Bettye LaVette “Some Of Her Best Songs: 1962 - 2003″ [Anti-]

Michigan native Bettye LaVette is another female soul singer with a shockingly low fame-to-talent ratio. This CD, released by Anti-, is a compilation of 25 soulful songs that showcase her amazing voice.

The songs follow her career for over forty years as she moved from label to label, releasing singles and staying mainly in the soul and R&B genre with touches of country here and there. Ms. LaVette has an unnerving way of getting inside the lyrics and making them her own. You believe her whether she is shouting for joy, singing about her love, or moaning in pain. Listening to the whole CD in one sitting is an overwhelming experience.

A few words about the more notable covers:
He Made A Woman Out Of Me (Bobbie Gentry) — a paean to either young love or statutory rape, depending on the age of consent where the song is being played.
Take Another Piece Of My Heart (I always heard the Janis Joplin version) — Ms. LaVette sings it beautifully and is still alive to boot
It Ain’t Easy (Ron Davies) — the most famous version is by David Bowie
Your Turn To Cry (Joe Simon) — fantastic, though this single’s failure to sell as much as expected led Atlantic to not release an album’s worth of material. It was later released in 2000 as “Souvenirs”
Behind Closed Doors (Charlie Rich) — interesting
Souvenirs (John Prine) — the best song on the CD

Ms. LaVette is still going strong, touring and putting out albums, and winning music awards.
–Hunter Gatherer

[coll]: Monster Dudes “Fried Eyes E.P.” / Lowbelly “Hallowe’en E.P.”

Monster Dudes is a father / son duo from Boise, Idaho, whose astounding creativity manifests harsh noise rhythms and the hauntingly hair-raising chill voice of some bemoaned poltergeist tyke. Such creepy experimentalism is uncanny, especially for a 4 year-old child and his ambitious padre. Looped effects, surreal samples, digitally delayed guitar, reverberating echoes, eerie industrial electronics, deranged IDM drum-beats, and freaky fun abound on the sadly succinct Fried Eyes E.P.
Lowbelly conjure an experimental, and occasionally electronic, soundtrack of avant-garde indie jazz inspired by the likes of Ennio Morricone, Juan Esquivel, and Henry Mancini. Also hailing from Boise, Idaho, Lowbelly shares Monster Dudes? predilection for creepy atmospheres and spectral spontaneity. Spooky amusement best describes this incorporeal occult orchestra. Unearthly banjo, tambourine, organ, stand-up bass, bizarre vibrato, clarinet, accordion, vibraphones, and harmonica sound as if playful spirits have temporarily materialized for one final performance before the moon slips into shadow. This E.P. homage to Hallowe’en even includes a cover of John Carpenter’s theme to the film’you guessed it’Halloween. Overall, a fantastic split E.P.

Mae Shi, the “Heartbeeps” [5 Rue Christine]

L.A. experimental art noise rockers churn out home-recorded D.I.Y. indie music. The Mae Shi are quite an erratic bundle of nerves, building tension and anxiety with drum machines, rudimentary instruments, repetitious guitar spasms, frantic shrieking, and pop culture influences. At times, vocalist Ezra Buchla evokes the nasal drifting of the Flaming Lips?, Wayne Coyne, but progresses into the rasping moans and rabid volatile screech fits, resembling a mixture of Hot Hot Heat’s Steve Bays and the Refused’s Dennis Lyxzen. Stylistically, they’re comparable to label mates Deerhoof and Xiu Xiu; however these guys make drastically twitchier noise rock that is higher strung and more paranoid. Edgy pop harmony also weighs in on Heartbeeps, but with a tweaked emphasis on obliging absurdity. Incessant energy torpedoed through two minute outbursts are the Mae Shi’s forte. Nicely done.

Made Out Of Babies “Trophy” [Neurot Recordings]

Trophy is the crunchy noise rock debut recording from this indie alternative metal quartet out of N.Y.C. Not your typical Neurot Recordings release either, considering the label’s experimentally epic leanings towards the underground fringe. While MOoB’s fuzz-bass and riff-rockin’ tunes aren’t as peculiar, grandiose, or adventuresome as Oxbow, Isis, Tarantula Hawk, or Zeni Geva, they don’t disappoint. I was instantly jolted by Julie Christmas? volatile fire bellied outcries. The magnitude at which this gorgeous mistress screeches her ferocious pitch is off the scales and the emphasis on emotionally intense female vocals out front is what sets this band apart from the rest. Guitar solos be damned! Only densely down-tuned, distorted, emotionally charged and weighty turbulence lies within. MOoB’s sound definitely stems out of the Big Black, Steel Pole Bathtub, and Unsane noise-rock circles, yet Trophy reveals a push for slower and heavier horizons. Overall, a promising debut, however I feel MOoB’s intensity level is muted somewhat on this studio recording. I just sense they’re more ravenously impassioned live! RAWK-ON!

