Calla continue along on the course they set on their last album Collisions, retooling their sound into something absolutely befitting their label home Beggars Banquet. Indeed, they sit all comfy next to young label mates Film School and The Early Years who've also molded their jangle/distortion guitar sounds after their late '80s / early '90s heady brood rock forefathers such as Bauhaus and their members' numerous solo projects, The Cure, and Radiohead. Very well executed, albeit probably nothing you haven't heard already. Strength In Numbers counts up to a solid baker's dozen lushly produced numbers clenched with tormented angst and mournful aches. A standout track comes halfway through the album. "Bronson" takes the band slightly away from the tried and true into more rhythmically complex and intriguing terrain.
Calla is a band that is pleading for redemption, but they don't entirely want to give up their tough guy / combatively masculine take on existentialism. Witnessed with singer Aurelio Valle's gruff delivery and his bleak lyricism, this formula of the rock singer holding onto the mythological trappings of being a rebellious bad-ass while seeking favor with the Lord is, of course, a very powerful and seductive image that parallels the individualistic ideals of the self-made American. Valle doesn't really offer any insights into these ideals; if anything, he runs the risk of falling into the self-pitying cliches of those ideals. However, the music, not the lyrics, is where Calla finds their true calling. Each of their songs on "Televise" brilliantly employ simple rhythm section progressions that recall a darker version of Calexico's gunslingin' swagger. On top of this, Calla's understatedly hypnotic arrangements, driven by high-lonesome guitar melodies and crescendos, appear as skeletal eviscerations of the epic riffs previously mined by Mogwai, Tarentel, and Godspeed! You Black Emperor.
Calla's compositional attempts at theatricality through rock minimalism sometimes seem a little forced, and the nihilistic depth-charges may be a tad too predictable in their ghosty references/resemblances to 16 Horsepower, Nick Cave, Mark Lanegan, Steve Von Till's solo albums, and of course Johnny Cash, but Calla is one step away from being a really great band; and when they realize that Valle should hold his tongue once in a while and let the music do the talking, they will arrive at greatness. But in the meantime, "Televise" makes for a very good, albeit slightly flawed album.
Calla's re-issued debut shows a hell of lot more sophistication than their recent output would have suggested of which they were capable. This New York trio of Texan transplants offer something of a psychic transmutation of their former desolate landscape into the gritty claustrophobia of Gotham City. While their recent albums have shown some occasional songwriting swagger with bad-ass revisitations of 16 Horsepower, The Gun Club, and early Nick Cave, Calla's debut was a sprawling deconstruction of 'the song'. For the majority of the record, shadowy drones and windswept atmospherics mingle with quietly rendered fragments of forgotten country tunes, post-rock hymns, and incidental music to some lost John Ford film. However, time after time, Calla ruptures these incredibly restrained passages with comparitively explosive, if deliberately slow blasts of paranoid yet beautiful guitar leads which sound like the perfect marriage between Roland S. Howard and Ennio Morricone. The resulting loud / quite dynamics parallel the post-rock greats of Slint, A Minor Forest, and Mogwai, but within a completely different arena. This is a pretty amazing record, even more so for a debut recording.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Another indiepop venture for the UK label otherwise known for innovative elctronica releases. This is dark electronics fused with twee pop sentiments, for fans of Broadcast or Smog.
It sometimes seems a bit unfair to review a new Bill Callahan record right when it comes out, as he has made a career, both in his previous incarnation as Smog and solo, out of making deep rooted albums that really reveal themselves and enter your subconscious often only after many repeated listens.
To us, that's always the sign of a special songwriter, never being about the cheap easy route, but instead creating songs that you know will live in your life for so many years to come. With Apocalypse, there is no doubt this is another set of songs from Callahan that will sound as great years from now, as, well, now. With dark and moody undertones coming together with Callahan's strong voice, Apocalypse is an album that requires you to give it your full attention. It also highlights the twang and folk roots Callahan is so great at melding into something that always sounds forward thinking and not just an easy nod to the past.
While Will Oldham still gets more attention and praise as one of the best singer songwriters around, we still think that Callahan's output has maintained a level of excellence throughout the years, and makes him one of our favorite indie rock songwriters today.
The cover sticker says "Dream River in dub". Yes, you read that right. This is indeed a dub version of last year's popular album by indie troubadour Bill "Smog" Callahan, Dream River! Dub version, as in, remixed in the Jamaican stylee... stripped down, stretched out, massively echo effected. Not unlike the 'chopped and screwed' concept with rap albums. Callahan's deep voice still sounds solid and grounded though, while everything else around it gets totally stoned. Less country, more beachy.
Actually, we never even reviewed Dream River. We didn't really need to. They sold just fine. You probably got one, right? This, though, we're writing up 'cause it's a bit of an oddity, a surprise (though Drag City has previously brought us dub versions of OM, but that doesn't seem so strange). And it works, remarkably well. Callahan does his best Lee Hazlewood impression amidst the mellowed out music, but the gentle dub edit makes his delivery seem more laconic and tends to turn his lyrics in the direction of non-sequitur. Or maybe they were before, but it's hard to remember. We're feeling so... spacey.
Seriously, even those of us here who aren't the the biggest Bill Callahan fans (which almost everybody else seems to be!), found this to be a very enjoyable listen. But then again, we think there should be dub versions of EVERYTHING.
Subtitled: The Collected Lyrics Of Bill Callahan.
Not really gonna "review" this, 'cause it would be like reviewing just the lyrics to 70 different Bill Callahan/Smog songs - that's what this is, a collection of Callahan's lyrics from over the years, accompanied by his own simple and evocative ink-wash drawings, 116 of them, outnumbering the songs.
