THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
What is Destro 1? Well, on an initial listen the general consensus around here was that it sounds like circa-'88 Seattle grunge fury (think Skin Yard or Soundgarden) filtered through the Olympia, WA punk scene. Loud. Raw. Vocal chords ripped to shreds. Let's put it this way, a bunch of emergency vehicles blazed by AQ with sirens screaming while this was playing and... it fit perfectly. Produced by Steve Albini, no less.
New recordings from Detroit's legendary Destroy All Monsters, recorded between 1998 and 2001. Less rock and more sound art pieces, some utilizing vocal tracks (from master tapes!) of Sun Ra and samples from Masaya Nakahara (aka Violent Onsen Geisha). Also
Not a new album, but a glimpse at some earlier, pre-New Pornographers Dan Bejar's songcraft. This bard of Vancouver, BC's particularly impassioned, often-pinched Hitchcock / Nilsson-esque vocal delivery weaves his eccentric, poetic and moving tales
Don't wanna sound corny, but... awww to hell with it, we've gotta say that this Vancouver band must've plucked their Rubies from the Wicked Witch Of The West's ruby red slippers cause there's some magic happening here. Wow! Bandleader Dan Bejar's eccentric blend of folk, glam, psych and pop reaches new heights and depths on this, their sixth album. Destroyer's Rubies positively overflows with confidence, ambition and grandeur. Over the years, Bejar's music has drawn comparisons (by us and other folks) to the elder likes of Robyn Hitchcock, Harry Nilsson, David Bowie and Cat Stevens. This kinship has primarily resided in the lilting warbly vocal department, but there's also a good deal of similar shading in each of the songwriters' often cryptic and deeply personal tales. Ever the nomadic troubadour traversing the wilds of Canada at whim, Bejar's lyrical storytelling takes a similar roaming, stream of consciousness path. And it's such a pleasure to be able to join him for this ten song spell. Check out the album's centerpiece, and definitely one of its highlights "Looter's Follies". Fantastic in every sense of the word!
Despite his usual laidback West Coast-y '70s mellowness, Destroyer's Dan Bejar is keepin' the '80s vibe alive in more ways than one on this album. He keeps a steady groovin' pace with mid-tempo electronic drum beats, and swoons along with synth sequences and saxophone lines. Sounds like he even scooped the hook from OMD's "Enola Gay" on "Savage Night At The Opera", doncha think? Fans will be happy to find his unmistakable, cryptic lyrical chops still intact though. His tales always leave us gently scratching our heads in slightly bewildered but gleeful wonder!
A short time ago we heard that he had decided not to release any more music. We were pretty damn sad to hear that, but at the same time had a full respect and appreciation for his decision to do so. Then he put out a collaboration with Tim Hecker and Loscil (Archer on the Beach / Grief Point 12"), and now this full length. So, we're not quite sure where he stands on the subject at this point. Mind you, it is called Kaputt, so??? Maybe he's gonna be like KISS, and keep comin' back for more... his band name is Destroyer after all. Heh heh!
Now that Daniel Bejar has left the New Pornographers (yes, sadly it's true) to return to his solo wanderer's journey (with stops already in Spain and Montreal), this album appears almost as a marker of the occasion. Fear not, the NPs will continue forth, as
Lead by one very talented Daniel Bejar - a fellow whose voice and songwriting draw shades and moods reminiscent of those of Robyn Hitchcock, Harry Nilsson, and Cat Stevens but ends up sounding like a more twee Modest Mouse (his voice is occasionally a dead ringer for Isaac Modest Mouse's indie warble)- Destroyer is a veritable Vancouver indie rock supergroup. Starring such notables as Jason Zumpano (yes, drummer and namesake of the wonderful Sub Pop pop group Zumpano here handling piano and keyboard duties) and John Collins (bassist/producer who has donned the colours of garage pop vets The Smugglers, The Evaporators, not to mention the noise pop crowd known as Superconductor). On 'Thief', Destroyer exhibits similar pop polish and flourish as that of Zumpano. At times rollicking, at times sensitive, pretty and low key. A great summer album.
At long last Destroyer (aka Dan Bejar and co.) receives some well-deserved widespread distribution, thanks to the wonderful Merge Records. The previous three albums (Thief, City Of Daughters and Streethawk) were released on small indies, and as a result probably haven't reached as many hungry ears as they deserve. For those unfamiliar, apart from his fine solo efforts Mr. Bejar was also a significant songwriting force along with Carl Newman for the New Pornographers' Mass Romantic album, lending his distinct, slightly more eccentric lyrical twists to their pop magic. But shortly thereafter, he took to the road, travelling from Vancouver to Montreal, Spain, New York, and who knows where else. Somewhere in there he found time to write and record these fifteen songs. A modern day roaming minstrel? He's joined on this album by Fisher Rose (former NP drummer), Chris Frey and Nicolas Bragg. This Night is full of his oft-obtuse, yet deeply poetic writings, and is perhaps his most fleshed out, lush and consistent album to date. Swimming against the current flood of singer/songwriter folk-inflected melancholia, Bejar's songs do more than tug at the heartstrings or play with the emotions. This is not the music of a quick fix although his sweet jangly pop hooks do surface every so often ("Here Comes The Night"). Almost seeming from a different time, the first three songs alone will sweep you up into his world - keeping you on your toes with tempo shifts and his particular vocal inflections - and draw you back again with each listen. Recommended.
