mode in places. His legato style of singing and the synth pulses ("Contact High" sounds very DM) are comforting to even the longest-running Synth-Pop fans. However, his booming percussion and its muted power are completely new. When he pushes it and pulls it back for the crux of "For A Moment" it has an emotional impact. While the more experimental "B61" uses its dynamics to rise and fall with Fein's near-scream to create an Industrial-tinged track. It is the waves of sound on "Contact High" that really breakthrough and makes "Garden" really stand out.
WEB WEB and MAX HERRE - WEB MAX [LP](Compost GER)
Like Jazz Is Dead here in the States, the German rapper/producer Herre and Italian musician/composer Roberto Di Gioia are creating new atmospheres where they make Spiritual Jazz. After working with Gregory Porter, the duo has put together an album that parallels the fantastic Jazz of the Seventies that was groove-oriented but centered. “Web Max” brings in a great band and adds extra vigor with guests Charles Tolliver, Brandee Tolliver, Mulatu Astatke, and the legendary Yusef Lateef. “Satori Ways” finds a beautiful halfway point between 70’s Blue Note Soul-Jazz and Alice Coltrane. “Meskel Flowers” features a beautiful flute and “Liberation March” is somehow subtle and powerful with its mixture of melody and modalism.
MANO LE TOUGH - At The Moment [LP](Pampa GER)
FRED V - Radiate [LP/CD](Hospital/Light In The Attic)
Here are a pair of fledgling EDM artists who both find a method to make deeply danceable music that is never too simple and always willing to toss a new element into the mix. Mano Le Tough is an Irish DJ/producer who while locked down decided to build his own sound world. The tracks on “At The Moment” are never slow to evolve. Mano Le Tough seems to mix like he is impatiently waiting to drop the next facet into each mix. However, a true burner like the Daft Punk-esque “Aye Aye Mi Mi” never gets too heavy to distract and always leads you to an endless dancefloor.
Fred V. is fashioning himself as a maker/mixer/enabler of talent. On “Radiate,” he impresses with a variety of smooth sonic palettes. On the House-ish banging title cut, he throws back to Roni Size with a whole new take on Drum & Bass. “Already Disappeared” functions as both a huge ballad and the timing of dropping that beat at the right moment. “Radiate” and “At The Moment” will definitely be there when the dance floors return again.
HENRY KAWAHARA - Cybernetic Defiance and Orgasm: The Essential Henry Kawahara [LP](EM Records/Light in the Attic)
John Cage used to hear music in silence and the sound of jackhammers nearby on the street. These were not “pieces” of music per se, but his limits. Certain composers have limits that exceed most people. Henry Kawahara is one of those. His songs are derived from natural sound (“ECO-loocation” emerges from the white noise of water) but they find new destinations other than New Age detritus. His is a music of confrontation (the percussive “Primitive Love” and melodic “Sing An Anklungs”) and meditation (the gurgling “Lilac Strings.”) Most important is his embrace of that glassy digital sound that tends to ruin almost everything. In Kawahara’s sound world, that drifting heavily-chorused reverb is cast against these otherworldly emissions giving you the effect of seeing an image and its mirror image at the same time.
SLOWLY ROLLING CAMERA - Where The Streets Laid [LP/CD/CS](Edition UK)
This Cardiff Jazz group hearken back to the newest level of Jazz from the early 2000s where groups like The Bad Plus and E.S.T. emerged with the help of adventurous major labels. "Where The Streets Laid" is an elegant set that hones in on the relationship between drummer Elliot Bennett and founder Dave Stapleton. Most of their melodic ideas benefit from multi-layered development with bandmate Deri Roberts and a host of guests including Chris Potter, Stuart McCallum, and more. "Where The Streets Lead" has great solos and even a vocal cut ("Illuminate" (with Sachal Vasandani)) that could be pulled for radio play.
