WIGGLY AIR – Kurt Gottschalk’s monthly music notes

Résistance and futility. Ultravox! is remembered, and rightly so, as a progenitor of synthpop, but what gets missed out in that compact musicological truism is their remarkable 1977 debut. The band’s early incarnation—with singer and principal songwriter John Foxx and with the exclamation point in the name—was a remarkable amalgam of glam and bits of Brit blues revivalism with punk energy and Krautrock post-humanism. Using the money from that self-titled album, the band bought a synthesizer and a drum machine and set a course for greater success. Some 45 years later, a fellow named Moses Brown seems to be picking up on their abandoned promise. Brown played in punk in Texas before relocating to Brooklyn and rebranding himself as Peace De Résistance. He released Hedgemakers, a rather raw cassette in an edition of 100, on Glue Records in 2020 and has followed up on that now with the full-length Bits and Pieces. The album came out April 13 (vinyl and download) on his own Peace de Records and a glorious thing it is. Brown plays all the instruments and sings with a dry resignation to the modern world, managing to build a full band sound and a healthy discontent. Where Foxx wanted to be a machine, Peace De Résistance lives in a world full of them: The police use robot dogs, television sets and cash machine record conversations and thoughts are data mined while laborers wear the corporate logos of bosses who don’t pay them enough to survive. Retaining bits of glam and punk, Bits and Pieces puts riffs and beats to a dystopian present.

This machine kills fascia. I’m willing to admit in all my American public school ignorance that I thought the name of the new album by Kurws was a reference to fascism, maybe just the word in their native Polish. I had only recently discovered them, through a benefit comp for Ukrainian relief, so an anti-Putin slant seemed natural. Turns out I just wasn’t paying attention in biology class. The title’s in English, and refers to the tissue that connects muscles and skin, suggesting something about how they’re able to achieve the remarkable unity of motion that they display on their fourth album. Powięź / Fascia, properly, in Polish and English, was jointly released April 29 by Gustaff Records, Red Wig, Dur et Deux and Korobushka and brings to mind Baltimore’s Horse Lords and Kyoto’s Kukangendia, suggesting a movement I’m hoping we might call stammercore: long, mostly instrumental tunes, with punk energy and clean, organic glitches. Kurws has leaned a bit jazzier in the past, with reed and keys in the configuration, but on the new album they’re a lean power trio with enough restraint to avoid prog wonkery, crafting anthems for the finest bunker discotheque.

Retro soul, Chicago style. “I’ve been here since 1963” sings a small chorus of voices, including the great jazz singer Dee Alexander, on the opening track of the Chicago Soul Jazz Collective’s new On the Way to be Free (out May 13 on JMarq Records). The tune sets a clear tone: They aren’t playing kids’ games. “Mama, Are We There Yet?” has the sing-along melody and interlaced backing of mid-70s Funkadelic. The rest of the album goes for a jazzier throwback, like some lost CTI Records sides or Earth, Wind & Fire deep cut ballads. Such comparisons might be a bit of high praise for the compositions, but Alexander makes good songs great again and again across the nine tracks. The groove got me scrambling the digital stacks for Chicago-based Soul Message Band’s People (via Know You Know Records) from February for their take on the Barbra Streisand song that gave the album its title, as delivered by guest vocalist Hinda Hoffman. Both bands are driven by strong organs and keyboards (Amr Fahmy for the Collective and the Band’s Chris Foreman). Add to the mix “Somebody Save Me” by the Staples Jr. Singers (the relation to Pops Staples and his musical family is purely spiritual)—one of the two advance singles from the new Luaka Bop reissue of their sole album, 1975’s When Do We Get Paid—and you’ve got a solid start on an old-school summer mixtape.

Gospel and the rock of ages. Many paths converged with Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley and the rock revolution, and many of them, it should never be forgotten, trace back to the African diaspora in America. The documentary How They Got Over: Gospel Quartets and the Road to Rock & Roll traces one such path. Directed by Robert Clem (whose 2020 Alabama Black Belt Blues followed the progression of slave songs into popular music), the film maps the rise of gospel singing groups in the south as they became touring acts, added amplified instruments, and eventually saw such breakout stars as Sam Cooke and Aretha Franklin. The 90-minute feature includes contemporary interviews and plenty of performance footage (including the Blind Boys of Alabama , the Dixie Hummingbirds, Mighty Clouds of Joy, the Soul Stirrers and Sister Rosetta Tharpe) and moves at just the right pace to enjoy the music without losing the thread of the story. The film opened in theaters last October and moved to DVD and streaming platforms on May 3. It’s an important part of American history and an enjoyable watch, even for those who think they know it all.