June 16, 2017 at 9:41 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Shigeto: Detroit Pt II 12″ single
Local hero Shigeto started a new label called Portage Garage Sounds with his brother Ben Saginaw (of Ritual Howls). This is its first release, which was limited to 500 copies and is already completely sold out! Shigeto’s recent tracks have been way more club-friendly than the IDM/hip-hop hybrids he’s often known for, and this is an immersion into straght-up deep house. Warm keyboards, thumping beats, echo-covered tenor sax from Marcus Elliot, as well as softly spoken vocals which come back to the word “Detroit” (as does all modern dance music). The “I-94 Mix” on the B-side is more low-key, fixating on the groove, with just a bare amount of dubbed-out sax floating over the bumping beat. There’s reportedly more from Shigeto forthcoming in this vein, possibly on a label owned by a certain WCBN DJ (no, not me!).
June 9, 2017 at 6:56 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Graeme Miller & Steve Shill: The Moomins original soundtrack
This is the previously unreleased soundtrack to what looks to be a very bizarre children’s television program from the early ’80s, involving a variety of felt creatures which look like hippos. The music was made in the U.K. by post-punk musicians experimenting with synthesizers and cheap instruments, and it’s as playful and creative as the program looks, but also a bit dark and sinister. The opening theme song is a nice jaunty little ocarina-driven number which will get stuck in your head, and you’ll probably be ok with that. “Travelling Theme” is a slower, dubby groove which isn’t too far from Adrian Sherwood. “Moomins Partytime” is suitably bubbly and gleeful, with more whistling melodies and lots of excited cheering. The album gets a lot darker after that, though; “Midwinter Rites” sounds like it’s some sort of evil ritual taking place in a cave filled with flesh-eating beasts (but it still sounds festive). “Comet Shadow” is five minutes of solemn skygazing. This is the type of curious retro-futuristic release which couldn’t have a better home on any other label than Finders Keepers, and it’s simply delightful.
June 2, 2017 at 9:25 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Bext Exes: Cactus tape
Best Exes is a new group consisting of Jim Cherewick (Congress, Wicker Chairs), Erin Davis (Failed Flowers, Bad Indians), Maria Nuccilli (Deadbeat Beat, Outrageous Cherry), and Linda Jordan. The songs seem gentle and easygoing, but the lyrics can be pretty bitter, as they’re often about breakups and drinking. It’s kind of tense, but it’s relaxing and easy to listen to. Even at its most raucous (“Rock ‘N’ Roll Liquor Store”), it doesn’t seem abrasive or angsty. Fred Thomas recorded this and played bass on one song, and if you’re a fan of bands he’s recorded recently such as Rebel Kind and Bonny Doon, you’ll be all over this. Listen to the whole thing at
Bandcamp, and purchase a tape via
Palm Tapes.
May 30, 2017 at 6:33 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
G & Doro: If I See You EP
Sweet dance-pop which sounds like it legitimately could’ve been huge circa 1991, when house had made a pretty substantial impact on mainstream pop music. Bright, slick, fresh synths and breakbeats, along with yearning, affectionate vocals from Dorothea Paas. Basically, this sounds like a bit of everything that was popular on MTV right before Nirvana and gangsta rap took over the pop music landscape. Think Soul II Soul, new jack swing, and not quite Mariah Carey but artists who were on the radio at that time but didn’t end up being megastars, like Cathy Dennis or Tara Kemp. Mind you, I’m not really crazy about any of that music, but these songs right here are quite good. “No Looking Back” is just a really sweet mix of lush synths and fluttering vocals (and bird chirps, also). “Something Real (Uncanny Mix)” has Amen breaks and pianos, but it builds a pop song over it, and it works fantastically. I feel like there’s a large amount of tape labels that have been trying to release material that’s nostalgic for this time period but haven’t really hit it out of the park like this tape does. Listen on
Bandcamp, and purchase a tape directly from
Palm Tapes.
May 24, 2017 at 10:49 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Carsickness: 1979-1982
Excellent anthology of a Pittsburgh band called Carsickness who played a strange, arty (but not quite in a downtown New York way) sort of post-punk for a few years during the late ’70s and early ’80s. The vocals sound a lot like Mission of Burma (or occasionally a bit like Joe Strummer), and the songs sometimes have a punk attitude, but they aren’t quite as nihilistic as most of the other punk bands from that time. They don’t seem like they were safety pin/mohawk punks, but they weren’t quite skinny tie new wavers either. Also, there’s strange time signatures and arrangements, and sometimes horns or keyboards. The songs themselves are usually short, but tightly packed and complex. Some of it almost seems like weirder, angrier power-pop, and some of it is like a tighter, midwestern version of no wave, in some ways. The first song “Bill Wilkinson” immediately caught my attention; it started out and I was like “ok, power pop but slightly distorted, got it”, but then it turns out to be a song angrily addressed at the grand wizard of the KKK, featuring copious shouts of “KKK fuck you!”, and I am entirely down with that. A lot of the songs are short (some less than a minute) but packed with ideas. While most of them have somewhat skewed poppy song structures, there’s also weirder experiments like the drum solo and sax/screaming of “Hearts in Traction”. “Crazy Thing” is a frantic number incorporating synths, saxes, and honking car horns, along with manic speech and radio announcements. “For You” sounds like they’d been listening to the Psychedelic Furs, but wanted to make something slightly more upbeat. The album ends with an acoustic, string-laden version of “Bill Wilkinson” which is actually angrier and more expletive-heavy than the original. Carsickness released 2 albums and EPs and appeared on an early Sub Pop cassette compilation once, but they seem to have remained obscure. I’m a little surprised this band hasn’t received more recognition, beyond a few tracks included on Hyped To Death compilations, but that’s just how it goes. Excellent collection, excellent band. Stream right now over at
Bandcamp.
