Rewind Reviews – Page 21 – 7th Level Music

Rewind Review: Gary Wilson – You Think You Really Know Me (2002 reissue)

I got to Gary Wilson late, so shame on me. I, like many Gen X’ers, first heard his name dropped by Beck but I had no idea who he was. He was Beck’s cool next-door neighbor for all I knew. Having Gary Wilson as your neighbor probably would be the coolest thing on Earth, because the guy’s an avant-garde music legend who has influenced more musicians than we can probably ever know, and he started this musical tidal wave with his debut album You Think You Really Know Me.

The album starts with “Another Time I Could Have Loved You,” which is a quick instrumental mix of electric piano and distorted guitar. It’s like Steely Dan and the Blade Runner soundtrack got in a car crash. Just when you think the album’s going to be all weird noise rock like Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music, along comes “You Keep on Looking” with its peppy synthesizers, fat synth-bass, and Gary Wilson’s love-lounge vocals.

“6.4 = Make Out” is one of his classics. It’s a slow jam about a familiar theme – Gary craving for (and yet at his wit’s end with) a mysterious woman. “I don’t kiss on my first date,” he tells us, but you don’t really believe him as the song dissolves into what sounds like distorted thunderclaps before that slick groove returns.

“When You Walk into My Dreams” is so damn funky that it should’ve been one of the greatest hits of 1977. The groove on it rivals Boz Scaggs’ “Lowdown,” the guitar solo is tight, and the lyrics are even more fun than the ones in Scaggs’ hit.

“Loneliness” is haunting, weird, and unsettling. It reminds me of Ennio Morricone’s lesser-known slasher film score work. It’s full of running water sounds, dissonant organ, and scratchy, slowed vocals.

“Cindy” is one of many women often featured in Wilson’s lyrics (Karen, Linda, Debbie, and Cathy being some of the others). “Pick me up around 9:20, but you better call first,” Cindy tells him, and he sings and dreams about making out with her for most of the night. “You Were Too Good to Be True” is a break-up song, sure, but it’s such a ferocious lounge-jazz jam that it’ll help you get over that lost relationship pretty quick.

“Groovy Girls Make Love at the Beach” is about Wilson wishing he could take Debbie down to the beach for an epic make-out session, but she’s “out of reach,” as is Cathy. He’s alone on another Friday night, but the song’s too fun to make you think striking out with two ladies crushes him. He’ll get back on the horse next Friday.

“I Wanna Lose Control” is Wilson playfully giving his lady some pillow talk about all the cool things they’re going to do on date night (swimming, hanging out with friends, etc.), but he does warn her he wants to go bonkers for fifteen minutes first. The title track is a precursor of vaporwave with great psychedelic touches and a beat structure that doesn’t seem to make sense at first.

“Chromium Bitch” is another of Wilson’s greatest hits. It has get-your-freak-on synths as Wilson sings about making kinky, sweet love to his girl. “I wanna make you my chromium bitch. My bitch. My bitch! Hey, I’ll be kissing you tonight.” He’s not a complete Dom, however. “And when you wanna go to the dance, I’ll be there, too. I’ll be smiling. I’ll be smiling, ‘cause I love you.”

The album ends with Gary Wilson finally getting to make out with Karen, Linda, Debbie, or Cathy on “And Then I Kissed Your Lips.” The whole album is like a diary of Wilson’s swinging weekend with hopeful plans (“6.4 = Make Out”), plans that went wrong (“Loneliness”), ones that look promising (“Cindy”), and ones that pan out to his delight (“Chromium Bitch”).

Again, shame on me for taking so long to find this masterpiece. Shame on you if you still haven’t heard it. Mr. Wilson has a new album due out this summer. I’m glad he’s still at it, and I hope he’s taking time to hang out with groovy girls at the beach. He deserves it.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Eric B. & Rakim – Don’t Sweat the Technique (1992)

Released in the prime time of hip-hop, Don’t Sweat the Technique is a classic featuring one of the best hip-hop duos of all time – Eric B. and Rakim.