Chock up another dandy from Destroyer! Love, travel and other projects (New Pornographers, Swan Lake, Hello Blue Roses among others) sure haven't kept Daniel Bejar from his main musical outlet. Unlike many other multi-taskin' music folks these days, with Bejar nothing gets the short end of the stick. You can always count on consistently high caliber pop songcraft, artful arrangements, wryly witty and obtuse lyrics, and that voice -- equal parts Donovan, Marc Bolan, and Cat Stevens. Ultra liltingly sensitive and so darn Canadian-earnest! And it's all stamped with the indelible, unmistakable mark of the Bejar... Free spirited and fantastic!
Always keeping his audience on their toes and following his own eccentric whim, Canadian musical vagabond Dan Bejar (also an erstwhile member of the New Pornographers) shook things up a bit and took a slightly different path for this, his fifth Destroyer album. He, along with (fellow New Pornographer) John Collins and Collins' JC/DC Studio partner Dave Carswell, brought his trusty acoustic guitar and percussion to the recording sessions, but also chose to delve into the land of MIDI programming! We heard rumors a month or so ago about this being an album of radical changes for Bejar, however the actual results aren't all that drastic nor alienating nor all that MIDI apparent. In fact, they're pretty darn consistently top-notch Bejar albeit much more grand and lush in orchestration a la Van Dyke Parks or Bacharach. Give a listen to one of the album's highlights, the lovely "New Ways Of Living". Aaaah, definitely right up there with his last few albums! More gorgeously heartfelt, melancholy epic pop, with Bejar's unmistakable keening sad boy voice that always gets us!
Furious old-school blackened death metal from Australia. This record was quite a surprise considering how much their earlier efforts sucked. But this is the shit. Incredibly heavy and surprisingly catchy with relentless Norwegian style blast beats mixed
Geez Mr. Bejar, the paint is barely dry on your last album Your Blues and you're already revisiting and reworking some of those songs! Unlike other artists whose intentions (and their record label's) might be more suspect (i.e, marketing ploys, etc), Bejar's artistic sincerity is untarnished. You do believe that this ep's existence is not due to an unhappiness / dissatisfaction with his previous renderings. No, not at all. Instead, perhaps inspired by the volatile artistry of his recent tourmates (and AQ faves) Frog Eyes, Bejar has approached these songs with a slightly more unhinged vision. Whereas Your Blues was thoroughly composed and grand, this is much more stripped down and guitar-driven. The contrast is immediately noticeable from just one look at the two releases' cover art - the subject matter is the same, but the brush and pen strokes are drastically different, one is calmly shaded while the other is almost violently slashed out. What these six songs really unveil though is the fresh, potent chemistry that flows between Bejar and the Frog Eyes crew who perform with him on this release. Sparks fly with a tingly energy! Check out one of the cd's highlights, the title track "Notorious Lightning" on which F.E. mainman Carey Mercer joins Bejar at the mic. Pretty darn great! Should cause much cross-pollination between the two bands' fanclub memberships.
Pretty sure these will be gone in a flash, so we'll keep this review short and sweet! Likewise, if you want one, please don't dilly dally. A limited edition 12" by a super Canadian team-up of aQ faves - Destroyer, Loscil, and Tim Hecker. Dan Bejar wrote and sang the lyrics, while the other two gents of ambient artistry composed and performed the atmospheric backdrop. Zoweee! Includes a digital download coupon.
Comeback attack from '80s German thrash legends, the trio known as Destruction! And it really is a comeback, 'cause this rules. Not year 2000 updated at all, just their patented ferocious twisting guitar thrash, catchy and headbanging indeed, just like their old classics. Fans of current bands in the speed/death vein like the
Destruction-worshippers Defleshed should be sure to get this. And they still spell "disaster" "desaster"! The unlisted bonus track, a cover of Metallica's "Whiplash" is a little predictable of a choice, though.
Destruction!!! The '80s German thrash masters are still at it, and they've still "got it" too. We slipped up and didn't review their last album, 2003's Metal Discharge, so let's make up for that by mentioning this one, another old school flashback for sure. If you just want to bang your head and fantasize about bloody cleaver-wielding maniacs, you can't go too far wrong with Destruction's latest (or the one before this one, or the one before that, or all way back to their pre-reunion '80s classics). This is metal music that looks good in a bullet belt, nothing more, nothing less. Simple and aggressive and to the (sharpened) point.
