I (Andee) had to push really hard for this to be record of the week back in June as we seldom make LPs records of the week, but now it's been RELEASED ON CD! So all of you turntable-less folks can now also enjoy what is easily one of the most amazing records I have ever heard. We knew about this record but had never actually -heard- it until the aforementioned vinyl reissue. And we were just blown away. We were convinced that this could be the jazz record to cure Jim of his I-Hate-Jazz attitude (we'll let you know what happened with that) (umm, nope. - Jim).
Gorgeous cover art depicting a little ant on the yolk of a big fried egg! Quite striking. Recorded in 1971, 'Orient' features 2 separate live performances with Cherry in two different trios, one with Han Bennink (drums, percussion, accordian, vocals) and Mocqui (tamboura) and the other with Johnny Diani (bass) and Okay Tamiz (drums, percussion). The track 'Orient' which was a side and a half of the 2lp set is the real gem here (although all four tracks are spectacular). 'Orient' starts off with minor key piano and subtle percussion, with mumbled, chant-like vocals, slowly building, rumbling clattery percussion, not all that different from what No Neck Blues Band seems to be working towards. Ten minutes in, the track explodes into a hyper-rhythmic free-jazz frenzy with wailing trumpet and completely mad silverware-drawer-down-the-steps drumming from Bennink. The chanting vocals return, this time, much higher in the mix turning it into a musical tug of war between a somber spiritual and a crazed drum circle free-for-all. The drums prevail, beating out a tribal rhythm, with drum kit and tamboura weaving a rich rhythmic framework, that slowly winds down to dark and dreamy melancholy piano and huge gong swells, with occasional percussive clatter in the background. Suddenly the trio slips into a classic jazz groove that is perfect, but also perfectly out of place. No need to worry, as the groove quickly dissipates into a free jazz supernova of squealing horns and chaotic drumming. Track two, named for Cherry's son, starts with loping and meandering, deep dark beats, with owl-ish flutes and ghost-like horns. Some percussive clatter and an almost Roland Kirk-like breathing/singing whips up a frenzied fervor over throbbing bass, skittery percussion and wild piano (at this point it's necessary to point out the fact that Cherry is handling piano/trumpet/flute single handedly!). The trio soon click into an almost Santana-ish groove with Cherry's soaring vocals following the piano. The track winds down with Cherry going crazy on BOTH the trumpet AND the piano! Track three 'Togetherness' displays some truly breathtaking free-jazz interplay from Cherry and drummer Okay Tamiz. Cherry alternates between pocket trumpet and flute, playing complicated and unlikey melodies over the thick pulsing bass and frenzied percussion (drum kit, but also bells and shakers and gongs!) eventually finishing off with more of that Santana-ish groove and wild, free vocals! The final track, 'Si Ta Ra Ma' is the weirdest of the bunch, again reminding us sonically of No Neck and other of the more modern drone/clatter ensembles. Guttural vocalisations that vacillate from droning almost-throat singing to what sounds like speaking in tongues, with muted horn sputter, droning low-end trumpet buzz, clapping and sorrowful chanting vocals. Over the course of the last ten minutes, the vocals gradually fade into the mix as the percussion (steel drums?) build and build while Cherry solos dreamily and mournfully until the end of the track. Amazing and essential and totally timeless.
No one can debate that Don Cherry is a jazz legend. A total pioneer, playing with pretty much every important figure from the fifties until the mid nineties when he passed away. But beyond being an unbelievable player, an unbeatable sideman, and an amazing composer, he also became obsessed with folk music, and various musics from all over the world, incorporating those sounds into his compositions, turning his jazz into some wild avant world jazz, tribal and psychedelic, hypnotic and complex, ethereal and far out, Cherry's sound changed and mutated on a regular basis, as he discovered Indian ragas, Japanese temple music, Southeast Asian gamelan music, Buddhist chants, it all became a part of his music, and made him one of the most unique voices in jazz.
We raved about Cherry's 1971 Orient record a while back, a totally fantastical and far out free jazz exploration that incorporated No Neck style tribal free rock, Santana-ish rock grooves, and bits of psychedelia, to make for a clattery, droney noisy free jazz classic.
Tibet came about 10 years later, but manages to be just as far out. Not as urgent or chaotic or 'free', Tibet was much more of a world jazz record, with Cherry utilizing lots of Gamelan, African instrumentation and Eastern melody.
The opener is all gamelan, flurries of percussion whipped into a dense dizzying swirl, a strange mix of gamelan, Eastern melodies, and some distinctly African sounds, as well as a bunch of clatter that would be right at home on a No Neck record. The following track is mostly tinkling piano, but over the top, a reed instrument wails and buzzes out a mesmerizing snake charmer melody, it sounds a bit like a zorna, the melody locked in step with the piano, the two instruments engaged in a gorgeously hypnotic dance.
The next track is a killer, super dense and aggressive, a fiery and fierce piano workout, the low keys pounded and ringing out, a thick backdrop for the tinkling spray of high notes, all looped into an incredibly hypnotic groove, sounding a lot like a darker, more intense Lubomyr Melnyk.
The flipside begins with more Eastern melodies, a framework of tribal percussion, over the top vocals and horns (that sounds like synthesizers) drone and buzz, the sound very raga like, wild and loose, spirited and free, sounds like something you'd hear on a Sublime Frequencies comp, which makes sense as these sounds are so indebted to musics both Asian and African. The following track is all tinkling percussion, chimes and bells, long drawn out tones on some sort of horn, all very meditative and spiritual, with monk like chants woven into the fluttering field of shimmer and tinkle. Finally the record finishes with what sounds like straight ahead gamelan, subtle and serene, a muted percussive coda to a seriously expansive sonic travelogue.
