27-07-2019 BALL FAVTRAX_MiX 33 FAVOURiTE tracks 1984-1979

27-07-2019 BALL FAVTRAX:MiX ~ 33 FAVOURiTE tracks 1984-1979  >>Felt, Redd Kross, Sonic Youth, Bauhaus, X, Kip Hanrahan, Echo & The Bunnymen, Peter Hammill, Tom Waits, Gil Scott-Heron, Frank Zappa<<

M U S I C

favtraxmix label The player always plays the latest playlist tracks. / A lejátszó mindig a legújabb playlist számait játssza.   

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1984-1979

Revered English cult band of the '80s, led by expressive singer Lawrence Hayward, creators of cerebral jangle pop. 
Felt
Crystal Ball (Maurice Deebank) 2:55
Spanish House (Maurice Deebank / Lawrence) 4:28
from The Strange Idols Pattern and Other Short Stories 1984
After establishing their sparse, dramatic sound with two albums and a handful of singles, Felt exploded into brilliance on their third album, 1984's The Strange Idols Pattern and Other Short Stories. Working with producer John Leckie for the first time, the band made a purposeful leap into the world of hi-fi recording: the arrangements are full and layered, Lawrence's vocals pop with confidence and vigor, and Felt have a limber swing to them that they'd never exhibited before. As usual, the record was split between Maurice Deebank's intricate instrumentals and Lawrence's songs, but for the first time Deebank's guitar explorations and Lawrence's tightly wound inner journeys sound like the work of two different visionaries instead of a united front...  The Strange Idols Pattern and Other Short Stories may not have the cachet or reputation of albums by the "big-name" bands of the era, but it has the songs and that's what counts the most. This is Lawrence and Felt at their absolute classic best, not to be overlooked or missed for any reason.

Teen trash poppers of the early '80s who tempered their fast and loud sound to become a major alternative rock act. 
Redd Kross
Citadel (Mick Jagger / Keith Richards) 2:58
Saviour Machine (David Bowie) 4:22
from Teen Babes from Monsanto 1984
By the time Redd Kross' dynamic siblings Jeff and Steven McDonald hit the studio with drummer Dave Peterson to record 1984's EP of covers Teen Babes from Monsanto, any notions they once had of being a punk band were far in the rearview window. They'd become a kickass rock & roll band instead, giving the rock & roll icons whose songs they cover here a serious run for their money...  they give the Rolling Stones' "Citadel" a pummeling hard rock remake, play the Stooges to a draw on a spookily explosive version of "Ann," and steamroll all the whimsy out of David Bowie's "Saviour Machine" while giving it a doomy Black Sabbath makeover... More of a lark than a serious statement, Teen Babes is a serious good time and cleared the decks for Redd Kross, paving the way for them to start writing great songs of their own.

Pioneers in noise rock who continued creating sophisticated, visceral music long after they became an alt-rock institution. 
Sonic Youth
(She's in A) Bad Mood 5:36
Protect Me You 5:28
Freezer Burn/I Wanna Be Your Dog 3:38
from Confusion Is Sex/Kill Yr Idols 1983
before becoming alt-rock icons, before marriages and children, the Youth were a struggling young noise loving art-rock group from New York with empty pockets.
their first LP (depending on whether or not you consider the self titled EP the first BRUISE PRISTINE :p) , which was joined at the end by an EP of theirs ("Kill Yr Idols") to become one full album, is a hard find, and to the casual listener, a difficult listen. but when one learns to appreciate it, this record is a gem.
so there we go. if you are an SY fan, and you spot this at the record store, BUY IT. it is an extremely good find. keep in mind though, this album is not for everyone. this is an album for the open minded listener, interested in hearing something completely strange and new. i'll give 2 ratings.
for the casual listener: 1.5/5 / for the open mind: 4.5

046 ALTER.NATION weekly favtrax 25-07-2019

ALTER.NATION #46

Ernie Hawks, The Soul Investigators, G&D, Jenny Hval, Wild Billy Childish & CTMF, Oceans of the Moon, The Quiet Templel, UV-TV, Twen, Bethlehem Steel, DIIV, The Hold Steady, Russian Circles

weekly favtraX 

25 - 0 7 - 2 0 1 9

"Scorpio Walk"

