Author Archives: Joseph Neff

Graded on a Curve:
Laura Nyro,
More Than A New Discovery

Remembering Laura Nyro, born on this day in 1947.Ed.

In terms of elevated 2oth century pop songwriting, Laura Nyro has remained part of the discourse for decades, with her highest profile recordings likely her second and third LPs, both cut for Columbia in 1968-’69. But hey, don’t get the idea that her ’67 debut for Verve, More Than a New Discovery, is merely formative or somehow negligible. To the contrary, many know it under its reissue title of The First Songs, which featured a reshuffled track order and a mix with increased reverb. However, the Real Gone Records-Second Disc reissue, the first time the Verve edition has been repressed on wax, sets the track order right and offers Nyro’s preferred (and rare) original mono mix. 

The latter portion of the 1960s is loaded with singer-songwriters whose work is best known through the interpretations of others. Many of these cult figures are folky in comportment, but even as Nyro recorded her debut for Verve’s Folkways imprint (later renamed Verve Forecast) and made a crucial early song sale to Peter, Paul and Mary (“And When I Die,” later butchered by Blood, Sweat & Tears), she was a pop stylist of pronounced sophistication.

She was appealingly introspective as well, a quality putting her in the same neighborhood as Carole King, with sales figures excepted, as Nyro’s own albums never made a big impact commercially, although they did shift enough units that she never fell victim to record company disinterest. In this regard, she was similar to Randy Newman, and if he’s better known today that’s partly because he’s still alive and kicking (Nyro passed far too soon of ovarian cancer in 1997). Additionally, he benefits from a lucrative late-career pursuit in film scoring.

But the bigger difference between Newman and Nyro is the lack of the satirical and ironic in her work, though the songs of his that evince a palpable degree of sincerity provide a strong point of unification, as the two songwriters share a Tin Pan Alley foundation (and a piano-based approach) that is ultimately manifested in distinct sensibilities. That is, Nyro is as much of an auteur as Newman; once heard, she’s impossible to confuse with anybody else.

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Graded on a Curve:
The Supremes, A Bit of Liverpool, Jackson 5, Third Album & The Temptations, Sky’s the Limit

The latest additions to Elemental Music’s Motown Sound Collection come from three of the Motor City label’s heavy hitters. There’s a mono edition of A Bit of Liverpool by The Supremes, Third Album by the Jackson 5 on red vinyl, and Sky’s the Limit by The Temptations. All three are available October 18.

No scientific testing has been done in connection with this roundup, but it sure seems like A Bit of Liverpool is the least esteemed record from The Supremes’ ’60s catalog. It’s an observation that applies to general listeners but also music writers, as not much print space has been devoted to the set’s thematic contents.

Hitting stores in 1964 as the British Invasion was in full swing, The Supremes’ third full-length record has often been described as a cash-in, though it’s unlikely many people were bothered about this at the time of the record’s release. Per the title, The Beatles get the most attention, but this focus reaches beyond just the hits.

There are versions of “A Hard Day’s Night,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” and “I Wanna Hold Your Hand,” all pretty good as straight covers go, but there’s also a likeable take of “You Can’t Do That” and an even better “A World Without Love,” a chart topper by Peter and Gordon that was written by Lennon-McCartney, don’tcha know. Getting even deeper into the weeds is “You Really Got a Hold on Me,” a well-loved nugget by the Miracles that was an album cut on With the Beatles (and The Beatles’ Second Album in the USA).

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Graded on a Curve:
Harry Beckett,
The Modern Sound
of Harry Beckett

Barbados born British trumpeter-flugelhornist Harry Beckett had a long and distinguished career that was capped with a delightfully unexpected collaboration with producer Adrian Sherwood, The Modern Sound of Harry Beckett. Released in 2008 by Sherwood’s On-U Sound label, it has just received a worthy reissue, the set now available on vinyl for the first time.

The arrival of The Modern Sound of Harry Beckett shouldn’t have been a surprise given the number of times the horn-man recorded with Jah Wobble (more than a dozen releases across a two-decade span). Indeed, it was the extended relationship with Wobble that hipped Sherwood to the prospect of working with Beckett and sowed the seeds for this album.

Beckett, who passed in 2010 after a stroke, had a deep rep as an ace guest who added value to records spanning from the Small Faces (Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake) and the regular sized Faces (Long Player) to Jack Bruce (Songs for a Tailor) to Alexis Korner (Both Sides) to Manfred Mann Chapter Three (S/T and Volume Two) to Robert Wyatt (Nothing Can Stop Us) to Weekend (La Varieté) to Working Week (Working Nights) to David Sylvian (Gone to Earth).

