Latest release from Bay Area doomfolkdrone duo Barn Owl (featuring our very own Jon Porras) who team up on this limited lp only release with long time fave Tom Carter of Charalambides who for now, seems to have shed his psych folks sound for something far more, well more on that in a second...
Up first, Barn Owl with three new tracks of bleak blackened dark ambience, invoking wide open spaces, moonlight glimmering on frosted fallow fields, of slow moving brackish water, and of ruined buildings and lonely dirt roads. It makes sense that these guys opened for Earth when they were here, as their sound carries the same spiritual weight. But where Earth employ twang and elements of Gospel, Barn Owl go somewhere much deeper, and more dangerous, a swirling slow motion world of blacks and greys, of blurred landscapes slipping by through smudged windows, shafts of sunlight, moving glacially across the bare wooden floor, causing the dust motes to drift in little flickering flurries. Once the band build momentum, they create long flowing streams of warm whirring buzz, held together by simple percussive pulses, buried rhythmic throbs, all the while the guitars arc above like solar flares.
Dark swells rise and fall, wreathed in halos of soft focus FX and smeared streaks of subtle distortion, slipping from hushed shimmery whisper, to groaning wheezing metallic buzz, drifting forever slowly around a warm glowing core, and continuously emitting an aura of mournful dark mystery.
Carter approaches his side from a whole different angle, his single 16 minute track takes a slow meandering chunk of dark downtuned blues and transforms it into a coruscating wall of blown out psych buzz, rumbling chug and crunch, wailing noiseguitar freakout, heavy and buzzy and chaotic, but still warm and layered and melodic, like a rural Keiji Haino raised on avant folk and old time blues. A gorgeous ever expanding chunk of blown out heaviness and warm, slowly crumbling deconstructed blues, culminating in a beautiful almost symphonic arrangement of high end skree and warbly buzz, before slipping into a long stretch of languorous unravelling guitar shimmer. So nice.
LIMITED TO 380 COPIES. Plain black jackets with a paste on front cover, printed insert, thick black inner sleeves. We got a bunch direct from the bands, and we might be able to get more from the label when we run out, but you never know. Better to grab one while you can...
Barn Owl are no stranger to the drone. In fact, this Bay Area duo's sound is all about the drone, a deep, brooding, moody, twangy Earth-ish cinematic devotional doomdriftDRONE that we can't get enough of. But on this recent collaboration, the band explore another side of the drone, one less dark, and one more in keeping with the traditions of modern minimal dronemusic, teaming up with The Infinite String Ensemble (consisting of a fellow named The Norman Conquest on acoustic guitar, vocals, and Moog; Theresa Wong on cello; and Ellen Fullman, on the long string instrument), Barn Owl ditching their smokey twang flecked shimmer, and instead laying down lush layers of complimentary long form drones and extended tones.
For those who are unfamiliar with Ellen Fullman, she created the 'Long Stringed Instrument', which is exactly what it sounds like, although the name does not and all prepare you for the power of actually seeing it and hearing it. Essentially, she stretches long strings across large resonant spaces, the strings sometimes 50 feet or longer, and the players proceed to scrape, and bow and vibrate the strings, creating incredible sounds. And how perfect for Barn Owl to join in and add their own drone two cents.
The result is pretty fantastic, but again, well removed from the Barn Owl most folks are used to. In fact it almost would have made more sense to bill this as an Infinite String Ensemble, with special guests Barn Owl. Either way, the players here create four loooooong tracks of shimmery sun dappled dronemusic, long streaks of metallic buzz, lush and layered, lots of shifting textures and subtle overtones, all wrapped in softly burnished reverb, space-y and kosmische and hypnotic and heady, like Taj Mahal Travelers jamming with Organum, the tracks slipping from hushed and minimal, glimmering and crystalline, to smoldering and softly cacophonous, from dreamy hazy drift, to ritualistic ur-drone. Gorgeous.
And obviously absolutely recommended for all the drone fanatics out there, which we're guessing is a whole lot of you.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES. Cover art by Root Strata's Jefre Cantu-Ledesma.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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We've been selling these pretty steadily in the store for a while now, 'bout time we put it up on the website! Mostly likely you're already familiar with hip NYC artist (and Bjork boyfriend) Matthew Barney and his Cremaster cycle of surreal, big-buget art films. If not, we don't really have room here to explain, or even attempt to, but you can read our reviews of the various Cremaster soundtrack cds by Jonathan Bepler we sell for more info. This dvd consists of the final 30 minutes or so from Cremaster 3, a sequence featuring the athletic Barney fighting his way through a bizarre array of obstacles (Murphy's Law and Agnostic Front, tap-dancing girlscouts, gouts of vaseline, and a woman-cheetah among them) in the Guggenheim Museum! Of course it's frustrating that the dvd is only about a half hour long...apparently the full film is only available on dvd as a limited, signed, multi-thousand dollar "art object." Oh well. And it does include a commentary track from Barney, remixed music, and other extras. Certainly Barney fans will no doubt want this, and it would make a great gag gift for your conservative, curmudgeonly friend who's always making fun of modern/performance art, too! Region 1 only!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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Drum god Joey Baron (known for his work in John Zorn's Naked City and Masada groups) has collected a stellar lineup to play his compositions. Saxophonist Blythe, bassist Carter, and guitarist Frisell are all leaders in their own right. Unlike some of their projects (or like some of Frisell's popular ones) this is very "inside", trad-jazz. It's the Joey Baron record that you could buy for your mom.
