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April 30, 2024
 

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HIGH NOTES

Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Aug 6, 2003
Koinu Entertainment Showcase Volume One
Japan has produced so many great hip-hop DJs, like Krush and Kensei, that it is easy to overlook the dearth of equally great MCs. No surprise then that most of the intriguing artists at this weekend's underground hip-hop confab, sponsored by hybrid metal rap group Koinu, are turntablists such as DJs Kensei, Quietstorm and Yas.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Aug 6, 2003
Doug Wamble's: "Country Libations"
At first listen, Doug Wamble's debut CD, "Country Libations," sounds like a compilation. At different points, Wamble flatpicks country swing, booms out heartfelt gospel, plays slide Delta blues, swings hard on pre-bop jazz and intersperses moments of free jazz. This range and choice of styles is initially a little confusing, but reflects Wamble's varied past. Born in Muddy Waters' hometown of Clarksville, Miss., raised amid the soul music of Memphis, he once sang in a Southern Baptist choir and now resides in New York City where he has performed with Wynton Marsalis, Cassandra Wilson and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Wamble has heard a lot of music firsthand and blends these experiences into a beautiful acoustic melange, melded together by the strength of his unique delivery.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Aug 6, 2003
Kings of Leon: "Youth and young Manhood"
The story about the Kings of Leon, a Nashville-based rock band touted as the next big thing, is that the four young men, with their tight bell-bottoms and shaggy hair are pure throwbacks. Having grown up shuttling between Memphis and Oklahoma City with their itinerant Pentecostal preacher father, the Brothers Followill -- Caleb, Nathan, and Jared (the fourth member is cousin Matthew) -- lived a hermetic existence. The legend is that the boys saw the light of rock 'n' roll through the car stereo, as their father always played vintage Stones and Neil Young. But the brothers claim they didn't absorb classic rock as much as they did church music and, for that reason, they claim as influences "real Pentacostalists" like Aretha Franklin and Al Green. Their rock education didn't start in earnest until their father "quit the clothhood." In fact, they first thought of becoming musicians when they heard The White Stripes. The band's stylistic connection to the current garage-band scene is stronger than it is to redneck Southern rock bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Aug 6, 2003
Rough Trade Shops: "Post Punk 01"
When punk hit a recession-ridden U.K. in 1975-'76, using a rudimentary version of rock 'n' roll as a platform to scream obscenities and threaten to smash the state, it was enough to ignite outrage across the land. And then, before your grandfather could curse "They should bring back military service," the movement had largely imploded. But its repercussions were far-reaching, inspiring another wave of music and the rise of independent labels such as Mute, Beggars Banquet and Factory.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 30, 2003
Ted Leo & The Pharmacists
New Jersey native Ted Leo, who learned his trade in the East Coast hardcore scene of the late '80s, has been toiling as an indie idol in the Washington D.C. underground for more than a decade, first fronting Chisel, which prefigured the current mod-punk revival, and then the Sin Eaters, a power-pop band that made a fine impression on everyone who heard them except, apparently, record-company people. The band broke up in 1997 without a recorded legacy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 30, 2003
Alex Sipiagin
Jazz was one of the best-kept secrets of communist Russia, officially suppressed but actually flourishing in underground clubs, bootleg studios and on pirate radio stations. Fortunately for music fans, trumpeter Alex Sipiagin heard enough to become one of Russia's premier jazz players and to emigrate to New York when the chance came, in the '90s.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 23, 2003
Ze Records: "N.Y. No Wave"
For New Yorkers, "downtown" is more than just a location -- it's an attitude, an aesthetic. From the explosion of punk and new wave that came out of CBGB in the '70s to the improvised music that emerged from the Knitting Factory in the '80s, downtown has denoted a certain type of risky, eccentric music.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 23, 2003
Jaco Pastorius: "Word of Mouth Revisited"
In the '70s and '80s, Jaco Pastorius revolutionized electric bass playing. The imprint of his bold sound can be heard in bass players from jazz to rock to funk. Whether in the seminal fusion group Weather Report, his own high-energy electric bands, with guitarists Pat Metheny and Mike Stern, or in the jazzier work of Joni Mitchell, his charismatic presence and stellar playing moved the bass into the very center of the mix. Although an anthology of his work titled "Punk Jazz" was released this year, there have been relatively few posthumous tributes to his genius.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 23, 2003
Polyphonic Spree
For a year and a half after Tim DeLaughter, formerly of the psychedelic hard rock group Tripping Daisy, assembled The Polyphonic Spree in 2000, the band only played isolated gigs around their hometown of Dallas, Texas. Then they went to Austin to play the South By Southwest Festival, where they caught the attention of David Bowie, who invited the group to play in England at the Meltdown Festival. Most of the band had never been out of Texas before.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 9, 2003
Roots Music Festival 2003
This summer's Roots Music Festival at Blue Note Tokyo moves far beyond simple basics to a full flowering of diverse branches of the musical tree. The seven performers, coming from different countries, styles and backgrounds, share an improvisational spirit, but otherwise are notable for their unique musical visions. Their styles range from acoustic to computerized and from melody-rich to rhythm-heavy, but all of the performers base their music on diverse, exotic blends. They've globalized their sounds, yet remained distinct.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 9, 2003
