Another fine cassette of home-droned electronics from Hooker Vision founder Grant Evans (aka Nova Scotian Arms, Crippling, and half of Quiet Evenings). What sounds like guitar, synth, and maybe even a bit of piano seems to get into the loops that Evans cycles with the same languid pacing that William Basinski presents via his own tape loop miasma. An underbelly of smoldering grit and amplifier distortion haunts the distant regions of some of the loops as if they were bleed-through artifacts from a previous noise construction that refused to be erased from the tape and points to a latent psychic violence that runs counter to the dreamy, lulling drones which receive a minimal amount of information as to their origin from Evans "soft sounds from 1/4" tape." Super limited pressing of 50 copies, and it's already sold out at the source, these are the last copies.
This super limited tape was released by the new Room 40 cassette imprint A Guide To Saints. It's already out of print at the source, and we've only got a small amount so we won't dwell too much on this. Grant Evans, of course, is one of the proprietors of the incredible Hooker Vision label out of Georgia, and he's also responsible for the druggy, dreamy dronemuzik under the guises Nova Scotia Arms, Crippling, and Quiet Evenings (this being in collaboration with his wife Rachel aka Motion Sickness Of Time Travel). The A side sports contemplative synth lines with innervision pursuits that are buried through thick pedal effects of phase-shifted oscillations and low-pass distortion, giving a decidedly lo-fi spell of rural psychedelia. The B-side is a more gnarled affair with scabrous drones swarming with tight flanges and corrosive textures. The cosmic synths do reemerge through these thickets of noise, with Evans still conjuring the darker facets of Maeror Tri. Thirty-eight minutes in length. Too bad we couldn't get more.
There's nothing like a visit to hospital and the clinical confrontation with ones own mortality to provide a profound sense of clarity. The Georgian tape-minstrel Grant Evans completed Lacerations after such an excursion. Much of the source material for the album was intended to be released on an unnamed label, who ceased communication with Evans after the masters were supplied. While it remains to be seen if Evans will be donning his kosmische / new age cap once again (especially in the placid electronic hymnals recorded under the moniker Quiet Evenings with his wife Rachel Evans / Motion Sickness Of Time Travel), Lacerations is very far removed from anything remotely new age. Torn scabs of noise are scattered liberally through Grant Evans' corroded drones and tape-scum splutter. It appears that Evans is bouncing sordid field recordings (seemingly nocturnal investigations into resonant warehouses full of wood, metal, and glass to be tossed around) and computer sourced data-streaming onto those tapes, which sound exhumed from the bottom of some brackish sinkhole, flush with blind salamanders, translucent crayfish, and decomposed limestone. The digital-to-analog degradation recalls some of the more cerebral savages of US noise (e.g. Crawl Unit, Pedestrian Deposit, Howard Stelzer, etc.) with exemplary results made evident throughout the pronounced tape warble of Lacerations. Limited to 100 copies...
For some reason, we thought we had posted reviews of Grant Evans' noise project Crippling, but alas we had not. Under that moniker, Evans steered far from the genteel ambient songcraft that he and his wife Rachel produce as Quiet Evenings. Instead, Crippling had something of the accusatory, even maledictory tone akin to Weakling, a bandname that was not self-descriptive but directed outward at the audience in contempt and pity. So, in Crippling, Evans invoked the history of noise projects that threaten and provoke, whereas the new age communes reflect and meditate. Roman Persuasion follows from where Evans left off with Crippling, but this cassette is shifts towards more of a post-noise aesthetic on a similar trajectory as Pedestrian Deposit, with creepy-as-fuck, ash-crusted melodies washed onto the crumbled shores of abject noise compositions. Not to worry, there's still the full-throttled explosions of gnarled distortion and guttural bad vibes. Jittery, crank-twitching circuity is engulfed in flanging washes from Jovian storms, squalid amalgams of pierced sawtooth frequencies engage dental-drill nightmares, and monosynth dirges slump into black-noise oblivion. Released on the suitably mysterious noise imprint Vaald, in an 'unspecified' edition, which probably means it'll be sold out sooner rather than later.
