JOSEPH SPENCE – BAHAMIAN GUITARIST: GOOD MORNING MR WALKER (ARHOOLIE RECORDS)

JOSEPH SPENCE – BAHAMIAN GUITARIST: GOOD MORNING MR WALKER (ARHOOLIE RECORDS)

This is a crazy sounding record, genuinely individual and original that displays a talent and force unhindered by the usual elements that ruin music.  It is a record that I gained in crazy circumstances on an adventurous night for the right reasons as reward for a rare good deed done well by me.

Joseph Spence is (or rather was) pretty unique.  Or rather that Joseph Spence has been recorded for posterity is unique.  Coming out of the Bahamas, this is pure blues folk music with a noted hint of calypso written and performed out of pure joy for the sole purpose of entertainment and cleansing the soul.  In both his playing and singing Spence displays a methodology not regular or common, an original sparkle that displays/represents humanity on an authentic level.  He was a community musician and rightly or wrongly I have Spence down as being a kind of Uncle Remus character.  The uncharted nature of his music isn’t on purpose; he was just going with his emotions and how he felt.

Good Morning Mr Walker is twenty one tracks of joy (fourteen recorded and seven in concert from Boston in 1971).  Credited for his “delightful rhythmic guitar improvisations” his music contains inimitable vocalisations of traditional gospel and local Bahamian songs.  Indeed on the credits of the record his singing is described as “vocal sounds”.  All hail the rural bluesman; this is the Joseph Spence blues explosion.

Does it matter that Spence played almost exclusively in the key of D?  Maybe but it is certainly more interesting to learn that Spence was the son of a pastor and worked as a sponge fisher, stonemason, carpenter and crop cutter.  This was a skilful man that could multitask.

This is a summery collection full of laughter and joy not least during the live performance of “Will The Serpent Be Unbroken” where halfway through Spence laughs aloud “I don’t know the words” but carries on regardless with his trademark scat as the audience taps into his enjoyment laughing along with him.  And this is not the first on the record that Spence is heard inhabiting laughter.  He’s just a joy to the world.

A special talent such as this could not be presented to the layman but who wants to appeal to the layman?

Thesaurus moment: nourishing.

Joseph Spence

Arhoolie Records

THE JAM – THE BITTEREST PILL (I EVER HAD TO SWALLOW) (POLYDOR)

THE JAM – THE BITTEREST PILL (I EVER HAD TO SWALLOW) (POLYDOR)

Without trying to be too controversial, I think The Jam actually had better songs than The Clash.  Certainly they were smoother and less abrasive.  This was very late period Jam, to the point they were almost sounding like the Style Council and what was next to come.

The addition of strings and piano to guitar bands tends to have a wide and varied effect on material.  Often they can arrive at the point when a rock band runs out of ideas and as the maturity from such grown up sounds can sprinkle a fresh atmospheric and perspective to the outfit; often it will also dull the power.  That is not to say it always takes from a band’s sound but often, especially in the case of say Oasis, it is actually quite a risky move.

Here the decrease in tempo and addition in texture works and serves to add an almost soap opera/television theme tone to proceedings.  As Weller drops in sounding full of remorse, a new kind of drama attaches itself to the band.  With the benefit of hindsight this was the product of a clock running out.

This is neither a punk nor mod song.  The mountain it climbs in the build up actually reminds me of “What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted” by Jimmy Ruffin.  Weller was going elsewhere.

In recent times a whole new legacy has attached itself to this record after the classy positioning of the track for the closing credits of Shane Meadows’ This Is England ’86.  Having come through a horrific set of circumstances as an outro “The Bitterest Pill” serves as an affirming moment of reflection with view to cleansing and moving on.

Shed a tear.

Thesaurus moment: sour.

The Jam

Polydor

FAITH NO MORE – EVIDENCE (SLASH)

FAITH NO MORE – EVIDENCE (SLASH)

For the third single from “King For A Day…Fool For A Lifetime” Faith No More played it smart as in playing it intelligent rather than bankable.  Following a couple of subtle stonkers this was them being silky slick and smooth in suave fashion unleashing one of their always reliable out of genre workouts for the section of their audience with expansion and taste.  It is also quite noticeable how the artwork is no longer illustrations.

This song has Mike Patton written all over it.  In the forefront is him crooning over a leisurely workout as it appears demons are being exorcised and people that appreciated/enjoyed their version of “Easy” are welcomed back into the fold.  In many ways, it is cheating.

“I didn’t feel a thing.”

Personally I am a big fan of “Evidence”.  It expresses a kind of remorse that I am very familiar with.  The sentiments are cold and scolded, defensive and hurt expressing a front through lies and an exhibition of compromised truth.

