Reissued for the first time on vinyl, A Monastic Trio was Alice Coltrane's remarkable 1968 solo debut. Made in tribute to the life of her husband John Coltrane after his death the previous year, its arrival heralded an incredible new voice, and seemingly from it a new spiritual direction in jazz was set forth. Deeply personal and reverent, A Monastic Trio is marked by Coltrane's cascading and majestic turns on both piano and harp, with musical support from Pharoah Sanders, Rashied Ali, Jimmy Garrison and Ben Riley. The pieces both burrow to the core of grief and longing delving into gospel and funereal blues forms while also using open Eastern musical influences to form ascending arcs of mystical transformative sound. While Coltrane had previously collaborated with her husband before he died, most notably on the epic Cosmic Music, her subsequent solo career after his death stood apart from his as she moved the focus away from his oft-frenzied and intense horn-led modalities and brought a deeper dedication to a vital cosmic musical core where her harp, piano and organ flourishes could intermingle more fluently with the rhythm section into an organically flowing life-affirming musical unit. This is essential!
Alice plays it all on this reissue of her weird 1976 album -- she's wields the harp and organ, a Fender Rhodes electric piano, even cymbals. Each song is different in mood and instrumentation, with the first track "Spiritual Eternal" featuring a veritable
This is one of those records that was nearly impossible to track down for years, so we are beyond happy for this vinyl only reissue to finally surface. Recorded in 1969 right after her great debut, A Monastic Trio, Huntington Ashram Monastery is an album that ranks right near the top of the amazing legacy of music that Alice Coltrane left us. Playing piano and wielding her majestical harp in a magnificent trio that featured Ron Carter on Bass and the wonderful and sadly recently passed away Rashied Ali on drums and percussion. So much thought, love and devotion was put into every single note that Alice Coltrane recorded, and Huntington Ashram Monastery is such utter proof of that. No wasted notes, or throwaway moments. You can't lay the needle down on these grooves and not be moved and transported to another plane of consciousness. This is truly sacred, essential and transcendent music. Beyond recommended!
Along with the Marion Brown disc highlighted last list, and the Howard Roberts we highlighted 2 lists ago, here's another brand new & quite welcome entry in this fine series of 2-on-1 Impulse! label reissues. And one that we were especially thrilled to see, as we love love love Alice Coltrane, and these two albums of hers in particular. This twofer contains Huntington Ashram Monastery (1969), which we've reviewed on vinyl but have never had on cd before, and also another one of our all-time astral Alice C. faves, World Galaxy (1972), which we have stocked on cd before some years ago, but never reviewed, because it was only available as an expensive Japan-only import. And so if you like avant jazz, if you like cosmic music, if you like Alice Coltrane, this is an essential.
The one we hadn't previously reviewed, World Galaxy, we'll cover first. Credited on the colorfully Peter Max designed cover to "Alice Coltrane With Strings", that's what sets this one apart. Massive, sweeping strings, sometimes subject to subtle tape manipulation, that has this somehow reminding us of Super Ae by the Boredoms (or rather, the other way around)! For this record, Alice Coltrane's trademark harp (as well as her piano, electric organ, and tamboura) was joined by a 15-person string section, including violinist LeRoy Jenkins, who also solos. Other personnel: Reggie Workman on bass, Ben Riley on drums, Frank Lowe on saxophone, and Elayne Jones on tympani. And, respected Indian guru Swami Satchidananda provides a recitation on the subject of love as part of this album's final track, a heartfelt version of John Coltrane's classic "A Love Supreme". The album also begins with a tune closely associated with Alice Coltrane's late husband, "My Favorite Things". The remaining four compositions featured are Alice Coltrane originals, given the "With Strings" treatment, and all are majestic, beautiful, the album sounding like some very spiritual, avantgarde soundtrack music, with shimmering melodies carried aloft by the strings, intertwined and intercut with Eastern-sounding zing and twang and bass drone and keyboard burble, all the layers coming together with passion and power. A unique item in the Alice Coltrane discography for sure, and one of our favorites for that. (Well, her great Universal Consciousness employed strings too, but this takes it to another level.)