After a spate of tape releases under the moniker Nova Scotian Arms and as Quiet Evenings (with his wife Rachel Evans aka Motion Sickness Of Time Travel), Grant Evans has released this drone-n-murk cassette through his mighty fine tape label Hooker Vision. There's a strong link between the sounds here, and on the NSA album Cult Spectrum released earlier in 2012 on Digitalis. Mossy, subterranean drones shift and wiggle out of the initial burst of a noisy industrial-strength flange that opens the first side of the tape. The soft, malleable surfaces of Evans' dark-minded sources (synth? guitar? processed field recordings?) settle nicely into the murk of the tape itself. Here, the sounds are akin to the occluded dronemuzik of Maeror Tri in one of their more circumspect, dreamtime moods, mixed with the likes of RV Paintings. The flip is equally as murky, although the syrupy tones seem to crawl from a turntable playing a 78 of morse code tutorials at 16 rpm, with aerated, black drones spewing smoke and shadow in the distance and spluttering synth percolations coming into focus. Limited to 100 copies; and unfortunately, already sold out at the source.
For those who love rhythm, attention! Is it Fire?, Jessie Evans' first solo record, has enough percussion to satisfy even the most energetic dancefloor junkie. Latin- and African-inspired beats programmed by Jessie are masterfully enhanced with live percussion performed by Toby Dammit (of Iggy Pop fame) and, on a few tracks, none other than Budgie (of the Banshees/Creatures). For the most part, the instrumentation is kept to a minimum, letting the rhythm drive the songs. Saxophone and bass played by Jessie add melody, and the occasional trumpet and other horns (played by Martin Wenk of Calexico) enhance the Latin air. A couple of songs are even sung in Spanish. Synths pop up every once in a while, and, except on a track or three, are left buried in the mix, serving only to add a little flavor. Sometimes, as on the last Vanishing LP, the vocals are fuzzed out into incomprehension, more of a washy layer than a narrative, opting to let the drums tell the story. And what a story they tell!
Don't misunderstand: there's a lot going on within every track. Jessie had been bringing us great music for years, now: The Subtonix, The Vanishing, Autonervous. Is it Fire? is a strong notch on the belt of an artist who will hopefully continue to bring us great music for a long time.
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Nardwuar the Human Serviette whomps us with a double whammy this fine December day! Not only do we have his new double dvd Welcome To My Castle! (the prequel to last year's Doot Doola Doot Doo... Doot Doo! 2dvd), but also his band's new album! Over the years, Thee Evaporators have become quite the well-oiled garage rawk hotrod featuring members of venerable Vancouver bands The New Pornographers, The Smugglers, and Slow.
They're at the top of their game here. Guitarist David Carswell's riffage is particularly tasty. Those that know and love Nardwuar are well familiar with his often atonal off-key squawking style of singing. This time around he's almost tuneful! Much like the probing questions he asks his interview subjects, Nardwuar's lyrics have a habit of being hilarious, educational and topical -- often all at the same time! On these fourteen songs he sings about a butterknife, social housing for the needy, a dance move called the 'eggbeater', Sasquatch, and bacon among other things. Need we say, super fun and super silly! The cd ends with an ancient interview clip with Courtney Love which sorta harshed out our good times. In closing, we wish to add that we don't want to keep on belabor the point, but we have to ask once again, what is it with Canadians and unfortunate nicknames (and bandnames)?! Apparently it's not just a recent phenomenon either. There was a historic Vancouver figure called Gassy Jack! Yikes!
Ba-booom! This a Nardwuar The Human Serviette alert! A short dose is contained on this here record - a split 7" between Nardwuar's band The Evaporators and a certain Andrew W.K.
