Steve Tibbetts - The Fall of Us All

Steve Tibbetts
The Fall of Us All
ECM 1993

Produced by Steve Tibbetts

Personnel:
Steve Tibbetts - Guitars, Percussion, Discs
Marc Anderson - Congas, Steel Drum, Percussion
Marcus Wise - Tabla
Jim Anton, Eric Anderson - Bass
Claudia Schmidt, Rhea Valentine - Voices
Mike Olsen - Synths

Steve Tibbetts has been around for decades holed up in Minneapolis, Minnesota when he isn't busy searching for new musical structures in places like Tibet, Nepal and the Polynesian Islands. A rather eclectic mix puts him in an overlap in spaces also travelled by folks like Bill Laswell, Jon Hassell, Brian Eno, Robert Fripp and Jah Wobble among others.

His guitar style is a collage of approaches; from pastoral, resonant acoustic work to punked-out electric feedback and short bursts of compressed riffing and slurred out drones. On this album (his only release of the 1990s) he relied on open backdrops of fever-dream synthesizers, tribal percussion and the occasional vocal chant to build rythmic structures to snake his stringwork through.

The album starts with an electro-crash angular workout called Dzogchen Punks which simply alternates between pummeling you and relenting for 7 minutes of sonic catharsis. Like Tom Morello meets the Dalai Lama. Nyemma crosscuts Celtic and Balinese percussion with a sweet sounding acoustic phrase here andthere as it builds to a delirious apogee and then crashes down in an apoplexy inducing noise-solo. Formless is largely well named, since most of it comes down to sounding like a long tone poem, rather than a typcially structured composition, with long, complicated lines of interlocked string instruments providing the propulsion before things fully disintegrate. Hellbound Train is a dark and distressed slow motion nightmare that sounds like Porcupine Tree doing the theme for the movie Deliverance.

The album was clearly meant to be listened to as a full work, and it paces well as such. While certaily not designed for the faint of heart, those that enjoy a more varied content may enjoy this. It makes for engaging listening or as a rather lush backdrop to a really avant-garde martini party.

You might like this if you like:

Dead Can Dance - any
Peter Gabriel - Passion
Eno/Byrne - My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
Fripp/Rieflin/Gunn - The Repercussions of Angelic Behavior

Francis Dunnery - Let's Go Do What Happens

Francis Dunnery
Let's Go DO What Happens
Razor & Tie 1998

Produced by Francis Dunnery & Stephen Harris

Francis Dunnery - most of the instruments
Erin Moran - vocals
Stephen Harris -guitars
Jon Montagna - bass
+ others

Francis Dunnery has come a long way from his days leading the rather odd 80s band It Bites (imagine equal parts of hair-metal, XTC style art-pop, and guitar heavy neo-prog noodling), and the results have been badly overlooked by the public. FD is an alternative alternative/pop artist who straddles the easily accesible with the slightly off-kilter nature of someone who also writes the horoscope for Billboard magazine and takes a very serious interest in astrology and seems to occupy some weird naval-gazing universe of his own.

This was his first album after parting ways with Atlantic records, and the results were more developed but not over-produced. He has since It Bites, eschewed his ability to make overtly complex guitar bits and has crafted artsy pop tunes with catchy melodies and the occasional quick, utilitarian solo; this album follows in that tradition.

His singing style and lyrics have a characteristic that I can only describe as innately English, and his lyrics are occasionally quite brilliant (as on the infinitely funny Riding on the Back and the sad acoustic Jonah) or otherwise at least not stupid (at worst they border on non-sequiters coupled with bursts of positivity in spots). He plays with styles, but not so obtuse as to make things just smash together incoherently. There are bits of reggae, breezy jazz, folk and the occasional blues riff or electronic flourish all are thrown into an overall mix of well crafted pop-rock and made to add variety to an otherwise very consistent sound.

The production quality of the album is very high, and matches the quality of the material which results in a largely earthy yet modern sound. This is well worth taking a listen to.

You might like this if you like:
Dave Matthews Band - Everyday
Marillion - Radiation
Sting - All This Time
GooGoo Dolls - Dizzy Up the Girl
Kevin Gilbert - Thud

Mark Stewart Releases new compilation

For those who do not know, Mark Stewart was a member of the influential and deeply bleeding edge Pop Group, later to form Mark Stewart and the Maffia (which began as his move from post-punk to industrial and fringe electronica became more pronounced). Both units were unique to say the least. Contrary to what the article mentions, the Pop Group was just as influential on radical punk as much as affecting the Bristol Sound. Mark's output has been uneven since PG, and other members have gone on to also do rather disparate things since (including working with Neneh Cherry and Caron Wheeler in Rig, Rig and Panic). Pop Group were noisier post-punk than most (you had to really bloody well mean it when you put on the headphones -- the leftist agit-hatred of Gang of Four, coupled with a sonic tension that bordered on ready to fully disintegrate at any moment and a penchant towards radical experimentation).

