More Music

Posted by Johnny at 9:31 p.m.

First of all, I wasn't criticizing Michael Brecker in the last post. I should have written, "I wouldn't buy a Michael Brecker CD to hear a sax player..." instead of using the word "didn't". Apologies to Michael B. and Brett Mc.

Muse - Black Holes and Revelations (2006)
Think early Radiohead, but not. Vocalist/Guitarist Michael Bellamy sounds part Thom Yorke, part Freddy Mercury, part Bono, and mostly Michael Bellamy. The band has a tight sound, which is more rock than electronica, and serves plenty of sweet hooks for your listening enjoyment.

The album itself starts with a gradually building piece entitled Take a Bow that features their synth playing quick, escalating arpeggios while Michael sings "Burn, you will burn in hell" to an unnamed political leader, who could easily be George W. Bush. The building nature of the song serves to be one of the best climaxes in an alt-rock song since Radiohead's Paranoid Android.

The rest of the album plays with their sound, shifting it left and right of the rock spectrum while maintaining a solid and recognizable foundation. The best part of the album is its conciseness, as it runs approximately 45 minutes in length: the standard length of a single vinyl LP. Thank you, Muse. As with Peeping Tom (and as you'll soon read, Mr. Bungle), you understand that truly great albums know when to quit. This one is definitely worth a listen.

Malo (self titled, 1973)
You might not be aware of this, but Carlos Santana's brother, Jorge, also played guitar and Malo was his band. The word malo is Spanish for bad. This is not an accurate description of the band in the least.

The comparisons to Carlos' work are unavoidable, but this is actually a good thing for Jorge, since he comes out on top. I've never really been a fan of Santana because his music just doesn't do it for me. Most of it seems so contrived, as if to say, "Hey everybody! This is Latin music! Isn't that crazy?"

Malo, on the other hand, doesn't need to force anything. They're a bunch of great musicians (drums/perc, bass, guitar, organ/keys, horns, vocals) who play what I would consider to be a cross between Tower of Power, Deep Purple, and the Gypsy Kings. The songs are mostly long-form jams that feature soloists from the whole band (not just the guitar) . In spite of the Latin jam-style, the songs still maintain great direction and never bore you with a round-robin solo style.

Unfortunately, this album is hard to come by in the city, so I had to order it from a great music distributor who runs out of Florida and sells through Amazon. So, if you want to have a listen, which you should, you'll probably have to come to me.

Mr. Bungle - California (1999)
To finish off this batch of reviews, I once again find myself enamoured with a Mike Patton release. This is the last recording from his Mr. Bungle project (so far) and is easily the most accessible and concise (another 45-minute snapshot of goodness). Mr. Bungle is known for squeezing the widest variety of song styles you can imagine onto one CD, and this release delivers in spades. The only common theme in the album's sound, aside from Patton's virtuoso vocals, is that there is no unifying sound.

Even within a song, you never know what to expect. One song could start out as a surprisingly trippy 50's pop tune and switch to 2 seconds of a 6/8 Latin groove in the same tempo, then quickly switch back. That's just the warped mind of the Patton hard at work. Some of the songs hint at his trip hop work in Peeping Tom, which came 7 years later. Other songs are warped takes on overdone styles, such as placing electronic drum grooves and distorted vocals in a Beach Boys style surf rock tune. When you realize that you aren't supposed to figure it out, you can just sit back and enjoy it.

One of the album highlights is entitled Ars Moriendi, Latin for the art of death. At the beginning, it could easily be a distorted version of a bonus track from the Fiddler on the Roof soundtrack. It then shifts into some kind of techno-inspired Klezmer, and briefly into the heavy metal equivalent and back again. With interludes into odd time signature vocal extravaganzas, the piece returns to the fantastic Klezmer melody, complete with dueling clarinet and metal guitars. Fantastic.

My other highlight of the moment is the tune entitled Vanity Fair, which is the psychedelic version of doo-wop. The vocals are fantastic, as always, and the lyrics begin with "You're not human, you're a miracle / A creature with an animal's head." I love it. Patton plays with the key signature like a rubber band as he mmm bop's his way to brilliance.

This album may also be hard to track down, considering I bought the last copy from the impressive in-store playlist at A&B sound South. It wasn't even packaged, but the salesman was kind enough to let me have it. I have a feeling he was just happy to talk to someone who shared his taste in music.