Yeah, we were sort of braced when this showed up. Can you say "Gung ho!"? Two irrepressible individuals and their respective cohorts go toe to toe, wreaking some good ol' garage rock havoc. Mr. W.K. covers two awesome songs by two awesome Canadian bands, punk rock legends Vancouver's Subhumans and the mighty Toronto duo The Leather Uppers. It's a relatively stripped down W.K. compared to his stadium rock persona of yore, but it's no less bombastic. Nardwuar and co. tackle a tune by obscure Montrealers Les Hou-Lops as well as deliver one of their own, the sillily juvenilely titled "The Bombs In My Pants". If you're seeking a ridiculous fun listen and some extremely obscure pop trivia, this is for you! Bonus "treats": a brief clip of Nardwuar interviewing W.K. as well as a printed insert that verges on old school obsessive zine-ish-ness documenting among other things the coming together of the two. Actually, attempting to read the tiny solidly packed text will probably take longer than listening to these five songs!
Who are Thee Evaporators? And who is this Nardwuar The Human Serviette who leads their charge?! To most in the college radio / indie music scene he needs no introduction... and his legions of admirers / worshippers continues to grow by the minute. Man of many hats (preferably knit or tartan): tenacious interviewer, loose cannon tv and radio host, obsessive Canadian historian (and not just about music, check out the mining story behind the title track!), and irrepressible band leader of Thee Evaporators. He cannot be stopped -- not even by a mysterious brain hemorrhage a few years back! -- and unlike many other recent seemingly similar guerrilla interviewers, he's not out to simply fuck with people. His enthusiasm is genuine. His research can be fascinating and unbelievably thorough. Who's been placed under the Nardwuar microscope/microphone? The list is mind-blowing. Here's just a sampling: Politicians Mikhael Gorbachev, Gerald Ford, former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien and ahem, Dan Quayle, self-help impressarios Tony Robbins and Tom Vu, hard rockers Gene Simmons, Thor, Sebastian Bach, Alice Cooper, Kevin Dubrow and Slayer, hip hop artists Snoop Dogg and Busta Rhymes, alt-gods the Strokes, Blur, Beck, Bright Eyes, White Stripes and Sonic Youth, punk legends D.O.A., The Damned, Sex Pistols' Paul Cook, TV personalities Jimmie Walker, Mickey Dolenz, Peter Tork, and Bob Denver (aka Gilligan), TV evangelist Earnest Angley, child stars Jerry Mathers, Eve Plumb, and Corey Feldman... the list goes on and on!
His band's music is by no means as eclectic, however it can be just as entertaining and educational. On the surface it comes across as pretty straightforward garage pop/rock, but you just might discover a little nugget in each song that sets it apart from the rest. It certainly helps heaps that he's got a solid band backing him up to boot. They are longtime friends bassist John Collins from the New Pornographers, his JC/DC recording studio partner and kickass guitarist Dave Carswell (also of Vancouver garage rawk vets The Smugglers as well as a former touring member of Zumpano) and drummer/grpahic artist Scott Livingstone. Infectious hooks and uplifting choruses grace such tunes as the cryptically titled "I.D.N.M.F.T.T.M.W.M.F.A." (translation: I Don't Need My Friends To Tell Me Who My Friends Are!). However, please be forewarned, the vocals may be an acquired taste. They often sound as though he's been hitting the helium tank... hard, but they do make a perfect foil for the occasional noodly '60s Farfisa organ. As well, The Evaps song titles and lyrics frequently tend to lean heavily on the silly button. You might be put off by titles such as "Addicted To Cheese" and "Shittin' Party", but the songs themselves are mighty hard to resist... particularly if you're a garage pop fan.
A side note: It's notable that this album finds itself on Jello Biafra's label (albeit licensed from longtime Nardwuar supporters Mint) for Mr. Biafra has been a worthy interview combatant for over a decade.
Extras: Interspersed with the music are a couple of interview snippits with Snoop Doggy Dogg and Rahzel (for more you'll just have to visit his humungous website). Plus you also get a handful of bonus tracks by Thee Dublins (the alter ego of the Evaporators' alter ego Thee Goblins).
More slick and super produced kick ass radio ready hip hop from Eve (who along with DMX, Drag-on, The Lox and a few others, make up the Ruff Ryders). We're beginning to wonder why everyone is so into Lil' Kim and Foxy Brown when Eve is poised to knock them
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Hip hop remix. Rhythm = "Let Me Blow Ya Mind" (Eve).
