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Those like I who have fallen under Delia & Gavin's spell will not be disappointed in the latest single. Relevee features an edited version of the album version along with remixes by Carl Craig, Baby Ford, and, of course, the DFA. I'm most gleeful, however, for the bonus video of the song.
The "alternate version" of Relevee has been edited down from the 13 1/2 minute version on last year's Days of Mars release to a more concise seven minute version. Additionally, it adds a subtle kick drum and clap just to make it slightly more accessible, but this version will probably only ever be used in dancefloor mixes and rarely played on its own.
The DFA crew unsurprisingly punch up the beats with disco drums, congas, handclaps, and a slight rearrangement of the melody (see their remixes of Black Dice and Delia and Gavin's "Rise": at least they're consistent). Additional keyboards and a thumping bassline sound great, but I'm not sure how I feel about the vocals, as subtle as they are I'm not so certain they actually belong or not. Otherwise it is a disco gem.
While techno master Carl Craig's 11 minute is pretty decadent, his version goes on for seemingly too long (over three minutes) before anything drastic is done to the tune. The basic 808 kick, open hi-hat, and clap sounds are quantized gracefully to a Delia and Gavin's original sequencer interplay, only fattened by various effects. A digital conga and live piano interplay is neat but kinda short and not as engaging as the other stuff. I guess I'm a sucker for the cheap tricks.
Baby Ford doesn't take the melody anywhere new but enhances things with extreme low end. In all honesty, this remix could have made its point at about 1/3 of the length. As hypnotizing as it is, nothing much happens for its 10+ minutes.
The video they made for this single is a complete trip—see the scene pictured on the cover—where Delia and Gavin dance backwards in slow motion while colored neon lights blaze behind them in various sequences. The camera doesn't move, the lights are hypnotic, but the dancing is absolutely silly. It's completely inaccessible for MTV or just about every other pop video outlet imaginable but it is the perfect visual for their music, and I've expected nothing less. Definitely look for it at a music video night I VJ at near you!
samples:
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Luc Ferrari’s death last year meant that the world had lost a creative genius. I was saddened both at the loss of the man and at the fact that no new music would come from his direction. Luckily, Sub Rosa are making available some of his later works as well as some older unreleased material.
Sub Rosa
Son Mémorisé includes an unreleased piece from his “Presque Rien” series of recordings. “Presque Rien #4: La Remontée du Village” is a processed and edited recording of a day split across two tracks. It is everyday life condensed into the space of around 16 minutes (and worked on for over nine years!). It doesn’t sound like all the recordings are crammed in, but instead sounds like Ferrari is walking through a bustling area of a town. It’s very natural sounding apart from the moments of heavily treated and chopped up recordings. It is a masterful piece of audio documentation where I can almost smell and feel the surroundings that I am hearing.
The middle section of the album is a recording of Ferrari’s visit to Algeria in the late seventies. “Promenade Symphonique dans un Paysage Musical…” is broken up into morning, afternoon and evening with different events occurring at each time of day. The market sounds are rich in texture but somewhat boring. The wedding is far more exciting, the music and sounds of joy rocked by what appears to be celebratory gunshots (which take my ears off when listening on headphones).
The final half hour of Son Mémorisé is a more recent piece entitled “Saliceburry Cocktail.” It is a collection of sounds recorded throughout the nineties and assembled into the piece found here in 2002. Ferrari writes in the sleevenotes about how he was hiding sounds he didn’t like with other sounds he didn’t like. I can hear what he means; there are a few queasy sounds (such as the creepy laughter on the second track of the piece). Unlike the previous pieces which although in places were slightly manipulated, “Saliceburry Cocktail” his heavily shaped by Ferrari. This is much more unnatural and chaotic. Parts of it are amazing sounding and parts of it are aggravating to listen to.
While Son Mémorisé isn’t consistently good, there are enough exceptional moments to justify its release. The parts I don’t like will most likely grow on me over the next few months, Ferrari isn’t someone that I can just pick up and instantly appreciate. Importantly, this is not a collection of pieces that are only getting thrown out into public view now that Ferrari is gone; it is a worthy addition to his canon.
samples:
- Presque Rien #4: "La Remontée du Village"
- Promenade Symphonique dans un Paysage Musical...
