New music

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This article was published 24/10/2019 (2390 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

 

ALT ROCK

Mark Lanegan Band
Somebody’s Knocking (Heavenly Recordings)

Can Mark Lanegan lend credibility to the 1980s, that regularly disparaged but nevertheless exciting decade reduced by detractors to plastic keyboards and robotic drums?

On Somebody’s Knocking, he makes a valiant and magnetic effort by drawing electronic inspiration from New Order and Depeche Mode while often sounding like Iggy Pop backed by the Psychedelic Furs and produced by the Cure’s Robert Smith.

From fronting cult grunge band Screaming Trees to tormented solo albums and collaborations, Lanegan has repeatedly found new paths. His new LP sees the Los Angeles resident lending his tree trunk of a voice to stories imbued in our brutal times, but treating the withering chaos with humour, empathy and pronounced weirdness.

Longtime associate Alain Johannes, Rob Marshall, Martin Jenkins and Sietse van Gorkom, among others, help Lanegan build songs that echo the more inspired sounds of the ’80s.

That vintage can be appreciated across the whole album, exemplified by the likes of churning opening track Disbelief Suspension, projected floor-filler Penthouse High and the regretful She Loved You. Darker voltages cast their shadow over the criminally explicit Stitch It Up and Night Flight to Kabul. Even when the intensity abates, the flights of Lanegan’s imagery remain far in spaced-out territories.

★★★★ out of five

STREAM THESE: Penthouse High, Two Bells Ringing at Once

— Pablo Gorondi, The Associated Press

 

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BLUES

GA-20
Lonely Soul (Karma Chief/Colemine Records)

If you like your blues young, loud and snotty, then Boston-based GA-20 may be your delicious whisky in a jar.

With its unique two-guitars-plus-drummer lineup, the band has already skewed from the ordinary. But it’s where it goes with its sound that gives the group its solid edge and puts it miles beyond most of its competition. Back before modern blues went all spongy, artists of a certain breed — usually due to some kind of financial constraint — sounded much more unrefined than what came later. GA-20 has been influenced by this clatter — the heavily reverbed, snarling guitar sound of Matthew Stubbs and echoed vocals and guitar by Pat Faherty reach back decades to the good stuff… the real killer electric blues.

Whether they referenced My Soul via bayou man Clifton Chenier or white-hot Texas blues rocker Johnny Winter’s version makes little difference here. They knock it out the proverbial park. The same results with Slim Harpo’s shuffling Got Love If You Want It, featuring the creative drumming of sticksman Time Carman, keeping things tight yet fundamentally flowing.

The band originals carry the same force of virtue, an unrelenting desire to keep things rough and ready. At 10 tracks coming in at under 32 minutes, it’s a short yet convincing lesson that proves the young lions of the blues can still roar.

★★★★ out of five

STREAM THESE: One Night Man; My Soul

— Jeff Monk

 

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ROOTS / COUNTRY

Skydiggers
Let’s Get Friendship Right (Independent)

Josh Finlayson and Andy Maize of Skydiggers have always been unabashed fans of the Tragically Hip. Finlayson was one of Gord Downie’s best friends and played on almost all the late Hip singer’s solo projects, while Maize was a frequent collaborator and also co-founder of MapleMusic Recordings, the label that released Downie’s first two solo albums.

Downie’s tragic cancer diagnosis, his bittersweet final shows with the Hip and his death in 2017 undoubtedly had a pronounced effect on Maize, Finlayson and their music. Which is why much of Let’s Get Friendship Right feels like a musical farewell. The album’s title comes from the lyrics of It’s a Good Life if You Don’t Weaken and the cover art depicts a figure that is surely Downie strolling a Canadian landscape, guitar slung over his shoulder. Don’t be mistaken, though — as much as this record is an overt acknowledgment of Downie’s contributions, it’s also an expression of the love, grief, anger, despair and acceptance we all must experience in life’s final phase.

The moody, almost orchestral mid-tempo rock songs here are ultimately celebrations of what’s important in life — and songs such as the horn-infused, Motown-driven groove of Questions of Love and a trancey, trip-hop-inspired reading of It Was a Very Good Year also hint at new, exciting directions for Skydiggers.

★★★★ out of five

Stream these: Five Cold Canadians; Ineligible; Questions of Love

— John Kendle

 

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CLASSICAL

Bryce Dessner, Ensemble Resonanz
Tenebre (Resonanzraum Records)

This new release features four chamber works by Grammy-winning American composer Bryce Dessner performed by Hamburg-based Ensemble Resonanz, composed of 18 string players, which further amplifies Dessner’s originally conceived string quartets while showing the malleability of his music.

The Paris-based composer/guitarist — also known as a founding member of the National — pushes his players to the limit with his signature piece, Aheym (2009) — translated as “homeward” in Yiddish — and premièred by the iconic Kronos Quartet in 2009. The ensemble barrels out of the gate with driving force, ably navigating its tightly wound, knotty textures contrasted by lighter sections including effective harmonics that provide relief.

Tenebre (2011) — also penned for Kronos — unfolds as a post-minimalist exploration of the relationship between music and light, inspired by the Christian Holy Week service of Tenebrae.

This world première recording of Skrik Trio (2017) proves an even more startling foray into Dessner’s sound world with the cohesive ensemble now going for the jugular with aggressive snap pizzicatos that always resonate with visceral power. Finally, Lachrimae (2012) returns listeners to relatively more hushed climes, although nonetheless gradually builds towards a rugged close, performed by the group with urgency and percussive precision.

★★★★ out of five

STREAM THIS: Aheym

— Holly Harris