New music

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/08/2017 (3300 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

POP & ROCK

Nicole Atkins
Goodnight Rhonda Lee (Single Lock Records)

We had kind of lost track of this tiny powerhouse singer/songwriter since her first couple of albums but her latest, the elegant and earthy Goodnight Rhonda Lee reveals that this gal has maintained her uniqueness.

Atkins is a true independent and you won’t find too many singers using their voice the way she does — without affectation and wonderfully nimble at striking emotionality and force without being severe.

The album opens with the sparkling A Little Crazy where Atkins channels the ascending cool of Roy Orbison and while this heavy ballad is an unusual choice to begin the set it does make the listener really take pause.

Atkins went through some deep, life-changing events during the conception of this album and it shows.

The bouncy Muscle Shoals soul crackle of Darkness Falls So Quiet and Brokedown Luck has Atkins singing confidently above tight grooves. If I Could, I Love Living Here (Even When I Don’t) and Sleepwalking all reach back to a still significant ’60s-inspired girl group vibe in a way that is less pastiche than a new template for this way of singing.

Atkins has left her childhood home of Neptune City, N.J., behind for the musical hotbed of Nashville and that uprooting is detailed beautifully in I Love Living Here (Even When I Don’t) where she sings “neon signs welcome you home, all the lights have blown out and old, broken down palaces by the oceanside, I love living here, even when I don’t.” She comes home to feel regret at the change of scene and the feeling that the only path forward is to cut free from her past completely and become a tourist in her own home town. GRL hits the win column with style. Buy this.

★★★★★ out of five

STREAM: Brokedown Luck, Goodnight Rhonda Lee

— Jeff Monk

 

---

 

POP & ROCK

Figure Walking
The Big Other (Independent)

Figure Walking is essentially the new name for the Greg MacPherson Band, boiled down to the duo of singer/guitarist Macpherson and drummer Rob Gardiner. Together they balance Gardiner’s surging rhythms with MacPherson’s baritone guitar to make hypnotic, muscular yet eminently danceable post-punk.

Sometimes the sound recalls the angular intensity of Gang of Four, at others it stirs memories of The Clash’s best rabble-rousing tendencies but the uniting elements are Gardiner’s exquisite precision and MacPherson’s soaring voice, which he modulates into an earnest, yearning tenor. With such solid foundations, the songs soar on the strength of MacPherson’s musings on same-sex relationships, militarism, colonialism and the struggle to make sense of and find some hope in the midst of it all.

Opener Sounds is an intense, keening exploration of unease in a theatre of war, Summer Haze is a fuzz-guitar-laden evocation of emotional uncertainty, and the ringing melody of Blue World invokes images of West Broadway and the West End while pledging that “we will do what can to believe in ourselves and to take something from the mistakes we’ve made.”

Victorious, which directly addresses racism and the horrific fate of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, is the centerpiece of The Big Other but there’s also a lot to be said for Singapore, a vivid song about longing and lust sung by guest vocalist Hailey Primrose.

Figure Walking plays play Aug. 10 at The Good Will. ★★★★

Stream: Sounds, Summer Haze, Singapores

— John Kendle

<a href=”http://disintegrationrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-big-other”>The Big Other by Figure Walking</a>

 

---

 

POP / ROCK

Lee Bains III + The Glory Fires
Youth Detention (Nail My Feet Down To The Southside Of Town) (Don Giovanni Records)

Without a doubt the new super long player by Alabama indie punk shakers Lee Bains III + The Glory Fires is perhaps the singularly most exciting album to roll across our player this year so far.

Bains was formerly in southern rock revivalist combo The Dexateens but for three albums now he has provided the kind of fired up and hyper articulate cacophony of sounds that makes album listening exciting again. To describe Bains as a literate rocker is to perhaps sell him short by half and there is more going on here than first meets the ear.

The Glory Fires, a name that is a bastardization of their former monicker as The Glen Iris Glorifiers, hammer down a blindingly diverse din that has a coarse and quasi-sloppy, we-don’t-care, punkish rock and roll attitude. On top of this tumult of barre chords and riffs come Bains’ lyrics and his Roky Erickson-like, adenoidal way of singing.

More common song structure is shunted to allow the writer to exercise his beat poetry-like style and Bains has the aptitude of a professional word slinger here. “There we sat in fluorescent haloes, the tiny flowering redemptions of sharecroppers and miners and slaves…” (Whitewash), “Bathed in sweetness of cut grass, speckled with red clay and defeat…” (Nail My Feet Down…) and “She spit and stomped, and something in me broke. Melodies drawling unashamed, sweet and ragged…” (Save My Life!) are only small samplings of the heft on offer here. Seventeen tracks in around an hour and your life may be changed. There is plenty of glory in that. ★★★★

Stream: Black & White Boys, The Picture Of A Man

— Jeff Monk

 

---

 

JAZZ

Eric Mingus
Langston Hughes The Dream Keeper (Mode Records)

Jazz albums with voiceover poems are not that rare, but to have two such albums appear at the same time is unusual. Especially as they both might be considered important. I will talk about one of them today and the other next week.

Langston Hughes was one of the most important African American poets of the 20th century. Carl Sandburg was one of the most important white poets of the 20th century. The album tribute to Sandburg will be for next week.

Eric Mingus, son of jazz icon Charles, is the narrator on Langston Hughes The Dream Keeper, and with a jazz combo that includes David Amram piano, Larry Simon guitar and Don Davis sax and clarinet, he delivers a perfectly crafted sample of Hughes’ poetry. (“I do not need my freedom when I’m dead.”)

From poignant to satirical to humourous, to the life affirming Life Is Fine, Hughes captured the soul of African America and as well was always close to jazz. (One of his books of poetry includes the jazz suggested to be played while reading it.) Mingus’ readings have a musician’s heart, often bluesy and pensive in interpretation, and the result is absolutely stunning. Jazz and the reality of African America are inextricably tied, and with this loving tribute to Langston Hughes, Eric Mingus has given us all a gift. ★★★★1/2

Stream: Bound No’th Blues, Democracy

— Keith Black

 https://youtu.be/Z8el4groUto

---

 

CLASSICAL

Les Délices
Age of Indulgence (Navona Records)

The title of this debut album by Cleveland’s Les Délices hints at tantalizing musical nuggets – and fortunately, delivers. The early music group founded in 2006 performs five lesser-known instrumental works by the last generation of French Baroque composers that further illuminates the golden age of chamber music.

Two particular selections showcase the group’s founder, Baroque oboist Debra Nagy: François-André Philidor’s Sinfoniaand Michel Blavet’s Sonata Seconda, Op. 2, whose lightly rendered melodic lines teem with crisp ornamentation. Another, Jean-Pierre Guignon’s Les Sauvages likewise features duo violinists: Julie Andrijeski and Karina Schmitz, with the edgier piece often as thrilling as a high-speed chase, fueled by their closely entwined, imitative phrases. Harpsichordist Michael Sponseller also shines during the disc’s only solo offering, Jacques Duphly’s Pièces de Clavecin, with Rondeau, and Le Félix creating thoughtful repose.

Opera buffs might enjoy five short (instrumental) works extracted from Jean-Philippe Rameau’s larger-scale works, capped by Tambourins from Dardanus that creates a sprightly – and at times, rugged – highlight. Baroque music is undeniably as popular as ever, with this new recording a welcome addition to its elegant canon. ★★★★

— Holly Harris