Reviews

24 January 2006

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Albums and Singles

This collection of the Leeds, England band's Rough Trade singles andmore showcases a hard-edged and unique sound that's more thanworth digging out of out-of-print oblivion.

Kill Rock Stars

Delta 5's singular sound comes from the band's two (!) bass players andthe three female members' angular and often accusing and mockingvocals. They sing over and against each other, in many songscalling and answering in a caustic conversation, and elbowing throughthe heavy bass and drums. The songs are hard, fast, and pulsing withurgency. It's an exhilarating or exhausting listen, depending on thelistener's mood and disposition. No matter the personality though,there's no way to not get caught up into the pain and glee of storiesof rejection and disdain ("Mind Your Own Business"), lost lovers ("NowThat You've Gone"), happily discarded lovers ("You"), and theunderlying menace of Leeds at that time ("Shadow").

In addition to the three singles, this collection includes BBC radiosessions (including two with the legendary John Peel) and a handful ofraucous unreleased live tracks recorded in Berkeley in 1980. Thematerial covers the entire lifespan of the band; three years isn't along time, but Delta 5 made their mark on the post-punk scene then andwill hopefully make a mark on listeners discovering them for the firsttime now.

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23 January 2006

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Albums and Singles

Whenthe previously obscure scores were widely released on CD by MotelRecords and Crippled Dick Hot Wax in 1995 as the compilation Vampyros Lesbos: Sexadelic Dance Party,its newfound popularity was in large part responsible for thesubsequent wealth of ‘60s and ‘70s European B-movie soundtracks to bereissued.

Crippled Dick Hot Wax

The films for which Huebler and Schwab wrote and conducted the music in1969 (performed by “The Vampire Sound Incorporation”) are a diversetrio of genre movies, all directed by Jesus Franco. The mostfamous, Vampyros Lesbos,is a mind-bending, disjointed tale of blood-sucking countess in Turkeywho moonlights as an avant-garde nightclub performer. Lesserknown are She Killed In Ecstasy, about a woman who takes sexy revenge on the people who drove her husband to suicide, and The Devil Came From Akasava,a rather dubious spy thriller based on a novel by EdgarWallace. Aside from having the soundtrack composers and themaverick Spanish director in common, the three films also share thelegendary actress Soledad Miranda, who tragically passed away in anauto accident shortly after completing them.

Crippled Dick Hot Wax does great justice to these soundtracks, not onlyby way of reissuing bonus tracks on the CD, but with an excellentremastering job which makes this once nearly lost work sound betterthan ever. The liner notes from 1995 by cult film expert Tim Lucas arereproduced here, as well as a brief bio of star Soledad Miranda, whoselovely image graces the cover and numerous photos in the booklet. TheCD in its entirety is dedicated to her memory. Newly added is a shortessay on Franco’s work.

Musically, there is something unifying in the three scores, despite therange of films for which they were created. The overall sound isso well integrated that the compilation seems as if it could be acomplete album unto itself. All 15 tracks (including three bonus cutsnot found on the Motel Records edition) on this recent reissue fromCrippled Dick Hot Wax could easily be lumped into a “lounge music”category for their combination of danceable funk, exoticinstrumentation, and full-on acid-drenched weirdness. Fuzzyguitars and a bright horn section commingle with growled, murmured andsqueaked vocals. Playful harpsichord and winsome xylophone areseamlessly matched with sultry sitar and tight percussion. Butrather than being just another example of this genre, this album setsthe standard by which all other such music can be measured.

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22 January 2006

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Albums and Singles

One of the inevitabilities of putting together best-of year-end listsis that there’s always one or two albums that don’t make it on theresimply because it didn’t surface until it was too late. Volcano!, ayoung band from Chicago, make music akin to a nervous fit of rage andare a perfect example of such an unfortunate circumstance.
Leaf

Beautiful Seizure, the trio’s debut for the decidedly non-rock Leaf label is a welcome breath of fresh air and a wonderful surprise forthose who thought 2005 was solely dominated by new weird America andcoke snorting hipsters from Brooklyn. Time-bomb ticks and nervousvocals over livewire guitar playing push for room with startlinglybeautiful passages of atmospheric ambience and quiet folk. The resultis a disarmingly genuine and honest record.

