New Music: The Dead Bodies, C-Mon & Kypski, The Nein

THIS JUST IN FROM OUR LATE-BREAKING AUDIVERSITY BUREAU: THE ARCADE FIRE ARE ON SNL! THE SHINS PLAY INDIE-ROCK! MENOMENA GETS REMIXED BY KANYE WEST!

Haha, got you there didn't I? Well it's been another banner day here at the transcontinental Audiversity offices. While you go through ravenously checking your del.i.cious account for the latest and greatest, we've been payin' billz and doing what we can to stay ahead of the curve. Blogger's Code of Ethics, natch. Jordan and Michael have legit jobs; I just get my parents to pass Go and collect my prize money. Pretty soon this ivory tower of university life is gonna crack faster than a Ferrari turbo on a Martini Lancia in a 1000-kilometer sprint, but I digress: It's tough being ahead of the curve all the time, right? Woe to those with their ears to the subunderground! Don't you just want to sit out in the beautiful spring weather of the northern hemisphere and relax on a soft patch of grass? Wouldn't it be nice to just feel like a kid again, totally devoid of having to worry about being too cool for Kanye? Couldn't you go for a little bit of a tan?













The Dead Bodies - Dancing Has No Class (Quite Scientific 2007)

The Dead Bodies - Mr. Spookhouse's Pink House / Quite Scientific

The Dead Bodies have an answer to these questions... But it's one of the most mixed messages I've ever heard. The three men involved in concocting the potent potion that is Mr. Spookhouse's Pink House send out a pleasant message of sedate calm and acid-dropping complacency on "Dancing Has No Class," don't they? It's like The Shins with a friendly wave in super-saturation. The Thin White Duke with more Detroit CD-R scene cred. Howdy, neighbors! But hang on a second, this is Mr. Spookhouse's shack, not Mr. Acidbuddy. That's a smile they're flashing alright, but if you've ever taken a gothic literature class in earnest, you know all about the concept of the sublime: It's like The Dead Bodies are wearing a "Scream" mask as they flash a grin worthy of "The Truman Show." This isn't necessarily evil - evil implies they're here to rip the floor out from underneath your innocent ears and assault you with sounds from down the block at Whitehouse as authorized by the local Hair Police - but it is a little more sinister than even the color pink could paint over. Beware the pastels: They disarm at first glance, but beneath all that pleasant psych-folk and charmingly strummed guitar tunes lurks a beast of an album that, while short given its 16 tracks, will stun you with twists and turns one song could never hope to cover. Does that mean you feel a little more grown-up at the end of it all? Several spins later, I'm still not sure myself.












C-Mon & Kypski - Where the Wild Things Are (feat. Sadat X) (Penoze 2007)

C-Mon & Kypski - Where the Wild Things Are / Penoze

Speaking of grown-up, Dutch quartet C-Mon & Kypski (who are Simon Akkermans, Thomas Elbers, Daniel Rose and Jori Collignon) have been doing plenty of that together for over a decade. They've been making the joy of the good melody for years and Where the Wild Things Are is their latest proffering. You know, I once attempted to write a short story that paralleled Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are," except at the end you were supposed to find out Max was a patient at a mental ward. I never quite finished it, but while I remain a total failure, these guys (Utrecht represent!) have taken their vision of a musical version of Sendak's classic and actually gone through with it. What a magnificent album this turns out to be, all brooding dark green deep-Congo album art on the outside and inside a cornucopia of color: Assistance from Sadat X and a deep bassline on the title song kick things off, but sunny pop on "Bumpy Road" is a total nonsequitur and the rest of the album, 12 songs strong, comes across as both totally scattershot and totally cohesive.

I tried thinking of a genre (because breakbeat and turntablism would work only a third of the time), but all I came up with was "soundtrack." Recordings in Morocco inform further with a worldly bent to an album that parallels the children's book quite well. It almost makes me want to finish writing my own version... which, come to think of it, would go pretty well with this too. Interested? Lucky you: C-Mon & Kypski will be playing with the rest of the world at South By Southwest in a few weeks and I'm always in need of a few good patrons. Just sayin'.













The Nein - Journalist, Pt. 1 (Sonic Unyon 2007)

The Nein - Luxury / Sonic Unyon

If you just want to hear the sound of someone growing up without all the undue pressure of paying my bills as I write a nonexistent children's book parody, The Nein is what you're looking for. Here's the deal: Two years ago these cats were playing jigs from their recently released Wrath of Circuits. The problem? For all their good intentions, it was a pretty stale post-punk affair. You'd heard the dance beats, you'd heard the geometrically-inclined guitar riffs, you'd heard the melodies. If you were a more discerning listener, you were probably thinking something akin to this when it was over:










But truly, it wasn't that bad (and I was never a concert violinist). So what's different on Luxury this time around? Try everything: No longer are we in the territory of third-rate Wire or Gang of Four also-rans. This is some serious sonic revisionism, and The Nein have suddenly become a band to watch out for if the dubious distinction of post-punk is your thing. Save the thin ties: These Durham, NC chaps are for real. The key appears to be in sonic manipulator Dave Flattum, who had a role in making Wrath of Circuits but did not dominate proceedings. While his tape loops and sick effects don't dominate here, they do take a significant step forward. Hell, the whole band is miles ahead of where they once were. The closest I reckoned they sound like is Public Image Ltd., but that gets into dangerous territory (and let's be honest, "Journalist, Pt. 1" sounds a lot more like Autechre or Eno than Lydon). Luxury is no Metal Box to be sure, but for aural experimentation alone this should not be an album to discount. Maybe The Nein are disillusioned in the same way I am: We both think Indie is over.

Or maybe we're both staring at the same sun a lot longer than we should be. Burning retinas out is so college, bro. It's, like, a total lack of responsibility. I feel so sublime right now, and I didn't even have to exorcise all those journalism degree demons I have. All I can hear is bass, bro. Drop some Kanye. Maybe that'll help. Silly idealists...

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.

Radio Show Playlist 2/28

6a:
1. Stereolab - Prisoner of Mars - Dots & Loops (Elektra 1997)
2. Collections of Colonies of Bees - Fun - Customer (Polyvinyl 2004)
3. Secret Mommy - String Lake - Plays (Ache 2007)
4. Adrian Sharwood & Doug Wimbish - Karma-Cola - Jukeox Buddha (Staubgold 2006)
5. DJ Krush & Toshinori Kondo - Fu-Yu - Ki-Oku (R&S 1998)
6. Television Personalities - All the Young Children (Rainbows in Tunnels Mix by LingLing) - My Dark Places Remixes (Domino 2007)
7. Shining - Moonchild Mindgames - Grindstone (Rune Grammofon 2007)
8. Dirty Projectors - I Will Truck - The Getty Address (Western Vinyl 2005)
9. Tim Kinsella - The Singularity Song - Crucifix Swastika (Record Label 2005)
10. Marnie Stern - Put All Your Eggs in One Basket and Then Watch That Basket!!! - In Advance of the Broken Arm (Kill Rock Stars 2007)
11. Icy Demons - Jump Off - Split 7" with Pit er Pat (Polyvinyl 2005)
12. Mass Shivers - This is Language - Mass Shivers (Sickroom 2005)
13. Trans Am - 4,738 Regrets - Sex Change (Thrill Jockey 2007)

