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Steve Reich : Pulse/Quartet

Steve Reich is the kind of musical figure that lives within several different worlds. He began in tape experimentations, looping, and sound phasing while making social and political statements in the mid-60s. His piece “Come Out” is a dizzying and hallucinogenic piece of sound manipulation that also served as a voice for the civil rights movement. “It’s Gonna Rain” was another sound experiment from the same era. Though, Reich wasn’t just an avante garde composer. His work began to delve into percussion, organ, guitar, piano, strings, and smaller ensembles. His musical world was one in which instruments seemingly morphed into other sounds, just by minute time changes and phrasings. Reich established himself at the same time as other minimalist composers were coming up. Guys like Terry Riley, Philip Glass, and La Monte Young were his peers and were blowing minds by creating music in a new and personal way.

For me, Music For 18 Musicians is the quintessential Steve Reich piece. That album inspired me in so many ways and it’s the proto-Reich sound. Subtle musical phrases drifting in and out of each other, voices hovering over woodwinds, and a steady organic buzz throughout. For something that didn’t come out of the counterculture it was as mind-expanding as anything coming from the the Berlin School/Komische scene. Drumming, Octet, Electric Counterpoint, and Clapping Music are all essential works by Reich, but Music For 18 Musicians is an album I can listen to anytime or anywhere.

Steve Reich has been working and writing pretty much since the mid-60s. Nearly every year there’s a new piece coming from him. He’s in his 80s now and there doesn’t seem to be any slowing down. His most recent work is Pulse/Quartet for Nonesuch Records. It shows the master still continuing his trend of greatness through minimalism and phrasing.

“Pulse” is a 14-minute work performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble and was originally debuted in 2015. It’s a light and airy piece for woodwinds and strings. By any other composer this may come across as too little, but in Steve Reich’s hands there’s a certain heft under the “light as a feather” facade. Every so often things veer to a slightly darker realm but quickly comes back  up for air. It’s a stunning piece if you let it wash over you.

“Quartet” is broken up into three parts and was written for two vibraphones and two pianos. The pieces were performed by the Colin Currie Group. “I: Fast”, “II: Slow”, and “III: Fast” feel as much of the jazz world as the classical world. This is the first time Reich has written for just piano and vibraphone alone, yet it sounds like a very natural fit for him. “Fast” comes across like daytime traffic with a manic pace and excitable disposition, while “Slow” feels like late night moods; street light serenades and views from high rise apartments. It has a very New York feel, in both its instrumentation and melancholy sway. “Fast” returns as the morning commute from last evening’s reprieve from the hectic swirl of the outside world.

Pulse/Quartet is yet another stunning display of a master at work. While maybe not as forward-moving as some of his earlier work, Steve Reich at 80 is as vibrant and commanding as some in their 30s.

7.8 out of 10

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Stryper : God Damn Evil

It was the summer of 1987 and I was a rebellious teenager. I was looking for all kinds of ways to get into trouble and stick my middle finger up at authority. Staying up till 2am watching The Morton Downy Show, drinking way too many Capri Suns, and dropping Pop Rocks and Coca-Cola like there was no tomorrow. Hell, I would even occasionally swerve my dirt bike into the left lane(of course only when there was no traffic coming…I wasn’t insane.) Yeah, that summer I sowed my wild oats. But it wasn’t until I came home wearing a Stryper “The Hell With The Devil” t-shirt that my parents really started to worry about my well-being. One minute I was a happy and precocious young man buying PMRC-banned albums and nonchalantly humming along to “Whole Lotta Rosie”, the next I’m donning a shirt with “777” on the front. Where did I veer off the tracks? What prompted such aberrant behavior from a once mulleted, run-of-the-mill teen boy with a bright future ahead filled with underage drinking, premarital sex, dive bombing academia, and possibly a stint in a devil-worshiping cult? One word:

Stryper.

Yes, the once yellow and black-striped Christian metal band from California who in the 80s made it seem almost kind of cool to be the righteous Christian in the friend group. “You see? These guys have long hair and eyeliner, too. They play heavy riffs and scream like a banshee, too, but their message is of love, faithfulness, and waiting to have sex until you’re married!” said nobody in my friend group. You see, I didn’t have any sort of “Come to Jesus” moment. Stryper were the hot topic in the summer of 1987. One of my best friends dug their track “Honestly” because it was seemingly the way to a teenage girl’s heart(and to some heavy petting at the movies.) So in a moment of curiosity while staying with my very Christian and youth pastorly Uncle I took a dive into the world of Christian metal. We headed to the Pierre Moran Mall in Elkhart and at the local record shop I bought Stryper’s To Hell With The Devil, as well as a black t-shirt that donned the “777” number on the front and on the back it said “To Hell With The Devil”.

