Download the podcast for This Week’s Best Albums: January 25, 2011 and subscribe to This Week’s Best Albums for free with iTunes.

Stream the podcast for This Week's Best Albums: January 25, 2011.
This Week\'s Best Albums: January 25, 2011

John Vanderslice with The Magik*Magik Orchestra: White Wilderness (Dead Oceans)

John Vanderslice with The Magik*Magik Orchestra: "Sea Salt"

White Wilderness, the newest full-length from John Vanderslice, is a first for the indie singer/songwriter, recorded in collaboration with Minna Choi and The Magik*Magik Orchestra.  A malleable ensemble that bills itself as a “modular orchestra” of 18-35 people, the MMO performed live with Vanderslice a few years ago, and it has a résumé that includes collaborations with lots of other great rock and neoclassical musicians, including Jonny Greenwood, Tin Hat Trio, Hauschka, and Ben Johnston.

The group's addition here has really elevated Vanderslice’s material, which now breathes with a cinematic quality while backed by string, horn, and percussion sections. The material is replete with spare, delicate moments of respite — the result of Choi’s adaptable arrangements.   From its stirring and delicate opener, "Sea Salt," White Wilderness is an incredibly layered album that shows the depth of Vanderslice’s writing.

Phil Manley: Life Coach (Thrill Jockey)

Phil Manley: "Make Good Choices"

As a founding member of post-rock/dance-punk trio Trans Am – and as a recording engineer and member of The Fucking Champs and Oneida – guitarist Phil Manley has become endeared to fans and fellow musicians alike.  Now, after two decades of work, he has released his first solo album, Life Coach, and it’s unlike anything that he’s done prior.

The music, by and large, is a group of long-form instrumentals that build and swell with loops, effects, and overdubs.  Both electric and steel-string acoustic guitars are at the fore, with a handful of synthesizers and a touch of drum machine in the background.  Life Coach showcases both technical talent and melodic musicianship, and in the process, it reveals a side of Manley not frequently seen in his other projects.

Andre Afram Asmar: Harmonic Emergency (Mush)

Andre Afram Asmar: “Onward Farword”

Back in 2003 and 2004, Palestinian-American dub musician Andre Afram Asmar made waves for his unorthodox blend of hip hop, reggae, and Middle Eastern music. His debut for Mush Records and his subsequent full-length collaboration with MC Circus garnered critical acclaim, and Asmar made other notable associations, including work with rappers Busdriver and AWOL One and reggae singer Majek Fashek.

But as he was preparing for a big tour in late 2004, Asmar suffered a serious brain aneurysm, and his recovery since that time has been a slow and arduous process.  As a result of the aneurysm, Asmar lost ability in the left side of his body and lost vision in his left eye.  But he remained undeterred in his musical journey, and he has since had some help to complete Harmonic Emergency, the follow-up to Racetothebottom.

Originally begun being tracked in 2001, Harmonic Emergency is a strange and trippy dub creation, with sung, half-sung, and spoken-word vocals bouncing off rubbery thuds and beats.  Electronics and breakbeats get things moving, and plenty of Middle Eastern melodies and timbres maintain that “world fusion” vibe.

Bruce Lamont: Feral Songs for the Epic Decline (At A Loss)

Bruce Lamont: "2 Then the 3"

From the psych- and jazz-tinged metal band Yakuza, to the industrial homage Circle of Animals, to local improv jams, and even to fronting a touring Led Zeppelin cover band — saxophonist/singer Bruce Lamont has lent his assorted skills to a boatload of notable projects.  Now the multitalented frontman has unveiled his long-stewing solo debut, Feral Songs for the Epic Decline, on At a Loss Recordings.

Composed of seven free-flowing tracks, the album features more acoustic guitar, synthesizer, and unearthly vocals than some might expect.  The album’s foreboding atmospherics are its most consistent attribute, as it unfolds almost as a long-form singer/songwriter experiment.  Dark folk refrains give way to distorted tribal percussion, wailing sax lines, and noise-filled passages, but they’re all united by Lamont’s elongated – and surprisingly potent – chants and croons.

