Record Reviews

Natacha Atlas

originally published July 19, 2006

Thank God for the informative blurbs on the back of promo copies sent out to the press. Not that context is necessary as far as determining how much one likes an album, but it helps a little when informing one’s readers about it. Natacha Atlas is the kind of hybrid world music act that goes over quite well in Europe. Her stuff draws mostly on Middle Eastern roots (which she has) but with samplings from, on this album, bossa nova, hip hop, trance and global pop.

Apparently, this is more traditionalism than is usually present, yet it still reminds one a bit of Shakira’s attempts to cross over into the field of just “pop,” sans adjectives delineating national origin. Atlas isn’t as successful as Shakira, though, despite the occasional hip twitcher. The songs range between 3 1/2 and 6 1/2 minutes long, and although the album itself isn’t exactly never-ending (a brief 51 minutes), if one isn’t entranced by swirling colors or flashing lights (read: in da club), they tend to run on a bit.

The traditional tracks are fine, even if they tend to call to mind Tim Robbins’ character in High Fidelity, but the ones with a bit more experimentation definitely catch the ear more readily. “Feen,” coming after the classic Middle Eastern tone of the first song, certainly makes the listener sit up, with the lyrics “It’s freaky, baby. You ever wonder why the world’s so crazy?” sung/ chanted in a fashion one could see Gwen Stefani adopting.

Does it reach as far as good? It’s hard to say. What one can confirm is that the efforts to move beyond genre aren’t entirely successful. File under world music, still.

Hillary Brown

Hillary Brown

Record Reviews

Sufjan Stevens

originally published July 19, 2006

Consider The Avalanche the DVD extras to Illinois. Even more so, consider it as though a new disc of extras has just come out six months after the hypothetical film was released on DVD. Would you pay as much for them as you did for the original? And after you bought them, would you sit around sluggishly watching/ listening to them and eventually, after a certain period of time passed, being annoyed with yourself for continuing to do so instead of going back to what you enjoyed in the first place or seeking out something new?

There are nice things on this album of “extras and outtakes” from the Illinois recording sessions (“No Man’s Land” and “The Avalanche,” for example, could almost be on that album), but there are also a wearying number of tracks that start off promising and end up noodling around for minutes upon minutes, leading to one leaving the room to get a drink or go pee and not bothering to pause the CD. There’s a place for wallpaper music, but that place is usually after you know a record well. It’s also an odd mix of experimentation (some songs are almost jam) and revisiting of previous territory; sometimes you get both at once, as on his three versions of “Chicago.”

But, as with many DVD deleted scenes, there are reasons that the things that made it into the movie did so: they were important to the plot, they helped pace it correctly and often they were simply better. This is for completists only (either of the Sufjan or the Prairie State variety).

Hillary Brown

Hillary Brown

Record Reviews

The Instruments

originally published July 19, 2006

With this album The Instruments have crafted a wonderfully hypnotic collection of songs. The album slinks in with “Show To Begin,” and although it’s the lead track, it automatically places the listener in comfortable repose and almost instantaneous auditory solitude. Lilting, almost chant-like vocals glide alongside a slow-motion carnival dirge of a melody. After this, the immediately subsequent tracks (“For Travelers,” “Seems So Far” and “Our Lovely Ladder”) feature a heart-stoppingly beautiful track book-ended by two somber, mystery-laden instrumentals. The effect is immediate.

The rest of the album follows in very similar suit. Cast A Half Shadow as a whole fits very neatly together by specific design, not merely a collection of bandleader Heather McIntosh’s latest compositions. It is musical in a painterly style. Even skipping a single track means you may not absorb the whole picture. I have my favorites of these latter tracks (“Through The Air” and “Lantern”), but I have no desire to hear them divorced from the rest of the album.

Significantly, Cast A Half Shadow cannot be called easy listening. Although the music is in no way bombastic or even particularly overtly forceful, it contains an undeniable emotional element that is more than mere melancholy. This is distant music, not so much between artist and audience, but between listener and peer. To hear this album is to hear it alone.

Gordon Lamb

Gordon Lamb

Record Reviews

Six Organs Of Admittance

originally published July 19, 2006

I've listened to the new Six Organs of Admittance record three times now, and my computer screen just stares blankly back at me. Before I plod on, groping around for my muse, I should point out that this is not Ben Chasny's fault. The Sun Awakens is well worth your time and money. It's just that his is a music that defies proper description. But here goes.

