Richard Pinhas Rules My Stereo with "Metal/Crystal"

From the first snarly bass riffs and a killer space rock groove to the very end, French guitarist-electronician Richard Pinhas more than just fills two CDs, he rivets the listener to his/or/her chair (or even "its" because your pets will no doubt notice too).

Metal/Crystal (Cuneiform) is what I refer to. Richard mans the electric guitar (and electronics) and he gets some big collaborative input from two heavy electroacoustic noise titans: Merzbow and Wolf Eyes. There is bass and drums too, as I've noted, especially at the beginning and middle of the first CD and the end of the second, and the playing is very right for what's happening.

The results are nothing short of beautiful. There is a thick blanket of supercharged acoustic-electric poetry that begins a few minutes into the first CD and slowly evolves over the course of the two-hours-plus of the program. The music is noisy. yes, but in such a musical way that you begin to experience the wonderwall of sound tapestry as something otherworldly, as a music of tone and noise where the two work together in the best sort of way.

It has the same ear-grabbing qualities of Fripp and Eno's No Pussyfooting, only it goes for a more orchestral sonic ambiance. There's less emphasis on loop motifs and more on horizontally unfolding landscapes that drone and layer in complex ways.

The sound design is enthralling as is the psychedelic guitar work. The two fit together beautifully.

I'd venture to say that this is one of the most invigorating and astonishing examples of psychedelic soundscaping I've ever heard. An instant classic? Only if people listen to it. If you want your mind blown this is the music to check out. Oh, yes, I am not exaggerating!

"Smooth Danger" from Grand Pianoramax

Genres don't hold steady if you look hard enough at them (or listen, anyway). The edges begin blurring and soon enough you feel that, with certain artists, it's really all about following a musical vision wherever it might lead, and that "where" does not always stay in one place docilely but circles around and doubles through any manner of possibilities.

Such is true of the duo Pianoramax, a Berlin-centered pairing of key virtuoso Leo Tardin and drummer Dominik Burkhalter. Their third opus Smooth Danger (ObliqSound) lands on hip-hop, rap, progressive rock, a hint of electronica, fusion and funk with a kind of anything goes attitude. That wouldn't matter if the music was just ordinary mass-cranked pablum. And there's plenty of that out there, music that was devised first and foremost to cash in on some horse-hockey fad. That's not what Pianoramax is about.

Rather they devise key-drum music rich in nuance, rhythmically vital, melodically and harmonically irregular with the kind of crystalline beauty you might find in a pile of shattered glass under an archaically humming arc streetlight at night.

I perhaps like everybody make assumptions, many of them, before I even listen to an album. I wont go into what they were for Smooth Danger. Suffice to say that the music wasn't at all what I expected, and that it grew on me as I continued to listen. It's a bit of a treat, dead serious about itself but affording a good ride into some idiosyncratic world that would not be there if it weren't for these two musicians.

You can nab this one as a download at your favorite downloadary.

Hypnotic Clambake for the Shell-Shocked

Today, a look at another jamband and a free legal download from www.archive.org. I must admit I checked out Hypnotic Clambake because I liked the name. They have been together apparently since at least the mid-90s. The show I listen to was from an appearance at the Sunshine Daydream Festival in Terra Alta, West Virginia on July 21, 2000.

They are a curious mixture of country fiddle two-steps played with electricity, some klezmer influences, novelty tunes, and some more rock-oriented items. As for jams there aren’t all that many, with perhaps the fiddle spots the strongest. There are some arranged moments that have some finesse. Their stoner and novelty tunes left me a little flat. The group didn’t strike me as having strong enough material to carry them, although their musicianship is good. Hypnotic Clambake, or at least this particular show, didn't send me through the roof, I’m afraid.

Originally posted on March 31, 2009 at www.gapplegate.com/musicalblog.html.

Studebaker John Returns with Some Blistering Chicago Blues

The Chicago blues have never died. Judging from some choice recent releases, it never will. Studebaker John (and His Maxwell Street Kings) have a new one. It is one of the affirmations that proves the rule, so to speak. That's the Way You Do (Delmark 810) literally teams over with 15 original gems that bring to the fore all the Delta-come-up-to Chi-town sounds that helped define American music over the years.

