Stephen Malkmus - Traditional Techniques - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Following hot on the heels of 2018's Sparkle Hard comes Groove Denied, the rejected album Stephen has been telling everyone about. Groove Denied was written in Berlin and Oregon between Malkmus' soundtrack to the Netflix series Flaked and Sparkle Hard. It finds Stephen in a playful, exploratory mode - recorded by himself in Oregon; Malkmus plays bass, organ, drum machines, a Roland 2080 and a Memorymoog alongside other instruments interspersed with loops and vocal effects. His first album as a solo artist since 2001, Groove Denied is a fine companion to Sparkle Hard, echoing the experimentation (Auto-Tune, genre-dabbling) found there.

The present recording features music by the composers Edvard Grieg, born on June 15, 1843 in Bergen, Norway, where he died on on September 4, 1907, and George Enescu (born on August 19, 1881 in Liveni, Romania, died on May 4, 1955 in Paris). Despite all the contrasts in their origins and their biographical data, both composers have one thing in common their affinity with the music of their homeland. Acclaimed by the international music press as a Inchvirtuoso of astonishing brillianceInch and a Inchthoroughly poetic artistInch (Dr Joachim Kaiser, Süddeutsche Zeitung), Luiza Borac has established herself as one of the most charismatic artists of her generation.

2018 . The fact that Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks have thrived, rather than simply endured, over 17 years and delivered six albums of buzzy, sub-cultural significance, constitutes an impressive legacy. The challenge with album number seven is one that any successful band with integrity faces how to safeguard that legacy and hold on to their identity without rehashing old ground (unthinkable), and also say something meaningful while (crucially) having fun doing it? With Sparkle Hard, Malkmus, Mike Clark (keyboards), Joanna Bolme (bass) and Jake Morris (drums) do exactly that. It's light 'n' breezy, head-down heavy, audacious, melancholic and reflective, goodtime and bodacious, and it pulls off the smartest trick it's both unmistakably The Jicks and - due to the streamlining of their trademark tics and turns, plus the introduction of some unexpected flourishes (Auto-Tune! A fiddle! Guest vocalist Kim Gordon! One seven-minute song with an acoustic folk intro!) - The Jicks refashioned. If 2014's Wig Out At Jag Bags balanced the lengthy prog workouts of Pig Lib with Mirror Traffic's sparky pop moments, then Sparkle Hard bears less obvious direct relation to what's come before. It also has turbocharged energy and enthusiasm by the truckload.