Staff Picks for July 2015
July 31, 2015
I always enjoyed Veruca Salt, but Ghost Notes, their first album in nearly a decade, is the first record of theirs I've outright loved. Instead of pushing forward, they've gained muscle and sharpened their attack, so they sound like the same band you've always known, only better.
July 30, 2015
Recorded during a fertile period of stylistic cross-pollination, saxophonist Joe Henderson's Canyon Lady finds him combining all of the stylistic elements that marked his Blue Note albums of the 1960s: harmonically adventurous composition, groove-oriented Latin rhythms, and sultry, yet aggressive improvisation. However, with Canyon Lady, Henderson goes a step further, incorporating atmospheric funk and R&B. Add in his lushly arranged, large ensemble featuring artists like Julian Priester and Oscar Brashear and you have one of the most intoxicating jazz albums of the '70s.
July 29, 2015
Though it's likely the band is on ice for good following the conviction of frontman Tim Lambesis in a murder-for-hire plot, it's nice to flash back to happier days, especially the band's third record, where the addition of bass player and melodic vocalist Josh Gilbert allowed the band to widely expand its sound. The pummeling "Bury Us All" manages to get by on heaviness alone, but the real gems are "I Never Wanted," "The Sound of Truth" and "This Is Who We Are," which pack as much melodic weight as metallic muscle.
July 28, 2015
Part of the Mighty Sparrow's Millennium Series—which has nothing to do with the Universal label's series of the same name—Humorous collects many of the soca superstar's funny numbers, although not the funny and nasty songs, as those will be found on aptly titled set Dirty Old Man. Enjoy some effervescent and tropical tunes about "Happy School Days" and a "Lazy Partner Named Ned," then dig "Sanford & Son" which isn't the theme, but a song written about the 70s TV sitcom.
July 27, 2015
A little over a decade after its release, Felix da Housecat's third full-length is as much a harbinger of certain kinds of 2010s electronic pop as it is an electroclash souvenir. For every song that remains firmly and charmingly lodged in the early 2000s ("Rocket Ride," "Short Skirts"), there's another that points the way toward the atmospheric, ever-so-slightly melancholy reworking of synth-pop that M83 and the Drive soundtrack made iconic a few years later ("Ready 2 Wear," "Neon Human"). Whether it's looking forward or back, the album is still entertaining from start to finish.
July 26, 2015
The first-ever release of all the As & Bs for all the Ric & Ron singles Eddie Bo released between 1959 and 1962 is pure pleasure: a capsule history of all the easy-rolling, goodtime R&B emanating from New Orleans during one of its peak periods.
July 25, 2015
Once-prolific Polish producer Bogdan Raczynski hasn't released any new material since 2007's Alright!, and even that was his first album in 5 years. Who knows if he'll ever put out another album, but we'll always have masterpieces such as this one, which struck a perfect balance between complicated beats, sugary sweet melodies, and demented vocals. Aphex Twin's now-defunct Rephlex label released Bogdan's entire catalog, and most of it is streamable on his Soundcloud page. Have a listen. Have a laugh.
July 24, 2015
They were already a pretty decent psychedelic pop band with a couple decent records under their belt, but when the Coral hooked up with Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley of Portishead, they really got good. Comprised of stripped down sounds and spooky songs with every note and voice perfectly placed, the album is proof that sometimes you need to right producer to fully unleash your potential.
July 23, 2015
Though he died 25 years before the word "sync" earned a new meaning, Marty Robbins earned some posthumous acclaim and attention from younger generations when his songs "Big Iron" and "El Paso" showed up in the video game Fallout: New Vegas and the finale of Breaking Bad, respectively. Both are present here, along with other guaranteed crowd-pleasers for fans of those cuts, like "The Master's Call" and "Billy the Kid." Texas Red lives!
July 22, 2015
No one made comedy albums quite like the Firesign Theatre, who conjured complex studio creations whose seemingly endless layers of audio enveloped smart, surreal comic routines that rewarded repeat listening like no other artists in their field. Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers is their masterpiece, a hilarious but disquieting vision of a totalitarian future as filtered through one evening of late-night TV. Founding member Phil Austin died on June 18, 2015, and while he's best remembered for his Nick Danger routines, he was never on a better album than this.
July 21, 2015
In the mid-'80s Brian Eno proclaimed these British worldbeat minimalists to be "the most important band in the world," but his enthusiasm didn't help in garnering them much of an audience. Perhaps Man Jumping's clubby production sheen doomed their chances with the serious Reich-Glass crowd and the complexity of their deeply layered arrangements befuddled the partygoers, but the ensemble's music—including richly detailed and propulsive highlights like "It's Been Fun" and "The Wedding" from this sophomore album—deserves better than to languish in obscurity.
