An amazing lost artpunk artifact from the early eighties San Francisco punk rock scene, and we're talking really lost, as no one we know had even heard of these guys, but from the very first note we were smitten.
The opener is a super spare and spacious bit of post punk dub, subtly groovy, a throbbing new wave bass line, sounding like Gang Of Four or Interpol slowed waaaaaaaaay down, a simple krautrock beat peppered with handclaps, some dissonant guitar clang and a bit of moody post rock strum and jangle, with the occasional huge dissonant wash of atonal horns. Dark and creepy and almost danceable at times, that is if your dance of choice is some sort of zombie shuffle.
The other three tracks are not nearly as spare, but have the same sort of angular clang and low slung groove, the vocals sort of sung spoken, the rhythms loping and tribal, guitar harmonics ringing out, bits of angular riffage, vocals very reminiscent of Slint actually, laconic and buried way down in the mix. Stumblingly propulsive, the mix occasionally engulfed by some weird low end swell and some damaged electronics, the whole thing lurching and lumbering amidst a swirl of off kilter guitars and dubbed out ambience, it's sort of like Gang Of Four mixed with Slint mixed with This Heat. Which, we hardly need to tell you, is a very good thing indeed.
More black metal cassette tape madness, this time from mysterious Japanese horde Arkha Sva, who offer up a series of super grim, ultra murky buzz drenched black rituals. Channelling the spirit of the black legions, Mutiilation, Belktre, Vlad Tepes, this is fierce and furious lo-fi blackness, the buzzing guitars a muddy swirl, the drums a throbbing murky pulse, all underpinning guttural strangled vocalisations, a swirling fuzzy black missive to the dark lord, there are some strange sonic surprises tucked away, like the WAY louder-than-everything-else high pitched scream and weird falsetto wailing in the first track. But for the most part this is just an awesome, droney blast of murky black buzz that is as hypnotic and space-y as it is blown out and brutal.
Arkha Sva are another one of our favorite black metal bands, who for whatever reason, have yet to appear on out list save for one solitary cassette listed way back in 2006. But holy shit, these guys are amazing, from Japan, these guys, along with aQ faves Avsolutized (who it's rumored might share a member or two) as well as Manierisme, make up a whole scene that seems to be lurking well beneath the underground, but we can't imagine for long, as the music of these bands is mind blowing, at once beholden to the BM that came before, but so much its own entity.
Arkha Sva create a soundworld both buzzy and murky, lo-fi, with tangled arrangements, droney blasting blackness, so super atmospheric and evocative, managing to be grim and buzzy, but also haunting and intense, with some of the most insane vocals ever, a wildly operatic shriek, that will later define the band's sound, but here only pops up once or twice, more often existing as a harsh howled hellish growl.
This disc collects two early tapes from 2005, and finds the band much more raw and primitive and rough, the sound only hinting at the more outsider and avant elements that would surface later. But in 2005, Arkha Sva were creating super grim, ultra murky buzz drenched black rituals. Channelling the spirit of the black legions, Mutiilation, Belktre, Vlad Tepes (one of the Black Legions members does all the cryptic calligraphy on AS records!), this is fierce and furious lo-fi blackness, the buzzing guitars a muddy swirl, the drums a throbbing murky pulse, all underpinning guttural strangled vocalisations, a swirling fuzzy black missive to the dark lord, there are some strange sonic surprises tucked away, most notably the aforementioned WAY louder-than-everything-else high pitched scream and weird falsetto. But for the most part this is just an awesome, droney blast of murky black buzz that is as hypnotic and space-y as it is blown out and brutal. They even do a couple covers, Mutiilation and Belketre!
So so so recommended. And we suggest you do whatever you can to get everything you can by these guys, and we can guarantee that their next full length will be an epochal moment in black metal. People freaking out over Paysage and Darkspace and whoever else might just find themselves switching their allegiance.
And check out this awesome live clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpuBqeCdOCM
More operatic and buzzing grim black metal madness from Japanese horde Arkha Sva, who team up here with a French BM band called Winter Funeral who we had never heard until now. More on the Arkha Sva tracks in a moment, odds are most aQ black metal freaks are already sold by the two exclusive AS tracks anyway, but Winter Funeral definitely deserve their due. This is some seriously twisted bizarre blackness. The track begins with almost indie rock sounding jangle and some tribal sounding drums, all beneath gorgeous choral hymns, a strange combination, but it sounds amazing. Creepy and haunting and really beautiful. A shirked vocal joins the fray, and the choral vocals drop out... leaving some frantic buzz, and then the band lurches into some more traditional blast and buzz. The sound is murky and muddy and muted, the vocals a grow, the guitar weirdly pretty, sounding like Alcest or Amesoeurs, until the screams return, maniacal almost operatic howls, which is what stylistically ties these bands together most, as Arkha Sva employ even more over the top operatic shrieks, but the bands do make a good combo. The end of the Winter Funeral track finds the weird minor key indie jangle returning, but this time all tangled up with the harsh demonic vox.
Then comes Arkha Sva, and of course, both tracks utterly rule. Fuzzy and blown out and a little lo-fi, chaotic drumming and tangled atonal riffage, and an insane array of shrieks, almost veering into Bathtub Shitter territory for a minute. But then the song breaks down into some cool convoluted, cinematic stop start thing, epic and strange, very dramatic and soundtracky, reminding us of a more black metal Devil Doll or Death SS. The second track is a creeped out doomy plod, the guitars anguished and jagged, the vocals a continuous howl / growl / gurgle, it almost sounds like black metal Black Flag, before the track explodes into more frosty grimness, the guitars a churning swirl, multiple vocals all over the place, growls and shrieks and another feral wail that's entirely over the top.
