The Last Roundup By chuck Eddy THE A’S The Best Of The A’s (Young Philadelphians Music) Holding down Philly’s nerdy new wave fort until the Hooters and eventually Dead Milkmen came along, this five- some experienced a fleeting moment in the sun when their blue-eyed soul nugget “A Woman’s Got the Power” snuck onto an airwave or two for a couple weeks in 1981. By then, though, Richard Bush had already lowered his vocal register, Bowie- circa-Let’s Dance-style; on the band’s debut LP, he’d hiccupped through his nostrils like a snotty 9th grader while the A’s pulled off America’s best-ever Boomtown Rats approximation, kick- ing out an R&B-rooted, occasionally prog-keyboarded faux-punk revolving around getting grounded and joining the C.I.A. and being too depressed to get dressed, sticking snippets of “Twist And Shout” into song-centers when the mood struck. So this overdue chronological compilation frontloads their most entertaining songs, and if commercial instincts later left them mellowed and undecided about wheth- er they wanted to be Hall & Oates, Duran Duran or Madness, you can’t really blame them. Gotta pay the bills, or at least try. (no contact address) CHARLEMAGNE PALESTINE From Etudes To Cataclysms For The Doppio Borgato (Sub Rosa) A veteran Brooklyn-born minimalist- drone composer performs nimble variations on a limited number of notes for more than two hours over as many discs, on a unique, Italian-invented, double-bodied grand piano – one key- board for his hands, one for his feet. In church. The aural equivalent of water torture, or the best album this year to help lull a newborn, or a newborn’s parents, to sleep? Quite possibly both. (www.subrosa.net) DEMIAN Demian (Fallout) The Bubble Puppy–Texas Cro- Magnons whose proto-psychedelic cave painting “Hot Smoke And Sassafras” climbed to No. 14 in 1969– weren’t legally allowed to keep their name after their debut. So in 1971 they put out this mythically prehistoric plat- ter, which doesn’t always live up to its legend: Once you’ve passed “Face The Crowd,” the man-sized three-minute commercial metal nugget it opens with, plenty of filibustering separates the monster guitar parts. But almost every song has one such riff somewhere, and “Windy City” certainly stretches its acid beauty across a desert or two. Still, caveat emptor–and while you’re caveating, research the reissuing label’s borderline-legal bootleg rep before you buy, too. (no contact address) FARMAKON Robin (Candlelight USA) All kinds of unexpected stuff arises naturally out of these Finns’ monster- metal ugliness: Rush-like prog signa- tures, math equations worked out on Mars Volta’s chalkboard, free-jazz sax blurts, wild animal sounds. “Helpless” lets a classic rock riff get airy; “A Temporary Death” climaxes seven stretched-out minutes of increasing beauty with gongs from the church bel- fry; a concluding “Outro” builds from a placid start into an extended guitar jam. Thrash with a rock sense of dynamics– rarer than you’d think. (www.candle- lightrecordsusa.com) JEX THOTH “Whirly-Bird” ably propels its helicopter hook, and there’s a catchy vocal mantra that claims “the flame is its own reflec- tion.” As you’d expect, monotonous malarkey and hippie silliness are givens: tape-collage attempts, poetry readings riding random sounds, a drum-circled Navajo ceremony, flute counterpoint. But it still adds up to an undeniably prescient science fair project, and this vinyl reissue is more than welcome. Inspirational liner message: “Play twice before listening.” (www.myspace.com/officialsilverapples) JEX THOTH Jex Thoth (I Hate) Depressively psychedelic doom-metal is no uncommon commodity, but this California quintet sounds unusually exquisite. Elephantine riffs all over the place, sure, but they’re offset by vocal uplift from the witchy woman for whom the band is named. The real star, though, might be keyboard player Zodiac, whose organ, synth, and electric piano in tracks like “The Banishment” and the five-part “Equinox Suite” wouldn’t be shamed on an early Uriah Heep LP. Repeated two-note patterns and brief new agey interludes from bouzouki and flute let the music breathe as well. Freak-folk cover “When The Raven Calls” and “Stone Evil” combine for a climactic finale, and the bassist calls himself Grim Jim. (www.ihate.se) cHEcKoUT cHUcK EDDY’S EXcLUSIvE “SIngLES AgAIn” BLog AT BLURT-onLInE.coM FARMAKON SILVER APPLES Silver Apples (Phoenix) Back when not even Germans could conceive of such things, New Yorkers Dan Taylor and Simeon Coxe III con- structed this 1968 album out of drums, percussion, and what looks like a service station’s stack of engine- monitoring equipment. Some of it anticipates Kraut-rock for sure – the repetition in “Oscillations” could be a missing link between the Monks and Can, and “Lovefingers” is built atop a remnant of Germanic oompah beat. INSTANT ORANGE Instant Orange (Shadoks/Normal) With a lineup mainly revolving around three mustachioed guys from San Bernadino, plus occasional pals assist- ing on tambourine and piano and “A.V. oscillation manipulator,” Instant Orange recorded a small shelf’s worth of local-label discs and acetates from 1967 to 1974, between infrequent gigs at Southern Cali frat parties, junior high schools, Oddfellows Halls, pizza palaces, and private homes. This German CD collects 29 tracks–more than anybody outside their immediate families will ever need. But “Ballad of the RTD” and “You I’ll Be Following” do a good hard jangle in the vicinity of “I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better” by the Byrds, “Cycle 2” dances a jaunty kazoo-and-jug jig, and “Theme From Beat Whistle” evolves into a Santana sort of syncopation. Add in comely country-rock, eight-minute fusion jams, and a dollop or two of heavy stuff—in other words, a mess. But sometimes a really listenable one. (www.normal-records.de) BLURT-onLIne.Com 15
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