your greedbagdan hill
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[ Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 next ]Level The Playing Field
[ review of: Level The Playing Field by Gary Lucas (CD Album)
]Subtitled "Early Hurly Burly 1988-1994", this collection on French label Last Call aggregates a gloriously rag-bag bunch of Gary Lucas tunes, illustrating both the dizzyingly diverse styles summoned up by this legendary guitarist, and his singular, distinctive voice writ large across these songs. The "Early" in the subtitle perhaps relates to the period, post-Beefheart, when Lucas began to develop the notion that he could be a solo performer, testing his searing guitar style out across a diverse bunch of group and solo formats (and some occasionally lo-fi recording environments). As such, it's a great collection of smart, open-minded and big-hearted rock tunes, featuring an utterly extraordinary musician.
The piece here are largely songs, rather than the ambient soundscapes or Wagnerian 'soliliquays' he's also capable of, and they generally feature his band Gods and Monsters, often working with a set of singers including Sonya Cohen, Rolo McGinty, Dina Emerson, Jon Langford, and the brilliant Mary Margaret O'Hara. The most celebrated singer in Gods and Monsters was the late Jeff Buckley, for whom Lucas clearly had the greatest respect, and for whom he wrote two songs which eventually became 'Grace' and 'Mojo Pin', launching Buckley's sadly brief but radiant career. These are included here as Lucas solo pieces, and work brilliantly in their own right but also produce a spooky internal echo of Buckley's extraordinary vocal lines. Other standout moments include a scintillating 'power trio' with Jared Nicholson and Michael Blair treating the Knitting Factory crowd to a blazing cover of Miles Davis' "Jack Johnson" segueing into Suicide's "Ghostrider"; or the rock-hip-hop collision featuring K-Rob, "The Crazy Ray"; his virtuoso solo acoustic piece "Dream Of A Russian Princess"; or the incredibly raw, drum machine-driven "The Brain from Planet Eros" recorded in Lucas' NYC living room in 1991.
He's a truly broad-minded musician, with a personal taste for music related to blues in some way, or rather, featuring 'bent notes' at some point in the proceedings, "the voice of god is in the bent notes" as he says! Of course, this can lead to a rich pickings (pun intended), such as music from the Indian sub-continent, Africa, 30s Chinese pop songs, Celtic folk music, the Stones and Beefheart, as much as it can Robert Johnson. The fact he's a supreme player helps, I guess. I was privileged to witness his extraordinary one-man show at the Mixing It live shows in London recently, when his warmth, intelligence, humour, and vast musical knowledge and ability shone through with a certain hazy exuberance. What was also a pleasure to witness was his utterly genuine, humble sincerity and delight at the deserved adulation he received from the crowd. A true musician.
Posted by dan hill at 00:00, 30 Nov 2000
Megaton/Classical Homicide
[ review of: Megaton/Classical Homicide by Techno Animal, Dälek (CD Album)
]Dälek's "Negro Necro Nekros" remains one of the finest hip-hop albums of recent years, proving as durable as the equally brilliant, but rather more lauded efforts by Anti Pop Consortium, Quasimoto, or the AntiCon, Ozone, Mush Records outfits. Techno Animal stand proudly alone in their soundworld, smartly outside fashionable fripperies or simple genre boundaries, ramraiding dub, hip-hop, industrial, metal, dnb (and gawd knows what else) with true integrity. This 12", number 5 in Matador's hip-hop series, pays witness to a soundclash between these two explorers of the outer reaches of avant-hip-hop, featuring a new track by each artist, and a remix of each other's contributions.
The New Jersey trio Dälek (comprising the eponymous rapper/leader, and DJ Octopus and DJ Rek) have already developed a uniquely dramatic sound: a boldly abrasive approach to sculpting samples, unafraid to harshly slam sounds together in uncompromising fashion. Here, "Classical Homicide" delivers big time, it's a massive track. Massive literally, in that its mass shifts according to a sense of dynamics which finds time for vast sparsely populated, empty spaces and then sudden breeze blocks of raw noise. It not so much musique concréte as music which seems to have actually been roughly hewn from concrete, dropping coarsely textured dense slabs like some kind of crazed 60s slum redeveloper. Dälek's convincing, committed delivery perfectly suits the spiralling collages sprouting around him, and personally I can't wait to hear more stuff from this crew.
