Tuesday, December 28, 2004

Frou Frou - Details

Frou Frou
Details
2002 Universal/MCA

Personnel:
Imogen Heap - vocals
Imogen Heap & Huy Sigsworth - guitars, pianos, drums, synths, samplers, software, arrangements

Additional Personnel:
Jon Hassell - trumpet
Ioana Petcu-Colan - violin
Mich Gerber - bowed double bass
Makoto Sakamoto - drums
Elad Elharar - bass guitar
Bollywood Strings Orchestra

Production:
Frou Frou

After a better than modest reponse to her debut solo album I Megaphone and the single that propelled it Come Here Boy (a dark erotic ditty done with 80s stalwart Nik Kerhsaw of all people) Imogen Heap opted to do a group project as her sophomore effort, and the results are spectacular, if not altogether a sleeper hit in the making. Hooking up with one of her solo producers, Guy Sigsworth (most noted for his work with Trevor Horn and Wendy & Lisa to make the sound of Seal so lush) and going for a more electronic route, Frou Frou were born.

Falling somewhere between Kate Bush and Bjork for both left of field lyrics and expanse of sound, Frou Frou are still less ethereal than the former, more sane than the latter and more grounded than both. Like her solo output, Heap writes fairly dark lyrics that are not so much angst ridden as they are short intense narratives, particularly on the date-rape single Breathe In and the strange stalking-me/stalking-you techno-dirge of Psychobabble. The instrumentaion takes an electronica bent without sounding dated or overly trapped in conventions (no avalanches of breakbeats and pointless random bleeps and dings just for the sake of sonic ping-pong in the mixing room) but leans closer to the lush electro-acoustic styles of Faithless meets London Elektricity. Songs like Shh pulse and change direction several times before taking you to the next track, and Its Good To Be In Love and Flicks are downright catchy, helped along by a great subdued trumpet from avant-god Jon Hassell.

Overall, this is one of the better 'debuts' of 2002. Solid songwriting, pleasing performance, and the use of electronics as an expressive tool rather than a crutch makes for a very satisfying listen. And it grows better with succesive listens.

Monday, December 27, 2004

Where Are They Now

So I remember saving a clipping that mentioned that Jim Martin (the former Village People meets Hell's Angel reject flying V wielding guitar player with Faith No More during their commerical apex), had largely given up music (now partially refuted at this site) and was mostly hanging out in Hayward, CA (a vertitable music mecca I tell you) and growing mutant Pumpkins, at one point being one of the top 4 giant pumpkin growers (there is a competitive index?) in the state.

There was an inset photo with the article thatfeatures Martin with a Pumpkin larger than his FNM royalties and looking like a Kentucky Fried White Trash vegetable fetishist.

What is it indeed.

----

And in not so music related news (but art related and maybe tangential to this blogs general substance):

Slate has an article on digital editions as opposed to the tangible "originals" in the art world. This is some of the issues I struggle with in my own work, which has largely become a complete hybrid of analog and digital techniques.

Sunday, December 26, 2004

This weeks pre-fabricated dance pop selection:

I often enough enjoy a really bad pop song. This week, it's the faux-disco single from former Steps singer Lisa Scott-Lee, "Lately"

It's almost good enough to be on a Minogue album (Kylie or Dannii, as musically there is little difference between the two).


Thursday, December 23, 2004

merry x-mas everyone

see heading.

Boas Festas e Feliz Ano Novo.

Wednesday, December 22, 2004

King Crimson - USA & Thrak

King Crimson
USA (originally released on EG in 1974) Virgin/DGM 2002
Thrak (original release on DGM in 1994) Virgin/DGM 2002

Personnel for USA:
Robert Fripp - Guitar and Mellotron
David Cross - Violin and Keyboards
John Wetton - Bass and Voices
Bill Bruford - Percussives
Remix assistance: Eddie Jobson - Violin on 'Larks Tongue' & 'Schitzoid Man' and piano on 'Lament'
Production:
King Crimson