![Let's Face the Music and Dance, Vol. 2: 1935-1943 [ASV/Living Era]](https://fastly-s3.allmusic.com/release/mr0000147099/front/400/d-ZqjfanoxTMHFXT6a3jew4Q1ghY8VaPylnm7PwcKNY=.jpg)
July 20, 2015
For lovers of Fred Astaire's warm, conversational tenor and swing-era movie classics, this compilation of studio recordings from 1935-1943 includes eight Irving Berlin tunes (Top Hat, Carefree), ten Gershwin songs (Shall We Dance, A Damsel in Distress), seven by Jerome Kern (Swing Time, You Were Never Lovelier), Cole Porter's "Since I Kissed My Baby Goodbye" (You'll Never Get Rich), and Bernard Hanighen's "Poor Mr. Chisholm" (Second Chorus). Who could ask for anything more? (Er, that one's not included.)
July 19, 2015
This whimsical set of original accordion duets from New York player/composer Guy Klucevsek and Brave Old World band leader Alan Bern offers a unique and colorful array of sounds and styles from two of the instrument's modern masters.
July 18, 2015
New York's late '90s illbient scene often gets overlooked when it comes to discussions of bass-heavy music, dub, or underground hip-hop, and this album especially deserves a revisit. The first of two albums Wordsound founder Skiz Fernando Jr. released under the alias Slotek, 7 is a warped trip of sluggish beats, gritty (sometimes jarring) samples, and dubby echo. The second Slotek album is a bit more densely produced and has vocals and guest musicians, and it's fine, but 7 is a sparse, unsettling, mystifying classic.
July 17, 2015
This doesn't collect the hit singles Clarence "Frogman" Henry had on the Chess imprint Argo in the '50s. Instead, it has re-recordings of those hits from the '60s, along with a bunch of sides recorded in Texas and Tennessee during the '60s and '70s, all demonstrating his facility with different soul styles along with his inherent charm. Perhaps it's not peak Henry but it's worthy all the same.
July 16, 2015
Named after an imaginary gay porn series dreamed up by Coil themselves, the Ape of Naples appeared after the death of singer John Balance, and was put together from recordings as early as 1993, when they were signed to Trent Reznor's Nothing Records label. It's only in the world of this avant duo that theme to the British sitcom Are You Being Served could become a hymn, but that's just what happens during the operatic closer "Going Up." The cover painting comes from Ian Johnstone, Balance's partner, who sadly passed away at the end of this past June.
July 15, 2015
Damned if they did, damned if they didn't, the mercurial UK punk legends were so damned versatile that one would be hard pressed to describe their sound in a single sentence. This excellent two-disc anthology from Castle offers up thirty-five reasons why they were one of most innovative punk, new wave, alt-rock, pop, and prog bands to ever wear capes and eyeliner.
July 14, 2015
A landmark album gets a fittingly uncompromising tribute from Japanese avant-gardist Otomo and an international crew of like-minded experimentalists and free jazzers playing everything from conventional jazz instrumentation to sine wave generator, contact microphone, and no-input mixing board. The result is sometimes more densely packed with wild activity than the Dolphy classic, but the album's sparse extended conclusion proves that, in the proper context, even the most abstract sound art can have unexpected poignancy.
July 13, 2015
I love songs about the end of the world, and Lamb of God tucked a glorious one at the end of 2009's otherwise average Wrath. "Reclamation" stands as the band's longest song at over seven minutes, and delivers harrowing imagery of skies torn apart as fire rains down on burning cities, destroyed by their own wastefulness and disregard as the earth finally fights back. It's a different subject than the religious and political themes that the band typically dabbles in, but Randall Blythe's impossibly harsh howls suggest he means these words just as much, if not more.
July 12, 2015
Local Natives pulled from a number of different inspirations to construct their debut album. Indie smarts like Metric or Band of Horses, hints of '80s smart pop (almost evoking Men at Work or Talk Talk), anthemic fist-pumping choruses and the occasional sonic noodliness (Kid-A-era Radiohead) all lock together to make an ideal sun-drenched summer listen.
July 11, 2015
Don't be bogue, the Waitresses embody pure new wave sass from back when provocative pop was done with a wink instead of cascading butts. A one hit wonder? Sure, but their whole debut, which includes the sexy, derisive MTV hit "I Know What Boys Like," is just as catchy, fun, and uniquely 1982 as the song. Patty Donahue's Sandra Bernhard-like delivery is on point throughout, and for those who want butt songs after all, there's the post-Blondie's "Rapture" "Pussy Strut."
