ALTER.NATION #102
Artemis,The Heliocentrics, Public Enemy, Idles,Jehnny Beth,Bob Mould,Marilyn Manson,Deftones, Mastodon,The Flaming Lips, Blitzen Trapper, Frankie & the Witch Fingers, Ronnie Earl
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"Goddess Of The Hunt"
Artemis - Artemis / Goddess Of The Hunt
The eponymous debut album from the all-star female jazz collective, 2020's Artemis showcases the group's immense compositional and improvisational depth. Named after the Greek goddess of hunting, Artemis is led by pianist Renee Rosnes and features the equally adept talents of tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana, clarinetist Anat Cohen, trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, bassist Noriko Ueda, and drummer Allison Miller. Also on board is Grammy-winning vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant. Rosnes brought the group together in 2017 with an eye to building upon each of the member's combined skills. Consequently, while we get distinctive contributions from each player, while the album plays as a unified artistic vision. It opens with Miller's intensely kinetic "Goddess of the Hunt," her roiling groove and the song's tense melody offering a rich jumping-off point for each soloist. Jensen in particular leaps into the fray, offering frentic note clusters and wide octave leaps that further reinforce her status as one of the main heirs to Kenny Wheeler's legacy.
The Heliocentrics - Telemetric Sounds / Telemetric Sounds
Long-running cosmic soul-jazz collective the Heliocentrics signed on with new label Madlib Invasion for their adventurous and dreamlike album Infinity of Now, released in February of 2020. Just about six months later, his fully realized follow-up Telemetric Sounds offers an ominous and decidedly more intense counterpart to the casual psychedelic drifting of its predecessor. The London-based group is known for their hallucinatory sounds and tendency to transform traditional jazz, funk, and soul elements into new alien forms. These deconstructions generally translate into friendly, curious explorations, but Telemetric Sounds is anxious, menacing, and a little bit depraved in comparison to the majority of the band's catalog. The album begins with the slow-burning title track, a tune that wanders in aimless frustration for over 13 minutes through passages of cranky synthesizer noise and tense rhythms. The players sound like they're working out uncomfortable feelings as they push through the lengthy performance, landing in a space somewhere between Sun Ra's most out there mid-'70s recordings and the fever-pitched peaks of more jam-oriented Krautrock bands like Cosmic Jokers, Guru Guru, or Agitation Free...
Long-running cosmic soul-jazz collective the Heliocentrics signed on with new label Madlib Invasion for their adventurous and dreamlike album Infinity of Now, released in February of 2020. Just about six months later, his fully realized follow-up Telemetric Sounds offers an ominous and decidedly more intense counterpart to the casual psychedelic drifting of its predecessor. The London-based group is known for their hallucinatory sounds and tendency to transform traditional jazz, funk, and soul elements into new alien forms. These deconstructions generally translate into friendly, curious explorations, but Telemetric Sounds is anxious, menacing, and a little bit depraved in comparison to the majority of the band's catalog. The album begins with the slow-burning title track, a tune that wanders in aimless frustration for over 13 minutes through passages of cranky synthesizer noise and tense rhythms. The players sound like they're working out uncomfortable feelings as they push through the lengthy performance, landing in a space somewhere between Sun Ra's most out there mid-'70s recordings and the fever-pitched peaks of more jam-oriented Krautrock bands like Cosmic Jokers, Guru Guru, or Agitation Free...
Let's face it: If any year needed a new album from Public Enemy, it was 2020. Faced with disease and unrest at every turn, PE returned to their original home, Def Jam, for What You Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down?, a record that consciously reconnects with their past while addressing the present with a clear eye. At first, it's hard to avoid the chaos of the modern world, with Public Enemy pushing their "State of the Union (STFU)" and the existential digital quandary of the title track, but the record subtly shifts gears with "Public Enemy Number Won." Its title is a nod to "Public Enemy No. 1," a pivotal track from their 1987 debut, and it doesn't hide from the fact that neither Public Enemy nor their guests Mike D, Ad-Rock, and Run-DMC have been at this since the '90s. The vibe isn't necessarily nostalgic. Rather, it's an acknowledgment that the years have piled up, that PE and their peers are now not only the old guard, they're survivors. That's an undercurrent that runs through What You Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down?: It finds room for additional cameos by Cypress Hill, Nas, Questlove, and Ice-T, fellow hip-hop veterans who have turned lifers...
On their third record in almost as many years, Idles are at their most anarchic, dialing up their comedic edge -- often including cringe-inducing, Police Academy-style sound effects -- and their manic energy. To call Ultra Mono terrible would be disingenuous, as it is still some of the most vital music being made; however, it does include the first notable misfires from a group who could seemingly do no wrong. Lyrical content aside, the band themselves are either over-committed, as with bassist Adam Devonshire's increasingly unhinged backing snarls, or underwhelming. Guitarists Mark Bowen and Lee Kiernan have few standout moments between them, demoted to creating dissonance or raising the volume, which they admittedly pull off admirably... It is hard to fault drummer Jon Beavis, whose consistent thumping has managed to stay fresh over three records. Taken at face value, the elements that make Idles great are present, including the social commentary, the sense of humor, and the cathartic justified rage...