ALTER.NATION #46 on DEEZER

Ernie Hawks is straight up gangster! He somehow manages to transform the flute into as instrument with as much muscle as a baritone sax. Serious grooves here, like they were designed to be sampled, but really it's just funky dudes putting out funky tunes.
Ernie Hawks, The Soul Investigators - Scorpio Walk from Bad Education, Vol. 1: "Soul Hits" of Timmion Records
 Daptone Records takes its longstanding kinship with Finland's Timmion label to the next level with Bad Education, Vol. 1. Daptone distributes the label stateside and assists in extending its creative reach. In turn, the folks at Timmion provide advocacy and support for the New York label's artists when they tour Europe.

G&D (Georgia Anne Muldrow/Dudley Perkins)  - Where I’m From
...The duo’s debut album Black Love & War is about the unity of the black family as is largely produced by Muldrow. Its lead single “Where I’m From” is definitely worth checking out. This one’s a bit more acoustic compared to “Overload,” and has a smoldering, earthy feel. While giving Muldrow’s full-bodied vocals a place to shine, it still features some of those digital top-line trills that serve as a reminder of the track’s modernity. Along with Perkins’ relaxed yet rhythmic verses, a transportive atmospheric synth pad swirls horizontally. A simple drum beat maintains throughout as Muldrow’s gospel ad libs soar.

This Norwegian singer/songwriter crafts thoughtful, uncompromising music under her own name as well as Rockettothesky. 
Jenny Hval - Ashes to Ashes
...On her best songs, Hval gently coos gnomic reflections on the human body, creativity, and sexuality, set to shape-shifting, adventurous music that hints at how weird and grotesque all this “being a physical person who can reproduce and will die” stuff is. With “Ashes to Ashes,” Hval once again does all that in a new way. Catchy hooks, uptempo thumps, and strobe-like shimmers turn out to be a Trojan Horse for a series of reminiscences about dreams—about the acts of burial, songwriting, and fucking, in that order—delivered with the off-kilter elegance you’d expect from a keen student of Kate Bush and Björk...

Few performers in rock history have been as ferociously prolific as Billy Childish. In fact, a complete discography of his work as a solo performer and with his various bands would take up quite a lot of space...
Medway's most prolific craftsman, Billy Childish has been in more bands than most people could count on their fingers and toes since he started bashing out three chords in the late '70s. CTMF was his main band in the 2010s; the power trio combines the furious energy of punk, the sprightly swagger of garage rock, and the occasional ragged strand of Merseybeat or psychedelia, wrapping it up in Childish's trademark hollered vocals and raw lyrical perspective.
Wild Billy Childish & CTMF - You Can't Capture Time from Last Punk Standing…
When the name Billy Childish shows up on the sleeve of an album, it's a guarantee that the contents will be raw rock & roll played with feverish purity and sung with the passion of a madman. He's had numerous bands over the years, and CTMF is on par with the best of them. Over the course of a handful of albums they've established themselves as keepers of the punk rock flame, undimmed by commercial concerns and undeterred by the lure of flashy stylistic diversions. Last Punk Standing... is another fine addition to their CV; the trio whip up some thrilling noise as they power through raging rockers, pounding punk polemics, a surf instrumental, and the occasional love song.

Minimalist grooves and indie rock aggression meet vintage electronics in this project from Rick Pelletier of Six Finger Satellite. 
Oceans of the Moon - Borderline from Oceans of the Moon
In the late '60s and early '70s, the synthesizer was something novel, and often used in pop music to conjure up the sound of a sleek and gleaming technological future. All these years later, electronics have been around enough to sound clanky and fractured if need be, and the self-titled debut album from Oceans of the Moon is an inspired example of music from an alternate universe where a gang of aging sound-generating circuits have made their last stand in some forbidden silicon graveyard. Featuring Rick Pelletier (of Six Finger Satellite and La Machine) on guitar, keyboards, and vocals, Jon Loper on drums, and Dare Matheson on a synthesizer rig he could have rescued from a garage sale at Allen Ravenstine's house, Oceans of the Moon know how to make a groove when they feel like it (the R&B influences are faint but audible in Loper's drumming)

