Singleversity #17

Audiversity’s weekly column, slightly modified, on random music in a predetermined number of words between 1 & 150. This week's randomly generated number: 77.

MA:



While I cannot really claim to be a Film School fan, Nyles Lannon’s solo work as n.Lannon (or n.Ln) has always struck a chord with me… well actually delicately strummed a chord with me. 2004’s Chemical Friends is one of those albums that swirl in your consciousness, much like endearing thoughts of past memories. Drenched in reverb and ambiance, "Spy" captures the best characteristics of Nick Drake, Simon & Garfunkel and Elliott Smith while still sounding idiosyncratic.

PM:



The Tielman Brothers were sons of a Dutch army quartermaster stationed in Surabaya with a gift for music. As you can see from this 1960 TV performance, the talent translated: After leaving for The Netherlands in 1957 following Indonesia‘s independence, The Tielman Brothers came to be one of the cornerstones of Indo-Rock. Loulou the drumming madman, Ponthon’s upright bass flexibility, Andy’s charismatic behind-the-back solos, Reggy‘s stability… Yeah, the White Stripes wish they were this rock n’ roll.

Audiversity's Quarterly Concern

We introduced the idea of a quarterly review in March as a kind of self-indulgent roundtable review of things we had, er, already reviewed. It sort of worked in that you saw where each of us was coming from and where we'd intended to go. Same rules apply here; unfortunately, no alcohol was involved in the making of this entry. Of course, there's plenty of time to tweak the system... But first, the disappointments!

Michael: I try not to listen to disappointing music. Too much good music to listen to something that lets me down. Fridge was kind of disappointing, only because my hopes were way too high. I don't think they could have released anything to reach my mental standards for it. I have found all things NoW hip-hop pretty disappointing. Truth be told though, that Lifesavas record was pretty refreshing. I do honestly want to be into that scene, but nothing has grabbed my attention so far.

Patrick: I think the problem with the NoW stuff is that they all have the same message and it's all supposed to be inspiring and "different." But they're not really that different from themselves. They act as a collective rather than individual groups. A unified voice is nice sometimes, but you don't want to be totally faceless...

Michael: Too much of a scene. Maybe if they just did an album together...

Patrick: Best hip-hop album of the year.

Michael: The first track of that TTC was pretty stupendous, but the rest of the album didn't really hold up... I haven't listened to as much hip-hop as I usually do this quarter. I have been listening to a lot of classic Brand Nubian lately, but that's neither here nor there. You?

Patrick: Phat Kat or Mansbestfriend, probably. Something struck a chord with the Detroit thing earlier this year. The whole post-Dilla movement has been invigorating.

Michael: For sure. Too bad it took his passing to instigate it.

Patrick: Or for the press to instigate any kind of attention on them. I didn't have to deal with many disappointments, though Panthers and Justice stand out as sorely whelming. I cared so little about Black Strobe at the end of that album that my review was littered with factual inaccuracies.

Michael: Hahahaha, you got called a "tard"... I can't get into the whole indie-dancefloor mash-up-everyone-and-their-cousin thing.

Patrick: Sticks and stones and the "mud" that makes them. What do you think your big story was for this quarter? Everybody was talking about the critical mass of blog-house, but you admirably (and ignorantly) blew right by it. That's why people still read us, probably.

Michael: Blog-what now? Chicago musicians keep blowing my mind, so varied and incredible. Fred Anderson & Hamid Drake are at the top, that album was phenomenal. (((Powerhouse Sound))), Lichens, Watchers, Chris Connelly, Zelienople, Chicago Underground Trio, Numero Group, Fred Lonberg-Holm Trio, The Jai-Alai Savant, fucking Bumps. The Narrator certainly had their moments.

Patrick: The Jai-Alai Savant are part of my larger story of artists you might've forgotten about coming back in really excellent ways: Matthew Dear, The Icarus Line, Moonbabies, Hot Cross, Maserati. People floating right below the radar of memory. Well, that and people love links.

Michael: That Matthew Dear was one of the most pleasant surprises... Though he ripped off TV on the Radio pretty badly during the latter half of that album.

Patrick: And Air right at the end, but better them than Hinder.

Michael: A lot of good international stuff. I really dug that MoMo. Michio Kurihara of course. That Ibrahim Ferrer was excellent. World is typically what I listen to when I get the option. Other surprisingly good stuff: Black Moth Super Rainbow, Welcome, Opsvik & Jennings, The North Sea. Von fucking Südenfed.

Patrick: Mikhail, and add Omar Rodriguez-Lopez to that list. Because Se Dice Bisonte, No Bùfalo wasn't Frances the Mute.

Michael: Anything that isn't Frances the Mute is ok in my book.

Patrick: Boris slayed with Michio Kurihara. I think that's going to be one of our collective favorites this year. Though it took us forever, Apparat too. Maybe not this year's Orchestra of Bubbles, but...

Michael: You know, I have never heard that album, hence my lack of comparisons.

Patrick: We're probably the only review that didn't namedrop Ellen Allien.

Michael: Gorgeous artwork. Favorite album covers?

Patrick: Apparat since I first saw it. So vivid and free, really abstract and flowing. I liked the clean lines of Matthew Dear. Savath & Savalas. Babils was faithful to their sound, very disorienting. Von Südenfed was throwback but stylish, all thin fonts and combed haircuts.

Michael: Mine: Apparat's Walls, Savath & Savalas's Golden Pollen, Zelienople's His/Hers, Boris with Michio Kurihara's Rainbow, Efterklang's Under Giant Trees... I'm big into the artwork really matching the sounds within.

Patrick: Which version of the Boris/Kurihara art? The repackaged blue sky or the first-pressing white release?

Michael: The reflected sky with the waves. So simple but so effective. It matched the skewed natural sounds of the music. Some weird morphed reflection of an organic music; yea it's a guitar solo... But that shit was of a wavelength all it's own.

Patrick: The white cover was too Silent Alarm-ish anyway. But what good is the artwork if it doesn't have the album to match. Your top slot?

Michael: Best album of Q2: Fred Anderson & Hamid Drake's From the River to the Ocean. I think the Jai-Alai Savant's Flight of the Bass Delegate was the most overlooked.

Patrick: They're still one of the best reasons to keep up with GSL. And come to think of it, they had a good album cover too.

Michael: Damon Locks is a genius.

Patrick: Naturally, the elephant in the room of this conversation is Battles.

Michael: I considered that a given.

Patrick: "Tonto" is one of my favorite songs this year, right up there with Matthew Dear's "Vine to Vine." So cerebral.

Michael: I really like the last track on the Von Südenfed, "Dearest Friends" I believe.

Patrick: And for all the beat-based stuff we've had this year, Aa definitely. Really left-field, but in a good way.

Michael: When is left-field a bad way?

Patrick: When it's Adam Green.

Michael: Is he the one with the sparkly album covers?

Patrick: You're getting old. Jessica Simpson?

Michael: Didn't she go to jail?

Patrick: That was Paris Hilton. Jessica Simpson's too stupid to go to jail, that's how I remember her.

Michael: I don't think I have ever actually listened to Adam Green, and it looks like I never will now.

Patrick: With so many other things to listen to, Adam Green is about as worth your while as The Stooges. The Weirdness is one of those albums that makes you thankful there was such a thing as "post-rock." So what do we have in store for the future here?

