As we continue to crawl through the dog days of summer, music lovers can at least take some solace in one thing - knowing that some of the best releases of the year come out in the heat of the summer days. The August 2010 edition of CD Impressions features a few albums that would be a perfect compliment to a lazy summer afternoon, and a few that we advise you stay away from. Featured artists include former Live frontman Ed Kowalczyk, dance-pop icon M.I.A., post-punk legends The Fall, hip-hop nerds Kidz in the Hall and lastly the electronica genious Flying Lotus.
Our Future Your Clutter
Artist: The Fall
Label: Domino
Release Date: 5/4/10
7 out of 10
Legendary English disc jockey John Peel once said of his favorite band, “They are always different, they are always the same.” That could describe the Fall’s significant serpentine shift from nasty, brute force rock dynamic to druggy, hypnotic drone and back again, or it could describe that while the cantankerous captain Mark E. Smith always remains, he’s surrounded himself with so many different co-stars/grease monkeys over the years that even he’s probably forgotten half of them and wants to defecate on the graves of the other half (there’s a rather long Wikipedia page just devoted to listing them all). What hasn’t been the same is in the details—away from the central abrasion and repetition of the core style, and also in the quality of nearly thirty studio LPs since 1979. After dominating the rancorous post-punk scene in the 80s, the band disappeared beyond the cult orbit for about a decade and a half, but then resurged in the aughts beginning with The Real New Fall LP and solidifying in ’05 with Fall Heads Roll, their most satisfying release in twenty years. The concrete renaissance continues with Our Future Your Clutter.
Early in the album, Smith announces it as a “showcase of Fall talent” and pointedly declares, “I am your future!” and later, “I am invincible!” By the final grimy, rumbling echo of the noise ramble closer “Weather Report 2,” he ends the album by sneering in a raspy whisper, “You don’t deserve rock n’ roll.” It’s not always easy to admire Smith’s mindset, and even tougher to like it (in the traditional sense), but there’s no arguing its hard cocktail headrush, its implacable superiority to lesser self, its gut punch jab and cyclonic sweep. Smith’s pithy declarations (with moribund tenacity and filthy disregard) are tough to ignore over squalid feedback and withering distortion during the noisy back-ends of tracks like “Weather” and “Cowboy George,” but you don’t even need to be paying attention to thrill to the kiss kiss, bang bang appeal of “Bury Pts 1 & 3” and “Hot Cake.” Though the psych-synapse sounds don’t coalesce supremely on “Chino” and the “Funnel of Love” cover is kind of dull, there’s not a lot of, ahem, clutter on here. Not even a masterpiece like Our Nation’s Saving Grace ever suggested to us that the Fall had tidiness in its bloodstream. (Matt Medlock)
Alive
Artist: Ed Kowalczyk
Label: Megaforce
Release Date: 7/6/10
4 out of 10
Ed Kowalczyk has never been shy about his faith. There were more than just a few hints to what he was singing about when he was fronting the ultra-popular rock band Live throughout the '90s and into the early part of the '00s. On his debut solo album Alive, Kowalczyk doesn't even attempt to masque the meaning of his songs with clever metaphors or thought provoking poetry, instead, the lyrics on Alive are either painfully straight forward or transparently lacking tact. All the while, Kowalcyk's words are set to bombastic modern rock music, which only at times reflects the grungy goodness of the glory days of Live. From the dismal opening track, “Drive,” to the album's commendable first single “Grace,” Kowalcyk wears his feel good message on his sleeve. At times Alive sounds more like a contemporary Christian album than a solo album from a former member of a multi-million album selling grunge band. Christian radio stations have even began adding songs off of Alive to their rotation. It's not Kowalcyk's lyrics of choice that brings down his debut though, it's the way they are presented and even more so the bland song structures and just unmemorable feel that the majority of the tracks here share. There are some songs on Alive that remind us why we liked '90s era Live so much, such as the well paced album closer “Fire on the Mountain,” but most generally Kowalcyk flat out drops the ball on his debut album. (Tyler Barlass)
Land of Make Believe
Artist: Kidz in the Hall
Label: Duck Down
Release Date: 3/9/10
5 out of 10
