Merry Christmas

It's Not Them. It Couldn't Be Them. It Is Them! Guided By Voices

Guided By Voices blijft maar strooien met albums, maar de kwaliteit wordt zeker niet minder, zoals is te horen op het fantastische It's Not Them. It Couldn't Be Them. It Is Them!, dat weer 15 tracks imponeert.

De productiviteit van Guided By Voices grenst de afgelopen jaren aan het ongelooflijke. De band bestaat inmiddels ruim 35 jaar, maar brengt de afgelopen jaren moeiteloos drie albums per jaar uit. Met het deze week verschenen It's Not Them. It Couldn't Be Them. It Is Them! staat de teller dit jaar pas op twee, maar wat verkeert de Amerikaanse band in een geweldige vorm. Op haar nieuwe album grossiert de band uit Ohio in aanstekelijke gitaarsongs, maar graaft het ook weer verrassend diep in songs die meerdere genres verkennen. Het is niet veel bands gegeven om na 35 jaar nog zo productief en zo goed te zijn, maar Guided By Voices flikt het voor de zoveelste keer en voor de tweede keer dit jaar.

In oktober werd het wel weer eens tijd voor een nieuw album van de Amerikaanse band Guided By Voices. De band rond Robert Pollard verrijkte haar zeer imposante oeuvre in 2019 met drie albums en ook vorig jaar verschenen er drie albums van de band uit Dayton, Ohio. In 2021 stond de teller met het uitstekende Earth Man Blues echter pas op 1, al was het debuutalbum van Cub Scout Bowling Pins stiekem ook gewoon een Guided By Voices album natuurlijk. 

Officieel staat de teller met het deze week verschenen It's Not Them. It Couldn't Be Them. It Is Them! echter op twee en ook dat is nog altijd een prestatie van formaat voor een band die al sinds de jaren 80 meedraait en zo langzamerhand een flinke plank in de platenkast claimt. 

Met de kwantiteit zit het de afgelopen jaren wel goed bij Guided By Voices, maar ook in kwalitatief opzicht maakt de Amerikaanse band een uitstekende periode door, wat mede te danken is aan de behoorlijk stabiele bezetting. 

Ook It's Not Them. It Couldn't Be Them. It Is Them! werd weer gemaakt met de inmiddels bekende line-up bestaande uit zanger Robert Pollard, gitaristen Doug Gillard en Bobby Bare Jr. en de door Mark Shue en Kevin March gevormde ritmesectie. Ook producer Travis Harrison is weer van de partij, waardoor er wat betreft de bezetting niets is veranderd. 

Het knappe is dat Guided By Voices er in slaagt om op alle albums die de afgelopen jaren zijn verschenen, steeds weer net wat anders te klinken. Ook op It's Not Them. It Couldn't Be Them. It Is Them! zoekt de band uit Ohio weer met enige regelmaat het experiment. De openingstrack Spanish Coin klinkt anders dan we van de band gewend zijn met invloeden uit de Spaanse muziek, maar ook in op het oog redelijk rechttoe rechtaan rocksongs op het album heeft Guided By Voices dit keer veel bijzonders toegevoegd. 

De stem van Robert Pollard gaat steeds meer op die van Peter Gabriel lijken, wat de muziek van Guided By Voices af en toe een proggy tintje geeft, maar Guided By Voices is ook nog altijd de lo-fi band die ook in nog geen twee minuten een perfecte rocksong kan afleveren. Op het nieuwe album van de band worden maar liefst 15 songs in iets meer dan 40 minuten gepropt, wat de catalogus van de band nog wat indrukwekkender maakt. 

It's Not Them. It Couldn't Be Them. It Is Them! bevat, net als de vorige albums van Guided By Voices, een aantal gitaarsongs die zich direct opdringen, maar ook op dit album weet de band weer te verrassen met bijzondere wendingen, waaronder de inzet van trompetten. 

Je zou verwachten dat de band na zoveel albums in een paar jaar tijd wat door de inspiratie heen raakt, maar Guided By Voices klinkt ook op It's Not Them. It Couldn't Be Them. It Is Them! weer als een diesel die net warm begint te draaien. Zeker de catchy gitaarsongs op het album gaan er in als koek, maar ook de net wat donkerder of psychedelischer getinte songs op het album bevallen me zeer. 