The above excludes Beckett’s extensive work in the jazz field, which in addition to his own records (debuting with Flare Up in 1970) found him in bands ranging from big (aggregations organized by Graham Collier, Neil Ardley, John Dankworth, Mike Westbrook, Michael Gibbs, and Oliver Nelson) to mid-size (outfits led by Collier, Elton Dean, and Stan Tracey) to small (groups with John Surman, Mike Osborne, and Ray Russell). Of special note is his connection to South African musicians through his membership in Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath.

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Graded on a Curve: Dancer/Whisper Hiss,
Split

Stylistically complementary yet with contrasts in execution, the bands Dancer, hailing from Glasgow, Scotland, and Whisper Hiss, based in Portland, OR, each get a side on Split, a new LP that’s available October 18 (after a brief delay) via the reliable Athens, GA label Happy Happy Birthday To Me. It comes with hand-stamped labels in a handmade three-color screen-printed matchbook fold-over sleeve plus insert and a download card. Those with an unscratchable itch to hear these dozen tunes right now can snag a digital copy over at Bandcamp.

Split LPs span back nearly as far as the format itself, but the impulse to share sides really flourished as part of underground rock’s regional scenes in the years after punk’s big reset. Although not all split LPs featured contributors from the same or neighboring cities or towns, geography as a unifier was essentially the norm. But in these post internet days, long distance relationships are far more common and make far more sense as pairings, particularly when aligned by a record label majordomo who comprehends the value of close proximity over the release of two separate 6-song EPs.

Dancer’s side begins with “Priority Girl,” a bouncy, sassy, slightly new wavy dose of pop-rock that could’ve raised the eyebrows of an IRS Records scout circa ’82 or thereabouts, at least until the band lets loose with a little racket in the mid-section. “Didn’t Mean To” follows, delivering a more charged up strain of melodic clang with a solid undercurrent of post-punk.

The title “Paging Planet Earth” positively screams new wave, a scenario that’s aided by Gemma Fleet’s vocal timbre, a little bubbly but smart (shades of Debbie Harry and more so Claire Grogan). However, the cut has an arty edge (while still steadfastly pop) that deepens the appeal. So far so very old school, but “You Saint” brings a twist with prickly guitar lines giving the song a more contemporary spin.

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Graded on a Curve:
Daryl Hall,
Sacred Songs

Celebrating Daryl Hall on his 78th birthday.Ed.

While by no means an unknown work, it also seems fair to say that Daryl Hall’s first solo LP Sacred Songs gets nowhere near enough retrospective attention. This is mainly due to the inclusion of what many might consider to be an odd associate (at best) or an irreconcilable collaborator (at worst) in art-rock maestro Robert Fripp. Blue-eyed soul meets Frippertronics? Yes, indeed.

If the team-up of Daryl Hall and Robert Fripp remains an unlikely pairing from seemingly disparate areas of the ‘70s rock landscape, after some consideration their creative union shouldn’t really be designated as a case of strange bedfellows. The key to understanding how these two ended up in the same studio lies in getting beyond the surface perception of Fripp as a prog-rock outlier and Hall & Oates as simply a hit machine.

But folks who know Fripp’s contributions to Blondie’s Parallel Lines and especially Bowie’s “Heroes” have surely already comprehended that there’s more to the guy’s output than just King Crimson and (No Pussyfooting). And any fan of Hall & Oates that’s travelled back in their discography to their Atlantic Records period has been greeted with the unusual doozy that is Abandoned Luncheonette.

That 1973 album, their second after the pleasant but far from earth shattering debut Whole Oats, can be aptly described as a particularly ripe example of the commercial ambition of its decade. Not only does it include what’s maybe their best single, the sleeper 1976 hit “She’s Gone,” but the record’s second side heads into all kinds of unexpected areas, including the well-integrated use of electric violin on “Lady Rain” and even some fiddle and banjo on the seven minute album closer “Everytime I Look At You.”

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Graded on a Curve:
The Guy Hamper Trio, Dog Jaw Woman

Dog Jaw Woman by The Guy Hamper Trio is amongst the latest worthwhile offerings from the indefatigable Damaged Goods Records of the United Kingdom. Featuring organist James Taylor as a returning guest, the trio’s deep ties to a particularly steadfast branch of the British R&R tradition are sturdy but not overemphasized, as the sounds tap into classic modes while avoiding the merely retro in a manner befitting said tradition (more on the specifics below). The 10-track set is out October 18 on vinyl and digital.