If you’re going to do a smoky jazz-funk number you might as well do it well and as Bill Gould’s bass plays high in proceedings and Roddy Bottum’s keys point towards another state of mind as the guitar licks at times are just out and out porno.  Ultimately though it is the words of confession that seal the deal as Patton is able to stretch the word “evidence” to new ends as he puts on a front expressing nonchalance that is paper thin.  The song is the music equivalent of a pained expression.

There are also versions of “Evidence” recorded in Portuguese, Spanish and Italian.

On the flipside the CD single offers Westwood One recordings of classic live tracks from California in April 1995.  The version of the now correctly entitled “Easy” is a light affair involving a fair amount of the crowd singing along while “Digging The Grave” remains a short sharp shock of a song sounding somewhat heavier and fuzzier in a live setting with Dean Menta on guitar instead of Trey Spruance.  Rounding things off is an exciting and energised take on “From Out Of Nowhere” as again the new guitar sound very much stands out while Bottum’s keys sound like an ambulance siren.  Even if the record wasn’t full on, live the band still was.

This is certainly not vanilla.

Thesaurus moment: attestation.

Faith No More

Slash

THE SMITHS – THE BOY WITH THE THORN IN HIS SIDE (ROUGH TRADE)

THE SMITHS – THE BOY WITH THE THORN IN HIS SIDE (ROUGH TRADE)

With “The Boy With The Thorn In His Side” you get the impression that even Morrissey would admit to this being a very poncy piece.  Frustration crashes through coupled with a wiggle and a general sense of unease of feeling invisible and not knowing how to react in a socially accepted manner.

Along with “Rubber Ring” and “Bigmouth Strikes Again”, this was part of a threesome addressing the rise of the band within both the music industry and press.  From one perspective it is a piece of guarded soul searching via satire in addition to being a sniping defence.  At times it’s quite the bitchy jaunt.

The “thorn” in question is the music industry and the prickly relationship the band had with it.  People like The Smiths were never designed to be universally loved; their creation was born to service the unwanted and disliked.  On both sides of the exchange both parties existed in awkwardness.  This is a song about vulnerability or as Mozipedia put it: “honest charm”.

In contrast to Morrissey’s sentiments, the playing is actually upbeat if not fluffy.  The sound is breezy as waves of strings enter to assist proceedings.

Featuring a photo of Truman Capote on the cover it is appropriately dainty and anxious to command such a relationship.

“Asleep” is the b-side offering a weary request for a lullaby ahead of exit.  Piano led it is slow, weak and solemn.  A person might die listening to this song, if not externally certainly internally.  As with most tainted conversations with partners it is draining.

Thesaurus moment: prickly.

The Smiths

Rough Trade

ERIC CHENAUX – WARM WEATHER WITH RYAN DRIVER (CONSTELLATION)

ERIC CHENAUX – WARM WEATHER WITH RYAN DRIVER (CONSTELLATION)

This is a sedate and glistening record.  One that houses are rare humanity and pained love for love.  It celebrates all that is wonder in the harsh tones of the human condition and human spirit.  Solemn and deceitful it reads like a diary of earnest stolen poetry.  There is bravery in being conflicted.

Eric Chenaux hails from Toronto, Ontario in Canada home of a great many people all I know all seemingly affected by one staunch trait or another.  And they are all second generation immigrants, expansive and emotion.  It is all such a rich tapestry.  Likewise Chenaux appears to specialise in the luxurious recollections of the moment and subtly standing out while feeling outcast.  He captures his surroundings of both body and spirit with intricate detail and explicit play that houses subtle experimentation in his playing an thus he endeared himself to Constellation.  He has referred to his guitar playing as “amazing background” which along with the vagrant layered subtleties taps into the exploratory nature of said scene/label.

In execution his vocal dexterity recalls Will Oldham without the weird, Nick Drake without the nerves and Lou Barlow sans the spite.  In other words there is plenty to attach to and borrow from.

It opens exchanging pleasantries, asking questions and debating wistfully.  For some reason it feels solemn and deceitful capturing a moment of lust and love while making things sound like the world is coming to an end.

The edge comes in the atmospherics of the movements, the fizzing pulse that carpets proceedings.  It lends colour to the pictures of Chenaux’s mind, which is quite the treasure in a world of grey singer songwriters.  It’s a dizzying array.  And when laced with lush harmonies its sentimental existence certainly feels the full embodiment of living with love.

Seemingly at one with nature, if not nurture, the solid set of ten songs play as a beacon to hope held against ships set on fire.  A little bit country, a little bit folk, all sparkling a funny thing happens when during the chorus of “Lavalliere #2” I find myself reminded of Donovan and specifically “Colours” as I almost begin singing another man’s song.  This is how an expert relates.