7a:
1. Bobby Conn - Love Let Me Down - King for a Day (Thrill Jockey 2007)
2. David Bowie - Sons of the Silent Age - Heroes (Virgin 1977)
3. Sun City Girls - Radar 1941 - Torch of the Mystics (Tupelo 1990)
4. Caetano Veloso - Musa Hibrida - Ce (Nonesuch 2006)
5. Gil Gilberto - Procissao - Gilberto Gil (Frevo Rasgado) (Mercury 1968)
6. Wilson Simonal - Mustang cor de Sangue (196?)
7. Mice Parade - Ground as Cold as Common - Bem-vinda Vontade (Bubble Core 2005)
8. Giant Skyflower Band - Bitter Wild Rabbits/Builds the Bone - Blood of the Sunworm (Soft Abuse 2007)
9. Apostle of Hustle - Cheap Like Sebastien - National Anthem of Nowhere (Arts & Crafts 2007)
10. Ladysmith Black Mambazo - Hello My Baby - Shaka Zulu (Warner Bros. 1987)
11. TV on the Radio - Ambulance - Desperate Youth, Bloodthristy Babes (Touch & Go 2004)
12. Weldon Irvine - Love Your Brother - Cosmic Vortex (RCA 1974)

New Music: !!!, Damero, BPitch Control Camping Vol. 3

!!! - Must Be The Moon (Warp 2007)

!!! - Myth Takes / Warp

The other day I got the disturbing news that some friends had just purchased a robot for their home. Sure, it cleans the floor, it's entertainment for guests, but it could very well choke you to death while you sleep. Have they not seen Terminator? It's clear where this leads!!! We live in mythical times; the last hundred years or so have been all eggshells and humanity working hard not to fluff its lines. We are always living history and it's important to keep in mind how all this bullshit may affect the people of the future. With Myth Takes, !!! is set on crafting a utopian state where we will all be excellent to one another; the otherwise uptight will dance freely until sunrise and the only crime will be acting a square. This set of ten songs connects to form a raging party monster of an album, and once listened, all converts will emerge into the world with their eyes truly opened, charged with issuing the word to all non-believers.

I can speak to the transformative power of Myth Takes. Blasting "Must Be The Moon" post-work is a recipe for danger. Its 2am and I don't know how many shots I've done but I do know they've all been different liquors. Such is the way of riding the snake and it's soooo easy to get lost in these perpetual party jams, tweaked and measured to perfection. As compared to their prior two full-lengths, Myth Takes feels more like a full realization of !!!'s sound. I loved Louden Up Now but it lost the plot at points, but even the longer tracks here ("Heart of Hearts", "Bend Over Beethoven") are more concise and keep jabbing you right between the eyes until the very end. Some of the versatility has to do with John XI stepping up on vocal duties, off-setting Nic Offer's close-talking street smarts with a debonair soul treatment that falls somewhere between Teddy Pendergrass and Prince. "A New Name" is a jittery dance-punk classic, creating a nervous vibe that for some reason reminds me of Ray Parker Jr's Ghostbusters song hyping the part where the boys in beige roll up on the Staypuff Marshmellow Man.

"Heart Of Hearts" has been going around the internets for a minute now and its certainly the album's centerpiece and the best song !!! has written to date. Its the essence of dance music, distilled and bottled, for whenever you want to pop the top on a ridiculous evening. But what about the guy that once told the president to suck his fucking dick? Don't worry, Myth Takes finds Nic Offer in usual rare form, getting the party started when everyone else is still nervously avoiding eye contact. On the title cut, Offer imparts, "Sometimes it's really just like the movies / Sometimes you just stay home and watch movies", amid sha-sha-sha-doobies and twangy dustbowl guitars. It's a cheeky way to start the record, surprisingly brief at less than three minutes, a song to silence all the haters. "All My Heroes Are Weirdos" is the "Pardon My Freedom" of this record, on the political tip but much more subtle, begging the question, "Why should we talk about what should be / When we could talk about what could be", decrying the fact that the politicians in this country, specifically the weak-kneed liberal variety, keep dropping the ball, and more importantly don't even have someone you'd want to carry the rock when it matters most.

So Myth Takes...what does that mean anyhow? !!! are really into open-ended meaning. I mean, I could sit around with a few friends and riff on this band for a good hour. That's the vital thing, !!! creates talking points in the face of micro-genre trends and up-to-the-second indie rock news tickers. They're ultimately debatable, possessing the timeless blend of musical innovation and aesthetical ambiguity that makes a band truly mythical.



Damero - Passage To Silence (ft. Apparat) (BPitch Control 2007)

Damero - Happy In Grey / BPitch Control

I wish I had a girlfriend that listened to Damero. I think that would be perfect, throwing on Happy In Grey on a rainy day, making some hot tea, a Bergman film shifting silently in the background. That's ideal, though, having anyone at all to enjoy this record alongside you. Damero's debut long-player is one for the happily isolated, those who can find warmth in melancholy, and self-satisfaction where others can only find loneliness. It walks a grey line, in between action and inaction, homing in on the minutiae of every day life.

Damero's story is an interesting one. Working as BPitch Control's promotions arm, Damero (aka Marit Posch) quietly went about her business recording at home on her laptop. That is until lightning struck and Ellen Allen heard her material and the rest is history. With help from friends Henri Hagenow, Apparat, Zander VT, and others, Happy In Grey is an expertly-crafted album, shimmering with complex feminine charm. "Mope" is the lead track and no doubt may perk a few ears in the Grey's Anatomy camp. Its the kind of plain-spoken, moodlit electro-pop that could reach a wider audience in a perfect world. It seems teaming up with Apparat is a smart move these days; his collaboration with Ellen Allien (Orchestra of Bubbles) was one of the best electro records of 2006, and he brings robust, grainy ambience to "Passage To Silence", a song celebrating such a simplistic notion as the beauty of sound. "Gerstern Morgen", produced with Nevin Peak, is another outright winner, with a lazy day guitar lick merging with glitchy production on this beautiful number sung in German.

Happy In Grey is an interesting addition to the already strong BPitch Control catalog. Interesting in that its one of the few records on BPitch not meant for the dancefloor. Still, it fits the label's aesthetic of moody, minimal electronic work, but hopefully it won't be pigeonholed because of the label it finds itself on. All things perfect, this record will be found by the right people and will fit nicely alongside other essential bedroom electronica.



Various Artists - Camping Vol. 3 (BPitch Control 2007)

Ellen Allien & Apparat - Red Planets / BPitch Control

It's been a strange, perilous trip coming back around to electronic music. I spent my high school years as a hopeless europhile, convinced that my American sensibilities were somehow inferior to those "across the pond". I flirted with DJ'ing, pledged allegiance to the Ministry of Sound, and even owned some Kikwearz. But that's before I got the joke, the unseen danger of culture, how eventually it all becomes a walking parody of itself. So I buried my past never to look back.

Eventually I exhausted all the possibilities. Music directing painted me jaded and I needed something new, something not rock. Thats when Ellen Allien came into my life; Berlinette hit me like a ton of chrome bricks and I returned to the dark side. Further investigation into the BPitch catalog uncovered Modeselektor, Smash TV, and Apparat; three rather different types of electronic artist, at least to my virgin ears that had for too long been blasted by bass, guitar, and drums.

So here I am, in too deep, a slave to Beatport and about to drop serious dosh on a laptop. BPitch is still here with me, demanding I cop at least one song from everything they release. This is the third installment of the label-wide Camping compilation. It functions like all good compilations should, providing newbies with something to go on, as well as giving those in the know a heads up about new material. The compact disc version of Camping is certainly a teaser, like you just know theres no way that Paul Kalkbrenner track is only 4 1/2 minutes. And assuredly, to get the full-length track you have to wait on the forthcoming Camping 12" series or snatch the songs from your favorite mp3 vendor.

