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FREE SONG DOWNLOAD of "Vid Og Vid" from Olof Arnalds' upcoming album of the same title (download available next Tuesday, September 2nd, on Other Music Digital). The debut album from this Icelandic singer is a beautiful collection of folk songs, and while she will be inevitably compared to Joanna Newsom, Arnalds performs on a plane wholly her own. The music is warm and emotional, and her intimate vocal delivery is truly unique.
To be honest, imagining a collection of low-fi Casio keyboard works recorded on some gent's kitchen table sounds annoying as hell, but somehow Australian composer Leighton Craig has managed to create a disarmingly engaging collection of miniatures that belie their humble origins, the fingers of an alchemist extracting diamonds from coal. To his credit and ingenuity, he processes all these tunes through the warm glow of analog tube amplifiers, and though obviously sketches or doodles, there is a charming sense of discovery you see Craig working out in these little pieces that leave you with that feeling you get when visiting a particularly satisfying show at the Drawing Center, where a sheet of paper worked over with a couple of colored pencils is more exhilarating than all the masterworks in the Metropolitan. I hear more than a little Music for Airports, and perhaps many of the rinky-dinkier moments in Cluster's catalog, yet I'll be damned if I don't find this album to be completely addictive and effervescent. Very pleasant, and it's a no-brainer that I'll be recommending this all year. -Michael Klausmam
Yet another chapter in the ongoing Numero -- well, technically Numero's Asterisk imprint -- saga of Columbus, Ohio's weird, captivating Eccentric Soul scene. After the Capsoul label went kaput in the mid '70s, in-house singer/songwriter Norman Whiteside joined the band of noted Prix artist Joe King. Not too long after, King stepped aside, leaving Norman to transform the group into a slinky, soul outfit. You Can Fly is the only record that came out of this and it's a doozy, combining the analog, synthy sounds of '70s Stevie with the conceptual, sensual seduction antics of Barry White and Isaac Hayes. The vocals are all earnest falsetto, complete with some ambitious arrangements and it's an impressive yet very weird listen that straddles the line between the sublime and ridiculous. A good example would be the eight-minute slow jam "Put It in Real Good," with its long electric guitar solo, heavy falsetto vocals and bizarre innuendo laden lyrics like "I wanna take my heart and put it in you real good." This tune reaches Gary Wilson-esque levels of warped brilliance and, in my opinion, is the centerpiece of the album. And as a bonus, Numero tacks on 10 extra, unreleased tunes from the vaults. Definitely recommended! -Duane Harriott
I know we go and on about how much we love Television Personalities around here but it's about time we show the Times some affection too. If TVPs was Dan Treacy assisted by Ed Ball, the Times worked pretty much the other way around. Released in 1982, Pop Goes Art! showcases Ed Ball's love for pop art (duh), mod, psychedelia, and The Prisoner, and helped spark a garage/mod/paisley/punk/powerpop revival, and sow the intial seeds of Creation Records (Ed Ball was/is Alan McGee's right hand man), in London at the time. From start to finish, Pop Goes Art! is a perfect album, with instant pop classics such as "It's Time," "Biff Bang Pow!", "I Helped Patrick McGoohan Escape" and "Miss London." The ultimate cross-pollination of the Jam and Television Personalities, really, and a close personal favorite of mine. -Andreas Knutsen
God, here's a stunner of a Brazilian album. Toninho Horta is a gifted guitarist and composer from Belo Horizonte who made his recording debut in 1969. He fell in with Milton Nascimento and the Clube de Esquina crowd, and was an integral contributor to that eponymous landmark recording of 1972. After the release of Clube he was an in-demand player who recorded and performed with most of Brazil's greatest talents, but beginning in 1976 he and producer Ronaldo Bastos would commence work on an entirely self-financed solo debut for Horta that would eventually take nearly four years to complete. After shopping the LP around to numerous record companies with no success, most feeling that it was too un-commercial to sell, Odeon agreed to release it on the condition that he swiftly record a more commercial follow-up. Terra dos Passaros (Land of Birds) comfortably fits in with a strand of seventies Brazilian music that we've long loved here at Other Music; with its soaring melodies, emphasis on atmosphere and baroque craftsmanship, Horta's affinities to artists like the aforementioned Nascimento, Lo Borges, and Joyce are readily apparent. There is a free floating, almost melancholy, loveliness mixed with a finely tuned pop sensibility that I find to be particularly affecting with all of these artists, and Terras dos Passaros will long be remembered as one of the high points of 1970's Brazilian song-craft. -Michael Klausman