Album standout “Fire Fire”begins with contemplative guitar chords and the free jazz inspireddrumming of Sam Scranton. Guitarist/vocalist Aaron With, who bears morethan a passing resemblance to Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, allows his voiceto quaver and shake, slowly building along with the rest of the band.Elsewhere, the band delves into long passages of seemingly randomsamples, which serves to add to the sound of the album as a whole, suchas on “$40,000 Plus Interest.” It would be easily to classify Volcano!as simply post-rock, and while they do share many common traits withthe genre, there is a streak of restlessness that prevents that tagfrom sticking. Like the best rock music, Volcano! take from a varietyof sources–the ambitious scope of post-rock, the anthemic thrust ofOK Computer-era Radiohead, and the flailing desperation ofpost-hardcore, to come up with something startlingly original yetinstantly familiar. “Red and White Bells” is perhaps the bestarticulation of what I’m talking about. At nearly nine and a halfminutes, the song see’s the band veer from all possible styles and is aperfect encapsulation of their varying tendencies.

What makes BeautifulSeizure so enjoyable and good is the confidence with which Volcano!attack their material. Few bands sound this confident first time out,and an album like this only makes me more excited to hear what the bandwill churn out next.

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22 January 2006

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Albums and Singles

Minotaur Shock’s second album (third if you count the compilation of previous EPs and related tracks) is an above average album that slips into self indulgence a little too often. Luckily the album is redeemed by having a strong smile inducing effect thanks to a lot of cheery and buoyant tracks.

4AD

The first couple of minutes of the opening track “Muesli” were not at all promising. The clarinet (which I didn’t like on any of three tracks it appears on) and percussion do nothing for me; the arrangement is far too fussy. Only in the last thirty seconds or so of the song does it gel together when the accordion kicks in. This problem of finicky arrangement thankfully doesn’t continue throughout the record. The tracks fall into one of two groups: the “really laid back and enjoyable” group and the “trying to be imaginative and innovative but failing miserably” group. An example from the first group being “Hilly,” which is good but slips too much into Aphex Twin patented blips, beeps and washes of synth. The second group is mercifully the smaller of the two with the aforementioned “Muesli” being the worst offender.

That being said there were many tracks that engaged me. “Vigo Bay”is a quirky, fun, and uplifting piece. It doesn’t rewrite the rules ofmusic but it bops along delightfully. The track that follows it, “SixFoolish Fishermen,” continues this feelgood vibe. The music soundsbouncy, like something that would be played in a cartoon about sailingaround exotic places having adventures with an animal sidekick(whatever animal that may be).

The biggest problem with Maritime that, when listening to the album in one go, many of the tracks don’t sound that distinct. In smaller doses the little idiosyncratic moments become more noticeable. Unfortunately they are normally hidden under the similar synths and beats that populate all the tracks on the album. As a mood enhancing album this works a charm, the January gloom is lightened considerably whenever I play Maritime.

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22 January 2006

Albums and Singles

With the exception of his 2001 collaboration with Noto and a 12" in 2003, the otherwise prolific Mika Vainio has kept his most respected moniker all but dormant for roughly eight years. Yet 2005 served as a year of resurrection for Ø, with a vinyl reissue of the classic Metri and this curious collection of material recorded during the interim.

20 January 2006

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Albums and Singles

NormallyI'd be suspicious of something like the Lady Sovereign phenomenon—thehype machine, the registered trademark, the inevitable references tothe name that's on everyone's lips (M.I.A.)—it all feels like a setup, and it probably is. But something about "the white midget" justmakes me want to get stupid and bounce, and I think that's clearly thepoint.

Chocolate Industries

Lady Sovereign (or "The S-O-V" as she likes to proclaim) is ridinga wave of interest in capable and possibly eccentric female MCs thataren't following in the Mary J. Blige mold but are playing squarely inthe sausagefest of alternative hip hop. In other parts of the world,they'd probably call this "grime," but the one nice thing about theAmerican tendancy to ignore or pretend to ignore culture from aroundthe world is that the notion of grime just doesn't mean much ofanything to anyone here. Without falling into a trap of second guessingwho Lady Sov's audience is supposed to be, it's a lot more fun to justput on her record and get drunk on her quirky, silly vibe.

