Now on deluxe double vinyl!!!
There are already plenty of reviews out there proclaiming this album to be the pop equivalent of the second coming (at least for this year, anyhow). So we'll spare our readers the extensive details of our adoration and/or disdain and just say it's heaps better than last year's not so hot Strawberry Jam, displaying a nice fusion of both Avey Tare's and Panda Bears distinct sensibilities. Not so much a big difference in sound, just better production, more accessible songwriting, and heavier on the more blissful pop side than their spazzy oft-kilter folk side. We're a bit perplexed at the absurd amount of hype this has gotten and wish we got to hear it on its own merits free from the insane hyperbole doled out by critics, and that probably clouded our expectations a bit. It's certainly a good record but doesn't break much new ground in any real way, but then not everyone was hoping for progression, although for those who perhaps have never heard an Animal Collective record before, this will be pretty eye (or ear) opening. Not sure yet if it will top our favorites, Sung Tongs and Feels, but it could, over time, come pretty darn close. And we're even hearing some Vampire Weekend in the new retooled Collective sound in the very Highlife style vocal parts!
Fans of Panda Bear's Person Pitch will definitely dig this!
There are already plenty of reviews out there proclaiming this album to be the pop equivalent of the second coming (at least for this year, anyhow). So we'll spare our readers the extensive details of our adoration and/or disdain and just say it's heaps better than last year's not so hot Strawberry Jam, displaying a nice fusion of both Avey Tare's and Panda Bears distinct sensibilities. Not so much a big difference in sound, just better production, more accessible songwriting, and heavier on the more blissful pop side than their spazzy oft-kilter folk side. We're a bit perplexed at the absurd amount of hype this has gotten and wish we got to hear it on its own merits free from the insane hyperbole doled out by critics, and that probably clouded our expectations a bit. It's certainly a good record but doesn't break much new ground in any real way, but then not everyone was hoping for progression, although for those who perhaps have never heard an Animal Collective record before, this will be pretty eye (or ear) opening. Not sure yet if it will top our favorites, Sung Tongs and Feels, but it could, over time, come pretty darn close. And we're even hearing some Vampire Weekend in the new retooled Collective sound in the very Highlife style vocal parts!
Fans of Panda Bear's Person Pitch will definitely dig this!
We got a wee bit more from Animal Collective to close out 2006! Or, shall we say, to start 2007. This is their limited edition Australian import 'tour only' release People! There was a cdep version comprised of four songs: the title track, "Tikwid" and "My Favorite Colors" as well as a live version of the title track, but that's already gone (actually, we've got 2 left so we're not even listing it -- however it's gonna come out domestically sometime this winter supposedly). But we do still have maybe a dozen of this 7", which features just the first two tunes. It's a limited pressing of 1000, and we won't be able to get any more... so don't dilly dally!
We only got 10 of these, and some have sold already... So quickest draw wins. ULTRA LIMITED white label 7" from everyone's favorite stumbling psychfolk collective. One side is an alternate version of the song "Purple" from Feels, twisted into some weirdly Stevie Wonder like jam. The other side is a damaged cover of Nirvana's "Polly". Cool.
As part of their Splinter Series, Fat Cat Records have reissued these two enigmatic albums together as a double album credited to the group known as Animal Collective (aka the artists Avey Tare and Panda Bear, Geologist, and Deaken). Fragments of obscured sounds, glimpsing melodies and rhythms peek from around corners and poke out of the cracks while strange voices murmur, chant and howl from the shadows.
If the first disc's title and songs strike you as familiar, well, it might be because we were raving about it late last year. It was originally released on its own in 2000 under the moniker Avey Tare And Panda Bear. Heck, we like it very much under any name. And the wonderfully titled Danse Manatee (who doesn't love the manatee?), was their just as dandy follow-up, a subtly more fleshed out and vocal heavy album that was limited to 1000 handmade, silkscreened editions.
Here's what we had to say about the former when it was still credited to A.T.A.P.B.:
This debut album... is, well, it's really good! It's an intriguing combination of elements -- a plaintive, weak voice chirping sadly over rapidly strummed yet fractured guitar, which is normal enough but then there's these weirdly muffled, like, jungle beats in the background, so faint you barely even notice that they're there. The tension between the styles happening simultaneiously is carefully handled and forms a satisfying whole. Vocals are tremulous and tinny but somehow appealing, too, like the Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne making incredibly emotional dissonant, fuzzed-out bathroom electronica. There are also gentler numbers with moody piano and delicate vocal effects. And some raucous squealing feedback guitar (like a womans wail) over Reichian arpeggiated synths. The overall effect is slightly creepy but mostly just wintry, melancholy and sad. Recommended.
