More more more. More albums, shall we dance around it all again, Did we say that last time? Maybe. And the time before? Probably? 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 the Art Car Boot Fair and all that went into that, and you do know we only have time for the good ones don’t you? Well most of the time, then again sometimes, well sometimes. And you do know no one reads the editorial bit at the top, well why would they? Here’s some more albums, there are so many, the one’s that weren’t delt with yesterday are now all lost underneath the ones that arrived today and that rather good album that landed here last week is burried way down in the mountain with all the others that are demanding time and attention…
Honey Ride Me A Goat – Horns & Hooves (Cuneiform) – This one actually came out a few weeks back, from what we can work out, part of it released on vinyl via the band or the full album and all other formats via the label and yes it should have been covered here already, a natural fit you might say but hey, the left hand thought the right hand had told us and the Summer was rather chaotic and disjointed in a far more than just one way and we probably should have hit this Organ thing on the head and put it out of any kind of lingering thankless misery it might still be in ages ago and better late than never ever I suppose. There are all kind of lazy reference points we could make, right now it its rather sounding like the jazzy end of Gong, at other times in different time zones with could talk of Don Caballero or avant maths or some of the rides that Weasel Walter goes on (although nothing quite as challengingly extreme as those beautiful Flying Luttenbachers) or maybe Molecules or right now, it or they is or are doing a rather delicious galloping/skipping kind of thing before the squonk kicks in again and demands we go with it… Hey, I just went off to wash my brush out, I come back and they’re sounding like a swarm of wonderfully in control bees, bees who would like to be wasps maybe? Bees or wasps? These are the kind of questions Honey Ride Me A Goat like to ask as they combine that complex rhythmic interplay with the tight end of freeform freedom and noise and textural contradictions and who in their right mind would try to ride a goat anyway? It isn’t really abstract, a times it almost sounds traditional, well traditional in terms of abstract hard-boiled hard-edged avant noise-fuelled jazz rock that honks and squonks in all the right places. Gooseflaps? Well that’s about right, Gooseflaps is the long and short of it and they are rather electric about it all as they always have been, good to have the honey glowing again, of course this is a damn fine album, of course it is, things are sounding good over in Kent. Those of you who like details might like to note that the English threesome are joined by Patrick Shiroishi on sax for some of this. Good to have them back… (sw)
Limited edition vinyl via the band’s own Bandcamp
or the full album via the excellent Cuneiform Records and their Bandcamp page
Awake & Dreaming – Inevitable – “You called Yoo Doo Right “Canada’s always rather excellent” last month, and your Albums albums albums round-up is the natural home for this one. I manage Awake & Dreaming, an alt-rock four-piece from Waterloo, Ontario; their debut album Inevitable is out Friday, October 16, and I’d like to offer it for review…”; well now, just because we like one Canadian band doesn’t mean we’re going to like them all and these Organ pages really aren’t anywhere near a “natural home for this one”, what this is is rather polite slightly alternative soft rock with a slight edge that’s more Daisy Jones and The Six than Fleetwood Mac; “Ten tracks about staying human in a world built to numb you. Piano-driven verses build into walls of distorted guitar. Quiet moments feel vulnerable and the loud ones feel earned…” I’m not hearing much in terms of distorted guitar, I guess Sasha Kristoff has a way with words, indeed a touch Daisy Jones. Hey, i like Daisy, Billy Dunn was a bit of an arse, Six drummer Warren was a total rock star and the tour manager a legend (oh the tales that could be told of tours and trying to hold them together, one day we’ll write the book). I like Sasha with her Inspire me. Desire me. Admire me. Rewire me lines, it isn’t quite go ahead and regret me but I’m beating you to it and those seven fallen angels of Daisy’s but hey, Sasha Kristoff does carry this with her voice and her piano and some of those words. Her band do kind of look like a backing band, they kind of look like accountants, maybe I’m doing them a disservice here (I never met an accountant who did me any good and note to band, standing, badly lit I might add, in front of some rather average Graffiti does not make you an edgy band, there’s some really bad artwork and band photography here, it doesn’t help things).
