ALTER.NATION #111
Khruangbin, Joan of Arc, The Smashing Pumpkins, Urlaub in Polen, Kelley Stoltz, The High Water Marks, Son Lux, Lee Ritenour, Jahari Massamba Unit
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"Summer Madness"
Texan trio Khruangbin's singular sound draws from a vast array of far-flung influences, yet it's accessible and familiar enough to captivate a widespread audience. The group are a logical fit for the LateNightTales series, which features notable artists presenting tracks much in the manner of a close group of friends hanging out at home, sharing personal favorites deep into the night... Khruangbin also sneak in a studio recording of their steamy cover of Kool & the Gang's "Summer Madness," a longtime staple of their live shows... After spending the album exploring different corners of the world, the final journey to the cosmos seems quietly astonishing.
Indie rock stalwarts led by Tim Kinsella, with a sustained focus on exploring the boundaries of their art.Joan of Arc - Tim Melina Theo Bobby / Land Surveyor
One of the biggest bands of the alternative era, who deftly mixed roaring rock with dark, insular alternative pop. Although they emerged alongside grunge acts like Nirvana and Pearl Jam, the Smashing Pumpkins were the group least influenced by traditional underground rock. Headed by principal songwriter and frontman Billy Corgan, their sound was an amalgam of progressive rock, heavy metal, goth, psychedelia, and dream pop, a layered, powerful style driven by swirling, distorted guitars that churned beneath Corgan's angst-ridden lyrics.
The Smashing Pumpkins - Cyr / Wyttch
Cologne, Germany-based post-punk duo known for their driving Krautrock rhythms and experimental synth textures.
Dynamic, sound-manipulating post-rock project helmed by composer/keyboardist/vocalist Ryan Lott.
A prolific session player and musical chameleon, a guitarist whose speed, facility, phrasing, and technique are always flawless.
Occasional future jazz and hip-hop recording project from Madliband drummer/producer Karriem Riggins.
...In true Joan of Arc fashion, final album Tim Melina Theo Bobby (the first names of the players who made the music) sees the group taking their sound in a new direction, even on the way out the door... Many songs are led by synth lines, and the curious instrumental track "Land Surveyor" has more in common with the moon-walking electro of early-2000s Mouse on Mars than the organic electronics-tinged rock of the band's last few albums... It's a perfect ending note for a band whose unique sonic language relied on equal and interconnected shares of joy and confusion.
The Smashing Pumpkins - Cyr / Wyttch
Cyr, the 11th studio album to bear the Smashing Pumpkins name, is another example of Corgan's knack for creating massive albums, only this time translating layered guitar rock into dark, moody synth pop... Unlike the electronic tinges that added to the cold elegance of that album, however, Cyr puts the synths front and center. Guitars are mostly buried under warm synth pads, buzzing electronic bass, and a mixture of programmed beats and lockstep live drumming... The angry metallic grooving of "Wyttch" is one of the few moments on Cyr where the band lean into the loud guitars and organic drums of their earliest albums...
Germany's Urlaub in Polen has always been a hard band to pin down. At their core, they are a two-man guitar-and-drums unit, though both members also handle the myriad synthesizers and ambient electronics that shimmer and buzz through their hypnotic songs... Reuniting after a nine-year gap, they return with their sixth album, All. If anything, the ten-song set feels even tighter than the band's earlier releases, paring away some of the harsh and cavernous sounds of Boldstriker and presenting a leaner, cleaner sort of minimalism that plays to their strengths...
San Francisco singer/songwriter and longtime purveyor of melodic, lo-fi indie pop. Skilled at crafting pop songs under his own name, excellent at producing albums for others, and a good enough guitarist to be in Echo & the Bunnymen's touring band, Kelley Stoltz carved out an interesting career for himself on the fringes of the indie rock scene beginning in the late 1990s.Kelley Stoltz - Ah! (etc) / She Likes Noise
Since the turn of the 2000s, seeing the name Kelley Stoltz on the cover of an album meant that the contents were sure to be guitar pop music of the highest quality, produced with a sure hand and played with consummate skill. 2020's Ah! (etc) is no different. It is of a piece with Stoltz' previous few albums that combined moody post-punk with jangling power pop and stripped down indie rock to come up with a sound that's immediate and a little melancholy, though also prone to moments of almost giddiness... and even indulges in some straight up New Wave novelty with the goofy "She Likes Noise."...
Dynamic indie pop group fronted by former Apples in Stereo member Hilarie Sidney and Palermo's Per Ole Bratset.The High Water Marks - Ecstasy Rhymes / Accidentally On Purpose
The High Water Marks first album in over a decade shows that the pairing of Hilarie Sidney and Per Ole Bratset is still as strong as ever and the result is the band's best album to date. By far. In the past their winning mix of lo-fi Elephant 6 pop and fuzzy indie rock sometimes suffered from muddy recordings or songs that weren't as punchy as they could be. No worries about either of those issues here as the sound of Ecstasy Rhymes is clear and crisp with layers of strummed guitars, nimble bass and gleefully bashed drums form a safety net for the rambling lead guitars and the duo's home cooked vocals...
Son Lux released the first installment of their Tomorrows trilogy in August of a turbulent 2020. Fourth months later, and loosely reminiscent of the second movement of a classical symphony, Tomorrows II proves to be a relatively more hushed, introspective volume... In the second half, the funky "Bodies" adds colorful choral voices, prepared piano, and Ian Chang's off-kilter drumming to a central bass line before ..
It's hard to believe that in his over-50-year career, guitarist Lee Ritenour has never released a solo guitar album. He rectifies that fact on 2020's warmly delivered Dreamcatcher. The record follows Ritenour's star-studded 2015 album A Twist of Rit, in which he reworked songs from throughout his career with a bevy of special guests. Dreamcatcher finds him taking a more introspective, stripped-down approach, but one that still showcases his lyricism and adept fretboard skills. Recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic, Ritenour produced the album himself at his home, working remotely with studio assistance by Gary Lee and Brian McShea. There's an intimacy to the recordings that has the feeling of a small private concert, or it's as if you're eavesdropping on Ritenour just jamming for his own pleasure... He even rips into far-eyed electric jazz-rock on "Abbot Kinney."...
Jahari Massamba Unit is the very occasional collaborative recording project between producer/mixologist/multi-instrumentalist Madlib and jazz/hip-hop drummer/producer Karriem Riggins... Pardon My French is an exploration and statement of Afro-futurist jazz refracted through hip-hop, vanguard, Eastern and Latin influences, and funk... The album's centerpiece is "Du Morgon au Moulin-à-Vent (Pour Duke)," a nine-plus-minute jam introduced by the sound of running water, incessantly rolling tom-toms, crystalline vibraphone, and acoustic guitar. Its long intro is anchored by a two-chord piano vamp, and the track eventually weds post-bop, Latin and Brazilian jazz, exotic percussion, and squalling trombone, all before Jackie Earley recites a brief poem... It's difficult to pin down to be sure, but extremely listenable as a mind-blowing experiment to encounter and absorb. The future is now.
Khruangbin, Joan of Arc, The Smashing Pumpkins, Urlaub in Polen, Kelley Stoltz, The High Water Marks, Son Lux, Lee Ritenour, Jahari Massamba Unit
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