Best of 2007: New Releases, part 2
Tinariwen is a Tuareg group that plays droning Malian blues-rock. The obvious comparison is Ali Farka Toure, and if you like him you’ll probably like these Saharan nomads, but overall the sound is much fuller, and on the more uptempo material they’ve got their own rhythmic sense that sets them apart. Sometimes they emphasize an exultant, communal groove; other times the sound is stripped down to hushed intimacy. This is one of the most amazing releases you can hear this year.
The members of the original lineup pick up where they left off, gloriously (and noisily) so – but this time around, minus Lou’s crappy lo-fi home taping indulgences.
Japan’s finest returned with another aural assault, their first album of new material in four years – now with added theremin! My review’s here.
Douglas uses each of his bands for a different style of music. This quintet is his fusion band featuring URI CAINE on Fender Rhodes electric piano. A two-CD set, this was compiled from a week of December 2006 shows, released individually on Douglas’s website. The focus is on new material; all but two tracks (“Magic Triangle” and “A Single Sky”) are previously unrecorded. There’s funky stuff with asymmetrical accents, there are mellow tunes that float serenely, there are darkly throbbing tracks exploding with headlong momentum. The reference point on disc one is usually Miles Davis’s 1969-71 bands, but with enough distinctive personality from all the players that it’s no mere imitation. Disc two features music that didn’t make the cut on last year’s Meaning and Mystery, though these are certainly not scraps. Douglas writes that some are inspired by Don Cherry (“Navigations” and “Living Streams” are seeming examples), perhaps also explaining his switch to cornet from his usual trumpet, while “Meaning and Mystery” recalls the Cannonball Adderley Quintet. All the players – the leader, Caine, tenor saxophonist DONNY McCASLIN (replacing CHRIS POTTER), acoustic bassist JAMES GENUS, and drummer CLARENCE PENN – react to each other instantaneously after years of playing together, and this is a must-have for jazz fans.
There are so many levels on which to appreciate the music of James Blackshaw. For guitarists, there’s the sheer how-does-he-do-it of his dazzling technique, used to produce three simultaneous textural layers with three distinct sounds. For aficionados, there’s the cultural satisfaction of hearing him tie together so many schools of playing – Fahey, Bull, Basho. And for all of us unabashed sensualists, there’s the voluptuous pleasure of his rich, tintinnabulatory sound slowly weaving a beautiful sonic tapestry that’s sometimes ethereal, sometimes rootsy. On record he gets to occasionally add more sonic variety – cymbal and glockenspiel, cello – to make the sound even fuller. On the four lengthy tracks, the effect is both hypnotic and transcendent. For a change of pace, halfway through there’s the brief “Clouds Collapse,” a sparely constructed array of plucks and plinks that achieves a Zen-like intense focus on pure sound, the perfect palate cleanser. The album ends with five minutes of quietly noisy, blissfully atonal scratchings, as though Blackshaw and his listeners have ascended into a higher realm of sound. Quite a trip.
The less said about the final archival track of young Thurston being a callow avant-garde conceptualist, the better, but otherwise this is a fine album of brooding songs and captivating guitar textures.
Another tuneful album from these West Coast shoegazers. In the wake of an extremely trying breakout tour (including having all their equipment stolen) and the dreaded “creative differences,” lead singer Greg Bertens and keyboardist Jason Ruck are basically the only constant members remaining from 2006’s brilliant self-titled release. This band is still Bertens’s baby, though, so things aren’t too different. The sound is a bit heavier, rhythms a bit stronger. “Sick Hipster Nursed by Suicide Girl” takes repetition to a Krautrock level, while the closing “What I Meant to Say” with its throbbing, distorted bass, chilly keyboard sound, and lo-fi vocal bridge recalls Joy Division. That added heaviness is balanced, however, by the addition of female vocals, from not only bassist Lorelei Plotczyk but a few guests as well. It’s a great combination of shoegazer power and beauty.
Anyone who enjoys the playful polystylism of Akron/Family should check out this Athens, GA nonet. The 16-minute opener, “Sufficiently Breakfast,” is a riff-heavy space-rock guitar jam with a punky flavor thanks to one riff being borrowed from Wire. Elsewhere synths are more prominent on some tracks (the motorik “Whalebone” is a highlight, and “Feeder Band” is an especially spacey electronic excursion), while on more concise songs the group leans towards hard-hitting indie rock; the incredibly catchy “That Don’t Work That Well for Us” and “The Love of the France” combine these strains to suggest mutant ‘80s pop. “Wizard of Points” sounds like Oneida with a vocoder. The disc closes with a lengthy dub reggae excursion, “Never Gonna Touch the Ground.” It’s a glorious smorgasbord of styles, musically entrancing and fun.
This two-CD set has a slight split personality between the two discs. On disc one, the influence of Brian Eno’s ambient music is especially strong; for instance, “Don’t Bother They’re Here” and “Dopamine Clouds over Craven Cottage” sound like outtakes from Music for Airports in their construction. Disc two, though certainly similar in mood, is more original, practically a sonic demonstration of the acoustic properties of attack and decay as sounds appear, swell, and diminish, with less minimalist repetition in favor of a slow parade of serenely caressed timbres. The duo of Brian McBride and Adam Wiltzie is augmented by a whopping eight additional instrumentalists (four string players, four horns) plus a children’s choir, along with four “contributors” presumably helping with the electronic manipulations. The result is mellow voluptuousness if you use these instrumentals as background music, but utterly engrossing if you pay attention.
It’s true that this actually came out two years ago, but this was the year it finally got broad distribution, and I listened to it as much as anything else that came out this year. I couldn’t bear to leave it unmentioned, but I’ve penalized it in terms of position on the list – it would probably be #2 if it were truly new. The group is mostly Los Angeles musicians, but the sound emphasizes the late ‘60s/early ‘70s Cambodian pop-psych-garage-rock and takes advantage of an authentic Cambodian pop star living in L.A., Chhom Nimol (who sings mostly in Khmer, though she essays some English on this album), but with Ethiopian music added to the mix here and there. Also, they put on the best show I saw at Sound Fix this year.
