Singleversity #4

Audiversity’s weekly column on random music in a predetermined number of words. This week's randomly generated number: 133. (We got sick of 144)

(Ed. - Originally this was called Threeversity, but in the spirit of simplicity we've decided to retroactively relabel all of these posts. The content remains unchanged.)

MA:
(#133 of a random playlist generated from my ever-changing database of 12,500+ songs)



Bigg Jus - Anything You See Fit (Change by Design) - Poor People's Day (Mush 2005)

When we think Company Flow, we think the reinvention of underground hip-hop in the mid-90s, we think aggressive, witty, dense, unrelenting rap, we think Rawkus, we think El-P, we think Funcrusher Plus and the knowledgeable of us think DJ Mr. Len. How many of you had Bigg Jus immediately cross your mind after I mentioned Company Flow? Probably none. Jus was the last in, first out of the prolific NYC crew, but his as-impenetrable lyrical flow counterpointed El-P’s with skill and aptitude. These days he runs with the colorful Mushonauts, unsuccessfully searching for beats that can hang with his snaking vocal prowess. “Nutrients feed the life oxygen to my brain, vibration, wisdom / ignorance and knowledge through experience guided by intuition / this is gunships.” This is battling in the cerebral.

PM:








Northstation, a guy about as far removed from the intensity and activity of the Big Apple or the City of Lights as you can get. Steve Fanagan is the one-man machine behind "This Town is Drunk Again," a sparkling instrumental culled from The White Noise Revisited who culled it themselves from Norman Records in Leeds. Awesome thing about Northstation: The album Wagtail was only 121 copies strong, sold through three record stores (the other two were in Germany and Hong Kong), and individually hand-stitched in packaging with names so you know exactly what yours is. Though Fanagan also works under the Moose Eats Leaf and Wrecking Ball aliases, it’s Northstation and Wagtail that stand as his most outstanding works. Dear Steve: The White Noise Revisited aren't the only ones out here listening. Cheers.

JR:



Whats on French TV these days? Lyon's wrapped up Ligue 1 yet again, and I doubt that Foucault v. Chomsky intellectual cage matches still grace the public awareness, despite France's status of Intellectual Holyland. Judging by this sleek vid for Thomas Bangalter's edit of the DJ Mehdi burner "Signatune", Pimp My Ride has captured the imagination of young Frenchmen. I wasn't aware that we exported car culture across the pond, but I guess that mode of transportation as status symbol is engrained into our collective unconscious. Bangalter understands how to tap that Jungian shit, penetrating the depths of your being, shaking loose that primal desire to get up and get down for a truly sick groove. Check this French chav anthem, world-beating drama unfolding to blissed out dance music for the ages.

New Music: CocoRosie, Deerhunter

CocoRosie - Japan (removed by request) (Touch and Go 2007)

CocoRosie – The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn / Touch and Go

To me at least, the immediate popularity of CocoRosie is somewhat of an anomaly. Sprung on to our ears out of nowhere in 2003, and on Touch and Go nonetheless, the sisters Casady dropped one of the weirdest and surprisingly infectious debuts in years with La Maison de Mon Rêve, and fans reacted accordingly. Utilizing a wavering combination of quirky folk, bedroom psychedelia, found sound, mutated hip-hop and the epic nature and slight characteristics of opera, to say CocoRosie is an individualistic group is an vast understatement. But then again, with our current New Weird America obsession where similar oddballs Joanna and Antony reign as queen and king (gender specification used loosely) respectively, I guess it’s not that much out of the ordinary. Their amazingly quick rise to fame is baffling but warranted, and they’ve got most of indie-America, including myself, picking up each concurrent album just to see what they pull out of their androgynous top hat next. And while I’d call 2005’s sophomore album Noah’s Ark somewhat of a misstep, their footing is as solid as ever with the this latest disc, The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn (see, even the album title has peaked your curiosity… well done ladies).

The back-story of the duo is somewhat confusing, mostly because of their penchant for all things French. Sierra and Bianca Casady are actually not French at all, but they did reunite in Paris after a decade of separation while the former was studying opera at the Paris Conservatory. They are in fact half-Cherokee with the older sibling, Sierra, being born in Iowa and Bianca born a couple years later in Hawaii. The moniker stems from childhood when their mother nicknamed them Coco (Bianca) and Rosie (Sierra), and their estranged father was/is(?) involved with Shamanism and the Peyote religion, which certainly has an influence on their music. After Bianca grew tired of Brooklyn in 2003, she unexpectedly showed up at Sierra’s apartment in Paris and the sisters immediately began tinkering with music. The results were a hip-hip album supposedly called “word to the crow,” which has never been released, and La Maison de Mon Rêve, their debut for Touch and Go. This album took indie-rock by storm with its oddball bedroom psychedelia and elevated them to underground stardom. Noah’s Ark, which was much more influenced by their contemporaries and friends, Devendra Banhart and Antony Hegarty, received mixed reactions; I heavily prefer the former.

The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn finds the sisters returning somewhat to the initial sound they purveyed, especially the hip-hop influence. I would detail the album’s overarching storyline, but I’ll be damned if I can decipher all of the fantasy-inspired parallels. The press release rambles on with lines like “It’s a cruel circus, like hunting unicorns or killing My Little Pony” and “From her humble beginnings in the South of France, the saga sailed the Seven Seas all the way to that icy crack in the Earth’s crust just outside Reykjavik.” I don’t know if this will help the context either, but apparently while Noah’s Ark was inspired by infamous French writer and political activist Jean Genet, this album is guided spiritually by the Scottish nursery rhyme character Wee Willie Winkie, who refused to go to sleep at bedtime until he was hauled off to jail… at least I think. Anyways, as I mentioned earlier, the album is much more in the vein of La Maison de Mon Rêve with a heavy hip-hop influence along with their continued musical maturity. “Rainbowarriors” features a pretty damn catchy, found-soundish beat accentuated with rain sticks and a high-pitched synth yelp while Sierra sings/raps overtop. Like most of La Maison, it’s surprisingly and confusingly catchy. “Japan” is probably next in line of noteworthiness; it builds off of light harp plucks and a thick bass line with scream-along choruses. Sierra’s child-like croon is doubled with a Boba Fett-like processor and about three-fourths way through, the driving song deconstructs into an operatic bridge before returning full-force. Tracks like “Werewolf,” “Animals” and “Raphael” follow suit with patient, pieced-together beats and sometimes lush and beautiful, sometimes awkward and weird musical accompaniment. Where Noah’s Ark blindly meandered in the latter, The Adventures balances both approaches with a good degree of success. While I don’t see it credited anywhere, the unmistakable voice of Antony shows up on a few occasions, most apparent on the lullaby closer “Miracle.”

While The Adventures maybe the most accessible album yet by CocoRosie, they haven’t even begun to approach any kind of crossover success. But the sisters Casady sound very comfortable in their individual and strangely effective niche, so why venture away from what’s working? I know I keeping emphasizing how surprised I am at their success, but c’mon, you have to admit that this is some wacky music, no matter how infectious it may be. Go play this for your mom and see how she reacts. Nonetheless, I have to give CocoRosie all the props in the world because they are truly carving out their own individual path and their unrestrained creativity has to be respected.







Deerhunter - Fluorescent Grey (Kranky 2007)

Deerhunter – Fluorescent Grey EP / Kranky

Remember Deerhunter? I know we have to reach way back to January to revisit this one, which is like twenty-one years in blogosphere time (that I've calculated to something like one month equals seven years of pre-internet time), but if you check the archives, their sophomore album took us all by storm. Hopefully not forgotten by the time we get around to December's year-end list frenzy, Cryptograms was a swirling, raucous, hypnotic mess of 60s psyche-pop and 80s post-punk that lifted the Atlanta quintet into the upper stratosphere of indie respect, at least for the month of January. And the tumultuous back-story (oh the back-story!) of nearly throwing in the towel after a death in the band, recording the entire breakthrough album in just two epiphanic afternoons, a made-for-the-stage lead singer who looks like he's coked-out but actually suffers from a genetic disorder that causes his limbs to be awkwardly elongated, and a MySpace page that proudly displays disgusted anti-fan letters. I mean what else do you need!? Deerhunter became the toast of the forever fickle underground music town, loved by the masses of heavily opinionated, unpaid writers (including ourselves, but surprisingly not AMG… maybe they are actually paid) and poised for the inevitable backlash. But I have yet to come across any said backlash, which is impressive in its own right, and the always strategic brains of Kranky are masterfully stringing us along with a brand new EP of unreleased material along with releasing Cryptograms for the first time on wax accompanied by these new songs. Deerhunter may just live to be thirty-five (which translates to early June if you weren't paying attention earlier) with this new momentum.

