What Have You Been Listening To? - Week of January 24, 2022

Christos Hatzis - The Awakening. Discovered this piece on r/elitistclassical, and I gotta say, this composition is a fucking revelation. This is a string quartet accompanied by a recording with both ambient sounds (like trains, wind, etc) and some melodic elements (synth sweeps, and other sounds).

Interestingly enough, the score has this electronic accompaniment scored in reasonable detail.

The piece contains a lot of highly rhythmic development, and the main melody doesn't really even show up until the 4 minute mark, but it's really something.

This week I did a random deep dive into country music as I tried to broaden my repertoire of musicians outside of the traditional country sphere. A few successes, a lot of questions.

Otis Williams and The Midnight Cowboys - Otis Williams and The Midnight Cowboys

Starting off with an interesting one. Otis Williams got his musical start in the mid 50s as the leading man for a doo-wop group doing work primarily for the DeLuxe label. The doo-wop sound slowed down around the 60s as Motown became the preeminent sound in rhythm & blues which saw many of the original doo-wop guys and gals transition into the new field. Otis Williams was different to say the least. It seems he took around a decade off of music and returned with a country record of all things!

You can still hear the pedigree of vocal talent here but make no mistake, this is a full-on 70s country record. I thought the genre transition would create a weird country soul hybrid but, no, the rhythm & blues actually only brings a short instrumental flair as 70s country borrowed from the original rock & roll/rockabilly scene of the 50s. The rocking feel is further downplayed as Williams takes a prominent traditional core to his work with the feelings of Jimmie Rodgers and Vernon Dalhart making themselves known with a folk-ridden sound absent from Williams contemporaries.

The genre transition is the hook for sure but this is actually a great country record in its own right. Do not write it off.

Mel Street - Greatest Hits

Styling himself after Hank Williams and George Jones, Mel Street was a second wave honky tonk artist trying to make a claim on the genre that further launched country music into its next era, as well as killing off its first. Mel Street hits all the normal numbers for an artist of this kind: songs of pain, regret, and love lost but instead of these coming across as "playing the numbers" as it usually does, there is an unfortunate note that hangs over Street's career.

Mel Street was a successful artist in country music, charting thirteen top 20 hits, but the numbers he played were not a character or an experience of his past. Unbeknownst to most at the time, Street was severely depressed alcoholic and this fact would end with him taking his own life on October 21, 1978 at the age of 43.

Street's modern reception is based on the story on the man rising to the top and falling due to circumstances that he never sought help for and, while I agree with that sentiment, there is an implied notion that Street's music holds up and is still worth hearing because of his story. This is not the case. Street has a story that helps hook listeners but the actual music on hand is basically just b grade George Jones material at the end of the day and while I want to give Street marks for his story, the songs just are not there.

Give this a shot if you're a George Jones fan or the story of Street fascinates you.

Kate Wolf - Close to You

Kate Wolf was a country artist that came up in the 80s that eschewed the typical sounds of pop country that were emerging and went for a more stripped back and beautiful americana sound. Wolf was a well respected musician in her day and has gained a small cult following due to her quality of work as well as her story where she would tragically die young at 44 in 1986 due to a long time battle with leukemia.

Now, again like Street, I think it's important to examine the artist outside of their story and look at the quality of their work removed from any perceived interest outside of it and Close to You in that regard is a mixed bag. Americana is not a style I particularly like for it becoming the genre of "country music you're allowed to like" with its proclivity toward contemporary folk with a twangy edge rather than a full frontal country assault. Wolf backs this up with some good songs like "Across the Great Divide" (which is worth the price of entry imo), "Like a River", and "Unfinished Life" but Wolf's insistence of not really writing anything but quiet americana ballads makes the non-stellar songs become overwhelmingly dull and lifeless.

There is a mixed bag of good (not great) songs and dull songs so I'd say only check this out if you're really into this style of country music.