Personnel for Thrak:
Robert Fripp - Guitar, Soundscapes, Mellotron
Adrian Belew - Guitar, Voice, Words
Bill Bruford - Acoustic & Electronic Percussions
Pat Mastelloto - Acoustic & Electronic Percussions
Tony Levin - Upright & Electric Basses, Backing Vocals
Trey Gunn - Stick, Backing Vocals

Production:
King Crimson and David Bottrill

So in an impulse of expression of buying power I purchase the new re-releases of two very distinct King Crimson albums, almost 2 decades apart to the month. Thrak was the first full release of what was arguably the best and most potent KC lineup in its 30 year history (a power-sextet that became a quartet with the departure of Bruford and Levin in 2000), with a sound that seemed to consolidate their past and expand outwards. USA was a controversial release for the band, seeing as KC leader Fripp disowned the album shortly after release and lambasted it as poor quality until having a chance to rexamine and remaster the tapes (not to mention do some remix/'touch-up' work with Eddie Jobson) turning it into a lost gem. Both disks feature new packaging and added material which makes th epurchase extra sweet.

USA is a lots gem which finally gets its proper cd release, with an amazing change in quality from the admittedly muddy sound from the original vinyl. The quartet featured was one that actually lasted several years (a heretofore unknown feat in KC, which had a turnover that even gave Yes pause), but eventually gave out to the harder sounds of Red, when Cross left and the remaining trio engaged in some of its most apocalyptic angular destruction. This line-up however, was not a slouch; dynamic, varied, and slightly less improvisational, KC in 1974 has a muscular rhythm section in Bruford and Wetton. Gone was Brufords delicate touch and Wettons basic bass-playing, in was cacophonic bursts of beats and thumping filthy distorted bass that could transition at a moments notice to fluid jazzy shuffles. David Cross had finally more space to add textures with his keyboard work, and build some stunning violin+guitar interplay with Fripp, making for swirling changes of tones that veered from soft pastoral (incredibly English) washes to racing middle-eastern influenced figures.

There is no filler on this live set, with the possible exception of the overly -fluffy intro Walk On...No Pussyfooting, an ambient ditty written by Fripp and Brian Eno (which by itself would be quite good if not for the fact that it seems utterly removed from the rest of the release). From there one is immediately smacked upside the head with Larks' Tongue in Aspic Part II and quickly marathons through brillinat renditions of Lament, Exiles, Easy Money, a cyclonic 21st Century Schitzoid Man and eventually goes out with a somber Starless as the last notes go to applause. Wetton's voice is in good form (at least by Wettonian standards) and if nothing else, unlike the last 2 decades of KC output with a dual guitar assault, this is all Fripp, all the time. He plays with a crystalline clarity and drunken abandon that cuts across anything in its path.

Thrak was an unusual reunion; it didn't suck mighty amounts of ass. In a decade when you saw all manner of 70s and 80s relics doing nostalgia tours or trying to resucustate their careers by poorly gluing their former selves to the new trends with little in the way of coherence or listenability..KC comes out and does what it hs always done - been itself. They helped birth the art-rock genre, but arguably are one of the only ones practicing it, as most others either went the way of pop fluffery (Genesis) or gutted themselves sonically (the post-Rabin Yes comes to mind). KC came back with an expanded line-up, an expanded sound palette, and a mission to do music that in Fripps words "only King Crimson can do". Bands like Tool and Radiohead worship at the alter of KC not only because of their sound, but because of their singular committment to themselves and nothing else. Tool has gone so far as to bring KC on tour with them and use David Bottrill as their producer, and it shows in their growing sound.

KC truly were progressive with this release, with a range that starts at pummelling sheets of distortion and sonic rust reeling into soft ambient passages and eventually little art-pop excursions like People which marries Adrian Belews Beatles fetish with more avant forms of songsmithing...Adrian sings like a nasal David Byrne impersonating John Lennon during puberty, but somehow it still ends up sounding good, particulatly on the aforementioned People and on the scuttling Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream. There is nothing on this album that speaks of sitting on laurels, but a resolve to take what had been done before, collapsing it on itself and then pushing that mass of sound outward to its logical extreme. It is an acquired taste (unlike Tool and Radiohead, KC are far more non-mainstream than their growing public presence would suggest) with their atomic cocktail of Police-era power pop, avalanches of odd-time funk, neurotic instrumental segues and delusional dada lyrics (that is when they have lyrics...most of the tracks on Thrak are instrumental).

