Autonervous are Jessie Evans of The Vanishing and Bettina Koster of Malaria -- bringing together two generations of post punk and new wave. Both Koster and Evans are hellions on the saxophone, so it's not surprising that that instrument is featured as prominently on the front cover as the ladies themselves. The two also share the synthesizer, bass and vocal duties on the album, but go it alone on guitar (Koster) and drums (Evans). It's clear they're having a blast together in producing their shiveringly cold marches, sharing an easy flair for dramatics with ample nods to their respective pasts.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Autopoesies live album was recorded during the Mille Plateaux tour that skittered across Europe in late 1999. The success of this album (in direct contrast to the rather boring debut) unwittingly calls into question the role of the 'artist' in front of his / her laptop. This record (and thus the live performance) could have simply been made by inputing abstract images into Metasynth (a program that translates visual files into sound files - perfect for manufacturing Ovalesque clickiness), while 'the artist' could be playing Tetris or downloading internet porn or walking off the stage to get a beer. Sure, Roland Barthes' 'Death of The Author' becomes an easy conceptual basis to justify such a live show, but so is 'I couldn't think of anything else to do, so I'll act like Markus Popp snapping my gum and looking bored." Maybe this rant is without merit, and maybe Autoposies had a kick ass live show. Maybe. And maybe Andee will get that helper monkey he wants so badly for the store.
With all of this said, "Live A Noir" is an exceptional album of subatomic digital glitches and white hot crackle, turbulent sonic swells and terse glacial scrape. Fits just right with your Stilluppsteypa and Noto.
1968 psychedelia from New York City, that comes across a bit more like West Coast stuff (and consequently didn't do too well at the time). Noodly, fuzzy, upbeat psych-rock, very much of its era and thus pretty fun. Frank Zappa didn't produce this album, but
Not really sure why I ended up randomly listening to this cd (I had heard the name before and maybe seen their cds), and I don't really know anything about them, but this is some really great sixities style French pop but with a modern electronic feel,
Another awesome chunk of retro pop weirdness from Olde English Spelling Bee, this one from the truly baffling Autre Ne Veut. Unlike the rest of the current crop of John Hughes worshipping garage pop new wave revisionists, who mix their retro leanings with modern bits of rocking indie crunch or hypnogogic swirl, the music of ANV is totally removed from any modern musical movement. It definitely has that eighties soundtrack vibe, a weird minimal synth pop, with keening falsetto vox, woozy synth bass, stumbling skeletal rhythms, cheesy electronic drums, super dramatic melodies, reminding us more of Terence Trent D'Arby, Erasure, Prefab Sprout, Scritti Politti, groups like that, and it almost sounds like every track here is from a musical montage from a cheesy eighties straight to video teen movie, the kind you only see at 4am in a hotel in some godforsaken town, where everything closes at 9pm, so you're forced to stay in your room, eating food from the gas station watching whatever is on whatever janky cable channels they have at the Motel 6, and somehow you find yourself riveted. And these are the songs you somehow find stuck in your head. And that's the thing, for all of their cheesiness and retro-ness, these jams are pretty irresistible, like the theme from Beverly Hills Cop, or Breakfast Club, or Pretty In Pink, but once removed, less obviously poppy, but still crazy catchy, more synthy, more cheesy, and sort of more alien and abstract, but at the same time cooler, and weirder, rife with strangely lush vocal harmonies, washed out sci-fi synths, occasional bits of twisted effects, and some of the coolest weirdest (synth) pop songs ever.
Strange and wonderful and definitely a new favorite...
For those who have been delving into the many minimal wave / synth punk reissues and anthologies that have been emerging in the recent years, the name Linear Movement should be familiar. They were a Belgian synth-pop outfit with a few art-disco-punk leanings, featuring Geert Coppens and Peter Bonne (Bonne would later found the EBM project A Split Second, but his earliest synth-wave work has stood the test of time much better than A Split Second). Unfortunately, much of this early work had only been released on small cassette runs, despite some exceptionally strong production values and some great song writing to boot. The aforementioned Linear Movement had an album slated for release in 1983, but the label dropped the album from their release schedule. It was rediscovered later by Minimal Wave who released that lost album 25 years later in 2008. While a few breathtaking gems of early OMD / Human League sequencing are found within, that album was admittedly an inconsistent listen.
However, Autumn's Synthesize fares much much better. This project operated on a parallel track, using all the same gear, but they come across as a slightly darker alter-ego of Linear Movement and with a bit more weird science thrown into the mix. Their catalog consists of four self-released cassettes and a single, with Synthesize being a best-of record in all the right ways. Tracks like "Night In June" have an uptempo, sing-songy melodicism amidst the squelchy analogue sequencing sort of like a more robotic incarnation of New Order, and then there's "Behind You" with its dark sequencing of vocoder driven proto-electronica, prescient of an Italo-disco / Model 500 sound, with a nod to Ruth as well.
Autumnfair was the shortlived side project of Savage Republic bassist Thom Fuhrmann and British transplant Val Haller. So shortlived, in fact, that by the time their first record was released on IPR in 1991, they had been broken up for two years. In
Dynasty is the latest from Chinese indie/post/electro rockers AV Okubo, and as with most of the rest of the Chinese bands we've been digging lately, they take plenty of influence from the West, but manage to fuse those disparate influences into something pretty original. And pretty bizarre. The garish DIY, computery, lo-res, 8-bit cover art makes way more sense when you get a load of the opener, all swirling synths, spidery guitar melodies, and loping post rock, with some surprising disco drumming, all fused into some soaring sonic majesty, the sort of sound that could score your early eighties, straight to video, big heist getaway. Oh and did we mention the vocodered vocals? Shades of Trans Am at their most retro abound, as do nods to other instrumental outfits like the Champs (albeit way less metal) or Scale The Summit (but also less metal), but the same sort of sprawling epic-ness and heady hypnotic jammage.
But it's not all instrumental, the record veers into totally different territory with the next track, which features breathy almost falsetto vox over soulful post punk grooves, and shimmery electro-pop jangle, in turn leading directly to the third track, which somehow fuses the sounds of the previous two, adding some WTF? funkiness and some creepy X-Files melodies to a churning low slung groove, with just a hint of metallic crunch. And as much as we'd like to say you know what you're getting into after that, you really don't, at least not entirely, the sound does stay pretty well lodged in some eighties soundtrack nether-verse, but it veers from Cure-like jangle-goth, to frenetic pogo-pop punkiness, to more motorik krautrock influenced grooviness, to eighties style pop metal, to total bubblegum J-Pop, and at least one track that sounds like a Chinese indie pop version of Surfing With The Alien, and pretty much every sonic gradation in between.
