With the return of musical legend Mose Allison to recording after a dozen year absence the world can almost be considered a slightly more refined place. With his place in musical history firmly established two generations or more ago he has returned to recording not with a flourish but with his usual skill, aplomb and of course, humour. The Way of the World finds the august piano man working with a rootsy combo that stays out of the way of the architect allowing him just enough able support to make every song take on a distinct personality of it’s own. Opening with the cute “My Brain” replete with its acquired “My Babe” blues arrangement, Allison begins the set with a journeyman’s skill and wit. Is it jazz? Is it blues with a feeling? You will be the judge but with the added credibility of his songs being covered over the years by the Who, the Clash, Leon Russell, Blue Cheer and Van Morrison you know you are heading for the ground zero of cool iconoclasts. A most enjoyable album that commands respect and even reverence, The Way of the World is a poignant yet carefree statement from a master not yet lost to the ages. (Anti-, www.anti.com) Jeff Monk
Pip Skid – Fake Blood, Real Beats
By Sarah Petz
With a sound that is raw, honest and provocative, you wouldn’t expect that Pip Skid (a.k.a. Patrick Skene) grew up on the mean streets of the small prairie city of Brandon, Manitoba. Skene said growing up in Brandon was, like all small cities, challenging at times, but thinks that he and his other Brandon-raised friends DJ Hunnicutt and mcenroe ended up developing their music simply because of the lack of things to do.
“We also never had other rap groups to look up to in a close sense,” says Skene, “The only place we could see or hear rap was from rare little moments when it would get played on TV or the radio.” With only punk, jazz and metal bands around them, the group played any show they could get, even if it meant playing a 12-year-old’s birthday party.
“I do believe that coming from a place like Manitoba does effect your art. Our winters change your life which in turn influences the music,” says Skene. His latest album, Skid Row, is the first time he’s worked with DJ Kutdown on an entire project. Also collaborating with Magnum K.I., Skene is proud of the record they’ve produced. Continue reading “Pip Skid – Fake Blood, Real Beats”
Review: Archie Bronson Outfit – Coconut
Instead of boring you with the standard-issue disc review usually presented here, and since this new, long-awaited Archie Bronson Outfit album is just so darn entertaining, I have chosen to break down my thoughts into easily digestible chunks. Let us know your thoughts in the usual fashion. This will give allow you to get back to texting quicker.
• The grinding sonic plunge of opening track “Magnetic Warrior” is just that.
• Classic Echo and the Bunnymen pop meet Jesus and Mary Chain danger-fuzz.
• Interesting, clank arrangements that marry a somewhat jarring intensity with nervous beats and hazy vocals yelping rather preposterous lyrics.
• “Wild Strawberries” = echoed menace roiling… high note bass smacks!
• A dissonance of sound that skirts the danger zone between pop and distorted, angry indie-rock.
• “Chuck” is Echo and the B’men for a new generation, chock full of single note guitar and blind bass pulsation designed to stick in your memory.
• Fans of the older school will cherish the herky twitch of the ABO’ style
• The only quasi-ballad in the set is called “Hunt You Down.” Love as an attack.
(Domino, www.dominorecordco.com) Jeff Monk
Review: Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba – I Speak Fula
With I Speak Fula, the Malian Ngoni lute player Bassekou Kouyate has put together a confident and precise collection of songs that ought to be heard by both those familiar and unfamiliar with the West African sound. This is evangelical music at its best, as Kouyate, backed by his band Ngoni Ba, do well in bringing traditional West African motifs and typical western sounds into conversation with one another, such that his music is ripe for the masses. The songs found throughout the record are equal parts African Highlife and American dessert blues, resulting in a fascinating fusion of sound that avoids doing violence to the genres at play. Kouyate clearly has the utmost respect for the genres he’s working with, and the performances throughout the record excel as a result. Highlights would include the trance-like “Jamana Be Diya” featuring Kasse Mady and Toumani Diabete and the wah-wah driven “Musow,” which at moments sounds like straight-up rock and roll. Considering the increased interest in the “African sound” among recent Western rock and pop bands (Vampire Weekend, Dirty Projectors et al.). I Speak Fula proves to be both a beautiful and timely record, tapping into the Western musical conscious, simply by paying due tribute to the traditional forms of West Africa. (Sub Pop, www.subpop.com) Jeff Friesen
Review: Alternative TV – Black and White: Live
I’ve been told that a live album is usually the wrongest way possible to get introduced to a band (the Who’s Live at Leeds perhaps being the exception). So this band, this bunch of old, English punkers, release this platter I’m holding and hearing, and I like it a lot. Very much the jam-style rock plus the Fall’s repetition and abrasiveness (plus sung by a guy who can keep a solid tone). They’ve got their three chorders like “Viva la Rock ’n’ Roll” (which sounds more evil than pop) and “Urban Kids” and a whole whack of others that wouldn’t be outta place among the Buzzcocks and banks of their kind. Y’know, snotty and fun. Their run-throughs of the Ramones’ “Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue” and their piss on “Louie Louie,” titled “Plastic People,” is spit out and played with that middle-finger-up barre chord sass that punk used to be about. There are some longer songs that show another side of the band, a noisier, experimental, avant garde band that played how they wanted to play. “Release the Natives” is bleak, Glenn Branca-style guitar noise. “Splitting in Two,” this one too surpassing the six-minute mark, builds for a few minutes before exploding into a Mission of Burma-like rock assault. This live album, full of tape hiss and audible audience chatter, captures a band lighting fires on whatever stage they play. Shit, man, if this is how these geezers sound now, I’m gonna step into the wayback machine and hear how they sounded before I was born. If anyone ever tells you that the live album intro is the wrong way to go, slap ’em across the head with this one. (Bongobeat, www.bongobeat.com) Patrick Michalishyn
