Another gorgeous collection of blissed out ambience from local label Time Released Sound, this one from a TRS vet, Mr. Wil Bolton, whose Quarry Bank release was a big hit around here, and who in Ashes Of Piemonte, is teamed up with another like minded soundmaker by the name of Lee Anthony Norris. The two together have conjured up a broody bit of haunting minimalist drift, one that's not that far removed from what we're discovering is a sort of "Time Released Sound SOUND", and while each band has their own distinct take on THAT sound, at its core, it's typically an ethereal, ephemeral ambience, neo-classical dronescapery that's softly psychedelic, hushed and mysterious, almost new agey at times, an electronic flecked dreaminess that blends organic and machine generated sounds into something lush and lovely. Winter's Fire though takes that TRS sound and darkens it a bit, adding an overcast patina, the sound more grey and rainswept, low tones rumbling and shimmering beneath crystalline flecks of glimmering melody, hazy swaths of voice like synth floating weightless above softly thrumming chordal swells, the sound almost choral in places, very cinematic, wistful and melancholy, a weary, washed out sprawl of delicate moody mesmerism, drifting spectrally through field recordings of rainfall, mysterious echo drenched samples, and ghostly voices, all of which seem to fade eerily into the gauzy shimmery backdrop Bolton and Norris so effortlessly weave. Fans of other Time Released Sound releases will most definitely not be disappointed, but folks into sounds darker and dronier, might just want to give this one a try, a perfect mix of hushed haunting ambience, ominous cinematic soundscaping and dark droning drift.
As with all Time Released Sound releases, Winter's Fire comes in two versions, one a pricey ultra deluxe package, and less expensive standard one. The deluxe version this time around consists of a stamped and printed page from a 100 year old apothecary's ledger, complete with all the original hand written prescriptions, the page has tiny twigs woven into it, and the whole thing is tied with antique string, to which is attached an old brass clothespin. All of that is then housed in an antiqued envelope, printed and distressed with ash, ink and pastels, then hand stamped and sealed with wax. WOW. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES, we have but a handful. The Standard version is less limited and comes housed in a simple printed paper sleeve, slightly smudged and distressed.
The latest release from local label Time Released Sound comes via the UK duo Ashlar, who traffic in a hazy, dreamy ambience, a field recording flecked sprawl of spidery crystalline guitar melodies, lush chordal swells, and blurred dronedrift shimmer. Softly looped passages seem to gradually decay, revealing all manner of textures beneath, each track here dreamy and ethereal, tending toward the hushed and minimal, but in places blossoming into dense droning buzz or keening high-end skree, but always settling back into something much more serene and tranquil. The fuzzy gauzy sound reminds us of Philip Jeck or Tim Hecker for sure, but the music is more in line with Jasper TX or Machinefabriek, darkly delicate, lushly woven soundscapes that manage to be both haunting and cinematic, melancholy and slightly sinister, the field recordings, giving many of these tracks a slightly paranoid vibe like an alternate modern score for The Conversation. Gorgeous stuff.
As with all the TRS releases, there are two versions. There's the ultra deluxe version, in this case, limited to just 80 copies, and we only have a small handful, each one housed in an original old school 'clock dial' hobby store style package, with the original (slightly modified) clock dial decal, as well as a series of reproduced prints of (slightly altered) drone related projects from the imagined Ashlar Industries. Also included is a sticker, old aerial photographic ephemera, and of course an actual cd (not cd-r) housed in a hand printed and stamped envelope. And of course there's the standard version, which is simply the cd in the hand printed / stamped envelope, that one is quite limited too this time around, just 70 copies!
The latest release from local label Time Released Sound comes via the UK duo Ashlar, who traffic in a hazy, dreamy ambience, a field recording flecked sprawl of spidery crystalline guitar melodies, lush chordal swells, and blurred dronedrift shimmer. Softly looped passages seem to gradually decay, revealing all manner of textures beneath, each track here dreamy and ethereal, tending toward the hushed and minimal, but in places blossoming into dense droning buzz or keening high-end skree, but always settling back into something much more serene and tranquil. The fuzzy gauzy sound reminds us of Philip Jeck or Tim Hecker for sure, but the music is more in line with Jasper TX or Machinefabriek, darkly delicate, lushly woven soundscapes that manage to be both haunting and cinematic, melancholy and slightly sinister, the field recordings, giving many of these tracks a slightly paranoid vibe like an alternate modern score for The Conversation. Gorgeous stuff.
As with all the TRS releases, there are two versions. There's the ultra deluxe version, in this case, limited to just 80 copies, and we only have a small handful, each one housed in an original old school 'clock dial' hobby store style package, with the original (slightly modified) clock dial decal, as well as a series of reproduced prints of (slightly altered) drone related projects from the imagined Ashlar Industries. Also included is a sticker, old aerial photographic ephemera, and of course an actual cd (not cd-r) housed in a hand printed and stamped envelope. And of course there's the standard version, which is simply the cd in the hand printed / stamped envelope, that one is quite limited too this time around, just 70 copies!
