Radio Show Playlist 1/17

6a:
1. The Velvet Underground - Beginning to See the Light - Live 1969 with Lou Reed Volume 1 (Mercury 1974)
2. Earl Greyhound - Monkey - Soft Targets (Some 2006)
3. Benoit Pioulard - Palimend - Pecis (Kranky 2006)
4. Sam Prekop - C + F - Who's Your New Professor (Thrill Jockey 2005)
5. Grizzly Bear - Don't Ask - Horn of Plenty (Kanine 2004)
6. Six Parts Seven - Stolen Moments - Casually Smashed to Pieces (Suicide Squeeze 2007)
7. Dosh - This is When Things Were Looking Up - Pure Trash (Anticon 2004)
8. Rainstick Orchestra - Waltz for a Little Bird - The Floating Glass Key in the Sky (Ninja Tune 2005)
9. Alice Coletrane - Journey in Satchidananda - Journey in Satchidananda (Impulse! 1970)

7a:
1. Chicago Underground Duo - Falling Awake - In Praise of Shadows (Thrill Jockey 2006)
2. Roy Montgomery - On the Road 2 - Inroads: New and Collected Works (Rebis 2007)
3. Rob Crow - Up - Living Well (Temporary Residence 2007)
4. Pit Er Pat - Bog Man - Emergency (Overcoat 2004)
5. Rafter - Tragedy - Music for Total Chickens (Asthmatic Kitty 2007)
6. Catherine Howe - On a Misty Morning - What a Beautiful Places (Numero Group 2007, originally 1971)
7. The National Gallery - Long Hair Soulful - Performing Musical Interpretations of the Paintings of Paul Klee (Fallout 2007, originally 1968)
8. John Lennon - Jealous Guy - Imagine (Capitol 1971)
9. Deerhunter - Spring Hall Convert - Cryptograms (Kranky 2007)
10. Bracken - Heathens - We Know About the Need (Anticon 2007)
11. Califone - 3Legged Animals - Roots & Crowns (Thrill Jockey 2006)

New Music: Bracken, The National Gallery, Fred Thomas

Bracken - Fight or Flight - We Know About the Need (Anticon 2007)

Bracken – We Know About the Need / Anticon

It would be nice to give you a clever description full of pinpoint analogies and jaw-dropping metaphors for Bracken's debut LP, We Know About the Need, but the fact of the matter is that the best description is the obvious: Hood filtered through the Anticon aesthetic. Chris Adam's first solo project since separating from Leeds' psychedelic stalwarts Hood, Bracken utilizes the pastoral shoegaze-folk that has become his most notable association, but stripped of its clearly definable rock instrumentation and replaced with a barrage of samplers, analog machinery and tape manipulations. Not to say it is devoid of any traditional instrumentation, quite the contrary, but everything is routed through an array of archaic synthesizers and processors that only an audiophile could love. Obviously, atmosphere is the key component, a wonderful side-product of such perfectly imperfect machinery, and the final output is a myriad of both familiar and indistinct sounds melting, molding and interweaving with each other while Adams, the ghostly troubadour, narrates over their weary tone. We Know About the Need is brimming with gorgeous melodies and clever musicianship but doused with heavy reverb, strung through crackling electronics, bent and stretched with Abbey Road tape effects and bubbling with organic chemistry. It's like Hood displaced in a city sewer, like Anticon shacked up in a rural cabin, some eerie midpoint between melodic ethereality and errant machinery.






The National Gallery - Long Hair Soulful - Performing Musical Interpretations of the Paintings of Paul Klee (Fallout, originally 1968)

The National Gallery - Boy with Toys - Performing Musical Interpretations of the Paintings of Paul Klee (Fallout, originally 1968)

The National Gallery – Performing Musical Interpretations of the Paintings of Paul Klee / Fallout

Nothing is strikingly out-of-the-ordinary about the first two tracks of this long-winded album title given the time period it was recorded in and the soft-psyche pop being played, but the opening lines of 'Boy with Toys' is an instant attention grabber. The smooth-voiced male exclaims over a light psychedelic pop groove: "Boy with toys / playing in fantasy / killing his teddy bear / thinking of his father." Wait wait wait! Come again now. He continues: "Boy with toys / alone in the attic / choking his hobby horse / thinking of his mother." What the fuck! It immediately sends you careening back to the beginning of the disc to really listen to the lyrics. This 1968 album experiment was brought about as an attempt to transmit visual arts into an audible medium with absolutely no commercial success (surprise), but in retrospect, a good deal of aesthetic success. The brainchild of Cleveland producer Roger Karshner, The Nationally Gallery is a pseudo-band of studio musicians arranged by jazz musician Chuck Mangione, fresh off his stint in Art Blakey's band, The Jazz Messengers, and pre-pop-jazz goofball (though his later years do represent some of my favorite album covers ever). Karshner's goal was to create 'electronic paintings' based on the works of abstract painter Paul Klee, one of the original masters of modern art whose style is hard to nail down but featured dream-like images with wit and imagination. Utilizing the popular style of time, The National Gallery represented a melodic psychedelic pop group with hints of folk and jazz and their music, much like the Klee paintings used as inspiration, was colorful, moody, satirical and unconventional. The first single, Long Hair Soulful (which was initially credited to the moniker Bhagavad-Gita), is an excellent piece of chilly psych-pop that shamefully was completely ignored. The album was released despite the low interest and did even worse commercially. Listening to it now, I can't say I'm completely surprised due to the oddball and progressive subjects of some the songs (read: not love), but at least the project was completed in its entirety. This is a must have, and a great album to be turning heads at a shindig, for all fans of psyche-pop and late 60s music in general.







Fred Thomas - Holland Tunnel - Sink Like a Symphony (Corleone 2006)

Fred Thomas – Sink Like a Symphony / Corleone

Fred Thomas’s years of service establishing the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti/Detroit indie-music scene has not gone unrewarded. For his second proper full-length, the talented friends/collaborators are aplenty, Nomo honcho Elliot Bergman, His Name is Alive’s Warn (Warren) Defever and Little Hands Records exec and ex-Cornish in a Turtleneck Juan Garcia are just a few of the names contributing their skills to backing the emotive folk singer. Thomas helped establish the scene over the last decade with his many projects including the retro-bubblegum pop outfit Saturday Looks Good to Me, the minimal folk band Flashpapr and the punk-oriented Lovesick, all of whose influences seep into his solo sound. Along with his ubiquitous strummed acoustic, the singer/songwriter’s fragile, warbling croon is forefront, which will suck in some listeners for good but as easily send others cringing, and his solid songwriting is the result of boxes and boxes of densely scribbled notebooks. The backing band mostly consists of rural folk-rock and, no doubt thanks to the aforementioned contributors, it sounds obsessively rehearsed and masterfully played. Personally my favorite moments are when Thomas strays into bedroom psychedelia ala the second half of Apples on the Floor or the more aggressive songs akin to Holland Tunnel. Again, I’m going to reiterate that Thomas’s voice will be the make or break factor for most listeners; so if you are a fan of his previous projects, especially Flashpapr, do yourself a favor and pick up this disc.

