Imogen Heap, "Lifeline" and "Propeller Seeds," New Music From an Exceptional Artist

Imogen Heap has shown herself to be someone who doesn't take what a singer-songwriter is supposed to do for granted. She is, to mangle and corrupt the cliche, a thinking AND FEELING person's musical artist. The spiky quality of her first album, the supremely lyrical and rhythmically moving Frou Frou, some of the sublime vocal soundscapes of recent albums, her tour where she invited audiences at each stop to name musical parameters and proceeded to create spontaneously a song on the spot (see reviews on this blog), the results of which were released as downloads and the proceeds donated to various worthy charities, she has always done things a little differently.

She's working on a new album, cut-by-cut. As she does so she offers expanded singles downloads of the songs at www.imogenheap.com. There are four so far but I've been checking out the first two.

The first, "Lifeline" is a product once again of on-line input from her fans about what should go into it. The results are very Imogenesque, with a vocal inimitability and a lyrical bent. The download includes an unplugged version from the release party.

The second, "Propeller Seeds" is more ambitious. It's a kind of video for the ears, a story about an emotional-experiential slice of Imogen's rich imaginative life. It's haunting and sonically fascinating. The download includes software to install so that, when listening with earphones, you get a kind of 3-D effect. I didn't try it yet. What counts is that the beauty of her vocalisms are matched by some musically extended, electronically-symphonic sounds that go way beyond what is expected from a "popular" artist today--vis-a-vis some of those formula pop things out there now.

A drummer friend of mine yesterday alluded to the idea that her music has lost some of the rhythmical thrust she has had, especially on Frou Frou. He's right, there. I do miss that and hope maybe she can bring it back a bit more. As it is though she is a beautiful soul, a wonderful voice, a songwriter of great originality. So there we are. She to me is an important artist for the time in which we live, someone that makes me think that great music can be created in the square of the marketplace, even today.

Iggy and the Stooges: Raw Power Live, September 2010, DVD Now Out

Iggy Pop and the Stooges did a live concert in Monticello, NY last September, 2010. They featured supercharged renditions of songs from their influential album Raw Power and a gathering of well-known numbers from previous albums. The CD that came out from that concert was reviewed on these pages (see May 27th posting).

Now a DVD of the gig is out. The total package is the result of a contest open to all Stooges fans, to make a video explaining why they would be a best choice to videotape the concert and interview the Stooges afterwards. A number of fans won and the result is now fully available in the DVD Iggy and the Stooges, Raw Power Live: In the Hands of the Fans (MVD Visual 52340). It shows you the zoo-like madness of Iggy and the audience interacting, the Stooges' security squad pulling people off the stage who manage to get up there to make themselves visibly nutty, the security squad repeatedly getting Iggy back up on stage after the audience has pulled him down on top of them while the music manically blasts away, among other things. The six or so contest winners get the show from many angles and there is a constant cut editing style that gives you the excitement but also doesn't give you a lot of footage where all the band members are facing you on the screen. But it's in realm of a cinema realism, a what-it's-like-to-be-in-the-audience feel.

The interview footage that follows has its ups and downs but basically it is rather insightful at times, especially with what Iggy has to say, who turns out to be articulate about it all.

The music is loud and strong, as on the CD.

Stooges fans will love it. Those not quite in that camp will certainly get a Stooge-eye view of what rock is about. And the band does NOT sound dated. Iggy is a vocalist who does a lot more than scream and shout, though of course he does that. That alone is something. Why are the Stooges important? What do you think, eh? The DVD gives you an idea of what that means. So it's worth pursuing if you are up for it.

Grupo Falso Baiano, "Simplicidade: Live at Yoshi's"

Choro is Brazilian music. Choro is samba-laced. Grupo Falso Baiano is a San Francisco Bay area quartet that plays some very nice instrumental choro with a dash of today. The members play seven-string guitar, mandolin, tenor sax/soprano/flute, and percussion. For around half the cuts the group is expanded with a pianist (doubling on accordion & flute), and a second percussionist.

Their new (second) album Simplicidade: Live at Yoshi's (Massaroca 20111) brings them in front of an appreciative audience and turns them loose with traditional choros and more contemporary numbers. The piano and reeds give it all a jazz feel.

It's some well-played, rhythmically infectious music that will add some variety and spice to your musical program. Quite nice, really.

The Spanish Donkey, "XYX", Joe Morris, Jamie Saft, and Mike Pride

There are organ trios who do what you'd expect in some kind of Jimmie Smith mode. Then there is the Spanish Donkey and their XYX (Northern Spy 009), which is NOT your ordinary trio! It's Joe Morris on guitar, Jamie Saft on keys (and bass guitar) and Mike Pride on drums. What they play is some very engaging super-outside music. If you know Joe Morris's guitar work, you will not be surprised. Yet this is trio freedom with a very thickly textured electronic noise element that goes beyond what Joe usually does. Jamie Saft gets all manner of sound clusters and noisy sustains on the synth keys, Mike Pride plays out of time hefty drums and Joe Morris turns in some of his best work ever. The backdrop that the Spanish Donkey provides seems to stimulate him into an admirable frenzy of note clusters, bends and electric skronk-shreds that get pretty wild.

