MELOMANIA jumps into June with a bevy of new releases from off the beaten path
Keep this channel open for a special weekend playlist too.
Welcome back my friends to show that never ends. There was a lot of great new music this week. From top to bottom of our lists, we actually had to cut tracks to get the playlist to its normal number of cuts. Having said that, be on the lookout for a new playlist specially made for Melomaniacs like you filled with future new releases to look out for. We have already seen the benefits of having untested tracks in play for longer than a week - and hope to continue this trend.
NÚRIA GRAHAM - Cyclamen [LP](Verve)
There are portions of the challenging Pop of "Cyclamen" that remind you of the first Norah Jones album. The hushed acoustic "The Beginnings of Things" and the torch song "Poisonous Sunflower" could easily appeal to Jones, Carole King, and Nellie McKay fans. However, Graham has so many more arrows in her quiver. First, the low, breathy, husky range of her voice is like no other at the moment. The album's standout single is "Yes It's Me, The Goldfish!" Graham allows her vocals to guide it in slowly and then shine a different light on the travails of modern life. Her lyrics are more shards of observation than an evolving song—the mood and changing color of the track hinge on Graham's emotionless-then-emotional delivery. Much of "Cyclamen" is built around small classical guitar figures that first resemble MPB until they hit the looping spin cycle. "Fire Mountain Oh Sacred Fountain" is an abstract Folk song that through multi-tracking and the easiest counterpoint (drone-y strings vs. swaying guitar arpeggios,) swells into a piece of worship. To the other extreme, the slow "Disaster In Napoli" distorts Graham's voice and brings in a chugging electric guitar. From a marketing standpoint, "Cyclamen" must feel nearly impossible to pinpoint. However, Graham's individualism and talent for singing, writing, and arranging makes it almost completely enthralling. This is the kind of next-generation artist Verve Forecast should be pitching.
BAXTER DURY - I Thought I Was Better Than You [LP/CD](Heavenly/AMPED)
For so long, Baxter Dury has been a kind of wily narrator. With the commanding bellow (his appearance at the end of Fat White Family's brilliant "Tastes Good With The Money" is still a manic thrill) and the similar Upminster rant of his father (as the title questions - although he is more velvety, while Ian was more bulldog), Baxter's flavor ("Samurai") has been long aided by heavenly background singers and slinky beats. "I Thought I Was Better Than You" is the first record where we really get to know him. The proceedings are still undeniably funky ("Aylesbury Boy" and “Leon”) and rooted in Hip-Hop-meets-SynthPop ("Crashes.") However, Dury is switching in and out of character like a standup comedian. "Celebrate Me" does anything but that, swinging the blame around until we are as confused about childhood as he is, and "Shadow" spins its obvious conceit into the conclusion that Baxter will always be associated with his father. This is Baxter as the protagonist of his own evaluation, and singers Eska Mtungwazi, JGrrey, and Madeline Hart as conscience, counselor, and Greek chorus. Producer Paul White keeps the beats and sound beds booming and spartan. He knows (they all know, really,) Dury is far better and everyone here gives him all the space he needs to figure it out ("Crowded Rooms") and take it to heart (the lump-in-your-throat closer "Glows.")
RVG - Brain Worms [LP/CD](Fire/Redeye)
Romy Vager's Billy Corgan-esque voice and the Eighties College jangle (with a dash of Eleventh Dream Day) find several points on the third RVG album where they proudly wield a sound that is familiar but like no one else today. "Tambourine" is a fantastic farewell to a friend and an explanation of how alienating a funeral can be (not to mention - watching online "Can't hear the eulogy/the stream is bad quality.) With its Dream Syndicate-ish twang, Vager's repetition of "I wish I hadda said I loved you" is more powerful than you would expect. However, Vager's writing is not all confessional. The brooding near Post-Punk pulse of "Squid" is a PJ Harvey-ish portrait of nature as the world in turmoil (those tight snare fills from Mark Nolte really build tension well,) while the bright chime of "It's Not Easy" offsets the raw emotion of Vager ("Here's a hand grenade/So your friends won't say/"Take a look at your behaviour, man.") "Brain Worms" shows RVG as a band keeping Vager outfront while supporting her every move as if it were one of their own.