So fucking awesome. Equal parts traditional black buzz and fucked up far out blackened weirdness. We only got 15 of these, and it's been out for a little while so, once we run out, not sure we'll be able to get more.
Holy shit, does Arkha Sva just keep getting weirder and weirder and better and better! These Japanese black metal freaks begin this latest assault with a tripped out swirly psychedelic intro, before the band launch into some super twisted POST-black metal, a loping super dramatic almost cabaret sounding avant metal, with super over the top crooned clean vocals, the guitars washed out and buzzy, the only hint of troo blackness are the occasional flurries of double kick, until finally those insane Arkha Sva vocals swoop in, impossibly high and totally operatic, a little eighties metal, soaring and shrieking, the band following suit, blasting into some filthy pounding blackness. The track's twisted and gnarled, and totally epic, with those vocals, easily the most amazing in BM, and this song is most definitely the best thing we've heard from these guys which is saying A LOT.
Woods Of Infinity counter with their own take on twisted dramatic blackness, super melodic metal with lots of synths, totally catchy, but all over the map, the vocals freaked out and manic, slipping from nearly spoken to crooned to shrieked, while the music soars majestically in the background, from midtempo Lifelover style black pop to almost symphonic sounding black metal, all the while the vocals never letting up. The second WoI track is a creepy abstract drift, all acoustic guitars, monk-like chanting, and more of those dramatic vocals, haunting and freaky, dark and mysterious and really cool.
Packaged in a super swank gatefold 7" sleeve, LIMITED TO 666 COPIES (of course), each one hand numbered...
Careful students of the works of European avant-progressive rock giants Magma and Univers Zero might be excited, or at least curious, about this new Cuneiform release. Arkham was a very early '70s Belgium-based prog band featuring drummer Daniel Denis
If you're a fan of Finland's Circle and/or their various offshoots (and if you're an aQuarius customer, chances you are!), then you know all about the NWOFHM (New Wave Of Finnish Heavy Metal), the invented sub-genre self-classification that many of those bands embrace, as a somewhat tongue-in-cheek way of incorporating various heavy metal signifiers that they're fans of, into their sound and image. Although even at their most "NWOFHM", Circle, Pharaoh Overlord and the rest still usually come across more proggy and poppy and WTF? than actually metal in most cases. Very few of their records could be mistaken for "real" metal albums, in their entirety - maybe Steel Mammoth's Nuclear Rebirth lp?
But this new NWOFHM unit, a project of Circle mainman Jussi Lehthisalo and his pal Samae Koskinen (a live member of Finnish grind freaks Xysma), is definitely (in our authoritative opinion!) a real metal band. A weird one perhaps, when you read the lyrics and look at the artwork, but metal first and foremost. The iron gauntlet is thrown down right on the opening track, the pounding "Cult Of No Return" (you'll find a video for it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjlLMCSZ_kk), which reminds us a bit of the the "black n' roll" approach of Norwegian kings Satyricon, circa such albums as Volcano and Now, Diabolical. Or at least, this sounds more like Satyricon than Circle, for sure. We're also reminded a bit of the Finnish melodic death metal band Sentenced, back on their long-forgotten NWOBHM (note the B, not an F) influenced Amok opus from '95. And this aggressive (yet also atmospheric) attack by the Akhamin Kirjasto duo continues, for ten varied tracks in total on Torches Ablaze. There's hella old school evil riffing a la Venom, some lashings of symphonic synths, and a dose of (melodic) death metal brutality in the form of the gruff (but intelligible) vokills from Samae, singing in English about such subjects as "Synthetic Death", "Knights Of Torment", and a "Bitch From Hell". Though, he changes up to a more clean style on the likes of "Sea Of Madness" and others, giving a whispery death-gasp on the speedy "Thousand Snakes", a track that could possibly have fit in on Circle's Katapult album. The Lovecraftian thrasher "Speed, Yog Sothoth" is another blazing ripper, albeit laced with unexpected weird noisy breakdowns, Jussi's avant-garde/experimental leanings coming to the fore without violating the essential metalness of this one.
Overall, Torches Ablaze is certainly something that Circle fans should check out, but is maybe more for actual metalheads. Since we're both, of course we're digging the results here, the weird atmosphere that arises from Arkhamin Kirjasto's unusual blend of chugging metal shred, majestic spacey psychedelic synthwork, and the harsh but catchy vox doused in reverb. As NWOFHM goes, if their tongues are in cheek here, they're well hidden. Hail!
Better be ready to bang your head, 'cause here's a brand new 7" single from this badass band, the (self-proclaimed) "Finnish Kings of Lovecraftian Hard Rock & Death Metal". It contains three tracks, about such subjects as undead priests and sadist wizards, recorded during the same sessions that produced their debut full-length Torches Ablaze that we reviewed not long ago (cds and vinyl of that are both still in stock and highly recommended too). Arkhamin Kirjasto, if you didn't know, is a(nother) side project of Circle, featuring Jussi Lehtisalo, a man as prolific as he is talented, and whose Collected Solo Works cd is in fact our Record Of The Week this week. This band basically combines the the spacey Gregorian monk chant sound of early Circle with what the crusty heshers in Darkthrone have been doing lately, so it's for both space rockers and church burners - but definitely on the more metal side of that equation despite some experimentation. The filthiest of '80s and '90s extreme metal is referenced, trad old school metal too, and we hear a hint of Ghost B.C.'s successful Satanic pop sound as well, at least in the incantatory title track here, which utilizes both slowly grinding evil riffage, and epic vocal choirs to hypnotizing effect.
