Pressing start, “First Call” is the opening track to Ship Of Light by Husky Rescue and I’m getting ready for what I’m assuming would be a nice electronic masterpiece. Not even a minute over and it moves to song #2. Did I only get snippets for this album? No, for “Sound Of Love” is 4:14 in length. Now there’s vocals. It’s pretty pop, but what happened to what could have been something mindblowing. “First Call” is only an intro? That’s too bad.
Next song: “Fast Last”. Great intro, but then the beat and vocals kick in. Next.
“Wolf Trap Motel”, now this could be something cool, love the gentleness of the guitar, the bass, the beat that comes off like a heartbeat. I can relax to… nope, here’s the vocals.
Okay, vocalist Reeta-Leena Korhola has a great voice, a delicate whisper that reminds me of Leigh Nash and Miki Berenyi a bit. I also love the band and what they’re capable of doing. Yet somehow I’m wanting to hear either more of Korhola without the band, or Husky Rescue without her. Is that odd? I think the production side of my mind wishes these guys could embellish on the good parts that are cut short by Korhola’s vocals. The vocal side of my mind wants to hear her in a different context.
Some say Owen Pallett’s style of music is orchestral, and that’s because of Pallett’s use of everything from using Russian music to military music based in the 19th century. As modern as Heartland (Domino) sounds, it could’ve been something heard on Disney soundtracks or maybe a hidden album from your great grandfather’s collection. With these lush layers of music comes a delicate voice that sings with such passion, the listener can sense what Pallett is trying to do with this orgasmic blend of sound.
Very few people are doing the kind of music Pallett is doing today, and yet there was a time when it wasn’t such a big deal that someone could create glorious songs like these. The album has a running theme of heartbreak (thus the title Heartland, and the variations of it that might lurk within. It should be listened to as a whole upon initial listening, and once you have a grasp of the storyline, you can divide, listening individually, and then return to it as a whole one day.
What’s also cool is that not only are lyrical metaphors put into use, but Pallett gets into musical/audio metaphor as well. In other words, you can distinctly hear any and every sound he puts into these tracks. Some sounds may not sound like what they’re supposed to, or they turn into something unexpectedly. “Red Sun No. 5″ sounds like what Brian Wilson would have sounded like if he was a young 20-something man making Pet Sounds in 2010.
Heartland is a garden you want to sit in and watch grow in real time. All of the music feels like, and while you could go to a park, bring in a huge sound system and “watch” the music, I think you may have the cops wanting to take you away. If so, you can tell them “officers, it is okay, for I am already not here, thanks to Owen Pallett.” Chances of the police putting you down and walking away: slim, but at least you have Heartland to listen to from the beginning when you get home.
Kieran Hebden, as Four Tet, has done it once again with an impressive album of his electronic production, There Is Love In You (Domino).
Whatever people want to call him, he somehow turns his sounds into something that can be considered lush, dreamy, intense, circular, secular, etc. On this album, Four Tet will bring out various sounds, only to reverse and reflect them, chop them so that it sounds like it comes from sources unlike what they are “Sing” sounds like it caught hold of something nice, imagine biting a delicious bread and wanting to take it in, and eating more. Then he starts to coat it, then eat it in more imaginative ways. Then you have “Love Cry”, which is meditative as the sonic banana unpeels itself to reveal a certain joy in repetition, as the only voice in the song is forever heard saying “love cry” until it is lost in itself. I also like how it moves well as a song that clocks in at 9:13, its pace moves on steady without anything sounding too complicated. One could include this in a DJ set to see kind of magic could be created, the possibilities are endless.
There Is Love In You is a chillout album of a different nature, but as you get deeper into its soul, you find yourself just listening without care and just grooving, nodding your head, or dancing to its pulse.
Tracy Shedd has become a singer/songwriter of note, with a lot of promise. I first heard of her two years ago with her album Cigarettes & Smoke Machines! (which I reviewed in The Run-Off Groove #217) and late last year she released a video for “City At Night”, which is now the opening track to a new EP she simply calls EP88 (Eskimo Kiss).
