Radio Show Playlist 1/31

6a:
1. Elvis Costello - Radio, Radio - This Year's Model (Rykodisc 1978)
2. Chin Up Chin Up - The Architect has a Gun - We Should Have Never Lived Like We Were Skyscrapers (Flameshovel 2004)
3. David Vandervelde - Jacket - The Moonstation House Band (Secretly Canadian 2007)
4. Karate - Cancel - Cancel/Sing (Southern 2001)
5. (Request) Elliott Smith - Alameda - Either/Or (Kill Rock Stars 1997)
6. Arbouretum - Sleep of Shiloam - Rites of Uncovering (Thrill Jockey 2007)
7. Alexander Tucker - You are Many - Furrowed Brow (ATP Rec 2006)
8. Omar Rodriguez-Lopez & Damo Suzuki - Part 4 - Please Heat This Eventually (GSL 2007)
9. Roy Montgomery - Sister Clean - Inroads: Unpaved (Rebis 2006)
10. US Maple - Come Back to Damn It - Song Phat Editor (Skin Graft 1997)

7a:
1. Clinic - Harvest (Within You) - Visitations (Domino 2006)
2. The Zombies - Is This the Dream - I Love You (originally 1966, rereleased Varese Sarabande 2004)
3. Mogollar - Halicte Gunes In Batisi - Love, Peace & Poetry, Vol. 9: Turkish Psychedelic Music (originally ?, rereleased QDK Media 2005)
4. Mark Fry - The Witch - Dreaming with Alice (originally 1972, rereleased Sunbeam 2006)
5. Benoit Pioulard - Palimend - Precis (Kranky 2006)
6. L'Altra - Soft Connection - In the Afternoon (Aesthetics 2002)
7. mum - Scratched Bicycle / Smell Memory - The Peel Session (recorded 2002, FatCat 2006)
8. Town & Country - I Am So Very Cold - C'mon (Thrill Jockey 2002)
9. Bracken - Many Horses - We Know About the Need (Anticon 2006)
10. Squarepusher - Theme from Sprite - Hello Everything (WARP 2006)
11. Exploding Star Orchestra - Sting Ray & The Beginning of Time: Part 1 - We are all from somewhere else. (Thrill Jockey 2007)

New Music: TRR100, Kode9 & the Spaceape, Jeffrey Bützer

The Ladies - Trapped in the Hobbit (Temporary Residence 2007)

Various Artists – TRR100: Thankful / Temporary Residence

Temporary Residence Limited is very much an old school record label, a label’s label if you will. They don’t simply put out records; they cultivate bands mostly of a particular sound, keep you obsessively checking your mailbox with limited-edition subscription mailings, put emphasis on quality, individual artwork and really build a personal relationship with their fans. Owner/operator Jeremy de Vine opened shop in Baltimore in 1996 with a few 7-inches before diving right in at TRR04 with the “Sounds of the Geographically Challenged” series which in the course of three 12-inch EPs featured exclusive tracks from Songs: Ohia, Continental OP (Will Oldham/Dave Pajo) and The For Carnation among other acts whose members resided in differing cities but still maintained a fruitful band. The second subscription series was “Travels in Constants,” a whopping 21 volumes of exclusively mail-order CDs (I think it’s about time for a renaissance of this practice) featuring unreleased material (“no lame alternate versions or low-grade out-takes”) from artists like Mogwai, Low, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Papa M and many more. After a stint in Portland, de Vine settled in its now Brooklyn home and have hit triple digits with their acclaimed discography. Over their decade-plus existence, TRL's biggest genre reputation is for being an experimental post-rock hub (for instance one of my favorite albums ever, Fridge’s Happiness) and acquired many international artists excelling in the field, but as this compilation shows, they are far from a one-trick pony. Following in the footsteps of the TRR50: Thank You compilation is TRR100: Thankful, a new collection of previously unreleased songs from nearly every band they’ve signed since #50. The expected post-rock comes in a variety of approaches; Eluvium and Mono represent their melodic minimalist take on the genre, Sleeping People and By the End of Tonight are polar opposites with jarring, menacing rhythms and knotty guitars, and The Drift brings you a happy middle-ground embellished with post-bop trumpets. You also get a healthy dose of introspective ballads, the quiet feminine electro-pop of Caroline and the Will Oldham-derived sound of LaZarus, and the unclassifiable acts of Cex (glitchy, flamboyant party-hop?) and The Ladies (Rob Crow and Zach Hill matching musical superpowers). And to rightfully cap off this backyard Brooklyn bash is The Anomoanon, Ned Oldham’s southern rock outfit. Quite obviously, TRR100 is a sporadic affair, but it features a finely culled overarching vibe thanks to the throwback attitude of Temporary Residence. Yes they want variety, yes they want to be on the cutting edge, but they don’t immediately jump on the closest passing hype bandwagon. They realize their reputation and seek out reputable bands with similar frames of mind, of which may not have the most financially appealing name but represent the TRR tag with class. It’s quite obvious the label is a labor of love and just getting a chance to drop a triple digit catalog number on the back of an album is proof that de Vine and company are doing something we all respect.



Kode9 & the Spaceape - Backward (Hyperdub 2006)

Kode9 & the Spaceape – Memories of the Future / Hyperdub

On the heels of the much-acclaimed Burial album from 2006, the UK's Hyperdub brings you yet another mutation of the grime and dubstep scenes. This time label-head Kode9 mans the board flanked by the intimidating presence of vocalist Spaceape who reigns from Los Angeles circa 2019, that's right… Blade Runner motherfucker. The dubtronic music of Memories of the Future is on some kind of backwards-ecstasy trip, it conjures visions of mechanical dance floors and streaking neon lights but in a paralyzingly slow fluid motion. Think of a grime music video where all the dancers are captured on film underwater and superimposed in a back alley London club. Spaceape's flow rarely surpasses speeds of a throaty growl as he calmly recounts stories of bloody future-world mutinies and struggling in streets patrolled by mechanical killing machines with a menacing smirk that let's you know he's been there, he's got the scars to prove it and he doesn't give a fuck about you or your survival. It's every man for himself and he's been drifting for many-a-millennia without any help. The album features the 2004 Hyperdub single 'Sine of the Dub' as well as more recent cuts like 'Kingstown', 'Backward' and '9 Samurai' among ten other brand new tracks. Memories of the Future is cavernously dark; Kode9 splices trashed loops of dubstep and plasma sludge sythns, Spaceape plays Rick Deckard with dreads and you are left to fend for yourself… Can you escape from the offworld colony?



Jeffrey Bützer - Wooden Giraffe (Lona 2006)

Jeffrey Bützer – She Traded Her Leg / Lona

Jeffrey Bützer's debut release for Hong Kong-based Lona Records is an interesting blend of street performer waltzes, minimal avant-garde doodling and soundtrack-like ditties. Influenced by the deceptively simple and subtly moving film scores by minimalist composer Michael Nyman (The Piano) and Fellini sideman Nino Rota, Bützer's songs, which typically clock in at about the two-and-a-half minute mark, sound as if specifically composed for a series short films. The album is split into two distinct halves; the first 14 tracks reminiscing of the French pop of Yann Tiersen (best known to us Americans for the Amélie soundtrack) and the second half featuring two longer songs (on of which is broken into six parts) that drift into instrumental experimentation. The first, more appealing half finds Bützer mostly arranging bright melodic percussive instruments like xylophone, glockenspiel, piano and ocarina over elastic accordion waltzes. The tracks are short enough to not wear on your nerves and frequently conjure images of French street performers and the colorful circus acts of the 40s. 'One Hundred and Sixty Three Black Bubbles' and 'Her Body is a Swamp' on the other hand rarely find any sort of recognizable melody as Bützer strums hauntingly on his autoharp over meandering xylophone totters and heavily reverberating something or another. She Traded Her Leg is definitely an interesting album for those of you that like to dig under the surface for odd fissures in pop music.

Used-Bin Bargains: Puente Caliente, Acid

Our weekly look back at not-so-rare but incredibly essential albums continues by touching on some spicy Latin-Jazz on this frosty January afternoon (at least in Chicago).




