Black Keys are back with another rompin' output of heavy hitting soul fueled rocking jammers. Catchy, fuzzy and soulful, a formula the duo has been perfecting over their short but high-profile career. As much as we were scared of what this less damaged, more refined sound might be, we were happy to find that these songs are super infectious and truly well-written. In fact this album really feels so much more unified and spot-on then some of their past outings. Some of us who had never really been the biggest of fans are finding ourselves listening to this over and over. They've tapped into this really cool spirited sound that makes us think of what it might sound like if the White Stripes and Devendra Banhart joined forces, as there is a super cool T. Rex vibe going on throughout Brothers. We could see so many folks digging this, from fans of garage rock, pop and psych to '60s/'70s fanatics. We usually shy away from new stuff that incorporates a blues-like aesthetic in its rock n' roll but The Black Keys have really mastered it, and begun to execute and understand that understatement can ring really loud. This is a killer rock n' roll album!
On Chulahoma, Black Keys play six songs by the late blues great Junior Kimbrough. It's not the first time they've covered his music. You might recall their right-on version of "Do The Rump" that was featured on their debut album back in 2002. Here they riff on both the garagey grit of their last album Rubber Factory as well as Kimbrough's traditional raw blues sound. An understated but kick ass tribute to an unsung blues giant!
Doesn't feel like we need to say too much about this one as everyone's been freaking out about this record, and it seems to be the album that is going to push The Black Keys to the next level of fame (they are on the cover of Rolling Stone this month). We're totally down with bands who get famous and actually get to make a good living on making music, and the Black Keys are cool, and have worked their asses off, but at this point we can think of so many other bands that deserve this sort of success just as much. We actually dug their last outing quite a bit, but this new one seems to be pushing them in a new direction, one that seems potentially less exciting for long time fans, and more geared for new fans, festivals, and big stadiums...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
We play this game around AQ called "Why? Do you like it?" It's designed to not let us be prejudiced by preconceived notions when listening to music. Once in a while when we're playing a record and a co-worker asks we're listing to, rather than just telling them, we'll respond instead with "Why? Do you like it?" Thus the person has to decide if they should be honest, risking embarrassment, 'cause if they say they hate it, it might be something they own and supposedly love, and if they say they love it, it could be that record they claim to hate. It actually works out pretty well. We've all had to fess up to liking stuff we supposedly hated. And we've discovered that records we thought we loved (or at least owned) that we didn't really care for all that much.
It's kind of hard to be unaffected by all the things -other- than the music. Stuff you read, how popular a band is, other folks who like the band. It all colors your opinions whether you want it to or not. So, we always just sort of figured we would hate the Black Keys. I'm not sure we ever even heard them, they just sort of seemed like a band we would hate. Then we went to Arthurfest in L.A. last year, and happened upon a stage where some bad ass blown out psychedelic blues rock band was completely destroying. A two piece, just guitar and drums, and they were loud and heavy, soulful and freaked out. Well, it ends up it was the Black Keys and we were forced, happily we might add, to change our tune. And while once in a while, the Black Keys will dip into bad blues or boring jam rock, for the most part, we have to admit, we really dig these guys! After that fateful show, we went back and checked out their records and that just cemented it. These guys kick ass.
So here we have the latest, not sure if this is the 4th or 5th, but it's another blast of blown out proto-metal psychedelic blues. We're usually opposed to bands who choose to ditch an instrument. No bass player, just drums and bass, whatever. It usually sounds like something is missing. Not so here. These guys sound a little stripped down sure, but it suits them. Gives the guitar room to slither all over the place. A warm wild buzz, over a relentlessly groovy drummer, who pounds and shuffles, and hangs all over every riff, like he's adding his own imaginary bass lines. And the vocals are killer, lazy and sun baked, perfectly complimenting the fuzzy psychrock guitar jams. We hear a lot of Groundhogs, some Zeppelin, which is awesome! A few folks here, thought they heard some Fabulous Thunderbirds. Which is maybe not so. It all sort of depends on what sort of musical background you're bringing to the table. Either way, it's hard to resist this Magic Potion, a gloriously fuzzy, laid back, groove laden, buzzy blues rawk and roll concoction.
Former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde (he of the trademark pick squeals) rocks with a brand of hard, dirgy rock. Southern-tinged (a la CoC) stoner metal? 'Cause it's Zakk the stoner metal contigent might not pick up on this, but it actually blows away most other efforts in the genre: it's super heavy, full of (of course) great guitar playing and some excellent songwriting. Zakk handles the vocals too, with a voice again reminescent of CoC's Pepper Keenan. For fans of Acid Bath, Alice in Chains, Down, etc.
This might be the first time Finland's Spikefarm (home to Dead Beginners, Shape Of Despair, Finntroll and others) may have dropped the ball. A friend of ours, who we don't always necessarily believe, swears by this band. Loves 'em. We're not sure why. To me
Harsh and brutal analog electronic noise from Texas. And I do mean harsh and brutal. Think Merzbow, Masonna, that sort of thing. A thick 20 minute slab of NOISENOISENOISE. This is only for the strong. And we only have a few of these left as it was a limited run of 50, so first come first served!
More swaggering trash rock from these rowdy Georgian peaches. Good Bad Not Evil is a heckuva wild party spewing sinewy electric guitars and sneering gang vocals. Bet they worship at their homemade altar to garage rawk gods The Sonics, The Gruesomes and The Monks each and every night. Super fun, especially after a few stiff shots.