Of note is the dual everything attack:
Belew's freeform stunt guitar coupled with the cheerful insanity of Fripp's tidal waves of structured noise. Bruford's aymmetrical percussion blasts held together with Mastelloto's back-beat desperately keeping up, and the multi-stringed weirdness of Gunn and Levin, sometimes both weilding the 10-12 string hybrid instrument Chapman Stick, sometimes going into odd mixes of Stick and upright or electric bass with the result being a rubbery thump and a low end that is both distinct yet a thrumming undertow throughout the proceedings.

Sunday, December 19, 2004

5 musicians that never got their due:

Just throwing it out there:

1. Ephraim Lewis - sounded like a lovechild borne of Sade and Seal, he died under mysterious causes after his debut album.

2. Kevin Gilbert - viciously talented, deeply damaged, he helped launch the career of Sheryl Crow (only to be dumped by her), was one half of art-pop duo Toy Matinee (with Madonna and Pink Floyd producer Pat Leonard, who also dumped him in debt), and helped do some rather excellent engineering work with everyone from Michael Jackson to Spock's Beard. He died before his rock opera, The Shaming of the True could be completed, but thankfully finished by his friends, including the great Mike Keneally (ex-Zappa) and John Cuniberti (Jose Satriani).

3. Jeff Buckley - he finally got some real visibility after his rather odd death and its parallels with the death of his father, Tim Buckley.

4. Eddie Hazel - One of the best guitarists that ever slung some cosmic slop. His work with Parliament-Funkadelic was groundbreaking, yet he passed away before even hitting 50, of liver failure, while brewing a comeback. Only this past year has his debut solo album been reissued on cd for the first time.

5. Eric Dolphy - another unfortunate casualty under not fully understood circumstances, Dolphy was an excellent reedsman/brass player who did not get anywhere near the accolades he receives now posthumously when he was alive and performing.


Saturday, December 18, 2004

Caetano Veloso - Livro

Caetano Veloso
Livro
1997 Nonesuch Records

Producers: Jaques Morelenbaum and Caetano Veloso

Personnel:

Caetano Veloso - vocals, guitar, piano
Luiz Brasil - guitar. agogo
Pedro Sa - guitar, maculele
Jorge Helder, fernando Nunes - bass
Marcio Victor - kettledrums, torpedo, snares
Du and Jo - kettledrums
Marcelo Costa - drums, guiro, agogo, tambourine, maculele and afoxe
Marcelo Martins - flutes, woodwind arrangements
Ze Canuto - flutes
Lucia Morelenbaum, Cristiana Alves - clarinets
Eduardo Morelenbaum - Bass Clarinet
Walmir Gil, Flavio Melo - flugelhorns
Ismael de Oliveira - french horn
Moreno Veloso - maculele, tenor guitar
Jaques Morelenbaum - maculele
William Magalhaes - keyboards
Zeca Assumpcao - acoustic bass
Carlinhos Brown - percussion
...please puchase cd for the psychotic ongoing list of players and varying instruments, or go to AMG for more info.

Caetano Veloso is arguably one of the greatest songwriters of the 20th Century, with peers like Bob Dylan, Cole Porter, Wayne Shorter and Billy Strayhorn. At 60, he has lost no creative spark or performing energy (this reviewer having seen him pack a full jouse at the Masonic Auditorium in San Francisco and bring the house down), and continues to forge a dynamic path with his potent mix of Tropicalismo ( a Brazilian music style he and regular collaborator Gilberto Gil helped create), Samba, Bossanova, pop, avant-garde and neo-classical elements. And his music is still very fresh, but not in a way that denotes him keeping up with the world, but rather the other way around. A romantic, political, intellectually powerful gentleman, he commands a near fanatical audience, and his 1997 album, Livro (english = book) is a good soft intro to his ouevre, whether you speak Portuguese or not (Caetano predominately sings in Portuguese, but occasionally dabbles in Spanish and English).

