two obits, eight recent releases
R.I.P. James Edward “Snooky” Pryor (Sept. 15, 1921 – Oct. 19, 2006)
Considered the first bluesman to play harmonica through an amplifier, and arguably the first to make a record in the style we now think of as Chicago Blues, Snooky Pryor was an original whose career had a wonderful Indian Summer on Blind Pig, Electro-Fi, and a few other labels. Nor is his importance based on mere precedence; the man played blues harp with the best.
R.I.P. Henry Townsend (Oct. 27, 1909 – Sept. 24, 2006)
A fine singer, pianist, and guitarist, Townsend had been the last living bluesman whose recording career started in the 1920s. He stayed young, though, continuing to write new songs (entire albums of them, including his last, recorded in 1999) long past the stage at which most of his colleagues stuck to their old favorites. He remained active well into his 90s. He was also noted for having defended himself from a knife attack by bluesman J.D. Short by shooting the latter in the crotch!
The number of styles these guys utilize continues to expand: The epic opening track, “Blessing Force,” moves through minimalist Krautrock, a cappella vocals, Byrdsian guitar, an African groove (think Zimbabwe), prog-metal freakout, and free jazz blowout. Elsewhere on this seven-song, 35-minute disc, the psych-folk they’re best known for dominates but continues to be imaginatively spiced by organic tangents. Jazz drummer Hamid Drake and members of Do Make Say Think and Broken Social Scene contribute to the creative ferment.
With every Portastatic release, Mac McGaughan’s vision for the project grows more expansive and sophisticated. This time out, on the prettiest Portastatic album yet, that includes oboe and strings, vocalists Laura Cantrell and Annie Hayden, Peter Holsapple (dB’s) on piano, a bossa nova arrangement married to screaming guitar – there’s even a politically tinged song, “You Blanks,” on which he laments, “now every horse I dream about / is pulling a hearse / All my songs used to end the same way / everything’s gonna be OK / you fuckers make that impossible to say.” But, as usual, he gives us a whole bunch of tuneful songs with great hooks, so it’s all good.
Such a simple concept: Two guys play two gongs for an hour, exploring the overtones (sounding not too dissimilar to legendary downtown NYC icon Chatham’s massed-guitars pieces). And yet, it reveals so many facets: You can listen to it carefully as a subtle abstract exploration, mellow out and use it as a mood-setter, or turn it up and be rocked. This 1989 recording of a 1971 composition is among the best reissues of 2006!
Twenty-five years after the Slits’ previous recording, original members Ari Up (vocals) and Tessa Pollit (bass) re-team. Read my review here.
The first track is called “I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’,” but don’t believe them. Brooklyn’s campiest are back with another blast from the ‘70s that’s heavy on vintage beats and falsetto vocals. Bee Gees and Elton John are still touchstones (“She’s My Man” is an especially delicious Elton nod, and he co-wrote that first track and “Intermission” and plays piano on them), but the Sisters are one of the wittiest bands around and even earn a chuckle with a Lucinda Williams reference on one song (“Ooh”) and there are a couple of other stylistic changeups that look even further back than usual (English music hall, the campiest of all styles). Carlos Alomar (David Bowie’s guitarist in the mid-’70s) also helps out on a few tracks. The guests undoubtedly make this album a dream come true for the band. Sisters fans will be equally thrilled by the results.
Frank Schultge Blumm is quite the multi-talented guy. His credits here are “guitars, pencil, microphones, multitracker, double-bass, banjo, piano, xylophone, metallophone, organetta, melodica, keyboards, electronics, beats, computer, toy piano, voice.” What he does with those, plus various guests, is make mostly instrumental music that’s basically a 21st century hybrid of chamber music and pop melodies, pretty and low-key with nods to jazz and samba. Lovely music for mellow moods.
Peanut Butter Wolf presents Chrome Children (Stones Throw)
Like last year’s Dangerdoom album, Chrome Children finds Stones Throw teaming with Adult Swim, but it’s not full of cartoon characters: this time the teamwork produced a DVD of a Madvillian concert. So the emphasis is on Stones Throw’s brand of alternative hip-hop, with Madlib, Koushik, J. Dilla, Georgia Anne Muldrow, MED, Dudley Perkins, Quasimoto, Aloe Blacc, and more, with plenty of vintage samples. One of the highlights is a ringer from the Soul Cal label: Pure Essence’s “Third Rock,” a nugget of P-Funk-like psych-soul.
