Madonna, “Like A Virgin” (Sire, 1984)Her second album, and her best. The melodies are more subtle and scintillating than on the debut, but the techno-dance dopamine pulse is coherent and consistent in a way that got attenuated later on. This thing manifests the plastic luxuriance of high-‘80s consumer modernism in its pinkest and purest form.Try […]
Magic Trick, “Ruler of the Night” (Hardly Art, 2012)Semi-acoustic indie rock that touches on acid/folk, spooky pop, Bowie-esque melodrama, and campfire strumming.Try 2, 4, 67/29/12
Major Lance, “Greatest Hits” (Epic, 1987; original recordings 1963-64)From the Golden Age of Chicago Soul, here’s a Curtis Mayfield venture that deserves more attention than it’s gotten. Mayfield wrote and produced these smooth, breezy, resonant songs for the Major, who delivered them with perfect ham-actorly aplomb. They show a more fanciful side than Mayfield permitted […]
Carmen Maki Blues Creation “Carmen Maki Blues Creation” (Phoenix, 2011; original recording 1971)Heavy/droney Japanese blues-psych from the early ‘70s, with a distinctive twist: the singer is a Joplinesque female shouter who can also float down into ethereal trad-Japanese-folk territory.Try A/3, B/32/28/12
Male Gaze, “King Leer” (Castleface, 2016)Their first one essayed the then-current garage-punk/doom-post-punk fusion with an unusually heavy and relentless attack, and I dug it to the max. This follow-up isn’t as heavy, but repeat listens show it to be even better, the kind of record that’s likely to sound classic in ten years. The singer’s […]
The Mallard, “Yes On Blood” (Castle Face, 2012)First thing I’ve seen from this label since their reissue of the first Fresh&Onlys LP, and these fellow-San Franciscans ply a similar skronky-yet-sonorous psych-garage sound, but with a more fractured/wacky sensibility and some seriously twisted and exciting song structures that’ll take you on a wild ride.Try 2, 52/28/12
Terry Malts, “Killing Time” (Slumberland, 2012)More trademark Slumberland music, with mid-‘60s popisms filtered through a C86/Jesus&Mary Chain fuzz-noise-haze, but these guys (& gal?) stand out as being more bare-knuckle punk rock than their peers. It evokes the concrete-jungle feel of the Ramones as much as their sound, and that’s a rare and excellent feat.Try 1-4, […]
Mannequin Men, “Mannequin Men” (Addenda, 2011)Fresh from a single on Hozac (?), these guys check in with a genuinely excellent album of steady garage punk and roll drawn out and deepened into Velvets-esque hypno-strum. If you could picture a mid-point between Tyvek and Real Estate, this band might be it, but their songwriting might be […]
Gerardo Manuel y el Humo, “Apocallypsis” (Lion Productions, 2012; original release 1970)Reissue of “Pera’s First Hard Rock LP,” and it’s pretty excellent. No indigenous Andean musical curlicues, sadly, but fine Hendrix/Santana-inspired space-blues workouts, and some crazed vocals and distorto-guitar.Try 1, 7,105/5/12
Marine Research, “Sounds From the Gulf Stream” (K, 2000 [?])After the tragic death of her brother and Heavenly/Talulah Gosh bandmate, Amelia Fletcher regrouped most of Heavenly for one of her best albums ever. Fletcher’s trademark jangly/clangy/winsome take on mid-‘60s guitar-beat-pop is at its most complex and hard-hitting here, and fans shouldn’t miss it.Try 3, 07/27/13