Month: April 2015

Scott Walker – Stretch

Stretch

Scott Walker – Stretch CBS 65725 (1973)

Scott Walker’s mid-1970s period was marked by a shift from adventurous re-imaginings of traditional pop to rather unchallenging exercises in country pop music (Glen Campbell is probably the closest comparison).  Stretch is an example of the latter, though the country elements are only just beginning to show.  Now, Scott’s voice was arguably in the best form it has ever been.  The problem is that stylistically he is playing by someone else’s rules, and his studio band often drifts into bland, clichéd territory.  Side two holds some particular interest, with the last clutch of songs managing to make an impression with Randy Newman‘s “Someone Who Cared” and “I’ll Be Home” and Jimmy Webb‘s “Where Does Brown Begin.”  The most effective moments come from songs a little more spare and intimate than Scott’s early solo efforts.  Not a bad album at all but still a little disappointing compared to what he has achieved elsewhere.  Yet Scott’s voice is so effective that this remains rather endearing.

Why? – Oaklandazulasylum

Oaklandazulasylum

Why? – Oaklandazulasylum Anticon abR0029 (2003)

If you thought, based on his collaborative works with Anticon labelmates, that he was a hip-hop artist, then Why?’s indie rock debut may be a surprise. To be entirely accurate, oaklandazulasylum never settles into one style. Why? invites all sorts of influences into the mix. The songs dart from one structure to another. The music is always refreshingly goofy. But too often oaklandazulasylum sounds more like tinkering than anything significant.  Perhaps the album is most successful when hip-hop influences are prominent.  And that takes Why? back to square one.

Andrew W.K. – 55 Cadillac

55 Cadillac

Andrew W.K. – 55 Cadillac Ecstatic Peace! E#8b (2009)

Finding precedent in John Cale‘s The Academy in Peril, Andrew W.K.’s 55 Cadillac is a (mostly) solo piano outing.  It’s anchored in pop classical, with touches of modern classical and third-stream jazz.  He’s not a pianist with the powers of Cecil Taylor, by any stretch.  He does use some of the same devices Cale used decades ago, inserting sound effects and brief little interludes.  This is a lot better than it deserves to be, and it’s actually about time that somebody took experimental 20th century music and tried to pull it together and make it more accessible.  This isn’t a complete success, at least it’s not something to rush out and find, but after my wife listened to I Get Wet multiple times in a row and at first wanted to turn this off, she could tolerate it after it got going, which never happens with Cecil Taylor or anything of that sort.

Badiou, Kouvelakis and Lancelin – Dangerous Days Ahead

Link to a transcript of a discussion about the future of Greece and the Syriza party between Alain Badiou, Stathis Kouvelakis and Aude Lancelin:

“Dangerous Days Ahead”

Bonus links: “The Straitjacket of Austerity Tightens on Syriza” and “The Next Hundred Days” and “Greece’s Yanis Varoufakis: The Medicine of Austerity Is Not Working, We Need a New Treatment“

Week-end

Week-End

Week-end (1967)

Director: Jean-Luc Godard

Main Cast: Mireille Darc, Jean Yanne, Jean-Pierre Léaud

…and Godard enters his Maoist phase.  You’ve probably heard or read summaries before.  This movie is about the collapse of the capitalist system that sustains the Western World, and the idea that more meaning in life will emerge after its collapse.  But the best part is that for all the depravity and vice, it’s hard to tell exactly when Godard is joking.  Oh, and the visual metaphors are astoundingly unique.  This one tends to be a favorite of die-hard Godard fans, and count me among them.