When listening to the first track of the new Add N To (X), I could not escape the overwhelming feeling that I was listening to an analog synthesizer muzak version of the Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack. A rousing, campy, kitschful time. Confirming once again that they're a one-trick pony, ANTX have assembled another album that gets the toes tapping and rumps shaking yet ultimately leaves the listener's ears unsatiated. There's an abundance of burly vocoded vocals, and vintage synths that bloop and blurp out gelatinous cycles of riffs... which all sound super cool, if very predictable. Frankly this probably wouldn't be such an issue at all if only they'd never released their first two albums which surpass - in both composition and rocking power - anything they've done since. However... they did. If you're new to this London trio, definitely check out either of their first two before venturing into later territory. For further ANTX thoughts, please see the review of the "Take Me To Your Leader" ep.
Somewhere between Gary Numan and Jean-Jacques Perrey. The aesthetics of Kraftwerk fused with punk brought the industrial sounds of SPK, Esplendor Geometrico, and Nocturnal Emissions...this continuum continues under the guise of "post-rock" with Trans Am, Six Finger Satellite, and now Add N To X...a bloody assault of analogue synths, propulsive bass lines and hyper catchy tunes...recommended by those kids at the Wire!
These three new songs (two of them edit versions) offer a mere glimpse at their fifth album Loud Like Nature. What to expect? Churning robot rock in 4/4 time featuring a whole gang of highly processed vocals - not unlike what you might think garage rock performed completely on analog synths would sound. Fun, funky and repetitive, these songs will probably make for ideal additions to a party comp tape, but will they stand up to repeat listens? Not so sure about that. Hopefully the full length will venture beyond these synthrock confections as they did on their great second album, On The Wires Of Our Nerves, but their track record since then has shown that it's highly unlikely. Once again it seems this London trio recorded some jams, and from the outcome, chose a handful of cool synth and bass lines and came up with some even cooler synth sounds, but didn't pursue composing fleshed out songs around them. It appears their best work is still the aforementioned sophomore release. Note: the vinyl features an extended mix of "The Trees Are Dreamless Leafless Genius" whereas the cd version includes a video for the title track.
This is a collaboration between Barry from Add N To X and Randall from Fuxa. Hardly the fusion of Michigan space rock and the antiquated electronic grooves of Add N To X we might expect, "And Another Thing" is a smug collage of looping dorky electronics that strives to be charming rather than innovative. And it is charming in the same way that Pram is. Randall and Barry have set up a monotonous rhythm around a sampled loop of a clanging xylophone and bass clarinet that strolls along at an awkward bowlegged pace. Little melodic elements of swelling Lawrence Welk strings and vibes waltz around the rhythm to sound much more like the obtuse comedy records concocted by People Like Us or Nurse With Wound.
The return of lo-fi synthscaper / beatmaker / weirdo electro pop alchemist Oxkykitten, hear teamed up with the awesomely monikered Adderall Canyonly, who proves to be the perfect match for OK, so much so, it's difficult to tell who does what, and whether Adderall Canyonly is even a real person, or just some sort of made up split personality. But it hardly matters, cuz like Oxykitten tapes, The Cutting Room is another batch of weirdly homebrewed cinematic electronic pop weirdness, playful, a bit dark in places, the sound palette, equal parts lo-fi electro and 8 bit video game music, but imagine that stuff woven into darkly minor key sweeping arrangements that tap into the same sort of soundtrack sound as Zombi and Umberto and Majeure, but imagine those groups, were they forced to make their music on Casio keyboards and Fischer-Price toy guitars. Sound silly, but the results are pretty fantastic, with much of these jams playing out like the weirdo soundtrack to some sci-fi art film, thick synths buzz ominously, beats skitter and percolate, lush swaths of chordal shimmer ebb and flow, everything wound up in woozy melodies and dizzying futuristic bloops and bleeps, a little bit Kraftwerk, a little bit Goblin, a little bit toy symphony (made that one up, but there must be one, right?).
While much of this is fun and playful, some of this stuff gets pretty dark, hauntingly sinister, the soundtrackiest stuff here is also the best, weaving lush landscapes of sound that evoke some Logan's Run like future, where all of the vehicles and buildings look a bit like big blocky toys anyway, with the Cutting Room the perfect soundtrack for whatever darkness lurks beneath the pristine exterior of this imaginary futureworld.
Fans of all the modern retro synth stuff should check this out for sure, as should anyone who dug the last few Oxykitten tapes. Includes a download code as well!
This new Portland, OR band Adelaide make pastel-hued instrumentals from the swirlingly pretty side of post-rock. Each of the five tracks is sort of the aural equivalent of a dewy spring blossom gently nodding its head under the weight of the water droplets. Everything's all softly focussed with shimmery cymbal washes, gauzy guitarwork and chiming keyboard melodies. Very nice.
Homesongs by Adem (aka Adem Ilhan of electronic post-rockers Fridge) is an album very much in the somber folk vein of contemporaries Sufjan Stevens, M. Ward or Arab Strap's Malcolm Middleton. These late-night bedroom songs, though, are totally fresh and beautifully crafted with inspiration, intimacy and minimal assembly. Bounding sincerity is matched by a considered use of restraint musically. Meanwhile, the production in spite of its home-recording is terrific. What a great debut!
