December 4, 2021 at 11:10 am | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Dave Graw: Abandon Hope LP
Dave Graw has been active within the Detroit music scene for decades, having fronted several punk, hardcore, and emo bands since the ’90s. He also played on some of The Armed’s early releases. His recent solo music is far away from all of that, embracing synths, softer textures, and more meditative perspectives. Having previously released a double CD on his own Aninterval imprint, a digital single on breakcore label Low Res, and a limited LP on Syncro System, he returns to that label with
this tightly focused record of expansive instrumentals. Mostly recorded by himself in his plant-filled home studio, along with bass guitar from Seattle-based Josh Machniak, the album reminds me of labelmate Hydropark, but with a far more smoothed-out take on Krautrock-inspired songcraft than that group. Some songs here have hypnotic rhythms, but there’s also more intimate, weightless pieces like “A Sea of Interfering Signals”, which features thumb pianos, melodic chimes, and rushing sea water. Even the more driving songs, like “To The Health of the Wolf”, lift off the ground and drift easily rather than race furiously. The glowing “I May Have Been Swallowed, But I Refuse to Be Eaten” begins the second side, with an insistent synth line wriggling its way through space, and then “High Neighbors” is a crystalline reflection which gradually gains a swirling sequence and an uplifting rhythm. “With Friends” mingles lightly buzzing guitars and synths with thumb pianos which get swept into reverse at one point. “Perihelion (Apsis Warning Signs)” blends the ethereal with the physical, as a steady, shaker-driven rhythm surfaces front and center while cloudy synths flicker and billow, with one particular note sequence lingering like a memory that’s been halg-forgotten but won’t totally fade away.
December 3, 2021 at 12:31 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Dan Munkus: The Edge of the High Trace
by Peekskill, New York-based composer Dan Munkus is a set of improvisation-based instrumentals dedicated to the memory of his late father, who unexpectedly passed away five years ago. The opening title track (the name of which came to Munkus in a dream, and he has no clue what the phrase means) is a 10-minute slow trek with mournful violin playing by Heather Sommerlad, as well as swarms of guitar feedback and steady, muscular drums carving a path through a darkened landscape. It’s undoubtedly informed by tragedy and feels like a procession of grief, but it’s still pressing onward, determined not to get bogged down by harsh memories. “The End of the High Trace” starts out with more of a moonlit glow, eventually developing guitar melodies which shimmer like northern lights, and it feels like encountering some fantastic visions while venturing into a remote area, far from the sight of any other humans. “Eighty-Four Today” is a solemn piano requiem, which gets shaded with guitar buzz later on, and then ends with a brief melody which suggests a moment of clarity. “Wooden Nickels” is a feast of disturbing yet fascinating noise textures and churning rhythms, snapping into focus when a beat emerges near the end. “A Once Lonely Man” features guest guitarist Tommy White, who adds creative textures as well as ripping solos, and it just blazes once the drums come in. So much feeling to this album.
December 2, 2021 at 6:23 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Gerycz/Powers/Rolin: Lamplighter
Three Ohio-based musicians make up this trio, and their
second album together is a gorgeous set of expansive, mostly acoustic improvisations. Jen Powers’ hammered dulcimer is what stands out the most to these ears, adding some fascinating textures to the mixture, with Jayson Gerycz’s rollicking, scattering drums and Matthew Rolin’s earthy guitars additionally carrying the pieces through vast, open, light-drenched fields. “Rotations” launches the album with ecstatic yet sprawled-out drumming and thick blankets of dulcimer and guitar, creating a truly original sound that’s just full of joy. The title track is the album’s most abstract moment, with a slower drift and some scraping and feedback tones. “June” is a much more welcoming, down-home tune, it just feels like a warm embrace from someone you’ve known a long time who truly cares about you. “Jars of Glass”, the album’s 15-minute finale, is a bit more tightly coiled and almost bluegrassy at the beginning, but after the bumpy-trail drumming disappears, it all floats towards a less constrained space, gradually ending up with controlled waves of electric feedback, and finally ending with a flurry of unconstrained splatter-drumming and noisy guitar wreckage.
