dream map: may 2011 mix

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1. The Mighty Two - War is Over (recorded between 1974-1979; from 2002's No Bones for the Dogs)
2. Olufemi Ajasa & His Nigerian Bros - Aiye Le (from 2008's Nigeria 70: Lagos Jump
3. Funkadelic - If You Don't Like the Effects, Don't Produce the Cause (from 1972's America Eats Its Young)
4. Radio Algeria - Disco Maghreb (from 2006's Radio Algeria)
5. Bardo Pond - lb. (from 2001's Dilate)
6. Spiritualized - Electricity (Live) (from 1998's Royal Albert Hall October 10 1997)
7. Sonic Youth - Reena (from 2006's Rather Ripped)
8. Phew - Dream (from 1981's Phew)
9. The Rolling Stones - That's How Strong My Love Is (from 1965's Out of Our Heads)
10. TV on the Radio - Stork and Owl (from 2008's Dear Science)

May was a particularly heavy listening month, and with the sweltering late-Summer like weather, I had to lead this mix off with some crucial dub reggae snagged from the always-quality Holy Warbles. I think I've mentioned before how reggae finally clicked with me while living in Bloomington in 2007, and "War is Over" with its reedy, emotive organ line is full of hooks, the excellent, smooth vocal that enters late, the simple syncopation of the bass-line; this may be the most memorable dub number I've ever heard.

"Aiye Le" takes that good energy and multiplies it, leading off with a melody on electric guitar joined in short order by rollicking hand percussion, and joyful call-and-response & group vocals. There's a great, almost surf-esque high-frequency guitar solo not even 90 seconds in. When the second solo rides in, you'll want to yelp along with the background vocalist.

It's undoubtable that Funkadelic produced some of the best rock-tinged RnB funk-jams of all time; "If You Don't Like the Effects, Don't Produce the Effects" is one of these, strutting along with slow-jam, sweltering sermon-like pacing. Aww shit, if you can't move to this, you just can't move. The strings here boost it to another level, almost as regal as the sassy group vocals throughout the second verse. Never has rhetorical reasoning sounded so damn sexy.

Radio Algeria is another of the great compilations from world-sound travellers Sublime Frequencies. this is the lead-track, which starts off on-fire, drum machines blazing, with some sort of tinny, eastern-sounding horn flying in on top of the mix. A quick vocal segues into a stringed-instrument solo which itself gives way to pleading vocals over some phased-out guitar which organically becomes a percussive jam...and so it goes. Being all over the place all the time is the mantra here, and it works even during sudden shifts, giving you the perspective of a dusty dial-twister marooned at a desk, on a rooftop, in a sweltering vehicle...


I want to bring back the 8x10 glossies...tired of this EPK nonsense. Black and white prints are so much classier.

Shifting gears is not normally a quality associated with Bardo Pond, their dense soundscapes usually encircling a towering riff, and piling onto it with the full, humid thrust of their attack. Here, "lb." lumbers through such a riff, vocalist Isobel Sollenberger letting the fuzz wash over her slow-paced vocals. "You make me feel like nothing." Ah, but here's a change! Three-plus minutes in, an over-filtered guitar squelch introduces a riff at double-speed, and the band enters re-energized while Sollenberger drags behind the speedboat of a riff, a smoky-voiced wake that works surprisingly well.

The new-found sense of speed carries over into "Electricity", which does not flow at the often glacial-pace of Spiritualized tunes, instead channeling a full-plumed V.U., complete with horn skronk and overdriven organ. It's a smash-and-bash affair, made even more effective by the vocal verse halfway through over just-quickening drums before the wild riff explodes back into the song. This is Spiritualized at the peak of their live powers, a release essential in any collection that will leave you in squall & thrall just like the end of this track.


Me with the wait of the entire Hall in the palm of my hand. Should've tried to look inside. This day felt particularly revelatory, something about standing in a spot so famous yet distant from my own life---and then being there in person.

Rather Ripped is one of my favorite records of the last five years, and though it may be ridiculed, my favorite SY record. How'd that happen? This record is one untouchable riff after another, very few effects or noise getting in the way. "But that's not the point of a Sonic Youth record!" Well...yeah, but these aren't normal riffs, they're still skewed, solo'd over, layered, de-tuned. "Reena" begins with a Daydream Nation-esque riff, which takes a while to unfurl itself, like a flag stretching out in a brisk wind. They barrel through it, roll through a feverish bridge, and end by driving it into the ground in a high-frequency jam.