Tito Puente - Guajira for Cal (Concord Picante 1987)

Tito Puente – Puente Caliente / Concord Jazz

Born in 1923, Ernest Anthony Puente, Jr. would become one of the most revered and beloved symbols of Latin Jazz under the name Tito thanks to his lyrical playing style with the timbales, vibraphone, piano, congas, bongos and saxophone, his amazing ear for arrangements and his accessible personality. Rooted in Spanish Harlem, Puente’s music career started at age 13 and it seems like he never stopped recording or touring until his death in 2000 when Latin Jazz lost it’s greatest showman and character. He recorded some of his most powerful and realized music in the late 80s with two albums compiled on this compilation, Un Poco Loco and Sensacion, both released in 1987 and featured a masterful blend of Jazz, Latin, Mambo, Afro-Cuban, Big Band and Salsa. Released as a 2-disc set in 2001, Puente Caliente features the two Concord Picante records remastered with pristine clarity highlighting every timbale outburst, vibraphone solo and barrage of sounds from Puente’s octet backed by a full orchestra. Notable guest artists include heralded percussionist John Santos, vibraphonist Terry Gibbs and pianist Sonny Bravo. If you are not familiar with Puente, this is a wonderful introduction into the colorful world of Tito and upbeat Latin Jazz.





Ray Barretto - El Nuevo Barretto (Fania 1968)

Ray Barretto – Acid / Fania

While Tito Puente gained the attention of the mass media, Ray Barretto remained for the most part under the radar though his career paralleled Puente’s very closely. The Brooklyn-born Puerto Rican was first educated in swing rhythms before mastering, and I mean mastering, Latin grooves on his instrument of choice, the congas. A much heralded session musician, during the 60s Barretto recorded with everyone from Dizzy Gillespie to Lou Donaldson (and every jazz musician who even took a minor interest in Latin-Jazz) and then finding solo success by signing to Fania in 1967. In an attempt to modernize charanga, a fiery Cuban ensemble style (ahem… cha cha cha), Barretto utilized brass instruments with much success and infused pop and jazz into the mix. This 1968 record is a great example of his forward thinking as he crosses the line of Latin and soul music without ever straying from his salsa heritage. Though not nearly as psychedelic as the name suggests, Acid is a wonderful display of musicianship, passion and experimentation as Barretto vibrantly led the way into the NYC and Fania combination of Latin, soul and funk in the late 60s and 70s.

Peace, Love & Poetry: Worldly Psychedelic Rock

Thanks to my good friends at the Hump Day Dance Party, I’ve gotten a hold of a few volumes of the amazing Love, Peace & Poetry compilations. They are so excellent in fact, I could not keep them all to myself and wanted to share their psychedelic amazingness with you wonderful readers. Just in case you are not familiar with the series, the Love, Peace & Poetry comps choose a particular geographical location and digs up the cream of their psychedelic rock crop typically from the late 60s and early 70s. Culled by Stan Denski, they have been periodically released since 1998 on QDK Media and Normal Records in colorful record covers featuring Cherly Shrode, a Go-Go Dancer and Playboy Bunny, in a number of sexy poses (they do not pertain to the particular location though, but are no less welcome for your eyes to study thoroughly). To date, there have been 9 volumes covering America, Latin America, Asia, Japan, Britain, Brazil, Mexico, Africa and Turkey. I am going to highlight three of the later installations in this particular post, and hopefully will get a chance to write about at least three more on a later date. I also have no liner notes, so I apologize for the absence of year on the tracks.




O Bando - E Assim Falava Mefistofeles

Volume 6: Brazilian Psychedelic Music (2002)

Personally, whenever I think of Brazilian psychedelic music my mind goes straight to the unparalleled creativity of the Tropicalia scene in 1969. But as this comp is quick to point out, there were many other acts utilizing the same influences but not presenting it in quite as strongly a political manner. This absolutely should not take anything away from the quality of the music though and instead presents you with a new side of the same sound. Fuzzed out guitars, deep buoyant bass lines, sporadic organ outbursts, it’s all hear and arranged in that wonderfully off-center manner that is present in all Brazilian music (off-center solely to my America-bred ears of course). My research has not been as fruitful as it was for the following two comps band-wise so I have minimal background on the artists involved. But as compared to Tropicalia, these tunes are a bit darker, a bit crunchier and a much stronger rock influence than traditional Brazilian folk. I wish I could divulge whether this was a precursor or a product of the Tropicalia scene because that would certainly reveal a lot, but alas background or no background, this is great music.




Freedom's Children - 1999
(I question this song title because the song that follows on the comp says "1999" quite a lot, though every tracklisting I could find said this was the name of the song)

Volume 8: African Psychedelic Music (2004)

The most striking characteristic of the African volume is how unAfrican it sounds. These cuts taken from 1969 to 1975 embody psychedelic rock to the fullest in the context that no African polyrhythms or traditional instrumentation seem to be utilized. One may be disappointed, but I am even more intrigued because all of my previous exposures to this era and geographical location always sound more of a mesh rather than something all their own. Probably the most notable reason for this is that the majority of these songs were taken from South African acts, mainly The Otis Waygood Blues Band (whose name is meant to sound like a black American bluesman but is actually a collection of Rhodesian college kids with a love for primal rock’n’roll and dark psychedelia), Abstract Truth (a mainstay in the vibrant Durban underground club scene) and Freedom’s Choice (who set out to emulate Pink Floyd and King Crimson but ended up with a sound all their own). For the most part, South Africa was cut off from most of the indigenous African people and really had a culture and music scene all their own. There are some non-South African selections here as well, but again they don’t really reflect the African rock sound I expected. Maybe these are just tiny niches of the vast multi-cultural continent that is Africa or perhaps I’ve just not explored that area as thoroughly as I obviously need to, but either way, this is excellent music.




Mogallar - Halicte Gunesin Batisi

Volume 9: Turkish Psychedelic Music (2005)

In the 1960s, as Turkey open it’s doors to the Western world, a flood of outside influence came rushing into the country. The result was a cultural synthesis especially noticeable in the arts. As Western rock music was introduced to the youth of Turkey, a strong musical movement emerged combining the psychedelic sounds of modern rock, including American, European and Asian, with traditional scales, instrumentation and language. Some of it wasn’t straight pairing the two together though, instead the Normal Records website describes the process as analogous to the updating of Delta blues songs with electric instruments by musicians like Clapton and the Stones. Some of the Turkish artists simply applied their newfound instruments and energetic compositions to the traditional music while others approached from the opposite direction, adding their cultural touches to straight Western rock. Included in the mix is the wonderful Selda (a political poet who took the updating traditional Turkish folk method who also has an excellent re-released full-length on Finders Keepers), Mogollar (also known as the “Turkish Pink Floyd” and the premier musician in the Anatolian rock scene, a distinctively Turkish fusion of rock and local folk) and Bulent Octacgil (a singer/songwriter who was unique with his absence of Eastern influence). The music of this disc is wonderfully exotic and completely unique.

New Music: Tera Melos, subtractiveLAD, New Ruins

Tera Melos - (Is Good for What Ails You) (Springman 2007)

Tera Melos - Drugs to the Dear Youth EP / Springman

Roseville, California. Molly Ringwald? Jonathan Taylor Thomas? Summer Sanders? 18 boxcar explosions in a Southern Pacific railyard in 1973? No, I suppose these aren't the best of reasons to care about the Sacramento suburb. But it turns out that Springman's Tera Melos haven't given up the fight for Wikipedia notoriety (somewhere, Susan Peters is laughing - disambiguate that). In fact, their latest instrumental EP Drugs to the Dear Youth should reach those of us still decidedly lukewarm in the wake of last year's Don Caballero record... Or maybe it was that Joan of Arc b-sides collection that caught you the wrong way? Either way, '06 wasn't exactly a banner year for reliable jazz-cap'n'd math-rockers (Battles don't count since they took the cheap way out and just combined EPs). The good news: Tera Melos are a well-oiled machine that've already put out a noisy debut full-length and played dates with Bear Vs. Shark, Isis, These Arms Are Snakes, and The Locust to name but four. The better news: Drugs to the Dear Youth is somewhat ironic in title - the members aren't sXe, but they don't really do drugs either - but their music is all earnest fun + experimentation, a drug in and of itself. Just listen to that bass on "(Is Good for What Ails You)." You kind of wish all hip-hop tracks thumpa thumped that deep. Dr. Who Diss? Paging the future: Meet the shape of math to come.













subtractiveLAD - The Shell (n5MD 2007)

subtractiveLAD - No Man's Land / n5MD

But to hear the future, sometimes it's better to work backwards. Canadian IDM wizard Stephen Hummel knows this all too well: No Man's Land is his third full-length in three years, but its progression is a logical one if you've been following along at home since '05's Giving Up the Ghost and last year's Suture. XLR8R favorites n5MD (aka "No Fives, MiniDiscs," inspired by their release style when they opened for business in 2000 and not long before Sony decided the MiniDisc market was getting a little too pear-shaped for their taste) picked up on this and declared subtractiveLAD the posterboy icon for their "emotional experiments in music." Maybe the pressure was on for Hummel to deliver again, but he must've shrugged it off back at the ranch in Vancouver: This third LP doesn't miss any steps in showing off the label's faith in him. "The Shell" is the opening track and most obvious highlight, orbiting all Gagarin-like around the steady beat and guitar lines as muted synths and keys twinkle like Venus on a good night... Then falling back to earth in the final two minutes awash in a helicopter recovery unit of guitar fuzz only Over the Atlantic have bested in the past year... But No Man's Land isn't all about hitting the exosphere only to plummet downward again. No, this is a thoughtful and thought-out album noting ambient pioneers (so I guess that means Eno and, him failing, simple country folk like Boards of Canada) and anyone who's ever heard gamelan played effectively (The "Solaris" soundtrack doesn't count), awake right from the moment it pops out of its - I promised I wouldn't end on this - shell. Just don't call it emo.













