MELOMANIA keeps on rollin' even while the new releases slow down.
Fortunately, the reissues count goes up!
SZA - SOS (TDE/RCA)
Obviously, we could not fully review it. So this one is brief and hopefully hits the highlights and the release’s overall potential.
As a vocalist/rhymer, SZA has never sounded better. Most surprising fact: how minimal everything is. For example, “Love Language” beautifully works her lyrics to their peak and then brings in the strings. “Blind” (which was amazing on SNL) is a true accomplishment for its musical landscape and how it follows her changing emotions. Also, the Reggae-ish/slow roller “Used” lets SZA do the heavy lyrical lifting and use her vocal range. Don Toliver registers the hook, but it feels more like a musical pause than a response. SZA and Phoebe Bridgers also do a nice job of dueling in the high register, but “Ghost In The Machine” is most fun to listen to them because they get more and more vicious while getting breathier. Beyond the halfway point, SZA starts to sound more Pop. “Special” shines the brightest at the moment because of how well she switches up sincerity for the visceral. So far, the true standout of “SOS” is the amazing ballad “Gone Girl” - a showstopper from start to finish. SZA shifts her style during the track, and yet pounds the “I need” pre-chorus like her life depended upon it. If that was not enough, the chorus is straight out of 70’s Soul (it kind of borrows from Hall & Oates's “She’s Gone”) lifting you up while simultaneously bringing on the tears. “I need your touch, not your scrutiny” is a gut punch of a line.
THEY ARE GUTTING A BODY OF WATER/A COUNTRY WESTERN - An Insult To The Sport EP [CS](Topshelf/Redeye)
These two Philadelphia artists put a lot of original ideas on the table and almost refuse to fit them into any genre/subgenre specification. They Are Gutting … is probably closest to Shoegaze (those guitars sound like a revelation at times - “The Brazil” before it comes unhinged - in a good way) but really harken back to the Nineties cut-and-paste style of Swirlies or Swell. Their patience with writing their songs to never quite peak means they can spin them into spider’s webs.
A Country Western kicks things off with a Fire-Toolz-ian psychedelic/glitch loop in “Lung” that is quite like one band handing off the baton to the other. “Keeping Up With The Joneses” lets them show their ability to layer their guitars-on-stun sound around a hooky song. The Sonic Youth-meets-Pavement-ish “Crossing Out My Lines” is like a Pop song played upside down. Yet it never feels like anything but the most natural music.
Both groups show big potential either together or apart. “Insult” goes by so fast and blends together so well with each artist cramming all their parts into one song. The whole thing could be one song as it is. However, you will not want it to be - as it also plays just as well when excerpted or cut in half.
LYKOTONON - Promethean Pathology [LP/CD](Profound Lore)
Lykotonon ends Black Metal’s 2022 with a blistering forward-thinking album that keeps most of the tenets in place (the growling vocals and the speed picking) but manages to sound both Industrial (the Ministry-esque middle of the fantastic opener “The Apocryphal Self”) and Prog-ish (“Wrested From Science” opens like a Rush/Tool hybrid with a mighty roar above it and then skates straight into blastbeat heaven.) If anything, these members of Blood Incantation know that good Metal benefits from both surprise and high-difficulty moves from song to song. Yet “Promethean” never feels like a calculated move. The synths of the swelling “Aperion” drift beautifully into the nerve-jangling grind of “Psychosocratic” and its guitar squeals. Often Lykotonon tracks are so jam-packed they could benefit from a cut here or there. However, there is something to be said for the anticipation of what they will do next. “The Primal Principle” is a really terrifying odyssey whose complex system of “scenes” resembles a musical trailer. Did we mention they get away with no gravelly vocals or 200bpm beats on there? No need to. They are coming. (“That Which Stares In Kind” is just as riveting as its title.) “Promethean” is already a spellbinder as it is - fully in fright mode and keeping you guessing.
NIKOLAJEV - Transplant Rejection [CS](Muscut UKR)
On this hypnotic lo-fi looping/noise/synth cassette, Estonian composer Robert Nikolajev uses the haunted cotton-fiber sound of tape to make his Eno-ambient period rumblings sound like transmissions from another universe. Nikolajev blends all of his audio ideas together so they sound monolithic (“Gafs” would be a great piece for Kubrick/Clarke’s dense structure.) In addition, many of the things you hear also resemble the sounds of nature. On his best track, “Stifled,” his ghostly choir makes it human and poignant. “Immicible” flips its Tangerine Dream-ish haunting melody to basically hover above the real attraction, its stellar, deep My Bloody Valentine-on-a-four-track loop. Finally, as grainy and black & white as “Transplant” wants to be, Nikolajev has truly created a work that is quite colorful.
BERT JANSCH - Bert at the BBC [4LP/8CD](Earth Recordings/Fire/Redeye)
Listening to a set like this honestly has one goal, charting the growth and command of its subject. The problem is that from the beginning Bert Jansch had incredible prowess and confidence in both playing and singing. When the Scottish-born singer/songwriter came to London in 1963 to be a “resident singer,” he was an immediate attraction in a scene enthralled by Folk music.
