Weekly Music Roundup: Dolly Parton, Polo G., and Black Market Brass

Week of Aug. 21: This week: Dolly Parton, rock star; Polo G’s moving ballad; and Amore Muere’s dark debut. Plus, ambient pop by Vines (Cassie Wieland) and Afropop-leaning music by Black Market Brass.

Dolly Parton Leads A Classic Rock Supergroup In “Let It Be”

You may remember that Dolly Parton had decidedly mixed feelings about being inducted into the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame last year. She felt she hadn’t earned it, what with not being a rock star and all. But now that she’s in, she’s apparently decided to go with it: her upcoming album, due in September, will be called Rockstar. It’ll feature 21 covers of well-known rock songs, and she’s just released her version of the Beatles’ “Let It Be,” featuring the two surviving Beatles – Paul McCartney on piano and vocals, Ringo Starr on drums – along with a tasty guitar solo from Peter Frampton and some typically restrained percussion from Mick Fleetwood (Fleetwood Mac). It’s the kind of thing that could easily slip into corniness (especially when Parton actually whispers those “whispered words of wisdom - let it be”), but the two famous voices blend beautifully and the arrangement ebbs and flows without ever going over the top. 

Rapper Polo G Offers Stories Of Perseverance In New Video

Chicago rapper Polo G has often used his up-from-the-streets journey in his songs – but not necessarily as a badge of authenticity; instead you get the sense of someone wrestling with the benefits that come with fame and multi-platinum records while those left behind continue to the struggle. His new single and video, “Barely Holdin’ On,” is a simple ballad, with Polo G singing instead of rapping, and the video follows real people’s stories of perseverance in the face of enormous obstacles. The look on the face of a wheelchair-bound boy when the rapper comes by to say hello is worth of the price of admission.  

Composer Cassie Wieland Releases Ambient Pop Album As Vines

Brooklyn-based composer Cassie Wieland has written chamber music and large ensemble works that incorporate electronics, including the vocoder (which transforms human speech or song into a processable electronic signal). Now, she’s using the stage name Vines for her new album called Birthday Party – a collection of ambient, sort-of-pop songs. These are works built around her voice, the vocoder, and – most crucially – her knack for finding intimate but telling sonic details. Some of these songs consist of a single line of text (“I’m having trouble making it through the year,” she sings at one point, “and it’s only January”), repeated and processed through the vocoder; she sustains musical interest by weaving acoustic and electronic instruments behind it. A good example is “I Don’t Mind,” a standout track that begins with Wieland’s solo voice, soon layered upon itself, and then accompanied by a melancholy ensemble of electroacoustic sounds as the song takes on an almost processional quality.  

A Dark Debut From Mexico’s Amor Muere

Amor Muere (“love dies”) is the name of a new quartet of women based in Mexico City, featuring the Guatemalan-born cellist and composer Mabe Fratti. The group is a collaboration with vocalist Camille Mandoki, sound designer Concepcion Huerta and violinist Gibrana Cervantes. Each has pursued a sound world that isn’t defined by genres like contemporary classical, electronic/sound art, rock, or metal – though they do draw on all of those styles. So it’s not a total surprise that the first single we get is an intriguing, indefinable song called “Love Dies.” The band name and song title started as an inside joke: a poster on the wall claimed that “Love Never Dies” and the four women begged to differ.  But the sound here is no joke – we hear the ominous thudding of a drum, half-whispered vocals, and hovering bowed strings that eventually take over, providing not lyricism but a foil for the dark electronic texture they emerge from. 

Afrobeat Sounds From Minneapolis Courtesy of Black Market Brass

Black Market Brass is a 9-member, horn-forward band that has spent the last ten years mining the sounds of Afrobeat, the Nigerian funk style associated with Fela Kuti’s great bands of the 1970s and 80s. But they’re not musicians from Lagos circa 1972; they’re a contemporary American band, so on their new album Hox, out on September 8, they incorporate the sounds of glitch electronica, metal, and free jazz as well. The single, “Echo A.D.,” offers a taste of their latest brew as the traditional rhythms of the West African balofon (a type of wooden xylophone) underpin the gleaming horns and a snarling electric guitar.