Medicine Fuck Dream is the debut recording for the Texan ex-patriot Greg Ashley, who now calls Oakland his home. With the current roster of multi-faceted psychedelia spread throughout Northern California (i.e. Jewelled Antler, Six Organs Of Admittance, Kelly Stoltz, etc.), the East Bay seems well suited to Ashley's druggist songwriting. Yup, the whole album seems to be cast in a fog of pot smoke; but, Ashley's craft is in pulling together a great range of influences from the haze and turning it into his own. Big Star stands strong in his pantheon, as does the Opal / Mazzy Star sound of dreamy troubaour folk. A couple of the tracks reflect Syd Barrett's flair for the stumblingly comical, but always cast under the doped-to-oblivion spell of Spacemen 3. Ashley's fluttering whisper of a voice may not be the finest in the world, but his eccentric production with massive Joe Meek reverb bathing some of his tracks and fizzling tape hiss on the others, more than makes up for what he lacks on that front. A great debut!
Greg Ashley has a sound and knack for songwriting that's wise way beyond his years. His records with his excellent band The Gris Gris and his debut solo outing a few years back prove his ability to write songs that are both smart and trippy, rocking and subdued. He's been compared to Roky Erickson, who casts a mighty long shadow, yet one of Ashley's greatest strengths is how he always makes it sound so easy. There is an effortless and natural grace to the way Ashley's songs are delivered that never feels forced or calculated, but instead sounds like they've been locked in some deep vault for decades just waiting for someone to discover. Painted Garden reveals a more acoustic and seductive side to Ashley's songwriting, demonstrating that there are other ways to achieve psychedelic states without relying exclusively on freakouts and feedback. Painted Garden is filled with elegant songs that should definitely appeal to fans of Vetiver and Yo La Tengo. Ashley is by no means a one trick pony though, his willingness to explore different sides of his songwriting persona is something we can't help but love. "Sailing With Bobby" has such a wonderful and dizzying melody, it immediately made us think of Sonic Youth's "Little Trouble Girl". We think it's safe to say that no matter what the current trend in the indie music scene might be (freak folk, psych rock, indie pop, etc.) Ashley will continue to make music his own way, transcending all the hype and thriving for a long time to come!
We're beginning to consider Greg Ashley to be one of the most underrated musical minds of the past decade. Whether with his band The Gris Gris or on his own great solo recordings, Ashley has demonstrated so much versatility and creativity in conjuring up the most sublime psychedelic sounds. Requiem Mass And Other Experiments is an instrumental outing that finds Ashley crafting a powerful work that evokes the dramatic and kaleidoscopic side of Ennio Morricone, the winding prog odysseys of Bo Hansson and the more cinematic moments of Pink Floyd, like on More and Obscured By Clouds. But Ashley has a distinct and instantly recognizable guitar sound and knows his way around swirling melodies, so that the sound becomes totally his own. And even beyond his own instrumental prowess, Ashley is able to set all of those other elements in such a warm and intimate sound. It's no surprise that so many Bay Area bands are turning to him to record their records, because he really does understand the beauty of analog warmth and is uniquely able to capture a timeless quality in overall sound. While it's a sprawling, pastoral and haunting ride, what makes Requiem Mass And Other Experiments such a satisfying listen is the way in which Ashley also understands restraint and constantly displays such exquisite taste. Its paced so well and ends before you want it to, which in our book is always a good thing, because then you want to go on the ride again and again instead of burning out on an overstretched vision. So good!
This record really just makes me mad. Robert Ashley has composed "Dust" to be a polemic on the lost conversations of homeless men and women. It's not really clear if Ashley's lyrical content is the collected results from homeless poets or if it is Ashley's fictionalization of the plight of the homeless. But the potential for the class-based argument that a wealthy white man fabricated his own stories of what it means to be homeless is the least of his problems. First off, this patronizing piece of high moralism falls not far from those classic ABC after school specials on why taking acid is deadly. Secondly, I don't know which crappy poetry slam Ashley picked Jacqueline Humbert from, but her perfectly groomed speaking voice trying to mimic Laurie Anderson has got to go. Thirdly, why the hell has Ashley turned to this tepid new ageist ambient, after his "Automatic Writing" stands as one of the eeriest pieces of academic compositions? Fourth, when will the "conceptual" community learn that aesthetics can never be forgotten whenever a concept is presented in a public forum? I'm choking on my own rage now.
This is one of three separate shards of electronic music history (Ashley, Neuhaus, and Palestine) recently unearthed by Italian audio archaeologists Alga Marghen.
"Wolfman" collects four pieces circa 1957-1964 by American original Robert Ashley, a composer known for his releases on Lovely Music. Noisy tape-music and electronics to accompany equally extreme vocal performances. Pretty wild, and hard to take, certainly pioneering stuff!
MPEG Download: "The Wolfman" [/audio/ashleywolfman.mp3]
While this is not new, we felt since we just listed Manuel Gottsching's essential early eighties proto-acid release E2-E4, we should revisit another essential release from the post-Ash Ra Tempel period that we never listed before. 1976's New Age of Earth was the inaugural release from Ashra, the next phase of Ash Ra Tempel which basically was Manuel Gottsching re-focusing his musical efforts from a group ambition to a solo experience, marked by more streamlined compositions involving more synthesizers and sequencers but not losing his signature cosmic guitar leads altogether. Letting go of the acid psych commune jams of Ash Ra Tempel's previous efforts, New Age of Earth enjoys a more meditative kosmiche sensibility with extended warm electronic sojourns with minimalist compositional tendencies. The opener "Sunrain" is a deliriously percolating track that sounds as if Steve Reich created a proto-Balearic slow disco jam for sunrise dancefloors in Ibiza. "Ocean of Tenderness" is a softly lilting and shifting piece marked by gentle waves of sound and floating guitar figures, while "Deep Distance" is a more contemplative and cinematic rumination on landscapes of sound. Which leads to the final piece "Nightdust", which at 21 minutes is the longest track, a gorgeously majestic build-up of cosmic sensations. Whirring pulsar synth effects over a serene new age foundation like the feel of illuminating stars over some alien planetary ocean, culminating in a searing sky-high guitar lead that propels us into the nebulous ether of oceanic space. In fact the whole album has this epic 'sci-fi beach' feel, reminiscent of that mysterious final scene from The Quiet Earth, where the last man on earth is on the beach and sees the giant planet Saturn looming in the distance. A classic cosmic krautrock release from Virgin Record's most exciting and exploratory period, New Age of Earth is essential for all fans of kraut-y space-rock and psychedelic cosmic bliss.