When we first heard Baroness, we described them as Electric Wizard meets the Fucking Champs metal stoner sludge crush, which was pretty accurate, throw in some Iron Maiden guitar harmonies, some Carcass, some Jesus Lizard, and of course some Sabbath, and we were pretty much talking about our new favorite band. That metal / post rock hybrid we love, but heavy on the Sabbathy stoner sludge. And pretty much every record since followed a similar pattern, and thus we dug BIG TIME.
So before the Blue Record was even released, it started getting tons of hype, we didn't understand why, not because they didn't deserve it, but because every record was great, and they kept slipping below the radar, so why would this one be any different? Well, once we got it, and heard it, we understood exactly why.
For the most part, gone is the sludgey Southern stoner sound, and in its place an insanely catchy, super poppy prog metal, that sounds alternately like Torche with Brian May guitars or Queens Of The Stoneage mixed with Mastodon. Or something. The poppiness is so undeniable, and we love it. So much so that we were sort of shocked that the rest of the world felt the same. Cuz usually if something is weird and poppy and we get all obsessed, the mainstream barely notices, but not this time.
So yeah, Torche is the closest comparison, especially in the vocal department, enough that if we had been played this in one of those Invisible Jukebox things, we definitely would have guessed Torche, so if you ever wished Torche was less downtuned and sludgey, and more super rocking and proggy and epic and straight up poppy, then the Blue Record is definitely for you. But where Torche is pretty simple and stripped down, like a modern day metal version of Nirvana's Bleach, Baroness have much grander aspirations, setting their metallic power pop amidst all sorts of unlikely progisms, the guitars, all Queen-y as we mentioned before, are psychedelic and tangled, soaring and howling and buzzing and chugging, the band occasionally slip into haunting acoustic interludes, before launching into convoluted pop prog epics, so weird, and wonderful. Definitely their least heavy record, but it hardly matters, it seems like a fair trade, since it's also definitely their most epic and majestic and proggy and catchy and poppy and far out recording to date, and hell it's still pretty dang heavy to boot.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Man this record just totally destroys. From the super cool art deco cover to the three massive tracks of Electric Wizard meets the Fucking Champs metal stoner sludge crush on the cd. Some of the catchiest riffs we've heard in a while, from strange melodic finger tapping, to soaring Iron Maiden-esque melodies, to groovy southern stoner rock to pummeling detuned sludge to thrashing punk rock with howling throat shredding vocals -- typically all in the same song! The first track has an awesome stomping stop start riff with an insidiously catchy little melody, which ends up sounding like Carcass meets the Jesus Lizard. The second track is all Sabbathy sludge / doom with occasional burts of rapid fire blasting punk rock. But it's all about the third track. A super epic, proggy complex metallic post rock workout, tons of parts, all of them worthy of their own song, super dynamic and totally catchy with Champs-ish breakdowns and weird bursts of abstract ambience. So fucking great! You NEED this record. And we NEED more than just these three songs!!!
Finally! The first two kick ass eps from these Georgia heavies combined into one killer full length (we always thought they sounded like they belonged together on the same record). So for all you metalheads who missed out the first time around (these eps have been out of print for a while), you got yourself another chance, don't blow it.
Man, Baroness just totally destroys. Three massive tracks of Electric Wizard meets the Fucking Champs metal stoner sludge crush. Some of the catchiest riffs we've heard in a while, from strange melodic finger tapping, to soaring Iron Maiden-esque melodies, to groovy southern stoner rock to pummeling detuned sludge to thrashing punk rock with howling throat shredding vocals -- typically all in the same song! The first track on First has an awesome stomping stop start riff with an insidiously catchy little melody, which ends up sounding like Carcass meets the Jesus Lizard. The second track is all Sabbathy sludge / doom with occasional bursts of rapid fire blasting punk rock. But it's all about the third track. A super epic, proggy complex metallic post rock workout, tons of parts, all of them worthy of their own song, super dynamic and totally catchy with Champs-ish breakdowns and weird bursts of abstract ambience. So fucking great!
Baroness' Second, while still heavy and stonery and crushing, seems to be tempering their heaviness with some serious post / math rock, which is just fine with us, think maybe Isis / Pelican majestic sludge metal meets Rodan / June Of 44 style moody post rock. However Baroness' sound still leans way toward the metal side of that equation. Plus, their songs continue to be really weird, rife with strange meters, complex arrangements, lots of slippery guitar harmonies, weird psychedelic wah guitar, spacey electronic burbling, some stretched out slow motion sludge, some intricate riffing and some of the most insane drumming we've ever heard.
