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Live at Other Music: Calexico (Episode #17) Other Music has been in the process of changing over the host server for our film series, and had to remove the videos from the site for a bit, but we've finally re-launched many of the clips and you can again watch wonderful live performances and interviews with some of our favorites, including: The Clean, Antipop Consortium, No Age, White Williams, St. Vincent, Tinariwen, My Brightest Diamond, and more to come. -Josh Madell Watch Calexico "Live at Other Music"»
FREE SAMPLER from Oneida, a/k/a the best psychedelic rock band in America! While these Brooklyn pranksters have been known to spin a few tales (how about the one about the warehouse-sized music box, or the dub version of their 2005 album The Wedding, titled The Weeding?), it turns out that this rumored triple album they've been working on is the real deal, set for release on July 7th. Here's a little three-song preview of the forthcoming opus, Rated O, on the house.
Sami Sänpäkkilä is something of a key figure in the world of experimental music; his Fonal label introduced the TFT-dazzled blogosphere to the frozen northern expanse known as Finland and a tiny revolution was started. With the mischievous Paavoharju taking most of the critical clout and Islaja demanding the attention of the more adventurous folkies, Sami's own project Es maybe hasn't got the attention it rightly deserves, but no matter -- with each album his loop-heavy style has become more assured and more refined. Kesämaan Lapset is his latest statement and builds on the style he's made his calling card, but it also manages to push the sound forward introducing elements of synth-heavy kosmische music and also, surprisingly, pop. I shouldn't really be too shocked given Fonal's genre-hopping remit, but within seconds of the album's opening track, "Ennen oli huonommin," we're catapulted into a world of thick bubbling synths and a good humor rarely seen in the usually staid world of experimental music. The synthesizers eventually give way to vocals, and through the glistening long-form compositions you can almost hear fragments of real songs -- carefully placed hints that there's a twisted web of influence at work inside the mind of Mr. Sänpäkkilä. The album's "eye of the duck" moment comes when we reach "Säteet sun sielusta" (don't ask me for a translation), and gentle, meditative piano reminiscent of Brian Eno's "Thursday Afternoon" gradually becomes engulfed in a viscous sea of strings and looping drones. This subtly shifting tide of harmonious sound acts as a perfect centerpiece to the record and creates a balance between Sami's light hearted synth-play and his more grandiose, melancholic statements. These days it can be hard to sift through the mass of contemporary drone, but what Sami has managed is to give his sounds a humanity and more importantly a humor which is all too often ignored in favor of academic prowess and stuffy scene-huggery. There is absolutely no pretentiousness in Sami's production, and for this to be combined with some of the most beautifully meditative work since, well, the last Es album, results in Kesämaan Lapset being an absolutely essential purchase. Press play and drift into bliss... -John Twells
Meaning "well, well" in the band's native Finnish, Kiila's third full-length is a delightfully light hearted affair. Where many other similarly placed bands have drifted off into avant-folk weirdness, Kiila have instead opted to go high budget and have produced their glossiest record to date. In fact, if you didn't know better you might confuse Tuota Tuota for a mainstream Finnish pop record, folk-pop for sure, but there's little in the way of abstraction or the discordant thrum we've come to expect from the Fonal imprint. These are proper songs -- jingly, jangly and everything in between with all the good feeling to boot. It's charming too, with hooks that drag you out of your technological grind into a world of seas, sun and cloudberries, and the kind of lilting vocals you can only imagine to understand. But understanding the lyrical content was never the charm of Kiila -- rather we drift into the tones and the syllables, listening to the voice as simply another instrument rather than a storytelling device. In time you'll even forget you're listening to another language at all, and the unheard words will make perfect sense. Finnish folk finally freed itself from the forest. -John Twells
The precarious balancing act of keeping the spiritual and sensual sides of one's soul in check has been mankind's greatest dilemma, and maybe the greatest gift that American blues, gospel, country and their bastard children rock 'n' roll, soul, hip-hop, house, ad infinitum have given to the world are stories and great singular voices that encapsulates this daily human struggle. Marvin Gaye, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Elvis Presley and Al Green are all artists whose work famously toes the line between the spiritual and sensual. Their bouts with trying to keep each side of themselves in check have been well-documented, and each artist has their album that deals directly with this issue. Al Green's Belle Album is his. This record documents a crossroads for the good reverend, Al. It was about three years after the famous "hot grits" incident. For those not familiar: Al became a born again Christian soon after his live-in girlfriend threw hot grits on him while showering, her last act before committing suicide in the adjoining bedroom. By this time, he has split from his longtime producer/collaborator Willie Mitchell, becomes an ordained minister and is finding his newfound lifestyle increasingly at odds with the secular music that has made him one of the biggest soul singers of that decade. With The Belle Album, Green decides to self-produce and co-write with a new band for the first time in his career. For Al Green fans not familiar with this record, the first thing you'll notice is a change in texture. Gone are the signature slow organ fills, and in their place is an acoustic guitar played by Green, and a piano replacing the string swells. Lyrically, he pens some of the most personal lyrics of his career, documenting his spiritual struggles. On the title track, "Belle," he writes of telling a lover of his spiritual change of heart: "Belle, the Lord and I've been friends for a very long time...it's you that I want but it's him that I need." The hushed, sensual homage to his southern roots, "Georgia Boy," is one of the finest moments of his recorded career. Green's spontaneous whoops, handclaps and hollers are probably the closest thing to a classic Willie Mitchell groove that this record has, and with the added bonus of a stellar, subtle acoustic slide guitar from Green. The Belle Album was met with universal critical acclaim upon its release and was probably the last great Al Green album, before his near 20-year retirement from secular music. Over the years it has gained a reputation as one of the most underrated classic albums from the '70s. There's definitely a timelessness to this recording that will touch anybody that's willing to listen. Highest recommendation! -Duane Harriott
