Wolfmangler - "Cooking With Wolves"

Wolfmangler - Uneasy Autumn Moan (Digitalis Industries 2007)

Wolfmangler - Cooking With Wolves / Digitalis Industries

Are we the last blog on earth to hold out on mentioning wolf bands? Wasn't that whole thing like two years ago? Isn't Panther the new Horse the new Wolf? Well, whatever, consider Audiversity well and truly arrived. We're posting on a Wolf band. There. We did it. It's done. We have it now.

Except this isn't Wolf Parade or Wolf Eyes or We Are Wolves or Wolfmother. In fact, in a circuitous way, we're not really posting about wolves at all here because Wolfmangler is about as anti-wolf as a rabid Frog Eyes fan. D. Smolken is the man behind Wolfmangler, a Polish political immigrant with a knack for avoiding the cello but playing virtually everything that sounds like it. Take a song like "Ol' Man River," for example. The brooding strings you could swear are cello aren't that at all. Instead, Smolken utilizes some pretty rare instruments for not just Cooking With Wolves but also his other releases. Among them: The double bass (with bow included), the cello banjo, the electric bass, and the violin. It seems almost masochistic in a way, creating all of these dark and doomy sounds without the aid of a cello... But who are we to judge. After all, the guy's been around for a few years now and has made some consistently good releases to boot.

What's so good about Wolfmangler as a whole and Cooking With Wolves in particular now is that Smolken's music reaches out to fans of the modern avant-garde orchestral, fans of doom and sludge, and fans of folk. Smolken has cleverly tied these influences together to make a coherent album that you could, I suppose, label doom-folk. Someone has also suggested death-folk, and that's not far off either. Bottom line, it's not music that's meant to lift the spirits. The two-tone colors of his website and most album work also suggest Smolken is working within the framework of a nation that's still striving to modernize its countryside in the face of both the EU to the west and the mutilated beast of Russia's influence to the east. This isn't an overtly political album, but its feel, its intangibles that reach to the listener's mindset, suggests that Smolken's Poland has not escaped the joyless moments of its past. Ironic, then, that the first eight songs were recorded in Texas, Smolken's former residence.

Imagine the Grimm brothers living up to a name without the second 'm' and you're not far off the mark of what Wolfmangler is all about. There's an element of that medieval fairy tale gone awry scattered like ash across the barren, desolate soundscape that Smolken works hard to craft; indeed, both "Czerwony Pas" and "Szwolezerowie" are traditionals. Mission accomplished: It doesn't get much more mangled than this, but the most painful part is how slow it is, how torturously brutal and beautiful songs like "Szwolezerowie" or "Beata Z Albatrosa" are. There's just no escape. Even when Smolken breaks out with clearer, less grumbling vocals on a song like "Uneasy Autumn Moan," it only feels like his pathos is so much the larger. Around him, the instruments struggle onward.

It's a war on the ears for one hour, and at the end of "French Vampire Carol" you never feel like you've won any great battles or been vindicated for surviving. Through his work with Dead Raven Choir and Garlic Yang, Smolken has learned the art of doom and darkness. Cooking With Wolves is yet another stellar example of folk gone ghoulish. The wolf parade ends here on a cold, gray, rainy street. It may not be pretty, but it is worth watching.

Art Brut - "It's a Bit Complicated"

Art Brut - People in Love (Mute 2007)

Art Brut - It's a Bit Complicated - Mute

Though they proclaimed on Bang Bang Rock & Roll that they were only just started, what exactly they were just starting wasn't quite sure. Was Art Brut an elaborate scheme masterminded by Eddie Argos to finally put a band to all those Enrique Gatti songs he wrote without music? Was it merely a 60th anniversary homage to the movement that spawned the name? Was it even more ironic and sharper in critique than LCD Soundsystem? Or was it irony-free and just that base, just that free-spirited, just that fucking fun? The answers were never clear, but the fact remained: Art Brut was a vivacious group with a live reputation to back up their quixotic debut.

Well, they made a sophomore album. And, exactly as you would (or wouldn't) be expecting, it's not complicated at all. In fact, Art Brut is the total, absolute distillation of rock n' roll. There is no excess, the only double meanings are explained as such in the lyrics, the solos come after the choruses if they come at all, the backing vocals swoon on cue. In some ways, Art Brut is actually the antithesis of the movement Jean Dubuffet coined in the 40s. Whereas Dubuffet envisioned a movement by artists who had no predecessors and who inspiration but themselves and their immediate world, Art Brut steal riffs and snatch themes from the great compendium of rock and burn away the mist and the mysticisms to reveal the three-minute pop nuggets which lie beneath.

But as they prove over and over again, there's a reason we fall for them everytime. "Pump Up the Volume" is a perfect opener as Argos rails on in his usual South London slur, but it's the band that you really notice as the riff Ian Catskilkin bangs out sounds cleaner and more efficient than the best of the tracks dominating the attention for Bang Bang Rock & Roll. As "Direct Hit" proves shortly thereafter, it was no mistake. The band is leaner, meaner, hungrier and more streamlined than ever before. It's the sound of a band that knows exactly where it comes from and knows exactly how to pay homage. The payoff is both stupidly obvious and brilliantly rewarding.

Unlike so many other UK sophomore albums that just didn't live up to the admittedly unreasonable expectations of their debuts (The Futureheads, Bloc Party, Kaiser Chiefs, ad infinitum), Art Brut deserve to beat the rap precisely because their strategy is so simplistic, so utterly inane: By debuting with only the wit of Argos and the generic three-chord riffs you know you've heard a million times before, there's really nowhere to go but up from that, isn't there? It's hard to write songs less challenging than "Emily Kane." So Art Brut aren't really taking a step down from their lauded debut, and they're certainly not giving up on their cheeky sense of humor. They are stepping sideways, because they will always be stepping sideways. It's what they deserve to do.

"What else can we do when the kids don't like it?" asks Argos on "St. Pauli." The obvious answer is to start making songs that require some thought beyond the most banal of the listener's understandings... But that would be defeating the point. Art Brut are specifically designed as a band that takes as few chances as possible (some horns on "Late Sunday Evening" aside) and for that they will always succeed simply because it would be tough to fail. Repeating yourself is expected. Any derivation will look good. And while their epiphany-like live shows continue to sound better and better, the albums improve in sound quality, the riffs get more obvious, the vocal melodies continue to elude you... Yet there you are, stupidly nodding along. Laughing and giggling and dancing and pumping your fist. Why? Because Art Brut are rock n' roll. They and the ideal are one in the same. A hard pill to swallow for high-minded music fans maybe, but a joy and a delight to the rest of us that get it because we don't have to get it. Nobody is playing the crowd better than Art Brut. As the impresarios of average, it's possible they may be the last great rock band. Funny or frightening? As ever, the choice is up to your ears.

Cahier (Orchestra) - "Desacreditado"

Cahier (Orchestra) - Degradación de la Madera II (Dustin Must Die 2007)

Cahier (Orchestra) - Desacreditado - Dustin Must Die

For a few weeks here recently I've felt the gravity of big-name releases. It's not something that's happened consciously, but hitting up a Dizzee Rascal record or the latest Simian Mobile Disco does after an extended period of time make me feel a bit average. So maybe I've listened to the new Art Brut and plan on making a case for them... But forgetting the lesser known artists, the guys out there working alone in their bedrooms or their kitchens or with friends on a four-track, would be forgetting why I bothered to start writing here in the first place. Marko Neumann is one such guy, a flood of musical talent unleashed all over his various aliases including Body Odour, Kasvain, Candy Cane and Polka Dot Sunflower Bed Orchestra. In short: Like a lot of other homegrown noiseniks, Neumann doesn't sit idle for long.