The Guy Hamper Trio consists of Julie Hamper on bass, Wolf Howard on drums, and Guy Hamper, aka Billy Childish, on guitar. The involvement of Childish might lead those who know him primarily through the copious combined output of Thee Headcoats and Thee Mighty Caesars (plus numerous other bands) to certain assumptions as to the sound that Dog Jaw Woman holds in store.

In short, the expectation would be raw and tough ’60s UK Beat Rock-Maximum R&B with nods to Link Wray and a ’77 punk edge. Doing it sans vocals, the Trio does lay down a punky Freakbeat-ish foundation, although distinct from the general Headcoats-Caesars thrust, and expands upon this curve with the contributions of Hammond organ ace James Taylor, formerly of ’80s outfit The Prisoners and the long-running James Taylor Quartet (where Wolf Howard was a contributor).

The first Guy Hamper Trio record, All the Poisons in the Mud (2022, Damaged Goods), was a mostly instrumental affair, the set offering one track with vocals by Childish. When he wasn’t singing, the band’s groove, raw but lithe, often suggested a bunch of mods turning their amps way up while under the influence of organ trio soul jazz and the brilliance of Booker T. Jones.

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Graded on a Curve: Deadly Headley,
35 Years From Alpha

Ludicrously prolific as a session mainstay for a slew of indispensable figures in the grand scheme of 20th century Jamaican music, saxophonist “Deadly” Headley Bennett only cut one solo record, 35 Years From Alpha, which was released in 1982 on the fledgling enterprise of Adrian Sherwood, On-U Sound enterprise. Flash forward to right now, and the same label is giving the album its first vinyl reissue, with compact discs and digital downloads also available. According to Bandcamp, the LPs and CDs ship out on or around October 11. Loaded with guests, the ten selections flow with roots warmth and dub edge. Two previously unreleased bonus tracks intensify the already considerable value.

Deadly Headley began recording as a teenager in the 1950s, with his skills on saxophone landing him in studios with numerous outfits, including Lynn Tiatt & The Jets, Sly & The Revolutionaries, The Aggrovators, The Arabs, The Mighty Vikings, Sound Dimension, The Abyssinians, The Professionals, The Roots Radics, and the Studio One house band, and backing such major artists as Alton Ellis, Bob Marley (on his first recording “Judge Not”), Derrick Morgan, Prince Far I, Horace Andy, Mikey Dread, King Tubby, Augustus Pablo, Gregory Isaacs, and Dennis Brown.

And then, most relevant to this review, there was Bennett’s work in connection with Sherwood, playing on records by Creation Rebel, Singers and Players, Dub Syndicate, African Head Charge, and Bim Sherman. That a man as passionate about Jamaican music as Sherwood would give Bennett the opportunity to record his first solo release is no surprise, and neither is the number of contributors he lined up to secure the album’s success.

Too many big names has spoiled many a well-intentioned recording, but fortunately not here, in part because of a low-key feel that avoids a parade of personalities and taking any big masterpiece swings. Instead, the set registers as an extended appreciation of the utility player, and with plenty of room for Bennett to get his licks in, particularly in the opening title track. Jumpy and fast paced, the cut spreads out, with Nick Plytas on keyboards, Style Scott on drums, Lizard Logan on bass, and Rico Rodriguez on trombone.

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Graded on a Curve:
Art Pepper,
Gettin’ Together

Alto saxophonist Art Pepper is well represented in Craft Recordings’ Contemporary Records Acoustic Sounds Series. Originally released in 1960, Gettin’ Together is available in a fresh 180 gram vinyl edition on October 11. It’s the second of three Pepper LPs landing in the store bins across 2024, and if not his most lauded studio date, the contributions of pianist Wynton Kelly, bassist Paul Chambers, drummer Jimmy Cobb, and trumpeter Conte Condoli elevate the whole, along with Pepper, who is up to his usual high standard throughout.

The most celebrated album in Art Pepper’s discography remains the first one he cut for the Contemporary label, Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section, which was released in 1957 with Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums, a triumvirate highly regarded at the time of the album’s recording (with no loss of esteem today) for their association with trumpeter Miles Davis.