Jess Sah Bi & Peter One - Our Garden Needs Its Flowers

It's a little known fact that country music has become the father of an international scene outside of the US. The Canada scene is sometimes mentioned, after that the Australian scene, and even less than that are the outlier artists found in Japan and Brazil. Less than all of those though is the extremely niche scene for country music found on the African continent. That's right: the banjo headed on home and found a calling among local musicians who play in the contemporary country mold with a bit of crossover into the stronger gospel scene.

I've always wanted to do a post talking about this scene (f anyone has any interest let me know) so here's a teaser. Jess Sah Bi & Peter One are artists from the Ivory Coast and play a style of country rock lifted from the California scene. You have that sunshine, pop-friendly sound associated with acts like The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Bros, and Neil Young mixed with a nascent affinity for traditional African folk music that also contains a similar feel good attitude. I think the record is pretty well constructed and is likely to really appeal to fans of this style of country rock that are looking for something they've likely never heard before but this is just not my thing. I do not like this style and this group's take on it is not changing my mind on that. Good attempt regardless, I suppose.

Radney Foster - Del Rio, Tx 1959

Now this is my kind of country music! Radney plays contemporary country indebted to the old honky tonkers with a wonderful lonesome sound found throughout. A forceful 90s edge pushes the rockin' backing band forward with Radney selling the character of the man always down on his luck in love perfectly! If you're into artists like Dwight Yoakam or mid period John Prine then this is worth picking up.

Doug Supernaw - Red and Rio Grande

Take what I said about Radney Foster and apply it to a different character. Supernaw is a tad bit lonesome but he tends to look on the bright side and sing songs about his life. Songs of regret here, of course, but also some great tracks about being divorced and worrying about your daughter and her new step-dad. Pick it up if you like this scene of country music as Supernaw is one of the finest to pick up the style.

Corb Lund - Five Dollar Bill

I mentioned it briefly but here's one of the stars of the country scene out of Canada. Corb Lund fits into the prairie cowboy archetype that Canada loves and he sells the neo-cowboy character well. The pastoral and rural flair of country comes through thick and hefty but there is also a hefty influence from alt-country seeping through the tracks on the darker notes. Alt-country typically means that the band is barely playing country but here the alternative attitude is used to give the songs a bite of dark romance that elevate the songs of lost love greatly. There is an inventive songwriting ear here that sticks to tradition but never treads far enough that we're into passé territories of the all to laughable modern indie country scene. If you want to dip your toes into Canadian country then this is one to give a shot.

Waylon Payne - Blue Eyes, the Harlot, the Queer, the Pusher & Me

Waylon Payne is technically the newest artist I've covered in the post but he's also likely the oldest (at least at the time of his record's release). If you're familiar with country music than the last name Payne may be familiar as Waylon is the son of Jody Payne (long time guitar player for Willie Nelson) and Sammi Smith who was a country artist in her own right. There is a pedigree of talent here and that pedigree does influence the work found here but more so in the story telling rather than the music.

The music itself is retro influenced country with the 70s country scene rubbing elbows with a more rocking and contemporary production sound. The story telling however is centered on Waylon's role as a man who was left alone with his grandmother while his parents worked in the music industry and was later disowned by them for coming out as gay. There is a certain bitterness that comes across in this record because of that. Of course, all good country has that bitter after taste to it but Waylon passes it all off as an authentic experience. He said he spent the better part of a decade writing these songs and you can definitely hear it as the tales of pain, loneliness, and self-hatred feel like the accumulated status of someone infected by a life of hardship.

The album runs a bit long but Waylon has an excellent ear for instrumentals that makes up for it. Amid another bit of amateurish lyricism is a sincerity that overwrites it. This is country music at its most authentic and is worth picking up for any fans of country music.