So now we get back to the music. The Fluorescent Grey EP was recorded while Cryptograms was being mixed, which is a very important aspect when digesting this new music. These four songs are pre-popularity explosion, so they were NOT recorded in reaction to their newfound fame. I emphasize this just in case you come across any ill-informed critic ranting nonsensical about the band selling out or something equally ridiculous, but hopefully that won't be an issue. What you do get though is a sort of epilogue to Cryptograms; a few extra songs to try and fill that void left when the tape ran out on "Heatherwood." Like their Kranky debut, this EP features an urgent swirl of clamoring psychedelic rock that's been dragged through a muggy bog of reverb and feedback. I want to say it's more akin to the sunnier, latter half of Cryptograms, but it actually very much stands on its own. The opening title track builds from a simple, mellow piano melody into a cyclical array of screaming electric guitars, post-punky bass lines, chugging drums and singer Bradford Cox's inviting, rhythmic vocals, which really acts as its own instrument after being strung through a number of hazy processors by the song's end. And most surprisingly, he's counteracted with both a higher-pitched female voice and a gruff croak of which he contributes a very comfortable mid-point. The uncredited female vocals return for "Dr. Glass" which grooves along on an awkward organ melody and infectious rhythm section of sleigh bells and handclaps. I'm digging the dual vocalists; it significantly warms the Deerhunter sound. The brief "Like New" follows and is probably the most forgettable of the bunch though not bad by any means. And finally, "Wash Off" rounds out the 15-minute EP with the same driving psyche-out explosion that made Cryptograms so invigorating. All four songs are worth your time, and it's an essential augmentation if you are like me and already sitting in the front row of the Deerhunter bandwagon. It will be very exciting to hear the material they record next though in the wake of their warranted popularity.

New Music: Ral Partha Vogelbacher, Brother Ali

Ral Partha Vogelbacher - Birthday in Beijing (Monotreme 2007)

Ral Partha Vogelbacher - Shrill Falcons / Monotreme

If you were colorblind, you might mistaken Ral Partha Vogelbacher's new album Shrill Falcons for Iceland. But that green is the flag flown by a band all their own. The San Francisco natives have produced their third album since 1999 (debut The More Nice Fey Elven Gnomes... is probably of the last decade's greatest album titles), and here they've refined their sound just a whisker to produce a coherent full-length that sounds as hazy and as remote at times as Rekjavik in fog. That was bad. Sorry.

The bold cover is what drew me in first, I'll admit it. But it's not all barebones artwork that this album has to ride on it; in fact, Ral Partha Vogelbacher actually share kin with Audiversity favorites Thee More Shallows and, wait for it, Scandinavian Preppy (though Iceland really shouldn't be considered Scandinavian, and if anyone is still doing that, stop). You've already heard Michael gush over the former and maybe someday when we're older we'll have a little chat about the latter (which was the original title for this album, coincidentally). Whether or not this album is "all the better for it" as lazier critics are wont to say is debatable, but I know this: The drones of Fog or the Sebadohian tactics of main man Chad Bidwell are both soothing and engrossing to listen to on repeat.

Oh right, the name. "Dungeons & Dragons" figurine manufacturer + Bidwell's eighth-grade nemesis, one Pierre Vogelbacher = Ral Partha Vogelbacher. One hell of a moniker, isn't it? Just don't mistaken them for a Bollywood pop idol. No, the three men of Ral Partha are firmly rooted in the lo-fi traditions of greats gone by. The good part is that there's a twist of the modern weaving its way in and out of the speakers: Odd Nosdam drops in to add some drones to the album's centerpiece, "New Happy Fawn," and he's not the only one. The band themselves have taken a more ambient, drone-laden look into the mirror and found an acid-folk band that's willing to eschew their previously simpler lo-fi fun in the best way possible. Bidwell wrote most of this album in China and that is evident in some places ("Birthday in Beijing" being the big one, obviously). But instead of crisp Icelandic fog, I imagine more the air of a smoggy Chongqing, where women fight the government until the media is told to stop. Bidwell himself found it more akin to the swamp racket of Florida, and like Wilderness Pangs, it is easy to hear the alligators swimming amongst the feedback of a track like "Party After the Wake."

But the underlying message is that it's an album for all corners of the globe because it comes from all corners of the globe. Bidwell is an Orlando native, but the band is from San Fran; he wrote the songs in China, but the art speaks to a colorblind Icelander. In a way only Dustin Long himself could have stitched together better, Shrill Falcons calls out with the sound every remote corner of the globe knows all too well. You can suck the smog and the fog away from these places, but that eliminates a kind of beauty that Ral Partha Vogelbacher speak to here. This is a beautiful album, polluted and hazy and imperfect. As it should be.













Brother Ali - Freedom Ain't Free (Rhymesayers 2007)

Brother Ali - The Undisputed Truth / Rhymesayers

Beautiful and polluted and hazy and imperfect, that's no way to describe Brother Ali. This guy is all about Midwestern grit and perseverance, exemplified in his already-legendary 2000 Rites of Passage cassette-only EP. The Undisputed Truth is another example of how Ali Newman lets his flow conquer the songs rather than the other way around. The lyrics are as dense and dark and deep and delicate as they've ever been.

Getting divorced from your wife of a decade would help anyone struggling for material to write on. Battling for custody of your only kid can't hurt either. Have you already read about how he was homeless there for awhile too? I won't even bother touching upon the fact that he's albino. These are all adversities the merely mortal melody makers among us would find difficult to overcome or recover from, whichever you prefer. Not Ali, though. The man has been dealing with adversity his whole life, from being a kid to being Eyedea's battle foe at the 2000 Cincinnati Scribble Jam. This is starting to read like a biography and you can fetch most of this information from a number of places, but if you weren't before, I think the idea is a little clearer now: Brother Ali has battled the best and the most burdensome. On The Undisputed Truth, he has beaten them all. Again.

"Whatcha Got" is the opener, and on a 15-track album that lasts over an hour, this is just the first sample of greatness to come. The beats have been put together exclusively by the funk-loving ANT of Atmosphere. It never ceases to amaze me how prolific the lads in the Rhymesayers collective seem to be, and how consistently strong their output is. The heavy lyrics Ali raps on, typical of his style, just seem to juxtapose the laid-back feel of ANT's grooves and this balance, this yin and yang, this is the magic of Brother Ali's albums. Here's a really good example: "Freedom Ain't Free" starts off with an island feel, but as soon as Ali breaks in, it's off to the races. Perhaps the reason Ali is so successful is because his topics are often heavy. Sounds simplistic after just writing that (Personal tumult mixed with political views, what two subjects have been covered more in music?), but give it a listen. On this track in particular he takes a bit of a breather; others are less sparse lyrically, but the way he knows when to lay the lyrical prowess on thick and when to just plain lay off is another positive point for Newman.

The Rhymesayers bunch know what they're doing and, though the morass of politics and personal problems can sometimes be as tough to tackle as a frigid snowfall or a Floridian copperhead, they've come out ahead once again. If you haven't bothered with Brother Ali before because you thought Atmosphere was enough Twin Cities hip-hop for one hard drive, brother you better try again: The Undisputed Truth is the real deal.

