Playlist Week of 2015-07-25

* Takemitsu, Hindemith, et al.: Five Pieces (Duo Gazzana) (ECM CD)

* Luening/Ussachevsky, et al.: Early Modulations: Vintage Volts (Caipirinha CD)

* Miles Davis: The Bootleg Series Vol.4: At Newport 1955-1975 (d.3-4) (Columbia Legacy 4CD)

* John Coltrane: Live Trane: The European Tours (d.1-3) (Pablo 8CD)

* Jeanne Lee & Ran Blake: The Legendary Duets (RCA/Bluebird CD)

* Weather Report: Sweetnighter (Columbia LP)

* Ray Anderson: Harrisburg Half Life (Moers LP)

* David Schnitter: Thundering (Muse LP)

* Wayne Johnson Trio: Grasshopper (ITI LP)

* John Scofield: Electric Outlet (Gramavision LP)

* Recoil: Pardon My Fantasy (Pausa LP)

* Dino Saluzzi: Vanidad de los Andes (ECM CD)

* Rich Corpolongo/Doug Lofstrom/Paul Wertico: Spontaneous Composition (Spoco LP)

* Josh Sinton, Dominic Lash, Ingrid Laubrock, et al.: Signal Gain (OutNow CD)

* V/A: Native North America Vol.1: Aboriginal Folk, Rock & Country 1966-1985 (Light in the Attic 3LP)

* Bola Sete: Ocean: Solo Guitar Vol.1 (Takoma LP)

* Jerry Garcia Band: Garcia Live Vol.2: Greek Theatre, 8/5/90 (ATO 2HDCD)

* Comus: First Utterance (Dawn/Get Back LP+EP)

* Amazing Blondel: Fantasia Lindum (Island LP)

* Deep Purple: Made In Japan (Warner Bros. 2LP)

* Kevin Ayers: Yes, We Have No Mananas (ABC LP)

* Gentle Giant: Civilian (Columbia LP)

* Curved Air: Airconditioning (Warner Bros. LP)

* Curved Air: Phantasmagoria (Warner Bros. LP)

* Nektar: Remember The Future (Passport LP)

* Kayak: See See The Sun (Harvest LP)

* Kayak: Royal Bed Bouncer (Janus LP)

* Michael Hoenig: Departure From The Northern Wasteland (Warner Bros. LP)

* Heldon: Stand By (Cuneiform CD)

* David Sylvian: Secrets of the Beehive (Virgin LP)

* BORIS: Noise (Sargent House 2LP)

* Agalloch: The Serpent & The Sphere (Profound Lore CD)

* Grails: The Burden of Hope (Neurot/PSM LP)

* Grails: Redlight (Neurot/PSM LP)

* Locrian: Return To Anihilation (Relapse 2-45RPM LP)

* Locrian: Infinite Dissolution (Relapse LP)

* Pelican: Forever Becoming (Southern Lord 2-45RPM LP)

* Pallbearer: 2010 Demo (Twenty Buck Spin 12”)

* Wild Nothing: Nocturne (Captured Tracks CD)

* Padang Food Tigers: Running My Habits Clean (Bathetic CS)

†=iPod/iTunes

‡=car

Commentary:

At the end of Electric Eden (Faber, 2010), the magisterial survey of the UK psych/folk scene of the 1960s and ‘70s, author Rob Young gamely attempts to trace the thread of folk music influences through the post-hippie decades, finding traces of Albion in such unlikely places as Aphex Twin and Radiohead. Of course, “folktronica” is something of a worldwide phenomenon—but the distinctly British “visionary music” Young describes in his book continues to be produced to this day, if obscured by the whims of fashion and commerce.

Padang Food Tigers is one such group that fits the paradigm. The London-based duo of Spencer Grady and Stephen Lewis combine their guitars, banjos, harmonicas and other acoustic instruments with evocative field recordings and other bits of audio ephemera to create bucolic pastorals, hallucinatory visions of a lost Eden. But they are no throwbacks; eschewing vocals as well as other idiomatic displays of “authenticity,” Padang Food Tigers conjure up thoroughly modern soundscapes.

The latest Padang Food Tigers EP, Running My Habits Clean, was released in 2014 as part of the cassette-only “Dynasty At Ghost Town” series on Bathetic Records and neatly captures what they are all about. “Calyx Malpractice Suit” features some wistful trumpet over ringing banjos while “Nurturing Of A Definite Hush” lives up to its title: gentle strumming and percussive scrapes bathed in a dusky atmosphere of found sounds and thick, delicious reverb. “Salacious Bee Amputee,” a lo-fi snippet of laconic banjo and murmuring children, serves as a prelude to the title track, a subtly nuanced tour de force. With its countrified double-stops and string bends layered over hazily modulating harmonies, “Running My Habits Clean” seems to summon up a mythical, rural past amidst our technological, urbanized present.

Or maybe I am just so enamored of Young’s book (which I read just recently) that I can’t help but hear this music through that lens. And perhaps Padang Food Tigers would be offended by my casting them with the dreaded “folkies.” But I mean it as a compliment. The more I listen to Running My Habits Clean, the more I want to track down the rest of their discography. Highly recommended!