Good news! I’ve been wanting to include links and/or embedded players for a while, and now I’ve finally done that! Bandcamp’s embedded player is the best for this, because it can be made nice and small. But not every artist is on Bandcamp, and people listen to music online through many different means, so when something isn’t on Bandcamp, the least intrusive way to embed is with a text hyperlink to the album on YouTube.
PICKS OF THE WEEK
JAZZ:
Kassa Overall – I Think I’m Good — 9.5/10
METAL:
Intronaut – Fluid Existential Inversions — 8.5/10
JAZZ
Kassa Overall – I Think I’m Good Add Kassa Overall to the ever-growing list of young jazz musicians pushing the boundaries of the genre further and further. The drummer/producer/vocalist creates a brilliant, impressionistic melting pot of jazz, electronic, RnB, and hip hop on his second album, I Think I’m Good. From the opening track’s keyboards, piano, harp, flute, bass clarinet, and low RnB male vocals crooning, to vibraphone (courtesy of Joel Ross), trumpet, and a mix of electronic percussion and acoustic kit in the next couple, practically every song brings something new. Look out for rapping over a drum solo, vocal pitch shifting, trip hop, breakbeats, and a retro 80’s electro percussion Latin groove.
Kassa Overall’s approach to production comes from the hip-hop school of sample collages; except he’s not using samples. It’s all live, acoustic jazz playing from Overall and his collaborators, that’s multi-layered, electronically manipulated, and cut and pasted. It gets pretty wild and avant-garde at times, approaching Flying Lotus territory. But there’s also some amazing, dark, emotional energy in the topical “Show Me A Prison,” and the vibe turns more art-RnB (à la Frank Ocean) on a couple tracks (“Halfway House” in particular). An autobiographical monologue over a free time, meditative drum solo, and a final track that floats out into space cement this album as some of the most forward thinking “jazz” I’ve ever heard. — 9.5/10
Terrace Martin – Sinthesize Terrace Martin has been at the forefront of this whole modern jazz/hip-hop/rnb/etc scene for a while. (I’ve seen him twice in Herbie Hancock’s band, and I really enjoyed the last few albums he put out.) Though it’s listed as an album, Sinthesize is 9 songs in 16 minutes, so it’s more like an EP. Kind of a series of mostly instrumental, spacey, electro-funk groove vignettes that interrupt each other and just glide on by. There’s some killer pitch-bendy synth bass, and one excellent vocoder funk/RnB jam. Before you know it, it’s over, and I wish it wasn’t! Luckily Terrace Martin has lots of other great releases, but I could really go for a volume 2 and 3 of this. — 9/10
RnB/Soul
Chiiild – Synthetic Soul The title of this debut release is perfect. It has a classic, warm, 60’s-70’s Soul/RnB core, but it’s also floating through space on a futuristic, psych-funk journey. The album kicks off with a classic 12/8 ballad, enhanced with strings, psychedelic guitar and synth embellishments. Next, an excellent guest female vocalist sings “If there’s a god, I hope she’s black. And when I die, she brings me back to life.” Throughout the 7 tracks (it doesn’t say EP, but it’s only 23 minutes), there are lots of interesting sounds, and creative arrangements. With tons of reverb on the vocals and some instruments, but drums that remain dry and up front, a unique brew of textures emerges. It’s like you’re in your bedroom with an old Motown record, but you’re actually the kid from Where the Wild Things Are and your room has no ceiling and the vast, starry night sky glows above. (The metaphor ends there. You don’t actually go on a crazy journey and dance with monsters.) I hope to hear more beautiful sounds from Chiiild in the near future! — 9/10
METAL
Intronaut – Fluid Existential Inversions I have been an Intronaut fan since their debut EP in 2002, and though I haven’t loved every album, I have enjoyed watching them evolve across their past seven releases. In 2012, they started to lose me a little, with the introduction of melodic singing. It was decent, but the soft parts sounded too similar. After substantially turning down the aggressiveness on 2013’s Habitual Levitations, with more varied singing, but no screaming (dulling the impact of the louder parts), the band finally found an even balance of their newer sound and their earlier heaviness with 2015’s The Direction of Last Things.
Fluid Existential Inversions continues with that sound, providing the band’s first album not to show significant differences from the previous album. (Even this cover art is very similar to that of the previous album.) The intensity is still back up, and the heavy prog-metal is seamlessly blended with the mellower, melodic post-rock/metal elements. After the short, crushing intro, track 2, “Cubensis” takes off at an exciting, speedy pace. Throughout the album, the gritty, melodic vocals and metal screams, odd-time grooves, intricate prog-metal riffs, and post-rock interludes are all effortlessly woven together. It’s all fantastically written and orchestrated, though I still have some reservations about the melodic singing and those soft interludes..