Guided By Voices begon in 2017 met August By Cake aan haar zoveelste jeugd. Inmiddels zijn we vier jaar en elf (!) albums verder, maar Guided By Voices lijkt alleen maar beter te worden. Earth Man Blues schaarde zich eerder dit jaar onder mijn favoriete Guided By Voices albums en krijgt nu gezelschap van het fantastische It's Not Them. It Couldn't Be Them. It Is Them!. Wat een band!

Erwin Zijleman

Week 51 singles

2021 is slowly entering its final tail. The radio is all about looking back with the top whatever of all time in whatever genre. WoNoBlog has found some recent singles to put a spotlight on and for now looks forward still, despite the date nears to start looking back on the past year. Two instrumental songs this week, not an everyday genre on this blog. Some more nostalgic pop and supernew bands, it's all here this week.

Replenishing Water. Abrasive Trees

Replenishing Water is a song that is hard to write about. It is instrumental, so there's no story to write about. Neither does it have a fantastic melody. No, it is all about atmosphere, so it may well be a choice for one of the upcoming Kairoses next year. The song is full of long-held guitar notes, full of echo, delay and who knows what else on effects and distortions. If anything, it is mystery. The kind of music one undergoes without escaping, unless you switch it off of course. It is not without any contact with the past. You could see Replenishing Water like an intro to a great classic rock or prog track, just before it all goes full out. The mystery building towards the explosion of sound. Abrasive Trees decided to remain in the intro stage, with the question of what could have followed for always remaining in the air.

This Old House. Eelke

No, this is not an acoustic rendition of Shakin' Stevens' big hit. Remember him? I almost did not to be honest. Thematically the two songs are not that far apart. All about the past that was better and a metaphor for what has come to pass. Eelke starts his new song ever so small and modest. The modesty does not so much leave This Old House as there was a point to be made. This Old House really needs to be preserved after I'm gone, it spells. Musically the song is built up around a few guitars, acoustic and electric, with sparse piano notes sprinkled out over the guitars. And then the full band joins, giving the soft accompaniment all of a sudden a strong body. Not so much a solo is played as that all instruments add emphasis to what they were doing before because drums and bass have joined in. All played in such good taste.

Don't Need Anybody. Dmitry Wild

"I don't need anybody, the whole world is inside me", sings Dmitri Wild. Anyone able to look at his life this way during the pandemic will come out on the other of it filled with experiences and reliving them as well. At the same Wild lets us jump around on his second single. Musically it spans decades of alternative rock, garage and punk rock. Geoff Palmer is in the song, as are The Strokes, garage bands from the 60s and the better punk pop singles of the late 70s. No, I won't write that Don't Need Anybody is a fantastic song, because it is not. What it is, is a song to have fun to, even alone in a room, to sing along to and to thoroughly enjoy. The little riffs, the nice bass lines (as in really, really nice), the acoustic guitar underneath the tougher parts, it's all in here to enjoy. And what more can we ask for in these dark days?

Too Late Now. Wet Leg

Single number three by Wet Leg is unleashed on the world. Five more months to wait where the release of the album is concerned. In this tempo we'll not have a surprise left. Again Wet Leg manages to surprise me a little. From a modest song, with even some, fast, spoken word Too Late Now explodes into a punkrock song. The way Too Late Now builds up is extremely nicely done. The bass drives the first part, with a dry drums and muted guitar behind it and all sort of atmospherics sprinkled over it. The middle part is bare with the bored spoken word and then Wet Leg's world splits open. No doubt letting festival fields explode one of these years. This can only be the effect Too Late Now desires to accomplish. Fantastic song? No, great song with a great effect, oh, yeah.

Komodo Dragon. Soon

A new band, a first song. What to expect? Not what I am hearing right now. Komodo Dragon is clocking in close to 6 minutes. The first minute sort of passed me by with the sound as low as I was starting out with. Slowly the song swells, slowly but surely like the rising tide. At the top of the high tide a huge wave comes over it all, paving the way for the storm behind it.

Komodo Dragon is a duo, Liú Mottes, also known from Blue Crime and Slow Worries and Jochem van Tol. Together they have recorded an album to be released in March. On it they explore how far they can take a musical idea. If Komodo Dragon is anything to go by, the world has something coming. Instrumental postrock with loads of electronic elements washing over the more traditional guitar and drums. Effect laden guitars are shredded to pieces before the storm calms down and the composition is brought to its end, leaving me behind breathless. A whole album may be a challenge to sit through in one go but bring it on nevertheless, please.