Monotonix: Not Yet (Drag City)

Monotonix: "Give Me More"

Hailing from Tel Aviv, Israel, the garage-rock trio Monotonix has attained surprising amounts of exposure in the Western hemisphere.  Much of that is due to the group’s wild live shows, which have caused consternation at venues in Israel.  As a result, the band hit the road and played hundreds of shows in Europe and America before it even had an EP out in the States.  But clearly, the band has connected with audiences thanks to its loud, raw, and unpolished sound, and now it has released Not Yet, its second full-length album for Drag City Records.

Previously, Monotonix has recorded with American musicians/engineers such as The Fucking Champs’ Tim Green and Shellac’s Steve Albini, and the latter was again tapped for work on Not Yet.  With extra fuzz and low end, it’s another disc of aggressive, straightforward, three-minute rock tunes with wailing, off-pitch vocals and errant solos.  To say that the base riffs are minimalist might be assigning too much complexity to it; some of them are built around just two chords.  But regardless, Not Yet is another musical fireball, achieving its appeal with rock energy rather than expertise.

Talib Kweli: Gutter Rainbows (Javotti Media / Duck Down)

Talib Kweli: "Cold Rain"

Following a handful of underground releases in the mid-‘90s, Talib Kweli burst on the national stage a few years later as part of Black Star, his highly successful hip-hop duo with Mos Def.  The two parted ways after one album, but Kweli went on to countless other collaborations and a series of acclaimed solo efforts. Gutter Rainbows is his fifth and newest solo release – his first since 2007 and first in a long time to be released without the aid of a major label.  It’s out now but only digitally in North America; it’s available elsewhere on CD thanks to Duck Down Records.

Compared to his last album, Eardrum, the music has a much fuller sound while striking a nice balance between soulful, funky, and bassy styles and a harder edge. It doesn’t have the big-name producers of Eardrum – which included Kanye West, Will.I.Am, Pete Rock, and Madlib – but it sounds like a more realized album.  Whether it’s with a diversity of instruments and samples, great backing performances, or just Kweli’s relentless flow, Gutter Rainbows is an exciting addition to his catalog.

Honorable Mentions

Banquet of the Spirits / Cyro Baptista / John Zorn: Caym: The Book of Angels, Vol. 17 (Tzadik)

Bill Frisell and Vinicius Cantuária: Lagrimas Mexicanas (E1)

Charles Bradley: No Time For Dreaming (Daptone)

Caroline: Verdugo Hills (Temporary Residence)

Deerhoof: Deerhoof vs. Evil (Polyvinyl)

Destroyer: Kaputt (Merge)

Ensemble: Excerpts (Fat Cat)

Lia Ices: Grown Unknown (Jagjaguwar)

Iron and Wine: Kiss Each Other Clean (Warner Bros.)

Kodo: Akatsuki (Otodaiku)

Georgia Anne Muldrow: Vweto

Thank You: Golden Worry (Thrill Jockey)

Sidi Touré: Sahel Folk (Thrill Jockey)

Zs: New Slaves Part II: Essence Implosion! (The Social Registry)

Download the podcast for This Week’s Best Albums: November 30, 2010 and subscribe to This Week’s Best Albums for free with iTunes.

Stream the podcast for This Week's Best Albums: November 30, 2010.

God of Shamisen: Smoke Monster Attack

God of Shamisen: "Last Shamisen Master Attack"

Featuring a pair of members from genre annihilators Estradasphere, God of Shamisen is a boundless project of East/West fusion combining heavy metal, improvised Japanese folk, and much more.  The four-piece is led by Kevin Kmetz, a US native who grew up on a military base in Japan and later mastered Tsugaru-shamisen, a striking, percussive style that developed during the late 1800s and early 1900s in the north of the island of Honshu.

