Superinertia. 10.000 Russos

There are albums and there experiences. Superintertia is such an album. 10.000 Russos drags itself and me, as listener, through the quagmire of its music despite the sucking forces at our feet. Swaths of mosquitoes attack us along the way, the heat sweltering. We are dragging our feet, boots long lost, swatting the stinging insects away and continuously mopping our brows from dirt and sweat. And yet we progress, because we simply have to.

Superinertia is that kind of album. The sleaze and the dirt of the darkest psychedelia is all present. A wall of sound comes at me. My ears working hard to connect with individual instruments, let alone the vocal melody. The softer song, 'A House Full Of Garbage', excepting, this is hard, aural work. 10.000 Russos are not much for subtlety, although work hard and one may find a little hidden in the wall of sound.

Coming from Porto in Portugal, 10.000 Russos releases its fourth album since 2013 with Superinertia. With the album comes a European tour taking it through several countries. It is the sort of band the psychedelic underground scene is in wait of. And I can totally relate to the why.

This is not music the average person listens to and perhaps does not even know it exists. Simply because it's never played on commercial radio. Fans however, hear the layers of sounds the band creates while building its songs. The final song 'Mexicali/Calexico' is the perfect example how the sound is built and built further. The guitar is shredded to pieces by Pedro Pestana but only to a level that it is still possible to hear what else is going on. Extreme only to a certain limit. Synthesizer player Nils Meisel adds another level to the music, creating a huge sound behind the layers of guitars. Underneath it all relentless drumming takes place, filling all the little holes in the music that may have been left behind by the other two (which I doubt even). The drumming will make listeners go into a trance, as it's the heartbeat of these songs.

Singer, and drummer, João Pimenta, is left to his own devices to get over it all. This is perhaps the only complaint to Superinertia. The singing. Pimenta can sing as he shows in the softer song just mentioned. He doesn't really get the chance in the inferno going on around him. This complaint goes for most of this genre in my opinion. Singing seems to be the left over element, Oh, yes, singing, while singing is often the great connector. Although this might be different for the average psychedelic rocker.

Superinertia rocks hard, harder, hardest.

Wout de Natris

Words To Live By, Suits To Die In. Queen's Pleasure

Queen's Pleasure debuted on these pages with an excellent EP this spring. One that was played quite often, admittedly when my girlfriend was not at home. And now there's an LP and it fulfils most of one's alternative, punky rock wishes. When a band manages to incorporate a little Arctic Monkeys, some punkrock bluster and present a softer edge as well, there's not that much what can go wrong. If that band has the songs to boot, that is. Queen's Pleasure has those in abundance.

Let me take 'Alex Sender' as the epitome of the band's sound. An Arctic Monkeys riff that culminates in a majestic, orgiastic solo at the end of the song. The kind of riff that Alex Turner, a tip of the hat?, is not very interested in writing any more. Next Queen's Pleasure adds a great pop chorus to the song. The dynamics in 'Alex Sender' are great as well. Stops, starts, endless hours of practising went into reaching this level of perfection. And then the glorious ending kicks in. Stacks of guitar solos are overlapping. Orgiastic, as I wrote already.

Perhaps things do not get better than in 'Alex Sender', they certainly become more varied and remain interesting right up to the last second. Queen's Pleasure is the kind of band that likes to go full out. Energy, and enthusiasm are two words I connect instantly to the music on offer. It just oozes out of Words To Live By, Suits To Die In. The band doesn't settle for less is my impression.

Promo photo: Paul Bellaart

In that it certainly has found inspiration in a band like Canshaker Pi. There certainly is a kinship. Just listen to 'Big Boys Loan' and you'll hear what I mean, but where that (ex?) band turned off left to more alternative pastures, Queen's Pleasure turns right, including the sound of the latest Arctic Monkeys' incarnation, something that can be heard in the beginning of 'Come Around'.

My impression of Words To Live By, Suits To Die In is that Amsterdam band Queen's Pleasure may have taken an inspiration as a starting point and presents that in the beginning of a song, easily recognisable for those able to do so. From that point the band went in search of its own preferences and, considerable, abilities. In search of its own voice. It certainly found a few.

In the past years I have lauded several Dutch alternative rock bands. With most I still stand, by the way. So, I'm truly interested how Words To Live By, Suits To Die In and I will progress in the coming months and years. For a band, just starting out with its first album, it seems like the band has it all going for it. The songs, the quality, the spunk. Once again The Netherlands produced an album that shows it to be world leaders in alternative rock. A blast of an album Words To Live By, Suits To Die In is.