This week I was floating between Deftones and Slint

I recently put Deftones on shuffle and it kept autoplaying. I was surprised with how many elements they have in their music, specifically Nu Metal. Although I hear they are one of the biggest contributors, I didn't really get that sense. Songs like Change, Sextape, Be Quiet and drive, Knfe party, reminded me of some shoe gaze. But the more I listened to them, I realized wow, they have so many sounds, especially with that bass! I just recently got into them, please let me know about any recommendations

With Slint, it's been pretty cold on the East coast and I've been in a lower mood. Listening to Slint on cloudy days and have their lead singer narrate instead of sing, feels comforting. Their album Spiderland, an amazing album with only 7 songs I think is filled with long songs, weird time signatures, and lots of rage. Each song, all long, captures very different moods including loneliness, hopelessness, and anger. The instrumentals are beautiful on this album. I can't really find another band similiar to Slint, but pls let me know.

If you wanted to listen to Slint, I would highly recommend Spiderland. Each song has a different mood to it so it's hard for me to narrow down that recommendation. I heard good morning captain first, and it takes until the end to pick up. Washer on it has beautiful vocals with a spooky narrative.

Going back and forth between but Spiderland is a 10/10 album I like to listen to through.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYFn0zUZ_6M

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/may/01/spiderland-slint-album-reinvented-rock

Noiseheads' new single Big Money- Love these guys. Steve Albini produced this. Dope hook. Vocals are a little buried for me but that's Albini. Grunge revival artist from Florida. These guys mean it.

Former Harvey Danger frontman Sean Nelson's new single Viral Love- Harvey Danger is one of my favorite bands. Sean Nelson should write a musical. One of the most underrated lyricists ever. This is his first official release in years. It's not bad but not great, either. I couldn't hum you any part of it. The country western version of Harvey Danger track Carlotta Valdez is really worth listening to.

Dionne Farris's 95 hit I Know- Oh, the nostalgia. Here's a song you can hum after hearing it once. That soaring bridge-- Not gonna work this TIIII-UHH-IIII-UHHH-EYEYEEYEMMM. That immediate slide guitar riff. I don't know what genre this is considered other than 90s pop. People under 30, if you haven't heard this, listen to it. It was all over the radio when I was 9.

Yard Act's The Overload- Jealous of how good these guys are. Quick and intelligent and arresting and original. They're playing into the "music is going to be primarily rhythm-based instead of melody-based" thing I've heard about. Delightful, snarky poetry read over really simple garage rock. I hear a lot of Arctic Monkeys in these guys. Frontman has some of the most original flows I've ever heard. The lyrics remind me of Sean Nelson. Ones to watch.

Idles- Kept hearing about them including on reddit, been checking them out. Another beloved rock band that's been around for nearly a decade that I somehow never heard of. I've listened to both their first and latest album so far. I like and appreciate them overall but they're not quite living up to the hype for me. I like the unconventional song structures and the heavy hitting rhythmic punk style and some of the lyrics ("well done" in particular) and the drunken pub party intensity of it all but they kind of suffer from everything sounding like variations on the same song.

Tyler Childers' Live on Red Barn Radio 1 & 2- I fucking hate Tiktok but I keep it because it's an unparalleled source of new music. Heard 10 seconds of Shake the Frost and had to listen to the rest of it. Album's pretty good but nothing lived up to the potential in those initial 10 seconds. Whiskey-soaked heartland country/folk. Music conjures images of crackling fireplaces and fields of soft-falling snow. Love this dude's smooth smokehouse voice but I feel like he hasn't really unlocked his fullest potential yet.

Nightly's night, love you- Same as above, Tiktok discovery. Catchy melodic electronic pop with pop punk influence. Sounds sort of like if Owl City or the 1975 were more into All Time Low and Paramore. Reminds me of going to local emo shows back in the mid-2000s. Super catchy shit, "so sly" is my favorite track off the album.

Flight Facilities

I've heard Flight Facilities a few times before, but I recently reheard one of their tracks, and really enjoyed it. I went to that album, a common strategy of mine to find new music I enjoy, and really liked their other tracks. Now, I'm binging their entire repertoire. They specialize in electronic music, with lots of synths and layered music. They have several songs that feature vocalists as well. Their album Down To Earth has a flight theme going on (surprising I know), and I love the way I feel like soaring through the sky into space as I'm listening to the tracks.

