#^d 2015-03-09
#^h Music Week
Music: Current count 24687 [24592] rated (+95), 420 [499] unrated (-79).
Saturday evening I checked the rated count and found I was only +17
for the week, a pace that would leave me well short of a productive +30
week. I decided that would be a good time to make a pass through the
unrated file and see if any of those albums had been rated elsewhere
(checking against the year-end files and sometimes the indexes for
Recycled Goods or Rhapsody Streamnotes). I've made less systematic
sweeps in the past and often netted a dozen or two missing grades.
This time I picked up 72 albums, turning a slack week into a monster,
statistically speaking.
Wound up with 26 records below, so not much shy of a normal "good"
week. Two new non-jazz A-list releases (or three if you count a reissue
of a cassette that only previously had a run of 50 units) so that may
finally break the 2015 drought -- although all three are close to the
borderline, and McMurtry and Tuxedo nearly got written up as HMs until
4-5 plays nudged me over the line. The live McMurtry was something I've
been meaning to check out, so this seemed like a good time.
My Rhapsody Streamnotes draft file is already long enough to post.
Good chance I'll post it some time this week, although I won't promise.
For one thing, I'll be out of town a few days: one of my cousins,
Harold Stiner, passed away on Saturday, so I want to at least make
an appearance at the funeral. He was 89 -- a teenager when he joined
the Army and wound up stationed as a guard during war crimes trials
in Japan. When he returned, he bought a small farm north of Stroud,
married Louise Byrd, and they both lived there until moving to a
nursing home a few months ago, more than 65 years. We went down there
often when I was a child, and I spent a lot of time fishing his pond.
He was an exceptionally kind, open, generous person, and will be missed
and remembered fondly.
New records rated this week:
- Aphex Twin: Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments, Pt. 2 (2015, Warp, EP): outtakes EP, maybe just an afterthought, from last year's "Syro" [r]: B+(**)
- Ab Baars Trio & NY Guests: Invisible Blow (2012 [2015], Wig): Dutch tenor saxophonist, group goes back to 1990, so they've grown old and mellow together [cd]: B
- Ab Baars Trio: Slate Blue (2014 [2015], Wig): Fay Victor and Vincent Chancey -- I like them enough but they're not what Baars needs [cd]: B+(***)
- Belle and Sebastian: Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance (2015, Matador): while the boys make clunky music and hog the vocals [r]: B+(*)
- Anat Cohen: Luminosa (2014 [2015], Anzic): leads with her clarinet, group less than focused except when her Brazilian guests take charge [cd]: B+(***)
- Father John Misty: I Love You, Honeybear (2015, Sub Pop): not an artist I want to get to know better, not that the fancy production never clicks [r]: B
- Ross Hammond: Flight (2014 [2015], Prescott): guitarist meant for bigger things tries his hand at folk-oriented solo pastorale [cdr]: B+(**)
- Mikko Innanen: Song for a New Decade (2010-12 [2015], TUM, 2CD): Finnish saxophonist gets all the help he needs: William Parker and Andrew Cyrille [cd]: A-
- James McMurtry: Complicated Game (2013-14 [2015], Complicated Game): hard luck songs continue, less political because he's too smart to blame it all on Obama [r]: A-
- Kyle Nasser: Restive Soul (2013 [2015], AISA): tenor saxophonist, uses guitar-piano-bass-drums for complex postbop layering, very au courant [cd]: B+(*)
- Prism Quartet: Heritage/Evolution, Volume 1 (2014, Innova, 2CD): obscure but long-running sax quartet invite six famous saxophonists to guest, rub off [cd]: B+(**)
- Nate Radley: Morphoses (2013 [2014], Fresh Sound New Talent): guitarist-led trio plus Loren Stillman's sax for extra splotches of contrasting color [r]: B+(*)
- John Raymond: Foreign Territory (2014 [2015], Fresh Sound New Talent): young trumpet player backed by solid pros on piano-bass-drums, postbop but pretty sharp at that [cdr]: B+(**)
- Spin Marvel: Infolding (2014 [2015], RareNoise): Brit jazztronica group host Nils Petter Molvaer, a bright spot in their post-Miles underworld [cdr]: B+(***)
- Story City: Time and Materials (2012, self-released): jazz-rock returns, not hot enough for fusion, not soft enough for smooth, not bad but no matter [cd]: B
- Tradisyon Ka: Gwo Ka: Music of Guadeloupe, West Indies (2014, Soul Jazz): a drum-and-chant music never far removed from Africa, done by trad band with guests [r]: B+(**)
- Tuxedo: Tuxedo (2015, Stones Throw): Jake One and Mayer Hawthorne go retro-disco, which treats them as well as retro-Motown did; who knew we still need this? [r]: A-
- Typefighter: The End of Everything (2014, Hope Witch): pretty good DC-based garage-pop band -- i.e., rough as punk but hooks pop out [r]: B+(**)
- Carlos "Zíngaro": Live at Mosteiro de Santa Clara a Velha (2012 [2015], Cipsela): Spanish violinist, improvised from classical to jazz, goes solo [cd]: B+(**)
Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries rated this week:
- Ata Kak: Obaa Sima (1994 [2015], Awesome Tapes From Africa): rapper from Ghana, belated release of Brian Shimkovitz's original inspiration for Awesome Tapes From Africa [r]: A-
- Next Stop . . . Soweto, Vol. 2: Soul, Funk and Organ Grooves From the Townships 1969-1987 (1969-76 [2010], Strut): soul, funk, organ grooves from South Africa, thin glosses on things done better elsewhere [r]: B+(*)
- Next Stop . . . Soweto, Vol. 3: Giants, Ministers and Makers: Jazz in South Africa 1963-1978 (1963-78 [2010], Strut): the iceberg beneath the more visible stars that went into exile [r]: B+(**)
- No Seattle: Forgotten Sounds of the North-West Grunge Era 1986-97 (1986-97 [2014], Soul Jazz, 2CD): 28 songs by 23 bands with one or more members who played on a bill with Nirvana [r]: B
Old records rated this week:
- Chico Hamilton and Euphoria: Arroyo (1990 [1993], Soul Note): [r]: B+(**)
- Chico Hamilton and Euphoria: My Panamanian Friend (1992 [1994], Soul Note): [r]: B+(**)
- James McMurtry and the Heartless Bastards: Live in Aught-Three (2004, Compadre): first live album sums up a decade-plus of learning and writing [r]: A-
Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
- Stephan Crump/Mary Halvorson: Secret Keeper (Intakt): advance, April
- Maxfield Gast: Ogo Pogo (Militia Hill)
- Bradley Williams: Investigation (21st Century Entertainment, 2CD)
