Active Music Listening Tuesday May 21, 2013

YTD recordings listened to: 388
Good music, not recommended for purchase: 247
Not good music: 112
Honorable Mentions: 9
Buys: 12

Possibles: Sidsel Endresen & Stan Westerhus, Boyd Rivers, Abdoulaye Alhassane Toure, Cryptopsy, Nick Waterhouse, Patterson Hood, Skyzoo,  Chris McGregor, Brother Ali (2009), Alvin Youngblood Hart, Bob Gluck Trio, Ether Net, Oddisee, Holly Williams, Dave Arner Trio, Graveola, Safe Haven, Cyanide Pills, Trap Them, Orchestra Super Mazembe, Mark Lanegan & Duke Garwood, Inzinzac

It’s new release Tuesday so let’s dive right in to the lukewarm mainstream music pool.

@@@ Magical Cloudz: Impersonator (Matador, 2013).  An electronica record from Matador.  Opens up with some vocal loops, slow and interesting.  And on top of that comes a low, strong projecting male Nick Cave-y kind of voice.  And that’s it for that.  I like the loops, I don’t love dude’s voice.  Second tune, This is Magic, is not.  Just kidding.  Church organ and dude’s voice singing about meaningful things.  I’m not connected to this music, maybe I’m dead inside or maybe the music isn’t that compelling and up its own butt a tiny bit.  I do appreciate the sparseness of the material and I know a lot of folks like this flow so check it for yourself.  I would rather listen to No More Shall We Part by Nick Cave.  Awesomeness right there, I tell you.

@@@ Beth Hart and Joe Bonamassa: Seesaw (J&R Adventures, 2013).  First tune, Them There Eyes, is a big band/blues hybrid as Bonamassa gets to do his solo amidst a flurry of horn bips and bops.  The recording is a bit bright for my taste — I prefer my blues records thicker.  The second tune, Close to My Fire, is a classic torchburner blues ballad/love song.  Hart has a nasal tinge to her singing that is pleasing while her voice doesn’t give me the shivers.   The third tune is a cover of Nutbush City Limits which I’ve clipped below.  I wish Hart’s voice had more weight to it and I wish Bonamassa had a slightly cleaner classic blues tone, but that’s just me.

@@@ Willy Moon: Here’s Willy Moon (Cherrytree/Interscope, 2013).  In the MOG machine deceptively labelled as indie/alternative.  This is mainstream pop by a male bimbo, a mimbo as they used to say on Seinfeld.  Moon’s voice is all right with good energy, but he doesn’t have much (if anything) to say.  If you enjoy the feeling of empty cliches washing all over you you will love this record.  The gospel tinge is interesting but there’s no follow through to give the record more weight.

@@@ Saturday Looks Good to Me: One Kiss Ends it All (Polyvinyl, 2013).  Opens up with the tune One Kiss, a blurry and mopey indie electronic affair.  Oh boy, I’m feeling bogged down already.  Second tune goes hard twee pop — tambourine, sweet female vocals, lots of reverb and jangly guitars.  Songs are decent while not super memorable.  This isn’t really my cup of tea but check it out for yourself.

@@@ French Montana: Excuse My French (Bad Boy/Interscope, 2013).   Some more mainstream hip hop from the P. Diddy mothership.  When did the big hip hop records get so symphonic and cheesed out?  A rapid and unwelcome loss of funk.  The first tune, Once in a While, is about a cold blooded murder and it is mad dramatical.  Mr. Montana, who I will refer to as Frenchie has good energy on the mic with a thick tongued delivery.  I’m feeling degraded, not uplifted.

78 RPMs of steel drum music from Trinidad 5 (MP3)

Cyril Diaz: Lazy Man Paul

Johnny Gomez: Johnny Night Mair

Boys Town Steel Orchestra: Cherchez Pour You

The Boys Town Steel Orchestra Steel Orchestra: Balandra

music

Active Music Listening Thursday May 16, 2013

YTD recordings listened to: 378
Good music, not recommended for purchase: 243
Not good music: 106
Honorable Mentions: 9
Buys: 12

Possibles: Sidsel Endresen & Stan Westerhus, Boyd Rivers, Abdoulaye Alhassane Toure, Cryptopsy, Nick Waterhouse, Patterson Hood, Skyzoo,  Chris McGregor, Brother Ali (2009), Alvin Youngblood Hart, Bob Gluck Trio, Ether Net, Oddisee, Holly Williams, Dave Arner Trio, Graveola, Safe Haven, Cyanide Pills, Trap Them, Orchestra Super Mazembe, Mark Lanegan & Duke Garwood, Inzinzac