I was on my way to rock and roll salvation, maybe?

The t-shirt shrunk after the first wash and became a rag for my dad to use while washing cars, but I did enjoy Stryper’s album on and off for a couple years. I even blew lunch money on their previous albums Soldiers Under Command and The Yellow and Black Attack. Stryper kept at it for a few more years releasing In God We Trust in 1988(I bought it, along with Scorpions’ Savage Amusement on a trip back to Pierre Moran Mall.) I gave the Sweet bros my money one more time when they released Against The Law. They reeled me in with their funky cover of Earth, Wind, and Fire’s “Shining Star”, but that interested quickly feigned. The band broke up in 1992. I found myself on a years-long binge of Rush, power pop, and a newfound love of classic songcraft and a lifelong weariness of anything religious. Stryper did what they did well. They gave kids in youth group and in the heavy church life something to latch onto that connected with the secular world, while still not denying their belief system. And they were a pretty good rock band, more or less.

Apparently, Stryper have been back at it since 2005. They’ve just released their newest and 17th album called God Damn Evil, but without original bassist Tim Gaines. If you’ve been following these guys for the past 30+ years, I think you’ll like this album. If not, then I guess this is a hard pass for you.

7.1 out of 10

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Communion by Various Artists

Compilation albums are a lot like a mixtape. The best ones are built of different artists and vibes, but when set together in one singular time frame form a truly inspiring listening experience. Compilation albums can be as intimate and involved as that homemade mixtape you made back in high school for a friend. You want that friend to keep listening to that mixtape, but you also want to expose them to an artist or two they may not have ever heard before. You want to be their guide into a new musical landscape. The best compilations work that way. They invite you into a world you may not be familiar with, but once you’ve finished that first spin you’re ready to spin it again.

Burning Witches Records have put together one of the coolest mixtapes you’ll hear all year. Communion is their late night, homemade music collection that they’re handing to us in the hallway between classes. It’s a collection of some of the most exciting artists working in the electronic/heavy synth scene now. It works both as some lost soundtrack and as this sampler platter of the best and brightest blowing minds with synthesizers.

If you celebrated Record Store Day in the UK, you may have had a chance to snag Communion. And if you did you are one lucky guy or gal. If you didn’t, don’t spend your rent money for a copy on Ebay. Burning Witches will be selling some copies on their website at some point, so just sit tight and keep up with those guys on Facebook and at their website.

Now, about the music.

The roster on Communion is filled from start to finish with incredible talent. I mean, when you open an album with Deadly Avenger you know things are getting real. The steely and hard-driving “Nightcrawler” works perfectly as the opening salvo to what turns out to be an epic set of tunes. Damon Baxter never disappoints, and on this track he shows why Deadly Avenger is such a sought after musical project. Alone In The Woods’ “I Never Came Up For Air” works on both an eerie vibe and a very dance-y 80s tilt that sounds like both early Depeche Mode and soundtrack work. I’ve been pretty obsessed with Graham Reznick’s Glass Angles album recently, so seeing that he was on this set I was pretty excited. “Faking Point” takes the late night vibe of that album and gives it a more sinister groove. His mastery of sound design comes into play here as you feel all the blips and beeps are swirling around your head in a hallucinatory haze. Another Burning Witches alumni is Isvisible Isinvisible. His debut cassette release earlier this spring was a bubbling cauldron of pure analog bliss and on “The Level Crossing” he continues that vibe to stunning effect. You can practically see blinking lights, wires crossing, and a circuital world forming right before your eyes as the song plays on. Espectrostatic’s “The Locust Accord” is all sinister dark grooves with an almost NIN vibe. Imagine “The Perfect Drug” slowed down to a shadowy crawl with an almost Brothers Grimm twisted fairy tale feel.

Elsewhere, Cory Kilduff’s “LV426” emotes with an almost melancholy feel. It’s lifted from his excellent re-scoring of Ridley Scott’s Alien and it works perfectly as a Goth reinterpretation to Jerry Goldsmith’s more sparse, cold score. Timothy Fife’s “Erotic Rites” is inspired by old school Giallo of the sultry  variety and it works incredibly well. Fife can go from moody swirls of Berlin School to Mario Bava-inspired melodrama at the drop of a hat. Here he takes the moody Giallo path to wonderful effect.

