Staff Picks for October 2018
October 31, 2018
This collection of some of Daniel Lopatin's earliest work as Oneohtrix Point Never defines his distinctive approach to drone-based electronic music. Balancing a retro sci-fi feel with unsettling moods, it's a sprawling, yet poignant, set that remains fascinating whether you listen to it in pieces or its 100-minute entirety.
October 30, 2018
An album that's truly worthy of the oft-cited/lazily applied "tone poem" tag, 1997's Bad Timing managed to find the sweet/soft spot between avant-garde pretense (each of the four long tracks is called "untitled") and breezy, homespun mellifluousness. Throughout it all, O'Rourke's deft guitar playing evokes both the sun-soaked ambiance and underlying darkness of the late John Fahey.
October 29, 2018
When Bark Psychosis' debut full-length was released, in February 1994, it sounded just like the type of album -- an unassuming masterstroke of quiet, occasionally stormy intensity -- that a small cult would term a classic. The passing of two decades has not softened its impact.
October 28, 2018
Look back at Scientist's earlier album titles and you'll see that before taking on Namco's little yellow fellow he had already rid the world of vampires, beat the Space Invaders, and released The Best Dub Album In The World. All of those are excellent, but this one has the most bleeps and bloops, so if you dig joysticks and dub albums, prepare for the utmost.
October 27, 2018
Like the game it comes from, Jim Guthrie's original score for Sword & Sworcery is filled with spacey and mysterious moments tied together by sense of wistful nostalgia. This beautifully odd score not only serves its source material, it's able to stand up on its own, providing listeners with an engaging and engrossing journey through a series of psychedelic electronic vignettes.
October 26, 2018
The members of this Canterbury supergroup -- hailing from Caravan, Egg, Matching Mole, and Gong -- didn't merely rest on their laurels on this debut disc from 1974 and, with plenty of help from the likes of Robert Wyatt, Henry Cow's Geoff Leigh, and the lovely Northettes, they turned a new page in the Canterbury story.
October 25, 2018
They Might Be Giant's second album matured past the quirk of their first and foreshadowed the early masterpiece that would be third album Flood with increasingly sophisticated and satirical songs incorporating endlessly eclectic music styles ranging from college pop to loungy jazz.
October 24, 2018
This years-in-the-making debut from Luke Steele (Empire of the Sun, The Sleepy Jackson) and Daniel Johns (Silverchair, the Dissociatives) is a quirky oddity that blends throbbing synths and anthemic electro-pop befitting of the eccentric Australian pair. Despite the often absurd lyrical content, the LP is fun, funky, and worth a listen for fans of Empire of the Sun and Johns' solo work.
October 23, 2018
Having just completed a reunion tour that reminded all in attendance of their lasting ferocity, why not kick yourself hard and revisit one of the Jesus Lizard's triumphant noise-rock outings of the '90s? Liar kicks off with the bruising trifecta of "Boilermaker," "Gladiator," and "The Art of Self Defense," and never lets up the intensity, even when they slow things down with the Spaghetti Western nightmare "Zachariah."
October 22, 2018
The Florida-based decibel pushers continue their sonic metamorphosis from thrash-blasted metalcore to melody-driven (almost) trad-metal on The Sin and the Sentence, their eighth full-length effort and first studio outing with touring drummer Alex Bent.
October 21, 2018
With his uniquely virtuosic singing, informed as much by blues artists like Son House and Robert Johnson as modern singer/songwriters like Leonard Cohen, Dion shared much in common with contemporaries like Tim Buckley, John Sebastian, and James Taylor. In fact, his opening reworking of Bob Dylan's "Mama, You've Been on My Mind" hardly resembles Dylan at all. It has much more in common with the atmospheric style of Nick Drake and Terry Callier.
October 20, 2018
Annika Henderson's self-titled debut is a striking introduction to the unlikely but fascinating collision of sounds and deadpan cool she expanded on later with the band Exploded View. Though Anika's songs are mostly (brilliantly chosen) covers, the album's collisions of post-punk, dub, and girl group pop are unmistakably hers.
October 19, 2018
Smooth, jazzy drum'n'bass from the genre's mid-'90s glory days. Wax Doctor never released his long-promised album, but this collection compiles the best of his singles for R&S, Metalheadz, and Talkin' Loud. The title of the first track, "Atmospheric Funk," says it all.
October 18, 2018
Lit throughout by the reflections of a middle-aged man acknowledging his prime was behind him, Born to Be With You comprised six new recordings, including a positively funereal rendering of "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands," a dramatic retread of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil's "Make the Woman Love Me," and a dour Spector/Dion collaboration, "Good Lovin' Man." And the darkness didn't lift once.
October 17, 2018
Laughter and rage are emotions that are not as far apart as you might think, and Childbirth walk the fine line between anger and hilarity with style on 2015's Women's Rights. Whether they're calling out mansplaining tech bros, wondering when their friends became lesbians, struggling with the indignity of Tinder, or recalling Mean Girl-ish teenage behavior, Childbirth prove once and for all that feminists can be funny. And rock out, too.
October 16, 2018
Echo made a dignified return in 1997 with Evergreen. Two years later and trimmed to just the duo of Ian McCulloch and Will Sergeant, What Are You Going to Do With Your Life? succeeded where many of their peers had failed -- they matured without getting stodgy, and deepened their signature sound without appearing self-conscious.
