Staff Picks for June 2015
![Black Dynamite [Original Score]](https://fastly-s3.allmusic.com/release/mr0004294733/front/400/QWSXTjrYSdOT9kk1BPPqB4Af7E_1E-2MlBBPmPAXRBU=.jpg)
June 30, 2015
Before he piled up major collaborations with the likes of Ghostface Killah, the Delfonics' William Hart, Souls of Mischief, Laetitia Sadier, and Bilal, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and producer Younge provided the note-perfect score to Scott Sanders' 2009-released Blaxploitation homage. Don't miss the two-disc 2014 edition, which contains the instrumentals.
June 29, 2015
The third studio long player from the Mitten State indie rock heroes who abandoned their tour bus on the steps of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, rocked the prison at Guantanamo Bay, and provided the theme song for HBO's Shameless (front man Josh Malerman also garnered a Bram Stoker Award nomination for his first novel Bird Box), 2007's Get the Guests is f***ing great.
June 28, 2015
Of the many bands that emerged from the Sub Pop Grunge Empire, Tad were the loudest, the weirdest, and the heaviest (even without considering Tad Doyle's well documented girth). Eight Way Santa, the band's second full-length album, was their masterpiece, the point where the bent but inspired melodic sense of the music merged fearlessly with the outsized, sweaty assault of the musicians, and Butch Vig's production made them sound as rich and brain-scrambling as a fifth of good bourbon. If a certain beverage company had more of a sense of humor, this might have made them stars.
June 27, 2015
If "drill'n'bass" was ever a genre, surely this was one of its best albums that had nothing to do with the usual suspects like Squarepusher or Plug. Andrew Coleman's debut full-length as Animals On Wheels featured a few downtempo moments typical of its parent label Ninja Tune, but the majority of the tracks splattered intensely chopped-up drums over oddly serene, jazzy keyboard melodies and samples.
June 26, 2015
Various Artists
Nineteen-years old and still an important release, America Is Dying Slowly is part of the Red Hot AIDS Benefit Series with all profits going to AIDS research. Names like Organised Konfusion, Spice 1, and Money Boss Players may have since fallen off the radar, but the compilers knew what was poppin' even way back then, as stalwarts and superstars like Wu-Tang Clan, Common, Mobb Deep, and De La Soul take up the bulk of the tracklist.
June 25, 2015
One of the hottest fusion bands of the mid-90s into the 2000s was this quartet featuring leader and noted free jazz drummer Bendian on vibes, leaving the drum duties to the ever inventive Alex Cline. Bendian found inspiration for Interzone in classic 70s fusion but also prog rock by the likes of Gentle Giant, and this 2000 sophomore outing found the group ultra-tight and energetic as well as expansive and unpredictable. And it's a great place to hear why Alex's twin brother Nels had become one of creative jazz's most in-demand electric guitarists during his pre-Wilco years.
June 24, 2015
Perhaps the musical pinnacle of the of Marilyn Manson's career, Mechanical Animals showed his range beyond harsh-throated apocalypse harbinger by ramping up the androgyny and pouring on the glam. Grand songs like "Coma White," "The Last Day on Earth," "The Speed of Pain" and the title track maximize the musical and emotional bombast, presenting the former Antichrist Superstar as alternately menacing and vulnerable.
June 23, 2015
The second LP from Scottish singer, songwriter, multi-everything Colin MacIntyre, Us is a dazzling pastiche of warm chamber pop, Britpop, folk, and even includes the shipping forecast.
June 22, 2015
In 2011, veteran bassist Michael Formanek sat in with cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum's sextet, which also featured guitarist Mary Halvorson and drummer Tomas Fujiwara. Discovering a strong rapport, Formanek, Halvorson, and Fujiwara agreed to test out the waters as a trio. Their instincts were indeed correct, and this spiky, bristling 2014 eponymous debut album reveals them to be ideal collaborators, contributing equally sans grandstanding yet still remaining unsurpassed as individual improvisers in the 21st century world of edgy avant jazz.
June 21, 2015
The former frontwoman of Portugal's Madredeus had issued four solo albums before this, but this is the first to feature original music. Co-writing with her band, this date contains striking, haunting, timeless material that centers her glorious voice inside the soundworld of a virtuoso collective.
