Staff Picks for March 2016
![The Best of Uriah Heep [Mercury]](https://fastly-s3.allmusic.com/release/mr0001298833/front/400/6ttFy8hsXiCCyVDn9O2ZbZhUoDg0hsvx4F4sL4oO-nA=.jpg)
March 31, 2016
Nothing less than a musical Juggernaut, this compilation delivers wave after wave of heavy molten rock that will either forge your fealty or send you fleeing. At their most menacing ("Gypsy," "Bird of Prey"),Heep rides relentlessly alongside the horsemen of the apocalypse, Black Sabbath and Van Der Graaf Generator. What the band lacks in artful studio execution they make up for in sheer force, from Ken Hensley's towering organ to Mick Box's distortion-drenched guitar.
March 30, 2016
Authentic renditions made possible by loads of research and skilled performances on vintage instruments make this album both a can't-miss for Raymond Scott fans and a good introduction for those who perhaps recently came across the composer's music via classic Warner Bros. cartoons, various films, or quotes and samples by bands including They Might Be Giants, Gorillaz, and Gotye.
March 29, 2016
The music associated with Chicago's juke/footwork scene is fast, frenetic, complex, and often highly aggressive, as it is typically intended to soundtrack dance battles. The tracks produced by Jlin, a steel mill worker from nearby Gary, Indiana named Jerrilynn Patton, use footwork as a venue to express frustration, anger, and depression. Tense, thrilling, and a bit frightening, Dark Energy is simply one of the most compelling debut albums of 2015.
March 27, 2016
These Norwegians, an iconic singer and brilliant improvisational guitarist, were born generations apart. But on this unrehearsed live festival date they come embody the Greek word in the title-twins. This is an hour-long musical journey, a high wire act of in-the-moment communication through blues, balladry, free experimentation in folk and jazz, and much more.
March 26, 2016
Bibio's Warp Records debut, Ambivalence Avenue, found Stephen Wilkinson putting aside the sweetly decayed electro-folk of his earlier work in favor of breezy pop and layered instrumental hip-hop that recalled two of his labelmates, Grizzly Bear and Flying Lotus. However, as the album spans a record store's worth of sounds with summery ease, it becomes clear that what could have been dabbling is actually a breakthrough.
March 25, 2016
With the band's return imminent, it's a good time to revisit their catalog and see how far Thom and co. have come. If Kid A was the exciting electronic turning point in Radiohead's sound, this companion was the final confirmation. Ominous and intense, jittery and anxious, it amped up the digital and distorted the atmospherics resulting in a difficult but rewarding listen. Strap on the headphones and enjoy.
March 24, 2016
In a defiant bout of reinvention, Nashville singer/songwriter Tristen abandoned the acoustic indie folk approach of her debut and returned in 2013 with the synth-driven pop of Caves. Leading with razor-sharp opener "No One's Gonna Know," she displayed an innate knack for clever melodies and crafty orchestrations.
March 23, 2016
One of PJ Harvey's darkest and most beautiful albums, White Chalk plays like a good ghost story. It's haunted by British folk, steeped in Gothic romance and horror, and almost impossible to get out of your head. These somber, cloistered songs -- which sound like they could be performed in a parlor, or channeled via Ouija board -- turn darkness into a friend, and silence into an enemy in frightening, yet fearless, ways.
March 22, 2016
Seething with rage and possessed of a mean violent streak, All Pigs Must Die continue to rain sonic destruction down upon the metal world with their second album. Rampaging its way through its ten tracks, the band once again shows off its relentlessness with an album that mostly refuses to slow down once it gets up to speed
March 21, 2016
The true sound of teenage America, circa 1969: three sisters with precious little technical skill write and play a batch of rock & roll tunes under the orders of their (possibly deranged) father. Sometimes hilarious, often puzzling, and inarguably fascinating as both music and psychodrama. Some call the Shaggs the worst band of all time, but if that were true, why would Philosophy of the World be so endlessly compelling?
March 20, 2016
Produced by Creed Taylor and recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's famous New Jersey studio, this LP demonstrates just how exciting and creative 1970s fusion could be. When Airto and his colleagues blend jazz with Brazilian music, rock and funk on such cuts as "Wind Chant," "Tombo in 7/4" and "Romance of Death," the results are consistently enriching. Fingers is an album to savor.
March 19, 2016
Don Fagerquist remains ripe for rediscovery: a surefooted and expressive trumpeter, his cool, nuanced tones capture the essence of West Coast jazz. Portrait of a Great Jazz Artist is an exemplary introduction to Fagerquist's music, cherry-picking his finest solos from a series of dates spanning from 1955 to 1959 in support of Les Brown, Russ Garcia, and others.
March 18, 2016
Who says electronic music can't be political? On The Civil War, Matmos reimagines protest music by reconfiguring the sounds of American music in a mischievous, ominous collage: Glitchy player pianos, falling-down brass bands and swarms of fiddles and flutes are met by drums and beats that sound like sniper fire and free-falling grenades. The results are deconstructed anthems that are pointed evocations of internal dissent.
March 17, 2016
The Cramps' first full-length effort was also their best, a fever dream of low-rent monsters, juvenile delinquency, and kinky sex come to life in a cheap apartment in pre-gentrification New York City. Fold in the ying and yang of guitarists Poison Ivy Rorschach (twangy) and Bryan Gregory (noisy), the unrelenting pound of drummer Nick Knox, the primal wail of singer Lux Interior, and the no-frills production from Alex Chilton, and you have the greatest psychobilly album of all time.
