Michael Blair
NIGHT FALLS ON RED HOOK:
Little Black Egg Big Band and Oren Ambarchi at Pioneer Works, June 28
By Michael Blair
Since celebrating their thirtieth anniversary with a string of historic shows at Town Hall in December, Yo La Tengo has spent the last few months surfacing in surprisingly different guises. At Pioneer Works last month, the group collaborated with a host of New York jazz veterans to make up Little Black Egg Big Band.
VETERANS OF DISORDER:
Royal Trux Reunites
By Michael Blair
“Now you know I’m ready,” Jennifer Herrema and Neil Michael Hagerty snarl in the opening seconds of Royal Trux’s 1998 album Accelerator. Warped through some busted-up, crackling processor, their voices mash into and over each other—you’re never quite sure who’s singing what, or, as the song opens up into noisier and noisier stacks of static feedback, what they’re even saying at all.
The Expansive Harmonium
By Michael BlairIn the opening seconds of Holy Science, the début recording of Amirtha Kidambi’s Elder Ones ensemble, Kidambi’s harmonium counts off the notes of a dense minor chord and, backed by the buzzing drones of a bowed bass, slowly plunks through a progression of three other pitches before starting all over again.
Spacious and Relaxed
By Michael BlairEmil Amos, the Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist of Grails and OM, has been recording highly personal, thickly philosophical tunes under the name Holy Sons for going on twenty-five years.
