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

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

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













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

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

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












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

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

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

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













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

The Nein - Luxury / Sonic Unyon

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










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

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

New Music: The Eternals, SJ Esau, Giant Skyflower Band

The Eternals - The Mix is So Bizarre (Aesthetics 2007)

The Eternals – Heavy International / Aesthetics

The Eternals are one of those bands that are just so far off the beaten path they kind of exist in their own realm. What Man Man is to klezmer, The Eternals are to funk. They take the foundation of the genre and mutate in such ways that while you can trace the lineage back, it's skewed beyond classification. Damon Locks, Wayne Montana and Tim Mulvenna (Montana and Locks spent time in Trenchmouth, while all members have helped accentuate acts like Smog, Vandermark 5, Fareed Haque, Via Tania and Joan of Arc) start with a little mid-era P-funk, soak it overnight in boom-box dub, decorate it with splotches of Headhunters-like jazz, the chugging post-punk of Gang of Four and just a touch of the exotic, experimental buoyancy of Tropicailia, and just when it all starts to fit snuggly together, toss it all back into the air like an arousing game of 52-card pick-up. This being their third full-length record, The Eternals sound is not as surprising as it once was but no less unpredictable; the ever-present obtuse funky rhythm may be familiar, but just try and sing along with Locks' splintered, comic book tremolo; try and guess when the next careening melodica will send you running back to your Lee "Scratch" Perry records… shit, try and figure out how they play any of this live with just three people. Here are just a few examples of the level of hybrid mutation we're dealing with: "The Origin of the Heatray" sounds like Agustus Pablo jamming with Battles, "Patch of Blue" kicks off sounding a little like Afro-pop before skittering into a mutated dubstep-like beat, "Heavy International" plods along on a loose krautrock groove given the King Tubby production treatment, and "It Is Later Than You Think (Pt. 1 & 2)" would be what The Octopus Project would sound like if they were rocking out to a Congotronic-style rhythm. It’s simply a wacky conglomeration of thumping influences pulled off with talented musicianship and a good sense of humor. Once again released on the always dependable Portland imprint Aesthetics and sporting Locks' Reed Richard-inspired artwork, Heavy International is exactly what it proclaims to be: chugging multi-ethnic music.






SJ Esau - All Agog (Anticon 2007)

SJ Esau – Wrong Faced Cat Feed Collapse / Anticon

Remember Hip Hop Music for the Advanced Listener and Music for the Advancement of Hip Hop? Back in the waning moments of the 20 th century, the Bay Area collective Anticon was being up front about their plan to take rap music to the next level, and I'll be damned if they didn't do just that. But when was the last time Anticon put out a hip-hop advancing album? Hell when was the last time they put out anything even resembling their own brand of hip-hop (not counting the Darc Mind reissue)? Jel's Soft Money from early 06 maybe or perhaps Sole's Live from Rome released a year earlier than that. Like most of the indie-rap scene, Anticon has moved on. I'm neither condoning or condemning their actions though; sure I miss the days of Selling Live Water and Them, but it's hard to argue with the contagious avant-pop of Why? or the stuttering post-rock of Dosh. And their latest batch of new artists including Bracken (Chris Adams of Hood) and Thee More Shallows have absolutely no foundation in hip-hop, advanced or otherwise. The third and most unfamiliar name of the latest signing wave, on the other hand, does very much fit the mold of a classic Anticon artist background-wise, but much like the rest of the roster, he's moved on.

Sam Wisternoff aka SJ Esau (an accidental anagram for "a jesus") used to be a rapper. He freestyled with 3D from Massive Attack, hung out with Tricky and won second place in the DMC rap championships. Did I mention he wasn't even a teenager by the time he accomplished all this? Before he even turned 12, Wisternoff had already become the star of the Bristol, England rap scene circa the late 80s/early 90s and was signed to Three Stripe Records with his brother (one-half of house duo Way Out West) as the True Funk Posse. Well his rap career peaked and diminished a little early and he set out playing in rock bands and recording experimental pop music under various monikers throughout the 90s before settling in on the SJ Esau multi-faceted sound in recent years.

As revealed on his first release for Anticon, Wrong Faced Cat Feed Collapse, that sound is hard to define but certainly fits in snuggly with the experimental post-shoegaze tip purveyed by his new peers. Like both Bracken and Thee More Shallows, Wisternoff is a rock/pop songwriter first but pushes every boundary he can to unsettle the norm and create a thick atmosphere. The foundation seems to be in British folk which is pretty easily heard on "Wears the Control" and "Halfway Up the Pathway," but rarely does he let the mixing boards stay idle. The closest vibe/atmosphere comparisons would be Hood, Fog and to a reaching extent Arab Strap or Slint; most of the songs are draped in a mellow, eerie haze but with recurrent chaotic outbursts of overmodulating instrumentation and electronics. He also frequents the weird but infectious pop territory of Why? on tracks like "All Agog" but to a much lesser degree. You know I could have pretty easily just labeled it "British folk with Anticon quirk" and been done with it, but I'd feel like I'm selling you short. Which ever description you prefer, SJ Esau is a creative artist who really lives up to the Anticon advancing music requirements and will please fans of the latest label trend to no end. Plus, how fun is it to go up to a record store clerk with a cheery face and ask: "Wrong Faced Cat Feed Collapse please!"






Giant Skyflower Band - Bitter Wild Rabbits/Builds the Bone (Soft Abuse 2007)

Giant Skyflower Band – Blood of the Sunworm / Soft Abuse

I can make two guarantees for every review you'll come across for the Giant Skyflower Band's debut album, Blood of the Sunworm: 1. the necessary reference to Glenn Donaldson and Shayde Sartin's other band, The Skygreen Leopards. 2. dropping the description "bummer psych" somewhere in the review. Why "bummer psyche" you may be asking, well mostly because the press release goes on about how the Skyflower's whole purpose of the album was examining the idiom, but also because it's got some potential buzzwordiness to it and what blogger doesn't like a good buzzword or five (I have the freak-folk tag locked and loaded so watch your back).

But what is bummer psych? I'm sure you can probably guess seeing as it is not that ambiguous of a description, but I was still hoping to inform you on some insightful background. Alas though, I could not find one specific article on the genre anywhere on the infinite… well not any more… the finite interweb. So I'm just going to act the half-ass music blogger and straight quote the press release, "the strain of damaged Anglo-pop music pioneered by Syd Barrett that arguably reached its apex with the Television Personalities' Painted Word LP in 1984, but found new life in Japan via the genius of Tori Kudo and like-minded acts such as Nagisa Ni te and Tenniscoats." So in conclusion, bummer psych is mellow, downtrodden psychedelic rock. I'm glad we got that sorted out.

Now back to The Giant Skyflower Band. Released on Soft Abuse, of which Destroyer, Frog Eyes and Wooden Wand have released records through, Blood of the Sunworm is the side project of Glenn Donaldson with help from his fellow Skygreen Leopard Shayde Sartin. Not far from the rural-folk of the Leopards, the Skyflower Band draws more from Indian and Eastern influences to embellish its lo-fi psychedelic folk. The vocals surely contribute to the bummer tag as they consistently sound forlorn and reflective, think Fred Thomas. The music is definitely the concentration though with Donaldson and Sartin taking on a gaggle of exotic instrumentation including a sitar, zither, acetone organ and twelve string guitars between the two. A brief and quiet affair, the first nine tracks clocking in just over 20 minutes with an 11-minute closer tacked on, which features a few stunning tracks amidst a good amount of quiet ditties. "Bitter Wild Rabbits / Builds the Bone" is the highlight of the album featuring an acoustic guitar and sitar duet for the first two minutes before giving way to a gorgeous meandering folk song that would be hypeworthy if backed by a horn section. "Feast of Blood" sounds like Saturday Looks Good to Me jamming with MV & EE and album-capper "Meditations on Christ and the Magi" is a great attempt at the droning Hindu sound Alice Coltrane perfected on Journey to Satchindananda. Blood of the Sunworm is a quality record that will probably get brushed over by most of the listening public, but will definitely make some Soft Abuse devotee's day. Personally, as mostly and outside observer on most of the freak-folk scene, I really dig the humbleness and will certainly revisit it on occasion.

Radio Show Playlist 2/28

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

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

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

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

!!! - Myth Takes / Warp

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

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

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

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



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

Damero - Happy In Grey / BPitch Control

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

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

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



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

Ellen Allien & Apparat - Red Planets / BPitch Control

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

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

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

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

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

New Music: Bobby Conn, Caetano Veloso, Aja West

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

Bobby Conn – King for a Day / Thrill Jockey

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

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

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

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







Caetano Veloso - Musa Hibrida (Nonesuch 2006)

Caetano Veloso – Cê / Nonesuch

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

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







Aja West - In Preparation (Mackrosoft 2006)

Aja West – The Olympian / Mackrosoft

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

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

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

New Music: Barr, Dälek, Tiny Hawks

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

Barr - Summary / 5RC

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

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













Dälek - Tarnished (Ipecac 2007)

Dälek - Abandoned Language / Ipecac

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

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

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













Tiny Hawks - Maker of Magic Wands (Corleone 2006)

Tiny Hawks - People Without End / Corleone

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

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

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

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

New Music: Trans Am, Secret Mommy, Xela

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

Trans Am – Sex Change / Thrill Jockey

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






Secret Mommy - Diciduism (Ache 2007)

Secret Mommy – Plays / Ache

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







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

Xela – For Frosty Mornings and Summer Nights / Type

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

New Music: Panda Bear, Kubichek!, Eluvium

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

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













Panda Bear - Carrots (Paw Tracks 2007)

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

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

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













Kubichek! - Hometown Strategies (30:30 2007)

Kubichek! - Not Enough Night / 30:30

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

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












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

Eluvium - Copia / Temporary Residence Ltd.

