Cymbals Eat Guitars: Lenses Alien (Barsuk, 8/30/11)

Cymbals Eat Guitars: "Rifle Eyesight (Proper Name)"

A couple of years ago, Staten Island-based Cymbals Eat Guitars released Why There Are Mountains, an arresting, noisy display of off-kilter rock songs mixed with a few hooks and left turns. For many listeners, the album came out of left field. Its raucous guitars, crashing drums, and frantic vocals made Cymbals Eat Guitars an instant sensation in the indie-music scene, and soon, it was one of the most respected bands — and one of the best surprises — of 2009.

Now, two years later, the band that's often touted as being “on the rise” has returned with its second effort. Lenses Alien, the band’s first offering since signing to Barsuk, looks to establish the band as a staple in indie rock.

Lenses Alien picks up where Why There Are Mountains left off, and builds indispensably upon the recklessly nurtured garage rock that the band has seemed to perfect in its short career. Pinpointing the band’s sound is a tad difficult — the music has elements of the Pixies, Pavement, and Pinback — but it keeps in step with tried-and-true lo-fi methods. Indeed, with Lenses Alien, Cymbals Eat Guitars has added another chapter to the musical styling of its solid debut. With album opener “Rifle Eyesight (Proper Name)” clocking in at more than eight minutes, and riveting tracks like “Keep Me Waiting” and “Shorepoints,” the band seems intent on hitting listeners with the full force of its grunge-meets-pop capabilities.

If Why There Are Mountains oscillated between the heavy and the poppy, Lenses Alien is the integration of the two. Songs like “Definite Darkness” mix distorted, grinding guitars with undeniably catchy vocal hooks. And “The Current,” a song that begins engulfed in a slow-burning, droned-out guitar, is picked up by calculated drumming and delicate piano noodling. Meanwhile, “Wavelengths,” which begins with simple acoustic strumming, builds into a wild thoroughfare of electronics, drums, and frenzied vocals, before calming down again toward the end.

What’s most apparent about Lenses Alien is that there are a ton of ideas swirling around. Each track is never a straightforward arrangement; rather, it bends and twists and retreats back into itself before expanding outward and eventually exploding. There are starts and stops, tempo changes within a few measures of each other, and songs that fluctuate between the subdued and the epic.

In that sense, the album is challenging. It’s not something you can just switch on and “get,” necessarily. Listening to it means strapping in and waiting to see which highways you’ll be traveling — and at which speed — before seeing which exit each track will take. And though some albums with so much going on can just be too complicated for their own good — or be too intent on merely creating something different — Cymbals Eat Guitars is simply doing what it does best. By not only sticking to what the band members know but building on it, the band has crafted a sonically pleasing collection of freaked-out garage rock that is certain to turn a few heads.

Maggie Björklund: Coming Home (Bloodshot)

Maggie Björklund: "The Anchor Song"

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Danish guitarist Maggie Björklund got her chops playing around Europe in country bands and pop groups.  But it wasn’t until she discovered the radiant sounds of the pedal-steel guitar that she packed her bags to learn under a Nashville veteran. Following that tutelage, Björklund relocated to Seattle and subsequently appeared on a number of albums as a pedal-steel player.

Now that her pedal-steel gestation is complete, Björklund has released her debut solo album, Coming Home, on Bloodshot Records. It’s a charming collection of Southwestern folk tunes, and many of her established US relationships help make it so — including guest spots by Calexico, Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees), Rachel Flotard (Visqueen), and Jon Auer (The Posies). And though she employs her guests to magnificent effect, Björklund’s talents shine through. Coming Home proves itself to be a beautiful debut, from the crooning vocals, western guitar licks, and cello strikes of “Summer Romance” to the dark guitar lines and ghostly, high-octave contrasts of “Insekt.”

Pharoahe Monch: WAR (We Are Renegades) (Duck Down)

Pharoahe Monch: "Black-Hand Side"

New York rapper Pharoahe Monch is a rap-world anomaly: equally beloved among mainstream and independent circles and extremely popular despite a relative dearth of his own releases.

