Posts Tagged music
Datapusher “Less Stress” Mix
Posted by zeruch in Aesthetics, Sounds on September 6, 2010
The description is that it’s “melodic drum n bass” but I am not sure what that really means. What it sounds like, is a submerged, floating world of synth layers and stalking beats. Includes cuts by Makoto, Seba, Hobzee, and Silent Witness among many in the nearly two dozen selections Datapusher mixes together for this set.
VoTD: Fenech-Soler – Stop & Stare
Posted by zeruch in Uncategorized on August 17, 2010
Found these fellows via my Last.fm account while using Penguin Prison as a starting point. The production is a little brittle in the mid-range, but the overall sound and the almost club-anthem synths work with the hook.
Outside Lands
Posted by zeruch in Aesthetics, Out and About, Pop Culture, Sounds on August 15, 2010
Day One
- Missed watching The Pimps of Joytime (even though I wore pants most suited to such an occasion) and only heard the last moments of Gogol Bordello (but those moments were very full of win mind you).
- Lunch was from Farmer Brown’s Little Skillet: fried chicken, waffle, red velvet cupcake. Not very healthy, but that is not what you at that for.
- A mint mojito iced coffee from Philz. I do not usually do coffee any way beyond plain black, but this was a pleasant departure.
- Dessert came in the form of a bittersweet chocolate number from Three Twins Ice Cream.
- The Rebirth Brass Band was quite impressive, including a cover of LeVert’s Casanova that goes well beyond the arrangement limitations of the original. The growth of a kind of regional sub-genre in New Orleans that merges second line jazzy brass with hip-hop and soul inflections is something anyone can enjoy casually, and for more studied ears brings new things with additional listens. Not sure if I like these guys as much as Youngblood Brass, but they are pretty close.
- Big surprise discovery for me was Beats Antique; part burlesque/belly dancing sideshow, part electronica meets middle-eastern expedition (think electric oud, clarient and accordion in the lineup), part percussive dance party, all awesome.
- Dinner was some “Argentinian BBQ” from Primo’s Parilla, and it was mad good. This was followed by more coffee -this time plain black, this time from Sabores del Sur.
- Wolfmother was ok, but oddly reminded me of Billy Squier live a lot, but when they did a cover of Riders on the Storm by The Doors they really came alive.
- Tokyo Police Club surprised me; they are still a tad dull in terms of stage presence but they sound much better live than they do on record.
- Bassnectar; not a lot to see, but you can certainly feel the vibe (mostly from the low end) they bring to an event. I love dirty, skeezy synth bass and monolithic breakbeats, and they provided an ample amount of both.
- Thanks to my buddy Vishal for the ride back into town and for hanging out during part of the Cat Power and The Strokes gigs.
- Outside the venue were scads of very haggard hippy wannabes selling “Ganja Candies” and the like. These people look less likely to “Make Love Not War” and more like “Make Scam, And Run”. Smelly little patchouli punks.
Day Two
- Only stayed a few hours; both K and I were pretty tired from yesterday I suppose, and just didn’t have the gusto for a full second day of OL.
- Al Green was a bit of a disappointment, with the venue just not suited to the kind of soul revue he does best. Singing tunes like Roy Orbison’s Pretty Woman wasn’t what we came for either. When he did sing though, it is safe to say that the Reverend still has chops and knows how to take the stage.
- Chromeo was excellent. Pat Gemayel’s use of the talkbox may put him as the only true sonic heir to Roger Troutman (and I am not saying that casually).
- Phoenix sounded quite good, as did Garage a Trois (the latter of which really comes off as some strain of Zappa meets the MC5 meets Ornette Coleman on major psychoactive drugs) which I kind of ex[pected. The surprises were how engaging The Temper Trap were and Janelle Monae wasn't (she also was annoyingly late). Amusingly, the very diva-esque Monae was later spotted in full regalia roving past us on the back of a dusty golf cart. It was an interesting juxtapositioning of random with WTF.
- Tacos from El Huarache Loco, jambalaya from Anchor & Hope, and more Philz coffee. All good, son.
