A CLOSER LISTEN weekly #28

SHOOK WORLD, Ukrainian Field Notes, and reviews

Dear Listeners, I’m a day late on this, forgive me. Life, you know? And more to the point, at least here in Montreal, WINTER. I’m deep in writing mode, teaching one class on sound, and have a bunch of very cool (still secret) musical projects cooking up, and I’m trying to get out into the world and see some live music and art too. But as always we’ve got a lot of great music to share. Let’s get into it.

Shook, the latest album from Algiers, is about to be released on February 24 via Matador. To be honest, I hadn’t heard of Algiers prior to the announcement of this album. I don’t pay very close attention to mainstream music, particularly rock, at least not since I finished college and got deeper into other genres. But drummer Matt Tong was in Bloc Party, whose debut Silent Alarm hit really hard when I was in college, and that connection piqued my interest. If 2005 nostalgia wasn’t enough, though, consider this impressive list of guest collaborators, some of whom are friends of this site: Big Rube, Zach De La Rocha, billy woods, Backxwash, Mark Cisneros, Samuel T. Hering, Jae Matthews, LaToya Kent, Nadah El Shazly, DeForrest Brown, Jr., Patrick Shiroishi, and Lee Bains. I’ll need to spend more time with the record, but my first impressions are their fusion of rock, hip hop, and experimental modes demonstrates how certain concepts, styles, and techniques from the underground have come to influence more popular musical styles, and the result is something unique.

I’m not here to tell you about Shook, but rather King Vision Ultra’s Shook World, a self-described “mixtape” that draws on Shook for some its concepts and raw material. The result completely stands on its own, and I suspect it is more likely to appeal to readers of this site. Algiers brought together a cohort of incredible collaborators, and King Vision Ultra does the same. Where Shook has woods, Big Rube, and Patrick Shiroishi, Shook World features E L U C I D, Bigg Jus, and Matana Roberts. As different as the two end results are, there is a beautiful symmetry to these projects. Back in August 2022, while I was visiting my family in New York, I was lucky enough to finally catch a live set from King Vision Ultra (aka GENG PTP), who has featured on the Sound Propositions podcast twice now, profiling his label PTP and again for our MF DOOM tribute. Apparently it was that same night that GENG was first approached by members of Algiers to work on what became Shook World. Algiers is based in Atlanta, though I can’t say I can hear that in their music. But GENG is very much a New Yorker, and that energy is palpable on Shook World.

SHOOK WORLD
One of the motifs that unifies Shook World is the use of field-recordings of trains. This is a call back to beginning of Illmatic, cementing a connection with hip hop history. Besides referencing the Algiers album, Shook World also can’t help but recall Mobb Deep’s classic “Shook Ones, Part II”, especially since GENG’s KVU moniker is partly a tribute to Prodigy’s King Vulture. But it’d be a disservice to KVU to confine the project within any one even genre, even if hip hop plays an important role in what he does. The subway remains one of the enduring images associated with New York, both underground and elevated. The recordings, many of which were sent in by GENG’s contributors, ground Shook World firmly in New York, something that is reinforced by vocal samples from streamers going places they don’t belong, by Midwestern transplants complaining about the city they’ve come to gentrify. And let’s be real, they’re shook in realizing that everything isn’t oriented around them as protagonists, our city isn’t unclaimed territory come to be discovered. As GENG himself has pointed out in interviews, if you come to New York with respect you’ll be met as such, but entitled outsiders treating people’s neighborhoods as their playground are gonna get checked.

