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In the face of diminishing returns from his midtempo/ downtempo releases for Warp, Ninja Tune, and Planet Mu, Luke Vibert's latest for Rephlex showcases his boldest material this century, suggesting that there may yet be some more good ideas up this maturing musician's rumpled sleeve.
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These two albums by Isabelle Antena show how easy it is for an artist to lose everything that makes them interesting. On a Warm Summer Night (Tous mes Caprices) is an artifact from a time best forgotten while L’Alphabet du Plaisir, the 'best of' compilation, also contains a lot of stinkers but also enough good pieces that show that Antena wasn’t always crap.
- Scott Mckeating
- Albums and Singles
Newcastle-upon-Tyne’s Dressed in Wires (aka Simon Earp) continues his one-man mission to inject digital hardcore with his own special brand of I-don’t-really-get-it humour. This cassette’s title track may begin as a one trick assault on the John Williams theme, but thankfully soon reveals much more going on.
The hacksaw job on the E.T. theme turning it into a grinning digital grind soon leads into a full-blown case of descending pixelated rot. A climbing obstreperous clanker of a beat (something between breakcore and leftover Ikea parts shaken in a jar) hauls up to chest height a dread fuelled face punched electronic piece. Reminiscent of a '80s synth soundtrack, this melodic centrepiece of the 12 minute A side shows Dressed in Wires doesn’t really want to crap on his own dinner plate. Even the expected finale of a disassembled through degradation piece of possible euro-pop doesn’t harm.
The flipside, “Miscarriage, Where Were you”, appears to take another screwdriver to the Spielberg / Williams partnership. A much briefer piece, this stuttering scratchy shambles sees high end feedback carving a melody out of rubbish like Merzbow doing the Close Encounters theme. As ever, Dressed in Wires is thoroughly entertaining.
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These two albums by Isabelle Antena show how easy it is for an artist to lose everything that makes them interesting. On a Warm Summer Night (Tous mes Caprices) is an artifact from a time best forgotten while L’Alphabet du Plaisir, the 'best of' compilation, also contains a lot of stinkers but also enough good pieces that show that Antena wasn’t always crap.
LTM
The reissue of On a Warm Summer Night (Tous mes Caprices) is a chore to listen to. All of the music sounds like it was programmed by someone who hates music. It is a blend of easy listening jazz and Latin rhythms, now sounds extremely dated. I can just imagine a bunch of yuppies from a Bret Easton Ellis novel sitting in an expensive French restaurant with this drivel playing in the background. Horrible bongos and cheesy bass lines mix with hideous guitars like vomit in a cesspool. It sounds disgusting and forced. There’s absolutely no emotion anywhere on the album. Antena herself sounds cold, more like a session singer who doesn’t like what she’s singing but doing it because the money’s good. “Eclat de Nuit” is a slow number that is meant to sound slinky and sexy but Antena ends up dead and asexual. Before the album hits the halfway mark I’m feeling like death would be a sweet release. Killing myself to escape from listening to this album wouldn’t be suicide, it would be euthanasia.
However it keeps going and I keep listening. I find out later in the disc that Antena isn’t happy making bland music of her own, she has to bland up other artists’ music too. Included on this disc is her reworking of Frank Zappa’s “Village of the Sun.” It sounds dreadful. I’m not a fan of Zappa to begin with but no one deserves this sort of treatment. Antena sounds even more bored singing this than she does with her own songs. As if it wasn’t enough of a treat to have all this music reissued, there are bonus live tracks. A number of tracks from On a Warm Summer Night appear again, along with a couple of other songs. From the sounds of things, Antena is even less exciting live as she is in the studio. She sounds flat and dreary on all of the songs. Every time she tries to sound passionate she sounds even more dismal.
Obviously there is a huge jazz influence on her writing but jazz is supposed to be full of fire and passion. Even listening to a great jazz musician playing standards is heaven. However, Antena is jazz purgatory. Her music is jazz reduced to something that is more suited to being background music in a department store than something people should be expected to pay money for. I get a mental image of her band and it’s a bunch of session musicians with big, waxy grins and permed hair in obnoxious shirts. Someone should have drowned them at birth.
