The Answer Is In The Beat

Marianne Nowottny and the Sensorium Saxophone Orchestra: “Tomorrow Never Knows” b/w “Strawberry Fields Forever” 7″ single (Abaton Book Company, 2015)

September 26, 2015 at 2:28 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Veteran experimental pop artist goes to Ypsilanti and records faithful yet fresh-sounding covers of 2 of the trippiest Beatles songs, backed by an ensemble of saxophone and percussion players lead by Ben Miller, formerly of Destroy All Monsters. You may think you never need to hear another Beatles cover in your life, and you may be right, but these covers are both truly fantastic. The songs themselves are both obviously masterpieces, but the saxophones are arranged creatively, with some backwards effects and all manners of panning and dynamic control. And the thundering drums on “Strawberry Fields Forever”. And is she saying “I buried Paul” at the end? Awesome.

Ahleuchatistas: Arrebato (International Anthem Recording Co., 2015)

September 19, 2015 at 6:06 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Ahleuchatistas have been around for over a decade, releasing albums on Cuneiform and Tzadik as well as several smaller labels, and generally being sort of a well-kept secret in the noise-rock/math-rock underground. Once a trio, the group is now just the duo of Ryan Oslance (drums) and Shane Parish (guitar). This album is surprisingly more accessible and clean-sounding than anything else I’ve heard by them. There’s not as much harsh, thundering drums or complicated riffs or time signatures. “Rincon Pio Sound” is short, sweet, and positively heart-tugging. Other tracks are shimmering and repetitive, building sounds and excitedly splashing them into each other. “La Faena” features springing guitar effects which often sound like keyboards rather than guitars, and the 10-minute track takes a long time to end, hitting one big chord, letting it ring all the way out, and then hitting it again, several times over the last few minutes of the song. The album’s second half is a little rougher and more angular than the more melodic first half. “Shelter in Place” gets a little more furious and rumbling, and gets a bit woozy during the last couple minutes. “Erosion” seems to scramble and careen, never quite getting up on two legs and moving straightforward.

Magic Castles: Starflower (A Recordings, 2015)

September 19, 2015 at 5:34 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Pretty decent droney psych-pop from Minneapolis. Male/female vocal harmonies and layers of pleasantly fuzzy guitars and keyboards. Sort of like Beach House but with more of a bite to it. “Lost in Space” is a really great spacey drum machine and echo track in the vein of Suicide’s softer moments like “Cheree”. The band clearly has a preoccupation with the moon, sky, and space, not just evident in the song titles but in the spacey, skygazing feel of the music. They also get points for brevity; the entire album is under a half hour, and none of the songs exceed five minutes. Not that there’s anything wrong with a psych band zoning out for long periods of time, but their songs tend to establish a mood and not really move beyond them, so they sound pleasant enough for their lengths. Most of the songs have a variation on the guitar/keyboard midtempo psych haze, except for the aforementioned “Lost in Space” which is more electronic, and the slower, more electronic instrumental “Samara”. “See You Shining” ends the album with a slow, dreamy ode to the stars.

Hakobune: Love Knows Where tape (Constellation Tatsu, 2015)

September 11, 2015 at 10:43 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Impossibly serene ambient. Like Kyle Bobby Dunn, this guy isn’t reinventing the wheel at all, but he’s incredibly good at what he does, so it’s not hard to see why he’s so beloved. KBD is fairly prolific, often releasing multi-disc albums, but Hakobune is too prolific to keep up with, with over 50 releases listed on Discogs, not including collaborations/side projects. The three pieces on this album are calm and engrossing, but get gradually darker, playing out like a transition from day to evening to night. “Rapids” is the more soothing A-side, “Curtains Far Seen” is like a gorgeous sunset, and the title track is like a cloudy (but not stormy), slightly chilly night. Absolutely perfect for the turning-into-fall weather right now.

Sarah Kirkland Snider: Unremembered (New Amsterdam, 2015)

September 11, 2015 at 10:33 pm | Posted in Reviews | 5 Comments

5 years after Snider’s heartbreaking song cycle Penelope, she returns with another one, Unremembered. Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond) appeared on that album, and she returns here, delivering operatic vocals which possibly sound even better here than on her own recordings. DM Stith and Padma Newsome (of Clogs) appear here as well. This album is another dense, layered epic, with poetic, dramatic lyrics intertwined with vibrant, complex arrangements performed by The Unremembered Orchestra. Much of the album is floating and ethereal, but centerpiece “The Witch” is more percussive and exciting. The lyrics are included in the liner notes, and are all accompanied with illustrations which help tell the story.

Midday Veil: This Wilderness (Beyond Beyond Is Beyond, 2015)

September 7, 2015 at 11:35 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

I reviewed a Midday Veil album for Foxy Digitalis a long time ago, and I remember not being crazy about it. It was kind of meandering psych with power ballad tendencies, if I remember correctly. This is an entirely different beast. It’s a much different, and surprisingly funky type of psych-rock. Bernie Worrell from P-Funk plays clavinet and organ on this! And there’s strings by Eyving Kang and sax by Skerik. There’s plenty of drums and synths and horns. It’s all cosmic and mystic and you feel like you’re being driven somewhere. “I Am the War” is a disco-funk odyssey that seems to have a bit of David Bowie’s “Fame” in its bassline, but it launches off into a heavily orchestrated and vocodered galaxy. Not all of the songs are uptempo and funky, but even the slower ones seem like they’re touching upon something, and have colorful instrumentation (tablas, thumb pianos). Really eye-opening and exquisite.

