ALTER.NATION #118 (12trx 55m)
Cassandra Jenkins,The Hold Steady, Mogwai, Tindersticks, Cameron Graves, Hearty Har, Tash Sultana, Lael Neale, Toro Y Moi, Matt Berninger
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"H a r d D r i v e"
Five years after her debut album, Cassandra Jenkins returns with Overview on Phenomenal Nature, a stunning work of impressionistic connections, contradictions, and observations all stitched together into a web of graceful dream folk. A native New Yorker with years of collaboration under her belt, Jenkins grew up within the East Coast folk community, singing and playing guitar in her family's string band before beginning a solo career in the mid-2010s... Yet in spite of its intimacy, there's an expansive, wide-open quality to producer Josh Kaufman's arrangements which ripple with ambient synths, strings, and some stellar sax and flute work from ubiquitous local hero Stuart Bogie. With her tranquil voice and astute poetic sense, Jenkins flirts with melancholy, joy, sorrow, and wonder in a way that is both cerebral and touching...
...Its swift sequel, Open Door Policy, is another beast entirely. Written and recorded as a cohesive album, Open Door Policy feels like the Cinemascope cousin to Thrashing Thru the Passion: the Hold Steady take full advantage of their larger canvass. Often, this amounts to vigorous splashes of color and muscular flexes from the sextet, their ebb and flow following the dense yet openhearted narratives from Craig Finn... Either way, by focusing on bringing light and shade into the margins, the Hold Steady wound up with an album that feels vivid and alive; it's as if the songs themselves have a life outside of the recording.
Mogwai - As the Love Continues / Supposedly, We Were Nightmares
Arriving a quarter-century after the release of Mogwai's debut single, As the Love Continues is an album that, from its title to the warmth and immediacy of its songs, wears its heart on its sleeve. Usually, the venerable Scottish band play a cat-and-mouse game with tension and release in their music; while this restraint often makes the payoffs all the more rewarding, it's a true pleasure to hear them fill these songs with so much melody and energy... And while Mogwai are no strangers to combining rock and synths, they've rarely sounded as vivid as they do on "Supposedly, We Were Nightmares"' mix of fuzzed-out and neon-bright tones. Here and on As the Love Continue's other rocking moments, there's a sense of fun that feels new. .. It may have taken Mogwai 25 years to open up like this, but it was well worth the wait: As the Love Continues is another peak in their long and influential career.
Tindersticks - Distractions / Man Alone (Can't Stop the Fadin')
Tindersticks are a band whose music is defined by a mood as much as a style, and if anyone is looking for proof to that theory, 2021's Distractions will do nicely. The lush, expansively orchestrated sound of 2019's No Treasure but Hope was a stellar example of prime Tindersticks, a sprawling canvas composed from an infinity of small details. Distractions, on the other hand, is nearly as powerful while sounding atypically spare, created from what for this group is the bare minimum of elements but still achieving the cool, majestic tone of their most famous work... much of Distractions was crafted from simple guitar and keyboard figures, drum machines, and loops, with a vocal sample of Staples providing the framework of the opening track, "Man Alone (Can't Stop the Fadin')." The gentle strength of Staples' deep, whispery vocals takes up even more space than usual on these sessions, and on many tracks, it has little more than elemental guitar and keyboard lines to accompany it. As it happens, that's enough... Distractions isn't an album filled with hope, but the search for the comfort and grace it brings is never far from center stage and brings its own sort of warmth to the mix. It's a powerful, evocative work that speaks to the time that created it as well as the continued creative growth of a unique and gifted group of artists.
Progressive pianist and composer among Los Angeles' fertile jazz scene since the early 2000s. As a group member, session musician, and leader, progressive jazz pianist and composer Cameron Graves has been a central figure in the Los Angeles jazz scene since the early 2000s.