Weird stuff for sure, but for fans of modern retro-synth wrangling, faux VHS soundtrack soundscapery, fuzzy, electro-indie rock, and twisted freaky-funk, vocodered post pop weirdness, this might just hit the spot (or spots!)...
A Word From Within is the debut from this Indiana duo, just drums, guitar and vocals, these two conjure up gorgeously tranced out black metal minimalism, lengthy tracks that drift from hushed near silent drifts of ethereal guitar shimmer, to pounding, lo-fi, noise drenched black metal dirgery, a cool fusion of abstract haunting slowcore and raw blackened primitivism. The near 13 minute opener spends its first few minutes in some sort of moody musical dreamstate, the guitar weightless, swaddled in near silence, minor key melodies unfurled over long stretches of hushed murmur, before exploding into a furious chaotic onslaught of pounding caveman drums and noisy buzzy guitars, and throat shredding shrieks, the vibe is a sort of raw noise rock meets old school black metal buzz, the whole thing peppered with surprising melodies, that hint at a poppiness in the shadows, the song returning to the more contemplative strum of the opening, but this time with some distorted almost industrial percussion, the sound murky and moody and brooding, and again surprisingly melodic, before finishing off in a blaze of buzzing black frenzy.
The other two 'proper' songs offer up more of the same, what ultimately sounds like black metal played by noise rockers, or hell even the other way around, but it's awesome, dense and intense, raw and urgent and passionate, the sound lo-fi for sure, but noisy and blown out and heavy, droney and tranced out in places, almost mathy and post rocky in others, there's a brief bit of dirgey shamanistic folk, which is far too short at just two minutes, but that bleeds into the 11 minute closer, which begins much like the first track, a brooding folk flecked creep, before exploding into another chaotic sprawl of wildly pummeling noisy raw black energy.
Probably super limited, as these things usually are, so grab one before they're gone for good...
Super groovy! Here's the reissue of The Avalanches' debut album originally released in 2001. A swirling jetsetter affair brimming with samples galore (some more recognizable than others), phat bass, orchestral strings, spy movie horns, choral vocals, dialogue snippits, and turntable squidgey-squidge. Seems like a lot of 'stuff', don't it? But The Avalanches know just what to do with it all, meticulously crafting and arranging with a razor sharp finesse and an equally sharp wit to boot. A total genre melting pot, Since I Left you kicks off with such good time flair, you almost expect them to break out into "The Hustle" or to bust out their rainbow hued "dancing water" fountains. The latter half of the album gets a bit more woozy and hyper, almost as if from too much pink champagne and espresso. Fans of Daft Punk or Dan Nakamura (any of his numerous projects) just might wanna dip their toes into this party pool. This album is a blast!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Will our love affair with Finland never end?!?! I sure hope not. And there doesn't seem to be any reason to worry. Certainly not with what seems to be more and more undiscovered AMAZING music cropping up all the time. First we discovered Circle and Mieskuoro Huutajaat and Keuhkot and Aavikko and the baffling and completely awesome Bad Vugum label. Then we learned of the dreamy clattery folk of Kemialliset Ystavat and their hippy percussion jam side project Anaksimandros. And let's not forget drone-doom lords Skepticism and Rapture and Tiermes. And now we have discovered Avarus and the adventurous Lal Lal Lal label. Avarus and Kemiallisett and Anaksimandros all share at least one member and definitely share an aesthetic, combining folk and Krautrock and free jazz and modern noise ala the Dead C into a totally mesmerising modern noise/folk. Avarus, while less percussive/clattery than Anaksimandros, is also less folk than Kemialliset, situating them in a unique musical position, unfurling lengthy meandering almost funereal jams, desolate and mournful, but dreamy and pastoral, motorik and hypnotic at the same time. Strummed acoustic guitars frame distant throbbing caveman percussion, dreamy soundscapes are punctuated by occasional clang and clatter, all swaddled in the warm drone of amp buzz and ambient hum. Wander into their dark forest and join the tribe.
A warning: as with their prior 3" cd-r release, this is a SUPER LIMITED EDITION CD-R. We may not be able to keep these in stock for long, so if you want one don't dawdle. Sorry, you'd think that because they're cd-rs they *wouldn't* really be limited 'cause they could just burn more, and xerox more covers, but apparently not. Oh well.
What else can we really say about Finnish forest folk freaks Avarus that we haven't already said a million times? Maybe the most exciting free music ensemble out there. And by out there we mean really really out there. On the lp-only II, Avarus twist their usually shambolic free folk into a bizarre and druggy demented cartoon music from another dimension, a dizzying swirl of pitch shifted tape loops, manipulated sound samples, snippets of jazzy big band horns chopped and doused in outerspace FX, guitars scraping and scrabbling. feedback swooping and squealing, clattery percussion, strings being sawed and plucked, some sort of primitive DJ scratching, the whole thing King Tubbied into a dubbed out brain melting free-for-all. Over the course of these two sidelong tracks, Avarus take brief excursions into loping abstract post rock, tripped out psychedelic krautrock, dreamy droney ambient soundscape, and full on pummeling free rock, but it's like they got a new bandmate, THE STUDIO, as every bit of this disc is tweaked, or twisted, or affected or fucked with. Speeds slow down and speed up, parts are flipped backwards, different songs are spliced and butted up against each other creating short attention span collage like rhythms. But somehow, II still retains all the stuff about Avarus we already loved, just makes it a little bit more druggy and fucked up. And who can argue with that?
Packaged in a full color sleeve, with printed color insert. SUPER LIMITED as always. We got a whole bunch but they probably won't last.