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

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

Radio Show Playlist 2/21

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

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

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

New Music: Tim Kinsella, Daisuke Miyatani, DJ Mehdi

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

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

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





Daisuke Miyatani - Old Tape (Ahornfelder 2007)

Daisuke Miyatani - Diario / Ahornfelder

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





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

DJ Mehdi - Lucky Girl EP / Ed Banger

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

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

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




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

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

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

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

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

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

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

New Music: Andrew Bird, Maju, Mt. Gigantic

Andrew Bird - Simple X (Fat Possum 2007)

Andrew Bird – Armchair Apocrypha / Fat Possum

Thanks to Andrew Bird, we now know what it takes for a quality musician to be labeled as “Breaking” by Rolling Stone: a decade-plus career, six full-length albums (three of which came with a good amount of acclaim), a few style changes and more press than you can shake your fist at AND THEN Rolling Stone decides it’s their duty to notify you, the ignorant public, that Mr. Bird is an up-and-coming, break-out potential artist… that’s quality journalism. All right, enough RS slandering, but it’s just kind of sad because Chicago’s most darling and cherished (among the indie-rock crowd) singer/songwriter in all actuality sounds more like he is coasting into a comfortable and realized sound with his seventh LP, first for Fat Possum Records, than really breaking new ground. Gaining momentum as an auxiliary member of the retro-swinging Squirrel Nut Zippers in the mid-90s, Bird first hit the scene with an eclectic combination of New Orleans swing and Eastern-European gypsy-folk (which he was way ahead of the curve with) before changing course and letting the more quirky aspects of his sound act as a supplementary characteristic to his refined and amiable, almost adult alternative, brand of laid-back pop-rock. With the clever lyrics, sophisticated sound and just a warming vibe to 2001’s The Swimming Hour and 2003’s Weather System, Bird gained a significant amount of momentum in the indie-rock community. In my opinion, this all culminated musically and hype-ally(?) with 2005’s excellent Andrew Bird & the Mysterious Production of Eggs which just has this underlying quirk that’s impossible to describe but easily felt and certainly resonated with the independent music community. So now we get to the up-coming Armchair Apocrypha that has had the indie blogosphere chirping endlessly for the last month or two. Everything we’ve come to expect from the last couple of albums is here: the deadpan vocals, witty lyrics, buoyant string plucks, swirls of violin, inviting atmosphere and Bird’s inhuman whistling that easily makes Peter, Bjorn and John green with envy. But is this a good thing? Where is that surprising burst that made his prior albums so infectious? Where is the idiosyncratic whim we’ve come to love from Bird? Well it’s there, but I don’t believe it resonates as much since we’ve come to expect it. To be perfectly honest, the album kind of bores me. Not that the music has degenerated by any means, but it just seems to coast rather than bounce, and that’s not a good thing. My favorite moments come when frequent collaborator and Anticon artist Martin Dosh adds his slightly manipulated, skittering drumming and endearing keyboard melodies to the mix, “Simple X” for example, which by no coincidence is my tune of choice. Bird whistles heavenly over the shuffling beat, he sings in quick phrases and even let’s out a falsetto or two; then about half-way through, Dosh breaks into an almost Brazilian beat and Bird supplies an Oriental-leaning violin accompaniment. If there were more tracks like this, I’d be ranting and raving all over the page. The truth is though, the majority of the album is safe, comforting and predictable with Bird’s résumé in mind, which I think hurts an artist so talented and known for his ability to switch-up styles. Then again, could he really asked for a better album to breakout into the Rolling Stone-curated mainstream? I have a hard time criticizing Bird because he is such an endearing character and seemingly the quintessential “nice guy,” and as my friend relayed after she caught his recent Chicago performance: “everything he does is so awkward and it’s just so cute I want to melt in his arms.” Sadly though, Armchair Apocrypha lacks that charming awkwardness that is so essential to his reputation and music and those of us familiar with the back-catalog are left a bit unsatisfied.






Maju - Chabashira (originally Extreme 2001, reissued 2007)

Maju – Maju-3 / Extreme

Originally released in 2001, Maju-3 is not so mysteriously the third proper full-length from Japanese duo Maju (pronounced may-you). Originally formed as a solo outfit in 1997 by multi-talented producer and musician Sakana Hosomi, Maju became the outlet for his collaborations with Masaki Narita, an active session musician for both commercial work and the popular J-pop scene. Both artists began their careers as keyboardists and share a heavy pastoral influence from growing up in secluded regions of Japan but are now relocated to the neon metropolis of Tokyo, a contrast omniscient in their albums under this moniker. The duo recorded heavily in the very late 90s and early 00s releasing five albums in a three years span on Australian imprint Extreme and German ambient connoisseurs Mille Plateaux, culminating in this album of fully realized micro-house leaning ambient. Though there are very few details listed in the liner notes, the music sounds almost fully created from synthetic keyboards or at the very least, heavily processed analog instrumentation. Typically large palettes of soft, humming frequencies are used as a foundation for supporting pings, clanks and skitters that are looped with precision. This theme is presented in varying degrees from the slow moving, glacial album opener “Resonance of Forms” to the near formless bustling of severed wavelengths during “Helix.” It’s a sound descended from the great ambient zeuses Eno and Riley but brought up-to-date with the microscopic digital splicing of laptops. It’s Tokyo at 4 in the morning: walking to the comforting hum of a city built on electricity and hearing all the tiny nuances of the varying frequencies created by a million electronic hues. Not to mention an occasional sputtering frayed wire that instantly grabs your attention in such a calm, soothing drift of a sound. With the growing popularity of artists like Fennesz, Tim Hecker and the Ghostly International roster, I can see why Extreme is giving this record a second go around. Slightly before it’s time, Maju-3 has a quiet, synthetic and anonymous elegance to it, like a series of precise frequency origami or a collection of graceful tonal haiku.






Mt. Gigantic - Blessed be the Bicycle (Friends and Relatives 2007)

Mt. Gigantic – Gatherings and Gleanings / Friends and Relatives

Collective-inspired music can be fun. Lots of ideas get tossed around, the best of which are picked out and pieced together to form one song born out of the overarching idea and individual musical snippets snuggly fit-together. But what happens when no ideas get tossed out? What happens if the collective says fuck it and forces the large square peg into the circular hole? What happens when they shove the triangle peg through after that? Mt. Gigantic happens, that’s what. The Wayne Williams led Bloomington, IN collective known as Mt. Gigantic create a rambunctious noise-pop sound of harsh contrasts and tumultuous song structures. The 14-member band comes from a number of different projects and brings their influences pummeling together: the quirky indie-pop of Half-Handed Cloud, the weirdo frantic rock of Rapider Than Horse Power, the lo-fi folk of Vollmar, the goofy cuteness of Matty Pop Chart and the anti-folk of Kimya Dawson. All the backgrounds are tossed in a blender, puréed for a few minutes and poured into a steaming espresso, which gets fed to a wily forest imp riding a horribly rabid but still pretty cute bunny rabbit and unleashed into the night with a tape recorder. For example, “Blessed be the Bicycle” starts innocently enough, a little bit of jangling indie-pop with male/female vocals; they then simultaneously yelp, break into a quick spoken word and spiral into a little angular punk before start/stopping the rest of the song between sleepy xylophone-laced pop and screeching atonal rock. The rest of album follows suit with collective yelling, odd chord progressions, toy instruments here, ravaging noise there, a little Polyvinyl pop sitting next to 5RC avant-rock leaving the only predictable element being that you know the polar opposite sound is coming next. Gleanings and Gatherings is obviously not going to reach far past some fun-loving college radio stations but who really cares? It’s a colorful DIY party encased in a silicone disc where everyone gets to try their idea no matter how wacky, play their instrument as loud as they can and yell their fucking hearts out with huge smiles on their faces. How can you hate on that?

New Music: Marnie Stern, Bob & Gene, Glenn Branca

Marnie Stern - Vibrational Match (Kill Rock Stars 2007)

Marnie Stern – In Advance of the Broken Arm / Kill Rock Stars

Goddamn there is no better feeling than when an album completely catches you by storm. My boy George over at the wonderful promotions group Terrorbird has been going on and on about this girl from the upper east side over the last few weeks and while I absolutely trust his taste, pushing artists on his roster is what he gets paid for and that's something you can't ignore as a music director. But I gotta say, he was on the mark with this one because I'll be damned if haven't kept In Advance of the Broken Arm on repeat since it fell in my lap a few days ago. Marnie Stern is in the rare class of artists that can live in the spirit of their influences without coming off as a second-hand product of that sound. The marniestern1 MySpace page reiterates the blatantly obvious under the 'influences' tab: Hella, Orthrelm, Yoko Ono, Deerhoof, Animal C, Khaki King, US Maple, Ex-Models. Ravaging spazz-punk, off-centered art-pop, mathy post-punk, curious no wave and even a little bit of guitar virtuoso thrown in for good measure; it's all hear in it's wonderfully obtuse splendor and Stern not only embraces each but adds her own fingerprint as well. The avant-garde rock stylings of Orthrelm and (most obviously) the guitar-drum schizophrenia of Hella are the two closest points of influence and not just because Zach Hill is acting as producer, drummer and flesher-outer. Stern, while still developing her own unique style, has completely embraced the Mick Bar, Spencer Seim and Don Caballero brand of manic finger-tapping and fractured approach to guitar playing, and she's pretty fucking impressive at it. With Zach Hill behind the skins, you get pretty close to Hella 2.0 but Stern's femininity sends her album spiraling off into Sleater-Kinney/Melt Banana/girls-fucking-rocking-out-and-blowing-your-mind territory. And perhaps most surprising with the genre at hand, Stern has got an impressive voice that can quickly jump from a subdued elegant pop croon to a snarling high-pitched yelp. Teamed with her off-kilter, fragmentary lyrics, she is able to keep every song dynamic and unpredictable. "Put All Your Eggs in One Basket and Then Watch that Basket!!!" is really poppy, catchy and fun despite the gnawing guitar (a technique Hella has perfected) while "The Weight of a Rock" leans toward the avant-garde with seemingly stream-of-conscious drum clatter and Sterns processed voice. In Advance of the Broken Arm is fun, capricious and vibrant, and it can please everyone from the riot grrrls to the avant-metal heads to the art-pop kids. It's going to be most exciting to see how Stern progresses though as she continues to develop her songwriting and guitar playing, and it would be especially cool of she teamed up with some of Hill's many compatriots for a completely new project. But for now it's time to hit the repeat button yet again and listen to Stern try to both emulate her influences and discover a sound all her own; as she reveals in "Logical Volume": "This is my Thunderroad / This is my Marquee Moon / This is my Orthrelm in tune / This is my love for you."






Bob & Gene - Gotta Find a Way (Daptone 2007, orginally Mo Do 1968ish)

