Outsight
Outsight 08-01: Blues, World, Punk & other shades of Rock
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Outsight brings to light non-mainstream music, film, books, art, ideas and opinions.
Published, somewhere, monthly since July 1991. Feel free to re-print this article.
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ROCKIN' BLUES
The many facets of blues are represented across several new releases. It is said, "the blues had a baby and that baby is rock-n-roll." Early power blues artists working with volume and distortion added distinctive voices to '60's rock that still reverberate today. Jimi Hendrix is, of course, the premier example. Left-handed African-American electric guitarist Eric Gales continues that tradition today. His rock guitar album That's What I Am (MCA) showcases an easy mastery of the Fender with Hendrix overtones (co-produced by Janie Hendrix and including a cover of "Foxey Lady") complemented with a full, 90's rock sound ala Living Colour. You can hear "Foxey Lady" as performed live by the originator himself on Disc 2 of the new MCA collection Voodoo Child: The Jimi Hendrix Collection. Authorized by the Hendrix family, this 2-CD set includes 30 songs on one live disc and one studio disc.
An exceptional electric blues guitarist on the scene now is Walter Trout. Go The Distance (Ruf Records, http://www.rufrecords.de/) features Trout's crisp leads and the sax-fueled sound of his backing band, The Radicals. This is a tough, flashy urban blues drawing on rock and blues styles formed in Memphis, Chicago and Detroit. Guitarist James Hunter resurrects the classic sounds of rhythm and blues and soul on Kick it Around (Ruf Records). Hunter's Sam Cooke-singing style draws the listener into such original songs as "Mollena" to the point where lyrics and melody are recalled later. It is this staying power and classic feel marked in rhythm by double-bass and in melody by baritone sax that caught the attention of Van Morrison, resulting in a long Hunter-Morrison working relationship.
Another singer from the Van Morrison fold is Lady Bianca. But long before her association with Van, she developed her chops in gospel choirs, eventually moving into popular music through tenures with Zappa and Sly & The Family Stone. Her gospel and R&B roots show clear on the vibrant, dynamic album Rollin' (Rooster Blues; http://www.roosterblues.com/) which exhibits her excellent voice that spans blues and rock genres and is now honed to perfection with classical opera training. Also on the Rooster Blues label is Shoot that Thang, the new album from funky guitar maestro Super Chikan. Fun funk frolics mixed with heartfelt ballads and tough blues rockers make Shoot that Thang another varied and entertaining album from the Mississippi Delta native with an imaginative way of delivering modern blues.
Arhoolie Records (http://www.arhoolie.com/) remind us of where all this started with the release of Blues Professor from J.C. Burris, nephew to Sonny Terry. This is basically a reissue of One of these Mornings with bonus material. Like John Lee Hooker, this folk-blues artist accompanies himself with foot-stomping rhythms. He augments this percussion with hand-clapping, African rhythm bones and a wooden doll. Clearly influenced by Terry, this country bluesman mixes storytelling with singing and his harmonica playing.
WORLD MUSIC
The entire globe's cultures are now available to be discovered and explored via CD. While this fact hints at worlds of untold musical joys to be found, where is one to start? Two companies that produce excellent compilations opening the doors to a country's music are Rough Guide and Putumayo Records. Most recently, Putumayo treats us to cumbia, vallenato, porro and salsa styles of Colombia. Putumayo itself is named after a beautiful Colombian valley and here returns to its own roots in providing us with an excellent sampler of joyous music that takes us instantly outside into celebratory tropical scenes. Similar transportation occurs with The Rough Guide to the Music of Jamaica (Rough Guide). Jamaica, for such a small country, has undoubtedly had the greatest per capita influence on popular music worldwide. This compendium showcases five decades of proto-ska, rock steady, the censuring mento, dancehall and the expected reggae sounds. These largely vintage tracks expose the varied and rich trove of genres to be found in the island's music. Across the Atlantic and into another hemisphere, Rough Guide finds more rich sounds in Scandinavia. During the '90's, the contemporary folk music of Nordic countries received unprecedented worldwide attention. Names familiar from the explosion and present on this CD include Garmarna, Väsen, Hedningara and more. To this familiar panoply, Rough Guide adds Finland's cross-genre accordionist Maria Kalaniemi, sextet Yggdrasil that converted from Balkan folk music into a unique Nordic blend, Norwegian guitarist Knut Reiersrud inspired by American folk and blues artists and more. As is standard with recent Rough Guide compilations, these are enhanced CDs that include bonus material on travel and the music of the respective country for PC or MAC. (Also, check out Kalaniemi in a duet with Swedish fiddler Sven Ahlbäck on the Northside release Airbow.)
