More more more. More albums, shall we dance around it all again, Did we say that last time? And the time before? Where were we? Hey, too many albums not enough time, and (some of) these things do demand proper time and anyway, and, and then, and you do know we only have time for the good ones don’t you? You do know no one reads the editorial at the top, well why would they? Here’s some more albums, a couple of them already recently released, some about to be….
Downtown Boys – Public Luxury (Sub Pop) – Rushing out of New York with a bag load of energy and an even bigger bag load of attitude, Downtown Boys have, so it says here, “pushed relentlessly forward as an artistic and political project since their founding. Singer Victoria Marie and guitarist/singer Joey La Neve DeFrancesco first met at union meetings while working together at a hotel in Providence , RI, writing many of the band’s early songs about their organizing efforts and exploitative workplace conditions…” The five piece is completed by saxophonist-synthesist Joe DeGeorge, bassist Mary Jane Regalado and drummer Joey Doubek, together the five piece are pretty forthright about life, music and all the commitment that comes with it.
Victoria Marie kind of nails it (so we don’t have to) when she says “We as the people have the power – and we will have it all. The ultimate burn to injustice is taking the dirt, the shards, the smoke of it all in the struggle for freedom and liberation – finding power in the mundane – I think that is the story to be told.” – that one statement pretty much tells you where Downtown Boys are at with Public Luxury, it is all about their collective energy, their defiance, well no, there’s craft to their urgency, a need to be good, to do a little more than just shout about things…
“Sentiments like “everything for everyone,” and “we will have it all” perfectly represent the cathartic, communal live experience this cadre of multi-instrumentalists create…” – there is something more than just another band here, cam we mention the energy of Blaggers ITA here, is that too obscure in terms of a reference these days? Spanish flavours rather tha nEnglish ones obviously, they do have a touch of English punk about them though, there a touch of soul as well, soul-filled as people obviously, in terms of the music as well though.
Good tunes, that’s vital; “what’s that you’re listening to?” has been shouted several times in the last few days, there’s whole loads of layers in here, it does feel like a Summer album, a punk rock summer album, but then we are in the middle of a heatwave and close to meltdown, bring on the ice cream and their positive political challenge…
I still believe in a future
I still see our dead
I already burned the chair
Have faith in what you see
Here they are eight years ago performing live in the KEXP studio. Recorded September 20, 2017…
Red Dwarf Star – Red Dwarf Star (Pelagic) – “Red Dwarf Star emerges as a striking new chapter for Coley Dennis, a new project that captures a deeply personal arc that spans continents, relationships, and creative reinvention. Dennis is known best for his work with Maserati, a legendary outfit that leans into collaborative, rhythm-driven expanses rooted in Krautrock and electronic psych. Through Red Dwarf Star Dennis’ lineage of influence is felt, echoing the raw emotional immediacy of ‘90s alternative, post-hardcore, and the textured atmospheres of jagged dream-pop that bleeds. These are sounds that have lingered in Dennis’ creative subconscious for decades, now resurfacing with renewed urgency…” – not sure how urgent this is (or for that matter how “legendary” Maserati are or were, as bands named after expensive cars go, they’re hardly the first that comes to mind. What we have here is an enjoyable enough blend of pleasant post rockish shoegazish partly instrumental sometimes voiced expansive introspective sign of the times; “ideas that were coming to be that didn’t fit the mood of Maserati” apparently. It sounds like I’m being down on this self-titled album, I’m really not, it has been happily flowing here for most of this stupidly hot day. The band name (or project name) is maybe not the greatest, we are kind of expecting yer main man to have a letter H on his forehead and one of his sidekicks to think he’s a cat. Hey, I kind of like this album, it flows rather nicely, bright where it needs to be, am I going to go back and listen to it again once a full stop is put on this review? probably not.
Neptune – Play Some Music (Sleeping Giant Glossolalia) – “After twelve years of relative quiet, experimental rock band Neptune return with Play Some Music, their ninth full length album and a return to form from a project spanning over three decades” so read the blurb, actually it read “returns” but hey, they’re a band, a group, not that thing, they’ve returned, return not returns and that before we get to AI’s take on things. I was at a New Order gig once, it was full of Reds, it was almost the spirit of the Stretty, one of them insisted on yelling “play some music” all the way through the set, well there was a fourth word being yelled, it started with an F and came between some and music and well I tell you all this while I search for something to say about the return of Neptune. if the truth be told I hadn’t noticed the twelve years of relative quite so lets start with the here and now and the floating anarchy of it all rather than the history. With all due respect who cares about the last three decades, let’s deal with what the New York outfit are doing right now. Actually, seeing as we mentioned Floating Anarchy, they do rather like their gongs, seems they like lots things that can be hit or teased or coaxed; microtonal guitarbass, bicycle crank arm xylophone, amplified drum, amplified sawblades, percussion, drum feedback, wood, slide, electronic signal processing, hang on though, don’t let that put you off, this isn’t another gang of soulless sound artists just self indulgently hitting things – well they are, but unlike most, they’re crafting what they’re doing into something that an audience might actually not only want to listen to but, heaven forbid, enjoy! That’s right, a proper band as well as a bunch of experimental sound artists and a suite of actual fully formed songs both improvised and composed. For once, a group of people experimenting with noise and sound and then actually, and this is the radical bit, and then actually doing something with it all . Actually doing something with their gamelan-like amplified percussion and phantasmagoric electronic textures hovering over their ether, actually completing the picture rather then backing out when it comes the difficult bit. I mean, we’re not talking pop songs or east listening here, this is awkwardly challenging, deliciously so, none of it is obvious, most of it (all of it) is compelling, demanding, actually it is very easy to listen to, I’d happily ride the lift (up and down again and again) if this was the music we were locked in with. Bring on the dancing horses and the buzzing buzz saws and the things that can be nit and most of all the songs, hit that piece of metal, create those strange rituals and who the flip needs a review from us, just press the play button and make you’re own damn mind up, go play some f^%@ing music, this is good… bit of a throwaway afterthought for the album cover though…
Problem Addict – Live from the Emergency Room – Sounds like a million nihilistic garage punk rock and roll bands with a quirky side serving of 50s b-movie sci-fi that you already heard and I guess that’s the point really. Some band led by Edley ODowd of Toilet Böys, who at some point at the start of the century encouraged Genesis P. Orridge to reform Psychic TV with an all new line-up featuring Edley, a line up that returned to the stage in 2003 with a concert in New York under the guise of PTV3 which in turns means the PR team who sent us this new album can use the name of our one time Hackney neighbours to try and hook us in to covering it. Hang on, didn’t we put on some Toilet Böys shows at one point? I don’t know, the pigeons don’t know, someone just shouted 1, 2, 1,2,3,4 as they launched into another messy slice of no messing nihilistic garage punk rock and roll played with a quirky side serving of 50s b-movie lo-fi sci-fi…
And one more….
THE ORGAN 