Danny Malone - 'Balloons' CD Review (Austin 'Future-Folk')

Austin’s Danny Malone released his second full-length disc, Balloons, earlier this summer and, unfortunately, I had trouble getting past the John Waite-ish cover photo so this disc slipped to the bottom of my review queue. After finally giving this disc a spin over the weekend, I quickly realized that I had been missing out on some good music as Malone writes hazy, psychedelic folk-pop which has the eccentricities and demented genius of artists like Michael Gira (Swans, Angels of Light) and Roky Erickson.  It is easy to slip away into the haziness of Malone’s music but a careful listen to the lyrics quickly lets you know that Malone is trying to purge his soul through tales of loss, love, lust and addiction. Malone describes his “future-folk” music as “sexy, dirty, sad songs about the human condition”.

A brief snippet of an interview with Musiqtone says a lot about Malone’s state of mind:

LL: Do you have any fun memories or stories to share about any performances?
DM: No. I blackout before I play , like Beyoncé. Have you ever- Wait, didn’t she say that recently?

LL: Umm, I have no idea! I’ve never heard her say that before…
DM: There’s discussion that she’s involved with Satan and someone said, I think she said that she blacks out when she performs, and I just relate with that. And I do that…and that’s it! Wait, what was the question again?

This new disc was recorded in at Engelsholm Castle, a haunted castle in Denmark where Malone had been inspired to write a number of the songs on Balloons after attending a writers workshop at the castle the previous year. Returning to Engelsholm Castle, Malone and producer Matthew Smith recorded all 10 songs in 10 days, each in a different room of the castle, utilizing sounds that they found or created – such as slamming a piano lid shut, hitting a pool cue against a wall, and stomping the floor – for all the drum sounds. Malone said: “I only remember bits and pieces of recording each song because it feels like one big dream or something. It was great. It was like going to another world. Completely like another dimension to record it, and then coming back to reality to put it out.” (from the same Musiqtone interview).

The songs range from the darkly erotic “spiderlegs” (video below), which leads in with delicately picked guitar notes which build to electronic beats that wash over Malone’s vocals. This is followed by the shimmery and upbeat tune “sugarwater” which brings multi-part vocal harmonies to the forefront and features a “bop-shu-wop” sing-along chorus that hides that this is a tale about hypochondria. This is followed by “whitewhitelight”, which is a hazy psychedelic number that would float away if it weren’t anchored down by a shuffling percussive beat.



Live reviews have cited Malone as an extremely compelling live performer but, as he doesn’t have any tour dates currently posted to his website, those outside of Austin may be out of luck.

Links:
Danny Malone

Jarboe - "Primal Baroque Experiment" CD Review

Jarboe has been pushing musical boundaries for over twenty years and, in recent years, has successfully collaborated with artists ranging from Justin Broadrick to Attila Csihar to Phil Anselmo. Jarboe has taken to releasing 'works-in-progress' CDRs through her The Living Jarboe website and Primal Baroque Experiment was released late last year.

In a 2009 interview with webzine Lords of Metal, Jarboe was asked: "There is a lot of unreleased material on your website and you occasionally release cd-r's with other material. It seems you have an amazingly high workrate."

Jarboe: I create ideas and it's like a continuing process of me working alone with different source materials and then those things become available. People are really interested in hearing that because often that material continues to evolve...Those recordings are experimental studies that may or may not make it live or onto a more formal kind of album

I have always shared the initial musical ideas for my albums and given people to chance to hear how it evolves and morphs. I think it makes me connected with the fanbase... I don't like to call them fans... the people that like what I do. They like that because they have a very intimate relationship with what I'm doing and I think that's very important.

Jarboe describes Primal Baroque Experiment as "[o]rganic studies in dark texture and primitive drum" and the music is something that you feel and experience rather than just listen to. The musical instrumentation is fairly minimalist across this disc and it seems to include just Jarboe's keyboard, a drum machine and a white noise machine. The sound of the instruments are combined in different proportions and rhythmic structure across the different tracks and are complemented by Jarboe's vocals, which span the range from ominous spoken word to shy schoolgirl.

The disc is bookended by two dark pieces - "Roses", which is a spoken word piece that play out above the musical tension of a pulsing undercurrent and jagged keyboard lines and "Racing Instrumental Mix", which takes the last line ("racing to our death") from the darkwave track "Racing Distortion Mix" and loops this around funeral keys, jagged percussion and white noise. Some of the more intriguing tracks are "Jungle Baroque", which features what sounds like breathing over poly-rhythmic drumming and "Baroque Instrumental", which is an orchestral instrumental that brings in both strings and wood instruments.

All-in-all, Primal Baroque Experiment is a worthwhile expedition into part of Jarboe's psyche and perhaps freeing your own as part of the process.