Limited to 500 copies, adorned with cool cover art depicting the Lovecraftian 'Arkham Library' which is what their name means in Finnish.
Another fantastic bit of electronic dronescaping, this one from the mysteriously monikered Arkhonia, which is apparently one half of a UK collaborative project called even more mysteriously, jz-arkh. We couldn't discover much else about these guys (or this guy) but it hardly matters, this is some gorgeous and heady deep listening, melding pop ambient shimmer, with Eno like drift, long form LaMonte Young style sonic exploration and hushed modern minimalism. Long stretches of muted buzz and smeared abstract melody, all gauzy and hazy and dreamlike, notes are stretched out and laid atop one another, creating, gently undulating expanses of murmured whir and crystalline hum. Soft squalls of hissing white noise are smoothed out into the dreamy white noise of waves on a beach, all blurred into a slowly shifting cloud of pixelated grey wash, tinkling melodies ring out and sunk beneath warm sonic swells, chopped and looped subtly into something approaching a rhythm, but dissipating before achieving any sort of momentum, instead left to drift and float and hover. Some moments definitely remind us of the gorgeous aquatic sounding digital errata of Oval, all warped and woozy overlapping skippings and skitterings, while others are pure warm sound, peppered with bursts of what sound like strings or chords, suspended in some sort of sonic ether.
The closing song suite creates a swirling dramatic cloud of almost sci-fi sounding tension, with deep swells of processed organs wrapped in a hazy psychedelic halo of smeared soft focus gauze, before finishing off with another sculpted white noise soundscape, the hiss and static creating indistinct shapes and textures, obfuscating a creeping low end whir, which eventually overtakes the white noise, unfurling to the finish with a Raster-Noton like field of minimal click and hum. Awesome.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Dutch duo Arling and Cameron provide the soundtrack to your next space age bachelor pad party. Lots of nineties-style smooth beats on top of lounge music, breathy sixties girlpop-style vocals. A crowd pleaser, but I swear, this imaginary film soundtrack business has got to stop....
A few things you might want to know about Armageddon (this band/album, not the Biblical battlefield of the Apocalypse described in the Book Of Revelations, and presumably depicted on the album cover, with the longhaired band lounging about smoking cigarettes in the foreground):
1) Despite the name, it's not a really heavy metal. Recorded in 1974, you could certainly call it "proto-metal", though, as well as "heavy progressive".
2) Don't confuse 'em with the other proto-metal band with more-or-less the same name. That band spells their name with two g's and one d. This band spells their name with one g and two d's. That Armaggedon were from Germany's krautrock scene, this Armageddon were a UK-USA sorta supergroup.
3) Their singer was Keith Relf, originally of The Yardbirds and later Renaissance, and this was his last recorded project before his tragic death from electrocution whilst practicing guitar in '76.
4) On drums, was Bobby Caldwell of Captain Beyond. There's some extra proto-metal cred!
5) And perhaps most importantly, this band included 2 ex-members of British bluesrock act Steamhammer, guitarist Martin Pugh and bassist Louis Cennamo. Steamhammer's best and proggiest album, Speech, is a long-time AQ fave in the heavy prog / proto-metal genre, recently reissued and relisted here not long ago. If you dig Speech, you'll also want to hear Armageddon, in fact, they open up here with a completely rippin' song, "Buzzard", that's adapted from a track on Speech.
6) According to the sleeve, Cennamo claimed to be the "originator of the electric bowed bass guitar".
7) Armageddon's sole, self-titled album has been newly reissued on cd by the Esoteric label, superseding the previous (and hard to find) Repertoire edition, with nicer packaging.
8) Oh yeah, it totally kicks ass and rocks hard, while maintaining an aura of psychedelic hippie higher-minded mysticism. We mentioned speedster "Buzzard", then there's "Silver Tightrope" and "Paths And Planes And Future Gains", both of which sound kinda like a combination of Yes and Captain Beyond, in different and complex ways. "Last Stand Before" is a rollickin', almost funky one too, and then the album wraps up with the four-part epic "Basking In The White Of The Midnight Sun", full of fierce fuzz, percussive bombardment, and some of the heaviest harmonica soloing this side of Sabbath's "The Wizard". What with their pedigree, Armageddon had a knack for breakneck (and quite catchy!) bluesrock riffage, like we said rippin' from the get-go of "Buzzard" through to the finale of "Basking", energetic and exuberant throughout but for the occasional calmer bit of reverie (like on "Silver Tightrope") wherein Relf takes the listener for some lovely astral trippin'.
9) We recommend it, especially to all proto-metal, heavy prog fiends! You know who you are, if you like Captain Beyond, Steamhammer, early Wishbone Ash, Wild Turkey, Tarkus, Toad, early Deep Purple, etc...
That's it. If you want to know more, there's always the liner notes, so buy the disc!! Then you'll get to hear the whole thing too.
Now that doom legends Reverend Bizarre are dead and gone, main clergyman Sir Albert Witchfinder has time to dabble in about a dozen other projects, such as this one, primitive raw black metal outfit Armanenschaft. Sir Albert is in fact known as Ancient Fisherman here, as he and his partners Morbid Necrovore and Hyperborean Princess whip up a furious squall of filthy fucked up black metal. Most of the tracks are fast and furious, brutal and buzzing, although the record begins with a super spacey tripped out Tangerine Dream style synthscape before launching into some ultra raw necro buzz. The guitars are totally blown out, ultra distorted, relentless D-beat drums buried in the mix, the vocals a harsh howl that just as often slips into a super strange strangled wail. Super simple, super stripped down, Repetitive and hypnotic, definitely for fans of Bone Awl, Ildjaarn, Ash Pool, Akitsa and the like.