@@@ Inzinzac: Inzinzac (High Two, 2011)  I caught this group via a PR email for a free improv series run in Philadelphia.  This record is a bit of a hard nugget to classify.  Jagged in the opener, 71, with sax bouncing on top of a slashing thin Telecaster sound.  Usually with these genre spanners, the music has an overall soft feel to it, which I think defeats the purpose of it.  This record is mixed as a hot mess.  Drums up super high in the mix (awesome!) with the guitar tucked behind.  The playing is both meandering and cycling and creates an old school freak punk flow.  This is what I thought indie rock was going to turn into instead of the diarrhea-like synth poopage so common today.  Up in your grill and flying the freak flag.  The temperature of the second is less in your face but the playing remains out and interesting.

@@@ Waxahatchee: Cerulean Salt (Don Giovanni Records, 2013).  I saw this record reviewed on the Guardian over here.  As it says there, it’s a shout to early ’90′s guitar-o-centric indie rock/grunge.  It sports a very nice array of guitar sound, and it’s slacker-y but not too dour.  Check it for yourself.  I dig the simplicity and straight forward-ness of the third tune Lips and Limbs.

@@@ Wild Nothing: Empty Estate (Captured Tracks, 2013).  Off the MOG new release page.  Tuneful vocals with a super compressed power chords and lilting melodic synthesizers.  Heavy on the ’80s influences here.  Somebody dig up Ronald Reagan, we’re going back!  I honestly don’t know who listens to this kind of music, how they would find it, and what about it they find pleasing.  Well, the third tune does get into a pretty nice spot with a big swirling synth loop-fest which I think is well done, but otherwise….not really my cup of tea.

Active Music Listening Wednesday May 15, 2013

YTD recordings listened to: 375
Good music, not recommended for purchase: 242
Not good music: 105
Honorable Mentions: 9
Buys: 12

Possibles: Sidsel Endresen & Stan Westerhus, Boyd Rivers, Abdoulaye Alhassane Toure, Cryptopsy, Nick Waterhouse, Patterson Hood, Skyzoo,  Chris McGregor, Brother Ali (2009), Alvin Youngblood Hart, Bob Gluck Trio, Ether Net, Oddisee, Holly Williams, Dave Arner Trio, Graveola, Safe Haven, Cyanide Pills, Trap Them, Orchestra Super Mazembe, Mark Lanegan & Duke Garwood

@@@ Matt Bauder: Paper Gardens (Porter Records, 2010).  A record recommended to me by the MOG recommendator.  A jazz record heavy on the drones and long tones that I find very relaxing.  There are passages that break out of the long mode but it’s infrequent.  As with so much jazz, it’s very underground so here’s a live clip of Bauder.  The record should be up on all the streaming stores.

@@@ Vampire Weekend: Modern Vampires of the City (XL, 2013).  You can read a brief interview over here at NME where the singer denounces those who denounced them as preppy kids ripping off African music.  And as a person who listens and blogs about a lot of African music, this kid can deny all he wants but that’s exactly what they were doing.  So they did the right thing and started playing white boy music in the genre they belong.  And it’s better than their pale faced African efforts.  I can only hear this tune, Step, because they’ve made it very difficult to stream this record on the net.  Fuckers, right?  I like the lyrics and the singer’s flow on the mic, the arrangement I like less but it sure beats the shit out the fake African horse shit.  Denounced, that’s right.

@@@ Bibio: Silver Wilkinson (Warp, 2013).  Listed as an electronica record on its MOG page, this one is slightly different.  I hear a lot of looped and manipulated guitars in the opener, The First Daffodils — stacks of single notes, some pushing against each other.  But alas, it was not meant to be as the second tune brings on the pillowy soft 1970′s FM radio male voice.  Dreamy and enveloping like your favorite sweater.  And the arrangements have moved from cock eyed to New Age.  Oy, I feel duped.  Baited and switched.  The third tune, Wulf, is a bit of a chorus-y mess.