The 6-song debut from these SF dark, seething rockers is a drugged-out and writhing affair. Shades of Sonic Youth and Radiohead. Their use of sexy boy vocal harmonies and lovely melodies are quite alluring. I can't wait to see what they go on to become. Very
A massive, throbbing, pulsing, heaving, slab of buzzing, filthy, crusty, abject lo-fi drone bliss courtesy of the one man band known as Evenings. Besides running the kick ass Tapeworm label, Mr. Evenings creates epic sprawls of brutal low end soft sludge, layered expanses of crumbling bass drones, of buried crunch and clatter, everything muted and muddy and murky and ominous and creepy as fuck.
It's no surprise John Olson (of the mighty Wolf Eyes among other equally kick ass noise making entities) penned the confusional rambling liner notes, this definitely speaks to the same Wolf Eyes-ian aesthetic, the sort of crumbled sonic ruins, the wasted scorched Earth soundscape, whatever melodies there are, you have to dig for, up to your elbows in a viscous black ooooooooze. Surprisingly, amidst all this grit and grime, the sound of Growing Isolation (fairly apt title we think) does occasionally seem to smooth out into something almost pretty, but even then, their are soul sucking spirits lurking just below that misleadingly lovely top layer, a glimmering glistening crust over a constantly roiling cauldron of bottomless blackness, of grinding, slow motion industrial sprawl, everything smeared and blurred into a lurching, lumbering crawl so slow, it sounds like a field recording of mighty black icebergs, drifting in a pitch black sea, beneath a black hole sky, two sidelong tracks, each a slow burning, slow melting, black crust dirge drone epic. Like Lustmord and Tomas Koner collaborating on a soundscape cobbled together with field recordings made of hell. Awesome!
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES! Pressed on thick maroon colored vinyl, with cool, super striking one color silk screened sleeves.
Ian Mackaye threw us all for an unexpected but delightful loop a couple years ago with the debut offering from his new project with longtime Dischord cohort Amy Farina (ex-Warmers). Fugazi and Minor Threat fans weren't met with loud guitars and screaming vocals but instead really insightful and melodic pop songs that proved turning down didn't mean losing spirit. In fact it once again demonstrates the sensitivity and awareness that was always one of Fugazi's best attributes too. Get Evens is the second album from The Evens and while the debut seemed to focus more on personal topics this time out politics rise right to the surface. But really if we're going to hear protest songs at a time like this we'll gladly listen to Mackaye's. Living In DC for as long as they have it would be impossible not to be reminded on a daily basis of your neighbors in the White House and on Capitol Hill. Ian and Amy would like many of those neighbors to go far, far away and it's certainly not hard to understand why. While we find ourselves a little more drawn to their debut, this is still a strong offering. With the future of Fugazi quite unclear we're happy that Ian's found a new outlet for his passion. And by all means go see the Evens live the next time they play an all-ages show in your town for six bucks. Their show a couple years back here in SF at the Swedish American Hall was such an uplifting and inspiring night that it still holds a special place in our hearts.
For those of you wonderin' what Ian MacKaye's been up to lately... here's your answer! Hearing this self-titled debut from The Evens is like hopping into a time machine heading back a decade or so, but oddly it's a sound from the past that's very different from what we know was MacKaye's musical past (Fugazi, Minor Threat). No, although The Evens are clearly a no-frills duo, this is soft-around-the-edges indie pop much like what was coming out of Olympia, Washington / Washington, DC circa '95 (for example Tsunami, Spinanes, and Lois) but with a little of the darker, brooding boy/girl rock a la Versus from around the same time. Check out MacKaye's surprisingly boyish vocals! They're a great match with Amy Farina's sweet voice.