The Black Lips kick ass live... and occasionally they do so in Spanish... at least on this cd which captured the band live in Tijuana... with gallons of tequila, beer and a mariachi band in tow among other things and beings. A wild, fist-pumpin', eyes comin' unfocused, clothing comin' undone, trashy garage rawk train wreck drenched with sweat and the above mentioned intoxicants. We suspect that countless brain cells were obliterated this eve.
More swaggering trash rock from these rowdy Georgian peaches. Good Bad Not Evil is a heckuva wild party spewing sinewy electric guitars and sneering gang vocals. Bet they worship at their homemade altar to garage rawk gods The Sonics, The Gruesomes and The Monks each and every night. Super fun, especially after a few stiff shots.
This experimental supergroup, comprised of Tom Greenwood of Jackie O Motherfucker, the Opalia brothers from My Cat Is An Alien and frequent MCIAA collaborator, Ramona Ponzini, recorded these 4 untitled long-form improvisations live during a two month 2005 European tour. Sounding at times like early Ash Ra Tempel or Cosmic Jokers, the acid-y and druggily unhinged early krautrock influence is more apparent in this live setting than on previous studio-recorded outings from either camp, showcasing an immediate onstage chemistry that is refreshingly engaging!
What is it with Brooklyn and cold / new / synth wave? There must be some magical portal between 2012 Brooklyn and early eighties Berlin, or rainy Sheffield circa the early days of the Human League, or something. What else could explain the legions of synth wielding goths that call Brooklyn home. Whatever it is, we're definitely not complaining. The most recent result of this sonic timewarp comes in the form of record number two from Brooklyn duo Black Marble, whose sounds is a warm, lush, washed out electro pop new wave, very raw and DIY sounding, lo-fi but still lush, all driving low slung bass lines, deep, dramatic echo drenched vox, pulsing muted synths, skeletal propulsive rhythms, all of that good stuff. But as we've mentioned before, it's easy to get the 'sound' right, very few bands have the songs to back it up. However, like some of our other gloomy faves, the Soft Moon, Trust, Craft Spells, Minks, etc., Black Marble craft some seriously excellent pop songs. Opener "Cruel Summer" is easily one of our favorite gloom pop / cold wave jams yet, with just a hint of Goblin / Carpenter fused with their eighties style minor key moody electro pop, the vocals especially deep and dramatic, most of the song spent locked into a pulsing motorik loop, cinematic and tranced out, laced with lilting melodies, and subtle hook that is irresistible, the sound a bit like a retro cold wave Magnetic Fields. The follow up "MSQ No-Extra" is just as good, which a churning industrial rhythm, looped beneath ethereal kosmische shimmer, and a serious New Order style bassline, cascading synths, and booming percussion, and another huge hook, the song sounds like it could have been plucked from some classic eighties soundtrack (Breakfast Club?), and that's pretty much how the rest of the record plays out, one eighties style new wave electro pop classic after another, with the occasional bit of abstract cold wave drift, like the awesome closer "Unrelated", which almost sounds more like Zombi or Umberto, that retro synthscapery, definitely informing the group's more electro pop sound. Great stuff, and essential for fans of all things Sacred Bones / Captured Tracks and that whole modern cold / new / synth wave axis.
Our good pal Cayce, who sadly passed away back in 2007, was as obsessive about freaky and fucked up music as we are, and was the first to bring this record to our attention, which we might have otherwise ignored on account of the somewhat dodgy sounding band name they possess. Black Mayonnaise? Eww. But Black Mayonnaise are definitely AQ-material, Cayce was right. Self-described (it says it right on the back cover) as "Warped Lunar Sludge-core", this band is akin to a lo-fi melding of SUNNO))) and Godflesh. It is sludgy and doomy, but not so much heavy or riffy, more just ominous and creepy and droney and dubby and distorted... Imagine plodding, repetitive, hypnotic, echoey drum machine hits mixed with mellow Merzbow-ian drone, whilst gargling, not-even-vocals bubble up from a tarpit of rumbling bass, amidst sundry sci-fi synth noises and the distant wails of whales and wookies. And there's a 'cover' song on here too, "Graveyard" by the Butthole Surfers, a choice that speaks volumes.
Listening to this disc is like stumbling through a miasma AND slowly sinking into a mire. We love it! Chances are there's only one guy behind Black Mayonnaise, and he recorded this in his bedroom -- but it sounds more like it was recorded in a moist, dark cave...perhaps the cavernous stomach of some extraterrestrial monster. Gastro-intestinal, interstellar doom, anyone? If that sounds good to you like it does to us, then this is quite recommended.
Ahhhh, how we love Black Mayonnaise. Not the foodstuff. Although to be fair, we've never really tried it. No we're talking about the weird blackened musical one man band who years ago graced us with the mindblowing and soul melting Ttssattsr album, and who has now returned with a brand new disc of self described "Warped Lunar Sludge-core", and if anything it's even noisier, heavier and more freaked out and fucked up.
Ttssattsr, as best as we could describe it, sounded like some fractured blend of Godflesh and SUNNO))), and while that element is still present, things seem to have gotten a lot more abstract, with many tracks eschewing rhythms altogether, or burying them under an avalanche of grinding throbbing churning blackened buzz.
