Michael Nolledo

Tune-Yards

The Groove Seeker: Tune-Yards’ Whokill

The Groove Seeker goes in search of killer grooves across rock, funk, hip hop, soul, electronic music, jazz, fusion, and more.

Tune-Yards: Whokill (4AD, 4/19/11)

Tune-Yards: “Bizness”

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If you’ve ever seen Merill Garbus’ Tune-Yards play live, you understand how resourceful and creative a musician she is. With a ragtag set of drums and ukulele close at hand, Garbus builds her songs from scratch by live-looping repetitive drum and vocal patterns. Crafty to say the least, her performances are a multitasking puzzle of pedal stepping and vocal-scat arranging, revealing compositions and melodies that are spontaneous but clearly logical.

As Tune-Yards, Garbus surprised many with a gem of a debut in 2009. That record, Bird-Brains, thrives on the same weirdness and DIY attitude that make Garbus’ live shows so enjoyable. Not only were the songs recorded using a freeware program, but the folk-inspired experiments are packed with field recordings, Dictaphone samples, and intermittent elements of R&B and hip hop, all loosely fastened down by Garbus’ versatile Afro-pop-influenced vocals.

Whokill, Garbus’ second album under the case-sensitive moniker (generally stylized as tUnE-yArDs), sees her trading in the Dictaphone for some full-blown studio time. Tracked and mixed by Eli Crews (producer for Deerhoof and Why?), with co-writing credits going to bassist Nate Brenner (Beep), the record shows definite growth from those lo-fi-recording days. Thankfully, a bit of studio polish doesn’t take away her charm and musical wit.  If anything, the new approach gives her avant-garde pop the right venue in which to be properly heard.

World in Stereo: Dengue Fever’s Cannibal Courtship

World in Stereo examines classic and modern world music while striving for a greater appreciation of other cultures.

Dengue Fever: Cannibal Courtship (Fantasy Records, 4/19/2011)

Dengue Fever: “Uku”

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Righteously capturing the free spirit of Cambodia’s 1960s surf-rock and psychedelic-pop scene is Dengue Fever‘s fourth LP, Cannibal Courtship.  For almost a decade, the Los Angeles-based ensemble, led by Cambodian songstress Chhom Nimol, has shone a light on the undeniable wealth of grooves that Khmer music has to offer, intricately reworking its musical foundations in an approach that is vintage in style with an ear towards global sounds.

Cannibal Courtship shows the band expanding its sound into new territories, playing a more fuzzed-out, rock-and-roll style while keeping true to the dreamy, reverberated guitar licks and driving bass riffs that make its music so hypnotic.  Guitarist Zac Holtzman takes a prominent vocal presence, and Nimol’s English has become increasingly better, resulting in a record that is sung half in Khmer and half in English. The two linguistic styles are tied together with groovy dual vocal parts from the singers.

Whereas the larger Southeast Asian scene — including Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam — saw an incredible boom of Western-influenced, psychedelic rock and roll as early as the ’60s, Cambodia had its golden era of musical mutation before the horrifying Pol Pot regime took over in 1975. During his reign, Western-influenced musicians were killed, and their music was banned and destroyed.

The Groove Seeker: The Dead Kenny Gs’ Operation Long Leash

The Groove Seeker goes in search of killer grooves across rock, funk, hip hop, soul, electronic music, jazz, fusion, and more.

The Dead Kenny Gs: Operation Long Leash (The Royal Potato Family, 3/15/11)

The Dead Kenny Gs: “Black Truman (Harry the Hottentot)”

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Smooth-jazz lovers beware.  As an antidote to the polished alto saxophones and rarely improvised easy-listening jams of adult contemporary music, eccentric jazz trio The Dead Kenny Gs has released its second album, Operation Long Leash.  Given its play-on-words moniker that simultaneously drives a sock down the mouth of smooth-jazz king Kenny G and recalls the early ’80s hardcore-punk band The Dead Kennedys, the powerhouse trio taps into a sound that fuses jazz and punk.  It’s a crazy mix that works surprisingly well, played intensely by a group that has the skill and knowledge to pull it off.

Composed of three of the members of legendary Seattle-based Critters Buggin — bassist Brad Houser, drummer and vibraphonist Mike Dillon, and saxophonist Skerik — the band uses its genre-mashing experience to anchor it all down.  The trio has played in countless projects together, including all three in The Black Frames, and Dillon and Skerik comprise half of Garage a Trois.  Needless to say, the three have run in the same circles for more than two decades, playing hybrid styles that are everything but conservative.

World in Stereo: Those Shocking, Shaking Days: Indonesian Hard, Psychedelic, Progressive Rock and Funk, 1970-1978

World in Stereo examines classic and modern world music while striving for a greater appreciation of other cultures.

