The Answer Is In The Beat

XV: Basement Tapes LP (self-released, 2020/reissued by Half a Million, 2022)

April 9, 2022 at 11:09 am | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Free punk trio XV’s 2019 debut became somewhat of a sub-underground sensation, quickly selling out of its initial 100-copy pressing, with Discogs priced surprisingly going through the roof before a second pressing appeared last year. This album was originally released on cassette by the band in 2020, and it’s just now making its way to vinyl. Like their debut, this is a set of short, raw songs which alternately stare you in the face and try to play games with you. The second part of “Starting Over/Please Stop Talking” is actually a spoken game where the members try to say “Please stop walking” in the spaces that the others aren’t speaking. “Lights in the Woods” is a more melodic tune with a repeated exclamation of “Purple!”, as well as an accelerating rush. After a brief a cappella rendition of “Into the Groove”, “Mark E. Moon” pays tribute to both The Fall and Television, reminding me of Palberta’s half-remembered covers. This has a bit of King Uszniewicz-like saxophone and some furious drum bashing. “Shut Up I’m Bald” actually reminds me more of The Fall, at least until its spaced-out coda, and “We Begin Again” has a similar sort of hobble. Lots of intimate conversations are captured throughout the album, particularly on “Goodnight”, a whispered interaction that touches on self care and hygiene methods. XV’s music thrives in these small, intimate spaces, not only basements but also bedrooms, house venues, UFO Factory. It can be loud and insistent but it doesn’t demand attention and still sounds like something you have to discover or stumble across, or be recommended by a friend.

Optigan Conservatory: Human Money (self-released, 2020)

April 8, 2022 at 7:29 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

This very sporadic collaboration between Fred Thomas and Frank Rotondo has released material every so often, but I was unaware of it until Human Money came out earlier this year. From the start, it makes an impression with rambling pianos which get fed through tapes, setting them in different sonic directions before letting them deteriorate. “Mourning Disappointing” adds some guest vibraphone and guitar, adding some melodic interference but otherwise sounding still and captured. “Elegy for Work” is another mesmerizing piano-based piece, surrounding the sparse notes with glowing echo and reverse effects, and transporting you to a snowy mountain peak for seven minutes. “Hands Are Clean” has stalking, tattering drum machines and haunted, far-away melodies. “Fanfare for Failure” gets us into that reverb-lost Harold Budd/Cocteau Twins zone, but with the dials twisted so that things short circuit and fall out of balance. “Single Use” returns to the sound of pianos which seem to be having out-of-body experiences, if that’s possible for musical instruments.

Yoshinori Sunahara: Lovebeat – 20th Anniversary 2021 Optimized Re-Master 2xLP (Ki/oon, 2001/reissued by Great Tracks, 2021)

April 7, 2022 at 8:11 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

A mid-career solo album from Yoshinori Sunahara (Denki Groove, Sweet Robots Against the Machine, Metafive) gets its first proper vinyl reissue, with remastered sound and a bit of bonus content. This is spacious, loungey downtempo IDM with exquisite sound design and very Kraftwerkian robot vocals guiding the songs. Tracks like “Balance” are calming and spa-worthy, but also have a bit of slowed-down machine funk to them. The title track might be the hit of sorts, but “Spiral Never Before” is surprisingly melancholy, and “Echo Endless Echo” is a brief indicator of what the artist’s music would be like if he explored more of his analog space synth influences. Some of the tracks at the end of the album seem to get scientific and political, with warnings of “controversy” and “uncontrollable activity”. The fourth side of the record contains a new, dubified remix of “Lovebeat”, plus a sequence of demos and loops that weren’t fleshed out into full songs, some of which might’ve actually been too exciting for this generally chilled-out album.

Same Eyes: Desperate Ones LP (self-released, 2022)

April 6, 2022 at 6:22 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Same Eyes is an Ann Arbor-based duo consisting of Chad Pratt (Midwest Product, Hydropark, Morsel) and Alex Hughes. Their second LP features several veterans of the area’s music scene (Fred Thomas, Dykehouse, Serge van der Voo), and was mastered by Warren Defever at Third Man Records in Detroit. The album is a faithful throwback to the New Romantic synth pop era. They don’t have a major label budget, but this is still widescreen, pop-minded music rather than basement minimal synth freakouts, with yelping vocals and starry melodies. The compact stomp of “Held High” is a standout, and “Pavillion” has an infectious electro-disco bassline. “Radio Moscow” is an adrenaline spike of discotheque drama, and “Recess” is breezy enough that you might overlook the fact that Hughes says “who bought your underwear” in the chorus. The more club-ready “Remnants of Fire” concludes the album, by which point I remembered that San Serac was a thing during the 2000s.

Hal Galper Trio: Invitation to Openness (Origin Records, 2022)

April 4, 2022 at 6:55 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

After last year’s release of a stellar live set by the 1977 Hal Galper Quintet, Origin now releases a 2008 date from a trio led by the pianist, this time including Tony Marino on bass and Billy Mintz on drums. Recorded live at a studio overlooking the Catskills for radio broadcast on WJFF, this set was casual and unforced, with no interference from engineer Dana Duke, who reportedly just pressed record and walked away during some of his sessions with the band. A mix of standards (Gershwin, Ellington, Parker) and originals, the band’s playing rumbles and scatters, sometimes darting across the tracks and tumbling over the melodies. The audience applause reinforces how spontaneous this all is, not that anyone would mistake this for a polished studio construction. Ellington’s “Take the Coltrane” seems like the most free-spirited track, until they rip through Charlie Parker’s “Constellation” at warp speed.

Melissa Grey & David Morneau, Diego Vásquez: Dr Diego (Flower Cat, 2022)

April 3, 2022 at 11:43 am | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Melissa Grey & David Morneau, masters of algorithmic and generative processes, have some fun on their collaboration with clarinetist and dancer Diego Vásquez. The duo play handheld devices that most people would commonly regard as toys (a Merlin Music Machine and a Nintendo Game Boy), and they compose disco-chiptune rhythms which Vásquez navigates with his clarinet. “Fluorescence” is a 7-minute epic which bounces, bobs, and twirls, inhabiting a cyber-klezmer rave of its own. The tempo halves to near-dubstep pace at a couple points, and near the end it slowly accelerates back up in a rollercoaster rush. “Inforescence” sticks to a steadier disco beat, but the echo-enhanced clarinet notes dance around it in ecstatic bubbles.

Tapani Rinne & Juha Mäki-Patola: Open (Hush Hush, 2022)

April 2, 2022 at 12:06 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Finnish musicians Tapani Rinne and Juha Mäki-Patola conjure a vast, snowy landscape on their first collaboration. Rinne’s saxophone and clarinet playing is gently nuanced yet rich and expressive, and Mäki-Patola adds a comforting aura with his softly glowing layers of synths. The lapping waves of pieces like “Leave” make this album seem a little closer to ambient than jazz, yet there’s something warm and longing about Rinne’s saxophone playing that just doesn’t come across in most ambient music. It has to be said that the piano melodies in pieces like both parts of “Open” bring to mind last year’s Floating Points/Pharoah Sanders collaboration, although this one doesn’t have an orchestra elevating it to the heavens. Still, this is a soothing album to help you clear your mind.