Thurs, 20 Nov


Heard at Tribes Gallery, a DIY venue in alphabet city:
  Intricate rhythmic play and jazz harmonies between guitar, upright bass and drums; a guitar solo works the piece to peak energy, and a rock flavored riff follows. 
   Pensive guitar solo builds into fuller sound, metric shifting and resonant rolls on a snare with snares thrown off. 
   Aleatoric beginnings, with underwater sounds from the drummer as he strikes a small cymbal, placed upside down, resting on top of his tom.  The piece builds to fiercer chaos, momentarily taking the shape of a “song,” before breaking into chaos again, ending with moans from the tom as the drummer rubs his fingertip across the head and frantic strumming from the bassist dies in a gradual fadeout. 
  “This Year” sets in with an ebullient guitar groove, only to unexpectedly dissipate into a calmer, much different sounding mood, initiated by more tom-moans.  The mood reigns until the guitar groove abruptly returns after a brief pause, only to dissipate once more into a quiet guitar and bass duo and atmospheric brush work from the drummer.
  “Bass, Sweet” begins with a rhythmically infectious and visually stimulating bass ostinato.  The whole song comprised of equally infectious and tightly interlocking patterns from all three musicians, evoking shades of minimalism.  The three instrument texture is cleared up, to great effect, as the drummer forgoes further use of his cymbals at the end of the piece.
  The stage name, The Financial Crisis, was decided upon by Dustin at the end of the seven song set.

Friday, 14 Nov


The lead singer of LA’s Obi Best sang the first song of the band’s set standing alone behind a keyboard onstage at Pianos on Friday night, intricate finger movements pairing in a charming fashion with her vocal line (the song is called “Nothing Can Come Between Us”).  The other three members of the band joined her for the second song (dedicated to Swedish boys), where she took up an electric guitar and was replaced at the keyboard by a girl who bore a striking resemblance to Natasha (as in, Boris and Natasha), as apparently noted by a homeless man she passed by while walking around the city earlier in the day.  Obi Best’s stage presence, while perhaps a bit too sunny for a crowd of hardened NYC dwellers, was highly articulate and cohesive, as befitted music comprised of tightly interlocking lines and harmonies uncommonly juxtaposed (hear “It’s Because of People Like You”).  The second to last song was a new one, beginning with a pre-recorded heavy “tropical” beat provided by the laptop, and joined by the rest of the band after a few bars; “tropical” because, as the lead singer explained before the song, she feels tropical fish, not butterflies, at the thought of her new beau.  Obi Best’s set ended with a mellower tune, “Green and White Stripes,” with the lead singer/guitarist and the keyboardist facing each other for the groove-setting intro.


Obi Best’s album Capades debuts February 24th.

Saturday, 1 Nov
 

Darwin’s Meditation for The People of Lincoln finished its three-day run at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Saturday.  Combining the spoken word, video design, Haitian tunes, and chamber music (performed with plenty of verve by SymphoNYC), composer Daniel Bernard Roumain achieved an earnest and heartfelt linking together of “England, North America, and the island nation Haiti,” during the time of Lincoln and Darwin with his hour and a half work.  Cleverly weaving in here and there motives from the US and England’s shared anthem “My Country Tis of Thee/God Save the Queen,” and including the Haitian National Anthem, Meditation strove to draw direct connections between the three countries and their shared concerns regarding liberty.  The music was a correspondingly broad journey, beginning with an art music aesthetic, moving on to Haitian pop tunes, followed by an extended solo violin improvisation and then an harmonica aside (both performed by the composer), and ending with an invigorating blend of pop and chamber music.

Photo taken from DBR's website

Wednesday, 29 Oct


Brooklyn’s Victrola gave sonic satisfaction at The Stone last Wednesday.  With rich and dynamic bass lines, and gratifying timbral variety provided by clarinet, violin and synth, the whole mix was filled out by rhythmic chordal motion on a second keyboard, played by composer Missy Mazzoli.  The quintet shines particularly brightly in a burgeoning scene of art music wearing a pop aesthetic (in Victrola’s case, always elegantly); at times fully garbed in it—as with the infectious beats of the song “A Song for Arthur Russell”—at others only adorning it as an accessory—as with the Radiohead-esque keyboard chord progressions heard in the otherwise aleatoric sounding “I’m Coming for My Things.”   

Check out Victrola Dec. 12th at Galapagos.

Photo taken from band's Myspace