R.I.P. Alice Coltrane 1937-2007

Alice Coltrane - Stopover Bombay (mp3) - Journey in Satchidananda (Impulse 1970)

Alice Coltrane - Blue Nile (mp3) - Ptah, the El Daoud (Impulse 1970)

Alice Coltrane - Oh Allah - Universal Consciousness (Impulse 1971)

Alice Coltrane - Walk With Me - Translinear Light (Impulse/Verve 2004)

So I just learned that Alice Coltrane passed away. This absolutely sends me into a deep state of sighing because she is easily one of my favorite artists ever and discovering her music was one of the defining moments in shaping my musical taste. She died at 69 on Friday in California from respiratory failure, an irony since she breathed so much life into the music she so masterfully made.

Most renown as the wife of John Coltrane, Alice McLeod was an amazing pianist, harpist, organist, songwriter, arranger and defining character in her own right. In her early twenties she was playing piano in local Detroit bebop bands with future luminaries like Yusef Lateef and Kenny Burrell before leaving for Paris to study with Bud Powell at 22. She didn’t meet John until around 62, married him in 65, joined his band (replacing the formidable McCoy Tyner) in 66 and was by his side when he died in 67. No doubt being an incredibly strong influence in his waning years, in which he drifted towards free jazz, Alice was an incredibly important force in the spiritual-oriented and earthly jazz class that included many players from her own band including Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, Rashied Ali and Joe Henderson among others. Her Impulse albums like Journey in Satchidananda and Universal Consciousness bent towards Eastern religious influences and were renown for their deep textural sound that can easily hypnotize the listener into a meditative tunnel. She easily balanced earthy drones with glittering percussion and free-spirited sax, piano and drum solos combining the will of free jazz with beautiful sounds. She left music for a period in the late 70s and 80s, but returned to performing live with her son Ravi in the late 90s. Her last proper full-length (she was apparently working on a new album before her death) after a 26-year hiatus was the amazing Translinear Light in 2004 for Verve which just further solidified her as an aesthetically pleasing musician, composer and life-force.

I truly hope she gains the legendary status that her husband has been rightfully garnished with, because she absolutely deserves it. Jazz and music in general lost one of their most important contemporary innovators in Ms. Coltrane, but at least we’ll always have her amazing records to be able to appreciate her genius and influence our own lives.

Used-Bin Bargains: The Shape of Jazz to Come, Confusion/Gentleman

I've been wanting to do this for a little while, so now that we've successfully (for the most part) moved domains and back updating regularly, I figured it's the best time. This will be a weekly post (most likely Sundays) that highlights classic or essential albums that are worth your attention. I feel strongly that you cannot really appreciate new music without having some kind of notion of where they stem from; plus it will make some nice additions to your party shuffles. You should probably realize that most of my interests come from the jazz/funk/soul/African music side of music, so expect most of the albums to come from that direction. Happy listening and go bears!

(if you dig hip-hop, do yourself a favor and check out Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme, the clip of Biggie freestyling at 17 is absolutely unbelievable)





Ornette Coleman - Lonely Woman (mp3) - The Shape of Jazz to Come (Atlantic 1959)

Ornette Coleman – The Shape of Jazz to Come / Atlantic

1959 was a hell of year for jazz; Miles Davis introduced modal improvisations with Kind of Blue, Coltrane found his sound with Giant Steps, Dave Brubeck infused worldly rhythms with Time Out and Mingus brought spirituality to the genre with Mingus Ah Um. But maybe the most important contribution was from Ornette Coleman with this album significantly changing the direction of jazz and taking the biggest leap of technique from Bop to Free Jazz since Swing stemmed Bop. Teamed with Don Cherry on trumpet, Charlie Haden on bass and Billy Higgins on drums, Coleman broke every established rule with his sax; he completely refused any chord structure and played simply by feeling. Coleman and Cherry croon, wail and neigh in whichever direction their heart desired while Haden galloped up and down his bass and Higgins laid down a mutated swing beat. This album marks the beginning of free and avant-garde jazz though it is very accessible by today’s standards, but in 1959 it caused quite a fussy stir and once and for all transformed jazz from the dance floor to the cerebral, much to most critics dismay. An absolute masterpiece.







Fela Ransome Kuti & The Africa 70 - Fefe Naa Efe (mp3) - Gentleman (MCA 2000, originally 1973)

Fela Ransome Kuti & The Africa 70 – Confusion/Gentleman / MCA

Fela Kuti is without a doubt one of the most important figures in the globalization of modern music in the 20th century. The Nigerian born artist gained his reputation by combining jazz with traditional African music to create Afro-beat, a fierce almost communal blend of danceable African rhythms, complex arrangements and technically proficient instrumental solos, but went on to legend status with his unparalleled personality (which was in a continual seesaw of ethical dualities) and sociopolitical voice. Rereleased by MCA in 2000, Confusion/Gentleman paired two of Fela’s most prolific albums recorded with his band, Africa 70, at their creative high. 1975’s Confusion is one 25-minute song that begins with spacey, free jazz interplay between Fela on organ and drummer extraordinaire Tony Allen before exploding into an Afro-funk epic with three dialects explaining the general post-colonial confusion of Nigeria. 1973’s Gentleman featured Fela’s matured musicianship and the first fantastic production from the Africa 70. The title track is a stab at his fellow Africans who would wear thick traditional clothing in the African heat (Fela notoriously wore little to no clothing) followed by two equally enjoyable numbers, one a loose jazzy feel and the other a hot call-and-response percussion-oriented piece.

New Music: Dustin Kensrue, Frank Turner, Gallows

Man do I look bad. Some Audiversitarian I've turned out to be, right? One post compared to Michael's 85 or something? I guess that's kind of close. It's so exhausting being creative sometimes, though. Sometimes you just want to sit in your room and strum away on an unplugged six-string while the whisky sits at your side and you dream of The Good Life (not the band), all the while lamenting your day job. Kid, you are not alone.













Dustin Kensrue - I Knew You Before - Equal Vision (2007)

Dustin Kensrue - I Knew You Before / Equal Vision

...Because while you're sitting in your room idling as life passes you by, Dustin Kensrue is out there growing that requisite scruff and singing all the songs you wish you'd thought of first. Kensrue, Kensrue... Norwegian, right? Where have you heard that name before? And then it dawns on you: This guy sang lead vocals for Thrice. Now Thrice doesn't have much cred with a certain breed of "matured" elitist, but for the younger post-hardcore pups out there Thrice is kind of a big deal. As good as they occasionally were, that band sounded nothing like this. That's part of the joy and the surprise in Dustin's solo debut, "Please Come Home." Blues riffs, harmonica solos, southern-rock strumming, Letterman on February 2nd and a day-job to fall back on. It's tough living the dream. More SoCo for you?