As we mentioned in the review of the Exxasens cd elsewhere on this list, Belgian label NOTHingness, a long time aQ fave, is no more. The folks who ran NOTHingness decided to close shop and start a new label called Consouling Sounds. But we did manage to get one last NOTHingness release, this gorgeous collection of haunting forest dronescapes from a Canadian outfit called Ashtorath.�
And yeah, drone records are a dime a dozen these days, but this is much more than just a drone record, it's more like a collection of creepy cinematic soundscapes which just happen to be intensely droney. The music of Ashtorath is moody and melancholic, dramatic and dark, haunting and harrowing. Beginning with the sound of insects in the night, thunderstorms, whipping wind, a tolling bell, it sets the stage for what's to come. A slowly unfolding sonic narrative, synths unfurl woozy melodies, mysterious drones and whirs lurk just below the surface, guitars wrapped in reverb ring out over the sound of rainfall, peppered with bits of muted glitch, moaning ghostly tones, creepy tinkling chimes, deep resonant rumbles, mysterious voices, warbly woozy music box melodies, this tuff is just so creepy and weird, definitely sounds like it could have been pulled right out of some super sinister underground arty horror film. A little bit neoclassical, a little bit dark ambient, a little bit horror movie score, some drone, and even some almost metallic distorted guitar, lurching and lumbering through a field of whirring weirdness on the last track.
Pretty and droney enough for the free noise drone rock cd-r crowd, but of particular interest to folks into Zombi, Goblin, Trollman Av Ildtoppberg, Ensepulchred, Zombie Battle Axe and actual horror movie music.�
SUPER LIMITED. ALREADY OUT OF PRINT. We got the last copies...
Second Ashtray Navigations disc in two weeks! This time, it comes courtesy of our pal Glenn (Blithe Suns, Ivytree, Jewelled Antler, etc.) and his Pink Skulls cd-r label. Originally begun to release stuff that was too weird / out there or just too different from the Jewelled Antler aesthetic, Pink Skulls seems to be getting a little closer to its big brother label with this release, as this new Ashtray Navigations wouldn't be all that out of place on JA. A sweet dreamy three-part mini epic. Part one is a long meditative simple high end drone, keening and warbling, up and down in a simple two note melody. Parts two and three are brief addendums, one a series of rumbling low end swells, chirping crickets, and detuned guitars, the other a sort of echo of the first, with distorted lilting melodies over a wash of Skullflower style high-end scree. So nice.
The UK's Ashtray Navigations (aka Phil Todd) has been spitting out cd after cd after tape after tape after cd-r after cd-r for years now. Close to twenty would be our guess. If not more even. Which is pretty dang impressive. So here we are twenty years down the line and Todd is still kicking up the sort of glorious din that shames most of the other free noise outifts out there. Billowing clouds of thick chordal bliss, washes of high end feedback and layer after layer of sonic skree, all shifting and swirling and drifting with subtle acustic guitars in the background as well as whining reeds unfurling melancholy Eastern melodies. The closest comparison would have to be Sunroof! or Vibracathedral Orchestra, who just so happen to occupy the same sonic scene as Todd and his Ashtray Navigations. From pixilated clouds of abstract tinkle and glimmer to dense supernovas of roiling sonic fury, The Love That Whirrs is totally essential listening (like all things Sunroof!, VCO, Pelt, Skullflower, Jazzfinger, etc.) for all you freeambientdronedrifters out there!
First we've heard in a long while from this prolific home recordist, going on 20 years now, and while at one point we may have gotten a wee bit burnt out on AN, we have to say, this new single is definitely reminding us why we liked it so much in the first place.
The A side begins all lo-fi with a spidery melody unwinding over a bed of swirling electronics, laced with some raga like buzz, a little droney psychedelia, would have been perfectly happy to listen to just that for five minutes, but the side shifts dramatically, and the sound is transformed into a sort of cosmic synth swirl, the sort of sound that would be right at home on an Emeralds record, a sun dappled wall of blissy hazy soft focus buzz.
The flipside follows a similar pattern, this time opening with some slow synth creep, sounding a bit like a lost John Carpenter soundtrack, and then it too blossoms into another chunk of kosmische bliss out, this time, a high end raga drone that sounds like Sunroof! crossed with Muslimgauze, driven by a pulsing rhythm, everything wreathed in a blurred shimmer and tangled up with muted psychedelic leads, totally heady and hypnotic, and another one of those tracks that could have stretched out forEVER.
Gorgeous stuff, and again, we're reminded of just how much we may have been missing Ashtray Navigations. Not sure how limited these are, but we're guessing, probably pretty limited, so grab one before they're gone.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Another fucking drop dead record of gorgeous, hazy ambience from this UK mystery man. Droning and buzzing and humming with tinges of middle eastern flavor and No Neck Blues Band style free chaos. Fans of NNBB and Chalk/Coleclough should deinitely check this out.