The reissue features the original eps' killer artwork, kinda like Pushead doing '60s Fillmore poster art, courtesy of Baroness guitarist, John Baizley, and comes in a digipak with cool embossed metallic lettering housed in a slip cover.
Whoops, here's something we shoulda reviewed already but as you can imagine we get a bit swamped here. Chances are, if you're a fan of this up-and-coming metal band from Georgia (as we certainly are, along with many AQ customers) you already picked up this excellent new album on Relapse when it came out a couple months ago. But if you didn't, or aren't familiar with Baroness to begin with, let's rectify that situation with a brief write-up.
This is actually the very first full-length album from Baroness, who have previously teased us with ep-length or split releases only. Since they're one of the best American underground metal acts going (hence Relapse's interest in 'em), anticipation for the Red Album was high, and it's absolutely no disappointment. Baroness are a state-of-the-art (and we do mean art) band that's both extreme and eclectic, combining (as always) modern metalcore tech, stoner riffage, Southern sludge groove, "true" traditional metal shredding, and post-rock loveliness in one brutal, beautiful package. Press play on track one and you're in for a surprise, as things start off deceptively mellow and pretty. You wouldn't even know they were a metal band at first... but it DOES get a lot heavier though, right quick. Reminding us a bit of another AQ fave, Torche, the Red Album showcases a poppier Baroness for sure, but one that still kicks ass with their usual sinewy, old school axe attack and Maideny dual guitar harmonies. Just imagine the spawn of a hypothetical mating between post-rockers Explosions In The Sky and headbangers Skeletonwitch! Pretty much an essential purchase for fans of the likes of Mastodon, High On Fire, Isis, Pelican... but you know that 'cause you probably already bought one...
When it rains it definitely pours -- as long as we're talking about this new breed of metallic post rock we've been digging. We think to ourselves, "Man, we can't get enough of this stuff" (um, because we always refer to ourselves as 'man', when we're thinking) and then whaddaya know? A new ep from the mighty Baroness, whose first ep we raved about not too long ago (what is it with this band and eps?) describing it as Electric Wizard meets the Fucking Champs metal stoner sludge crush. Which is still pretty accurate, but now that we've gotten more familiar with this post rock / sludge metal stuff, I think maybe we'd describe it more as Isis / Pelican majestic sludge metal meets Rodan / June Of 44 style moody post rock. However Baroness lean way toward the metal side of things. Plus, their songs are really weird, strange meters, complex arrangements, lots of slippery guitar harmonies, weird psychedelic wah guitar, spacey electronic burbling, some stretched out slow motion sludge, some intricate riffing and some of the most insane drumming we've ever heard. Not sure if we could handle another ep from these guys (okay, we probably could) but this will tide us over until the FULL LENGTH we're all dying for! C'mon guys!
And like their debut ep, this boasts some killer cover art, kinda like Pushead doing '60s Fillmore poster art.
You just can't win with fans sometimes. You change your sound too much, and they give up on you; you don't change enough and you get accused of just making the same record over and over. It seems to be more difficult for metal bands, especially metal bands who have aspirations of pushing their sound beyond the strictures of metal. For instance, one of our favorite bands, Cave In, went from being incredible insanely ultra heavy, to sounding like Radiohead, and weirdly, back again. Finally ending up with a sound that improbably fused the two disparate sounds, which we love, but that whole series of transitions definitely cost them a lot of fans. And any metal band, who moves away from metal, is bound to lose the metalhead vote, which brings us to the latest from long time aQ faves Baroness who for a while now have been moving steadily away from the sort of post metal heaviness that defined their early sound, and who have finally arrived here, with this sprawling double cd, which is about as UNmetal as we've heard them. When we first threw this on, we were sort of put off, and joked about the Foo Fighters, Three Doors Down, and the like, basically the sort of mainstream stuff that these guys probably never gave a second thought to, even though they now actually sound a little bit like both. Even back on the Blue Record, we mention that "gone is the sludgey Southern stoner sound, and in its place an insanely catchy, super poppy prog metal, that sounds alternately like Torche with Brian May guitars, or Queens Of The Stoneage mixed with Mastodon." Which would essentially apply to this record too, although they're not nearly as heavy anymore as Mastodon OR Torche, but the QOTSA comparison is definitely apt.
But you know what, fuck it, if you approach this as a record by a metal band, you're bound to be disappointed, but if you approach it as something much more mainstream, well then it's actually pretty weird and cool, and sure, a little bit heavy.
We're on our 3rd or 4th listen, and it's definitely grown on us, but really this is absolutely not a metal record at all, in fact it's barely a heavy rock record, but it is pretty good, and some of the songs are pretty goddamn catchy, and there are moments of heaviness that totally hit the spot, but also inevitably had us missing the Baroness of old. But listen to the sound samples, and you'll pretty much immediately know where you stand. If you do dig some more mainstream sounds, which we definitely do, then like we said, this will definitely fall on the heavy/weird/psychedelic side of that stuff and will probably hit the spot.