- Sadly, I left the storage card for my camera back home, and have no images from the second day. Ah well...
VoTD: Rita Redshoes
Posted by zeruch in Aesthetics, Pop Culture, Sounds, Visual Arts on July 31, 2010
A Portuguese artist that sings primarily in English, Rita Redshoes (aka Rita Pereira) has a fun, earthy alt-pop sound.
The video has some quirky choreography that reminds me of stuff Toni Basil may have done in the 80s.
A Stone on the Corner
Posted by zeruch in Aesthetics, Out and About, Pop Culture, Sounds on July 8, 2010
Halfway down the first leg of my commute on the Vasona trail last week, I burst my back tire and had to hoof it to the Lightrail station. But before I got there, I sidetracked on a whim to On The Corner Records, where they had stacks of vinyl and cd’s from a purging at college radio station KSCU (Santa Clara University).
As I filleted through the selections, I noticed the person the proprietor was having a conversation with sounded very familiar. So familiar I felt compelled to wedge into the exchange and “ask a stupid question”…was he who I thought he sounded like?
It was, in fact, exactly who I thought it was…Greg Stone.
Yes, Greg Stone, of Stone Trek, was hanging out at On The Corner. Stone Trek was the radio show I listened to uninterrupted the longest; from about the age of 12 to my early 20s, I gorged once a week on a buffet of prog and jazz-fusion, which included my first exposure to bands like Giraffe, Marillion, King Crimson, Gamelon and Allan Holdsworth. Greg seemed to know everyone in those scenes and could get them to visit and/or play unreleased or bootleg material regularly. Somewhere I still have a live version of Giraffe’s This Warm Night on a TDK cassette that I consider a personal favorite, recorded off his radio show, as well as bootleg GTR, and other esoterica.
We ended up talking for the better part of an hour about his salad days at KOME, the more recent run at KFOX (abruptly brought to a close for reasons that make no sense, since he was #1 in his time slot for rock stations in the area) and about random bands like Pete Bardens, Genesis, and Kevin Gilbert.
It was one of those really strange moments when someone you listened to religiously on the radio -no face to the voice for all those years- all of a sudden materializes in a rather startling way. In a cool way actually, but nonetheless totally randomly.
rd.io
Posted by zeruch in Observations, Sounds, Technology, linkedin on June 3, 2010
Been playing with the just launched rd.io for the last 90 minutes or so. There are things I’m not sure I like, things I definitely like, but so far nothing I definitely dislike.
VoTD: Karin Park – Don’t Stop Now
Posted by zeruch in Aesthetics, Pop Culture, Sounds, Visual Arts on May 15, 2010
Karin Park is someone I discovered recently via a remix of Ashes by Grey Ghost & Mezzir. Her general sound is pretty stark and catchy, with a clean proto new wave sheen.
Herbie Scores Miles Biopic!
Posted by zeruch in Aesthetics, Pop Culture, Sounds, Visual Arts on May 4, 2010
Herbie Hancock is going to be scoring the Miles Davis biopic starring and directed by Don Cheadle. I am a rather large fan of both musicians (with my favorite Davis lineup being the famous ’second quintet’ in the late 60s with Hancock, Ron Carter, Wayne Shorter and Tony Williams). And now, two works named for Herbie and Miles tunes; Mwandishi and what is possibly one of the greatest album titles ever, You’re Under Arrest You Have The Right To Make One Phone Call, or Remain Silent So You Better Shut Up.
Truth be told, I think Cheadle is quite underrated; between Hotel Rwanda, Traitor and his spots in the various Oceans films, he’s a consummate performer, and well suited to playing Miles.
Vinyl Remix: Grace Jones
Posted by zeruch in Aesthetics, Pop Culture, Sounds, Visual Arts on April 30, 2010
I haven’t put one of these out in a while. The vinyl remix series lives on, this time with one I started working on in 2004-5, based off of the sleeve to the 12″ release of Slave to the Rhythm from the incomparable Grace Jones.