It'll make no difference what we say about the new Animal Collective record, cuz most folks are gonna buy it anyway, so if you are so inclined, please just ignore us and buy it already! It won't matter to anyone that after a slew of amazing and ingenious releases including Panda Bear's recent sonically narcotic solo album Person Pitch, we found Strawberry Jam to be a bit disappointing and rather unsatisfying. Not that it's necessarily a bad record, but past AC records have always held a hazy balance between the wildly uproarious yelps and hollers of Avey Tare (Dave Portner) and the charged sunshine-pop reverence of Panda Bear (Noah Lennox); a kind of east coast/west coast yin-yang dynamic, which was on full display on AC's last full length, Feels, where the balance was sharply divided in half, with Avey Tare's song's on the first half and Panda Bear's on the second. On Strawberry Jam, that balance is tipped more heavily in Avey Tare's favor, which means it's more aggressively tight, but also relentlessly hyper, and spazzy. There are only a few hints at the looser dronier experimental vibe that Panda Bear usually brings to the table ("#1", "Derek", "Chores"), which is what always made their records great to listen to in the past. To use their title as a metaphor, Strawberry Jam is the main course being served here, rather than a sweet condiment that makes the rest of the meal memorable. Sure it's yummy and makes us deliriously giddy, but it also makes us queasy and bloated soon afterward.
First single off the latest Animal Collective release, Merriweather Post Pavillion. Features remixes by Dam-Funk, Leon Day aka L.D., and Zomby!
Back in print on vinyl, here's what we said about it back in 2004...
The mysteriously eccentric Animal Collective have returned bearing / baring their Sung Tongs. They continue along their quirky, meandering rough-hewn path, yet on this album they seem ever so slightly more focused and (dare we say?) accessible than on previous recorded endeavors. However, that's not to say that they're not plenty 'out there'. This 'Collective is definitely not for everybody. It just sounds as though they've set aside their eclectic genre palette (psych, jazz, prog, noise, etc) for the time being, keeping their sound for the most part within the mossy folk realm. Perhaps they've spent a stretch of time deep in the woods far from civilization? This does make for a much less haphazard, much less disarming listen than those of past A.C. releases. That said, odd details still punctuate the songs like cackling laughter, whooping vocalizations, textural ambient noises - hazily drifting in and out of lucidity. Furthermore, as if to not fully alienate those who dug their Here Comes the Indian and Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished / Danse Manatee releases, they end on a more characteristically strange note with the trippy track "Whaddit I Done".
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Initially, it's difficult to appreciate Water Curses on its own merits, and not as the follow up to staggering records like Feels, Sung Tongs, and Panda Bear's Person Pitch, whose influence on contemporary indie music will be felt for a long time to come. In this context, it falls flat, but if you can find the patience to discover it on its own terms, it's not really a bad little ep, and quite possibly even a good one. Fans of Panda Bear's distinctive croon will be disappointed however, as Avey Tare is at the vocal helm of every track, though PB's influence is certainly felt through the nobs and dials of his Dr. Sample. Truly, the title track is as perfect a piece of out-there pop as Animal Collective have ever made, barring perhaps the classic "Who Could Win A Rabbit." It's intoxicatingly catchy, and sends you through a captivating gauntlet of shifts in momentum leaving you delightfully exhausted. The remaining three tracks are all spare in comparison, but each with its own specific charm. "Street Flash" is spacious with sudden screaming accents, and some fantastically wacked vocal processing. Also memorable perhaps for its pathos-enriched lyrics including the standout: "Does anyone in here get hit with inside fevers?"
"Cobwebs" has its roots in sampling, with only a little bit of guitar work, but some fantastic vocal hooks, and exalted whoops and hollers. The final track, "Seal Eyeing", the only track that wasn't tracked in the Strawberry Jam sessions, is a gentle tour of aquatic tableaus and marine communiques, perhaps most noteworthy for its mournfully placid tone, a place Animal Collective hasn't really taken us since the latter half of Sung Tongs. Each song on this ep has its own distinct allure, but in comparison to the revelations embedded in the band's previous work, it's a bit limp. What's difficult to determine, is whether unseasoned ears would find this work as mesmerizing as earlier Animal Collective, or whether there really is something missing. We're not sure. But needless to say, Water Curses will get its far share of spins, if only because it is so damn pleasant.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
So... what would your answer be to the question posed in this record's title? Well our response would be another query, "who would want to if the bunny is the one in the cover photo?" He's a disturbing, evil clown rabbit, rivalling the one in Donnie Darko. Yikes! Anyways, this is the new single from eclectic eccentrics Animal Collective, a band you'd normally want to spend some time with, immersing yourself in their often quite strange musical world. And to be frank, the all-too-brief 7" single is not particularly the most conducive format to achieve this. Nor terribly economical. That said, what we did hear we liked quite a bit. The A-side is a typically ramshackle folksy singalong complete with off-kilter handclaps. The B-side "Baby Day" sounded like the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations" mashed through an odd tribal filter.
Loop-based one man band Animal Hospital (Kevin Micka) creates a mesmerizing and lush soundworld on this debut self-titled release. Chock full of post rock delights, warm swelling soundscapes, hypnotic arpeggiated guitar lines, pounding crunchy drum beats... And what's super cool is that he is able to replicate all of this live, all by himself! Armed with only a guitar, a drum kit and a shitload of loop pedals and effect processors, he builds these tracks from a single loop into a dense and triumphantly heavy postrock jam. Droney and dirgey and dreamily melancholy, Mr. Micka has produced an album that is at once angular and technical while maintaining a vibe of lonesome sadness, which ends up being pretty damn powerful and at moments, straight up beautiful. The actual recording is amazing as well (his engineering is on par with his soundcraft), producing a warm and glistening sound.