There's a dearth of notes, no players, no instrumentation, but it hardly matters as the music more than speaks for itself.
Long, long awaited vinyl reissue of this legendary 1973 lp, featuring American jazz trumpeter/composer Don Cherry and Polish avant garde composer Krzyztof Penderecki. Awesome mix of wild free jazz and 20th century classical, with wildly shrieking saxes and trumpets, bizarre chanted/sung vocals, both male and female, cool catchy almost bop-ish breakdowns, bizarre vocalisations, breathing and wheezing and whistles, recorded live at the Donaueschingen Music Festival in Germany on October 17, 1971. 3 tracks, 2 by Cherry, one by Penderecki.
We especially dig the second track wherein the audience was instructed to clap the rhythms to a droning sitar/vocal piece (with the crowd failing miserably in the beginning and laughing, embarrassed). The final track is the legendary "Actions for Free Jazz Orchestra" written & conducted by Penderecki and including such European free music faves of ours as Peter Brotzmann, Han Bennik and a bunch of others. The sound is dark and sparse, with bursts of straight up jazz rhythms punctuating the sinister soundscapes, as well as plenty of improvised noodling, especially some truly inspired freakout drumming and some beautifully haunting trumpet parts, which all coalesce into a completely riveting 16 minute masterpiece of 20th century-avant-free-classical-jazz. Or something like that.
We rave about jazz legend Don Cherry as often as we can. Every reissue has us all in a tizzy. In the past we made his mind blowing Orient an aQ record Of The Week. And in retrospect, we probably should have made the Blue Lake reissue a ROTW as well. Cherry was continually pushing the boundaries of jazz, exploring and helping shape free jazz, and incorporating all manner of world music into his ever changing and expanding sound.
This disc, recorded in 1978, found Cherry once again reimagining the sound of jazz, and challenging unadventurous jazz fans, by teaming up with legendary Indian percussionist Ustad Ahmed Latif Khan. Cherry had experimented with Indian music before on past recordings, but this was the first full on collaboration. Two sides, one featuring Cherry compositions, accompanied by Khan on tablas, the other side, Khan compositions, the tablas more of the driving force, the sound distinctly more Indian classical, with Cherry accompanying Khan.
The untitled opener finds Cherry and Khan covering Ornette Coleman, Cherry's former band leader. It's a dark brooding shuffle, all warm keyboard grooves, and the tablas, how they change everything, the skittery rhythms, but also the strange rubbery low end, the song eventually morphs into a Cherry original, and gets a bit proggy with wild trumpets and thick organs, the tablas still driving the whole thing. It's the next track where it gets really interesting though. A sprawling rhythmscape, the tablas doing double time, the rhythm, and a pulsing sort-of-bass line, Cherry delivering abstract almost scat like falsetto vocals, dark and drone-y and spaced out and minimal, peppered with occasional bursts of wild horn skronk, but for the most part, a swirling tripped out stretch of throbbing subtly psychedelic jazz minimalism. The final Cherry composed track is another gem, all glistening chimes and high end tones, flurries of piano, distant horns, whooshing effects, and of course the skitter of the tablas, more melodic almost that rhythmic on this track. Cherry also introduces some flute, which gives the track a sort of freak folk vibe, really!
Khan's side is distinctly less jazz. The tablas way up in the mix, his dexterous rhythms totally spellbinding, intricate, and again melodic, Cherry offering up strange bits of percussion, muted keyboards, very abstract and so cool. The final track, a sprawling 13 minute epic begins with just organ, drifting in space, until the tablas come in, and holy shit, even more intense and intricate, wreathed in a bit of reverb, and slipping from loping grooves to wild bursts of impossibly complex rhythmatism, the organ, a constant warm whir in the background, and the timbre of the keyboards, continues to infuse the track with a distinctly prog feel. Making this some sort of abstract classical Indian jazz prog? Whatever you want to call it, these are some gorgeously hypnotic and meditative sounds. So very recommended. Fans of the Necks might get into this too, similarly dark minimal vibe, especially the Khan tracks, and well worth checking out for the rest of you, even if jazz isn't normally your thing.
Long awaited reissue of this legendary 1973 lp, featuring jazz trumpeter/composer Don Cherry and legendary composer Krzyztof Penderecki, remastered with complete liner notes including an interview with Penderecki. Awesome mix of wild free jazz and 20th
The music of Vic Chesnutt has always been dark, and dour, and depressive, but there was a time where it was also sort of country, a bit twangy, when he used to have a fiddle player, and be backed up by members of Lambchop. Post twang, he explored a more pop sound, taking that folky bluesy foundation and expanding, and we definitely dug it. Lush and experimental and really pretty. But nothing prepared us for his shift to Constellation, which seemed to tap into his darker side, or darkEST side, his music immediately shifted and became even more harrowing, and emotionally exposed, and the music followed, enlisting members of various Constellation bands to help him flesh out this new sound, and it was most definitely good. Powerful and epic and moving.
At The Cut is Chesnutt's second record for Constellation, and continues to move in the same direction for the most part, beginning with the abject anthem "Coward" with its big distorted guitars, pounding percussion, and soaring strings, not to mention the lyrics. Heavy stuff for sure.
But At The Cut is not all fire and brimstone and damnation, there are some really pretty stripped down acoustic numbers, that remind us of the old days, a poppy jangly jam here and there, but for the most part, this is a distinctly dark and introspective record, with moments of bombast for sure, but just as many of inward reflection, and hushed sonic contemplation. Yet another beautiful missive from a truly tortured musical soul....