Jessica Curry

She's a composer that has composed music for many video games I've never played, but have received critical acclaim like Amnesia. I much prefer her more introspective music though. Songs from games like "So Let Us Melt", or her BAFTA winning "Everybody's Gone to the Rapture". The soundtracks tend to be ethereal sounding, heavy on the strings, choirs and light on the percussion. It's very calming in nature for me, and is great as background music while I work.

Propaganda The Nine Lives Of Dr. Mabuse (1984): A few months ago u/ELESH_NORN_DAMNIT took a deep dive into West German synth-pop group Propaganda’s 1985 album A Secret Wish. Since that post, Propaganda’s 80s work for ZTT has finally become available on streaming sites. In addition to A Secret Wish (available in two versions mirroring their original vinyl and CD releases), almost their entire singles output from the album cycle has also made the jump to the digital world, coming in at 4 hours of additional material. The Nine Lives Of Dr. Mabuse was the act’s first single, released in 1984, and the new digital version compiles music from the various releases of the single to form a 43 minute block. “Dr. Mabuse” was produced by ZTT’s Trevor Horn giving it a sound that is still sharp and high resolution compared to other 80s singles of the era. I like that this single is unpredictable, instead of a bunch of versions of the same song, this single plays with the format. Sometimes songs stop midway through and begin an entirely different song. Elsewhere fragments of the lyrics are played backwards through dub effects. I mentioned it in the thread for A Secret Wish but I will state it again: the cover of “Femme Fatale”, originally by the Velvet Underground, is a highlight of this release and is one of my favorite songs recorded by Propaganda. It’s martial drums and dramatic vocals give the song a completely different feeling from the (of course, also great) original.

“Femme Fatale (The Woman With The Orchid)”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqRo_dGFKvg

Michael Masley Cymbalom Solos (1985): Cymbalom Solos is, surprise, an album of cimbalom music played in a new age style, originally released on cassette in 1985, and reissued last year. The cimbalom is a 19th century variation on the Hungarian Dulcimer and is played with clothbound mallets. It has chromatic tuning and the sound is similar to a zither with relatively quick string decay time. This being an 80s new age-y cassette, everything is drowned in reverb and so the overtones pile up on top of one another to create a dense sea of sound. It’s worth noting that this album is co-produced by Barry Cleveland, a Bay Area artist who collaborated with the legendary new age act Emerald Web. This album loses me a bit when Masley strays from focusing on the cimbalom (like to play an ill-advised wooden flute on “Bermuda Trapezoid”). Cymbalom Solos is a pretty rich album, one that I think will be worthwhile for fans of Fourth World music.

“Sleepdance: On Leaves Of Water”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmuqwPuB99k

SHERELLE fabric Presents SHERELLE (2021): It took me a few listens in my car to fully engage with this mix. At first, some of the selections felt a little too outside of my personal tastes. The sound of this mix is rooted in the unstable era of when British “hardcore” club music of the early to mid 90s had yet to fully become jungle and, later, drum & bass. It isn’t my personal favorite time in club music though the more I listened to this album, the more I was drawn in. I should mention upfront that most of this album, in fact, isn’t old. There are a lot of new producers that make music that reference this era. Tim Reaper, Dev/null, and FFF are all part of a new class of artists who are working in the template of hardcore and updating the sound and they are each very good at it. There are also brief excursions into Chicago footwork with tracks from DJ Rashad and RP Boo. One great curveball here is AceMo’s “Perpetrator” from 2020, a high speed techno lick among harder tracks that is a quiet highlight. One of the most vintage sounding tracks is actually fairly new: “The Clash” by Dub One from 2019. It rounds out this mix with a barrage of furious drum edits. This album won me over.

