Fourth album streamlines, brightens Indie Rock
For their fourth album, those debating punctuators return without the services of producer/member Rostam Batmanglij. As his off-the-cuff recording and heavy editing gave those three records their unique sound, "Father of the Bride" streamlines and brightens their Indie Rock.
Ezra Koenig remains the master of the repetitive lyrical hook ("This Life"). "Father" leans heavily into several commercial songs that are often intercut with wild passages, leaving you with the same feeling as the Talking Heads leaping from the dense "Remain In Light" to the deliberate lightness of "Speaking in Tongues."
TANK AND THE BANGAS
Green Balloon
[LP/CD](Verve Forecast)
Two years after taking the world by storm with their Tiny Desk Concert, the New Orleans-based musical collective finally pushes their latest album upon the world. While not as energetic as their live show, "Green Balloon" is largely about the character of the band. Songs are interspersed with studio banter and found sound. Robert Glasper keeps them most focused and Zaytoven lends them the tightest production.
BIG THIEF
U.F.O.F.
[LP/CD](4AD)
Writers should be writing more and listeners should be talking more about the brilliant writing of Big Thief's Adrienne Lenker. During the course of two masterful albums, she nearly perfected her method of storytelling. Now graduating to 4AD, Lenker and her impressive band mine the subtleties of Folk music for inspiration. "U.F.O.F" hinges on Lenker's songs that effortlessly switch from major to minor on a dime and her new chiming mastery of finding the myriad shades between light and darkness.
DRAHLA
Useless Coordinates
[LP/CD](Captured Tracks)
This Leeds trio walks that edge between power trio and Post-Punk band with dangerous aplomb. Their last single "Twelve Divisions of the Day" was one of 2018's best. "Useless Coordinates" finds singer/guitarist Luciel Brown placing herself in the long continuum of detached female narrators.
As the band tangles and weaves behind her, Brown bobs and weaves witty lyrics that sweeten the abrasion. The addition of wailing No Wave/Peter Hammill-esque saxophone makes this sound a new level of Art Rock.
REISSUES OF THE WEEK
VAN DER GRAFF GENERATOR
Aerosol Grey Machine
[CD](Esoteric)
Those glorious Sixties took a lot of artists down a series of different paths. What began as a band then was locked out of contract negotiations resulting in a possible solo album for its principal songwriter Peter Hammill. Behind Hammill, his generous Folky songs were quickly growing from mere Psychedelic rock into well-constructed Prog Rock. "Aerosol Grey Machine" was eventually released without promotion and the few who purchased it became ardent fans.
While the main record still carries a beautiful majesty, this new reissue collects all the singles and sessions from 1967-68 giving you a rare glimpse at what inspired Jimi Hendrix to choose them as an opener.
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Japan’s Haruomi Hosono singlehandedly invented ‘City Pop’
Pacific BREEZE
[LP](Light in the Attic)
Tokyo flashback psf
[LP](Black Editions)
popol vuh
Essential Collection 1
[LP BOX](BMG Rights Mgmt.)
CHU KOSAKA
Horo
[LP](Light in the Attic)
With KPop taking over Pop and the library of albums from Haruomi Hosono selling out instantly in two printings, it is safe to say that the internet is steadily threading the music of different cultures together. What was once strictly esoteric, the music of German composer Florian Fricke expanded his reach from Moog-based minimalism into sacred music (the stunning beauty of 1971's "In Den Garten Pharoahs"), then set up aloft by African percussion and finally Eastern Jazz experimentation (1975's "Das Holhelied Salomos"). In just five years, Popol Vuh did not even use their Moog anymore.
In Japan, the same moment found Haruomi Hosono leaving behind psychedelic Folk for the breezy Jazz-laced Pop that lends soul to singer Chu Kosaka's 1975 record "Horo." With his tight band of studio musicians, Tin Pan Alley, Hosono singlehandedly invented what will come to be known as "City Pop."
Both Popol Vuh and Haruomi Hosono show growth patterns that are prescient of just how we listen to the world of music out there today. However, "Horo" is merely the tip of the iceberg. "Pacific Breeze" is designed around a distinctly urban sound where women are in the forefront. Any tracks from the slick Tomoko Soryo's "I See Who" to Nanako Sato's "Subterranean Futari Bocci" could easily fit next to the Doobie Brothers, Supertramp or any Seventies Pop or AOR song musically. "Pacific Breeze" points to the upcoming prevalence of synths and studio dominance coming to American Pop in the Eighties.
The reaction to City Pop was a desperate need for authenticity. These plasticine grooves were simply not enough to maintain a true Japanese style of music.
So, as the nation headed into their lost economic decade, the music of the Nineties was more pessimistic and alarmingly guitar-based. When City Pop lost its audience, the axe-wielding Japanese underground sprang into action. The Black Editions 4LP set "Tokyo Flashback PSF" accurately illustrates how different Japanese Rock could be even as they drew their inspiration from the American underground.
The psychedelic grooves of Overhang Party, the blistering minimalism of Acid Mothers Temple and the soaring RAWK of Shizuka could have easily filtered into American College Radio.
While all of these collections are likely still seen as something for the adventurous listener, one never knows what unheard music could be the next burgeoning trend.
