Author: ernopepper

673. Žibuoklė Martinaitytė

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(September 2025) Episode 673 is  ŽIBOUKLĖ MARTINAITYTĖ. At this point deep into the Project, there aren’t many artists that WOW me anymore. So it is an uplifting surprise when I discover one. Žibuoklė Martinaitytė WOWed me. She is a Lithuanian classical composer who creates works that use tension and layers that transport you to unsettling, haunting and dynamic spaces. I’m not enough of a musicologist to be able to label it, but I’ve listened to enough contemporary ‘classical’ artists to say that there is an identifiable style with common elements among several 21st century (mostly women) composers* (call it post-post-minimalism?). And Žibuoklė Martinaitytė is among them. I love her work. And I hope to dig deeper into this field.

Favorite piece: Saudade

Favorite orchestral piece: Sielunmaisema

Favorite orchestral piece: Chant des Voyelles

Favorite album: Hadal Zone

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: Start out with any of the pieces above. She has several CD-length recordings that are good compilations, including Horizons, In Search of Lost Beauty… and Ex Tenebris Lux

* Caroline Shaw, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Anna Clyne, Julia Wolfe, Michael Gordon, David Lang, Anna Thorvaldsdóttir, among others.         

672. Rhiannon Giddens

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(August 2025) Episode 672 of the “opus project” is RHIANNON GIDDENS. It is both impossible and unfair to apply a simple label to her music. It’s folk unbounded by convention, Americana unlimited by geography, and old-timey music beyond mere reinterpretation. On All the Pretty Horses she brings in British/Irish folk elements; on the two albums with Francesco Turrisi, Italian songs. Freedom Highway explores the African-American experience. You’re the One is more pop, while on What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow, Giddens returns to her fiddle & banjo roots. And she co-wrote an opera (Omar) with Michael Abels. I covered is just the listed solo work; there is a multitude of collaborations beyond. Whatever the style, it’s usually an interesting listen. My one fault is that her strong voice can tend to overpower songs that recommend a softer touch.

Favorite song: Freedom Highway

Favorite song: At the Purchaser’s Option

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: Freedom Highway is the strongest album, but There Is No Other and They’re Calling Me Home (both with Turrisi) are the most interesting.

671. Sonny Boy Williamson

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(August 2025) Episode 671 is SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON. This is John Lee Curtis Williamson, now known to historians as Sonny Boy Williamson I to distinguish from a contemporary who used the same name.  He’s known for popularizing the harmonica (blues harp) as an essential blues instrument. His recording career in the 1930s and 40s was relatively short due to his murder at a young age. But it’s a solid collection of Chicago-style blues punctuated by his harmonica skills.

Favorite song: Good Morning Little School Girl

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: A classic acoustic blues sound.

670. The Spinners

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(August 2025) Episode 670 is THE SPINNERS. They started out as an R&B vocal group in Detroit and, naturally, signed to the Motown label. But it wasn’t until the beginning of the 1970s, which they switched to Atlantic, that they found success with hits like “I’ll be Around,” “Could It Be I’m Falling in Love,” and “The Rubberband Man.” It’s not bad but I put them in a lower tier; they lack the groove and funk of many contemporaries. The Spinners are identified with “Philadelphia soul,” marked by lush strong and horn arrangements, which is not my preferred soul/funk sound.

Favorite album: Spinners

Favorite song: The Rubberband Man

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: The albums from 1973-75 are their best work.

669. Glenn Branca

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(August 2025) Episode 669 of the “opus project” is GLENN BRANCA. A shorthand way of describing his work is this what you would get by combining Sonic Youth and Steve Reich. Or minimalism with loud guitars. He came out of the no wave movement (thus the connection to SY) and became known for composing in conventional form (13 symphonies) with very unconventional orchestration, such as a full orchestra of amplified, alternately and microtonally tuned guitars. What it produces is a wall of noise, often unsettling to the ear, droning with subtle or negligible shifts in pitch and rhythm. He did experiment with different instruments and had a few vocal tracks. This is not easy listening music, but I find it fascinating.

