ALTER.NATION #80
Hollow Ship, The Claudettes, Melkbelly, Warm Digits, Avishai Cohen / Big Vicious, Melt Yourself Down, James Elkington, Wilma Archer, Maserati, CMON, Ringo Deathstarr, Born Ruffians
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ALTER.NATION #80 on DEEZER
Hollow Ship - Future Remains / We Were Kings
Hailing from Gothenburg, Sweden, Hollow Ship are a psych-rock combo with a progressive edge and a penchant for big, ferocious grooves. The project stems from a collaboration between bandleader Thomas Frank (vocals, guitar) and Vincent Vensal (guitar) whose loose improvisations came to life over a two-year period with the addition of an agile rhythm battery in bassist Johannes Cronquist and drummer Mårten Magnefors. On their debut album, Future Remains, the group invests in the exploratory spirit of psych, jam, prog, and art-rock without necessarily bowing to each tradition's expected tropes. In fact, their bold, rhythm-heavy attack and warped fusion of contemporary and vintage studio manipulations comes across as quite modern in approach...
The Claudettes - High Times in the Dark / 24/5
High Times in the Dark opens with an ornate piano run from chief Claudette Johnny Iguana, a flourish that brings to mind Steve Nieve's work with the Attractions, particularly on Elvis Costello's Trust. It's a dramatic progression from the gleefully grimy blues-and-boogie that characterized earlier albums by the Claudettes, a bit of flair that brings the group's self-definition of "garage cabaret" into sharp relief, and that's even before vocalist Berit Ulseth has sung her first note... High Times in the Dark is filled with clever, soulful rock & roll that's rooted in blues, jazz, and R&B but veers toward classic pop: music that's designed to be played in the heart of the night but is snappy and catchy enough to shine brightly during the day...
Melkbelly - PITH / Kissing Under Some Bats
Melkbelly's debut album, Nothing Valley, gave notice that the Chicago foursome had an encyclopedic knowledge of noisy, heavy indie rock both past and present, while also impressing with the ability to stitch it together in ways that made it all seem fresh. The noise-damaged guitars, math rock drums, sticky-sweet pop melodies, and songs that seem naggingly familiar in a very good way are all back on PITH, only ramped up in ways that matter... on "Kissing Under Some Bats" they spread across the speakers in an slowly unspooling hissy hum that would make Sonic Youth proud...
Warm Digits - Flight of Ideas / Frames and Cages
On Wireless World, Warm Digits' Andrew Hodson and Steve Jefferis took inspiration from the pros and cons of progress and technology; on Flight of Ideas, they explore the ramifications of outdated ideas and mental disorders. The title comes from a psychological term describing a state of overloaded thought, and while it's a concept that's all too relevant to when the album was released, it's rooted in decades of psychology... On "Frames and Cages," their juxtaposition of dense, ominous beats with airier passages provides an apt musical metaphor for how an idea can imprison or enlighten someone based on their perspective...
Avishai Cohen / Big Vicious - Big Vicious / King Kutner
On his fourth date for ECM, trumpeter Avishai Cohen leads a band he formed with friends after returning to Israel in 2013. The electro-acoustic ensemble includes guitarists Uzi Ramirez and Yonatan Albalak (also on electric bass) and drummers Aviv Cohen and Ziv Ravitz (who also did the live studio sampling); they deliver a program of nine originals and two covers. It is easily the most accessible album of Cohen's career thus far, in that it will likely appeal to listeners not normally drawn to jazz. There are several reasons for this. First is that Cohen's writing is songlike. The melodies are often hummable and there are many different stylistic forays into psychedelic rock, R&B and funk, Hebrew folk, and sound system electronica. It was cut over three days at Studios La Buissonne in France and produced by Manfred Eicher... "King Kutner" is a rock tune with bluesy lead guitar and a popping bassline framed by snare breaks and a punchy kick drum.
Melt Yourself Down - 100% Yes / This the Squeeze
After two justifiably lauded albums, Bristol's Melt Yourself Down lost two of its founding members. Saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings and drummer Tom Skinner both play in Sons of Kemet, as well in several as other groups. MYT bandleader Pete Wareham (Polar Bear, ex-Acoustic Ladyland) wasted no time recruiting saxophonist/keyboardist George Crowley and drummer Adam Betts full-time. This new version played a slew of gigs to acclimate their new members, then enlisted co-producers Youth and Ben Hillier when they entered the recording studio... 100% Yes is the band's third album proper and contains those tracks and seven others. Their sound has shifted a bit; it's more inside, funkier, and dirtier. The frenetic dance music that sits at the core of the band's sound attack is ever present, but the out jazz takes a bit of a back seat to brittle, punk-inflected cosmic funk, Latin and Afro-Cuban rhythm...
