ALTER.NATION #45
Pere Ubu, Purple Mountains, Africa Express, Gauche, METZ, Tycho, Insane Clown Posse, Stereo Total, Khruangbin, K.Flay, Kyle Craft, Bleached, Penelope Isles
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"What I Heard on the Pop Radio"
ALTER.NATION #45 on DEEZER
Influential art punk band whose experimental sound harnessed self-destructing melodies, scattershot rhythms, and industrial-strength dissonance.
Ever since "30 Seconds Over Tokyo," Pere Ubu have been portending the end, either with their apocalyptic sounds or the numerous times they've threatened to call it quits. This time, they may actually mean it. The band's mastermind David Thomas described The Long Goodbye as their "definitive destination," and if it is their final statement, they're not making any concessions. Unlike 20 Years in a Montana Missile Silo, where they framed the complexity of their music in relatively short, simple outbursts, this time they lead with the avant side of their avant-garage, letting it sprawl and tangle in fascinating and unsettling ways. For the band's final chapter, Thomas was inspired by an unlikely pair of influences: commercial pop music and Raymond Chandler's classic 1953 noir novel The Long Goodbye (which, not coincidentally, was the author's final book and the culmination of the Philip Marlowe series).
Purple Mountains - Darkness and Cold from Purple Mountains
After the Silver Jews ended in 2009, David Berman's retreat from music seemed so final that the mere existence of Purple Mountains is somewhat miraculous -- and even more so because it's one of his finest collections of songs. For this go-round, Berman chose a brilliant band name: Purple Mountains is traditional but not obvious, familiar but with more than a hint of eternal mystery. While he's always been an eloquent songwriter, now he's also a direct one -- it's as if these songs are making up for lost time even as they let listeners know what's been on his mind during the years he was gone...
David Berman’s first new music in over a decade is a marvelous collection of heartbreak, grief, and bitterness. His careful writing has never sounded so exacting or direct.
Africa Express - Become The Tiger (feat. Sibot, Damon Albarn, Mr Jukes) from Egoli
...Hailed as the most revolutionary force in popular music for two decades, Africa Express was founded in 2006 and brings together musicians from different cultures, genres and generations to break boundaries and offer a new perspective on Africa and its music...
Gauche - Dirty Jacket from A People's History of Gauche
Come the revolution, will the rebels man the barricades with skinny ties? The members of Gauche just might. A proudly leftist band whose songs demand justice for all in all forms -- social, racial, economic, feminist, LGTBQ+ -- Gauche also happen to deliver a joyously angular update of late-'70s/early-'80s new wave sounds, as if the Waitresses, the B-52s, X-Ray Spex, and Lene Lovich got together to stage a revved-up throwdown in support of a campus progressive organization... They also crank up some very satisfying pogo-friendly music, and in this case it's not simply a spoonful of crazy-colored sugar that helps the medicine go down. Gauche use the power and energy of their music to complement and reinforce their message, not dilute it. The tunes are full of hooks and grooves that will get the party started, and the melodies are sharp and fiery -- fun but a long way from empty-headed...
METZ - Dry Up from Automat
...Drummer Hayden Menzies and bassist Chris Slorach are an intimidatingly good rhythm section, providing foundation and framework for songs that are rock-solid despite the outward chaos, and guitarist Alex Edkins suspends a riot of sounds over it, full of slashing chords, bursts of feedback, sheets of atmospheric distortions, and clouds of carefully sculpted effects-box cacophony drifting across the horizon. The precision of these performances sounds like math rock, the bulldozer impact is borrowed from metal, and the overall clamor would get them filed under noise rock, but as much as their debt to their influences can be worked out, the final product feels unique, and the sheer passion they pour into their work is matched by very few of their contemporaries...
Tycho - Easy from Weather
Since evolving from a Boards of Canada-inspired solo project to a full-fledged touring band around 2010, Tycho has perfected an instantly recognizable form of instrumental electronic pop music with strong beats, ringing guitars, and stirring melodies. With fifth album Weather, Scott Hansen distills the signature Tycho sound into the most accessible it's ever been, keeping all the songs around three or four minutes each and adding lyrics for the first time...
Insane Clown Posse - Clown Show from Hell's Cellar
...Interestingly, the project is more or less a Violent J solo effort, with no verses from his counterpart Shaggy 2 Dope on any of the songs. The material is also decidedly less commercial, even by ICP standards, sounding more like artistic experiments with dark beats and horrific lyricism than the usual over-the-top choruses and sophomoric shock humor the duo excelled at. Perhaps that more inspired creation is what kept this collection in the vaults...
Stereo Total - Die Dachkatze from Ah! Quel Cinema!