Now, of course, sometimes rock lyrics do not equal poetry and don't belong in a book, but Callahan's we think just might make the grade, fans will know for sure, and that's really who this is for, after all. And his art is nice too.
Perhaps, reading through, even the uninitiated could become fans, curious to hear just how such lines as "And though you were / just a little squirrel / you understood every word" and "But hey / what would my wife say / what would my wife say / if I were married" are delivered on record.
This 196 page paperback is definitely something for every serious Callahan-fan to have on their night table.
There is something so intimate about Bill Callahan's music. Whether recording under his name or his old Smog moniker, his songs evoke ghosts of memories, intense emotions, and such literate insights into the human condition. So a live record from Callahan actually makes a lot of sense. In some ways it seems strange to see him play in a hall full of people, as you want his songs sung directly to you in your own world. Rough Travel For A Rare Thing allows just that, a spot on live performance captured on tape and made for your private listening pleasure, on your turntable alone or with that special someone. Callahan's songs have a way of always cutting to the core, there is no questioning his integrity and singular voice. He's a story teller, a musician, and a force of nature. There is something commanding and immediate about his voice. In many ways he is like this generation's Leonard Cohen, with the ability to create songs that are both sensual, unnerving, sometimes bleak and always raw in their emotion. For this show, he plays songs from his Smog past and from what would be his first record under his own name. Stripped down and to the point, showing that his songs can be stripped down to a sparse statement that can evoke so much feeling. A total must have for Callahan/Smog fans.
In a time when so many male singers are going for the falsetto pot of gold, or the whining indie warble, or the muffled too-cool-for-school barley audible mumble, Bill Callahan's deep and clear voice rings so true, with more strength and truth than ever. This is Callahan's second album released under his own name, after dropping the Smog moniker, but no doubt longtime Smog fans will still love these darkly poetic songs.
While his last album featured some of his sunniest and dare we say maybe even happiest moments ever set to tape, Sometimes I Wish... finds Callahan in more of a solemn and subdued mood, but what makes Callahan such a special songwriter is that even when his songs are sad or forlorn, they are never that simply defined. The songs here are lush and subtly epic, soaring with a heightened level of story telling, this is immaculate songcraft, all the various elements woven delicately into Callahan's unique soundworld. The music is at once immediate and intense, the sort of sound that gives you goosebumps, but also abstract and free, allowing the listener to wander freely, freeing your mind, drifting through memories, lingering desires and undying devotion.
After pruning his band name's parentheses on their last album A River Ain't Too Much To Love [(Smog) became Smog], Bill Callahan emerges from the cover of Smog-ness completely with his first album under his own name proper. While not a huge departure from his tried and true, the warm, earthy Woke On A Whaleheart does offer some things a little different from his past releases -- most notably more straightforward pop elements and an overall more welcoming and accessible sound. Plus that's not even talking about the album cover which is a startlingly unexpected candy colored collaged explosion which makes the release an easy victim of mistaken identity with, oh, maybe something by Lightning Bolt, !!! or Black Dice. Yup, that's a little strange. Needless to say, the assault on the eyes makes for a stark contrast with his gentle on the ears, low-key Americana music. The sound of his deep, heartache twinged voice is always a comfort. At times on this album, it dips down into the depths of Howe Gelb territory, but in a far less cryptic manner. Thumbs up.
Folk/soul legend returns with this new album. The line-up includes Pharoah Sanders on tenor saxophone.
This new album from Calling All Monsters immediately seemed familiar to us here at AQ, and not just because one of the band members is dear Matthew Troy formerly of the raucous yet sweet Bay Area popsters and AQ pals Trackstar (for whom he was one of the two chief songwriters). Although the album gets things rolling with a surprisingly aggressive number that recalled the fist-pumpin' pop punk of Rancid and NOFX (not a bad thing AT ALL!), that bravado soon gives way to the sounds that seem more characteristic of Troy, leaning more towards early to mid nineties Dinosaur Jr and Sonic Youth. The Traps That Work Best makes for a logical progression and development from the fuzzy, feisty songs he wrote for Trackstar's last album Lion Destroyed The Whole World (2002). So nice.
Latest from this well-known French DJ. Jazzy, beat heavy mixology. Samples, scratches, live playing, guest vox...definitely more on the DJ Shadow side of things than the DJ Q-bert side (in the easy listenability vs. turntable acrobatics spectrum). Downtempo cinematic noir-ish hip hop grooves rub shoulders with more dance-floor oriented material.
After the big This Heat boxset bombshell dropped last year, and made everybody fall in love with that seminal, '70s experimental UK prog-punk band all over again, we expect that there's even more folks now who'll be stoked that this collection of This Heat drummer Charles Hayward's quite excellent '80s output with his band Camberwell Now has been reissued, in a brand new deluxe digipack format. That's right, if you want more This Heatishness beyond the Out Of Cold Storage boxset, you want this!
Recorded circa 1982-1985, the fifteen songs compiled here (from Camberwell Now's three vinyl releases plus a cassette comp track) are pretty darn essential for any fan of This Heat, featuring as they do one of the most important components of the This Heat sound, Hayward's signature drumming style. You'll know it when you hear it. His thin, fragile vocals and poetic, politically-charged lyrics are also a significant part of the picture, with the other members of Camberwell Now also making significant contributions to their sound, which incorporated tapes, field recordings, autoharp, ethnic instruments, kazoo, keyboards, etc. A potent mix of energetic rhythms and dreary melodies. For fans of This Heat (obviously), though this is less hard-hitting and more song-based than some of their work. Fans of '80s Robert Fripp may also feel at home with portions of this. But it also occurs to us that there are some recent artists that seem to share something (just something) with Camberwell Now, like Dean Roberts and, perhaps especially, Richard Youngs.