Okay, I know that I (Cup) say below that Little is my fave Vic Chesnutt album, but the thing with ol' Vic is that each album has proven to be not only a crafty progression from that which came before, but also a solid work unto itself. Each one is sooo darn good in its own way! His third album is a perfect example. Drunk gets its hooks into ya right from the beginning. It kicks things off with the churning toss'n'turn guitar of "Sleeping Man" and shifts gears into a batch of songs that slowly weigh heavier and heavier on the heart. If anyone can articulate weary despair and emotional collapse, it's this man... but he does so with an occasional sharp-witted elbow in the ribs to counter the dull ache in your chest. Includes a heap of bonus songs, many of them live recordings with Chesnutt's spoken introductions (indexed separately from the songs so that you can skip them if you wish). An additional note: The cover art is different from the original release (a drawing of a strange jester figure as opposed to the photo of a shadowy brown sillhouette).
After last year's Silverlake album and slew of old Chesnutt reissues, we've sure had our fave Vic on the mind around here, and been wishing for more. Well folks, whadyaknow?! Here's a brand new album, and it does not disappoint!
Some folks we know were a little disappointed by Silverlake, not sure why, maybe they were missing the more playful ramshackle Chesnutt of old, and while those folks might not necessarily find what they want here, they should be prepared (and excited) for yet another new direction from the musically restless Chesnutt. Even darker (if that's possible) and a lot more lush, Ghetto Bells is a swoonsome, melancholy dream world of droning soundscapes, twangy melancholia, and wistful countrified folk. Lyrically, less wryly clever secretly silly, and more serious and somber. The seemingly incongruous pairing of his gravelly voice atop the surprisingly elegant string arrangements brought to mind a few recordings of Leonard Cohen.
We might venture to say though that the final song on the album is by far the strangest, most out-there song Chesnutt has ever recorded. A delicate, sparse, moody soundscape of upright bass, vibes, chiming harmonics, with Chesnutt singing in a wavery falsetto. Werid but really quite beautiful.
As much as we love everything Vic Chesnutt has ever done, if pressed to pick one record that is THE ONE, it would without a doubt be Is The Actor Happy?. A perfect realisation of Chesnutt's quirky songwriting and impeccable arranging. Combined for the first time with a crystal clear sparkling production. While ITAH? had many crying "Sellout!" it had the rest of us laying in bed, at four in the morning with the headphones cranked, alternately teary eyed, and laughing our heads off. Such is Chesnutt's gift. Weaving wonderous tales of love and lonliness, that cut to the quick and leave you heart broken in 4 minutes or less, along with equally compelling tunes, that perhaps also deal with love and loneliness, but more obliquely, using metaphors that struggle desparately to escape becoming non-sequiters, lines about dandruff, bold eyebrows, delicious onion soup, Bob Guccione, Trivial Pursuit, nausea, participles, sniffles, Rupert Murdock, drunken archers, wanting to be Aaron Neville, and crooked nipples, delivered in Chesnutt's cracked warble with seemingly effortless alliteration. All over a lush bed of dark and melancholy twang, one part No Depression, one part classic pop songsmithery, all filtered through a truly unique and twisted musical palette. Musically, the polished production and expert playing don't detract at all from the sound, Chesnutt's oft-championed quirky grit is still in full affect, but what could have otherwise remained a musical diamond in the indie/underground rough, gets plucked and polished and put on display for everyone to adore.
This is Vic's fourth album, and the one we think oughta be a big hit. Some of the most bittersweet heartfelt songs you'll ever hear.
One of our favorite performers, Athens GA's Vic Chesnutt, unleashes a record of demos and rarities. It's his ninth album (god, I remember when his first one came out). More experimental than any of his previous releases, this record's got ghostly blues dirges
Vic Chesnutt's early albums have always been a bit hard to come by... especially this one from 1990. Fingers are crossed that New West keeps these reissues in print!
This is the album that started it all, and it's the one that's nearest and dearest to Cup (Andee on the other hand hugs Chesnutt's Is The Actor Happy? album). Unlike his later albums which infused pop elements into the foundation of his rootsy blues-folk, Little features some of his most barebones, raw acoustic guitar work. This starkness provides an all the more effective backdrop for one of the most expressive sourpuss voices around singing some of the most gnawingly bleak songs around. Bleary and skewed, his words tumble unapologetically from his lips -- emotional scars and verbal barbs all completely out in the open. Produced by Michael Stipe who took a shine to Chesnutt early on and helped bring him to college radio eyes and ears. Includes five previously unreleased tracks.
Vic Chesnutt's collaboration with a number of folks on the Constellation Records roster (aka A Silver Mt. Zion and a list of friends which includes Fugazi's Guy Picciotto and members of Hangedup, Frankie Sparo, Esmerine, The Quavers, and yes, Godspeed You Black Emperor) sounds *exactly* as you would expect... bleak and immensely moving. They keep such perfectly dour company that we wonder what took them so long to make it happen! Flooded with anguish and raw nerves, North Star Deserter is an intense frayed journey, but not without a moment or two of glimmering hope and twisted folly. Chesnutt's lyrics have always been an affecting bruised blend of the absolutely direct and the utterly cryptic. We know they're a perfect match for his own creeping, barren plain plucked guitar accompaniment, but wow, when joined by these additional like-minded vocalists and musicians the results are often times crushingly beautiful. Placed before a landscape of ominous cello drones, electrified string shards, and near-military marching drums, his weathered rasp of a voice resonates anew. The amazing breadth of this album is captured in two songs late in the album -- the thunderous roar of "Debriefing" and the hushed haunted loner "Marathon". Damn. Recommended.
