MELOMANIA swooping in with new releases and adventurous reissues
on those winds that keep us cool - like some of the music you are about to hear
ROYAL ARCH - “La Nuit” [7”] (Jigsaw)
There are now a lot of Shoegazer guitar bands (honestly it has become THE throwback to the 90s sound.) Athens, Greece’s Royal Arch make their debut with a perfect mix of delay-driven riffs and haze, plus that waiting/wanting feeling that keeps pulling you back into the song. “La Nuit” knows it does not have to do anything but capture that single moment in a relationship where everything changes and let it play again and again until you drown in its feedback.
DEADPAN DARLING [LP](Fake Four/Redeye)
When the worlds of suburban dissatisfaction and big beats meet it is too easy to visualize it as “Mope Rap.” Ceschi and Blue Sky Black Death use their collaboration to work within a certain set of parameters (“Laugh Track” is most exemplary in flipping what supposed happiness into “fakery” that leaves you nodding along to their Cure-like mantra “When the laugh track starts - I will smile again.”) Whether downbeat or even upbeat like the brilliantly danceable chaos of “10 Things” (where again they work in the opposite declaration “We don’t care if you dance to this song,”) these talents are making music that demands to be heard - even as they sound like they don’t care.
DOG UNIT - Turn Right And Right Again [12”](Brace Yourself UK)
This UK group takes on instrumental Post-Rock with several novel new ideas - most notably billing themselves as a rock band playing Electronic music. Their definition of self really matters because here are four tracks designed to get lost in. “The Rule of Six” is their closest output to a single (mostly for length.) The guitars are clean and crisp with hints of distortion but nothing ever destined to overwhelm the other players. As a result, none of the four songs features that moment where one player is trying to top the other. Eight minutes of “Absolute Unit” floats by on its Musik Kosmiche beat and piano-chiming guitar parts until it peaks with a sweeping Rock ending that sounds like a piece of a Stoner Metal band at work. “Pyramid Scheme” is another dreamy drifter that is elegantly interrupted by a single distorted chorus that is allowed to fade naturally. Dog Unit has a lot of different pieces in place already. When their songs become the dreamscapes they clearly want them to be, they might just unite Indie Rock and instrumental Metal types.
How many reissues did you say again?
THE DREAM SYNDICATE - What Can I Say? no regrets…Out of The Grey + Live, Demos and Outtakes [LP/CD](Fire/Redeye)
One of AmerIndie’s best bands, The Dream Syndicate found that halfway point between being a Rock band and still having the ability to fit into the Paisley Underground which was quickly becoming the pantheon of College Radio-friendly Rock. The Dream Syndicate always had a healthy dose of The Velvets and Neil Young in their music. Those first singles and “The Days of Wine and Roses” are classic. When they sign to A&M, the strain starts to work into their music as they look for the breakthrough (AOR, where they sounded great and Steve Wynn’s voice fit perfectly with) and their own more experimental ways. Signed to A&M in their post-I.R.S. flurry, “Medicine Show” boasted a single or two (“Armed With An Empty Gun”) and a major workout (“John Coltrane Stereo Blues.”) Following their underrated Live album, they were dismissed and there was almost no more Dream Syndicate.
However, Wynn stayed inspired. And with help from Paul Cutler, they tried for the big Eighties-production wielding “commercial” album on “Out of The Grey.” “Boston” and “Slide Away” would have great next to Smithereens and Guadalcanal Diary as AOR radio started to warm up to College Radio as a decent “farm system” for new artists to break. “50 in a 25 Zone” predicts the woozy Bluesy direction coming on yet another overlooked album, 1988’s “Ghost Stories.” “Now I Ride Alone” is a great rolling ramble that echoes “Wine” and has that dark snarl that will characterize many of Wynn’s years of songs as a solo artist.
This mammoth re-release also corrects their course on the road with demos, the covers (a sincere and inspiring version of Eric Clapton’s “Let It Rain”) from the “50 in a 25 Zone” EP, and an inspired live show that is canned heat much like their legendary “Live at Raji’s.” Signed to burgeoning Big Time, one of the first labels to truly take a chance distributing what would soon be called “Alternative” music, “Out of the Grey” was caught in the same lack of promotion/product trap as Dumptruck’s releases. (The 1988 documentary “Weathered and Torn” does not answer of a lot of questions - but it does unknowingly document the struggle many of these bands had to keep going with no network of clubs, label support, or promotion.) The demos which likely sounded dry and antiseptic, stay a little closer to the scope of the songs. In addition, there are two 1984 live cuts tacked on (“Dancing Blind” is good for comparison) to hear how these tracks took shape live. Finally, much like their own version of “The $h!t Hits The Fan,” it is fun to hear them run through covers of everything from Pink Floyd to Green on Red. “No Regrets” is a completist’s dream. The live show really leaves you hoping they will unearth more of these. Even in small, almost empty rooms, they still took command and remained friendly and inviting to those just passing through.