Though he has contributed scores of high-profile and/or high-quality guest spots over the past dozen years, Monch has only released two solo albums over that period, with an eight-year gap coming between the first and second.  But his third and long-awaited album, We Are Renegades, is finally here, and it delivers in spades.

Offering, in his words, a "throwback to 1993, '94 hip hop," WAR is full of hard beats, melodic samples, and sociopolitical content, but it also holds many of the soulful elements of his 2007 album, Desire.

Following a sci-fi transmission from a future where technology presumably has allowed world powers to keep an iron grip over populations, the first full song takes shots at totalitarianism while Monch raps over a whirring synth line and a background faux-string version of the Ernest Gold theme to the 1960 film Exodus.

The next track mixes together more elements: social consciousness, a sax solo, and humorous interjections ("Pardon if it sounds a little wheezy / not Wayne, motherfuckers / I got asthma; it's not easy").  The title tune is an epic opus, another politically charged number stating that "the machine is corrupted, down the core" and featuring wailing guitar work by Vernon Reid.

The rest of WAR has dozens of other guest spots, including Jean Grae, Jill Scott, DJ Boogie Blind of The X-Ecutioners, and a host of others, such as the Layne Staley-esque chorus by Citizen Cope on "The Grand Illusions (Circa 1973)."  It never feels cluttered, however, and outside of an unfortunate and misogynistic verse by Royce da 5'9", the guests help to make this a potent return from Monch.

V/A: Sucker Punch: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (WaterTower Music)

Emily Browning: "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)"

Out this Friday, Sucker Punch is the latest project by fantasy filmmaker Zack Snyder, who directed the box-office smashes 300, Watchmen, and the remade Dawn of the Dead.  Along the way, he's had film-scoring assistance from Tyler Bates, who scored all three of the aforementioned films.

Despite the Titus controversy surrounding 300, Bates has composed some noteworthy accompaniments, and for Sucker Punch, he and big-name UK producer Marius de Vries put a cinematic spin on a selection of famous rock tunes, choosing selections from The Eurythmics, Björk, Jefferson Airplane, The Stooges, The Beatles, Pixies, and more.

One of the more interesting aspects to the soundtrack is that a few of the film's stars, including lead actress Emily Browning, sing over a number of the new arrangements. Two cover credits go to English alt-rockers Skunk Anansie, including one extended rock remix of Björk's famous "Army of Me," and guest vocals also appear from Icelandic singer Emiliana Torrini and Alison Mosshart of The Dead Weather and The Kills.

Browning's tracks are the most appealing, however, at least partially due to the direct tie-in.  But her gentle vocals carry an unexpected appeal, especially over the darker moments of "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" and the squealing rock moments of "Where is My Mind?"

Honorable Mentions

Baby Dee: Regifted Light (Drag City)

James Blake: s/t (Universal Republic)

Born of Osiris: The Discovery (Sumerian)

David Solid Gould & Bill Laswell: Dub of the Passover (Tzadik)

Marika Hughes: Afterlife Music Radio: 11 Pieces for Solo Cello (DD)

Soundgarden: Live on I5 (A&M / Universal)

Woods of Ypres: Woods IV: The Green Album (Relapse)

Zion I & The Grouch: Heroes in the Healing of the Nation (Z&G Music)

Tapes 'n Tapes: "Freak Out"

It wasn’t too long ago when Tapes 'n Tapes was indie rock’s next big thing. And there certainly was reason for the hype. The Minneapolis-based quartet’s 2006 effort, The Loon, is chock-full of raw pop hooks and a DIY sensibility that has often propelled forward the best that the genre has to offer.

And back in 2006, Tapes 'n Tapes certainly seemed destined to become one of the elite. When the everyday no-namers decided to self-release a bad-ass concoction of Pixies-style rock songs that were just as upbeat and catchy as they were introspective and self-exploratory, something new and refreshing was at hand. The band came out of nowhere, really, garnering a buzz that thrust it onto a major label, and it was crowned as indie’s great new hope.

