LOGAN LYNN - New Money [LP](Kill Rock Stars/Redeye)
In the ongoing reveal of “How I Spent My Quarantine” projects, Portland Electronic Pop artist Logan Lynn uses all his technology to profess the most human love for the music in his life. “New Money” is essentially nine songs about adaptation and function, but they do not necessarily fit into Lynn’s home studio world of synths. The ornate “Baby Britain” by Elliott Smith is one such mold-breaker. How he manages to stay true to the source material and yet almost perfectly arrange all the necessary parts in multiple layers that do not turn into mush is beyond words. The same can be said for his shimmering disco cover of Liz Phair. The seven originals capture the build of desperation (“It’s Been Forever,”) escape (“Rich and Beautiful,”) and faith/trust (“Is There Anyone Like This In The World?”) Logan Lynn keeps it simple and direct - and squarely aimed for the dance floor.
COMBO CHIMBITA - IRE [LP/CD](ANTI/Epitaph/AMPED)
The NYC/Puerto Rico group Combo Chimbita have a dangerous idea what “World Music” can be. Rather than showcase their knowledge of polyrhythms and novel sounds, they jam them all together in songs that find a voodoo-like level of hypnosis. At their busiest on the tense “Babalawo,” the song rockets into space on a flurry of snare hits, rolls, and pops while Carolina Oliveros intones above it like she is casting a spell. On the more relaxing front, Combo Chimbita slow-release the groove of “Oya” so that it hits you after you have found your dream state. With their harmonies and tight rhythms, this is dance music but only in a sense you are about to be taken away. Modern synths and traditional instruments all combine to deliver you to a higher plane.
CHARLOTTE DAY WILSON - Alpha [LP](Stone Woman Music)
After a decade of making songs and EP’s, Canadian songstress Wilson finally puts it all together on this modern R&B album. “Alpha” has all the hallmarks of a radio ready record. The songs are straightforward, the production constructed to make every cut break out of a classic R&B sound with modern touches (lots of echo.) Yet, the star is always Wilson. Her quieter Amy Winehouse-ish purr wraps around choruses (“I Can Only Whisper” with BADBADNOTGOOD) or leaps out of the choral backdrop (the striking “Mountains.”) While it is true there is nothing here that is not on half-a-dozen other records, Wilson knows her range and rarely takes it to showy heights instead preferring to wisely leave you hanging on her husky vibrato and quick leaps to high notes. With her versatility and confidence in singing, when the right song comes along - look for everyone to be talking about her.
URIAH HEEP - …Very ‘Eavy … Very ‘Umble/Salisbury [PIC LP](Sanctuary)
SLADE - Slade Alive! [LP](BMG Rights Mgmt)
As their 50th anniversaries approach, Uriah Heep still keeps going and there is a rumor of a possible Slade reunion. British meat-and-potatoes rockers Uriah Heep strangely never had a chart single in their homeland. Thanks to “boogie” style rockers and the #39 single “Easy Livin’” they actually had a larger following on our shores. In the beginning, Uriah Heep was fortunate enough to figure their sound out (part Blues/part Prog/all Rock) around the coalescence of Metal. “Very ‘Eavy” is the quintessential Sixties kiss off, psychedelia (“Dreammare,”) stomping blues (“Lucy Blues,”) and lots of Prog-ish riffs and bits. The album truly comes together around the masterful eight minutes of “Gypsy,” where their “nothing to it” sensibility put together organ swells, with the chording and singing that would become Heavy Metal.
“Salisbury” is a more varied affair with lots of Deep Purple-esque swelter (“Bird of Prey,”) and driving showy rock with doubled-guitar leads (“High Priestess.”) The sixteen-minute title track even brings in brass for a bold suite of sorts. Strangely, it’s the British Folk-meets-“Ghost Riders In The Sky” haunted drift of “Bird of Prey“ that earned them another surprising US AOR favorite. It is still great to see how it is all about fit together on “Look At Yourself,” and “Demons and Wizards.”
