MUSIC | Records – Jazz & World ALSO RELEASED
ST VINCENT St Vincent (Caroline International) ●●●●● MACHINES IN HEAVEN bordersbreakdown (Hotgem) ●●●●●
Back with her fourth solo full- length album, it would appear Annie Clark’s runaway train is only gathering steam. Unveiling herself as a retro-futuristic vision of ‘first chair of the mad scientists guitar orchestra’, 2014 finds St Vincent in full command of her eccentricities and personal musical boundaries. Of which there are very few. Lost at times in convulsing
guitars and, at others fully anchored in sparse, powerful arrangements, this is an album that both confronts and comforts, soothes and shocks, but above all, entertains and enthrals. ■ ilovestvincent.com
BONG Stoner Rock (Ritual Productions) ●●●●●
Forged in the fires of the ancient, rust-covered bowls of the elder pipesmen, or something like that, slow-tempoed Scouse doom metallers Bong return, all red- eyed and hot-rocked, to bring us Stoner Rock. At once a parody of this supposed genre as well as a reclamation of the throne, Stoner Rock consists of two mammoth musical movements that nod at the usual drone- ridden clichés while pushing beyond the limits of the genre to create an evolving and hypnotic example of how to do it right. Spark ’em up. ■ bong.bandcamp.com
70 THE LIST 20 Feb–20 Mar 2014
Machines in Heaven give the impression that they operate in the same musical stratosphere as fellow Glasgow folks Errors, mostly in terms of both bands’ successful mixing of live and synthesised instruments and textures. But while they often jettison pure electronic pop, they regularly swerve into darker, intoxicating atmospheres, and on bordersbreakdown, they show the potential to be a collective of larger musical importance. ■ soundcloud.com/ machinesinheaven (see Rock & Pop listings for live dates).
SEVENDEATHS Concrete Misery (LuckyMe) ●●●●●
Edinburgh collaborator Steven Shade (also in LuckyMe’s American Men, alongside Claude Speeed, Eunoia’s Ali Lloyd and Danananaykroyd’s Paul Carlin) simultaneously branches out while also retreating inwardly, with a collection of sprawling, probing synth works dubbed Concreté Misery.
The title’s a nod to the electronic compositional style, rather than anything to do with the cold, grey building block, and these six expansive compositions, forged in night-time solitude, unsettle, entrance and provoke in almost equal measure. Ultimately a record much less difficult to listen to than to explain. ■ sevendeaths.bandcamp.com (Reviews by Ryan Drever)
JAZZ & WORLD JAZZ / IMPROV EAST-WEST COLLECTIVE Humeurs (Rogue Art) ●●●●●
If the name East-West Collective suggests a worthy global fusion, be not afeared, for Humeurs journeys deep into its own remarkable tone world, where reeds, and sometimes voices, babble and hum about the twangling strings of the koto and ghuzeng. At its most spectral, this set’s avant-garde co-mingling of Eastern and Western instruments recalls the acoustic work of Toshi Ichiyanagi or the godfathers of Japanese improv, Group Ongaku; cello and reed drones prowl through the grass, while Mya Masaoka’s koto and Xu Fengxia’s ghuzeng rustle and crack like windblown bamboo. Elsewhere, Didier Petit’s driving cello coaxes percussive birchrattle rhythms from Masaoka and Fengxia, while Larry Ochs’ sopranino sax and Sylvain Kassap’s clarinet pirouette on aerials. Closing track ‘Humeur de l’Espirit’ bristles with an elemental beauty, as koto and guzheng strings are scraped and bowed, through which Ochs threads a gorgeous melodic line. (Stewart Smith)
JAZZ KIDD JORDAN, ALVIN FIELDER, PETER KOWALD Trio and Duo in New Orleans (No Business) ●●●●● A fantastic collection from maverick New Orleans tenor saxophonist Edward
‘Kidd’ Jordan, drummer Alvin Fielder and the late German bassist Peter Kowald. The trio set, recorded months before Kowald’s premature death in September 2002, hears these masters creating radical and soulful music. From Jordan’s full-toned tenor come melodic phrases, righteous honks and bluesy reflections, with Fielder surging in and out of the saxophonist’s lines with propulsive waves of snare and tom. Kowald fills the
space with ominous tremolo and pizzicato pulses. In ‘Trio II’ Kowald’s mournful double-stops set the scene for a gorgeous funeral blues from Jordan, while his solo feature sees his bow dancing around the upper registers of the bass, before waddling into the deep. The duets on the second disc see the saxophonist ducking and weaving like a bear wrestling its shadow, or yelping like a sea lion over the hiss and clatter of Fielder’s hi-hat. (Stewart Smith)
WORLD EEK FEAT. ISLAM CHIPSY Live At The Cairo High Cinema Institute (Nashazphone) ●●●●● The new Egyptian dance music rocking the streets of Cairo is some of the most
exciting music on the planet. There’s electro-chaabi, which refracts Egyptian wedding music through cracked software, and Islam Chipsy’s Nile Delta synth, a virtuosic, high-energy transformation of traditional styles. This live album, from Egyptian-Lebanese underground label Nashazphone, makes this exhilarating music available on vinyl for the first time.
As with early releases from Konono No.1 and Omar Souleyman, the raw fidelity only adds to the excitement, as the music bursts from the speakers in a squall of hyper-speed Arabic keyboard licks, distorted tone clusters, and relentless live percussion. There are euphoric builds which are part old-skool rave, part speed metal, with shredding lead lines and massive Euro-trance riffs that erupt into bursts of 8-bit noise. Ludicrously exciting, Islam Chipsy’s music deserves to be as widely heard as Souleyman’s. (Stewart Smith)
WORLD TINARIWEN Emmaar (Anti-) ●●●●●
Six albums in, Tuareg band Tinariwen remain the masters of Saharan desert blues.
While recent studio efforts by fellow travellers Bombino and Tamikrest have been over-produced, Emmaar sounds beautifully open, with the group’s snakey guitars and rolling camel-train grooves given room to breathe. The sound might be far removed from the boom- box fidelities of Sublime Frequencies’ Guitars from Agadez series, but producer Vance Powell does a fine job, bringing a subtle reverb drift to the dynamic
live performances. The atmospheric ‘Toumast Tincha’ and ‘Sendad Eghlalan’ shimmer on a haze of pedal steel, while the outstanding ‘Imadiwanin Ahi Tifhamam’ sees Said Ag Sayad’s driving hand-percussion traced by Fats Kaplin’s Cajun fiddle. Rather than come across as concessions to Americana, these touches blend gorgeously into Tinariwen’s mesmeric trance rock. (Stewart Smith)