Then, like many heavily hyped bands, Tapes 'n Tapes fell victim to the dreaded sophomore slump. Its first effort on a major label, Walk It Off, in 2008, fell short of reviving the youth and vivacity that dripped from every track on The Loon. Gone were the rough edges and hook-laden pop songs; instead, the album featured a collection of songs that seemed intent on missing the mark. Aside from the album’s standout track “Hang ’Em All,” Walk It Off seemed unable to capture what The Loon did.

It lacked that same freshness, that same energy that the band was somehow able to bottle on its first album. The band no longer offered its sparse yet frenzied melodies that helped each song gleam. Each song purged on gluttonous arrangements and instruments, an indulgent examination of what the band should have done with a major-label budget. And so Tapes 'n Tapes became another victim of hype — so much promise, but so much pressure. And it fell to the wayside, for better or worse.

Now, the band’s 2011 effort, Outside, finds Tapes 'n Tapes trying to get back to basics. Abandoning the ambitious approach it took on Walk It Off, the band has instead embraced the stripped-down arrangements and instrumentation that made The Loon such a gem. Album opener “Badaboom” sounds like a song that could easily fit somewhere on The Loon, with its sporadic drumbeat, simple guitar riff, and pop melody. The Tropicália-esque “One In The World” evokes eccentricities that, given the popular music climate, might be likened to the sound of the much less quirky and over-hyped Vampire Weekend. “SMW” is more accessible than anything on its debut. And “The Saddest of All Keys” finds singer Josh Grier channeling his inner Black Francis — a tendency so precious when the band first got its start.

A majority of the songs are driven by DIY rock basics — guitar, bass, and drums. These are the moments when the band is at its best. While there are a few adornments of keyboards, organ, and horns, Tapes 'n Tapes is more than willing to keep things simple and keep things moving. (There are, however, a few instances when the album slows down that just seem useless; “Hidee Ho” neutralizes the raucous energy that “The Saddest of All Keys” so energetically built up.) But for the most part, Tapes 'n Tapes rediscovers what made it such a big deal in the first place.

To be fair, though, the band isn’t trying to put out another Loon. Though the attempt to reconnect with what worked might be at the heart of this album, it’s apparent that Outside is full of a matured, wiser musicality. The band’s brash youthfulness isn’t as apparent as it was on its debut, but it usually works to the band’s advantage; an older, more experienced Tapes 'n Tapes is at the helm.

With that “new for the sake of being new” buzz out of the way, the band has placed its focus on the songs themselves in an attempt to construct something that goes beyond youthful indifference. This not be the return to form that some fans were hoping for, but it is the evolution of a band that has seen both success and disappointment, and is content with the way it is now — whether others like it or not.

Download the podcast for This Week’s Best Albums: November 16, 2010 and subscribe to This Week’s Best Albums for free with iTunes.

Stream the podcast for This Week's Best Albums: November 16, 2010.

Black Francis: The Golem

Black Francis: "Miriam and Florian"

In 2008, the iconic Pixies frontman Black Francis — a.k.a. Frank Black — was invited by the San Francisco International Film Festival to write a score for The Golem: How He Came into the World, the classic 1920 silent film and prequel to the 1915 film The Golem.  Black took the challenge, performing an hour-and-a-half of material as a live accompaniment, and earlier this year, he released a limited edition of the music alongside a DVD.

Now the quirky singer/songwriter is self-releasing most of the music individually, reordering it, and billing it as a rock opera.  Most of the material remains unaltered from its earlier recorded forms — the biggest difference, largely, is that this pairs down the reprises and extra song versions.

The music is easily recognized as Black Francis, but it establishes a playful, campy vibe thanks to harpsichord, saxophone, bass clarinet, and flute parts as well as string melodies that are played in reverse.  The challenge, ultimately, was a success, and The Golem shows a new side to an already multifaceted musician.

