PopMatters Music Short Takes

Samantha Crain, The Confiscation (Ramseur)

The Confiscation starts with a folk harmonica and a guitar. Ah, you think: Dylan. Then as this five-track 20-minute album goes on you realize that while Samantha Crain may have been influenced by Dylan she’s not in thrall to him. My layman here said that she reminded him of Joanna Newsom and I thought of Marissa Nadler, but although Crain has the same storytelling bent and cracked quaver at the edge of the voice that helps to push both of those singers toward the category of New Weird, she doesn’t have their frailty. She doesn’t have Nadler’s fey ghostliness, or Newsom’s little-pixie lisp. Instead she has something firmer and rounded, a mature sound, womanly rather than girlish. This novella-album follows a “theme,” she told the Daily Times of Tennessee: “good vs. evil, redemption vs. betrayal, that sort of thing … sort of why things happen and the reasons bad things happen to people.” The first song has a preacher drowning a man to save his soul and things go on from there. The Confiscation is short but strong, a debut album that seems to promise a solid future career. [Amazon]

Mark Farina, Fabric 40 (Fabric)

I make no secret of my general loathing towards the majority of funky house, but there is something about Mark Farina’s style that cannot be denied. The long time Chicago deejay has a sense of honest experimentation in his production and his mixes (love the Mushroom Jazz series) stemming from his historical awareness and insight. He is often the exception to the rule that strangles most house acts desperately trying to stay trendy rather than timeless. For his first foray into the illustrious Fabric series, Farina lives up to his own standards by delivering a clean, even mix of contemporary b-sides and a few underappreciated minor hits from the last decade. In fact, it’s so even that picking highlights is pretty well pointless. It’s something you kinda sink into and lose sight of the shores. This isn’t peak time killer, but solid second stage nodding groove fodder. As long as you don’t expect transcendent catharsis through house, Fabric 40 is simple pleasure. [Amazon]

Various Artists, 100 (Traum Schallplatten)

Traum Schallplatten celebrates its ten year anniversary and 100th release with a lone CD. Not a parade or a limited edition multi-colored vinyl with 40 page self-congratulatory booklet on the label’s history: one disc, 11songs. A humble move by a perpetually competent, if not entirely revolutionary depository of electronic dance music. If one can find a consummate flaw with this disc, it’s that most of the tracks are so migratory and fractionary that distinct individual parts stand out to disappoint the whole of an occasionally brilliant track, an error standardly corrected in DJing.

Bukaddor & Fishbeck’s “Decade” sounds quite minimal, but deep listening will reveal about ten tracks, with perhaps ten years of tracks, crammed into one six minute experience. And seven of them are sheer genius. Minilogue is purely rhythmic, Villalobos style acoustic skittering mixed with slowly phased subtle interjections of cymbal vapor trails, until five and a half minutes in when the supplemental ambient textures are foregrounded, for no good reason. Gabriel Ananda’s “Lila Pause” is the the inverse. Hypnotic in an almost nostalgic-for-early-Warp kind of way, its gorgeous free-float final minute is its, and perhaps the album’s, peak. Other highs come in the form of Broker/Dealer’s mellifluous cloud-hitcher “Midnight” and the crafty and economical tech-funk loops and stripped Harold Faltermeyer keypads of Max Ernst lynchpin Thomas Brinkmann’s “Aleks in Love”.  As worthwhile an introduction as you’re likely to get to Traum, by a series of artists whose works sound as equally comfortable trapped in 1998 as the do chasing the scarce verve of 2008. [Amazon]

Jandek, Glasgow Friday (Corwood Industries)

It’s been four years since Jandek started appearing live. And while he still isn’t exactly a touring musician, he’s appeared enough times that the kitsch has worn off. It is time to see if his live act is any good based on performance alone. And he’s given us plenty of opportunity to do so.

Glasgow Friday is just the latest in a number of live records Jandek has released from Corwood Industries, and it shows his live act as something strange and sprawling, and—if we are foolish enough to have expectations—something pretty surprising. With his live band, Jandek is far less reserved than he sounds on record, and he is not afraid to turn up the volume. Those expecting the spare, death blues of his acoustic albums will be sadly disappointed. These are long controlled messes passing as renditions of his songs. And the longer they are, in this show, the better they seem to work.

