Monthly Archives: January 2017

So what do we have here? Nothing much: Just a landmark indie rock LP produced by a great band whose frontman, Doug Marsch, sounds eerily like Perry Farrell, plays some of the most astounding guitar you’ll ever hear, and writes both fractured songs that are both cosmic and majestic and tend to devolve into thrilling guitar jams as well as gnomic lyrics in Dylan Accusatory Mode, which has always been Dylan’s best mode if you ask me.

1997’s Perfect From Now On never fails to amaze. Every one of its eight tracks is long enough to wander off into an instrumental jam, and while the songs may sound meandering, they’re really just fanciful examples of architectural genius, and sure to keep you mesmerized. Let the critics compare Built to Spill to Neil Young and J. Mascis; what I hear are the early psychedelic sounds of The Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev, only more abstract and minus (or so I suspect based on no facts whatsoever) the derangement factor of LSD.

Opener “Randy Described Eternity” is a template for most of the songs on Perfect From Now On. It opens on a slow note, then swells to majestic proportions only to grow quiet and swell again, at which point Marsch commences to play some amazing guitar. On “I Would Hurt a Fly” Marsch is tortured by the buzzing of a fly, and sings, “There’s a mean bone in my body,” before singing, “I hurt a fly.” He doesn’t want be confused with a nice guy, I guess. Then the song segues into instrumental mode, and if part two doesn’t sounds like it fits with part one that’s just a demonstration of Marsch’s ingenious ability to fuse together disparate song shards in a way that awes and amazes.

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Musician, composer and educator Bill Dixon is one of the key figures in the history of jazz’s New Thing, not only integral as organizer of the storied October Revolution in Jazz, but also as the catalyst for a defining document from the era, RCA Victor’s 1967 issue of Intents and Purposes by The Bill Dixon Orchestra. Once a highly elusive artifact, it’s become much easier to hear of late and on January 27 gets a vinyl reissue by Superior Viaduct. Coincidentally, Dixon’s recording debut, Savoy’s 1962 release of the sole self-titled album by the Archie Shepp – Bill Dixon Quartet is getting a repress by Jeanne Dielman. It serves as an enlightening prologue to Dixon’s later masterworks, while being totally worthy on its own.

The greatest compliment one can pay to the late Bill Dixon is that he was a great teacher, but a complicating side-effect of his dedication to the creative development of numerous first-rate musicians (including cornetist Rob Mazurek, drummer Jackson Krall, and saxophonist Marco Eneidi) is that it diverted him away from the recording studio and for a time diminished his deserved standing as an innovator in the jazz avant-garde; to quote Dixon, from 1970-1976 he existed “in total isolation from the market places of this music.”

Even prior to his long stay at Vermont’s Bennington College, which commenced in 1968 (and lasted until his retirement from teaching in 1996), Dixon’s appearances on record were few; they in fact total four, with the first and last covered in this review. The discographical slimness (especially in jazz terms) meant that many younger ears hungry for free jazz nourishment (such as this writer and surely others) received their introduction to Dixon’s playing via a stone killer in the annals of ’60’s “out” jazz, namely Cecil Taylor’s second masterpiece for the Blue Note label, Conquistador!

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | The forthcoming 4XLP box sets documenting the work of Bert Jansch in the ’90s and ’00s (Living In The Shadows and On The Edge Of A Dream) will be closely followed by two further official deluxe collections, chronicling Jansch’s complete recordings in the 1960s, and early 1970s Transatlantic era.

Spread across two volumes, these definitive collections will comprise remastered studio recordings from Bert Jansch (1965), It Don’t Bother Me (1965), Jack Orion (1966), the “Needle Of Death” EP (1966), “Life Depends On Love” EP (1967), Nicola (1967), Birthday Blues (1969), Rosemary Lane (1971), and more. Both volumes will also include extra material, and for the very first time a chance to own Jansch’s complete recordings from this era in two highly-collectable sets.

Both volumes will be released Worldwide. Pre-ordering available from both Earth direct in the UK and Light In The Attic in the US shortly. Earth Recordings release Living In The Shadows 4LP/Bookback CD on January 27th along with Downunder: Live In Australia which is out 24th February.

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Fire Records announce the third release of the box set series that draws on Pere Ubu’s back catalogue. Drive, He Said 1994-2002 brings together the albums Raygun Suitcase (1995, winner of CD Review’s Editors’ Choice Award), Pennsylvania (1998, voted no.1 in Music Critics Poll (1988), Village Voice), St Arkansas (2002, prompting Mojo to summarise their review with “It’s difficult to think of a more important band currently working”) and a 12” disc of extras, Back Roads.