Yet another release from one of our favorite Finnish psych-drone-free-rock ensembles (and yes, there are enough for us to have favorites). Thankfully this lp-only release, while still limited, is not nearly as limited as many of their previous cd-r/7"/tape releases. III starts off with a lo-fi, rambling, ramshackle blues jam that mutates into wildly propulsive psych-folk with intensely strummed guitars and far-away flute melodies. And from there on out, Avarus dip their toes into whatever variant of their unique 'sound' that strikes their fancy. From atonal Jandek-ian campfire hippy hoedowns, to wild jams with spastic hand drums and sing-songy melodies plucked out on beat up, out of tune guitars, to wild clattery bursts of percussion splattered haphazardly over a Skullflower-ish skree, to stripped down, jangly hyperactive psychedelic rock to loose ambient soundscapes of whir and buzz and twang, with slithery, sitar-like guitars. Gorgeous as always.
It's been several years since we last got a numbered vinyl missive from these Finnish free folk forest dwellers, II and III are both long out of print, and not sure we ever even saw number one, but IV takes up right where II and II left off, creating a woozy, trippy, psychedelic sound that only these Finns seem able to conjure.
Simple stumbling drumming underpins cyclical looped out riffage, that teeters on the verge of losing control, but manages stay the course, the sound thickens and grows more and more tripped out, the effects getting more and more dense, the guitars peeling off in strange twisted melodic flares, before slipping back into the beginning of another slow build, more chaotic percussion, another drone-y looped riff, but before it builds too much, it gets all mellow, and woozy and dark and meandery, eventually breaking down to a rickety campfire lope, the guitars spidery and skeletal.
The flipside is one sidelong track, which begins with what sounds like strings over a sea of drifting scrape and scrabble, warm swooshes of druggy effects, the whole thing warm and languid and laid back, building to almost orchestral sounding swells here and there, interrupted by brief soft squalls of blurred psych buzz, but always shifting back into that far out smoldering Avarus-y abstract shimmer. So nice.
Awesome eye popping cover art, that includes ice covered asteroids, flying popcicles, hot rods, totem poles, miners, wolves, lizards, lonesome highways, cacti and all sorts of other drugged out weirdness.
After years of desperately trying to track down every cd-r and 7" and lathe cut lp by these underground Finnish forest psych folk weirdos, we're all about to be in Avarus heaven. Not only will Andee's tUMULt label be releasing a double cd compilation collecting all of those rare and impossible to find sonic artifacts next month, but right here we have a brand spanking new full length as good as anything these guys have ever done. So fans of all things clattery and pagan, foresty and folky, psychedelic and droney, krautrocky and hypnotic, DIG IN! Unlike the sometimes spare and sparse early recordings, that reminded us quite a bit of No Neck Blues Band, Sunburned Hand Of The Man and other like minded hippy pagan outsider free-folk tribes, this Avarus is definitely the most rocking. Intensely propulsive, fuzzy and murky, Finnish "krautrock" (huh) of the highest order. But fear not, all the misty mystery is still present. it's still like being lost in a Scandanavian forest, and stumbling across a strange pagan ritual, in some lost darkend glade. It's just that this ritual sometimes erupts into some serious rumbling drone rock. The muddy grooves, motorik rhythms, and creepy ambience definitely remind us of the recent AQ record of the week German Oak, so what else do you need? Finnish! NNCK! SHOTM! Krautrock! German Oak! C'mon!! Features members of other Finnish underground rock luminaries Kemialliset Ystevat and Anaksimandros.
What to say about Avarus that we haven't already said? Have a look at the aQ website for review after review extolling the virtues of these freaky foresty folky Finns. Heck, Andee even liked them enough to out out a double cd of theirs on tUMULt.
Longtime readers of the aQ list are no doubt by now familiar with Avarus and the sonic orbit they exist in. Kemialliset, Anaksimandros, Fonal Records, but of all the multitude of soundmakers and amazing records, there's just something special about Avarus that makes them maybe our favorite of the bunch.
This lp-only release captures the group on tour in the US in 2006 and 2007, and live Avarus can be a much heavier and riffier beast. Two sidelong jams, the first recorded in Washington D.C., finds the band channeling German Oak, offering up a murky buzzy groove, that sounds like it was recorded in some bunker, the guitars muddy and thick, the percussion simple and propulsive, a gorgeous and druggy blow out that takes up most of the side, but eventually the riffs drift off, leaving a scattered abstract soundscape of bird calls and weird vocalizations, of detuned guitar and stumbling skronk, swirling effects and mumbled chanting, angular and obtuse, building to a cacophonous finale.
The B side, recorded in Providence, is like the second half of the first side expanded to nearly half an hour, total abstract minimalism, dada-ist sound making of the highest order, reeds creak and shriek, percussion stumbles and skitters, vocals are spoken, hummed, broadcast through a megaphone, deep resonant swells surface and quickly fade away, the track growing gradually more and more chaotic, the vocals transformed into moans, the drumming growing more frenzied, the air seeming to thicken with murky buzz and fuzzed out whir, as if the fidelity in the room is slowly decreasing. A pretty neat trick, and one that surely suits Avarus' absurdist sensibilities.
Packaged in a full color fold over sleeve, with a printed full color insert. Pressed on beautiful greenish clear vinyl. And pretty limited of course, just can't remember HOW limited. VERY we're guessing...
More limited cd-r madness, again from our Finnish faves Avarus. A super limited one track 22+ minute live set, and it'a a little surprising considering what we're used to from these guys. The last few Avarus releases have been dreamy, stumbly psychedelic tinged folk, with loose tribal drumming, and an odd assortment of bowed, plucked and strummed instruments, reminding us very much of AQ faves Kemialliset Ystavat (with whom Avarus share members) and tribal, free-rock collective the No Neck Blues Band. But this live record is a different beast altogether. Channelling the spirit of the Dead C, Avarus kick up quite a racket, a thick slab of sound, with LOTS of guitars, feedback and some seriously chaotic drumming, recorded hot and overblown, adding just the right amount of distortion and haze to the recording. It almost sounds like some New Zealand noise rock band like Gate or maybe UK psych/drone ensemble Sunroof! -covering- Avarus. A nice new direction for one of our favorite bands! In handpainted sleeves, every one unique!
A 3" cd-r from this obscure & primitive Finnish psych-folk entity. Stumbling psych jamming spread over two tracks, nearly twenty minutes. Imagine the Dead C playing Finnish forest music. Or Tower Recordings covering International Harvester next door to Reynols' practice space? Droning, damaged clatter, like the cavorting of drugged out hippy carpenters. This band may or may not have members in common with labelmates Kemialliset Ystavat, that OTHER amazing damaged Finnish folk combo (of which we have a new release, see nearby for review) -- but any rate, fans of Kemialliset will like this too. Numbered and limited to 100 copies.