Now that there is a compilation of his work out from that period, you emo weenies and pop-punk sycophants can go buy a real album with genuine anger, political bile, and outright dissonant noisy rebellion.

Or if you actually have a pair, you can go see Mark live in London with the members of Tack>>Head do a live DJ set with Aphex Twin.

'Til Tuesday - Everything's Different Now

'Til Tuesday
Everything's Different Now
CBS/Columbia Records 1988

Produced by Rhett Davies, co-produced by Bruce Lampcov

Personnel:
Aimee Mann - vocals, bass, acoustic guitar
Michael Hausman - drums, percussion, programming

Additional Personnel:
Tiger Okoshi - trumpet
Marcus Miller - bass
Elvis Costello - backing vocals
Michael Montes - keyboards
+ others

Way back when (has it been 2 decades?) before Aimee Mann became the quietly cantankerous indie singer-songwriter icon, she fronted a quartet in the 80s that initially made some rather impressive pop music that eventually scaled down to a duet and made....well...mostly mediocre audio puff-pastries.

'Til Tuesday's debut was a rough around the edges pop gem that has remained famous if only for Mann's rather more stylish take on Rod Stewart-style hair, and the one mega-uber-ur hit Voices Carry. This is unfortunate since the album had quite a few other minor hits, some of them superior songs to VC -including my own personal favorites Love in a Vacuum and I Could Get Used To This - and actually had a sharpness that while clearly dated to the 80s, stands up well. Their sophomore effort was a bit more staid, but still offered some good radio-friendly pop that moved away from their initially New Wave leanings. By the time Everything's Different Now was released, only Mann and Hausman were left, and the music production overall went downhill even though Mann's songwriting itself was improving.

Mann has a knack for writing plain language narratives and pithy statements about human foibles. This albums is no exception in that regard, with tracks about her dissolved relationship with Jules Shear (Limits to Love, J for Jules) and more open-ended ditties like Other End (Of the Telescope) showcase her deftness at the composition desk. But the quirkiness of the debut album's sound is largely gone, replaced by very trite, stunted performances and sounds. The whole album sounds extremely forced when it's not busy floundering in generic pop-melody hell. The only exception to this may be Crash and Burn, with Long Gone (Buddy) a possible runner-up. Even Mann's engaging vocal style is boxed in and left to fight against a staging that does not compliment her well.

Considering Rhett Davies (Roxy Music, King Crimson) produced this, and that having collaborated with Elvis Costello, this album simply is not what it should have been, and is a sad excuse for a swan song on one of the more promising acts from the first half of the 80s. Thankfully Mann's solo work has been far more consistent and of high quality, as far removed from TT as anything else, but still impeccably in its craft.

Do yourself a favor, skip this and go for their debut.

TT Trivia: Mann is currently married to musician Michael Penn (brother to actor Sean Penn), and was once part of an early 80s collective that would eventually become Ministry.

Cherry WIne - Bright Black

Cherry Wine
Bright Black
Dcide/Babygrande Records 2003

Cherry Wine - vocals, guitar
Thaddeus Turrner - guitar, voice, talkbox, keys
Gerald Tugboat Turner - bass, vocals
Bubba Jones - guitar, keys, vocals

Back in the first half of the 1990s a great hip-group made 2 unflinchingly great hip-hop albums, and then hipped and hopped their way into oblivion. They were Digable Planets. By 1996 they were no more and the 3 core members largely went the way of obscuram. Since 2003 however, a single here and there and rumours of solo releases have popped up. This is the first one I could find, and it was by then-named Butterfly (there was also LadyBug and Doodlebug), now named Cherry Wine (real name Ishmael Butler), and boy what a disappointment.

There have been rumors that his live shows are actually fairly lively, inventive affairs, but you would not get that impression from listening to the album Bright Black. What few great riffs and flows there are end up being bookended with third tier neo-soulogisms and undercooked funk. The multi guitar dynamic has so much potential but is weakened by insufficiently hefty drum parts (all very tinny samples and programmed with very little variation) and bass that seems to drop out too often. There seems to be an attempt to marry the jazziness of 70s era Miles with more modern hip-hop, but it jut never comes together. No one here is Pete Cosey, and as far as making the rap-fusion mix work, the only success so far has been Mos-Def's The New Danger (and he was smart enough to get a band of comperable players covering all the bases). There is a brief moment when he seems to be delving into the abstract weirdness of early Divine Styler on See For Miles and his Prince Black Album knock off Sleep Pretty Girl falls over itself trying to be a 3 minute come on to whichever groupie seems most convenient.