I sincerely love her late period music (her first few albums were pretty much pedestrian disco), which combined a keen pop sense with a weird mix of dub, jazz and avant-garde bits thrown in. While Grace gained celebrity for her completely larger than life appearance and brash behavior, her music really has become sublime with age. She collaborated with everyone from Brian Eno and Sly & Robbie to Tricky, Wally Badarou and Wendy & Lisa.
I quite like her voice in both its modes: stentorian talk-singing, and torchy chanteuse.
This has rice paper, acrylic ink, acrylic paint, halftone, alcohol-based markers, pentel brush pens, and God knows what else, processed via Photoshop and Inkscape.
VoTD: Devo studio
Posted by zeruch in Aesthetics, Pop Culture, Sounds, Visual Arts on April 24, 2010
Devo probably conjures up very specific memories for people of a certain age. Much of their artistry was in their ability to chokeslam popular consumer culture with tongue rigidly planted in cheek.
The video is also pretty good for people who are pure outboard gear heads.
Mingus
Posted by zeruch in Aesthetics, Pop Culture, Visual Arts on April 22, 2010
On this day, in 1922, Charlie Mingus was born. A firebrand both personally and musically, he inspired everyone from Dizzy Gillespie and Henry Rollins, to Joni Mitchell, Q-Tip and Derek Sherinian.
The above was done in pencil, acrylic ink, acrylic paint, gouache, pigma microns, triplus pens + digital. An alternative version is here, and a different Mingus image I did is here.
VoTD: I Blame Coco – Caesar
Posted by zeruch in Aesthetics, Sounds, Visual Arts on April 14, 2010
So Sting and Trudie Styler have scads of children, of which some have started music careers of their own; initially his oldest son founded Fiction Plane, and now Coco Sumner has I Blame Coco.
This is pretty much equal parts current en vogue hipsterism, yet oddly one feels like there is a certain genuine quality that goes just beyond the pedigree. Her voice actually has moments that sound like her father in the inflection. Frankly, at this point Coco is 10000 times edgier than her father, who -when not in the company of his former Police mates- is a fully realized dullard.
VoTD: Cath Coffee – Say What You Say
Posted by zeruch in Aesthetics, Sounds on April 7, 2010
Cath Coffee first graced my ears when she handled the chorus vocals on Elevate my Mind by the Stereo MC’s (of which she has been a long time member), but I have also enjoyed her collaborations with Terradeva, Tricky and especially her solo work (of which there is sadly little).
This is the only video I could find casually; a mix of skittering drum beats, floating synth and a bubbling bassline to graft around her vocal lines, its a pretty good cut. If you can find the single releases for Tell Me or her insanely original interpretation of Strange Fruit (made famous by Billie Holliday), pick them up.
There is nothing remarkable about the video. I simply was really wanting to plug how much I enjoy her output.
Terence Blanchard Quintet @ Stanford
Posted by zeruch in Aesthetics, Out and About, Pop Culture, Sounds on March 12, 2010
Drawn freehand in pitch darkness during the show; hence the likeness (or lack thereof)
Went and saw Terence Blanchard’s Quintet, along with a 40 piece orchestra, to perform his latest work: A Tale of God’s Will: A Requiem for Katrina, itself an extension of his soundtrack work for Spike Lee’s When the Levees Broke documentary.
Blanchard has evolved considerably since his Wynton-esque early days, and much to his credit has leapfrogged over that shamble to play truly emotive post-”Young Lion” straightahead with a genuine quality to it that is more than just playing to convention.
Requiem is a trenchant but nuanced work that takes one through an emotional spectrum of surviving through and past Hurricane Katrina. Blanchard -a New Orleans native- does not sugarcoat or overly sentimentalize the music, but he doesn’t just heave guilt or pontificate either.
It all centers on the experience itself; the shock, the rage, the sadness of loss and even the joy (of finding loved ones still alive, of coming back home to start again, of the simple act of not succumbing). The sense of hope that pervades even in the musics darkest sounds is something a less self-aware and mature composer or player could never pull off.