Yet another blissful excursion into the wild Finnish Forests with one of our favorite troupes of intrepid sonic explorers Avarus. This limited lp only release finds these Finns exploring similar sonic terrain as past releases, but even though it may be a well trod part of the forest, Avarus know how to ferret out all the secret little hiding spots and all the beautiful sounds as yet undiscovered.
Drifting abstract melodies unfurl from detuned guitars, woodwinds flit and flutter like birds darting through the treetops, plenty of percussive clang and clatter underpin the action, while far off in the distance, the forest frolicking is threatened by thick black swells of grinding low end, and stormlike rumbles. The A side offers up a full on hippy kraut jam near the end, noisy and propulsive and about as rocking as these guys ever get, with pounding drums, looped riffs all amidst clouds of whirling swirling sound.
The B side is much more restrained, more mysterious and abstract, with long stretches of near silence, plenty of microscopic sonic happenings, an extended sprawl, as if the musicians, exhausted from side one's closing jam, are all stretched out in the shade of the forest, lazily plucking strings, and rubbing metals, kicking drums with their feet as they stretch out on the sun dappled forest floor, making music that is as relaxed as they are, strange, slow burning, haunting and dreamlike...
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!! Each one hand numbered, packaged in super eye popping dayglo full color sleeves!
Quite a few of you who read our list are probably already followers of the whole Finnish folk-psych underground, right? So this Avarus will most likely already be going in your basket (especially since it contains all of their WAY out of print early releases!)... But if you're not yet a Finn-folk-freak, you'll also find this to be a great introduction to one of the key bands from that scene...
This double cd collects the early recorded works of the mysterious Finnish free folk collective Avarus. Previously released as limted run cd-r's and 7"s (in tiny runs of 50-200 copies), these tracks are a tantalizing glimpse into the mist-shrouded musical world of Finnish underground music, equal parts the hypno rock of fellow countrymen Circle, the pagan ritualism of The Wicker Man, the droning throb of Faust, the propulsive rhythm of Can, and the lo-fi clatter and skree of the Dead C.
Imagine a land of forests and fjords, a land of dark skies and windswept landscapes. Then imagine the sort of music this land would evoke. Droning hypnotic clattery free folk, dark and propulsive, mesmeric Krautrock, rhythmic pagan musical rituals, all detuned guitars and hand drums, chanting and wild free percussion, and everything in between.
Avarus combine psychedelic folk rock, motorik Krautrock, free jazz and modern noise into a totally mesmerising, totally unique modern avant noise/folk, unfurling lengthy meandering almost funereal jams, desolate and mournful, but dreamy and pastoral, machinelike and hypnotic at the same time. Strummed acoustic guitars frame distant throbbing caveman percussion, dreamy soundscapes are punctuated by occasional clang and clatter, all swaddled in the warm drone of amp buzz and ambient hum. Lo-fi, rambling, ramshackle blues jams mutate into wildly propulsive psych-folk with intensely strummed guitars and far-away flute melodies.
Dipping their toes into whatever variant of their unique 'sound' that strikes their fancy, Avarus sway woozily from atonal Jandek-ian campfire hippy hoedowns, to wild jams with spastic drumming and sing-songy melodies plucked out on beat up, strangely tuned guitars, to wild clattery bursts of percussion splattered haphazardly over a Skullflower-ish skree, to stripped down, jangly hyperactive psychedelic rock to loose ambient soundscapes of whir and buzz and twang, with slithery, sitar-like guitars. Occasionally Avarus kick up quite a racket, a thick slab of sound, with LOTS of guitars, feedback and some seriously dense drumming, recorded hot and overblown, adding just the right amount of distortion and haze to the recording. It almost sounds like some New Zealand noise rock band like Gate or UK psych/drone ensemble Sunroof! -covering- Avarus!
Epic and endless, rumbling and stumbling, space-y psychedlic folk jams spread over two discs, TWO PLUS HOURS. Imagine the Total or The Dead C playing Finnish forest music. Or the Tower Recordings covering International Harvester next door to Reynols' practice space? Droning, damaged clatter, like the wild drunken cavorting of drugged out hippy carpenters. Space-y and druggy and totally mesmerizingly beautiful.
MPEG Stream: "Horuksen Vasemman Silman Mysteerikoulu Royh Eli Vuh Tai Siis Moi Kaikki: Rikottu Noidat Haluavat Luusi Universumin Pienin Kysymys Varisten Kokoontumislaulu" [/audio/avarusvasemmann.m3u]
MPEG Stream: "Horuksen Oikean Silman Mysteerikoulu Astraalikaali 25 Metria Kavellen Veden Alla Kirjoitusmerkki Aikamerkki Arkistosali" [/audio/avarusoikean.m3u]
It's been ages since we've heard from these Finnish forest freaks, four years in fact. And these days it sounds like that Finnish forest is on some other planet, their ramshackle campfire-kraut sound still perfectly intact, bit this time around, even more electronic, bouncy and playful, sounding a bit like it could be a rejected theme song for some twisted Finnish children's television program, you know the kind adults watch when they're super stoned? Woozy and whimsical, droney and psychedelic, a loping bassline anchors the otherwise freeform sound, spidery melodies in looses tangles drift heavenward, abstract percussion, some coalescing into proper rhythms, others tribal and primitive, lots of electronic bits, damaged FX, warped swirls, slow shifting textures, and lots of voices too, but not singing, more just talking, and snippets of conversations, as if the whole thing was super casual, recorded while other folks just went about their business in the background, occasionally joining in, but just as likely making dinner, or playing cards. The vibe is super loose and laid back, but also weirdly cosmic, some of the melodies sound like effected kazoos, everything is sing-songy and playful, but as the track progresses, constantly shifting and morphing, the sound grows more abstract, the electronics gradually taking over, until the sound splinters into something wholly other, the upbeat bounciness reimagined as something almost jazzy, Eastern and exotic, before finally, a slow stretch of hushed muted mesmer unfurls, murky and mysterious, and yet somehow retaining some of that childlike playfulness. The whole side sounds like just part of an even more epic jam, a days long musical ritual, of which we were only privy to a tiny glimpse.
