RECENT LISTENING #41

Spectre Folk, Alicja-Pop, Sonic Youth, Air Conditioning, Can, Weirdo Drips, Khôra

SPECTRE FOLK Quabbin Winter LP (ARBITRARY SIGNS/SOPHOMORE LOUNGE) Pete Nolan has been recording and releasing music with Magik Markers for over 20 years now (new album A New Kind of World released in 2024!), and also does this long-running home-taper solo-and/or-band project called Spectre Folk, who have a new album called Quabbin Winter, co-released in January 2025 by labels Sophomore Lounge and Nolan’s own Arbitrary Signs. Pete is primarily a singer-songwriter-guitarist when doing Spectre Folk (though there are plenty of secondary intentions in the mix), but as Markers fans know he’s also a very good rock’n’roll drummer, and if I’m reading the sparse credits correctly, he’s the one laying down drum tracks throughout, raw & loose overdub/underdub style, as well as the expected guitar and vocals (such as on the closing song, a fine spacey drum-track choogler called “Blind Bats Fly on Starry Nights,” on which the only non-Nolan credit I’m seeing is electric piano by Eben Bull). Nolan’s vocals also hit a nice spaced-out zone throughout, not only melodically but also both sonically, with a fairly uncanny ‘treated horn’ kinda thing going on here and there. I especially love the (also uncredited?) background vocal shading (I guess it’s also Nolan?) on the chorus of side B opener “Infinity Angles.” Basically yeah, I think the sounds here are a good 86 to 92% Pete, though with serious presence from credited co-producer Mike Donovan of Sic Alps (and even he only plays on two of the tracks).

ALICJA-POP “I’m Here I’m There” b/w “Not Gonna Be Dumb” (FEEL IT) Alicja Trout has been making weird ripping semi-gothic punk music for awhile down there in Memphis Tennessee, with bands like the Clears in the 1990s, the Lost Sounds and River City Tanlines and many more in the 2000s and beyond, and for something quite recent, here’s this 2023 solo single under the name Alicja-Pop, you know, like Icona Pop or Iggy Pop but with a hyphen. The style is moody-strum minor-key ballad-rock, synth lurking in the corners, 1980s Flying Nun striking again, a retro sound that is certainly becoming wallpaper du jour (depending on whose wall of course), but I’m still completely up for it if the tunes are legit, and when Alicja-Pop sings “I’m here! I’m theerrre…” on the A side and on the B side sings “Not gonna be dumb anymore” and gets a “not gonna be dumb” affirmation refrain from the background vocals, well, it’s legit.

LIFTED Trellis (PEAK OIL) Haven’t checked in on the Maxmillion Dunbar/Future Times axis for quite some time, not since some crazy year like 2013 (a time so naively pre-apocalyptic it seems positively halcyon in retrospect), but they’ve been doing stuff all along (even if the futuretimes.org website I used to check sometimes is now nothing but non-interactive white space, not even one single mouseover trick to be found, eat your heart out Richard Hamilton), such as this project Lifted quietly doing the dubbed-out jazz-adjacent ECM-style small fusion combo thing and doing it very well (eat your heart out International Anthem), indeed maybe only second to the Jeff Parker ETA IVTet themselves. (I’m just being silly, there’s no ranking or jealousy here, and the two bands have different instrumentation and approaches.) Right from the start with the track “All Right” it’s nice to hear a trap kit playing jazzy in-the-moment music instead of beats that are completely synthetic. The track also has a welcome heavy distorto electric guitar presence, though each of the following tracks go to subtly different places and we may not even hear that distorto electric guitar again. It’s a layered and mysterious album that doesn’t ever quite sound like the same thing twice. UPDATE 2/22/25: Didn’t have the vinyl yet when I wrote the above. Now I do, and see that the “welcome heavy distorto electric guitar presence” that “we may not even hear again” appears to be coming from special guest Tim Kinsella, who is indeed only on that track, and that the jazzy in-the-moment live drummer is Maxmillion Dunbar himself, who then plays a fat deep pocket loop on the next track “Open Door,” and then isn’t even on the third track “Specials” at all, which is what I mean by “doesn’t ever sound quite like the same thing twice.”

