We know what you're probably thinking: "Continuum 2? What the heck happened to Continuum 1?" Well, we're right there with you, number one seemed to have slipped right past us at some point, but fear not, we're doing some digging to see if we can't track some down for the store. In the meantime, rest assure, much like Die Hard 2, or Halloween 2 or any other famous part 2's, you don't really need to have experienced part one to appreciate the second part. But all of this talk about parts, why the hell should you care? What the heck is Continuum anyway?
Well, Continuum is the darkdronedriftdoom collaboration between Dirk Serries, aka Fear Falls Burning, and Steven Wilson, Opeth producer and leader of Porcupine Tree. Whereas their first collaboration was a much more tranquil affair, match up number two augments the duo's drifting dronescapes, with massive doom metal guitars, crumbling and downtuned, sprawled riffs spread out over epic soundscapes, imagine a DJ spinning Earth 2 on one deck and Oval on the other. A glistening glimmering sonic undercurrent, beneath a plodding rumbling behemoth.
The opener, "Construct IV", is nearly 23 minutes of the above, a massive riff, a gorgeous shimmering backdrop of distant whir and warm swell, peppered with little sparkling bits of FX and fragments of melody, that riff, endless and HEAVY, plodding and sort of melting into the sounds around it. Nirvana for the doomdrone obsessives.
"Construct V" is a bit more subtle, with nearly two thirds of its seventeen minutes, taken up by gorgeous black ambience, metallic shimmer, and muted melodies, whispered voices and distant effects, before the guitar takes over, after slowly building for almost the length of the track, less a riff as a huge glacial chunk of distorted sound, the voices growing to an urgent hiss, the track transformed into something sounding like some sort of ambient black metal, or some grim blasting buzz, with the drums removed and then slowed down to a barely moving crawl.
The final track, "Construct VI", is the dreamiest of the bunch, a loping sort of doomic post rock, a simple beat, the guitars strangely alien, drifting off in the distance, everything decayed and wrapped in distortion and delay, reverb and sonic grit, the melodies minor key and melancholy, it almost sounds what might be lurking under an Angelic Process track, once all that blown out distortion was removed, a murky muddy, Hawkwind outro as played by Low, run through Acid Mothers Temple's effects rack. Until the very end, where the track is engulfed by a wall of speaker shredding distortion, a dense cloud of damaged FX and thick squalls of crumbling sound, before drifting off into a swirling space-y fade out...
LIMITED TO 2000 COPIES. Gorgeously packaged in a full color oversized A5 book-style packaging with three full color postcards.
Those of you who managed to catch Andee and Allan guest DJing on Brian Turner's show On WFMU a few months back got an earful of all the craziest metal they could muster (if you didn't hear it, go to WFMU.org and you can listen to the whole thing!) in a desperate attempt to stump Brian the musical genius. Of course we cheated and played a bunch of unreleased demos!! One of which was some amazingly damaged keyboard heavy black-drone metal from Circumscriber. No idea when that record will finally see the light of day, but we just discovered that Benighted Leams label mates Contra Ignem Fatuum is in fact a group comprised of members of Circumscriber. Which makes perfect sense as CIF traffic in the same ultra repetitive black drone metal that so blew us away. We weren't sure what to expect as the majority of Detritus is ambient. No drums, no guitars, just dreamy streaks of smeary sound, delicate ghostlike melodies, warm synthesizers, chanting monklike vocals, majestic melodic swells, distant martial percussion, a bit like In The Nursery or Dead Can Dance or a lot like the recently listed Dark Ages disc. The second of the three tracks is the little black secret here, bookended on both sides by ethereal ambience, the 14 minute long title track is a brutal and mega-catchy, completely hypntoic, endlessly repeating KILLER riff, a swarm-of-locusts kind riff, buzzing and twisting, pounding and pulsing repeating over and over, a bit like a black metal Circle or more heavy metal Pharoah Overlord or even a way heavier Gore. The track builds and builds until the drums burst into a blazing fast blast beat and utter chaos is unleashed, the whole track becoming a swirl of demonic vocals, shrieking, swarming guitars, warm washes of keyboard and spastic lighting fast drumming, as everything becomes less and less distinct and more a black flurry of sound. Wow. When the riff kicks in, you'd have to be totally ROCK-less to not leap out of your chait and start banging your head and whipping your hair around like a windmill. It's like that Khold riff, the sort of riff bands kill for. So fucking great. So enjoy this while you can and steel yourself for the eventual arrival of Circumscriber.
Active for most of the nineties, this experimental/ambient/industrial outfit called it quits back in 2000, only to regroup and reform in 2012, and essentially take up right where they left of. While we weren't all that familiar with the group's earlier material, this new incarnation still sounds very beholden to the nineties, creating sprawling landscapes of haunting ambience, twisted, paranoiac, sample heavy landscapes of keening tones and deep rumbling drones, mysterious horn blurts, orchestral stabs, blasts of percussive chaos, deep foghorn like moans, and some seriously intense vocals, delivered as a sort of screed, deeply and ominously intoned, all over a sprawl of softly undulating shimmer, of high end glitchiness, of distant chants and chorales. The sound shifts continuously, from glimmering psychedelia, to softly roiling synth heavy churn, to squelchy cinematic synthscapes, all peppered with industrial clatter and groaning metallic thrum, that voice resurfacing throughout, as if this was a soundtrack to some harrowing ritual.
But then on tracks like "Tripoli Calling", the group take fragments of female vocals, shards of percussion, and slow swirls of deep blackened buzz, and weave them into something that sounds more like Muslimgauze, martial snares underpin, clouds of cymbal shimmer, and lush soft focus swells of chordal shimmer, quite tranquil and dreamy, but almost as if it's just setting you up for the next track, which is all corrosive drones and distant sirens, soft noise melded into a heaving wall of dense, tense sound, only to dramatically shift gears, acoustic guitar strum, chanted crooned vox, and political samples, which sans those samples would sound like some sort of droned out acid folk, but instead, is a weirdly chaotic bit of post industrial sonic rhetoric.
The second to last track lays out some grim black buzz, and laces it with some long stretches of blues guitar flecked low end pulsations, haunting and strange, a disembodied sort of industrial noise blues, or something, seems like a weird mix, but it's cool, and definitely works. There's also some strange gristly static, and what sounds like heavy breathing sculpted into spidery tendrils, all of which leads to the epic closer, that creepy voice back again, this time over a hazy drift of slow-mo synths, and disembodied melodies, rusty and groaning in the background, the whole thing looped and hypnotic, the track unwinding as a slow shifting collage, noisy and staticky one second, dreamy and lilting the next, that voice drifting to the surface throughout, before a tangle of overlapping voices returns us to that Jeck like opening loopscape, which becomes a creepy, woozy, dirgey stretch of down tempo wooziness.
