ALTER.NATION #124(19trx 1h 30m)
Dry Cleaning, Ghlow, Mythic Sunship, La Femme, Du Blonde, Moontype, Flock of Dimes, Ryley Walker, Gary Bartz, Ali Shaheed Muhammad,Adrian Younge, Luca Yupanqui
weekly favtraX
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"Scratchcard Lanyard"
Dry Cleaning - New Long Leg / Scratchcard Lanyard / Every Day Carry
...Working with producer John Parish, the band polishes their style like a blade on their debut album New Long Leg, and they contrast Shaw's understated delivery and their fired-up playing more sharply. When it comes to deadpan yet nuanced vocalists, Shaw rivals Kim Gordon and Laurie Anderson. With the way she casts a critical eye on the world with erudite confidence, it only makes sense that she has a background as a university lecturer, and as she subverts the usual expectations of female vocalists to be emotive or decorative, her profound, mundane, and odd observations unite in a surreal blur. On "Scratchcard Lanyard," one of New Long Leg's finest moments, she intones "I've come here to make a ceramic shoe...I've come here to learn how to mingle" and its putative chorus "Do everything/Feel nothing" with the same emotional weight, brilliantly conveying her feelings of ennui and overwhelm... the transporting solos guitarist Tom Dowse contributes to almost every track. And while Dry Cleaning downplays pop music's most familiar techniques -- easily identifiable verses, choruses, and vocal melodies -- New Long Leg never really feels alienating, even when the band takes tension and release to extremes on "Every Day Carry." They know exactly what they're doing, and the risks they take result in a debut album that brings a fresh energy to post-punk that's equally challenging and rewarding.
Ghlow - Slash and Burn / Not Fit For This / Hollow
Four years after their conception, Swedish-Russian alternative duo Ghlow released their official debut full-length, Slash and Burn. A potent blend of their varied influences -- post-punk, electronica, industrial, and doom metal, to name a few -- the set makes up for brevity by offering a tight, corrosive assault that recalls acts like the Raveonettes, the Jesus and Mary Chain, and Curve. Vocalist Emille de Blanche is a force, holding her own atop the noisy release crafted by Nikolay Evdokimov as expertly as Toni Halliday, Shirley Manson, and Jehnny Beth in their own respective groups...
Mythic Sunship - Wildfire / Maelstrom / Landfall
Copenhagen-based instrumental quintet Mythic Sunship have explored the intersection of psychedelic rock and free jazz prolifically, releasing sprawling albums almost once a year since their inception around the start of the 2010s. Sixth album Wildfire finds the band in a state of chaotic upheaval as always, but pushes their sound to even more frenetic places than usual... As Mythic Sunship continue to evolve at a rapid pace, this chapter of their development is one of the strongest and most immediate. Wildfire is alive with euphoric joy, and the energy is both unrelenting and contagious.
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La Femme - Paradigmes / Paradigme / Cool Colorado
With each album, La Femme's musical horizons have widened significantly -- an impressive feat, considering that their 2013 debut album, Psycho Tropical Berlin, already blended Krautrock, surf, coldwave, psychedelic rock, and yé-yé... they discover plenty of new territory on Paradigmes... More often, though, La Femme take their listeners on a style-hopping journey. In its first few songs alone, Paradigmes ranges from the silvery processed vocals and wailing brass of the title track, which feels like a number from a retro sci-fi musical... "Cool Colorado" is a laid-back homage that drifts along like a puff of pot smoke, and hearing about cowboys and Sweet Georgia Brown in a thick French accent over groovy brass and tambourines goes a long way toward making them seem cool again... La Femme's passion for seeking out new (or vintage) sounds to add to their omnivorous pop is contagious, and never more so than on Paradigmes.
Du Blonde - Homecoming / Pull The Plug / Take Me Away
On the gritty, underappreciated Lung Bread for Daddy, Du Blonde's Beth Jeans Houghton dove into the messiness of heartache and mental health issues; on Homecoming, she looks at them from the other side. Just as her previous album's grungy textures heightened its angst, the slick shine she uses here adds layers of resonance. Homecoming is pop on Houghton's terms: She puts a candy coating over her anxiety and frustration...