Looking at some of the song titles here, you'd think these bands were French, but they're actually from the American South: Savannah, Georgia to be precise, where both Baroness and Unpersons are stalwarts of the metal/hardcore scene.
Actually most AQ customers of the metallic persuasion should be familiar with recent Relapse-signees Baroness, masters of sludge metal mathy post rock prog shred, like some sort of unholy mix of Pelican, Mastodon and the Fucking Champs. Always happy doing an ep-length release, they get in two songs here -- six and twelve minutes apiece, respectively -- while Unpersons contribute four songs, 15 minutes total for their half of this split. The twisty brutality of Baroness is matched by the heavy-duty stop-start and hardcore, almost Oxbowish vox of Unpersons. Baroness as usual destroy us with their effortlessly complex mix of modern chunkiness and very classic, heavy metal guitars. Good stuff for fans of either band or sorta arty, ultra heavy metalcore in general, and it's got us really looking forward to Baroness's Relapse debut (also their first ever full-length!), entitled The Red Album, due out on September 4th.
Now on vinyl!
Looking at some of the song titles here, you'd think these bands were French, but they're actually from the American South: Savannah, Georgia to be precise, where both Baroness and Unpersons are stalwarts of the metal/hardcore scene.
Actually most AQ customers of the metallic persuasion should be familiar with recent Relapse-signees Baroness, masters of sludge metal mathy post rock prog shred, like some sort of unholy mix of Pelican, Mastodon and the Fucking Champs. Always happy doing an ep-length release, they get in two songs here -- six and twelve minutes apiece, respectively -- while Unpersons contribute four songs, 15 minutes total for their half of this split. The twisty brutality of Baroness is matched by the heavy-duty stop-start and hardcore, almost Oxbowish vox of Unpersons. Baroness as usual destroy us with their effortlessly complex mix of modern chunkiness and very classic, heavy metal guitars. Good stuff for fans of either band or sorta arty, ultra heavy metalcore in general...
Baroque Bordello's "First Trip" is the third in Qbico's series of vinyl editions of Kawabata Makoto's super-limited R.E.P. cassettes from the '80s, and also included in the more recently released but equally limited 10 CD-R box set. Recorded in 1981, when Kawabata was a mere 15 years old and long before he formed Acid Mother's Temple, this album follows the same pattern as Kawabata's earliest ensemble The Dark Revolution Collective, with a constant amount of activity utilising various guitar / bell plinkings and single monochord bass repetitions. Pressed on translucent orange vinyl.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Just got these in today, list day, four new aRCHIVE dvd titles (Ai Aso, Mick Barr, Khlyst, and Suishou No Fune). So, we haven't had a chance to watch 'em yet but since they're limited and all we figured you'd rather we just went ahead and listed 'em now rather than waiting 2 weeks. And all four artists are pretty cool after all.
Man, even if we got this last week we're not sure we'd have been able to give it a proper review in time for tonight's list - it's two whole dvds fergoshsakes, and watching even a few minutes of either of 'em is probably likely to induce seizures, seeing as how they document the INSANE guitar playing of our pal Mick Barr, from such techy/mathy/metally acts as Octis, Orthrelm, and Ocrilm. It's billed as "an inclusive look at Mick Barr's estoeric approach to guitar playing", featuring solo stuff, various groups, and footage of an improv meeting with Hella drummer Zach Hill. Essential for any fan of Barr and/or crazy guitar shred.
4 panel foldout cover, tons of vellum everywhere, with scribbly art on the vellum obi by Mick himself. Limited, OF COURSE, to a pressing of just 500 copies.
Most folks probably no Mick Barr as the guitarist for black metal outfit Krallice, but long before Krallice, Barr was making seriously difficult music in the duos Crom-Tech and Orthrelm, as well as making equally difficult music solo as Ocrilim and Octis, and how you feel about those other Barr projects will definitely affect how you feel about this new solo lp. We've seen it described in different places as "genius", and as "difficult" and as "totally unlistenable", and well, we're inclined to say all three might apply depending on how you feel about Barr and his shredding. Since that's essentially what this is, two side long solo guitar shreds. Guitar nerds will be in heaven, as will avant outsider music weirdos, Barr is sort of a genius, wild trills and insane lightning fast runs, tripped out chords and bizarre sounds, in its own way, it's kind of hypnotic, we find ourselves getting a little lost whenever we put it on. But for folks who are after songs, or specifically want METAL, or are expecting Krallice, well, you'll be very very disappointed. Actually, all the folks who bought that triple lp on Rock Is Hell, this might hit that same weirdo difficult guitar music spot. You have been warned, weak eared posers steer clear!
Comes in a heavy matte finish jacket with some super creepy artwork, and includes a super swank embossed poster featuring some of Barr's distinctive artwork.
