We have finally cleared out the backlog of great music and present some new episodes.
Episode 711 features music from The Jesus and Mary Chain, Zola Jesus, Duster, Sangre Nueva, Dialect, The Bug, Cleared, Mount Eerie, Mulatu Astatke & Hoodna Orchestra, Hayden Pedigo, Bistro Boy, and Ibukun Sunday.
Episode 712 has tunes by Mazza Vision, Waveskania, Black Pus, Sam Gendel, Benny Bock, and Hans Kjorstad, Katharina Grosse, Carina Khorkhordina, Tintin Patrone, Billy Roisz, and Stefan Schneider, His Name Is Alive, artificial memory trace, mclusky, Justin Walter, mastroKristo, Başak Günak, and William Basinski.
Episode 713 brings you sounds from Mouse On Mars, Leavs, Lawrence English, Mo Dotti, Wendy Eisenberg, Envy, Ben Lukas Boysen, Cindytalk, Mercury Rev, White Poppy, Anadol & Marie Klock, and Galaxie 500.
Skolavordustigur Street in Reykjavík photo by Jon (your Podcast DJ).
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Every once in a while, arecord comes along that seems to perfectly sum up everything that'sright about a particular type of music at that moment, as well asoffering a glimpse of where the genre might be headed. Closer Colder isone of those records. Following on a back-catalogue of a mere two EPs,this debut album from David Kosten's Faultline project is anoutstanding and accomplished hybrid of dub-heavy beats, distortedelectronic rhythms, ethereal voices, found sounds, and unique liveinstrumentation including xylophone, trumpet, strings and more. Everytrack deserves time in the spotlight, but in the interest of space,I'll try to focus on a few highlights, like the title track that soundslike This Mortal Coil as remixed by Mick Harris and directed by DavidLynch (it features a nice vocal snippet of Dennis Hopper from BlueVelvet); or the juxtaposition of quirky melody and perky beats withdeath threats left on Kosten's answering machine by a vocalist herejected on the track "Control"; or the floating ambience of theuntitled hidden track that closes the set; or - ah, hell, they're allso good, just get the damn thing! Closer Colder was originally releasedin the UK nearly a year ago on Leaf, it's now available in the USAthrough Thirsty Ear.
Known in English-speaking countries as 'Fantastic Planet,' the sountrack from this highly acclaimed cult-classic cartoon film from 1973 is finally available. For any fan of the film, this is a -must have- as the music is spectacularly anthemic and seemingly timeless. As I was browsing aorund the Twisted Village here in Cambridge, I saw the recently arrive disc sitting on the counter, priced up and ready to hit the shelves. My jaw dropped and I had to walk away with it. Minutes later in Other Music, the crew found it fit for in-store play and I was in heaven.
 
The music is a futuristic look which is dated by the early 70s, with a rich brass and string orchestra playing alongside various electronic guitars, analogue keyboards, drums and slappy bass. From the first few notes, chills run down my spine as I think back to when I watched this first on late night television at around 15 years old. Immediately the main themes are burned deep into my skull. The sound pulls me in like the pied piper led the mice and I end up whistling the themes all day long. My only complaint is that at 37 minutes, it's far too short.
While I'm not claiming tobe an expert in Jazz by any remote means, I highly recommend starting aSun Ra collection with two stellar albums from the mid-60s recentlyremastered and reissued by ESP. Originally recorded in 1965 and 1966,these discs were highly influential to ushering-in new movements inexperimental jazz, soul and funk. Musically there was no true soloistof Sun Ra's Arkestra. This contradicted other popular jazzcontemporaries as the Arkestra as a collective was the focal point atthe center, a fiery mass of color and sound. Decadent and chaotic, withSun Ra 'arkestrating' from beyhind the keyboards and piano, theArkestra was indeed an orchestra consisting of brass, woodwinds,strings, flute and various percussion. On a thematic plane, the heliocentric spiritualism was contemporary tothe various programs by the US and Russian governments as earthlingslooks to space as the next conquest. Take into consideration civilrights movements, tie everything together musically and the ground waslaid for George Clinton's Parliament-Funkadelic afronauts, who werevoyaging with the Mothership for decades to come. Other influences havestretched to include brainwashed groups Meat Beat Manifesto (who shareda bill with Sun Ra's Arkestra in 1996), Nurse with Wound (who I'm surehave sampled 'Nebulae' on Volume 1 in Thunder Perfect Mind) and Coil(who has long been planning a release titled "Sex with Sun Ra.") I'msure there's more planes of existence I haven't even realized withthese discs or the rest of Sun Ra's music, but for now it's a start.Herman Poole 'Sonny' Blount (A.K.A. Sun Ra) died in May of 1993, buthis Arkestra carries on playing in various locations around the US.
