High Bias aural fixations
July 21, 2002

ALLEN CLAPP
Available Light
(March)
Available Light, the second solo album from Orange Peels leader Allen Clapp, was made in the new millennium but sounds like an artifact from the 70s. Clapp couches his unabashedly soft pop melodies in layers of lush electric pianos, analog synthesizers, 12-string and acoustic guitars and a light rhythm section, all played by himself. With searchingly romantic lyrics and an amiable tenor voice, Clapp sounds like Something/Anything?-era Todd Rundgren in a particularly mellow mood. Though the songs wouldn't offend your prudish grandmother, it's not because Clapp is a wimp, it's simply that he writes the kind of pretty tunes that appeal to a wide audience—without pandering, no less. Piano-led pop nuggets like "So Right" and "Not Gonna Fake It" recall the best of Rundgren, Emitt Rhodes or even Ben Folds Five, while the cosmically-inclined "High Above the Earth" sounds like Gary Wright if he'd had real talent. "Whenever We're Together" (which gets reprised with a chorus of "la la la's" at the end), "Just Like Yesterday" and "Big Bright Shiny Yellow Sun" are simply soft pop as it ought to be made. Clapp's canny use of synthesized strings creates a sofa on which his creations comfortably lounge, but the wistfulness and sense of yearning in his performances prevent the songs from dissolving into the kind of fluff that feels good against your skin for the first five minutes but then suddenly starts to irritate the hell out of your pores. In other words, Available Light is sweet but not saccharine, twee but not sickening, light but not diet. Allen Clapp will satisfy your sweet tooth without making it hurt. Michael Toland

For fans of: pre-disco Bee Gees, Todd Rundgren, Mike Levy

HELLRIDE
Troublemaker + 2
(Scooch Pooch)
Norway's Hellride do that narsty, Scandinavian rock thang, crossbreeding punk and 70s metal for a sleazy, headbanging good time on Troublemaker +2. The quartet doesn't do anything particularly different than the dozens of its brethren that have been scuzzing up the fjords in the last few years—Pete Evil snarls and rasps as if he was Satan on shore leave, he and fellow six-stringer Alex Action keep the AC/DC-vs.-the Ramones riffs coming fast and furious and tunes like "Ready to Rock," "The Devil's Own" and "Pornmags" (one of the two bonus tracks on this American edition) pretty much let you know from which dive the band is crawling. But these guys bang this stuff out as if the lives of their grandmothers depended on it, and in this gnarly game enthusiasm and energy count for, well, pretty much everything. If you dig that northern-fried rawk action, Hellride will definitely swizzle your stick. Michael Toland [buy it]

For fans of: the Backyard Babies, Glucifer, Boulder

LETTUCE
Outta Here
(Velour)
Prior to forming Soulive with the Evans brothers, guitarist Eric Krasno led Lettuce, a band he formed with fellow students from the Berklee College of Music. Now that the members have found success with Soulive (Krasno, saxophonist Sam Kininger), the John Scofield Band (drummer Adam Deitch), Rustic Overtones (saxophonist Ryan Zoidis) and others, the time is apparently right for Lettuce's long-delayed debut Outta Here. The Philadelphia-based ensemble gets so funky you can smell it on kickin' tunes like "Back in Effect" (featuring guest licks by Scofield), "SuperFred" (with James Brown/P-Funk trombonist Fred Wesley) and "Nyack" (also present in a live version), as the horns, rhythms and chicken-scratch guitar lock into monster grooves that will get the butt twitching in no time. The heavily Philly Soul-influenced "Squadlive" mellows the edges a bit, but is still greasier than a stack of truckstop breakfast sausages. Even the addition of Tonni Smith's vocals on "Twisted," usually the quiet storm kiss of death for these kinds of records (see Soulive's latest), doesn't diminish the liquid hips vibe one iota. If you've the urge to get down and get back up again and you're looking to scratch that itch, Lettuce will do it! do it! do it 'til you're satisfied. Michael Toland [buy it]

For fans of: Liquid Soul, Karl Denson, MFSB

MAKTUB
Khronos
(Ossia)
With the airwaves crowded with synthesized, post-hip hop R&B that's more about racking up record sales that self-expression, it seems like old-fashioned soul music has gone the way of the dinosaur. But, as Seattle's Maktub (pronounced "mocktube" and Arabic for "it is written") proves, great soul is still out there, but you have to go digging for it. On its second album Khronos, Maktub takes the great R&B melodies of the 60s, 70s and early 80s and updates them for the new millennium, all without smothering them in drum machines, sequencers or (overt) hip hop production moves. For Maktub, the right tools include Daniel Spils' funky analog keyboards, Thaddeus Turner's alternately scratchy and molten guitar, Kevin Goldman and Davis Martin's relaxed, flexible rhythms and, of course, frontman Reggie Watts' superb voice. Not to mention songs; unlike most contemporary R&B stars, these guys understand that a real tune requires more than an in-your-face beat. The undulating opener "You Can't Hide" brings 70s Al Green into 2002, while the mellow-but-not-wimpy "Baby Can't Wait" brings to mind prime 80s Smokey Robinson. "Give Me Some Time" posits what might have happened had Jimi Hendrix lived to collaborate with his old employers the Isley Brothers, while "Just Like Murder" proves that classic soul and the power ballad can commingle with thrilling results. "Say You Will" revels in silky psychedelic bedroom soul (dig that electric sitar!), while "See Clearly" takes that 70s proto-disco groove home without firing up the mirror balls. The record stumbles near the end, during a seemingly endless version of Led Zeppelin's "No Quarter" followed by an angrily distorted fit called "Motherfucker." But it rights itself immediately with the closing hymn "Then We'll Know," bringing it all home. Despite the deliberate nods to the past, Maktub is a band that exists here and now; it may draw inspiration from the greats, but it never sounds like anything but itself. Soul lives, and it's in good hands with Maktub. Michael Toland [buy it]