Not only is this new edition cheaper than the one we had before, it's in nicer packaging, with extra notes and photos and artwork, and has also been remastered by the band. Yay!
It's been a while since we were knocked on our asses by a random cd-r that just showed up in the mail. But this debut disc from a band called Cambodia did just that. We got a copy of this disc almost six months ago and it's take the band until now to get us enough copies to list, but holy fuck was it worth it!
Huge mournful riffs, that manage to be heavy and sludgy, but super emotional and minor key. Almost like someone took some sadcore moperock riff and dipped it in some SUNNO))) then rolled it in some Boris. The riff just hovers, all by it's lonesome, for almost three minutes before the drums kick in, and then the vocals. Woah, the vocals, an insane menagerie of growls and hysterical shrieks, sort of reminiscent of Bathtub Shitter. Dueling howls and screeches. But it's all about the loping metallic mope. Massive, lumbering, and intense. You can almost imagine some sort of Katatonia style clean vocals happening, but this is a whole different beast, a much harsher and brutal beast. But it's that main melodic refrain that makes this such a keeper. No matter who's howling, or what the drums are doing, or if there's ten tracks of chugging guitars, when that melody surfaces in a sea of sludge, it immediately grabs you and gives you that weird hairs standing on end feeling. If only most heavy bands could come up with these kinds of melodies.
Just to be clear, this is definitely some sort of slow motion sludgy doom, but it's got that special something that keeps it from being just another boring doom metal band. Instead it's almost more like the heaviest harshest indie slowcore band ever. Only more metal. VERY recommended.
German band Camera definitely belong on the Bureau B label, who have brought us quite a few killer krautrock reissues over the years (including the recent Record Of The Week by Gunter Schickert). But - this isn't a reissue! Camera are a current krautrock outfit, apparently with predilection for performing impromptu shows in public locations, and this is their debut. A 3-piece based in Berlin, Camera are modern-day upholders of the krautrock aesthetic, heavily influenced by both Neu! and Harmonia especially. And in fact, they've earned the blessing of their heroes, having played live in collaboration with Michael Rother (Neu!, Harmonia, etc.) and Dieter Moebius (Cluster, Harmonia, etc.).
This debut recording features eight tracks of live-in-the-studio, semi-improvised, mostly instrumental jams that indeed "radiate" the classic krautrock vibe. The juggernaut of a first track, "E-Go", leaps out of the gate with an intense pulsating "motorik" beat and heavy waves of distortion, churning forth like something by aQ-faves Circle or Salvatore at their most krautrocky. Shifting moods, that's followed by "Villon", much softer and prettier, like one of Can's quieter moments. Then, on "Ausland", Camera whips up another energetic motorik groove. The next track, "Lynch", is the disc's longest, and finds Camera delving into some spaced-out, kosmiche synth serenity, laced with skittering beats and sinister, wind-swept electronics. But then, after eleven minutes, Camera are back to the amped-up throb with "Utopia Is", another juggernaut (after a bit of a slow-build, that is)...
And so it goes, the rest of the disc following suit, providing more quite authentic tick-tock motorik beats and shwooshing guitar/synth soundscapes like it's 1974 all over again. Krautrock fans will for sure hear echoes of a lot of the greats: Neu!, Can, Cluster, Tangerine Dream, Harmonia, Agitation Free, La Dusseldorf, etc. And anyone into other kraut-loving bands of today, like Circle, Cave, Wooden Shjips, and Hills among 'em, should check this out forthwith. Truly, for any fan of hypno-rock bliss new or old, it's hard to find fault with Camera's worshipful, enthusiastic emulation of their krautrock forebears; if anything, there's something almost a little too perfect about this, in that a krautrock band from back in the day would probably have colored outside the lines a bit more, whereas Camera kinda plays it safer, sticking close to the motorik formula. But, they do it REALLY well and we're definitely digging it!
By the way, there is a vinyl version of this (which comes with a cd too) but our supplier was out this week; we should have more of that in again before our next list, though.
We're always talking about "modern day krautrock" bands - Circle, Hills, The Oscillation, Cloudland Canyon, 3 Leafs, Mugstar, Von Himmel, the list goes on and on - but Berlin's mostly-instrumental Camera, a band known for impromptu shows in public spaces, has a better claim than most to the "modern day krautrock" tag, 'cause of course they are actually from Germany! Not only that, but they've previously played/collaborated with members of Neu! and Harmonia, among others. Funnily enough, though, the press material for this highly anticipated 2nd album of theirs tries to claim that "Camera are not seeking to emulate the sound of older Krautrock bands" - that any sonic similarities to those bands from the '70s are merely coincidental, the result of a shared methodology of music making, we're to suppose. And then it says "You can still call it Krautrock, if you must." Guess what? We must! It is, and really good, too.
Remember I Was Carbon Dioxide (strange title, that) naturally kicks off with a motorik beat, opener "From The Outside" gradually adding shimmering tendrils of synthesizer to what the drummer is laying down, building up to something both lovely and well-muscled. The next track, "Parhelion", takes a similar, uber-hypnotic approach, much more moody though, spaced out and plodding - "slo-mo-motorik" we'd call it. The hissing synth swoosh and echo-effected guitar with which this is layered makes for a thing of beauty, the use of distortion reminding us of some early Salvatore stuff, to cite another "modern day krautrock" fave of ours. That track could lumber forever onwards and we'd be ok with it, but eventually it does come to an end, and the next one, "Synchron", ups the tempo, lightens the mood, more melodic and sunshiney, but the thumping beat is still motorik, and gnarly noises do arise from the shoegazing guitars. Real nice - how they can suggest that Neu! and Harmonia and early Kraftwerk aren't being consciously "emulated" here is crazy! Next, the skree-laden, garage-kraut attack of "Roehre" features guest saxophone doing some free jazz damage to its HEAVY, propulsive stomp.
