The Answer Is In The Beat

Mark PM: Inversions (Stereo Ferment, 2021)

September 17, 2021 at 9:33 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Toronto resident and former Crush Collision guest Mark Mullkoff makes his debut as a producer with this brisk EP of collage funk. Pulling together several strands of beatmaking, there’s ’70s drum breaks and horn licks, as well as junglist samples and bugged-out sampler choppage of the Ras G or Madlib variety. It’s almost lounge, nearly chillwave, but then it’s beat scene. “Crowd Work” gives some love back to the audience and shouts out to Ann Arbor, Mark’s original hometown. Later tracks stretch out a bit (past 3 minutes) and are closer to beachside Balearic shuffles; they practically seem incomplete if you’re not holding at least one cocktail.

Jandek: Ann Arbor Saturday (Corwood Industries, 2021)

September 16, 2021 at 6:53 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

In 2008, WCBN’s staff invited Jandek to play a free concert at the Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre. Sadly, I moved to Ann Arbor the year after, so I missed out on this event, but I saw him at SXSW a few years earlier (and that show has recently been released), and later saw him in Detroit, doing a surprisingly fun set at El Club (and I narrowly avoided a car accident driving home). From what I’ve heard, most of the audience walked out almost immediately once this set began, and it’s easy to hear why, regardless of whether the audience members knew anything about Jandek or not. This is decidedly a bleak set, with The Rep coming in after about five minutes of fretless bass meandering, trumpet wailing, and harpsichord, then declaring himself to be a piece of trash and saying that if everyone died, it would all be the same. He also references his own Telegraph Melts album, and talks about a creepy crawly nightmare man, asking “why doesn’t he go away?” The set was recorded in May but it would’ve made a perfect Halloween event. Even creepier, later on in the first track, he says “I must’ve gotten eaten away, it must’ve been some nasty virus”, then later moans about being put out of his misery. Sincerely hope this guy’s been vaccinated. “Why” is a bit more surreal, mentioning a yogi and then finding the narrator in London, only he’s drowning himself in sorrow and lamenting “this stupid life”. On “Loud Silence”, he wails “It’s not about anything, youuuu just got bambooooozled into thinking there was something”, basically answering his own critics once and for all. Biba Bell, the interpretive dancer during the concert, contributes some wordless caterwauling during a few intervals. “Being a Body” has a brief Jason Molina-esque moment, which actually seems like the most optimistic point of the funereal dirge. “The Conflagration” has some brash harpsichord thwacking and somewhat more hopeful lyrics: “Okay, okay, it can’t be that bad, there’s still eating and drinking and sleeping and waking”. The only reason for living is doing everyday things, basically. Food tastes good right? Just do the things you like doing, there’s no need to worry about anything else.

Gerry Gibbs Thrasher Dream Trios: Songs From My Father (Whaling City Sound, 2021)

September 15, 2021 at 8:26 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Drummer and bandleader Gerry Gibbs’ latest project is a tribute to his father, 96-year-old living legend and vibraphone master Terry Gibbs. Following in the footsteps of his father’s Dream Band, Gerry assembled four Dream Trios, whose lineups live up to the group name, with Chick Corea, Patrice Rushen, Ron Carter, and Christian McBride among the astounding personnel. The compositions draw from Terry’s catalog dating back to the 1940s, but everything sounds fresh, contemporary, and full of joie de vivre. It’s also notable that none of the Dream Trio members play vibraphone — the album focuses on the timelessness and flexibility of the compositions rather than trying to ape the composer’s sound or style. The cartoonish yet virtuosic “Nutty Notes” and “Gibberish” are both fun highlights, and a few songs like “Sweet Young Song of Love” and “Townhouse 3” have a refreshing Latin influence to them, with Gerry ripping on the percussion. Chick Corea’s piano playing seems particularly vibraphone-like, and his MiniMoog parts shine as well. Corea was one of the driving forces behind the album; he contributed an original, “Tango for Terry”, and there’s a track called “Hey Chick” dedicated to him, taking part of a 1961 vibraphone recording by Terry and featuring solos from all of the Dream Trio lineups. Sadly, Corea died earlier this year, while the album was being finished, making this his last recorded work, and a tribute to his legacy as well as Terry Gibbs’.