...The band's name comes directly from a tune composed by pianist Mal Waldron, recorded by Donald Byrd and Booker Little for the 1960 album The Soul of Jazz Percussion (reissued as The Third World)...
The Quiet Temple - X Rated from The Quiet Temple
Founded by guitarist Duke Garwood and Soulsavers' Rich Machin, Quiet Temple is a loose-knit, slipstream instrumental collective named for a Mal Waldron composition immortalized by Donald Byrd and Booker Little. The rolling cast includes players who have worked with various bands over the past two decades and sometimes together. The roster includes saxophonist Ray Dickaty (Stereolab, Spiritualized); keyboardist Tim Lewis (aka Thighpaulsandra -- Spiritualized and Julian Cope), drummer Paul May, bassist Peter Marsh (both Woven Entity), and guitarist Tony "Doggen" Foster (Julian Cope, Spiritualized, Brain Donor). Their music crisscrosses genres from psych and post-punk to left-field jazz, steamy dub, kosmiche, and even Krautrock...  Ultimately, there are too few records like The Quiet Temple. While its musical referents are obvious, its assemblage, execution, and inspiration are not.

The Quiet Temple founded by Duke Garwood and Soulsavers' Rich Machin

Central Florida noise pop trio UV-TV make catchy, candid pop melancholia with jagged edges
UV-TV - World
“World” is one of their longest tracks, an extended humid nightmare whose sunny tones cut through the compression. “I’m running, always trying, it’s always worth the fighting,” Rose Vastola sings through the density. “There’s no choice of denying.”

Twen - Waste
...We’ll learn more about their full-length debut later this year, but for now we’ve got “Waste,” a song about self-doubt and silencing a negative mental feedback loop. Lead vocalist Jane Fitzsimmons shouts over an extremely catchy but hard-hitting melody, “I make you wanna be someone. I make you want to waste it, I make you wanna waste some time.” The harmonies kind of remind me of early Tegan And Sara with a fuzzy edge...

Bethlehem Steel - Bad Girl
...At the project’s center is still Becca Rsykalczyk, though, whose smoky voice grounds Bethlehem Steel’s lead single “Bad Girl”: “Woke up early to hate myself/ Am I a bad girl?” she wonders on it, her swirl of anxieties giving way to a terse, knotted breakdown.“‘Bad Girl’ is about all the nights that my brain keeps me awake. Irrationally telling me I’m a terrible person. Going over and over and over all of the things I might have done to upset or inconvenience another human,” Ryskalczyk said in a statement. “Singing the line ‘am I a bad girl?’ to my bandmates or even just out loud to myself was definitely embarrassing. I wasn’t sure if I should even keep it as a lyric until I decided to just lean into it. I send my mom everything I’m working on and when I sent her the demos with place holder titles she was like ‘Bad Girl? Now THATS how you name a song!’ so naturally it had to stay.”...

DIIV - Skin Game
We’re also getting the lead single, “Skin Game,” a track that starts breezy and shoegaze-y and eventually trails off into electrifying guitar distortion. Zachary Cole Smith talks about “Skin Game,” describing it as a song about addiction and recovery, in a statement:
"It’s an imaginary dialogue between two characters, which could either be myself or people I know. I spent six months in several different rehab facilities at the beginning of 2017. I was living with other addicts. Being a recovering addict myself, there are a lot of questions like, “Who are we? What is this disease?” Our last record was about recovery in general, but I truthfully didn’t buy in. I decided to live in my disease instead. “Skin Game” looks at where the pain comes from. I’m looking at the personal, physical, emotional, and broader political experiences feeding into the cycle of addiction for millions of us."

The Hold Steady - You Did Good Kid
The song thrives on contradiction. Rumination on daily drudgery and existential anxiety (“When your low serotonin’s got you brittle and glitchy”) is sandwiched between half-hearted affirmations (“You did good kid.”) Spiraling riffs lead to a buoyant brass section. It sounds like a harmonious panic attack...
"‘You Did Good Kid’ is the first song we worked on for this session, and remains a favorite,” Finn says in a statement. “It went though a few iterations before we came to this arrangement, and I’m really psyched on it. It feels great to play live.”