Good grief. Nobody but nobody plays such INSANE guitar as our pal Mick Barr (Crom-Tech, Orthrelm, Octis, Ocrilm, etc.). Makes sense he's got a new album out on John Zorn's Tzadik label, we figure Zorn would have to appreciate Barr's idiosyncratic high-end, hyper-speed shred. Zorn's right, Barr belongs in Tzadik's "composer series", with his name on the cover alongside that of his "band" Octis (which is just him solo, sometimes accompanied by an exhausted drum machine). Barr's spasmodic seizures of precision six-string technicality end up constituting some sort of cryptically-constructed, convolutedly-complex avant-garde new music, with maddening minimalist repetition and maximal metallic tones, a swarming symphony of extreme earhole abuse that certain folks (like us) just LOVE subjecting themselves to, and maybe even trying to understand. Imagine Yngwie interpreting Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music album and you're at least part-way there.
SKWEEE!!!! Fans of that special brand of mostly Scandinavian B-Boy retro '80s video game hip-hopped electro synth sound, check it out...
We've got like just 4 copies left of this, the latest vinyl offering from celebrated Skweee artist Randy Barracuda (he's been one of our faves ever since we heard his classic skweee jam "Rick James Is Dead" on the first Museum Of Future Sound comp back in 2007). Random Works Vol. II is, as the name sort of implies, his 2nd full-length album, following a self-titled record for Flogsta Danshall a few years ago. This one's got eight new tracks of Randy's skweee genius - super groovy, stuttery lo-fi funk full of fat synths. There's more tracks with vocals than we expected, kinda soulful like DamFunk... though lots here are the usual skweee style instrumentals.
LIMITED TO 101 COPIES, each one hand numbered.
SKWEEE!
Skweee!
Somehow we managed to miss the debut full length on Handmade Birds from Barren Harvest, the duo of Lenny Smith from Atriarch and Jessica Way of Worm Ouroborus, and we're kicking ourselves now, 'cause this new release of theirs, on local label Black Horizons, reveals a compellingly mysterious soundworld, that owes more to groups like Comus and Death In June than it does to anything properly metal. While technically this is their latest release, what's on here are actually the earliest recordings from Barren Harvest, early demos, many of which would go on to be reworked and rerecorded for their full length, but they sound fantastic here just the way they are. Skeletal, minimal, bare bones, hushed and intimate, simple spidery arrangements of steel string buzz, delicate piano, moaning strings, darkly crooned male and female vocals, harrowing harmonies, almost liturgical at times, the sound a sort of neo-folk torch song, haunting, elegiac threnodies that seem to be emanating from those dark woods, or seem to be crooned by those robed figures surrounding that crumbling altar amidst the brambles by the seaside, the vibe windswept and overcast, grey, otherworldly and mysterious.
LIMITED TO 233 COPIES, fantastically packaged, three 7"s, each packaged in their own sleeve, each one adorned with a drawing of a flower on one side, a sigil on the other, and each with a little printed lyric sheet, all printed in metallic silver on black, all housed in an inner AND outer slipcover, each again adorned with metallic silver artwork, and inside a small printed piece of owl art, very very very nice.
We flipped from the debut lp from these power pop punks, Nocturnal Missions, one of our favorites of 2011. Equal parts Cheap Trick, the Shoes, Dwight Twilley Band, that seventies Yellow Pills style power pop, cranked up and revved up with buzzing guitars and a hefty punk rock production. The result was easily one of our favorite punk-pop records in recent memory. This new 7" is/was part of a subscription series, but is also available on its own (we're listing the Terry malts installment elsewhere on this week's list), and is a doozy. Two 45rpm blasts of fuzzed out glammy, trashy power pop radness that sound like they could have been plucked right off Nocturnal Missions. The A side driven by some fuzzy organ and handclaps, sounding like a Yellow Pills version of the Ramones. The B side is total Cheap Trick worship, which minus the distorted buzz and blown out production would reveal some pretty perfect pop, there are even some rad falsetto backup vox. Way recommended, just like the full length.
We talk a lot in reviews about not judging books (or records more specifically) by their covers, but when we do, it's almost always in the context of doing just that, and realizing that by doing that, we had missed out on something cool. Which leads us to this, the latest instance of us judging a book by its cover, or in this case a record by its label, the newest from power poppers the Barreracudas (and yeah, that's the spelling, assuming it's referring to barre chords), whose debut is in fact the first thing we've ever reviewed on the, uh, Douchemaster label. And yeah, judging books by their covers blah blah blah, but c'mon, it's a little tough not to judge that book's cover when the cover says Douchemaster, but that said, these guys kick up a fantastic old school big guitar super hooky power pop racket, beholden to Cheap Trick, the Shoes, the Raspberries, the Dwight Twilley band, all the great seventies and eighties power poppers, and yeah, the guitars may be a bit crunchier, the production a little louder and punkier, but only a little, at their heart these songs are pretty goddamn perfect power pop and definitely sound like they could have been transported directly here from back in the day. In fact they remind us a lot of another modern retro power pop group (which just so happens to feature a member of Cheap Trick), who we raved about a while back, Tinted Windows, just check out "Baby Baby Baby". There's also a serious punk pop vibe, think The Dickies, the Ramones and other punk bands who were always more pop than punk. All the tracks here rule, hooky and heavy, crunchy and jangly, and quickly becoming out new favorite (power) pop record!