- Saliceburry Cocktail
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This recently reissued debut offers the tasty fruits from a rare instance where session singers, typically relegated indefinately to the background, claim some time for themselves in the spotlight.
Having made their mark on several Sugar Minnott recordings, vocalists Clive Davis and Christopher Harvey birthed Jezzreel for this 1980 Wackies record. Supported by Jah Scotty's New Breed Band with arrangement and mixing by label head Lloyd Barnes and Prince Douglas, the well-sung lyrical content is strictly the meat and potatoes or, rather, the more appropriately ital dietary equivalent, of roots reggae. Opening with a brief solo piano melody that strangely never reappears, the record's theme immediately takes shape, as "Love Of My Life" quickly shifts into a sentimental Rastafarian ode set to a skanking beat.
As is the standard for showcase albums, all of the remaining tracks transition from full vocal takes to dubwise versions. Of these, "Sun Will Shine" stands out as a clear highlight for me, spotlighting Jezzreel's herbal blend of hooky repetitive chorus harmonies and bass-driven riddims. The devotional prayer of the title track calls out for spiritual guidance from above, doing so in a manner that would compel listeners religious and non-religious alike to sing along. No "conscious" album from this period would be complete without at least one song dedicated to the struggles of the poor, and the unambiguously titled "Living In The Ghetto" fulfills that requirement more than adequately.
Not exactly a lost classic, Great Jah Jah comes across as rather short when compared to today's standard CD lengths and some cash-strapped consumers might balk at paying full import price for under 40 minutes of music. Still, all six sublime songs featured here rightfully belong in Basic Channel's ongoing Wackies reissue campaign.
samples:
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- Gary Suarez
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As disco continues to enjoy a prolonged revival thanks in part to hot artists like Metro Area and Lindstrom & Prins-Thomas, UK label Soul Jazz eagerly jumps on the bandwagon with this double disc set of '70s mixes from one of the genre's godfathers.
Although these aforementioned nu-disco super troupers might be quicker to cite Giorgio Moroder or maybe Patrick Cowley as a primary influence, Tom Moulton's impact on music then and now cannot be overlooked. After all, it is he, not P. Diddy, who is credited as having invented the remix and the 12" single, dance music requisites that have unquestionably dominated our culture ever since. These days, to tweak Frank Sinatra's famous lyric, you're nobody 'til somebody remixes you.
Unlike many of the compilations that litter the racks at mega-sized retail chains and collect dust in the bargain bins of used CD shops, A Tom Moulton Mix exists outside of the norm, effortlessly eschewing colossal cuts now sanitized by Bar Mitzvahs and office Christmas parties for something more to the liking of crate diggers and those who foolhardily wish to intellectualize this strictly hedonistic sound. And while Soul Jazz is culpable of participating in the latter revisionist offense here, it doesn't matter since many of the fortuitously unmixed selections themselves are really quite good.
After two minutes of funk-flavored build-up, Temptations alumnus Eddie Kendricks' falsetto kicks off this collection unabashedly with "Keep On Truckin." Also of note are groovy, flamboyant numbers from seminal figures such as Grace Jones alongside since-forgotten groups like Detroit Emeralds, Orlando Riva Sound, and South Shore Commission, all exhibiting Moulton's touch. Unless you spent most of the past several decades trapped in a P.O.W. camp—or even if you did—you've undoubtedly heard Andrea True Connection's instantly recognizable "More More More," or at least that Canadian one-hit wonder Len's sucktastic "Steal My Sunshine" which samples one of its bridges.
It probably comes as at least a mock surprise of most people that Isaac Hayes actually penned more than the "Theme to Shaft" and "Chocolate Salty Balls," and the smooth propositioning of "Moonlight Loving" will initiate those primarily familiar with his Chef caricature. Irrespective of his quasi-scandalous Scientological foibles, the man was singing about threesomes—and convincing foxy ladies to participate—before most Brainwashed readers ever saw a girl naked.