Totem ?Totem? [Vampi Soul] (33 rpm)

Totem, from Uruguay, released their first and eponymous album in 1971. Originally on De La Planta, it was re-relased in 2004 by Vampi Soul, an interesting label that has been re-releasing vintage music - often out of print - from the 60’s and 70’s (check the insert in the album).

The genre of this music is ‘candombe-beat? a fusion of Western pop and the native Afro-Uruguayan rhythms of candombe (pronounced can-dome-bay). Candombe is played with three drums (or tambores): piano, chico, and repique. The beat came to Uruguay by way of African slaves.

The music is definitely a product of its time and the production sounds slightly dated. But they are rocking out with the extra percussion and rhythm guitar. The singing is smooth, bordering on crooning.
–Hunter Gatherer

Blendcrafters “Melody” [Up Above Records] (33 rpm)

Blendcrafters is DJ Nu-Mark (of J5 fame) and Pomo. A year after their album, they are back with a 12″ single containing two songs.

There are 4 different versions of a remix of the first song, Melody: clean, non-clean, a cappella (which translates as ‘in the style of the chapel? by the way), and instrumental. M.F. Doom is featured on the remix, spitting out tongue twisters with twisty meanings just behind the beat. In the background is a piano playing jazz chords while a tenor voice asks, ‘What good is melody? What good is music, if it ain’t possessing something sweet?’ There is also a sound effect of a bat hitting a baseball just in time for summer!

The other song is Eddie Harris’s Bold and Black with Carol Kaye overdubbing a fantastic bass part and Derf Reklaw punching up the percussion. It’s an instrumental and definitely as strong as the A side.

It’s not easy to combine jazz elements with hip hop, based on the semi-embarrassing attempts I have heard from other groups before, but Blendcrafters makes it seem effortless.
–Hunter Gatherer

[coll] Goodbye, Babylon [Dust-to-Digital]

Probably the definitive collection of American religious-themed music since the dawn of recorded sound. Producer Lance Ledbetter founded the Dust-to-Digital label to release this project, calling on experts from the worlds of American music scholarship and record collecting to find the most idiosyncratic and heartfelt spiritual music drawn from all manner of styles, including gospel, folk, country, blues, and jazz, as well as fiery sermons delivered by ministers who often were just as popular as the musical artists of the time. Over 150 tracks span the 6 CDs here, mostly transferred from 78 rpm records, with the sermons taking up the entirety of the sixth CD. And drawing on his experience as a radio programmer, Mr. Ledbetter sequenced each disc by themes, rather than genre, resulting in a huge variety of styles on each disc, far more rewarding for extended listening than a purely chronological or genre-specific collection would have been. As if that wasn’t enough, the set is accompanied by a massive paperbound book that provides biographies of every artist, as well as useful historical and/or cultural information to give some context to each selection. It’s nearly impossible to single out any individual tracks as standouts, given the overall quality and quantity of the contents, but suffice to say that those who enjoy the full spectrum of American music forms will find plenty to get excited about here.

[coll] “Yo Yo a Go Go 1999″ [Yo Yo Recordings] (CD)

This is a great document of Yo Yo a Go Go, the indie music festival held in Olympia, Washington beginning in 1994. The 1999 fest has many highlights, from the simplicity of folky Mirah and Mountain Goats to Yo-Yo regulars/feminist icons Mecca Normal and The Need. Pop sweetness from Crabs and Sleater-Kinney always rock. The closer is Negativland leading the audience in a “sing along” of Casey Kasem’s raunchy outtakes. (added 6-21-2005)

Note: Language on 9, 21

-Cynthia Lombard

Mccombs, Cass - “A ” - [Monitor]

Falling in between the ???Not the Way??? EP &
the ???I Cannot Lie??? 7??? single (both in the KFJC
library) is this debut full-length from Brooklyn
(by way of Baltimore) singer/songwriter CASS
MCCOMBS. The going here is slow and decidedly
innocent, though powerful & most endearing???
??????Aids in Africa, and cancer back home???.???
Acoustic guitar, piano, tambourine, + well-laid
melodies bestir this material, with best bets on
Side A ???What Isn???t Nature???, the deft details of
???A Comedian is Someone?????? ??????I spent my days,
shaking hands, forgetting names?????? sample also
Side B???s amiable ???Gee, it???s Good to be Back Home???,
the standout stanzas of ???When the Bible was Wrote???,
and an easygoing ???My Pilgrim Dear???. A former
PALACE player, MCCOMBS plays a swooning pop
of guitar and foreground emotion in oblique settings,
somewhere betwixt SIMON JOYNER + PEDRO THE
LION, and always, as noted by John Peel,
???Unobtrusively brilliant???.
MITCH June 2005

