Mississippi Joe Callicott (1899 – 1969)

Callicott was not your typical North Mississippi blues musician. Musicians from the hill country tend to vamp on a few chords, focusing on a droning, almost hypnotic sound; Callicott was a fingerpicker in the vein of a Piedmont guitarist, with a dash of Jimmie Rodgers. He recorded three songs independently in 1929 and 1930: “Fare Thee Well Blues,” “Traveling Mama,” and “Mississippi Boll Weevil Blues”, the last of which went unreleased. Two additional tracks were recorded with Garfield Akers, the “Cottonfield Blues” — and here, his finger picking is energetic and nimble, bordering on aggressive.¹

After the 1930 session, he went unrecorded for 37 years. He was not totally forgotten, however, as his songs started to appear in anthologies of Delta Blues. He was eventually found in Nesbit, Mississippi by George Mitchell, who recorded several songs with him in August 1967. These became the basis for a number of records and re-releases, the best of which was probably Fat Possum’s Ain’t a Gonna Lie to You. Unfortunately, his guitar playing had diminished somewhat by this time, but his voice had matured beautifully. His singing on “Frankie and Albert” is expressive and full of sadness yet was beautiful and nuanced throughout. After these sessions, he recorded several songs for Blue Horizons which were a bit lower-quality and rougher. He died in 1969 and was only recently given a proper headstone.

Purchase Mississippi Joe Callicott Albums On Amazon

Mississippi Joe Callicott – “Cottonfield Blues” – DOWNLOAD MP3

Mississippi Joe Callicott – “Frankie And Albert” – DOWNLOAD MP3

Fred Neil (1936 – 2001)

Fred Neil was a fixture of the Greenwich Village folk scene and was regarded as a mentor figure by many of the more-famed musicians who came up during that time. He grew up in Florida and worked as a songwriter, which included tracks like “Come Back Baby” for Buddy Holly and “Candy Man” for Roy Orbison. He was an idiosyncratic figure, often frustratingly difficult to get to a gig or recording studio and suspicious of fame. But a number of famous musicians played with Neil, including Bob Dylan, David Crosby, John Sebastian and Stephen Stills.²

Neil stuck to a six-string guitar and was best known for his bass voice. He recorded five studio albums that have been released, of which Fred Neil is regarded as the best. Fred Neil carries his most famous composition, “Everybody’s Talkin’” which was famously covered by Harry Nilsson for the movie Midnight Cowboy. “The Dolphins” is another famous song off of this album and reveals Neil’s interest in dolphins, to which he devoted nearly thirty years of his time. His 1965 classic, entitled Bleecker and MacDougal features another popular composition, “Blues on the Ceiling”. Friends of Neil’s have revealed that he recorded several more albums during the 1970s which have yet to be released.³ He stopped recording in the ’70s and his last gig was in 1981 in Coconut Grove, Florida.

Purchase Fred Neil Albums on Amazon

Fred Neil – “Candy Man” – DOWNLOAD MP3

Fred Neil – “Everybody’s Talkin’” – DOWNLOAD MP3

Fred Neil – “The Dolphins” – DOWNLOAD MP3

Bix Beiderbecke (1903 – 1931)

Beiderbecke was a true rarity in the 1920s: a white and very successful Jazz musician who was held in high esteem by black musicians, many of whom were victims of discrimination. For that matter, he managed to create his own unique style of cornet playing, a considerable feat for any musician living in the shadow of Louis Armstrong. Legends surround Beiderbecke today, making it difficult to dispel myth from fact. He was born in Davenport, Iowa and musically interested from a young age. He apparently taught himself the cornet from listening to the Original Dixieland Jazz Band records and would sneak down to listen to bands playing on the riverboats, where he purportedly met Louis Armstrong.

Beiderbecke’s family was conservative but unable to rein him in, and he eventually ended up in Paul Whiteman’s orchestra. His playing was less bluesy and forceful than Armstrong’s, and many of his recordings come across as restrained and cool rather than hot. His most famous songs were “Singin’ the Blues,” recorded in 1927, and “Georgia On My Mind”, recorded just days before his death. Beiderbecke drank heavily and his health worsened over a few short years. In the 1970s, a sign of this alcoholism was found; an intern at NBC was going through the sheet music of the Paul Whiteman Orchestra and discovered a note written by the third trumpet at the solo, which said, “Wake up Bix”.⁴ After finally being kicked out of the Whiteman Orchestra in 1930, Beiderbecke died the following summer of lobar pneumonia, which was undoubtedly exacerbated by alcoholism. Years later, Miles Davis would interview people who had known Beiderbecke as he tried to capture his style.⁵

Purchase Bix Beiderbecke Albums on Amazon

Bix Biederbecke, Frank Trumbauer, and Jack Teagarden – “At The Jazz Ball” – DOWNLOAD MP3

Frank Trumbauer & His Orchestra Featuring Bix Biederbecke – “Singin’ The Blues” – DOWNLOAD MP3

Oscar Aleman (1909 – 1980)

Oscar Aleman has recently bounced back into the mainstream after one of his songs was used in the Woody Allen film Midnight in Paris; nevertheless, he remains sorely underappreciated. Born in Argentina, he began playing music at an early age and went to Europe in 1929. He was hired by Josephine Baker to play in her band in Paris and spent the next several years in France. During this time, he befriended the gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt. The two were so closely associated that Aleman often served as a backup whenever Django couldn’t be found by his bandmates, which apparently was a frequent occurrence. Tragically, despite their friendship, the two never recorded together. Aleman returned to Argentina during WWII and spent the remainder of his life there.

