Church Chords - elvis, he was Schlager

Absolutely adore this album of jazz-disco-krautrock-pop-whatevism masterminded by Stephen Buono and seeming to involve a cast of thousands (Nels Cline, Jeff Parker etc. etc. etc.) - definitely one of my very top albums of 2024.

In general I'm trying to check myself before reaching for "it transcends the traditional bounds of genre!" style framings, and in this specific case that sort of description (which you'll see present and correct in pretty much any review) tends to belie how unitary and of-a-piece this music feels, even though in formal terms a fair amount of ground is being covered and there's a wealth of guest vocalists, guest musicians etc.

I'm flashing on Pram at their best, Tortoise, the first Shafiq Husayn album, maybe Dirty Projectors, but also, like, Trevor Jackson or DJ Harvey/Map of Africa or even I:Cube? "Disco not disco" I guess, but the kind of take on that concept that has traditionally struggled to be heard over the top of more reductive disco-punk or eighties-revivalist formulations.

I also love how sharp and snappy and urgent everything is - most of the tracks here are under five minutes and lock into a groove very quickly, although the further you get into the album the more the dystopian Bitches Brew vibes get pushed to the front. But it's just consistently excellent and hypnotising.

The guitar solo on “Warriors of Playtime”!

Mark Shippy from US Maple? AND Thalma de Freitas? And the guy who played on all Caetano's rock trilogy in the 00's and Elza Soares? what a combo

And Jeff Parker and John Herndon? Love this for the LA contingent of Tortoise. Thanks for the heads-up on this.

this album goes very hard but got to say that the band name is not indicative of what kind of sounds you’re gonna get. my mind kind of flashed to meshell ndegeocello’s album from last year, (mostly because of the diverse jazz palette and long list of collaborators, not really because of any real sonic similarities, besides jeff parker’s guitar), and the last couple albums by makaya mccraven

Oh yeah, the project name makes as little sense as the album title

Got to admit, my attention was caught by 'schlager' (this album is not schlager, I am however intrigued and semi-convinced by the assertion that Elvis was schlager). Thought initially this might be the sort of ilx musical crush that doesn't do it for me, but it's REALLY good. Thank you Tim for bringing it to my attention.