Jesu: Heart Ache & Dethroned (Hydra Head)

Jesu: "Annul"

Multi-instrumentalist Justin K. Broadrick has been involved in many boundary-crossing industrial, metal, and electronic bands — including Godflesh, Techno Animal, and Final — but these days, he's best known for his post-metal/shoe-gaze work as Jesu (and its electronic offshoot, Pale Sketcher).

Jesu's debut came back in 2004 with the Heart Ache EP, which presented two behemoth 20-minute tracks that were slow and doomy yet covered a lot of sonic territory.  Now Hydra Head Records has re-released Heart Ache and packaged it with a new EP of unreleased material, called Dethroned.

Much of the Dethroned EP was written and recorded in 2004, but Broadrick didn’t complete it until this year, and it better resembles the newer Jesu material – more concise, with seven-minute tracks instead of those 20-minute beasts.  The stylistic changes on Dethroned are a little more self-contained within each song, and though it still has heavy, occasionally chugging riffs, Broadrick’s vocals are more pronounced and airier, at times sounding vocoded.

Though Jesu only has three full-length albums since 2004, Broadrick's output under this name is expansive, and this is just the latest in a lengthy series of EPs.  Jesu fans already know the story, but because this is now packaged with Heart Ache, it presents a good starting point for the uninitiated.

Harmonious Bec: Her Strange Dreams (Monotreme)

Harmonious Bec: "Progress"

With members who go by ZaMaRoo and From Vapor to Water, Harmonious Bec is a relatively mysterious Japanese duo that makes exotic, far-reaching IDM.  Her Strange Dreams is the duo's debut, and it's a marvelous first effort.

The material is packed with hyperactive melodies, glitchy cut-ups, atmospheric effects, and sporadic dissonance.  Everything is cohesive, but from track to track, Her Strange Dreams is liable to take sharp turns.  "Funny Hierophant" combines massive drum-and-bass beats with glockenspiel and a harp-like instrument; "Shunrai" adds a quivering sample over a pretty piano line and a hip-hop beat; "Solitary Bonze Prayer" is a senses-altering journey through chopped-up vocal clips.

When put together, it channels more than a dozen electronic sub-genres — it builds upon some of the best genre-smashing artists that electronic music has to offer, such as Aphex Twin.  Undoubtedly, Her Strange Dreams is one of the best electronic releases of the year.

Serengeti & Polyphonic: Bells and a Floating World (Anticon)

Most known around their home base of Chicago, Serengeti and Polyphonic are a pair of unorthodox indie hip-hoppers who jumped to Anticon with their second LP, Terradactyl, in 2009.

Each has his hands in many forward-thinking releases.  Serengeti is particularly prolific, with too many projects and characters to list here.  (One such character, a sports-loving super fan, will be reprised on a forthcoming release with Anticon's Jel and Odd Nosdam.)

Bells and a Floating World, essentially, is a pair of combined EPs — six tracks of new material and six remixes featuring Why?, Jel, Son Lux, and others.  In the new material, Polyphonic's electro-classical style is every bit as vital as Serengeti's spoken-word musings and off-beat rhymes.

There are many great entry points to discover either artist, and listeners interested in this collaboration should start with Terradactyl.  After that, however, get this extra dose of strangeness and hear a few older tracks in a new way.

TOMO: Butterfly Dream and Other Guitar Works (Subvalent)

TOMO: "Carnival in Full Bloom"

TOMO – an acronym for Transcendental Organic Magical Objective — is a multi-instrumentalist and native of Japan who spent his late teens in Missouri, where he learned a bunch of folk-based styles of music (including blues, country, bluegrass, ragtime, and Dixieland jazz).  In addition to the guitar, he became proficient in the oud, saz, sitar, banjo, violin, hurdy gurdy, and more, and he later returned to Tokyo, where he picked up Middle Eastern and Indian techniques.