And then here's what we enthusiastically had to say about Huntington Ashram Monastery when we first reviewed the reissued vinyl version:
This is one of those records that was nearly impossible to track down for years, so we are beyond happy for this to finally surface. Recorded in 1969 right after her great debut, A Monastic Trio, Huntington Ashram Monastery is an album that ranks right near the top of the amazing legacy of music that Alice Coltrane left us. Playing piano and wielding her majestical (majestic + magical!) harp in a magnificent trio that featured Ron Carter on bass and the wonderful and sadly recently passed Rashied Ali on drums and percussion. So much thought, love and devotion was put into every single note that Alice Coltrane recorded, and Huntington Ashram Monastery is such utter proof of that. No wasted notes, or throwaway moments. You can't lay the needle down on these grooves and not be moved and transported to another plane of consciousness. This is truly sacred, essential and transcendent music. Beyond recommended!
So, put these two together, as they have here, and that's a disc that's not just recommended, it's pretty much required. However, be aware, a nice warm layer of surface tape hiss from the original analog source is particularly present on the Huntington Ashram Monastery half of this twofer, not that we mind.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
An incredibly spiritual album by Alice Coltrane from 1972 reissued a little while ago by Verve Japan. Her music reaches some of the most "Godly" moments on here, aptly named Lord of Lords. Highlights are her excerpt of Stravinsky's "Firebird" which she performed after a "ghostly visitation" by Stravinski who offered Coltrane musical and spiritual advice and blessings, and her orchestral version of the gospel spiritual "Going Home". An amazing and important addition to the Verve Japan reissue collection.
A nice collection of tracks by composer Alice Coltrane taken from albums recorded 1968-1971. Eastern spirituality and the legacy of her late husband figure prominently.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
The first record by Alice Coltrane to feature horns on the entire album. She enlisted both Pharoah Sanders and Joe Henderson as her sax players and decided to separate their playing in the mix. Sanders is in the right channel and Henderson in the left. She viewed them as representing two different perspectives: Henderson being the more intellectual side and Sanders being the more free and transcendent side. The album is a great example of how well Alice Coltrane understands creating a sense of mood and ambiance in her recordings. There is a fierce intensity that carries throughout the four tracks on the album. An essential recording in the legacy of Alice Coltrane. p.s. check out the totally prog-metal looking cover art.
Last year, a few months before her passing a few of us here were lucky enough to see Alice Coltrane live at one of her last performances ever. It was a night we will never forget. She is one of the few people whose mere presence gives us goosebumps and effects our soul in such a tangible way. We thought it would be nice to shine some light on one of her lesser known albums which we feel is one of the best records she ever made. Alice Coltrane would always be the first to say that she was not just a jazz musician. There was a higher calling to her music making, a wider sphere of influence she was drawing from. Radha-Krsna Nama Sankirtana is one of the most beautiful examples of her extraordinary range. While much of her music had a huge Eastern influence it's on this record where she really let the spiritual side flourish with most amazing results. A series of devotional chanting songs, with Alice backing a vocal choir on Fender Rhodes and organ along with a couple traditional Indian songs, Coltrane absolutely soars on these tracks. One number here is a short but stunning song with her majestic harp accompanied only with Tamboura and the albums closer is an 18+ minute fantastical odyssey with Alice on her Wurlitzer organ channeling outerspace sounds like only she could, with John Coltrane Jr. on drums. The chanting songs are fantastical psychedelic hymns with elements of pop mixed in, throbbing and pulsating, elevating the songs to a greater place. We can imagine that this record has had a huge influence on folks like Noah Lennox (aka Panda Bear) as it's a striking example of using vocal chants, repetition and melody to reach harmonic bliss!
Radha-Krsna Nama Sankirtana is an album from the heavens. While words like soulful and spiritual are used so much that they often lose their meaning this is the real deal. These are sounds that not only uplift the spirit but also move us in a way few artists are ever able to. Alice Coltrane was one of the truly special ones. Of course we have to urge you to get many of her other albums too, as they are some of the best records ever made (all hyperbole aside, really)! Check out Journey In Satchidananda, World Galaxy and A Monastic Trio which are three of our all time favorites... We will miss her so much but luckily her spirit lives on within her amazing music.
