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FREE SONG DOWNLOAD of "Wages of Crime Version" by King Tubby from the Micron compilation, Every Mouth Must Be Fed, out June 24th on Pressure Sounds. Micron is one of the lesser-known Jamaican labels but with no shortage of superstar MCs and production legends. This collection features tracks by Joe Higgs, I Roy, Bobby Ellis, Tommy McCook, U Roy, Junior Byles, and many more, as well as deep, deep dubs by King Tubby. The first essential reggae comp of the summer.
OTHER MUSIC EXCLUSIVE! The latest Swedish sensation comes in the form of Marching Band. Their five-song Spark Large EP, produced by Adam Lasus (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Yo La Tengo), sees Erik Sundberg and Jacob Lind create a multi-layered, catchy-with-a-twist brand of indie pop that recalls both the Shins and Belle & Sebastian but still sounds wholly original. At times the duo sound like they operate with at least three times the manpower, incorporating a dizzying array of instruments into the mix (xylophone, marimba, vibraphone and banjo), and harmonize like the Zombies never existed. Adding to the charm of these recordings are the off-kilter rhythms (check out the shuffle-y rhythm on the amazing "Don't Go") and slightly unhinged qualities of the music, like it could break down and fall apart at any moment. I think what we have here is one of the dark horses of 2008, and I wouldn't be surprised if Marching Band become one of the festival-circuit buzz bands next year. Girls room poster-worthy pop, indeed. -Andreas Knutsen
Of his many projects, Kompakt co-originator Wolfgang Voigt has described Gas as his most personal, having been inspired by "mind walks" in the forest. He imagined a "gaseous and nebulous sound of an exhilarating streaming music which literally flows over, which has no beginning or end, no hard edges, only softness." In an interview, Voigt once described Gas as "the sound of an old man wandering through the forest on acid." It is exactly the type of project that is much easier to experience than describe. For those of us who aren't old men tripping in the woods, I offer the following description: Gas is essentially an amorphous, moving, multi-layered cloud of sound set at varying emotional temperatures, often softly anchored with a muffled, heartbeat like pulse. The palette and placement of sounds are what really set Gas apart from other techno or ambient projects. What at first seems imbalanced and without any focus transforms into a vividly real, beautiful and vast space. As a kid or otherwise, who hasn't been mesmerized during a night drive down the highway, looking out a dew-covered windshield with the lights in the distance, the rhythmic, almost subliminal drone of the tires on the wet pavement and the gently random rhythm of the rain hitting the glass, all miraculously synchronized with the dull, monotonous, heartbeat-like thud of the windshield wipers? (BTW: That's one of my main realizations upon revisiting these classic albums -- how the bass drum has such a similar texture to the comforting, dull, muffled thud of a windshield wiper!) Now imagine that with Cocteau Twins and your favorite ambient drone record playing simultaneously on the stereo loudly but with a wet towel over the speakers. That's Gas. Or go back to the first time you heard My Bloody Valentine's "To Here Knows When." Remember how at first it sounded like there was a serious mistake made somewhere between the recording process and the manufacturing plant, where either all of the levels were yanked out of place before recording or someone spilled a milkshake on the plates the moment before the pressing occurred? Admit it, you were like "WTF?" But also remember that despite your initial confused reaction, once you got comfortable with it you realized you just discovered a new type of a beautiful thing? That's Gas too! Just so you know, on each release, the atmosphere subtly shifted and tended to correspond to the color of the cover, particularly on the last three albums. For instance, Zauberberg was red and had an ominous twilight to nightfall sound. Konigsforst was golden and had a sun-drenched morning to afternoon sound. Pop's artwork was more or less a full-color, pine-needle-through-a-kaleidoscope cover, the music within containing the light scent and sound of a moist, sun-dappled pine forest. If in doubt where to begin listening, start with either Konigsforst, the one that most directly integrated beauty and the beat and is also my favorite, or Pop, which achieved the strongest visual quality. (Right away the latter kicks off with the sound of a forest teeming with life; dew dripping from the ripest leaves and animals slithering through the underbrush coincide with the mandibles of insect swarms.) So anyway, the whole shebang comes more than recommended. Much has been said already about these, until now, criminally out-of-print albums. I hope this review does them justice. -Scott Mou
Shelved since 1997, this excellent Wickham-Smith/Youngs collaboration deserves immediate attention. The first track, "Indian Spike Dance," is hypnotic rural electronic music, like a great, lost Throbbing Gristle outtake. From there on, percussion, guitar, Moogs and other analog electronics, and whatnot, scrape, drone, flutter, screech, and percolate to create something equal parts mystical and magical.
One of the more tragic, untold sagas in hip-hop is the story of the talented Scientifik. Slated for release in '93, his Criminal album was shelved after his label folded, but the record gained an underground following just from the few copies that were promo-ed out to DJs and journalists. It wasn't until last year that the minor classic finally saw a formal release; unfortunately Scientifik never lived to see it come out, as he and his girlfriend were killed in an unsolved double homicide in '98. The music lives on, however, the Boston rapper leaving us an excellent, true-school banger from top to bottom. Soliciting production duties from Diamond D, Buckwild and a young and hungry RZA, Criminal was a hard, meats-n-potatoes hip-hop album full of Scientifik's straight-ahead, rugged, boastful flow. At first listen, Criminal sounds like a typical record from the era, but at its core was an honest reflection on the repercussions of the hustle and the mood conveyed was that of somber inner city pressure. The soundscapes mirrored visions of grey skies and crumbling buildings, and was firmly rooted in the hard-as-concrete snares and hi-hats. It may not be the polar opposite of the wide-eyed escapism of most hip-hop being produced these days -- both underground and mainstream -- but it feels like a welcome dose of hard, cold air that doesn't rely on posturing to get its message across. All Scientifik needed was an observant eye on the reality of one's surroundings, a pen and a mic, which was all that hip-hop ever needed in the first place. -Duane Harriott
Stark Reality was a late-'60s ensemble led by vibe player Monty Stark, whose original LP now fetches hundreds and hundreds of dollars on eBay. Stark was a musical contributor at Boston's PBS television affiliate WGBH, where he met Hoagy Bix Carmichael, an ex-stock broker who was now volunteering as a producer at the same station. Carmichael was also the son of famed music composer Hoagy Carmichael and always looking for new ways to keep his father's music alive. He approached Stark with the idea of reinterpreting his father's children's songs in an educational program meant to introduce kids to music concepts, but the result was mind-blowing and to this day almost indescribable. There's a heavy psychedelic fuzz present that creates a magical tension between four amazing players who perform with a sort of Canterbury feel mixed with heavy funk and free jazz rhythms -- kind of Soft Machine meets Funkadelic. Stark played through a series of fuzz tones and pedals, his super-distorted vibe melodies, wah guitars and slippery bass lines gives the feel of an LSD trip in Toyland. Together, Stark Reality created music that cannot be duplicated, but has since become a very important source of sounds to the hip-hop world, their songs being sampled by the likes of Pete Rock, J-Live, Madlib, and Large Professor. If you haven't already heard this classic, you'll want to check it out, and the additional outtakes are a pretty nice bonus. -Gerald Hammill / Duane Harriott |
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