There's eight more tracks on this album, each in possession of its own special charms. And while many of these tracks mesmerize with their motorik beats (the rhythm just grabs a hold of you and you can't resist it!!), it's not all purely that, and a track like "Ozymandias" works its magic through eerie, droning textures of psychedelic moodiness, shimmering sounds from guitar and keys, the drumming taking a backseat, its skitter just another texture. Most of the tracks bring both rhythm and texture together, in potent aural doses of moody, druggy, majestic krautrock ritual. Fantastic stuff.
Available on cd or vinyl, the latter of which comes with a cd of itself.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Having domestically released Camera Obscura's doe-eyed and dreamy sophomore full length Underachievers Try Harder earlier this year, Merge Records further encourage the Scottish popsters' heart-melting campaign to continue by kindly reissuing Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi. It's their delicious debut from 2001 which was produced with kid gloves by Belle & Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch. Sure to share fans with fellow cuddly, clever Scots such as Belle & Sebastian and Delgados.
Goodness! Between this new Camera Obscura album and the latest ones by Essex Green and Mojave 3, we're floating up up 'n' away to the dreamy pop heavens. These days these Scots seem to have more of a skip in their step. They're sounding sorta like a frisky kid sister of Broadcast! If we take their album title literally we're going to do so on a magic carpet ride through swirling clouds of warm vintage keyboards and organs graced with the sweetest vanilla custard female vocals. Yum!!!
We've always adored Camera Obscura's swirlingly lush, angora-soft, unmistakably Scottish dream pop, and we certainly are quite fond of their latest full length. However, is it possible to have too much of a good thing? At times we sorta found it to be a little heavy-handed with the sumptuous Bacharach/Welk-style string arrangements. Now, obviously we at aQ are all for grandiose orchestral excess (a la E.L.O. and Flaming Lips) and a bit of musical melodrama, but here it doesn't quite always work. For instance on the opening track "French Navy" the string section seems to be sitting at a distance from the rest of the band/song, occasionally overwhelming the delicate vocals and other instrumentation. 'Tis somewhat surprising because Camera Obscura are usually masters of tastefully mannered pop restraint, but maybe this time they went "Fuck it! Let's cut loose!" and that just happens to have been where their bustin' loose manifested. Don't wanna make a mountain out of a molehill though 'cause My Maudlin Career is really a lovely, achingly bittersweet album. Sure to please their fans, and lure over some converts from the camps of Belle & Sebastian, The Delgados, and Peter, Bjorn & John. The hushed slow number "James" is a definite standout as is the '60s girl group sway of the album's title track! Scrumptiously sweet!
If you should happen to find yourself one lazy-daisy spring day paddling your rowboat across the glistening ripples of a hideaway lake, be sure to have this album close at hand. Gentler than gentle, misty eyed pop with crisp wood block percussion, sunny horns, shimmery strings and chimes, hushed guitars and the centerpiece of each song... those oh so angelic female (and occasional male) vocals much like Marine Girls, Adventures In Stereo (very 60's Brill Building girl group!) or fellow Scots Belle & Sebastian (actually Stuart Murdoch has lent Camera Obscura a helping hand in the production and photography departments). Positively dreamy and -- gasp! dare we say? -- right up there on par with Belle & Sebastian! Achingly earnest and sweet. Check it out!
We've been trying to get these in stock for a while now, solo record number two from Evan Caminiti, one half of psychedelic doom drone duo Barn Owl. The other Caminiti solo record, Psychic Mud Shrine, introduced us to a world not all that far removed from Barn Owl, or Elm, the solo project from Caminiti's partner in Barn Owl Jon Porras (who just so happens to work at aQ!), and Digging The Void does indeed delve even further into that same blissy druggy void.
Long, low, slow tones, throb, and pulse, layered tones emit subtle overtones, melodies are spidery and barely there, visible through the gauzy whir of the droning guitars, a series of spaced out otherworldly ragas, super minimal and intimate, but at the same time, sweeping and epic. Unlike Elm's, and to a lesser extent, Barn Owl's tendency to get HEAVY, and to dabble in some SUNNO)))-like density, Caminiti keeps it hushed and scaled back, these sonic rituals are not meant to conjure up the same sort of blackened mystery, instead they drift through soft clouds of hum and whir, fragments of Appalachian folk hover over deep rumbles, the sounds are ghostly, the arrangements spectral and ethereal, laced with twang, but just as likely to smooth all the notes and melodies into softened streaks of monochrome blur, and on at least one track, the drone is jettisoned, and an acoustic guitar unfurls long tendrils of steel string buzz and classic folky melody, a darkly mysterious coda, to an already haunting and murky songsuite. So gorgeous.
And of course, ULTRA LIMITED! These are probably the last copies we can get our hands on, you have been warned...
Barn Owl are turning into a regular cottage industry, with a record just out, a new one on the way, and a seemingly never ending procession of solo records from both Jon Porras and Evan Caminiti. Not that were complaining. We love this stuff and can't get enough. And seems like most folks out there feel the same. Which brings us to this, one of two new 7"s on Irish label Trensmat (the other is from Astral Social Club and is reviewed elsewhere on this week's list), the latest missive from Caminiti, and it's a good one, the A side is a thick billowing cloud of soft guitar noise, of swirling guitar whir, shot through with streaks of minor key melody, shards of buzz, the vibe is hazy and thick, and almost caustic in places, before giving way to a super serene bit of shimmery drift, all minimal thrum and slow motion melody, the whole track sounding like it could have come from the same sessions that produced Caminiti's most recent full length.