BUT, there's plenty of weirdness going on too. Long stretches of buzzing black noise, some slower doomy tracks with warped, almost twangy guitars, over looping rhythms and growled vocals, plenty of droning alchemical guitar rituals, crumbling dirges, and hissed inhuman vocals. One of our favorite tracks is one that is just drums and vocals, the drums super processed and locked into a looped D-beat, pounding away, the vocals maniacal and hysterical, going from shriek to moan to mumble to scream, and sounding like some possessed muppet. WOW. But even with all that weirdness, the core of the record is stripped down raw primitive black metal, thrashing and pounding, which we totally love. The weirdness only makes it that much better.
Hail the Ancient Fisherman. Highly recommended. Vinyl only. VERY LIMITED.
Lincoln, Nebraska. America's heartland. Corn Huskers. Saddle Creek (technically Omaha, but whatever). Now bear witness to the spastic grinding futurist attack of Armatron. Veterans of the Midwest hardcore-metal crossover scene, the newly expanded quartet has been slowly perfecting their brand of mutant electro pummel. Two basses, one drummer and an army of synths spit sonic venom in the vein of The Locust (as Armatron mastermind Lux had a short lived stint with said groop), though with a more powerful low end rumble. A long overdue followup to their split disc with Cattle Decapitation and Ticwar on Toyo's "The Science Of Crisis". Hopefully we haven't heard the last from these kids. More to come? Incredibly hilarious artwork by J. Vonwolf (also responsible for the Erase Errata cover art).
To truly enjoy this dvd, from Fred Armisen, he of Saturday Night Live fame as well as bit parts in numerous funny big time Hollywood movies, and before that the drummer for Trenchmouth (remember them?), you need to either be a drummer, or have seen one of those super cheesy drum instruction videos. Preferably both.
Set up like one of those videos that seem to be playing in a constant loop on the tiny TV set on the counter at Guitar Center, Armisen plays European fusion rock drummer Jens Hannemann, complete with accent, pony tail, soul patch, and sleeveless t-shirt. He performs some awesomely and brutally cheesy fusion jams, with his equally cheesy band, his drumming purposefully unfunky, and retarded. Not bad, just "Advanced" in a way few of us can handle! The songs are so bad, it's almost impossible to sit through them, but it's worth it, as after each track, Hannemann breaks his drum parts down, into totally nonsensical patterns, made up drum techniques, ridiculous time signatures, and he'll play it, then demonstrate it and count it out, then play it again totally different. The he'll play it fast, and then slow again. Hard to explain why it's funny, you really need to have seen some drum videos to get it, but if you have, you will.
The screen is peppered with various bits of useless information (like "0 bpm") and shots of his stumbling double kick work, and of course sweeping shots of his MASSIVE kit (at one point he says "of course, I hope you have 17 toms like me" as he's demonstrating some complex and shitty tribal tom jam).
These bits of drumfoolery are peppered with Armisen's other alterego, an East Coast, journeyman drummer, with a thick accent, who teaches us how to tune a snare, hold you sticks, and of course play a reggae groove. So dumb, and so goddamn funny. Also included are several pages of musical notation, which start out sort of playable, but by the final page, the notes are so dense, it's almost a solid black rectangle or an Asci program gone haywire.
Recommended for EXTREME drum nerds only.
Some metal records truly stand the test of time. Sounding as good now as they did when you first heard them. And rare is the record that sounds as good at 36 as it did at 16. But if you ask the metalheads around here, we all agree that Armored Saint's March Of The Saint is one of those records. Part of the same L.A. scene that produced W.A.S.P., Quiet Riot, Dokken, Malice, Ratt, and Motley Crue (Tommy Lee was almost a member of Armored Saint), Armored Saint were somehow a whole lot heavier, blending the thrashy sound of Metallica with the melody and songwriting of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. Plus you got John Bush, who has to have one of the best metal voices EVER, not one of those soaring high eighties metal voices, instead a super raspy, melodic croon, that managed to be both rough and melodic at the same time. It was hard not to love the Anthrax records that featured Bush on lead vocals (well, okay, not that hard) but in Armored Saint everything just clicked. A lot of it of course had to do with the songs. Every one packed with hooks, killer leads, amazing riffs, kick ass drumming, unforgettable choruses, one of the best metal records of the eighties for sure. Not sure what else to say. This is one of the few records that we've been listening to for basically the last 20 years. In fact, all of us have it on our iPods as well, and every time it comes on, it's sort of an unspoken truth, that it gets turned up so we can all revel in the metal majesty of March Of The Saint.
As with all the Rock Candy reissues (including the Billy Squier reviewed elsewhere on this list), there are tons of liner notes, interviews with the original band members (who strangely talk mostly about how disappointed they were with the album), rare photos, and three bonus tracks, 24 track demo versions of "March Of The Saint", "Mutiny On The World" and "Seducer" (one of Lars Ulrich from Metallica's favorite songs!).
We raved about the last Armpit record (they were known then by the more regal monicker Thee Armpit) which demonstrated the Armpit as being one of the few outfits boldly and successfully carrying on the rich NZ noise rock tradition of bands like the Dead C and Gate.