The opener, Os Passistas (Carnival Dancers) is a playful romp with a steady pulse of percussion and a spingy melody, typical fare for CV. More off kilter is Um Tom (A Tom/Tone) is a lazy walk of Xylophone and sparce instrumentaion over a mantra like set of lyrics. His falsetto is strong on the vocal layering of How Beautiful Could a Being Be is sumptuous, with his son Moreno co-leading and a band of seemingly dozens providing the alternating sets of repetitive backing vocals. In a take at the Gil Scott-Heron spoken word sweepstakes, one only has to listen to the anger in O Navio Negreiro (The Slave Ship), and even in the upbeat percussive buffer led by Carlinhos Brown (a star in his own right), Nao Enche (Piss Off) could be interpreted as scorn for a lover or scorn for the government.
Yet, after such bile, Caetano, ever the chameleon, swings into romance, with the soft strings and lilting delivery of Minha Voz, Minha Vida (My Voice, My Life).

If you have ever wanted to get into the music of Brasil, CV is a damn good place to start - particularly with this album. Be wary however, as his catalog spans almost four decades and has been known to dip into tangential forays that may leave the unititiated somewhat confused. This album however, is a great start.

You might like this if you like:

Gilberto Gil - Parabola
Paul Simon - Rhythm of the Saints
Carlinhos Brown - Alfagamabetizado
Ekova - Heaven's Dust

Bill Laswell & Sacred System: Book of Exit, Dub Chamber 4

Bill Laswell Sacred System - Book of Exit (Dub Chamber 4)
ROIR/Axiom Records 2002

Personnel:
Bill Laswell - bass, guitar, keys, production, arrangements
Ejigayehu "Gigi" Shibabaw - vocals
Karsh Kale - drums, tabla
Aiyb Dieng - percussion

Robert Musso - engineering & programming

This is the fourth and most percolating release in Bill Laswell's Dub Chamber series, and the most vibrant and eclectic (which is saying something considering it's Laswell). This one is far closer to his cross-pollinating concepts in Material. Whereas this has the same nirvana-sized portions of Jamaican dub bubbling over everything in a thick stew of bass and reverb, it has some sharp spice added with the more varied percussion and the transcendant vocals of Gigi Shibabaw, but the overall vibe of the album is very, very subdued. This is mellow, grooving stuff. Not smooth jazz junk, not new age crystal in the navel gazing boredom (yes, I rebuke thee, listeners of Mannheim Steamroller and Andreas Vollenweider). This is the kind of music that just works as a natural auditory muscle relaxant.

Transitions here are fluid and roll from laidback and cozy to vast and open grooves. Gigi even tries her hand at some English vocals (she hails from Ethiopia, and until now, only sang in Amharic) and does a rather impressive job with them, on the closer, Jerusalem. Otherwise, she does what she excels at - an excellent vocal style that knows when to anchor itself down to keep from overpowering the song, and wailing with sandstorm fury when it is called for. She definately has one of the most powerful new voices in modern music, and seems perfectly capable of wrapping itself around other idioms (her approach here inflects some funk and Asian sub-continental flavor not apparent in her solo material that preceded this release*)

Laswell is one of the most tasteful bassists out there, with a clear appreciation for the less is more approach. No pointless noodling here, just pulsing low-end, holding things down for an ocean swell of lush ambient keyboards and layers of percussion. Kale's drumming keeps things moving along and his rapport with Laswell is quite obvious. Dieng is almost always brought into sessions like these, because of the sheer range of precussive instruments he can play, and in this case he does seem to use a lot of colors to fill out the sound, but never be disruptive.

Laswell' s production quality is usually impeccable, and this is no exception. Clean but not syrupy slick, this album sounds warm and full. Fully worth investigating.