Two beautiful ballet scores composed by Brazilian icon Milton Nascimento, Maria Maria (1976), and Ultimo Trem (1980) are, for me at least, the best work by Nascimento I've heard outside of his groundbreaking masterpiece Clube da Esquina. Featuring some of the finest Brazilian musicians and singers (Nana Vasconcelos, Wagner Tiso, Nana Caymmi, Fafa de Belem, Nelson Angelo, Novelli, Danilo Caymmi, and Jacques Morelenbaum amongst many others), the ballet format seems to have suited Nascimentos's greatest strengths. Namely his ability to craft onto some of the most hauntingly gorgeous melodies in all of Brazilian music, a restless sense of experimentation that is positively avant-garde and wonderfully atmospheric. Maria Maria in particular expertly juxtaposes incongruous elements like taped rainforest sounds and angelic choral arrangements into baroque patterns that seem to mirror the finely balanced harmony that is to be found in the canopies of the Amazon. Ultimo Trem, though recorded in 1980, doesn't suffer from any of the over production that marred a number of his late-'70s albums, in fact some tracks from this period show up here in superior arrangements and recordings. I should not fail to mention the political aspect that is the focus of these scores, both Maria Maria and Ultimo Trem deal with various aspects of race and social justice. If you needed further proof that Nascimento is an artist of towering stature, here it is. -Michael Klausman
A remarkable reissue of Lula Cortes and Zé Ramalho's rarely heard and mysterious song cycle, Paebiru. Despite Ramalho's subsequent popular success as a Brazilian songwriter, little information can be found regarding the circumstances of this album's creation -- I'm sure due in no small part to the fact that nearly the entire pressing was destroyed in a flood (or according to some, a fire) before it had a chance to be distributed. What I can gather is that the movements of the double LP are divided between the four elements (Terra, Ar, Fogo, Agua) and that the narrative concerns itself with the creation myths and shamanistic practices of the indigenous inhabitants of Northeastern Brazil, and the enigmatic carvings to be found on the walls of their mountains. Over a dozen musicians contributed to the making of Paebiru, amongst them Alceu Valença, who along with Ramalho has had a long career forging the folk idioms of Northeastern Brazil to contemporary rock and roll. And while the illustrious members of the Tropicalia movement had successfully integrated those two extremes previously, they never took their experiments to the radical heights that are to be found on Paebiru. Indeed, this record is more usually mentioned in the same breath alongside psychedelic folk fusions by the likes of Trad Gras och Stenar and Amon Duul 1 than any of their Brazilian brethren. But even those comparisons are somewhat facile when confronted with the breadth of song and invention that Cortes, Ramalho and co. conjure across the four sides of the album. Joyful carnival songs, introspective ragas, beautiful group singing, spiraling and syncopated clapping, birdcalls, waterfalls, arsenals of percussion, full-fledged pop songs, and Faustian electric guitars spiritedly join hands in linking the communal elements that serve as Paebiru's unifying vision. -Michael Klausman
Everyone's favorite archivist of the freak-funk is back with a new psych-out megamix. Andy Votel's commissioned selection for Far Out delves into the archives of noted Brazilian imprint Som Livre. A label noted for having a slightly more rockish bent, many of their '70s-era releases are considered to be some of the best musical examples of the second wave of tropicalia. OM faves like Novos Baianos, Mutantes and Tim Maia are represented here as well as the stellar Os Brazoes (whose albums are tragically out-of print now) and Trio Soneca. All tunes are handpicked by Votel and deftly cut up and blended in the signature style of his. Yet another stellar Brazilian comp great for those last days of summer. -Duane Harriott
Nicola Conte has built a reputation on his impeccable taste in jazz and Brazilian music. It's reflected in his solid discography of beautiful, mellow jazz that transcends the saccharine "nu-jazz" moniker his music is often tagged with. This collection of mid-'60s bossa jazz that he's curated for the Far Out label is another strong addition to his catalogue and is another great collection of Brazilian tracks. The focus here is on the breezy, jazzy "classic" sound of Brazil, highlighting artists that are largely unfamiliar to most. You can hear the influences that Bacharach, Mancini and Gainsbourg took and spun into gold, as well as traces of modern bossa artists like Marisa Monte, Nouvelle Vague and the like. Recommended to all. -Duane Harriott
From his legendary early '70s experimental psych-rock band Camizole to his no wave duo Video Adventures, to numerous collaborations with Jac Berrocal and his recent audio-visual collaborations with French electronic music darling Colleen, Dominique Grimaud's presence in the French underground cannot be overstated. Still, there is little in his catalog to prepare the listener for his most recent effort and, as far as I know, first American solo release, Les Quatre Directions. With a brief passage of incantations in an obscure language (which turns out to be Lakota-Sioux), Grimaud ushers us into an hour-long, shape-shifting sound world where shamanic chants, analog synthesizers, ritualistic percussion, guitars, vinyl and tape manipulation serve as the recombinant building blocks for one of the more intriguing and epic pieces of sound collage I have heard since last year's reissue of Tenno from Teiji Ito. While Les Quatre Directions does bear many similarities to the works of '60s electronic luminaries like Pierre Henry or Ramon Sender -- especially in its sense of playfulness -- the Teiji Ito comparison is equally appropriate because of a shared sense of spirit, the abiding spiritual hunger of outsiders living in the West, but obsessed with a non-European, pre-industrial sense of ritual and magic. While their interests are free from irony, they are not un-self-reflective, as Grimaud's choice of incantory words in the Lakota-Sioux dialect attests -- at one point he utters the words "wicaho oyuspe" which translates roughly to "tape-recorder". These incantations are almost always met with a deluge from Grimaud's AKS and Moog synthesizers, as if these pulsating thickets of electronic sound are the magic called into being by this secret language. But, if Grimaud is an earnest truth seeker, he is also one with a sense of humor. Les Quatre Directions is full of playful manipulations and juxtapositions that offer moments of lightness amidst the trance-inducing sonic maelstrom that is the rest of the album. A tweaked out, pitch-shifted big band break is pitted against a bevy of coruscating electronic textures at one point and tribal drum patterns are interrupted suddenly by intermittent game show sonics and ridiculous electronic noises that eventually give way to a schmaltzy jazz guitar solo. There is still room for humor and play here, and the ritualistic metaphors are all the richer for it. Les Quatre Directions strikes one as a mature statement from an artist whose interests and experience are as deep as they are far flung, as primary as the cardinal directions. Recommended. -Che Chen
Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson is the eponymous debut from the Brooklyn via Portland, Oregon songwriter whose name leaves one short of breath. The album kicks off with the heavily blog-syndicated song "Buriedfed," which after a short, double-tracked voice and guitar introduction, kicks into gear with the unmistakable drumming of Grizzly Bear's Christopher Bear, and the unmistakable and undeniably ingenious production qualities of Grizzly Bear's Christopher Taylor -- as sensitive and robust as all of his other production efforts (e.g. Grizzly Bear's Yellow House, Dirty Projectors Rise Above). "Buriedfed" is thematically based on the line "I'm done singing songs about the inside," and from there, the album takes off through an emotionally kaleidoscopic vision of what it is to be one man in a big ol' world, nearly contradicting his initial plea to sing a different kind of song. Rather, from epic piano ballads ("Above the Sun") to hard rocking anthems ("Woodfriend"), and everything in between, Miles bears a lot of what's inside, through perceptive portraits of his relationship to what is outside. The album's dynamics form a continuous give and take between the harrowed confessions and contemplations of solitary reflection and the communal feeling of contribution (to name a few prominent elements of group dynamics: rousing vocal choruses, the outgoing thrust of electric guitars, Chris Bear's enigmatic percussion, and for Chris Taylor a mix of bass, woodwinds, and glockenspiel, not to mention his detrimentally beautiful arrangements/production, and additional support from third Grizzly man Daniel Rossen, who along with TV On the Radio's Kyp Malone, rounds out the cast of the album). Personal interjections intersect with the impressive weight of the band, both paths carrying each other to great, great heights. Comparisons lead to many artists who knock out singular visions through the guise of a rock band (Sparklehorse, Smog, Destroyer, etc.), in their push and pull of individual/collaborative states of mind. But the most apparent relative is another "one-man band," Conor "Bright Eyes" Oberst, whose salty and worn intonation is traceable in Mile's delivery, both sonically (that voice!) and thematically, through embittered but tangible depictions of emotional debt and forlorn possibility. Emotional territory aside, Miles' also joins the ranks of contemporary groups embracing classically rock and roll stylings, with the other ear fixed for the uncanny (which one could say that Grizzly Bear themselves have done masterfully). The vocal harmonies, chunky guitars, soaring solos, and plodding beats tussling with the esoteric production aesthetics of 2008, shows, sort of, that man still struggles with the same issues, as far as a rock song can carry them, yet they are staggeringly different in their execution. Of course, both lyrically and structurally, the record is very much about a modern situation -- Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson, along with the dense group affair that that makes for his band, have created one of the most emotionally and musically evocative and compelling records of the year, and it is a catharsis either way you slice it. -Josiah Wolfson
Some of the greatest records are those that have gone on to spark a movement, and Culture's Two Sevens Clash is a perfect example of the cross-cultural power of reggae. Originally released on 7/7/77, in celebration of the 30th anniversary (7/7/07) of their call to arms for empowerment and liberation, Shanachie re-mastered the original album and also added four extended versions/dubs. Produced by Joe Gibbs and Errol Thompson, Two Sevens Clash was the debut release from the vocal trio of Joseph Hill, Albert Walker and Kenneth Dayes. The production, playing, lyrics and delivery are spot on. A solid mix of Bob Marley and Burning Spear, righteous Rastafarian theology is sung over steady, subtle, bouncing and grooving rhythms. I first learned about this record on a personal recommendation from Primal Scream's Bobby Gillespie, and tracked it down so I hear for myself this connection between punk rock and reggae. Sure enough, you'll spot the influence of Two Sevens Clash in everything from Gang of Four, the Clash and the Specials, right on up to the Libertines, Babyshambles, and The Good, The Band & The Queen. (Gillespie also recommended albums from Dennis Bovell, Lee Perry and Keith Hudson...get the picture?) If you ever wondered what those phunky British kids were blown away by back in the day, Two Sevens Clash is one of the best. Listen up! -Daniel Givens |
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