John Fahey is the obvious touchstone here. A recent popular comparison to be loosely made is the Brokeback Mountain score. Chasny has always had a knack for hazy guitar plucking and gorgeous compositional style. This culminated on his last album, School of the Flower. Where that was a breath of fresh air, The Sun Awakens treads murkier paths in and out of the dark. The song titles are an immediate clue. "Torn By Wolves" and "Bless Your Blood," however, are almost pastoral in their delicate beauty. At least until the latter's vocals come in, sounding like a lightly distorted Lou Reed.

"Black Wall" turns up the fuzz, beginning a gradation into increasingly psychedelic and eastern-tinged moods, all leading up to the 24-minute closer, "River of Transfiguration." It's a big old droning monster of a track, darker than anything Chasny has released. Epic, beautiful and ominous, often at the same time, I'd describe it as a spaghetti western Microphones/ Mt. Eerie. There's little of Chasny's signature guitar playing here; only the martial drums anchor the song. It's nothing blazingly original, but in its own way, it is like nothing you've heard before.

Michael Wehunt

Michael Wehunt

Record Reviews

Ramblin' Jack Elliott

originally published July 19, 2006

Ol’ Ramblin’ Jack has lived through it all. He was personally mentored by Woody Guthrie, and as Bob Dylan’s compass he serves as a link between the two. In essence, he's a vital link in the chain that connects folk’s earliest days to the new breed, kids like Jackie Greene. And naturally, a folkie that’s been on the scene since Jack Kerouac sounds just a little aged, but also quite perfected by folk standards.

The appropriately titled I Stand Alone (Elliott sings in a broken tone, like the last of a dying breed) is just another album in the Elliott catalogue, but it’s the first he’s recorded for Anti-, Blackalicious’ and Elliott Smith’s label. Therefore, it might surprise longtime Jack Elliott fans to see guests Flea, Nels Cline (Wilco) and Lucinda Williams guesting on a few cuts. But it’s still Elliott’s show, and I Stand Alone sounds exactly like one recorded by a pioneer of the genre, now about 75 years old: weathered, carefree and falling a bit into country at times.

A few choice tracks - but not standouts - include “Hong Kong Blues,” “Call Me a Dog” (where Elliott gets downright ornery) and closer “Woody’s Last Ride,” in which Elliott describes the last time he saw Woody Guthrie alive. It’s all the more chilling when you consider that none of that song is fictional.

This is highly recommended folk music. It’s not out for career revival’s sake. It’s just put out for the same reason as the rest of Elliott’s records - it’s what he does.

Andy Stokes

Andy Stokes

Record Reviews

Oneida

originally published July 19, 2006

Let’s see, this umpteenth record by this Brooklyn-based, chameleonic band in about 250 words? Well, first, if you’re a newcomer to the noise made by this trio, a little preface is in order. Oneida throws a lot of styles - krautrock, free jazz and garage among them - against the side of the refrigerator, and how they end up in a messy pile on the kitchen floor is how you hear them. Cyclical electronic blips (most of them sounding like they were never originally intended for musical purposes) and stabbing guitars permeate the mix, providing a kinetic contrast to some static and hypnotic element, like a monastic chant or some punchy percussion.

On Happy New Year, Oneida comes across a little more subdued (or perhaps focused) than on previous chaotic outings. Murky opener “Distress” sounds like a tune for leading robed believers through a religious ceremony. But with a cascade of frenzied synth sounds, the title track takes you right back out of the ether with pure electronic confusion. It must be what computers hear when they download a virus.

But even though much of the record works this way - serving up an unorganized mélange of sounds that seem like the result of a random scattering more than an actual arrangement - and the sounds themselves are confused, the Oneida sound is pretty digestible. Somehow, this overload of divergent zaps, clicks and blips all form a nice bed for Kid Million’s Jim O’Rourke-like chants. The dub-infused “The Misfit” illustrates this best; it’s rife with some electronics teeming under the surface, but Million’s placid voice and minimal pulse (he’s also the drummer) pin it all down.

Andy Stokes

Andy Stokes