Great rainy day post rock!
**MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT**
Just wanted to get the attention of the growing legion of Mississippi Records obsessives, as this week we have not one, not two, but THREE new releases from this PDX based all vinyl, mostly reissue label.
The first we heard from Animals & Men was on one of the long out of print Messthetics compilations, and then again on the Hyped To Death disc Revel In The Static which collected almost everything the band recorded. A bunch of those tracks are included here, available on vinyl again, for a super limited time.
Animals & Men were a female-fronted DIY art/blues/punk from rural England, totally charming and catchy and homemade, comparable to Kleenex/LiLiPUT, Delta 5 and the Vaselines with a wide array of influences including black American blues...and the novels of J.G. Ballard!
Many touted them at the time as New Wave coulda-woulda beens, especially with patrons like John Peel and their long-time pal Adam Ant. Yet, obscure they remained, but that obscurity allowed wonderful idiosyncrasies to flourish in their songwriting.
The sound is irresistible, with sing songy vocals, simple tribal drumming, fragmented blues riffs wrapped in reverby jangle, and rubbery almost dubby basslines (and don't forget the harmonica). Groovy, hypnotic, punky, even a little bit funky, their sound, while pretty darn unique, wouldn't have sounded at all out of place in the early days of K Records or Kill Rock Stars.
Nice thick black and white sleeves, and a super detailed cardstock insert, with a song by song guide and lots of cool photos.
Here's one of the full-lengths mentioned in our review of the Messthetics Greatest Hits compilation last list, and it's also quite recommended. We first heard Animals & Men (named for an early Adam & The Ants Song) on one of the old Messthetics cd-r comps. Later Hyped To Death released a 21-song cd-r collection of pretty much everything that this band ever recorded both under the name Animals & Men and in their later incarnation Terraplanes. That disc has now been revamped, retitled, and reissued on cd, with four extra tracks tacked on! Plus a mpeg video clip of a live performance of "Evil Going On" as a bonus.
What're they all about? Female-fronted DIY art/blues/punk from rural England, totally charming and catchy and homemade, comparable to Kleenex/LiLiPUT, Delta 5 and the Vaselines. And that's right, their wide array of influences included black American blues...and the novels of J.G. Ballard, which would explain "Car Crash Blues".
The cd booklet features in-depth liner notes detailing the band's saga as New Wave coulda-woulda beens, with patrons like John Peel and their long-time pal Adam Ant. Obscure though they remained, that should definitely not inhibit but rather enhance your enjoyment of this collection, for lack of commercial success allowed wonderful idiosyncrasies to flourish in their songwriting.
PS. what's a Terraplane you might be wondering? It's an American automobile from the '30s, immortalized in Robert Johnson's "Terraplane Blues". And Animals & Men's "Terraplane Fixation".
We've always been suckers for mathy metal shred, in all it's variations, The Fucking Champs, Meshuggah, Pysopus, Scale The Summit, Electro Quarterstaff, and loads of others, and with that kind of sound, really the shreddier and more over the top the better, which is precisely why this new record from D.C instrumental prog metallers Animals As Leaders is kicking our asses so hard, beyond just the extreme instrumental shredding by all the players, the rhythm section KILLS, and is definitely a fine match for axeman Tosin Abasi, this is definitely not just about shred, their are actual songs, the sort that actually stick in your head. But those songs are only made that much better by some crazy catchy riffage, the dual guitars unwinding insane rhythms, not to mention some killer shredding harmonies, and some of the leads are just nuts, like Yngwie nuts. But like lots of prog metal nerds, these guys definitely have a thing for fusion, which creeps into a lot of the songs here, giving some of the jams a weirdly noodly metal jazz vibe, and they also incorporate some cool electronics, and some programmed rhythms (their first record featured all programmed drums apparently), and when the bass and guitars lock into insane noodly harmony shreds/leads, it almost sounds like some sort of alien krautrock.
You don't have to love Yngwie and Satriani and metal fusion and shred jazz to dig Animals As Leaders, but it helps. If you don't, you can just skip those fusiony parts and revel in all the rest of the wildly technical over the top mathprog heaviness.
The product of Jerry Cole, veteran Los Angeles session guitar player who worked with everyone from the Beach Boys and The Byrds to Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley, The Animated Egg was a fictitious band capitalizing on the "Now Sound" of sixties psychedelic pop. Like Hal Blaine's Psychedelic Percussion, Guitar Freakout was basically a corporately-funded psych exploitation record, but one that actually delivers the fuzzy and funky sonic goods! Of course, references to acid trips abound, but while a few songs are merely fuzzy and groovy takes on standard blues forms, songs like the hallucinatory heavy "Sock It My Way" and "I Said, She Said, Ah Cid" really show why this is a holy-grail for crate-diggers. This reissue features the entire album plus eleven bonus tracks from Cole's other psych-sploitation outfits, such as The Generation Gap, T. Swift and The Electric Bag and The Projection Company. If some of these tracks feel vaguely familiar, the producers of this record appropriated a lot of these same tracks for the 101 String's Astro-Sounds From Beyond 2000 adding even more and spacier string effects over the top of the originals. DJ's should definitely pick this up, and anyone else who loves wild psych-pop.