Metal fans should also note that the track "The Alliance Of Hellhounds" features a gang of guest vocalists -- the singers from Dimmu Borgir, Candlemass, Soilwork, Doro, Rage, Death Angel, Hypocrisy (Peter Tagtagren, who produced this album as well), and Iron Maiden (Paul, not Bruce or Blaze) alongside Destruction's own Schmier!
Here's the sophomore comeback album for Germany's flagship thrash outfit, '80s vets Destruction. Chainsawing their way through 11 tracks of their trademark high energy, uh, thrash, they prove that last year's "All Hell Breaks Loose" wasn't a fluke. They're
The return of the Destructo Swarmbots, who from the name, one can only assume is in fact a species of alien android, who appear in clouds of millions and millions of microscopic musical machines, that swarm into your ears and work their micromusicalmagic on your inner ear, and we love it. The last ep from these things (actually, this guy, named Mike) was a huge AQ favorite, a gorgeous soundscape of whirring droning ambience, and it wasn't difficult to imagine it could have been the work of millions of tiny sentient machines.�
This new one is a lot more organic, and more musical, conjuring up spaced out seventies krautrock as much as ambient experimental drone music. Trolling similar dark musical paths as Expo 70 or Horseflesh, to name a few recent AQ list luminaries, and thus the curtain is pulled back revealing the heart beating softly within each and every one of these Swarmbots.�
The opener is a nearly 40 minute ambient space jam, some musical outer space exploration, ribbons of buzzing guitar, and swirls of shimmery synth unfurl in huge weightless loops, drifting amidst glimmering stars and clouds of sonic space dust, rumbling and reverberating as the hull of the mother ship passes overhead. Eventually a keening wash of resonating high end builds into a swirling ocean of sound, melodies breaking apart and joining together again in different formations, almost like some primordial musical DNA, the guitar continuing to resurface like some massive black SUNNO))).
The three shorter tracks are like satellites orbiting the first: brief cinematic snippets of sound, strange ambience, mysterious murk, the warm warble of what sounds like horns, the groan and drone of low end tones, fluttering flickers of feedback, buzzing space synth psychedelic freakouts, cavernous low end loops, whirring minimal softdoom, haunting reverbed guitar muted and sent spinning into the ether, foghorn like swells, dreamy bleary eyed melancholy drifts, each track a strange little musical microcosm.
What kind of sounds would you expect from a band called Destructo Swarmbots? Don't bother guessing because you'd probably be way off. No squealing, grinding metallic mayhem here, instead this mysterious duo offer up three extended tracks of warm and creepy, fuzzy rumbling drone. As if you were sneaking through a mazelike series of tunnels, only to discover a whole legion of Destructo Swarmbots, secretly toiling away in an underground cavern, assembling some mysterious organic machine, and the huge space reverberates with the ominous humming and whirring of the 'bots incessant laboring. Definitely for the drone minded among you. Cool 3" cd packaged in a normal sized jewel case.
Ahh, the eyes they may be wandering, but Canadian country/folk songstress Angela Desveaux knows where she's goin' with her impressive debut on Thrill Jockey. Indeed, her first full length is a remarkably accomplished, golden affair with quite a luminous array of guests, mostly pals from a little Montreal music scene you just might be familiar with (former Arcade Fire drummer Howard Bilerman, Hanged Up's Genevieve Heistek, Harris Newman, Wooden Stars' Mike Feuerstack, and Mike Moya of Molasses, Set Fire To Flames, Hrsta et al). She alternately brings to mind the sweet youthful earnestness of current girlish singers such as Jenny Lewis or Laura Veirs and the aching world weariness and womanly wisdom of Lucinda Williams and Gillian Welch (in press photos she actually looks like she could be Welch's long lost younger sister), leaning more heavily in the range of the latter two. Recommended!
Detention are an improv group of students in detention hall after school. No, that's not true. Would have been cool though. Detention is a duo featuring Montreal musicians Sam Shalabi (whom you may know from the lovely psychedelica of the Shalabi Effect, as well as his band Molasses, etc.) and Alex MacSween, playing guitar and drums, respectively. This is an improv session, and
Every once in a while, we run across some obscure old school metal reissue that really, really makes us go "heck yeah, that's why we love obscure old school metal!!!" Max Planck, Drakar, Coven, Dark Quarterer, Wolfbane, the list goes on. The latest discovery we've been freaking out about is this one from Swedish band Detest, who released a five song mini-lp in 1990 with the very metal title of Thundersteel (a name already used by Riot for an album 2 years earlier, so don't be confused), now reissued with tons of bonus tracks from the band's demos (filling up two whole cds!) by the cult metal Stormspell label as part of their archival "Red White Heavy Arcane Collector Series For The Initiated", which previously brought us that Max Planck among others.
