New Music: Ral Partha Vogelbacher, Brother Ali

Ral Partha Vogelbacher - Birthday in Beijing (Monotreme 2007)

Ral Partha Vogelbacher - Shrill Falcons / Monotreme

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

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

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

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













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

Brother Ali - The Undisputed Truth / Rhymesayers

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

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

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

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