The flipside delivers more of the same, as if really it was part of the same epic jam, but here it gets even more groovy, sounding almost African at times, tranced out and hypnotic, super rhythmic, the sound building momentum, growing even more dense and droney, buzzy and layered, blossoming into a druggy psychedelic swirl, that is downright divine.
SUPER LIMITED!! Get one before they're gone...
Yeah, it's a bit price-y, but then for some reason Ultra Eczema lps always are. The thing is though, they're generally also gorgeous looking, deluxe sleeves with wild wacked out eye popping covers, ultra thick vinyl, and in most cases, especially this one, the grooves are packed with sounds to match. That is to say wild and wacked.
The newest record from forefathers of the Finnish free folk scene Avarus, is not in fact a new record, but instead a document of Avarus' recent trip to the states, in particular a live on the radio session for Brian Turner's show on WFMU. Two side long jams, the ever fluctuating collective trimmed down to a mean lean trio, on the first, they capture here their most primitive side, lots of rattles and percussion, thumps and clicks and creaks and moans, all accompanied by strange inhuman vocalizations, sounding like humans discovering speech for the first time, howling, crooning, mewling, grunting, all that tangled up with some super abstract free jazz drum skitter, some detuned string plucking, which builds to something much more substantial, a cacophonous squall of horns and even more strange vocalizations, a garbled transmission of alien folk free jazz confusion, that manage to some still sound hypnotic and cohesive. The final few minutes are an awesome skittery croaking looped outro, that we sort of wish would have gone on for longer.
The flipside starts off with more caveman jazz, strings scraped and plucked, drums splattered here and there, those alien vox, but peppered with warm reedy buzz and all manner of other abstract sounds. After a brief bit of garbled gurgling, the song sprawls into a gorgeous super skeletal, percussive workout, this too with the feel of proto-humans discovering rhythm, primal, primitive, tribal, super spare and spacious and weirdly mesmerizing.
The sleeve as mentioned above is indeed eye popping, green on orange eye torture, a killer super tripped out psychedelic illustration, mirrored in black and white on the lp labels, and of course extremely limited. ONLY 300 COPIES!!!!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Finnophile alert!! A new super limited 7" from our favorite avant-free-folk-forest collective Avarus. In cool hand screened sleeves. Lots of buzz and clatter, scrape and skree. Side one is less folk and more Sunroof! shimmer, while the other side is a wash of ambient folk, with a dark minimal throb beneath atonal sawing violins and kitchen sink percussion buried in the murk. Always so good. And again, let us remind you: VERY LIMITED!!!!
Once again these wide eyed Finnish forest freaks crawl out from under their mossy stones, from inside their firelit caves, out of their huts made of pine needles and sticks and twigs, set up around a campfire, under a full moon, dressed only in fur and animal bones, and conjure up the woodland spirits with their tribal free folk juju. Okay, so maybe it's actually just a bunch of music nerds like you or me with killer record collections and a bunch of old amps and guitars, but to us, it sure sounds like the glorious din these folks whip up could only be the product of some drug fueled ancient forest ritual. Which is precisely why we love Avarus and their Finnish underground rock brethren (and sistren!). The music they make sound not of this world. And we don't mean "Oh Finland's like a whole other world!" we mean, space, or an alternate dimension or even that huge hollow area at the center of the earth. The music of Avarus is that unique and that strange, exactly what we picture one might hear, stepping off of an interstellar transport, realizing for the first time that the atmosphere is breathable, and the vegetation is strangely lush and very Earth-like, that sound, "like music?" that lures us and our team deep into the alien forest. Or in the heart of South America, at an archaeological dig, strange markings on the rocks we've been unearthing from the very lowest levels of the lost temple, finally there's some sort of portal, a huge iron door, and... wait, is that... music? But what is it? It's like nothing we've ever heard, those sound like guitars, and voices, but so... strange....
For those of you who need more musical references, imagine a little Dead C, a little No Neck Blues Band, some Sunburned Hand Of The Man, Faust, Can, The Wickerman, all sorts of tribal musics, Parson Sound, Tower Recordings, Taj Mahal Travellers, even fellow countrymen Circle, Keukhot, Uton, Tivol and of course lots of drugs and lots and lots of space. This newest Avarus is a bit heavier on the guitar than previous outings, almost like they dug up a couple ancient fuzzboxes and ran their dang whole freaked out jam through 'em. There are lots of creepy krautrock bits, some blown out near noise parts, and lots of fuzzy disembodied psych, gurgling synths, splattery percussion, thick washes of feedback, primitive electronics, and loads of grungey guitar grit, it's all woven together into a crazy perfect psychedelic patchwork.
More crazy random collage artwork, this time no Garfield, but plenty of walruses, a map and an octopus. Half the record was recorded live in Dublin with Tara Burke of Fursaxa as a special guest!Ô
The major label debut (after three AQ-recommended indie label releases) for these "you've got your emo chocolate in my heavy metal peanut butter" punk rock kids from SoCal. With their capable and practically seamless blend of soaring, melodic emo-styled vocal choruses, Sunset Strip cock rock swagger, slayin' metalcore breakdowns, and Maidenesque gallop (all flawlessly executed with tons of energy), Avenged Sevenfold certainly have their fans here at Aquarius! To be sure, we might have to lump 'em into the guilty pleasure catagory, 'specially with City Of Evil's big-leagues production polish. But if you're not afraid of a band whose vocalist unleashes a few heartfelt (if whiny) "Whoa-oh-oh-ohs" per song, then this album gets our recommendation for best Bad Religion-meets-Helloween record of the year, so far, for sure! Or is it Anthrax-meets-Faith No More? Or the Get Up Kids-meets-Bang Tango-meets-Metallica-meets-Alice In Chains-meets-The Offspring-meets-Yngwie Malmsteen-meets-Poison The Well-meets-Skid Row? Heck it's all of that and more. And even though they make it really easy to play games of "what's that part remind me of? and that part?" within each track, what's amazing is that their songs remain so dang catchy and definitely Avenged Sevenfold's when all's said and done. Reactions to A7X's cheese-to-crunch ratio (a lot of both, really, each drawn equally from their metal and punk influences, and that's ok with us) will assuredly vary according to one's individual taste -- we say yum!
