Outsight
Outsight: Vengeance is Theirs
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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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VENGEANCE IS THEIRS
The Cramps' record label is to be distributed by Mordam Records (http://www.mordamrecords.com/). The Cramps (http://www.geocities.com/thecrampspage/), having regained control of 6 full-length titles, are teamed with Mordam Records in resuscitating their Vengeance label. This is the source through which they originally issued the singles "The Way I Walk" / "Surfin' Bird" and "Human Fly" / "Domino" in 1978. Vengeance Records will initiate its resurrection with a simultaneous re-release of six back catalog titles in October 2001, including color vinyl LP releases. Following in spring 2002 will be a new album by The Cramps. The six titles for reissue in October 2001 are Smell Of Female, Look Mom No Head, Rockinnreelininauklandnewzealandxxx, Big Beat From Badsville, A Date With Elvis and Stay Sick!
Listen to or Buy The Cramps at CDNow
OUT OF AFRICA
A tour of recent recordings covers the spectrum of contemporary African music. On Putumayo Presents African Odyssey (Putumayo) we hear acoustic songs from all over the African continent. It is the complex rhythms of this music, combined with gentle, lilting vocal melodies that make this music as compelling and easy to enjoy with each listen as the first time. African Odyssey is an aural travelogue taking us to the Portuguese-based sound of Guinea-Bissau (Manecas Costa), Kenya (Doctor King'esi) and the cheerful "tuku" music of Zimbabwe's Oliver Mtukudzi. This and more were previously only available in their local markets. More high-profile artists such as Putumayo recording artist Habib Koite (Mali) round out this recording. Mama Sissoko is very popular in his native Mali. The Tinder Records recording Soleil de Minuit gives us a chance to hear his craft and experience the talent that led to his popularity. He himself comes from the Manding griot tradition of singing storytellers and thus has a vast tradition of songs to draw from. To that he combines upbeat, smart arrangements based on Afro-Cuban music.
Listen to or Buy African Odyssey at CDNow
Listen to or Buy Mama Sissoko at CDNow
PUNK'S NOT DEAD
No, it's not. It just moved to America and continues to live on CD. Some of that is due to reissues. F.O.A.D. Records (http:/www.dogdayrecords.com) just put out Insanity is a Sane Reaction, looking back on Christ on Parade 1986-1989. Their angry, iconoclastic punk rock combines the loose, raw sound of early West Coast punk with a vaguely Brit-punk delivery. The Casualties of NYC reach back to the same time and are still making records. Their latest is Die Hards (Side One Dummy; http://www.sideonedummy.com/). They have an even more Brit-punk sound, still being very heavily influenced by early G.B.H. There is also a strong resemblance here to The Exploited. Jorge, vocalist for The Casualties, has a sputtering, manic delivery very similar to Wattie Buchan. East Bay punkers The Criminals decided to conclude their discography with a final release, Extinct (F.O.A.D. Records). They even list their lineup as "The Criminals were." Well, whatever disgust and dashed hopes led to this translates into potent, angry punk rock here. The Criminals consisted of refugees from Blatz, the Gr'ups, the Hi Fives, and Red #9. However, there are plenty of youngbloods to take the baton in the East Bay area. One is The Fleshies. This group just put out Kill The Dreamer's Dream on Alternative Tentacles. They take their time on each track and give their songs a thick, rubbery bottom, fusing angry street punk with '70's arena rock. Another group of dynamic upstarts is Smogtown. Their self-titled EP on Disaster Records is the quality, Detroit-inspired hard punk with a muscular, driving backbeat that we come to expect from this Bomp! subsidiary.
Listen to or Buy Christ on Parade at Amazon.com
Listen to or Buy The Casualties at CDNow
Listen to or Buy The Fleshies at CDNow
Listen to or Buy Smogtown at CDNow
NEW NORDIC
Much of the exciting, new albums from Scandinavia have one foot in the past and the other in the present. There are three fine examples of this on the Northside label (http://www.noside.com/). First is Garmarna's Hildegard von Bingen. Usually this group gets their medieval inspiration from Swedish folk songs, but this time they turn 12th Century mystic nun Hildegard von Bingen. In their ancient-meets-modern style they fuse hurdy-gurdies, strings and electronics as vocalist Emma Härdelin revisits this ethereal material over folk sonics and breakbeats. On Hippa, Hoven Droven sets aside their usual large, bombastic sound for mostly original, instrumental pieces of varied mood. As with much Nordic folk music, when slowed down it has the soul and sound of good, warm Celtic music. Finally, Triakel offers Wintersongs. The vocalist here is Emma Härdelin again and the fiddle player is Kjell-Erik Eriksson from Hoven Droven. This is the permanent outlet for quiet, reflective music for these musicians. This relaxed celebration of wintertime is built around a hymn Benny Andersson (ABBA) wrote for the approaching millennium in 1999 and asked Emma to sing.