Now available on Other Music Digital. It's quite possible that Jonathan Kane makes THE perfect road music...if the road is 300 miles of endless swamp with nary a soul in sight. This is road music for ripping through the Everglades in a fanboat, hitting terra firma, and finding that instead of the land of palm trees and flamingos, you've got to drive through Death Valley in a GTO with no AC. This is when you pop some Jonathan Kane into the cassette deck, pass the dutchie, and just let it riiiiiide, brutha. I know, I'm probably not the only one thinking that "getting into a groove" would be something you'd ever expect (or want!) to utter in the same sentence as "founding member of Swans," but that's exactly what Jonathan Kane has been up to these last years. Having done time in groups with minimal monsters La Monte Young and Rhys Chatham, Kane has gone back to his first love: the blues. Then again, this isn't exactly your dad's Saturday night hootenanny version of the blues. I mean, yeah, it JAMS, but not in the sense of endless solos. No, Kane finds a slinky groove and gets in DEEP, riding it out with a motorik sense of propulsion not unlike Neu! or Harmonia...if they could swing! It's a precarious pairing on paper -- modern minimalism and the blues -- but it comes off so naturally, one wonders why it took this long to be executed. After all, the blues is perhaps THE original minimalism. John Lee Hooker and Mississippi Fred McDowell often wrote pieces consisting of nothing more than one long, droning chord and a driving, hypnotic riff. Kane is simply expanding the notion of what can be done with an old dog, churning out a furious, souped-up primal stomp that simultaneously beefs up and strips down the blues. Every piece takes at least six minutes to get up to full steam, but most feel like they could go on forever without wearing out their welcome. Many men have worn out the soles of their snakeskin boots in search of the endless boogie, but Kane has run it down and created a monster. -Jonathan Treneff
Continuing the rich tradition of New Zealand indie rock, enter the fresh-faced boys, Crocodiles. Setting aside their promising shepherding careers, the lads released the "Neon Jesus" 7" last year which catapulted them into a frenzy of cult hype (read: it was bought by precisely 4.567 people), so after the usual incessant touring we are finally treated to a full-length record. Fans will be pleased to know that the band's love of Jesus and Mary Chain and Echo and the Bunnymen has not been over diluted, as from the woozy opening drone of "Screaming Chrome" we're launched into the echoing, distorted rattle-clank of "I Want to Kill." The bump-bump of a cheap drum machine plods fiercely alongside their blurred chords and indistinct vocals and you could almost forget it's 2009. Crocodiles might be joining the likes of Crystal Stilts et al. in trailing the current love of all things British, indie and over fifteen years old, but Crocodiles do it with such panache that it's hard not to fall for their crunchy sincerity. Summer of Hate is garage rock, but it's just that slight bit more "real" than so much of what's oozing from the lofts of Williamsburg right now; you get the feeling that rather than a last-gasp attempt for free blow and a tug behind the bodega, it's a love letter to music past. By the time the band trip-toe into more synthesized tracks such as the stand-out "Sleeping with the Lord," there are echoes of Spiritualized at their best (albeit rendered in blissfully lo-fidelity) and maybe it's just because this is my era, but it leaves me with a giant smile on my usually po-face. Short, sweet and incredibly enjoyable -- start hating. -John Twells
Released during the spring of 1974, this sole release from the East Coast-based Act I is a solid, 14-song offering, with the band proving to be quite adept at playing a variety of soul stylings of the era. Tracks like "It Takes Both of Us," "Goodbye Love (We're Through)" and "It's the Same Old Story" are elegant, honey-drenched Philly-styled songs in the vein of Teddy Pendergrass, while "Friends and Lovers" and "You Didn't Love Me Anyhow" are sweeping, soul stirring ballads. There's also some great proto disco/funk represented on tunes like "Tom the Peeper," "Bumpin' from the Middle" and "Party Hardy People" that'll appeal to fans of Fatback Band and Bohannon. Although it's all over the place stylistically, the record hangs together as a cohesive whole simply on the strength of the great tunes, the band's vocal chops and their impressive arrangements. This eclecticism might have hindered Act I from becoming a household name at the time of release, but some 35 years later, it serves as a great document of the American soul sound at a pivotal musical shifting point. Recommended. -Duane Harriott
The Ann Arbor-raised, LA-based Mayer Hawthorne is the nom de plume of DJ Haircut, a respected underground hip-hop producer who has made beats for the likes of Guilty Simpson and Slum Village. A year ago, Haircut put together a throwback doo-wop song that featured him singing all of the falsetto vocals and playing all of the instruments, labeled it Mayer Hawthorne and gave it away to his friends -- one of them being Stones Throw mogul Peanut Butter Wolf who loved "Just Ain't Gonna Work Out" and released the single as is. The likes of Gilles Peterson and Mark Ronson began championing the song and next thing you know, "Just Ain't Gonna Work Out" was scraping the bottom end of the pop charts in New Zealand and Australia. His newest single is an astoundingly solid follow-up to that surprise hit and in fact, is actually better. The A-side, "Maybe So, Maybe No," is a sunny slice of Norman Whitfield-styled, Motown psych-soul with a Dilla backbeat. Hawthorne's lead local and falsetto backgrounds are sweet and gritty in all the right places, and the fact that Hawthorne has never sung in a group or had any formal training prior to this project makes it all the more impressive. The flip side, "I Wish It Would Rain," is an excellent soul ballad in the vein of the Delfonics, highlighted once again by Hawthorne's great falsetto and some subtle horn arrangements. Excellent stuff! -Duane Harriott |
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