New Music: Proud to Swim Home, The Inner Banks, Dark Meat, Teeko

Potpie - Blues for the Lower 9 - Proud to Swim Home (Backporch Revolution 2006)


Various Artists – Proud to Swim Home / Backporch Revolution

New Orleans’ contribution to modern music is almost unfathomable at this point so far down the road of genre overlapping and style smearing. But the port city at the turn of the 20th century with its amazing barrage of cultures gave birth to jazz and blues which in turn led to the popularization of music as a business and a way of life outside the confines of classical. Sadly though, modern thought of New Orleans music seems to stretch no further than throwback, made-for-tourist novelty ragtime, marching band swing or that cheesy saxophone wail that seems to make it’s way into every muggy film noir soundtrack. The truth is that the New Orleans music scene continues to evolve in new, innovative ways that is very evident in this compilation of experimental electronica music from a burgeoning scene in the Crescent City. Somewhat the result of a sticker campaign which reads “Proud to Swim Home” conceived days after Hurricane Katrina hit that raised funds for Habitat for Humanity and the Humane Society, this album of the same name pays tribute to people who returned to the damaged city and gave their foremost effort to building it back in a soundtrack that probably is not unlike the immediate eerie sounds of post-hurricane New Orleans. From the tear-jerking ambient calm of Potpie to the sweltering, swirling audible fumes of Archipelago to the skittering poppy bounce of Buttons, Proud to Swim Home is an unconventional soundtrack for an unconventional city and the unconventional people that are giving their lives to rebuilding their broken home. And even the cheesy sax makes an appearance thanks to Chef Menteur, though, like most the city at this point, it has been heavily re-imagined (and processed). All proceeds from the sale of the compilation to benefit MusiCares.




The Inner Banks - Anthem - The Inner Banks (DAG! 2006)


The Inner Banks – The Inner Banks / DAG!

Curious about what New York-based Inner Banks might sound like? Take Tim Gane, Laetitia Sadier and the rest of the Stereolab gang circa their Dots and Loops phase and sternly rip their keyboards and synthesizers away from them (this won't be easy, but with a little pleading and struggling it can be done). Now replace their keys with banjo, lap steel, vibes, cello, French horn, trumpet and other chamber instruments, garnish their heads with cowboy hats, relocate their studio to some snowed-in cabin of the linking-log, bearskin rug sort preferably in a heavily wooded area, maybe grow a few beards and clothe in flannel, scatter friendly wildlife creatures and stand idly with a well-trained recording engineer. Combining American roots, chamber-pop and subtle electronica, The Inner Banks, whose core is married-couple David Gould of The Bootleg Remedy and Caroline Shutz of Folksongs for the Afterlife, craft textural layers of lush, swimming harmonies and cyclical melodies not unlike Stereolab minus the sci-fi bubbles. For a debut album, The Inner Banks sounds very confident and matured with a dramatic emphasis on warm atmosphere and finely structured arrangements aimed at an indie-rock audience.




Dark Meat - Assholes for Eyeballs - Universal Indians (Orange Twin/Cloud Recordings 2006)


Dark Meat – Universal Indians / Orange Twin/Cloud Recordings

The obvious comparison for Athen, GA’s Dark Meat is the like-minded Brooklyn 4-piece Akron/Family, but I feel that this is unfair for both groups. Both bands thrive off the clashing differences of two separate genres, one of which is free-jazz, but while the bearded boys of Akron/Family take advantage of the contradictory vibes of pastoral folk and avant-garde jazz, Dark Meat teams their raucous outbursts with more of a bluesy bar-rock. With a 20+ member band, including a backing female vocal ensemble who goes by The Subtweeters, the Athens genre-killers channel the likes of Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa as much as they do Archie Shepp or Albert Ayler (whose “Holy Ghost” the album is dedicated to). One second a riot-inducing marching band, the next an anthemic bar fight then in a quick successive manner: a Stooges punk-rock bout, a psychedelic guitar freak-out and a free-jazz mind-rout. To add to the flare, Universal Indians is released on Orange Twin Records, a label and web-site run by Elf Power which is raising funds for 150 acre eco-village in Athens; I’m in if Saturday nights are spent with colorful people at bonfire-clad keg parties soundtracked by the sky-filling sound of Dark Meat.




Teeko - Nice to Meet You Funk - My Sound Station (4onefunk 2006)


Teeko – My Sound Station / 4onefunk

For DJ/producer Teeko… well I guess we could actually add a few more backslashes that include musician, master turntablist, DJ battle demolisher, Berklee School of Music’s renown Milestones Innovative Producer Contest winner, party-starter and jack-of-all-trades (if that wasn’t already clear)… a proper solo full-length is the next step in his whirlwind of projects that have been piling up over the last few years. Co-founder of DJ collective 4onefunk and The Dollar Bin Quartet, the Puerto Rican producer ensembles a sound built from a soul-jazz foundation of rhythmic grooves and sparse fun in a very patient, uncluttered manner. Accompanying the drum/bass/organ core is his turntable scratching which emphasizes matured technique over flashy tricks. His arrangement of samples is much more akin to the Cut Chemist school, which resides in the more classic collage layering and structuring ready-made grooves, rather than the school of Madlib/Dilla, which relies more on flipping and manipulating samples into completely new sounds. Featuring live drums and horns, My Sound Station is a well thought-out collection of re-imagined soul-jazz and refined turntablism.