New Music From Time Is Fire, Kassa Overall
Time Is Fire
In Pieces
(Electric Cowbell/Insect Fields)
Overcoming cognitive dissonance while making sense of a day in the life in Washington D.C. has long driven the capital city’s music scene.
Be it the wild go-go rhythms of Chuck Brown and EU or the full-throttle hardcore and post-hardcore that Minor Threat and Fugazi broadcast unto the world, strength lies in bold creativity.
Time is Fire’s latest album, In Pieces, pushes these ideas forward as a composite new form blending dance, punk, and protest music with Persian and other worldly inflections.
From the tropical salvo of “My Sins” to the caustic funk and noise of “We Declare”, the group lays its cards on the table.
Late ‘80s punk funk à la Big Boys, Gang of Four’s lacerating guitar, and Mdou Moctar’s electric psychedelia collide in songs such as “Didn’t See It Coming”, “Norms”, and the album’s anthemic peak, “Poor Is Poor”.
Under the guidance of producer Brendan Canty (Fugazi, the Messthetics), each song moves forward with bright and energetic layers of rhythm.
Singer Kamyar Arsani’s blend of Iranian classical training with punk fortitude takes some getting used to. His unrestrained vibrato and bellow sometimes evoke the voice of an exhausted Jello Biafra, and he occasionally rolls his r’s like PiL leader John Lydon.
But in the context of D.C., post-hardcore Arsani is a disruptive force making room for all sorts of new possibilities. Matthew Perrone and Jeff Barsky’s interlocking guitars and Kai Filipczak’s bass coalesce in “Red” and “Impossible Nights”, featuring Turkish dream pop singer Christina Marie of Yeni Nostalji.
Drummer Jim Thomson was a founding member of GWAR, and later played in the saxophone and flute-driven improv outfit Alter-Natives.
By nature, these songs challenge the status quo of their hometown’s music scene; a chore that’s not to be taken lightly. Each number creates a balanced momentum that’s tailor-made for Arsani’s songs of protest, skewering everything from gun violence to Pizzagate.
The album’s subtleties work in its favor in the long run, but these qualities can get lost in the blur of big, ecstatic melody and punk-fueled energy. As such, In Pieces reveals layers of depth with each listen.
Kassa Overall
I Think I’m Good
(Brownswood Recordings)
Seattle-born, Brooklyn resident Kassa Overall strikes back with his second album, I Think I’m Good. The title is a statement of being of sorts. If there were questions lingering about the potency of his blend of jazz and hip-hop after his 2019 debut, Go Get Ice Cream and Listen to Jazz, I Think I’m Good puts them to bed.
On the surface, songs such as “Please Don’t Kill Me”, “I Know You See Me”, and “Sleeping On the Train” take shape like notebook doodles brought to life. They are the meandering ruminations of a sensitive, creative mind brought to life with a stream-of-consciousness flow.
And while these missives are countered by fully formed songs such as “Show Me A Prison” and “Darkness In Mind”, it’s the brittle balance between these elements that keep the album bound by an invisible but ever-present dark matter.
I Think I’m Good exists in a dream state—unrestrained thoughts play out amid layers of both hi-fi and backpack production creating a more mysterious version of Kassa Overall than anything else he’s revealed so far. Clearly, improvisation plays a role in finding song structures.
The pace is languid—sometimes lazy—and he occasionally slips into a baby-voiced mumble that’s too cute for its own good. But he never lingers in any of his fugue-like moments for too long.
Creating a musical space that allows the mind and the ears to roam around connecting the dots between these jump cuts is a true asset to his style of on-the-fly arrangements and production.
And he isn’t alone. I Think I’m Good is rife with heavy-hitter cameos: Joel Ross lays down sublime vibes on “Please Don’t Kill Me”. J. Hoard and Melanie Charles add rich vocal textures to “I Know You See Me”. And Julius Rodriguez adds heart-swelling piano lines to “Find Me”.
In the closing number, amid fits of staccato percussion and thick atmosphere, Vijay Iyer’s Rhodes brings a full-bodied psychedelic flourish to “Was She Happy (for Geri Allen)”.
While support from so many bright young contemporaries providing top-notch contributions throughout, it is unquestionably Overall whose active interaction brings the album to a fine point.
