As we are getting close to the end of 2021, it has been
quite a magical year for incredible artists, bands, and various genres to knock
it out of the ball park during these hefty times. Some concerts are coming
back, but done very carefully. Now there are some that are head-scratchers, un-expected
momentum, and surprised choices I’ve picked, you just have to live with that.
So, here we go, the top 25 albums of 2021.
1. Regal Worm – The Hideous
Goblink [Quatermass]
2. Isildurs Bane & Peter Hammill – In Disequilibrium [Atraxia Productions]
3. Dee Snider – Leave a Scar [Napalm Records]
4. The Anchoress – The Art of Losing [Kscope]
5. Mahogany Frog – In The Electric Universe [MoonJune Records]
6. Rachel Flowers – Bigger On The Inside [Rachel Flowers Music]
7. Diablo Swing Orchestra – Swagger & Stroll Down the Hole [Spinefarm / Candlelight]
8. Novelty Island – How Are You Coping With This Century [Think Like a Key
Music]
9. Penfriend – Exotic Monsters [My Big Sister Recordings]
10. Edge of Paradise – The Unknown [Frontiers Records]
11. Dennis Rea – Giant Steppes [MoonJune Records]
12. PAKT – PAKT [MoonJune Records]
13. The Grid / Fripp – Leviathan [DGM]
14. Jack O’ The Clock – Leaving California [Cuneiform Records]
15. Danny Elfman – Big Mess [Epitaph Records]
16. Laura Meade – The Most Dangerous Woman In America [Doone Records]
17. Jess and the Ancient Ones – Vertigo [Svart Records]
18. Field Music – Flat White Moon [Memphis Industries]
19. Jane Weaver – Flock [Fire Records]
20. Jane Getter Premonition – Anomalia [Esoteric Antenna]
21. Stephan Thelen – Fractal Guitar 2 [MoonJune Records]
22. Steve Hackett – Surrender of Silence [InsideOut Music]
23. Steven Wilson – The Future Bites [Caroline]
24. Emily Wolfe – Outlier [Crows Feet Records]
25. Trifecta – Fragments [Kscope]
Hunter S. Thompson once said that “Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of fuel.
Sentimental people call it inspiration, but what they really mean is fuel. I
have always needed fuel. I am a serious consumer. On some nights I believe that
a care with the gas needle on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have
the right music very loud on the radio.”
Music will always be a part of your life, no matter how long
it will resonate with you. For Beledo, he always bounce back to the groove with
his latest release from the MoonJune label, Seriously
Deep. The genesis behind his follow-up to Dreamland Mechanism started out 11 years ago when he and Leonardo
Pavkovic first met and have appreciation of the music they shared with each
other.
The title came from ECM label artist Eberhard Weber from his
1978 release with Colours entitled, Silent
Feet. Both of them had admiration of Weber’s music. But it had a huge
impact from Beledo when Jorge played him the album in its entirety from start
to finish 43 years ago. And that was where the gem resonated from.
With Tony Levin, Kenny Grohowski, and special guests that
include vocalists Boris Salvodelli and Kearoma Rantao and vibraphonist Jorge
Camiruaga who introduced Eberhard’s music to Beledo many years ago, it brings
their friendship full circle for their latest release as it becomes a flower
ready to bloom at any second.
From the moment the opening title-track begins, you feel as
if you’re inside a dream. Beledo’s acoustic piano sets up these oceanic
landscapes to fill the entire stratosphere between Levin and Grohowski’s puzzle
pieces to fill in the empty space. But it’s his guitar that becomes a
paintbrush at times.
Beledo paints in the styles of Bob Ross and Jackson Pollock.
He creates both the mysticism and visual imagery that he brings his portrait to
life. With each color he puts on the board, Levin and Grohowski are there to
help him out whenever they can to fill in more of the gigantic trees or a
sunset to fill in the final blank.