* Possibly due to her involvement in Tabla Beat Science (also featuring Karsh Kale), another Laswell project focusing on mixing electronica/turntablism and tradiational Indian insrtumentation with his dub bass prophecies and whatever else could be thrown in with the sink. She guested on their debut and the following tour, after which this album was recorded.


You will like this if you like:

Material - Hallucination Engine
Sly & Robbie (with Howie B) - Drum & Bass Strip to the Bone
Peter Gabriel - Passion
LTJ Bukem - any of the Ingredients releases
Sweetback - Sweetback

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Scritti Politti - Anomie & Bonhomie

Scritti Politti
Anomie & Bonhomie
1999 Virgin Records

Personnel:
Green Gartside - vocals, guitars, various other instruments, production
David Gamson - bass, keyboards, production/arrangements

Additional personnel:
Me'Shell N'degeocello - vocals, bass
Wendy Melvoin & Allen Cato - guitars
Abe Laboriel Jr & JuJu House - drums
Mos Def, Lee Majors & Jimahl - vocals/raps
E-Bow - Vinylism

Throughout the first half of the 80s, Scritti Politti made the transition from post-punk era outlier band that released Skank Bloc Bologna on the inimitable Rough Trade label, to become a core trio (Green Gartside, David Gamson and Fred Maher) surrounded by tier 1 studio players that would end up producing lush, art-pop such as the nearly flawless Cupid & Psyche in 1985, racking up a brigade of hit singles across the globe. The not too shabby follow-up Provision in 1988 left a positive mark, and from there the band utterly disappeared into obscurity*. That is, until 1999, when Green resurrected the SP name (and brought Gamson back into the fold) with a whole new batch of studio aces and interesting guest performers to make an album that is inherently Scritti, yet as completely evolved as one would imagine for an entity out of the spotlight for over a decade.

All the elements are still there: impeccable production quality, peerless instrumentation, infectious melodies, funky beats, a sharp pop sensibility, and most of all, Greens inscrutable, cerebral, abstract lyrics that take wordplay into strange new places (this is a fellow that could claim Jacques Derrida, the father of Deconstructionist philosophy, as a personal friend and spend weeks trawling the NYC underground vinyl scene looking for fringe hip-hop to absorb). At under 50 minutes, A&B is concise and devoid of any real filler tracks save one. Green still has an airy voice cthat omes off earnest and distancing at the same time, and this plays into his juxtapositioning of vocalists that sound nothing like him to make for a study in workable contrasts. The lead off single, Tinseltown to the Boogiedown has Lee Majors and Mos Def providing slick, jabbing rhymes in the verses, only to slip into an immediately catchy chorus from Green; the kind of mix that only works in the Scritti Politti universe. But work it does, and this is quite evident also on the rubbery funk of Die Alone which has Green's treated vocals winding in circles with the warm, supple throatiness of Me'Shell, and raps by Jimahl.

Green takes a more plaintive approach with the ballads, which in cases like First Goodbye would have sounded utterly contrived in anyone elses hands, but with Gamson's skills as an arranger, it is salvaged into a sweet elegy. It pales however, to the closing track, Brushed with Oil, Dusted with Powder, which clocks in as a 6+ minute haunting narrative under a canopy of acoustic guitars and subtle strings. The one painfully mediocre track is Born to Be which sounds like a last minute addition to satisfy the record company with one more easy single. It is still better than the cumulative catalogs of most of what passes for music on the Billboard 200, but it comes off as a blemish here.

The funkiness is pervasive on almost the entire album, with bass by Me'Shell and David Dyson being especially slinky and grooving throughout. One can also make out the always tasteful 6-string brilliance of Wendy Melvoin (ex-Prince, Seal and Clapton among others), and the sporadic use of turntables is appropriate rather than just as a ornament to make the sound appear "updated". And for the first time since probably their earliest days, you hear Green get an almost crunchy, biting sound on songs like Here Come July and the choruses to Umm. The album works as a whole, but it is reasonable to say it's all over the place.