Maybe what first attracted us to Detest was the intriguing cover art, a cartoony black & white & red drawing of a (despondent? pensive?) man-creature with sword, crouching at the top of some steps, apparently on a mountainside, near an altar (?), with lightning in the background and a small lizard in the foreground. Very curious. On the back cover of the cd booklet, the scene is the same, but the humanoid is gone, his sword left stuck in the earth. Did he go back down the steps? Or climb further up the cliff? Or jump off?
While wondering about all that, we started listening to the music - and were blown away. The first disc opens with the title track, "Thundersteel", and immediately you'll be smitten like we were, if you're into heavy, epic, glorious metal in the style of Manowar, Candlemass, and Doomsword - with a 'deeper' lyrical twist, as it's about the hypocrisy and evil of Christian crusaders killing heathens. It's got classic stamped all over it. And Detest keep up the quality, galloping through the rest of the disc with quite a few more killer songs that vary from the doomy to the thrashy, always pretty dang catchy and HEAVY. There's more riff monsters like "Chains Of Hell", another epic romp; insidious Bay Area thrash influenced attacks like "Cold Steel Tears Your Flesh"; and even some dementedly WTF? heaviness in the form of the plodding, extra-sludgy "Steinhurst's Chainsaws". Detest kick out plenty of memorably melodic cuts too, like the powerful "Crossfire", "Zone Of Nowhere" and the singalong mead-hall folkmetal of "One Too Many"; there's even a pretty decent, heartfelt ballad with 12-string acoustic guitar, "Angel Of Mine", but elsewhere it's more or less all about chunky riffage, ripping twin leads, rough wailing vox...
Disc two has its share of gems on it too, but to be honest disc one is SO good that we keep playing it over and over and haven't yet really given the second disc enough spins to write much about it in this review! Nice to know it's there to get into when/if we ever tire of disc one, though. 28 tracks total on this anthology, and somehow, despite the DIY recording of most of this, the production quality is pretty excellent overall regardless if the tracks are from the mini-lp or from demos.
The very thick cd booklet includes a band bio, full lyrics, and detailed notes on each track from the band's vocalist/guitarist Micke Darth. There's also an interview with him, where he answers various questions including why the band was called Detest: "Slayer was taken". Plus there's more drawings by the guy that did the cover, of that guy on the cover, Detest's scrappy little red naked furry sword wielding mascot we suppose.
Definitely something special about this band, we're SO glad Stormspell dug this up 'cause we'd never have heard 'em otherwise. Clearly a talented, intelligent band (with kind of a weird sense of humor but also a serious, sincere vibe) that were making this music in their garage more for themselves than for any larger audience - which is insane since so much of this stuff is so much better than a lot of things released by other bands of the era who "made it", y'know? Highest recommendation to anyone into cult underground '80s heavy metal!
Originally intended to be a Record Store Day release, the awesomely and confusionally titled Racial Golf Course No Bitches is the first full length from UK noise rock weirdos Dethscalator, fulfilling the promise of their kick ass split with fellow heavies Hey Colossus from back in 2009, somehow managing to trump their jams from that split, pushing the sound even further, getting heavier, filthier, noisier, and weirdly more melodic, and even dubbier too.
On the surface, these guys are total old school AmRep knuckle dragging numbskulls, sounding like a revved up Brainbombs or (slightly) less drug addled Rusted Shut, but dig deeper to discover all sorts of twisted shit going on. The above mentioned dubbiness is all over the place, drums, vocals, guitars, doused in echo and reverb and sent spinning into clouds of distorted noise, it's subtle in places, but not even remotely in others, the sound, like on the split, feeling almost looped in places, the band locked into churning cyclical riffage, that just grinds endlessly, while all around it, drums pound, FX swirl, vocals howl.
Check out opener "Black Percy" which pairs a Motorhead riff with some Butthole Surfers style tribal drumming, before exploding into a full on metal punk blowout, with wild unhinged David Yow (Jesus Lizard / Scratch Acid) style vocals, but then out of nowhere in swoops a crazy metallic melody that's so catchy, it almost sounds like another song. But it works somehow, and ends up being probably the catchiest jam here, which, as surprising as it might sound, is saying something, cuz there's a lot of unlikely catchiness tucked amidst all this skull caving, rib cage rattling noise. Tracks like "Grotto Crank" take a riff and work it to death, stretching it way out, while yowled vox disappear in clouds of dubbed out FX and are transformed into another layer of buzz, the song lurching and lumbering, almost like some sort of brain damaged slo-mo prog, before finally launching into some serious metallic pummel, only to almost immediately splinter, and collapse into some feedback drenched dirgery, again, everything dubbed out like crazy, turning an otherwise noisy plod into a freaky psychedelic damaged dirge. Fuck yeah. Another favorite is the awesomely titled "World War Two Hitler Youth Dagger", which adds some serious math to the mix, a roiling sprawl of tangled riffage and caveman drum pound, but laced with some soaring guitar shreddery, some droned out psychedelia, and again, some seriously damaged dubbiness as well.
