Random Notes - March 2023
Loose Links and Short Takes on albums by Paramore, Ex Hex, The Exorzist III, and Fred Frith/Susana Santos Silva
Over at Live in Limbo, I look at a new anthology of Clark Blaise’s short fiction This Time, That Place. Blaise, like a lot of the people Biblioasis publish in their reSet series, was new to me, but I enjoyed his stories quite a bit. They follow people who are outsiders, who live on the fringes and struggle to fit in: immigrants from India, Anglos in 70s Montreal, people living illegally in the United States. His work resonated with me; I’m glad I read that book.
And over at Aquarium Drunkard, I consider the new Wadada Leo Smith record Fire Illuminations. A fusion-ish record with slow churning grooves, some great playing from an all-star list of talent, and helmed by an elder statesman of jazz, this shows Smith getting better with age. It also led me back to some of his recent records - A Love Sonnet for Billie Holiday, Sacred Ceremonies, and Rosa Parks: Pure Love. He’s been making some really interesting music in recent years, and I think they’re worth exploring in detail, maybe in a later post.
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Various Artists - Next Stop Soweto Volume Four: Zulu Rock, Afro-Disco and Mbaqanga 1975-85 (Strut, 2015)
I’ve been trying to expand my horizons a little bit lately by listening to African music from the 70s. I know Fela well enough, and I have one or two of the Indestructible Beat of Soweto collections, but I figured it was time to dive a little deeper. And this one blew me away. It opens with “Unga Pfula A Chi Pfalo” by Kabasa, Abie Manda & Tata Sibeko, a song built around a propulsive groove where guitars roar out of the corners and the percussion keeps you from sitting still. No lie, it stopped me in my tracks. The rest of the disc is no slouch either, moving fluidly between slick Soweto grooves like “Khombo Raga” by Elias Maluleke to the hard-driving funk of Harar’s “Give,” where a thumping bass meets choir vocals. There’s also the keyboard-heavy disco on “Get Down” by Isaac and the Sakie Special Band, which suggests that William Onyeabor might not be as unique as you’d think. Get it via Strut’s Bandcamp.
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Last time I did one of these, I mentioned friend-of-the-blog June Martin’s short fiction. Well, yesterday Martin announced that tRaum Books is publishing her novel LOVE/AGRESSION next year. Keep an eye out for that one - and until then, read her serialized novel Faster On My Own, a novel where she turns her keen eye towards accelerationism and politics to create a world that’s maybe 15 minutes in the future.
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Ex Hex - It’s Real (Merge, 2019)
I feel like this one got lost in the shuffle somehow. I’m not sure why: Mary Timony is one of those musicians who’s been around forever and makes every band she’s in - Helium, Wild Flag, and now Ex Hex - just that much more interesting. The slow building groove and raging guitars of “Tough Enough” brings to mind 80s underground, Peaches’s classic “Boys Want To Be Her,” and Television’s first record. The way it leaps up into the stratosphere is really something - I wanted it to go on and on. The record doesn’t let up, either. It does everything I wanted the last couple Sleater-Kinney records to do, and then some. Get it via Merge’s Bandcamp.
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The Exorzist III - Gospel Jamming Vol. 1 (Self-Released, 2021)
This one came to me via Tyler Wilcox’s always-on-point recommendations, and it’s another that blew me away. Four long tracks, no pesky vocals. Just pounding rhythms from drummer Nick Ferrente (ex The Black Hollies) and searing guitar leads from Drew St. Ivony (The Psychedelic Paramount). St. Ivony’s overdubbed guitar weaves twisted lines that cut through Ferrente’s drumming, music that makes you want to drive over the speed limit. “Jabber” opens the album with over 15 minutes of guitar jamming heaven, while “Cygnal” closes it with seven minutes of motorik grooves where St. Ivony goes nuts on his cymbals. Get it via Bandcamp.
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Fred Frith and Susana Santos Silva - Laying Demons to Rest (RogueArt, 2022)
Another duo record, although this one’s more noisy and abstract. A 2021 meeting of two long-form improvisers, Laying Demons to Rest pits Frith’s abstract guitar styles against Sweden-based trumpeter Susana Santo Silva. The resulting 42-minute piece takes listeners all over, from ambient haunted soundscapes where Frith’s playing sounds like desert landscapes, to when Silva’s horn buzzes like a hive of bees, and moments where you’d think the master tape’s been manipulated to get even weirder sounds: buzzes, weird clangs, that sort of thing. It made me think of Nurse With Wound and Martin Iddon, if that helps. Laying Demons to Rest isn’t exactly easy listening, and it’s certainly not for everyone, but for a certain kind of listener, I think this will scratch an itch they didn’t know they had. Get it via RogueArt’s Bandcamp.
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John Scofield - Blue Matter (Gammavision, 1985)
Went back to this one the last few days. Scofield’s one of those guys who seems like he’s on all sorts of things, but his solo records never quite clicked for me. But this one does. A nice slice of 80s fusion, it has all the hallmarks of stuff that should be dated: old synth patches and guitar pedals; smooth, almost Latin grooves; a cover that looks like a broken CRT monitor. There’s a weird, almost angular funk to some of this record, and even when it quiets down for a blues, the guitar takes on a weird, almost vapourwave tone. “Heaven Hill” sounds like the closing theme for a lost sequel to Michael Mann’s Thief, while “The Nag” has a busy, almost claustrophobic rhythm that sounds a little like what James Blood Ulmer was doing at the time. In a time where Numero Group is reissuing forgotten 80s jazz like Tony Palkovic’s Born With A Desire and so-called Barber Beats mixtapes are bubbling up, Blue Matter seems like an overlooked gem and a record that’s due for a reissue.
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Paramore - This Is Why (Atlantic, 2023)
Long one of those bands I thought were fine, although not exactly up my alley, this one caught me unawares. The slinking guitar on the title track’s chorus and Hayley Williams’s double-tracked vocals are an instant ear-worm, while “The News” captures the anxiety of being glued to a 24-hour news cycle that makes the world seem like it’s ending. At times This Is Why sounds like it’s strongly in debt to 70s New Wave: the way “C’est Comme Ca” bounces around and has a spoken interlude, the stuttering guitar on “Figure 8.” Have all their records had weird little accents like this? This Is Why isn’t groundbreaking, and it’s very much a mainstream alt-rock, pop-punk record most of the time, but I think it’s enjoyable and I’ve been going back to it more than I thought I would.