MELOMANIA delivers nine new releases that ... well...deliver.
This week's episode features: POP/PUNK, POP, MOD/FREAKBEAT, BRITISH ROCK, SOUTH AFRICAN HIP-HOP, BLACK COUNTRY HIP-HOP, BAY AREA NWOBHM and JAPANESE PROG/DOOM METAL. Strap yourselves in.
DUNE RATS - Real Rare Whale [LP/CD](BMG Rights Mgmt)
Australia is a vast land of culture and natural wonder. In the cities, they continue to drill out some of the world's best, most original Punk Rock. At their most commercial lengths, Aussie bands can shake a simple riff into several varieties (The Chats’ new record is mindblowing and coming 9.9.22.) Dune Rats are like a more anthemic Green Day. Their secret weapon is a massive chorus of singers that make their tracks snap like stadium shouters. “Pamela Aniston” is blisteringly simple. The title establishes that it is a paean to beauty. And as coarse as it might seem, listening to a Queen-sized set of voices sing “Pam-e-la” and “An-i-ston” definitely was rooted in lust but becomes an act of love. When they get ready to shred (“Dumb TV,”) they wield a chorus better than our Pop/Punkers. “Melted In Two” even manages to throw in some Spector-ian hand claps and Ramones-ian turnaround. While “Drink All Day” even introduces a subtle harmony into their chanting. For a nation that typically loves party bands (and is also still suffering through a COVID hangover,) we should welcome this import to our shores.
HAPPY FITS - Under The Shade of Green [LP](Happy Fits/AWAL/AMPED)
Their novelty is trading the bass for a cello. However, the trio Happy Fits actually incorporates the sound so well into their Modern Pop - you really have to force yourself to listen to hear it. At their best, the upbeat tracks have the immediacy necessary for chart success (looking at you AAA.) They are total pros, especially at building their songs (“Around and Around”) and then maintaining that almost fever-pitch (the Vampire Weekend-esque “Dance Alone.”) While Happy Fits definitely know their way around memorable choruses, their future clearly lies in development. With all the hooks and sunny harmonies, the true standout is “Cold Turkey.” They play magnificently by building it from a cold, quivering consonance to lush Beatlesque harmonies with assonance (“Dooooo yooooooou ever woooonder?”) Unlike most of the other songs, the chorus is more subtle even with (another) roomful of chant in the background. Without so much production upfront, Happy Fits turn what sounds like a novelty (that simple stomping beat and whistling) into a multi-layered track that bears repeating.
BIBI CLUB - Le Soleil Et La Mer [LP/CD](Secret City CAN)
Montreal’s Bibi Club assembles a completely different but familiar mixture of Stereolab-ish Lounge Pop and a much happier Young Marble Giants. “Parasite” is exemplary of their production style that effortlessly blends the bedroom-based C86 strum, with purring drum machines and Adele Trottier-Rivard’s intimate Nina Persson-esque singing with her room mic-recorded shouts. Nicolas Basque is clearly the Dave Stewart mixing a vast array of sounds including uniquely “bent” guitars on the soothing “L’Oiseau Rouge” and “Femme-Lady.” While it may serve up that Eighties/Nineties four-track feeling, “Le Soleil” is really a homemade sonic feast. Its standout cut “Le Matin” begins innocently enough before blossoming into a Cocteau Twins-without all the echo slow burner. Basque’s skill at pulling the parts in and out while keeping the breathy Trottier-Rivard responding to his guitar winding is then accented by a windchime effect that adds extra sparkle. Bibi Club is billed as ElectroPop but to their credit, there is a lot more going on here.
MOCKS - Out of Sight/Same Old Day [7”](Bickerton ESP)
The Mocks are a solid Mod/Freakbeat band with that swingin’ 65’ pre-distortion sound. “Out of Sight” is a swishy Pop wonder that wields both a tacet verse riff and a Kinks-style pre-chorus push. “Same Old Day” is a minor Soulful single that would have fit fantastically on “The Who Sings My Generation.” As simple as their music sounds, it is anything but. The tracks depend first and foremost on their pinpoint writing, and second on live-in-studio recording (catch the Jam-like peaks on “Same Old Day.”) Now on their third single, The Mocks must be sitting on a goldmine for their album.
MORE KICKS - “Animal” [7”](Stardumb UK/Dirtnap)
London’s More Kicks put a little more punch behind their Sixties Rock and drag it into Post-Punk (the stellar “Animal”) and driving pre-Punk (the Hammersmith Gorillas-esque rumbler “The Wind Up.”) More Kicks do a lot with their changes in energy. There is a noticeable change in the atmosphere that accompanies the almost Sonic Youth-esque once it moves from its Pete Shelley sings “My Sharona” robotic verses to a blazing guitar solo that REALLY opens the song up. Hoping for more of this untethered attack from the trio next time out.