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L’Alphabet du Plaisir is a best of collection covering the years 1982 to 2005. It shows that Antena hasn’t always been so cheesy. The first two pieces are sensual, synthesiser-led songs that do a much better job of mixing the Latin rhythms with contemporary pop. “Camino del Sol” in particular being a wonderful little song, the synths and drum machine sound some of Aphex Twin’s calmer output. It is difficult to imagine the same person who inflicted On a Warm Summer Night on us could be so far ahead at one stage.
As the album progresses it is possible to hear Antena’s descent into mediocrity. For the mid- '80s material I can see some merit to them. “Be-Pop” sounds horribly old-fashioned to my young ears but it’s not all bad. “Le Poisson des Mers du Sud” is as much influenced by the Mediterranean as it is by French pop. It wouldn’t be the sort of music I’d normally like but it is one of the more enjoyable parts of the album. However, she then starts pandering to the safer side of the jazz market. Any of the sensuality present in the songs from her early recording career disappears. All that’s left is a collection of hollow tunes, more suited to being played in a lift than on a stereo.
One of the biggest crimes on L’Alphabet du Plaisir is her murder of Serge Gainsbourg (well not literally but I wouldn’t put it past her). Her version of “Ce Mortel Ennui” is appalling, never have I heard such a dreary rendition of Gainsbourg’s work. Worse again, she embraces the songwriting “talent” of Barry Manilow. This is perversion at its most base level and I can be no part of it. Anyone who sinks to covering Barry Manilow needs to banned from entering a recording studio for the rest of their lives, no exceptions.
This is music for people in their middle ages (or possibly in their dark ages) who think they’re cosmopolitan by listening to French pop. They’re the same people I imagine who buy those compilations of contemporary songs being played on pan pipe advertised on TV in the middle of the night. The vast majority of the songs sound contrived and Antena sounds like she would rather be somewhere else. I know I’d rather be somewhere else. In saying that, at least the best of has pointed me to her early work which I intend to investigate further. The rest of her work can gather dust as far as I’m concerned.
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date - Nov 14th
artist - MAJU
title - Maju-4
cat # - XCD-055
format - CD
label - EXTREME
country - Australia
Maju-4 embodies a deep organic interaction that is almost retro-ambient in its approach, carving out a psychotropic quasi-analogue adventure that engages the subconscious and unconscious with compelling clarity. Maju-4 is now, more than ever, Sakana and Narita. Their distinct voice as Maju has now matured into a force that few can follow. They have allowed the ghost in the machine to speak and its voice is powerful and pure. Maju-4 doesn’t provide any excuses, instead it launches into the deep cocoon like sound that they have only toyed with on previous releases. This is a celebration of a united musical vision that does not need to or want to compromise. Hosomi Sakana, having left the stardom of Elephant Kashimashi, has quite rightly never been prepared to compromise. Elephant Kashimashi was a band that achieved legendary status by becoming successful for making music they believed in and, by its own accord, allowing it to connect with the hearts of Japanese people of all ages. This was no small effort, in light of the flood of J-Pop and saccharine music that pervades the Japanese music industry. He currently works with Akino Arai, famous for singing theme songs for major anime productions such as Outlaw Star, Noir, Macross Plus and Dragon Quest. Masaki Narita is also behind the workings of many Japanese musicians with his production and musical talents. To have two such talented and visionary musicians creating music together is a blessing and a joy to behold. Maju-4 is like a stream of consciousness and it never asks for approval or offers excuses. If Carl Jung had made music, it would have sounded like Maju.
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date - Nov 14th
artist - Mr Geoffrey & JD Franzke
title - Get a Room
cat # - XLTD-006
format - CD
label - EXTREME
country - Australia
Get a Room, the audacious and engaging ‘mixscape’ of found sounds and music through the ages by Australian artists MR GEOFFREY & JD FRANZKE. Their backgrounds, DJ and sound designer respectively, make for a wonderful combination that can only be labeled a ‘Mixscape’. “Get a Room” is the perfect album for twenty-four hour rotation or driving through the night.