A welcome reissue of Alice Coltrane's 1977 album Transcendence, this is a sort of unlikely (although if you know Alice Coltrane's work then you know not to expect the usual) yet LOVELY album. On three tracks Coltrane's harp leads the way down an ethereal,
Although Alice Coltrane released few recordings back when she was performing regularly in the '60s and '70s, several welcome reissues have come to light in recent years. This is the first time on cd for Transfigurations, a live performance from 1976 at
Wow. Of the many recent Alice Coltrane reissues, I have to say this is the best one yet. Recorded in 1971, the record swells with beauty and emotion. It is serene not in a boring way, but in a sort of drone-y way, a state of suspended bliss and yearning that is colored with propulsive drumming courtesy Rashied Ali and Jack DeJohnette, tensely highpitched violin from Joan Kalisch, shimmering bells, and of course Alice's manic improv on the harp and ocean-lulling notes on the organ.
This record is so incredibly unbelievably beautiful, there's not a track that fails to attain superlative heights, and I highly recommend you get it, whether you're a beginner or an Alice fan from way back. Fans of modern experimental work like Vibracathedral Orchestra and Sunroof! should also definitely check this out. Comes in a cd-sized mini gatefold sleeve (like an LP). Really well done!
For all their majestic beauty, it can sometimes be forgotten that some of Alice Coltrane's greatest records posses an intensity and power that most noise bands these days only wish they could achieve. We can't tell you how happy we are that Impulse has reissued two of her most overlooked, and jaw dropping albums, Universal Consciousness and Lord Of Lords.
Here's what we said about these two records (now on one disc together) when we reviewed them on their own years back.
Universal Consciousness: Wow. Of the many recent Alice Coltrane reissues, we have to say this might be the best one yet. Recorded in 1971, the record swells with beauty and emotion. It is serene and drone-y, a state of suspended bliss and yearning that is colored with propulsive drumming courtesy Rashied Ali and Jack DeJohnette, tensely high-pitched violin from Joan Kalisch, shimmering bells, and of course Alice's manic improv on the harp and ocean-lulling notes on the organ.
This record is so incredibly unbelievably beautiful, there's not a track that fails to attain superlative heights. Fans of modern experimental work like Vibracathedral Orchestra and Sunroof! should also definitely check this out.
Lord Of Lords: An incredibly spiritual album by Alice Coltrane from 1972. Her music reaches some of the most "Godly" moments on here, aptly named Lord of Lords. Highlights are her excerpt of Stravinsky's "Firebird" which she performed after a "ghostly visitation" by Stravinsky who offered Coltrane musical and spiritual advice and blessings, and her orchestral version of the gospel spiritual "Going Home". Further proof that Alice Coltrane was an artist who transcended genre, while we file her in jazz for convenience, she really was also a 20th century composer, a spiritual conjurer of musical magic!
Here's jazz giant John Coltrane's masterwork, now presented in a deluxe double cd edition with one disc containing the original 1965 release and the other including not only some studio outtakes but also the first authorized release of the only live recording of "A Love Supreme" AND two previously-unheard, holy-grail alternate takes of its opening movement performed by an expanded sextet version of Coltrane's group, with Archie Shepp and Art Davis added to the original classic quartet line-up of Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, and Elvin Jones. What can we say, this is a classic... I mean, the 33 minutes of the original LP are a gorgeous, spiritual, jazz-and-beyond-jazz work of genius, and don't NEED bonus stuff, but all the same we can't argue with the extra disc! Not to mention that this has been properly remastered for cd for the first time by original engineer Rudy Van Gelder, so it's the definitive digital edition.
This was Coltrane's debut for the new Impulse label in 1961 and what a first impression! His quartet at the time: McCoy Tyner, Reggie Workman and Elvin Jones, were backed by a large brass orchestra conducted by Eric Dolphy (though there has been conflicting reports over the years that actually give more credit for the orchestration to Tyner). The 16 minute opener "Africa" is one of Coltrane's most masterful compositions (and that's saying a lot!). It features two basses with Art Davis joining Reggie Workman as Coltrane wanted to create a piece using African rhythms instead of 4/4 or 3/4, so he spent lots of time listening to African music for rhythmic inspiration and came up with something that forty years later still sounds so damn soulful and pleasing.
While we sometimes dig all the bonus tracks that come on reissues, it often can get a bit tiresome so we're actually glad this was reissued just as the original album was released with just three songs, a short sharp 30 minutes of true musical genius.