Dulcet. That's good word and a fine one to describe this new album from Adem. While this was playing in the store, we had quite a few queries as to whether this was a new Rufus Wainwright album. It isn't, but it still might please folks who swoon at the thought of Mr. Wainwright singing in a more pastoral setting. For those of you just joining us (and who are wonderin' what all the fuss is about), Adem Ilhan (along with Four Tet's Kieran Hebden) used to be in the aQ fave band known as Fridge. Love And Other Planets has also drawn comparisons to Sufjan Stevens in his more celestial folk-tronic mode. This lovely album is filled with the sincerest heartfelt but not overly sweet sentiments. Check out "X Is For Kisses". Awwww.
Adem spent most of his teens in one of the most influential post-rock groups of the '90s, Fridge. While his former bandmate Kieren Hebden has enjoyed a bit of a higher profile with Four Tet and his various other projects, Adem hasn't been slacking, keeping quite busy himself releasing several records of pastoral and bittersweet indie-pop. Takes is his stab at a covers record, and while we're starting to grow a bit tired of the 'covers album' concept, we have to say we do appreciate how Adem actually covers contemporary artists and doesn't try to pretend to have obscure influences just to get cool points. And thankfully we are spared from hearing another Bob Dylan cover. Instead Adem wears his influences proudly, an indie boy at heart for sure, covering the likes of Pinback, Yo La Tengo, Bedhead, Low, Aphex Twin, The Breeders, Tortoise, Bjork and more. Kind of like hanging out with your crush in their dorm room as he serenades you with all your favorite songs from the '90s.
It's unclear what it is exactly that differentiates Aderlating from Gnaw Their Tongues, both are masterminded by mysterious noisemaker Mories, both feature garish frightening artwork, both feature extended wordy song titles like "And Thou Shall Breathe Sulfur As Last Breath" and "Travel The Fog As Death Reaping The Lands" and "The Ravenous Bloodlust Of Fallen Angels", and both bands are grim and blown out and epic and cacophonous and blackened and harrowing and loud as fuck. The key differences seem to be these: Aderlating is in fact a duo, whereas GTT is a one man band, and Gnaw Their Tongues is much more cinematic, and atmospheric, while Aderlating seems to be more dense and dark and layered.
Which is evidenced by the opening track here, a seemingly static wall of undulating layered dronemusic, the sound of 100 Sunroof!s playing simultaneously, a noise drenched ur-raga, a furious white hot sprawl of trancelike crumbling crunch, which over the course of nearly nine minutes goes from Merzbowian blast, to haunting black ambient creep, exploring all sorts of sonic mysteries in between. Devotional Hymns is a collection of sounds black and bleak, hymns perhaps, but to some fallen lord, grinding black shards collide with creaking ambient drifts, epic industrial wastelands, roiling, churning, every track a black hole of sound, when melody and light do escape, they are damaged, limping along, like some charred beast, some damaged machine, crawling through a soundscape of apocalyptic decay.
A few of the tracks here get rhythmic, sounding a bit like a blackened Wolf Eyes, a rotting sea of sounds supported by a rickety industrial skeleton, while others get almost black metal, but are so blurred and obscured that any riffage or blast beating, becomes blown out smears of grim sound, culminating in the hellish fury of the 12 minute title track, a sort of black industrial noise jam, that is simultaneously hypnotic and trancelike, filthy and raw, black and brutal. Incredible stuff as always.
Essential for Gnaw Their Tongues fans obviously, and anyone into buzzing black filth or crushing industrial black ambience. And these Shadowgraph cd-r's are in super swank digipaks, but are usually still quite limited, often to 100 or less, which means these will be gone before you know it...
Another dose of 'blackened symphonic cinematic doom' (as we happen to have it classified in our iTunes), but really it would take a few more descriptors to adequately describe the abject soundscapes of Aderlating, a side project of Mories, perhaps better know for his other outfit, Gnaw Their Tongues. And while there does seem to be a distinct difference between the two entities, it's not always so obvious, which is most definitely true on Gospel Of The Burning Idols. The opening track could easy be either, thick layers of corrosive rumblings, keening distant melodies, guttural demonic vocal rumblings, monk like chants, swirls of blacknoise, industrial clank and clang, murky slow motion rhythms, orchestral swells, a hellish slow build that unwinds like a harrowingly hellish Godspeed.
And so it goes, Mories never-minding any sort of genera constraints, the sound slipping into a weird sort of broody slow-motion almost trip-hop one second, a grinding squall of moaning, groaning low end thrum the next, and creepy noise drenched free jazz freakout tribal rituals the next. All of these seemingly disparate sounds bleeding into one massive oozing sprawl of black sound, that's at once bleak and dismal, epic and cinematic, grim and darkly depressive, textured and nuanced, brutal and punishing.
Gnaw Their Tongues fans who have yet to discover the 'joys' of Aderlating, are definitely in for a soul crushing, ear shredding treat.
Latest from this blackened noise drone doom duo, an offshoot of aQ faves Gnaw Their Tongues, which finds GTT mastermind Mories teamed up with a guy from a band called Mowlawner (awesome name!), for some very GTT-like audial pure pain punishment. Much like GTT, the sounds here are grim and harsh, lots of black buzz, and dense drones, sprawling fields of abject blacknoise and soundtrack like horror ambience, but unlike Gnaw Their Tongues, which tends toward the orchestral and symphonic, Aderlating seems more rough and raw, wild and loose, and according to the sticker on the front of the disc, also improvised, which makes sense listening to the opening track here, which sounds a bit like some demonic free jazz via Abruptum style black noise minimalism, the sound churning and roiling, bellowed demonic vox buried beneath an avalanche of downtuned heaviness and rumbling low end crunch, sounding almost like a blackened free jazz Wolf Eyes, the same sort of bleak blackened miserablism, but here driven by some chaotic loose drumming, the only thing really anchoring the otherwise billowing blackness.