Frank Turner - Once We Were Anarchists - Sleep is for the Week (2007)

Frank Turner - Sleep is for the Week / Xtra Mile

Actually, come to think of it, Kensrue's path is not a new one: Post-hardcore types tend to go soft with age if they don't break up first (excepting Fugazi, who have found a glitch in The Matrix and will be loud long after we're all dead and gone). Million Dead's Frank Turner is the transatlantic version of Kensrue, being the other prominent example of loud-gone-downhome-soft from the last year. Like Kensrue, Frank has revealed himself gradually as a bit of a folkie now that he doesn't have to namedrop Fukuyama or meddle with the legacy of the failed Budapest revolt of '56. The difference is that the straight-faced Americana Kensrue has shown himself to be competent at doesn't translate in the same way with Turner: With an extensive background in Black Flag and Refused (from which Million Dead took their name), Turner's still all about talking to the kids who have that youthful idealism in them. The difference is, he's talking to them with experience in fighting the good fight and flipping off The Man. Johnny Cash in ethos but Billy Bragg in process, Turner will be bringing his brand of Brit-folk to the US in the spring with Jonah Matranga aka the guy from a million bands including Onelinedrawing and Gratitude. Look for him on the Left Coast.

But wait. If all the kids are growing up and growing out, who will guide the young and restless?













Gallows - Come Friendly Bombs - Orchestra of Wolves (2006)

Gallows - Orchestra of Wolves / In at the Deep End

Meet Gallows. They spit fire, crush skulls and mutilate eardrums. Remember when Watford meant art school and Wire? No? Good, because even if it did, post-punk patron saint of the pen Simon Reynolds himself couldn't write enough to reclaim the restrained and refined aura that surrounded this London suburb before these cracking young lads came to town. Gallows have pretty much torn the lid off punk and ravaged through it like a rabid raccoon (or, more appropriately, ripped it up and started again like a wolf?), emerging with the rewards of a combustible concoction latter-day heroes like The Bronx, Orchid or JR Ewing would be proud of. Except... Fuck, two of those three are broken up, aren't they? C'est la vie.

Panthers' "The Trick" comes out in March and is already "in the can" as the old timey record producers would say, but that doesn't sound anything like a casual drive down the lonesome roads of the American midwest, does it... JR Ewing, where is your post-hardcore folk hero? I smell a Sondre Lerche in the making. Make it happen.

New Music: Menomena, Rafter, Catherine Howe

Menomena - Wet and Rusting (mp3) - Friend and Foe (Barsuk 2007)


Menomena - Friend and Foe / Barsuk

Portland-based trio Menomena snagged me with a gimmick; hook, line and sinker. Their 2003 debut album was packaged with a large flipbook depicting in motion not only the members playing their instruments, but the actual rearranging of the letters from the album title ‘I Am the Fun Blame Monster!’ to it’s anagram ‘the first Menomena album!’ I mean c’mon, you can’t just ignore something like that… and I didn’t… and the album was stuck on repeat for a good while after initially popped it in. Now two and a half years and a dance performance accompaniment/concept album later comes their second proper full-length, Friend and Foe. The obtuse song structures (created in a computer program and recreated live by the players) that separated IATFBM from its peers remain but in a more fluid, fleshed-out form. It is pretty blatant that Justin Harris, Brent Knopf and Danny Seim matured in their songwriting and musicianship thanks to the numerous shows since their first outing. The biggest difference with Friend or Foe is that it builds more in a vertical direction with layers rather than the jerky horizontal motion of loops that progressed IATFBM. The instrumental core of chunky bass, simple drum patterns and short piano melodies as well as accentuating baritone sax bellows remain intact, but added are a good number synth, percussion and sound effect doodles that help brighten the sound considerably. Vocal harmonizing is another pleasing added attraction, though they veer off into slightly over-dramatic flares now and again. With what I am assuming is a stronger financial backing, Friend or Foe benefits from the extended studio time and abilities, but I have to admit that it loses some of the endearing quality that came with the self-pieced IATFBM. It’s still a very solid album though, and will only rightfully enhance the fan base and praise for the band. And of course, the artwork is excellent, this time featuring the schizophrenic cartoons of Craig Thompson.







Rafter - Tragedy (mp3) - Music for Total Chickens (Asthmatic Kitty 2007)


Rafter - Music for Total Chickens / Asthmatic Kitty

I was quite a big fan of my first introduction to the awkward musical world of Rafter Roberts this past year with the re-release of his self-recorded 1998 album, Ten Songs. The multi-faceted recording and mastering engineer, who has manned the boards for everyone from Kill Me Tomorrow to Fiery Furnaces to Hot Snakes to any other off-center quality indie-minded band in the last 5 years, has a wonderful penchant for two seemingly polar musical opposites, indie-pop sweetness and avant-garde mania. A key member of the artsy San Diego community called the Go-Homes (also a starting point for Pinback among others), Rafter’s first official full-length for Asthmatic Kitty is a product a mind riddled with eclectic influences. The patchwork avant-pop of Music for Total Chickens will keep your ears guessing (and slightly fretting) where he’ll go next. For instance, Your War ends with a crescendo of soft harmonizing vocals and bright guitar strumming that you hear regularly on Sufjan recordings (yet another artist Rafter has engineered for), but it’s followed quickly by a spitting, Lightning Bolt-like electric guitar solo that connects a chorus of chunky drums, triangle pings and his Rob Crow-like singing voice that actually opens up into a triumphant, horn-clad conclusion. You can almost think of it as an accessible introduction to Anthony Braxton’s experimental sound structures for indie-poppers. Music for Total Chickens is an enjoyable and challenging (within its genre) record of sonic contrasts and crazy-quilt pop that deserves your attention as a much needed break from the norm.






Catherine Howe - On a Misty Morning (mp3) - What a Beautiful Place (Numero Group 2007)

Catherine Howe - What a Beautiful Place / Numero Group

For a label renown for releasing compiled discs of long-lost funky gospel tunes, electro-samba cuts and mashed Caribbean genres of all kinds, it seems almost anticlimactic that they’d be releasing an album of pretty straight-forward orchestrated folk. But this is Numero Group we’re talking about, and nothing sports the triple digit emblem without deserving the recognition that callously swept by it the first go-around. For their first release of 07, the Chicago crate-diggers clean-up and repackage a gorgeous folk-pop album by Catherine Howe, who at the time of recording was barely out of her teens. The much talented British singer/songwriter gained the most recognition for her sophomore album, Harry, which was released in 1975, but her true apex of creativity and songwriting came with her first attempt at the music business. Recorded in 1970 with multi-instrumental jazz artist and producer Bobby Scott and the help of the London Symphony Orchestra, What a Beautiful Place is a lush, poignant folk album that acts as an almost eerie sister recording to Nick Drake’s Bryter Layter. Recorded in the same year (WaBP wasn’t released till 1971 though due to label problems), both albums enlist a quiet passion through sultry vocals and observational lyrics while being garnished with gorgeous orchestrated accompaniment that swim with jazzy undertones. The only significant difference between the two is that Howe composes with a piano and Drake is guitar-oriented, but that really is neither here nor there. Like most excellent obscure albums, What a Beautiful Place never really had a chance (though it did get significant attention from the BBC’s Radio One) thanks to idiotic label heads, this time at CBS. Tiny UK imprint Reflection Records did release the album in ’71, but with little distribution mostly limited to solely the media releases. Catherine Howe has returned to the music industry in 2005 after a 25 year absence with a full-length of new material on Proper Access, which seems appropriate since artists like Beth Orton and Norah Jones are somewhat mimicking her sound (though probably unknowingly). What a Beautiful Place is a must have for fans of folk-pop, soft-psyche and those desperately looking for a Nick Drake accompany.

