ALTER.NATION #57
Robert Sotelo, Kaputt, The Hussy, that dog, Red River Dialect, Weeping Icon, Mike Stern and Jeff Lorber Fusion, Vacationer, Empath, Chromatics, Wilco, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
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"P i e c e of C a k e"
ALTER.NATION #57 on DEEZER
Robert Sotelo - Piece of Cake from Infinite Sprawling
After making two whimsical psychedelic pop albums under his alias, Robert Sotelo, in 2017 and 2018, English singer/songwriter Andrew Doig relocated to Glasgow and quickly settled into the vibrant music scene there. Partly inspired by his more-collaborative surroundings, he returns just a year later with Infinite Sprawling. It was recorded with Edwin Stevens (Irma Vep) and Ruari MacLean (Golden Grrrls, Vital Idles) at their home studio. Not unlike Robyn Hitchcock, Sotelo's musical influences heavily favored the trippier, melodic material of the Beatles and the Kinks on his first two releases, and that remains the case here, if in slightly more expansive settings... and "Piece of Cake" mixes modern electronics, varied guitar tones, and a quirky tune straight from '67.
Kaputt - Hi! I'm the Wasp from Carnage Hall
Glaswegian six-piece Kaputt banded together from different players in their city's active and closely knit D.I.Y. scene. Soon after their formation, the group released a four-song demo recording of sharp, quickly twisting songs that buzzed with the angular weirdness of no wave punk and held an undercurrent of danceable catchiness. The band's full-length studio debut, Carnage Hall, presents Kaputt in a slightly more polished form but sacrifices none of the energy of their skronky punk sound... Somewhere between the edgy push of the Delta 5, the art-school punk of early Talking Heads, and the impish juvenilia of X-Ray Spex, Kaputt find the framework that these 13 songs are built on. It's a strong debut from an excitable band barely able to contain themselves as they blow through their songs like a friendly tropical storm.
The Hussy - Have to Hide from Looming
If the Hussy sound 33.3 percent bigger, louder, and noisier on 2019's Looming than they did on their previous albums, there's a good reason for that. After years as a guitar/drums duo, Bobby Hussy and Heather Hussy have expanded their combo into a trio with the addition of Tyler Fassnacht (aka Baby Tyler), who pitches in on guitar, bass, and backing vocals. The personnel expansion does give this group a more muscular and better-detailed attack, but stylistically, Looming reveals the Hussy haven't changed all that much. Then as now, this band is dedicated to punky crash and bash with a garage-style flair for tunes that are equally catchy and snotty, a trash rock love of random bits of atonal texture, and a goofball attitude that prevents them from taking much of anything too seriously, even at their most sincere... The Hussy aren't reinventing the wheel, but on Looming they are stepping up their own game, and they've delivered a high-octane session of punk rock fun as proof.
that dog. - Just the Way from Old LP
"I haven't felt like this since 1995," Anna Waronker snarls at one point on Old LP, the first album from that dog. in 22 years. During that time -- nearly half of Waronker, Rachel Haden and Tony Maxwell's lives -- the band's spiky yet vulnerable mix of punk, chamber pop and singer/songwriter confessions shaped later generations of indie rock and pop artists. It's all the sweeter, then, that Old LP is a near-flawless blend of experience and exuberance. Though Waronker and Haden sound only a day or two older than they did on 1997's Retreat from the Sun, all of that dog.'s members have become more seasoned musicians since that album's release. They also made Old LP at a deliberate pace, writing and honing a handful of songs each year after their 2011 reunion shows...
Red River Dialect - Red River from Abundance Welcoming Ghosts
Ascending from the ruminative coastal trail of 2018's excellent Broken Stay Open Sky, Cornish folk-rock combo Red River Dialect ramble further inland and up the mountainside of their fifth LP, Abundance Welcoming Ghosts. Helmed by Welsh singer, guitarist, and philosophical wordsmith David Morris, the group has enjoyed critical success and an increased profile over the past few years, thanks to a pair of albums that chronicle its leader's ongoing transformation following the untimely death of his father... As Morris anthropologizes his band's namesake in the dark, snaky "Red River," guitarist Simon Drinkwater weaves an eerie spell intermingled with skirls from Ed Sanders' fiddle.
Weeping Icon - Like Envy from Weeping Icon
Brooklyn noise punk quartet Weeping Icon lean heavily into the noise element of their sound, not just augmenting songs with the occasional untidy synth, but burying their hardcore blasts under thick layers of distortion. Their live shows often found the band playing nonstop, with passages of ambient electronics or harsh sonics linking together the more traditional songs, and both their 2017 EP Eyeball Under and their debut full-length re-create that approach... The balance between cathartic punk and misanthropic noise experiments reinforces Weeping Icon and makes for an intense but cleansing listening experience.