We (along with a who's who of indie and not so indie luminaries) have been Vic Chesnutt fans for years now, ever since his first album Little dropped way back in 1990. Wheelchair bound and ornery as a beehive, Chesnutt's dusty downtrodden tales are suffused with a warm sweetness that contrasts well with the gruff attitude. And since Little, Chesnutt's albums have each gotten more mellow -- in a good way, like aged whiskey. At some points on this record he reaches Neil Young-strata levels of confidence and maturity. Wow.
Compared to earlier works, Silver Lake is less willfully eccentric, and worlds more focused and POWERFUL. Recorded in some mansion above Silver Lake in LA with a full band and a nice complement of additions to your regular rock guitar bass drums formula. It's, for example, delicate with lonely tambourine, autoharp, poignant piano, pedal steel, lush backup vocals... but it's also heavy with majestic climaxes and downright wild guitar noisiness. A wonderful combination and then, of course, on top of that is Vic's unique vocal style, his gravelly, southern-accented growl/howl. Fantastic!
Perhaps indicative that he's not completely abandoned his peculiarities, the third song "Band Camp" made Cup think Mr. Chesnutt was doing his best Paul Simon impression (circa Graceland) while making wry references to the movie American Pie. Plus he also gets bonus Scrabble points for fitting the word "transmogrified" into his lyrics. For fans of Neil Young, Howe Gelb, Uncle Tupelo, Jayhawks.
MPEG Download: "Stay Inside" [/audio/chesnuttstayinside.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Stay Inside" [/audio/chesnuttstayinside.m3u]
MPEG Download: "2nd Floor" [/audio/chesnutt2nd.mp3]
A much more sedate affair than his last few outings, this dark, meloncholy 'tale' features a dreary cinematic backdrop provided by Nashville's Lambchop, who end up being the perfect foil for Vic's wry, and often plain silly sense of humor. Lambchop are exquisite, and offer the perfect musical pillow for Vic's weary head. Easily his finest record since Is the Actor Happy?. Recommended.
Here I (Cup) go again... gushing over the reissues of ol' Vic! Spent so much time last week re-visiting Chesnutts #1 and #3 that I didn't get to his sophomore release West Of Rome... yet another great album! Who can resist that withered rasp of a voice? Well... okay, it's not really for everyone, but his songwritin' and guitar playin' are much more so. Perhaps a hint at the lusher pop-infused tunes to come on his later albums, some very subtle strings are added to his barebones arrangements of guitar, piano and vocals. As with Drunk, Michael Stipe once again ably handled the producer's duties. And as with the other Chesnutt reissues, West Of Rome comes with a heaping serving of great bonus tracks! Yay!
I'm not sure who Mr. and Mrs. Keneipp are, but they're an intriguing choice of collaborators, because this charming album they've made with Vic Chesnutt is the perfect combination of two seemingly disparate styles of music. There's Vic's gravelly voiced twang-inflected loner rock, but it's mixed with a heavy dose of doped out, decadent Bowie/Eno-in-Berlin-era experimental pop. Yes, it's different from what you'd expect if you're already a Chesnutt fan, but it's very nice.
Whoa, this is quite a strange gathering of peculiar musical entities, don't you think? Mr. Chesnutt's collaboration with the A Silver Mt. Zion folks last year made total sense in its beautiful bleakness. Psst, it was called North Star Deserter and we heartily recommend it! However, when we heard the names Vic Chesnutt and Elf Power and the mysterious Amorphous Strum in the same breath we were left scratching our heads. Nevertheless, we gave it a spin and found that this twisted roots rock album is for the most part really the Vic Chesnutt show. It's perfectly understandable though, no slight on Elf Power, but he's such a potent and distinct musical force all by his lonesome. Signs of that trademark Chesnutt vitriol-soaked distemper comes quickly. you need look no further than Dark Developments' second song "Little Fucker". Really, the only glimpse of even a bit of Elf Power's indie psych poppiness comes late in the proceedings in the seventh song, the slightly more quirkily layered pop tune "Bilocating Dog"! Definitely for devoted Chesnutt fans, but perhaps not the place to start if you're just getting your feet wet, nor if you're looking for a new Elf Power album!
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SORRY.
Total fucking destruction by way of a man with a saxophone and a couple of pedals. Zurich born and Berlin based, Antoine Chessex has a background in jazz, although his treatment of the instrument through his punishing use of distortion pedals arrives at something wholly other. He neither skronks nor screeches with his sax; rather his is a very physical sound, sculpted out of electronics possibly more than the prolonged bellows from his sax. Even the aggressive sounds that Ulrich Krieger gets out of his horn in Zeitkratzer pales in comparison to the monstrous noise that Chessex can muster. It's all about the circular breathing techniques, which form the undercurrents to his pulverizing distortion. The room clearing blasts from Chessex on Terra Incognita are actual live recordings from a couple of unspecified gigs in Japan and Germany. When he stomps down on the pedals and unleashes his crusty noise, it's an all-enveloping thrumm of mid-range noise through which you can make out various screams and yelps of Chessex vocalizing through his saxophone at the microphone in the bell of his horn. Throughout, he'll also hit upon some pretty fucking heavy riffs that hold more in common with the crustcore distorto-punk sounds from Man Is The Bastard. The middle half of side one finds Chessex eschewing the obliteration aesthetic, allowing his circular breathing to stand on its own. With the help of a delay pedal, Chessex offers an intensely psychoacoustic drone that falls somewhere between a Tibetan horn and the sound of WWII bomber engines.
This is billed as a 'single-sided lp with a hidden track'. Dunno how it qualifies as a 'hidden track' when you can see it clearly on the second side. Well, it is pressed as if were a 7", but on a 12" so that's a little odd.
