New Music of Note 9/29/2020
Thurston Moore, Lou Reed, Terje Rypdal, Groupa, Calibro 35, Prince & Miles
As we approach the final quarter of the year, there’s a lot of new music coming out, so this week will present a roundup of some of the more interesting things I’ve heard recently. NDIM newsletter will be devoting one newsletter a month to new music (at least right now) going forward. I hope you find some new, adventurous sounds to enjoy. Let me know of any picks you especially enjoy or of stuff you’ve been listening to lately—music is better when you share it!
Thurston Moore/By the Fire
Thurston Moore is one of a fast-disappearing group of New York musicians who distilled their experience of the urban environment, of the media trends, elements of popular culture, managing the trick of casting a spell over both the arts for arts sake and the rock and roll heart crowds. For this is the duality of art that Moore's career examines--the notion of high art colliding and coalescing with garage rock and other harsh elements. Just as the Velvet Underground was a tightrope between John Cale's wanting to the compositional freedom of modern classical music and Lou Reed's love of high-octane, guitar-fueled garage rock. It was a war that Reed fought with himself after Cale left the band and carried into his subsequent solo career.
Moore's 2020 release, By the Fire, is a mature album, and as such it doesn't need to walk that line as urgently as during Moore and Sonic Youth's earlier years. Instead, we get a sound that is thoroughly Moore's, a heady stew of garage rock, punk, avant noise, no wave, post-punk, alt-rock, and electronics blended with all of the skill that he and his band (Deb Googe (b), James Sedwards (g), Steve Shelley (d), and Jon 'Wobbly' Leidecker (electronics), which is considerable.
Like Reed, Thurston Moore enjoys the pure sound of electric guitars playing blanketed walls of chords or settling into a defining melodic countermelody, or the sure rush of an electric guitar making noise, squalling with feedback and the various sounds that can be wrenched out of the strings. You get a healthy dose of that over the last half of "Breath." a song that winds up from a ringing Peter Buck-ish ballad strum to a steadily humming motorik that is restless, searching unabated until it finally tumbles into a dirt devil of unrestrained noise.
Few post-punk pioneers are still around or producing music and so it often seems like music that never reached full maturity, and yet there are so many key recordings that fit its framework. Moore and his cohorts have been playing music at the edges of rock and modern experimental music for so long that they are able to relax into the tracks of By the Fire, delivering music that is at once professionally rendered and yet still pushing at the boundaries.
Lou Reed/New York (Deluxe Edition)
Since we're discussing Lou Reed and New York (which I'm happy to do most anytime), I must mention the other big deluxe album reissue (see Prince, below), which is a box dedicated to Reed's 1989 album New York. Already acknowledged at the time of its release as one of Reed's best releases, its stature has only grown with the passage of the years and the realization that the problems Lou sings about here are still with us, right now, on the streets of America, today.
New York is a protest album, but it is different from nearly any other protest album you can name because it speaks in the voice of New York's Everyman (funnily enough, Reed's mid-to-late-seventies backup band became known as the Everyman band), a voice that is every bit as angry, confused, and yearning for peace as any other.
The Deluxe box contains a remastered vinyl edition of the album and three CDs that include the original remastered album, live performances from different venues of each song from the original album, documenting the New York tour on which Reed and the band performed the full album. After a brief intermission, they would return and play some older songs. Included here are live versions of "Sweet Jane" and "Walk on the Wild Side." There is also a DVD of a full performance recorded in Montreal (not included on the live disc) which was released on VHS and Laserdisc but never previously on DVD. But the best item is the third CD of unreleased material, both rehearsals and rough mix tracks that really give you an idea of how much Reed worked out aspects of this album prior to recording. Here's a segment of the tape working on guitar parts for "Dirty Boulevard."
Groupa/Kind of Folk V.3: Iceland
Groupa is a Swedish trio whose recordings each investigate specific Nordic folk music. Volume 1 began with the group's homeland of Sweden and was nominated for a Swedish Grammy. Volume 2 was used the folk music of Norway as an inspiration, and now the group has completed and released Volume 3, featuring the group's take on traditional Icelandic music. Groupa was first convened by Mats Eden, who plays fiddles and all manner of stringed instruments, and the group quickly staked a place on the vanguard of Swedish improvisational music. Since 2007 the group has functioned as a trio with Jonas Simonssen, who plays flutes, and Terje Isungest, and irrepressible percussionist who can also make a jaw harp sound like the funkiest thing you've ever heard. They are joined by guest musicians from the country that serves as inspiration. On Volume 3, this includes Icelandic musicians Skull Sverrisson on electric bass, electric guitarist Hilmar Jensson, and vocalist Bara Grimsdottir, who sings on two tracks. The Kind of Folk Series is great listening for fans of ECM, Nordic music, folk music, or improvisational music. Also pretty good for those looking for music to accompany meditation, yoga, cooking, or whatever you do to relax.
