{"id":26632,"date":"2023-12-30T05:30:11","date_gmt":"2023-12-30T10:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=26632"},"modified":"2023-12-30T09:27:26","modified_gmt":"2023-12-30T14:27:26","slug":"album-review-after-ours-music-for-cats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2023\/12\/30\/album-review-after-ours-music-for-cats\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: After Ours \u2013 Music for Cats"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"One of the inescapable realities of being a music critic is that one only has the opportunity to cover that which one hears. And so \u2013 despite the most valiant efforts of a conscientious publicist who\u2019s working the account \u2013 if an email goes unopened, if a one-sheet goes unread, there\u2019s every chance that some fine music will escape the notice of said reviewer.<\/p>\n

That almost<\/em> happened here. The PR rep handling the self-released Music for Cats<\/i> \u2013 the latest from instrumental jazz duo After Ours \u2013 first emailed me about the record in July<\/i>. Whoa<\/i>. Somehow I missed that email, plus more-than-I-can-count followups sent over the following months. And while in some cases persistence can be an annoyance, my sense is that he had done his homework and truly felt I\u2019d be the right audience for the music of this duo based in Michigan and (locally, here in) Asheville.<\/p>\n

So he persisted. And I am grateful that he did. Because Music for Cats<\/i> is among the most enjoyable albums I\u2019ve heard this year. So good, in fact, that it really belongs on my Best of 2023<\/a> list*. I finally read and responded to his late-December message, listened to an evaluation stream, and said \u201cyes please\u201d on a physical copy (vinyl, as it happens).<\/p>\n

After Ours self-describe their music as head-nod jazz. The duo is looping guitarist Eli Kahn and drummer Arthur Schroder, and the music they make is expansive, sounding like much more than two musicians. They claim influences ranging from hip-hop to folk to rock, and I do indeed hear all of that and more in the grooves of Music for Cats<\/i>. Sometimes Kahn\u2019s guitar sounds like a sitar; other times he reminds me a bit of Robert Fripp. And Schroeder\u2019s breakbeat-informed approach bridges the space between \u201850s hard bop and hip-hop. Some found-sound vocal snippets are folded into \u201cCerberus,\u201d the album\u2019s opening cut.<\/p>\n

This is some very accessible music that\u2019s cinematic in scope. The hooks are sharp as they\u2019d be in rock or pop, the grooves as deeps as the best funk, and the playing as warm and expressive as the finest jazz. You\u2019ll hear bass guitars, vibraphones, synthesizers and other instruments (most by Kahn), and they\u2019re all seamlessly integrated into the music. Sometimes \u2013 as on \u201cAloe Vera\u201d \u2013 you won\u2019t be sure at first if you\u2019re hearing a guitar, sax or synth. And ultimately it doesn\u2019t matter: the music is the ting, and the delivery device(s) aren\u2019t the point.<\/p>\n

Head-nodding indeed it is. Those who enjoy New Mastersounds but are open to something a bit dreamier and contemplative will most certainly find pleasure in this music. At time \u2013 and in part because of the vibraphone \u2013 the music may evoke thoughts of early \u201870s crime-and-spy jazz, but then the corkscrew guitar parts suggest something closer to Larry Coryell, Frank Zappa or Steve Vai. It\u2019s a neat trick to make music that\u2019s thrilling and laid back at once, but that\u2019s precisely what Kahn and Schroeder have done with this superb album.<\/p>\n

* I\u2019m now revising said list of four albums<\/a> to include Music for Cats <\/i>and one other.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the inescapable realities of being a music critic is that one only has the opportunity to cover that which one hears. And so \u2013 despite the most valiant […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26633,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,42,49,65,73],"tags":[5304],"class_list":["post-26632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-instrumental","category-jazz","category-new-release","category-review","category-vinyl","tag-after-ours","cat-40-id","cat-42-id","cat-49-id","cat-65-id","cat-73-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26632"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26643,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26632\/revisions\/26643"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}