"The Day The Politicians Died" > 085 ALTER.NATION weekly favtraX 10-05-2020

ALTER.NATION #85

The Magnetic Fields, Puscifer, Beauty Pill, Fiona Apple, Jehnny Beth, Aaron Parks, Chip Wickham, El Michels Affair, Modern Studies, Cass McCombs, Mark Lanegan, Masaki Batoh

weekly favtraX 
1 0 - 0 5 - 2 0 2 0

"The Day The Politicians Died"

Cabaret meets indie rock in the one-man-band known as singer-songwriter Stephin Merritt. The Magnetic Fields may be a bona fide band, but in most essential respects they are the project of studio wunderkind Stephin Merritt, who writes, produces, and (generally) sings all of the material. Merritt also plays many of the instruments, concocting a sort of indie pop-synth rock.
The Magnetic Fields - The Day The Politicians Died
As Pitchfork reports, Merritt recorded Quickies with all of his longtime Magnetic Fields bandmates — Sam Davol, Claudia Gonson, Shirley Simms, John Woo — as well as regular collaborators Daniel Handler, Chris Ewen, and Pinky Weitzman.
Lead single “The Day The Politicians Died” is a lovely and plangent two-minute piano ballad with a Claudia Gonson vocal. It imagines a hypothetical day in which all of our lawmakers suddenly left this mortal plane: “Billions laughed and no one cried the day the politicians died/ Celebrations spread worldwide the day the politicians died. Its video sets the song to ancient footage of victory celebrations.

While one might imagine Maynard James Keenan would have enough going on to keep him busy as a frontman with the groups Tool and A Perfect Circle, in 2007 he decided to record an album under yet another name: Puscifer.
Puscifer - Apocalyptical
Keenan’s Puscifer project has a new single called “Apocalyptical” out in the world, and they’re promising a new album, the follow-up to 2015’s Money Shot, coming this fall.
“Apocalyptical” is a tense, shivery synth-rocker that just sort of eats away at you over five and a half minutes. Over chilly bleeps and barely-there guitar, Keenan sings at the very top of his register, sharing vocals with bandmate Carina Round. The two of them deliver timely lyrics about watching the world end in front of you: “Go on, moron, ignore the evidence/ skid in to armageddon/ Tango apocalyptical.”

Genre-defying experimental pop band centered around songwriter and recording engineer Chad Clark. Originally formed from the ashes of angular D.C. punk band Smart Went Crazy, Beauty Pill transformed over the years from a post-rock band with unconventional instrumentation into a genre-defying project shaped around the songwriting and conceptual ideas of founding member Chad Clark. 
Beauty Pill - Please Advise / Pardon Our Dust
...One of the first noticeable changes is the addition of new singer Erin Nelson, whose laser-guided vocals open the album's first song, "Pardon Our Dust." It's a jittery and nervous-feeling tune, and the combination of Nelson's bright vocals and steady horn lines provide a foil for the claustrophobic drums and electronics that make up the song's rhythmic core. It's the kind of contradictory arrangement that Beauty Pill have been perfecting since their earliest days, and Nelson's monotone vocal delivery is appropriately at odds with the paranoid lyrical content...

Acclaimed performer whose angst-ridden, piano-based songs represented a new stage in the female singer/songwriter movement.
Fiona Apple - Cosmonauts
The refrain that grounds her, ironically, is one that envisions the greatest of heights. “You and I will be like a couple of cosmonauts/Except with way more gravity than when we started off,” she murmurs, her intonation rising innocently at the end of each line. As the song charges towards its conclusion, Apple uses this chorus as a launchpad for a scorched-earth outpouring of emotion. Her repetition of the final refrain—“started off!”—builds to a throat-shredding scream before sinking to a hushed whisper and a contemplative hum. What’s left is the impression that she has pushed every fiber of her being through a juicer, gathered the shredded pulp into her hands, and offered it to the world. And that is a real gesture of love.

Best known as the compelling vocalist for Savages, Jehnny Beth is the performing name of French musician Camille Berthomier.
Jehnny Beth - Heroine
Savages frontwoman Jehnny Beth was supposed to release her debut solo album on Friday. That’s not happening anymore. Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, To Love Is To Live has been delayed until June.
"When I think of this song, I think of Romy from the xx strangling my neck with her hands in the studio. She was trying to get me out of my shell lyrically, and there was so much resistance in me she lost her patience. The song was originally called “Heroism,” but I wasn’t happy because it was too generic. Flood was the first one to suggest to say “Heroine” instead of “Heroism.” Then I remember Johnny Hostile late at night in my hotel room in London saying “I don’t understand who you are singing about. Who is the Heroine? You ARE the Heroine.” The next morning, I arrived early in the studio and recorded my vocals adding “to be” to the chorus line: “All I want is TO BE a heroine.” Flood entered the studio at that moment and jumped in the air giving me the thumbs up through the window. I guess I’m telling this story because sometimes we look around for role models, and examples to follow, without realising that the answer can be hidden inside of us. I was afraid to be the Heroine of the song, but it took all the people around me to get me there."