Aleman gets compared to Reinhardt frequently, but aside from their shared technical proficiency, the two were very different musicians. Aleman played in a wide variety of styles and brought a great many Latin techniques and styles into the recording studio. Even his South American influences were diverse, though, as his recordings included a Brazilian-influenced album of standards. He recorded prolifically, though American listeners may find it difficult to find hard copies of his music. A number of overlapping compilations are available, the best of which is Swing Guitar Masterpieces, 1938-1957. For starting tracks, I would suggest “Russian Lullaby”, “Darktown Strutters Ball”, and “Improvisaciones Sobre Boogie Woogie”.⁶

Purchase Oscar Aleman Albums on Amazon

Oscar Aleman – “Darktown Strutters Ball” – DOWNLOAD MP3

Oscar Aleman – “Russian Lullaby” – DOWNLOAD MP3

Oscar Aleman – “Improvisaciones Sobre Boogie Woogie” – DOWNLOAD MP3

Karen Dalton (1937 – 1993)

Everybody seems to agree that Karen Dalton was a “white Billie Holiday”, as I’ve seen on several forums and blogs. I hesitate to compare artists too much as I think it runs the risk of cheapening what makes one unique, but with these two, there are some apt comparisons to be made. Both had powerful voices with a relatively narrow range and a lot of expressiveness. Both also led hard lives marred by alcoholism and personal misfortunes. Karen Dalton was born in Enid, Oklahoma and had already been married twice by 21. She became part of the burgeoning Greenwich Village Folk Scene and spent time between New York and Colorado. Two albums were recorded before she faded into obscurity — one in 1969 and one in 1971. She died in 1993 from complications with AIDS.

Dalton has begun to enjoy a revival in recent years as previously unreleased fan-recordings and live concerts have made their way into the hands of record companies. The album I recommend to start out with isn’t one of her studio albums but Cotton Eyed Joe, a live album from 1962. She alternated between banjo and the twelve-string guitar while she sang, and this particular recording showcases this.⁷ The sound quality is also remarkably good, though not too good; at any given moment, you can tell she’s playing in a small folk club, which, for me, enhances the experience. Start with “It Hurts Me Too”, for her version has become the definitive one for that standard. “One May Morning” is another beautiful track that deserves your attention.

Purchase Karen Dalton Albums on Amazon

Karen Dalton – “It Hurts Me Too” – DOWNLOAD MP3

Karen Dalton – “One May Morning” – DOWNLOAD MP3

References
¹ Mississippi Joe Callicott Mississippi Blues Trail.
² Fred Neil: The Other Side Of Greenwich Village 60′s Folk Scene, Perfect Sound Forever.
³ Ric O’Barry, Fred Neil.
⁴ Wake Up Bix, mlkshk.
⁵ Bix Beiderbecke played with lyric beauty and had a different influence than Louis Armstrong., Jazz-Music-History.
⁶ Oscar Alemán: El Increible Swing, Classic Jazz Guitar.
⁷ In Her Own Time: The return of Karen Dalton, Austin Chronicle.

Ω

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music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

Forgotten Gems & Dusty Classics: Mississippi Joe Callicott, Fred Neil, Bix Beiderbecke, Oscar Aleman, Karen Dalton

HealeyIsland
On Ponzi Bridge
White Label Music

Frances Fukuyama’s book The End Of History, published in 1992, went directly against Jacques Derrida’s Spectres of Marx, predicting the global triumph of Capitalism and of the Spectacle. Greg Healey’s music, as HealeyIsland, is the soundtrack of sprawling shopping complexes and virtual dating sites.

This is the world predicted by Walter Benjamin, in his unfinished Passagenwerken (The Arcades Project): the birth of the pop culture, the beginning of the shopping mall, of commerce, of virtuality. It’s the simulacrum’s smug satisfaction that it is real, that it has it all under control, under wraps. It’s a dustbin museum, full of never-ending card catalogs, everything dated and numbered, and we are told to go pilfer, go explore. But the museum is not real life; Healey remembers the outside, the sunshine and dirty gutters. Healey both pays reverence to and makes a mockery of high-definition, high-gloss early-’90s CGI utopianism in On Ponzi Bridge. Healey loves and hates the spectacle, and fights back with the keenest of British weapons: sarcasm.

On Ponzi Bridge is an enjoyable listen, and increasingly so. It’s a solid collection of songs that works both as a whole, and as individual components. The first couple of tracks are more vocal-oriented, sounding like Bryan Ferry collaborating with James Ferraro, before segueing into the more instrumental latter half, that recalls some of Fripp’s interludes on Another Green World. It also sounds like menu music for a video game, like you fell asleep with your NES console on pause — super sharp and high-defintion, but still with a funkiness, a hip-hop groove. Like Duke Ellington said, “That’s cool. But does it swing?”

But,all the double entendres and smirking menace aside, the music that Healey makes is astounding: so many subtle layers, different keyboard sounds, drum pattern variations. He’s a legit electronic producer, and is using many of the deft tricks available to the discerning beatsmith to create a new New Romanticism, a bedroom synth-pop library music floor banger. On Ponzi Bridge is the amphetamine-fueled, cynical take on Boards Of Canada’s wistful reminiscence; it’s sharp, rather than blurry, competitive while still being reverential. It’s the sound of a generation of kids determined to make the illest beats imaginable on a hacked PlayStation council. Precocious and hungry, they defy the people who say that everything has been said and that we are doomed to endlessly vomit and regurgitate our parent’s generation. If the past was so great, why isn’t the present perfect?

