Kaki King – Everybody Loves You (2003)

My introduction to Kaki King was a performance on Conan in 2003 or 2004.  It began inauspiciously; one young girl with her head down, hair hiding her face from the camera, slouched over an acoustic guitar held flat in her lap.  Without a word of introduction she began to play, and the sound was something I hadn’t heard before.  The song was from this, her debut album, on which every track but the last features only her solo acoustic guitar.  King often plays percussively, making liberal use of slapping and striking.  She also favors harmonic runs over traditionally strummed chords, lending the denser pieces a fragile ornamentation.  Critics have cited the lack of conventional melody as a weakness of this piece, but that seems unfair – this type of playing is more about texture and timbre than melody, though it is much more akin to folk than twelve tone music.  Those who characterize the acoustic guitar as an intimate or tender instrument may have trouble adjusting to the heady contents of this album.
I’d lost track of Kaki King in the last several years, and in doing a bit of research for this post, I found that she tours with a full band these days, and has played with the likes of the Foo Fighters and Tegan & Sara.  I’ll have to check out her latest sometime.

[YouTube] Kaki King – Close Your Eyes and You’ll Burst into Flames

Kaki King – Everybody Loves You
01 - Kewpie Station
02 - Steamed Little Juicy Bun
03 - Carmine St.
04 - Night after Sidewalk
05 - Happy As a Dead Pig In The Sunshine
06 - The Exhibition
07 - Close Your Eyes and You'll Burst Into Flames
08 - Joi
09 - Everybody Loves You
10 - Fortuna

Carpathian Forest – Fuck You All!!! Caput Tuum In Ano Est [2006]

Time for some fucking metal!  Carpathian Forest built their reputation on keeping black metal stripped down and primitive, the Great Black Hope for kvlt kids who scoffed as their once-favorite band had the temerity to grow and evolve.  However, Fuck You All!!! is punky, chunky, rock n’ roll oriented black metal that keeps riffs short and makes blastbeats a tool instead of the whole trade.  Those same kids were probably pissed upon hearing it, and with a latin subtitle that translates roughly to “Your head is up your ass,” it’s pretty obvious that the band didn’t care. 

[Youtube] Carpathian Forest – Diabolism (live version)

[MySpace] http://www.myspace.com/blackshiningleather

Carpathian Forest – Fuck You All!!! Caput Tuum In Ano Est

01 - Vi Apner Porten Til Helvete

02 - The Frostbitten Woodlands of Norway

03 - Start Up the Incinerator (Here Comes Another Useless Fool)

04 - Submit to Satan!!!

05 - Diabolism (The Seed and the Sower)

06 - Dypfryst Dette Er Mit Helvete

07 - Everyday I Must Suffer

08 - The First Cut is The Deepest

09 - Evil Egocentrical Existentialism

10 - Shut Up, There No Excuse to Live

Guillaume Dufay – Chansons [Performed by Ensemble Unicorn, 1996]

Guillaume Dufay was a fifteenth century composer who worked for most of his life in northern France.  Regarded even in his lifetime as that era's premiere composer, Dufay’s oeuvre contains elements of both the high Medieval and early Renaissance, managing the difficult balancing act of innovating while staying rooted in tradition, and getting contemporaries to appreciate it.

The songs presented on this album are secular, and consequently are more forward-looking.  The track list alternates between instrumental and vocal performances, though it must be said that the vocal pieces best display the rich and tuneful polyphony for which Dufay is known.  The instrumental tracks muddy the interplay of voices (at least to my uncouth modern ear), but the use of period instruments is still a treat.

[Youtube] Dufay - Ce Jour De L'an 

Guillaume Dufay – Chansons

01 - J'ay Mis Mon Cue

02 - Par Droit Je Puis Bien Complaindre

03 - Quel Fronte Signorille - La Dolce Vista

04 - Puisque Vous Estez Campieur

05 - Belle, Que Vous Ay Je Mesfait

06 - Vergene Bella

07 - Se La Face Ay Pale

08 - Donnes L'assault À Ia Fortresse

09 - Par Le Regard De Vos Beaux Yeux

10 - Resvelons Nous

11 - Ce Jour De L'an

12 - Mon Chier Amy

13 - Pour L'amour De Ma Doulce Amye

14 - Helas Mon Dueil

15 - Bon Jour, Bon Mois

16 - Resvelliés Vous Et Faites Chiere Lye

17 - Adieu Ces Bons Vins De Lannoys

Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins – Rabbit Fur Coat [2005]

Critics will tell you that Jenny Lewis has a voice that is too sweet for an alt-country chanteuse.  They’re not wrong – Lewis does have a sweet voice, but don’t get that confused with weak.  I like the pack-a-day drawl of some of country’s underground matriarchs, but the intimate atmosphere of this record is engendered in no small part by keeping the drama in the lyrics, not in her voice.  For all of the darkness in the libretto – autobiographical tales of broken families, grappling with apostasy – it is never grim.  That’s a  tough trick to pull off.