We could go track by track, but by now, having read the above, and presumably listened to some of the sounds below, you know if this is your cup of PCP laced sonic tea or not. It most definitely is ours. Easily the best noise rock record of the year, and most certainly vying for a year end top ten spot, noise rock or otherwise.
Needless to say, fans of Brainbombs, Drunkdriver, Rusted Shut, Violent Students, Billy Bao, Twin Stumps, No Balls, Mayyors, White Mice, Liquorball, Hey Colossus, Homostupids, Shit And Shine, and other sonic shit stirrers, you can add Dethscalator to your arsenal of room clearing, ear drum destroying, speaker shredding crush.
LIMITED TO 400 COPIES!!! Pressed on 140 gram pink bubblegum vinyl.
Five compositions for small ensemble, electronics and tape by obscure Croatian composer Dubravko Detoni (b. 1937). Trained as a pianist and having studied composition at Darmstadt, Detoni is well versed in modern composition techniques, electronics, musique concrete and group improvisation, and manages to incorporates all these elements seamlessly in his works. The five compositions on this CD, recorded between 1973 and 1976, have never before been released in the U.S. Utilizing recorders, clarinets, saxophone, piano, harpsichord, celesta, electric organ, glockenspiel, voice, viola, double bass, tuba, electronics and tape, the music of Dubravko Detoni falls somewhere in the 20th century spectrum between AMM, Gruppo Di Improvvisazione, and Igor Wakhevitch.
Pakt is a harrowing, abject experiment in doom-ed blackness, the debut from this Norwegian duo, who weave a suffocating expanse of dense layered blackness, a dizzying hybrid of blacknoize, dark hypnotic dronemusic, and funereal doom. But even as a strange hybridized bit of sonic experimentalism, Pakt still stands out as one of the coolest, weirdest records we've heard.
The opening track lays it all out, the dark chaotic crunch, the pulsing throbbing blackness, the strange, seemingly out of place melodicism, from the first few minutes, a strange sound like an approaching train, distant reverbed vocals, a slow build to a sort of post industrial black drift, the chug of the 'train', overtaken by another layer of buzz, that sounds more like a helicopter than any sort of instrument, then in comes some achingly mournful minimal minor key melodies, while that helicopter sound, becomes an almost riff-like pulse, and coalesces into thick syrupy SUNN-y sludge, before slipping right back into that pulsing chug, this time accompanied by crooned clean, high vocals, almost like a pop song set amidst all the roiling blackness, a strange mix for sure, but it works, creating a sort of dour black industrial pop.
The rest of the record is equally as striking, spreading out swaths of coruscating feedback, over deep tectonic rumbles, letting the sounds build into undulating sheets of doomgaze, before becoming a proper slabs of glacial doom, tamping down thick buzzing riffage into hushed, blurred downtuned shimmer, laced with field recordings, disembodied processed voices, buried melodies, creaking machinelike percussion, simple strummed acoustic guitars, butted up against massive squalls of blackpsych guitarnoise, 16 rpm riffage gradually slowing down and easing into brooding Godspeed style slow build post rock, or exploding into brief flares of Nadja like doomdronedirge, but seemingly always settling back into something darker and hauntingly tranquil. Awesome stuff. Most definitely for fans of Nadja, SUNNO))), Troum, Skullflower, To Blacken The Pages, Robedoor, Bong, Have A Nice Life, Fear Falls Burning, Marzuraan, Snowblood and other purveyors of avant blackness, brooding post metal, and all things slow, low, heavy and blackened.
Features super striking red and black Justin Bartlett artwork...
While we're sure the Detroit Cobras remain as volatile and fiery as ever in the live setting, but for their newest album Baby, it sounds like they've toned down the flammables just a bit. At a few points in the very first song, it wouldn't seem at all unlikely for the band to segue right into "Dancing In The Streets" (the original Martha & The Vandellas version, not the Bowie/Jagger one, mind you!), we bet they'd do a pretty rad rendition (that is, if they haven't already, which wouldn't be at all surprising since covers make up the bulk of their repertoire). Perhaps, this might disappoint a few of their old fans who are more accustomed and addicted to the sweat'n'whisky soaked retro blues rawk recklessness, but it just might win them a bunch more on their surprising new label home, the Americana haven Bloodshot Records. When taken in the context of their new usually alt-country-centric label digs, the guitars take on more of a desert twang, the bass a more gunslinger stance, and the drums a galloping pace. But of course it's Rachel Nagy's soulful vocals that define the Cobras' ultra rad sound, and as always her performance keeps you riveted right up front and center. Psst, this is an 'enhanced cd' which means it includes a video for their tune "Cha Cha Twist"!
