RICHARD STRAUSS - Four Last Songs (Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, George Szell, Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, The London Symphony Orchestra) (1997)

Review by: Dominic Linde
Album assigned by: Sharon Durand 

I may be the worst person in the world to have been chosen to write this review, as I am not one for vocalists in classical music. There’s a tendency for words to be over-pronounced, vibrato to be applied liberally, phrasing to be inhuman and showy. But at the same time, I don’t speak German. I don’t know what it’s supposed to sound like. I just know I don’t like this. If the singing were replaced by trumpet or violin, just as an example, I think it would be much preferable and I’d be able to get through it. In fact, I enjoy the countermelodies Strauss employs with the string section. It’s just the infernal vibrato-tinged voice that makes this release unlistenable.

I know this is an unfair assessment, but I am simply not the person to be reviewing this. The music is moving, the motifs are slightly dissonant but ultimately pleasing. The energy is lilting and morose at the same time. Then Elisabeth Schwarzkopf comes in and it’s torture. I’m sorry. I can’t listen to it. I got through a couple of lieders, but my head hurts.

AKSAK MABOUL - Un Peu de l'Âme des Bandits (1980)

Review by: Dominic Linde

Album assigned by: Andreas Georgi

Aksak Maboul’s Un Peu De L’Ame Des Bandits starts strongly with a Bo Diddley beat punctuated by agonized singing/screaming and instrumental passages sounding like a cross between Faust and klezmer. And though the album continues to be filled with strong moments throughout, it really meanders as a whole. Avant jam after another make up the bulk of the album (though I can’t really say what is jamming here and what was written) culminating with the impressive “Bosses De Crosses.” Countermelodies and much of the guitar work sounds like it’s straight from the Residents and Snakefinger, but this collective is comprised of much better musicians than the earlier avant group.

I feel guilty for reducing the group to a bunch of comparisons, though those other bands came to mind pretty frequently upon listen. However, I do want to make it clear that this is interesting, enjoyable music. Dissonant, yet melodic. Saxophones burst into counterpoints that rub and run away. The electric violin is always a welcome addition. There are sound effects galore (I think I hear a toilet flushing in the final track?) and grunts and groans sneak their way into the mix. It’s avant-garde. It’s good.

THE STRATFORD 4 - The Revolt Against Tired Noises (2002)

Review by: Eric Pember
Album assigned by: Dominic Linde

This album is very much old-school indie rock, in the good way.

While old-school indie rock is generally middle of the road sounding, it nevertheless is at the core of my musical DNA. In fact, it actually is part my DNA more than the kind of indie music that is usually popular these days, despite me being of the age where I should prefer the latter to the former, but that’s a discussion for another time.

Consequently, this was a very pleasing listen for me. I did detect a sort of hooklessness, although that could well remedy itself with additional listens. After all, I didn’t get Yo La Tengo for the first couple of listens either. Regardless, it’s always nice to discover more music of this type.

Apparently, one of the members in this band played with the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, which might explain the hooklessness, because I detected a hooklessness in Howl too. However, this sounds a good deal more sonically interesting than Howl did to me. I’m aware intellectually it’s not THAT much more sonically interesting, but again, this sort of indie rock guitar sound really speaks to me beyond the level of common sense.

I also really dug the last track, since I dig long jams in general, particularly long rock jams.

I’ll definitely revisit this album at some point in the future. For now, I think I’d rather get to some more of this band’s better contemporaries, since I haven’t listened to enough of them yet.

BOREDOMS - Pop Tatari (1992)

Review by: Dominic Linde
Album assigned by: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Pop Tatari starts off with a track called “Noise Ramones”, which sounds nothing like the Ramones. The thing with Boredoms is comparisons don’t work with them. They don’t sound like anybody. However, like the Ramones in 1976, Boredoms is a revolution. Only they have been for decades, and nobody seems to have noticed.