James Elkington - Ever-Roving Eye / Ever-Roving Eye
Prior to stepping out as a solo artist with 2017's woody folk-rock gem Wintres Woma, British-born guitarist James Elkington had carved out an impressive career as a spotlight-adjacent collaborator, playing in numerous bands around his adopted hometown of Chicago, recording a pair of acclaimed folk guitar duet albums with Nathan Salsburg, and working with a range of acts from Tortoise and Eleventh Dream Day to his guitar hero, Richard Thompson. His behind-the-scenes work has continued in the years since with forays into production and arranging for artists like Nap Eyes, Joan Shelley, and Steve Gunn. With Ever-Roving Eye, the reluctant frontman returns to solo work, offering another beautifully understated collection full of stark introspection, stylistic nuance, and elegant guitar craft...
Wilma Archer - A Western Circular / Scarecrow
For much of the 2010s, British musician Will Archer made dusky, candle-lit music under the somewhat misleading name Slime. His curious, unassuming grooves recalled the 1990s trip-hop/downtempo aesthetic more than anything else being produced at the time, but with slightly more abstract beats and odder arrangements... A Western Circular is his long-in-the-making first full-length as Wilma Archer, and it's far more organic and introspective than his previous work. Shining a greater spotlight on his skills as a composer and arranger, the album is a mixture of orchestral jazz with subtle electronic touches, and a few ventures into R&B and rap. "Scarecrow," previously issued as a single that provided a taster for Archer's drastic shift in direction, is a flowing mini-suite with a softly gliding rhythm, tasteful electric guitar lead, shimmering organ, and a slightly knotty web of horns....
Maserati - Enter the Mirror / Welcome To The Other Side
Marking their 20th year as a band, Maserati returns with their first new album in five years. Produced by the band and mixed by Grammy-winning producer, John Congleton (Explosions In The Sky, Swans, Angel Olsen), Enter The Mirror is Maserati’s most compelling mélange of triumphant guitar hooks, abstract synth-pop, and Wax Trax-inspired noise anthems. The gated drums of Phil Collins and chorus-drenched guitars of INXS were prominent influences on Enter The Mirror, paired to magnificent effect with the increasingly dystopian lyrical themes (which, ironically, were also massive influences on popular music in the 1980s, and feel ever more relevant now). In addition to longtime members Coley Dennis, Matt Cherry, Chris McNeal, and Mike Albanese, Maserati are joined by friends and collaborators, Bill Berry (R.E.M.), Owen Lange, and Alfredo Lapuz Jr...
CMON - Confusing Mix of Nations / Mindblogging
Confusing Mix of Nations is the debut album from CMON, the Los Angeles pairing of Josh da Costa and Jamen Whitelock. Each of the ten tracks reads like a postcard from a different aesthetic era, from the heavy atmospherics and melancholic soul reminiscent of Regal Degal, the duo’s prior project, to the four-on-the-floor EBM rhythm grids and sublime AOR guitar lines picked from pop’s outer limits. Confusing yet contagious, this an album of pop ambition that understands “pop” to be a state of mind, not a state of sales.
Since they began in the late 2000s, Ringo Deathstarr have been one of the finest exemplars of blown-out shoegaze and amped-up dream pop. Their albums are home to an unbroken string of memorable songs delivered with just the right blend of noise and melody, all driven home with a heavy dose of glitter and feedback. It's good to see that after taking a few years off from issuing records, 2020's self-titled album finds the band doing the same thing they've always done. Almost... "Once Upon A Freak" is loping, Medicine-esque, and has giant smears of guitar obscuring the melody...
Born Ruffians - Juice / Dedication
Canada's Born Ruffians continue to hone their exuberant sound on their sixth album, 2020's punchy and inspired Juice. Produced by Graham Walsh, who has previously worked on similarly inventive efforts by Alvvays, !!!, and Holy Fuck, Juice is a live-sounding album, full of hooky shouted choruses, and tactile, analog instrumentation. Once again featured here is the core Born Ruffians power trio of guitarist/vocalist Luke Lalonde, bassist Mitch DeRosier, and drummer Steve Hamelin. It's the second album the group has recorded since the return of Hamelin, who left after 2013's Birthmarks and returned in time for 2018's equally inspired Uncle, Duke & Chief... It's an absolutely bashing way to start the album, and perfectly sets the tone for the organic sounds to come as they dig into an angular post-punk rhythm on "Dedication,"...
Hollow Ship, The Claudettes, Melkbelly, Warm Digits, Avishai Cohen / Big Vicious, Melt Yourself Down, James Elkington, Wilma Archer, Maserati, CMON, Ringo Deathstarr, Born Ruffians
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