It’s not going to be easy for a pair of Ivy League grads releasing an album that references Mister Rogers to “take over the world” in the hip hop universe, but this is what Kidz in the Hall promises on Land of Make Believe. If this is their mission statement to future conquering, consider it an extensive and wide-ranging resume (with a few exaggerations or outright lies to embellish their breadth of talent). Actually, its mission statement seems to consider “almost” to be correlated with triumph; based on the shoddy evidence of today’s rap hits, that might be enough. Unfocused to the point of frustration, the duo of Naledge and Double-O run through a series of cheesy, synth-driven club bangers and ego-inflaters that are almost entirely unremarkable, as if pride in not being appalling made them forget to strive for something worth revisiting. Naledge’s vocal skill is modest but crisp and Double-O’s production isn’t as garish as it could have been but he still couldn’t find a hook in a bait shop. The guests are hit and miss—Russoul’s big-lunged backups enliven “Rise & Shine” but Colin Munroe’s refrain hook on “Take Over the World” is abominable. The soul samples of previous efforts have been pared away for simple beats and tacky synths; despite some indication of ambition on the shallowly introspective “Do It All Again (I Am),” this is mostly about booty-shaking and braggadocio. If mediocrity is what compels your drive for the dancefloor, this will suit your needs just fine, but based on the duo’s mindset during all the confounding boasts and none-too-sexy sex jams, Land of Make Believe is a truly appropriately named album. (Matt Medlock)
Cosmogramma
Artist: Flying Lotus
Label: Warp
Release Date: 5/10/10
9 out of 10
Primarily compared to the late J Dilla (where likenesses were nearly impossible to detect in such a singular state), the only reasonable connection one can make now to Flying Lotus’ increasingly impressive output is to the avant jazz masters of the 1960s. While it remains primarily electronic and beat-centered, Cosmogramma is obsessed with spastic and jarring breakdowns that are alive with the juice of both raw emotion and pure technique. The strings and harps of “A Cosmic Drama” should compete unnaturally with the frenetic and undisciplined rhythm of “Nose Art” and the scrambled eggs miasma that comprises “Zodiac Shit,” but there’s something beyond meter (and even mood) that makes them flow together even though they stand at a gap between different sectional suites. Beats also take a backseat on some alarmingly beautiful and mellow passages like “Mmmhmm” and “German Haircut,” while the digi-fractures of classic glitch splinter the dreamy laments of “Satelllliiiiteee” and “…And the World Laughs with You” (the latter features a Thom Yorke vocal, and individually could be mistakenly confused for a Radiohead B-Side, but in context flowers naturally from Flying Lotus’ IDM fetish). “Recoiled,” meanwhile, employs skronky horns and cymbal splashes in a way that could be easily confused for the real midnite-hard deal, until it gets interrupted by some sublime static and choppy chatter near the midpoint. How impressive are these mutations? Flying Lotus actually manages to make video game blips and burbles sound orchestral through navigation and layering alone. Need more proof? It’s tough to notice the bass even while the walls shake as it pumps out of the stereo! Easily the most complete and wholly satisfying album from Steven Ellison yet (sorry, Los Angeles fans, but it’s true), Cosmogramma is one of the year’s absolute must-buys. (Matt Medlock)
/\/\ /\ Y /\
Artist: M.I.A.
Label: Interscope
Release Date: 7/13/10
4 out of 10
Since emptying expectations is impossible, perhaps it was unfair to expect something mind-blowing from good ol’ Mathangi Arulpragasam, just as it’s probably unfair that I refuse to criticize the recording for being eardrum-blowing instead. Straddling the wide gulf between pop accessibility and discordant impressionism, M.I.A. managed to make divisiveness a crowd-pleaser, trashy inscrutability an art form, and controversy a no-blamer. But her latest can’t escape accusations of being self-satisfied to the point of smugness, like a surface-deep reiteration by the originator, somehow seeming to be half-hearted and noxiously vain in different pulses. I guess if she named her last two albums for each of her parents, the one she named after herself ought to be self-involved, but how it could it sound so far from heartfelt?
Either too empty or too spaced out to strive for anything but hollow mantras pinned to the cacophonous beat scourge, what comes out of M.I.A.’s mouth isn’t the source of contention, though—after all, it’s always been debatable how authentic or deep she’s been as an “artist.” I also don’t scorn the album for being so reckless in its sound shades, primarily a blanketed lo def mumble as if recorded underwater and then unleashed atop a volcano; it might not be a savvy choice, but it is an initially intriguing one. The problem is how unoriginal it sounds—a lot of the best bits owe oodles to Suicide samples, all-too-familiar tropical rhythms, stale junkyard glitch, and the kind of irritating psycho-pop that’s made Lady Gaga all the rage (and sob, sob, even manages that one earworm that won’t go away in “XXXO”). I’ve never even bothered trying to invest in the philosophy of her act, nor have I perused her backstory or rocky ride with much interest, so the jam is what matters. More irritating than the initial irritation is that some of them almost work, damn it. Well, at least the inevitable remixes could have potential. (Matt Medlock)