The first track is one long static drone, thick and tangled layers of blurred out buzz all tangled up into one huge ropy mass, above it float monstrous froglike croaks, impossible low end gurgles, while beneath a skittery rhythm lurks, barely audible, more like a thready pulse, all dubbed out, a rickety rhythmic skeleton supporting the blackened hide of the Black Mayonnaise beast. While heavy and intense, it's also weirdly dreamy and blissed out, a sort of soft doom-drone.
But the next track takes care of that, the drums finally kick in, the croaking frog still belching out noxious clouds of vocals, the guitars and drums locked into a doom plod, everything wreathed in space-y FX, like a slow motion doom metal Hawkwind.
Track three is super reminiscent of the first BM record, a very Godflesh sounding dirge, the industrial drumming, the thick riffing, but all melty and murky with those awesome croaked grunted rumbles over the top.
Probably the biggest surprise is the Flaming Lips cover, that sounds nothing like the Lips AT ALL, instead, it's a caustic slab of furious fuzzed out distorted in-the-red buzz and relentless blast beats, as close to blacknoise as BM gets, there are all sorts of groaning creaking sounds, as well as squiggly streaks of hiss, but they are practically swallowed whole. There's also a Flipper cover, which seems and sounds much more Black Mayonnaise appropriate, a murky lurching trudge through a world of sonic black tar. Everything black and dripping, but shot through with lazer blast FX, and those creepy vocals again.
The thirteen minute closer is totally out of left field, a garbled synthscape, very abstract and freaky, plenty of whirring buzz, and bleeps and bloops, slippery squiggles, like intercepted alien radio broadcasts, a sputtering, squelchy glitchy not-quite ambience that does manage to actually get pretty hypnotic.
Gorgeously packaged in a silkscreened black-on-black cardstock sleeve, while inside there's a black-on-metallic-silver printed insert, BUT be warned, it is in fact a cd-r, not an actual cd, but really it hardly matters, you'll forget about everything but what the hell is happening to your ears, and our brain, and your soul the second you press play.
For this one, I (Allan) have got to tell a little story... 'round Christmastime I was back home in Pennsylvania, where I spent one of my evenings hanging out with some old pals who I know from one of my hometown's record stores. You know, some folks in a basement, with some beers, something funny-smelling being smoked (no, not by me), and lots and lots of records being spun, mostly jazz and funk and R&B 'cause that's what these friends of mine dig the most. Well, one record comes on that immediately makes me say, hey, this sounds like something that shoulda been on that Chains And Black Exhaust compilation from a couple years ago. Real bad-ass, fuzzed-out psychedelic '70s funk. My friends hadn't seen that comp, but perhaps you have since you're reading this and we did pretty well with it here at AQ. Sadly it's long gone now. Well, another track (a nice bluesy number) goes by, and then boom, there's a song that WAS indeed on that comp! All chunky wah-wah groove and grunting badassitude, "Cynthy-Ruth" turns out it's called, and one of the highlights on Chains and Black Exhaust ('twas track three).
The record my host was spinning was a vinyl reissue of the first album circa 1970 by Detroit's "folk rock funkateers" (it said right on the cover), a band called Black Merda. We kept listening and it was clear that this was a pretty killer album from an obscure bunch of "black rock" pioneers, contemporaries of Funkadelic and similiarly influenced by Jimi Hendrix. Dang, I immediately figured that no doubt quite a few of you who dug Chains And Black Exhaust would want this!
So when I got back to work here at AQ, I had to track it down. My diligent investigations revealed that both this first album and its 1972 sequel Long Burn The Fire (released under the shortened sobriquet Mer-da) were soon to be reissued together on a single cd. And this is it, The Folks From Mother's Mixer (the name of one of the songs from the Mer-da LP).
Overall, there's a doomy, druggy vibe again akin to a lot of early Funkadelic, an atmosphere that can be mellow but menacing, dark and gloomy, with loosely-chanted choruses full of socially-conscious protest lyrics. And yes, there's a buncha funky heavy groovers in the style of "Cynthy-Ruth" alongside a goodly amount of laid back psychedelic blues-rock jamming in the Hendrix vein. Fans of early Funkadelic won't be disappointed at all. Their somewhat cleaner, brighter second album perhaps ain't as good as the first, but definitely also has its strong points and you'll be glad it's on here too.
Comes packaged with Afro-filled photos and lengthy liner notes that tell the whole Black Merda story, from their days as Edwin Starr's backing band to to their embrace of '60s heavy electric guitar rock to their signing to Chess Records (the famous blues label was trying to get into the psychedelic, underground rock thing at the time) and brief shot at fame to the eventual derailment of their career due to forces beyond their control. Now, 30+ years later, Black Merda's music gets another chance to turn on, funk up, and weird out music fans.
Once again, we got a whole batch of killer black metal cassettes, too many to review, but all of them weird and grim, buzzing and black. Some are super fucked blacknoise, others are damaged stumbling outsider black buzz, while others are old skool blackness, raw and hateful and brutal, while still others fall somewhere in between. But all of them cool. Andee again bought one of each if that makes you feel any better (his room is starting to look like it did in high school, minus the Motley Crue and W.A.S.P posters, who thought at 37 he'd be contemplating buying a "cassette rack" for all his tapes).
