RECENT LISTENING #5

Mako Sica & Hamid Drake, Roy Montgomery, Mothers of Invention, Kim Gordon, Sonic Youth, Primitive Motion

MAKO SICA & HAMID DRAKE Ronda 2LP (FEEDING TUBE/ASTRAL SPIRITS) Fell deep into this album the week I brought it home. It’s designed that way, or should I say it’s designed the “Wu Wei,” as the side D side-long jam on here is called, which is the Taoist principle translated as “without action,” which in context means something more like “effortlessness.” Like when the Grateful Dead say “the music is playing the band” rather than the other way around, which, regardless of whether or not you like the Dead (believe me, no one cares), actually describes any engaged soulful musical performance of note. There is indeed an Eastern/Far Eastern/Taoist/meditative thing going on with Mako Sica, which can’t help but remind one of the 1980s heyday of post-punk ethno-hardcore bands like Sun City Girls and Black Sun Ensemble and Savage Republic. I’m not saying Mako Sica is “as good as” those legends, but who else is really carrying the torch (of the mystics) here in the 2010/20s? Maybe three bands to…