Marketing strategies aside, this is a wonderful introduction to the sleek, smart electro practitioners of the Berlin-based BPitch Control. Label-founder Ellen Allien joins forces once again with Apparat to create another sweeping epic, "Red Planets", continuing their stellar work from last year's Orchestra of Bubbles. Paul Kalkbrenner has been a monolithic master as of late; "Der Sennat" is as deep as it is wide, propelling big room techno into something smarter than bucka-bah builds. Its grandeios in all the right ways. Staying on the minimal side of things, Larsson takes us to a cyberpunk mecca with "Off Voices". Seriously, this dude always manages to make that wonderfully dark, propulsive sound that I imagine would be perfect for Berlin in January.

As popular as minimal techno is at the moment, Bpitch's roster has much more on offer. Feadz, maybe more widely known as Uffie's DJ/producer, swings a concrete block of hard Detroit techno, laser-zapping us all into oblivion. Modeselektor are still on that other kryptonite, that of the eurocrunk variety, with a space-age ragga jam. Tomas Andersson is perhaps the most prolific Bpitch artist, always hard to peg, and the weirdo-funk of "Go To Disco" is no exception, with cracked-out vocoder and a devil on your shoulder telling you that the disco is the place to be for romance! As for returning techno romance to your life, look for further than the BPitch Control crew.

New Music: Bobby Conn, Caetano Veloso, Aja West

Bobby Conn - Love Let Me Down (Thrill Jockey 2007)

Bobby Conn – King for a Day / Thrill Jockey

I’m 23. By the time I was born in 1983, David Bowie had already succumb to about a dozen style changes, redefined glam rock, invented and killed off Ziggy Stardust and was beginning his descent from world-wide rock icon to inspiring pop legend. I missed it all. Never will I get to experience the androgynous and way over-the-top stage shows or the avant-pop operettas as they shocked audiences in real time as it effected the current climate of popular music. I agree, it sucks, but there is no need to live depressingly in the past because we have probably the closest artist to being a straight descendent of Bowie right here in Chicago: (drum roll) Bobby Conn.

Quite fittingly, my introduction to Mr. Conn came through the music video; a 5-minute, heavily contrasted capture of one of his widely renowned stage shows complete with flamboyant costumes and sweat-dripping make-up. Since leaving the prog-rock trio Conducent in 1994, Conn has spent more than a decade refining his prog-pop sound and colorful performances with six themed full-length records and relentless touring. With always a close eye on the popular media, Conn taps the self-delusion of the American dream and riding the line between the mental fantasy world of self-centered indulgence by our current herd of celebrities and the inevitability of being dragged back down by the somewhat grimness of reality. Based loosely on true stories of Conn’s own experiences, King for a Day is a narrative album prime for soundtracking an epic 70s musical, which by no coincidence is being converted into just that as we speak. The music was written and then rehearsed in front of live audience to make certain that the peak emotional impact was being pulled out of every climactic falsetto or sparkling guitar solo by Conn and his band, the Glass Gypsies, as well as members of The Zincs, Detholz!, Mahjongg and other local musicians. The finished compositions were then taken to Key Club Studios in Michigan and recorded on the same vintage equipment and mixing desk Sly Stone used in 1970, and I have to admit, it sounds amazing.

The music is refined, rehearsed and pristine and builds upon his typical prog-pop sound with infusions of glam rock, bossa nova, indie-pop, moments of light metal and touches of other exotic genres. Like Bowie himself, Conn’s greatest asset is his ability to switch up style effortlessly while always sounding decisively like Bobby Conn. “Vanitas” opens with a sprawling 8-minute burner of Latin choir chants building from violin and bells before exploding with a heavy 80s metal guitar and pounding drums and finally giving way to bird chirps and lightly plucked acoustic. “When the Money’s Gone” follows as a Bowie-esqe sci-fi pop ditty which concludes with an orchestrated climax, while the title track has a loose bossa nova groove that gives way to a crunchy, screaming bridge. My personal favorite, “Love Let Me Down” is a stomping pop tune highlighted by clavinet and trumpet that sounds like Axelrod jamming with Queen. “Twenty-one” shuffles with a Sea and Cake-like groove while “Anybody” is a disorienting all-out rock tune. And so the album progresses between groovy pop and rock opera with instrumental outbursts, spoken word and more theatrical tricks than you can count.

The biggest concern for showmen like Conn is being able to reproduce such a huge sound that is so obviously made for the stage to recorded format. With King for a Day, Bobby Conn was able to lay all his energy and showmanship to tape without losing any of his many dimensions. It’s an epic, well-written album that is simply more fun than should be available on a small silicone disc, and I can hardly wait for the visual representation to complete the experience.







Caetano Veloso - Musa Hibrida (Nonesuch 2006)

Caetano Veloso – Cê / Nonesuch

You have to be impressed with the longevity of the artists that made up the Tropicalia movement in Brazil. It was a controversial style of MPB, art-folk and jazz with rebellious implications that blasted out of the Brazilian underground in the very late 1960s and was smothered by the government just as quickly. Though the genre itself was so short-lived, the main core of artists (save Os Mutantes though they did just reunite), Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Tom Zé, and Caetano Veloso, have recorded consistently and productively over the past 40 years. All now approaching the big 7-0, their music is no less fiery or creative as it was in their early 20s. This is especially true for Zé, whose quirky Estudando o Pogode made the Audiversity Top 60 of 06, and Veloso, whose 2004 covers album of American standards, A Foreign Sound, received critical praise. His latest though, Cê, seems to have drifted by sorely unnoticed.

Released in the fall of 2006, Cê finds the shape-changing musician in a stripped down setting featuring just guitar, bass, drums and the occasional keyboard. Though regarded as not nearly as exciting as some of his early records, I find the album very enjoyable as Veloso puts his unmistakable fingerprint on music that could almost be regarded as pop-punk. Tracks like “Outro,” “Rocks” and “Odeio” for example sound like a Brazilian take on the lighter side of Dischord… I kid you not. But sadly/thankfully (depending on your opinion) Veloso doesn’t tie himself to that one sound: “Musa Híbrida” features a post-bossa nova bubble-funk groove that’s simply irresistible, “Deusa Urbana” is a bit more slow-burning with a laid-back stoner rock guitar and closer “O Herói” would sound very comfortable on Zé’s aforementioned Estudando o Pogode. Featuring the crisp production of Veloso’s son, Moreno, most of Cê’s songs clock in at a comfortable four-minutes and the music chooses to just groove rather than challenge which is probably the biggest argument for mediocrity from such a heralded songwriter. Personally though, I dig the sparseness and simplicity of the sound and find it a refreshing listen. It certainly doesn’t approach any of his albums prior to 1980 but for a man who is turning 65 this year, it sounds decisively fresh.







Aja West - In Preparation (Mackrosoft 2006)

Aja West – The Olympian / Mackrosoft

"It's imperative you understand calling the funk B is in no way, shape or form a putdown. By definition, B-Funk was once A-Funk. A B-Funk band must still be touring, letting you know by definition that they're both legends and survivors. The fittest of the seventies funk scene." –Aja West in an interview for stoner mag Heads

I think it's pretty essential to understand this is the mindset of West, co-founder (with his brother Cheeba) of retro-funk label Mackrosoft and band leader of the funk super group of the same name, while listening to his first solo album in seven years, The Olympian. It not only explains the cheesy nature of his music but also the artwork pulled straight off every smooth jazz album in the early 90s. Though not currently in vogue, it's the brand of funk plagued with disco undertones and produced by brothers decked out in neon sweat pants. It's Kool & the Gang circa 1979, it's what makes the women take their clothes off for an Ohio Players LP cover, it's the IBM-produced Dali-ripping graphic design motif of the late 80s, it's whatever inspired Tower of Power to do what they do, and it's kind of infectious.

