New Music: The Eternals, SJ Esau, Giant Skyflower Band

The Eternals - The Mix is So Bizarre (Aesthetics 2007)

The Eternals – Heavy International / Aesthetics

The Eternals are one of those bands that are just so far off the beaten path they kind of exist in their own realm. What Man Man is to klezmer, The Eternals are to funk. They take the foundation of the genre and mutate in such ways that while you can trace the lineage back, it's skewed beyond classification. Damon Locks, Wayne Montana and Tim Mulvenna (Montana and Locks spent time in Trenchmouth, while all members have helped accentuate acts like Smog, Vandermark 5, Fareed Haque, Via Tania and Joan of Arc) start with a little mid-era P-funk, soak it overnight in boom-box dub, decorate it with splotches of Headhunters-like jazz, the chugging post-punk of Gang of Four and just a touch of the exotic, experimental buoyancy of Tropicailia, and just when it all starts to fit snuggly together, toss it all back into the air like an arousing game of 52-card pick-up. This being their third full-length record, The Eternals sound is not as surprising as it once was but no less unpredictable; the ever-present obtuse funky rhythm may be familiar, but just try and sing along with Locks' splintered, comic book tremolo; try and guess when the next careening melodica will send you running back to your Lee "Scratch" Perry records… shit, try and figure out how they play any of this live with just three people. Here are just a few examples of the level of hybrid mutation we're dealing with: "The Origin of the Heatray" sounds like Agustus Pablo jamming with Battles, "Patch of Blue" kicks off sounding a little like Afro-pop before skittering into a mutated dubstep-like beat, "Heavy International" plods along on a loose krautrock groove given the King Tubby production treatment, and "It Is Later Than You Think (Pt. 1 & 2)" would be what The Octopus Project would sound like if they were rocking out to a Congotronic-style rhythm. It’s simply a wacky conglomeration of thumping influences pulled off with talented musicianship and a good sense of humor. Once again released on the always dependable Portland imprint Aesthetics and sporting Locks' Reed Richard-inspired artwork, Heavy International is exactly what it proclaims to be: chugging multi-ethnic music.






SJ Esau - All Agog (Anticon 2007)

SJ Esau – Wrong Faced Cat Feed Collapse / Anticon

Remember Hip Hop Music for the Advanced Listener and Music for the Advancement of Hip Hop? Back in the waning moments of the 20 th century, the Bay Area collective Anticon was being up front about their plan to take rap music to the next level, and I'll be damned if they didn't do just that. But when was the last time Anticon put out a hip-hop advancing album? Hell when was the last time they put out anything even resembling their own brand of hip-hop (not counting the Darc Mind reissue)? Jel's Soft Money from early 06 maybe or perhaps Sole's Live from Rome released a year earlier than that. Like most of the indie-rap scene, Anticon has moved on. I'm neither condoning or condemning their actions though; sure I miss the days of Selling Live Water and Them, but it's hard to argue with the contagious avant-pop of Why? or the stuttering post-rock of Dosh. And their latest batch of new artists including Bracken (Chris Adams of Hood) and Thee More Shallows have absolutely no foundation in hip-hop, advanced or otherwise. The third and most unfamiliar name of the latest signing wave, on the other hand, does very much fit the mold of a classic Anticon artist background-wise, but much like the rest of the roster, he's moved on.

Sam Wisternoff aka SJ Esau (an accidental anagram for "a jesus") used to be a rapper. He freestyled with 3D from Massive Attack, hung out with Tricky and won second place in the DMC rap championships. Did I mention he wasn't even a teenager by the time he accomplished all this? Before he even turned 12, Wisternoff had already become the star of the Bristol, England rap scene circa the late 80s/early 90s and was signed to Three Stripe Records with his brother (one-half of house duo Way Out West) as the True Funk Posse. Well his rap career peaked and diminished a little early and he set out playing in rock bands and recording experimental pop music under various monikers throughout the 90s before settling in on the SJ Esau multi-faceted sound in recent years.

