Antibalas: "Rat Race"

Brooklyn-based Afro-funk collective Antibalas is back with its first new material since Security in 2007. The band took a recording hiatus over the last few years to work on other projects such as the off-Broadway musical Fela! and TV on the Radio's 2008 album, Dear Science.

Its new 12-inch record, out today, features two fresh tracks, one of which is a rearranged cover of the Bob Marley classic, "Rat Race." The other featured track is the swinging "Se Chifló," an Afrocuban-Afrobeat mash-up with Spanish vocals by guitarist Marcos García. Flip the record over, and you'll find dub mixes of each song, plus bonus breakbeats.

Colin Stetson: "Judges"

Powerful, otherworldly, and beautiful, wind player Colin Stetson's upcoming record, New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges, commands attention from start to finish. Largely recorded live without overdubs, Stetson exploits techniques that yield dense layers of multiphonic sound that seem impossible to have come from a single instrument. Here sounding deep and sonorous as a foghorn, there alternating between percussive popping and plaintive moans, while elsewhere emitting swirling, cyclical lines that could nearly pass for strings, Stetson pushes his horns through every timbral possibility.

With such formidable instrumental prowess, one might expect a display of flashy improvisations, yet Stetson uses his command of his instruments in service of intricate compositions, rich in atmosphere and mood, and unmoored from any genre. Moreover, the pieces function together to create a coherent whole, emotionally resonant and deeply affecting.  A record that will sound arresting and fresh to even the most adventurous listeners, New History Warfare Vol. 2 (out on Feb. 22) is an early bright light among this new year's releases and likely to resurface on many year-end lists.

Adept at bass sax, clarinet, bass clarinet, french horn, and cornet, Stetson studied music at the University of Michigan. From there, stints on both coasts resulted in work with a wide range of music luminaries, including Tom Waits, Anthony Braxton, Fred Frith, and Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra. More recently, Stetson has startled unsuspecting rock audiences as an opener for stadium indie acts such as Arcade Fire and The National.  Here he explains how this integration of influences creates his own musical worlds.

When I've played your music for people, the unanimous reaction has been "that's a sax?", which is all the more impressive given that much of it was recorded without overdubbing. Can you explain how you're able to create such a rich and diverse range of sounds, both in terms of technique and production?

Technically, regarding the instrument, I'm just employing a lot of extended techniques that improvisers have been using for decades. The basis for most of my pieces is in circular breathing; by breathing in through the nose and continuing to breath out of the mouth, you can create these longer, uninterrupted pieces of music. After that, it's a lot of "voicing," or using mouth and throat placement to form chords instead of single notes, specific arpeggiated lines to move those chords into individual and distinct melodies/harmonies, and also quite a bit of actual singing through the instrument.

Having been working this out for many years, when it came time to start recording this music, I knew that a straight-up stereo recording would only take a snapshot of what was happening, and would ultimately flatten the experience. There's no way to capture the essence of live performance in this manner, not if the idea is to recreate the same image through recording. So what I try to do is to capture every distinct and separate element I can, individually with separate and different microphones, so that this information can then be reorganized in the mixing process, and, rather than an attempt at recreating the live experience, we create an alternate version of that experience, something that is specific to the process of recording. In simpler terms, I wanted to make a record like a Haruki Murakami novel or a Terrence Malick film.

The use of extended techniques on reed instruments has become prevalent in modern improvised music, and your background includes studies with  avant-garde jazz players like Roscoe Mitchell and Henry Threadgill. But your work sounds very compositional in nature and some of the repeated patterns call to mind minimalism. How did you develop this sound?

As I stated before, all of the techniques I employ are pretty much found throughout the history of avant-garde improvisation and the free-jazz scene, of which I've been a part musically for most of my career. I was also raised on a glut of classic rock, mostly Hendrix, the Beatles, and Queen, then later got more into metal, studied classically in university, and have played everything from folk to noise over the past many years. My inclination towards song form and thematics comes from this arc, and the technique which I must use to make it happen is based on the extended history of the instruments I play.

You've also done a lot of work as a sideman for rock musicians, including folks like Tom Waits and Arcade Fire. Has your playing in these contexts had any influence on your solo work?

Most definitely. Working with Tom, for example, I learned, maybe more than anything else, the importance of character and scenery within songs. You have to leave the ego out of it, and only bring those things essential to creating that scene and bringing your characters to life. This has helped me to see different musics, and my roles in them, much clearer over the years. Also, it's caused me to think much more cinematically when composing albums. Recent work with Laurie Anderson has done much the same for me, but in different ways, and [it has] allowed me to see another example of someone creating a whole and distinct reality all of their own. It's really remarkable and inspiring.