I love when she sings “how your eyes affect me when you’re sleeping so peaceful/when you wake up, I’ll listen to all your ideas” in “How Your eyes Affect Me”, one imagines a couple in love, looking for and finding more than what lies on the surface to believe in the happiness they now share. In these songs, the arrangements are kept to just vocals, pianos, bass, and maybe some synths. It’s only until the end with the closing song where the drums come in to dust off accumulation and to show that she can rock it out when necessary.
I bring up the singer/songwriter thing because she’s very eloquent in how she brings out what are no doubt personal stories to share with the world, and she’s an artists who deserves everyone’s attention. She has a discography worth exploring, and a quality to her music that will keep people wanting to hear more.
Following the release of Deru’s album Say Goodbye To Useless, he has released “Peanut Butter & Patience” (Mush) as a single, and the remixes on it are definitely worth buying and hearing.
The Lorn Remix kind of has it jumping into Depeche Mode/early Yaz territory, but with much more punch to the drums. If you don’t stay on track, you may catch yourself off of the beat. The Great Mundane Mix is indeed the former but far from the latter, and sounds like something Andre 3000 would probably find pleasure in rhyming over with that type of gallop funk he seems to love. Wrapping up with the Ginormous Mix, the breathy textures could help it become a part of a few episodes of CSIL NY.
Big Light are a Bay area pop/rock band who sound like some of the best pop bands you’ve heard in the last 30 to 40 years. Imagine pop music that sounds like Tom Petty if he morphed himself into Lenny Kravitz, Marc Bolan, Graham Parker, Soul Asylum, and The Hooters, maybe even with a hint of Cheap Trick thrown in. If you’re on the sizzurp, you may even hear Lil’ Wayne if he was serious about his love of crossing over to white audiences.
Animals In Bloom (reapandsow) play with a sensibility that shows a love of playing and an understanding of the craft of writing and executing quality pop-flavored rock’n'roll, all done with attitude, humor, and a smirk which may convey the message “yes, we know what we’re doing”. “Superfuzz Fine” could be the song that may bring the band over to audiences who love their pop a bit more abrasive, while “Rainbow Eyes” will move people into realizing that yes, quality songs are still being written in the 21st century, the future is good with Big Light.
I also like the fact these guys are willing to perform a few of these songs at lengths over 5 minutes, so while they have a nice stash of songs that are radio friendly, Big Light seem to want to be able to find each other and themselves with a bit of jamming too, without having to sound like they’re simply paying ode to The Allman Brothers Band, which they’re not. I easily see them appealing to a wide range of audiences, and they seem to be the kind of group who want to bring out all of their interests and influences into their collective sound.
Madlib is at it again, and I’m not just talking with a new release. In a month, the man has released four albums. It’s like those old U.S. Army commercials where the voice-over stated that the people who enlist will do more before 9am than what most people do all day. What he has done, even in a year’s time, is more than a lot of artists have done in ten years. Granted, Madlib may not have the celebrated hits, and he may not have created the kind of earworms Hollywood tends to want to sponge out of anyone and everyone who is willing to spread their buttchecks, but what Madlib has is class, style, substance, and let’s be honest, a true “I-don’t-give-a-fuck” attitude that isn’t only an attribute to stoners, but a hip-hop attribute that has since been placed in storage.
Credited to the Young Jazz Rebels, Slave Riot (Stones Throw) is being pushed as a “free jazz” album. Anyone who has listened to the many projects he has released under the Yesterdays New Quintet/Yesterdays Universe umbrella knows that anything and everything can happen at any given time. Sometimes the “group” will get locked into a funk and it sounds brutal, rural, and incredible, and as they make their way towards the next song, they’re searching one another to find a common consciousness. With the Young Jazz Rebels, it’s about the search, you hear the examination of each others need to create and make sounds. The craft behind this album sounds as if someone brought Art Blakey, Pharoah Sanders, Rashied Ali, Jack DeJohnette, John McLaughlin, Herbie Hancock, John Gilmore, Lester Bowie, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Derf Reklaw, and Miroslav Vitous into the studio, and said “let’s play until the 25 foot candle melts into the ground.