Studebaker John Grimaldi uses his powerful vocal attack, full-throated harp wielding, and electric-electrifying slide guitar to give you the blues the way it was meant to be heard. Raw, exciting and in-your-face. He's joined by the hotly supportive Maxwell Street Kings, which consists of second guitarist Rick Kreher (who was with Muddy Waters at the end) and drummer Steve Cushing (host of the Chicago radio show Blues Before Sunrise). They give Studebaker the real deal with churning power blues chording, crackling backbeats and relentless shuffle grooves.

But it is Studebaker John himself that puts the music into orbit. He has BECOME the tradition and gives it back in ways that remind we why Little Walter, Muddy, the Wolf, and Jimmy Reed set me on my tail when I was young. The blues may be deceptively simple in form, but playing them with style and conviction isn't. Studebaker John DOES. Yes, he does.

Warpaint and "The Fool" Release

Warpaint, an "all-girl" post-punk outfit, came out with their full-length release The Fool (Rough Trade) towards the end of last year.

It's an electric outfit with lude-ey vocals working within the rock-song form. They come across as sincere and genuine. Instrumentally they are not displeasing.

What you think of them will have to do with your view of the post-punk scene. They are rough edged rather than polished. Vocals may waver from standard pitch references. These ladies are not so much head-bangers and thrashers as they are purveyors of songs on the dark side, delivered in a laid-back, unfiltered, off-kilter fashion.

I respect that.

John Goldman's Quadrangle Dwell "Outside the Box"

John Goldman lives in Chicago (and I'll bet it's COLD there today) plays a pretty cool sounding alto, writes good jazz music and has an interesting group called Quadrangle. Their new album just came out this month, Outside the Box (JG Music).

The first thing that struck me about the band and their music is the rather unique sound they get out of their instrumentation. It's John on alto and flute, Kendall Moore on trombone, Leslie Beukelman on mostly wordless vocals, Scott Hesse at the guitar, plus Patrick Mulcahy, Cory Healey and Juan Pastor on bass, drums and percussion, respectively.

John makes good use of voicings for sax-trombone and sometimes vocals and guitar in various combinations for a full-bodied yet translucent melodic vehicle. Hesse's close voiced comping in a burnished zone also gives the group a special sound. The band runs through seven Goldman originals plus "Monk's Mood." In the process they cover many bases. Some numbers have the classic horn frontline sound of some of the classic Blue Note Shorter and Hancock charts, but with the guitar and/or voice in there it's something slightly different sounding. And he goes somewhere with the sound regardless. They do some loosely hip bossas, a funk number, a latin groove, a ballad and so forth. Goldman, Moore and Hesse play some very decent solos and do not waste notes. It's not a blowing session though, so there is a balance between group musical arrangement and individual solo. There are moments of freedom too.

It's all quite captivating and enjoyable jazz from the middle US. Mr. Goldman is to be congratulated for forging a sound and picking strongly individual musical-sound personalities to realize it. This music is a pleasure to hear.

Humanization 4tet "Electricity": Lopes, Amado and the Gonzalez Brothers Ring It In!

There are some CDs that are so charged with life, so immediate, so vibrant, that the music literally jumps out of your speakers from the first note. That's what I am feeling with the album Electricity (Ayler 113) by the Humanization 4tet.

This band has potency stockpiled in reserve. It's Luis Lopes on a very electric guitar, a player who knows how to create cosmic envelopes of sound and bring depth and space into a quartet such as this. Then there's Rodrigo Amado on tenor, who I've enthused about at length in the course of several reviews on the sister site, gapplegatemusicreview.blogspot.com. He has a terrific sound and abundant musical brains to realize some beautiful, fiery lines. The Gonzalez brothers, Aaron on bass and Stefan on drums, are long-time members of father Dennis's Yells at Eels (see the other site for a review or two of that band) and their lengthy tenure together has given them the kind of simpatico interaction that is rare these days. And they are great players to boot.

Electricity contains eight originals, all very stimulating vehicles for the players to launch off of. All four group members contribute worthy compositions.

And so to the music. It is totally modern, brimming over with life, and breathtaking in its combination of freedom and propulsion. It should make you a believer as to the strength of the quartet, individually and collectively. This is up there as a high point of the many new releases I've heard in the past year. Ring it in with the Humanization 4tet! It will be a great year if this is any indication.