MELOMANIA five alive for you as Spring descends (thankfully)
well..four new releases and one mammoth reissue box.
ULRIKA SPACEK - Compact Trauma [LP](Tough Love UK)
As if the interregnum we all endured was not enough, Ulrika Spacek also lost their studio. With this facility (KEN) that functioned as both their laboratory and home was suddenly wrested away from them, the pro-studio based “Compact Trauma” doubles as both a shock to the system (several songs depend on almost maddening passages that really capture the dissonance of this period in their lives) and conquering a learning curve. The bracing opener “The Sheer Drop” could be breezy Shoegaze and could be Sonic Youth circa “EVOL.” Like The Stroppies’ masterful “Levity,” there is a lesson here. “Accidental Momentary Blur” is a slinky chiming/dissonant almost BritPop song. However, with their intense layering of sound - you always have to listen closely. The ease of the lizard-like “Lounge Angst” deceives you with its glistening Pop chord changes and obscured lyrics about not being able to process things. Then when they settle into a pattern (the Music Kosmiche unwinding of “Diskbanksrealism”) or stretch their ideas until their most threadbare moments delight (the amazing ten minutes of “Stuck At The Door,”) Ulrika Spacek allows you to realize that they have made an album of the most familiar sounds reconstructed in ways that sound foreign, distant and new. No need to hit you on the head with hooks, or fascinate you with flash, “Compact Trauma” is a restoration of their ethos wrapped in an album that simply keeps giving.
THE NO ONES - My Best Evil Friend [CD](Yep Roc/Redeye)
The Power Pop/Jangle/Rock supergroup The No Ones does an excellent job of balancing the Sixties influence of their inspirations (Scott McCaughey kicks the album off with a playlist-ready recitation of them on “KLIV*”) and the modern trappings of using crisp harmonies from guests like Debbi Peterson of the Bangles (“Song For George.”) “Blue Cheer Captain” manages to combine its GbV-ish title with the excellent juxtaposition of some whispery vocals and Peter Buck’s guitar squall. With guests like Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub, Victor Krummenacher of Camper Van Beethoven, and Ben Gibbard of Death Cab For Cutie, this joint American/Norwegian project finds ecstasy in both reliving Rock dreams and seeing there are still more to be fulfilled. (*the quality and reach of the cited artists on their Bandcamp page as well.)
NANCY - English Leather [LP](Blame Recordings UK)
Most throwback Glam Rock chooses its sound before writing as a means to actually sound “Glam.” Jamie Hall of Tigercub recording here as Nancy seeks mostly to emulate it. Like its title, there is a strong scent of Seventies Rock - but not too much machismo style. The title track is a stomper but adorned with soft, woozy melodies, while “Can’t Rid of You” and its vibrato organ might as well be either the Shangri-Las or The Raveonettes. However, it is the Psychedelia-but-through-the-other-end-of-the telescope of “Ruby” that hints at both songcraft and sound. Hall wants the verses to be spooky and express a low-level “wanting.” So, this neatly sets up an Emitt Rhodes-style carousel chorus and a post-chorus falsetto repetition of “It’s golden” that will break your heart. In addition, there is so much drama inherent in Hall’s delivery of both hooks and lyrical lines. “Moonlight” is Beatlesque with its combined internal harmonies but that spare-worded Tame Impala-like chorus is better than anything they have done in years. Finally, the 10cc-meets-modern R&B feel/phrasing on “Black Choral Bells” is yet another innovative motif that Nancy has unveiled here. “English Leather” is a surprising cycle of Glam in its most overarching use to cover introspection, mystery, frustration, and (of course) having a good time.
PETER CASE - Doctor Moan [CD](Sunset Blvd.)
Listening to Peter Case worm away like Tom Waits on his sixteenth album is a strange beauty. A Nerve, a Plimsoul, and one of the first to pick up on the rebirth of Folk tradition in the Eighties (1986’s stellar “Peter Case,”) Case walks unafraid into several memory-drenched (“That Gang of Mine”) and expressionistic (“Give Me Five Minutes More”) piano-based Pop songs that can only be described as Tin Pan Alley-adjacent. The wizened rasp in his voice makes “Have You Ever Been In Trouble?” not just believable but a cautionary tale. The gentle footpat pulse of “Wandering Days” (closest here to that aforementioned 1986 album) is heartwarming in its Byrds-meets-Beatles ‘65 chime, while the powerful Gospel-flavored ballad “Eyes of Love” is aided by majestic organ and standup bass accentuation. The biggest surprise is Case continues to accomplish all this without giving into genre-specific encroachment and always pursuing complete intimacy (“Girl In Love With A Shadow.”)