The Pretenders: "Loose Screw"
In "Complex Person," a reggae-metered song from the Pretenders' eighth studio album, "Loose Screw," Chrissie Hynde sings that she'll do anything "to make you adore me or deplore me but never ignore me." If there's desperation in the line itself, there is also a note of resignation in Hynde's reading of it. As one of the few groups in the annals of pop who can confidently lay claim to an absolutely perfect debut album, The Pretenders quickly lost their identity as a band after two members died and Hynde became a mother and a wife. The music was thought to have declined in quality as a result, and each subsequent album has been met by people who always wondered if it's The Pretenders' "comeback," as if Hynde were expected to resurrect the group that made the debut.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 9, 2003
OOIOO: "Kila Kila Kila"
As drummer and sole female in the Boredoms, Yoshimi Pee Wee has often been overshadowed by Seichii Yamamoto's virtuoso guitar playing and Eye Yamataka's idiosyncratic charisma. But listening to the fourth album from, OOIOO, her all-girl group, one wonders if Yoshimi hasn't quietly been directing all along.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 2, 2003
Burnt Sugar: "The Rites"
"I had come up with the idea of adapting motifs from 'Le Sacre du Printemps' for a series of improvisations," says Burnt Sugar's Greg Tate. "Given how many sick bass lines there are in his writing, Stravinsky makes perfect sense for a band that loves to vamp as much as we do."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 2, 2003
Pat Metheny: "One Quiet Night"
Pat Metheny is one of the most widely imitated guitarists in modern jazz. A prodigy on guitar, he played in jazz clubs before he could even drive to the gigs and became one of the youngest teachers ever at the famed Berklee College of Music in Boston. Because of that early fame, he has had the freedom to record extensively, with near-annual releases since his debut in 1975. These recordings have teetered between two styles: serious guitar workouts in the tradition of masters (with nods to modal jazz) and fusionesque jazz built on rocklike rhythms and electronic orchestration. Unfortunately, he is more widely known for the latter.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 2, 2003
The Octagon Man: "Magneton"
His real name might be J-Saul Kane; no one knows for sure. Kane is, however, known to possess multiple bank accounts and aliases. Most commonly known as Depth Charge, he also works under the name Alexander's Dark Band and seems to reserve the pseudonym The Octagon Man for his most twisted and deranged electro-style operations. The Octagon Man has been under intense surveillance since the "Ito Calculus" incident of 2000, and the extent of his depravity is plain to see in his latest album, "Magneton." Like his other dastardly intrigues, "Magneton" was hatched from his headquarters, the Iron Monkey Studios, on his home turf of Ladbroke Grove, West London. Despite the presence of the Two Lone Swordsmen and other fellow electro-conspirators in the same city, Kane remains a lone wolf and unique phenomenon, displaying idiosyncratic tactical and stylistic tendencies.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 2, 2003
Linda Thompson
Linda Thompson is living proof that it is more difficult to be wed to genius than it is to possess it. Her 10-year marriage to the flinty, cynical singer-guitarist Richard Thompson that ended in 1982 was by all accounts, including hers, a tumultuous affair that produced three children, at least four perfect albums of English folk-rock, and enough psychological pain to launch a thousand sensitive singer-songwriters. The difference is that neither Linda nor Richard are sensitive types, at least not in terms of expression. Richard's genius was (and, on occasion, still is) the way he channeled everyday despair and misanthropy into songs of theatrical brilliance. Linda's gift was the way she gave voice to those ideas without sentimentalizing them.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jun 25, 2003
Byard Lancaster: "It's Not Up to Us"
In 1959-1960, three albums crossed boundaries in three different ways and sent jazz reeling. John Coltrane's "Giant Steps" packed so many chords into its explosive tunes that it forced be-bop to an abrupt harmonic conclusion. Meanwhile, Ornette Coleman's melodic inventiveness on "The Shape of Jazz to Come" worked from another angle to release jazz songs from the constrictions of chord progressions. Finally, the weightless modal tunes on Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue" ignored chords altogether. In short, the most advanced jazz musicians were aching for broader ranges of expression.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jun 25, 2003
Jack Johnson: "On and On"
In the off season, professional surfer Jack Johnson keeps himself busy -- keeping his boards waxed, of course, but also polishing his craft as a songwriter. To follow up his debut, "Brushfire Fairytales," he retreated to his living room-cum-studio with longtime buddies percussionist Adam Topol and bassist Merlo Podlweski and recorded "On and On."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jun 25, 2003
Fountains of Wayne: "Welcome Interstate Managers"
Lou Reed may be the New York Man, but only a fraction of his New York fans have any direct experience with the Downtown demimonde he writes about. Most are Tri-State suburbanites who as kids went to Manhattan to party and as adults go there to work.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jun 18, 2003
Stark Reality: "Now"
It's a good thing the guardians of our children's tender morality are mainly obsessed with vexing lyrics and not intensely trippy jams. Otherwise, "Now" would have a big sticker across the front: WARNING -- The psychedelic children's music on this album will scramble your child's mind.
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