Refined Records (http://www.refinedrecords.com/), a label dedicated to furthering the art of acoustic instrumentation, finds in Norway not just more folk music. Instead, Refined discovers an oasis of gypsy jazz through the Hot Club de Norvège. Special guests on Parisian Honeymoon Suite include child guitar prodigy Jimmy Rosenberg (now grown), Django's son Babik Reinhardt and European guitar masters Angelo Debarre and Romane. Thus, from Norway in the year 2001 comes a window upon '30's Paris. These gentle sounds belie a complex interweaving of seductive melodies by the European string jazz virtuoso populating this sublime example of masterful nostalgia. More Scandinavian acoustic music can be heard from Karen Tweed & Timo Alakotila on May Monday (Northside; <a href="http://www.noside.com/">http://www.noside.com/). Karen performs on piano and accordion while Timo (JPP, Troka) performs on acoustic piano. The music the duo performs with Finnish folk musicians is largely English tunes with Swedish folk music thrown in. There is an amazing similarity between the music of Scandinavia and the British Isle and pooling the talents and musicianship of these lands is a natural mate on May Monday.
Argentinean accordion master and composer Astor Piazzolla advanced the definition of tango to such a degree as to create a new genre, tango nuevo. Latvian violinist Gidon Kremer concludes a trilogy of albums exploring Piazzolla's music with Tracing Astor (Nonesuch). The translation of Piazzolla into chamber music is effective and magical. The arrangements and new compositions are from Leonid Desyatnikov. This St Petersburg composer similarly contributed to Kremer's previous Piazzolla homage and emerged from the city's post-Soviet cultural stagnation with academic and avant-garde credentials. He is in constant demand for film scores and popular works. Another Latin fusion is the blend of Latin jazz created by New York's top-notch Rumba Club. On Radio Mundo (Palmetto) the group pays homage to such music legends as Joni Mitchell, salsa patriarch Eddie Palmieri and John Coltrane in a 'cool' sound of mellow horn-jazz with rich Cuban rhythms.
Since the tours of Ravi Shankar on to the globetrotting of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and the techno fusions out of London, East Indian music has proved especially suited to consumption by Western Ears. On Prophecy (Sunburst Fifty Music, http://www.pce.net/subspace), Ravi Padmanabha mixes bansuri (flute) with drum programming and acoustic Indian percussion for Asian Indian electro-psychedelic. Percussion is the primary focus of this multi-instrumentalist and this shows in the intricate, multi-layered rhythms he performs and programs on this disc. At one time the empires of Greece and India bordered. Still, the underlying folk music of these two cultures has similarities. On her electro-Greek album Echotropia (Tinder; http://www.tinderrecords.com/), Kristi Stassinopoulou includes the ancient Persian song "Majnoun." The background drone of tone coloring works like Indian music to bring serenity to the music and give it an affinity to modern electronica production techniques. A rich mosaic of sounds, this album is also relaxing and transporting.
