There is more good music coming out every week than there is time to listen toit. For those who like to go straight to their goal, Humo’s music editorsselected seven records that are either urgent to taste or completely ignored.
EditorialThursday, October 13, 202213:46
Marble Sounds – ‘Marble Sounds’
Marble Sounds is the band of and around Pieter Van Dessel , accordingto imdb.com also composer of the soundtracks of ‘Albatross’ and ‘Sense oftumor’. The oeuvre of Marble Sounds has long been the ‘Downton Abbey’ of theFlemish music scene: classy, stately and well-made, but it can hardly becalled the most innovative of the class.
Fortunately, Van Dessel did not pay too much attention to this reputationduring the recording of the fifth Marble Sounds, simply called ‘MarbleSounds’. Rumors had been buzzing for a while: Van Dessel had reinvented hisgroup sound during the lockdowns, it was said. As a result, the new songssounded better and more experienced than ever, they claimed. He wrote andplayed on three pianos, five tubas and seven nose flutes at the same time andproduced everything himself, so the gossip went.
Not a word of lying, because: listen here, friends, what a record! Five yearsafter the previous Marble Sounds, Van Dessel suddenly has a kind of midastouch: almost every song has the quality and envergure of a strong radiosingle. You know the modest but impressive opening song ‘Quiet’ from theseason finale of ‘Undercover’. ‘Soon It’ll Make Us Laugh’ – with a cameo byVan Dessels’ daughters and by a Bulgarian choir – starts as a false slow oneand just when you don’t expect anything special from it, the song breaks openand suddenly becomes so beautiful that – warning: metaphor not for sensitivesouls – it will make your hemorrhoids flap.
Am I exaggerating? Presumably. But I do that more often when something makesme happy and moved at the same time. As with ‘Axolotl’, that beautiful thingsfrom good people like Air and Damien Jurado combines.
And so it goes – for anyone with a heart and a stomach for clever, tastefulchamber music – from one high point to the next: ‘Jacket’ does, not onlythrough the ‘stop-start-stop’ montage and the autotune, on in a strict mannerBon Iver think.
Variety trumps: the songs alternately deal with the climate, science,ludduvuddu and ways to slow down. All sung by the same reassuringly warmvoice, which strikes out twice more at the end: ‘Priorat’ and ‘The Ever After’are bouncers of size, velvet and fortitude.
‘I probably won’t get any closer to myself as a musician,’ Van Dessel alsoknows. ‘Artists sometimes say they step out of their comfort zone, I feel likeI just stepped into my comfort zone with this record.’
Of how many bands is the fifth album the best? ‘Marble Sounds’ is a tour deforce, a new watering place on our emotional trail. Five stars for a recordwith ten world songs: value for money.
Can be viewed in the wild in November in the AB, the Roma and theHandelsbeurs. (fvd)
Pieter Van Dessel, Marble Sounds © Johannes Vande VoordeStatue Johannes VandeVoorde
Red Hot Chili Peppers – ‘Return of the Dream Canteen’
From Evil to Pepper: six months after their last record Kiedis and co.Another new one out, and it’s not a good one.
The irritating ‘jajajaja’ mantra in ‘Tippa My Tongue’ sets the tone: thePeppers copy and copy and copy their own sound until only a heavily breathinggreatest common denominator remains. ‘Eddie’ is about the late Van Halen ,but it is not a beautiful monument. ‘Fake as Fuk’ is as bland as its title,’My Cigarette’ their stupidest sing-along yet.
Josh Klinghoffer , the guitarist who was dumped by the Peppers, recentlytestified that the band is in a tight straitjacket: ‘There is a handbook withstrict rules: what is allowed with the sound of the global brand ‘RHCP’ andwhat is definitely not? Difficult to be creative then.’ That explains a figlike “Dream Canteen,” but doesn’t spell it right. (fvd)
Jean-Marie Aerts – ‘Domeztik’
He has 3,993 listeners per month on Spotify: a select group that appreciatesquality and keeps far away from the stage-horny contemporary pop music. Onewould think that a person with a track record like that of Jean-MarieAerts has a larger army of fans, but his work is too eclectic and the manhimself too idiosyncratic for that.