Soulstatejazz/Annwn
Percussionist/synthesist Tom Ellis' new band is Soulstatejazz, and their recording Annwn is the result of three days spent recording in the Malt Barn studio in Wales. The group spent this time improvising a free-flowing style and compiling the results into the six tracks that form Annwn. The result is a live/electronic jazz house vibe that can be reminiscent, at various times, of Chicago Underground or early Weather Report. Ellis is joined by Mark Hand, who plays electric piano (a very important element to the sound texture here) and synths, and by Michiel Renger, whose tenor sax maintains a warm, smooth tone even when in motion. According to Welsh folk law, Annwn, or the 'otherworld' is a world of delights and beauty located on an island or beneath the earth. Soulstatejazz conveys a universal chill-out room that will be welcome to those who enjoy a mixture of acoustic jazz and electronic production, fans of groups like the Four Corners Quintet or who enjoy Brazilian remixes along the lines of Thievery Corporation.
Tino Contreras/La Noche de los Dioses
Gilles Peterson's Brownswood Recordings has already released some pretty great stuff, including the expected acid jazz-style groove, jazz house workouts, as well as some outstanding experiments in the fusion of music from around the world, both inside and outside of the studio. Coming October 23 is the release of La Noche de los Dioses, a new recording by Tino Contreras. Contreras is Mexico's most prolific jazz musician, and he appears here fueling an octet with his energetic drum work. Only one track available yet, but it definitely sold me. Listen to "El Sacrificio"
Calibro 35/Dalla Bovisa a Brooklyn & More
Calibro 35 originally convened as a one-off studio project to record music from obscure Italian exploitation films. That self-titled album has been reissued in a deluxe edition that includes eight extra tracks. With an action film cover and music you can imagine Quentin Tarantino enjoying or using in a soundtrack, the album is a sure bet for fans of Italian music, film music, '60s and '70s niche filmmaking, and the like. The group deftly mix elements of instrumental surf rock, punk, film soundtrack, funk, jazz-rock fusion into a beautiful mix. Also just released is Dalla Bovisa a Brooklyn, six tracks the group recorded in New York City while they were tooling around the States in the aftermath of their 2011 SXSW appearance. The six tracks that appear here were outtakes from their third album, 2012's Any Resemblance To Real Persons Or Actual Facts Is Purely Coincidental, which they recorded at the same New York sessions. Also worthy of attention is the band's seventh studio album, Momentum, released in January 2020, finds the group moving into new territory as they define a sound that is less strictly retro as the group begins working with mini Korg and ARP Odyssey synthesizers, clavinet, samplers, and more vocals. There's a lot of Calibro 35 to go around this year.
Terje Rypdal/Conspiracy
It feels like a great time to be a guitarist, and word is that guitar sales are up, so now is the perfect time for Norwegian prog guitarist Terje Rypdal to record his most straightforward album in years. Conspiracy is both the name of Rypdal's new band and his latest ECM recording. The venerable guitarist has played on over one hundred albums, including thirty as a leader. Conspiracy, Rypdal's first studio recording in twenty years, puts the creation of soundscapes at the forefront of the guitarist's role. Though influenced by heavy rock guitarists like Jeff Beck and Robert Fripp, Rypdal channels everything through his yearning, singing guitar lines, relying more on atmosphere than raw technique. His band here is very supportive to his cause, providing shading when needed yet fully able to rock out with their leader. Stale Storlokken plays keyboards, including some great organ and electric piano. Drummer Paj Thowsen is also capable of pushing the band or of adding more subtle color at the edges as he's done on several previous ECM recordings. Bassist Endre Hareide Hallre plays beautifully throughout, but note is especially taken of his melodic lead on the introduction to "By His Lonesome." Fans of jazz fusion guitar will enjoy this disc, even though Rypdal is far from your average shredder--once you get hooked on the sound of his guitar, it's difficult not to return his work again and again. For those seeking an introduction to the guitarist's work, Conspiracy is as good a place as any to get a taste for it. Spotify | Amazon
Prince/Sign O’ The Times (Deluxe Edition)
The Prince Sign O' The Times Deluxe edition that was just released contains the official release of one of music's most titillating collaborations, the track "Can I Play With U?" that Prince sent to Miles Davis during the preparations for the recording of the album that turned out to be Tutu. Following the release of Rubberband, an album constructed from a group of sessions that Davis did with his own studio group prior to the hiring of Marcus Miller, most of the material Davis worked on during the period between signing with Warner Brothers and releasing Tutu has been made available in one form or another. Prince's estate also released the New Year's Eve 1987 performance Live from Paisley Park of Prince that featured Miles Davis. Of course, the Sign O' The Times Deluxe edition, running to the equivalent of seven CDs, features not just live performances and works in progress, but some really jaw-dropping studio recordings of songs not previously released. Listeners will be unpacking it for a while, but I can suggest that the music here is worth the price of admission, whether you download it or buy the full box set. You can read about the recording of Tutu and Prince's Miles Davis obsession in this NDIM article.
Leaving you this week with Cee Lo Green and Daryl Hall doing a tight arrangement on the Hall & Oates classic “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do).”
Until next week, stay safe and sane.