From the point of their arrival in 1992, New York City’s Versus excelled as one of the decade’s stronger melodic rock units, shaped but in no way constrained by the sounds of North American indie precedent. They released an impressive series of discs on a succession of labels, and amongst the best is the ’94 full-length The Stars Are Insane.
Amidst the ‘90s indie flood Versus stood out as a reliable breath of fresh air both on recordings (of which there are quite a few) and through a steady flow of live gigs. A large part of the group’s lasting appeal rests on how they didn’t easily fit into any of the tidy indie subcategories that thrived during the period.
Like some of the most rewarding convulsions in ‘90s indie, Versus had direct ties to the previous decade, specifically through Flower, a band formed in ’86 NYC by Richard Baluyut, Rob Hale, Yosh Najita, and Ian James (later of Cell); subsequent members included Andrew Bordwin (also of Cell and Ruby Falls), plus Baluyut’s brothers Ed and Jim. Between ’87 and ’90 they put out a 45, the 12-inch EP “Crash” (produced by Kramer) and a couple LPs, Concrete and Hologram Sky.
Through all this activity Flower remained solidly underground, this writer knowing not of their existence until the Bear and Simple Machines labels gathered the albums onto Concrete Sky, a ’94 compact disc highlighting considerable influence from Sonic Youth (no surprise given the choice of moniker), a factor that extended onward into the formation of Versus.
Cory Smythe is a pianist of extensive experience, having played with Anthony Braxton, Ingrid Laubrock, Peter Evans, Tyshawn Sorey, Vijay Iyer, Nate Wooley, and Hilary Hahn; with her, he won a GRAMMY in 2015 for the album In 27 Pieces: The Hilary Hahn Encores. That achievement reinforces Smythe’s abilities in the classical field, but with Accelerate Every Voice he combines elements of jazz with the fascinating and often hallucinatory contributions of five vocalists recruited from the a cappella, new music, and improv scenes.
NEW RELEASE PICKS: Lisa/Liza, Shelter of a Song (Orindal) Lisa/Liza is singer-songwriter Liza (pronounced Lisa) Victoria, who resides in Portland, the one in Maine. This is her third LP for Orindal (she’s also issued a pair of cassette EPs for the label), and after welcoming additional instrumentalists on her prior effort Momentary Glance, she returns to solo mode here with eight tracks recorded live in a kitchen with nary an overdub. Victoria’s sound lands securely in the late night folk zone, with singing that’s pretty but sturdy, delivery that’s emotional but in control, and fingerpicking that is often gentle but with an invigorating tension and flashes of sharpness. Additionally, Victoria has the ability to tackle topics (the suicide of a friend on Momentary Glance, her own chronic illness on this album) that’s stimulating in its seriousness rather than burdensome. Still, it’s difficult to deny this record is a heavy experience, but that’s ultimately to Victoria’s credit. Shelter of a Song is unlikely to get many back-to-back spins, but when it is played it will surely leave an impression. A-
Enrique Rodríguez and the Negra Chiway Band, Fase Liminal (Soul Jazz Records) One of the dangers with spiritually focused music is an overflowing bliss that deflates into insubstantiality. Fase Liminal, which can be succinctly tagged as contemporary spiritual jazz from Chile, doesn’t have this problem, largely because the range of influence is fairly wide, so that an appealing balance is struck between free jazz fire and modal fusion textures, with electric keyboard prevalent. And so, not only does Rodriguez and band avoid getting too airy, but they also avoid faltering into hackneyed vamping or technique-flaunting noodles. Hooray! And while there’s an abundance of percussion across the record, rhythm doesn’t dominate the proceedings, as the horn playing is rich and occasionally raucous. This is true in particular during the closing alt take of “Dónde ?,” which attains levels of collective intensity recalling Sanders’ Karma but with piano that brought to mind LaMont Johnson’s playing on Jackie McLean’s “Hipnosis.” Everything clicks, even the flute and vocals. A-