More metalcore. We just can't get enough. And this is most definitely the next contender for best metalcore record ever. So heavy and weird and catchy. And by now you know we especially love the metalcore when it's generously dappled with huge chunks of goopy, heart-on-your-sleeve, mix-tape, lonely-boy, bittersweet and broken-hearted E M O! There's plenty of downtuned chugging, and blazing blast beats, half-time, moshed out breakdowns, wickedly complex, stop-on-a-dime metallic crunch, pummelling percussive tumult and squealing feedback drenched harmonies. And Evergreen Terrace do completely destroy. This is seriously one of the best metalcore records EVER. But where they really prove their mettle is in the melodic breakdowns... the EMO. They're just so catchy and bittersweet, tiny pockets of perfect pop, like a little bit of Sunny Day Real Estate dropped in the thick of an At The Gates record. So fucking great. Make sure and stick it out until after the final song, 'cause there's a hidden track, a wickedly metallized Depeche Mode cover. Which is so good it just makes me long for a metal band that could actually write songs like that instead of covering em. Until then, who wants to start a crushingly heavy metal band called Violator, that just plays Depeche Mode's Violater album start to finish. Get in touch.
Okay, I know how fun it is to play covers. How could it not be? You get to actually play those songs you air guitar-ed to as a child or danced along with in the mirror. You dreamed about this day and now it's finally here. That said, sometimes recorded covers leave you a bit cold, either wanting to hear the originals, or in the case of Evergreen Terrace, wishing that there was actually an extreme metal band that really sounds like this all the time -- that writes -real- songs. Not just chugging riffy chaotic craziness (not that we don't love that stuff) but songs with actual verses, and choruses and hooks, without losing any of the ferocity. But as far as covers records go this one is pretty frigging awesome. The band's age (younger than us) is evident in some of the song choices, but they all end up sounding great. Highlights: Michael Sembello's "Maniac" (you know, the theme from Flashdance) gets turned into a thrashing monster. Smashing Pumpkins' "Zero" sounds a lot like the original but with WAY more firepower. Tears For Fears' "Mad World" (recently redone on the Donnie Darko soundtrack), becomes a ferocious chugging epic, with a massive half time mosh underneath that oh so familiar chorus. Not sure how many of you remember the song "Stars" by the band Hum, but it was an uncharacteristically complex song that somehow found itself all over MTV for a while, with massive pauses, and bizarre stop/starts and heavy riffs, tailor made for a metalcore overhaul. Sounds like it could be an Evergreen Terrace original. And then there's a pretty kick ass version of U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday"! Fun and funny, but you'll still find yourself singing/thrashing along. The rest of the record is filled out with songs by Sponge, Operation Ivy, the Offspring, NOFX and one original. Good stuff and definitely a fun stopgap until the new record. But still, where is THAT band, heavy as fuck, crushing and totally brutal, with songs like we heard on the radio when we were kids and that stick in your head for years? If it doesn't exist, it sure as hell oughtta! This record sort shows that it could be done...
These Everlasting Arms embrace (sorry for the pun, we couldn't resist) the moody angularities of post punk. Some of the more shadowy, dramatic, tumultuous moments brings to mind the awesome but dearly departed SF band Pleasure Forever, while others project a more straightforward rock-ness. Propulsive, occasionally explosive and mathy with angstful male vocals that you would guess comes from SoCal (think: ThreeOneG or Gold Standard Labs). Pressed on vinyl the color of popcorn Jelly Bellys (pale swirly yellow) with sleeves hand-silkscreened by the band themselves.
We'd been hearing about this band for ages. But had no real idea what to expect. This was most definitely not it.
Everlovely Lightningheart are a 3 piece (or 14 piece if you count all the contributors) ensemble, whose debut has somehow found its way to Hydra Head imprint Double H Noise Industries. That distinction is most definitely important in this case, so all you Hydra Head geeks expecting more Isis / Pelican / Old Man Gloom can relax, sit back, throw on the headphones and prepare for a distinctly unheavy, but beautifully fucked up sonic experience.
It's one slow growing 40 minute track, that is all over the map sonically, never getting heavy, in fact there are no RIFFS here, this is abstract free noise, but most of the noise is of the subtle subdued variety. ELLH would most certainly be at home on Kranky, Celebrate Psi Phenomenon, PseudoArcana, or any one of a hundred microlabels who have been unfurling gentle abstract soundscapes.
