Vienna Teng - "Inland Territory

Zöe / Rounder Records
www.viennateng.com
www.myspace.com/viennateng

Reviewed by Jonathan Sanders

Vienna Teng may be the most consistent artist of our generation to not find mainstream success.

Though I’m sure Zöe/Rounder wants to do anything in their power to change that pronouncement, Teng has chosen instead to quietly innovate, pushing herself musically to new levels each time out of the gate, allowing her to, at thirty, reach a pinnacle on her fourth album which most artists don’t reach in a lifetime. Inland Territory is an accomplished masterwork from a songwriter who knows how far to push her limits without alienating her fans.

And though she hasn’t quite figured out the route to radio or television success via her music, those of us who have heard her albums over the last decade are pleased to hear her continue to develop her sound without pandering to what might gain more mainstream success.

Teng’s first album, Waking Hour, was recorded on her own while at Stanford. Only later was it picked up by a label and widely released. She attempted to smooth the edges with her second outing, Warm Strangers, crafting a more complete album which still showed an artist in her growth cycle. It wasn’t until Dreaming Through The Noise in 2006, which shredded the envelope entirely, that Teng found a voice totally and uniquely hers. Instead of flirting with her jazz influences, Teng dived into the idiom wholeheartedly on her third effort, crafting a complex song-cycle of musical depth and beauty.

To expect Teng to leap forward again on her fourth effort seemed too much to ask. I’ll admit I went into this effort hoping merely that she’d be able to hold her ground artistically. Instead, I was greeted with an album which, while consistently showing markings of Teng’s musical progression, continues to push the boundaries of what her music can be. The jazz elements are still there, but so is a willingness to experiment with the keyboard, even using synthesizers on the album’s first single “White Light.” Meanwhile there’s a distinct lyrical theme throughout the album, the concept of change as a violent, unexpected, unwanted and yet often necessary force in all our lives.

While some of these songs sound musically like what one expects from Teng as a musician, there’s a constant sense that there’s always a little more beneath the surface. In turn, this becomes both Vienna’s most adventurous, daring album musically and its most impressive lyrically. It’s not always an easy listen but it’s the most rewarding experience musically that she’s provided during her career.

“No Gringo,” for example, turns the immigration debate on its ear, allowing us to picture the plight of a gringo family forced south to find work in a Mexico where Americans aren’t wanted. Meanwhile, “Grandmother’s Song” plays out the argument of many first-generation Asian Americans that, to find acceptance and success in the world, one must become a doctor, a lawyer, a person in power.

Teng herself has heard the argument before that she wasted her talents by leaving the world of engineering to become a musician. But as we listen, she turns the argument inside out, exposing the sacrifices made by her grandmother’s generation. There’s the sense that today’s generation has to validate the efforts of the previous ones, carrying all of that history on their shoulders even as it sometimes stifles their ability to develop a history of their own.

Other songs on the album, including “Antebellum” and “Kansas,” turn the discussion toward the quiet wars we fight with each other emotionally in our fear of change. She varies her stories from personal to wide-reaching, often using visceral metaphors to push us into the experience. “Radio,” for example, shows us how easily we turn our backs on the world’s problems, only becoming involved when something happens to us. Musically she counters her lyrical argument with a tense aural blast of conflicting sounds meant to force us out of our musical comfort zone.

This isn’t music for passive listening. There’s too much being said to develop an understanding of what Teng’s musical and lyrical experimentation has created without conscious thought as a listener. That, however, makes it more rewarding when everything clicks into place and as a listener you put together the connective tissue to find the whole.

In turn, Inland Territory stands as an example of how subtle changes in method, genre and style can lead to great progress musically in a relatively short period of artistic development. For those seeking meaning in music, Vienna Teng’s music should not be missed by any means. The album serves as both a perfect continuation to her musical course as well as a solid way of introducing  her music to the uninitiated.

It is an album which deserves to be savored.

Review originally published by Stereo Subversion.

Tiny Masters of Today - "Skeletons"

Mule Records
www.tinymasters.net/main.html
www.myspace.com/tinymasters

Reviewed by Jonathan Sanders

Those among us of a particularly cynical bent might suggest that no duo of teenagers recording on their own via GarageBand could ever craft a solid sophomore album with any depth. Kids, they’d say, don’t have the ability to break any new ground. The only reason these particular teens look interesting to rock critics is because of the lack of music education these days making anyone who tries look like a genius.

Pardon me while I put aside my cynic hat. Because to brush off Tiny Masters of Today as unworthy of our attention because siblings Ivan (15) and Ida (13) are barely pubescent completely misses the point. These kids may still be crafting raw music that occasionally shows its holes, and there remain questions regarding their maddeningly wide-ranging influences and how a pair of New York City teens is making better indie-punk music than most veterans twice their age.

But Tiny Masters of Today are doing exactly this, and to dismiss them based on age and preconceptions is unfair.

Skeletons, the duo’s second album, expands beyond their debut to develop a sound distinct to their band. Yes, on occasion that sound tends to lean toward more adolescent expressions (the exclamation “fight the power, man!” opens the album on a somewhat clichéd note). But when you listen a little deeper you hear a band light-years ahead of its peers.

There’s not a touch of pop-punk pap here. The opening track (“Drop The Bomb”) in fact manages to merge surf-punk with touches of modern hip-hop sampling and crunchy rock guitars to create something which, at least musically, rises above the absence of lyrical depth. And as the album progresses … or should I say blitzkriegs … through eleven tracks and barely 26 minutes, it becomes clear that this young pair of musicians has serious production talent. They also have quite the ability to develop strong hooks in even the shortest tracks.

Sure, this isn’t pop music. Radio stations, outside of rawer alternative rock outfits, are going to be playing these songs on radio (though Little Steven’s probably having serious garagegasms right now as he anticipates giving this record a lot of airtime). Still, “Pop Chart” comes close, with its crunchy three-minute melody and “all about the money / submission isn’t funny” repeated chant. And “Big Stick” really lays on the sample layering (most of which sound like “samples” the band created on its own and then merged into a seriously maddeningly addictive multi-layered melodic hook). Add to it the insane hook of Ida singing “got a big stick, gonna hit you with it, hit you with it, got a big stick” and I dare you not to have a ton of fun singing along.

This isn’t music teenagers would create if being controlled behind the scenes by their parents or influences, something which some had suggested was behind their music when the likes of Kimya Dawson and David Bowie latched onto their rising star.

This is music two like-minded musical siblings are creating on their own, playing all the instruments, recording all the parts and then mixing and mastering them on their own during what free time they have when not … gasp! … going to school. And that they were able to come out of this process with a sophomore album that manages to sound both raw and polished says a lot for their talent both on their instruments and in the studio.

Put aside your cynic hats and give the band’s album a fair-minded listen. Then thank your lucky stars there are teenagers out there who actually give a shit about writing music which means something to them. Pray that they find a way to continue to develop as artists without the meddling of adults, and then get out there and make a donation to music education in your community. We can fuel a generation of artists who have something to say rather than a bunch of disaffected youth too poorly trained to know how to express creative thoughts in a coherent fashion.

Ivan and Ida are already well on their way, with plenty of room to develop their music from solid efforts like this into the groundbreaking music of the future. And this critic couldn’t be more pleased.

Review originally published by Stereo Subversion.