John Wiese, Dramatic Accessories (side A)

John Wiese has made countless albums, both solo and in collaborations, for over a decade, but 2008's Dramatic Accessories is the only one which I'm familiar with.  On it, Wiese uses a fairly narrow compositional palette of noise and scraping sounds.  The closest comparison to his sound selections would be Hugh Davies, as they appear to be acoustic sounds that are more amplified than processed.  Where Davies performs these scrapes in rapid succession to create dense layering, Wiese relies here on a sparser approach.  He also, in at least one place clearly manipulates panning, in a way that would be hard to achieve acoustically — as this panned sound repeats, I assume some looping or copying was also exploited.  Wiese's compositions feel more free than purposeful, with little evidence of internal logic or differentiation between tracks.  He does create wide dynamic variation, as quiet scrapes alternate with loud ones in a somewhat purposeful fashion.  The fidelity of Dramatic Accessories is thick and midrange-y, and it's hard to tell if this is purposeful, or where in the chain the limitation was introduced.  It's pressed on a slightly odd slab of vinyl, with edges that have corners at the top and bottom, instead of a more triangular peak in the center.  Dramatic Accessories is beautifully and memorably packaged in a thick piece of folded paper that seems to be screened, in multiple colors, on the outside, and printed on a glossy texture on the inside.

Jar Moff, Commercial Mouth (side A)

Jar Moff squeezes a lot of ideas into 2013's Commercial Mouth.  The album contains two side-long tracks, with the B-side being the title track and the A-side having an unpronounceable title.  Each track evolves continuously without reference back to any previous point.  New sounds are constantly introduced, and they're often different from what has come before.  Some sounds have pitch and shape, where others have more noise-oriented timbres.  While it's not clear that an analog source was used, references to analog synthesis appear alongside textures of overtly digital origin.  In addition to the digitally-constructed noises, some of the resonant timbres do not resemble a conventional analog filter.  While the pieces flow organically, there does not seem to be any overarching logic to Jar Moff's compositional strategies.  The pieces generally maintain a constant dynamic level, with brief, temporary changes as sounds enter and exit the field.  The record is heavily compressed to achieve a very loud pressing volume, which might further reduce dynamics that were originally included.  The frequency distribution skews heavily into the presence frequencies, which might also contribute to the volume of the vinyl pressing.  Bass sounds do occasionally appear, and they sometimes provide brief moments of pulse in a field that usually lacks any sense of time of rhythm.  The impressive packaging provides more structure than the musical contents.  A geometric pattern and artist / title information is screened on the plastic sleeve, to appear in front of another geometric pattern on the outside jacket.  Since each pattern is a single color, it gives a simpler and more coherent presentation than the constantly-evolving palette of Jar Moff's music.

Creedence Clearwater Revival, Green River (side A)

While CCR had an incredibly consistent run for several years, 1969's Green River is my favorite Creedence album.  It stands out with its songwriting, with obvious classics like "Bad Moon Rising" along with slightly less-famous ones like "Wrote a Song for Everyone".  My only complaint might be the sequence, with the two weakest songs at the end ("Sinister Purpose" is especially undifferentiated).  And of course, the iconic cover image and design still look great.  What stood out to me on this listen was the sound of the album, and especially the rhythm section.  To make room for the bright and present vocals and guitars, the drums are particularly buried.  The snare lacks attack, in a way that could be described as friendly, and the cymbals wash out in the background.  The bass is incredibly clean and obviously direct — there's enough detail on top to hear the articulation, but the lack of overtones or any sort of distortion is noticeable.  It's not a classic bass sound, but it fits perfectly in the mix, and it leaves a lot of room for the guitars.  While the presence frequencies are full of guitars and vocals, the master drops off in the higher treble frequencies, at least on my copy (an original enough pressing to have been on Fantasy).  By 1969, it was definitely possible to capture at least more high treble than is heard here.

