Rarities discs from most bands usually seem superfluous or at the very least only for their most obsessed fans, but when it comes to ESG, we'll gladly take any kind of extra material we can get!
If you don't already own the first volume of A South Bronx Story we hereby demand that you stop reading this and get it right away! It's an all time AQ favorite that you can still hear blasting in the store all the time, and it's one of those records that just about everyone we've ever played it for has totally fallen head over heels for. Volume 2 features lots of alternative mixes, b-sides and unreleased tracks, from their early days all the way up until their more present incarnation. The day this arrived we of course immediately threw it on and every single person in the store at one point or another made their way up to the counter to find out what was playing. It was so cool because they were all folks who don't normally gravitate toward dance minded music, but their ears obviously knew that this was the real deal, and no matter what your regular sonic inclinations may be, it's pretty much impossible not to be swept up by the wholly unique sounds of ESG. Highly recommended!
With a brand new record released earlier this year and their first ever live show here in SF, it's for sure been nonstop ESG fever here at AQ. We could probably write the longest most glowing review ever of that live show but suffice to say it was a mind blowing experience which we aren't soon going to forget.
When ESG were on tour last year in Japan they realized that people were spending hundreds of dollars to get their hands on their rare second album called Come Away With ESG, so they asked Soul Jazz to reissue it and now here it is, all gussied up and at a nice price. Originally released in 1983 on 99 Records, the great NY underground label that also put out records by folks like Glen Branca, Bush Tetras, Liquid Liquid, etc. While the bulk of these songs can be found on the great A South Bronx Story collection it's still so thrilling and a little mind blowing to understand how an entire album can actually sound like the best greatest hits album you've ever heard. Pretty much hands down the best dance music made in this quarter century. ESG have been sampled on countless hip-hop records, helping to inspire an entire generation of forward minded dance/punk/dub/funk artists, and have thus continued to keep their vision alive and well. For those who already have A South Bronx story there are a few absolute gems on here not included on that collection. And for those who don't have any ESG yet in their collection, get this right away!!!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Thank God for simple joys! ESG is just like the energizer bunny: they keep going and going. Just when you think the Scroggins sisters are going to falter or that their revival stock has dried up, they drop this bomb on us, their first single in four years, just in time for summer. Spare but ever sooo sly and infectious, this simple jam is just under 3 minutes of bass, drums and vocals (there is also a "tambourine mix"), but its economy and precision are the payoff, wisely refusing to add even an iota of window-dressing (Are you listening, Peaches?). The best part is you can slow the end drum break to 33 and spin anything you mix with it into liquid gold! We can't wait for the full length!
Little did ESG know, 20 years ago, when they first hit New Yorkers with their dub influenced, soul fired, minimalist funk, proto-hip-hop sound that they would impact future generations of post-punk dance minded music makers all over the globe. From Le Tigre to Tussle, M.I.A. to LCD Soundsystem, Erase Errata to Peaches, the influence of the Scroggin sisters has been felt in a HUGE way. In 2000 the world finally got to hear their prescient sound when Soul Jazz released A South Bronx Story, a killer collection of their, until that point, quite obscure recordings. Which in case you missed school that day, is absolutely an essential record for any music lover. What's so great and unique about ESG is their ability to cross, blur and erase genre lines. Sounding more minimal n' stripped down than ever, ESG show that subtlety can be the greatest weapon when you want folks to keep moving. We like their new moves and as always AQ loves our ESG!
Slightly underwhelming reunion disc from the Scroggins sisters of ESG, whose best-of compilation A South Bronx Story, containing all their classic trax, is still the best way to get into this band. Step Off at first left me bored and wistful for the old days, but after a few more listens on the headphones, the more the new record makes sense. In other words, don't look for this record to completely funkify your life; that's not what ESG are about. And yes, the new songs are slower and sometimes even, well, less kickassedly raw than their groundbreaking older material, but ESG is still the best at leaving OUT elements of dance music that lesser, more self-indulgent musicmakers always always always overdo. For example, this album's got a track that's only Renee singing and a bass hook. Oh there's a beat all right, but they don't make a sound: you're hearing it *in your head*, and it sounds better than they coulda played it. Every song on this record is a marvel of restraint. (Which, come to think of it, invites remixing -- let's hope they pick decent remixers). Recommended, but only if you already have A South Bronx Story.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Awesome to get the music of this Ethiopian musical legend on vinyl.
Yay! A new volume in the always-popular, ever-wonderful "Ethiopiques" series of Ethiopian popular music, which most AQ-patrons will be aware of. Focusing mainly on the funky early seventies (when a dictator-free six years resulted in an unprecedented cultural flowering), the "Ethiopiques" discs are unanimous AQ staff faves and steady sellers. So what's volume nine all about? It focuses on Alemayehu Eshete who, along with fellow singers Mahmoud Ahmed and Tlahoun Gessesse, is one of the biggest stars from the golden age of Ethiopian music. He has often been compared both to Elvis Presley and James Brown in stature and style. Though a popular figure in a musical movement derided as anti-traditionalist and rebellious by many, Eshete's lyrics often preached of being a dutiful child and obeying one's parents. As a singer, Eshete is amazingly talented, crooning with a sillky voice in one song, then growling and yelping in the next. Like most volumes in the series, highly highly recommended!!