New release from AQ pal Jon Dale's Rhizome Recordings label. Three gorgeously hazy tracks of shimmery minimal abstraction from this mysterious UK outfit. Track one is all warbly synths, bleating horns, and keening angelic oscillations, like slow motion free-jazz played over Sunroof! outtakes. Track two is a sun dappled blissout of buzzing sitar-like guitars over Spacemen Three guitar pulses, with fuzzed out melodies and found sound snippets. The final track is a buzzing mosquito soundscape of squiggly synths, scribbled shortwaves, and ghostly hums over muted conversations. Good stuff for fans of Skullflower, Sunroof!, Vibracathedral Orchestra and the like!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Michigan's Universal Indians (who you may remember from their handsome split lp with Gravitar) and Scotland's Ashtray Navigations (known for their tapes) combine on this split cd, both bands being purveyors of murky psych/noise guitar improv splurge. Pretty cool, the packaging is crap though...
Ah, the many tentacles of Gordon Ashworth. Once, this Portlander recorded as Concern delivering an updated version of American holy minimalism through Riley, Maclise, and Conrad in fine style. He also had his wall-noise moniker Oscillating Innards, and plenty of black/grind/scuzz-fuck/noise projects to extend his aesthetic range (e.g. Knelt Rote, Deep Jew, etc.); but it was always the work of Concern that tickled our fancy. While he shelved Concern as a project back in 2010, this solo album released under his given name seems to be carrying on that aesthetic thread. Languid drones blur between field recordings from his one-time job as a taxi driver and subtle melodies sketched out via banjo and piano for the first couple of tracks, lend a less digital but equally favorable comparison to Tim Hecker's fizzing post-ambience. On "Suite For Broken Sex," Ashworth really hits his stride through the billowing minimalism for a hypnotic piano, churning through notes akin to Lubomyr Melnyk's less frenetic compositions, all brightly rasping with overtones and swirling raga-drones from the interlocking arpeggiation. The wistful banjo fingerpicking of "To Be The Man I Want To Be" and "Desperate & Indebted" takes on a Tim Hecker / Christian Fennesz jaggedliness adhering to the hillbilly minimalism of Henry Flynt, plucking away at a tearjerkingly maudlin series of melodies over the course of side two. Gorgeous stuff for sure! Limited to 300 copies on clear vinyl with a download.
The amazing Drone Records label, run by Stefan Knappe of Maeror Tri / Troum, has been quietly releasing super limited, hand made slabs of gorgeous drone music for years now. Mostly 7", always vinyl (although there will soon be a 2cd collection of early out of print singles on Andee's tUMULt label), each disc an ultra personal exploration of the drone, sometimes soft and dreamlike, sometimes harsh and noisy, but always beautiful. Recently, Drone has launched a new series, 10"s this time, with a very complicated premise: "A concept that embraces the prospect of infinite possibilities for artists to create music about the intangible such as: the unnameable, the unspeakable, the unthinkable, the unidentifiable, etc. Various aspects related to "The Unknown". Sound artists and artwork designers were invited to work on the theme of the "grey matter" / the "dark continent" surrounding us & within us. Transforming this paradoxical idea into acoustic and visual objectifications." Phew. Pretty heady stuff. But these first three installments are up to the task, creating dark and disturbing and truly though provoking dronemusic. We can hardly weight for the rest of the series.
The second in the series is from Asia Nova, who hail from California, and offer up slow shifting instrumental swells, like an orchestra tuning up in outer space, crumbling waves of deconstructed melody slowly stretched into a vast ocean of hiss and static and tiny sonic events that gradually dissipate into the surrounding sounds. In the background hovers ominous gurgling rumbles and far away melodic sparkles. The other side is barely there, an ultra minimal drone, more space than sound, like drifting through some darkened undersea cavern, a barren abstract sonic landscape. Incredibly spare but strangely alluring.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES. Pressed on pink and white swirled vinyl.
Apparently this is the new Asian Dub Foundation record (as it features the latest single "Real Great Britain"). If not, this is certainly the first time we've seen this record. Imperialism, Marxism, and racial politics are still the driving force behind Asian Dub Foundation whose aggressive ragga drum & bass is fueled with brash Bollywood orchestral samples, big bass grooves, and sincerely impassioned rants.
This is the actualization of Edward Said's orientalist theories into a musical context of feverish drum & bass breaks compounded with a stellar use of antiquated 60's fuzz guitar and impassioned political rants. ADF makes Atari Teenage Riot's upper middle class politics seem very weak in comparison.
Along with being a 'best of' collection, this double disc set also treats Asian Dub Foundation fans to plenty of unreleased material, BBC sessions, remixes, other rare stuff, and three brand new tracks. 32 tracks in all. Gives a fantastically thorough overview of this British group's slick melting pot of hip hop, ragga, dub, breakbeat, worldbeat and more. Sure to please devotees, but might be a bit much if you're new to this group.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Killer match up between two AQ faves, Hypothermia (who we've raved about in the past) and Aska, who have yet to grace our list (until now!). Massive, brutal, abysmal, blackened doomic buzz from both, Aska even tackle a GG Allin cover and dedicate it to Poison Idea's Pig Champion. Awesome.
