PopMatters Music Short Takes

Daniel Santiago, On the Way (Adventure Music/Brasilianos)

This 27-year-old Brazilian guitarist has chops to spare and some very talented friends; if it wasn’t only 35 minutes long, one could well describe On the Way as “jam-packed” wth great Rio-based jazz music. The rest of his trio—André Vasconcellos on bass and Márcio Bahia on drums—is skillful but understated on tunes like “Viewpoint” and “Horta & Guinga”, but they really get funky on the six-minute burner “Tribute to Baden” (for master guitarist Baden Powell), where Bahia makes his kit sound like a hyperactive drum machine. But the tracks where Santiago plays solo, while extremely beautiful, might be too mellow for short attention span U.S. people, so you might want to ready yourself with some tasty wine and soft lights first. [Amazon]

Trentemoller, Always Something Better (Poker Flat Recordings)

Trentemoller, big man of 2005 house, gives us a taste of his forthcoming long-player in the form of a single and some remixes. “Always Something Better” is unexpectedly downtempo, at least in its vocal radio edit. This is a real DJ’s release—six versions of the same song—but there are some highlights: Richard Davis’ disembodied vocal; and the strong dub beat, fractured and compressed. Trentemoller’s lengthier treatments of the theme allow the idea time to percolate; five minutes into the original, an unexpectedly banging house beat emerges. The effect is nice, though the listener is left to wonder, sometimes, if they’ve earned this sense of climax.  The Norwegian DJ’s great at laying down the elements that make ‘current’ techno, but sometimes the soul isn’t as easy to spot. Of course, Herbert’s bubble mix is a real highlight, but also a surprise: his burbling synths stay in the service of the source material, making it a tad more overt, but nowhere near over the top. [Amazon]

The Places, Songs for Creeps (High Plains Sigh)

Are creepy songs the kind of songs that creeps like? If so, then Amy Annelle has hit the nail squarely upon its creepy little head. Songs for Creeps is her sixth album, and fourth as the leader of the Places, a name which lies somewhere between a pseudonym and an umbrella for whatever collection of musicians the itinerant songwriter might be recording or touring with at any given time. While Annelle’s voice and acoustic guitar are the lone constant from track to track, many are fleshed out with lap steel, minimalist drums, light percussion, and other fairly unobtrusive accoutrements. Always at the fore is Annelle’s singing, which she presents in many forms. On the willfully weird and unfortunately unappealing opener, “Miners Lie!”, she comes off as unhinged as Mary Margaret O’Hara. Her voice is a tremulous (and, yes, creepy) warble on songs like “The Damn Insane Asylum” and “Such as the Earth (Neveroff’s Fate)”. She can pretty it up, too, though, as Annelle exhibits on the more traditionally folksy “Blessed Speed” and “I’m a-Gone Down to the Field”. Certainly, she has set out to warp tradition rather than follow it. And all of the burnt, fizzed-out, crinkled vocal phrasings and production touches throughout Songs for Creeps are used purposefully to offset Annelle’s potentially lovely songs and voice. Still, I can’t help but wish she’d approach her material more directly, bringing it to light instead of shoving it into shadow. She’s talented enough to shine. Then again, maybe I’m just not enough of a creep to truly appreciate her songs. [Amazon]

Miles Davis, Cool & Collected (Columbia/Legacy)

If you’re a huge Miles Davis fan with an extensive collection, Cool & Collected wasn’t meant for you. You might pick it up anyway, either to sate your curiosity or so that you can say you own every Miles-related release you could find. Otherwise, this release is going to frustrate you as you continually wonder, “How in the world can you represent the artistry of Miles Davis in a single disc?” Luckily, the compilers weren’t aiming to be comprehensive; they’re looking to whet more appetites to the Davis legacy as 2006 marks what would have been Davis’ 80th birthday. The press release for the album says as much, noting its appeal to the “non-jazz consumer”. Perhaps the urge to hip more people to Davis’ “coolness” was sparked by Davis’ induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year—the first modern jazz musician to receive the honor.

Rather than preaching to the converted, as the adage goes, Cool & Collected works best for those who aren’t quite so familiar with Miles Davis. In search of fresh ears, there are 13 classic Miles Davis tunes chosen from various points in the Legend’s career. Most of the songs come from the ‘50s—“Bye Bye Blackbird” (1956), “‘Round Midnight” (1956), “Générique” (1957), “Milestones” (1958), “Summertime” (1958), “So What” (1959), “Stella by Starlight” (1959), and an alternate take of “Fran-Dance” recorded in 1958 and released in 2000.  From there, the remainder transitions chronologically, with tunes from the ‘60s ("Seven Steps to Heaven”, “E.S.P.”, and the previously unreleased remix of “It’s About that Time” featuring Carlos Santana) and covers from the ‘80s (Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time” and the Michael Jackson hit, “Human Nature"). Without question, Cool & Collected serves as an excellent primer for initiating potential jazz enthusiasts. Not only will this set offer provocative morsels from Miles Davis, it also hints at the overlap of Davis’ life with other big names. On these songs, you hear Davis at work with greats such as “Cannonball” Adderley, Bill Evans, John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, and Ron Carter.  While this release can’t avoid leaving so much of Davis’ efforts untouched, it successfully gives listeners a starting point for deeper exploration. [Amazon]