November 27, 2021 at 4:35 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Field of Fear: Ashes
Drew Zercoe’s
new album sort of functions like the audio equivalent of a natural horror film. The music was composed by processing pixel data from photographs of over 80,000 acres of land burned during the CZU Lightning Complex fires in California in 2020, and concerting the data into frequencies. The first track, “Fallen Branch”, starts out quiet and gradually becomes engulfed in flames halfway through its 10-minute duration. “Broken Trunk” is more of an immediate storm, starting out with black clouds of terror and becoming electrified in an instant, but there’s a pause where it all goes dark and still before bursting back once again. “Año Nuevo” is more of a vast, rotating drone that ends up scorching a huge amount of ground in its 11 minutes. “Bone Trees” is the longest and most astonishing track here, with a trace of a rhythm throbbing away and funereal drones bleeding underneath. It fades down to just rustling wind for the last minute or so, and you’re too shaken with fear to begin to question what’s just happened and how much has been lost.
November 20, 2021 at 3:02 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Dev/Null: Microjunglizm
Last year, Dev/Null released
Pocket Selector, an album of jungle tracks created using Teenage Engineering’s PO-33 Pocket Operator, a small tool which can surprisingly produce some massive, twisted material. His new
Microjunglizm EP is another batch of storming hardcore and jungle, with each track packing a huge wallop in less than 4 minutes. There’s horror vibes (“Broken Bell”), there’s more aggressive drill-like breaks (“Breath”), there’s moments that almost approach more straightened out, looped versions of his breakcore past (“Warning Sign”), there’s mutant hardcore dancehall (“Time 2 Rhyme”), and lots of on-the-fly Hyper On Experience-style mashery. Definitely not as loony and horror movie-esque as the Dev/Null of old, but just as much of a shot of manic energy, and easily some of the most creative modern hardcore.
November 17, 2021 at 11:09 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
v/a: Relief: A Benefit for the Jazz Foundation of America’s Musicians’ Emergency Fund
Benefiting musicians who are still dealing with financial setbacks due to the pandemic, this compilation gathers previously unreleased goodies from an impressive cast of modern jazz heavyweights and all-time legends. Esperanza Spalding is the guest vocalist on the dense soul-jazz cityscape that opens the album, “back to who” by Irma and Leo. Christian McBride’s “Brother Malcolm” is a solemn reflection which gets a bit wound up before resolving at the end. Cecile McLorin Salvant delivers a passionate yet unfussy reading of “Easy Come, Easy Go Blues”, recorded by Bessie Smith nearly a century ago. Jon Batiste similarly interprets “Sweet Lorraine” in the manner of Nat King Cole, accompanying himself on piano and getting a little excited during the solo. Kenny Garrett’s “Joe Hen’s Waltz” is one of the longest tracks here, folding a brief “My Favorite Things” quote into a steady outpouring of soulful musings. Hiromi revisits a track from her 2004 album Brain, and it’s astounding as always, finding place for both tenderness and technical mastery. Actually, it’s definitely not the most daredevil-like piece she’s recorded, it’s more accessible. Joshua Redman’s piece kind of floats and ambles along; Brian Blade’s drumming is the most exciting part. Charles Lloyd & Kindred Spirits perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing”, and the veteran saxophonist takes the familiar melody and runs it through the wringer several times over, as Marvin Sewell does on guitar. The rest of the band is loose and unbound, making this the most far-out piece on the album as well as the longest. Finally, Herbie Hancock presents Jimmy Heath’s “Gingerbread Boy”, a song he played piano on when Miles Davis recorded it for
Miles Smiles, and this version just overflows with energy, with all of the players joyfully caught up in the moment.
November 16, 2021 at 7:24 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Brett Naucke: Mirror Ensemble
Brett Naucke’s
breathtaking new album is a collaboration with Natalie Chami (TALsounds, Good Willsmith) and Whitney Johnson (Matchess), both of the duo Damiana. Both artists add different dimensions to Naucke’s analog synth arrangements, and the results are unlike any of the artists’ other work. “The Glass Shifting” is a sort of goth sleepwalk, with starry synths shimmering down among Chami’s ethereal vocals and slow yet detailed machine beats. “A Look That Tells Time” is sparser and more crystalline, with mist floating off of thumb piano-like notes, then strings and more vivid synths rising and flowing like a fountain of pure energy. “Parallax” is clusters of haunting lights in the night sky, and “Rose Water” is similar but even spacier. “Sleep With Your Windows Open” is delicate and more acoustic, then “Late-Century Reflection” is one last burst of transcendent arpeggio-heavy synth power.
