ANDREW LIVINGSTON “News From the Oort Cloud” C38 (Gold Bolus)

A peek at the Gold Bolus roster will liszt the names of several dozen people who know composition and musicianship better than you do the abilities of your own dominant hand. Which is to say, as the French do, they are “the shit”.  Andrew Livingston, gun for hire, fits right in.

“News From the Oort Cloud” is a sprawling documentation of AL’s musical mastery (and creative mixing) across painstakingly-detailed classical supports that bolster his precision-obsessed pop-sensibilities. The damnedest thing here is that these songs are so rife with intricate phrases (and counterpoints!) that they seamlessly flow free of registering as “hooks”. It’s like experiencing the bliss of a brilliantly catchy tune, without the lingering post-partum echo following. I suspect it’s the spaciness in the rhythms, or the deliberately affected/unsingalongableness of the choral deliveries, or the genre-bendiness of it all.

If I had to pigeon-hole it, i’d call it “classical/folk/cabaret”, if that makes any sense.

Listen mid-volume, with good headphones, for the entirety of the record, for maximum effect.

https://andrewlivingston.bandcamp.com/album/news-from-the-oort-cloud
and/or
http://goldbolus.com/

-- Jacob An Kittenplan

DAVE RUDER "Qualms Rectified" C36 (Gold Bolus Recordings)

Dave Ruder’s audiobiographical “Qualms Rectified” release feels deep down like a sound pome, perhaps titled “37”; feels like an abstract homage to Sandra Cisneros’ gut-punching, prosy chapter, “Eleven”, which starts out;

“What they don’t understand about birthdays and what they never tell you is that when you’re eleven, you’re also ten, and nine, and eight, and seven, and six…”

I say this for a few reasons;

1) it affords me justification for reading the J-Card’s title and saying “QuALMS R-R-R-E-C-T-i-fied!” with a frenetic diction of the inner 15-year old me employing Beavis’s caffeinated alter-ego, the Great Cornholio, which leads me to;

2) some of the lyrical themes, nay, MOST of Dave Ruder’s words had me laughing-out-loud at first, and giggling childishly for the duration of the track. And there are several tracks like this, leaving me to feel like I am also six, and five, and four…

So, is this release just some sophomoric Nilsson-esque cataloging of irreverent fancies? Absolutely not! As stated before, “37”, not “17”,  because, when the focus isn’t on singing about self/socially-deprecatory themes, the accompanying instrumentation is a mature, wisened treasure trove of perfectly arranged horns, woodwinds, bowed strings & restrained guitar that no t-shirt-collar-stretching newcomer could likely pull off (much like Nilsson, again, when I think about it); and the interludes/vignettes add so much to the weight of the songs surrounding them that I cannot picture the album without them, despite DR’s notes on the creative process involved with churning this puppy out, asking in earnest self-doubt;

“Why can’t I just find a voice for 40 minutes of music?”

The answer is simple, Dave! The plethora of perspectives, moods, touch & go foci, & introspective themes in your tool kit all coalesce into one brilliant chorus of artistic gestalt, you silly, humble goose! Keep on blending & exploring! I’ll keep on keeping tabs on your output! Stay weird! Perhaps you are the next Great Horn-Cowl-io?

https://daveruder.bandcamp.com/album/qualms-rectified
http://daveruder.com/
and/or
http://goldbolus.com/

  --Jacob An Kittenplan