For those that like their pop music to be ambitious and not just a small bit thoughtful, this is the kind of stuff you need to pick up. Like all really good pop albums, this has irresistable melodies, but unlike many of them, Scritti is also a band concerned with texture, atmosphere, and shifts in theme. This album is still in print and readily available in most shops (or orderable via you neighborhood Amazon url). If you are a hip-hop head that really isn't interested in the album (because it is after all, not a hip-hop record, but has some top end work by Mos Def) then try to find the single to Tinseltown as the remixes are damn tight.

You might like this if you like:

Me'shell N'degeocello - Peace Beyond Passion
Chaka Khan - Destiny
Pet Shop Boys - Behaviour
Sweetback - Phase 2

* To be fair, Green did occasionally release a collabortaive single here and there with folks like BEF and Shabba Ranks, but they were one-offs. Gamson went into songwriting and production for folks like Chaka Khan, Me'Shell N'degeocello, Madonna, Maxwell, Long Beach Dub All Stars, Zap Mama and Angie Stone. Maher did studio work, most notably for Lloyd Cole.

Thursday, December 09, 2004

Lucy Woodward - While You Can

Lucy Woodward
While You Can
2003 Atlantic Records

Lucy Woodward - voice, pointless warbling
Abe Laboriel Jr - drums
Jamie Muhoberac - keyboards
Mike Elizondo - bass
Pino Palladino - bass
Kenny Aronoff - drums
+ others

So this girl Lucy has sung sessions with all kinds of unique players like Groove Collective and Joe Cocker. So what would that lend one to think about her debut? About 4oz. of crappo. This is one of the most faceless, homogenous, pabulum of the decade. This album makes the entire output of Michelle Branch seem like the second coming of Janice Joplin. Even with session aces like Aronoff (John Mellencamp, Smashing Pumpkins) and Muhoberac (Seal) this effort comes off as completely devoid of any individuality.

I guess the record company needed a fresh set of come hither eyes and a half exposed rack tethered to a barely contained need to look different by looking like every other faux Aeropostale/Abercrombie & Fitch/Gap advert pinup (yes, we certainly haven't seen enough of those clones now have we)....

With respect to buying this, its just like the album title, While You Can , the fact is you shouldn't.

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

RIP Dimebag

Taken from an AP newswire here is the saddest news this week....some whacko decided to come up onstage while metal band Damageplan were performing and capped guitarist Dimebag Darrell dead, and possibly his brother Vinnie Paul (both alumni of Pantera).

Strange, horrid, and utterly pointless. Although for reasons that probably tie to my views on modern socity, probably sets the standard for the way to have a rock n' roll death these days. Drugs aren't good enough (because evryone is fucking chemically marinated anyway) I suppose.

More later, as bits come in; not all the bodies are identified yet.

Monday, December 06, 2004

Power Tools - Strange Meeting

Power Tools
Strange Meeting
Antille/Island 1987

Personnel:
Bill Frisell - Guitars
Melvin Bibbs - Bass
Ronald Shannon Jackson - Drums

Produced by David Breskin

This rather unknown album has a very well known pedigree. Frisell is the ranking icon of jazz cum Americana tinged guitar playing who has worked with John Zorn, Vernon Reid and Elvin Jones. Gibbs is an alumni of the NYC session scene, as well as Decoding Society, Defunkt, and would eventually join Eye & I and Rollins Band. Ronald Shannon Jackson worked with Ornette Coleman, James "Blood" Ulmer, and eventually founded The Decoding Society and Last Exit (the latter with Sonny Sharrock and Bill Laswell). It was recorded live to digital with no remixing, no editing and no overdubs on a 3 day session in early 1987. It is pretty heady stuff from a mini avant-garde supergroup.