New Ruins - Nameless (Hidden Agenda 2007)

New Ruins - The Sound They Make / Hidden Agenda

Which brings us to Champaign, Illinoise's New Ruins. Emo is such an irrelevant term in the underground these days (Seriously, who listens to Kerosene 454 anymore?), the kids have all agreed on their MySpace pages that the only thing worse than being called emo is being called indie. We can blame bands like The Arcade Fire (The Neon Babble in stores soon, remember) and bands like Clap Your Hands Say Who? and The Shins, but shouldn't we be blaming The Beatles? I mean, if it weren't for them, we probably wouldn't have the fundamentals of indie-rock as we now know it. New Ruins know this, but they don't give a damn: In a stunning rebuttal to The Shins' weak position and weaker argument on Wincing the Night Away that indie-rock isn't very invigorating even on a big budget once you realize the possibilities of, well, Tera Melos and subtractiveLAD, The Sound They Make is that of a band that's accepted the terra firma of pop songs and exploited the loophole of Shins b-sides to make an album that's better than anything James Mercer has tried lately. "Nameless" won't change your life - Zach Braff and Natalie Portman fans, please file to your nearest exit in an orderly fashion - but its strummed simplicity is one of the album's better moments daringly placed as the second track behind flagship single "Ships." I'll take the emotional poignance and inverted world-circa-'03 of "Nameless" instead... For while an out-and-out rock tune's exuberance can get real old real fast, a poignant breather doubling as lilting lullaby never does. Maybe it isn't the future or the past that matters, then - maybe it's the timelessness of the present. New Ruins know. Do you?

New Music: Omar Rodriguez-Lopez & Damo Suzuki, Alexander Tucker, Hi Red Center

Omar Rodriguez-Lopez & Damo Suzuki - Please Heat This Eventually Part IV (GSL 2007)

Omar Rodriguez-Lopez & Damo Suzuki – Please Heat This Eventually / GSL

Fittingly enough, my first introduction to krautrock masterminds and genre-defying pioneers Can was through Omar Rodriguez-Lopez. I was somewhat a latecomer to the spastic world of At the Drive-In; a late night viewing of the ‘One Armed Scissor’ video on MTV in my later high school years sent me on the 45-minute drive to the closest decent record store (the vast isles of the now defunct Manifest Discs & Tapes) early the next morning to pick up their discography. The band broke up shortly thereafter, but I kept a close eye on the members as new projects began to surface. I dug the first Sparta record (shhh, don’t tell anyone) and De Facto influenced my exploration into the wonderful world of dub music, but I felt nothing was quite as explosive as the first Mars Volta EP, Tremulant. From that point on to a few months after the release of De-Loused, The Mars Volta was my shit; I ranted, I raved, I played it for anyone who would listen and I studied their influences. In one interview I read with guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, he commented on what a big influence Can was on the group, especially Tago Mago, and how they basically wouldn’t exist without the band’s sonic experiments in the 70s. So, being the astute fan I was, the next morning I ravaged a different branch of Manifest (I was loyal to the store, even worked there in the waning moments of their existence) of their Can discography. Well that was a few years ago, and though my interest in the Mars Volta has subsided a good amount, I still respect them as amazing musicians and creative minds. And now there is this! A collaboration between Rodriguez-Lopez and one-time Can frontman Kenji “Damo” Suzuki featuring fellow Volta members and keyboardist Money Mark of Beastie Boys fame and many other projects. Suzuki is a fun character; the Japanese street poet was discovered by the members of Can in 1970, took over the lead singer position from Malcolm Mooney and retained the post through ’74 (the four year span is considered the most productive from Can) when he opted out for the exciting career of a Jehovah Witness. After a decade absence from music, Damo returned with groups that sported his name but never came closed to the quality of his recordings with Can. Perhaps he just hadn’t found the right musician to compliment his creative energy, or rather, he just hadn’t crossed paths with Rodriguez-Lopez yet. Their first collaboration is a 30-minute suite called Please Heat This Eventually, available on vinyl only, and features sweltering progressive free-jazz rock that works almost as an update to the wonderful sonic experiments of Can. Obviously, since the group consists of mostly Mars Volta members that is going to be the closest music correlation and a correct one, but it just seems to overreach the freewheeling concepts of the love-or-hate prog-rock band. There are a couple reasons I have come up for this. First, the replacement of Cedric Bixler-Zavala by Suzuki creates a formidable difference. Bixler’s rampant yelps may be similar in style (and were certainly influenced by Damo) but Suzuki’s voice is a good number of octaves lower and he tends to growl in almost a jazz scat manner. This strips the vocals of the ability to narrate so they become an instrument in themself which retracts some of the pretentiousness I believe. Second, while The Mars Volta stems from the geeky (but not untalented) prog-rock bands like Yes, this collaboration emphasizes the early-70s Can influence giving the sound a darker, more avant-garde feel rather than the more whimsical sides of mid-70s prog-rock. Don’t worry though, it really should please fans of both sides of the progressive split along with connoisseur’s of free jazz and fusion. My favorite moments come during parts 3 and 4. Part 3 features a gummy bass-line dueling with a spastic flute and Omar’s emphatic electric while Damo gawks with uncivilized tone. Part 4 begins in the same manner but erodes into free jazz tenor sax outbursts, glittering percussion and electronic noise before disappearing into the quiet fifth section. I am unsure of exactly which kind of listener this will reach though. The initial crowd of Mars Volta fans seems to be long gone and replaced by more mainstream alt-metal kids, but I believe this will be too much for them. And it sounds a bit weird to say it, but it will probably sound too Mars Volta to reach die-hard Can fans. Who is left that is paying attention? I am going to suggest that if you are like me and was in the first wave of Volta nerds along with being early 00s GSL followers, go pick this up. It should rekindle your warm feelings towards Rodriguez-Lopez and let you bask in his ridiculous musicianship once again.






Alexander Tucker - You Are Many (ATP Recordings 2006)

Alexander Tucker – Furrowed Brow / ATP Recordings

I’m always up for a good pastoral folk album, but they rarely hold my attention for too long. Say we replace ‘pastoral’ with ‘spectral’ and conjure up a lost cabin-like ambiance to the record, ok now I’m a little more interested. Let’s keep going and place this cabin in the middle of a dark field, surround that dark field with thick fog, sprinkle that thick fog with menacing creatures and drop the songwriter into the dim lit hut with an acoustic and a tape reel; now we are getting to some attention-keeping Furrowed Brow territory. UK-based Alexander Tucker is a man of many discerning musical talents that creep up sporadically throughout his songs. He can pick the guitar with the best of the rural folkies, he can harmonize his voice in both pleasant and unsettling ways, he can delicately conduct a relaxing atmosphere of sounds, he can stew up some droning noise through detuned guitars, feedback and white noise, he can layer tape loops in a wishy-washy Paw Tracks method and he can even summon the great voices of free jazz when needed; no wonder he caught the attention of Jackie-O-Motherfucker’s Tom Greenwood. Along with being a handful of a multi-instrumentalist himself, Tucker has also played with Unhome, Fuxa, Duke Garwood and Little Wet Horse as well as collaborating with SunO)))’s Stephen O’Malley under Ginnungagap. His latest for ATP Recordings (Deerhoof, Bardo Pond), the aptly titled Furrowed Brow, fits into this latest trend of doomy folk bands like Flying Canyon (to a degree, a genre Ghost is responsible for creating) that are anchored in the sounds of pastoral, backwoods folk but spin off into unsuspecting and often noisy territory. The opening track, ‘You Are Many,’ is a perfect example: it begins with delicate finger picking and Tucker’s harmonized voice in a pleasant manner, but slowly broods and at the four-minute mark distorted banjo starts creeping in followed by a crunchy electric that finishes off the dynamic leap. ‘Broken Dome’ is 7-minutes of rising free-jazz hysteria while the following track, ‘Saddest Summer’, is delicately echoing acoustic and soft, wavering distortions. And so the seven-song album progresses, but Furrowed Brow is not inaccessible by any means, in fact the dynamic shifts make it just that much easier for the music to keep your undivided attention.