UK SUBS ON CD
For their purism and diehard longevity the UK Subs, perhaps more than any other group to rise out of the London '77 punk scene, embodied and came to personify the "punk's not dead" spirit. In analysis, the UK Subs draw from hard rock roots in the same way the MC5 and other American punk rock bands do. It is perhaps this fact of ready familiarity that helped to give their sound and ultimately the very group greater life than, say, The Exploited. Whatever the reasons, the UK Subs enter the twenty-first century with a discography as long as rhythm guitarist Nicky Garratt's arm. The material is reissued and repackaged on several new releases and I'll cover some of them here. Cleopatra Records teams up with Cherry Red Records (http://www.cherryred.co.uk/) to include Time Warp, a UK Subs greatest hits package on CD as part of "The Punk Collectors Series." This 16-track compendium includes the UK hit singles "Stranglehold", "Tomorrow's Girls", "Warhead" and "Party In Paris". Excellently mastered, the robust sound of the Subs still comes across as vital, hardened punk rock. Captain Oi makes available Japan Today, originally released in 1988, with five bonus tracks. This, their tenth studio album includes guitarist Knox, ex- of The Vibrators. Perhaps their most restrained album, this is so much hard rock as to be hardly punk any more. The faux-live album proves UK Subs to be largely empty minus their over-the-top bombast. Moments like the ill-thought rap nods in "Punk Rap" and "Streets on Fire" prove that pop trends and punk bands don't mix. Even with the significant bonus material, the Japan Today reissue is only a must-have for serious UK Subs completists. Flood of Lies, also reissued on Captain Oi, portrays a UK Subs revitalized with a new lineup. Vocalist Charlie Harper was used to membership turbulence and after trying out his new group on the Shake Up the City EP (Abstract) he got his hot new group on wax with this LP. Aggressive and even Gothic, this album includes tempo technician Steve J. Jones (Chelsea) on drums, the return of early UK Subs bassist Steve Slack and the significant tonal influence of new guitarist Captain Scarlet. A classic and effective chapter in the UK Subs story, this is a must-buy for anyone interested in these protean punks.
FAITH AND THE MUSE
Faith and The Muse (http://www.mercyground.com/) is the darkly artistic duo of William Faith (Christian Death, Mephisto Waltz, Sex Gang Children) and versatile vocalist Monica Richards (Strange Boutique). The two blend into their albums a mix of '80's British alternative, eerie contemporary darkwave, ambient and neo-period/post Classical. They rarely blend too much into a single song, though. Faith and the Muse approach each song for subtle and consistent effect. The result is varied albums, full of texture and all solid tracks. Having recently signed with Metropolis Records (<a href="http://www.metropolis-records.com/">http://www.metropolis-records.com/), Faith and the Muse are seeing their three records released so far re-released. These are classics in the post-Gothic underground. Their debut album was Elyria (1994); a college radio success with its dance floor hit "Sparks." Annwyn, Beneath the Waves came out in 1996. Celtic myths are inspiration for this album, the most gothic of the three. This concept album served to fully fit the group's theatrical live performances. Their third album, 1999's Evidence of Heaven has the greatest percentage of period Classical music content. Elizabethan romance makes this the richest of the Faith and the Muse albums.