V/A: Those Shocking, Shaking Days: Indonesian Hard, Psychedelic, Progressive Rock and Funk, 1970-1978 (Now-Again, 3/8/11)

Shark Move: “Evil War”

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Giving service to the music and the musicophiles who go in search for it, Now-Again Records has released a stunning overview of 1970s Indonesian funk, rock, and psychedelia recordings in an anthology titled Those Shocking, Shaking Days.  The title is a perfect summation of the sounds coming from the compilation; deep funk gems and gritty rock riffs are captured in the lowest of lo-fi senses, driven to the head by relentless fuzz guitars, psychedelic howls, and all kinds of general weirdness.

Helmed by Now-Again’s head honcho Egon, with research and crate digging from producer Jason “Moss” Connoy (and the not-to-be overlooked assistance from Indonesian rock legend Benny Soebardja, who secured all the necessary rights), the compilation is what happens when the record-collector gods align everything just right. Add in a thick booklet with groovy album art, eccentric band photos that could only belong to the ’70s, and extensive track-by-track notes from Holland-based Indonesian ex-pat Chandra Drews, Those Shocking, Shaking Days does an incredible job of giving listeners the whole package.

The Groove Seeker: Austin Peralta’s Endless Planets

On a weekly basis, The Groove Seeker goes in search of killer grooves across rock, funk, hip hop, soul, electronic music, jazz, fusion, and more.

Austin Peralta: Endless Planets (Brainfeeder, 2/15/11)

Austin Peralta: “Capricornus”

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Austin Peralta is a 20-year-old jazz pianist.  A former child prodigy, Peralta has already led two record releases abroad for Sony Japan. He recorded his first album, Maiden Voyage, at age 15 with a trio that included legendary bassist Ron Carter. And his sophomore effort, Mantra, was recorded mere months later with a quintet including Buster Williams.  If that’s not enough to convince you of Peralta’s skill level, a stage shared with Chick Corea and Hank Jones at the 2007 Tokyo Jazz Festival will. Add in a number of prestigious awards and it’s clear that the young LA native has chops, to say the least.

For his third album, and first US release, Endless Planets, Peralta joined the Flying Lotus-run Brainfeeder label.  It’s a progressive step forward in Brainfeeder’s legacy, one that seems natural, given Flying Lotus’ (a.k.a. Steven Ellison) great-nephew relation to jazz icon Alice Coltrane. It’s a label that’s home to artists who have been using jazz sounds and textures to create some of today’s most genre-forging music.

World in Stereo: The Sway Machinery’s The House of Friendly Ghosts, Volume 1

World in Stereo examines classic and modern world music while striving for a greater appreciation of other cultures.

The Sway Machinery: The House of Friendly Ghosts, Volume 1 (JDub Records, 3/8/11)

The Sway Machinery: “Gawad Teriamou”

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Led by guitarist and lead singer Jeremiah Lockwood, Brooklyn-based band The Sway Machinery includes Yeah Yeah Yeahs drummer Brian Chase, brass players Stuart Bogie and Jordan Mclean (Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra), and baritone-sax player Colin Stetson (Tom Waits, Arcade Fire). Though something of a name-dropper’s perfect dream, The Sway Machinery actually resembles very little of its individual parts.

Instead, under the vision of Lockwood, the collective explores Jewish cantorial music within the broader sphere of world music, injecting the ancient tradition with Afro-rhythms and blues-tinged soul.  The distinct sound stems from two figures in Lockwood’s life: his grandfather, renowned cantor Jacob Konigsberg, who instilled in his lifeblood the ancient heritage of synagogue music; and Piedmont blues virtuoso Carolina Slim, who mentored Lockwood early in his career, as he played the streets and subways of New York City.  It’s a far-out mix that is sacredly funky, executed brilliantly by a collective with a dense amalgamation of contemporary sensibilities.

J Rocc

The Groove Seeker: J Rocc’s Some Cold Rock Stuf

On a weekly basis, The Groove Seeker goes in search of killer grooves across rock, funk, hip hop, soul, electronic music, jazz, fusion, and more.

J Rocc: Some Cold Rock StufJ Rocc: Some Cold Rock Stuf (Stones Throw, 3/8/11)

J Rocc: “Play This (Also)”

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One of the most important figures in DJing and turntablism over the past two decades, J Rocc is finally releasing his debut effort of original cuts titled Some Cold Rock Stuf.  Original in all senses of the word, J Rocc has amazed audiences from Los Angeles to Tokyo with a distinct style that began by co-founding the landmark DJ crew the Beat Junkies in the early ’90s with Melo-D and Rhettmatic.