We were totally blown away by this band when we got the ep precurser to this record and we've been super anxious for the full length and it's finally here. Avenged Sevenfold are kids from Southern California who play some of the most explosive metallic
We eagerly anticipated this second full-length from SoCal's Avenged Sevenfold, and now that it's here, it proves to be equally as impressive as their AQ-fave debut. If you haven't heard 'em before, these kids are sick experts at blenderizing LA metal/emo/hardcore/pop-punk into something that shouldn't really work but does. It's like Jimmy Eat World meets Iron Maiden meets Pantera meets Get Up Kids. Their blender is friggin' clogged with chunky, chugging guitar riffs, emo vocal choruses, Euro-bright leads, punishing drumming, lush piano interludes, Zakk Wylde pick squeals, Phil Anselmo growls, and MTV-ready pop hooks. It's a total you-got-your-peanut butter-in-my-chocolate kind of thing, and it totally works, crushing you with metallic brutality one moment, lifting you up and wringing your heart with vocal melody the next, bridging the gap between the two with soaring '80s metal guitar harmonies... Avenged Sevenfold might not appeal to people stuck at either extreme end of that spectrum, but the rest of us are lovin' it. There's other hardcore bands attempting to mix these genres, but we think Avenged Sevenfold are the most traditionally metal AND one of the most poppy. Oh, is it at all ironic? Let's just say you can enjoy it on many levels. Maybe they were being fun and ironic before, but now they've realized the commerical potential of their approach. Recommended.
Don't be fooled by the first track on this ep, a heartfelt piano ballad, complete with sentimental lyrics and an "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" style emotive guitar solo (the disc even contains an ultra cheesy video for this track as well -- is this song a joke?
One of THEE greatest punk rock records ever, from these legendary SF punks finally gets reissued, and reminds us just how good the Avengers really were (as if we had forgotten). As a band, they existed for a scant 2 years, and only released an ep before they broke up, their debut lp, this one right here, was only released in 1983, four years after the band disbanded, but displayed an incredible knack for writing amazing pop songs, and hinted at what could have been, had the Avengers survived to make another record.
But really it hardly matters, as this record, often referred to as The Pink Album, is so good, not only is it an incredible collection of impossibly catchy songs, but is there anything more punk than making a record this good and then hanging it up? Hell, hanging it up before the record even came out!! Juts give a listen to the first few sound samples and you'll be sold (if you haven't already worn out your old copy). "We Are The One" is a total punk pop anthem, with Penelope Houston's snarled/crooned vox and Greg Ingraham's killer guitar playing, the whole band killed, and the songs were untouchable. And if "We Are The One" isn't already enough, "Car Crash" will seal the deal, all super melodic bassline, and chugging churning riffs, dark and minor key, Houston's vocals all raspy and occasionally cracking, and the crazy catchy "wooooah oooh oooh" chorus that you'll find stuck in your head forEVER.
It's hard to know what else to say about this record. If like us you already had it, you might want to buy it again, for the bonus tracks certainly, or maybe just cuz there's some weird satisfaction in rebuying records you love (vinyl resurgence?), but if you've never heard this before, and dig poppy punk or punky pop this is gonna blow your mind.
The cd includes a big booklet with tons of photos as well as liner notes from Greil Marcus. The cd version also includes a whole extra disc of bonus material, which includes a bunch of rehearsal, studio and live tracks!
Aves are an entirely new prospect to us here at aQ HQ. Here's a quick list of things we know about Aves: 1) Aves is from Virgina. End of list! Oh, and also Aves plays glorious coming-of-age sun-dappled blackened instrumental post-gaze-punk. Is that a thing?? Well, it is now! For the first two minutes of Feather's first track you'd be forgiven for thinking you were listening to some lost Smiths instrumental, all jangling reverbed guitar, uptempo "This Charming Man" swing, shuffling drums and walking bass. But then suddenly, and really without any warning, the song lurches into a glimmering black metal crescendo. The stormclouds of Transilvanian Hunger pseudo-blasts clashing with the sunset horizon of blissed out comfort blanket post rock. The easiest comparison here is early Alcest, but Aves have a tendency to genre hop much more, leaving the black metal tendencies completely behind for extended chunks of time, only for them to barge back in again when you'd almost forgotten they were ever there. "Nest" is all four-to-the-floor disco drums accompanied by the kind of bittersweet dancefloor sway you could easily imagine Bernard Sumner singing over. But four and a half minutes in, those hazy blastbeats muscle their way in, turning the song transcendent, before morphing into a punk rock bounce, nostalgic guitar leads swarming like transparent insects. Elsewhere, the minor key post punk swivel & pulsating anxious bass work of "Nightflight" recall classic Echo & The Bunnymen (not to mention sadly defunct Alcest spin off Amesours). "Somewhere" is the closest Feathers gets to black metal in any traditional sense (although it's still a little ways off!), its plodding mid paced beat throbbing under heartrending cascading fuzz sounding something like My Bloody Valentine covering Filosofem. While conversely, "Clouds" doesn't have even a hint of metal, channeling instead the all enveloping opiate warmth of Slowdive. We're used to hearing black metal flirt with other subgenres, but it's rare to hear black metal used so sparingly by an otherwise totally non-metal entity. It's a really intriguing and effective approach, and Aves is definitely something we'll be keeping our eyes on! Highly recommended for fans of the aforementioned Alcest and Amesours, as well as Deafheaven, Sleeping Peonies, Clouds Collide and all manner of life affirming post rock, post punk and shoegaze.
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.
Animal Collective dude goes at it solo. Ends up sounding a lot like his bandmate Panda Bear at times, but sadly not as good...
We've said it before, we'll say it again, EVERYTHING sounds better backwards. As a child, the minute you discovered how to spin records backwards manually, no discs were safe. The Beatles, Kiss, the Beach Boys, it all sounded so alien in reverse, drums swooshed and vocals were transformed into garbled nonsense, it was a way to make EVERY record sound psychedelic. Screw the backwards masking, and the secret messages, it was the music that we needed to hear backwards.
Those early years must have had a lasting impact, as even today, we find ourselves drawn to sounds in reverse. The psychedelic pop of the Teenage Filmstars is one example, the B side of the first Sonic Youth on cassette featured the whole record BACKWARDS. Some of us even spent time opening up cassettes and flipping the tape over to make our own new backwards records...