New Music: Clinic, Deerhunter, Roy Montgomery

Still having trouble with getting the www.audiversity.com address to work. Any interweb savvy people out there up to helping out? Also, I moved all old Music-versity posts over to Audiversity so all old links have been broken; not good really, but we're kinda starting anew, so fuck it. Lots of good music this week, still much more to come. Enjoy.





Clinic - Tusk (mp3) - Visitations (Domino 2007)

Clinic – Visitations / Domino

So I was meandering through the vast farmlands of Illinois the other night when the clouds slowly separated, the sky blinked a burgundy hue and a silvery spacecraft etched a bright bolt across the horizon stopping directly in front of me. As lower exhaust fumes bent the crops below into mysterious circles, I took a much-needed step back staring dumbly at the eerie saucer elegantly landing on four spindly legs. Before I could strategize the best way from where I was standing to wherever a spacecraft was not, haze spout from the underside of the ship and a large square platform began to lower itself. The air around was instantly filled with a sound not unlike rock music but distinctly alien; angular guitar riffs danced around plodding drums, menacing keyboards lit up over an elastic bass, and a high-pitched, warbling drawl hissed through clenched-teeth from the forefront of these figures. As I stared wide-eyed at the surgical mask-clad extraterrestrial band (perhaps their alien lungs can't take the Earth's polluted atmosphere) a large, flashing sign lit up from behind the stage just as the climax hit during their 3-minute rock outburst; it read, in blinking caps, CLINIC. The song ended, the platform elevated and the ship ascended back into the empty sky. Before the spacecraft disappeared, I caught a glimpse of a Liverpool license plate and was immediately smacked in the face by a furiously falling copy of their new, self-recorded album, Visitations. The following weeks were spent obsessively scanning the night sky and keeping the mysterious disc on repeat. Each spin reminisced of The Velvet Underground, Can and Suicide but as heard through otherworldly radio waves and reproduced in an urgent, surgically clean manner with recording technology far beyond our meager studios. I've spent every night since the aural abduction contemplating this strange but familiar grit-rock and endlessly dreaming of their faraway home planet, Liverpool.








Deerhunter - Spring Hall Convert (mp3) - Cryptograms (Kranky 2007)

Deerhunter – Cryptograms / Kranky

The tumultuous quintet that is Deerhunter could very much be focusing their sound into something truly hype-worthy. Check the bass line from Octet, primped and poised for mashing and smashing indie dance floors everywhere. Peak the layered vocal harmonies of Hazel St. and tell me that they don’t rival the post-Beach Boys psych Grizzly Bear is capitalizing on. Ease into the glistening minimal ambience of Red Ink and prove to me that they couldn’t be signed to Kranky… oh, they are signed to Kranky, never mind that part. Instead of deciding on one marketable sound, the weathered boys of Deerhunter infuse all of their influences, from 80s post-punk to 60s psyche-pop to the ambient explorations of all eras, and dump it into a bucket of feedback and tape hiss… and you will be absolutely thanking them for it. Their sophomore album and Kranky debut, ordered chronologically from two separate days of recording (the split being after Red Ink), is an adventurous trip through unsettling ambiance and epiphanic songwriting literally mapping the psychological ride of bringing the album to life. You stream along somewhat aimlessly but not all unpleasantly throughout the first half of the album through bogs of feedback and thick atmosphere, stopping for two darker underground club numbers in the title track and Octet. Beginning with Spring Hall Convert, the band is strikingly more optimistic in their songwriting, melodies and tone. In fact, wrap up tracks 8 through 12 as an EP and you would be dealing with some substantial stirring in the current post-psyche scene. Cryptograms as a whole is an excellent array of sounds and moods compiled in an album that reads somewhat voyeuristically and somewhat sheer mystery. All and all, an excellent, challenging record worth your time. And if you get a chance, read the concert testimonials on their MySpace, utterly hilarious; who actually goes out of their way to write stuff like that?







(couldn't find album pic)

Roy Montgomery - On the Road 2 (mp3) - Inroads: New and Collected Works (Rebis 2007)

Roy Montgomery – Inroads: New and Collected Works / Rebis

I'm fully convinced that at the tips of Roy Montgomery's fingers are some kind of synapse or nerve that let's the him actually feel the vibrations being created with each pluck of his guitar and stay in control of these feelings as they later leave his amp as cluttered soundwaves. The experimental guitar player from New Zealand was brought up on the electric through garage rock and post-punk in the 70s and early 80s with stints in Pin Group and the Shallows, where he honed an interest in the drone aesthetic, before leaving the music scene. He reappeared in the 90s with dirge rock group Dadamah and continued his space-psyche sound in collaborations with Flying Saucer Attack and Bardo Pond. But this 2-disc compilation, culled from comp tracks and 7 inches, focuses in on the matured sound of Montgomery whose solo releases on Kranky, Drunken Fish and VHF gained him recognition and a cult following as an otherworldly guitar player and artist. The first disc of Inroads concentrates on the more ambient and melancholy side of Montgomery. His hypnotic guitar solos are not the product of perfected tone or technique, but the manipulation of his instrument to produce sounds alien to traditional method. Recorded mostly on simple Tascam 4-tracks, Montgomery eases his guitar to tape letting each vibration fully developed and degrade with care, which make songs like On the Road 2 so mesmerizing with the knowledge that it's all coming from a single instrument. On more than one occasion, it resembles a mystic, timeless form of raga. The second disc, on the other hand, features Montgomery's more emphatic and noisier side. Tracks like Sister Clean sound like Sandy Bull strapped with an electric and tour-worn amp covering a looping piece from Reich; he utilizes the reverberated overtones as much as the original soundwaves to create one throbbing creature of sound. During the following track, Last Days of Mankind, rays of higher frequencies find your ears through a typhoon of feedback adding extra stabs of awe to the already unbelievable sound. Montgomery has an undeniable understanding of the evolution of sound after it leaves the instrument and the foresight to control the reverberations well before they start to weave themselves into the already vibrating tapestry of frequencies, not as much a wall of sound but a living, breathing entity in its own. He finds a much-needed niche between the acid-induced psychedelic guitar rock of yesteryear and the drone experiments so popular today.

New Music, New Writer: Akala, Mother Vulpine, Ghost

And I guess I should start out explaining a little about why I'm here doing what I'm doing. Like the millions of other blogs out there, it's tough to find a distinguishing trait between them. Michael's done a fine job just being himself here at Audiversity; that natural flair has translated so well that, like, he was totally on Largeheartedboy. Totally.

So the question becomes, what can I offer alongside a guy who's already well-rounded enough to be considered a bona fide audiophile?

