best of new arrivals, 3/30
Photo by illenion
Here’s a look at the six best albums that arrived on eMusic this week, according to this man’s slightly informed opinion.
Apologies for the aggregated post, but Friday’s new arrivals are pretty thin, and there was lots of great stuff this week worth noting. Please post your nominees in the comments section — if we get enough to do a second post of your picks, I’d be glad to do it!
01 Keith Hudson, Brand: More classic dub from Hudson, who we previously discussed on 17 Dots. The AMG review: “Only available at outrageous collector’s prices, Brand was finally rescued by producer and dub mastermind Adrian Sherwood for his label Pressure Sounds. Exhilarating and powerful, Brand proves that Pick a Dub was no fluke and that Hudson was simultaneously writing and rewriting the book of dub. Rhythmically dense and intense (thanks to bassist Ranchie and drummer Sly Dunbar), Brand is sinewy instead of slick, powerfully direct instead of playfully obscure. If you’re hep to Hudson’s vibe after listening to Pick a Dub, then you won’t be able to live another day without Brand.”
Reader and all-around smart dude Daniel had this to say, “I downloaded Brand. It’s fantastic. His voice seems more prominent on this disc than it was on Pick-A-Dub (still my favorite Hudson dub album). Nuh Skin Up is good, too.”
02 Barrington Levy, Englishman: I’ll be a bit brief as Joe just wrote a longer Levy post, but Englishman is Levy’s 1979 debut, and it is a strikingly soulful reggae record, really sweet and heartfelt, a far cry from his contemporary, more tech-heavy works. I’d like to offer this up as an overlooked roots-reggae classic.
03 Ron Franklin, City Lights: This is a really special record. Ron Franklin is based out of Memphis, but according to a couple of articles I found about him today (read them here and here, both are fascinating), he spent time in New York and Amsterdam while writing really simple and pure Southern blues and rock songs, backed by one of the biggest Southern blues/rock legends of all, Jim Dickinson, on City Lights.
This album, his ninth, but the first on a bona fide label, doesn’t take many chances, and yet that’s somehow to its benefit. His voice is a soft tenor, very straight and plain in a manner that’s entirely to his songs’ benefit. It’s the directness, the lack of decoration, that makes these 12 songs so special — it reminds me a bit of the straighter songs on Wilco’s Being There, tunes that were born when they were written, not in their arrangement or recording. (I’m somewhat underselling the arrangements, as songs like “Lula Wall” are quite intricate.) The gospel reworking of Chuck Berry’s “Thirty Days” is particularly strong — love that organ! — but it’s the title track, so spacious and empty, that really slays me. Franklin’s voice sounds very much like Jeff Tweedy — this could easily have appeared on Uncle Tupelo’s total, utter classic, March 16-20, 1992 — and yet very much his own, too. He doesn’t have a great voice by any stretch, but he knows exactly how to use it. This is worth every download, I promise you. (Just to back this up even more, I called my father today to tell him to go buy this. Family recommended, even! I think the last record I so fervently suggested to him was that most recent Bobby Bare Jr. record, which was a real treat. He loved that one, by the way.)
An addendum to this review, by the way: more than anything, I now think Franklin’s voice sounds like Dylan’s on Nashville Skyline.
04 Mono, You Are There: Big, orchestral post-rock, though not quite at Godspeed level — quieter, mainly — but who knows what crescendos lurk in those 12-plus minute tracks…
Addendum: As some comments pointed out, this album is by Mono, a band I know and love! (I reviewed one of their records for City Pages many years ago.)
05 Teiji Ito, Tenno: Ito has been composing film scores and writing music since 1952 (he died in 1982), but until this album today, I had never heard (or heard of, for that matter) him. The six pieces here are very intricate compositions that bridge free jazz, traditional Japanese musics and menacing animal samples (elephants stampeding, etc). This is a harrowing and absolutely stunning work that is very much reminiscent of Kurosawa and Ozu’s films, even if I were ignorant of the Japanese connection. “Tenno,” by the way, is apparently a reference to Tenno Beach, which bears some relationship to the Emperor of Japan (thanks Wikipedia!). I am in love with this record.
