IN BRIEF: A quick overview of some recent international releases

With so many CDs commanding and demanding attention Elsewhere will run this occasional column which scoops up releases by international artists, in much the same way as our SHORT CUTS column picks up New Zealand artists and Yasmin does with EPs.

Comments will be brief.

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The Plot in You: Dispose (Fearless)

From the first few whispered yet angry minutes of this fourth album by the American band The Plot in You, you know it is going to explode in fury and scorched earth guitars. The genre isn't called hardcore metal for no reason and it has a powerful, gripping effect in its tension/release achieved through weary and sensual vocals juxtaposed with the flamethrower guitars, cannoning drums and throaty shriek from singer Landon Tewers

It might sound odd to say this but there is also a very smart pop sensibility at work here (the terrific I Always Wanted to Leave and The One You Loved) and the way the album shifts focus and dynamics also places it closer to the progressive end of the metal spectrum. And in dealing with a bad relationship (that's his version) this thrashes the emotions (Feel Nothing) to powerfully cathartic effect. And they aren't short of a stadium-shaking anthem (Paid in Full where that quiet/loud and tension/release is delivered to full effect throat shredding effect).

This might not be everyone's cup of meat but this is very much a metalcore band prepared to take risks, deliver a rowdy musicality within the genre and yet not resile from the flayed flesh extremes.

Powerfully impressive.

The One You Loved, by The Plot in You

 

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Green Pajamas: Phantom Lake; Northern Gothic Vol 3 (Green Monkey)

For almost 15 years Elsewhere has been telling readers about the gifted Jeff Kelly in Seattle and his band Green Pajamas (and his solo work). When we first encountered hm he was releasing often sublime albums informed by the psychedelic pop of the Beatles between Rain and Revolver. To these songs he brought his own personality, and over the years he, his intellectual pursuits and artistry have changed, as the subtitle of this album with Laura Weller suggests.

Kelly has something of the spirit of a painter who looks at the world differently (his wife Susanne is an artist, he had a penchant for interesting corners of art history and literature) and here the duo explore some dark territory (Long Black Shadow is about someone who feels the Devil is inside the vacuum cleaner, talking), the lonely and bleak woods, mysterious outsiders, death and crows filling the sky, betrayal . . . But these needle sharp and allusive lyrics are wrapped in music which yearns (Paulina, the disturbing cello-enhanced Cognac written by singer/pianist Eric Lichter) or has the bite of Neil Young/Crazy Horse guitars (Lisa Lou). There is a spare and timeless folk element also (a kind of contemporary take on old weird Americana on Red Bird, Weller's Monica Talks to Angels) and Kelly heads back into disturbing folkadelic rock (Ana, the mythic narratives of No Way Outta This and the evil menace of The Shepard Well).

We've said it before many times but it stil bears repeating, Jeff Kelly/Green Pajamas (and the Green Monkey label) are worth any effort you care to make.

No Way Outta This, by The Green Pajamas

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Everything is Recorded: Everything is Recorded by Richard Russell (XL/Rhythmethod)

This is an album you might want to like more than you do because of the circumstances of its making. The Richard Russell in the album title is the co-founder of, and producer at, the innovative XL label who was felled by serious illness four years ago but is now well healed, back on his feet, behind the production desk and got his contact book out for this collection heavy on start power (sublime soulful singer Sampha, Kamasi Washington, rapper Giggs, Green Gartside formerly of Scritti Politti, Peter Gabriel, the twins Ibeyi and others). As you might expect with such a diverse celebrity collision is that it wants for focus. What binds it is the post trip-hop and electrobeat-glitch substructure but there is some distance between those vocals of Sampha and the brusque sax punctuations of Washington which mostly seem an afterthought when ever he appears, sneering rap by Wiki and gentle voices of Ibeyi . . . and that is just on one piece, Mountains of Gold. Many songs change direction depending on what guest pops up (Show Love for example), there are vocal samples (Curtis Mayfield) and Peter Gabriel actually seem absent without leave on Purify where he allegedly is. Interesting ingredients but throwing away the recipe book doesn't always mean a consistently tasty confection will result.

A curate's egg.

Purify, from Everything is Recorded

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Julian Lage: Modern Lore (Mack Avenue/Southbound)

American jazz guitarist/composer Julian Lage must be one of the youngest performers to ever play at a Grammy awards, he was 13 when he appeared there in 2000. And two years later he was on the teaching faculty at the Stanford Jazz Workshop. Sort of the Sheldon Cooper of the guitar world.

He has played with numerous jazz artists (and guitarists like Nels Cline and John Zorn) but here steps out again with his trio of acoustic bassist Scott Colley and Kenny Wollesen (vibes, drums).

As you might expect, Lage eschews flash for fluidity, and although you know staggeringly fast playing is easily within his orbit (the most free piece here, Earth Science with Colley going all arco-scratching on bass, is evidence) he prefers to keep matter concise. Within sometimes tightly wound jazz-rock parameters he includes nods to surf rock, the Duane Eddy/Link Wray lineage, a little walking funk and even deft hints of country twang, all of which he bends to his own shapes as he improvises economically. One for guitarists mostly.

Wordsmith, by Julian Lage