Arnold Dreyblatt & The Orchestra Of Excited Strings ★★★★

Resolve

DRAG CITY. DL/LP Double bass bangers from an unsung hero of minimalism.

The Orchestra Of Excited Strings would be a pretty handy way of describing any number of rock bands these past few decades – Sonic Youth spring to mind, for a start. Arnold Dreyblatt was around the New York downtown scene in the 1980s, too, and you can hear definite similarities between his thrumming, clanging approach to minimalism and the incantatory noise grids of Sonic Youth, Glenn Branca and many more. But while most of those artists foreground electric guitars, Dreyblatt drives his music with a double bass that’s been strung with piano wire, for a crisp, super-dry sound, complemented here by a new Berlin iteration of the Orchestra including MOJO Underground regular, Oren Ambarchi. Ambarchi’s terrific Shebang, from 2022, is another good reference point for Resolve: radical ideas streamlined into bouncy, relentless grooves that are anything but austere. Start with Shuffle Effect, as much glam boogie as avant-garde symposium.

ALSO RELEASED

Jeffrey Alexander & The Heavy Lidders ★★★

New Earth Seed

ARROWHAWK. DL/LP

Extremely highgrade psych courtesy of Philly-based Alexander and a starry configuration of his Heavy Lidders. Notable guests include Animal Collective’s Geologist and a rare sighting of Movietone’s Kate Wright. And while Alexander’s vocals can be a bit tepid, this one’s really all about the leisurely lava flow of the guitars, as he, kindred spirit Chris Forsyth (who also produces) and Elkhorn’s Drew Gardner lean elegantly, but heavily, into the jams.

Edsel Axle ★★★

Variable Happiness

WORRIED SONGS. DL/LP

Rosali Middleman’s solo albums have showcased calm songcraft with sometimes fried backing; 2021’s fine No Medium had distinct Crazy Horse vibes. Now as Edsel Axle, the North Carolinan privileges her freer instincts on six electric guitar improvisations in the wheelhouse of Charalambides’ Tom Carter, perhaps Bill Orcutt. Hold tight through initial gnarly virtuosity, as a kind of gorgeous, blasted serenity comes to the fore on Present Moment.

Jeremiah Chiu ★★★★

In Electric Time

INTERNATIONAL ANTHEM. DL/MC

Chiu’s last album, in a duo with Marta Sofia Honer, was a site-specific project located in the Åland Islands, near Sweden. The artist’s destination this time is closer to home, but no less inspirational: LA’s Vintage Synthesizer Museum, for a two-day session of bubbly analogue electronica. Retro-futurist Utopianism to file alongside Bitchin Bajas’ equally fun Switched On Ra in your geodesic dome.

Laura Cannell ★★★

Bow & Creak

BRAWL. CD/DL

The prolific Suffolk violinist’s latest is a response to the longest piece of music extant: Jem Finer’s 1,000-year-long evolving composition playing in a lighthouse on Bow Creek, East London. Cannell keeps to a pithy 30 minutes, but there’s a world of detail in her bowed violin variations: Tony Conrad’s the obvious reference point, but ghost tones of British drone folk, even Indian raga, hang in the air, too.

JM