and this does that

I review a lot of local music, but it rarely gets under my skin, rarely is "Oh! I wanna hear ___ right now" music. Generationals (listen) is an exception. I was humming something on the way back from walking my daughter to school and it hit me that it was their "Faces in the Dark," one of the best pop songs of 2009. Notice I didn't say best local pop songs.

Somewhere in the matrix of blog feeds I spied the words "Burnt Sugar" and since the internet doesn't talk about anything over a week old, that only led me to think "THERE IS A NEW BURNT SUGAR RECORD!" The full name is Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber and they are a jazz/soul/blues/noise/minimalism/and-sometimes-metal configuration led by Village Voice critic Greg Tate, utilizing Butch Morris' "conduction" style of group improvisation (a process I don't even pretend to understand) to boldly go places Funkadelic has never gone before. Making Love to the Dark Ages (listen) is all this, and all that. Review forthcoming.

I listened to a new song by the Field (available here) while waiting to get my hair cut (incidentally this is why I love an iPhone) and the experience sent me wanting more (listen). To do this kind of extra-minimal techno-pop business well, you have to cut it very lean while still leaving something to chew on, and this does that.