The album remains in the same gear all the way through.  This is not the soundtrack to a stressful moment on public transport or heavy day at work, this is sensual and luxurious music aimed at moments of calm and steady complexity.  Here are the gestures of a very nice man.

Thesaurus moment: serene.

Eric Chenaux

Constellation

LES SAVY FAV – LET’S GET OUT OF HERE (FRENCHKISS/WICHITA RECORDINGS)

LES SAVY FAV – LET’S GET OUT OF HERE (FRENCHKISS/WICHITA RECORDINGS)

It is truly heartening how Les Savy Fav have managed to maintain a high degree of quality output throughout their career and with “Let’s Get Out Of Here” the upbeat, exhilarating groove remains motioning forward.

This is a playful glide that serves to inhabit the full set of emotions involved in the pursuit of fun, passion and delight.  There is nothing weird about this song.  As it advances the pace increases at a subtle and aching rate until the deal is all but done and the suggestion/decision is made to escape the situation and environment housed.

There’s a blasting sincerity to this exhaustive exchange.  Within it the hook is huge and tangible as the sentiments are in the style of a victor.  We are witnessing love.

This is a single that does not outstay its welcome and thus proves perfect in what it’s aiming to accomplish, which is a basic outline of what the band is about at this precise moment in time.  Les Savy Fav is at the top of their game.  More people than ever know them, more people than ever love them.  Tim Harrington might be frightening when he is shirtless and rubbing up against you in a sweaty gig situation but here is a man dedicated to creating some of the most vibrant minutes in modern rock music.  There are three and a third of them here.

These minutes pass like ships in the night.

Thesaurus moment: abscond.

Les Savy Fav

Les Savy Fav interview

Les Savy Fav live

Frenchkiss

Wichita Recordings

WU-TANG CLAN – GRAVEL PIT (EPIC)

WU-TANG CLAN – GRAVEL PIT (EPIC)

There is a sad reality in that this is probably the best known Wu-Tang.  Its not because its groundbreaking or even much good for that matter, its just because its clean and got airplay.  It has a video with group looking stupid it but doesn’t have swear words (at least in most distributed version it doesn’t) and in the modern media climate that is all that’s required.  Ultimately when held up against so many superior tracks in the Wu-Tang arsenal, you can’t help but feel a little deflated by such a reality.

“Gravel Pit” feels like a gag, a bad gag.  In some ways it’s the Wu-Tang Clan equivalent of “Tubthumping” as the chatty nature of the piece spreads the motion thin and makes it accessible to/for all the wrong people.  This is how you get on daytime FM radio.

When the song came out I was dating a girl that loved this track, loved the video and I loved her.  Even though she owned The Dirty Version by ODB I wasn’t convinced that she had experienced Enter The Wu-Tang.  She claimed to be rebellious, claimed to be hot but as I helped carry her belongings into her new flat only a few weeks after we’d met (probably too big a favour offered too soon) all she would focus on with the song was the caveman video and not the rap talent or what was really meant by the gravel pit (or rather her gravel pit).

Ultimately it’s a fucking pop song.  The hook is a Cameo sample for fuck’s sake.  Wu songs with female vocal parts always tended to be a bit light (although it would not be fair to lay blame at the hands of Paulissa Moorman).  The reality is that everyone needs to get paid at some point.

Stepping over that shambles, the b-side is “Protect Ya Neck (The Jump Off)” which is hardly anything fresh or new either.  In theory this shit is back from Enter The Wu-Tang albeit now coming sprinkled with a little extra something something rendering it to a place that is next to unrecognisable.  They just wrecked their song.  And I can’t be bothered to investigate why.

What the fuck?

What a waste.

Thesaurus moment: earner.

Wu-Tang Clan

Epic

NEIL YOUNG WITH CRAZY HORSE – EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS IS NOWHERE (REPRISE)

NEIL YOUNG WITH CRAZY HORSE – EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS IS NOWHERE (REPRISE)

With a full band now in tow Neil Young’s second “solo” album is immediately a much different proposition to its predecessor.  Emerging in the spring of 1969 by nature of the times it appears to be the work of a person trying to hold onto the high times of the recent past while also being resigned to where and how things were changing all around.  It comes as no surprise that as a result there is a downbeat yearn attached to proceedings with a man very much in transition.

And the process was not necessarily smooth as Young worked against a fever writing three of the songs from his sickbed.  One of those songs was “Cinnamon Girl” which with its subtle fuzz and distortion became the first example of his new style of heavy playing, not that it was necessarily at the forefront of this album.  It is an immediate classic with its optimistic gestures combining with a crunching riff introducing the hook and chorus.  It is the sound of a content musician.