But that's only really one side of this most recent incarnation of Aderlating, elsewhere the band unfurl thick coruscating sheets of crumbling dronemusic, or unleash stumbling chaotic blasts of low fidelity black metal, or epic expanses of cavernous droned out industrial noise, the sound most mesmerizing when it's somehow all of those combined, like on the 18+ minute "Engel Der Wrake", which at times sounds like a blackdrone version of Aussie jazz minimalists the Necks, fusing some mesmerizing, almost krautrock like motorik mesmer to near orchestral expanses of blackened musical majesty, with strange horns, sampled sounds, industrial clatter, it could be the soundtrack to some strange sci-fi art film perhaps, and is the most ambitious, but weirdly the most fully formed and listener friendly track of the bunch.
But just to make sure you know they're not getting soft, they finish with another blast of near jazzy blackness, on the surface, it's noisy and caustic and chaotic, but dig deeper, and like the lest of the record, it reveals itself as a dense, layered, rhythmic construct, that again fuses abstract black jazz to industrial noise, and creates something wholly original, that while obviously is essential for fans of Gnaw Their Tongues is also brutal and black enough for noise enthusiasts, while being plenty tripped out and psychedelic enough for adventurous metalheads and weirdo outsider music nerds as well.
A quick glance at this, the first release from the strangely named Aderlating, will reveal some very telling clues, the record is called The Nectar Of Perversity Springs From The Well Of Repression, the cover features a terrified figure, clad only in a bit of cloth, cowering from the darkness, and on the other side some sort of ritual that involves a naked woman with burning candles inserted in her ass, laying on an altar in front of mysterious cloaked figures. The songs are titled things like "Cut Off My Penis In Praise Of Black Satan", "Rope, Pig's Blood, Dead Flesh And Two Candles", "Death Knell" and "Doodstorm", so even before we get to the caustic gritty blackened filth on the disc, we're feeling a pretty heavy Gnaw Their Tongues vibe, which makes perfect sense as Aderlating is in fact another project by Gnaw mastermind Mories.
It's a little unclear what differentiates this from a proper Gnaw Their Tongues release, there's plenty of harsh black noise, rumbling mysterious drones, buried riffage and mysterious chanting, creepy almost choral sounding voices, pounding percussion, harsh hissing feedback, crumbling distortion, buzzing black metal guitars smeared into blurred buzzscapes, howling harsh vocals buried in the mix, static, whir, glitch, all doused in effects and buried under layer after layer of distorted noise and noisy distorted. Hell, even sounds like we're describing a GTT record. Fuck it, anyone into Gnaw Their Tongues, you're gonna want this, it could essentially be the new GTT record, the only difference we can hear really, is that it's a little more harsh, a little less orchestral, where GTT employed all sort of almost cabaret like sounds, Aderlating is a much more furiously aggressive and abrasive beast, but even amidst all the white noise and grinding feedback drenched distortion, there lurks all sorts of sonic mystery, be it buried melodies, haunting disembodied voices or fucked up fragmented loops. Needless to say, we dig it. Heavy and harsh and droney and dark and just what we needed to tide us over until the next Gnaw Their Tongues record...
LIMITED TO 200 COPIES!!! We got about a quarter of those but judging by past Gnaw Their Tongues releases, those won't be around for long...
Hurrah! Norton Records has reissued two more awesome albums from the true holy terror of the rockabilly and garage world, the late Hasil Adkins. Both of them are compiled from the home recordings of the man himself circa 1958-1963. Needless to say... amazing documents of his early years! Each presents a very very different Adkins -- one a wildman hellbent on rawk fury, the other a considerably more sedate, damp-spirited country crooner. This one offers the latter, subtitled The Lonesome And Blue Sounds Of Hasil Adkins, was first released back in 1990 by Norton on LP only. This time around it's on LP and CD with an additional four bonus previously unreleased tunes sandwiched between the sixteen original warbly raw tunes.
We're totally delighted that this has finally been reissued. Hasil Adkins is fucking insane and totally rockin'. Like Elvis Presley's evil twin, fucked up, dangerous and COMPLETELY MAD. All of these songs were recorded at home in a cabin in the mountains of West Virginia, rockabilly acoustic guitar under a creepy snarly, freaked out voice, interspersed with a Adkins' cackling laugh. Having spent time touring in a beat up old car with "the greatest one man band in the world Hasil Adkins and his happy guitar" painted on the door, Adkins leaves no doubt as to who is the most rockingest man around! This reissue collects songs from 1955-1965, right at the beginning of his long and consistently nutty career. The first song 'She Said' might rings some bells, since rockabilly freaks the Cramps covered it years back. Nice booklet with liner notes penned by Adkins himself.
Hurrah! Norton Records has reissued two more awesome albums from the true holy terror of the rockabilly and garage world, the late Hasil Adkins. Both of them are compiled from the home recordings of the man himself circa 1958-1963. Needless to say... amazing documents of his early years! Each presents a very different Adkins -- one a wildman hellbent on rawk fury, the other a considerably more sedate, damp-spirited country crooner. This one offers the former, and it's fuckin' great! Ultra dirty, murky and strange. Drums sound like wellworn cardboard boxes, pots and pans. Vocals distort as he howls the high notes, and his loosely tuned, feverishly strummed guitar keeps 'em company. It was first released back in 1990 by Norton on LP only. This time around it's on LP and CD with an additional four bonus tunes (two previously unreleased in the U.S. and two previously unreleased anywhere) sandwiched between the sixteen original raw'n'blistered tunes.
