#soft punch

Earth — Earth 2.23 Special Lower Frequency Mix (Sub Pop)

Earth 2.23 Special Lower Frequency Mix is a collection of five remixes that accompanies Sub Pop’s anniversary reissue of Earth’s magisterial 1993 debut Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version. The personnel on Earth 2.23 includes Justin K Broaderick (Godflesh, Jesu), who you might have guessed would have an affinity for the band’s work, as well as two contributions from a previous collaborator The Bug, aka Kevin Richard Martin, but the collection also shows the reach the band’s sound has into both less and differently heavy spaces with, respectively, an appearance each by Built to Spill’s Brett Nelson and the grime artist Flowdan. While Broaderick’s melodic, crunching take on “Teeth of Lions Rule the Divine” is the highlight here, Netson’s murkier, more strictly droning version of the same song and Martin’s propulsive, Flowdan-featuring abbreviation of “Seven Angels” —here simply “Angels” — demonstrate just how far Earth’s musical lineage branches.

Alex Johnson

Angelika Niescier / Tomeka Reid / Savannah Harris — Beyond Dragons (Intakt)

With its boldly exposed structures, rough textures, and load-bearing elements, alto saxophonist Angelika Niescier’s music is like a skyscraper under construction. Nothing is covered up, and you can tell exactly how it fits together. In settings like this, there’s no hiding, so the choice of musicians is key. Niescier has chosen well. Cellist Tomeka Reid has a simpatico orientation towards forms that are complex, yet economical, and her strong classical foundation brings out the music’s chamber dynamics. Savannah Harris treats drumming as a martial art, which is to say that her playing is strategic, disciplined, and quite capable of laying you out.

Bill Meyer

Parish / Potter — On And Off (Null Zøne)

Shane Parish (Ahleuchatistas, etc.) and Michael Potter (The Electric Nature, etc.) are hardly an obvious duo.  Parish is a restless explorer with fearsome chops; Potter spreads heavy sounds around like a mason distributing bricks and mortar. But they’re both guitarists, improvisers and Athens GA residents, so why not take a joint dive into the deep and see what comes up? In the case of this tape, a plausible melding of aesthetics that are allowed to churn into oneness, one track per side. While one is electric and the other acoustic, that’s not really what registers; rather, it’s the way the two musicians make stillness out of motion, stirring spidery patterns and slow magma into a rotating swirl of buzz and stutter. Turns out there’s still something in that water down there.

Bill Meyer

Soft Punch — Above Water (Bad Friend)

Soft Punch is the solo project of DC’s Rye Thomas, a one-time touring member of Pash and Tereu Tereu, laid low by illness and now unable to travel. That all sounds like a bummer, and it probably is, but the album, Above Water, is an unexpected joy, beginning in the Akron Family-esque choral surge “Let’s Begin” and going all the way through to the Maps-like wistful, but crescendoing, electronics of “Now’s the Time.” Pay special attention to “My Aim Is True,” whose hubris in name-checking Elvis Costello’s classic album pays off in perfect, tremulous lyricism. Thomas sings from inside a magic, glittering cavern, an unreal place where the world’s hurts can be contemplated without damage, and both the hurt and the solace are beautiful. “Here Comes the Chorus” is spikier and full of rhythmic spine, redolent of Wolf Parade at its indie-ruling peak, while “Still Songs” flutters baroquely, elaborately against swathes of strings, like Jeremy Enigk’s Return of the Frog Queen. These are all pretty heavy references but let them stand. This is the good stuff.

Jennifer Kelly

Various Artists — Thum Nyatiti: Recordings from Western Kenya, 1930​-​1970 (Dagoretti)

This new compilation gathers 16 archival cuts that feature masters of the nyatiti, an eight-string lyre found in Western Kenya. The instrument has a distinctive sharp, percussive tone to it, sounding somewhere between a marimba and a banjo as it pursues hypnotic, repetitive patterns of quick-tempo’d picking. It is played with minimal accompaniment, usually a droning, blues-adjacent vocal line, sometimes percussion, but the main element is the picking. Dr. Pete Larson, who runs Dagoretti Records, sometimes plays the nyatiti himself; his curator on this project, Michael Robertson, has selected these historic recordings with considerable knowledge and care. Two cuts come from Ogola Opot, widely considered the father of the style. He cuts through decades of static to deliver “Onyango Wasera,” a track that is somehow both sprightly and spiritual, then returns with the more subdued “Ginaa,” rhythmic but with a melancholy air. Other well-known players—Captain Oluoch, Opondo Mugoye and Okelo Mugubit—are represented as well. Captain Oluoch’s “Aduor” is rough and impassioned, the vocal more of a shout than a croon, and very powerful. As you might expect, nyatiti playing is primarily a live art, common at weddings, funerals and other celebrations about the Luo people. These recordings were made by colonizers, British and Indian entrepreneur, seeking to document a disappearing art. This collection continues their work, extending these spare and haunting songs to a still wider audience.

Jennifer Kelly

Scott Yoder — Wither on Hollywood & Vine (Cruisin’)

Glam rock isn’t as much of a thing as it used to be, but Scott Yoder is bucking the trend, decked out in eyeliner, capes and leather. His latest album Wither on Hollywood & Vine hazards big, tone-bending guitar chords, reeling melodies and a taste for the dramatic. “Sugar on Your Lips,” with its keening, 1960s-style organ surge, its slow climaxing chorus and its florid vocal style recalls all the young dudes and their low-sparking, high heeled heyday. “Silver Screen Starlet” dips into the blues, a bent brooding boogie lurching into view, while “Gold in the Hills,” maybe the disc’s best, blows out an acoustic country rock song into day-glo colors. Restraint is overrated. Bring on the excess.