Of note, his band, especially drummer Kendrick Scott, is really a well oiled machine that grooves. Terence himself can really push some serious air on his trumpet. Of note, he is the only other person besides avant-garde muso Jon Hassell to use a harmonizing effect on his horn that gives it a rounded, lush, spacey tone. But where Hassell uses it to create spectral washes and hallucinatory atmospherics, Blanchard goes for floating clusters of sustained, cathartic release.
VoTD: The Cult – Love Removal Machine
Posted by zeruch in Aesthetics, Pop Culture, Sounds on March 4, 2010
In the heady days of early MTV, The Cult was one of those bands that appeared theatrically silly, but whose riffs and melodies were compellingly catchy. A weird new wave mix-up of the Doors and Led Zeppelin crossbred with a post-punk mentality, I still think Love Removal Machine was the apex of their catalog, but by no means the only good part of it.
VoTD: Pomplamoose covers EWF’s “September”
Posted by zeruch in Aesthetics, Pop Culture, Sounds, Visual Arts on February 9, 2010
I had been hearing tracks from this outfit on college radio for a while, but never knew who they were; ends up they are local.
Ben Allison – Buzz
Posted by zeruch in Aesthetics, Observations, Sounds, Visual Arts on February 4, 2010
Because I just finished a rather out of the blue freelance gig doing a quick turnaround interview transcription for a great writer (and musician) at Bass Player magazine, I think it is going to be Bass Week here.
But I am on an acoustic bass kick these days, so…
The first time I heard Ben Allison was from a copy of his solo album Riding the Nuclear Tiger (it was a promo copy in a cutout bin at Streetlight Records and just seemed so removed from the rest of the jazz section…I don’t think I had even heard of the Palmetto Records label until that album). It rocked my face from ear to ear.
I spent something like $2.95 on it. It was worth full retail, and I have been a devotee of Ben Allison ever since.
Buzz came out in 2004, but I didn’t pick it up until last year. Yeah, I can be a bit behind the curve at times. What can I say, there’s a lot of great stuff out there, and sometimes you lose track of things.
The title track is probably the one that has the most memorable melody line, and it just sticks with you – offering itself as this kind of mirth-filled , mid tempo jaunt. Green Al kind of shifts around in an almost jam band vibe, but with more suggestiveness and finesse than most jam bands could aspire to. The use of flutes on Mauritania gives its seven minutes a breeziness and self-assurance that straddles 60s Blue Note and 90s Groove Collective in all the best ways.
Allison likes to stay rooted in the jazz idiom, but will throw curve ball inflections of hip-hop and funk, gutbucket blues and squeed-out avant-garde digressions, but it stays pretty coherent — like he’s just playing with your head a little…keeping things just off kilter enough to make sure you are paying attention.
A lot of the album isn’t upbeat as much as it seem kind of just…content. Not in a lazy way, but in a self-affirming kind of way…a “hey, if you don’t feel like conquering the world today, you don’t have to, but if you do, go right ahead…just don’t stress yourself out doing it” way. It’s relaxed, without being a sonic sedative. Well played without being a technical showcase. Ben has it down.
The image above was done by me sometime in 2006 and is based of a photograph from his own EPK. It is pencil, acrylic ink, acrylic paint, triplus pens, tombo markers, gouache, water soluable colored pencils on bristol + digital
J*Davey at Yoshi’s SF 2010-01-28
Posted by zeruch in Aesthetics, Out and About, Pop Culture, Sounds, Visual Arts on January 30, 2010
The Brooklyn Circus came to town, bringing only a central attraction: J*Davey. They landed and raised a ruckus for the normally not so unbound party spot that is Yoshi’s SF. The last shows we saw at that venue were Roy Haynes and John Zorn’s Electric Masada, so this was indeed a notable departure.
The show began just before 11PM and carried on for 90 minutes, starting with a better-than-the-original rendition of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit, taken from its Pixies inspired grunge dynamic to a kind of bump and grind electro-funk dirge. Almost melancholic and detached, yet seething.