Russian Circles - Kohokia
In a couple of weeks, Chicago instrumental trio Russian Circles are set to release a new album, Blood Year... a simmering 7-minute epic that feels like a perfect confluence of their sound: glowering dread and tension mixed with soaring highs that approach transcendence...

Ernie Hawks, The Soul Investigators, G&D, Jenny Hval, Wild Billy Childish & CTMF, Oceans of the Moon, The Quiet Templel, UV-TV, Twen, Bethlehem Steel, DIIV, The Hold Steady, Russian Circles

16-07-2019 alter_MiX 33 alter tracks in PRSNT_PRFCT_MiX

Priests

16-07-2019 alter:MiX # 33 alter tracks in PRSNT_PRFCT_MiX [from the recent past] # Priests, The James Hunter Six, Niia, Eyes of Love, Le SuperHomard, Tallies, Pearl & the Oysters, The Heliocentrics, Bonobo, Cabbage, Juliana Hatfield, Dire Wolves

M U S I C

pres_perf_mix # The player always plays the latest playlist tracks. / A lejátszó mindig a legújabb playlist számait játssza. 

LISTEN THE PLAYLIST ON DEEZER.COM

Frenetic post-punk quartet follows a long line of angular punk legends from its hometown of Washington, D.C. 
Priests
No Big Bang 2:48
Nothing Feels Natural 3:59
Pink White House 4:05
from Nothing Feels Natural 2017
The creative leap that Priests make from the Bodies and Control and Money and Power EP to their first full-length Nothing Feels Natural is reflected in the titles of both works: Bodies spelled out society's ills with literal (and literate) rants, but this time, Priests use a more poetic, existential approach to express these frustrations. When nothing feels right, change is a natural response, and the band uses the space afforded by a full-fledged album to introduce more sounds and moods to its music...

The gritty, passionate, longstanding backing band of British soulman, songwriter, and guitarist James Hunter. /English channeler of American soul from days of yore (Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, et al), cult following since the 1990s.
The James Hunter Six
If That Don't Tell You 2:34
(Baby) Hold On 2:45
A Truer Heart 2:38
from Hold On! 2016
Hold On! is the fourth album by the rocking soul man James Hunter and his stalwart sextet. Daptone's Gabriel Roth produced the excellent Minute by Minute in 2013, but this is the band's debut for the label. Hold On! was recorded live in the studio, but Roth and Hunter decided on mono to best capture the immediacy of the performances. The songwriter has recorded only original material since 2006, and these ten tracks are no exception. What separates this date from previous outings -- excellent though they all were -- isn't the mono production, but the diversity in songwriting, rhythmic invention, and arranging...

Singer and songwriter who broke through when featured on Wyclef Jean's "Sweetest Girl" in 2007 and went on to make her own jazz-inflected pop. 
Niia
Sideline 4:20
Nobody 4:08
Last Night In Los Feliz 5:55
from Niia I 2017
...Decay is the thing on “I,” Niia’s lavishly detailed full-length debut album, made in partnership with the producer Robin Hannibal. Together, they understand how to make songs melt, and how to make seismic shifts at a glacial pace. The result is trip-hop that strips away the pomp, leaving only the ooze...

Experimental pop band Eyes of Love are headed by New York-based songwriter Andrea Schiavelli. The group's 2018 debut album, End of the Game, features tightly wound, complex arrangements that are both playful and delicate.
Eyes of Love
Homeowners 1:36
Version of Tomorrow 2:39
Players of the Field 2:41
from End of the Game 2018
Andrea Schiavelli previously used the name Eyes of Love for a solo cassette in 2011, then debuted the band of the same name with a 7" EP of VU-indebted lo-fi rock songs in 2016. An entirely different lineup of the band recorded End of the Game, the first Eyes of Love full-length, and by this point the project had developed into a lushly arranged prog-pop unit. An entirely different lineup of the band recorded End of the Game, the first Eyes of Love full-length, and by this point the project had developed into a lushly arranged prog-pop unit. Joined by Palberta's Lily Konigsberg and two members of the Cradle (Sammy Weissberg and Paco Cathcart), Schiavelli pens soft, heartfelt semi-orchestral pop tunes with fractured rhythms and unexpected detours...  End of the Game is complex but not discordant; it never seems like Schiavelli is trying to out-weird anyone or attack the listener with an over-abundance of sounds. It could've ended up a jumble of an album if it wasn't so tightly composed, well arranged, and cleanly recorded.