EXTREME www.xtr.com
Mr Geoffrey and JD Franzke's set, “Get a Room”, takes us so far past dance that the beats are like background radiation, like a spooky or wistful afterglow. They go so deep, so low, that it's close to absolute zero; a chilled zone where even the slightest tremor feels warm enough to melt the vinyl. Down tempo at this degree seems eccentrically cool, drenching its melancholy laid back haze in post-coital blow. Old school lounge ghosts get blissed on streetscapes made out of ambient, concrete sounds collected from Nepal, Thailand and India (as well as from the sidewalks of late night Melbourne). Tango breaks and sleek sci-fi themes intermingle under the hypnotic coaxing of a seventies self-help guru. These encounters aren't as unlikely as they might sound on a track list. But how can you tag the fluency of this type of mix? Mr Geoffrey calls the blend "urban pastoral". Cruising a fantasyland of nightclubs, overhearing the action inside. This is more like an expansive atmosphere than a scene. You're moving through a flow rather than a beat. Let's also call it "drift" - maybe even as a new style - open to anything that keeps it shifting like a tide from twilight to dawn. (EDWARD COLLESS)
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date - January 16th 2007
artist - Claudio Parodi
title - Horizontal Mover (homage to Alvin Lucier)
cat # - XCD-056
format - CD
label - EXTREME
country - Australia
Few musicians have the opportunity to pay homage to their musical idol, much less send them a recording and receive a reply. CLAUDIO PARODI did just this, sending “Horizontal Mover” to Alvin Lucier. The response was nothing short of overwhelming – “I find it absolutely beautiful”.
This shows the humility of Lucier, a pioneering artist, and the talent of PARODI in producing “Horizontal Mover”, a work that deserves such praise.
EXTREME www.xtr.com
The words of Lucier are worth repeating in full: “Dear Claudio, I just received the CD of Horizontal Mover. I will have to re-read your description of the process to more fully understand it. But I can say that after listening to it, I find it absolutely beautiful. I am honored to be so honored. The CD will take a foremost place in my archives. Thank you so much. Cordially, Alvin Lucier.”
PARODI followed his own interpretation of the classic “I am sitting in a Room” using cymbals, drums and toms to invent his own vision of diffusion, resonance and the recording process. Such a process treads a tightrope between concept and music.
Fortunately PARODI’s sensibilities are firmly planted in bringing forth music that is both satisfying and challenging to the listener. The sounds keep building on themselves, layer upon layer, to create an intriguing textural music that rewards repeated listening.
“Horizontal Mover” (homage to Alvin Lucier) is the first of seven generative compositions that PARODI is recording for Extreme. Other musical luminaries to be showcased in the series include Charles Hayward, Yasunao Tone (of Fluxus) and Alvin Curran.
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Robert Pollard’s second solo album of 2006 is a mixed bag of pop gems and forgettable tunes that betray an inconsistency of effort. While it’s the sort of thing I expect from one of his numerous side projects, that one of his so-called major releases is so scattershot can only be considered a disappointment.
As a longtime fan, I’ve given Pollard some leeway on occasion because his missteps have been relatively minor in light of how much I’ve enjoyed the majority of his output. So it’s with trepidation that I admit that the bad outweighs the good on one of his major releases. Like on From a Compound Eye, this album finds Pollard laying down the basic vocal and guitar tracks and leaving the rest to Todd Tobias, who plays almost all of the other instruments. For all of the work he does, it seems unfair that Tobias doesn’t share billing. Yet his backing on this particular album is merely competent if uninspired, adjectives that could sometimes describe his production work as well. Fiction Man, for instance, was fairly flat, if not bland, yet Compound Eye was among his best. With Normal Happiness, Tobias unfortunately returns to the Fiction Man aesthetic. There’s a sameness at work here that deprives many songs of the dynamics they deserve, especially "Top of My Game," "Tomorrow Will Not Be Another Day," and "Join the Eagles." While it might seem natural to blame Tobias for these flaws, his production isn’t the biggest problem here.
The worst part is Pollard’s singing, something that I’ve never had reason to worry about before. At times, it seems that he’s going with the first take regardless of its quality and moving on as fast as he can. In particular, "Seriously Bird Woman (You Turn Me On)" is intended to be a smoldering ballad but devolves into a painful dirge when Pollard’s voice cracks in an attempt to hit high notes that are out of his reach. Another take might have done wonders, but perhaps Pollard couldn’t be bothered. This philosophy rules much of the album, particularly the second half.