From there, or supercharged duo covered a pretty broad swath of material from their earlier output like The Beauty in Distortion/Land of the Lost, some new cuts from their forthcoming major label LP New Designer Drug and a scorching rendition of Get Together from their just released (and free to download) 5 track EP, Boudoir Synema: The Great Mistapes.
The only tracks I would have liked to have heard and didn’t was Mr. Mister and their cover of Zappa’s Dirty Love.
K & I sat front row and almost center and were treated to a full frontal attack by frontwoman Jack Davey (real name Briana Cartwright), whose retro-futuristic sleazy punk-funk divadom recalls aspects of Jody Watley, Dale Bozzio and Sheila E (and by proxy Gwyn Stefani and even Toni Halliday).
The pair together seem like characters created by Charles Bukowski or Warren Ellis, and given a record contract and a license to make mayhem on stage…which in this case they did at regular intervals:
- Shifting between slinky poses and caroming into mic stands in an almost drunken punk rock fashion, Jack Davey could be called an elegant mess.
- Jack Davey singing a song while perched on top of the table next to ours and drawing attendees into orbit around her, trying to vie for her attention.
- Allowing a few dozen members of the audience to bum rush the stage and dance shamelessly like everyone is watching and none of it matters.
A highlight was the campy torch-song approach that had Jack Davey writhing on the stage next to Brook L’Deau playing acoustic piano. I took enough reference shots that an illustration of some kind will get out for public consumption soon enough. BTW Brook, I dug the WWI era airmans cap and the Municipal Waste t-shirt; that’s some style right there.
Now beyond all the antics and performance, the most important part of all this is that they make some of the best new pop music out there. You can hear all of it being condensed into an tweaked out, kinetic planet of the inherently eclectic, but still cohesive enough with solid beats and melodies to have not lack any commercial accessibility. The songs are fun, and impeccably produced. L’Deau uses a battery of sounds that really does evoke both Larry Blackmon and Brian Eno, yet sounding totally new and non-derivative too. Davey can sing well, but opts for creating a full overall presence rather than beating an audience into submission with belting laryngular seizures.
Go get the EP, then go buy the previous releases, then go buy the new album when it comes out, then go see them live. Actually, you do not have to do the above in that order, just do them all.
There is already posted footage, although the quality is a bit lacking.
On a side note, we ate at Yoshi’s restaurant, and they have a desert with creme fraiche ice cream covered in toasted rice. That is some next level addictive a la mode-ness.
MyKeneally…an Odyessy into Beer For Dolphins, Zappa, Atari, Snoop Dogg, a really good Pulled Pork BBQ sandwich, and other things essential to a healthy outlook on life.
Posted by zeruch in Aesthetics, Out and About, Pop Culture, Sounds on January 26, 2010
A few months ago my former musical co-conspirator Greg Kucharo decided to embark on a small venture: book a MyKeneally date at a private venue in Orland (or thereabouts), a diminutive spot on the fringes of HW 32 with a total population barely over 6000, known as Elwood’s Cyberpunk Saloon.
Greg got me into Keneally over a decade ago; I generally enjoy anyone that can musically context switch from playing something like Zappa and the play in a mock-rock outfit like Dethklok. Keneally was not a tough sell to my ears, and he is great on stage. The opportunity to give some small contribution to putting something like this up was also not a tough sell to me.
To quote one description of Keneally:
Long acclaimed as one of the world’s most creative and intense guitar players, Mike Keneally’s talents as a vocalist, songwriter, arranger, producer and multi-instrumentalist …and has built a body of work of remarkable inventiveness and originality.
He has recorded with/performed or produced with Zappa, Kevin Gilbert, Lyle Workman, Kaki King, Solomon Burke, Henry Kaiser…and on and on. Bryan Beller ain’t no slouch either, having been a long established bassist with Keneally as well as his own solo career and session work, and as a columnist in Bass Player.
Greg and his family, myself, Keneally and Beller all stayed in the same hotel in nearby Chico, and Saturday afternoon was spent having lunch at the restaurant attached to the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company at the edge of town. After that, a quick rest stop back at the hotel, then off to Elwood’s to set up.