Radio Show Playlist 3/28

6a:
1. The Clash - Lost in the Supermarket - London Calling (Epic 1979)
2. The Eternals - The Mix is So Bizarre - Heavy International (Aesthetics 2007)
3. Kill Me Tomorrow - Liason - Chrome Yellow (Silver Girl 2001)
4. Panda Bear - Bros - Person Pitch (Paw Tracks 2007)
5. Cornelius - Bird Watching at Inner Forest - Point (Matador 2002)
6. 90 Day Men - We Blame Chicago - To Everybody (Southern 2001)
7. Nurse & Soldier - Green Tea - Marginalia (Brah 2007)
8. Manu Dibango - Miango Ma Tumba - B-Sides (Soul Mokossa 2002, recorded 1983)
9. Tinariwen - Cler Achel - Aman Iman (World Village 2007)
10. Ammoncontact - Love Letters - One in an Infinity of Ways (Plug Researh 2004)
11. Plaid - Diddymousedid - P-Brane EP (WARP 2002)

7a:
1. Luna - Slash Your Tires - Lunapark (Elektra 1992)
2. Olivia Tremor Control - Fireplace - Presents: Singles & Beyond (Emperor Norton 2000, recorded 1992-93)
3. Antelope - Reflector - Reflector (Dischord 2007)
4. Giant Skyflower Band - Bitter Wild Rabbits/Builds the Bone - Blood of the Sunworm (Soft Abuse 2007)
5. Glenn Jones - Heartbreak Hill - Against Which the Sea Continually Breaks (Strange Attractors 2007)
6. The Twilight Sad - Talking with Fireworks/Here, It Never Snowed - Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters (FatCat 2007)
7. Thee More Shallows - The Dutch Fist - Book of Bad Breaks (Anticon 2007)
8. The Grey Skies are Sleeping - What It Feels Like to Be at the End of the World - Single (Kill Art 2000)
9. The Zincs - Hamstrung and Juvenile - Black Pompadour (Thrill Jockey 2007)
10. Silver Jews - Friday Night Fever - Bright Flight (Drag City 2001)
11. The Sea and Cake - Sporting Life - The Fawn (Thrill Jockey 1997)

New Music: Thee More Shallows, Glenn Jones, J Dilla

Thee More Shallows - The Dutch Fist (Anticon 2007)

Thee More Shallows – Book of Bad Breaks / Anticon

I rambled at length about Anticon's recent stylistic mutation from an underground hip-hop label to purveyors of post- most everything in my review of SJ Esau's Wrong Faced Cat Feed Collapse, so I won't retread too much here. If you needed any further proof though, here it is in all its post-pop, post-rock, post-shoegaze, post-folk wonder. It's recent signees Thee More Shallows and their new album Book of Bad Breaks, which I am happy to report finds the already impressive rock band pushing the boundaries established with their acclaimed 2005 album More Deep Cuts and the more recent Monkey vs. Shark EP (one of the few EPs to make the Audiversity Top 60 of 06). The most striking aspect of More Deep Cuts and the main element that separates the young Bay Area trio from the rest of the pack was the blatant perfectionism. As you know if you read just about any review of that album (mostly because it was splattered all over the accompanying press releases), frontman Dee Kesler spent nearly three years mixing the album to perfection and while that may seem a little overkill, the results absolutely spoke for themselves. For their Anticon debut though, Thee More Shallows have decided to approach recording with a new motto: "minimize to maximize."

Not looking to recreate the obsessed over, brooding and epic post-rock of More Deep Cuts, Kesler, Chavo Fraser and Jason Gonzales went into the studio with a "first thought/best thought" mantra that fits snuggly into Anticon's already established "anything goes" ethos. Their songwriting set-up only included a $50 Casio keyboard, acoustic guitar and drums to further instill their new minimalist approach and the resulting songs certainly reflect this off-the-cuff composing. Instead of the precisely arranged and acutely played material we have come to expect from the band, we get a fractured, raucous and unpredictable collection of songs in Book of Bad Breaks that makes the music just that much more invigorating. Don't get me wrong though, this isn't lo-fi bedroom pop by any means; after laying the minimalist groundwork, the band interweaved complicated layers of strings, synths and feedback with their impressive studio prowess along with inviting label-mate Odd Nosdam to provide drum breaks and some of his signature drone. The final result is a shifty, patchwork album of rich chamber rock and icy post-shoegaze with flares of quirky pop, crunchy noise and atmospheric krautrock that reveals new layers with every spin.

With all but one track clocking in at less than four minutes, Thee More Shallows opted for packing in their ideas in a concise manner. Elements of fellow Anticonians slip in as well, like the odd Why?-like arrangement of “The Dutch Fist” which opens with a subdued, fuzz-out keyboard melody, Kesler’s eerie vocal croon and an oddly-tuned acoustic guitar before blooming into a multi-layered synth-pop anthem. The wall-of-synth approach is utilized often, especially augmenting the already heavily fuzzed low end. It’s mostly heard in the first half of the album, like how it counteracts the whistle-and-coo yearn of “Eagle Rock” and heavily accentuates the already galloping “Night at the Knight School” into another anthemic number. Later on, Kesler and company begin to experiment with different stylistic approaches. “Proud Turkey” utilizes a stop-and-start punk method before crumbling into an elegant string ensemble, and the indie-rockish “Oh Yes, Another Mother” grooves on a serious krautrock beat. Odd Nosdam’s contributions, while probably strung throughout, are most apparent during the final few tunes; the longest track of the album, “The White Mask,” drones along on an off-kilter chord progression played through dark, wavering synths and “Chrome Caps” is mostly just an exercise in cleverly controlling and manipulating feedback.

Book of Bad Breaks is no More Deep Cuts, so don’t expect it to be. It’s the product of a band expanding the boundaries, trying new ideas and utilizing the infinite creative space a freewheeling label like Anticon insists upon. The frayed edges of Bad Breaks will certainly surprise those used to the refined curves of Deep Cuts, but I sincerely don’t think you’ll be disappointed. Hopefully Thee More Shallows will continue on with their studio experimentations because it sounds like this is just the tip of their creativity iceberg. And in the meantime, Anticon adds another excellent entry into their already impressive discography; I can hardly wait for the next unpredictable path they venture down.






Glenn Jones - David & the Phoenix (Strange Attractors 2007)

Glenn Jones – Against Which the Sea Continually Beats / Strange Attractors

I spent all Sunday morning listening to the even-toned, elegant guitar playing of Gabor Szabo and his penchant for lyrically snaking through recognizable themes. Well I spent all Sunday evening listening to Glenn Jones and his similarly inspired guitar work, especially sharing the Indian raga influence. But while Szabo would express himself by patiently plucking linearly, Jones opts for flurries of fluttering overtones in a very layered, swirling manner coming off much more American folk than Hungarian folk. Concretely in the school of Takoma and American Primitivism, Jones is a descendent of John Fahey’s ambitious approach to the guitar; his actual playing style leans toward traditional country blues fingerpicking but the extravagant compositions reach into the world of avant-garde and neoclassicism. With Steffen Basho-Junghans, Jones is among the contemporary musicians continuing the tradition of Fahey, Leo Kottke, Robbie Basho and Peter Lang. A tradition started by the American blues men, country string bands and backwoods folk artists in the 20s and 30s, continued through Takoma and similar artists like Sandy Bull, embellished with paralleled practices in Europe and India, mainly Django Reinhardt and Ravi Shankar respectively, and brought back full circle with the cultured class of masterful guitar players today. Against Which the Sea Continually Beats pays homage to all these past guitar aficionados while paving out an individual path for Jones so he one day will be rightfully grouped with his idols (though he pretty much is already).

Glenn Jones is a cultured, multi-talented musician in his own right. Most notably, he has led the experimental instrumental rock band Cul de Sac for more than fifteen years and eight full-length records. On the solo side of Jones’ career, he has soundtracked a couple of films, and collaborated with his mentor Fahey on 1997’s The Epiphany of Glenn Jones on Thirsty Ear and former Can vocalist Damo Suzuki for 2004’s Abhayamudra on Strange Attractors. With Cul de Sac apparently on a brief hiatus, Jones has been touring and writing incessantly all the while fulfilling the claim of him being one of the key players in the new guitar soli movement. His latest full-length further establishes the guitar aficionado as nearly being in a world of his own as far as technical prowess and emotional resonance goes.

