intro.
The crops aren't failing. The Week in Music is a bumper harvest. The biggest we've seen in a while. Some great sounds to pick over. These moments of enlightenment brought to you by, Alan Rider (6), LamontPaul (4), Ancient Champion (6), John Robinson (4), Hamilton High (2) & Lee Paul (4)...
singles.
by John Robinson
Like the previous single Patterns, Ancient Love is a monologue, against a shifting, ephemeral sand dune of music, beautiful, discorporate and melancholic. The song is about memories as archaeology, setting love against the vastness of time and the cruelty of humanity. Of course, your interpretation could differ, this kind of flow of consciousness could be compared equally to the nonsensical lyrics of Tales From Topographic Oceans, but here it works as art, serves a purpose, the music and lyrics connect to resonate with some unique truth. For some, anyway.
by LamontPaul
I don't know anything about music, you know that. When I think of Elephant Ears, I think that the most likely place to encounter Elephant Ears in this town? The Botanical Gardens, I'd say. Bressi Soul, the one Learning to Say Goodbye, here, the featured vocalist, could probably sing the phonebook to you, as they say, as a lullaby, and you'd be slumbering blissfully and gratefully. Hers is a bewitching, mesmerising, aching, timbre. With enough breadth and range and edge to elevate the piece and put it on repeat. Bressi's voice is adult and sophisticated, portraying real fears, intimacy and emotion. I don't understand music remember. I hear this unpercussive piano and I think of 'Angels' or that melody where you'll find Supertramp Giving A Little Bit and if that is not here for you, what if I mentioned Cathal Coughlan's forays in this field with the acclaimed Microdisney and their Clock Coming Down The Stairs? Or Conor Oberst? Don't talk about potential, talk about what Bressi Soul is doing now. No one else I'm hearing here this week can do that.
by Alan Rider
Unveiling this ode to rock'n'roll and black leather, Catch As Catch Can have a tongue twister of a name, have been around for 10 years, and play retro sounding good time bar room rock. You could easily be back in the '70s with this one.
by Alan Rider
This one, from New York trio Hello Mary, came out last month, and they have a new single 'Three' out this week as well, and I have to say that bands like Hello Mary do give me a glimmer of hope, as they have done that rare thing - improve. Their self titled debut album I felt was unremarkable, yet this single is uncompromising and confrontational, and I hesitate now to pin the 'Alt Rock' badge back on them, as that would lump them in with the many other lumps you will find labouring turgidly under that vaguest of umbrella terms. Hello Mary have a lot more to offer. '0%' isn't typical of their usual sound, which is far more melodic, but, on the evidence of the follow up, 'Three', they have gained the knack of blending melody and guitar noise into a mix that really works. There is a second album, ' Emita Ox', due out in September, so lets see whether they can maintain their new standard on that.
by Ancient Champion
Alright already. I know there's only so many times you can say "Oh wow!" This is though one of those times. Dave Guy is the Guy for sure. Everything here is so crisp and glassy. And then the trumpet. They don't have you play in the Menahan Street Band and Roots if you don't have the chops. Contemporar-esque jazzy rnb, with a twist! I'll Follow You is from Dave's forthcoming LP 'Ruby' due in September and is well, well this is just gorgeous.
by Ancient Champion
People just love Laura Marling. And so I tried to love Patterns, because more than anything else, I want to be like everyone else. I was a little perturbed by the dust around the lens of her cameraphone. Were you? Woodenhand the DJ recommended a hogs hair brush to me a while ago, for getting rid of dust just like that, in the corners. And otherwise Laura is blowing off the cobwebs of her career with a typical blast of vigour. Laura's better at this than most though so in the end few will be able to resist. Maybe excepting me. I mean, I'd play it again if you made me but I would close my eyes during the camera phone action sequences at least. If there's one thing I do love is the idea of Laura recording her LP at a volume where she wouldn't wake her new baby. Five hearts for being a super considerate parent.
by Ancient Champion
Is is better or worse when high falutin claims are made on behalf on an artist before you even hear their new music? The expectations are way high, but hope, then, makes me listen at all. Something about music is, that it can be fun to make. Most everyone I know never mentions that they've reduced it to a process, guarded and joyless. A results business. So, what can you hear here? Allegedly, at times, Fontaine channels Jane Birkin as backed by Jorge Ben. Françoise Hardy locked into sonic reverie with Mulatu Astatke, or Margo Guryan making lovers rock. That's a like comparing my tired eyes to the crown jewels. The name dropping don't end there. Co written and produced by Grammy-Award winning Lester Mendez, whose resume includes everyone from Grace Jones and Baaba Maal to Shakira and Nelly Furtado. "Tony Chin, foil for the likes of King Tubby, Dennis Brown, Lee Perry, Jackie Mittoo, Sly & Robbie, appears on guitar, bringing the orphic tones expected from someone who has played with some of the greatest reggae musicians of all-time. On bass, there’s Ronnie McQueen, one of the co-founders of Steel Pulse. Sergio Mendes’ percussionist, Gibi Dos Santos, supplies propulsive locomotion. So does Ziggy Marley’s drummer, Rock Deadrick. And that’s just the abridged list of storied instrumentalists who appear on La Mer." Oh my god it is exhausting, but in the end, what we get is an authenticated loving pastiche of greatness.