This is the second full length from this band, not new really but worth bringing to your attention. They really do live in Detroit, they don't tour much, but when they do they put on a kick ass show, see them if you get a chance. As I (Sadie) wrote in my review of Mink Rat or Rabbit, they formed back in 1994, and two albums, 3 singles, and several personnel changes later, they are still kickin' serious garage ass!!! Sure, they -are- a cover band: they cover mostly old Stax / Motown songs, but the ones they pick, and and the fire and fury and sexiness and funkiness that they add is what makes them so special. Lead singer Rachel has the deepest sexiest voice ever. EVER! Fans of old soul and garage, especially the Nuggets and Pebbles comps definitely need to check these cats out!!
This is yet another cd that is not new but is -so- important to our Sadie that we are listing it now. "Mink Rat or Rabbit" was the first release by this lovely Detroit quintet, a band I just can't shut up about. I've convinced, like, seven of my friends to buy
We weren't expecting a new album yet from the mighty Detroit Cobras, but they went and surprised us with the super satisfying Tied & True. On this their fourth full length they continue on with the more 'reigned in' but no less potent approach heard on their last album Baby -- exuding barrels of '60s girl group charm and sass coverin' old Stax and Motown gems in their own tight yet loose rock'n'roll fashion. All the raw grit, the sultry soul and the lusty blues you've come to love and count on from this band is here in spades. This time around Rachel Nagy's always awesome, lusty voice frequently reminded us of a young Chrissie Hynde. Go figure! Great stuff!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
By now all readers of the aQ list understand our obsession with fucked black metal. Demented, damaged, bizarre and brilliant. We can't get enough. From Benighted Leams to Rehtaf Ruo to Furze to Necrofrost to Striborg. Now, bow before the mighty black metal warriors of Detsorgsekalf.We discovered them quite by accident. Andee saw their video online (check it out here: http://www.eyeblister.com/inframe_main_1.html) and was so immediately smitten that he emailed them and first offered to play drums for them (they were drummerless, see the video), and barring that, offered to release a record for them. So with a forthcoming release on tUMULt in the works, we managed to get a handful of copies of their first self released cd-r, and if anything it more than lives up to the promise of the video.
Once you see the band and the video, you might get the impression that there's some sort of humor going on, maybe it's some sort of joke, but be aware this is as troo and grim as it gets. So serious in fact, that the band has already received numerous death threats from other disgruntled black metalheads, the contents of which will provide the conept and story for the upcoming full length. Lead vocalist Balfobar Nosugref is a massive behemoth of a man, clad in spiked armor and smeared in corpsepaint as he spews all sorts of necro wisdom in a demonic screech WAY up in the mix. Then there's the ultrahot Morksjal The Necrowench, who wields a bloodied black axe like a woman posessed. The whole band is a motley crew of blackened misfits form the bowels of the earth, sprung forth to spread musical disease and pestilence. The sound is a Burzumy buzz, with blasting drum machine beats and no bass! Just buzzing guitar after buzzing guitar, a swirling droney blast of black frost. Balfabar's vocals are absurd and insane, spotuing all manner of satanic drivel as well as rants about his girlfriend and other evil thoughts. There are some strange falsetto vocals, some random funk bass, strange samples, all mixed in amdist the evil buzz. Sometimes things get almost a bit too goofy, reminding us a little bit of a necro Steven Schultz (who we obviously love), but the band is at their best when they are in full on black buzz mode, then they can hold their own with any of the above mentioned black metal bands. The demented elite for sure.
They may be true and grim and evil, a black metal fist crushing all false metal, but Detsorgsekalf (their name being "frosted flakes" backwards but with a "g" instead of an "f" we just figured out, maybe) manage, in the process of being evil and true, to take the wind out of the sails of all those black metal blowhards that take themselves too seriously. Not that this isn't serious, because it is. Really.
Just check the bonus tracks "Keyboard Solo" and their holiday chestnut "Black Xmas." Or the video. And enjoy the Troo Grim Warriors Ov The Necrokkult while you anxiously await the new full length: A.B.B.A. -- Apocaalyptic Blasphemed Battle Anthems!!