Elwood’s as a structure is unassuming on the outside and isolated on a sideroad of a sideroad, but the inside it is a whole different animal. It has ’stadium sofa seating’, whole Atari consoles plugged into various TV screens, arcade video games (notably Ms. Pac Man and Zaxxon), a full bar and DJ booth, small library stack, and really resembles something that might be a mix of Bladerunner and Munden’s Bar from Grimjack.
The house next to Elwood’s (the home of the actual owner) provided a supply of home-cooked goodness, with a particularly tasty pulled pork sandwich option.
It was perfect for the event.
Pre-show activity included hauling the gear in, setting up, drinking coffee, and watching Greg get his ego handed to him by Beller playing Rockem Sockem Robots.
The show itself started with keneally on acoustic, ran into a rocked out electric middle section, the glided back into a more chilled mode towards the end. There was no real set list per se; the duo ran through a swath of Keneally material (from the early Beer For Dolphins era on through the most recent bit of awesome, Scambot 1), there was some Zappa (Inca Roads is extremely non-trivial, and was various shades of awesome here), a solo Beller piece that evoked Jaco in ways I found profoundly engaging, and some hilarious cover diversions:
- An impromptu riffing of ELPs Tarkus
- Most of Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song, with just a dash of cheekiness
- Upon the mention that Snoop Dogg was playing at the Senator Theater in Chico, Keneally and Beller broke into the Peanuts theme (get it, Snoopy…never mind), with Keneally on guitar and keyboards at the same time. I have video footage, and if they let me post it here, I will later.
- A snippet of XTC’s Mayor of Simpleton (everyone agreed that XTC is quite full of win).
- Beller led a brief sojourn into Rush’s Xanadu, and then a shot of Tom Sawyer.
The casualness of everything made the gig so much more enjoyable. Everything was relaxed, but the performance was beyond solid, as clearly everyone onstage and off was having fun.
After the show, Mike actually joined some of the audience in a brief round of Rock Band. Showing impeccable taste, they opted for Talking Head’s Girlfriend is Better.
For a while after we kept playing records, and I hovered in the DJ both with a few others picking options from the vinyl stacks, staying pretty much in a strictly 80s mood.
The next day we all had breakfast in the hotel restaurant before I fell into a dull haze on the drive back to Berkeley, and then got back into the zeruch-mobile to home base.
Much thanks to Greg for pushing for this and finding the venue, and to Mike and Bryan for being gracious people and performers. It was truly remarkable.
Drumming and more drumming
Posted by zeruch in Aesthetics, Out and About, Pop Culture, Sounds on January 15, 2010
Last weekend was a big percussive fest of sorts.
Friday night, K & I cruised to Yoshi’s (Oakland) to see a supergroup of sorts: Allan Holdsworth, Terry Bozzio, Tony Levin and Pat Mastellotto. A night of total improvisation, the show was uneven, which surprised me.
Also what surprised me, was they they could fit three other people on the Yoshi’ stage after putting Bozzio’s kit on it:
I am not sure if I simply expected more fiery, cohesive performances, or if I simply was still too fried from work to fully engage, but the sparks flew in small bursts in between some long stretches of out in the wilderness meandering. And while at any one time there was always someone doing something amazing, I really expected more overall chemistry, especially when you consider they all have interlinked histories:
- Bozzio played with Holdsworth briefly in UK during the early 80s
- Levin and Mastellotto have spent time together in numerous lineups since their initial union in the mid 90s King Crimson
- Levin and Bozzio have played with Steve Stevens as a trio for two different albums
- Mastellotto and Bozzio toured and recorded drum duet material in the last few years
The times when things did come together really well was when either drummer took a solid anchoring role (either Bozzio with his ornate ostinatos or Mastellotto with his battery of electro-acoustic accoutrements) and allowed everyone else space to stretch with a good foundation to stand on.
I did pick up the album Tunisia by Mastellotto and Patricia Kurstin, who is known for her theremin playing…you heard that right, theremin. And what they do as a duo is some of the best arty instrumental post-rock you have likely never heard.