The band’s music is built on Kmetz’s mastery of the shamisen, a slender, three-stringed Japanese instrument, but it has drawn the ire of some traditional shamisen masters for adding thrash riffs and rapid-fire metal beats. (Read the band's story in our newest book, Invisible: Overlooked Albums and Unseen Artists, and online here.)

On the band's 2008 debut album, Dragon String Attack, its aggressive blend skips from blast beats to reggae jams to Turkish folk. There are plenty more tangential visits to other styles, but at the band’s heart is the mixture of metal and shamisen.

Smoke Monster Attack, the band's digital-only second release, accentuates that mix. It features a few unreleased originals as well as a handful of video-game and movie covers, including wild renditions of the themes to Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Star Wars. The album was co-produced by Billy Anderson, a brief member of the Melvins who has produced or engineered for dozens of excellent heavy bands, and his presence makes Smoke Monster Attack that much stouter.

Tristeza: Paisajes (Sanity Muffin / Better Looking)

Tristeza: "Newbury"

Over the past 13 years, this highly melodic group of post-rock instrumentalists has released a constant stream of LPs, EPs, and outtakes.  And though Tristeza has slowed in recent years, Paisajes — the band's latest full-length — is another beautiful batch of churning rock tunes.

The group’s lineup has shifted a bit since former member James LaValle left to focus on The Album Leaf, and it has since added and lost a keyboardist. Paisajes is back to the basics, in a sense – at many points, it’s just the harmonic interplay of a reverberated guitar and bass on top of drums. However, there are accents of vibraphone and violin as well as a few funky horn cuts, and the band is billing this as an "album of sound, color, and textures."

No matter the context, Paisajes excels with more pretty rock instrumentals — recorded, notably, by Tim Green of The Fucking Champs, helping recapture some of the vibe of the band’s classic album Spine & Sensory.

Locrian: The Crystal World (Utech)

Locrian: "The Crystal World"

Not to be confused with the metal band of the same name, this Locrian is the dark noise duo-turned-trio from Chicago that has released dreary, droning, long-form experimental soundscapes.  The Crystal World is the group’s first album as a trio, and though it still builds slowly and is noisy and dark, it’s Locrian’s most palatable release yet for casual listeners.

Also sharing its name with the Locrian musical mode, which is built on tension and dissonance, the group has added more live instrumentation to make what might be the most melodic, accessible, and structured of its releases.  The Crystal World is, at times, essentially a cousin of brooding post-rock and horror-score atmospherics, but it walks a fine balance between order and chaos.  In all, it’s another evolution of a band that’s still coming into its own.

Honorable Mentions

King Cannibal: The Way of the Ninja (Ninja Tune)

Jason Stein’s Locksmith Isidore: Three Kinds of Happiness (Not Two Records)

Debashish Bhattacharya

With his second album in 14 months, Indian slide-guitar master Debashish Bhattacharya issues his take on musical adaptations of the mythological Hindu figure Shakuntala.  Using one of his twangy, self-made creations, Bhattacharya mixes Hindustani and Karnatic music in a style that, at times, distantly resembles Western slide music.

Debashish Bhattacharya: "Chahat"

Debashish Bhattacharya: \"Chahat\"

Sleep: Hesitation Wounds (Strange Famous)

A co-founder of hip-hop collective Oldominion, emcee Sleep has made a name for himself in the Pacific Northwest with high-energy, quick-tongued rhymes, diverse samples, and an often-downbeat sound.  This follow-up to his 2005 LP Christopher is his debut on Sage Francis' Strange Famous label, and it features guest spots by Del tha Funky Homosapien and Grayskul.

Obvious disclaimer: this Sleep is unrelated to the über-heavy stoner-metal group of the same name.

Amber Asylum: Bitter River (Profound Lore)

This vocally driven neoclassical project is led by multi-instrumentalist Kris Force, a Gothically inspired songstress with no relation to ALARM head honcho Chris Force.

