STACK #179 Sept 2019

MUSIC

NEWS

IGGY POP I ggy Pop’s long creative ride – fromThe Stooges, to his Bowie-collabs, to some scattershot solo albums – has been both thrilling and maddeningly inconsistent, but he’s determinedly been himself. Inevitably, mortality will take even our Iggy, and these closing years see the original proto-punk pushing the bar higher with each new exploration. After the shattering blast of his Josh Homme collab Post Pop Depression and the flinty, reflective and uproarious storytelling on Underworld’s Teatime Dub Encounters , Free is not a howling rock’n’roll record. A collaboration with Texan jazz trumpeter Leron Thomas and guitarist Novellar, it’s a moody, intelligent, downbeat exploration of some dark electronic moods, sharpened by Thomas’s keening trumpet and Iggy’s irascible, puppy-dog mope of a voice. “I want to be free," he intones over the title opener’s aural sunrise. Sonali is a screed of complaint against the absurdities of modern life and relationships, his singing skittering over a jazz/drum and bass treatment; We are the People is a fascinating treatise on the generationally dysfunctional scatter-lings of Europe; and on Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night , the man who once sang I Want to Be Your Dog recites Dylan Thomas – you read that right. Engaging. Jonathan Alley TONES AND I T he monster brass-bash of the opening, title track fromTones and I’s debut EP The Kids Are Coming initially sounds as if she’s going to tell us Grease is the word, but as soon as this sagacious musician’s beats slap in it’s clear there are absolutely no throwbacks here. This electrifying song is less a call-to-arms than an assurance of imminent arrival; Toni Watson doesn’t need to marshal anyone, because this tribe is already organically united in their shared beliefs. Watson displays a Sia-like confidence in the way she hurls, tweaks and growls her lyrics of damnation at the socio-political status quo, but she’s also an accomplished storyteller of the micro: Jimmy is a companion

Free by Iggy Pop is out now via Caroline/ Universal.

BON IVER

T he fourth album from Justin Vernon-led project Bon Iver completes the seasonal cycle begun with 2007's For Emma, Forever Ago (winter), 2011's Bon Iver (spring), and 2016's 22, A Million (summer). Persistently memorable like the scrunch of delicate autumn leaves underfoot, i,i sees Vernon explore the individual versus the communal, while his voice remains a vibrating wire to the heart. Firefly violins dart through the pages of this watercolour flipbook, where gentle nests of static cradle vocal warps, banjo, and bright harmonies. Another homerun for one of music's most inventive visionaries. ZKR

piece to heart-shredding single Johnny Run Away , while the fabulous Dance Monkey and Never Seen The Rain have already burned to the zenith of the ARIA charts. The hype around Watson surpasses even that which circled Tash Sultana a few years ago, but it is – like that other seasoned busker quickly courted by Sony Music – totally warranted. ZKR

The Kids Are Coming by Tones and I is out now via Sony.

i,i by Bon Iver is out now via Jagjaguwar.

45