This album does predate Gibbs's conversion to jazz-metal rockonaut and Frisell's full blown fascination with mixing American folk traditions with jazz, and it falls in the period when RSJ was running a particularly tight Decoding Society and a particularly noisy Last Exit. The results are an album of sweetly performed tracks that showcase a bone-deep understanding of studio stage telepathy and high-flying improvisation that rarely disappoints. Frisell plays in full tweak-mode, providing a complex set of structures kept mostly in check by the fuzzy logic disjointed free-funk edifice of Gibbs and Jackson. Gibbs time with Decoding Society means that he understand the unpredictability of RSJ and he is able to play along, follow, and occasionally coerce him as needed. The albums vacillates between a very quirky pastorial vibe and a rage hard free-for-all, and for the most part, it works better than expected -- and gets better with subsequent listens. The closing track, a cover of Unchained Melody is a oddly stuck coda (Odd mostly because you would never gues sthat is what it was, although it is a wonderful 'version')

While it does not get the rolling boil of some of Gibbs's and RSJ's other work, it is an excellent album to have for those who are adventurous in their jazz/fusion tastes. This is astill avant-garde jazz after all, and has its own charm. Sad that this group only made one album and a few limited tour dates. Makes you wonder of any of those gigs were ever recorded.

You might like this if you like:

Ornette Coleman - In All Languages
Material - Live in Japan
Steve Coleman - Lucidarium
Henry Threadgill - Too Much Sugar For a Dime
the second side of King Crimson - Beat

Sunday, December 05, 2004

Killing Joke - For Beginners

This compilation gets its material from the years the band was on the EG label (1979-1988). Like many of the acts on the label (i.e. King Crimson, Roxy Music) KJ was an iconoclastic unit with arty pretensions. Unlike any of the acts on EG, it was utterly incorrigible, and in terms of aggression unmatched.

This album is great for completist collectors, but really provides at best a mediocre introduction to KJ for the new listener. I completely ignores some of their biggest tracks, such as Wardance, Love Like Blood and the now classic Eighties (whose guitar riff Kurt Cobain would recycle wholesale for Nirvana's Come as You Are several years later). It also makes mention of the universally panned Outside the Gate album ( a release even KJ frontman Jaz Coleman disowns), and ignores the four critically excellent albums made after EG, including last years brilliant self-titled album featuring Dave Grohl on drums.

It does have some great extra tracks, such as the live version of Fall of Because and several other tracks never released on cd, or remixed with improved dynamics. One can see how so many bands have claimed KJ as an influence: Nirvana, NIN, Godflesh, Sarah MacLachlin, Metallica and Helmet among them. For a good intro to KJ, pick up two albums, Laugh? I nearly Bought One! and any of the last 3 releases, and you are on your way to a healthy dose of excellent musicialship, unbridled aggression, and apocalyptic sonic fury.

Saturday, December 04, 2004

The Brand New Heavies return

So after several years, the Brand New heavies have returned. They have a new album, a new single, and a new singer (the lovely Nicole Russo, who is the best set of pipes they have had since N'Dea Davenport, and looks taylor made for a Maxim photospread)

They have samples up on their website as well as the first video, for Boogie, a funky, modern, danceable slice of soul. BNH were always a class unto themelves and were part of that early pack of UK acid-jazz acts that have consistently put out great material, along with Jamiroquai, D'Influence, Jhelisa, and Omar (almost all of which got started on Gilles Peterson's Acid Jazz and Talkin' Loud labels).

It is definately good to hear them back, after the misfires they had with Carleen Anderson (she only recorded a few tracks with them, and never quiet seemed to gel with BNH as well as even Siedah Garrett). Carleen's voice, while a powerful and expressive instrument, didn't seem to fit with the more laid back nature of BNH (although her material with them and her own solo work is definately work tracking down. The problem with BNH is that is seemed as if she was temporary, so you never got the feeling that there would be much more than there was...so you kind of kept waiting to see who would come in next instead of getting acclimated to Carleen).

Siedah Garrett always gave one the impression that she was not long for this band, even while their one album together, Shelter produced some excellent material. It

If the video is any indication, they once again have a club-cred diva handling the frontperson duties, while Jan Kincaid, Simon Bartholemew and Andrew Levy do what they do best - write, arrange, and perform great grooves.