Kenny pounds his drums very structured. He creates the river
wild on his drum kit while Beledo cries out each note by bending the strings
exquisitely before going into this unexpected change on Weber’s composition.
Levin’s Bass follows the two in hot pursuit as if he’s
cooking scrambled eggs for breakfast by seasoning it with an enormous amount of
Tabasco sauce on his upright instrument to add that extra spicy flavor. Quite
an introduction to start things off with a bang.
Mama D is a trip
down to Crimson land with National Health thrown in as Rantao’s vocals lays
down some of that romantic textures with the rhythm section setting up these
time changes for Grohowski following her vocals in a hot melodic lead. Coasting Zone is a walk into a Broadway
skip lane the trio create in the styles of a pounding powder keg waiting to
explode.
Between Grohowski and Beledo lighting the fuse, it is an unbelievable
result by adding more intensive lines they create for Levin to calm the
scenario down as Maggie’s Sunrise gives
the three-piece a chance to cool down as they watch the sun go down as if they’re
drinking Daiquiri’s to toast each other for a job well done.
Knowing they’ve got something wonderful up their sleeves, it’s
quite an eye-opening experience to witness a warm-relaxing moment to witness
the ball of light heading down the west with Camiruaga’s vibraphone embellishing
the Gershwin-like textures to have a party at the very end. Knocking Waves is a futuristic composition
that Beledo has created.
He gives Tony a chance to come center stage in the
composition as he adds some double-tracking tempo on his upright bass to set up
the midsection for Beledo channeling Steve Howe’s arrangements in Yes’ Close to the Edge. He channels Steve’s
vision by witnessing the waterfalls pouring down rapidly into the volcanic
mountains that were envisioned by Yes illustrator, Roger Dean.
But it’s Levin that adds more watery landscapes by going up
and down a spiral staircase that awaits its listeners to see where the next
parallel door will come upon us. Beledo hammers it down with some brutal
wah-wah arrangement as he punches back and forth with Grohowski’s snare-like
grooves that becomes a snake sniveling to eat its next prey.
A Temple in the Valley
sees Boris scatting down into a gentle view of the world. Beledo creates
these melodic tempos for him as he goes from high to mid arrangements on his
vocals to climb the highest mountains and scat like no other! There is
something very Zappa like in this track.
In the midsection, Beldeo and Boris walk into the Hot Rats territory as they continue the
extension from Peaches En Regalia honoring
The Grand Wazoo up in the heavenly sky. Quite an achievement that Beledo
channels the mastermind’s playing by walking into this Blues-like mystery for
Kenny to go into a ramming speed on his drum set before Levin lays down the law
once more.
Who knows what the trio will think of next? A tidal-waving
effect? Volcanic eruptions? It’s up to you to decide what the trio comes up in
this cliffhanger finale. The funk-like ending Into the Spirals Levin channels Bootsy Collins by climbing aboard
the mothership as they channel the styles of Parliament’s Give Up The Funk (Tear The Roof Off The Sucker).
Man does Beledo tip his hat to not only Bootsy, but George
Clinton as well. Seriously Deep is a
spectacular release from the MoonJune label this year. For Beledo, he has given
a lot of strength and hope throughout the entire structure of the album. And I
hope to hear more from him in the years to come.
From the moment the female voice describes the opening
statement, “The waves and the patterns
are merging.” It would start things off with the album’s opener, The Waves. It becomes a disturbing
nightmare that Chris Cordwell and Nick Raybould would create. It has this ‘80s
video game-like structure from Super Mario Bros. 2 as you enter different
parallels of the pyramids with these film-noir like atmospheres as the clock
ticks rapidly.
Then, the powder keg becomes a fuming heat to increase the
next track Rat Race. Nods to Roxy
Music’s The Bogus Man and Bowie’s Earthling-era, it’s a freak-out like no
other. Cordwell and Raybould would duke it out in a boxing ring punching each
other between their instruments. Hay-wiring chaos at its best, it is a batshit
composition that would keep you guessing until the end.
