479. Cannibal Corpse

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(March 2023) Episode 479 is CANNIBAL CORPSE, an influential American death metal band that takes everything to the extreme: volume, album covers, song titles, lyrics (as if you could understand them).  It’s so gory and transgressive that they earned the targeted scorn of self-righteous moralizing politicians, which makes me like them more! Cannibal Corpse brings all the essential elements: cookie monster growl, double-pedal speed, tempo changes.  Their approach is remarkably consistent across 15 albums.  Like Bluegrass, death metal seems to demand a rigorous orthodoxy in form and sound.

Favorite album: Butchered at Birth

Favorite song: Crucifier Avenged

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: it’s not for the squeamish or prudish, but if you like music at the extremes, I recommend

478. Rebecca Clarke

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(February 2023) Episode 478 is REBECCA CLARKE. A British and later American composer and violist of the early 20th century, she was a ground-breaking woman in both professions. She didn’t have a large body of work, and many compositions were discovered after her death which caused renewed interest in her work. She specialized in chamber pieces featuring her viola, which are excellent, as well as several vocal works.

Favourite piece: Sonata for viola and piano

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: I think you’ll like the chamber works

477. Mahalia Jackson

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(February 2023) Episode 477 is MAHALIA JACKSON. I’m not into the gospel message but I appreciate gospel blues as a quintessentially American art form and sibling to the blues and soul. As Aretha is the Queen of Soul, Mahalia is the Queen of Gospel.  Her powerful voice and blues-inflected style helped popularize gospel and bring it to a wider audience. And it appears she lived her message as a kind and charitable person.

Favorite song: Walking in Jerusalem

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: “The Essential Mahalia Jackson” is a good compilation

476. Samuel Barber

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(February 2023) Episode 476 of the “opus project” is SAMUEL BARBER, one of the best-known American composers of the 20th century.  Many of you will know him from his “Adagio for Strings” (made famous in the movie Platoon), arguably his most emotionally resonant work. He get some critics’ sneer for being conventional in an era where his peers were emphasizing the opposite, but he does dip his toes into dissonance and tonal experimentation.

Favorite piece: Adagio for String

Favorite piano piece: Piano Sonata

Favorite Opera: Anthony and Cleopatra

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: won’t blow your mind, but you also can’t really go wrong

475. Japandroids

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(February 2023) Episode 475 is JAPANDROIDS, an indie guitar/drum duo from Vancouver. My feeling about them is this: the teens who thought they were punk because they listened to Blink 182 grew up to be the Millennials who assumed they were still edgy/cool by liking Japandroids a decade later. I wanted to like this band, and I appreciate the energy, but it comes off as annoying hipster-fuel. So, Millennial.

Favorite album: Post-Nothing

Favorite song: Crazy/Forever

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: take a pass

474. La Colonie de Vacances

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Episode 474 is LA COLONIE DE VACANCES, a collective of four French bands PNEU, MARVIN, ELECTRIC ELECTRIC and PAPIER TIGRE. I didn’t know what to label this music until I came upon the term “math rock,” essentially the intersection of prog rock and indie rock, featuring irregular rhythms, guitars that eschew chords, hyperactive drumming and avoidance of melody. King Crimson would be the godfather of math rock. Among the groups, Pneu is a raw power trio, Papier Tigre features vocals, Electric Electric is techno-focused and Marvin is aggressive and techno-rhythmic. When they get together live as La Colonie de Vacancies the four bands arrange themselves in a quad and play at each other in controlled chaos. Sounds cool.

Favorite album: ECHT (by La Colonie de Vacances)

Favorite band album: Marvin (by Marvin)

Favorite song: L’amour universel (by La Colonie de Vacances)

Favorite song by a band: Roquedur (by Marvin)

Favorite song by another band: Catadioptre amidextre (by Pneu)

Ranking of bands: 1. Marvin, 2. Pneu, 3. Electric Electric, 4. Papier Tigre

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: Try ECHT, which fuses the bands’ sounds together

473. The Damned

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(February 2023) Episode 473 is THE DAMNED. Known in the punk pantheon for being the first UK punks to issue a record and to tour the United States. Their first album is superlative, drawing relatively more from the garage rock antecedents of punk. Can’t praise it enough. But it goes off the rails quickly: a couple ok post-punk albums and then eight blah rock records – it’s soooo boooring.

Favourite album: Damned Damned Damned

Favourite song: Neat Neat Neat

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: just the excellent first album

472. Orchestra Baobab

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Episode 472 is ORCHESTRA BAOBAB. A big-time African band in the 1970s and Senegal’s biggest musical export until Youssou N’Dour. You get the expected goodness of afro-beats but there is such a strong Cuban influence you might think they were from Cuba if not for singing in Wolof and French (but with some Spanish too). I especially love the groovy and psychedelic guitar bits.

Favorite album: Pirates Choice

Favorite song: Sibou Odia

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: I’m not a “world music” connoisseur so I can’t make a comparative recommendation, but I like this for its authenticity and groove

471. James Gang

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(February 2023) Episode 471 of the “opus project” is JAMES GANG. You know them as Joe Walsh’s first band and for their eternal classic rock radio hits “Funk #49” and “Walk Away.” The first three albums (1969-71) are a good helping of enjoyable funk rock. But then Walsh left and the rest is mostly forgettable boogie and soft rock.

Favorite album: James Gang Rides Again

Favorite song: Funk #49

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: a greatest hits package will do

470. Ultha

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(January 2023) Episode 470 is ULTHA, a black metal group from Germany. If Hell had a house band, it might sound like Ultha. It’s a double-pedal propelled wall of dark sound. There are vocals in there somewhere but they are mixed so far down they resemble distant screams of a person being tortured in a dungeon. Admittedly this music has niche appeal, and it’s not my favorite subgenre of metal. But I do find myself drawn to audacity of music at the extremes (fast, slow, loud, minimal, chaotic, experimental). 

Favorite album: All That Has Never Been True

Favorite song: The Seventh Sorrow

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: not for a general audience but the curious should check it out