As much as I find worthy of complaint, there are still some great songs here. "Whispering Whip" is a strange, brief twist of pop, while "Supernatural Car Lover" is a fairly straightforward sunny song with a great hook. "Give Up the Grape" and "Pegasus Glue Factory" are heavier than the rest and might have been better situated on one of the Circus Devils releases, but the latter in particular is a nice change of pace and something I’d like to hear more of in the future. In an interview not too long ago, Pollard said he’d like to do a post-punk album but that he’s too old to make it believable. It’s a shame he feels so uncharacteristically self-conscious because, similar to "Pegasus," "Sleepover Jack" from Half Smiles of the Decomposed was one of that album’s highlights, and I would love for him write more songs in this vein.
I prefer Pollard when he’s incensed, when he feels like he has something to prove. Even From a Compound Eye had that element to it, but this one simply does not. Writing consistently enjoyable songs comes easily to Pollard, but this album sounds like it’s coming too easily.
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Gearheads can be counted on to make a fantastic sounding record, however, unfortunately it is commonly difficult for gearheads to compose compelling enough songs to turn a good album into something fantastic enough to match the production.
Darla
Here's how to tell if a music nerd friend is a gearhead: notice what they remark on when they play a song. "Check out the [sound|treatment] of this [guitar|vocal|whatever]" versus "what a great song," and a subsequent singalong. Bobby was one of my best friends when he lived in Boston and whether it was a Bowery Electric show, Jack Dangers/Meat Beat Manifesto remix, or Cocteau Twins LP, it was always about the sound with him. Bobby, however, is one of the only people I know personally that I can say is truly a bloody genius and It's no wonder he moved on to work with music software. Together with Andrew Prinz, they form the core of Mahogany, and with the aid of Robin Guthrie, Mahoganey's latest album is heavenly to anybody who falls in love with sound. The songwriting, however, doesn't quite match the splendor of the production.
The songs are clearly influenced by another time, evidenced by the chunky Peter Hook-esque bass guitar or the cascading synth layers or even the Joy Division sample (they can't have come up with that sound) at the end of "Supervitesse." Whether or not they went into this record with the goal of recording one of those Factory Records tax writeoffs that LTM is always digging up or not, that's what they got. The vocals, unfortunately, seem like they're unneccessarily low on the priority scale. For the most part, the lyrics aren't memorable enough to be as sticking as some of the melodies, the delivery is restrained and weak, the lack of harmony when multiple singers are present is disappointing, and the overprocessed and overtreated production on the vocals makes it evident that they're trying to compensate for known downfalls.
I do actually find myself enjoing the album as a whole, however, as songs like "Supervitesse" have a very lovable and driving energy; the opening song, "Tesselation," is a perfect intro: lush and comforting like a fuzzy blanket to get lost in; and the bouncy "Neo-Plastic Boogie-Woogie" is the type of joy that we all got when we first heard Belle and Sebastian. (Although it's just sickeningly Twee enough to make me want to eat a veal burger and punch a college kid in pajama bottoms.) "Domino Ladder Beta" is a bit too mopey/navel-gazey in its original form but thankfully the Robin Guthrie-enhanced version on the bonus disc brings the vocals to the foreground and makes a much mor musicially rich version of the song
It's easy to see Mahogany have worked long and hard on this disc, and as a bonus have included some decent remixes, but a more enjoyable bonus are the three music videos included as enhanced content on the second CD. (Yes, it's known I'm a sucker for both enhanced content and music videos.) We see the band dressed up and in train stations with "Supervitesse" (destined to become one of this year's biggest hits with the pop kids), a deluxe and beautiful eye candy animation/live clip montage for "One Plus One Equals Three Or More," and a fantastic video of a prom dance overrun by dancing adults in"Neo-Plastic Boogie-Woogie."
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Armed with dissonant guitars and disheveled rhythms, Glasgow’s Park Attack stagger from the murk to spread discord at every opportunity on this incendiary album.
Contributing to the din are penetrating keyboards and vocals that are alternately yelped, barked, and screeched. At times, the group shows a blatant disregard for tunefulness, and it’s a trait that suits them. Similarly, the production gets a little muddy in places but it’s wholly appropriate for the group’s rusty blade aesthetic.
