Drop Down Florida's one-string wizard

I'm repeating myself, I know, but still working through this truckload dump from Dust-to-Digital, and enjoying very much the archival Drop on Down in Florida: Field Recordings of African American Music 1977-1980. It's about a third blues, a third gospel and a third sacred harp singing, and all of it quite good, but I am especially loving the tracks from one-string virtuoso Moses Williams, from Inna, Bena Mississippi (he says), who constructed an instrument out of one length of wire. Williams has a fine, gravelly voice, but the fascinating thing is the way the wire reverberates, a very metallish sort of sound, almost industrial, quite at odds with the traditional melodies.



Pretty cool, isn't it?

Lonnie Holley

Okay for one thing, I have put far, far, far too much new music onto my iTunes lately...neither my iPod touch nor my shuffle will update anymore because new stuff automatically goes onto them and there's more of it than will fit, even after taking a shitload of other stuff off the touch. I don't usually care about capacity because 2 GB is plenty in terms of what you can actually listen to, but this is a special case.

It happened mostly because I got a DL of three new releases from Dust to Digital, which I was, of course, pretty excited about and didn't even notice that, in total, I was adding about half a MG to the library in the process. So now I'm swimming through archival, oddball, field recorded music -- in particular a 53 track compilation of blues, gospel and sacred harp music from Florida -- and if I can catch up in two weeks, that'll be a good thing. There is also a lengthy Pictures of Sound: One Thousand Years of Educed Music recording, which I haven't even cracked yet. (Educed, apparently, means that the music has been represented in pictoral terms sometime in the past, and that the artists have turned it back into the sound...interesting idea, haven't really had time to listen yet.]

But meanwhile, I am fascinated by a shorter, more digestible album by the outsider artist Lonnie Holley, mostly famous for his sculptures, but also, on his own terms, a singer/composer, who improvises lyrics over weirdly apocalyptic, minimalist keyboard arrangements. His voice is, I think, untrained, but extremely soulful -- it's like freeform, hallucinogenic Marvin Gaye -- unbelievable stuff.

Here's a video with music and also some of his art.

Karriem Riggins' Alone Together

Karriem Riggins, as an unnamed DJ states during a fragment of an interview, lives at the corner of hip hop and jazz, drumming regularly with the Ray Brown Trio and Diane Krall, but also producing tracks for the Roots, Common, J Dilla and other hip hop artists. His latest, Alone Together, which has been out since late 2012 on Stones Throw, is a mercurial kind of pleasure, lots of tracks, mostly quite short, exploring fleeting rhythmic and melodic ideas, then flying off to the next new thing. It feels like lots of bright, shiny bits, rather than one cohesive statement, but the bits are quite, quite good.

Here's a video from Riggins' website for "Round the Outside"



Also pretty interesting podcast called "Karriem Riggins Produced That"

Black Forest Fire

Pretty sure I blogged this earlier when I first started listening, but now the review's up at Blurt, so I'm posting again.

BLACK FOREST FIRE
Transit of Venus
(Sedimental)

Black Forest Fire weaves brooding, reverb-drenched drones around soft melodies, well in line with the tradition of fellow psychedelic Austinites like Black Angels, Experimental Aircraft and Explosions in the Sky. Guitarist Jay C. Tonne and drummer Karen Skloss trade vocals, with Tonne's voice high and surprisingly pop-leaning on slouching-towards-oblivion ramps like "Tell It To Sara" and Skloss' ethereal in "August Spring"'s twitchy daydream.

More

Diablos del Ritmo

Diablos Del Ritmo is a really fantastic exploration of a corner of the world (and of music) that I didn't know existed...the afro-beat scene in Baranquilla, Columbia in, roughly, the second half of the 20th century. It's two discs, one very afro, the other more permeated by more indigenous, Latin forms like Cumbia, and all quite good. Blurt has turned my album review into a feature of sorts, so you can read about it in more detail here.

Or just have a listen.

Parquet Courts

I'm easing back into the music writing thing gradually, like the way you get into a really hot bath, one toe at a time. For instance, yesterday, I got my ass in gear just enough to finish a show preview for Parquet Courts, a scrabbly, guitar-banging post-punk outfit whose lyrics are smarter than they need to be, but not as smart as they'd be if they weren't mostly about weed. The band's main writer is Andrew Savage, whom you might remember from Fergus & Geronimo.

The album, Light Up Gold is getting a formal, commercial release on What's Your Rupture later this month, but it's been on Bandcamp since the summer, and you can still listen to it there.

Here they are playing CMJ not too long ago.

CMJ 2012: Parquet Courts performs "Yr No Stoner" at Death By Audio, Brooklyn from BlearyEyedBrooklyn.com on Vimeo.

Today, maybe an actual album review, what do you think?

Ty Segall, Mikal Cronin, Pink Floyd...what's not to love?

In the Red is reissuing Ty Segall and Mikal Cronin's 2009 vinyl-only Reverse Shark Attack in late January...and it's a hella good time, highly recommended if you didn't catch it the first time. (Cronin is a mainstay in Segall's band now and kind of a co-writer on the really excellent Slaughterhouse.) The originals are terrific, but they really got my attention with this cover, from one of my all time favorite albums, the Syd-enhanced, acid-wreathed Piper at the Gates of Dawn



Sorry I've been off and on with the posts. I've been having some motivational problems, plus this college/financial aid application process is kind of all-encompassing. Be glad when it's over.

Aren't you happy we didn't all
go
right
off
the
cliff
?


!!!!