DVD ****************************************
Johnny Thunders and The Heartbreakers
Dead or Alive
Music Video Distributors/Cherry Red Films
http://www.musicvideodistributors.com/
http://www.cherryred.co.uk/
The formerly rare concert film Dead or Alive makes up the heart of this DVD. Built around a Heartbreakers (Thunders with Jerry Nolan, Walter Lure and Billy Rath) appearance March 1984 at The Lyceum in London, this film shows a renewed Thunders disavowing drugs and providing a memorable and sober performance that includes "Personality Crisis," "One Track Mind," "Too Much Junkie Business" and more. The concert is interspersed with clips of the Heartbreakers' 1976 UK "Anarchy" tour taken from Don Letts' Punk Rock Movie. During the concert film Thunders seams to be trying to break out of the New York rock legend mold with acoustic episodes and waxing awkwardly philosophical on racism. However, this all seems to be unsuccessful with the audience. Additional material on the DVD includes a stiff 1984 interview where Thunders dodges drug-related questions and admits to being out of touch with current music while laying low in Paris. (3.5)
REVIEWS ************************************
Pointless Orchestra
Throwing Silverware Down Stairs
Without Fear/Pointless Orchestra, 548 Park Ave., Kent, OH 44240
http://uu.cx/pointless
http://www.purpleman.com/withoutfear
point@neobright.net
Pointless Orchestra is shrinking world free jazz, an extemporaneous art music gamelan, and avant-garde, pan-cultural and experimental in nature. On the largely instrumental Throwing Silverware Down Stairs the group continues to focus on acoustic instrumentation in working with exotic tunings and instruments, eschewing the electronics of their early works. The extended play chamber pieces here hint at their current endeavor of reincarnating Asian court musics. As a point of expressing the full gamut of this varied release, one can point to the "dadaistic radio assault," a free exchange over the airwaves that can be likened to Negativland and Subgenius broadcast interactions. Throwing Silverware Down Stairs, like the bright metaphor that is this title, is a vivid and fully textured aural experience. (4)
Trance to the Sun
Atrocious Virgin
Precipice Recordings, POB 190552, Miami Beach, FL 33119
precipice@mindspring.com
http://www.trancetothesun.com/
Trance to the Sun continue where the Syd Barrett Pink Floyd left off. A dense, swirl of guitar dissonance, synth and drum machine lying under the haunting voice of Ingrid Blue; the success of this potential clamor is the production of founder, recorder and mixer Ashkelon Sain. The ears of none other than Robert Rich provided the final touch in the mastering process. As such, this is an audiophile psychedelic comeback experience worthy of comparison to Pink Floyd's Mettle. (4.5)
Peter Warren & Matt Samolis
Bowed Metal Music
Innova
http://www.innovarecordings.com/
innova@composersforum.org
Bowed Metal Music is a continuous, hour-long odyssey into the otherworldly dimensions populated by curved sheet metal, cymbals and vibrating rods. Warren & Samolis, our guides to these strange lands, pilot modified steel cellos through the enharmonic plains, forests of resonance and sympathetic song of ferrous unison. Years of labor by both musicians in the areas of improvisation and conjuring delicate acoustics from these sound sources culminated in this recording. This alien, acoustic experience confronts the listener with iridescent overtones that shimmer reflections of the percussion suns set in orbit by these sonic wizards. A complex, but serene experience, Bowed Metal Music is singular and exceptional. (4)
Nova
Utopica Musa
Cold Meat Industry
http://www.coldmeat.se/
A romanticism for long-lost, archaic medieval plainsong fuses with breakbeats and eerie keyboard drones on Utopica Musa. The duo of Romeo Cosser and vocalist Chiara Ferrari goes into the well-trodden darkwave gloom seeking to create something 'new.' Without wholly giving into the seduction of period music, their efforts to work in effectively contemporary beat music as a backdrop to the Stygian siren is a refreshing approach in this 'nova gothica.' (3)
Desiderii Marginis
Deadbeat
Cold Meat Industry
http://www.coldmeat.se/
http://www.swipnet.se/desiderii
The hum of power lines in the mist and explosions on the far side of a distant rage is the rich canvas for composer Johan Levin, a.k.a Desiderii Marginis. This Swedish darkwave creator finds place for faintly medieval tones that suggest a wintry overview of solemn, pagan procession through remote, ancient ruins. There is a stately majesty to these compositions, whose conch-like synth melodies and tribal percussion work like deliberate, diabolical ceremony. (3.5)
Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Co.