French group who mix easy listening, '90s-style space age pop, and chamber pop into a frothy melodic concoction. 
Le SuperHomard
Door After Door 3:54
Meadow Lane Park 3:20
from Meadow Lane Park 2019
After releasing the very promising MapleKey EP in 2016, the French band Le SuperHomard were positioned as the next great band in the tradition of Stereolab, Broadcast, and the High Llamas. 2019's Meadow Lane Park makes good on that promise and should please anyone who ever loved the kind of retro-looking, futuristic-sounding pop those bands made in their prime. With songs written, played, and produced by Christophe Vaillant, then sung by Julie Big in breathlessly soft tones, the album is a gentle musical hug that plays on nostalgic strings, but also adds something special -- and perhaps left over from his days playing power pop in the Strawberry Smell -- to the template...

Possessing an extensive knowledge of early-'90s dream pop and the skill set needed to replicate the sounds they loved, the Toronto quartet Tallies balance nimble, effects-heavy guitars with extroverted vocals to craft songs on their self-titled 2019 debut album that wouldn't sound out of place on a mix tape between Lush and the Sundays.
Tallies
Trouble 3:32
Eden 3:58
from Tallies 2019
From the very first bars, the Tallies' self-titled debut album opens the young Canadian quartet to the slings and arrows of being written off as copycats; derivative at best, sonic bandits at worst. They sound so much like a note-perfect cross between the Sundays, Lush, the Smiths, the Ocean Blue, and other bands of that era that paired smeary guitar jangle with passionate reverb-drowned vocals that it's hard to believe the band isn't the offspring of those bands. Every note feels lifted directly from the past, every beat hits like nostalgia, and every word Sarah Cogan sings comes across like a voice beamed in on a distant college radio wave...

French duo living in Florida makes a breezy, uplifting pop music that draws from space age pop, novelty music, and the classic sounds of their homeland. 
Pearl & the Oysters
Water-Lily Waltz 1:46
I Fantasmi di Pompei 2:11
Girl on a Swing 2:32
from Canned Music 2018
Pearl & the Oysters' second album, Canned Music, combines the groovy sounds of '60s French pop, the zippy feel of '90s space age pop, the whimsical nature of the best novelty pop throughout the ages, and a joyful kitchen-sink approach to arrangements. The end result is a cheerful sonic treat that's frothy fun to the last bite. Multi-instrumentalist Joachim Polack and vocalist Juliette Davis may have deep musical training that includes degrees from the Sorbonne, but they aren't even the least bit interested in creating anything serious or important here. They'd rather make music that gives the sunshine in their adopted home of Florida a run for its money in the brightness stakes...

Eclectic U.K.-based ensemble blending influences such as hip-hop, jazz, soundtracks, Ethiopian funk, outré electronics, and more. 
The Heliocentrics
The Sunshine Makers 3:11
Sold Out 3:33
The Trip 3:22
from The Sunshine Makers (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) 2017
Styled in some regards as a 'real-life Breaking Bad', the documentary The Sunshine Makers documents a partnership on a mission to expand the consciousness of the '60s set by means of a domestic LSD laboratory. Who better, indeed, to soundtrack such an affair than London-based synapse-shakers The Heliocentrics, whose irrepressible melange of psychedelia, rhythmic drive and third-eye-cleansing jazz unites the questing spirit of the '60s with the here and now. The evangelical zeal of the era's metaphysical crusaders may be viewed with some wistful nostalgia in the here and now, but their cultural legacy finds an uncanny parallel in this invigorating and addictive score from these modern visionaries.