June 20, 2015
An homage to the Gypsy community, Gitans finds the renowned French guitarist and oudist weaving a gorgeous tapestry of sound out of Arabic, Spanish, and Indian motifs, while maintaining a sturdy flamenco foundation, most notably on the moving "Martinetes y Debla" and the evocative and surprisingly uplifting Rajasthani lament "Pundela."
June 19, 2015
Don't bother telling them that his name once was Medaphor because they probably haven't even hear of Med, but the slept-on rapper's albums are always worth hearing. This sophomore effort is a funky place to start, thanks to production from funkster and frequent Dudley Perkins collaborator Gail Anne Muldrow, plus singer Aloe Blacc is here, a couple years before he was everywhere. Enjoy this one, and his debut makes a fine follow-up, and in unprolific Med style, it comes from six years earlier.
June 18, 2015
Any '80s "Duranies" who lost track of them after Seven and the Ragged Tiger and Arena (when the band underwent lineup changes, side projects, and label woes) may like to visit probably their best album-length material since Rio. Co-produced by fan Mark Ronson, it features four of the Fab Five, Dom Brown on guitar, and Owen Pallett's string arrangements. There's plenty to dance to, an appearance by Ana Matronic, and the fascinating, entirely fictional reportage of "The Man Who Stole a Leopard."
June 17, 2015
Beach House justifiably earned another level of acclaim with 2012's breakthrough Bloom, which polished their sound to crystalline perfection. That process started on Teen Dream, which found the duo moving away from the bedroom sound quality that earlier albums a murky charm. It's fitting that Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand recorded these songs in a converted church—tracks like "Norway" and "Zebra" are sonic cathedrals filled with hope and sorrow.
June 16, 2015
The first Deicide album after the departure of its founding guitarists carried on the momentum of its career-reviving predecessor, Scars of the Crucifix, thanks to a strong collection of songs and thrilling lead guitar playing from Ralph Santolla, who delivers an incredible solo on "Homage for Satan." Also recommended listening: the eerie "The Lord's Sedition," which goes from zero to 100 in jarring fashion, and a fun, ramshackle cover of Deep Purple's "Black Night."
June 15, 2015
Following 2001's somewhat rugged Steve Earle-produced Blue Boy, Canada's most downtrodden optimist turned to Sweden's Martin Terefe to produce this excellent batch of songs, expanding Sexsmith's sonic palette, while dialing in on the things that make his music so likeable. Warm, wistful, and sincere as ever, Cobblestone Runway is a highpoint in Sexsmith's prolific career.
June 14, 2015
George and Louis Johnson had been around as session musicians, but Q introduced them on this album—released the same year Louis laid down the immortal bassline for Grover Washington, Jr.'s "Hydra"—as the Brothers Johnson. The duo is placed front and center on "Is It Love That We're Missin'," a Top 20 R&B hit, as well as on two other cuts. Giants Leon Ware and Minnie Riperton can be heard on additional highlights, such as "Paranoid" and a cover of "My Cherie Amour."
June 13, 2015
Strangely overlooked given new age's recent resurgence (see reissues of Suzanne Ciani, Laraaji, Emerald Web, etc.), Ray Lynch's second album was actually one of the genre's first million sellers. Maddeningly catchy single "Celestial Soda Pop" kicks things off, but even better are astral fantasias "The Oh of Pleasure" and "Tiny Geometries" which demonstrate Lynch's knack for combining dizzying synthesizer programming with lighthearted melodies.
June 12, 2015
Recorded shortly after the 1968 Democratic Convention that shattered Phil Ochs's hopes for a progressive revolution in America, this document of Ochs performing at a music and poetry festival in Canada is beautiful and harrowing. Ochs is in fine voice and the audience is with him all the way, but the songs that would later form 1969's Rehearsals for Retirement cut even deeper in their disappointment and dashed hopes with just Ochs's voice and guitar, and in this context "There But For Fortune" and "I Ain't Marching Anymore" already sound like relics of an era gone by.
June 11, 2015
Crunchy with melodies, sparkling harmonies and Hendrix-esque fuzztone guitar lines, Sweet's breakthrough 1991 effort remains a treasure of neo-classicist pop/rock. Just as the music video for "Girlfriend," finds Sweet inserting himself into his own heroic anime fantasy, the album works as a self-contained fantasia of pure '60s and '70s AM pop love.
June 10, 2015
The band's final studio album with frontman Fish is among its best. Despite the band's inner turmoil, they manage extremely diverse and well executed material. There are ornate, mid tempo ballads ("Warm Wet Circles"), prog anthems ("Incommunicado"), a near pop single ("Sugar Mice"), and a storming, guitar-drenched last testament ("The Last Straw").
