Ymilykdis, "66 2/3 %" (Preference)
Far from a balm, sunshine can feel like a stab -- "Get yr golden rays off my prickly skin, ya croaking star!" The trio Ymilykdis (Why am I like this?) have a lot of screaming to do, and a lot of ways to feel the heat of their native Los Angeles.
Aaron Hogan's electric guitar is a raw nerve, so raw that it's easy to overlook his skill as he jumps from metal riffs to fingerpicked delicacy to proggy intellectuality to stoner slog to Beefheartian twang, heaving up coherent yet passionate solos along the way. The encyclopedic knowledge of Mekala Session (Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra) lets his drums respond outside of genre, completely in the moment, with rolls, bashes, transitions and syncopations that lock into the ever-changing moodscape, while Morgan Batiste's bass acts as the durable rubber that meets the road.
For musicians who advertise so little calculation, Ymilykdis are damn tight. Unvarnished but sophisticated, they stamp the live quality of their recordings as a choice rather than a necessity.
Although this music may entertain, that's not why it exists. When Hogan yells, "Nothing feels good anymore," we connect. No costumes, no makeup, no footlights. Just sunburn.
Ymilykdis' "Idontknowy" (2019) propels equal badnuss. Check both recordings here.
Kilter, "Sys" (Alter-Nativ)
Remind us to invite Brooklyn drummer Kenny Grohowski over for tequila next time he's in L.A., because his collaborations -- with John Zorn, Greg Osby, Rez Abbasi, Andy Milne, Kilter, Imperial Triumphant -- provide a lot to talk about.
Grohowski, bassist Laurent David and saxist Ed Rosenberg III are Kilter (not the gloomy rock band of the same name). Their new three-song release condenses their aesthetic: dry, composed, complex, with plenty of rhythmic pushback, as if the floor sounds of three simultaneous basketball games were somehow orchestrated.
While disdaining populist groove, Kilter move forward from multiple directions, daring us to dance. And some listeners, hearing the voice of their inmost impulses, will certainly try. How many bands can so accurately convey the attitude of the next generation, the ones who will be smart and tough enough to call the shots? It's not all "F*ck you" or "Don't f*ck with me," either. It's "See what we can make out of chaos?"
Kilter has three topnotch releases. Listen/buy here. Read my ponderation on creative metalmen Imperial Triumphant, written two months before 1/6/21, here. Prescient? That's a dirty critic-word.