Bob & Gene – If This World Were Mine… / Daptone

At the turn of the 20th century, Buffalo, NY was a bustling city growing exponentially thanks to its geographic location at the eastern end of Lake Erie and the critical Erie Canal junction. They had an ever-increasing number of steel and grain mills that attracted immigrants and workers from all over the US and even was the first American city to take advantage of hydroelectric power thanks to nearby Niagara Falls. Everything turned sour though in 1957 when the St. Lawrence Seaway, a system of canals that allowed ships on the Great Lakes to completely bypass Buffalo, opened and almost 50% of the population headed elsewhere for work. The majority of the industries shut down and the city never bounced back (interestingly enough, it’s one of the two American cities with a smaller population in 2000 than 1900). Obviously enough, a poverty-stricken Buffalo circa 1967 was not the most fertile soil for growing a music scene so whenever a group gained popularity, they promptly headed to bigger markets, i.e. Darrell Banks and Jimmie Raye heading to Detroit. There was at least one man who was determined to cultivate the scene though: singer, saxophonist, factory worker and neighborhood favorite William Nunn. In an attempt to help steer the youth of his area away from trouble, he built a studio in his basement and joined the leagues of the many independent soul labels popping up by the dozen during those years; Mo Do Records (ahem, “I’m broke, I need some mo’ dough”) was born. 50 Orange Street quickly became the place to be for the youth of the Fruit Belt neighborhood. Like most labels being dug up today, Mo Do put out a small number of singles that played well over local radio but as quickly disappeared into obscurity; Nunn was forced to close the doors by 1971 for financial reasons. Of the Mo Do acts, one group seemed destine to break out, but came up just short of putting out their first LP. The duo of Bobby Nunn, William’s son, and Eugene Coplin put out a number of 45s recorded in the Orange Street basement between ’67 and ’71 that easily made them the most popular teenagers in all of central Buffalo. Dug up and remastered by New York soul music historian David Griffiths, this collection of twelve pop-soul tunes may not have had a significant impact on the entire genre of R&B; music, but is individual, fun and worth your listening time. Building on an early funk and soul foundation, the teenage pop of Bob & Gene is a combination of the adolescent R&B; and doo-wop of Frank Lymon and the Teenagers, the burgeoning smooth Philly soul of The Delfonics and the danceable Chicago soul of The Five Stairsteps. Being in their mid-teens, it’s certainly not a surprise that love is the subject of concentration or that they are copping a lot of the nuances from the bigger acts of the day (James Brown, Otis Redding, Motown). I actually dig the young, unpolished songwriting on cuts like “Gotta Find a Way” and their Marvin Gaye-inspired political shout-out “Somebody’s Doin It (War)” that really make the Bob & Gene sound one in it’s own. Then again, it has the opposite effect on a song like “It Won’t Go” when the falsetto never really can find the right pitch. As a whole, I definitely see the merit in releasing the full-length compiled for the first time thanks to the always dependable Daptone Records, though it does lack some of the jaw-dropping exoticness of re-releases put out by Numero Group or Now Again. Like just about all of the Buffalo musicians, Bobby Nunn eventually left Buffalo (Gene Coplin went into the ministry and still calls the City of Lights home) to continue his career in music. In fact, he helped mold the sound of hometown hero Rick fucking James! As well, he won a Grammy for his work with Earth, Wind & Fire member Philip Bailey and started his own independent label CCEG. Sadly though, William Nunn, the driving force behind all of this, passed away before seeing this album finally released.






Glenn Branca - Harmonic Series Chords (Atavistic 2007, performed 1989)

Glenn Branca - Indeterminate Activity of Resultant Masses / Atavistic

Well I had every intention of reviewing this first "official" release of Glenn Branca's thirty-minute piece from 1981, but the always amazing Dusted Magazine reviewed it just yesterday. Not that us Audiversitarians are so competitive that we just toss CDs aside when someone else beats us to the punch, but Dan Ruccia's review is so detailed and conclusive that anything I write would just be a sad rehash of his fine work. So rather than a futile attempt at it, I am just going to point you in the direction of his review and bow down in respect:

Dan Ruccia's Dusted Review

However, we are able to post a sample mp3 to go a long with it, so I have included the throbbing orchestral piece "Harmonic Series Chords" performed in 1989 that is tacked on to the end of the disc. Enjoy.

Radio Show Playlist 2/14

WLUW-FM Chicago, the wonderful home of Audiversity and the station I direct music for, is currently in the middle of our hugely important February pledge drive. We are a completely independent and listener-supported entity and donations contribute 95% of our yearly budget. If you are a fan of the station or Audiversity (which very much would not be a possibility without the station) please help by pledging here and clicking on the floating Beck! And we also have some thank you gifts featured here for your generosity and listen all week for chances to win some great concert tickets as well.

And the playlist that was catered somewhat to ticket giveaways:

6a:
1. Ted Leo/Pharmacists - Parallel or Together? - The Tyranny of Distance (Lookout! 2001)
2. Television Personalities - You Kept Me Waiting Too Long Long Long Long Long Long Long Long (E*Vax of Ratatat Remix) - My Dark Places Remix EP (Domino 2007)
3. Andrew Douglas Rothbard - Indigo - Abandned Meander (Smooch 2006)
4. Antibalas - Hilo - Security (Anti- 2007)
5. Fela Kuti & the Africa 70 - Fefe Naa Efe - Gentleman (MCA 1973)
6. Exploding Star Orchestra - Cosmic Tomes for Sleeping Walking Lovers: Part 2 - We are all from somewhere else. (Thrill Jockey 2007)
7. Baja - Nona's Theme - Maps/Systemalheur (Stilll 2007)
8. Spaceways Incorporated - Red Hot Mama/Super Stupid - Thirteen Cosmic Standards by Sun Ra & Funkadelic (Atavistic 2000)
9. (Request) Pixies - La La Love You - Doolittle (4AD 1989)
10. Arab Strap - (Afternoon) Soaps - Ten Years of Tears (Chemikal Underground 2007)
11. The Black Swans - My Lips - Sex Brain EP (Bwatue 2006)

7a:
1. The Velvet Underground - Sweet Jane - Loaded (Atlantic 1970)
2. Nico - These Days - Chelsea Girl (Polygram 1967)
3. James Yorkston - The Brussels Rambler - The Year of the Leopard (Domino 2006)
4. Sparklehorse - Some Sweet Day - Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of the Mountain (Astralwerks 2006)
5. David Vandervelde - Jacket - The Moonstation House Band (Secretly Canadian 2007)
6. Woods - Hunover - At Rear House (Shrimper 2007)
7. Low Skies - You Can't Help Those People - All the Love I Could Find (Flameshovel 2006)
8. Adem - X is for Kisses - Love and Other Planets (Domino 2006)
9. Badly Drawn Boy - Something to Talk About - About a Boy (XL 2002)
10. Jamie Lidell - Multiply (In a Minor Key) - Multiply Additions (WARP 2006)
11. Tortoise - Six Pack - Standards (Thrill Jockey 2001)

New Music: Antibalas, Tim Hecker, The Black Swans

Antibalas - Hilo (Anti- 2007)

Antibalas – Security / Anti-

The opening track of Antibalas’s fourth proper full-length kicks off with staccato horn flares and a tinny polyrhythm, which is nothing too much out of the ordinary for this band of afrobeat, afro-latin and deep funk connoisseurs, but about half-way through it falls into a grooving rhythm of slightly overmodulated drums, a weird kind of space-funk keyboard bounce, handclaps and subtle touches of electronics followed by a breakdown consisting solely of percussively played metal (not the genre but the element, duh). When the horns reappear a minute later all the pieces of the song come together in a rather odd exclamation of genreless, geographicless music. Right from the beginning, the Brooklyn collective known mostly for bringing Fela’s music to the uncultured youth of America have broken into new ground of music that… wait for it… is not afrobeat; it’s Antibalas and nothing else. Really though, this should not be that surprising since they’ve been paving their own musical path since the 2002 sophomore release Talkatif which saw the group adding their own personal touch to the heavily inspired sound. 2004’s Who Is This America? garnished a lot of due acclaim and the 12+ member collective have been staying busy in the interim by heavily touring, contributing their talents to recordings by TV on the Radio, Medeski Martin and Wood, Baaba Maal and Gomez, and continuing to progress their own sound. Now signed to Anti-, the Antibalas crew brilliantly relocated to Chicago for a brief period to record with engineer/producer/drummer extraordinaire John McEntire at the studio Mecca known as Soma Electronic Music Studios (I’ll give you a second to wipe the drool). His influence can be easily heard as the band once infamous for paying homage to Fela expands on their usual musical penchant in a number of ways including the aforementioned album-opener “Beaten Metal,” the almost Caribbean groove of “Hilo,” the minimal approach of “Sanctuary” and solemn album capper “Age” (solemn! what happened to the rebellious party music??) I have to admit though, my favorite track, “Filibuster XXX,” harkens back to earlier Antibalas and is decisively afrobeat-driven with an excellent trumpet solo and vocalist Amayo rattling off quick vocal snaps of political confrontation. At only seven tracks, the shortest of which clocks in at just under 5 minutes, each song is given ample attention and features a different sound thanks to the many songwriters available in the group, but still sound particular to the band. Security is an excellent and diverse album from the purveyors of the worldly niche of American independent music that is thankfully ever expanding, and I can only hope that this post-afrobeat punch is only the tip of the iceberg.






Tim Hecker - I'm Transmitting Tonight (Alien8 2007, originally Mille Plateaux 2002)

Tim Hecker – Radio Amor / Alien8

Running a little bit of clever compare and contrast to really tie things together here at Audiversity (we do enjoy kidding ourselves to be clever people), I'm taking a look at Tim Hecker's recently re-released 2002 album, Radio Amor, that approaches the ambient genre from the opposite side of the recently reviewed Cirque from arctic sound pioneer Biosphere by utilizing a slow-burning sound rather than a decisively icey one. This ominous wave of heat comes care of a Caribbean sun that relentlessly duals the splashing sea Hecker is crossing in his album-inspiring quest towards neighboring Honduran islands way back in 1996. Listening to the record, you can almost see Hecker sitting starboard, feet dangling from the edge of the hitched shrimping vessel as he lets the environment settle into his ears: the sputter of the water against the side of the boat, shortwave radios crackling with static, wind blowing through and across surfaces causing natural harmonics to hum, the clang of iron latches pinging the metal mast, exotic tongues acting more as instruments than communicating devices. It's the music of a pre-ipodian civilization; it's pure, unadulterated ambience and Hecker's ability to recreate it is what's gained him such a surprisingly large audience. The Montreal producer began his musical career as laptop glitcher Jetone but since reverting to his given name in 2001 for more ambient work, he's accumulated quite an audience for the genre at hand. 2006's year-end list staple, Harmony in Ultraviolet released on Kranky, no doubt has a little to do with re-releasing this album that was initially put out by Mille Plateaux, an experimental sublabel of Force Inc, and out of print for the last few years. Hometown Alien8 is behind the push this time (they also put out his early recordings under their Substractif imprint), and it's revisiting, while hype driven, is well worth your time. As I dramatically introduced earlier, Radio Amor is an album inspired by voyaging the sea and the encapsulating ambient music that may not by realized by a pair of distracted ears. He achieves this organic sound through digital manipulation of subtle melody, controlled feedback and white noise. The album seems to progress with Hecker's voyage; the first four tracks contain a significantly greater amount of discernable melody (created from piano flutters), symbolizing the excitement and intake of this new environment. By "7000 Miles" though, the trip seems to be wearing on the passengers as the waves of static are noticeably more menacing, but settles into acceptance with the low frequencies of "Careless Whispers" two tracks later. "Azure Azure," the album's longest song, is an enclosing band of frequencies that builds by interconnecting the highs and lows as one, just like the blue of the sky and sea seems to become one in the same the longer you are surrounded completely by both. Thankfully though, "Trade Winds, White Heat" closes on a gentle vibe as resonant wind-chime-like tones tingle with care. As his acclaimed discography and wide audience attests, Hecker is a talented producer and musician. Revisiting Radio Amor is a welcomed glance and satisfying nod back that will rekindle prior praise for the record and educate newcomers on how he has progressed to Harmony in Ultraviolet.






