The first thing that comes to mind when reading about modern Jewish music born out of a multitude of influences, backgrounds, and traditions including both Eastern European Gipsy and 20th century jazz/improv matched with lyrics which come from Jewish poetry is Klezmer, but Black Ox Orkestar, formed from members of Silver Mt. Zion, Godspeed You Black Emperor, and Sackville, does not play Klezmer. Klezmer is vocal dance music, often used for festive occasions like weddings, born from hardship but designed to lift spirits while the Orkestar take a much more solemn approach. |
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The first thing that comes to mind when reading about modern Jewish music born out of a multitude of influences, backgrounds, and traditions including both Eastern European Gipsy and 20th century jazz/improv matched with lyrics which come from Jewish poetry is Klezmer, but Black Ox Orkestar, formed from members of Silver Mt. Zion, Godspeed You Black Emperor, and Sackville, does not play Klezmer. Klezmer is vocal dance music, often used for festive occasions like weddings, born from hardship but designed to lift spirits while the Orkestar take a much more solemn approach.
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I would like to claim that the central rift of opinion on the solo career of Scott Walker falls between those who think that the aging crooner's music has become ridiculously pretentious, and those who think he's a genius. Actually, though, this would be inaccurate, as even those who love Scott Walker and think him a genius are also likely to find him pretentious. The only difference between admirers and detractors is that admirers can look past Walker's many pretensions, and the detractors either refuse to or can't.
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If Jesu is any indication, putting Godflesh in the grave was the best thing that Justin Broadrick could have done with his lumbering behemoth of a legacy. Jesu's latest is a return to the slow grinding despair of Godflesh's Merciless EP, something that Broadrick does better than most.
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By my count this is the third version released of this 'infamous' Belgian Magik Markers show. The interest in this particular May 9th 2005 show stems from the fact that it ended with Elisa Ambrogio impersonating Carrie at her bloodiest after a bass in the face. This may not be the definitive release, but with Prurient editing and remastering the gig for, and I’m quoting here, "maximum dog shit sound" it’s the heaviest.
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It was about a year ago when I first stumbled upon the Numero Group, and finally after months of begging to get the true insides on them, they've finally answered my emails and come around to getting some of their stuff to us. Numero 001 is the first part of an indefinite Eccentric Soul series. It's a series of out of print soul music criminally ignored or lost for years in vaults and basements, and part one is a representation of Columbus Ohio's Capsoul label and their releases from the early 1970s.
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The second album by Pateras and Fox finds them raiding the human body for sounds and reorganizing them in convulsive detail. Their improvisations logically find the duo favoring texture over form, yet after a while the constantly shifting dynamics becomes a form of motionlessness in itself and at times I found my mind wandering.
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This release, the second in a seven inch trilogy, sees a further distillation of the band’s gorgeous organically structured songwriting. These two pieces are instantly noticeable as more electronic sounding than the first instalment, even though some of the strongest melody lines here are analogue in origin.
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This is the second album from Denmark’s Jens Berents Christiansen as Rumpistol. Mere Rum is a listenable but boring album. Each of the eight tracks are forgettable. They work as background music they're but definitely not anything I could sit down and listen to properly again.
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As Jesu, Justin Broderick along with Diarmuid Dalton have teetered somewhere between metal, pop, thrash, and shoegaze. Last year's self-titled album ranks amongst my favorites of 2005, perhaps because at points it makes me watery-eyed for the early 1990s days of Bowery Electric, Slowdive, Curve, and Loop. Silver is sort of a stopgap, a four song extended play single with songs that aren't bad, but just not as thematically connected as the eponyous LP.
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The latest instrumental offering from Robin Guthrie is a beautiful example of his evocative songwriting and production skills, and a testament to why his work has been the creamy center of the dream pop world for years. It's also a reminder of how much better his work is with the right vocalist.
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Using motors and various pieces of metal, the sculptures of New Zealand artist Len Lye not only move but also emit strange sounds. Lye choreographs twisted sheets of metal and whirring surgical steel into compositional forms that belie their apparent randomness. No mere dusty museum pieces, the sounds his kinetic works produce are every bit as unearthly and unsettling as anything created electronically.
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When I saw the latest incarnation of Current 93 in performance last June, I made it a point to personally tell David that it was by far my favorite lineup and show that I had ever seen of the group, and I meant it. This album is perhaps the most anticipated Current 93 release ever, and it is easily one of, if not, the best.
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The irony of Vol. 2 of the Exchange Session is that, even though the three songs are longer, the music is far more controlled, composed, and tighter, as opposed to the improvisational and somewhat looser sound typically associated with long pieces.
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As one half of Birds of Delay Steve Warwick makes dirt sediment peppered petroleum noise. With his solo Heatsick project it’s all about exploratory drone, hitting every frequency on his way through. From a growling rusty Harley opening that builds and quickly plummets, scrambling for a handhold, this continues its hi-energy search for the full twenty minutes.
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On this four song EP, Tartufi finds a safe formula and sticks to it. Unfortunately, the formula only succeeds on the first song and makes clutter of the others. "Midnight Tracks" has it all—the back and forth fuzzed guitar interplay, the dual vocals, and the multiple changes in direction. The song is performed well, though it’s somewhat standard fare. Those that follow are essentially more of the same.
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An original Hook & Hastings tracker-action (non-electric) pipe organ originally constructed in 1881 owns the entirety of this record. The chanting, reminiscent of what Native American and Indian chants I've heard bend space-time, revealing an ether of energy and ideas coursing beneath the visible spectrum. Performed live, this album sounds more like a ritual than a product; it is a distinct and meditative experience that pounds down the doors of the visceral and floods the extended world with a pure, white light.
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This is another outstanding emission, the best to date, from the increasingly obviously talented Black Sun Productions collective. With the help of draZen there’s a process of musical distillation going on that sees Massimo and Pierce channelling a sound that’s definitively theirs.
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Yay, more prog-punk from Ft. Thunder; this stuff never gets old!Wizardzz features the bassist from Lightning Bolt playing drums and Rich Porteron some retro-futurist keyboard strata, playing into a miniaturized, cartoonversion of L’Bolt doing abbreviated Yes-ian sci-fi vista burners.
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Looking back on her fascinating but uneven back catalog, it struck methat the pixie-ish, world-weary chanteuse known as Little Annie "Anxiety" Bandez has pretty much always been at themercy of her producers. Throughout her career, the one constant hasbeen Annie's voice—that smoky, Marianne Faithful drawl andsardonic, campy delivery—but the sound settings in which her vocalshave been placed have been wildly variable, depending upon the producer.
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Om isn’t looking to approximate thebombast of their father band Sleep. Although Sleep made at least one epic-length stoner metal anthem, Om triesto jump right for primordial spiritual minimalism, composing albums from 20minute undulant bass and drum dirges, ridden by bassist Al Cisneros’ chant-singingof nonsense adjectives and Tolkienian compounds that are luckily not loudenough in the mix to rise into meaning.
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