May 24, 2017 at 10:02 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Deadly Vipers: A Night of Fright tape (self-released, 2016)
Excellent tape by an all-female garage-psych-punk quartet from Detroit. Clear, direct vocals, forceful guitars and drums, and sometimes a bit of hazy psych organ, but the songs themselves never meander, they stare you in the face and punch you in the guy. I hadn’t heard of this band at all before this tape showed up to the radio station, and now I’m wondering why I haven’t. Totally kicks ass, and I hope I get to see them soon. Listen/purchase digitally at
Bandcamp.
May 14, 2017 at 8:49 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Lazertüth: The Akami LP
Space prog from New Bedford, Massachusetts. My grandparents lived in that town, so I spent a lot of time there as a kid, and this makes me wonder where all the weirdos were hiding. Their brand of prog is a little on the heavy/stoner-y side, but might still appeal to your (Gabriel-era) Genesis-loving dad or uncle. They also mention Magma as an influence, and like that band, this one seems to sing in their own language, at least during same moments (like the end of the first side). The last few minutes of the album have some pretty epic
The Wall-esque shouting.
May 14, 2017 at 8:46 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Arthur King & the Night Sea: Palmetto LP
Swirling, atmospheric sorta-jazz. Definitely similar to
TNT-era Tortoise, but there’s some trippy, Miles-esque trumpet playing. The trumpets sound warped and Jon Hassell-y on “Yao Ming”, but there’s way more of a groove. “Metaphor” is longer and is most active and swinging during the middle, but it drifts out into the sea after that. The tracks on the second side similarly drift between languid grooves and spacious zoning. “Nigredo” gets pretty turbulent though, it sounds like someone’s getting caught in a tornado or something. “Glenn’s Theme” sounds like it’s begging to be sampled or rapped over. “Riverhead” ends the album with the same type of swirly melty trumpet tones it starts with.
May 7, 2017 at 12:15 am | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Xao Seffcheque: Ja, Nein, Vielleicht Kommt Sehr Gut (A Selection Of Electronic Beats 1980-82)
Venturing deep into the NDW underground, the great Bureau B presents this fascinating track of early ’80s tracks by notorious prankster. Xaõ Seffcheque. He released an album titled
Sehr Gut Kommt Sehr Gut which contained parodies of then-contemporary bands like Der Plan and D.A.F., but their names were mentioned on the record, so the music press though it was an actual compilation. Kraftwerk were also subject of this parody, and they took legal action, so a sticker warning that the record was a parody had to be attached to the sleeve. Of course, listening to Xaõ Seffcheque’s music now, without having the greatest familiarity of all of the music he’s lampooning, the joke might be somewhat lost. Still, just listening to this collection on its own merit, it’s a pretty strange, funny, wide-ranging set of tunes. There’s the Blondie-goes-EBM-with-sax new wave of “Good Friends”, the high-octane silliness/nonsense of “Pogo À Gogo” and “Sample & Hold”, the drunken doo-wop of “O-Lui”, and the backward masking hypnotism of “Mannesmann”. Best of all, at least for my tastes, is “Why We Hate the Residents”, which consists of the lyrics of “Eleanor Rigby” recited in a “spooky” distorted voice over primitive keyboard plunking. Good one.
May 6, 2017 at 11:36 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Sverre Knut Johansen: Secret Space Program
Norwegian ambient composer Sverre Knut Johansen’s new album is themed around extraterrestrial life and abduction conspiracies, but it sounds a bit more earthly than one might expect at first. Opener “MILAB (Military Abduction)” even features seagull calls and wave crashes. In addition to swirling, arpeggiating synthesizers, a lot of the instrumentation sounds like flutes or sweeping strings, but guitars seem to be the only non-electronic instruments mentioned in the liner notes. The rhythms are often very percussive and dramatic, sometimes getting into choppy, stuttering IDM territory, other times sounding more cinematic. By “Genetic Programs”, we’re into more of a deep space realm, and possibly into some sort of electromagnetic field that’s disrupting the flight, and causing static and interference. “Precognitive Abilities” has skittering Autechre beats along with dramatic new age melodies. “Sphere Being Alliance” is more trancey, like BT or something. The album achieves a very unique combination of guitar heroics, widescreen bravado, cosmos-pondering, and chaotic glitchiness.
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The Answer Is In The Beat 