Along with fellow beat junkie Babu, and the likes of Mix Master Mike and Q-Bert of the Invisible Skratch Piklz, J Rocc was a part of the pioneering scene that brought respect back to the DJ, establishing the turntable as instrument while forging a new path towards instrumental hip hop.

Stateless

Stateless: Soulful, Worldly Electro-Rock

On its second full-length, Britain’s Stateless bridges disparate genres with surprising ease. Its sound, at once indefinable and all-encompassing, gathers elements of R&B, dubstep, electronic rock, and more, and mixes them organically with the help of collaborators like DJ Shadow.

World in Stereo: Aurelio’s Laru Beya

Each week, World in Stereo examines classic and modern world music while striving for a greater appreciation of other cultures.

Aurelio: Laru Beya (Next Ambiance / Sub Pop, 1/18/11)

Aurelio: “Laru Beya”

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Bringing the Garifuna sound to a global audience, Aurelio Martinez’s sophomore record, Laru Beya, is the second release from the Afro-centric label Next Ambiance, the latest imprint of Sub Pop Records.  After his close friend, Andy Palacio, passed away a year after the release of his acclaimed 2007 record, Wátina, Aurelio has become the new face of Garifuna music and culture.

A culture of intense generational assimilation that began during the slave trade when escaped African slaves inter-married the Caribbean Indian people of St. Vincent Island, the hybrid group was then deported by British colonizers to the coasts of Central America by the late 18th Century.  As a descendant of those forces, Garfunia’s musical legacy is marked by African, Caribbean, Indian, and Latin influences.  It’s a wealthy foundation on which Aurelio builds — a rhythmically powerful record accompanied by an astonishing sense of identity and place.

The Groove Seeker: Seefeel’s Seefeel

On a weekly basis, The Groove Seeker goes in search of killer grooves across rock, funk, hip hop, soul, electronic music, jazz, fusion, and more.

Seefeel: Seefeel (Warp Records, 1/31/11)

Seefeel: “Dead Guitars”

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A largely forgotten mid-’90s band that was always ahead of its time, Seefeel has released its first album in 14 years. The self-titled record feels like a debut, and it is to a certain extent, considering the band’s lineup changes. Seefeel explores the territory of electronic outfits such Battles and Emeralds, bands that were influenced by Seefeel’s 1993 debut Quique. It feels like some sort of weird déjà vu.  If anything, it’s an impressive rebirth, one that has the group deconstructing the sample-based post-rock style it pioneered before MIDI sequencers were even looked at as viable forms of instruments.

Formed in 1992 in London, Seefeel’s music was once stylistically situated between shoegaze pop and what people were calling “ambient techno.”  It had a smooth nonchalance to its music, with ambient electro-pop symphonies strung together by Sarah Peacock‘s sparse, dream-like vocals.

Noise pop is perhaps the best way to describe its music retrospectively — or IDM before IDM was IDM.  Though we must not forget those  higher on the electronic family tree (Kraftwerk comes to mind), Seefeel’s importance to the scene lies in fending off the “dance” label.  What’s more, as the first “guitar” band signed to Warp in 1994, its use of live instruments also speaks to its groundbreaking artistry.

Dub Sonata

World in Stereo: Dub Sonata’s Nights in Cuba

Each week, World in Stereo examines classic and modern world music while striving for a greater appreciation of other cultures.

Dub Sonata: Nights in Cuba (Illest Rated, 12/14/10)

Dub Sonata: “Cubana”

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On Nights in Cuba, the music of Florida’s southerly neighbor receives a proper second-hand re-imagining from New York-based producer Dub Sonata.  Released late last year, the record is an ambitious 19-track instrumental voyage through the island’s tremendous musical tradition — a heritage that some attest is the richest in the world.

And if there’s one thing that listeners realize after first spin, it’s that the record gives the argument justice.  Though at the heart of Cuban music are styles we’ve come to associate with the Latin sound, Dub Sonata lays down funky foundations — everything from hip-hop break beats to drum and bass — that make for a seamless integration of musical cultures.

The United States’ trade embargo against Cuba has made it quite difficult for Americans to travel there.  Flights direct from the United States to Cuba are nonexistent — and though Americans can officially travel there, it’s actually illegal to purchase anything.  During a small window of time, Dub Sonata traveled to Cuba via the Cayman Islands without any expectations of bringing anything back.

The impromptu trip proved to be the beginning of Nights in Cuba, as the producer met locals who pointed him to the shop where he would spend two days digging through thousands of old, mostly unplayable records.  Salvaging over 100 LPs and 45s combined, he shipped the records back to New York.