Hi Red Center - Magic Teeth (Pangaea 2006)

Hi Red Center – Architectural Failures / Pangaea

I got to give Hi Red Center props for naming their debut album Architectural Failures, because quite frankly, most listeners would hear his record and say there is something fundamentally wrong with these song structures. They’re angular, obtuse and not one of the pieces fit together right; in other words, a whole lot of avant-rock fun. Their singer/guitarist Ben Lanz whips out a trombone on occasion, the drummer and bass player rarely stick on a groove for more than twenty seconds and Russell Greenberg regularly tackles electronics, the vibraphone and even acts as a second drummer on occasion. The unfocused aim of the band will be make-or-break for most ears, but more open-minded listeners will find something they like about this record. Throughout the ten tracks of Architectural Failure you get healthy doses of angular rock, thumping post-punk, frenzied pop, a little kraut-rock, some throbbing post-rock and they even drift into Modern Jazz Quartet territory on a few occasions. I question the need for vocals in such already cluttered territory, but when attacked from a shout-along direction, they actually work quite nicely. Originally self-released in 2005, it was re-released by Ohio’s Pangaea Recordings in 2006 and just now starting to get some promotion so it’s good to jot down this name, because Hi Red Center very well could be a band blossoming with their next album.

New Music: Lullatone, o.lamm, Bunny Rabbit

Lullatone - Pajama Party Pop (Audio Dregs 2006)

Lullatone - Plays Pajama Pop Pour Vous / Audio Dregs

This isn't so much of a review as it is an origamied note of thank you to Sean James Seymour and Yoshimi Tomida, the married duo that comprises Lullatone. This is their fourth album of innocent minimalism filled with tiny instruments and twinkling sine waves, and one could even make the argument for this record to end all religious and racial strife on the planet. Hyperbole? Maybe. But I can certainly speak to the changes in my life thanks to Lullatone's patented pajama pop.

Operating out of the city of Nagoya in Japan, Seymour and Tomida have stitched together music for daily life. "Good Morning Melody" begins the treatment for erasing stress and anxiety. Waking is a tricky matter but just follow Tomida's whispered instructions over a pallete of childhood toy instruments and warm electronics. No need for blithering red-faced radio jocks or acrid alarm clock beeping, just ease on into things. "Bedroom Bossa Nova" means a warm cup of tea and your kitten asleep purring in your lap. "Magical..." is just that, five sparkling minutes of Sean's lovely tones and Yoshimi making friends with the robots, planting dandilions behind their ears. All this is only warming us up for "Pajama Party Pop", a song thats not once failed to give me the warm fuzzies with its xylophone, whistling(!) and steady casio beat.

Pajama Pop Pour Vous won't be for everyone, and those people will continue down their long and anger-filled path. As for me, I'm smitten with Lullatone's cute manifesto. In fact, I've sent back my Buddha Machine with a sincere apology letter. Cuter than a kitten covered in birthday cake, this album is the soundtrack for coasting blissfully through your day.



o.lamm - Genius Boy (Audio Dregs 2006)

o.lamm - Monolith / Audio Dregs

O.lamm is a Frenchman named Olivier and his work expounds on my idealistic and perhaps particularly narrow view of French music. I'm thinking of disco balls, underwater filter sweeps, and a tendency towards unfettered fun. Not to say this is Daft Punk or even the Ed Banger camp, not even close, but o.lamm upholds the strong pop sensibility and smart hooks inherent in all great French electro wizardry.

Monolith isn't so much about robots getting off the bus. Its more like Tecmo Bowl Bo Jackson dueling with Mega Man, all 8-bit pixelation and unadulterated fun. This is synth pop for the Nintendo generation. "Genius Boy" is a cavalcade of adventurous glitch, like a cartoon theme song for an all-star Nintendo character jam, before settling into sweet pop bliss complete with cute Japanese girl vocals. The excitement is palpable as you get deep into the string-groove of "The Macguffin", a track that finds perfect use for the high melodrama of female J-Pop, the type that soars on the wings of Ayumi Hamasaki and beyond.

"Open Malice" seems to be the "single" here. And by that I only mean that it has, y'know, the most wide-ranging appeal. Its a true dancefloor gem brimming with dirty King Koopa synth and detached electroclash vocals. Like if Annie hung out all the time with Miss Kitten about four years ago. Uh, that is if we assume such a splicing would achieve the best possible results. "Aerialist" is yet another of the record's highpoints. It makes me want to ride lazerbeams on a futuristic jetski!! And maybe the song is a bit of futurism in anticipating such an experience.

Monolith stands as a beacon of evolution, a hope for a better future, and we are all just apes hopping around waiting to be touched by the light.



Bunny Rabbit - Saddle Up (Voodoo-Eros 2007)

Bunny Rabbit - Saddle Up EP / Voodoo-Eros

Brooklyn's Bunny Rabbit is the latest entry into the current VIP room electro diva sweepstakes. You may also know her as one half of the hazy afternoon duo, Cocorosie, but I guess one can only pine so much and after dusk she becomes an altogether different creature that rocks to perfection vintage sneaks and all-over print hoodies. "Saddle Up" is all about sharp sexual ennui, the kind that never actually happens in real life because its far too clever, especially in the heat of passion. Beats here are provided by Black Cracker, who is definitely informed by grime and the Baltimore club sound. "Lucky Bunny Foot" is a tense one. Bunny Rabbit sounds like you just fucked up by stepping on her foot in the club and you made her drop a $15 drink. Black Cracker isn't helping matters with the Fatman Scoop call and response of "Come on, Bunny, wyle out!!". This is seriously all about attitude. Keep an eye out for the full length, "Lovers and Crypts", out on Feb 20, and if we're lucky some kinda coinciding beef with Uffie.

Radio Show Playlist 1/24

6a:
1. Can - One More Night - Ege Bamyasi (originally Spoon 1972, rereleased Mute 1998)
2. Andrew Douglas Rothbard - Emerald Tendrils - Abandoned Meandder (Smooch 2006)
3. One Second Bridge - Fifth Season - One Second Bridge (Buro 2006)
4. Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra - Song for David - Voices and Choices (Ubiquity 2007)
5. David Axelrod - The Fly - Songs of Experience (Stateside 1969)
6. Bonobo - Transmissions 94 (Parts 1 & 2) - Days to Come (Ninja Tune 2006)
7. Leaves - Ash Wednesday - Live at The Ice Factory (FP 2006)
8. Exploding Star Orchestra - Cosmic Tomes for Sleep Walking Lovers: Part 2 - We are all from somewhere else. (Thrill Jockey 2007)
9. Isotope 217 - Harm-o-Lodge - Who Stole the I Walkman? (Thrill Jockey 2000)

7a:
1. Conjoint - Frentic - A Few Empty Chairs (Buro 2006)
2. Arab Strap - (Afternoon) Soaps - Ten Years of Tears (Chemikal Underground 2007, originally 1998)
3. The Sea & Cake - An Echo In - Glass EP (Thrill Jockey 2003)
4. Why? - Dirty Glass - Oaklandazulasylum (Anticon 2003)
5. The Good, The Bad & The Queen - 80s Life - The Good, The Bad & The Queen (Virgin 2007)
6. Notwist - Solitaire - Neon Golden (Domino 2003)
7. múm - Now There is That Fear Again - The Peel Session (FatCat 2007, recorded 2002)
8. VietNam - Apocalypse - VietNam (Kemado 2007)
9. Arbouretum - Ghosts of Here and There - Rites of Uncovering (Thrill Jockey 2007)
10. The Twilight Sad - Last Year's Rain Didn't Fall Quite So Hard - The Twilight Sad EP (FatCat 2006)
11. Fred Thomas - Holland Tunnel - Sink Like a Symphony (Corleone 2006)
12. Thee More Shallows - I Can't Get Next to You - Monkey vs Shark EP (Turn 2006)

