Music Reviews by Kent Manthie
Motus:
[self-titled]
You know, no matter how much one were to try, you really can’t kill rock & roll. It’s like a horde of post-apocalyptic monsters – immune to chemicals, poisons, etc., and they just keep on coming and coming, mutating further. They absorb and start metabolizing the poisons meant to eradicate them. Naturally, they’ve come for your daughters, so watch out; lock those virgins up when these ruffians come to town.
I didn’t know what to think when I first popped in the CD and listened to it. I had no preconceived notions. I liked the way it began, a rocking opener, but with unique hooks and arrangements. I was compelled to continue listen out of curiosity – I wanted to hear what came next, as I do many times in new and interesting music.
I’ll have to be honest, I half expected to get assaulted with that typical guttural barking and screaming that is ubiquitous in most “nu-metal” these days – like King Diamond & Merciful Fate, Deicide, Cannibal Corpse and countless others, but I was pleasantly surprised when the vocals came out nice and clean; in tune, a melody that complemented the accompanying jamming rocking metal cooking behind. I’ve also heard Motus described as sounding like a new Tool, but, honestly, Tool was the last band that Motus evoked from listening to their CD. Now, in hindsight, I could kind of tell where they probably got some influence from Tool, but I wouldn’t call them a Tool-sound-alike and I’m sure that Motus wouldn’t want you to either.
Now, with that out of the way, I don’t fault anyone for having influences and wanting to live up to that standard. That is admirable. Listen to whomever you wish and dig it all you can, but, if I want to hear Tool, I’ll go buy “Opiate”, “Undertow” or “Anima”, their trilogy of Hollywood-Nietzschean disgust with the plastic vacuousness of L.A., albeit a city that, despite its myriad problems is still a paragon of urban living in the United States – the world for that matter – 2nd only to San Francisco in greatness; but I digress…
Anyway; if Motus can live up to that high-handed standard, they will be visionaries, indeed. Prophets of a rising level of alienation, angst, fiery vitriol, polemical diatribes and all this with a super-cool black as midnight rock and roll that percolates throughout your body, leaving you not cold, but shaking in orgiastic metal romps; good times abound all around, I say. [http://www.motusband.com] [http://www.myspace.com/motus] KM
Emily Wells: “Beautiful Sleepyhead and the Laughing Yaks” (self-released)
This scarily beautiful CD caught my attention by being low-key, unobtrusive and quietly brilliant. Emily Wells is a one-woman dynamo that put together all the songs on “Beautiful Sleepyhead…” – she wrote the songs, produced the recording of them and played all the instruments except for a couple guest appearances here and there.
The songs throughout have a unique feel; there’s a mixture of a little bit of country, a lot of dark, night-club crooning; soft, ethereal deconstructed tunes with no fluff, no gimmicks, no clichés; how refreshing.
There is not a lot of “big” sound to the songs within, but the stark, bare, sparse piano and vocal with a little acoustic guitar tower over many studio-tweaked albums that are big on sound but small on esthetics, which is a strong suit of Emily Wells. Her pretty, fragile-sounding voice sings with refrained angst; her sleepy, sad lullabies are loud in their feeling.
The closest thing I could think of to describe Ms. Wells is like a stripped-down Portishead mixed with a Neil Young/Nick Cave/Nick Drake sensibility. It is a quiet, acoustically-based, slowed-down, introverted album, one that mellows one out and something with which to slow things down after too much agitation or excitement.
“Beautiful Sleepyhead” is total DIY – no label support, no distribution, it was all done on a grass-roots level, so if you are interested and want to learn more you’ll have to check out her website to find out more about Emily and purchase the CD. (http://www.emilywellsmusic.com) – KM.
Divasonic: “Filled With Love” (Divasonic Music)
Divasonic are smooth disco operators who have come up with yet another trip-hop adventure in the form of the single, “Filled With Love”, a CD with three different mixes of this song. It has an aura of ether and high energy dance fuel. I can close my eyes and imagine myself getting down at “Studio” in some weird past-meets-future time warp dichotomy. Listen for it the next time you’re out dancing at the hippest clubs on a late-night pleasure dome hunt.
I can’t guarantee that you will reach instant satori, but I can tell you this: you will have a hard time sitting still, you will be swaying and grooving at the very least, but most likely you’ll be spun into a feverish trance that will become addictive the more you experience it.
