ALTER.NATION #30
Norah Jones,
Bruce Hornsby, PJ Harvey, Gillian Anderson, Lily James, Chris Forsyth,
Shovels & Rope, T-Bone Burnett / Jay Bellerose / Keefus Ciancia, The
Budos Band, Glen Hansard, The Leisure Society, Patio, Men I Trust
weekly favtraX
13-04-2019
13-04-2019
Norah Jones - Begin Again from Begin Again
During 2018, Norah Jones concentrated her creative endeavors on a series of digital singles that found the singer/songwriter stretching herself stylistically. Usually, she pushed herself by teaming with new, unexpected collaborators, including Wilco's Jeff Tweedy -- a tactic that guaranteed a variety of sounds and songs, a practice put into sharp relief by the 2019 release of Begin Again. This brief LP collects the seven songs recorded for this project -- all but one released beforehand -- and while they're a disparate batch, they nevertheless cohere thanks to their elegant, elastic experimentation.
Bruce Hornsby - Fractals from Absolute Zero
The Noisemakers, Bruce Hornsby's regular backing band since 2002, aren't credited on 2019's Absolute Zero, which should be an indication that the album is a bit of a departure from the other records he's made during the 21st century. While the Noisemakers haven't avoided adventure, Absolute Zero feels as if it was made without any regard to boundaries, either in terms of style or approach. Such fearlessness is evident from the outset, when the record kicks off with a dexterous rhythm suitable for a vintage post-bop session, but it's too reductive to call Absolute Zero an odyssey into straight jazz.
PJ Harvey feat. Gillian Anderson - The Sandman from All About Eve
PJ Harvey feat. Lily James - The Moth from All About Eve
PJ Harvey wrote the score for a stage adaptation of All About Eve, the classic 1950 film about an aging Broadway star and a young fan who finagles her way into becoming the next big thing. The adaptation, which stars Gillian Anderson and Lily James, debuted in London earlier this year. The score that Harvey wrote for it is mostly instrumental, though there are two songs that feature Anderson and James.
Here’s what Harvey had to say about the score in a statement (via Pitchfork): I have always loved stories, and so to compose music to support and enhance a story being told is a challenge I enjoy. I also love the freedom that working instrumentally can give me without the constraints of song form.
Chris Forsyth - Tomorrow Might as Well Be Today from All Time Present
...The sprawling double album All Time Present is a sampler pack of Forsyth's strongest impulses, offering up just eight mostly instrumental pieces but stretching out in different directions over the course of its hour-plus playing time. Though All Time Present is the first work billed as a solo album since 2013's Solar Motel, Forsyth is bolstered by various players on every track. Most notably, bassist Peter Kerlin (also of Sunwatchers) and drummer Ryan Jewell add weight to tracks like album opener "Tomorrow Might As Well Be Today"...
Shovels & Rope - I'm Comin' Out from By Blood
Shovels & Rope open By Blood, their fifth album of original material, with "I'm Comin' Out," a stomping, fuzz-drenched rocker that serves as a statement of purpose: the duo is indeed moving from the shadows into the light. "I'm Comin' Out" pulsates with vivid primary colors, a distinct switch from a band who previously specialized in shades of grey. As such, it's a fitting keynote for By Blood, which is by many measures the boldest record Shovels & Rope have made. Michael Trent and Cary Ann Hearst accentuate By Blood with an impressionistic flair that is far beyond drums and guitar...
T-Bone Burnett / Jay Bellerose / Keefus Ciancia - Anti Cyclone from The Invisible Light: Acoustic Space
The Invisible Light is Burnett's first album in 11 years. It's a futurist, avant-industrial companion to a 5,000-line poem he's been writing for years now. Its companion volumes will be released at six-month intervals. Burnett's themes illuminate his notion that for 100 years, electronic programming (and in turn, technology) has caused humans to lose capacity for distinguishing truth from fiction, and has gone a long way to transforming us into hybrid beings. (Google claims the transition will be complete within 20 years.) He is joined by drummer Jay Bellerose and sound sculptor, composer, and keyboardist Keefus Ciancia. There are few acoustic instruments here. The songs follow even fewer conventional traits: Burnett talks more than he sings and he pays attention to interplay, texture, and dynamic, not songwriting norms. In his liner essay he calls this "electronic music" and "trance music," but it doesn't resemble EDM. He juxtaposes ecumenical spiritual themes and propaganda, philosophy and emotion, and the pursuit of truth and the current cultural celebration of mendacity from the mouths of the powerful... "Anti-Cyclone" begins as a sung tango before morphing into a tarantella with spaghetti western overtones mashing together a lovelorn ballad with insidious Machiavellian political psychology: "If you tell people the things they already believe/They will believe you/It doesn’t matter what you say…."