While they last, we have the limited deluxe version, which comes in a fancy oversized full color slipcase which houses a slide out panel that holds both the cd and a booklet.
We're beginning to think Jazzman might just be our favorite jazz/funk reissue label. From that Spiritual Jazz comp, to Lloyd Miller's A Lifetime In Oriental Jazz, From Bobby Jackson's The Cafe Extra-Ordinaire Story to the best of Jef Gilson, from the Natural Yogurt Band's Away With Melancholy to Nathan Davis' Best of collection, and now this, an amazing compilation from band leader, drummer and Mexican jazz legend Tino Contreras, who really is mostly unknown outside of Mexico, even though he's recorded more than 40 albums and has been performing for 50+ years and continues to play today. And since this is essentially a career retrospective, it samples all the various and varied sounds Contreras has explored over the years, from hard bop to Latin jazz, to experimental free jazz and beyond, he covers Elmer Bernstein's James Bond theme, incorporates psychedelic production and percussion into his sound, offers up some wild drumming and chaotic percussion workouts, digs into some tropical jazz, explores themes of Christianity, Hinduism, there's even a sprawling 11 minute epic dedicated to the late great Ravi Shankar, which of course includes a killer drum solo, his own homage we presume.
Contreras has had an incredible career, and had such a huge impact on jazz in Mexico, and that career is explored in great detail in the liner notes, too much detail to go into here, needless to say, it's a fascinating read. Sonically though, this collection is tough to beat, waltzes and calypsos, Latin jazz, Afro jazz, far out and freaky, traditional and spiritual, and even though this collection spans decades, and dips into all sort of sounds, it holds together perfectly as a record proper, and to be honest, since this came in, we've really wanted to listen to little else.
Includes a massive booklet with extensive liner notes in both English and Spanish, with comments from Contreras himself, as well as lots of rare photos and notes on each track and the album it was from. Did we mention the groovy cover art?! So great!
Soundtrack to Ian Curtis biopic featuring all the greats from the era: iggy Pop, New Order, Kraftwerk, Velvet Underground, Buzzcocks, Bowie and more.
Control Unit are the Italian duo of Sylvia Kastel and Ninni Morgia, the latter having done all sorts of scattered psychedelic projects including a prolonged stint in La Otracina. But in teaming up with the uncompromising Sylvia Kastel for Control Unit, his expository tendencies are tempered in the heavy sourness of Control Unit's grim electronics. In A Frame is their second lp and perfects the bad-drug cocktail of early '80s Italian industrialisms and the narcotic / narcoleptic vibes of Factrix and Mars which they first began to manufacture a couple years back. Kastel and Morgia employ monotone guitars, beatboxes, and cheap synthesizers cast through ghostly delay patterns and a zombified / exhumed production grit that alternates between abstracted decompositions of Hansen records styled electrical damage and tracks which could almost be considered songs with their step sequenced skeletal rhythms haunted by Kastel's vocalizations. These more structured elements seems to corrode from within, as the geiger-counter rhythms and ticking pulsations misfire and palpitate amidst the crosshatching loops and erratically fired patterns. Even with all of the cold/minimal/wave revivalism going on, Control Unit are dialed into a very specific historical reference of most death-obsessed electronica circa 1982. Creepy, horrifying, chaotic dirges for the industrially minded. Limited to just 275 copies!
Much like the delightfully uncategorizable sample-happy recent albums from Milk Cult, Cat Five, and the like, Controller 7 (beatmaker for the Anticon East Bay hip hop crew) has made a record that mixes together such a broad range of unlikely samples, and does it so well that the result is very listenable. Kinda like DJ Shadow "lite" -- No, it's not the most challenging album in
A collection of straight-up punk rock culled from recordings spanning fifteen years ('77-92). Most are by The Controllers who were in existence from '77 to '79 (and reunited briefly in '96), a couple are by Skull Control ('92). Yes, these are the sounds of the early days of punk. Brought to you by garage and punk rock historians Bacchus Archives of Dionysus Records.
They may have set the bar impossibly high with 2001's Jane Doe, one of the most perfect punk metal / metallic punk rock records EVER, but it's really time to stop holding that against them, cuz even stacked up to Jane Doe, the records that followed (You Fail Me, No Heroes, Axe To Fall, and now this one) are impossibly dense, insanely heavy, progged out, super dynamic, mathy, tech metal hardcore genius, the sort of sound that most bands spend their whole lives aspiring too without ever coming close.
The sound here is really not that far removed from the last few full lengths, but as they say, why fix what ain't broke? That's not to say this is Axe To Fall part two, the band always seem deadset on pushing themselves and their sounds further and further, and every record, it seems that their sound couldn't get any more heavy and chaotic and furious and intricate, and yet it does. EVERY time. The band occasionally slip into something approaching more traditional punk rock bash and crash, but the majority of their time is spent maneuvering through maze like arrangements, stop-on-a-dime breakdowns, dizzying almost psychedelic blasts of facemelting heaviness, and even when they do get all punk rock, it's weirdly lush and layered and rife with texture and melody, and still about as mean and metallic as punk rock gets. And when they do slow it down, unfurling some doomy churn or some post rocky tangle, it's impossible not to imagine a room full of sweaty punks losing their shit. Hell, even listening to this on headphones, it's kinda hard not to just go apeshit. And with all this furious mathed out punk and chugging metallic crush, not to mention some rad classic metal guitar harmonies (check out "Sadness Comes Home"), it still manages to somehow be catchy as fuck. Music this crazed and chaotic should not be so goddamn catchy, but it is Converge after all, and once again, they've created a modern metal punk masterpiece, that a whole 'nother generation can analyze and pick apart, desperately trying to discover what warped musical DNA can produce sounds like these. As for us, we don't really care where it comes from. As long as it keeps coming. We'd definitely expect this to end up on lots of folks year end lists. It's definitely gonna make ours...
Some bands mellow with age. That's just the way it is... sometimes. Converge is definitely NOT one of those bands, and almost two decades into their career, they're still just as furious as ever and showing no signs of age (though they were only teenagers when they started, it's not like they're a bunch of old dudes). It's almost unbelievable to think how a band like this could maintain such an insane amount of energy, but we're happy to report that things don't appear to be slowing down by any measure. There's tons of crazy guitar leads, super aggressive bass playing that holds things down like an anchor, tight as fuck drumming, and of course, frontman Jacob Bannon's throat-ripping banshee screams.
