Christian Lillingers Grund - C O R [Plaist, 2018] Germany

Another unfortunate and self indulgent cover, another collective led by a drummer, another splendid record. By far the best thing they have done, this part-orchestrated, part-spontaneous 2 bass vehicle (hence Grund) shall not be easily digested. May its complexity render thee persistent though, for thou shall be rewarded.

No prisoners taken here, the goal is in the travel and Christian Lillinger will go to any lengths to achieve that. Electroacoustic ambience, polyrhythmic fluidity, free jazz, spontaneity in duos and trios, post-avant classical whatever, noise, skrieks and skronks, electronic-like, even drum 'n' bass improvisation and more importantly, energy, team spirit, dedication and balance, that's what's in the main recipe for C O R. Everything on the record is of course produced by acoustic instruments (except for the occasional rhodes) thanks to the stunning musicianship and genius that is Grund.

The band's proceeding like the autocratic mechanism it is and I, the listener, am helpless. This is where new music is going in 2018 and I love it. Induction in the groove, meticulous planning and suffocating freedom is what the guy on the cover brings and I certainly hope many will embrace it. Get past the artwork and invest to traverse through the unknown. And why oh why did they have to omit Plastik from the vinyl edition?!?

Christian Lillinger | drums, composition | Pierre Borel | saxophone | Tobias Delius | saxophone, clarinet | Achim Kaufmann | piano, fender rhodes | Christopher Dell | vibraphone | Robert Landfermann | bass | Jonas Westergaard | bass 

Anna Högberg Attack - Self-titled [Omslatt, 2016] Sweden

I figured that to stop listening to an album I have to write about it. And lately I've been buying records almost impulsively, as if that gives me some special meaning, a way to get b(u)y. "Shit I don't feel well today let's buy me some Rahsaan". Really, anything goes as soon as it is a bargain and of course appeals to me.  So one day I was browsing hi and lo only to come across to this awesomeness of a cover. I knew Anna Högberg but I had no idea about a band bearing her name and oh they've already had a record out? And a year's passed already? Shame. And more shame that the band played my town and I had no idea, but it was a festival and me don't likey festivals, I keep telling meself.

What do people do after they receive their records? Store them carefully? Do most of us "collectors" even have a turntable to play them on? I know that I'd occasionally buy records without having one but here's an excuse for that.. I'm an immigrant in Sweden trying to make ends meet, switching homes like a caged canary is being switched corners to avoid getting sun-toasted. But now I've got me a cool corner and a turntable and I'm playing my records. Which reminds me I've yet to receive this one. It's been 3 weeks already, I ordered from a Swedish retailer, the label is Swedish, the band too, their label oh as well, so why does it take so long to get here? I've been killing it on Spotify anyway so why the fuck do I even bother paying for it? Here's an explanation for that one too.. I like to partake in the supreme communication form we humans are blessed with music, so I treat a record in any form as an artefact of this communication. In this case, I'm the receiver and Attack is the preacher. I'm listening.

This is a spiritual record and I mean in it in the house-of-god sense of the word. It's full, if I may say so, of Aylerisms, Coltraneisms, Colemanisms but only to the level a good student has been doing their homework. The six ladies here unleash with relentless force and conspicuous grace, balancing between chaos and safety, retaining their own personal blast, their own personal voice. The sound delicately gives and I, ever unsuspected, take. Best release of 2016 hands down, too bad I got to know of this in late 2017. But good for me that the band's apparently releasing their sophomore in 2018, with the recording sessions having been finished as of November 2017. Brilliant and can't wait!

Erland Dahlen - Clocks [Hubro, 2017] Norway

Another solo album from this astonishingly creative Norwegian. I am writing these lines as the album's progressing, soundscapes are unfolding in front of my ears, I desperately wish to dance but it's too late so I dance anyway. I'm happy Erland, third fucking masterpiece in a row?

Yes, for those infodiggers, the guy is already famous from his sessions with Nils Petter Molvær, Mike Patton, JP Jones, Stian Westerhus, Garbarek, Xploding Plastix and a sheer shitload of geniuses I'm too envy to mention. But I reckon his solo output is more essential, because he takes up all the risks, from transforming his creative energy to playing entrepreneurship.

I'm already on the third repeat tonight, it's my first encounter with this. It's certainly giving off a spice of the dystopia it carried it, but it's a hopeful, positive manifest. Erland is mainly pounding the drums but here he's employed mellotrons, knives, musical and non-musical saws, metal sheets, vintage drum sets, drone-boxes and 'electronics'. It runs on pure, primitive, even tribalistic gas. Ecstatic, forward-looking, jaw-dropping. Hey where's my copy?

No Noise No Reduction - Au Doux Combat Me Joindre [2017] France

It's a sea of reeds and it takes three masters adept to exploiting all the expressive range saxes have to offer to accomplish a feat as NNNR have. One barytone and two basses do the damage here and they'll have you dancing, cheering and lamenting within a matter of minutes. 

NNNR come from Toulouse in SW France in what is essentially Occitània, a crossroad for one too many a tradition. It really shouldn't strike you as strange to hear ethiopian-styled balkan-like dadaisms alternating with dissonant noisey droney passages and mechanistic grooves. The discipline it took to produce this! But really, NNNR rocks hard.

