Richard D. James may have made the most clever move of his entire,inconsistent career with the release of this series of twelve 12" vinylEPs. Only the first five are available as of this writing, but it isalready obvious that the grinning, tank-driving egotist is producingmusic that is unashamedly and resolutely anachronistic, kitschy andretrograde.
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Absence is the heaviest hitting release to date from hip hop'sloudest collective. For the first time, the words come close tomatching the sounds in weight. According to the eponymous frontman, therecord is a statement on hometown Newark, NJ, and suffice to say itwon't be promoted by the Chamber of Commerce.
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Proficiency at editing is just as prominent on the list of this quartet's skills as is their songwriting ability. Rather than presenting results along the way since recording commenced in 2002, Akron/Family have waited and produced a work that lends the project the air of appearing fully formed from out of nowhere.
4190 Hits
If the truest goal of any one artist is to have as much completecontrol and freedom over their art as possible, it would seem this Seaand Cake frontman is as close as it gets, and the results are nothingshort of inspirational. If Sam Prekop's total artisticvision—writer/arranger/musician/singer and artwork painter—was ajoyride on his debut solo album, this time he's apt to changeperceptions and set the whole image on its side, making the wholelistening audience second guess every move.
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DFAThis week brings three new slabs of heavy DJ vinyl from DFA Records,with this one by Black Leotard Front sounding the most adventurous tomy ears. "Casual Friday" is a massive 15-minute groove that starts outas ingratiatingly slick metropolitan disco and ends up asingratiatingly slick deconstructed electro-funk from planet weird.
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This new single from The Juan MacLean has the distinction of being theDFA label's first 10" release, even though the music itself is notterribly distinct otherwise. "I Robot" is a significant departure fromJuan MacLean's familiar brand of floor-filling electro-dance, most ofwhich had a live, analog feel.
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By the End of Tonight have been tagged with a variety of sub-genres intheir short existence: math rock, prog, emo, metal, thrash, post-rock.All of this labeling has resulted in the coinage some interesting andunique hybrids like "math-prog." Such intricate taxonomy can make anymusic critic both gag and delight at the same time but rarely doesjustice to a band's sound.
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From the ominous chords of 40-second opener "Sikertelenseg," a solopiece for untreated piano, it is clear that this is a very differentVenetian Snares record than any of the previous 11 albums Aaron Funkhas recorded. The titles appear, at first, to be some sort of prankstergibberish, a la Aphex Twin or Autechre.
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Although any self-respecting, card-carrying Mogwai fan most likelyalready had access to these songs, Matador presents a collection of BBCsessions which document the trajectory of the band. Presented are somealternate studio versions of classic and perhaps not-so-classic Mogwaisongs recorded at the BBC's Maida Vale studios (except for "R U Stillin 2 It" and "Superheroes of BMX" which were, alternately, recorded atthe Hippodrome).
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Towards the end of last year, Boston-area singer/songwriter andmulti-instrumentalist Alex Chen released his impressive debut disc, Newborn,under the guise of Boy In Static. An interesting note on this disc isthat Germany's Notwist had decided to release it on their fairly newAlien Transistor label, essentially getting Boy in Static in on itsground floor. From strummed and plucked guitar progressions and voice,Chen magnifies the depth of his songs by saddling them up withlaptop-inspired clicks and wave/signal manipulation, bass, cello andtasteful keyboard melodies, blurring the lines between pop andelectronic-based music.
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This odd release follows closely on the heels of Nagisa Ni Te's recent album The Same as a Flower.It's odd because it's a 40-minute album containing only four tracks,all of which are re-recorded versions of songs from their back catalog.It's hard to work out just what motivated Shinji Shibayama and MasakoTakeda to record this brief album, other than a desire to liberatethese songs from their previously relatively minimal instrumentalpalette and their low-fidelity recording style.
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Loren Mazzacane Connors/Christina Carter, "Meditations on the Ascension of Blind Joe Death Vol. One"
John Fahey was a master musician, completely redefining the guitar andpioneering several styles that are distinctly and wholly his own. BlindJoe Death was a name he ascribed to a few tracks on his first album ofthe same name. John Fahey is Blind Joe Death and, as the sleeve of thisrecord suggests, Blind Joe is still very much alive. Loren MazzacaneConnors and Christina Carter (along with artist Conrad Capistran andByron Coley) have composed the first in a proposed series of duorecordings dedicated to the memory and work of John Fahey.
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Psychedelic music has been getting a lot of attention lately, but I'mhard pressed to find anything with such a tag to be truly psychedelic.The first side of this LP from the duo of Brian Sullivan and NateNelson was refreshing for that reason. A vaguely rhythmic series ofchoppy and sloppy hi-hat smacks and tom pops lays out the framework forvibrating guitar noise and deeply running bass hums throughout thefirst side of Loam.
4240 Hits
I have to admit that I'd previously never been a huge fan of Tarwater, despite their being an integral part of the German electro/pop scene with a direct connection to one of my favorite groups in the last five or so years: To Rococo Rot.
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The fifth full length from Australia's own Severed Heads lies somewhat comfortably on the timeline of the project's natural progression from dark industrial (Dead Eyes Opened 83) towards more accessible dance (Dead Eyes Opened 94). Released in 1989 on the Nettwerk and Volition labels, the album spawned a trio of dancefloor designed singles that by themselves warrant this reissue by the highly regarded LTM Publishing imprint, known for giving similar treatment to albums from Section 25 and 23 Skidoo.
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This marks the fifth in Die Stadt's ongoing Tietchens reissue campaignand the last of the artist's early works to be released initially bySky Records. The sound is similar to the previous Sky discs and closestto the best of the five, Biotop and Spät Europa.
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This is the first in a projected series collecting studio material thatappeared on singles, compilations and other formats. This first volumecompiles seven tracks that were originally available briefly as freeMP3 downloads from Bardo Pond's website.
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Since their formation in 1996, the only thing that has stayed the same about Piano Magic is how much they've changed. That and Glen Johnson, the only fixture of the group, which includes a revolving door lineup of musicians who come and go like breathing over the course of the project's numerous albums, EPs, soundtracks and compilations.
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While the Aeolian String Ensemble might not be a household name aroundthese parts, David Kenny, the man behind the "ensemble," should berecognized from the credits of some of the fans' most favorite Current93 and Nurse With Wound releases as well as production on SPK's "InFlagrante Delicto" and the first Cyclobe record. "Espacios" opens thisthree-song release like a fog drifting into the dark night.
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Eluvium differs from his fellow electronically-damaged guitar virtuosos(Fennesz, Remedios, et alii) by his insistence on repetition. He findsa hook and sticks with it, unapologetically and uncompromisingly. Thisisn't to say that Matthew Cooper's songs sound repetitive. There can berepetition without attaching the stigma of repetitive dreariness.
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