Singleversity #49

Audiversity’s weekly column on music we stumble across during our sonic adventures. No random numbers, just straight audio goodness.

MA:



Revisiting one of the earlier releases from a label we gushed about repeatedly last year – the UK’s Type Records – TYEP002, the six-song EP Six Preludes from compositional wunderkind Ryan Teague, has creeped its way back into my heavy rotation. Balancing equal parts chamber music, avant-electronica, sample-based composing and modern classical, Teague melts the opposing styles of Arvo Pärt into Delarosa & Asora or Steve Reich into Biosphere. Minimal electronic manipulations and chirping melodic samples twinkle in a clear autumnal night sky of warm string vibrato and clarinet swells. On "Prelude I", he even weaves in ghostly choral chants evoking a sense of religious influence into the oscillating tone of the music. Enchanting and melancholy, Six Preludes – like all Type releases – is a repeatedly interesting study as well as a soothing late night listen if your mind isn’t in the mood for moving.
ps. Label-head Xela playing Chicago tomorrow (3/17) at Danny's

PM:
















While everybody was out getting loaded on the weekend before St. Patrick's Day, I was looking at how much greener Mayor Daly could possibly make the Chicago River and spending some time with the Smalltown Supersound crew. Not that I've given up my Irish roots, but I'll save the revels (and these sayings) for when they're really needed: the weekday. In the meantime, here's a little ditty from 1978 featuring Motown Sounds, a presumably Detroit-based group (They were on Motown, after all) helmed by one Michael Lovesmith who helped produce this LP and then disappeared into the obscurity of a solo career. Resurrected by Strut in the name of Larry Levan back in 2000 and again on a 45 by the sans-Smalltown Supersound label in 2006, "Bad Mouthin'" is a high-caliber disco classic provided by a group that had one amazing album cover and no follow-up or background information. Níl aon suáilce gan a duáilce féin, am I right?