One of three new Mississippi titles reviewed on our list this week, this one another vinyl full length extracted from the Ethiopiques cd series (Ethiopiques 22, to be exact), following Mississippi's Tsegue-Maryamthis Guebrou and two Mahmoud Ahmed records. For this one, Mississippi take a big dip into the vaults of Alemayehu Eshete, one of the biggest stars from the golden age of Ethiopian music in the '70s, who alongside Mahmoud Ahmed, Tlahoun Gessesse and Mulatu Astatke helped define that sound. In fact, Eshete was the star of both the 9th and 22nd volumes of the Ethiopiques series, and judging from those releases, the man left a very sizable legacy. This lp features songs he worked out with three different bands: The All Star Band, The Alem Girma Band and Shebele's Band, and is filled with absolute treasures without a throwaway track in sight.
With instrumentation that's so tight, and breaks that would make any psych/kraut/rare groove lover's jaw drop, this is a collection that we've already been spinning over and over ever since it showed up at aQ. Eshete's voice and presence feels so sure and confident, with a unique vocal style that's been compared to an Ethiopian James Brown crossed with Elvis Presley. There are moments in these songs that catch such deep grooves and moments that sound like they could be pulled straight from a Can song. You just can't beat the warmth of these stripped down analog recordings. You want to be in a room filled with smoke and candles when you listen to this. Eshete made such amazing songs that just drip with sweat, while oozing elegance too. Highly recommended!
Esmerine is yet another offering from the Constellation camp, best known for Godspeed You Black Emperor, A Silver Mt. Zion, and Set Fire To Flames. Unlike those groups with their massive ensembles, Esmerine pairs the sound down to two performers Bruce Cawdron and Beckie Foon, who happen to be members of all three of those aforementioned projects. This reduced membership personalizes all of the instrumentation, allowing for greater room for interplay between the instrumentation than the necessarily controlled orchestrations from the majority of the Constellation crew; yet, Esmerine does maintain that signature of emotionally isolated expansiveness. With just strings, marimba, drums, and a sparse use of electronics, Esmerine's debut album is an evocative collection of sparsely composed, neo-classical duets that mine the same Eastern European sensibilities of the much lauded Kopernik album although there are spots when Cawdron and Foon pick up the pace considerably for some 'heavy' moments that resemble the Metallica covering chamber ensemble Apocalyptica. Nice.
MPEG Stream: "Majestic Whispers..." [/audio/esmerinemajestic.m3u]
Working with contact microphones and field recordings, Richard Francis -- the New Zealander now living in Japan who has claimed the moniker Eso Steel -- emerges as an interesting member of the lowercase aesthetic, somewhere between the sonic intensity of Francisco Lopez (that is when Lopez hasn't consigned himself to arenas of silence) and the empathic resonances of Loren Chasse or Steve Roden. All of his recordings are based upon his late night excursions through Tokyo, where he is left alone to record the sound artifacts of a giant city that has fallen asleep. Pulsing loops of electrical hums, timestretched drones, and peripheral buzzings build into kinetic motifs of gritty distortions, that nevertheless maintain an overall hypnotic sensibility.
Armed with a couple of microphones and a DAT recorder, New Zealand ex-pat Richard Francis can be found scouring the late night desolate streets of Tokyo, captured various textural striations and quiet electrical hums while the rest of the city sleeps. Working under his moniker Eso Steel, Francis transforms his field recordings into a bristling catalogue of experimental minimalism
Two old doooooom favorites at last back in stock after a loooooong time! And at a way cheaper price. We've long been obsessed with bands like Skepticism, Earth, Burzum, Benighted Leams; all bands so "fucked" and/or with such a singular "vision" that they transcend the metal genre. And from the second we first heard Esoteric we knew they belonged on that list. Self-described as "dark, vicarious, pernicious, sinister, hateful, drug influenced, tortured, philosophical and barbaric doom", who are we to argue? Two double cds of ultra depressive, dirgey, near ambient drones. Each a murky morass of slow motion riffs, amphibious guitar solos and tortured cries. But also strangely beautiful, at times recalling the lugubrious soundscapes of Labradford or Magnog. Metal for the drone set, perhaps? Plus you gotta love any band that merits a "fuck you" on Electric Wizard's special thanks list!