Following the incredibly tiny improvisations with carefully chosen sticks, rocks, and shells on his "Second Attention" solo album, the Seattle sound artist Jeph Jerman expanded those actions within the context of a larger ensemble called the Animist Orchestra with Dave Knott, Jeffery Taylor, Marina Granger, Mike Shannon, and Robert Mills. As before, the sounds on the Animist Orchestra's "Wuwei" are entirely caught up in the spontenaeity of the moment paralleling the pure, expressive goals of free-jazz. But as Jerman explained in the press release to the album, "the use of natural objects (stones, shells, pine cones etc.) as opposed to more conventional musical instruments, can help the players to not fall back on learned habits of musical play." The activities of Jerman's Animist Orchestra are sustained yet hushed rustings of those natural elements, unveiling a vast array of interwoven patterns and textures. Concentrated listenings are neccessary.
We went a little crazy for Aaron Spectre's Drumcorps project, a crazed manic electronic workout featuring live metal guitars and chopped to bits metal and grindcore, all mashed up into some incredibly head spinning, neck snapping, dancefloor destroying moshpit annihilating heaviness.
So the latest bit of Drumcorps brutality, finds Spectre teaming up with Bay Area thrashmetal titans Animosity for a 3 track one sided 10", which takes up right where the Drumcorps record left off and pushes this whole metal / electronic hybrid even further out. This time, Animosity wrote three tracks, and Spectre got to fuck them up. But weirdly enough, unlike on the last Drumcorps disc, where it sounded like a record assembled from bits of metal and grind and breakbeats, this disc sounds more like an Animosity record, where they just happen to be incorporating bits of jungle and techno and drill+bass and whatever grinding buzzing weirdness Spectre could come up with. And the results are pretty stellar. And its core, this is a grindmetal record, but the guitars are super clipped and processed, often stuttering and chopped up into impossible rhythms, the beats are revved up and transformed into frantic breakbeats, some of the super fast blast beats just keep getting faster and faster until they turn into impossible digital stutters. Huge riffs grind and churn, often separated by squalls of jungle, freaky beats, it's a mash up, but neither side is in control, it veers back and forth from metal to jungle to grind to breakbeat often exploding into everything at once. This is the sort of shit that could get us non dancers out on the floor. Or maybe get you dancers into the pit. Either way, fucking awesome.
And we talk about insane packaging all the time, but once again, holy shit, these guys are pushing the limits of how over the top you can get - eye popping full color screened sleeves, incredible, garish illustrations, inside and out, but it's the vinyl, some are clear and white swirled, some are red and blue and clear swirled, but then the non playing side features and abstract thick metallic ink silkscreened image, either gold or silver, it's hard to explain, but the first time we slipped one out of the sleeve, everyone working had to gather around to see.
CRAZY LIMITED. We got a bunch, but odds are these are the last copies we'll be able to get.
Two years ago, we discovered a one man band from Israel called Animus, who crafted a depressive buzz unlike any we had heard before. An incredible dirgey depressive landscape of blown out buzz, of layered whir, a sound that in other hands would sound downright blissful, but there was nothing blissful about that sound, it was miserable, melancholy, suicidal, dejected and despondent, the darkest of emotions rendered it varying shades of black, painted in varying degrees of buzz.
Two years later, Animus returns with another bleak sonic missive, another exercise in blackened buzz, but right from the start something is different. The record begins with hushed minor key steel string acoustic guitar, softly strummed, shimmery, until the buzz swoops in, and immediately locks into a static blast, the drum machine rigid and unswerving, pounding out a relentless beat, while the guitar is locked into a buzzy loop. Impossibly mesmerizing and hypnotic, exactly the sort of subtle transcendence we are always looking for in black metal. And so it goes, slipping back and forth from soft fluttery folk, to frenetic black flurry, until halfway through, after another brief soft interlude, the sound shifts to an impossibly dense doomy crawl, the guitar continuing to buzz furiously, but the drums slowed down to a tarpit crawl, and the vocals spewed out like some noxious black fog, gurgling and growling, a thick layered wall of droning sound. The deeper you sink, the further it moves from black metal, and the closer it gets to some experimental dronemusick. But even that only lasts briefly, before the song shifts back to the opening riff, and resumes its back and forth, only this time introducing extended pauses and haunting church bells. And that's just the opening track.
The next few tracks offer up some cinematic black ambience, soft piano, moaning strings, deep shimmering drones, muttered otherworldy invokations, folky steel string strum, hushed harsh vocals drenched in effects until it becomes crumbling streaks of distortion, before the vocals how and wail over the lilting minor key melody.