Desacreditado, his latest release under the Cahier name, is a perfect example of the Tampere, Finland native's knack for switching up styles just when you think you've had enough of lo-fi freak-fucking out in the violent woods of the way up north. A track like "Luna Llena" gets stuck in a looping melodic rut before abruptly halting in time for the overamped, grunged-out "En Apuros" which clocks in at a mighty 51 seconds. Nothing runs longer than 3 minutes 34 seconds. It's a gloriously short, gloriously vibrant noise record that demands just the slightest bit of attention and duly rewards not long thereafter.

Part of the reason for its brevity is Neumann's background in hardcore and punk bands that he has been involved with since he was in his early teens. That all-or-nothing approach to playing, however badly, has bled on through to his other works and ultimately down to Desacreditado. Originally the product of some downtime while recording Candy Cane's first album, Cahier has come to solidify itself as an organically avant-silence branch of Neumann's personality. Interestingly, though his biggest inspiration is a lack of sound, there is rarely an untouched moment during the album's nine-track runtime. If it isn't the reversed percussion of "Un Traidor" or the guitar fury of "Colcha," it's the looped disorientation of "Degradación de la Madera II" that closes the album in the same way its forerunner opens it.

The tricks veer between Hair Police and Xela, but it's never boring or long-winded. Which, at the end of this album, is its best asset: As opposed to the sometimes excruciating and aimless experiments that marr assorted Wolf Eyes projects, Cahier has focus and a broader appeal. It may not always be easy to swallow, but that's part of the point too. Rarely this year has pure noise sounded better.

Radio Show Playlist: 6/20/07

6a:
1. Can - Splash - Soon Over Babaluma (Spoon 1974)
2. Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - Please Heat This Eventually - Se Dice Bisonte, No Bufalo (GSL 2007)
3. Neu! - HalloGallo - Neu! (Astralwerks 2001, recorded 1972)
4. Maserati - 12/16 - Inventions for the New Season (Temporary Residence 2007)
5. Shellac - Steady as She Goes - Excellent Italian Greyhound (Touch & Go 2007)
6. Sonic Youth - Death Valley '69 (with Lydia Lunch) - Bad Moon Rising (DGC 1985)
7. Daniel A.I.U. Higgs - Subatomic Yggdrasil Tarot - Atomic Yggdrasil Tarot (Thrill Jockey 2007)
8. Volcano! - Apple or a Gun - Beautiful Seizure (Leaf 2005)

7a:
1. Fridge - Oram - The Sun (Temporary Residence 2007)
2. The World on Higher Downs - Two Aged Window - Land Patterns (Plop 2007)
3. W.W. Lowman - Goodbye Greg - Plain Songs (Arbouse 2007)
4. Savath & Savalas - Estrella de Dos Cara ft Jose Gonzalez - Golden Pollen (Anti- 2007)
5. Karate - The Lived-but-Yet-Named - Unsolved (Southern 2000)
6. Via Tania - In the Distance - Under a Different Sky (Chocolate Industries 2003)
7. Neil Young - Transformer Man - Trans (Geffen 1983)
8. Black Moth Super Rainbow - Forever Heavy - Dandelion Gum (Graveface 2007)
9. Von Sudenfed - Dearest Friends - Tromatic Reflexxions (Domino 2007)

8a:
1. Parts & Labor - Fractured Skies - Mapmaker (Jagjaguwar/Brah 2007)
2. Jai-Alai Savant - The Low Frequent Sea - Flight of the Bass Delegate (GSL 2007)
3. The Eternals - Eternal Nocturne - Where Will We Live Now 12" (Thrill Jockey 1999)
4. King Tubby & Roots Radics - Loud Mouth Rock - Dangerous Dub (Greensleeves 1996, recorded 1981)
5. Lee 'Scratch' Perry & the Upsetters - Bucky Skank - A Live Injection: Anthology 1968-79 (Trojan 2001)
6. Byron Lee & the Dragonaires - Soul Day - Byron Lee & the Dragonaires (JAD 1968)
7. From Leaf to Feather - Night Sun - Artdontsleep Presents From L.A. With Love (Milan 2007)
8. Otis Jackson Jr. Trio - Free Son - Jewelz (Stones Throw 2007)
9. Trans Am - Different Kind of Love (Prefuse 73 Remix) - Extremixx (Thrill Jockey 2002)
10. Eddie Ray - Wait a Minute - Eccentric Soul: The Prix Label (Numero Group 2007, recorded 1971)
11. Betty Davis - Shoo-B-Doop & Cop Him - They Say I'm Different (Light in the Attic 2007, recorded 1974)

Dizzee Rascal - "Maths + English"

Dizzee Rascal - Paranoid (XL 2007)

Dizzee Rascal - Maths + English / XL

From Billboard.com:

London-based rapper Dizzee Rascal will release his next album, "Maths & English," for XL/Beggars Group on June 5 in the U.S. In a first for XL/Beggars Group, Billboard.biz has learned that the album will only be serviced to digital outlets in North America, and the label is not planning on releasing on physical CD outside of the U.K. and Europe. "Maths & English" will, however, be released as a physical product overseas, where Dizzee Rascal has met much more success....

"Maths & English" is Dizzee Rascal's third album, the follow-up to 2004's "Showtime." The sophomore effort has sold 16,000 units to date in the U.S., according to Nielsen Soundscan. The number was a significant dip from the 58,000 copies sold by his 2003 debut, "Boy in da Corner," which arrived Stateside under massive amounts of buzz.

The two varying statistics persuaded XL/Beggars to go the most cost-effective digital route with "Maths & English" in the U.S. "Many of the sales of the first record were a lot of impulse buying," says Beggars Group VP of marketing Matt Harmon. "It was the feeling that people were missing something if they didn't own that record. That didn't mean that everyone was a fan. It just meant we were selling a lot more records. So coming to this album, we're going into it with a readjusted, more realistic view of it."

And so ends the short but furious history of grime in the US. Oh sure, Dylan Mills has been drifting away from the 140 bpm two-step breaks that provide the pillars for guys like Wiley and Skepta since Boy in Da Corner was released in 2003... But as both the most successful and most visible grime personality in the States, Dizzee Rascal has come to symbolize the Great Garage-Rap Onslaught of '03. The problem is that, like M.I.A., people seemed to be buying Boy in Da Corner more to be a part of what was fresh rather than for actually liking the album. Top 20 on both the Heatseekers and the Top Independent Charts, Dizzee was a harsh MC for American ears more used to lazy Southern-fried slurs over boring beats.

While Showtime showcased Rascal's talents yet again, just a year later he was nowhere for most Americans. What sense would it make to bother unleashing yet another brilliant album on a continually unsuspecting and unappreciative audience? Maybe because Maths + English is possibly his most wildly inconsistent, erratically intriguing release yet. The pink-black-white artwork might be painfully ugly, but the musical point is made: You can try and ruin a cut with Lily Allen or bitch on and on about how tough fame is, but at the end of the day the formerly day-glo neon synths that wove a sinewy path through vacant drum blasts are taking a back seat to both the storytelling and the subtler touches of a Big Sound.

Mike Skinner's failed concept album on fame rings true here as Dizzee starts the album off with songs like "Pussyole (Old Skool)" and "Suk My Dick." Pretty clear what's going on here, and that's basking in the fame and attention that being a grime king can merit; alternately, it's what results from hormone overdrive fueled into that two-step template so popular four years ago. Has it really been four years?