“What’s on Your Mind” is a slow jam with a club beat as Rakim puts down rhymes so good that ladies want to snuggle with him on the couch and guys want to take lessons from him. Plus, only he can get away with a rhyme like “I seen you in the subway on the way from Brooklyn / Hello, good lookin’, is this seat tooken?”

“Teach the Children” is a plea to leaders to fix the environment, the drug abuse epidemic, and economic inequality. Eric B.’s groove on it hits as hard as Rakim’s message. “Pass the Hand Grenade” has Rakim challenging other MC’s to take the mic from him before he blows it to smithereens.

“Casualties of War,” one of their biggest hits, is a salute to troops serving in Iraq in the early 1990’s and how many weren’t sure about their mission, what awaited them when they returned home, or if their sacrifices were worth it. “Rest Assured” has drums so crisp they belong in a Pringles can. “The Punisher” could very well be about the Marvel Comics character with its chorus of “Kill ‘em again,” but it’s actually about Rakim slaying inferior MC’s with his hand grenade microphone. After all, he’s one of a select few who could put down such smooth rhymes on a track like “Relax with Pep” while Eric B. spins an acid-lounge groove behind him.

“Keep the Beat” is an even sexier slow jam than “What’s on Your Mind,” especially with the nice touch of female backing vocals on the chorus. The horn and flute loops in “Know the Ledge” are sweet, but Eric B.’s scratching is even better. “Kick Along” closes the record with the fastest beats and rhyming from the influential duo. “Try to keep up,” Rakim says at one point. It’s nearly impossible as the two of them race along faster than a lit dynamite fuse.

The title track is a lesson on rhymes, beats, and cuts. It’s no surprise that it and this album are hip-hop classics. Eric B. and Rakim are highly regarded, but often forgotten in the discussion of hip-hop greats among the general public who only have a cursory knowledge of rap. School is in session when you hear them, so pay attention.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Strange Lot – Walk of the Sun (2014)

[Rewind Reviews are reviews of albums that are over a year old by the time I hear them.]

Strange Lot’s debut EP, Walk of the Sun, is a portent of great things to come. Made when the band was a two-piece with Dominic Mena on bass, guitar, and vocals and Tim Lormor on drums, all four tracks are excellent psych-fuzz.

“Upside Dwners” starts like trippy mellow stuff you’d hum around a hippie campfire, but it soon bursts into glorious shimmering power pop (but with heavily reverbed vocals). “Stompr” is appropriately named because Lormor stomps out a killer beat on it while Mena gets weird and bluesy with his guitar licks. “Fiction” sounds a bit like early (as in Mongoloid Years) Devo cuts – sizzling rock drums backing distorted guitars and wild vocals. The title track is a full blast of psychedelia that needs blared from the speakers of your Vanagon.

I’m glad these guys released a full-length album (Another Mind) after this, because to not follow-up on such a good record would’ve been a travesty.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Vaadat Charigim – Sinking as a Stone (2015)

It’s intriguing that Israeli shoegaze trio Vaadat Charigim (Yuval Haring – guitar and vocals, Yuval Guttman – drums, Dan Bloch – bass) would make an album about boredom that is actually mesmerizing. Sinking as a Stone is about various types of boredom and ennui felt by young people living in Tel Aviv (work, life, relationships, waiting for coffee, etc.), but the album is so lush and dreamy that you can’t be bored by it. It’s a panacea for its theme.

For example, the opener, “Neshel,” is almost eleven minutes long – about the time you’d wait for a halfway decent chai – but it swirls around you with such ghostly guitars and vocals that the song goes by before the barista has your order ready. “Hadavar Haamiti” is power shoegaze in the vein of the Jesus and Mary Chain and will have you tapping your foot at the bus stop while you wait for your ride to work.