Everlovely cover a lot of ground in 40 minutes, most of the time is spent drifting lazily through slow shifting fields of ethereal sound, ever lovely indeed. A reverb drenched piano plays some sort of dirgey ballad before dissipating into chimes and tinkling bells, which are quickly smoothed out into an abstract lowercase drift. Soon buzzing steel strings and squealing sine waves join the fray, becoming some sort of otherworldly Appalachia. The rest of the record is like strolling through little sonic vignettes, from clattery percussive workouts, to lilting dreamlike melodies, to some fuzzy muted metallic guitar, to soundscapes of keening strings and delicate chimes, it's all quite beautiful, an incredibly compelling listen, but definitely the kind of soundwork that requires the listener to -really- listen to truly appreciate everything that is going on. Sometime it's foolish to list all the instruments used on a record, but with music like this, it's as much about the instruments as it is the players: accordion, various metals, a creosote bush, exhaust pipe, receivers, bass, acoustic guitar, microphone, metal bucket, blood, wood, piano, rivers, springs, sheet metal, distortion pedals, cymbals, hand made harp, drums, skin, jars full of liquid, broken glass, bells, a boot, tin cans, frying pan, record player, broken clarinet, harmonica, megaphone firecrackers, xylophone, as well as objects and IDEAS like a feather, ghosts, gasping for life, jars full of memories, breathing, dragon's blood, bat wing, icicles, monsoons, scars, bullets, thoughts, trains and more. Phew. Recorded in a monastery's barn, the dead end of a tunnel, a train station, various abandoned rooms, hallways and basements and the desert. Sounds like it too!
Packaged in a striking gatefold with a dense animal collage cover, each disc comes with a hand sewn booklet.
Heads up! Better late than never, Every Move A Picture have arrived with their V2 debut album. Their pouty boy vocals, '80s synths, crunchy guitars and butt-shakin' beat are all primed and ready to out-Faint The Faint, out-Killers The Killers and... aw, you get the picture, doncha? They do a mighty fine job of it too. Nothing you haven't heard before, but well-written and slickly executed, and pretty much guaranteed to get the kids on the dancefloor.
Combine equal doses of Brit pop (Pulp, Supergrass and Blur) and danse-punque (The Faint, Franz Ferdinand) and maybe a dash of Iggy Pop's "Lust For Life" for good measure, and what do you get? Well, not quite a mojito, but more like the debut EP from this new SF band! Five sleek, stylishly coiffed, appealingly infectious songs composed of all the ingredients for a good time -- lanky electric guitars, arpeggiated bleep-blops and synth strings, cocky (we assume faux?) Britboy vocals and an omnipresent thumpin' beat. Sure to fit very nicely alongside those bands mentioned above as well as current hip bands like Kaiser Chiefs and Bloc Party. After just one listen, I could already tell this'll make for some great dancin' and drivin' music (and I don't even drive!).
More amazing New York metalcore. Every Time I die play ultra heavy metal (very little 'core to be found here) with weird time signatures and off kilter rhythms. While their sound is similar to their contemporaries (Deadguy, Kiss It Goodbye, Coalesce) they
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Everything But The Gargoyle is a new project spearheaded by San Francisco's Ferrara Brain Pan and fellow Californian Kyra Pixy. Working under the guise of Forms Of Things Unknown, Ferrara has previously mustered occult atmospheres with plenty of nods to Nurse With Wound, Coil, and even some Ryoji Ikeda through an ever intriguing mixture of bass clarinet, electronics, bowed psaltry, and then some. His uneasy and evocative sound design pairs with the breathy cooing of Kyra Pixy, who's reciting the poetry of one G. James Wyrick. The nature of the lyrics is somewhat obscured by the breathy nature of Pixy's delivery, although a pretty good guess would land this somewhere in the supernatural horror and the oblique gothic. The arrangements are well suited to these themes, with martial overtures of slow motion drums lumbering behind eerie reeds that hold the apocalyptic mysticism that Coil achieved on Horse Rotovator many years ago. On other tracks, a slinky noir approach is taken, with the clarinets matching a smokey Barry Adamson / Angelo Badalamenti vibe, making for a brief 4 track ep that's well done and certainly a teaser for a future full-length recording.
Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn of EBTG reveal their "chillout" mix as their contribution to the Back To Mine series. Stuff they play includes cuts from DJ Cam, Carl Craig, Beth Orton, and The Roots.