These days we have the throw back funky soul of Jamie Lidell and Nino Moschella, who pull heavily from Al Green and Sly and the Family Stone respectively, the hip-hop inspired future funk of Sa Ra, Platinum Pied Pipers and company as well as the sampled vintage butter funk of Stones Throw, but very few people are pulling from this era of smooth funk and cheesy synthetic soul. West certainly has the music chops to pull it off as we have seen from his work conducting The Mackrosoft orchestra and as a session player for The Cheebacabra, and he puts every resource available to use. Everything you want from a good funk record is here, drum breaks for days, blaring horns, deep electric bass lines, quick guitar riffs, more synthesizers than I can count, but be wary because he strings it all through a impressive collection neon processors. West's singing voice is not bad either; he typically sticks to an unforced croon with a backing choir and old school Beck overdubs. It's not outstanding, but it could certainly be worse. The songs are pretty diverse: "In Preparation" sounds like a Lyrics Born track fronted by a robot doing the… sigh… robot, "Snakes and Harpies" is more a smooth soul track but buried underneath bubbling synths and a murky underwater groove, and "Manhood Tookin'" features a pretty hilarious Bootsy Collins-meets-Beck sing/rap narrative over a leaping bass line, cymbal break and bubble-bursting wop-wops. The Olympian is not going to cause any rampant hype or reach any year-end-lists (in fact I doubt many people will even notice at all), but it will send Mackrosoft fans running for their glittery shirts and dancing shoes. And I seriously doubt Aja West would want anything more than that.

New Music: Barr, Dälek, Tiny Hawks

Barr - The Song is the Single (5RC 2007)

Barr - Summary / 5RC

At some point we had to come to this. Any good hipster's Friday night out should rightfully be dampered by the thought that, yeah, 5 Rue Christine has evaporated (even if Gertrude Stein's Paris residence remains, which I guess is some consolation). Contrary to popular belief, it was not absorbed by big sister Kill Rock Stars; Slim Moon's departure to Nonesuch was not something I saw coming, and living in a post-5RC world won't be easy... But mourning its "dormancy" so soon seems a bit premature and melodramatic. After all, their final releases were literally three days ago: February 20th marked the conclusion to one of the underground's most esteemed labels with Barr's sophomore album and what I believe is 5RC's final "official" release. Sorry about that remix record, Xiu Xiu.

Brendan Fowler never looked so epic with Summary. Actually, that's only partly true: Fowler's speak-sing-near-rap (or, as AllMusic likes to call it, "post-rock / alternative-rap / comedy rock," which I had a hearty chortle about) is a pretty pedestrian way of getting his message of everyday life-via-poetic substitution, so listening to Summary doesn't quite get the message of "epic" across. It's just that Fowler's songs are always so jam-packed with information (The booklet accompanying this album is literally filled to the edges of the fold-out with words on one side) that you can't help but play along to his deceptively simple jams. It took me a few listens to get into Barr partly because, as a listener, playing along at home to my own expectations just doesn't work. You have to accept that, yeah, Fowler is actually singing these words in his own way. There is a certain natural cadence that he finds and you begin to follow by the third or fourth track. In fact, there's nothing comedic about it; the beauty of a simple piano line or a steadfast drumbeat is at times heart-wrenching and at times amicable. When Fowler's talking, it feels like he's talking with you rather than to you. You feel like you're in the album, just hearing him out. This is music where you become the shoulder to lean on, but you're okay with it because you see that Summary, like life, is only human. And just as 5RC was, Fowler is at first a bit offsetting and endearing but quirky... But just as you're getting comfortable, just as you're settling in and finally getting it, "Context Ender" stops. This was surely the best way to go out.













Dälek - Tarnished (Ipecac 2007)

Dälek - Abandoned Language / Ipecac

I don't like to lie, so here's how it is: My affectations for Dälek are not unknown. I've already mentioned them twice in some capacity via Fulton Lights and Minus the Bear, but the real pleasure was in discovering Abandoned Language was suddenly upon me and I hadn't even realized it. I was so busy worrying about everywhere else MC Dälek and Oktopus were appearing that I'd been totally distracted by their core effort. For several days now, I have been listening to nothing else. This makes it extremely difficult to be a music director, but fuck it: Sometimes you just gotta like what you like.

And even though they've got a bunk umlaut in the name that I never understood, Dälek has definitely been that for me recently. The idiosyncratic New Jersey duo have come a long way from naming themselves after Time Lord's greatest adversaries. What unites their nine year-recording career is the music's sublime ability to capture the mood of the streets in the grittiest way possible. When I think "underground hip-hop," Dälek takes what I think and translates it literally: The grime and filth of an urban soundscape accumulates throughout Abandoned Language as MC Dälek leads us down back alleys we'd never dare in daylight as bricks crumble, water stagnates and the only constant is Dälek never abandoning the language that's made his flow so sublime. By the time you reach "Tarnished," you're struggling through sewage in the subterranea of New York or Chicago as Oktopus does some shoving of his own down the manholes and into the labyrinth. The grit, man. This ain't no Constantine bath-water running underneath the streets in Istanbul. This is the real thing.

Why do I believe it? Have you ever ventured around Newark? Abandoned Language has. And like its predecessors, it captures that big city style better than any 50 Cent record ever could. Fuck the rap game, anyway: Dälek may be the last hip-hop group you'll ever need. I can't remember who was calling us a Ghostface-loving blog this past year - maybe it was Idolator? - but if that last statement was anything to go by, they'll be singing a different tune next year. Hopefully "Tarnished" is it.













Tiny Hawks - Maker of Magic Wands (Corleone 2006)

Tiny Hawks - People Without End / Corleone

Now I don't like to assume anything, but the more astute among you probably raised an eyebrow at the fact that I'm featuring Tiny Hawks here. And you're right, I'm not going to bluff or anything: This album came out last May. But when something good comes to my office and the label sends it and it looks official, I can only play dumb and hope it isn't a reissue. Of course, it turns out that People Without End isn't new in the bullet-quick world of rock... But allow us to look at it in the grand scheme of, um, history. So in terms of Klemens von Metternich or Tell Hassuna or something, this is pretty bloody fresh. I'm actually not sure why Corleone got People Without End to us, but I'm glad they did because I probably would not have paid much mind to it if I hadn't realized that, hey, this is the same thing I almost bought last year.

What I'm saying (and I hate using first person because it's distracting, so sorry about all this) is that I want this to act as a kind of refresher course for those of you who either got the LP last year and then put it away to collect dust when you thought your "Providence duo" phase was over... Or for those of you that didn't catch Tiny Hawks the first time around, hope springs eternal.

There's a decent amount of literature out there about how wonderful Rhode Island is for young bands on the fringes looking to make a break. Blame that on the Providence School of Design or the aura of Fort Thunder or the Olneyville evictions or whatever other folklore you've come across on the numerous forums, but the bottom line is that great things are happening and Providence is one of this country's greatest musical assets. Tiny Hawks, in all its Fugazi-inspired glory, is a good representation of this. Not too far out there but certainly less than hospitable, Art's guitar prowess and throaty vocals an early-90s post-hardcore throwback one can never go too long without. Gus does some singing too, but his greatest contribution is the drumming and double bass work which is totally enthralling.