Could the time be any more right for an album of intimate, individual psychedelic folk music from three decades ago to be reissued? This is almost more 'now' than it was then, really! Ed Askew's Ask The Unicorn was originally released on LP by the legendary, eccentric free-jazz and folk label ESP-Disk back in 1969. Now at last it's on cd (twice, in fact, more on that in a sec). We think anyone into, say, Devendra Banhart will enjoy this. In fact, we wonder what Mr. Askew thinks of the music of Mr. Banhart (if he's ever heard him). We'd imagine he'd think... "Not bad, but I did that 30 years ago!!"
One artsy guy with a weird imagination and a nasally-but-nice, gentle, emotive voice and a guitar, singing and playing from the heart, his tripped out lyrics turning tight circles with their rhyme schemes, Askew comes across a bit like a druggier, rawer, more obscure and stream-of-conciousness Bob Dylan or something.
Note: weirdly enough, two different editions of this have just been released on cd. The one we've got doesn't actually say Ask The Unicorn on it (except as a song title) but is indeed that album, with three bonus tracks and a sticker proclaiming this to be the "Artist's Edition". Not sure what's going on there, as we also received word that Askew, while happy this was in stores, didn't actually know it was coming out! The extra tracks apparently come from a cd-r version he'd been circulating to friends or something. Anyway, this version seems to be the better deal, and we're only mentioning all this so as to preempt any confusion about what exactly this is.
The bonus tracks are quite worthwhile, with two ("The Accordion Man" and "Green Song") dating from back in the day and one ("A Soldier's Song") from 2005! Yeah, the new track sticks out, both his voice and the production being quite different, and Askew even seems to be deliberately making it seem up to date with references to computer mice and monitors -- and there's even a drum machine part that starts up halfway through the song! But actually it's a nice tune and comes last on the disc so its inclusion isn't too jarring. Indeed, it helps bring this great music into the present, where it belongs.
In a matter of weeks, The De Stijl label has knocked us out twice in a row, with reissues of two psychedelic folk albums from the misty past that we'd otherwise never have known about. Both surprises by already-AQ-fave artists, as well! We just listed De Stijl's cd reish of the long-lost 1974 Michael Yonkers album Grimwood, and now here's a previously unreleased, long-rumoured 1970 recording entitled Little Eyes from NYC acid folk troubadour Ed Askew, whose 1969 ESP-Disk album Ask The Unicorn we'd all agree is a highlight on that multifarious and mindblowing outsider jazz/improv/folk/protest rock label. If you liked that one, you'll definitely like this!
As established on Ask The Unicorn, Ed Askew's music here is intimate and eccentric, gentle and rambling. Just one sorta high, nasally voiced guy and his guitar (and harmonica too), singing his own timeless, twisted, lonely songs of love and loss, roughly hewn and bleeding with emotion. As we've said before, he's like a weirder, rawer Bobby Z. (and a thirty years ago and then some precursor to Devy B. for sure). We're talking about Bob Dylan and Devendra Banhart there, for those of you (like Andee) not hip to those diminutives.
In addition to the ten songs ("transferred from acetate, with flaws intact") recorded for Askew's never ('til now) released follow-up to his ESP debut, De Stijl has also included six more tracks, taken from live radio performances done by Askew circa 1970-'71, which fit right in, as the Little Eyes studio sessions were done more or less live anyway, mostly single takes, no edits or overdubs, with flaws intact as well... flaws? not to our minds... In a digipak, with a couple vintage b&w pics of the bearded, bushy haired Askew, and liner notes by Byron Coley.
New Yorkers Asobi Seksu brings the bright carefree pop of the late '80s (think: The Primitives, Lush, Velocity Girl) together with the moody UK shoegazers of the early '90s (a la My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Swervedriver or perhaps the more recent atmospheric modern rock of Magyar Posse). However, what sets their second album Citrus apart is its high gloss J-pop production style. Each song showering the listener with a Puffy Amiyumi level of shiny shiny, sugary pearliness. Singer Yuki Chikudate's high flittery delivery recalls that of Cocteau Twins' Elizabeth Fraser... and if you don't know Japanese then the lyrics may prove just as cryptic as Fraser's. Countering the sweetness of Yuki's vocals are her bandmate James Hanna's variety of electric guitars. He builds up billowing spirals of highly effected washes which he punctuates with sharper edged, punchy melodic segments. All the while Chikudate's voice ties giant bows of satiny sorbet ribbons around the proceedings. Yes, Citrus is filled with many seemingly incongruous elements, but the band whips them all together into a delectable effervescent confection. Yum!
Asobi Seksu pick right up from where they left off with their bright 2006 album Citrus! That means Hush is filled with gloriously shimmering dew drop pop very much inspired by female-fronted bands from the late '80s and early '90s. Perhaps a bit more focused and straightforward than its predecessor, the album is sleekly styled with a sparkling swirly pastel hued effervescence that compliments Yuki Chikudate's flittering vocals. Once again they conjure warm memories of both Cocteau Twins and Velocity Girl. 'Tis very welcome during these grey grey days! So nice!
As some of you probably realized, this Friday (today) was a Black Friday 'Record Store Day', which is a sort of mini-RSD, to hold everybody over until the real deal actual RSD in the Spring. A much smaller batch of special releases on BFRSD, but a few things we were pretty excited about, and some of those, we even managed to get a bunch of, so our faithful mailorder customers without a local record store to call their own, could still nab a copy, like this one, a limited split 7" between Japanese heavy rockers & longtime aQ faves Boris, and US shoegaze blisspoppers Asobi Seksu, each band covering the other.
