NEW MUSIC FRIDAY with TBONES bringing the heat on these chilly nights.
October roars in with a scintillating slate of new music from all over the map.
TAPEWORMS - FUNTASTIC [CD](Cranes FR/Howlin’ Banana AUS)
Shoegaze while designed to mesmerize actually emerged from several early Nineties acts who were a bit louder and amusing than their progeny. Lille, France's Tapeworms come from the Lush school of sweeping Alternative Rock. "FUNTASTIC" is a merry-go-round of drum machine beats, squiggling synths, and thunderous guitar with ethereal vocals well above the fray. Tapeworms restlessly alter, blend and recreate most of their songs - sometimes even mid-song - on their first stateside release. "Safety Crash," with its mix of Sugarcubes and Lush would be a natural MTV Buzz Bin choice, even as the track stops, starts, and tumbles down around its numerous breaks. Most of "FUNTASTIC" maintains clever jangle ("Alternate Ending" and its crunchy Posies-esque ending) and evocative synthpop ("Soba" neatly overlays sunniness and noise) while sounding like what music really is today.
HORRID RED - Radiant Life [LP/CD](Soft Abuse/The Orchard)
On leave from Teenage Panzerkorps, Bunker Wolf and Burial Hex, this Teutonic trio tries out less-edgy Eighties near Goth Synthpop with winning results. Horrid Red find less breezy backgrounds and layer them with a deep Germanic vocal style that brings to mind Andrew Eldritch of Sisters of Mercy. Its mixture of driving bass and lush chords make their tracks standout from the rest on “Brazen Altars.” While their more shoegazer moments (“In Glass Heaven”) also bode well for their future carving out their niche in the growing mass of Goth Synthpop.
FRAADS - FRaaDS [CD](Sony Music SWE)
If you have ever wondered just how American synth-funk R&B translates to the world, check out the Danish duo FRAADS. Their Weeknd-ish textures are almost as intoxicating especially short bursts (“Fiskemanden,”) even as the meanings of their lyrics can only be gleaned by their delivery. As one long listen, the tracks on FRAADS bump along at the same pace as a mixtape. Hopefully, an American artist will hear this and perhaps choose the duo for production on an icy Synth-funk love song.
FRA FRA - Funeral Songs [LP/CD](Glitterbeat UK)
Given its dour title you might think this is an album of inescapable deathly tracks. However, it is not. The Ghanaian traditional music is spirited and even uplifting at times. Recorded in their native country, it carries the feel of a long lost discovery with haggard, howling vocals, and the insistent ring of the two-string kologo. Like American Blues, these songs are meant to arouse feelings and even spirits. However, you easily get lost in both the droning notes and the percussive slaps. “Funeral Songs” borrows its name from the tradition of some Ghanaian funerals actually keeping this music going for as long as four days. This slim 30 minutes is a traditional World music experience well worth exploring.
NEW FRIES - Is The Idea of Us [LP/CD](Telephone Explosion/The Orchard)
Toronto’s New No Wavers New Fries are more interested in creating a mood of desperation and a tide of rhythm and sound that only comes in or goes out when they say it does. Striated and strengthened by touches of Dub effects, “Is The Idea of Us” is a study in textures. A quick perusal of the album’s titles reveals that the numerous “Genre” pieces are not intended to be songs or even bridges between songs. The lengthy “Lily” comes the closest to resembling a single with its Suicide meets PiL’s “Death Disco” trance, while “Bangs” is drawn from the same minimalism that Young Marble Giants employed. However, it’s the wordplay and sound manipulation of the terse “Ploce” that really holds the door to unlocking this disconcerting but danceable new group.
KRONONAUT [LP/CD](Glitterbeat UK)
There is something both delicate and dangerous about this Jazz duo. Guitarist Leo Abrahams is really into atmospheric, chiming, otherworldly sounds. As his note carrom off into various directions through delay and chorus, drummer Martin France locks into one and attacks it with a beat. “Wealth of Nations” is meant to be slow and soothing, but its bridge dips you into some lovely yet dissonant waters. Opener “Jena” sounds poignant at first with the addition of trumpeter Arve Henriksen. However, as France’s beats grow more insistent, Abrahams begins a dialogue with Henriksen and lets it build tension. The furious “Mob Kindu” is where Abrahams matches France’s skittering beats by manipulating his effects to pinch notes and find phantom harmonies and pitches. For a debut, Krononaut presents a wide palette of ideas, which is more amazing as is it again only guitar and drums.
TERMS - Asbestos Mouth [LP](Skin Graft)
Adventurous duos are the stuff that dreams are made of. Give two people a wealth of instruments and their ideas will literally overflow. Somewhere between Tampa Bay and St. Louis, Danny Fedchocki and Christopher Trull found a way to collaborate on this set of wild, vivid and thrilling angular yet Avant-Garde Rock songs. While some pieces call back to the SST level Skronk from the Eighties (“Your Cutting Strokes Start To Heave,”) the fact that they rarely rein in their music makes you react somewhere between banging your head and flying into spasm. Still, their songs are anything but noise. Orchestrated around their guitar and drums nucleus, “Asbestos Mouth” is challenging but quite rewarding.