Axe To Fall, like the other post-Jane Doe Converge records, retains the unfathomable brutality of that definitive record and adds an approach that, as weird as it may sound, seems to exude a heavy rock n' roll influence. There's really no other way to put it: this shit rocks hard. Perhaps the best thing about Converge is, even in the moments of sheer metallic evil (which is most of them), they are still highly musical and catchy, and the band's incredible musicianship allows them to take things where few other hardcore groups are capable of going. Yep, nothing quite hits the spot like Converge. Featuring contributions from an assortment of noteworthy heavies, including dudes from Cave In, Entombed/Disfear (the awesomely monickered Ufe Cederlund), Himsa, Neurosis, Genghis Tron, and probably some others. Awesome stuff.
It's raining blood in Boston with the release of this new, state-of-the-art Converge album. These New England metalcore masters (the closest rivals to the now-defunct Coalesce) have produced their most vicious, best-sounding disc yet; pummelling, complex,
Metalcore is sort of a dirty word these days it seems; conjuring up images of Warped Tours and Hot Topic's. All the short haired emo guys are now playing brutal-tech-death metal while the dirty long haired metalhead guys are slowing it down, making all kinds of epic post rock and convoluted math rock. What gives? Converge continue to blaze their own path and break down the boundaries between hardcore and metal, while incorporating bits of noise and other weird sounds, the REAL crossover.
Converge were sort of always the hardcore black sheep, too noisy, too metal, not punk enough. Going on 15 years now, Converge have been the kings of the underground, subtly or not so subtly influencing all the metalcore outfits that have gone on to be HUGE. It's time for the world to recognize that Converge have been making some of the most progressive, and beautifully fucked up metallic punk rock music of the last two decades.
No Heroes falls sonically somewhere between the all time metalcore milestone Jane Doe and their more recent, but equally as punishing and original You Fail me.�The pace is furious, hovering around warp speed most of the time, but these guys are masters, and amidst the cacophonous, chaotic din lurk all sorts of sonic surprises, tone of space and atmosphere, discordant, jagged, chunky, choppy riffs, incredibly complex rhythms, as well as hooks galore, all masterfully whipped into a glorious metalcore frenzy.
Highly recommended.
What to say about the mighty Converge? Not sure I can top Allan's description from a few lists back:
"Pummelling, complex, and super heavy. There's dizzying changes and lots of textures, from razor-sharp guitar riffing to theremin squiggles to throat-shredding screams. Going beyond your usual technical metal/hardcore brutality, Converge utilize Shellac/Slint style post-rock style dynamics and non-screaming vocals as well."
Converge are probably one of, if not our favorite metalcore bands ever (along with Coalesce, Heaven Shall Burn, From Autumn To Ashes and a few select others) and have continued to progress musically, taking their Slayer meets NYHC to completely new and original places.
This DVD basically chronicles the hundreds of live performances from 1994 to the present. It's cool to see this stuff live, it's way more palpable and dangerous, and the virtuosity takes a back seat to the sweat and aggresion and fury and chaos and fun. Swirling pits and bouncing band members and flailing stage divers. Recorded at huge festivals, little clubs and tiny low-ceilinged basements. Super intimate and really cool. Two sided disc, with the first side being the feature, 20 or so songs, recorded live all over the world, some on film, some on video, all varying degrees of sound/picture quality, but all furious and awesome to watch. The bonus footage on side 2 is three entire live shows as well as a super arty music video.
Converge just happen to be responsible for quite possibly the best metalcore record of last year (maybe ever?!?), Jane Doe. Pummelling, and complex, heavy and brutal but drone-y and dirgey, death metal mixed with hardcore mixed with punk rock mixed with post rock mixed with grindcore. A totally unique musical statement, stretching the envelope of the often too predicatable hardcore/metalcore sound. So how did they get to that point? Well here's a singles/rarites collection that gives us a little glance into the past to see how this band turned into the powerhouse they are now. Singles, compilation tracks, as well as a handful of previously unreleased tracks make this essential for the Converge completist as well as a decent introduction for the uninitiated, to a band that continues to blow our minds, although if you are taking your first plunge, we might recommend the godlike Jane Doe instead.
Converge have always been one of the best metalcore bands around. But with the release of Jane Doe a few years back they quickly moved right to the head of the line, having crafted what is most definitely the most amazing, heaviest, most complex, catchiest and most chaotic metalcore record ever. EVER. So once again we're faced with what would almost have to be a massive disappointment after the total Godhead that was Jane Doe. But we should know better than to doubt Converge. While this record may not be quite as good as Jane Doe, it almost doesn't matter. In fact it's a whole different kind of record. Not nearly as dense and chaotic as Jane Doe, You Fail Me is strangely melodic and dare we say almost new wave at times. Now don't get all scared off. You Fail Me is still heavier and more brutal than almost any record you'll hear this year, but there's a lot more weirdness going on. A lot more space, and more experimentation. Not so much being 'experimental' per se, but more dabbling in some distinctly un-Converge like sounds, pop melodies, acoustic guitars, clean singing, angular new wave-ish guitar, bouncy almost emo-ish rhythms, folky ambience, but all safely ensconced in a jagged, prickly nest of swirling metallic guitars, chugging downtuned riffs, ridiculous drumming and throbbing punch-in-the-gut bass. Definitely weirder, but quite possibly just as good as Jane Doe. Just in a wonderfully different way.
If you're anything like us, you saw the names of these two bands and immediately added this to your cart. Cuz really, what more do you need to know about either of these bands that you don't already? Anyone into heavy music, who isn't obsessed with either or both of these groups is missing out big time. Both now celebrating their 20 year anniversaries, and commemorating that fact with this split 7", featuring one track from each band, recorded last year. The Converge track is a killer (of course), pairing grinding blasting furious verses with an impossibly melodic / catchy refrain, that's downright poppy. DropDead counter with what they do best, a blasting, thrashing, pounding slab of political hardcore, no frills, howled vox over grinding riffage and pounding drums, furious and frenzied and somehow catchy like crazy. We imagine fans of both or either will absolutely need this, and this also works as a pretty sweet introduction to two of the most important punk rock / hardcore bands of the last two decades! Pressed on blue vinyl, includes a download coupon as well, and guessing it's also probably pretty limited.
Split cd with Boston's Converge and Japan's Hellchild. Converge take their normal metal core sound and twist it a bit, adding weird stop-start arrangements and bizarre keyboards making for a super heavy prog workout. And then try their hand at a Depeche
Hellchild slow down their grinding metal to a more midtempo 80's thrash. One new song and a Bulldozer cover! Both bands finish up with some live tunes. Pretty great.