Healey is refining the past, melting it down to purest ore, taking what he wants, and laughing at the rest. He is using every trick at his disposal, including great songwriting, musicianship and production. On Ponzi Bridge is a model Edwardian village to wander around in, to transform your days and nights into smooth gleaming pleasure cruises, on your way to the launchpad.

Ω

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HealeyIsland – On Ponzi Bridge Album Review

Haiku Salut
Tricolore
How Does It Feel To Be Loved? (2013)

Unless you closely follow the little known — but still robust — musical sub-genre of folktronica, Haiku Salut’s Tricolore will likely be unlike anything you’ve heard before. In their full-length debut, Haiku Salut — made up of musicians Gemma Barkerwood, Sophie Barkerwood, and Louise Croft — explores the genre and their place in it, and in doing so, presents us with both an exciting and playful plethora of sounds and a feeling of potential.

The band’s major influences, including Yann Tiersen, Amestub, and early Múm, are prevalent throughout Tricolore, as the purely instrumental album engages various sounds and multicultural elements. Each track features layers upon layers of instrumental dynamism: light and playful piano parts, rhythmic and precise guitar and ukulele fingerpicking, dense accordion arrangements, and the occasional energetic percussion. These various parts ebb and flow across the album, sometimes peaking, sometimes falling, and always working together to give the songs momentum and intrigue.

It is obvious the three musicians have amply soaked up various Western and Eastern European musical influences, which are particularly pleasing to an unaccustomed American ear. Moreover, Tricolore‘s incorporation of electronic effects, including electronic instruments, looping, and modulation, distinguishes Haiku Salut’s music from classically-composed soundtracks or instrumental folk albums. Its satisfying machine-like sounds, for example, whir, click, tap, and crunch, so that you can almost feel them through your headphones. These fine details, along with the accordion’s high notes in “Sounds Like There’s a Pacman Crunching Away At Your Heart”, the build-ups in “Six Impossible Things,” and the wall of sound most notably created in the beginning and end of the album, allow Tricolore‘s content to stand out.

The challenges a band faces in composing an instrumental album — and a genre-bending one at that — are great. Successfully conveying emotion, consistently keeping the audience engaged, and effectively differentiating your sound and each individual track are all pressing concerns, to which Tricolore is not wholly immune. At some moments, such as in “Rustic Sense of Migration,” the various instrumental layers feel somewhat chaotic; moving without a center, they suffer in their ability to convey real emotion or cohesive narrative. The fact that the album’s “plot” or focus is purposefully opaque, moreover, makes it difficult to grasp moments like these and to glean meaning from the album’s track changes and general arc. Coupling this obscurity with the album’s partial lack of a certain atmospheric quality, which perhaps only comes with age, moderately holds the album back from reaching its full potential.

That being said, potential is certainly present, sweating and beating at the heart of Tricolore. Because of the trio’s musical abilities as well as their adeptness with instrumentation and composition, Tricolore manages to grab you and let you go without demanding your full attention, so that its melodies grow on you the more you listen. Additionally, the album has several high points that are truly emotive, such as the chord constructions on “Glockelbar”, and that more satisfyingly embrace and successfully incorporate the band’s electronica side, like the explosion of big sound on “No, You Say It”. These impressions indicate that we will have much to look forward to in Haiku Salut’s future, and much to enjoy as we let their first full-length soak in.

Ω

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Haiku Salut – Tricolore Album Review

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANTHONY MASTERS; ABOVE ARTWORK BY EMILY FRASER

Evan Caminiti

“Fading Dawn” from Dreamless Sleep

Barn Owl

“Void Redux” from V

Barn Owl’s music has a way of slowing down attention, slowing down one’s perception of time. Meditation produces a similar result. What are your intentions with putting music out into the world? Are they aligned with such qualities?

Evan Caminiti: I approach music less conceptually than I once did and rely more on intuition and daily practice, embracing the strong moments of improvisation rather than trying over and over again to execute an idea based on concepts that don’t resonate viscerally. Having a specific vision and knowing what we want to hear is crucial; I would say we always make the kind of music we would to listen to. I think slow music, deep music that taps into something beyond just entertainment, music that engages your body and mind in an all encompassing way — that is really valuable and crucial. Personally, it is a major part of my well-being, and I hope through releasing music that it does the same for others. I find it to have a grounding effect, both energizing and calming.

Barn Owl Band Interview (cont’d)

What does meditation mean to you, and when did you first encounter the idea? Do meditative states influence the creation or consumption of your music?

Evan Caminiti: For me, music comes first and the meditative benefits are one part of it. Long duration music really introduced me to meditation in some strange form. Raga, especially the slowly shifting styles of Dhrupad and Pandit Pran Nath, and the music of La Monte Young, Tony Conrad, Terry Riley, and Pauline Oliveros, were important in that they allowed me to literally hear musically differently. Before getting into all of these artists, I experienced the powerful live sets of Sunn O))) and Om, which primed me for the transcendental philosophies these [other] artists have explored for decades.

Meditation produces a slippery sense of self, when you cease to identify your thoughts. Can you speak about the self and how it effects your creativity?