Listen to or Buy Garmarna at CDNow
Listen to or Buy Hoven Droven at CDNow
Listen to or Buy Triakel at CDNow
PICKIN' AND GRINNIN'
The Hightone Records label (220 4th St., #101, Oakland, CA 94607; http://www.hightone.com/) bequeaths to the world a trio of country and truckabilly releases. On Here I Am in Dallas Dallas Wayne is a country baritone in the honky-tonk tradition with refreshing, self-deprecating humor. You can hear this on his Hightone Big Thinkin' on the excellent compendium Twang Bangers. This is not merely a label sampler but an overview of excellent songs from Wayne, Bill Kirchen, Redd Volkaert, and Joe Goldmark to spread the word about the Twangbangers tour of these artists across America this fall. Kirchen also has a new album on the label entitled Tied to the Wheel. His trademark, upbeat truckabilly includes dusted off chestnuts like "Truckstop at the End of the World" and new material.
Listen to or Buy Dallas Wayne at CDNow
Listen to or Buy Bill Kirchen at CDNow
FLICKS ************************************
Ed Harris, Director
Pollock (DVD)
Sony Pictures Classics / Columbia Tristar Home Video
Ed Harris incarnates the spirit and life of noted American abstract painter Jackson Pollock in this impressive self-directed opus. This superlative film was the winner of the 2000 Toronto Film Festival, Marcia Gay Harden won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress portraying Pollock's lover, fellow artist Lee Krasner and the Independent Film Channel tried valiantly to promote the film beyond the art theaters and to a wider cable audience. However, this film failed to win the wide appeal and popular recognition it deserved. Pollock is a time capsule from an Apollonian America when minions of the muses like Jackson Pollock could gather energy from an aware nation. Now, in a Spartan America that tends toward sports icons and other personified action figures, the Dionysian effect of explosive expression and accelerated fame is contrary to contemporary film themes. However, this does not change the fact that Harris' portrayal is convincing and the recreation of the exaggerated impulses and effects makes for a emotion-laden visitation of the uncontrolled aggression and insecurity that were the seeds of self-destruction for Pollock as he strove to blaze a trail under the manipulations of Peggy Guggenheim. This film is based on Steven Naifeh's and Gregory White Smith's book Jackson Pollock: An American Saga. (4)
New Order
New Order - Taras Shevchneko
Cherry Red Films / Music Video Distributors
http://www.musicvideodistributors.com/
Previously only available in the United Kingdom, this is the 53-minute VHS document of the 1981 New Order appearance at the Ukrainian National Home in New York City. The sudden suicide of Ian Curtis ended the possibility of an American Tour by Joy Division the year before. New Order had not yet fully transformed themselves into the globally successful synth-pop band they later became. Still with one foot in the gloomy Goth of Joy Division they begin charting their own direction by performing about half of the Movement album, and a rarity in the New Order discography as "Little Dead." (3.5)
More on this video title from CDNow
REVIEWS **********************************
Odetta
Looking for a Home (Thanks to Leadbelly)
M.C. Records, POB 1788, Huntington Stn., NY 11746
http://www.mc-records.com/
Special name guests Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Henry Butler and Kim Wilson join others in backing folk-blues legend Odetta in her tribute to the legendary Leadbelly. This pioneering solo artist was one of the first women to make a name for herself singing folk, blues, protest songs and more. She combines her verve and talent on this bold, electric blues collection of Leadbelly renditions. The 71-year-old, a legend herself, presents the classic Leadbelly rural blues material in a voice still strong without a hint of weakness. The material is mostly songs written by Leadbelly, like "Rock Island Nine," along with traditional material he made famous, like "Boll Weevil." (4.5)
Ray Wylie Hubbard
Eternal and Lowdown
Philo
http:/www.rounder.com
mailto:info@rounder.com
Eternal and Lowdown is the blues album from Ray Wylie Hubbard. This is a premeditated foray into the genre by the progressive country artist. Hubbard is not merely regurgitating 12-bar blues progressions, but inviting the blue devils into his sophisticated songwriting. The communion with these melancholy spirits results in big, bold Texas blues with ominous spaces and deft guitar stylings from producer Gurf Morlix. (4)
Various Artists
