The Answer Is In The Beat

Jandek mega-post

June 29, 2014 at 12:56 am | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

WCBN owns almost the entire Jandek discography, but for some reason we haven’t received any new releases since 2012’s Indianapolis Saturday. But now that Corwood Industries has online mail order and an email address, I asked the representative to send us all of the new releases, and he did! I’m in total worthless recluse mode right now so this is a huge gift to me. Catching up chronologically, we start with 2012’s Maze Of The Phantom, which sounds somewhat like Jandek’s attempt to compose a Chinese opera, with cooing female vocals, gentle harp, shakers and percussion, and cello. Very beautiful, calm, meditative music music. The work has 6 parts, and there’s 2 rehearsals included at the end of the second disc. All of the tracks sound pretty similar, but Part Six gets unexpectedly scatty/jazzy, yet still operatic.

Following that, we have Atlanta Saturday, a live recording from 2007. This one consists of an eight-part (plus a prelude) work called Outcast Of Civilization, and I’m guessing it’s a total coincidence that it was recorded in the same town that Outkast is from. As you might expect, this is a really lonely and depressing yet beautiful piece, which lasts 2 hours and features piano, strings, flute, soft drums (mostly cymbals and chimes), and sporadic vocals, which are mostly spoken word. Part One is kind of a perky chamber-jazz jam, and Part Six is spazzy and chaotic for the first half, until Jandek starts doing his lonely spoken word bit. Part Five is where his prose gets downright scathing. “If you can’t find a place here, what are you? The outcast of civilization. The unbeliever. One who couldn’t conform even to nonconformity.” Excellent work, will make you ponder existence and wonder why everything feels so empty inside.

Richmond Sunday is also from early 2007. It seems like he’s been releasing his performances roughly in order, although I don’t think his 2007 SXSW concert that I attended has been released yet. This album has 6 long pieces, with the first 2 (“This Dream” and “Another Mystery”) approaching a half hour each. Loose, rambling and free-jazzy, with bass, sax, drums, and guitar, and some spoken vocals. Intensely isolated, yet also loving and thankful. The third track on both discs (“What She On” and “The Ditch”) are the most intense and free-jazzy, and are even kind of furious.

After this, Jandek dropped a bomb on us in the form of a 9 CD box set called The Song Of Morgan, with each disc consisting of an hour-long piece for solo piano, with no vocals. He’s released solo piano music before, but not to such a grand scale as this. The pieces are all “nocturnes” so expect them all to be moonlit and solemn. Generally pretty slow-moving, definitely no Liberace showmanship here. There isn’t really any use in dissecting each disc, not because there isn’t any variation, but there’s just so much of it that typing out “this is where it gets faster, this is where it gets quieter” would be kind of moot. It’s all lonely solo piano music, perfect for extended sulking. Or try playing multiple discs at the same time and see what happens.

Athens Saturday is a newer recording, documenting a 2012 gig at the Orange Twin Conservation Community. So of course there’s several Elephant 6 alumni backing him up, as well as Bradford Cox. The entire concert consists of a single 100-minute piece called “Waiting To Die”, which is split between the two discs. This is one of the most beautiful, sad, brutal, and life-affirming Jandek works I’ve heard yet. The words are basically a dialogue between a depressed recluse and a happy man who’s trying to cheer him up. The recluse doesn’t like to do anything, he doesn’t go to the movies, he doesn’t drink, he doesn’t have friends, and he’s just basically sitting around waiting to die. He says that living is dying and the only variable is time. It’s so harsh and depressing, but at the same time it’s such a moving story. I feel like if I was actually at this concert, it probably would’ve changed my life. Tied with Where Do You Go From Here as my favorite Jandek recording.

His newest live release is Houston Saturday, which is a different end of the cathartic-yet-brilliant spectrum. This set was recorded a year ago at something called the Free Press Summer Fest, which sounds like an entirely inappropriate venue for a Jandek concert. So it’s a relatively short concert for Jandek, just consisting of one 35-minute piece called “Excited” (although the work itself seems to be called I Know I’m Alive), with Jandek sounding as happy and celebratory as he can get. “I’m so excited! I’m so alive!” Never have these words sounded more terrifying. But wait, then Jandek tells us “stop the train! but neverrrrr I won’t get off.” After lots of soloing, he starts to tell us how he really feels. “Take away my senses… my mind is craaaazzzyyyy!!!” Definitely feels like some sort of therapy session. Love you Jandek.

As soon as these CDs came in the mail, I checked the Corwood Industries website and found that there’s an even newer release available, called Ghost Passing. This one’s a 6 disc box set, which I assume is more piano solos. According to discogs.com they’re all titled “Fantasy” 1-6. Word on the street is that this one contains theremin, so naturally I can’t wait to hear it.