Fluctuate is a
journey into the unknown. A chilled-out futuristic string-section wasteland
that you’ve never seen before while Beatwave
channels Devo’s Oh No! It’s Devo-era
as they have their pumping iron muscles to get your blood flowing for Nick and
Chris tipping their hats to the Spud patrol with a Vivaldi-like crossover.
Mobius Trip becomes
a ladder-climbing composition for the duo. They climb each of the ladders that
transform into various patterns by reaching to the top of the mountain with a
challenging pace by going into a mid-fast tempo for the guitars to slide down
in one section to another.
Devoider closes
the album by leaving the hot temperature levels inside the jungle. Hallucinated
nightmares come to life for Thought Bubble as if they teamed up with Ozric
Tentacles and the Irrlicht-era from
Klaus Schulze. It is a crazy re-arrangement as they take us into a lane filled
with gigantic mushrooms waiting to be eaten for the rest of the month!
Thought Bubble’s ‘Around’
is one of the most mind-boggling debuts that will keep you guessing until the
end. ‘Around’ will be talked about in
the years to come in the roaring ‘20s. And I hope to hear more from Thought
Bubble in the next adventure that awaits them.
It’s been a long time since I reviewed something out of the
label, Bad Elephant Music. Back in 2013, I listened to one of the most mind-blowing
artists to come out of the label named Tom Slatter. His third studio album, Three Rows of Teeth, was a combination
between early Genesis, Caravan, and William D. Drake. And I gave it a glowing
review along with his other two; Through
These Veins and Black Water. And
then I had completely forgotten about him. Until now.
His latest release this year Escape, deals with escapism. Slatter took inspirations from comic
books, sci-fi novels, computer games, and being an indoor kid. Slatter is
bringing more stories to life again as an imaginative movie brought to life. So
has it been a while? Oh yes. So let’s get straight to his new album.
From the moment Time
Stands Still opens the album off, you hear these static sounds coming from
the TV while blistering guitar riffs channels a thrashing attack in mid-tempo arrangement.
It channels Diagonal’s sole self-titled debut album that Tom had picked up for
inspiration as his eerie stories structure in more Mellotron’s to float in at
the right moment.
It goes through this Ayn Rand-sque waltz channeling both The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged with a folk-dystopian
midsection as the machines take over the entire planet. And then it back to the
metallic forefront with an orchestral vibe as Tom tips his mad hattering hat to
early Black Sabbath and the first two Iron Maiden albums with arpeggiated
textures brought to life.
Too Many Secrets has
these electronic hay-wiring effects going chaotic as it tells the story of a
group of soldiers who are in a rocket ship flying to another planet, fighting
one of the bloodiest wars that’s going on. And the question that remains, is it
worth fighting this stupid war that’s happening? Not to mention the dooming and
sludging atmospheres that he brings to the kitchen table.
Let’s All Pretend reminisces
between William D. Drake, Present, and Osanna’s Palepoli thrown into the blender. It’s Rock Progressivo Italiano
meets the Rock In Opposition movement with a nod to the late, great Roger
Trigaux’s guitar section while Rats becomes
a Punk-Folk attitude.
Fast-sped drums followed by guitar melody, the unexpected
time changes go from one corner of the living room to another. You can hear Tom
channeling Bowie’s Outside-era as he
picks up the pieces where Detective Nathan Adler had left off. Collateral is a psychedelic swinging
garage rock dance. It becomes a dance to the death between Be-Bop Deluxe’s Futurama sessions as it climbs aboard
Gentle Giant’s train chugging 500 miles per hour.
Going Nowhere is a
19-minute sci-fi opera brought to life. You can hear a Beefheart-sque
introduction that makes Tom’s train turn into a fast-speeding overture. There
is some Edgar Allen Poe structures for the main character’s death to happen
with these guitar-organ sound that is completely unexpected, but works very
well.