"Maker of Magic Wands" is a good example of the two of them at their best, a punctual song with a dash of melody, a decent amount of in-the-moment screaming, a ton of time signature shifts, and clean production. I hope you enjoy Tiny Hawks because good bands like this are a bit difficult to come by now that New Rave and Institutionalized Indie have become all the rage. I know that, after barely giving People Without End the time of day last year, I've come around. But there's that first-person pronoun again. Time to let second-person plural or singular do the work from here. Enjoy that Friday night out after all, okay?

New Music: Trans Am, Secret Mommy, Xela

Trans Am - 4,738 Regrets (Thrill Jockey 2007)

Trans Am – Sex Change / Thrill Jockey

The other day while working in my cubicle, a Chromeo track came two-stepping through my speakers which never fails to send me into a head bouncing fit of giggles at it's sheer awesomeness. My adjacent co-worker though was immensely confused by my devotion to a sound so heartedly 80s cheese, a decade I have proclaimed my disgust for time and again to the entire office. I attempted to explain my position that Chromeo jumps beyond both ripping off and parodying the cheesy 80s electro-funk genre by embracing it whole-heartedly and working within it's parameters to embellish all the wonderfully fun qualities and create something completely new and irresistible. In return I got a bunch of confused expressions and a hushed "riiiiiight." Whatever. Anyways, Trans Am was one of the mid-90s acts that perfected this technique with their embracement of epic rock music in the late-70s and 80s, and later into new wave, krautrock and all things that utilized bright synthesizers and vocoders. This style garnished the DC trio with a good amount of praise through the 90s, but as their discography grew longer, they almost seemed to begin parodying themselves and the irony became mediocrity and predictability. I think this is something that not only the fans and critics realized but the band as well as they opted for a two-year hiatus after 2004's scrutinized Liberation. The members split for different ends of the globe and didn't meet up again until June of 2006 when the descended on a recording school in Aukland, New Zealand with no musical equipment but a strong desire to start writing again. They spent two months utilizing borrowed, vintage equipment and recording with a professor and his students at the MAINZ studio before taking their material to Oneida's Okropolis studio in Brooklyn to wrap up recording. Again, they left their usual instrumentation at home and sought out a fresh sound by playing with borrowed equipment. Before leaving this topic, another method they used to keep from falling into typical territory was manipulating Eno's heralded "Oblique Strategies" method into their own "Obscene Strategies." When faced with a recording roadblock, Eno would draw a card from a self-made deck of suggestions and utilize the infusion of randomness to humanize the sound. Trans Am followed on the same tip, but their deck was a bit more out there; for example, Eno would have: "Take something perfect and make it more human." Trans Am has: "Rip off black musicians." The results of their labor is not necessarily a new beginning for the band, but a refreshing breathe of infectious instrumental rock that reminds us of why we loved Trans Am in the first place. The album, clocking in at a concise 40 minutes (concise being obviously used in comparison to Trans Am's typical epicness), features a collection of sharp, rhythmic rock songs utilizing the best qualities of the band rather than shooting straight for over-the-top. While it's hard to tear myself away from the synth-riddled bounce of tracks like "Obscene Strategies," the most intriguing songs are more on the mellow side including the iridescent guitar-pop of "4,738 Regrets" or album opener "First Words" which sounds like a combination of New Order and the Kenya/DC outfit Extra Golden. To not leave old fans completely out of the loop, tracks like "Conspiracy of the Gods," "Shining Path" and "Triangular Pyramid" all feature some monstrous riffage. Though Sex Change is all new music, you could almost think of it as a greatest hits like album with the way it looks back to all of the bands most shining moments. My good friend once commented that every time he came back to his guitar after a few-month-hiatus, he felt that he was playing much stronger and more naturally than before. It sounds like stepping away from recording for a period had the very same effect on Trans Am.






Secret Mommy - Diciduism (Ache 2007)

Secret Mommy – Plays / Ache

Every music lover tends to connect with at least a couple labels they come to trust unquestioningly. For example, if you pay attention to my radio show playlists at all, you can easily pick out an unhealthy Thrill Jockey addiction, but what may not be quite as visible is my relationship with Vancouver’s Ache Records. Andy Dixon’s imprint hooked me from ACHE001, a title held by Hot Hot Heat’s debut 7” whose garage pop anthems were just what I was craving way back in 1999. Since that point, the Ache logo meant two things to me, unrestrained creative music and colorful, splattering artwork. Throughout the years they’ve introduced us to the fist-pumping trashed garage of Death From Above 1979, the stuttering avant-rock of Flossin, the percussive brilliance of Konono Nº1 and most recently the skittering sugar high of Jab Mica Och El and the clever indie-pop of The Winks (and we’re not even getting into the excellent Div/orce 7” series which includes one of my favorite splits ever between Four Tet and Hella). Strangely enough though, the one Ache artist I’ve never really explored is Dixon himself who is a member of The Red Light Sting, d.b.s., and Winning as well as recording under The Epidemic and, to put a climactic conclusion to my rambling and way too long introduction, Secret Mommy. I have no idea why I’ve never listened to Secret Mommy, but after hearing his latest, Plays, I’m pretty pissed at my oversight. A far cry from the punk and hardcore scene Dixon grew up in; this music of this moniker is decisively filed in the electronica section, but more specifically, the patchwork electro-acoustic mosaic division beside Matmos, The Books, Collections of Colonies of Bees and fellow Achers Jab Mica Och El (all Audiversitarian favorites). Dixon apparently likes to work with recording themes: 2004’s Hawaii 5.0 was made from solely sounds of tropical areas and 2005’s Very Rec utilized field recordings from public recreational centers as source material. Plays doesn’t necessarily scrap the found sound mentality but instead of environmental noise, he pulls samples from improvised sessions with friends (including members of They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, The Winks, The Doers, Winning and Ghost House). Dixon can't quit his themes cold turkey though, so he stipulates that all instruments must be electricity-free forcing his crew to put away their electric guitars and synthesizers and pick up strings, horns, woodwinds and hand percussion. Though the end product is heavily edited and manipulated, the organic nature of its source material seeps through the music and creates a very intriguing and unpredictable sound. The arrangements and sequencing can be at times jarring, but the warm nature of the samples restricts any harsh angles from completely penetrating the music. Lush melodies peak their head momentarily but are as quickly decapitated by waves of skittering frequencies which in turn get lost in the downpour of colorful blips and bloops until you get the sonic equivalent of… well an Ache record cover. The opening track, “String Lake,” eases you into the album with loose string warm-ups and light hand-percussion before unleashing the rampant cut-and-paste coos of “Grand About the Mouth.” “Deciduism” commences with an inspired saxophone melody that melts into buoyant string plucks, flute wisps and an enveloping percussion circle, and a few tracks later, “To Burry a Tent” features a comforting baritone sax, Dixon’s ghostly ooo’s and whichever of the dancing sounds is made by a “700 cc Radially Spoked 32 Hole Front Bicycle Wheel.” Only two tracks contain anything even remotely resembling a lyrical front: the pop-punkish yelps of “Kool Aid River” and the chipmunk rap of “I Can’t Get Down,” neither of which stand-out but are not really unwelcome either. With the album clocking in just shy of 50 minutes, I found my attention waning for the last couple of tracks (which is a shame since the gorgeous and minimal “Up on Mt. Okay” is one of the highlights of the record), but it’s hard to say that there is any excess material to cut away. All in all, Plays is an excellent and inventive album even if Dixon is not the first to purvey such cut-and-paste pop. It also acts as a wonderful introduction to Secret Mommy if for some reason you are like me and sorely overlooked the name. Personally, I’m looking forward to playing catch up.







