New Recordings

Ekstasis

(Rvng Intl ***1/2)

nolead ends Julia Holter is a classically trained composer from Los Angeles; she comes with a serious art pedigree that includes California Institute of the Arts work with composer Michael Pisaro as well as vocal and harmonium studies in India. Her first album, Tragedy, was based on Euripides' Hippolytus. While Tragedy, which arrived less than a year ago, contained occasional pop textures, Ekstasis embraces them.

Like contemporaries Grimes and Julianna Barwick, Holter relishes vocals for the sake of vocals. "Ekstasis" is a Greek word that means "standing outside oneself" and is the root of the English word ecstasy. Much of the album foregrounds Holter's girlish voice multitracked into a choir of beautiful textures, floating atop keyboards that draw on ambient music, synth-pop, or Nico-like drones (sometimes over the course of one track). But song structures surface too, especially in "Marienbad" and "In the Same Room." Lyrics include quotes from Frank O'Hara and Virginia Woolf, and stylistically, Holter occasionally echoes Laurie Anderson and, more obscurely, Stina Nordenstam. But ultimately, Ekstasis is fascinating, complex, and unique.

- Steve Klinge

nolead begins Big K.R.I.T.
nolead ends nolead begins 4Eva N a Day
nolead ends nolead begins (self-released ****)

nolead ends Via either his much-touted reflectiveness or his recent signing to Def Universal, 25-year-old Justin Scott worries about his legacy. He doesn't want to be the next indie-turned-major-burnout, and he's humble enough to know his rapping isn't exactly bombs bursting in air. So for 17 tracks running well under an hour, he employs his richest waterfall of E-Z soul samples yet (extra gorgeous: the stretch from "4Eva N a Day" to "Country Rap Tunes") and endears with his pronunciation of "VYE-eena" or treasuring how his shorty helps him sleep. He closes with the amazing "The Alarm": "(Do you believe) that your heart is really in it when you know most these folks ain't impressed with your vision?/ (Do you believe) that this pimp talk will keep you in top form when so many fall off?"

- Dan Weiss

nolead begins Marisa Monte
nolead ends nolead begins O Que Você Quer Saber de Verdade
nolead ends nolead begins (Blue Note ***1/2)

nolead ends In 2006, Brazilian superstar Marisa Monte released the tradition-minded Universo ao Meu Redor and the electronic-tinged Infinito Particular, both beautiful showcases for her exquisite voice. Their long-awaited follow-up, O Que Você Quer Saber de Verdade ("What Do You Really Want to Know"), skews more toward Universo with its sambas and bossa novas and its luxurious string arrangements (many from Greg Cohen, who spent time in Tom Waits' band). It's an understated and lovely set.

Working and writing with many of her usual collaborators, including Carlinhos Brown and Arnaldo Antunes, Monte reaffirms her preeminence in extending the Tropicália tradition that goes back to Caetano Veloso, Gal Costa, and Jorge Ben (whose "Descalço no Parque" she covers). Whether on the delicately rippling "Amar Alguém" or the dramatically lilting title track, her voice is light, effortless, and calming.

- Steve Klinge

nolead begins Rocket Juice & the Moon
nolead ends nolead begins Rocket Juice & the Moon
nolead ends nolead begins (Honest Jon's ***1/2)

nolead ends One could argue that Damon Albarn is the ultimate solo artiste, flitting as he does between fronting the art-pop of Blur; the rubbery dub of the Good, the Bad & the Queen; and the electro-hop of Gorillaz like a bee sucking nectar from willing flowers. In reality, though, Albarn is mod-pop's finest collaborator, ingratiating himself within the band ideal. Nothing feels like a mere "project" with Albarn. His deep, abiding interest in being a part of a collective runs as deep as the densest rhythm. And no rhythm could run deeper than that of bassist Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers) and drummer Tony Allen (Fela Kuti), Albarn's partners in the off-kilter Rocket Juice. Together, the instrumentalists produce a mix of nimble African-Fela-funk and sound-effect-laden psychedelia. Brief, funnily theatrical song-blips (the fuzzed synths of "Extinguished" sound particularly Sun Ra-like) act as teasers to longer tracks without losing their own moody merit. Lengthier tunes get vocal help from the singer/rappers of Africa Express as well as Erykah Badu, who does her space-soul goddess routine to fine effect over Flea's thumb-popped riffs on "Hey Shooter." But it's Albarn who steals his own show with his vocals on gently pretty, unbusied "Poison" - as if you expected anything less from him.

- A.D. Amorosi

And Still I Rise

(Raisin' Music ***1/2)

nolead ends The Heritage Blues Orchestra is fronted by singer-guitarists Bill Sims Jr. and Junior Mack and Sims' daughter, singer Chaney Sims. The ensemble includes a horn section and, for this album, the late Kenny "Beedy Eyes" Smith, formerly of the Muddy Waters Band, on drums.

The orchestra treats the heritage with deep respect as it draws from both country and urban strains of the blues. But it also shakes things up in thrilling fashion, enlivening the tradition with often hybrid arrangements that blend the earthy and the elegant.

Son House's "Clarksdale Moan," for example, starts out as a thuddingly percussive acoustic number before the horns come in to give it a new vibe. Waters' "Catfish Blues" becomes jumping and jazzy, and the traditional "C-Line Woman," with additional lyrics by Chaney Sims, is heavily syncopated with call-and-response vocals and a sousaphone for spice.

The traditional "Get Right Church" introduces a gospel element, one of a few numbers that do, with an electric guitar solo that gives it a rock edge. On the other hand, the a cappella "Levee Camp Holler" is just that, and as elemental as it gets.

- Nick Cristiano

Hello Earth! The Music of Kate Bush

(Winter & Winter ***)

nolead ends Singer Theo Bleckmann is a singular fellow. The German native has performed everything from Berlin cabaret to Las Vegas standards with some ditties by classical composer Charles Ives thrown in. Here he takes on the highly literate, mythic realm of British pop recluse Kate Bush.

It is, of course, telling that this jazz is being played by a German guy working over the music of a British chick via an international band, including Americans such as percussionist John Hollenbeck and violinist Caleb Burhans.

Bleckmann, who has worked with Philly-born pianist Uri Caine, creates a set full of cymbal haze, bells, and electric keyboards trembling. In perfect English, Bleckmann respects the mystery in these songs, which exude a certain New Age sensibility while maintaining jazz seriousness.

The session isn't exactly hummable. But it's mysterious and occasionally tuneful.

- Karl Stark

San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas conducting.

nolead begins (SFS Media ****) nolead ends

At last, the increasingly formidable team of Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony has been sprung from its now-complete, years-in-the-making Mahler symphony cycle and is showing the world what it does better than most anybody: John Adams. The orchestra made the first recording of the composer's breakthrough orchestral work, Harmonielehre, some 25 years ago under Edo de Waart, in what was then a more ethereal, sonically diffuse approach toward Adams that seemed to capture the Bay Area mists. This new, blazing, sharp-focused performance reveals that the piece has far more harmonic guts than even its admirers previously guessed. Much more musical information springs from the driving rhythm. Even a John Adams skeptic would have to admit that the performance achieves knockout status - captured with radiant sound quality. But I'm not sure what the five-minute Short Ride on a Fast Machine is doing here. Maybe it's added in the spirit of an encore. - David Patrick Stearns