As with their brilliant split album with Porter Ricks, collaboration often brings out the best in TA's Kevin Martin and Justin Broadrick though interestingly, given the hip-hop terrain, the remixes don't sound that much like Ice, TA's hip-hop offshoot. Both their mix of Dälek, and Dälek's mix of them aren't quite as strong as the originals (as is often the case) but they're fine pieces none-the-less, both acts realising the epic potential inherent in their different sounds. "Megaton" is classic Techno Animal, the relentless, insistent beats of "Demonoid" punching holes in a backdrop of paranoiac migraine haze, gigantic d'n'b bass stabs scraping across a dull ache. I can't think of many groups that pursue a musical vision with such intensity and integrity. A new Techno Animal album, apparently featuring a stellar cast of guest MCs and called, with characteristic flourish, "The Brotherhood of the Bomb", is due out next year. Can't wait for that either. In the meantime, this 12" will do nicely.
Posted by dan hill at 00:00, 30 Nov 2000
Roots and Wires
[ review of: Roots and Wires by Koch-Schütz-Studer plus DJ M. Singe, ...(CD Album)
]This album's been in my life for some time now, I've repeatedly returned to it, and despite the immediate impression it makes, it's only over the course of a few months that I've come to realise it's one of the best records of the year. This probably reflects more on me than the music(!), but none-the-less, what a release. The trio of Hans Koch (bass clarinet, soprano and tenor saxophones, electronics, sequencer), Martin Schütz (electric 5string cello, acoustic cello, more electronics & sequencer), and Fredy Studer (drums, percussion), are joined by two turntablists, DJ M Singe and DJ I-Sound, to generate another edition of "hardcore chambermusic".
The first piece, "The background is the foreground then delirium", is a phenomenal 10-minute introduction. An insistent groove is slowly augmented by the other players, following the relentless gritty patterns, until it finally collapses, twitching, in a glorious barrage of free noise. It's both complex and funky, dealing in harsh abstraction and improv as well as generating rhythmic hooks and warm acoustic textures, and in this sense it's akin to Radian's supreme "TG-11", Pluramon, or Orchester 33/3. With Bernd Friedmann now working with Jaki Leibezeit too, it's clear that the integration of electronics, turntables, and improvised live-playing have found their finest exponents in German speaking countries. And I guess Can inevitably spring to mind as a possible precursor.
But, where previous outings by Koch-Schutz-Studer have engaged with music from Egypt and Cuba, here it seems they've musically washed up on Manhattan's shoreline, working with two "illbient" musicians whose turntables complement their sound perfectly. There are very few turntablists who have really engaged with the idea of being an "equal musician" in such a context, and even fewer who were able to. But M. Singe and I-Sound really do succeed here, with a sense of constucting the music's architecture over time and inter-reacting with the other musicians, working with abstraction as much as discernible "samples". It's often difficult to pick apart the scratching from the saxophones, and indeed, why should you? Just enjoy the furious collages generated on tracks like "Thai Speed Parade" and "Loop Eleven". On this track, Koch plays with Zorn-like intensity, before a post-rock-like bass line and drum pattern drop, skittering saxophone interwoven with scratching hot on their heels. Throughout the whole album, it's an utterly seductive mix of sparse, spacy jams and deep, demanding, abstraction. But, as it says in the smart sleeve notes, "these are only words, they do not sound". You need to hear this record to judge for yourself. And give it time.
Posted by dan hill at 00:00, 30 Nov 2000
E2
[ review of: E2 by Mice Parade, VVM, Múm (CD Album)
]The E-RMX series of seven-inches has been released weekly by Fat Cat over the last couple of months, and it's a sumptuously designed collection of eight 45's, comprising a widely diverse bunch of remixers taking on One Little Indian recording artist Emiliana Torrini. The whole series is pretty much available now (there's rumours of London's excellent Smallfish record shop selling a purpose-built package to house them in), but this is the most coherent yet varied record of the bunch I've heard. Torrini's an Icelandic Björkalike singer - perfectly charming I'm sure - but that's kind of academic as there's not much left of her on these mixes, with Mice Parade perhaps the most reverant and that's really by only including one phrase.
It seems strange to talk about "a classic Mice Parade sound", with an artist whose output is still limited to a handful of records, but it's all there. Adam Pierce has already developed a signature sound - vibes, xylophone, firm bass, curls of picked acoustic guitar, a particular way with live drumming. It's a hugely attractive sound, usually taking instrumental motifs recorded in one take and then overdubbed, capturing a loose, improvised feel. Here the vibes ring and chime in miminalist patterns, and combined with Torrini's slightly coffee-table-ethereal vox draped over crisply crunching drums, it's a seductive piece. VVM's contribution is one of the better pieces I've heard from James Kirby, avoiding the temptation to deflect the issue through humour. It's a deconstruction of the original which goes even further than last years Techno Animal remix of Stina Nordenstam, obliterating Torrini in an insistent barrage of shimmering, screaming electronics.