German Bernd Friedmannspent all of the 1990's recording and performing electronic music inmany styles under many names, including: Some More Crime, Drome,Nonplace Urban Field, Burnt Friedman & The Nu Dub Players andFlanger. The aptly titled "Con Ritmo" ("With Rhythm") is the solo debutunder his slyly altered given name and is allegedly performed live byThe Disposable Rhythm Section as detailed by the tongue in cheekinsert. Friedmann's playful sense of humor extends well beyond namesand liner notes though ... his music is a mysterious mix of genreblurring sound from unknown sources. Jazz is essentially the languagebut it's spoken in soothing and spacious ambient, electronic, latin,dub and fusion tongues. Latino rhythms and busy bass lines drive thetracks with flourishes of percussive fills, an abundance of prettyvibes and keys, meandering electric guitar notes and pluckings, somehorns and the slightest traces of electronic tinkering. You're neverquite sure what is 'played' and what is sampled, what's electronic andwhat's 'real'. Does it matter? No, it doesn't. The sound and feel issincere and evocative. Some notes on a couple oddities: "Platin Tundra"is a gorgeous dub-jazz journey with a beautiful deep bass swell midwaythrough and the 11+ minute "Das Wesen aus der Milchstrasse" ("TheNature of the Milky Way") features Friedmann's Flanger partner AtomHeart on an extensive Moog solo over electro-bass blips and latin polyrhythms. Fun stuff start to finish! Now to get everything else byFriedmann. A new much delayed album possibly titled "Long Fucking Time"is due out early 2001 on his Nonplace label.
This was originallyreleased as two separate EPs: "Lassie House" being a 10" limited to 250copies through Slaalplaat in 1995; and "Jumble Massive" being an LPlimited to 296 copies through Soleilmoon in 1996. Now, though, they aretogether and released, unlimited, through Cacciocavallo. The materialseems to fit together on one release nicely, with no major differenceinsound between the two EPs. "Lassie House," to some degree, has a moreslapstick humor feel to it, though both conjure rememberence of 18's UKgameshows and sitcoms, as well as children's programs and circus tunes.Vicki Bennett is very clever with how she collages her clips andsamples together, but I feel perhaps that this work centers less onbeing "humourous," per sae, and more and merely being nonsensical. Thetracksare, as one EP's title suggests, a massive jumble of cut up, repeated,morphed, and fucked sound clips from god-knows-where. A favouritehightlight is the last track, which acts as a mock self-help tape,helping "people like us" to cope with such things as sewing machinesand anticipating bowel movements: you need only chant, "Come on, poo!Come on, poo! Poooo, coming! Poooo, coming!" These EPs were nicelyworked fortheir time, but, to be honest, Vicki has since outdone herself withreleases such as the Hate People Like Us remix album and herbrilliant new (but not newest!) release, Thermos Explorer.
After a four-year hiatus,Mego favorites General Magic return with Rechenkoenig, a brilliantfollow-up to their debut album, Frantz. Ramon Bauer and Andreas Pieper,who comprise General Magic, have a reputation of steering clear of theconventions to which minimal electronic music is often prone. Thetracks on Rechenkoenig are brief in length, and juxtaposed with suchsonic abruptness that the listener is kept constantly on edge, withoutpossibility of repetition-induced boredom. In fact, 'minimal' isprobably the adjective furthest from my mind upon hearing the fragmentsof frantically paced beats, often heavily distorted, scattered amongstdigital twittering, crackling, and outright onslaughts of noise.
Combine immaturesemi-formulaec predictable electronica with girly teenage drama and youtoo can release an album it seems. Okay, I love Kid to death and I'veloved his judgement in the past but I've got some issues with thisrelease. While I've heard word that the other release by Belctum fromKit Clayton's label is great, this disc makes me somewhat sour. The CDremains playing however, while I've already written it off. Painfully Ilisten on as high school girls pull off poorly faked English accents,sandwiched between unexciting techno babble, waiting for somethinggreat to happen. I feel guilty listening on. It's almost like drivingby an accident scene, you stare, fascinated at ugliness and destructioneven though you know you really really really shouldn't be staring.Unfortunately the cable carrier in my town doesn't offer The AccidentChannel yet. "Oh honey, look an accident." "Don't worry dear, we'lljust drive on and not slow down traffic and catch the highlightstonight on The Accident Channel."
Thankfully, Oi! is not a trawl through a dubious underbelly of UK punk. It’s a two disc snapshot of recent Brazilian music from Amapa to Rio Grande Do Sul, Acre to Paraiba, mapping the places where indigenous forms meet dub, funk, psychedelia, and several other outer-national sub-genres. Of the 40 tracks I prefer those suggesting cool, dark alleys, mind warping neon surfboards, or vertigo-inducing rooftops, to others which feel like over-crowded hip-hop/carnival nether regions where “party” is a verb and Karl Pilkington dreams of quiet reverie during a hellish episode of An Idiot Abroad.
