MARY LOU WILLIAMS/ Black Christ of the Andes (Smithsonian)
Duke Ellington called Williams a vocalist "beyond category", and indeed,
her legacy far transcends the usual resume of those who grounded
themselves in the Swing Era. Having been an arranger, composer, pianist,
vocalist, and bandleader in the 1950's, the Georgia-born Williams took a
very early move into the avant-garde in the 60's, wedding her jazz
sensibilities with a deeply-rooted spirituality (creating "jazz masses");
she dedicated her life to helping other musicians downed by addiction to
drugs an alcohol, and turned deep-rooted pain and suffering of herself and
others into uplifting musical experiences. Following Sonny Rollins and Max
Roach, she featured strong pro-African American political themes into the
music, and worked ferociously touring, recording and playing right up to her
death in 1980. "Black Christ of the Andes" is a stunning document of
avant-jazz gospel vocal, supplemented by elements of Afro-Cuban waltz,
funeral marches, soul, blues, funk, and great melodies.
MONOSHOCK / Runnin' Ape-Like From the Backwards Superman: 1989-95 (S-S)
From the esteemed Agony Shorthand author Jay Hinman: "The revamped,
post-college MONOSHOCK were the great white hopes of Bay Area
sub-underground rock for about a year; the few of us that closely followed
their comings and goings, best captured on those three loud-as-fuck 45s,
were flat-out convinced that they were one big Forced Exposure write-up or
one big WFMU endorsement away from selling the nation on their
considerable charms." Hey, we tried! For the connoisseurs of blasted,
dirty-sound psychedelic punk, Monoshock are as hallowed as it gets.
Chrome, Crime, and Hawkwind dwelled inside those gunky 7" grooves (and
indeed "Hawkwind Show" on here one-ups Nick Lowe's "Rollers Show"), with
down-the-hall vocals fighting to rise above the mix of skreeching wah,
doomed cheesy effects and a mighty tornado of lo-fi insanity. I am not
sure if the 2LP set is still around, but this newly issued collection of
the band's 7" output is manna from heaven. And despite the digital format,
it keeps the junk intact at an appropriately muddy level. The kids loving
their Comets On Fire need this.
THAI ELEPHANT ORCHESTRA / Elephonic Rhapsodies
(Mulatta)
The second effort from these prodigious pachyderms. They seem to have
been listening to more Goblin these days.
XEX / Group: Xex
(The Smack Shire)
For all the moaning I've done over the years about growing up in a
culturally detached small town in Pennsylvania though my formative years
of discovering weird-ass punk and new/no wave music, the truth is simply
that the most mind-boggling ideas and warped musical aesthetics sprung
from these places. Amidst the sea of coked-up Cinderella wannabes who
played my high school anti-drug rallies, the Kevin Cronin-of REO-produced
big-fish-in-a-small-pond rock gods that walked down our streets, and the
sheer overload of crapola, there were mutants who had it up to here with
all of that silliness. Close to NYC, but not quite there, they never quite
got recognized, and they sure confused a lot of locals. I sure appreciated
'em for merely existing in an oppressive musical locale where the town's one
promoter was too busy hosting dance shows on TV where he got out of a Rolls
flanked by ho's and booking wheezy hair-metal reunions.
Xex must have been in a similar boat down in South River, New Jersey.
Sporting black garb, blurting arps, and bizarro names like "Thumbalina
Guglielmo" and "Waw Pierogi" (!) these guys
represented a totally bonkers aesthetic that seems like it was taking its
cues from what was being hyped in the NYC underground scene about that
time: Eno, Talking Heads, etc., but in fact this music is choking under
something more black, toxic, and totally Jersey. While they sang about
mall rat zombies who ran around trying to catch up with fashion, they also
addressed nuns and nerve gas. Musically, it sounds like it has more to do
with German nuts like Grauzone and California's zonked synth-gothers
Factrix or Nervous Gender than anything else remotely in xex's radius.
What gives?
Tom Smith did radio shows for a while on WFMU, and was entrenched in the
LP library listening to odd finds in backwards order starting at 'Z' when
he came across this lost gem. It totally blew our brains. There's zilch
about them on the web, as well (apparently not even the hip New York
papers gave 'em a mention), and he has been threatening to reissue this
baby for some time. Here 'tis at last. Turn up the minimal synth NJ
underground!
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