Arthur Russell and Kieran Hebden/Steve Reid fight it out head-to-head. If you feel drawn to a dancefloor this weekend, check out Go Bang in Brighton this Saturday!
Some quality Disco 12″s will be on the decks when Oisin Lunny spins at The Hope, Queens Road, Brighton on Saturday, 15th November. Formerly with hip hop band Marxmen and Soul-meets-Electronica act Firstborn, Dublin-born and bred Oisin knows his tunes and will rock the party. Expect plenty of vintage 70’s New York Disco on Salsoul and Profile, Chicago House and Nu Disco. Doors from 8pm-2am.
Staying with the Disco theme, the Album Of The Week showcases the ‘other side’ of Disco maverick Arthur Russell. Check out Russell’s posthumous ‘Love Is Overtaking Me’ for a collection of previously unreleased Rock and Country flavoured tracks. Whatever your regular taste in music, you can’t afford to be without this.
In any other week, Kieran Hebden and Steve Reid’s ‘NYC’ would have made the Top Slot. Pipped to the post by Arthur Russell’s ‘Love Is Overtaking Me’, ‘NYC’ is a slightly more niche album but extremely powerful. If you have even a fleeting interest in Jazz, Dubstep, Drum And Bass, Hip Hop or, indeed, Disco, then give this a spin.
Album Of The Week: Arthur Russell ‘Love Is Overtaking Me’
Primitive Americana, Country Soul and pre-Punk by one of the great unsung heroes of pop. This is the first time that Arthur Russell’s recordings from before his Disco and New Wave days are released.
The lion’s share of songs on this album documents the very first recordings Arthur made after moving to New York from rural Iowa via an intermission in a buddhist commune in California. None of this material has ever been released before and it shows Russell dipping into the pre-Punk Rock territory of the Modern Lovers and early Talking Heads.
They aren’t dodgy home recordings either. Arthur’s early recordings were instigated by CBS house producer John Hammond. Hammond’s star was shining bright as the man who had recorded Bob Dylan and signed Leonard Cohen and Bruce Springsteen when he gave Russell his first break in 1974.
At this stage the plot thickens. Even though Hammond did bring Russell repeatedly into CBS’ studios on 52nd Street for a period of two and a half years between October 1974 and July 1977, CBS never released a single note from any of these sessions. Even though Russell caught the ear of both musicians and music executives all over town, he never got a stab at being the pop star he so desparately wanted to be.
Listen Now To Arthur Russell’s Unreleased Recordings
Whatever song Russell sings, whatever style he attempts, he always remains himself. Sometimes, the man and his material clash head on. Country Soul, for instance, does not necessarily suit Russels as a performer. But then again, it’s Russell’s brutal honesty that makes songs like ‘I Couldn’t Say It To Your Face’ and ‘Nobody Wants A Lonely Heart’ so special.
On most of the Hammond sessions, Russell is backed by a band led by former Modern Lover bass man Ernie Brooks. The band features, at various stages, New York New Wave luminaries such as Talking Heads’ keyboard player Jerry Harrison and avantgarde composer Peter Gordon.
Even after he found modest fame with recordings that combined the edgyness of New Wave with the groove of Disco, Russell would go back to recording rock songs with a Folky or even Country feel throughout the 1980’s. ‘Habit Of You’, ‘Big Moon’, ‘The Letter’ - First class songs that were only known to Russell and his inner circle.
Thanks to Arthur’s former partner, Tom Lee, his archive recordings have been preserved and are now available unadultered. This is the real article, often to the extent that songs feel like rough sketches rather than polished showpieces.
‘Love Is Overtaking Me’ is a fascinating glimpse into the sonic diary of one of music’s true mavericks. The recordings that Russell released during his all too short career under his own name or as Dinosaur L and Loose Joints may be more accomplished, but ‘Love Is Overtaking Me’ is a disarmingly beautiful collection of songs.
You can download ‘Love Is Overtaking Me’ here from iTunes UK.
US Readers - Buy ‘Love Is Overtaking Me’ On CD Here!
UK And Ireland Readers - Buy Love Is Overtaking Me’ On CD Here!
#2: Kieran Hebden/Steve Reid ‘NYC’
This is a Jazz album. ‘NYC’ is also a damn funky album. But most of all, it sounds more physical than anything else you’ll hear this year.
Electronic boffin Kieran Hebden, aka Four Tet, and veteran Jazz drummer Steve Reid have released three previous albums together. On ‘NYC’, their fourth collaboration, things finally fall into place for my ears. While the duo’s earlier efforts where all pretty ‘cosmic’, they now add ‘heavy’ to the mix, grounding their trippy sound journeys with some deep and solid grooves.
Steve Reid is the heart and soul of this album. Reid is a well respected Jazz drummer who goes back to the heady days of the 1960’s Cosmic Jazz underground. He has played with Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman and Sun Ra. But Steve also knows how to get butts moving. He earned his Funk chops playing in the house band of Harlem’s Apollo Theatre and with the Godfather of Funk himself, James Brown.