The other towering track and achievement is the nine minute “Down By The River” that glides and goes on a genuine journey.  Another song written by Young while fevered (the third track being “Cowgirl In The Sand”) it’s an epic recollection of a share moment gone wrong.  Perhaps not as fatal as the surface level lyrics suggest it does exude a sadness that is undeniable and clear.

For me there seems quite division in style and direction with the songwriting.  “Cowgirl In The Sand” is closer to “Down By The River” than any of the other tracks around it.  A warm fuzz blesses the ground on which Young performs on such selected occasions.

Personally I find this record hit and miss.  Universally lauded, personally there are some songs amongst the seven that make me cringe.  I realise the rock and power is in the words but tracks such as “Running Dry (Requiem For The Rockets)” and “The Losing End (You’re On)” just prompt me to blush when played on my stereo.  Country rock will forever be a curious species to me, an over earnest animal lacking surface intellect.  It’s the music of your parents on autopilot.  Country is not the white man blues.

It’s half an album.

Thesaurus moment: bisection.

Neil Young

Reprise

THE FALL – GROTESQUE (AFTER THE GRAMME) (ROUGH TRADE/CASTLE COMMUNICATIONS)

THE FALL – GROTESQUE (AFTER THE GRAMME) (ROUGH TRADE/CASTLE COMMUNICATIONS)

Grotesque was the first early Fall album I found myself exposed to (I dipped my toe into).  And I must concede that it was something of a culture shock.  To date everything I had heard was solid and nasty sounding, it had some kind of production value.  This in comparison was lo-fi to a fault, a record made for vinyl not digital.  Perhaps the transfer was the problem, the issue was not the scrappiness.

The third Fall album was released in November 1980.  By that point the band had moved onto Rough Trade which explains how/why Geoff Travis appears in the liner notes with a producer credit (amongst other odd and undeserving names).

Reckless and blunt theirs remained the sound of the grubby north.  Still punk in spirit and attitude but smarter in execution this was garage rock crashing against Krautrock with a man remaining agitated and amused at the helm.  Not necessarily linear in approach songs could be two minutes or ten, such was always their approach.  In other words: art for fucks sake.  Them and Joy Division.

The poetry of Mark E. Smith is as masked as ever, purposely vague and very obtuse.  You suspect a William Burroughs like cut-up motion was applied to the order of his mental extraction.  And all the way it houses a sense of anti-establishment.  Smith could even make the command of “pay your rates” sound rebellious.  With a better face he should have run for parliament (both the band and the body).

It was always “New Face In Hell” that stood out.  Having heard Pavement first this was plainly the inspiration for “Conduit For Sale!”  They however didn’t go to the ends of caking their music in kazoo performing self destruction possibly in an effort to mask the conspiracy theories attached.

The album artwork was drawn by Smith’s sister Suzanne.  Is everyone in Manchester related to someone called Suzanne?

Playing up the northern personality the abbreviations used are revealing as “The N.W.R.A.” declares “the north will rise again” while “W.M.C. – Blob 59” references working men’s clubs where such ideas were planned and “C’n’C-S Mithering” points at two specific cash and carries in Manchester for cut price supplies.

Inside the sleeve are notes, a “didactic disclosure from the shell of R. Totale”.  They ask the question: “is this LP sufficiently coffee table?”  With time it has become as last year I actually saw the album framed and hung on the way of a media employment agency just off Oxford Street London catering industry of the simpering variety.  You must wear a red hat.

“C’n’C-S Mithering” is the deserving centrepiece of the record.  Opening with acoustic strums and subtle atmospherics eventually drums sounding bashed on a biscuit tin disrupt the flow as Smith eventually drops in with a weird and wonderful rant about the music industry and landscape in general.  It’s a broken history lesson travelling from Lancashire to America ahead of ending up in Soho.  Garry Bushell is name checked being held up as an example.  In his delivery Smith isn’t so much singing in a band as more manning a public address system.  This is a lecture cum rally call.

With almost a sense of fear for losing the audience the rapid “The Container Drivers” promptly follows with a hardcore jangle and multiplied pace.  With this the album houses two more tracks clocking in at less than two minutes.  The fashion is frenetic.

Perhaps most musically satisfying is the gothic horror of “Impression Of J Temperance” which rumbles with a proper post-punk Hook/Wobble baseline.  From here a sawing keyboard revs like an engine as the occasional stab of a scratchy Oriental sounding guitar drops in while military drums add authority.  It sounds like nobody else.

At the death the record runs the risk of sounding coherent with “Gramme Friday” before the nine minute plus outro of “The N.W.R.A.” serves as the perfect way to close as Can like repetition carpets his final stream of consciousness as he takes on his latest threatening persona.  As all becomes lumpy, civic pride exudes as by the end it sounds like scaffolding.