Homler - Liebig Duo “Kelpland Serenades [pfMENTUM]

Preternatural avant-garde vociferations filtered through a post-modern digital mainframe. Improvised loop effects intertwine percussive bass tonality, deeply resonating with flanged sound art experimentalism. Ratchet cranks & clangs, chirping, bemoaned wails, found sounds and objects drench surrounding terrains with eerie ambience. Anna Homler recites a surreal language accented by impelling intonations, the likes of which are rivaled only by Diamanda Galas? staggering four octave a cappella assailments. Avant-garde improv-jazz bassist, musician and composer, Steuart Liebig, lends his considerable orchestral talent using contrabass guitar, which has 6 strings, larger scale length, and atypical tuning from standard acoustic basses, producing a deeply amplified, round ‘double bass? sound throughout Kelpland Serenades. All tracks are live, undubbed improvisations, appropriately released on Jeff Kaiser’s pfMentum record label. An excellent release! Harry Partch would flip his lid! I know I did!

Attack, the “The Complete Recordings from 1967-68″

The Attack (originally the Soul System) strikes full force with a British Invasion of freakbeat psychedelic mod-rock straight outta London, England circa 1966. Immensely talented, yet sorely underrated, the Attack was an emulative R&B spin-off with assertive pop predispositions. Verging on the Yardbirds, the Kinks, and the Who, yet bearing closer resemblance to the Birds, Small Faces, the Pretty Things, and the Creation, this audio gem features the Attack’s rare early recordings on Don Arden’s ( the ‘Al Capone of Pop? and the ‘Godfather of Rock? ) Decca record label, flaunting melodic pop guitars layered over bass heavy rhythms, and Richard Shirman’s pleasing vocals. Several selections on this devastatingly concise collection include sparkling Hammond organ vibrations. They released a mere 4 singles, often times with the B-Sides packing a fiercer wallop. Radiant free-wheelin’ fun gloriously seeps through, the kind that induces positive euphoric well-being without sluggish addiction. Their solid rock vein stays consistent throughout this collection, perhaps the only stability ever attributed to the Attack, given their multiple line-up changes and failed attempts at expanding their influence outside Britain.

White Mice “Mouse of Mendes” [Oh No Noise]

Raving Rhode Island rodents infest the airwaves, gnawing at your ears like the venomous little vermin they are! Searing & satanic stereophonic soundwaves scratch and claw through mind altering black metal mischief, dementedly pulsating into the darkest recesses of an intricate laboratory labyrinth. Mouseferatu, Euronymouse, and Anonymouse’s screaming red eyes and surgically mutilated physical features more than explain the Mouse of Mendes? malignant audio-experimentalism. Deranged microcosms of obliterating raspy vocals lay buried beneath the chilling oscillator shrill. Fuzzed-out freak bass gnarls tenaciously and damaged drums thump relentlessly as if appendages were caught in some mousetrap’s spring loaded clutches. Awesome song names inject marvelous thematic titles, such as ‘Cheesus Saves,? ‘Mousetrap,? ‘Limburger Baby?, ‘The Maze,? and ‘They Tried To Poison Me.’ Originally a self-released CD, Mouse Of Mendes is a limited edition vinyl re-issue with a B-Side containing early demos and malicious modulation. This fuckin’ rawks!!!

Deerhoof “Green Cosmos” [Menlo Park Recordings]

Deerhoof has cleared the stratosphere on its maiden voyage into the emerald green beyond! Uncovering their latest 7 song EP, Green Cosmos, was like stumbling across an immaculate oasis in the scorching desert sands. What a splendid instance of ingenious noise pop experimentalism. Seductive sonic waves radiate with prevailing kinetic energy, absorbing feel-good vibrations and then bursting forth spastic peculiarities. Satomi Matsuzaki’s playful Japanese lyricism sounds exquisitely gorgeous as she croons over the pleasantly rhythmic title song, ‘Green Cosmos.’ ‘Malalauma? gently sways to and fro like palm trees caught in a coastal breeze before suddenly becoming engulfed in a heavy tropical rainstorm. Breathtakingly mellow yet able to briefly transition into edgy and unsettling territory. ‘Spiral Golden Town’s? chiming fanfare no-wave synths and dance-pop bass lines sets a mood similar to the closing credits featured in some critically acclaimed foreign film. It just has that stunning cinematic feel with exceedingly catchy appeal! It’s highly addictive to say the least. 3WR: Galactic Lime Ecstasy!