- RealAudio clip: Thaw
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Another back room discovery, buried in a dusty corner, obscured by shadows, a box of discs from some mysterious artist called Converstations With The Light, on a Swedish label called Ominous Recordings. Throwing it on, everything made sense, the sound dark and dusty, obscured and shadowy, and yeah, definitely ominous, the only thing that didn't seem to fit was the name, cuz this is about as far from the light as you can get, a grim pitch blackness that oozes malevolence, a haunting, creepy expanse of industrial landscapes and blackdrones, of blurred noise and strange surreal sonic drifts. We eventually discovered that Conversations About The Light is in fact an American soundscaper/noisescaper named Robert Hunter Osgood, and as the title might suggest, A Retrospective is in fact a collection of various tracks, some from splits and demos, some unreleased. And while it may be a compilation, it was, and is our first exposure to Osgood and his Conversations About The Light, and all it took was the opening 15 minute epic, "Death Tree", and we were sold. A haunting cinematic slow build creep, soft shimmers of high end drifting over an abject expanse of muted thrum, and hushed rumbles, it's not really until about halfway through that the sounds actually coalesce into something melodic, the billowing background transformed into a lovely blurred bit of soft focus dreamdrone hum, and then out of nowhere, thick heaving shards of buzzing low end crunch surface and crumble malevolently above the tranquil soundscape below. The sound soon stabilizes, and becomes a buzzing smear of metallic streaks and ghostly overtones, before blossoming into an ominous, industrial dirge, wreathed in static and pulsing squelches, before finishing off with a face melting squall of grinding blown out white noise how. Shit, if this was a single song 15 minute disc, it would still be well worth the price of admission, essential listening for fans of Locrian, Wolf Eyes, Wraiths, Gog, NRIII, Servile Sect, and other practitioners of the sonic black arts, but there's nearly a whole 'nother hour, the sound remaining rooted in industrial / noise / black drone territory, but explores every little twisted corner of said territory, thick rumbling stretches of blown out grey noise, darkly undulating sprawls of hushed minimalism, drearily melodic atmospheres and creeping doomic dirges, chugging almost blackened metallic crush, gorgeous folk flecked black ambience, full on speaker shredding Merzbowic chaos, grim soundtracky soundscapes, field recorded noise experiments, keening raga-like soft-noise drifts and pretty much every strange blackened stop in between.
LIMITED TO 150 COPIES, long sold out and out of print. We have about a dozen or so and they are absolutely the last copies we'll see!
Wow! What is it about the sudden appearance of a cache of lost amateur folk recordings that just makes us stop everything we're doing and pay attention? Well, in the case of Connie Converse who made these recordings between 1954 and 1961, her sadly beautiful songcraft coupled with her mysterious (and most likely, tragic) disappearance in the early seventies, paints a tinge of regret and missed opportunities on the proceedings that make her gentle and deeply personal songs resonate more poignantly. A bookish gal from New Hampshire with academic leanings and no strong musical background, she took to writing poems and songs after leaving college in New York a year before she was to graduate. Her songs attracted the interest of animator and amateur recordist Gene Deitch who taped over 40 songs of hers, before she moved to Michigan to live with her brother and set her mind to other pursuits. In the years since, she still played music for friends and family, but her hopes that her recordings would lead to successful opportunities did not pan out and she became more despondent. Taking a leave of absence from her job, she wrote several farewell letters to family and friends, packed up her Volkswagon and disappeared, her whereabouts still unknown...
Similar in tone to Vashti Bunyan and Sibylle Baier, Converse came from a generation earlier. Her songs have a folk-country revivalist vibe popular during the time but her songs don't seemed to be influenced directly by the folk revival movement. Instead it seems she was orbiting in her own parallel universe, like a folksinger version of Emily Dickinson, focussing on the subtle details of daily life and the lovely and lonely qualities that intertwine throughout. Those qualities are heightened by the raw and intimate feel of the recording with its natural imperfections, and side dialogue left thankfully intact.
Fans of Bunyan and Baier, Barbara Dane, Ruth Friedman, Karen Dalton and Niela Miller will find lots to love here. How Sad, How Lovely, Indeed!
When we saw the new solo album come in from Calexico's co-captain John Convertino, we were hopin' that it would either showcase his awesome drumming and/or some of his evocative minimal piano compositions such as "The Book And The Canal" that surfaced briefly on his band's last album Feast Of Wire. Well, guess what? This album is filled with the latter. Convertino performed and recorded the twelve somber and contemplative instrumentals at his home in Tucson, AZ. On Ragland, he's stepped out from behind his drumkit and made himself right at home at the piano (and occasionally on the vibes and back on the drums too) crafting numbers that are at times delicate and at others insistent. Nonetheless, this is far from spotlight grabbing. While in Calexico the focus is usually drawn to the band's other co-captain lead singer and guitarist Joey Burns, Convertino is too often considered simply 'the drummer', but that's a terrible understatement. Convertino is both a multi-faceted artist and a master of restraint. If this cd is any indication we can expect that he's got a few more surprises up his sleeve.
We love the harmonica, especially when it's used in super creative ways, processed perhaps, or spread out over some Morricone-ish post rock, it is definitely evocative, and has an incredibly unique and distinctive sound, which definitely comes to the fore when the harmonica is rescued from the blues rock ghetto it usually finds itself trapped in.
A couple past harmonica favorites: a tape by Usputuspud, a gorgeous dronescape of processed harmonica, and the sweeping deserty post rock of Souvenir's Young America, wherein the harmonica was used to add a layer of mournful mystery, and now we have this cd from NY soundmaker Joshua Convey, who utilizes harmonica, guitar and electronics, to create deep listening drones, and mesmerizing soundscapes of repetitive texture.
The opener is a brief shimmer of high end, the harmonica smeared into soft billowy streaks, the electronics burbling percussively beneath, like a much more tranquil and washed out Sunroof! The second track finds Convey dipping his toes into Fennesz territory, a strange murky rhythm, supports a skittery stuttery high end guitar, that is looped and layered, the notes glimmering and overlapping, creating strange landscapes of pixilated upper register metallic shimmer, harmonics drift dreamily, punctuated by smears of grinding glitchy buzz. The third is a brief clattery soundscape that sounds like a contact mic dropped into a malfunctioning music box, all truncated twang, and strange metallic plunks, fractured melodies, and strange mechanical textures. Which brings us finally to the final track, a nearly 15 minute expanse of overdriven guitars, the notes transformed into buzzing shards, the tones chime like but wreathed in pulsing electronics and grinding distortion, until the distortion dissipates, leaving a slowly unfurling tangle of steel strings and soft focus harmonics, transforming into a low end rumble and drift, until the final couple minutes when the guitars become blown out once again, creating a gorgeous squall of overlapping and almost psychedelic buzz, before slowly sinking into the murk. Quite challenging, pretty far out, but definitely haunting and strangely lovely. Fans of fucked up dronemusick, harmonicas, and gnarled guitars will definitely dig.