by John Robinson
Hopkins' music is organic, based on repeated rhythms, looped synth lines and electronic drums, developing in subtle ways and with a serenity and majesty which lends itself to being described in quasi-religious terms. Both this and previous track Ritual (evocation) are beautiful, while (evocation) is more dramatic, tense, highly strung, the current single is dreamlike, a sense of place (or palace) which is crystalline and pristine, the looping melody is mesmeric, echoing, a cathedral on the moon. The full album - Ritual - is to be released in August.
by Ancient Champion
Fans of Floating Point following on from the acclaimed 'Promises' LP with Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra probably includes a fair portion of the "Democratic elite" who have yet to say aloud "Go, Joe... Just go." But would like to. Key103 is timely then, as they like us have a lot going on upstairs and this is soothing beyond sooth. It mitigates the present circumstances. There's a lot to be mesmerised by. It meanders meaningfully. In a classy way. Just look at the video, an Alive Painting by Akiko Nakayama. Towards the end it runs out of beat and the synths twinkle. Just so you know I listened to the end. Not the worst seven minutes I have spent listening to a record. High Praise.
by Ancient Champion
Alright, you followers of Ancient Champion's musical musings about my faves will know Tasha, for me is right up there with the best of them. I think she was on Father/Daughter records but has moved on to New York based Bayonet. I saw her as a leader of a quietly thrilling quiet musical revolution. Tell Me What You Miss The Most was an epic emotional storm, spoken softly. Then in some sort of grrr-rapturous gear change, Tasha was cast in the Sufjan Stevens Tony award winning Broadway musicial, Illinoise. And now back with just the most magnific indie pop song one could create. It's flawless. I wish I could do that. The full length 'All This and So Much More' will be out in September. Meanwhile, let's join the New York Times debate right here too, is that gingham style thing she's wearing, while reading and bridge-over-water seeing, a summer dress or no? What is your summer dress?
by Alan Rider
Bill Leeb has been at this business since the early 80s, with Industrial pioneers Front Line Assembly, ambient trance duo Delerium, and various collaborations, so it is a bit surprising that this is the first time he has ventured out under his own name. Solo albums are always difficult, as they need to be different enough from the parent band to mark a departure, yet similar enough to appeal to hard core fans as a side project. On the evidence of this, Bill has come down firmly on the side of the latter, as this could easily pass as the next FLA single. When you have invested so much of yourself, over such a long period, in creating a signature sound, then I guess it is inevitable that whatever you do will contain a large number of familiar elements, as this does, even down to the video. So if you like FLA, then you will most definitely like this. If you are looking for a radical departure, either lyrically or musically, then you might be a tad disappointed.
by Lee Paul
The title track from the current Waxahatchee LP. "As a songwriter you can feel like you are on the brink of your last good idea," Katie says. Then the band eases into Tiger's Blood. As last good ideas go if this is one, it's a pretty beautiful idea of a song. The yawning chasm of needs within so ably expressed here by a stellar cast of musicians for sure, but the voice and the lyric are the thing that takes you there.
by Alan Rider
This is just a mess. Its all over the place, without merit really. Sorry guys. Distorted guitar noise and hitting your drums hard whilst shouting over it is simply not enough, and is no replacement for originality or creativity. Its a common enough mistake, but when you see it being made over and over, again it just gets to you after a while.
by Lee Paul
It's dreamy of course when you can make guitars do that thing. If you're a fan of shoegaze, dreampop and all that digging around in the chorus reverb swamp jazz then I'd heartily recommend Whitelands. Their cinéma-vérité video was shot during their tour opening for Slowdive. Don't know if anyone is doing this so well right now.
by Ancient Champion
Matt Johnson endures. Linoleum Smooth To The Stockinged Foot is from The The's much anticipated new studio album Ensoulment out September 6 via Cinéola / earMUSIC. Virtually a spoken piece. I mean, maybe Matt sounds like that if you ever met him which would be great. Even at his quietest and most intimate the intensity is IMAX sensory overload intense. I'm listening to this and thinking about Tom Waits and Rickie Lee Jones having sex. What was that like? "He was always performing," she said. Or something close enough to that as I recall. I guess this is how Matt does it. It's pretty cool. If nothing else.
by Hamilton High
For two overwhelmingly intense minutes the guitar drums and lyrical consternation separate my senses from my physical parts. Fake Fruit can do that to you. Too.