“Klum” takes you out of your doldrums by lifting you into orbit with precision drumming and spaced-out vocals. “Ein Li Makom” has gothic touches, but not so many that they overpower the rock hooks (of which there are plenty). “Imperia Achrona” floats so well that it’s almost like a Slowdive track. The guitar comes at you from several angles, but it stays peaceful the entire time. It also has a great switch in the middle that almost makes it two songs in one. “At Chavera Sheli” combines Joy Division and Modern English into a dream-rock gem. The organ at the end of it drifts into the beginning of “Hashiamum Shokea,” which is a great slice of shoegaze and a powerful end to the record.

It’s not boring at all. Vaadat Charigim’s Sinking as a Stone is a journey down a lazy river with its shoegaze drone grooves, yes, but the boat is crewed by angels, mystics, shamans, and aliens. You’re too fascinated by it to be bored.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Dayluta Means Kindness – The Ground Is Lava (2014)

Dayluta Means Kindness is a five-piece prog / psych rock outfit from El Paso, Texas. They play big instrumental jams that evoke images of alien worlds and cosmic exploration. The title of their four-song debut, The Ground Is Lava, suggests childhood playground memories, space exploration. and shifting landscapes.

The title track opens the record with soaring guitars that border on drone rock. “Everywhere You Look There’s a Mountain” has a title like a Zen koan, drums like a tribal ceremony, and guitar work like a slow avalanche. This would be perfect for hiking at sunrise in the American southwest. I must remember to put in on such a playlist for my next trip out there.

“Young Savagery & General Debauchery” is a great name for a juvenile delinquency movie from the late 1950’s, but the song is a long, floating piece of beautiful guitar work and stadium rock drumming. This track will change your mood, slow your thinking, and inspire you. To do what? That’s up to you, but I suggest rock climbing, meditation, surfing, or creating any kind of art.

The closer, “The Sun’s True Brightness in Comparison with Other Stars,” is as epic as its title. It builds from tones that remind you of a sunrise to a soundtrack for navigating an asteroid field. It belongs on your “morning run” playlist, and the whole album belongs in your collection.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: A Place to Bury Strangers – Exploding Head (2009)

I’ve been meaning to pick up A Place to Bury Strangers’ 2009 album, Exploding Head, for years. I have no excuse other than it was never for sale on CD whenever I’d see them live. I love the band, so shame on me for taking seven years to pick up this fine record.

The opener, “It Is Nothing,” displays Oliver Ackermann’s (vocals and guitar) love of My Bloody Valentine. His guitar sounds like he’s playing it upside-down and backwards while his vocals seem to be coming from the bottom of an empty pool. “In Your Heart” is one of my favorite APTBS tracks. It has the stabbing guitar chords, chugging synth beats, lyrics about screwed-up relationships (“Don’t say you’ll be with me again. There’s nothing there, it’s dead.”), and David J-like bass I love from their songs, and it slays live.

Tribal drumming grounds “Lost Feeling” as Ackermann pleads with his girl to come back to him, but he knows he’s not even on her radar. It’s like a great lost Bauhaus track with even more blaring guitars. “Deadbeat” is nothing but, as it has some of the hardest, slickest beats and bass on the record. It’s an instant mosh pit creator, so be careful where you play it.

“Keep Slipping Away” is like early Cure but with more reverb, heavier amps, and not as much moping. “Ego Death” is heavy goth rock with a chorus that might knock you out of your boots. “Smile When You Smile” is equally heavy and a bit creepier. “Everything Always Goes Wrong” could be the theme for every Three’s Company episode by the title, but the sound of it is better for a modern Euro-horror film.

You’d think the title track would be loud enough to make your head explode, but APTBS wisely flips it around to make it a catchy industrial track with almost a dance club bass line and vocals free of reverb. The closer is one of their hardest and loudest live tracks – “I Lived My Life to Stand in the Shadow of Your Heart.” As fast as it is on the record, it’s twice the speed live.