Wout de Natris

 

Lies And Legends. I Am A Rocketship

Let's start with the cover of Lies And Legends, I Am A Rocketship's new album. It's just an everyday kind of scene. Something like a busstop in the mist, old fashioned looking streetlights burning to stave off the darkness. Somehow I can't help thinking that it's not the bus coming out of the fog but a scene from the original 'Twin Peaks' or even some kind of monster from outer space. Funny how a very normal looking picture can twist the mind into all sorts of fantasies.

Since 2020 I Am A Rocketship has featured on this blog with singles, an LP, 'Ghost Stories' and an EP, 'Orange'. The duo from Atlanta has released a full-length album recently on which it does not hold back on its intentions. This must be to rock hard as a song allows and mix it with the innocent voice of L.E. Kippner. Together with Erik Weissinger she is I Am A Rocketship. One of the many alternative rocking duos to have come by (on this blog) in recent years.

Listening to Lies And Legends the album comes closest to Cottbus in Germany's duo Para Lia. Where René Methner lets his guitars rip it up louder, I Am A Rocketship deepens the atmosphere some more with empty spaces and atmospherics from synths. This makes Lies And Legends partly a darkish album, even a little gothic. It is not hard to imagine the cover of 'Taxman' turning up in a new 'Batman' movie or something like it.

Promo photo: Katja Bjorn

This makes the album just a little harder to embrace than I would have thought from listening to the opening song, 'Fever Dream', as this rocks fairly straightforward. Do not be surprised when you find a mix of the very early Pink Floyd, 80s wave, Marillion, Fish era, melodies and dance like rhythms come together in 'Set The Controls To Forever'. This is not an easy going song. Not melodically, not dance-wise and yet it intrigues for a few reasons as I pointed to already in trying to describe all the influences I take out of listening to it. There's simply a lot going on and it's all interesting.

If this album is anything, it is cool. Even under-cooled like a swimmer too long in cold water. Listening to it with a warm blanket close by is recommended. Have that and there's a lot to enjoy. Lies And Legends is a firm statement by the duo that is extremely productive in these Covid days.

Wout de Natris

Why Don't We Give It A Try? Roos Meijer

Yesterday I wrote about how Tiny Fighter's new album reflected the world of 2020 and 2021. A world that had become so much smaller in all ways and one we may be entering once again. Roos Meijer's debut album reflects an even tinier world looked at from this angle. The songs seem to have been made in full compliance with the lockdown rules.

On Why Don't We Give It A Try? Roos Meijer explores the total essence of her songs: her voice and an acoustic guitar. From there little extra's were added. Ever so soft and in extremely good taste. It all results in one of the softest albums I have encountered recently. Making music in a living room taking into full consideration that the neighbours are at the other end of the floors, walls and ceilings.

At the same time the album is full of nuances that beg paying attention to. This album demands listening. Without attention there is only the slightest movement of air, breezing past my ears instead of entering them. The best experience is by listening through your head set. Lock out the world and enter the world of Roos Meijer.

Why Don't We Give It A Try? is Meijer's debut album after releasing an EP in 2018 called 'Maktub'. She recorded the album with producer Doris Veldman after a six month writing process. The lyrics are based on conversations she had with what she calls "changemakers". Musically she is influenced by a wide range of styles and music that cover space and time, as in other cultures and decades, even centuries. The result is a rich album, in its approach as well as sound.

Especially because Veldman and Meijer managed to blend these influences. Take 'Bigger Than Me'. Again voice, a few layers here and there, and the acoustic guitar are are at the heart of the song. Underneath it all is a layer of sound. This can be dark-sounding synths or authentic strings, the sound gives the track a mysteriousness. As if there's more than we are allowed to hear. The second element I find is what makes this song so alluring. Every instrument that is added, ever so sparingly, has the effect of a light being switched on in the darkness. Blinding for a short while but oh so welcome after the initial shock. Roos Meijer is able to surprise with the tiniest of musical additions to her songs. Why Don't We Give It A Try? is full of these. From just a few notes to an extremely tasteful clarinet solo like 'In My Name', it all sounds so right and so welcome.

So what should you expect? From Dutch band like Elenne May and Mountaineer to Enya and from Arabic notes to classical sounding solos as if The Beatles are re-recording 'Eleanor Rigby' in a far slower version. Above all expect Roos Meijer. With Why Don't We Give It A Try? she has produced a beautiful debut album that holds tremendous promise for the future.

Wout de Natris