The record is titled New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges. Underneath the dense fields of sound, it is generally somber and even mournful in tone, and includes meditations on the nature of war read by Laurie Anderson and a cover of a gospel blues lament by Blind Willie Johnson. What inspired the choice of thematic material?

The title New History Warfare refers to the hardship of finding and creating meaning in one's life, or to the process of consciously taking action toward impacting one's present place and time on a tangible level. "Judges" specifically speaks to the themes of this record — those being isolation and the pendulum swing between fear and transcendence. I find early American gospel music to embody the essence of the human condition. Through suffering, finding some path towards salvation. Joy from fear.

I suppose that all of the music in this series is my attempt at creating a personal gospel canon, not out of dogma, but rather from the human experience alone. The notion of alone-ness is amplified by the fact that this is music created solely out of one person's efforts and experience, and as I'm learning as I write, record, and perform this music more, I become more and more isolated physically, and so do I experience these themes cyclically, it seems.

Can you describe how the compositional process works for you? How do you get ideas that form the germ of a piece and how are those developed into what we hear on the record?

My songs are mostly born of focused improvisations. I'll normally find my way quickly to some stable pattern that will form the basis for the piece, and then I continue improvising in directions which feel right. Eventually, the thing takes shape, and I play it over and over and over until I become it to a certain degree. This process can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few weeks depending on how close I am to it in the beginning. Then, gradually, while I "wear" it, the song gets tweaked and maybe new sounds are revealed here and there, and it more or less evolves into something I consider finished. That being said, sometimes I just have an idea, and pick up the instrument, and a song comes out all shiny, new, and finished. When this happens, it is awesome.

The Go! Team: Rolling Blackouts (Memphis Industries, 2/1/11)

The Go! Team: "The Running Range"

Originally Ian Parton’s solo home-brewed music project, The Go! Team became a six-member band upon the release of its debut, Thunder, Lightning, Strike, in 2004. As Parton put together a group to perform the music live, the pieces fell into place, and the band quickly became the highlight of international music festivals.

After running into copyright issues surrounding TLS’ samples, The Go! Team released Proof of Youth in 2007 — a sophomore-slump-dodging record that proved that Parton’s distinct patchwork funk pop was not a fluke. Four years later, the Brighton, England-based sextet is back with Rolling Blackouts, a rambunctious effort that leans toward '60s-inspired pop. Building off its trusted template with a slew of guest vocals, including Best Coast’s Bethany Cosentino and Deerhoof’s Satomi Matsuzaki, the team’s upbeat blend of garage rock, hip hop, and noise pop sounds as refreshing at it did when Parton began.

Coming right out of the gate with the high-energy lead single “T.O.R.N.A.D.O.,” The Go! Team’s resident emcee, Ninja, spits out the track's title letter by letter. The soulful horn samples are taken from “Beaten Metal” by Antibalas and coat the track with a schizophrenic groove so meticulously spliced up that it begins to resemble an actual live brass section. In addition, Parton’s choice to include minor-chord phrases instead of major ones gives the track a darker feel. The song is definitely a heavy hitter from start to finish, with Ninja’s rapid-fire rhymes making it all the more frantic.

But it’s the infectious, '60s sing-song tune “Secretary Song” that sets the tone for the rest of the album. Sampled typewriters and office bells provide the percussion for the tune while Matsuzaki provides just the right vocals; her saccharine voice is a perfect fit for the thickly layered pop chords and hooks.

The Go! Team seems to switch back forth between loud and brash and sweet and poppy. But if there’s one unifying factor, it’s that the band has become a connoisseur of the melodic hook. “Buy Nothing Day” may very well be the album’s standout track. Cosentino helps drive home the California-surfer vibe, casually crossing between verse and hook with little effort.

But then there is “The Running Range,” a track with as much energy as the rest, but with half the chaos. The London African Gospel Choir injects the track with a stirring vocal performance that offers a break from the band's old-school schoolyard rap. The result is one of The Go! Team’s most accomplished arrangements to date, reaching a mature sound that is as inspirational as it is catchy.

The mid-tempo instrumentals take the group a bit out of its comfort zone; unfortunately, they’re some of the shortest tracks on the album. “Super Triangle” and “Lazy Poltergeist” demonstrate the refined side of The Go! Team, and the tracks’ stripped-down simplicity makes for a nice change of pace. Though The Go! Team’s cheerleader chanting might get old to some listeners, it’s becoming a smaller element in the band’s evolving sound. Still pushing genres and making the crossovers seamless, The Go! Team’s Rolling Blackouts is a welcome addition to an already notable catalog.