@@@ Sam Amidon: Bright Sunny South (Nonesuch, 2013).  Off the MOG new release page.  As this is a Nonesuch release, I’m expecting something brunch-y and fake sophisticated.  First tune and title track, I dig the oddness of Amidon’s voice.  I can’t really describe its oddness but I like different and it’s different.  The second tune, I Wish I Wish, follows the stripped down folk of the first tune with a pretty brunch-y, wee bit of New Age vibe.  I don’t want to hang myself per se, and I don’t bear any ill will towards the singer.  Most likely he’s doing whatever the label tells him to do so they can sell it to all the boring white people out there who love this soft, baby food music.

Active Music Listening Tuesday May 14, 2013

YTD recordings listened to: 371
Good music, not recommended for purchase: 240
Not good music: 103
Honorable Mentions: 9
Buys: 12

Possibles: Sidsel Endresen & Stan Westerhus, Boyd Rivers, Abdoulaye Alhassane Toure, Cryptopsy, Nick Waterhouse, Patterson Hood, Skyzoo,  Chris McGregor, Brother Ali (2009), Alvin Youngblood Hart, Bob Gluck Trio, Ether Net, Oddisee, Holly Williams, Dave Arner Trio, Graveola, Safe Haven, Cyanide Pills, Trap Them, Orchestra Super Mazembe, Mark Lanegan & Duke Garwood

@@@ Mark Lanegan & Duke Garwood: Black Pudding (Ipecac, 2013).  Another MOG new release page release.  The first track is an all guitar instrumental piece, more pastoral and folk than the second tune which opens with a gothic drone-y and blues vibe.  I don’t know if Lanegan smokes but it sounds that way — his gruffness and low register darkens down the show.  I like the guitar playing, it’s pretty fresh.  There are no drums until the fourth tune, Mescalito, and when you get one it’s a drum machine.  This is dark and refreshingly un-cheesy dark music.  Stripped down and fresh.  I think I’m going to return to this record and listen some more as it could quite possibly make my best of year list.

@@@ Yasmine Hamdan: Ya Nass (Crammed Discs, 2013).  I listen to releases on Crammed because of the Konono No. 1 records.  I dig those so I think I will dig other music they put out.   Hamdan does a world music/downtempo electronica hybrid on the single Deny.  The whole record is not up on MOG, but this single is.  I checked her bio and she’s of Lebanese descent and now lives in Paris.  That explains the hybrid.  I like the spareseness of this tune as less makes you listen more closely to what’s presented.  Tambourine, acoustic guitar, vocals, some backgrounds, that’s the core here.

@@@ Lorelle Meets the Obsolete: On Welfare (Captcha, 2011).  I saw their new record listed as one of Aquarius Records’ records of the week.  The musical formula hear is a rhythmically stomping melodic hybrid of garage/indie without being exclusively one or the other.  The songs are purposely repetitive and soaked in reverb for opportunities to space out on the drone.

@@@ Small Black: Limits of Desire (Jagjaguwar, 2013) This record is up on the MOG new release page.  Tuesday is new release day, bitches!  This is a dreamy, indie electronica record, at least the opening track, Free At Dawn, is.  The singer here is like a warm blanket for a cold world.  I’m not sure who this record is aimed at, but it’s not me.

Honorable Mention 2013 Pick 9

Har Mar Superstar: Bye Bye 17 (Cult Records, 2013)

Great opening track — Lady You Shot Me.  It pulls you right in, the horn section is blazing and the singer just pumps the drama.  I’m not a huge fan of the soul disco blend, but the second track, Prisoner, has a very bumpin’ rhythm section performance.

The singer, who I shall refer to as Mr. Har, has a loose singing style with a bout of shouter in him that I find pleasing.  The third tune, Everywhere I’m Local, refers back to early 1960′s r&b pop and Mr. Har does a good job selling the sweetness of this track.  The fourth tune, Restless leg, is a midtempo jaunt and I tune where I wanted more funk than the pop injection. The next tune 12:12 continues with the sweet vocals and arrangement over a brisk and bumpin’ drum/bass combo continues the theme of this record.

I think this guy is very talented, especially as an arranger and a vocalist, but I wanted more funk and that’s why I’m giving this record honorable mention rather than best of year status.  If he had made it just a bit funkier I would be all over this record all the time.

And of course as soon as I typed that Mr. Har drops a funky burner called ‘We Don’t Sleep’ and then bounces back to that sweeter early ’60s sound with the tune Www.

