Album Review: Clarice Jensen- The Experience of Repetition as Death

I didn’t mention Max Richter’s surprisingly humble demeanor in my review of his splendid concert in Austin last year.  He may be one of the most respected composers of the 21st century, but Richter possesses a sheepish stage presence.  Clarice Jensen, however, led Richter’s accompanists with dramatic flair.

Jensen’s new album The Experience of Repetition as Death is correspondingly suspenseful.  The ambient recording would convey a sense of inconsolable devastation even in the best of times.  Experienced during the current global crisis, The Experience of Repetition as Death provides the quintessential soundtrack for dread-imbued isolation.

The Experience of Repetition as Death,  Jóhann Jóhannsson’s apocalyptic posthumous album Last And First Men and the slow burn of Nine Inch Nails’ astoundingly impactful Ghosts VI: Locusts and its slightly less gripping companion Ghosts V: Together make up the most meaningful- albeit jarring and disconcerting- portion of my current discretionary listening. 

I attempted to lighten my mood by blasting a playlist featuring hits by the likes of E-40, Pusha T and Nicki Minaj during a run for provisions a couple days ago.  I felt like an idiot.  Until all this is behind us, I’ll be brooding right here.



---
I was never entirely smitten by a Hal Willner production, but I’ll always be grateful to the eclectic gadfly.  I was unfamiliar with Nino Rota and Kurt Weill until his tribute albums brought the giants to my attention in the 1980s.  Willner died April 7. 

---
I can only assume the people praising Yves Tumor’s Heaven to a Tortured Mind are also big fans of Godsmack.  The difference between the commercial metal band and the critically acclaimed artist is marginal on his new album.  The tired playlists of active rock radio stations would be much more interesting if they featured Tumor songs like “Gospel For a New Century” between tracks by Stone Temple Pilots and Tool.

---
I returned to the 1970s catalog of Norman Connors upon learning of the April 6 death of keyboardist Onaje Allan Gumbs.  The cosmic jazz of Love From the Sun has aged exceedingly well. 

(Original image of downtown Austin by There Stands the Glass.)

Album Review: Jóhann Jóhannsson- 12 Conversations With Thilo Heinzmann

I was so entranced the first time I listened to Jóhann Jóhannsson’s 41-minute song cycle 12 Conversations With Thilo Heinzmann that I was surprised when it ended.  The album was seemingly over just moments after it began.  It’s my understanding that it’s the first full-length recording of Jóhannsson compositions by a string quartet.  Each of the instrumental selections played by the Echo Collective is the length of a pop song.  Several are just as catchy- and as heartbreaking- as ballads written by Paul McCartney and Smokey Robinson.  Jóhannsson was at his artistic peak when he died last year at 48.  I’m not prone to extended periods of mourning, but I may never stop selfishly grieving the forestallment of the new music that would have enhanced the remainder of my life.


---
I reviewed an extremely loud concert by the Jonas Brothers and Bebe Rexha at the Sprint Center for The Kansas City Star.

---
I write weekly concert recommendations for The Kansas City Star.

---
I wrap up my three-part examination of the Chicago Jazz Festival with a litany of fussy grievances at Plastic Sax.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Song Review: Ambrose Akinmusire's “a blooming bloodfruit in a hoodie”

Ambrose Akinmusire’s validation of my hot take on his new song “a blooming bloodfruit in a hoodie” gratified me last week.  Minutes after I suggested that the “essential new ‘a blooming bloodfruit in a hoodie’ is the jazz equivalent of Lou Reed’s monumental ‘Street Hassle’” on Twitter, Akinmusire affirmed the assessment.  Like “Street Hassle,” the coarse 13-minute track is simultaneously funny and tragic as it fluently merges high art and popular music.  The opening selection from the forthcoming album Origami Harvest is one of the most exciting things I’ve heard in 2018 and reinforces my belief that Akinmusire is one of the most vital artists of the new millennium.


---
I write weekly concert previews for The Kansas City Star.

---
I reviewed the Count Basie Orchestra’s new album All About That Basie at Plastic Sax.