This record continues in the same vein, mining the past for reusable noise artifacts while giving things their own unique spin. Murky, dirty rumbling riffs, spread out all thick and nasty like hot tar on toast, with yelped indecipherable vocals, bound and gagged by filthy sheets of white noise, droning amp buzz, ominous soundscapes dotted with scattered percussion and obscured sheets of wild feedback WAY in the distance, slow motion sort-of-garage-rock with hardly-there melodies and impossible-to-tap-your-foot-to rhythms, gritty crackle and hum with gutteral frog-like vocals, and warm walls of thrum and fuzzz, like a more lo-fi Sunroof! So nice.
We love Thee Armpit. Don't get to type that nearly enough, but it's true, this NZ drone combo, the strangely named Armpit, is in fact one of our favorites, every record we've gotten our hands on has offered up a bounty of dark and drone-y delights, and this one is no different. Well, actually it is a bit, in that we've actually had these here for quite a while, they somehow found there way into a corner in the closet and were only unearthed now after maybe a year or more of slipping through the cracks. All that means is that there's a good chance these might be impossible to restock, and very well may be out of print, so if you're a fan of Thee Armpit, like us, then do yourself a favor and don't dawdle, cuz these will most likely disappear right quick.
But if you do manage to get your hands on one, you'll be in some serious lo-fi free drone soft noise heaven. These guys have been known to rock out Dead C style now and again, but this disc tends toward the more introspective, long washed out fuzzy drones, fractured bedroom folk, all strummed guitar and tape hiss, warbly music box drift, super spare folky drift, fractured tape experiments, all very murky and muddy and woozy and gauzy and dreamy and weirdly pretty. Armpit freaks (c'mon, you know that's you!) are gonna want this for sure. But anyone into the folkier Dead C stuff, the Finnish forest folk, and all the sort of bedroom lo-fi 4-track stuff will definitely dig this as well.
Again, CRAZY LIMITED, get one while you can...
It's been ages since we've heard from NZ combo Armpit (also occasionally known as Thee Armpit). Past releases�(on PseudoArcana, Celebrate Psi Pheomenon and Pink Skulls)�have been huge faves around here, and this latest seems to be no different. Armpit seem to thrive when given plenty of space to stretch out, when allowed to sprawl, their bizarre blend of dreamdrone and murkpop and thudrock is transformed into something otherworldly and divine, trancelike and intense, epic and gorgeously confusional.�
Their finest moment as far as we're concerned was their double cd The Praying Mantis, two plus hours of strange and wondrous sounds for sure, but now we have what might be the ultimate Armpit document (never thought we'd ever type that phrase), a massive FIVE cd-r set, 4+ hours documenting Armpit's strange musical universe. The set opens with a 12 minute Dead C like free rock jam, so very murky. The various instruments are hard to separate from one another. It's like a strange organic being, made up of percussive thud and rumbling feedback, mumbled voices and the smeared whir of distorted guitar, but with a glorious pop core, glowing in there, buried under layers of hiss and crunch. And while the record swerves and veers all over the place, the sound of this track is sort of a touchstone to which Reach Out always seems to return.
Over the course of the five discs, the sound drifts widely from the aforementioned murky blurry free rock, to blissed out folky jangle, to super abstract raga like skree, to billowy soft focus drone, often some strange tangled blend of all of those. Blissed out, meditative, dreamy, hypnotic, occasionally abrasive, always fascinating and just so goddamn good. Fans of stuff on either PseudooArcana or Celebrate Psi Phenomenon will find this to be essential for sure, and anyone looking to get gone in some mystical murky world of strange sound could hardly do better than this one right here.�
The packaging is as mysterious as the music within. All the cd-r's packaged in multicolored sleeves, with what seem to be bits of found art, includes an insert/poster, almost no liner notes at all, no song titles, all housed in a sewn fabric bag. And as if we even needed to tell you, limited as all get out...
Latest from this NZ noisemaker, and only the second actual cd release (the other one Butta Days is out of print) after a ton of cd-r's. Armpit is the work of one Clayton Noone, who also plays in CJA and the Futurians, but unlike the minimal droney drift of CJA and the fractured new wave of the Futurians, Armpit, is, as the name might suggest, dank and dark and sweaty and, well you get the picture, Armpit is all free noise and abstract sonic experimentation, we've been blown away by pretty much every Armpit record we've heard, including a massive 5cd-r set, so we were super psyched to get our ears around this one. And it's another sprawling expanse of strange sounds and mysterious noises, expertly woven into thick layered soundscapes and abstract clattery anti-songs.
The title track, on first listen, sounds like a soft cacophony of clink and clank, but soon rhythms emerge, a strange minimal lo-fi industrial loop, laid over a strange moaning foghorn melody, and lots and lots of tape hiss, soon the clatter dissipates leaving a warm hissy expanse of drone-y murmur and distant electronics, that eventually coalesce into a bit of skittery drum programming. Weird. "Rainy Romm To Room" is a warped organ driven slow jam, all mumbled vocals, atonal melodies, detuned guitar, woven into a sort of Wreck Small Speakers kind of ballad. "Whiskey Bottle" is like a low tech stab at some sort of SUNNO)))-like sludge, almost pulled off except for the fact that any noises near the microphone reveal that the recording is from the back of the room on a handheld recorded, which only makes it sound cooler, not to mention the mysterious drop outs, and occasional voices. "You & I" is another sort of ballad, all aggressively strummed acoustic guitar, and weary crooned vocals, muted percussive thumps, and a sweet sad melody. "Hung Burning" is another live one, and is another HEAVY one, a noisy feedback drenched Dead C like chaotic noise jam, which quickly gives way to album proper closer "A Strange Girl", a brief lo-fi bedroom folk, plastic pail percussion dream jam, all hazy and warm and washed out. So nice.
