Jeff Rosenstock ‎– POST- (2018)

Style: Punk
Format: CD, Vinyl, Cass.
Label: Specialist Subject Records

Tracklist:
01.   Mornin'!
02.   USA
03.   Yr Throat
04.   All This Useless Energy
05.   Powerlessness
06.   TV Stars
07.   Melba
08.   Beating My Head Against A Wall
09.   9/10
10.   Let Them Win

Credits:
Bass – John DeDomenici
Drums – Kevin Higuchi
Guitar – Mike Huguenor
Lap Steel Guitar – Dan Potthast
Vocals, Recorded By – Chris Farren, Laura Stevenson
Written-By, Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards– Jeff Rosenstock
Vocals – Angelina Banda, Gilbert Armendariz, Julia Loan, Laura Hammond, Neal Sharma, Pup, Shannon Toombs, Sim Castro

Many artists spent the past year trying to make sense of our toxic sociopolitical landscape, but few did a better job than a guy whose album dropped several weeks before the 2016 presidential election. The results of November 8 may have hit like an isolated, cataclysmic incident, but it increasingly appears to be the logical endpoint of the American experiment, caused by and resulting in economic and cultural panic which Jeff Rosenstock’s breakthrough solo album WORRY. tackled with righteous, frenzied eloquence. To paraphrase “Wave Goodnight To Me,” when it all came into focus—insistent police brutality, urban displacement, the bursting of the music festival bubble, Reddit’s sociopathic influence—Rosenstock was ready for it, the rare artist who managed to be both prescient and timely in 2017. 

WORRY. itself was an unexpected culmination of a more encouraging decades-long process, an undersung, anti-commercial punk lifer making the record of his career and getting frighteningly close to mainstream acceptance while everyone played catch up. Hours after a cathartic, drunken New Year’s Eve show in Philly, Rosenstock surprise-released his third solo album POST-., which asks the $7500 question: Can Rosenstock’s musical and political passion withstand expectations now that the inconceivable is his new normal? 

Rosenstock toured WORRY. relentlessly from the moment it dropped and he hasn’t lost his ability to read the room. "USA" announces his presence: “Dumbfounded, downtrodden and dejected/Crestfallen, grief-stricken and exhausted/Trapped in my room while the house burned down to the motherfuckin’ ground.” Later, while collapsing hungover into a dream-pop breakdown, he rallies a crowd to sing in unison: “We’re tired and bored.” 

“USA” is a moment that could be found on Titus Andronicus’ The Monitor—a seven-minute us-against-them salvo that sees the Civil War as unprocessed national trauma, continuing and ever-evolving along culture and race lines. He’s seeing them everywhere; not just the burnouts at Midwestern gas stations that are exoticized in Red State safaris, but the patriarch of a suburban family in a crossover SUV. “I won’t hate you, I just need to know/Please be honest/Tell me was it you?” he begs, demanding to find out who exactly betrayed America and put people in power whose entire platform runs on political shitposting meant to do little except expedite the death of the disadvantaged. It all builds to a cheerleading chorus of “Et tu, USA!”, but it really sounds like “F U/USA,” already the frontrunner for the most fortuitous misheard lyric of 2018. 

As an outright call to arms, “USA” is an outlier on POST-. True to its title, it takes stock of what happens after the shock subsides and a more unsettling fear arises—a world where a steady refrigerator-buzz of dull outrage becomes our emotional baseline. “Yr Throat” and “Powerlessness” touch on how invigorating it felt to finally be heard, the moments of genuine hope in seeing us finding common ground. But those songs are only briefly about hope; they’re mostly stewed in the pervasive, underlying doubt about whether any of it is sustainable or whether America is worth saving in the first place—and whether even bringing these doubts up makes you a cynic or an asshole. 

“I called it positivity and congratulated myself on a job well done/But after a couple of days the fire that I thought would burn it down was gone,” he sings on “Powerlessness,” a painfully relatable self-flagellation. How much can one give of themselves before it becomes necessary to fall back on the things that bring you mindless joy? Is it so wrong to lose yourself in “first-person shooter games/Guitar tones, ELO arrangements/The differences in an MP3 and a vinyl record that you can hear”? GUILT might have been the more appropriate title for this record, as it’s often the byproduct of acting on worry and fear. 