Looping dubbed abstraction new on hip Cologne label Kompakt. There's been a lot of underground buzz, but I don't really get it.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Taylor Deupree's sound evolved to encompass the microscopic sound heralded by Rastermusic (Noto, Coh, and the 20' to 2000 series). Conceptually based on the development of nanotechnologies, Deupree sets delicate shards of modular synthesis into repetitive post-techno structures.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
As soon as this came on the AQ stereo, Byram chimed in, "Is this on Raster?" Nope. "Oh, it must be on 12K then." That initial reaction is the blessing and curse of Taylor Deupree and his 12K label, both of whom so badly want to have that Raster-Noton sound. "Occur" is an album of "non-repetition and subdued melodic passages composed almost entirely by granular synthesis
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
The packaging of the anti-static shielding bag is certainly appropriate to house the electron modulations of Taylor Deupree's "Polr" album. Released right on the heels of an album for the Mille Plateaux subsidiary Ritornell, this actually marks a big step in the development of Deupree's nano-technist productions. His post-techno rhythmic structures and delicately phased crystalline fluctuatations (dare we call them melodies?) slowly rise out of black box empty spaces much in the same way as Mika Vainio's solo work (especially the � "Metri" album). Very good!
The Brooklyn glitch-minimalist Taylor Deupree offers another decent album of looping electronic pulses layered with sublime, synthetic melodies, ringing modulations, and textured digital grit. "Stil." ends up sounding nearly identical to Oval's "Diskont 94" which predated this album by nearly 8 years. Not original, but quite good.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
An inevitable collaboration between digital clicksters Taylor Deupree and Tetsu Inoue. Insect-like.
Out of all the classic New Age artists, the one that gets a definite pass around here is Deuter. Though many of his later records (Nada Himalaya excluded) venture into the cheesier areas of the new age genre, his early records are great examples of German kosmiche music and are just as good as Popol Vuh, Cluster and Agitation Free. For instance, Aum, which we just got in to list for the first time (though it's not a new reissue). Aum was recorded in 1972 and released a year after his debut record, D. While D was more about tape effects and studio experiments, Aum is his first obvious venture into a more spiritually based musical practice. Sounds of storms and birds, guitars and flutes open up the disc in what could be a track by South American psych-folk groups Satwa or Congregacion (or even Citay or The Alps!). But the following tracks venture into a quiet but pensive meditation of tablas, and warbling bass, simmering sitar drones and subtle chanting. The track "Sattwa" is a sitar and piano interaction while "Surat Shabda" is a trance-y exploration using ethnic percussion instruments. But the longest and prettiest track is "Susani", an eight minute delayed electric guitar excursion around a few rhythmically repeating chords over low minor key vocal drones and far off ocean swells that burn off into a fading hum. It's definitely one of those limbo records, mining a deeper territory of minimalist composition with psychedelic effects that would eventually be marketed as New Age. But this is long before that genre got ruined, and any fan of the bands mentioned above should check this out for sure!
Years ago when we listed the compact disc reissue of this Krautrock classic, the home-recorded 1971 debut from eccentric electronics specialist (and soon to be New Age pioneer) Georg Deuter, we called it quite brilliant, a hallucinatory affair of studio experiments, tape effects, and guitar explorations, that we recommended for fans of both early Kraftwerk, and most of the Kranky contingent. Still do, now that it's back on (unfortunately expensive) vinyl. Certainly, it's THEE Deuter album to get (though we also like some others he has done). If you dig the back cover photo of a barefoot, mustachioed Deuter (wearing those round John Lennon style shades), crouched in front of some reel-to-reel tape gear, playing the bongos, you'll probably also dig the sounds on this album, from the Eastern drone of "Krishna Eating Fish And Chips" to the underwater ambience of "Atlantis"! This record is not not nearly as blissed-out as Deuter's later output, with many sequences that attack with jarring yet hypnotic intensity, reminding us a lot of another kraut fave, A.R. & Machines.
This was given to me as a gift, from a friend who shares the same love of the deep dark ominous drone as we do, and before he let me unwrap it, he had all of these provisos: ignore the horrible cover, promise to listen to it before you pass judgment, ignore the fact that it's on New Earth records and that it says "Music For Meditation" on the cover, ignore the rainbow logo and the cheesy landscape, ignore the blurbs on the back cover, basically, try to ignore everything BUT the music. I did, and I'm so glad I did. So now we must do the same for you, faithful AQ customer. Listen to the sound samples, close your eyes and let these gorgeous mystical drones carry you off.
Some of you may know of Deuter before he went all 'new age' -- he was responsible for D, an awesome early '70s Krautrock document of studio experimentation, tape effects, and guitar explorations. While this is a completely different beast, and may have been intended for a whole different audience, it's actually quite stunning. This definitely holds up to any of our favorite dronelords, Chalk, Coleclough, Mirror, in fact this is another one of those releases that if it were some super limited homemade cd-r imported from Finland packaged with twigs and some wire, people would be freaking out BIG TIME! So let's just pretend that this IS some weird obscure drone cd-r, that way we can skip all the bullshit and totally dig in to this divine droney drift.