And if that weren't enough, he also is proficient with the saxophone, his instrument of choice in psychedelic improv trio Tetragrammaton.

Butterfly Dream and Other Guitar Works is TOMO's newest solo album.  There are scores of beautiful folk melodies, often care of super-fast finger-picking, and many tracks contain Eastern undertones as well as the hazy drone of the hurdy gurdy.  Ranging from slide-guitar blues to an Indian raga to a European waltz, the material is beautiful, intricate, and multicultural.

Soviet League: s/t (Angel Oven)

Soviet League: "Shylight"

Singer/songwriters Ben Eshbach and Matthew Kelly have a history in the LA underground, respectively fronting indie-rock bands The Sugarplastic and The Autumns.  By combining forces a few years ago, however, the two may have created something even better than what they've done individually — leading to a dense and masterful indie opus.

With the help of countless guest musicians, their new project, Soviet League, presents 12 meticulously crafted tracks, tapping into orch-pop, electronica, and Western music.  There are oodles of pretty guitar tones, big bass tones, and overabundant harmonies.  With the guest instruments, the music routinely crosses into baroque pop; there’s plenty of pizzicato strings, horns, marimba, glockenspiel, organ, and whistling.

Certain tracks, naturally, are denser than others.  "Row," the album's opener, is a lighthearted rock romp, whereas "All the Sailors Wave Goodbye" is a complex exhibition of classical technique.  Most of the album falls somewhere between these ends of the spectrum, and the music will appeal to both casual and hardcore music lovers.

The Soviet League debut threatens to be one of the best indie-rock albums of 2010.  No matter your tastes, if you love pop music, you’ll love this.

Honorable Mentions

Ranjit Barot: Bada Boom (Abstract Logix)

Ches Smith & These Arches: Finally Out of My Hands (Skirl)

Norah Jones: …Featuring Norah Jones (Blue Note)

Lavinia: There is Light Between Us (The Mylene Sheath)

Stereolab: Not Music (Drag City)

Bjørn Torske: Kokning (Smalltown Supersound)

Tera Melos: Patagonian Rats (Sargent House)

Due to limited touring, a shuffling lineup, and shorter releases, eccentric math-rock trio Tera Melos has kept an undeservedly low profile.

Nevertheless, the group garnered acclaim for its progressive prowess and unconventionality — first with an untitled full-length debut and then a split EP with By the End of Tonight, a separate 2007 EP, and a 2009 covers EP that deconstructed pop tunes by the Beach Boys, Pixies, Weezer, and The Clash.

Along the journey, guitarist/keyboardist Nick Reinhart experimented with vocals, tucking them in and around his maniacal but hook-tinged riffs.  The cover EP, Idioms Vol. 1, furthered the vocal presence, but Reinhart really perfected his delivery in Bygones, his wild rock collaboration with Hella's Zach Hill.

With Reinhart's newly sharpened vocal chops and a new tech-pop balance, Patagonian Rats marks the true arrival of Tera Melos.  The album lands somewhere between the band's old schizophrenic yet directed mayhem and the mathy yet melodic accessibility of Bygones.  The chaos is carefully controlled, erupting at opportune moments or manifesting itself in layers of outlandishness.

The entire album is rooted in a punk energy, however, powered by spastic drums, guitar noodling, and driving bass distortions.  With the addition of a touring fourth member, Tera Melos should be more accurately reenacting these songs on stage, which should be even more outstanding than listening to Patagonian Rats.

Tera Melos: "Skin Surf"

Tera Melos: "Frozen Zoo"

Kurt Rosenwinkel & OJM: Our Secret World (WOM Music)

Like so many other jazz greats, guitarist and bandleader Kurt Rosenwinkel has a credit sheet as long as his arm, spanning 10 of his own albums and dozens of recordings with others.  And though a decent chunk of his personal catalog is built on standards, his previous releases have offered plenty of material for Our Secret World, a dynamic collection of big-band renditions as interpreted by the Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos (OJM).