New Music: múm, The Twilight Sad, Bonobo

múm - Scratched Bicycle / Smell Memory (Fatcat 2007)

múm – The Peel Session / FatCat

One of the most revered electronic-pop bands of the early 00s, múm has all but disappeared from the map as their output slowed and a large wave of new bands copped their style. Originally banded in 1997, the four Icelandic teens (whose names I'm going to omit for it will take me an hour to insert all of the correct accents and punctuation through Word) set out to combine the rampant IDM scene with their love of gorgeous, icy melodies, seemingly the staple of all bands based out of Iceland (not a complaint, just an observation). Their debut full-length, 2000's Yesterday Was Dramatic – Today is OK, caused quite a stir as fans and critics heralded their imaginative blending of gurgling electronics and epic melody. After the release of 2002's Finally We Are No One, their sophomore effort, one of the two classically trained twins departed to focus on further studies and the band never really was the same. This 4-track Peel Session recording was captured in 2002 at the peak of múm's success and with the original line-up, but never officially released until now. Featuring four new renditions of songs from their impressive debut and the detailed follow-up (three from YWD-TiO, one from FWANO), these live cuts display both the proficient musicianship of the band and their ability to embellish on prior compositions. A wide range of traditional (guitars, bass, synths), exotic (accordion, mutated brass, cello, melodica, vibes, musical saws) and electronic (laptops) instrumentation was utilized; easy proof of the musicians' talent is the way they intertwine the varying tones so much it's nearly impossible to tell which is what. This session is warm, melodic and epic, though most songs seem to be more concise than their original versions, and acts as a good reminder of one of the most innovative bands at the turn of the century. Oh! MAYBE this reminder is to prime us for a new album after their three year absence; you'll have to bug FatCat for that though.






The Twilight Sad - Last Year's Rain Didn't Fall Quite So Hard (Fatcat 2006)

The Twilight Sad – The Twilight Sad EP / FatCat

For one reason or another, it always seems that the greatest derivatives of a genre stem from a completely different birthplace than they’re supposed to. When one considers a shoegaze band, they automatically assume that this band grew up on early My Bloody Valentine EPs and Brit-rock, but listening to The Twilight Sad, I can’t help but notice something out of place. Thanks to some minimal research, I learned that this talented Glasgow quartet actually began as an experimental noise band composing half hour-long pieces that took old folk songs and twisted them into something completely unfamiliar. Now this makes more sense for The Twilight Sad who still humor themselves as a “folk/experimental/noise” band but are more specifically a wonderfully off-center post-shoegaze act. This debut EP, recorded beautifully with composer and fellow FatCat Max Richter, does a great job capturing what I can only imagine is a jaw-dropping live show. It opens humbly with a teetering accordion, looped tape noise and James Graham singing mournfully in his thick Scottish accent, but at the exact halfway point unrelenting cymbal crashes and waves of shimmering guitar violently explode in an absolute wall of sound and continues for the final two minutes of the song before the feedback eventually topples over and your left with just crunchy noise. The rest of the EP follows in suit with a series of anthems that are approached from a number of different directions but always leading back to thier stylistic derivative of shoegaze. The songwriting is clever, the compositions are creative and the production is pristine; this is absolutely a band to keep a close eye on (which I'm certainly not the first to say) and I’m very much looking forward to their first LP due in a couple of months.







Bonobo - Transmission 94 (Parts 1 & 2) (Ninja Tune 2006)

Bonobo – Days to Come / Ninja Tune

I have been a fan of Bonobo's music for a few years now. During my sole stint in scouring music somewhat not-so-legally through Soulseek (a very dreary time between music directing positions), I came across a number of Bonobo remixes of artists I was into and he always seemed to bring a very human element to the mostly electronic producers. Though because of his penchant for worldly instrumentation and mellow tempos, Bonobo albums regularly get misclassified in the cringing-section of chillout, but I don't agree with that at all. Simon Green's first proper full-length since the acclaimed 2003 album Dial "M" for Monkey continues his progress from the vanquished covers of sunset-lit beaches to a very organic Mice Parade meets Blockhead sound. The UK producer still builds his songs in the same melodic samples over steady breakbeat template, but the music is continually more elaborate and the instrumentation livelier, in both essence and mode of capturing. Primed for after-party and downbeat DJs, Days to Come wraps sheets of flute, strings, vibes, keyboards and other exotic instruments over moving percussion that at times reminisce especially of the more laid-back side of Latin-jazz artists like Tito Puente and Pucho. To help flesh out the music (for better or worse depending on your ears) is the now German-based (I believe) Middle-Eastern singer Bajka, whose simple, sultry voice is effective in this setting, but I'm afraid does little to shake off the chillout/exotica tag. But thankfully, Green clasps on a bonus disc featuring instrumental tracks of the four songs with vocals; one also features Ninja Tune label-mate Fink. The core of the album lies in the midsection culminating in the 8-minute 'Transmission 94 (parts 1 & 2)' which is a jazzy tune that leans towards afropop and climaxes with UFO whirrs and dueling soprano saxophones. Days to Come will certainly find its audience, especially in the UK, but I'm afraid it will still be sadly mistaken for more play-by-numbers chillout, which is a shame because Bonobo is an excellent producer.

New Music: Exploding Star Orchestra, Arbouretum, Mark Fry

Exploding Star Orchestra - Cosmic Tomes for Sleep Walking Lovers: Part 2 (Thrill Jockey 2007)

Exploding Star Orchestra – We Are All From Somewhere Else / Thrill Jockey

In 2005 the amazing Chicago-based cornetist Rob Mazurek (Chicago Underground, Sao Paulo Underground) was asked by The Chicago Cultural Center and the Jazz Institute to put together a group of local musicians to truly capture the bubbling avant-garde jazz scene of the windy city. Mazurek, being the prolific musician and project-concocter he is, really outdid himself by bringing together more than a dozen local artists from a variety of musical backgrounds but all strongly rooted in the local underground jazz scene. Included in the ensemble include AACM product Nicole Mitchell who plays flute for the earthy, spiritual jazz group Frequency, trombonist Jeb Bishop of the Vandermark 5, Flying Luttenbachers and many other bands, three members of post-rock staple Tortoise including guitarist Jeff Parker, drummer John Herndon and percussionist/recording engineer John McEntire, Delmark keyboardist Jim Baker and members of Isotope 217, Larval, and Crisis Ensemble among many others. Mazurek conceptualized a story and developed arrangements through a series of international performances that let all of the acclaimed improvisers and soloists carve out their own musical subplot to the overarching theme. The story retains to the avant-garde spirit as it poetically traces a line from sea to sky to space (roughly from eel to stingray to bird to phoenix to rocket to burning matter to new born star) interconnecting life-forces in the same manner the eclectic tones of the involved instrumentation give life and morph to one encompassing sound. Broken into three movements, Sting Ray and the Beginning of Time, Black Sun and Cosmic Tomes for Sleep Walking Lovers move in a loose chaos-rebirth-realization chain of events and in turn the music progresses in a chaotic-minimal-melodic manner. Obviously, I want to make an Art Ensemble of Chicago parallel (which Exploding Star is absolutely in a spiritual sense), but it's more spacey than the 70s avant-garde jazz outfit. On the other side of the same genre, it's earthier than Sun Ra's extraterrestrial expeditions (who also called Chicago home at one time). So consider We are All From Somewhere Else a midpoint between the two acclaimed acts, Mingus is another notable reference point, but decisively modern (the music is interweaved with Mazurek's recordings of electric eels at one point and manipulated at the talented hands of John McEntire at his Soma Studios at another) in technology and influence (omniscient Chicago post-rock even makes an appearance). It's an inventive, juxtaposing, free-flowing yet conceptualized piece of music from an array of talented musicians who are able to interlock their creative minds for 50 minutes of amazing music that truly defines the spirit of Chicago's contemporary underground jazz scene.