As the set opens, the biggest surprise is how well Jansch can “summon” a song for these BBC recordings. On “Guitar Club,” Jansch brightens “Whiskey Man” and colors “Running From Home” with the longing of a man who has been on the road for years. He is surprisingly humble - almost revealing doubt - before he unleashes the double finger-picking wizardry of “The Wheel.” When Jansch and John Renbourn play together in 1968, it is hard to tell them apart. Their “one guitar” sounding beauty makes the spirited blues of “Tic-Tocative” completely different than most string-bending blues songs. The same foot-pat style blues underpins the more pastoral vocal cut “The Time Has Come” beautifully. When they tangle on the minor portions of “Soho” the sadness is both enchanting and hypnotic.
Next in quick succession, we hear Jansch expanding his instrumental palette with the beginnings of Pentangle adding the steady hand of bassist Danny Thompson. The courtly “Sarabande” is a thing of beauty. The haunting “Speak of The Devil” is a wonderful showcase for his vocal phrasing. Jansch’s solo quiver on “I Am Lonely” from 1969 best demonstrates his command of the moods his songs encapsulated. Our only wish is that there were more recorded tracks from this fertile period. Listening to Jansch develop first on his own, then with more players entering the fray is enlightening.
Post-Pentangle (whose Progressive Folk collection is out there in pieces and parts) and post-Mike Nesmith (in the documentary below,) Jansch leads a great group in 1977 who are at their best looking back on their early years in the Folk scene of the Sixties. Jansch’s singing now sounds world-weary and he plays well against the swirling envelope of Martin Jenkins’ violin. His time in Sweden (“If I Had A Lover” beautifully sung by Mary Hopkin in that 1977 live session,) leads to Jansch and Jenkins developing the beautiful album “Avocet” which they represent here with a full-band rendition of “Kingfisher” (with Thompson on bass and a drummer.)
That set ends with the bluesy/country shuffle “Alimony” (where Jansch slightly alters his delivery and pitch “Nashville Skyline” style) and nicely dovetails into a 1982 set with hot shot picker Albert Lee and another full band circa “Heartbreak.” The whole set is very Richard Thompson-esque but Jansch’s picking (even if it loses depth in the transducer-to-amp setup) remains exemplary. The chiming version of “Heartbreak Hotel” shows Jansch as a great interpreter. Now a dexterous singer/player, his lovely understated version of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” with Rod Clements is the Eighties’ true highlight.
By the Nineties, Jansch is starting to perform with more sagacity. The Bob Harris set from 1993 is Jansch at his most intimate since the Sixties. In addition, it feels like he is pulling them from his hat. So the immediacy of “Lily of the West” is evident and grabs you even through the mic-ing issues and uncertain finger-picking fills.
Next begins the “reunions” and “influences” phase. On the brief Jools Holland appearance, there is a majesty and sadness to the Anne Briggs-ian version of “Blackwater Side.” By 1998, the smallest bit of rasp and age starts to give his voice new color on “She Moved To The Fair.”
In the 2006 session, Jansch begins to take command with the familiar. The version of “Blues Run The Game” feels like he is actually channeling memories while playing it. While several of the same songs are repeated - we will call them standards - Jansch is bringing a different experience to most of them (“High Days” and “The Old Triangle.”) For example, the Davy Graham fave “Angie” goes through numerous iterations here. As it is played it always reminds you that Jansch was one of those young, brash folkies in London in the Sixties who were learning this one from Graham just to keep up. So many interpretations of the Jansch tracks later in life make you wish there were tapes of outtakes and alternate takes from those first seminal albums. In addition, the repetition makes other songs stand out. Jansch’s later version of “A Woman Like You” is stripped down to the point it sounds like where Jimmy Page might have borrowed a lick or two from this one.
The set winds up with a pair of full concerts from his 60th birthday in 2003 and back home in Scotland in 2004. Both shows are perfectly recorded to best exemplify his guitar and vocal skill. Honestly, the best parts are how well he works the crowd carefully drawing them closer and making these large hall concerts resemble the gigs he played in the Sixties to small rooms with people crammed in like sardines. The 60th birthday concert features a beautiful dreamy version of “It Don’t Bother Me,” and in Queen’s Hall his “Rosemary Lane” is just stunning.
The final segment is a handful of tracks that were almost left off due to audio quality. They follow the same chronological path of the set with some chirpy Sixties recordings and culminating with the final recorded version of “Angie” from 2009 with its original writer Ralph McTell. The 1968 takes may not match the energy of the ones skillfully assembled to give the box a thrilling open, but “Tree Song” is a stunner with Thompson’s jazzy bass complementing Jansch’s hymn-like vocal melody. While the slinky “I Got A Woman” would have clearly benefited from more clarity, the bending/walking bass call-and-response is beautiful. Much like their “This Land,” Jansch and Rod Clements's acoustic/slide guitar combination lights up the Jansch/Renbourn-ish vibe of “Strolling Down The Highway.” The 1998 Bob Harris session, “How It All Came Down” presents a modern Folk song for Jansch and how he keeps time with his strings slaps. The same technique makes the soulful Edinburgh Fringes version of “Crimson Moon” from 2000 an outstanding take.
Jansch’s career touches on so many points in musical history. In addition, his own course demonstrates an always-growing knowledge of music from everywhere he seems to land. Like Leadbelly, it is not hard to picture Jansch as a “song catcher” - especially in those middle years. “Bert at the BBC” is a wonderful collection whose greatest accomplishment is straightening out the winding journey that was his life.
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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