There is some fascinating cross pollination of styles to be heard on Oi! but it sometimes that is not enough. For example, while "Ovelhinhas" by Cidadao Instigado is intriguingly described as"schizophrenic brega" and the song wonders what becomes of the sheep people count in order to get to sleep, it’s actually sounds irritating. Thus, it conjures visions of mint sauce or rosemary; visions in which the sheep aren’t the ones being roasted. Which reminds me, included in this package is a great poster created in the style of lambe-lambe flyers (a popular way to promote gigs) on the reverse of which is a detailed breakdown of Brazilian regional music traditions, and a useful glossary.
From this I learned that Guitarrada is instrumental guitar music from Para. Indeed, there seems to be a Dick Dale faction lurking in Para, including the group La Pupuna, who very nearly prove that meringue and surf guitar can coexist. Some of the liner notes are unintentionally funny: for example the beautifully pretentious statement that manguebeat is more movement and manifesto than fusion of hip-hop, North Eastern rhythm, and rock. To which the punchline must be: Well, that's a relief. Other claims are spot on, as with the description of Instituto’s "Ossario" as a "brooding David Axelrod groove".  There are some splendid pieces , not least the opening track by Mini Box Lunar, who sound a bit like like The Archies backed by a steel band covering Os Mutantes, on the dreamy, light, and affecting "Amarelasse".
I‘ve no idea what most of these artists are singing about, and if the one English language piece is anything to go by, that is a relief. Lucas Santtana may be something of a critical darling but his "Hold Me In" (which gives some composer credit to Arto Lindsay) is a fairly tedious ballad, less sultry trip-hop than weary drip-hop. Of all the regions included, Pernambuco is the most represented, with 13 pieces by different artists. Of these, Guardaloop’s "Oh Dub" isn’t the most exciting dub I have ever heard, but it is a good stylistic contrast to Roberto Correa’s striking fiddle work on " Cara Da Bronze", the swinging almost-Stereolab rhythms of Mombojo, and the lovely, and refreshingly simple, lament "Ca" by Julia Says.
The smallest state in Brazil is Sergipe on the East Coast, from whence come Naurea with perhaps the albums loudest and most aggresive track, "Hoje Tem Forro". Also rather good, is 3Namassa’s "Doce Gula" with a Gainsbourgesque suggestive groove and cool girl vocals by CeU. Compiled by Mais Um Gingo after a couple of years travel to festivals and shows, Oi! is great fun and gives welcome exposure to some of Brazil’s diverse innovations.
Solange Gularte (Natural Snow Buildings) returns for her second solo LP for Blackest Rainbow. A dreamy psychedelic haze of shimmering drones, minimal string plucking with barely-there vocals, Gularte's sound is somewhat more far out in comparison to say Twinsistermoon or Natural Snow Buildings. Night Of Raining Fire showcases this with tracks like the almost medieval sounding "Still Voyager," or the outsider folk sound of "Nadirs of the Sun." The record comes packaged in a stunning full colour sleeve covered in Gularte's strange surreal illustrations. Limited to 500 copies. 400 on heavyweight black virgin vinyl, 100 on coloured standard weight vinyl. Click here to stream the album!
The album will be released December 15th. For more information, go to Blackest Rainbow.
This is Vantzou's solo debut, but she should be familiar to many from her work as the visual half of Adam Wiltzie's The Dead Texan project.  That association was not a fluke, as Christina's musical aesthetic clearly shares a lot of quiet, slow-moving, and nuanced common ground with the Stars of the Lid milieu.  Such comparisons are pretty much inevitable in any discussion of No. 1, but Christina establishes her own voice by embracing impressionist classical music and a brighter, more pastoral mood.
Vantzou began composing this album on her own back in 2007 with samples and a synthesizer, but the material that actually wound up on this release is probably quite different than it started out.  That evolution is largely due to Magik*Magik Orchestra's Minna Choi, who became involved as a long-distance collaborator.  As a result, Vantzou's 45-minute synth epic ultimately became a ten-song suite performed by a small orchestra.
The decision to break the piece into multiple parts seems like a great move to me, but I would definitely be interested in hearing what Christina's raw version sounded like.  The orchestra undeniably makes these pieces sound like polished works by a serious composer, but it seems like that may have come at the expense of some character and humanity.  That isn't a huge issue with the stronger compositions, such as the lushly melancholy "Your Changes Have Been Submitted," but the less distinct pieces are weakened still further by the homogenizing combination of professional classical instrumentation and warm, gauze-y production and mixing (provided by Wiltzie, actually).