That tranquility is disrupted by a flurry of chaotic drumming and buzz drenched riffage, which gives way to a speeded up black krautrock, muted layered fuzzed out guitars, and impossibly fast blast beats, all over a pretty swoonsome guitar melody, and peppered with super random cymbal crash crescendos. Along stretch of incredibly deep rumbling blackened ambience, all subterranean drones and distant whirs, gives way to a haunting washed out final track, the guitars so blurred and smeared it's hard to even hear the riff, instead the guitars sway back and forth like black swells, the drumming spare and a bit off kilter, the vocals a raspy croak, the tone of the track not heavy or grim or brutal, as much as weary and worn, the sound of spirits slipping into the darkness, of the world slowly falling to pieces, the sound of stars blinking out, leaving a vast expanse of utter blackness, rendered in sound, it becomes a woozy whirling almost seasick dirge, with muted militaristic drumming, and a gorgeously thick and viscous soft focus roiling sea of warm languid buzz. So gorgeous and abject, so dreamily depressive, and so fucking amazing.
Similar to our neverending quest for the ultimate in demented and damaged black metal weirdness, we are also constantly on another quest, a search for the darkest, deepest, most depressive, massive, emotional, suicidal, bleak, utterly hypnotic, droney and transcendental blackened BUZZ. We sometimes do find it, but then it's not too long before we need more, and so we begin the search again. Sometimes it's harsh high end and brittle upper register shimmer, other times it's murky low end chest rattling rumble. But we tend to lean toward the fuzzy and lo-fi, the super thick, the dense and foggy, smeary smudgey and washed out. A black metal that instead of borrowing from Burzum (sigh) or Darkthrone (yawn) finds sonic inspiration in My Bloody Valentine, or M83 or even in Jeck or Basinski or Hecker or Fennesz. A buzz that is just not guitar distortion, but is instead a glacier, or a wall, or a swirl, some sort of densely striated monolith, each layer a fuzzy piece of the larger dream like whole. Past masters of the BUZZ, who were able to satiate our hunger, include Velvet Cacoon, Xasthur and Make A Change... Kill Yourself, and on the more doom drenched BUZZ side of things, slower but no less BUZZy, Celestiial, Skepticism, Corrupted even Boris.
Then there are the non metal, but still incredibly heavy masters of the BUZZ, Hjarnidaudi, Nadja, Asva, The Angelic Process...
We could go on and on and on. Needless to say. The BUZZ, and thus the drone that is inherently part of it, is critical, crucial, without the BUZZ, music, nay life! Would have no meaning.
So thus we have the latest in a long line, a member of a mysterious sect known only as Keepers Of The BUZZ. Sworn to their sacred duty, passed down from generation to generation.
Animus is the name used by a young man from Israel, who has chosen the vessel of Animus, with which to protect the BUZZ. And to protect this sacred sonic disruptor, he has fashioned one of the most amazing records of ultra bleak, super personal, fuzzy and muddy, blown out and blissed out (in sound only, certainly not in mood) dirgey midtempo black metal we have heard in ages. Lilting melancholy riffs and simple drum machine rhythms are buried under a super thick wash of murky ambience, a bit like the warm fuzz of M83, but with all the sparkle and shine scrubbed off, leaving a burnished blackened gloom, hugging the lurching riffs like a dense morning fog, every element sounding muffled and distant. But this isn't really lo-fi at all. The sound here is dense and thick, heavy and strangely lush, The all encompassing and mysteriously overpowering BUZZ is draped over all of the other elements, the drums and fuzzed out riffs, drifting and pulsing, throbbing and beating, always nestled snugly beneath the surface, only the distorted howls come close to piercing the black sonic veil. Soundwise, Animus remind us of Thergothon and Skepticism, but where as those bands trudge at a truly funereal pace, Animus tends toward the midtempo, a relentless drone drenched black metal, harsh and harrowing, mournful and miserable, but so absolutely and stunningly beautiful.
Essential for all worshippers of the BLACK BUZZ!!!
This "live" drone recording is the debut solo cd from Berlin-based installation artist Thomas Ankersmit, who has previously collaborated/played with the likes of Phill Niblock, Tony Conrad, and Kevin Drumm. One single 39 minute track, this is some dense, abstract, trance-inducing drone indeed, and certainly sounds like more than a mere one-man operation. Ankersmit's drones are like multiple trains running on more or less parallel tracks, diverging and then joining together again, racing ever onwards towards a self-generated brilliant white light at the end of the tunnel.
There's some squeal and squiggle to these sounds, that arise from their origin within Ankersmit's saxophone - that's right, he plays the sax, so these are saxophone drones - but there's really only a few places where you can tell for sure the source is a sax, thanks to all the electronics and processing involved. In addition to alto sax, Ankersmit makes use of a computer, analog synth, and pre-recorded reel-to-reel tape. So his sax is set amidst much mysterious glitch and crackle, and takes on an ominously distorted, grinding quality that's quite unlike what you might expect to hear from a saxophone. Although it makes sense that he's also had some sort of association with the notoriously noisy sax and guitar outfit Borbetomagus, the music here isn't assaultive, and far from free jazz, no, it's simply, or perhaps not so simply, a gorgeous and varied dronework, one that passes through some quieter stretches of eerie subsonic hum and hiss, while ultimately massing towards the end into full-bodied solid drone purity, blissful and glorious. Pretty darn satisfying, we think our fellow drone-heads will agree. Looking forward to hearing more from Mr. Ankersmit as well. Recommended!
