STACK #241 November 2024

FEATURE MUSIC THIS MONTH?

CHARLES MINGUS Reincarnations CANDID BILLY’S PICK

PRIMAL SCREAM Come Ahead UNIVERSAL

SOUL ASYLUM Slowly But Shirley BLUE ELAN/ROCKET

The Great Scots are back! Primal Scream, who formed in 1982, remain as stylistically diverse as ever on their first album in eight

Soul Asylum’s success was a Runaway Train back in the ’90s. They were all over the radio, and singer Dave Pirner was also in the social pages, dating

Charles Mingus (1922-1979) has been acknowledged alongside Duke Ellington as one of the greatest jazz musicians/compos ers in history. Mingus, who played an upright bass and piano, was a prolific recording artist for three decades; in the ’50s alone he released more than 30 albums. Heavily influenced by Ellington and Charlie Parker – who he performed with for a short time – Mingus fronted small and middle-sized bands that can be heard on this newly released compilation that includes three of his own compositions and his arrangements of the jazz standards Body and Soul and Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams . While a controversial figure whose blunt and sometimes demanding methods caused friction among his sidemen, many of jazz music’s most innovative musicians cited Mingus as a mentor. This compilation will undoubtedly be one of the most signifi cant jazz releases of 2024.

years, thrillingly fusing dance, rock, and soul. Singer Bobby Gillespie explains that the title is a Glaswegian term. “If someone threatens to fight you, you say, ‘Come ahead!’” THE SMASHING PUMPKINS Aghori Mihori Mei ROCKET

Winona Ryder. Their 13th album shows no stylistic reinvention – and that’s a beautiful thing. Soul Asylum still sound like a great bar band. MARILYN MANSON One Assassination Under God - Chapter 1 Nuclear Blast

Who knows what the title means, but The Smashing Pumpkins’ 13th album is a return to the band’s classic guitar rock sound. “It very

Thirty years after the release of their debut album, Portrait of an American Family , shock rock band Marilyn Manson returns with the long-awaited twelfth

much sounds like the Siamese Dream / Mellon Collie version of the band,” Billy Corgan says. “The old-school fans will be happy, for once.”

album, One Assassination Under God - Chapter 1 . Preceded by three powerful singles, this album

marks a return to earlier sounds while simultaneously exploring new directions.

Radio legend Billy Pinnell presents Billy Pinnell’s Musical Moments on YouTube.

AUSSIE RELEASES

THE FERGUSON ROGERS PROCESS Substance and or Style ROCKET You gotta hand it to Tim Rogers. He’s one of our most versatile rock stars, capable of seamlessly swinging from the hard rock of the Hard-Ons to the smooth grooves of The Ferguson Rogers Process, his collaboration with The Bamboos’ Lance Ferguson. This album has both substance and style, recalling the quixotic danceability of Talking Heads. “I hope it ends up soundtracking some wild times,” Ferguson says. While Rogers adds, “These ten songs are primarily for dancing, which is my second-favourite life activity.”

GURRUMUL Banbirrngu – The Orchestral Sessions SKINNYFISH/ UNIVERSAL Gurrumul’s debut album placed at number 30 in The 100 Best Australian Albums , with the authors stating: “Suffice to say that of all the artists listed and discussed in this book, Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu has the finest voice. When you hear it you just know.” Seven years after his passing, five songs from that album pop up on this collection, which celebrates Gurrumul’s work, backed by the Prague Metropolitan Orchestra, with arrangements by Australian composer Erkki Veltheim.

JOHN BUTLER Still Searching JARRAH/ MGM

PEGGY FREW Dial-Up REMOTE CONTROL/ INERTIA Peggy Frew came to prominence in Melbourne band Art of Fighting, who won an ARIA for ‘Best Adult Alternative Album’ and are celebrating their 30th anniversary next year. Frew then found fame as an acclaimed author (her fourth novel, Wildflowers , was published in 2022). Now comes her first solo album. “I started writing these songs at the beginning of last year instead of working on a novel,” Frew explains. “It filled that hole in my life, I guess. I imagined the characters for the songs and told their stories. But they’re also deeply personal.”

John Butler goes back to where it all began on his new solo album. Way back in 1996, Butler’s first album was called Searching for Heritage , a collection of guitar instrumentals on cassette, which he sold for $10 as he busked on the streets on Fremantle. It was a big success – the 3500 sales enabled Butler to fund his first CD release. Twenty-eight years later, Butler says he decided to “shut the f-ck up and just play guitar”. Recorded at KT Tunstall’s studios in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the result is another superb guitar instrumental record.

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