Favorite album: The Ascension

Favorite song: The Smoke (Guitar Concerto for Arad Evans)

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: Not for everyone, but it may appeal to those with a taste for the avant-garde and experimental.

668. Esoteric

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(August 2025) Episode 668 is ESOTERIC. This is called funeral doom metal. It’s slow, loud, ponderous, and with a growl, but lacks any melody or discernable structure. Each song is a 12-15 minute long dirge. The result is a wall of sound, a cinematic soundtrack of Hell. It certainly produces its intended quality, and I appreciate the audacity of it. But sonically, I prefer the pure straight-out-of-the-speaker sound of traditional doom/metal guitars to what Esoteric is doing. And after a while it all sounds the same.

Favourite album: The Pernicious Enigma

Favourite song: Circle

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: It’s certainly not for everyone. I might find it better as background rather than foreground music.

667. Dwight Yoakam

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(August 2025) Episode 667 is DWIGHT YOAKAM. He emerged in the 1980s as a throwback to the basics of honky tonk and Bakersfield when country music was doing other things. The recent episode on Buck Owens gave me an appreciation of that style, so moving to Yoakam seemed natural. While I didn’t listen to his music back in the day, I did sense that his image was genuine rather than phony. In his 20-some recordings over the years he has shifted his style but always comes back to his roots. He does a respectful job covering others’ songs.

Favorite album: Buenos Noches from a Lonely Room

Favorite song: Guitars, Cadillacs

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: The first three albums seem pretty classic. 2012’s 3 Pears is a good later one.

666. Satan

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(August 2025) Episode 666 is SATAN. Of the many bands in the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, their distinction was being among the fastest, playing a kind of thrash before that label became popularized in the Bay Area.  Even that is not enough, IMO, to get them close to the top tier of NWOBHM. A lot feels rote, and despite the opportunity provided by the name, they never go full evil on lyrics or imagery. Amidst lineup changes, they also recorded as Blind Fury and Pariah, probably trying to avoid stigma in the satanic panic era. They reformed in 2013 with their original singer for several albums which bored me.

Favourite album: Court in the Act

Favourite song: Trial by Fire

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: The first two albums (under the Satan name) have a certain vintage.

665. Joan Baez

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(August 2025) Episode 665 is JOAN BAEZ. For too long I shunned her as a stereotype of the shrill, humorless, righteous folk singer. And while that’s not entirely untrue, the mistake is mine. Getting to know her work has been a pleasure. I especially like her in her early 60s prime with just her guitar and her voice. She did broaden out to include a band and other styles in a six-decade recording career, some of it weak but plenty good. Inseparable from her music and her life is the commitment to social justice and peace, which was the event setting of the one time I saw her in person. She was a vital figure in the 1960s folk revival, and is still speaking up as an activist, and deserves a listen I was too late in giving her.

Favorite album: Joan Baez (1960)

Favorite song: Birmingham Sunday

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: The six, mostly eponymously-named albums between 1960 and 1965.

664. The Electric Prunes

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(August 2025) Episode 664 is THE ELECTRIC PRUNES. After the disappointment of the falsely labeled “psychedelic” music of Episode 662, I needed some OG psychedelia. Thus the Electric Prunes. Their first two albums are quintessential psychedelic garage band material. Their path from there got weird. They were handed over to a producer who had them record a psychedelic Latin Mass, which strangely works, and another religious album released in the band’s name only. They issued one decent late-60s hard rock album before calling it quits. “I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)” was Lenny Kaye’s apt choice to lead off his original Nuggets compilation, setting the tone for that landmark box set and for a genre I adore. Some original members came together in the 21st century for four albums which, by the normally very low standards of decades-later regroupings, weren’t that bad.

Favorite album: The Electric Prunes

Favorite song: I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: The first two albums are delicious psychedelic garage rock.