Don’t be like me and wait seven years to add this to your collection. It’s essential noise-psych.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Groove Armada – Vertigo (1999)

[Rewind Reviews are reviews of albums over a year old that I haven’t heard until now.]

Groove Armada’s Vertigo is one of those records that I’ve been meaning to pick up for years but kept forgetting to seek out whenever I was in a wrecka stow or visiting an online music sales site.

It’s a masterpiece of late 1990’s techno, house, and lounge. The opener, “Chicago,” is a perfect anthem for late night clubbing in the Windy City – fat beats, luscious synth grooves, and kinky guitar. “Whatever, Whenever” starts off sounding like something from a grindhouse horror film trailer before rapper M.A.D. slides in with smooth rhymes to save us all from whatever horror was about to pounce on us.

“Dusk, You & Me” is one of the best make-out songs of 1999. If Roddy Lormiar’s trumpet doesn’t get things moved into the naked zone, you only have yourself to blame. I don’t know if the “63” in the title of “Pre 63” refers to the year 1963, but you could put this fly song of heavy bass, playful flute, and crisp beats into any early 1960’s Euro-crime film or sex comedy.

“If Everybody Looked the Same” weaves a great use of a sample from A Tribe Called Quest through a song about bigotry. “Serve Chilled” is perfectly titled, as it’s great for relaxing after late night parties. “I See You Baby” is the opposite, however, and will get the party jumping again as soon as you start it. I mean, the chorus is “I see you, baby, shakin’ that ass.” What more do you need?

“A Private Interlude” has great scratch work from Dominic Betmead. “At the River” is weird, almost sounding backward at some points, and creeps out of the speakers like something from a bad print of a Fellini movie. In other words, I like it. “In My Bones” is a sweet house track about how a good groove gets inside you and can only escape by taking temporary control of you. It has some of the best synth work on the record and probably is one of their best “unknown” hits.

“Your Song” isn’t a cover of the Elton John tune. It’s a funky track with sexy vocals by Sophie Barker. “Inside My Mind (Blue Skies)” is a song you’ve probably heard in dozens of movies, TV shows, and commercials and not realized it. It’s ambient lounge grooves instantly put you in a mellow state of mind. It’s impossible to be depressed during this song. It chills you out like few songs can. The album ends with a saucy remix of “I See You Baby” by Fatboy Slim.

It’s a solid house music record. Pick it up if you’re looking for some good late night grooves for your next party.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Beck – Guero (2005)

Beck was eager to rock in 2005, as evidenced by the opening of his Guero album. “E-Pro” starts off with heavy guitar, stadium drums, and that funky ass white boy delivery of his that only he can pull off without sounding like a fool. I’m sure this was a hit back then, but why isn’t it still now? The breakdown on it alone is worth multiple spins.

“Que Onda Guero” is one of the funkiest tracks Beck had laid on us in years. It has a bit of that “Loser” feel, with Spanglish lyrics and references to things like Burger King crowns and Latino vegetable vendors. The beats from the Dust Brothers on it help, of course. You can’t go wrong there. They come back for “Girl,” on which Beck plays everything else and sings about his girl “with her cheap sunglasses walking crooked down the beach.”

“Missing” has Beck lamenting the loss of his girl. I don’t know if she’s the same one from the previous track, but he was heartbroken when he wrote it. You might not realize it at first due to the bossa nova beats and smooth groove, but can’t miss it with lyrics like “I prayed heaven today would bring its hammer down on me and pound you out of my head. I can’t think with you in it.”

I’m not sure which is funkier on “Black Tambourine” – Beck’s bass or the Dust Brothers’ beats. Money Mark’s organ work on “Earthquake Weather,” might beat both of them, however. The whole track is a great mix of 1970’s funk, trip hop, and acid jazz. “Hell Yes” is vintage Beck, with lots of quirky rapping, snappy electro-beats, and fun lyrics. I think, and hope, that it’s about a janitor who gets his groove on while cleaning floors in an office building and not giving a damn what anyone thinks.