Between his internal dialogue dominating a track like "Paranoid" and the party-crashing genius of "Flex," Rascal's multifaceted personality shines through in a way that might've been exemplified just as well in his first two albums but never quite in the same way. This both is and isn't more of the same. It's both a confident swagger and a career retrospective. Maybe there aren't any indications as to what he will do next, but I'm not sure he needs it. Mills is far from being at the bottom of his game and this album is, for at least half the Atlantic, one more reason why. Maybe for that reason alone, it's a shame Americans will have to buy it via import. It would rob record stores of the pleasure of turning around the album to reveal Rascal flipping us off in defiance. The shame instead is that the joke's on him.

The World on Higher Downs - "Land Patterns"

The World on Higher Downs - Alpine Low (Plop 2007)

The World on Higher Downs – Land Patterns / Plop

So after somewhat ranting and raving about yet another product of the experimental and pastoral Chicago post-rock scene yesterday, a Wisconsin quartet one-ups my Windy City example. Granted this is a rarity in the Cheese State (that’s their official nickname right?), The World on Higher Downs would be much more suited in the scene just to the south, but if their debut album proves anything, it’s that they are very much self-sufficient. Hell, they even landed themselves on the wonderful Tokyo label Plop; I for one am impressed.

Made up of four multi-instrumentalists including Troy Schafer, Nathaniel Ritter, Vincent Wachowiak and Eric Bray, The World on Higher Downs craft their sound through patient layering rather than off-the-cuff improvisation. The project that resulted in Land Patterns began in the spring of 2005 by Schafer and Ritter. Initially instigated by innocent bedroom experimentation, the preliminary sketches were just made up of keyboards, effected electric guitar and violin, but strong enough to warrant elaborating on the songs. While I don’t have any indication of what exactly the early demos sounded like, stripping away the auxiliary instrumentation from the final recordings reveal a backdrop of slow-burning synth swells and swirling, staticy ambience; probably in the vein of a rough-hewn Stars of the Lid or Labradford sound.

After a few months of smoothing out the blueprints, Wachowiak and Bray were brought into the mix to further develop the music. Fleshed out with acoustic instrumentation like guitar, bass, xylophone, vibraphone, horns and a variety of hand, pitched and bowed percussion as well as electronic touches, Land Patterns began to truly take shape. Instead of digitally chopping up samples and piecing the album together, the group opted to arrange in large chunks by layering and blending the warm pitches together. There is a definite digital sound to the album, especially with the subtle static undertones and heavy effects lining the entire recording, but the warmness of natural instrumentation and analog recording is not completely lost in the mix. It is more acoustic than a Fennesz recording and more electronic than a Reich.

And speaking of influences, the biggest concern with Land Patterns is how much it imitates (though very well) its influences without completely carving out its own idiosyncratic style. During my initial few spins, I jotted down as I always do a few musical references to help describe the sound while writing my review. My list included Steve Reich (elliptical vibe and xylophone patterns), Labradford (effects-heavy, ambient soundscapes), Stars of the Lid (lush string swells and slowly developing arrangements) and Fridge (inventive rhythms and lyrical melodies), and low-and-behold, their MySpace-listed influences include all four as well as a shoegazers Cocteau Twins and Slowdive, post-rockers Tortoise and Tarentel, and electronic artists Loscil and Matmos. Every one of these references are warranted and very much put The World on Higher Downs in fantastic company, but also proves that the Wisconsin quartet is a bit behind the curve.

So that is pretty much the bottom line, Land Patterns is a fantastic, well-produced album containing the best elements of the last twenty years of acoustic and electronic post-rock, but doesn’t so much push the envelope as settles in comfortably and keeps the tradition alive. Do not get me wrong though, if this is a sound you particularly enjoy, then do yourself a favor and pick up the album because you very much will not be disappointed, but just realize that it is not reinventing the game. Land Patterns is well played and produced and at the very, very least, it should bring your attention to possibly Wisconsin’s most promising post-rock collective in The World on Higher Downs. I will very much be looking forward to their sophomore effort with high expectations.

W.W. Lowman - "Plain Songs"

W.W. Lowman - Goodbye Greg (Arbouse 2007)

W.W. Lowman – Plain Songs / Arbouse

Goddamn am I glad I decided to move to Chicago. Looking to escape the sweltering boondocks of South Carolina, my final two choices came down to New York or Chicago. Thankfully, the right set of events took place that I landed in the latter, because I seriously doubt that I would have fit in amongst the neon cacophony of the Big Apple. The bottom line is I am a mellow guy, and Chicago, more than any place I have experienced to this date, seems to near flawlessly marry the city life with a laid-back, pleasant spirit. It is not a lazy or simple aesthetic by any means though, quite the contrary actually. The city is paved with experimental complexities especially within the arts and architecture, but they are achieved and presented in an unpretentious, warm manner. And most importantly, the Chicago mindset is not to continually attempt to out-do the other guy, but to instead collaborate and share talents for the greater good. All the proof you need is in the city’s post-rock and jazz scenes; both are as vibrant and forward-pushing as ever. And when those two similar-minded collectives intertwine, the results are nearly always stunning. Continuing with this tradition, W.W. Lowman, a supporting member of the region for nearly a decade now, finally gets his chance to take center stage with his solo debut, and you better believe his musically inclined friends are here to support him.

Lowman joined the Chicago team in 1998. Catching the ear of then-Chicagoan Jim O’Rourke while interning at ACME studios with his idiosyncratic style of guitar playing, he quickly networked through the city’s dense musical veins. As the years passed, his talents as a versatile session player were utilized in increasing doses, and he now sports a résumé that lists L’Altra, Smog, the Aluminum Group, Alasdair Roberts, Edith Frost, Bobby Conn, Lindsay Anderson, Rob Mazurek, Fred Lonberg-Holm and Will Oldham as collaborators. Lowman’s only venture as a songwriter though (until now), is as half of the intricate Fahey-inspired acoustic guitar duo Bosco & Jorge with Brad Gallagher. With now ten years of networking and musicianship developing chalked up, it is time to cash in on the experiences, and Plain Songs is very much the work of a matured, Chicago-inspired musician.

With the help of the Aluminum Group’s Frank Navin, Lowman has crafted a highly melodic, lushly meandering post-rock affair in Plain Songs. Though he may be known mostly as a guitarist, this sounds much more like the work of a composer. In fact, his guitar for the most part weaves subtly around the instrumentation rather than completely hogging the spotlight (the latter half of “Please Don’t Think Its Funny” is a great example of this), and I would venture to say without the prior knowledge of his instrument of choice, you would be hard pressed to decipher exactly where his specialty actually lies. Seeing as his inspirations for the album were pop and soundtrack composers Burt Bacharach and Ennio Morricone, this makes even more sense. Lowman apparently placed his ambitions above the sound of one particular instrument and set out to balance the complex formalities of finely arranged mood music with the accessibility and light-spiritedness of a pop song. He excels in this with Plain Songs providing music that is contemplative, accessible and occasionally moving.

