MELOMANIA shouts "Four!"
and brings you something to swing at this week.
MANACLE (NAME DROP, GUMDROP)
Hearing from a true accordion player Michael Barclay (Airplane On The Highway) and the fantastic Slaughter Beach, Dog, really puts wind in the sails. Reading Brad Luen (Semipop Life) gushing about Olivia Rodrigo was a real thrill too. Witnessing Robert Christgau (XGau Sez) take down a broadside about critics with economy and comedic precision is inspiring. Listening to the fantastic new Lewsberg (if you would like to peruse that review) and having the tail-end random playlist mining give us Tommy Oeffling made it all worthwhile.
All mentioned above are recommended for you to explore further. Especially, given that - let’s be honest - this was not the best week for New Releases. But we plucked the best fruit from the tree for you.
PATIO - Collection [LP/CD](Fire Talk/Redeye)
While they may draw their inspiration from late 70s/early 80s Post-Punk, Patio has more in common with the wave of Indie Rock that broke out of their hometown New York City in the early 21st Century. "Either Way" is Strokes-ian without the big, driving beat and the pre-chorus chord changes are a brighter Interpol. Nonetheless, Alice Suh, Lindsey Paige-McCloy, and Loren DiBiasi are more on the ball as songwriters than most fledgling Post-Punk types. "Relics" and its snappy beat, terse twangy guitar, and detached vocals are an update of Pylon and the Athenian Post-Punk strain. The magic of Patio is how the trio can seem so densely recorded at times. "Routine" spins around its main bass riff which is dangerously simple. However, their tangle of instruments and the double-tracked vocals about "my digital landscape" swell when needed and then drop precipitously to dramatic effect. That leap in range guides the ethereal "En Plein Air" (which pulls out the off-beat Disco high-hat pull) through changes and an upward progression that is reminiscent of Sleater-Kinney. With perfect production from Nate Amos of Water From Their Eyes, Patio's "Collection" places the trio among the new Art Rockers, smart enough to emulate their ancestors, yet never imitate.
MELENAS - Ahora [LP](Trouble In Mind)
Spanish Garage band Melenas completely changes their sound to lovely, languid Synth music. Like Garage, “Ahora” finds true depth out of trying to be more minimal. On “K2” and “Dos Pasajeros,” they weave repetition and magical melodies above bleeping, swirling, whooshing synths that sound like a Seventies dream. (Anyone remember those “Star Hustler” astronomy spots on PBS in the Seventies and Eighties?) Armed with a Korg Delta and a Yamaha PSR-36, Melenas suddenly have more in common with Stereolab. “Promesas” may be slow and sad, but there is a majesty in their sway. “1000 Canciones” even takes on both Motorik and Japanese Pop with a mono synth bass line that rumbles beautifully. Above all the square wave madness and the panoply of sounds, “Ahora” establishes quickly that the song is the thing for Melenas and never wavers.
RYO FUKUI - Mellow Dream [LP](WRWTFWW/Light In The Attic)
Released in the Jazz drought of the Seventies, Japanese self-taught pianist Ryo Fukui remains an interesting subject in the lineage of traditional Jazz at a time when Electric was preferred. Influenced most notably by Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner (check out how he interpolates elements of both into Hideo Ichikawa’s “Early Summer” on his 1976 debut “Scenery.”) “Mellow Dream” is varied Fukui either astounding you with his beauty and force on the title cut or demonstrating his leadership on the swinging “Baron Patato Blues.” When his flights of spiraling notes on”Horizon” give way to Satoshi Denpo’s muscular bassline and his brother Yoshinori on drums, “Mellow Dream” even becomes its dream of sounding like an early Sixties Blue Note album.
LISTENING JOURNAL
GRATEFUL DEAD - Wake of the Flood [LP/2CD](Grateful Dead/Rhino)
Out of the comfort zone, into the fire. With the late Pigpen replaced by Donna Jean and Keith Godchaux, the Dead begins their lengthy transition into the live band that hordes will follow cult-like in the Eighties. Less like Pigpen's choogling magic, "Wake of the Flood" fits in with the sequence kicked off by "American Beauty" and "Workingman's Dead." "Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo" would fit nicely with "Workingman" but truthfully hits its stride with the dreamy ending and then fades away. In summary, these are cuts that the Dead already tested live. As a result, the spontaneity of the previously mentioned pair of classics is traded for refinement. Keith Godchaux's "Let Me Sing The Blues Away" sounds dated with Martin Fierro's saxophone. However, at its midpoint, you can hear The Dead rediscover that Pigpen N'awlins-esque ramble on their own. The live favorite "Row Jimmy" may be a little too relaxed in the studio (it is deliberately slower here than earlier versions.) On the other hand, "Stella Blue" is a beautiful, stately ballad that wades through the oblique chord changes to develop into a showcase for harmonies and steel-guitar loveliness. In fact, so much room remains around this recording that you can easily discern from this version how it will become a mood-setter for years to come. Finally, like all the best Dead tracks - you never feel the length of it.
"Here Comes Sunshine" on the other hand feels a little underdeveloped for this trip into the studio. The chorus builds nicely into its Beatlesque vamp (Phil Lesh's bass especially.) However, it illustrates the biggest problem with "Wake of the Flood," the drums are mixed far too low in the mix and give no snap to some of the changes. An earlier live version from RFK Stadium in June 1973 benefits from a big beat in the verses that contrasts well with the mystical middle section. Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter's last contribution to "Wake" is the upbeat "Eyes of the World" where The Dead gets to engage in a Jazz/Rock workout. After writing the majority of the album, "Eyes" benefited most from Garcia's excellent soloing. For its time, it is definitely mixed to be the single. The harmonies are crisp but distant and the compression separates the parts well enough that you can focus on them all at some period. This may be unpopular, but Garcia's inventive melodic fills in the chorus could be heard more than the constant lick the whole band plays. All credit to the Captain for not thinking about it like a backup singer and instead keeping it unpredictable. The second classic from "Wake."
Bob Weir's single composition (with lyrics from John Perry Barlow) is a bit of an Americana suite. The same separation that makes "Eyes" work so well, nearly derails the 12-minute Pink Floyd-ian track. Or, it could be that "Prelude" is such an outstanding opening movement, that to follow it. The harmonies are mixed to a near Eagles-like coating that exposes just how punched in Weir's more plaintive vocals are. Thankfully "Part II: Let It Grow" appears to vary the sound (with a hint of Flamenco) as well as the album's most powerful melody line in "Let it grow, greatly flow, wide and clear" before going too far overboard on overdubs after what lyrically feel like an incomplete ending.
The new repackaging adds six songs from the tour in Evanston, IL on November 1, 1973 ("Toodeloo" has an excellent example of how well Garcia could solo against the changes) and some demos ("Eyes of The World" with a little synth.) On the internet, there is another installment of "The Angel's Share" series that really lets to spell it out take by take.
We hope you enjoyed this music. We always leave hoping that there is something on the list or the page for everyone. Support these artists. They are working on music that they love and firmly believe could be loved by others too. Glad to be your musical sifter/selector. Thank you. More on: New Music Report
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