SPECTRAL WOUND - Infernal Decadence [LP](Profound Lore/The Orchard)
The best Black Metal plays around you. Its multiple layers cover you in sheets. It is far too easy to listen and take a band like Montreal's Spectral Wound at face value. The sum of its parts. Even how to pull apart the ingredients and claim that they are like the others. Given six songs and 34 minutes, "Infernal Decadence" shows you all you need to know about Black Metal on this continent. This 2018 reissue cranks up like a battering ram driving at the castle walls on "Woods From Which The Spirits Once So Loudly Howled." First, it releases you to a slow, haunting build before the driving drums suck you into the ensuing battle. Their melodies while chaotic are haunting. Above the double-kick drum frenzy at the end, the chord changes actually elicit emotion. It is true, there are a lot of ghoulish shrieks and those powerful drums that sometimes feel like they are going to overcome your speakers. Still, there are hot solos ("Black Satanic Glamour" is too brief) and crushing slow parts where the multi-tracked guitars are more menacing than the demonic yawp ("Slaughter of the Medusa.") Again if you only look at what is familiar to your notion of Black Metal - it is easy to miss when Spectral Wound slips some bone-crushing riffage into "La Nuit Froide De L'Oubli." Their 2021 follow-up "A Diabolic Thirst" shows even more promise and was one of the best Metal albums of last year.
THE EX - Tumult [LP](Superior Viaduct)
THE FALL - A Part of America Therein [LP](Superior Viaduct)
A pair of bracing reissues boldly illustrate just how freeing making your own music (away from the system) could be in the fact of bleak times. Formed in The Netherlands in 1979, The Ex took the Punk aesthetic and quite literally bent it to their will. Just one month after recording the very industrial "Dignity of Labour" in an abandoned factory, "Tumult" was their return to in-your-face recording. Produced by Jon Langford of The Mekons, "Tumult" is a wild mixture of noise ("Red Muzak" is a rager of screech guitar and thunder drums) and a slow-moving audio coup (the thrilling opener "Bouquet of Barbed Wire" which practically explodes in its barking middle section.) "Fear" might be The Ex at their most nakedly Post-Punk with its blaring riff, drum build, and Godzilla stomp. "Red Muzak" militarily sneers about a "hate parade," an awesome ratty sounding bass makes the angular "Happy Thoughts" and its chant "right for the big bang" even more searing, and the aggro rumble of "The Wellknown Soldier" are standouts on an album that plays like an Eighties Punk fever dream.
Recorded live on their first US Tour, the mighty Fall's scratchy live document "A Part of America Therein, 1981" is a tour diary that captures their power and thrust. For the most part, Mark E. Smith and his band chose their most muscular and controlled songs. "The N.W.R.A" ("the North will rise again") is their opening salvo/rallying cry. Soon-to-be standard "Hip Priest" starts to get more confident in its gallop and denouement, while the early single "Totally Wired" feels a little out of place. Following that they unleash a blazing version of their next single "Lie Dream of a Casino Soul" where MES bites the words off. As Smith undoes the myth of stardom and economic promise, his imagery becomes more striking. "Went home to my slum canyon" feels very US tour, and listen to how he peels back the sordid details of his story without being (too) dirty (an "awake dream" becomes its own act of voyeurism, as soon as the man wants to have his way with the dummies - it's "Security! Mobilize!) The second side hits its peak with a pair from "Hex Enduction Hour" - "Deer Park" is a pounding rager whose hollow sound (and that Velvet organ dangling over it) is far different than the circuit overload version combined with "Fortress." The slow, pulsating ending with "Winter" is drowned out in tape decay, but the majesty of that Fall slow unveil is unmissable. Released as a live album here in the US, it actually went into the Indie Top 10 as an import in the UK. Together with the other Fall live works from this period ("Fall In A Hole" which plugs in more of "Hex Enduction Hour") and singles could make 1981/82 The Fall's finest hour.
BROTZMANN/MENGELBERG/BENNINK - 3 Points and A Mountain [LP](Cien Fuegos AUS)
This wild and unkempt (yes, there are squeaks and noise) is like a Free Jazz conversation being filmed by the late Robert Altman. Their themes and ideas twist, tumble, and then fall apart all without seeming to lose control. The ballad (!) “Milan-Milan” is a beautiful piano song where Brotzmann’s room-sounding saxophone occasionally “talks” to Mengelberg’s piano - and other times they find a quick squall. Mengelberg improvises in a very Monk-ish style with lots of rolling parts (“Brotzmann”) that fall in and out of key with no provocation. Enter Han Bennink whose furious percussion brings out Brotzmann’s lightning runs and thrilling trills. (Those high-register ones will however frighten your animals.) “Gewidmet Frau Hauser” starts as playful and grows menacing. In between Mengelberg’s piano, and the distant whistling, they pick out a melody and then bend it back yet again. “3 Points And A Mountain” might not be for everyone, but if you are even expressing a passing interest in so-called “squeaky Free Jazz,” it remains an experience well worth having.
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