Akala - Shakespeare (mp3) - It's Not a Rumour (Illa State 2006)

Akala - It's Not a Rumour / Illa State

That's where Kingslee "Akala" Daley enters to help me out. To be frank, this isn't really new music; "Shakespeare" was the single from last year's "It's Not a Rumour," which no one in the US saw the light of even though the man has opened for Jay-Z on his "Kingdom Come" tour and for Christina Aguilera and DJ Shadow at the end of auld lang syne. Too bad the dude (brother of Ms. Dynamite, by the by) hasn't gotten a deal here in the US yet: "Shakespeare" is just a bit sample of what both "It's Not a Rumour" and his mix-'06 mixtape "A Bit Darker," both well worth the price of entry. When you slow down Tomcraft's "Loneliness" to half-speed fuzztastic lurching, everyone listening is going to win. "Yeah Yeah Yeah" and "Cold" aren't far off; all tracks possess this tinny kind of grunge guitar sampling that's sure to be a hit with the rockists and hip-hoppers alike. Is that what wins Mobo awards nowadays? It's about time. Mega, as the kids say.


But that's not enough. I mean, Michael's got some time to kill. If he wanted to, he could seek out Akala on his own. It's not like it's hard to find him in the latest Fader. He opened for Christina Aguilera, for chrissakes. So what kind of work have I been doing on my own time?

Mother Vulpine - We'll Be Detectives for the Day (Demo) (mp3) (2006)

Cue Mother Vulpine. A few entries back, Michael assessed the new Bloc Party single "A Prayer" and he and I both agree it's a bit... lacking. "A Weekend in the City" isn't a bad album by any means, but if you miss the Bloc Party of old (and by that I mean rough-around-the-edges pre-"Silent Alarm"), fresh-faced youngsters Mother Vulpine might be your answer. The Leeds quartet don't, ah, actually have any releases yet... But if this demo version of "We'll Be Detectives for the Day" and the accompanying rough cuts to be found on their MySpace are anything to go by, '07 might yet have found another UK post-punk indie-dance "new rave" savio(u)r. The best part: They've been known to play with actual wolf masks. Stay tuned. PS. Please don't say you read that Mother Vulpine were new rave here first. You saw it in NME. Only them and Spin make egregious mistakes like that anymore.

Ghost - Gareki No Toshi (mp3) - In Stormy Nights (Drag City, 2007)

Ghost - In Stormy Nights / Drag City

Ultimately though, Michael and I aren't so different. Being an independent radio music director takes time because you have responsiblities, like listening to albums that people send you and not just reading XLR8R or wandering MySpace searching for diamonds in the rough all day. That's how I came to know Ghost. Who are they? Psychedelic overlords... From Tokyo. Gasp! Guffaw! At last, something not British! The second coming of Les Rallizes Denudes? Well, not quite. Even still, don't be fooled by the six marked tracks: What lies beneath is 62 minutes of pure, unadulterated psych-noise. Think more Acid Mothers Temple or Psychic Paramount and less Solar Anus or Boris. Stuffed full of tribal chants, wayward piano lines, vocal-as-instrument ambiance, pseudo-jazz breakdowns, and warped noise following the pendulum of a hypnotist, "Hemicyclic Anthelion" pretty much encapsulates the album at a mind-bending 28 minutes. For a pill slightly easier to swallow: "Gareki No Toshi" translates as something like "garage no Toshi," and since I'm no Japanese expert I'll make no promises that my translation is even remotely correct. What's important about this song is how you can feel the incessant percussion, the minimalist piano line, the distant and distorted vocals... Yessir, "Gareki No Toshi" is, like "In Stormy Nights," as engaging or as thoughtless as you want to make it. As for me, I'll have the former. Check please, good riddance and onward, ho! Next week awaits, after all.

New Music: The Berg Sans Nipple, Rob Crow, Six Parts Seven

The Berg Sans Nipple - Mystic Song (mp3) - Along the Quai (Team Love 2006)

The Berg Sans Nipple – Along the Quai / Team Love

I guess I should start out by saying how impressed I am with Team Love for the heads-up with releasing this album and snatching a multi-faceted artist like The Berg Sans Nipple to diversify their roster. No doubt that Shane Aspegren, one-half of the duo, being from Nebraska has something to do with that and the fact that between the two of them, they have worked with the likes of Bright Eyes, Songs: Ohia, Purr and other artists of that Omaha-sound nature. But go ahead and forget any previous connotations you may have with that scene, because Along the Quai isn’t going to fit in that category. Rounded out with Parisian Lori Sean Berg, The Berg Sans Nipple in essence creates a very distorted rendition of electro-pop, but the percussionists involved appear to have a worldly knowledge of rhythm and melodies. Take the Junior Boys, toss them into The Octopus Project’s garage of strategically broken instruments and let them jam with a couple of the Konono Nº1 boys and you start to get an idea of the sound we’re dealing with here. The biggest difference-maker between TBSN and the rest of the electro-poppers is their ability to step away from the computers for a moment and jam on some live instrumentation. Glockenspiel twinkling over fuzzy electric pianos, junkyard steel pans jamming with plodding floor drums, synthesizers dueling thumb pianos, something called a Moroccan assdrum, it’s all here and playfully interacting. I’m a bit partial to the vocal-less tracks, but Aspergren’s muffled Ben Gibbard croon could definitely be worse; I just question their necessity. Along the Quai has the structure of an electro-pop album, but it sends the genre in a much-needed wayfaring direction. Being on Team Love, I’m not sure who will actually be the demographic seeking this out, but just maybe, it will widen the tastes of a few kids still engrossed solely in the Omaha-sound.







Rob Crow - Up (mp3) - Living Well (Temporary Residence 2007)

Rob Crow – Living Well / Temporary Residence

Rob Crow has been noodling around the independent music scene for about 15 years now, and all the while pushing the boundaries of pop and rock music by forming numerous genre-defying bands, each of which with wonderfully ridiculous names (Thingy, Goblin Cock, Optiganally Yours, etc). His most recent projects include the wide-spread catchiness of Pinback and his noise-pop outbursts with Zach Hill as The Ladies, both of which are quickly defining Crow's matured sound. Needing a bit of a break from the constant demand of his many bands, Crow decided to take a hiatus… oh wait, actually he recorded another album. Living Well, his third full-length solo album, seems the result of a hearty step back to slow down and breath in the full realization of getting married, having a child and, at it's most basic level, growing up, all of which seemingly took the prolific musician by storm in the last year. Utilizing a stripped down Pinback sound, Crow coos his trademark humming alto over the bright, canonic guitar patterns that makes his music so catchy in quick, almost-off-the-cuff 3-minute songs. In an interesting what-the-fuck moment, during the album's hilariously named single (I know it’s the single because the CD also includes an extended single mix), 'I Hate You, Rob Crow', his voice drifts into Chris Cornell territory, which is a bit terrifying in itself, but also because it sends me into flashbacks to my high school days in the mid 90s. Certainly his most restrained outing to-date, Living Well will probably not appeal to fans solely of his more eccentric projects, but will no doubt hook starved Pinback fans for good. Personally, I'm a bit torn; I drift more towards his unconventional music, but I can appreciate the man realizing and embracing his sound, and current-state-of-life in the process.