HAWKWIND - Somnia [LP/CD](Cherry Red)
Modern Hawkwind is a weird gate to step through. With Dave Brock still intact, he leads this new more modern psychedelic (read: Prog) version through several cuts that are blisteringly loud and drawn out for maximum effect. One can only imagine how "Strange Encounters" would have sounded with Robert Calvert's voice soaring above it. Still, Hawkwind has again learned to ride the waves creating songs that are nearly somnambulant and even comforting (the Pink Floyd-ian swoop on "Alcyone.") However, their best tracks announce themselves with large hooks right out of the gate ("It's Only A Dream.") "Somnia" is deep, dense music to dream to.
Various Artists - SOUNDS OF PAMOJA [LP](Nyege Nyege Tapes)
While American Hip-Hop is often slower and finding its rhythms between the complexity and randomness of new strains of beats (like Trap.) Down in Dar-Es-Salaam, they speed their songs up to methamphetamine pace and the rapper goes almost breathless over the waves of percussion and wild video game-like effects. The effect is strangely entrancing. At first, you recoil from the zero-supersonic speed aspects of it. However, after you grab hold of the central facets of Tanzanian Singeli - you nod along to the ends of the bars. These young MCs have mind-altering flow in places (note: I wish I knew what they were saying) and these Duke's Pamoja releases are going to put you in a trance.
SMOKE BELLOW - Open For Business [LP/CD](Trouble In Mind/Secretly/AMPED)
Like a lo-fi Kraftwerk or a more mid-range Stereolab, Australia-via-Baltimore's Smoke Bellows mix ancient synth warbles with ethereal vocals to create some new minimalist Psychedelia. "Anniversary" neatly rides its sawtooth groove over plunky bass and strummed guitar, while "Fee Fee" gets weird in its quest for that tribal boom. However, it is the haunting "Furry Computer 2" and its Philip Glass-meets-Yo La Tengo-esque trance that really sinks in with you. "Open For Business" does its best when it defies categorization and description - that exploration holds a world of promise for this group.
KANONENFIEBER - Menschenmuhle [LP/CD](Avantgarde Music ITA)
This German one-man Death Metal machine takes their concept from World War I on their debut to include snippets and an over-arching narrative that works in places. The drums and guitars are set to shred, but it is on tracks like "Dicke Bertha" went things are slowed down to a near Doom-pace (with effects) that their effect is most chilling. While the whole album is (of course) very Teutonic, its structure draws you into blinding riffage and planes swooping down on "Der Letzte Flug," "Grabenlieder" and its gunshots or even the acoustic closer.
MISTREATER - Hell’s Fire [LP](On The Dole SWE/Light In The Attic)
Creston, OH is a quiet village South of Cleveland. Even though Cleveland was the nerve center of Rock in the Seventies and early Eighties, these proto-metal stoner Rockers clearly did not want to do anything but ROCK until the wallpaper curdled on their practice room. Recorded in 1981, this group was brutal. “Hell’s Fire” sounds like Judas Priest with Burke from Budgie on vocals. There are laws waiting to be broken and Mistreater is just the one to do it. “Evil Woman” falls into its head-nod Sabbath groove quickly. The epic “Fortune Lady” must have been a fan favorite live with its lighters-in-the-air opening morphing into a grinding riff. This is American Heavy Metal in its early ragged glory before getting swept into the glitter-basted Sunset Strip.
STATIC - Toothpaste and Pills: Demos and Live 1978-1980 [LP](Third Man/The Orchard)
Before he stripped everything down to the bare-wire teeth-gritting Punk of Negative Approach, John Brannon sharpened his caustic attack in this slamming Glam band. “Toothpaste and Pills” remains the testament to this time with a bluesy yowl over a true Stooges-esque volcanic eruption. While the demos are mostly heavily distorted but power-chorded guitar and shoebox-sounding drums, it is wild to hear Brannon as the singer controlling their ebb and flow. The live shows are more chaotic (and cavernous recordings) but Brannon comes out as so confrontational at times these shows live on as their own Metallic K.O.’s (for example, the Sex Pistols fake-out on “Anarchy” from “High School ‘79” and the uber-punk “Video Deficiency” from 1980.)