New to me, Ian Alex Mac’s “Winona ’88” amps up the hard-driving sound of 80s-inspired film music. He melds perfectly both 80s synth pop radio sounds and the work of Tangerine Dream into a perfect mix of mood and feel. Harglow’s “Candle Wax” crank up the industrial drive, putting me more in mind of early work by Skinny Puppy or Nine Inch Nails than anything on a John Hughes film. Closing out the set is worriedaboutsatan’s “Figures, Data”. These two guys are the kings of subtlety, building an almost ambient world through careful sound design and a slow burn dedication to creating mood. It’s a stunning finish to an overall exhilarating musical journey.

Communion is a stunning music trip. It is both an impressive display of the talent Burning Witches Records has brought together under one roof, as well as masterfully-curated compilation that could be the lost soundtrack to that movie you never knew you wanted to see.

It’ll be the coolest mixtape in your collection, too.

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RSD 2018 : Early Bird Gets The Weird-Shaped Vinyl

Every year when Record Store Day comes around I find myself in bed around 6:30 am on a Saturday morning wondering if I really want to get up out of bed and venture to a record shop and wait in the cold. With each passing birthday and newly sore muscle and joint I really ponder whether I’m gonna jump in the van and celebrate this thing called Record Store Day. This year was no different and like every year before it I grumble and moan out of bed, throw on some clothes and put on a hat to cover my balding head and make my way to that chilly line in front of the record shop and wait till 8am. The doors open and everyone makes their way into the warm record shop and like sharks we attack those milk crates full of exclusive records. The moaning subsides as I leaf through and find things I wanted and things I didn’t realize I wanted until they meet my eyes. I mingle with others, talk to the record store owners, and have a sense of ease and calm come over me. I’m then happy I rolled out of my warm bed where my lovely wife and little dog keep on quietly sleeping and dreaming.

This year was no different.

No grand gestures here, no contemplative thesis on the meaning of vinyl and what it means to me. I leave the warm embrace of a Saturday morning in bed so I can share a few moments with strangers and grab records I can then return to home with and spin them as I sip on a cup of coffee and talk to my wife who sits on the couch listening with me.

I think that says it all, folks.

What did you pick up?

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Record Store Day 2018 : 11 Years Of Vinyl Love

I grew up with vinyl.

Some of my first memories are of my dad changing records on a Zenith console stereo in the basement as my parents and their friends drank longnecks, smoked, and played pool all the while Led Zeppelin, The Doors, ZZ Top, and Three Dog Night spun on the turntable. I recall bugging my mom to put on The Beatles’ White Album so I could hear “Back In The U.S.S.R.” on the upstairs stereo. Then as the song faded out and “Dear Prudence” came in I’d ask her to play it over again(my love for “Dear Prudence” would come later.) I would go with my dad into town sometimes. Usually in the hopes that we’d take his 1977 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am. That car felt like a spaceship to me. On these trips into town we’d either end up at a Napa auto parts(cause we owned a Pontiac Trans Am) store or Butterfly Records so my dad could grab a vinyl of some album he was told he’d like(usually by someone at work.) The one trip to Butterfly Records that always sticks out in my mind is when my dad bought Alice Cooper’s Welcome To My Nightmare. My older brother and I went with him. I can recall sitting in the backseat of the Firebird holding that record and looking at Alice Cooper, full regalia staring back at me. It freaked me out. My older brother kept whispering “Don’t look at him too long or he’ll come out of the cover and get you.” As the song “Steven” played I can remember staring down the dark hallway from the living room waiting for Alice Cooper to appear. Whenever I’d hear that song I’d always imagine the opening sequence to Night Gallery as well. A kaleidoscope of madness running over and over in my head. It would play on repeat in my mind as that song would play.

As I got older the first album I bought with my own money was not on vinyl, but cassette. I bought Ratt’s Out of the Cellar when I was 10 years old.  It was Butterfly Records once again, only this time they were hooking me up instead of my dad. Cassettes were my first foray into music consumption, but when I was 13 my parents bought me my own console stereo. It was one of those all-in-one jobs from Soundesign. There was a dual cassette deck, AM/FM stereo, and a turntable. It had tower speakers and the stereo was in a faux wood cabinet complete with wheels. This was Christmas of 1986. I was on Christmas break and the day after Christmas my mom took me to Butterfly Records(of course) so I could spend some Christmas money. My brother had bought me Judas Priest’s Unleashed In The East on vinyl, so I could break that crappy Soundesign tonearm in of course. Being in a Judas Priest mood I picked up their album Screaming For Vengeance. I also bought Vinnie Vincent Invasion’s self-titled(don’t judge.) I picked up a couple more vinyl throughout the next few months before cassettes took over once again.