Six Parts Seven - Stolen Moments (mp3) - Casually Smashed to Pieces (Suicide Squeeze 2007)

Six Parts Seven – Casually Smashed to Pieces / Suicide Squeeze

Kent, Ohio's favorite pastoral post-rock band has turned a new leaf, just check out the massive Viking stalking the album cover. that's right, Six Parts Seven have gone doom metal! Okay okay, maybe not, but just the possibility of some kid looking for a new Dio album and grabbing this instead sends me into a wonderful fit of giggles. Now stripped back to a quartet, the Karpinski brothers and friends have stirred up a new set of unobtrusive meandering post-rock tunes featuring their now trademark array of heart-melting melodies. The twangy undercurrent and horn garnishing that was hinted on their last few releases continues to find an increased role on this album along with tinges of banjo, lap-steel, clarinet and the always-fun whistling. The musicianship as usual is outstanding and the instrumental interplay is a thing of beauty, guitars smoothly weave, the bass pads caringly, the drums accentuate with nuance and everything else adds a welcomed shade of color. Like all Six Part Seven records to date, Casually Smashed to Pieces is not overtly exciting or unpredictable; instead, it's a comfortable enveloping atmosphere, a warm textural haze that is meant to droop gently on to your ears and provide a momentary escape from the regular chaotic noises of the world.

Welcome to Audiversity.com

Welcome to Audiversity!

After much pondering, I have decided to redub, move and take the site to a whole new level. Music-versity is no more and I welcome you to Audiversity.com. Make sure you update all bookmarks and other links involved.

I also have the pleasure of introducing Patrick Masterson, the music director at WUSC-FM Columbia, as our second writer. We have been friends and colleagues for a good number of years and I look forward to him contributing to the site. Of course, this means more posts, more mp3s and more new discoveries for your lucky self.




Audiversity: The Radio Show will be broadcasting from 6-8a (cst) on WLUW-FM Chicago starting 1/17/07; so if you live in Chicago, you will be able to discover new music as you are waking up, getting ready for the day or driving to work. I am much looking forward to the prime time spot and continuing to improve my radio skills. All non-Chicago readers can hit up the WLUW webstream to listen as well.

Radio Show Playlist 01/08/07

Sorry that this is a bit delayed, but here is the tracklisting from my radio show on Monday afternoon (11a-2p (cst)). Note that I am having a little trouble transition from the old blogspot address to audiversity.com, but will hopefully have everything running smoothly by the end of the week. Expect new reviews nonetheless.


Hour 1:
1. Echo & the Bunnymen - Stars are Stars - Crocodiles (Sire 1980)
2. Githead - My LCA (Little Box of Magic) - Profile (Swim 2005)
3. The Black Watch - Her Jet Black Hair - Tatterdemalion (Stonegarden 2006)
4. Testbild! - Inapoor - Imagine a House (Friendly Noise 2006)
5. Pedro - These Pixels Weave a Person - Pedro (Mush 2004)
6. Scientific American - The Seas are the Skies - Strong for the Future (Mush 2004)
7. Tortoise - Ten Day Interval - TNT (Thrill Jockey 1998)
8. Andrew Douglas Rothbard - Emrald Tendrils - Abandoned Meander (Smooch 2006)
9. Triosk - Intensives Leben - The Headlight Serenade (Leaf 2006)
10. Leaves - Ash Wendesday - Live at The Ice Factory (FP 2006)
11. Ornette Coleman - Lonely Woman - The Shape of Jazz to Come (Atlantic 1959)

Hour 2:
1. The Flying Burrito Brothers - Hot Burrito #2 - The Guilded Palace of Sin (Edsel 1969)
2. The Byrds - Boston ver. II - The Preflyte Sessions (Sundazed 2001, originally 1969)
3. Jim Noir - Turbulant Weather - Tower of Love (Barsuk 2006)
4. Sparrow House - Blindfold Waltz - Falls EP (self-released 2006)
5. Geoff Farina - Already Told You - Already Told You EP (Southern 2005)
6. Black Mountain - Voices - Slaying Since 1996 (Suicide Squeeze 2006)
7. Songs: Ohia - Hot Black Silk - Axxess or Ace (Secretly Canadian 1999)
8. Gojogo - Puppets - All is Fair (Galaxia 2006)
9. Girma Hadgu - Ene Alantchi Alnorem - Ethiopiques 4 (Buda Musique 1998)
10. Fridge - Harmonics - Happiness (Temporary Residence 2001)
11. MV & EE with the Bummer Road - East Mountain Joint - Green Blues (Ecstatic Peace 2006)
12. Dead Meadow - Lady - Dead Meadow (Xemu 2006, orginally Tolotta 1999)

Hour 3:
1. Stereolab - Miss Modular - Dots and Loops (Elektra 1997)
2. Mouse on Mars - Catching Butterflies with Hands - Idiology (Thrill Jockey 2001)
3. The Eternals - Billions of People - High Anxiety EP (Aesthetics 2006)
4. Jean-Claude Vannier - Danse des L'Enfant Et Du Roi Des Mouches - L'Enfant Assassin des Mouches (Finders Keepers/B-Music 2006, originally 1972)
5. Moussa Doumbia - Kelaya - World Psychedelic Classics 3 (Luaka Bop 2005)
6. The Octopus Project & Black Moth Super Rainbow - Elq Milq - The House of Apples and Eyeballs (Graveface 2006)
7. Prefuse 73/The Books - Pagina Cinco - Prefuse 73 Reads The Books (WARP 2005)
8. Subtle - Return of the Vein - For Hero: For Fool (Lex 2006)
9. Macromantics - Scorch - Moments in Movement (Kill Rock Stars 2007)
10. Clipse - Wamp Wamp ft Slim Thug - Hell Hath No Fury (Re-Up Gang 2006)
11. Edan - Promised Land - Beauty and the Beat (Lewis 2005)
12. Dangermouse & Jemini - Omega Supreme - Ghetto Pop Life (Lex 2003)

An Observation and Critique on the Clipse Hysteria

Which is Clipse album is better, 2006's Hell Hath No Fury or 2002's Lord Willin'? Why has Clipse caused such a stir in the indie world? And what does this mean to future patterns in music blogging in regards to genre, quality and exposure?


VS.