Evan Caminiti: The ability to dissolve the ego and allow performers and audience alike to slip into a trance state is one of the most amazing and rewarding things about music. It’s the moments where we’re open where we can leave the self behind and become fully absorbed with the music; there we can become part of the continuum of inspiration and influence.

There are some studies about the ability to induce deep trance states (theta and delta states) by listening to tones (binaural beats). Theta states are also brought on by simple, repetitive tasks, and these states are attributed by artists and scientists as responsible for inspiration and clear insight. What are some things you do to clear your mind and allow for inspiration to occur?

Evan Caminiti: Having a comfortable environment at home is really helpful in creating the right environment for inspiration and insight. Surrounding myself with positive influences and creating an altar-like space in my home studio is essential.

BARN OWL INTERVIEW CONTINUES BELOW

Meditation emphasizes letting things arise, and letting thing go, without clutching or attachment. I have always found improvised music very similar to this. How do you compare the process of recording, versus just playing music in the moment?

Evan Caminiti: Improvisation and recording are inseparable. I was talking to a friend the other night. He brought up a quote; I think it was something Mark Hollis said. It went something like, “The first time you play something it is at its peak.” That philosophy makes a lot of sense to me because I’ve found over the years that improvisations and first takes can possess this vital essence driven by pure expression which is impossible to attain when something that is contrived. The catch is knowing how to improvise without wanking or noodling and knowing how to edit improvised recordings down to the essential parts. Furthermore, not being afraid to edit the recordings and shape them into something new. This approach where improvisation, composition, and production are equal is really exciting to me.

Hardcore practitioners of meditation often advocate material renunciation. What is your take on creature comforts versus ascetic living? Materialism is to a degree necessary in the music industry; how, if at all, does that dialogue affect your creative process?

Evan Caminiti: I’ve been spending a lot of time lately with my modular synthesizer. I get endless hours of joy and inspiration out of the synth; it’s also essential in a practical way as a working musician, so yeah materialism is necessary. Like collecting records, there is no substitute for vinyl, but they take up a lot of space. We all have our creature comforts but I keep things really minimal; my small apartment certainly helps with that. As far as effecting the creative process, I look at the limitations of a small space and the fact that I can’t afford a really elaborate setup as a good thing. There was an interesting piece by Mark Fell in a recent issue of the Wire that discusses how limitations lead to innovation. The less you have, the more you’ll get out of what you’re working with and it can produce unique and personal results.

You recently played at the SF Zen Center. Can you describe how this came about and what the experience was like? Have you and do you wish to do more things like this in the future?

Evan Caminiti: This experience was thanks to Jennifer Mearz, a writer for the Bold Italic here in SF. The experience was great, totally unique. One of the most amazing things was reading the blog of one of the Zen Center’s residents, who happens to be deaf. In detail, this individual described the physical sensations of our set, the way vibrations moved from the heart to the belly, all over. It sounded like a very multi-dimensional experience. The physical aspects of our music is a key element, something people may miss out on if only listening at home and not coming out to shows. That being said, the PA we used that night was actually very small so we weren’t half as loud as we like to be. So yes, doing more things like this in the future would be great, but we would want to make sure the PA is powerful enough so we can give everyone the best experience possible. Good sound systems are becoming increasingly important to us now that we’re playing so many electronics live; we’ve really wreaked havoc on some inadequate systems.

Your latest record is much more electronic than your previous outputs. How did this shift come about? Do you think that the shift between analog versus digital changes the meditative atmosphere at all?

Evan Caminiti: We’ve always used both analog and digital instruments. There are more digital elements on this record, but you know, almost all the synths were analog, we used a bunch of tube amps; there is just no substitute for these things. This shift came about because of the desire to expand our techniques and try new things. We just weren’t inspired to create a record structured around the guitar as the primary instrument. We’ve made a lot of albums that took that approach already. We have always been drawn to a hands on approach so we gravitated towards synthesizers that allow the user to sculpt the sound from the ground up. Your options open exponentially when you move from the setup of guitar, pedals, amplifier, on to synthesizers — massive octave range, full control over the stereo field, a vast array of timbres… it goes on. I love guitars, but it’s refreshing and inspiring to work with something so open; it’s like a blank slate.

Do you have particular records that you use as a tool for getting into a meditative zone? Are there any positive or negative experiences of note stemming from meditative states in your life?

Evan Caminiti: I listen to Alice Coltrane’s devotional tapes pretty often, and in situations like being a plane, where I’m feeling on edge, those songs have an amazing calming and empowering effect. On the opposite side of things, I’ve certainly been in situations where I get on the bus after a long improv session or a deep listening [session] and I’m just not ready to deal with all the chaos of the day-to-day BS after been in such a deep zone. It’s like crossing a barrier and you then have to re-acclimate to the outside world.

Ω

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Barn Owl Band Interview: A Bilateral Reflection On Meditative States

!!!
Thri!!!er
Warp Records

!!! are by definition FUN. Once you move past the confusion of how you pronounce their band name (it’s “Chk Chk Chk”), you realize that it just adds an extra emphasis on maximum excitement. Their musical goal in life is to get you pumped, get your body moving, and maybe even get you dancing. And this they have achieved, with every one of their previous records; they’ve been shaking booties since 2001, and they don’t plan on stopping now.