Trying to make sense of this album is a fruitless endeavor, as it jumps from bouts of noise to explosions of sound to bursts of audio. Yelping gives way to extremely distorted guitars which are proceeded by multi-layered percussion. Boredoms has a penchant for the arbitrary, and listening to this album brings to mind experimental excursions such as Faust’s The Faust Tapes and Frank Zappa’s Lumpy Gravy. Compositions are fragmented (and are likely not usually compositions but more probably jams) and stop abruptly. New ideas seemingly come from nowhere. Once you start to figure out a fragment, another interrupts your thoughts.

Boredoms have more structured albums (Super AE being an exceptional example) and those with a more flowing emotion/ambience, but this album has the element of surprise. It’s fun because you never know what the next sound to emit from your speakers will be, and it’s exciting both because it touches places all over the musical spectrum and because it’s mixed in a raw and powerful way. Boredoms always sound like a collective letting loose emotionally and physically, and Pop Tatari is no exception. It’s about as wild as they get, and it’s enthralling.

THE ESSEX GREEN - Everything Is Green (1999)

Review by: Roland Bruynesteyn
Album assigned by: Dominic Linde

Being an academic, obviously I do my research if I listen to a group I never heard of. The Essex Green is a pop group from Brooklyn that released three albums between 1999 and 2006. This is their first. Reviews claim they sound like a mix of the Zombies, The Mamas and the Papas (if only because of the girl) and a little Turtles. Hard to argue with that assessment. There is a strong 60’s vibe, but of the innocent kind: more Marmalade/The Association, than VU or the Doors. It’s as Summer of love as you can get without acid or psychedelics, because they are way too innocent for that.

  

However, the song writing is quite good. “Primrose” really could have been a Zombies song, and is a nice way to start the album. The acoustic guitar, the drum rolls and the oohlala’s add a nice touch. The singer sometimes sounds a little hesitant, though. The ending is classic 60’s: we did not compose a real ending so let’s elaborate on the theme a little more!

Another song, “Saturday”, is much more folky, melody-wise, and because of the flute and the speeding up parts. Also, the second half is purely instrumental.

Production is not quite up to standard sometimes. For instance, in “The Playground” the electric guitar sounds quite bad. In “Big Green Tree”, the singer needed a little more practice; the song is nice, but seems a bit more complex than he can handle. His singing is too monotonous, and detracts from the nice atmosphere they have going. Also, the sections seen stitched together rather haphazardly.

“Tinker” is the long and heavy song. Nice, as if The Turtles front Jefferson Airplane in places. However, the female singer is not really equipped for this type of song, I feel. Also the song is too long: the organ player is no Ray Manzarek. The instrumental middle is not played badly, but it’s less adventurous than a jam band’s solution and as a composition it doesn’t really go anywhere, apart from a little acoustic coda.

The title song is back to acoustic strumming again, and they feel more comfortable here. Again, the male singer is a bit of a let-down, and again it’s partly due to the muffled recording, as if he was singing behind a curtain, in a cardboard box, having the flu. One could argue that this is done on purpose to give the album a bit of an indie feel and surf that 80’s vibe (but on the whole I do not think that it’s eclecticism in this way that they’re going for, so I’ll give them the disadvantage of the doubt).

The song “Sixties” can only start with a sitar of course. It’s a nice uplifting song, really, although the percussion sounds a little silly (cardboard box plus tambourine?). Apart from the organ part, “Sun” is almost a Smile reject: weird in an interesting and musical way. Similarly, “Carballo” is a nice song to end the album. A little Spanish guitar and harmonica suggest what I propose to call an urgent type of resignation.

In the end I wanted to like this album a little more than I could. I think they need better production, and the male singer may need a few singing lessons (or a replacement, but that’s a little harsh as he (co-)composes most of the songs probably). Based on this nice debut record, if you like happy 60’s pop, I suggest you try their second and third albums, The Long Goodbye and Cannibal Sea. I know I will, and I will not be surprised if I like them a lot!