Ever since melodic singing was first introduced, I felt that it was alright, but not great. The guys just aren’t strong singers. They’re decent singers, and their timbre is appropriate for the mood of the music, but when they’re not screaming, they don’t always meet the potential presented by the music. As for the interludes, Intronaut has been including sections of jazzy fretless bass, delay-soaked clean guitars, and melodic drumming since the beginning of their career. It has evolved a little, but sometimes it feels like they are treading water. So when these parts arrive, they sound cool, but the heavier parts are where I feel they continue to be more innovative.
In the end, Fluid Existential Inversions is a dynamic album, performed with intensity and precision. On its own, with no prior context, I would have very little criticism to give, as the strengths far outweigh the weaknesses. From my perspective, I rate this among the band’s best albums, but hope to see a little more evolution next time around. — 8.5/10
Beneath the Massacre – Fearmonger Beneath the Massacre’s first album in 8 years is, as expected, some of the most relentlessly extreme and brutal music imaginable. There are a whole lot more uber-extreme technical death metal bands now than when the band first stormed the scene with their debut EP, 15 years ago, so their influence is clear. Being so long since their last release, the anticipation is surely higher than usual, and they seem to have felt the self-imposed pressure, because they have somehow managed to turn things up another notch. “A flurry of sweep arpeggios and blast beats, broken up occasionally by brief, pulverizing breakdowns” doesn’t quite describe the intensity packed into these 30 minutes. Take that definition and annihilate it with 30 machine guns, then we’re talking. I’m not sure if I could think of any death metal album more extreme than this.
But is it good?! Yes… but they’re kind of a one-trick pony. I know that’s the point, but I prefer a little more variation. I will say, having just listened to a little of all their past releases, that it’s probably their best album. And it’s also the best sounding Beneath the Massacre album, so that helps. I’ve never been a fan of deathcore (besides The Red Chord’s first album), so I’m happy to report that less time is spent on breakdowns, and when there is one, it’s almost not, because of how much they mess with it. So they at least never chug away for too long, which can’t be said for previous albums. But somewhere in the second half, the continuous cycle of diminished scale sweeps, tremolo riff, blast, gravity blast, tremolo riff, traditional blast, sweep, sweep, chug, machine-gun-chug, sweep, chug, gravity blast, etc, leaves me wishing they would experiment just a little bit. The vocals are brutal as always, and stay very low and aggressive the entire time. It’s effective, but again, no variation.
As far as brutal tech-death, no one brings it with quite as much ferocity as Beneath the Massacre. It’s not something I’ll listen to a whole lot more, but it is certainly a feat to behold. — 8/10
Tombs – Monarchy of Shadows I’m pleasantly surprised how much I like this. I’ve checked out many past Tombs releases, and none ever stuck with me, but something is different here. (Since their past albums didn’t grab me, though, I can’t compare.) I’m thinking that this album leans into the band’s black metal side much more than usual, and it suits them well. The energy is fiery and intense, the music and vocals are evil and menacing, and the production is the perfect mix of grit and clarity. Nothing is groundbreaking, but the songwriting is solid, and it gets my head nodding. — 7.5/10
Today is the Day – No Good To Anyone This album starts out strong, with an evil and doomy opening track and I got excited. “Maybe this album will be great!” (Though their 90’s albums are classic, the band’s 21st century output has been uneven.) But it’s a huge fake out. As soon as track two, the album veers into noise rock territory (it’s ok, not as badass, but still decent), and singing that sounds strangely like Neil Young. As the album progresses, there’s some more decent noise rock, some mediocre heavy bluesy riffing, “ooh! Grindcore!” — doesn’t last long. Back to bluesy metal riffing, some avant-metal weirdness, and the riffs start to get boring. Strummy, clean electric guitar, and sub-par singing (90’s almost emo alt indie rock???). In the end, No Good To Anyone is softer than (and not nearly as good as) I was led to believe from the opening track. Today is the Day has ¼ of a good album here, and ½ of an ok album, but that’s about it. — 5.8/10
Insect Ark – The Vanishing I wish I liked this more, because I LOVE the artwork. In fact, that’s kind of the only reason it’s even here. Insect Ark is one of many instrumental post-metal bands that I think would be a lot better if they had a (good) singer. The vibe is there, but it just doesn’t have enough going on to warrant not having vocals. — 5/10