06 The Fall, Reformation Post T.L.C.: Joe has really been into this record (I have yet to listen), and his eMusic review articulates his thoughts well. A sampling: “The angriest Fall record in recent memory opens with the sound of Mark E. Smith cackling. It’s not a happy laugh — instead it’s wild and unhinged, a kind of foreshadowing of sinister times… While the record’s title goes a long way to imply its contents (Post-TLC can — and probably should — be read as “post tender loving care”), its sheer nastiness, even for a noted misanthrope like Smith, is genuinely bracing.” Other reviewers have been much less generous toward this new one, but I’m excited to find out for myself.
Addendum: After listening, I am not nearly as enthusiastic as Joe, but it does have its moments, and it is MES, so it gets a spot. I’m willing to keep trying, even if MES stopped years ago…
We had some interesting baile funk by a guy called DJ Sany Pitbull. I haven’t had chance to give it a proper listen yet, but I like what I’ve heard so far. The track called Kraftfunk is my personal choice. And I’d avoid one of the earlier ones (I wish I could remember which) where he starts shouting “DJ Sany!” in a faintly derranged manner.
Thanks for the “all-around smart dude” comment! My wife would say you’ve perjured yourself most profoundly.
hey yancey - re: #5 - any recommendations for my godzilla mix? it starts out with “teardrop boy” by guitar wolf. the .mpeg that comes with this mix has about 25 shots of the wolf in concert rotated every 3 seconds or so…at the end, i have an ocean floor shot with bubbles rising from the ocean floor…then an mpeg back to the concert with a female japanese concert goer exiting the concert and walking down the stairs. (bubbles going up, stairs going down - you can tell this is gonna be big)
the next track is “maria” by hitomi. yerp…my way of slappin’ new york in the face and lettin’ it know it’s just a godzilla wannabe town.
there’s alot more trax, but the acccompanying mpeg screenplay is still in progress - here’s a few more so you can select something from #5 above to meld in with it:
sleeping giant by mastodon
tokyo by hormiga
undersea by maiflowertime
1% of monster by mogwai
terrible monster attacking crew by trs-80
adrift by the cranes
swamp by ass pocket full of whiskey
japan mountain by tristeza
and about the first 50 seconds of hong kong by deepchild
ok - help me out. godzilla is the theme!
68
well, no yancey, no surprise.
maybe he needs a bit more depth behind the project…which was once known as “the super stalled projekt”. here’s a blurb i shot over to quacky:
a mini project that I could use your wizardry with…a Godzilla mix. I’ve got some odd aspirations for it…to have a complete story around it with two over-riding rules:
1. it sticks religiously to the Godzilla cheese (powerlines down, jetfighter assault, asexual lizard, remote island, atomic accident, emergency broadcast, civilian population/panic, military command central )
2. the story has to be completely off the Godzilla format…with that said I think I’ve come up with a nice device to make it happen – namely absurd tectonic plate activity which causes Tokyo to be rammed alongside Georgia. This will open up a gothic south angle that heretofore has been lacking in the Godzilla format!!! PLUS it will once again leave new york city in its Godzilla wannabe status. How great is that!!!
so, there…mebbe that will help inspire that ol’ yancey to action. of course, he’s in new york city and we all know how pathetic that town is when it comes to godzilla.
68
i think the only conceivable track would be the first one, which is not quite as raucous, and, most importantly, is shorter than eight minutes. (it’s also v good.)
not only do i hear you i also can read between the lines - so i’ll just throw it out there for everyone to see:
“68: this is a great idea! sending out a godzilla themed mix to your mix exchange group AND including a bonus godzilla .mpeg movie as part of the package is kickass! so i get the opening scene with guitar wolf…it defines the setting and intro’s two key characters with that phenomenal transitional device. but what happens next??? there’s about ten of us here just crawling up the walls to see how you get to the trs-80 track!!! y’er buddy, yancey.”