The Black Swans - I.D.W.2 F. (Bwatue 2006)

The Black Swans – Sex Brain EP / Bwatue

"I don't want to fuck / I just want to spoon / I'm too sensitive of a man / To be any closer to you." Hmmm… is Jerry DiCicca sincere or is he pulling the ol' sensitive/reverse psychology card to… er, get a little sentimental action? Maybe it's his thick as tar drawl or the upbeat country-folk surrounding the lyrics, but I'm kinda leaning towards sincerity in this case. He elaborates a bit further: "And it's not really you / It's all about me / I get weird just thinking about / Being inside someone so pretty." Yeah, I think I'd call that sincerity or at least brutal honesty or perhaps a little self-loathing or possibly just straight creepiness. Either way, DiCicca and his fellow Black Swans tackle the immensely awkward subject of sex and the psychological games that are inescapable when it comes down to those intimate/dirty moments of being completely exposed to another. Released mid-06 but just making it's way around the radio circuit, the Sex Brain EP is one of those recordings that is just so odd it becomes fascinating. Musically, the closest and most-often used comparison is to 90s British indie act the Tindersticks who share their penchant for mumbling vocals, bizarre subject matter and dark romanticism. The Black Swans utilize a more country-folk foundation though and garnish it with atmospheric electric guitar, a moody violin and even a bit of avant-garde saxophone. But even though the music is captivating in it's own right, the lyrics are just too hard to ignore. Following the aforementioned "I.D.W.2 F." (ahem, I Don't Want 2 Fuck) opener, "Friends" narrates the relationship with a certain menacing friend we've all spent a regrettable night with, lady tequila, and the resulting consequences: "She pulled my pants down / And said she knows / My girlfriend" (gulp). "Your Hands" finds the inevitable partner-less evening, "It was sweat and shampoo / Now it's cocoa butter lotion." And for a little bit of a break from the stark forwardness of the rest of the EP, DiCicca goes all metaphor with "Dark Plums," "My body is a plum tree / Reach between my legs / Ripe are the fruits / You keep turning away." "My Lips" closes on a slightly optimistic note… musically at least (the female presence of Sara Jurcyk is to thank for that)… but the unattainable satisfaction of repeated sex with one person, even if the mutual feelings are strong, is just too much: "Will we wear out our welcome / As closeness grows dull? / Our bodies too familiar / My hard-on sinks into a lull." The Black Swans create an awkward sound, but how else can you really tackle subjects as… well awkward as sex. No matter how much we kid ourselves with the manufactured sexiness and plastic romanticism of displayed fornication, the act (and especially the steps leading up to it) is just strange and most of the time uncomfortable. But we do it nonetheless for as much emotional resonance as bodily satisfaction (oh… and I guess procreation is kinda important), and the awkwardness is something we should embrace just like the sound The Black Swans have cultivated. And truly, could there be a better way to really connect with someone than giggling at the intimate situation you've both found yourself stumbled into?

Used-Bin Bargains: Uganda

With Vice's recent reissuing frenzy of Boredoms here in the US, we thought it might be a good time to look back this week into a corner of the late-60s Jap-psych phenomenon that has only recently re-emerged.













Uganda - Pigmy (originally released 1972; Shadoks re-release 2006(?))

Uganda - Uganda / Shadoks

Like much of the rest of Africa, Uganda was in a period of serious unrest in 1972. Idi Amin (the "Last King of Scotland" or, as he preferred, "His Excellency President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea, and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular") had become another name in a growing list of fledgling African rulers ascending from the hangover of the UK's post-colonial withdrawal. After a military coup in 1971, Amin was now hunting down former president Milton Obote and forcing over 50,000 Asians into exile following a mere dream of his.

I give this draining history lesson as an intro because, in listening to Akira Ishikawa's forays into African tribal music with Uganda, one feels the whole calamity not just of the acid-psych movement of the late 1960s but the chaos surrounding the easing in of the new decade and the conflict associated with it in Africa also. A first listen to this four-song LP (of which, it is suspected by German reissue magnate Shadoks, only 400 copies were pressed) gives away the tribal rhythms that have experienced something of a renaissance with everything from the cowbell madness of punk-funk to the surprising success of the Congotronics series. Percussion is, it seems, all the rage these days. This is the strong-suit of Uganda.

As expected, information is scant. But more and more of these rarities are coming to light thanks to the overdue triumphs of Boris, Acid Mothers Temple and Boredoms. Clearly these bands have a root in what was going on nearly four decades ago, but the massive effort to uncover what was going on in Japan around this time still leaves little in the way of biographical profiles or recording histories. Les Rallizes Denudes could be the posterchildren for this movement to mine the depths of obscurity, but everybody from the Rallizes to San Ul-Lim to Foodbrain is garnering attention. You know this. So we try to piece the great Japanese psych-rock puzzle together ourselves, and though most of the Japanese acid bands were vaguely related to one another, Ishikawa had few tenuous connections before he wandered off into the African bush: He worked primarily as a solo artist (Drum Yagi Bushi came out the year before Uganda) and only shares a name with the Djarma guitarist. Perhaps he is better known for his Electrum venture with Count Buffalos in 1970. The Uganda experiment coupled him with Love Live Life +1 acid guitarist Kimio Mizutani, who is far more widely known. Most notable among his achievements is People's potentially life-altering masterpiece Buddha Meet Rock in 1971.

Both of these men were already dabbling in prog with jazz fusion and acid excess by '72, but Uganda was a new way of channeling the energy. It was also another excuse to keep the creative juices flowing via drug intake... But the grass they were smoking in Uganda must've passed through customs unnoticed: "Pigmy" is the concluding track from the album but, as you can hear, Ishikawa's composing was aided by the competent playing of a number of hired guns back in Japan under the influence of the Masai (not Masia) tribesmen. Back in Africa, Ishikawa was studying music with them; no one is really sure how long he was gone or where he was studying. It's clear that their percussion techniques did a number on him though, because "Na Tu Penda Sana" is one of the most awesome percussion solos committed to vinyl during the period. For half of its nine minutes, Mizutani puts his guitar down and lets Ishikawa get to it. Chronologically preceding it is the thundering 11-minute opener "Wanyama Na Mapambazuko," which remains the real centerpiece even as it sits at the top of the order. Representing one extreme of the Uganda sound, "Wanyama Na Mapambazuko" (which has to mean something fun in Japanese, though I can't be sure) builds slowly and then freaks out as good as any Super Roots series ever did before abruptly coming to a halt and then easing into "Na Tu Penda Sana," the kraut-child tinkler-gone-mindflaying of "Vita," and the standard-by-comparison "Pigmy." "Pigmy" represents the other extreme of Uganda's sound, a creative and totally listenable psych-rock number that would settle in comfortably but almost completely unnoticed on a Grade A psych mix CD. In short: It's good. Really good.

Recorded in glorious quadraphonic sound, this album was privately pressed and no one is sure who did it. Even still, the legacy of the anonymous Masai tribesmen Ishikawa worked with in the months leading up to Uganda remains. A good thing, too: Inadvertantly, Uganda is not just a one-off band stemming from the fruitful grounds of Japan's early-1970s Japan. This is a snapshot of two nations juxtaposed to one another: Japan on the rise, Uganda in descent. In one of the most critical junctures of its history, the pearl of Africa may have never been captured better.

New Music: Television Personalities, Ethan Rose, A Sunny Day in Glasgow

Television Personalities - You Kept Me Waiting Too Long Long Long Long Long Long Long Long Long (E*Vax of Ratatat Remix) (Domino 2007)

Television Personalities – My Dark Places Remix EP / Domino

It goes with out saying that Dan Treacy and his loose collective of bandmates known as the Television Personalities have been one of the most influential musical spirits of indie rock and pop. Aside from the vocal idolization from hugely influential bands themselves like the Jesus and Mary Chain, Pavement, Nirvana and the Pastels, the loose, whimsy and completely idiosyncratic pop of Treacy may be only rivaled by the Velvet Underground in uniqueness of the genre. Beginning in 1977, Treacy and company recorded sporadically over the next 30 years with a rotating cast reinventing their psychedelic pop, punk and new wave sound with moody, lo-fi songs that simultaneously caused furrowed brows and half-chuckled amazement. It’s pop music that’s impossible to determine whether it was improvised on the spot or obsessesed over to sound that way; as Nitsuh Abebe so perfectly stated in the Pitchfork review of 2006’s My Dark Places (the first Television Personalities album since 1998, Treacy spent an indefinite time on a prison boat (!?) due to drug abuse and waning mental health in the interim): “even in the moments where it’s close to being a musical disaster: You forgive those things the way you might with your best friend’s band.” Following in conjunction with a new album called Are We Nearly There Yet? (being released on February 20 in the US on Overground Records) is this 4-song remix EP of My Dark Places featuring, in order of appearance, E*Vax of Ratatat, I Will (Ian Williams) of Battles, Brooklyn female duo LingLing and noisescapers Black Dice. E*Vax backs “You Kept Me Waiting Too Long” with Ratatat’s catchy instrumental prowess featuring theremin crescendos, hand shakers and synth hooks that will stick in your head for days (not to mention eight more "Long’s" to the title). I Will reshapes the title track in typical Battles format, i.e. completely destructed and pieced back together in a seemingly obtuse manner that works confusingly well. The "Rainbows in Tunnels Mix" of "All the Young Children on Crack" features the clattering drums in the forefront with bright synth, guitar and electronics coloring a decisively dark track. And finally, Black Dice contribute their urban pagan noise-pop sound to the endearing "She Can Stop Traffic," a fitting collaboration since Black Dice definitely share a creative wavelength with Treacy. This is definitely a worthwhile EP for fans of Television Personalities and the bands involved.






Ethan Rose - Song Two (Locust 2006)

Ethan Rose – Ceiling Songs / Locust

Sadly, being in the radio biz, you have to sometimes overlook exceptional albums just because of factors like song-length. Now certainly being in independent or college radio gives you leeway in this aspect, but from my experience, I know even if I put an excellent album like Ethan Rose’s Ceiling Songs in our library the chances of it getting played are very slim. The record features three songs, two of which clock in at 15 and 20 minutes respectively, and it’s categorized as ambient music… gasp! Though most DJs at the wonderful WLUW are very open to all sorts of genres, the reality is they have limited time slots and each second of those two hours are coveted, so anything clocking over five minutes really has to warrant it being played. So because of all these factors, I hesitantly placed Ceiling Songs aside for way too long to concentrate on feeding the eager and impatient ears of my listening audience, and it’s a shame because as I revisit the recording, the more and more I get engulfed in it’s beauty. Released on the exceptional Chicago label Locust back in mid-September 06, Rose’s third LP features musique concrete with soul, transcendent tones sewed together with warm hiss and carefully chosen crackle to create a soothing sound. Interestingly enough, the starting point for this piece was an archaic “Happy Brithday” piano roll and a hand-cranked music box that played only “Jingle Bells.” Rose strategically removed notes and interrupted melodies to form unforeseen patterns of lulling tones then reconstructed and arranged them digitally. Laced with heavily manipulated strings, brass and percussion as well, Ceiling Songs is a study of hidden melodies and the obvious notion that a piece of music is never completed. “Song One” centers around slow moving and reversed music box notes (at least I think) that dissolve into chirping feedback and ebbing piano flurries. “Song Two,” which I link only because it’s the shortest, is the most ambient of the three with drawn-out string plucks and echoing piano notes that gently fold back on each other until they settle into emptiness. And the 20-minute conclusion, “Song Three,” begins much like “Song One” with a very subtle, almost nonexistent rhythm before brightening considerably in the latter half and concluding with shimmering electronic flutters and hollow, high-pitched whirls of feedback. Ceiling Songs is gorgeously and subtly textural as it exposes you to the innerworkings of not only archaic music mechanics like the music box but their resulting melodies as well. It’s music that was masterfully arranged by Rose but has been present since the mechanisms were created long before this recording; they just needed a set of understanding ears to be let loose from their rigid prison of locked gears and finite cranks.