Then, on Saturday, we had something I had been looking forward to for months; the US debut of Mallet Quartet by Steve Reich, as performed by So Percussion.
This was extra special because Reich himself appeared and performed with So for his work Clapping Music, which was the opening piece. Two of my favorite Reich works were covered, Nagoya Marimbas and the first movement of Drumming. After watching them perform it, I have a new appreciation for Music for Pieces of Wood, but still can’t get into Four Organs. The centerpiece, Mallet Quartet, really was damn amazing.
I like the entire mallet-percussion family (Xylophones, Marimbas, Vibraphones, Mbilas, etc) but this was one of those compositions that just fascinates and pushes the boundaries of arrangement.
We stuck around for the interview session with the group and found four guys without any real ego or parochialism, just a lot of enthusiasm for the music.
Rupert Murdoch Fouls Up Again
Posted by zeruch in Pop Culture, Technology on January 3, 2010
A Rupert Murdoch online property is almost guaranteed -by default- to get things wrong. The MySpace takeover of Imeem is no exception. Years ago, a colleague a got me early access to the then standalone desktop app that was Imeem. While it has made a rather wild evoltion over time, its eventual purchase by MySpace for what I thought was a woefully small amount was a sign of impending irrelevance.
My concerns materialized almost immediately after cementing of the deal; MySpace proceeded almost with all due haste replacing Imeem features with ads.
Wesafari EP out + VoTD
Posted by zeruch in Aesthetics, Pop Culture, Sounds on January 2, 2010
Wesafari was one of my favorite random finds of the last decade (a promo copy in the bargain bin at Streetlight Records sat in a stack for ages, then after actually sitting with it for one pass, I was sold).
Their debut, Alaska, was chock full of good sounds; art-rock, atmospheric post-rock, indie-tronica, and other semi-useless compound descriptors of a sound that is really just very good music that offers rewards with recurring listens.
They released a freely downloadable EP called Moss Green in 2007, and while I don’t find it as strong as Alaska, it is well worth a try.
They also appear to have one very low-budget video on the inter-t00bs:
RIAA partners with someone as Inept as Themselves
Posted by zeruch in Law, Pop Culture, Technology on January 2, 2010
Let’s take a look at some of the things DtecNet claims and why these claims are bogus, inaccurate or just plain stupid.
Not that Big Content has ever had much of a clue; they are still deciding whether bull-whipping their customers or thinking of a technological workaround (DRM) is the best method to pursue. Acknowledgment that their business model(s) are not entitled to protection as an absolute would be a start.
Let’s face it, this is the same industry that would love to get rid of fair-use and the law of first sale, so this would appear to be just another indicator of a strain of mass derangement that will have to go through several more stages of decline before finally petering out.
VoTD: Idle Warship – Black Snake Moan
Posted by zeruch in Aesthetics, Pop Culture, Sounds, Visual Arts on December 22, 2009
Idle Warship is a collaboration between vocalist/emcee triple threats Res, Talib Kweli and Graph Nobel. In truth, all three are singularly talented, and together they don’t seem to ego clash but form a pretty tight unit. Res has connections to Sant White (now known as Santogold) and Talib with his long running partnership with Mos Def is well known. Nobel has links to Okay Player and the Neptunes, and all three together form a mix of the edgy and the accessible.
Black Snake Moan is probably the most directly commercial outing, but all of their output (including their freely available mixtape with Mick Boogie) is solid ear buffet.
Mashi & Rob van de Wouw’s “Tunnelvision” Preview
Posted by zeruch in Aesthetics, Sounds on December 13, 2009
I slept on listening to this when Beyondjazz announced it back in June but better late than never.
Dutch trumpeter Rob van de Wouw’s new album TUNNELVISION, produced and co-written by MdCL in Amsterdam and released October 2009, has a 5 track sampler EP available on Soundcloud.