Recorded in four days within the island community of West Tinsbury, Martha’s Vineyard, MA, this geographical setting is an obvious influence on Against Which the Sea Continually Beats (yes, I do enjoy pointing out the blatantly obvious). Like the ocean, Jones’s guitar playing ebbs and flows with tranquility and grace. His 12-string flurries elegantly wash over each other like calm oncoming waves and all of his environmental and musical influences are crisply and clearly reflected when studying the music from above. The two center pieces of the album, “Freedom Raga” and “The Teething Necklace (for John Fahey)” are the best examples of this as he patiently transcends straight mimicking his influences by reflecting them through his own personal style. Both songs reach well over the ten minute mark, the former being an easily relatable raga-inspired anthem and the latter, a tranquil, effervescing homage to his mentor (it’s also a tune he has been patiently perfecting since Fahey’s passing in 2001). While shorter explorations into minimal blues and folk tie the album together, I find myself repeatedly hypnotized by songs like “David & the Phoenix,” which features a colorful blend of cascading overtones, or, on the other side of the spectrum, the delicate crawl of “Heartbreak Hill.” Against Which the Sea Continually Breaks is a wonderful and mesmerizing album of masterful guitar work from one of contemporary music’s finest. It’s a graceful, nuanced, tranquil affair that is perfect for any time you need a break from the cacophony of every day life.






J Dilla - Reckless Driving (Stones Throw 2007, originally Mummy 2003)

J Dilla – Ruff Draft / Stones Throw

I wrote this blurb on Sunday and was going to expand upon it for today's post, but Pitchfork just put up their review of the album today and I see no need to compete. Nate Patrin's lengthy write-up pretty much nails it and there is no need to retread, so I respectfully point you his way: Pitchfork's Review

My blurb:
We're still recovering from the passing of James Yancey a little over a year ago. One of rap's most innovative producers, Jay Dee's prolific nature continues to reveal layers as we scrounge through is back catalogue, digging up gems we should have been acclaiming prior to his death. Ruff Draft is the third post-mortem release, but it was actually recorded and released in 2003 on Dilla's own Mummy imprint. Left label-less in early 2003 soon after Common's Electric Circus due to Geffen's acquiring MCA, Dilla decided to concentrate on his solo career after a decade of supplying beats and production for other artists. After years of soundtracking the backpacking movement, Yancey wanted to revert back to the raunchy and raw sounds of out-of-the-trunk, sample-heavy rap and bring it back to the cassette. He excels endlessly as you get a sneak peak at the transformation from Dee to Dilla, Electric Circus to Champion Sound, promising producer to prolific artist. An extremely rare 12" up until this release, Stones Throw continues to show infinite, warranted love for Yancey and the amazing music he made.

Used-Bin Bargains: Gabor Szabo

Gabor Szabo - Gypsy Queen (Impulse! 1966)

Gabor Szabo – Spellbinder / Impulse!

Gabor Szabo resides in an odd niche of jazz musicians. The innovative Hungarian guitarist came to prominence in the 60s with his truly idiosyncratic style incorporating jazz, pop, rock and classical with Latin, Gypsy, Indian and Asian influences, but while most of his contemporary jazz musicians were heading towards the spiritual, energetic and earthy side of the genre closely following the masterful teachings of John Coltrane, he reverted to a very sophisticated, clean-cut manner of playing. Szabo also would frequently look to reinvent pop standards rather than push his music into the uncharted, atonal areas of the late 60s jazz explorations, so he often looked to the emerging rock scene for inspiration with the likes of Carlos Santana, George Harrison and Eric Clapton acting as substantial influences. Maybe because he was always looking towards the commercial side of jazz, Szabo is not typically mentioned with the great individual musicians during that unparalleled era of musical innovativeness, but his enchanting, sophisticated, mellifluous and literate style of guitar playing still has a resounding emotional impact some 25 years after his passing. Albums like 1966’s Spellbinder still act as invigorating peeks into a brand of jazz that is as breezy as it is soul plucking. It’s exotic music without a particular geographic or temporal locale making Szabo that much more mysterious and hypnotizing.

Born in Budapest, Hungary in 1936, Gábor István Szabó’s came from humble beginnings. Inspired by a guitar-wielding Roy Rogers in one of his many cowboy movies of the late 40s, a teenage Szabo received one lesson on his poorly made acoustic and proceeded to develop a style so individual, it’s foundation was in his own improvised fingering system. His musical education came mostly from the local Hungarian folk and gypsy musicians, but his tastes were significantly widened after hearing Willis Conover’s influential Jazz Hour on the internationally broadcasted Voice of America in the mid-50s. This new interest in America culture no doubt spurred his departure from Hungary to the States on the eve of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, which briefly opened the borders with Hungary’s temporary withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact. The twenty-year-old Szabo eventually lead his family and girlfriend to San Bernadino, California with only his guitar strapped to his back and his eyes fixed on musical stardom.

Like all young musicians, Szabo had to fail a number of times before blooming into the musician he is known as today. The first group he formed in Los Angeles, the Three Strings, failed to make any sort of impact and Szabo was forced to work as a janitor while setting his sights on attending the Berklee School of Music in Boston to receive a formal education. By 1958 he did just that and attended the influential school for four terms where he developed his composition skills as well as the metallic but mellifluous guitar style that would become his signature sound. While in Boston, Szabo participated in the much-acclaimed 1958 Newport Jazz Festival where he befriended Chico Hamilton, a L.A. drummer best known for his talent scouting skills. Hamilton, who had been playing with Charles Mingues, Dexter Gordon and Illinois Jacquet, was currently sporting innovative reedman Eric Dolphy in his group and looking to replace guitarist John Pisano. The pairing of Szabo and Hamilton proved to be a substantial team, and from 1960 to 1965 Szabo rose through the ranks and eventually became the prominent soloist, primary composer and star of the quintet. Hamilton continuously encouraged the blooming guitarist to stem out on his own, and while Szabo continued to record with the drummer’s group, he began to collaborate with fellow Berklee student Gary McFarland, a renowned orchestral jazz arranger who shared Szabo’s increasing interest in more harmonious music than the budding spiritual jazz scene. After two albums under McFarland’s name, Soft Samba and The In Sound on Verve, the duo recorded Szabo’s solo debut, Gypsy ’66 on Impulse!, which established his penchant for successfully branding pop tunes, this time The Beatles’ “Yesterday” and “If I Fell” and Burt Bacharach’s “Walk on By” and “The Last One to Be Loved,” with his own style. It garnished enough attention to inspire a follow-up just six months later, the excellent Spellbinder.

I think Spellbinder, released in May of 1966 on Impulse!, is such an invigorating and defining album for Szabo because it captures his guitar style matured but not yet completely developed. At somewhat of a crossroads, he has a good grasp of jazz, pop and Hungarian folk music and was just beginning to experiment with flourishes of Indian raga, Latin percussion and improvisation. Spellbinder features Szabo’s youthful, exploratory spirit with masterful musicianship, an absolute potent combination in any setting. Szabo’s lyrical and humble electric guitar is backed by the non-evasive drumming of Chico Hamilton, the elegant bass playing of Ron Carter and embellished by by the swinging Latin percussion of Willie Bobo and Victor Pantoja. They seemed to touch upon just the right combination of pop standards, originals and improvs that fans of both jazz and pop music came to embrace the album. Szabo’s guitar is certainly the center of attention, but not in a showy kind of way. His springy, even-toned electric tiptoes and two-steps over the intricate grooves laid down by the incredibly talented rhythm section creating a breezy and exotic psychedelia vibe. It’s both technically impressive and melodically pleasant, which makes his re-imaginings of standard pop tunes like the Coleman/Leigh-penned “Witchcraft” and “It Was a Very Good Year” (popularized by Sinatra) or Sonny Bono’s “Band Bang (She Shot Me Down)” so infectious and individualistic. Szabo takes the recognizable melodies, strings out the themes and then proceeds to snake through them effortlessly all the while caringly garnishing with somber, droning strings, flurries of improvised arpeggios and almost bossa nova-like rhythms. Originals like “Spellbinder,” “Cheetah,” and most importantly “Gypsy Queen” showcase Szabo’s increasingly proficient and innovative composition skills. Admirer and friend Carlos Santana included a brief rendition of “Gypsy Queen” in his widely famous cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Black Magic Woman” in 1970, which would keep royalties rolling in for many years to come. In fact, Santana reportedly cites that hearing Spellbinder forced a turning point in his career inspiring him to stem out from the blues he was purveying to concentrate on crossover possibilities incorporating in jazz, Latin and rock music. To many, Spellbinder marks the peak of Szabo’s career though it was only his second album, mostly because he would never quite parallel this particular combination of youthful exploration and popular accessibility (his later albums sometimes weighed to heavily on the latter).

