I Am Cold cover

I Am Cold

Released

With actual Don Cherry along for the ride, this is the band’s most open-ended and appealingly shambolic album. No idea if this would please them but this album loops nicely as a kind of oil paint background, all good vibes and messy, chanty improvisation. The music is indeterminate but benevolent, a sort of detente between a Belgian bar band and the dayroom of an outpatient clinic. A very important link in the chain of bands (including the Velvets and Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Black Dice) that want to improvise around one or two chords. There are almost no straight backbeats–it’s all a bit more like drunken Bow Wow Wow on the backline. Neneh Cherry sings words, sometimes. Mark Springer’s classical chops on piano come through in really delightful ways, perfectly out of place.

Sasha Frere-Jones

Suggestions
Comet Meta cover

Comet Meta

David Grubbs, Taku Unami
Risp LP cover

Risp LP

Richard Devine
Face Time cover

Face Time

James Rushford, Oren Ambarchi, Kassel Jaeger
Pathways to Unknown Worlds cover

Pathways to Unknown Worlds

Sun Ra & His Astro-Infinity Arkestra
Crocodiles cover

Crocodiles

Echo & the Bunnymen
Hands cover

Hands

Hinosch