June 2009 Music Log

I am just about convinced that Trout Mask Replica is undoubtedly the very best rock album of all time. Last night, I was in a very agreeable state of mind and listened to the album on earphones at full blast. My God, did it raise every hair on my body. It hit me like an exorcism. Suddenly, all the more or less literal reactions I'd had were replaced by acceptance of (or acquiescence to) Beefheart's completely abstract form. It became completely, and in the fullest sense of the word, cerebral music. This is music of the brain and how it processes feelings -- the way water runs down cracks in the street, all in different directions, but all flowing uniformly by the same natural law. The music captures as best I know the process of making art while still being the finished product: you experience Beefheart's mind (or any mind for that matter) processing and computing information. This is truly a masterpiece -- brain music.

Must pick up albums by 23 Skidoo immediately! "Formed in 1979 by Fritz Catlin, and brothers Johnny and Alex Turnbull, 23 Skidoo had interests in martial arts, Burundi and Kodo drumming, Fela Kuti, The Last Poets, William S. Burroughs, as well as the emerging confluence of industrial, post-punk and funk, heard in artists such as A Certain Ratio, Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, The Pop Group and This Heat." Scaruffi writes: "23 Skidoo's fusion of dark-punk, world-music, minimalism, funk and industrial music was way ahead of its time."

Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh, Magma (1973) This album is hilarious. Prog-rock meets Broadway musical. Apparently, it's all sung in the fictional language of Kobaïan and tells some sort of Christian apocalypse sci-fi story. Should be fun listening.

Good, Morphine (1993). Hard to see this why this is a rock masterpiece, better than Zen Arcade or Double Nickels on the Dime or most albums made in 1984, let alone Blonde on Blonde! Part of the problem is there's no standout song. The title is an apt indication of the music inside -- good, good, resolutely and uniformly good. I like atmospheric music as much as anyone else but if we're rating just how consistently good something is, then Dark Side on the Moon surely deserves better than a 6.5! I'm beginning to think Scaruffi ups the rating on anything that reminds him of the terrorist clarinet in Trout Mask, as the sax definitely does here on occasion. What a bunch of malarkey! 7.5

Electro-Shock Blues, Eels (1998) An unflinchingly honest album about terrible loss. The first song is so brave both musically and lyrically that any discomfort it causes is a testament to its harrowing truth. Everett may never equal this, and in many ways, it's a divine fluke in his catalog (his other efforts have not impressed me as much). It's resoundingly creative, too: with each new digital layer (whether booming bass, clear-headed organ, warm strings, classical violins, sleigh bells, jazzy horns, alien synth loops), a goosebump is induced. I especially love the noisy blips and squeaks of "Cancer for the Cure" and the pure songwriting genius of "3 Speed" (Neil Young, you have competition). For all the comparisons to Beck, I don't think the former has come remotely close to the emotional power of this. And listen to those lyrics tearing apart everyone with the skill and grace of a surgeon. Knowing the backstory behind this album may help, but I think anyone could feel this on a deep level. "P.S. You Rock My World" ends the album on such a positive, inspiring note that really strikes a chord in me. So much of what makes life unlivable is self-generated stress and worry; we could do without it a bit more. 8.0

Paix, Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes (1972) Every once in a blue moon, you find an artist unacknowledged on Scaruffi's website. Fortunately, that's where RYM comes in. Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes are a very intriguing group, who have already racked up some impressive chart rankings. The agreed-upon genre is avant-folk, but not being too familiar with this genre, I cannot say how faithful it is. Either way, it's certainly worth a listen. You can hear echoes of Tangerine Dream and Pink Floyd in the long tracks, but the curiosity is that it's mostly played with non-electronic, folk instruments and emphasizes the soaring (yet earthy and sensuous) vocals of Ribeiro.

"Roc Alpin" opens with a "la-la-la-la-la", a sorta Krauty pop song, but this is French folks. It's a pleasant, somewhat unmemorable ditty with a lovely synth chorus. "Jusqu'a ce que la force de t'aime" is another gorgeous tune, a bit more striking. There is a sadness in the music.

