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
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"Scorpio Walk"
ALTER.NATION #46 on DEEZER
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.
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...
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.
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 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.
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| The Quiet Temple founded by Duke Garwood and Soulsavers' Rich Machin |
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.”
...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...
...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.”
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
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