The darker, more introspective POST- inverts the festival-core unity of WORRY. with accounts of lovelorn sadsacks trying to pull themselves out of the quicksand of self-pity by leaning forward and staring at their navel. “TV Stars” and “9/10” continue to tease out the musical theatre that’s underpinned Rosenstock’s best work, Broadway pop-rock ballads that find an unforeseeable midpoint between Ted Leo and Billy Joel. But the brief victories that propel the day forward—finding lost keys, minor lotto winnings—get sucked down a void of crippling distractions, staring at the news trying to stay awake and, later, getting stoned and staring at sitcoms trying to go to sleep. “Melba” is the closest thing we get to an unequivocally happy song, and it’s only because a dream of starting over in Australia is sufficient enough to get through a shit day. 

No one needs Jeff Rosenstock to tell us “it's just like Black Mirror, innit?” in 2018, but POST- never lets its righteous anger or exhaustion come at the expense of empathy and melody. Even when “Beating My Head Against a Wall” is the only way Rosenstock can resist giving an opponent a Richard Spencer, we get a brilliantly primitive Ramones homage out of the exchange. Whereas any praise of WORRY. likely mandated a retelling of his backstory as an ethical compass and consummate defender of punk’s least credible subgenres, POST- is a confirmation of Rosenstock as one of punk rock’s greatest, most effusive living songwriters. It’s his most easily accessible work yet. Compared to the genre-spanning opus of WORRY., POST- is immediate, raw, and yet more open to interpretation. It’s almost a throwback to his former band Bomb the Music Industry!’s chug-and-point Long Island shout-alongs without the whiz-bang synth effects. While the subject matter of POST- ensures its relevance and substance, much like everything else Rosenstock has ever done, it also sounds like the most fun thing one could possibly do. It’s a motivation to, at the very least, get out of bed. 

To hear Rosenstock tell it, we’re all gonna need it. Which brings us to closer “Let Them Win,” a preposterous 11-minute saga. In light of what came before, had it been presented with the same triumphant resilience of WORRY.’s grand finale “Perfect Sound Whatever,” “Let Them Win” could’ve come off as cheap pandering or sloganeering. Instead, Rosenstock’s band stumbles and trudges, a callback to the punchdrunk chants of “USA”—they’ve felt tired and bored and disillusioned and now, dear lord, we are exhausted. But with every bit of depleted energy Rosenstock and friends can muster, they swear there’s absolutely no way we’re gonna let them win again and concludes with five minutes of synthesizer drone. POST- could not have ended on a more appropriate note than one of sustain—whether or not Rosenstock’s prophecies once again come to pass in 2018, for now this is the sound of a cautiously optimistic new year.

Ian Cohen / Pitchfork

Tom Zé ‎– Estudando A Bossa Nordeste Plaza (2008)

Style: Bossanova, MPB
Format: CD, Vinyl
Label: Biscoito Fino

Tracklist:
01.   Introdução (Brazil, Capital Buenos Aires)  / Rio Arrepio (Badá-Badi)
02.   Barquinho Herói
03.   João Nos Tribunais
04.   O Céu Desabou
05.   Síncope Jãobim
06.   Filho Do Pato
07.   Outra Insensatez, Poe!
08.   Roquenrol Bim-Bom
09.   Mulher De Música
10.   Brazil, Capital Buenos Aires
11.   Amor Do Rio
12.   Bolero De Platão
13.   Solvador, Bahia De Caymmi
14.   De: Terra; Para: Humanidade

Okay, I admit it. I do not understand Portuguese. I do not have a clue to what the words on the new Tom Ze record are about. The compact disc the label sent for review does not come with a front cover, lyric sheet, translation page, or liner notes. I have repeatedly played the new Tom Zé record, but it seems the more I play it, the more lost I get. Is Zé making fun of the bossa nova music genre? That’s what it seems like, though I cannot be sure. Maybe something more meta is going on -- is this a disc making fun of discs that make fun of bossa nova? 

In the end, none of this matters. Most North American listeners are like me. They will have little understanding of the cultural contexts or what the lyrics mean in English. We will only have the exotic sound of the music. The question becomes, is this a fun album in which to get lost? The answer is an emphatic yes. 

This is wild, wacky, and wonderful noise with traces of tropical breezes and swaying foliage sighing through the instrumentation, pretty vocal harmonies provided by women with lovely voices and alliterative sounds mixed with grunts and oys and whatever. Zé’s vocals are rough and manly, in a playful way. He has a strong sense of rhythm that makes this dance music infectious, even when Zé lays down a speechified rant to minimal accompaniment (such as on “João Nos Tribunais”). 

The music is also sexy. How can an album full of subtle sighs and gentle rhythms not be? Many of the songs seem to be endless churnings that seem headed to a climax, and whether or not it comes seems irrelevant. The fun lies in the efforts. The music may not be orgasmic as the release becomes of secondary importance. Instead, just getting worked up is an end in itself. 