Okay, now we're talking. Ten tapes is some serious shit. The demons and dark underlords are starting to take notice. There is a bit of scuttlebut in the halls of hell, you are dark, bleak and black. Of soul, of heart, of spirit. Ten tapes will keep your Walkman bleeding black while you apply all that corpsepaint. While you sharpen that axe and practice making those scary faces for your series of ultra grim Myspace videos. That goth girl at the video store might finally notice you. C'mon! You are the elite. The black legion. The black tape legions.
Remember, only tapes that have NOT been reviewed are eligible for the grab bag and the bargain price.
That means we pick, it is random, and it will not include any tapes you have seen on the AQ list, or any tapes scheduled to be reviewed in the near future.
Also, this is a whole new batch of tapes, none of which we have had before, so even if you grab bagged a few lists back, you can go for it again and not worry about getting the same titles. All right!
Once again, we got a whole batch of killer black metal cassettes, too many to review, but all of them weird and grim, buzzing and black. Some are super fucked blacknoise, others are damaged stumbling outsider black buzz, while others are old skool blackness, raw and hateful and brutal, while still others fall somewhere in between. But all of them cool. Andee again bought one of each if that makes you feel any better (his room is starting to look like it did in high school, minus the Motley Crue and W.A.S.P posters, who thought at 37 he'd be contemplating buying a "cassette rack" for all his tapes).
The legions of hell shall now tremble before you, they will supplicate themselves before the newly appointed, Mr. Evil Lord of The TWENTY RANDOM BLACK METAL TAPES. You are the blackest. The most foul. You truly are the embodiment of unspeakable audial evil. You are a cassette tape warlord. Your tiny speakers spew blackness. Your ear buds are a direct link to the dark one...
There will indeed be a final battle. To the death, the future of mankind hangs in the balance. It will not be determined by the number of demons in your army, the number of horns on your head, the sharpness of your blade or the quickness of your tongue, NAY, the deciding factor will undoubtedly be cassette tapes. It has been written. IN THE BIBLE!! Or somewhere, but it has been written: "The more tapes you have, the more prepared you shall be for battle. You shall not be defeated easily, those twenty tapes are like a huge flaming pentagram, warding off all who would dare challenge you." But as we warned you before, be wary of he with more than twenty black metal tapes. He will be your ruination. His twenty five or even thirty tapes will spell your doom. The only way to defeat him is to ORDER ALL THE TAPES. If you dare. And, if you daren't, well, then, you shall just take your chance with twenty!!!! BE NOT AFRAID!!! Twenty is indeed a whole lot!!
Remember, only tapes that have NOT been reviewed are eligible for the grab bag and the bargain price.
That means we pick, it is random, and it will not include any tapes you have seen on the AQ list, or any tapes scheduled to be reviewed in the near future.
Also, this is a whole new batch of tapes, none of which we have had before, so even if you grab bagged a few lists back, you can go for it again and not worry about getting the same titles. All right! ----* ----* Selected New Arrivals : ----*
Once again, we got a whole batch of killer black metal cassettes, too many to review, but all of them weird and grim, buzzing and black. Some are super fucked blacknoise, others are damaged stumbling outsider black buzz, while others are old skool blackness, raw and hateful and brutal, while still others fall somewhere in between. But all of them cool. Andee again bought one of each if that makes you feel any better (his room is starting to look like it did in high school, minus the Motley Crue and W.A.S.P posters, who thought at 37 he'd be contemplating buying a "cassette rack" for all his tapes).
This three pack is perfect for the black metal newbie, you're bound to get something you'll like, but if not, you can shrug it off and try desperately to wipe the foul blackness from your soul. But odds are you'll be hooked and want more. Black metal. AND cassettes.
Remember, only tapes that have NOT been reviewed are eligible for the grab bag and the bargain price.
That means we pick, it is random, and it will not include any tapes you have seen on the AQ list, or any tapes scheduled to be reviewed in the near future.
Also, this is a whole new batch of tapes, none of which we have had before, so even if you grab bagged a few lists back, you can go for it again and not worry about getting the same titles. All right!
Once again, we got a whole batch of killer black metal cassettes, too many to review, but all of them weird and grim, buzzing and black. Some are super fucked blacknoise, others are damaged stumbling outsider black buzz, while others are old skool blackness, raw and hateful and brutal, while still others fall somewhere in between. But all of them cool. Andee again bought one of each if that makes you feel any better (his room is starting to look like it did in high school, minus the Motley Crue and W.A.S.P posters, who thought at 37 he'd be contemplating buying a "cassette rack" for all his tapes).
This six pack is for the slightly more serious black metalhead. Six tapes is a like dipping a toe into the darkside, having an itsy bitsy peek at the blackness that lurks beneath, 6 tapes says you just might be serious. You might one day pledge your allegiance to the dark lord. The again you may not. 6 tapes, you could go either way. But 6 plastic slabs of grim and brutal black buzz stuffed in your Walkman will definitely be plenty to while away long nights skulking around graveyards, and definitely enough to keep your car stereo buzzing on the way to see where Anton LaVey's house once was or to burn down a church or whatever. All hail YOU!
Remember, only tapes that have NOT been reviewed are eligible for the grab bag and the bargain price.
That means we pick, it is random, and it will not include any tapes you have seen on the AQ list, or any tapes scheduled to be reviewed in the near future.