Lowman enlists a number of fellow Chicago musicians to help flesh out his ideas. The complementary tones of Fred Lonberg-Holm (Terminal 4, Lightbox Orchestra), Max Crawford (Poi Dog Pondering), Lindsay Anderson (L’Altra), Mark Greenberg (Coctails, Archer Prewitt), Darren Garvey (Andreas Kapsalis Trio), Navin and a few others all coalesce gracefully in a manner that draws as much inspiration from Tortoise as it does Morricone. The music swells and grooves and saunters with arrangements that don’t ever feel overly complex, but are certainly the work of a skilled musician. And best of all, each of the patiently developing songs (only one clocks under the five minute mark) rarely retreads territory. “Tea Til Ten” lightly sways with multi-tracked, wordless vocals, “Batie” simmers with shuffling drums and Michio Kurihara-like electric guitar explorations, “Lee & Me” adds banjo into the mix for ten minutes of bluegrass-inspired post-rock, and “Tennis Socks” experiments with strings, vibes, accordion and guitar interaction.

Plain Songs is a very Chicago album outside of the obvious post-rock references. Lowman is not afraid to experiment with a myriad of instrumentation, tone and genres, but keeps it all encompassed in a down-to-Earth, easily accessible aura, though sometimes to a frustrating degree. It’s melodious and skillfully arranged where the whole is more important than any of the individual musicians, including Lowman himself. There is certainly still room for improvement, but as far as an introduction to arranging, Lowman is well on his way. Hopefully, and most likely with the city’s progressive spirit, he will continue to develop and reward us with a truly spectacular album.

Moonbabies - "Moonbabies at the Ballroom"

Moonbabies - The 9th (Parasol 2007)

Moonbabies - Moonbabies at the Ballroom / Parasol

One of the great things about not being in charge at a university radio station is not knowing everything. Maybe that sounds strange as being a blogger is all about knowing more than every other blogger; hell, music fandom is about knowing more than anyone else sometimes. It's what separates elitists from mere mortal enthusiasts and the especially cringeworthy casual fan. After a certain point of doing this, you start to think you know it all. It's like, not even worth keeping up anymore.

Sometimes I feel like I've hit that wall; shortly before I left for an historic vacation last week, I tried to review a lot; I stopped when I felt I was no longer doing the artists justice. After returning, I started back in with Moonbabies. It was good to be home again. If you've never heard of this band, drop everything you're doing and go find The Orange Billboard. As an undergrad just taking leftovers from the music office that Michael and Jordan ran, Moonbabies slipped into my hands in late 2004 and became a favorite album that year, a shimmering pastiche of Swede-pop smeared together with shoegaze and dream-pop. At that point, Ola Frick and Carina Johansson perfectly encapsulated who I was as a person. It was naive, but it was naive with a self-knowing wink and nudge. The music was shiny enough to be goofy but came off smart enough to know what it was. Self-awareness. Bloggers love that stuff.

The mini-LP War on Sound followed a dramatic excursion to London and when I came back I found that while I had changed quite a bit, Moonbabies hadn't dramatically altered their sound for their third big release (which included curious yet welcome covers of Pink Floyd's "Arnold Layne" and Midnight Oil's "Stars of Warburton"). Sure they still had the white noise wash of My Bloody Valentine and had wisely kept the vocal harmonies of The Beach Boys. But a Midnight Oil cover? Well played. Though it didn't blow anyone into the weeds (except the people in charge of soundtracking "Grey's Anatomy"), War on Sound was a holding pattern for their following release.

So you see that I'm starting to sound like I don't know anything with these trite phrases and nondescript terminology. That's the effect the Swedish duo have on me: I regress into my stupidly happy late '04 phase when things like "white noise wash" passed as acceptable descriptions for distortion, feedback and overmodulation. Moonbabies at the Ballroom is, unsurprisingly, not a whole lot different from its predecessors. So why bother?

It's true that topping The Orange Billboard might well be impossible. But whereas that album was near flawless because its songs were so strong, it was succinct in delivery. Moonbabies at the Ballroom is a different approach and the opening instrumental "21st Century" is the first indication: Whereas a song like "Jets" was a legitimate instrumental in its own right, "21st Century" suggests a more freeform approach, an opening to the album proper but not necessarily a song to be taken on its own. "War on Sound" makes another appearance after having been released as a single over a year ago. Its near militant drums juxtapose Johansson's airy vocal delivery before breaking into the cute indie-pop verse.

One of the things about their songs is that Ola Frick's accent sometimes gets the best of him (pronouncing his Rs quite hard in words like "better," for example). It makes for a vocal tic that you know as unmistakeably Moonbabies, but it comes delivered with a hummable harmony and an irresistible beat you will inadvertantly find yourself tapping your feet to. "Cocobelle" is sort of like this except that its faux orchestration majestically elevates it to become the standout. Crashing cymbals and Frick's swamped vocals only add to the effect and it winds up sounding not unlike The Russian Futurists. The difference is that Moonbabies have the better musical arsenal: Both Frick and Johansson trade vocal duties and both are multi-instrumentalists, so there's never a lack of things going on.

Another example of this and of that expanding sound we were talking about eariler is "Ratatouille," an acoustic interlude that sets up the quintessential Moonbabies track in just four minutes, "Walking on My Feet." Just a touch of tremolo to those guitars adds that My Bloody Valentine nod you thought they'd forgotten. I picked "The 9th" because I thought it was a quirky track, its guitars scratching alongside the burbling synths and then bursting free to reveal an Owen-like beauty in its verses. Though it's nothing like the epic grandeur of "Weekend a Go-Go" or the strummed simplicity of "Ratatouille" on the face of it, the combination of both the epic and the overlooked is part of what makes this song (and this band) so good.

As you can probably tell, Audiversity is not really an indie-pop hub... But we review what we like because we think it's good, and Moonbabies is a band I always wish the best for. It may not necessarily sound like your bag, and to a certain extent I don't want to sound like I know anything here... But they made a believer out of me, and I didn't give a fuck about SMiLE.

Interversity: Bark Bark Bark

Oasis in the Arizona desert (but not in the annoying Gallagher brother kind of way) Jacob Cooper has been kind enough to respond to our Interversity questions this week. The Tucson native proved his mettle with Haunts earlier this year, but as he'll tell you, it was his demo tape that really won over the Retard Disco big cheese.











Bark Bark Bark - Haunts - Haunts (Retard Disco 2007)

1. How did you initially get involved with the folks at Retard Disco?

I met Andy and Alex a few times when I would come through LA on tour, but originally they had requested some work from me to hear. I gave Andy a tape cassette that I had been touring with for some time at one of the shows, and found out later that the tape was completely blank. He totally got Punk'd. It went all uphill from there.

2. I can honestly say only The Format and Authority Zero come to my mind when I think of Arizona and music. How heavily involved with Tucson's scene are you and is there anyone in particular who influenced you from the area?

I'm not really involved with the music scene here in Arizona as much as I used to be. I've kind of learned to appreciate the fact that my music doesn't really go over well here, and most bands that we get put on bills with are sour electro-clash bullshit. I've also managed to piss a lot of people off over the last few years. Tucson is a pretty small community of musicians and artists, so when something happens, it usually flies around fairly quick. I am also pretty opinionated about most bands that play out here, so I expect everyone to be as opinionated about me. I can go on about The Format and Authority Zero but let's just leave it at that.

3. Your likeness is buried beneath the pink lettering on the front cover of Haunts. What was going through your mind when that picture was taken?

"I have no idea what I am doing. I hope I can figure out a cool cover from this picture."

4. You've played with a ton of acts both big and small. What are your favorite and least favorite tour memories?

I have no bad tour memories. It's always fun and no one that travels with me pusses out. I think you have to learn to embrace the idea that shit happens on tour, and you have to let things go. I have gotten in a few verbal fights with some opening bands on tour though. It's usually my fault. We are officially banned from Clovis, New Mexico. Do you know where that is? Good because NO ONE DOES. Now we both officially dont give a fuck.