Arbouretum - Ghosts of Here and There (Thrill Jockey 2007)

Arbouretum – Rites of Uncovering / Thrill Jockey

Baltimore’s Dave Heumann has paid his dues. He’s toured the world and recorded with the likes of Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Anomoanon, Cass McCombs and Papa M, all the while honing his craft, sharpening his songwriting and piecing together what would become his Thrill Jockey debut, Rites of Uncovering, under the Arbouretum name. While I’m not sure if the moniker derives from this or not, but ‘arboretum’ is “a place where an extensive variety of woody plants are cultivated for scientific, educational and ornamental purposes,” and I think that is a fitting analogy for Heumann’s blooming blend of stoner rock, backwoods blues, tribal folk and psychedelic jam. The songs of this album start simple enough with a quiet guitar riff or Heumann’s thick Oldham-like drawl, but before long the tune opens up in a forest of thunderous drums, Garcia-derived electric solos, rolling bass lines and garnished with melodic blossoms of vibraphone, electric piano and flute. The literate songwriting and technical prowess of the musicianship is top-notch thanks to compatriot and multi-instrumental Walker David Teret at his side along with members of Lungfish, Celebration and Stars of Dogon rounding out the line-up. Maybe most impressive though is the pristine recording and unbelievably round tone of the album. With time spent in Paul Oldham’s Rove Studios, Matt Boynton’s Magic Shop and John McEntire’s Soma Studios, Heumann was able to perfect his sound through a filter of very knowledgeable engineers and the results absolutely speak for themselves. Rites of Uncovering is an album that will be coveted by Oldham fans and like-minded music lovers, but the Arbouretum sound really reaches past that and I urge anyone into stoner rock, 70s psychedelic bands and alternative country as well to give it a good listen; I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.







Mark Fry - Mandolin Man (Sunbeam 2006, originally 1972)

Mark Fry – Dreaming with Alice / Sunbeam

Sunbeam Records are quickly jumping on my shortlist for top notch re-releases joining the eye-opening discographies of Soul Jazz, Numero Group and Finders Keepers. Their latest unearthed obscurity is a wonderfully surreal breath of acid-folk opiate care of a teenage Mark Fry. Asking for upwards of two grand on the record collector circuit for an original copy, Fry’s one and only LP recorded in 1972 has received mixed reviews upon its initiation onto plastic but personally it dropped my jaw on first listen. The British singer/songwriter was attending art school in Rome when his family friend, Laura Papi, pushed him to audition for a RCA recording contract. The tryout landed a whopping (and terrifying) 10-year contract with imprint IT Dischi and the go ahead to produce an album. Recorded in 1972 with the help of “some Scottish musicians” in their homemade basement flat studio, Fry encompassed his many influences into a slow-swirling kaleidoscope of psychedelic British folk. Bringing together musical inspirations like Bert Jansch, Ravi Shankar, Crosby Stills Nash & Young and Frank Zappa as well as a try-anything influence from the burgeoning Italian film scene that was exploding around him, Fry recorded Dreaming with Alice in a couple of weeks on two 4-track Revox tape recorders in such a lo-fi environment they couldn’t use proper drums for lack of any soundproofing. In my opinion, this only enhances the intimacy of the recordings as the overlapping Celtic, Indian, British and Italian cultures melt together in one amazing sound. The unfavorable reviews seem to make multiple references to Donovan and citing that he was actually a few years behind the curve with his sound, but taking into context that Fry was still in his teens (read: impressionable), I think the outstanding musicianship, recording inventiveness and ability to interlink so many influences should be highly regarded. ‘Mandolin Man’ in particular is an unbelievable eight-minutes of head-nodding acid-folk accentuated with masterful mandolin playing and interweaving tape effects that can easily be linked to contemporary artists like Animal Collective (not to mention the song closes with a separate two minutes of sample-primed lo-fi funk-folk assembled similarly to what rap producers do when they have an unused beat and want it on the record). The CD re-releases includes a pair of bonus tracks recorded in 1975 while Fry was staying in LA as well. If you are into bedroom singer/songwriters, acid-folk or lo-fi psychedelia this is an absolute essential addition to your collection.

New Music: Splinters, The Detachment Kit, Robot Needs Oil

So did you hear about how the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, that most relevant of scientific bodies, decided to update The Doomsday Clock this past week? As if we weren't already worried enough with amber alert this and seatbelt that (The nerve!)... Now we need to be reminded just how close we are to Doomsday.

Weird how Doomsday seems to exist in its own parareality though, isn't it? Weren't we just two minutes to Doomsday in 1967? Wasn't it seconds away in 1962? I don't know about you, but something tells me the good folks up at the BoAS need to recalibrate their watches and give that Doomsday Clock some WD-40.













Splinters - Second Hand (Woodson Lateral 2007)

Splinters - The Watchmaker / Woodson Lateral

Maybe Splinters aka Ben Torrence is the man to help them should the people at TAG Heuer not return the Board's calls. Torrence seems to have this whole consistent time thing under control for his second album under the micro-tech moniker with which he has release his latest batch of material appropriately titled "The Watchmaker." Ever a risky business, the dubious genre IDM takes a new turn into the prog realm here... Well, sort of. The pitch: "The Watchmaker" ticks, clicks, tacks and tocks as accurately as your finest Fossil. Torrence applies methods of watchmaking to himself and his own modus operandi, long hours spent collecting disparate sounds only to generate, manipulate, mutilate and annhialate them. The result is this instrumental following in the footsteps of 2005's "Metal Pedals." Torrence also plays around Seattle with City Of, Lamplighter, Bookmobile, Recidivist, Treasure State and Field Notes. Was it mentioned he's also got Lunch Buddy Program on the way? Dude keeps busy, bottom line, and Splinters is no exception. If you're in to left-field experimental electronica, "The Watchmaker" will sate you. If the sound of dripping water and Swiss clocks bothers you, you're probably better off listening to The Detachment Kit.













The Detachment Kit - Finale (2007)

The Detachment Kit - +

That reminds me, The Detachment Kit have a new one out. Somebody was brave enough to call "+" (without the "-," so don't go starting fires) an EP, but betwixt you the good reader and me the poor writer, 13 songs clocking in at 43 minutes isn't fooling anyone. Not that it makes any difference: "+" continues in the bouncy post-punk tradition of prior releases though ex-Frenchkiss-turned-Startime International chaps The French Kicks loom large over a band traditionally known for hiding in the shadows of Frenchkiss founders Les Savy Fav. Details, details; "Finale" is the Wiresque second track which also takes elements from XTC and, erm, The Get Up Kids? Go Bears! Hey, I just call 'em how I see 'em. Trust me when I say it's worth listening to and "+" is just another beautiful point upward on the musical trajectory that started with 2001's "They Raging, Quiet Army" and continued with 2004's "Of This Blood." It's nice to have a band that drops fresh jams like clockwork, isn't it?













Robot Needs Oil - Volta - (Art & Craft 2006)

Robot Needs Oil - Volta 12" / Art & Craft

Of course, not everyone was born with a penchant for taking the rockist moral high ground; some guys and their bands sell their guitars and buy turntables. Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, Poland's Greg Kobe is one of these dudes. He was in a band called Melanz as a kid, for example, but the allure of the decks got to him... And so, eventually, did Beatport.

If you call yourself an electronica fan but don't know what Beatport is, you should be ashamed of yourself: Jonas Tempel via Eloy Lopez got the ball rolling out of Denver in January of '04 with 79 record labels and they've been all over the electro industry since. Not every song you'll hear on there is a winner, but generally the DJs who pay $1.99 a jig tend to bring the cream of the crop to the top of the pops on the constantly updated Top Downloads charts. One that's been floating up there for awhile has been Robot Needs Oil. Re-enter Greg Kobe: This dude's first 12" has been shaking up dancefloors and his EP has an Olivier Giacomotto remix on it. B-side "Sssnake" is wicked, but it's the mighty "Volta" that gets the girls shaking what their mommas gave 'em and all the boys bopping up and down faster than you can say "Doomsday."

With bangers and mash like this, who needs the Bullshit of Apocalypse Subscribers? Give me a beat that constructs or deconstructs, a gold chain for my pocketwatch and a handlebar moustache and I think I'll be ready in ample time for the end of the world. Hold the Dickens, though. I never could get in to "A Tale of Two Cities" properly.

Used-Bin Bargains: Innervisions, I Love You

I saw Califone on friday night at the Hideout, probably my favorite Chicago venue (Empty Bottle is very close behind, but the Hideout only holds 200 people and just has a cool ambiance to it), and they were amazing. You're jealous.

Go Bears!