Their fifth full-length, Thr!!!er, definitely has a dance rock element similar to the band’s previous releases, but there seems to be a unexpected pop music emphasis to this album. The opening track, “Even When the Water is Cold,” is an odd choice for a start. It sounds off-kilter for !!!, who always struck me as a band who didn’t really care what you think (hell, they don’t care if you can’t figure out their band name) — but now seem to be heading into more mainstream territory. This is a new realm for the band: making normal pop songs, with no synthy dance tangents, or spaced out surreal moments of zen.

ALBUM REVIEW CONTINUES BELOW
!!! – “Slyd”

The second song, “Get That Rhythm Right”, is more of what we are accustomed to for the band, with long, slow buildups to the chorus, wildly sprawling harmonies, and a sense of that something odd is going on that you can’t quite put your finger on. “Slyd” is the best example of a more (and I use this word loosely) traditional !!! song, with sparse vocals intermixed with heavy bass, percussive synths, and a repetitive (but never boring) chorus. “Except Death” is one of my personal favorites from this record, because it reminds me of a track from Myth Takes, my most favored !!! studio album. The band gets extra-funky on this track, and I can’t resist doing a few shoulder bounces in my office chair. Twangy basslines abound, and vocalist Nic Offer turns it up on octave or two on his chorus vocals.

“One Girl/One Boy” is probably the stand-out “pop” single on the album; this could be played on national radio and no one wouldn’t even guess that it is !!!. Albeit a pop song with a very noticeable disco-funk angle, it’s still quite accessible considering the band’s previous material. It’s a love song, to boot. The chorus sings, “When I hear that song/I think about one love/ I think about you.” !!! are not typically known for their romance or pop-accessibility, but you could play this for your momma, and she probably wouldn’t blink an eye! “Californiayeah” is the same sort of song — one with a more traditional song structure, and an extremely hooky chorus.

ALBUM REVIEW CONTINUES BELOW
!!! – “One Girl/One Boy” Music Video

The album in general continues this way: one rather straight-forward pop song, with one song that could have been a b-side from Louden up Now — but even these b-sides are slightly less boisterous and irreverent than anything from the band’s previous albums. There is still a familiar sense of glee, excitement, and rowdiness that comes from listening, but it feels tempered, with much shorter songs. The longest track on this record clocks in at about five-and-a-half minutes, which is unusually quick in comparison with previous albums, which had song lengths averaging seven or eight minutes, at least.

!!!, whose numbers generally hover around at least 8 members, have all been playing music since the mid-’90s. Their original decision back then to transition from post-hardcore band to an electronic dance music outfit was a rather shocking one; perhaps the band is still transitioning into something different. This is definitely not meant to be their swan song. !!! have plenty of fight in them left.

THR!!!ER Tracklist
1. Even When The Water’s Cold
2. Get That Rhythm Right
3. One Girl/ One Boy
4. Fine Fine Fine
5. Slyd
6. Californiyeah
7. Except Death
8. Careful
9. Station (Meet Me At The)

Ω

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!!! (Chk Chk Chk) – Thri!!!er Album Review

FIELDED
Ninety Thirty Thirty
Captcha Records

When composing her second album, Lindsey Anne Powell of FIELDED wanted to make vocals the star, while getting back in touch with her “deepest love for Pop music”. In Ninety Thirty Thirty, the soulful yet edgy singer-songwriter does both those things beautifully, blending the best elements of futuristic, experimental music and retro pop to create her own unique sound.

Ninety Thirty Thirty is a very enjoyable album, and that’s largely due to Powell’s amazing vocal control. Many of the album’s exceptional tracks, including its break-out “Chapel of Lies,” feature powerful vocal modulations by Powell that slip and slide satisfyingly across her wide range while supporting full and edgy emotion. Either framed by precise harmonies or set against the backdrop of heavier instrumentals, Powell’s voice lends sass and personality as the album’s backbone. The combination of captivating vocals with dense layers of samples and instrumental parts creates an interesting wall of sound. In “Gabrielle,” for example, Powell’s vocals both float over and pierce through an industrial-sounding backdrop, while the lush harmonies in “Eternal Hour” are supremely gratifying against the song’s sparse and energetic instrumentation.

The album’s multi-generational pop influences also propel Ninety Thirty Thirty‘s energy and originality. Beats, melodies, and vocal and instrumental flourishes reminiscent of ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s popular music are scattered throughout the album. For example, “Arms of Heaven” features a head-bobbing ’80s-style beat, and the ethereal background vocals and guitar licks of “Eurynome” recall grooving pop ballads of the ’60s and ’70s. “Eternal Hour,” moreover, one of Ninety Thirty Thirty‘s best tracks, expertly combines the album’s vocal emphasis and use of retro elements through powerful ’90s-reminiscent female vocals that spike and flow over a tumbling ’80s-style beat.

The incorporation of futuristic, experimental instrumentation amidst the album’s satisfying vocals and pop influences brings the album to a new level and highlights its darker undertones. Ninety Thirty Thirty relies heavily on electronic components, including synth parts, samples, and vocal loops, which infuse and re-ignite the album’s retro-pop feeling with contemporary elements. Moreover, several tracks feature unsettling and creepy spoken parts and other ‘inorganic’ samples, like footsteps and telephones ringing, as well as occasional modulated or off-color harmonies incorporated into background vocals. These experimental elements surface throughout Ninety Thirty Thirty, but are more apparent after the album’s transitional a cappella track, “Let it Out,” which showcases weighty and interestingly strange harmonies. Without overwhelming the album, Ninety Thirty Thirty‘s experimentation brings depth to Powell’s music, and underscores its thematic thread of bottled desire.

