#rory..rose loves rory..incidentally so do i

Donovan Quinn—Dad Was Buried In His Leather Jacket 7” (Soft Abuse)

So you say you love vinyl? It’s one thing to extol the virtues of a broad black long player, but quite another to embrace the medium in its most concentrated form—the multi-song 33 rpm 7”. Donovan Quinn proves his love on four-song EP by glorying in the sonic squashedness that comes from cutting 13 minutes into 14 inches and then making said minutes so catchy that you’ll play it over and over, thus guaranteeing imminent decay. Backed by buds from 200 Years and Skygreen Leopards, he returns to the casual pop lope that he toned down in favor of country introspection on his last full-length solo record, Honky Tonk Medusa. Since Nikki Sudden is otherwise engaged, Dan Treacy remains a convalescent, and David Kilgour’s taking his time, it falls to Quinn to argue the merits of this stuff. Don’t fight him; he’s got four good answers right here.

Bill Meyer

Moon Duo—Occult Architecture Vol. 1 (Sacred Bones)

Occult Architecture Vol. 1 by Moon Duo

The first of two in a set for 2017, Occult Architecture Vol. 1 plumbs the mind-cracking properties of gnostic repetition. Like Ripley Johnson’s other project, Wooden Shjips, Moon Duo employs tight circling riffs of guitar and drums to crack through expectations. “Cold Fear” hammers relentlessly at a four-note riff, a catch like a heart murmur syncopating its inexorable forward motion; you can’t listen without paranoia, claustrophobia angst, and yet the airy vocals, the throbbing synthetic keyboards (that’s the other half of the duo, Sanae Yamada) murmur of escape. Most times, Moon Duo seems to distill whole rock songs into a single measure, refracted into a million repetitions as through a funhouse mirror.“Creepin’” vamps a blues rock riff into oblivion, transforming heat and friction and diesel dust into something otherworldly. Only “White Rose” is given the room to stretch its limbs, unfurling in distended guitar scrawls and buzzing drone, past measures that spin by like telephone polls on a long haul towards the horizon.

Jennifer Kelly

Eye—Other Sky (Ba Da Bing)

While New Zealanders can’t really claim a lock on free form noise rock, they sure know how to do it right. Eye has lineage on its side; drummer Peter Stapleton has played in Dadamah and the Terminals (caveat – my old label Roof Bolt put out a Terminals record 20 years ago, but no, I can’t sell you one), guitarist Peter Porteous in Empirical, and synthesist Jon Chapman in Rory Storm and the Invaders. But it’s what they do with their heritage that makes this stuff register. “Tension Cue” starts things off with a juggernaut of forward driving beats and low register rumble that sounds rather like someone listened to Mission Of Burma’s cover of “Heart Of Darkness” and said “this is nice, but a bit too cluttered,” and then set about making things right. “Black Lightning,” on the other hand, layers sizzling percussion, butterfly electronics, and guttural fuzz into a remorseless build-up and discharge of energy. With music like this, longer is better; the tracks that work less well are the ones without room to stretch.

Bill Meyer

DenMother—Blood: A Memoir (Self-Release)

Blood: a memoir | 2016 by DenMother

Canadian electronic singer-songwriter DenMother spent much of this decade under the radar amassing what was quietly one of the most impressive oeuvres out there. But along with geographical changes (Toronto to the Maritimes, most prominently) and personal turmoil, she pulled her work down and went into hibernation. Luckily the end of last year saw a return, with edited versions of older releases once again on her Bandcamp account and this new release, giving an account of a difficult year. As always the production is somehow lushly minimalist, hazy and harrowing, with DenMother’s frequently echoed and distorted vocals weaving in and around its surroundings. Blood: A Memoir is definitely a welcome return for those of us who have been following her work, but it also makes a fine starting point for the uninitiated. Here’s hoping for more this year.