Michael: Improved content? Bigger better interviews? Fans that care?

Patrick: Or fans? Sounds like a dynamite third quarter to me.

Michael: As long as the music can keep up.

Patrick: With us? Funny, cf. 5/13/2007. Very meta.

Michael: :)

Yesterdays Universe - "Prepare for a New Yesterday (Volume One)"

The Last Electro-Acoustic Space Jazz & Percussion Ensemble - Cold Nights and Rainy Days (Stones Throw 2007)

Yesterdays Universe – Prepare for a New Yesterday (Volume One) / Stones Throw

Though it sounds kind of weird saying it, I have grown up on Madlib. Granted I did not hear Lootpack’s Soundpieces: Da Antidote until a good number of years later, but how could anyone possibly ignore Quasimoto’s The Unseen? When it dropped in 1999, I was only 15, so it came quirkily strutting along during my most formidable years. My obsession with the Oxnard, CA producer/rapper/DJ/multi-instrumentalist did not really take a stranglehold until a few years later though, but I would say in the last six years, I have rarely missed a Madlib-affiliated release (and really, anything that sports the Peanut Butter Wolf-approved Stones Throw logo). Like so many other spongy minds out there, my ears are always perked for something exuberantly different that has the ability to lead me in new musical directions I have yet to explore, and each and every Otis Jackson Jr. release has done just that whether he is grooving as Madlib, Quasimoto, Sound Directions, Madvillain, Jaylib, DJ Rels, (enter a dozen other clever monikers here), or my personal favorite: Yesterday’s New Quintet.

For better or worse, I doubt that many people share my viewpoint that YNQ is the premier Otis Jackson Jr. project; and truth be told, I sometimes waver with my affection (since they are all so good). But just as I started getting interested in jazz music and searching for a starting point into its massive realms, along came 2001’s Angles Without Edges. Split into an instrumental quintet of separate personalities (Jackson Jr., Monk Hughes, Ahmad Miller, Joe McDurfey, Malik Flavors), Jackson and his Fender Rhodes slipped into a jazzy parallel universe of break-beats and chamber jazz that sent me immediately fishing for any records highlighting drum breaks, organs and vibraphones. And a few years later, Stevie, Vol. 1 (and yes, we are still patiently waiting for Vol. 2), really open my eyes to the genius of Mr. Wonder, and anyone even remotely around me can attest for my blossomed affinity for the work of Steveland Hardaway Judkins. Though solo twelve-inches have appeared periodically along the way (The Joe McDuphrey Experience EP, Ahmad Miller’s Say Ah!, Monk Hughes & the Outer Realm’s Tribute to Brother Weldon, Malik Flavors’ Ugly Beauty and most recently, The Otis Jackson Trio’s Jewelz), this could be considered the proper full-length album follow-up to Angles Without Edges… if it was a Yesterday’s New Quintet release. Nope, the quintet of imaginary players is as ambitious as Jackson himself and has formed a slew of other groups (all with wonderful names of their own). Though I bet that twelve-inches from each of the off-shoots will see the light of the day eventually, Yesterdays Universe’s Prepare for a New Yesterday (Volume One) gives you a sampling of all of the eight similarly-minded but slightly different new groups, plus unreleased tracks from Yesterday’s New Quintet, Sound Directions, Monk Hughes & the Outer Realm, the Joe McDuphrey Experience, Malik Flavors and Ahmad Miller.

Confused yet? Just remember it’s all Jackson and all excellent.

Jackson once again handles the majority of the instrumentation and production, which is fucking ridiculous and amazing considering the depth of the music involved, but there are actually two other “real” players handling drum duties. Karriem Riggins of the Ray Brown Trio and producer for Slum Village, Common, The Roots and others, and Ivan Conti (aka Mamão) of the Brazilian synth-funk group Azymuth each add their idiosyncratic percussive touches to the myriad of Jackson compositions.

The music itself is very much a descendant of the original Yesterday’s New Quintet sound, but with much more density. Rhodes and stuttering break-beats still make up the foundation, but they are now submerged in a thick atmosphere of fusion, spiritual jazz, Brazilian music of all sorts, funk, hip-hop, post-bop and free jazz. Jackson some how purveys a sound that integrates the influence of perhaps his entire record collection (no matter how ridiculously gigantic it may be) but specifically crossing the paths of the Coltrane’s, Stevie Wonder, Roy Ayers, Lonnie Liston Smith, Sun Ra, Pharoah Sanders, Azymuth, Weather Report, Jack McDuff, Donald Byrd, Herbie Hancock, The Blackbyrds, Weldon Irvine, Billy Wooten and dozens of other purveyors of jazz, funk and experimental hybrids. While Angles Without Edges may have been a bit too sparse for some people to really get into, the groups of Yesterdays Universe can completely immerse you within the depths of the songs.

Of all the new incarnations, The Electro-Acoustic Space Jazz & Percussion Ensemble wins my vote for best new group, if only because the sound is perfectly described in the name. “Cold Days and Rainy Nights” to me is the centerpiece of the entire album as it mixes the characteristics of Alice Coltrane, Billy Wooten, Elvin Jones and Charlie Haden with touches of ambience care of bird sounds and rain sticks. The thick bass synth barrage of the Otis Jackson Jr. Trio follows with perhaps the second best track of the disc, “Free Son.” Multi-tracked flutes do battle with unyielding synths, electronic flourishes, congas and a metallic drum kit. I am also digging the new soprano sax influence as it appears on a few of the tracks, especially Jackson Conti’s skittering latin-jazz workout “Upa Neguinho” and the sprawling “Vibes from the Tribes Suite” by none other than the Yesterday’s Universe All Stars.

Honestly, I could go on and on and on about how much I love this album, but it’s always good to leave a few surprises for the listener. Yesterdays Universe is absolutely the culmination of a decade’s worth of musical exploration and instrumental refinement for Jackson as he takes his near infinite string of influences and swirls them into a galaxy all their own. It almost seems unfair that not only is he the reigning king of innovative underground hip-hop and DJ rarities, but he is now nearly inventing a completely new genre of jazz-funk fusion. I know you can dissect a good chunk of the influences going into this music, but what else out there truly sounds like this? And on a personal note, I really want to thank Jackson for taking me on this musical journey and opening my eyes to so many amazing artists and styles over the last six years; there are precious few other musicians to grow up on that would expose a fan to so many different sounds.

Odd Nosdam - Level Live Wires

Odd Nosdam - Fat Hooks (Anticon. 2007)

Odd Nosdam - Level Live Wires / Anticon.

If it seems like we're closely watching the Anticon. offices, we apologize: Mansbestfriend's latest just happened to be a really excellent record and, together with Thee More Shallows, our faith in Anticon. had not necessarily been restored but more revitalized. Now we're still a long way off from this one (August 28th is the official release date), so it's likely that someone will call us out for jumping the gun... But we can't help it. As the latest from another core member of the collective, Odd Nosdam's Level Live Wires hit me in just the right way at just the right time. But while Tim Holland explained in our interview with him that he was putting together the sounds that would make a politically charged statement in Poly.sci.187, David Madson has meanwhile been crafting one of the best shoegazer albums of the year. No, really. You're going to want Level Live Wires.