These guys are the ultimate doomlords, brutally uncommercial, with an unapologetically ultra-positive drug stance, and an apparent disinterest in allowing anyone to buy their music, at least in the early stages, but a band this uncompromisingly crushing and confusionally kick ass couldn't remain a secret forever. And if you still need a reason to pick up BOTH of these double discs, Epistemological Despondency and The Pernicious Enigma, which in our minds can be considered a sprawling single 4 part dooooooom epic, just have a gander at the liner notes to Epistemological Despondency:
"FUCK OFF AND DIE: Society, the monarchy, the pigs (fucking bastards), politicians, the government, all holy denominations and followers of the 'right-hand path'. Moralistic bastards, the legal system, all oppressors and authority. All of the ignorant, narrow-minded, stupid humans who follow authorities without questioning. Love. All 'pretend' Satanists, who give the ignorant lease to ridicule 'true' Satanism. All bands who are 'out to put what the people like'. All the sad cunts who have turned underground music into pop-music full of cliches. All psychic vampires and scrounging wankers. All perpetrators of censorship. Those that use drugs, Satanism or music as a scapegoat in order to hide the true cause of their actions--you are as weak as the christians, you cannot fight for yourselves, so you cower in renunciation. To those who would interfere with us, beware!".
FUCK YEAH!
Birmingham's self described 'dark, vicarious, pernicious, sinister, hateful, drug influenced, tortured, philosophical, and barbaric doom' band return with three tracks, clocking in at almost 45 minutes, of the most brutal doom we've ever heard. Even better than their two previous double cds, because now the production, always their one shortcoming, finally matches the sheer power and intensity of their epic doomscapes. Walls of inpenetrable low-end dissolve into slow motion, spaced out, dire and tortured dirges. Utterly Breathtaking.
We don't haul out the multiple 'o's as often as we used to. Seems like doom bands these days inspire in us just the usual 'double o', but for the return of aQ beloved psychedelic drug doom combo Esoteric, we might as well unleash the torrent of o's these guys have so earned. Cuz the sound of Esoteric remains delightfully and unequivocally pure, twisted, psychedelic dooooooooooooooooooooooooooom. And unlike most bands, who's overall weirdness dulls as they progress as a band, or whose sounds stops being so twisted as the band either become better players, or get better at recording, it seems exactly the opposite has happened to Esoteric. Paragon Of Dissonance is easily their best sounding record, the production is huge, the guitars thick, everything lush and crystal clear, which would normally seem not so good, we like our doom murky and muddy and washed out, but as we've established, Esoteric are no ordinary doom combo. And beyond the sound, it's yet another double disc, Esoteric's preferred doomic delivery method, and one that suits their ridiculously sprawling doom-prog epics. The record opens with some dense chugging, wreathed in swirling high end guitar skree, some furious double kick drumming, the guitars growing more agitated, the sounds more frantic, and then suddenly the sounds start swinging wildly from speaker to speaker, ear to ear in headphones, and blam, we're fully immersed in Esoteric's drugged out doomworld, and it is good. So good. Seven tracks, ninety minutes, of droney, doomy creep, of lurching slo-mo lumber, the sound managing to be totally tripped out and bizarre, but simultaneously strangely melodic, the traces of epic true classic doom loom large in Esoteric's world for sure, but they do their damndest to twist it all up, stretching riffs way out, dousing vocals in crazy effects, dubbing out EVERYTHING, adding weird bits of acoustic guitar, unlikely percussion, and of course that production, all over the map, thick and dense, blurry and brittle, one track here even sounds almost like a doomier Three Mile Pilot, but sort of fusion-y, which sounds bad written, but sonically is totally brilliant, especially as it leads into some seriously pounding epic metal, that is barely even doomy. But fear not, these flights of sonic non-doom fancy, are surrounded on all sides by sludgey tarpit doooooooom, however, those weird bits do pop up more than you might think, there's the super fuzzy, almost poppy opening of "Non Being", which is equal parts gloom pop and indie rock, and doom, doom too, then there's plenty of loping post rockisms in "Disconsolate", and all manner of noise rock, classic metal and who knows what else throughout, but c'mon, it's Esoteric, who do what they damn well please, and who over the years, have fashioned a twisted, idiosyncratic doom, that at this point sounds like absolutely nobody else but them. And is in fact so fucked up, we're often surprised they're as popular as they are, but for us, and quite possibly you, and our (and your!) love of all things sonically warped and twisted and bizarre and baffling, Esoteric are the true doooooooooooooooomlords!