Like a Duck to Water
Cuneiform Records, POB 8427, Silver Spring, MD 20907-8427
http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/
The works of Robert Ashley fueled the set lists of early Mother Mallard performances in 1969. The group continued working with music composed for synthesizers, including their own compositions. This disc is entirely the work of members David Borden and Steve Drews. Founder Borden was involved with Moog synthesizers early on, and these still form a foundation to their hallmark sound. Their pieces tend to be gentle, swelling compositions that rise and fall like a great, aural tide. This reissue is of material originally recorded 1974-1976, marking the introduction of Judy Borsher on the electric piano (the only polyphonic keyboard in the arrangements) after the departure of Linda Fisher. This ambient experimentalism, including a piece based on ideas by John Cage, emerges from the early roots of American electronic head music. Their fascinating, organic minimalism is an important archive and effective music that combines the best of Terry Riley and early efforts from Phillip Glass and Tangerine Dream. (4.5)
Kampec Dolores
Sitting on the Buffalo
ReR/Cuneiform Records, POB 8427, Silver Spring, MD 20907-8427
http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/
Unexpected jazz-rock techniques marry to traditional folk on this energetic album from Carpathian group Kampec Dolores. Somewhat like an East European Pere Ubu, this group began in 1984 and toured with that group. Vocalist Gabi Kenderesi does not let the accidents of language intrude upon her bright, clarion style. Her own personal blend of languages real and imagined results in her Oriental wordless syllables. It is a fanciful mixture of Yiddish and Latin that gives the group a name that could mean, "The End of Pain." Hungarian by birth but Asian in imagination, Sitting on the Buffalo is a wondrous dance of sitar-like zithers and electronics, soprano sax and violin. (4.5)
Gary Myrick
Waltz of the Scarecrow King
Tangible Music
http://www.garymyrick.com/
http://www.tangible-music.com/
info@tangible-music.com
Gary Myrick is an austere and eloquent songwriter of eerie and forlorn vision. Myrick here takes us to the small town and late-night city loneliness introduced to us by Dennis Hopper and Tom Waits. Myrick has long been involved in the Texas pop and rock scene, but here abandons power blues grandstanding for a personal delivery of haunting tales. His songwriting gave us The Figures' "She Talks in Stereo" as heard in Valley Girl, as well as the chartbusting No Brakes album from John Waite and the distinctive blend of sounds in Havana 3 A.M. Now he takes us on a journey down long stretches of deserted highway to stop in on vignettes stark and sure. (3)
Various Artists
Deep River of Song: Alabama
Rounder Records
http://www.rounder.com/
info@ronder.com
Through the ghost-thin, antique, late '30's field recordings of John and Ruby Lomax come voices simply human in dignity and poignantly resplendent in unadorned talent. Sumter County provided the voices of Vera Ward, Dock Reed, Richard Amerson and more. These recordings are of primitive blues like "Worried Blues," lullabies like "Hush, Little Baby," bawdy "play-party" songs, ballads, rhythmic work songs, rural sacred music and knee-slapping shaggy dog stories like Amerson's superhuman accomplishments and boasts in "Steamboat Days." (4.5)
Various Artists
Arkadia Jazz Presents: The Stars of Jazz #1
Arkadia Records
http://www.arkadiarecords.com/
jazz@arkadiarecords.com
Spurred by Ken Burns extensive foray into the history and state of jazz, Arkadia provides a budget excursion to the same rich lands. This first volume of the four-CD series is one of two discs devoted to current masters and mistresses of the art. The extensive archives of the Arkadia and Postcard labels provide the material. With the exception of a Django Reinhardt track, these selections are all from the '90s; Billy Taylor, Benny Golson, T.K. Blue and more are included. These contemporary jazz figures are giants in their own right and purists keeping alive the classic tradition of instrumental cool jazz. (4)
Various Artists