Within that process are songs, suites, mini-suites, everything is somehow linked together be it musically, sonically,and if you think deep enough, physically. Percussion instruments rattle off as if they are chains from distant ships long forgotten by some, but are always a means of resistance and tolerance for many. Some sounds come off as things fading away into the ocean, while others is the pain and frustration of making it in the concrete jungle, especially in tracks like “Hate/Love”, “The Sun”, and “The Legend Of Mankind”. Out of the blue (black), a human sensibility (i.e. melody) comes in within “Newear” and changes the soundscape all together. Things become musical, only for it to melt and dissolve into that ocean with unknown entities sinking slowly as it extends its hand, trying to survive or at least make it up for air once again.
To make that a bit more palpable, imagine all of the dramatic freak-outs one may hear on an albums mentioned in this interview. Introductions and interludes that help develop or lead the way towards the song. This is what the Young Jazz Rebels are about, freaks that are about the satisfaction of creating psychedelic moments that may or may not be influenced by hallucinogens. Maybe it’s natural, maybe it’s substantial, no one knows.
To bring things down to Earth, Madlib has definitely blurred the thin line between what may be real instrumentation and what could be samples from his record collection. When he moves towards this direction, he’s very much like Jan Jelinek where he’s making music out of the non-musical, or elements that are often discarded as just noise are turned into something very exciting. If you enjoyed what Monk Hughes & The Outer Realm did on their fantastic A Tribute To Brother Weldon, Slave Riot is not too far from that where songs, sounds, and stories bathe with each other as if Madlib is the pimp and the members of the “group” are his realized fantasies. It’s very orgiastic, and that’s the fun, to be a spectator and either go “this is fucking brilliant” or “I don’t know what the hell this is, but it’s definitely something I have to listen to again.” Will you find the next generation of breaks here, perhaps not. Will you find enough information worthy enough to sample, sure, but it’s the realization that Madlib is a producer who not only creates sample-based producer, but is also adding to the sample library not only for more adventurous producers, but himself. It’s as eclectic as Pink Floyd when they create music for art-house music, but it’s as Afrocentric as he makes it out to be, as if he’s calling back to those who came before him to continue the link between self and origin. This is the sound of hundreds of years of pain and suffering resurfacing and making itself known in a modern context, a Slave Riot if you will, an extension of Sly Stone’s There’s A Riot Going On. Judging from the sounds here, the riot never ended.
It is also possible that the Young Jazz Rebels is music from the mind of someone whose attitude is simply about placing himself into his music, removing the consequences some will place on music like this, created by sound enthusiasts like him.
(Slave Riot will be released on April 6th, but can be pre-ordered from Stones Throw through the appropriate formats listed below with each icon.) | |
This is an album that I’ve been sitting with for awhile, taking it in, peeling it layer by layer, one by one, and it’s a mindfuck. Zu released The Way Of The Animal Powers five years ago on, and this Italian trio have been doing a lot of interesting things ever since. With the help of Public Guilt Records, it makes its vinyl debut.
Imagine being able to go back in time and having Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band play at your birthday party. Now imagine the Captain not wanting to sing, he wants to paint. Fine. Now bring in someone wanting to be John Zorn stunt saxophonist, but he’s on ludes. Add in some guys who love jazz and Melvins. Now tell them to just play, without any sense of what they will be playing. Maybe a few notes, but that’s it. This is what The Way Of The Animal Powers sounds like, a group of guys about to play, tuning up, not going anywhere but also going everywhere, and as they’re doing this, they’re getting involved with each others improvisation while doodling. When they reach the last song, “Every Seagull Knows”, you hear the sound of birds and an ocean, and perhaps the goal has been achieved. Maybe, but it sounds like they’re unloading their bag of tricks all over the beach, with no suntan lotion to protect themselves, but there’s some sense of organization. Then it’s over.