There are some words in English on the album, most notably on “Outra Insensatez, Poe!”, that features a duet between Zé and David Byrne (the album is on David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label). The song begins with Zé groaning in Portuguese to a lilting acoustic guitar accompaniment. Byrne then delivers his English translation in a smooth voice. The narrator complains that it’s New Year’s Eve, and while fireworks burst in the air, his love his has left him, so he feels pain like the “chicken pox and then measles and then a nasty fever that entered my chest like an invading army with barbed wire wrapped around my young skin”. Zé continues his lament and Byrne continues his translation -- and the difference between the two vocal styles -- Zé’s sandpaper-y moans and Byrne’s dispassionate and straightforward delivery creates a comic effect. Ze’s over-emoting comes off as purposely solipsistic. Byrne’s deadpan conveys a droll double-meaning. 

Indeed, a sense of humor pervades the disc. Whether it’s chorus that echoes The Beatles (“Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da”) on the fancifully titled “Roquenrol Bim-Bom” or soccer crowds chanting on “Brazil, Capital Buenos Aires”, there always seems to be something off-kilter on every song that makes one listen closer as if this would reveal hidden secrets. Who knows what this mystery may be? For all I know, the album contains the world’s greatest egg salad recipe. But there’s no riddle as to how to enjoy the disc -- just put it on and listen.

Steve Horowitz / popMATTERS

Miles Davis ‎– Tutu (1986)

Style: Electro, Future Jazz, Experimental
Format: CD, Vinyl
Label: Warner Bros. Records

Tracklist:
1.   Tutu
2.   Tomaas
3.   Portia
4.   Splatch
5.   Backyard Ritua
6.   Perfect Way
7.   Don't Lose Your Mind
8.   Full Nelson

Credits:
Bass Guitar – Marcus Miller
Drums, Percussion – Omar Hakim
Instruments [All Other] – George Duke, Marcus Miller
Percussion – Paulinho Da Costa
Percussion [Additional] – Steve Reid
Programmed By [Synthesizer, Additional] – Adam Holzman, Marcus Miller
Programmed By [Synthesizer] – Jason Miles
Synthesizer [Additional] – Bernard Wright
Synthesizer [Solo] – Adam Holzman
Trumpet – Miles Davis
Violin [Electric] – Michael Urbaniak

Jazz’s most famous son is given godly status for his work in the 50s – as in Kind of Blue – and the 70s – as in Bitches Brew. The 80s remains a dubious period of his discography. Tutu casts doubt on that received wisdom. Although it is still dismissed by many as ‘lightweight’ or, worse still, ‘pop-fusion’, the album, whose striking monochrome sleeve stylized the trumpeter’s austere, sculptural, late-years beauty, had something that captured the imagination of many outside of the world of jazz. 

And it wasn’t just the romance of Davis coming back to the fray, like some of the boxers from whom he drew inspiration, after several years on the ropes. If 1982’s We Want Miles was a clarion call for the idea that he was still relevant to music, specifically, and culture, generally, then 1986’s Tutu was proof positive that he could touch people without sounding dated. That was the whole point. The record reflected the 80s, just as Herbie’s Rockit did. That meant keyboards, sequencing, dub effects, drum machines and tonalities that often had the brightness and sharpness of the Fairlight era, something that is made all the more evident by the crisp sound of this re-issue. 

Marcus Miller was the architect who built the sonic edifice for Davis, and the key thing was that he was a producer who could play as well as a player who could produce. Amid the tapestry of electronics, his bass guitar and bass clarinet make their presence felt, as does Michael Urbaniak’s electric violin, Paulinho Da Costa’s percussion, and Adam Holzman and Jason Miles’ synths. These elements cohere in backdrops that had strong echoes of black popular music of the day – Cameo’s sparkling, day-glow funk, Prince or Jam & Lewis’ fizzing electro-acoustic cocktails and, to a lesser degree, the angsty soul-reggae that Wally Badarou and Sly & Robbie laid down for Grace Jones. But Miller brought more crystalline harmonic subtleties to the table. Combined with Davis’ brooding brass whispers, the result was a work of engrossingly fraught atmospheres. And great tunes. None are light. Some are positively heavy.

