HOMEWORK BEGINS

I don't know jack about salsa. It's one of the big gaps in my musical self-education; I think I've probably heard more polka songs than salsa songs. But that's about to change, in a big way. I just got a serious hookup today, courtesy of the PR firm that handles Emusica's reissues of the Fania Records catalog: a box containing 27 of said reissues, and three 2CD compilations by names even I recognize as huge in the genre. Here's what landed in my lap (almost literally) today:

Ray Barretto, Aqui Se Puede
Ray Barretto, Irresistible
Ray Barretto, Que Viva La Musica (2CD compilation)
Joe Battan, Riot
Justo Betancourt, Pa Bravo Yo
Willie Colón, El Malo
Willie Colón, Lo Mato
Willie Colón, The Player (2CD compilation)
Willie Colón & Ruben Blades, Siembra
Celia Cruz & Tito Puente, Homenaje A Beny Moré
Celia, Johnny, Justo & Papo, Recordando El Ayer
Fania All-Stars, Live At The Cheetah Vol. 1
Cheo Feliciano, Cheo
Cheo Feliciano, Estampas
Hector Lavoe, Comedia
La Lupe, Es La Reina
La Lupe, Reina De La Cancion Latina
Johnny Pacheco, Pacheco Y Su Charanga
Johnny Pacheco, El Maestro (2CD compilation)
Charlie Palmieri, El Gigante Del Teclado
Eddie Palmieri, Eddie Palmieri
Eddie Palmieri/Cal Tjader, Bamboleate
Tito Puente & His Orchestra, Ce' Magnifique
Ricardo Ray & Bobby Cruz, Aguzate
Ismael Rivera, De Todas Maneras Rosas
Pete "El Conde" Rodriguez, El Rey
Roberto Roena, Roberto Roena Y Su Apollo Sound 6
Adalberto Santiago, Adalberto
Sonora Ponceña, Future

So far, all I've listened to is the Willie Colón disc (another copy of which arrived, all by itself, a few days ago), but it's pretty great. I remember being vaguely annoyed by salsa's piano sound some years ago, which led me to shrug off the genre. But now it doesn't bother me, for some reason. And the horns have a gleam that blows me away, no pun intended. So I'm actually really looking forward to checking all this stuff out, even if it takes me the rest of spring and summer. (And the Fania folks say they're going to keep sending more reissues, as they release them! It's a never-ending stream of salsa for me, it seems, at least for the near future.)

THE ROBOT MAN DOES NOT DANCE

Currently playing: The Field, From Here We Go Sublime. A full-length album by a guy whose work I know from the Kompakt label's last two Total compilations. Kompakt is my current one-stop for techno - I like pretty much everything I've heard on the label over the past couple of years. The Total compilations are pretty much an annual event, and #s 6 and 7 have expanded from one disc each to two. As I said in the Voice awhile back, at its most aggressive it's music that makes you feel like you're in your own Michael Mann movie, driving a black Ferrari through rain-slick streets with another dude, both of you wearing sunglasses and not talking or smiling; and at its least aggressive, it's music to listen to while sitting in an all-white room as microscopic robots eat the dust off the furniture. It doesn't make me want to dance, but it makes me feel much cooler than I am, and that's really what I look for in electronic music - I want it to make me feel like an impeccably styled robot-man with liquid nitrogen in my veins. There are some surprisingly human moments in the Field's tracks - titles like "A Paw In My Face" and "The Little Heart Beats So Fast" imply happy interactions with other living creatures, and that's fine. And is it me, or is "Action," from Total 6, built around samples from the Four Tops' "(Reach Out) I'll Be There"? Still, there's enough ultra-smooth man-machine beauty that this might wind up being one of my favorite albums of the year.

THIS MONTH IN METAL MANIACS

ORTHODOX
Gran Poder
Southern Lord

Folks who find doom metal a little samey, maybe even hostile to innovation, will probably get a bitter laugh out of thse Spaniards' choice of band name. (Yes, unlike Japan's Corrupted, Orthodox come by their Spanish-language song and album titles honestly.) Southern Lord is offering their debut CD to American audiences, adding a cover of Venom's "Genocide" to the four tracks (three, really - one's a 90-second bit o' nothin') European fans, and the super-tuned-in, have already heard. This is a record that demands patience, or maybe just passivity, from the listener. Opening cut "Geryon's Throne" takes nearly 28 minutes to get where it's going, practically half the disc's running time. It's a rewarding journey, though, punctuated with plenty of slow-motion cymbal crashes and bass-amp feedback rumbles that accrue like lava flows, eventually forming into massive, towering riffs. There's a strong Melvins influence present, both in the vocals and the music. Whatever the drummer's name is (no band members are identified in the booklet), he does a good job of copying Dale Crover's powerful whomp. As is often the case with doom, much of the really interesting stuff's being played by the bassist. But the band gels quite well as a unit, creating an early-Sabbath mood that, even at its near-half-hour running time, never becomes merely static. Oh, and that Venom cover that's the secondary selling point for this edition of the CD? It's serviceable, demonstrating that these guys can play fast if they want to, as long as things stay primitive.

THE FUNNIEST THING I'VE READ ALL DAY

I spent almost all of yesterday and most of today in the kind of mood where "killing spree/suicide-by-cop" was starting to look like a really good way to spend my Wednesday. Then I read this, and now my co-workers' lives are no longer in danger. Thank you, Leonard Pierce. (I especially liked it because I am a diabetic, and if I ate or drank most of the things he describes I would almost certainly be dead by sunset.)

THE GLOVES (OF METAL) ARE OFF

Adrian Begrand, a writer I wish I'd thought to invite to contribute to Marooned, has written a superb Popmatters column on Manowar. He's done a terrific job of articulating all their flaws and strengths, which is a much more difficult task than it might initially seem. Manowar are so...so...so Manowar that it's actually really hard to write about them, because you get overwhelmed by the absurdity and your critical faculties (along with the rest of your brain) begin to shut down. You begin to doubt your own sanity, especially when you start to like what they're doing. So kudos to Adrian for managing to get all the way through their new, ultra-overblown multi-disc DVD (I couldn't manage it myself) and explain it all for, and on behalf of, the rest of us. Hail to you, Begrand! (His blog's decent, too.)