Berning Ladyhawke

Random: The first track off of this month's Paste Magazine's free sampler "Manipulating Woman" by Ladyhawke is a bit of an 80's throwback pop track right down to the gated reverb on the snare and the super heavy studio processing. It has even more compression than tunes from the 80's; the VU meters on the stereo hardly moved. I could not remember the melody 30 minutes afterward.

Selected: At the time I first heard Tim Berne's Sanctified Dreams on cassette in 1989, it sounded like random noise. After 20 years of regular jazz listening, it seems very structured and less adventurous. The chords have a number of very close intervals and the outside playing can easily fade to noise if one's attention wanders. Unlike much free music, the voicing is very bright and the tunes are pushed forward with a driving rhythm that stirs up the listener's energy. Two of the tracks slow the tempo with the rhythm section work underneath ambient vocal and sax parts that float above the fray and made the greatest impression on this particular session. I did not remember slow tunes with such expression from Tim Berne and this listening has altered my perception of his work.