There was once The Pernicious Enigma. There was also Epistomological Despondency. Soon after there was Metamorphogenesis. And now, finally, there is the Subconscious Dissolution Into The Continuum. What the f**k are we talking about you might be wondering? Just the UK's ultimate doom band ESOTERIC. And we do mean ultimate. And we most certainly mean doom. Esoteric started off as a totally drug addled, musically damaged, slow motion, psych-doom band, releasing epic double cds, with 15+ minute tracks of almost-ambient, not-quite-metal abstract dirges. Steeped in pseudo spiritualityand packaged in retardedly trippy black and white geometric art, early Esoteric was an ultra lo-fi attempt at classic doom, but filtered through the band's massive intake of drugs, extreme hate for humanity, and their obvious love of effects, the result -was- truly amazing, but in that Benighted Leams, it's-so-retarded-it's-the-best-thing-ever way. Move forward a few years to 1999's Metamorphogenesis, and this self described "dark, vicarious, pernicious, sinister, hateful, drug influenced, tortured, philosophical, and barbaric doom" outfit had finally hit their stride, with improved songwriting, and more importantly a newly massive and crushingly heavy production that we had all been hoping and waiting for. The result was easily the best Esoteric to date. Still psychedelic and weird, but so heavy and dark. And now after 5 years, we have the Subconscious Dissolution Into The Continuum, a record that is so good, it's sort of hard to know how to describe it without resorting to hyperbole. But what can you do? This just may quite possibly be the greatest funereal doom record we have ever heard. Seriously. Thergothon? Skepticism? This outdoes them all. Hard to believe but it's true. The production is so massive. This is the way doom was meant to be. Slow and suffocating, crushing and overwhelming. But it's not just the sound. Esoteric have written some amazing songs. You may think dynamics have no place in doom, but this record is rife with them. Four tracks, fifty minues, an epic journey, bleak and soul stirring, and musically complex. Just cause it's slow doesn't mean it's gotta be simple. Melodies? Some moments on this record are so melodic and so achingly mournful, they could almost make you cry. That is if they weren't falling into mile wide black hole riffs, and being crushed by two ton sledgehammer drumming. Not sure what else to say. There hasn't been a metal record, doom or otherwise, that sounded this good, or that had such emotional resonance in forever. Best metal record this year so far hands down says Andee. And maybe one of the best doom records EVER!
While formerly Esoteric was about the most bongloaded experimental sludge metal you could find, perhaps more stoned and bizarre than countrymen Electric Wizard, this new album sounds a bit different, like maybe on different drugs, Esoteric finding some crystal shit to inject in their collective boiling bloodstream that renders them a genius doom-death metal machine, technically and aesthetically uber-achievers. On this, the band's first album since 2004's Subconscious Dissolution Into The Continuum, they again move further from the drug-addled "retardation" (which we loved of course) of their early weirdness, and add another brick to the wall of ultimate doommastery that they already built on Subconscious. And yet, they're still pretty darn weird, as befits their name. Even if way more My Dying Bride or Paradise Lost than before, with that romantic, gothic, doom-death kind of vibe, one that (on the romantic side) even reminds us of fucked up black metallers Eikenskaden or Mystic Forest... With its long passages of ambient spooky spaceiness, and sheer heaviness, The Maniacal Vale also makes us think of a more metallic version of Aussie arty riff merchants Dumb & The Ugly, more metallic due to the awesomely wretched, bestial vokills ensconced within gorgeously noodly neo-classical electric guitar shred. The Esoteric equation includes minor key melody, classical chamber music chops, echoey psychedelic darkness, sizzling drone FX, and much in the way of massive, crushing, METAL.
And this just get more crazed as it gets more deathmetally. Like on disc one's final track, the speedy "Caucus of Mind", wherein you're being chased by utter grunting cookie monster vocals (perhaps even the cookie monster itself) down a hall of mirrors / wind tunnel hybrid, architecture that exists in some extra-dimensional space. Where death metal brutality and doomic drone both tug heartstrings and excite the grey matter simultaneously, thereby proving some obscure theory of quantum physics. Is heaviness a wave or a particle? Maybe a very LARGE particle. Experimental, emotional, extreme. ESOTERIC.
And oh yeah, you noticed where we said "disc one"? That's right, this IS Esoteric, and after the mere single-cd anomalies of Metamorphogenesis and Subconscious..., they're at last back to the sprawling double disc format of their first two op-art-adorned opi, The Pernicious Enigma and Epistomological Despondency.
Two old doooooom favorites at last back in stock after a loooooong time! And at a way cheaper price. We've long been obsessed with bands like Skepticism, Earth, Burzum, Benighted Leams; all bands so "fucked" and/or with such a singular "vision" that they transcend the metal genre. And from the second we first heard Esoteric we knew they belonged on that list. Self-described as "dark, vicarious, pernicious, sinister, hateful, drug influenced, tortured, philosophical and barbaric doom", who are we to argue? Two double cds of ultra depressive, dirgey, near ambient drones. Each a murky morass of slow motion riffs, amphibious guitar solos and tortured cries. But also strangely beautiful, at times recalling the lugubrious soundscapes of Labradford or Magnog. Metal for the drone set, perhaps? Plus you gotta love any band that merits a "fuck you" on Electric Wizard's special thanks list!
These guys are the ultimate doomlords, brutally uncommercial, with an unapologetically ultra-positive drug stance, and an apparent disinterest in allowing anyone to buy their music, at least in the early stages, but a band this uncompromisingly crushing and confusionally kick ass couldn't remain a secret forever. And if you still need a reason to pick up BOTH of these double discs, Epistemological Despondency and The Pernicious Enigma, which in our minds can be considered a sprawling single 4 part dooooooom epic, just have a gander at the liner notes to Epistemological Despondency:
"FUCK OFF AND DIE: Society, the monarchy, the pigs (fucking bastards), politicians, the government, all holy denominations and followers of the 'right-hand path'. Moralistic bastards, the legal system, all oppressors and authority. All of the ignorant, narrow-minded, stupid humans who follow authorities without questioning. Love. All 'pretend' Satanists, who give the ignorant lease to ridicule 'true' Satanism. All bands who are 'out to put what the people like'. All the sad cunts who have turned underground music into pop-music full of cliches. All psychic vampires and scrounging wankers. All perpetrators of censorship. Those that use drugs, Satanism or music as a scapegoat in order to hide the true cause of their actions--you are as weak as the christians, you cannot fight for yourselves, so you cower in renunciation. To those who would interfere with us, beware!".