Back Roads features live studio, jam sessions and newly remixed tracks, including “Electricity” (with the original vocals that were discarded at the time as “too brutal”), an outtake from Pennsylvania, and a live recording of SAD.TXT from Transmusicales Festival in France, 1998. These albums were the catalyst to finally uniting critics and the establishment to recognise that the band’s music was a force to be recognised, prompting four-day festivals at the Royal Festival Hall in London, The Knitting Factory in NYC, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s event, “55 Years of Pain,” honouring Pere Ubu along with fellow icons of the Cleveland scene, 15-60-75, in 1999.

With current band members Michele Temple, Robert Wheeler, and Steven Mehlman joining David Thomas here for the first time, it is a defining period for Pere Ubu. All studio albums and the 12” disc Back Roads were remixed and engineered by David Thomas and Paul Hamann at Suma, in June 2016.

Spawned from the enduring Bristol, UK scene, electronic duo Emptyset specialize in a process-based techno-descended minimalism. Earlier releases offered an anxious hypnotic throb as one component in an intriguing, somewhat science-fictive sonic milieu, but on their latest release the focus is again tightened, with cyclical harshness abundant; a continued adherence to rules amid constant growth strengthens the record’s concise running-time. Borders is out January 27 on virgin vinyl featuring an artworked inner sleeve and on compact disc tucked into a 4-panel mini-LP style gatefold package via Thrill Jockey of Chicago.

James Ginzburg and Paul Purgas are Emptyset, their partnership beginning in Bristol in 2005, though Ginzburg is now based in Berlin and Purgas in London. These individual moves are ultimately no matter, as their new album once again offers the type of stern yet enticing experimental sort-of-techno for which the city of Bristol is noted. Their 2009 self-titled full-length debut, originally on Caravan Recordings and reissued in 2015 on Ginzburg’s Subtext label, displayed contents underlining the duo’s interest in reliably harsh minimalist techniques over celebratory body movers or songlike motifs.

The above observation isn’t a rigid truth; as Emptyset progresses it utilizes synthetic bass tones frequently employed by club bangers and Dade County car stereos as the disc’s mid-section track “Completely Gone” could easily fit into a DJ set, albeit an edgy one. However, what surrounded it was clearly in the ambient-experimental zone, a fertile tradition that extended to 2011’s Demiurge.

A constant facet in Ginzburg and Purgas’ collaboration is a refusal to remain operationally static. They’ve engaged with performance, the moving image, installation work, and a persistent attention to physical spaces, with the pair exploring the possibilities of sound creation in specific structures on a pair of releases taking them even farther from the techno realm and into industrial territory; “Medium” was recorded in Woodchester Mansion in Gloucestershire, UK, while “Material” employed the Ambika P3 in London, the Chislehurst Mine in Kent, and the Trawsfynydd Nuclear Power Station in Snowdonia, Wales.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | January 1st 2017 marked the twentieth anniversary of the death of the great Texan troubadour, Townes Van Zandt. The acclaimed ongoing Charly Records reissue campaign of the Townes catalogue reaches a new milestone with the FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24th release of two of his finest albums – TEXAS RAIN and FLYIN’ SHOES.

TEXAS RAIN: At the turn of the ’90s, Townes Van Zandt began recording a series of duets in Texas with a bunch of long-time admirers that included Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Jerry Jeff Walker, Freddy Fender, and Doug Sahm. The full-band sessions sought to breathe fresh air into the lungs of some of his best-known songs. Initially given a limited release in America on CD only in 2001, ‘Texas Rain’ has now been newly remastered to all physical and digital formats and repackaged with a full-colour 20-page booklet, in-depth sleeve notes, and revealing interview with original producer and manager Kevin Eggers.

The vinyl version has been pressed as a double LP limited audiophile edition, mastered by Matt Colton at Alchemy Studios. It serves as one of Van Zandt’s defining works. All formats feature a bonus track – ‘No Place To Fall’, a duet with close friend Willie Nelson.