Also, this is a whole new batch of tapes, none of which we have had before, so even if you grab bagged a few lists back, you can go for it again and not worry about getting the same titles. All right!
Fuck yeah, another awesome new metal mag (new to us at least, they're on currently on issue three), this one hailing from Chicago, and BMoTA is full on old school style classic zine action, folded 8 1/2" x 11" paper, stapled in the middle, photocopied, and brimming with cool underground shit, most notably, a super lengthy interview with SF eco-terrorist drum and dulcimer black metal one man band Botanist! There's also Alaskan (!!) black metallers Bound By Entrails, aQ fave electro-black metal / black noise weirdo(s) Jute Gyte, Kentucky black metal horde Merkaba (who recently released a split with another aQ fave, Wheels Within Wheels), Canadian black metal duo Skagos, a Sutekh Hexen show review, and a handful of record reviews. Fans of Oaken Throne, Chips & Beer, Rape & Honey, Convivial Hermit, Gallery Of The Grotesque, etc. can now add Black Metal Of The Americas to their essential metal mag reading list!!
LIMITED FIRST RUN OF JUST 55 ISSUES!! Each one hand numbered!
A while back we reviewed issue number three from this awesome Chicago zine, focusing on, as the title suggests, Black Metal of the Americas, and while we first discovered that third issue (we missed out on the first two) via a big piece on local weirdo black metaller The Botanist, we ended up digging pretty much everything in that ish, some stuff we already dug, but some new discoveries as well. So here we are, a couple years later, and we've got not one but TWO new issues, and like the first, both are classic old school folded 8.5" x 11" style photocopied black and white, cut and paste, and like #3, tons of stuff to dig.
Issue IV features an extensive interview with aQ faves Book Of Sand, there's an interview with Canadian black metal horde Aesahaettr, a piece on another aQ fave, Servile Sect, as well as pieces on one man, Velvet Cacoon related project Queen Of Heathens, Bastard Sapling and Cara Neir, plus loads of reviews! Issue V features more aQ faves, like Deafheaven and Dressed In Streams, as well as new to us names like Aksumite, Chrome Waves and Yellow Eyes, there's also a piece called "Intersections Of Discontentment In Black Metal And Emo" and another batch of reviews. Both issues essential metal mag reading, that again, belong on your shelf next to Chips And Beer, Rape And Honey, Convivial Hermit, Decibel, Terrorizer and all the rest...
A while back we reviewed issue number three from this awesome Chicago zine, focusing on, as the title suggests, Black Metal of the Americas, and while we first discovered that third issue (we missed out on the first two) via a big piece on local weirdo black metaller The Botanist, we ended up digging pretty much everything in that ish, some stuff we already dug, but some new discoveries as well. So here we are, a couple years later, and we've got not one but TWO new issues, and like the first, both are classic old school folded 8.5" x 11" style photocopied black and white, cut and paste, and like #3, tons of stuff to dig.
Issue IV features an extensive interview with aQ faves Book Of Sand, there's an interview with Canadian black metal horde Aesahaettr, a piece on another aQ fave, Servile Sect, as well as pieces on one man, Velvet Cacoon related project Queen Of Heathens, Bastard Sapling and Cara Neir, plus loads of reviews! Issue V features more aQ faves, like Deafheaven and Dressed In Streams, as well as new to us names like Aksumite, Chrome Waves and Yellow Eyes, there's also a piece called "Intersections Of Discontentment In Black Metal And Emo" and another batch of reviews. Both issues essential metal mag reading, that again, belong on your shelf next to Chips And Beer, Rape And Honey, Convivial Hermit, Decibel, Terrorizer and all the rest...
We hadn't heard anything really about this new release on DFA but when we first put it on we immediately thought "this sort of sounds like a way more dancey version of a Gavin Russom & Delia Gonzalez record." And whattayaknow? After actually checking the liner notes, we discovered that this is indeed the work of one half of that duo, Gavin Russom.
Setting out to make a much more blatantly dancefloor-centric record, this finds Russom channeling the ghosts of Acid House and for sure the influence of his time spent in late night dance clubs while living in Berlin. While some of the record is very fast paced and strobe light ready, it's the more slow burning moments that really push the album into the stratosphere. Russom has such a way with those dark and drifty tones and melodies, so hypnotic and trancelike. No doubt that Russom is drawing from not only his love of dance music culture but also his other more eclectic influences like horror-prog (Goblin) and the repetition and motorik quality of classic krautrock. But make no mistake, this is for sure a full on techno record, and a damn good one! Some of these songs are so long and stretched out, providing the perfect soundtrack to some mind altering k-hole that can't be escaped.