Gorgeous diecut packaging with super striking photos by Max Aguilera-Hellweg.
Latest issue of one of our favorite metal mags (and definitely the one with the best name ever!), The Convivial Hermit returns with another massive issue, overflowing with all sorts of dark and mysterious music, metal and otherwise (with a definite focus on the blacker side of metal), from all over the globe, and as always, lots of familiar names, but even more unfamiliar ones. We've discovered so much cool music via the 'Hermit, and it doesn't look like this new issue will be any different.
So here goes, the groups we know first: Finnish black metallers Ancestors Blood, avant grade Austrian metal horde Angizia, Japanese black metalheads Cataplexy, German neo-folkers Empyrium, Cascadian BM troop Fauna, Japanese doomlords Funeral Moth, Austrian blackened goth metallers Golden Dawn, Humiliation, a death metal band from Kulala Lumpur, Tolkien metal duo Summoning, Greek pagan black metalheads Kawir, long running Finnish death metal crew (and recent Circle collaborators) Stench Of Decay, Swedish black metallers Nasheim, Norwegian BM legends Isvind, Rotting Christ from Greece, SF's very own Worm Ouroboros, the long running, and now metal again (after a brief foray into electro/hip hop) Manes from Norway, experimental / avant ambient black metal drone dude Mhonos.
Then there are a ton of groups new to us: Annwfyn, Asbaar, Dperd, Draco Hypnalis, Ectovoid, Raflum, Sacratus, Velm, Woodland Choir and more! And as if that weren't enough, the magazine is also packed with articles, travel diaries, reviews of shows, and records and zines, and all sorts of other cool stuff. It's no wonder this doesn't come out more often, as it seems like a massive undertaking to get each issue together, but it's well worth the wait. And it's big enough, that you could very well still be working your way through it, when issue 8 rolls around. Needless to say, HIGHLY recommended. Essential reading for all adventurous metalheads!
We're always on the lookout for new music metal magazines, cuz as much as we love Decibel and Terrorizer, it's the cool DIY mags that really cover the stuff we love, in a way that seems totally genuine, driven purely by a love of the music, whether it's the now defunct Oaken Throne, or Salt (not strictly metal), or Asgard Root, we can't get enough. Which is why we were so thrilled to discover the curiously named Convivial Hermit, while at the same time confused as to how we missed the first 4 issues of this incredible magazine. Based in Warmonster, Pennsylvania (!!!), TCH covers a wide array of dark and heavy underground music, black metal, doom, psychedelic folk, industrial, and pretty much everything in between, as well as artists and filmmakers and whatever the hell else they feel like. This is issue five, and it's a doozy, featuring legendary slowcore doomlords Skepticism, Chinese neo-folk outfit Baishui, USBM horde Nechochwen, Korean metallers Sad Legend, Norwegian metal outfit Wallachia, filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky, Orson Welles' film Mr. Arkadin, mysterious Russian black metallers Walknut, black metallers Algaion, symphonic neo-folk group Rome, longtime aQ fave Steven R. Smith, Russian doom metal label Solitude Productions, Lovecraftian metal weirdos Fungoid Stream, funeral doom outfit Helllight, an essay on the dying art of compilations and reviews of some of the editor's faves, French Illustrator Chris Moyen, death metallers Affliction Gate, Spanish black metallers Beelzeb, German black metal horde Drengskapur, Italian black metal unknowns Adversam, an essay on hermits (!), acid folk legends and ALL time aQ faves Comus, Czech black metal weirdos Master's Hammer, French black metallers Aorlhac, legendary dark ambient soundscaper Raison D'Etre, Chinese label Pest Productions (whose releases we have featured on the aQ list recently!), an thoughtful essay on record stores and the future of recorded media (for which this 'zine would get our recommendation alone, read this!), and then of course, TONS of reviews, records, magazines, shows.
The magazine is massive, beautifully laid out, fun to read, packed with old faves and new discoveries, just might be out 'new' favorite metal mag!
Latest issue of this massive metal (and more) mag, only number six, in maybe twice as many years, but we look forward to every issue, it's sort of like Ugly Things for metalheads, but as the 'and more' above suggests, CH pushes way beyond just metal, there's industrial, folk, experimental, psych, electronic, drone, in addition to all the various strains of metal, and each issue is packed with tons of reviews, great articles and interviews, and as for the bands covered, tons of old favorites and even more new discoveries. All that and some seriously excellent writing to boot!!
So this time around, long time aQ faves Blut Aus Nord, Kiss The Anus Of A Black Cat, as well as Russian pagan black metallers Vspolokh, Finnish black metal weirdos Funerary Bell, neo-folkers Larrnakh, Icelandic experimental electronic duo Gjoll, Russian neo-folk combo Neutral, folkish black metallers Falls Of Rauros, German black metal horde Bergthron, old school Lusitanian BM outfit Cripta Oculta, Italian trad black metal combo Movimento D'Avanguardia Ermetico, Finnish death metal outfits Purtenance and Rippikoulu as well as a killer retrospective of Finnish death metal.
There's also UK death metallers Cruciamentum, an awesome primer on Japanese experimentalist Aube, a live review of Merzbow and Charles Cohen, post diSEMBOWELMENT outfit Inverloch, ambient neo-folkers Trial Of The Bow, spaced out doomlords Monolithe, Belorussian folk ambient outfit Dalina, ultradoomsters The Sullen Route, Israeli black metallers Dagor Dagorath, German BM horde Infestus, French black metal outfit Christicide, the Temple Of Torturous label, Philly record store Digital Ferret, a killer compendium of the worst metal of 2009-2011 (which had us sort of wishing for a whole mag's worth!), a review of 2011's Killtown Deathfest in Copenhagen and an interview with the festival's organizer, fantasy/horror novelist Joe Abercrombie, several really great essays by Convivial mainman Yury, as well as a visit to St. Peter's Village in rural Pennsylvania, some train hopping action (excerpted from another zine we love, Bogus Rendition), a bunch of zine reviews, record reviews, book reviews and more more more!
Easily one of the best, and more passionately put together music mags out there, metal or otherwise!
While this full-length doesn't venture into any new territory for this angstful, dissonant rock trio from Baltimore, it will surely be a welcome addition to the record collections of the Gold Standard Laboratories label fanatics (a legion that is growing at an accelerated rate). A dark tension binds and builds in each of these eight songs. If you like The VSS, Treepeople, or perhaps The Fall, this just might be for you.