This is not a record you reach for at the end of a tough day.

Thesaurus moment: misshapen.

The Fall

The Fall live

Rough Trade

Castle Communications

HELMET – SEEING EYE DOG (WORK SONG)

HELMET – SEEING EYE DOG (WORK SONG)

What happened Helmet?  You used to be so great, so gnarly and heavy.  In contrast the sound on this record just reminds me of a household appliance.  The vocals of Page Hamilton now sound like the yells of an old man rocking within a wheelchair.  He’s trying, he really is.

Over the years something disheartening has happened to Helmet.  Initially they were a nasty, blunt alt rock band with noise leanings.  The manner with which they harnessed their sound was inspiring while still being able to run with acts such as Unsane etc despite their songs being so well defined and framed.

For a long time I have supported and often defended the band.  Being a band that is probably too innovative for a bog standard Kerrang/metal audience, for some reason they never quite snagged the indie audience they probably deserved.  Sure they signed to Interscope for big bucks cashing in on the house that Kurt built but that didn’t mean their music was without merit.  Indeed those records were immense and did slip into cliché.  Fuck, even Eric Bogosian appeared in one of their videos.

So it is with that in mind this record is received with such disappointment.  When I discovered out the blue that the band had a new record out I immediately emailed my friend with an excited thrust of capital letters and exclamation marks.  Unfortunately upon listening to ten tracks, I soon calmed down.

To be frank this is not Helmet.  When they split up in 1998 they should have been gone.  The band that returned in 2004 was not Helmet; it was Page Hamilton with a set of jobbers.  However in spite of that their comeback record Size Matters was a rocker but the live show wasn’t.  The band was no longer stoic, no longer intense, no longer heavy.  Instead now appeared players too keen to please.  They were playing the classic songs but they just did not sound.  And that has happened here.

Helmet were always a band that was just heavy.  They did not require volume to shake the speakers; the mere gestures of members were dense enough to furrow the sound.  And that is the key ingredient missing from the act these days.

Seeing Eye Dog is loud in the sense that it is not subtle.  The lyrics are more explicitly aggressive than in the past and the plundering, plodding manner in which the guitars rev in a straight line does feel somewhat blind.

Perhaps it’s a displaced record.  In the song titles are references to Algiers and Los Angeles while track seven is entitled “White City” although I can’t imagine it being a direct reference to the part of London that shares the name.

What I notice is that there are no hooks.  Another band might be compared to Gang Of Four for making such a gesture but not here.  It is still very nu metal even though the original Helmet sound pre-dated that movement and was slightly accused of providing the blueprints for it.  A song such as “LA Water” does sound a lot more like Deftones than Meantime-era Helmet.  And also can’t this drummer get the John Stanier snare sound?

Of the slim pickings of enjoyment “In Person” feels the track where it all most/best comes together even if the guitars still do not feel hard enough but it has flow, some kind of hook and ends with a gnarly insane scratchy solo.

Elsewhere Hamilton’s mind appears to wander as it meanders into the ambience of “Morphing” and a cover of the Beatles “And Your Bird Will Sing” which promptly proceeds to stick the original tune in your head.

It ends in weird fashion with the half decent “She’s Lost” which is another lumbering effort with motions of noodling that works for the first three minutes before deciding/choosing to become another song and running for six and a half minutes royally outstaying its welcome.

How green was their fucking valley?

Thesaurus moment: autopilot.

Helmet

Work Song

FAITH NO MORE – RICOCHET (SLASH)

FAITH NO MORE – RICOCHET (SLASH)

So after the disappointment that was “Digging The Grave”, the band followed up with the equally infuriating “Ricochet” which upon arrival really did not make much sense as a single with its lurching, start-stop gestures.  Eventually people came to realise that it possesses a really strong chorus and definite hook but for a band previously wailed as if there were coming apart this was not an easy transition.  Was it the material or the audience that were wrong?

At the time I never liked this song.  I didn’t even buy King For A Day.  My friend at work (Guthrie at Texas Homecare) bought a used/promo copy from a record stall barely a few weeks after it was released and I think I borrowed (and recorded) it from him.  But I can’t even confirm.  I was still buying the CD singles though.

Another piece of personal history is that when this series of Faith No More releases landed I was sick to death of the band after my friend Glenn had pounded them into the ground for me.  He was a person with a class “its always funny until someone gets hurt and then its hilarious” mentality.  And you he would.  So for me the band no longer represented awesome music, it represented that guy.  So forgive my immediate lack of enthusiasm.