Maximum Ernst: Perfect Mixer/Matchless Pair tape (ever/never records, 2021)

September 14, 2021 at 8:01 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Following a ghastly yet meditative 12″ last year, Maximum Ernst returns to the tape format with this half-hour collection of shortform shapeshifting odysseys. Subliminal voices and overcalibrated motors collide with primitive, burbling drum machines, taking you on a fun yet dangerous cruise. A short track near the beginning serves as an ominous warning as well as a sneak preview (“don’t forget, it’s coming soon”). “Richard Motor Hits The Wall” is 7 minutes of revved-up industrial/no wave/motorik clanging which crashes into a wall of prickly guitar noise at the end. “Reverend Island” starts with a wavering ambient loop and crackling sounds before also becoming engulfed in a thick blanket of noise. “Vanity Mirror Universe” and “Suspended Sentence” have tripped-out drum machines which topple over each other, and in between them, the shorter “Komovar Chant” has more voltage running through it, making it feel far more tense, without the combustion of some of the tracks on the first side.

Mind Maintenance: s/t LP (Drag City, 2021)

September 13, 2021 at 7:37 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Two longtime Chicago music scene figures who have occasionally made records together (for example, both were in Sticks and Stones, along with Matana Roberts), Chad Taylor and Joshua Abrams made their first album as the duo Mind Maintenance with a limited setup of traditional African instruments. Abrams plays the guimbri, a three-stringed skin-covered bass lute, and Taylor plays an mbira (thumb piano). Recorded and mixed by Cooper Crain, the instruments are upfront and unadorned, letting their natural vibrations ring out. Some of the tracks kind of bleed into each other, but there’s some exciting moments when the rhythms become complex and especially hypnotic, as on centerpiece “Valence”. Somehow the first time I listened to this, I felt like the first side went on forever, but listening to it again, each side goes by really quickly, and when they switch to a new piece, the shifts in rhythm make an audible impact, lifting the experience to a new level.

Clyde automaton: RALLY FINISH (DOMEOFDOOM, 2021)

September 11, 2021 at 12:42 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

I’m listening to this EP out of context because I happened upon it without hearing last year’s Rally Start first. But this is an excellent, brief set of explosive rave mashup business loaded with familiar samples and killer basslines. A little less jokey than prime Shitmat, but just as joyous. Definitely more geared toward the rave ecstasy side of things, but with massive breaks and a hypercharged jungle rush. Only 12 minutes but not a moment is wasted. The last track samples Krome & Time’s “This Sound Is For The Underground” and it has the most vicious choppage, nearly ending with a violent crash but somehow getting away clean.

East Axis: Cool With That (ESP-Disk’, 2021)

September 8, 2021 at 9:42 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

This album documents a casual improv session between four jazz heavyweights (pianist Matthew Shipp, drummer Gerald Cleaver, saxophonist Allen Lowe, bassist Kevin Ray), each of whom challenge each other and push their fellow musicians into different spaces and states. The best moments are the ones where they throw caution to the wind and just scramble like mad, as on the fun, chaotic “Oh Hell I Forgot That”. “I’m Cool With That” has moments that seem straightforward but then it keeps careening wildly and bounding down various detours, to bewildering effect. Then “One” is a nearly half hour tour-de-force which shifts rhythms and moods, starting out more scattered and ruffled, and frequently erupting into bursts of energy. Even throughout its lengthy runtime, it rarely seems to let up, and just barely mellows out for the last few minutes before it bows out.

Cameron Knowler: Places of Consequence (American Dreams Records, 2021)

September 7, 2021 at 7:13 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Guitarist Cameron Knowler’s new album primarily consists of short, impressionistic compositions which make up a vivid picture of the American West. Equally proficient in jazz, folk, bluegrass, and experimental idioms, he plays in a warm, technically accomplished manner, and all of the tracks on this album have different purposes and moods. A sparse, delicate cover of “I’m an Old Cowhand” opens the album, sounding intimate and inviting, like you’re just happening upon him playing curled up on the couch in his living room. “Sonora Road” is a shuffling ode to his hometown accompanied by the flatfoot dancing of Erica Braverman. “Supertone Biome” is more of an aquatic tone poem than a song, just hinting at a submerged mood. “Done Gone” is actually a fiddle tune played on guitar, and it sounds like it even if you aren’t familiar with the song itself. “Don Bishop A” is a down-home lullaby, and “Atelier de Stein” works as a short, jazzy coda to it. “Cat Spring” starts as a leisurely banjo pluck before he picks up the pace with an almost nautical guitar version of the same tune. There’s another song played on banjo (“Lone Prairie”) and one with mandolin (“Lena’s Spanish Fandango”), but he’s such a versatile player that some of the guitar numbers sound like the other instruments and vice versa; he finds a common language in the instruments and adapts his style to them.