08-02-2022 alter:MiX # 33 alter tracks in PRSNT_PRFCT_MiX [2019-2022] (2h 21m) # Tindersticks, The Cribs, Trees Speak, David Bowie, Seafoam Walls, Biffy Clyro, Jordana, Marika Hackman, Matt Valentine, Girlpool, Circles Around the Sun, Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio
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Tindersticks were one of the most original and distinctive British acts of the '90s, standing apart from both the British indie scene and the rash of Brit-pop guitar combos that dominated the U.K. charts. Where their contemporaries were often direct and to the point, Tindersticks were obtuse and leisurely, crafting dense, difficult songs layered with literary lyrics, intertwining melodies, mumbling vocals, and gently melancholy orchestrations. Essentially, the group filtered the dark romanticism of Leonard Cohen, Ian Curtis, and Scott Walker through the bizarre pop songcraft of Lee Hazlewood and the aesthetics of indie rock...
Pinky in the Daylight 5:22
The Amputees 3:37
from No Treasure But Hope 2019
There are few if any working bands who craft their music as meticulously as Tindersticks; their music is like a suspension bridge built out of nuance, a wealth of small details coming together into something tremendously powerful even when it's whisper quiet (which is often). So it's surprising to learn that the group's 2019 album No Treasure But Hope was recorded in less than a week. Rather than creating an elaborately constructed piece in the studio and then figuring out how to play it on-stage, in this case they opted to establish the framework of their compositions first, and then played them live in the studio for a more natural, organic feel. But if anyone was expecting No Treasure But Hope to sound rougher or less precise given the way it was recorded, they'd be wrong. The craft these performers bring to this music is as stunning as ever, and the interplay between the musicians is wondrous, made all the more remarkable by the deeply affecting murmur of Stuart Staples' vocals. As one might expect from Tindersticks, No Treasure But Hope often feels dour and somewhat overcast, despite the strength of the tunes and the abilities of the instrumentalists...
Blending quintessentially British influences like Sex Pistols and the Smiths with American indie rock like Beat Happening, the Cribs became one of the U.K.'s cult favorite bands in the 2000s and beyond...
Screaming In Suburbia 3:49
In The Neon Night 3:37
from Night Network 2020
On Night Network, the Cribs trade the serrated punk of 24-7 Rockstar Shit for guitar pop that's as joyous as it is cathartic. Exploring the extremes of their sound is nothing new for this band, but the reasons behind the shift seem clearer than ever this time around. Not long after the release of their previous album, the Cribs parted ways with their management when they discovered the rights to their early songs belonged to someone else. During the year and a half they spent in a protracted but successful legal battle to regain ownership of their music, they recorded Night Network at their longtime friend Dave Grohl's Los Angeles studio. Given the heaviness in their lives at the time, it's no wonder that the Cribs opted to make music that's lighter and often wiser-sounding than what came before it. On their first self-produced album, they don't just strip away much of 24-7's aggression and distortion; they come to terms with the complexities of the past on Night Network's frequently gorgeous songs...
Tucson, Arizona band Trees Speak look to 1970s Krautrock, synth drone, soundtrack music, and Bitches Brew-era Miles Davis for inspiration when putting together their dizzying experiments with electronics and song deconstruction...
Seventh Mirror 3:22
Pyramid 2:34
...Yet the tracks themselves are mostly short, and the band remain incredibly focused, even as they're venturing further out than they've ever gone before. The Krautrock and cinematic influences of their previous albums remain present, but this one seems far more influenced by vintage electronics of all stripes, from the alien soundscapes of the Forbidden Planet score to Tangerine Dream's iconic soundtrack work from the '80s. It almost seems like the audio equivalent of hyperlink cinema, as each successive track sounds vastly different than the last, yet it's all connected in some way, and it makes more sense with repeated listens. The band excel at channeling '60s psych vibes through a retro Broadcast/Ghost Box filter, with touches of Baroque pop and film noir influences, and there are also moments filled with hazy effects, making them sound like they're sourced from a crackly old film reel...
One of the greatest stars of the rock & roll era, David Bowie evaded easy categorization throughout his career, operating as the artiest rocker within the mainstream and the most accessible musician on the fringe. Bowie may have trafficked in ideas cultivated in the underground, but he was never quite an outsider as far as rock & roll was concerned. From the outset of his career in the 1960s, he attempted to break into the Top 40, playing British blues, mod rock & roll, and ornate pop before finally hitting paydirt as a hippie singer/songwriter...