On the flip side, Wolverhampton’s Slade were primarily a singles band capitalizing on the melodic slam of Glam Rock to chalk up 13 UK Top 10’s between 1971-1975. In the beginning they were a group made to feel guilty for “shouting too much.” So after their first collection of singles (“Coz I Luv You,”) they squeaked this live set that shows their command from the stage and how well they reach the audience. In fact, one of the real highlights of “Slade Alive!” is their banter with the crowd. The choice of covers is top-notch. They make Ten Years After’s “Hear Me Calling” into their song, while Bobby Marchan’s “Get Down With It” clearly goes back to their formative years. The originals crackle more here than on their earlier records and the newest track “In Like A Shot From My Gun” carries itself a little like early Pub Rock. At a mere seven songs, you get just enough Slade to want more. However, most importantly, “Slade Alive!” delivers on how live albums need to sound in the Seventies.
MR. MUTHAF***IN EXQUIRE/MADLIB - “Black Mirror” [7”](Vinyl Digital)
THA GOD FAHIM x NICHOLAS CRAVEN - Dump Gawd: Shot Clock King Vol.1 and 2 [CD](Nature Sounds)
Hip-hop as pastiche and Hip-Hop as autobiography work together so well given the right aural backdrop (both have some dizzying sample-tweaked bites and loops) and pushing that personality out into the spotlight. On “Black Mirror,” it would be astonishing enough to hear the story of Exquire’s introduction into the world of spinning records. However with Madlib mixing, Exquire gets an entrance where he even asks to bump up the track and the uncle who ushered Exquire into this world gets the last word. Atlanta’s Tha God Fahim is part of a fantastic triumvirate that includes Mach-Hommy (who blazed previous mixtapes) and Your Old Droog (who appears on two from Vol.1.) Montreal’s Nicholas Craven takes on the same Madlib-ian scope of music with great results. He often sets the mood very quickly (“Hall of Fame”) and then lets it roll so that Fahim can rhyme in, out and around the groove. As far as those rhymes, Fahim shows great potential in combining his jagged storytelling (detail-by-detail like a jigsaw puzzle) with what sounds like clever improv. Both “Shot Clock King” volumes are great, but the second one seems to best speak to his comfort level, confidence and telepathic connection to the groove.
ORNETTE COLEMAN - Round Trip: Ornette Coleman on Blue Note [LP BOX](Blue Note)
DEXTER GORDON - Daddy Plays The Horn [LP](Bethlehem/BMG Rights Mgmt)
Ornette Coleman has always been Jazz’s outlier looking in. He took the structure of BeBop and exploded it to make Free Jazz in 1960 then pushing it far into the Avant-Garde side of music. Still his past playing R&B and especially true BeBop gave his saxophone playing a brash voice and songs that were chaotic but still swung hard.
Coleman had already experimented with big bands playing Free Jazz and especially different parts and harmonies crashing into each other. Signing with prestigious Blue Note in 1965, Coleman gave us one of the most underrated live Jazz albums of all time: “At The Golden Circle - Stockholm” (split into two volumes.) These December 1965 shows in of a more-accepting audience in Europe show Coleman sculpting his improv work with a tight trio of David Izenzon on bass and Charles Moffett on drums. As they play together, you can hear them responding and corresponding with Coleman. “Faces and Places” is another reformulation of Bop, “Dawn” features an amazing solo, but it’s “Dee Dee” where Coleman flips around and plays off of Moffett leaving Izenzon to hold things down. The second set takes you farther out there with squalling Eastern modal runs and Coleman on both trumpet and violin.
His ten-year old son Denardo comes on board on drums for the wild “The Empty Foxhole.” With bassist Charlie Haden, this new trio is joyfully all over the place. Coleman indulges in more violin and trumpet. However, they summon fire on “Good Old Days” and make a whirlwind of noise on “Sound Gravitation.” Ornette blares trumpet on the eight feverish minutes of “Freeway Express” like Miles playing Coltrane. In 1967, Coleman appears exclusively on trumpet on Jackie McLean’s “New and Old Gospel.” Here they often trade the ongoing movement of BeBop rhythms towards Free Jazz for earthy, wailing Blues-y parts. What is most noticeable about this session is how Coleman and McLean no longer trade parts, but play separate parts that crisscross and intersect.