Known for his smooth style of weaving together elements of funk, R&B, rock, and electric jazz, Grammy Award-winning keyboardist, composer, and producer Jeff Lorber helped pioneer the post-fusion sound of contemporary jazz.
Mike Stern and Jeff Lorber Fusion - Slow Change from Eleven
The first pairing between crossover jazz icons keyboardist Jeff Lorber and guitarist Mike Stern, 2019's Eleven is an engaging fusion album that balances each musician's distinct musical personality. While both artists got their start in the late 1970s playing a hybrid of jazz and electric rock, they each moved in slightly different directions while coming into their own in the '80s. As the leader of the Jeff Lorber Fusion, Lorber helped to define the sound of groove-oriented contemporary jazz and R&B. Conversely, Stern built upon his early years as a member of Miles Davis' ensembles, mixing post-bop and blues as one of the top virtuoso jazz guitarists of his generation. Together, they bring all of their decades-long experience to bear on Eleven playing a handful of original songs...
Vacationer - Autofocus from Wavelengths
"My memory gets fuzzy when I try to pin down the time of year this began, or which track was the first to come together. Let’s call it 2016. I’d been getting into a habit of home schooling myself in music production. I was compelled to become more self-sustained in my music-making and gratified with the recording quality I could achieve.
My goal was to complete an album at home within my means. I have a modest music room filled with gear and records in various conditions that have accumulated over the years. It’s a stretch to call it a studio, but that’s how I treat it. I overhauled the room’s configuration to accommodate every working instrument and record them at a moments notice..."
Empath - Roses That Cry from Active Listening: Night on Earth
Philly-based four-piece Empath grew organically out of noisy basement jam sessions and free jazz listening parties between close friends living in a communal house. Their earliest recordings were made with a cheap USB microphone intended for use with a video game and would often include canned field recordings of frogs and nature sounds as segues between bursts of noisy racket... The shaky hooks of "Roses That Cry" convey a sense of searching and vulnerability lacking in even the most heart-on-the-sleeve indie acts. Even buried in an active avalanche of hyperactive sounds, the song's conflicting threads of tenderness and trepidation are louder than the clutter that cloaks the song.
Glamorously heartbroken purveyors of evocative electropop. Beginning as a no wave band with an equally volatile lineup and sound, Chromatics evolved into one of the most influential electro-pop acts of the 2000s and 2010s. On albums such as Night Drive and Kill for Love, the group's evocative mix of Italo-disco, post-punk, and '80s pop was glamorous, heartbroken, and utterly distinctive.
Chromatics - The Sound of Silence
...Although its title track came out years ago, Closer To Grey mostly comprises previously unreleased songs. It begins with a cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound Of Silence,” a move that mirrors Kill For Love’s opening cover of Neil Young’s “Into The Black.” There’s also a cover of Jesus & Mary Chain’s Darklands track “On The Wall.” On first pass it sounds very much like a Chromatics album...
Wilco - Bright Leaves from Ode to Joy
...Where Schmilco posessed a subtle but clear undercurrent of dread, Warm and Warmer were full of warmth and compassion, however wary, as if to offer solace after the band peeked into the abyss. After returning to the stage in mid-2019, Wilco have staked out a middle ground between Schmilco and the Warm duo on their thirteenth album. 2019's Ode to Joy comes from the noisier and more inward-looking side of the band's personality -- this music will probably not go over at your next barbeque or game night -- but as the lyrics contemplate a struggle between crippling fear and anxiety and a need to believe in something better, the music testifies to the strength of this band as they build something truly compelling and intelligent out of even the most seemingly formless soundscapes...
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Ghosteen from Ghosteen
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Ghosteen review – the most beautiful songs he has ever recorded
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ 18th album was casually announced, a week before its release, in answer to an online query from a fan on Cave’s Red Hand Files website... Most listeners seemed to take Skeleton Tree as an extended treatise on grief, ignoring Cave’s insistence that the songs predated the loss they were presumed to be about. In fairness, you could see why, given how bleak and disturbing it sounded. But if Ghosteen is the album people supposed its predecessor to be, it sounds like nothing like you might expect of an album informed by tragedy.
On one level, it shouldn’t be surprising that it’s as good as it is: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds have been in a career-high purple patch since the last double album they released, 2004’s Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus. Nevertheless, listening to Ghosteen, it’s very hard indeed not to be taken aback.
Robert Sotelo, Kaputt, The Hussy, that dog, Red River Dialect, Weeping Icon, Mike Stern and Jeff Lorber Fusion, Vacationer, Empath, Chromatics, Wilco, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
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