Hey, these Organ pages really aren’t anywhere near a “natural home for this one” but I kind of like it, if it were 1978 and slightly-edgy FM soft rock radio was still a big thing then Sasha and her band would probably be looking like soon to be big news, in these spotified Insta-tok times though…. There is a slight edge the songs, that slight edge is important and she really is a a bit of a (potential) star, this is a more than decent debut album and those songs are actually rather good, kind of band legendary record producer Teddy Price would have been interested in back there or indeed, if he was still around, interested right now. There is intrigue, there is depth, there are twists, the e.mail tried to suggest there was a Radiohead/Muse comparison to be made, there really isn’t (no bad thing, Muse really are a dreadfully bombastic sledgehammer to crack a walnut kind of band). Hey, if I didn’t think the idea of anything ever being a guilty pleasure was ridiculous, then I might say this was one of those guilty pleasures, I like the album, I like the songs, I like Sasha Kristoff, I like that this is a proper album rather than just a couple of singles and a load of old filler, I like that there’s things to untangle. Inevitable it isn’t really our unusual (left field hard-boiled awkward) thing and these words here aren’t going to make an inch of difference to Awake & Dreaming’s lives (and I really don’t think that band name really helps them many favours either) but I like it. The band are from Waterloo, Ontario (seems the only thing they have in common with You Doo Right is the fact that, like April Wine, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Peaches and a million other artists or bands, they’re from Canada). Yes, Inevitable probably is about “staying human in a world built to numb you”, it isn’t really anything like a natural fit for us here at Organ and there are more important fish to feed in terms of natural fits and albums I should be listening to tight now but I do rather like (the potential of) it… (sw)
Links – Bandcamp / awakeanddreaming.com
Kraanerg – Aria for Labellum Tongues – Well we did say a few weeks back that Kraanerg, a music maker and (possibly) now a band who might still be from Minneapolis, Minnesota (if we have it right and they haven’t all gone to Washington DC?) has offered up a first taste of an album due out next month that sounds like it mixes colour in a slightly more adventurous kind of maximalist way.
“Kraanerg’s second album with a full band lineup all written and recorded October 2023 – January 2026, primarily in Washington DC” and well if this first taste is an indication of things to come it all sound like something to be looking forward to. Do like that they say full sheet music and concept notes are included with the download, Excellent…
And now, a month or so later we can say that everything else on this extremely maximalist album is as good, if not better than the first taste was and yes it has taken a few weeks to work up to throwing some words together, to dance around the architecture again…
Kraanerg, we’ll take it that this is the work of a band, you surely need a serious band to build this wall of sound (yes, this is the second album the full band have made together, I did just check), At times outrageously progressive, almost touching on something classical, it is a wall of sound though, they have got everything in there, the vocals are off-hinge, the whole thing is, yet, in all the maelstrom of it it all there’s some real emotion to the tunes, to everything.
Hang on, Anguloa Virginalis (Um Rosto de Mulher) is a beautiful rest-bite, almost delicate in a lounge lizard kind of way for three minutes in the middle of it all – still off-hinge but it does feel like some inviting calm while we catch breath and wait for the next storm and we go in deep beyond the charred mangroves again, in there as nematodes wail with the sorrow, or is it deeper than that? Dare I say this is unique? It is rather fabulous, and just when you think they might be thinking of concluding a track they find a third or fourth wind and charge on and on (and on) and more piano and more kitchen sinks and every bit of it utterly necessary. Here come the jazzy sax again to joust with that piano, or is it a sword fight or did someone bring a knife to a gun fight? This really is preposterously good, we’re about fifteen minutes into the closing piece now – no, hang on there’s another one to come, another twenty minute piece, they’re only just warming up! And it does feel like pressure, like it might just explode before they get to the end, and yes, I do want to share crosswalks with these people, to see where they’re going, to explore their hyacinth and caddisfly groves, those things stratified, their rainbow mottled stone where cinder blocks and crumpled cars align, their bridges built from ice, their magma grind. Actually right now they’re sounding a bit KayoDot-ish, those bits where Toby Driver really winds himself up (and up), that and the heartbeats and tinnitus preach and sparks that draw you like a moth. This really is remarkably good, gloriously maximalist, everything thrown in there, the impasto, the slick mass, the closing cracks, more is more, don’t let it be less… excellent. (sw)
Previously…
THE ORGAN 