The track finally clicked with me, finally made sense, when I heard it performed as a set opener.  It’s a song all about the build up and bridge.  As early gestures are made it really hangs in the air as if floating through proceedings until the first chorus at which point the band achieves pay off with a grandiose hook.  Then comes the real chorus when Patton truly kicks in if dragging things to safety.  All in all it’s a pretty complex composition but also quite the blast.

It is said that the song was written on the day of Kurt Cobain’s death and was often referred to as “Nirvana” on the band’s set lists.

Once again the band go for a cartoon angry dog cover drawn by Eric Drooker, this time surrounded by orange.  It looks stylish but does not look intimidating, does not do the music service.

The additional tracks to this release feel cheap and weird.  “I Wanna F**k Myself” (aka “I Wanna Fuck Myself”) is hack and obvious like a four-track garage demo cover of “New Rose” sung through a megaphone while “Spanish Eyes” is a cheesy Patton croon.  You wish it were a cover so that the band cannot be held fully responsible.  And then you discover it is a track also known as “Moon Over Naples” and that the other song is a GG Allin song.

Always good to hear a song mature.

Thesaurus moment: ping.

Faith No More

Slash

ELMER BERNSTEIN – THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM SOUNDTRACK (POLYGRAM)

ELMER BERNSTEIN – THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM SOUNDTRACK (POLYGRAM)

Rattling and atmospheric this soundtrack is an assertive gesture as to what it is like to have the mindset of a dependent living in a hectic metropolitan setting.  As a result the album is as much about hidden messages as it is outward and overt statements.  As frenetic time changes occur it is as if they are representing the schizophrenic traits of what it is like to be an addict.

That said this album is perhaps a bit misleading if you want to attach drug addiction to music in the fifties.  Rather than being avant garde and even downbeat jazz, this is big swing orchestration performed by tight players somewhat removed from the hipster grit reality offered by the movie.

This is the work of Elmer Bernstein a man who later became famed for scoring The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape in addition to such lightweight favourites at National Lampoon’s Animal House, Airplane!, Spies Like Us and Ghostbusters.  This was his fourth film score and it saw him gaining an Academy Award nomination.  And for it was steering Shorty Rogers and His Giants with Shelly Manne as they powered their way through proceedings.

The Man With The Golden Arm is a popular movie with heroin taking percussionists.  In it Frank Sinatra plays a drummer named Frankie Machine.  He is a jazz drummer in the Beat era and yet, he is relatively square.  Freshly released from prison his visits his crippled and crippling wife Zosh who is in a wheelchair from where she stifles his aspirations.  More encouraging however is old flame Molly who wrestling against heroin becomes the heroine.  And as tracks take up the title/name of both these characters the movements are appropriate.

The record begins with “Clark Street” and the pulsing opening to proceedings.  It arrives with swagger before changing pace and tact in grubby fashion being somewhat representative of the dizzying existence serving as a prologue and lo-fi overture to what lay ahead.  After dropping low it eventually ends high.

As per the movie the next stop on his travels is “Zosh” which proves a solemn offering arriving with a degree of peace and suggestion of love.  The drifting emotions feel lost at sea.

In contrast now back in the swing of things “Frankie Machine” arrives with a huge presence and opening gestures akin to the arrival of “Blue Train” by John Coltrane.  Then comes “The Fix” with more high spirits in the mix and another track that reminds of the bombastic energy playfully attached to themes to shows such as Police Squad and Dragnet.  As I say, its relatively square.

With this you can always rely on a woman to cool things as “Molly” drips in and glistens offering a remorseful and reflective signature.  Its liking from a distance.  And this is a method later repeated on the sedate “Sunday Morning” that sounds rather like Lalo Schifrin initially before resuming loud and alarming gestures.

And it is these traits that rev the album living in the tracks “Breakup” and “Audition”, the latter of which has an almost salsa flow and “Sing Sing Sing” big band swing.  Then arrives the darkness of “The Cure” and it’s near Bernard Herrmann scoring “Taxi Driver” gestures.  You do not need the screen images to know what is occurring here.  However gradually it calms down just as “The Finale” plays out the remainder of the movie and the album complete with a giant final blow.

In portraying a grubby, druggy world full of hostility, desperation and anger, Bernstein was able to paint a lot of beauty and wonder.  This is jazz on an orchestral scale, cleaner than those being represented by it but no less magnificent all the same.  This was when music was nothing but art.

Thesaurus moment: clean.

Elmer Bernstein

Shorty Rogers And His Giants

Shelly Manne

The Man With The Golden Arm

PolyGram

DURAN DURAN – PLANET EARTH (EMI)

DURAN DURAN – PLANET EARTH (EMI)

Despite playing their instruments and being a band there has always been a gaping void when it comes to the credibility of Duran Duran.  Sure there are people that absolutely love them but they’re matured teenyboppers.  These are not classic rock fans, more adults that used to read Smash Hits.  However do they worry about this?  Do they fuck, they sleep on piles of money at night while sleeping with models and other sexual beings.  Even now.

