MELOMANIA comes at you in 4-D
MELOMANIA comes at you in 4-D
four dynamite releases for this wild weather weekend. Plus a pair of playlists - including four hours to get ready for RSD23.
ACT I SCENE I
(Scene opens in a darkened record store. Music is blaring. Keys are clicking. The ebb and flow of words on a page are underway. While not the best week (yet another one where the most enjoyable ones made the grade. Still, the scrawl on scattered index cards is certain to hold some mystery.)
ALGIERS - Shook [LP/CD](Matador/Redeye)
The new school of Hip-Hop from Moor Mother, Billy Woods, and Backxwash gives Atlanta’s Post-Punkers an entirely different level of tension. If Scotland’s Young Fathers have traded their edgy sound for a more ambient wash, Algiers decided to push their music harder than ever. “Irreversible Damage” may feature Zack De La Rocha, but its bracing, biting wall of sound is the main attraction. When they do cool down a few degrees on the politically charged wail of “73%,” it is only before building rage into pairing its ambient synth noise with hair-raising vocals. Even comfort is challenging here as “Cleanse Your Guilt Here” takes its soothing Tricky-esque trippiness to uncomfortable drunkenness as its conclusion. “Shook” is more daring than most modern Post-Punk records (kudos to bringing in Mark Stewart of The Pop Group) and a distinct (and welcome) throwback to the charged reign of Public Enemy. “Bite Back” featuring Billy Woods and Backxwash could be a dense trap track from a mixtape. However, its epic bridge (same with “Green Iris”) and Franklin James Fisher’s vocal dexterity take direct cues from Southern primordial Blues and Gospel. Perhaps that is what Trap needs. Honestly, “Shook” is what we all need.
BIG | BRAVE - Nature Morte [LP/CD](Thrill Jockey/Redeye)
In a hail of downtuned guitars, Robin Wattie’s cries rarely go unheard. There is a fragility that slowly grows into power over the nearly ten minutes of “the fable of subjugation” that they have never summoned before. Like their Southern Lord releases of old, “Nature Morte” is all about their most primal sounds emerging from either noise or uncomfortable quiet. For example, “the one who bornes a weary load” is practically a Folk song played like it was industrial. Its lengthy, scratchy, percussive opening leaves you ready for it to simply explode. Surprisingly when it finally does (especially thanks to Seth Manchester’s heated production,) you can already feel the song’s real cathartic moment has not yet arrived. Since discovering their songwriting side on the brilliant “Leaving None But Small Birds” with The Body, these long explorations always retain their structure. Even while the music is played for visceral attack and force (the near Yoko Ono-esque “carvers, farriers, and knaves,”) one cannot help but think these would still be just as powerful as a voice emerging from silence.
Various Artists - YOUNG LIMBS RISE AGAIN [5CD/6LP][(Demon Music Group/AMPED)
The Eighties continue to surface as a treasure trove of fantastic music to this generation. Perhaps it was the handoff from the “Stranger Things” love of 1983 in Pop to “Wednesday,” but a Batcave compilation has been long overdue. Most “Goth” collections tend to focus too much on one aspect (which we must admit is easy to do given how many directions that it spun in after the glory days collected here.) “Young Limbs” has an almost cinematic reach. For example, the long version of The Cult’s “Resurrection Joe” (where you realize how trapped one can feel but those plunky Post-Punk bass lines compared with the reliable root-heavy bottom that Rock songs provide,) Specimen’s lost anthem “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” (which could have easily been a Glam track) and the newly popular “Garbageman” by the Cramps belong together - even if one is really “Goth.” Sure, the B-52s, New Order, and Echo & The Bunnymen have the “club” history covered, but therein lies the beauty. Leeds’ sneering March Violets, the reverb-drenched vampire blues of Meteors, and the icy Teutonic rumble of Propaganda are great surprises. However, the inclusion of seminal tracks that are not well-known from Simple Minds, Human League, Throbbing Gristle, and Christian Death (the metallic slam of “Deathwish”) is the main attraction. Finally, if that was not enough for you, “Young Limbs” closes with a Seventies Glam primer that alone could stand as its own collection.
THE BARRACUDAS - Drop Out With The Barracudas [3CD](Lemon/Cherry Red UK)
Between the sugar rush of Power Pop and the amphetamine haze of the Ramones, Robin Wills and his surf-rockers The Barracudas were ripping - even if it was the wrong time for it. “Drop Out With The Barracudas” is reassembled here in all of its 1980-82 glory. Their passel of 7” wonders (“Summer Fun” and “I Want My Woody Back”) are even included here plus 21 more cuts from Wills’ archive. “I Can’t Pretend” and “We’re Living In Violent Times” still make a dynamite 1-2 punch with their Byrdsian overtones while “(I Wish It Could Be) 1965 Again” is a dream playlist waiting to be made (to go along with the Fleshtones’ history lesson “American Beat,” and even X’s “True Love, Pt.2.”) Jeremy Gluck’s vocals remain perfect for this music and its production still fits the modern sound of its day with those Sixties hallmarks (the tank reverb on the surf instrumental “Barracuda Waver.”) The demos and ephemera hold a lot of fun as well especially the desperate sounding “Gotta Get A Gun” and the underrated “Grammar of Misery.” The Barracudas even tear through covers from The Surfaris, Trashmen, Outsiders and close it all out with a searing live version of Flamin Groovies’ “Slow Death.” Ba ba ra ra coo coo dah dah.
There is a method to the madness we promise. To us, the best playlisting songs come two ways:
1. When you are just skimming an older playlist/segment - see a track - and it starts playing in your head.
When a cut surprises you. When you are listening to the random array run together and that song plays that makes you race over to find out what it is.
So thank you for reading, listening, subscribing, and supporting the artists we introduce via this online platform.
T-BONES Records and Cafe is a full-service fast-casual restaurant and record store in Hattiesburg, MS. We are a Coalition of Independent Music Stores member. We are the longest-running record store in the state of Mississippi. If you have questions - we have answers … and probably a lot more information just waiting for you at:
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