by LamontPaul
From the album 'In Green / We Dream' out on July 19th, the single Driptorch absolutely finds the supergroup of sorts, Parlor Greens, at the very tight funky jazzy best you'd expect from a band that includes Jimmy James (True Loves and ex-Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio), Tim Carman (GA20) and Adam Scone (Sugarman 3). Driptorch is both epic and delightfully empty. All of component parts are bang on. It's breathtaking really what these guys do to you. I don't think there'll be audio until July 19th, so instead this...
by LamontPaul
A whole lot of this is really frighteningly great. And in a genre that's hard to make any rational headway at all, not that lots of people aren't trying, that's something thrilling. It's an immense glimpse behind the mask to where Merce Lemon is ahead of the forthcoming LP 'Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild'. So a bit of Americana then with, when they get to the chorus or their bridge or somewhere, our laconic Patti Smith of the West (Western Pennsylvania), busts out the truth, "You're a fucking liar." And that this week is worth five hearts alone. After that even an archetypal guitar break is more than tolerable. It's more wild than tolerable. That moment makes me glad that they didn't get to shut all of the guitar factories after all. Kinda reminds me a bit of Teenage Fanclub and what Kathleen Edwards did on her LP 'Failer'. I won't kid you, this is long, it's long so you're gonna have to wait to get it. For one of the few times in your entire life, it'll be worth it. Merce Lemon is here for good.
by John Robinson
From their album Flight b741 out in August, evidence that behind the concepts, heavy guitar, fantasy and flash there's a tight af rock band in King Gizzard, Le Risque is a stomping 70s blues work out with shared lead vocals and sounds like a good night out. They can't quite chuck out the middle earth element entirely, as the breakdown lyrics "Where softer souls do sleep, In the hush of morning's glow..." indicate, but it's irrelevant to this thumping piece of rock 'n' roll, which lands smoothly.
by Lee Paul
Faye's unique alright. In so many ways. The voice alone. The preoccupations. "In the last year her Spotify streams have increased 1100% and she experienced a nearly 3000% growth in her YouTube views. Faye’s Spotify monthly listeners have ballooned to over 7 million." So you know she must be good. 'But Not Kiss' is from her fifth LP, Undressed at the Symphony. What is good is that the more than marginally off kilter, idiosyncratic musican can still find massive success in America. Intended or otherwise. Live on Jimmy Kimmel Faye seems happy enough about it. All that ever mattered.
by Lee Paul
Piano - check, strings - check, disco beats... Hmmmm no. Dawn Richards is one of the more admirable musical shapeshifters. No one knows what will come next and that is a great thing I'd say. So, from the autumn LP on Merge 'Quiet in A World of Noise' comes this collaboration with Spencer Zahn. It's a delicate bird. A thing of beauty. To be cherished.
by John Robinson
Who are an art-rock band preparing their first album with production staff veterans of Sleater-Kinney and Band of Horses, with Dory Joins Alfred their latest calling card. Dory is a grandparent, Alfred is her husband lost to dementia, the lyrics unsurprisingly soul searching about the nature of death and ghostly revenants. The key lyric is rather self-consciously clumsy: "What is death a metaphor for?". Enjoy the journey though, the chorus is well arranged, the concluding verse suitably spooky.
long plays.
by Alan Rider
Back at the start of the 1980’s, Port Huron, Michigan played host to a musical collective of underground electronic artists, Hunting Lodge were pre-eminent amongst those acts. Alan Rider reviews their Winter Hill collection, here→
so, have you got anything else.
by Alan Rider
As if to prove that, contrary to popular opinion, I do not spend all my time sitting cross legged in the dark listening to Industrial Noise bands, My Life with The Thrill Kill Kult have been getting a lot of spins here this week. OK, they may well have started life as an Industrial electronic band, but by the early 1990s they had moved on to this warped disco-themed sound and become a target for various pious censorship groups such as the PMRC, who took exception to the band's satirical references to Satan, Jesus and sex in their lyrics and stage shows. For that reason alone, you should play their definitive album, 'Sexplosion', at top volume with the windows open. Its very summery in a way, but with a welcomingly sleazy underbelly. The perfect July soundtrack really.
by Hamilton High
Redd Kross were always hometown heroes in Los Angeles. Their biography is due to appear on their 45th anniversary as a band and they still look younger than you. Enjoy the music, get the book. Read our preview right here→
by LamontPaul
20-odd years old now, Canadian, Kathleen Edwards debut LP, 'Failer' got stuck inside our car CD player for months. A great one. The stories are all Willy Vlautin-like, the moods, evocative, all Lucinda Williams-like. The grand bargain beauty of stealing your married lovers watch from the hotel room and fucking off. The essence of life. It might not have happened that way. It was 20 years ago. If you want your watch back. Six O'Clock News, "Your momma calls you good for nothin', she says my baby is a failer and she don't want you callin'" "I'm gonna have your baby this coming June." "Cop went ahead he shot you through, and now you're lyin' dead on the avenue..." Oh wow. Epic Love story.
essential info.
Main image Mercury Rev by Joe Magistro
The previous Week in Music 'Outsideleft Week in Music Gets Dirty' is here→