5. Is there any one physical location that you draw inspiration from the most?

I really like the car, that's usually where I think of a lot of ideas with people I'm driving with.

Audiversinquiry (10 questions we ask everyone)

1. What do you specifically remember listening to as a child that triggered a memorable response you can still recall now?

Janet Jackson - Rhythm Nation & The Police - Greatest Hits. I also listened to a lot of the radio, mostly those 90's R & B stations that reminded you of school functions. My dad worked at a record store here called PDQ Records. I would go into his work and he would let me pick out a record at a time. It was always funny that I was just choosing records of cassettes that he already had at home.

2. Hypothetical: You are heading across town right now and will have time to listen to one complete album during the trip, what would you listen to?

My own record or working demos. Honestly, I mix a lot of my stuff by listening to it in cars. I also practice singing. Or maybe I am conceited?

3. Are there any other media that you draw inspiration from? Books, authors, painters, actors, movies, celebrities, etc?

I get pretty bored of paintings and most art. Maybe it's because I have the attention span of a 5 year old. Movies are pretty relevant to my record because I imagine a lot of the tracks on it being used for specific scenes in films. I've always wanted to score a legit film. Honestly, that's really how I started messing with software or anything relatively electronic. My brothers made movies and I would make music for them.

4. Where do you go to discover new music and sounds?

I seem to usually find out about things pretty late. I don't spend a lot of time at American Apparel or read a lot of hip magazines. I'll be at a friends house and they'll be playing something I really am into. I'll ask "What is that?", then they'll say "Uh, dude where have you been?". "Sorry man, I know I'm a complete piece of shit for not being up with Klaxons."

5. What question do you get most often that you hate answering?

"Dude, what do you use to make your beats?" Fuck off, seriously. I don't even know. I think the other question I hate is, "Are you a DJ?"

6. Any favorite instruments or specific "sounds"?

I will always love the drums. It was my first instrument ever learning, and is the backbone to my music. I like anything that hits hard and sounds scary. I am also into the human voice. There's a lot you can do with it; it secretly makes up for sounds I can't afford to create.

7. The record store is closing in ten minutes and you are hell-bent on buying something before they close, what section do you head immediately towards?

Adult. I think my friend answered this when I was away from the computer. It's pretty funny though, so I'm going to leave it because I dont know how else to answer this question.

8. What is the last notable daydream you had and where did it take place?

I was thinking about going ghost hunting this weekend up north with some friends. It took place right here at this very seat. Crazy, right?

9. What is the perfect album to you? Are there any? Is it possible?

I think my perfect album is comprised of a lot of different styles and sounds and its tracks are arranged in a way that can tell a story. I'm really into concept albums because of this.

10. Do you keep up with blogs? Which do you read if so?

I like to 4chan.

Singleversity #15

Audiversity’s weekly column, slightly modified, on random music in a predetermined number of words between 1 & 150. This week's randomly generated number: 102.

MA:



I have always liked Jackie DeShannon’s "What the World Needs Now is Love". With its relatively simple and lush arrangement (that melody-echoing trombone is so perfect it’s ridiculous), I always wondered whether the Bacharach/David tune was written as influenced by Brian Wilson or did it act as an inspiration for his similar compositions on Pet Sounds, released a year later. Plus, DeShannon never gets the recognition she deserves. Besides being maybe the first purveyor of folk-rock, she opened for The Beatles on their first U.S. tour, dated Elvis, and penned “Bette Davis Eyes” among so many other pop-chart destroying tunes.

PM:













In January, NPR’s “Weekend America” asked listeners what their favorite song to fall asleep to was. Though it seems like a backhanded compliment, Over the Atlantic’s “Fly to the States” is a song that strikes me in a very special way… So special I wrote up a description and hoped they would include the whole song; a 30-second clip is useless, so here is its full splendor. Though I may not know where I’m going or what I’m doing with my life, the New Zealand duo are quietly backing me up, gently easing me into the white abyss. Malevich would be proud.

Black Strobe - "Burn Your Own Church"

Black Strobe - Lady (Playlouder 2007)

Black Strobe - Burn Your Own Church / Playlouder

"What if" is the biggest question surrounding this French duo. Hearing that phrase, "French duo," probably sets off a bunch of alarms. In the case of Burn Your Own Church, some of them are justified: A decade ago, Arnaud Rebotini and David "Siskid" Shaw set the French club scene ablaze with "Paris Acid City," a 12" single on Source Records that attracted the gaze of Output Records. You know Output's legacy better from Four Tet's early releases, or Fridge's early works, or maybe as the main distributor for the DFA's earliest singles. In short, Output used to matter and Black Strobe were a part of it.

But something happened after a string of early 12s. That something was that they, um, kept releasing singles. EPs and 7s and 12s and EPs and CD singles and on and on it went; they could've made a full-length by the time they got around to trying for Burn Your Own Church, but the anthems just kept coming anyway.

The trick with Black Strobe in their 2007 form is that they're no longer merely another French duo. Joined by Bastien Burger and Benjamin Beaulieu, Black Strobe are now a full-on band, no what ifs, ands or buts about it. The press release for this album talks about how the old French club sensibilities being combined with modern beat-driven rock and Norwegian death-metal; from the off, you can hear that darker side coming out. "Brenn Di Ega Kjerke" has the pulse of a thousand gothic club movie scenes, but its Red October radar wanders in and out of the steadily increasing percussion and electric guitars. If you're going to start off with a bang, this is a pretty good way of doing it.

The vocals enter on second track "Shining Bright Star." They're comically overdone and the music is driven techno-rock from the late 90s. That's a theme for this album, actually. Burn Your Own Church is sort of in the same vein as all those gothic industrial tributes featuring bands like Electric Hellfire Club or Bella Morte with a heavy dosage of Daft Punk thrown in for good measure. The results are both ridiculous and, almost beyond comprehension, ridiculously enjoyable. "Last Club on Earth," for real. Hard not to smile at apocalyptic visions like that, right?

If you don't know whether to love or hate a Nine Inch Nails impression like "Not What I Needed," that's understandable. It's tough to take anything vaguely gothic or industrial seriously these days and I recognize that Black Strobe is going to be a tough sell for someone who outgrew The Downward Spiral ten years ago. If you're wondering what's out there now though that reminds you both of your angst-ridden youth and your current obsession in all that bloghouse rot, this is definitely your album. No what ifs about that, either.

Numero Group's "Eccentric Soul: The Prix Label"

Eddie Ray - Wait a Minute (Numero Group 2007, recorded 1971)

Various Artists – Eccentric Soul: The Prix Label / Numero Group

You have got to be impressed with the production level of Chicago’s Numero Group collective. Rob Sevier, Ken Shipley and Tom Lunt (with the increasing presence of Dante Carfagna) started the reissue imprint back in the waning moments 2003 and in just a short four years have nearly climbed atop the American crate-digging market with their high quality aesthetic and ridiculous level of consistent production. Fifteen releases in three-and-a-half years is pretty impressive when you consider the time it takes to catch wind of unearthed gems, research, establish contacts, travel, dig, dig, dig, dig, wrangle the rights to actually release their finds, remaster, repackage, write extensive liner notes, issue and promote. Perhaps at this point they can devote all their time to their music-rediscovering love, but I am assuming for a good while all of that was scheduled around a forty-hour workweek as well. Damn is right. But the final product absolutely speaks for itself, and each concurrent release flies off the shelves at increasing speeds, so I sincerely doubt that production level is going to slow down any time soon. Well, at least as long as there are overlooked labels still to be rediscovered.