Fuck yeah garage rawk fans, if you like to play it 'old school', Norton Records is absolutely where it's at! They've released this live album compiling select songs from four of lone wolf Hasil Adkins' 1987 shows (in New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Toronto), some of which also feature the A-Bones! The title ain't no joke. When it's time to play, this madman totally lets loose some true vintage rabble-rousin' rockabilly. If you dug his Out To Hunch album that Norton reissued a coupla years ago, you'll definitely wanna give this expanded cd reissue of The Wild Man a spin. Of the nineteen tracks, the first fourteen were originally available from Norton on lp, song #15 is taken from a 1987 vinyl 7", and the final four are previously unreleased tracks.
Everyone's favorite rockabilly one-madman-band, back at it again, how old is he already...
We've kind of had writer's block about doing this here review of the new album by British heavy retro-rockers Admiral Sir Cloudsley Shovell, just cuz we loved their first one so much, and anticipation for this new one was so high, it was hard to come up with anything to say, other than YEAH!! But that wouldn't really constitute a review, would it? So we put it off, hoping we'd come up with something better, but maybe that's good enough - so we finally took the advice of the opening track here, "Do It Now". Basically, if you like high energy hard rockin', the Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell are kickin' out the jams for you, once again, on this their second record. Another batch of rad tunes from 'em. Heck, if this was another band's first album it'd be easy to rave about it for paragraphs, but since it's this band's 2nd album, and we already raved about their debut, it seems so much easier just to say, hey it's their 2nd album! Right on!! YEAH!!
Er, however, for those that don't know, "The Shovell" are a power trio from England, featuring, we now realize, at least one of the guys from the stoner rock outfit Gorilla, whose two albums we reviewed back in the day. They play riffy, groovy, kickass heavy rawk'n'roll, often very much in the epic fuzz mode of their '70s forefathers with the sorta-similar name, Sir Lord Baltimore. Also, Budgie, Dust, Buffalo, Toad, James Gang, Leaf Hound, et. al., and of course ye olde Black Sabbath!! Plus, sometimes, due to a gruffness to the vocals and/or some quasi-punk speediness, these guys crank up some Motorhead vibes too, on a rave-up like "Happiness Begins" ferinstance. Motorhead meets Sabbath, yep, coulda just said YEAH!
We're digging all the tracks, but there are a couple stand-out song TITLES to mention: "2 Tonne Fuckboot" and "Late Night Mornings" (the later, this album's lengthy, surprisingly melodic finale, part ballad, part badass jam). Also, there's a song named after their previous album, kind of a classic move there.
Whew! Did it! Now, get it!!
First of all, now that's a name! To which your reaction might be, okay, this band must really be into 17th and 18th century British military history, to name themselves after a heroic naval officer who perished in a shipwreck in 1707. Or, if you're like us, you might think, hmmm, seems a bit like the moniker of Sir Lord Baltimore, the fuzzed out early '70s proto-metal greats. And that's definitely relevant to Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell's also very much fuzzed out sound, all right. Like Witchcraft, Gentlemans Pistols, and the elusive Uncle Acid and The Deadbeats, these guys are another band on Rise Above (licensed to Metal Blade in the USA), who kick out the Sabbathy jams and sound like they actually -really- belong on Rise Above Relics, that UK label's imprint for reissues of swaggering '70s heavy rock obscurities. Yeah, the Shovell (as they like to be called, for short) deliver the goods, a ramalamajama of high energy brutal boogie with distorted to heck vocals, and noisy psych geetar explosions all over the place. 'Tis total guitar heavy, FX laden, rifftastic kickass rock n' roll. Extreme enough that while they've got one foot firmly in '70s rockarolla, they've almost got the other in, like, '90s noiserock� We say that 'cause sometimes the guitars break out stuff that's so sinewy and mathy, and the vocals get even more gruff and gnarly, that suddenly we start thinking the Melvins (meet Blue Cheer). It's just that they're waaay more freaked out and crazier than, y'know, mere Led Zep copyists. Much more like, The Heads, if they were all proto-metal about it. In fact, we'd say that this is definitely recommended to both fans of The Heads -and- Sir Lord Baltimore, of which we'd imagine there'd be plenty. Also if you like Danava, the aforementioned Gentlemans Pistols, Harvey Milk circa The Pleaser, Dzjenghis Khan, plus oldies like High Tide, Budgie, Toad, Dust, Buffalo, the Groundhogs (whose Tony McPhee gets in a guest guitar solo on one track here!), Captain Beyond, etc.
In a word, Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell SLAY. And do so in style. Which includes, slipcase packaging. Oh, and there's a hidden bonus track, a cover of "Bean Stew" from Buffalo's Dead Forever, so stay tuned at the end�
One of two new Dark Entries titles this week is this bizarre French progressive synth obscurity from 1982, ADN'Ckrystall. Erick Moncollin, the man behind this one-man-band, recorded this in four days but it has as many ideas crammed into its six tracks as a candyland record store filled to the brim with Gong, Vangelis, Tim Blake and Bernard Szajner albums! Starting with the darkwave adrenaline pop of "Cocaina Vitamina", the lengthy mind-bending and genre-jumping tracks that follow employ spacey electronic synthesis, cavey dirges, occasional plodding new romantic vocals and a wonderful outsider sense of unbridled compositional experimentation. Every time we play this, we sell a copy. Weirdo French new wave prog is always welcome in our book and big thanks to Dark Entries for introducing this into our lives!
