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MAXIMUM ERNST w/ Daniel Carter Live At Legion Hall

MAXIMUM ERNST with Daniel Carter @ Legion Hall

Live recording forthcoming on cassette via Ever/Never Records

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MAXIMUM ERNST 

cassette

Patois Counselors, The Optimal Seat (ever/never, 2020)

Look at the cover. They could’ve just used the beautiful painting right there. But Patois Counselors aren’t here to give you some beautiful artwork. You’re getting the artwork and the reality that spawned it. Where someone else would make a smart and catchy post punk record about the very understandable concern of technology robbing us of joy, love and warmth, the North Carolina band made a smart and catchy post punk record about us and our concerns, which are kinda funny when you frame 'em like that.

Seeing how it took them two years to release the follow-up to their fantastic debut Proper Release, one could expect some sort of stylistic change, but no, it looks like “Head Counselor” Bo White decided to use this time to zero in on the songwriting, providing us with 12 songs that are as tight as possible and contain even more of his sarcastically bitter observations about how we live our lives, how we can’t understand it, and our relationship with technology, economy and each other. Think of a happier Joe Casey for reference.

The album’s pace is comfortably fast and the songs are bursting at the seams, filled with things. The talk-sung vocals (melodically sparse but very effective) are laid on a soft bed of, well, the whole kitchen sink: synths and samples, click-clack noises, drones and whistles fill every void between the needling guitar lines and the groovy staccato style of the rhythm session, allowing the pop punch of the songs to further envelop you and command your attention.

There’s so many people playing on 'The Optimal Seat’ it looks more like a jazz ensemble than a post-punk outfit, but it’s all so well balanced and the songs are just so well crafted, this could appeal to casual listeners as well as to record collector snobs. The latter can discuss the influence of Pere Ubu and, I don’t know, maybe The Embarrassment on the Counselors’ sound, the former can dance their ass off, and we all can laugh and marvel at ourselves and our sad, self-destructive and meaningless lives.

Click here to listen to The Optimal Seat on Bandcamp.

Al Karpenter, If We Can’t Dream, They Won’t Sleep!! (ever/never, 2020)

I like to think of the Stooges as some sort of Eastern gods, and their records as scripture. I say Eastern because the thing isn’t (or isn’t supposed to be) about worship or adoration, but more about teaching, and a sort of ritualistic practice. Through the Stooges, through their mantras, one can achieve bliss and knowledge. Now why am I waxing religious here? Because Al Karpenter’s debut LP, If We Can’t Dream, They Can’t Sleep!!, is a bit of a Stoogesian ritual. A bold, arty, difficult statement and a ritual.

The seven tracks, while forced in a sequence by the physical limitation of the grooves, sound as if they’ve been emptied on the record like the contents of a bag. Lines and verses repeat throughout the album, using the famous Stooges mantra as something between a war cry and a fatalist, numb lament delivered through clenched teeth: “It’s 2019 ok, all across the fucking Spain, all across this fucking pain”. By the end of side A, you’re in deep: glitchy noises attacking you out of the blue, fragmented electronic beats, bursts of silence, ghost guitars and incredibly beautiful (in contrast with all the ugliness) saxophone and drums adding jazzy flourishes.

On side B, things slowly escalate from the bitter and creepy “No Face” to the joyous and angry call for “Riot & Roll”—expanding the musical palette so far as to include trap beats with their distinctive hi-hats and autotune, together with analog synths, melodica, saxophones, tortured bass, banging drums.

It’s not an easy album and it’s comparable to what Karpenter’s fellow Bilbaoan Mattin has done in the past (a similar use of the Stooges’ “practice” can be heard on Billy Bao’s Buildings from Bilbao). Mattin’s role in If we can’t dream… seems in fact crucial, and even if he wasn’t listed among Karpenter’s collaborators I could have guessed that he was involved, especially in the mix. It took me a few listens to really get into it, but now that I got it, I’m gonna shake, riot and roll as much as I can.

Click here to listen to If We Can’t Dream, They Won’t Sleep!! on Bandcamp.

Obnox, Savage Raygun (ever/never, 2020)

It’s not like Bim Thomas, the Cleveland multi-instrumentalist behind Obnox, ever lacked confidence in his output, releasing tons of records (3 full albums in 2015 alone, 2 in 2017, 2 in 2018, not counting EPs) oozing a mixture of swagger and just plain fuck-you attitude, burying soulful vocals in swirling guitar noise and mixing classic Clevo punk with hip-hop beats, but I think with Savage Raygun he reached a sort of high point.

This world where Killed By Death comps and Dr. Dre mixtapes meet may not be the world I grew up in—but it’s a world where I’d sure would like to spend some time. It smells like a partied-in basement. The vibe is groovy, the whole album is bass-heavy and it bumps and sizzles, jumping from funky to psychedelic to in-your-face, always somewhat floating in its own space, where genres are a bummer, man, and creativity flows like weed smoke.

I mean, while “She (Was About That Life)” is like a classic Detroit proto-punk masterpiece put through a tunnel of earth-shattering fuzz and bass, you get tracks like “How to Build a Bum”, “Blessed Black Soldier” or “Cut Me a Switch” that are absolute hip-hop/r&b bangers—albeit with Obnox’s trademark 4-track feel and penchant for blown out distortion. “Scenecide” is a nasty, mean lo-fi mid-70s punk number, while “Young Neezy” steals a Neil Young lick and turns it on its head trading in his old white hippie vocals for soulful falsetto with a hard hip-hop edge.

The press release calls it a “sprawling double LP” and I agree. The width of its inspiration and influences is rarely seen in underground music and is a testament to Thomas' impressive knowledge and passion for music in general—but that’s not all: its complexity goes beyond songwriting and arrangement, using his own lo-fi production skills as an instrument to convey his proudly weird, foggy and oblique vision. Last but not least: the cover art and inner sleeves are some of the best and funniest I’ve seen in years.

Click here to listen to Savage Raygun on Bandcamp.