This is a group effort however--and so the total sound is always an out-front thing. It's heavy music, thick-textured free psychedelics and it is something that once you put it on, you cannot ignore. It will be heard! You either surrender to their web of sounds or you play something else. And really, isn't that the true purpose of getting music for your world? There's no half-heard cocktail party backdrop function that would work for XYX!

What it is is a flat-out blast of fire. It's wonderfully envigorating, like an abrupt dip into an icy stream after several hours in an Indian Sweat House.

Nab this album and you'll be getting a passport to the outer realms of noise-space. Some of the most extreme, but also some of the very best sort of outness!

Gary Hassay, Michael Bisio, My Brother

Duets can be interesting, they can be less interesting, but you cannot often say they are riveting. I would say that of alto saxist Gary Hassay and acoustic bassist Michael Bisio's My Brother (Konnex 5275). It is riveting because both players have virtually limitless imaginations and realize ideas in their very own way. It is riveting because it's the best kind of duo: where two excellent players inspire each other to bring out a side of their playing that sounds especially well in the context at hand.

Gary Hassay realizes well-thought-out yet spontaneous sound sculptures that take advantage of the classic jazz and outer realm capabilities of the alto; Michael Bisio complements and spurs on those alto flights with equally considered pizz and arco structures that have freedom but are logically and executionally exceptional.

Gary has always from what I've heard of him had a kind of Zen-like spirituality to his playing. Michael can go that zone well. The two head for high-consciousness, high-level improvisational territory and explore the terrain with care and inspiration. Gary can do a kind of quasi-Tibetan throat singing and when he does it here it never sounded better than with the accompaniment of Michael's arco chant-drones. But it is the alto-bass twosome that gets to some especially beautiful free places.

This is the best Gary Hassay playing I can recall hearing and Michael Bisio is on a personal high as well. Now that is saying a great deal, since both players are doing some heavy things!

It's a don't-miss-it CD, for adventurous souls and lovers of the new jazz. Grab a copy and go someplace very cool in your mind.

Composing Outside The Beatles: Lennon and McCartney, 1973-1980, DVD

John Lennon and Paul McCartney after the Beatles? There were those who faithfully followed the careers and bought the releases of both; those who decided either John or Paul were more to their taste and stuck with them; then there were those who dabbled but found for whatever reason that neither was at the consistent level of the Beatles days. I was in the latter camp in those years. So there are gaps in my knowledge of the careers and total music output of either during this period.

For diehard fans and for those like me who don't know the whole story Composing Outside the Beatles: Lennon and McCartney 1973-1980 (Pride DVD142) gives a cogent summation of that era, their records, the alignments and realignments, the ups and downs of their personal-musical lives, the erratic quality of some of the music. All that is covered on this hour-and-a-half documentary. The talking heads of band members, music industry people and music journalists intersperse with concert footage and music videos to give you a pretty decent overview.

Neither quite rise to the heights of their Beatles days. Paul especially went further into a pop banality in search of success; John sometimes found it difficult to lock into a cohesive direction. All is thoroughly examined in this program.

It's not a history that is often rehearsed in a totality. This DVD does a good job supplying that lack. Recommended for all who want to get the wider picture of those days.

Jeff Buckley, Gary Lucas, Songs to No One, 1991-1992

Rehearsal tapes, live soundboard captures, live broadcast tapes... these with any other musicians might be second thoughts, "also did this," leftovers. With artists the caliber of Jeff Buckley and Gary Lucas, Songs to No One, 1991-1992 (Evolver-Knitting Factory Records EVL 2008-2) that is so much not the case. Some are duets with the two, some involve the entire Gods and Monsters band, all are supercharged evidence of an incredibly fruitful union that we can now only appreciate on tape with Jeff's tragic passing. While it lasted though it was the best sort of collaboration, each bringing to the music something that completed what the other put forward. Jeff's rangy, dramatic, lucidly moody vocals and compositional elements; Gary's orchestral psychedelics, inimitable guitar sounds and musico-structural wisdom.

I hesitate to wax hyperbolic unless it is warranted. In this case it is. This is a classic, folks. It has all the makings of it. Instrumental profundity, vocal perfection, songs that don't go away but haunt you long after every listen. Jeff was a haunting, haunted cat. Gary was his best foil, grounding and spacing the song format with keen ears and eminently appropriate guitaristic counterpoint that equally haunts. The combination is rather uncanny. But do not take my word for it.

Singers, guitarists, avid listeners take note. THIS is an album you need to absorb. I will leave it at that.