Kalaha "Hahaha" (2014) (live)

Hahaha (live) [debut]

release date: Sep. 1, 2014

format: digital (9 x File, FLAC) (RUMPLP016)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,52]

producer: Troels Bech Jessen (sound engineer)

label: Rump Recordings - nationality: Denmark

Tracklist: 1. "Spejderrobot" - 2. "Allahabad" - 3. "Assymetriader" - 4. "K-Sounds" - 5. "Ellas Drager" - 6. "Amar" - 7. "Klap" - 8. "Amnesia" - 9. "Atacama"

Debut album by Danish electronic experimental quartet Kalaha is the live recordings stemming from Red Roof Jam, at the rooftop of DGI Byen, Copenhagen at STRØM [Festival], on Aug. 15, 2013. Kalaha is a colourful act made up by the two, primarily, jazz instrumentalists, drummer Emil De Waal and guitarist Niclas Knudsen [here nicknamed 'Ibrahim Electric') together with the two electronic musicians Rumpistol (aka Jens Berent Cristiansen) and Spejderrobot (aka Michael Elkjær). Together, they explore a combo of jazz and electronica with obvious inspiration from world music and afro beat, and on this debut, they showcase their talent for improvs based on music stemming from each of the members own back catalogue.

Giving the musicians' various starting points and the fact that these compositions are all improvs, Hahaha works surprisingly well - basically showcasing how musical talent will perservere regardless the form, and then of course: both jazz and electronica are genres that include an experimental approach per se.

Kalaha would later release the actual studio album debut Masala in 2016 and the band is definitely worth checking out with Hahaha standing as a promising start that later would be consolidated with a series of studio releases. Mystafa (Mar. 2021) appears to be their most recent album.

[ Purchase the album here ]

Faye Webster "I Know I'm Funny haha" (2021)

I Know I'm Funny haha

release date: Jun. 25, 2021

format: digital (11 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,72]

producer: Drew Vandenberg, Faye Webster

label: Secretly Canadian - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "Better Distractions" - 3. "I Know I'm Funny haha" - 4. "In a Good Way" - 5. "Kind Of" - 6. "Cheers" - 9. "A Dream With a Baseball Player" - 10. "Overslept" (feat. Mei Ehara)

4th studio album from Faye Webster released two years after what is conceived as her breakthrough album Atlanta Millionaires Club. An unforseen aid has nursed the new album to international attention when ex-president Barrack Obama's Spotify playlist revealed it included the song "Better Distractions".

Webster continue on the same path of alt. country, indie folk mixed with elements from r&b and hip hop. At times it comes close to lounge and jazz pop, and then it also reach out to a stronger hip hop-influence but it mainly stays on a narrow stylistic space filled with lap steel, bass and jazz percussion together with Webster's gentle melancholia keeping everything on the same road. Compared to her 2019 album, the new album comes out as lesser challenging but also as a tighter release.

The album has been met by positive reviews and it has landed two US Billboard top 10 positions with a position as number #10 on the Americana / Folk chart list and a 9th spot on the Heatseekers Album list, and the album also ended as number #11 on Pitchfork's 2021 year-end-list.

Webster is definitely an artist to look out for, and with I Know I'm Funny haha, she has made her most coherent and so far most fascinating album.

Recommended.

[ 😶allmusic.com 3 / 5, 👍Under the Radar 7,5 / 10, NME 4 / 5, Pitchfork 8,4 / 10, Uncut 4,5 / 5 stars ]

Sun Kil Moon "Welcome to Sparks, Nevada" (2020)

Welcome to Sparks, Nevada

release date: Sep. 18, 2020

format: digital (10 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,48]

producer: Mark Kozelek

label: Caldo Verde Records - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "Angela" - 3. "The Johnny Cash Trail" - 5. "Long Slow Spring" - 7. "Lemon Balm" - 9. "Morning Cherry"

11th studio album credited Sun Kil Moon by solo artist Mark Kozelek following the album I Also Want to Die in New Orleans (Mar. 2019). In recent years, Mark usually releases new studio albums within frequent intervals of months instead of years, so this following 1½ years since his most recent album is a rare thing but also not quite true. Yes, it is his follow-up to his 2019 album as Sun Kil Moon; however, in 2019, 6 months after that, he released the collaboration album Joey Also Smiled (Oct. 2019) made with Petra Haden, and only 4 months succeeding that he released another collaboration album Mark Kozelek with Ben Boye and Jim White 2 (Feb. 2020), and another two months later [!] he released the Mark Kozelek solo album All the Best, Isaac Hayes (Apr. 2020) - so to think the man has slowed down on his production frenzy doesn't really relate to the whole picture.

Welcome to Sparks, Nevada consists of a regular number of 10 compositions but it comes with a total running time exceeding 92 minutes [!], which means it was physically issued in double CD format. The album doesn't fall far from many of the other releases he dominates that are all issued via his own label Caldo Verde, but there are always small variations, and overall, this one appears as a more quiet album held in gentle arrangements with strings, piano, acoustic guitars and with vocal harmonies all executed by Kozelek and his recent favourite musicians: Ben Boye, Chris Connolly, and Petra Haden. It's a mix of free spoken-word 'songs' in the stream of conscious-type-of-way he has turned to lately and some more traditionally structured songs. Thematically, it's one of his COVID-19 albums filled by subjective views on lock-down issues leaning towards irritation / wryness about restrictions and people dealing with the consequences of the whole situation. It's like many of his other post-Benji (2014) albums by containing fine moments and then not quite documenting his potential, and I guess that's really not the bet sales-argument to his recent discography but Kozelek is this live-persona, who both makes a great deal about not giving-a-f*!k about what people may think or feel and spending hours on expressing deep emotions and personal sensitive narratives in this Mark Kozelek-way that is extremely unique. So, whether you'll find it appealing or not, there's much to be found in his productions, I think.

Btw.: The front cover photo is credited Kozelek, which is his usual approach, but it's the first Sun Kil Moon album since the 2012 Among the Leaves to have an actual title on the front cover with letters indicating who made the album. Usually, albums by Kozelek are identified by one of his own photo-snaps.

Fats Domino "Fantastic Fats (Sixteen of the Greatest Tracks by Fats Domino)" (1965)

Sixteen of the Greatest Tracks by Fats Domino (compilation)

release date: 1965

format: vinyl (1968 reissue)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5]

producer: Felton Jarvis

label: Stateside / Columbia - nationality: USA

Compilation album by Louisiana-born Fats Domino (aka The Fat Man - Antoine Dominique Domino Jr.) (Feb. 26, 1928 – Oct. 24, 2017).