I Dig Everything 5:03
Liza Jane (Alternative Mix) 4:46
In The Heat Of The Morning (Unplugged & Somewhat Slightly Electric Mix) 3:52
from Toy (Toy:Box) 2022
Since David Bowie's death in January of 2016, rummaging through the Bowie archives and repackaging his earlier material (especially from 1968-1970) has become a bit of a cottage industry for the Parlophone record label. Examples of these posthumously released albums include the Clareville Grove Demos, Conversation Piece, The 'Mercury' Demos, Spying Through a Keyhole, and The Width of a Circle. You can now add Bowie’s Toy (Toy:Box) 3CD/6LP box to the list. [The many lavish era specific box sets and numerous live releases are something else altogether.] Toy (Toy:Box) is an enjoyable and intriguing set of new interpretations of some of Bowie’s earliest songs. It was recorded in a New York studio in 2000 with drummer Sterling Campbell, bassist Gail Ann Dorsey, pianist Mike Garson as well as guitarist Earl Slick and includes inspired updates of the Space Oddity B-side “Conversation Piece,” “Let Me Sleep Beside You,” Bowie’s then Davie Jones & the King Bees 1964 debut single "Liza Jane," “Shadow Man,” an energetic take on "You've Got a Habit of Leaving" and “Silly Boy Blue” from 1966 in addition to 32 other selections many of which are just alternative mixes or unplugged versions of a handful of the same songs including "Baby Loves That Way," "Can’t Help Thinking About Me," and "I Dig Everything," among others. These are essentially old songs first recorded by Bowie circa 1964-1971 except for the title track with a number of these songs previously appearing on the compilation albums Early On (1964–1966), and The Deram Anthology 1966–1968. An essential purchase for Bowie completists and perhaps avid fans of his pre–Space Oddity recordings.
Seafoam Walls is Jayan Bertrand, Dion Kerr, Joshua Ewers, and Josue Vargas. They've taken all their influences ranging from jazz, shoegaze, indie rock, and hip-hop to produce a sound unlike any other in Miami.
You Can't Have Your Cake and Ego Too (Happy Birthday) 5:37
Dependency 2:38
You Always Said 5:47
from XVI 2022
...Seafoam Walls began in 2014 as a solo vehicle for Bertrand, who had previously combined Haitian music with indie guitar aesthetics in the more traditional, folk-oriented outfit Kazoots. His vision for Seafoam Walls had already come into focus with the 2016 release of “You Can’t Have Your Cake and Ego Too (Happy Birthday)”—a dose of self-help psychedelia that, half a decade later, receives a proper re-recording on XVI with bassist Joshua Ewers and beatmaking multi-instrumentalist Dion Kerr. This new version retains the original’s essential tension between isolation-tank tranquility and hyperactive rhythmic tics, however, Bertrand wisely ditches the original’s deep, gothic vocal delivery for a higher honeyed croon that adds a more empathetic dimension to his agitated lyrics. Dream pop is normally treated as a sanctuary of sound, a chorus-pedalled cocoon from your problems, but Seafoam Walls remind us that, in our daily lives, therapeutic escapism is an often unattainable luxury. Beneath the dewy guitar textures of “You Can’t Have Your Cake and Ego Too,” Bertrand sounds off on dysfunctional relationships and the inability to have open, honest conversations within them, before delivering a motivational mantra—“fuck her, fuck him, fuck them, fuck all our egos”—that renders the song a gossamer lullaby with a hardcore heart...
Known for their anthemic alt rock, Scotland's Biffy Clyro are a dynamic power trio marked by the throaty lead-vocal brogue of singer/guitarist Simon Neil. Emerging in the early 2000s, the band drew loyal fans with their grunge, hardcore, and prog rock-influenced sound that found them combining hooky choruses with unusual song forms and galloping rhythmic meters...
A Hunger In Your Haunt 3:49
Errors In The History Of God 4:16
Unknown Male 01 6:08
from The Myth of the Happily Ever After 2021
While technically a companion work to 2020's A Celebration of Endings, Biffy Clyro's ninth studio album, the emotionally sanguine The Myth of Happily Ever After, stands on its own. Produced by Adam Noble and largely recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic, the album bristles with a mix of frustration, anger, and yearning, all of which feel intrinsically linked to the turmoil surrounding the pandemic. It's a thematic state of emotion the band touched upon with A Celebration of Endings, but which they attack with a renewed sense of purpose here... Biffy Clyro have long been a band of extremes, crafting esoteric art rock epics one minute and melodic punk singalongs the next -- all the while aiming for a broad, gladiator-esque level of catharsis. It's that grasping for a unified release and the creeping feeling that society may never break free of its constraints that drive much of The Myth of Happily Ever After...
Singer/songwriter Jordana Nye, aka Jordana, is known for her intimate and emotive electro-acoustic bedroom pop sound. She first garnered attention with her 2019 debut, Classical Notions of Happiness. Hailing from North Beach, Maryland, Nye grew up the daughter of a church organist. Encouraged to play music from a young age, she started on violin at age nine and eventually added the ukulele, guitar, and bass...