Ben Watt isn't looking too healthy on the cover. Hmm. Mixes from Todd Terry, Springheel Jack, and others. Whether you think the 'jungle' beats are (a) cool, subtle & mellow or (b) irreparably watered-down in deference to the so-called mainstream's palate (I would say -b- but Cathy thinks it's great record = -a-, so here we are), should EBTG be commended for recognizing the beauty of the new beats?
At first the super striking cover art had us thinking this was in fact the original Evil Dead soundtrack, just given a modern makeover and re-released on one of the many horror movie soundtrack vinyl labels that have been popping up (Death Waltz, Waxwork, etc.). A closer look though revealed that this was in fact, music from the 2013 REMAKE of Evil Dead, and while we're not big fans of the remake, especially when it's a movie as iconic as Evil Dead, we have to say, over the last few years, some horror movie remakes have actually been pretty great. The new My Bloody Valentine was legitimately great, as was the recent remake of the slasher/exploitation classic Maniac. We dug the Hills Have Eyes remake too. Hell even the first half of Rob Zombie's Halloween remake was pretty cool (focusing on the childhood of Michael Myers), but even with all that, we LOVE the original Evil Dead, and as open as we are to remakes, Evil Dead did seem sort of sacrosanct. The movie itself is a whole different beast, VERY modern, and seriously scary, and WAY violent, the vibe though is totally different, sure it's kids in a cabin, and there's a book, and people get possessed, but otherwise, it really could have been called anything, it's not like that cabin in the woods trope is super original at this point. But still, from a pure horror movie perspective, it was pretty good, and the soundtrack/score, was AMAZING. Some seriously harrowing sound design for sure, that at times reminded us of Ben Frost, or even Roly Porter. It had us imagining that this is what might have happened if those guys were given a HUGE budget, and a full orchestra, and a seriously gore soaked movie to score.
The sound is modern for sure, but it's pretty epic, and really scary, some of the arrangements are super twisted, some are obvious cues, but others are just plain weird, there are operatic vocals, soaring female, and chanted male, symphonic blasts, lost of brooding hushed passages, plaintive piano, the tracks are super dynamic, lots of scary strings, tons of drones, and deep rumbling low end, lots of jump scare style symphonic stabs, pounding percussion, much of the soundtrack sounds like updated black ambient / industrial music, the bits with vocals sound like the scariest neo-folk you've never heard, much of this sounds like a totally terrifying opera, some bits are haunting and delicate, but much of this is just super intense and even removed from the visuals, induces a seriously intense sense of utter dread and desolation. And of course horror.
The vinyl is super deluxe, and thus pretty pricey, an ultra striking full color heavy gatefold sleeve, obviously designed to sit next to your Death Waltz / Mondo / Waxwork releases (it's a co-release with Death Waltz in fact, for overseas), the cd though is in a regular jewel case.
To look at the personnel line-up of Evil Madness, you probably wouldn't know what to expect. There's the melancholy composer Johann Johannsson with a number of acclaimed cinematic records on 4AD. There's the bleak-minded drone specialist BJ Nilsen and his long-time collaborators Stillupsteypa. And there's another Icelander dude named Petur Eyvindsson, who has some oddball releases under the name DJ Musician. Given that, the punchy discotheque grooves of Evil Madness are way out of left-field and totally great. Italo disco, minimal wave / EMB, anthemic Detroit techno circa 1988, John Carpenter's paranoiac synth arpeggiations, lots of analogue synth worship, and pre-fab electronic beats all come together underneath the stoic yet tongue-in-cheek banner of Evil Madness. We suspect that Sigtryggur from Stilluppsteypa has quite a lot to do with this one, given the electro-breaks that would occasionally slap in the face of his seriously minded crackled dronemuzik; no matter who's responsible, both sides of Super Great Love are brilliantly hedonistic mash-ups of vintage synth stabs, stupidly good anthemic electronic melodies, and plenty cybernetic Moroder sequences, spiralling upon techno, disco, and electro rhythms. Super Great Love is actually the fourth record by Evil Madness, with their other releases coming out through the poorly distributed 12 Tonar label and the dada-fetish imprint Ultra Eczema, so this album on Editions Mego should garner a broader audience for Evil Madness (they'll be releasing a cd version eventually too). Fans of Majeure, Umberto, K-X-P, and the Oneohtrix Point Never sideproject Games would be well served to check this out!