The oddly named The Convocation Of... is the current musical outfit lead by one Mr. Tonie Joy (who has played guitar in almost every influential hardcore band of the '90s: Moss Icon, UOA, Born Against, The Great Unraveling... the list goes on! Oh, and he
Another haunting, meditative, dark sonic gem from local label Time Released Sound, this one a collaboration of sorts, two different groups, each taking every other track, and somehow, creating a surprisingly cohesive proper album. In fact, even though the title alludes to this being multiple groups, we sort of just assumed it was simply a strange band name, and this was all the work of a single entity. Thematically linked to the book Orlando, by Virginia Woolf, the tracks here are moody and minimal, mostly piano, but the pianos are wreathed in effects and textures, augmented by chiming melodies, and all sorts of layered ambience. There are definite differences between the two artists/sounds, with the Con_Cetta tracks, much more produced, lush and lovely, while the MonoLogue songs are murkier and gristlier, lots of hiss and static, gristle and grime. Field recordings surface throughout, and not sure if it's just us, but the last few TRS releases have been considerably darker, and Orlando is no different, with much of the record wreathed in shadow, brooding and ominous, cinematic mini-epics, that ooze dark emotion, and sinister sonic pathos. That's not to say the sounds here aren't lovely, they are indeed QUITE, but it's most definitely the sort of loveliness that disguises something darker just below the surface. And for all the differences, Con_Cetta are perfectly capable of getting grimy and murky, check out "Woe And Lamentation", which almost sounds like the two groups switched song order, and probably speaks to why both work so well together.
Fantastic stuff as always. Fans of TRS releases will of course find this essential, but for folks who have yet to delve into the mysterious musical world of Time Released Sound, and dig all things dark and mysterious, broody and moody, ambient and darkly dreamy, this could very well be the one that convinces you that you just might need to do some catching up. Fans of The Caretaker, Tim Hecker, and other practitioners of the hauntological glitch-drift arts, check it out!
As always, there are two versions, the deluxe version is totally over the top, extravagantly packaged, and LIMITED TO JUST 65 COPIES, already sold out from the label, we have THREE and that's it. It comes in a square box, covered, collaged and stamped, each with an attached antique enamel pocket watch face. Inside the box, a deconstructed / cut-up copy of the Woolf novel, a bird like nest of confetti like fragments, along with vintage paper ephemera, lace, leaves and other random bits and bobs, the cd is attached to a hub on the inside of the boxes lid, which is also printed, as is the underside of the box. Phew! The standard version is nice too, limited to 200 copies, and housed in a heavy, full color digipak.
Another haunting, meditative, dark sonic gem from local label Time Released Sound, this one a collaboration of sorts, two different groups, each taking every other track, and somehow, creating a surprisingly cohesive proper album. In fact, even though the title alludes to this being multiple groups, we sort of just assumed it was simply a strange band name, and this was all the work of a single entity. Thematically linked to the book Orlando, by Virginia Woolf, the tracks here are moody and minimal, mostly piano, but the pianos are wreathed in effects and textures, augmented by chiming melodies, and all sorts of layered ambience. There are definite differences between the two artists/sounds, with the Con_Cetta tracks, much more produced, lush and lovely, while the MonoLogue songs are murkier and gristlier, lots of hiss and static, gristle and grime. Field recordings surface throughout, and not sure if it's just us, but the last few TRS releases have been considerably darker, and Orlando is no different, with much of the record wreathed in shadow, brooding and ominous, cinematic mini-epics, that ooze dark emotion, and sinister sonic pathos. That's not to say the sounds here aren't lovely, they are indeed QUITE, but it's most definitely the sort of loveliness that disguises something darker just below the surface. And for all the differences, Con_Cetta are perfectly capable of getting grimy and murky, check out "Woe And Lamentation", which almost sounds like the two groups switched song order, and probably speaks to why both work so well together.
Fantastic stuff as always. Fans of TRS releases will of course find this essential, but for folks who have yet to delve into the mysterious musical world of Time Released Sound, and dig all things dark and mysterious, broody and moody, ambient and darkly dreamy, this could very well be the one that convinces you that you just might need to do some catching up. Fans of The Caretaker, Tim Hecker, and other practitioners of the hauntological glitch-drift arts, check it out!
As always, there are two versions, the deluxe version is totally over the top, extravagantly packaged, and LIMITED TO JUST 65 COPIES, already sold out from the label, we have THREE and that's it. It comes in a square box, covered, collaged and stamped, each with an attached antique enamel pocket watch face. Inside the box, a deconstructed / cut-up copy of the Woolf novel, a bird like nest of confetti like fragments, along with vintage paper ephemera, lace, leaves and other random bits and bobs, the cd is attached to a hub on the inside of the boxes lid, which is also printed, as is the underside of the box. Phew! The standard version is nice too, limited to 200 copies, and housed in a heavy, full color digipak.
Ry Cooder returns from his success with Buena Vista Social Club to produce a mostly instrumental album of not quite so traditional arrangements of Cuban tunes as well as some originals penned by himself and fellow guitarist Manuel Galban. Joined by the likes of bassist Cachaito, drummer Jim Keltner and augmented by various percussion, vibes, and organ, the two put together some heavily produced tunes much akin to the Latin Playboys. Engineer Jerry Boys even puts a Tchad Blake-esque spin on the production. Often smokey, drenched in reverb, the best songs have a very sountracky atmosphere. Then some, like their cover of Perez Prado's "Patricia" are just downright schmaltzy (though admittedly, that's a tough one to do otherwise.) Others, like the title track "Mambo Sinuendo", have so much Pro-Toolsification going on one would half expect to see Uwe "Atom Heart" Schmidt's name credited there somewhere.
We've been HUGE fans of Mira Cook since her first cassette, which we sold tons of when we first carried it about three years ago. Since then she put out her first full length which only made our love of her intimate, unique and honest music, grow stronger. We've been anticipating this release for a while now, and Broken Bones might just be her finest moment yet.
In so many ways Cook is a shining example of the true meaning of DIY. She teaches herself how to play different instruments, expands and experiments with the possibilities of her voice, and puts out her own records filled with songs that she writes, arranges and performs all by herself. That work ethic pays off and you can feel it in the sincerity and warmth in this new set of songs. While they still maintain the same immediacy and charm as her earlier work there is a deeper emotional impact as well as more space and breadth in these songs which truly work their way under our skin and into our subconsciousness. While folks like Tune-Yards and Dirty Projectors have become huge, there is something so much more organic, satisfying and subtle in Cook's songs that make us wish that SHE was the the one on the cover of so many magazines.