“Broken Drum” is a lament to a lost friend, with nice lonely piano work by Beck. “Scarecrow” is a near-blues toe-tapper. “Go It Alone” is about Beck deciding he’s better off being a cool loner than getting entangled in a marriage that scares the hell out of him (and that’s Jack White on bass, by the way).

With all these songs about weird and doomed relationships, songs about death were inevitable. “Farewell Ride” is something from a dark southern swamp shack sung by someone with weathered skin and gnarled hands from fistfights and hard work. “I don’t see the face of kindness, I don’t hear the mission bells, I don’t smell the morning roses. All I see is two white horses in a line carrying me to my burial ground.” Good, heavy stuff right there.

“Rental Car” is about going as far as one can on borrowed time, and the closer, “Emergency Exit” is about someone coming to grips with death and feeling relief in knowing kindness and life will go on in their absence.

I seriously have no idea how I’ve avoided this album for eleven years. Guero would’ve been in my top 10 of 2005 if I’d heard it back then. Each track is good. There’s no filler here. Shame on me for missing it.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: The Duke Spirit – Neptune (2008)

I first heard The Duke Spirit (Liela Moss – vocals, keys, percussion, Toby Butler – bass, Luke Ford – guitars, Daniel Higgins – guitars, organ, Olly Betts – drums) on BBC 6 Music (the greatest radio station in the world) somewhere around 2010 when they played the title track from the Duke Spirit’s 2005 debut album Cuts Across the Land. I nearly wept and thought, “Where has this band been my whole life?”

I found their 2008 release, Neptune, in a bargain CD bin at a Bloomington, Indiana wrecka stow. It opens with a brief hymn that repeats the lines “I do believe in something you know.” You can take that a couple different ways: Either Moss is telling us she has faith in something we know as truth; or she’s defiantly telling someone, perhaps us, that she has faith despite what we might believe.

The first full track, “Send a Little Love Token,” sums up everything I love about the band: Powerful vocals that evoke Patti Smith, hammering piano, big drums, and shoegaze guitar. “The Step and the Whale” is about Moss realizing too late that she’s sabotaged a relationship. It’s a sharp song for her voice, Butler’s bass sounds like something from an old Cure record, and the rest of the band puts down stuff the Jesus and Mary Chain would envy.

“Dog Roses” might be Moss remembering why she sabotaged the relationship and remembering that it was a good idea after all: “I hope you stay in charge of your mouth…When nothing’s fluid you drink yourself through it. Outside you chalk-draw yourself.” “Into the Fold,” a good rocker, is about rebuilding a relationship (“This heart could heal, if you had courage just to say what you feel.”).

“This Ship Was Built to Last” is a combination sea shanty and shoegaze track. Trust me, it works. The combination of the distorted, echoing guitar (especially after the epic bridge), Moss’ chanting vocals, and coxswain drumming is excellent.

Someone must’ve pissed off Moss when she wrote “Wooden Heart,” because it’s a searing diatribe against a former lover, but delivered with a torch song blues feel. “I would understand your heart if I could feel it,” she sings as guitars reminiscent of My Bloody Valentine riffs snake around her.

She’s not angry in “You Really Wake Up the Love in Me.” Quite the opposite, actually. “You taste so good today you’d get love from anyone,” she sings as Betts puts down some of his best licks on the record and the guitars go into full psychedelic madness by the end. “My Sunken Treasure” is borderline power pop. “Lassoo,” with its nice horn section, is the excellent power rock the Duke Spirit does so well, combining fierce vocals with raw rock instrumentation. It continues with “Neptune’s Call,” in which Moss is feeling frisky again (“I tasted the salt on you. Now I have a tongue tattoo.”). The closer, “Sovereign,” is almost a lullaby.

