This Is Book's Music

“The movements of a music-box ballerina are reinterpreted in a groundbreaking video for British composer Ryan Teague using electromagnetic fields, subzero temperatures, and 2000 volts of electricity.

After reading that, are you intrigued? I was, and if I see the word “minimalism”, I’m intrigued and want to know/hear more, and with Ryan Teague, I did. “Cascades” is from his Field Drawings album released this past February on the Village Green label. Teague’s music may sound a bit out of the norm, but his work has been used for commercials for Powerade and Subaru, as you can see and hear on his YouTube page. If you’d like to see how this video was created, watch the video below.

Cascades – Behind the scenes from Craig Ward on Vimeo.

For some people, when they listen to the tracks on the 21-track album Ohnomite (Five Day Weekend/Brick), they might want to call it this type of hip-hop or that type of hip-hop, balancing on the thin line between opinions of the greatest and the elitist. I’ll tell you what I think: this is hip-hop. Period.

Being “of the hip-hop spirit” runs in the family, and when you hear this, you’ll understand. Ohnomite may be celebrated for a few things: the amount of different MC’s and producer collaborators that help out Oh No on this, although the one thing that is constant is his own production, for he is in control of this entire album. His rhymes go anywhere and everywhere, crazy and abstract when it can be but distinct and direct when it matters, everything carefully written/choreographed like a surprise football play.

Musically, this shows the strength, power, and influence of underground hip-hop, which for me has always been major and at times better than what is pushed as mainstream music, thus the spirit Oh No has. This is why Frank Nitt (of Frank-N-Dank), MF DOOM, Phife, The Alchemist, Chino XL, Med ,Guilty Simpson, Sticky Fingaz, Phil The Agony, Rapper Big Pooh, and Erick Sermon among others are all on here: there’s a vibe here that is unspoken but is heard in each of these tracks: go for what you know, go for broke, and don’t give a fuck.

Being the younger brother of Madlib, being spontaneous and making music that sounds like a trippy collage of anything and everything (i.e. random scatterbrain funkiness) seems to be part of the family DNA. Yet you enter Ohnomite not to follow a distinct storyline or concept, but being confident in the mission about to take place and putting face in Oh No, knowing that you will be in one piece at its conclusion. Once again, this is not a specific type or style of hip-hop. For me, this is hip-hop. You’re welcome.

Lenny Kravitz was one of my favorite artists of the 1990′s, becoming aware of him initially as Romeo Blue because of his companionship with actress Lisa Bonet, and then when he released music under his real name upon being signed to Virgin Records. Let Love Rule was massive, it coincided with the 20th anniversary of the Summer of Love and people were going bonkers, leading critics to calling him retro and the next John Lennon or Bob Dylan. People were waiting for him to hit a massive sophomore slump because as much as he was loved, there were many haters who felt he was worthless and nothing more than someone cashing in on the sounds of the past. Granted, this was nothing new compared to many artists who had done the same thing, and people refused to even pay attention to him or his music. Yet when he released Mama Said in 1991, it was obvious he was ready for the long haul and fight, but as his famous mom once said, “but I’m always on the run”.

While a 20th anniversary would have been more apt, Kravitz has chosen to honor the album this year with a 21st anniversary deluxe edition of Mama Said, and what a deluxe it is. This edition contains the original album, remastered for a new generation, plus loads of extras. If you listened to and/or collected Kravitz’s music as I used to, that meant having to buy CD singles, 12″ singles, imported singles, and more if you wanted everything he released within the experience of an album and all of its singles.

When Kravitz dropped “Always On The Run” as the album’s first single, it was the funky rocker people loved. It featured a mean solo from Kravitz’s classmate, Slash, and beefy horns from Karl Denson and friends, and it fully explained lessons passed along from mom to son before the song switches mood and ends with a slight ode to Stevie Wonder‘s “Superstition”. The second single from the album was the most successful of the batch, “It Ain’t Over Til It’s Over”. It’s hard to tell if people loved the slightly sad story, the nod to 70′s soul, or because it had to do with the falling apart of his marriage with Bonet, but its huge success is the reason why it’s one of Kravitz’s songs that you’ll still hear on the radio at any given time today. “Stand By My Woman” showed that Kravitz was willing to show support for a love, and if she’s willing to make herself known, he would prove it.

