A new series has arrived in the form of Grab Bag, a fun monthly list that finds me listening and reacting to ten random songs from the depths of music's annals. There's no prerequisites, no regulations self-imposed. Anything can make this list if the site I'm using to discover these songs, RateYourMusic's random release generator, spits them out. This is a great way to discover new music with no attachment to something in your catalogue. Or, a dark reminder that truly horrid music exists in droves.
The positioning is based on the order in which I discovered them. The rating system similar to what DoD already enforces, in that 5 / 10 is average, not bad.
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Tori Amos' name continuously pops up alongside prominent female acts like PJ Harvey, Kate Bush, or even Bjork, so I'm familiar with the landscape 'Winter' presents. Off her debut album, Little Earthquakes, 'Winter' borrows immensely from Bush's theatrics, which isn't necessarily a bad thing in spite of my general belief that Bush's music is overrated. Amos' vocals work in two facets, being as strong and unwavering as it is weak and unsure. This helps the wintry vibe gain a foothold, given that time of season usually correlates with stark coldness and romantic love loss, two things that play mightily in 'Winter.' On RYM, this is her highest rated single. For fans of such a sound, I can see why. Yet, for me, there's something lacking in the general tone. It feels stuck in the cheap romantics of the 90's, wherein cookie cutter fantasy novels of a damsel in distress were all the rage. Amos riding a white horse on the cover doesn't help matters. Still, it's pretty enough to get by.
5 / 10
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Three things that don't really go together: Gothic Rock, the 2010's, and Portland, Oregon. Yet those are the three defining features of The Bellicose Minds, a band that might be long past their potential limelight given 'The Spine.' Don't get me wrong, the frantic nature of the instrumentation that bellows and bulges between every chorus and bridge is atmospherically-provocative, but it does feel righteously engrained in the late 70's/early 80's era of Post-Punk. This can best be seen in Nick Bellicose's vocals, which ride that baritone wave set by Ian Curtis or Adrian Borland. If 'The Spine' had been released during that era, things would've made a lot more sense. But here, in 2013, it just seems dated. Given the quality on display, which, I must reiterate, is quite good, one would question why it matters that The Bellicose Minds are long past their time. Well, while it's not of their own doing, 'The Spine' gives off a certain cover band sound to it, as if they're reliving that era for the benefit of those aged folk who lived through it.
6 / 10
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First impressions are everything, and considering this very laptop I write on broke (forcing me to wipe the hard drive and reinstall the OS) while Bud Powell's 'Tempus Fugue-It (Tempus Fugit)' played doesn't help its cause. You can't overestimate the gravity of bias, especially when it comes to art. So while, yes, I'm over-exaggerating this scorn a fair bit, there's no denying that some exists. Thankfully, I don't lose much by brushing Powell's frantic 1961 Bebop aside, as the vocal-less trip through a rickety piano and trembling percussion doesn't do much for me. 'Tempus Fugue-It' is a pleasant listen, but not a memorable one. And if Miles Davis' Kind Of Blue or John Coltrane's Love Supreme doesn't transform me into a Jazz fan, then Bud Powell's chugging train won't either.
4 / 10
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A French Shoegaze band sounds delectable, and for the most part, 'Ciel Errant' is. Normally I'd preface any foreign language record with the statement that I don't understand the words, thus diminishing the potential impact (this happened with Tenhi when I listened to their Dark Folk record Maaäet). However, as we all know with Shoegaze's benchmark Loveless, lyrics don't matter as Kevin Shields made them virtually unrecognizable. It's all about atmosphere and emotion, which is something 'Ciel Errant' has in droves. At times, it is a bit redundant of Shoegaze and, dare I say, Post-Rock tropes even though it certainly has more vigor and dexterity than the bulk of the latter genre. Patterns shift as the overarching Noise comes in and out with systematic waves. This helps Alcest divide and conquer, as seven minutes of such guitar-driven Drone would quickly reduce the impact, whereas divvying it up through slow tempo mid-riffs helps to scale the walls when that climax comes barreling back in.
6.5 / 10
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Unlike these other songs, which I experienced at the same time, Nina Simone's 'Four Women' came to me at the tail end of a lengthy drive up to visit my parents. An album ended and, with four or so minutes to spare, I put it on not expecting much. A foolish thought given the reputation of Simone. During the duration of 'Four Women' I sat, eyes fixated on the road, as this moving and moaning portrait of the oppression of women unfolded around me. At song's end, when Simone hollers out "Peachessssssss!" with crashing cymbals and clanking pianos, I audibly said "holy fuck!" as I pulled into my parents' driveway. That is to say, 'Four Women' has made a mark on me. There's something powerful in the unsettling depiction of Saffronia, wherein a white slave owner rapes a woman who, nine months later, becomes Saffronia's mother. Or there's the subconscious dejection of Sweet Thing, the prostitute known only as a sex object. All of this, including the first woman Aunt Sarah, comes to a crushing halt in the final verse where centuries of slavery and segregation pours out from Simone's lips.