Ams Uno “If It’s OK…” [Labeless Intelligence]

Rhode Island rap might scratch the surface, but the ever humble & self-critical perfectionist, Ams Uno, isn’t about rap industry hype. His departure from the influential underground duo Clokworx, allowed Ams to focus on his already blossoming production skills and lyrical talents, further catapulting New England hip hop into an arena worthy of the Lyricist Lounge. ‘If It’s OK’s?’ phat bottom-ended bombast funk groove shines through with plenty of heart, sharp street smarts, and blazing inner-city soul. Ams Uno is certainly inspired by early 1990’s methods of looped samples and laying the dope beat over it. Impassioned thoughtful lyrics are immediately apparent and exhibit a unique style and talented versatility similar to Sage Francis or Mr. Lif. This cut also has a sample of hip-hop’s guru, KRS-ONE, and his ‘I was born a poet,? philosophy. ‘My Contribution? totally reminds me of Philadelphia’s Jedi Mind Tricks and their album ‘Violent By Design.’ Wrath, math, & English filtered through down tempo grooves and epic orchestral strings. This selection features his hip hop comrade Esh, from Missing Elements. Although Ams is the compressed form of ‘Anonymous,? Ams Uno has been building a name and positive reputation for himself, completely deserving of widespread recognition.

Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players- “Vintage Slideshow Collections from Seattle, Vol. 1″ - [Bar None] (CD)

This is a wacky pop opera/concept album that provides the soundtrack to their touring slideshow of found photos. You can pop the CD into a computer to see slides for a few songs. It IS a family affair, with the youngest Trachtenburg starting her drumming career at age 6. Kitschy lyrics inspired by Swiss fondue, corporate marketing memos, and tourists in Japan. 2003 release. (added 6-14-2005)

-Cynthia Lombard

Vromb ?Rayons? [Ant-Zen]

Based in Montreal, Hugo Girard is the man behind Vromb. Rayons is his fourth full-length release.
Mr. Girard’s intent with this release (and I know because I read the press pack) is to capture different types of rays - hence Rayons - and translate them into music. The rough audio cuts of the songs were given to photographer Alain Gauvin, who was inspired to take some pictures around Montreal which appear on the album cover and the CD insert that should be inside the album cover. These photographs in turn inspired Mr. Girard’s final mixing of these tracks.

All the sounds on this album, except for a touch of voice on one track, are synthetically generated. Despite the emphasis on light, to me it has a dark, ambient feel. Some tracks are amorphous with the beats in the background or non-existent and others pulse with the regularity of a lawn sprinkler.
–Hunter Gatherer

[coll] ?Rough Guide to Afro-Peru? [Rough Guide]

Another excellent release from the Rough Guide series. This time it is a collection of music that was brought to Peru by slaves from West Africa and continues to evolve through their descendants.

This CD can only present us with the music, but it is important to realize that this sensual music cannot be separated from the dances that accompany it, such as The Alcatraz (track 14) in which dancers have a piece of red paper between their legs that other dancers try to ignite with a lit candle. These dances were so threatening to the Spanish colonialists that they were outlawed along with all drums.

This explains why a large wooden box, called the cajon, is the one of the important percussion instruments on this CD. The instruments are acoustic: guitar, bass, some brass. There are many different types of percussion instruments (including my favorite, the vibraslap) marking complex meters. It combines the best elements of African and South American music. Check it out.
–Hunter Gatherer

Weird War ?Illuminated By The Light? [Drag City]

Though they were originally intended as a one-off project, this is the third full-length release by Weird War. The line up is frontman Ian Svenonius and bass player Michelle Mae (who also play together in the Make-Up), guitarist Alex Minoff (with Mr. Svenonius and Ms. Mae are the Scene Creamers) and drummer Sebastian Thomson. It was released 4/19/05.

When I heard the synth roto-tom fills on the first track, I figured that this band was either completely naff or completely great. Of course, as I listened further I decided it was the latter. Combining elements of funk, disco, and glam with a solid rock underpinning, they are beyond irony, beyond tribute, and on to their own thing.

Ian Svenonius’s vocals are all over the place, with from falsettos and sobs to blas? intonations. He said in an interview that the only bad sounding vocal is a quiet vocal. He makes his point on this CD. Alex Minoff solos through almost the whole album with a compressed distorted tone that I haven’t heard since I lost my Rockman.

The lyrics have some great lines like ‘Why do girls like guys like that?’ and ‘I may be weak but history will vindicate me,? and my personal favorite, “I don’t love you any more… Have a nice time at the war.”
–Hunter Gatherer