Ian Mathers

Crystal Myslajek—Circadia LP (Water Wing)

Circadian rhythms are the 24-hour cycles that we enact or disrupt as we go through our days or louse up by jumping time zones. But what do you get when you drop the n? Is Circadia a place? Sure sounds like it, but I defy you to find it on a map. The act of making something new with a small omission corresponds quite nicely to the act of making a new song that someone might, against the tides of nostalgia and glut, actually want to hear. Crystal Myslajek mines a very different vein here than she did a couple years back with the trio Brute Heart. She plays piano and coos a few syllables across the six tracks on this LP; somber and ruminative, her keyboard figures bring to mind Peter Jefferies c. Last Great Challenge in a Dull World. Bolstered by a hint of brushes on drums and the very occasional swell of a bowed string or a twisted synth knob, Myslajek’s music evokes an icy, late-night vibe that offers a clue to the album’s name and acknowledges one of music’s powers — to freeze a day.

Bill Meyer

The Urge Trio—Live at the Hungry Brain (Veto)

Snapshot of a single musical set recorded at Chicago, October of 2015, Live at the Hungry Brain teams Swiss reedist Christopher Erb with reedist Keefe Jackson and cellist Tomeka Reid, two of the city’s vanguard improvisers. Erb and Jackson overlap on tenor saxophone with each bringing secondary horns to stage as well. A vibrant and vacillating contest of conflating and contrasting tones and textures ensues for much of the 33-minute duration. Dry and bristling reed pops percolate with brittle pizzicato. Overtones and harmonics born of pursed embouchures and cantilevered strings float and flitter in the air like bio-luminescent fireflies. Jackson’s bass clarinet takes on the moistly gurgling properties of an amphibian pond dweller while Erb mimics the loquacious faux-speech of a tree-perched avian of unknown origin on soprano. Vintage European free improvisation is an obvious antecedent with a section mid-performance where Erb almost sounds like Brötzmann in his coarse, leather-lunged cadence, but any semblance of imitation ultimately seems incidental. These are three players comfortable in a common musical tongue derived from the moment and separate from any established language.

Derek Taylor

Mint Mile—The Bliss Point (Comedy Minus One)

The Bliss Point by Mint Mile

The late, great Silkworm continues to spin out offshoots, first the wonderful but (understandably) morbid Bottomless Pit, now Mint Mile, which is just as raucous and wounded, but somewhat less constrained by personal history. Both Tim Midyett and Andy Cohen play prominent roles in the project; Midyett’s reedy tenor, plus the layers and layers of six-string sound, give a strong whiff of Silkworm. But there are other players, too, Matthew Barnhart and Howard Draper from Tre Orsi, Jeff Panall of Songs:Ohia and Justin Brown of Paillard. Four of six of participating musicians play some variety of guitar, at least part of the time. “City of Speed Traps” blisters and roars with a quintessentially late-1990s heaviness, taking its slow time to let dissonance and distortion bloom, while “Bellflower” flirts with country rock in its acoustic and lap steel (that’s Draper) tones, though a very loud variety of it. “Park,” the best of the lot, rattles its cage with a kind of flannel-shirted, five-o’clock- shadowed belligerence in line with another Chicagoan guitar band, Eleventh Dream Day; its clanking bass line and slashing guitars convey pure hurting resilience (“Whatever gets you by,” indeed.) The four-song EP closes with “Youngold,” a mostly acoustic outing, lit by lovely arcs of steel guitar (Justin Brown this time), but while quieter, the song aches with urgency. Lifers all, still at it, and it still matters.

Jennifer Kelly

Rich Halley 5—The Outlier (Pine Eagle)

“Deserve’s got nothing to do with it.” Clint Eastwood was talking about frontier justice, not jazz, when he uttered those words in Unforgiven, but they still apply to folks like Rich Halley. Pushing 70, he’s an authoritativetenor saxophonist who writes sturdy tunes and holds together a band that grasps his concepts. He’s done the work to build an audience, playing small joints in the Oregon woods and for a number of years organizing the Penofin Jazz Festival, which brought folks like Fred Anderson and Tony Malaby to the Pacific Northwest. But living in Oregon never elevated any jazz musician’s profile, so no matter how much good work he does he seems not to get much notice. Will it mean much to you to say that this record is a standout amongst Halley’s oeuvre? Maybe it’ll mean more to say that the front line of Halley, trombonist Michael Vlatkovich, and baritone saxophonist Vinny Golia make vibrant multi-color weaves out of Halley’s tunes, and that bassist Clyde Reed and drummer Carson Halley (son of Rich, which can’t hurt) ably bridge the lurching funk prescribed by Julius Hemphill back in the 70s with a tumbling, free-flowing pulse. Let’s just say that if you check out his work you’ll be allotting just deserts to a fine, under-recognized jazz man and also doing yourself a favor.