The Duke Spirit have a new album, Kin, due out later this year. I look forward to it. The first three released tracks are a nice blend of their styles: shoegaze, soul, rock. Neptune picks up where Cuts Across the Land left off, and the band is still moving forward.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Kaiser Chiefs – Education, Education, Education & War (2014)

In the liner notes for Kaiser Chiefs’ (Ricky Wilson – vocals, Andrew White – guitar, Nick Baines – keyboards, Simon Rix – bass, Vijay Mistry – drums) Education, Education, Education & War, each track is listed with a year, staring with 1921 and ending with 2014 (when the album was released).

The band comes out swinging with “The Factory Gates” (Year – 1921) – a song about the plight of British factory workers trapped in their clock-in, clock-out lives. “They tell you day after day to walk through the factory gates. What you make on the factory floor, you take straight to the company store…’Til they can’t break your will anymore. You are contractually tied to death’s door,” Wilson sings with the gusto of a man ready to smash his cubicle and walk away from his job.

“Coming Home” (Year – 1951) is a fine example of Kaiser Chiefs’ power ballads, with big instrumentation and clever lyrics about a relationship that might be toxic to both people involved but might also be the best thing they’ve had. “Misery Company” (Year – 1939) is about a young officer wanting to stay off the front lines and going mad at the thought of spilling human blood (as noted by the chorus of hysterical laughter). White’s guitar sizzles on this track.

Mistry’s drums hit hard on “Ruffians on Parade” (Year – 1947). It’s easy to hear this as a song about the high the UK was on after World War II ended, but it’s actually a song about how a lot of us have turned into jerks in a world affected by terrorism. We’ve given up privacy and some of our freedom for the illusion of safety and consumerism (“At the last stand of the day, we lost more than we saved. In the dark of the arcades, we spend more than we made.”). “Meanwhile Up in Heaven” (Year – 1970) challenges us to free ourselves from this trap (“And your mind is the key. It is the key that sets you free.”). It’s another big ballad that casually strolls into power pop, although Rix’s bass is particularly fat on it.

“One More Last Song” (Year – 1991) is about post-1980’s greed, and it has a nice, nearly psychedelic keyboard breakdown in it by Baines at one point before the guitar, bass, and drums roll back in to make it a nice rocker. “My Life” (Year – 2000) is a sharp tune about someone moving on after the end of a relationship that had run its course (much like the 1990’s had and everyone looked forward to a new millennium and new opportunities). The band cooks on it and Wilson’s lyrics are Zen-like in their portrayal of someone waking up from their illusions (“I walk along the sand with my shoes in my hand to the daylight, and I realize the fishermen are heading out to ocean. The café owner turns on the urn, flips the sign round to open, and it goes on.”).

“Bows & Arrows” (Year – 1962) could be about a couple who rely on each other to get through everyday life or about two buddies in Viet Nam who rely on each other to stay alive – or both. It has one of the standards of any Kaiser Chiefs record – the chant-along chorus (“We the people created equal, and if that’s true then we’re not the only ones.”).

“Cannons” (Year – 2014) is a damning tirade against Big Government, Big Brother, The Man, the 1%, or whatever you want to call them. Kaiser Chiefs again remind us that we have compromised much for the feeling of security (“They’re making all the difficult decisions, politicians and children first, followed by their personal physicians who say you will be happy if you expect the worst.”). The song ends with a poem, “The Occupation,” read by actor bill Nighy, and speaks of people letting things fall apart around them while the rich get richer.

“Roses” (Year – 1980) is a low key (at least in the beginning) ending to the record, as Wilson sings about the failure of his generation, most of whom didn’t live up to their claims they were going to change the world or not fall into the rat race (“The bottles in the drug store were all just piss and ink. The flags you wore are rags under the sink.”). It’s not all gloom and doom, however. The song turns into a lovely song about hope (“It’s dark where the roses grow.”) with lush keyboards by the time it’s finished.

Education, Education, Education & War is one of the angriest albums I’ve heard in a while, but also one of the cleverest. Kaiser Chiefs have always been able to hide scathing lyrics in near-pop songs, and this album has some of their best deceptive work.

Keep your mind open.

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