November 15, 2021 at 8:09 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
v/a: Back Up: Mexican Tecno Pop 1980-1989
sheds light on underground synth pop and new wave produced in Mexico during the 1980s. Most of the tracks were actually featured on a 2005 CD compilation (
Backup Expediente Tecno Pop), aside from 2 exclusives, including the previously unheard proto-acid synth odyssey “Las Cucarachas” by El Escuadrón Del Ritmo. Some of these songs recall Spanish electro pioneers Aviador DRO, who coined the term tecno-pop in 1979. The first songs on the album contain tinny, uptempo drum machines and melodramatic, new romantic-style vocals, with Syntoma’s “No Me Puedo Controlar” being a particular highlight. Then there’s a sample-crazy industrial track by Artefacto, who changed the “c” to “k” and collaborated with Sascha Konietzko of KMFDM, and later ended up founding the Nortec Collective. The self-titled track by Cou Cou Bazar predicts a lot of the hypnagogic pop stuff that came into vogue around 15 years ago. Volti’s Crammed Discs-issued “Corazón” is more disco-friendly, verging on freestyle, while Nahtabisk’s “La Dama De Probeta” is off-the-wall synth-punk. Década 2’s “Alfabeto (Cold Version)” is a New Beat-ish stomper, and the release ends with a stunning, dub-tinged darkwave tune by Silueta Pálida. Lots of fascinating material on here, and like the best of these compilations of obscurities, clicking around on Discogs and YouTube links will lead you down several rabbit holes with tons more to discover.
November 13, 2021 at 12:02 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Nate Smith: Kinfolk 2: See The Birds
Drummer and keyboard player Nate Smith leads an all-star cast on the second LP of a trilogy. Influenced by the entire spectrum of Black music, Smith’s work is heavy on breakbeat-like rhythms, tricky time signatures, rock riffs, and insightful lyrics. Opener “Altitude” is just a calm, welcoming vibe with cool keys, scat vocals, and ear-tickling vibraphones by Joel Ross. Class is in session with “Square Wheel”, a mini-marathon containing rapping, encouraging lyrics, angular rhythms, and boppy sax soloing, then it leads into a brief, tongue-twisting freestyle by emcee Kokayi. The instrumental “Street Lamp” intertwines driving alt-rock with heartfelt soul-jazz. Regina Carter contributes violin to the enchanting “Collision”, and a surprisingly dark, ethereal prelude leads into “Rambo: The Vigilante”, a tense, somewhat difficult, but riveting scorcher featuring Vernon Reid. Amma Whatt sings on the sensuous ballad “I Burn for You”, then Joel Ross and michael Mayo return for the synth-funk groover “See the Birds”. Finally, Brittany Howard guest on “Fly (For Mike)”, a gentle, hopeful ballad which feels like lifting off and floating in the air.
November 11, 2021 at 6:19 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Suneaters: Suneaters XI: It’s the Future
Kansas City’s Suneaters are described as “post graduate rock” and “scientist rock” online, but they’ve gravitated towards electronic music with their most recent releases. Their newest album has palm trees and a setting sun on the cover, and it sounds like the score to the type of film that builds a lot of suspense out of long, breathtaking shots where almost nothing happens. Slow, hazy synthscapes point your mind in directions without spelling too much out. “Climate” creeps quietly, but there’s several sudden bursts and hallucinatory flare-ups. “Graveyard” is a long, drawn-out doomscape with an unexpected chopped-and-screwed sample appearing out of nowhere and adding to the tension. “No. 3” is a shorter, prettier piece that feels like floating in some sort of lush, crystal garden. Synths are so lovely, aren’t they? “On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres” is a bit more alien, with more abrasive splotches of synths squirming about, but apart from reproducing and squizzing on top of each other, they don’t seem to move too much. “Sacco and Vanzetti” is just a long, heavy, dead-eyed stare, with some faint rumblings of stray synths and drums under heavy, swarming synth clouds, and a bug-out ending that truly catches you off guard.
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The Answer Is In The Beat 