But why, right? If you were in love with hip-hop and came to worship Anticon. because their beatsmiths blew away your speakers, why would you want something that effectively references late My Bloody Valentine or M83 or even Channel One more than anything remotely resembling hip-hop? The answer is that, deep beneath the swirling synthstatic fuzz of "Fat Hooks" or the droning beauty of "Burner," there still lurks the beats that helped unite Anticon. in the first place.

Less a cLOUDDEAD record and more a world that inhabits the pleasant spaces of the subconscious, the optimistic moments in your REM sleep. Interestingly, the thread that ties this record together with 2005's Burner is a track of the same name. Perhaps this track holds the key to the whole album several minutes in: An eight-track recorder and an unsettling high-pitched Ford Explorer horn juxtapose the stuttering horn that evolves into the bass line. "Burner" was one of Madson's most challenging songs, but with some help from Hood-lum Chris Adams (violin and background vocals), the song comes together as one of his greatest successes. You can still hear the Explorer burning at the end as its car alarm goes off, but this kind of subtlety only reaches you after it's all over.

His experience working with Boards of Canada, Thee More Shallows and Serena Maneesh in particular are all at the fore of a track like the effervescent "Kill Tone." If "Burner" is both the dark underside of his past efforts mixing with the driven guitar/synth splendor of Level Live Wires, then "Kill Tone" is firmly in the present. Its harp harmony is so spectacular, in fact, that it returns later in the album accompanied by some spoken-word poetry courtesy Why?'s Yoni Wolf and TV on the Radio's Tunde Adebimpe. To mentally connect another dot, this one has the feeling of a lost Nine Inch Nails song from The Fragile. Maybe it's the piano. Same thing with "Up in Flames." The production didn't cost millions, but it sounds amazing in headphones and speakers alike. It's just got that feeling to it.

"Fat Hooks" is another one looking to the light of heaven for inspiration and finding the blinding rays of Kevin Shields' broken dreams for pop in the 90s instead, but this makes it no less appealing. Odd Nosdam may be the best sound collage artist in the business partly because this album doesn't sound like a sound collage at all. There's so much going on, so many layers of sound, so many of them barely noticeable, that not getting the early pressings of this release that include an EP of the sounds which helped form these songs would be daft. This is a contemporary record full of contemporary thoughts, sounds and ideas that can only be expressed properly through as few words as possible. It is a record that will move you to feel, because that's just what humans do. It's what separates us from dinosaurs and gorillas and Kraftwerk. Level Live Wires is the sound of the human experience, one hazy daydream at a time.

Filmic - "Peacock People: Lectures Laid By Borrowed Branch"

Filmic - Nostromo (Self-released 2007)

Filmic - Peacock People: Lectures Laid By Borrowed Branch / Self-released

Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of motion pictures. A dialogue of sound and image. The intention to create a unique form of sample-based music that extends past traditional stylistic associations. There seem to be a strangely prominent number of New Zealand duos out there right now (Flight of the Conchords and Over the Atlantic are just two examples that spring to this mind), but the definitions that are the foundations of this review can only be attributed to Filmic.

Peacock People: Lectures Laid By Borrowed Branch. Sounds pretentious, doesn't it? Like a grad student thesis or a teenaged post-rock album. But Gareth Fletcher and Richard Sewell knew what they were doing when they put this 16-track, 52-minute experiment to tape. It's been a long time coming: Fletcher used to spin shiny black stuff under the alias of DJ Glyd, going so far as to place in a Heineken-sponsored DJ competition in 2003. As a graduate at Canterbury University in Christchurch, Fletcher made the film "Part and Parcel" which you can check out on both the webpage and the MySpace. Sewell is the classic doppelgänger, slightly less visible but no less important. As a DJ himself for eight years, Sewell has used his classical violin and piano training to get through school to architecture in Wellington, but the constructions and the definitions of composition are what unite the two.

That's where this album comes in. Someday they hope to have Filmic working as a proper collective, but in the meanwhile it's only their own vast knowledge they have to work with. Maybe they won't need the rest after all: If it's not the lush orchestration of "The Effect of Sunlight on Paint," it's 80s cop dramas scored on "Jimmy's Saloon." If it's not the evil kid's cartoon of "Gjinko," it's the jazzy minimalism of "Tumbledown." If it's not the chase scene from a late-70s kung fu movie in "Nostromo," it's the hermetically sealed sounds of "Beyond 2000" on "Gear Shift." The samples are chosen carefully. The 33s and 45s sampled, smeared and restructured for this album are omnipresent. I always wondered how to invade Russia in the winter successfully, and while it doesn't provide any answers, "How to Invade Russia in Winter" provides the backdrop to that brainstorming session. Tense and fraught with concern.

The point is that one song just isn't enough to hear to get an idea of what this album is like. It is everywhere at once, and like its ceaselessly inventive creators, it has the endless opportunity for growth. Somewhere in North America right now, Gareth Fletcher is trekking the continent and collecting the sights, smells and sounds that will ultimately feed the next Filmic album. If it's anything like this, we may be in for a surprise. Can two New Zealanders know America better than it knows itself? Peacock People: Lectures Laid By Borrowed Branch may not hold the answers, but the cards are being played awfully close to the chest.

Kemialliset Ystävät - "Kemialliset Ystävät (Untitled)"

Kemialliset Ystävät - Himmeli Kutsuu Minua (Fonal 2007)

Kemialliset Ystävät - Kemialliset Ystävät (Untitled) / Fonal

There are few things I've heard recently as disorienting and miasmic as Kemialliset Ystävät. There are a hundred other ways to start off a review of this group, and in fact several have already been taken: These "chemical friends" are not total unknowns and have already garnered praise in the past from the likes of Dusted (twice) and Fakejazz. Their latest release - either self-titled or untitled depending on whom you ask - is a continuation in the vein of a deep discography that extends back to 1995. The great thing is that there's no shortage of ideas on this record and the way it's patched together as an aural quilt will have you struggling to count off the different groups you think you're hearing.

First, the facts: The group has been working out of Tampere, Finland for many years now. If Wikipedia is to be believed, the band has no less than 40 collective releases (singles, compilations and splits included). Their relationship with Fonal extends back to 2002 with a compilation called Surrounded By Sun, but their first proper effort was the much lauded Kellari Juniversumi. With an ongoing release schedule, 2004's Alkuhärkä becomes the next point of reference. Matthew Wuethrich called it "rampantly eclectic," and there's little doubt that such a fitting description could be bested. How long could the psych-folk mastermind and [nominal] group director Jan Anderzén, a native of Tampere suburb Nekala, go on?

The answer arrives with their third Fonal full-length, and its blistering beauty is as dramatically ambitious, as ardently creative, as relentlessly shape-shifting as ever. The interesting thing is how Anderzén somehow manages to insert the occasional counterweight in a sound that has such a wildly freeform feel to it. Eclectic sounds thrown in just for the sake of being thrown in can work every now and again, but white noise reincarnated as constructive filler is a rare thing to experience. Anderzén and company achieve it as competently as you're likely ever to hear.

So take the opener "He Tulivat Taivaan Aarista," for example. You think its pulsing analog electronic bipping that introduce the album may turn into some minimalist Bpitch banger, but instead it twists and wraps and drives backward full speed behind into the Candyland-gone-awry world of Avey Tare & Kria Brekkan. Throw in a little Black Dice and a slice of doom-folk for the first track alone. It's busy alright, but it's busy in the best possible way.