JACKS - Vacant World [LP](Life Goes On ITA)
Before Japanese kids discovered Folk music, they translated the songs into dark, emotional soul-crushing wailing. This 1968 record from The Jacks is haunting, to say the least, but has all the hallmarks of the age: the spindly guitars, sweeping drums, and the hope that total chaos is going to tape. If the Velvet Underground had a jazz bassist, you would get the cataclysmic “Marianne.” “Stop The Clock” is its soothing counterpart with crooning and warm vibraphone. Even when they try out the more accessible waters of Folk/Rock, there is a squall from either the singer (“Gloomy Flower”) or the acidic guitar (“Bara-Manji.”) “Vacant World” is unbridled.
And now..shall we dive deep?
BOB DYLAN - Shot of Love/Infidels/Empire Burlesque (Columbia)
In honor of the Bootleg’s Sweet 16 “Springtime In New York” being released this week, it is high time to take on where Dylan went (or where we lost him) in the Eighties. If anything, Dylan was due for another dramatic change. During these five years, we went from staring at album covers dreaming about what a live show would be like, to staying up late to see him roll out three songs on David Letterman to accompany his videos on MTV. Honestly, one cannot help but try to find themselves in that media-based sea change.
The Dylan of the Seventies launched his own crusade. The stage was his pulpit and the albums were his treatises on Biblical study. “Slow Train Coming” showed Dylan wanting to be profound and actually change lives. With Dire Straits and the famous Muscle Shoals Swampers as his band, he scored a hit and even a Grammy. “Saved” still feels a little tone-deaf especially since Bootleg #13 covered so much more ground with the band live. The trilogy concludes with “Shot of Love” where Chuck Plotkin’s hollowed-out production at least makes the record sound live. “Property of Jesus” would still work in another’s hands as a Gospel workout. “Lenny Bruce” is reverent about irreverence - even if it sounds a lot like “With God On Our Side.” Tracks like “Watered Down Love” and “In The Summertime” feel mismatched (leaving you to wonder what the “Springtime” version of “Mystery Train” with Ringo Starr sounds like.) However, the twin classics “Groom’s Still Waiting At The Altar” and “Every Grain of Sand” ring true with Keltner, Duck Dunn, and company.
1982 was an eventful year for Dylan. One where he weathered personal loss. So his preaching chapter was closed and we return to more cryptic writing. Perhaps with Dylan only knowing the true meaning of his songs from this period, that is what led him to experiment with so many different incarnations. “Infidels” amassed a huge list of outtakes including covers, instrumentals, and early versions of coming tracks. With Mark Knopfler producing, “Infidels” begins the “mission creep” of Eighties technology. Still, there is a lot to like about “Infidels.” It has that Dire Straits-ian warmth and Dylan sounds great mixed in with the drum crack and pumping bass. “Jokerman” (which could have been a hit) mentions the Bible and floats along on its Dub foundation (thanks to the rhythm section of Sly & Robbie.) His now simplified choruses free up Dylan to write lengthy, descriptive verses that return him to storyteller mode. “Sweetheart Like You,” the first single (and MTV video) is Dylan at his most smooth and is helped by Mick Taylor’s beautiful solo. The whip-crack of “Neighborhood Bully” needs to be tougher (at least as biting as its lyrics) and may live on as a preview of his co-write with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers on “Jammin’ Me.” “License To Kill” and “Man of Peace” bring back that sanctified organ from the Christian trilogy, and the latter feels a little too close to the oompah-funk of “Slow Train Coming,” but his grit and anger at the end make it worthwhile. “Infidels” even with all its digital gloss remains worthwhile.