“ps: can you lighten up on the new york being lame bit - it’s not like we all walk around with cut-out matthew broderick facemasks.”
in response, well, the what happens next is the hitomi track. i’m torn between good and evil on this one as hitomi represents an awful lot to the pop scene. that’s where i need to take things out of their natural environment as well as start intro-ing the meta modern southern gothic feel. the next scene goes like this:
two late teen guys are driving rural roads…they look very similar and are probably twins. the guitar wolf track ends and the cd ejects from the head. the passenger teen slides in the hitomi cd…the camera follows the car’s route for a bit. 1/3 of the way into the track, the driver lowers the volume and says “what the hell is this?” - passenger just turns the volume back up and rawks. the driver shakes his head and offers “i’ll never understand you, ray.” and laughs a bit. the camera continues with their route and as the song ends the car pulls into a private lane that winds to a shack. atop the shack rests the sign “madame rachel’s fortune telling”
OK, bear with me on [url="http://www.emusic.com/samples/m3u/song/10593898/11029260.m3u"]this one[url], I think you’ll find it fits. Track 11 [url="http://www.emusic.com/album/10593/10593898.html"]here[/url].
Oh crap, BB code doesn’t work here.
Try Being Boiled, original Human League if you can find it, a Heaven 17 version is on eMu. It has that tone that would be called ‘teutonic’ if it were German, not sure what the Japanese equivalent would be.
official entry to the godzilla mix: “akuma no uta” by boris per porieux’ rec. monstrous.
i know this is pretty far out of the way for folks to keep track of the official godzilla mix accompanying .mpeg dvd so i’ll try and consolidate a few things - as they come from every angle.
from the emu message board, confused offered up a few recs and i have to agree that the Acumen Nation track “monster zero v. mothra” is absolutely a fit. more to follow.
from my private mail, yancey followed up with this: “68. just got to tell you we had a blast with your last post…saturday nite i had a bunch of folks over for drinks i decided to break out the laptop and open up the godzilla thread - just to see what would happen. amazingly, the entire party dug it and everyone wants to know where’s this all going. work it, man.
o. nobody seems uptight about new york being lame so sorry for making an issue out of it. - yancey”
from mutex at the japanese nation/epcot (disney world): “68. security is heavy. i’m pretty sure quacky will be coming here in disguise. next step?”
in response: thx everyone - and colin, i need to find time to assess that human league material - stay with me. confused: i’ll keep working the additional material altho i need to find a few tracks that are suited for character development - like Aki No Koto No Ha to convey the japanese fortune teller (stay tuned). i may have enough of the hevvy tracks to get by. my request for you is to play the boris track real loud a bunch and come to the conclusion that there’s no topper…then, listen to “japan mountain” by tristeza and feel that out…that’s what i need more > to intertwine the character ray and the daughter of the fortune teller.
yancey: great - this is fun - and like i said, i can’t wait to get to the boris track and write the action scene! but here’s where things go from the last entry (and appreciate the feedback, so ask the party-goers what they like/question/fear, etc…):
ray and his twin, dashiell, exit car. dashiell asks “isn’t this old hoagie’s fish store?” both step up well worn stairs. ray presses doorbell. (using audacity, about a minute of “aki no koto no ha” plays.) during the interlude dashiell notes a message neatly written “under new management” on a piece of tape near the doorbell. he pulls back the tape and the words “hoagie’s live bait” are seen. dashiell gives ray a crooked gaze and reapplies the tape. music fades. solid wood door opens inward. thru screen door a young woman’s voice in a soft, welcoming tone “raymond. so good to see you. come in.”
ray looks down and then up - “thanks. i brought my brother with me. thought you might like to meet him.” screen door opens. ray enters. dashiell follows. thru dashiell’s eyes, the camera centers on a young asian woman. jeans, white long sleeve shirt under a soft blue, worn t-shirt.
to be continued.
mutex: quacky is big in japan now. security will be tight from every point forward. you have to somehow reach him and give him the message.
asian woman!