"Lentavat Sudet" is more Panda Bearish, but already you can see that Animal Collective is an obvious reference point. Still, the horns lend a jazzy feel to this track, and is that a harp? Bells? A xylophone? Chinese flute? Just two minutes in, you won't care. It's already won you over.

As stated earlier though, it would be a lot harder to take this album in from a neophyte or casual listener's perspective if it weren't for some of the more accessible moments (all things relative, of course). "Superhimmeli" is the mid-album stand-out in this regard, its Red Square drumbeat instantly offset by strummed harp and the lo-fi melodies emerging from the frozen wilderness courtesy Kemialliset Ystävät's many friends and not a few synthesizers. The repeated melody will stick with you for the rest of the album, sort of in an Aa kind of way. Tribal with more monk chants and less shrill cries from the jungle.

Still, the masterstroke of it all is the concluding triumvirate of "Kokki, Leipuri, Kylvettaja Ja Taikuri," "Alyvaahtoa," and "Himmeli Kutsuu Minua." The album is a veritable goldmine of found sounds and mind-altering music up to this point, the way these final three songs come together is unequaled on the album. "Kokki..." explores the more folk-based side of things for the duration of its length, but the haunted-house sirens of "Alyvaahtoa" throw any prior expectations of a "cool-down" out the window. Not unlike an OOIOO track, its burbling underbelly adds an extra layer of sound that still allows room for chilling out. That's where "Himmeli Kutsuu Minua" comes in: As probably the most accessible and traditional song on here, its bass-and-tambourine rocking is augmented by Kemialliset Ystävät's idea of the kitchen sink. The echoing chorus mixes with flittering frozen butterflies and all things Eastern to give an esoteric flavor to what otherwise might just've sat as yet another engaging folk song from one of the world's best.

At the moment it's tough to pin down any one psych-folk group as being the best, because so many psych-folk bands are so good, so on top of their game right now, that classifying or ranking is both unfair and unwarranted. We can just love the music and the brilliance of these artists for who (or what?) they are, and Kemialliset Ystävät is a firm statement for pure appreciation. But if we had to pick only one at gunpoint, er... Just pick this album up and you'll see for yourself.

Radio Show Playlist: 6/27/2007

6a:
1. Cocteau Twins - Blue Bell Knoll - Blue Bell Knoll (4AD 1988)
2. Dommm - With a Statue - Yoloxochitl (Young Cubs 2007)
3. Apparat - Holdon - Wells (Shitkatapult 2007)
4. Lightning Dust - Breathe - Lightning Dust (Jagjaguwar 2007)
5. Brightblack Morning Light - Friend of Time - Brightblack Morning Light (Matador 2006)
6. 90 Day Men - Even Time Ghost Can't Stop Wagner - Panda Park (Southern 2004)
7. Handsome Furs - What We Had - Plague Park (Sub Pop 2007)
8. David Bowie - Look Back in Anger - Lodger (Virgin 1979)
9. Art Brut - People in Love - It's a Bit Complicated (Downtown 2007)
10. The Undertones - Teenage Kicks - The Undertones (Rykodisc 1979)
11. Chow Nasty - Ungawa - Super (Electrical) Recordings (Omega 2007)
12. Cougars - She Can Wear Gold - Nice, Nice (Go Kart 2003)
13. Pelican - Far From Fields - City of Echoes (Hydra Head 2007)

7a:
1. Fridge - Clocks - The Sun (Temporary Residence 2007)
2. Directions in Music - Untitled Track 4 - Directions in Music (Thrill Jockey 1996)
3. Conjoint - Blue & White - A Few Empty Chairs (Buro 2006)
4. Michio Kurihara - Wind Waltzes - Sunset Notes (20-20-20 2007, Pedal 2005)
5. Astrud Gilberto - Bossa Na Praia - Beach Samba (Verve 1967)
6. Antonio Carlos Jobim - Tema Jazz - Tide (Polygram Brazil 1970)
7. Ibrahim Ferrar - Melodia del Rio - Mi Sueno (Nonesuch 2007)
8. Sexteto Habanero - You Are My Harmonious Lyre - The Roots of Salsa, Vol. 2 (Folk Lyric 1994, recorded 192?)
9. A Hawk and a Hacksaw - Serbian Cocek - A Hawk and a Hacksaw and the Han Hangar Ensemble EP (Leaf 2007)

8a:
1. Nomo - New Song - New Tones (Ubiquity 2006)
2. Ebo Taylor - Heaven - Ghana Soundz (Soundway 2002, recorded 1977)
3. The Last Electro-Acoustic Space Jazz and Percussion Ensemble - Cold Nights and Rainy Days - Yesterday's Universe (Stones Throw 2007)
4. Michael Columbia - Predator - Stay Hard EP (Alabaster/Galapagos4 2006)
5. Alice Coltrane - Spiritual Eternal - Eternity (Warner Bros. 1975)
6. Fred Anderson & Hamid Drake - For Brother Thompson - From the River to the Ocean (Thrill Jockey 2007)
7. The New John Handy Quintet - A Little Quiet - New View (Columbia 1967)
8. Bumps - OK!!! - Bumps (Stones Throw 2007)
9. Herbie Mann - Hold On! I'm Comin' - Hold On! I'm Comin' (Recorded Live at the 1972 New York & Montreaux Jazz Festivals) (Atlantic 1972)

Artanker Convoy - Cozy Endings

Artanker Convoy - Rabbit (Social Registry 2007)

Artanker Convoy – Cozy Ending / The Social Registry

I am a big fan of album artwork. I believe to be a truly stunning release, it needs to be the full package: intriguing music, innovative and apt artwork and creative packaging. It also does wonders for capturing my attention, especially when thrown in amongst a large pile of other CDs all vying for my time. Honestly, I have mixed feelings about the artwork of Artanker Convoy’s sophomore outing, Cozy Endings. Granted the front cover picture of a lady’s well-proportioned fanny Lost in Translation-style is both appealing and in line with the album title, but to be perfectly honest, makes me think that the CD hidden inside is of the cock-rock variety. Thankfully though, it’s not—quite the opposite in fact—but I guess it could make one shake its groove-thing, so perhaps the photo is more appropriate than some Photoshopped post-modern something-or-another depicting the psychedelic swirls held within. Either way, Cozy Endings is an intriguing and worthwhile listen, so we can just debate the artwork later.

Helmed by drummer and percussionist Artanker (no other name included), the Convoy is made up of five other instrumentalists all focused in on finding the pocket and working within its limitations. A somewhat unneeded but still interesting biographical nugget, Artanker along with bassist Joe Florentino got their start on the NJ/NYC scene in the early 90s basement-rock act Jinx Clambake Explosion, which just so happened to be a starting point for an ambitious guitar player by the name of James Murphy (DFA, LCD Soundsystem). While the sloppy stoner-rock may not have much to do with what any of the involved musicians are purveying today, it does certainly make for interesting association. Artanker and Florentino also went on to star in the wily power-pop group Stratotanker while Murphy honed his studio skills. I am not sure where the actual musical evolution for the transition from goofy rock to sophisticated jazz-infused music takes place in the decade interim between the youthful projects and their current bands, but it’s a hell of an interesting starting point.