The flipside is another bit of hazy guitar sprawl, this one way more reminiscent of Caminiti's duo Barn Owl, with plenty of Earth-y twang, the sound deserty and desolate sounding, drifting and dusty, sun dapped and hauntingly cinematic, again finishing off with a more muted and minimal, darkly tranquil outro.
SUPER LIMITED, the label doesn't say how many exactly, but there's a good chance that these are the only copies we'll be able to get since we had to pre-order these, and the label only made as many as were ordered...
Dreamless Sleep is the latest from Caminiti, whose day job is as one half of twang flecked drone duo Barn Owl, and like his partner in Barn Owl, Jon Porras, Caminiti's solo records don't always deviate too much from the Barn Owl M.O., offering up variations of the duo's distinctive dusky sound, with the various individual solo records often easily mistaken for proper Barn Owl record, which is not a bad thing at all, Caminiti and Porras have undeniable musical chemistry, and both have proven to be perfectly capable on their own, both experimenting more with keyboards and synthesizers lately, which of course ironically seems to have been influencing their work as a duo as well.
All of that said, Dreamless Sleep definitely finds Caminiti pushing his sounds into uncharted territories, ditching much of the twang, and the droned out mesmer for something way more kosmische and downright new age-y at times. In fact, if it weren't for the fierce guitar tones and muted buzz, the sounds here could easily slip into full on new age bliss out. Thankfully, Caminiti takes that new age drift, and weds it to his dense guitarscapery, letting neither overshadow the other, resulting in tracks that manage to be both dreamy and ethereal, dark and cinematic, wrapping washed out shimmering synths in spidery sinister melodies, and wreathing hushed ethereal ambience in clouds of ominous thrum, the recordings adding even more texture and density, gristly and on the verge of slipping into the red, the sounds blown out and occasionally corrosive, with some of the tracks slipping into near SUNNO)))-like heft, only you have the shimmery swirl hold it back, and conversely, some of the tracks are so airy and ethereal, it's often just a single slab of crumbling, rumbling blackened thrum, that keeps things safely on the darkside. It's like the perfect music for some seriously psychedelic planetarium show, the music evoking massive sprawls of space, and the ever shifting cosmos, dying stars and black holes, planets being born and epic swaths of glimmering starfields.
Latest solo outing from one half of SF dronedoom duo Barn Owl, coming right on the heels of another solo record, that one from the OTHER half of Barn Owl, Jon Porras, a former aQ-er, whose Black Mesa we dug quite a bit. It would be tempting to try some rock nerd math, and imagine that Black Mesa plus Night Dust might simply BE Barn Owl, but strangely enough, the sounds Porras and Caminiti conjure up on their own, while not really deviating sonically too much from the soundworld they've created with their group, do end up being markedly different. And in many case more experimental and abstract than the twang flecked smolder and drift the two conjure up together. Caminiti's new one might be the strangest (and perhaps coolest) of the bunch, although that strangeness definitely creeps up on you, as the opener, "Near Dark" does sound like it could have been plucked right off a Barn owl record, all billowy clouds of warm softly roiling guitar thrum, shot through with streaks of high end melody, and a warm washed out haze, but even hear, Caminiti pushes the sounds, and the sound itself, pegging the needles, and moving WAY into the red, with sound buzzing and distorting in a way that gives the song a strange outsider psych vibe. But it's on the next track "Returning Spirits" where things get really good. A haunting sprawl of ethereal shimmer, peppered with deep pulsations, and dubbed out percussion, the guitars unfurling little tangles of melody, which get super distorted, a gorgeously muted blown out space-psych (those sounds could be synths, hard to tell, but both Porras and Caminiti, have been experimenting with synths, in Barn Owl, and on their own), but those little soft squalls are gorgeous, and haunting, the vibe super cinematic, dark and otherwordly. Then Caminiti lets loose with a glimmering starfield of super high glistening harmonics, that sound almost like chimes, all over a slow building swell of lush chordal thrum, just might be our favorite Caminiti track yet. But don't want to speak too soon. The rest of the record definitely continues to explore less familiar territory, the pulsing glitchy synths that underpin the warm guitar whorls on "A Memory Or A Mirage", the dense, crumbling, super distorted organ like wall of sound, that churns its way through "Star Circle", the brief blast of wild Neil Young like guitars draped over a woozy tranquil low end drift on "Moon Is The Hunter", the almost Nadja like doomgaze of "Last Blue Moments", the haunting blackened kosmische of "Slow Fade Of Stars", that sounds like Loren Mazzacane Connors playing in some massive cave, wreathed in thick, warm reverb, delicate and skeletal, drowsy and dreamlike, and finally, the two part closer "First Light", which stretches out incendiary guitars into keening dronescapes, again laced with glimmering harmonics, and deep mesmerizing tones, before drifting off into the ether with a final few minutes of spare, soft focus drone-psych blues, wreathed in clouds of whir and hiss, a haunting lo-fi soft noise coda.
Gorgeous full color gatefold sleeves with super striking original art by Caminiti. Includes a download coupon.
The first proper cd full length release from Evan Caminiti, who is 1/2 of drone duo Barn Owl, along with Jon Porras, who records solo as Elm. It seems like Elm has been cranking them out, but Caminiti has too, we just haven't been able to get his more limited cd-r releases, but we're so happy to finally get this. A dark and brooding psychedelic drone epic. Four tracks, nearly fifty minutes of heavy smoldering droneguitar bliss.
Long blurred chords, arcing streaks of feedback, slowly unfurling minor key melodies, thick blurry buzz smeared into drifting clouds of gauzy shimmer, layered and textured and expansive, the heavier moments remind us a bit of Skullflower or To Blacken The Pages or Fear Falls Burning, albeit with a folkier vibe, more melody infused into the coruscating buzz, while the prettier more delicate moments recall Steven R. Smith, Six Organs Of Admittance and other folkdrone guitarists.
