(May 2024) Episode 573 is BESSIE SMITH. She is known as “Empress of the Blues” for being the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s. Her vocal delivery over piano and jazz ensemble arrangements has come to be known as vaudeville or classic blues, to distinguish from the guitar-based styles. We are lucky to have a good set of recordings, despite their vintage, that provide a good appreciation of her powerful voice.
Episode 572 is XTC. As mentioned, I’ve enjoyed getting into the stuff that burst of the late-70s UK post-punk scene. Unlike others, XTC did not start out as a punk band, but they slid right into the emerging sound with an angular rhythmic attack and bouncy vocals. Their beats crept up to the edge of, but never got to, ska, giving echoes of Madness. At times their boisterous vocal style evokes Adam Ant, with a bit of Joe Jackson. Like contemporaries the Stranglers and Wire, XTC endured for years, creatively adapting their sound and style, while avoiding the sinkhole of 80s synths and gated drums. The early albums are their distinctive best, but my favorite thing they did was two records posing as a late-60s British psychedelic band, the Dukes of Stratosphear – spot-on homage to my most cherished of subgenres.
Favourite album (XTC): Black Sea
Favourite album overall: Chips from the Chocolate Fireball, the combined disc of the two Dukes of Stratosphear recordings
(May 2024) Episode 571 of the is THE HOLLIES. I have tended to discount British Invasion bands that were not among the Big Four, as but in the recent episode on Dave Clark Five, I realize my mistake with The Hollies too. I was surprisingly pleased to learn they are far more than the familiar handful of hit singles and for being launching pad for Graham Nash. Their best and most distinctive feature is the top-notch harmonies. Their arc is a familiar one: initial albums featuring R&B covers; blossoming when they start recording original material, including the obligatory 1967 psychedelic album; flowing into the 1970s with power pop and soft rock, enjoyable but not as good as before Nash left; then a slide into blah in the late 1970s, 1980s and 2010s. They always stayed on the lighter side of pop-rock, never getting adventurous like their more famous peers. And they’re still around today with two original members, and two others still alive but not with the group.
* Fun fact: As noted in my Connections page, the chords from the verses in “The Air That I Breathe” (1972) were lifted by Radiohead into “Creep” (1992), and later used by Lana Del Ray in “Get Free” (2017) and in the title song “Red Swan” from the third season (2018) of the anime series “Attack on Titan.”
(May 2024) Episode 570 is CATHERINE LAMB, a contemporary composer of sound. Her compositions explore the harmonic spaces between conventional notes, liminal tones and textures, aural shapes. Her sheet music consists not of standard notes but of geometric shapes, not unlike those of George Crumb. It sounds like liquid mathematics, and I marvel at the vision inside Lamb’s mind. I find this music mesmerizing and fascinating.
(May 2024) Episode 569 is PROFESSOR LONGHAIR. As I continue my mini-tour through New Orleans music, I come upon one of its fathers. “Fess” was best known for his piano style, which incorporated Caribbean rhumba and calypso to create a rhythmic style adopted by generations of New Orleans musicians including Fats Domino, Allen Toussant and Dr. John. He never broke into the big time like the artists he influenced, perhaps in part because his singing style is comparatively a bit clipped and less polished. But you can’t not have a good time with his boogie.
(May 2024) Episode 568 is ORNETTE COLEMAN. A motivation that keeps me going through the time-consuming, often tedious slog of the Opus Project is the joy of discovery. And Ornette Coleman was a supreme joy to discover. Of course, I knew who he was and had heard some of his work. But with my limited knowledge of jazz music and history, and as I am finding that free jazz might be my favorite form of it, here I stumble upon the guy who invented it. Wonderful. Free jazz’s improvisation without harmony, melody, chord changes made Coleman polarizing, but inspired John Coltrane’s “Ascension” (my favorite of his) and the development of avant-garde in music. He wasn’t limited to just the jazz idiom, and composed works performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and others. While saxophone was his main instrument, he also took up trumpet and violin (I love what he does that that).
Recommendation: Start with Free Jazz (1960), which launched it all. To me his peak are the five albums between Science Fiction (1971) and Body Meta (1976), including Skies of America (1972) with the LSO
(May 2024) Episode 567 is ACID KING. There is no such thing as a perfect band, because everyone has different tastes. But to my current taste, Acid King is as perfect as it gets. As stoner metal has emerged as my favorite kind of metal, Acid King seamlessly checks all the boxes – the loudness, the lowness, the fuzz and the backgrounded vocals. No frills, no extras, no arpeggios, no operatics. Just pure, dedicated stoner metal goodness. I love it. And notable for being fronted by a woman (Lori S), which is uncommon.
Episode 566 is POPOL VUH. They are categorized as a Krautrock band but the German word term for it, “kosmische Musik,” fits better as they are cited as pioneers of “space music.” And electronic music too, as their first two albums featured the Moog synthesizer. But then leader Florian Fricke set that aside for piano and guitars, creating ambient soundscapes and textures with ethereal, at times spiritual, dimensions and non-European percussion and vocals. Fricke was close with Werner Herzog and composed soundtracks to several of his films. Among the Krautrock groups, Popol Vuh’s approach was closer to Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel (as contrasted with Kraftwerk and Neu!). But the artist I find most similar in sound is Mike Oldfield. Like Oldfield (and Manuel Göttsching) Fricke mastered that lovely high pitch warbly guitar tone. Popol Vuh was a progenitor of world music and New Age, but I must make clear that I would not identify Popol Vuh with either of those genres as they came to be known. I adore 1970s electronic/ambient music but get turned off by the “New Age” style it evolved to by the 1990s (I’m looking at you Tangerine Dream).
Recommendation: Most everything is good here. The early electronic albums have their appeal, but I like the mid-1970s spiritual stuff the best. Least are the late 1990s albums which start to sound New Age-y.
(April 2024) Episode 565 is AMM. This was a UK-based free improvisation group, active for 5+ decades. Their performances were intentionally devoid of form and structure, just letting the sounds of their percussion, saxophone, guitar, piano, string, and whatever else was lying around guide them where they may. This is extremely opposite of popular music and is generally only appreciated by a select avant-garde crowd. However, I did find a use if not an allure as a background sound while I worked or puttered around. It is distinctly not New Age but in this sense it can fill a role as ambient music.
(April 2024) Episode 564 is THE TURTLES and FLO & EDDIE. As a Frank Zappa enjoyer I always thought of the Turtles as the band Flo & Eddie (Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman) were in before they joined the second version of the Mothers of Invention, rather than the reverse. It turns out they provided a lot more enjoyable 60s LA pop/rock beyond “Happy Together,” “Elenore” and “You Showed Me.” Five good albums worth, augmented by their characteristic humor (the line “you’re my pride and joy etc.” from “Elenore” get me every time). After the Turtles folded, Flo & Eddie reached the prurient zenith of their humor with the Mothers (e.g. “Bwana Dik”) and recorded several quirky albums on their own.
Favorite album: The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands
Opus Project 