The album concludes on a somewhat somber note, with the detached and dreamlike final track, “My Hand, Meant Only for You”. While listeners may find themselves craving the album’s earlier energy by the end, as a whole, Ninety Thirty Thirty displays Powell’s impressive musical range and indicates that she is definitely experimenting with and honing her sound. Its intricate combination of pop and experimentation allow Ninety Thirty Thirty to be accessible, empowering, and catchy at the same time that it is mysterious and elusive. And while we may hope for even more variety on FIELDED’s next album, in the meantime, we are free to dive into the shimmering world Powell creates on this expressive record.

Ω

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FIELDED – Ninety Thirty Thirty Album Review & Full Album Stream

LIVE SHOW REVIEW CONTINUES BELOW

James Blake – Overgrown Album Review
Buy on Amazon

James Blake – Self-Titled Album Review
Buy on Amazon

 

JAMES BLAKE OVERGROWN TOUR DATES
4/14/2013 Coachella Indio,CA
4/16/2013 Mezzanine San Francisco, CA
4/18/2013 Rio Theatre Santa Cruz, CA
4/21/2013 Coachella Indio,CA
4/23/2013 Neptune Seattle, WA
4/24/2013 Wonder Ballroom Portland, OR
4/25/2013 Commodore Ballroom Vancouver, BC
4/27/2013 The Depot Salt Lake City, UT
4/28/2013 Ogden Theatre Denver, CO
4/29/2013 Liberty Hall Lawrence , KS
5/1/2013 First Avenue Minneapolis, MN
5/2/2013 Metro Chicago, IL
5/3/2013 Majestic Theatre Detroit, MI
5/4/2013 Danforth Music Hall Toronto, ON
5/6/2013 Metropolis Montreal, QC
5/8/2013 House of Blues Boston Boston, MA
5/9/2013 Terminal 5 New York, NY
5/11/2013 Theatre of Living Arts Philadelphia, PA
5/12/2013 9:30 Club Washington, DC
5/13/2013 Cats Cradle Carrboro, NC
5/14/2013 Masquerade Atlanta, GA

Opening the night was New York producer Drew Lustman, aka FaltyDL, a sneaky talented guy who has been putting out impressive records and remixes for years. Without a proper breakout single, however, Lustman lacks the kind of punch that it often requires to get the crowd moving early in the night. But the weather was beautiful, the air was breezy, and Lustman’s set provided the ultimate spark for a terrific night of music. Technically sound and perfectly paced, Lustman blasted out his own material mixed with recognizable samples (Public Enemy), and transformed a room full of glossy-eyed, tank-topped boys into a sweaty mess of dancing shoes.

By the time UK import James Blake finally took the stage on Wednesday night, the anticipation had reached fever pitch. People clamoring about his instruments, a plethora of keyboards and microphones positioned stage right; there’s no doubt that every member of the audience was familiar with Blake’s infamous vocals. In beginning this hour-and-a-half-long set with a few impromptu beats, Blake caught the crowd off-guard. But it wasn’t long before he was blasting out tracks from his debut album like “I Never Learnt To Share” and an extended “Why Don’t You Call Me.” And while the set began with a rather somber tone, backdropped by three enormous brass rings outfitted with a kind of leather pulled taught and illuminated with three soft lights, the mood under the A-frame roof was soon uplifted. With the sound of one simple sample — and those who have followed Blake’s career since a bedroom producer of dubstep already know which one I mean — the crowd absolutely exploded.

“CMYK” remains the definitive song in Blake’s collection in terms of fan appreciation and reaction. And while it’s essentially like Blake playing DJ on stage versus attempting to recreate the infectious jam, it certainly doesn’t detract from just how massive the song has become. But as Blake finally settled into his material from Overgrown, it was apparent just confident he has become. On past tours, he so often appeared to be hiding behind his keyboards; now he was affable between songs and upright in his chair, belting out vocals that are cavernous in their explosiveness. No longer does it seem like Blake is propelled by the energy of the internet and thirstiness of the media to crown him the next king of this or that. Instead, Blake is embracing his unparalleled ear for a tune and stunning vocal skill, enrapturing a crowd that was ready to embrace the youngster. From there, it mostly carried on how you would expect. “Retrograde”, my personal favorite from Overgrown, made an appearance during the set alongside “Life Round Here” and “Digital Lion”.

Unlike so many hyped producers and artists who have come through this town in recent years, James Blake doesn’t appear ready to falter. Brought to life, Overgrown is even more powerful than it is on record. With the press of each key, the crash of each cymbal, and the strum of each guitar chord, it was obvious that Blake will only continue to grow in his relatively young career. The longing on each fan’s face after Blake finally left the stage was reason enough to believe this to be true.

Ω

Related posts:

1. James Blake – Overgrown Album Review
2. James Blake – Self-Titled Album Review
3. Top Pops! February 2013 James Blake, Kisses, Psychic Twin, Parenthetical Girls, More

music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

James Blake, FaltyDL Live Show Review

Seattle-based label Debacle Records celebrates its sixth annual Debacle Festival taking place May, 3rd, 4th, and 5th. The three-day event showcases national and local electronic, drone, noise, techno, improvised, metal and synth musicians. This year, the label is proud to partner with community instigator Hollow Earth Radio as non-profit beneficiary. Debacle Fest will be held at our partner venues the FRED Wildlife Refuge, The Highline, and Lo-Fi Performance Gallery.