Clipse - Wamp Wamp ft Slim Thug (mp3) - Hell Hath No Fury (Re-Up Gang/Zomba 2006)

Clipse - Ain't Cha ft The Re-Up Gang (mp3) - Hell Hath No Fury (Re-Up Gang/Zomba 2006)

Clipse - Young Boy (mp3) - Lord Willin' (Star Trak/Arista 2002)

Clipse - Cot Damn ft AB-Liva & Roscoe P. Coldchain (mp3) - Lord Willin' (Star Trak/Arista 2002)

The widespread success of Clipse’s Hell Hath No Fury is pretty remarkable, though maybe not so much in these days of fickle, genre-ignoring fan bases (a good thing of course). The Thorton brothers, Pusha T and Malice, completely dominated year-end lists and blog posts everywhere (sitting somewhat uncomfortably by Destroyer, PB&J, etc) with their long-delayed (3 yrs) sophomore effort. Clipse has been teaming with The Neptunes since the early 90s, when both acts were absolute unknowns, and was the first group signed to The Nep’s Star Trak label, so it’s no surprise that loyalty remains and Pharrell and Chad were saving their best beats for this record. Sparse, metallic and colder than the ice around their necks, The Neptunes lace each track with tinny, pinging synth pops over stern, skeletal drum patterns that do their very best, with a large degree of success, to match the dialectic essence of the emcees’ lyrics, poetic cold-heartedness. Pusha T and Malice do not have a jaw-dropping flow per se, but their crystal clear, flat-voiced drawl actually make them not only instantly recognizable but unsettling in their almost passive recollections of harsh, emotional circumstances. The subject matter is nearly solely about drugs, but less about condoning the use as much as the consequences of being in the game, for better or worse. What’s most impressive is their continuous stream of wit and cleverness within their lyrics; each verse is a seamless strand of one-liners that almost works against them since you occasionally miss a clever reference or analogy because the next line is stinging before you get a chance to fully feel the prior one. Joining the Thorton brothers is their posse The Re-Up Gang, featuring full-throated Philly emcees AB-liva and Sandman, as well as Slim Thug (who contributes an excellent chorus to Wamp Wamp), Roscoe P. Coldchain and Bilal. The guests work well across the board, typically adding a baritone undercut to Clipse’s higher pitched jab. The end result is a very good album of unrelenting minds at a creative high soundtracking the harsh world they live in and completely deserving the amazing amount of praise circulating, but I’m having a little trouble understanding their crossover success (certainly not discouraging it by any means though).

The biggest mystery is why Hell Hath No Fury is having so much more success than Clipse’s debut full-length Lord Willin’ released in 2002. While I would give HHNF four and half stars out of five, I’d quickly reward Lord Willin’ the perfect score. I strongly believe that Clipse and The Neptunes’ first effort was their strongest whether comparing the lyrics, beats, singles and even the artwork (LW’s hand drawn album cover of Pusha and Malice cruising Virginia Beach with Black Jesus is classic). I don’t think I can say the Thorton brothers were any hungrier than they are now while recording LW because passion has never, and I doubt will ever, be a problem; but the fact that this very well could have been and very nearly was their only chance to impact the music industry is an important aspect to consider. I can certainly say the urgency was to a higher degree on LW with a clear conscious though. Lyrically, there are more memorable moments on the first album when either emcee ends a verse or drops a one-liner and you cannot help but say out loud, ‘goddamn’ (hell, they even made Jermaine Dupri and Fabolous sound good). I also feel The Neptunes were in better form for this first outing, especially Pharrell. I have read repeatedly that Chad Hugo was probably more to thank for the dark sparseness of HHNF since he has a history of those kind of tracks; and if that’s true, than you can easily call LW Pharrell’s album. It’s brighter, more upbeat and to put it simply, more fun. Pharrell also sounds a lot more into his singing parts. Compare his emotive croon on Cot Damn from LW with his half-ass chorus from Hello New World on HHNF and tell me what you think. The beats on LW are much more reminiscent of the mutated 80s synth-funk of the N*E*R*D releases which has now been left for dead since the success of Drop It Like Its Hot, which is the style that lines HHNF. I also feel that Grindin’ was a much better single than Mr. Me Too is; it’s no doubt more radio friendly and more creative, even if it does wear on you a bit faster. There is certainly a theme exposing itself here and that’s one of being fun. Perhaps I just prefer more vibrant albums, but it’s as probable that Pusha T, Malice and The Neptunes were just having more fun in 2002, prior to the label madness and entering their 30s. The lyric content is practically the same on both albums, but it seems like the drug game is wearing a bit on the Thorton brothers; the realness and consequences of their lifestyle may be getting harsher by the day. These are conclusions that I will obviously never be able to prove myself, but the reasoning behind the sound of the albums is not what I am as concerned with as is the hysteria surrounding HHNF.

There are a couple reasons that I have been able to come up with to explain this. Firstly, I think it’s obvious that Clipse were ahead of their time with Lord Willin’ no matter what audience you want to refer to. The big rap singles from 2002 were in line with the party/club-oriented theme of Grindin’ like Nelly’s Hot in Herre, Cam’ron’s Oh Boy, and Busta Rhymes’ Pass the Courvoisier, but the albums these singles stem from do not compare to the lyrical and thematic potency of LW. Hip-hop heads during this time were more likely into the increasingly generic rap of MTV, the bubbling underground indie-hop scene or even the first appearances of crunk. The indie world that has embraced HHNF as well was even further from the rap crowd. The same kids who are ranting about Clipse now were going ape-shit for emo (Bright Eyes), electroclash (The Rapture) and NYC garage rock (Yeah Yeah Yeahs) when LW dropped. Why? Simply put, that is what the indie media was spoon-feeding us. This brings me to my much important second reason for the success of HHNF: blogging. In 2002, blogging was in its infancy; in fact, it did not really hit it’s adulthood until this year. The blogs are just about solely responsible for HHNF’s explosion in the indie world, who have somewhat followed in the footsteps of wide-read establishments like Pitchfork’s embrace of mainstream hip-hop (certainly not a knock of any kind, just an observation; I don’t believe Pitchfork even reviewed LW). So the only way Clipse could have even reached these crowds would be through word-of-mouth, MTV/BET or mainstream rap radio, two of the three indie crowds typically ignore completely. So it appears that it’s not an issue of quality but exposure; the indie crowd didn’t embrace LW simply because they weren’t aware of it, or so it seems.

So what the fuck is the point of all of this? Mostly, to give me peace of mind, but also to expose people to the excellence of Clipse’s debut Lord Willin’ and especially, to remind people to never pigeonhole your listening choices. Expose yourself to everything because more than likely you are missing something excellent. The blog world, though hated on by a lot of people, is helping with this exponentially and I believe the music world as a whole will be better for it. One interesting question is: a few decades from now, will there be crate-digging blogs (or more probably, whatever entity music blogs eventually evolve into with progressing technology) looking back at so much overlooked music like we have now? Everything these days has the ability to be exposed regardless of the financial restraints that plagued young artists in the past. Is the long-lost, overlooked gem now a thing of the past?

Oh. And go buy Lord Willin, you absolutely won’t regret it.

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.