It has been far too long since we've heard from Chessie. Seven years, in fact. And that sabbatical, hibernation, hiatus, or whatever you want to call it is somewhat quizzical, considering that Overnight (the 2001 album in question) had received heaps of acclaim from all across the board. For loyal Aquarius customers who happened to venture in the store around that time, Overnight was on the short list of albums that seemed to be in constant rotation here in the store, alongside the likes of Spoon's Girls Can Tell, the first New Pornographers album, Amon Duul II's Yeti, and the Andrew Chalk / Jonathan Coleclough collaboration Sumac. We have our beloved former co-worker Byram Abbott to thank for getting Overnight under our collective skin. Seven years later, Chessie works their magic once again.
A duo comprised of Stephen Gardner and Ben Bailes, Chessie operates along the borders between digitally crunched electronics and impressionist shoegazing. Gardner began his off-and-on musical career in US shoegazing indie-pop band Lorelei back in the early '90s, with a smattering of impressive singles that clearly formed the foundation for Chessie's chiming guitars grafted into an electronica context. Many of the songs on Manifest enjoy wistfully slow-burning, post-pop crescendos (e.g. Pinback, early Stereolab) as remixed through the fizzing Max/MSP patches of Fennesz. Shuffling motorik breakbeats, pierced bleeps 'n' bloops, blissed-out washes of multi-tracked guitars, and maudlin samples from muted French horns and strings pock the album's varied tracks, with occasionally lulls into hypnotic atmospherics only to snap into some truly memorable pop hooks. Had Chessie decided to incorporate a vocalist, perhaps they might be the next Postal Service; but the more adventurous route of the instrumental better serves Chessie's sensibility. A very highly recommended album, and one which will no doubt be on lost of folks 2008 top ten lists!
Beautifully hypnotic, guitar-driven electronica from the Virginian duo of Stephen Gardner and Ben Bailes. Their third full length and first for Los Angeles-based Plug Research, "Overnight" is quite a departure from Chessie's underachieving,
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At long last, we've received the new, second album from the French instrumental post-rock duo Cheval De Frise. (With the help of an free internet translator and my meager high school French, I can confidently proclaim that their name means, uh, "Horse of Curls" in English. Hmm. Furthermore, the title of this record, I am sure, means "Frescos On The Secret Partitions Of The Skull".) Their previous album on Sonore was a fave 'round here, falling somewhere between Don Cab and Gastr del Sol... This new disc is, we're happy to report, more of the same: acoustic guitars (and electric) vs. drums, both very active and complex yet quite pretty too, the tangle they make. Dynamic and detailed, Cheval de Frise rock out with the elegance of a math equation scribbled on a doily. Imagine an introspective, high-end-eq'd Ruins, or a Hella with hitherto unrevealed, somewhat mellow and romantic qualities. Look for a US release of this, on Frenetic in October...something we learned only after we got these imports, which at least aren't especially pricey.
Haven't heard from these guys in a while. Oft described as Don Caballero meets Gastr Del Sol, due to their mathy post rock sound, and the fact that the guitar player wields an acoustic guitar. But he still kicks up quite a din, and he has to since the drummer is a wild beast, like the dude from Hella but with a bit more restraint. And in fact, that might even be another shorthand description of this here 10", it does sort of sound a bit like a less spastic and more reserved Hella. Their sound has changed very little, tangled complex acoustic guitar doing serious battle with some crazy octopoidal drumming that swings from reserved shuffle to free jazz freakout to metallic pound, often within the same song. If anything, they've managed to get even more mathy, sounding at times almost like some sort of indie post rock free jazz, fluttery melodies, shuffling skitter, that bursts into full on furious strumming and blown out wall of drumnoise, before slipping back into dreamy minimal groove. These guys still blow our minds, managing to be crazy instrumentalists without losing sight of the part about songs being catchy and fun to listen to. Definitely recommended, for math rockers, post rockers and anyone into complex instrumental rock...
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SORRY.
French duo of acoustic (but not quiet!) guitar and drums that play in an instrumental 'post-rock' vein -- a shorthand description would be to call them a cross between Don Caballero and Gastr del Sol (but better!). Complex, dynamic, and full of that delicate post-rock beauty...although we can't figure out why bands like this, with musicians this good, don't play metal instead. On the same label that brought us the last two Ruins releases.
One of two new super limited 7"s from Trensmat on this week's list, the other, a brand new one from psychedelic apace rock legends The Telescopes, and this one, from dreampsych combo Cheval Sombre, their second for Trensmat, and another glorious slab of sun dappled psych drift, all washed out shimmer and lazily strummed acoustic guitars, mumbled soporific voices and hazy sitar like melodies, a dreamy druggy take on the Spacemen 3 / Galaxie 500 school of slowcore dream pop, the A side is a mantra like dirge, soft focus and hushed, the acoustic guitar and vocals, wreathed in a gorgeous cloud of FX, from dense buzz, to strange sci-fi skitter, beginning very balladic, before gradually blossoming into a prismatic burst of glimmering psychedelic swirl. The B side is a Stones cover, "As Tears Go By", the sound similar to the A side, with the group adding some organ warble and some Beach Boys style orchestral percussion, and wrapping the guitars in woozy effects, the hushed croon hovering on a bed of blurred bleary dreampop, the Stones classic transformed into a perfect slab of psych pop bliss out.
Super limited, with Trensmat releases we generally only get one shot, and once the batch we get runs out, that's it, which means, of course, you should grab one of these before they're all gone for good. Includes a download code as well.
The second of two new releases from the UK's Trensmat Records, the first being the long awaited Cave ep elsewhere on this list, and this one, the first we've heard from a one man band from NY called Cheval Sombre, whose sound is a delicate, druggy slowcore, not all that far removed from folks like Galaxie 500 or Spacemen 3, the music soft billowy swirls, slow burning soft focus buzz, all drifting gently beneath hushed soft vocals, that are sometimes a dead ringer for the Spacemen.