Originally composed as the soundtrack for an upcoming Judge Dredd film adaptation (and rejected!), Drokk finds Geoff Barrow from Portishead, teaming up with composer Ben Salisbury for a dark futuristic synthscape that looks to the classic scores of John Carpenter and Goblin, but instead of sounding like just another record jumping on the retro-futuristic synthscape bandwagon, that seems to have infected so many other groups, the sound these two have conjured up is much darker, and much more dense. And it plays out more like an actual soundtrack, since after all it is (was?) one. Drokk offers up all sorts of rhythms and melodies and arrangements and textures that definitely do feel like cues, like sounds designed to accompany specific images and actions, and while in many cases, scores loosed from their films lose a lot of their power, that is definitely not the case here. The sound reminding us in places of Blade Runner, and displaying obvious influence from groups like Tangerine Dream. There are also some Portishead like moments, creeping spare downtempo dirges that work surprisingly well with the more driving puslating synths. The opening jam definitely sets the tone, and sounds like it must have been for the opening credits/sequence, a spare bit of synth pulse, underpinned by a high sinewave like tone, the synths growing ever more ominous, expanding into fuzzy swooping synths, before exploding into full on eighties style sequenced synth stutter, laced with reverby industrial percussion, the sounds dense and lush and layered, frantic and frenetic (it is titled "Pursuit" after all). From there on out it's easy to get lost in the Barrow and Salisbury's imagined soundworld, haunting minor key melodies, woozy percolating synths, primitive rhythms, one second all washed out and cosmic, the next dark and driving and relentlessly rhythmic.
Needless to say, fans of the current crop of Carpenter/Goblin worshipping retro synthwranglers will flip for this big time, and while sonically, this does fit pretty perfectly alongside Umberto, Zombi, Majeure, Roll The Dice, Expo 70, Bitchin Bajas, Dylan Ettinger, Gatekeeper, Food Pyramid, Xander Harris and all the rest, Drokk actually manages to sound less like one of those bands looking to the past, and more like one of the originals from back in the day, looking forward, to some impossible unimaginable future, like the one we're living in today.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Archers of Loaf somewhat make my skin crawl but this is a solo outing by one of the people in the band and *it's great*. Sounds like the Thinking Fellers in grade school.
John Barry's pioneering rock'n'roll and instrumental music recorded prior to his James Bond film scores. The Wire says: "John Barry is the toast of the Easy Listening revival...[His music] has inspired a generation of musicians, from Portishead to John Zorn...In-your-face electric guitar, surging big band swing and cool minor key 'anxiety' harmonies." 37 tracks, over 75 minutes of music, illustrated booklet.
To be honest, we never paid this classic 1968 film that much attention because we always thought it was some treacley long-winded historical romance, but boy we're we wrong. It's actually more like a fucked-up dysfunctional family drama disguised in medieval garb, and it even takes place at Christmas! Plus the soundtrack is fantastic.
Starring Peter O'Toole and Katherine Hepburn with young Anthony Hopkins and Timothy Dalton in their first screen appearances, this is the story of King Henry II (O'Toole) having to deal with his indecisiveness of whom amongst his three unworthy sons shall inherit the throne. Complicating his decision is his imprisoned Queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine (Hepburn), who once a year is released from her tower prison to celebrate Christmas with the family. She has her own ideas of which son should inherit the kingdom, and bitter rivalries, intrigue and underhanded political maneuvering ensue. The chemistry between O'Toole and Hepburn is as sharp and acidic as Liz and Dick In Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, making their flirtatious hatred towards one another so engaging to watch. Originally a play, the movie is fleshed out cinematically with an atmospheric quality of pastoral England, and enhancing the vibe is this beautiful soundtrack by John Barry, mixing classic sixties film orchestration with ethereal psychfolk-tinged medieval plainsong in a haunting alluring score. The theme marking Eleanor's arrival is one of our favorite John Barry tracks ever, and this score is highly underrated and in our opinion amongst his best. And a nice price to boot!