AceMo “Perpetrator”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0q9FwwN0jE

Boris W (2022): It feels pointless to have any advance expectation of what a new Boris album will sound like because it can go in any direction. W is surprisingly restrained, many of the songs are minimal downtempo ballads with the occasional mirror dub effect or throbbing low end pulse. “You Will Know” towards the end of the album is a 9 minute towering dream pop song with a slow motion impressionistic guitar solo that slowly fades into a Space Echo mist. “The Fallen”, the most typical sounding Boris song if they have a typical sound, is a doom metal instrumental placed in the center of the album. As ever, another unpredictable and idiosyncratic work that will tantalize as much as it confuses fans.

“You Will Know” (Ohayo Version): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stRDLaRV4To

Boy Harsher The Runner (2022): It’s hard to believe that Boy Harsher’s last album, Careful, came out in 2019 before the world was upended. Ahead of the release of this album (which is the soundtrack to a short film and clocks in at less than a half hour), the twin highlights “Tower” and “Give Me A Reason” came out as teaser singles last year. This album and these two songs in particular prove how well attuned Boy Harsher’s talents are to this 80s darkwave sound. I can’t imagine anyone sounding as good on these songs as Jae Matthews, her near-baritone deathless delivery is a perfect match for the style. The production value from Augustus Muller has a sonic upgrade here without losing its retro edge. With one instrumental and one track with a guest vocalist, there are really only six new songs as a pair here but they are great across the board.

“Tower”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13zBeWHNXDU

• Lapsus Linguae - You Got Me Fraiche (2002) Art Rock: Patience actually paid off when it comes to this album. Normally when I listened to something new and by halfway point of the song I got bored and found not one sprinkle of redeeming quality, I skipped to the next song. The album started off clunky and I was not as invested, but I didn’t press the next button cause I was reading an engaging piece about Microsoft x Activision acquisition so I just let it play as background noise. Something happened near the end of the the track ‘Tangerine Torso Brace’ that made me pause my reading and actually focused to the album, then I repeated the album started from ‘Cumbernault’ cause I thought I heard something good there. And that’s that. Ended up on high note as an appreciable symphonic art rock with many grimey beauties hidden underneath the quirky quackeries.

• Maldoror - She (1999) Noise: In my head it went: “A collab between Mike Patton and Merzbow? Cool!” and then: “Well, this is Merzbow production alright. And that scream is Mike Patton alright” and by the end it was like: “OK”. It’s not very exciting overall, a reminder of two good things don’t always make for one great thing. The only song I find decent is ‘Twitch of The Death Nerve’, with excellent throbbing buildup and Mike’s static-like screech (love that it’s titled after one of my fav flick and one of the most influential horror flicks of all time). Not their best work.

• André Fertier's Clivage - Mixtus Orbis (1978) Raga Rock: Mixtus Orbis is best experienced while you’re leaned in on something. Laying down, on a tree, on a rock by the beach, on a chair somewhere with a bottle of cold one in hand, on someone’s back in the middle of Gobi desert waiting for a chopper to rescue you. You get the idea. Lean on something, and this record will take care of the rest and take your mind off somewhere on a journey through the billowing clouds of gorgeous south asian-infused psychedelic rock, for 30 minutes at least, which is too short if you ask me. They could’ve expanded title track a bit more rather than the abrupt bloomage in the middle of the movement there, for example. Other than that, exquisite album. ‘Fatoum Astris’ is the type of tune I plan to listen on vacation when I have time for myself to practice my padmasana position on top of a hill somewhere. It’s so good the air feels fresher as I was listening.

• Coin Locker Kid - Traumnovelle (2012) Hip Hop: 'Hip Hop’ is an oversimplication. This is not just hip hop, it’s waking up in an amusement park during closing hour when all the toys and rides are alive and the only living witness is a dude who raps and sings and yawns about the subconscious. The production is well-ranged from plunderphonics to psychedelia, It’s all very absurd, freaky and nihilistic a lot ot the times and I just could not look away.

