Plagiarize and Localize
It worked for me. How else would I have finished so many years of middle school?
A friend writes for No Depression. His blog features a once-in-a-while alphabetical tour through his music library, highlighting a few lesser-known jewels as a public service. As this scheme offers your hostess a coupla dozen subject headings for whatever slack times lie ahead, this seems like a fine idea to swipe.
We'll start with the letter A, as (to paraphrase Lucy van Pelt) it's neater. Please note:
1) I'll be scaling through my iTunes library and using its alphabetizing convention (Adham Shaikh and The Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir are A's; Barry Andrews is not).
2) The focus might be on the artist or on a particular album by that artist.
3) There will be an attempt to avoid the obvious (e.g. Ali Farka Toure, Alison Krauss, Amadou & Mariam, Angelo Badalamenti, Anyonymous 4, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Arvo Part, AC/DC).
4) I have no idea what I'll come up with if I live to see 'Q.' Meanwhile...
African Virtuoses: 'The Classic Guinean Guitar Group.' In spite of the title, this is a tough one to categorize. It's essentially some Diabaté family jams from the 70s and 80s, with influences from all over the globe. One of the best guitar albums I own.
Al Gromer Khan & Amelia Cuni: 'Monsoon Point.' He's a classically-trained sitarist with a lengthy catalog often saddled with the unfair 'New Age' descriptor (I prefer 'ambient soundscapes'). She is a Dhrupad vocalist who dabbles in all manner of experimental esthetics. This 1995 collaboration is a single 55-minute piece. Atmospheric and enveloping.
Anjani: 'Blue Alert.' Anjani Thomas has been writing and recording for quite awhile, but I know almost nothing of her other output, which seems to fall loosely into the jazz and Hawaiian genres. This album is comprised entirely of partially-written Leonard Cohen pieces completed and performed by Anjani. A sensual album, this caress is an absolute must for Cohen fans and those who love that smoky nightclub ambience.
Antic Clay: 'Hilarious Death Blues.' Call it 'Dark Roots' or 'Gothic Americana,' this is ground similarly trod upon by the likes of Nick Cave, Tom Waits, The Gilded Palace of Sin, and Sixteen Horsepower/Wovenhand. I'll leave it to Chad Radford: "Hilarious Death Blues is a dark, smoldering journey into isolated Americana. It's country music that's silently aware of the impending apocalypse, and doesn't pine over lost love and and the daily grind of an oppressive job. It's a low and lonesome sound that holds a mirror to existential angst and rages against entropy, ennui, murk and miasma with flourishing, poetic beauty."
Apse: 'Spirit.' It is is an absolute gas to be taken in by a sound you've never heard before. This is dark and moody music but not 'ambient.' It has a wide dynamic range but is not exactly 'post-rock.' There is something primitive and tribal about the sound, but not 'lo-fi.' It's a different world, an alien and not entirely welcoming one, but a rewarding one for adventurous ears.
Azure Ray: Anything and everything of theirs. I see they're coming to the Cedar in November. I had no idea they were back together until I saw the new 'event' entry. Maria Taylor and Orenda Fink's voices are lovely and meld beautifully. They have been pursuing solo careers for the past six or so years, and while I have followed both with interest (especially Orenda and her sometimes unconventional material), I have long wanted to hear those voices hamronize one more time. If you are unfamiliar you might start with their 2002 ep 'November,' noteworthy not only for their gorgeous original material, but also a rare (for them) cover, Townes van Zandt's 'For the Sake of the Song.' Sweet heartbreak, all of it.
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In a recent Onion: 'Nation's Music Snobs Protest Predictable Use Of Metallica, Pantera To Torture Prisoners'
In a recent New York Times: 'Pitchfork: Upstart Music Site Becomes Establishment.' So that's the 'first kid on the block' echo chamber I keep hearing about.
To anyone with an iPhone and a taste for the sort of middle-space ambience exemplified above in the Khan/Cuni mention, here's a tip: download Robert Rich's 'Somnium' app. It's a listener-adjustable convergence of loops offering an environment of formless drift, playable to infinity or until your battery runs out. Whichever comes first. Best 99 cents I've spent on that gizmo yet.
Nostalgia trip: Tomorrow I'm headed to the Bay Area for my first all-vinyl shopping trip in, um, 28 years. Gonna let a short shopping list and long hopes for serendipty be my guides. It's mostly to look at cover art (and maybe the occasional surreptitious sniff inside) and snag a few 99 cent specials. The prize: Ellen McIlwaine's 1978 album on United Artists. She hates that record. Says the producer sidelined her for all but the vocals because she didn't play guitar well enough. If I find it I prolly won't mail it to her to sign. (And yes, I could order a copy from Gemm. Like, where's the fun in that?)
Finally...there's a new Steve Tibbetts album out on ECM, his first in eight years and only his third under only his name in 22 years. So it's an event, and it does not disappoint. And yet...while he is instantly recognizable (like his label-mate Ralph Towner, he has owned his signature sound for decades), there is a part of me that wants Steve to plug in and rattle off some more electric stuff a la 'You and It,' Test,' and 'Name Everything.' Am I too old to want that sort of thing? Or is the desire for Steve to turn back the clock indicative of my own geezerhood? Dunno and dontcare.
First, representative of his recent material:
And then, a no-visuals sample of old-school Tibbetts. Very un-ECM-like.