It could be a madman ranting to himself in the shower as heard through a thin wall of a squalid East German apartment; or it could be a cryptic piece of mangled sound poetry in the transgressive vein of Otto Muehl or Henri Chopin. Given that Stapel. Efeu-Faehrten comes by way of Tochnit Aleph, it really could be either. This is the same label that is run by Schimpfluch's Raionbashi and has released work by Masonna, Runzelstirn & Gurglestock, and G*Park; but there's a plethora of semi-outsider sound art and aktionist based tape wrangling that stems from the European traditions of arte povera, musique concrete, and/or pharmaceutically tainted method acting; and then there was A r t u r Zm i j e w s k i 's S i n g i n g L e s s o n , which featured chorales sung by a deaf children's choir. Uncomfortably atonal and profoundly touching at the same time. Such is the way of things for Tochnit Aleph. This album is a compendium of recordings from the German artist Michael Barthel, who seems to be situated more toward the conceptual ends of the Tochnit Aleph spectrum, but then again he could very well just be fucking insane. The process seems to involve recording various utterances of Ursonate / Jaap Blonk styled sound poems of repetitive, nonsensical syllables as something of primal building block of language or perhaps it's simply absurdist stuttering. He whispers and quietly groans these poems into a shitty tape deck that captures all of the room noise; and then he plays these tapes back with the volume cranked so that all of the environmental ambience becomes a wash of grit and white noise with distant mumblings. Upon repeating this process multiple times, it's a similar process as Lucier's I Am Sitting In A Room, but the failing technology aggregates the noise and hiss instead of any kind of resonant frequency. In the midst of Barthel's softened, antiquated noise, his muffled sound poetry is interrupted / augmented by police sirens, radio static, and what sounds like it could be a really bummed out sheep. In other words, weirdo brilliance.
Not sure if a lapsed Jew is anything like a lapsed Catholic. But if it is, I definitely used to live with one. We joked that I was way more of a Jew than he was. I would make matzah brie and matzoh ball soup� OK, well maybe my Jewishness didn't extend much beyond the kitchen, but that was STILL more Jewish than my lapsed housemate.
What's the point of all that? Well, I of course know nothing about Jewish religious music either really, cantors, synagogal religious songs, but I know what I like. And I have been LOVING this collection of old 78s by Yitshak Jacques Zaludkowski, aka Ben Baruch. A two disc set that collects his complete recorded output, originally released as 78 rpm picture discs in 1950 on Saturn Records. Running the gamut from religious, songs -about- religious topics, and songs about the inception of the state of Israel, all sung in Hebrew, Baruch's music is gorgeous and emotive, his voice a lush rich baritone, the music super dramatic and orchestral. Strings swoon beneath Baruch's powerful croon, some folks here thought it sounded like the music in the sad parts of Disney movies, which is not all that far off. His voice actually sounds a bit like Thurl Ravenscroft, who sings the Haunted Mansion song. Operatic and darkly emotional, Baruch weaves dreamy, haunting tableaus, every song sounds like it was pulled from some mysterious old film, jazz, big band, swing, all lushly underpinning Baruch's gorgeous smooth voice. And of course, since they're mastered from old 78's, there's plenty of crackle and pop and tape hiss, wrapped warmly and lovingly around every note. In fact, fans of the recent record of the week Victrola Favorites will probably dig this too! So gorgeous.
Want to get lost in hazy, shimmering sounds that would sound perfect in the pristine church of 4AD worship? Sounds pretty great right, well, the sounds of Julianna Barwick deliver just that. With her looped ethereal vocals she creates such hypnotizing sounds that really evoke a more tripped out Lisa Gerard (Dead Can Dance) or Elizabeth Fraser (Cocteau Twins), a sound that is totally perfect for the crisp and cold days we've been experiencing as of late, each track a gorgeous soundtrack for bundled up evening strolls when you can see your breath in the air. Barwick has been crafting her own multi-layered, hazy and hypnotic sounds for several years now, in fact her self released debut, Sanguine, from over three years ago was a big favorite here in town at our local radio station KUSF and we're happy to have gotten that in as well which we'll most likely be gushing about on a future list. In fact that record came out just shortly after Grouper's wonderful debut Way Their Crept and the two definitely share a swirling and surreal sonic spirit.
We knew it was only a matter of time before the ethereal magic of Julianna Barwick's music would capture the attention and imagination of the underground music scene. After two utterly gorgeous self released albums, Asthmatic Kitty wisely stepped up to sign her and release this brand new stunning set of songs, which finds Barwick's sound becoming even more pristine and dreamy. Alongside Grouper, Barwick really is doing wonders to channel the ethereal magic of 4AD's sound via Dead Can Dance, This Mortal Coil, and Cocteau Twins. Magic Place wastes no time heading right for the sky, which is where Barwick's songs always reside. Daydream reflections, moon worship hymns, sun cycle observations, close your eyes and let these sounds take you wherever they may. Beyond beautiful!
