It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. By which I mean: there’s hardly anything coming out. Let’s dive into the few treasures under the tree this week.
Anthony Hamilton, Back to Love: Kind of great, dusky throwback R&B — this draws more from the early ’70s than the au courant mid ’60s aping stuff. Little bit of disco, little bit of Gamble & Huff, little bit of Al Green, little bit of all good. RECOMMENDED
Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stage Whisper: Have you guys seen Melancholia yet? INTENSE. Charlotte Gainsbourg’s latest — a mix of live tracks and new material — isn’t nearly as intense. In that the world isn’t destroyed by another planet at any point during the album (and that’s not a spoiler — that’s how the movie opens). Sounds a bit more percussive and electro than the (excellent) Beck-assisted IRM.
Michael Gira, The Milk of M. Gira: Selected Home Recordings: You know what it is! It’s ya boy Mike Gira, delivering a bunch of spare and brittle tunes he recorded at home. Mostly just acoustic guitar and Gira’s tombstone voice, and yet still creepy as hell.
Various Artists, Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want: A Tribute to the Smiths: OK, sure! You know the deal with these: about half the songs are cool, about half miss the mark. But, you know, it’s December 13th, so in the case of Beggars vs. Choosers, the jury finds for the defendant. On the pro side, we’ve got Kitten doing kind of an amazing version of “Panic” and Doug Martsch doing “Reel Around the Fountain.”
Gucci Mane & V-Nasty, Baytl: This sounds totally fun. Gucci teams up with Bay Area rapper V-Nasty to rap over production that sounds like it was field-recorded at a neighborhood carnival. In the first song, Gucci rhymes like 17 things with the word “water,” ending with, “You make-believed n****s Harry Potter.” All of the V-Nasty verses sound kind of hilarious, and she has a kind of unctuous little-kid delivery that cracks me up.
Howard Tate, Get It While You Can: Perfect timing, actually. Old compilation of the recently-departed, criminally overlooked soul singer Howard Tate shows up, and proves over the course of its hour-plus running length what a spectacular talent Tate was. This is smoldering R&B, driven by Tate’s passionate vocals. Absolutely essential and HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Various Artists, Screaming Gospel Holy Rollers, Vol. 2: YES. Sequel to the incredible gospel comp that came out last week, loaded with more foot-stompers, hand-raisers and Lord-praisers. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Hearts & Horses, The Hearts & Horses Method: This does not sound like what you might think a band called Hearts & Horses would sound like, which is a good thing in my book. Lots of weird electronics, kind of cockeyed, jazzy arrangements — dense layers of sound that rumble and kick.
Snoop Dogg & Wiz Khalifa, Mac and Devin Go to School: Well, this was inevitable. Weed-obsessed old school rapper teams with weed-obsessed new school rapper. Mediocrity ensues. This is the soundtrack to a movie that’s apparently coming out next year.
Cough Cool, Lately: I was a fan of this band’s strangeoid first record for Not Not Fun. This sounds like more scuzzy goodness — some strange electro haze, filthy guitars and far-off vocals make this one for the weirdos, in the best possible way. RECOMMENDED
yU, The Earn: Nimble batch of hip-hop from our friends at the great Mello Music label continues their streak of hard-knocking, dependable hip-hop. It’s RECOMMENDED. eMusic’s Nate Patrin sez:
yU’s Sophomore solo release The Earn follows his 2009 work with Diamond District and his debut Before Taxes in proving what a potent aesthetic that situation can create. On the mic, yU sounds confident and comfortable in a finely honed style: he’s a classicist informed by peak ’90s Golden Age and later-decade indie rap, heavy on assonant internal rhymes and sociopolitical-meets-personal material that hits the sweet spot for vintage hip-hop preservationists.
Cage the Elephant, Live From the Vic in Chicago: Raucous live album from a band I love, but no one else seems to. What’s wrong with you people? Ragged, loose, frenetic and good.
FX, Now Where Were We?: Mega obscure ’70s punk band that’s pretty lo-fi and scuzzy and features a cover of Bowie’s “Queen Bitch.”
The Soup Dragons, Hotwired: I got way too excited when I saw we got this today. I was unjustifiably way into this record in high school. “Divine Thing,” man. It is still a jam. #BaggyForLife
–> Jazz Picks
By Dave Sumner
Not a lot of new jazz releases since last week, but I often fear that decent albums get lost in Tuesday avalanches, and a few of those I’m recommending this week might’ve fallen victim as well, had I not been able to spend a little more time giving them a listen.