Fellow Icelanders Mum start almost inaudibly, with what you almost mistake for a lock-groove - a piece of real delicacy emerges almost imperceptibly, unfolding like a beautifully engineered clockwork device. This juxtaposition of Mum and VVM works brilliantly, also neatly illustrating the diversity of the FatCat label who sound like they had a blast following the E-RMX concept through, onto the lovely deconstructed sleeves, and online with a well-executed website - a rare music-based Flash experience of some merit (almost). Credit to FatCat for having the integrity to take on a 'pop' project whilst not compromising on the mixes - and to Torrini, for her open-mindedness and bravery in exposing her sound to such potential distortion. She needn't have worried here.
Posted by dan hill at 00:00, 21 Nov 2000
Oui
[ review of: Oui by The Sea and Cake (CD Album)
]A Pete Frame-style "rock family tree" of The Sea And Cake would not only have to be a piece of information design worthy of Edward Tufte's next volume, but would neatly indicate the post-rock movement's rise and maturity. The four members - Sam Prekop, Archer Prewitt, Eric Claridge, and John McEntire - have returned after a three-year break from The Sea And Cake, in which McEntire in particular has toyed with another band you may have heard of (Tortoise), as well as producing several others and writing soundtracks. Other band members have been engaged with painting and writing, releasing solo records, and generally contributing to the much-lauded Chicago scene.
Prewitt and Prekop worked together throughout this time and this, and the band's "open-relationship", meant a return to the studio wasn't a problem. In fact, it's produced a gem of an album - a set of songs with the approachable sheen of pop, and the depth and sophistication of post-rock. It's essentially a four-piece's album, though augmented by sublime horn and string arrangements by Paul Mertens, who recently orchestrated Brian Wilson's Pet Sounds Anniversary Tour (whose pop masterpieces are not an irrelevant reference point here). The songs are wonderfully intimate pieces, lent further personality by Sam Prekop's distinctive, breathy, upper-register, occasionally half-whispered style. At times he sounds very Arto Lindsay, and I can't imagine much higher praise than that. Lyrics emerge from "accidental combinations, or lyrical dissonance ... words, ideas that somehow resonate with the piece of music". This ain't exactly a new writing technique, even in rock, but it's executed brilliantly here, neatly sidestepping the gauche, pretensions of some who've employed the same pseudo-impressionistic approach (e.g. Lee Ranaldo's more florid moments perhaps). McEntire's percussion is brilliant, lightly skipping through the songs or precisely laid-back, and yet subtly, crisply propulsive. His off-kilter marimba patterns underpinning "The Leaf" are worth the price of admission alone. Combined with Eric Claridge's melodic bass playing, Prewitt and Prekop's guitars alternately stroking chiming, shimmering chords or meandering swirling linear patterns, some supremely tasteful keyboard icing, but most of all, skilful ensemble playing, it reminds just how good a smart four-piece rock band can sound. "Two Dolphins" has a Stereolab angle, not necessarily surprising given McEntire's production credit on "Dots and Loops". The penultimate piece "Seemingly" is essentially a soul number - and simply beautiful, Prekop's voice layered to usher in his own backing singers on the chorus, whilst Claridge's bass gently brings it on home.
Recorded and mixed by McEntire, the intention was to produce "the sound of a band recorded live in the studio", and that's been achieved, although it's a flawless, crafted 'live' performance. This is such elegant pop music, that while it does sound played, it also sounds perfectly polished, but attractively so. It's a delicately, quietly, lovely album.
Posted by dan hill at 00:00, 20 Nov 2000
Sister Funk
[ review of: Sister Funk by Various Artists (CD Album)
]Another great funk reissue from BBE. Compiled by Ian Wright (not that one, sports fans), this release is a flawless collection of female funk singers, largely from the mid-60s to mid-70s. For those "in the know" - the record collectors, djs, the "Big Daddy" readers, and insanely voracious afficienados who populate the funk scene - I need only list the names involved. For the rest of us, who need a regular dose of heavy funk but who can't or don't take the time to track down the 45's, only a few of the following women will be familiar. But they're all worth hearing. Check this for a roll-call: Ruth Brown, Monica Chaffeur, Joyce Dunn, Shirley Vaughan, Ann Robinson, Pearl Dowell, Barbara Lynn, Deloris Ealy, Mary Love, Inell Young, Marie "Queenie" Lyons, Viola Wills, Dorothy Black, The Trinikas, Gloria Williams, Anna Raye, Dolores Ealy and The Kenyattas with Jimmy Liggins Guitar and Orchestra, Barbara and Gwen, The Aristocrats, and Big Ella. Phew! Some 'spotters will notice the odd sample or two, lifted by far less creative types, but we really need only concern ourselves with how vibrant and vital this music is. BBE subtitle it "the real sound of the undergound soul sister", and paraphrasing Ruth Brown, it's a stone groovy thing.