As with all Trensmat 7"s, the record also includes a bonus cd-r, featuring the tracks from the 7" as well as an extra bonus track. The opener is a gorgeous lazy, late night slow crawl, soporific and cough syrupy, no drums, just long slowly unfurling ribbons of guitar and keyboard, and those sweet lullaby like vocals. The second track, produced by Spacemen 3's Sonic Boom, is an even murkier blurrier version of the opener, all the sounds muted and smeared into indistinct streaks of buzz, the vocals flipped backwards (you know how we love backwards!), the whole track woozy and off kilter, melty and psychedelic, but still dark and dizzy and dreamy.
The bonus track on the cd-r, also features a slowcore, bliss rock guest, Britta Phillips from the duo Dean & Britta (with Dean from Galaxie 500) produces, the result, another hazy, washed out soft around the edges slow folky drift, all glimmering guitar, tinkling chimes, reverbed vocals, all floating in an expanse of sweetly swirling lowercase musical murmur. So lovely.
Fans of druggy slow motion blessed out psych pop (who isn't?!?) will definitely love this. Full color sleeve, printed cd-r, and of course, as always, SUPER LIMITED!
Not a new release anymore, but still well worth mentioning, at last... Chevreuil are not your average mathy post rock band, and we don't just mean musically. Starting with the cover image, of a skinny shirtless man sprawled on the asphalt, his head under a little patch of Astroturf, to the poster inside, of another man dressed all in white, head covered in blood, standing atop a little ladder, to the instrumentation: voice, samples, harmonica, magnetic drums and touch guitar, to the legend printed inside the cd case: "This record is connected to SCIENCE." And the music is just as off kilter and confusingly brilliant.
Falling somewhere between Feuhler, Turing Machine, Hella and the Champs, but managing to not sound anything like any of them, Chevreuil are more like Faust or Can reincarnated as some damaged experimental post rock band. Drums are everywhere, pounding and shuffling, complex dense and agitated, loud and super powerful, laying a solid framework for the hypnotically looped guitars. and buzzy bits of sampled synth. Sort of like a krautrock Hella, but way more fragmented, stuttering and convoluted, and somehow more aggressively tweaked.
Definitely one of the coolest weirdest bands doing the mathrock / postrock thing, turning a somewhat played out sound into a super fucked and freaked out blast of hyper rhythmic psychedelic weirdness.
Absolutely recommended!!
Maybe it's the Slint reunion (just ask Andee or Elliott about how awesome that show was!!) or those for-now-aborted Bastro releases we were waiting for, but we've been kinda been feeling the post-rock 'round here lately. So this disc by French instrumental post-rock outfit Chevreuil showed up at just the right time. They remind us of a comforting Don Caballero, a slightly scatterbrained Circle, or a more warm n' relaxed version of AQ faves Feuhler. And the use of synth brings in comparisons to local boys Crime In Choir too. First released in 2003 by the French label Ruminance (the same folks who brought us the last Cheval de Frise when it was an import), now slightly updated and released domestically by Sick Room, Chateauvallon consists of eleven instrumental post-rock jams that just do us right. We especially like how their hypnotic grooves and repetitive riffery are allowed some wobbly breathing room...they're far from sloppy but seem to get intentionally off-kilter and fucked-up sounding, like a dizzy Discipline (King Crimson), while paradoxically remaining tight as an Albini-recorded drum (which some of the drums on here are, in fact). Even math rock, sometimes 2 + 2 = 5 can work, it seems. These derailments and double-exposures that they work into their songs serve to increase the pleasurable tensions that are always a post-rock calling-card...as is the mixture of mellow and pretty with the sudden on-rush of the hard and metallic which Chevreuil also expertly employ herein.
So, if you've got a soft spot for the post-rock, or want to try some on for size, this is our latest fave in the field for sure!
There's two kinds of post rock, the sort of jazzy, drifty, Tortoise-y modern Krautrock bliss of bands like, well, Tortoise, and To Rococo Rot, Tarentel, all shuffling and dreamy and shimmery, and then there's this. A churning, chops heavy, rhythmic and textural workout. Big BIG drums, even when the surrounding music is muted and subtle, the drums are still pounding and deftly navigate dense tangled time signatures and stretches of full on pounding rock, The guitar parts are slippery and noodly, often supplying texture more than melody. A lovely abstract counterpoint to the booming big drum framework. French duo Chevreuil travel a similar sonic post rock path on Sport (a reissue of a 2000 release) as outfits like Dazzling Killmen, Shellac, Fuehler, Lynx and the like but an ultra stripped down version of any of those. All instrumental, thick and propulsive, each track is a dizzying swirl of proggy guitar filligee drifitng like clouds of multi colored dust around the whirling dirvish drums, an impossibly octopoidal, solid as a rock, pounding pummeling percussive crush. All that said, this will still most assuredly appeal to fans of Tortoise and other likeminded post rockers, but it's a lot weirder and heavier and more fucked up sounding. A bit like Tortoise's bad ass little post rock brother who carries a switchblade and runs with the wrong crowd and hangs out on the corner in the bad part of town and can't be bothered to write songs or listen to jazz, opting instead to put some spikes and studs on his Members Only jacket, and turning the drums WAY up and just sort of wandering aimlessly, seeing where the music might take him. Or better yet, imagine, Hella or Lightning Bolt played at 16rpm, the spastic splattery drumming becoming a solid chugging rhythm, the suquirrelly squiggly guitar freakouts, transformed into shimmering melodyscapes and near ambient guitar swirl.
