BabyGenius Classics For Intelligence CD (Moz., Bach, Vivaldi)
Meg Baird - Dear Companion CD
Johnny Dyani/Mal Waldron - Some Jive Ass Boer CD
High Dependency Unit CD
Meneguar - Tone Banks 1 "Some Downs" CS
Locrian/Daleth split CS
Son of Earth - Pet LP

Got a sick stressed kid tonight so playing some calming music. The soccer-mom classical comp works every time ("Musical power to stimulate developing minds!") but the Meg Baird is even better. Shit, that's gonna have to go in my Top 10 of the year. It's getting contentious over there. The year needs to end so I can finalize that shit.......put on the Dyani/Waldron disc on a whim because li'l Claire was going through the CD binder and happened to pull it out. The capacity is 400 discs and it's almost full with random obscure burns of albums, mixes, whatever in there and I never play any of them. Remember when people burned CDRs? Maybe they still do, I don't know. This crazy downloads/external HD/iPod world I'm in gives me amnesia. Anyway, this album was kinda spiky and chirpy and did not have a calming effect. I'm always pretty intrigued by the South African jazz scene though, and Waldron is the American guest here, a post-Monk pianist I never listen to, but he's good, hinting at Cecil styles more than I realized..... High Dependency Unit is like the Shellac of New Zealand, another of my Kiwi co-worker's homeland favorites (he calls 'em "HDU"). I'd have to say they're one of the best post-Shellac bands I've heard, with a nice control of soft gentle harmonics floating over the top of the post-rock with some of the same appeal as say Jesu. Unfortunately I'm just not interested in any bands that sound post-Shellac, not even the ones who are good, not even Shellac (at least over the last few years -- I might be ready to revisit though, but really, when?)...... Meneguar cassette is the first time I've ever heard the band. I have heard the Woods CD At Rear House, which had an indie/Shrimper odd-pop tendency that I found a little off-putting, but it's growing on me. That sound is here too, but really only for the first minute or two -- the rest of these two (C40) side-longers is just stretched-out instrumental whatsis that gets pretty sublime, reminding me of a less jagged Sun City Girls circa the Planet Boomerang LP (!).... Locrian side of split cassette has been a favorite for awhile. Really just sounds like a sublime krautwise organ drone-song, which I didn't know they had in their vocabulary. I do want to hear a release of their brutal pointy-headstock tech-metal-drone crossover style as seen live and heard on MySpace. Daleth side is impressive and ambitious for a one-man band but I'm not so into its particular grand prog-metal instro-style, but it probably is better than hearing another one-man metal project in a run-of-the-mill black/beard style, so....comes in a nice embossed cassingle slipcase thing, good record. Son of Earth LP is a pretty fantastic Dead C style amp-drone album. Lots of subtle and quiet stuff. If it wasn't for the Blastitude.com writer's strike I would review this and the Meneguar over there....