July 10, 2015
The guitarist / songwriter's debut album is an enduring work of the U.K.'s singer-songwriter era. Walking the line between adept players such as Bert Jansch and Davey Graham with the songwriting skill of a John Martyn, Chapman's style is leaner than all of them. These songs weave through folk, blues, rock, and more with a poet's sense of economy. All killer, no filler.
July 9, 2015
No one could sensibly argue the case for this as the finest Mass Production album, but it contains three of the band's best deep cuts, none of which was included on their Rhino anthology. "Watch Me Do It," a showcase for each member, is one of their hardest funk grooves. "Slow Bump" is somewhere between prime Earth, Wind & Fire and Pleasure, while "I Don't Want to Know"—nearly as excellent as Rose Royce's hit ballads—should have been pushed as a single.
July 8, 2015
Active since the 70s, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser Jean Derome has become such a major figure on the Quebec avant music scene that his 60th year has been proclaimed Année Jean Derome 15-16, marked by a series of events—including 18 concerts and 86 participants—across the province from May 2015 to June 2016. The range of his music can't be captured in a single album but this live disc from FIMAV 2008 is a fine point of entry, with the skewed jazz-rock-classical of Derome's Dangereux Zhoms and guests exploded by bursts of wild improv and noise.
July 7, 2015
In the Northern Hemisphere, it's the ideal time for Young Dreams, a young, Norwegian supergroup of sorts helmed by Matias Tellez and consisting of several singers, session musicians, producers, songwriters, and every hyphenate therein from the rich Bergen music scene. Strongly influenced by Pet Sounds, their debut has gorgeous, Beach Boys-esque harmonies; melodic, syncopated guitar; lush, orchestral synths; and big, complex, Brazil-kissed acoustic dance beats for an especially summery debut. "Waves will erase your footprints in the sand."
July 6, 2015
Along with Zea's criminally unheralded Today I Forgot to Complain, the sole album by About (Rutger Hoedemaekers) was a glimpse into an exciting mid-'00s Dutch pop scene where '90s indie-punk collided with schizophrenic laptop glitch and gabber kicks. Easily the poppiest release on Jason Forrest's Cock Rock Disco label, this intensely labored-over album sounded like listening to your favorite indie-pop CD while your boombox was on the fritz, yet strangely it kept skipping and cutting out in rhythm.
July 5, 2015
Long-running Ohio cult heroes 15 60 75 (aka the Numbers Band) stepped onstage at the Agora in Cleveland one evening in 1975 and reeled out a mind-bending set of hot-wired blues and rock, laced with jazz (free and otherwise) and held together by the fractured beat poetics of Robert Kidney. A mobile recording unit captured the show on tape, and Jimmy Bell's Still In Town remains a landmark of the Ohio pre-punk era, music that's remarkably smart and inventive but also tough, witty, and full of relentlessly powerful grooves.
July 4, 2015
The debut full-length outing from the Big Apple-based experimental rock enthusiasts (avant garde artist Tyondai Braxton, Ian Williams (Don Caballero, Storm and Stress), John Stanier (Helmet, Tomahawk), and David Konopka (Lynx)) is a full-on assault on the cerebellum. Glitchy, angular, dense, elliptical, and surprisingly hook-laden, Mirrored is a mathy, krautrock-prog-pop confection that is as revolting as it is impossibly difficult to stop eating.
July 3, 2015
Rammstein can't resist opening albums with their most hyper-dramatic songs, which can make the rest of the record feel like a downhill ride, but Reise, Reise sprinkles enough moments to latch onto throughout, particularly "Keine Lust," with its pleasingly boneheaded riff, open-throated vocal showcases "Mein Teil" and "Ohne Dich," and the English-dabbling "Amerika." Ironically, the band would skip America on this and the next album cycle, returning with much fanfare in 2010.
July 2, 2015
A British icon known for his distinguishing folk-punk style and sociopolitical subject matter, and growing into a champion of folk song tradition, Billy Bragg is an under-recognized writer of all-time-great love songs. All manner of Bragg can be found on his beloved debut, including the perfect "The Milkman of Human Kindness," which, like the rest of the release, bulges with humanity.
July 1, 2015
Recorded during Thelonious Monk's second residency at New York's trendy Five Spot Café, Misterioso has been hailed as one of his great live sets. While Monk and his material are exceptional, drummer Roy Haynes, bassist Ahmed Abdul-Malik, and especially tenor sax man Johnny Griffith are at the top of their game.