AK-Momo - Return to N.Y.

A Hidden Agenda Records



Rating: 6/10

It is very peaceful and soothing, very Joanna Newsom-like, this debut album by the Swedish duo AK-Momo. It has everything it takes to be subjected to mad reviews, praising the gentle voice coming from the far-north part of Europe. Return to N.Y. is charming enough to please the chronically-ill young heart, grabbing a certain pop generational branch with ululating dynamics and slightly-electronic undertones - but with all that, it lacks courage to move forward, to travel from one station to another.

When I first audio-spotted “Greasy Spoon” and the title track – even prior to the record being delivered in my mailbox – I recall thinking this would be a demanding (meaning pleasant) listen. The comparisons with Goldfrapp circa Felt Mountain and Newsom’s vocals are almost inevitable, but I truly dismiss the presumption of this duo being matched up to Portishead as the press release suggests. Apart from the fact that the voice is wrapped in domestic electronics in both cases, and that they are two beautiful women, I see no association coming between Anna Karin von Malmborg and Beth Gibbons.

Recorded at Mattias Olsson (the other half of the duo)’s Roth Handle studio in Stockholm, Return to N.Y. encrusts soft singing pitches into a very devotional and evocative electronic tapestry. It has what most records starve for: an aura of convolution delivered in tiny little air gulfs, augmented by the mellotron and the optigan – which are both part of the vintage legacy of homemade, or otherwise, electronics – consistently dotting the tuneful path.

“Human Clones” is admittedly the most rhythm-infused number here - a calculated mishmash cutting through unyielding and almost glitchy criteria. For a project that cuts their teeth on pop electronics this is really audacious. Maybe they should craft from that mould in a future release. Elsewhere, except for a handful of songs, which in fact makes half the album, the overall grooveless ambience belies the density they are trying to convey.

The 6 out of 10 ranking is up there because I know for a fact that this record will go hand in glove with most critics’ oracles and I do not want to scare people away… but especially because I have a fascination for Scandinavian countries. Besides, “World Traveller” is such a nice track with its name-dropping of geographical mind spots. Again, Return to N.Y. may please the good souls navigating over the planet, but it makes the chronically inpatient’s blood boil of tiredness after the third track. While it is not my preferred cup of tea, others may find its taste quite satisfying.

http://www.lostatsea.net/review.phtml?id=15661608254249df9bc5572

13 & God - Men of Station b/w Soft Atlas

Anticon



Rating: 8/10

Those supportive of the Anticon’s prog hip-hop cause may recall the notable track “Unseen Sights,” on which part of the label’s crew paid reverence to the Munich indie pop papists, The Notwist. Well, I believe the reverence was reciprocal enough to craft a dusty beats-based work punctuated by the filigree-like voice of Markus Acher. It was the first collaborative effort made available to the public between those two masterminds. For your listening pleasure, the track is still available for download on the Anticon website in case you have missed the train or want to refresh your mind.

Men of Station b/w Soft Atlas is not a proper split record, but rather, as the title suggests, the first two takes from the self-titled full-length due out in April plus two interesting bonus remixes by Hrvatski and Why? & Alias. The opener “Men of Station” and the more hermetic “Soft Atlas” are both sweet n’ sour cuts that obviously allow cross-fertilization of ideas, influences and methodological approaches.

13 & god is a combo which shows an ability seldom observed in other two halves projects: a strong need to find blood correlatives for what were once exclusively pop gem sensibilities or the dark sides of hip-hop and instrumental, critical beats. Doseone, Jel and Dax (representing Themselves) work from the inside of sound and allow enough space for Acher’s vocals to emerge, expand and extrapolate the often asymmetric rhythms done by the former.

The half of the record steeped in remixes, aligned back-to-back with the two main stands, does an appealing job in challenging the levels of instinctual response of the body. While the too-complex, six-minute long “L’atlas Flexible/Von Gradleute”, reworked by Hrvatski, will baffle and infuriate most listeners, it’s too judgemental to dismiss the guys as petulant taunts. Irrespective of its intricacy, the track encloses humanly impossible glitchy works only premiered by the common ear at gunpoint, but should be praised specifically for that.

There’s an astounding pleasure in transgressing the orthodox instrumental resources and discovering new forms of floor-crawling experiences. “Into the Trees” is a sing-along mashup that risks falling into the cracks of history, where Why? & Alias rub shoulders with the German folks in a far-off cooperation.

Anticon has been my altered hip-hop ghetto for some years now, and The Notwist are an equally challenging ensemble for me. So a joint venture the size of this one is like winning a scholarship in Music Production with the chance to travel around the world, taxes and fees included. Although it is not far off, I’m feverously praying for April to come.

http://www.lostatsea.net/review.phtml?id=1570245207424822254b311

M.I.A. - Arular

XL Recordings



Rating: 9/10

Arular finds Maya Arulpragasam at a creative zenith only accomplished by certain meticulous artists after years of great achievements in music and life. Considering this is her first full-length, the surprise is even greater. Very few people are able to seep into the middle ground and grasp critical acclaim around the world. M.I.A. did just that with an indispensable addition to the shelf of this year’s greatest and most innovative records.