Kevin Le Gendre  / BBC Review

The Cramps ‎– Smell Of Female (1983)

Style: Rockabilly, Psychobilly, Rock & Roll
Format: CD, Vinyl
Label: Enigma RecordsTracklist:

1.   Thee Most Exalted Potentate Of Love
2.   You Got Good Taste
3.   Call Of The Wighat
4.   Faster Pussycat
5.   I Ain't Nuthin' But A Gorehound
6.   Psychotic Reaction

Credits:
Drums – Nick Knox
Guitar – Congo Powers
Lead Guitar – Poison Ivy
Vocals – Lux Interior
Mastered By – Eddy Schreyer
Engineer – Paul McKenna
Producer – The Cramps

There are few finer examples of both the shamanic and the barbarian spirit of rock'n'roll than The Cramps. They've got a goddess incarnate on guitar and are so Odinist that their drummer was one-eyed and their lead singer has subconsciously named himself for Lugh (though so full of trickster spirit is Loki Interior that he'd rather have you believe it was for a car advert). If you like your rock'n'roll seedy, low-down, unrighteous and dangerous then how does the idea of a band lead by a convicted speed dealer and a one-time professional dominatrix strike you? Or a record recorded live in a "world-famous" lapdancing bar, New York City's Peppermint Lounge? The Cramps are that band and Smell of Female is that record. 

The Cramp's unique sound has been so influential that it has defined (or, rather, re-defined) an entire musical genre: rockabilly, which became known as psychobilly under their perverse influence. Here's how Nick Kent described rockabilly music in the NME, June 23rd 1979 CE: 

"It is simply rock primitivism at its most blazingly illogical, at its most 'crazed', at its most gone. Lyrics are of minimal importance, for example. Instead, the music is a psyched-up shuddering splurge of adrenalin-pumping dementia, with the singer spewing forth reams of garbled rant so brain-bell whacked out he sounds like he's facing off all the demons Robert Johnson had driving him down, down, down to the murky depths of hell." 

In the hands of The Cramps the already deranged sound of rockabilly has only become more frenzied, more crazed, more full on, more, more, more. Their music is powered by full-lead high-octane gasoline of which it guzzles a gallon every mile, every minute. 

Smell of Female is a truly devout homage to the goddess as Hoeur/whore disguised in The Cramps' tricksterish humour. Now let's not misunderstand this. Both Lux and Ivy are REALLY keen to point out that their music is not ironic. It surely isn't - they mean every word. They really are that low! But they disguise the deadly earnestness of their trip by making out that they have absolutely nothing of importance to say at all. The truth is, though, that their music is about all of the most important things in life: sex, love, death and fun, to name only the most obvious. Smell of Female is a beautiful piece of such trickery. Just look at the cover. Can you see past the whore to the Hoeur? Is that really a lapdancing bar or a temple of the goddess? 

The first sound we hear from these rites of Hoeur is the sound of frenzy: the crowd screaming in excitement, anticipation and abandon like the Galli of Cybele and Attis. A gong rings out - "Ladies and Gentlemen, live from the Peppermint Lounge, the Cramps". And in it lurches with a sound like the Creepy Coup from the Wacky Racers driven by Dervishes fresh from a heavy all-night drinking session in, well, in the Peppermint Lounge. The Most Exalted Potentate of Love is an unashamed declaration of sexual potency, the music hulking, looming, ramshackle and raw. A sound so powerful that its hard to believe there's no bass guitar. Singing so breathless that it simply must be inducing an altered state in the singer. Sex and death all wound into one like fucking in the graveyard. 

Trickster Lux introduces You Got Good Taste by trying to throw us off the scent (or is that taste?), disguising what he's really about to say, deliberately misleading the audience: "this one's dedicated to all you Gucci bag carriers out there". This is pumped-up, amphetemine-fuelled blues driven by heavy slabs of rhythm guitar that hit you like punches in the face, tough as leather. Lux is screaming at one moment and gutturally growling the next, the frenzied crowd howling in his every pause, responding to him like a demented multi-limbed puppet. They are absolutely lapping it up, hanging on his every word, his every wordless grunt. And such a song! Such devotion, even addiction, to the feminine. Such depraved NEED for his goddess muse Ivy. 

Now I may be showing my naivety here but I have to confess that I haven't got a fucking clue what The Call of the Wighat is about. At a guess, I'd say its about insecurity and the stupid things that insecurity makes people do. But I get the feeling I'm probably wrong. This song, I suspect, is solely intended to give you that feeling: they know something that you don't. I mean just look at these lyrics: "How do you keep a moron in wighat suspense? / I'll tell you that later, but first I'll tell you this...". Truly this song is a lyrical feast. Its got everything from the brutal ("My momma had twin babies on one sweet summer day / She beat one in the head and I'm the one that got away") to the just plain ridiculous ("My grand jumping catfish do the limbo on my face / But no-one seems to notice when my wighat is in place"). There's even more subconscious invoking of primal deities ("HU!") thrown in for good measure. And a delicious humour throughout. As for the music, its completely out of this world. Its got a drum sound that I absolutely adore, primitive and hypnotic, dusty. And such a punk ethos (which all of this music has): its just one endless, trance-inducing chord all the way. 