I barely had time to fully digest Numero 014, Grand Bahama Goombay, when a promo for Numero 015 came gleefully rolling into the record store a few weeks back. The eighth installment what has become the bread and butter of the Numero reissues, the Eccentric Soul series, The Prix Label finds the crate-destroying collective-extraordinaire heading back to the site of Numero 001: Columbus, Ohio. Not even the most notable city in Ohio (ahem, Cleveland), the Buckeye state’s capital is not typically a go-to point as a music-breeding metropolis, no matter what the era is in context. Yet the Numero boys have now dug up not one, but two incredible, overlooked labels from the 70s, first the Capsoul label and now the Prix label. Both share a penchant for intertwining the characteristics of Motown and Stax (sitting geographically between the two probably has something to do with that) and producing decisively left-of-center singles, but each definitely exists in a realm all their own with idiosyncratic details to their short-lived sounds.

The Prix label itself was created solely as an imprint to release material from Harmonic Sounds Incorporated. The joint venture between a black defense contractor and a white attorney, the music production company was very much a labor of love with the people involved spending five years of their lives pouring money, time and energy into it, but with only a catalogue containing a handful of 45s to prove that the company even existed. When George Beter headed west seeking better luck as a flailing attorney, his older brother hooked him up with one of his co-workers at the Defense Construction Supply Center right outside of Columbus. The ambitious Clem Price was an electronics enthusiast and had many a connection throughout the central Ohio city. He was able to hook Beter up with a job at the Attorney General’s office, which allowed the financial freedom to open up a studio and start a label to release exclusively the music produced within its walls; The Prix label was born.

Like most burgeoning labels during the early 70s, Harmonic Sounds became the home for a handful of promising young local artists, ambitious jingle writers, displaced careers and studio musicians looking to craft material of their own. Culling nearly the entire officially released back catalogue of Prix (only eleven cuts) as well as eight additional tracks discovered at an estate sale (four of which included in the “extended play” are unfinished demos and in the case of Penny & the Quarters, a group no one seems to recollect), this compilation contains some brilliant deep soul numbers that were sorely passed over in their time. The artists involved are varied, but the talent is undeniably above par across the board.

Singer Eddie Ray has probably both the saddest story and highest level of talent of the bunch. His career began infinitely promising as his first gig was in a Florida night club joined by fellow up-and-comers Same Moore and David Prater—ahem, Sam & Dave. Ray left just before their Atlantic deal and traveled the country with his own band, The Meditations, and later fronted a band run by J.C. Davis, James Brown’s original bandleader. He eventually found his way to Harmonic Sounds where he became the Prix label’s first release in 1970 with “You Got Me” b/w “Glad I Found You,” both of which are included on the disc. His sensational third single, “Wait a Minute,” which opens the disc, was never released after the first 45 flopped and Ray and Price parted ways. His career never took off, and he now resides in Atlanta performing to this day.

Also included on the compilation are two excellent deep funk numbers by the interracial, long-traveled group OFS Unlimited (who also back the thick soul croon of Mitch Mitchell), honey-voiced guitar player Joe King, youthful party-soul quartet Royal Esquires, R&B saxophonist Chip Willis, multi-instrumentalist and studio innovator Ron Farthing who recorded as the Soul Ensemble (and when paired up with the Royal Esquires as Soul Partners) and socially-conscious mod-blues singer Marion Black. There is a definite shared aesthetic by the artists involved, and it gives the Prix label a very deep, soulful aura. Sadly though, none of the releases distributed by the label ever gained much momentum on even a local scale. After two years of production, the actual Harmonic Sounds studio closed and two years after that the label folded for good. The Prix imprint only lasted from 1969-1973, and Harmonic Sounds Inc partnership quietly disbanded in 1976.

Like every entry and the Eccentric Soul series and really every release by the Numero Group, Numero 015 is of the highest quality in all facets. And in all honesty, of the entire catalogue, Eccentric Soul: The Prix Label ranks among my favorite. Maybe I am just a sucker for deep soul music, but regardless, this release is worth ever penny you may spend for it. Better get it quick too, because I sincerely doubt the Numero boys will be sitting idly for long and we will have a brand new overlooked blip of musical history to finally discover for the first time.

Daniel A.I.U. Higgs - "Atomic Yggdrasil Tarot"

Daniel A.I.U. Higgs - Subatomic Yggdrasil Tarot (Thrill Jockey 2007)

Daniel A.I.U. Higgs – Atomic Yggdrasil Tarot / Thrill Jockey

So, in a convenient manner of accidental Audiversity interconnectivity, we get a chance to look at an album that is very much the polar opposite of yesterday’s Artdontsleep Presents From L.A. With Love. As I stated in my opening paragraph of that review, the most intriguing music typically either comes from wildly productive geographically centered scenes (see here) or completely secluded artists. For the most part, Daniel A.I.U. Higgs very much fits into the latter category, and after listening to his second officially released solo album, Atomic Yggdrasil Tarot, you will fully understand the reason I specifically chose the “intriguing” adjective. For his first release on Thrill Jockey, which happens to be the second installment in their limited edition full color hardcover book + CD series (the first being from Japanese electronic composer Aki Tsuyuko and the third to be from Thomas Campbell), Higgs gets the rare opportunity to match his surrealist Miró-inspired art (think pleasantly simple, colorful and imaginatively geometrical pieces) and his lo-fi, meandering guitar experimentations.

The creepy-like-a-cult-leader looking Higgs is probably best known for fronting the long-lived Dischord punk band Lungfish. As the lyricist and frontman, he established himself as a loony, passionate madman of a performer with a deeply personal (to the extent of being referred to as one of the godfathers of emo), stream-of-conscious-like delivery. Team that with his more recent interest in performance art and eclectic mysticism, and you start to see where the disjointed music of Atomic Yggdrasil Tarot stems from. His first solo album, Ancestral Songs (released in 2006 on Holy Mountain), found Higgs exploring his inner demons through minimal, meditative blues and discomforting lyrics; Tarot digs deeper within slimmer confines.

I have done my best to gather an understanding of the concept behind this album, but truth be told, it relates much more to the book than the music. “Yggdrasil” refers a sort of all-encompassing “world tree” in Norse mythology, which most notably is the tree Odin (an ambivalent Norse deity) self-sacrificingly hung from for nine days and nights in order to learn the wisdom that would give him power to the nine worlds (which has a very loose Jesus parallel in Christianity, though predating it by quite a bit). “Tarot” of course refers to the card game used for divinatory purposes, and I’m guessing “Atomic” signifies modern times. The paintings in the book paired with the spiritual anagrams that lay on the opposite page of each one maybe are something like Higg’s own Tarot deck and his interconnectivity to spiritual enlightenment. Maybe? No, probably not. Dammit, I don’t know, I think I’m digging too deep. Let’s just try and enjoy it for the aesthetic pleasure.

Okay, the music. The music is intriguing like I initially said, but is very much lying in that blurry mid-ground between genius and tomfoolery. It also spurred one of the most entertainingly hilarious reviews from the All Music Guide I have ever seen, including lines like: “Maybe after the right cocktail of psychedelic drugs, this album might take you to a higher plane, or even more likely, it might really freak you out – but it will probably just bother you until you are forced to turn it off.” Higgs, in a totally instrumental outing, utilizes a cheap cassette recorder to capture his raucous experimentations with electric guitar, toy piano, banjo and Jew’s harp. The music is distraught, disjointed and discordant for the most part with periods of hypnotic textural drones and grooves (in the loosest of terms) that is not completely unlistenable, but certainly takes a mind more open to such things. Honestly, the closest reference point I can think of at the moment is perhaps a Sublime Frequencies release. It is certainly exotic, though more in the mind-bending sort of way than the worldly definition of the term.