Passenger is the debut full length from this Oakland based crusty melodic black metal project, comprised solely of onetime Deafheaven touring guitarist Gary Bettencourt; it's also the debut release from the label All Black, founded by current Deafheaven singer George Clarke. So with that sort of pedigree you may be expecting a platter of glorious soaring shoegaze tinged black metal / black metal tinged shoegaze, but Passenger is in fact a much grittier affair. After a brief intro of looming grinding noise pulsing over ominous shortwave radio static, this record launches into a pummeling, overdriven assault of blown out blast beats, anguished d-beat crust punk and mournful melodic black metal. At first one might be forgiven for thinking Black Monolith are yet another band in the orthodox Sargeist mold (albeit a very good one), but as the album grinds along other elements start creeping in - a driving uptempo punk rock beat provides a rigid spine to a hammering bittersweet riff, which in turn leads to a moment of throbbing ambient calm, before launching into the kind of crust punk / black metal hybrid that would make latter day Darkthrone proud. But then those haunting melodies start to seep in again, and as the blast beats re-emerge and the guitars pile on top of each other, the song shifts into something much more poignant and morose. The beauty of this album seems to blossom more and more as it progresses. By the album's midway point it seems to have accomplished the strange and dangerous task of morphing very subtly from some filthy black crust into an ethereal flurry of bittersweet melodies, driving hypnotic drums and buried muffled howls. And although those dirt-flecked HxC riffs are never far away, lending a genuine vitriol to the moments of comparative serenity, by the record's end the grit has given way to a complete immersion into gorgeous heavy post rock, like the heartbreak gleam of Deafheaven's Sunbather filtered through a much more huddled claustrophobic spectrum. The beauty hidden under layers of decay. Fans of the crustier side of melodic black metal (i.e. Panopticon, Ludicra, Lluvia) would do well to check this out. Highly recommended!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Another Record Store Day artifact (thanks to everyone who came out for RSD!!!) that we managed to get enough of, so we'd have a few left after the big day, to share with the aQ faithful who don't have a local record store to call their own, or who just consider US their indie record shop.
A little taster of the upcoming Black Moth Super Rainbow full length. This 7" is limited to 500 copies, pressed on orange vinyl, and was whipped up just for Record Store Day. It features the awesomely titled jam "Born On A Day The Sun Didn't Rise" from the new album, which is everything we could have hoped for, all druggy and swirly and sun dappled and psychedelic. There are strings and warn whirring synths, and breathless dreamy vox, and lilting melodies, not super freaked out or spastic, although there are hits of swooping electronics and glitchy bits, but for the most part this is just some awesomely new wave flecked jangly futuristic psych pop.
The flipside offers up a drastically different demo version, that actually sounds more like Blackmoth, skittery drum machines, the main melody plucked out on a banjo, disembodied vocodered vocals, the strings pushed way up in the mix, much more of a hip hop / trip hop vibe, more effects and swooping swirling synths, really rad, and exclusive to this here 7".
Can NOT wait for the new record, but this will hold us over until then...
Latest from these long time aQ faves, another blast of prismatic woozy electronic psychedelia, this one moving even more in a sort of warped electro-soul direction, but starting off like some futuristic take on Gary Glitter, all booming glam rock beats, and distorto buzz guitar, but instead of getting big and bombastic it blisses out, and become a weirdly propulsive kosmische style synth groove, with autotuned vocals and swirly shimmery melodies, all sort of washed out and trippy... and from that point on, the record drifts druggily into a full on mutant, home brewed alien strain of garbled DNA, groovy, cosmic disco, built from lazy, woozy crooned vocodered sexy boy vox, slithery melodies, whirling synths, all driven by stuttering robo-funk beats.
But this is BMSR, so even this glossy soulful side is laced with strange stretches of stripped down lysergic sonic shimmer, slo-mo jangle pop that almost sounds like cough syrup Smashing Pumpkins spinning at 16 rpm (check out "Psychic Love Damage"), but then it's right back into it, a sort of drowsy dancefloor fractured pop, slippery grooves, crazy catchy melodies, and twinkling harmonics, drifting in a soft focus chordal haze, peppered with slippery slide guitar, sounding like some sort of blissed out bluegrass laced electronica, while beneath the surface, collaged voices swirl above a softly roiling backdrop of gauzy ethereal dreampop, the sound building to a hazy soaring shoegazey M83 style electro-swirl!
In pretty much every respect, this sprawling new album from Black Moth Super Rainbow is overflowing with whimsy and trippy fun -- from the lengthy head-scratchin' song titles to the color-drenched cover art to the Bruce Haack-y vocoded vocals to the breezy ten-speed rollerskate synthesizer'd funkiness. Imagine if Black Dice or the Flaming Lips took a swing at electro and new wave, and your brain might go into a delirious tizzy with the delightful chew of Dandelion Gum.
Normally a record this beloved by pretty much EVERYone who works here would have a sprawling gushing, way-too-long review, but for whatever reason, it got a short and sweet rave, but that, combined with a quick earful of the sound samples was it seemed all that was really needed for us to sell tons and TONS of this collection of amazing, Technicolor, distorto, deliriously drugged out, psychedelic, electro fuzz pop dream jams. This fave has now been reissued with, count em, FOURTEEN bonus tracks!! On the cd, they're tacked on at the end, on the vinyl version they're included in the digital download. Here's our review from when we first reviewed this way back in 2007:
In pretty much every respect, this sprawling new album from Black Moth Super Rainbow is overflowing with whimsy and trippy fun - from the lengthy head-scratchin' song titles to the color-drenched cover art to the Bruce Haack-y vocoded vocals to the breezy ten-speed rollerskate synthesizer'd funkiness. Imagine if Black Dice or the Flaming Lips took a swing at electro and new wave, and your brain might go into a delirious tizzy with the delightful chew of Dandelion Gum.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
When this record first came out, we all dug it, quite a bit, so we wrote a little blurb about it, sold a bunch. But somehow, this record, and this band, has continued to grow on us, big time! This, and the two BMSR reissues, get played incessantly, and now in retrospect, we LOVE LOVE LOVE this record. So much so that we feel like maybe we should go back and rewrite the review and gush endlessly. And maybe we will. Eventually. But for now, this record, this aQ fave, this genius chunk of dizzying synth pop perfection, has been reissued on vinyl, SUPER LIMITED, an ultra deluxe double lp, pressed on extra thick swirled pink vinyl, super heavy full color gatefold sleeve, each hand numbered, all in the upper 400's as it's already out of print, each with a scratch and sniff bubblegum bubble on the front cover! And as if that weren't enough, there's also am exclusive bonus track, that's not on the cd, and is only available HERE!