I'll Take It Boring 3:09
Far Away from You 2:41
Fuck You 3:24
from Something To Say To You 2021
Kansas-born/Maryland-based singer/songwriter Jordana Nye (aka Jordana) makes deeply intimate, handcrafted bedroom pop that brings to mind a wry combination of Cat Power and Beck. It's a potent, '90s-inspired vibe she first displayed on 2019's Classical Notions of Happiness and one which she further develops on 2020's engaging Something to Say to You. The album again finds her recording on her own with some production assistance from electronic artist Melvv. Though she primarily utilizes a guitar, bass, and drum set-up, there's also a kaleidoscope of instruments and effects on display here, including what sound like toy pianos, African kalimbas, reversed electric guitar riffs, and tape loops; all of which add to the homemade quality of the album...
A singer and songwriter known for her emotionally honest and personal lyrics, Marika Hackman first made a name for herself with a spare, acoustic-oriented approach but explored more full-bodied sounds as her work evolved...
You Never Wash Up After Yourself (Colin Greenwood / Jonny Greenwood / Ed O'Brien / Phil Selway / Thom Yorke) 1:35
Playground Love (Jean-Benoît Dunckel / Nicolas Godin / Thomas Mars) 2:28
Between the Bars (Elliott Smith) 2:35
from Covers 2020
During the extended stay-at-home order of the last few months, Marika felt that creating a covers record was a way of exploring new sound ideas and expressing herself without having the pressure of the blank page. She recorded and produced Covers between home and her parents’ house, then got the legendary David Wrench (Frank Ocean, The xx, Let’s Eat Grandma) to mix it... Breathing new life into the songs she’s chosen, Marika reimagines work by some of the world's most beloved artists such as Radiohead, Grimes and Elliott Smith... “When it comes to covers, I like to pick songs which I have been listening to obsessively for a while. It gives me a natural understanding of the music, and lets me be more innovative with how I transform it.”... Marika’s version of Air’s “Playground Love” is one of the highlights, taken from the soundtrack the group composed for Sofia Coppola’s coming of age The Virgin Suicides, the result being a moodier, disorientating reworking of a classic modern moment...
Psychedelic traveler Matt "MV" Valentine rode out the waves of freak folk, building a towering discography of both his own solo work and work with partner Erika "EE" Elder in the rotating collective MV & EE. Inspired by Indian classical and psychedelic folk, Valentine mixed improvisational acoustic recordings with field sounds, tape loops, and his own spaced-out vocals. As the years burned on, Valentine focused on a deep-fried miasma of sounds and styles with solo albums like 2019's Preserves...
Light Speed 3:27
Rockbottomless 5:54
Analog Love 10:01
from Preserves 2019
Matt Valentine is no stranger to psychedelic sounds. For more than 20 years, Valentine's muse was almost exclusively trippy sprawl, whether that took the form of sunburnt jamming with Tower Recordings, subdued acid folk ragas with MV & EE, or any number of experiments that lived on limited-edition CD-Rs or cassette releases. Valentine's work as a solo artist often took on a relaxed tone similar to MV & EE, with 2011's What I Became straddling the line between loner folk and guitar-heavy art rock. Assembled from eight years of back-filed recordings, Preserves goes off the deep end into a pool of demented funk, wild-eyed guitar freak-outs, and layered, druggy walls of confusion and bliss. "Light Speed" opens the album with its closest thing to a pop song. Funky bass, buried vocals, and scratchy, zigzagging wah-wah guitar lines all rise and fall in the mix, sometimes making space for what sounds like a violin or random electronics...
Formed by teenage best friends, Girlpool evolved dramatically in a relatively short time frame. The band grew from a sparse drummerless duo on their earliest albums into something resembling a more traditional indie rock act on subsequent records like 2019's What Chaos Is Imaginary, borrowing angst from '90s alternative guitar heroes and lush arrangements and bright harmonies from classic radio pop...
Lucy's 3:03
Where You Sink 3:22
Minute In Your Mind 2:21
from What Chaos Is Imaginary 2019
Born as a restless and patchy duo dreamed into existence by teenage best friends, Girlpool spent much of their time as a band in a state of transformation. Early recordings were marked by tight, unison vocal harmonies and melodic songs played without a drummer, leaving an unusual but welcome space for their reflective and plaintive lyrics to resonate. By the time of their 2017 sophomore album Powerplant, Girlpool resembled something more in line with a standard indie rock band, adding drums to the equation and turning up the volume on the formula that they began with. Third album What Chaos Is Imaginary continues to shift, mirroring changes in both the individual lives of the songwriters and their collaborative identity. If the addition of drums took Girlpool's skeletal sound into new dimensions, the 14 songs here expand on that tenfold, adding electronics, synths, and even orchestral arrangements to the mix...