Coltrane. Larger than life jazz legend. One of the greatest tenors, ever. Musical genius. Some people even think he's a goddamn saint. And yet, I just didn't care all that much. Giant Steps, Love Supreme -- pleasant enough stuff, for sure, but it always somehow struck me as background music. OK, jazz lover, put down your hand! You don't need to slap sense into me. Ascension already did that. Slappped me -- knocked me flat on my ass, actually, the first time I ever heard it. Listening to Ascension really is an intensely physical experience, as you are just pummeled by this wall of sound and emotion and expression. It's seriously one of the most intense and powerful recordings of any kind of music, ever. Hearing it made everything else Coltrane ever recorded make some kind of sense to me, as documents of a search for the ultimate means of expression and spiritual connection through sound. On Ascension, the results of that search reach a kind of force and power that belongs more often to nature than to mere musical recordings. While many critics and fans recognized the utter brilliance of this record upon its initial release, others were unable to follow Coltrane into the outer limits of free expression. Basically, the work reveals itself as a fierce and undeniable classic to the serious and adventerous listener (i.e. most Aquarius customers), although to some people it might still come across as anti-jazz.
For Ascension, Coltrane assembled a ten-person ensemble which included the "classic quartet" lineup of Jimmy Garrison, Elvin Jones and Mccoy Tyner, with the addition of Pharoah Sanders and Archie Shepp (tenors), Freddie Hubbard and Dewey Johnson (trumpets), and Marion Brown and John Tchicai (altos). The structure, as such, involves a string of solos bookended by freeform group improv, continuing uninterupted for approximately 40 minutes. The orginizational ideas reflect Coltrane's interest in and respect for free jazz innovators Albert Ayler and especially Ornette Coleman, whose landmark 1960 record Free Jazz is Ascension's clearest antecedent in terms of structure and innovation -- but Ascension pushes the envelope of unfettered expression even farther than that record. The recording session resulted in two different takes; Coltrane changed his mind about which version he preferred after the album's initial release, with represses presenting the alternate take. This Impulse cd, originally re-issued in 2000 but unlisted by us until now, contains both versions for your listening -- I don't know if "pleasure" is quite exactly the right word, as that might imply that the reward doesn't take a bit of work on the listener's part; let's say "for you're listening benefit." Ascension is a true masterpiece, a work to be approached with a degree of awe. Words like "mindblowing" and "essential" seem understated, despcription wise. It altered my understanding, both of John Coltrane and Jazz itself. Anyone interested in improvisational music owes it to themselves to own this.
Recorded in 1962, Ballads is one of John Coltrane's most lyrical, accessible, and downright "pretty" albums, sooooo much more than the 'dinner jazz' some people regard it as. This deluxe reissue sees a whole extra disc of previously unreleased material by the quartet (Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, and Elvin Jones), including 4 versions of "Greensleeves", seven versions of "It's Easy to Remember" and more.
First Coltrane recording to solely feature the classic quartet of Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, and Elvin Jones. First disc is the album as released, and the second bonus disc contains four alternate takes of "Tunji", the previously-unreleased "Not Yet", and more.
One of Coltrane's last recordings, a brilliant, out-there duet with drummer Rashied Ali. Essential free jazz.
Classic quartet recordings, originally from the Mastery of John Coltrane-Volume One lp, reissued on cd with the previously unreleased bonus track "The Last Blues."
Jazz giant John Coltrane's last recorded live concert performance, at Babatunde Olatunji's Center of African Culture in NYC, on Sunday April 23rd 1967 (only 3 months before Coltrane died), consisting of two half-hour pieces: the Afro-Brazilian "Ogunde" and
1974 spiritually inspired meeting between Alice Coltrane and Carlos Santana...