Espen Rud, Dobbledans: I hate to refer to this album as “straight-ahead,” because it consistently diverges from that. Much like a city skyline reflected on a lake looks real until waves ripple the image, so does Dobbeldans mirror a conventional modern jazz album. Melodies that, at first glance, seem pretty straightforward suddenly shimmer with the impressively light touch of bass clarinet. A tune that proceeds along pleasantly suddenly is transformed by the entrance of Eastern percussion on the tabla. Baritone sax and soprano trade gentle murmurs and cries. So close to conventional and so enjoyably out of reach. RECOMMENDED
Various Artists, Music for the Film “Sounds and Silence”: A compilation of excellent ECM songs that were used in the documentary about ECM founder Manfred Eicher. A who’s-who of modern ECM soundscapers like Nik Bartch’s Ronin, Jan Garbarek, Keith Jarrett, Anouar Brahem, Marilyn Mazur and Dino Saluzi. All of these songs have appeared on previous releases except for two, with Eleni Karaindrou and Jan Garbarek. It’s really a beautiful compilation, and if you don’t have a ton of modern ECM in your library, this is a solid choice to get a listen to a lot of fantastic ECM musicians all on the same album. RECOMMENDED
Charles Lloyd, Athens Concert:
Lloyd’s Athens Concert has received wildly divergent responses from fans. One camp thinks the pairing with vocalist Maria Farantouri is a sublime affair, whereas others hate the presence of anything that interferes with their enjoyment of Lloyd’s sax ensemble. Lloyd’s career is approaching that of living-legend, and his output has increased with age, both in terms of frequency of recording and the quality of those albums. Me, personally, I’m not usually a fan of vocals in my jazz, but I gotta say that it really worked for me here. Would’ve loved to have been there live for their performance. Ensemble includes the excellent Jason Moran on piano. Addition of a lyra as an instrument is pretty cool. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Sinikka Langeland, Maria’s Song: I’m not exactly sure which sub-division of the ECM label this was originally distributed on, but it definitely fits in with their neo-classical folk music line of works. This is a nice album, with Maria’s pretty voice accompanied by kantele, viola, and organ, but it’s not to be confused with jazz. ECM is a nice source of jazz, however, if you’re unfamiliar with the label, so feel free to follow that ECM link and poke around the discography. There are some decent recommendation threads on the forum, of which yours truly has contributed.
A couple older ECM albums dropped, too, including Richie Beirach, Eon, Dave Liebman, Lookout Farm, and Paul Bley, Ballads.
Andy Miles, Then and Now:
A very pretty album featuring the clarinet of Andy Miles, backed by a solid lineup including the excellent Jon Goldsby on bass and Oliver Wenhold on cello. The album can get a bit light at times with the orchestration, and the occasional vocals don’t always do the album justice, but Miles’ delicate touch on clarinet is a joy to listen to, and the ensemble is really tight and makes it very easy to embrace this album, warts and all. Gotta RECOMMEND this one.
Tzwing, Tzwing:
A very fun set of Gypsy swing tunes. Two guitars, a violin, and contrabass; this string quartet skips happily along, slowing the pace for the occasional languid ballad before breaking into another brisk cant. Albums ends with a pretty vocal contribution on the song “Lili Marlene”. A nice deal at just under five bucks. I think I’m already starting to get addicted to this album. RECOMMENDED
Michiel Stekelenburg Quartet, Hypnos:
This was an interesting find. Stekelenburg and his guitar nicely straddle the line between straight-ahead jazz and nu-jazz, incorporating the swing rhythms of the former with the non-traditional approach to melody of the latter. The end result is a pleasant wandering stroll that you can tap your foot to.
Mark O’Leary, Waves III:
Post-jazzer Mark O’Leary gets his ambient drone on with Jeff Gauthier’s electric violin and Alex Cline’s gentle rainfall percussion. Arguable if this should be classified under jazz, but all three musicians have solid jazz resumes, and the album is nice slice of peacefulness, so I figured I’d mention it. Easily could see this appealing outside the jazz tent. Some of you Kranky fans might want to give this a listen.
La Orquesta Inestable, La Orquesta Inestable:
An throwback swing ensemble, this septet brings together guitars, accordion, trumpet, violin, doublebass, drums, and some vocals for a series of wistful and happy tunes. Uncomplicated and sincere, this is swing of long ago with a present day voice. Just sit back and enjoy.
Molnbar av John, Thundersketches:
Well, this one’s a little different. When indie musician Momus and turntablist John Henriksson collaborated on Thunderclown, they created a palette of old scratchy vinyl 45s, jazz instruments, and various items found in alleys and hardware stores for an unclassifiable miasma of sound. Thundersketches is Henriksson displaying some of the source material for the initial album and then toying with it some more. This album and the original Thunderclown are the type of albums that emusic should shout from the rooftops. Experimentation, forward thinking approach, and an oddly nostalgic sound. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
–> Singles & EPs
Field Music, “I Keep Thinking About a New Thing”: New, kinda jagged single from Field Music from their forthcoming 4th record, out in February.
Graham Repulski, “My Color is Red”: Mega lo-fi single with very sweet indie-ish melody that’s kind of like Bob Pollard going even lower fi than he usually does. There is more hiss than music on here.
Nicki Minaj, “Roman in Moscow”: In case you haven’t yet found this on the internet. I still find Nicki hilarious.
Sole & the Skyrider Band, The Challenger EP: Space-age rhymes and productions from alt-rap outfit.
The Vaccines, “Tiger Blood”: Finally got around to getting obsessed with this band’s full-length, released last year, when they drop this single named after an expression popularized by Charlie Sheen, so now I’m annoyed at them all over again.
Nice to see some great new releases, especiall the ECM records, however the vast majority are not available in the UK. 2 questions it would be good to be answered.
1/ What about highlighting some UK product, we have not had any for weeks
2/ What is the situation regarding ECM and the New Series in the UK, I have requested some items a long time ago and heard nothing
Hey!
So ECM delays their digital titles by 3 months; if you let us know which titles you’re interested in, we can follow up!
UK roundups have been a bit slower lately as, much as it is in the US, the release schedule is pretty bare. Expect it to pick back up in the new year!
Where is the Cage the Elephant “Live from the Vic in Chicago” album? It doesn’t seem to exist. Link is broken, and it doesn’t come up on the site in search.