Welcome to The Weekender. Halloween lands on a Saturday this year, and daylight saving time ends early Sunday morning, so we get an extra hour of weekend courtesy of the federal government. I spent the week digging up ways to spend it.
Here’s what’s on deck:
On the house:
My two favorite releases of the day: RIP Magic and Ex:Re
A crate dig that turned into a religious experience with Alice Coltrane and Carlos Santana
Behind the velvet rope:
The Halloween tradition I’ll be playing at an irresponsible volume
The Patrick Stewart scene I went running back to after hearing the news
The movie I’ve had circled on my calendar hits theaters today
The Spooky Season finale: Does John Carpenter make it four for four in The Wax Museum Film Canon?
Our October book club review, which came with an unplanned horror subplot involving my cat
The November book club pick I’ve finally decided to pull off my shelf
Paid subscribers get every exhibit, every Friday, for $5 a month. Come on in.
Thank you for supporting human curation. Let’s get into it.
The Listening Room
Must-hear records for your weekend.
RIP Magic - 1,2,3
Stream: Bandcamp
Get Vinyl: Black
London quartet RIP Magic have made what they call a rock record without guitars, relying instead on live drums, bass, synths, and a heap of samples. The result transports you back to the ’90s collision of rock, hip-hop, and dance music, à la The Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers. But it doesn’t sound stuck in the past. If anything, it feels like the next logical evolution of DFA Records’ dance-punk sound.
The opening track, “Crowd,” wastes no time getting down to business, with Marco Pini’s vocals battling samples over a wonky synth that builds and builds before abruptly cutting out. That restless energy runs throughout the album, right through to the closer, “5words,” which, fittingly enough, was produced by LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy.
I may have set a record for head nods before lunchtime with this one. It really got my Friday off to a good start, and I hope it does the same for you.
Ex:Re - Save As
Stream: Spotify | Apple Music
Get Vinyl: Grey | Black
I don’t need much convincing to listen to Elena Tonra. The Daughter frontwoman has one of my favorite voices in music, so a new Ex:Re album is extremely my shit. Save As, out today on 4AD, is her first solo record in eight years.
The opening track, “Radio Station,” is an immediate standout, built around a gorgeous, Radiohead-esque acoustic guitar melody, with Tonra’s unmistakable voice a perfect match for the shifting rhythms and strings. The album explores memory and loss, all wrapped in the kind of beautifully melancholy atmosphere Tonra does so well. No jump scares here, but plenty to haunt you.
Alice Coltrane & Carlos Santana - Illuminations (1974)
Stream: Spotify | Apple Music
Get Vinyl: Discogs
Back in August, I highlighted Andy Beta’s Cosmic Music: The Life, Art, and Transcendence of Alice Coltrane. Since then, I’ve been filling in the gaps in Alice’s discography, and this one absolutely floored me: Illuminations, her 1974 collaboration with Carlos Santana.
By this point, Santana was moving well beyond the Latin-rock sound that made him famous, diving headfirst into jazz fusion and spiritual exploration. He and Alice were both followers of the Indian spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy, and the album was released under their spiritual names, Devadip Carlos Santana and Turiya Alice Coltrane.
The result is 35 minutes of cosmic, orchestral, occasionally ferocious jazz.
Alice’s harp, piano, organ, and string arrangements create these enormous landscapes, while Santana’s guitar cuts through them like something arriving from another planet. Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette are in the rhythm section, which should give you an idea of the caliber of musicians involved.
Much of the first side is meditative, with sweeping strings, harp passages, and Santana’s soaring guitar. But flip the record over and things get wild.
The 15-minute “Angel of Sunlight” is the centerpiece, a feverish excursion into free jazz heavily indebted to John Coltrane’s late-period work on Impulse! It starts with a hypnotic interplay of guitar, harp, and percussion before DeJohnette’s drums kick things into another gear, building into a frenzy of improvisation, with everyone pushing one another further out, until Alice’s harp returns to calm the storm.
I finished listening and immediately opened Discogs to buy a used copy on vinyl. That’s usually a pretty reliable sign that a record has gotten its hooks into me.
But the rabbit hole didn’t end there.
I went digging into this collaboration and discovered a remarkable two-hour-plus recording of a 1974 concert at San Francisco’s Kabuki Theater, featuring Alice, Santana, and jazz-fusion pioneer John McLaughlin.
The evening begins with intimate sets from McLaughlin and Santana, featuring acoustic guitar, harmonium, zither, and vocals. Alice then takes the stage for solo improvisations on organ and harp, followed by a trio performance of John Coltrane’s “Africa.”
Then the full electric band comes together for live versions of “Angel of Air,” “Angel of Water,” and “Angel of Sunlight.” From there, they stretch “Let Us Go Into the House of the Lord” to nearly half an hour before launching into John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme.” Unfortunately, the tape cuts out just as that final performance starts gathering momentum.
What a document, though. A rare opportunity to hear these musicians exploring this material together, captured more than 50 years ago.
You’ve reached the Walled Garden of The Wax Museum. A subscription costs just $5 a month or $50 a year (that’s two months free) and unlocks every exhibit, plus $10 off in the Gift Shop.
Speaking of which, may I suggest this drool-worthy mousepad? Kid-tested, collector approved! Just $5 for paid subscribers after discount.
Still behind the velvet rope: My annual Halloween listening ritual, Patrick Stewart, John Carpenter, my harrowing cat situation, November’s book club pick, much much more. Come on in and join us every Friday!