“My Plan” and “Walking Blues” take up 24 minutes combined, and are the two best songs here. When Jandek sings “My plan is to say ‘no’”, he doesn’t use the quiet croak you hear on record. He bellows it, low and full, and sends a chill down your spine. Nothing in his records would make you think Jandek could be a passable performer, let alone a solid one that can even arrest you at times. It still remains to be seen how much these shows are for the audience. But even if they feel like eavesdroppers in front of the elusive Jandek, they’re hearing a pretty strange and beautiful secret. [Amazon]

Butcher the Bar, Sleep at Your Own Speed (Morr Music)

British singer Joel Nicholson is Butcher the Bar, a performer whose earnest delivery and heart-on-his-sleeve manner makes the comparisons to the late Elliott Smith instant and often. Whether it’s the light, roots-tainted “Getaway” that is content to stay in the same gear or the Springsteen-meets-Dylan troubadour “Sex Szene”, Nicholson rarely sounds out of his element. Fans of Nick Drake and also Paul Simon would definitely enjoy the swaying melody oozing from “Gumble” which is has more folk tendencies or leanings than the opening tunes. Later on he hones this style with a true gem entitled “Opening Night”. Butcher the Bar also nails the gorgeous “House/Home” perfectly, something that the late Smith would be envious of without question. However, some might be put off by how repetitive the style becomes, with Nicholson’s hushed vocals often fighting for space with his strumming and picking. The solo work of Tom Petty also comes to the surface during “Bike” as Nicholson weaves more magic here and on the ensuing lullaby “Leave This Town”. If you’re a fan of this style you should revel in it, especially the inviting, warm and soothing “Ball Point Skin Notes”. [Amazon]

Faun Fables, A Table Forgotten (Drag City)

A Table Forgotten, the new EP from Faun Fables’—and their first new material since 2006—starts off promisingly. “With Words and Cake” is a stomping fun bit of tribal folk, finding Dawn McCarthy and company singing about a child’s birthday party with equal parts joy and snide humor. It’s a song bolstered by layers of percussion, and a particularly lively performance for McCarthy, who is usually known for lilting over a track like keening violins. The song should signal an EP of thumping numbers that are as fun as they are smart and well-composed. And, were it just that song and the gypsy bounce of the title track, that is exactly what it would be. But the other two tracks here are typical and dragging folk music. A few instrumental flourishes can’t help their dirge pace, and even the rise and fall of drums, and the heavy distortion and choral voices on “Winter Sleep” can’t inject with any energy. They try their best, going high and lonesome on the chorus of the closing track, but it just isn’t enough.  “Pictures” in particular seems barely there in comparison to the EPs better moments. The full-band numbers here are so much better than the slow more lonesome work, one wonders why they don’t just commit to their fuller sound. Because those slow numbers aren’t ballads, they’re speed bumps. [Amazon]

Tickle Me Pink, Madeline (Wind-Up)

The chorus to “Typical”—the first single from Colorado emo-rock outfit Tickle Me Pink’s debut Madeline—features the snide line “You can’t play me like that / It’s a matter of fact / You’re nothing more / Than a typical whore,” easily making this a frontrunner for being the most misogynist single of 2008. Perhaps if the group displayed a sense of humor or a knowing glance of irony, then this track could be interpreted as anything but hamfisted schoolboy frustration, but, unfortunately, Tickle Me Pink take themselves far too seriously, resulting in a painfully bland set of screamo-by-numbers tunes that overstay their welcome as soon as they arrive. Though acoustic ballad “Beside the Others” at least aims for heartfelt catharsis, its tired clichés (the opening line is “How could she be / With a wretch like me?") knock down any hope of the band creating any sort of identity out of the Warped Tour mindset. Worst of all? The most intriguing aspect of the live concert DVD that accompanies this set turns out to be the moments when a security guard begins forcibly removing fans from the stage. At least there, the guard is displaying a real emotion: out and out frustration. [Amazon]

Pivot, In the Blood (WARP)

Alongside the likes of Numbers and Holy Fuck, Aussie trio Pivot is one of the rare bands to successfully join abstract electronics and post-rock. With their latest, that talent is on full display. The programming is epic ‘80s, the drums are punchy but not overwhelming, and the guitar sound is righteous and fuzzy throughout the two originals on the In the Blood EP. They succeed where acts like Adult. and Fuck Buttons fall into boredom. Rustie (also a recent acquisition by Warp) turns the title track into a choice dubstep thumper on par with a more passionate Benga, while Chris Clark puts his stamp on a track that doesn’t appear here in its unaltered form. Their upcoming sophomore record should do as well as the average of its hybrid drone-rock peers, but it will be one fans will have to look for. The mainstream crossover appeal here is quite limited and the indie press is busy blowing No Age right now. Time will tell if we’re ready for them. [Amazon]