Phew's "Dream" is my one nod to kraut on this mix...a Japanese vocalist backed by Can's rhythm section, produced by Conny Plank. The record itself is a melange of no-wave, alternately dance-y and haunting. "Dream" is a piano ballad, melancholy for sure, backed by interference from Plank's studio wizardry, electronics weaving in-and-out lending texture to the occasionally delayed-out chords. Some guitar-notes slide in, an eerie coda to a beautiful song. No translation needed.


Understated cover for Phew's self-titled record. Lost classic?

Otis Redding may have done it (not-quite) first, but the Stones' take on "That's How Strong My Love Is" is without fault. Jagger here is the star, pleading in the half-yowl, half-talk style he was busily perfecting on 1965's Out of Our Heads. The band ramps up momentarily, dropping down to a whisper before roaring back, letting Mick howl over the top, while they carry things into the red, a scorching ballad.

I often forget about Dear Science which replaced manic energy of TV on the Radio's most successful singles with a sound largely built on restraint. Looking & listening back, it's still an extremely strong record. Upon release of their newest effort Nine Types of Light, I feel like "Stork and Owl" is a great indicator of their direction, a song built on tons of little touches. At the beginning, the glitch-heavy slam of a beat, and vocal loops of "ahhhhs" and "ohhhhs" build tension that mounts with the inclusion of plucking strings. The chorus, with it's almost-falsetto lead vox, is a release, less glitch and more strings, and floats into the next verse with a string melody and cluster of delayed-out synth notes. They do this slow-build so well...I can forgive them for not writing another "Wolf Like Me." This is studied pop, emotionally heavy, and exceptionally beautiful at the end, vocals harmonizing with swelling strings, the beat finally tumbled off the cliff leaving just the void and those plaintive vocal loops.

floating somewhere above: april 2011 mix

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1. Cluster - Hollywood (from 1974's Zuckerzeit)
2. Liliental - Wattwurm (from 1978's Liliental)
3. Ash Ra Tempel - Light Look at Your Sun (from 1972's Schwingungen)
4. Don Cherry - Mali Doussn'Gouni (from 1973's Relativity Suite)
5. The Feelies - Original Love (from 1980's Crazy Rhythms)
6. Songs: Ohia - Coxcomb Red (from 2000's The Lioness)
7. Jackie-O-Motherfucker - Bone Saw (from 2003's Wow!/The Magick Fire Music)
8. Times New Viking - Teen Drama (from 2008's Rip It Off)
9. Archers of Loaf - Fabricoh (from 1995's Vee Vee)
10. Jackie Bernard - Jah Jah Way (from 2005's V/A: Studio One Roots 2)

I spent April meandering out of yet another Kraut phase, evidenced here by the first three tracks. Cluster's "Hollywood" is a melodic take on their most accessible work, Zuckerzeit, which was really a combination of solo efforts on the part of Moebius and Roedelius. Unlike the abstract soundscapes of I and II, here melody and rhythm abound, proving that yes, machines can be fun! Liliental's "Wattwurm" is a watered-down version of this, on a record with a slightly island/world pastiche filtered through German jazz/prog-heads. This track crawls along in an oddly satisfying way, continually toeing the line of being too fey, never quite stepping across.


Contrary to what this picture implies, machines can sound fun! Also, cool little article about the passing of Max Matthews, arguably the origin of computer-based music composition.

Ash Ra Tempel's "Light Look at Your Sun" starts with a pastoral, plucked acoustic, whispering like a spring thaw---naturally, things get heavy, and out of the storm wails a lightning bolt of a solo. Yeah, it's your standard dynamic change recently appropriated by any band wishing to adhere to the worst-named subgenre ever (I'm talking about you, post-rock); but it comes across here as bluesy and static-filled, a sense of unease filling the wide swaths of nothingness that comprise the majority of the song. In the same way, Don Cherry's "Mali Doussn'Gouni" evolves from a simple shaker rhythm into rapidly chanted gibberish, musical in its atonality. Of course, leading directly out of that is a fantastically colored cornet solo--a collision of a blank-ethnic rhythm & vocal with equally borderless, piercing jazz.


