Dust, Volume 4, Number 8
Sad Baxter
For the latest installment in our often-monthly roundup of shorter reviews, we've got an elusively rare CDR, a brief discussion of "Mallcore," the merging of Arabic tones with a free jazz style of performance, and some lovely, understated Aussie songwriting. Contributors include Bill Meyer, Jonathan Shaw, Jennifer Kelly, and Justin Cober-Lake
Anne-James Chaton/Andy Moor âTout Ce Que Je Sais (Unsounds)
Tout Ce Que Je Sais (All That I Know) is the fourth cohesive recording project by vocalist Anne-James Chaton and guitarist Andy Moor, and the second under their Heretics project. Sonically, it comes full circle to the strengths of their marvelous debut, Le Journaliste. Stripped back to what the two men can do live, certain strengths come to the fore. Moorâs guitar playing, an amalgam of chugging riffs, melodic permutations and those emotion-overloading near-explosions that have been his gift to the Ex for decades, is simply fantastic. You could just listen him do his stuff and the only thing youâd be missing is the way he shadows, underlines and propels the stark unfuckwithable authority of Chatonâs delivery. The Frenchman sounds undeniable reading the contents of his wallet, but the contents here â Francophone texts borrowed from or written about heretical figures that have endorsed the idea of undoing something â canât help but add gravity to the music. Simultaneously freewheeling and unmovable, no matter what youâve been listening to lately, this is one record that you really ought to know.
Bill Meyer
Neon TigerâAccessorize (Bogus Collective)
Accessorize by Neon Tiger
Mallcore is a thing, it seems, so much so that multiple, competing subgenres lay claim to the label. One doesnât know whether to laugh or weep. Neon Tigerâs recent EP sure doesnât clarify anything. A few of the tracks scan as celebratory invocations of the climate-controlled corporate space of the late-twentieth century shopping mall, and the various consumer pleasures to be had therein. A few tunes feature weirdly distorted baritone vocals (including âWaiting in Line,â which turns out to be a couple sections of Tina Turnerâs âWhatâs Love Got to Do with It?â chopped up and slowed down a cycle or three; perversely, itâs compelling listening). The distortion misshapes the vocals discomfitingly enough to suggest a measure of critical distance from all the logos and fluorescent lighting and foodcourt linoleum. But itâs hard to say for sure what attitude Neon Tiger takes toward its subject matter. In that way, the EP is a perfect postmodern objectâmystifying surfaces, ambivalent values, with only the commodity form as a legible presence.
Jonathan Shaw
Luke StewartâWorks for Upright Bass and Amplifier (Astral Spirits)
Works for Upright Bass and Amplifier by Luke Stewart
There was a time when you had an excuse to not know who Luke Stewart was if you were not hip to Washington, DCâs jazz scene. Given his membership in the fiery improvising-for-justice quintet Irreversible Entanglements, that time is coming to an end. But thatâs only one rock on a veritable heap of live-performance and community-building work that dwarfs his still-slender discography (debut efforts by Heart of the Ghost, Heroes are Gang Leaders, Mean Crow, Trio OOO). To that you can add the 31-year-old bassistâs solo cassette. Rather typically, his voice on his instrument is strong, but it does not speak alone. First comes a burrowing feedback tone, which morphs and recurs throughout the nearly half-hour long first piece as if to say that even when youâre alone, youâre not alone. Sometimes Stewart uses that continuous presence as a springboard for knotted, bursting figures; others he lets the amplification add a red, ragged glow to sprinting pizzicato forays. Turns out that the upright bass and amplifier make good company when Stewartâs giving out the working orders.
Bill Meyer
Leo MullinsâBeing Here Is Everything (Self-Released)
Being Here is Everything by Leo Mullins
Leo Mullins, an Australian songwriter also affiliated with the Small Knives, makes a low-key but excellent folk-tinged full-length here, with shimmering spiderwebs of acoustic picking and soft shadowy melodies. âWeight of the World,â with its quietly gorgeous harmonies, is maybe the pick of the litter; it is melancholic and uplifting at once, and the guitar cuts through shifting vocal textures with a clean, sure resonance. Mullins brings in Amy Galloway and Kirti Mills to add subtle, pretty embellishments to a couple of songs, the slyly percussive âThis Paper Boatâ cushioned and softened with dual vocals at the chorus (thatâs Mills), the drone-y mysteries of âLinger Onâ enhanced with Gallowayâs wavery unisons (she also sings on the very lovely âWeight of the World"). This latter cut is one of two to feature Mick Turner of the Dirty Three on guitar. He bows his instrument on âLinger On,â adding to the VU-ish mesh of tones and undertones that flicker through that cut. âLet the Light Inâ also bears his imprint, though unassumingly, in the glittering lattices of picked acoustic that are hemmed in with bells. The songs take shape slowly out of mists and aura and tone, shiver like rainbows for a little while and then subside into the air, all the prettier for their evanescence.
Jennifer Kelly
Finn LoxboâEter (Gikt)
Apparently Finn Loxbo is a restless sort. The Swedish musician has played punky electric bass in the jazz trio Doglife, navigated his electric guitar through the busy traffic of the Mats Gustafssonâs Fire Orchestra and recorded an album of pensive folk-rock for Kning. Now comes a solo CD, the first release by the Stockholm-based Gikt label, comprising solo improvisations on the steel-stringed acoustic guitar. Is this the real Finn? Probably not, anymore than any one good thing you do sums up the real you. But heâs pretty good at it, and it concentrates talents heâs likely developed in his other endeavors. Loxbo seems to have prepared his instruments strings and mic-ed them closely, yielding gamelan-like sonorities on one piece, Derek Bailey meets razor wire fence sound-spikes on another and soft abrasions on a third. Each of the albumâs seven tracks proceeds with a lucidity that suggests his songwriterâs mind does not shut off when he puts away the vocal microphone. File this with the work of Bailey, David StackenĂ€s, and Norberto Lobo, but donât just file it away.