In the United States, Mama Said was limited to only three singles but other countries released a few more. At this point in music history, MTV was the dominant force of popularity for music, so for a lot of casual music fans, those three singles were it. Yet if they went to buy the full album, they would discover an incredible set of songs that showed the strength of his songwriting, playing (many of the tracks are true solo songs, with him playing all or the majority of the instruments). This includes great songs like the Curtis Mayfield smoothness of “What Goes Around Comes Around”, the very laid back “More Than Anything In This World” (which would have sounded perfect in 1971 with its extreme panning final mix), “Stop Draggin’ Around”, an ode to his daughter called “Flowers For Zoë”, and the fight-for-power groove of “What The Fuck Are We Saying”. The music showed shades of what made Let Love Rule great, but managed to cater to his love (some say fetish) of his influences of soul and pop, circa late 60′s/early 70′s.

Now the extras. One of my favorite songs from the album experience was the non-LP “Light Skin Girl From London”, which definitely belonged on the album and it’s now nice to hear it within the context of the rest of the songs. There’s also a great instrumental version of “Always On The Run” for people who wish to do their own version karaoke style. Then there’s an unreleased track called “Riding On The Wings Of My Lord”, which fits in with the wealth of unreleased material that Prince has done throughout his career. The song sounds unfinished but it could have easily been released as is or if it developed a bit more, it would have been welcome on the final album. There are also eight live tracks that were spread across different 12″ and CD singles, all showing how great these songs sounded live and how crowds responded to them: very favorably.

The top WAV file is of “Always On The Run”, ripped from the 1991 Mama Said CD. The bottom is from the 2012 Mama Said deluxe edition. The sonics and dynamics are pushed up to the extreme to make the entire song “uniform” throughout. Perhaps this was created for those who choose to rip the CD or download the MP3′s of this, so as the saying goes, it was “remastered for iPod”, thus a forced need to be louder. Kravitz was someone who was very aware of his surroundings in the recording studio, and what he did on everything he produced was make things sound great, a true “classic album” sound. If you look at the top WAV files, it shows that there’s a bit of room between the peaks and valleys, the song has room to breathe. The 2012 remaster not only looks forced, but it sounds forced too. Even a track like “More Than Anything In This World”, which had a distinct separate sound between left and right channels, has the right channel maximized and it’s just not as good soundwise as the original.

Pro: if you want a quick chance to obtain all of the bonus material that comes with this, picking up the 21st anniversary deluxe edition of Mama Said is definitely worth the price. However, for my money, if you want a fantastic album that sounded good to begin with in its original state, hunt down the original 1991 CD pressing, or the MP3′s that are sourced from the original CD’s, as they are not hard to find.

If Russian Circles have done their share of traveling earlier this year (and they have), good for them. They’re about to get more traveling miles for the remaining half of the year, as they plan on not only going through North American on two different legs, but have already created a tour itinerary to spend time again in Australia and New Zealand. They begin next week Monday:

(all dates in this section with And So I Watch You From Afar)
June 18 Winnipeg, MB @ The Park Theatre w/ Indian Handcrafts
June 19 Saskatoon, SK @ Amigos Cantina w/ Indian Handcrafts
June 20 Calgary, AB @ Sled Island Festival w/ Indian Handcrafts & a secret guest
June 22 Vancouver, BC @ Biltmore Cabaret
June 24 Seattle, WA @ Neumos w/ Sandrider
June 25 Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge w/ Crypts
June 27 Sacramento, CA @ Harlow’s w/ Deafheaven
June 28 San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall w/ Deafheaven
June 29 Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theatre w/ Chelsea Wolfe & Deafheaven
July 2 Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater
July 3 Kansas City, MO @ The Riot Room

