Heavy Rotation - Week of Jan. 27th

Sorry for the absence last week. The ice of northern Michigan and the frosty chill of peppermint schnapps called your humble writer away. I'll do my best not to let you down again, faithful reader.
In our weekly series, Heavy Rotation, I will write about the five records I have been spinning regularly over the last week. There is not an expiration date. The records included can be from any time period at all. All entries are eligible to appear for multiple weeks. In fact, repetition is likely due to the fact that while I listen to a fair amount of music, it's not as much as I'd like to make time for. Also, as some of you may know, we have a vinyl only policy around our house, so as expected, all entries on the list are being listened to via turntable.
Ladies and germs, presenting week two (or thereabouts) of Heavy Rotation . . .

Cartagena | Compilation
Soundway Records | 2011

Yet another killer world music re-issue from the world combing collector/repackagers over at Soundway. This volume fixates on the Discos Fuentes record label and the singles they released between 1962 and 1972. Mastered from the original recordings, all of which went straight to 45 rpm at their release, Cartagena unleashes a feast of great Colombian dancehall, pop and cumbia. This record is fun, funky, hip shaking and mind-blowing. In short. it's a groovy and catchy ass kicker. Nearly all of the Soundway stuff laid upon my ears sounds great, but this is in the upper echelon.


Cartagena! Curro Fuentes & The Big Band Cumbia and Descarga Sound of Colombia 1962 - 1972 by Soundway

Luna | Penthouse
Beggars Banquet | 1995

Penthouse represents a high water mark for Luna's fine career. Though the band have many other fine records, Penthouse reads like a series of short stories written by an author who envisioned narratives contrived by Flannery O'Connor and Woody Allen all set to a poppier version of the Velvet Underground. There are not many records from the mid-90's that still resonate with me, but Penthouse is a very special record. There is an emotional response every time I hear it - and I never tire of that feeling.

The Byrds | Live At Royal Albert Hall 1971
Sundazed Records | 2011

If someone asked me to make a short list of the most criminally under-appreciated bands ever, the Byrds would slide into second place behind the Kinks without another thought. This 2-LP live set vinyl reissue further solidifies the point. After years of lineup changes and brushes with pop superstardom, the Byrds of 1971 were an undeniably powerhouse four piece consisting of just one original member (Roger McGuinn) and the badassedness guitar player (Clarence White) country rock ever saw. This Sundazed reissue is a beautiful pressing with wicked versions of hits throughout the Byrds' canon. This is not a band to forget about it. Just listen or yourself.

The Jam | Snap!
Polygram Records | 1983

As a general rule, I do not spin a lot of greatest hits collections. Yet there are always exceptions to every rule. In this particular case, The Jam are a really great band with many very good records, but their greatest strength is most often found within their singles. This double LP set is therefore, a clinic in how The Jam made a bevy of singles in the late 70's and early 80s with a punkish energy, a mod-like sense of style and an Elvis Costello-ish knack for melodies and hooks. For the uninitiated to the work of The Jam and Paul Weller, this is the ideal place to dip your toe into the pool.

Brian Eno | Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)
Edition EG | 1974

Brian Eno is perhaps best known as a producer of mammoth records by gigantic bands like U2, Coldplay, Talking Heads and David Bowie. Many others will link him to his ambient instrumental work. Some will even recall his involvement in the early Roxy Music records. But the greatest gift of Eno's career are the four solo pop records he made in the early and mid 1970's. Mixing cooky-yet-catchy melodies with oddly fascinating veiled lyrics, he crafted some really great songs, especially on this record. At times, he comes off like a more educated Bowie or T-Rex with a tad of Graham Greene intrigue tossed in for good measure. It is exceedingly difficult to make a smart pop record with an attitude, an agenda and a penchant for glam. Brian Eno pulled it off in spades on this one.

ALBUM REVIEW: Youth Lagoon | The Year Of Hibernation

Youth Lagoon  | The Year Of Hibernation (2011) - Fat Possum Records

The Year Of Hibernation, the debut album from Youth Lagoon is an album that seems like an auditory oxymoron. On the one hand, there is a simple, honest and humble appeal to it. The songs sound very much like you'd expect from a record made by one young man, Trevor Powers, in the bedroom of his Boise, Idaho home. On the other hand, the arrangements are epic. The songs are mature and self-assured and the narrator through muffled voice and reverb drench often sounds wiser than his years would belie.

It is within these contradictions that the greatest appeal of this record lies. It would be easy for a 22 year old kid to make a bedroom record with a few twee instruments and a laptop. Yet, that would make these songs seem cute or cloying. Youth Lagoon never elicit any of those emotions. Instead, the simple melodies are repeated in almost Reichian fashion and are built upon so as to elevate the songs to ethereal planes.

In the title of the record, and throughout mush of the lyrical material, Powers writes about his own sense of loneliness and anxiety. But it almost always seems smarter than the songs we should expect from someone who is just entering his adulthood. The production value and subject matter evoke a sense of nostalgia that this young man has created for a dream world that never really existed.

The potpourri of influences here are part of what make the record so interesting too. In quieter moments, there is a sense of a piano style 70s solo act. Yet, at the moment that aesthetic becomes clear gears shift and a synth loop chimes to throw the listener off track. The guitar riffs owe a large debt to early New Order with their melodic repetition and simplicity. Yet they never feel forced or out of place.

Powerful moments are common on this record, but none is more evident than in the coda that ends the penultimate track, "Montana". As the a slow melodic whistle builds with a smacking, metallic anvil sound to the songs crescendo. It is haunting and beautiful and very much original. This is a melody you will have in your head for days.

The best compliment I can give this record is that when it's over, you'll want to flip it over and start again from the beginning.

Rating: 8/10

The haunting beauty and melodic charm of Youth Lagoon
are even further displayed in the marvelous video
for "Montana", which can be found below.