The Budos Band - Old Engine Oil from Budos Band V
In 2015, Staten Island's Budos Band surprised fans with Burnt Offering; their first non-numbered title, it delivered a shift in musical direction. In addition to their trademarked fusion of Mulatu Astatke-inspired Ethio-jazz, Afrofunk, and hard-swinging R&B, they indulged a collective love for darker, '70s-era hard rock and psychedelia. With V they have fully integrated the latter aesthetic with the former. The hard rock dimension of their musical persona now exists in an unholy balance with the groove elements of their first three recordings. The set also reflects a new Budos reality: Guitarist Thomas Brenneck and baritone saxophonist Jared Tankel relocated to California, and other members became parents. Budos became a bi-coastal outfit whose Thursday night rehearsals and writing sessions were jettisoned in favor of periodic get-togethers when members could travel East. They wrote and tracked V at the same time in their new Diamond Mine recording studio, all within 72 hours. Brenneck took the tapes back with him to L.A. where he and Daptone's Gabriel Roth mixed the 34-minute set.
This fifth outing showcases a more aggressive and inventive Budos Band than the one heard on Burnt Offering. Opener and single "Old Engine Oil" commences with a "Whole Lotta Love"-inspired guitar vamp before cracking snares and kick drums enter alongside horns. The sound is ragged and immediate, charged with energy, fury, and soul. The horn lines marry Muscle Shoals-styled charts to driving hard rock via electric guitars, wah-wah, breakbeat drumming, and a wrangling bassline
Glen Hansard - I'll Be You, Be Me from This Wild Willing
The opening track on 2019's This Wild Willing, "I'll Be You, Be Me," begins with a fuzzy rhythm track and a bass patiently thumping over a clanky rhythm machine as Glen Hansard delivers his lyrics in an ominous murmur. Four minutes later it snowballs into a massive tower of cacophony with guitars, keyboards, and strings united in a howling frenzy of sonic force. It's a powerful way to start an album, and while it's easily the set's boldest departure from the introspective but passionate indie folk that has been Hansard's trademark, it sets the stage for a set that finds Hansard pushing his stylistic boundaries. This Wild Willing was primarily written during a four-week working holiday in Paris, and Hansard received input and inspiration from a wide variety of fellow artists, running the gamut from Irish traditional folk instrumentalists to experimental electronic musicians...
The Leisure Society - There Are No Rules Around Here from Arrivals & Departures
A decade into their recording career, England's amiable chamber pop specialists, the Leisure Society, return with their first double album, a deeply personal self-exploration from frontman Nick Hemming, whose breakup with bandmate Helen Whitaker lies at its thematic core. There has always been an earnest sensitivity to Hemming's songwriting which the group then trims in garlands of wistful strings, horns, and woodwinds so that even at their most melancholic, there remains a feeling that hope does indeed spring eternal. Such is the case on Arrivals & Departures, where over two discs, the band serves up themes of regret and dramatic life changes atop puffed clouds of bittersweet melody and orchestral grandeur with occasional stabs of angry lightning...
In 2014, Patio was the fictitious brainchild of Loren DiBlasi, then a music journalist who fancied bass guitar but had yet to pick one up. Linking with guitarist friend Lindsey-Paige McCloy, DiBlasi learned bass by replicating Pavement and Blink-182 licks. College friend Alice Suh, who’d just taken up drum lessons, completed the trio. Mitski accepted an invitation to their first show, and nearly five years later, Patio are a frequent opening act on the Brooklyn DIY scene... The sprightly post-punk of Essentials commands attention, not because it’s overzealous or hyperbolic, but because of the vigor Patio bring to their songs. Their attitude recalls predecessors like Dig Me Out-era Sleater-Kinney, but Patio inject the final product with enough modern indie-pop influence to clear them of imitator status....
Men I Trust - Numb
Men I Trust have a new album ready in the wings, Oncle Jazz — it was originally supposed to come out in February, but it’s been delayed... The dreamy Montreal trio have just released a new song called “Numb,” with a hazy synth and bass groove. “Numb, is how I feel deep inside my soul,” lead singer Emma Proulx sings softly. “Need to feel that I am on the line / I’m sorry that I dragged you down my way.”
Norah Jones, Bruce Hornsby, PJ Harvey, Gillian Anderson, Lily James, Chris Forsyth, Shovels & Rope, T-Bone Burnett / Jay Bellerose / Keefus Ciancia, The Budos Band, Glen Hansard, The Leisure Society, Patio, Men I Trust
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