As we discussed in BEFORE THE INTERNET, the pandemic has been particularly hard on the city, and the forces of gentrification and displacement have ramped into overdrive, with drug addiction and homelessness on the rise. For a while, NY felt more like itself than it had in a long time, but now that tourism is back to pre-pandemic the levels the crush is on again. The reactionaries are in full-force following the uprisings of 2020, and a cop is even the mayor of the city now. There’s an anger that pervades Shook World, mirroring Algiers own meditations on America more broadly. At the same time, there’s a defiant sense of celebration that ties together the entire tape. Many voices are featured, including GENG’s own sonic tag that recurs throughout. Raps, spoken world, sung vocals, and vocal samples all bleed into one another, all playing a similar role. Guest contributions come, in order, from LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs, Matana Roberts, E L U C I D, Dreamcrusher, Nakama., Desde, Rena Anakwe, Marcus, Lord Kayso, Harlem Boog, DJ Haram, Dis Fig, maassai, amani, Bigg Jus, No Land, with additional field recordings courtesy of Taja Cheek (L'Rain) and Ara Kim, with Frankie Algiers hosting. What a crew. I’d be hard pressed to choose a highlight, but hearing Bigg Jus (of underground legends Company Flow) spit over the a flip of the intro of amani + KVU’s An Unknown Infinite is definitely up there. E L U C I D’s refrain from “Irreversible, Devil” has stayed with me, rattling around my head: "A beginning doesn't need an ending only a portal." And massaai’s verse definitely has me anticipating her next full-length. The tape is quickly selling out, but copies are also available direct from Algiers on tour. Don’t sleep on this one.

UKRAINIAN FIELD NOTES

Produced for Resonance FM by Gianmarco Del Re.

Heinali talks about the making of his album Kyiv Eternal out on February 24, 2023 on the anniversary of the Russian full-scale invasion.

Heinali ~ Kyiv Eternal

Kyiv Eternal is released tomorrow on the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  At this writing, over 200,000 people have died, and the war continues to rage … but not in the way that Putin had hoped.  The Battle of Kyiv was won by Ukraine. The statue of Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny still stands, wrapped up to protect it from bombs.

Heinali (Oleg Shpudeko) writes, ““After the Battle of Kyiv was over, many Kyivites noticed this strange feeling. “It was as if the city was alive, breathing. We wanted to hug it, to protect every inch of it from harm. I didn’t know how to do it back then. It took time and distance to figure it out, but Kyiv Eternal is my hug.”  The album is a collage of field recordings and loops, a tribute to the vibrancy of a still-breathing city and the 37 years Heinali has lived there.  Like many of the region’s recordings from the past year, Kyiv Eternal is a statement release, but in this instance the statement is one of pride.  Time has produced perspective, and resistance a pervasive hope.

Read the entire review here.

RECENT REVIEWS

Reviews are at the heart of ACL. Here are (excerpts from) a few of my favorite reviews we posted on the blog in the last few weeks.

Anna Salzmann & Garreth Broke ~ Healing + Hiding (Reworks)
Healing, from abstract painter Anna Salzmann and pianist Garreth Broke, is a pairing of eleven paintings and pieces, a doubling of miniatures.  Hiding (Reworks) is a half-dozen re-imaginings of the track of the same name.  All told, the total – including Anna and Gareth – is eighteen couples.  For those who want more, the love continues with sheet music, an art book and a print. Let’s start with a look at the cover painting, titled “Heart.Map.”  The heart is not full, and depending on one’s perspective is either dissipating or forming.  The red seems pure, while the black seems like pollution.  On Valentine’s Day, many broken-hearted people wear black.

Erik Hall ~ Canto Ostinato
Canto Ostinato, which was composed in 1976, gives a great deal of freedom to the performers to choose which instruments to use, how often to repeat the 106 sections of the work, and how to shape the music’s dynamics and articulation.  As a result, each performance is unique. Hall has leaned into this, choosing a pallet of instruments that is both retro and contemporary: a felted Steinway grand piano, a 1962 Hammond M-101 organ, and a 1978 Rhodes Mark I electric piano. It’s a perfect combination: the similarities and differences in timbre are fascinating, and the shifting patterns feel kaleidoscopic, reflected in the entrancing artwork by Aaron Lowell Denton. Listening to it is like watching light dancing: it reminds us that the world we live in is full of a beauty so subtle, so wonderful, as to be profound. Highly recommended.

