More albums, more cherry picking through the mountain of albums that land here, more picking of the cherries, picking off the cherries, the never ending pile of demanding cherries that find their way here on a daily basis. You surely know the policy by now? We do, on the whole, only feature the albums and things we feel positive about. We really don’t have time to clutter up these already overloaded pages with negative coverage of things that do nothing for us, there isn’t the time or space, there isn’t any need, although some times there probably is. Here’s another three or so as we ease through the opening shots of February….
Ronker – Respect The Hustle, I Won’t Be Your Dog Forever (Labelman) – from Denderleeuw in Belgium, never head of it, the town, not the country, Ronkers are nowhere near as obvious as things might first appear to be with this latest rather fired up release, wonder if they know Michael? It is a yappy thing, that frothing take on a metallic hardcore crossover that we should probably call post something or other? Post punk, post hardcore, postman Pat, post metal, something post? They must know Michael? This is urgent, committed, intense, fast tempos, riffs that often blur the line between noise rock, hardcore and with just a bit of slightly different colour. Some of it kind of feels like Medulla Nocte, probably something to do with the way the whole thing is fronted. They have an edge, something a little extra… Bandcamp
And on we go with what we know or maybe don’t…
Bonnie “Prince” Billy – We Are Together Again (Domino) – Now we probably don’t need to be covering the music of the Bonnie Prince these days, he certainly doesn’t need our support and we have in the past, save for the very early days, mostly let his beautiful music flow by without saying that much about it, preferring to give our time and energy to those who maybe could use it a little more. Bonnie “Prince” Billy – the persona/stage-name of musician Will Oldham – will release a new studio record titled We Are Together Again on March 6th and sometimes all you really need is the simple art of simple song writing and love and joy and sorry and someone to say that you’re okay when for reals you don’t know? We Are Together Again doesn’t feel like an answer to anything that’s going on right now, if does feel like more than just a mere distraction though and yes, we are living through a change of worlds and we really don’t know what’s around the corner and yes I know it isn’t simple to write and sing and play songs that sound this simple, to sound this simple takes lots and lots…. Will Oldham doesn’t need our coverage, this one will be all over the the pages of the glossy coffee table music magazines and such, but there is something here in the friendship of this music, the community of these songs and as he put it himself, the stubborn joy of making art with others as a simple means of persistence. “This isn’t a denial of collapse, which would be delusion, but a kind of defiance: remaining fully human, fully joyful, in a world with a diminishing horizon”.
Oldham notes: “This record was made closer to the Ohio River than any I’ve been involved with since 1993’s Palace Brothers There Is No-One What Will Take Care of You. Louisville’s current-and-past vital musical community is highlighted on every song. Catherine Irwin, who sang on the BPB release Ease Down the Road, is back here on “Hey Little” and “Vietnam Sunshine”. Lacey Guthrie, Tory Fisher and Katie Peabody, the three front women of the band Duchess, sing together on the opening and closing songs, parallel odes to the beast that is fear.“
This is a beautiful album, an album as quiet as you’d expect it to be, a gentle refined piece of quiet slow moving art, a warm album, it does feel joyful, it does open windows, it does burn sweet smelling wood, it is mortal and it is very very satisfying, it keeps promises, it is a very human album. No, We Are Together Again doesn’t resolve fear; it meets it with something though, with warmth? With colour, with a stubborn belief that art can be a force for good the simple act of making music together and “the stubborn miracle of community”, it is an album that maybe doesn’t offer hope as much as it hopeful, these are songs you want to listen to, flow with, and it can’t always be about raging against the various machines of life, it can’t always be about shouting, and no, a Bonnie “Prince” Billy album doesn’t really need coverage from us but sometimes we just might need to spend time with the warmth and the hope and the clever simplicity, the comfort of a Bonnie “Prince” Billy album. This is a beautiful piece of art, a fine piece of hope and if you feel in disarray and the world is closing in and…
JeGong – Gomi Kuzu Can (Pelagic Records) – They do have some of the organic feel of early Tangerine Dream, some of the warmth on Neu, they’re a little repetitive to really be compared to either though though, if anything they sound like a more relaxed and mellow instrumental take on Joy Division with that rhythm-driven exploration of Krautrock and their slightly experimental sound design. is a rather politely inviting journey through Kraut, Post and Experimental variations on a Rock theme, delivered with the essential analogue warmth of the ’70s, that retro warmth is a redeeming feature. JeGong are the collaborative force of Dahm Majuri Cipolla (Mono) and Reto Mäder (Sum of R.), they are a little too repetitive and not really in that positively motorik way of Krautrock. You are kind of wondering if any of it is going to go anywhere when the relief of the first vocals on the album arrive with the sixth track that is What Ever Happened To Gene Bisi and add a slightly dark Syd Barrett feel, alas those are the only vocals and we’re back to instrumental pieces that might work a little bit more if they were sound-tracking a 70s flavoured slightly left-field art-house film. it might do more for your ears than it is doing for any of the ears around here, we’ll leave it with you… Bandcamp
Previously…
THE ORGAN 