Wout de Natris

Sgt. Culpepper. Joel Culpepper

De Britse soulmuzikant Joel Culpepper smeedt op het werkelijk geweldige Sgt Culpepper op buitengewoon fascinerende wijze invloeden uit een aantal decennia soulmuziek aan elkaar.

Direct bij de eerste noten was ik betoverd door de soulvolle klanken van Sgt Culpepper, maar sindsdien is het album van de Britse muzikant Joel Culpepper me alleen maar dierbaarder geworden. Joel Culpepper laat zich beïnvloeden door al het moois dat de soulmuziek ons de afgelopen decennia heeft opgeleverd en citeert net zo makkelijk uit de grote soulalbums van de late jaren 60 als uit het rijke oeuvre van Prince. In muzikaal opzicht steekt het allemaal knap in elkaar en blijf je je verbazen, maar ook in vocaal opzicht raakt Joel Culpepper steeds weer de juiste snaar. Het levert een memorabel soulalbum op dat het normaal gesproken goed zal gaan doen in de jaarlijstjes.

In het Verenigd Koninkrijk doen ze momenteel behoorlijk druk over Sgt Culpepper, het volwaardige debuutalbum van de Britse soulmuzikant Joel Culpepper. Ik was in eerste instantie sceptisch, want het vier jaar geleden verschenen mini-album van de muzikant uit Londen vond ik niet heel indrukwekkend en bovendien is het, zeker voor een Britse muzikant, wat pretentieus om in de albumtitel een verwijzing op te nemen, of in ieder geval de associatie op te roepen, met een van de meesterwerken of misschien wel het meesterwerk van The Beatles. 

Mijn scepsis verdween als sneeuw voor de zon toen het album van Joel Culpepper voor het eerst uit de speakers kwam. De Britse muzikant heeft met Sgt Culpepper een geweldige soulplaat gemaakt en het is er een die geen geheim maakt van alle inspiratie uit het verleden, maar die er ook in slaagt om modern te klinken. 

Sgt Culpepper begint ergens in de tweede helft van de jaren 60, maar tikt ook regelmatig het heden aan. In de tussenliggende periode zijn stapels memorabele soulalbums verschenen en Joel Culpepper kent zijn klassiekers. De Britse muzikant begint in de openingstrack bij de klassiekers van Curtis Mayfield en Marvin Gaye, maar in de tweede track krijgt de wat psychedelisch aandoende soul een flinke funkinjectie en hoor je opeens flarden Prince in zijn meest funky dagen. 

Joel Culpepper sleept er in iedere track weer een ander memorabel album bij en schakelt moeiteloos tussen vintage soul, funk en de neo-soul en hiphop die in de jaren 90 opdoken. Het klinkt allemaal fantastisch, wat ook haast niet anders kan met gerenommeerde producers als Swindle, Guy Chambers, Raf Rundell, Shawn Lee en Tom Misch achter de knoppen. 

Het inzetten van een leger aan producers leidt nogal eens tot een gefragmenteerd klinkend album, maar het geluid op Sgt Culpepper is behoorlijk consistent. De ritmesectie speelt moddervet met diepe bassen en lome ritmes, de gitaren zijn broeierig en funky, de strijkers en blazers vullen de ruimte prachtig, de piano is trefzeker, terwijl de conga’s je blijven herinneren aan klassiekers uit het verleden. 

Sgt Culpepper is behoorlijk vol geproduceerd, maar de instrumentatie kan ook subtiel klinken, wat het album voorziet van de dynamiek die zo vaak ontbreekt op de soulalbums van het moment. De instrumentatie en productie zijn van hoog niveau, maar ook in vocaal opzicht houdt Joel Culpepper zich verrassend makkelijk staande en voorziet hij de gevarieerde klanken op zijn album steeds weer van trefzekere vocalen. 

Sgt Culpepper bevat bijna 45 minuten muziek en bestaat uit vier delen: The Battle, The Surrender, The Love en The Lesson. Het betekent nog niet dat het album een conceptalbum is, maar het klinkt wat mij betreft wel als een eenheid, zeker door de spoken word intermezzo’s, wat de kracht van het album versterkt. 

Sgt Culpepper van Joel Culpepper is een soulalbum dat bij eerste beluistering een onuitwisbare indruk maakt, maar bij herhaalde beluistering wordt de fascinerende luistertrip van Joel Culpepper alleen maar beter. Sgt Culpepper klinkt af en toe als vier favoriete soulalbums die in een keer worden afgespeeld, maar de Britse muzikant kan zijn muziek ook terugbrengen tot de essentie. De laatste week van juli is misschien geen hele handige week voor het uitbrengen van een baanbrekend album, maar Sgt Culpepper is er absoluut een.