Turn To Crime: Can’t Love (Mugg & Bopp, 2014)

June 26, 2014 at 10:36 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

I’ve been missing out on Turn To Crime (Detroit’s Derek Stanton) until now, I’ve always heard the name mentioned but I’ve just never gotten around to seeing him or hearing his recordings. This is his first album and it’s more poppy than I expected, sounding like the solo experimental pop that it is, with repetitive drum machine rhythms and lo-fi guitars, but with a clearer pop sensibility, and some unexpectedly soulful vocals. “I” is a short organ intro, “Can’t Love” is a cool bashy-drums pop song, “Sunday’s Cool” is lo-fi garage soul, “Pine Box” is slower and sadder, “Forgiveness” is midtempo and kind of sad and soulful, and then the last 2 tracks are longer, noisier jams, with “Nightmares” being an excellent Krautrock-fuzz freakout, and “I Can’t Not Love” being a 10-minute instrumental jam.

Longmont Potion Castle: 11 (D.U. Records, 2014)

June 18, 2014 at 3:11 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Longmont Potion Castle has been on a prolific streak for a while now, regularly putting out a new album every year, each one funnier than the last. The newly released 11 (actually the 12th LPC album, counting Late Eighties Vein) marks the project’s return to the CD and tape formats, following a couple digital-only releases and the double-vinyl release of 9. This one, like most LPC releases, is pretty much non-stop ridiculousness. He calls people claiming he has a 65,000 pound battle cannon in a helicopter, asking where he should land the thing. He tells a camping store that he wants to get outfitted like a “swamp donkey”, and after he can’t get what he asks for, he asks for “holographic boots”. He gets Alex Trebek on the line with a bunch of other celebrities, claiming to be from a new show called What’s Crackin’. He does his UPS guy bit, telling someone he’s going to deliver them Tasmanian syrup on dry ice. He talks to an Obama-hating Fox News reporter, claiming to be from the NAACP, asking for donations to What’s Crackin’. Best of all is the 11 minutes he spends calling people up claiming to be “your new neighbor”, asking how he can cry more of his own natural tears. That one just hits home because I think I’ve somehow lost the ability to cry tears and sometimes wonder how I can do that myself. This is also one of the few calls where the people he’s calling are actually amused by his calls, and one of them asks him if he’s Longmont Potion Castle, and keeps saying “this is so awesome right now”. He’s as proficient as ever with manipulating his voice and coming up with ridiculous fake names, and he calls people on Skype and when they say they’re going to report his number or track him he nonchalantly goes “oh don’t do that”. The last few LPC albums have included links to bonus tracks with the digital tracklist insert, and this album includes the bonus tracks as a bonus disc. There’s only a handful of tracks on this disc, but the highlight is when he claims to be from “Golf Wolf Magazine”, and repeatedly asks the guy he’s calling how he’s doing, who keeps replying “I’m unbelievable, but if you keep calling, I’ll call the police”. He also claims to be a former coach for the Denver Broncos, and calls some guy who hates football asking for input. Oh, and as usual, there’s some thrash songs, some of which have dense sample collages, and one of which samples the infamous “Tight Bros” phone conversation between two guys talking about which classic rock guitarist is better (“I was flipping on acid!”). It looks like the page that had the physical CD and tape versions isn’t available (maybe they sold out already) but you can always buy a download here. Give this man all the moneys or he’s gonna whoop your ass. How does that sound?

Venetian Snares: My Love Is A Bulldozer (Planet Mu, 2014)

June 18, 2014 at 2:25 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

10 years ago it seemed like Snares had a new record out every other week, but as of late he’s been quiet enough that this is his first proper album in 4 years, not counting side projects Last Step, Speed Dealer Moms and Poemss, and a few EPs. This album brings together many of the hallmarks of his sound; orchestral strings, rave synths, spastic breakcore beats, jazzy drums and vocal samples, and an increased use of his own crooning vocals. This is easily one of his most personal albums to date. “1000 Years” darts between sublime feather-floating and furious screaming mayhem, with lyrics about twisted scientists, punching dragons and tearing evil wizards in half. “Your Smiling Face” is a spare trip-hop love song, with Snares repeatedly exclaiming “Girl, I was born to kiss your smiling face”, followed by an excited “WOOOOOOO!!!” “My Love is A Bulldozer” is another tall-tale fantasy love song, featuring some of the most detailed, lopsided beat programming he’s done yet, and taking it to further levels of ridiculousness by repeatedly crooning “only you can make my dick feel like this”. The album’s second half is less vocal-driven (other than the dirge “Too Far Across”), but still is chock-full of pulverized beats and intricate melodies, and a classical guitar instrumental called “8am Union Station”. The album ends with the bombastic brass/string finale of “Your Blanket”. All I can say is that I can’t tell you how much I need this album in my life right now.