As a bonus, tacked on to the end is an 8 track, nearly 20 minute ep collecting various recordings from the late nineties up until 2001, featuring more of the same, a dizzying mix, of fractured lo-fi anti-pop, dense collaged soundscapes and thick swirling soft focus noise...
Another missive from Pink Skulls, the label started by Glenn Donaldson of Jewelled Antler /Thuja / Skygreen Leopards / etc. for stuff that was too punk or weird for JA. And boy does this certainly qualify, a New Zealand noiserock tag team of unprecedented proportions. First up is Pumice, whose recordings sound like they were played through a tin can in a cave and recorded on a microcassette recorder. And that's a good thing! The first track finds Pumice turning G.G. Allin's "I Want To Fuck Women" into Pumice gold, fitting perfectly with his other two tracks, hyper distorted ballads, guitars so distorted they threaten to stop being guitars, while melodies waver and wobble under a wild wash of delay and hiss. Good stuff. We raved about Thee Armpit a few lists back, and even though they've dropped the Thee from their name, they still whip up some serious treble (like trouble, get it? Oh forget it.) Deliberately strummed guitars amidst clouds of angrily hissing shortwave, songs rendered completely unrecognisable by the thick patina of buzz and skree and battered equipment-malfunction glitch. Seriously speaker shredding. And great.
This unfortunately monickered duo make up for the name, with a wild and woolly sound, raw and noisy but dreamy and soothing at the same time. Carrying on the tradition of 'classic' NZ noise ala the Dead C / Gate, TA take instruments, REAL instruments, and spread them over our ears in a thick and prickly, warm and sticky, pummellingly beautiful mess of sound. From thud rock dirge, to outer sound explorations, to almost-pop, to deconstructed rhythmic workouts, to shoe-gazey space rock, all filtered through that distinctly noisy NZ lo-fi aesthetic. Really really great. Two cd-r discs in a nice handpainted cover, with some truly strange comics inside.
Here's one to sink into! The new album from Cambridge, MA's Arms And Sleepers is the perfect instrumental soundtrack for golden sunrises and amber sunsets. For its approximately half hour running time, the gentle ebb and flow of Bliss Was It In That Dawn To Be Alive effectively slows your day down. This is envelopingly sumptuous, airily expansive ambient music with world-y beats not heard since the heydays of Dead Can Dance, Delerium or Enigma. Very hypnotic and soothing.
On the same label as Air Traffic Controllers is this NYC jazz improv duo (sax and drums). They have an Vietnam-era anti-war theme going (via the song titles, artwork, brief spoken bits, and samples) but it's hard to tell if that's more of an aesthetic choice or really what they're all about. Either way, an interesting listen.
Precious modern classical merged with that certain Icelandic grandiose post-rock sensibility.
That magical air in Iceland continues spawn some of the most soaring and beautiful sounds found anywhere on the globe. At just 21 years old, Olafur Arnalds is emerging as a strong voice in a new wave of modern classical inspired majestic sounds. On this, his debut full length, he employs strings, piano, guitar, organ, melodica and subtle ambient electronics at times, to create incredibly rich and lush sounds. Inspired by everyone from Eric Satie, to John Luther Adams, Kronos Quartet to the Rachels and even Godspeed You Black Emperor, as well as, of course, his countrymen Sigur Ros who he's often perfromed with live. Somber and elegant and packaged beautifully with artwork that compliments the kind of fragments of memory his beautiful music evokes.
Dark Out is a dvd by indie filmmaker Chris Arnold, and the 45-minute film features the music of many fond, familiar SF faces... Jolie Holland, Sonny Smith, Mark Growden, Sean Hayes, Ara Anderson, Virgil Shaw and Mark Eitzel to name a few. Certainly worth getting for the music alone which fits well with the visuals, a contemplative, grainy, black and white film shot in the yes, dark depths of night.
Icol Diston is a collection of the the first three 12"s from Berlin's Arovane, who in his brief career, has succeeded in recreating the melancholic IDM / electronica of Boards of Canada, Autechre, and Markant. Arovane is at his best when maintaining a repetitive flow of counterpointing minor-key melodies alongside sputtering breakbeats, but tends to lose focus when dropping the structures of his music in favor of floating ambience and fluttering basslines. Mastered entirely from the vinyl editions of these tracks "to preserve the original sound quality."
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Arovane's debut is a fitting complement to the rainy day electronics of Boards of Canada. Arovane set up downer IDM rhythms that have slowed down considerably from the mid-tempo algorithmic skitter of his earlier Funkstorung-esque singles. "Tides" is filled with seaside ambient washes and Durutti Column like guitar plucks for an album focusing more on moody timbre than rhythmic exposition.
In Light is the sublime debut solo effort from local musician/writer Alexis Georgopoulos who has been a stalwart presence in many amazing bands around these parts including A Tension, The Alps and, until recently, Tussle. The tumultuous break from the latter band has worked in Georgopoulos' favor as we're not sure he would have delved as deeply into this project, as it is so far removed from Tussle's infectious party grooves. Instead on In Light, he channels the warmer elements of seventies German electronica (Cluster, Eroc, Popol Vuh), and the more organic qualities of twentieth century composition (Terry Riley, Jon Gibson) to make an album that has the strange effect of moving while standing still. Even Roedelius from Cluster has given his blessing by remixing an Arp track for an upcoming single release. Like the picture of the sunset on the cover, let Arp's warm and effervescent rays of sound wash over and envelop your psyche. Recommended!