With the ensemble's backing, each selection is capable of being sultry, somber, powerful, or all of the above.  No matter what, however, two constants remain: Rosenwinkel's songwriting skills and his electric jazz-fusion chops.

Hip-hop fans may know Rosenwinkel's name from his work on recent/unreleased Q-Tip albums The Renaissance and Kamaal the Abstract, and Q-Tip, in fact, co-produced Heartcore, Rosenwinkel's eclectic 2003 album that mixed jazz, electronica, soul, and more.  Though Our Secret World isn't as diverse, it again proves how multifaceted and expressive Rosenwinkel's writing is and can be, and it's a great album for those new to jazz.

Sam Prekop: Old Punch Card (Thrill Jockey)

Sam Prekop is best known as the singer/songwriter from The Sea and Cake, a soft, quirky indie-pop group whose members include Archer Prewitt as well as John McEntire of Tortoise.  In his solo career, Prekop hasn't strayed too far from this sound, but he has infused bits of Brazilian and African influence along the way.

Old Punch Card, his third solo album and first since 2005, explores an entirely new direction — one of experimental, formless electronics and melodic loops.  The album is built around different sounds from a modular synthesizer, and it is devoid of vocals, guitars (except for one track), and beats.

Long-standing fans of Prekop may be perplexed, but it's an interesting twist to a career that's been built on pop hooks.  Old Punch Card has little latch-able material for pop enthusiasts (save for a few loops and unorthodox melodies), but it's a strong electronic album, cut in the mold of forebears like Morton Subotnick and Raymond Scott.

Sam Prekop: "Old Punch Card"

Honorable Mentions

The Acorn: No Ghost (Bella Union)

Arp: The Soft Wave (Smalltown Supersound)

Blue Sky Black Death & Alexander Chen: Third Party (Fake Four)

Constants: If Tomorrow the War (Science of Silence)

Helmet: Seeing Eye Dog (Work Song)

Neurosis: Live at Roadburn 2007 (Neurot)

Quest for Fire: Lights from Paradise (Tee Pee)

Sungod: First Matter (Cyclopean)

The Thermals: Personal Life (Kill Rock Stars)

Winter Gloves: All Red (Paper Bag)

Now available on iTunes, the debut album of Kenan Bell is remarkable for many reasons.

Most importantly, Bell's presentation of live-band, indie- and electro-inspired hip hop is a unique blend of rhymes and style. However, Bell's young career is just as noteworthy for other reasons — namely that he's a former grade-school language-arts teacher who has achieved a remarkable level of buzz without the presence of an established label.

His EPs and remixes (including rapping over Pink Floyd and Peter, Bjorn & John) are a minor Internet sensation, and the acclaim has led to a featured song in the NBA 2k10 video game — all before his debut has become available.

The buzz is deserved, however, as Bell's band eschews samples to blend melodic guitars and buzzing bass lines with synthesizers and fat beats. His verses often riff on the same rhyme, but his flow and originality prevent things from going stale.

Bell says that he makes hip hop for people who “know their Basquiat as well as their basketball,” and he's as quick to reference Bo Diddly as Dungeons & Dragons. Some will tie his success to the ascension of indie rap, but regardless, Bell's popularity seems destined to continue growing.

Kenan Bell: "TGIF" (featuring Aceyalone)
Kenan Bell: \"TGIF\" (featuring Aceyalone)

Daniel Bernard Roumain: Woodbox Beats & Balladry (Thirsty Ear)

Haitian-American violinist Daniel Bernard Roumain is a man of myriad talents, combining classical training with rapid-fire rock beats, DJ scratches, electronics, and funky bass lines.

Though his "highbrow" pieces can be dramatic, orchestral affairs, Roumain accurately portrays his music as "more to do with Prince than (Niccolò) Paganini," and his résumé includes seemingly incongruous credits such as commissions by Carnegie Hall and an arrangement of a Lady Gaga song for American Idol.