Xela - The Long Walk Home at Midnight (Type 2007, originally Neo Ouija 2003)

Xela – For Frosty Mornings and Summer Nights / Type

The Devon, England label Neo Ouija has resided quietly behind shut doors since 2005, but according to their official website, they will once again be gracing our ears with their melodic, warm electronic music in the coming months. The first go around, label head Lee Norris aka Metamtics pointed our Aphexed ears towards the inviting and glitchy atmospheres of Kettel, Kero, Apparat and especially a young Brit named John Twells, or as you probably know him, Xela. Twells now runs the excellent U.K. imprint Type, who has put out records by Logreybeam, Mountaineer and Ryan Teague among others, as well as continuing to progress his music under the Xela moniker, including an Audiversity favorite: 2006's The Dead Sea. The Manchester-based multi-instrumentalist and producer excels at pulling atmosphere out of slow triggering analog machinery and garnishing it with bright touches of guitar and the occasional horn. He played in a number of bands as a youth before taking an interest in the burgeoning indie-glitch scene of the early 00s and setting out on his own with a trunk full of analog synthesizers, used drum machines and shoddy tape recorders. As it turns out, Twells was a natural behind the knobs and his early demos caught the ears of Norris who signed him to Neo Ouija and encouraged the recordings that would become For Frosty Mornings and Summer Nights. Originally released in 2003, the album received a good amount of positive press thanks to its inviting atmosphere and creative programming, and the Xela name quickly joined the ranks of other such blossoming Aphex Twin devotees at that time like Manitoba, Marumari, Savath & Savalas and of course Boards of Canada. As the title suggests, For Frosty Mornings and Summer Nights is a peaceful affair, quiet pastures of synthesizer wash provide an inviting environment for fluttering drum machines and the occasional galloping guitar melody. The ultra-minimal clicks and blips remind me mostly of Dan Snaith's early albums, but with the attention to ambient detail so astounding in early Scott Herron recordings with pre-exotica Savath & Savalas (not a rip -ed.). Twells shows off his electronic ambidexterity as well, "Afraid of Monsters" opens with a very melodic undertone and tight sequences of clicks and hums, "Under the Glow of Streetlights" follows with a stripped-down, washed-out hip-hop feel and "Japanese Whispers" utilizes a skittering, avant-garde bounce that would be comfortable on a Prefuse 73 disc. Later on, "Bobble Hats in Summer" sounds more latter day Xela with it's breeze-blown hollow glass clanks and throbbing synth melodies, while original album capper "Last Breath" is a pleasant electronic lullaby. It's hard to call it groundbreaking by any means, but nonetheless enjoyable and a nice launching pad for a promising artistic career. Out of print for a good number of years now, For Frosty Mornings has been remastered and repackaged for its Type debut with brand new artwork care of Matthew Woodson, who provided the excellent cover for The Dead Sea, and embellished with two unreleased tracks written during the same time period: "A Glance" being an ultra minimal, sparse number and "Danse Macabre" in the later, darker style of Xela. This is a record that deserves a collection spot next to Folk Songs for Trains, Tree and Honey, Start Breaking My Heart and Wolves Hollow in that wonderful niche of electronica that effects both your sentimental and experimental moods.

New Music: Panda Bear, Kubichek!, Eluvium

It's kind of an informal agreement among us here at Audiversity that we take Mondays off so we can deliver the rest of the week. I try to hold up my end of the bargain, but last week was a mess. Between school and Valentine's Day and writer's block, life, as they say, got in the way. Writer's block? Like, who on a blog gets that? Seems easy enough to just bang out three reviews a post two or three times a week, know what I mean? There's so much out there, it should be easy to whip something into shape.

But sometimes I just get overwhelmed, dig? There's so much stuff out there, it's tough after awhile to tell the difference between any of it. And everyone is so obsessed with the new newer newest most newest first(!) that we sometimes forget why we're even here in the first place: To present to you what we think is good. Timeliness matters, but I'd like to think quality control matters more. Save the exclamation mark.













Panda Bear - Carrots (Paw Tracks 2007)

Panda Bear - Panda Bear/Excepter split 12" / Paw Tracks

Panda Bear is a case in point. Most of you who have any interest whatsoever in the freak-folks or "noise" in all its convoluted forms will have already been alerted to the split between Noah Lennox and the good people in Excepter who were recently jettisoned as 5RC hastily went "dormant"(More on that later too). This 12" showcases a sound that won't necessarily be familiar to listeners of Animal Collective or even Panda Bear himself given a musical history that formally extends back to 1998 and the one-off Soccer Star Records. While Excepter's "KKKKK" is a fantastic five-parter recorded live, the epic Side A featured here is an "extended medley" as Lennox previews material from his forthcoming solo album due out later this year.

Three parts of happy-go-lucky child's play smeared with bassline badness make for an uncomfortable aural home. Lennox starts off with tribal rhythms for the first movement, sings his words as opaque as he's ever been in irresistable harmonies over Terrestrial Tones-like repetition, and eventually takes an accessible piano midsection kicking and screaming into demented dissonance to complete the trifecta. The beat may change forms, but it never wavers in nearly 12 minutes; this anchor coupled with the vocals-as-instrumentation provide a brilliant dichotomy that you can only experience by actually sitting down and listening to it. If Excepter is disco from inside the womb, Panda Bear's latest is disco from outer-space, beyond the safety of the space shuttle.













Kubichek! - Hometown Strategies (30:30 2007)

Kubichek! - Not Enough Night / 30:30

Re-enter the exclamation mark: Space is the place for Newcastle quartet Kubichek!, too. They take things from floating around in a suit that nearly killed Leonov on Voskhod 2 and trade places with you, so now it's you who's hopelessly floating around as Al McDonald barks out his Futureheads-under-the-pillows vocals. The faithfully devoted other members of Mark Nelson, "Frog" Coburn (I could give his real name, but Frog is obviously more appealing) and Chris McGreevy make it feel like it's your fault you're out there. "It's hard to believe that there's no time for anything" they repeat over and over here on "Hometown Strategies," just one of a number of excellent songs from their debut LP Not Enough Night.

Maybe that just struck me in the right way, or maybe it was the gimmick of the exclamation mark (like we haven't already seen that before, right Dartz!? ¡Forward, Russia!? But it's cool because they'll be playing together at Koko this time next week), or maybe it was just all the activity happening from the bangin' percussion to the crisp guitars to the natural melody and discord that's prevalent not just here but in pretty much every other choon they've put out... But one thing's for sure, if "Hometown Strategies" doesn't immediately grab you as catchy and quick (all over in a tidy 3 minutes and 41 seconds), you're not in the right frame of mind. Check back in a few minutes when you've finished with Eluvium.












Eluvium - Prelude for Time Feelers (Temporary Residence Ltd. 2007)

Eluvium - Copia / Temporary Residence Ltd.

From outer-space to the inside of your mind and back again, that's what quality control is all about. Explore every possible angle and determine if it's worth the while. Experiment. Expand. Expunge. Some of us get why we're here, some of us get the hell out, and some of us never consider the question. Matt Cooper gets it. When it comes to personal growth, evolution, the experimentation of new sounds to him (and us) no matter how minute... That's why he's here. Thank goodness too, because if that weren't the case, Copia would go down in the annals of musical history as just another Talk Amongst the Trees. Of course, some critics have rightly pointed out that this is rehashing some of the same territory An Accidental Memory in Case of Death covered two years ago. The difference is that this is far from minimal. This is lush, not necessarily epic or self-involved. It's a heartfelt album with moving passages that just doesn't feel too self-important or worried about its near-New Age territory. Cooper abandons guitars for the cerebral piano lines, organs and string sections Jon Brion might've needed as a backup for his Magnolia score.