Disco is notoriously well-known for its excesses on and off the dancefloor, and history hasn't exactly been kind by demoting most of its defining elements to camp instead of cool. (You can practically see the Indian headdresses while listening to BT Express' "Peace Pipe.") Not for the casual listener, only those eager to venture beyond the Donna Summer and Chic hits overplayed by the Clear Channel monolith and its less massive imitators should bother to inform themselves with A Tom Moulton Mix. Additionally, savvy DJs sentimentally snorting lines and vigilantly gobbling up the current load of nu-disco productions may want to snag the simultaneously available 2x12" vinyl version and benefit from having these extended mixes in their record bag of tricks.
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Since the debut Akron/Family album came out in March ’05 they’ve
played hundreds (and hundreds) of shows across the known world,
recorded / released and toured for a split album with Angels of Light
(also serving as backing band in the latter, both in studio and on
tour), recorded a few home brewed albums they sell on the road, and
have generally worked themselves to death, or at least into a new
entity they themselves maybe don’t even recognize. And now this: a
new “special” album that has been blaring in my office constantly,
obsessively, for weeks now and that once again shows them morphing
into something simultaneously unfamiliar, wild, gentle, raging,
hilarious, elated and meditative - riddled with chaos and sonic
contradiction, and sometimes just simply beautiful – the song “Gone
Beyond” is the sort of palliative hymn I want to hear while suddenly
finding myself drifting through the universe having unexpectedly
jettisoned the meat-grinder of earthly existence - where perhaps
songs like “Blessing Force” , played repeatedly at full volume, have
pummeled me into hapless insensibility. All of this ultimately gets
sorted out and makes for a stunning document, in my opinion. At the
time of this writing they’re ensconced in the mountains somewhere on
a much-needed recuperative retreat. Good thing, because this fall and
winter they’ll be touring again and also recording another new album
for YGR, to be released early next year, when they’ll tour again, and
on to infinity... I hope you enjoy the music! - Michael Gira/Young
God Records
Here’s what Seth has to say about making this recording: “These songs
were written about a year ago by individual band members and then
hashed out as a band together on the road in hotels and in the van
the few weeks prior to the studio time in Chicago, while we were all
freezing in the winter hinterlands of Canada, wheezing with
bronchitis…The recording in Chicago was nuts. We played in Iowa City
Monday night. Then drove all that night, slept 2 hours on the corner
of 23rd and Michigan in Chicago outside the studio in the van. Then
started setting up to record at 10:00 am and recorded until 8:00 pm.
Then we headed straight to Urbana Illinois to play that same night.
Then drove back to Chicago that same night after the show, started
recording that next morning at 10:00 am, recorded all day again, and
then left again at 8;00 pm to play that same night in Milwaukee. It
was extremely crazy, and i can't remember if we have ever been more
disoriented and tired before…We recorded at Shape Shoppe in Chicago
and it was engineered by Griffin Rodriguez…Griffin also plays upright
bass on track 4, no Space in this realm…The big emphasis on doing
this recording was the chance to record two days in Chicago with our
favorite free jazz master drummer Hamid Drake. He has played on
hundreds of records with jazz luminaries Peter Brotzmann, Don Cherry,
Pharaoh Sanders, William Parker, Mats Gustafsson, Ken Vandermark -
the list goes on … We did an additional day of recording with the Do
Make Say Think/ Broken Social Scene guys in Toronto, two days with
Jason La Farge at Seizure’s Palace in Brooklyn, and countless mind
droning moments in my (Seth's) apartment. Mixed and mastered with
Doug Henderson. Production was Akron/Family and Michael Gira. We
recorded ourselves in Chicago and then a day in Toronto, and then we
went back to NY and did two more studio days and mixing with
Michael.”
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This one-sided 10” mini-album is the debut of this San Francisco trio. Brash and playful, the group makes a surprising ruckus out of the unlikely combination of drums, flute, and clarinet.
Their nervous energy is apparent from the beginning with songs like “A+ Cannibal” and “Toffee Coffee.” Drums race forward while the vocals spew raw and vitriolic. As elsewhere on the album, the flute and clarinet come across like jagged spurts of free jazz that retain their shape just shy of chaos. But they have other uses, too, like on “Boomer,” in which they form a demented march. Drums often burst from unexpected places, and the vocals are frequently confrontational. Anarchy never seems too far away, lending the album the impression that it could implode at any moment. Thankfully, it never does.
