Perfect Sound Forever- April 2022 issue now out

[Jason Gross]

Greetings,

In the latest issue of Perfect Sound Forever <http://www.furious.com/index0422.html>, you'll find (among other things):


JOHN ARAM
Blending 16th century Tudor, electronic, jazz, by Chris Wheatley
"Aram's latest project is a fascinating re-working of "Flow My Tears," a popular English song which dates back to the 16th century. He was born in Nottingham, studied at London's Royal Academy of Music and has since worked extensively with numerous orchestras, composing for television and radio amongst other outlets. In the jazz world, Aram is equally well-respected, having worked with a selection of fine players."

BLACK GOSPEL
Blind Boys of Alabama, Andrae Crouch define a style, by Bob Gersztyn
"The roots of Black Gospel music goes back to the pre-antebellum period that existed in the South, especially Georgia in the mid 1700's. Robert Darden's "People Get Ready! A New History of Black Gospel Music explains how the African slaves who were cut off from their religious traditions and sources of mythology adopted new ones."

patrick brennan
Interview- saxist/composer ponders musical structure, by Daniel Barbiero
"'Ways & Sounds,' a new book from alto saxophonist, composer and improviser patrick brennan (who prefers to spell his name with lower case letters) is a thought-provoking extended essay on the structures, of both musical forms and of the human relations that go into the forging of musical forms, underlying musical practice."


THE CARPENTERS
Questions to ponder about their GOLD album, by Kurt Wildermuth
"Never did I think I'd write about the Carpenters. Seldom did I consider listening to them. Hardly did I care about them. Now here I am, a convert, a neophyte, about to honor this bygone sister-and-brother act."

DISSIDENTEN
Interview- from krautrock to Turkish fusion, by Jay Dobis
"In 1979 in the jazz festival in Calcutta, three members of Embryo decided to stay in India to make music and avoid the new wave thing that was going on in Europe, and I stayed in India for four years. We traveled from that festival in Calcutta to Bombay -- a very slow train that took three days or so."

ROKY ERICKSON
Punk label revived a troubled rock legend, by Bill Kopp
"Based on nearly 100 interviews with the artists, industry execs, producers, friends, rivals, onlookers, journalists and hangers-on, 'Disturbing the Peace: 415 Records and the Rise of New Wave' is published by HoZac Books. This is an excerpt from a chapter about how the label helped revive Roky Erickson's career at the beginning of the '80's."

HELMET
Interview with co-founder Peter Mengede, by Peter Crigler
"Without a doubt, Helmet were one of the most dynamic and powerful bands to come roaring out of the entire '90's. Brutally heavy and uncompromising, Page Hamilton, John Stanier, Henry Bogdan and Pete Mengede tore up expectations about what was believed to be suitable for major label rock bands. One of the best examples of the post-Nirvana signing frenzy, the band made good with 1992's Meantime, one of the defining records of the decade."

HAILU MERGIA
Ethiopian keyboard legend rediscovered, by Kevin Chesser
"At first listen, 'Tezeta' is almost numbingly smooth. It's little surprise these tunes have the aura of background music, given they were recorded in between marathon midnight-to-dawn sets at the Hilton. But whatever aspects of the music that might cause the listener to drift in and out of focus - hovering around a single chord, staying in the pocket, always in near orbit with the melody - are the same things that hypnotize and transport."

MORPHINE
Dana Colley interview & RIP Billy Conway, by Peter Crigler
"Bass, sax and drums; that's all you needed to stand out as a rock band in the '90's. Boston's Morphine were one of the most dynamic and amazing groups borne out of the era. The late, great frontman Mark Sandman used only two strings on his bass and had one of the huskiest voices ever heard on record. The band never really broke through to the mainstream but that's just fine; we were always able to keep them underground so they could be ours, not everyone else's."

THE NEIGHBOURHOOD
Half a billion views in B&W, by Brian McNash
"The band has centered a lot of their image and music around this monochromatic aesthetic. Their lead singer suffers from achromatopsia, which is a partial or total loss of the ability to see color. The band's first two studio albums- were very different. One showcased where the group began as young adults barely out of high school (<I>I Love You</I>) and the other tackled them navigating their early to mid-20's, dealing with internal strife, and fame in general"

NEW ROSE
Fiction- punk singles & party girls, by Jim Rader
"I drank the rest of the port and got pretty fucked-up. Morris put on The Stooges' first album. That went okay till eleven-minute drone song "We Will Fall" started. "Take that off, please, take that f-ing song off!" Belinda adamantly ordered. "What do you mean, that's the best song on the album," I said with a straight face, Belinda either not getting or ignoring my irony. "That was my friend's favorite Stooges song," she said somberly. "The one who OD'ed.""

SAM RIVERS
Book excerpt- jazz loft legend chronicled, by Sam Rivers
"The concert was like blissful time-travel. Instant and sustained rapport, with Dave Holland's powerful world-class bass divinations and the pattering complimentary sticking of Barry Altschul creating a flowing stream of spontaneous creation, Rivers floating into and out of eddies and whorls, then suddenly the trio would burst full-flight into the air and drive an abstract swing-beat skyward until it nearly exploded, reaching the clouds then and settling in gently to search for sounds and speech in a shuffle of convergences and beauty."

LINDA THOMPSON
Interview- British folk's songbird, interview by by John Wisniewski
""British folk music" not English folk music, is what we're talking about here, as eminent singer Linda Thompson (who was a vital part of the scene) puts it. Starting out in the ad world in the '60s, she became immersed in folk and entered the orbit of Fairport Convention, collaborating with them and then becoming musically (and romantically) involved with Richard Thompson, putting out some of the finest folk-rock albums of the 70's together. Though her career has spanned decades after that, with some information about an upcoming album, here she talks mostly about her '60's and '70's recording career."

SXSW 2022
Band report & back to abnormal, with photos, videos and playlist, by Jason Gross
"For the first time this decade, SXSW happened again, which is no mean feat considering that back in 2020, it was cancelled with one week to go and it was all-virtual in 2021 thanks to COVID. It was a relief of course to see not just that the festival happened but Austin itself happening again. Of course, saying that everything is "back to normal" is a dodge since COVID is still killing and sickening thousands of people each day."

A TRUE-LIFE ADVENTURE OF MUSIC WRITING ETHICS
This is not a PSF article, by Kurt Wildermuth
"This issue isn't strictly about one obscure artist's particular belief system. I'd feel the same way if I discovered an artist held some other belief that people might want advance knowledge about. In some cases, such as if an artist turned out to be racist or inexcusably exploitative, I wouldn't write about the person at all. Right here."

VINYL ANACHRONIST
Technics on My Mind, by Marc Phillips
"In the last few weeks, I've quietly made that decision that I've been talking about for the last few years. That's right, I'm buying a new turntable, that proverbial last one I will ever have. It's probably not the one you think. In this column, I've talked about many, many candidates."


We also have a Spotify playlist with most of the artists above here:
<https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3vxHSfLBIeLaE9cLtG6N1a?si=30ed1205b0f74131>

We're always looking for good writers and/or ideas so let us know if you have anything to share.

See you online,
Jason