The HASH
TRACK REVIEWS
BLACK SUPER HERO THEME SONG ERIMAJ Conflict Of A Man (Don’t Cry)
Not unlike the releases by his peers and occasional bandmates this year, the drummer Jamire Williams found a kind of instant gratification when Conflict Of A
ZERO SUM Alec Gross The Sorry Sorry Sun EP (Handsome Lady)
Man, the first release by his group ERIMAJ, dominated digital charts outright after its release early this fall. Records by Robert Glasper and Christian Scott may have fared even better outside of iTunes jazz charts in
Speaking of the handmade, there’s no other dogma guiding Handsome Lady, the acoustic folk label begun in part by Alec Gross, whom we profiled in the fall of 2011. For roughly a year and beginning in earnest this summer it has gathered handfuls of singer-songwriters to cut filmed performances shot in-house and on the cheap, all of them recorded to analog tape—something each video takes care to mention right away. It’s tempting to consider that proviso as more to do with aesthetics than fidelity; most of the songs are new but channeled in an old, deliberately familiar folk idiom. As it turns out, being consistently well recorded ensures the exceptional performances are impossible to miss. Several of those come from the silvery vocalist Barnaby Bright, others from Alec Gross, naturally. “Zero Sum,” the sad sack opener to his latest release, laments a parasitic romance. That’s prime territory for Gross’ limpid cry, and the
2012, but those were disseminated via the traditional label system (and in physical formats, whereas 45-singles are all that’s been revealed or planned for this album). ERIMAJ meanwhile kept to its own channels, releasing this lush, loose song cycle through its website in August. It rarely evokes the taut, boppish intensity of Scott’s album, on which Williams can also be heard, but even more of an achievement is the compositional narrative agreed upon here by Williams and trombonist Corey King, who share directorial roles within this band. It makes for a collegial arrangement that’s never centered around one player—at least not for too long. On “Black Super Hero Theme Song” center stage is shared all around, and organically so. With his closing solo Williams flips the tempo entirely for a feel evocative of J Dilla—a technical feat, of course, but also a deflection in its own way.
stripped-acoustic treatment makes plain which lyrics he feels deserve a particularly burred edge.
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