• Evoker - A Caress of The Void (2007) Funeral Doom Metal: Well-constructed funeral doom that still leaves some rooms to be desired, mainly for the atmosphere. I like my funeral doom really really subterranean when it comes to vibe, something despair-filled and grief-stricken and feels like looking into the depth of a really dark tunnel with no light at the end. Something that I usually get from bands like ‘Loss’ or ‘Old Graves’. There’s some moments in ‘A Caress of The Void’ that almost brought me there, particularly on the track ‘Mare Erythraeum’, which I find beautiful and moody, but the weight didn’t get carried along throughout, so I can only point out the brilliance of their technical prowess, and maybe I’ll check out their other albums and see if there’s my kind of aural despondence there.

• Yard Act - The Overload (2022) Post Punk: “Almost by accident, I have become rich”. Only three songs in, and that line and the delivery got me. I'm sold. The record’s so thick with snark, mockery and vent. It’s even wordier than what I’m used to when it comes to post punk (and I love me some wordy post punk), but the sharp tip is the pengame. The instrumentals, as fun and groovy as they are, they’re just the supporting act to the ever ranting vocalist spouting his train of thought. In hindsight, the wordiness could be overwhelming for a non native english speaker like yours truly, but I tried not to focus too much on the words and just groove with the flow. Though the gems are in the details. Lots of worthy one liners, a mix between tragedy and comedy (it’s super political, as expected) and they form this tangled web of aural diary I can’t help but to look up their lyrics online just so I could get the nuance. Also, ‘Tall Poppies’ is song of the month, as far as I’m concerned.

• AUA - The Damaged Organ (2022) Krautrock: You know one of those static images with quirky setup that make it seem like they’re dynamic? Like they’re moving if we’re viewing it a certain way. Like ‘Merriweather Post Pavillion’ album cover. Optical illusion. Or in this album case, aural illusion. Like many times during my listening session I was fooled into believing that there would be SOMETHING that would elevate the album, and I kept listening and it just stayed in certain frequency, not making any noteworthy wave (And I take full responsibility for overexpecting). This is not to say the album is bad. It’s perfectly decent (‘Malformed’ and ‘Death In Space’ are worth keeping), but the depth, edge and texture are lacking. It’s like a really good porridge. They put the ‘K’ in Krautrock.

• Richard Stillman - What Does It Mean To Be American (2022) Jazz: Fresh jazz (?) hailing from an American living in the UK. Perspective play. I put question mark after ‘jazz’ because the album glided in a way that escape my understanding of jazz in the simplest form. It’s not a difficult album to consume, but for me it’s quite difficult to compartmentalize. It’s largely improvised, borrowing styles from blues, drone, psychedelia et cetera. What drawn me in is the overall pacing of the album that almost sounds like a narration to something, something I’m not understanding yet, but it’s not a formless sonic. There’s a familiarity in the melody that keeps me grounded like the sax in ‘It’s All Is’, somehow reminds me of Sam Cooke’s Cupid (almost sang along whenever the sax part came in) and the positively eerie ‘Acceptance Blues’. Overall sheer and gorgeous, this is the kind of album I’d peel and unravel to shortlist for year end list.

• Boris - W (2022) Post Rock: Started off not too convincing but I came around during The Fallen, which I like but I could do with vocal there. The overall tone is cold and grainy, with ‘Beyond Good And Evil’ as a clear highlight. Only okay for first listen, though I could always do a nighttime kind of album from Boris. Why not. They do it all anyway.

• AURORA - The Gods We Can Touch (2022) Pop: Cover is giving me strong Robyn’s Body Talk teas. Which means we’re off to a good start. And thankfully good is not just the start, but mostly throughout. It’s AURORA at her most lush (lushest?) and most optimistic. It’s where her fondness of the color red really show, though there’s moment of adjustment here. The flow is winding and curvy, tonally. There’s a lot to take in it’s almost all over the place, but I’m positive it will fall into place with repeat listens. I only listened to a handful of her past releases but songs like ‘Cure For Me’ is unexpected, production wise, while songs like ‘Exist For Love’, ‘A Temporary High and ‘Artemis’ really showcase her versatility. Not a one trick pony.