Alternate CD front cover, author’s copy

SONIC YOUTH Experimental, Jet Set, Trash and No Star LP/CD (GEFFEN) “Blue translucent” vinyl edition from 1993, and in fact purchased in 1993 by my wife to be. This copy does sound terrible, so many clicks and pops, probably in part because of the actual pressing and the blue translucence of the vinyl, but certainly also because it was a fairly partied-on copy back in those halcyon 1990s. Left out on the floor, in stacks of other records, often without the inner sleeve, just a blue vinyl record hanging out in the open for days at a time. Perhaps it’s because of this personal history, but my surprising opinion tonight is that Experimental, Jet Set, Trash and No Star is my all-time favorite Sonic Youth album, and maybe always has been. It definitely hit just right at the time, coming out when I was really still a kid, 22 years old, working at a record store and playing in a band or two, reading hip newsstand magazines like Sassy and Dirt and The Source, excited for a new SY album, and when it came out I immediately loved the way it continued the big noise-pop glam-punk grungeplosions of its immediate predecessor Dirty but in a more sneaky/stripped-down/formally daring way. It was somehow simultaneously one of their poppiest albums and one of their most experimental albums. When a DGC promo cassette of it arrived at the record store warehouse I worked at, I played it over and over for a few weeks, first on the community stereo at work, then in the car on the way home, then at home before bed, then back at work in the morning, until I had completely taken over the copy. This naturally died down after a while, and having not listened to this cassette in at least 25 years, I recently sold it for $20 on Discogs. Why did I sell it? It was such a nostalgic object for me. Oh well, I still have the LP and the CD with its supercool interchangeable cover design (the “Kim” option pictured above), and getting that and the LP back out recently, I’ve enjoyed the whole entire thing as much as ever (with the exception of Thurston’s “Self-Obsessed and Sexxee” which was and is my least favorite song, and closest thing to a vibe killer, then and now). I’ve already been into Kim Gordon’s singing more than ever, an entire career of consistently fearless and incredible vocal delivery, not only her sheer expressive ability with what is an undeniably limited, flat, and monotone instrument, but also how that expressiveness is driven by her lyrics, those simple sharp images and their deep implications. Her vocal and lyrical work on Experimental, Jet Set, Trash and No Star really brings it home and is perhaps her greatest single collection of songs on a Sonic Youth album. “Bull in the Heather” is certainly one of her greatest songs, if not her greatest; “Skink” is one of her spookiest songs, and that’s saying something; “Bone” is also haunting, and heartbreaking (especially after learning that it’s based on the semi-autobiographical book Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison), and also formally and vocally quite daring with its raveup > song > raveup structure, and then “Quest for the Cup” has more structural subversion with that wild “this is for Lisa” change-up halfway through, which comes after Kim somehow sings the line “so salty free” not once but twice with complete conviction. “Doctor’s Orders” — I mean, have you listened to this song recently? Those gently funny street-talk verses, over that nice unwinding guitar riff, into that strange yearning extended chorus vocal melody, back and forth a few times, then ending with that exquisite drony instrumental outro? And finally the last Kim song on the album, the epic album closer “Sweet Shine,” a blown-out extended ballad which I might just declare to be the greatest single Kim song of all. Talk about vocal daring, how about the delivery of the line “I’m comin’ home to Swall Drive”? After that lovely “I know you/I’m from you” chorus refrain? And that’s not even including those sad sweet cool dreamy awkward “I dreamt that you were my vacation” and “I feel that I could burst/give me a little drink of your sweet shine” lines, both of which made me cry just a little tonight.

AIR CONDITIONING Dead Rails CD (LOAD) Dug this one out for the first time since the year it came out, more or less. That was in 2007, which is 17 years ago, wow. I did listen to it quite a bit that year, and I’ve listened to it quite a bit this week too. Giving it the ole “17 years” test has solidified it as one of my favorite records this whole (2000s noise rock) scene/movement/label ever produced, up there with the most essential circa 1999-2003 recs by bands like Lightning Bolt and Sightings. Dig what I wrote back then at Blastitude.com, issue #24 (Spring 2007), which I think holds up pretty well, despite the overt positivity (multiple uses of “perfect,” a “truly inspired” here, an “even more perfectly” there, and then the “or something like that” copout at the end when I realize I’ve been overdoing it) (see the original review here, but you’ll probably want to control-F “Air Conditioning” or “Dead Rails” to find it quickly): “And then there's Blastitude #18 cover stars Air Conditioning and their Dead Rails CD on Load Records. I've gotta say, this is about exactly what I hoped a new album by this band would sound like, except even better. The white-knuckle speed-king biker-rhythms are still there, but even more perfectly drowned in shit. For example, I had a feeling there were vocals ranting away throughout the first track, but it took me at least two listens just to really figure out how and where, because the mix places them in such a perfect secret place. In addition to truly inspired singing and playing, what makes these four songs (total running time 33 minutes) is the production -- tip of the hat to recordist/mixer Kris Lapke of Louder than Life. The sequencing is perfect too -- by the time they get to the last track it's already clear that they're going to do no wrong, but they raise the bar anyway with a 15-minute monster called "Accept Your Paralysis/Cephalexin," which is basically the "A Love Supreme" of 21st century noise rock. Or something like that.” I will say that the one thing I should’ve mentioned in that review is how great Pissed Jeans drummer Sean McGuinness is on here. Air Conditioning were (and maybe still are) truly the duo of Robert Jurgensen and Matt Franco, with a drummer optional and rotational. They were a drummerless duo when I saw them play in Chicago not long after Dead Rails. But I think they’re better as a trio, with a sick heavy Bonhamesque rock drummer who locks all that nasty noise into place. McGuinness fits (and foots) the bill very well.