A Sunny Day in Glasgow - Things Only I Can See (Notenuf 2007)

A Sunny Day in Glasgow – Scribble Mural Comic Journal / Notenuf

Could Grizzly Bear really be the next Postal Service? It’s been four years since Give Up dropped the colorful, crystal clear blips with heart-wrenching vocals on our collective and somewhat wincing ears and about two years since their popularity peaked. Concurrently, their devotees of crisp electropop have been waning in the last year as well, and in it’s place a sound washed with reverb, layered heavily and pulling influence in turn with typical 20 year cycles from late 60s psychedelia and late 80s shoegaze. In many ways it’s the pop antidote to the rigid perfectionism of the Postal Service, and Grizzly Bear is quickly becoming the figurehead for the sound. Enter A Sunny Day in Glasgow, a trio of siblings from Philadelphia who fit into this next style wave seamlessly. They turned some college radio heads with their mid-06 EP, The Sunniest Day Ever, and posted a four-star track on Pitchfork, which concurrently drizzled similar hype throughout the blogger hierarchy. The Daniels kids, mastermind Ben and vocalists Lauren and Robin, could not be more primed for indie take over with their debut full-length, Scribble Mural Comic Journal, and while not mind-blowing, it’s a solid record of dreamy shoegaze pop. Defining his sound for the last few years, Ben Daniels began earnestly with cassette recordings collaborating with friend and Glasgow art school-attendee Ever Nalens, who apparently lacked the foresight of Daniels and abandoned the cause back in 2005. This led to sisters Robin and Lauren taking over vocals as Ben moved back home to hone his craft. The resulting sound’s foundation is shoegaze’s sky encapsulating distortion and feedback with every pop hook or stuttering drum machine rhythm overmodulated with care and doused with enough aching reverb to produce a thick atmosphere. Ben is a talented multi-instrumentalist and songwriter as he refuses to settle for anything conventional and regularly experiments with atonal melodies and odd song structures. The Daniels sisters coo with ghostly falsettos that personally are a bit distracting; they remind me too much of the trip-hop singers of a decade past. There are songs where they work well with though, heralded single “C’mon” being the focal point, but I’d definitely prefer a more varying vocal presence or more experimental instrumental pieces like “Panic Attacks are What Make Me ‘Me’”. Be prepared for a good degree of shoegaze revivalist hype with the release of this record and an ominous Grizzly Bear reference, both of which are warranted but not to the degree that they will be stated. I’m certainly not denying the talent of the Daniels’ siblings, in fact I think it’s a pretty impressive record, but I also don’t think they are there quite yet. Hopefully Scribble Mural Comic Journal is not the peak of A Sunny Day in Glasgow but a solid stepping stone forward to such greater heights (hehe harhar hoho).

New Music: Yuksek, Distance, Lovepump United 7" Series Vol. One

Yuksek - Little Dirty Trip (Relish 2007)

Yuksek - Composer EP - Relish

MySpace used to be an exciting place. In those heady post-Friendster days, each new friend request held promise; people were people, not spambots, and the musical universe was seemingly free of towny bar bands looking to tally another hipster so that by osmosis they would seem more with it. So it was refreshing to be added the other day by this industrious young Frenchman, Yuksek, obviously out there grinding hard on the internet. About halfway through "Little Dirty Trip," I clicked "open new tab" so that I could add the song to my profile and STILL KEEP LISTENING. Turns out that Yuksek is a member of France's new foreign legion, a fresh breed of producer looking to make the waters fun once again, clearing out all the debris that for too long has littered the dance music scene with boring ten-minute debris and "take you on a journey" pretension. Don't get me wrong, there's a place for Villalobosian psychedelia but if you want to really get me up then stop that five-minute build and give it to me now now now. Yuksek does just that on this four-song EP featuring two originals and two remixes. "Composer" is muscular and sleek, definitely springing from Justice's heavy metal mentality, but it takes Institubes soldier, Surkin, to fully articulate the song's potential to grate and scrape its way into your heart. "Little Dirty Trip" is a real burner and could be polarizing in the way that "Mandarine Girl" and "Waters of Nazareth" have either created converts or birthed enemies, changing minds or sending purists running back to their stale, cheezball anthems or minimal wanking. Check the remix, too, from yet another Frenchman, Vicarious Bliss; it has more tricks than the original and really is like rubbing shoulders with sunshine. Imagine Rick James jamming with New Order, taking any sterility out of new wave and infusing it with cocaine-fueled fierceness. So there it is, Mr. Smooth House Man. The line has been drawn. Do you want to rock crowds or bore them into submission? Yuksek and his kind are coming up from behind.





Distance - Traffic (Planet Mu 2007)

Distance - My Demons - Planet Mu

The future is bleak, my friends. Global warming and Islamic fundamentalism are threatening humanity's ascension to a Type One Civilization. Theoretical physicist, Michio Kaku, gives us a 50/50 chance to escape the dark ages, but is a dystopian future all we can hope for? Take your pick: Mad Max's future-primitive existence, Snow Crash's hyper-commercialized suburban sprawl, Orwellian totalitarianism; it's all about pessimism. The church of dubstep is equally insistent on blowing out humanity's barely burning flame. Like fellow scientists Burial and Kode9, Distance creates an aural cyberpunk aesthetic. "Night Vision" is a fitting opener, dropping you trapdoor-style into murky sewers teeming with failed biological experiments. "Traffic" roars like a biomechanical mutant charging at full speed, and I really wish I had a song like it back in high school to soundtrack my Unreal Tournament killing sprees. Unlike other dubstep DJs, Distance has shunned grime MC's in favor of being totally instrumental. It's a smart move, getting away from the streets of 2007 in favor of urban explorations circa 2027. Yeah, words can paint pictures, but not always correct ones, and shedding the constraints of language allows My Demons to spread its chrome wings and deliver a cohesive vision. So lock this in a time capsule with climate change studies and a photo of Kim-Jong Il so that future people can say, "Damn, how did they not see it coming?"





Various Artists - 7" Series Volume One (Lovepump United 2006)

Crack Und Ultra Excema - Arbeit - Lovepump United

Check AIDS Wolf, half-naked and mouths agape, their minds duly blown by this four band, 2x7" compilation. Functioning as the NATO of noise rock, we have gathered here Crack Und Ultra Eczema (France), Pre (UK), Dmonstrations (USA), and the aforementioned AIDS Wolf (Canada...errr, Quebec), who kick things off with "Put Your Head On A Plate", aiming to decapitate us all with razor sharp guitar stabs. Chloe's vocals join right in with the maelstrom, vividly pleading with you that there is a killer outside and he just maimed your sister. "Bad Vibes" is just as literal, like anxiety grabbing hold of your throat and never ever letting go. Crack Und Ultra Excema was a real revelation to me. "Arbeit" is the true definition of industrial music, pounding and scraping like an old factory. Julie Le Pute's ghost in the machine vocals ever rising until the bottom falls out into broken bass slogging it out with what must be the sickest guitar effect known to man, sound converted into a million tiny, lacerating lights. Le Pute again shines on the bouncy "Rastafareich", invoking the detached delivery of Delta 5; "Ebola Day" is a panic-indusing post-punk guitar romp that would make James Chance a happy man. Pre is always in your face like a petulant kid hopped up on too much sugar. Their songs are mostly wide-eyed and sprinting like suicidal lemmings. With titles like "Dude Fuk" and "Big Dique", there's a punk-as-fuck attitude that goes way beyond dumb mohawks and safety pins. Seriously, its 2007, I thought punk was about not being stagnant. It's a shame when your daily look is a Halloween costume for some people. Theres nothing punk about being a stereotype. Keep moving, keep punching. Dmonstrations bring up the tail end with four tracks, all of them yelpy and disjointed. These guys are truly weird enough to call San Diego home and continue the great lineage of bands like Antioch Arrow, the Locust, and the Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower. Remember, this is only available on 2x7", and you know how the kids eat up colored vinyl, so snag this today before it becomes another No New York-type situation.

New Music: Minus the Bear, Bleubird, Fulton Lights

Minus the Bear - 53rd & Memphis (Fog remix) (Suicide Squeeze 2007)

Minus the Bear - Interpretaciones del Oso - Suicide Squeeze

I know what you're thinking already: "Christ, you guys were doing so well there for awhile. Minus the Bear? Seriously?" or maybe "A remix album? Why?" or even "I thought they fired this guy. Blogs fire people, right?" But hear me out on this one, because for me it's not that it's Minus the Bear; in fact, as Three Imaginary Girls quite accurately described, some of the songs "interpreted" here are so far gone from the source material that they are "almost unrecognizable to their original state." For diehard Minus the Bear fans, that'll be a pity to hear; for the rest of us, it will come with cautious relief. Stella ripped on the Battles and J. Clark remixes, which are too bad because those are some of the better ones on the album. The best song on here, subjectively speaking, is probably Fog's remix of "53rd & Memphis." It strides the line between making the source opaque and still managing to sound listenable. Fog's remixes are always really good (Cities, an incredibly boring band who released the thematically similar Variations last year, are another example of Fog turning tepid tunes into gold) and distinguishable because they crack with so much buzz it would make Honey Maid's farms jealous. Why did they do a remix album? That I can't answer, but I'll be honest: I'm glad they did. Without it, I might never have had a reason to listen to Minus the Bear in my life. Ever. Joke's on you, Fog... But the drinks are on me.













Bleubird - Hell Country (Endemik 2007)

Bleubird - RIP USA / Endemik

If you're sick of slackjawed rap and are looking for something a little sailor-mouthed from the underground, Montreal's Bleubird is right up your alley. This is an excellent album for a variety of reasons, the lyrics (thankfully) heading the list. One listen to "Hell Country" and you'll understand why: Flying through the song with an acerbic sense of humor and production from Alias, the man blows minds as he leans political and still manages to wrap up with the couplet, "Wake up, to break up alone, I save your messages because they keep me going." A bitter end to a beautiful song. But it's not all moping and moaning. In fact, this is a pretty poor representation of the album, which namedrops faster than James Murphy on a good night. Point is, this is the best hip-hop album of the year so far. It's not just Bleubird's work, though. Check the list of personnel gracing both the boards and the mic of this 18-song behemoth: Skyrider, Scott Da Ros, Subtitle, Sole, Nuccini!, Jim Wurster, David Pastorious... I mean, this is a fucking incredible line-up and that's not even a complete list, either. The production is all over the place in a good way, the artwork is coherent, the lyrics are all right there in the booklet so you don't have to guess what he just said about Fugazi or how the hell he managed to squeeze Tom Waits and Phil Collins in the same verse... All while making fun of the music industry, hip-hop and, as all great postmodern hipsters do, himself. Here's to losing your edge, my man.