The A side finds Asobi Seksu taking on Boris' "Farewell" from their record Pink. And in the hands of AS, it's transformed into an ethereal swirl of soft focus electro-pop shimmer, soaring and sweetly melodic, female vocals drifting over a lush layered backdrop, all anchored by some stuttery glitchy beats, the sounds building slowly to a full on MBV worthy psychedelic shoegace coda, before slipping back into a hazy vocal/synth dreamlike drift.
On the flipside, Boris take Asobi Seksu's "New Years", retitle it "Neu Years", and proceed to unfurl a heady sprawl of modern electronic flecked indie pop crunch, the sound super polished and sounding like something you might even hear on the radio, with Wata's angelic voice floating atop big booming drums, and soft streaks of choral shimmer, the whole thing rife with strange effects and studio production weirdness, culminating in a cool backwards psychedelic breakdown, before a final burst of exuberant electro indie pop bombast.
Both bands masterfully re-imagine the music of the other, and is revealing that for two bands with dramatically divergent fanbases, and very distinctive singular sounds, they they aren't so different after all!
Up from the ashes of San Diego's Physics comes Aspects Of Physics. In the sonic experimentations that form Systems of Social Recalibration, this quintet utilized an array of synths, computers and guitars new and old that might make a gear geek quiver. The result? Seven predominantly electronic tracks that morph from flowingly celestial and crystalline to sputtering and glitchy to tenuous drones. Their combination of occasional warm guitar melodies, layers of viscous synths and considerably icier digital textures works well. Ultimately however, it's questionable if the groups's aural output lives up to their multimedia-ness, theories and creative process (check out the enclosed booklet and their website for the detailed and diagramed skinny). Pressed on almost-pure white vinyl.
This questionably monickered combo and their brilliantly titled cd come courtesy of loyal AQ customer Garrett Splain and it's a doozy. Fucked up and off kilter post-free-avant-rock with the some cool production techniques, the occasional bizarrely programmed drum machine and what sounds like vibes or a xylophone supplying far-away melodies. The recording is a bit lo-fi, but it only adds a nice kind of gritty ambience to the proceedings. Adventurous fans of Laddio Bollocko, Trans Am, Don Caballero and the like might really dig this.
When the Ohio-based Ass Ponys' first album Mr Superlove came out 11 years ago, I was really into it; their plainspoken vocals along with the epic indie rock melodies just broke my heart in a good way. It's eleven years later now and their sound hasn't changed much, but there's more stuff out there that sounds like this, so much so that their take on the homefried sound isn't
Chuck Cleaver and his rag tag band ride again... well, sorta! A heap o' early Ass Ponys tunes have gotten a remasterin' and a reissuin'! Yupsiree, two dozen of 'em -- many have been totally out of print for ages including a bunch from two of their early albums Mr. Superlove and Grim, but some of the others were never released in the first place! On much of the first disc of The Okra Years, the Ohio band sound like a quirky cross between a few of their contemporaries, namely the ruminations of REM, the haunting reverb-drench of Galaxie 500 and the sweet jangle pop melodies of Unrest... or perhaps more simply stated a slightly countrified (country-fried?) Velvet Underground. They even do a rendition of "All Tomorrow's Parties". On the second disc, they lean more heavily into the warbly lonesome cowboy in the tavern style of twang. We dug 'em then, and we dig 'em now. If you favor indie rockers who on occasion will take to driving rusty ol' tractors, but you've yet to make the acquaintance of Ass Ponys, you'd better get a move on... your ride is here!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Hip hop remix.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Hip hop remix.
aQ reviews are usually written with a collective voice, but for this one, I'm (Andee) gonna have to step out into the first person, cuz I have been waiting for this record for 25 years! Since I was 14 years old.
I had just discovered heavy metal, and not HEAVY metal, we're talking Ratt and Motley Crue and Rough Cutt and King Kobra and L.A. Guns and Great White and Poison, that sort of heavy metal, and I was living in San Diego, and every time one of those bands played, there would be a local opener called Assassin, who RULED. Who as far as my 14 year old ears could tell, should have been just as popular as any of those other bands. And they were poised for that sort of success, the word was spreading, they did some small tours, they were maybe the next big thing, but as with lots of bands, before anything could happen, the band called it a day. And that was it.
I eventually moved on, my musical tastes matured and changed, but I never stopped liking eighties metal or hard rock or glam metal, and I never forgot Assassin. Over the years, and DECADES, I tried to track down their only single, and could never find it. I must have owned it back in the day, but somehow it had gone missing. And with the onset of the internet, I figured that would make it easier to find, but alas no luck. I eventually found a compilation that featured one of the tracks from the 7", and I played it to death, but I had sort of given up on ever tracking it down. So I was telling someone about Assassin, and just randomly Googled them, and WHAT? found an actual reissue, not just the single, but a whole unreleased record, as well as a live show!! I ordered one months before it came out, and waited patiently, and it showed up finally, and I threw it on, and FUCK!!! It sounded just as rad as it did when I was 14. So I figured what the hell, I oughta share this with my aQ pals, I mean, c'mon, a record I've literally been looking for for more than half my life!! TWENTY FIVE YEARS!!