Davies Who 

Donna remembers. I don’t care how. Just, not this violation of her agency.

Use Donna to call Ten’s hubris out.

Kill Queen Victoria. It was the original plan for series 2, and it works far better for the story arc. The whole thing is about consequences for Ten and Rose and their behavior, them creating Torchwood through their irresponsibility, but as is I think it lacks the sting.

Have Rose not end up with the Doctor. I know, they’ve got star-crossed true love and all that. But I think part of what made them compelling was that they were so gleefully, ignorantly doomed. They were grinning and laughing and flirting from battlefield to battlefield and there’s a wonderful contrast in that. But they also need to face the consequences. I think something like Hell Bent for them would be better, something pushing Rose to realize that it’s in her best interest to leave him even as it breaks her own heart. I think the parallel world stuff is good, though, particularly since Jackie ends happy.

Give Mickey and Martha their own stories in their episodes. Let them be appreciated more for their own strength rather than sidelined by the Doctor’s dismissive attitude. And, uh, don’t have them randomly in a relationship out of nowhere. Build it up or don’t do it. Also, have Martha remain a Doctor rather than a soldier.

Moffat Who

I hate calling for monster returns, but a story of something like the Mara for Amy in series 7A or 6B. Something to suggest the trauma she’s had and the abandonment through surreal imagery. Stuff like Asylum of the Daleks or The God Complex acknowledges it well, but I want more. It’d be even better if she realizes she’s being taken over early but struggles to tell the Doctor or Rory because she’s afraid of them dismissing her. Moffat’s really good at inside head stories so it’d work well I think, particularly if they got Hurran in for it like so many in that era did.

Show us River’s wives. Clara and Jane Austen. Canton’s husband. I know these things are incidental to the plot, but the representation means so much more when you can see it. I love it as it is but I do think more is called for and is a reasonable request.

Cast something other than white people in The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People. Like, I think it’s a really underrated script, but a story about the plight of the oppressed needs a diverse cast, and it just utterly fails that.

Paternoster spinoff. Let it be the SJA to Class’ Torchwood, eh? They lend themselves so much to silly adventures, and they provide amazing representation. Only hurdle I could see is in their heavy makeup work, but I’m sure there’s ways around it, like Strax wearing the Sontaran helmet or Vastra her veil.

Get Davies back for an episode. I know Moffat’s tried, but, like, try harder. Please?

Sherlock

Make the nature of Irene’s sexuality and her attraction to Sherlock clearer because that discourse is hell

Reduce the quantity of not-gay jokes. They do make sense in acknowledging a long history of speculation and I don’t think they need to be excised entirely, but there is a bit too much

Kill John instead of Mary. It’d change up the shape of series 4 a fair bit, particularly given Mary has far less aversion to killing and would probably make quicker work of Eurus’ puzzles, but there’s gotta be stuff to be done with that. Perhaps her not being willing to kill anymore after seeing John shot? That could be interesting. I dunno. I just feel like, good as series 4 was, there’s a better version where John takes Mary’s place and Mary John’s.

More Sally. I know the actress was unavailable for series 3, but it’s a huge blow in diversity to a show that has basically none.

Cut The Blind Banker.

Game of Thrones

Get rid of all straight white men in the writing staff. Let me be clear, there is nothing inherently bad about someone being straight, white, or a man. But as there is so much ignorance towards intersectional issues in a text that needs to be aware of and critiquing them (something Martin generally does well in the books and is sort of a main point of the series), that needs to be shaken up.

Stannis would never burn Shireen and that was the dumbest plotting decision ever. No. Just no. Now, his wife, she would. Melisandre would. His soldiers would. But he wouldn’t. Seeing him pressured to burn his daughter or else the troops will leave him for not being sufficiently devoted to the red god could be a good way of keeping the beat while removing the out-of-character side to it. But as it is it just does not function. At all.