“Planet Earth” is actually one of their more reliable, less guilty songs.  When it popped up in the opening sequence of The Business it offered similar opportunity to reassess the track and give it new context in the manner that “Peaches” by The Stranglers profited from being in the opening credits of Sexy Beast.

If nothing else, Duran Duran could generally be relied on for a terrific hook.  It has to be said that time really has been kind on this track as the build up frays healthily, Le Bon’s vocal delivery is smooth and not embarrassing.  And then the chorus kicks in strangely exhilarating fashion while a wayward keyboard echoes something that could possibly have been lifted from Joy Division.

Of course at the end of the day this was a Top Of The Pops song and despite the quality of the track indignity would have eventually rained down on it thus tainting its legacy and existence.  Held on its own though, musically it is probably their best song.

I can’t believe I used to confuse from with Wham!  Now if only the chorus had contained words.

Thesaurus moment: stupefaction.

Duran Duran

EMI

CAN – I WANT MORE (VIRGIN RECORDS)

CAN – I WANT MORE (VIRGIN RECORDS)

“I Want More” feels something of an odd pop departure for everyone’s favourite Krautrock band.  Gone was the repetition, the tribal rhythms and suddenly in place was a more coherent, traditional composition running somewhere between P-Funk and The Blockheads.

Released in 1976 and taken from their eighth album “Flow Motion”, Damo Suzuki was now long gone but in spite of this the song was somehow a hit to the degree that they ended up performing it on Top Of The Pops.  That was quite a detached destination considering their seemingly nihilistic origins.

Can were always an adventurous proposition.  Even within the confines of one album often they could skim across a number of genres displaying a grand wealth of sounds and techniques.  And despite this record coinciding with punk, you can’t help but sense it was picked up by the disco fraternity.  Certainly it is a track you could healthily dance to.

On the reverse is just “More” which continues Can’s new disco trend but now with trademark repetition and an industrial sense more fitting their personality.  With choppy, wah infused guitar gradually becoming louder and constantly threatening to interject it is a comforting resolve.  Then like a passing train it is gone.

Bands like Can aren’t supposed to have hit singles.  When it comes to music they are pioneers.  There product is wide and designed to be niche, unappealing to the masses.  Occasionally though freaky things like this will happen and by accident legends will become one hit wonders.  Music is a fickle field.

Thesaurus moment: abnormal.

Can

Virgin Records

JONA LEWIE – STOP THE CAVALRY (STIFF RECORDS)

JONA LEWIE – STOP THE CAVALRY (STIFF RECORDS)

It’s tough not to love this song.  When growing up in England this song is almost omnipresent during the Christmas period and thus with it comes a whole host and batch of fine memories.

Jona Lewie is a gentleman.  Years ago when I used to work on the Stiff Records accounts I would receive a phonecall from him every six months asking how I was and how much he was getting.  In conversation he always reminded me of cross between Phil Daniels and Steve Lamacq.  It’s an old school combination, one laced with manners.

The song was never intended to be associated with Christmas instead Lewie has said in the past that it was actually subtly a protest song although with the line “wish I was at home for Christmas” and the brass accompaniment there is no denying that it possesses a classic Christmas feel.

Vocally “Stop The Cavalry” is actually a very dry performance/delivery.  The structure is classic as Lewie delivers the verses ahead of a trumpet blast and tasteful bridge that leads into a tender chorus.  And somewhere inside it all is that magic secret ingredient that makes it an annual treasure.

The reality is that it is actually a song about war and how precious things such as Christmas are when faced with such extreme circumstances.  Within in the song there is a strong but subtle message of gratitude coupled with an overriding gesture of peace.  If only all festive songs were as earnest.

Thesaurus moment: multifarious.

Jona Lewie

Stiff Records

IAN DURY AND THE BLOCKHEADS – REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL (PART THREE) (STIFF RECORDS)

IAN DURY AND THE BLOCKHEADS – REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL (PART THREE) (STIFF RECORDS)

This is a terrific single.  The Blockheads produced a string of them.  In Ian Dury they had the most amazing leader, a uniquely driven creative mind that led a solid and tight team into the good fight often emerging winning on the way.

In spite of grotesque circumstances and surrounds, “Reasons To Be Cheerful” is a wonderfully upbeat song.  It expresses the kind of mindset that was needed in order for such a circus of a music act to succeed, not least after being inspired by a near fatal electrocution that occurred in Italy and nearly killed their roadie Charley.

There is a real swing attached to this song.  Always with the Blockheads it felt as if their sound had as much to do with songhall as it did punk.  With this a genuinely unique and inventive din was accomplished.

