Category: Episodes

600. Tengger Cavalry

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(September 2024) Episode 600 is TENGGER CAVALRY. As I wrote in the episode on Nine Treasures, heavy metal seems a natural medium for expression of Mongol culture and mythology, similar in a way as it does for Nordic/Viking. And throat-singing and death growl provide similar vocal textures. Tengger Cavalry is fusion of genres and people: it was formed by a Beijing-born man of Mongol-Chinese heritage while a student in New York, and the band included both Mongols and non-Asians. I enjoyed their first couple albums, but after that it seemed to fall into a pattern of a drop-tuned metal riff followed by a melodic string line, repeated over and over. Thus, overall the fusion feels somewhat artificial rather than transformative. I’m going to try other Mongolian folk metal to see if I can find that.

Favorite album: Sunesu Cavalry

Favorite song: Cavalry Folk

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: Sunesu Cavalry is all you need.

599. Arlo Guthrie

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(September 2024) Episode 599 is ARLO GUTHRIE. I read one review that characterized him as a three-time one-hit wonder (“Alice’s Restaurant Massacree,” “Coming into Los Angeles,” “City of New Orleans”), which is both apt and unfair. It’s always a challenge for an artist with a famous last name, and with a voice not unlike Dylan, Arlo Guthrie can never avoid comparisons to the greats. He deserves renown for his own long recording and performing career. But taken as a whole, his songs are Berkshires-based roots music, the basic fare of countless PBS specials, but not so distinctive. I think he would be more enjoyable in concert than on record. He does carry on his father’s social/political themes.

Favorite album: Hobo’s Lullaby

Favorite song: City of New Orleans

Favorite song (original composition): Alice’s Restaurant Massacree

Best late-period album: Mystic Journey

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: a best-of is enough

598. Possessed

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(August 2024) Episode 598 of the “opus project” is POSSESSED. They combined the hyper-speed of emergent thrash metal with punk rock-style growled vocals to form what, in retrospect, some call the first death metal album and band. Helping shape this legacy were their devil lyrics, which were both a cause of and lovely response to the Satanic Panic lunacy of the mid-1980s. Despite exposure by a college roommate, I was not into this stuff at the time, which is a regret. This is good stuff. They regrouped and issued a long-awaited third album in 2019, which is a quality effort.

Favorite album: Seven Churches

Favorite song: The Exorcist

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: All three albums are good, but try the first as an O.G.

597. Bo Diddley

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(August 2024) Episode 597 is BO DIDDLEY. Take just the first eponymous album (a collection of singles); the influence on rock music of those songs is as immeasurable as the number of times they have been covered. There’s the classic “chonk, chonk, chonk… chonk-chonk” rhythm that now bears his name. But also the tremolo, which anticipates the explosion of guitar effects the next decade. His scene was never confined to blues, rock or R&B. He never again had the success of those early records, but he retained fame and recognition. I did enjoy his turn to soul/funk in the early 1970s.

Favorite album: Bo Diddley

Favorite song: Bo Diddley*

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: That first album functions as a greatest hits record..

 * the first trifecta (same artist/album/song) of the Opus Project

596. John Oswald

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(August 2024) Episode 596 is JOHN OSWALD. A Canadian avant-garde composer, he is best known for Plunderphonics, a masterwork of tape editing and sound collage. While sampling existed before and would become standard as an additive within hip hop and other genres, Plunderphonics elevates sampling to the entirety of the art form. It was a sort of Bible to me, as Plunderphonics landed at a time when I was doing my own experiments with mashups on tape. Another notable work is Greyfolded, a collage made from more than 100 recordings of the Grateful Dead’s “Dark Star” over decades. Oswald’s work extends to instrumental avant-garde experimentalism, scores for dance, and other stuff.

Favorite album: Plunderphonics

Favorite song: Power

Favorite non-sample piece: Aparanthesi

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: Plunderphonics is essential; or try its extended compilation Plunderphonics 69/96.