More of Sam’s book scenes. The show gets a bit too fixated on the upsetting material, upping torture and violence to extreme levels, when some of the strongest material is in the quieter character work. Sam and Gilly taking the boat south is one of those.

A different direction for Sansa. I’m not saying keep her in the Vale and out of the plot, I get why that’s an issue. But don’t subject her to Ramsay. Or to rape. Actually, too much Ramsay is easily one of the show’s biggest problems. They seem to think he’s compelling because he’s awful, but instead he’s just awful.

Make Dorne the planners like they are in the books. The show has gotten so much drama out of the likes of Littlefinger and Varys, surely the plotting of Dorne like in the books could make for excellent television. I’m not saying it needs to be the same as it was in the books, there are changes for a reason. But they were changed in the show to the most ridiculous and incoherent thing yet.

ASoIaF

Cut characters/plotlines. Yes, they all have thematic points to make. No, that does not make them all good storytelling. Many of the strands could be condensced, combined, or cut entirely. Not to say the show is the best example of that, just that there is sound logic in changing it because it just doesn’t flow as a story.

If you have to keep alluding to the sexual violence and critiquing it, please muster more sympathy for the victims. Would it hurt, for example, to have a PoV chapter for Shae, right at the end, so we know who she is? Or for Jeyne to get some agency rather than focusing just on Theon?

Have some victories. So many of the plotlines are subversions of classic narratives, like with Robb or Quentyn or Ned’s downfalls. But there comes a point when it gets too repetitive. There’s other twists stories can take that also build in the drama of the world. And if they’re so important to subvert, a standalone novella might be a better approach. For now the amount of these dead-end plots clutters an already chaotic series to make the pacing turgid and the overall scope confusing. Plus, the basic pleasure of telling a story involves victories as well as twists and horrific fates. I know this series is about subverting those pleasures, but it should do that by also finding new pleasures in unexpected places.

Deliver on teased developments. I know a lot of that’s a problem because A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons are transitional pieces to get the characters in the right place after the climactic events of A Storm of Swords, but it means after five very long books we are still reading setup for things we have been expecting for literal thousands of pages, with new characters dropping in for even more setup. It makes the books frustrating to read at times. And saving all the shocking twists in all the storylines for the end of each of the books just makes it even tougher going.

More of the original cast. The series keeps adding in new characters, and while many of them are indeed interesting, it’s frustrating when Sansa, Jon, Daenerys, and Arya’s arcs are all grinding to a halt and their chapters become increasingly spread out. At the very least, if you’re going to keep adding PoV characters, do it like, say, Brienne was done. Have them expand from a prominent character’s storyline and then branch off into their own. Like, I love Jon Connington, but the man is utterly disconnected from basically everything. And there are so many disconnected plotlines now that many of them barely move at all.

Star Wars

Erase every racial stereotype alien

Poe kisses Finn on the forehead or something while he’s unconscious in The Force Awakens. Maybe an “I love you.” I need it for reasons.

No kid!Anakin or kid!Anakin flirting with Padme.

Either make Padme or Obi-Wan the main character of the prequel trilogy. Padme is a more interesting angle to see Anakin lose it from I think, and has better access to the political storyline Lucas clearly wants to tell. And Obi-Wan gets a lot of the most compelling material, his plot in Attack of the Clones in particular feeling like a hint of a far better film.

Cut the Bodhi interrogation stuff toward the beginning of Rogue One. Just have the pilot talked about a lot like they do and have them not actually meet him until the cell. Because as is, he breaks up the first act’s pacing quite badly and distracts too long from Jyn’s story.

Class

Less dialogue. I love a lot of the dialogue, but the show really needs more showing and letting the actors emote.

Make the two-parter one part. As it is the pacing just does not work at all.

Put Detained before the heart stuff. At the moment, the characters take too long to come into focus, not really doing so until Detained. It’s a good opportunity to take an already dysfunctional group, identify their flaws and tensions, and make that a focus of the series earlier on.

A different approach to the Shadowkin. Commit to an approach. Are they comedically rubbish? Terrifying menaces? A parody of toxic masculinity? An othered evil species? They don’t quite hit right and that hurts the plot arc. Also, their voices are edited poorly and that makes them hard to hear.