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Quickies: New Release Roundup 2010, Vol. 2

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Could this be Nonesuch Records' The Low Anthem of 2010?

By Pico

Earlier in the week we presented the first installment of a dozen feebly minted records of random styles I thought might be a little noteworthy. Today comes the second half of these new releases. Some of this Whitman's sampler of music has a creamy middle, others are a little nutty, but everything I've listened to in this batch has been sweet.

But enough of the food analogies. Let's dine...

1. Carolina Chocolate Drops Geniune Negro Jig: Here's a trio of African-Americans playing bluegrass, vintage country, jug and other hillbilly styled music, played the old-fashioned way. But just listen to the music and you'll realize the appeal isn't at all in the novelty of this setup. No, it's because they play it so well. There's agrarian humor (the only place where the joys of “eating beans and makin' love" are sung in the same song), some nimble playing and wonderful singing, especially by violinist/banjo/kazoo player Rhiannon Giddens, whose a capella performance of “Reynadine" is sublime. “Hit 'Em Up Style" even manages to inject some organic hip-hop into this century-old music, without it sounding the least bit awkward. They've recorded some before this record, but getting picked up by the wide-distribution Nonesuch label is turning the Chocolate Drops from more than some regional novelty act, into a national sensation for those who like their music nice and rootsy down to the bone. It's a similar storyline to what happened with the breakout of The Low Anthem last year, so the Carolina Chocolate Drops could very well become the Low Anthem story of 2010.

Purchase: Carolina Chocolate Drops - Geniune Negro Jig


2. Jeff Beck Emotion & Commotion: This one's not dropping until April 13 and I've listened to it only a few times, but I think it's a pretty easy album to peg. This is one Jeff Beck long player where there's a lot more emotion happening than commotion. The stomping blues-rock fusion of “Hammerhead" excepted, much of the record recalls the slower, soulful cuts from There And Back and Guitar Shop. Sometimes Beck tosses in vocals numbers on his albums, sometimes he doesn't. This one has four vocal tracks total, two of them by young British soul singer sensation Joss Stone. Her rendition of “I Put A Spell On You" manages to wrest the spotlight from Beck for that one song, and tends to tower over her other vocal, as well as the ones by Imelda May and Olivia Safe. I still prefer to shuffle the track order a bit and play all the instrumentals first, then the vocals, and pretend they are two different albums (or two sides of a vinyl platter, if you prefer that comparison). And yes, bass phenom Tal Wilkenfeld is on here, too (check out her steady groove and surprising, quick visits to the high notes on “Serene"). But this is still Beck's show. He forgoes the blistering runs in favor of extended, weeping expressions, a side of him that's just as satisfying as the former one.

Purchase: Jeff Beck - Emotion & Commotion

3. Animal Liberation Orchestra Man of The World: I haven't heard this band prior to this album, but was curious about them after reading they were some sort of a jam band, like Phish, Dave Matthews or Humphrey's McGee. Man of The World doesn't really conjure up memories of those bands at all except to some degree “Suspended," the seven minute plus lead-off track, but they do often sound dead-on like Wilco and maybe a little bit like Ben Folds. ALO's songs carry strong and memorable melodies, and accomplish that without having to lay it on thick. There's a quiet confidence in this band in how they play songs without fussing too much over the production but still mind the details. This might be pegged mainstream pop/rock, but it's the way mainstream pop-rock should be and yet rarely is.

Purchase: Animal Liberation Orchestra - Man of The World


4. Matthew Shipp 4D: Shipp is own of the currently reigning giants of whack jazz, so that's a good-sized hole we proud avant garde types left on this site. My short mention of his latest is merely a down payment to rectify that gap. This latest release, by the way, puts Shipp behind his piano with no accompaniment (a first on a Shipp album, I believe), and the pianist explores twelve of his own tunes and four of other people's. I like the sharp angles and the temper modulations in “The Crack In The Piano's Egg's" which doesn't quite ape Monk, but would surely make him smile. You can often get a window into an artist's mind in listening to how he interprets covers; in the case of “What Is This Thing Called Love," Shipp shows off his rare ability to remain present in the melody while stepping completely outside of it. With most of the tracks falling around three minutes, Shipp makes concise statements that efficiently say a lot within their short running times. 4D could have only been pulled off by a completely mature artist comfortable enough in his own musical personality to deliver it with just one instrument and also through the pen of other composers. Shipp is without question one of those artists.

Purchase: Matthew Shipp - 4D


5. The Last Electro-Acoustic Space Jazz & Percussion Ensemble Miles Away: A side project of hip-hop artist Madlib, the music is pretty much what the ensemble's name advertises. It's loose, trippy and stretched out. There isn't a whole lot of standout improvisation going on, because this is more of a groovy vibe based affair. But as far as groovy vibes go, it does those things rather well. The meshing of disparate instruments such as sitar, harp and vibes gives it a psychedelica sound without resorting to electronic trickery. Instead, it's organic and warm. The songs each pay tribute to a different musical inspiration, although one of them, Roy Ayers, comes to mind on nearly every track (probably because anytime the vibraphone is used in funky-jazzy music, I think of Roy Ayers). This is more like what I expected ALO to sound like, put I was pleasantly surprised how either of these records turned out.

Purchase: The Last Electro-Acoustic Space Jazz & Percussion Ensemble - Miles Away


6. Buckethead Shadows Between The Sky: Hod-hatted guitar whiz Buckethead has built a loyal following primarily by virtue of his fretted pyrotechnics. Among the several records he makes every year are the mellower, dulcet types that range from ambient to instrumental pop. In some ways , this toned-down record by a fiery guitarist has some parallels you could draw with Jeff Beck's upcoming record discussed above. But Beck is going more for passion, while Buckethead seems to favor melody and simpler textures on his. “Sea Wall" is my personal favorite but it isn't a whole lot different from the rest of the tracks. That's because the songs each have just enough character to notice the difference, but not so much to disturb a nice background listen, which, really, is what he probably intended with this album. Even fast tempo songs like “Sled Ride" isn't going to tempt you to make the sign of Satan with your right hand while violently rocking your head back and forth. Shadows Between The Sky is the right disc to pull out when you're ready to downshift into second gear, not first.

Purchase: Buckethead - Shadows Between The Sky

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