Bill Meyer
Mutilation RitesâChasm (Gilead Media)
Chasm by Mutilation Rites
This record completes Mutilation Ritesâ transformation from a black metal band flirting with death metal, to a death metal band that sometimes plays black metal riffs. When Mutilation Rites began dallying with deathy rhythms and chunky chords on Harbinger (2014), it was worrying stuff: it suggested a band flailing for a sense of identity, and the resulting record was uneven, at best. Mutilation Ritesâ more significant commitment to death metal on Chasm turns out to be an enlivening move (pun intended, hardy-fucking-har). This sort of music isnât supposed to be fun, but on Chasm the band sounds loose and confident, like theyâre enjoying themselves. Maybe thatâs partially due to their decision to cut the tracks for the record at Brooklynâs Saint Vitus, a venue the band plays regularly. In any case, Chasm is a good record, and folks who really loved Mutilation Ritesâ first few EPs neednât fret: âPutrid Decomposition,â the longest track on the album and ironically the one with the most death metal title, has the fleet, jagged riffing that captures the band at their blackest.
Jonathan Shaw
Shelton/MofjellâUncovered short run CDR (Singlespeed)
Uncovered by Shelton Mofjell
Ole Mofjell kicks off Uncovered with a blast of force. Unrelenting but texturally varied, it makes this clear; youâre not in for an easy ride. In short order Aram Shelton joins him, blowing so hard and low that you might ask, âwhoâs the tenor player?â Ride the wave into the next track and the pitch territory moves upward, and then the question changes to, âhow does he make an alto sound like that?â Time and experience have darkened and deepened Sheltonâs instrumental voice, which has shed the diamond brightness that he wielded in various Chicago-based ensembles in the earliest years of the century. But his fluency has increased, and thereâs no better place to hear it than in the company of a drummer like Mofjell. Each player shifts tone and tack in a second, using silence as well as motion to give the other room to take deep dives into the complexity of interactions with their instruments and each other. Caveat â the physical edition of this album is a pressing of 100 professionally duplicated discs that you might only be able to get by attending one of Sheltonâs concerts or contacting him directly via his webpage or the Singlespeed site. But if youâre not into keeping the international postage racket afloat, thereâs always Bandcamp!
Bill Meyer
Sad BaxterâSo Happy (Cold Lunch)
So Happy by Sad Baxter
Sad Baxterâs âSick-Outtâ does the mid-1990s ramp up from relatively quiet, melodic verse to screaming, crashing, unhinged chorus in a way that few bands even attempt these days, and if youâre thinking Hole, thatâs because Deezy Violetâs a girl. The real reference is Nirvana, here and in the slow building guitar-and-cymbals firestorm that is âWash,â a transformation from clamped down palm-muted tension to full on feedback fused noise. Violetâs partner in all this, Alex Mojaverian, builds a bristling, shivering dissonant wall of percussion and amp buzz around a voice that snakes around curvy melodies like the Muffsâ Kim Shattuck or, more recently, Speedy Ortizâs Sadie Dupuis. Sweetness and melody lurk in the intervals between bursts of splintering noise, hooking a finger to lure you in for the kill.
Jennifer Kelly
ManasâLive At (Null Zone)
Live At by MANAS
This cassette, which was recorded last summer at Fresh Produce Records in Macon GA, drives home a point thatâs never exactly been a secret. These guys are punks. Guitarist Tashi Dorji may have been raised in Bhutan and he and drummer Thom Nguyen may operate within the realm of freely improvised music, but they're writing their own rule book. This half-hour performance rolls, slashes and rumbles in some pretty rocking ways; they play with an improvisersâ faith that their music will create its own form, but also with an abandon that suggests they really donât care if someone doesnât get it; they sound really loud; and out of all the places where they could have made a record, they picked a shop that (per photographic evidence sourced from a Yelp review) puts all four Kiss solo LPs on the wall. Thatâs plenty punk enough! Sobering up for a second, the music on this tape evinces more nuance and space than other Manas recordings, and sports their clearest recording quality to date. Rock on.
Bill Meyer
Gordon Grdina's The MarrowâEjdeha (Songlines)
Gordon Grdina's been merging his jazz-based guitar work and his oud studies for a decade and a half now, finding his way into Middle Eastern traditions while integrating his own voice. With his Marrow quartet, he's expanded the strangeness of what he does by opening space for bassist Mark Helias and cellist Hank Roberts, each of whom toy with the function and sound of their own instruments on new album Ejdeha. âIdiolectâ lets each of the three musicians shine (percussionist Hamin Honari mostly stays steady here) while revealing Grdina's gift for composition. The track ebbs and flows, trading melodies and shifting intensity across its eight minutes before its surprising end. The piece relies on Arabic tones, but feels like a free jazz approach to performance, the sort of blend that Grdina can deliver in a way that's both comfortable and alien. âEjdehaâ pulses in a different way, its heavy beat thumping through as the quartet finds an unlikely groove. Grdina and his bandmates have figured out how to keep a grounding in various traditions while still sounding surprising.
Justin Cober-Lake