Until we have time to rewrite the review, and blather on endlessly about how much we love it, this short and sweet review will have to do:
In pretty much every respect, this sprawling new album from Black Moth Super Rainbow is overflowing with whimsy and trippy fun -- from the lengthy head-scratchin' song titles to the color-drenched cover art to the Bruce Haack-y vocoded vocals to the breezy ten-speed rollerskate synthesizer'd funkiness. Imagine if Black Dice or the Flaming Lips took a swing at electro and new wave, and your brain might go into a delirious tizzy with the delightful chew of Dandelion Gum.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES! We only got 15. Already out of print, so sorry, these will probably go crazy quick...
Another tasty and colorful slab of vinyl from BMSR. No one delivers warm, warped and fuzzy melodic electronic jams better then these guys. We've fallen deeply in love with their sound over the last few years and they have yet to disappoint. This picture disc offers two great new instrumental tracks that showcase their slower and more warped and warbly side. Still filled with such delicious hooks but we love that these longer tracks allow them to space out and get a little more cosmic and psychedelic. It's still unmistakably BMSR, their signature sound all oozy and melty and drippy and druggy and divine...
The picture disc comes with a coupon for a free download, but you can't beat listening to this on your turntable and watching the colored wax spin around and around as you get lost in their catchy orbit. Very limited so jump on this while you can!
Black Moth Super Rainbow have made quite an impact in the last couple years with their crunchy and poppy take on analog electronic pop, a sound that falls so near the more playful side of Boards Of Canada, and has us imagining what it might sound like if Air covered Daft Punk, using busted up old equipment, the result would have to be oh so charming and satisfying.
Drippers is essentially a collection of outtakes and unreleased tracks, but this is no throwaway ep. In fact we've been playing this nonstop, loving how thick and distorted the sounds here are and marvelling at BMSR's ability to conjure up such catchy and washed out electronic pop delights. The fact that they got Mike Watt to play on one of our favorite tracks ("Black Yogurt") has us even more smitten. Complete with a scratch n' sniff cover, this is music that engages all the sensations and keeps us coming back for more and more.
(FYI, 10" vinyl version forthcoming...)
After the tease that was the Record Store Day 7", it's finally here, a brand new full length from Black Moth Super Rainbow, who continue to create rainbow wrapped, keyboard drenched, big drummed, new wave-d outsider bliss pop. We can't seem to get enough.
The record opens with the track from that Record Store Day single, the excellently titled "Born On A Day The Sun Didn't Rise", all druggy and swirly and sun dappled and psychedelic. There are strings and warm whirring synths, and breathless dreamy vox, and lilting melodies, not super freaked out or spastic, although there are bits of swooping electronics and streaks of glitch and hiss, but for the most part this is just some awesomely new wave flecked jangly futuristic psych pop. Which pretty much describes this whole record. For some reason we thought maybe it would be super heavy or totally twisted, but if anything, the songs are more fully realized, the sound still lush and slightly cracked, but all of BMSR's drugged out psych tendencies are harnassed into proper songs, that wouldn't sound at all out of place in a mix between the Flaming Lips and M83. The drums hold it all together, big and booming, processed sometimes, but usually loud, if not, theyr sublte and skittery, and there are synths EVERYWHERE, soaring and buzzing and whirring and shimmering, the guitars are minimal, more for a bit of filigree here and there, except when a bit of crunh or chug is required. And the vocals, all dreamy and heavily effected, whether it's vocoder or autotuning, they're perfectly matched to the glimmering kaliedoscope of sound that is constantly swirling and changing shape and color.
The majority of the record is surprsingly laid back, blissed out and sun dappled, a lot of it sounds almost folky, a little new age-y for sure, we also hear bits of old school pop groups like the Free Design, the Cowsills, even a bit of Stereolab here and there, there are lots of fluttery flute, acoustic guitar, lilting melodies, soft drifty twang, but all tangled up with some of the more buzzy new waveiness, and everything shot through with just the right amount of space aged, futuristic polish. So good. The perfect late afternoon, cloudy day, mix tape, dreamy drifty, future chill out disc for sure.
While they last, we have the super limited version, that comes in a zippered fur pouch!!
Whoa, Graveface Records, take it easy! Who do you think you are? Droppin' not one but two Black Moth Super Rainbow albums in our laps at once? We're not complaining, but don't *you* think Start A People and Falling Through A Field are just a lot of tunes to digest and enjoy at once? That's forty one total -- yes, we counted! Falling Through A Field is a reissue of their 2003 album and along with the seventeen original tracks comes a half dozen bonus tracks. The good thing about having this much BMSR is that you can put the cd on, then go ahead and drift off into daydream land without worrying that you're gonna have to change discs anytime soon. We fell so in love with their latest album Dandylion Gum, so when we found out there was earlier BMSR stuff we were both excited yet a little skeptical, maybe there was a reason we hadn't heard those early recordings, maybe the band was just coming into its own now. Luckily that was so not the case as these earlier recordings show that BMSR have been creating such irresistible and fuzzy sounding electronic pop from the get go. Falling Through A Field is so bittersweet in the most Technicolor soaked heartfelt way.