The group's classic, political third album saw renewed interest after Fela! opened to rave reviews, so Ropeadope answered the call, even adding a previously unheard bonus track called "Money Talks," produced by Scotty Hard.

Buy Who Is This America? on presale here.

Instrumental(-ish) Boston group Irepress has completed its sophomore album, Sol Eye Sea 1, which will be released February 17 on Translation Loss (a new song can be heard here). The group's mathy, melodic, chugging, epic songs can be heard on a five-week US tour that begins March 4.

Les Claypool has announced a four-week traveling mini festival, scheduled to begin in early March, that is officially titled The Oddity Faire: A Mutated Mini Fest. The fest's outstanding lineup is different depending on the city; guests include Secret Chiefs 3, Saul Williams, DeVotchKa, Yard Dogs Road Show, O'Death, and The Mutaytor.

And speaking of Secret Chiefs 3, the incomparable Indian/surf/metal group has a concert DVD being released in March on mastermind Trey Spruance's Mimicry label.

Hardcore trio Young Widows has announced a major list of tour dates that run from February through April. See the list here.

Dan Deacon has announced a six-week tour, starting April 3, that will feature a full ensemble in support of Bromst, his new album due March 24 from Carpark.

Marking its final recording with long-time member Reed Mathis, the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey has made a new studio album, Winterwood, available for free downloading on its website.

Next Tuesday, February 3, Tibet House US hosts a benefit concert and dinner at Carnegie Hall. Performers include Philip Glass, Antibalas, Keb' Mo', Vampire Weekend, The National, and more.

Nile linchpin Karl Sanders has another solo album in the works, this time to be released through The End Records. Titled Saurian Exorcisms, the album will be out April 14. Some awesome preview tracks are already posted on Sanders' MySpace page.

Despite comments from main member Tobacco that the group was on indefinite hiatus, dreamy hip-hoppers Black Moth Super Rainbow have a new album, Eating Us, that will be released on May 26 via Graveface.

New York jazz group Dred Scott Trio has a live album being released via Ropeadope on February 3.

Hardcore group Pulling Teeth has a new album, Paranoid Delusions | Paradise Illusions, that takes a crushing and despairing direction. The album is available today to preorder from Deathwish Inc. and its official release date is March 31. Hear a preview track, "Foreshadowing," here.

Grindcore group Agoraphobic Nosebleed will release its fourth full-length album, Agorapocalypse, through Relapse on April 14.

Austin City Limits Music Festival
September 26-28
Location: Zilker Park, Austin, TX

Friday, Sept. 26

A few over-hyped groups perform early on Friday, but the party starts when Del the Funky Homosapien takes the AT&T Blue Stage at 3:30pm.  The steady, unique cadence of the Hieroglyphics founder should get your blood flowing before Gypsy punks Gogol Bordello begin on the regular AT&T stage.  You may have to hoof it to catch both, because Gogol Bordello starts just as Del wraps up at 4:30.

Once Gogol Bordello's raucous live show comes to a close, consider grabbing a bite to eat before funky Brooklyn Afrobeat collective Antibalas plays at 7:15 and shows up everyone that previously played the WaMu stage.  From there, enjoy the Mars Volta's progressive fusion from 8:15-9:30 to close out the night.

Saturday, Sept. 27

Day 2 presents more great back-to-back sets in the mid-afternoon.  First, Sharon Jones' soulful intonations cover the carefully constructed grooves of her Dap Kings from 2:30-3:30.  Then, with a sound that is quite divergent from that of Jones, Philadelphia five-piece Man Man plays from 3:30-4:30 with a mad mix of Tom Waits-inspired circus-rock tunes.

The Nachito Herrera All Stars make the early evening a fine time to get your Latin jazz fix, but if you prefer softer, emotive, self-reflective music, you'll likely be catching Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band at 6:30 and Iron & Wine at 7:30.  Identity-shifting radio favorite Beck ends the night's festivities, but psych-rock forebear Roky Erickson my turn in its most memorable performance.

Sunday, Sept. 28

With the best anti-war song to ever use the Secretary of State's name as a refrain, protest punks Against Me! provide one of the festival's most politically charged sets at 3:30.  Concertgoers will later have a tough choice at 6:30, as the soul hop of Gnarls Barkley competes with the twangy garage rock of The Raconteurs.

If you can't decide on one, head over to see the jazzy grooves of Galactic at 7.  At that point, you'll likely be ready for more rock, so get a good spot to see The Foo Fighters at 8:30 and lobby Dave Grohl to play "Monkey Wrench," "Everlong," "In Your Honor," and "Watershed."