Five Songs, 7/28/2022

The Dramatics, “In the Rain”

A repeat, but happy to listen to it again.

Dirty Three, “Last Horse on the Sand”

Dirty Three are an instrumental post-rock band out of Australia, distinguished primarily by being led by a violinist. I’m actually more into this sort of sound than I was in the late 90s when this album came out, so maybe it’s worth sitting with the band some more. They certainly have a lot of records out there.

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Five Songs, 6/8/2022

Golden Dawn Arkestra, “Mama Se”

Any time you hear the word “collective” in relationship with a band, you know you’re in for something. Golden Dawn Arkestra are one of those, from Austin, and are inspired by Sun Ra, trying to do the whole cosmic exploration stuff. Some funk, jazz, Afrobeat, whatever else occurs to them gets thrown in the blender. It’s a lot, and I don’t know, it seems a little unfocused to me. I only have this one record, and I think as a drop-in here, it works, but the whole album is a bit exhausting.

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Five Songs, 3/28/2022

The Dramatics, “In the Rain”

Oh baby. Listen to that reverb! Those strings and horns! I don’t think I’m cool enough to listen to something like this, frankly. The Suede Denim Secret Police are going to haul me off.

Deerhoof, “Department of Corrections”

There’s something really uplifting about the alchemy of Deerhoof. The contrast of the spastic guitar lines, powerful drums, and sprightly vocals is genuinely irresistable. It’s just really fun stuff, and the fact that Deerhoof is still out there cranking out tunes like this is really reassuring. We’re almost twenty years out from Reveille, the first great Deerhoof record, and they’re just chugging along.

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Five Songs, 2/4/2022

Public Enemy, “Cold Lampin’ With Flavor”

The Flavor Flav joint on It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back is the scar that sets off the perfection of the rest of the album perfectly. As a little goof, it’s fine, but it’s a trifle compared to the rest of the thing. It’s not inevitable that Flav’s songs will always be like this, not in a world with “911 Is A Joke”, but he’s just goofing on this one. I mean, he just starts making mouth noises on it.

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