Y LA BAMBA - Lucha [LP/CD](Tender Loving Empire)
On their seventh album, Y La Bamba (Luz Elena Mendoza Ramos) achieves an unstoppable blend of harmonies, melodies, and the dazzling combination of their natural Mexican and Latin influences. At their most relaxed, songs seem to merge with conversation. "Eight" is a bright David Lynchian dream where the sunniness of their singing is augmented by weird piano notes and a swirl of effects and other voices that makes it hallucinatory. "Dibujos De Mi Alma" is sinuous and anchored by the sickest organ sound and a faraway guitar strum. (The end-of-chorus cymbal wash is a truly brilliant transition.) The altered guitars dance around Ramos' most intoxicating beat (and wild samples) on "Collapse," "Nunca" could well be a Soul song in the hands of Colemine or Daptone folks, and the Unknown Mortal Orchestra-esque "Damned" brilliantly mixes Ramos against her own background vocals and deep horn charts. However, with all the originality Ramos summons on "Lucha," its true standout moment is a cover. Perhaps it was placed in the sequence like one of her many bridges between cuts ("La Lluvi de Guadalajara,") but the closeness of Ramos to her microphone while singing the Hank, Sr. standard immediately draws you in and makes you stop everything. As she sincerely sings those familiar words, Ramos emphasizes the lyrics in different places than most performers. (In fact, Ramos kind of "undersings" the title hook.) She does not connect with nature or trains. Instead, her warmth and the feeling of abandonment crack through on her almost Billie Holiday-esque delivery of "I've never seen a night so long/When time goes crawling by." Aided by a dreamy murmur in the background, pianos tinkling, and birds chirping, Y La Bamba makes this familiar song her own and part of her own story. "Lucha" is a multi-layered journey that never sounds the same from one play to the next.
SVANEBORG KARDIB - Over Tage [LP](Gondwana/AMPED)
Some music is almost too simple. Jazz typically devotes itself to painting as many "pictures" as possible with chord progressions and the space between them. The duo of percussionist Jonas Kardyb and Nikolaj Svaneborg on Wurlitzer (mostly) seem to devote themselves to working predominantly in the aforementioned space between. Like those minimal experimental Jazz records of the Seventies (the closest comparison we could draw was Andreas Centazzo's 1974 "Ictus" record - it is darker and included below for the fun of it,) "Over Tage" is largely about interplay. Even when other instruments creep in like the trumpets of Jakob Sørensen and Jonas Scheffler, they are only warm lights to brighten Svaneborg Kardib's magical groove. In addition, minimal music is typically about the proverbial doing of a lot with a little. Svaneborg Kardib strives for the same consistency as Music Kosmiche players. "Orbit" needs nothing to develop. It does enough in its introduction. Instead, they develop tension in the breaks where Kardib is not playing the beat. The effect is evident when Kardib returns to the beat and Svaneborg only needs his arpeggiating notes to ring out like the alarm on your phone. The beautiful "Island" mixes Svaneborg's most relaxing chording with Kardib's driving beat. However, the melodies (especially left-hand chording in the end) create drama, and “Island” never loses the overhang of the beauty of its central twinkling melody. For a Jazz record to appeal to Post-Rock, Musik Kosmiche, Ambient, and even dreaded New Age types without trying is a serious accomplishment. However, "Over Tage" seems so completely natural between the two, you cannot help but think they were only painting the "pictures" they thought their Jazz is.
LISTENING JOURNAL for the week
BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST - Barclay James Harvest/Once Again [1970/71](Esoteric/Cherry Red)
APHRODITE'S CHILD - Aphrodite's Child/End of the World/666 [1968/1970/1971](Esoteric/Cherry Red)
VANGELIS - Earth [1973](Vertigo/Universal I.S.)
When Prog Rock's reputation swelled, it seemed like everyone wanted to make a record that compared in size and scope with The Moody Blues at first - and then go straight into Rock. Between their first and second records (plus a bevy of worthwhile singles,) Barclay James Harvest steered their opening-frame identity crisis into the second effort as a well-organized and precise Rock band. Starting in 1968, Barclay's Mellotron-driven "Early Morning" sounds like a Folky Traffic, while "Pools of Blue" predates the ballad sound of King Crimson. However, it is album cuts like the Beatles-progression wielding/Moody Blues-ian "Mother Dear" and "Savoy Truffle"-esque stomp of "Good Love Child" that show early BJH stretching beyond expectations. The giant side-two suite "Dark Now My Sky" may pull out all the stops, but the album's sparkling opener "Taking Some Time On" remains the true prize.
Chasing the moment of the day, both Barclay and Vangelis find refuge (and well-placed hooks) in what we could characterize as the "hippie" song from their debuts. "Taking Some Time On" is a thick mix with a walking bass line, squirrely guitars, and a post-"Happy Jack"/pre-BritPop drum beat that is marvelous. Even when the whole mix gets messy (there are numerous to sift through in the Cherry Red box,) this is BJH riding their true burst of energy to what should have been a hit (and neatly sets up the second album.) Vangelis' "hippie" cut is the equally excellent "Let It Happen" which sounds like early Ned Doheny playing with the bass player from those seductive Serge Gainsbourg records. Vangelis (like BJH) is content to just let the platitudes give this one altitude.