REISSUE/ARCHIVAL PICKS: V/A, CUBA: Music and Revolution: Culture Clash in Havana: Experiments in Latin Music 1975-85 Vol.1 (Soul Jazz) This set, issued in 3LP and 2CD editions, arrives in conjunction with the hardcover book CUBA: Music and Revolution: Original Album Cover Art of Cuban Music: Record Sleeve Designs of Revolutionary Cuba 1959-90. Both the book and this collection are the handiwork of Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker, their third such collaboration (the prior two delved into revolutionary jazz and bossa nova), and as these selections play it’s abundantly clear, even without access to the book (which isn’t available in the US until December 11), that the compilers are at the very top of their game. Now, you might’ve noticed that the book tackles a much longer timeframe than the compilation. That’s okay. The compressed focus of Experiments in Latin Music allows for a deep immersion into a transitional period rather than surface-skimming a longer span of years. Furthermore, it’s stated that most everything here was previously unheard outside Cuba, making this a feast for the curious (out 11/27). A 
MIYUMI Project, Best of the MIYUMI Project (FPE) Now 20 years strong, the MIYUMI Project is a Chicago-based Asian-American / African-American collaboration founded and led by bassist Tatsu Aoki. Drawn from the group’s sizeable discography, these nine selections span four sides of vinyl (CD is also available) and from all research appears to by MIYUMI Project’s debut on wax. The sound is a synthesis of the Japanese taiko drumming tradition and avant-jazz improvisational firepower, with a sturdy connection to the Windy City’s AACM, including members Ed Wilkerson and Mwata Bowden on reeds and Dushun Mosley on drums. Aoki, who was part of Japan’s experimental scene before moving to the USA in 1977 (Chicago in ’79), brings a steadying maturity (and robust bass) to this fusion, though that’s not to infer that things don’t get wild. They do. Things are also consistently rhythmic, rising to a powerhouse level in the nearly 16-minute “Episode One.” Along with spirited expansive blowing, there is beaucoup string scrape, which only increases the fortitude of the MIYUMI Project’s bedrock. Compilations rarely get any better than this one, which culminates with an unreleased live track. A 
Daniel Avery made his initial splash back in 2013 with his full-length debut Drone Logic, but more recently, as in earlier this year, he issued Illusion of Time, a collab with Alessandro Cortini (he of Nine Inch Nails). Love + Light is described as a surprise release on Mute/Phantasy in the US and Canada and on Phantasy alone throughout the rest of the world. No longer a surprise: the digital has been out since June, but the CD and vinyl have belatedly shipped earlier in November.
Soundtracks: Stay Still, recorded for a German feature directed by Elisa Mishto, came out in May, and it blends hovering, glistening ambience with melodic touches, but with the synth-poppish “BK LULU,” complete with gal vocals, dropped roughly in the middle. Released in June, Soundtracks: Dämonen provides the music for a theatrical play by Sebastian Hartmann adapting Dostoevsky’s Demons, with an emphasis on chamber strings (at times heavily bowed, very nice), a little spare pluck-strum, and even some cathedral-style organ.
NEW RELEASE PICKS: Gwenifer Raymond, Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain (Tompkins Square) You Never Were Much of a Dancer, Welsh guitarist Gwenifer Raymond’s debut from 2018, was a knockout that underscored the perseverance and the sheer reach of the American Primitive style while driving home the pure skill and the youthful energy of its maker. Now, ability is an essential baseline ingredient in the expression of the American Primitive, but the spirit of young is by no means a prerequisite. In Raymond’s example across this oft exquisite set of eight pieces, the spark is distinct, in her estimation punkish, and coupled with raw power and edge that took me to some rather unexpected places; during “Gwaed am Gwaed” for instance, I couldn’t shake thoughts of Sonic Youth, which might not seem like a big deal, except that it’s just Raymond playing an acoustic guitar in her basement flat (the album was recorded in quarantine). The artist describes this LP as an expression of Welsh Primitive (channeling her country’s folk horror in the process), which unwinds here as a striking new development in Guitar Soli. A