(all dates in Australian/New Zealand tour with Eagle Twin
September 26 Newton, AUC, NZ @ Kings Arms Tavern
September 27 Wellington, NZ @ San Francisco Bathhouse
September 28 Melbourne, VIC @ Corner Hotel
September 29 Adelaide, SA @ Fowler’s Live
September 30 Perh, WA @ The Bakery w/ Drowning Horse
October 4 Canberra, ACT @ ANU Bar
October 5 Brisbane, AU @ The Zoo
October 6 Sydney, AU @ The Hi Fi

If you haven’t heard Russian Circles’ Empros album, you can stream it in full via Bandcamp.

In response to recent shootings in Seattle, Blue Scholars decided to put together a track which speaks on the situation, calling for a bit of wisdom and help in the form of “May Day”. The song originated from a track Geo (a/k/a Prometheus Brown) did as part of a musical editorial he put together for the Seattle Times. That video brought back some positive feedback (along with the usual news website stupidity that often shows up in comments sections), enough to where Geo decided to put together a studio version of it with a beat from Sabzi‘s library, and here it is.

Drag City is the label Sic Alps calls home, and September 11th is the date fans will be able to buy their self-titled album (their fifth). You don’t have to wait all summer to hear music from it though, as they and Drag City are allowing fans to download a song from it for free, called “Glyphs” (6.42mb).

A few days before the album’s release, Sic Alps will be hitting the road in support of it, touring with Thee Oh Sees, so set your coordinates:
September 9 – Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theatre *
September 10 – San Diego, CA @ Bar Pink *
October 2 – Missoula, MT @ VFW *
October 3 – Calgary, AB @ Broken City *
October 4 – Calgary, AB @ Broken City *
October 6 – Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw Theater *

* w/ Thee Oh Sees

Searching for Alpha Trion is the forthcoming album by NomiS (“nahm is”), and as this video shows him in a fictitious space context, it’s another way of saying he’s ready to take you places all while exploring the good and bad things of this planet here called Earth.

You can check out some of the other videos he has posted on YouTube by heading here.

Almost two weeks ago, I posted access to a new track by Dent May called “Home Groan”. If you liked the track, you can now see the newly-created video for it.

Once upon a time there was a group called Propaganda…

It might seem odd for people outside of the UK and Europe, but Propaganda had hits, and decent hits at that: “Dr. Mabuse”, and “Duel”, and “P-Machinery” were their first three. They may have been barely a footnote for most Americans when it comes to the discussion of 80′s music, but for fans of the Zang Tuum Tumb Empire and the productions of Trevor Horn and Steven Lipson, Propaganda were an important group whose music made an impact on those who chose to “dream within a dream”, and this album represented that. It is a remix album that also served as an alternative perspective to a greatest hits package, something that most artists at the time did not do, at least not until a few more years. The mixes here of their three hits were exclusive to this album, so if you want to hear “Dr. Mabuse”, you could listen to the two-part “Abuse”. If you want “P-Machinery”, you could check out the twists in “Machined”. Or if you liked the “Duel”/”Jewel” single, you could see how it would be blended with “Jewelled”. One of my favorite moments of this mix is in the last chorus where Claudia Brucken‘s screamed vocals of “Jewel” eventually joins and collides with the silkiness of her singing from “Duel” before it comes to an end.

Artists like Bobby Brown and Jody Watley would eventually have remix albums created in their honor, featuring dance mixes you could find on their respective 12″ singles/maxi-cassingles, but Wishful Thinking featured remixes made exclusively for that album. The great thing about synth/dance pop is that even if these mixes were not the single versions, one could enjoy them so you could take an excursion through these songs, remixed so you could hear elements not in the hit, album, remixes, or alternate mixes. It was an additional to the additional. Then as bonuses, you could hear isolated bits from different songs. These isolated segments would be perfect for the DJ’s who would play this material, and today for bedroom producers/remixers to create their own megamixes.