March 16, 2016
Presented by producer Andrew Loog Oldham of Rolling Stones fame, this live album is arguably overly mixed by purists standards, but the stately performances cut through all that audience sweetening real quick. Filled with enough hits to get a "Best of" in the title, this comes from the reggae singer's Harder They Come era, so consider it crucial.
March 15, 2016
Just as charming and catchy as Heyward's finest Haircut 100 work. "When It Started to Begin" even sounds a lot like them, especially the chirpy horns, but much of North of a Miracle is more mature and introspective.
March 14, 2016
On their 1975 self-titled debut, the Bothy Band single-handedly reinvented traditional Celtic music for the post-Industrial Age. The ferocious fiddling of Tommy Peoples, the lucid piping of Paddy Keenan, the peerless flute playing of Chieftain Matt Malloy, and the percussive, clock-like precision of Donal Lunny's bouzouki made for an intoxicating brew, one that would not only retain its effects on the next album, but would surpass it. Old Hag You Have Killed Me remains not only the pinnacle of the band's career, but one of the genre's most important recordings.
March 13, 2016
Despite Jackson's anxious demeanor and shaky pop/rock presence, I'm the Man holds together quite well as his second attempt. Reaching number 12 in the U.K. and a respectable number 22 in the U.S., the album managed to net him a number five hit in his homeland with the insightful "It's Different for Girls," which revealed Jackson's adeptness at philosophizing and his perception of examining the sexes, a trait which would follow him throughout his career.
March 12, 2016
This trio's tribute to the music of Annette Peacock features two of her ex-husbands and the great Austrian trumpeter, flugelhornist and arranger. Her compositions are treated with sensitive, subtle investigative restraint. No attempt is made to define or sum them up. In essence, the music on offer intimately reflects the deceptively complex interiors at work within them.
March 11, 2016
Tempering the industrial tilt of their previous Reload material with slower, more graceful rhythms and an ear for melody unmatched by any in the downtempo crowd, Mark Pritchard and Tom Middleton produced the single best work in the ambient house canon.
March 10, 2016
Think of him as a musician's musician or an anonymous journeyman, but chances are you don't think enough about Paul Carrack. Cheekily-titled in the spirit of his comeback album (I Know That Name) Twenty-One Good Reasons offers evidence that he's the guy who sang the yacht rock favorite "How Long" by Ace, the alt-rock ballad "Tempted" by Squeeze, some quality Carlene Carter country-rockers, and a couple Mike & the Mechanics mega-hits. Who knew? Now you.
March 9, 2016
Compiled by rock critic and future Patti Smith Group guitarist Lenny Kaye, Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968 was the album that fired the first salvo in the garage rock revival of the '70s and '80s. Featuring 27 tunes (a few minor hits, most obscurities), this is a brilliant overview of the era when the British Invasion inspired American kids to pick up guitars and drums and do it themselves, and the fuzzbox and the Farfisa organ ruled the day.
March 8, 2016
During what would become their most commercially successful period in the early-90's, R.E.M. decided to forgo touring and commit themselves solely to the studio. The first fruits of that labor were heard on 1991's chart-topping Out of Time, but it was their lush, melancholic eighth album that became their studio masterpiece. While they forged nobly ahead for another two decades, Automatic For the People remained their high-water mark.
March 7, 2016
Various Artists
Planet Mu compilations are always good fun, but I'm picking this one because it includes a mysterious track that I've always been a huge fan of: "They Are Local" by Local. Whoever this artist is, this is the only single they ever released, and it's a truly bizarre collision of glitch, chiptune, and dark '80s pop. IDM's greatest one hit wonder?
March 6, 2016
Though it might seem like they're smoothing out the edges of their sound and turning their swords into plowshares, the reality is that they've just turned it into a different kind of weapon, proving themselves once again to not only be one of the most innovative metal bands of the last decade or so, but a band that seems truly capable of doing anything.
March 5, 2016
It's summer somewhere, right? You can't beat the riffs, synths and swooning background vocals for pure summertime goodness, Too bad Matt Sharp sounds like he's riding a giant bummer the whole time. On second thought, that's kinda what makes this record so brilliant. Just in case you haven't spun it for awhile, do yourself a favor and do it today.
March 4, 2016
This Australian duo are making noise in their homeland and, if justice prevails, will break big overseas soon enough. Their debut is rich and full of warmth, passion, and urgency, riding along blissful riffs and pulsing drums. Fans of Knopfler, CSNY, War On Drugs, take note. Just try the breathtaking "You Cannot Call For Love Like A Dog" and call it a day.
March 3, 2016
Melodic, explorative, and trippy as heck, one needn't like this album just because it's the work of John Lennon's son, we can like it because the tunes are genuinely good (though, okay, he does sound more than a little like John, so fans may be drawn here anyway). Also looming large, it was produced by Mark Ronson and co-stars Lennon's partner in music and in life, Charlotte Kemp Muhl.
March 2, 2016
Any album that begins with a psychedelic fusion jazz version of a Paul Williams song gets my attention. The key is what happens next, and Norwegian vocalist Karin Krog more than earns your time here with an album that's equal parts funky Bossa Nova, expansive jazz-rock and wide-screen psych-pop. Framed by a lithe, electrified ensemble including keyboardist Steve Kuhn and bassist Steve Swallow, Krog's voice sounds like sunlight on water.
March 1, 2016
On their second album, TEEN puts their stamp on R&B, channeling their debut In Limbo's psychedelic leanings into a womanly, ambitious sound. Unlike many other indie acts adopting R&B, they go beyond spare beats and synths, instead weaving lavish instrumentation organically into sensual songs that range from flirty to earthy.