With John Coltrane’s passing and Jazz now barreling full steam ahead toward Coleman’s early vision of Free Jazz, Coleman in 1968 puts together a new band with Elvin Jones and Jimmy Garrison from Coltrane’s group and his own foil Dewey Redman on tenor. The pair of albums they record in the same session showcase two sides of where Coleman is going. The released “New York Is Now” fits into the post-Coltrane interplay as songs sound tough. “The Garden of Souls” finds Coleman and Redman exploring all these unique harmonies over long, legato notes where they either harmonize or clash. Jones and Garrison prove their worth as the players take long wailing solos and chaotic runs on “Broad Way Blues.” Coleman’s “stepping around” his players and hitting the occasional cacophonous note even gives it a Monk-ish wobble. The other half of the session “Love Call” was not released until 1971. “Airborne” is a straight wailer from start-to-finish. Elvin Jones’ drum work just pushes all the players harder. Garrison is pounding his bass and seeing what melodies emerge, Coleman and Redman push their notes higher and higher in small two-note drops before pulling it and pushing it some more. “Love Call” brings Coleman back to trumpet as well where he really digs into making different tonal colors and easing the needle ever closer to the Harmolodics coming in the Seventies.
In one of many periods of career revitalization, Dexter Gordon survived the downward spiral of drug addiction to make an old-style swinging Jazz album in 1956. His rhythm section of Larry Marable on drums (those 8-bar solos on the mid tempo version of Bird’s “Confirmation,”) Leroy Vinnegar on bass (the engine on Dexter‘s original “Number Four,”) and the secret weapon of Kenny Drew on piano really give Dex a lot of room to roam. Gordon’s phrasing and runs are outstanding and show no trepidation. His version of “Autumn in New York” here still makes the spine tingle.
SANGUISUGABOGG - Pornographic Seizures [LP](Century Media/The Orchard)
On this reissue of their 2019 demo, it is easy to see why this thunderous Death Metal band from Columbus, OH really standout. Over just four songs, Sanguisugabogg get increasingly heavy and yet know when to change it up with a bashing power riff on one hand or adding a small trill to another. Their riffs are hard as nails and they just drive them with all the intensity of a thousand other bands. While it meets all the gory, grimy, gritty standards imposed on Death Metal acts, these songs have a curb-kicking groove to them and do not always resort to the bludgeoning double-kick blast beat.
VALENTINA GONCHAROVA - Volume 2 1987-1991 [CD](Shumai)
The Ukranian/Estonian composer creates some of the most hypnotic and beautiful music with her mixture of Electronic music and Avant-Garde Jazz. Even at its most noisy, Goncharova’s music is a dense fog as opposed to a busy swirl of cacophony. With violin, organ and mainly saxophone, Goncharova was making these lengthy Terry Riley-esque studies in Minimalism quite possibly against the wishes of those around her. The trio of “Untitled” tracks bounce around a lot of very different but interesting almost found sounds from her instruments. However, it is the long, legato, passages of her meditations like “Reincarnation II” that truly dazzle with their trance-like hold over you rendering you (happily) unable to identify how Goncharova is doing any of this with such primitive equipment.
TOBIAS - Hall Ov Fame [LP] (Concentric)
Can an Ambient record be both unsettling and still envelope you inside its world? Tobias Freund is out to prove that it can. Like that carnival ride that makes you feel woozy, yet you ride it again, “Hall Ov Fame” comes at you from a dark, wretched place. These dystopian soundscapes are here to soundtrack your reading J.G.Ballard, Cormac McCarthy or Margaret Atwood. The rhythmic Techno past oozes in through the vents of Tobias’ walled city of uncertainty, but it all plays without rhythm and with subtle changes in the sheets of sound he erects. At every intersection where “Hall Ov Fame” really starts to weigh heavy on the gloomy side, Tobias smartly pitches in some unidentifiable sound to snap you back to attention again.
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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