Chewing Pine

Ghostly International x Dabrye

This podcast could be referred to as many things, but probably not brand spankin’ new. But considering I haven’t heard anything from Dabrye in a while, I tracked this down. There seems to be no regular release schedule for the ‘Ghost Cast‘ and I have no idea who some of those folks are, but I kinda trust that label…cop it well.

Ghostly Cast #3 w/ Dabrye: Stream | Download

Beans – Tomorrow Right Now (Warp, 2003)

Anti-Pop Consortium no longer exists and to most that doesn’t mean too much. But in the realm of underground hip-hop it means that there are probably going be a lot of interesting solo projects. Anti-Pop reportedly split up earlier this year and since members have been touring as well as recording. However, the first of these solo albums to appear is that of Beans. Warp, which mostly deals in electronic music, has seen fit to put out Tomorrow Right Now.

“Mutescreamer”

After unwrapping the record and being sucked into the austere looking picture of Beans in a pair of sun glasses on the front and a picture of the red stripe posted on the back of his head as well as the back of the album, plop it down in the player and prepare yourself. El-P has been touted as the most innovative beat maker in hip-hop of late, but simply by listening to Tomorrow Right Now it seems that Beans could now be in contention for that title. There are three instrumental tracks (“Sickle Cell Hysteria”, “Rose Periwinkle Plum”, “Xon”) on this offering, all of them differ in length and scope, but all of them are exceedingly electronic. Beans, for the most part, eschews the boom-bap of rap in lieu of pushing into new territory: the further merging of hip-hop and electronic music. There are drum programs, there are steady bass lines, but there are also electronic burps and gurgles, sounds and noises. The record’s rife with too many quality tracks to comment upon individually, but “Crave” easily sums up the album in one line. Beans simply figures that there are “Too many MCs and not enough listeners”. True.

Alif Tree – French Cuisine (Compost Records, 2005)

I don’t know if I would have been able to identify this as a European outing judging the album by the art work on the front, but I could have made a good guess. Even with the solid colored squares and circles that are displayed for the listener to see, the music, at least the first half of the album is engorged with European style electronic hip hop. On the first few tracks, Nina Simone and Shirley Horn are sampled over top of minimal, lo-fi beats with jazz inclinations and strings. That in and of itself would have been enough for me to guess not only Europe, but France, specifically, as the birth place of this album.

Alif Tree has a studio in the suburbs of Paris where he finds the laid back atmosphere conducive to creating his albums and myriad production work. After the four tracks most related to hip hop on this disc, the sound veers drastically towards laid back piano lines and electronic production flourishes. Not to say that this is a dance album, but there is certainly a lot of behind the boards work by the producer to be appreciated here.

Ending an album can frequently be difficult, and Alif Tree attempts to draw this affair to a close with an homage to minimalist composer Steven Reich. It works out well, sending a message of appreciation to the composer while giving listeners a multi-layered finale to an interesting, if not somewhat schizophrenic album.

Four Tet – Ringer EP (Domino, 2008)

(This originally appeared in Skyscraper)

For the entirety of his career Frank Zappa sought the distinction and reverie afforded to classical composers. Even if his works were not thought of in the same light as his hero, Varèse, Zappa relished his inclusion into that cultural space. And while none of this has any direct relevance to Four Tet, over his recording career, his offerings can in fact be examined through the lens of composition. As electronic music, or any genre for that matter, can more and more easily be contorted, the creation process increasingly appears to encompass compositional elements – if not of the classical ilk, then surely the avant-garde. Ringer is in stark contrast to his recent works with Steve Reid as well as Fridge. Perhaps regarding the use of organic instrumentation as only a brief period in his output, Four Tet returns to strictly electronically propelled music. Again, contrasting his other electronically oriented work, Ringer doesn’t openly embrace the Kraut affinities of sections found on Pause or other earlier efforts. Repetitive elements are indispensible, but included here in a strictly computerized mechanism, they seem less compelling than elsewhere in the Four Tet cannon. As a basic split in his listener-ship, there are those enmeshed with these computerized endeavors and there are those that seek only the simplistic robotic, faux-organic instrumentation that won’t be found here. For clubbers only.

“Hands” from Rounds (2003)

Nobody & Mystic Chords of Memory – Tree Colored See… (Mush Records, 2006)

A former member of Beachwood Sparks, Jen Cohen previously of the Aislers Set and a producer that, in the past, has worked with Project Blowed come together to create an album that should defy categorization. Instead Tree Colored See… avails itself to be just another second millennium electro/indie mash-up. If the first Mystic Chords of Memory album, filled with West Coast folk-pop, is familiar to you, simply add electronic production backing the entire endeavor and that’s what Mush Records has given the world here. The music is definitely soothing; you can make love to it, you can fall asleep to it afterward. Driving across the vast plains of Wyoming coupled with listening to this disc may be fatal though. Relatively strong song writing along with guest appearances, including Omid (another Project Blowed producer) keeps this offering interesting – at least on occasion. But, the hallmark of good collaborations is not being able to differentiate what party is responsible for what sounds. And on a number of occasions there’s no way of knowing who fashioned the melodies of Tree Colored See…

01 – The Seed
02 – Decisions, Decisions
03 – Broaden a New Sound
04 – Coyote’s Song (When You Hear it Too)
05 – Memory
06 – Klaw Prints
07 – Walk in the After Light
08 – When the End Meets the Beginning
09 – Feet Upon the Sand
10 – Softer Sail
11 – Floating

Beachwood Sparks Interview: You might think less of them after watchin’ this, but you get to see their house…

Dntel (Jimmy Tamborello) – “Umbrella” features a Chris Gunst vocal line.