The record drifts into shimmery contemplative twang here and there, evoking the open road, endless moonlit nights, loneliness and heartbreak, the blur of life moving past, the glimmer of reflections set in the endless black of night, but even those moments soon expand into full blown walls of guitardrone, of sheets of feedback melting into smears of high end glimmer. Elsewhere, deep abstract ambience is laced with minimal guitar twang, moaning distant melodies, sitar like buzz, only again to build into an avalanche of crumbling distortion and heart of the sunn soft focus skree, before slipping into a coda of warm, soft meditative buzz, and dreamlike drones. So gorgeous. So recommended for fans of Earth, Six Organs, Steve R. Smith and like minded dronescapers, and of course, if you love Barn Owl and Elm, then this is pretty much essential as well.
Another gorgeous sprawling collection of smoldering guitarscapes and warm liquid lysergic drones from Evan Caminiti, one half of psychedelic drone-doom-duo Barn Owl, and while West Winds does in fact touch on some of the same sonic territory as past solo efforts, it definitely moves in a much darker, much heavier direction, exploring blackened sonic vistas that have only been hinted at in Barn Owl but that have been gradually becoming more of a focal point on Caminiti's solo ventures. Which is obvious from the opening track, "Night Of The Archon", which begins all tranquil and serene, spidery tendrils of guitars unfurling in a reverbed expanse of billowing shimmer and layered chordal drift, before the guitars begin to rumble and grind, the distortion a living breathing thing, crumbling and glowing like sonic magma, moving glacially, and engulfing the sounds all around, spitting sparks of fragmented melody, before finally spiraling back to ground, the crush receding, leaving an ethereal cloud of chiming harmonics and distant hushed whirr.
But even with the darker vibe, and the heavier overall sound, none of the emotional resonance has been lost, even the heaving slabs of rumble and crush, are shot through with subtle harmonies, with lush layered textures, the tracks slipping from thick swells of almost post industrial sounding blackdrone to gorgeous Arvo Part sounding chorales, a constantly shifting landscape of hazy streaks of blurred melody, gauzy flecks of folk, soft tangles of reverbed twang, slow motion melodies rendered in thick slabs of coruscating guitar crunch, blissed out dronedrifts laced with almost pop like melodies, a little shoegazey, a little Morricone, a little Earth, a little SUNNO))), and a lot of Barn Owl, this is epic, expansive, highly personal music for the soul, evoking the desert, of starry nights and of the landscape painted red with the blood of an burnt orange sun, "Path To The Sea" is maybe the most propulsive, like the score to a post apocalyptic Leone flick, wheezing harmonium melodies over rumbling burnt black guitars, bits of twang laid upon a woozy almost Western lope, which leads directly into the 10+ minute closer "Black Desert Blooming", which does in fact live up to its title, the vibe arid and sun baked, the sound black and bleak, beginning as maybe the most harrowing and intense track on the record, only to blossom into the most abstract, the thick rumbling crush peeling away, leaving just soft swirls of layered guitars, to overlap and intertwine hypnotically, a minimal blurred loopscape, growing ever more indistinct, and ever more hushed, until even the guitars drift off, leaving a gradually dissipating cloud of blackened rumbles, of distant metallic blur, all keening and moaning and finally fading out completely.
LIMITED TO 600 COPIES, pressed on thick vinyl, housed in a gorgeous matte jacket with original artwork by Caminiti, includes a printed insert and a download card. Plus, it's available at aQ two weeks before the official release date!!
Latest solo record from Barn Owl and Higuma member Evan Caminiti, and one of the first releases on Handmade Birds, a new label launched by R. Loren of Pyramids, White Moth and Sailors With Wax Wings. When California Falls Into The Sea finds Caminiti ditching the billowing brooding drones of recent Barn Owl records, and the humid dronedrift twang of past solo efforts, and instead, stripping his sound way down, crafting something much more intimate and contemplative, abstract and atmospheric, as rife with space and drift as notes and chords, the tone is still dark, and the sound lush, and there is a bit of abstract twang, bit these tracks are more like smoldering folk flecked ragas, smoldering swells of crumbling melody, spare serene stretches of hushed shimmer, hazy sprawls of hushed melancholia, spidery guitars underpinned by distant swells, streaks of fragmented melody, all wreathed in delicate echo, swaddled in spacey reverb, the sound soft, and soft focus, crystalline and fragile, but infused with a dark energy, a subtle power, that transforms muted minimal thrum into a sort of blackened blues. The various sounds shot through with serpentine tendrils, the chords drifting apart, into blurred and smeared expanses of dark moonlit sound.
A fantastic collection of introspective electric guitar meditations, each a hushed and haunting, otherworldly and tranquil, meditative and mesmerizing blackened spectral emanation. And every one spectacularly lovely.
Wah? We STILL have copies of this limited edition 2014 Record Store Day release lying around?? You mean we didn't sell out of this $15 reissue of this Dusseldorf new wave noise band's rare 1983 7" single yet? Well that's messed up, 'cause actually, import RSD price aside, it's pretty killer. Two tracks of beat-heavy art punk madness with aggro screaming echoing vox. Shocking. Actually we only have 2 copies left, so if you're looking for one, better grab it quick.