Pepper first came to prominence in the big band of Stan Kenton, a gig that began in the early 1940s. With the exception of WWII military service, Pepper remained with Kenton through the beginning of the following decade. During this stretch Pepper contributed to some of the progressive bandleader most ambitious albums.

Although Pepper’s profile continued to rise through a handful of LPs released as leader or co-leader in the mid-’50s, it was Meets the Rhythm Section that vaulted him to the forefront of the era’s jazz scene and cemented his name into the canon. Rest assured that any serious list of the essential jazz recordings will include Meets the Rhythm Section, and rightly so.

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Graded on a Curve:
Big Star,
Nothing Can Hurt Me

Celebrating Jody Stephens in advance of his 72nd birthday tomorrow.Ed.

The Memphis group Big Star has long been a favorite of folks who love smartly conceived guitar-based pop-rock, and while few bought their records when they were hot off the presses, their status as an enduring cult staple is undeniable. After a long relationship with discerning turntables everywhere, Big Star received the Big Screen treatment with a documentary titled Nothing Can Hurt Me, and the soundtrack collects unique mixes of material long-considered classic. That the songs included here could easily slay a busload of Big Star newbies is testament to not only the band’s everlasting importance but also to the admirable ambitions that made this 2LP set and its accompanying film possible.

Over the last few decades the music documentary has really become one of the steadiest (some might say unrelenting) currents in the whole vast field of non-fiction filmmaking. And this shouldn’t be any kind of surprise. For everybody loves music, or so it’s often been said. But this doesn’t change the fact that some musicians/bands are far more deserving of having their story represented on film than others.

Simply stating that a very few groups are more worthy than Big Star of having their existence outlined through the medium of the film doc can initially smack of extreme devotion and perhaps even flat-out hyperbole. For just like the old saw that everybody loves music, it’s just as often been said that everybody has a story, and even, nay especially, in the non-fiction field the plain facts of the narrative ultimately aren’t as important as the way the events get told.

But if we dig a little deeper, the documentary’s inherent connection with the “real world,” or specifically the manner in which things don’t always work out the way we’d like them to, is especially resonant to the tale of Andy Hummel, Chris Bell, Jody Stephens, and Alex Chilton. For unlike the life of Ray Charles or the early years of The Beatles, Big Star is far from a good fit for the Hollywood treatment, or at least for the situation as it currently stands in the movie-making industry.

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Graded on a Curve:
Rob Mazurek Exploding Star Orchestra, Live at the Adler Planetarium

Checking in with cornetist-trumpeter-composer-bandleader-visual artist Rob Mazurek is always worthwhile. That’s because, to make it plain, the guy’s records just never miss. And when it’s a release by the Exploding Star Orchestra, that’s even better, as the band, which has been Mazurek’s primary musical focus over the last half decade or so (the group has been extant for nearly 25 years), is a certifiable murderer’s row of talent, of which more is said below. The latest album from Exploding Star Orchestra is Live at the Adler Planetarium, a sleek doozy of a performance captured in Mazurek’s old stomping grounds of Chicago. It’s out on vinyl and CD October 4 through International Anthem.

Rob Mazurek began leading ensembles of various sizes in the mid-’90s, but of particular note is the Chicago Underground Collective (17 releases ranging from duo to orchestra beginning with 12 Degrees of Freedom in 1998), São Paulo Underground (six releases beginning with Sauna: Um, Dois, Tres in 2006), and Exploding Star Orchestra (nine releases beginning with We Are All From Somewhere Else in 2007).

Live at the Adler Planetarium features Mazurek on trumpets, bells and voice (along with providing compositions and directing the band), Nicole Mitchell on flute, voice and electronics, Damon Locks on voice, samplers and electronics, Tomeka Reid on cello and electronics, Craig Taborn on Wurlitzer electric piano, Moog and electronics, Angelica Sanchez on Wurlitzer electric piano and Moog, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten on bass, and Chad Taylor and Gerald Cleaver on drums.

The music heard on Live at the Adler Planetarium was one part of an event that saw a stream of abstractions derived from Mazurek’s paintings and animations digitally projected above the heads of the audience and band in the planetarium’s Grainger Sky Theater. The record’s cover captures a glimpse of what the assembled experienced that night, March 24, 2023.