Listened to with a modern ear it is surprisingly slick.  Dury is tastily relentless in dealing out a fine shopping list of fun stuff while a chopping disco guitar lends bite as parrot fashion backing empowers proceedings.  There is also cowbell, a weird guitar solo and an unnecessary saxophone solo.  It was also the last single to be released by the band with their original line-up.

On the flipside “Common As Muck” is a more Cockney than Cockney track with a piano line that could be pulled straight from the Chas n Dave songbook while Dury’s delivery itself wouldn’t be out of place in a musical.  This is the sound of a band having fun.  And sometimes that is all you need of your favourite artists.

Thesaurus moment: hoist.

Ian Dury And The Blockheads

Stiff Records

ONE DAY AS A LION – ONE DAY AS A LION (ANTI)

ONE DAY AS A LION – ONE DAY AS A LION (ANTI)

This is the debut from the music project started by Zack de la Rocha in 2008.  As such you can imagine/expect that with his distinct vocal delivery ruling the roost that it is not a million miles removed from the work of Rage Against The Machine.  His partner in crime is Jon Theodore the drummer with The Mars Volta as the backing track feels somewhat drum focused.

Spread over five tracks, all in all this somewhat blunter than his previous outfit.  The sharp delivery of the stabbing keyboards that sound like they could actually be guitars suggests a nastier, less patient approach to proceedings that scolds on execution.  All in all it’s a relentless departure.  It would appear here was a man with still a lot of work on his hands.

The economy and experimentation of the material gives it a more hardcore and less hard rock edge, one that is less forgiving than how things ended up towards the end of Rage Against The Machine.  In a way it suggests a more focused approach as a fresh perspective is attached to the process and aligned with proceedings.

Its funny to note in these songs that de la Rocha is beginning to sing and ironically it sees him sounding like Chris Cornell and thus occasionally things begin to echo and remind of Audioslave, which I am sure was not the intention.

The glistening repetition of the songs give them real motion and relentless energy that drives proceedings forward strengthening de la Rocha in his endeavours.  As far as selecting a backing track and unit, he made a good choice.  Some might say there isn’t a whole lot to differentiate between the music of “Wild International” and “If You Fear Dying” but the reality this is the pulse which serves as secondary when facilitating such an animated individual leading out front.

Based on these five tracks, there are real legs on this project.

Thesaurus moment: detour.

One Day As A Lion

Anti

VARIOUS – BEYOND HAMSTERDAM BALTIMORE TRACKS FROM THE WIRE (NONESUCH RECORDS)

VARIOUS – BEYOND HAMSTERDAM BALTIMORE TRACKS FROM THE WIRE (NONESUCH RECORDS)

When The Wire soundtrack was first released it was entitled “All The Pieces Matter” and was a dense double disc affair featuring tracks from all five seasons in addition to fresh, urban sounds from Baltimore.  Then suddenly cheekily someone figured to separate and split the release into two and thus this Beyond Hamsterdam compilation of local dance and hip hop tracks was born from subtle greed.  Was this an idea of Avon Barksdale?

In the television series Hamsterdam referred to the section of town set aside for the drug addicts and drug dealers to cohabit alike, a concerted effort to keep the undesirable aspects of Baltimore away from the more delicate and respectable parts of the city.

The compilation begins with the season four version of “Way Down In The Hole”, the Tom Waits song used for the opening credits.  For each season the show employed a new arrangement and this version came from Domaje, a group specifically formed by Baltimore teenagers to record for the show.  As far as the five takes on the theme goes, this is one of the best.

As to be expected there is a fair amount of hip hop on the record and representing acts include Tyree Colion (“the hardest working rapper in Baltimore”) and Mullyman (“the most recognised MC in Baltimore”).  They’re OK but you can hear why they have not broken out.  Somewhat more impressive is Ogun who with the unnerving shouting samples unleashes a stuttering beat akin to Wu-Tang while exhibiting an impressive amount of civic pride.  Later Dirty Hartz turn up with “That’s Da Sound” who with the great modernised siren sample smack like a modernised Public Enemy/NWA covering KRS-One.

For me the most fun track was always “Dance My Pain Away” by Baltimore club DJ Rod Lee.  It’s a bouncing and energetic track that proves genuinely pleasing and catchy.  Of the songs on the CD this always proved my most listened.

The record ends with a jazz outro as local pianist Lafayette Gilchrist delivers a big band number entitled “Assume The Position”.  As players enter the track and exit he maintains an Andrew Hill-esqe line of operation.  Its not for the faint hearted.

Is this really what drug dealers listen to?

Thesaurus moment: community.

The Wire

Nonesuch Records