Nun Gun

 
I'd not heard of this Algiers side project until Heaven is an Incubator posted his favorite albums of the year list (read it HERE. Seriously. READ IT). If you've seen my last couple years of "best of" lists, you know Algiers' first two records claimed my top album spots in the years they were released, and then 2020's There Is No Year fell flat for me. Well, Nun Gun is a return to form - in a way, since, you know, it's not the entire band. Take all the weird shit from those first two albums and leave out the soul and you have Nun Gun's Mondo Decay. I LOVE this record, and this song... this song is the stand-out track on an album of all stand-out tracks. SO fucking catchy, in the oddest possible way. The vocals remind me of Rockwell, which, surprisingly, is just a great thing.

 

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Watch:

After re-watching the original, Bernard Rose Candyman the other night in preparation, K and I finally saw Nia DaCosta's Candyman.

Dubbed a 'spiritual sequel,' this Jordan Peele-produced entry in the Candyman mythos, this is one of the few examples of a sequel that makes the original better. The first Candyman (I've never seen two or three) focuses on a narrow width of a story that by the entire way it's handled you know is bigger. This sounds like it could be a flaw, but it's most definitely not. This unconventional approach is what I love about it. And now, three decades later, DaCosta's sequel then arrives to finally fill in all the background, and the way it does this is fantastic. The final image/dialogue is what really seals the deal, but the entire fill gloriously fulfills the original and its promise of one day telling us a much bigger story. 

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NCBD:

Let's see what's on tap for this penultimate NCBD for 2021:

Maw has had some of the gnarliest covers of the last few years. Here's to hoping I'm able to find this one.

The final issue of this Kang the Conqueror mini-series that will no doubt lead into the Timeless one-shot hitting shelves later this month. I'm fairly certain Marvel is positioning Kang to be the next Thanos-level big bad in the MCU, which is good news for those of us who adore the character. This series has been great, and while reading the previous issue, I was struck by just what a late 70s/early 80s/Bill Mantlo vibe this book has achieved. 

Loving this Moon Knight series, and what's more, it's getting me pretty pumped for the forthcoming Disney+ show featuring Oscar Issac as ol' Moony himself. 

I fell in love with this comic just as issue ten hit the stands, so this one is the first I've had to wait a full thirty for. 

Wasnt' easy.

Like a lot of this Hickman-era X-Men stuff, I've re-read several of these issues a few times now, which is something I haven't done since I was a kid, re-reading books the same month I acquire them. But there's enough going on here that multiple 'viewings' really open the stories up.

If issue twelve of That Texas Blood was the end of the "1981" storyline, this must be a coda before the book goes back on seasonal hiatus. Go on and get your rest Chris Condon and Jacob Phillips - you've earned it, and I'll be waiting right here when you get back. This one has really turned out to be the sleeper hit of the year.

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Playlist:

Godflesh - Post Self

Blut Aus Nord - Deus Salutis Meae

Kowloon Walled City - Piecework

Read Yellow - Radios Burn Faster

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Card:

I'm feeling with an increasingly chaotic state of mind of late, and I know what I have to do, yet still, I resist. I'm not sure why the idea of meditation puts me off so much at the moment, but The Empress here definitely suggests I need to adopt some more nurturing practices again. 

Zeal & Ardor

Holy smokes. Where have you been all my life? I get shades of Algiers here until the black metal influence rears its head and I'm in LOVE. Thanks to Jacob for sharing and then reminding me to actually listen to his link while I was off in submersion. Heading to Zeal & Ardor's bandcamp in a bit as they are bound to be a staple in 2017.

What You Can Find When You're Not Looking...

As good as I can be burrowing in and finding obscure music in the worlds of Rock, electro, Metal and Avant Garde, the two areas of music I dig that I have trouble finding a foot in the door with is the more obscure, rootsy Soul and Gospel music of mid-twentieth century America. I always get a twinge of jealousy when I hear something in a movie or find it mentioned in a book, find it and then realize that other than that particular piece or artist, I'm stumped. A lot of this is just a facet of inkling and time, as I'm sure if I really burrowed into a group like the Del Fonics - who I was formerly introduced to in Quentin Tarantino's film Jackie Brown - falling into the associated chains of wikipedia pages associated with them and their producers, etcetera, I'd probably come up with some more artists to sate my thirst for dusty old Soul. That hasn't happened though; I'm overly self conscious in these areas and I tend to require gatekeepers. Irvine Welsh's novel Skag Boys turned me onto the tradition of Northern Soul - which previously had simply been the name of my favorite album by The Verve - and newer artists like Jamie Lidell, Charles Bradley and Alabama Shakes make access to the genre's evolution easier than digging, but it's just not the same thing, finding a new artist or finding an obscure, older artist. And really, I'm not even addressing Gospel here, as so much of that isn't easily accessible. In the 60s and 70s almost anyone can and did press records - you see evidence of this in thrift stores all the time - but today? Well, today we have youtube, which I am seriously beginning to believe is the collective consciousness of the human race made accessible. 'Cuz everything is on it. Case in point, Pastor T. L. Barrett and the Youth for Christ Choir. Listen to this, it's awesome! But how did I find the music of a neighborhood Chicago Pastor and his Choir? How did I pull that from the din?

I found this via a gatekeeper: the cool, hazy sample that ends the Algiers record? It's from this. I love the way that sample ends the record; it has a cosmic, time-machine flavored influence that reminds me a lot of the looped sample that ends Zen Guerilla's cosmic masterpiece Positronic Raygun.

And then once I started researching off the Algiers sample I found that, of course, this is another case of the absolutely amazing Light in the Attic Records has put out some of this man's music.

Yes, that's Isaac freakin' Hayes w/ Barrett. ISAAC HAYES!!!

I need to remember that: Light in the Attic. Always check back in with them. Get on their mailing list (why didn't I do that right after the first Black Angels E.P.? Or after the Louvin Bros. Or the Donnie and Joe Emerson record?

(Pause while I actually go do that...)

Then it gets even weirder. Go to the short bio for Pastor Barrett on LITA's site, right here. Being from the South Side of Chicago I remember when these pyramid schemes were big news. Crazy how something like my favorite album of the year so far - that immaculate Algiers eponymous - can bring something from so long ago back around again.

Algiers - Black Enuch

Mr. Brown just sent me this video from Algiers's self-titled record that just came out today! They're on the mighty Matador and you can order the record on their website here. Or you can always go out and support the nearest brick-n-mortar record store in your area, if you have one. If you're anywhere near Long Beach like I am might I suggest the wonderful Fingerprints.