HAWKWIND - Days of the Underground: The Studio and Live Recordings 1977-1979 [8CD/2 BLU-RAY BOX](Cherry Red)
As the wave of Prog crested in the mid-Seventies, Hawkwind retuned the frequencies of their Space Rock generator to more Earth-ly concerns. From February 1977 to May 1979, the band who rode “Silver Machine” to Top 5 status broke down and rebuilt themselves twice over. Signing to Charisma while the first gobs of Punk splattered into ugly heads all over England signaled a real change for the band. Losing Lemmy and then recording the rubbery “Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music” was a signal that singer/poet/lyricist Robert Calvert was again the engine propelling the Hawkwind ship.
With a pair of uncharacteristic singles (“Back On The Streets” and the jaunty “Quark, Strangeness, and Charm,”) Hawkwind seemed to be placing the fanbase on notice. So when “Quark” dropped in 1977, its Sci-Fi exploration was welcome even though it was tempered by paranoia (“Hassan I Sahba” functioning as a continuation of the banned but brilliant “Urban Guerilla” from 1973.)
“Quark” under Wilson’s re-direct sounds more foreboding. The title single ( which was even shown on Marc Bolan’s tea time show) sounds less like a hit - more like the alarm being sounded under the strains of everyday life. As the organ swells (“The Iron Age,”) and Calvert’s vocals waver in desperation, “Quark” is the first real dose of Alvin Toffler-esque Future Shock. Among the bonuses, even the Calvert-less “A Minor Jam Session” leaves you feeling thinking he is making the band paranoid just by listening for a moment and writing furiously in the corner. While the early version of “Days of the Underground” acts as all the exposition one could need to join the Hawkwind story here.
“Underground” (a collaboration between Calvert and Brock) weirdly tells the story of how they came together just as an ill-fated tour tore them apart. Fortunately, they one unleashed one last gasp entering the studio in early 1978 to lay down the bracing “PXR 5.” Unlike “Quark,” Hawkwind was for the first time actually nodding to their influences. The track “Uncle Sam’s On Mars” (which is joined with “Quark” in the gritty Rockfield demos presented here calls back to Gil Scott-Heron’s “Whitey on The Moon.” While the “PXR5” cut “High Rise” is heavily influenced by J.G.Ballard’s novel of the same name. As a band (Adrian Shaw, Simon House, Simon King, Brock, and Calvert,) are unconventional (“Jack of Shadows”) and undeniably tight (the long, organ-led chromatic runs on “Robot.”)
Brock (who carried the name through all the other incarnations,) Calvert, and Simon King continued as Hawklords. Their initial debut “25 Years On” still shows how much promise the band as they were not trying to be Punk, New Wave, or even Prog anymore. Calvert’s subject matter now varied between schizophrenia (“Flying Doctor”) and crushing depression (“Free Fall.”) However, you would not know it. Calvert skillfully crafted his tales to mirror sky-diving and paranormal skills (“Psi Power.”) With new bassist Harvey Bainbridge, keyboardist Steve Swindells and drummer Martin Griffin, “25 Years On” is formative but still works. “(Only) Dead Dreams of The Cold War Kid” could have been a graphic novel. While not fully realized here, Calvert is best when he is either ranting (the chilling “Damnation Alley” presented here in multiple head-spinning versions) or remembering. The often-missed “25 Years On” is remixed to amazing effect.
With “PXR5” now out in 1979 as Hawkwind, the band reconstituted with Hawklords Bainbridge and King joined by returning guitar Huw-Lloyd Langston and new synthesist and composer Tim Blake. The live shows here do not quite arrive at that incarnation, but the 1978 show is especially blazing as Calvert is thrilling leading the band (nine minutes of “Spirit of the Age”) As the pre-Hawklords Sonic Assassins in 1977 work over a furious “Death Trap” that rages and inserts all the best synth squiggles.
Given the new remixes, “Quark,” “PXR5” and “25 Years On” fit better together now even if they do not quite show their evolution at the time. The plethora of live tracks (some released, some unreleased) actually hint at their prowess and how post-” Space Ritual,” the incarnations of the band sought a sound that - for lack of a better word - “united” the various thrusts and sounds of the albums as far back as 1970. Between Hawkwind, Sonic Assassins, and Hawklords, the largest achievement of this mammoth box is that it shows a band losing its identity to discover a new variant of its signature sound.
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