[YouTube] Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins – Rise Up with Fists

 [MySpace] http://www.myspace.com/jennylewismusic

[Official Site] http://www.jennylewis.com/

Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins – Rabbit Fur Coat

 01 - Run Devil Run

02 - The Big Guns

03 - Rise Up With Fists

04 - Happy

05 - The Charging Sky

06 - Melt Your Heart

07 - You Are What You Love

08 - Rabbit Fur Coat

09 - Handle With Care

10 - Born Secular

11 - It Wasn't Me

12 - Happy (Reprise)

Error [2004]

Error is a studio project helmed by Atticus Ross of 12 Rounds and NIN, his brother Leo, and Brett Gurewitz from Bad Religion and founder of Epitaph records.  What’s more, they managed to entice Greg Puciato from Dillinger Escape Plan to undertake vocal duties.  What I love about this EP is that each artist adds what I like best about him to each track.  Each song contains a memorable hook thanks to Mr. Brett’s songwriting, which is then sliced and diced into a digital cacophony of cutup guitar riffs and urgent jungle-influenced beats by the Ross brothers.  The vocals are wisely left unprocessed, giving a sense of cohesiveness and melodic contour to songs that might have been too hard to decipher for the punks who don’t typically listen to digital hardcore flavored aggro.  Not to mention, it’s Greg Puciato!  Why would you fuck with his voice?

It’s a damn shame that Error left us with only this five track EP and little hope for future releases.  Still, considering NIN’s imminent hiatus, there is a slim possibility that there may be some life left in this project yet.  Yeah, right after the third 12 Rounds album drops.

[YouTube] Burn in Hell and Jack the Ripper

Error

01 - Nothing's Working

02 – Homicide (999 cover)

03 - Burn In Hell

04 - Jack The Ripper

05 - Brains Out

Trollfest – Villanden [2009]

As you can see from the album cover above, Trollfest is not a band that takes itself too seriously.  The lyrics, which are a combination of two languages I don’t know and one that’s made up, are purportedly about drinking, trolls, and drinking too much.  I like all three of those things, so I can’t help but dig this album.  Unlike Finntroll, to whom Trollfest is often compared, there are no synthesized sounds (at least that I can discern) on this album.  Instead, the horns, accordion, and acoustic strings are all the real deal.  For some reason, this goes down easier than Finntroll’s arguably more catchy tunes.  The only drawback in my mind is the unrelenting death metal vocals which can dampen much of the melodic content of the songs, as they are always foremost in the mix and rarely silent.

[YouTube] Trollfest – Der Jegermeister

[MySpace] http://www.myspace.com/trollfest

Trollfest – Villanden [2009]

01 - Wo Bin Ich Jetz Aufgewacht

02 - Der Jegermeister

03 - Uraltes Elemente

04 - Villanden

05 - Per, Pål Og Brakebeins Abenteuer

06 - Das Uhr Ist Skandaløst Schändlich

07 - God Fart

08 - Festival

09 - En Ny Erfaring

10 - Trinkenvisen

11 - Die Kirche Undt Der Mache

The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble – Mutations EP [2009]

The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble’s first self-titled LP on Ad Noiseam sounds like what you would expect from a jazz band on a dark electro label – plaintive horns atop subterranean drones and subdued violins, underpinned with percussion that weaves between quiet brush strokes and clicky IDM.  It’s good stuff, but I wasn’t terribly excited by the band until I heard this year’s Mutations EP.  

Mutations sheds much of the jazz trappings from the first album favor of languorous tones, acoustic and electric, draped over minimal electronic percussion.  I can’t disagree with anyone who would call this a collection of ambient music – on paper it certainly sounds like it - but ambient to me has always equated to “low impact” and this is anything but.  Lush sweeps of sound slide slowly atop each other like cirrus clouds, evoking candlelight and shadow and humid summer nights.  Each song is impelled by the largely unobtrusive percussion that nevertheless manages to help build the tracks to a climax that is subtle and so long in coming that when the harmonic or melodic tension is resolved, it comes as a surprise to the listener just how invested he or she had become in the buildup.