Divasonic are basically an underground, indie phenomenon, at the moment, at least. But listening to the crackerjack production techniques and the high-quality output that resulted from it, one is amazed that it was put out by themselves, with no label support, nothing. But that can be a good thing, especially when the money starts to roll in and it’s all yours and you don’t owe those goons a dime. (http://www.divasonic.com) – KM.
Rube Waddell: “Greatest Hits” (Hotel Episode Records)
The Bay Area is home to myriad musical legends and Rube Waddell is another in a long line of them. Rube Waddell is not a person, but a state of mind, consisting of Cap’n Feedback, Rev. Wupass, Mahatma Boom Boom and Max A. Million.
This compilation of “Greatest Hits” is a 17-cut rundown of some of their best and also it is a collection of some of the most underrated music around.
What Rube Waddell are all about are the results of an amalgam of musical influences and stylings, what with an admixture of tuba, accordion, ukulele and other assorted instruments, they bring a unique spin to rock and roll.
I can recall their name from assorted spots when I lived in San Francisco and I’m glad now to have this collection of their “Greatest Hits” to remember the good old days by.
Track #6, “Spongiform Encephalopathy” has a Tom Waits vibe to it, but my two favorites are #3, “Here’s to You” and “Jesus Didn’t Die For Me”, but each song rocks, hence the title, “Greatest Hits”.
Their music is a perfect mirror to the interactive diversity and forward, expressionistic thinking that is the epitome of the Bay Area. Click on their website: http://www.rubewaddell.org – KM.
Divasonic: “Birth” (Divasonic Music)
A fresh breath of ether; a swooning, heavenly trip through innerspace; a soundtrack to an intrauterine life, suspended in a swirling wave of psychedelic dance pop, that is Divasonic in a nutshell, from which an LSD-laced nut was eaten. BIRTH is a mellow, dreamy work of cool and detached nuances. Lynda Arnold and Safar Bake are the two principals in Divasonic; they have produced this lovely work, with Miss Lynda and her beautiful voice that is lighter than air and hovers about, lingering far after the music has died away. Both Lynda and Safar play most of the instruments and do all the programming so the computer can play the rest; there are a couple of friends that show up here and there, but basically it’s their record. Mixed in with the cold, icy electronica are different types of flutes, guitar and piano. It is a well-crafted hybridization of oh-so-lush soundscapes. Check out their website, http://www.divasonic.com – KM.
Timz: “Open for Business” (V.I.G. Productions)
When I was a teenager, in the mid-80s, I was a big fan of all things 1960s. At that point in my life, I would’ve given anything to be 16 in 1967 rather than 1987.
For one thing, I was into the music of that era for the most part: The Dead, V.U., The Doors, Cream, Blue Cheer, the Airplane and Hendrix, of course.
One thing I thought was as far removed from the present as the old music I loved was the Vietnam War and everything the domestic division and the aggressive anti-war movement it spawned.
One rapper who has been expressing his views is Timz, ne Tommy Hanna. Timz brings to hip-hop a unique point of view, being an American-born, Los Angelino, of Iraqi-Chaldean descent –Chaldeans being indigenous to the Mesopotamian region in ancient times; they’re Christians who are Catholic in their beliefs, for the most part. “Open for Business” is a slick, groovy, danceable freak-out that is not tiresome. One can listen to it in its entirety without feeling like one’s hearing the same old thing over and over. Each song has its own little signature to it.
“Open for Business” is a refreshing take on a depressing topic, but one that comes from a personal perspective, one who senses that there’s no sense in spending one’s life in fear, not enjoying oneself, to wit: “there’s a war going on outside/there’s death everywhere/but I feel so alive”, from the song “Iraq”. It sounds like something you might hear from a jaded Iraqi who is sick of all the mayhem and wants to just get on with a semblance of normal life.
A couple other outstanding cuts include (after the “Intro) the opening song, which is the title track (“Open For Business”) and “Doing it Big”, but like I said, each tune is not the exact same track as the previous one, you can listen to it all the way through and not be completely sick of the guy by the end of it. To find out more about the interesting story of Timz, his life, his struggle, his quest for musical happiness, check out: http://www.timzonline.com –KM.