ALTER.NATION #60
Foals, Jimmy "Duck" Holmes, Garcia Peoples, Mark Lanegan Band, The Muffs, Richard Dawson, Kiefer, Corridor, Battles, Floating Points, Bremer/McCoy, Jan Garbarek / The Hilliard Ensemble
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"Like Lightning"
ALTER.NATION #60 on DEEZER
Oxford, England group with a complex sound based on dance-rock, new wave, and atmospheric post-rock.
Foals -
Like Lightning from Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Part 2
The gamble paid off. Yannis and co. took a risk when they announced that they would release two albums this year, but this follow-up is indisputable proof of their greatness
‘Like Lightning’ lays on some filthy blues for a sleaze-rock anthem to dusting yourself off and becoming something new...
Acclaimed Mississippi bluesman and member of the Bentonia blues school who also operates America's oldest surviving juke joint. The last surviving bluesman of what became known as the Bentonia School, Jimmy "Duck" Holmes is known for both his own sparse, haunting blues style and as the longtime proprietor of the Blue Front Cafe, America's longest-operating juke joint located in his hometown of Bentonia, Mississippi.
Jimmy "Duck" Holmes -
Two Women from Cypress Grove
Jimmy "Duck" Holmes is one of the last practitioners of old-fashioned Mississippi blues, playing a variation that belongs to the Yazoo county town of Bentonia. Holmes kept that sound alive at his own juke joint and on a series of records in the 2000s, but the 2019 album Cypress Grove is designed as a vehicle to introduce the bluesman to a wider audience. Dan Auerbach, the lead singer of the Black Keys and head of the Easy Eye Sound studio and label, shepherded the project, bringing Holmes up to Nashville to record with a bunch of his cohorts, including guitarist Marcus King... It's a modernization of his sound but not a bowdlerization; if anything, it's perhaps the finest realization of Holmes' blues. At the very least, it's certainly the liveliest and boldest album he's made.
New Jersey band who took notes from a canon of classic psychedelic searchers to develop their jammy, cosmic rock sound.
Garcia Peoples -
One Step Behind (Single Edit) from One Step Behind
...Diving deeper into the mercurial depths than they ever have before, the band eschews their usual groove to get lost in a bit of the cosmic wilds for a patch. Malach, the elder, used to knock down sessions with everyone from Miles Davis to Arto Lindsay to Stevie Wonder so this is no nepotism knockout, this is a familial team-up for the ages. Ah-ah, but you’re gonna have to wait until the full platter’s out of the oven to hear Bob’s double overdubbed sax goodness. Right here is the radio edit, a line closer to what they’ve been playing live for the track. Heard this the other night when they opened for KV and it hit just as hard — the band workin’ up their own “Playing in the Band’ alchemy. They sync up in full symbiosis, playing off of one another with the veracity of players with twice as many trips ‘round the sun and its a delight to watch...
The frontman for Screaming Trees who went on to a fascinating solo career marked by an acoustic tone and dark, folk- and blues-inspired songwriting. Singing with a deep, nicotine-ravaged growl that's rich, strong, and sensuously forbidding,
Mark Lanegan Band -
Radio Silence from Somebody's Knocking
With his deep, rough-hewn voice and easy confidence with lyrics about bad behavior and lives gone wrong, Mark Lanegan doesn't seem like the kind of guy you would invite to your next party, unless you wanted to bum out uninvited guests. Which is why 2019's Somebody's Knocking is something of a surprise coming from Lanegan; thematically, it's no cheerier than most of his work, but most of the time it has a good beat and you can dance to it, even if the folks on the dancefloor aren't laughing a lot. Like most of his releases credited to the Mark Lanegan Band, Somebody's Knocking finds him collaborating with Alain Johannes and Rob Marshall, who play most of the instruments -- Johannes is also credited as producer -- and this time Lanegan's unlikely fascination with electronics and dance music dominates the set...
L.A. outfit created slap-happy pop punk with ample hooks, buoyed by the dynamic vocals of Kim Shattuck. Fusing big guitar riffs, pop hooks, fast tempos, and an attitude that sways between sweet and snarky, the Muffs were a pop-punk band from Los Angeles led by guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter Kim Shattuck.
The Muffs -
On My Own from No Holiday
The late, great Kim Shattuck had a lot more to give, as proven by the cocksure charm of this (barely) posthumously released effort.
It is heartbreaking that Kim Shattuck, the forthright singer and cocksure songwriter for the Muffs, died at the beginning of October. Renowned for her short, sharp brand of power-pop punk song, yearning but prickly lyrics, and screamy, shredded vocals with a tender, expressive edge... The main Muff leaves behind a rep for sugar-pop riffage, manic tempos, deep hooks and a lyrical éclat pitched between smart snark and adoring devotion.
Kim Shattuck, star of LA punk scene, dies aged 56
Northumbrian singer/songwriter with a flair for shambolic psych-folk and experimental rock. Based out of the industrial Tyneside region of Northern England, esoteric singer/songwriter Richard Dawson's shambolic, guitar-driven folk music has drawn comparisons to other singular artists like Jandek, Mike Waterson, John Martyn, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Adem, Skip Spence, and King Creosote. Specializing in a heady blend of traditional English folk music, Sacred Harp-kissed North Country blues, and jazzy psych-folk.