Pianist Aaron Parks established himself as a presence on the American jazz scene via his membership in Terrence Blanchard's band. Eastern modalities, and atmospheric indie rock. Comfortable with the pyrotechnics of post-bop as well as sparse, sculpted, questioning tone poems and lithe melodies both minimal and maximal,
Aaron Parks - Little Big II: Dreams of a Mechanical Man / My Mistake
...Little Big II: Dreams of a Mechanical Man, though also a sequel to its immediate predecessor, opens up the group's intimate, synergistic communication to reflect the multi-lingual persona of a band making music in the moment... The quartet -- Parks on piano and keys, Greg Tuohey on guitar, David Ginyard on bass, and Tommy Crane on drums -- explore and cultivate a musical aesthetic. Little Big marry creative and improvised music to the groove-centered elements of electronica, indie pop, neo-psychedelia, and prog, but avoid the "fusion" trap entirely by weaving the various textures, influences, and colors into an original, holistic musical language... Their music comfortably transcends genre boundaries, and the quartet's sovereignty has been developed to the point where they can break the confines of primacy in any composition to discover its identity. When all is said and done, the album is simply an accurate reflection of the band's own persona.

Jazz saxophonist, flutist, producer, and composer who made his solo debut at 42 after his previous career in Manchester house and hip-hop scenes. Roger "Chip" Wickham is a saxophonist/flutist producer/composer who resides in Madrid, Doha in Qatar, and the U.K. His vintage-influenced, open, warm brand of modal jazz weaves together the great expansive traditions of the '60s and '70s...
Chip Wickham - Blue to Red / Double Cross
The title of British jazzman Chip Wickham's third long-player refers to one of his greatest fears: That climate change will cause our blue and verdant earth to become a red desert like the planet Mars... Wickham leaves his saxophones in their cases in favor of his flutes. The Coltrane reference may be sketched into his compositions, but it takes on physical characteristics through the playing of harpist Amanda Whiting who, like Wickham, is an alumnus of Matthew Halsall's Gondwana Orchestra. The other sidemen include session boss Dan Goldman on keys, drummer Jon Scott (Sons of Kemet), bassist Simon Houghton (Fingathing), and percussionist Rick Weedon (Mr. Scruff)... "Double Cross" is gritty and fast, with Goldman's Rhodes and synths both soloing and painting a fat, heavy, funky backdrop. Scott's snare and hi-hat breaks, and a propulsive shuffle delivers a dramatic Headhunters vibe in the backbeat. Wickham's solo sounds filthy, visceral, swinging, and soulful (think Jeremy Steig)...

Led by Leon Michels, a flexible R&B-rooted band mixing groove-oriented jazz, soul, funk, rocksteady, Afrobeat, and hip-hop.
El Michels Affair - Adult Themes / Kill The Lights
Big Crown Records is proud to present Adult Themes, the latest full length offering from El Michels Affair. This album takes the band’s “Cinematic Soul” aesthetic literally and sends the listener on a journey through a whirlwind of moods and energies... Adult Themes marks the long awaited, highly anticipated return to an album of original compositions from El Michels Affair.

Scottish quartet Modern Studies unite pastoral chamber pop and folk with a gently experimental approach. Incorporating lush harmonies, jazz-tinged rhythms, and subtle electronics...
Modern Studies - The Weight of the Sun / Back to the City
...Toning down both their folk roots and orchestral ambitions, Modern Studies' third set, Weight of the Sun, fuses a gentle rock mystique with burbling synth flourishes and a touch of light psychedelia. That the band originally coalesced around an antique harmonium and other eclectic folk instrumentation makes their journey toward a more common rock format somewhat ironic, though, as on each of their releases, they bring something special to the table... Emily Scott (vocals, keys) and Rob St. John (vocals, guitar) weave their peculiar tandem vocals around a slow-building wash of electric guitars, synths, and a warm rhythmic pulse...

An eclectic singer/songwriter with a haunting voice who balances emotional richness, awareness, and wry demeanor in his lyrics, Cass McCombs negotiates styles including Americana, Baroque pop, psychedelia, and sprawling jam band folk-rock, among others, in his music.
Cass McCombs - The Wine Of Lebanon
Cass McCombs, one of our greatest songwriters, likes to move in mystery. McCombs stays off of social media and generally seems to shy away from any and all spotlights, so whenever he pops up with anything new, it’s a surprise. Last year, McCombs released Tip Of The Sphere, his most recent album.
“The Wine Of Lebanon,” McCombs’ new song, is a supremely relaxed and breezy number. It’s full of strings and hazy guitars, and it unfolds at a lazy, unhurried pace. McCombs sings in mythic terms in his usual bemused croon, and it’s hard to say, after the first few listens, what he’s talking about.

The frontman for Screaming Trees who went on to a fascinating solo career marked by an acoustic tone and dark, folk- and blues-inspired songwriting.
Mark Lanegan - Straight Songs of Sorrow / Ballad of a Dying Rover
...As befits a largely autobiographical collection of songs that looks back over his whole life, the music shifts through the variety of genres Lanegan has experimented with... Sometimes memories and myth get tangled up together. The dark-as-midnight ‘Ballad of a Dying Rover’, which features Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones on Mellotron, eerily recalls Lead Belly’s ‘Where Did You Sleep Last Night?’. Cobain and Lanegan recorded the song together, and Lanegan included it on his first solo album ‘The Winding Sheet’...

Masaki Batoh was both a founding member and spiritual leader of the experimental Japanese band Ghost, and a provocative solo artist.
Masaki Batoh - Smile Jesus Loves You! / Speculum
Batoh is back! Solo again after last fall’s new Silence album, the Japanese psychedelic guru makes some solo cuts, with others featuring Ghost and Silence family members, including free drumming legend of Fushitsusha and early Ghost, Hiroyuki Usui. In all-analog production, Batoh decries the existential opacity of our latter-day faith, drawing from the traditions of all countries, fused into new music for this century.

The Magnetic Fields, Puscifer, Beauty Pill, Fiona Apple, Jehnny Beth, Aaron Parks, Chip Wickham, El Michels Affair, Modern Studies, Cass McCombs, Mark Lanegan, Masaki Batoh