TKDE have a new album, Here be Dragons, coming out in October, for which this EP is intended to be a bridge.  Download this, and then preorder that when you find out how great this is.

[Youtube] The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble – Shadows

[MySpace] http://www.myspace.com/tkde

  

The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble – Mutations EP

01 - Caos Calmo

02 - München

03 - Serpents

04 - Twisted Horizons

05 - Shadows

06 - Symmetry of 6's

07 - Horns of King David

08 - Avian Lung

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – Cow Fingers and Mosquito Pie [1991; compilation of songs from the 1950s]

Jay Hawkins is oftentimes regarded as the first ‘shock rocker’ and there may be something to the claim. He’s remembered as much for his voodoo-themed stage shows, which opened with Hawkins rising from a coffin and brandishing a staff mounted with a smoking skull named Henry (and when I say smoking, I mean a cigarette), as he is for his musical output. There’s nothing particularly special about the R&B and early rock n’ roll that forms the foundation for each tune on this album, but what has made Hawkins enduring as well as endearing is his outlandish vocal delivery, which ranges from a melodramatic vibrato to howls and guttural grunts. It’s shtick, pure and simple, but the lightheartedness and sense of joy in each song is irresistible. Even though the minor hit, Constipation Blues doesn’t appear on in this collection, the disc is still guaranteed to cure a shitty day.

YouTube - Live Performance of I Put A Spell On You

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – Cow Fingers and Mosquito Pie

01 - Little Demon

02 - You Ain't Foolin' Me

03 - I Put A Spell On You

04 - You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want To Do It)

05 - Yellow Coat

06 - Hong Kong

07 - There's Something Wrong With You

08 - I Love Paris

09 - Orange Colored Sky

10 - Alligator Wine

11 - Darling, Please Forgive Me

12 - Take Me Back To My Boots And Saddle

13 - Temptation

14 - Frenzy

15 - Person To Person

16 - Little Demon (Alternate Take)

17 - I Put Spell On You (Alternate Take)

18 - There's Something Wrong With You (Alternate Take)

19 - Alligator Wine (Alternate Take)

Meg Lee Chin – Piece and Love [1999]

Contrary to popular opinion, Invisible Records has hosted some amazing bands over the years (though I don’t really consider Pigface to be one). One of my favorites is solo artist Meg Lee Chin, who has unfortunately released only one full-length LP of original material. This is 1999’s Piece and Love, a short but sweet ride through prime nineties techno-industrial rock. The album sidesteps coldwave territory by keeping guitars spare and largely in the background. The focus of most songs are on the percussion (no surprise on a Martin Atkins-produced disc) and on Meg’s voice, which admittedly isn’t special, but can deliver the pop hooks that really make this album stand out from the pack. I don’t really think this is the best album to come from the Invisible roster, but it certainly is one that best balances accessibility, songcraft, and some very crisp production values.

MySpace for Meg Lee Chin

Meg Lee Chin – Piece and Love [1999]
01 - Thing

02 - Heavy Scene
03 - Nutopia
04 - Sweat
05 - Swallowing You
06 - Sweet Thing
07 - Bottle
08 - London
09 - Deeper
10 - Swallowing You [Subgenius Mix]

Needle Sharing – My Kind Came First [2001]

Roland Danielzig, the man behind Needle Sharing, is a friend of Panacea’s Mathias Mootz, and it’s not difficult to see why. Both projects feature heavily distorted drum ‘n bass beats over spacey and discordant samples. My Kind Came First has even been accused of being Low Profile Darkness Jr. four years too late, but the accusation is unfair. Needle Sharing’s disc trims away a lot of the late 90s/early 00s dnb trappings – you won’t find the squiggly subbass or hoover sweeps that date Panacea’s records of the same era. Instead, the beats are monolithic, the melody minimal, and bass clipped. My Kind Came First gained a lot of traction with the powernoise crowd, though for some reason I don’t hear it talked about much today. Hopefully that just means I’m hanging out with the wrong crowd, because this album sounds just as fresh today as it did 8 years ago.

Note: If the tracklisting comes across as homophobic, take comfort in the knowledge that the titles are ironic; Danielzig has verified on several occasions that he is in fact a “huge queer.”

[YouTube] Needle Sharing - Yellow Pages

Needle Sharing – My Kind Came First [2001]

01 - Kick Start
02 - Yellow Pages (Task-Force-Mix)
03 - Overload
04 - Club Empty
05 - Gay Crisis
06 - Post Trauma
07 - Club Empty (Gay-Bashers United mix by Panacea)
08 - My Kind