So it should really come as no surprise that Avey Tare of the Animal Collective and his partner Kira Brekkan (of Mum), while recording their most recent record, discovered that it actually sounded better backwards (we could've told them that!). The surprising part, is that they actually decided to put it out that way! But we're definitely not complaining, as this slab of backwards psych pop has been tickling our ears nonstop since we got it in.
If you've never heard music backwards, it's hard to describe just why it sounds so much better. It has something to do with switching up the attack and decay, so a sound that usually starts suddenly and fades gradually, does just the opposite, fading in slowly and cutting out quite suddenly. It makes everything sound woozy and seasick, it gives rhythms a new twist, each beat suddenly having a strange 'FFFsssssst' at the end. Simple guitars become druggy calliopes, the vocals of course retain much of the melody, but remove the words from the equation, and suddenly the voice is transformed into some alien musical instrument.
Pullhair Rubeye was probably already a sort of trippy folky pop record, but flipping it backwards has only made it more so. Woozy and dreamlike, a musical trip through the looking glass, everything warped and wavering, guitars are pulses, waves drawn backwards from the shore, some of the shorter tracks sound like they were almost composed specifically to be backwards, the clipping and reverse swooshes turning simple melodies into stuttery Oval like smears of sound, while others are so blissful and abstract, you only occasionally notice that the sounds are coming at you in reverse order. And that's when the record shines, when it sounds like it was meant to be backwards, like instead of just flipping the tape, they actually crafted this strange alien sound. So beautiful and trippy. Our only complaint is Brekkan's elf like vocals, that when reversed and sped up sound a little too much like the Chipmunks, thankfully, they only surface here and there, and after a handful of listens, they begin to sound like an essential part of the warped and warbly Pullhair Rubeye landscape.
And if this record turns you on to the joys of backwards sound, then check out the Record Reverser elsewhere on the AQ site, a nifty little gizmo that allows you to turn all of your records backwards!!!
It's been a while, but finally a new release in Fatcat's split 12" series, this time ex-Gastr Del Sol, Bastro dude teams up with Avey Tare of super hyped outsider rock ensemble the Animal Collective. Grubbs side is mostly piano, the first half of which is hypnotic, melodic and melancholy, just a brief snippet of barroom piano, ala Billy Joel or Randy Newman, but looped Reich style, and occasionally drifting into moody spare minimalism. Grubbs' second track is a fuzzed out looped drone, and sounds like the opening guitar riff from "How Soon Is Now", cut up and reassembled. Avey Tare offers up two short tracks of Chipmunks style kiddie show vocals over glitchy cricket chirps and distant feedback, and a lengthy track of homemade crunched out lofi plunderphonia, all drone-y and minimal, underpinning whispered indie boy vocals. It's a weird combo, but it sort of works.
Released in 2000 but only now coming to AQ's attention, this debut album by Avey Tare and Panda Bear is, well, it's really good! It's an intriguing combination of elements -- a plaintive, weak voice chirping sadly over rapidly strummed yet fractured guitar, which is normal enough but then there's these weirdly muffled, like, jungle beats in the background, so faint you barely even notice that they're there. The tension between the styles happening simultaneiously is carefully handled and forms a satisfying whole. Vocals are tremulous and tinny but somehow appealing, too, like the Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne making incredibly emotional dissonant, fuzzed-out bathroom electronica. There are also gentler numbers with moody piano and delicate vocal effects. And some raucous squealing feedback guitar (like a womans wail) over Reichian arpeggiated synths. The overall effect is slightly creepy but mostly just wintry, melancholy and sad. Windy's favorite not-new record.
All it takes really is one song. Sometimes that's the key to understanding a record, to loving a band. A record can seem just sort of okay, but then that one song can work its magic and make all the other songs make more sense, and then suddenly it's not just that one song anymore. That's happened with lots of our favorite records, and is exactly what happened with this, the debut from Avi Buffalo, a group of young Southern Californians, whose sounds is a little bit Built To Spill, a little bit Elephant 6, a little bit Shins, you know what we're talking about, jangly and hooky, indie pop, but smart indie pop. The sort of stuff we do dig, but also the sort of stuff that is EVERYwhere.
So while we found this record pleasant enough, it wasn't until "What's In It For?" that everything clicked, a pretty much perfect slice of wistful jangle pop, with sly sad boy emo lyrics, spidery melodies, simple major chord jangle, the about to crack vocals, and the chorus, and absolute killer, with some super cute and charming background harmonies, that seem to get looser and looser as the song progresses, plus how can you not love a young songwriter who compares his crush's lips to two little pieces of bacon?! So after playing that song about a million times, we started letting the whole record play, and all the other songs blossomed into other songs begging to be played a million times, and who are we to argue? Sunshiney and summery, melodic and subtly catchy, songs like "Summer Cum" with its weirdly sing songy verse and heart wrenchingly twee chorus, or "Five Little Sluts", with its chiming guitars and strange serpentine vocal melodies, that manage to be catchy as heck, even though they're so unlikely. Which is sort of the story with the whole record, unlikely, off kilter, but so catchy and heartfelt and awesome. Definitely a new pop fave.
A few lists back we hailed the return of the Mausoleums, our coworker Andrew's band which had lain dormant for far too long, and who in that time seemed to have morphed into a completely different beast, trading in the schizophrenic black metal weirdness for something much more droned out and psychedelic. And apparently that sonic shift also inspired the formation of a new band, this one called Avian Bones, which traffics in a similarly murky psychedelic krautdrone sound, taking obvious inspiration from Spacemen 3, Loop and other purveyors of druggy hypnorock, the emphasis in AB seeming to be much more on propulsion, the rhythm mixed way higher and giving these songs some extra heft, and some propulsive momentum. And the murk being such that it often seems to blur the riffs and other instrumentation into clouds of shimmering sound, more of a textural backdrop for the rhythm and the fore, the sounds shifting melodically, but drifting dreamily into oblivion.
After a brief lovely reverbed guitar intro, AB lunch right into a long droned out stretch of dronerock bliss, the shifting sounds subtle enough, that it almost feels looped the song trancelike and fantastically relentless. "Going Somewhere Else" is another slab of similarly murky mesmer, the drums a bit busier this time, a bit loose limbed which gives the track a more organic feel, as if it could derail at any point.