Head Jazz
Label M, 53 W. 23rd St., NYC, NY 10010
http://www.labelm.com/
Label M's Head Jazz compilation is cool jazz for headphones, saxophone chill-out music for after hours. There is something sly and funky about almost every track on this disc. Texas tenor saxophonist David "Fathead" Newman discovers in "You Can't Always Get Want You Want" a slowly swinging, sexual Southern soul. Tracks from Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Ornette Coleman and Yusef Lateef are deep groves that open up into kaleidoscopes of subtle production and arrangement when "viewed" through headphones. (5)
Lupine Howl
The Carnivorous Lunar Activities of Lupine Howl
Beggars Banquet/Vinyl Hiss
http://www.beggars.com/us
mailto:banquet@beggars.com
Lupine Howl is the guitarist (Mike Mooney) and rhythm section (Sean Cook, bass, and Damon Reece, drums) from Spiritualized. The threesome began composing songs together, separate from Spiritualized, as far back as 1997. The CD opens with Vaporizer, their funk rock opus about confronting customs on drugs that was the group's debut release as a single on their own Vinyl Hiss label in the start of 2000. The album was mixed at Massive Attack's Christchurch studios. The trio spent '99 helping that group capture their trip-hop sound and there is similar neo-psychedelia here as '70's hard-rock chords meet electronic beats. (3.5)
Paul Reddick & The Sidemen
Rattlebag
Paul Reddick & The Sidemen
http://www.thesidemen.com/
Paul Reddick and company dig into the pre-World War II rural blues repertoire. They come up with Delta gems for their tough, electric blues sound. They use studio effects and unexpected equipment to achieve raw, analog visitations of the past blues masters on almost every track. Colin Linden produced and adds signature guitar to this exquisite example of visceral urban blues with clear juke joint roots featuring Reddick's harmonica. (3.5)
Halfway to Gone
High Five
Small Stone Recordings, POB 02007, Detroit, MI 48202
http://www.smallstone.com/
Halfway to Gone displays a raw, unpretentious heavy metal sound like what Metallica revealed on Garage Days. In this they include the distorted power blues that is the foundation to Black Sabbath. The result is a branch off the hard rock tree not currently heard in the stoner rock or extreme Southern rock genres through it can be compared to both. (3)
Harry Manx
Dog my Cat
NorthernBlues Music
Manx gives us an east-meets-west sound through acoustic blues that he performs on four tracks with the Mohan Veena. This is a sitar-like acoustic F-hole guitar featuring a dozen sympathetic strings. Indian slide guitarist Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, with whom Manx studied, inspired this variation. On the rest of the tracks, Manx gives us the lap slide guitar with which he has been touring and performing since the '70's. (4)
Chris Lee
[Chris Lee] Plays & Sings Torch'd Songs, Charivari Hymns & Oriki Blue-Marches
Smells Like Records, POB 6179, Hoboken, NJ, 07030
http://www.smellslikerecords.com/
Chris Lee gives us pop lyrics with vaguely blue horn-backed arrangements. His avant-garde past brings in the occasional unexpected metaphor and turns to this exquisite collection of songs. Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley was interested enough to co-produce and perform on this album. A heightened honesty exudes from this album that lacks pretense and unnecessary ornamentation. The room left is taken up by authenticity and the crisp emotional effect of sudden sadness displayed with musical economy. (4)
David S. Ware Quartet
Corridors & Parallels
AUM Fidelity, POB 170147, Brooklyn, NY 11217
mailto:aum@aumfidelity.com
After growling and shrieking with utmost clarity in wild free-jazz combos, Ware returns to the indie-jazz label scene after his two Columbia albums with another release of focused jazz in a very traditional style. Longtime collaborator Matthew Shipp makes his recorded debut on this album on the synthesizer. The introduction of this instrument onto Ware's sonic palette is done masterfully; the versatile instrument offers unexpected, bright sounds like a prepared piano. This thirteenth album is one of Ware's most coherent and important works. (5)
Leon Parker
The Simple Life
Label M
http://www.labelm.com/
mailto:info@labelm.com
On The Simple Life, Leon Parker looks back on recent years of varied and creative collaborations with artists as diverse as Charlie Hunter and ethnic percussionist Kazi Oliver. Hardly simple, the rich bevy of this work, including his own jazz gigs and workshops on percussion and vocal-body rhythm, suggest a large scope of experience that is funneled into this music rich in world and post-bop influences. The largely short pieces bounce from one to another on the vibrant collage of fresh approaches to jazz. (3.5)