Tunnelvision Album preview by mashibeats
If you like Agent K style broken beat funk, Fela Kuti paced High Life rhythms, and a trumpet player doing his best Miles Davis electric period inspired phrases, this is for you.
VoTD: N.A.S.A. w/ Tom Waits & Kool Keith – Spacious Thoughts
Posted by zeruch in Aesthetics, Out and About, Pop Culture, Sounds, Visual Arts on December 12, 2009
Yes, the Charles Bukowski of popular music and the verbal LSD trip that is Kool Keith are working together with N.A.S.A
No, not N.A.S.A. the space agency. The details are at Boing Boing, but if you just want to see the trippy video (one of the best of the 00’s) for Spacious Thoughts, its right here.
Elsiane – Hybrid
Posted by zeruch in Aesthetics, Pop Culture, Sounds on December 6, 2009
If you like Portishead, Massive Attack, Cocteau Twins, Imogen Heap and Coldfinger, you will very likely enjoy Canadian duo Elsiane. I picked up their debut (and so far as I know only release) last year when a promo copy showed up in the bargain bins of a local Streetlight Records.
The musical backdrops are very much of the smoky Portishead/Massive Attack circa Mezzanine variety, with strings and brass in a bed of synth washes, clean percussion lines and little electro-glitch flourishes.
The vocals are a whole other animal altogether; Elsieanne Caplette sounds like a very warped offshoot of Liz Frazier and Karin Dreijer (some of this album really does remind me of Teardrop and What Else is There?) but very much doing her own distinct thing. Her voice does not have a varied delivery within its own little microverse, but what it does do is easily distinguished from just about anything else, and that -so far- has managed to stay quite listenable.
Some of it I would guess comes from having an upbringing with a Peruvian mother and Quebecois father, and ending up singing exclusively in English, as similar quirks seem to show up in the vocals of similar vocalists like Bjork, Kate Havenik (Royksopp) and Margarida Pinto (Coldfinger).
Here is the video for Vaporous, with a cool intro sequence.
VoTD: World Party – Private Revolution
Posted by zeruch in Aesthetics, Sounds, Visual Arts on December 4, 2009
Karl Wallinger was a member of the Waterboys (remember The Whole of the Moon?) for a few years before going off on his own with World Party, which in the 80s scored a trio of minor hits in the US, and several big ones across the Atlantic. His tweaked out take of oddly funky, new wave on a weird psychedelic retro-laced indie-pop trip was pretty fresh back in 1985, and actually ages pretty well in this day of “quirky” indie-pop that seems to have many of the same elements except often without the posturing ironic detachment and joyless whining.
Wallinger has also worked with Peter Gabriel, Toni Childs and Sinead O’Connor (he helped produce her debut album, and in turn she appears on WPs first album and in this video dancing like a cross between a robotic karate instructor and a rheumatic breakdancer).
This video is fun to watch as videos of that period go.
VoTD: A Certain Ratio (two for Tuesday)
Posted by zeruch in Aesthetics, Sounds on December 2, 2009
A Certain Ratio was one of those post-punk bands whose general visibility in the US (unlike other Factory Records bands like OMD, Happy Mondays and Joy Division) was limited, but I liked their punchier, spastic punk-funk sound immediately. They peaked between 1980-1986 and their sound got progressively funkier as the New Wave period peaked.
If you are a fan of bands like LCD Soundsystem, Hot Chip, The Rapture, or Out Hud, elements of the ACR sound is in all of them.
Shack Up was one of their first singles, and the cut I first became familiar with (which made me think of a more raw Rip Rig & Panic)
Later, we have Wild Party
They recently reformed and started touring the UK.
Footage from recent IG Culture/Build an Ark show
Posted by zeruch in Uncategorized on December 1, 2009
So, Beyondjazz has the full lowdown, but a recent gig (and a little interview footage) by IG Culture’s Zen Badism Workshop/Build and Ark was recently captured on video. A full blowout of soul, jazz, hip-hop , psychedelica and broken beat, this is the kind of stuff I wish would have traction in clubs out here:
IG Culture & Build An Ark from Beyondjazz on Vimeo.