Roumain has hooked up a few times with DJ Spooky, most recently at the Vancouver Olympics, and he has worked with other famed composers such as Philip Glass and Ryuichi Sakamoto. These great musicians surely seek Roumain's technical talents, but his compositional skills are just as special.

Woodbox Beats & Balladry is a highly dynamic album, calling upon elements of IDM, piano balladry, and Vernon Reid-style wailing on top of Roumain's standard amalgamation. It's an outstanding album whose adventurousness perfectly fits the 21st Century.

Daniel Bernard Roumain: "Sonata for Violin and Turntables, Part 4"
Daniel Bernard Roumain: \"Sonata for Violin and Turntables, Part 4\"

Black Francis: Nonstoperotik (Cooking Vinyl)

In 2007, indie-rock icon Charles Thompson — best known as Frank Black — reverted to his original Pixies stage name to release Bluefinger, a solo album inspired by Dutch musician and artist Herman Brood.

Since that time, Thompson has remained busy in many ways, including more dates with the reunited Pixies (as well as plans to record a long-awaited fifth album). He released a solo EP and created a score for The Golem, and Nonstoperotik — perhaps surprisingly — is his first full-length since Bluefinger.

Like the title, much of the lyrical content is blatantly sexual, though much of the musical backdrop does not convey a typically erotic or sensual sound. The results of Thompson's straightforward vocals are mixed, and pretty tracks such as "Rabbits" seem more suited to be instrumentals.

At other times, Black's voice reflects a passionate yearning, such as in the driving rock sounds of "Dead Man's Curve." The eponymous track is a gentle piano and string ballad, and accompanying instruments crop up throughout the disc — one that, like previous efforts, may create mixed feelings among Black Francis fans.

Black Francis: "Dead Man's Curve"
Black Francis: \"Dead Man\'s Curve\"

Mulatu Astatke: Mulatu Steps Head (Strut)

Dubbed the "father of Ethio-jazz," composer Mulatu Astatke came to prominence in the 1960s, helping to usher in an intercontinental fusion of genres.

Last year, Astatke garnered rave reviews for his collaboration with The Heliocentrics, a UK collective led by percussionist Malcolm Catto that concocts funky, trippy hip-hop pastiches. The pairing was outstanding, but Mulatu Steps Ahead — Astatke's first solo album in more than 20 years — is no less skilled, only different stylistically.

His instrument of choice is the vibraphone, and though the glistening mallet instrument takes the lead with aplomb when necessary, it is far from being the focal point of Mulatu Steps Ahead. Smoky brass motifs and cool woodwind solos are accentuated with piano chords and intermittent fiddling, and the disc never loses its jazzy, funky feel.

Different instruments, such as the West African kora, make cameos, but no matter the orchestration, Astatke finds a way to make it graceful and collected.

Mulatu Astatke: "Green Africa"
Mulatu Astatke: \"Green Africa\"

Honorable Mentions

Deru: Say Goodbye to Useless (Mush)

(Jedi Mind Tricks presents) Army of the Pharaohs: The Unholy Terror (Enemy Soil)

Tomasz Stanko Quintet: Dark Eyes (ECM)

Blue Ribbon Glee Club, Grun-Tu-Molani, Leaves @ The Empty Bottle

Have you ever wondered how it would feel to hear Fugazi's "Waiting Room" sung a'cappella by 30-some people, with little more than a back beat to keep it going?

The Blue Ribbon Glee Club, a punk-inspired makeshift choir, tackles that and other independent and mainstream rock classics, including selections from Pixies, Dead Kennedys, the Clash, and David Bowie. The result is a rollicking good time.

Melodic, down-tempo jazz/rock quartet Leaves opens this show at the Empty Bottle. Leaves features a pair of regulars in Chicago's avant-garde music community, saxophonist Charles Gorczynski (Silences Sumire) and drummer Charles Rumback, both of whom participate in Colorlist, an ambient assortment of electronic and jazz influences.