Future Perfect
The Nature of Time
Ultra Modern/Innova Recordings
http://www.innovarecordings.com/
Future Perfect is a collective of Minneapolis artists and groups making experimental music of many sorts from electronic to acoustic. Though such diverse sources are drawn upon, this records blends seamlessly into one cohesive work: an hour-long, complex canvas of experimental sounds. (4)
Flute Force
Eyewitness
Innova Recordings
http://www.innovarecordings.com/
Flute Quartet Flute Force begins their album by playing behind radio personality Garrison Keillor captivatingly reading poems of Stephen Crane. Then the virtuoso female foursome present three pieces for flute quartet from modern composer-flutists Elizabeth Brown, Robert Dick and Gary Schocker. The concluding piece is another modern composition, this time by Eric Stokes, showcasing their talents alongside Meridian String Quartet. (4)
The Moorat Fingers
10" Schlitz
F.O.A.D. Records
http://www.foadrecords.com/
http://www.moorat.fingers.de/
The Moorat Fingers includes members from Britain, Germany and America. Thus, it comes as no surprise that they boast a punk rock sound that fuses Euro-stylism with the American post-pop approach. Thus, we have catchy, angry hooks. This is a reissue of Schlitzed (Vortex) with the addition of "(I Wanna be Your) Razorblade off a seven-inch release. (3)
Beulah
The Coast is Never Clear
Velocette Records, 83 Walton St., Atlanta, GA 30303
http://www. velocetterecords.com/
http://www.beulahmania.com/
On The Coast is Never Clear we hear indie pop artists working with the engineering of John Croslin (Guided by Voices, Spoon) and the mixing of Roger Moutenot (Yo La Tengo, Lou Reed) for intelligent, sophisticated but fun and natural songs. This is a lo-fi approach but with inoorporation of instruments usually heard hi-fi: flutes, horns and violins. All in all, 18 other musicians show up backing the rock sextet on an ambitious and successful bittersweet, hip song-oriented album with a sweet coating of Moog. (4)
Doug James
Blow Mr. Low
Stony Plain Records
http://www.stonyplainrecords.com/
James normally blows "Mr. Low," the baritone saxophone, as a member of the Duke Robillard Band or as he did with Roomful of Blues and as a session player for Stevie Ray Vaughn, Big Joe Turner, Ronnie Earl and more. Duke Robillard shows up to sing a couple songs on James' solo record, as does New England blues harpman Sugar Ray Norcia. The ten-track CD is a potent, swinging mix of blues, R&B and jazz. (3.5)
Mike Keneally & Beer for Dolphins
Dancing
Exowax, POB 232623, Leucadia, CA 92023-2623
http://www.keneally.com/
On Dancing Keneally's seven-piece band mixes sounds of '80's rock, funk, horns, female backing vocals and Zappa-esque changes. There's a lot going on in this album and it works very well, a fun and coherent romp through pop and rock idioms fused into a cohesive vision of sophisticated party-rock. Dancing is a vibrant expression of joy through large-ensemble, expansive rock. (3.5)
Ginger Leigh
From Artesia With Love
Red River Productions, POB 683, Artesia, CA 90702-0683
http://www.gingerleigh.com/
Ginger Leigh fuses angry, thunderous industrial sounds with hyper, accelerated east India melodies. This curried cyber-crunch is an excellent juxtaposition of the exotic and delicate with rigid, artillery-fire rhythms. Ginger Leigh has been doing this sort of at-home production for a decade, now. If Steve Albini had set up shop in Calcutta instead of Chicago, this could be the sound of Big Black. (3.5)
Andy White
Andy White
Thirsty Ear
http://www.thirstyear.com/
Andy White is an Irish post-folk singer-songwriter with a gift for melody and songwriting that overcomes the excessive use of large, electronic beats on this album. Since picking up the guitar as an angry punk in 1985 and releasing a Stiff Records single, White has continued to hone his craft. Along the way his talent and touring got him some special friends and some of them join him on this album. Liam Ó Maonlaí (Hothouse Flowers), Nick Seymour (Crowded House), Angela McCluskey (Wild Colonials) and more joined White in the studio. Name producer John Leckie twiddled the knobs as he did for Pink Floyd and Radiohead's The Bends for this elegant, hip album. (3.5)
Outsight is non-mainstream music news and views. The content is wholly based on new releases and a focus on the the eclectic and overlooked.