Simon Green's eclectic electronic project, encompassing elements of jazz, house, soul, and various world music influences. 
Bonobo
Migration 5:27
Outlier 7:55
from Migration 2017
Following the release of his most successful album to date, 2013's The North Borders, as well as an even more triumphant world tour, British producer Bonobo (Simon Green) returned in 2017 with his sixth proper studio full-length, Migration. The album was partially inspired by his touring experiences, but also by the death of a relative. Green's family is spread out across the world, and they all reconvened in Brighton, England for the funeral. These types of experiences cause Green to question what identity means, and where a person is from if he or she is constantly moving. As with all Bonobo recordings, Green absorbs a multitude of cultural influences here, from the underground club sounds of London to American folk songs...

Crashing onto the hallowed Manchester, England scene in late 2015, Mossley quintet Cabbage injected a fresh dose of vitality into the local scene with their irreverent brand of humor, wild live shows, and scuzzy neo-post-punk. The loutish lads of Cabbage -- vocalist Lee Broadbent, guitarist/vocalist/lyricist Joe Martin, guitarist Eoghan Clifford, drummer Asa Morley, and bassist/producer Stephen Evans -- released their first single, "Kevin," a raucous blend of the Clash, the Fall, and early Nirvana. 
Cabbage 
Preach to the Converted 2:28
Molotov Alcopop 2:55
Subhuman 2.0 6:56
from Nihilistic Glamour Shots 2018
After years of solid single and EP output, Manchester, England upstarts Cabbage delivered their proper debut full-length, Nihilistic Glamour Shots... Taking cues from that band -- as well as a few from Kaiser Chiefs, the Fall, Gang of Four, and Iceage -- Cabbage packed Nihilistic Glamour Shots with devilishly catchy tunes that groove with elastic bass and jitter off the hinges with jagged riffs and manic drumming... Dark, dangerous, and addictive, Nihilistic Glamour Shots is a strong opening statement from Cabbage, jolting listeners with sly humor, anti-establishment sneer, and enough sonic variation to hypnotize and invigorate.

After Juliana Hatfield disbanded the jangle pop trio the Blake Babies in 1990, she launched a solo career, performing similarly melodic indie guitar pop. Singing in an endearingly thin voice, Hatfield married her ringing hooks to sweet, lovelorn pop and startlingly honest confessional songs...
Juliana Hatfield
Staying In 3:32
It's so Weird 3:16
Broken Doll 3:18
from Weird 2019
A year before Weird, Juliana Hatfield delivered an album-length Valentine to her childhood pop idol Olivia Newton-John. Appropriately, some echoes of AM pop linger on Weird -- it's there in the occasional wash of analog synth and the insistent hooks, and it's there in exuberant closer "Do It to Music," a love letter to the complex joys of pop -- but the album is barbed by design, a return to the ornery personal pop that's been Hatfield's métier in the 21st century. The album title alone hints at what Weird is about: the feeling of not quite fitting in with the world at large. Hatfield chronicles those twisted, contradictory emotions of ostracization not with a heavy sigh but defiance...

Exploratory psych-rock, cosmic drones, and pastoral avant jazz-folk from this San Francisco collective. / A spacy, experimental collective of musicians based in San Francisco, Dire Wolves combine free-flowing improvisation and exploratory psych-rock to create a cosmic sound that ranges from trance-like drones to colorful, swirling rock and avant jazz-folk...
Dire Wolves
I Control the Weather 6:52
Discordant Angels 4:36
Crack in the Cosmic Axis 8:00
from  Grow Towards the Light 2019
...While the band's intellect-driven improvisations come from the whims of the present, their mystic spirit feels deeply rooted in San Francisco's 1950s and '60s counterculture heyday. A former Deadhead taper back in the '80s (the band's name itself is most likely derived from the Grateful Dead's 1970 classic "Dire Wolf"), Alexander's career since then has been devoted to exploring various forms of out-there music, and this continues to be the case on Grow Towards the Light. The band here consists of Alexander on guitar and Moog synth, Georgia Carbone on vocals, Brian Lucas on bass, Sheila Bosco on drums and piano, Arjun Mendiratta on violin, and Taralie Peterson on saxophone. All are capable players with a good sense of space and of each other...