Mission of Burma, The Horrible Truth About Burma (side A)

While Mission of Burma today are seen as heroes of the American post-punk underground, that status is not at all audible when listening to The Horrible Truth About Burma.  This 1985 album captures live performances from their final 1983 farewell tour, and it sounds like a document of a working band on the road in small clubs.  The sound quality is rough and midrange-heavy, and no effort was made to add polish — talking and modest applause between songs is included without editing.  It's also amazing to picture the band touring with an extra analog tape deck to document their efforts — these recordings predate any digital technology, and there was obviously no budget for an extra truck.  The performances are preserved with imperfections, but the amazing energy of Peter Prescott and Roger Miller at their best was obviously unmatchable.  Apart from the inclusion of "Peking Spring", which predates even Signals, Calls, and Marches, the songs mostly emphasize the group's more drone-y songs, without the foreground melodies of songs like "That's When I Reach for My Revolver" or "Academy Fight Song".  Martin Swope's tape manipulations behind the soundboard grow more perceptible here than they often feel on the studio albums.  I was disappointed to learn that various reissues have sought to diminish much of the album's authentic magic — in addition to beginning with an added "Revolver" and attempting a "modern" mastering job, one version of the album even edited out applause and conversation between songs!

Bob Dylan, Blonde on Blonde (side C)

1966's Blonde on Blonde is obviously a canonical record that is hard to write about.  What surprised me here is how far it feels from Dylan's folk roots.  The songs still hint at Dylan's troubador background.  While Highway 61 Revisited is fully electric and arranged, the song structures retain hints of feeling found, as much as created.  The historical referents, and the feeling of timelessness, have been largely abandoned by Blonde on Blonde.  Songwriting, arrangement, and recording quality here all borrow more from then-contemporary rock music than from any traditional folk influences.  Sonically, Blonde on Blonde nearly matches the bright, present quality of a Beatles album.  While the incredibly loose, unrehearsed performances do not match the polish of hits in 1966, it feels more like a rehearsal for a rock album than an impromptu folk session.  And songs like "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again" borrow their structure and melodic feel from blues-based rock more than Dylan's folk background.  Even the cover image, which wraps around the gatefold and lacks any other design elements, abandons the white frame that brought an older feel to Dylan's previous albums.  As Dylan began to move back toward idiomatic folk elements after Blonde on Blonde, I find it easy to forget just how much the double-album fits into the rock of its day.

Hi Sheriffs of Blue, untitled singles compilation (12" EP)

The Hi Sheriffs of Blue released two 7"s, in 1980 and then 1981, before collecting the four songs on to this 12" EP, which is packaged in a plain black disco-sleeve.  Only a year later, in 1982, the group, with an expanded line-up, recorded a more polished four-song EP.  That EP featured more careful musicianship and a sonically clearer technical quality.  The original singles document the group in its simpler and more primitive state.  Mark Dagley's involvement with the Girls traces a more direct line here, with similarly atonal and narrative vocals.  In addition to Dagley's past band, these songs draw from both their no-wave counterparts and blues-based rock.  The style foreshadows the way '90s bands from the Blues Explosion to Royal Trux loosely and creatively drew from blues-based influences in a more abstract and primitive setting.  Hi Sheriffs of Blue did not assume an ironic posture, but took a more literal path to chaos that feels closer to their peers in New York at the time.  The A-side songs, from the first single, are more driving rockers, while the two parts of "Cold Chills", from the 1981 single, employ starker arrangements.

Seefeel, Fracture / Tied (10" EP)

On 1994's Fracture / Tied, Mark Clifford moved simple drum loops to the foreground of Seefeel's sound.  Each track, which occupies an entire side of the 10" EP, is structured with a simple drum machine loop that repeats from beginning to end.  The drum loops sounded incredibly sterile by the standards of 1994, to give a sense of modernity, but by the extreme standards of digital sounds only a few years later, they sound smeary, with evidence of classic analog circuits in the signal path.  The loops provide propulsion and rhythm, with a lack of meter that situates them far from any possible dance music reference.  Underneath the foreground rhythms, washy atmospheric sounds play in the background.  Everything has a lot of reverb, so the only recognizable source is a female voice on "Fracture".  It's hard to tell how much these parts were performed or programmed to create the subtle textural evolution that lays under the electronic loops.  The simple orange cover, on nice textured paper, foreshadows the austere design style that artists like Alva Noto brought to prominence in album covers, only a few years later.