Richard Dawson -
Black Triangle from 2020
It's a hard time to be happy, and Richard Dawson knows it. The British guitarist and songwriter would hardly be the first artist to make music that reflects the chaos and uncertainty of a time when the world's political outlook has turned ugly and the divide between the haves and have-nots grows wider by the minute. Dawson's 2019 album 2020 is certainly a work of its time, reflecting the social, political, and economic uncertainty that has swept the globe. But rather than dealing in sloganeering or checking off the familiar outrages that are part of our collective existence, Dawson casts his gaze on the daily lives of ordinary people trying to live their lives despite the fractures in the society around them...
Los Angeles-based jazz keyboardist and producer with a hip-hop and R&B-influenced sound.
Kiefer -
Frozen from Superbloom
As Kiefer puts it, "This music is naturally me. It sounds like me. As with everything that I release, I am showing you what I love about music. Making rhythm, harmony, melody, and sounds that move me. I spend everyday talking to students and mentors and listening to music and finding things that I think are beautiful, and then translating them through my unique musicality. I'm doing it in a way that only I can, and regardless of how good or bad it may be, I'm trying my best."
Twitchy and tuneful post-punk-inspired indie rock from Montreal and the first Francophone band signed to Sub Pop.
Corridor -
Goldie from Junior
After two albums of spiky, echoing post-punk revivalism of the finest kind, recorded at a slow pace over long stretches, the Montreal band Corridor had to change their way of working on their third album, Junior... The chief songwriters, Jonathan Robert and Dominic Berthiaume, didn't let the short turnaround time cramp their style; every song has a jagged hook, a crystal-cut guitar line, or a sparkling melody that hits hard and sticks. The up-tempo tracks like "Domino" and "Goldie" are sweaty, pulsing indie rock powered by thrumming bass lines, and Robert's insistent vocals...
Respected New York City group that plays a highly cerebral brand of indie rock, with electronic and experimental influences.
Like a hummingbird in flight, Battles make the most complex labour look carefree and weightless... Ultimately, though, it's the tracks where Battles are left to their own devices that define the album. On "Fort Greene Park," watch as a blustering guitar collects itself into precarious catharsis — synths fall out of the drums that contain them, climb back in, and all builds to quietness. It's one of the most plaintively beautiful songs in Battles' catalogue, in its sonic attention to loss, to change over time. And, as we listen to it, we also listen to the sound of a band who continue to create after more than a decade — tempered with loss, yes, but also joy, also freedom.
Known on dancefloors and tastefully progressive U.K. radio programs as Floating Points, producer and DJ Sam Shepherd has applied his love for gritty funk, slick R&B, and avant-garde jazz to house, techno, and orchestral compositions that have tended to be equally stimulating through club sound systems and headphones.
Floating Points -
LesAlpx from Crush
Sam Shepherd's second Floating Points album is as distinct from Reflections: Mojave Desert as that live band-oriented 2017 EP is distinguishable from the painstaking 2015 LP Elaenia. The making of Crush was powered in part by the lasting creative energy Shepherd felt during a string of dates supporting the xx, for which he performed alone with only a modular synthesizer... That said, it's hard to imagine more forethought and deliberation resulting in a listen more riveting than this one.
Danish duo Bremer/McCoy make atmospheric jazz- and dub-influenced instrumental music. Together since 2013, they have issued albums on the Raske Plader label, including 2015's Ordet and 2016's Forsvinder.
Based in Copenhagen, Bremer/McCoy features bassist Jonathan Bremer and keyboardist/tape delay artist Morten McCoy.
Bremer/McCoy -
Salme from Utopia
There are some albums that beg to be listened to from beginning to end in one sitting; Brian Eno's Music for Airports, Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, and Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians come to mind. The fourth album (and Luaka Bop debut) from Danish instrumentalists Bremer/McCoy, 2019's Utopia, is also one of those albums. Featuring the talents of bassist Jonathan Bremer and keyboardist/tape delay artist Morten McCoy, Utopia showcases the duo's expansive, often hypnotic jazz-, dub-, and classical-influenced sound. Aesthetically, their intimate sound falls somewhere in between Keith Jarrett, Paul Winter, and Mike Oldfield without ever borrowing too heavily from any one source...
Since the release of Afric Pepperbird in 1970, no other musician save for pianist Keith Jarrett has been as closely associated with ECM Records as Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek. His playing style on both tenor and soprano horns is identified by a sharp-edged tone and long, sustained notes that often sound like cries; he prioritizes the use of space and silence.
An entire class of English vocal ensembles, sometimes placed under an "Oxbridge Sound" umbrella, specializes in early music. Among the prestigious ranks of the Gothic Voices, the Tallis Scholars, Pro Cantione Antiqua, the Oxford Camerata, and The Sixteen, longevity and musical versatility placed the Hilliard Ensemble in a class almost of their own.
Jan Garbarek / The Hilliard Ensemble -
Remember Me, My Dear from Remember Me, My Dear
Made shortly before the dissolution of the Hilliard Ensemble in 2014, this live recording first appeared in the fall of 2019. It thus has the quality of a swan song for the unique collaboration of the Hilliard Ensemble and saxophonist Jan Garbarek, which still sounds fresh many years after it was first developed. The way the cool textures of the Hilliard's singing and Garbarek's saxophone bring together the disparate worlds of medieval music, contemporary music including Baltic minimalism, and jazz remains fascinating...
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| The Hilliard Ensemble, Jan Garbarek Bath Abbey May 2014. Photo Mick Destino |
Foals, Jimmy "Duck" Holmes, Garcia Peoples, Mark Lanegan Band, The Muffs, Richard Dawson, Kiefer, Corridor, Battles, Floating Points, Bremer/McCoy, Jan Garbarek / The Hilliard Ensemble