Hollie Kenniff ~ We All Have Places That We Miss
There is a sense of post-pandemic reflection at the heart of Hollie Kenniff’s new album; the title captures a collective sense of loss that pervades the compositions. If the inspiration sprang from a moment during the pandemic, it’s a phrase that will recur as climate change continues. We All Have Places That We Miss could refer to a favourite spot on a riverbank, now washed away by floodwater or a house lost in a wildfire; or an island soon to be submerged under rising seawater. For Kenniff, that place is a lakeside lodge in Ontario built by her grandparents and the site of family gatherings each summer. The notes say that the family had to ‘relinquish’ the property during the pandemic and its loss clearly hit Kenniff deeply. Unlike Félicia Atkinson’s 2022 album Image Language, Kenniff doesn’t use the sounds or atmosphere of the building but seeks to evoke memories of moments experienced during the family visits. We All Have Places That We Miss channels this two-fold: capturing Kenniff’s fond recollections of happier days and also, at times, the experience of loss caused by these memories.

Quator Bozzini ~ Éliane Radigue: Occam Delta XV
Occam Delta XV is the latest work in the ever-expanding Occam Series, begun in 2011 and comprising over eighty unique pieces for a wide variety of instrumentations. Perhaps the defining feature of Radigue’s work throughout both her electronic and acoustic periods is an attention to microbeats, those rhythmic pulses that can emerge when interference patterns occur between similar frequencies. In Occam Delta XV, this is achieved via long, sustained tones that slowly change and recombine overtime. Yet the form of the piece remains something of a mystery: apparently, the performance instructions were conveyed to the ensemble by the composer herself without being written down, resulting in a piece that is never the same twice. For their part, Quator Bozzini describe the piece as something more like a state of mind than a score.

Simon Scott ~ Long Drove
As with much sonic experimentation that sits on and queries the line dividing nature and sound from music, Scott’s album benefits from attention to the subtle context clues he offers that even his more melodic pieces might have their basis in his recordings of natural sound, something especially evident in the way in which he frames individual tracks and the album itself with natural sound.  There is a sense of urgency to the record, trafficked in the surprisingly dynamic looped recordings of the “Holme Fen Posts” pieces, but perhaps more strongly in the way in which the album is organized, initiated as listeners are into its more spartan middle by the aching opening and the minimalist closer, which faintly returns to that gentle processed melody of the opening.

Zoë Mc Pherson ~ Pitch Blender
The powerful cover image intimates confidence and yearning.  Given the theme, one may also read into the image an environmental tilt, the green flash and even an alien tractor beam.  The hand connects back to String Figures, now more distinct than abstract.  In the video for “On Fire,” dancers enjoy a final bout of movement before blinking out of existence.  As an album opener, the track is eruptive, more like magma than the popular songs that share its name (Alicia Keys’ “Girl on Fire,” Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m on Fire”), bleeding directly into “The Spark,” continuing Mc Pherson’s declarative statement. “The Spark” operates as a cyber rave, swift and relentless, the dancers picking up where they left off as their particles are reconstructed in another universe.

UPCOMING RELEASES

(complete list with Bandcamp links here)

We’re in-between seasons now, not quite a juncture but a confluence.  The nights are still too long, while mornings may be cold or warm, a toss of the dice.  We’re preparing our Spring Music Preview, but it’s not quite spring.  Fortunately there’s a steady stream of previews to get us excited for every phase of the future. New music is added here daily; we hope that you’ll find your next favorite album right here!

Alexander Tucker + Keith Collins ~ Fifth Continent (Subtext, 24 February)

Amanda Irrarrazabal & Eli Wallace ~ Entre Pleigos (Dinzu Artefacts, 24 February)

Benny Bleu ~ March of the Mollusk (24 February)

Beqa Ungiadze – ს​ა​დ​გ​უ​რ​ი (Phantom Limb, 24 February)

Bondo ~ Print Selections (Quindi, 24 February)

Bono / Burattini ~ Suono in Un Tempo Trasfigurato (Maple Death, 24 February)

Camp of Wolves ~ Planetar (Subexotic, 24 February)

Cortion ~ DLF (Muzan Editions, 24 February)

Drew Gardner ~ The Return (Astral Spirits, 24 February)

Duncan Pinhas, Yerri-Gaspar Hummel ~ Voyage initiatique (Studio Labut, 24 February)