Awesome surreal moldy ground beef cover art too!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
We pretty much have a standing order for anything that PlusTapes releases. Much like Mississippi, PlusTapes has become the sort of label folks collect, which as we've mentioned before is pretty remarkable for a label so young. But so far, almost every release we've gotten from PlusTapes has flown out of here. And like Mississippi, they've also decided to dabble in more contemporary sounds, along with their ambitious reissue campaigns. Supporting their local scene, while paying homage to the past. Such is the case with these two latest releases, both limited to 100 copies, and we got less than 20 of each.
PlusTapes really couldn't get more eclectic. Indonesian pop, surf music from Singapore, dramatic cabaret folk from former industrial icons, Peruvian garage rock, and now thrash metal from Chicago. Hell yeah!
The appropriately named Chicago Thrash Ensemble are a furious thrashing four piece hell bent on wreaking utter musical havoc, blazing riffage, furious drumming, lightning speed tempos, raspy glass gargling vocals, some little bits of shred here and there. All recorded super raw and lo-fi and in-the-red like some lost eighties demo, what more do you need to know. How about it, the tape is blood splattered (okay, maybe it's red paint, but still!), the covers feature a weird hand drawn heavy metal kid binder beast, with the band's name in the mouth, and the evil eyes glowing red, thanks to an extra set of red eyes pasted on to the plastic case. Oh and they totally shred, it's hard to tell if these guys are true metalheads, or indie kids getting their thrash ya ya's out, but it hardly matters, it's heavy, thrashy, with plenty of nods to Slayer of course, with some wannabe "Raining Blood" and "Angel Of Death" moments, what's not to love? These guys probably destroy live, Chicago folks should definitely check them out. The rest of us will just have to make do with this little plasticky bit of old school thrash, and enjoy the vio-lence vicariously!
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. We have less than 20. Cool hand drawn covers, lots of beasts and creatures, glowing red eyes pasted onto the tape case, the tapes themselves 'blood' splattered, each one hand numbered.
We reviewed the cd compilation collecting both 12" eps by these Chicago thrashers on the last list, and now we have the second of those eps, the brand new one, in stock on vinyl, Monsters Of The Midwest...
Chicago Thrash Ensemble's first 12" ep was a huge hit around here, and like that first record this 12" offers up more of the same, convincing us that these guys really are the monsters of the Midwest, their sound a seriously shredding retro thrash metallic mayhem that KILLS. Chugging churning riffage, throat shredding vocals, seriously devastating drum damage, and some killer jams. Raw and heavy and a bit punky, their songs rife with classic metal riffage, harmonized guitars, galloping rhythms, hell, we might as well quote bit of our old review cuz not sure we could say it better anyway: "thick dense buzzing riffage, wild pounding drummage, howled vox, some seriously chugging breakdowns, all wound up into epic classic thrash destruction. Any one who has been digging aQ faves Speedwolf should definitely check these guys out, but where Speedwolf was all Motorhead and Venom, these guys are way more Slayer, Exodus and D.R.I. Or something." Did we mention Speedwolf? Cuz these two bands should totally hook up for a tour, maybe with Behold! The Monolith too (also reviewed on last week's list), now that's a tour we could get behind. If anything this new 12" finds CTE sounding way tighter, the songs even catchier, with some downright classic riffs, and the sound, holy shit, the production is massive, making the band sound even more epic and crushing. Not sure what else to say? We love these guys, and you should too. Check out the sound samples. And go see them if you can, these guys must destroy live.
Like the first 12", packaged in cool fold over silk screened sleeves, this one adorned with some stars and stripes, and um, football players?
Finally on cd, both 12"s eps from these shredding Chicago old school heavy metal thrashers, the brand new one (the vinyl version which will be reviewed on next week's list) and the first one we listed way back when. We know lots of folks have been waiting for the cd version of that one anyway, and now it comes with a whole new record to boot, your prayers have been answered.
Here's our review of the first 12:
Pretty tough to resist a group called the Chicago Thrash Ensemble. So why even try? Ever since their kick ass blood splattered cassette on PlusTapes, we were pretty much totally obsessed with CTE's awesomely retro shredding classic thrash metal, and thankfully nothing has really changed on this, their first foray into vinyl, if anything the band sound better than ever, heavier, catchier, and with another passel of kick ass tunes to boot.
Like the tape, these guys are channeling their thrash heroes, but it comes out a bit more punked up and raw, which only makes these jams rule even more, thick dense buzzing riffage, wild pounding drummage, howled vox, galloping rhythms, some seriously chugging breakdowns, all wound up into epic classic thrash destruction. Any one who has been digging aQ faves Speedwolf should definitely check these guys out, but where Speedwolf was all Motorhead and Venom, these guys are way more Slayer, Exodus and D.R.I. Or something. Either way, these guys rip, and as we mentioned in the review of the tape, any band that sounds this heavy and ruling on record, are probably insane live.
And here's our review of the new one, Monsters Of The Midwest:
Record number two from these, well, um, Chicago thrashers(!), whose debut 12" was a huge hit around here, and like that first record this 12" offers up more of the same, convincing us that these guys really are the monsters of the Midwest, their sound a seriously shredding retro thrash metallic mayhem that KILLS. Chugging churning riffage, throat shredding vocals, seriously devastating drum damage, and some killer jams. Raw and heavy and a bit punky, their songs rife with classic metal riffage, harmonized guitars, galloping rhythms, and did we mention aQ faves Speedwolf? Cuz these two bands should totally hook up for a tour, maybe with Behold! The Monolith too (also reviewed elsewhere on this week's list), now that's a tour we could get behind. If anything this new 12" finds CTE sounding way tighter, the songs even catchier, with some downright classic riffs, and the sound, holy shit, the production is massive, making the band sound even more epic and crushing. Not sure what else to say? We love these guys, and you should too.
