ALL THINGS MUSIC
PAGE 4 • GO! MAGAZINE
THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 2021 • THE BULLETIN
Bandcampin’: good stuff for your ears
BY BEN SALMON • For The Bulletin
B
andcamp is an online music platform used largely by independent artists and record labels to stream songs and sell merchandise. It’s also a vibrant virtual
community teeming with interesting sounds just waiting to be discovered. Each week, I’ll highlight three releases available on the site that are well worth
your time and attention. If you find something you dig, please consider supporting the artist with a purchase.
PETER GABRIEL
“Peter Gabriel 1 (Car)”
When Peter Gabriel left Genesis in 1975,
he wrote an open letter to fans to explain
that the band “we had built as a co-op to
serve our song writing became our master
and had cooped us up inside the success
we had wanted.” Free of those constraints,
Gabriel’s first solo album unquestionably
marks a fresh start for the adventurous
English singer-songwriter. Working with
famed producer Bob Ezrin and members of
the prog-rock band King Crimson, Gabriel
put together a motley collection of tracks
that bridge the gaps between pop, rock, soul
and his own irrepressible interest in the the-
atrical. “Peter Gabriel 1 (Car)” is an album
powered by Gabriel’s newfound freedom
to take any risk and follow any whim, and
while it’s not perfect, it is an interesting lis-
ten that opened the door to one of the most
successful solo careers of the late 20th cen-
tury.
2021
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SHABAZZ PALACES
“Black Up”
Digable Planets were a breath of fresh air
in the early ’90s, scoring an MTV staple, a
top 15 hit and a Grammy award with their
singsong jazz-rap single “Rebirth of Slick
(Cool Like Dat).”
Two years later, they split up, citing cre-
ative differences. And then, more than a
decade later, one-third of Digable Planets
— Ishmael Butler — reemerged across the
country, under a different name, exploring
a different sound. These days, Shabazz Pal-
aces is an ambitious and successful indie-rap
act with five albums to its name, but back in
2011, it was a new and unknown entity that
gave Butler the space he needed to make
wobbly, cosmic hip-hop built from uncon-
ventional parts: restless rhythms, zip-zap
synths, subterranean bass, progressive lyrics
and visionary vibes. The result is a dense,
dark debut album that was so far ahead of
its time, we’re still trying to catch up 10 years
later.
OBLITERATIONS
“Poison Everything”
Just about every day, somewhere, a group
of folks who have long passed the prime
age for playing in a rock ’n’ roll band get to-
gether and jam, often just for fun and/or to
escape from the drudgery of adult life. That’s
basically how Obliterations started, except
these middle-aged guys got together to jam
just for fun and to take a break from their
other bands. And it turns out that when
guys from other killer bands get together
to jam, it can lead to something very good.
Obliterations is made up of members of
Black Mountain, Night Horse, Saviours and
Pink Mountaintops, and together they’ve re-
leased only one album so far (in 2014), but it
is one seriously savage slab of charred thrash
metal and hardcore punk that manages to
tuck a few hooks in amongst the ferocity.
e e
Ben Salmon is a Bend-based music journalist and host of
Left Of The Dial, which airs 8-10 p.m. Thursdays on KPOV,
88.9 FM and streams at kpov.org.
You can find him on Bandcamp and Twitter at @
bcsalmon.
These days, Shabazz Palaces is an ambitious and
successful indie-rap act with five albums to its
name, but back in 2011, it was a new and
unknown entity that gave Butler the space he
needed to make wobbly, cosmic hip-hop built
from unconventional parts: restless rhythms,
zip-zap synths, subterranean bass, progressive
lyrics and visionary vibes