Latest offering from Alexis Georgopoulos's outfit Arp, which this time around moves away from pastoral kosmiche electronics and leans toward Brian Eno-inspired full-fledged pop songs with vocals. In fact, on a surface listen, you might think More was a long lost recording from Eno's Before and After Science period dug up from the vaults. But those who are familiar with Georgopoulos's sonic aesthetics from his early work in Tussle and The Alps know that his influences are played up in loving and dedicated homage and not as easy hipster pastiche. Nowhere was that more apparent than with his RVNG collaboration with Anthony Moore a few years back. He's well aware that if you are going to channel inspiration from important music that you need to make your own efforts stand apart and More succeeds in being a great pop record. And while the spirit of Eno looms large, what More really taps into is a zeitgeist of exuberant '70s art rock from the likes of John Cale, Judy Nylon, Anthony Moore, Robert Wyatt and Chris Cutler. It's a sound that has seemingly gotten little retreading with as much attention to detail as Georgopoulos lays down here. The songs are both beautifully lush and light as air. One might call it baroque-pop minimalism. So good!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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This brand new ep by Alexis Georgopolous aka Arp (previously of Tussle and The Alps) cements the retro-fueled art-pop tendencies of his last album, More, with the atmospheric textures of his earlier work into something more fluid and immediate. What drives it along is the use of a full band (More was a multi-tracked solo affair), and that not only gives it a much-welcomed sonic heft, but allows for a more organic and unpredictable flow. The meteoric guitar noise from Alps bandmate Jefre Cantu-Ledesma bathes the tracks in a luscious shoegazed sheen, channeling Tiger Mountain era Brian Eno and propelling it outward into the stratosphere. There is definitely a more cosmic feel here, less kosmiche and more electric, propulsive and magnetic, boosted by the addition of a Le Revelateur remix that reminds us of an instrumental La Dusseldorf track passed through the Harmonia blender. Quite Stellar!
The second full length release from Arp (aka Alexis Georgopolous from Q+A and The Alps), not including the very fine collaboration with Anthony Moore released earlier this year, The Soft Wave expounds and expands upon his stellar debut, In Light. The kosmiche synth textures from that release that harkened back to Cluster and Harmonia are still evident, but the compositions are stronger and more complex. The frame of reference has widened and one can hear touches of the instrumental works of John Cale and David Bowie as well as bits of fourth world Brian Eno and Debussy. But Arp uses these familiar qualities as departure points into his own refined world of space and sound that he builds upon with a dynamic sense of warmth, pattern and texture. There's even one vocal track, "From A Balcony Overlooking The Sea" that alludes to a progression yet to come. We're looking forward to it!
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For the third in the series (or second, because we don't think there was actually a Vol. 1) of collaborations between new bands and their older progenitors, we get this beautiful collaboration between Arp (Alexis Georgopoulos of The Alps and Q&A, and formerly of Tussle) and Anthony Moore (Slapp Happy, Henry Cow). Inspired by Moore's early and little heard minimalist compositions from 1971's Pictures of a Cloudland Ballroom, rather than Moore's later art-rock leanings, the duo build upon old and new material, utilizing piano, cello, synth and tape manipulations into eight pieces of gorgeously placid minimalism. Two of the cello based tracks are dedicated to Robert Wyatt and Arthur Russell and you'll hear their influence as well as shades of Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Eroc, and Franco Battiato. The final song, "Slow Moon's Rose" is the only vocal track, sounding like a lovely lost Slapp Happy outtake sung by Georgopoulos instead of Dagmar Krause. A far cry from the last collaboration in this series between Excepter, Chris & Cosey and J. G. Thirlwell, but one with more depth, as it feels like a true collaboration between two mutually inspired artists rather than a couple of interesting remixes. Highly Recommended! And ultra limited!!
We've said it before but it bears repeating, what is it with French black metal?! How is it that there are so many amazing bands? Like Norway, France has carved out a distinct and recognizable vibe and sound, and become a black metal powerhouse, so much so that just being from France gives a band some serious grim cred, and it's often well deserved, cuz really, the ratio of French BM that rules versus the ones that suck is pretty impressive. Thus we have the enigmatic The Arrival Of Satan, who besides being from France, have one other distinction that will no doubt endear them to faithful readers of the aQ list, they hail from Grenoble, not necessarily a black metal hotbed, EXCEPT for Diamatregon, and by extension, the various non black offshoots, Aluk Todolo, Gunslingers, GR & Full-Blown Expansion, and as might be inevitable in a scene as small as Grenoble's, The Arrival Of Satan just so happens to feature former Diamatregon drummer, Krukka!
But don't be expecting any sort of weird progressive freaked out psychedelic blackness, like Diamatregon's recent Crossroad masterpiece, the sound of Vexing Verses owes much more to the previous DMTRGN opus Blasphemy For Satan. It's a similarly face melting blast of furious buzz and blown out heaviness, the riffs a dronelike blur, the drums frantic and pounding, always on the verge of collapse, the vocals hysterical and hellish, but within this blurry blast lurks all sorts of weirdness, bizarre convoluted song structures, lurching start stop tempos, bizarre production, some of the tracks, even though they're buzzing and blasting away, manages to sound simultaneously warm and sort of pretty, the guitars will throb and pulse, sometimes dropping out entirely, leaving just the drums to pound away briefly, before lurching back into action, giving the sound a sort of woozy seasick vibe, the riffs are gnarled and twisted, atonal and off kilter, lending a sort of warped avant quality to the sound as well.
