There were quite a few albums that I really enjoyed that were released this year that I didn’t write about. Mostly because I am only writing for a metal/hardcore site at the moment and only a few of the ones I really liked were actually related to those styles. Of the ones I did write about, Sumac’s May You Be Held certainly was a stand out – that review was published on Lambgoat. Below are a few albums from 2020 that are definitely worth some attention.
Jason Molina – Eight Gates
If you know anything about my musical taste, you know how highly I regard the work of Jason Molina, and since his untimely death in 2013 Secretly Canadian Records has been releasing some of his leftover odds and ends, typically in the form of bonus material accompanying a reissue. But Eight Gates is different; it’s a little more special. The album compiles Molina’s final solo studio recordings, laid to tape in 2009 during his London residency and unavailable until this year. It captures the songwriter months before his personal demons found him spiraling into an unfortunate ending. But for a musician who was always looking ahead, often abandoning fan favorite material for brand new songs, he sounds somewhat reflective on Eight Gates. Hints of every period of his career surface throughout, whether it’s the early Songs: Ohia groove of “Shadows Answer The Wall,” or the haunting vibes of “She Says,” recalling his previous solo records. The album may not be as Molina may have intended it, but for his loyal fanbase, it’s exactly what they hoped it would be – more melancholic beauty from the master. It’s just too bad that it also serves as a reminder of the talent we lost.
Longmont Potion Castle – Longmont Potion Castle 17
The “absurdist-phone-art” genius strikes again, some thirty odd years into his career of avant-garde mischief making. How, in a world where screening unknown numbers calling your phone is commonplace, he is still making albums worth of hilarious phone calls is beyond me. Who are these people that keep answering and getting unreasonably upset with a guy claiming to be an over zealous UPS worker or a neighbor looking to borrow some lightbulbs? If you’ve listened to his previous work, favorites like the delivery driver, the butcher shop, and the chaotic three way call all make appearances, but it’s the ones like “Buford Horn” and “Netiqutte,” where he uses his vast vocabulary and manner of speech to utterly confuse the person on the other line, that are the most enjoyable. If you aren’t laughing uncontrollably at him frustrating a landlord, asking about changing all the doorknobs in a building he isn’t associated with, well, I don’t know what to tell you.
Eartheater – Phoenix: Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin
Whatever is happening on this album is admittedly a little beyond my area of expertise. I’m brand new to Eartheater and I have to dig back in her catalog, but if the previous releases are as intriguing as her latest, then I am already sold on them. The best way I can describe this album is that it is some sort of twisted amalgamation of Bjork, Xiu Xiu, late era Ulver and Julee Cruise singing at Twin Peaks’ Roadhouse. The songs on Phoenix: Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin are hauntingly beautiful. Dreamy melodies, dreary arpeggiated guitar chords and lush string arrangements compose most of this art-pop masterpiece. Eartheater – real name Alexandra Drewchin – has a chilling quality to her voice, which I read has a range of four octaves. The story is that she wrote this living in isolation and I can believe that because Phoenix is dark and creepy and gorgeous all at the same time.
Hum – Inlet
Hum were always an interesting band; in the nineties they somehow fused indie-rock, shoegaze and post-hardcore into an MTV and alternative rock radio single. It was a weird time. But the album You’d Prefer An Astronaut, led by that unlikely buzz-worthy track “Stars,” really was something special. However, after their equally worthy follow-up Downward Is Heavenward, the band split up, only reuniting sporadically throughout the last twenty years. So it was definitely out of nowhere when they surprise released Inlet in June of this year. Inlet sounds like Hum, only two decades wiser. The huge distorted guitar sound is there, the atmospheric production is certainly there and the big riffs are definitely there. And speaking of big riffs, they even have a Cave In-like space guitar effect going on. I mean the beginning of “In The Den” sounds like it’s about to shift into Cave In’s “Joy Opposites.” This is the shoegaze album that every band inspired by Hum has been trying to make. It’s like they just appeared to show them all how it’s done.
Jeremiah Cymerman – Systema Monditotius vol. 1
I saw Systema Monditotius performed in the studio of Firehouse 12 in 2017 as part of New Haven’s Uncertainty Music Series farewell festival. The piece was played by a clarinet quartet featuring Aaron Novik, Matt Bauder and Patrick Holmes alongside Jeremiah Cymerman and was completely and utterly captivating. In the three years between that and its release I heard Cymerman make mention on his podcast of a recording that he could never get quite right and I always assumed it was this. I’m not sure if it was, but I definitely was glad to hear it was finally coming out. Cymerman does avant-garde music based in the world of jazz; he’s an alumnus of John Zorn’s Tzadik record label, to give a musical reference point. He plays an electric clarinet that he manipulates with effects, and on this recording, accompanied only by a drummer, also adds synths, electronics and percussion. The result is an amorphous coalescence of ambient soundscapes, fluttering tones and electronic noise. It won’t have the same effect as seeing it live, but in this performance-less existence, the album will more than suffice.
Zao – Preface: Early Recordings 1995-1996
This is definitely a “fan only” release, and not only am I a Zao fan, I am also into pretty much everything to do with nineties metalcore - a sub-genre that was still in it’s infancy when the songs on Preface were recorded. Zao, of course, would go on to be one of the defining bands for the style, but not before an earlier incarnation of the group helped to create its roots. Preface is a compilation of mostly previously unreleased recordings featuring the groups original lineup of Jesse Smith on drums, Mic Cox on bass and Roy Goudy on guitar - split in half between their first two vocalists Eric Reeder and Shawn Jonas. The Reeder half draws from the bands first demo sessions of songs mostly unheard until now. It shows the early stages of the young groups development and includes the hard-to-find track “Flight” from the groups split 7” with Outcast. The Jonas half of the record is demos of material that would make up the bands first two full-length albums featuring the vocalists now infamous high pitched scream. On top of that, Preface also has two tracks from a side project they had called Monroe where the members swapped instruments and strayed more towards an emo feel. Is this mind blowing stuff? No, but it provides further insight into the lesser known early days of the band. Also of note, Steadfast Records issued a 25th anniversary version of All Else Failed, Zao’s first album, which is fantastic. I never owned the original, so I was glad to be able to pick that up alongside Preface.
Comments
Post a Comment