The original Wishful Thinking was just under 40 minutes, but this Deluxe Edition features different mixes and outtakes of songs from the early Propaganda era, including outtakes of “Strength To Dream” and “Dr. Mabuse”, along with celebrated remixes of “P-Machinery” (the respected Beta mix) and instrumentals. There’s now a total of 74 minutes of music here.

If one ever had the balls to ask “how in the hell can you create a greatest hits album from a group who only had/released three singles, Wishful Thinking would be a possible answer. Yes it’s a remix album that doubles as a greatest hits album. Not a mere EP, but a full album that can honestly be experienced as a full album. It may not have the same feel or context as A Secret Wish, but within the realm of Propaganda and ZTT, as a voice said in a remix of Frankie Goes To Hollywood‘s “Rage Hard”, “anything can happen”.

For those outside of Europe who may only know of Propaganda as a mere footnote, this is the perfect place to start to discover what they created. It’s music, it’s exploitation, it’s temptation, it’s tomfoolery, it’s powerful, it’s egotistical, it’s sensational, and it was something quite moving. They also made songs that still drive people crazy because of how emotional Brucken’s voice is, singing lyrics that are powerful now as they were when this was originally released.

White Arrows are about to release their new album next week called Dry Land Is Not A Myth, and you can listen to it in full via Spotify by clicking this link that will take you to the Spotify page.

The band will be on tour beginning tomorrow, and they’re going all over the place. Maybe you’ll be in that place near you:
June 14 – San Francisco, CA Rickshaw Stop (Popscene)
June 15 – Santa Cruz, CA The Catalyst
June 16 – Los Angeles, CA Troubadour
June 17 – San Diego, CA Casbah
June 18 – Phoenix, AZ Rhythm Room
June 19 – El Paso, TX Low Brow Palace
June 20 – Dallas, TX La Grange
June 21 – Austin, TX Red 7
June 22 – Houston, TX Fitzgerald’s
June 23 – Baton Rouge, LA Spanish Moon
June 24 – New Orleans, LA Circle Bar
June 26 – Tampa, FL The Orpheum
June 27 – Miami, FL Bardot
June 28 – Orlando, FL Will’s Pub
June 29 – Atlanta, GA The Masquerade (Hell’s Stage)
June 30 Raleigh, NC King’s Barcade
July 1 – Washington DC DC9
July 3 – Philadelphia, PA Kung Fu Necktie
July 4 – New Haven, CT BAR Night Club
July 5 – Brooklyn, NY Knitting Factory
July 6 – Cambridge, MA TT The Bears
July 7 – Montreal, QC Ill Motore
July 8 – Toronto, ON Drake Hotel
July 10 – Pittsburgh, PA Brillobox
July 11 – Cleveland, OH Grog Shop
July 12 – Chicago, IL Schubas Tavern
July 13 – Detroit, MI Majestic Café
July 14 – Milwaukee, WI The Cactus Club
July 15 – Minneapolis, MN 7th St Entry
July 17 – Denver, CO Hi Dive
July 18 – Salt Lake City, UT Kilby Court
July 19 – Boise, ID Reef Boise
July 20 – Portland, OR Bunk Bar
July 21 – Seattle, WA Capitol Hill Block Party
July 22 – Vancouver, BC Electric Owl
July 28 – Sacramento, CA LAUNCH Festival
August 8 – Perth, AUS Astor Theatre
August 9 – Adelaide, AUS Uni Bar
August 10 – Melbourne, AUS The Hi-Fi 18+
August 11 – Melbourne, AUS The Hi-Fi U18S
August 15 – Canberra, AUS ANU Bar
August 16 – Newcastle, AUS Bar on the Hill
August 17 – Sydney, AUS The Metro
August 18 – Brisbane, AUS The Hi-Fi

Dry Land Is Not A Myth can be ordered below via Amazon.