MELANIE De BIASIO — Lilies (2017) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Lest any listener presume by the title that Melanie De Biasio's third proper album indicates a sunnier sound in contrast with that of the post-industrial suite Blackened Cities, Lilies was recorded in an environment that could be called ascetic. The singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer herself said: "I was in this room where there was no light, no night or day at all, no heat." It in fact builds from her 2016 release. The connection is crystal clear in lead single "Gold Junkies," a nervy number in which "Blackened cities rumble, strangers stroll, and lovers stumble" is intoned with that understated and uncannily fraught-yet-cool De Biasio style. While the album was evidently conceived in cramped quarters lacking climate control -- possibly a location with a very strict noise ordinance -- some heat was generated by the presence of the versatile core trio that has supported her before. If the vocals were removed, the songs, frequently coated in reverb, would still evoke sleep-deprived trance states induced by emotional affliction. "Your Freedom Is the End of Me" trudges hypnotically with Juba Zaki's lyrics very much in line with De Biasio's own writing: "Tears ain't blood, but oh, how they flow." "Let Me Love You" ("or stab me to death") picks up the pace but heaves with sexual frustration. On "And My Heart Goes On," one of only two songs on which De Biasio plays flute, a simple deep pulse and a slightly disturbing background noise seem to intensify De Biasio's anguish as she whispers about hot skin and frozen bones, like her body is about to burst from the contrasting conditions. A thrumming version of "Afro Blue" excepted, Lilies is a set of originals -- one that's enticing and breathtaking in an unconventional, as in almost stifling, sense. Andy Kellman
Tracklist :
1    Your Freedom Is The End Of Me 3:52
Backing Vocals – Melanie De Biasio, Pascal Paulus
Lead Vocals – Melanie De Biasio
Lyrics By – Juba Zaki
Music By – Melanie De Biasio, Pascal Paulus
Piano, Clavinet, Synthesizer [Juno], Synthesizer [Solina], Effects [R-bass], Drums – Pascal Paulus
2    Gold Junkies 3:19
Backing Vocals – Melanie De Biasio, Pascal Paulus
Clavinet, Beats, Effects [R-bass], Tambourine – Pascal Paulus
Electric Guitar – Melanie De Biasio, Pascal Paulus
Lead Vocals, Vocal Percussion [Vocal Beats] – Melanie De Biasio
Lyrics By – Gil Helmick, Melanie De Biasio, Pascal Paulus
Music By – Melanie De Biasio, Pascal Paulus
3    Lilies 4:02
Cymbal – Dre Pallemaerts
Effects [R-bass] – Pascal Paulus
Lead Vocals – Melanie De Biasio
Lyrics By – Gil Helmick, Melanie De Biasio
Music By – Melanie De Biasio, Pascal Mohy, Pascal Paulus
Piano – Pascal Mohy
4    Let Me Love You 4:09
Backing Vocals – Melanie De Biasio, Pascal Paulus
Drums – Dre Pallemaerts
Lead Vocals, Vocal Percussion [Vocal Beats] – Melanie De Biasio
Lyrics By – Melanie De Biasio
Music By – Melanie De Biasio, Pascal Paulus
Piano – Pascal Mohy
Piano, Clavinet, Synthesizer [Juno], Beats – Pascal Paulus
5    Sitting In The Stairwell 2:49
Lead Vocals, Finger Snaps – Melanie De Biasio
Lyrics By – Gil Helmick
Music By – Melanie De Biasio
6    Brother 3:11
Clavinet, Synthesizer [Juno], Effects [R-bass], Bass Drum, Tambourine – Pascal Paulus
Lead Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Piano, Noises – Melanie De Biasio
Lyrics By, Music By – Melanie De Biasio, Pascal Paulus
7    Afro Blue 4:33
Lead Vocals, Flute – Melanie De Biasio
Piano – Pascal Mohy
Sampler [Drum Samples] – Dre Pallemaerts
Synthesizer [Juno], Effects [R-bass], Beats – Pascal Paulus
8    All My Worlds 6:41
Cymbal – Dre Pallemaerts
Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals – Melanie De Biasio
Lyrics By – Melanie De Biasio
Music By – Melanie De Biasio, Pascal Paulus
Piano – Pascal Mohy
Synthesizer [Juno], Effects [R-bass], Beats – Pascal Paulus
9    And My Heart Goes On 6:00
Clavinet, Effects [R-bass], Drums – Pascal Paulus
Lead Vocals, Vocal Percussion [Vocal Beats], Flute – Melanie De Biasio
Lyrics By – Gil Helmick, Melanie De Biasio
Music By – Melanie De Biasio, Pascal Paulus

MELANIE De BIASIO — Blackened Cities (2016) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

When Melanie De Biasio released No Deal in 2014, it was embraced by jazz critics, DJs, and club audiences simultaneously. Gilles Peterson was so taken with its monochromatic ambient textures, stark arrangements, and clever improvisational intimations that he commissioned an album of remixes. Blackened Cities is not a conventional follow-up, but an adventurous endeavor rife with risk. The release consists of a single 24-minute track that unfolds like a suite. The conservatory-trained Belgian vocalist and flutist and her longtime musical associates -- Pascal Mohy on piano, Pascal Paulus on analog synths and clavinet, and Dré Pallemaerts on drums (with guest double bassist/cellist Sam Gerstmans) -- deliver a full-scale sonic drama that crosses a wide musical expanse and evokes an encyclopedia of stylistic references, yet comes across as a totally original whole. Its title comes from impressions of postindustrial cities De Biasio visited on her international tour: Detroit, Manchester, her native Charleroi; each has a storied past and a devastated façade, yet reflects its own unique beauty and tenacity.

Recorded live in the studio, Blackened Cities began as an unfinished three-minute idea brought in by the singer and left open for group interpretation. It starts with a whisper, a single organ-esque chord followed by a cello, before its lone guidepost enters: Pallemaerts' nearly constant, always inventive drumming -- shuffling, syncopating, circling -- is the pulse that signals each wave-like segment. (The spirit of Tony Williams on Miles Davis' In a Silent Way is redolent.) The musical reference points are wildly diverse: Nina Simone (the cover of "I'm Gonna Leave You" on No Deal was a watermark), the piano vamp from the Doors' "Riders on the Storm," Julie Tippetts with Brian Auger, Talk Talk's Laughing Stock, Simin Tander, Annette Peacock, Portishead, The The's "Uncertain Smile," Judy Nylon, and more come and go unhurriedly. The work gradually builds and then builds some more, without ever ratcheting up in intensity. Even at its most improvisational, Blackened Cities retains its moody, spatial, and spectral sense of groove. De Biasio delivers her lyrics in flowing extensions and deconstructions; the instrumental themes emerge from and vanish into them. Her unique phrasing employs the same maxims of silence and space that her musicians do. Even her own flute break uses an economic palette, elastically balancing harmony with breath. But in its creative leap, Blackened Cities retains all of the appealing elements heard on No Deal. As the track eventually washes into silence, it becomes evident that it had to stand as its own release. This aural travelogue's sensual cool, brooding tension, and elegiac tenderness are inseparable from one another. It is complete, but even at this length Blackened Cities ends all too soon. Thom Jurek
Tracklist :
1.    Blackened Cities 24:16
Backing Vocals [Backings] – Bart Vincent
Double Bass – Sam Gerstmans
Drums – Dre Pallemaerts
Piano – Pascal Mohy
Synth [Vintage Synths], Backing Vocals [Backings] – Pascal Paulus
Voice [Chant], Flute – Melanie De Biasio