For fans of: Terence Trent D'arby, Thornetta Davis, the Isley Brothers

CHRISTY MCWILSON
Bed of Roses
(HighTone)
Seattle songstress Christy McWilson broke out of the box labeled "ex-member of the Picketts" with her debut solo record The Lucky One a couple of years ago; her sophomore effort will put to rest any lingering desire to compare her to her former (fine) band. Produced, as was her first one, by Dave Alvin, Bed of Roses is a sparkling example of American roots rock, seamlessly blending elements of C&W, soul, rockabilly and folk into a smooth, but never slick, treatise on love and family. "True Believer" is a perfect example, a perfect country-rock gem in which McWilson relates in her husky voice her belief, despite evidence all around her to the contrary, that love will always be important. "Shooting Fish in a Barrel," co-written with Alvin, takes a faithless lover to task ("If I ever believed in you/Well I don't believe it now"), while "Life's Little Enormities" meditates on love, faith and trust. "Not a Day Goes By" croons "Years will come and years will go but/Not a day goes by" over a lilting folk melody, while the bitter "Bed of Roses" faces disappointment head on, and isn't nice about it. Ballads or rockers, nothing is beyond the grasp of McWilson's poignant pen or soulful voice. She also, as is her wont going back to the Picketts days, makes a pair of unlikely covers her own: Moby Grape's "805" becomes a tender duet with Alvin (whose voice grows more sepulchral by the year, it seems) and Jesse Colin Young's "Darkness, Darkness" turns into a darkly dramatic folk rocker with tasty licks provided by Alvin and Greg Leisz. There's not a track on here that isn't at least good, and most of them are great. Bed of Roses is a landmark for Christy McWilson and highly recommended. Michael Toland [buy it]

For fans of: Marti Jones, Rosanne Cash, Jim Lauderdale

SHINJUKU THIEF
The Witch Haven
(Dorobo/Projekt)
The Witch Haven is part three in a series of albums by Shinjuku Thief, AKA electronicist/Dorobo label chief Darrin Verhagen; the previous volumes are The Witch Hammer and The Witch Hunter. Verhagen utilizes his interest in German expressionist film, atmospheric horror and the darker side of classical composition to create what the CD quite accurately labels a "Gothic orchestral soundscape." In other words, it's ambient classical music to creep out by. Verhagen writes truly haunting themes, the kind you play in the drawing room at dusk. "The gestation of elben" sounds like the music playing on the edge of the forest around four in the morning, as the fog settles and wait, what was that you just saw flickering in the corner of your eye? "A red room/A slow dance" combines already spooky ambient tones with subliminal whispers and laughter that will make every hair on the back of your neck stand up. "Father of Lies" adds a march rhythm for a piece that could accompany an army of orcs as it heads for battle; "Sign of the Eagle" is the sound of that army reaching the inn. "An event near the commons at dusk" lets in some light with a jaunty violin melody, but the freezing winds and strange, animalistic noises in the background yank the curtains shut again. "Edge of the Wilderness/Black cockerel White stick" recalls German cabaret music—if played by the ghosts of the patrons of some long forgotten Berlin dive. "Blood and Fat" almost breathes a sigh of relief, but then there's that title...Verhagen's ability to set and sustain an unsettling mood is nothing short of stunning, and it's rightly made him an in-demand soundtrack composer in his native Australia. No actual celluloid he scores, however, will be nearly as frightening as the one you create in your mind while The Witch Haven plays. Don't listen to Shinjuku Thief with the lights off. Michael Toland

For fans of: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Mortiis, the soundtrack to the game Fatal Frame 2

SINNERS AND SAINTS
The Sky is Falling
(Bridge Nine)
Led by former Blood For Blood guitarist Rob Lind and his bassist brother Mark, Boston's Sinners and Saints add pop hooks to a no-bullshit 4/4 approach to punky rock & roll on their debut album The Sky is Falling. The Linds and their various cohorts move from melodic power poppers like "Nothing At All," "Marquee Lights" and the title track to teeth-gritting rock burners like "No Tomorrow," "Dead So Soon" and "Like a Suicide" without sounding like a band with a split personality. The Linds write from the same perspective as Social Distortion's Mike Ness, as an older-but-wiser rebel who understands the value maturity can bring to defiance. They also marry some of the fattest hooks to the dourest sentiments: "Never Too Young to Die" puts cautionary lyrics like "I'm sorry honey but I can't take you away/I guess there's nothing more to say/I cannot save the day" to the kind of singalong melody usually found on top 40 radio. The siblings' vocals have just the right amount of grit, giving both the punk cuts and the pop numbers the right touch of tough-but-tender love. Despite the often-grim tone, the brothers end the record on an up note with "It's All Coming Down (Prophecy Unfulfilled)," a rocking reminder that no matter how bad you feel, you're not alone. Sinners and Saints should attract fans of both camps. Michael Toland [buy it]

For fans of: Social Distortion, the Hangmen, the Streetwalkin' Cheetahs

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