Column One are a hermetic lot, and that even may be something of an understatement. What we can ascertain is that there's one or two key members in this ensemble that have been producing albums and multimedia events mostly in their native Germany since around 1990 or so. Within their decentralized workflow and Dada strategies, Column One's output can fluctuate wildly from Geniale Dilettanten aspiring synth noise to rhythmic militancy to radiophonic explorations, all the while keening towards a Teutonic winteriness and attitude of dour post-industrialism. The two tracks that Column One deliver for the exceptional Substantia Innominata series of 10" vinyl from Drone Records couldn't be more different from each other. The A-side is a plunderphonic-style collage of wacked-out musique concrete and eviscerated spluttered sound that hedges toward the Sylvie & Babs end of the Nurse With Wound spectrum of demented silliness. The B-side finds a couple of Column One's participants within Die Sibirische Zelle (The Siberian Lodge), a space which the collective operated as an alternative performance space, and it also seemed to have some rich acoustic properties as well. With the three participants setting up in three different chambers of the space with gongs, bowls, and bells to create a darkened, occluded piece of ritualized meditation music. It's still more Zoviet France than Iasos, with the harmonics clearly situated in the mystical realms of the sacred. This is as beautiful as the flip is scatterbrained.
No, that's not a typo. The album is in fact called 'Early Apes' which is a different anthology than the earlier reviewed collection 'Early Tapes' by Column One, which is a rather strange post-industrial project that cites Dada as a technical blueprint for their collage-based actions, performances, and recordings. The band also speaks of "the politics of confusion" when describing what they're up to, and that seems about right even more so for this collection compared to the aforementioned Early Tapes with its gray masses of decentered loops loaded with psychological disturbances. But again, the spirit of Cranioclast seems to loom large in Column One's sensibility, in part due to the hermeticism of the work but also through the loose collage techniques which intertwine ritualistic rhythms into tape machinations and warbling electronics. The first three tracks on Early Apes come from the 1994 album A Dream Box Experience, which was a super limited LP printed up in an edition of 100 copies. These tracks are quite Spartan with plenty of space draped between the skeletal rhythms and with the specter of feedback resonances looming in the far distance and subtle rumblings that echo as if from some unknown dimension breaking through. The next two cuts are collaborative works with the Polish outfit Za Siodma Gora, but seem to maintain much of Column One's hypnotic patterning and buzzing sound accretions. The final cut "Great Minds Against Themselves Conspire" is an almost rock-based number, more akin to Sprung Aus Den Volken with an insistent bassline and rhythm section laced with exotic marimbas, wooden flutes, twanged guitars, and monotone vocals. This would be the kind of track that Wim Wenders would have picked for one his films back in the '80s, and it's something that would have been an interesting turn for Column One to pursue. Of course, they found other routes to take and concepts to realize, leaving this track a teasing piece of structuralism in their otherwise deconstructed amalgams. Comes in an oversized folio with a pile of postcards.
Column One is a mysterious German post-industrial project that began in 1991 injecting their grim constructions of crumbled noise, avant-turntablism, drone, and grimy grit with allusions to science, gnosticism, eschatology, and Dada. Their mission is one that seems to follow that of Cranioclast - another hermetic project from Germany whose hypnotic looping pieces are girded by strange texts, anagrams, and shadowy metaphor. As the title of the album attests, this is a collection of the earliest material from Column One culled from their first cassettes as well as some unreleased material recorded around the same time. A morose, unsettled atmosphere hangs throughout all of the 13 tracks, with blackened synth tones, gristled pulses, and martial rhythms slowly revolving through appropriated collages snatched from radio and old records playing Germanic anthems. Where the stained electronics certainly have their roots in the gnarled TG / SPK ambience of autopsy films and horror dronescaping, the found sonic objects remove Column One from the death-industrial camps of Brighter Death Now or anything found on Cold Meat Industries in the mid-'90s. These warbling, decentered loops and deformed, mediated samples are handled in an almost poetic and painterly manner that could be considered psychedelic if everything weren't so fucking dark. If not a direct influence on Dominic Fernow, these early Column One pieces articulate the same disturbed psychological vibe that Fernow built into his Christian Cosmos and Vatican Shadow recordings. Housed in an oversized sleeve with 8 postcards.
We've yet to list anything from these Bay Area emo/screamo killers, which is a shame cuz these guys SLAY. Every thing we've heard from them, has been practically perfect. Heavy, mathy, complex, melodic, epic and brutal and emotional and LOUD. The songs are short and super intricate, with tons of parts, lots of stop/starts, the sound somehow chaotic but still ultra tight, the drums wild, all over the place, the vocals very raw and raspy and Rites Of Spring-ish, in fact in some ways, Comadre sound like a revved up super charged RoS or Fugazi, which is most definitely not a bad thing. And besides the -sound-, they whip up incredibly catchy songs too, hooks galore, totally unforgettable melodies, jamming more into 90 seconds than most band can pull off in 10 minutes, the sort of sound that hints at insane, sweat soaked, stage collapsing live shows, that energy captured surprisingly well on wax!