Fulton Lights - Thank God for the Evening News (Catbird 2007)

Fulton Lights - Fulton Lights / Catbird

I made a vow I wouldn't mention Grizzly Bear in this review, but why not? Did anyone hate Yellow House last year? Fucking good record, right? Well Fulton Lights aka Andrew Spencer Goldman has, in a way, emulated his fellow Brooklynites by producing the kind of ambient folk album (probably the wrong terminology, sorry mom) that has staying power in a totally fluid industry. Spencer's got a side-project as all prolific people do in Maestro Echoplex, but Fulton Lights remains, for now, the primary gig. And with good reason: Thanks to some assistance from lads in the much-admired Dälek (Oktopus, who also remixed the opening track of Interpretaciones del Oso, and ex-Dälek DJ Still appear), the first half of Fulton Lights is a tad stronger than the second half, but it's all good; "Thank God for the Evening News" was, in fact, one of the songs co-produced by Oktopus. An extraordinarily pretty song with just the right sampling and just the right textural flow to keep you meandering down the lazy rivers that guide this Catbird release (Remember when they were just a blog?), "Thank God for the Evening News" is a portend of things to come for the remainder of the album. Nothing quite so heavy as "Colorado," but close enough: For Spencer, this should do just right. PS. Act now and you can fetch a limited-edition bonus remix disc. Oh yes, there's nothing we like more in this post than big-name remixers on big-time albums. But where art thou, Explosions in the Sky? Ah well, maybe next time.

Radio Show Playlist 2/07

6a:
1. The Velvet Underground - Heroin - Live 1969 with Lou Reed Vol. 2 (Mercury 1988)
2. The Twilight Sad - But When She Left, Gone Was the Glow - The Twilight Sad EP (FatCat 2006)
3. Deerhunter - Octet - Cryptograms (Kranky 2007)
4. Loren Dent - Love Song: Years of Iron Static - Empires & Milk (Contract Killers 2006)
5. Biosphere - Black Lamb & Grey Falcon - Cirque (Touch 2007, originally 2000)
6. The Race - Rose - Live on WLUW (2005)
7. The Kallikak Family - Shopping Mall Sun - Vineland Social Maturity Scale (On Purpose 2004)
8. James Yorkston - The Brussels Rambler - The Year of the Leopard (Domino 2006)
9. VietNam - Step on Inside - VietNam (Kemado 2007)
10. Woods - Hunover - At Rear House (Shrimper 2007)
11. Apostle of Hustle - Animal Fat - Folkloric Feel (Arts & Crafts 2004)

7a:
1. The Ladies - Trapped in the Hobbit - TRR100 Thankful (Temporary Residence 2007)
2. Call Me Lightning - We Be Dragons (live on WLUW) - Summer Sampler 2004 (Forge Again 2004)
3. Hella - Hand that Rocks the Cradle - There's No 666 in Outerspace (IPECAC 2007)
4. Parts & Labor - Sugar Kane - Confuse Your Idols: A Tribute to Sonic Youth (Narnack 2004)
5. The Eternals - High Anxiety - Rawar Style (Aesthetics 2004)
6. Kode9 & the Spaceape - Backward - Memories of the Future (Hyperdub 2006)
7. Sao Paulo Underground - Olhossss... - Sauna: Um, Dois, Tres (Aesthetics 2006)
8. him - Slow Slow Slow - Many in High Places are Not Well (Bubblecore 2003)
9. Bobby Hutcherson - Montara - Montara (Blue Note 1975)
10. Carlos Nino & Miguel Atwood-Ferguson - Extended Hands of Giving (Alpha Pup 2007)
11. Daedelus - Scaling Snowdon - Of Snowdonia (Plug Research 2004)
12. Rikard Javerling - Ice Princess - Two Times Five Lullaby (Yesternow 2006)

New Music: James Yorkston, Rikard Jäverling, Gabriel Teodros

James Yorkston - The Brussels Rambler (Domino 2006)

James Yorkston – The Year of the Leopard / Domino

If there was ever a perfect time for listening to James Yorkston's third proper full-length, it's right now as I sit in my frostbitten apartment with the lights cut off and the blinds pulled way up to take advantage of the back-alley street light for ambiance (a setting that surely amplifies any pleasant mood). The sky has a just-folded-blanket-like smoothness to it and the moon is appropriately cuddled away inside to shelter even itself from this negative degree weather. Yeah it's Chicago, but it could very well be Yorkston's Edinburgh for that matter, because his warm and inviting new album features tones that are lulling no matter your location. Though at one time a snotty punk rocker, the Fife, Scotland native has fully embraced his Jansch and Drake-derived folk and it has been a beneficial career move. With Talk Talk's Paul Webb and Phill Brown in the producer and engineer chair respectively, Yorkston is able to develop the warm atmospheric setting Kieran Hebden laid down the previous album into a not wholly unlike but well progressed sound. Label-mate Adem is going to be the best contemporary parallel for not only vocal comparisons but innovative backing instrumentation as well. Though where the Hebden-compatriot opts for a driving lovesick pop tune in a romantic crisis, Yorkston sighs, accepts his fate and picks the somber mood through his trusting acoustic. Webb does an absolute gorgeous job with the instrumental accompaniment; the rich backdrop typically features a wonderfully resonant double bass and a clarinet that hums the way my furnace should. At other times, strings and mandolins take their turn weaving autumnal hues around a gentle organ patter or caringly brushed drums. Yorkston's vocals sound mournful yet accepting as he narrates with a clear and colorful (though restrained) singing voice and even on a couple occasions just starts talking in a style almost identical to Arab Strab, but in a much gentler, buzz-on-the-way-down manner. The Year of the Leopard is the kind of album you put on to just lay with someone; the kind of album that translates unspoken emotions of gratitude and warmth to the lady/fellow you are so generously sharing that blanket with on such a cold, placid night.





Rikard Jäverling - Ice Princess (Yesternow 2006)

Rikard Jäverling – Two Times Five Lullaby / Yesternow

I'm really not sure why I took so long to write about Rikard Jäverling debut album Two Times Five Lullaby. I quite liked the simplicity of it's minimal instrumentation and delicate melodies and even ripped the album entirely after my first listen (a rarity these days seeing as I have to delete something to store something), but since it lacked an attention-grabbing "radio friendly" sound, I kept putting it aside for bigger names till it eventually melted into the background of my apartment coincidently the exact same way the music does. Jäverling, a traveling Swedish musician, recently returned home after mucking around Ireland and Glasgow playing folk music for a living and recorded his first LP for the promising UK label Yesternow. The pastoral folk he honed on the British Isles is the focal point of his debut recordings and he accomplishes an inviting ambiance not by recording techniques but with fragile melodies of canonic acoustic, yawning harmonium and touches of other instrumentation like harmonica, banjo, theremin, hand and bottle percussion and organ care of Sagor & Swing's Eric Malmberg. Though anchored in Sweden's genre-jumping belief, including slight influences from traditional Nordic folk, syrupy-sweet pop and even skeletal prog, Jäverling seems to really utilize the urban folk sounds of major though humble cities like Chicago or Edinburgh. Two Times Five Lullaby is an album of sighing, well-alright-then melodies and deceptively simple song structures that translates into the sort of soul-baring honesty recognizable no matter your geographical location.





Gabriel Teodros - Sexcapism (Mass Line 2007)

Gabriel Teodros – No Label EP / Mass Line

I won’t front, I’m hesitating on the Northwest rap scene. It’s not that I’m disliking much of what I hear from the burgeoning hip-hop community, but nothing is really blowing my mind (but truthfully, my recent ear sighing has not been directed toward any particular rap scene, but just the genre in general... this of course is just a personal opinion, but lately I’ve only been able to get excited about rap that’s at least a decade old or by a Wu-Tang alumni... I’m assuming that I’ve just not been pointed in the right direction as of late). The recent movement in Seattle and Portland seems to stem from the Bay Area with its conscious-minded lyrics and smooth funk samples. The biggest difference is in the slowing of tempo and the de-amplifying of vocal emotion… perhaps a little too much time spent at Hempfest (of which I wouldn’t mind attending myself). The most recent of these labels causing a stir is Seattle’s Mass Line (Common Market, Blue Scholars) who is about to unleash their third act, Gabriel Teodros. The Ethiopian-born journeyman fits the Northwest description to a tee: mid-tempo almost-flat flow, socially-conscious rhymes, and simple, head-nodding beats taking cues from chilled-out funk and 70s soul. My peek at his new full-length, Lovework, comes care of the No Label EP featuring three album cuts and an instrumental of the title track. I question putting ‘No Label’ up front as the single since it’s the weakest song of the trio with its generic female vocal loop and uninspired lyrics that describe the inability to characterize the current rap scene. ‘East Africa’ seems more appropriate to the Teodros philosophy; shout out’s to his cultural heritage, political observations and the obvious need for social change and global unity. Again, nothing special, but I can imagine that it’s a bit more heartfelt live than in the recorded rendition. Saving the best for last, ‘Sexcapism,’ which is a bit of a love/lost song, features a much tighter flow and more interesting lyrics over a bubbling organ sample and sleigh bell percussion. This EP certainly shows promise, but for me it’s not quite there. Teodros needs to carve out his own sound within the Northwest market and the scene will be that much better for it.

New Music: Call Me Lightning, Aereogramme, Booji Boy High

Call Me Lightning - Billion Eyes (Frenchkiss 2007)

Call Me Lightning - Soft Skeletons / Frenchkiss

After a week listening to minimalist house, wooded noise walks and icy folk wonderlands, I thought I'd warm myself up with some more traditional "rockist" stuff coming out of the periphery of the pop camp. Call Me Lightning are first up and, after apologizing to The Detachment Kit for calling them Frenchkissers (They self-released +), I thought I'd redeem myself a bit by calling lightning out for what it is: Soft Skeletons is their second full-length out on the New York label and a seething follow-up to their 2004 debut on Revelation, The Trouble We're In. Not exactly Soft Pyramids, then... In three years, the vivacious Milwaukee trio has been out on tour with a host of folks and, road-tested and mother-approved, will be back out in a venue near you soon with the album in tow February 20th. "Billion Eyes" is the second song off the album, its shouted chorus sounding for a split second like The Von Bondies (C'mon, c'mon, it's just that one part) but everything else is anything but. The ear-splitting guitars and easily hummed melodies are what the band plays to on this one, and with boundless enthusiasm for their music, no end seems in sight. Maybe this second strike will be the one that catches fire. First step: Album art. I look like such an amateur right now.

















Aereogramme - The Running Man (Sonic Unyon 2007)

Aereogramme - My Heart Has a Wish That You Would Not Go / Sonic Unyon

Aereogramme is going to be a harder sell if you've already read the Pitchfork review and tried to be objective about the complementing (and complimenting) Drowned in Sound review. These particular Scots are definitely more a band for the heart than for the head; in past years they have gone from aggro-metal to post-rock lesser Mogwais to an improved Hope of the States (Coldplay?), but that's kind of Aereogramme's charm: They never stay in one pigeonhole for too long. For example, a lot of kids everywhere were thrilled about their Seclusion mini-album/EP. But Americans have by and large rejected My Heart Has a Wish That You Would Not Go in the same way they've rejected Bloc Party's new album: Either you've outgrown it or, that failing, you dismiss it as being "too British" because your heart ain't in the same place. If you want anything from Blighty, you want it shallow and 4/4 (Calling all Klaxons: Your rave has arrived), you want it Radiohead, or you want nothing to do with it.