Most descriptions of the music are pointing to Miles Davis’s fusion experiments in the late 60s/early 70s, especially the oddball out takes of 1969’s Big Fun. I can definitely get down with that comparison; just realize Artanker Convoy would be less Davis, more McLaughlin-DeJohnette-Holland-Grossman-Zawinul. They all shuffle around aptly in the groove without one player truly taking command of the situation. And with all the hazy explorations of echoing electric guitar and krautrock rhythms, I would venture to say Can’s more subdued compositions might be better comparisons for the sound. Elements of psyche, jazz, dub and space-funk all interplay with the fusion and krautrock aspects making for music that simmers and struts and pays so much homage to the varied influences surrounding it, at times it enters a realm all its own.

As far as looseness and equally balancing all of their incoming influences, “Rabbit” takes the spotlight. A deep, spacey bass line leads taut, warmly toned guitar riffs (that are subject to many a guitar pedal as the song progresses), a two-man percussion rhythm, twinkling keyboards and Jake Oas’s patient saxophone, which weaves it’s way in and out of the pocket testing and teasing the throbbing mass of groove. “Black Dauphin” makes for an interesting number because about three-fourths of the way through the swirling psych-funk, Artanker locks himself into a dance rhythm not completely unlike a subdued DFA beat; perhaps Murphy’s influence did rub off a bit. The twelve-minute slow-burning introduction, “Open Up,” also is worth noting as it pairs a sexy space-rock hustle with touches of avant-garde jazz; Don Cherry would be proud.

Cozy Endings may be a bit outside its most befitting era (by a good 30-35 years), but within NYC’s current state of dancefloor redundancy, it is an especially refreshing listen. Artanker does a great job of leading his talented sextet without ever stepping on their toes. And that perhaps may be the most appealing aspect of the Convoy: all the players seem content to lock in with each other to create one infectious rhythmic groove without worrying too much about the spotlight. Now if perhaps we can work on the cover-art just a little to better suit the music… though I have to admit, it is pretty hard to argue with it too much.

37500 Yens - "Astero"

37500 Yens - Chapitres (Distile 2007)

37500 Yens - Astero / Distile

Duos from France is like a punchline you try to avoid. That's mostly because of Justice, but now Chevreuil and Cheval de Frise have their own compatriots to worry about on the instrumental scene: Welcome to the stunningly persistent world of 37500 Yens. Reims natives Jud and Frank are here to burn your eyeballs out with drumming n' strumming not unlike early Hella. If you think you're ready, 37500 Yens are ready for you.

Of course, Astero isn't some far-off foray into the forests of math-rock instrumentals that you've never heard before. It's not Church Gone Wild / Chirpin' Hard. It isn't Mirrored. It is, rather, a reinforcement of already worn ideas. It's not a re-examination at the style, but a fist-pumping reaffirmation that you can still be interesting for a full album without growing too slim on finger-tapping ideas.

"37501" is your ticket in and, though no obvious indications are given as to what the significance of 37,500 is (although it's worth noting that's the equivalent of roughly 33 cents), it won't matter after 27 seconds; from that point on, you are helpless to fight Frank's drumming prowess. It's subtle in this opener, and shades of Russian Circles' excellent Enter from last year linger in the air until a little over halfway through when a guitar onslaught signals that brooding isn't necessarily what this band does best. Rocking out is what they do. Given the eight songs they have here, none could've made acquaintance quite like it.

On songs like both "Chapitres" featured here and the title-track, the early Hella impersonations come full bloom. It's a stripped down approach - How much more reductive can you get than a guitar and a standard drumkit? - but like Hella you'll marvel at how they can produce such ridiculously loud sounds. If there's one twist to this album (aside from the sudden shouting on "The Sullivan's Quartet"), it's on "Canard Boiteux," the song that initially made me fetch this album. In addition to the guitar and drums, a third instrument is introduced: The saxophone. Lending an almost free-jazz style of play, this surprise addition late in the album is both a welcome and rewarding highlight.

Astero plays both smoothly and harshly on your ears as a math-rock refresher course for those of you who might've gotten away from it recently for one reason or another. 37500 Yens is a band that's worth checking out. Like Chevreuil three years ago, you may not be exactly sure what sucks you in so quickly... But you'll find yourself falling prey to the powerful trance of "The Sullivan's Quartet" every time. Why say more?

Slow Learner - "In Their Time They Are Magnificent"

Slow Learner - White Walls (Self-released 2007)

Slow Learner - In Their Time They Are Magnificent / Self-released

If you've been sitting alone in your room rocking back and forth in breathless anticipation for TV on the Radio's deluxe greatest hits package Desperate Youth, Cooke Mountain (with bonus DVD featuring Kyp Malone getting a haircut and an interview with David Bowie's doorman!), now is a good time to emerge from your solitude for a little natural light and the opportunity to hear Tunde Adebimpe's Essential Soul vocals once more. Except, sike: It's not Adebimpe at all. It's the ambitious Michael Napolitano that does all the work on In Their Time They Are Magnificent. The result is a striking, melodic release that's over a year old and is still gaining steam. Let this be Audiversity's coal to keep the locomotive running.

The TV on the Radio comparison was what originally got my attention, because on tracks like the grand opener "Retreasion" and the chummy "Martyr" that follows, you'd swear it was Tunde guesting on vocals. And considering that Napolitano recorded guitars, drums, piano, bass, organ, pump organ, accordion, melodica, harmonica and percussion for these songs, you'd think he wouldn't have time for lyrics and melodies that are begging to be stuck in your head all day. Not so; from the outside, you could say Napolitano's a czar, determined to keep lesser musicians out of the studio. I think it's more that if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself. Mulvaney and Blue Man Group member Larry Hienemann stopped in during recording, but otherwise Napolitano took care of things by locking himself in a studio and learning instruments beyond his native drums. It doesn't show. This album is exquisitely presented and brilliantly sequenced.

The most attractive part of the album emerges quickly: Piano. Tinkled ivory is a good way to win over a crowd, but Slow Learner is a band with a sound built on piano. No matter how many other instruments may horn in on something like the gorgeous "White Walls," it's the piano that carries these songs. The art and the balance of this album is that you feel like a fast learner next to Napolitano as he plays the simple half-speed jaunts of "Martyr" or "Look at Your Shoes." These are melodies that sound so simple and basic, and okay, they're no Rachmaninov piece. But the guitars (or the accordion, or the harmonica, or...) bring you in to a song, engage you directly, make you feel like you're at a My Morning Jacket concert or catching an intimate Low Skies show.

This is the other intriguing bit about Slow Learner's approach, the lyrics of love and loss notwithstanding. If you want a really reductive way of describing this band to someone, imagine TV on the Radio gone alt-country in a good way. Another modern reference point is M. Ward, and in fact Napolitano himself has noted Neil Young on occasion. Merge Records. Lucero. Springsteen. Whatever, there are so many reference points that descriptions themselves become redundant. The only solution is actually listening to this album, because it's the only way you'll fully be able to appreciate Napolitano's dedication. Why is this band still unsigned?

Interestingly, while Napolitano has made an album for the post-9/11 world, politics play a secondary role to the greatness of the music. More than anything else, this is an album of catharsis. It doesn't matter what your personal tragedy might be, Slow Learner has made an album for the immediate aftermath. It's dark, but it's also a door brimming with light on the other side. Which side you choose to stay on when it's over is up to you.