The last few non-Nadja Aidan Baker releases have found Baker delving deeper into a hushed minimalism, which was definitely always a part of his sound. In the old days it seemed like Nadja records were loud and heavy, and his solo records were hushed and haunting, recently though, the sound Baker seems to gravitate toward is a sort of Necks like minimal skitter, still hushed and haunting for sure, but more rhythmic, and often more jazzy, whether it be the brooding torch songs of his Already Drowning record, or the psychedelic krautrocky shimmer of Smudging, a record he made with his brother.
So we were expecting more of the same with this new project, a drum and bass duo in which Baker handles the drums, and at first, at least for a minute or two, it did sound like that's what we were in for, albeit with a thick swath of buzzing bass over the top, but as the first 27 minute track unfurls, it reveals itself as something WAY heavier, the drums a simple driving pound, the bass thick and distorted, there's definitely an OM vibe going on, not hard to imagine those distinctive chanted vocals swooping in, but instead, the duo lock in tight for the long haul, dishing out a totally instrumental, droned out, roiling, slomo low end dirge, one that's super hypnotic and super heavy - and it only gets heavier as it goes, with the bass getting more and more cranked, spitting out thick chordal washes and huge gouts of buzzing rumble, while Baker pounds away beneath, the song seesawing between trancey churn and almost shoegazey blown out thrum.
The second track is even longer, and spends its first few minutes shuffling jazzily, the bass woozy and melodic and ethereal, wreathed in a lush reverby haze, while beneath Baker conjures up clouds of cymbal wash, and soft flurries of hushed snare skitter, before once again, the bass heaves and splinters into something much more aggressive and distorted, not so much riffing, and filling the speakers with a thick corrosive low end drone, while Baker goes apeshit on the drums, sorta free jazz, sorta free noise. Eventually it settles down into a slow wind down creep, the bass still mostly shapeless, pulsing and swirling, sounding like way more than a single instrument, while Baker, holds it together with his simple pound, the last stretch peppered with some almost metal moments, that eventually fade into a final drone drenched death march dirge. Fans of Nadja (and OM) must check this out, it's some seriously heavy, slow and low, doom-duo minimalism!
Who has a giant ol' soft spot for really good power pop? We sure do!! And this LA band are definitely speaking our language. Influenced by the Brit excellence of The Buzzcocks and The Jam, The Adored follow in the punchy footsteps of mighty aQ fave popsters Silver Sun, Fallout Boy and Seattle's sadly defunct Pure Joy. We particularly were suckers for the vocals which bore a striking resemblance to the latter band's lead singer Rusty Willoughby. Anyways, if a heapin' serving of buoyant harmonies, snappy hooks and crunchy electric guitars are what you crave, this band has 'em all in abundant supply. Absolute fun!
This was one of my favorite records when I (Andee) was in high school, not sure why exactly. I wasn't all that into punk rock at the time. I remembered it being funny and goofy and dumb. And it sort of is, but what I didn't remember was how totally weird and heavy it was. Totally awesome, thrashing and chaotic metallic punk rock. AOD careen wildly through two dozen short sharp blasts of goofy punkrock metal in a buzzing blur of sloppy metallic intensity. Songs like "AOD Vs. Godzilla", "Youth Blimp", "Masterpiece" (a cover of the theme from Masterpiece Theater!), "Fuck The Nieghbors", "Surfin' Jew" and tons more. Heavy and noisy and so so good. Includes a bunch of silly bonus tracks, covers of the theme from Spiderman and the Jeffersons theme, a Bay City Rollers cover, a Kiss cover, A Dead Boys cover and a Sex Pistols cover!
Adrenalin O.D. really get a bad rap as being some sort of joke band. Sure they were funny, and goofy, and had ridiculous song titles, and sang about a lot of stupid shit, but it was more a case of 4 really funny guys getting together to play some serious kick ass metallic punk rock, and the thing is when you get to the music, there's really nothing funny about it at all. A.O.D. were faster and heavier and more brutal than most of their early eighties contemporaries, just check out the first sound sample "A.O.D. Vs. Godzilla", perfectly encapsulates what's so awesome about Adrenaline O.D. With a dead pan introduction "Hi, welcome to our album", the band lurches into a chugging doomy metal dirge, that probably had the punk kids back in 1984 when this came out thinking "what the fuck?", before launching into a super heavy, ultra furious punk rock blast, that is heavier than most metal bands. A.O.D. slip back and forth between some angular Maidenesque guitar harmonies, and that furious blasting punk rock, shifting gears at the end into another kick ass buzzing outro. Holy shit. We forgot how good this stuff sounded. The rest of the disc is not quite so metal though there are moments, this is just punk as fuck punk rock, and even when these guys are singing about silly shit, the songs still destroy. Be sure and check out "Rock & Roll Gas Station", Fenriz from Darkthrone's favorite song. Which makes sense, listening to Darkthrone you can tell those guys were into punk rock as much as metal, maybe even more. There's a video floating around on internet of Fenriz being interviewed in his apartment, and there's a big part where he goes on and on about that track and these guys. FENRIZ ENDORSED!! What else do you need?!
As if the The Wacky Hi-Jinks record wasn't enough on its own, this reissue also includes a whole extra disc of rarities, including singles, comp tracks, live recordings, most of 'em as kick ass as the record proper. Also includes a bunch of photos, and essay and liner notes...
Awww c'mon Adult., why the resigned tone in your new album title?! We know you're not the defeatist types, and your new album has a momentum all its own!