As I’m sure you have figured out by this point, this music is not for everyone, but I would not go as far as saying its complete self-indulgent malarkey. There are moments where I really dig the circular patterns Higgs taps into especially with his guitar playing. And really, he is just in that genius/insane classification of artist who just exists on a different level of art exploration than the majority of us. If nothing, the accompanying book justifies the cost of the package even if you don’t spend too much time with the music. And as Higgs states in his anagram of “Beatuy”: “Because Everyone Awakens Under The Yoke.” Wait… what?

Radio Show Playlist: 6/13/07

Audiversity would not exist without WLUW-FM Chicago, who is in the midst of it's Spring Pledge Drive. It is a completely independent, listener-supported community radio station whose annual budget is made up of 95% of listener donations. The money will help WLUW continue to develop new and innovative programming (like Audiversity) and will help keep our sound quality state-of-the-art. And most importantly, it keeps WLUW as an independent voice in Chicago. Please call 773-508-7300 or visit wluw.org to donate. Thanks!

6a:
1. The Velvet Underground - Heroin - Live with Lou Reed 1969 Vol. 2 (Mercury 1988)
2. Chris Connelly - The Son of Empty Sam - The Episodes (Durto Jnana 2007)
3. Zelienople - Parts are Lost - His/Hers (Type 2007)
4. Espers - Cruel Storm - II (Drag City 2006)
5. Greg Ashley - Fisher King - Painted Garden (Birdman 2007)
6. Mark Fry - The Witch - Dreaming with Alice (Sunbeam 2006, recorded 1972)
7. Dungen - Familj - Tio Bitar (Kemado 2007)

7a:
1. Savath & Savalas - Apnea Obstructiva - Golden Pollen (Anti- 2007)
2. Fruit Bats - Strange Little Neck of the Woods - Echolation (Perishable 2001)
3. Town & Country - King of Portugal - Up Above (Thrill Jockey 2006)
4. Stanley Cowell Trio - Ibn Mukhtarr Mustapha - Illusion Suite (ECM 1972)
5. Chicago Underground Duo - Exponent Red - Axis & Alignment (Thrill Jockey 2002)
6. Herbie Hancock & Willie Bobo - A Jump Around - Succotash (Pausa 1964)
7. Kahil El'Zabar's Infinity Orchestra - Soul to Groove - Transmigration (Delmark 2007)

8a:
1. Blank Blue - All the Shallow Deep - Artdontsleep Presents From L.A. With Love (Milan 2007)
2. Reminder - On Rooftops - Continuum (Eastern Developments 2006)
3. Peanut Butter Wolf - What About the Beats? - Styles, Crews, Flows, Beats (Stones Throw 1998)
4. Mansbestfriend - Allieverwanted - Poly.sci.187 (Anticon 2007)
5. Daedelus - Scaling Snowdonia - Of Snowdonia (Plug Research 2004)
6. Dosh - Um, Circles and Squares - The Lost Take (Anticon 2006)
7. Curtis Mayfield - Billy Jack - There's No Place Like America Today (Curtom 1975)
8. Marion Black - Listen Black Brother - Eccentric Soul: The Prix Label (Numero Group 2007, recorded 1972)
9. Stevie Wonder - I Was Made to Love Her - I Was Made to Love Her (Tamla 1967)
10. The Jai-Alai Savant - Sugar Free - Flight of the Bass Delegate (GSL 2007)
11. The Eternals - High Anxiety - Rawar Style (Aesthetics 2004)

Various Artists - "Artdontsleep Presents From L.A. With Love"

Adventure Time - This Dome is Our Home (Milan 2007)

Various Artists – Artdontsleep Presents From L.A. With Love / Milan

While the I can easily understand the argument that some of the best music is produced by artists secluded from our continually interconnected web of a world (having no influences sometimes can be the best influence of individuality of all), but as music history has shown us, a geographically-centered collective of similar-minded musicians and artists create some of the most fascinating art of all. From the Delta bluesmen to Detroit’s Motown powerhouse to Memphis’s socially conscious Stax soul to NYC’s underground avant-rock to San Francisco’s flower power jam to São Paulo’s Tropicália to London’s British punk to Seattle’s grunge to Japan’s Shibuya-Kei to Chicago’s post-rock to Baltimore’s bass-heavy club and dozens of others I failed to mention, the right group of creative people all banded together in a constructive catalyst of a city can lead to revolutionary musical movements. Los Angeles has fiddled with a number of such collectives in the last few decades, from gangsta rap to West Coast punk, but they have really yet to establish one particular sound that truly defines the city for the better. Promotion group and party starter Artdontsleep (aka Andrew Lojero) has something to say about that though, and Artdontsleep Presents From L.A. With Love is just the kind of eye-opener to get a scene recognized.

Just when gangsta rap was reaching its popularity peak in the mid-to-late 90s, a new anti-movement began bustling in the west coast metropolis. It brought together the hip-hop underground (and I mean all four aspects of the culture, not just rap) in reaction to the quickly spreading negative stigma associated with gangsta rap and began to create an antithesis to the style. Two particular labels have become very influential over the last decade in promoting and cultivating this underground rap and electronica sound, Stones Throw Records and Plug Research. Together they have presented just how far reaching the creative musical possibilities of hip-hop can be whether its presented in a minimal electronica or gritty rap manner. Highly influential in the cities music scene, artists have been mixing aspects of both label’s idiosyncratic styles and have began to define the L.A. underground with this hybrid. Both this compilation and Lojero’s productive parties display this evolution beautifully by collecting some of the most established and promising artists in the city.

From the Stones Throw side of the spectrum, the one man you are all wondering about, the one and only Madlib, is here in two of his many monikers. The deep funk of Sound Directions and the synth-jazz of Yesterday’s New Quintet both make brief but heartfelt appearances with “Wildflower” and “I Remember John Coltrane” respectively. Two of the label’s up-and-comers also contribute including a soul-resonating snap-and-beatbox number from Nathan Yell aka Aloe Blacc and a subdued thumper from sultry songstress Georgia Anne Muldrow. Plug Research also contributes three artists themselves. The new collaboration between Daedelus and Frosty named Adventure Time drops a sample-heavy, cinematic dublab banger, DJ Nobody’s new project with vocalist Niki Randa called Blank Blue provides a sexy, psyche-hop number, and quickly-rising producer Flying Lotus (who actually just signed to WARP) drops some of his skittering and swirling synthesizer-riddled instrumental hip-hop.

The rest of the compilation features other L.A.-based musicians that are a bit less known but still exploring the same sound with the same potency. Synth-jazz trio From Leaf to Feather open the album with a sound akin to Yesterday’s New Quintet but with a looser Brazilian vibe. Producer Computer Jay and vocalist The Gray Kid team up for a very chill track of blue-eyed soul vocals and flickering electronic flourishes, while hip-hop DJ and producer Exile follows with a laid-back and infectious stutter-hop number. The comp closes a bit more organic with both Isaiah Ikey Owens’s Free Moral Agents and Carlos Niño & Miguel Atwood-Ferguson dropping some skilled musicianship.