Although you wouldn’t say that about his recent leg ‘Domeztik’: the recordswings like crazy in an unabashedly old-fashioned way. ‘Domeztik’ is a tripfull of kaleidoscopic, often funky soundscapes, interspersed with jazzyguitars and weird but beautiful voices. Starring Jean-Marie herself, theGainsbourg of the Hageland, but also Kimberly Dhondt , the nightingaleof Evil Empire Orchestra, sings many stars from the sky. Voodoo music fromAarschot and the surrounding area, made with many friends: the fun justexplodes.
On October 14, Aerts celebrates his 70th birthday in Het Depot in Leuven, inthe company of all those many friends. He is now 71, but that should not spoilthe fun. In a just world he would sell out the Sportpaleis three times, butstill: everyone there! (mc)
LA Salami – ‘Ottoline’ ★★1/2☆☆
With a name like Lookman Adekunle Salami this Londoner was destined for acareer in the meat industry, but he opted for music: that other industry wherethe knives are always razor-sharp. For the forward singles – it Eagle-EyeCherry -like ‘Peace of Mind’ and the great ‘Desperate Times, MediocreMeasures’ – may our filleting instruments be put away. Salami uses a pleasantrap singing, which is very hard on that of Damon Albarn seems, like a kindof urban troubadour. The dubby pop of ‘Systemic Pandemic’ is a tone-in-tonesociology lesson, but Salami’s flow is careful not to get too pushy. Somewherehalfway through, however, the record collapses hopelessly: the sparkle getsbogged down in intolerable campfire misery and results in unappetisinguniformity. (sm)
Bill Callahan – ‘Reality’
Way down in Texas has Bill Callahan ‘Reality’ finished. Opener ‘FirstBird’ is pure family happiness. ‘Everyway’ starts with ‘ I feel somethingcoming on / A disease or a song’. ‘Lily’ centers on Callahan’s late motherand zooms in on the squeaky wheels of her stretcher. ‘Naked Souls’ describesan incel: ‘ Maybe he’ll buy another gun / Or maybe he’ll become / A policeman/ Or kill one’. ‘Partition’ in short? You can meditate, ventilate, microdoseand change clothes as much as you want, you can’t help yourself. And in’Planets’ the planets sing in Hawaiian, until the cosmos gets noticeablyfresher and the countertones trump. ‘Reality’ is also a missing album: thehorns and backings are well hidden. (gvn)
Oh Wonder – ’22 Make’
Title ’22 Make’ is reminiscent of ’22, A Million’ by Bon Iver and thatdoesn’t seem a coincidence: every track on this record lies on a bed ofglitchy electronics that still calms, a sound that reminds of previous OhWonder -to work. Also the unctuous harmony of Anthony and JosephineVander West sounds familiar, and at the same time more mature than before.The couple almost split during the pandemic, and that’s what you hear the mostin ‘365’ – violins come together like the dark gray clouds above the couple.Other songs are worked up with a lick of flute or a saxophone that doesn’twant to interfere. Oh Wonder does not amaze, nor does it disappoint. (jvl)
The 1975 – ‘Being Funny in a Foreign Language’ ★★1/2☆☆
The 1975 is a polarizing pop rock group from Manchester, fronted by an ex-junkie without a filter. ‘ Am I ironically woke? The butt of my joke?’ asksMatty Healy on their fifth and most focused record, ‘ Or am I just somepost-coke, average, skinny bloke?’ The 1975 confirms its status as aglorified cover band: ‘Part of the Band’ is Bon Iver with offensivelyrics, ‘The 1975’ looks suspiciously like ‘All My Friends’ from LCD SoundSystem ‘Happiness’ and ‘About You’ revive the eighties à la M83 , ‘OhCaroline’ and ‘I’m in Love with You’ had – aiai! – maroon 5 can be. (jmi)