So there you have it.  Crushing rhythm section, you could build a house on that shit.  Great singer with some looseness and flavor on the microphone, far above average arrangements, correction really straight up excellent arrangements with some particularly ear catching changes in a couple of songs, but I just wanted just a bit more funk.

Favorite Tracks: Lady, You Shot Me (1), We Don’t Sleep (6), Late Night Morning Light (10).

Active Music Listening Friday May 10, 2013

YTD recordings listened to: 363
Good music, not recommended for purchase: 245
Not good music: 100
Buys: 12

Possibles: Sidsel Endresen & Stan Westerhus, Boyd Rivers, Abdoulaye Alhassane Toure, Cryptopsy, Nick Waterhouse, Patterson Hood, Skyzoo,  Chris McGregor, Brother Ali (2009), Alvin Youngblood Hart, Bob Gluck Trio, Ether Net, Oddisee, Holly Williams, Dave Arner Trio, Graveola, Safe Haven, Cyanide Pills, Har Mar Superstar, Trap Them, Orchestra Super Mazembe

@@@ Retox: Ugly Animals (Ipecac, 2010).  I was looking for their new record on Epitaph, but this fine 2010 effort is up on MOG.  This is not your nerdy cousin’s bouncy Orange County California Republican punk — this is your slashing, messy, anti-social and fed up punk.  Touches of metal, hardcore but with some fine lurching and rhythmic smashing around.  The world needs more of this — get those negative emotions out people, you’ll feel much better afterwards.

@@@ Patty Griffin: American Kid (New West, 2013).  Off the MOG new release page.  I like the slow unfolding of the first song (clipped below) and was not as big a fan of the lyrics.  I didn’t like the second tune ‘Don’t Let Me Die in Florida’ as much as the opener.  I thought the third tune Ohio was the best lyrically and the best tune of what I heard.  I would give this record a B+ — I would have put that third tune as the opener but that’s just me.  Oh man, the fourth tune is pretty beautiful with lovely lyrics.  Whoever sequenced this record did not do it for me that’s for sure.

@@@ Ginger Baker: No Material (ITM, 2013)  A bevy of downtown New York heavyweights including Peter Brotzmann, Sonny Sharrock and others.  This is a re-issue of a live album from the late 1980′s.  The first tune (clipped below) unfolds slowly with some stylish blues shredding.  A two guitar attack accompanies a healthy dose of nasty sax skronk.  What starts out bluesy slowly decays into a fiery noisefest.  The second tune.  The music here is an interesting blend of rock, blues, world and free jazz.  I really felt the drummer on this record.

78 RPMs of steel drum music from Trinidad 3 (MP3)

She She Calypso Band: If I Lie I Die

Trinidad Panharmonic Orchestra: Kiss My Pan Baby

The Boys Town Steel Orchestra: Woman Police

 The Boys Town Steel Orchestra: Is it Yes? Is It No?

music

Active Music Listening Thursday May 9, 2013

YTD recordings listened to: 360
Good music, not recommended for purchase: 242
Not good music: 100
Buys: 12

Possibles: Sidsel Endresen & Stan Westerhus, Boyd Rivers, Abdoulaye Alhassane Toure, Cryptopsy, Nick Waterhouse, Patterson Hood, Skyzoo,  Chris McGregor, Brother Ali (2009), Alvin Youngblood Hart, Bob Gluck Trio, Ether Net, Oddisee, Holly Williams, Dave Arner Trio, Graveola, Safe Haven, Cyanide Pills, Har Mar Superstar, Trap Them, Orchestra Super Mazembe

@@@ Wovenhand: The Threshing Floor (Sounds Familyre, 2010)  A staff pick on the Omega weekly email.  Opens up with an ominous folk vibe on Sinking Hands, acoustic guitar picking with reverbed out drums booming ominously in the background and a low, detached voice.  The second tune, the title track, picks up the tempo and retains some of the darkness of the first tune but adds some more instrumentation.  I don’t usually go voice for this style of singing, but the band is interesting to listen to and the vibe is unique.

@@@  Dailey and Vincent: The Brothers of the Highway (Rounder, 2013).  From the All Music weekly email.  This is player’s music, as in playing instruments not balling.  Opens up almost heavy metal meth head style with the tune ‘Steel Drivin’ Man’ where the fiddle, the guitar and banjo all get a short but ripping solos.  The production is a bit brighter and more modern than what I like in this genre, but I do not disrespect folks who play at this level.

