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Showing posts from June, 2019

Don Cherry - Brown Rice (1975)

Don Cherry – Brown Rice One of the most accessible fusion jazz records is also Don Cherry’s best album. Brown Rice is one of those School of Rock required listening samples for anyone breaking into fusion for the first time (and jazz in general since fusion is a bit of a gateway itself) Brown Rice is relatively short, at just over 39 minutes and only four tracks, but Cherry never feels restricted, letting his trumpet solos breathe while his backing band carries the atmosphere. On “Chenrezig” Hakim Jamil’s slithering bass makes the song menacing right up until Cherry’s trumpet catches on and on the last track here “Degi- Degi” the progression is so frenzied and unsettling it leaves the listener to find solace only in Cherry’s brief solo. The way he surrounds and constructs these pieces is really what makes this record stand out from the rest, as more than just an eclectic selection of songs, even for Don Cherry. “Brown Rice”  features some Damo Suzuki-esque scatting and a Ti...

Desmond Dekker – Action! (1968)

Desmond Dekker – Action! Desmond Dekker may have been the first artist to chart in the U.S. with a reggae song. He was certainly the first to take a song to number one in the U.K. back in 1969 with what would arguably becomes his opus, “Israelites." But a year earlier Dekker was releasing his great first album, Action!, a collection of delightful first-wave ska songs that are effortlessly enjoyable. Action! also featured his earliest hit 007 (Shanty Town). That song and the album as a whole typified the cool rude boy aesthetic of Jamaica that was just beginning to leave its impression on the rest of the world. Dekker had grown up in Kingston and spent much of his time as a welder before breaking into the music scene. He would go on to great things in the years following his debut, helping to secure fellow welder Bob Marley his first record deal as well as defining the early ska and reggae genres outside of Jamaica. On Action! you can still hear the fun and peaceful island ...

Nine Inch Nails – With Teeth (2005)

Nine Inch Nails – With Teeth Nine Inch Nails have always been a polarizing band, whether it be their music videos , lyrical content or even the quality of their Black Mirror affiliation ,  b ut Trent Reznor and company have had a pretty tumultuous relationship with their fan base as well. When NIN first emerged in 1989 with their debut, the excellent Pretty Hate Machine , they were lauded as one of the more consistent industrial groups out there. It was in 1994 however, when the band released The Downward Spiral and took industrial into the mainstream, that they were treated as traitors   by those very same fans . The band had leaned into their success and used it to bring emotions and music to Middle-America that had never been heard before, becoming one of the most popular bands in the U.S. and alienating much of their underground support in the process. NIN managed to keep their hand in the game with 1999’s The Fragile, even when it failed to live up the expectati...

KIDS SEE GHOSTS - KIDS SEE GHOSTS (2018)

KIDS SEE GHOSTS - KIDS SEE GHOSTS 2018 will probably go down as Kanye’s nadir, the pivotal year when a majority of music critics and publications   turned   on   him . Personally, I think it’s more complicated than that, and frustrating how political some of those publications could be. Kanye has always been reactionary and no doubt his support for Trump falls into the same category, but even if that wasn’t the case, it’s not like people with  terrible  political views can’t create great music. Regardless, after Kanye’s controversial  actions , the arrival of the negative reviews for  ye  seemed inevitable, that album does have its flaws, but it is certainly underrated. Released just a month later on Kanye’s birthday,  KIDS SEE GHOSTS  seemed like Kanye’s aim at recouping those losses, the ace he had up his sleeve just in case  ye  bombed. In reality that’s exactly what  KSG  is, an ace. Both albums have their si...

Jerry Garcia – Garcia (1972)

Jerry Garcia – Garcia After almost five years of being signed to Warner Brothers records, the label began to float the idea that the members of The Grateful Dead should produce some solo work. It made sense, The Dead has always seemed like more of a collective than a straightforward rock band, and Jerry Gracia and Bob Weir seemed like they could probably hold their own on some solo work and try to bring in some more money for Warner. Weir went on to craft Ace , which was basically a Grateful Dead record that he just happened to have control of, with most of the band's members featured in some capacity and Weir singing lead on each song. Dead drummer Mickey Hart eventually released an album too, which also ended up featuring the lion’s share of the band on a few different tracks. When it came to Jerry Garcia, however, it was a little different. Garcia decided to cut half of his songs with his primary lyricist Robert Hunter and devoted the rest of the songs (the weaker half) to ...

Gordon Lightfoot - Sundown (1974)

Gordon Lightfoot - Sundown Gordon Lightfoot’s well had seemingly run dry leading up to the release of his 1974 album Sundown . He had released a string of folk albums of little to no consequence since his last great outing, 1970's  Sit Down Young Stranger , and he could tell that it was time for a change. Lightfoot new well enough to keep what worked about his songs; evocative lyrics and catchy folk by way of country by way of adult contemporary. Instead, he decided to flesh out his songs a little bit, instilling chimes, English horns, recorder, Moog synthesizer, accordion, and even electric guitar. The changes paid off and the track demonstrating Gordon Lightfoot’s new production most definitely, “Sundown”, also ended up being his first and only number one hit. The rest of the songs here don’t exactly rival “Sundown”, as a well-crafted pop tune but a lot stretch out the possibilities of his folkie side. “Seven Island Suite” and “Circle of Steel” are eclectic and infectious as th...

Steve Lacy – Apollo XXI (2019)

Steve Lacy – Apollo XXI Steve Lacy has been the hot topic, the behind-the-scenes producer and studio-everyman for the last few years. Making his way into the mainstream with the hip-hop band/collective The Internet, he released his first truly stellar album with them back in 2018. That record, Hive Mind , leaned into Lacy as a virtuosic instrumentalist and producer who had developed a warm guitar sound akin to Mac DeMarco (an influence Lacy acknowledges was huge). The year before that, Lacy had a production credit on Kendrick Lamar’s Damn. and in 2018, he produced Raven Lenae’s amazing debut EP Crush . Leading up to the release of this, his full-length debut Apollo XXI , he’s been busy contributing to Solange’s When I Get Home  and some of the best songs on Vampire Weekend’s new album . Needless to say, people have been awaiting Apollo XXI with bated breath, and for the most part, he delivers. The second track off Apollo , “Like me” is an immense 9 minute medley of Lacy’s d...