You sure get more butt shaking music on ‘NYC’ than on earlier Hebden/Reid titles like ‘Tongues’ or ‘The Exchange Sessions Vol.1 and 2′. My favourite grooves among the six tracks on ‘NYC’ are ‘1st & 1st’, ‘25th Street’ and ‘Between B And C’.
Kieran Hebden builds layers of trippy electronic sound effects over Reid’s drumming and adds the occasional bass line or keyboard riff. Mercifully, Hebden has changed his style from hyperactive overdrive to a less-is-more approach. His contributions are more laid back and flow better with Reid’s patterns than on the duo’s previous recordings.
Watch Kieran And Steve Perform ‘Arrival’ Live
As an album, ‘NYC’ is propulsive in a way that matches the best in contemporary Dance genres like Dubstep. Yet it changes, oscillates and breathes in a way that is rarely achieved by drum machines or music software. Listening to ‘NYC’ is a very physical experience: Things get hit and sweat is flying through the air.
DJs, whether you’re listening at home or are playing out to a crowd, play some soulful 70’s Disco after this, something with a big gospel choir maybe. The Joubert Singers’ ‘Stand On The Word’ played after Hebden/Reid’s ‘25th Street’ does it for me.
Downloads are not yet commercially available. You can get the album from Amazon on CD and on a heavyweight vinyl pressing via the links below.
US Readers - Buy ‘NYC’ On CD And Vinyl Here!
BUY CD BUY VINYL
UK And Ireland Readers - Buy ‘NYC’ On CD And Vinyl Here!
BUY CD BUY VINYL
#3: Death Vessel ‘Noting Is Precious Enough For Us’
A dude who sings like a girl and a band that plays Sigur Ros through Tom Waits’ old gramophone - This is most likely the weirdest record of the year.
First time you pop this on the hifi you’ll be forgiven to think it’s Vashti Bunyan or some other folky girl from the 1960’s. You get that whispy, blink-and-she’s-gone style of singing, the acoustic guitar and hand drums on ‘Block My Eye’ and ‘Bruno’s Torso’.
Roughly half of the tracks on ‘Nothing’ can be safely described as Folk. Then things get weird. If you imagined sitting in a snug, Greenwich Village coffee house you’ll find yourself transported to a grimy bar on the Bowery, boots sticking to the beer covered floor. Ladies and gentleman, let me introduce ‘The Widening’, pure Tom Waits including muted trumpet and beaten-up bar piano.
Your journey doesn’t stop here. Death Vessel will insist on dragging you to some Icelandic wasteland where they proceed to play Sigur Ros style Fjell Pop. Savour the extra sadness and sorrow bolted in the singing on ‘Exploded View’ and ‘Fence Around Field’.
Finally, you’re allowed to chill at a party pad up Laurel Canyon with sweet West Coast singer songwriter material like ‘Peninsula’ and ‘Circa’.
The question is, can you get used to the voice of Death Vessel frontman Joel Thibodeau? I like a Curtis Mayfiled style Soul falsetto, but this is a different ball game.
Watch Thibodeau And Death Vessel Perform Live
‘Nothing Is Precious Enough For Us’ is full of quirky ideas. I’m not sure yet whether the quirks will become annoying with time or whether they’ll make me listen to the album when a lot of other Amricana styled records will sound tired and dated after a few years.
UK and Ireland readers, you can download ‘Nothing Is Precious Enough For Us’ here from iTunes.
US Readers - Buy Death Vessel’s New Album On CD Here!
UK And Ireland Readers - Buy Death Vessel’s New Album On CD And Vinyl Here!
BUY CD BUY VINYL
#4: Ghetto Mullet ‘Sunday Morning Hangover’
Aphex Twin meets RJD2 on this fine slice of UK Hip Hop.
Essex duo Ghetto Mullet make instrumental Hip Hop with some squelchy acid lines thrown in. Their debut EP features slow to midtempo jams with a cinematic touch. It’s the keys that add the flavour.
Imagine the Beastie Boys at their anarchic prime trying to make a House record. Then strip all the equipment away and leave a plastic toy organ, that’s ‘Feel It’. A track dominated by a wonky organ and a nagging vocal sample.
‘Nervous Acid’ opens with a cool piano intro. It’s a dark, cinematic track laced with a light, shimmering piano riff that’s repeated throughout the song.
GM can get even more moody. Check ‘Rampant Thought’, all slow, crackly atmospherics in a RJD2 meets drum and bass fashion.
‘Arriving In Obscurity’, on the other hand, is the most straightforward ‘Hip Hop’ track on the EP. Old school drum break, scratching and funky rhythm guitar - Clean and simple.
One of the highlights for me is when GM fabricate their own telephone hold message on ‘Eternal Hold’. We’ve all been there, you ring a customer service number to sort something out and you end up on hold… forever and ever.
Somebody had to come up with a song about it, so here you are and remember: ‘Your Call Is Important To Us.’ The hilarious rhymes are backed by chilled beats and brittle, catchy distorted keys. If you want a proper listen, visit GM’s MySpace page.
You can listen to ‘Sunday Morning Hangover’ here and download the album from iTunes UK.