595. The Weeklings

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(August 2024) Episode 595 is THE WEEKLINGS. I was blown away by “Little Tease,” perhaps the best facsimile of 1963 Beatles I’ve ever heard. Who did this? It was the Weeklings, a wholly intentional Beatles homage project led by songwriter, collaborator, and former Styx member Glen Burtnik. And they do homage quite well. Their recordings are a mix of enjoyable songs written in that style and (less enjoyable) covers of second-tier Beatles songs. Like the Rutles, the gold standard of Beatles-imitation, the Weeklings drop little lyrical and musical Beatles references in their songs. But they suffer from what I call the “That Thing You Do” conundrum: a song can be wonderous by perfectly mimicking the structure, harmonies and hooks of a Beatles song, but it suffers from not sounding like one due to modern recording and processing techniques (especially drums). (Of course the Weeklings covered “That Thing You Do.”)

Favorite album: The Weeklings

Favorite song: Little Tease

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: It’s worth checking out how well they imitate the Beatles (generally best on the first album) but there’s not much to keep you after.

594. William Ackerman

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(August 2024) Episode 594 is WILLIAM ACKERMAN. As the founder of the Windham Hill label, Ackerman played a big role in popularizing New Age music (the pastoral side of it). As I mentioned in the George Winston episode, I had a Windham Hill phase in the 1980s, which included Ackerman’s guitar offerings, but hadn’t visited the stuff in decades. Ackerman’s work embodies the duality of New Age music: it can be beautiful and relax and transport you, but it can also be cloying and vapid. As an example of the former, his song “Visiting” takes me to a happy place as it reminds me of the High Sierra backcountry hikes I did as a youth. Ackerman’s earlier recordings are more spare, showing his guitar skills. The later works add lushness and layers of instrumentation more typical of what you’d expect from a New Age playlist.

Favorite album: Childhood and Memory

Favorite song: Visiting

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: As an acoustic guitar guy, I enjoyed returning to his work more than to Winston. I recommend the first 5 or so albums, for the reason mentioned above.

593. Jean-Luc Ponty

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(August 2024) Episode 593 is JEAN-LUC PONTY. I came to French-born Ponty through his work with Frank Zappa, notably Hot Rats. That’s the reason I list his album of Zappa interpretations as my favorite, although not his best. I do love me some jazz violin (especially Django Reinhardt collaborator Stéphane Grappelli, with whom Ponty collaborated). Much of Ponty’s recordings are classified as jazz fusion, a genre that tends to repulse me (likely due to being over-exposed to it by high school jazz bandmates). But Ponty’s treatment of the genre is generally digestible and often enjoyable.

Favorite album: King Kong: Jean-Luc Ponty Plays the Music of Frank Zappa

Favorite original album: Imaginary Voyage

Favorite collaboration album: Violin Summit with Stuff Smith, Stephane Grappelli, Svend Asmussen

Favorite song: Stay with Me

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: His mid-70s albums are his best, although those are heavy fusion. The early albums are closer to regular jazz and have their own charm.

592. Church of Misery

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(August 2024) Episode 592 of the “opus project” is CHURCH OF MISERY, a doom/stoner metal band from Japan, and a damn fine one. Tons of heavy loud low fuzz. Their Black Sabbath-philia is clear not just in their sound but in their album covers (see below). They are also distinctive in dedicating their song titles and lyrics to serial killers and mass murderers. I have a preference their earlier, more stoner-ish material (late 90s/early 00s) to the later up-tempo offerings.

Favorite album: Master of Brutality

Favorite song:  El Padrino (Adolfo De Jesus Constanzo)

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: It is an acquired taste, but I love this stuff.

591. Martha and the Vandellas

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(August 2024) Episode 591 is MARTHA AND THE VANDELLAS. Given that I dig the 60s girl group sound and with my wider explorations of Motown, it is surprising I haven’t gotten to Marth Reeves and her colleagues (who rotated over their dozen recording years) before now. Their hits “Dancing in the Streets,” “Nowhere to Run” and “Heatwave” are imprinted in our culture. It’s good stuff. Although if I have to choose among the girl groups I prefer the New York-based ones (Shangri-Las, Crystals, etc.).  The group lasted through the early 70s, providing for an evolution of their sound into the more funky soul of the time (I love), a good example of which is “Easily Persuaded.”

Favorite album: Dance Party

Favorite song:  Nowhere to Run

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: A best-of will satisfy.