Curated by Samuel Melancon
of Debacle Records

www.debaclefest.com

 

Complete Schedule & Lineup

Friday, May 3rd @ FRED Wildlife Refuge (127 Boylston Ave. E)
8:00pm – $20 door/$15 adv
Expo ’70
Swahili
Plankton Wat
Monopoly Child Star Searchers
Brain Fruit
Panabrite
Total Life
LA Lungs
Secret Colors

Saturday May 4th @ Highline (210 Broadway Ave. E)
Matinee show at 3:00pm SHARP – $7
Sissy Spacek
MTNS
BLSPHM
WaMu
Stan Reed

Saturday, May 4th @ FRED Wildlife Refuge (127 Boylston Ave. E)
7:00pm – $20/$15 adv.
Date Palms
John Wiese
Nate Young
Golden Retriever
Mind Over Mirrors
Marielle Jakobsons
Gabriel Saloman
Morae (Emuul & Hemosis)
Biosexual

Sunday, May 5th – MOTOR Night @ Lo Fi Performance Gallery (429 Eastlake Ave.)
8:00pm – $20/$15 adv
Hieroglyphic Being
Moon Pool & Dead Band
Strategy
GOODWIN
Prostitutes
Black Hat
TJ Max
Patternmaster

1. Plankton Wat – “Metamorphosis”
   I have been a big fan of Dewey Mahood for a good while now. A while back, I read an interview where he said somebody he really admires is Justin Wright AKA Expo ’70. I had recently released a CD-R of some live jams from Expo ’70, and decided to connect those guys. The result is a forthcoming split LP out soon on Debacle. In the meantime, Dewey also has a good history of playing the fest both as Plankton Wat and as a member of Eternal Tapestry.
   

    

2. Biosexual – “Silent Cuts”
   I have released two albums with Zac Nelson. Biosexual is his new full band project with the equally talented Jocelyn Noir and Michael R. J. Saalman. It is full on electronic psych pop, which makes me think of Dave Fridmann and mid-‘90s Bjork having sex on Trent Reznor’s coffee table. Their debut will also be out shortly on Debacle.
   

    

3. Mind Over Mirrors – “You Ain’t Reeling”
   Jamie Fennely actually lived out in the PacNW for a while there, and I had no idea. In fact, he snuck on to Debacle Fest 2010 by jamming with Debacle heavies Dull Knife mere days before he left for Chicago. Ever since, we have been chatting about a way to get him back here for an honest to goodness Mind Over Mirrors set.
   

    

4. Prostitutes – “Dial Tone Degradation”
   This year is the first year of the fest since we have started MOTOR — our psychedelic dance series of shows and releases. May 5th, the last night of the fest, is dedicated to joining the MOTOR crew up with national level artist on similar wavelengths for a big night of whacked out jams. Prostitutes is a rising name in the empty expanse between minimal techno and industrial noise. He recently released a new album on Digitalis, Crushed Interior.
   

    

5. Black Hat – “Singing Point”
   Black Hat is one Nelson Bean, a local Seattle head who has releases coming up from Further Records and Field Hymns. He is one of the most talented and exciting voices coming out of Seattle right now and I am very stoked to be able to work with him time and time again. Don’t sleep on this kid.
   

    

6. Moon Pool & Dead Band – “Human Fly”
   Moon Pool & The Dead Band features Nate Young of Wolf Eyes jamming with his bud Dave Shettler, making freaked out Detroit techno and skunked up electro. Very stoked to be bringing these dudes out for our MOTOR night; their Human Fly album on Not Not Fun is a steady source of inspiration and ideas for the whole MOTOR crew.
   

    

7. GOODWIN – “Ramparts”
   Scott Goodwin was once a founding member of super drone heads Bonus, and has since been exploring various forms of analog dance and noise with Operative, Polonaise and Vepa. His newly minted solo project is still evolving, but it seems to fit in well next to Polonaise and the now defunct Operative. It is fitting to have Scott be a featured element of the MOTOR evening, as the Operative performance from last year was a key influence in the formation of the whole MOTOR project.
   

    

8. Swahili – “Soma”
   Swahili should be well known to REDEFINE readers; they seem to have an amazing back story and working relationship with each other. Their amazing album was released on fellow Seattle label Translingustic Other, and their pounding psychedelic whirlwinds will be the perfect cathartic end to the first night of Debacle Fest.
   

    
9. Expo ’70 – “Subtle Afterthoughts”
   Finally: a preview from Expo ’70′s meditative side, from his split LP with Plankton Wat.
   

    

Ω

Related posts:

1. MOTOR: Patternmaster, Airport, Megabats, Dee Jay Slow Live Show Review
2. FYF Fest 2010: Photo Gallery
3. House Of Commons SXSW 2011 Mixtape (#8) Stream & Download

music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

Debacle Fest 2013, Seattle (#27) Mixtape Download & Stream

++ SEE: FULL POST + BLEEP POSTS or MUSIC COLUMNS

Bibio

When Bibio released “À Tout À L’Heure,” it was hard to get a sense of where the English producer was headed on his seventh studio album Silver Wilkinson. With the arrival of “You,” the second single from the forthcoming album due May 14th on Warp, Bibio once again throws listeners for a loop, trading the rather breezy sound of “À Tout À L’Heure” for a massive, dance floor ready beat. Both tracks feel like the natural extension of The Avalanches or other sample-heavy artists, turning the assumed into something revelatory.

