PESS - You Can Make Hamburger Yourself [LP](Aagoo/The Orchard)
While Pess is another chaotic yet whimsical Japanese Rock group, Mitsuomi Kimura has something far different in mind than the others. "You Can Make Hamburger Yourself" takes a lot of melodic leaps - but never lets you feel like you just whirling around in a blender. The title cut is an atonal rager true. But Haruka's vocals guide it along above all the noise and stop to a swirling Shoegaze chorus. "Dream Spin" actually channels 80's Funk/Pop into a single with a memorable chorus. While "Wind of June" actually sees the group trying for evocative layers that are dense but catchy. Pess has a far reach, but all the temerity to know that great choruses always draw you back in.
LA PALOMA - Una Idea, Pero es triste [12”](La Castanya ESP)
There is something happening in Madrid. Like their Barcelona cohorts El Petit de Cal Eril (reviewed here 9.30.21,) La Paloma is less concerned with managing a genre-specific easily-defined style, and more taken with writing solid hooky songs. La Paloma’s “style” is rooted in the buzzy/jangly early 90’s Alt. Rock from here. “Siempre asi” could be a Lemonheads song with its steady beat and whoosh of a chorus. While “Ya esta” pulls its drive from a Strokes-ian mixture of riffing and repetitive guitar. However, it’s the ebullient burst of steam of “Bravo Murillo” that sails off with its perfect jingle-jangle groove and Dinosaur Jr.-esque lead. The band undersells themselves on Bandcamp as finding “a magic space between noise and melody” - so far it’s really magic. A promising debut.
MAKTHAVERSKAN - For Allting [LP/CD](Run For Cover/The Orchard)
The Gothenburg-based group has mined Post-Punk/Shoegaze/Avant Pop for over ten years. The 2019 single "Demands/Onkle" represented a breakthrough as the band found a place for both loud, emotional Rock and its more ethereal (read: Bjork/Cocteau Twins) side with vocals from Maja Miller. "For Allting" gathers the best of both sides and crashes them into each other. Shoegazer-y but driving, "This Time" is the album's standout with a stunning chorus that still cuts through even with Milner drenched in effects. Elsewhere, "Closer" teases with its abrasive opening before drifting into a dreamy Eighties chime Pop midtempo ballad that really shows how Makthaverskan can summon emotion without a big push.
LONEY HUTCHINS - Buried Loot: Demos from The House of Cash and “Outlaw” Era 1973-1978 [CD](Appalachia Record Co./Redeye)
The best singer/songwriters always seem to communicate a message to the chosen few (in Loney’s case friends Johnny and June Carter Cash) but become lost in translation in their quest to find more fame. Hutchins has an ease with his songs that indicates the lifetime of Country and Bluegrass he was surrounded by. “Pinball King” could easily be seen as dated (Pinball, CB radios, all fit in his lyrics,) however its clavinet-led Jerry Reed-ish bounce cannot be shaken. Then, when Hutchins arrives at the bridge - he makes the biggest sell of them all “line my coffin with flashing lights and I’ll play pinball in Paradise.” When he winds up, it’s almost like John Prine met the Who. His version of Hazel and Billy Smith’s earnest “Stoney Creek” sounds like Michael Martin Murphey circa 1976 - but the hardscrabble tale rings true because of Loney’s effective voice. (Coincidentally, Hazel Smith was the journalist who first used the phrase “Outlaw” to describe this music.) These are all demos that Loney cut to sell songs for himself when he was a writer at the House of Cash. Loney delves into Byrds-ian Country (a resultant possibly of his time in the band Hickory Wind,) and even some Honky Tonk stompers. His song “Jesus” was recorded by Cash in 1974. Loney also brought to Cash, Guy Clark’s “Texas, 1947” and Wayne Kemp’s “One Piece At A Time” which would be Cash’s last Country #1. After these successes, Loney started his own publishing company and record label, as well as some serious work in the nascent field of Music Therapy. He continues to record today.
DIASONICS - “Gurami/ “Gradients” [7”](Record Kicks ITA)
Let’s be honest. There are a lot of bands that crank out some sweet Soul - but a few cross that line thus winding up more imitators and revivalists. In the last few years, instrumental bands have taken the lead on adventurous riffs and interpretations that incorporate other music. The Diasonics hail from Russia, but one listen to their organ/guitar swaps and airtight grooves - you’d think they were from Memphis. The depth charge jam that is “Gurami” is not just a lick or two slapped together, it evolves with the changes in production. “Gradients” is their slow jam lightly sprinkled with wah guitar and tasteful Rhodes through Leslie speakers. The Diasonics are about to bring their brand of “Hussar Funk” to us all.