June 9, 2015
On the eve of the release of Jamie xx's solo debut In Color, it's worth revisiting his main project's early days. Back in 2009, xx's whispery mix of indie, electronic music and R&B felt singular even though its influences were clear; it was the intimacy the band brought to deceptively simple songs like "VCR" and "Basic Space" that made them so compelling. Over the years, the xx—and Jamie xx's solo work—grew more sophisticated and versatile as their influence spread. Nevertheless, listening to xx still feels like hearing a wonderful secret.
June 8, 2015
Wait, come back! This will only take a second. Thanks. It's been almost 20 years since the much-derided Load, and Metallica's subsequent twists and turns allow for a less-jaundiced examination of the band's mid to late 90s output. This album doesn't get much love in the band's live sets these days, but songs like "Bleeding Me," "The Outlaw Torn" and "Wasting My Hate," while not trademark white-knuckle Metallica thrashers, deserve their due. And there are plenty of parts that are way heavier than you remember, like the bursts of hyper-speed rhythm guitar in "Ain't My Bitch."
![8½ [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]](https://fastly-s3.allmusic.com/release/mr0002743822/front/400/vmlFFzknjsaYvOgcX6El9JhUoDg0hsvx4F4sL4oO-nA=.jpg)
June 7, 2015
As expressive and fanciful as the visionary Fellini film that it accompanies, Nino Rota's whimsical score for 8 1/2 is nothing short of inspired. Though better known for The Godfather and his love theme to Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet, by incorporating classical, jazz, marches, cabaret, polka, and more, Rota may be at his most iconic here. To hear Rota's influence on Danny Elfman's playful Pee-Wee's Big Adventure and Beetlejuice scores 20 years later, look no further than the jaunty "Carlotta's Galop."
June 6, 2015
Sweden's multifaceted Lars Hollmer was an unapologetic sentimentalist and wrote some of the most beautiful melodies ("Boeves Psalm," "Simfågeldans") heard in any idiom, but he could also crank up the energy and rock hard. And Hollmer found a band poised for blastoff with the Japanese musicians—including Ruins drummer Tatsuya Yoshida—of SOLA, who played some of the finest tunes in his repertoire with nearly Mahavishnu-esque intensity on this 2002 album. But if you've ever lost a beloved dog, you might just shed a tear over the sad lament "Yrsa Requem."
June 5, 2015
This convenient little package serves two useful purposes. First, it collects nearly the entire recorded output of the Germs, the seminal L.A. band who bridged the gap between the early, gloriously trashy Hollywood punk scene and the tough and belligerent hardcore bands that followed. And second, it provides potent inspiration to young musicians, demonstrating it's possible to go from laughably inept to smart and fearsomely powerful in the space of two years. If these folks could do it, why not you?
June 4, 2015
The Welsh indie pop group's seventh album built on the increasingly folkier leanings from its predecessor, Spanish Dance Troupe, eschewing the neo-psychedelia of their earlier work and offering a mature and pastoral acoustic sound to frame this excellent set of songs.
June 3, 2015
Often favoring stripped down settings in the latter part of his career, Baker found a superb collaborator in Belgian guitarist Philip Catherine. An adroit improvisationalist with a unique style that blended lyrical post-bop with the occasional twangy country flourish, Catherine offered Baker a lush framework for his intimate yet surprisingly propulsive explorations. This live date, also featuring bassist Jean-Louis Rassinfosse, is one of their best.
June 2, 2015
All but forgotten, Original Concept were Def Jam's other hip-hop group, offering entertainment and fun while labelmates Public Enemy dealt in revolution. Check the great "Knowledge Me" which got sampled by Masta Ace for his cut "Born to Roll", then listen for a very early Art of Noise sample since this sampadelic relic comes from 1986. Don't get too hooked, because this is the group's only LP.
June 1, 2015
Sakamoto's first solo album was completed the same month Yellow Magic Orchestra was formed. Bandmates Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi aid here in limited ways—the latter as "fashion coordinator"—as the six songs are largely showcases for Sakamoto's dazzling fusion of progressive electronics and traditional Japanese music. Most notable is the 10-minute title track—rippling percussion, complex layers of synthesizers coaxing gorgeous melodies, and Kazumi Watanabe's storming electric guitar—reworked by YMO three years later.