Pretty tough to resist a group called the Chicago Thrash Ensemble. So why even try? Ever since their kick ass blood splattered cassette on PlusTapes, we were pretty much totally obsessed with CTE's awesomely retro shredding classic thrash metal, and thankfully nothing has really changed on this, their first foray into vinyl, if anything the band sound better than ever, heavier, catchier, and with another passel of kick ass tunes to boot.
Like the tape, these guys are channeling their thrash heroes, but it comes out a bit more punked up and raw, which only makes these jams rule even more, thick dense buzzing riffage, wild pounding drummage, howled vox, galloping rhythms, some seriously chugging breakdowns, all wound up into epic classic thrash destruction. Any one who has been digging aQ faves Speedwolf should definitely check these guys out, but where Speedwolf was all Motorhead and Venom, these guys are way more Slayer, Exodus and D.R.I. Or something. Either way, these guys rip, and as we mentioned in the review of the tape, any band that sounds this heavy and ruling on record, are probably insane live.
Awesome packaging too. Screen printed cardstock sleeve, black inner sleeve, and coolest of all, a plastic sheet of baseball cards, one for each band member complete with various rock stats, mixed in with some actual baseball cards, the record is one sided, the B-side is silkscreened with a cool hanged man image. LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!
Finally one of the greatest bands ever (Doubt it?!?! Email me and we will debate to the death) gets the deluxe reissue treatment. Nicely packaged in a digipak with a slip cover and remastered (but no bonus tracks...lame). Kick ass seventies soul flecked rock and roll with plenty of weird 'free' jazz piano, kick ass horns and unforgettable tunes. Their arrangements were complex, unpredictable and brilliant; 14 minute songs with different sections that keep you wondering what's coming next. Some of the best guitar playing you will ever hear (Chicago had guitar?!?!?). Guitarist/vocalist Terry Kath was even one of Hendrix's guitar heroes! And Kath supplied all of the rock and roll charisma and energy with his raspy growl (later replaced by the whiny and annoying Peter Cetera, who in the old days just played bass), wicked guitar playing and his totally rock and roll death, PLAYING RUSSIAN ROULETTE! FUCK YEAH. There's also a freaked out instrumental Fushitsusha-worthy wild and psychedelic guitar freak out track that Allan and many other visitors to Aquarius mistook for Haino, Cline, Brotzman and any other of a number of noise-y guitarists! Did you realise Chicago were so cool?? I thought not. AND they were formed on February 15th, my birthday!!! Which also, for the record, makes us (me AND Chicago) AQUARIUSES!! What more do you need to know. Buy it. Or listen to the sound samples and be converted!!
"Some serious gas-baby free-flowing jazz action from long playing hepsters Chad Taylor and Rob Mazurek of ISOTOPE 217. Drums, vibes, cornet, piano, and bamboo flute are the tools to tap the influence of one force. Guest help from Jeff Parker (TORTOISE/ISOTOPE 217) on guitar. Nine songs, mixed and editied by Casey Rice."--description by El Bobo at Revolver Distribution
The Chicago Underground Quartet consists of Rob Mazurek, Chad Taylor (of previous Chicago Underground releases), Jeff Parker (of Tortoise, Isotope 217) and Noel Kupersmith (of Brokeback). Recorded by John McEntire. It's a nice jazz record with many moods. For Fans of Tortoise, of course.
Euro-scenesters Chicks On Speed host a wild electro-rock, disco-punk party on their somewhat-inaccurately titled new album 99�, inviting such friends as Peaches, Tina Weymouth, Le Tigre, Kevin Blechdom, Miss Kittin, Mika Vaino and others to get down with them. Now, while fashion/design/music collective Chicks On Speed are considered cutting edge, it may be that their visual aesthetic is more advanced than their musical mode -- which, despite the laptops and advanced Austrian electronica technology, is less 21st century than 1983. Of course, that's the idea. Sheer good times retro dance floor fodder, with an edge. It's fun and hip and sure to please fans of the CoS, Peaches, Blectum From Blechdom, Ladytron, all that sorta thing. It's hard to tell if the lyrics are supposed to be clever or dumb, but since when did anyone have a problem with disco having dumb lyrics? Includes video clip for the track with Peaches, "We Don't Play Guitars" (for which we're also selling the cd single, $6.98, fyi).
The Chicks on Speed return with more of their stupid art school crap. "Chix 52" finds these talentless morons covering the B-52s ("leave the B52s alone, dammit!"), and ending up sounding even worse than the Kathleen Hanna electronica project Julie Ruin. Yeah, it's that bad. Heck, even if you liked Julie Ruin (as some here did), this is bad. Do not buy this, unless you want to be stuck with the worst album of the year. I'm fucking serious.
The Chicks on Speed return with more of their stupid art school crap. "Chix 52" finds these talentless morons covering the B-52s ("leave the B52s alone, dammit!"), and ending up sounding even worse than the Kathleen Hanna electronica project Julie Ruin. Yeah, it's that bad. Heck, even if you liked Julie Ruin (as some here did), this is bad. Do not buy this, unless you want to be stuck with the worst album of the year. I'm fucking serious.
Stupid art-school crap. That's all this is. Don't say we didn't warn you. Dunno why The Wire devoted a page to 'em, except that they have some connection to the Mego / Mille Plateaux scene. There's a bunch of special guests on this record but we'll refrain from embarrassing any of these Austrian electronic-nerds further by naming them. A horrific cover of "Warm Leatherette" seals their fate.
Berlin-based art school pop darlings Chicks On Speed team up with Dusseldorf post-Kraftwerk electro craftsmen Kreidler for four arty synthpop anthems. As expected, the collaboration quickly becomes a throwaway novelty as the Chicks' ridiculous post-ironic,
