New Music SYCTB 21 Oct 2014
This week in Sounds You Can Try & Buy (SYCTB) we’ll trip out to a re-thinking of The Chocolate Factory, we’ll dig the grooves thrown down by a 10-piece and have another look at a Berlin DIY singer/songwriter.
Stop what you’re doin’, grab a cold one and let us begin to dig into what new music we’re listening to this week and thoughts from around the web.
(For more infos, click the album title)
Primus (w/ Fungi Ensemble) – ‘Primus and The Chocolate Factory’ (ATO)
The universe didn’t need a rethinking of the Charlie and The Chocolate Factory soundtrack. No one needed to rework what Gene Wilder, Anthony Newley, Aubrey Woods and Jack Albertson did almost unassumingly back in 1971. But it has been redone and in an era when The Flaming Lips seem to fumble around with classics without need and often low on lasting joy factor, the man who could conceptually re-imagine such a task, Les Claypool, has pulled off the unimaginable. And he got the old band back together!
Primus and The Chocolate Factory isn’t an album to be sectioned out. It wouldn’t make sense and may not even be an album to put on for a cruise down the open highway. This is an album that is a funky, trippy sonic storyline, probably best in earbuds on a high afternoon or better yet, on stage. The only question that lingers, Is it a classic? Two things for certain, it is weird and wonderful…
Les Claypool recently spoke to Billboard about the project, “This Wonka project, I actually started putting together a whole narrative about it that we were gonna do for the show, and it just didn’t work very well, so we pulled it and decided to do only the music. Our interpretation of it is more about the perception of myself as a youth of Wonka and the film and the books. And it’s more about the child’s experience with that film and that era and the books than it is about interpreting the story itself. I don’t want to step on any toes. Obviously Tim Burton is an incredibly talented guy and Ed Wood is an incredible film, and we did some of the music for Pee Wee’s Big Adventure for our intro and I’ve always been a big fan. But I tend to like the stuff he writes himself, that he comes up with himself that’s not necessarily based on other people’s work or a remake. I just haven’t really seen one that I’ve enjoyed as well, so that being said, I’m sure there are going to be people who look at what we’ve done with the Wonka thing and go, “What the f— are these guys doing with my precious little Wonka?” So he tackled a sacred cow and it fell short for some people and we’ve tackled that same sacred cow and it might fall short for some people. But I dig it.”
The Budos Band – ‘Burnt Offering’ (Daptone)
From the Herbie Hancock and Herb Alpert schools of Rock N’ Roll is the oh hell yeah fall soundtrack from The Budos Band Burnt Offering. Whether you dig the sounds of 70’s funkadedelic soul, hints of riffy prog or you just like to groove to the vibrant sounds of late night fusion, this album thrills and drives. High octane could be wrong to say (perhaps) but if you’re able to sit still while this album travels, you could be deceased.
Silent Kid – ‘Silent Kid‘ (Breakup)
Berlin based singer/songwriter Sebastian ‘Silent Kid’ Nehen has released some reworked jewels from his long established stash as an appetizer for a coming full length. Talk about DIY, this cat has done all this work from home and if you like singer/songwriter/pop with a dusting of Lou Reed style honky tonk flavoring (and you do) give this EP a go. Bonus: Harmonica…
Sebastian recently described the project to us here at The GTC saying, “These songs are probably 10 years old and I’ve rewritten them a few times over the years simply because my taste in music has changed a little. Kind of like a new hairstyle you get. Still the same hair but cut differently. I’ve always wanted to be a songwriter but not really a performer. So I tried to put myself into the shoes of a songwriter that works for let’s say Robbie Williams. Some of the songs on the EP don’t fit that description of course but that was the general idea. I think I wrote about 8 songs in total and in the course of writing I think I let myself go and forgot about the original idea. After all they became a bunch of “unagitated” (not sure if this is the word I’m actually looking for) pop songs which I like a lot because they don’t want much and they’re easy to listen, too. They’re about whatever people want them to be about. 100% interpretable; I call the project “Silent Kid”. There will be new and fresh material soon.”
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