Favorites this week:
Escuela Grind - PPOOWWEERRVVIIOOLLEENNCCEE
This scorching blast of powerviolence from Ithaca, New York is intense, complex, political, and less than five minutes long. Opening track “Vanilla Ice” starts out almost sludgy, but don’t get used to it (or anything else on this EP) — you’re shoved into breakneck grind real quick, and the rest of the track is a relentless boomerang between the two paces. Multiple vocals, abrupt changes, incorporation of doom, noise, and other unexpected elements, a satisfying and…danceable (?!) beat like in “Eradicated” — unlike a lot of stuff in the genre, there’s way too much going on here for this to become one-note or repetitive (and there’s no time for it, anyway). Good shit, pumped for the full length (dropping in March).
Blind Seagull - Nails (Detriti Records)
The 80’s reverb-laden graveyard schtick is a well-trod road — it’s no small feat to make a guitar tone that we’ve been hearing now for 40 years sound engaging. Something that differentiates Berlin-based Blind Seagull from the rest of the coldwave pack, though, is that they have ideas and their songs are distinguishable from one another (and from Joy Division). There are interesting textural builds here from track to track, and the fact that the vocalist is working with a full bag of tricks (yes, he does the required “I’m crooning low and spooky” thing, but he also screams, uses falsetto, yelps, hollers, and wails) is a particular saving grace. They are working within a familiar framework, but there are still surprises here — “Human Being,” with what sounds like a cameo by a deranged choir, the screamy vocal on “Nails,” and the driving, figural bass of “Yellow Moon” are high points. Not breaking any ground, but they’re doing what they’re doing very well.
The Innocence Mission - See You Tomorrow (Bella Union / Thérèse Records)
This music, quiet and sincere and grounded by Karen Peris's gentle voice, isn’t what I’d call “twee” — to me, that word implies a certain cutesiness that belies the deeply emotional underpinnings of these songs. These are songs about universal human experiences, big and small -- friendship, missing someone, loneliness, losing people. The passage of time and the futile desire to resist it. Nostalgia, even for earlier today. The difficulties of appropriately expressing all of these things. In “On Your Side,” Peris sings of a person she’s lost who stays with her, softly intoning “I’ve never left your side” — wonderfully comforting but deeply sad, like this whole album. There is a slow build in instrumentation throughout the record, starting with a typically stripped down guitar-and-voice setup, drums first appearing a few tracks in, and strings joining in about three quarters of the way through; about every four songs, something quite new happens. Bedroomy and intimate, with natural reverb — a room we can hear and therefore visualize — this is a perfect winter album, full of stillness, beauty, and commiseration.
Other stuff released this week:
Hände - UWAGA, SZKŁO! (Bat Cave Productions)
This is a gothy Polish punk joint with occasional flourishes that border on electroclash (like drum machine default-setting handclaps). I appreciate so much that the vocals sound like a person’s real voice; that she doesn’t bother with a put-on “gothy” voice. All the songs follow the same general path, in the same tempo range (with the exception of “Glos Ludski”), and I find myself wanting a more adventurous vocal line at times (like on the chorus of “Finlandia,” a pattern repeated ad nauseam with no change). It’s all a bit samey, and for a band with such a seemingly strong concept of who they are and what they’re doing, they could stand to push it a bit more in the future.
Elder Druid - Golgotha
Elder Druid play stoner metal with some obvious touchstones — Sabbath, Sleep, Kyuss influence; lyrics about wizards and shit — but they do it in a sort of vengeful, aggressive way that’s at odds with the typical laid-back-ness of the style. There are satisfyingly massive riffs here underpinned by a killer rhythm section, all surrounded by some loosely-controlled chaos (at times, it feels like you’re in a small, oppressively smoky room with Elder Druid, hearing the cymbals wildly swinging between hits), but vocalist Greg McDowell’s insistent, menacing vocal is the centerpiece. They do that classic trick of slowing down even more and then even more, and they showcase it with especial grace on “Vincere Vel Mori” (throw in an agonized vocal, and the whole song gets the chef’s kiss from me). If you like your stoner metal with a frisson of Eyehategod-esque turmoil, check it out.
Della Mae - Headlight (Rounder Records)
With Headlight, Nashville string band Della Mae make a broad gesture toward #MeToo, with a title track inspired by Anita Hill and Christine Blasey-Ford. Full of songs about persistence (“I’m nine years into a five year plan”), survival, and hoping for better days to come, the album sounds very Nashville: it’s shiny, like something with all its edges ground off, and impeccably performed. The songs that feature gospel group The McCrary Sisters are high points, as is the ripping fiddle work on “Wild One,” a track that also provides the most soaring vocal from vocalist Celia Woodsmith. This is a little too immaculate for me, but I’m glad Della Mae are out there doing their thing and continuing the long tradition of women in country music talking about the real shit.