Faster Pussycat is a wonderfully quirky song with incredible unexpected chord-progressions. Its all unbalanced, as though it were about topple over at any moment, yet you know at all times that its completely under control and that you are in the hands of experts. The rhythm guitars are like slabs of lead, yet in the instrumental break in the middle they are beautifully complemented with the tiny twinkle of a glockenspiel. Once again, this song is pure devotion to the female, the untouchable goddess: "If you think that you can take her / Well just you try". 

I Ain't Nothin' But a Gorehound is about being in the gutter and loving it there. Its like George Clinton said: "All that is good is nasty". Its a straightforward power-driving blues. There's a wonderful moment in it where Ivy makes the guitar sound like a cartoon character's jaw dropping and drooling, eyes popping, at the sight of the opposite sex. Enough said. 

Smell of Female draws to a close with the wonderfully frenzied Psychotic Reaction. This is a song sung by someone who NEEDS the female so badly that it hurts. If Lux is Odin then Ivy is Frigg, for she is quite clearly the source of his insane amount of energy. Just a short verse ("I can't get your love I can't get satisfaction") and the whole thing goes whirling off into the eye of the maelstrom, spinning like a dervish, staggering like a drunk. Have I mentioned that Ivy is quite possibly the best female guitarist alive in the world today? Listen to her playing in this song and tell me its not so. Don't be fooled by the punk philosophy - like Lux blowing his one piercing note in his harmonica "solos" in this song, the Cramps would always prefer to play something ludicrously simple than be technically accomplished. But there's simply no disguised Ivy's musical genius in these raging instrumental whirlpools. 

The shaman in rock'n'roll? Shit, Lux & Ivy met on a college course entitled "Shamanism & Art" and have been known to describe the entrancing frenzy of their live shows as Voodoo. What more could you possibly ask for? 

alKmyst/ Head Heritage 

Pacific ‎– Inference (1990)

Style: Synth-pop, Indie Pop
Format: CD, Vinyl
Label:  Creation Records

Tracklist:
1.   Shrift
2.   Autumn Island
3.   Mineral
4.   Barnoon Hill
5.   I Wonder
6.   Henry Said
7.   Jetstream
8.   Shrift

Credits:
Vanessa Norwood - singing
Simon Forest - cello
Nick Wilson - trumpet
Rachel Norwood - guitar
Dennis Wheatley - singing, guitars, atari computer programming various other noises

Como o grupo-fantasma Momus de Nicholas Currie, os Pacific de Dennis (quem?) in-vestem o essencial da sua energia criativa na redefinição for-mal da canção pop. Porém, enquanto a aposta do novel autor de «weird love songs» se faz no sentido da articulação dramática entre texto e música de acordo com a especificidade de cada canção, a da nova esperança da pop britânica parece assentar em exclusivo na esfera do formal segundo uma lógica de diversificação sonora, em particular tímbrica. Assim era «Jetstream», canção incluída no EP de estreia Sea Of Sand, de 1988, e sua obra-prima provisória — uma voz monocórdica como que captada no receptor de ondas curtas de um «médium» sobre tapeçaria de guitarra dedilhada, sintetizador e xilofone; corpo central da canção com voz masculina apoiada em guitarra acústica e violoncelo; trompete com surdina evocador de Pale Fountains rompendo pelos espaços; quebra súbita na estrutura permitindo a infiltração de mais vozes do Além (entre as quais a de Churchill) e final protagonizado por voz feminina por entre ataques de violoncelo. 

Mais que a tentativa de implantação de uma nova fórmula, a estratégia cénica exemplar de «Jetstream» assumia-se como uma experiência estética (sem qualquer relação, no entanto, com o conceito de música experimental) resultante da vontade de superar velhos modelos no sentido da redisponibilização do idioma pop para novas soluções. Que a reinvenção é possível, e inteiramente lícita, a partir de um trabalho de superfície que mais tarde poderá contaminar as instâncias mais profundas da canção, demonstrava-o a circunstância de não encontrarmos outra coisa senão a estrutura trivial da canção pop à medida que se caminhava para o interior de cada uma delas. Desse brioso trabalho desenvolvido de fora para dentro por uma causa justa restam como testemunhos as quatro peças-piloto de Sea Of Sand e a canção, e dois instrumentais do EP Shrift, de 1989. 