Cook has really mastered the use of repetition as means to create a trance inducing aura in her songs, and then her beautiful and mesmerizing voice and poignant lyrics just seal the deal. Stunning!
While we've loved pretty much everything we've heard from Mira Cook so far, on this new album, Eat The Cake, she's moven to a whole new sonic level. Movement being the key, as this is the most rhythmic, pulsating, and infectious collection of songs she's created yet.
Cook seems to have found a way to bring into her music, the physical movement she excels at as a professional dancer who travels the world. Cook is equally skilled in ballet as she is modern and African dance, which again is reflected on Eat The Cake, as she takes delicate and precise steps occasionally erupting into something much more visceral and emotive. Cook's voice is more assured than ever and these songs feel much less like sketches and more like fully realized sonic statements.
Organic and odd instrumentation meet electronics, and it becomes difficult to tell which is which. The sounds on Eat The Cake combines the instrumental delicacy and wonder of Colleen and shakes them up, down and all around, adding splashes of vibrant color and passionate energy. Some songs bring to mind a magical meeting of the minds between Broadcast and Lali Puna, while some moments sound like a dizzying mix of a Gamelan orchestra and Molly Nilsson, twirling together in musical ecstasy. Evocative and alluring, purposeful and playful and so highly recommended!
With only a single cassette release to her name, Mira Cook has already become one of our favorite delicate, hypnotic and entrancing music makers of the last few years. We've been lucky to get to see her play around town so much, each time watching as she adds a new self taught instrument to the mix, as she creates songs that are really like these miniature fairy tales of the everyday. Her cassette only release, was one of our best selling tapes of 2009, and for good reason. It introduced us to her unique, inviting and warm sensual world of sound. Signs contains some reworked versions of songs that appeared on the cassette along with a bunch of brand new tracks. Using loops as a way to create endless entrancing melody, and taking so sweetly to everything from dulcimer, to drum machines, to piano, to organ, etc., it's Mira's assured and captivating voice that transports us so utterly and completely. It's hard not to think about people like Joanna Newsom, Juana Molina and Bjork, as there is that same kind of unique vision, charm and golden presence in Cook's songs. We're also reminded a lot of that a capella record that Petra Haden made covering The Who's Sell Out. Like the musical equivalent of a Joseph Cornell box, every song on Signs is filled with such unique treasures!
Nothing excites us more then discovering a new talent at the beginning of what we know will be a long run of brilliant and inspiring releases. Such is the case with this cassette-only release from Mira Cook. While dancing is her main mode of creative expression she began playing with tape loops, recording her beautiful voice and the various instruments in her bedroom, and started to construct these wonderfully simple yet elegant songs. Eventually, those sounds and songs demanded to move beyond the confines of her four walls and into the ears of music lovers everywhere. And hopefully that will begin to happen more and more, as she's started playing shows around town and is slowly becoming more comfortable with recording herself as well.
Many of us got to see Mira play live for the first time just a few weeks ago when she played a set at Irwin aQ's film screening over at ATA. You couldn't help but be won over by her glowing presence and her lovely songs, created by building harmonies from her looped voice and her subtle instrumentation (organ, marimba, dulcimer, etc.) with totally electrifying results.
While most of the current crop of loop-based musicians seem more interested in getting lost in muddy drones (which we like lots for sure) it's so nice to hear someone who sounds so assured and you can actually hear what is being sung and feel the meaning of the songs through their ghostly repetition. We're reminded a bit of Samara Lubelski, Bjork, or what it might sound like if you could match a voice to the delicate and intimate sounds Colleen creates with her dreamy instrumentals. There is something so pure and sincere that comes across in these songs, Mira Cook is not trying to be a part of any kind of scene or sound, instead she is following a very instinctual and unique vision and we have a feeling this is going to be one of those cassettes that you will be able to brag about owning in a few years. Highly recommended!
Discovered by James Brown while playing at a block party in Augusta, Georgia in 1973, Tony Cook was just a high school boy at the time, but even James Brown could see there was something very special about this particular boy. In fact just a few years later Brown recruited Cook to become the drummer for the JB's, a position he would hold off and on all the way until the end of James Brown's life. But beyond his playing with Brown, on his own, Cook became known for some of the most forward and fantastically fucked up left-field funk to come out of the '80s. Mixing elements of disco, funk, and space minded oddity, Cook created jams that sound like the perfect segue between Afrika Bambata and Prince.
Makes perfect sense that the Stones Throw crew would be big time fans of Cook, who heavily influenced folks like Dam-Funk and Peanut Butter Wolf. Makes sense then too, that Stones Throw would take it upon themselves to release this long overdue anthology of Cook's funky prowess.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
This is the kind of record that makes it hard to listen to anything else. This is Sam Cooke at his artistic peak! Of course the vocals are some of the best recorded male vox of all time. The instrumentation is superb and still fresh sounding with folks like Billy Preston creating the perfect layer for Cooke's voice to lay on top of and seep into our veins like only he could. "Night Beat" is the moodiest album he ever made and one that you can tell was definitely meant to be heard as an album and not just a platform for singles. When Cooke's voice firsts greets us on the opener "Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen" it's impossible not to be struck by the urgency, the poignancy, the meaning oozing from his heart and soul. It's a record that you have to listen to alone at night for the first time to totally appreciate. And then it will be there for you at any time of day. With Cooke singing songs about this mean mean world we all have to live through and the ways we all try to survive, the emotional depth and clarity is so stunning. While he's usually not thought of in this kind of company we think playing this alongside Cat Power's Moon Pix and Bonnie Prince Billy's I See A Darkness would make for a perfect triple bill of deep rooted emotional poignancy. You gotta have this!
When we first heard the name Cookie Brooklyn, thoughts of pop-funk immediately sprung to mind, but the ten tracks on this 3" cd-r reveal something completely not that! Ah, but we would've known that if we'd just looked at the name of the label who released this! Yup, although the release came to us via the New Zealand label Oak Park (home to dark, spacy, country rockers Marineville), it's actually on Anthony Milton's label Pseudo Arcana.