Links:
The Living Jarboe

New CD/DVD Releases for this Week

There are a couple of interesting releases this week:

Angels of Light - We Are Him
The latest release from Michael Gira's post-Swans band. I've loved all of the past Angels releases and the early press on the release has given it great reviews.

"We Are Him is the most assured and relaxed Angels of Light album since the debut, and deserves to be considered alongside Gira's highest peaks. The frightening rage of old Swans surfaces several times, albeit in more bucolic clothing; the contrast is bracing. Lyrically Gira's constantly in-pocket, addressing his subjects with renewed agility, but also in a very relaxed voice; if De Sade had lived long enough to tell folk tales around a campfire, some of them might have sounded like this. The genuinely playful orchestration - banjos? horns? chimes? slide? check – is by turns charming and perverse, and has a band-of-brethren feel to it that's both ominous and exiting. The title track is like a pure shot of adrenaline. An intimate, unexpected masterpiece." - John Darnielle/The Mountain Goats

Blue Cheer - What Doesn't Kill You (CD)
Who would have thought that Blue Cheer would still be touring and recording after 40 years? I believe this to be the band's first studio recording since 1991's Dining With Sharks. The band put on a great live show at NorthSix about a year or so ago so I would expect this to be a great disc.

Cro-Mags: The Final Quarrel - Live at CBGB (DVD)
MVD has put out some pretty interesting stuff documenting the NYHC scene and this is no exception. This DVD captures the final Cro-Mags show (with both John Joseph and Harley Flanagan) at CBGB in 2001. As a bonus features, Amazon says that the disc includes a full set from Harley's War, Harley Flannigan's post Cro-Mags band.

Heaven & Hell - Live from Radio City Music Hall
Dio-era Sabbath captured live on March 30, 2007 at Radio City Music Hall. This has been released as a 2-CD set and a (separately sold) DVD. Both this tour and this particular show got stellar reviews -- 'nuff said.

Killswitch Engage - "As Daylight Dies" (CD/DVD)
The CD came out a month ago and is now being reissued with a bonus DVD and four bonus audio tracks. (I'd be p*ssed if I bought this a month ago). The DVD contains:
"My Curse" video
Making of "My Curse" video
"The Arms of Sorrow" video
Making of the "The Arms of Sorrow" video
"Holy Diver" video (Dio Cover)

and the bonus tracks on the CD are:
Be One
Let the Bridges Burn
This Fire
Holy Diver

Pink Floyd - Piper at the Gates of Dawn (CD)
There is both a 2-disc and a 3-disc version of the 40th anniversary edition of the first Pink Floyd release (w/ Syd Barrett).

The two disc version contains both the stereo and mono versions of Piper. The three disc version contains the same stereo/mono Piper discs plus a third disc of bonus tracks. The bonus track include all the Pink Floyd singles from 1967, ('Arnold Layne', 'See Emily Play', and 'Apples And Oranges'), plus the B sides 'Candy And A Current Bun' and 'Paintbox'. Other tracks are a version of 'Interstellar Overdrive' - previously only available on an EP in France - and the 1967 stereo version of 'Apples And Oranges'.

New Music Releases and Live In-Store Performances this Week (August 6th)

The "big box" stores really haven't had a lot of interesting releases this summer. Unfortunately, this week is no exception.

The most interesting major label release is the new Fuel CD. I've been sort of hit and miss on Fuel's past work but I am curious what the new singer brings to the band. For those who haven't kept up with the band, singer Brett Scallions left the band in 2006, joined local rockers The X's and then became the new singer for The Doors/Riders on the Storm. The band tapped Toryn Green from Los Angeles' Something to Burn as the new singer and the CD that will be released on Tuesday will be the first with Green and new drummer Tommy Stewart (x-Godsmack). The band appears to have a serious promo budget behind them as they are on Rockline tomorrow night and Jay Leno on Friday.

Triple Crown recording artist The Receiving End of Sirens is playing in-store sessions at Looney Tunes in Long Island on Wednesday, Aug. 8th and Vintage Vinyl in Ford, NJ on Thursday, Aug. 9th. (Unfortunately, no dates in the city) The band's new CD The Earth Sings Mi Fa Mi will be released Tuesday.

Marissa Nadler is playing an in-store tomorrow at Sound Fix in Williamsburg. She has a new CD "Song III: Birds on the Water" coming out on Kemado. SoundFix's website states that Nadler will be playing a full set starting at 10PM. I caught Nadler's show at ArthurFest and was completely knocked-out by her performance. She is back in town on September 14th to play a show with Michael Gira at the Highline Ballroom.

Lastly, Elk City is playing Sound Fix on Thursday, August 9th. The band released their debut CD New Believers in April of this year to good reviews. Elizabeth Harper is opening and the show starts at 8PM.