Singleversity #13

Audiversity’s weekly column on random music in a predetermined number of words between 1 & 150. This week's randomly generated number: 127.

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There is something I have always loved about Eastern Sounds; it just swings so softly with organic elegance and laid-back confidence. Recorded in 1961, Yusef Lateef was a couple years ahead of the Eastern-influence curve in jazz music that would culminate in the late 60s and utilized exotic scales for shrouding his restrained musicianship with a very spiritual guise. I was torn between posting "The Plum Blossom" or “Blue from the Orient,” where Lateef sprouts an amazing oboe solo, but I went with the former because it really displays his ability to conjure passion out of such minimal instrumentation. Lateef’s xun, a Chinese globular flute, hums softly over a restrained piano and soft, rhythmic Rabaab patters. It makes for music that is completely unassuming and wonderfully spellbinding.

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My love-hate relationship with Brooklyn’s infamous noisescape ex-terrorists Black Dice takes another firm step in the “love” direction with their latest Paw Tracks 12” featuring “Roll Up” on the a-side and “Drool” on the dark side. “Drool” for some reason strikes me as the more intriguing of the two, starting out with a high-pitched analog cicada chirp you only hear once every 17 years clicking its way through a seven-minute jungle of burbling merry-go-round carnival synth action that sounds like the solo journey to “Roll Up’s” group tour of the Amazon. Alongside this is another Catsup Plate 12” due soon, a tour, and the best part: All of these are likely to find their way on a new Dice album due in the fall. Meanwhile: Get this.