DUP SYS ~ Madoromi (Muzan Editions, 24 February)

Earth Trax ~ Closer Now (Lapsus, 24 February)

etchasketch ~ Falling Up (Ombrelle Concrete, 24 February)

Giants of Discovery ~ And It’s Goodnight From the Human Race (Subexotic, 24 February)

Grand River ~ All Above (Editions Mego, 24 February)

Heinali ~ Kyiv Eternal (Injazero, 24 February)

Hideo Nakasako ~ Collected Sound Fragments (Muzan Editions, 24 February)

ironomi ~ himorogi (Kitchen, 24 February)

John Bence ~ Archangels (Thrill Jockey, 24 February)

Karen Vogt ~ Losing the Sea (Mare Nostrum, 24 February)

Langham Research Centre and John Butcher ~ Six Hands at an Open Door (Persistence of Sound, 24 February)

Letters from Mouse ~ St. Swithin’s Day Storm (Subexotic, 24 February)

Masayoshi Miyazaki ~ China Life (Flaming Pines, 24 February)

The Mountain King / Gate to Xibalba ~ Split Album (Cursed Monk, 24 February)

The Necks ~ Travel (Northern Spy, 24 February)

Ole-Bjørn Talstad ~ Ferd (Moderna, 24 February)

plygid ~ Sensory Shell (Big Tent, 24 February)

Roxanne Nesbitt / Ben Brown / Marielle Groven ~ Play Symbiotic Instruments (Small Scale Music, 24 February)

3Phaz ~ Ends Meet (Discrepant, 24 February)

Tongue Depressor & Weston Olencki ~ Don’t Tell No Tales Upon Us (Dinzu Artefacts, 24 February)

V/A ~ A Beginner’s Guide to Sublime Frequencies Vol. 1 & 2 (High Castle Teleorkestra, 24 February)

Zekkereya El-magharbel ~ Daytimes/Nighttimes (Dinzu Artefacts, 24 February)

Megan Alice Clune ~ Furtive Glances (Room40, 25 February)

Ozan Aydin ~ Daily Needs (26 February)

anthene ~ Shelter (Dronarivm, 28 February)

BULBUL ~ Silence! (Rock Is Hell, 28 February)

Illusion of Safety ~ Organ Guitar Drone (1 March)

Alex Ward Item 4 Furthered ~ Furthered (577 Records, 3 March)

AMP ~ Echoesfromtheholocene (Ampbase, 3 March)

Brötzmann / Leigh / Lonberg-Holm ~ Naked Nudes (Trost, 3 March)

Erik Levander ~ Kvad  (Supple 9, 3 March)

Frederic D. Oberland ~ Solstices (Zamzamrec, 3 March)

Garreth Broke ~ Hiding (Reworks) (piano and coffee records, 3 March)

Giovanni Lami ~ Monumento Fiume (Kohlhaas, 3 March)

Glåsbird ~ Pacifica (Whitelabrecs, 3 March)

Hoshiko Yamane ~ Reflections (Whitelabrecs/1631 Recordings, 3 March)

It Was a Good Dream ~ Rememory (3 March)

John Dierker ~ Bass Clarinet Tenor Saxophone (Sensitive Documents, 3 March)

Kate Carr ~ false dawn (Flaming Pines, 3 March)

Kate NV ~ WOW (RVNG Int., 3 March)

Mark Harris / John 3:16 ~ Procession (Alrealon Musique, 3 March)

Mathieu P ~ Conducere (Safeword, 3 March)

Nyokabi Kariuki ~ Feeling Body (cmntx, 3 March)

Often the Thinker ~ Sincere Insanity (3 March)

PoiL Ueda ~ S/T (Dur & Doux, 3 March)

Sanah Kadoura ~ Duality (3 March)

Sara Caswell ~ The Way to You (Anzic, 3 March)

Si Tew ~ Quietude (Atjazz, 2 March)

URBS ~ Geheimland (Compost, 3 March)

William Basinski ~ The Clocktower at the Beach (1979) (LINE, 3 March)