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Graded on a Curve: Afterimage,
Faces to Hide

Formed in Los Angeles in 1980, Afterimage’s dark and moody approach was clearly influenced by UK post-punk while not being blatantly imitative of any specific predecessor. Joy Division is a bandied point of comparison, but Afterimage benefited from raw muscularity that reflected their Cali punk surroundings. Impeccably designed by Independent Project Records, Faces to Hide collects the early recordings of the band onto double vinyl (white or black) and compact disc. As the original lineup was extant for only a short time, the contents of this anthology adds live cuts and demos. The whole is surprisingly consistent as a deep dive immersion into a bygone era.

The Afterimage documented on Faces to Hide is guitarist Barry Craig (aka A Produce), bassist Rich Robinson (aka Rich Evac), drummer Holland DeNuzzio, and vocalist-saxophonist Daniel Voznick (aka Alec Tension). After splintering in the mid-’80s, Voznick continued to record as Afterimage with the aid of numerous contributors, but this set is focused entirely on the lineup that released the “Strange Confession” b/w “The Long Walk” 45 and the “Fade In” 12-inch on Contagion Records in 1981.

That’s a total of eight tracks, but Faces to Hide offers a significant expansion, although much of it was already collected on Anthology, a cassette issued in 1984 on Craig’s imprint Trane Port Tapes. In 2007, Craig and Voznick gave Anthology a CD expansion with Strange Confession, a co-release by Trance Port and Voznick’s Strategic Records.

Faces to Hide adds even more tracks (while subtracting the later Afterimage material that concludes Strange Confession) for a sequence of 26 that appears to comprehensively document the original incarnation of a band that largely flew under the radar, though the inclusion of “Satellite of Love” (not a Lou Reed cover) on the 2014 Sacred Bones compilation Killed by Deathrock: Vol. 1 raised Afterimage’s profile a bit, no doubt.

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Graded on a Curve: Teddy Edwards and Howard McGhee, Together Again!!!!

On October 4, Craft Recordings adds tenor saxophonist Teddy Edwards and trumpeter Howard McGhee’s Together Again!!!! to the label’s already impressive Contemporary Records Acoustic Sounds Series. Originally released in 1961, the set’s sturdy and energetic bop maneuvers are invigorated through the support of pianist Phineas Newborn, bassist Ray Brown, and drummer Ed Thigpen. Pressed on 180 gram vinyl, this deserving reissue serves up a fine one-stop introduction to the co-leaders, both of whom are in sharp form throughout.

In the category of tenor saxophonists from the original bebop era, Teddy Edwards is right up there with Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray, but not as well-known as either, partly because once Edwards made his way to Los Angeles (after touring around the south in the band of Ernie Fields, he pretty much stayed there. Upon joining McGhee’s band (hence Contemporary’s titling here) Edwards switched to tenor sax, and after cutting a handful of sides as a leader, recorded a killer tenor battle with Gordon for Dial (“The Duel”) that’s been somewhat overshadowed by Gordon’s team-ups with Gray from the same era.

If not a groundbreaker a la Dizzy Gillespie, Howard McGhee is an essential figure in the development of Modern Jazz trumpet, right up there with Fats Navarro and Idrees Sulieman. But after struggling with drug addition, he recorded infrequently in the 1950s; a few comeback attempts resulted in some recordings for the Bethlehem label but not much in the way of sustained productivity, at least until the turn of the decade, when he caught creative fire for a sustained period.

Together Again!!!! is part of that stretch, a sensible co-billing at the time given the spark of interest in players from bop’s early days who were still around and up to the task (Doin’ Allright, Gordon’s first in a long string of Blue Note classics, was also released in 1961). Contemporary quickly followed up this LP with Maggie’s Back in Town, which Craft Recordings reissued earlier in 2024 (for a deeper dive into McGhee’s artistry, please check out our review of Maggie’s Back in Town in this column).

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Graded on a Curve:
Roxy Music,
Roxy Music and
For Your Pleasure

Celebrating Bryan Ferry on his 79th birthday.Ed.

Bursting onto the scene 50 years ago, Roxy Music’s blend of glam rock and art rock proved highly influential while being impossible to imitate, as the music of singer Bryan Ferry, synthesist Brian Eno, saxophonist Andy Mackay, guitarist Phil Manzanera, and drummer Paul Thompson was simply drenched in personality. Virgin/UMe’s vinyl reissue program of the band’s eight studio albums began with debut Roxy Music and its 1973 follow-up For Your Pleasure, both half speed mastered at Abbey Road Studios by the engineer Miles Showell. Bluntly, these four sides of wax are indispensable to any collection of 20th century rock music.