FUCK YEAH!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
After several cassettes, etc., the debut cd of "quiet songs" by the duo of Warren DeFevere of (His Name Is Alive, Princess Dragon-Mom) and Ian Masters (Pale Saints).
When Warn Defever is not busy leading the His Name Is Alive troops or running Time Stereo, it seems he should be taking a breather, but no! He's got many more irons in the fire. This is the re-mastered re-ssue of the originally cassette only release from one of his many side projects. A lo-fi experimental mish-mash of chopped up jams and samples.
Dark and skittery blissed out electronica drone, with hints of Autechre or Boards of Canada maybe...but more spooky and more surprising. Matador UK, pay attention! On Garm of Ulver/Arcturus' label! Kind of like a black metal band had recorded the obligatory eerie synth intro track to their album, and then decided that they should just add some strange beats and do a whole electronica record instead. Recommended.
Very much indebted to irr. app. (ext.) and Nurse With Wound, Esperik Glare offer two meticulously crafted collages of overlapping vibration, clattering objects, and unsettling tones, all of which allude to the swarming insects of the title. There's certainly a blackened, post-Industrial sensibility in these sounds which could contend with any of the Russian dark-ambient projects that occasionally pop up as a Drone Records single. Making the package complete is the b-side which features Monte Cazazza, who reads from an Edgar Allan Poe poem behind seasick bells and darkened synthetic tones.
The mystical and romantic decay of powers past is a prevalent theme on Espers second full length outing. With titles like "Dead King, Dead Queen", "Widow's Weed" and "Children of Stone", the thwarting of innocence and nature are met by a beautifully ruinous demise. While the past Espers releases have been mostly acoustic affairs using dulcimers, autoharps and harpsichords, on II, we hear a more heavily spacious psychedelic sound underpinning the acoustic arrangements while still maintaining their traditional mostly female acid folk vocal styles. Like Pentangle by way of Blue Oyster Cult (they covered BOC's Flaming Telepaths on their last EP, the Weed Tree), this new release shows Espers in top form worthy of many repeated listenings. Recommended!
It's been over three years since we've heard from this awesome Philadelphia collective, but that doesn't mean they haven't been busy. What with scoring and touring the Valerie Project (the re-imagined soundtrack to Jaromil Jires' Valerie And Her Week of Wonders), solo projects and collaborations from members Meg Baird and Helena Espvall, and focussing on Greg Weeks' psych-folk label, Language of Stone, it's amazing the band found any time to record. But they have and what's even more amazing is how great it sounds, releasing perhaps our favorite of their records. While the last record, II expanded upon the acid folk of their debut into a gauzy nocturnal medieval acid-psych, the songs on III return to sun-dappled realms, without losing any of their dark majesty. There's still a heavy British folk vibe, and Week's soaring guitar lines have lost none of their power, but the mood is more relaxed and warmer, allowing moments of seventies west-coast psych to seep through and mellow the proceedings a bit. But that doesn't mean there aren't any shadows, as Espers know how to work those magically dark undercurrents into even the brightest of songs. This is the band at the height of their power, lets hope it keeps going higher!
This new 37 minute release from psychedelic Philly folksters Espers isn't exactly their eagerly-awaited second album proper (which remains tantalizingly on the horizon). Instead, with The Weed Tree they offer up a sort of "teaser" disc that consists almost entirely of cover songs, with the only Espers original being the the grand and morose "Dead King" that closes the album. The covers include a couple of traditional tunes ("Rosemary Tree" and "Black Is The Color") alongside an eclectic but in the end utterly appropriate mix of material from the likes of the Durutti Column, Nico, Michael Hurley, and even Blue Oyster Cult. Although that might seem like a diverse bunch, in the hands of Espers these songs all do seem to belong together in one natural organism, the roots and branches and leaves of this Weed Tree. Echoing '70s artists like the Incredible String Band, Linda Perhacs and Vashti Bunyan, Espers' music (or here, their take on other people's music) is delicate and dreamy, sad but lovely acoustic folk with a lurking psych presence coming from the humming organ drones and acid guitar flashes... and these songs all lean heavily upon the band's sweet female vocals and harmonies.
Their folky, vaguely madrigal-like take on BOC's "Flaming Telepaths" builds into a freaked-out (but far from hard rock) climax, sounding the most of anything here like something from Espers member Greg Weeks' Awake Like Sleep album (beloved here at AQ). As are Espers themselves! Really nice. If you haven't heard Espers before, but like the other current acid-folk stuff happening such as Josephine Foster and Six Organs and Vetiver and P.G. Six and so forth, this would be a fine place to start! And of course fans will be pleased, as this helps tide us over until the true full-length follow up to their debut appears.