A very interesting split LP for several reasons, not the least of which being the almost 20 years separating the two recordings. Thomas Ankersmit is a young composer, who splits his time between the saxophone and analogue synthesizers, having spent a good portion of his young career touring the globe with Phill Niblock. His performances are as transcendent as they are physical, with him tugging and re-plugging patch cables into his modular synth at a dizzying speed all the while generating a refined blur of arcing drones and potent electricity. Despite the sax, jazz, this is not! In many ways, Ankersmit's loping compositions resemble those early pieces by Jim O'Rourke, especially his impressive Scend and Tamper albums from the early '90s. So perhaps that's why a contemporary Ankersmit composition got teamed up with an archival (and possibly unreleased until now) piece from O'Rourke from that very time period.
Ankersmit's piece incorporates both sax and synth, with cracked electricity fizzing and popping with electroshock capacity only to be consumed by a laser beam of analogue synth tones swarmed by searing hiss of white noise. The saxophone appears as a sustained squawk of circular breathing techniques with the edges thoroughly roughed up by a litany of distortion pedals. O'Rourke's piece seems to be all guitar, with a midrange distortion enveloping the choppy riffs that eventually coalesce into a thick morass of drone-dirge that looks forward to the likes of Ambarchi and O'Malley, although not nearly as heavy. We've been told this is rare. We've been told this is limited. We can tell you this is great!
Keren Ann's fifth album, the follow-up to her U.S. breakthrough album the English and French sung Nolita (as well as numerous inclusions of her songs on TV programs), is sure to win her more admirers. While all of the photos we've seen of her have presented her in a dewy waif light, her voice, lyrics and music are actually much more womanly. This English sung self-titled album easily secures her a plush seat alongside the likes of distinctive female singers such as Beth Orton, Beth Gibbons, and Hope Sandoval. Perish the thought, but you can also hear the potential for a more mainstream appeal a la Dido or Norah Jones. All eeeks aside though, this is lovely.
The UK's Anna Planeta (a band) presents a double cd of recordings they made in a derelict Catholic school house that has been empty since 1980. The band improvises on a number of acoustic instruments and guitars powered by cheap battery powered amps in the once-grandiose assembly hall of the school that is now filled with shattered glass, empty beercans, and spent glue-sniffing bags. It sounds like any number of, to use our coined terminology, "pipe fight" or "lithium drone" bands (No Neck Blues Band, Organum, or Skullflower) recording one of their albums with the microphone right next to a electric transformer or a buzzing light bulb. Very nice work, combining improv "outsider rock" with atmospheric environmental recording. Oversized silkscreened cardboard packaging, and a nice price for 2 cds!
We first heard Annapurna Illusion on a split with looped psychedelic drifter High Wolf. The weird thing was that we discovered the guy in High Wolf as also the guy in AI, but his (?) side of the split ended up being one of our favorite jams for sure. So when we discover that Rocket was releasing a full length by 'em, we were pretty excited, and if anything, the new AI sounds like a perfect fit for Rocket, not sure if it was coincidental, or if AI whipped up some sort of space rock for the occasion, or Rocket heard this new spacier AI and knew they had to have it, hardly matters really, what matters is what comes out of the speakers when you set the needle in the groove. And what comes out is some super drugged out psychedelic mesmer, an even more minimal and abstract take on the Wooden Shjips / Moon Duo axis, the sounds more obviously looped, but layered and repeated and woven into sprawling stretches of murky and washed out, rhythmic space rock drift. Sort of. The tracks never truly launch into total space rock, instead they hover right this side of it, creating tense druggy stretches of krautrocky ambience, and minimal psychedelia, simple motorik rhythms pulse within clouds of swirling effects and distorted looped guitars, a few of the track veer away from the space psych swirl, dipping into creeping organ driven dronescapes one second, and more abstract and laid back Spacemen 3 like dirgery the next, rife with effects and tribal percussion and swirly shoegaze guitars, but the finest moments, which do make up the bulk of the record, are when the band lock into that psychedelic spaciness, and unfurl epic expanses of drugged out, blissed out space-psych-loop hypno-drift. So great. Our favorite thing on Rocket lately, along with Teeth Of The Sea's Your Mercury lp (which we just got back in, too)...
Super swank packaging, and pressed on see-through maroon vinyl.
Another fantastic batch of looped psychedelic mesmer from High Wolf, this one a sidelong sprawl, a 4 part epic of swirling electronics, Eastern melodies, warm whirling buzz, all wound around muted looped propulsive rhythms, a smoldering spaced out new age krautrock drift. Slipping drowsily from soft swirls of layered thrum, laced with tablas, to hazy, hiss-laden warbled melodies, almost sounding like Philip Jeck spinning Eighties 7"s on a phalanx of old beat up turntables. With wah wah guitar drifting in and out, the is sound psychedelic, and a little bit dubbed out, eventually blossoming into a glimmering starfield of blurred blissy sonic sparkles and blooping bleeping electronics, draped over an ever shifting backdrop of thrum and hum. The side finally culminates with a chorus of childlike voices drifting above a churning bit of psychedelic whirl, a gorgeously and hypnotically playfully choral outro.