Looking back on it, it feels wholly appropriate to describe Roxy Music as coming out of nowhere in 1972. Their debut LP arrived sans any pre-release singles, with “Virginia Plain” b/w “The Numberer,” the band’s first 45, cut just short of a month after Roxy Music’s release, a short enough span that its hit A-side was added to nearly all later pressings of the album (on the subject, please note that Virgin/UMe’s release retains the sequence of the UK first edition).

The nature of the band’s arrival is nicely encapsulated by Roxy Music’s opening track “Re-make/Re-model.” After a passage of what might be intended as dinner party ambiance (shades of Ferry the pure sophisticate to come), Roxy explodes forth, maximally but methodically, and by song’s end it’s clear that in this particular outfit at this point in time, nobody was taking a back seat (well, except maybe bassist Graham Simpson, who exited after the LP’s release, with Rik Kenton stepping in for “Virginia Plain,” only to be quickly replaced on For Your Pleasure by John Porter).

This is not to suggest that Roxy Music lacked in restraint; “Ladytron” on side one of Roxy Music and “Chance Meeting” on the flip offer solid evidence of such, even amongst flare-ups of experimentation. However, Roxy’s reality during this era was much more inclined toward the audacious. In its own way, Roxy Music is as much a line in the sand as The Stooges’ Funhouse before it or The Ramones after.

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Graded on a Curve:
Mouse,
Lady Killer

The name of the band was Mouse, and their sole album, quite rare and therefore terribly expensive in original form, was Lady Killer, released in 1973 by EMI’s prog-rock imprint Sovereign. The members were vocalist-keyboardist Alan “Al” Clare, bassist Jeff Watts, drummer Al Rushton, and most famously, the insanely prolific guitarist Ray Russell. The band’s sound is diverse but not schizophrenic, and there’s discipline in their execution. Guerssen Records own subsidiary Sommor gave the album its first vinyl reissue in 2013, and now the same label has brought out a fresh edition, available right now.

Not to slight the other cats in Mouse, but Ray Russell is Lady Killer’s main point of interest. The album, which sports sleeve art by Glenn Pierce that suggests a pop art appropriation of a late 1950s cigarette company billboard (or the femme fatale on the front cover of a paperback crime novel from the same era), is a well-rounded and largely likeable band effort, but it’s also not a mind melter.

The Ray Russell core collection includes two by his quartet, Turn Circle and Dragon Hill (1968-’69, CBS) and the three that follow, Rites & Rituals (’71, CBS), June 11, 1971: Live at the ICA (’71, RCA Victor), and Secret Asylum (’73, Black Lion). Other records make the cut, but Russell’s own records are only a portion of what makes him such an interesting musician.

For starters, he was an era-spanning session ace, adding value to works by names ranging from Dionne Warwick to Van Morrison to Julio Iglesias to Tina Turner to Scott Walker to Heaven 17. His early career found him in the bands of Georgie Fame, Graham Bond, and most importantly John Barry, replacing guitarist Vic Flick to establish the final incarnation of the John Barry Seven.

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Graded on a Curve:
claire rousay,
sentiment & sentiment remixed

Earlier in 2024, claire rousay made a considerable splash with sentiment, an LP that expanded her experimental approach to include vivid strains of melancholic pop, a development she tagged as emo ambient. Released by Thrill Jockey, the album registered as the start of something big. Supporting this notion is a remix album that’s freshly available on vinyl right now (in a limited edition of 250 copies) with a digital release coming on November 6. A striking compendium, sentiment remixed serves both as a wide ranging yet cohesive extension of its source material and a fully realized standalone work.

claire rousay has amassed a sizeable body of work since hitting the scene in 2017, and on a variety of formats. There’s vinyl and compact disc and even a flexi disc in there, but predominate are digital releases and cassettes. The last of these formats is fitting as her early work extends from an experimental tradition that embraced spindles and spools of tape as a cost effective mode of (often self) distribution.

It really only takes a listen to the 2021 LP a softer focus to apprehend that rousay is the real deal as an experimentalist. Incorporating field recordings into pieces that extend from ambient and musique concrète traditions, rousay’s work retains a contemporary feel that has only increased as she has chosen to explore the possibilities of song form.

rousay’s tendency toward pop predates sentiment by a bit, and eclectically. There’s an Elliott Smith cover in her oeuvre amongst a handful of one-off digital singles leaning into song structure over abstraction as she’s honed her skills as a guitarist. There’s also a predilection for Auto-Tune that really comes to the fore on sentiment in an appealingly non-gimmicky manner.

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