It’s only fitting that such an uncommon configuration would have a unique sound, and Death Sentence: Panda!'s sound is only heightened by an aversion to anything resembling typical songwriting. Although it’s hard for me to guess how long such an unconventional arrangement can last, especially considering that the group breezes through eight songs in just 11 minutes on this record, I certainly hope their creativity continues to flourish like it does on this excellent debut.
samples:
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I came across some Envy records years back and suddenly became ravenous to hear everything put out by the band. They seemed like a succinct Japanese amalgam of a bunch of post-hardcore bands who alternated between the delicate and the demolishing. Screamed vocals, melodic guitar tones, and anthemic songs were all part of the band's DNA.
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Another CD released at the group’s recent dates in San Francisco, Rat Tapes One is a compilation of discarded sounds and songs from the past 20 or so years. Unlike something similar such as A Sucked Orange, though, this one feels closer to an album than a collection.
With 18 untitled tracks, there’s no shortage of the mutant voices and clanks from the darkness that I’ve come to expect. However, I was most surprised by the amount of rhythmic material found here, especially on the second half of the disc. “Track 10” could very well be a backing track left over from the Rock and Roll Sessions. Strangely enough, “Track 12” is a techno song with little of the Nurse With Wound signature other than some operatic elements and the oblique, gaping maw of an ending. It’s actually not a bad example of that type of music, perhaps aided by the element of surprise. “Track 14” actually has lyrics as a growling voice riffs on television news over a big beat and atmospherics. “Track 16” starts with frogs and insects in what could be the foley track of a film before drums and an explosion tear it open into a primal kraut romp with guitars and buried vocals.
There aren’t a whole lot of tracks with obvious forebears, although the bell sounds from Thunder Perfect Mind recur on “Track 4,” “Track 6,” “Track 11,” and perhaps “Track 15.” Also from that album is the jackhammer drill briefly reworked as “Track 13.” The disc concludes with a spoken word collage of musicians’ names, many of which pass too quickly to differentiate, and then ends with the statement, “All of these bands are complete shit,” followed by a scream. Considering that many of those named are well-respected in underground circles, it’s an amusing send-up and perhaps serves as a companion anti-statement to the band’s infamous list of greats from Chance Meeting.
Although a few of the longer songs grow a little dull in the context of other shorter, fragmentary tracks, the album is still generously entertaining with many unique entries to the Nurse With Wound canon.
samples:
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The latest album from Vienna’s B. Fleischmann embraces the electric guitar, especially the characteristically warm and full sounds of the humbucker style pickup. It is an enjoyable if forgettable album. The songs all blur into each other and the album plays through in what feels like an instant; there is nothing of any real interest on it.
Throughout the album, each song follows a similar predictable formula: a straight from the box drum machine loop plays and some very basic guitar strumming is repeated over it. Although nothing Fleischmann does on the album is in any way revolutionary or original, it all fits together well. Most of the music is pleasant, the kind of music that I’d put on when I didn’t want to be too taxed or distracted. It’s nice but it’s hard to sit down and enjoy it as anything more than muzak.It simply doesn’t engage me.
Christof Kurtzmann lends his voice to “Gain” and “From To,” both songs are among the better pieces on the album. “Gain” has a bit of tremolo thrown on the guitar and a great organ sound accompanying it. “From To” has a Kraftwerk vibe to it at first as the beat and sample of a what sounds like a sharp intake of breath reminds me of their Tour de France releases. Kurtzmann’s voice is one of those weird “shouldn’t be a singer but sounds good” voices. There’s a feeble, faltering quiver running through his singing, he sounds almost too human. It suits Fleischmann’s laid back music very well. Kurtzmann plays clarinet on “Static Grate” but it doesn’t add much to the piece, it could just be another one of Fleischmann’s synths.
“Phones and Machines” is the only track that is in any way memorable. The rhythm is out of joint and jerky, it sounds like it’s constantly skipping or stalling. I liked that effect but it still doesn’t strike me as being that noteworthy. The remainder of The Humbucking Coil is far from offensive to my ears but it’s also far from being attention-grabbing. I imagine that if I ever enter a coma, this is what it will sound like.
samples:
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I came across some Envy records years back and suddenly became ravenous to hear everything put out by the band. They seemed like a succinct Japanese amalgam of a bunch of post-hardcore bands who alternated between the delicate and the demolishing. Screamed vocals, melodic guitar tones, and anthemic songs were all part of the band's DNA.