Vertically Challengedisn't posturing as intelligent or conscious in any way, but that's notto say that Lady Sovereign's lyrics aren't exceptionally clever attimes. She's almost always self-effacing or playing up her ownperceived shortcomings (pun only partially intended,) and so it's hardto hate on lyrics like "J-Lo's got a batty/ Well you can't see mine cusI wear my trousers baggy" for being the good-spirited, self-directedjabs that they are. Even after hearing these songs a dozen or so times,there are still plenty of lines that get a smirk or a laugh becauseSov's bratty false bravado when talking about her height or the failingof UK MCs is just infectiously funny.

The beats arealmost inconsequential here, although an Ad Rock remix of "Little Bitof Shhh" demonstrates that her flow sounds more natural over theminimalist, bass buzzing UK rhythms than anything else. That the songsrarely include more sounds than could be cooked up on a single drummachine and synth isn't important; that they get out of the way so thatLady Sovereign can work her charm is what makes this EP magicallydelicious.

Quite against expectations, and perhapsbetter judgement, I've fallen for the impish MC and it has less to dowith her resemblance to a young Melanie C and more to do with the crazygood hooks of songs like "Ch' Ching" that are simply and smartlyarranged in a way that often only music that refuses to take itselfseriously can be. It looks like Lady Sovereign's already been picked upby Island, and hopefully the major label forces that be won't dull herwit and undermine her charm as they tend to do with so many others.Even if they do, I'll always have Vertically Challenged and a record with this much fun and spark is worth holding on to.

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20 January 2006

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Albums and Singles

Noise is an acquired taste requiring an open mind and maybe a little background information. I've never known anyone to hear one noise group and instantly fall in love with the genre. Phil Blankenship's noise project is out to make that fact doubly true. Night of the Bloody Tapes is noise for noise extremists. Its fuzzed out, unrelenting, damaged presentation is confrontational and angry. The attack simply never stops on this record.

Troniks

The Cherry Points work with Yellow Swans was loud as hell, but lacked the confrontational edge Blankenship has molded on his latest full-length. For over forty minutes a steady stream of feedback, white noise, and the sounds of fire turned up to ear-bleeding levels pours through the speakers. It isn't lazy noise, it's noise bound and determined to tear some things to shreds, to remove limbs from bodies, and to generally wreak havoc. The cover art and accompanying stickers suggest Blankenship is trying to fuse some B-movie horror with his noise, but I can't imagine this noise as a soundtrack to anything but an orgy of blood. (A real orgy of blood, not a movie version.) The intensity feels so real and unhinged that I finally got a glimpse of how the most extreme of metal and noise gets compared.

I've seen people dance and head bang at noise shows before. I watched and thought it was supposed to be ironic or sarcastic somehow, a product of the scene's disgust for convention. Only a few times have I ever felt noise move my body and that was usually in a violent manner. The Cherry Point convey a heaviness, though, that makes me want to throw up my hands and bang my head until my neck is sore. The ferocity Blankenship has unearthed in the static and rumble of his machines isn't unlike the blister forming guitar work of the heaviest death metal bands. Gone are the growling vocals, replaced by the sheer sound and a total disregard for listenable melodies or conventional rhythms of any kind. Death metal took sound further away from the norms of rock and pop, but noise has sent it over the edge. A live show like this might inspire head banging; it might also cause bleeding ears, spontaneous violence, and rioting. This does not bode well for Hollywood, Blankenship's base of operation. I find it interesting that some of the most extreme music this side of the Pacific is coming from the land of plastic surgery and generally fake dispositions. Either Blankenship is tapped into the violence that is bubbling just below the surface or he's giving everyone a taste of where that senseless, star-worshipping, shallow approach to everything can go.

That said, I'm surprised by how many times I've hit the play button on this disc. There are plenty of noise records I enjoy listening to about once a month. Night of the Bloody Tapes has found its way into my car, onto my computer's play list, and into my walkman when I go running. I've listened to it three times in the last two days. For all its violent destruction, the constant stream of noise it provides eventually blanks my mind completely. I wouldn't say it puts me in a safe or contemplative place, it just completely zaps my memory and my ability to function. I wouldn't make this my first noise purchase, nor would I heartily recommend it to anyone already listening to noise. This is for the enthusiast, for the noise addict who simply needs something more insane and more intense. Night of the Bloody Tapes is abusively harsh noise and one of the only records of its kind that I've come to enjoy.