YNV ~ Western Paradox (Subject to Restrictions, 3 March)

Matt Rösner ~ Empty, Expanding, Collapsing (Room40, 4 March)

Amber Muelenijzer ~ Saab Fanfare (Edições CN, 6 March)

Jeugdbrand ~ Siamese Dream (Team) (Edições CN, 6 March)

Land’s Air ~ S/T (Tone List, 7 March)

Melissa Grey & David Morneau, Robert Kirkbride ~ Always Becoming (7 March)

Philip Samartzis ~ Atmospheres and Disturbances (Room40, 7 March)

Elsa Bergman Playon Crayon ~ Playon Crayon (Bergman Inspelningar, 9 March)

Andrea Belfi ~ Eternally Frozen (Bow, 10 March)

Fabian Guirard ~ La Prise Électronique (L’Histoire Inconnue Du Disque, 10 March)

Fatima Al Qadiri ~ Gumar (Hyperdub, 10 March)

Francesco Fabris & Ben Frost ~ Vakning (Room40, 10 March)

Julia Gjertsen & Juha Mäki-Patola ~ Dive EP (Bigo & Twigetti, 10 March)

Lei Liang ~ Hearing Landscapes/Hearing Icescapes (New Focus, 10 March)

Lia Kohl ~ The Ceiling Reposes (American Dreams, 10 March)

Ohr ~ Luma/Chroma (sound as language, 10 March)

O Morto ~ Dans la Gorge d’un Monstre (Discrepant, 10 March)

O Morto ~ Ifrits Habitent (Discrepant, 10 March)

Re:drum ~ New Folk EP (Tripalium Corp., 10 March)

Scree ~ Jasmine on a Night in July (Ruination, 10 March)

Secret of Elements ~ Rebuilding Notre Dame (InFiné, 10 March)

Tomo-Nakaguchi ~ The Long Night in Winter Light (Audiobulb, 11 March)

Efraín Rozas ~ Still (Futura Resistenza, 13 March)

Bill Seaman & Steve Vitiello ~ The Clear Distance (Room40, 14 March)

Early Fern ~ Perpetual Care (Métron, 15 March)

Lorenz Weber ~ earth beats (15 March)

Romain Perrot & Quentin Rollet ~ Le vieux fusible (ReQords, 15 March)

Blank Gloss ~ Cornered (Kompakt, 17 March)

Brady Matheson ~ Every dream in your head (17 March)

Fargo ~ Geli (Kapitaen Platte, 17 March)

Gerald Cleaver, Brandon Lopez, Hprizm ~ In the Wilderness (577 Records, 17 March)

James Emrick ~ Actoma (Students of Decay, 17 March)

Lizzitsky ~ Miasma Jester (Never Sleep, 17 March)

Niklas Paschburg ~ Panta Rhei (7K!, 17 March)

Senestra ~ Stanford (17 March)

Simone Guidice ~ Alone (AFFIN, 17 March)

Luca Forcucci ~ Terra (Cronica, 21 March)

Tørrfall ~ S/T (Den Pene Inngang, 21 March)

Andy Loebs ~ Hyperlink Anamorphosis (JOLT, 24 March)

Blutch ~ Condate EP (Astropolis, 24 March)

Cruel Diagonals ~ Fractured Whole (Beacon Sound, 24 March)

CZIGO ~ Aishroo (Machine Records, 24 March)

Domotic ~ Palazzo (unjenesaisquoi, 24 March)

Elijah McLaughlin Ensemble ~ III (Astral Spirits, 24 March)

Gilroy Mere ~ Gilden Gate (Clay Pipe Music, 24 March)

Haarvöl ~ Seeking the intimacy of silence (Moving Furniture, 24 March)

Last Days ~ Windscale (n5MD, 24 March)

Les Dunes ~ S/T (Kapitaen Platte, 24 March)

Material + Object ~ Telepath (Editions Mego, 24 March)

Mats Gustafsson & Joachim Nordwall ~ Their Power Reached Across Space and Time – To Defy Them Was Death – Or Worse (Thrill Jockey, 24 March)

