STACK #129 Jul 2016

MUSIC

RPM

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R EVOLUTIONS P ER M ONTH

Belters, Must-Hears, Assorted Musical Wonders and Other Curiosities

Tame Impala Currents

T hey say people never change/ but that’s bullshit,” sings Kevin Parker on Yes I’m Changing, a track on Tame Impala’s new album Currents. The sentiment likely doesn’t relate to music, but there’s little doubt Currents finds the now internationally renowned West Australian in a state of flux. When I first heard Tame Impala in 2008, they struck me as the result of hip parents leaving their Cream and Blind Faith albums lying around for their kids to discover – and that was no bad thing. While Lonerism and Innerspeaker stylishly and powerfully evolved the riffage, Currents puts us on notice that that incarnation of Tame Impala has soared over some distant horizon, possibly never to return. In its place is this eclectic psychedelic confection – a galactic space-pop album of sorts, not nearly as daffy as Empire of the Sun,

nor as cooly removed as Daft Punk. It’s a 13-track odyssey with plenty of fuzz, fun, funk and futurism at its core. Kevin Parker is Tame Impala, there’s no ‘band’ to speak of in any real way, barring the live arena. He’s written all the songs, played all the instruments, produced the entire album, and mixed all the tracks. He’d probably shrink-wrap the CDs and vinyl himself, if he could. The shimmering clap/skip of Let It Happen opens proceedings, with Parker singing a near falsetto over trippy keys before we disappear down a rabbit hole that sounds like a disc on pause with a Laurie Anderson outtake on top. Eventually starts with a scratch of plug-in feedback before thumping into a slow spacey groove; Gossip is 55 seconds of guitar/synth noodling that still sounds better than some artists’ finished tracks; while The Less I Know

the Better is another showcase for Parker’s serious vocal smarts, and a lazily infectious bassline. Past Life is a great headphone listen, with Parker’s slowed-down spoken narration a true album highlight. Parker’s embraced a multi-faceted future, and wholly. Only his most conservative fans would reject this adventurism: growing up is hard to do, in public all the more so, and it cruises more than it bruises, certainly. Still a trip to take, even if not the one you were expecting. Jonathan Alley

Nutshell Verdict Kevin Parker creates the new Tame Impala in a million different walls of sound. STACK Picks Past Life, Reality in Motion, Let It Happen (Universal Music)

Air The Virgin Suicides (15th Anniversary)

Led Zeppelin Coda

The problem with live recordings of acoustic shows is the annoying “whoops” and “yeahs” that inevitably greet the first few chords of each song – some idiots labour under the impression there’s a prize for beating everybody else in recognising a particular tune. This concert-goer is at the Ryan Adams Ten Songs Live at Carnegie Hall

To place Led Zeppelin’s posthumous studio finale in context, there were fans in 1982 who felt that Bonzo’s Montreaux stretched the guvnors’ credibility one drum solo too far. Jimmy Page’s reply? Bonzo’s Montreux (Mix Construction In Progress ), an extended, dry version of the late Mr. Bonham’s thunderous act of virtuosity that stands like an immortal middle finger in this last the previous 12 years, their most unloved album is an absolute monster by any other rock band’s measure. And the Deluxe Edition’s two bonus discs make a fair bid for covering all bases within and beyond their peerless catalogue, from a blister-raw mix of Walter’s Walk and a couple of fantastic Bombay Orchestra sessions, to the unheard heavy funk instrumental St Tristan’s Sword . Coda may be a footnote, but how many other bands can boast barrel-scrapings as jaw- dropping as these? ( Warner) Michael Dwyer hand of remastered Zeppelin goodness. Essentially a disc of outtakes spanning

fore at the beginning of this otherwise superb live solo acoustic album from Ryan Adams, an abridged version of a mighty six- disc limited edition earlier issued in the US. The good news is that once old favourites such as Oh My Sweet Carolina and New York, New York are out of the way, there are a smattering of songs from his self-titled 2014 album, plus two previously unreleased tracks – the lesser familiarity of which presumably shuts them up. Audience aside, how does Ten Songs from Live at Carnegie Hall stand up? This Is Where We Meet In My Mind i s a gently rolling ditty which owes more to English singer- songwriters like Nick Drake than his trademark Americana, while How Much Light is a breezy Neil Young-esque country strummer. “I made this record and didn’t release it because I thought the songs were kind of sappy,” he drolly explains. “Also because I wanted an excuse to smoke weed for an entire year and hang out in my studio.” Fair enough, but they both sound pretty damned good in this setting. As for the three songs from Ryan Adams, the Tom Petty-ish rockers Gimme Something Good and Kim certainly benefit from the stripped back acoustic treatment, while other highlights include lovely weary takes on Come Pick Me Up from his first solo set Heartbreaker, and Nobody Girl from Gold . However, as good as Ten Song s is, it does leave you wanting more – let’s hope a longer CD, vinyl or even DVD version materialises sometime in the future. ( Sony) John Ferguson

The story goes that Jean-Benoit Dunckel and Nicolas Godin attended the 1999 Cannes premiere of Sofia Coppola’s gala feature film debut in smug spirits, only to have their Gallic gasts flabbered by a quiet act of score butchery in the editing suite. Happily, both her film and their soundtrack have lived on as cult classics, although it’s hard to imagine either without the other. The spooky monologue Suicide Underground remains a jewel of atmospheric and brilliantly economical storytelling, its climactic dignity reinstated on this anniversary edition thanks to the entirely appropriate omission of Heart’s Crazy On You. The soporific trip haunts like Tubular Bells and grooves and pouts like Melodie Nelson , from the unsettling murmur of Playground Love to the disturbingly evocative trifecta of Ghost Song , Empty House and Dead Bodies . A couple of demos and a shuffled live performance from LA in 2000 might be gilding the lily, but they smell pretty sweet. (Warner) Michael Dwyer

JULY 2015 JB HI-FI www.jbhifi.com.au/music

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