Staff Picks for September 2011
September 30, 2011
AM & Shawn Lee combine their love of '60s sunshine pop, '70s soft-rock, Brazilian Tropicalia and various styles dance music on this endlessly melodic and psychedelic-tinged collaboration. Think Paul Williams produced by Beck and you get pretty good idea of what Celestial Electric delivers.
September 29, 2011
Rising from the ashes of provocative underground rockers the Nation of Ulysses, the Make-Up unleashed its r&b and garage-influenced “gospel yeh-yeh” sound with a full-length debut brimming with visceral energy, circa ‘60s swagger and plenty of (fake) crowd noise.
September 28, 2011
Million Seller sold roughly ten copies, maybe twelve, but those were ten, maybe twelve, very happy people, secure in the knowledge that they own a copy of the best pop record ever made.
September 27, 2011
Bradford Cox fans might still be digesting Deerhunter’s Halcyon Digest and the three unofficial Atlas Sound albums he dropped at the end of 2010. However, with another new album due in November, it’s a good time to revisit Logos. It’s still an intimate set of songs, particularly the lovely “Sheila.”
September 26, 2011
On his 1974 debut for ECM, the renowned Oregon guitarist enlists Jan Garbarek, Eberhard Weber and Jon Christensen in a program of pure expressionistic folk-inspired jazz. The album lifted not only his own profile, but the label's as well.
September 25, 2011
On his first new studio material in seven years, guitarist Loren Connors employs skeletal and spatial tonal relationships to take listeners on an inner exploration of outer space.
September 24, 2011
A post-punk oddity in DFA’s largely electronic roster, Prinzhorn Dance School burst onto the scene with their 2007 self-titled debut. Full of paranoid hooks, cheeky call-and-response choruses and stomping beats, this set of songs is as catchy as it is cantankerous.
September 23, 2011
Warm sunshine melodies cut through the smoggy skies of Ganglians’ second lo-fi album.
September 22, 2011
This set is a valuable archival glimpse at the musical beginning of the greatest and brightest shooting star that country music has ever known.
September 21, 2011
Worst album cover ever? Yes, but this pre-Stevie/Lindsey album has some nice laid-back near-disco jams and lovely ballads too. Bob Welch was no LB, but he had soft rock skills!
September 20, 2011
Mason Jennings 2011 effort Minnesota is a poetic little backwoods opus with a number of hypnotic, darkly psychedelic nuggets including the sexy, acid-soaked folk-blues track, "Witches Dream."
September 19, 2011
The major mistake here is the artwork. At first, I wasn’t sure if this was a Ratt, Kix, or Krokus release, but no. It’s the contemporary reggae singer in fine form, especially when the legendary Junior Reid joins Alborosie for the wicked highlight "Respect".
September 18, 2011
While they've always pursued their own kosmiche aesthetic, Barn Owl have expanded their palette in recent years with more dynamic displays of post-psych, amped up guitar power and sonic drones.
September 17, 2011
Throwing Muses' Anthology is released later this month, but it doesn't (and couldn't possibly) come close to including all of the band's highlights. Only two selections are pulled from this genius 1995 album, a maze of pouncing/teasing rhythms and some of Kristin Hersh's sharpest/strangest hooks.
September 16, 2011
Serious jazz cats like Benny Golson and Art Farmer doing slicked-up, EZ-out versions of TV commercials is just the thing to make purists tear their hair out and cause lovers of seriously cheesy tunes to rejoice.
September 15, 2011
With the release of Annie Clark’s third St. Vincent album Strange Mercy, it’s time to revisit her ambitious second album. Actor presents a fascinating contrast of luxurious arrangements and Clark’s sharp, often stinging, lyrical insights on songs such as “Actor Out of Work” and “Laughing With a Mouth of Blood.”
September 14, 2011
Normally known for their noise-metal freakouts, Daughters channel their inner Jesus Lizard on their self-titled record, scaling back the out and out chaos of their normal sound in favor of a heavier, more groove-oriented approach that both refines and evolves their sound.
September 13, 2011
As the evenings get cooler and we ease into Autumn, cool evenings in thick sweaters require John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman's lush 1963 album on the hi-fi. Settle in front of the fire with a highball and listen to their Autumn Serenade.
September 12, 2011
Sax Education gathers 12 tracks from James Chance's late 70s early 80s albums on ZE and Animal and a bonus disc of a never-before-released live set for Radio Holland in 1981. James Chance was way ahead of his time and obviously one of the progenitors of today's funk/punk/free jazz hybrid.
September 11, 2011
If you're looking for one last blast of late-summer magic, "Escapade" is just the thing -- beginning like a paisley Prince jam, but then settling into a kinetic Jam & Lewis groove amid one of Janet Jackson's best vocals.
September 10, 2011
With a lightly experimental mix of blue-eyed soul and psych-inflected electronic pop, New Villager bring to mind an indie-art school take on Peter Gabriel or Kate Bush. This is infectious dance-oriented music that should appeal to fans of Fires of Rome, Francis & the Lights, and MGMT.
September 9, 2011
Greg Nice and Smooth B. struck gold with 1991's golden age hip-hop gem Ain't a Damn Thing Changed, a fun album packed with huge hooks, boisterous rhymes, and clever beats constructed from the likes of Partridge Family's "I Think I Love You," the theme from Sanford and Son, and Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car."
September 8, 2011
Haflat Gharbia: The Western Concerts documents Syrian sensation Omar Souleyman and his band's tours through Europe, Australia, and the United States between 2009 and 2011. Despite the greatness of the previous three studio albums, an entire piece of the puzzle has been missing--until now.
September 7, 2011
These combined albums, originally released on Chess Records in 1959 and 1965, deliver 23 raucous Chicago blues cuts, including the standards "Don't Start Me to Talkin'," "One Way Out," "Bring It on Home," "Fattening Frogs for Snakes" and "Your Funeral and My Trial."
September 6, 2011
Ever since Boney M fell apart, Scooter has been my Euro-trash dance act of choice, but Günther is a very close second. He's a macho, mustached lover of sunshine, bikinis, and tan lines, and with summer coming to an end, the time is right for Pleasureman.
September 5, 2011
Nothing screams postpunk like garbage-can percussion and squawking sax, and the British band Blurt featured both in spades, underpinning the vocals of poet (and puppeteer) Ted Milton. Blurt/Singles rounds up the best of their early-'80s material.
September 4, 2011
Nels Cline is one of the most creative and forward thinking guitarists there is and this studio/live split album might make that case better than any of his other work. It also rocks like nobody's business. Guitar fans: take note.
September 3, 2011
Upon its 2004 release, The Blue Notebooks marked Max Richter as a composer to watch. Here he performs straightforward orchestral works, as well as pieces that are almost entirely electronic, with a remarkable mix of technique and emotion. This remains one of his finest albums and a great entry point for new listeners.
September 2, 2011
The match that lit the fuse of what would become "metalcore," few albums albums can match Functioning on Impatience in terms of pure, unfiltered aggression.
September 1, 2011
This is the Mo Wax label's buried treasure -- an album as crucial as DJ Shadow's Endtroducing... and As One's Planetary Folklore. It's a masterpiece of machine-soul ambient techno from Sherard Ingram, who is joined by fellow Detroiters Anthony "Shake" Shakir, Carl Craig, and Kenny "Moodymann" Dixon Jr.