Além de proporcionar um sentido de corpo à obra ainda escassa dos Pacific, a sua re-união num único disco vem revelar-nos o ponto exacto em que se começou a definir a decisiva viragem que faz hoje da Creation Records uma das editoras mais criativas (literalmente) do momento e, por outro lado, sublinhar que a reconversão e reabilitação da pop branca, não se fará tanto pela capitulação perante a lógica da música de dança como pela absorção da multiplicidade de estímulos em livre circulação no ar que respiramos no início dos anos 90. Obviamente que este recado se estende aos circunspectos músicos pop da nossa terra...

Ricardo Saló / Expresso (1990)

YoshimiO, Susie Ibarra, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe ‎– Flower Of Sulphur (2018)

Style: Avantgarde, Experimental, Free Improvisation
Format: CD, Vinyl
Label: Thrill Jockey

Tracklist:
1.   Aaa
2.   Bbb
3.   Ccc
4.   Ddd

In December 2016 in New York City, three prominent figures of experimental music met and performed together for the first time. YoshimiO, multi-instrumentalist known from her participation in experimental rock outfit Boredoms and bizarre alternative folk act Saicobab, joined forces with percussionist extraordinaire Susie Ibarra, free jazz spirit of Earl Buster Smith's lineage and John Zorn, Yo La Tengo and Wadada Leo Smith collaborator, and sonic artist Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, also known as Lichens and member of spiritual doom dreamers OM. 

Still hungry after their first live performance, the trio decided to keep collaborating, and they are now releasing their debut album Flower of Sulphur, an hour-long exploration of time and space. The record is a testament to the free spirit approach that all three members share regarding music, its characteristics, its progression and its core values. Music for these three individuals is not necessarily a string of notes, placed the one after the other neatly to evoke a sense of melody, but something much more complicated, something primal and yet majestic. 

There is a strong spiritual essence surrounding this work, and it spawns from the minimalistic take of the trio when it comes to progression. The start of the album is such a moment, coupling the subtle percussion and sparse notation with ethereal chants. The trip through the soundscapes becomes quickly otherworldly, as the abstract rhythms meet the slow-moving drones to create an exquisite moment of bliss and serenity. Ibarra's knowledge of Philippine music comes in very effective towards this spiritual end, granting an expansive scope to the influence and direction Flower of Sulphur takes. "Bbb" travels down a much more atmospheric path when this side of Ibarra's playing comes to light, combining diverse elements into a more cohesive form. 

In big part, this is a record led by percussion not only through its spiritual and ethereal side. The crazed, free-jazz rhythmic structures provide a counterweight to the abstract, minimal renditions, performing an ecstatic dance of beats and tempos seamlessly. Tribal movements give way to old-school jazz grooves, the two combining perfectly to create a strange temporal haze. It is a record that balances between the spiritual side of jazz, and the force of free improv. Tracks like "Bbb" dive deeper into the free jazz space, exploring the full effect of dissonant injections to the main structures, while the drumming acts as a balancing force with its fluid and dynamic recitals. 

On top of this mix, Flower of Sulphur offers an additional layer of experimentation, in the form of audio manipulation. The trio makes excellent use of audio effects to enhance the mind-bending quality of this trip, be it in the form of bleeping noises or hazy delays. That grants a more spacey and psychedelic effect to the already unstable trip. A prime example of this practice is the final part of "Aaa", with the voices appearing and then dissolving into this cosmic haze, almost despairing when reaching a final crescendo. 

The heritage of each musician compliments the overall result in Flower of Sulphur. The influence and heritage that Susie Ibarra carries meet with the chaotic and uncompromising viewpoint of YoshimiO, offering an off-kilter twist to this endeavor, and finally Lowe's sonic expansion stretches further the scope of the record. The three minds become one to bring this cohesive result, presenting a unified stream of consciousness that appears as a force of nature.

Spyros Stasys / popMATTERS 

Pet Shop Boys ‎– Please (1986)

Style: Synth-pop
Format: CD, Vinyl, Cass.
Label: Parlophone

Tracklist:
01.   Two Divided By Zero
02.   West End Girls
03.   Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots Of Money)
04.   Love Comes Quickly
05.   Suburbia
06.   Opportunities (Reprise)
07.   Tonight Is Forever
08.   Violence
09.   I Want A Lover
10.   Later Tonight
11.   Why Don’t We Live Together?