I can't say I blame you, but Aereogramme are, I think, an oft-overlooked exception. Here's the problem: Mogwai is sort of like post-rock for the mature adult. But would you let your kid delve head-first into Happy Songs for Happy People or that Fukugawa track from Mr. Beast and call your parenting job anything more than half-assed? So Aereogramme become the logical stepping stone, an Explosions in the Sky for people who need vocals and not just music to move them to tears and football. They're a bit amateurish, a bit melodramatic, a bit forced at times (I mean, the fucking title guys, come on), they want "this moment" to last just long enough for the John Hughes-approved credits to start rolling over that crystal-clear moonrise... But when they're on, when all sixteen candles are glowing and Jake Ryan is leaning in for that kiss just so... Aereogramme really can shine in a way that would have all of Odessa, Texas jealous they didn't know the Chemikal Underground crowd better. You've already heard about the stirring opener "Conscious Life for Coma Boy" (and, for better or worse, it most certainly is stirring); now try "The Running Man" on for size and and tell me Richard Dawson isn't the only good memory you'll come away with after hearing that phrase again.

















Booji Boy High - Twist Myself Again (DFA 2007)

Booji Boy High - Doubleshaw 7" - DFA

And then there was another kind of high. Booji ("boogie") Boy High, to be exact. I left this one for last because it's probably the least pressing for me personally; most of that great big mess of a web we call the blogosphere has already latched on to the indomitable DFA's latest release, a 7" from Georgios Panayiotou and Mother Markzbow you already know from Hot Chip... Well, those not illegally downloading Sound of Silver already. Anyhow, Booji Boy High sounds a lot like Hot Chip at the end of the day; both "Doubleshaw" and the song presented here, "Twist Myself Again," are like Hot Chip if they'd hung around Miguel Manuel de Pedro more. Glitch, twitch, twist, again: Perhaps this comes from added influence courtesy Devo, though Mark Mothersbaugh probably never would've started a song with "I'm so sad," so there's The Warning. Ba dum tish. If you just can't settle for the b-side, try both songs in lower quality on the DFA's MySpace page. Leave your disappointment at the door and head on in: You wish your 'High was this good in every twist of that phrase, too. How good? In the time it took you to read that, three more blog posts on Booji were banged out faster than the Brat Pack at full tilt in 1986. Pass the coke, Mr. Hughes. I'm struggling to keep up with recycled goodness.

Used-Bin Bargains: Rahsaan Roland Kirk

The current Chicago weather is -1. Not bad considering it's raised 5 degrees since I woke up, though it would be nice if my steam heat would turn on. I guess free heat is what it is.

GO BEARS!!!!!!!!!!! (sigh)



Rahsaan Roland Kirk - From Bechet, Byas and Fats - Rip, Rig and Panic (Limelight 1965)

Rahsaan Roland Kirk - Stompin' Grounds - Now Please Don't You Cry, Beautiful Edith (Verve 1967)

Rahsaan Roland Kirk – Rip, Rig and Panic/Now Please Don’t Your Cry, Beautiful Edith / Polygram

Last November I attended this meet-and-greet at the Sonotheque for a job I was perusing; alas music directing an independent radio station is not the most financially stable situation. I’m a big fan of this Chicago nightspot because basically it’s a bar built inside a sound system and they frequently feature eclectic DJs and worldly acts. But maybe my favorite characteristic is the television they have mounted above the bar, which plays random old films from god knows where and the soundless visuals seem to intoxicate me more than their overpriced alcohol. On this particular night, while I was supposed to be schmoozing, they were playing this film of Rahsaan Roland Kirk absolutely killing it in black and white and though I couldn’t hear the music that actually accompanied the concert, just watching the jazz man play his barrage of handmade instruments as well as piano and drums was mesmerizing. Well it’s been three months and I have yet to hear about the job (or the South African girl I was hitting on that night as well, sigh), but the evening wasn’t wasted because it prompted my digging into the great world of Rahsaan Roland Kirk.

The blind multi-instrumentalist was born during the mid-30s in Columbus, OH and was trained on the bugle, trumpet, clarinet, C-melody and tenor sax by 15. His late teenage years were spent playing R&B; professionally as he began to discover unordinary instruments like the manzello, a modified version of the saxello (a straight B-flat soprano), and the stritch, a modified straight E-flat alto, as well as tweak his own horns so he could play them simultaneously. Throughout his career he’d continue this practice of creating instruments introducing the trumpophone, which used a soprano sax mouthpiece on a trumpet, and the slidesophone, a miniature trombone again with a sax mouthpiece, as well as incorporating piccolo, harmonica, siren whistles, tape manipulation, electronics and other instruments not typically associated with jazz. The early 60s saw Kirk in Chicago as he began to make a name for himself as a solo musician, not to mention touring Europe with Mingus in the interim. In the early 70s he became an activist for supporting jazz and African-American artists, but sadly, he suffered a paralyzing stroke in '75. Though he lost movement on one complete side of his body, he kept playing one-handed with his constantly modified instruments. Kirk passed away in 1977, but left a lasting mark on the jazz world with his exciting showmanship, as an unparalleled multi-talented musician and with his genre-infusing eccentrics that still influence artists today.

Much to our benefit, many of Kirk’s records can be picked up as double albums on CD, like this 1990 Polygram release featuring 1965’s Rip, Rig and Panic (Limelight) and 1967’s Now Please Don’t You Cry, Beautiful Edith (Verve). Recorded by Rudy Van Gelder, Rip, Rig and Panic features not only a pre-Rahsaan Roland Kirk taking his post-bop sound through many different phases of jazz, but also sports absolutely amazing accompaniment. Rounding out the quartet was long-time Coletrane drummer Elvin Jones, incredibly versatile pianist Jaki Byard and Creative Construction Company bassist Richard Davis. I think the most appropriate description for this album would be accessible avant-garde jazz. While certainly spending much time within the reigns of hard and post-bop, Kirk’s refusal to stick with one sound (or instrument) finds the music careening off into numerous directions including traditional New Orleans jazz, modal music, free improvisation and even found sound as with glass shattering to represent a change in theme or Edgard Varèse-inspired tape manipulation. But I believe that the fact it never reaches an inaccessible noise level would appeal to listeners trying to ease themselves into the world of avant-garde jazz.

“Rip means Rip Van Winkle [or Rest in Peace?]. It’s the way people, even musicians, are. They’re asleep. Rig means like rigor mortis. That’s where a lot of people’s minds are. When they hear me doing things they didn’t think I could do they panic in their minds. They all say, 'Well, I didn’t know this kind of thing could happen.' Actually, I was doing some things like this when I was in Ohio, but I lost work because people didn’t want to hear this kind of thing.”

Though recorded two years later, Now Please Don’t Cry, Beautiful Edith (Kirk’s wife), is much more accessible in what I am assuming was an attempt to reach a wider audience. It’s much more based around grooves and even features a rendition of “Alfie,” a pop tune originally penned but Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Joining Kirk in the studio this time was renown soul-jazz session drummer Grady Tate, future fusion keyboardist Lonnie Liston Smith and long-time Sun Ra associate Roland/Ronnie Boykins on bass. He couldn’t have had a better band in place for the feel of this album that was simultaneously soulful, bluesy and warm. It makes an intriguing juxtaposition to Rip, Rig and Panic though hardly generic; Kirk’s inventiveness as a player just cannot be contained for long no matter the theme. For example, the aforementioned “Alfie” starts off pretty mundane with it’s light piano accompaniment and smooth jazz sax, but the skittering drums pick up and Kirk wails in an seemingly multi-tracked way as they find a loose groove to finish the three-minute song. While I will admit that Please Don’t Cry is not nearly as awe-inspiring as Rip, it’s an important exposure to the many dimensions of Kirk. This double-album is a great introduction to the unpredictable and multi-dimensional world of Rahsaan Roland Kirk and worth every penny you spend on it.

New Music: Carlos Niño & Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Biosphere, Loren Dent

Carlos Niño & Miguel Atwood-Ferguson - Extended Hands of Giving (Alpha Pup 2007)

Carlos Niño & Miguel Atwood-Ferguson – Fill the Heart Shaped Cup / Alpha Pup

The music of Carlos Niño enveloped my life a couple of years ago. It wasn’t a conscious act really; I got into the wonderfully eclectic internet radio station Dublab.com in my senior year of college and started researching the DJ’s involved. First the worldly rhythms of Ammoncontact (a duo consisting of Niño and Fabian Ammon Alston) stole my coveted speaker time, then from there I stemmed out into Daedelus (who Niño produced), Dwight Trible & the Life Force Trio (who helped give Niño his start) and Build an Ark (featuring Niño and many other talented L.A. based musicians). I was really digging the spiritual, earthy side of jazz (Pharoah Sanders, Alice Coletrane, AACM products) and in many respects, Niño’s music is an update of the genre. His penchant is to craft moving melodies over head-nodding beats using a combination of synth and computer-based technology and live hand percussion and woodwinds. The latest product of his many studio sessions, collaborations and remixes features classical protégé Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, a 26-year-old composer who was trained on violin and viola at 4, writing symphonies in his early teens and leading live sessions for everyone from Outkast to Stevie Wonder to John Cale in his 20s. The most striking characteristic of Fill the Heart Shaped Cup is the simplicity. ‘Oasis’ opens the disc with a minimal drum machine beat, ebbing synths and the occasional vibraphone note, nothing spectacular but effective in it’s innocence. One of the album highlights, ‘Extended Hands Giving’, follows with loping, earthy rhythm, quiet synth melody, bass clarinet undertone and harp-like flurries. From this point, the drums all but subsides utilizing only hand percussion rattles seemingly from the toy box of Hamid Drake letting Atwood-Ferguson’s classical strings paint autumnal watercolor paintings. ‘Triumph’ eloquently enlists brooding brass, ‘Tide’ features a harp, clarinet, synth combination Daedelus would eagerly throw schizophrenic drum clatter over, and the album closer, ‘Through a Childs Eyes,’ is an enchanting, sleepy song that calmly drifts like a pleasant, late-night snow (watched from under your covers of course). The strongest section comes two-thirds of the way through with ‘Cup,’ ‘Changes’ and ‘Into the Depths’ as those Ammoncontact rhythms come to the forefront and the arrangements really fill out, whether it’s the shimmering hand bells of the former or eerie throb of the latter. Fill the Heart Shaped Cup is a patient 30-minutes of two distinct artists collaborating rather than competing; it’s two guys sitting in the studio late at night, sharing their awe of favorite jazz artists and trying to manifest those feelings with the tools at hand.