We all love our dub deep and heavy, all rolling bass and echoing drums. But we also love it when it sounds like deep space transmissions, all tinny and faraway sounding, like the sweetest Lovers Rock emitting from a tiny transistor radio floating around the stratosphere. Echoing in a Doppler effect as the voice pings off the planets, intensifying then receding. And what a voice! Cornell Campbell is not as well known here but his soulful falsetto has graced countless dub records. He's best known for a series of "Gorgon Rock" albums he cut with producer Bunny Lee in the early to mid-'70s, that mixed heavy Rasta Roots with Lovers Rock and various covers often with biblical themes. This release covers various sessions in 1974 during which he worked out dub versions of his best songs with key rhythm players like Robbie Shakespeare and Ansel Collins. A great dub obscurity truly worth your time!
It's tempting with this new Glen Campbell record to assume it must have been produced by Rick Rubin, since at first glance, it does seem like Campbell is pulling a Johnny Cash, revitalizing his career by taking on some unlikely covers (Travis, Velvet Underground, etc.). But just like in the case of Cash, who while very likely got some new fans out of the deal, hardly needed a reinvention, as he was about as bad ass as they come. Well damn it if the same isn't true of Campbell. C'mon. "Wichita Lineman", Rhinestone Cowboy", "Galveston", he's been recording nonstop since the early sixties, and while he wasn't quite as much of a bad ass as the man in black, you just can't fuck with Campbell. And this new disc just drives that point home.
Some strange song choices, but some incredible arrangements, some amazing playing, and Campbell's voice sounds amazing nearly 50 years on. The opener, a cover of "Sing" by the band Travis, who we had never really paid too much attention to, is just gorgeous, exultant, soaring and triumphant. So much so that it almost has us reconsidering our inadvertent Travis boycott.
The other stone cold classic is Campbell's reinterpretation of The Velvet Underground's "Jesus", with its simple acoustic guitar, soaring strings, and sweet angelic female background vocals. His cover of Jackson Browne's "These Days" is also gorgeous, heartfelt and bittersweet. Paul Westerburg's "Sadly Beautiful" is so good, so pretty, and weirdly timeless. The whole production is very sixties / seventies soft pop, all warm and fuzzy and dreamy, string wrapped around subtle orchestrations, stripped down when it suits the song, lush and over the top when it doesn't, perhaps due in no small part to the fact that Campbell's band features Robin Zander of Cheap Trick as well as 2/3 of Jellyfish! The two Tom Petty covers are obscure enough to sound like they could be Campbell originals. There's a U2 cover which is pretty nice too. The weirdest covers are probably "Times Like These" by the Foo Fighters, which to be fair gets a pretty appropriately Campbell-y makeover, and Green Day's "Good Riddance", which while it does sound pretty good sung by Campbell, it's probably too familiar to remind you of anything but the original.
But small complaints really. A gorgeous disc of classic soaring lush countrified orchestral pop from one of the best performers of the last 5 decades.
A new solo album from this Belle And Sebastian sweetie pie. What to expect? Well, for the most part it's her breathy soft vocals drifting over candy-coated Burt Bacharach-esque orchestrations - ever so swirling, grand and lovely - but every so often she dips her toe into another limpid blue pool. Such is the case with one of the highlights of the album, the super fun ragtime flapper tune "Cat's Pyjamas". Amorino is sure to please B&S's most sweet-toothed fans as well as anyone seeking pure orchestral pop prettiness. Very very nice!
Since her departure from Belle & Sebastian, Isobel Campbell has been busy busy busy. Whether making country tinged records with Mark Lanegan, or doing Billie Holiday covers with Bill Wells it seems that she's been searching for her voice for a while now, which in no way has kept her from producing some super pleasant music. But the release of Milk White Sheets finds Campbell feeling more at home than ever. Dreamy, breezy and basking in pastoral beauty. Offering up her own versions of a handful of traditional songs, including an absolutely stunning cover of "Willow's Song" from the original Wicker Man soundtrack, this is the Isobel Campbell we can never get enough of. You can practically feel the dew on the green grass, the air blowing through the open window, eyes gazing out into the distance. Along with her flawless voice the rich arrangements and instrumentation are really what make it one of her best outings yet. Recalls the elegance of Vashti Bunyan and Bridget St. John as well as the glazed daydreaminess of Mazzy Star and Neil Halstead. Milk White Sheets evokes such pastoral beauty, yet does it with such ease, bathing your ears in the soft breeze. Absolutely charming!
Very few voices are as sweet and sultry as the one Isobel Campbell possesses. She can use it to create the breeziest pop gems or as of late for much more dazed and glazed sweetness. Her last solo outing Milkwhite Sheets was a total stunner filled with an expansive beauty that contains some of her best recorded moments. Sadly it came out on V2 just as the label was about to fold so it never got the attention and praise it so rightfully deserved. This ep is actually a 2004 recording that for some reason was never released. It features a beautiful duet with Vaselines / Eugenius mastermind Eugene Kelly, an Ennio Morricone cover and a totally smoking version of the Sonny Bono penned and Nancy Sinatra sung classic "Bang Bang."
After the little teaser ep came out a few months back with these two AQ fave's we were very anxious to get the full meal..and we're happy to report that the full serving is just as tasty and satisfying as we had hoped. Isobel Campbell, formely of Belle & Sebastian and Gentle Waves fame uses her oh so pretty voice next to Lanegan's (Screaming Trees) tough guy with a heart of gold stylings. While the ep felt like a very Lee & Nancy sort of affair, that sentiment is still felt on the full length but with more of their own unique stylings coming through. And while the ep also kind of felt like Isobel was playing the back up lady part, the full length feels like much more of her vision, as she produced it, wrote all but one of the songs and besides her trademark vocals she also plays everyting from cello, harp, piano, harpsichord, glokenspiel and tubular bells on the album. The artwork inside features a slew of interior photos inside a could be anywhere motel room on a lazy sunny day-after. And that's just the kind of record Campbell & Lanegan have made together.