Arkadia Jazz Presents: The Stars of Jazz #2
Arkadia Records
http://www.arkadiarecords.com/
jazz@arkadiarecords.com
Arkadia Jazz Presents: The Stars of Jazz #2 is a more swinging, upbeat collection than its sister recoding Arkadia Jazz Presents: The Stars of Jazz #1. The key figures here keeping instrumental jazz flame traditions include Billy Taylor, Benny Golson, Nat Adderley and more. Stand out tracks in this compendium of standouts are the Grammy nominees "My Favorite Things" (David Liebman) and "My Funny Valentine" (Randy Brecker). (4)
Various Artists
Arkadia Jazz Presents: The New Young Lions of Jazz
Arkadia Records
http://www.arkadiarecords.com/
jazz@arkadiarecords.com
On The New Young Lions of Jazz, noted Arkadia and Postcard bandleaders present songs as showcases for solo forays by a different featured performer on each track. Leading off the disc, James Carter works out elegantly on the tenor sax on "My Favorite Things," led by Benny Golson. On one of the few vocal selections in this four-CD series, Kurt Elling has fun with "What's Your Choice, Rolls Royce" while Joanne Brackeen leads. Another very excellent selection is the weeping elegance provided by Ravi Coltrane on tenor horn to "Over the Rainbow" under Brackeen's guidance. (4.5)
Various Artists
Arkadia Jazz Presents: Out and Out Jazz
Arkadia Records
http://www.arkadiarecords.com/
jazz@arkadiarecords.com
The "New Thing" really swings on this collection of the avant-garde artists of the Arkadia and Postcard labels. This is free jazz performed with grace and melody. The tempo is accelerated and the changes brisk, but never do these artists veer into the challenging arena of bristling, multi-note 'cosmic jazz.' Swift and stunning performances come from Paul Bley, David Liebman, Pat Metheny and more on this 11-track compendium. (4)
The Ruiners
Post-apocalipstick World
Poverty Records, POB 71873, Madison Heights, MI 48071
http://www.theruiners.com/
The Ruiners exhibit the loping rhythms and cartoon vocals heard on recordings from Alice Donut. Hard rock, earthy locker room humor and pedestrian party topics mark the dozen songs here. Calling themselves "trash-punk," these bawdy rockers are all about cheap thrills and amplification. In the Detroit area, they back up New Girl Order, a female wrestling organization for which they often go in drag. Drinking, puking and cheap jokes with brash guitar sounds are the simple and effective formula here. (3.5)
Cinecyde
Magnetic Attraction; Hypnotic Revulsion
Tremor Records, 403 Forest, Royal Oak, MI 48067
http://www.cinecyde.com/
Having begun by attacking radio with raw punk rock in 1977, Cinecyde now offers well-crafted, song-oriented power pop deserving of radio play. The group's out-of-the-garage pop punk is joyous and catchy and often cynical. Strong tracks include the lovelorn "Drive My Bug" and the indictment of conformity through fashion, "First it's A Beeper." (3)
Johnny A.
Sometime Tuesday Morning
Favored Nations Entertainment
http://www.favorednations.com/
Johnny A.'s skilled chops, unexpected covers and ear-catching original compositions make Sometime Tuesday Morning a superlative rock guitar album. His slinky midnight guitar reaches back to classic instrumental guitar bands like The Shadows and '70's power blues licks. Johnny A. carries this off with the skill of a six-string maestro that piloted Peter Wolf's solo comeback as musical director, co-producer and guitarist. After ably carrying out Wolf's vision of a guitarist, Johnny A. unleashes seven years of pent-up creativity on Sometime Tuesday Morning. The instrumental album is Johnny's opportunity to let his ability and fretwork take the place of a singer. Soulful instrumental ballads and catchy pop hook licks keep this album varied and moving. Among the cleverly covered songs are Jimmy Webb's maudlin "Wichita Lineman" and a Tex-Mex "Walk Don't Run" (The Ventures). (4.5)
Heidi Berry
Pomegranate: An Anthology
4AD
http://www.4ad.com/