Allan worried we wouldn't sell any, but I trust you, faithful aQ-ers, don't be ashamed of your eighties glam rock guilty pleasures (if they are in fact guilty), and dig this lost gem from an era short on lost gems. If you dig any of that kind of stuff, Motley Crue, Black And Blue, Armored Saint, Keel, Stryper, Seduce, Alcatrazz, Coney Hatch, Raven, hell, Assassin even opened for Slayer and Grim Reaper and Anthrax, then dig this. Heavy and hooky, listen to the two sound samples, those are the two songs from the single, and they are the best songs here, even after 25 years, I find myself listening to those two tracks over and over and over. The vocals are high and soaring, but really unique, the drummer kicks ass and the guitar player is a total shredder, and like the best bands of the time, Assassin were essentially a pop band, the songs rule, killer choruses, memorable verses, even the bridges and leads stick in your head. "Treason" might just be one of the best metal jams of the eighties, and "All Your Love" is a close close second. But give some of the other tracks a try, "Backstabber" is bad ass, "Nuance Le Dancer" is a weirdly structured metallic groover, "Tower" is an epic majestic dirge, and "No Way" is classic eighties metal. The live stuff shreds too, but that's just a bonus. I would have happily paid $15 for the single, so as far as I'm concerned those 2 tracks are worth the price of admission alone, everything else just sweetens the deal!
Lots of photos and liner notes, and anyone out there sitting on a treasure trove of rad eighties metal in need of a loving home, by all means, get in touch!!! We now return you to the third person...
Strangely referred to as "Hot 'n' Horny Taco", although it doesn't say it anywhere on the sleeve or label, nor is there any reference to tacos in this single's two focus tracks. Features vocal and instrumental versions of "Love The Pussy" on side A, wherin a woman repeatedly asks "Do You Want To Rub The Pussy, Touch The Pussy, Fuck The Pussy", and three versions of "G-String"
The king of Detroit ghetto-tech returns with seventeen new tracks of accelerated funk. Much to our disappointment, the spastic intensity which made 'Belle Isle Tech' and 'Off the Chain for the Y2K' so exciting is lost to expanded track lengths, mild and tired rhythms, and boring reiterations of old material ("Ass-N-Titties 2001?" anyone?). However, "Nipples-N-Clits" (a play on the
It's hard not to love a band called Assemble Head In Sunburst Sound, especially when they sound like some long lost seriously blown out bluesfuzzspacerock behemoth transported through some fluctuating rift in time, sucked straight out of the Fillmore West circa 1967, and transported to the right here and right now. But if every science fiction story EVER has taught us one thing, it's that rifts in time are tricky, and are more often than not unpredictable, so it seems that somehow on the way here, Assemble Head's rock DNA got all mixed up with the tangled genetic codes of other hippy jamming space time explorers like Monster Magnet, Blue Oyster Cult, the Outlaws, Neil Young and about a million others.
The result is a divine, occasionally laid back, more often than not super charged Californian drug fueled psych rock jam, that takes its various influences and shuffles em all up from song to song, managing to sound close enough to the originals to feel all warm and fuzzy and familiar, but just twisted and tweaked enough to sound like it could have only come from Assemble Head's kick ass world of Sunburst Sound....
The opener is a seriously drug addled blast of FX drenched Stooges-y stomp, the vocals soaring, the guitars grinding out slithery riffs, the drums a relentless pound, all wrapped up in a dense cloud of bleary eyed pot smoke shimmer. Some serious Monster Magnet worship for sure, right down to the Dave Wyndorf-esque vocals. We're not complaining, the world can always use more of that satanic drug rock for sure... The next track though takes everything in a whole different direction, spinning a fuzzy web of indie jangle and grunge-y groove, sounding like some weird mix of Screaming Trees and Dinosaur Jr. But later still, the band changes direction again, and stretches out into extended groovy, organ laced Southern Rock jams, the guitars a slow drawl, everything still hazy and buzzy, but less kinetic and more stoned. But then a song later, and the band are strapped back in and headed for the heart of the sun, with huge fuzzy arcs of white hot guitar and dense swirls of blurry FX and killer acid fried riffing.�
Just have a quick gander at the tripped out psychedelic cover art, huge mountain faces, swirling stormclouds, erupting volcanos, futuristic cities, floating heads shooting lazers from their eyes, a metallic moon half buried on a sandy beach, a wall of human faces, a pirate ship in a fiery sky, it definitely gives the listener a good idea of what to expect, what sort of�gloriously wild and wooly, spaced out, tangled up dirgey fuzzy sprawl lurks inside.�
The return of these aQ beloved local psychedelic spacelords (and lady), whose sound has always bucked the prevailing modern psych/space convention of sound over song, rooting their sound in proper songs, catchy hooky SONGS, beholden to classic sixties jams and seventies classic rock, hints of Neil Young, the Allman Brothers, the Outlaws, collide with more modern/heavy influences like Monster Magnet and contemporaries like Wooden Shjips and Earthless (whose Isaiah Mitchell guests here), obviously, if you dig stuff like Carlton Melton and White Hills and Sleepy Sun and Moon Duo and The Heads and the Spyrals, odds are you probably already dig these guys too. But if not, they definitely come at their sound from a drastically different direction. On past records we compared them to Monster Magnet and Dinosaur Jr., and mentioned their penchant for Southern style rocking, but if anything, on Manzanita, Assemble seem to have shifted dramatically, fully embracing that Southern rock side, and combining it with a serious seventies classic rock vibe, and conjured up a killer set of songs that sound like they came from right back in the day. Albeit with a more modern production. Otherwise, this could be the band you saw opening for the Allman Brothers at the Fillmore, the same sort of extended jams, the band locked into heady grooves, the bass thick and fuzzy, the drums tight and propulsive, the guitars running the show, from the crunchy riffs to the extended heart-of-the-sun solos, all accompanied by whirring organs, fluttering flutes, laced with plenty of twang, the vocals laid back and croony, the songs subtly catchy, slow burning and smoldering, sometimes shuffling dreamily, other times pounding away in a psych rock frenzy, usually a mix of the two. And this time around the vocals definitely seem to be a focal point, maybe as much as the guitars, with most of the songs displaying some gorgeous lead vocals and even more incredible harmonies, the result a fantastic slab of retro spaced out psychedelic Southern rock that might just be our favorite Assemble record yet.