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19 January 2006

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Albums and Singles

This will either sound like attractively sweet pop or derivative reminiscence depending on who is listening. I tend to think 90% of the material is total crap and, at times, I can sing the songs Ariel Pink is copying from because his material is so obviously dependent on its influences. It'd be easier to outright hate this record if the songs weren't catchy at times.

Paw Tracks

Instead of naming the ten or so bands that immediately came to mind while listening to whatever song, I'll just be quick to point out that sometimes imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and that Ariel Pink is at least flattering bands I like on House Arrest. I was tapping my foot on many of the songs and, after listening to the album about three times, I learned to skip the ones that just bored me. This makes the album a hell of a lot more enjoyable; it eases the pain of Ariel Pink's forced delivery, cooling his pseudo-sexual pout and extending the shelf life of the decent songs by quite a lot. After three listens, however, House Arrest as a whole loses all of its appeal. Whatever gimmicks caught me ear the first few times lose their glimmer and suddenly even catchy songs like "Alisa" are cast in a new, and not so shining, light.

I have a hard time understanding why anyone would want to devote their time and album space to musical endeavors already explored by other bands in the first place. Anyone with talent like Ariel Pink has should be writing music that tries to go somewhere new instead of wasting that energy on pop rock that's been done better elsewhere. So few bands can improve on another band's style without sounding contrived, anyways. Why not just take some chances and make an album you haven't heard before? That aside, I know some people like hearing nostalgia. Ariel Pink is good at it, but the spells he might cast on listeners won't last long after everyone wakes up and decides they want to hear something new and exciting. Consider this a temporary fix for music enthusiasts that just can't get enough of what Ariel Pink has to offer: bopping, rattling, synth-laden, catchy pop melodies with dance rhythms.

Until this whole nostalgia thing passes over, Ariel Pink's name will get tossed around a lot; the name itself will evoke a kind of indie awe, I'm sure, because Ariel Pink is the real underground deal doing the real underground pop. It doesn't matter who is doing it, though, nostalgic music for people who weren't even around when the original musical movement happened is the same no matter who is making it or what label they're on. Some just handle their influences better than others. I'm surprised the throwback syndrome has reached as far as the Paw Tracks label and Ariel Pink. I understand his style is of a strange heritage, but honestly there is nothing amazing or particularly "out there" about Ariel Pink except for his strict worship of AM radio. Maybe once every year or so I'll get the urge to hear some of these songs, but the rest of the time House Arrest will remain locked up in a box or on a shelf somewhere, waiting to be played and collecting dust.

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19 January 2006

Administrator

Albums and Singles

A rerelease and reworking of long out-of-print album, this two-CD set was worth the wait. The second CD, Sideways, a remix of the first CD, 1998's Underarms. Underarms itself is a reworking of The Hope Blister's ...Smile's OKalbum. Trying to describe this album is like looking into two mirrorsfacing each other: the music echoes and comes back to itself, rather likemirrors reflecting the same image into each other for eternity.

4AD

The intro of "Sweet Medicine" is a hazy echoing clock, then the trackabruptly moves into an ebbing and flowing drone. Keeping the title inmind, it makes me think of coma patient rising to the surface ofconsciousness and struggling to comprehend what is seen there. "FridayAfternoon" is another hazy track: peaceful with buzzing insects, theitch of grass, and the atmosphere of a dense humid afternoon. "Iota"holds more interest and tension manipulated electronic sounds punchingthrough the drone. This one could be the soundtrack to a spacewalk."Dagger Strings" brings in strings sliding over and merging into ashimmer of slow heavy melody. The strings return in the closing track"Happiness Strings," a beautiful and gentle song that is probably themost natural sounding on the album. It's often hard to tell when onetrack ends and the next begin, they melt into each other so seamlesslyit could be one constantly shifting song. Though it razors through myspeakers in places and sometimes rises with a throbbing urgency, it'snever a shocking change and feels organic and natural to the point ofseeming inevitable, despite the music's obvious electronic origins.

Sideways is the Underarms disk remixed into a blurry drone. It's a smooth river rock of an album, with few of the rough edges of Underarms.It's pleasant and enjoyable, but it's not radically different from,say, the "Sweet Medicine" tracks on Underarms, with the spacey blurpsof "Iota" arising on "Sideways 4."

I can see myself often putting on these CDs for an evening curled upwith a thick book, a glass of chianti, and maybe a dozing cat at myfeet.

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