Not only there’s a ‘60s guitar on a tightrope, but he’s
continuing where Rush had left off during an extension of Cygnus X-1 Book One: The Voyage. And then, he makes it a joyful
walk before it gets even heavier as Tom fires more missiles by raising more
hell than ever before.
Tom then also returns back for another Italian Prog dinner
from Banco del Mutuo Soccorso’s Darwin period
to I Giganti’s Terra in Bocca. You
can the sound of a carousel organ come to life as Tom brings the steampunk
audiences to a standstill as the story gets even more dangerous.
Escape is Tom
Slatter’s nightmare brought to life. He is still our storyteller brought to
life again, following in the footsteps of Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Rod Serling,
and Vincent Price. And I hope that I will hear more from him in the years to
come during these tricky times we’re living in.
The cover of Asaf’s latest release is a very striking artwork
from singer Sylwia Bialas. I can imagine she was inspired by Tarkovsky’s work
from the realms of Solaris and Stalker. Or it could have been inspired by
something bold and mysterious throughout the pandemic. Solar Flash is an unknown journey that awaits us.
Sirkis himself has been a very busy man working with artists
such as Gary Husband, Markus Reuter, Kenny Wheeler, Tassos Spilotopoulous, and
Yaron Stavi. The collaborations on this album featuring alongside Husband,
contains bassist Kevin Glasgow, and special guest Mark Wingfield. Now that is a
collaboration right then and there.
In an interview from 2010 on the Music Without Borders:Innerviewswebsite, Anil Prasad asked Asaf on what were the biggest challenges
he faces in his creative process and how he overcame them. His response was
this; “As a professional musician and a
band leader, I often face situations of stress in which it’s hard to let go.
There’s also recognizing your weak points and being able to face up to them and
work on them. The trick is to organically combine these elements together in a
way so they complement each other and become beneficial to the music.”
Solar Flash is
quite a challenging release. And for both Asaf Sirkis and the MoonJune label,
it is a fast-driven spiritual beauty brought to life that is like a flower
ready to bloom at any second.
The three-part story arc Polish
Suite is like a silent movie brought to life. You have these gentle
mournful piano work from Gary, setting up this city that is now a ghost town in
the middle of nowhere. You can almost feel a pin drop while Sylwia arranges the
emptiness of the city that it once was, is no longer there anymore.
Sirkis’ brush on the snare, walks across the town with
Glasgow’s bass in tow helping out the melodic vocals to give the last rite in
this fair city. Then, he packs his bags and goes into Nick Mason’s city to
celebrate The Grand Vizer’s Garden Party from
the Ummagumma album.
He becomes this mad scientist on the drums going crazy
before this foghorn-like sound from Husband takes full control for Mark’s
guitar to send a message to the gods in the sky in the Himalayan mountains in
the middle of a heavy snow storm. What Husband, Sirkis, and Wingfield would do
is to take listeners into the unknown that is a door-opening experience.
I can see Gary channeling bits of the Canterbury vibes from
Hatfield and the North in the style of scale-soaring beauty Calyx. I always envision Robert Wyatt
singing the third and final section of the suite. That would have been
something to close the curtain down throughout the structure of the
composition.
Kinship opens the
album with a surf-like wave arrangement that the trio create. You have Gary
doing this mysterious balance to channel Matching Mole’s Dave MacRae while
Glasgow has some mellowing tones on his Bass. Under the Ice has these cavernous arrangements to set up a
film-noir vibe from the 1940s.
Glasgow can go high and low on the fretboards. He captures
that smoky atmosphere before Gary lends those smooth R&B touches to know
that the case has been solved. Now comes the dark side in Asaf’s arrangements. Aquila is an ominous Mahavishnu approach
as Gary sets up this dooming rise on his organ to let Mark come out of Dracula’s
coffin and set up this mid-snarling effect he creates to let the Beast calm and
subdued.