Review: Happy Birthday – Happy Birthday
Snotty, lo-fi rock and roll styled after the British invasion of the ’60s may not seem as refreshing as it did a decade ago, and with bands like Girls currently enjoying massive success, the self-titled debut from Vermont’s Happy Birthday is unlikely to evoke many strong reactions from critics. It’s really too bad, because Happy Birthday have made one hell of a summer record. Taking his cue from Apples in Stereo, frontman Kyle Thomas has crafted a seemingly endless supply of tight pop hooks that borrow from pretty much everyone. “I Want to Stay (I Run Away)” is a perfect mash of late-’80s goth-rock and California surf-pop. Thomas has the perfect voice for this sort of reckless abandon: immature, obnoxious and whiney. Opener “Girls FM” is a carefree jingle that perfectly parodies radio schlock, while the oddly affecting “Fun” ends the album by breaking through all the irony, and sees Thomas admitting “all I really need is love/ And I won’t fade away.” Let’s hope he finds it. (Sub Pop, www.subpop.com) Jonathan Dyck
Review: Eluvium – Similies
It’s always a risky move when an ambient artist transitions from experimental soundscapes to the more familiar territories of pop music. Eluvium is the moniker of Matthew Cooper, whose work is influenced by neoclassical musicians like Erik Satie and Philip Glass, and, more recently, takes its cue from Brian Eno’s work in the mid-’70s. Similies is Cooper’s fifth full-length and first since his breakthrough 2007 album Copia, which was a wash of lush, airy textures and conflicting emotions. On this outing, fans of Eluvium are introduced to Cooper’s unpolished baritone voice (think Ian Curtis), processed through a more traditional song structure. It all works surprisingly well, especially with lyrics that echo the mysteries of Cooper’s dream-like compositions. On “The Motion Makes Me Last,” Cooper sings, “I am surprised/ that shapes are for looking at/ and their colours create my mood/ I’m a vessel between two places I’ve never been.” Cooper’s work is still grounded in ambient sounds, but they’ve never been as absorbing or as revelatory as they are here. (Temporary Residence Limited, www.temporaryresidence.com) Jonathan Dyck
Review: Frog Eyes – Paul’s Tomb: A Triumph
No, the members of Frog Eyes did not lack foresight when they agreed to subtitle this album “A Triumph.” Recorded live off the floor, Paul’s Tomb is Frog Eyes in complete control of the battlefield. Of course, frontman Carey Mercer (who now splits his time between Frog Eyes and his supergroup, Swan Lake) still struggles through each hard-won war cry, shooting what he calls “contrapuntal sharp blasts or hope” at anyone who dares to listen. The result is what is probably Frog Eyes’ most accessible album to date; and with an opening track (“A Flower in a Glove”) that surpasses nine minutes—not to mention Mercer’s characteristically cryptic lyrics howled at an inhuman pace—it’s really quite a feat. “Rebel Horns” has a thumping bass-driven hook that erupts into unrelenting walls of feedback, while “Violent Psalms” makes wonderful use of new band member Megan Boddy’s serene voice as a foil for Mercer’s affliction. Few fans of Frog Eyes will consider this album an equal to Mercer’s previous work (Folded Palm, anyone?), but Paul’s Tomb: A Triumph is another little victory for one of Canada’s most underrated bands. (Dead Oceans, www.deadoceans.com) Jonathan Dyck
Review: Kaki King – Junior
With such a personal arsenal of talent, Kaki King should succeed. But Junior, her sixth album, is a bit of a disappointment. It’s not terrible, but she’s capable of a better, more focused collection. As songs like “Sloan Shore” and “Spit It Back in My Mouth” demonstrate, King is a gifted songwriter and a truly singular guitarist (after all, there’s a reason she won a Golden Globe for Into the Wild’s original score), but her bland vocals and uninspired lyrics tend to undercut each song that uses them. Inspired by spy novels, her lead single, “The Betrayer,” (which might be the worst song on the album), is an attempt at angular punk that tries to turn the idea of infidelity into one of political intrigue. For all its energy and urgency, “The Betrayer” falls as flat as an opener as the angsty, high school journal entry “Sunnyside” does as a closer. The album’s best moments are those in which King plays to her strengths, and her producer, Malcom Burn, allows those strengths to stand on their own (as they do on “Sloan Shore”). Someone also needs to tell King that the espionage concept is kind of lame. (Rounder, www.rounder.com) Jonathan Dyck
Review: Nice Nice – Extra Wow
Nice Nice, an experimental duo from Portland, Ore., know how to have fun. On their third full-length (and their first for Warp), Nice Nice try to capture the energy of their bombastic live performances, and believe it or not, they actually pull it off. “Set and Setting” sees the band kicking up dust in a slow swell as it readies itself for the massive, driving power of “One Hit.” Somewhere between Battles, Holy Fuck and Animal Collective, Nice Nice have carved out a space for themselves with the unrelenting ambition of Extra Wow. “Big Bounce” is an irresistible dub-infused summer jam that uses what seems like a nursery rhyme melody, while “Make It Gold” sounds like it could be a shoegaze anthem. What’s really surprising about Extra Wow is how full and diverse it sounds. At fifty minutes, the album can get a bit overwhelming and repetitive, but for the most part, Nice Nice have assembled a cohesive collection of material that will get your body moving and may just leave you feeling a bit dizzy. (Warp Records, www.warprecords.com) Jonathan Dyck