Erwin Zijleman

Non-Typical Find. Tylor & the Train Robbers

One of the few traffic jams I encountered when cruising the Northwest of the U.S., was when rounding Boise, Idaho on route to the Salmon river to do some serious rafting. That is all I know of the town, as we kept on driving. Tylor and the Train Robbers is from Boise and play some good old country (rock) music.

It is the kind of album that I just want to hear every once in a while when in search of a slightly lighter diet from the rock bands I like to listen to and a slightly tougher sound after listening to the truckloads of female singer-songwriters that have presented themselves to me over the past couple of years.

Non-Typical Find is an album that seems to do everything right. Yes, that makes it devoid of any danger or experimentation but when I want to listen to something totally out there, I will put on Tool or Frank Zappa.

Singer Tylor Ketchum has that edge to his voice like a country singer should have, while the Train Robbers hold everything. There's some great country rock electric guitar playing, the kind that seems to be able to play like the devil's on the tail of the guitarist. There's a fiddle, some great pedal steel guitar playing and a warm Hammond organ sound that is able to soothe the soul. While the drummer and the bass player lay a foundation to the softer country side and the more rocking side of the band.

Should you invite me to compare, I'd start with Grayson Capps, except that his voice has more than an extra edge over Tylor Ketchum's. Musically certainly the two can play a musical match and may the best win.

Non-Typical Find is album that pleases. Among other reasons because it ranges far and wide. The country side of The Rolling Stones shimmers in some of the songs, while elements of the better songs from The Dillard-Clark Experience and The Flying Burrito Brothers are in there as well. Add a reference to some of the finer singer-songwriters of the 70s and the picture becomes clearer.

As I wrote Tylor & The Train Robbers, with producer Cody Brown, did a lot of things just right. If you like this kind of music, check the album out for those days that you just want to relax and listen to the right kind of music to do just that.

Wout de Natris

Charlie Watts and the not-end of The Rolling Stones

When Charlie Watts died, I wondered whether that would be the end of The Rolling Stones? The world knows that answer by now: it is no. The band will go on tour through the U.S. this fall, as it would have without Charlie any way, as he would be recuperating from an operation, if he would recuperate at all, as he had indicated, it seems.

As I wrote, I distinctly remember Keith Richards saying at some point in the past something like: "if one of us three dies, it's the end of the band". Charlie is the heart of the band and without him there is no Rolling Stones sound, he has also said. Some people argue that by replacing Bill Wyman with Darryl Jones also implied that the authentic The Rolling Stones sound died.

Since last week I also know who is replacing Charlie Watts and it is the person who I would have placed my bet on: Steve Jordan, the drummer with whom Keith Richards made and wrote 'Talk Is Cheap' in the late 80s.

So should the Stones have continued? That is the question that remains. Besides Mick, Keith and Ronnie wanting to perform together, as they still can at this point in time, my son gave a good reason as well. He got to see the Stones as a 9 year old in 2003, as I had promised him at the time. Everyday there are youngsters discovering and added as fans of the band, he argued. They at this point in time still have the opportunity to go and see the band. Perhaps not in its fullest glory, but certainly with a great backing band behind them that always makes sure there is a bottom line the older guys can't fall through. Although the last time I saw them, Jagger was fantastic, Keith wobbly, Charlie as tight as ever.

So, yes, let the "old men" as I already called them in 1990!, perform their greatest hits. Let's face it, it's only a few more years and they will not be around to do so any more. Of course there's dozens of movies and all the records, but that is not the same experience. That is something the generation after us will have, but it's not the real live thing. It is the biggest difference with music from previous centuries though. Where we have no clue or at best hints as to how Mozart or Beethoven would have wanted their music to sound, that is no issue with modern recordings. They are there forever. Well, as long as there is something (resembling) electricity.

Slowly but surely the world is saying farewell to a generation of rock musicians that defined a part of my earliest youth and a huge chunk of my musical taste. Five years, perhaps for some ten and then it is all over. So in the meantime, let them enjoy their music, popularity and still being able to play live and we get to enjoy their music and energy. Rock on for a few more years, The Rolling Stones. Although I have decided not to go any more, I've seen them enough times, many still do and that is the biggest reason to continue, I'd say.

Wout de Natris