Category Archives: Record Review

Rusted Shut, Dead (Load)

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LEO Weekly ran my review of Rusted Shut‘s latest album, Dead, on the excellent Load Records label:

You’d be excused for wondering whether the Houston-based Rusted Shut were much of a band, considering over the course of what couldn’t even arguably be called a “career” beginning way back in 1986, they’ve only released a small handful of titles. That is, before this year’s release Dead on Load, Rusted Shut had only released one LP, one CD (compiling the LP and some extra tracks) and one 12” EP (last year’s excellent Hot Sex on Dull Knife). And as true, punk-rock lifers, Rusted Shut apparently could not care less for such niceties as melodies or high production values. While their sludge-and-scream aesthetic may be off-putting to most, courageous listeners who like Flipper, Chrome or Brainbombs should revel that Rusted Shut aren’t quite dead just yet.

Buy it directly from Load here: http://www.loadrecords.com/bands/rustedshut.html.

Omar Souleyman, Highway to Hassake and Dabke 2020 (Sublime Frequencies)

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My review of Omar Souleyman’s two releases on Sublime Frequencies ran in this week’s LEO:

Despite its status as a junior member of George W. Bush’s “Axis of Evil,” Syria has long been a junction between East and West. It was on the road to Damascus, after all, that Paul famously converted to Christianity. But in recent times, both the repressive al-Assad regimes and America’s suspiciousness have prevented Syrian culture from filtering out. Perhaps that’s why these two releases by vocalist Omar Souleyman – who among other regional styles performs dabke, essentially Syrian party music characterized by frantic synthetic beats – are so revelatory. 2008’s Highway to Hassake (reissued on vinyl this year) and Dabke 2020 are drawn from hundreds of tapes released in Syria. Given the plaudits his first-ever performances in Europe received this past June, it’s not far-fetched to hope that he will soon find his way to America.

Buy Sublime Frequencies releases from Forced Exposure.

Meah!/Phantom Family Halo split 7″ (Sophomore Lounge)

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(Both covers of the Meah!/Phantom Family Halo split from the Sophomore Lounge web site, http://sophomoreloungerecords.com.)

Normally when one thinks of happenin’ musical hotspots, I’m pretty sure that Jeffersonville, Indiana doesn’t come to mind. Right across the Second Street Bridge over the Ohio River from Louisville, Jeffersonville has a sort of sleepy reputation, not possessing notable attractions nearby such as the Horseshoe Casino (just west of New Albany, aka Portland North) or even the Theatair X (that’s further north, in Clarksville). Yet Jeffersonville’s Sophomore Lounge Records is worth paying attention to, and not just for the eventuality that J’ville becomes the next music mecca.

Okay, just kidding. SL were nice enough to send their latest release, a split 7″ between Chicago-based Meah! and Louisville’s Phantom Family Halo. Now as a rule, I’m not a huge fan of split singles, as they’re usually not long enough a format for either band to express much. Honestly, I’m not big on split releases of any format in general. But this single gives a good impression of what to expect from either band (even though the PFH side is a cover of the Red Crayola‘s “Hurricane Fighter Plane.”)

That said, the impression I get of Meah!, with their two short songs on the first side of the split, isn’t particularly positive. While the trio definitely has instrumental skills, the first song “Kids/Summer” is probably a bit too wacky for my tastes. Second song “Mystics” brings Meah! into a little bit more acceptable territory, only by being close to a 1980s funk/punk style (think Minutemen or Big Boys, just not quite as good). Overall, though, I have to give them an A for effort, even if I wasn’t super-into it.

Being a huge fan of the Red Crayola, as well as appreciative of Phantom Family Halo, I didn’t know what exactly to expect of their B-side. “Hurricane Fighter Plane,” from the RC’s debut album The Parable of Arable Land, is probably their most iconic song, having been covered by numerous other bands. However, I wasn’t let down by Dom Cipola’s interpretation of a classic. There’s enough reverential space here to classify as a worthy version, plus a changed chord and excellent guitar work (by guest Benny Clark of the Broken Spurs) shows plenty of inventiveness to keep me interested.

Limited to 500. Order it from Sophomore Lounge here: http://sophomoreloungerecords.com/meahpfhsplit.html.

Nothing People, Late Night (S-S)

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My review of Late Night, the newest album by Nothing People, appears in this week’s LEO Weekly:

As far as careerist schemes go, naming your band Nothing People and titling your first album Anonymous has to be pretty high up on the list of bad ideas. Yet California’s Nothing People’s lack of such ambitions is refreshing in an age where seemingly every band has a marketing plan. Thankfully their music is unique enough for them to be noticed. Whereas their debut mined proto-punk in the vein of Chrome or Public Image Limited, Late Night presents a bleaker, lonelier vibe (hence its title). Some of its simpler songs don’t even seem to feature the entire band but still reveal an emotional complexity lurking beneath the surface. While Nothing People are seemingly hard to know, so far it’s been worth the effort.

Buy it from S-S here.

Ofege, Try and Love (Academy)

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The following review ran in today’s LEO Weekly:

Continuing the current explosion of excellent 1970s African music being reissued in the West for the first time, Brooklyn’s Academy Records (a reissue label started by quite possibly the best vinyl store in the country) has reissued Try and Love, the 1973 debut album by Nigeria’s Ofege.

Whereas Nigeria’s most well-known superstar, Fela Kuti, might be superficially comparable to our James Brown, Ofege could also be considered the continent’s Jackson 5. Consisting of five unrelated teenagers, Ofege took their country by storm but missed greater opportunities because their parents didn’t allow them to quit school. However, unlike the J5, Try and Love’s music has a conspicuous maturity that surprises. But the album doesn’t forget to rock, complete with super-psychedelic, post-Hendrix guitar over African polyrhythms.