Moontype - Bodies of Water / Anti-Divinity / Stuck On You
Beginning life as the skeletal bass guitar demos of vocalist/songwriter Margaret McCarthy, Bodies of Water is the debut album of Chicago-based indie rock trio Moontype. What the songs evolved into is something not only fleshy and urgent but often raucous and shape-shifting, with the band noting that they often let McCarthy's intimate lyrics dictate rhythms. As a result, tracks like "When Will I Learn," "Blue Michigan," and the lonesome "Stuck on You" are among others that feature subtly shifting meters. The latter song also reveals some of the country music background of guitarist (and one-time jazz performance major) Ben Cruz and drummer Emerson Hunton, who also play together in projects spanning jazz and avant-garde music. The track's quiet, galloping rhythm manifests in skittering snare, a lively bass line, and rhythmically animated guitar, albeit with a limited range, at least until Cruz breaks out a solo to end the song. .. Throughout the album, McCarthy's vulnerable confessions and airy vocals unite an ultimately compelling set of songs that may appeal to noise rock and indie singer/songwriter fans alike.
Flock of Dimes - Head of Roses / Price of Blue / Hard Way
On her luminous and sometimes piercing sophomore LP, Jenn Wasner struggles through the overwhelming nature of heartbreak, coming to grips with the conflicting roles of both the breaker and the broken. Written in quarantine and recorded with a trusted cadre of collaborators, Head of Roses builds on the singer/songwriter's growing canon of intimate yet approachable art-pop which she releases under the name Flock of Dimes. Ultimately more layered and complex than Wasner's work as part of Wye Oak, Flock of Dimes' material manages to express an acute vulnerability without becoming stuck in the quagmire of deflated confessionalism...
At some point during this busy stretch, he also found time to compose and record some of his most intricate and satisfying solo material to date, released here as Course in Fable, Walker's fifth album. An artful nexus of impressionistic songwriting, prog-rock vision, and melodic nuance...Album opener "Striking Down Your Big Premiere" leans heavily into its progressive nature, shifting seamlessly between time signatures and conjoined micro-suites to create a surprisingly effective whole. The musical interplay between Walker, guitarist Bill McKay (another Chicagoan), bassist Andrew Scott Young, and drummer Ryan Jewell is simply electric, and his increasing confidence as an ace bandleader makes it all feel effortless... Walker may tip his hat to Chicago's experimental underground or prog behemoths like Genesis, but with this release, he's very much his own man.
Gary Bartz / Ali Shaheed Muhammad / Adrian Younge - Gary Bartz JID006 / Spiritual Ideation / Blue Jungles
The Jazz Is Dead project curated by producer/multi-instrumentalists Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Adrian Younge operates with a particular m.o. The duo enlist a revered jazz musician whose work and influence have reached past the genre. They surround him with players -- including themselves -- and the same vintage equipment used on their storied catalog dates to create new music. Alto giant and composer Gary Bartz checks all the boxes. In addition to early stints with jazz masters Miles Davis and McCoy Tyner, Bartz cut a series of groundbreaking albums under his own name and with his N.T.U. ... Opener "Spiritual Ideation" is introduced by a harpsichord and a funky snare shuffle. A gently bumping bassline welcomes Bartz's alto. He enters on the modal melody, and immediately begins to embellish, append, and expand it. The backing singers wordlessly create an ethereal dimension...
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| Gary Bartz |
Sounds of the Unborn was recorded by Psychic Ills bassist Elizabeth Hart and Argentine producer Iván Diaz Mathé while Hart was pregnant with their daughter, Luca Yupanqui. Using biosonic MIDI technology, the pair attached devices to Hart's belly and translated the vibrations and heartbeats into sound waves, controlling synthesizers and producing improvised, free-flowing electronic music. .. The audio itself is a strange mélange of rapidly pulsating heartbeats, amniotic textures, and reflexive movements, resembling an unstructured blend of dark ambient, post-industrial, and glitch. It's entirely at home on a label that sometimes releases horror film scores -- the clattering, swooping opening piece "V5" could easily soundtrack an intense psychological thriller...
Dry Cleaning, Ghlow, Mythic Sunship, La Femme, Du Blonde, Moontype, Flock of Dimes, Ryley Walker, Gary Bartz, Ali Shaheed Muhammad,Adrian Younge, Luca Yupanqui
