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Upon first listen, The Civil War sounds completely unlike anything I've ever heard from Matmos. Initially, it is quite a struggle to place this new album in context with their previous work, which is characterized by minutely detailed electronica full of samples constructed from non-musical objects and field recordings. In stark contrast, most of the tracks on The Civil War are non-conceptual, traditionally structured songs with easily digestible melodies and chord progressions. Many of the medieval, folk and symphonic instruments on this album reach the listener untouched, without the usual precise surgical edits and digital processing that Drew Daniel and MC Schmidt have built their career on. This will be quite a shock for those who have become acquainted with Matmos through albums such as Quasi Objects and A Chance to Cut is a Chance to Cure. Even The West, though it was purportedly an exploration of country and blues, still shared the same fascination with sample-derived audio minutiae. So, it's fair to say that The Civil War is quite a departure. Luckily, the gamble pays off.
I believe The Civil War is a singularly original record, effortlessly merging the medievalist whimsy of late-60's British folk revivalism with the collective unconscious of America's folk music past, all glued together with Matmos' incredible ear for sonic detail. On The Civil War, Matmos dares to allow simple melodies and crisply reproduced instruments to assert themselves as the primary element of the music. For the most part, Matmos have masked any obvious laptop editing and sequencing, preferring instead to let the digital processing underscore and accentuate the songs, rather than deconstruct them. Drew Daniel and MC Schmidt have spoken about the influence of The Incredible String Band on the new album. With classic albums like The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter and Wee Tam, the Incredibles created a new musical lexicon with their unorthodox, free-form combinations of medieval, Celtic, American, Oriental and Indian folk traditions, which were blended with amazing fluidity and imbued with a pastoral, psychedelic mysticism all its own. With The Civil War, Matmos are creating an ISB-like amalgam for the post-techno generation.
"Regicide" opens the album, a lovely tribute to "Chinese White," the opening track to the Incredible's 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion - a hurdy-gurdy drone highlighted by a stately recorder melody and gently fingerpicked acoustic guitar. "Zealous Order of Candied Knights" is a rollicking Rennaisance symphony complete with horn fanfare, courtly drumming and some curiously Appalachain fiddle playing courtesy of guest Blevin Blectum. Throughout the album, instrumental tropes of the American Civil War are resurrected, along with the incongruous drone of synthesizers, including a vintage Buchla expertly played by Keith Fullerton Whitman AKA Hrvatski. These compositions have a free-form looseness, gradually finding themselves within the chaos, morphing into bright, patriotic concertos for piano and electric guitar, or gentle acoustic tributes to John Fahey or John Renbourn. The disarming "YTTE" utilizes samples from a fireworks display, expanding into a shimmering symphony of chimes, autoharp and guitar. "For the Trees" is the repeated musical motif of the album, a sweet, loping melody redolent of a breezy Fourth of July picnic. "The Stars and Stripes Forever" is an odd pastiche on John Philip Souza's patriotic marching-band classic, mixing a sampled instrumental rendition with throbbing beats. "Pelt and Holler" is constructed entirely from samples derived from a rabbit pelt, and as such is the only time Matmos engage their well-known propensity for constructing music from microcosmic sound events. After this brief tangent, Matmos tune into the British folk influence again, this time on "The Struggle Against Unreality Begins," where a majestic steel guitar melody is subtly intensified by sampled sewer pipe, blood and glass. Matmos' unexpected cultural cross-germination of folk traditions has yielded an album of exquisite beauty, an album that on repeated listens becomes more complex even as it affirms its simplicity. The Civil War is simply amazing.