Grun-Tu-Molani also performs, mixing slow brass instrumentation with synthesizers, distant guitar effects, and deceptively laid-back beats.

Hard-hitting jazz trio The Bad Plus knows how to pen pieces of proprietary gold. But its three members are also known for their genre-leaping renditions of rock songs, propelled by the chops of pianist Ethan Iverson, bassist Reid Anderson, and drummer David King. Here are the group's ten best covers (in order of release).

1. Nirvana: "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (These Are the Vistas)

This cover of Nirvana's massive hit features super-scaling runs and occasionally dissonant harmonies from Anderson in one of the final choruses. It ends brilliantly with the quick piano tinkling of Cobain's famed bridge: "And I forget just what it takes, and yet I guess it makes me smile. I found it hard; it's hard to find. Oh well, whatever…never mind."

2. Aphex Twin: "Flim" (These Are the Vistas)

The original version of "Flim" caught some listeners off guard on the Come to Daddy EP, what with its pretty piano line that evoked thoughts of Willy Wonka's "Pure Imagination." This rendition brings Richard D. James' IDM beats to life under the melodic synchronization of Iverson and Anderson.

3. Ornette Coleman: "Street Woman" (Give)

Coming as a rare occasion, The Bad Plus cover a fellow artist in its genre – and a revered one at that. Originally from Coleman's 1971 album Science Fiction, "Street Woman" is bouncy, heavy, cheerful, and threatening – all while skillfully alternating rhythms.

4. Pixies: "Velouria" (Give)

If you're not looking at the track listing to Give, you'll have no idea that you're hearing a Pixies song until near the two-minute mark. This version begins soft and somber, spreading out Charles Thompson's melody over King's distant jingling and tapping. After the early minutes of building, King breaks into a rock beat for some of Iverson's mean improvisation.

5. Black Sabbath: "Iron Man" (Give)

After you hear The Bad Plus' rendition of "Iron Man," you won't go back. Far heavier than the original, this version cracks into full gear when Iverson's low notes thunder over his down-trickling scales, which come raining ominously from the intro. Iverson again grabs the attention over King's heavy beats, layering together chordal harmonies of Tony Iommi's famous progression. For the outro, the group employs a gentle quarter-time interpretation of the original's awesome ending.

6. "(Theme From) Chariots of Fire" (Suspicious Activity?)

Anderson's grooving bass line clashes nicely as Iverson brings in the song's inspirational melody. A free-jazz breakdown follows before Iverson resumes the theme over wildness from the rhythm section.

7. Radiohead: "Karma Police" (Exit Music: Songs with Radio Heads)

Soft brush strokes from King lay a delicate setting for the trio's homage to Radiohead. After some loose rhythms under the main melody, the song gets huge when the piano returns with Thom Yorke's "for a minute there…I lost myself" vocal theme. Iverson also handles the original's walking bass line while King plays freeform beats.

8. Rush: "Tom Sawyer" (Prog)

The poster child for radio-friendly prog rock, "Tom Sawyer" gets one of the most "authentic" replications from The Bad Plus. Iverson and Anderson trade off handling Geddy Lee's vocals on their respective instruments, but they can't hold out forever – like clockwork, the tune punches in an improvised break before resuming its course.

9. Burt Bacharach / Hal David: "This Guy's in Love With You" (Prog)

Faith No More also presented a live cover of this chart-topping Herb Alpert song, and though this can't quite compare to one with Mike Patton's emotive vocals, it's just as sensitive as both versions. Randomly, it closes with a quick reprise of the main rhythm from "Physical Cities," an original Bad Plus tune that comes earlier on Prog.

10. Neil Young: "Heart of Gold"

Without a released recording of Neil Young's classic hit, The Bad Plus saves "Heart of Gold" for concertgoers. It often begins with an abstract intro and ends with the three joining together for a harmonized a cappella chorus.

– Scott Morrow

The Bad Plus: www.thebadplus.com
Heads Up International: www.headsup.com