Vangelis' wherewithal clearly comes from guiding Aphrodite's Child, a Greek band who leaped from Procol Harum-esque drama (1968's "It's Five O'Clock") to Psychedelic genre-shifting Pop/Rock (1968's "The Grass Is No Green" pours out parts of various volume and time-signatures over six minutes but never feels epic.) While much of "End of The World" is tuned to the frequencies of the music of the day (the "Tomorrow Never Knows"-ish looping on "You Always Stand In My Way" has a wonderful build and maintains a funky, clavinet-based feel throughout,) it feels like they are eager to develop faster. Between "End of the World" and "666," you can tell Aphrodite's Chlld-ren had dueling members with different ideas about the direction they should travel. However, singles like the Pachelbel-borrowing "Rain and Tears" were the things of yesterday. After all, even Procol Harum and The Moody Blues veered out of blustery compositions into straight-forward, foot-stomping Rock (Procol Harum's "Whiskey Train" and "The Devil Came From Kansas" as examples)
1972's "666" is a deep, dark transition from Aphrodite's Child to full-on Prog Rock. They still valiantly borrow from The Who ("Babylon") and use clavinet and keyboards to mystify like ELP ("The Lamb.") However, the palpable tension between members makes a surprising driver for its best songs. The spoken-word/recitation portions have not aged the best, but the haunting Jazz-y wash of "Aegian Sea" and the way the wordless vocals drift in is a real indicator of where Vangelis will be going soon. "The Wakening Beast/Lament/The Marching Beast" transfixes you with Vangelis' manipulation and treatment of instruments. Heard all together (as albums should be,) the second side of "666" is a brilliant example of how cinematic this music was becoming (also a harbinger of future releases.) While the second record does not benefit from being so long (the Pink Floyd circa "Ummagumma"-like grandiosity "All The Seats Were Occupied" stretches out to 20 minutes,) the detail and attention to sounding like serious musicians and not Pop stars really come across. However, if the concept and length are too much, at the very least give a few spins to the magnificent single "The Four Horsemen," the moment where all the drama of those early ballads and all the majesty and tension of their new Prog direction fuse together perfectly.
The perfect song from BJH's "Once Again" is definitely "Mockingbird" as it coalesces around all the previous elements from their singles and combines them with a Folk-y lilt. Cuts like "She Said" sound very close to King Crimson, but "Song For Dying" cranks up the guitar and harmonies to sound like lost Genesis. The importance of "Once Again" remains that this is BJH cutting loose. "Ball and Chain" is a slowed-down boogie that benefits from a wicked central riff and great soloing. "Once Again" expanded the range of BJH (the CSN-style vocal breaks on "Too Much On Your Plate") and put their newly-minted Prog/AOR cuts out for all the fans. When Vangelis went solo in 1973, "Earth" attempted to bridge the worlds of Prog-as-cinematic ("Earth" too has narration and wild near-ambient instrumentals ("Ritual")) with Rock. His stomper almost works its magic as the Pink Fairies-meets-T.Rex-ian "Come On" opens the album with a flourish. However, it is the aforementioned "Let It Happen" that tantalizes, sparkles, and quite possibly shuts the door on those "hippie" songs.
Still, a glimpse at Prog growing in leaps and bounds is fascinating. First, not everyone wanted to grow a symphony from scratch (but they did want to use that orchestra like they do on BJH's debut.) Second, the music from 1968-1972 was not only benefitting from advances in technology (the multi-tracking and alteration of sound from Aphrodite's Child on "666") but mourning the loss of their innocence as Beat-driven Pop and the instant satisfaction of ballads were disappearing in the haze. The new familiar starting point would be Folk music as its central melodic source of many Prog artists. Then to impress their growing fanbases and others, they could adorn these with new instrumentation, time signatures, and eventually the ideas of Jazz and serious Classical music. Finally, listening to the main songs to take from here, "Taking Some Time On," "Let It Happen" and "The Four Horsemen," hindsight reveals Prog musicians finding simplicity and then being able to mask it in complex-sounding mixes or even tie up the groove and apply the same level of control lengthy Classical pieces possess.
We sincerely hope that this was time well spent. We thank you for reading, listening, subscribing, and most of all supporting the artists listed here. Thank you.
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