Circles Around the Sun is a contemporary instrumental rock band that formed with the specific purpose of creating intermission music for Fare Thee Well, a series of reunion concerts played by the surviving members of the Grateful Dead during their 2015 tour. Those shows celebrated the band's 50th anniversary and served as their official send-off, while Circles Around the Sun was designed to reflect the Dead's spacy and grooving overall feel. After the tour, the group issued a self-titled album from the Fare Thee Well gigs and supported it with their own road trip. The response was so positive that they remained a going concern and released Let It Wander in 2018, which was less influenced by the Dead and more freeform, delivering on the roots influence of jazz-funk, soul, and fusion. The band underwent a fundamental transition in 2019.... After a tour, the band took a short break; during the summer of 2019, they began working on a third album with Grammy-winning producer Jim Scott at his Southern California studio. With most of the album completed, they turned in a crowd-pleasing late-night set at the Lockn Festival in August, and also finished an EP with Joe Russo on drums. On August 26, less than a week after their performance at Lockn, Casal committed suicide. In the aftermath, keyboardist Adam MacDougall, bassist Dan Horne, and drummer Mark Levy, all in a state of shock, grew closer than ever before and spent a couple of months deciding whether to continue as a band. After committing to the October 18 release of Meets Joe Russo, they made a collective decision (along with Scott) to issue their third album. Circles Around the Sun enlisted Casal's longtime friend and collaborator Eric Krasno (Soulive) as the first guitarist to fill the chair. In mid-March of 2020, the band issued that third album. Finished the week before Casal's death, the seven-track set represented his final studio sessions. They were cut at engineer/producer Scott's California studio.
Babyman 5:57
Leaving (Rogue Lemon) 7:41
Money’s No Option 5:19
from Circles Around the Sun 2020
Musically, these tracks walk the line between the free, unfettered improvisational jams found on 2018's Let It Wander and the more fusion-centric Meets Joe Russo EP from 2019. Things kick off to a righteous start with "Baby Man" as ringing guitar and keyboards slide into a cut-time shuffle where Horne's bass walks the line between jazz-funk and Krautrock. It evolves quickly with a vamp reminiscent of Television's "Marquee Moon" grafted on, and a loose, lovely collision of styles and rhythms assert themselves in interlocking grooves..."Leaving (Rogue Lemon)" is spacy jazz-rock fusion with a moody organ line reminiscent of Alan Parsons' "I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You," before finding and opening the door to the spiraling unknown with warmth and verve... The set closes with "Money Is No Option," with its blissed-out drifting foreshadowing a soul-disco fusion akin to Herbie Hancock's ever-hooky experiments on Feets Don't Fail Me Now, and Lonnie Liston Smith's club-centric Exotic Mysteries with Casal adding rootsy rock and blues licks inside the groove. While CATS was an idea assembled by Casal, they quickly became a band. This final outing with him is every bit as amicable, innovative, and free as the band's previous releases. Circles Around the Sun is a truly fine sendoff; it stands head and shoulders above instrumental recordings from most rock musicians. The joy shared among these four musicians was abundant in everything they recorded, which is why this is a most beautiful and enjoyable album; it's also a bittersweet one.
The Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio are a 21st century contemporary soul-jazz and funk outfit based in Seattle. Their sound is marked by kinetic, driving grooves, funky breaks, and spontaneous improvisation, whether they're playing originals or covers -- they are especially well- known for the latter. The trio features Delvon Lamarr on Hammond B-3, Jimmy James on guitar, and Dan Weiss on drums. Their debut album, Close But No Cigar, appeared in 2016 on a label started by Lamarr's wife and manager Amy Novo, and reached the jazz charts...
Hole In One 4:34
Fo Sho 4:10
I Don't Know 5:12
from I Told You So 2021
In 2015, Seattle-based Hammond B-3 organist Delvon Lamarr was challenged by wife and partner Amy Novo to put together a career-making band; she'd take care of the business end so he could make music. 2018's self-financed live-in-studio debut, Close But No Cigar, and its Colemine follow-up, Live at KEXP, both hit the upper rungs of the national contemporary jazz charts. The band took their heady mix of jazz-funk, blues, R&B, and rock on the road across the U.S. and Europe, playing electrifying, booty-quaking shows that brought down houses and festival stages across the globe. Press comparisons usually reference soul-jazz records released by Blue Note, Cadet, and Verve during the 1960s, but DVO3's sound is louder, meaner, and leaner, more akin to hard-grooving records by Detroit's Lyman Woodard Organization and Funk Brother Dennis Coffey, the Beastie Boys' In Sound from Way Out!, or Bill Heid's nasty This Is My Rifle (another Detroit record)...
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