Artdontsleep Presents From L.A. With Love is solid from beginning to end and truly does present a scene that is both similar and diverse as far as the music is concerned. There is a definite, distinctive sound yet each artist can move around within its limits to establish their very own fingerprint. And on top of all that, the album comes accompanied with a 28-page booklet featuring the like-minded visual artists tying the scene together. Each exclusive song is treated with its own inspired piece of art, whether it is produced by photograpy, painting, collage or graffiti (typically a combination of all), created specifically for the project from artists like B+, Food One, Augustine Kofie, Dez Einswell and Blaine Fontana among others. The entire package is gorgeously assembled and a perfect visual representation to the music held within. If you live in L.A., there will be an album release party on June 16th at The A+D Museum featuring most of the artists involved that I imagine will be ridiculously amazing, so I hope you make it out to that. For all of us non-Los Angeles residents, the comp is about as close as we can get, so do yourself a favor and get in the know, because there some ridiculously amazing art brewing in City of Angels.

Eats Tapes - "Dos Mutantes"

Eats Tapes - Lemon Drop (Tigerbeat6 2007)

Eats Tapes - Dos Mutantes / Tigerbeat6

And the rhythms just. don't. stop. I don't know what it is but I just can't get away from stuff that makes me feel paranoid. Have you ever seen that part in "Over the Hedge" where the squirrel downs the energy drink and then proceeds to stroll through the whole scene with the bear attacking the people? Well anyway, that's how I feel listening to stuff like Gouseion and Eats Tapes. But Eats Tapes are way more twisted. There's some of that 8-bit goofiness embedded in this project, but when it comes to laptops and technology, you can forget it: The duo formerly known as Boom de la Boom are out to get you dancing without the aid of their Macs. Break out the rolodex and swing to the numbers on your rotary phone: Eats Tapes are out to analogize your headphones.

But why bother when this thing has been out since March 19th? Well, partly because right now the group is doing a brief jaunt through Europe and if you're anywhere near Berlin, Denmark or Glasgow in the next few days, you should check them out. Also, it's whack. In a good way. Marijke Jorritsma and Greg Zifcak (who even without the Eats Tapes title would have pretty awesome names) are all about analog-inflected instrumental techno that demands dancefloors be filled.

It's all so wonderfully ebullient and innocently fun that saying no makes you look like a jerk. "Face Shredder" is a fist-pumping techno anthem interrupted only by noise generators and of course some NES action. It's spazztastic and totally un-hyphy, which is something San Francisco isn't really known for. And when I say "ebullient," I'm specifically thinking of the underwater "Lemon Drop" as Mario holds his breath for an incredible amount of time (Nearly seven minutes in this case) to get through all those submarine levels, yeah, you know the ones. This is the revised soundtrack to all those levels combined. As you can probably tell, it's hard to get enough of it.

And for all the times we brought Matmos up in reviews but only as a reference point (Vladislav Delay being the most recent example), lo and behold, Eats Tapes gives you "I've Become a Cretin" featuring none other than Nate Boyce (Boyce also did the "Tenderizer" video, an added bonus to the already mind-meltingly bright album art). A little guitar squall never hurt anybody out in the clubs even if this particular ten-track club insists on using MIDI sequencers and programmed drum loops.

"Wolf Blitzer" appropriately ends this one on a relentlessly high note. So unlike when Hammy the Squirrel's sugar rush recedes and things resume their normal pace around him, Eats Tapes do not "ease out" of this one. Right to the end, their thumping 8-bit beats jar your eardrums and leave you with a ringing that's louder than any old school rotary phone. You'll be glad you picked it up if you haven't already.

The Jai-Alai Savant - "Flight of the Bass Delegate"

The Jai-Alai Savant - Sugar Free (GSL 2007)

The Jai-Alai Savant – Flight of the Bass Delegate / Gold Standard Laboratories

Just recently, Chicago’s Watchers celebrated their new album release by sharing the stage with The Eternals and The Jai-Alai Savant. It is an interesting trifecta of Chicago acts because they all share a similar ethos yet each concocts a very individual sound. Both the Watchers with their Contortions-meet-Specials avant-funk-punk and The Eternals with their mutated P-Funk Afro-pop crafted with Upsetter-like production have been knocking around the scene for a good while now, but The Jai-Alai Savant are relatively new, especially here in the Second City. Damon Locks of The Eternals has provided artwork for both of the releases for the trifecta’s little brother, so the relationship with the newest act has been established for at least a minute, but I am curious just how far back it reaches. The shared aesthetic is just so strong, its almost as if they bounce ideas off each other; could a super group be in the works? Perhaps, but as for now, let’s place all hypothetical questions aside and just concentrate on the release at hand by putting the spotlight on The Jai-Alai Savant.

Brainchild of guitarist/singer/songwriter Ralph Darden, the trio’s debut EP on Omar Rodriguez-Lopez’s Gold Standard Labs imprint, Thunderstatement, was just that: a highly energetic, booming statement of the hybrid reggae-punk-pop The Jai-Alai Savant (pronounced hi-a-lie sa-vant) were to unleash. Rounded out by drummer Michael Bravine, bassist Nash Snyder and dub-beat-concoctor Major Taylor (Darden's DJ alias), the Chicago-by-way-of-Philly group have now let the reigns loose with their debut full-length Flight of the Bass Delegate. Like the EP and their companion bands, it truly defies categorization. Post-punk chugs beneath the dub production, reggae riddims groove with pop-punk energy, krautrock experimentation progresses with power-pop anthems, along with a dozen other odd pairings that make up the album. It’s music that is both infectious and challenging, which is the toughest couple of all to balance.

One major comparison I have been hearing a lot is to The Police, which obviously is not quite up to the wide-reaching descriptions I have been delineating so far. But I can also easily see why it is so often used. Darden sings with a similar high-pitched yelp to Sting, but with much, much more energy and urgency. And the bright marriage of reggae, pop and punk is also similar to the 80s sensation, but the parallel would be much stronger if The Police had evolved in a post-punk realm rather than just pop, pop and more radio-friendly pop. Plus the heavily playful Eternals-like dub production really shatters any such comparison to justify the outside reference.

The band really excels when the anthem-friendly energy is turned all the way up (in a similar manner to Parts & Labor’s recent release, but with less noise-rock). In particular, “Scarlett Johansson Why Don’t You Love Me” (a question every male anywhere very much including myself asks himself every time we watch Ghost World or Lost in Translation; talk about relatability) and “Sugar Free” will have you singing along after the very first chorus. The former boogies along with its stabbing, tinny guitar chops and harmonic group vocals, and the latter with a mellower rocksteady build up and wonderful fireworks-show climax. “The Low Frequent See” on the other hand displays the experimental prowess of the group. At nearly eight minutes long, the song kicks off with a sample-heavy dub riddim before a horn-colored melodic-tinged groove instigates that relaxed rocksteady dance you can’t help but succumb to when listening to that late 60s reggae. Synthesizer effects and urgency layers as the song progresses, and after a climax laced with trumpet and sax, the initial dub riddim re-imagines the theme for a couple of grooving minutes. It is not completely unlike The Clash’s better dub-inflected numbers.

Now that The Jai-Alai Savant is officially established as an act to wrap your ears around, can we now call this new wave of dub-punk a scene? If so, sign me up, because I am digging the hell out of it, and if it produces more albums like Flight of the Bass Delegate, Heavy International and Vampire Driver than let’s all show our love. Hmmm, someone should really start a label to band these similar minds together and further define the musical powerhouse that is Chicago. Anyone out there willing to loan me a couple grand to get it off the ground?