The rest of the 60s saw Szabo explore a few different musical paths, most notably being influenced by Ravi Shankar and picking up the sitar in 1966. Featuring a budding Bernard Purdie on drums, Jazz Raga found Szabo overdubbing sitar over his own guitar playing equally infusing his jazz chops with Shankar’s Indian style and heavy inspiration from rock guitarists like George Harrison and Eric Clapton. In 1967, he once again hit a chord with the jazz audiences thanks to his recommended live recordings The Sorcerer and More Sorcery. This was probably the peak of his popularity as at the time he was living in Hollywood, neighbor to Elizabeth Taylor and Katherine Hepburn, and starting Sky Recording Co. with McFarland and vibraphonist Cal Tjader, which put out one of my personal favorite album of his pop/rock covers, Gabor Szabo 1969. Though the Skye label only lasted a couple years, it did result in teaming with Lena Horne for yet another boost in popularity with Lena & Gabor. In the 70s, Szabo went in an increasingly pop and rock-influenced jazz direction that while producing a couple well received albums like 1970’s High Contrast with Bobby Womack and 1972’s Mizrab, further separated him from the jazz crowd. He returned to Hungary in the latter half of the 70s to reunite with family and even joined the Church of Scientology upon his return to the States in an attempt to kick the lingering heroin habit he developed in the mid-60s. Though it did result in a productive friendship with Chick Corea, his association with the church turned sour even escalating to a failed $21 million lawsuit. In the early 80s, a frustrated and sickly Szabo returned to his home in Hungary where he spent his final years before succumbing to liver and kidney ailments in 1982. While not the most acclaimed jazz guitarist, Gabor Szabo was certainly influential with his meshing of styles and he left behind an incredibly enjoyable discography of masterful guitar playing and pleasant pop grooves.

Singleversity #3

Audiversity’s weekly column on random music in exactly 144 words.

(Ed. - Originally this was called Threeversity, but in the spirit of simplicity we've decided to retroactively relabel all of these posts. The content remains unchanged.)

MA:
(#144 of a random playlist generated from my ever-changing database of 12,500+ songs)



Dr. Dre - Lyrical Gangbang - The Chronic (Death Row 1992)

"This should be played at high volume / Preferably in a residential area"
Spoken like a public service announcement, my very white friends and I did just that… for years and years. And goddamn did we think we were cool. Sure it was ’98 and the album was six years old, but we had just gotten our drivers licenses. Sure it was ’06 and the album was fifteen years old, but we had just picked up the reissue… again.
Nothing compares to:
"See ya watch and creak without a motherfuckin paddle" from Lady Rage, or
"Chewin’ motherfuckers up like a Hershey Kiss" from Kurupt, or
"Fuck it, niggas goin’ wild, every night they shoot / It's like Beirut" from RBX (and you thought Beirut was a gallivanting town of gypsy tunes and indie-pop crooners).
"Some cool shit, some cool shit." Indeed Dre. Indeed.

PM:











Last week it was the English, this week it’s women: Louis Jordan sends some words of wisdom to the single men of the world on “Beware, Brother, Beware” in this jazzy tune from 1946 during Jordan’s height on the Decca label. Alongside Decca alumni Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby and Ella Fitzgerald (in addition to his famous backing band the Tympany Five), Jordan was a landmark musician for black artists in the 1930s and 1940s. His sense of humor is famous and his movie credentials are plentiful… But it’s his music that gets the most attention and his nonstop energy makes him a one-stop party playlist. There’s a wilder, faster version out there that got a live retouching (and a shorter title in “Beware”) by Quincy Jones in 1956, but this original rendition shows the original is already alive with tongue-in-cheek sass and energetic jive.

JR:



(Disclaimer: Jordan is in character with his entry; he is in absolutely no danger of "combusting in front of masses of dead-eyed consumers," so please do not fret for his mental health. --Ed.)

To those unfamiliar with Prurient, you are lucky. Naive, but lucky all the same. Fortune has deftly guided you away from the shadows. Hands out of the darkness grasping at thin air, don't let them get ahold of you; they will rip and tear away parts of your self, constaints of your own being, that you didn't even know existed until they were lost. I work too much. And its all at the expense of my youth. Certain days I'm bursting at the seams, like at any point I may just combust in front of masses of dead-eyed consumers. To hear Prurient is to understand life's violent nature, its thoughtless abuses; watch Dominik Fernow as he fights invisible demons, drawing them forward and obliterating them all in a violent show of force. I know those sounds too well, and I'd rather forget them.

New Music: Harlan, Junior Boys

Man, today really took it out of me. I'm preaching to the choir as you probably didn't have it any easier, but sometimes you come home and there's just nothing left that you want to hear. It's tough being in the convergence business. Pfft, journalism. So streamlined, so slick, so modern... It's about the opposite of what's going on in my apartment right now, actually.













Harlan - The Ballad of Selective Memory (Odd Thud 2007)

Harlan - The Still Beat / Odd Thud

See, my roommate ordered a banjo I don't know how many weeks ago, and tonight it finally came in. To put this in perspective, young Tommy - he prefers T-Bird - doesn't play an instrument and has only been in a band once: He "sang" a musical rendition of "The NeverEnding Story" after ten shots of vodka. In the best traditions of "I was there" elitism, I played gong in a flame-retardant suit. Lucky for us that Google Video got a hold of the performance (We won the popular vote that night in a Battle of the Bands).

In any case, it's a little clearer now what we're working with. He's in the living room strumming it like a fool and there's really nothing the rest of us can do. After ten minutes of this, I developed a headache like any other reasonable human being. To save myself, I turned to some real guitar-playing by a bloke named John Harlan Norris. To save you, I won't bother with any "roundhouse-kick-to-the-face" one-liners, but it should be noted that Mr. Norris doesn't need any trivial pop culture references to get his point across on an album he did entirely alone: The Still Beat was constructed on the strength of synth melodies and guitar solos with a dash of folk and British trad-pop chops, but it was the dash of bayou flavor that Norris used with his Baton Rouge background. Actually, that's not entirely true: Norris was working in Spanish Harlem when he decided to just up and move to Kentucky to record in a mountain cabin. And then when he finished selling off a collection of handmade EPs, he moved to Louisiana to fetch an MFA in painting. A true renaissance man, written and performed by one man: Norris doesn't bother with that arrangement anymore, now using a full backing-band to get his message translated live. But it hardly matters: The Still Beat works on record just as well as Norris and friends live.

If you're wondering where the Odd Thud link is, Harlan's got the answer: The Still Beat is the first and only release so far. A label to keep an eye on.












Junior Boys - Double Shadow (Kode9 remix) (Domino 2007)

Junior Boys - The Dead Horse EP / Domino

Backing band, that's probably a phrase that doesn't immediately come to mind in the context of Kode9. Junior Boys aren't really about that either, are they? These two artists, I feel, don't really need long-winded introductions or the enticing story of my roommate's struggle to play even one chord correctly: You know Canadian duo Junior Boys through their past with 2004's oft-overlooked Last Exit and, of course, 2006's spectacular So This is Goodbye. Kode9, meanwhile, was featured here a few short months ago for his supreme album Memories of the Future that featured his MC The Spaceape. The Glasgow-born head of the Hyperdub label gave dubstep a much-needed shot in the arm and he's been riding high ever since.

Two mighty beings of electronic collaborating here for "Double Shadow" are not the end of the story, though. The best part about The Dead Horse (which I find funny because it doesn't really seem like Junior Boys made a huge to-do out of their sophomore release; in a time of big albums, they slipped in, made their mark and retired their hype to the road) is that it doesn't beat anything into the ground. One of the best parts of So This is Goodbye was all the songs that didn't make the album: The five remixes presented here merely carry on in the tradition of the In the Morning EP that had a couple of enjoyable reworkings from Alex Smoke and Morgan Geist. Hot Chip return from their Boojing around to remix said track to start off the handful, and with excellent source material it's hard to screw it up. Carl Craig is the other "big" name on here, but don't discount Marsen Jules or that Ten Snake remix of "FM." Actually, why would you? If you like Junior Boys at all, you'll likely go straight out and get this when it hits stores as a CD April 10th and vinyl May 8th.

So this is an apology: We'll be on top of our game next week when I'll have a little more time to focus, but today was just bad. You'd think Fridays would be easy, but no luck: Even after getting out of my requirements early, coming back was just as much of a burden thanks to dirty dishes and detuned folk music. Thank goodness Harlan and Junior Boys were there to save me - it might've been ugly otherwise.