Cassettes filled my music urges till the summer of 1992 when I boxed them all up and began the CD binge. That would last for the next 16 years until in the fall of 2008 when I got the ridiculous urge to start collecting vinyl. Maybe it was nostalgia, maybe it was hearing about this “Record Store Day” craziness, or maybe it was a brain tumor; whatever it was I followed the little voice in my head. I bought an Audio Technica AT-PL120 and I’ve never looked back. I actually bought my first two records a couple months before I bought the turntable. On an October trip to Chicago to see My Morning Jacket, my wife and I headed to Jazz Record Mart where I bought Wes Montgomery’s Smokin’ at the Half Note and McCoy Tyner’s The Real McCoy. I guess I was calling my own bluff. “You said you wanted to collect records, well here you go. Now you HAVE to buy a turntable.”

The first Record Store Day celebration I attended was RSD 2010. I headed to Fort Wayne with my 5-year old son and we made our way to the North Anthony Wooden Nickel. The place was packed. There was coffee and chocolate chip cookies being served(my son was thrilled about the cookies.) I got to see Wooden Satellites perform. I didn’t buy any of the RSD exclusives. The one I wanted was Wilco’s Kicking Television 4LP boxset, but I didn’t have the $75 large for that acquisition. I ended up buying a used copy of Elvis Costello and the Attractions’ Armed Forces and a signed copy of Matthew Sweet’s Blue Sky On Mars for my wife.  For some reason I missed out on RSD 2011, but RSD 2012 I ended up back in Fort Wayne(this time with my 9-year old daughter) and we hit Neat Neat Neat Records. It was already after 9am so they were pretty much picked over. I still ended up with an Of Montreal/Deerhoof split and bought Wooden Shjips’ West LP. There was coffee and donut holes(my daughter was thrilled about the donut holes.) What I’d really wanted that year was The Flaming Lips’ The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends, but NNN was out of it and so was the North Anthony Wooden Nickel. As we made our way out of the Fort we made one last stop at the Clinton Street Wooden Nickel and low and behold there was one copy of Heady Fwends waiting there(just for me, obviously.)

Since 2013 I’ve celebrated Record Store Day right here in my hometown. Karma Records of Warsaw, which is run by John Vance and a small crew of very cool folks, have striven to make Warsaw a cool place to spend your cash on the Christmas of music buying days. Much like Neat Neat Neat Records’ Morrison Agen and Wooden Nickel’s Bob Roets, John is a music lover first and foremost. I can remember meeting John over ten years ago when he worked at the Sam Goody here in town. Even then he was passionate about music, even if half his job was putting out action figures and DVDs, while the other half was dealing with music. John started out with his Record Store Day quantities being rather small, but he’s built it up year after year. The line outside Karma at 7:30 AM went from a handful of folks to 30 to 40 people by the time the door opens. I loved hitting NNN and Wooden Nickel in the past, but driving an hour wasn’t as much fun. And if I wanted a chance to get something I needed to leave sooner.  John Vance and Karma Records of Warsaw have made Record Store Day something special, and just ten minutes away from my house.

Tomorrow, April 21st, I’ll be celebrating Record Store Day 2018 at Karma Records in Warsaw for the 5th year in a row, and with the usual crew of misfits and music nerds. I’ll rub elbows with familiar faces and new ones. I’ll(hopefully) grab those exclusives I’ve been dreaming about, and maybe grab a surprise or two. I’ll work my way back to the family van and head home to spin my vinyl acquisitions with a freshly brewed cup of dark roast and maybe fall back asleep in my chair for a bit.

I grew up on vinyl. And it seems I’m growing old with it, too.

 

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Happy 4/20, Now Get Some Sleep

As if some bleary-eyed, cosmic stoner wish came true, the Kush Gods have bestowed upon the universe, on this 20th of April 2018, the best possible scenario any stoner/doom fuzz fan could ever hope for: Sleep have dropped a new album into your pipe.

Commence smoking it.

We’ve heard hints, rumors, and allegations for years now that the stoner/doom metal Godfathers were working on new music. Though they broke up nearly 20 years ago it was never because the guys didn’t get along. It was more out frustration for the clusterfuck that was the several failed attempts at releasing Dopesmoker in its single hour-long form. But in 2009, after Pike had found great success with High on Fire and Al Cisneros and Chris Hakius found equal success with Om, the band reformed with Jason Roeder on drums and intermittently played shows and got together to work on new, dank riffs and vibes. In 2014 they released the single “The Clarity”, which showed Sleep still at the top of their form.