Seemingly inspired by Keiji Haino (the acoustic Black Blues album for instance) and/or Jandek, these 1997-2001 home recordings drift more into the realm of experimental folk. Deconstructed melodic elements, spartan instrumentation (often just effected electric guitar and voice), fleeting clouds of buzzing dissonance, generous application of reverb, and some very detached and stream-of-consciousness-y murmurred and muttered vocals.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
One of our favorite magazines (and that's not just because it includes a metal column written by our very own Allan) tackles sports (haha) this time around. Articles on Deerhoof, Ben Weasel, Kevin Seconds, plus lots more sports, violence, bikes, caffeine, hockey and some golf haikus (?) from Kyle of Fuck. Plus, comes with a free cd with unreleased music from J Church, Dealership, Deerhoof, the Monitors, Three Day Stubble, Jim Yoshi Pileup, and more.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
New issue of everybody's favorite caffeinated, truck driving, taxi cab, bicycling, indie-rock-music-and-life magazine. This time we've got an interview with our own Andee, on his label, his straight edge lifestyle, and his illogical and unfettered love of drug and booze soaked rock. Also Lee Ranaldo interviews William S. Burroughs, Rob Crow (Thingy, Heavy Vegetable, Pinback), Hood, and much more! CD includes tracks by Circle (2 really short, unreleased tracks), Burmese (doing a Brainbombs cover), Daniel Johnston, Hood, Xiu Xiu, Rob Crow, Mono Pause, Shut Up Little Man! and more.
Our favorite f*cker, I mean, tr*cker, Matt "Cool Beans" Kelly is back with another issue of his fab 'zine. It's the Truck Truck Truckin issue, based in part on Matt's recent employment experience, though he's no longer roaming the open highway now, being back in Berkeley doing less drivin', more strivin'. So, this ish includes Matt's truck driving memoirs (July-November 2001), a CB lingo glossary, truck drawings, a trucker-themed belt buckle pictorial, and more. Being an indie-rock/punk 'zine, theres also of course some music-related interviews -- Deadbolt, Jad Fair, Daniel Johnston, Foibles -- but don't worry, most of the questions are about trucks and trucking. And it wouldn't be Cool Beans without the bonus cd, which this time features truckin' music from a bunch o' folks, including Slow Poisoners, Deadbolt, Rhythm Pigs, Unbunny, Big Red Goad, Foibles, Dan Hayes, Bush League All Stars, and others... Jad Fair does "Phantom 309"! AND Matt thoughtfully provides instructions for how best to dub the cd on to 8-track, for a more authentic trucker listening experience.
With all the great records of '80s pop revival we've been diggin' on so much lately (M83, Cut Copy, Hot Chip) it's about time someone did the same with that special time in hip-hop's golden age. Luckily The Cool Kids have stepped up to the plate and made a super fun record that recalls so much of what made us fall in love with hip-hop in the first place. The production and playful spirit captures the old school flavor of folks like EPMD, Eric B & Rakim, RUN-DMC and the first two LL Cool J records. It makes us remember when we would set our VCR's to record those amazing early episodes of Yo! MTV Raps.
We first were exposed to The Cool Kids when they opened for M.I.A last year and while a lot of hip-hop has a hard time translating live, they were so great and full of irresistible energy and youthful charm. We love how stripped down and immediate The Bake Sale sounds. It's clever and dorky but unlike the trend of nerd-on-sleeves 'indie hip-hop' that spawned labels like Anticon and Mush this doesn't have that same kind of smarmy self-consciousness. Instead this is a record that evokes images of spraypaint, video games, colorful hoodies and youthful energy at its best!
Ever since we caught these guys opening for M.I.A. several years ago we knew there was something special about them. Let's be honest, the state of modern hip-hop leaves a lot to be desired, but damn The Cool Kids do it so right! Infusing the influence of '80s hip-hop glory, into more modern productions, yet never sounding like a tired throwback group, these kids make beats that hit and songs that stick.
When Fish Rides Bicycles finds them upping the intensity from their great debut, The Bake Sale. The album opens with such a banger and from that moment on the record keeps its energy and its focus sharp and charged. While some noncommercial hip-hop artists tend to shy away from big sick beats we love how The Cool Kids embrace those very same elements, yet it's how they incorporate them and the overall vibe of their tracks that makes them stand so far ahead of the pack. Of course the root of thier sound is the golden era of hip-hop, and we can hear awesome moments that remind us of Eric B & Rakim, Kool Moe Dee, KRS-1, and EPMD.
The Cool Kids also have a great understanding of the economy of sounds. They don't clutter their tracks and they also keep things so tight, with no silly interludes or throwaway tracks. Cool guest appearances too by folks like Mayer Hawthorne, Ghostface, and Bun B only add to the potent mix. An absolute contender for hip-hop album of the year!
No idea who this Cool Person is; but he / she / it / them hail from Gainsville, Florida and landed this outsider chunk of electronica on Hooker Vision. At its most sensible, the Cool Person ethos follows more of a rhythmless, atonal, and organic sounds similar to Matmos and Mouse On Mars, all done on a very lo-fi scale, with squelching tones and ring-modulated arpeggiations sent along divergent paths; but at other times, echoplex delay patterns crosshatch into swarms of gritty feedback or swarming Reichian drones that cut against abstracted polygons of golden tones with hints of those Frankenstein tape constructions from any given Joseph Hammer project circa 1983. A strange one, but a very intriguing tape from this anonymous project. Released in a tiny batch of just 50 copies, all of which are sold out at the source, so these are the last few copies...
Apt title, but despite being a bad, violent man, fiddler Spade Cooley made some great music, helping to establish the style known as "Western Swing" back in the 1940s. 25 songs, 9 with the vocals of Tex Williams, the others all adrenaline-fueled instrumentals. These tracks are all previously unreleased versions, cut for radio broadcast and never before available to the public.
We do love our lo-fi New Zealand indie rock, and South Auckland's Coolies apparently realize that we like it best really lo-fi... and noisy... 'cause that's what they deliver! We're not surprised we dig 'em so much, 'cause their current drummer happens to be Stefan Neville, of AQ-fave NZ noise-popsters Pumice (and The Futurians, etc.), and he also recorded, mixed and edited the material on Master. Otherwise consisting of girls (Tina and Sjionel), who started the band as teens, Coolies have been around since the late '90s, releasing a 7" back in 2000, and a 10-song tape recorded on a ghetto blaster... but this is their first full-length cd, comprising music made over the past four or so years since Stefan joined the band. Raucous, energetic, poppy, punky, "annoying" (their word), "brilliant" (also theirs, but we tend to agree), the ten tracks on Master, most of 'em short sharp shocks, should appeal to NZ noise nerds, as well as peeps into today's burgeoning garage punk girl-groop soundz like Vivian Girls, Brilliant Colors, Grass Widow... the DIYness of this also brings to mind those Messthetics comps of '80s UK cassette culture. Oh and we're also reminded of Kleenex/Liliput. In short, the Coolies are cool. If you're in the mood for some raw, angular, urgently rhythmic "pop" songs that is! From the same label that brought us recent the Record Of The Week by Fabulous Diamonds, another Down Under fave...
('Tis also on vinyl, we're out at the moment, but should get some soon...)