The way the greater music industry and listening audience has unacceptably ignored Heidi Berry's talents, one would forgive her if she lacked in patience. However, an artistic patience comes out in the way she blissfully and beautifully stretches out every syllable in turning, shaping phrasing; perfect matches to the strings that often accompany her. Her lyric arises from folk into the pop vernacular with soulful expression. As an artist seeking the very aesthetic to make enduring vocal music she is quintessential. This compendium is an excellent overview of the bountiful fruits that is her discography. (5)
Slang
The Bellwether Project
Terminus Records
http://www.terminusrecords.com/
Slang, the work of Dave Schools and Layng Martine III, shows the same knack for effectively blending psychedelic lounge with electronica that make Tipsy so captivating. However, they go beyond that formula as on "Bell-o-Matic" where they blend breakbeats and '70's rock motifs. The exquisite interplay of bass and samples between Martine and Schools is a meeting of two worlds. Both are bass players, but Martine's genius lies in sonic collage, samples and beats. Schools' talent is in introducing smart roots rock licks into any musical environment. Numerous guests breathe a unique life into these tracks. Pete Droge lends some electric guitar, Eric McFadden provides acoustic guitar and Lori Carson adds mellifluous vocals. (4)
Bob Brozman / Takashi Hirayasu
Nankuru Naisa
World Music Network
There is something Asian in Hawaiian slide guitar music. This aspect comes out as Brozman, master of that Hawaiian art, meets heer with Okinawan vocalist Takashi Hirayasu. Furthering the East-meets-West theme, this album is a collection of Hirayasu's songs about coming of age in an Okinawa occupied by U.S. troops. As a young guitarist, Hirayasu played guitar covering soul and R&B for American patrons in nightclubs. There is a definite '40's swing and pop jazz feel to songs such as "Koza No Machi." This fascinating collaboration besides being the work of two significant talents is a wonderful intersection in styles previously kept separate by time and space. (5)
Lush
Ciao! The Best of Lush
4AD
http://www.4ad.com/
http://www.beggars.com/us
Lush's dream-pop sound characterizes the London shoegazer movement of the 1980s. Deep wells of treated guitar create murky depths for the star-like glimmer of Miki Berenyi and Meriel Barham's voices. The strong, well-crafted songs make their music especially enduring and led to the inspiration of such bands as Veruca salt. This compilation covers their pioneering work of the late '80's along with the best of the wind-down years after founding member Acland's suicide and Barham's defection to the Pale Saints. The group's triumphant regrouping and album Lowlife, with its potent pop, also figure importantly into this collection. (4.5)
Sideshow
Songs of Charles Ives
Blueshift/CRI, 73 Springs St., #506, NYC, NY 10012
http://www.composersrecordings.com/
http://www.mattmoran.com/sideshow.html
New York's Sideshow exquisitely brings together bass, clarinet, guitar, vibraphone and percussion in exploring the music of early Twentieth Century innovator Charles Ives. Ives himself, in guiding the transition from Classical music to jazz as a popular idiom, questioned and stretched the very definition of what is a song. Sideshow stretches out in the protean nature of a song by performing the pieces as instrumentals, but printing the lyrics in their CD booklet. (At gigs they provide lyric sheets.) When Ives wrote for "theater orchestra" (the ensemble consisting of whomever shows) he made certain any instrumental part that gets played displays the entire melody and the loss of now individual part is critical. This holographic nature of Ives' compositions makes them especially well suited to delivery from a jazz ensemble. Sideshow takes full advantage of that on this superlative recording. (4.5)
Satoko Fujii
April Shower
Ewe Records
http://www.ewe.co.jp/
info@ewe.co.jp
Fujii is a innovative avant-garde pianist melding Classical and free jazz dialects into her own unique expression. Here though she chooses to play often a supporting role as violinist Mark Feldman features most prominently on many tracks. Fujii alternates violin and piano duets usually led by Feldman with her own piano pieces in the track programming, some of these being over-dubbed piano and piano duets. These become sorbets between the especially intriguing pieces with Feldman. Two previous duo albums from Fujii are collaborations with Paul Bley as well as one with her husband and trumpeter Natsuki Tamura. April Shower then is another peerless pairing of voices in the Fujii discography. (5)
