Station Record Reviews: November part 1

This covers everything I did for the first week of November.

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1) Arrington de Dionyso - Mani Malaikat

Ever since the first time I heard Old Time Relijun, I knew I would always love the music of frontman Arrington de Dionyso. Even lately, when he's been incorporating reed instruments and throat singing into his music, the utter eccentricity of it keeps me absolutely riveted. His latest album might be among his best. Malaikat dan Singa is sung entirely in Indonesian, and de Dionyso plays every instrument himself. The resulting album is a bizarre fusion of the angular, primitive rock of Old Time Relijun with his later weird tendencies; it's probably the best summation of his works in general (but not his best album).

2) Jimi Tenor/Tony Allen - Darker Side of Night

Strut Record's Inspiration Information series brings together two artists who have never collaborated before to create a one-off album. This is volume four of it, and a classic. Tony Allen is one of the founding members of Fela Kuti's Africa 70 band, and one of the best drummers I've ever heard. Jimi Tenor is a Finnish multi-instrumentalist who has put out records with a range of sounds, from industrial, to lounge, to afro-beat (with his group Kabu Kabu). On this disc, members of both of their bands collaborate to do a slight twist on the afro-beat genre; the main difference being that Jimi Tenor sometimes uses his electronics to create some odd sounds within the mix.

3) Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson - The Sound

MBAR represents everything that's wrong with singer/songwriters in general. The lyrics are overtly direct in a way that's incredibly banal. So banal, in fact, that it just emphasizes the perfectly bored "tragedies" that happened in his life. Oooooh, he got drunk alot and had some relationship problems. So did Dylan (whom this asshole is often claimed to be the next version of), but instead of straightforwardly describing his angst, he'd at least have a variety of images, use some metaphors, and in general sing in a way that didn't sound like he had some sort of constipation. MBAR's latest album, Summer of Fear, is fucking terrible, and probably the worst thing I've had to review for the radio station.