Dylan’s demos shaped “Empire Burlesque” more than previous albums and his first turn in the producer’s chair finds him taking a lot more chances. Between July 1984 and March 1985, Dylan brought in a variety of musicians old (Al Kooper) and new (Lone Justice) but mostly worked with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - who would also become his touring band. The heavily compressed sound (from Arthur Baker’s mix) still takes some adaptation. However, the horns still emphasize “Seeing The Real You At Last” and the Stax-ian “Tight Connection (To Your Heart”) is always a soulful surprise. There are fantastic songs here that seem to see Dylan regaining his confidence (the double-barrel blast of “When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky,” the lovely appropriation of the Gospel chord rise on “I’ll Remember You,” and the Bluesy wallop of “Clean-Cut Kid” with Carla Olson.) While “Empire Burlesque” is slick and synthy (come on, wasn’t everything then?,) these songs are Dylan breaking out of his shell (torch songs like “Emotionally Yours” kind of previews the tracks Dylan will write for movies - which I hope is covered in some part of the upcoming Bootlegs) or regaining his power (the plaintive acoustic closer “Dark Eyes.”)
Bring on the outtakes!
THE PRETTY THINGS - Live at The BBC [3LP](Repertoire UK)
The BBC Sessions of any artist in the Sixties generally say as much about the society around them as the band itself. When that band is the criminally ignored Pretty Things, their vaulting from gritty Blues to streamlined Psychedelic to all-out Rock, “Live” fails to explain just why they never hit. These sets rumble like back-alley brawls (Phil May’s audible sneer punctuates “Road Runner”) and still roll out the midtempo numbers for the occasional slow dance ( a moody “Sitting All Alone.”) Even stripped-down and lo-fi, “Buzz The Jerk” has a vicious punch, drummer Viv Prince gives the cover of “Pain In My Heart” a hard swing, and the controversial singles “L.S.D.” and “Midnight To Six Man” roll out like rifle shots.
Losing a couple of members and the whole of England going technicolor changed The Pretty Things to a blazing Psychedelic outfit in 1967. The rarity “Turn My Head” and the unabridged “Defecting Grey” are the best that Swinging London had to offer. The timing of “S.F.Sorrow” was unfortunate, as it came out the same week as “Village Green Preservation Society” and “The White Album.” However, even the scratchy, clearly-saved recording of “Talking About The Good Times” still sounded like an inspired workout with some very cool slapback echo and twin guitars battling it out. Still, this prerelease set from 1967 is a real diamond in the rough. When they return for the album release appearance in 1968, the tracks are bold, brilliant, and well-orchestrated (with Twink especially driving “Balloon Burning” while the band nails their harmonies in studio.)
As the Seventies dawn, the in-your-face presenter/DJ is replaced by the more cool detachment of John Peel. Reflecting that change, the shows now carry a definite theatrical feel. The Electric Banana track “Alexander” from 1969, while muted in its intensity, still breaks through. Their impact on the Peel Sunday Concert is more working the room than those ‘65 live bursts (that feel so far away as you listen.) Their guitars are on blast with lots of fiery soloing (“Sickle Clowns”) and granite Hard Rock is taking shape even as they still race through the “Parachute” triptych “In The Square/The Letter/Rain” in “suite” form. After they call it quits in mid-1971, Phil May reconvenes the band and pushes a little further uphill as the tide brings in the freewheeling daze of American AOR/British Progressive. “Cold Stone” (a B-side) is post-Prog/pre-Boogie yet very Zeppelinesque. They usher in the Boogie full stop on “Cold-Hearted Mama.” However, this 1971 session emphasizes the hellacious lead lick and the hand clap push it into Early Glam. (The real justification is the CD version of the release choosing three separate takes of the blistering “Cries From the Midnight Circus” from 1970-71 that really illustrate the transition underway.) Without founding member Dick Taylor (who exited before “Parachute”) and Wally Waller moving to the producer’s chair, the second round of Pretty Things is trying to find its place rather than carve it out. (Note: the CD set goes on to include reunions and more sessions all the way to 2018)
The Pretty Things pushed their music to its limits and then pushed music (in general) to its limits like so many around them. Their R&B was harder, faster, and more visceral than the others and that led to their melodic Psychedelia possessing a real compositional thrust that should have put them up there with the other names of the lengthy British Invasion.
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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