Posted by dan hill at 00:00, 20 Nov 2000
Surrogate Cities
[ review of: Surrogate Cities by Heiner Goebbels (CD Album)
]This release is more or less synchronous with the release of Walter Ruttmann's "Weekend Remix" and ~scape's "Staedetizm", two collections addressing the north European city. Heiner Goebbels' "Surrogate Cities" is perhaps the most valuable contemporary addition to this body of work, taking Frankfurt as its primary subject, but offering up numerous 'stories' of cities as its raison d'etre. Despite having the very public, civic honour of being commissioned for the 1200 year anniversary of Frankfurt, Goebbels is smart enough to know that writing a conventional piece 'about' Frankfurt would be ultimately be limiting, and so he attempts to "approach the phenomenon of the city from various sides, to tell stories of cities, expose oneself to them, observe them".
Much of these works were recorded several years ago with Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, led by Peter Rundel (Ensemble Modern), with Goebbels later mixing vocal tracks and samples, working with favourite collaborators, and classic texts on the city, as perhaps his main inspiration. Though not his sole inspiration - drawings, structures and naturally, sounds are involved and Goebbel's sophisticated compositions involve the sampler as well as the orchestra, as with the opening 10-part "Suite for Sampler and Orchestra". Moving from lyrical near-romantic passages, to percussion-led strident dissonance, the piece collides classical forms with samplers in much the same way Orchester 33.3 collide glitch with jazz. "Suite ..." is redolent a soundtrack, and of course it is. For a city. It's also a stunning piece of music, the finest on this release. Again Ruttmann's tape-based recordings of German cities in the 20s spring to mind, and his prescient modernism is hardly surpassed by Goebbels' sampler, yet Goebbels knows that a city springs from numerous sources, and the increased flexibility of the sampler - like the tape recorder, dealing with triggered memories - lends his music a richly textured fabric appropriate to the task. The sampler's contribution is often restrained accompaniment and ambience, rather than focal-point. Urban found sounds (from New York, Tokyo, Lyon, St. Petersburg), drift into earshot and out again, though the most striking sounds, given the history of the modern German city, include scratchy recordings of Jewish cantorial singing from the Chaconne in the 20s and 30s - intense solo performances climbing all over the marauding opening, and then switching gender to bewitching effect in a quite beautiful refrain. Further samples are taken from David Moss Dense Band, Third Person, Entouche, Otomo Yoshihide, Karl Biscuit, and Xavier Garcia.
Long term compatriot Heiner Müller contributed a new text to a classical story for "The Horatian - Three Songs". Based on the ancient tale of neighbouring warring cities - Rome and Alba - proffering two warriors on their behalf, this is a suitably dramatic piece, featuring the soul-jazz-soundtrack singer Jocelyn B. Smith. I must admit, the incongruity of hearing Smith's Disney-oriented voice - brilliant as it is - is something of a shock, given the otherwise traditional classical timbres. Yet when one actually considers the overall motive of these pieces - representing the city, with its inherently incongruous, unpredictable constructions - this juxtaposition seems not only natural and relevant, but an honest, brave, and intelligent decision. If it's not too didactic to say so, its initially 'incorrect' appearance actually seems 'right'. So much for concepts - musically the pieces are by turns thrilling and ravishing.
"D & C", inspired by Kafka's "The City Coat Of Arms", attempts to construct an "acoustic edifice" - to denote "corners, pillars, walls, facades", though this violent piece is repeatedly shot through with a 5-fist-blows, as in Kafka's story. It would make a good evocation of any shock city. "Surrogate" has words by the Irish-German writer Hugo Hamilton, Adams-like rhythmic propulsion, and vocals by David Moss, free-improvising vocalist for the likes of Bill Laswell and Carla Bley. He delivers a suitably querulous, frenzied performance, portraying typical modern German concerns of belonging and identity. Finally Smith and Moss combine for Paul Auster's "In The Country of Last Things", another expert chronicler of the city. Auster writes, "when you live in the city, you learn to take nothing for granted ... it turns your thoughts inside out". Goebbels vibrant compositions have the same effect. He writes "I construct something which confronts the audience, and the audience reacts to it, discovering in the music a space they can enter complete with their associations and ideas". One almost couldn't wish for a better summation of much contemporary urban thinking, and though this is a sumptuous package, with a photo-laden booklet in three languages, the conceptual potential of these pieces could launch a thousand books. With this release, otherwise relevant urban theorists like James Donald ("Imagining the Modern City") and M Christine Boyer ("The City of Collective Memory") may finally begin to wonder why they're omitting an important dimension of the city. The fact that this music is vital, vibrant, modern, and thrilling makes this work a complete triumph.
Posted by dan hill at 00:00, 20 Nov 2000
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