The fantastically quilted Don Cherry album cover for Relativity Suite. If you have a spare $150 lying around, you're welcome to purchase this gem for me.

I'm not sure what hole I've been living in (oh, wait...that's right), but I hadn't heard The Feelies till April, when I happened upon some recent re-issues. Kinda like the Talking Heads on speed, guitars and drums buzzing around, with a vocalist who generally overpowers anything else going on (though not to David Byrne's extent). Don't be fooled by their Vampire Weekend-cover, which only proves that everything old is new again. "Original Love" is a thin slice of early-80s new-wave/punk that is about as chunky & poppy as they get on Crazy Rhythms. Not that I'm complaining... Solid as well is "Coxcomb Red," which devastates with its simplicity of chords, its insistent rhythm, and above all else, lyrics that hit like hammers. Jason Molina always has a penchant for emotionally invested anti-pop, but this spare arrangement of voice & acoustic may rise above all other of his fine examples. Just a stunning achievement of focus, this song has purpose.


Songs: Ohia - "Coxcomb Red"

"Bone Saw" is an arid neo-desert instrumental, slow-moving in a very deliberate way---indicative of the Jackie-O Motherfucker controlled improvisation mindset. This really reminds me of Neil Young's score for the Jim Jarmusch Western movie, Dead Man. It gets a little more fleshed out, adding meat to Neil's bones. Times New Viking's "Teen Drama" cuts through the heady jams like a knife, albeit a pitted, rusty, anthemic blade. I hesitated to even put anything from Rip It Off on this mix, since my relationship with this record is hate/love, with an emphasis on the former. The sheer volume, everything levelled so that it comes across as superheated & painful; is usually too much to bear. But that pop hook, that plaintive riff that lies at the center of "Teen Drama", it's too much to deny; as are the boy/girl harmonies that reside in the blown-out chorus. This is pop at its most painful, and it's a song I keep going back to.


The halcyon 90s...back before you had to cultivate an image in addition to your music. The Archers recently reunited for a tour, by the way.

Archers of Loaf's "Fabricoh" pulls back from the edges, just an dirty alt-rock standard with a one-note bridge. Eric Bachmann's next-best sing-along to all-time classic "Web in Front," the coda here will have you on the balls of your feet whether you mean to or not. The mix closes with "Jah Jah Way." Roots reggae always excels at its simplest, and this Jackie Bernard number is sublime genius, simple enough to sing, bouncy but not too fast, perfect for the creeping humidity levels of the Midwest. Simply a groove that cannot be denied.

February 2011 Mix

I was going to put a galaxy inside the drain, but I'll let you imagine that instead.

1 - Yo La Tengo - The Weakest Part
2 - Stereolab - Captain Easychord
3 - Broadcast - Pendulum
4 - Brian Eno - 2 Forms of Anger
5 - Ride - Taste
6 - Dinosaur Jr - Been There All the Time
7 - Flying Saucer Attack - Wish
8 - Michael Rother - Blauer Regen
9 - Television - Careful
10 - Elvis Costello - Less Than Zero
11 - Rolling Stones - Under My Thumb (Live)
12 - Link Wray - Georgia Pines
13 - Jack Rose - Linden Ave Stomp
14 - Faust - It's a Bit of a Pain
15 - Tom Waits - Virginia Avenue
Get it here.

This month's mix is comprised completely of stuff I've been listening to & enamored with as of late. During the recent ice storm, we pretty much listened to albums all day long while baking bread, cookies, pizza. Had to lead off with Yo La Tengo as we just saw them live at the Vogue a couple weeks back, in the teeth of winter. Much of the other stuff are recent additions to my collection, either digitally or vinyl.

Musically, I was trying to kind of segue through frozen weather into the great meltdown wherein Indiana becomes a sodden, muddy sponge. So while it begins warm & bouncy, almost holiday-like with "The Weakest Part", it soon moves to a colder location with the sterile, precise groove of "Captain Easychord" and the frosty, ethereal-quality of "Pendulum"'s menacing, insistent & dark form of pop (re-visiting Broadcast's catalog like many other people in light of lead singer Trish Keenan's passing).