The Holy Modal Rounders
I Make A Wish For a Potato
Rounder
http://www.rounder.com/
The Holy Modal Rounders creates original compositions that revel in American folk and roots sounds with joyous, jubilant caterwauling. They run the gamut from clamorous, boisterous pieces like the rollicking "Happy Rolling Cowboy" to the toe-tapping, basic "I'm Getting Ready to Go." The Rounder Label "kid of named their company" after these wacky wizards of folk rock. Rounder compiled this recording for the Rounder Heritage Series that pulls together music from many Rounders and side project albums. (3.5)
The Oppressed
Oi! Singles & Rarities
Captain Oi
http://www.captainoi.com/
The Oppressed divided their lyrics between stereotyped Oi fashion and vitriolic anti-fascist rants. The boots and braces mixed with a strong no-nazi message get the thin, background guitar behind Roddy Moreno and company's growling vocals. This is classic, formulaic Oi that spells out a tough, working class spirit; indomitable, proud and ready for another pint. (3)
Tummler
Queen to Bishop VI
Man's Ruin Records
http://www.tummler.com/
Tummler is a space rock group that's asteroid-hard. An indie version of Monster Magnet groove, Tummler nestles nicely beside Kyuss and Fu Manchu. Big, bold guitar rhythms come hurtling out of the atmosphere with slightly southern latitudes. Grim sludge-dealers, Tummler dishes it out in heavy, greasy slabs taking advantage of the entire playing field Black Sabbath and Iron Butterfly cleared the way for. Like the best of the stoner rock genre, this group summons the image of vintage, '70's hard rock heroes while affecting a potent, post-punk angst built on American sounds. (4)
Anti-Nowhere League
Punk Singles and Rarities 1981-84
Captain Oi
http://www.captainoi.com/
In their single-minded war on the normals or "nowheres" of the world, Anti-Nowhere League mixes humor and hate in a way few punk acts have succeeded at. This collection aims at the heart of their most raw years, before they slid into a creative morass of imitating commercial sounds. They did that well, but it is best to think of Anti-Nowhere League as a rock band in two acts and this CD focuses on the early, punk years. Such impossible to acquire sources as flexi discs, demos and radio station issued singles are the source material for this very collectible collection. (4)
The Hellbillys
Blood Trilogy, Vol. 1
F.O.A.D. Records, 4430 Telegraph Ave., PMB 72, Oakland, CA 94609
http://www.foadrecords.com/
http://www.hellbillys.com/
The Hellbillys's slicked-back hair, doghouse bass and large-bodied guitar may prepare one for rockabilly, but this is among the most extreme of psychobilly records. They take their diabolical theme and sound closer to the Misfits and G.B.H. than The Stray Cats. So, it comes as no surprise the two covers on this 'faster and louder' album come from The Misfits ("All Murder All Guts All Fun") and English proto-punk Richard Hell ("Blank Generation"). (3)
Flipper
Blow'n Chunks
ROIR
http://www.roir-usa.com/
The two-bass noise punk of Flipper is caught in all its clamorous beauty live at CBGB's on the CD issue of this 1984 album. However, on this outing regular bassist Will Shatter had to sit out the tour and Bruno de Smartass (DeSmartAss Brothers) fills in. The cacophony in no way suffers as the group goes through all the Flipper anthems: "Love Canal," "Ha Ha Ha," etc. Guitar noise and bass thunder are rarely used as effectively as on this classic Flipper evening. (3.5)
Gore Gore Girls
Strange Girls
Get Hip Recordings, POB 666, Canonsburg, PA
http://www.gethip.com/
This Detroit femme fatale trio followed up their Charles Records debut single with a full slab of primitive rock-n-roll on Get Hip. There is a touch of the Motown soul in such tracks as "Lovin' Machine" on a CD-wide foundation '60's Detroit-Ann Arbor rock ala MC5, The Rationals and The Stooges. (3.5)
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