A pairing of cello and violin roots Bitter River in a brooding, eerie minimalism, which is completed with Force's powerful range.  Previous Amber Asylum contributors have included Steve Von Till (Neurosis) and Tim Green (The Fucking Champs); the group's current collaborators include Eric Wood (Bastard Noise / Man is the Bastard), Jackie Perez-Gratz (Giant Squid), Leila Abdul-Rauf (Saros), and more.

Amber Asylum: "Bitter River"

Amber Asylum: \"Bitter River\"

Monotonix is on its fifth American tour, says singer Ami Shalev in his thick Israeli accent. He can’t say that anything specifically odd has happened on this stretch of dates; it’s not like the last 65-show tour when the three-year-old band met up with the Fucking Champs’ Tim Green in California to record one song that turned into Monotonix’s six-song EP Body Language. On that tour, the trio spent three days traveling from the studio to perform around California and visit musical friend and band idol Ayal Nistor. The band was already 40 stops into the jaunt when it went into the recording studio.

The oddest part of this tour is not really odd at all; it’s just something Shalev noticed while playing post-Katrina New Orleans. “When we’re driving, we’re always looking for the cheapest gas,” he begins. “So we see that this one sign is $1.00 a gallon. We say, ‘All right, we’re going to fill up the car. We’re going to fill up everything: water bottles, tank, everything.’ We drive up to the gas station, and it looked like it hadn’t been open in three years—trash everywhere. It looked like a Mad Max scene.”

When Shalev recounts the details, he often pauses for story effect. But one also gets the sense that he is being careful to not offend anyone. On stage, Shalev does everything he can to excite a crowd. In fact, he’s often caught in photographs midstage dive and drenched in fans’ beers. Off stage, Shalev is reserved and cautious.

"You can't make or do music in Israel without being touched by some other kind of music. That's the reason why everything doesn't have its own direction. Right now, people are beginning to understand that you have to do it in your way."

The last thing Monotonix wants to be is known as “that Israeli band.” Aside from their visceral, hedonistic live shows—wherein Monotonix members have been known to leap into crowds, hang from ceiling rafters, moon audiences, and dump full garbage cans over their heads—their nationality is the most talked-about aspect among American fans, but the one they are least likely to bring up in conversation. Responses must be obtained through a circuitous route before ending on the question of whether or not Israel is, indeed, metal Mecca, as it’s often portrayed.

“I don’t think the metal scene is relatively big. It’s just a metal scene,” guitarist Yonatan Gat says.

“But there is a metal scene,” drummer Haggai “Gever” Fershtman adds.

“Compared to the mainstream scene, it’s not so big,” Shalev interjects. “But compared to the indie-rock scene, it’s bigger.”

The trio’s native city, Tel Aviv, is the second largest in Israel. With a population roughly the size of Provo, Utah, a penchant for modern art, and a technology-refurbished economy, it’s considered the country’s cultural capitol. These elements would seem to aid collaborations between musicians both in Tel Aviv and across what is often seen as a difficult-to-cross American pop culture border. But few Tel Aviv, let alone Israeli, bands have achieved the level of Western attention, or perhaps notoriety, that Monotonix has received. The trouble may be most Americans’ limited knowledge and support of non-Western rock bands, but it may also be the lack of supportive infrastructure within Israel for rock bands like Monotonix.

“In Israel, because the scene is so small—nobody can go anywhere—and it’s very secluded, geographically and culturally, people are less supportive of each other,” Gat says. “It’s a more competitive situation. But it’s been getting better. People are becoming more aware of what’s going on in the outside world, how small the scene is, and what needs to be done in order to get good bands out there and get a good scene going.” Though optimistic, when Gat refers to things getting better, he specifies with modifying phrases like “in the past five years.”

A lot has happened in the last five years in the Israeli indie music scene, including Monotonix favorite My Second Surprise (an Ayal Nistor project) receiving MTV video play and making an appearance at 2007’s SXSW and the rise of cross-genre bands like Tel Aviv’s The Genders.