New Music: Macromantics, Gojogo, Jean-Claude Vannier

Macromantics - Scorch (mp3) - Moments is Movement (Kill Rock Stars 2007)


Macromantics – Moments is Movement / Kill Rock Stars

I’ll be perfectly honest, after pulling Moments in Movement from its envelope and reading the short press release, my initial response was a hearty ‘meh.’ Naturally, the Lady Sov association was front and center (white female rapper, “courting both pop culture and hip hop heads,” yada yada yada), but goddamn was I shut up after throwing the CD in the player. Macromantics spits some serious venom. Ms. Romy Hoffman is an Australian emcee that weaves wordy versus with a biting accent, hungry urgency and enough idiosyncratic nuances to truly separate herself from the pack. The closest comparison is obviously Jean Grae, confident, emotive rap with playful undertones, but she also conjures names like Sole and other early Anticon and Rhymesayer releases with her frequent outings into sometimes-harsh self-awareness. Sparse, effective production from Sydney-based Buchman (Tony Buchen) counterbalances nicely matching Hoffman’s frequently fluctuating mood from poppy, party-triggering princess to pissed-off, piercing dramatist. The one-time guitarist for Ben Lee duals with Sage Francis for a track and teams with Melbourne rock’n’soul band Ground Components for another, but don’t kid yourself, this is the Romy show and she let’s you know. If Lady Sov is Jay-z, Macromantics is Nas, not as worried about radio reaction, more concerned with lyrics, the art of storytelling and absolutely sticking you in the gut with each syllable. It’s a solid album with room for improvement, but most likely won’t reach too far out of its underground rap niche a la Jean Grae.






Gojogo - Tezeta (mp3) - All is Fair (Galaxia 2006)


Gojogo – All is Fair / Galaxia

Following their renown eponymous EP, the ensemble Gojogo flesh out their geographic-less sound with much success for their debut full-length outing. Comprised of four well-trained musicians and a gaggle of friends, Gojogo collects a variety of influences and weaves them into an audio tapestry that is instantly familiar but impossible to pinpoint. Featuring Indian percussion, European stringed instruments and modern electronics, All is Fair is a hypnotic flair of Balkan music, raga, jazz and post-rock that lures you in like a snake charmer. The rhythm section is a combination of classic Indian instrumentation like the tuned drums tabla and tabla tarang as well as the high-pitched dholki and ghatam with a booming double bass keeping the music grounded. The violin, courtesy of Sarah Jo Zaharako, creates a gypsy-like atmosphere while subtle electronics from Bright Black Morning Light’s Elias Reitz reminds us that this recording is in fact not an artifact of past times. Maybe because they cover the classic Ethiopian standard Tezeta, but the half-composed, half-improvised, all wonderfully mysterious tunes of All is Fair keep pointing me to a slightly sketchy underground club somewhere in Northern Africa thick with hookah smoke and bad intentions.






Jean-Claude Vannier - Danse Des Mouches Noires Gardes Du Roi (mp3) - L'Enfant Assassin des Mouches (B-Music/Finders Keepers 2006)


Jean-Claude Vannier – L'Enfant Assassin des Mouches / B-Music/Finders Keepers

Culled by psychedelic b-boy and Finders Keepers' think-tank Andy Votel, Jean-Claude Vannier's L'Enfant Assassin des Mouches ("The Child Killer of the Flies") is one of the most rare and sought after records from the early 70s French Ye-Ye aka the "jerk-beat psychsploitation" scene. Originally recorded in 1972, the record was considered by most a myth, the supposed follow-up by the arranger of the much revered Serge Gainsbourg concept album, Histoire de Melody Nelson. Sometimes heralded as the "French David Axelrod," Vannier crafted an eclectic array of psychedelia, jazz, pop, avant-garde, found-sound and funk tinged with nods toward baroque, klezmer, Oriental music and rock that no doubt leaves the record utterly unclassifiable. With his band Insolitudes, an ensemble of three guitarists, two percussionists, electric bass, drummer, accordionist and reed, brass and choral sections, JCV arranged, directed and handled piano, clavinet and flutes himself in the swirling circus stage show that seemingly soundtracks a drug-laced romp around Paris in the heyday of experimentation and… well, Paris drug-laced romps. This re-release, which includes two bonus tracks from another JCV LP called Point d' Interrogation, reveals the colorful, playful, oddball world of Vannier and once and for all puts all myths, mysteries and rumors to a broadly-smiling rest. (2)

Radio Show Playlist 01/01/07, 06 Year in Review

Hour 1:
1. TV on the Radio - I Was a Lover - Return to Cookie Mountain (Interscope)
2. Sonic Youth - Rats - Rather Ripped (Geffen)
3. Grizzly Bear - Knife - Yellow House (WARP)
4. Bob Dylan - Spirit on the Water - Modern Times (Columbia)
5. The Mountain Goats - Woke Up New - Get Lonely (4AD)
6. Adem - Launch Yourself - Love & Other Planets (Domino)
7. Final Fantasy - Many Lives -> 49MP - He Poos Clouds (Tomlab)
8. Nomo - Book of Right On - New Tones (Ubiquity)
9. Michael Columbia - Predator - Stay Hard EP (Alabaster/Galapagos4)
10. Extra Golden - Ok-Oyot System - Ok-Oyot System (Thrill Jockey)

Hour 2:
Tribute to artists who passed away in 06:
1. James Brown - It's a Man's Man's Man's World - Live at the Apollo (1968) (Polydor 1968)
2. Wilson Pickett - Engine No. 9 - Wilson Pickett in Philadelphia (Atlantic 1970)
3. Lou Rawls - You've Made Me So Very Happy - You've Made Me So Very Happy (Capitol 1970)
4. Jay Dee aka J Dilla - Stop - Donuts (Stones Throw)
5. Ray Barretto - A Deeper Shade of Soul - Acid (Fania 1968)
6. Desmond Dekker - Israelites - Israelites (1975)
7. Love - Alone Again Or - Forever Changes (Elektra 1967)
8. Pink Floyd - Lucifer Sam - The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (Capitol 1967)

My favorite local music of 06:
9. Califone - Pink & Sour - Roots & Crowns (Thrill Jockey)
10. Low Skies - You Can't Help Those People - All the Love I Could Find (Flameshovel)
11. Pit er Pat - Seasick (Hang Ten) - Pyramids (Thrill Jockey)
12. Chin Up Chin Up - Trophies for Hire - This Harness Can't Ride Anything (Suicide Squeeze)
13. Bound Stems - Western Biographic - Appreciation Night (Flameshovel)
14. Make Believe - Pat Tillman, Emmitt Till - Of Course (Flameshovel)

Hour 3:
(still local)
1. Sao Paulo Underground - Olhossss..... - Sauna: Um, Dois, Tres (Aesthetics)
2. The Brown Party - Three Plus Four Equals Fun - The Brown Party (self-released)
(no more local)
3. Easy Star All-Stars - Let Down ft Toots & the Maytals - Radiodread (Easy Star)
4. Tom Ze - Estupido Rapaz - Estudando O Pagode (Luaka Bop)
5. Senor Coconut - Limbo - Yellow Fever! (Essay)
6. Juana Molina - Desordenado - Son (Domino)
7. Junior Boys - In the Morning - So This is Goodbye (Domino)
8. Thom Yorke - Atoms for Peace - The Eraser (XL)
9. Thee More Shallows - I Can't Get Next to You - Monkey vs Shark EP (Turn)
10. The Coup - Laugh/Love/Fuck - Pick a Bigger Weapon (Epitaph)
11. Oh No - T. Biggums ft Dudley Perkins & Georgia Anne Muldrow - Exodus into Unheard Rhythms (Stones Throw)