---
I’d be lying if I suggested I was a fan of Mac Miller.  Even so, his recent Tiny Desk Concert featuring a band that includes Thundercat and Justus West showed Miller evolving toward a musical direction that appeals to me.  Miller died last week.

---
The rugged saxophonist Big Jay McNeely has died.

---
Maartin Allcock of Fairport Convention and Jethro Tull has died.  (Tip via BGO.)

---
Katherine Paul, the woman behind Black Belt Eagle Scout, is less heralded than many of her similarly winsome indie-rock peers, but I prefer her album Mother of My Children to most of the more acclaimed efforts.  Here’s “Indians Never Die”.

---
Rich the Factor makes a cameo appearance on Rico, the new album by the ostensible drug kingpin and rapper Berner.  Chronixx, Cam’ron and Kevin Gates are also featured.  Here’s the title track.

---
Cedric Burnside’s Benton County Relic is an admirable blues album.  RIYL: R.L. Burnside, family traditions, T-Model Ford.

---
I’m still mourning the February death of Jóhann Jóhannsson.  The Icelandic composer’s posthumously released score for the horror flick Mandy also acts as an unsettlingly abrasive soundtrack for the current societal discourse.

---
Most people think I’m kidding when I tell them I adore Ariana Grande’s recent music.  Maybe they’ll come around to my way of hearing things after they take in the pop star’s interpretation of Thundercat’s “Them Changes.”

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Album Review: Urgent Jumping: East African Musiki Wa Dansi Classics 1972-1982

Political and social mayhem and personal medical ailments won’t get me down.  Urgent Jumping: East African Musiki Wa Dansi Classics 1972-1982 is responsible for keeping me on an even keel.

Big Steve, a regular There Stands the Glass reader, recently tipped his friends off to the new compilation of restorative East African jams.  Afro 70’s ”Hasara Ya Moto is among the selections with restorative qualities.

There are undoubtedly ominous subtexts throughout the two-and-a-half-hour set, but I’m blissfully unaware of the conflicts that may have inspired the music.  In fact, I’m annoyed when a man speaks in English during Hafusa Abasi & Slim Ali and the Kikulacho Yahoos Band’s otherwise wondrously ethereal ”Sina Raha”.


---
I reviewed Karrin Allyson’s concert at the Folly Theater.  I also discussed the performance on KCUR.

----
I wrote an extended preview of Young Thug’s show at the Midland for The Kansas City Star and Ink magazine..

---
I write weekly music previews for The Kansas City Star and Ink magazine.

---
I took note of A La Mode’s new album at Plastic Sax.

---
I reviewed a magic show for The Kansas City Star last week.

---
I saw Mose Allison perform only once.  I was one of a few dozen fans who attended his show at The Tuba on Southwest Boulevard in the early 1990s.  The wonderful wit died last week.

---
The heroic Sharon Jones died last week.

---
Billy Miller of Norton Records has died.

---
I’m not nearly as enthralled as most of my hip-hop-loving peers by A Tribe Called Quest’s We got it from Here... Thank You 4 Your service album.  The ideas it signifies are often more interesting than the actual content.  “Kids”- a cranky get-off-my-lawn tirade- is my favorite track. 

---
I’m obsessed with the work of Jóhann Jóhannsson.  His score for the new alien invasion flick  Arrival is out of this world.

---
Sharon Jones’ mourners might take heart in Special Night, the solid new album by Lee Fields and the Expressions.  Here’s a live rendition of the title track.

---
Miranda Lambert’s The Weight of These Wings is the album I’ve long wanted her to make.  ”Keeper of the Flame” is the project’s slickest song.

---
The sickeningly cloying Jazz Loves Disney makes me want to break something.

---
Daniil Trifinov shreds on Transcendental, two frenzied hours of Franz Liszt.

---
Lamb of God’s The Duke benefit EP is RIYL: live souvenirs, Pantera, veteran metal bands that are better than Metallica.

---
David Bazan is at his pitiful best on Dark Sacred Night  "Wish My Kids Were Here” is an instant classic in the delectable sub-genre of sad-sack Christmas songs.

---
I’m the guy who acts “more stupidly.”  I have more than $200 tied up in tickets to a canceled Kanye West show.

(Original images by There Stands the Glass.)