Usually, when a friend of yours slowly begins to sink into a druggy oblivion, you do everything in your power to help them, and keep them from that fate. But when that druggy oblivion is musical and that friend is Greg Weeks, you wait anxiously for the descent to bear musical fruit. Thus we have the Espers. A modern classic of shimmery psychedelia and seventies inspired pagan folk (and the drugs are sonic, not narcotic, so fear not Mr. and Mrs. Weeks). Sweet and melodic, but with a subtly dark and utterly creepy underbelly. The sound is heavy on the Incredible String Band, Pentangle, Fairport Convention and hippy folk of that era, but with elements of the sweet pop ballad and with a dash of Comus, that's right, Comus! And we don't invoke the name of Comus lightly. But don't let all this talk of folk and prog put you off. Espers beautifully tread paths of indie rock shimmer just as deftly, offering much to love for fans of Windy And Carl, Landing, and all things Ptolemaic Terrascope. Sweetly angelic female vocals float and hover alongside Weeks' warm sweet croon, over spare lilting folk, woven from delicately plucked steel string guitars, haunting violins and cellos, sweet swirling flutes, and the distinctive zing of dulcimers. Occasionally distorted guitar leaps wildly from the haze (two members are credited with "acid leads" after all!) lending the whole thing an acid soaked vibe. Weeks' last full length solo record was an AQ Record of the Week way back in 2001 with its mournful introspection, fuzzed out melodies and dreamy cloudy ambience. Espers follow a similar path, a lonely, meandering, path through the ancient forest, sunlight filtering faintly through the canopy. Travelling minstrels sing sadly, softly, offering sweet sounds to seek safety in those darkened, timeless glades.
First time available on vinyl, Sheik Aljama has long been heralded as one of the finer albums from the long-running Spanish industrial project Esplendor Geometrico. The recordings here began as early as 1986, but the album didn't see completion until 1991. Sheikh Alkama is laced with Arabic samples, percussion, and radio broadcasts, and given the entire catalogue from Muslimgauze who genetically fused Arabic modalities within an industrial agenda, Shiekh Aljama will now and forever be compared to Muslimgauze. There's plenty to separate Shiekh Aljama from Muslimgauze though, but context is key to understanding this album. Cabaret Voltaire may have been the earliest to use Arabic samples within a bleak form of proto-electronica; and these eerie dislocations of Arabic sounds from "the other" came as an anti-colonial diatribe against what the philosopher Edward Said described as Orientalism. Both Muslimgauze and Esplendor Geometrico took those ideas much further than Cabaret Voltaire's appetite for sensuality. For Muslimgauze, the noise and Arabic rhythms were in response to very specific contemporary political events taking place in the Middle East; but for Esplendor Geometrico, the album cites the fall of the Republic of Cordoba in the 11th Century with Arabic and Islamic culture being driven out of the Iberian peninsula. Esplendor Geometrico's mesmerizing rhythms sizzle with corrosive noise and metal-bashed clamor; and the sampled chants seem positioned more as subliminals than as overt citations. "Medinati" looks back to EG's pioneering industrial work in the early '80s, more in keeping with the direct-action pummel of Test Dept; but immediately following this is the disorienting yet hypnotizing dervish of "Descontrol" with its spasmodic dromedary rhythms and shrouded megaphone barking. Like Muslimgauze, Esplendor Geometrico builds a didactic framework and allows the aesthetics of their rhythm and noise to flourish within. It's a great album to have back in print; and very strange to think this has never been on vinyl until now.
For those of you, like us, who may only know the Swedish cellist Helena Espvall from her work with the recent crop of neo-psych folk artists like Espers, Fursaxa, and Samara Lubelski, as well as being a member of Vashti Bunyan's touring band, you may be surprised, like we were, at the avant-garde leanings on her solo debut Nimis & Arx. However, after learning that Espvall has played with numerous free improv, dance and theater groups as well as with 20th century avant luminaries Pauline Oliveros and Eugene Chadbourne, we shouldn't really be surprised at all. With production and electronics provided by George Korein of Infidel?/Castro!, Nimis & Arx is a free improv maelstrom of cello, recorder, guitar and voice that is equal parts beautiful, difficult, tense and transcendent. Even the late, great Arthur Russell had not dragged his cello this far out into uncharted waters and that's saying something!
This mystical new collaboration from Helena Espvall of Espers and Masaki Batoh of Ghost comes beautifully packaged, adorned with elusive scribblings of various mushrooms and flora, torn out pages from the field journal of a botanist. The album sings with a pastoral nostalgia for a time when tilling the land and preparing for winter were the bread and butter of folk music. Haunting melodies recall deep rooted traditions with a modern sincerity that longs for the simplicity and innocence of rural living. Something about the album invokes the feeling of waking up at the crack of dawn to an endless horizon.