Indeed, we often hear about how post-rock artists are making "scores" for this, that and the other; Explosions in the Sky aside, nobody really does it. But Eluvium is likely the closest you're going to come thus far this year. If "Prelude for Time Feelers" doesn't beg for a hospital scene, a weighty conversation during a lakefront walk or a moment of solitude as you watch the exclamation marks evaporate and your shuttle return to earth without you, I don't know what does. Great music transcends timeliness not just because it has staying power; it transcends timeliness because it has leaving power, too.

Radio Show Playlist 2/21

We have a couple days left in our pledge drive, so if you tune into WLUW-FM Chicago at all, we very much need your help! We pride ourselves on being comepletely independent and listener-supported so we depend on you for financial support: click on Beck's bust!

7a:
1. The Flaming Lips - The Spiderbite Song - The Soft Bulletin (Warner 1999)
2. Bulent Ortacgil - Sen Varsin - Love, Peace and Poetry: Turkish Psychedelic Music (QDK Media 2005)
3. The Eternals - High Anxiety - Rawar Styles (Aesthetics 2004)
4. Alice Coltrane - Something About John Coltrane - Journey in Satchindananda (Impulse! 1970)
5. Leaves - Ash Wednesday - Live at The Ice Factory (FP 2006)
6. Kode9 & the Spaceape - Backwards - Memories of the Future (Hyperdub 2006)
7. Wiley - Wot Do You Call It? - Treddin' on Thin Ice (XL 2004)
8. De La Soul - The Bizness ft. Common (Kings of Hip-Hop mix) - The Kings of Hip-Hop (BBE 2005, originally 1996)
9. Dangermouse & Jemini - Ghetto Pop Life (Slowmix) - 26" EP (Lex 2003)
10. Carlos Nino & Miguel Atwood-Ferguson - Extended Hands of Giving (Fill the Heart Shaped Cup (Alpha Pup 2007)
11. Xela - Under the Glow of Streetlights - For Frosty Mornings and Summer Nights (Type 2007, orginally 2003)

7a:
1. Antibalas - Filibuster X - Security (Anti- 2007)
2. Tony Allen - Ise Nla - Lagos No Shaking (Honest Jon's 2006)
3. Rob Crow - If Wade Would Call - Living Well (Temporary Residence 2007)
4. BARR - The Song is the Single - Summary (5RC 2007)
5. Trans Am - First Words - Sex Change (Thrill Jockey 2007)
6. The Good, the Bad and the Queen - The Good, the Bad and the Queen - The Good, the Bad and the Queen (Virgin 2007)
7. Curtains - Green Water - Calamity (Asthmatic Kitty 2006)
8. Deerhoof - +81 - Friend Opportunity (Kill Rock Stars 2007)

New Music: Tim Kinsella, Daisuke Miyatani, DJ Mehdi

Tim Kinsella - 10 Strange Friends and Friendly Strangers (I Had An Accident 2007)

Tim Kinsella - Field Recordings of Dreams / I Had An Accident

You think you know Tim Kinsella? You have no idea! Actually, its not all that drastic but Field Recordings of Dreams is an incredible artistic expansion. I've heard alot of criticism that Kinsella has gotten stale, and in all truthiness that is a fair observation, especially after nearly twenty years in the van, but Kinsella's status as elder indie statesman doesn't mean that the well is dry. Wrestling himself away from the confines of Joan of Arc and Make Believe, Kinsella has crafted an album founded on the separation of music and voice; a record that succeeds in splitting the Kinsella aesthetic in two, songs with music lack vocal narrative and the spoken word pieces are devoid of anything but poetic language. I've always been interested in Tim Kinsella's lyrical content, probably because its so opaque. Theres only so much to grab onto. Thats not a negative criticism but freeing the words from structured songs allows for more time to develop a depth of meaning. On "Ten Strange Friends and Friendly Strangers", Kinsella asserts that "words are boxes and words are boxcutters", and, indeed, words can be used to construct boxes that trap meaning, but words can also be used to free meaning, to flesh out the things we are thinking into some palpable form. That could be what he means or it could simply be my interpretation; thats the beauty of such ambiguity. Tim Kinsella is still very concerned with unknowables. Conspiracy theories and the secrets of the universe are pondered with due dilligence, especially on the lengthy, thirty-six minute album closer, "Depths of Field", in which Kinsella explores the microcosm of ballpark politics, a world in which I lived from ages six to sixteen. The Little League social strata is a world unto itself, and Kinsella depicts it with astounding accuracy. From the concession stand social scene to Fingerbang Creek, a lawless place of adolescent sexual discovery and initiation into what Kinsella calls "the pubescent illuminati", every detail is spot-on. Its easy to place myself in the kid's predicament, hopelessly stranded on the mound due to the abscence of a key pitcher or at least kids who could put the ball across the plate. Out of his element, the protagonist is isolated in front of everyone, walking in run after run, throwing wildly, and even hitting a couple opposing batters. Stuck and humiliated, I can imagine my dad stomping down the bleachers in the face of jeering spectators, both of the opposition and those supposedly on our side. With his boy on the brink of utter humiliation, the father here galantly, cluelessly attempts to stop "the whole ghastly scene". This is a truly affecting piece of spoken poetry, one that deserves airtime on something like This American Life. Yeah, theres music on display here too, and it is great and all, but Kinsella's word work is truly magical. Musically, Field Recordings of Dreams is sprawling but easily digested in one sitting. There are elements of Joan of Arc in Kinsella's guitar work but he has taken his electronic game up a step, creating sound collage along the lines of Black Dice but with a more human touch. If this solo record is any indication, Tim Kinsella is far from tapped; he will keep creating and exploring, being uncompromising and sometimes opaque, but thats all apart of the charm.





Daisuke Miyatani - Old Tape (Ahornfelder 2007)

Daisuke Miyatani - Diario / Ahornfelder

Having recently seen the film Cafe Lumiere, its hard not to draw parallels between Tadanobu Asano's character, Hajime, and the real-life Daisuke Miyatani. Hajime works in a small bookstore, sitting there absorbed in his thoughts until he can ride the train around Tokyo, capturing the clatter of subway stations and rumbling of passing railcars. Like the fictional Hajime, Daisuke Miyatani is concerned with small moments, the every day things that we take for granted in the hectic sprint of modern living. Its easy to get swept along, to overlook the importance of taking a purposeful breather and collecting oneself, and in those moments it takes an artist like Miyatani to help us work out the knots. Daisuke lives on the small island of Awaji, a place most Japanese zip through on bridges and cross-island expressways linking Honshu to Shikoku. Despite the presence of the planet's longest bridge (the Akashi Kaikyo), Miyatani's Diario is an open book, detailing the idea that, if you really want it to, the world can cease to exist. Most of these pieces feel extremely isolated, just the artist and his setting, making music from the heart; minimal guitar coalescing with found sounds, digital electronics, and that wonderful, child-like sound of xylophone. On "Rain Melodies" and "Water Lights", Miyatani deftly sets the scene of an isolated beach at sundown, the tide lapping the shore as an old wooden boat thwacks against the dock. "Old Tape" is a song of shining minimalism, making me want to scoop up everyone and everything important to me and hold it close. "Summer Child" evokes the mellowgold days of youth, penetrating electronic washes mixing with guitar and cicadas to conceive a pastoral childhood. This truly is healing music, a record for your comfort zone, whatever that may be.