As revealed on his first release for Anticon, Wrong Faced Cat Feed Collapse, that sound is hard to define but certainly fits in snuggly with the experimental post-shoegaze tip purveyed by his new peers. Like both Bracken and Thee More Shallows, Wisternoff is a rock/pop songwriter first but pushes every boundary he can to unsettle the norm and create a thick atmosphere. The foundation seems to be in British folk which is pretty easily heard on "Wears the Control" and "Halfway Up the Pathway," but rarely does he let the mixing boards stay idle. The closest vibe/atmosphere comparisons would be Hood, Fog and to a reaching extent Arab Strap or Slint; most of the songs are draped in a mellow, eerie haze but with recurrent chaotic outbursts of overmodulating instrumentation and electronics. He also frequents the weird but infectious pop territory of Why? on tracks like "All Agog" but to a much lesser degree. You know I could have pretty easily just labeled it "British folk with Anticon quirk" and been done with it, but I'd feel like I'm selling you short. Which ever description you prefer, SJ Esau is a creative artist who really lives up to the Anticon advancing music requirements and will please fans of the latest label trend to no end. Plus, how fun is it to go up to a record store clerk with a cheery face and ask: "Wrong Faced Cat Feed Collapse please!"






Giant Skyflower Band - Bitter Wild Rabbits/Builds the Bone (Soft Abuse 2007)

Giant Skyflower Band – Blood of the Sunworm / Soft Abuse

I can make two guarantees for every review you'll come across for the Giant Skyflower Band's debut album, Blood of the Sunworm: 1. the necessary reference to Glenn Donaldson and Shayde Sartin's other band, The Skygreen Leopards. 2. dropping the description "bummer psych" somewhere in the review. Why "bummer psyche" you may be asking, well mostly because the press release goes on about how the Skyflower's whole purpose of the album was examining the idiom, but also because it's got some potential buzzwordiness to it and what blogger doesn't like a good buzzword or five (I have the freak-folk tag locked and loaded so watch your back).

But what is bummer psych? I'm sure you can probably guess seeing as it is not that ambiguous of a description, but I was still hoping to inform you on some insightful background. Alas though, I could not find one specific article on the genre anywhere on the infinite… well not any more… the finite interweb. So I'm just going to act the half-ass music blogger and straight quote the press release, "the strain of damaged Anglo-pop music pioneered by Syd Barrett that arguably reached its apex with the Television Personalities' Painted Word LP in 1984, but found new life in Japan via the genius of Tori Kudo and like-minded acts such as Nagisa Ni te and Tenniscoats." So in conclusion, bummer psych is mellow, downtrodden psychedelic rock. I'm glad we got that sorted out.

Now back to The Giant Skyflower Band. Released on Soft Abuse, of which Destroyer, Frog Eyes and Wooden Wand have released records through, Blood of the Sunworm is the side project of Glenn Donaldson with help from his fellow Skygreen Leopard Shayde Sartin. Not far from the rural-folk of the Leopards, the Skyflower Band draws more from Indian and Eastern influences to embellish its lo-fi psychedelic folk. The vocals surely contribute to the bummer tag as they consistently sound forlorn and reflective, think Fred Thomas. The music is definitely the concentration though with Donaldson and Sartin taking on a gaggle of exotic instrumentation including a sitar, zither, acetone organ and twelve string guitars between the two. A brief and quiet affair, the first nine tracks clocking in just over 20 minutes with an 11-minute closer tacked on, which features a few stunning tracks amidst a good amount of quiet ditties. "Bitter Wild Rabbits / Builds the Bone" is the highlight of the album featuring an acoustic guitar and sitar duet for the first two minutes before giving way to a gorgeous meandering folk song that would be hypeworthy if backed by a horn section. "Feast of Blood" sounds like Saturday Looks Good to Me jamming with MV & EE and album-capper "Meditations on Christ and the Magi" is a great attempt at the droning Hindu sound Alice Coltrane perfected on Journey to Satchindananda. Blood of the Sunworm is a quality record that will probably get brushed over by most of the listening public, but will definitely make some Soft Abuse devotee's day. Personally, as mostly and outside observer on most of the freak-folk scene, I really dig the humbleness and will certainly revisit it on occasion.