Occurrences like this not only seeded the ground for a band like Monotonix, but also for Shalev’s prior project as vocalist for noise-rock trio Mono Addicted Acid Man (with first Monotonix drummer Ran Shimoni, who was known for his pyrotechnical stunts on previous Monotonix tours), Fershtman’s coinciding project as drummer for indie rock trio Ex Lion Tamer (he’s also a trained jazz and African drummer who is often referred to as the “hardest working drummer in Israel”), and Gat’s previous work as bassist for Israeli punk band Punkache and present solo work as an acoustic singer-songwriter. Nevertheless, supportive audiences, venues, and recognition didn’t come until these bands toured outside of Israel, as many Israeli bands attested at the 2006 CMJ showcase.

“The mainstream, the indie — it’s all mixed together,” Shalev says. “It’s not separated. You can’t make or do music in Israel without being touched by some other kind of music. That’s the reason why everything doesn’t have its own direction. Right now, people are beginning to understand that you have to do it in your way.”

“There’s also this thing where, in Israel, if you sing in Hebrew you’re more likely to get attention from the media.” Fershtman adds. “If you sing in English, you’re going to stay unknown, because the media doesn’t support English bands.”

Gat agrees, adding, “If you sing in English, people will frown upon you in a way, and there will be less of a chance that you’ll be played on radio. But we were never interested in getting to Israeli media. Our kind of music will never get there. Israeli radio is kind of soft rock.”

However dominant Hebrew pop radio is perceived to be by the Israeli indie music scene, all three members note that the cultural differences are deeper than just available venues and other supportive band structures. There’s also the issue of music sensibilities. Monotonix are heavy on guitar solos, driving beats, and noise rock-influenced vocals. Their sound has been labeled everything from classic rock revival to gutter-garage. Monotonix is comfortable with the label of performance art rock band, a genre that may be perceived as idiosyncratic to the majority of Israelis, particularly because of Monotonix’s emphasis on what the band says are its “party” sentiments.

“It’s kind of weird,” Gat says. “Israeli mentality is very open and loud, but the music they like is very sad minor-key songs, like the suffering of the Jews or something—I’m just kidding, but you get my drift.”

“It’s not a joke,” Shalev adds. “In Israel, our music doesn’t fit the mentality—and I’m being serious right now—people in Israel don’t have the tradition of getting a real party [together]. People in Israel get a party together just to run away from things. Israel is…a mellow country.”

“Did you say ‘mellow country’?” Gat asks. “But if you go to bars and stuff, it’s pretty crazy.”

“Like trance parties,” Fershtman interjects.

“But it’s not a way of life,” Shalev argues. “It’s more like escapism. In Israel, music is escapism.”

“Rock music is escapism,” Gat counters, adding, “For Israelis— I’m talking about the mentality; I’m not trying to generalize—sad songs about heartbreak or suffering, that’s all people like to hear. It’s very different from [the United States]. I once heard an interview with someone—I don’t remember who, someone from an American band talking about a single from his band not making it—and he said, ‘Yeah, they told me to choose an upbeat song. But I had to choose this sad song, because I liked it.’ In Israel it’s just the complete opposite. If you want people to like your song, it would be better if you like a sad song or a quiet song.”

This predilection is one of the many reasons why Monotonix looks forward to performing and playing its shows abroad. Many Israeli rock bands have noted that the availability of performance venues, the faster exchange of information, and the larger audience base are elements to make touring the United States a band necessity, despite the long process of visa applications and the red tape some bands encounter once they arrive.

Monotonix’s live-show enthusiasm also elicits an audience response that isn’t often accessible in Israel’s indie music scene. The excitability factor of American audiences is particularly something they always take away from touring the United States.

“We just want people to feel free and let go and do whatever they want,” Gat says. “In the beginning, when we played in front of nobody or we played in front of five people, we could run around the room and do whatever. But now we get to some places that when we get there—even before we play—we feel that people really want to go crazy. The audience is already going insane for us. We just have to stand there and give the energy and play our songs.”