“This was the cream of the cream. Texas Rain is a timeless record. We really felt that we’d made a huge breakthrough in terms of our creative collaboration, the level of musicianship, the quality of the tracks and the energy we had. It was a golden time in our lives.” —Kevin Eggers

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | In celebration of 40 years of songwriting across both the SEX PISTOLS and PUBLIC IMAGE LTD (PiL) eras, JOHN LYDON is delighted to announce the personal and truly exclusive publication of MR ROTTEN’S SONGBOOK. Due out March 31, 2017 and limited to 1,000 copies, MR ROTTEN’S SONGBOOK is available to pre-order now.

Presented in glorious, luxury large format (370x290mm portrait), MR ROTTEN’S SONGBOOK features never before seen artwork as well as annotated song lyric sheets spanning LYDON’s entire career all written in his own hand. As the book unfolds, each album is featured with an exclusive introduction to the songs from JOHN as well as the original cover and hand-drawn artwork from LYDON to beautifully bind the lyrics to their meanings. MR ROTTEN’S SONGBOOK gives fresh insight into the purpose behind the words that have shaped over four decades of his songwriting career. Every one of the book’s three-hundred, handcrafted pages reflect JOHN working night and day over the final six months of 2016. Each book is hand signed by the man himself and individually numbered.

Always outspoken, controversial and sincere, JOHN LYDON, formerly Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols and then lead singer in Public Image Ltd (PiL), John Lydon has secured a prime position as one of the most recognizable icons in the annals of music history. As Johnny Rotten, he was the lead singer of the Sex Pistols–the world’s most notorious band–who shot to fame in the mid-1970s with singles such as ‘Anarchy in the UK’ and ‘God Save the Queen.’

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From The Rutles to 2006’s Butchering the Beatles—A Headbashing Tribute to Alice Donut’s wonderful trombone-fueled take on “Helter Skelter,” Liverpool’s Fab Four have seen their fair share of parody acts and twisted covers. There must be a kazoo Beatles tribute LP out there, but I’m too lazy to look. I will say this, however; you will find no stranger a take on the Beatles’ oeuvre than Laibach’s 1988 cover of the Beatles’ 1970 Let It Be LP.

A Slovenian industrial “Kollektiv” founded in the former Yugoslavia in the same year that Tito died, Laibach are best known for their totalitarian-looking military uniforms and Wagnerian bombast, to say nothing of concerts that resemble political rallies. Their flirting with the imagery of social realism, Nazism, and Italian Futurism forced Laibach into dissident status in Yugoslavia, and led them to be labeled fascists by folks who don’t know an anti-fascist parody when they see one. Indeed, Laibach were actually driven to declare, “We are fascists as much as Hitler was a painter.” One writer, in on the joke, praised Laibach’s “ridiculous lust for authority,” as personified by their many militaristic trappings and big operatic sound.

Me, I think they’re the funniest band to come along since Killdozer. Like Killdozer, Laibach are an acquired taste; you’ll either laugh along with them or turn them off post-haste. With their proclivity for transmuting pop songs into military marches complete with manly choirs, Laibach are best described as Phil Spector meets Wagner, and just because John Peel liked them doesn’t mean you will.

On Let It Be, Laibach gleefully set about deconstructing the penultimate LP of the world’s most famous band by turning it inside out. Laibach take the Beatles’ attempt to capture that raw rock’n’roll spirit of their early days and transform it into the musical equivalent of Hitler architect Albert Speer’s gigantism, and by so doing manage to produce the most bizarre Beatles tribute ever conceived. This ain’t rock’n’roll, it’s musical genocide, and I for one will never hear the Beatles in the same way again.

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Press Play is our Monday recap of the new and FREE tracks received last week to inform the next trip to your local indie record store.

Steph Barrak – So Familiar
Les Bohem – Fancy Footwork
SASO – Stephanie
Laughed the Boy – Bell Rock
Known to Collapse – What Is Said
Plaid – Bet Nat
Richie Quake – Swan
SuKaFrE – Can’t Take It No More (Git & Mr. Live)
Daniele Di Martino & Solvane – Justis (Original Mix)
Spaces – Day Dream

TVD SINGLE OF THE WEEK:
John Mellencamp – Easy Target

Boogarins – Olhos
Spitzer Space Telescope – Corn Holler
Almond&Olive – Mulberry Hill
Lemuel G – In the morning
Mayhaw Hoons – The Swinger
Corner Suns (feat. Sarah Jaffe) – The Rattle In The Room
Shadow Band — Eagle Unseen
Cotton Mather with Nicole Atkins – Faded
John Wesley Coleman III – Hang Tight
The Ferdy Mayne – Pears And Asian Wine