.NEW.MUSIC.FRIDAY. unspooling quite a few releases that will be make you…
H A P P Y (seriously, you are going to like something on here)
THE GREAT AD… -Deep Down Death [LP](Subliminal Sounds SWE/Redeye)
GOLDEN DRAGON [LP](Subliminal Sounds SWE/Redeye)
Starting with the Infra/Treklover discovery last year, Subliminal Sounds seems to unearth all the best hidden Rock of the days of old. This pair of Seventies rockers clearly never wanted to grow up. Filipino-American quartet Golden Dragon veer close to Punk in places on this 1981 private press LP (with songs that date back in singer Freddy Mabuhay’s career.) The fuzz bass guides most of the cuts along (“Highway Child”) but they drive everything like a locomotive - yet it is standard Rock that could have been on the radio.
The Swedish 1975 recording from The Great Ad… shows a band in flux. Heavy sounds are indeed pouring out, but the tight rhythm section mixes it up with Yes/Crimson like bass lines and confident (but not overdone drumming.) Their studio songs are all volcanic, even “Fast Song” and “Slow Song” which were either very new or left untitled. “Deep Blue” is an uptempo Blues jam that grows into something Deep Purple might pull off. “Borne, Andy, Mountain” even tosses in an instrumental. However, the riff-rocking “She’s Got The Fire” and grinding title cut could still be on the radio today.
SAM HIMSELF - Power Ballads [LP](Taxi Gauche)
With his self-labeled “Western Fondue” baritone, Sam Koechlin puts his tender heart out there on these downtempo beauties. Like Tindersticks or even Bill Callahan, Sam Himself says a lot with every hesitation and hiccup. His songwriting echoes 80s Springsteen, “Way Out” is buoyant enough to feel sweet (especially wrapped in curtains of effects) but the quiet high he hits really hurt. While the mid tempo melodic ramble “La Paz” and pulsing “Nothing Like The Night” could be his singles, “Power Ballads” finds it power in the deepest cuts.
BODY BAG BEN AND RICK HYDE - Hyde the Body Bag EP [LP](Tuff King ITA)
JUGA-NAUT AND GIALLO POINT - Smoke Filled Room [LP](Tuff King ITA)
Two shots at blowing your ammo on some up-and-coming Hip Hop artists. With just five songs on their EP, California-based Body Bag Ben and Buffalo, NY’s Rick Hyde turn their Breaking Bad cosplay into a slow-rolling, fast-rhyming film noir. The images are always downtrodden and gritty, but their passion and flow (along with guest GoToMar$) just keep moving that needle and rocking those spartan beats.
One of 2021’s best records overall featured the stylings of UK rapper Juga-Naut and Mikall Parknsun. While Parknsun is missed, solo Juga is swinging for the fences. Working with the ace scratching and creative sample-building of Giallo Point, Juga runs wild on these cuts. Molds are shattered. Flows are woven tighter and then torn apart. In short, Juga sounds tough and hangs in there round after round.
PHIL RANELIN - The Time is Now [LP](Now Again)
In the wake of Free Jazz making room for the use of Electric instruments in Jazz, the 1970s were a fertile ground for harmonic experimentation. “The Time is Now” melds together Latin rhythms, modal excitement and a willingness during solos to take bold leaps out of scale or time. Made in 1973 and 1974, Ranelin and his Tribe collective flourish in arrangement and performance. “Of Times Gone By” has an awesome solo from Ranelin on trombone over a gentle swing, that then echoes Eric Dolphy’s experiments once he hands it over to saxophonist Wendell Harrison. The very Miles-like opener “The Time Is Now for Change” gets very close to Avant-Garde. However if you listen closely, you can hear the rhythm section using the pauses to let it simmer for a moment. “Black Destiny” is a Spiritual Jazz song turned inside out. Instruments bounce into and out of the mix with purpose, yet many of them are not quite playing together (as intended.) Ranelin runs through his entire pallet of notes, and like magic, the rhythm section downshifts it to denouement. “The Time is Now!” is Spiritual Jazz to a higher power.
BRIEF ENCOUNTER - Singles [LP](Athens of the North UK)
From the hills of North Carolina, a horn-laden Earth, Wind and Fire style band recorded a long, lost debut in historic Muscle Shoals. Brief Encounter combined all the hallmarks of Seventies Soul into one giant band. Falsetto vocals right up front backed by Isley/Stylistics style post-Doo Wop vocals. The band brought in tasteful wah-wah guitar, touches of Rhodes and organ and arrangements that sound like the Pop incarnation of Kool and the Gang circa 1977. The band was clearly searching for just that single. Fortunately this collection gives you everything they released back to 1972-73. The mid-Seventies recordings are peak especially the B-side “Human” and the ballad “I’m so Satisfied.”
MERZBOW - Noisembryo/Noise Matrix [CD](Hospital UK)
The Noise recordings of Masami Akita are kind of the “fasten your seatbelt” moment for listeners of Metal, Alternative, Industrial and Avant-Garde. Akita’s music is not remotely “musical” in the traditional sense. However, this 1994 brain-fryer of an album will reveal itself to you - if you can stay patient with a sweltering, Excedrin-grabbing, 3D wall of noise around you. First of all, Merzbow rarely lets up. Squeals. Buzzes. Crashes. Wailing distortion. Squelched radio static. Waves of white noise. Pink noise. Scrambled voices. Guttural Black Metal-esque growls. Captain Howdy-style hidden messages erupting from the layers of noise. Two tracks are around 25 minutes long a piece. In a row, it is like watching a season of your favorite, violent and loud streaming drama at full volume with the fast-forward on 8x. There is an indistinct blur of thoughts waving its spastic hand right in front of your eyes and your ears feel like they been holding on your headphones at top volume for too long. Is it or anything distinguishable? Not really. But that feels like the point. The act of forcing yourself to listen means your have to identify sounds for yourself and hang on to those for dear life.
HEXA - Material Interstices [LP](Room 40)
This British duo sculpt ambient noise into a claustrophobic brand of Industrial music. Jamie Stewart and Lawrence English are skilled at making tracks appear out of nothing like apparitions. A glimpse of those titles can make you flinch (“Tending Concrete Flesh.”) However even on their lengthiest track “The Exquisite Crushing of Atlas,” your gaze is locked on this glacially paced tracking shot that reveals the beast waiting for you in the darkness.
SETHERIAL - Nord…/Hell Eternal [LP](Soulseller NED)
On this pair of very bleak Black Metal albums released in 1996 and 1999, the guitars of are set to stun throughout. The galloping double-kick/blastbeat madness create a monolithic effect where the drum breaks and fills impress. Dark, lightning fast and always brooding, “Nord…” is a barbaric yawp into the netherworld. “Hell Eternal” feels a little more familiar to Darkthrone fans with its wild runs and time shifts.
BLOODRIDE - Idiocracy [LP](Great Dane)
Throwing back to the Thrash Metal of the Eighties (think early Slayer and Metallica,) but musically pushing very close to Punk/Speed Metal with a fully modern look, Bloodride is a furious joyride. The songs are concise yet easily expandable. The guitar solos here are outstanding. They can that wild lunacy of Slayer (“Hate of Hatred”) and Metallica (“Stranger Roots” even touches on Rush,) but sound original (the burner on “Rapid Fire” that opens the album.) Drumming is also badass with every stop and facet of metal drumming in full flower but never feeling contrived. Twelve songs that turn you into dust.
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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