Kind of like if Boards Of Canada made a pop record or DNTEL's best album Life Is Full Of Possibilities. Filled with a feeling of yearning and analog electronics used so warmly that customers always think we're playing some worn out vinyl gem when we play this in the store. A testament to how warm, fuzzy and comforting BMSR are. So nice!
Whoa, Graveface Records, take it easy! Who do you think you are? Droppin' not one but two Black Moth Super Rainbow albums in our laps at once? We're not complaining, but don't *you* think Start A People and Falling Through A Field are just a lot of tunes to digest and enjoy at once? That's forty one total -- yes, we counted!
Start A People is a reissue of their 2004 album and along with the sixteen original tracks comes a pair of bonus tracks. The good thing about having this much BMSR is that you can put the cd on, then go ahead and drift off into daydream land without worrying that you're gonna have to change discs anytime soon. We fell so in love with their latest album Dandylion Gum, so when we found out there was earlier BMSR stuff we were both excited yet a little skeptical, maybe there was a reason we hadn't heard those early recordings, maybe the band was just coming into it's own now. Luckily that was so not the case as these earlier recordings show that BMSR have been creating irresistible and fuzzy sounding electronic pop from the get go.
Like a much more playful and charming version of Air, listening to Start A People is like a psychedelic soundtrack to playing Candyland as a little kid. Filled with wonder, heavily processed vocals on some tracks and evoking all kinds of marvelous color. We keep falling deeper and deeper in love with Black Moth Super Rainbow!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
We loved the recent full length Black Mountain record (except for the first track, see the full length review for more on that) a bastard mix of Sabbathy stoner rock, weird white soul and drone-y VU style dope rock. The best track by far was the massive "Druganaut", with it dueling male / female slacker vocals and THAT riff, the chorus that got our heads banging everytime it came on, no matter how hard we tried to fight it. The extended version here blunts the power of THAT riff just a bit, but not without good reason, as the whole track is stretched waaaaay out, and drenched in reverb, as well as all sorts of buzzy noodly synths and a thick layer of hiss, which makes the whole thing sound just that much more fucked up and drugged out. It sounds what I imagine the orginal would sound like if you were doped to the gills! The extra tracks are pretty killer too. "Buffalo Swan" is a droney, blissed out hypnotic drug jam, with plenty of ambient shimmer and bass driven breakdowns. Creepy and mysterious. "Bicycle Man" is a rollicking fuzz bass, jangle pop garage rock workout complete with nonsense lyrics and harmonica! And finally "No Satisfaction (Campfire Version)" sounds just like you would think, a simple Dylan / Stones piano and strummed acoustic guitar sing along, with a stomping rhythm and lazily drawled boy girl vocals. A pretty kick ass (and pretty lengthy at 25 minutes) slab of druggy, seventies soul infused groove rock!
Black Mountain have to be just about the best burn out seventies retro hard rock and stoned soul combo going. A druggy blend of chugging Sabbath riffs, Zeppelin bombast, smoldering slow burning after dark jams, late night FM radio ambience and wasted hypnotic Velvet Underground style junkie groove.
This record has been hyped beyond all belief, so you probably already read about it, or maybe even own it, but if not, it's definitely worth checking out.
There's nothing here quite as potent as "Druganaut", the monster metallic jam from their self titled debut, serious contender for one of THE heavy rock jams of all time. A killer riff, awesome dynamics, sexy and intense boy / girl vocals. The opening track on In The Future, "Stormy High" comes pretty darn close, partly by blatantly ripping off "Druganaut" actually, the opening riff is a killer, laid over warbling organs, but the minute it modulates, it begins to sound EXACTLY like "Druganaut", right down to the stop start verses, and the wailing Robert Plant like vocals, but this one does change it up a bit, with weird call and response vocals, and a bunch of fuzzy crunchy Deep Purple-y organ.
Their self titled record was pretty frontloaded, mellowing out quite a bit over the course of the rest of the disc, but hearing "Stormy High" we thought this might be the one where the band kept it heavy and rocking all the way through, but nope, this is a band that definitely and obviously doesn't want to just rock, which, the more we listen, we don't mind one bit. The rest of the record is all stoned and laid back, with killer hooks, and warm carnivalesque organs, soaring strings, and awesome falsetto vocals, it's easy to imagine listening to this stuff in your old beat up El Camino, parked at some make out spot, where all the kids hang out and drink and smoke, hoping to get laid or at the very least forget all about your crappy job and your shitty life. In The Future is all black lights and bongs, late night and leather vests, big amps and bellbottoms, even when it's heavy, it's not so much metal or rocking as it is soulful and grooving. There are some more heavy moments scattered throughout, the opening minute or so of "Tyrants", a swirling super dynamic guitar / organ duel, or the tribal psych jam of "Evil Ways" with some serious ELP worthy keyboards and wailing vox. But for the most part, In The Future is a groovy slab of heavy seventies stoner mood rock, tripped out, dark and dreamy, druggy and just a little bit witchy.