From the beginning of “They, ‘Which Is Worst?’,” the band seems to be playing different songs, but when the raspy vocals enter, the sloppiness is revealed to be a mere façade. This chaotic force continues with the loping rhythm of “The Slow Clap,” around which the other instruments congeal. The keyboards are a critical element of “The Racket,” punctuating the din to clear some of the smoke. “Bleed at Both Ends” is an instrumental that takes a slow and methodical approach that builds to a cathartic release. The group gets a little more menacing on “Beak As Tool” with its dire bassline, panic button synth, and various noises prowling the background. The keyboard and effects lord over “The Forgetter,” another instrumental, and paves the way for the raucous finale, “Boo Hoo!”
This album is enjoyable from the beginning and only gets better with every song, luring me further into is anarchic labyrinth until is shoots me out the exit, careening and dizzy in the daylight and yearning to be lost again within its depths.
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- Roxy N. Henry
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The cover art of Mathew Sweet's second Boduf Songs release for Kranky hints that this could be a sequel. The design is of a similar style, but the flowers and people of the old Victorian prints are replaced with more foreboding images. Follow a trail of bread crumbs down a shadowy path into the woods depicted on the cover, and there's that scary thrill of being enveloped by trees, not knowing what will be encountered. The air is so fresh, the ground so soft, but once inside, there are serpents, flies, and poison.
Picking up a bit where "Claimant Reclaimed" left off, Sweet begins the album on familiar ground. It opens with finger-picked rhythms and submissive vocals, taking the best parts of the Boduf Songs' style and elevating them a few notches. The music tends to be even more in line with the lyrical content than the last one, having a slightly darker edge. The visual and sonic imagery of the first track, "Lord of the Flies," is of tainted beauty, diseased sexuality, and evil to the core. Like the book from which this track culls its name, it points to the hidden natures within us all as human beings. An abstract sound of swarming flies comes and goes.
"Two Across the Mouth" enters murder ballad territory, the implied violence centering around burying one's past rather than an actual corpse, then hiding away "in a cabin in the pines," to escape and forget. It brings to the forefront more of an electric sound in its intro, complete with distortion, delay and subtle feedback of his trademark bowing. This track is definitely a highlight as the bowed sounds making perfect accents and backings to his plucked guitar and meandering vocal melody. One of the most elegant songs, "Great Wolf of No Tracks," waltzes along within Sweet's basic but perfect trio of elements: plucking, singing, and thoughtful, prayer-like lyrics. Both "That Angel Was Pretty Lame" and "Please Ache For Redemptive" employ some free-form playing and random sounds. In the latter, "all in this body balance and repose" is softly chanted, repeatedly, underneath bursts of hand-beaten drums and cymbol clatterings; a cyclical guitar part holds it all together.
Like a heartbeat or something tribal, "Green Lion Devours the Sun" starts with a deep and reverbed drum that subtly pounds throughout. It's interesting to note that Sweet entered music first as a drummer, and that drums and percussion take a definite back seat to guitar and melody with this project. However, rhythm is truly a grounding feature with Boduf Songs, both with his guitar playing style and some of his vocal phrasings. There is no strumming of chords anywhere. The picking patterns of "Fall of Cherry Blossom In Long Shadows of Twilight" drive the song, but its icing lies in the second layer of singing with different words behind the main vocals, as well as in the birds and fireworks at its end. A delicate and wonderful harmony emerges on "27th Raven's Head (Darkness Showing Through the Head of the Raven)," maybe clueing us in to explorations on future releases. Whereas the last one ended so beautifully and perfectly, leaving me wanting moremoremore, this one ends with a lacklustre dirge, "Bell For Harness." At over nine minutes long, the music is very redundant, as well as extremely derivative. I've listened to the entire album several times in full over the course of a few weeks, and as much as I enjoy the rest of it, I just can't get into the last song. But considering it's the only thing close to a flaw on the entire album, it's easy to let it go.
Sweet is a man further refining his style, a step deeper into realizing a completely honest and genuine identity in music. The vocals are more seasoned, the lyrics are more developed, and the embellishments to the guitar framework are stronger and more interesting. Lion Devours the Sun demands a headphone listen while sitting directly in the sun—a blanket in the park or in a favorite room by the window will do. To me this is not one of those dark late night Kranky releases. Have some coffee or a cuppa on a Saturday afternoon, forego the nighttime weed-stoked spin, just this once.
samples:
- Lord of the Flies
- Green Lion Devours the Sun, Blood Descends to Earth
- 27th Raven's Head (Darkness Showing Through the Head of the Raven)
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