"2 Forms of Anger" continues this train of thought, beginning with sounds of industrial waste, perhaps the post-internet clatter of once-great and now-empty totems of manufacturing. Still, at the end it bursts into a great, kraut-y beat reminiscent of Eno's best 70's work. "Taste" takes that insistence of beat & sound a notch up, adding the right amount of jangle & melody. Controlled freak-out if you will, perfect for cabin fever, as is "Been There All the Time", an apt epithet for the everpresent music & solo-inclined mood of J. & company.


Flying Saucer Attack's Self-Titled debut LP. Find it strangely appropriate to their sound. And along with Ride & Brian Eno, part of the blurred landscape-covers trio on this mix.

The deep-freeze sets in with "Wish", which gives me the alien-feeling of gazing out onto what was once a yard full of plant fibers, animal detritus, wind-blown trash, but has become a pearly sheet of round-contoured ice. Are we on another planet? Humanity returns with "Blauer Regen", which begins with warm guitar harmonics, rays of light that lead to the thaw audibly present in the songs's second half.

"Careful" is simple, fresh, spring. Like how you feel the first time it gets above 35-degrees. Still cold, but you don't care. "Less than Zero" and "Under My Thumb" get progressively more swampy in their riffs, sustained chords buzzing by like the extending hours of the day. The marimba-turned-bass line in the latter is plant-like in its branching off, twisting and turning in vine-like fashion. But not until "Georgia Pines" do we actually hit the swamp, following Link down a rabbit path back where the pine needles render sleeping bags useless.


Now yer in the pines. Having recently drove the back-roads from Montgomery into Florida, I can tell you that these places still exist.

"Linden Ave Stomp" continues the warm feeling, whereas before you were in the pines, now you seem to be floating over. An aerial shot, black-and-white. Landmarks. "Home of..." signs. There's a lilt present though, in some of the chords, hinting that you might not be out of the woods. "It's a Bit of a Pain" is a mellow end to the day, engine-buzz doppler-ing past your house at sunset, strangers clambering down from the bus-stop, talking non-sense. You know the sounds that are almost good because they go away? They're in this piece. Genius! "Virginia Avenue" is all denouement, shambling to bed. I see the sun glow in the distance, the days finally lengthened again. The possibility of unfulfilled promise exists in spring. "And let me tell you...I'm dreamin'..."

don't sleep on this

i can think of several examples of me sleeping on particularly awesome music suggestions from trustworthy friends. it's almost a skill set at this point. embarrassing examples include record-store-buddy mike giving me a gb-worth of stones bootlegs, and me not sifting through them for 2 years. i mean....i liked the stones---but i totally slept on the fact that they're unequivocally the best rock and roll band of all time. around the same time, i obtained a copy of Stereolab's 2nd album, Transient-Random Noise Bursts with Announcements. whether i was bewildered by the album title (admittedly; i still am), or thrown off by its thin, late 80s/early 90s production (i slept on the first Stone Roses LP for the same reason)...it just didn't register. accelerate to light-speed and fast-forward 3 years...

note: i don't accept for inclusion any post-Some Girls albums



...during this time, my love for kraut (introduced through CAN and Faust) and most things drone (Last Visible Dog-issued stuff, Landing, Fennesz...) had grown immeasurably. i still dabbled in the avant-funk of Emperor Tomato Ketchup...and thus picked back up Transient... for a car trip.

first off, this is a record that needs to be played LOUD. in your car, windows down, so-you-can-feel-it loud. the drums lose some of their thin-ness, and make up for production value with their metronomic exactness. the jangly guitars become thick as tapestries, weaving around singer Lætitia Sadier's honey-deep voice, the oscillating hum of organs & synths, while beneath it all, the drums & bass do not just keep time, they ESTABLISH it. so few fills are present that their playing takes on an architectural aspect, rendering even the poppiest song on the record ("Pack Yr Romantic Mind") monolithic.

elsewhere, the standout, near-20-minute epic "Jenny Ondioline" takes the VU drumbeat and drives it into the ground over repeating vocal verses...till it fades & then returns in almost double-time. there is the syncopated, stabby, anthemic riff of "Crest", which keeps rising in a Moebius-fashion till it circles back upon itself, a locomotive of distortion enveloping the vocal melodies. Though the record ends a song later, "Crest" is the peak and pinnacle of the record's modus operandi; a swirling mass of scratched-up guitars, buzzing organs and synths, and the rhythm section with precision like a 'tussin-ed jackhammer.