New Music: Bloc Party / 06 Music: Andrew Douglas Rothbard, Ornette Coleman, The Eternals

I am just now getting a hold of some albums from 2006 that are worth your time, so I'm going to include those in this post. Enjoy.




Bloc Party - The Prayer (mp3) (deleted per request) - A Weekend in the City (Vice 2007)


Bloc Party – The Prayer / Vice

Bloc Party, the South London quartet that has conquered the music industry in a mere three years, is preparing to unleash their third full-length, A Weekend in the City, in early February to an audience literally shaking in anticipation. The Prayer is the first single off the album and it’s confident and fully realized sound is the mark of the young band maturing, but I have mixed feelings about it. Before I rant, it should be noted that my favorite release from Kele Okereke and gang is their eponymous debut EP on Dim Mak from way back in 2004, a hungry, urgent blend of angular hooks and post-punk influences. This new single, produced by Jacknife Lee who has sat behind the boards for such mammoth pop-rock bands like U2 and Snow Patrol (eek), is a far cry from Bloc Party's early days; instead of relying on skeletal guitar structures, it builds on layers of plodding drums (both live and electronic), guitar washes and an array of synths. It starts promising in an off-beat almost TV on the Radio method before giving way to a chorus anthem that mainstream radio will quickly embrace. Okereke's 'ode to the rush of urban nightlife' is solid during the verses with his short, emotive phrasing over almost monk-like chants and an excellent but all too short bridge of guitar noodling and effects twiddling, but the chorus loses me in a sighing cringe every time. I am pretty positive that this single, and most likely the album as well, is going to launch the band to worldwide commercial success which I think is great; but personally, I am going to stubbornly stick with my early releases when the band was more Clash than Killers.




A few mostly overlooked albums from 2006 worth your time:




Andrew Douglas Rothbard - Indigo (mp3) - Abandoned Meander (Smooch 2006)


Andrew Douglas Rothbard – Abandoned Meander / Smooch

In the late 50s, a religion appeared that was disguised as a joke that was disguised as a religion, or as some see it, it was a joke disguised as a religion disguised as a joke. Either way, it is entitled Discordianism and it was presumably called upon to recognize chaos as a valid aspect of reality and to act as a dialectic antithesis to harmony based religions. Without realizing this concept, Andrew Douglas Rothbard’s Abandoned Meander may come off as simply studio doodling, but it’s actually unfolding based on the belief of balancing order and disorder in creativity. The first of five albums in which Rothbard will trace the Law of Five foundation of Discordianism finds the former keyboardist/bassist/vocalist for Pleasure Forever (a band I sorely miss), VSS and Slaves in a hazy cloud of psyche-folk that tilts as much toward pastoral guitar and banjo picking as it does frenzied outbursts of white noise and feedback. The result is a spellbinding album that sounds like Love jamming with early Animal Collective while Rothbard’s unmistakable vocals almost hypnotizes you enough to throw on a white robe and hit up the local magic store for your own deck of Tarot cards. Decorated with post-modern cave drawings, Abandoned Meander is a twirling trip of neo-psychedelia that slowly unveils its mysteries with each concurrent listen, which you absolutely cannot help but do.







Ornette Coleman - Matador (mp3) - Sound Grammar (Sound Grammar 2006)


Ornette Coleman – Sound Grammar / Sound Grammar

When this album was recorded live in October of 2005, Ornette Coleman was 75, but I swear he sounds just as vibrant and urgent as he did in the late 50s while schooling (and scaring) jazz players everywhere in the art of modal sounds, improvisation and the limitless boundaries of music. His first new music in a decade, Sound Grammar finds the groundbreaking musician in his usual top form with a new band featuring his son Denardo on drums and percussion, frequent Tom Waits contributor and long-lived musician in his own right Greg Cohen on picked bass and Tony Falanga on bowed bass. The odd line-up is typical of Ornette's mad genius; the two bass players creates a solid foundation of heavy, intertwining low frequencies that let Ornette's sax weave his knotty, freewheeling style while interacting freely with Denardo's skittering percussion. Also utilizing trumpet and violin on occasion, Ornette almost dismantles his brand of avant-garde jazz and blues letting the listener hear and perhaps come to understand every emphatic line of his lyrical, harmolodic style. This is an excellent album from a musical pioneer in his twilight years, though it could as easily be mistaken for one of his earlier jaunts of youthful music exploration and experimentation.







The Eternals - Hi Anxiety (A Grape Dope Remix) (mp3) - High Anxiety EP (Aesthetics 2006)


The Eternals – High Anxiety EP / Aesthetics

With the help of a few friends, experimental Chicago group The Eternals continues to mutate music on this remix EP, which also includes a couple new tunes. Consisting of Damon Locks and Wayne Montana formerly of Trenchmouth, percussionist Dan Fliegel, who has spent time touring with Tortoise and Tom Ze, and most recently, drummer Tim Mulvenna of The Vandermark 5, The Eternals craft a grab bag style that sounds like Tropicalia dragged through broken drum machines with splotches of mutated funk, deformed dub and warped new wave scattered through out. Up to the challenge of remixing the already ridiculous are Prefuse 73, who rearranges a track in his trademark skittering style, John Herndon's (of Tortoise) side project A Grape Dope, whose excellent opener sets the stage for the EP, Exercise Tiger aka Danielle Malkoff of NYC and someone named Birthmark. Other than the P73 and AGD cuts, the new tracks are my personal favorites, especially the jacked up rendition of Billions of People from the self-titled 2000 album. Warped, scatter-brained and contagious, this EP perfectly defines The Eternals mission statement.