9 / 10
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Experiencing something like The Pine Hill Haints is exactly why I chose to undergo this Grab Bag. Normally, when I see the word Country I run for the hills. That is, excluding the great Gothic Country of Swans' second generation. If not for the Grab Bag, the Alt-Country produced by this Alabama mega-band would've never entered my consciousness. Perhaps most interesting about 'When You Fall' isn't the song itself, but rather it's quick and sturdy duration. At only two minutes, 'When You Fall' forces The Pine Hill Haints to not waste any time, and therefore exclude the copious amounts of rubbish permeating modern day Country. The album on which this track falls, Ghost Dance, is composed of 20 of these short ideas, drawing similarities to Guided By Voices and their brisk way of getting to the point. The vocals of Jamie Barrier work quite well in this context, as the jam band style production jaunts eagerly behind him. Can't say much to discredit 'When You Fall.' The lyrics invite some curious southern chic, which is endearing, and captured effortlessly in the guitars and drums.
7 / 10
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Post-Rock's a funny genre in that the majority of releases are only constituted as Post-Rock based on structuring alone. Some, like the majority of Godspeed You! Black Emperor's discography, dive headfirst into the atmospheric, apocalyptic Rock, while others, like Del Rey's 'Asimov,' merely exist in the realm by being nine minutes of vocal-less guitar and drum playing. Add some guttural wails and/or cut down on the rampant redundancy that plagues 'Asimov's' second half, and you have a generic Heavy Metal track. There's no identity here, it's all structurally on-the-nose. Despite the energy that rattles inside the drums, that finds squeaks emptying out of guitar riffs, much of 'Asimov' feels lifeless and bland. Del Rey may have been emotionally-invested in the playing of 'Asimov,' but that doesn't translate to the average listener. Nothing new will be seen here, as Del Rey becomes yet another band to succumb to Post-Rock formality.
2.5 / 10
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Not gonna lie, after seeing the genre descriptions for Oren Ambarchi, which include thorny genres like Drone, Ambient, Free Improvisation, and Electroacoustic, coupled with the fact that the Australian native's discography runs well over 50 albums, worry immediately set in over the possibility for 'Part 2' to be dominated by pretentiousness and lethargy. However, that doesn't necessarily seem to be the case, although each of those terms apply in some compulsory sense. Experimentation lies at the heart of 'Part 2,' as two interlaced synth nodes ping-pong methodically with one another whilst a slew of various, minimalistic blurbs jump in and out of the robotic procession. To be honest, I kinda dig it. As far as Ambient goes, Ambarchi's Quixotism creation sways drastically from nature-bound sounds in favor of a factory setting. There's not much to it, but with the space given above the synth nodes (bearing similarity to Laurie Anderson's forward-thinking 'production' for 'O Superman'), the swath of sounds that invade the standalone beat pry greater meaning than they normally would have.
6 / 10
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Someone's really going to have to explain to me the trend in the early years of modern music (50's & 60's) of blatantly covering other artists' works for your own financial gain. It's a grim admittance, but one aspect in that field makes sense - that being conservative white singers, like Pat Boone, recreating black artist's works because of racial obstinacy. However, someone like Johnny Rivers didn't just go after black musicians, he went after everyone, covering dozens of Pop hits to gain a foothold before he started writing his own music. You can see his susceptibility in his appearance, one that mimicked - as the 60's and 70's went on - whatever trend was prominent at the time. 'Under Your Spell Again,' originally written and released by Country singer Buck Owens, finds Rivers at the early stages of his peak. The sweet Pop Soul ballad is innocuously simple, and there's no denying Rivers' vocals work well with the syrupy love spooling. Here you can hear the Beach Boys, or more precisely the jaunty, live band effects of their inspiration: Phil Spector. This goes down to the swaying female background vocals added to strengthen the background. It's a pleasant song, but one I can't overly praise due to Rivers' copycatting ways.
4.5 / 10
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Suffice to say, after relaxing into the couch with Nina Simone, Bud Powell, and Johnny Rivers, the Digital Hardcore of Atari Teenage Riot hit me like a ton of bricks. More so than the group initially intended. This sudden transition between soft and pleasant and harsh and vile, unintentionally, made me experience what it's like to be an bitter old music purist. 'Revolution Action' was shrill to my ears, an earsplitting evolution of Power Electronics, only because of the screeching Punk and Power Pop that the male and female vocalists layer on top of it. Their ultra-simplified lyrics, that hinge on a baseline understanding of politics, play right into the hands of angsty turn-of-the-century, soon-to-be emo teenagers fed up with formalities. "Another investigation of our generation, sublime information / The collapse of a century, I'm targeted at the White House / Like a bullet from a gun, waste my life from scratch" they scream out, failing to say anything meaningful at all. It borders on parody, especially when the song's title, 'Revolution Action,' is treated as a rallying cry in the chorus. I appreciate their energy, but still struggle to find the entertainment value of Noise, especially when it comes on a digital platform.
3 / 10
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