{"id":27224,"date":"2024-04-30T05:30:06","date_gmt":"2024-04-30T09:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=27224"},"modified":"2024-04-30T11:07:05","modified_gmt":"2024-04-30T15:07:05","slug":"capsule-reviews-for-april-2024-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/30\/capsule-reviews-for-april-2024-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Capsule Reviews for April 2024 #2"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a real assortment of great new music that I\u2019d like you know about. So here I present capsule reviews of five new titles in a variety of styles and genres.<\/p>\n

\"\"Ex Norwegian \u2013 Sooo Extra<\/i><\/b>
\nI recently interviewed Think Like a Key Records head honcho Roger Houdaille about his label\u2019s singles release series; that story will run soon in Goldmine<\/i>. And as a fan of his group Ex Norwegian, I was keen to hear their latest as well. Sooo Extra<\/i> picks up where the group left off, purveying immensely catchy and well-arranged, intelligent power pop. Just the right amount of muscle is combined with hook-laden melodies. Plenty of bands have taken inspiration from Revolver<\/i>-era Beatles, and that touchpoint is certainly one of the influences on Ex Norwegian. But there\u2019s more going on here, and the timeless tunes should be shortlisted for anyone who likes a good melody that rocks. The album\u2019s standout cut is \u201cReal Bad Bunny,\u201d and if you dig that one, the rest of the album won\u2019t disappoint.<\/p>\n

\"\"Karl Bartos \u2013 The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari<\/i><\/b>
\nI think there\u2019s something in the air these days. In recent times, classically trained and avant garde artist Min Xiao-Fen<\/a> has created modern-day scores for classic of Chinese cinema. And now Karl Bartos (formerly of Kraftwerk) has done something conceptually similar for Robert Weine\u2019s 1920 silent motion picture The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari<\/i>. Dark, doomy and unsettling, the music is also beautiful and highly evocative. Expressed on a variety of keyboard instruments, it\u2019s filled with just the kind of light and shade that such a project would demand. When synthesizers are used, they\u2019re employed in a way that sounds and feels organic, juxtaposed with chamber instruments. The titles (\u201cScary Memories,\u201d \u201cMarch Grotesque,\u201d \u201cTragic Message\u201d) telegraph where things are going, but the music itself speaks volumes. The pieces are all short, but the album includes 37 of \u2018em, adding up to well over an hour\u2019s worth of aural cinema that works even without the accompanying film.<\/p>\n

\"\"Kim Butler \u2013 Kaleidoscope<\/i><\/b>
\nAsheville, NC-based Butler is perhaps best known as an active and vibrant part of the city and region\u2019s vibrant musical community. A supremely versatile and in-demand electric bassist, she\u2019s comfortable in a wide array of styles. One this solo recording, she presents five songs, all solo compositions or co-writes. Some of the songs were written decades ago, but all are presented here in current-day arrangements and recordings. If all that isn\u2019t enough, Butler sings in a wonderfully warm, expressive and accessible voice, and plays nearly all of the instruments. She also produced the sessions, and the quality of the arrangement is organic and crystalline, yet never sterile or overdone. \u201cIf I Told You\u201d displays adult-contemporary song values, while the chiming \u201cHouse on the Hill\u201d has a bit of twang. \u201cJust Tell Me\u201d shows that a song with a drum machine need not be bloodless. Sexy and haunting horns (or keyboard-horns; who knows?) are the cherry on top of the very tasty on the vaguely bossa-nova \u201cKilling Me (With Kindness).\u201d And Butler rocks things up a bit for the rousing closer, \u201cSomebody Lost the File.\u201d At a shade over 20 minutes, Kaleidoscope<\/i> is both a quick listen and a delightful one.<\/p>\n

\"\"Marlon Cherry \u2013 Fever Dreaming in Lo-Fi<\/i><\/b>
\nThis haunting and evocative set from NYC-based Cherry moves in many musical directions, often at once. \u201cRow\u201d opens the album with the sound of a music box playing a familiar tune. \u201cSleeptalking\u201d is simmering percussion, watery electric guitar and a hypnotic arrangement, all in service of a contemplative lead vocal. The eerie \u201cSecret City\u201d takes time to unfold, and features sung and spoken vocals atop a skeletal arrangement. The brief \u201cMoan\u201d is an experimental, unsettling soundscape with wordless moaning. \u201cDesire\u201d is a cappella harmony. And on it goes. Really: no song on this album is like the one that comes before or after it. For adventurous listeners, Fever Dreaming in Lo-Fi<\/i> can be an exciting sonic experience.<\/p>\n

\"\"Christian Fabian Trio \u2013 Hip to the Skip<\/i><\/b>
\nThis exciting jazz trio features Fabian on electric bass, Matt King on key \u2013 lots of Rhodes \u2013 and drummer Jason Marsalis. The kinetic, funky interplay between the three has the urban sophistication of Steely Dan, the jazz chop of \u2013 well, Steely Dan and<\/em> \u2013 a strictly jazz trio, and the whole thing is delivered with the energy and spirit of progressive rock. All three of the players are composers as well, and they deliver compositions that display musical prowess in the context of sturdy and inviting tunes. Their choice of covers is sterling as well, with a funky-soulful reading of Bobby Timmons\u2019 \u201cMoanin\u2019\u201d alongside a percussion-centric take on Zawinul\u2019s immortal \u201cMercy, Mercy, Mercy.\u201d Jazz is alive in 2024, and these cats prove it again and again on Hip to the Skip<\/i>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a real assortment of great new music that I\u2019d like you know about. So here I present capsule reviews of five new titles in a variety of styles and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27229,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,42,49,51,62,65,70],"tags":[4257,5084,5381,5382,5383],"class_list":["post-27224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ambient","category-jazz","category-new-release","category-pop","category-rawk","category-review","category-soundtrack","tag-christian-fabian","tag-ex-norwegian","tag-karl-bartos","tag-kim-butler","tag-marlon-cherry","cat-5-id","cat-42-id","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","cat-70-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27224","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=27224"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27477,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27224\/revisions\/27477"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}