Julianna Barwick makes the kind of music that totally transports us into that sort of hazy spaced out daydream we wish would stretch out into infinity. Using just her voice and assorted manipulated loops, Barwick creates an hypnotic environment of sound that conjures up images of standing all alone in a huge cathedral, lit with washed out light filtered through ornate glass windows, reflecting off silver and gold sculptures. There is something so totally otherworldly and church-gone-cosmic to the sounds on Sanguine, like floating in a pristine sky, high on codeine as you swirl amongst fallen angels and mysterious creatures. Self released back in 2006, we are so happy to finally get this in the store as it really is one of the most mesmerizing and beautiful records to come out in the last several years. Because of the lack of its distribution the first time around, Sanguine didn't get the attention it deserved, which is too bad, because it most likely would have enjoyed the same sort of praise and popularity that groups like Grouper have so rightfully received, creating sounds from a similar template. And while the Grouper comparisons are inevitable, there really is something unique and singular about the way Barwick channels the most psychedelic and ethereal 4AD inspiration into a totally DIY hypnotic state of sound. Blissed out to perfection!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Another successful pairing of the older guard and the new wave, one of the latest in the RVNG label Frkwys series puts together experimental vocalist, Julianna Barwick (whose recent aQ instore was beautifully dreamy), and avant percussionist and seventies no wave music scene vet, Ikue Mori (DNA, John Zorn, Death Praxis). Recorded live during a residency at White Columns in New York last year, the two sides are the results of two different performance collaborations. The first side was made while Barwick and Mori were separated from each other in cubicles in the gallery, improvising together through aural suggestion. The second side was made with the artists working face to face. Both sides employ Mori's signature warbling crystalline electronics and sampled percussion triggers with Barwick's swelling gossamer and reverbed vocals in prolonged forays of electro-acoustic atmospherics and ambient abstraction, but each side has a different feel. The collaborative dynamics caused by closeness and distance move from a hushed majestic expansiveness to a more engrossed focused energy that demands your attention. Quite lovely!
Basalt Fingers may not be a name immediately recognizable to most folks, but the various members most definitely will be. Ben Chasny of Six Organs Of Admittance, Elisa from the Magik Markers and Brian from Mouthus and White Rock. A pretty serious psychedelic / noise pedigree, so hopes were pretty high, and damn if this isn't some seriously dense, smoldering, abstract psychdrone.
Two sidelong chunks, the first starts out all murky and lo-fi, guitars sounding more like bubbling lava, strange subterranean shapes, all tangled and smeared. Some of the guitars sound like synths warm and whirring, hard to tell what exactly is going on as everything is so muddy and washed out, but that just makes it all the more swoonsome and dreamy. It's like listening to some wild psych jam, but through thick concrete walls, with cotton in your ears. A gorgeous abstract underwater psych blowout.
The flip side is similar, except one of the guitars wails wildly over the murk, keening in huge glimmering streaks, while the other two guitars churn beneath it. It's almost like some classic Santana jam broadcast through a stereo dropped into a tar pit. Or Keiji Haino dubbed onto shittier and shittier tapes, and then played back on a boombox with dying batteries. Pretty fucking cool.
Limited to 845 copies. Pressed on super thick 180 gram vinyl. And the lp comes with a cd (not a cd-r, an actual cd) with the same music for listening and Ipod-ing ease!!! Packaged in gorgeous heavy silkscreened covers, designed by Alan Sherry of Siwa.
If anything, it's about baseball of the soul... It's Tycho Brahe channeled through Ken Nordine in possession of an armload of Sandy Koufax fastballs. OK, I don't really know what Holy Mountain guru JW is talking about, but I think the Baseball Astrologer sounds like Godspeed You Black Emperor (a point of contention for sure, as JW vehemently despises Godspeed). Just as those opening deep drones backed the Native American tale of self-annihilation on F#A#oo, the Baseball Astrologer presents the booming existential monologues of Douglas Berman (painter, astrologer, raconteur, chai-maker, and dedicated walker) with the exceptional guitar drones, courtesy of Stephen Lobdell - currently of Faust. Each copy comes with a different 1970s baseball card - sorry the one with Rollie Fingers was already taken. Keep in mind we also still have the stellar solo LP from Lobdell under the name Davis Redford Triad.
Y'know how sometimes a lil' itch can drive you totally nuts, downright crazy! We can assure you that Basement Jaxx's Crazy Itch Radio will not have the same effect. Sure it tingles and tickles, but in the way that might make you wanna get up 'n' shake yer moneymaker. Hmmph, did we just say that?! Anyhoo, this is a bubbly candy-coated dance club party record that goes splendidly well with the new one by Los Amigos Invisibles. These folks just wanna have a good time... won't you join 'em?
Second album from this popular dance/club act. We like the ape on the cover.
When it comes to modern day dance music it just doesn't get a whole lot more colorful, joyful and F.U.N. then the Basement Jaxx. What's always set them apart from so many of their peers is that while most good dance minded outfits tend to rely so heavily on retro influences, Basement Jazz, who for sure have absorbed the best in dance music of the last few decades from disco to house, electro and hip-hop, instead take those sounds and warp and personalize and modernize, creating their own distinct vision and sound. Scars is ranking right next to Rooty, one of our other favorite Basement Jazz jams, so full of such infectious songs that not only totally make you shake it, but they also have a really nice wide range of emotions and an incredibly lush sonic palette, with guest vocalists like Yoko Ono, Sam Sparro, Santogold, Kelis, Yo Majesty, etc. bringing their own distinct flavor to the mix. Scars is the kind of record that will get you moving AND get stuck in your head, we've already listened to it so many times and it's holding up so well on repeated listens. Who knows when Daft Punk will ever release a new album, but until then, the other major titan in modern dance brilliance will keep our bootys shaking!