NELLIE MCKAY - Get Away From Me (2004)

Review by: Rodrigo Lopes
Album assigned by: Dominic Linde

Nellie was only 21 years old in the release of her debut album, and it shows, but not in a bad way. She purposely go from one genre to another tapping on jazz, pop and hip hop with a joyful yet sarcastic attitude that carries with it how young she is. The two-part album is vibrant and quick witted and soars through a myriad of themes that goes from an obsession with herself in ‘clonie’ - where she proudly elects her clone as the best companion she could possibly find – to the dull image she portrays of a traditional marriage in ‘I wanna get married’. She has a good clear voice, and overall the arrangements of the songs are quite nice; nothing fancy, but tasteful, very ‘singer-songwritery’ if you will.

But the album is not without flaws. While I consider the CD to have very few filler songs, the fooling around with all those different styles and the mockery and cynicism in almost every lyric sometimes felt just a little bit too much, like she was trying too hard to make those transitions seem effortless and also to show how different of an artist she was.

Despite that, I found the album to be on the most part coherent, even though the themes and genres were so diverse. I think that her youth both helped and got in her way in this record. This has ‘debut album’ written all over it, it almost sounds experimental, and sometimes her inexperience ends up showing, but for me, a some part of the album’s charm was exactly there. Her goofiness and lighthearted approach makes this a very fun album to listen to. This also made possible for her to tackle deeper and more serious subjects while maintaining the carefree aura of the album.

This album is definitely not for everyone but I believe that it would resonate with quite a few people. 

LAURIE ANDERSON - Bright Red (1994)

Review by: Dominic Linde
Album assigned by: Tom Hadrian Kovalevsky

Pairing Brian Eno with Laurie Anderson seems like a better idea than pairing Brian Eno with Coldplay—and needless to say, it makes more sense than joining him with Paul Simon. It makes sense, because Laurie Anderson is herself a cutting edge electronic artist, albeit one who takes more from the New York performance art scene than the ambience championed by the aforementioned producer.

            

All this being said, Bright Red simply sounds like a Laurie Anderson album. I had no idea Brian Eno had anything to do with the album until I opened the liner notes a few listens in. So then, why even mention the man? I wonder if Laurie reached out for external assistance after writing the pieces or if they were written for/with Brian Eno? Gone are the pop melodies appearing on Mister Heartbreak and Strange Angels (And even to an extent on Big Science) and left is mostly spoken-word pieces with instrumental accompaniment of varying quality. Adrian Belew adds nice noise guitar to “Firefall,” and Joey Baron adds drums as the only accompaniment to the interesting (and melodious!) “Muddy River.”

            

A reliance on digital keyboards makes some of this sound dated, especially on tracks such as “Bright Red” and “Speak My Language,” which seem like they could be created largely on MIDI programs. “Speak My Language” in particular reminds me of releases by the Residents from the late ‘80s/early ‘90s, with vocal samples, almost-tribal drumming, and cheesy synthesizers. There are neat little touches with the instrumentation that save the album from being too monotonous and digital: the accordion in “Beautiful Pea Green Boat,” the percussive distortion in “Puppet Motel.”

            

Of course, neither Laurie Anderson nor Brian Eno would allow a project to be a disaster; cheesier-sounding tracks still create nice atmospheres and boast inventive production, but I feel little emotional attachment to this recording like I could with the more rhythmic parts of Big Science (Many tracks on Bright Red lack rhythmic drive) or the pretty melodies presented on Mister Heartbreak. Some of the backing is warm, but much of it feels too sterile to evoke emotion. Her poetry can be enjoyable, and songs like “Firefall” and “Speechless” feel very emotional. Sometimes her lyrics are too abstract, and her voice too distorted or broken—as with “In Our Sleep,” which trades lines with her future-husband Lou Reed, to glean much meaning.

            

There’s a lot of complaining in this review, but all-in-all it isn’t an unenjoyable experience listening to Bright Red. It has atmosphere, a healthy amount of experimentation, mostly nice production, and the lyrics are fine. It’s just missing the melody.