On the surface, Vexing Verses does indeed come across as a blazing blast of satanic slaughter and grim black fury, but beneath the blast and howl, the crush and pound, lurks a melted black heart of twisted pop flecked blackness, fucked up Burzumic buzz and a distinctly French, totally twisted what-the-fuck mentality. Grim and black enough for the true, freaky and far out enough for the rest of us...
Yes, ex-SLAYER drummer, Dave Lombardo drumming furiously along to VIVALDI. Simultaneously amazing and ridiculous. Produced by Alberto Contini, who some metalheads might remember as A.C. Wild from Bulldozer (Italy's answer to Venom). Highly recommended. Sort of. One of those completely uncalled-for projects like, uh, well I can't think of one quite like this actually. Note: the Vivaldi is not "arranged for thrash-metal", "switched-on" or anything like that - it's straight operatic classical Vivaldi with The Great Lombardo incongrously adding his trap kit double bass stylings... Apparently inspired by a real encounter that Vivaldi himself had with a Cuban percussionist several hundred years ago (Lombardo is Cuban-born). Possibly the ultimate novelty record of the year (1999) so far!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Another warehouse find, dug up a little stash of this stunning 2004 debut from technical melodic death metallers Arsis, and holy shit is this stuff intense and fierce and complex and brutal and incredible.
Explosive grinding blasts of ultra tech blackened crush give way to impossibly melodic classic metal style leads, lumbering knuckle dragging death metal chug blossoms into In Flames Gothenberg style melodic blowouts, tons of killer harmonies, incredible drumming, super mathy and insanely convoluted, super atmospheric too, loads of melody, even during the heaviest, least melodic parts, some smidge of catchiness is lurking in there somewhere. The breakdowns are brutal, roiling and churning, peppered with squealing pick harmonics and wild solos, the vocals a howling rasp, and the songs, sprawling and mathy and majestic, and super proggy, tons of parts, all woven together into weirdly catchy melodic death metal epics, laced with all manner of hook and melody, a relentless onslaught of furious super catchy ultra heaviness, think In Flames, At The Gates, Dark Tranquility, Heartwork era Carcass, Dissection... Needless to say, this STILL totally rules, and sounds better 6 years on than about 90 percent of the heavy music out there...
Hip hop on Matador! One of the songs: Lt. Worf & Chewbacca!
Bushwick, Brooklyn-based Arsonists release their second album. Apparently the trio of MCs have a really loyal following, but maybe that's based on their live shows cos I find their rhyming a little clunky and stumbling, somehwat awkward and kind of obvious. If
Finally! The Art Box sees the light of day. A gorgeous boxset from one of the most influential / seminal / legendary art-rock bands ever. For those out of the loop, the Art Bears featured guitarist / composer Fred Frith, drummer / percussionist Chris Cutler, and vocalist Dagmar Krause. This boxset contains the band's first three albums (Hopes & Fears, Winter Songs, The World As It Is Today) all remastered and gussied up. Also included are two discs of remixes and reworkings from Christian Marclay, Ground Zero, the Residents, Biota and loads more. And finally a whole disc of unreleased rarities!
We love Art Brut. Their first record, Bang Bang Rock & Roll was an awesome slab of Fall worship, complete with angular guitars, caffeinated grooves, and the singer's snarky ironic sung/spoken vocalizing, sounding like the hipster bastard child of Mark E. Smith. Their first hit from that record, "Formed A Band", took the piss out of plenty of bands, but was pretty self deprecating at the same time. The line "And yes, this is my singing voice, it's not irony, it's not rock & roll, we're just talking to the kids" pretty much says it all.
The second record was a bit of a let down, seemed a little milquetoast, a bit watered down, there were definitely some killer moments, but not nearly enough. Vs. Satan however finds the band kicking ass once again, the music is as always, total bouncy new wave pop, the guitars jagged and crunchy, the drums propulsive and frenetic, a sound that definitely falls in line with sonic compatriots like the Arctic Monkeys, Maximo Park and the like, but it's the vocals that really set this apart. Imagine The Fall (there's no way around mentioning the Fall with Art Brut) if they were in their twenties or very early thirties right now, and were raised on, well, The Fall among other groups, and sang about comic books and milkshakes and being accused of never growing up and girls and other bands and public transportation and not having a driver's license and other mundanities of modern life. Sounds stupid, and maybe it is, but it's also goofy and good fun, often clever, cheeky, snide, but just as often tossed off, but fuck it, these guys aren't trying to change the world, they're having a good time, making an awesome racket, and we're having a great time listening to it. Plus these songs are wicked catchy, just listen to the opening one two punch of "Alcoholics Unanimous" and "DC Comics And Chocolate Milkshakes" and see if you're not totally sold. Two of our favorite new wave pop jams of the year for sure.
When you first put this on your stereo, it might almost have you convinced that it's some lost '80s British post-punk band, that is, until you zero in on the lyrics. Majorly hipster, irony-laden, clever-clever phrases spoken-sung in such an over the top British accent that it nears jokeish Mark E. Smith impersonations. In the first song "Formed A Band" there's even a reference to it -- "And yes, this is my singing voice, it's not irony, it's not Rock'n'Roll, we're just talking, to the Kids." Pretty silly stuff playing dress-up in The Fall's closet. But still pretty darn cool. Funny rock anecdote / rumor: Art Brut's first single was on Rough Trade, who were also planning on releasing their full length, that is until supposedly one of the Rough Trade head honchos went and saw them play, decided they were the worst, most amateur rock band he had ever seen and had them promptly dropped from Rough Trade!