DJ Mehdi - Lucky Boy (Surkin Remix) (Ed Banger 2007)

DJ Mehdi - Lucky Girl EP / Ed Banger

This here is the new remix EP from DJ Mehdi, who comes riding atop a mountain of cred. A long-time fixture of the Parisian electro scene, Medhi dropped a full-length on Ed Banger late last year and is an integral figure in the current French new dance boom, along with all the other neon light illuminaries from the like-minded Kitsune and Institube labels. Mehdi describes his sound as 21st century breakdance music, and its not hard to imagine a cybernetic pop-n-lock routine with B-bots inexhaustibly spinning around on their metallic domes. All four tracks here are hot fire, each one strong enough to be a choice single on its own. "Lucky Girl" features Mehdi's wife, Fafi, on vocals, riding a throwback synth groove like a futuristic diva. "Lucky Boy" is given two interpretations; the Outlines Remix is cheeky and soulful, bringing to mind Jamie Liddell and his ability to totally reimagine classic R&B. Surkin, who's been on a real winning streak lately, drops a break-heavy burner that wouldn't sound out of place on Homework. Speaking of Daft Punk, the god-like Thomas Bangalter checks in with a true millennial anthem. "Signature" is just the kind of surging, blissful techno that is so grand, so epic, that its worthy of scoring the last great party of the last night on Earth. With bangers abound, this remix record is a must have for anyone looking to properly rock a party.

Used-Bin Bargains: Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson

So I spent all yesterday sledding... I may have the body of a 23-year-old but inside is the mentality of a 7 & a half-year-old. You know you're jealous.




Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson - A Lovely Day (TVT 1976)

Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson – From South Africa to South Carolina / TVT

I don’t think that 1976’s From South Africa to South Carolina has ever been cited as Gil Scott-Heron’s best album; with records like his debut Small Talk at 125th and Lenox, 1971’s Pieces of a Man, 1973’s Winter in America or even the live It’s Your World released the very same year, it’s hard to justify the slightly less potent From South Africa as the most essential of Scott-Heron’s amazing discography. But personally, there is just something striking about the more laidback, jazzy approach to the album; on a couple occasions, especially “South Carolina (Barnwell),” Scott-Heron even sounds jaded and tired. He sounds fed up and exasperated with the increasingly chaotic world outside, and I’m sure his lack of chart success and label hounding also contributes to his waning mental attitude. Besides the live album released the same year, I feel this marks the end of his fantastic recordings because from this point on the music turns much slicker heading towards pop-R&B and disco, so it has a sort of poignant vibe throughout as if he’s almost realizing the direction he is having to head. No more will there be the heated skronk of “Essex” or the blazing sax solos of “Beginnings,” its all concise pop tunes from here on out and the album reflects the spirit of moving on.

The Chicago-born Gil Scott-Heron, son of a Jamaican soccer player and a college-graduate mother, is one of the most intriguing figures in all of African-American music. He’s often cited as one of the key figures in the development of rap music, specifically the political and socially conscious side of the genre (which should be pointed out as the original reason for the style), along with his contemporaries The Last Poets. As a youth he moved to Tennessee with his grandmother and faced harsh racism as one of the first Black students to be integrated into the White school system. His ventilation of choice was poetry and completed his first volume of poems by 13. During his high school years he moved to the Bronx with his mother giving him a wide range of experiences to influence his increasingly prolific literary works. He spent a year at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania before dropping out to concentrate on his first novel, the well-received The Vulture that featured four interconnecting narratives of racial, class, political and generational issues in New York City. His increasing interest in music was influenced by the many experimental jazz and beat poetry circles dominating the New York art scene in late 60s and the final push came from legendary jazz producer Bob Thiele (John Coletrane, Charles Mingus, Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, etc etc etc etc) who invited him to record for his Flying Dutchman label.

His first album, Small Talk at 125th & Lennox recorded by Thiele, featured a 21-year-old Scott-Heron backed by jazz-funk rhythm section (a set-up that would follow his entire career) featuring the classically trained and V.S.O.P. bassist Ron Carter, the quintessential soul/funk drummer Bernard Purdie, Jazz Crusaders flautist Hubert Laws and the one musician Scott-Heron requested, his college buddy and keyboardist Brian Jackson. The album was an instant classic, featured the landmark “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” and set the revolutionary, political vibe of every recording to follow. With each album from this point on, music played as an important role as the poetry that inspired it. Jackson played an increasing role on every concurrent recording and eventually becoming his music director and the leader of The Midnight Band which supplied the music for every album until 1978. The first half of the 70s saw Scott-Heron attempting varying degrees of his sound with each of the following four albums, the soulful Pieces of a Man, the more poetry based Free Will, the fed up Winter in America and finally 1975’s First Minute of a New Day which found the balance of jazz, R&B and poetry that would define Scott-Heron’s sound.

That brings us back to 1976’s From South Africa to South Carolina. Scott-Heron and Jackson were now a full-fledged duo and had signed to Clive Davis’ Arista imprint TVT for a three-album stint that would lead to their push for the charts. This also could be noted as the last great album to feature Jackson, who left in 1978, though Bridges from 1977 could make an argument. The album kicks off with the first song to make a significant notch on the R&B charts: the buoyant and worldly music-inspired “Johannesburg,” which described the uprising and struggling of Africans with poor work conditions in the mines of South Africa and how we should show our support and be influenced by their cause. Jackson takes vocal duties for the next track “A Toast to the People,” and ode to the great African-American leaders who we have to make sure are not forgotten in passing time and features a much more soulful and jazzy vibe. The next two tracks follow suit with another bouncy track in “The Summer of ‘42” and back to the mellow tip with the incredibly moving “Beginnings (The First Minute of a New Day),” which features one of the most poignant lyrics ever: “We want to be free / and yet we have no idea / why we are struggling here / faced with our every fear / just to survive.” “South Carolina (Barnwell)” features a killer piano and alto sax duet between Jackson and Bilal Sunni Ali, which is followed by the slow-burning New Orleans skronk of “Essex.” “Fell Together” finds a nice middle ground vibe with upbeat congas and flute, but with a soulful chorus line: “Can you see the things that man has done cannot set you free?” The final track, “A Lovely Day,” is one of the most striking songs Scott-Heron has ever recorded in my personal opinion. It features a very stripped down, settling accompaniment of electric piano, bass and congas and is incredibly optimistic, “All I really want to say / is that problems come and go / but the sunshine seems to stay.” And then… and then, the most heartbreaking line I have ever come across: “Sometimes it rains and I feel kind of strange. / Because it seems that my problems begin without the sunshine on which / I depend.”

The late 70s and 80s saw the departure of Jackson and The Midnight Band as producer Malcolm Cecil took over the musical direction of Scott-Heron’s career. The result was the upbeat, synthetic funk and disco leans that plagued that era. He did accomplish Scott-Heron’s best charting track, “The Bottle,” though, but I’ve never been able to get too much into that sound. Ironically and quite sadly, the rest of Scott-Heron’s career was belittled by his increasing struggles with cocaine addiction of which he spoke out against so frequently in his early days. In the last 5 years alone, he has been incarcerated twice for possession and publicly stated being HIV-positive. It’s an incredibly sad conclusion to an amazing artistic career, but at least we have fantastic recordings like From South Africa to South Carolina to continue on his legacy as a striking poet and revolutionary inspiration.