The Polyphonic Spree
The Beginning Stages of ...
Good Records
Led by ex-Tripping Daisy Tim DeLaughter, Dallas-based psychedelic gospel combo the Polyphonic Spree is not your average band. Crediting 23 members, packing its tunes with spiritual lyrics and clad in flowing white robes, the act have all the trappings of some mysterious long lost 1960s communal cult.
First released in demo form and distributed to fans during a holiday performance last year, the Spree's musically engaging and ethereal debut, The Beginning Stages of ..., is best described as a lo-fi choral-pop package that oozes warmth and joy.
In gathering together two dozen musical minds, DeLaughter has created an act that has the ability to combine the Beach Boys -- of the band's classic Pet Sounds days -- with melodies much like those of the less hard-drug soaked Flaming Lips.
However odd this combination may seem, the Spree's orchestral sounds prove to be some of the most euphoric, uplifting and joyful pop tunes one could imagine. The music is compelling and loquacious as well as addictive. In fact, it's an almost faultless debut.
With one exception. As gruesome on the ears as early experimental Tangerine Dream, the 30-minute A Long Day is a chilling combination of reverberating humming mixed with some rather nauseating electronic blips. All of which could be an indication of something more sinister lurking under the virgin-white starched robes of the happy-go-lucky Spree.
Apples in Stereo
Velocity of Sound
Spinart
Graduates of the artsy-fartsy Sonic Youth school of punk rock, Colorado-based Apples in Stereo has dropped the pomp and weirdness and, instead, tuned to simple four-chord guitar-driven pop-punk for its latest release, Velocity of Sound.
The album -- the band's seventh studio venture since 1995 -- certainly lives up to its title. Spewing forth one caffeine buzz-drenched tune after another; it hurries along in a flurry of energetic riffs and nasal vocals reminiscent of Pete Shelley and the Buzzcocks. Like Shelley's compositions, the Apples' tunes are laid bare and all of the album's 11 tracks are minimalist verging on the fringes of lo-fi in some way or another.
Although now a four-piece band, vocalist Robert Schneider, with his whiny vocals, candid lyrics and simple pop-riffs is still the band's guiding-light. Ensuring that even at its most condescending and facetious the Apples remain a cheerful combo possessing an honesty and charm rarely found in pop/punk crossover circles.
While numbers such as Rainfall, That's Something I Do and Mystery are of the American hi-fi guitar-laced ilk, numbers like Better Days and She's Telling Lies see the Apple's in equally raucous, yet somewhat milder retro-60s mode. The fact the band was a contributing act to a recent album featuring tunes inspired by the movie, The Powerpuff Girls, could almost be forgotten. Velocity of Sound proves that Schneider and his cronies are an act that deserves to be taken seriously.
Thievery Corporation
The Richest Man in Babylon
ESL
Lounge lizards and gurus of the dub driven mixing desk, Rob Garza and Eric Hilton -- aka the Thievery Corporation -- make a welcome return to record store shelves this month with the duo's fourth release, The Richest Man in Babylon.
Like its predecessors Sounds from the Thievery Hi-Fi, The Mirror Conspiracy and the EP, Lebanese Blonde, The Richest Man in Babylon is packed with dub-heavy, listless tunes which sees The Thievery Corporation blending Brazilian, Indian and Jamaican sounds with some truly laid back lounge vibes.
Although veering dangerously into Saint Etienne territory on the opener, Heaven's Gonna Burn Your Eyes, with guest vocalist, Emiliana Torrini baring a marked resemblance to Sarah Cracknell, what follows is a smorgasbord of fully-flavored, varied and euphonic lounge sounds.
On numbers such as The Outernationalist and The State of the Union, the pair utilize the tried and tested combination of bass-heavy ambient-dub. While on others, namely, Un Simple Histoire (A Simple Story), Garza and Hilton once again look to the Middle East for inspiration. The Richest Man in Babylon is not, however, without its unique moments.
The most moving, or rather numbing, of these is Exilio (Exile). A number on which the Corporation branches out from its dub-heavy roots and instead looks to Afro-Cuban percussion for inspiration.
Richard Ashcroft
Human Condition
Hut
After his 2000 solo debut, Alone With Everyone, great things were expected of Richard Ashcroft. Sadly, however, even with a lot of help from trip-hop/jungle wizard, Talvin Singh, and a duet with ex-Beach Boy, Brian Wilson, the ex-Verve mouthpiece has come up with an album that falls short of expectations. Whereas his emotionally seductive debut saw Ashcroft distancing himself from his Verve days by making use of a diversity of sounds which included stringed arrangements, simple brushing percussion, pop and even tripy grooves, Human Condition sees little experimentation.
Instead, Ashcroft appears to be stuck someplace between never-never land and the mainstream in which something that worked well with his drone-pop act The Verve leads the vocalist into dangerously tedious solo territory.
Of the album's 10 tunes there are only two exceptions to this tedium. The folk/pop guitar jangle of Ascroft's Bright Lights proves the album's only up-lifting moment. And even then it's a tune that comes a wee bit close to Shawn Mullins' 1998 hit, September in Seattle for comfort. Nature is the Law, a tune on which Ashcroft teams up with Wilson, on the other hand is a fantastically moving duet and by far the album's musical and poetic highlight.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
Peter Brighton was amazed when he found the giant jackfruit. He had been watching it grow on his farm in far north Queensland, and when it came time to pick it from the tree, it was so heavy it needed two people to do the job. “I was surprised when we cut it off and felt how heavy it was,” he says. “I grabbed it and my wife cut it — couldn’t do it by myself, it took two of us.” Weighing in at 45 kilograms, it is the heaviest jackfruit that Brighton has ever grown on his tropical fruit farm, located