One Ring Zero, Wake Them Up (Barbes)

The concept is really intriguing—a real lit-rock band, tied in to the NYC McSweeny’s scene—and brings to mind a kind of bohemian idyll where One Ring Zero members Michael Hearts and Joshua Camp sit around the fire with Dave Eggers and Jonathan Lethem and Paul Auster and tell each other stories and set them to music. On their latest album, though, One Ring Zero comes across more as a sub-par parody of the Decemberists than a vital, different perspective. The band likes to use all-sing-together choruses—in “Three Quarters Late” they sound like Willy Mason—and the junkyard orchestral circus of Beirut, though they come off pallid in comparison.  There are some solid songs here, and alt-country influences waft over many of the songs, providing a touchstone that’s at least different from the lit-folk we know well already. And at their best, like on “A Moving World”, the band captures a feeling—here, the ever-turning, uncaring world—in beautifully layered, repeat-rocking strings, accordion tide, and subtly cut-up vocals. But when the band really gets into it they become self-parodying: “Sad Carousel” is melancholy circus music, and the sing-through-the-megaphone trick makes the song seem hokey, like the soundtrack to a schlock horror film. [Amazon]

Dead Poetic, Vices (Tooth and Nail)

Dead Poetic is not quite a cookie-cutter rock band, mainly because there’s no blood-curdling wail in the opening minutes. Dead Poetic relies on strong guitar-fuelled rock that is never dull. That is for the first few tracks. This is particularly evident during the opening “Cannibal Vs. Cunning”, a song as influenced by Incubus as it is by Led Zeppelin. Just as menacing and brooding is the grittier, edgier, punk-ish “Lioness”, which rides a very fine and refined groove while lead singer Brandon Rike delivers the goods. The heavier they get, the better the songs seem to come across, especially with the thick, meaty, and catchy “Narcotic”. But things take a brief nosedive with the tired, tedious “In Coma”, which sounds like it is, well, in a coma. The only problem with the album is a couple of the songs don’t seem to push the envelope, which is true of the tame “Sinless City”, the Depeche Mode-influenced “Crashing Down” and “Pretty Pretty”. It’s a pretty song but quite forgettable, like any hair band. “The Victim” has all the hallmarks of Billytalentisonfire with some wails and lean licks. The home stretch is an improvement as “Animals” is a winding, soft-then-hard performance. [Amazon]

Cassy, Panorama Bar 01 (Ostgut)

For their first mix CD celebrating renowned German techno venue Panorama Bar, the Kompakt folks pulled in Cassy, a DJ whose masses of curly hair are in definite apposition to her proclivity for minimal house. Berlin and minimalism is almost a cliché at this point but the truth is, Cassy pulls it off with flair on this satisfying mix. Many of the tracks share a similar aesthetic—an echoing sense of beats engulfed in an insurmountable space, though this doesn’t necessarily mean the sounds themselves are bare-bones. D5’s “Sides of Space” is incredibly full of stuff, a stuttering percussive sound near to the edge of the speakers, and all this outer space synth interplay much further back. NSI’s “Clara Ghavami Extended” goes incredible—a twittering synth sound and bass that’s almost a heartbeat. Throughout, Cassy’s professionalism is on full show: her own contribution echoes with a crunchy, growing only-to-midlevel beat, and her remix of “Bleepy Creep” by Yassin & Arne adds the disaffected female vocal thing that’s swept commercial dance and electro (everyone from CSS to Tigarah to new MIA). The tenor of this music carries a strong cerebral element; but you’ll find yourself nodding along appreciatively nonetheless. [Amazon]

National Eye, Roomful of Lions (Park the Van)

Was it one of the city’s weekly papers that called National Eye Philadelphia’s version of Radiohead? Not so fast… Though National Eye have an obvious interest in making rock music about mood and texture, they’re not on that level. Less than a work of vision, A Roomful of Lions seems more like a vision of nonchalance—in the singing, the lyrics, the way the music meanders and floats more than it strikes or paints. That meandering feeling can be alluring in moments across the album, especially when pop hooks shine through the fog, just enough the give the feeling of a fairy tale or a circus. Or when a sense of immediacy takes hold. Tracks like “Halo” seem like well-formed dreams, in a way that suggests they might be closer to being actual visionaries. But those are just glimpses of a spark; as the album proceeds, it gets especially drifty, sounding more and more like a far-off-the-mark attempt to be the next Pink Floyd. [Amazon]