If you dig stuff like Pianos Become The Teeth, Orchid, Mohinder, The Locust, and classic emo/punk like Fugazi and Rites Of Spring and Embrace and all that stuff, you should definitely check these guys out!
The final missive / swansong from this long running Bay Area emo/screamo outfit, and like the records we've reviewed before from these guys, it's another dense, mathy, moody, super heavy, crazy catchy, intricate and emotional blast of post hardcore heaviness/hookiness that KILLS, and once again has us wondering why they weren't way more huge. And while much of the ferocious energy of their early releases is still present, there definitely seems to be a more pronounced pop/melodic element. Even on tracks like "Cold Rain", it's mostly just the shrieked vox that make this screamo or emo, otherwise, it's more some sort of super poppy crazy catchy post punk, with a main guitar hook that kills, and a bouncy crunchy main riff that would be just as at home in a proper pop song. And while these guys always had a pop element, this time around, they've cranked the pop through the roof, and that poppiness is literally all over the place, which makes it even more of a tragedy that this is the last we'll hear from these guys. And sure there are some tracks that are way more rocking and punky, furious and fierce, but even at their most aggro, the sound is shot through with a poppiness they just can't seem to shrug off, but who says they even want too, the combination of shrieked chaotic heaviness, lilting melodies, weird electronics, occasional piano, organ, driving rhythms, and hooks galore, seriously tough to beat. So catchy and crunchy and heavy and so goddamn good. RIP Comadre.
Vinyl version comes in a thick gatefold sleeve, pressed on 180 gram wax, with a big 12" x 12" booklet, the cd version in a digipak.
Killer split from Bay Area screamo punks Comadre, here teamed up with European punk rockers Glasses. Both bands offer up some of their best material yet.
Comadre (whose equally badass 10" is reviewed elsewhere on this list) dial down the frenetic vibe of their 10" and go for some seriously tuneful pop songsmithery, still heavy and distorted and intense, but this time it's all about the hooks, and the hooks are huge, listening to this, it's hard to see how these guys aren't HUGE, can't imagine these guys can stay underground for much longer.
Glasses kick right back with some super aggro, ultradense, mathy metallic punk rock heaviness, wild tangled riffage, furious frenzied drumming, vitriolic vocals, all wound into 3 blasts of proggy punk metal fury, definitely need to hear more from Glasses...
Super fancy packaging, two 7"s with a 12 page booklet fixed to the inner spine of the gatefold sleeve.
Comae is a new collaborative project formed by London-based sound architect Janek Schaefer and Robert Hampson (Main, Loop). Beautiful guitar based sonicscapes are accentuated with found sound abstractions and spatial dynamicism (via piercing test tones
Comparing a band no one has ever heard of to Neutral Milk Hotel, right out of the gate, is usually the kiss of death. NMH are such an untouchable entity at this point, that they barely qualify as indie rock, or whatever you want to call them. They are Neutral Milk Hotel, and nothing else. And in their wake of course have come a million wannabes, very few of them coming anywhere close.
So while The Comas don't necessarily sound like NMH, they do share some common sonic characteristics, especially the weird crunchy harmonic soaked electric guitars, that sound acoustic half the time, and drive the songs ALL of the time. The second we threw this on, first thing we thought was NMH, but only for a second, as the record soon sprawled into all sorts of other sonic avenues. We also hear plenty of Flaming Lips, as well as a ton of the Swirlies. And if you're anything like us, Neutral Milk Hotel + the Flaming Lips + Swirlies = our new favorite pop record! But not super new, this came out last year, but we only just discovered it recently and have been listening to it nonstop.
The aforementioned crunchy guitars, super distorted processed leads, wild blown out drumming, scratchy raspy emo boy vocals, soaring angelic female vocals, cool off kilter arrangements, swooshing effects, and HOOKS galore. And while we may have been listening to this record over and over endlessly, more often than not, it's the opening track "Red Microphones", that gets locked on repeat, sounding like a super charged fuzzy Elephant 6 power pop freakout, easily one of the catchiest jams of the year. Of any year.