With a funky major nod to such languages as electro, hip-hop, world music and dancehall, this is a mildly debauched piece of art, while it remains cerebral enough for the musicologists out there. Maya runs a potent algorithm of creative forms and runs away from the pissing contest that seems to give strength to all hip-hoppers topping the charts. Arular is a disarming statement, an itchy needling soundwork, sometimes reminiscent of militiamen fighting for independence-driven purposes.

Indeed, born in London, Maya was rapidly moved back to her family’s native Sri Lanka. Her father, always ready to support the Tamil moves to break free from the majority Sinhalese population, became more and more involved in the political cause and eventually formed the Eelam Revolutionary Organization of Students. Arular was his codename, and this record thus serves as some kind of tribute. The two rarely see each other, nor have they for most of her life.

Sometimes living without electricity or running water, and subject to the restrains of a civil war, Maya’s family decided it was no longer safe to live in Sri Lanka, and moved again – first to India, then back to Sri Lanka and finally to London as refugees. This routine has obviously influenced the all-over-the-map approach that has been M.I.A.’s musical fingerprint, ever since she recorded her first demo tape: a six-song effort already containing the milestone, “Galang”.

From the warfare-like chant that is “Pull Up the People,” to the aforementioned, rhythm-soaked “Galang”, Arular is groovier than a groove record, and it will make you drop your jaw and free as much space as you can to dance and jump. “Amazon” and “Hombre” sound like two strident growls in the jungle, shamelessly doused in Latin-inspired, multicoloured flavours. There’s also that cut and paste feel, that glued process that penetrates most dancehall/electro records.

And that fact alone must have been part of the field notes she gathered while chronicling Elastica’s American tour on video, as well as Maya’s first introduction to the Roland MC-505 sequencing machine by electro’s instantly recognized drag queen, Peaches. But keep in mind the fact this debut truly expands on their paradigms.

Here, Maya is doing her thing - and that thing sounds really, really soothing and barrier-crossing. This is a hell of a record.

http://www.lostatsea.net/review.phtml?id=1430586851423db6f0dec70

Rendezvous - Rendezvous

Rendezvous are a diasporic creative ensemble. Consisting only of Itai Simon and Hagai Izenberg and formed in 2003, they craft beautiful, instrumental moodscapes, telescoping in on peripheral but key details. For their first inception, a three-piece live studio session, recorded in April last year, it’s like traditional and contemporary jazz are both forced to take a hike into the wide unknown.

Still, there’s a slight frigidity about them and the arrangements they make. But frigidity here is nice. "No Man’s Land" captures the feeling of being caught in a loop of menacing particles, and the past life of smooth but experimental jazz flows before the eyes. The good thing about Rendezvous is that they tend to look back, not because they miss what happened back in the day, but as a juicy resource.

On this particular recording they are augmented by the saxophone played by a guy called Andrei, who blasts air through the valves in an elusive and fascinating way, and the drum work of Erez Bahar, a plasmatic collage of punctual and somehow paranoid beats. The overall product is so well crafted that saxophone and drums switch tempo and metre hand in glove with the bass lines and the Fender Rhodes.

Mastered at Eshel Studios in Tel-Aviv, this sonic journey clocks in over thirty minutes and leaves a mouthwatering desire for the listener to deal with. Simple but jugular-popping, "So What" feels like a syncopated jam session under the midnight sun. "Incognito (featuring Summertime)" is a landmark piece which sews together this referential work with more adventures in hi-fi, where spurts of culture-based harmony emerge with no complacency.

In fact, these cultural fragments radiate outwards from the final output, making the EP all the more fascinating. Rendezvous are not clinging to the standard, and quite putrid, template of market-fuelled musicality, but rather exceeding all parameters of modern composition. My two thumbs go way up for this one.

http://www.jazzreview.com/cdreview.cfm?ID=9180

Disco em MP3: http://www.rendezvous-info.com

#1: "So foolishly they run, they run, they run"

Playlist 26.Março.2005

1a parte



Telephone Jim Jesus - Little Boy One Eye
David Sylvian - The Only Daughter (remixed by Ryoji Ikeda)
Nathan Michel - A to B
Low - Monkey
Mike Ladd - The French Dig Latinos, Too

uma colher de jazz:
yeah NO - Camper Giorno

2a parte



Chaan Siang Phin with Sumalee & Pet - Lam Phun Keaogan (Year Of Famine)
Damon & Naomi - House of Glass
The Dead Texan - Taco de Macque
Boom Bip - Last Walk Around Mirror Lake (Boards of Canada remix)
Prefuse 73 - Hideyaface (feat. Ghostface & El-P)
M.I.A. - Galang
Sugar Minott - Try Love

3a parte



Nobukazu Takemura - Cogwheel
Mike Taylor Trio - Guru
Sun Ra & His Alter Destiny 21st Century Omniverse Arkestra - Sleeping Beauty
Konono Nº1 - Kule Kule

o coffee breakz recorda:
Nina Simone - The Desperate Ones