2021 is here. More importantly, Jan. 20 has come and gone. Deep breath, time to move on and move forward. Here is some of the first new local music I've listened to so far in this new era.
Elements is a new EP collaboration by Madisonians FlowPoetry and Jeff Clarke. FlowPoetry is the performing name of poet Adam Gregory Pergament, and Clarke is a songwriter, bassist and singer for psychedelically oriented blues-rock quartet Sweet Delta Dawn. While Elements represents a first-time recording collaboration, the duo has worked together in the past as organizers of the Hippy Hideout series of monthly shows at the much-missed Frequency nightclub off the Capitol Square.
For Elements, Clarke created a musical base, which was built on by FlowPoetry writing lyrics and adding the vocal tracks. Then it was back to Clarke to add loops, mixing and everything else to arrive at the final structure of what emerged as a thematic suite. While the EP title could be appropriate to describe this creative process, it actually refers to the subject of the duo's endeavor: air, earth, fire and water, as well as empty space.
The EP's five tracks are meant to be listened to as a whole and they flow together as such. Pergament's spoken/sung performance poetry makes a fine match for Clarke's trippy soundscapes, and this is a good one to experience on headphones or in a similar immersive listening environment. You can find Elements on Bandcamp.
FlowPoetry kicks off the next installment of the DIG Jazz Series from Madison Music Collective, Arts + Literature Laboratory and Wisconsin Union Theater. The livestream also features Two Jackets, and is at 7 p.m. on Feb. 5 on Facebook and YouTube. Sweet Delta Dawn also plays a livestream at 7 p.m. on Feb. 5 via Facebook; the show will benefit the campaign of Tessa Echeverria for a Madison Common Council seat, and also includes a set from Kat and the Hurricane.
Lil Guillotine is an omnipresent Madison activist, working with the Free the 350 Bail Fund, community mutual aid efforts, workplace organizing efforts, and more. He's also a hip-hop artist whose activism and art share common goals. Lil Guillotine opened 2021 with one of his most strongly worded statements yet, drawing on the Black Lives Matter movement and the ongoing civil actions that have continued for much of the last year.
The single "Ignition" kicks off with the chorus: "Fire to the prisons, fire to the jails, fire to the judges who be settin' all these bails/ Fire to the squad car, fire in our minds, fire to the quo that is status all the time." You might guess he is an advocate of defunding the police, and you would be right. The fiery rhetoric in the song is the sort of language sure to agitate those on the right who continue to point to property damage as a way to discount all actions in the movement against white supremacy. I suspect the anarchist Lil Guillotine would consider that a job well done, and as an artistic statement the blunt "Ignition" is a hammer for justice.
A Spotify playlist featuring much more Lil Guillotine music can be found on his home page. And he reports on Twitter that much more is coming in 2021; pre-save his next single, "Rebel Beat," here.
Joe Hermanson
Longtime local music scene watchers may recognize Educational Davis from early 2010s bands Baristacide and The No and Maybe Game, and more recently from occupying the bass spot and singing with the goth-drenched Therapy Drones. Those three bands were fairly different creatures, but the sound of each was infused with Davis' unique musical sensibility. All the past musical threads and more come together in Davis' current solo incarnation, displayed ably on the new album Navigation.
It's fun to play spot-the-influence with Navigation, which generally sticks to various incarnations of a 1980s-esque synth-rock sound. Davis has a knack for writing songs that sound familiar even on first listen, something also evident when revisiting the music of his past bands. Along with being an expert at melding potentially disparate genres, Davis also pulls off a tougher task when he employs his off-kilter sense of humor. It's dry and sly rather than a parodic effect, and leaves some room for interpretation; as the lyrics gradually sink in, the listener might gradually find a song is not quite what you first thought. The sprawling double album-length Navigation will reward repeated spins in 2021.
Along with performing solo the past few years, Davis also plays with a full band. (In fact, the last show I saw in 2020 featured the Educational Davis band and Cribshitter.) As noted in a brief media release for Navigation, about half the songs on the album were intended to be recorded with the band, and about half were written during quarantine times. It will be interesting to hear how the songs are reimagined in a band context if Davis decides to re-record any of them when it's possible to gather safely.
A couple of recent video announcements caught my eye. Wisconsin's leading proponent of mixing country/folk music with goth and horror themes is most certainly Lonesome Wyatt, who creates solo music as Lonesome Wyatt & the Holy Spooks and also is a member of Those Poor Bastards. A cut from the December Lonesome Wyatt & the Holy Spooks album, Dream Curse, also emerged in video form. "Burn Yesterday" juxtaposes found footage from various sources with Lonesome Wyatt on a secret mission in the woods, one thankfully less bloody and apocalyptic than the cryptic story in the song's lyrics.
And music fans who want to get a sneak preview of the next generation of local players should follow the Madison Music Foundry YouTube page. During normal times the Foundry's student showcases take place at a local venue (recently, at High Noon Saloon), but during COVID showcases have moved to the virtual world; the most recent was posted Jan. 7. They can also be found on Facebook.