WAY recommended for all pop kids, or any one needing to feed their jones for smart rambunctious crunchy fuzzy pop.
A couple years back, we raved about a disc called The Dematerialized Passenger, the first album from this unique band (or perhaps we should say project), remember? In case you don't, here's the deal: Combat Astronomy are a USA/UK collaboration, creating a crushing industrial/jazz/prog hybrid. Imagine Godflesh with a free improv horn section, saxophones squealing amidst the metallic riffage. Or Scorn taking a skronked-out stab at chamber music. Like their earlier release, this new Combat Astronomy opus is again laced with punishing, rigid drummachine beats, along with heavy, uber-low-end fretless bass shaking each song with doomic distortion. Which establishes an absurdly heavy context for sax, clarinet, flute and bassoon to freak out organically, like wild weeds creeping through cracks in giant slabs of concrete, on the floor of an abandoned factory somewhere.
But unlike their all-instrumental debut, this time Combat Astronomy have recruited a female vocalist, Elaine di Falco, who also plays some piano, to add yet another unusual dimension to their mashup of extremes, now reminding us slightly of James Plotkin's now forgotten post-Old project Flux. (Hmm, maybe Kayo Dot and later Ulver could be other comparisons now too.) If the addition of her vocals makes this a bit more overtly melodic, it's still no less extreme overall. And certainly just as intricate, her delicate vocal arrangements in themselves quite complex, multi-tracked, as on the urban R&B influenced (???? no, we're crazy) "Touch The Moon" and the album's whispery coda, "Ordinary Miracles". And the focus of CA is still on the ominous grooves, ambient electronics, and battling horn bleats... tracks like "Alive Inside Eternity" and "Sentinel" are lengthy epics (12:36 and 16:49, respectively) of serious beats and blats and skree, in the challenging, compelling, militant manner to which actually only Combat Astronomy can truly lay claim. The vocals, when present, then take it into another, equally unlikely, atmospheric realm of twisted prog-pop. Pretty darn cool!
You don't really hear much about Combat Astronomy, except from us at Aquarius Records (do you?). Which is weird, 'cause this band should be a lot better known than they are, among fans of heavy and/or freaky music, considering they're already on their third (and a half, counting a split) cd release, one that has been long awaited, for a certain subset of AQ-customers in the know. For those not in the know, we'll say that basically CA sound like a Justin Broadrick or Kevin Martin industrial metal act (Godflesh or God, something along those lines) mixed up with freeform improv horn-skree, for results both brutal and beautiful. This band, or we should say this collaborative trans-Atlantic project, to be precise, is the unholy spawn of American sub-bass sludge technician Jamie Huggett and British improv reedsman Martin Archer (and friends). Thus they don't play live that often, which might have something to do with their low profile. They're self-described as an "intense hypnagogic industrial/jazz/prog/doommetal hybrid", and we can't think of any other outfit that better fits that mouthful. As we now know to expect, CA's new disc dishes out uber heavy doomic annihilation, bludgeoning with squelching bass and machine-like beats, the entire thing in fact percussive in its distorted rhythmic impact, amidst ominous organ and rising electronic drone. Yet CA also has a prog/classical side, thanks to Archer's woodwinds and also some female vocals, first introduced to this previously all instrumental act on their 2nd album Dreams No Longer Hesitate, returning here only wordessly, to eerie, avant garde effect. With that in mind, and all the heavy bass, Magma fans might find this to be their extreme sludge combo of choice. We'd also of course recommend Combat Astronomy to those who appreciate the likes of Painkiller, 16-17, Scorn, and even UFOmammut...
And Earth Divided By Zero might just be their best disc yet, keeping the expanded palette of sounds found on their last outing, but leaving aside that disc's occasional surprise explorations of vocal (prog) pop song-ishness, instead forging a more organic synthesis of what we REALLY dig about this unit, the grinding low end and squealing sax skronk, the heavy rhythms and atmospheric, ambient-ish interludes. Not that it's without melodic surprises, like how track two tries to lull us with a placid piano intro, shades of Bohren Und Der Club Of Gore... but soon enough the bass and distortion attack is back in force. Punishing, but such sweet punishment.
