ALTER.NATION #120 (15trx 59m)
Jane Weaver, Bernice, Gretchen Parlato, duendita, Judith Hill, Painted Shrines, Alex Bleeker, Floatie, Ron Gallo, upsammy
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"Sunset Dreams"
Jane Weaver - Flock / Sunset Dreams / Pyramid Schemes
Throughout the second half of the 2010s, Jane Weaver hit her musical stride, releasing two albums that combined shimmering synths, alternately propulsive and languid tempos, and Weaver's trilling vocals into something magical. 2014's Silver Globe and 2017's Modern Kosmology are both mini-masterpieces of dream-meets-synth pop and showed that she basically had mastered that style... Where her work in the 2010s flowed from song to song like a masterful DJ set, 2021's Flock comes across more like a greatest-hits album as she bounces from style to style... She could have kept making the same wonderful dream pop albums over and over until the world ended and that would have been fine. For her to take the template she had perfected and apply it to slightly different styles of music is a daring move and it works out very well, to say the least. Flock is the work of a daring artist, a crafty writer and performer, and someone who is always worth following to see what kind of great things she might do in the future.
Bernice - Eau de Bonjourno / Groove Elation / Personal Bubble
An album as delicate yet present as a perfume, Bernice's Eau de Bonjourno makes the most of its relatively swift creative process. Arriving three years after 2018's Polaris Prize-nominated Puff: In the Air Without a Shape (a relatively quick turnaround, considering the seven years that separated that album and the group's debut What Was That) and recorded in ten days, its spontaneous songs highlight the band's sophisticated, inquisitive blend of indie, jazz, and R&B. Leaving traditional song structures in the dust, Bernice revel in unexpected harmonies and chords and syncopated rhythms that give them a dragonfly-like ability to flit wherever they choose... Though Eau de Bonjourno's musical mindfulness demands active listening, it's well worth paying close attention -- this is experimental music driven by emotion, with frequently exhilarating results.
Gretchen Parlato - Flor / É Preciso Perdoar
...Flor is it: a compelling synthesis of originals, pop covers, Brazilian standards, and classical music performed by a new international quartet. It includes Brazilian guitarist and musical director Marcel Camargo, Brazilian drummer Leo Costa, and Armenian cellist/bassist Artyom Manukyan. Parlato produced the nine-song set... She references the past immediately on opener "É Preciso Perdoar." A hit for João Gilberto in 1973, Parlato's world changed when she first him singing at age 13. She fell in love with his simple, intimate, yet intricately detailed delivery and laid-back style. She presents the song with North African harmonic and rhythmic overtones from open-tuned guitars and droning cello atop a spectral percussion line. Her delivery adds drama, sensuality, and pathos to its lyric of unrequited love... Parlato and her collaborators dig under and through stylistic and genre conventions, then emerge with a jazz language of their own that embraces the world's sounds and emotions, and translates them flawlessly with warmth, intimacy, poetry, and humor. Flor is a masterpiece.
“Open Eyes,” a new song by duendita for Mexican Summer’s ongoing Looking Glass series, moves with its own logic. Leading a small jazz ensemble—Endea Owens on bass, Paul Wilson on keys, and Austin Williamson on drums—the Brooklyn and Berlin-based soul artist sweeps from her stirring lower register to a lush falsetto, accompanying the wave-like movement of the arrangement: With each line, she may sound like a choir, a string section, or a quiet voice in a dimly lit room, singing only for herself. ..
Considering Hill’s monumental career thus far—she was mentored by Prince, competed on The Voice, provided songs for a Spike Lee film and has played in live bands for the likes of Josh Groban, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson and more—it certainly seems that she’s living the dream. Yet, Hill has her demons too... Now, on March 5 via Regime Music Group, she’s releasing Baby, I’m Hollywood!, a soulful, introspective, funky, toe-tapping and head-bobbing journey through Hill’s life and times. Looking at everything from interpersonal strife to the legacy of Black and Asian culture in America, the record is a brilliant encapsulation of Hill, her talents and all of the iconic musicians who helped shape her....
Painted Shrines - Heaven and Holy / Heaven and Holy / Fool
Already distinctive powers on their own, the combination of Jeremy Earl and Glenn Donaldson as Painted Shrines strikes a fantastic balance of their respective sonic identities throughout the project's debut album, Heaven and Holy. Since the early 2000s, Earl has been an integral part of rootsy indie folk band Woods, and Donaldson has brought his songwriting and production perspectives to the airy psychedelic rock of Skygreen Leopards and more recently his wistful and jangly solo project the Reds, Pinks and Purples... The songs are great on the level anyone familiar with either player has come to expect, and the extraneous sounds of the instrumentals keep the album moving along in an interesting fashion. Not every collaboration is as strong as the sum of its parts, but Painted Shrines is a wonderful example of two like-minded artists bringing out the absolute best in each other.
Alex Bleeker - Heaven on the Faultline / AB Ripoff / Reach for My Brain
Alex Bleeker quietly, steadily worked on solo music of his own in tandem with the earliest days of his acclaimed indie band Real Estate, trickling out albums and EPs that bent a little more toward the stoney, country-fried side of things than the reliably poppy material Real Estate was known for. After releasing several strong albums with a rotating cast of characters under the banner Alex Bleeker and the Freaks, Heaven on the Faultline is Bleeker's first solo outing under his own name, and its 13 songs represent the different avenues of his specific musical identity... The album elevates an already solid solo catalog with some of Bleeker's most varied and memorable songs to date, bringing out more of the disarming sweetness and hazy beauty that's been the core of his music since the start.
Last month, the Chicago rock band Floatie announced their debut album, Voyage Out... Today, they’re sharing a new track called “Shiny,” which is nervy but gliding and which the band says is about “finding the drive to make choices that will give you self-assurance and help you to feel worthy of others’ companionship [and] forcing your own luck by committing to your decisions.” “I will try/ Even if my brain says so,” Sam Bern sings on it and in what must be a Dune reference: “I’ll take all the spice in front of me/ I’ll go to another show.”
Being stuck all by yourself can change how a person does things. Ron Gallo has learned a bit about that; he was planning to stay in Italy with his new bride to make music and enjoy life when the COVID-19 lockdown of 2020 forced him to go back to his home in Nashville, which meant a lot of time spent in an empty house with only his home studio for company. While most folks would have gotten seriously bummed out under these circumstances, Gallo somehow got happy...well, kind of. 2021's Peacemeal, cut in bits and pieces before and during quarantine, is a significant departure from the scrappy but rootsy garage-influenced sound of 2017's Heavy Meta and 2018's Stardust Birthday Party. Though guitars still play an important role in the arrangements, Peacemeal is at heart a pop album, with the artist embracing electronics in a new way and absorbing the influences of contemporary R&B and hip-hop...
Following 2020’s debut album ‘Zoom’, upsammy returns to Dekmantel with a dualistic four-tracker called 'Bend', incorporating familiar sonic palettes and novel paths carved out in times of isolation. Where Zoom channelled upsammy’s conceptual depth, Bend leans into artistic intuition, juxtaposing the floral and martial, propelling along her signature sound of textured electronica. Lilac chimes rise and fall along the melodic Flutter...
Jane Weaver, Bernice, Gretchen Parlato, duendita, Judith Hill, Painted Shrines, Alex Bleeker, Floatie, Ron Gallo, upsammy
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