Biosphere - Black Lamb & Grey Falcon (Touch 2007, originally 2000)

Biosphere – Cirque / Touch

Maybe even more recognizable these days from it’s forefather, ambient house, ambient techno’s layered atmospheres and minor-key melodies are typically associated with early Aphex Twin and Boards of Canada, but one of it’s most important figures is often overlooked. Geir Jenssen has been part of the movement since the beginning. Recording first under Bleep, his Biosphere moniker should be synonymous with the ambient techno, and even more specifically the “arctic sound,” but to listeners with only a vague interest in the genre, he goes sorely unnoticed. Jenssen is not just some European cat with an Eno obsession who happens to produce a glaciered sound, he is a Norwegian who actually lives just 500 miles from the Arctic Circle; he makes this arctic sound because that’s the environment surrounding him. Cirque, originally released in 2000 and now being reintroduced by Touch, could very well be the culmination of the producers decade long career (at the time it was recorded). His arrangements greatly reflect it’s geographical influence: icy, remote, glacial, beautiful and evocative. Ambient synth loops slowly touch, crack and infuse like the glaciers they’re inspired from as flurries of skittering drums, sparse vocal samples, the occasionally subtle piano line and throbbing bass slowly trudge across the horizon. The low dynamic range really keeps the music intriguing as the lightest melodic twitch instantly grabs your attention like a small black bird in a field of snow. I’m not sure if Jenssen makes this music because he wants to or because he has to; you are very much a product of your environment and Cirque can be your window to the chilling Arctic north (goddamn am I milking this arctic analogy). Though I have to admit, through the ears of Jenssen, it’s surprisingly warm and comforting.





Loren Dent - Love Song: Years of Iron Static (Contract Killers 2006)

Loren Dent – Empires and Milk / Contract Killers

In Jason S. Willaford's artist statement for his recent M.A.L.E More Abstract Linear Evolution series, he proclaims his minimalist paintings as "a series of lines drawn in, revealing organic tributaries running across a hard edge surface of primary, saturated color." I don't know the exact relationship between Willaford and fellow Texan, Loren Dent, but it's pretty extraordinary that these two artists, one visual and one audible, of such a similar frame of aesthetic thinking would find each other. Dent's latest solo record, Empires and Milk, sports a Willaford painting on it's cardboard slipcase and the music inside could find no better description than the aforementioned quote. Throughout the intimidating 77 minutes of minimal ambience from the Austin-based musician, straits of purring static crackle over saturated backdrops of commodious feedback creating organic environments in their own right. The former member of Purchase New York pieces together subtle clippings of reverberating, almost indistinguishable guitar and field recordings into ponds of warm, settling tone but keeps you from drifting off by gently gliding tiny static sailboats across the surface and letting the subsequent ripples create texture. This is a piece of music that really doesn't unveil itself until you turn up the speakers and fill a room with it's vibrations; as you let the soundwaves naturally lap against your ears, the layers unfold and the seemingly flat, ambient music transforms into three dimensions of aural surroundings. Empires and Milk is not so much a gateway recording into the world of ambient music, but it's an inviting album that can compliment achingly quiet nights quite well.

New Music: Funkstörung, Cherry Jarre, Hauschka

Funkstörung - Spacek - 1st Stroke (!K7 2007)

Funkstörung - Appendix / !K7

At the first stroke of Funkstörung's first remix from their final album, you're sure you've stepped into a darker Junior Boys record where Berlin sleaze has overtaken the crisp, refreshing Canadian air of So This is Goodbye. It only partly sets the precedent for things to come, because the two guys sitting behind the boards manhandled artists in a way their home city would be proud of. That's a partial introduction. Here's the rest: Münich-based duo Chris de Luca and Michael Fakesch are the dynamic young producers known as Funkstörung. Or rather, they were; after a decade under the influence of everyone from Skam to Bunker to Rephlex (though talks with IDM king Richard D. James I, Esq. fell through in late '99), the gentlemen have opted to disband with three full-lengths under their belt, a jointly owned record label (Musik Aus Strom), and the infamous Mask series. But hey, don't weep for 'em yet: De Luca and Fakesch will have plenty keeping them busy in the future in addition to their solo projects. First, a final look back at their catalog in the form of Appendix, which collects their Autechre-aping remixes. Everyone from The Raveonettes to Björk gets the once-over, but its their Spacek remix right at the front of the compilation that demonstrates their mastery of the remix best. Their maximalist attack is typical of late-night German post-rave raves, but it's their magic in the micro, barely discernable below those big beats and breathy vocals, that made Funkstörung such interesting producers. A shame to see them go, even if they're merely going apart from each other.










Cherry Jarre - Habits (2007)

Cherry Jarre - Plant, Watered / Self-released

Jordan's bit about Soft Circle was well-timed and serves as a tidy lead-in for Cherry Jarre, who - and I'll be frank when I say this, because I know no other way - I know nothing about. I'm not going to make any assumptions about them being in any way related to the abrasive Maurice Jarre or the equally great Jean-Michel Jarre; however, if you or a loved one has information on the whereabouts of Cherry Jarre, please let us know. Why? Maybe "Habits" will go some way to explaining: In the same way as Hisham Bharoocha's Full Bloom explains the dronevil behind transmissions of varied frequencies, so too does Jarre's "Habits" wake up the reader with low frequency feedback and the scratching we've come to associate with Wolf Eyes or Black Dice in a bad mood. At just three songs, "Gory Shiv" holds the whole thing together at 42 minutes... But "Factory" wraps things up nicely as the concluding track at 4.20. Clearly, someone was on something less than totally legal when they made this, but no matter; you probably will be too when you come to enjoy it. Yeah, Soft Circle may be the album you use to wake up in the morning, but don't try anything like that with Plant, Watered - You may never sleep comfortably again.













Hauschka - Chicago Morning (Fat Cat 2007)

Hauschka - Room to Expand / Fat Cat

Volker Bertelmann is all about the limitless fun one can have with "prepared," pure-bred pianos. Like a lot of other guys out there right now - and we're talking Max Richter, Library Tapes and Julien Neto to name just three in a gaggle - the idea of the piano as perfect in tone is being challenged in a variety of ways. For Bertelmann, this means covering hammers with aluminum, weaving guitar strings amongst the ones provided, and my own personal favorite, placing crown corks on the strings. Bertelmann as the new aural Bukowski sounds good to me... But on to the music: "Chicago Morning" is the antithesis of "Habits," much as Room to Expand is quite the opposite of Plant, Watered. A simple piano line tinkles along in the background to its unending satisfaction as an art-damaged horn section (Remember when it was én vogue to use that?) woozily provides backup. I've only been to Chicago once and I've never gotten a proper morning out of the Windy City like I someday hope to, but this and its fellow songs on Room to Expand are how I'd like to imagine them. Instead of a chest-thumping "Go Bears!," a quiet reflection on what this or any year's Super Bowl really means in the grand scheme of things. No matter who wins on Sunday night, this will be their soundtrack on Monday morning: We'll all be undefeated soon enough.

New Music: Soft Circle, Woods, Hannu

Soft Circle - Moon Oar Sunrise (Eastern Developments 2007)

Soft Circle - Full Bloom / Eastern Developments

If I had a million dollars I would comission Hisham Bharoocha (aka Soft Circle) to come work magic on my house, and like some post-postmodern Michaelangelo, he would transform the place into an acid-tripping Sistine Chapel of bright, kinetic shapes. After instructing me in Vipassana meditation, Hisham would board his plane and I would say to him, very gratiously, "Nah, man, take it all because you've opened my eyes to the true nature of the universe". Aside from being a vital visual artist (with skills honed at the Rhode Island Institute of Design), Hisham can count himself as a founding member of Lightning Bolt and Black Dice. Those are lofty creative heights to say the least and Full Bloom is a strong indicator that we are seeing an artist in the warm light of spring. Bharoocha left Black Dice after Creature Comforts and his influence is evident on that record's trance-inducing drums and warm organic washes. On tracks like "Sundazed" and "Shimmer", both traditional and electronic percussion combine to put Mike Oldfield to shame; this is what your NPR-loving mom should be listening to if she really wants to "go for it" and find palpable inner peace. Bharoocha's undulating chants provide a deep, spiritual resonance to most of the songs here, and wouldn't sound out of place floating from a temple in Lhasa, especially on "Moon Oar Sunrise" with its gut-punching crescendo coaxing your soul to blast off into the astral plane. "Earthed" is the only real anamoly here, sounding more like Aphex Twin; its way too abrupt in disrupting the album's heady, natural feel, but thats only a small bump on the path to enlightenment. Full Bloom is a triumphant solo debut; shining and incorporeal, its one for your mind, body, and soul.





Woods - Hunover (Shrimper 2007)

Woods - At Rear House / Shrimper

I've never been much of an outdoorsman. My dad tried his best when I was younger, taking me deerhunting in the murky forests of lower-state South Carolina, but instead of dutifully waiting there with my gun I'd slip back inside the truck and listen to the radio. Maybe I'm less of a man for never having shot an animal but looking down that testosterone-laden path makes me glad I'm here in front of my computer right now instead of driving around in a monster truck thats supposed to project my unquestionable masculinity. If I were to revisit that hunting club at this point in my life, I'd definitely be listening to Woods. The duo of Jeremy Earl and Christian DeRoeck must like spending time with nature because they've coined the term "woodsist"; a word that (at least to me) signifies an appreciation for slow living, the kind of life that allows for the rest and relaxation of nature walks and campfire jam sessions. The songwriting reflects Earl and DeRoeck's dueling musical personas, moonlighting in the smart indie pop band, Meneguar, and also running Fuck-It Tapes, a tape-only (duh!) label thats released material from experimental royalty like D Yellow Swans, Excepter, and Magik Markers. Two-thirds of the record is comprised of rustic, bittersweet numbers not too far from the Microphones or a more minimal-minded Doug Martsch, but tracks like "Picking up the Pieces" and "Woods Children Pt. 2" escape off into the darkness of more experimental folk. At Rear House is a saavy record, melding memorable verse-chorus-verse songs with weirdo farmland explorations.





Hannu - Sumu (Osaka 2006)

Hannu - Worms In My Piano / Osaka

Hey listen up to this! Any of you kids hip to labels like Fonal, Type, or Carpark need need need to check out the Irish-based Osaka, and yeah, that is kinda like KFC in a Moscow airport, but these are the times we live in. Like you, I can thank Fonal for cultivating my mental image of Finland as some mystical snow kingdom filled with wood nymphs and oracles hidden deep in the drift. So its no coincidence that the music of Helsinki-based musician/filmmaker Hannu Karjalainan does alot for me on cold nights, when its too miserable to be active, and I can only find solace in a nice, warm place. Worms In My Piano sounds like enforced isolation, the kind brought on by perpetual darkness and neverending snowfall. Icy dins permeate this record. The opener, "Sumu", sounds alot like the infinitely small noise of a single snowflake hitting the ground. It could be eighty degrees out and I'd still need a blanket, such is the bleak winter mood of Worms In My Piano. Hannu is very good at painting landscapes with sound; he has a director's eye for mood-lighting and its no surprise he admits the influence of films by Bergman, Tarkovsky, and Lynch. "Lhyty" scores the scene for winter's first big storm, as the sky lowers and the sun retreats. "Ikuisuus" whistles and scrapes like the wind and "Suruista Suurin" signals your acceptance of the stark winter ahead. This may be music that melts come springtime but for now Hannu's Worms In My Piano is very much in season.