Deison + Uggeri: In the Other House (FinalMuzik/Old Bicycle Records/Oak Editions/Loud!/Grey Sparkle, 2015)

September 5, 2015 at 7:19 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Pretty eerie collaboration that will make you double-check every room in your house to make sure everything’s normal. Maybe even install some sort of high-tech security. Lots of spare, dark space, with stray guitar lines, creaking doors, and surveillance camera whirrs. When you hear piano during “Micro Drama (Kitchen)”, you have to assume it’s being played by a ghost. “Prelude, Largo (Stairs and Cellar)” sounds like several alarms going off but nobody’s around to do anything about it, so they just keep beeping loudly into the void.

Laurice: Best of Laurice, Vol. 1 (Mighty Mouth Music, 2011/reissued 2015)

September 5, 2015 at 6:33 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Originally released on vinyl in 2011, this CD collects several early-to-mid-’70s tracks by Laurice, an openly gay musician originally from Wales who released a handful of pop 7″s under different names, and recorded plenty more glam-rock tunes that have barely been heard until now. Apparently he became a legit disco star later in the ’70s under the name Laurie Marshall, and he’s now 71 and living in Canada and still making music (he has a new album coming out called G.A.Y.D.A.R.). This collection mostly focuses on his glam/rockabilly/power pop stuff from the early half of the ’70s, and most importantly it includes both sides of the single he released under the name Grudge in 1973. I heard “I’m Gonna Smash Your Face In” on WFMU years ago and couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It’s the catchiest, sunniest power pop song ever, and the lyrics are completely hateful and violent (he threatens to throw acid in your face, among other things). It’s astounding. You just need to hear it. The other side of the single (“When Christine Comes Around”) is also about smashing someone’s face in. It’s hard to really top a single like that, but the rest of the album is worth digging into. He has kind of a wild rockabilly side to him, and also a penchant for really catchy pop hooks (“Shy Baby” is another highlight). “He’s My Guy” is as much of an over-the-top gay anthem as you’d expect. The later tracks head toward revved-up guitar-heavy disco, which he would later have success with, producing a more heavily-produced 1977 single called “The Disco Spaceship”. There’s a Volume 2 of this collection out too, which features two more songs about spaceships.

Monokle: Rings (Ki Records, 2015)

September 5, 2015 at 5:38 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Second album from a Russian electronic artist. Less Warp-ish and less James Blake-y than his first album. A few songs have full vocals, and others have manipulated vocal textures, without necessarily having lyrics or song structures. Plenty of acoustic instruments incorporated, sampled, etc. “Rouse” is an atmospheric intro track with an upfront plucked melody and fluttery sonics. “Calypt” is a slow thumping track with depressed sounding vocals and live drums along with the 4/4 thump. “Umbriel” picks up the pace and adds some clippy beats and nice melodies, and some chopped up vocal samples used as musical elements. “Blew” is a dark R&B-ish song which ends up with a thumping, shadowy 4/4 beat. “Backwash” is another shadowy, melodic tech-house track. “Loss” is kind of a crunchy, wobbly downtempo interlude with somewhat explosive, crashing-sounding beats and a constant looped voice that sounds like it’s saying “cone”. “Neon Sign” has a nice crunchy, skippy beat and neat sound design. “Holytin” has a xylophone-ish melody which has a sound that makes you think a download finished or something (you’ll know what I mean when you hear it), and is another decent track with a shuffling, kinda glitchy beat. “Kay” is another short, drifty, clattery, kinda angelic interlude. “Borealis” is another solid, sort of subdued tech-house track. “Radiant Pieces” is a slow, melancholy track with the same vocalist as “Calypt”.

Scissor Now!: Now That’s What I Call Scissor Now! LP (Arbco, 2015)

August 28, 2015 at 8:42 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Ann Arbor’s best sax-driven prog-punk trio returns with their second full-length album. The album seems slightly more refined and accessible than their debut, with less Ruins-like intensity and maybe a bit more of a dance party vibe. The band’s angular version of “Into the Groove” is titled “Madronna”, condensing Ms. Ciccone’s best song into under 2 minutes, and sounding way more focused than Sonic Youth’s dubby deconstruction of the same song. A few tracks from their stopgap EP Shear Immediacy! make their vinyl debut here, including their “Billie Jean” cover, which actually appears uncredited at the end of the second side, with the groove spinning outward from the middle of the record. Likewise, their Britney Spears cover (whose original name I don’t know, nor do I care) does the same thing on side A. The album also includes the group’s second, slower version of Ann Arbor punk standard “Make Babies or Die Trying”, which takes the song in a much jazzier direction than their more punkish first version… at least until they start screaming the song’s title, with added emphasis on the “OR!!!” Also, similar to the first album’s “Ham Sandwich”, this one has another short song about food, namely “Pizza & Cheese”. Another fun, exciting, crazy LP from one of my absolute favorite local bands.