The big surprise here though, might have to be Annapurna Illusion, who we had never heard before (and it seems is actually the same guy behind High Wolf weirdly enough), but whose sound is incredible, a wash of thick warm buzzy drones, layered loops and dense synth shimmer, all pulsing and undulating in a bleary eared expanse of alien FX and gauzy atmospherics. The sound is thick and mesmerizing and almost heavy, but stays just soft and washed out enough to keep from slipping into guitar dronedirgedrift territory, instead, hovering someplace much more abstract and psychedelic. The looped mesmer very reminiscent of a less cacophonous more mediative Our Love Will Destroy The World.
The buzz gives way to soft swirls of downtuned chords, and avalanches of descending tones, all over an hypnotic loping looped rhythm. The last stretch takes the above mentioned sounds, and adds some seriously synthy-sci-fi swirl to the mix, not to mention a surprisingly Sabbathy guitar riff, but all blurred into a dreamy druggy chunk of drowsy looped psychedelic dronemusic. Awesome.
Here's Annie! Cruisin' along in her '80s dance pop revival mobile with the top down and the stereo on 10. The songs on Anniemal are not unlike modernized versions of those by formulaic party girl combos the Belle Stars, Bananarama, Men's Room or early Madonna, but Annie's also got the additional cache of being from Norway. Oooh! Unlike other current female dance music singers (such as Kylie Minogue), Annie's tracks are far less slick and hugely produced and considerably more heavy on the saccharine. She floods the dancefloor with lip-smackin' marshmallow fluff. There's a time and place for the deliciously vacant, and it seems like that time is now. We could get all grumpy about this and dismiss it as yet another force-fed hipster flavor of the day, but really, how would you rather expend your energy during these summer months? Dancin' yer ass off or stompin' your foot in disapproval?
Grab a brew, it's Annihilation Time! This is their third album (duh) but their first for Tee Pee (and thus the first we've heard, even though they're from right over in the East Bay... must mean we're more stoner rock than punk). The standard issue spiel about AT is that, as you might have guessed from their name, they're big time Black Flag and Bl'ast! fans, crossing over into the retro-thrash movement, with some classic '70s cock rock moves a la KISS or Thin Lizzy thrown in. Think fellow retro rockin' Oaklanders Drunkhorse, but more punk and skater-ly.
So, do such blurbs tell the truth? And if so, does this supposed hybrid of Deep Purple and D.R.I. sound better on paper than on your stereo? Well check out the twin guitar leads towards the end of track 2, "About To Snap", there's shades of Iron Maiden's Smith/Murray right there, and you'll find plenty more in the way of tasty '70s/'80s metallic guitar action elsewhere on the disc, usually smack in the midst of some much more basic, punk styled riffage... while their music ain't rocket science, it is definitely some good times rock n' roll. Not the second coming of anybody, but still a neat mix of elements, glorious guitar harmonies coexisting with hoarse punk rock vox... even if it's hard to know if we're supposed to be pogoing or headbanging. It can't quite approach the shreddingness of their live shows, but it's fun nonetheless.
Last night we were playing this in the store and the consensus amongst customers and staff is that The Anniversary sounds like a mix of Modest Mouse, Rainer Maria, PEE and the Get Up Kids. Makes sense since this is on the Get Up Kids' Heroes and Villains label. Dueling girl/boy vocals over angular melodic shards. Super catchy. From Lawrence, Kansas.
Yay! It's been a while since we last heard from these dandy emo popsters - and actually the last time we did (2002's hyper-dramatic pop album Your Majesty) we weren't quite sure where our hearts sat with them - but this double disc of odds'n'ends compilation has renewed our warm fuzzy fondness for them. It's been about five years since the band split, and our indie emo pop itch has been in need of a good scratch! Heck, we'll even ignore the questionable omen that crossed our paths like a black cat when researching the band recently - the first thing that popped up on Google was a listing on the Hot Topic store website! Yikes. Anyhoo... pert, pretty, poppy and unfalteringly earnest, The Anniversary kept us all of us bopping along in our collegiate thrift store cardigans and Converse sneakers even if only in our imagination. Nestled into the punchy punky pop assembly of guitars, bass and drums you'll find fancy frills from woozy keyboards and violins, but it's the slouchy anxious boy/sweetie pie girl vocals that seal the deal! The contrasting voices were definitely a defining factor in the genre itself (you can hear it these days in bands such as Vancouver's Young & Sexy and Immaculate Machine). Disc 1 features b-sides and rarities from 1998, and disc 2 spans the quintet's career from 1999 through 2003 (including a cover of John Fogerty's "Lodi"). Awww, The Anniversary, we still heart you!
What the hell happened here? The Anniversary has poised themselves as the heir apparents to the emo / power pop throne now occupied by labelmates the Get Up Kids, yet with their second album "Your Majesty," these kids from Lawrence, Kansas suddenly think they're Noel and Liam, constructing a bombastic album of baroque pop with lots of harmonizing choruses, extended guitar solos, dramatic piano chords, and distant nods to The Pixies and Supertramp. This record was a real slow burner. In the beginning we all hated it, wondering what happened to our emo pop anniversaries, but the more we listen, the more we began to understand. I began catching Jim or Cup listening to it when they thought no one was the wiser. And Windy is pretty much playing it nonstop in her car: http://aquariusrecords.org/windyscar.html. So now, we give it a thumbs up. The only bummer is the one guy singer who whispers in a earnest croon and ends up sounding lame. Outside of that, they're probably the best Brit pop band America has. A few painfully public inter-band squabbles and loads of coke and the sky's the limit!