San Francisco's mellow Lords and Lady of awesomely hazy, drugged out psychedelia return with their third album, a heavily atmospheric work which manages at once to sound both spacey and pastoral. The band knows when to lay low and lock into a hypnotic, blissed out groove, with a heavy debt to non-suck Pink Floyd (think Meddle) and even the Byrds' more cosmic moments. These only make their more aggressive and rocking excursions that much more powerful. It's a cool affair, drenched with organ, warm bass grooves, Theremins, and impressive guitar work. They also leave plenty of space for fuzzy, feedback drenched freakouts, all the while remaining fully in control and never losing themselves in jam band land. Throughout it all, the swirling atmospherics on the album act like an additional band member, covering these eight songs like a thick cloak of fog. The dual male/female vocals help to separate the group from the multitude of other bluesy psych bands, sending things into significantly dreamy realms. It's very California, mannnnnnnn, and sure to find fans in anyone digging fellow SF heads like Wooden Shjips, Sleepy Sun, and Lumerians.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Local psych merchants vinyl-only debut. For Comets fans!
We first heard the Assembly Of Light Women's Choir on Portland-via-Rhode Island doom duo The Body's most recent record, All The Waters Of The Earth Turn To Blood, which besides being crushingly heavy, also displayed a seriously experimental/avant bent that few doom bands share, an experimental streak that manifested itself in many of the tracks on that record featuring all manner of electronics, multiple drummers or a full women's choir, often all three. It was definitely something we had never heard before, the lush choral sound wedded to ear splitting downtuned crunch, but it sounded incredible. More recently, the choir has been touring sans The Body, and were actually meant to play an instore at aQ which unfortunately didn't work out.
So when we got this new record from the Assembly Of Light choir, we were expecting it to be just vocals, a proper choir record, but instead a good chunk of it finds the choir performing with other musicians, most notably The Body along with multiple drummers on two of the tracks.
The opener is lush and dark and dreamy, just subtle shimmery drones and plaintive piano underscoring the lush harmonies of the choir, quite beautiful, and again left us unprepared for "Transition", the second track, which begins with strings, only to immediately explode into a churning downtuned dirge, the choir drifting over this rumbling slo-mo tarpit creep, the result is very cinematic, the sort of thing you can imagine playing over cities crumbling, or planets dying, gorgeous and haunting and ominous and gorgeously doomy. The doom is peeled back part way through, leaving just the choir, before "Treelight" begins, another doomic crawl, but this one, less abject, and more hopeful, the sound epic and melodic, the choir accompanied by bellowed male vox, before slipping into a woozy slowly fading drones. And then finally, the choir goes it alone on the 3 part, 13 minute "Into The Woods", the sound lovely and liturgical, the voices lush and angelic, and as is often the case when we hear performances like this, we are utterly awed by the power of the human voice.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
This classic gets the Heavenly Sweetness reissue treatment, coming on the heels of their Ethiopiques series 'Best Of' double lp collection earlier this year. We've had a vinyl reish of it before, but this one is in freshly in print and much nicer too (though a little bit more expensive).
Mulatu Astatke's Ethio Jazz was released as Volume 4 of the beloved Ethiopiques compact disc series (expanded from 9 to 14 tracks for the cd issue) and is easily THEE single most popular release out of 'em all (at least here at AQ anyway.) Astatke had the unique privilege to be sent off to school in 1960 (at the age of 17) to study music in London. From there he continued on to the United States, attending The Berklee School of Music in Boston and later moving to New York. One can imagine he picked up a wide range of influences, and that he did. He became absorbed in Latin and Caribbean music, eventually forming his own group the Ethiopian Quartet in New York. Upon his return to Ethiopia in the late sixties he was treated like a king, being hailed as "the first-Ethiopian-musician-educated-abroad" and as a arranger/bandleader he was unequaled.
This record, originally released circa 1974, is an absolutely stunning collection of instrumentals. Most are composed by Astatke, while others are arrangements of traditional songs or other composers. A "jazz" record, yes this is, but hardly just. Ethio Jazz is a wonderful amalgam of swinging jazz tunes, sweet soul and punchy funk, laden with fuzzy electric guitars and tremolo drenched electric pianos. What's more is that, unlike the Afro-funk of Nigeria, the rest of Africa or the world even, the unique scales of Ethiopian music produce the most haunting melodies that we've ever heard. For better or worse, this record has probably the broadest appeal of any release we've had. Very highly recommended (and for cd buyers, if you haven't picked up Ethiopiques vol. 4 yet, we usually keep them in stock.)
Oh, and this is the album featuring the track "Yekermo Sew", recently covered by modern-day Turkish psych instrumentalists Hayvanlar Alemi, by the way.