Pet Shop Boys: for over 25 years, they've been a very brilliant pop thing. From the artwork, to their outlook, image and, handily, literally quite good ability with tunes, they created an intelligence and panache that has seen them become one of the most successful duos of all time. Not for nothing did they once describe themselves as ''The Smiths you can dance to''. And it was only right they picked up an Outstanding Services To Music gong at the 2009 Brits. 

Originally released in 1986, Please was the first great British pop album of the post-Live Aid era when everything else had turned a bit ugly, bloated and Bono. Having met in an electronics shop off the Kings Road, Chris Lowe and one-time Smash Hits writer Neil Tennant took their inspiration from the early 80s dance music emanating from New York, combining a very English sensibility with hi-NRG dimensions, and having seen his fair share of casualties on Planet Pop, Tennant took all the best bits to make sure they wouldn't be veering too near the dumper any time soon. 

Alongside the peerless worldwide chart-topping West End Girls, there were delights galore to be found: Opportunities (Let's Make Lots Of Money) is the ultimate Thatcherism statement made danceable; Love Comes Quickly shimmers magnificently and is possibly one of the more overlooked singles in their catalogue. Surburbia may sound a little weedier than the later single version but is still a top pop moment. Even the non-singles such as the opening Two Divided By Zero (recently beefed-up live with a touch of the Shannon about it) still sounds of the moment; Tonight Is Forever is almost Broadway-esque; the ballad Later Tonight has the calm of a post-evening cab ride home and closer Why Don't We Live Together is a celebratory arms aloft marvel. All tremendous. 

Within 18 months Tennant & Lowe would be tossing out number ones, resurrecting Dusty Springfield and releasing Actually, a more refined version of what this debut offered, but aside from one or two cultural references and the odd dated synth, Please really hasn't dated at all and should be the textbook example of how brilliant a pop debut could be. Amazing.

Ian Wade / BBC Review 

Brooklyn Funk Essentials ‎– Cool And Steady And Easy (1993)

Style: Acid Jazz, Hip Hop
Format: CD, Vinyl, Cass.
Label: RCA, Dorado

Tracklist:
01.   Take The L Train (To B'klyn)
02.   The Creator Has A Master Plan
03.   The Revolution Was Postponed Because Of Rain
04.   Bop Hop
05.   Brooklyn Recycles
06.   Mizz Bed-Stuy
07.   A Headnaddas Journey To The Planet Adidi-Skizm
08.   Big Apple Boogaloo
09.   Blow Your Brains Out
10.   Stickman Crossing The Brooklyn Bridge
11.   Dilly Dally
12.   Take The L Train (To 8th Ave.)

Credits:
Bass, Guitar, Keyboards – Lati Kronlund
Drums – Yancy Drew Lambert
Flugelhorn, Trumpet – Bassy Bob Brockmann
Flute, Saxophone – Paul Shapiro
Percussion – E.J. Rodriguez
Scratches [Turntables] – DJ Jazzy Nice
Synthesizer – Kristoffer Wallman
Trombone – Joshua Roseman
Vibraphone – Bill Ware III
Vocals – Everton Sylvester, Papa Dee, Paul Shapiro
Featuring [Samples] – Arthur Baker

Emmené par le producteur Arthur Baker et le bassiste Lati Kronlund, ce collectif de musiciens jamaïcains, portoricains, suédois et néo-orléanais fondé à New York en 1993, trouve son unité dans un mélange d’acid jazz et de funk. Parmi tous les musiciens du collectif, on peut citer au chant Hanifah Walidah, Papa Dee et Joi Cardwell, aux cuivres, Bob Brachmann (trompette), Joshua Roseman (trombone), Paul Shapiro (saxophone), Bob Brockman (trompette, bugle), et le dj Jazzy Nice. 

Le groupe nous offre depuis le début des années 1990 une musique intéressante, curieuse, mêlant plusieurs styles avec efficacité : be-bop, jazz, latin, funk, boogaloo, reggae et hip-hop. L’album qui nous intéresse plus particulièrement est Cool And Steady And Easy, leur premier album sorti en 1994 sur le label londonien Dorado. L’album fête donc cette année ses 20 ans et ce n’est que justice de lui rendre hommage. On peut également signaler l’existence de cet album sous deux pochettes différentes. L’album original avec la couverture au lettrage vert, sorti donc à l’origine chez Dorado  est complété par un opus à la pochette orange qui propose de nouveaux titres retravaillés sur les titres « Bop Hop », « Brooklyn Recycles », « Big Apple Boogaloo », ainsi qu’une refonte complète du morceau « Madame Zzaj », devenu pour l’occasion « Mizz Bed-Stuy ». 