...Musically, this Stereo Total disc, their twelfth, cannot be readily aligned with anything at all. If earlier albums resonated with influences from chanson, trash or disco to punk, rock’n’roll and NDW (German New Wave), Stereo Total have now arrived in their very own musical universe which pays no heed to stylistic devices, reminiscent of “rien de tout”. What we can say: Françoise Cactus excels in the art of 8-track cassette recording, thus creating an extraordinary sonic experience. Brezel Göring draws on his favoured array of instruments more likely to be found in the hands of children in households where a musical education is not on the agenda: plastic baby organ and dreadful mouse piano, accompanied by home-made guitars glued together by less than gifted artisans...
Khruangbin - Sunny's Vision from Hasta el Cielo
Khruangbin's second album, 2018's Con Todo el Mundo, was the Texas trio's breakout; their relaxed blend of dub, funk, soul, and psych from around the world struck a chord with loads of people looking for something different. Hasta el Cielo is a dub reworking of that album that leans heavily on the rubbery bass playing of Laura Lee and steady drumming of Donald "DJ" Johnson, while sidelining Mark Speer's guitar playing for the most part. His distinctive lines dart in and out of the mix, sometimes subsumed by echo and other times beaming into the mix in gleaming shards. It's an interesting choice since his guitar lines were often what made Con Todo el Mundo as distinctive as it was. When they're subtracted and replaced by echo and other effects, the result is that the music slides seamlessly into the background and it's easier than the band likely hoped to zone out as the songs drift past...
K.Flay -This Baby Don't Cry from Solutions
Two years after her Grammy-nominated sophomore breakthrough, genre-spanning singer/songwriter Kristine Flaherty, aka K.Flay, dialed back the menace on Solutions, delivering a buoyant, beat-driven collection of synth-leaning pop with a '90s rock edge. Bright and full of life, the ten-song set continues to toy with the idea of genre, pulling in multiple styles and influences that veers in her most accessible direction to date. In terms of vocal delivery, she's spitting less bars than before, but the hip-hop cadence is still there. Instead of leaning on that early style, she's experimenting with fresh ideas, not only concentrating on more dance-centric energy, but also stretching her voice... The funky throbber "This Baby Don't Cry" -- co-written with Dan Reynolds (Imagine Dragons) -- adopts a garage rock vibe, complete with elastic bass and handclaps reminiscent of late 2000s indie-pop duo the Ting Tings...
K.Flay and Miya Folick: One Year Together and Counting
A conversation with the musicians about coming out, finding love, and writing songs about each other.
Kyle Craft - Broken Mirror Pose from Showboat Honey
Following a self-recorded debut and full-band follow-up that was tracked live in a studio under the guidance of Chris Funk (the Decemberists), '70s rock disciple Kyle Craft returns with Showboat Honey, his third Sub Pop release. Still fusing American Southern rock, British glam, and the songwriter's own knack for colorful characters and phraseology, Showboat Honey was not only produced by Craft with two members of his band (keyboardist Kevin Clark and bassist Billy Slater), but named for his backing five-piece. The track list opens with the collaborative "Broken Mirror Pose," an under-three-minute, saxophone-aided barroom jam. ..
Bleached - Rebound City from Don't You Think You've Had Enough?
On the surface, the straightforward rock rhythms are crisply played with an honest raw energy and tight chord progressions. But a deeper dive reveals a slightly more complex sound with bouncy counter-rhythms, playful beats, and surging guitar riffs. Topped off with a glossy vocal punch, the sound could be likened to a cross between Blondie and the Talking Heads.
Like most good records, Don't You Think You Have Enough? requires a few good spins before the goodness sinks in. Most tracks are uncluttered with sharp driving rhythms that are catchy and upbeat.
Taking influence from alt-rock and lo-fi acts including Pavement, Radiohead, and Deerhunter, Brighton, U.K.'s Penelope Isles make lush, harmonic noise pop that's often as catchy as it is exploratory. The four-piece released their debut album, Until the Tide Creeps In, in 2019.
Raised on the Isle of Man, English siblings Jack and Lily Wolter both started writing songs and playing in bands during their teens, but with a six-year age difference, more often separately than together. After Lily graduated from music school in Brighton, her older brother joined her there, and they formed Penelope Isles, eventually expanding the duo to a four-piece. Drawing on '90s and 2000s influences spanning lo-fi, jagged alt-rock, and dream pop, including experimental acts like Radiohead and Deerhunter, they fashioned an intriguing guitar-based song palette... Much of the album is catchy without detracting from their careful attention to texture, a combination that's best illustrated on the seven-minute centerpiece, "Gnarbone." While there's a mercurial effect to Until the Tide Creeps In at least partly due to its songwriters writing separately, common tendencies, artful execution, and a melancholy dreaminess tie it all together, like a novel that's consistently compelling as it moves through multiple perspectives.
Pere Ubu, Purple Mountains, Africa Express, Gauche, METZ, Tycho, Insane Clown Posse, Stereo Total, Khruangbin, K.Flay, Kyle Craft, Bleached, Penelope Isles
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