This duo's music has gone through a few shifts in direction since their inception in the late nineties -- from the sharp icicles of classic Detroit techno and electro to the incensed shove of grrrrl punk -- but regardless of which direction they turn, there persists an overriding sense of frazzled nervous instability or 'anxiety always' (the title of their 2003 album), if you will. Fists and teeth are still clenched on this their fourth album, but Miller and Kuperus turn their wheels away from the abrasive electro-punk of their last album. They haven't returned completely to their minimal electro roots though. While the aggressive energy remains from the comparatively untethered Anxiety Always and 2005's Gimmie Trouble, Adult. have sharpened their focus and control here while at the same time unleashing a far more consuming, dense atmosphere; sinking deeper into the depths of goth industrial territory. Miller's prickly programmed beats have been partially engulfed by a thick ominous fog. Looming clanks and churnings occupy the former robotic stark spaces, and yet, Kuperus' sharp vocal exclamations still pierce out of the cloudy dank air. Her confrontational vocal performance continues to channel early female fronted post-punk bands such as Malaria!, X-Ray Spex, Liliput, and The Slits, if somewhat more muted and even-tempered than on their last couple albums. Check out the fevered itch of "I Feel Worse When I'm With You". Some folks around here were also reminded of Romeo Void and Fuzzbox. Alternately brooding and manic, and definitely devoid of the lethargy and apathy implied by the album's title.
Cool cover photos once again by Kuperus featuring a fresh manicure, milky skin, wheat, a rusted axe and a woman with her head concealed in a piece of luggage.
Is this highly anticipated Adult. full length: (a.) raw in an in-your-face punky fashion, or (b.) raw in an unfinished, half-assed state? It seems that folks have already begun taking sides. Either way if you haven't heard Adult. yet, this shouldn't be your introduction to the music of this Detroit duo. They've done so much better than this - namely their "Resuscitation" release. However, that wasn't an album proper; it was a lively collection of their assorted singles, and clearly that is where Adult. shine brightest. Despite their attempt at crafting a fully realized album, "Anxiety Always" just doesn't hold up to "Resuscitation." It seems obvious that Adult. has gotten frustrated with all of the hub-bub that has exploded around them in the electro-whatever crowd. "Anxiety Always" finds Adult. attempting to re-invent themselves, by emphasizing the punk snarl that was always lurking under that mechanical sheen of industrialized paranoia. Thus Nicola Kuperus' vocals jump to the foreground, spastically crashing into the electro-clash they've taken such care to craft. Furthermore, Adam Lee Miller picks up the bass on a couple of tracks to add a human touch to Adult.'s machinations, recalling the pre-Joy Division outfit Warsaw. At their best, Adult. also references the mutant sounds of Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire; but at the same time, their ability to flesh out their tracks into wholly realized, infectious songs isn't as precise as on "Resuscitation." The shrill and redundant cut "Turn Your Back" leaves little to the imagination, sounding like a mediocre, punk-grrrrl, electronic outfit on Kill Rock Stars. Yet the album picks up steam as it continues, highlighted by the ominous, electro-obliqueness of "People You Can Confuse."
If you must know, Cup, who had previously championed "Resuscitation" here at the store, is less convinced by this album; but Jim, who has enjoyed revisiting all of those old Hula records from the '80s, has become rather fond of this admittedly flawed release.
MPEG Download: "Turn Your Back" [/audio/adultturnyourback.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Turn Your Back" [/audio/adultturnyourback.m3u]
On their newest cdep/12" and first release on Thrill Jockey, Detroit electro-punk duo Adult. sure have got a bee in their bonnet. Continuing to move further from their icy, true electro origins into an increasingly raw'n'aggressive punky territory, vocalist Nicola Kuperus whoops and sneers her way through the lead-off track "Hold Your Breath" -- definitely in line with Glass Candy or Le Tigre -- while her partner Adam Miller churns out the dank, brooding bass and bristling guitars that punch through the unrelenting programmed beats. Actually this might've served as a better transitional follow-up to their fine compilation Resuscitation (which collected together a bunch of their singles) than was their last full length Anxiety Always. D.U.M.E. more cohesively bridges their electro past and recent more punky leanings. Really, Adult. comes across as much more focussed, infectious and potent on shorter format releases (12"s, EPs, etc). Not only are the songs more structured, but the lyrics are also more fully fleshed out (like Resuscitation's songs than A.A.'s more repetitive one-liners). Kewl.
Lest they forever be genre-saddled with the electro-clash albatross, Adult. have wisely broadened their scope. And the path they've chosen is much more outwardly aggressive and punky. Truckloads of abrasive attitude. This is most evident in the vocal department which has claimed even more prominence in the band's sound. Formerly ice-cold monotone vocalist Nicola Kuperus further expands her range, swooping from a high pitched shriek to a mid-pinched sneer and way down to a deep throaty snarl. Brings to mind early-'80s Berliners Malaria! or more recently SF/Berliners The Vanishing. Likewise, Adam Miller's dirtied up his former ultra-sterile, scalpel-sharp, old school Detroit electro palette. Nevertheless, his steely mechanized beats are what link the tracks on Gimmie Trouble to those of the Adult. of old -- cutting through the newly added chunks o' industrial guitar which come courtesy of new member Samuel Consiglio. Their new(ish) direction and expansion aim them right for the spot recently vacated by the abovementioned, recently disbanded, art-punk/goth-dustrial duo-turned-trio The Vanishing.