Apparat - "Walls"

Apparat - Limelight (Shitkatapult 2007)

Apparat – Walls / Shitkatapult

For better or worse, sometimes albums get lost among the shuffle here at Audiversity HQ. My living room/to-do table is covered in CDs, probably about 60 at the moment, all separated into various, loosely denominative stacks and each in a very weak priority order (75% of which actually need to be listened to). Each week a new slew of albums gets placed on top of the piles, and CDs I have yet to get to sadly get buried further into the clutter. Needless to say, it’s an imperfect system. Well Saturday’s all-out work-a-thon had me digging into the depths of my options and I finally popped the latest Apparat full-length, Walls, into the player for the first time. Released mid-May and probably sitting right in front of me for the last two months, I sorely overlooked Sascha Ring’s fourth official full-length solo outing. A skittering electro-acoustic Technicolor affair, Walls truly lives up to the brilliantly sweeping and wonderfully colorful and chaotic mix-medium art work that graces the cover.

For me personally, I think the freshest aspect of Walls is how much it does not sound like the current Berlin scene (or at least my assumption of it). It’s overtly melodic, emotional and sentimental, three characteristics not typically associated with electronica music, but handled masterfully in the hands of a man who knows his way around a set of knobs. And most importantly, it is a varied affair. Ring approaches his music with characteristics ranging from the twinkling classical minimalism of Reich to the blippy R&B of Milosh, and presents it in a well-balanced diet of dancefloor bangers, romantic ballads and soundtrack-worthy instrumentals. All the while, a consistent palette of colors is utilized in the tone to create a state of cohesiveness. Obviously, Walls is an album in the best definition of the term: an exploration, statement and story told with synths, drum machines and lush acoustic instrumentation.

Along for the tale are a few of Ring’s more musically talented friends, most notably sultry vocalist Raz Ohara and the similarly-minded Josh Eustis of Telefon Tel Aviv, who is responsible for the tone tweaking and final mixdown of the album. While Ring’s sexy compositions of soft-hued synths and creatively syncopated drum patterns are mostly responsible for Walls’ seductive appeal, Ohara’s Prince-lite vocals certainly help the cause. He is only featured on four of the thirteen tracks, but for more vocal-oriented, classic-song-structure music fans, they are your go-to tracks. “Hailin from the Edge” and “Holdon” push the boundaries of slow-dance techno tracks with near anthemic choruses, while later on “Headup” and “Over and Over” are more in the vein of slow-burning ballads (though the former still has an epic climax).

For my personal tastes, I dig the tracks that mix in his post-techno synthcapades with post-classical chamber music. Album opener, “Not a Number”, teams Reich-like elliptical loops of vibraphone with tinges of white noise, synth tones and strings, while the disc comes to a close with “Like Porcelain,” a mirrored sound utilizing similar electronic tones in place of the vibes. “Birds” successfully pairs sweeping strings and xylophone pings with a skittering drum beat, electronic noodles and Ring’s subdued vocals (which aren’t too unlike Ohara’s). As far as the more traditional Apparat numbers are concerned, “Limelight” takes the medal with its increasingly ecstatic layers of synth melodies and deep thudding drum machine.

Though my knowledge of most Berlinian electronica and the Shitkatapult roster itself is minimal at best, I would venture to say Ring is skittering on a completely different level with Walls than most of his contemporaries. If anything, its appeal to outsiders of the scene like myself is all the proof you need. It does a great job of capturing that wonderful sexy pop appeal of the early 80s electro-pop while keeping the genre wholeheartedly looking forward. There is a reason the Apparat moniker has risen to the top of the cramped, contemporary Berlin scene, and Walls should be all the explanation you need.

Interversity: Zelienople

Chicago psyche-folk outfit Zelienople step up to the mic for this week's Interversity. Their fifth-full length album, His/Hers, was recently released on the always interesting Type label and is the prime musical accompaniment for the both unnerving, magnificent and mysterious appearance of the cicadas this spring. Matt and Mike generously share their love of all things odd, instrumental and Neil Young.



Zelienople - "Parts are Lost" - His/Hers (Type 2007)

1. Personally, I find the most intriguing aspect of Zelieonple is the damp, dank recording quality of your music that only further instills the always-teetering balance between dismal and delicate; is this a conscious decision in recording methods to achieve this sound? Or is it more a welcomed byproduct of home recording?

Matt: I don't know. There are similar comments about the production of our records. For the last 3 or 4 releases, we strived to make the songs sound as live as possible, and one way to do that is just to record live with no "close micing". I'm not saying that we're masters of our instruments, but I think that the balance that you mentioned can be attributed to performance and limiting the use of guitar effects. Reverb plays a big role on every album, but that may change on the next release (I stress "may"). People have complained about our (excessive?) use of reverb, so we can never really give it up. I don't trust those people.

2. Throughout His/Hers there always seem to be very intricate folk foundations beneath the usual barrage of noise, psyche and free jazz, which comes completely to the surface on "Parts are Lost"; which do you consider more the starting point for Zelionple, the more folksy sound or the noisier stuff?

Matt: The songs are usually written with the intention that they're going to be "fucked up" at some point. I try to leave a lot of room for changes when I write something. When we all get together to record a song, we spend a lot time revamping, tightening, and loosening the songs. In this sense, I think that this is where the jazz influence becomes more apparent. Anyway, to answer your question, the songs could either start as a conventional song or noise, and end up being the other. I guess that still doesn't answer the question.

3. On that same note, does the marriage of the opposing genres stem from being particularly influenced by artists from those contrasting fields of music?

Matt: Yes. I love Neil Young and Pharaoh Sanders. And Neil Young has such a broad range spanning folk, rock and noise. I have many other, less cool influences that I won't mention.

Mike: I'm sure it does because our influences draw from such a diverse pool. That being said, I really don't think that we're ever conscious of drawing from a particular influence when were coming up with new material. We may start out with a concept but it usually gets so diluted by the time the piece is complete because I think were reacting to each other instead of one grand design.

4. Type Records seems like an excellent home for you guys as far as fitting snuggly into their roster and sharing the aesthetic they appear to be developing; how did that relationship sprout? How would you consider the fit with your prior labels?

Matt: Mike knows more about how we connected with Type. Mike also knows a lot more about labels and their "sound", so after we finish something he always seems to have an appropriate label in mind. He'll then send them a copy of the record, a blank check, and a fruit basket.

Mike: John Twells, head honcho of Type, wrote an adoring review of our last album, Stone Academy, on the Boomkat site, and I thought that he might be interested in hearing our latest endeavor so I sent him His/Hers. He was totally excited about it so he flew out to meet us which really meant drinking for four days, record shopping, eating Chicago junk food, and more drinking. He's totally immersed in music and nuts about discovering new sounds so it's been great to work with him. His label is top-notch and his own project Xela, coincidently what I'm listening to as I type this, is brilliant work too. That Svarte Greinar album is blowing my mind lately too. All of the labels that we've released music on have been great because they were all really enthusiastic about what we've sent them which is really encouraging. I was a fan of all of the other labels prior to us releasing music on them, that's why I sent demos to them. It would be nice to eventually meet some of these people in person some day.

5. I find your album artwork tremendously befitting of the music held within (both gorgeous in their own right); how do you weigh the artwork in context of the entire release? Do you do it/pick it yourself or frequent a particular artist?

Matt: With the exception of His/Hers, we've done all of the artwork ourselves. Mike has a lot of his own photos to choose from, so when we finish something it's likely that there's a photo in the other room that matches the sound.