The power of the sax is such that we'd implicitly require a jazz reference to any brass ensemble but I'm afraid this isn't what's up here. NNNR have something to share with Gilbert Artman's Urban Sax (the Spiral album maybe), Maximalist!, Bise de Buse and Sledě, Živé Sledě. That's not their drummerless presentation but their meditative musique concréte and serialist approach to composition. More importantly though, this ensemble rocks, or it punk rocks. For the last few days I've been listening to the album relentlessly and it finally reached me: if anything and as a common denominator, NNNR continue in the daring industrial post-punk tradition that Cassiber and This Heat set. I also get some hints from X-Legged Sally and Blast but I know that's just me. How about some Look de Bouk and Toupidek Limonade references (Hellebore too? hmm)? Dammit I know I'm over the top.

All the aural suggestions and connections I've offered here only have to do with how I perceived the whole thing. They do not attempt to explain NNNR's uniquely artistic nature and contribution, rather than give some guidelines that I'm comfortable with. Anyhoo, the spirit of the true creatives is very much alive with this release.

Another serious contender for album of the year 2017.

Buy.the.CD.

Yolk - Solar [2017] France

Another beast of its own, Yolk is an example of the unease entity that refuses to settle. Multiverses of influences are molded into Yolk's own, with the range extending from Art Bears to Magma to Sleepytime Gorilla to GYBE! to Gong to Yolk. Odd time signatures, pounding riffs, balkan grooves, psychedelic landscapes and Delphine Delegorgue's out-there, psychotic, inviting, captivating vocals might give a premature picture. Plus, Valentin Carette's guitar playing and approach is phenomenal as usual. The guy is a genious!

Solar is similar to the band's eponymous as well as last year's "You Decide". I find it less direct and more sophisticated than the 1st and definitely less obscure, a tad lighter if you will than the 2nd. Probably due to its long compositions, Solar expands on Yolk's qualities and the songs take their time into the listener's subconscious. I hate to admit it, but this is also an album to dance to. I've tried it and it works!

Get.The.Vinyl.

The Dirty Snacks Ensemble - Tidy Universe [2016] USA

The Dirty Snacks Ensemble. What's the story behind the name? why Tidy Universe? I'm always curious about the extramusical traits of a record, after all it's those traits that complete the experience. I discovered Dirty Snacks while "wandering" around in Bandcamp during some long day's small hours; I hadn't finished the album when I pressed 'Buy Record/Vinyl', it was instant love. Am I being naive for buying records? friends suggest so but come on, it's the ultimate extramusical trait that enhances the experience. I mean I'll still stream, obviously, but you develop a different relationship with a music you like, it's getting physical (you get me).

Dirty Snacks are the brainchild (hate that word) of Mark Clifford, vibraphonist, keyboardist and composer and it seems they're based in Oakland. You get that Sunshine State vibe (pun) throughout the album. It's lingering on the positive yet thoughtful side, with lots of groove and experimentation. I'll draw some parallels with The Claudia Quintet although I find Dirty Snacks a little more daring and playful while not so polished. 

The ensemble sounds so organic (love that word) it feels they're recording next to you. Now. You gotta love how the reeds (especially that bass clarinet) interact with everything. Or how the vibes and piano bind the whole into one. The violin can range from austere to clumsy. The drums are delicate and the bass is king; some awesome post-jazz-rock moments here. You gotta love how the compositions are breathing, how these creatives are relevant. The style is maybe chamber-jazz, some friends called it cinematic; you can call anything cinematic, as long as it's soundtracking your own movie. And this is mine.

Is it arbitrary if I say SUPPORT THE ARTIST? I didn't think so.

Spjärnsvallet - Again and Again [1975, 2014-15] Sweden

A gift. I'm not sure how many remember Spjärnsvallet but this "comeback" took me by surprise. Actually it's nothing more but outtakes from their 1975 self-titled album, plus a newly recorded track. The album is dedicated to the late Kjell Westling, a distinguished multi-instrumentalist known to have participated in many seminal Swedish prog bands. 

In fact the quartet is a who's who of the 60s/70s Swedish prog, rock, psych and freak folk scene: Archimedes Badkar, Träd Gräs och Stenar, Blå Tåget, Harvester, Vargavinter, Thomas och Turid, Marie Selander, Pärson Sound, Nynningen and Nationalteatern among others. Some of those sound explicitly daring to this day. That background is prevalent throughout Spjärnsvallet's music. Add to that, Bengt Berger's and Christer Bothén's itch to travel to Ghana and India (the former) and Mali and Morocco (the latter) with the purpose to expand their musical vocabulary.

Again & Again is for those like me who think that the eponymous is just too short. It is well introverted and you can notice the balkan, south indian or north & west african traditions with great transparency. Still, there are discrete improvisational, compositional as well as overlapping moments just like on the debut. Does it differ from the original 1975 statement though? I believe it does. 

The closing track, Again, is the only absolutely new piece here, recorded in 2014 by the 3 surviving members of the group. I like to imagine it as the closing statement of an era, an elegy dedicated to the late Kjell Westling. It showcases the ability of the trio to continue breathing as a single organism. Just like before. I really couldn't think of a better fitting conclusion. The word spjärnsvallet, the way I understand it, stands for the cascade that we will set off should we support each other. Brilliant.