040 ALTER.NATION: weekly favtraX 10-06-2019

ALTER.NATION #40

Vanishing Twin, Silversun Pickups, Rickie Lee Jones, Peter Perrett, Santana, Concha Buika, Yeasayer, Pixx, Perry Farrell, Plaid, Froth, Nicole Yun, Vanishing Twin

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ALTER.NATION #40 on deezer

Vanishing Twin is songwriter, singer and multi-instrumentalist Cathy Lucas, drummer Valentina Magaletti, bassist Susumu Mukai, synth/guitar player Phil MFU and visual artist/film maker Elliott Arndt on flute and percussion; and on this album they have made their first artistic statement for the ages.
Vanishing Twin - Planète Sauvage from The Age of Immunology
...The magical Morricone-esque lounge of ‘You Are Not an Island’, the blissed-out Jean-Claude Vannier style arrangement of ‘Invisible World’ and burbling sci fi funk ode to a 1972 cult French animation, ‘Planète Sauvage’, were all recorded in nighttime sessions in an abandoned mill in Sudbury....
Fantastic Planet: Vanishing Twin And The Age Of Immunology
On their new album, The Age of Immunology, the group hasn’t really switched up their sound, but instead has expanded the fabled lore encompassed in their body of work. Though only a couple of songs on the new album were born out of the aforementioned Sudbury sessions, the overarching result seems to highlight the group’s strengthened bond with each other and their vision. Vanishing Twin is a large group, blending together a range of backgrounds, languages, tastes and influences.

L.A. alternative rockers who weave layered guitars and effects around surging, melodic tunes. 
Silversun Pickups - Neon Wound from Widow's Weeds
Turning inward on their fifth full-length, Los Angeles four-piece Silversun Pickups shifts away from the pulsing synths and thrills of their previous effort, amplifying the drama and tension with the moody Widow's Weeds...

Singer who gained fame combining folk and jazz styles with lyrical songwriting populated by bohemian characters. 

Rickie Lee Jones - Bad Company from Kicks

Like Willie Nelson, Rickie Lee Jones is a singular American songwriter with an eloquent soul and a melodic sense that spans a number of genres. And like Nelson, Jones' muse seems to visit only so often these days, so a few decades into her career, she often records other people's songs rather than her own...  Kicks is an album devoted to her interpretations of a variety of rock and pop tunes as well as a few old standards, and even when the material is familiar, Jones inarguably finds something very much her own in this material...

As leader of the Only Ones in the '70s and as a solo artist in the 2010s, Perrett makes sly, hooky guitar rock spiced by his inimitable vocals. 
Peter Perrett - Love Comes On Silent Feet from Humanworld
After years spent in the wilderness of addiction and recovery, Peter Perrett made a stunning comeback with 2017's How the West Was Won. The former Only One returned with a set of songs that re-established him as one of the great punk romantics, possessed of a timeless voice and a gimlet eye for a hooky melody...  the rollicking "Love Comes on Silent Feet" is a brilliant slice of guitar rock...

Pioneers of Latin rock who successfully married elements of blues, rock, and Latin music, and enjoyed international acclaim for decades. 
Santana - Blue Skies from Africa Speaks
...Throughout, the Santana octet is on fire, fronted by Spain's inimitable force of nature Concha Buika, a singer, songwriter, poet, and producer. She is so versatile, she's been nominated for Latin Grammys in several genres, and is equally adept at flamenco, jazz, soul, funk, and Anglo-Latin and Afro-pop...  Laura Mvula guests on the simmering jazz-blues nocturne "Blue Skies," trading verses with co-composer Buika...

This Brooklyn band's eclectic, offbeat indie rock encourages listeners to don their thinking caps and dancing shoes. 
Yeasayer - Ohm Death from Erotic Reruns
In a return to their earliest days as a band, Yeasayer's fifth album, Erotic Reruns, was written and produced by the core trio of Chris Keating, Ira Wolf Tuton, and Anand Wilder. It was even recorded in their respective home studios (along with a few guests and engineer Daniel Neiman)...

A thought-provoking singer/songwriter, Pixx questions conventions of all kinds with her shape-shifting music. From the folky beginnings of 2015's Fall In EP, she quickly moved to idiosyncratic electro-rock on later releases including 2019's Small Mercies... Born Hannah Rodgers, Pixx hails from Chipstead, a town just outside of South London. 
Pixx - Bitch from Small Mercies
Hannah Rodgers assigned herself a daunting task by delivering her debut LP as Pixx, 2017’s Age of Anxiety, with such aplomb... In Rodgers’ case, she simply used it as a yardstick to dig deeper and build taller on Pixx’s second offering. While she positioned herself as small vessel amidst the tumult of the world’s rocky ocean on Age of Anxiety, Small Mercies finds her assaying her personal relationships.