Not only he channels both Frank Zappa and Allan Holdsworth,
it’s almost as if the two maestros are watching him up in heaven, knowing that
he’s tipping his hat to them up in the sky and they got his back. For Eric is dedicated to the drummer of
Weather Report, Eric Kamau Gravatt. It’s a cross between Steely Dan, Tangerine
Dream, and Soft Machine’s Third album.
With the spiritual voice of Sun Ra talking various subjects
throughout the piece, it becomes an intensive drive for the instruments to go
into this NASCAR race segment to reach the finish line at the end. Solar Flash is not only engaging, but an
amplified release this year from MoonJune Records.
When the trio gets together to create something
unexpectedly, it is like a cannon blast, knowing that it is going to be a wild
ride waiting to be unleashed.
I am not a morning person, mind you. Whenever I would
wake-up between 9 or 10am to get ready for Comicpalooza, I would take a shower,
get cleaned up, and have a small amount of breakfast so that I could get ready
to go the George R. Brown convention. Whether my Mom or Dad would take me from
2013 to 2018, it was a magical time to go for those Memorial Day weekends.
The construction can be tricky for them to take a different
passageway, and sometimes we would go a different route so that I can enjoy my
time from 10am to 6pm. I would look and see the cosplayers looking down at
their phones, going as a family, talking to their loved ones, friends, or
whatever they might do when they enter the building to enjoy the fun and forget
about all the craziness that is going on in the outside world.
When I’m at Comicpalooza, I am free from everything. I have
a great time, it can make my feet tired during the afternoons from all that
walking, but it becomes a safe haven. When I show them my badge whether it’s a 3-Day
pass or a Speed pass, I’m in to have a ball.
I never cover Comicpalooza. I don’t want to ruin the moment
for everyone during my time at the Convention. This is their moment to shine.
It’s sort of like other cons or expos from San Diego Comic-Con, New York
Comic-Con, E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo), Wizard World, or Anime Expo
where they launched the new dubbed version of the original Sailor Moon back in
2014 in all of its uncut glory.
But it would be a whole expose to cover those and all those
travel expenses to go from area to another. It was the summer of 2014, I had
just graduated from Houston Community College and getting my Associate’s Degree
for Music in Performance for a nine year run. It was announced prior to the
convention that Stan “The Man” Lee was going to be there.
Meeting an icon like Stan Lee, was like meeting The Beatles
when they first arrived in the States on February 7, 1964. He along with Bernie
Wrightson, Peter Mayhew, Armin Shimerman, Jim Cummings, Sigourney Weaver, Neal
Adams, or Jim Steranko was the person I wanted to meet. I grew up watching the
animated series of both X-Men and Spider-Man on FOX Kids back in the ‘90s when
animation was cool then.
Then reading comics during that time frame. I stopped
reading comics until I got back to reading them again in the summer of 2012.
But I digress. The line for Stan was long, I my Superheroes PBS Blu-Ray
docuseries for him to sign. I couldn’t tell if I was in the middle or at the
back. But I could imagine it was long.
When he came in, the crowd went crazy as he sat down and
signed autographs. I came in and as he signed my Blu-Ray. We shook hands, and I
said to him, “Thank you for coming to Houston.” He replied back, “You are very
welcome!” Then came for the Photo Op. I always get starstruck whenever I meet
the people I wanted to meet. But I always keep my cool and not go ga-ga over
them. Just like those crazy people who are autograph seekers who sometimes hide
under the bushes and invade their privacies to get they’re signatures and use
it to sell on auction websites.
I was wearing my CAN Future Days shirt as I showed my
Blu-Ray he signed, the photo was taken and I thanked him again. I felt like it
was winning the lottery at times, but that was the moment I will never forget.
It was a moment in time that Comicpalooza during the
mid-2010’s like looking through your old scrapbook for a long, long time. Now
in the pandemic, it’s almost as if the dream is over and going through conventions
on your computer. But I look back on it now, and it was the memories that I
will never forget.