The record is evenly weighted between the two soft winded minstrels, and both have distinct stylings that are easily recognizable. Masaki's songs stand out as a bit more angular and dimly lit while Espvall's songs are distinctly lush and serene. The two make a solid team. On the album's second track, "Kristallen Den Fina", Masaki's steel stringed embellishments align perfectly with the gentle vocal whispers of Helen Espvall. "Death Letter", a melancholy Southern hymn, features Masaki on vocals while Aspvall offers serene accompaniment, long-winded orchestral swells of bellowing cello.
Together the pair sculpt a gracefully simple, traditionally arranged collection of folk songs. Highly recommended for fans of Vashti Bunyan, Sibylle Baier, or Ghost.
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Yes, it is every bit as GREAT as you'd think it would be.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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This is Esquivel's second compilation on Bar None.
You know that anyone who can count creative and talented folks like Brian Wilson, Matt Groening, Frank Zappa, and Stereolab as their biggest fans had to be doing something quite amazing with their music. Such is the case with Juan Garcia Esquivel, better known by just his last name, to all of us with a big love for the exotica sounds he helped make famous. This disc brings together his earliest recordings, which have been pretty impossible to find until this reissue, and even if you could find them, they would have been crazy expensive! His first album from 1957 Las Tandas de Juan Garcia makes up the first half of this cd and the second half is packed with rare singles and tracks from 78's that he recorded in Mexico from 1954-57. It's actually those songs that really stand out the most with their dazzling space age pop sounds bursting with flare and that special charismatic touch that Esquivel would soon make famous.
Over the course of Essential Logic's brief existence, this seminal UK post-punk ensemble led by Lora Logic traversed a mightily broad spectrum from sax-laced, herky-jerk propulsion to angelic dream pop. We're pleased to report that the "Fanfare In The Garden" 2cd anthology captures the Essential Logic oeuvre quite wonderfully and also features four previously unreleased songs!
Essential Logic came to be in 1978 after Lora Logic, who'd spent some time playing sax for the X-Ray Spex and The Stranglers, decided to assemble her own challengingly, off-kilter punk band. Throughout Essential Logic's history, Lora Logic surrounded herself with some extrordinary members of the UK post-punk / art-rock community, including a young guitarist named William Bennett who later went on to form the confrontationalist power electronics outfit Whitehouse, Charles Hayward of This Heat, and DNA / Pere Ubu bassist Tim Wright.
Yet throughout the constant turnover of members, Essential Logic always centered around Lora Logic's vocals which jumped about erratically from howls to shouts to throaty croons. Confrontational, outspoken, and energetic, Essential Logic is one of the cornerstones of the female vision of punk, bringing to mind the likes of the Raincoats, X-Ray Spex, Liliput / Kleenex, and even Yoko Ono.
The Essex Green sail along on this Cannibal Sea fueled by candy colored musical treats. Really folks, this is pop with a capital P. Some other P-words that apply here are 'pretty', 'polished', 'perky' and 'poignant'. If you've even a passing penchant for retro-y indie pop, you'll surely be tickled pink (another P-word!) by each and every song on this album. A shake of a tambourine here, a simple keyboard line there, crunchy guitars and vanilla-frosting vocals everywhere. The trio have really pulled up their kneesocks for this one. Cannibal Sea is their most composed, craftily arranged and produced release to date. Think Belle & Sebastian having a tea party with the Beatles with an occasional detour into some very Stereolab territory ("Cardinal Points") and then into the deep woods for a beautiful somber folk tune ("Rabbit"). Singers Sasha Bell and Christopher Ziter deliver the dreamiest goods in the boy/girl harmony department. Absolutely scrumptious!
Sleepy John Estes was the son of a sharecropper and grew up in Tennessee, later finding musical work in Memphis' fertile blues scene. Blind in one eye from a childhood rock throwing incident (ouch) and known for his somewhat withdrawn demeanor (hence, "Sleepy"), his biggest claim to fame is his powerful, highly emotive vocal delivery and his lyrics. Indeed, Estes voice is loud and clear, capable of hitting notes many singers couldn't get to if their lives depended on it. These songs were recorded mostly in Memphis, but there are also sessions from Chicago and New York, and they span from 1929 to 1937. Many of Estes' songs were later covered by other artists, including Led Zeppelin and the Kinks, and he remained an active musician until his death in 1977. Estes is also known for his somewhat limited skill on the guitar, but rather than merely making do with this, he wisely surrounded himself with more talented musicians, most notably James "Yank" Rachell on mandolin and Hammie Nixon on harmonica, resulting in a full sound where his vocals could truly stand out. Throughout the course of these recordings, Estes' voice remains eerily clear and strong, but never forceful. Another welcome release courtesy of the always reliable Monk label.