Pour un premier album, il faut avouer que Brooklyn Funk Essentials monte la barre très haut. Avec un invité comme Maceo Parker sur « Blow Your Brains Out », le ton  est donné. Sans oublier la très belle reprise de « The Creator has a Master Plan », du saxophoniste Pharoah Sanders.  Cool and Steady and Easy est homogène, complet, et groove de la première à la dernière piste. 

L’album commence avec le titre « Take the L Train (to Brooklyn) », une petite introduction  sympathique sur le bugle mélodieux et envoûtant de Bassy Bob Brockbank. Arrive directement « The Creator has a Master Plan », une reprise de Pharoah Sanders, on l’a dit précédemment, qui  nous emmène pour un petit voyage sur la planète groove avec les voix de Joi Cardwell et du célèbre toaster Papa Dee. Cette version n’est pas sans rappeler l’esprit du « Tukka Yoot’s Riddim » de US3 d’ailleurs ! Sur « Bop Hop », la basse est bien présente et mène la danse, accompagnée des cuivres et d’un piano amenant une petite touche jazzy. « A Headnaddas Journey to the Planet Adidi-Skizm » nous pousse au milieu de l’album avec Hanifah Walidah (aka Sha-key) qui pose un flow virulent et groovy. Une belle réussite que l’on peut réécouter sans modération ! Autre classique, le funky « Blow Your Brains Out », avec notre grand Maceo Parker au saxophone. En arrière-plan, une basse puissante, rapide, et un synthé très dukien. L’essence du funk est bien là et place ce titre à un haut niveau. « Take The L Train (to 8 Ave.) » termine l’album calmement et répond au premier titre en clôturant ce voyage musical dans New-York au son d’un bugle sensuel porté par Barbara Snow. 

Au final, l’album Cool and Steady and Easy se résume bien à son propre titre : cool, funky, stable et facile d’accès. Il a traversé l’espace-temps sans prendre une ride et reflète bien le talent de tous les musiciens présents sur cet album. Le groupe a définitivement marqué de son empreinte la scène musicale new-yorkaise des années 90 et n’hésitera pas à aller explorer d’autres voies, celles-ci plus orientales (turques plus exactement) avec leur également très bon deuxième album  In The Buzz Bag en 1998. Mais ceci est une autre histoire !

Guillaume / fonkadelica

Kraftwerk ‎– Electric Cafe (1986)

Style: Electro, Synth-pop
Format: CD, Vinyl, Cass.
Label: EMI, Kling Klang

Tracklist:
A1.   Boing Boom Tschak
A2.   Techno Pop
A3.   Musique Non Stop
B1.   The Telephone Call
B2.   Sex Object
B3.   Electric Cafe

Credits:
Ralf Hütter - Drums, Keyboards, Producer, Vocals
Florian Schneider - Drums, Keyboards, Producer
François Kevorkian - Mixing
Hubert Kretzschmar - Design, Melody Arrangement
Bob Ludwig - Mastering
Fred Maher - Transfers
Bill Miranda - Engineer
Ron Saint Germain - Mixing
Henning Schmitz - Engineer
Karl Bartos - Producer
Wolfgang Flür - Producer
Joachim Dehmann - Engineer

Chega a ser chocante como Ralf e Florian soam a Run DMC e Afrika Bambaataa (Hiphop) e a Yello (Europop). Quem anda cá há mais tempo, porém, sabe muito bem quem inventou o quê e por que razão a maioria dos discos de «breatboxers» negros contém agradecimentos a «Our Lord Jesus- e aos Kraftwerk... «Electric Cafe», é, pois, o regresso dos «inventos» de uma das bandas cruciais da música pop anti-hippie. A soar cada vez melhor... 

Ricardo Saló / Blitz (1986)

Wim Mertens ‎– A Man Of No Fortune & With A Name To Come (1986)

Style: Contemporary
Format: CD, Vinyl
Label: Les Disques Du Crépuscule

Tracklist:
1.   Casting No Shadow
2.   A Tiels Leis
3.   Hirose
4.   You See
5.   Multiple 12
6.   Naviamente

Credits:
Engineer – Werner Pensaert
Other [Piano Bösendorfer By] – Knud Kaufmann
Piano [Bösendorfer], Voice, Composed By, Producer – Wim Mertens

O que este flamengo tem feito pela edificação de uma corrente minimal independente assume já um valor incalculável. Ora criando a mais rigorosa e nova música lírica de câmara ora expondo toda uma fragilidade interpretativa sem que a sua arte disso se ressinta, Mertens prova em dois discos de eleição porque é o maior compositor actual da Europa Continental. 

Ricardo Saló / Blitz (1986)