Mike: Thanks. We've done all of the covers ourselves using my photographs, with the exception of His/Hers and Ink . Our music is very visual and so it's pretty easy for me to add images that seem to be the visual equivalent of the music. The photography on the His/Hers cover is by one of my favorite photographer's and friend, James Luckett (www.consumptive.org) and Ink was designed by Connie Toebe, another great artist and friend of ours (www.connietoebe.com).

Audiversinquiry (10 questions we ask everyone)

1. What did you specifically remember listening to as a child that triggered a notable response?

*Matt: I like that question. Tangerine Dream and John Carpenter's soundtracks really sparked my interest. Those were the first times that I heard something and it made me think of something other than music or sound. I also remember The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour as being pretty captivating. It's a shame. I don't think that I can recapture that feeling. I overdosed on the Beatles a while back. My mom and one of my uncles exposed me to a lot of cool stuff. My uncle took me to my first concert, which was King Crimson. By that time they were in the "Discipline" and "Beat" period. That probably lead me to Steve Reich later on.

Mike: I grew up in a family with two older brothers and two older sisters in Indiana so needless to say, 70's rock was always being played in the house. A few of the bands that really made an impression on me from this era of pop music were Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac, Peter Gabriel and Pink Floyd. But it wasn't until I started buying my own records in the 80's, wearing funny clothes and cutting my hair in that asymmetrical way that I was really seeking out new sounds that strayed from what my siblings were into like DePeche Mode, The Cure, New Order, Joy Division, Cocteau Twins, Bauhaus, Love & Rockets, Jesus & Mary Chain, Sonic Youth...pretty much anything dark, gloomy and creepy (at least to my new wave teen ears).

2. Let's say you are heading across town this moment and will have time to listen to one complete album during the trip, what would you listen to?

Matt: Well by default, it would be the new Odawas record because that's what's been in my car cd player for the past week. I don't think that I'm ready to take it out yet.

Mike: That Basic Channel cd compilation of 12" singles always sounds great while driving through the city at night.

3. Are there any other media that you draw inspiration from? Books, authors, painters, actors, movies, celebrities, etc?

Matt: It's going to sound like bullshit, but I've been reading Alan Dershowitz's "American On Trial" for a while now. I just keep reading it over and over. In a strange way, it's reassuring to see that many of our attitudes and ideas haven't changed much since the creation of our government. And since a lot of what I write about is poverty, crime and what society would regard as deviant, I get plenty of ideas from this book. My favorite author would have to be Kurt Vonnegut. I don't think that I have a favorite celebrity, but if I could meet one person... maybe Benjamin Franklin? I've tried to think of a reason to not think that Johnny Depp is great, but I'd have to say that he's my current favorite. I like Chagall (anything he did in blue is good). I'm always ready to watch any of Romero's "living dead" films. I love Jim Jarmusch's "Dead Man" (surprise, surprise). I also have a 1 year old girl, and I know that she's influenced me. I've been trying not to let the obvious themes of that creep into my lyrics for fear of schmaltziness.

Mike: Sure, there are lot's of things that compel me to investigate further into and it's always changing. You caught me on a high-brow cultural kick so at the moment I'm really into German Conceptual Photography from the 60's and 70's like The Becher's, Sigmar Polke, Anselm Kiefer. In my DVD at the moment is Andrey Tarkovsky's "Solaris", which is simply stunning. I often return to T.S. Elliot's, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" for the way he's able to translate the visual to the written form so eloquently. Film Noir has always been an influence on me and Matt has really got me into American Horror Films. Aside from these mediums, nature is always fascinating me as is traveling.

4. Where do you go to discover new music and sounds?

Matt: I go to American Science Surplus here in Chicago. For the last few years, I've been really getting into building instruments, and they often have a few items that will give me ideas. I go to Mike for new music, or rather, he gives it to me. I've become lazy about buying music, and I spend all of my money on gear.

Mike: I try to take advantage of living in Chicago because where I grew up there wasn't things like Free Jazz shows happening every night of the week (there probably has never been one such event that ever occurred in St. John, Indiana). I don't make it out to many rock shows these days but I do get out to see jazz and experimental music a few times a month. I saw William Parker Trio a few days ago and this week I'm planning on seeing Fred Anderson / Hamid Drake duo at The Velvet Lounge.

5. What question do you get most often that you hate answering?

Matt: If someone hasn't heard us, "so, what kind of music do you guys play?". There's no way to answer that without sounding like a pretentious asshole. If someone has heard us live, "why do you change your set every time?" Unless it's with a fan, I try to avoid discussing our music.

Mike: "Zelien-what?" I mean shit, isn't it a household name yet?

6. Favorite instruments or specific sounds?

Matt: I'm always surprised at what an electric guitar can produce. I also love white noise and bells.

Mike: This list could probably go on and on because I'm pretty obsessed with sounds, but a few of my favorites are echoes, all kinds of bells, an orchestra tuning up, the caw of a crow, the wind rustling the tall grasses in a prairie, the 17 year Cicadas that are currently out in my part of the world, the blood curdling mating call of the Red Fox that I hear in my backyard sometimes, the rhythm of a freight train in the distance, creaking of doors and floors, the Mourning Dove's somber song, footsteps in a large and empty cathedral, chants, a drunk tumbling down a staircase, raindrops on a metal roof, etc. etc. As for my favorite instruments, the jazz drum set, bass clarinet, frame drum (the oldest instrument in the world), various organs, stand-up bass, tamboura.

7. The record store is closing in ten minutes and you are hell-bent on buying something before they close, what section do you head immediately towards?

Matt: Used vinyl. I'm a hipster, and that's what we do.

Mike: Used jazz LP bin or the Neil Young section.

8. What is the last notable daydream you had and where did it take place?

Matt: Our power went out in our neighborhood the other night. I sat on the back porch listening to the sounds of people talking and the wind in the tress. I'm convinced that darkness makes it easier to hear, or maybe sound travels better at night when the humidity is lower. Whatever, it was easy to hear things without the noise pollution of air conditioners, TVs and radios. I thought about how nice it would be to have that silence to myself all of the time. Of course this is entirely selfish, because filling that silence would be the first thing that I would do, and I'd have a harder time doing it without electricity. I also realized that I would want my baby, wife and friends there too, and that these people all make noise. This led me to thinking about how man is destined for disappointment and contradiction in almost everything he attempts. I smoked a joint, read some Kafka, and played "Us & Them" on my acoustic guitar.

Mike: Um, you don't wanna know...probably something sexual or perverse while driving through the city.

9. What is the perfect album to you? Are there any? Is it possible?

Matt: Sure. There's a few that I would regard as perfect. Talk Talk's Laughing Stock, My Blood Valentine's Loveless comes very close, a few of Neil Young's do as well. Steve Reich's Music For 18 Musicians might as well be perfect. There's plenty.

Mike: A few that come to mind... John Coltrane's A Love Supreme, Eno's On Land and Another Green World, Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, Sun Ra's Magic City, Bachir Attar - The Next Dream, Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures, Javanese Court Gamelan, AMM - Newfoundland, the first three Velvet Underground albums, Gnawa Musicians of Morocco - Night Music, and The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour (with the exception of Paul's songs). O.k, one from my high school years that still blows me away...Sonic Youth, Sister. I can go on and on but I decided to narrow it down to the pioneers.