There are a few muted rough edges that still manage to make their way in though.  I definitely found myself looking forward to them, despite their subtlety (a little bit of rumble or hiss, a buried unrecognizable sample, etc.).  The slightest hint of grit, menace, or darkness goes a long way towards making this album work and such hints appear far too sparingly, a predicament that raises a lot of issues for me: these pieces are arranged skillfully, unfold pleasantly, fit together as a thematically coherent whole, and feature some strong melodies, but it all errs on the side of being too polite and "nice."
Unfortunately, I could probably critique Ravel or Debussy for the same thing, which probably makes me a philistine or at least mildly intolerant of many classical music tropes.  Vantzou's strong drone influence also plays a large role in No. 1's pervading feeling of sameness though, as there is very little dynamic variability or silence–just endless soft-focus swelling and billowing. Again, that isn't inherently a bad thing: it certainly makes the pieces feel contemporary and immersive, but it doesn't help the album's vibrance at all (though to her credit, Christina does an excellent of using brass to cut through the fog melodically).
For a debut effort, this is quite successful in a number of respects: Vantzou seamlessly weaves together classical music and drone, offers a handful of very good pieces ("Joggers," for example), and distinguishes herself from Kranky's other drone/neo-classical composers.  On a fundamental level, it all works– I very much enjoyed hearing strong melodies and muted romanticism incorporated into a blissful fog of warm drone.  Unfortunately, the details (or lack thereof) are a killer, as music this smooth, placid, and sanded-down doesn't leave a strong impression when the album ends.  No.1 is a pleasant way to spend the better part of an hour, but doesn't go much deeper than that.
I was very curious about what The Drift's latest album was going to sound like, as so much has changed since 2008's well-regarded Memory Drawings: Danny Paul Grody fell in love with steel-string acoustic guitars, stellar double-bassist Safa Shokrai left the band, and–most significantly–founding member Jeff Jacobs succumbed to cancer.  The band opted not to replace Jacobs, which left them with the very difficult puzzle of continuing without their primary melodic instrument.  The resultant album understandably loses all traces of their jazzier, more dub-inflected recent work (Jacobs played trumpet), but returns fairly successfully to The Drift's more straightforward post-rock roots...sometimes.
Thankfully, one good thing emerged from the loss of half the damn band: original bassist Trevor Montgomery is back.  That means that 2/3 of The Drift have been members of Tarentel.  There are some definite similarities between the two bands (particularly with Tarentel's earlier work), but The Drift are clearly working towards very different ends.  In fact, they are working towards completely different ends than even The Drift circa 2008.  While Blue Hour lacks any of Tarentel's brooding experimentalism or Memory Drawing's sinuous grooves or hazy trumpet solos, it does boast a killer rhythm section in its own right.  Montgomery and drummer Rich Douthit shine brightest in the relentlessly propulsive "Dark Passage" and the lurchingly off-beat "Continuum," but they provide Grody with a very tight, muscular, and punchy foundation for most of the album.  As much as I love Grody, they pretty much steal the album, as the success or failure of each piece is heavily dependent on the strength of its groove.
That is not to say that Grody's playing is not excellent, but he has the unenviable task of carrying almost all of the album's melodic weight himself and his strengths tend to be of a more minimal/ textural/ atmospheric nature (on the electric guitar, anyway).  Also, his guitars are too processed to have the presence and bite necessary to hold the melodic foreground over the thick bass and rumbling toms.  He certainly delivers some inspired moments, such as the shimmering, delay-heavy shoegaze-inspired crescendo on "Luminous Friend," but that is not quite the same as delivering a satisfying composition.
Many songs just plod and meander along without a strong hook to carry them, which is hugely exasperating because everything else is so strong.  Something new needs to fill the void that Jacobs' vanished trumpet left.  I think the band must have realized that themselves at some point, as they reinterpret Grody's own "Hello From Everywhere" with a melodica as the lead instrument (I think).  It lacks the beauty and intimacy of the original (which is a great song), but the jangly looseness coupled with a strong melodic motif is a definite step in the right direction.  Grody's "Fountain" also makes an appearance, but unfortunately gets stretched into a somewhat interminable 12-minute jam.
Despite all my grumblings, I wouldn't classify this album as a failure or a misfire so much as a valiant transitional effort...and perhaps a bit premature (Blue Hour would be very brief if the Grody solo covers, the drone interludes, and the obviously improvised pieces were omitted).  I am happy to have The Drift back and there are a few very good songs here, but a  bass/drum/guitar trio with no vocals or strong lead instrument is unlikely to hold my attention for very long, no matter how talented the players involved.  I like the new line-up, but until the compositional and melodic holes are filled, the whole is doomed to be less than the sum of its parts.