New Music: The Twilight Sad, Love Trio ft. U-Roy, The Zincs

The Twilight Sad - Talking with Fireworks/Here, It Never Snowed (FatCat 2007)

The Twilight Sad – Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters / FatCat

The Twilight Sad makes sad music, which is really not a secret since they put it right there in the name, but Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters is a really, really sad record. And not simple, fiddle-a-little-with-your-guitar-and-chirp-wearily sad. And not emo's misogynistic over-the-top-me-me-me-I'm-the-center-of-the-world-and-people- should-pay-attention-to-me sad. This is 80s sad. This is pre-internet, listen all day to The Smiths and The Cure while the shotty tube spits out increasingly melodramatic news about the Cold War and Reaganomics sad. My Bloody Valentine sad. Arab Strap sad. Sadness so resonant that it can only be expressed in a shattering display of thunderous drumming, cascading feedback and guitar riffs that go on for miles. Sad enough that you need a sighing accordion to get across your point. So yeah, it is a sad record, but a sadness that you will be merrily addicted to for a good while.

The Scottish quartet caught a lot of attention with their eponymous debut EP on FatCat including the ears of we Audiversitarians who were eagerly awaiting this full-length. And thankfully, The Twilight Sad definitely came through with their side of the deal by easily leaping the high bar they set with the EP and even expounded upon three of the five previously released songs and including them on this LP (I guess you could call that cheating, but because of the quality of the songs, their presence is definitely warranted). Not that the songwriting and musicianship does not stand on its own, but I do think that the pristine production is much to thanks for the resounding nature of the album. Producer Peter Katis (Interpol, Spoon, Mice Parade) has a definite understanding of the ins and outs of shoegaze. He does a wonderful job of highlighting singer James Graham’s heavy and somber Scottish accent without losing the soaring wall-of-sound regularly explored by the rest of the group. And the autumnal, reflective tone made by a combination of glimmering guitars and aching accordion sighs perfectly matches Graham’s plaintive drawl and lyrics. I want to call it post-shoegaze but it just encapsulates so much of the genre, I don’t know how you could say it actually moves past it. Sure it’s 15-years too late, but their sound is the exact reason you were so hypnotized by the genre in the first place. The Twilight Sad very well could be this generation’s My Bloody Valentine.

Other than the typical shoegaze comparisons, I think they very much parallel Interpol’s vibe on Turn on the Bright Lights minus the rampant post-punk rhythms. I seriously doubt that Katis being producer on both of the albums is coincidental and he just has a very good handle on how to create the classic 80s UK atmosphere as if the records were being made on the same analog tape utilized by Echo & the Bunnymen, Joy Division and The Smiths. Both records ride a very dark, insular and self-conscious vibe but are simultaneously brooding, intense and anthemic. They pluck your heart strings in the most epic manner possible. Will The Twilight Sad have same impact Interpol had in 2002 though? It’s hard to say. There is a good amount of hype bubbling in the blogosphere for The Sad, but not nearly as there was approaching Bright Lights, so unless the Glasgow four grab an opening slot for the Arcade Fire anytime soon, I doubt it will reach those proportions. It is a shame though, because they definitely have the talent and Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters is a hell of an album. But just be prepared because it is a sad album no matter how epic, and you should probably go ahead and clean the top of your sneakers because you’ll be gazing long and hard at them after spinning it a time or two.






Love Trio - Rock the Rhythm (Nublu 2007)

Love Trio – Love Trio in Dub featuring U-Roy / Nublu

Nublu is one of those labels that I really do want to like because of their ethos and spirit, but I have always had trouble getting into most the music they release. The New York club and record label highlights contemporary musicians from around the world that typically infuse Latin, Brazilian and dance music, Brazilian Girls and Forro in the Dark for example, but their records just always come off over-produced to me. With the raw sounds of yesterday now being readily available from countries like Brazil and the rest of South America, I would much rather just go straight to the source (plus they always have this neo-soul undertone in their music that further turns my nose). The latest from the Love Trio, on the other hand, grabbed my attention from the get go and held onto it through the entire album… and the next spin… and the next spin. Maybe it is just the inclusion of U-Roy's classic toasting, but for me, Love Trio in Dub finally balances the classic-spirit-recreated-with-contemporary-recording-techniques mixture that Nublu set out to conquer in the first place.

The Love Trio is made up of Ilhan Ersahin of Wax Poetic on tenor sax and keys, the Brazilian Girls' Jesse Murphy on bass and Kenny Wollesen, a session player for Tom Waits and John Zorn, behind the kit. Their brand of dub is not groundbreaking by any means, but they definitely do a masterful job of sequencing synthetic instrumentation that would be otherwise cheesy into infectious grooves. It is very much on the same tip as Lee "Scratch" Perry's recent Panic in Babylon, true to the genre but using a lot of synthesizers without sounding bland. But obviously, the dealmaker is the inclusion of legendary reggae artist U-Roy taking over vocals. Now in his late 60s, Ewart Beckford is one of the originators in the balancing of reggae, dub and DJing… shit, his nickname is the Originator. One of the most idiosyncratic artists of Jamaica, U-Roy came to fame after nearly 10 years of DJing varying sound systems during the 60s, including Doctor Dickie's Dynamite, Sir George's the Atomic and King Tubby's Hi-Fi. I could go on for pages with all the different artists and producers Beckford played with during the 70s, but all you really need to know is that he is one of the most acclaimed DJs to ever come out of Jamaica and was an integral piece in the development of toasting. He was an incredibly productive artist until the mid-80s releasing an unfathomable amount of singles and dub plates, and remained active throughout the 90s, but to a much lesser degree. Quiet for the last half a decade, Love Trio in Dub has him returning with vengeance and releasing some of his most infectious material in nearly twenty years.

Honestly, if all they released was “Rock the Rhythm,” the first song on the album, I would have been perfectly content. A simple synthetic riddim is augmented with echoing key and guitar splotches along with melancholic brushes of horn and backing vocal while U-Roy’s elderly Jamaican drawl toasts effortlessly over it all. Though maybe using the same tools as dancehall, the completely relaxed riddim creates the polar opposite emotion; it is much more akin to the stoned leisure of rocksteady. “Hard Livin’” is on the same wavelength and actually somehow creates an effective poignant emotion out of midi strings, which is impressive in its own right. Other tracks like “Shug Shimme and Shake” and the classic U-Roy track “Version Galore” are equally infectious, somehow capturing the classic rocksteady vibe in the age of Protools. Though I hate to keep referring back to how surprised I am that this is so good, I just never expected that music this heavily synthesized could recreate such an organic genre as reggae with so much effectiveness. Whether or not you share my weary premonitions of the Nublu sound or not, Love Trio in Dub is a fun and addicting album and it’s always good to hear a classic voice like U-Roy still toasting us under the table more than 40 years after he began his career.






The Zincs - Hamstrung and Juvenile (Thrill Jockey 2007)

The Zincs – Black Pompadour / Thrill Jockey

The most wonderful aspect of genre-less labels like Thrill Jockey is that once you come to trust the steady high quality of their output, they repeatedly put you into situations that you would not normally find yourself in. Even if we just take a small portion of their recent releases, I have been joyfully thrust into writing about the raucous electronic cacophony of Lithops, the earthy spiritual jazz of Frequency, the honey-soaked, country-tinged songwriting of Angela Desveaux and Extra Golden's continental bridge between DC's boogie blues and Kenya's benga style music. Not that I wouldn't explore such genres if left on my own, but Thrill Jockey acts as an excellent catalyst, letting me lean on their trustworthing high quality and boundary-less ideals. Their most recent release, The Zinc's Black Pompadour, once again puts me into this situation of blindly exploring a genre I don't normally soak in for too long, this time classic British indie-rock.