Thought we had this band figured out during the first song, but we weren't even close!
From that track's aggressive youthful male angst vocals and bristly guitars, The Annuals turn on a dime and deliver some of the sunshiniest West Coast-y perfect pop! Comparisons to Modest Mouse and Built To Spill will invariably pop up, but The Annuals manage to come up with way more than the mere hero worship that taints many a young band. They bring other variables into the shuffling mix which on their own aren't particularly original but together make Be He Me sound super fresh. Cool.
Thrashy noisy hardcore GONE METAL?! Woo Hoo! Seems like all those punk kids have GONE METAL. But who am I to complain? I mean, I -do- like metal more than punk. And this -is- good, just not terribly groundbreaking. Think equal parts, Coalesce, Converge,
Sometimes the hardest records to review are the good ol' regular rock albums. Whether it's good or not, saying "2 guitars, drums, bass" just isn't scintillating reading. So how to express how thoroughly enjoyable this new Anomoanan record is. Hm. And this from a band that's, well, never made such a good impression on me before -- I found their earlier efforts unremarkable but with "Asleep Many Years...", the band's __th record, it's all come together. Led by Ned Oldham (yep, brother to Will Oldham, who makes several prettily broken-voiced appearances here, and producer Paul Oldham), the band plays with a tuneful confidence resulting in an instantly classic sound -- the music is a familiar AM-radio sort of lite rock, with lovely warbly harmonies, a southern country rock vibe reminding me of my favorite Bread, America, Eagles and Neil Young tracks. Yeah, it's that good! Excellent, accessible hooks augmented with the occasional sweet cowbell clock-clocking, twangy slide guitar, organ and sweet viola. Give the soundclips a try -- the songs will instantly grab you, if'n you're inclined to love the abovementioned bands as well as Tom Petty, Robbie Fulks, Handsome Family, Richard Buckner, etc. And DEFINITELY get this if you're a Will Oldham fan at all -- it's like Palace only "easier to talk to". Recommended by Windy and Cup!
2002's Anomoanan release Asleep Many Years in the Wood was, in my opinion, their high point, but this li'l EP ain't bad either. Led by Ned Oldham (yep, brother to Will Oldham), the sound is a familiar AM-radio sort of lite rock, with lovely warbly harmonies, comforting harmonica, and sleepy guitars. But while Asleep... had a rockin' cowbell knockin' vibe, Envoi Villon is a less hook-ridden, more laid back affair remarkably similar to Will Oldham and other downer twang outfits like Songs:Ohia. Lyrics on the four songs are all by Francois Villon, the oft-jailed, 13th century renegade French poet.
MPEG Download: "Ballade of Good Doctrine to Those of Ill Life" [/audio/anomoananballade.mp3]
My oh my! Already a new release from The Anomoanon! Their last album The Derby Ram (released just a few months ago) was a fine, drifting atmospheric soundscape-y work that, after hearing this new full length, now seems to have been more of a brief detour rather than the previously suspected complete change in direction. Joji brings Ned Oldham and co. back to their more song-oriented past with its very '70s California rock sound -- more akin to Eagles, Tom Petty and Fleetwood Mac than their formerly more Grateful Dead jam leanings. Although the album's pretty solid from start to finish, the album's best one-two punch comes early with the second song "Leap Alone". It's a fine example of the band's range, starting out all slow, frail and despairing and then breaking into a more rockin' clip. The tempo stays at that pace for the third song "Mr. Train". On both numbers the band's unmistakable somber vocal and guitar harmonies are in top form. Those bleary, expressive vocals are truly an Oldham family trademark. Sure to please the clan's many fans.
23 Mother Goose rhymes set to vaguely British-Isles-style folk by Ned Oldham, Will's brother.
Ned Oldham (Will's bro) sets quaint children's poetry by R.L. Stevenson to music, with the help of, among others, Aram Stith, Will Oldham, Paul Oldham, and Dave Pajo. No, Long John Silver does not make an appearance, but poems like "Land of Nod" and "Fairy Bread" are delightfully rendered in musical form. For ages 3 to 30, and up...
On their sixth album, Anomoanon rises with the sun, waking you up not with a rooster's call, but with the perky, flute-y sounds of the tune "Little Birdy". Then, they lead you out the garden gate and beyond. This folky acoustic album is the aural equivalent of a lengthy roaming stroll that takes you through overgrown bushes, across rolling fields and into dried up creekbeds. It meanders with no specific destination in mind and pausing every so often to gaze at the clouds or to stumble across some lyric fragments to "Scarborough Fair". Revisiting their feathered friends later in the album, the fifth song "Mary Had A Pretty Bird/Bluebirdy Jam" gently drifts away from traditional song structure and melody into rootsy jam territory -- a return to their past Grateful Deadish tendencies. Broodingly strummed and picked guitars form much of the instrumental foundation of each song with an occasional faint undercurrent of noodly keyboards. A worthy follow-up to their excellent 2002 full length Asleep Many Years In The Wood.