Sam Burton, I Can Go With You (Tompkins Square) Burton hails from Salt Lake City, UT but currently resides in Los Angeles. Although he’s had a CDR and a pair of cassettes released on the Chthonic label, this is his proper full-length debut, and it’s a wonderful trip into the folky singer-songwriter zone. In the PR for this release, John Tottenham describes Burton as extending from the “downer folk” subgenre and specifically names Bob Desper, Dana Westover, and Tucker Zimmerman as antecedents. I think that’s cool, but I’ll merely add that these 11 songs also strike my ears as reflective of Fred Neil and the Tims, Hardin and Buckley…make that prime Tim Buckley. Now, many capable contempo songwriters can strap on a guitar, step in front of a mic, and play the approximation game (which might be why Tottenham chose a different route of comparison), but Burton elevates matters significantly through compositions that reveal nary a hint of anxiety over any perceived similarities. The production by Burton and Jarvis Taveniere is faultless, and the playing is simply exquisite. One of the surprises of 2020. A
Susan Alcorn Quintet, Pedernal (Relative Pitch) Alcorn is well-described as a pioneer of the pedal steel guitar in improvised music, though most of her work has been in solo or duo settings. However, along with the size of the band, Pedernal is further distinguished as the first release devoted to Alcorn’s compositions. Her cohorts here are Mark Feldman on violin, Mary Halvorson on guitar, Michael Formanek on bass, and Ryan Sawyer on drums, a group of stellar players that can bring these elevated pieces to life without a hitch. There is familiarity here, as Alcorn plays in the octet of Halvorson, and with the guitarist and Formanek comprising 2/3rds of Thumbscrew. Indeed, a stated goal of Alcorn’s was to make this album with friends, but the pedal steel/ guitar/ violin melodic core and the sheer individual distinctiveness of the three raise Pedernal to rare heights. Formanek and Sawyer are expressive in the rhythm spot, and Alcorn’s compositions are splendid; I adore finale “Northeast Rising Sun.” Note: the CD and digital are available 11/13 but pressing plant delays have pushed back the vinyl until December. A
REISSUE/ARCHIVAL PICK: Love Tractor, S/T (HHBTM) For the October 23 drop of Record Store Day 2020, Love Tractor released new versions of two songs from this 1982 album, the Athens, GA band’s first (which has itself been remixed for this rerelease). The year of release positions them as one of the foundational acts in their scene, which became a huge deal in the College/ Alternative rock scheme of things, but if you are unfamiliar with Love Tractor and are imagining some variation on bookish jangle mumble, well don’t. If this non-vocal unit is reminiscent of any of their Athens contemporaries, it’s Pylon, but only a little bit, and mainly because the songs on this record possess an undercurrent that could be considered dancy. Really though, Love Tractor’s instrumental nature and the slightly Wavy angle of the songs has me thinking of the Portland, OR band of the same era, Pell Mell. Many outfits that operate sans a singer attempt to impress the listener with sheer ability. Love Tractor’s approach lacks ego, which nearly 40 years hence remains refreshing. A-
Little Richard’s passing has been one of the lowlights of 2020. But one of the salves to this burn of bad news has been Omnivore’s reissue of Richard’s early ’70s albums for Reprise, which help to illuminate a comeback that produced a few minor hit singles and an appealing if uneven vitality beginning with The Rill Thing in 1970 and continuing with The King of Rock and Roll the following year (both were covered in our New in Stores column the week of September 17).
Many thousands undertook the migration to well-ensconced cultural centers in hopes of adding to the jazz discourse and achieving something immortal; a few did, the vast majority did not, and yet their accumulated sonic narrative is still a formidably mountainous accumulation of sound. A percentage of those in the early navigation stages of the established jazz canon might find Cultures of Soul’s latest compilation a daunting item to be soaked up only after contending with a few hundred records of higher profile.
The mixing of music and politics has often inspired snorts of derision from those who feel that art should serve a loftier purpose than didacticism, sloganeering, persuasion, or protest. I’ll confess up front to having occasionally expressed this view, mostly when the music was unsubtle or sanctimonious, but the tenor of the times has surely adjusted my thoughts.