Lori Scacco – Circles (Eastern Developments Music, 2004)

If you like one of these tracks, you like them all. It’s like a mini-symphony, without the old, European rigidity. Circles feels like it was perhaps recorded in Oregon, inside of a tree or some such. The instrumental nature of this album, Scacco playing guitar and piano, makes it very hard for the listener to discern one track from the next. Maybe it’s sound-track music. But it is rather impressive that this entire recording, save for the bass parts, attributable to Tim Delaney, came from a single persons’ mind. All the light and airy instrumental sections as well as the negative space (or silence if you’d like), echoes and occasional glitch-pop production came from one, singular perspective. Scacco’s talent was evident enough to Scott Herren (aka Prefuse 73) to take her on tour as well as put out this slab. Just one warning though. If you’re driving and feel moderately tired, do not put this on. It may, in that one situation, cause death.

Tracklisting:
01 – Reeling Then Again
02 - Imitation Of Happiness
03 – Quiet Light, A
04 – Heirlooms
05 – Love’s Journey
06 – Sketches Of Lines In Spiral
07 – Moving Thought Meditation
08 – Meditation
09 – Love’s Reprise

Spring Heel Jack – The Sweetness of the Water (Thirsty Ear Recordings, 2004)

Folks at Thirsty Ear don’t want you to see what’s coming. Another installment in The Blue Series is here to confound preconceived notions. First though, let it be said that Spring Heel Jack (Ashley Wales and John Coxon) is not a duo that sits firmly within one genre. They’ve collaborated with Everything But The Girl and the master spaceman himself, Jason Pierce. So this recording promises at very least, genre bounding. Throw into the mix, Leo Smith and Jah Wobble’s comrade Mark Sanders and the disc already sounds like a bizarre after party in some dark room.

The disc begins in an unassuming manner, free, but ultimately not awe-inspiring. Track two, “Quintet” showcases the talent seeping from every individual participating. The organ sounds raw and disconnected, as if recorded separately and edited in, but helps hold the freedom-music together. Mark Sanders’ excitable drumming changes repeatedly throughout the track to keep every musician moving. Confusing to all but the advanced listener, there are less melodies on this album than tracks. We do find ourselves amidst a few melodies though (“Lata”, “Track One”, “Autumn”), but in a simplified way. What this album does, that Spiritualized and Spacemen 3 do very well, is to take a plain statement and make it exciting. The ritual flights into freedom by Smith and Evan Parker (Sax) serve to inject the music with braun, while the basic concept is held down by the rest of the crew, including the producers. Again, on this Blue Series release, as with El-P, there is less personality displayed by the producer than the instrumentalists. That being said though, this album far surpasses El-P’s effort.

Let’s say I’m a teen-age girl. I wouldn’t let these guys de-flower me, but I’d probably let ‘em finger bang me in the back of their Mini-Cooper.

Daedelus – Of Snowdonia (Plug Research, 2004)

The first time most heard of Daedelus was as a result of the Mush release The Weather. That initial exposure to bizarre beats, put together from myriad sources including kids’ songs and toy instruments, coupled with the rantings of Busdriver and Radioinactive, endeared listeners to the producer. Ignorant of his previous solo work, Invention (2002), Of Snowdonia is a welcome profile raiser.

Apparently, Snowdon is a mountain range in the north of Wales, where the highest point on the island can be found. Now, the invocation of such an area, one that possesses so much serene, natural beauty is obfuscating. If this were a Bert Jansch record or even a hillbilly record with slow and subtle bluegrass melodies tinged with pre-war blues, the reference would be understood, but electronic music and nature, in most minds, do not invoke one another. Not to say that this record lacks organic melodies, it does not. The melodies on “Taking Wing” or “Telling Meaning” are evidence of that. But tracks like “Overdressed” or “Pocket Watch Pulse” are rife with technology. Even the echo on the drum featured in the first track, “Snowed In”, is not a window to nature, but a comment upon the techniques utilized today in electronic music wizardry and studio mastery.

An exceptional effort though. Some may want to compare Daedelus with Scott Herren, but that’s simply unfair. While the two work roughly in the same medium, the results that they both produce are drastically different. Nor is El-P, another producer garnering much attention of late, an apt colleague. Daedelus has no artistic peers, only colleagues.