The brainchild of Chicago-based Englishman Jim Elkington, The Zincs progressively electrify their sound with their second full-length on Thrill Jockey. Formerly more-or-less a solo moniker for Elkington's songwriting, they have now expanded to a full-fledged quartet with Nathaniel Braddock on guitar and piano, Nick Macri on bass and saxophone and Jason Toth on drums. The addition of band members has concurrently inflated The Zincs sound from being mostly singer/songwriter with lush, elegant backing to a full rock band with each member contributing his own fingerprint to the overall sound; think less strings more wily electric guitar. The main concentration of the band though is still Elkington's voice and literate lyrics, and if this is your first acquaintance with his rich baritone, it may take you by surprise. A deadpan combination of Scott Walker and the subdued side of David Bowie, my initial reaction was that it was somewhat bland, especially with the opening track "Head East, Kaspar." But the more the album progressed, the more life seeped through his voice and the more it took a stranglehold of my ears. Very much in the vein of classic British folkies like Bert Jansch and to an extent the spoken word of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas from the first half of the 20th century, Elkington, who spent time developing his musical chops in London's indie-noise outfit Elevate and the introspective Sophia, stays true to his heritage. The Zincs' entire foundation is concretely in the heyday of 1980's British indie-rock scene when Rough Trade and Postcard were the rampant tastemakers, but they continually break free of such pigeonholes with vibrant electric outbursts, stylistic leanings into Southwestern rock and surf among others, and John McEntire's idiosyncratic crisp-as-a-windswept-March-morning production.

As I mentioned earlier, it took me a couple songs to really be hypnotized by the band. But about the time the third track, "Hamstrung and Juvenile," began to expand their sound with a sax octet augmenting the low end and Drag City recording artist Edith Frost's lush croon counteracting Elkington's, I was hooked. In fact, the entire mid-section of the album is outstanding. The brief "Rice Scars" tiptoes on a typewriter and handclap beat as Elkington and Frost duet beautifully, "The Mogul's Wives" rides on classic British pop-rock before opening up with multiple electric guitar solos that sound much more Arbouretum than Zincs, and "Burdensome Son" is a hypnotic mix of Southwestern rock and psychedelic surf. The later third of the album is much more subdued and reminiscent of 2005's Dimmer. but no-less captivating. Black Pompadour is an excellent hybrid of British folk and Midwestern rock that excels in it's unassuming nature. Also, if possible, it is best heard with embellishing rain drops clattering on your window pane.

New Music: Broken Fader Cartel, Team Shadetek

subQtaneous - o, he is not so evil (Broken Fader Cartel 2007)

Scanone - Spit (Broken Fader Cartel 2007)

Various Artists - Cloud Control / Broken Fader Cartel

Normally when we think of whatever "IDM" has come to mean in this post-Kid A or post-Give Up world, we think of the frosty north: Eskimos on laptops looking to an endless sun for inspiration, frostbitten Brits thinking their way around the NME, or Berlin ravers who are just "over it" and want something completely different. Even in the US, Jimmy Tamborello is about what "IDM" has come to in recent years, and he was northern California (San Francisco these days, I think).

But electronica in its broken-beat or minimalist forms can come from anywhere. The tropical influence of South America, the underworld of Australia, California, whatever. This intrigue in what electronic can do and in the organic elements that make it so much more approachable than it was in the heady days of Autechre and Aphex Twin has helped it gain former guitar-and-drum loyalists at exponentially increasing rates in the last decade.

One of the great bastions to rock-free-of-electronics and the idealist notion of "guitar rock" is the North Carolina Triangle Region. With a load of schools in a relatively condensed space - Raleigh is only about 40 miles from Durham, likewise to Chapel Hill and Carrboro, and Duke, UNC, NC State, etc. all call it home - there has always been a scene that has produced great bands and, of course, Merge Records stands as the ultimate testament to this. But electronica... That is not something you find a great deal of in the Southeast. Broken Fader Cartel is looking to change that. Their latest effort is their strongest: Cloud Control is a compilation featuring 15 different artists from five different countries that have all convened on this glitch-heavy label to provide a remarkable set of songs whose quality is supreme. Theodore Geisel would be proud, especially in the artwork that pays homage if only subtly.

I first got into them last year when they sent Nauseous Youth Future's Dosage. Not expecting a great deal from Brian Flanders and a record label that was just three albums deep at the time, I was blown away by the fact that it was so competently and convincingly done by a dude from North Carolina rather than just "the north." As it turned out, this was just a microcosm of the label as a whole: Sampled here is the subQtaneous project, six main members the core in a 15-strong collective that has "o, he is not so evil," without the caps, is its featured song here. Scanone is an English DJ based out of East London and from a strictly visual standpoint, virtually none of the artwork in the back catalog looks anything like Cloud Control, but listening to "Spit," you see why this makes sense in the context of the compilation: Throbbing bass and tinny hi-hat persistence pay handsome dividends late in the album.

I've never liked the idea of digging holes to bury artists in (or maybe I like making so many up, pigeonholes are ultimately rendered meaningless anyway) and burying labels is even worse, but if there really is such a thing as "IDM" and there is a "standard" to bear for it, Broken Fader Cartel must surely be flying the flag. All the sweeter, then, that they should mostly be coming from the unassuming college nucleus that is NC's Triangle.













Team Shadetek - Eraser (Soundink 2007)

Team Shadetek - Pale Fire / Soundink

We talk about the shrinking world all the time in the media. From collegiate communications classes to your favorite music mag, the name of the game is a flatter, smaller world. It's passé even to bring up the Internet as a major factor in the musical market so I'll skip the history lesson here and just cut straight to the chase: Team Shadetek is the latest product of global thinking in aural form.

A first, second or fifth listen through without checking on guest contributors would have you believing that the two Manhattan-bred boys Matt Schell and Zach Tucker weren't even from America; their grime and dancehall beats call to mind Kingston or London before New York (though that would be a close-enough third). "Sick Ting" is the best example of that, and with a load of MCs from other parts of the globe (Red Dragon and High Priest among them) to add that dash of flavor to the deep grooves and distant syn stabs. As far as sinister goes, the MCs that drop through to lend their voice aren't afraid to talk about issues that affect your typical conscious writers: Politics, wooing ladies either directly or indirectly, where you're from, and how awesome you are respectively. But it's "Eraser" that stands out musically, a deep, dark backstreet bass line slithering its way through the streets. The whole album resonates with the knowledge Schell and Tucker picked up during their time spent traversing Europe and residing in Berlin. As he said in an interview recently, "I had to get out of New York before I could really be here." In that sense, the rhymes that accompny Team Shadetek's beats have to get out of Jamaica or East London or Manhattan before they really sound like they're from there. Channeling it through the electronic, hip-hop and grime riddims of the world, Team Shadetek are a lot like Broken Fader Cartel: Informed by an information (and ever-more informative) age, they bring those of us on the fringes together under the banner of better taste. I believe.

Radio Show Playlist 3/21

6a:
1. Wire - Single K.O. - 154 (Restless 1979)
2. The Fall - Blindness - Fall Heads Roll (Narnack 2005)
3. The Poison Arrows - Clear Cut - Straight into the Drift EP (File 13 2007)
4. Trans Am - Climbing Up the Ladder (Parts 3 & 4) - Sex Change (Thrill Jockey 2007)
5. Neu! - Hallo Gallo - Neu! (1972, rereleased Astralwerks 1991)
6. Black Future - Eu Sou o Rio - Nao Wave: Brazilian Post-Punk 82-88 (Man 2005)
7. Volcano! - Apple or a Gun - Beautiful Seizure (Leaf 2005)
8. Marnie Stern - Vibrational Match - In Advance of the Broken Arm (Kill Rock Stars 2007)
9. El-P - Ruin the Numbers ft. Aesop Rock - I'll Sleep When You're Dead (Def Jux 2007)
10. Dalek - Bricks Crumble - Abanonded Language (IPECAC 2007)

7a:
1. Johnny Williams - Breaking Point - Eccentric Soul: Twinight's Lunar Rotation (Numero Group 2007, originally Twinight 1967)
2. Marvin Gaye - "T" Plays It Cool - Trouble Man (Motown 1972)
3. Weldon Irvine - Watergate - Time Capsule (Nodlew 1973)
4. Glen Porter - Memoirs - Domestic Blend Vol. 1 (Inner Current 2007)
5. Dead Prez - You'll Find a Way - Let's Get Free (Relativity 2000)
6. Caural - I Won't Race You - Mirrors for Eyes (Mush 2006)
7. Love Trio in Dub ft. U-Roy - Rock the Rhythm - Love Trio in Dub (Nublu 2007)
8. Lee "Scratch" Perry - Are You Coming Home? - Panic in Babylon (Narnack 2006)
9. Noel Ellis - Memories - Jamaica to Toronto: Soul, Funk & Reggae 67-74 (Light in the Attic 2006)
10. Anga - Grandinga Mondongo Sadunga - Echu Mingua (Nonesuch/World Circuit 2006)
11. Bossa 70 - Think - Jeff Recordings: Rough Beats from Trinidad and Peru 72-76 (CDHW 2002)