Stevie Wonder - Too High (Motown 1973)

Stevie Wonder – Innervisions / Motown

Following Stevie Wonder’s (all grown up, not-little Stevie) mammoth year of ’72 with hit-makers Music of My Mind and Talking Book, his view turned overtly social, putting unsettling observations, or maybe aural-vations, to wax for ‘73’s genius Innervisions. Applying his ever-perfecting soul-funk charts to his completely unparalleled songwriting abilities, Stevie tackled drugs, spirituality, political ethics and the uphill battle of Black urbanites with grace and humility in which, if not already by this point, deemed him a truly brilliant storyteller. His growing penchant for a barrage of synthesizers and jazzy drums back the confident, octave-leaping, character-impersonating, often multi-layered voice quite possibly at the peak of his long career. Every one of the 9 songs is an instant classic, though only two really had some success as singles with Stevie opting for making a statement rather than making crowd-pleasing chart-toppers. For a blind man, Stevie seemed to have the clearest vision of any artist of the time, realizing the failed 60’s dream and the resulting chaotic early 70s and being able to manifest his thoughts into truly moving 45-minutes of music. Genius, genius, genius, genius. Easily my favorite album ever.






The Zombies - Is This the Dream (Varèse Sarabande 2004, originally Parrot 1966)

The Zombies – I Love You / Varèse Sarabande

The Zombies crashed on the scene in 1964 with the single ‘She’s Not There’ rivaling only The Beatles and The Beach Boys in genius pop melodies and complex musicianship. While their contemporaries went on to easily dominate the charts until the early 70s, Colin Blunstone, Rod Argent and company were consistently overlooked by the mass populous. The all-knowing minds of Decca refused to issue a second album by the band because lack of high-charting singles, yet in 1966 they released a compilation of singles in Europe and Japan only. Of course, The Zombies opted to go with CBS in 1967 and the amazing Odessey and Oracle was created. This rare compilation of Decca/Parrot singles released between 1964-67 was made available in the US for the first time in 2004. These pre-“whose your daddy” Zombies songs are no less astonishing than O&O with their combination of pop, rock, psychedelia and jazz. Highlights include the minimal bliss of ‘The Way I Feel Inside’ (which you probably know from Wes Anderson’s Life Aquatic), the true single mix of Oldies radio staple 'Goin’ Out of My Head' (I heart Oldies radio so much) and the lively ‘Is This the Dream,’ which I can guarantee you had a significant impact on the Tropicalia kids of 1969. Challenging pop-rock, ridiculous harmonies and those killer Argent organ solos, what else could you want?

New Music: Baja, Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra, Watchers

Baja - Anatomy and Variation - Maps (Stilll 2007)

Baja - Nona's Theme - Systemalheur (Stilll 2007)

Baja - Maps/Systemalheur / Stilll

After spending the majority of the week reviewing records from pretty substantial names, probably the most obscure band of the bunch easily takes my vote for "Best Album I’ve Heard in a While" (a coveted prize). German composer, musician and sound artist, Daniel Vujanic, and his loose collective known as Baja conjure an amazing array of subtly moving music with their two-part debut on Stilll Records. The first 40 minutes of the record consists of the cut-and-paste experimental prog-folk of Maps, a striking combination of minimalist pioneer Terry Riley, the style-bending finger-picking of John Fahey and the genre-mashing collages of Four Tet stripped away of the electronic beats. The music moves smoothly but it’s clearly the product of a sound artist, a musician that pieces varying samples in an unconventional manner. Through one song you’ll hear quiet piano melodies, fusion-leaning electronics, flourishes of clarinet, outbursts of free-jazz saxophone, sprays of white noise and jazzy, Szabo-like guitar riffs. And just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, ‘Droma Waves’ kicks off the second half of the album, Systemalheur. It begins in the same manner as Maps, but before long your ears are being captivated by lush Tortoise-like compositions of jazzy post-rock (brought up in a world of European electroacoustica rather than Chicago house) that get increasingly catchier as the disc continues on. The latter theme-based 30 minutes even drift toward inventive indie acts like The Books and Psapp on frequent occasions. This genius piece of music is hard to describe with words and impossible to categorize, so if you are a big fan of any of the aforementioned artists, blended genres that especially included folktronica, electroacoustica or jazz-anything, and/or challenging yet laid-back music please, please, please do yourself a favor and pick up this disc; because you know as well as I do, you deserve it.






Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra - Song for David - Voices and Choices (Ubiquity 2007)

Shawn Lee’s Ping Pong Orchestra – Voices and Choices / Ubiquity

While David Axelrod graces many an influences list, very few contemporary musicians can actually recreate the unparalleled vibe of his classic albums from the late 60s and 70s, but I’ll be damned if Shawn Lee doesn’t get incredibly close with his latest recordings as the Ping Pong Orchestra. Besides the pop orchestra instrumentation over funky breakbeats template, the most impressive resemblance is the room sound. Nearly played and produced completely by the multi-instrumentalist himself, Voices and Choices has that almost impossible warm reverberation of the classic studios and analog recording boards of the late 60s. I have no idea whether this is the result of actually recreating these environments or just a masterful control over digital reverb plates, but either way it’s incredibly well done. You are probably more familiar with Lee than you think. The Kansas native began his musical career in LA jamming with the late Jeff Buckley, and then relocated to London in 1995 to begin his prolific music production as a solo artist. In the last decade, Lee has contributed his talents to the likes of the Dust Brothers, Gorillaz, Zero 7, Coldcut, St. Etienne, the Spice Girls and many more, had his instrumental beds featured on Lost, Desperate Housewives, Good Morning America, The Break Up, Oceans 13 and many, many more, produced the heralded free-to-sample Ape Break series, produced many a record and remixed many friends… not a bad résumé (the entirety of which would fill this entire page). The latest notch in his instrumental Ping Pong Orchestra series is a very rewarding 50 minutes of mellow, orchestrated funk-derided cuts that owe as much to the aforementioned Axelrod as they do Charles Stepney, classic European pop, underground soul and Latin groove-based genres. His songs ride bilaterally classic and modern vibes, background music and attention-hungry hooks, warm production and stone cold breaks, mellow baked moods and a get-on-your-feet attitude. Joining the fun are fellow Ubiquity artists Nino Moschella, who soulfully belts on Kiss the Sky, and Omega Watts who gives an Illogic-like verse on The Hour Glass Effect, both of which in top form. This is an excellent album that regular Ubiquity fans should drop everything and immediately pick-up and should please many other music fans especially if you are into some groovy funk or worldly jams.






Watchers - Union (Electrical Audio Mix) - Rabble EP (Gern Blandsten 2006)

Watchers – Rabble EP / Gern Blandsten

Released in mid-06, the Rabble EP further continues Watchers’ do-I-dance-or-do-I-mosh tyranny over confused audience members everywhere. The Chicago quintet made up of members from 90s bands Assembly Line People and Hex play a raw blend of avant-funk and Dischordian punk that will make you move, just not any particular style. Featuring three new tracks, a remix of ‘Union’ and two live cuts, Rabble is abrasive, aggressive, funky and a whole fuckload of fun compacted into a brief 20-minute outburst. Fittingly enough, their most notable influence, James Chance (who basically invented the avant-funk genre not to mention no wave with his late 70s band the Contortions), joins the band on stage for a lively rendition of James Brown’s ‘Super Bad’ and the creepy New Orleans drawl of ‘No Pity (in the Naked City)’. Rabble is a quality EP featuring a style that is somewhat out of style these days, but still so very wonderful to revisit on frequent occasions.

New Music: VietNam, Arab Strap, Julie Doiron

VietNam - Priest, Poet & The Pig - Kemado (2007)

VietNam - VietNam / Kemado

One of the things Francis Ford Coppola does so brilliantly in "Apocalypse Now" (which shares a similar font to VietNam's self-titled debut) is illustrate the dramatic differences between seeing things from afar and seeing things up close; the raid on the beach was a videogame for the pilots but hell on earth for the troops on the ground, for example. The Brooklyn quartet VietNam is similar; put on in the background as white noise filler, the album's quiet, scenic passages dominate the sprawling psych-grime of certain tracks. But given a closer listen, the songs burst forth with a hippie filth altogether VietNam's own.

One of the other well-documented things about "Apocalypse Now" is how long the journey upriver takes with little to no action; days are spent aboard Marlow's boat with nothing to do but wait for bullets from VietCong or a checkpoint with Playboy bunnies. VietNam's album continues in this same grand tradition: Beautifully meandering bits interspliced with violent outbreaks and Michael Germer's wreckless howling. "Priest, Poet & The Pig" is an early example of this, drawing you in and swirling about like a purple haze gone awry. The irresistable allure of conquering the second half quickly becomes its own jungle, but there's no turning back after "Mr. Goldfinger." Hear that? That's bluesy psych-rock done well. And there's nothing I like more than bluesy psych-rock done well in the morning.