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Guapo have a reputation as instrumental prog artists that evoke avariety of influences to produce ambient structures that are known tocross the ten-minute mark. Cerberus Shoal are no stranger to longpieces with myriad styles themselves, and their collaborations of latewith a wide array of artists have done more for their palette than canbe measured. For the third in the Shoal's split-EP series, both ofthese left-of-center bands contribute tracks over sixteen minutes andthen a third of the same stature is created from their tracks. It isthe longest, most freeform and ethereal release in the series, and inplaces the most impressive and frightening. Guapo's solo piece, "IdiosKosmos," is a wall of sound dirge of guitar, cello, and electronicsthat swells and expands like a lung: taking in air and using it, thenpausing before taking in the air again. There seems to be nothing thatwill distinguish it for the first ten minutes, and the quality changesto a crashing plane's whine. Then, the lung springs a leak, and theinner processes and air spill out in a whirlwind of poundingpercussion. It takes a while to get where it's going, but the track isultimately fulfilling. Ceberus Shoal's track, "A Man Who Loved Holes,"is a chilling piece with no rhythm or structure, with scatteredpassages of singing and a ghostly voice that passses from one speakerto the next and back again. Prose and poetry are recited, eerie soundeffects escape and intertwine, and everything maintains an evil calm.The Shoal have approached this kind of strangeness in the past, butnever this extended madness with little music to speak of. It'sconfusing while fascinating, and worth a listen even though it isclearly not for everyone. The third track, billed as Guaperus Shoalo,is an appropriate puree of both tracks, with ambient and eerie vocalsconverging before mighty percussion and electronic whines. It is themost collaborative song on these EPs so far, and eclipses both previoustracks in its atmosphere and bizarre melody. As they continue with thisseries, the material from both artists gets stranger and stranger, butalso more collaborative, as each artist seems to feed more off of whatthe Shoal is putting out and vice versa. samples:
- Guapo - Idios Kosmos
- Cerberus Shoal - A Man Who Loved Holes
- Guaperus Shoalo - Kdios Iiosmos, He Loved Two Holes
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Marco Haas, founder of Berlin's Shitkatapult label and the man behindT. Raumschmiere, has become somewhat notorious for his uniquelycrowd-pleasing, fist-pumping techno. On last year's The Great Rock n' Roll Swindle,Haas delivered a record filled with raucous, repetitive party jams thatdared to bring some sorely-needed fun into the German minimal scene.Haas' merging of gutter punk and arena rock to the comparativelyacademic world of microhouse and minimal techno was a revelation, andan idea whose time had come. Not since The KLF unleashed The White Rooma decade ago have I heard such beautifully simple, slam-dancing,stadium rave beats. T. Raumschmiere's new album certainly does notdisappoint, meeting and exceeding the bar set by his previous work. Radio Blackoutis a willfully dumb, loud and aggressive album full of rave-up anthems,like the IDM version of Andrew WK, or better yet, a Kompakt Recordstribute to Gary Glitter's "Rock N' Roll Part 2." T. Raumschmiere wantsus to rock out hard, and he's channeling the memories of all thoseNitzer Ebb and Front 242 records he listened to as a teenager, rollingout 11 big, dirty punk-electro jams. Just try not to jump up and tearthe roof off when the concussive beats and big chunky power chords of"Monstertruckdriver" hit you across the face. Miss Kittin, theEurotrash club girl whose unpleasant monotone has graced so manyelectroclash records, provides vocals for the album's first big 12"single "The Game is Not Over." It's unrelentingly awesome, weirdlyreminiscent of 70's-era glam-rock anthems like Slade's "Cum On Feel theNoize." Actually, glam rock is a very illustrative comparison, as MarcoHaas, like T. Rex and Kiss before him, prefers to concentrate onsurface concerns, rather than depth or encoded meaning. Everything youneed to experience in T. Raumschmiere's rave-rock is floating right ontop. Inside is just an empty husk, devoid of meaning other than thatinitial aesthetic thrill. Depending on the listeners sensibilities,this is either a critique or a recommendation. Ultimately, the vapiditythat makes T. Raumschmiere's brash techno so appealing also gives riseto that cold, empty feeling that sets in after a few listens. samples:
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I had a very tough time making it all the way through "Vigil." For thisalbum, Ambarchi and Martin Ng (a guitarist and a turntablist,respectively, though no instruments are listed here) let some feedbackdrift aimlessly for an hour across four tracks, each track onlyslightly more eventful than the last. The irritatingly piercing,mid-volume feedback that comprises most of the sonic conent here ispunctuated every so often by a bell-like chime, which seems to decayinto more feedback... but feedback is such a transparent anduncompelling sound that it resists pure listening. Events are obviouslynot the point here, but even non-event with substanceless sound hasbeen done more effectively already (Otomo Yoshihide and Sachiko M'sFilament live album leaps to mind, as does Sukora's "Tower") and it's apoint that doesn't demand being made more than once. I don't feelchallenged by "Vigil"s icy restraint, just bored. If there is anythingsubtle happening with the composition here (I don't believe that thereis), it went right past me as I struggled past the ambivalence of thesounds used. The only (relatively) interesting section is the fourthand final track, in which the bass swells a bit. I can't recommendthat, though, since it's such a meager reward after the hour that'spassed. I found "Vigil" to be merely tedious, a real let-down from twoguys whose other work I so look forward to hearing. There are some TinaFrank videos on this disc as well, comprised of some shapes and linesmoving around... also, not terribly compelling.samples:
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The liner notes make a convincing argument that this record is notautobiographical or escapist or even existential; it is "politicalwithout the pulpit." I'm not entirely sure what that means but what Ido know is that in the twenty-eight or so minutes that this record runsI am completely held in its hands and give away all my thought to it.It's simple in a haunting way. Alexander McGregor plays nearly everyinstrument so that they don't just produce notes and melodies: theybecome an extension of his voice and his lyrics whether they be muddledor quite clear. There is a sense of awe and wonder in each song that isestablished by way of contrasting melodies, basic production, and thecombination of Latin sounds with more familiar rock n' roll feelings.It's a hard aura to pin down. It's surreal and at the same timesomething that isn't so alien that it becomes void or nullified by itsstrangeness. But enough of that: the music is fun, too. The openingsounds of "Calibrate" are formless and unidentifiable but somehow serveas the perfect introduction to the wavering, watery, and druggy "NoNine." Drinking a very fine wine and watching a troupe of dancers seemsan entirely appropriate activity to accompany this song and at the sametime it has an incredibly romantic horn solo that brings to mindthoughts of making love. "Nothing Wrong" is a simple acoustic guitarpiece that somehow captures an ideal of innocence through its lyricsand sighing vocals. The center lyrics, "I don't know about you lil'girl / But there's nothing wrong / Nothing wrong with me," are of akind that manage to be uplifting, resentful, and hurt at the same time;it's a truly human song that I've become more and more fond of as I'velistened to it. The closer, "Making Movies," combines all of theelements of the previous songs and adds overdubs on the vocals, flute,and what I think is a cello to the mix. It's a dramatic and lilting endand serves as the perfect way to end a night. Part of the beauty ofthis album is that it can be played anywhere and at anytime and becompletely entrancing.samples:
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The Ebb and Flow sound like the setup to a great joke: an Iranian, aRussian, and a New Yorker start a band, drawing on their individualinfluences to make a new sound. The joke's on anyone who takes thatdescription at face value and expects to hear a trainwreck, though.This San Francisco band employs a clever mix of styles, rhythms, andinstruments, forming an interesting melange that never quits or getssloppy. The Ebb and Flow use guitar, drums, and a variety ofsynthesizers and organs as a base coat, then use whatever methodsnecessary to take the song to the next level. As it stands, theirs is aunique jazzed up prog synth pop sound, with two vocalists that bringout different strengths as the songs progress; and Murmursis a solid piece of work from a band destined for excellence. Guestmusicians provide everything from touches of flavor to necessarycomponents: the band is billed as a trio, with guest bassist DmitryIshenko, but I think they should just invite him to join, as I can'timagine these songs without his confident low end. "4 Track Mind -Dusty Crickets" starts with arpeggio guitar and solid rhythm, then addstrumpet and keys, building towards release. Then, it all dissolves inelectronic chirps, only to be reborn as a power pop shuffle. SaraCassetti and Roshy Kheshti have smooth voices like icing on this cake,and they play their instruments with just as much passion and heart."Me and My Twins" features guitarist Sam Tsitrin's turn on vocals, anda more indie rock sound to boot, just as easy to swallow as the firsttrack. It threatens to fade out, but then comes right back in again forone last taste. "Routes and Roots" and "Throop" are the high energyrocking out double shot, with "Throop" approaching boogie territory asthe trumpets blare. Then "Contra Verse" puts all the pieces togetherwith male/female vocals and a blend of all sounds previous. Too shortbut solid, Murmurs shows a band in their prime that deserves a real shot at the prize. Hopefully they won't have to wait too long. samples:
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For his latest release for the Chocolate Industries label, 24-year oldChicago hip hopper/multi-instrumentalist Caural (aka Zachary Mastoon)presents Blurred July, an EP of three new, original tracks plus a remix track from his full length Stars on My Ceilingdisc, courtesy of Savath + Savalas (aka Scott Herren). The EP unfurlswith the gradually headnodding "Goodbye May Kasahara" - a mixture ofsubtle vibraphone flourishes, brushed snare rolls with sloshy hi-hatswells, keyboard and tight beats (complete with handclaps) that pulseto rhythmic bass end, conveying a positive mood. The soulful sounds ofthe Fender Rhodes spin their way through "Blacktops and Plains,"featuring lines and rhymes from label mate and fellow city dweller, MCDiverse, over crunchy, distorted beats. The evocative patter ofrainstick opening "Visuals" falls into a soundscape of subtleelectronic waves and cymbal swells which bring in compressed beats,peppered with live drums and keyboard progressions which are heavy onthe reverb. A relaxed track of shimmering keyboard and upright basslines, Scott Herren subtly adds his signatory syncopation on the laidback groove of "Sipping Snake Blood Wine (Savath + Savalas remix)."With summer now left behind, the Blurred July EP is a great selection of compositional beats and instrumental sounds to conjure up the warmth of those fleeting days. samples:
- Goodbye May Kasahara
- Blacktops and Plains (featuring Diverse)
- Sipping Snake Blood Wine (Savath + Savalas remix)
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What's missing in modern country is true grit. In all of the glossed-upbeauty makeover tractor hunk nonsense they've missed the true point, ascountry started as the music for poor man's plight and economic blight.There's no dirt in New Country's teeth, no black under its nails, andno liquor in its veins. Just a vacant, vapid three part harmony andsome political nonsense that can't come close to the real issues athand. So leave it to country-obsessed former Geraldine Fibbers/EthylMeatplow vocalist Carla Bozulich to bring it back by covering WillieNelson's landmark concept album in its entirety. Sure, it's notoriginal grit, but it's authentic nonetheless, so much that Williehimself guests on guitar and vocals for several songs. Bozulich has theright voice for the material, raising hairs left and right with thetale of a preacher who killed his wife and her new beau. Nels Cline,Devin Hoff, and Scott Amendola also get points for their bare butchilling instrumentation that sets the perfect backdrop for thesesongs. There was a conscious decision to make this all sound authentic,I feel, from the nylon string guitars to the minimalist production andthe sparse nature of the music. It doesn't take much to bring acrossthis raw and rusty tale, and no lavish production could have made itsound better. "Time of the Preacher" is just as gorgeous as when Williehimself sang it, and "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" is better than theoriginal, with Leah Bozulich providing harmony vocal. The best, though,is the impact of "Medley," where autoharp and radio buzz are joined byelectric guitar and drum shockwaves. It shook me to the bone, theperfection of it all, and I felt like I wasn't going to make it outalive. Country needs to sound like this again, to take chances and tryfor a complex thought. It says it all that a singer went backtwenty-five years to find the right music for her soul. If othersfollowed suit maybe we could be spared. samples:
- Time of the Preacher
- Medley: Time of the Preacher/Blue Rock Mountain/Red Headed Stranger
- Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain
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It borders on impossible to reccomend a CD that pretends to be metalbut can't get past the whole "loud" aspect of the music. Sure, thewhole thing is intense and the guitars sort of wail and screech alongwith pounding and sometimes sloppy drumming, but nothing of theattention paid to particulars and subtleties by the best metalheads isto be found on this disc. The guitars don't grind and annihilate somuch as they just vomit and expend themselves in drones and whines offeedback. The drums are always quick and heavy, but they never changeand simply keep the beat flat and simplistic. There's little to novariation in the all of song's structures and the vocalist seems tohave an affinity for straining his voice in a way that is more dramaticthan it is threatening or truly violent. Speaking of the vocalist, muchof the lyrical content stays to the "nobody understands me and I'mgoing to rebel against them" theme. However, on songs like "FlophouseNightmares" and "Angel In Disguise" the lyrics seem to be nearmeaningless practices in rhyme and rhythm: their topics seemnonsensical or they are just plain boring. I know, lyrics have neverbeen the creativefocus of metal but at least the simplicity of some of the bettermaterial conveyed interesting ideas or controversial topics worththinking about. There's simply nothing like that on Halldór Laxnessand so it pounds and moans on into what seems like infinity withoutsurprising, shocking, convincing, or provoking. The puerile lyrics onlyserve to attenuate the sound of the album. It wants to be powerful andexciting, but it can't be without some kind of focus and discipline. Itdoesn't need to be calculated but to be truly angry it needs to soundmore distinct than it does.samples:
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Generally speaking, when I listen to music that I don't like, I putsome effort into understanding why that is. It can become a kind ofSherlock Homes mystery, albeit without the humor. Sometimes it's just agenre thing and at others it's a semiotics thing. Sometimes its theemotion or attitude that's being projected that I revile—f-ing hippies,for example. But not infrequently it turns out that I just don't getit; I don't understand the language the artist is speaking in. Andthose cases can be the most interesting. It's clearly stupidity to say"this poetry sucks" if it just because it's in Finnish and soundsmeaningless to ones ears. The language must be learned before anaesthetic opinion can be formed. And so it is with Old Testament—thelanguage is deliberately obscure and the emotion, semiotics etc. aretherefore opaque. The digital sounding noise on this CD mostly hasrather little immediately pleasing quality. Track 1 is long slowlymoving low frequency noise and doesn't go anywhere at all. Track 2 ismore interesting and even fun in parts but what's appealing about itstrajectory of electronic skitter, principally its rhythm and sonority,is not found elsewhere. The remainder is just plain painful withouteither the cathartic pleasures of, say, Merzbow or the humanity of DueProcess. So I work on the language; give it many a listen; see if I canget it. And when I do, an all too common outcome to the detective workis that there isn't anything there but technical experimentation thatshouldn't have left the studio. (In this case that's not entirely fair;a reduced version of Track 2 deserves to get on a comp.) Apart fromthat, the obscurantism of the language is all there is. The underlyingproblem (and it crops all the time) is that weirdness in music is usedas a cover for lack of musical talent. There's noting inherently wrongwith the experimental approach, tinkering with equipment untilsomething of value is achieved, but novelty, weirdness, or extremeout-there-ness is not good enough. Ilios may be proud of making a verystrange sounding disk but strange isn't intrinsically good. Theeffectiveness of experimentalism as a substitute for talent derivesfrom that lingering fear one has, that possibility that one may nothave grasped the language and therefore should reserve judgment orconfer the benefit of the doubt. But give it enough time and effort andwhat you hear on Old Testament is nothing other than theprocess of tinkering with equipment and certainly not the artisticobject that should have been the process's output.samples:
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There tends to be a fine line drawn when dealing with concept albums that separates the obvious and self-indulgent from the conveying of a general theme throughout an overall good and fair recording. With Beauty Party, the second installment in NYC poet/MC Mike Ladd's hip hop trilogy of the Infesticons/Majesticons, the line tends to be purposely blurred by the ongoing battle of style vs. substance.Ninja Tune
Tongue-in-cheek themes are exposed early on by each of the fifteen tracks titles, all of which contain the word "party" yet the tunes themselves are steady and strong with great performances. Musically, more of a mainstream hip hop/R n' B feel based around vintage synths, drum machine sounds and samples, Ladd brings aboard a plethora of male and female vocalists and MCs for some memorable tracks.
The laid back R n' B feel and rhymes of "Brains Party" revolve around a clever play on the Pet Shop Boys chorus from their "Opportunities." The steady beats of "Platinum Blaque Party" move through distant synth swells and syncopated bass lines, providing the breathy male vocal chorus that includes witty lines such as "I got so much access to excess/Words can not describe my success." A continual, arpeggiated synth line propels "Suburb Party" along to funky bass and drums, featuring Def Jux family members El-P and Vast Aire of Cannibal Ox for one of the disc's strongest tracks. Monstrous bass drum and cross-stick beats and buried bass progressions kick "Parlor Party" along with bright-sounding keyboards and female vocalists/MCs trading opposing views on the values of beauty that could be summed up with the line "Love yourself 'cuz the truth is attractive." Enjoying a concept album would include, though not necessary, an understanding of the overall theme and direction. Overstating it tends to detract from its full effect. Although a good disc of individual tracks, Beauty Party's obvious concept makes it feel like there's no room for interpretation as a listener. That and the fact the promo copy I had for gleaning purposes was interrupted with an annoying, sped up voice quoting the project name and the sound of a cash register ringing off every thirty seconds. Having to tune that shit out made it all the less enjoyable as a whole.
samples:
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