The title track is a standout, all right, and I highly recommend everyone to get acquainted with it. It zooms by its 15 1/2 minutes. A steady tribal rhythm pulses in the background in perfect metronomic fashion. The guitar and organ take their time filling the gaps with a heartfelt melody. The tone is essentially psychedelic rock, infused with traditional European folk (my best guess), but spanned out and meditated upon as in trance or electronica. Ribeiro eventually enters the picture, and she seems to be talking or acting out the lines, and around 9:40, she starts wailing like Tim Buckley, as the organ swells. The guitars begin gyrating and the jam turns transcendental. The flickering organ and humming drumming remind me again of cosmic music. Around 12:50, Ribeiro returns and her powerful, full-lunged, and emotional singing of the melody is impressive. The whole band effort is singularly "together" and the music flows so magically that you lose track of the time. This enchanted track just might give me goosebumps after repeated listens. The song ends in a King Crimson-esque car crash.

"Un Jour... La Mort", a 24 minute epic, commences with a frail, fragile loop for two minutes. Then--huh? We have what appears to be the melody that accompanied HI's dream sequence in the end of Raising Arizona, while there is a reverby bass plucking predating Angelo Badalementi. Weird. Not sure if that makes this original or precedential, but definitely a plus in my book. At four minutes, Ribeiro begins singing, letting her voice fill the room, in broad, dramatic strokes, again quite like Tim Buckley. Credit must go to her ability to hold the non-French-understanding listener's attention. At 10 minutes and a half, this thing suddenly changes pace. The nearly saloon-esque keyboard and the quivering-violinesque-instrument sweep you up in a blustery autumnal jam. Ribeiro returns with impassioned acting/singing. I enjoy the melody going on from this point forward, while the quivering instrument takes you on a cerebral journey. The guitar journeys alone at 18 minutes before segueing back to our starting place. Ribeiro is screaming in the background (it could almost pass for crows or baby shrieking really) for her "Mama" (I think). Odd stuff, maybe pretentious. I have no idea how to rate it yet.

Entertainment!, Gang of Four (1979) This is a more accessible version of what Pop Group does (especially in the intro to "At Home He's a Tourist"). Political slogans are seamlessly lyricized and a funkiness prevails (though, sadly without the dub and psychotic vocals and pure ecstasy). It's insanely catchy -- I mean like wickedly, brilliantly catchy. This is like Black Sabbath. Any indie outfit who hears this will want to copy the sound. It certainly helps that these boys are humorous, in contrast to Stewart's solemn sermons. It's hard to pinpoint a standout song because they are all consistently tight (~4/5 stars the whole album). My general faves are probably the Beefheartian herky-jerkiness of "Ether", "Not Great Men" (makes me think of Bush and Cheney), the spider bass in "Damaged Goods", the noisy guitar meshing of "Guns Before Butter", the heightened outrage of "5-45" (guerilla war struggle is a new entertainment, indeed). And no sane individual can repel the charm of "I Found That Essence Rare" and the feedback opening solo of the deadly "Anthrax". The political conscience of some punks in the 70's makes me wonder why so little has changed in society and government: nearly every diatribe rings a modern bell. 7.5

Family Entertainment, Family (1969) Not quite as good as Music in a Doll's House, but there are some great songs. The delivery is more subtle, and the songwriting feels deeper (for lack of a better word). "Observations from a Hill" is probably the best song. Also stirring is "How-Hi-the-Li" with the organ and jazzy sax and Chapman's superb vocals. The closer "Emotions" is equally wonderful, sounding like the brave face of the dying 60's. 7.0

Psychocandy, Jesus and Mary Chain (1985) The album is terribly repetitive. The pop songs, by themselves, are very average. The vocalist is too unoriginal to set himself apart from other moody 80's singers. And the noise is the only interesting part, which tells you that it's a gimmick. Noise-pop sounds good in theory and sometimes in practice (Pixies "Surfer Rosa"), but if you're going to do noise, why not make music that evolves out of the noise and feedback (like Butthole Surfers) instead of conforming it to hackneyed pop. I mean I heard melodies on this that would make Miley Cyrus and even U2 proud. And as Scaruffi said, nothing here is original. Velvets did this thing before and much better with White Light/White Heat.
Disappointment. 5.5

+++The Modern Dance, Pere Ubu (1978) . A stone-cold classic. One of the most emotional, meaningful, and truly creative albums in existence. I will write a longer review when I get a chance. 9.5