Pulp X Soulwax

When Pulp announced they had been working on a song with LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy, it really came as no surprise. Jarvis Cocker and Murphy share many of the same aesthetics and malevolence towards culture, so it seemed only a matter of time before the two masters of their craft combined forces. And while the studio version of “After You” was a smashing success, Belgium’s brotherly duo Soulwax have taken to a remix. The Dewaele’s edit takes Cocker’s vocals and turns them into something entirely more abusive (in a good way); an aggressive, booming twist worthy of gritted teeth and moving feet. “After You” will be released through Rough Trade on limited 12″ for Record Store Day 2013.

Disclosure

It’s a moment we’ve been waiting with baited breathe to finally hear about. When it comes to young and promising electronic producers, the conversation starts and ends with U.K. duo Disclosure. Last year’s two singles “Latch” and “White Noise” took the genre by storm, and with the pending release of their debut album it’s not a matter of if but rather when these two will become the next transcendent stars. June 3rd marks the release of the group’s first album, titled Settle, which will be preceded by a brand new single on April 28th, both of which will be released through PMR Records.

Related posts:

1. Bleep: Disclosure, Physical Therapy, Chandeliers, Van She, Paradis MP3 Downloads & Streams
2. Bleep: Com Truise, Neud Photo, Clark MP3 Downloads & Streams
3. Chris Crites, Deviant Painter.

music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

Bleep: New Bibio, Soulwax Remix & Disclosure Announcement

Olafur Arnalds
For Now I Am Winter
Mercury Classics

Imagine yourself walking down a deserted street. It’s late in the day; the sky is dappled and mottled with clouds. The sidewalks are littered with the soggy remnants of December, slush and old receipts. Your thoughts uproot, displaced in time, remembering, projecting. A fine, chill mist falls; you turn your face to the sky, baptized like a thirsty young plant.

For Now I Am Winter, Olafur Arnalds’ fourth LP (and major label debut) is a poetic meditation on the coldest season. It sounds like a dubstep opera, with crisp electronic flourishes framing gorgeous orchestral arrangements (with the help of American composer Nico Muhly), and a trembling libretto by Arnór Dan Arnársson (of Agent Fresco), with a fragile ethereal quality similar to that of Sigur Ros’ Jonsi. Tense minimalist strings counterpoint chamber music romance as Arnalds conjures feeling of regret, longing, desire, and wanderlust, with the final result being an elaborate reflection on the season, as complex and layered as real life. The record works best as a whole, but tracks like “Reclaim”, “This Place Was A Shelter”, or the title track serve as a fine illustration of this album’s mission statement, and are fine places for the curious to begin. The music itself could be seen as the elements at work; biting winds, sleet, slush, and snow, while the operatic vocals serve as an inner dialogue.

Olafur Arnalds has established himself as an accomplished composer with a deft understanding of moods and tones, and it’s exhilarating to watch him expand his palate to include tasteful beats and tasty synth ambiance. For Now I Am Winter stands at a crossroads in time, between the ancient and modern. Clearly, the composer is not content with lo-fi stark modern classical minimalism, and is training his gaze on the future.

Some reviewers have made this record out to be ambient background music, and I feel this to be a mistake. People forget that it takes a great deal of time and resources to record and produce a wide array of orchestral instruments, and this alone separate Arnalds from the legions of laptop hacks. He has clearly put in the time, aspiring towards mastery, and it shows. Both the classical and electronic aspects measure up against the competition, and it suggests a way forward for both genres. The only downside, with Arnalds’ smooth-as-Chinese-silk pop arrangements, is that he has sandblasted all the difficult edges off of both styles; there is nothing avant-garde about this release. It will appeal to a wide variety of listeners, but removes the difficult, forward-thinking complexity of the truly cutting edge.

OLAFUR ARNALDS – FOR NOW I AM WINTER ALBUM REVIEW CONTINUES BELOW

Winter can be a time of loss, death, deprivation. In a lot of ways, the first decade of the 21st century seemed like one long freeze, with no thaw in sight. Talk of apocalypse was on everyone’s tongue, as our foremost thinkers predicted economic and cultural collapse. Despair ran rampant, while hope was the scarcest of commodities. Olafur Arnalds’ new record could be seen as a simulacrum of the last 10 years, and it suggests a break in the weather — rays of sunshine cracking over the horizon. His attempt to marry the beauty and mastery of classicism with the deft control available to electronic music suggests a way forward, a future for us all.

It’s difficult to talk about things as they’re happening; you’re too immersed in it. It lacks perspective. The fact that Olafur Arnalds is daring to speak of the coldest months mean that they are drawing to a close, and we all can reflect on where we’ve been, and where we’re going. Here in Portland, where this review is currently being written, the trees are bursting like crimson fireworks, but the wet and gloom are still hanging on. We are at a standstill, a stasis, but a new day is nearly upon us. It feels like there is hope for all of us yet, and For Now I Am Winter is a beautiful elegy for the passing seasons.

Ω

Related posts:

1. Top Pops! March 2013: Olafur Arnalds, Generationals, Kisses, Dutch Uncles, More
2. The Power Of The Riff 2011 : Winter, Pelican, Noothgrush, ALL PIGS MUST DIE Live Show Review
3. Iceland: Solo Musicians Mixtape (#6C) Stream & Download

music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

Olafur Arnalds – For Now I Am Winter Album Review