NEW RELEASE PICKS: Lloyd Miller with Ian Camp and Adam Michael Terry, At the Ends of the World (FOUNTAINavm) Last year the Now-Again label reissued Miller’s Oriental Jazz, a very interesting excursion into what we’ll call global spiritual fusion with a Persian musical bent; Miller was a specialist in the region’s sounds, and for a fuller scoop please consult the December 5, 2019 edition of this column, where Oriental Jazz received a review. Miller recorded a whole lot more and has in fact stayed active, as this collaboration with multi-instrumentalists Ian Camp and Adam Michael Terry (the latter also the founder and operator of the FOUNTAINavm label) makes clear. Part of what raises my estimation for At the Ends of the World is the obvious disinterest in attempting to reprise the sound of Miller’s earlier stuff, either from the ’60s or of more recent vintage, such as his joint record with The Heliocentrics, which was released by the Strut label in 2010.
Trees Speak, Shadow Forms (Soul Jazz) With their second full-length of 2020 (Ohms came out back in March, also on Soul Jazz), the Tucson-AZ duo of Daniel Martin Diaz and Damian Diaz continues to impress. The basic info if you haven’t heard them is that they specialize in a boldly hued non-vocal psychedelia that’s informed by Krautrock spanning from motorik to kosmische, plus soundtracks of ’60s-’70s vintage, with a tendency toward Euro genre flicks; one might possibly pick up on Soul Jazz’s interest in such an outfit, but it’s worth noting that the label that issued Trees Speak’s S/T 2017 debut was Cinedelic, who also released the first record by Calibro 35. While nothing on Shadow Forms is funky exactly, there are a few stretches, like the vibraphone and fuzz guitar-laden suspense builder “Tear Kisser,” where I could’ve been bamboozled into believing that this was the Italian crew, though in fact much of this record (including a free bonus 7-inch with the first edition) is focused on cyclical and swirling synth motifs. But there is still plenty of rhythmic heft and forward motion to be had here. A-
Howlin Rain, Under The Wheels: Live From The Coasts, Vol. 2 (Silver Current) With Howlin Rain, the band’s founder Ethan Miller has progressed so far into crowd pleasing ’70s-style bluesy and jam-tinged, yet highly melodic (anthemic, even) rock action, that casual listeners might be stunned to learn he was once in a band of considerable heaviness, namely Comets on Fire. If I didn’t know, it’s possible I’d be a tad surprised myself, but the reality is there’s really no dissonance on hand: Howlin Rain was formed to scratch a certain stylistic itch, and in doing so with panache (that is, legit songs, dynamic precision and instrumental flair) they’ve developed a fanbase encouraging them to keep at it. And so, the second installment in the band’s live series. Like some of their contemporaries, Howlin Rain exude a few similarities to the Dead of the early ’70s, but this is largely fleeting. More prevalent are Allmans-like characteristics blended with a few servings of Humble Pie. And I’ll add that I can easily understand why Chris Robinson is such a fan. A swell soundtrack for sitting next to a keg in the early morning hours. A-
Matthew Putman and Michael Sarian’s Improvisations Vol. II is the first of two Orbit577 releases covered in this piece, recorded in July of this year at Studio Hicks in Brooklyn. Keyboardist (and noted scientist) Putman has played on more than a half-dozen 577 releases including four from the Telepathic Band (reviewed below), but never in duo until now. The results, three selections totaling a little over 17 minutes, are enlightening, as he partners with trumpeter and fellow New Yorker (by way of Argentina and Canada) Sarian, who has released a handful of albums leading considerably larger bands.
Cyclone Trio is tenor saxophonist Massimo Magee, drummer Tony Irving, and drummer Tim Green. Earlier this year, 577 released Magee and Irving’s outstanding Vitriol & the Third Oraculum, a nearly 50-minute dive into post-Fire Music thunder and skronk, with moments bringing Albert Ayler and Charles Gayle to mind, as it extended from the template established by Interstellar Space and Duo Exchange, both essential documents in the free jazz trajectory.
I guess the mainstream consensus on John Carpenter is that he’s just one in a long line of filmmakers who started out strong, hung in there for a while and then faltered as time progressed. And our current motion picture industry does a good job of making it seem like he’s retired; his last effort was The Ward, which hit US theatres, or a few of them anyway, back in 2011. But for an ever growing pack of buffs, Carpenter is a very special auteur indeed. Gaining his biggest commercial and critical success with Halloween in 1978, it and the titles surrounding it in his filmography are trim, energetic no-nonsense affairs emerging from a motion-picture scene noted for self-consciousness and excessiveness.