Alt-rock godfather who wears many hats: promoter, provocateur, and indelible frontman (Jane's Addiction, Porno for Pyros, Satellite Party). 
Perry Farrell - Machine Girl from Kind Heaven
Alt-rock godfather Perry Farrell is best known for his pivotal role in Jane's Addiction, but in the years between breakups and reunions for his best-known band, the singer always kept active with other projects. In addition to more traditional bands like Porno for Pyros, Farrell sporadically worked on solo material. Kind Heaven is his third solo album...  Farrell duets with his wife, Etty Lau Farrell, on several tracks like the high-tension ode to lust "Machine Girl."

Long-standing British duo whose innovative brand of warped electro-techno is filled with playful melodies and tricky time signatures. 
Plaid - Maru from Polymer
Plaid's tenth studio album is inspired by environmental concerns, as well as humanity's relationship with synthetic objects and how they affect the planet. Similar to many of Plaid's past albums, the duo weave acoustic instrumentation throughout their tricky compositions, fusing machine precision with warmth, humanity, and wonder... The clanging rhythms of "Maru" sound like a warped variation on the sound of experimental club labels like Timedance, yet the serene organ pads and twinkling melodies add a gentle touch.

"Fake band" from El Segundo, California turns into a real powerhouse of indie rock-infused garage psychedelia.
Froth - Laurel from Duress
...On the majority of the album, guitarist/vocalist Joo-Joo Ashworth, bassist Jeremy Katz, and drummer Cameron Allen sound like they were bunkered in a laundry room, huddling around an old four-track tape machine and gently picking their way through the songs so as not to bother anyone else in the house... and "Laurel" almost gets a head of steam going but is content to grind away happily in second gear...  Froth may have lost some potential fans by shrinking their scale of operations, but the move allowed them to deliver a truly interesting, totally unique version of shoegaze and experimental pop.

Along with being in Eternal Summers, the singer/songwriter crafts nostalgic '90s alterna-rock on her own. As a member of Eternal Summers, Nicole Yun was part of a trio crafting dreamy shoegaze and indie rock-flavored music. On her own, her tastes run more towards the mainstream of '90s alternative, as evidenced by the sounds captured on her debut solo album, 2019's Paper Suit.
Nicole Yun - Tommie from Paper Suit
After a decade spent playing with Eternal Summers, guitarist/songwriter Nicole Yun was ready to try something other than the dream pop/shoegaze mix that band did so well. Working on Paper Suit with talented teams in NYC and Philadelphia that included members of Maxïmo Park, Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Guided by Voices, and Bleeding Rainbow, she crafted a love letter to the various forms of alternative rock that she grew up on in the '90s... Yun and Paper Suit stand head and shoulders above 99 percent of those acts, and anyone seeking a record that not only revives the guitar pop of the '90s but brings it fully up to date should waste no time giving this a spin.

Vanishing Twin is songwriter, singer and multi-instrumentalist Cathy Lucas, drummer Valentina Magaletti, bassist Susumu Mukai, synth/guitar player Phil MFU and visual artist/film maker Elliott Arndt on flute and percussion; and on this album they have made their first artistic statement for the ages.
Vanishing Twin - You Are Not An Island from The Age of Immunology
...The magical Morricone-esque lounge of ‘You Are Not an Island’, the blissed-out Jean-Claude Vannier style arrangement of ‘Invisible World’ and burbling sci fi funk ode to a 1972 cult French animation, ‘Planète Sauvage’, were all recorded in nighttime sessions in an abandoned mill in Sudbury....
Fantastic Planet: Vanishing Twin And The Age Of Immunology
On their new album, The Age of Immunology, the group hasn’t really switched up their sound, but instead has expanded the fabled lore encompassed in their body of work. Though only a couple of songs on the new album were born out of the aforementioned Sudbury sessions, the overarching result seems to highlight the group’s strengthened bond with each other and their vision. Vanishing Twin is a large group, blending together a range of backgrounds, languages, tastes and influences.

Vanishing Twin, Silversun Pickups, Rickie Lee Jones, Peter Perrett, Santana, Concha Buika, Yeasayer, Pixx, Perry Farrell, Plaid, Froth, Nicole Yun, Vanishing Twin