What I like about this is that you’re hearing creation in action. The album sounds like Zu are trying to take out their tools towards creating something of value, but on the way you’re hearing brain matter in motion. On other words, it’s the creative process that you’re listening to, disorganized sounds that actually have some sense of logic to it, it’s not random sounds or freaky jazz spurting out the human urethra of the band. But maybe it’s just that. Titles like “Tom Araya Is Our Elvis”, “The Witch Herbalist Of The Remote Town”, and “Farewell To The Species” are meant to stand out, but you really have to take a serious listen in order to get into what Zu are doing. My Melvins comparison comes from the way Zu are able to stumble and stomp through in their songs, deliberately but in a methodical way so that listeners will go “okay, it’s time to linger here for awhile and enjoy.”
Here’s another way of putting it. Look at a walrus. You’re hungry for it. Slice it. The Way Of The Animal Powers is one hell of a loaf of a meal.
Vocal jazz can make me cringe, and most of the time it does, but when you have a voice that shows the beautiful of not only your voice and singing, but jazz music itself, you must fall to your knees and beg. Gabriele Tranchina is a singer will make you bow, as you’ll hear in hew new album A Song Of Love’s Color (Jazzheads).
Let’s get this part out of the way. She is listed as being “multi-lingual”, and in this case she sings not only in English, but in Spanish, Portuguese, and (I believe) German. That isn’t exactly an easy thing to do, and sometimes singers are better off singing in their native tongue (just as Shakira). Tranchina sings like someone who is well versed in all languages, very comfortable in moving from style to style, culture to culture, almost flawlessly. This is someone whom I would not hesitate to see live. She can do pop, jazz, and can even hear a country sensibility in her voice and maybe even a bit of soul if she wanted, and I guess after years of hearing countless singers to try to do what they’re incapable of doing, it’s refreshing to hear someone who is full capable.
(A Song Of Love’s Color will be released on April 13th.)
With a name like Audio Cultures, I guess I expected their music to be subtle-yet-radical, because here’s a name that’s very basic, describing a part of what they are as musicians. Yet with that subtlety, I’m expecting something banging. Eh, not quite.
Breaking The Sound Barrier (Sonic Pilot) is a very bold title for something that’s pretty much smooth jazz. I admire their musicianship, but what I also hear is a group of musicians who know how to play with their eyes closed, but don’t bother breaking anything. Some of the music is layered over electronic beats, which is great, but the beats go nowhere. Put this music in the right hands, and this could be a bit more powerful than it is. However, if it’s a smooth jazz audience they’re trying to each, it’s a smooth jazz audience that will be entertained by music that will get snaps, claps, and smug approval.
I tend to be a Beatles snob, so while recording not one, but two Beatles songs on here (“Michelle” and “Come Together”) will no doubt get a second look and listen, I thought their arrangement of “Come Together” was not good. They added a little bit to it that’s not in the original song, an extra vamp and measure, and I found my edited version to be better. If you know how to edit songs from extracted WAV files, do it.
If Audio Culture wanted to be true sound troopers, they would give their music to a diverse range of hip-hop and electronica-based producers so that everyone can truly be “breaking the sound barrier”. The group are an easy listen, but as I listen, I’m hearing the potential of what could have been.
(NOTE: This is not to be confused with an album called Breaking The Sound Barrier, when they were called just Audio Culture. They share a few of the same songs, but aren’t the same albums.)
Pressing start, “First Call” is the opening track to Ship Of Light by Husky Rescue and I’m getting ready for what I’m assuming would be a nice electronic masterpiece. Not even a minute over and it moves to song #2. Did I only get snippets for this album? No, for “Sound Of Love” is 4:14 in length. Now there’s vocals. It’s pretty pop, but what happened to what could have been something mindblowing. “First Call” is only an intro? That’s too bad.
