Music I am enjoying...

I have been enjoying some excellent music recently, some new to me and some old stuff I have rediscovered.

Annette Peacock: I'm The One
I had been looking for some of this woman's work for ages after a few interesting reviews. I finaly picked a track up on "The Soul Of Science 2" a mix cd from Ian O'Brien of various oddities. It is like she is trying to present the past, present and future of jazz in one song, it starts with about a minute of free jazz chaos and just when you are losing interest it kicks into a woozy blues lament, like one of Tom Wait's barfly monologues but sung by a sassy woman. Just as you are getting comfortable the track is ripped apart by atonal blasts of white noise moog riffing sounding like a killer robot destroying Tokyo with its death ray, then back to soul wrenching jazz balladry which gradualy unraveles as Ms Peacock feeds her vocals through a moog to a shrieking climax. It is hard to tell if this song is meant to be a pisstake or not but I suspect it is one of those rare tracks that simulaneously celebrates and dismantals a genre, like Frank Zappa she is a great player, but also apprechiates that there is nothing more sterile and no greater dead end than treating music with reverence.

Frank Zappa: Son of Mr Green Genes
Talking of Zappa, I dug up this track that combines the feel of a fairground ride to hell with elegant jazz guitar doodling.A lot of people loath Zappa because he was an odd mix of extreme attention to detail and merry disregard for pomposity and established forms. The fact he could play the pants off virtualy anyone else in "rock" history has always riled people whether other rockers who can't solo over more than two chords and drone on about "soul" or freeze dried classical critics who did not see the fun in chamber pieces called "G Spot Tornado". Not for everybody but its hard to think of anyone with such a body of work and such range either back in his time or today.

Stevie Wonder: Have a Talk With God
I recently rediscovered "Songs In The Key Of Life" and I have found a lot of the tracks I used to skip are in fact the best ones. This tracks has superficialy spiritual lyrics but is undone by the mesmerising backing track. Take the vocals off and it could pass for both a RZA production and Aphex Twin, all squelching atonal droning and odd bells shimmering in the back ground.

Cluster: In Ewigkeit
Much like Stevie these are one of those miles ahead of their times artists. This is my favourite track from an album I literaly looked for for five years. I ended up buying it for a ridiculous sum after having gone as far as to ask the band themselves where to get it, it was then reissued for half the price...thems the joys of record hunting. It is ambient but ambient in the same way a tomb can be ambient as much as a bird singing. Made up of a single piano motif that is gradulay joined by writhing synth squiggles that sound like moss growing or the tendrills of a deep sea fish. It makes any room feel green in one of those odd moments of synaesthesia that certain tracks create. I was lying in a park in the sun a while back under some trees and the light filtering through the green canopy immediately made me think of this track.

Pete Rock and C.L.Smooth: They Reminisce Over You
Classic 90's Hip Hop. Pete Rock while having a very traditional approach in terms of jazz and soul samples like A Tribe Called Quest or Jungle Brothers sets himself apart with his eery dubbed out approach. Imagine Lee Perry producing Charlie Parker, georgeous horn riffs surrounded with disembodied voices and echo effects make this oddly womblike. Thats the music, the rap is a terrific, moving tales of growing up and parental responsiblity which eshews hip hops usal braggadachio for a more focused adult story, if that sounds boring it is rescued by the backing music which is full of doubt.

Ella Fitzgerald: Night and Day
A girlfriend of mine introduced me to this, before I had thought jazz vocal was all scooby-di-dooby-di and a bit irritating, but I was emailed an MP3 of this at four in the morning once and listerned to it about eight times in a row. I soppose I was at a particular time of the night when I wanted something a bit world weary and elegant and this did the trick. Interesting historicaly as well due the fact you have a by all account quite homely black woman singing these sophisticated uptown lyrics and finding a depth and humanity beneath the urbanity and puns, remember this was in 1950's America.




maningrey