Kalle Kalima & K-18, Out to Lynch

Dark star film maker David Lynch always gets very appropriate music into his films/tv work. Think of the theme from "Twin Peaks". He also has an unmistakable auteur brilliance that portrays innocence and evil at the same time, with unforgettable, oftimes disturbing imagery and ambiance.

Berlin-based outside electric guitarist Kalle Kalima and his band K-18 have done a tribute to the director in Out to Lynch (TUM 030). These aren't redo-ings of soundtrack highlights so much as brand new compositions that take characters and scenes as inspiration.

The results are highly interesting. There's freedom, sometimes much electricity from the guitar, and accordion, bass, and reeds interacting with Kalle in unpredictable ways as an avant quartet. Sometimes it sounds like Meddle meets music from the nightmare cafe. Kalle's guitar work bears close listening.

It's not easily classified and must be heard a number of times to get into. Once you do that, something clearly good is going on here, you realize.

If you want different, outside and parallel Lynchian, here you have that. It is perhaps one of the most unexpected albums to come out recently!

The xx, Coexist

The xx are back with Coexist (XL Records), their second. If you already know that, bear with me. If you don't, it is a bit of an occasion. They do moody alt, songs with some haunting arrangements, female/male lead vocals that stick out. Love songs, lost songs, human sounds, sincere feeling moods.

It doesn't have the glib slickness that makes some pop alt nauseating these days. It is not formula. And there's spooky guitar and keys haunting everything.

So that's all I have to say for now about this one. It's a soundtrack to lives that aren't as secure, assured, or plan-able as maybe they used to be. And it's not casual so much either. So that's what I get from this music. It's good to hear. It fits my mood, maybe lot's of people's moods, and it does it very musically.

Katherine Young's Pretty Monsters, A Heavy Skronk Bassoon, Guitar, Violin and Drum Quartet

Oh, I like this one. Pretty Monsters (Public Eyesore 120) is avant skronk metal from a very cool quartet that Katherine Young heads up--on bassoon, electronics and compositional heft!

It's an individual and unique band. Katherine gives the bassoon plenty of buzz, Erica Dicker plays some very nice heavy-out violin, Owen Stewart-Robertson skronks and runs wild in good post-Sharrockian guitar form, and Mike Pride plays just the right stuff on drums.

It's music that perhaps only Brooklyn could spawn? It's something of what makes New York improv distinct (of course only part of it). This is a band that should appear at the Stone, the Knitting Factory, and fit right in. You know, like as in "Downtown"? Maybe they have and I missed it.

There's no missing this one if you like things heavy and out, electric and off-centered, insular yet direct. OK?

Tim Bedner, Of Light and Shadow Suite

Enter Tim Bedner, in his debut CD Of Light and Shadow Suite (self released). He plays a very expressive guitar style where influences of Scofeld, Metheny, sophisticated fusion and grit come together with a personal genuineness, originality and soul that extends the bag he is in.

Bedner's compositional thrust makes it stick in your mind in a good way and the trio gets real and personal with fine contrabass and chromatic harmonica from Normand Glaudi and together drumming from Jeff Asselin.

Tim is a talent and a force. Welcome him by buying his CD.

Cat Power, Sun

Singer, songwriter, alt queen Cat Power is aging well musically. Her album Sun (Matador) shows that well. Thanks to Hurricane Sandy and then another storm that knocked me off the net a good part of last quarter, I am running a bit behind. Sun has been reviewed and duly acclaimed out there already. What can I add?

I can add that good songs and interesting arrangements make or break the sort of alt that flirts at the edges of pop yet transcends the bleakly dismal results that usually prevail in the great wasteland today.

Anyway, Cat Power didn't sing at the inauguration and I don't suppose we should expect much from our State events from a cultural point of view. No one would accuse Cat Power of donning continually the evil falseness of voice-pitch correction software or other slickly glib tricks that are a big part of the music machine today. So though she may be popular, she could I suppose never be mainstream enough for some musical rep of consensus, and I like that. Political consensus is one thing, musical another. We don't need a common denominator in music and Cat Power isn't that. And that's very cool with me.

If there's a wrong note, it's there, though I hear none on the album, offhand. She does do a little with the digital voice enhancement thing, but quite sparingly and seemingly for effect.

Lyrics that must be heard and understood and have poetic fullness, music that doesn't run through the formulas, a kind of believable human-ness, that's Cat Power to me and she gets my applause for this new one. She doesn't have to sound cute, young and coy and she doesn't. That means she can grow older and still have credibility, no?

Good job!

Joacim Nyberg, Solo Force, Solo Bass Improvisations

Is it true that only bass players get off on solo bass recordings? If it is, it shouldn't be. And it need not be if it is. The bass in jazz/improv is a critical piece of the music puzzle and it's never been more true that good players can do extraordinary things solo, if they are the right sort of player. The solo bass potentially holds as much interest for the listener as a solo reed, a solo piano, a solo whatever recording.

So then, Joacim Nyberg has a disk out, Solo Force, which is available in a limited edition JaZt Tapes (CD-035) CDR. He plays both solo contrabass and solo electric bass here, so that in itself puts a slightly different spin on it. He was mightily influenced by Peter Kowald, plays with cats like Mats Gustafson, Anders Gahnold, Rudi Mahall, and a piano trio with Sebastian Bergstrom.

He is young (born in 1986) and filled with spirit. This disk may not be comparable with something William Parker, Michael Bisio or Peter Kowald has done. But it is soulfully loose and limber; it is a good effort that rings true. Plus there is the solo ELECTRIC bass that gives you something different to hear. Imaginative and budding, Nyberg shows himself off respectably. I am sure time will bring more our way from him. In the meantime get an earful of this.

Mahogany Frog, Senna

There's a new Mahogany Frog. Who? Come on, Mahogany Frog! Well, you may not be familiar with them, but they will stick in your head if you hear the new one, Senna (MoonJune 048). Anyone who likes early Floyd and other proto-psychedelic prog outfits that gave the keys equal billing with the guitar strings will find this keys-guitar-bass-drums quartet treading new ground in that tradition.

These are instrumentals with good arrangements in solidly expansive compositions. They are retro without being imitative. It's their own sound and there's the new and the burnished in a nice combination.

This is traveling music, as Jackie Gleason used to call it. I'll bet it would sound terrific in the car for a long trip. It travels into space too but you probably don't have your own rocket yet.

I only have nice things to say about this group. They give you a deja vu feeling without a Groundhog Day literalness! Listen to this one.