JEFFREY MORGAN'S MEDIA BLACKOUT IS PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAYIGGY & THE STOOGES - THE AUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHYROCK CRITIC CONFIDENTIALALICE COOPER CONFIDENTIALTHE BRIDES OF MISTER XJOIN ME ON FACEBOOKCONTACT JEFFREY MORGAN
Archive Newer | Older

Sunday, December 4, 2011

JEFFREY MORGAN’S MEDIA BLACKOUT #292

IT’S MOVING! IT’S JEFFREY MORGAN’S MEDIA BLACKOUT #292!

Styx
Regeneration: Volume 1 (Eagle) :: Think of it, Fritz! The Bee Gees brain that you stole will live again in that progressive rock body!

Lou Reed
& MetallicaLulu (Warner Bros.) :: It is a monster! We must destroy it!

SIZZLING PLATTER OF THE WEEK: Levin Torn White
Levin Torn White (Lazy Bones) :: And while we’re on the topic of indestructible monster mash ups, do stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but you really shouldn’t try to argue the issue because just a chronological glance at your record collection will prove that, as rock ’n’ rollers get older, it’s utterly inevitable that they get softer—and I’m not talkin’ about virility in the sack, I’m talkin’ about volume in the studio.

As maxims of maturity go, TURN IT DOWN does seem to be their overriding axiom of aging because, with the obvious aberrant exception of the earlier aforementioned Jeffrey Beck, every single raucous rock musician who ever lived, has lived to see the day come when their sonic six-guns were hung up in exchange for a pipe and slippers.

Even such much-vaunted volume advocates as Neil Young and Jimmy Page have had disconcerting bouts of flaccidness recently—assuming that they even bother to wake up to show up. And don’t you start me talking about former noise boy Miles Davis, who prematurely blew all his goo on Dark Magus only to thereafter be reduced to the sad spectacle of shooting blanks, as evidenced by such sterile secretions as You’re Under Arrest and Doo-Bop.

But there’s always an exception to the rule, and this fourteen track all-instrumental album is it—with an emphasis on the mental ’cause Levin Torn White takes everything that you thought you knew about heavy industrial progressive rock and effortlessly transmutes it from traditional fusion into a new element of audio contusion that you won’t find on any heavy metal periodical table. But please don’t let me be misunderstood: I’m not talkin’ about mental as in crazy coo-coo mental, I’m talkin’ mental as in sonically supernatural Magneto-style metal manipulating mental, with an occasional against-type foray into Klaus Schulze electro-drone Krautrock atmospherics.

Then again, what else would you expect from the veteran You Are Experienced likes of traps master Alan White, who’s smashed skins for the Plastic Ono Band and Yes; guitarist David Torn, who’s shredded strings for Don Cherry and David Bowie; and bassist Tony Levin who’s similarly strung along with the likes of King Crimson and Peter Gabriel?

But since even that peerless pedigree won’t be enough to prepare you for the gifts that these three wise men are bearing, you’re just gonna have to shell out your hard-earned shekels and hear for yourself how effortlessly the spasm-inducing slaw firm of Levin Torn & White can command this volatile new source of aural energy that kids a quarter of their age only wish they could corral. Heart monitor not included.

Be seeing you!
Sun, December 4, 2011 | link 


Archive Newer | Older