Arab Strap - To All a Good Night - Chemikal Underground Ltd. (2006)

Arab Strap - Ten Years of Tears / Chemikal Underground Ltd.

Arab Strap is an altogether different beast. Whereas VietNam represents the anxiety and hold-and-release tension of the jungle, Arab Strap is exactly the music you expect to hear for broken hearts and wasted minds in Falkirk, itself a bit of a geographical purgatory caught between the thick accents and strong arts community in Glasgow and the refined governance of Edinburgh. Crisp cold and clear vocals (minus that Scottish burr) complement humid heat and disorienting echoes all unified by the grand theme of a musical haze. Whether that be via drugs or booze, it never matters. Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton know this well: In fact, they've been lamenting lost loves, meaningless shags and pub grub with a sly sense of humor for over a decade now (Don't be fooled by the title).

And for every Anglophile looking for a reason to mope without Morrissey, Arab Strap had two songs to play back for you. Here's the proof: "Ten Years of Tears" is fully 18 songs long and doesn't even include all their castaways; a motley bunch of tunes still hide in the depths of their back catalog even now. There are even better examples of the technique (Gently swaying strings, lilting piano lines and occasional horns trumpeting the lack of triumph on tracks like "(Afternoon) Soaps" or "The Girl I Loved Before I Fucked"), but the dichotomy between the acoustic strumming of "To All a Good Night" coupled with the humor of the card conversation at the end perfectly encompasses the ethos of the ultimate sad bastards (for which they will always be loved). This hodgepodge of songs from 1995 to 2006 might be the best way of introducing two guys who now, finally, can move on with their lives in different directions. The dawn is coming as I write this. Yes, it is a new day. Despite past solo efforts, perhaps this new day and era will provide something more optimistic than just a wink and a knowing nod that things will end up okay. Or maybe, as they suggest, there is no ending. They're probably right.

Julie Doiron - The Wrong City - Jagjaguwar (2007)

Julie Doiron - Woke Myself Up / Jagjaguwar

...Or maybe, as Julie Doiron knows all too well, endings are happening all the time. The sun has arrived a few minutes later here and I'm no longer writing this in the cloudy-headed methods of the half-asleep. Julie certainly wasn't writing "Woke Myself Up" half-asleep, either: Her sixth album on Jagjaguwar (and first since 2004's "Goodnight Nobody") finds her turning inward more than ever before to examine what led to her cheating on her long-time husband and destroying the foundations of the family values she'd been raised on. What's interesting about Doiron's latest is that it shows the psyche of the cheater rather than the cheated; there aren't many artistic works that illustrate this that I can think of offhand (unless you want to count "House of Meetings" by Martin Amis, but equating cheating with rape is something I'd prefer to stay away from), so this perspective is still a bit fresh even for folkies who might as well have conquered every other subject this side of psoriasis. Doiron in particular isn't new to music, having started her career a long time ago (1990) in a land far, far away (Moncton, New Brunswick)... But this album might be her best yet, an acoustically sprase yet dense and emotionally wrecked set of songs that anyone who has cheated on someone else will relate to. Hopefully it goes some way to repairing her lost relationships and those of the listeners that can relate in some way.

That failing, of course, you either give them napalm or you give them a drink and a "fuck off" with a Scottish burr. Add a wink and a knowing nod to always leave them wondering.

New Music: of Montreal, Deerhoof, TG Mauss

Of Montreal - Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? (Polyvinyl 2007)

of Montreal – Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? / Polyvinyl

My introduction to of Montreal was 2004's Satanic Panic in the Attic. Frankly, I went apeshit. I have since ventured in to the backlogs of the Athens, GA band for the early releases and stuck with them on their continuing sugar rush adventures up to today. The level of apeshittery that Satanic Panic infused upon my ears was not equaled by any of their prior albums or 2005's Sunlandic Twins, the latter of which left me slightly disappointed. Twins was not necessarily bad, but I just got lost among the unrelenting multi-colored sounds of their post-disco electro-pop circus-opera; as the number of hyphens might apply, it was just too much. Kevin Barnes and company triumphantly return to compact disc after what seems like two years of nonstop touring with a new ridiculous album name, more glorious packaging and twelve new songs that find a happy middle ground between Sunlandic and Satanic. Remarkably their tenth full-length, Hissing Fauna doesn't completely disown the entire rambunctious mutant disco of the last album, but tones it down and separates the two established styles. Barnes, as always, is front-and-center with his unparalleled pop songwriting, Barry Gibb-ripped vocal chops and roundabout melodies, but depending on which of the prior two albums you were into will affect which side of this record you'll dig the most. The first half reflects more of the Satanic keyboard-centric indie-pop (with 'Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse', 'Gronlandic Edit' and 'A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger' being the strongest continuous string of songs since the opening three of Satanic) while the second half sticks to the new disco-ball sporting style ('Labyrinthian Pomp' somewhat brilliantly melts the line between Justin Timberlake and Dark Side of the Moon). Splitting the not-so-distant polar sides is the 12-minute 'The Past is a Grotesque Animal', a revealing slow-burner (relative to of Montreal) that features a somewhat tormented Barnes. So really, what's not to like about Hissing Faunas? You get a little Satanic, a little Sunlandic and even a completely new state of Barnes panic; I guess the only people left out of the party are stubborn diehards of The Gay Parade.






Deerhoof - Choco Fight - Friend Opportunity (Kill Rock Stars 2007)

Deerhoof – Friend Opportunity / Kill Rock Stars

So before getting started, I guess it's important to know that I have not spent much time with Deerhoof during their decade-plus career. It's not that I dislike their music or were unaware of their existence, I just never got around to significantly exploring their colorful discography; it falls under the "can't listen to everything" clause of music nerdery. So given the opportunity to review the ninth full-length record of their impressive and strikingly improbable discography, I obviously did my research but the past-album references are going to be lacking. Think of it as fresh ears with no prior connotations to the music. Now with that out of the way, Deerhoof's new album, Friend Opportunity, is a little piece of avant-pop dynamite. With the departure of Chris Cohen (who is concentrating on his Curtains offshoot), the band returns to the three person core responsible for the much-heralded Reveille album from 2002. Their music sounds very realized, obviously the result of a long discography, as it hop scotches between guitar-, noise-, indie-, art- and j-pop with explorations in no wave, avant-garde and groove-based genres. The very latter is what surprises me the most; the stellar first half of the album finds many irresistible grooves through guitar and percussion interplay that I would venture to say could make killer samples. Greg Saunier sounds like he's having a lot of fun behind the kit getting very inventive with his percussive noises on many occasions. Satomi Matsuzaki coos her own language somewhere between Japanese, English and onomatopoeia while Rob Fisk comes up with one simple, catchy guitar riff after another. The second half of the album is much more mellow though no less melodious and everything concludes with an awkward ten-minute ballad of avant-garde guitar explorations before finding a shimmering melody to close out the last 30 seconds of the song. As a whole, Friend Opportunity lives up to the excellence and eclectic variety that I assume (see opening lines) long-time Deerhoof fans expect. From my research, it seems to encompass all of the many shades of eccentric pop they have explored in past albums, but refined and compacted into one recording. And honestly, I think it is about time I immersed myself into the vibrant world of Deerhoof.






TG Mauss - Heavyweighted - Gravity Will Keep Us Together (Quartermass 2006)

TG Mauss – Gravity Will Keep Us Together / Quartermass

I’m not sure if there is an actual name for it yet, but there is no doubt a gaggle of people out there that spend the majority of their time scanning audioblogs and aggregators in search of that unfamiliar dancefloor nugget that’ll turn heads at their next DJ’d party. TG Mauss’s ‘Heavyweighted', the seventh song off his sophomore solo effort Gravity Will Keep Us All Together, is the kind of gem that digital diggers crave. It’s unassuming with a steady snare beat, simple funk-lite guitar strum and pinging synths, but it is absolutely perfect for the closing minutes of a dark dancefloor, when the only people left dancing are more interested in their significantly found others than pumping up the jam. The rest of Gravity follows along the same line: simple, steady and effective. The Dusseldorf via New York musician crafts a brand of synth-pop that relies heavily on endearing Britpop melodies and just enough cleverness to dismiss the mundane tag. The production here is crystal clear and the arrangements well thought-out, typically involving a drum machine, electric guitar, Mauss’s Damon Albarn copping vocals and synths while influences range from 80s new wave to industrial to techno to the aforementioned Britpop. Gravity is not a classic or groundbreaking album by any means, but it is certainly enjoyable and can be a coveted find for the new generation of diggers.