8a:
1. Stereolab - Prisoner of Mars - Dots & Loops (Elektra 1997)
2. The Brown Party - TBP Loves Stereolab - The Brown Party (self-released 2006)
3. Kieran Hebden & Steve Reid - Our Time - Tongues (Domino 2007)
4. Tinariwen - Imidiwan Winakalin - Aman Iman (World Village 2007)
5. Antelope - Reflector - Reflector (Dischord 2007)
6. Extra Golden - Underneath the Arches - Songs Inspired by Underneath the Arches (Thrill Jockey 2006)
7. !!! - Yadnus - Myth Takes (WARP 2007)
8. Jamie Lidell - Multiply - Multiply (WARP 2005)
9. Nikka Costa - Do We Know Each Other ft. Prince (Sa-Ra Remix)
10. Low - Hatchet - Drums and Guns (Sub Pop 2007)
11. Why? - Gemini (Birthday Song) - Elephant Eyelash (Anticon 2005)

New Music: Tinariwen, Antelope, The Poison Arrows

Tinariwen - Imidiwan Winakalin (World Village 2007)

Tinariwen – Aman Iman: Water is Life / World Village

When you hear modern renditions of the blues, they just don't quite have the same emotional impact of recordings from the Delta bluesmen of the 40s. It's not that they aren't true to the characteristics of the genre or they lack the musical chops, but the emotional impact just does not parallel. It's been a good chunk of time since the majority of American blues men had something truly soul-stirring to be emoting with their rural twang and heartfelt, down-trodden lyrics. Now if we leave the muggy swamps of the Delta and head across the Atlantic to the desolate plains of the Sahara I bet we can find a few people who truly have the blues.

"I was walking down the street in Tessalit when I saw two of my friends being bundled into the back of a police vehicle," he recalls. "So I immediately returned to Algeria. Whilst on my way back, I heard that Iyad Ag Ghali had begun the rebellion, which was in progress by the time I returned. I joined them, living in the hills, attacking convoys and so on." It was during this time that the great legend of Tinariwen – involving them riding into battle with Kalashnikovs in their hands and Stratocasters across their backs – was first coined. All true, he confirms. – "Riders on the Storm" -Andy Gill, The Word (UK)

Watching friends disappear without a shred of hope for their return, kamikaze-like attacks on passing convoys, attempting to change a society built on archaic feudal hierarchies, living in the unfriendly and desolate wasteland of the Sahara; yeah, I'd say the Tuareg group known as Tinariwen has the blues. Hell, even their band name means "empty places."

Formed in the aforementioned rebel camps of Colonel Ghadaffi, a Libyan strongman, in the Western Sahara, group leader Ibrahim Ag Housseyni, who is said to resemble a mesh of Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix and Carlos Santana physically and spiritually, and his cast of nomadic band members travel the Sahara playing for fellow nomads and whoever else cares to listen. Appropriately called Tishoumaren or "the music of the unemployed," Tinariwen's music parallels the ethos of blues, reggae and punk's early days, a rebellion against the masses, music for revolutionary change, music for political awakening. They have been developing this style for upwards of 25 years though, so the message has been considerably softened, or perhaps waned is the better word. Not that they have stopped fighting for their beliefs, but the subject material has widened to include traveling, love, friends and the unparalleled life of the desert. Aman Iman: Water is Life could be called their third proper album; 2001's The Radio Tisdas Sessions and 2004's Amassakoul have been banned in Algeria and their home country of Mali, but are thankfully available to Western audiences.

Now if the back-story was not intriguing enough, we get to the fantastic music. You will immediately recognize it as the blues, but this is a whole new derivative of the genre. The obvious reference points are going to be "the African John Lee Hooker," Ali Farka Touré, or even Pakistan's Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, but we are definitely dealing within a secluded niche. Gone are the traditional lutes of Middle Eastern and North African music and in their place guitars and more electric guitars. In fact, Tinariwen have four guitarists who rotate taking the lead while the others weave in and out with a mixture of bluesy rhythmic chops and the quick elliptical curlicues heard in so much Middle Eastern music. But as compared to most music from that region you have probably heard, the tempo is significantly slowed down; it grooves along on that Western African pace that guarantees head nodding if not some relaxed dancing. The hypnotic circle of guitars usually constructed in five-tone scales is supported rhythmically by a slew of handclaps and traditional percussion like the djembe hand drum and the rattling shekere. The call-and-response vocals and shrill ululations hark back to traditional music,and the sinuous and smooth lead vocals sung in French and Tamashek acts as an instrument in its own right. Nothing is rushed and the results sound more like a jam session than anything else. If you close your eyes and concentrate, you can easily picture yourself surrounded by the musicians sitting under the ancient Saharan night sky.

Aman Iman is a mesmerizing album that I guarantee will have you reaching for the repeat button on numerous occasions. Hypnotic, psychedelic and exotic, Tinariwen is probably playing the truest form of blues in modern music. As opposed to just about any contemporary musician, they play because they have to play; it's just their way of life. In recent years, the group has gained a significant amount of attention and has performed at a number of festivals around the world from the Festival International in Lafayette, Louisiana to Le festival au Désert in Tin-Essako, Mali, a remote region of the Sahara Desert. They live the life of a true nomadic musician, completely homeless, practically outlawed in their home country and performing for revolutionary change. Tinariwen is the blues.






Antelope - Reflector (Dischord 2007)

Antelope – Reflector / Dischord

I initially came across Antelope back in 2003 during my first and only MacRock experience (whatever happened to MacRock anyways? it seemed like a really big deal back then but has exponentially diminished in every year since). It was the final night of the conference and I was determined to see Prefuse 73 even though it was one of the few shows off James Madison's campus and my geographical knowledge of Harrisburg, VA was minimal at best. After looping around the mountain town for a good hour or so, I finally stumbled across my final bar destination and grabbed a wall seat to enjoy the Dischord showcase before the main attraction finished off the night (Dischord showcase and Prefuse 73 together??? Yessir, pretty fucking awesome). It was just days after Black Eyes had decided to part ways and I was pretty pissed because they were one of have-to-see bands of the weekend, but the group that stepped into their slot ended up being just as captivating. Three skinny white guys took the stage announced as Antelope and proceeded to rip through thirty minutes of minimal but catchy-as-hell pop-punk tunes and rotating instruments between each song. They left the stage as quietly as they arrived and the memory was eventually eclipsed by amazing sets from El Guapo and Prefuse 73.

That was the last time I heard from Antelope until last week when I merrily pulled Reflector from my large pile of mail, their first proper full-length and the first released music since 2003's two EPs. Made up of multi-instrumentalists Justin Moyer (who goes by Justin Destroyer in Supersystem, formerly El Guapo), Bee Elvy and Mike Andre (both ex-members of Vertebrates), Antelope is exactly how I remember them: tight, minimal and catchy-as-hell. They craft a sound that could be described as post-pop-punk-dance, but that is probably one too many hyphens for it's own good. If you think what a stripped-back, calmed-down Supersystem might sound like, you are getting closer. But there is a lot more going on then just fluctuations of Dischordian characteristics; there is a definite inspiration from Western African music, especially the Senegal/Mali region. They utilize these tight, elliptical electric guitar melodies over simple dance rhythms that draw influence from groups like Orchestra Baobob but with a DC vibe. Reciprocal bass lines circle effortlessly and Moyer's nasally, unassuming voice acts mostly as a fourth instrument with the compact, repetitive lyrics. Produced by Ian MacKaye, Reflector is only 25-minutes long, and the longest track barely reaches over three-and-a-half minutes, but does not leave you unfulfilled because it packs a hearty punch with each of the ten songs. If you are like myself and just find Supersystem a little too overbearing and headache-inducing, Antelope is for you. Stripped down to just the essentialities, Reflector is Dischord punk philosophy at it's finest; and don't worry, the lyrics contain the subtle political pessimism you crave with each Dischord release.