Four versions of fab Detroit electro duo Adult.'s track "Hand To Phone". They are: the original as heard on their awesome album 'Resuscitation', an instrumental mix by the group themselves (which in my opinion falls a bit short without Nicola's unflinchingly icy vocals), plus two remixes by Carl Craig and Mat 101. Come over!
Two exclusive tracks from this increasingly popular electro duo. "Run Run Crying" might sound familiar if you saw their fabulous live set recently. Simply one their best tracks to date. The b-side is a new version of the first Adult. track from 1997, "Modern Romantic". Limited to 1000 hand numbered copies with a fold out 14"x14" poster featuring, as always, the stunning photographic
Detroit electro superstars offer one new track, "Don't You Stop". Three remixes follow, based on that old kids' game of "Telephone Operator" or "Pass It On" or "Chinese Whispers" or whatever you called it when you were young -- basically the original Adult. track was passed to Solvent, who reworked it and passed their results to Phoenecia, who worked their magic and passed those
Strap on your electro pants, baby. 'Cause Adult. (don't forget that punctuation) are here. Witness the awesome android power of this Detroit duo - one half of which is Mr. Adam Miller, formerly of the mighty electro-kings known as LeCar. If you were a fan of
On "Suck The Air", vocalist Nicola Kuperus assumes a much more pissy-pouty tone than her usual cold android stare - aligning Adult. more with the punky rather than electro crowd. Think Glass Candy or the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. She's honed her sassily sneering delivery somewhat from their recent Anxiety Always album on which her vocals wavered dangerously close to the grating, shrill side of things. On the flipside, the rubbery beats and aquatic synth clangs of "High Heels..." aims the ear more towards the work of electro-technician Adam Miller. It's a fun no-frills track, but much too short to get the party fully rolling. Truly, this 7" should've been a 12"! Nonetheless, it (especially the A-side) shows the duo doing what they do best, crafting *single* tracks into terrific electro-pop.
Imagine Jan and Dean meets Mamas and Papas with pretty, delicate female harmonies a la His Name is Alive.
If you've yet to hear the loveliness that is Adventures In Stereo, what are you waiting for? Here's a prime opportunity to get a wee sampling of their swirling ribbons of pop sweetness. Two songs, one from their wonderful album "Monomania" and one unreleased.
Beginning softly with some very retro dreamy balladry, this album then shifts into a bit of country guitar pickin' and on to perkier numbers, but the lovely high female vocal harmonies continue throughout. Very, very pretty swirling melodies from this pop sextet. Actually, these songs would have been very much at home on the Sarah record label or early SpinArt. Lovely.
Have to say that the current trend of new New Wave is right on with me. Love those old synth sounds and programmed beats... just as long as these new bands bring some fresh elements into the sound as opposed to simply rehashing Human League, Pet Shop Boys or New Order tracks. Unfortunately in the case of the Gainesville, FL trio known as The Aeffect, it seems to be leaning towards the
Been meaning to list this for a while now, the debut from a group we originally discovered due to the fact that it features members of longtime aQ faves, instrumental heavies Pelican. So we were expecting something similar, heaving atmospheric heaviness, slow burn post metal majesty, but instead, we discovered a sound much closer to the sludge pop of Torche - thick churning riffage, crushing drumming, clean soaring vox, hooks and harmonies galore, like a slightly less heavy Torche crossed with the post stoner rock heaviness of QOTSA, which for all the warped and weird shit we listen to, is actually a pretty badass combo to these ears. But actually, the more we listen, the more Aeges sounds like latter era Cave In, not the Radiohead period, but right after that, when they switched back to a heavier more metallic sound, but taking some of that stadium rock bombast back with them. Hooky as hell, with a sound that's massive and heavy, the guitar gnarled and buzzy, distorted and often thick, crumbling and corrosive, plus there are cool stretches of guitar riffing, where the sound is super processed and doused in effects, and those clean vox, slip occasionally into raspy glass gargling vokills, but almost always slips right back into something more melodic. We could go song by song for sure, but really if you dig super catchy, meldoic heaviness, and groups like Cave In, Torche, Queens Of The Stoneage, even Swervedriver and the heavier side of the shoegaze sound, this record will hit the spot big time. Aquarius pal Lauren came in the shop when we were playing this, and said it sounded like something that she would have listened to in the nineties, which is pretty spot on. Classic old school, heavy nineties style indie rock heaviness that is one of those sounds they just don't make like they used to, except in the rare cases, like this, when they DO!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
One half of epic cinematic ambient black chamber doom soundscapers Pussygutt strikes out on his own to create an epic bit of abstract doom creep, that strips down the Pussygutt sound to its essence, and creates something equally as haunting and harrowing. Clean spidery guitars unwind over squalls of distorted rumble, drums offer the occasional thud, feedback streaks and shimmers, the sound subtly intensifying, but never really moving beyond a slow motion moonlit drift. It almost sounds like Slint at 16rpm, a glacial post rock, laced with hints of doom, allowed to creep and crawl through an ever shifting field of whir and buzz and shimmer.
The song(s) continues on the B side, the drums and guitar dropping out leaving just a high end shimmer like a soft focus Sunroof! ur-drone, until some of the doom drifts back in, lush swells of ominous keyboard, muted chugs, sloooow minor key guitars, distant vocals, the overall affect way more pop and pretty than Pussygutt, but still retaining the same overall grim vibe, eventually finishing off with another soaring sheet of harmonized high end which gives way to that original spidery guitar line, drifting all by it's lonesome in an epic expanse of black, only to be joined by delicate pointillist piano for the slowly slipping away outro. So nice.
