Music Reviews

Is-In-Unsamble – “Is The Belly / In The Belly” – [Gilgongo Records]

atavist   2/18/2019   12-inch, A Library

An experimental, improvisational jazz sort of happening. It’s one of those records where the instruments hang out in groups at a low-key party, and sometimes just go off in corners and talk to themselves while in earshot of everyone else. All the instrumentation and sounds are executed with a light touch. Side two has some almost creepy vocal things going on, and starts to build some wall-of-sound intensity about eight minutes in. The house guests come out of their corners and start to acknowledge each other, creating a crescendo before the final tapering off.

Butcher ABC – “North of Hell” – [Obliteration Records]

atavist   2/18/2019   A Library, CD

Nice “South of Heaven” reference. The thick crust presented here will otherwise ward off comparisons to Slayer. Beautifully satisfying, thick, disgusting riffs. Apparently these folks have been pummeling Japan for two decades, so their filth is pretty tight and old-school in an early nineties sort of way. Most tracks clock in at three minutes or less (the shortest track is 1:14). Track 2 is 5:01, and the last track is a protracted grind jam/amalgamation running to 8:36 where the band allowed themselves to deviate from the format employed in the rest of the album.

Dalt, Lucrecia – “Anticlines” – [Rvng Intl.]

Phil Phactor   2/15/2019   A Library, CD

Lucrecia Dalt is a former geotechnical engineer from Colombia, now settled in Berlin, who has previously collaborated with Julia Holter and Laurel Halo. While her early work has been described as “experimental indie pop,” on this album she leaves the “indie pop” behind. Dalt is an exceptionally skilled sound designer, deftly weaving industrial aesthetics into the conventions of minimal electronics. The result is a sound all her own: raw, rough, tactile, but also precise, polished, icy-cold. And then there are the vocals (T1, T3, T5, T6, T9, T11), spoken-sung and subtly processed, they draw you in and push you away at the same time. These are short tracks (1-3 minutes) that nonetheless evoke a sense of geologic time, of a stasis that masks the presence of tremendous power.

Laugh Queens “Bathcolor” [Self Release]

mickeyslim   2/13/2019   A Library, CD

Stephanie D’Arcy is the mastermind on this freshman release from this SF-based project. D’Arcy on guitar and vocals, Ryan Albaugh on drums, Giancarlo Arzu on bass, and Yaryn Choi on keys and providing vocals. Their lo-fi grunge-pop is a slightly off-kilter, head-boppin, house party and you’re sitting in the corner with your head down, all the voices and music faded and muted in the background. First part of the album hits hard, while the last part is not as impressive. Definitely worth a listen!

Vacuum Tree Head “Aasraa” [Pest Colors Music]

mickeyslim   2/13/2019   A Library, CD

1 part brass band, 2 parts lounge jazz, one part noisy meanderings, this EP is the sister release to Botafogos in Shadow Position. Buzzing, skronky, cloudy, weirdo sounds. You find yourself lost in a Dali-esque circus show, whose entire show is amalgamated up in a mere 15-minute extravaganza! Let the show begin!

Karen Stackpole – S/T

Max Level   2/13/2019   12-inch, A Library

Mostly solo percussion works by Stackpole, a fixture on the bay area experimental/improv music scene. I don’t recognize anything that sounds like drums here–I’m hearing gongs, cymbals, and maybe some other resonant metal things(?) I suspect bows and perhaps soft mallets are being used to produce these deep layers of floating metallic sounds. A1 and B1 are collaborations with Ann Dentel, another local performer/improviser. Very nice but at 12 or 13 minutes per side it’s over too quickly. A 2003 release that has somehow eluded our library until now.

Lewis, Klara and Turner, Simon Fisher – “Care” – [Editions Mego]

lexi glass   2/12/2019   12-inch, A Library

Care is a collaboration among experimental artists from two generations, English composer Simon Fisher Turner and Swedish electronic artist Klara Lewis. Turner has been working since the 1970s, and perhaps is best known for his film scores, including compositions for the works of avant-garde director Derek Jarman. Klara Lewis, sound artist and daughter of Graham Lewis from Wire, here revisits the abstract sonic spaces from her 2016 LP Too. Throughout Care, stretches of heavy stillness give way to sudden violent jolts and slowly emerging fragments of recorded sounds, The field recordings – of children playing, ritualistic chanting, strummed and sung traditional melodies – materialize in the foreground, and as they surface, so does the flood of accompanying emotion. Gorgeous, lush drones surge and swell, reaching their greatest heights on the closer “Mend” (T4), a vision of solace amid chaos.

Mineta, Tetsu – #4 – [Union Pole]

Louie Caliente   2/11/2019   A Library, CD

Tetsu Mineta is a Japanese guitarist and singer. He’s a member of the rock group “Both Cheese”, but here he’s solo with an acoustic guitar and tape recorder. As the album title implies, this is his fourth release, all on cassette.

Most of the album is slow, soothing, lo-fi acoustic guitar work layered over quiet beds of tape recorder hum, indiscernible distant rustles, and occasional backwards instrumentation (T2, T6). Fahey-esque at times, but shrouded in a mysterious opium haze. “Nova E.x.P.” (T4) is a rich, blissful stoned-out guitar drone.

The first track, “Moshpitloser”, is unlike the rest. A quick rhythmic percussion riff featuring bongos, toms, cymbals, and a cowbell played faster and faster until the whole thing blasts off like a spaceship.

Burnside, R.L. – Come On In – Fat Possum Records

mickeyslim   2/10/2019   Blues, CD

Mr. Fat Possum Records, R.L. Burnside’s houserockin’ blues. This is one of the few remaining records from this bluesman that we don’t have. For those unfamiliar, R.L. Burnside was born November 1926 in Lafayette, Mississippi, and started playing blues after hearing John Lee Hooker. He got a later start than others, but still knows how to bring the heat. Burnside helped define the sound of Fat Possum Records alongside Junior Kimbrough. His son, Cedric Burnside (who plays the drummer in the film Black Snake Moan), makes an appearance on track 4. Electric, fuzzy, scuzzy, blues.

Come on in, the water’s fine….

Narcisi, Francesco Maria & Giacomo Fidanza -Accordion Sessions, The – [Time Released Sound]

humana   2/10/2019   A Library, CD

This lovely music finessed by Narcisi breathes in and out in a chill way like an accordion, the instrument which Fidanza brings to the table on tracks 6 through 9. Electronic manipulations and field recordings are what’s in store on this release, and listening to it will take you through time quite easily and dreamily. Track 9 even sounds like it has a vox humana which indeed sounds like the celestial voice indicated by the track title. Enjoy.