Now, as if some higher power were listening in on a joke between two stoned metal fans,(“Could you imagine man, if like, Sleep released a new record on 4/20??” “Oh shit, man. That would be kick ass!”) today a new Sleep album has indeed dropped from the indica-colored skies. The Sciences is the first new Sleep record in almost 20 years(Dopesmoker was released in 1999.) The record is out via Jack White’s Third Man Records and is accessible on all streaming platforms and should be at your local brick and mortar today(just keep that shit on the down low when you nonchalantly ask if they have a copy for you behind the counter, you dig?)

How does it sound, you wonder? It sounds like Sleep, so it sounds great! I’ll post a review soon. For now, I’m just going to sit in the haze for a bit longer while the coffee is kicking in.

All hail Iommi.

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Bryce Miller : Operator

It’s always a thrill to come across an album that makes music seem exciting and intriguing just when you think you’ve heard it all. The electronic/heavy synth genre has had a massive resurgence over the last few years. Coming from a place where I love the world of synth and electronic music this is a very good thing to my ears. I’m inspired by these circuit and tube-built worlds where dystopian landscapes, grimy city streets, and desolate space can converge, sometimes even in the same song. There are far too many artists building musical worlds that I love to mention here. I’ll just say that I’m honored to have interviewed quite a few and learn about their process.

Anyways, back to that album I mentioned.

I recently was introduced to the music of Bryce Miller and I’m very happy regarding that introduction. Miller works in the world of film music and design, where his music and sounds are used in film trailers. But if his 2015 album Operator is any indication he should be doing entire films. If you’re familiar with Disasterpeace, Cliff Martinez, Reznor/Ross, and Tangerine Dream then you’ll be right at home on this album. Operator is a dizzying array of 80s movie references, as well as noisier circuit-fed distortion and headier 70s Berlin School fare with a heaping dose of dark synth.

“Voltage” is short and sweet. A melancholy blip of synthetic bubbling and wavering keys that lead into “Ampere”. “Ampere” is full-on sci fi, deep space groove. It’s a mixture of 80s Edgar Froese with more modern touches, ala Ben Lovett’s Synchronicity score. There’s wonky vibes in the underlying synth line, while a slick melody is placed over top to keep things from drifting away. Deft sonic touches make this a beautiful track to get lost in. “Operator” is driven by a late night techno rhythm that is colored in a sweaty disco sheen. A clean key line keeps the track from getting too down and dirty. There seems to be all kinds of moods and emotions fighting to set the vibe here, which makes this track rather mysterious. “Circuit” puts me in the neon decade. The DX-7 sound of the synth, along with that menacing bubbling underneath the melody takes me back to some nondescript Friday or Saturday evening  back in my adolescence watching some questionable film I rented. I’m sure killer androids, time travel, and a scantily-clad heroine were involved.

Everywhere on this album there’s a turn to some magical spot that reminds me of growing up on video cassettes. Each weekend it was some other ancient video cassette box I was renting, most of them covered in dust and grime. Some horror, some sci-fi, and most were probably on the Video Nasties list. But despite the schlock-y horror and blatantly exploitative violence and nudity, there was almost always an earnest and emotive score created with magical boxes called synthesizers. They were the hardwired heart and soul of these films. Bryce Miller would have built some serious film score creds in the 80s.

Elsewhere, “Transistor” beeps and blips its way through like some recently-awakened android, while “Static” is absolute analog dread, building tension to maximum levels in just under 2 minutes. “Polarity” feels oddly triumphant in its densely-layered wall of electronic symphony. “Element” has the sonic touches of Tangerine Dream’s late 80s film work, but with a darker backbone and slightly more sinister intent. I could imagine this as end credit music, or listening to this overlooking the ocean. Or another planet.

Operator was meant as a concept album of sorts, with Miller going thru the process of showing, through music, how the mind processes information. If you’re listening to this on cassette(which was released on Cinematic Disco Records here) it works as two parts, with “Part 1” being side one and “Part 2” being side two. It’s a stunning work, both in the scope of the concept and in the execution of composition. But don’t worry, if the concept seems too heady just hit play, grab a beer, and let the songs blanket over you for a bit. It’s a great zone out album, too.

Bryce Miller’s Operator is a beautiful musical work built on a foundation of classic 70s Berlin School, classic 80s film music, and modern sounds. But with all next-level work, it’s tied together by the mind of a truly innovative and original artist. Bryce Miller is that. In the heavy synth resurgence, Miller’s Operator stands very well on its own.

7.9 out of 10