You might be asking yourself just who Esther Chlorine is, and this project is definitely shrouded in mystery. One thing that will no doubt pique your interest is a connection to recent ROTW honorees Von Himmel, whose Space Communion lp we sold TONS of. Esther Chlorine follows a decidedly less band oriented path and looms with a disembodied ambience that sounds like something you might hear in a Jan Svankmeyer film. Strange pulsations and scraping piano string type sounds give the project the vibe of an abstract classical sound collage. Like Von Himmel, one can detect a spirit of ESP styled free jazz dissonance, but the two sidelong pieces also move back and forth with a quasi industrial feel. A strange slowed down voice percolates in a percussive manner giving the impression of someone being trapped within a spiraling tunnel of sound. And like Space Communion, we are reminded of the amazing Sun Ra disc Space Probe, which found him experimenting with the then new Moog synth. Esther Chlorine's MO exists outside of any real timeline, sounding like it could have been recorded at any point within the last century. It is this awesome sense of detachment that gives the project a sound and feel unique to itself. Coming to us from the equally mysterious Donkey Disk imprint, this is highly recommended!
Second disc from these genre-hopping, Mr. Bungle-loving kids from Santa Cruz. Musically, they're obviously talented and are fearless in their pursuit of creating new, unusual sounds. Unfortunately, to these ears, "Buck Fever" falls a bit short in
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It's understood that fans of Mr. Bungle/Secret Chiefs 3 will lap up this wacky, wanky band up. A crazy Mr. Bungley hodge podge, sounding remarkably like some sort of evil Klezmer band. Yep, a disc of crazed instrumental virtuosity and ridiculousness, released on the Secret Chiefs' own label. Violin, trumpet, guitar, banjo, sax, pennywhistle, bass, drums, kitchen sink...dadaist rock referencing everything from boy bands to black metal, video games to soap opera.
"Live from the Estradasphere archives", a cd AND a dvd of this Mr. Bungle-approved band of wacky hotshots showing off their chops!
Quite the intriguing reissue here. It's a San Francisco '60s artifact that could be just as easily be something brand-new from one of the underground acid-folk artists beloved by all you Ptolemaic Terrascope/Broken Face readers, like Six Organs of Admittance or Jack Rose. Anyone who likes them will want this! Likewise if you're into Fahey and Basho and other Takoma label string-pickers. Gene Estribou and Jean-Paul Pickens each took a side to themselves of the original LP release to ramble down some dusty old roads that lead them to acoustic Delta Blues, Indian raga, and Appalachian country-folk. Both these guys sure are fleet of finger, Estribou playing acoustic guitar and Pickens (is that his real name?) doing his thing on the banjo. Imagine David Rawlings (of Gillian Welch fame) hopped up on moonshine and just ripping... Wow. Intensifications indeed. Another excellent Locust release (they just keep 'em coming!) but we've gotta give them a packaging demerit 'cause of the one-sheet insert they opted for instead of a proper cd booklet. Otherwise, great.
1971 strikes again. Holy moly, the planets must have been extra-aligned that year. Here's a krautrock classic from '71 that kinda fell through the cracks (though not the cracks in the cosmic egg). Well, it's certainly been lauded by some but we'd never heard it before now, anyway. In fact, this is its first time on cd, apparently, and we're glad to have it! Wild stuff here, a trip indeed, starting off with a serious dose of crazed, freakout action for synth and drums entitled "Thursday Morning Sunrise". Seriously psychedelic jamming jazz weirdness, like Sun Ra gone heavy. The synth squiggles and squeaks, growls and grumbles, and drums tumble and splatter, for almost 12 minutes. Some sunrise! But if you think that this is gonna be an album of improvised, uh, "drug jazz" (which it is, in part), you'll be surprised by what's to come on this disc... lovely acoustic guitar melodies ("Mellodrama Nr. 2 A"), faux-Eastern bliss-out vibes ("Raga"), and spoken word beat poetry set amidst angelic vocal arrangements ("Lady Blue")... like we said, a trip! But then again, all this eclectic awesomeness - from moody jazz to ethnic groove to fuzzy acid rock instrumentals - isn't all that unexpected in a krautrock band, especially one featuring members of Embryo and Exmagma, as well as mastermind Wolfgang Dauner (of The Oimels fame). They deliver the goods with a great deal of groove and gusto, making music both beautiful and bizarre... it could be the soundtrack to some avantgarde psychedelic art film from the '70s, like a Jodorowsky epic. Despite the not-so-cheap import price, this is a recommended reissue, done right. Snazzy, colorful cover, remastered sound (from original masters), 3 lengthy & quite excellent bonus tracks, liner notes... the works!
God Damn You Black Side Projects!!! No longer can we simply go by the somewhat telling label Constellation Records to raise the Godspeed You Black Emperor antennae. No, now Alexandre St-Onge and Roger Tellier-Craig (of Godspeed! You Black Emperor and Fly Pan
Electro-acoustic psych-ups. Members of Le Fly Pan Am GY!BE and Silver Mt. Zion.
2nd album of controlled chaos from this French heavy guitar/bass/drums improv rock trio. Yes, I said French, but even Caspar Brotzmann's Massaker couldn't fade some of this.