You can buy this excellent record from Academy here.

Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Primary Colours (Goner)

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Last but not least, from Swingset:

Despite a small population consisting mainly of descendents of England’s cast-offs, Australia has graced the rest of the English-speaking world with many excellent rock bands. AC/DC, the Saints, Coloured Balls, Radio Birdman, and the Birthday Party are just a few of the many Australian bands worthy of any rock fanatic’s collection. And now, with their second full-length album, Eddy Current Suppression Ring makes a play for inclusion in the annals of antipodean rock accomplishment. While the production value of Primary Colours is slightly more polished than their debut, the album kicks out the jams quite thoroughly, with a taut minimalist kick reminiscent of Wire or the Buzzcocks, albeit with an even goofier accent.

Buy it from Goner.

Harry Pussy, You’ll Never Play This Town Again (Load)

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Review number two at Swingset (and boy does it stink!) — Harry Pussy’s You’ll Never Play This Town Again retrospective on Load:

It’s difficult to describe just how great a band Harry Pussy was, or how thoroughly the Miami-based trio demolished the line between provocation and confrontation, without noting that their least offensive aspect was their name. During their brief mid-1990s “career” they managed to utterly obliterate audience expectations, even when those expectations were at best marginal. The one time I was lucky enough to see ‘em, at a show I booked during their farewell tour, they even managed to bum out a small crowd of otherwise open-minded, drugged-out hippie college students in ways I didn’t dream possible. For posterity’s sake, a number of their long out-of-print recordings are now available on You’ll Never Play This Town Again. For those of us lucky to have been there, and for those few willing to check out a crazed piece of noise past, this release is everything you’d need to know.

Buy it here from Load.

The Shadow Ring, Life Review (1993 – 2003) (Kye)

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Some new reviews of mine (of older releases) appeared today at Swingset. The first one is of the recent 2CD retrospective of the Shadow Ring, one of my favorite bands of all time:

There’s no getting around the inherent difficulty posed by the music of the Shadow Ring, one of the UK’s most obscure, yet most rewarding bands of the past decade. Ironically, what makes their music difficult is its complete simplicity. Home Counties chums Graham Lambkin and Darren Harris (with later member, Tim Goss) outlined their early musical approach most succinctly in their 1994 album Put the Music In Its Coffin, whose title spells out the distinctly amateur (yet not “amateurish”) nature of their scrapes, wheezes, and plain-spoken lyrics regarding mundane topics concerning “Wash What You Eat,” “Rats & Mice,” and “Prawnography.” Later, after Lambkin moved to the United States and the group’s activities became even more difficult to sustain, the Shadow Ring embarked on an exploration of long drones and slowed-down vocals, on such releases such as 2001’s Lindus and their final album, I’m Some Songs. Despite the change in direction, the simplicity of The Shadow Ring’s music retained its power.

Life Review (1993-2003) is a 2-cd set that documents all phases of the band, and is an excellent starting point for those unfamiliar, but willing to brave their deeply strange waters. As most of their initial releases are out-of-print (and will likely remain that way), it’s fantastic that such an unlikely collection exists, including not only classic Shadow Ring “numbers” such as “Tiny Creatures,” “Horse Meat Cakes” but also unheard charms such as “Stella Drive,” their shambolic live reinterpretation of Pink Floyd’s “Interstellar Overdrive.”

Buy it at Fusetron.

Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba, Segu Blue (Analog Africa/Open House)

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Yet another review appeared in LEO Weekly today, this time of Bassekou Kouyate & Ngobi Ba’s Segu Blue. Unfortunately, due to space constraints there isn’t much mention of the actual music, but whatever:

Given the recent collaboration between Bela Fleck and Malian kora player Toumani Diabate, it’s possible that there’s been no greater spotlight on the West African nation at any other time than right now. Fortunately, all the attention on Mali is casting some light on other worthwhile players as well. Countryman Bassekou Kouyate plays the ngoni, a six-stringed instrument, which is arguably less complex than Tiabate’s 21-stringed kora, but still retains a beautiful melodicism. Kouyate’s 2007 album Segu Blue, issued in the United States this year, contains all the beauty one has come to expect from acoustic music from Mali. And on the blue “Lament for Ali Farka,” a requiem for the departed guitarist Ali Farka Toure, Kouyate and his group Ngoni Ba emerge from the shadows cast by their better-known comrades.

Commenter Dan Hirsch on a Facebook link I posted with the review says they’ll be touring the US next spring, so that’s pretty cool. In the meantime, you can download Segu Blue here.

Mouthus, Divisionals (Ecstatic Peace!)

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Mouthus

Another review appeared today in the LEO Weekly, this time of Divisionals, the new album by Mouthus on Ecstatic Peace!:

Brooklyn duo Mouthus are usually grouped alongside noise artists, despite being a guitar/drums duo. That’s because their music, while often abrasive, has its own internal logic that is difficult to understand without seeing them live. It’s hard to grasp that what sounds like 15 airplanes landing at once on top of an elevated platform as the J-train rumbles by is just generated by two people. However, on their new album Divisionals (on Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth’s Ecstatic Peace! label), the proceedings are dialed down a notch. Guitarist Brian Sullivan and drummer Nate Nelson, possibly employing some additional instruments, create a mysterious set of cyclic drones, which interlock and mesh within each other, much as the strands of DNA within our cells.

Buy it direct from Ecstatic Peace! here.