CAN Live in Keele 1977 (FUTURE DAYS/SPOON/MUTE) The latest from this highly welcome ongoing series of archival Can concert releases. This one documents a performance in the small university town of Keele, England on March 2nd of 1977, a stop on their last ever tour. Rosko Gee was on bass and Holger Czukay was on electronics only; the band had already made the album Saw Delight with their new percussionist Reebop Kwaku Baah in the band, but Reebop didn’t go on this tour. It’s a great concert and release throughout, but I’m writing this review because of the way the first few minutes of track 2 “Zwei” make me think of my favorite Can interview quote of all time: “The music was good as soon as every single sound, or noise — a hooting car for example — was fully integrated into the music, automatically. Then, we knew that we were playing well. If noise was disturbing, then we knew that it was the music that was wrong, and not the noise. I think this is important." Ironically, it’s because the first few minutes of “Zwei” are a rare occasion where Can doesn’t sound “fully integrated” with each other. When Can is “fully integrated,” the listener should no longer even be hearing individual instruments, either forgetting or no longer caring that they’re listening to a guitar, a bass, keyboards, and drums, because the instruments are unified into a single liquid rhythmic polyphonic expression. The sounds around them, like the theoretical “hooting car,” are fully integrated as well, because they have no choice. It’s a kind of magic spell. But at the beginning of “Zwei,” there is a short break and a lot of chatter from the audience and the band, not to mention Holger’s shortwave and telephone. They are between pieces, but eventually you realize one of them, Irmin Schmidt on keyboard, is performing. He has begun the next piece, even if no one has joined him yet. He has fully integrated himself into the sound of the room and the chatter is now fully integrated into his music. The guitar provides subtle electronic noise shadings, but eventually wants to do more, as does the bass. Both start to tentatively join Schmidt, but both are also still tuning up a little — not yet fully integrated. As most often seems the case, it is Jaki Liebezeit on drums that proves to be the great integrator. Any time he hits his drums, whether it’s introductory entrance flourishes around the 3m30s mark, or the first establishment of one of his trademark monstrous ostinato grooves between 4m00s and 4m30s, he clearly means business, and soon he has swept the rest of the band, now fully jamming and fully integrated, into his massive tide.

WEIRDO DRIPS zine (WEIRDODRIPS.BIGCARTEL.COM) It’s not listening to music, but I have been recently listening to my inner voice as I read the written voice of this mostly uncredited zine writer from Minneapolis, Minnesota who publishes a double-sided one-sheet called Weirdo Drips. He recently mailed me four issues, which I ripped through in one 15-minute-or-so sitting and found rather inspiring and reflective. I mean, it’s kinda the music zine-writer dream that we all share, right? To briefly and pithily review records (very random, anything from “Recent Cassette Acquisitions” to “Recent Items Borrowed from the Hennepin County Public Library Jazz Section” to whichever recent Neil Young & Crazy Horse archival live CD release is currently on the stero), sure, but also live shows (hardcore punk matinees seem to be a focus), hikes (“Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge, Bloomington, MN — 12/09/2023”), vacations (“Seattle, WA — 11/02-11/06/2023”), high school basketball games (“…this wondrous sport…”), and a bike/coffee-journal subseries called “Early Saturday Morning Coffee Rides,” why not? And when I say reflective, I mean come on: he’s an aging punk in his 50s, he still rides bikes, he has kids, he contemplates (but usually declines) taking edibles, he writes zines, he likes Neil Young. Old man take a look at my life, etc.

KHÔRA Gestures of Perception 2LP (MARIONETTE) I feel like we’ve gotten a little desensitized to records like this. I mean, almost literally everyone can make their own credible solo home-studio electronics album these days, so how could we not get a little desensitized? But I listen to Khôra’s Gestures of Perception as objectively as possible, for the third and fourth times, and I’m still asking myself the hard questions like “What in the bush of ghosts is going on here?! Could this record be the Nommo of the 2020s, if not entire the 21st C.?” And then I get back to side C closer “Echemythia,” and remember that it’s a musical and soulful solo synth piece that doesn’t sound like Nommo at all, more like Alvin Curran in the Magnetic Garden itself. Khôra is from Toronto, Ontario, Canada and Gestures of Perception was released in 2024 on the Marionette label.