MOONCHILD SANELLY - Phases [LP/CD](Transgressive)
South African Hip-Hop artist Moonchild Sanelly is about to become a favored feature here in the States. Her style is a throwback to Nineties Hip-Hop (“Let It Rip” pits her against electronics to the point it only needs a beat to put you in a trance) with a futuristic feel. Her cartoonish delivery of lines over freaky wild rhythms works for either the tried-and-true (“Strip Club”) and way out there (going Xhosa on the break-the-rules wailer “Covivi.”). However, it is “Demon” that begs to be a hit. Over what is perhaps the slinkiest Hip-Hop beat of the year, Moonchild Sanelly squeezes humor, pathos, and revenge out of the entire track while getting down, down, down the whole time. Given her Electronic meets Grime sound, “Phases” appears to be a hard sell to a nation still imbibing skittering beats and deep bass. Moonchild Sanelly has arrived to become our treble queen.
ROBERT - Orange Is The New Black [LP](Antelope UK/Fat Beats/AMPED)
So much of Hip-Hop today is about building a character and maintaining a facade. This dramatic album from Black Country rapper Robert is about removing those barriers and really telling his story. Like Richard Russell’s production of the late Gil Scott-Heron’s “I’m New Here” (less dense,) “Orange Is The New Black” is raw and confessional. When he recalls his tales of prison life and being on the make, Robert raises the lyrical game on Kool Keith (who torches his verse on “Kelly Had a Seizure.” Add to that different taped portions and Soweto Kinch’s jazz chording, “Nowhere City” is a lump-in-the-throat moment - even without the singing. With production from The Purist and Sonnyjim, “Orange Is The New Black” is a bracing shot of minimal but well-selected ideas. When Sonnyjim helps on the Psychedelic Soul odyssey “15 Years,” the flow of the song and the rhyming are entrancing. Like all good transportation songs - it is over before you know it. No matter who shows up to help out (Jason Williamson of Sleaford Mods on “No Co-Operation,”) or what musical hook is slipped in the mix (“Daddy Was a Bastard,”) Robert’s album is a stark beauty that is hard to shake once it finishes.
HELL FIRE - Reckoning [LP/CD](Riding Easy)
San Francisco’s pre-Thrash/American response to NWOBHM is finally coming to its fruition. “Reckoning” manages to park so many songs in the Heavy Metal Parking Lot of Maiden, Priest, Metallica, and Motorhead that it works like it was 1984. “Reckoning” slays with Jake Nunn’s DiAnno-meets-Dickinson vocals and Tony Campos’ classic metal shred styling (“Many Worlds” works his main riff around both orchestrated stops and the chugging verse riff and then peaks with tapping/speed-picking/Thin Lizzy-double solo.) Hell Fire makes a great case that the current resurgence of Thrash (especially Bay Area style) should mark a return to the state of evolution that came before it.
SIGH - Shiki [ LP/CD](Peaceville UK)
Japanese Black Metallers Sigh has been at it since 1989 (check out the reissue of their earliest years “Eastern Darkness” out as well including a healthy tribute to Venom.) “Shiki” brings in native Japanese instruments and throws in so many thunderous drum fills to their Doom-slow Metal, some tracks veer heavily into Prog. “Kuroi Kage” is a skull pounder with a lot of space. When they bring in the organs on “Shoujahitsumetsu,” it’s almost too soothing. A-ha! However, that is their magic trick. Lull you just a little into a zone of comfort, and then, rage like Emperor racing down a mountain. The standout on “Shiki” is the huge Prog opening-into-blind rager “Satsui - Geshi No Ato.” Between the shrieking lead vocals, there are so many additions that work. Its giant-sized midsection with choir and organ leads beautifully into a downward progression that could have been Gentle Giant back in the day. “Fuyu Ga Kura” does a lot with the traded screams but really finds its groove thanks to some intricate drumming and synth work. “Shiki” has a wealth of very cool riffs (“Shouku”) and ideas that Sigh spreads out over their branded Metal very well. While it defies categorical analysis, that element of surprise is Sigh’s best feature.
Well, another week, another list of several different styles and pursuits in music for you. Enjoy. Listen again. Share as you wish.
NEW RELEASES lovingly compiled for you from this very week!
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We are asking everyone to give a hand to one of our own, Bobby Sutliff. While Mississippi is well known for its vast array of musical contributors, one of the architects of College Rock/AmerIndie here in the state was Sutliff along with Tim Lee as The Windbreakers. In the Eighties, The Windbreakers put out several releases that featured other College Rock favorites like Richard Barone and members of The Rain Parade. In 1989, after recording “At Home With Bobby and Tim,” they put a band together and hit the road. That is the source of this newly released album. Your purchase of it (at whatever price you wish) will contribute to a fund for Bobby Sutliff and his wife. Sutliff was just diagnosed with Stage 4 kidney cancer and in short - they need help. Melomania thanks you for your support of Bobby and Wendy.
Finally, we pause and remember Free Jazz trumpeter Jaimie Branch. Fare thee well.