Not exactly Lee & Nancy but the aim seems somewhat near that legendary combination. Mark Lanegan (ex-Screaming Trees) and Isobel Campbell (ex-Belle & Sebastian) both have put out very nice solo records in the last few years. We dig 'em as well as their former bands. Ramblin' Man teams up the two for four nice, sweet & tender tracks. Alas, no word yet of a full length outing, but we're hoping this cdep is just a teaser (rather than a one-off), because the handful of songs are over before you're even able to get in the swing of it. More please!
Isobel and Mark are together again for another smokey affair, conjuring up songs that play like a country tinged film noir soundtrack. Evoking stark and rich emotion, their voices almost like devil (Lanegan) and angel (Campbell). As always when these two get together they create songs that feel very pensive and solitary. Much of this record seems less forced and more natural than some of the moments on their previous outings, where it seemed like they were trying a bit too hard to be a modern day Lee Hazlewood & Nancy Sinatra. While we still can't help but love these two more on their own (Campbell in Belle And Sebastian and solo, Lanegan solo and in the Gutter Twins and of course Screaming Trees!), we can't deny they are capable of making some magical music together.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Founding member of the A Band, Sunroof, and Vibracathedral Orchestra, Campbell has been a stalwart in the British campaign for tinnitus alongside Matthew Bower and Simon Wickham-Smith. "Itinerant String Section" certainly falls into the catagory of amorphous gritty tonal screeches recorded with questionably wired equipment. The first track is dominated by a backing tape of one of the more noxious examples of shortwave radio jamming upon a morse code numbers station. Top it all off with Campbell scraping a rusty can across his pick-ups and some cheap effects boxes, and the result is some fine noise / grate / drone work. Yup, it's a cd-r.
From our pals at Lal Lal Lal, the Finnish label that introduced us to the mighty Avarus, and has released records by AQ faves Kemialliset Ystvat and Anaksimandros, who are kind of like the Finnish No Neck Blues Band, comes a limited 12" from the Vibracathedral Orchestra's Neil Campbell. And it's definitely some of his nicest stuff. A gorgeous shimmering ambience of burbling and bubbling tones and melodies. Dreamy and hypnotic. A bit more soothing and 'ambient' than Vibracathedral but still with the same ur-drone aesthetic. There are couple tracks that stick out though, one is a rhythmic Krautrock workout complete with pulsing drum beat and looped guitar, and the other is an almost-techno track that sounds like with a little less resistance it could've become a house track! Another gorgeous drone record and another fine addition to the Lal Lal Lal catalog. Be warned, this is very limted and won't be around for long!
Brand new collaboration from Mr. Neil Campbell, he formerly of Astral Social Club, and fellow noisemaker/soundscaper Robert Horton. Typically in the past when we would review a Robert Horton record, we would list all the silly shit he plays, we won't do that here, but rest assured he still does (weevils, boot, etc.). The two open up the proceedings with a spaced out psychedelic dancefloor number that seems to find the duo exploring similar territory as Campbell has done on recent ASC releases, a cosmic electronica, all skeletal beats and looped layers. But we may have called it too soon, as the rest of the record is sort of all over the place, from glitched out electro-folk, to wild tangles of piano, from gnarled static and keening high end, to strange noise drenched house music (as if Our Love Will Destroy The World were DJing a rave), with chugging distorted guitars, truncated samples and strange vocal snippets, all woven into something stuttery and not at all groovy (and we mean that in a good way). The B side finishes off with a gorgeous bit of dizzying trip out that sounds a bit like a sped up Appalachia, as if Philip Jeck were spinning a handful of Fahey lps at 78rpm, woozy and warped and strangely mesmerizing.
Two of the three tracks on the B side find Horton and Campbell working their way back to the dancefloor, but it's the extended opener on side 2 that might be THEE jam here, starting out with a druggy beatscape, that gets blissed out into a hazy bit of kosmische shimmer, only to have the beat drift back to the surface, pulsing away just beneath the surface, a weirdly glistening bit of layered psychedelia, draped over a churning muted rhythm, so awesome, and while it's the longest track here, it still ends way too soon.
The true heirs to the Cale / Conrad / Maclise / Palestine / Flynt throne just happen to be kindred souls thousands of miles apart. And in cosmic slip up (or inside joke) they've both been given the same name, only transposed! I mean, come on, it was only a matter of time before Campbell and Kneale (or Neil and Campbell) would realise their destinies, and realise how perfect this collaboration would be aesthetically, as well as sonically! And it couldn't be more perfect. Tinkling chimes, shimmery cymbals and bells, creaking feedback, wild splattery percussion, bowel loosening rumbles, warm late night drones, all woven together into a wild and free, gorgeously invigorating, but completely soothing, otherworldly tranced out raga. Absolutely sublime. Fans of NC's Vibracathedral Orchestra or CK's Birchville Cat Motel need this for sure.
Flutes. For Andee that seems to be all that really matters for a record to be incredible. But for the rest of us who need a little more than flutes to convince of a piece of music's merits, we're quite pleased that Neil Campbell and Richard Youngs seemed to
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
SUPER LIMITED CD-R FROM NEIL CAMPBELL OF THE VIBRACATHEDRAL ORCHESTRA!!
Should be enough right there, as this is indeed quite limited, only 50 copies were made, of which we managed to get only 15! An old Campbell piece, originally 7 or 8 minutes long, but here reworked and revamped into an epic hour long ur-drone. This piece was composed to accompany an installation of photos by Spencer Clark, which is part of the reason for the $15 price of a cd-r, as each cd comes with an original photo, all different, all totally beautiful. And the sound is vintage Campbell, a huge and expansive, slowly developing multi-layered drone, shimmering and humming, rumbling and keening. Absolutely stunning as always!