Neal Cowley ~ Battery Life (Mote, 24 March)

Richard Orton ~ Hemlock Stone (Persistence of Sound, 24 March)

Robert Honstein ~ Lost and Found (New Focus, 24 March)

SELVEDGE ~ Capacity (24 March)

Uzhur ~ S/T (NAHAL Recordings, 24 March)

YoshimiOizumikiYoshiduO – To The Forest To Live A Truer Life (Thrill Jockey, 24 March)

Bendu ~ Portaling (Werra Foxma, 25 March)

A Journey of Giraffes ~ Empress Nouveau (Somewherecold, 31 March)

Arrowounds ~ In the Octopus Pond (Lost Tribe Sound, 31 March)

Avenue Azure ~ S/T (Ensemble Klang, 31 March)

Bungalovv ~ Visited by Strangers (Genome & 6.66Mbp, 31 March)

Dilian ~ (Bmfr) Beam Former (Artetetra, 31 March)

Höhn ~ S/T (STNS, 31 March)

Mammal Hands ~ Gift from the Trees (Gondwana, 31 March)

Masahiro Takahashi ~ Humid Sun (telephone explosion, 31 March)

Pépe ~ Reclaim (Lapsus, 31 March)

Phil Minton, Pat Thomas, Dave Tucker, Roger Turner ~ Scatter: On a Clear Day Like This (577 Records, 31 March)

Piotr Kurek ~ Peach Blossom (Mondoj, 31 March)

Richard Skelton ~ selenodesy (Phantom Limb, 31 March)

Rob Mazurek – Exploding Star Orchestra ~ Lightning Dreamers (International Anthem, 31 March)

Survey Channel ~ Canvas Doubles (Werra Foxma, 31 March)

Bipolar Explorer ~ In the Hours Left Before Dawn (7 April)

David Edren ~ Relativteit Van de Omgeving (Not Not Fun, 7 April)

Fire-Toolz ~ I am upset because I see something that is not there. (Hausu Mountain, 7 April)

High Season ~ The Call (Permanent Vacation, 7 April)

Issei Herr ~ Distant Intervals (NNA Tapes, 7 April)

John Matthias & Jay Auborn ~ Ghost Notes (Cognitive Shift Recordings, 7 April)

Michael Sarian & Matthew Putman ~ A Lifeboat (Part II) (577 Records, 7 April)

µ-Ziq ~ 1977 (Balmat, 7 April)

Niko-Matti Ahti ~ Kaivajaiset (Students of Decay, 7 April)

Peter Manheim ~ In Time (Northern Spy, 7 April)

Radboud Mens & Fernando Jose Pereira ~ The Inoperative Suspension of a Stoppage (ERS, 7 April)

Sleep Research Facility/Llyn Y Cwn ~ Cargo/Posidonia (Cold Spring, 7 April)

Macgray ~ Collapse (Les Yeux Orange, 13 April)

Eva Novoa ~ Novoa / Kamaguchi / Cleaver Trio Vol. 1 (577 Records, 14 April)

Grandbrothers ~ Late Reflections (City Slang US, 14 April)

Martyn Heyne ~ Eight Reflections in Darkness (Tonal Institute / AWAL Sony, 14 April)

Penelope Trappes ~ Heavenly Spheres (Nite Hive, 14 April)

V/A ~ Random and emblematic: The sound of space (Modern Obscure Music, 14 April)

V/A ~ Utopia or Oblivion (Constructive, 14 April)

Chaz Knapp & Mariel Roberts ~ Setting Fire to These Dark Times (figureight, 21 April)

KVL ~ Volume 2 (Astral Spirits, 21 April)

Lucaslavia ~ Furnace (Macro, 21 April)

Simeon Walker ~ Imprints 2 (21 April)

Bill Orcutt ~ Jump On It (Palilalia, 28 April)

hÄK/Danzeisen ~ same (Karlrecords, 28 April)

Martyna Basta ~ Slowly Forgetting, Barely Remembering (Warm Winters Ltd., 28 April)

Oval ~ Romantiq (Thrill Jockey, 12 May)