Beautiful packaging, a silver on black silkscreened tri-fold sleeve, released on Pussygutt's Wolveserpent label. LIMITED TO 300 COPIES, hand numbered...
It's getting a little bit hard to keep track of their various permutations, but in a nutshell, first there was Pussygutt, a male/female duo from Idaho who trafficked in sprawling blackened folk flecked dronescapes. That band transformed into Wolvserpent, with the sound remaining essentially the same, weaving blackened drones, fluttery folk, and corrosive doomic dirges into something heavy and psychedelic, cinematic and atmospheric. So now we have Aelter, which just so happens to be the solo project of Blake Green, one half of Wolvserpent / Pussygutt, who takes the sound of WS/PG as a starting point, crafting something much more melodic and soundtracky, eschewing much of the metallic crush of the former in favor of shimmery deserty twang, swirling strings, lush layered drones, choral vocals.
This double disc collects two super limited lps, and weirdly enough, the first half of disc one, sounds a little bit like Barn Owl, but infused with the spirit of Goblin, and with vocals (!), breathy and ethereal. The label mentions that this sounds more like something you'd find on 4AD, and we can definitely hear that, it's a delicate almost shoegazey dreamfolk blackdrone drift, which is less heavy than it is mesmerizing and hypnotic, the guitar twang, delicate piano and swoonsome synths woven deftly into the minimal downtuned riffage that again is less about metal, and more about mood. In fact, for folks who were looking for more Wolvserpent, this might be a bit of a let down, cuz this is something else entirely, a sort of soundtracky post rock, or atmospheric black ambient soundscape, the second disc offers up more of the same, hushed shimmer, melancholy melodies, distant drones, the drums do come into play on disc two, and there is a bit of a slowcore doom vibe, but even then, it's more darkly ominous than doomy, more haunting than heavy, but as a gorgeous lab of abstract ambience and cinematic soundscaping, it's pretty tough to beat. Fans of the current crop of Goblin / Carpenter worshippers who are after something a bit darker and a lot less synth heavy, might find this is just what they were looking for.
We recently listed a double cd reissue from this blackened experimental soundscaper, which compiled two supposedly out of print lps, but good news for you vinyl fiends, after we posted that review, the band got in touch with us to let us know they had a stash of the Follow You Beloved half of that reissue, on vinyl, which we had never had before, so we got a handful of copies for the store...
It's getting a little bit hard to keep track of their various permutations, but in a nutshell, first there was Pussygutt, a male/female duo from Idaho who trafficked in sprawling blackened folk flecked dronescapes. That band transformed into Wolvserpent, with the sound remaining essentially the same, weaving blackened drones, fluttery folk, and corrosive doomic dirges into something heavy and psychedelic, cinematic and atmospheric. And now we have Aelter, which just so happens to be the solo project of Blake Green, one half of Wolvserpent / Pussygutt, who takes the sound of WS/PG as a starting point, crafting something much more melodic and soundtracky, eschewing much of the metallic crush of the former in favor of shimmery deserty twang, swirling strings, lush layered drones, choral vocals.
The label mentions that some of this sounds more like something you'd find on 4AD, and we can definitely hear that, it's a delicate almost shoegazey dreamfolk blackdrone drift, which is less heavy than it is mesmerizing and hypnotic, for folks who were looking for more Wolvserpent, this might be a bit of a let down, cuz this is something else entirely, a sort of soundtracky post rock, or atmospheric black ambient soundscape, on Follow You Beloved, it's all hushed shimmer, melancholy melodies and distant drones, and drums too, which don't normally play a big part in Aelter's sound, that rhythmic component adding a bit of a slowcore doom vibe, but even then, it's more darkly ominous than doomy, more haunting than heavy, but as a gorgeous lab of abstract ambience and cinematic soundscaping, it's pretty tough to beat. Fans of the current crop of Goblin / Carpenter worshippers who are after something a bit darker and a lot less synth heavy, might find this is just what they were looking for.
Gorgeous red on black packaging, LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, each one hand numbered...
We just reviewed the double disc reissue of Aelter I and II, a double cd reissue of two lps from this Wolvserpent / Pussygutt offshoot, the sound a sort of shoegazey dreamfolk blackdrone drift (as we described it in that review), so really we were expecting more of the same on the latest Aelter, his first for boutique outsider metal label Handmade Birds, but we were pretty surprised by what it actually ended up sounding like, both sides, part one and two of one album long song, dramatically different, and neither like anything we'd heard from Aelter before.
The A side was maybe the biggest surprise, as it's all synths, no drums, no guitars, just swirling dreamy synths, a sort of Tangerine Dream / Emeralds style drift, hushed and layered and new agey, dreamily droning, the layers softly pulsing, all hazy and washed out, minimal and mesmerizing, until the last minute or so, where things turn dark, and the sound gets low and distorted, sounding almost like throat singing, which is right where the B side takes up, those throat singing like drones a backdrop for some dirgey woozy metal, definitely the most metal we've heard Aelter get, all low slung bass and dreamy almost shoegazey vox, peppered with almost atonal sounding crescendos, tense and haunting and quite dramatic, but that metal blossoms into something entirely different for the second half of the track, a gorgeous sprawl of hazy gloom pop, fuzzy bass, and swirling synths, and dreamy female vox, the shoegaze element in full effect, a gorgeous, surprisingly pop final movement!
packaged in super swank purple and black covers, with a printed full color 12"x12" insert.
And be warned, we got VERY FEW of these, way less than we wanted, and we won't be getting any more, they're out of print already, so grab one quick if you can (apologies if they're gone by the time you order).