Made completely from the sounds of Tibetan bells, bowls and chimes, these two tracks (skip the third track, a two minute recording of a burbling stream) are lengthy gorgeous meditational drifts, a deep sea of overlapping tones, shimmering resonance, slowly drifting ovetones, beating gently against each other, creating a dense swirl of microscopic colors and warm subtle shadings. Nearly fifty minutes of divine drone, simultaneously dark and ominous, bright and dreamy, close listening reveals layer after layer of hidden almost-melodies, super subtle mysterious sonic events, a divine dreamworld of deep drifting ambience. So totally and utterly amazing. Pretty awesome that one of our favorite new drone records is not a cd-r from Finland, but a cd from a German ex-hippie new age guru living in New Mexico. Fuck yeah!
Back in print/stock, these came in the mail slightly damaged, so anal record nerds steer clear, but for everyone else, these are seriously discounted, so if slightly bumped corners and less than perfect sleeves don't bug you, snap one of these up before they're gone...
We've pretty much dug everything we've heard from Mark Deutrom, one time bassist for the mighty Melvins, which is saying a lot, considering his recorded output has been all over the map, from Queens Of The Stone Age like metal-pop, to full on experimental soundscapery, so we weren't super sure what to expect from this new double lp, but we figured it was Deutrom, and it was on the always kick ass Rock Is Hell label, so we figured that however it panned out, we'd be psyched. And right off the bat, Deutrom unfurls some Earth-like dusty twang, not at all what we were expecting, but super cool, acoustic guitars, simple dramatic percussion, we were definitely into it, and then the second song kicked in and BAM, total epic sludge heaviness, huge churning riffage, wild chaotic drumming, angular slo-mo melodies, murky textural drones, the sort of shit that should send fans of the Melvins and Harvey Milk into paroxysms of doom/sludge pleasure. And so it goes, over the course of three sides (the fourth one features a cool etching), the sound pretty much all over the place, but with a focus on riffs and heaviness, which is right where the focus should be. Deutrom has a handful of guest vocalists, who compliment his own gruff croon, with the music slipping from lurching noise rock, to Harvey Milk-ish sludgey groove, churning riffage, howled bellowed vox, at some points that Earth-y twang returns, but in the heavier bits, making for some awesome twangy sludgey noise rock epic-ness. There are some bits with drum machine, and some strange interludes, but the record is rife with epic doomy heaviness, sometimes laced with angular noisiness, but also sometimes slipping into something more dirgey and even almost ballady at one point, but it all works, the production is massive, the riffs kill, there are plenty of hooks too, seriously Melvins/Harvey Milk fans, grab one of these before they are gone!
LIMITED TO 466 COPIES!!! Packaged in a super swank full color gatefold jacket, with two full color cardstock inserts, pressed on heavy vinyl, and again, side 4 features a cool mysterious etching!
Yet another record from Mark Deutrom, previously and probably still best known for playing bass in the Melvins once upon a time. But for a while now, Deutrom has been cranking out incredible solo records, most on the Rock Is Hell label, and somehow remaining well under the radar. We'd say something like "this one will change everything", but we're guessing it probably won't, and who knows, perhaps he's content to be right where he is. We sure are if it means we keep getting more and more records like this.
With every record it's sort of hard to know what to expect, the last couple were sort of matched out proggy pop, and super catchy sooner rock heaviness, but this new one, begins with an epic 20 minute side long jam titled "Dick Cheney", which spends its first 4 minutes droning ominously, lush layered textures, slowly shifting, finally some buzzing metallic guitar drifts in, as does some percussion, it feels like the song is about to explode, but then instead, transforms into a lurching minimal avant doom creep, spaced out chugs, loads of space, the vibe very Harvey Milk-ish actually, and then the vocals come in, and the song is somehow transformed into something way catchier and popper than it has any right to be. Especially near the end, when the guitar swoops up into a super catchy melody, before devolving into a weird little chug flecked, industrial noise outro. Phew. Most bands would be content with that 20 minutes, but there are three more sides here to dig, all of which display Deutrom's mastery of whatever the fuck he wants to do, from the brooding slow burn psych of "Winter Haystacks At Twilight", that almost sounds like the intro to some doom metal jam, to the very Melvins-y "Sky Full Of Witches", which also displays a seriously poppy vibe, a woozy, lurching stoner pop groove that sounds like it could have been plucked right off some Kyuss B-side. And that pretty much sets the tone, the sound lurches from groovy, mathy, prog-sludge, to groovy stoner pop, to dreamy almost jazzy psych, to super trippy avant abstract space-doom, to twang flecked, reverie balladry, often with several of those bleeding into each other.
Goddamn, this guy is a genius, and a seriously unsung one at that. Fans of the Melvins, Harvey Milk, Prizehog, Kyuss, and just twisted abstract heaviness, and moody metallic avant-gardery, get this and every other thing you can find. You'll thank us later!
