Ari Abramowitz’s Top Ten — October 1

by Ari Abramowitz
1 October 2006

1. MARS VOLTA – Amputechture (Universal)

   Clear improvement over Frances the Mute. Seems like they’re more willing to allow their songs/compositions to speak for themselves rather than puff them out with long stretches of non-music. Not the watershed of their debut, by a long shot, but a hopeful, if still a bit tentative, step forward from their last.

2. MASTODON – Blood Mountain (Reprise)

   It’s not a question of heaviness vs hooks. Both were there on Leviathan and both are here now. It’s more the nature and execution that have changed a bit. The heavy is a bit more polished, allowing for greater definition, if a bit less low end, while the hooks feel brighter, which can be perky but might not sink into your gut as much. Now, perhaps even more than Meshuggah, they’re poised to be the primary bridge between the underground and the break-through.

3. DEAR HUNTER – Act I: The Lkae [sic] South The River North (Triple Crown)

   Impressive debut of progressive emo with Brian Wilson vocal harmonies, excellent dynamics, and dozens of original ideas and twists.

4. AZITA – Life On The Fly (Drag City)

   2004 album of quasi-jazz-pop that sounds like a huskier Perry Farrell playing some Ben Folds after having spent the evening listening to Donald Fagen.

5. SANTANA & ALICE COLTRANE – Illuminations (Sony)

   Complete bliss-jazz. Alice’s lush piano and harp girded with Carlos’ gentle but muscular guitar.

6. ROGER JOSEPH MANNING JR. – Land of Pure Imagination (Cordless)

   Solo album of lush McCartney/Rundgren pop from the ex-Jellyfish lead dude.

7. DUN Eros (Soleilzeuhl)

   Tasty, 1981 album of off-center prog/jazz-rock. Ostensibly Magma influenced, though Soft Machine and Henry Cow feature prominently.

8. “Jade Chant Magma” on YouTube.

   Clip of three year-old girl singing a Magma song in the back seat of her dad’s car. It’s pretty amazing that she’d be singing any rock song, much less a prog rock song in a made-up, outer space language. Best of all is how the intensity of her face ebs and flows, with her brows furrowing or raising with the dynamics of the song.

9. GARGANTULA – Infinitasm (self-released)

   The prog-noise-metal guys from Spaceboy slowing things down and getting doomier.

10. ARCHIMEDES BADKAR – Tre (Music Network)

    Unusual, late 70s, Swedish pan-ethno-avant-jazz-rock.