10. Do you keep up with blogs? Which do you read if so?

Matt: No blogs, but I check Craigslist under musical instruments everyday.

Mike: Not really, though I guess you can consider Salon.com's War Room by Tim Grieve a Blog. Also, I subscribe to a slew of the e-mail updates from the environmental magazine Grist.org.

Singleversity #16

Audiversity’s weekly column, slightly modified, on random music in a predetermined number of words between 1 & 150. This week's randomly generated number: 111.

MA:



A sometimes-overlooked album in King Tubby’s amazing discography, Dangerous Dub (named after his studio’s perilous location) was proof that the dub innovator still had some tricks up his sleeve in 1981. Recorded with Jamaica’s premier studio band, Roots Radics, as well as help from Jah Screw, Tubby submerged roots reggae in his patented brew of saturated bass lines and rocksteady percussion. "Loud Mouth Rock" in particular features Tubby at a creative high; hollow percussion and tambourine act as perfect counterpoints to the resonating bass groove and studio wizardry. Tubby still had a good eight years before his mysterious murder, but he would rarely reach these artistic heights from here on out.

PM:












It’s unfair (though completely unintentional… and typical) that we don’t feature female artists or female-fronted groups that often here. I don‘t consciously exclude them, but I guess I just don‘t always gravitate that way. Of course, Uffie… But really, here’s one trio I don‘t mind praising: Right about this time last summer Paw Tracks released the first full-length from First Nation, a Brooklyn all-female freak-folk group that didn’t to my recollection receive that much attention. A bloody shame too, because “Swells” is just one of a number of brilliant tracks that sound like a niche fulfilled somewhere in among Animal Collective and Black Dice. Dear females: Trying harder. Thanks: First Nation.

Begushkin - "Nightly Things"

Begushkin - Stroll With Mine (Locust 2007)

Begushkin - Nightly Things / Locust

Yesterday it was death-folk and a kitchen appliance. Today we're declaring the end of post-rock week and capping it off with a little acoustic affection in the form of Brooklyn six-string swooner Dan Smith aka Begushkin. I really don't know how long this review is going to be, but if it winds up particularly short, don't be discouraged. It's just because I cut out the mammoth "Here's the biography and what happened when we last saw Mr. Smith." As you might've discovered for yourself, there's pretty much nothing out there on what Smith has done for most of his life.

This could all be rubbish, but I read somewhere that he was on a sketch comedy show called "Program," which I never saw and can't seem to find anything about... All we know for sure is that the dude works mostly out of Brooklyn and has a ton of friends to help him out with recording and playing. I also get the feeling that he's got a really sardonic sense of humor. Don't hold me to that one, though.

What we know for sure: Nightly Things is a dramatically different take on the whole trad-goth thing that Wolfmangler aptly demonstrated yesterday. Whereas D. Smolken emphasizes the doom and the darkness, Smith's guitar talent and familiar vocal style allow him to bring the traditional folk song sounds forward, not necessarily muddying his voice in the mix or submerging the guitars behind a range of cello-sounding instruments. It's a little more approachable, but it's also a little more comical. "Stroll With Mine," for example, sounds jaunty with its accordion and gypsy-like jive. It's a beautiful song and one of the best on this too-short album, but it sounds so fun to play that Smith's fragile, almost Devendra Banhart-like voice that you hesitate to smile.

Probably the most memorable lyric on the album is "And you can be my monkey girl," which again sounds amusing out of context... But somehow Smith makes "At Night With Me" work as another American Gothic ballad Flannery O'Connor would be proud of. It's the mystical vibe of the fiddle (or maybe the violin?) that's played to balance out the guitars that form the base of every track. A lot of people have been using Will Oldham as a milemarker, but I would rather listen to this. Some of Oldham's albums are just exhausting to listen to... But Nightly Things never threatens to wear out its welcome: At a modest eight songs and 22 minutes, Begushkin's debut instead leaves you begging for just that little bit more.

Because it's so short, every song is vital. A good all-killer-no-filler folk album is hard to come by, but Dan Smith has aimed for the dark forests of the night and hit the ghoulish-looking trees on every shot. Actually, I'm not really sure that means anything... But Begushkin will make you feel like you do. That's power.

Bumps - "Bumps"

Bumps - OK!!! (Stones Throw 2007)

Bumps – Bumps / Stones Throw

So to conclude what has become post-rock week (at least from my side of things) here at Audiversity, we get to spend a little time with the Chicagoans who defined the term in the early/mid-90s, Tortoise. No, they sadly do not have a new album coming out as a cohesive group, but as you surely know by now, side-projects, collaborations and one-offs are abundant within the realms of the shell. This time around, the three most percussive minds in the band, John McEntire, John Herndon and Dan Bitney, head to the west coast and team up with hip-hop innovators Stones Throw Records for a record of drum breaks. Aptly titled Bumps, the rhythmic trio clang, clatter, skitter, rattle, pummel, pound, thump and yes, bump over twenty-three tracks of ridiculously tight break beats.

Not to dissuade you from checking out the album, but be wary, when I say drum breaks record, I absolutely mean it. Bumps is thirty minutes of break beats and that is it; no auxiliary melodic instrumentation save maybe a toned tom or the occasional ring of something-or-other is used whatsoever. I only emphasize this because even though it has not been advertised as anything more, I can easily see someone seeing the names Tortoise and Stones Throw teamed together and think this is some post-hip-hop-rock experiment… which it kind of is, but maybe not in the manner that you might think (by the way, that would be awesome and they totally need to look into that). With twenty-three different approaches to break beats averaging at about a minute-and-a-half a piece, McEntire, Herndon and Bitney are able to solder not only the aforementioned drumming styles of hip-hop and post-rock together, but also elements of funk, Brazilian, Latin, Afrobeat, krautrock, dub and other heavily rhythmic genres into one surprisingly cohesive and enjoyable album.

With the names and establishments involved, you can correctly predict a few characteristics before even pushing play on the album: 1. It is impeccably played, 2. It is crisply produced, 3. It is funky as hell. Now that we have covered those important aspects, for straight-up listening purposes, my personal favorite songs are the tracks that include odd drum set-ups, multiple tunings or extra percussive toys. While tracks like “OK!!!” contain breaks so killer it would make ?uestlove shake his head in awe, for attention purposes, songs like “Tryplmeade Gorsmatch” with it’s twinkling electronics and deep tom ring, “Swingland Hit” with it’s woodblocks and echoing pitches, “A Safe Balm” with it’s auxiliary conga rhythms, and “Dawn at Dawn” with it’s multi-tuned array of drums are your go-to points. For drummers and ears intently attuned to sample-able material, Bumps will keep you nodding your head for a good while; for listeners more interested in the melodic, lyrical or traditionally structured aspect of music, you may want to skip this release.

And being that this is a break beat record, I am curious of how the musicians involved are handling the copyright side of things. I do not see much point of releasing an album like this unless you are inviting other musicians to utilize the incredible breaks for other projects. At the very least, I hope that Stones Throw has a follow-up album close behind with songs built from these rhythmic foundations (and knowing the label, I can’t imagine that it’s not already in the mastering stages). But for the moment, Bumps acts as not only further proof that McEntire, Herndon and Bitney are three of the best rhythmic innovators in the game today, but a great DJ tool primed for killer segues or beat-matching.