HERBIE NICHOLS - The Prophetic Herbie Nichols, Vol. 1 and 2 [LP](Blue Note)
Piano players are eminently important in Jazz, especially during the Be-Bop and Post-Bop years. Their ability to both chord and solo keeps them zooming in and out from playing with the other members. Herbie Nichols is best known for writing “Lady Sings The Blues.” However, as a player and performer, he was miles ahead of many others. In these two volumes with Art Blakey and Al McKibbon, Nichols shows wild invention turning songs inside out (“Blue Chopsticks,”) and leading straight-ahead compositions away from their most expected turns (“The Third World.”) Alternately muscular (“Cro-Magnon Nights”) and delicate (“It Didn’t Happen,”) all of these 1955 cuts sound like they could have recorded by two different players. The tenets of Post-Bop are all on display here. Nichols even throws in those charming Monk-esque half-step hits of dissonance (he apparently befriended Monk back in the late Thirties.) “The Prophetic” is a dazzling array of Post-Bop recordings that swing hard enough to convince you why Alfred Lion branded him an “original”
THE BRKN RECORD - The Architecture of Oppression Part 1 [LP](Mr. Bongo)
FELA KUTI - Box Five [LP BOX](Knitting Factory)
Two releases that capture the best of music stretching its boundaries to bring on social/societal change. On his album "The Architecture of Oppression Part 1," Jake Ferguson of the Heliocentrics uses Jazz/Funk/World and even Film music as his tableau to pull stories and songs from guests like Jermain Jackman, Zara McFarlane, Dylema, and more. Like Bastien Keb's (reviewed here 2.12.21) soundtracks, many of these tracks function as music to enjoy and a backdrop for chilling stories about violence, brutality, and inhumane behavior. Dylema's "Say Black" is the most penetrating with its poetic form drilling down until you feel you have to react. Elsewhere, Ferguson (with the help of fellow Heliocentric Malcolm Catto) summons Morricone for a middle piece in "Break The Chains" that establishes the urgency of the album without a single word.
Without a doubt and against all tenets, all of Fela Kuti's catalog is of supreme importance. Every morsel of music from the early studio experiments to the late-period "longform" song-as-call-to-action encompass all that made him a legend. With his group Africa 70 and the amazing Tony Allen, many of his albums from the late Sixties to the Nineties - actually angered leadership and changed the world. This latest box curated by Chris Martin of Coldplay and Fela's son Femi Kuti comprises seven albums that are rarely listed or heard. 1982's "Original Sufferhead" finds Fela after his assault and losing his band putting it all back together to mount another attack on the so-called "giants" of government. By 1989 with his band bigger than ever, his pieces stretch to the half-hour mark on "Overtake Don Overtake Overtake." However, the most haunting inclusion is the 1979 Fela/Africa 70/Ginger Baker session "Why Black Man Dey Suffer." You can actually hear Fela growing into the activist side of his music as the James Brownian poly-rhythmic groove becomes Afro-Beat and Fela finds his power to guide this music and his band to higher strata.
HELM - Axis [LP/CD](Dais)
GODFLESH - Godflesh EP [CD](Earache)
NURSE WITH WOUND - The Surveillance Lounge [CD](Dirtier Productions)
London's Luke Younger sounds like he is out to destroy Industrial music and build it back strictly from noise (and maybe a little synth.) "Axis" has a lot in common with Throbbing Gristle's "Second Annual Report." Loud, abrasive, and frightening in places, "Axis" extends many of its loops until they reach the point of actually raising the hair on your arms ("Axis. ") Yet, at the same time like Godflesh and the bleak side of current Metal, there is something strangely atmospheric (*Tower,") and even meditative ("Crash") about where Helm takes you.
Speaking of Justin Broadrick and Godflesh, their 1988 Swordfish debut EP is finally being reissued. Before Metal discovered the Industrial grind (and samples,) Broadrick lowered his basslines into sludgy wonders, cranked up his drum machine to earsplitting volume, and layered guitars doing anything but riffing above it. The result was eye-opening. Like contemporaries Foetus, Swans, and Big Black - this was first and foremost abrasive RAWK. However, to bang your head slowly to whipcrack beats on "Avalanche Master Song" is to discover where groups like Soundgarden were about to take their slowed-down take on Metal. "Godhead" even drowns its drone in eerie echo, but it is the thirteen minutes of the winding "Wounds" that indicate both the future (Wax Trax, etc.) and their future (1989's now-classic followup "Streetcleaner" is about to put them on the map.)
Steven Stapleton’s lengthy run with Nurse With Wound has produced a wide variety of output that dives into drone, noise, and above all Industrial. Most of the attention to NWW is devoted to the earlier years when the collective dissolved into just Singleton and abstract albums were made with whatever was available. (Our earlier review of the formative “Merzbild Schwet” is also available from 5.28.21)
That minimalism still permeates the later works which also deserve attention. Like those experimental Beatnik-turned-into-Hippies, “Merry Pranksters,” Nurse With Wound is at its very best when threatening your expectations and disintegrating any of the subgenre epithets you may associate with them. 2009’s “The Surveillance Lounge” is too often ignored (it falls right between their 2008 collaboration with Faust “Huffin’ Rag Blues” (some of which is echoed here especially on the blistering/meditative closer “Yon Assassin Is My Equal.”) and 2009’s feast of incidental and Sci-Fi sounds “Space Music.”
“The Surveillance Lounge” works beautifully in putting all the available ideas together cohesively. “Close To You” is a brilliant glitch-meets-Captain Howdy frightener. However, like they want you to think they got their best scares out of the way, “The Golden Age of Telekenesis” moves fantastically from baby screams to a scrambled auctioneer purposely programmed in opposition to the governing rhythms. Then the apex of “The Part of Me Which Is That Part In You Is Now” offers the longest, deepest thrill ride of the album.
Sample-laden, scratch-heavy, and a magnet for distorted and still-undefinable sounds, “The Surveillance Lounge” is Nurse With Wound proving their invention 30 years into their creative career.
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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