Cameron Graves - Seven / Sons of Creation / Seven
Pianist, composer, and vocalist Cameron Graves dazzled listeners with his bracing, kaleidoscopic approach on 2017's glorious Planetary Prince. He offered an 80-minute journey through post-bop, fusion, modal, and contemporary jazz, hip-hop, and even rock... "Sons of Creation" finds the pianist and guitarist working aggressively above crashing blastbeats, syncopated toms, and a low-tuned rumbling bass line. Graves asserts the vamp forcefully for Gerl, who embraces it. Cook responds with a labyrinthine solo before the band reengages. Graves lays down flamenco patterns on the piano in closing... Stylistically, Seven may present a challenge (at least initially) to more traditionally minded jazz fans. That said, it should delight any music fan drawn to adventure, precision, and restless creativity.
Hearty Har - Radio Astro / One For The Other
Skillfully weaving together elements of psychedelia and classic rock with a healthy dose of vintage synth sounds, Hearty Har's debut album, Radio Astro, is the fruit of nearly a decade's worth of honing their craft as songwriters and producers. Brothers Shane and Tyler Fogerty may have a famous father -- Creedence Clearwater Revival's John -- and that may have helped them get their foot in the door, but they certainly didn't waste their chance once they got there. Radio Astro is a fun, witty, and musically rich listen that's constantly surprising and full of hooky songs... Famous father be damned, these two musical lads deserve attention and praise for what they created by themselves: first-rate, almost classic psychedelic rock full of promise and immediate delights.
...But Sultana's debut album, 2018's Flow State, was a work that showed their talents as a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist as much as their shredding skills, and 2021's Terra Firma takes steps even further from guitar gymnastics in favor of generating a groove and a soulful feeling. The R&B influence that was prominent on Flow State is even stronger here, along with hints of fusion, jazz, and subtle hip-hop beats. Terra Firma is mostly rooted in laid-back, gentle grooves (you can slow dance to it, but this isn't exactly a funk-fest), with more room for personal introspection and ruminations on relationships and one's place in the larger world (as well as occasional observations on the unexpected consequences of fame)..
Lael Neale - Acquainted With Night / Every Star Shivers in the Dark
...Around 2019, she began experimenting with an Omnichord, an inexpensive and toylike synth instrument. Recording at home on the Omnichord into a cassette four-track, Neale began to feel her songs click as she stripped them down to their rawest elements. Those experiments grew into the lo-fi beauty of second album Acquainted with Night, reaching an even less polished form when Neale began implementing another limitation whereby she only used the first takes of her recordings rather than belaboring the performances in search of perfection... For Neale, the grainy imperfections and surreal experiments of Acquainted with Night open her songs up to an unforeseen world of solitary beauty and personality, where the clean, professional sound of earlier work rendered them a little bit anonymous.
Toro Y Moi - Underneath the Pine (Instrumentals) / Light Black
The word “chillwave” still comes up pretty often when people are talking about Toro Y Moi... Toro Y Moi’s 2010 debut album Causers Of This helped define that whole sound, but his superior sophomore LP Underneath The Pine announced that Bundick was moving on from that style. On his second Toro Y Moi album, Bundick drew on disco and dance-pop and ’80s R&B and Stereolab-style ’90s polyglot pop. He found something new, and he’s been continuing to find new things ever since. Today happens to be the 10th anniversary of Underneath The Pine. To celebrate that moment, Bundick has shared the all-instrumental version of the LP...
...The new track is called “Let It Be,” but it isn’t a Beatles cover; it’s a title-as-cover a la the Replacements. Berninger co-wrote it with his old Nancy bandmate Mike Brewer, who was also involved in other material for Serpentine Prison. Accordingly, “Let It Be” has that same dusty, late-night acoustic ballad approach that defined much of the album. There’s some nice dramatic organ swells and wistful harmonica peels in this one too...
Cassandra Jenkins,The Hold Steady, Mogwai, Tindersticks, Cameron Graves, Hearty Har, Tash Sultana, Lael Neale, Toro Y Moi, Matt Berninger
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