It's not until "Only You Will Know" that the songs shifts dramatically, the drums machinelike and skittery, the droned out noise of the first few tracks dialed way back, leaving the sound more low slung and slithery, but gradually building to another spacey psychedelic sprawl, and once it reaches that point, the song locks tight, and we're once again carried away by the endless riffing and motorik rhythm. "Anoxia" offers up a false start, before lurching into a strangely spidery abstract bit of psychswirl drift, the guitars spare, the drums simple and skeletal, the guitars over the course of the track's 8 plus minutes, growing more melodic, but not necessarily louder, the track remaining spares and spare, but building in intensity, which is a nice effect, and leads right into the caustic crunch of the closer, a heady chunk of Loop meets Jesus And Mary Chain, with most of the JAMC shoegaze noise pop blurred into Loop-ed expanses of soaring melodies, and swirling distorted murk, and again, the song locks into a lumbering groove, and proceeds to churn away, with the clouds of guitar overhead swirling and constantly shifting, a seriously blissed out drone-psych coda.
And like the Mausoleums record, this one too is cassette only, the low fidelity and tape hiss only serving to enhance AB's marvelous murk. And we'd be surprised if the psych rock obsessives who freak out over every Carlton Melton / White Hills / Wooden Shjips release, finally started getting hip to the newly (re)launched Mausoleums / Avian Bones sonic axis...
Record number two from this US black metal horde, masterminded by Nachtmystium member Andrew Marukszewski. While Nachtmystium seems to have gradually been moving away from black metal and toward a sound more distinctly psychedelic and progressive, in Avichi, Marukszewski hews closer to classic black metal, but within that framework, he manages to craft something definitely out of the ordinary, channeling the same sort of post black metalisms as Deathspell Omega, but with more of a classic metal vibe, the guitars cleaner, the riffing slightly less gnarled, with some extreme dynamics, and a killer not at all traditional sound, the drums especially, dry and HUGE (it was recorded at Albini's Electrical Audio after all), with the band often locking into these soaring majestic crescendos, that remind us of fellow USBM-ers Woe, a sort of indie/post rock sensibility informing the sounds, but in a much more subtle way here, but it IS there, and it definitely affects the vibe. And when the guitars and drums are locked tight, it's mesmerizing and trancelike.
It's during the slower parts (some of them at least) when the DSO comparisons seem especially apt, that sort of Slintiness, and Avichi take that sound even further in places, slipping to into post rock that most actual post rock bands would kill for, drum sound and all, but obviously heavier, and usually those moments are precursors to the song exploding into something more black and buzzy, although the band have mastered the art of melding those two extremes.
The final two part nearly twenty minute epic title track is where the band really lets their post rock flag fly, definitely risking alienating the true grim hordes, but, the band already were well removed from true kvlt black metal anyway, but on the second movement, the band do all sorts of cool crazy stuff, blasts of frenzied muted riffing, lurching start stop mathiness, peppered with wild guitar licks, and after a brief blast of more traditional black buzz, they slip right back into a killer stretch of mathy melody that we wish would go on forever, and does in fact play out to the very end of the record.
Fans of Woe, Wolves In The Throne Room, Deafheaven, Fell Voices, and other modern experimental / progressive black metal outfits would definitely do well to check these guys out...
Birmingham's Avrocar slowly collapse into well-worn couches as the vallium starts to kick in, allowing thick sublime washes of electronics with mumbled pop structures to envelop them. A sort of drug appreciation outfit in that Spaceman 3 kind of way, Avocar's space-rock electronics recall some of the best and most sublime parts of the Michigan spacerock scene (Windy & Carl, Auburn Lull, etc.).
Hail Sweden's own grim hate-mongers (among many), Avsky. This is a band not intimidated by fiercely calculated genre boundaries, proudly celebrating the intersection between old style black metal, blackened death metal (a la lo-fi Hypocrisy), and charred crust punk. This is their second full-length in general, but their first for Moribund, specifically. While some may feel that the relatively high production value somehow cheapens the album, those interested in music and not just being kvlt will here be rewarded. Simply soak in the maleficent hate vibes, and lose yourself in a trance. Crushing guitars, searing riffs, blasting double-bass, and tortured, howling vocals. From mid-tempo to blast beats, it's all here. The bases are covered. Think old Darkthrone demos, Bathory, and Nattefrost all laying prostrate before Baphomet's throne.
We're always on the lookout for more weird black metal. But sometimes it just finds us. We got an email from a mysterious band from Japan called Avsolutized. Like most black metal groups, they were exceedingly polite, and just very much wanted us to listen to their music. So we did, and holy shit did these guys blow us away. They've been a band for almost 12 years now, and this is their very first release, and it's only FIVE songs! But you know what, it doesn't even matter. We would gladly wait another 12 years for 5 more songs like this. It's that good. That black and freaked out and gloriously fucked up. Fans of weirdo black metal and outsider grimness NEED this.
The first track is an ambient intro, all mournful guitar, and moody drones, but with soaring operatic vocals over the top.
When the first proper song kicks in, the band buzzes and pounds, a looped repetitive riff, but then the vocals, beginning as a guttural growl and quickly sliding up to an eighties metal wail, and back again, it's dizzying. The song switches to half time, the vocals transform back into a rasp, but again, explode into falsetto shrieks. Fucking brilliant. And the music underneath is the perfect support, murky and washed out, buzzy and dense, looped and hypnotic, even without the vocals, we'd be way into it, super depressive black buzz, but the vocals just transform it into something totally unique and pretty insane sounding.
One of the 5 songs is a Setherial cover weirdly enough, and they do it pretty straight, maybe upping the buzz ante, filtering it through their own cracked sound, furious and thick and relentless, they sort of out-Setherial Setherial, and then there's those vocals, here more of a traditional black shriek, but still pretty impressive. A brief folky interlude leads to the records closer, a nearly 10 minute black blowout. Loping and buzzy, totally epic, the riffing majestic and mournful, and the vocals, growling out a low demonic rumble, spitting out hellish black rasps, and of course shrieking wildly, until the track breaks down into an ambient interlude, the vocals transformed into a throaty croon, and then quickly to a wild banshee wail. Not to make too much of the vocals, cuz the music here is excellent, some of the best grim black buzz we've heard, but when it's all tangled up with the convoluted compositions and bizarre vocals, it turns what would have been just a killer black metal record into a freaked out fucked up blackened classic.
