Dominque Leone – Abstract Expression 8.6

When I heard this, I immediately liked it. Here’s an album that is ambitious, weird, and near obnoxiously positive. Yet between that positive attitude is a vulnerability, like he’s about to collapse into a pure nervous wreck. His delivery reminds me strongly of Kevin Blechdom’s almost forced cheerfulness, of having a breakdown live on Public Access.

                Right from the intro track, you’re given the template for the entire album. Thick, playful keyboards and almost nonsensical lyrics meet you, ready to take you into his strange alternate universe where 70s classics like Electric Light Orchestra are distorted almost beyond recognition. Progressive rock sinks its teeth into each composition.

                The album starts out near schizophrenic, especially the first official track “Cover Yourself” which has about 18 parts for a 5 minute song. Most people will hate this. ADD addled music doesn’t fare well with most normal people. Basically, if you’re into experimental and pop music, he melts the two together into an oddly enjoyable art.

                Choruses are aplenty; these appear to breathe even more live into already teeming structures. “Sometimes You’ve Got to be Happy” takes a slower approach, allowing for a flowing movement. Occasionally he busts out absolutely “Whoa, that’s pretty ridiculous” sorts of keyboard stunts, but you can tell he’s trying to restrain himself, with mixed results. Probably the most progressive rock he gets is the goofy “Happy New Year”.

                Winding down the songs’ intensity gradually is a nice way to treat the listener. Having an intense beginning is a good thing, but that level of energy would probably exhaust anybody. There’s a lot of humor on this record, which can be a bit of a turn off. Don’t let it be, it is a shockingly excellent affair from the utmost of music snobs (he used to write for Pitchfork).

Rocky’s Filj –Storie Di Uomini E Non 6.9

             The opening track “L’Ultima Spiaggia” says it all. In fact, it says far more than the rest of the album. While the first track is sincerely massive, with beautiful sounding bass, horns, active vocals, and interlocking grooves, the rest of the album seems timid in comparison. Despite suffering from being very front-loaded, the other songs aren’t dreadful. 

                “Il Soldato” works as a counterbalance to the opening track’s energy. Horns are subdued, and there’s some wonderful violin work as well. Quiet is emphasized instead, to equally great affect. Each pluck, each guitar can be heard clearly. 

                Rocky Rissi is a fairly decent singer. While not possessing an extraordinary voice, his delivery is somewhat unique. Plus, his instance of singing in Italian sits well with me, since so many progressive rock bands tried to sing in English in order to gain a larger following (bands like Faust, etc). I like their honesty.

                Overall, the rest of the album takes some sinking in work. The first track is an instant winner, the others require more elbow work on behalf of the listener, but they can often be worth it.

Blinded By the Light – Introduction to Corruption

The Corrupter

              The Manfred Mann’s Earth Band did the movie world a great service. Every single time someone’s about to be corrupted, whether by drugs, sex, alcohol, or some other vice I don’t have enough imagination to come up with, this song plays. I mean this is like the cue to “Boy, things are about to get heavy”. Here are a few pieces of dialogue that sort of introduce the song, with the corrupter and the innocent:

Corrupter: Hey, do you party?

Innocent: What’s that mean?

Cue music.

Corrupter: How’d you like to earn $150,000 in one night?

Innocent: What do I have to do?

Cue music.

Corrupter: You want to get out of here?

Innocent: Yes, show me how.

Cue Music.

Corrupter: Have you ever ground up a human corpse into a sausage?

Innocent: No.

Cue Music.

Corrupter: Is this your first time?

Innocent: Yes.

Cue Music.

Corrupter: Can you feel your face?

Innocent: No.

Cue Music.

Corrupter: Go towards the light.

Innocent: But I’m blinded by it.

Cue Music.

                Somehow the song just screams depravity. I can’t imagine something wholesome occurring on screen as this screams at me (the song always feels slightly louder than it should be). This is probably one of the few songs that can serve as a punch line. Its over-the-top appeal is obvious.

                Even as the song progress beyond its glistening beginning, into more spaced-out sounds halfway through the song, it continues its depraved feel. Perhaps a montage of a strung-out loser might appear. Or you can see our innocent from the beginning descend into night-long orgies, a world of crime, or take your pick.

                This song solidified the idea of a musical cue. Now we have TV shows like “CSI: Miami” which turns the music cue into something of a cliché. Good shows, excellent shows like “Arrested Development” used a various amount of cues to get a point across, whether it was situational or a flashback. So it isn’t simply a cheap trick, it is something that becomes deeply engrained, up to the point where we almost expect it. Even the flashback chime noise has become standard for so many cartoons and sitcoms.

                Now though we know who to thank. These progressive rock pioneers, who forever changed the way we look at the light. Each time I hear someone complain about the light, this song comes in. It isn’t even a good karaoke song, it takes too long. Yet somehow you’ve heard it, scanning through radio stations or shopping at a supermarket. 

                You were blinded by the light.

Nurse With Wound List: The Project

I’m a tremendous music snob. Some see this as a never-ending problem of mine, my need to endlessly criticize popular music. But that’s not all I do. Another one of my goals is to help others understand that simply because something is obscure or abstract does not necessarily mean it is good or a high-quality product.

                Thus I come to the holy grail of music snobbery/avid drooling record collectors: The Nurse With Wound List. Packaged with Nurse with Wound’s first album “Chance Meeting on a Dissecting Table of a Sewing Machine and Umbrella” and expanded on their second album, it served as a tribute to the artists who helped influence the Nurse with Wound project. Some of these artists are certainly worth hearing; I doubt you’ll hear much that sounds like AMM or Cromagnon. On the other hand, there’s also some serious filler or showing off at hand. Some of these artists’ inclusion seems like a precursor to James Murphy’s ode to the pissing contest “I’m losing my edge” with pointless name-dropping.

                Both opinions are equally valid. Steve Stapleton suffers from ideas in both camps. On one hand, he does produce an excellent product on occasion. However, as is the case with so many industrial/avant-garde artists, he suffers from being a poor editor of his work. Instead of being obsessed with creating a great product, a great deal of his releases take advantage of the rabid fan base that he’s accumulated over the years with his releases. In other words, he shouldn’t release limited edition runs of pure garbage for the sake of raising money to live in Ireland.

                What I hope to do as I go through this list is to point out the good, the bad, the indulgent, the repetitive, the unnecessary, and the sublime. Already I’ve done about two artists off this list (Red Krayola and Cromagnon). Hopefully this project of mine will produce some great fruits. I have no promise that this will be finished in a year or two. Rather, think of this as something going on in the background, as I try to sort through what’s worth searching out. Besides, I do try to give each recording I review multiple listens, to see if there’s something I might have missed the first time around. Any recording or artist from the list will be specifically tagged as “Nurse with Wound list” to allow you to better sort through the countless artists (well, 294 artists isn’t countless, but it is a lot). 

                People ought to enjoy music for its quality, not some perceived indie or street cred. One should be able to appreciate it on something besides its exclusivity or rarity. And some of the artists on this list are near impossible to find in print or even on the internet. Most are from an era of pure weird, when hippies roamed the Earth as actual hippies rather than whatever it is you’d call them now (sorry, the world isn’t as kind to idealism as it once was). So that means a great deal of creativity was unleashed, along with excessive amounts of indulgence.

                Hopefully you’ll be able to better sort through this so-called “shopping list” with a better idea of what to purchase/get rather than simply standing with jaw agape.