Donna Summer, “The Wanderer” (Casablanca, 1980)Her Rock Move, taking off from the amped-up Moroder pulse of the previous LP’s “Sunset People,” and it works to great effect. There’s something almost Germs-like in the cool, streamlined L.A.-desperation-drive of these grooves.Try 1/ 1, 2/ 1, 2/ 3.7/11/18
Suzi Quatro, “Classic Quatro” (Razor and Tie, 1996)These early- and mid-1970s recordings were as crucial to the emergence of punk and new wave as the contemporary work of Bowie and the New York Dolls. Quatro’s pioneering modern, hard-edged, tough-girl glitter sound and persona was a direct inspiration to a teenage Joan Jeff, among many others. […]
Suzi Quatro, “If You Knew Suzi . . .” (RSO, 1979)The glam-rock goddess comes back as a hard-rocking singer-songwriter, starting fresh in the Holly/Everlys early morning of r&r history and using it to stake her claim to new maturity.Try 1/ 2, 1/ 36/18/18
Swans, “Filth/Body To Body, Job To Job” (Young God, 2014 [?], original recordings, 1982-85)Much as I respect their cathedral-scale recent achievements, this is what I think of when I think of the Swans – atonal sheet-metal guitar grind powered by rumbling rhythm-section clatter, songs like Black Sabbath flash-frozen and distilled into its minimal essence.Try Disc […]
Swans, “The Seer” (Young God, 2012)Seminal NYC noise-rock unit (close colleagues of Sonic Youth when they were both starting out) returns with what has rightly been characterized as a summation of their entire career. Crunching sheets of distorto-guitar, thundering drums, bizarre-world Gregorian chants, and much more, integrated into a coherent whole. Towering, epic, wall of […]
Sweet Sensation, “Take It While It’s Hot” (Atlantic, 1989)One of the great girl-groups of Latin freestyle, the ‘80s dance music that updated classic disco with slamming beats, as many polyrhythms as you could cram into a measure, and pop melodramas of yearning and exuberance worthy of Phil Spectator himself.Try 1, 87/11/18
Synapse, “Peek-Ara-Boo” (Tzadik, 2)Collaboration between two titans of the international avant-art-noise-rock-improv underground who also happen to be Japanese women – DNA-drummer-turned-electronic-percussion-polymath Ikue Mori and vocalist/found-sound-collagist Haco.The Japanese echoes are clearest in some of Haco’s melodies and a certain use of space and silence, but it’s most reminiscent of (and seriously of comparable quality to) Eno’s […]
Synapse, “Raw” (Tzadik, 2005)Synapse is a project featuring Haco on vocals and samplers/keyboards and former DNA drummer Ikue Mori on electronic percussion. These women are among the giants of Japanese Fringe-avant-rock, and this is among their best work. It’s all breathtakingly inventive and fully realized, but the true astonishers are 3 (“Red And Green,” a […]
Syndicate of Sound, “Little Girl” (Sundzed, 1997; original release 1966)The title track is an all-time classic mysterioso/cool psych-punk stomp, so I was a bit disappointed by the well-scrubbed Brit-invasion-generic popness of a lot of this. But it does make for pleasant listening, and some of it does approach the disorienting fever-pitch of their great moment.Try […]
Billy Synth and The Turn-Ups, “Disorderly Conduct” (Tragik, 1983)A fine example of the kind of kitchen-sink genre-mashing that “punk,” “new wave” etc. underwent in odd corners of middle America. This is basic greaser rock’n’roll that makes you think they would have sounded like J. Geils or Tom Petty a few years earlier, but here it’s […]