October 15, 2018
On their 1989 record, all the pieces (cynicism, hopelessness, bitching and moaning about being alone) fell into place for My Dad Is Dead. The music is that of an angst-filled, Cleveland-based loner devouring that city's fertile college radio scene without letting go of some classic rock devices like grand proggy instrumentals and guitar solos.
October 14, 2018
The unconventional Boston trio delivered a legitimate alt-rock classic with their 1993 sophomore album. More finely honed songwriting from frontman/2-string bassist Mark Sandman and the debut of new drummer Billy Conway helped cement Morphine's already distinctive sound.
October 13, 2018
This was the saxophonist's final album for Blue Note, closing out an amazing streak of creativity. The record retreats a bit from McLean's nearly free playing on New and Old Gospel and 'Bout Soul, instead concentrating on angular, modal avant bop with more structured chord progressions. The whole session actually swings pretty hard, thanks to drummer Jack DeJohnette.
October 12, 2018
Produced by XTC's Andy Partridge (who also plays drums), this differs little from his Cleaners From Venus material '80s: tuneful pop with heart and clever lyrics that could be joyfully optimistic, whimsically satirical, and/or dourly cynical. The production was more state-of-the-art, but this is less idiosyncratically homespun and more accessible. Playing like a snapshot of English life, it's the most suitable introduction to his work.
October 11, 2018
Former Del Fuegos frontman Dan Zanes continues his homespun children's folk series with a set of shanties and other nautical delights on the appropriately titled Sea Music, which is quietly bombastic, thoroughly charming, and surprisingly authentic.
October 10, 2018
As these 15 selections from WB cartoons dating between 1936 and 1958 attest, Stalling's cut and paste style -- a singular collision between jazz, classical, pop, and virtually everything else in between -- was unprecedented in its utter disregard for notions of time, rhythm, and compositional development. He didn't just break the rules, he made them irrelevant.
October 9, 2018
The Kinks made fine records from the first moment they entered a recording studio, but 1966's Face to Face was their first truly great album, and the gateway into one of the most satisfying periods of their recording career. While the crazed energy of their earliest sides had faded, Ray Davies had matured into a superlative songwriter, and these snapshots of British life were witty, evocative, and endlessly satisfying.
October 8, 2018
If you're looking for Green the soul-jazz groovemaster, Grantstand is an excellent place to find him. The session teams the clear-toned guitarist with an unlikely backing group of musicians who rarely appeared with Blue Note otherwise: tenor saxophonist Yusef Lateef (who doubles on flute), organist Brother Jack McDuff, and drummer Al Harewood. Green contributes two bluesy originals -- loose, loping jams that rank as some of the best examples of his ability to work an extended groove.
![Cabin in the Sky [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]](https://fastly-s3.allmusic.com/release/mr0000352438/front/400/LTvT1nhWUJ0wrPysVdq0ACpQg_7iAU1wjqLgK_xGXts=.jpg)
October 7, 2018
Watch the movie (again), then savor this Rhino release, which contains all the music from the classic musical film, a few outtakes that didn't make it into the final cut, and highlights from the source stage musical. Along with performances from Ethel Waters, Lena Horne, and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson and guest spots by Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong, you'll hear the work of songwriting greats including Duke Ellington, Harold Arlen, Roger Edens, and Vernon Duke.
October 6, 2018
In 1994, David Bowie's Spiders From Mars guitar ace was recording only his third solo album in three decades when he died of liver cancer. His surviving colleagues completed the project, which stands as a forceful reminder of his wide-ranging talents. His gleeful, anything-goes eclecticism holds true here with bluesy pop, brooding soundscapes,, an unlikely rearrangement of Giorgio Moroder's "Midnight Love," and even funky rock.
October 5, 2018
Concluding the narrative trilogy started in 2017, the K-pop group compiled previously released songs with a handful of new ones, progressing through the highs and lows of love and closing on a self-empowering note. If you've been wondering what the fuss is about, this is a good place to start, especially the final third that includes the high-energy hit single "Idol."
October 4, 2018
One of the definitive volumes of the DJ-Kicks series, Stacey Pullen's entry is a rapidfire mix filled with echo-drenched spinbacks and Blade Runner samples. It's also incredibly bright and melodic, rather than cold and technical. The final track is made up of bits from all of the other tracks used in the mix.
October 3, 2018
Revisiting Jóhann Jóhannsson's final solo album Orphée is a painful -- but beautiful -- reminder of just how great a loss his death was to the world of music. As evocative as his award-winning and nominated soundtracks are, his own albums are even richer, and this sweetly aching song cycle about death, rebirth, and creativity is only becoming more poignant as time passes.
October 2, 2018
Released in 1999, Apple Venus, Vol. 1 was the last great XTC album, making a significant leap beyond the sterling English guitar pop of 1992's Nonsuch to a more introspective almost-classical approach tailored very directly to Andy Partridge's grand vision. Ambitious and beautiful it was also a harbinger of the band's fragmentation and eventual demise with Dave Gregory leaving the band halfway through the proceedings.
October 1, 2018
The posthumously released, two-disc Live at Wembley '86 proves once and for all that Queen was a superior live band, and like the Beatles, the Stones, etc., had far too many hits to fit into a two-hour show. This would, unfortunately, turn out to be the band's last tour, and it showed the group including old rock & roll covers, classics, then-current songs, improv, and overlooked album tracks.