A lot can happen in a year and a half. In February 2019, Bob Mould released Sunshine Rock, which in addition to reminding us that in the 2010s he was in the midst of an unexpected renaissance and making some of the strongest rock music of his life, saw him embracing a cautious optimism, celebrating the joys of life and focusing on the hard work of being a better man. September 2020 has brought another album from Mould, Blue Hearts, and his mood has taken a sharp turn into rage and frustration. Between life in a divided nation, the ongoing threat of climate change, and a global health crisis that is being ignored by the powers that be, Mould has stopped ignoring the multiple elephants in our rooms, and Blue Hearts is a fast, furious, passionate broadside, messages written as the world burns around him (in some cases literally)...
Extending a late-era artistic renaissance with his 11th album We Are Chaos, Marilyn Manson goes three-for-three with his Loma Vista output, delivering yet another taut set of catchy earworms that retains enough of his peak-era trademarks while continuing his unexpected late-stage evolution. This time around, the elder goth statesman parts ways with creative partner Tyler Bates -- the man who assisted Manson's late-2010s comeback efforts The Pale Emperor and Heaven Upside Down -- and connects with outlaw country musician Shooter Jennings. For those expecting this to be a boots-and-beer makeover, rest assured that Jennings doesn't change the formula too much, sprinkling just the right amount of Nashville dust into the mix to color Manson's usual corrosive, ghoulish sound... That track, "Red Black and Blue," hits a raging sweet spot, joining "Perfume" and "Infinite Darkness" as the album's most classic-sounding moments...
At the dawn of their fourth decade together as a band, alt-metal stalwarts Deftones crafted one of the best albums in their catalog, Ohms. Reuniting with producer Terry Date, the man behind their first four efforts (five, counting the unreleased Eros), the band attacks with full power, reinvigorated, hungry, and at a creative apex. Their most accessible work since 2000's White Pony, Ohms offers listeners plenty of substance to grab on to: for the first time in a while, tightly executed songs take precedence over heady ideas, resulting in a deeply effective and satisfying experience that balances their eras. Playing upon the concepts of resistance and polarity implied by the album's title, Deftones take their signature beauty-meets-brutality assault, searching for balance across a tightly focused ten tracks. As a unit, they haven't sounded this refreshed in years. Chino Moreno's vocals stun, careening from fevered hush to unhinged shriek without notice, while Stephen Carpenter returns to center stage armed with a bounty of riffs and a nine-string guitar. Bassist Sergio Vega and drummer Abe Cunningham bounce and bash, marking a return to groove that is rarely heard in their late-era output...
For two decades, Atlanta's Mastodon have stubbornly followed their own path, whether it led to chart success or derision by closed-minded purists spewing across social media. Over seven studio albums, a handful of singles, splits, and EPs, this quartet hasn't released a "proper" compilation until now. Medium Rarities assembles instrumentals, live tracks, soundtrack cuts, and covers, without separating them categorically....
On American Head, the Flaming Lips use their storytelling skills to their fullest, combining some of their purest moods and most beautiful melodies with some of their most overtly autobiographical songwriting. Drawn from Wayne Coyne's memories of growing up in early '70s Oklahoma with his freewheeling brothers and their biker friends -- as well as his imagined version of Mudcrutch, the precursor to Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers that honed their chops in Tulsa around that time -- the album's concept is one of the band's richest in some time. At the time of American Head's release, the band compared it to Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and The Soft Bulletin, and it's true that the album's scope and depth of feeling put it on that level. However, American Head still bears the scars of albums like The Terror, which brought a weight to the Flaming Lips' music that works especially well on these meditations on the loss of innocence... "Flowers of Neptune 6" sets a moment of pure epiphany to a lush swath of trumpets, tympani, strings, and the sugared twang of Kacey Musgraves' backing vocals (one of several appearances the country star makes on the album) that calls to mind early '70s AM pop...
...Inspired by George Saunders’ 2017 experimental tome, Lincoln in the Bardo and the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Earley’s lyrics take the listener on a wild and dramatic journey through rivers of waist-high water in the aftermath of a tragic car wreck and the hazy morning before a murderous moment, and from getting blitzed to the point of extinction inside a masonic temple to a stop for chips and dip before the apocalypse. Along the way, there’s also an occasion to smoke dope with Abe Lincoln and play bones with Brian Jones, slide through the ether in a dream, and confront the Intermediate States while bathed in the glow of the bardo’s light - that transitional state between death and rebirth.
Los Angeles-by-way-of-Indiana foursome whose music takes tough garage punk and runs it through a heavy psychedelic filter.
"Frankie and the Witch Fingers are a swift kick in the ass for garage psych. Their hooks are sharper, the production isn’t vintage for the sake of vintage, and the recorded material captures the energy of the band’s eccentric live performances perfectly. That’s exactly what they do once again on their new album, Heavy Roller..." - Consequence of Sound
Rise Up is Ronnie Earle's 27th album and his 13th for Canada's venerable Stony Plain label. The blues master's playing style has long been celebrated for its iconic tone and deep well of emotion. None of that changes here, but this set is topically contemporary, a reaction to the history-making year 2020. Earl offers tributes to the recently lost, and solace for those continuing to struggle on the front lines for racial and economic justice... a swinging version of Jimmy Smith's "Blues for J,"...
Artemis,The Heliocentrics, Public Enemy, Idles,Jehnny Beth,Bob Mould,Marilyn Manson,Deftones, Mastodon,The Flaming Lips, Blitzen Trapper, Frankie & the Witch Fingers, Ronnie Earl
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