@@@ X Ambassadors: Love Songs Drug Songs (Kid Ina Korner, 2013).  Off the All Music weekly email I wasn’t sure what to expect with the reference to X and drugs in the band/album title.  The music is mainstream groomed rock/pop, better than most of its kind.  The singer has that mainstream bounce and tone to his voice.  Not really a style of music I spend a lot of time with, but if you roll this way these guys are all right.

@@@ Savages: Silence Yourself (Matador, 2013).  From the All Music weekly email.  This  is pretty mainstream rock with indie flourishes like a fuzzy bass and a pouty female singer.  Production is a big and shiny.  The first tune, Shut Up, functions on a tension created by the uptempo guitar damping in the verse hat gives way to the power chords in the chorus.  Ah, the classics.  I’m three songs in and all of them share this coil and release approach.  I don’t really love the tunes — not awful by any means but not really pulling me in.  I think they should have opened with the fourth tune, Strife, as it works much better but I’m not the boss of them.

Here’s a raw as fuck version of that tune which almost beats out the record take:

 

Active Music Listening Tuesday May 7, 2013

YTD recordings listened to: 353
Good music, not recommended for purchase: 232
Not good music: 99
Buys: 12

Possibles: Sidsel Endresen & Stan Westerhus, Boyd Rivers, Abdoulaye Alhassane Toure, Cryptopsy, Nick Waterhouse, Patterson Hood, Skyzoo,  Chris McGregor, Brother Ali (2009), Alvin Youngblood Hart, Bob Gluck Trio, Ether Net, Oddisee, Holly Williams Dave Arner Trio, Graveola, Safe Haven, Cyanide Pills, Har Mar Superstar, Trap Them, Orchestra Super Mazembe

@@@ Grim Tower: Anarchic Breezes (Outer Battery, 2013).  Got a shout out from the music director at CFUV in Canada.  One of the members of Black Mountain (I liked the first record the most) the marketing phrase here is ‘new American death folk’ or some such concept.  I didn’t like the way the electric guitar follows the banjo playing so closely but I guess they had to do that to draw the hipsters in.  I have many miserable folk records about death in my collection and frankly this is pretty light on the misery.  Even Johnny Cash got more nihilistic than this.  It’s all right and the video is below for your peeping at your convenience:

@@@ Eshon Burgundy: Tell you Why.  I’m on the righteously ethical hip hop label Humble Beast and got an email about a week ago that they had signed Eshon Burgundy.  I’m on their email list because I am way into Propaganda’s record Excellent last year.  This is Christian hip hop, which I have not trafficked much in.  Uplifting, obviously with major r&b production influences Burgundy’s flow is not flashy.  I’m not a huge fan of the slicker hip hop production, I dig the funkier style so that did not help me get into this tune.

@@@ Deerhunter: Monomania (4AD, 2013).  Off the MOG new release page.  My first impression is that this record is more about production than songs.  It sports a thick, psychedelic guitar sound with a lot of chopped up and distorted vocal action.  The third tune, the Missing, moves out of the pyschedelic sound collages into a more straightforward rock tune and other songs are in the vintage mid-1960′s neighborhood of songs with threads of strangeness woven into them.  I’d put this in the solid B range.

@@@ Noah and the Whale: Heart of Nowhere (Mercury UK, 2013).  I found this recording via the MOG new release page. Mainstream British/Irish rock with a big bounce and some interesting flourishes.  A zippy string hook in the second tune, Heart of Nowhere.  The third tune, All Through the Night, got a larger pop injection.  It’s a very melodic, big, and shiny record.  The use of fiddles/strings on a mainstream rock is the most interesting thing going on here.

@@@ Hands: Synesthesia (Kill Rock Stars, 2013).  Today’s music publicist fun show.  Check out what Filter has to say about this band: “Hands play the instruments that induce you to dance and hear those sounds that make you want to feel it all.” Fuckin’ really?  It’s a decent tune, but I think you’re shitting your pants prematurely. The song is an uptempo indie rocker with a big blast off chorus hook.  As I’m a music obsessive, I’m checking out more of this band’s record.  The first tune is much tamer affair and does not have that blast off of the single below. It is perfectly competent and pretty ordinary and I’m not feeling it all at all.  I feel lied to.  Again.