I can certainly see where some of the guitar vamps, along with a live drummer and less thin band sound, along with a more relaxed Cherry Wine might make for a great evening show at the local vibe-lounge. But Bright Black does not giev one that immediate impression on its own.

Mutant Audio Friday

So, yesterday was get-the-kit-set-up-at-Greg's-studio day. All went largely well. I got everything to work except for the Roland hi-hat pedal, which I am sure can be fixed somehow, and is most likely a by-product of my rudimentary skills with midi drum kits. I ahven't even programmed drums since the early 90s using mostly a Yamaha DX-11 and Opcode on a decrepit Macintosh.

Playing on an electronic kit is an altogether alien experience, as I had never spent more than a few minutes on one, and only just to fiddle with at the music store. The Pintech drums themselves have a decent enough rebound/feel, but are still different enough to make getting used to a less than instant process. The pedals were responsive and about the only stickler is the hi-hat, which is a cylinder shaped pad and one that does not lend itself to the way I like to play a hi-hat (I have a habit of trying to be Stewart Copeland, so you can imagine where this may cause a littel consternation.) There may be a workaround with Greg bringing in a pair of Roland V-drumstyle pads in to utilize.

The Alesis DM5 brain is simple enough to use, easy to adjust, but I certainly was not able to grok all the possibilities with it in just one session. We'll see what happens when it gets run through the mixing board and Greg's collection of tawdry effects and samples. Greg has a knack for finding good sounds.

The bottom line is, it was fun to play again, and with people, even if it was a case of saved by technology

I think next month I'll have to set up the acoustic kit at the house for use as well.

Damage Manual

Damage Manual
The Damage Manual (Special Edition limited to 4000 copies)
Invisible Records 2005

Produced by Martin Atkins and Steven Siebold

Personnel:
Chris Connelly - Vocals, e-bow, guitar
Martin Atkins - Drums and low end teaks and blips
Steven Siebold - guitar and bass

The Damage Manual started a few years back as a collection of cranky old punks and industrial hazards who needed some playtime away from their day jobs: Chris Connelly (Revolting Cocks), Geordie (Killing Joke), Jah Wobble (Invaders of the Heart, Public Image Limited), and Martin Atkins (Pigface). They made an EP and an album of exceptional quality that transcended the potential baggage of so many heavyweights in one recording studio. Then as many projects of their ilk go, someone (or in this case, someones) leave -- Geordie to the latest KJ tour and studio album, Jah Wobble for who the hell knows.

Considering my deep admiriation for both those fellows, and how much they were a part of the sound, one would wonder what DM would degenerate into without them. It is not that Connelly and Atkins are slouches - quite the contrary - but it was that heady mix of 4 quite volatile elements that gave the DM its surprisingly caustic and propellant vibe.

They ended up opting to replace them with a studio hound, Steven Siebold (Information Society, Hate Dept) who fills the shoes adequately, although lacking the X-factor of his predecessors. He apes Geordies crispness but doesn't capture the same serrated audiogore that only he can muster (although he comes damn close on I Am War Again). And bass-wise, things run a bit more on the side of conventional.

So now that I have run down the less impressive aspect of this affair, I can still say this is one hell of an album. The album goes for a less artsy, more conventional feel, but it does so with the same go for the jugular attitude, and the dry, menacing sound is captured in the studio with a clean, dry mix that suits the material. What Siebold lacks in the recording booth, he makes up for behind the mixing desk, and Atkins has always known how to make albums sound balanced and cleanly mixed, while never removing any actual grit and corrosion that needs to be there.

Speaking of Atkins, his drumming is simple and direct, but not boring. He pounds the crap out of the skins and pushes things along like it bloody well matters. Connelly continues to pose as the underground rock answer to David Bowie. His voice bears such striking similarities to Bowie at times you wonder if it isn't Bowie (try listening to Limited Edition without immediately thinking Station to Station-era Bowie, I dare you) but for the fact that his brogue is still quite apparent. His singing is sincere and bordering on pretentious with his sometime offkilter lyrics (i.e. Mad Dialects and South Pole Fighters come to mind), but never boorish.

There are a bunch of choice tracks on this: Revenge Fiction, No Act of Grace, I Am War Again and the sole remnant of the previous DM period on this album, the closer Expand remixed by Can (or I will assume Holger Czukay by himself).

If anything this album is probably a better intro to DM to a generation of kids who worship at the altars of all the weenie punk/industrial/emo bands that wouldn't exist but for the groundwork laid out by this groups pedigree. Take a listen.

You might like this if you like:
NIN - With Teeth
David Bowie - Outside
Killing Joke - Extremities, Dirt and Various Repressed Emotions
Garbage - Bleed Like Me