I didn't mind that the band's DNA seemed to be genetically engineered from their influences (Thymine=Anomie; Adenine=Isis; Guano=Yage; Cytosine=To Dream of Autumn). Though a little soulless, Envy were able to make compelling enough music to keep me chasing after elusive 7" singles on the Japanese H:G Fact label. But a few too many releases without much diversity caused me to lose interest rapidly in the band. Envy's switch to Temporary Residence has partly helped to resuscitate my interest, but not nearly as much as the evolution of their music.
Previously, the band relied on a series of simple decibel crescendos under the veil of patented power chords to induce the anthemic quality of the music. To be honest, they still fall back on this maneuver. But they have also peppered their songs with more guitar complexity underlying the volume increase, recorded in such a way that you can hear all the intricacies while being enveloped by a tsunami of noise. The outright softer moments are accompanied by spoken-word vocals, reminding me a little of the August Born album of last year where Chasny's guitar pieces were punctuated by Hiroyuki Usui's breathy words. "Crystallize" even has some softly sung vocals, but most of the singing is done in the louder segments and some might hesitate to actually call it singing. Rather, it's a hoarse Eastern rasp reminiscent of a more continental style of post-hardcore. Think French hardcore, in particular: Fingerprint, Jasemine, Amanda Woodward, Rachel. To be honest, it's a sound which can get old quickly.
Envy have fortunately tempered their reliance on this sound and the album benefits from it. Furthermore, Envy has capitalized on the recombination of the post-rock genome into their music. Explosions in the Sky, Mogwai, and countrymen Mono have helped to inform the band's approach.. Witness the patience of "The Unknown Glow." The old Envy would have been unable to harness and check the energy unleashed from the first five minutes of this song, content for the song to consume itself after those first minutes. Yet this more mature Envy allows an infectious guitar riff both to quell and to proliferate the song, drifting into ruminative quietude for a bit, and then gathering the storm once more. The end of the song is a template for snare drum histrionics, but, again, they have learned well from their contemporaries.
Drama is just something which is innate to Envy. You have to buy into the intentional gravity of the music before you enjoy it. "Night in Winter" and "A Warm Room," the final two movements, showcase the dramatic weight of the band nicely. The songs vibrate with a hollow spookiness and surge towards the sky. Though Envy are convinced they are up to something profound and deep, they often find themselves lighter than air, buoyant despite the proposed weight of their music, floating ever upwards.
samples:
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- Scott Mckeating
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Recorded live at Newcastle upon Tyne’s intimate Morden Tower venue during his 2005 European tour, these two tracks are more radical rethinks than acoustic tributes. As one third of Sun City Girls, its Bishop’s obvious right to explore his own material, but these beautifully energetic takes seem utterly revitalised by anyone’s standards.
While still referencing the great ‘American primitive’ acoustic guitar players, both these instrumental cuts go far enough for me to place Bishop in that esteemed company. The audience going apeshit at the end of both songs is proof enough that Bishop is a player that has harnessed both incredible skill on the instrument and the ability to pump out an unbelievable amount of energy.
Both “Space Prophet Dogon” and “Esoterica of Abyssynia” contain passages of frenzied strumming that feel like solid blocks of heavy corrugated sound. These sections retain elements of gracefulness with the headlong percussive charges. His ability to unify virtuoso mastery of style, a straight up punchy playing and nimbleness that must’ve been something special to witness in that front room sized venue. “Space Prophet Dogon” blends an out-of-nowhere Irish folk sound into a mix of different genres that gathers splinters with every wrist twist and flourish.
This 7" is the first release from the NO-FI gig promotions outfit, and who better to archive their gig recordings than the people who put the effort into putting the shows on in the first place. These two songs thankfully don’t fulfil any terrible premonitions of Bishop trotting out the old hits as Sun City Girls Unplugged, but instead inspire both a looking forward and looking back.
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