It’s quite a strange concept that Dr. Leonardo Pavkovic
would create some strange experiment inside his laboratory at the basement of MoonJune Records. But something has
lurked underneath the curtains that is waiting to be unleashed. It is a form of
live music from one of the most important quartets that has unleashed all of
its ammunition, and bring it to life at the Shapeshifter lab where originally
Markus Reuter, Tim Motzer, and Kenny Grohowski had recorded their experiment
live for a MoonJune release back on August 18th, 2019.
Brand X’s Percy Jones, Testament’s Alex Skolnick, Kenny
Grohowski, and Tim Motzer, have brought enough fuel to light the fires up for
this amazing 2-CD live recording at the same venue. Recorded last year during
the lockdown, you can imagine yourself being in the venue, being free from the
craziness that’s going on in the outside world.
Listening to the first act entitled The Unsilence, you can feel the tension cut with a knife. You have
Alex and Tim going at it by creating this beautiful sculpture as if they were
channeling either Jackson Pollock’s art design or creating more magical spells
to show off to their friends instead of pulling a rabbit out of a hat.
For Alex Skolnick, he’s more than just a Metal head, and a
member of Testament, but he can create these visual scenarios on his instrument
while Percy’s fretless bass goes into a counter clockwise as he climbs each
ladder with challenging results. I love how Kenny’s drumming goes on this
rampant whilst Alex channels the Krautrock masters, Manuel Gottsching and the
late great Michael Karoli from Ash Ra Tempel and CAN.
I imagine he would feed Motzer some strange idea as they
open up the soundscaping location before they take us into Andrei Tarkovsky’s
wasteland from the sci-fi epic, Stalker. It is very chaotic and very hay-wiring
at the same time. PAKT would do some strange experiments as Motzer uses bits
and bobs throughout his electronics to go all over the Shapeshifter lab like
there’s no tomorrow.
He and Skolnick are hammering down those Egyptian-like
textures in the hottest part of the Sahara desert. They work well together as a
team while Percy and Kenny go into a little Space Jam (no pun intended) as they
take a trip into the Isle of Everywhere from Gong’s You-era meets Herbie
Hancock’s Headhunters period.
The second act is called The Sacred Letter. Now this is
where we really get those boiling waters bubbling. It adds a virtual landscape
into an unknown wasteland that is waiting for us. Motzer’s eerie textures sets
up the illustration while Jones walks back and forth by giving Grohowski more
intense ideas on his drum kit.
There is a moment where I believe it’s Alex tipping his face
mask to Mike Ratledge’s composition on Facelift
from The Soft Machine’s Third album
originally released in 1970. It’s quite a treat from Alex making his instrument
sound like a wah-wah organ that would have gotten Mike’s stamp of approval to
create something like that.
Meanwhile, they walk into Sonar’s territory as Alex and Tim
go for the jugular. They walk into David Torn’s sonic voyages, but carrying
more of the Irrlicht-era from Klaus
Schulze. Percy is a madman to go crazy throughout his bass exercise as Alex,
Kenny, and Tim follow him in hot pursuit.
The climatic ending is where all hell has broken loose for
PAKT. They raise the roof up by going into a nuclear explosion by giving it a
mind-boggling finale with a sigh of relief. But I can imagine there’s more to
where it came from. I just wish it had continued more instead of a cliffhanger
ending by leaving us dangling on top of the Grand Canyon.
Contributor to All About Jazz’s own Mark Sullivan who wrote
the liner notes for the 2-CD set, watched the livestream performance during the pandemic. And I could imagine that it was quite a revelation for him to watch these four amazing geniuses bringing listeners on an adventure that we will ever think of dreaming about. I hope to hear more from PAKT in the
years to come from the MoonJune label. I can always wait and hear to see what
not just the quartet, but what Leo will have in store for us in the roaring ‘20s.