If we told Hanatarash fans that this new cd WASN'T chock full of totally insane, random, chaotic noise, they'd be disappointed. So -- don't worry, no disappointment! The first release from Boredoms leader Eye Yamantaka's noise project Hanatarash in many moons (10 years?) is finally here, and it's a collaboration with UK noise artist Evil Moisture, aka Andy Bolus, who's based now in France and has quite a few cassettes and cds of extremely difficult listening under his belt. Together (and you can't tell who's doing what) they've produced 35 brief tracks of ear-hole destroying noise, somewhat in the style of Hanatarash 4: Aids-a-delic from 1994. It's a crazy collage of cut-up sounds, some snippets of recognizable "music" sprinkled amidst a heckuva lot of distorted turntable and microphone abuse, whooshing groaning screaming overload that just keeps on keepin' on, an endless barrage with no discernible structure, noises constantly morphing into some new noises but never making any sense. It's a bit like the sounds you might imagine some truly nightmarish Rube Goldberg device might make. And you've gotta love the "song" titles: "Never Mind The Overdosing", "Fingertip Believer", "Atomichy in the LSD", "Bank Punks / Noise Bank"... Also this includes "covers" of songs by both Survivor and The Exploited, supposedly. Limited edition of 500 copies by the way.
To begin with, there's already something special about bands from New Zealand, whether they're making eccentric indie pop or droned-out experimental noise, we like ourselves a lot of NZ music! So this band Evil Ocean, from Auckland, already has that going for them. But then add in the fact that they're flat-out obsessed with music from another of our favorite locales, Finland, specifically what our friends in Circle like to call NWOFHM, and what do you get? A really, really awesome and unclassifiable album indeed. Krauty confusional garagey distorted DIY doom metal new wave soundtrack music? Maybe we can call it NWONZHM??
Apart from several interludes of eerie, abstract weirdness, the disc mostly consists of some fairly blown-out, rockin' songs, which are ALSO weird as all heck though. These tracks are full of thick fuzz guitar, churning riffage riding the rinky-dink ticky-tock of the manic, machine-sounding percussion. Other ingredients include dramatic female vocals and gnarlier, sneering male vox (rising into a falsetto at times), plenty of effects and sci-fi synth sounds everywhere, tons o' fuzz (we mentioned that already), spooky suspenseful bits, metallic gallop, industrial clank, seasick keyboards, and more... There's ritualistic stuff that sounds like Sylvester Anfang, propulsive parts a la Circle, and heads-down Hawkwindy hypno-rock. The mood can get genuinely intense and disturbing, yet Evil Oceans also obviously display a bizarre, even nerdy sense of humor, heck there's a track here called "Rise Of The Administration Daleks", complete with hysterical Dalek voices... but also Spaghetti Western whistling... what does it all mean?? It's art, or arty (several of the members are apparently successful painters) but most importantly it rocks in a quite entertaining WTF? fashion.
Recommended to anyone into so-called NWOFHM stuff (Circle, Pharaoh Overlord, Steel Mammoth, etc.), also White Hills, Brain Donor, and other gritty post-Stooges space rockers and post-punk derelicts. Released on pro-printed cd-r, packaged in a in a full-color ecopak with photos and artwork celebrating both the epic New Zealand landscape, and Charles Darwin.
Depressive doom death from New Jersey. Where else? Well they kinda sound like they're from Finland, actually, the land of funereal doom acts like Skepticism, Rapture, and Shape Of Despair. But these guys have been on the scene for a long time and are probably inspired by such older bands such as Long Island's Winter and of course the primitive godfathers of the extreme doom/death scene, Hellhammer. Though, the keyboard-laden dirges of Evoken demonstrate a more sophisticated form of grim brutality, one that generates its own notion of beauty, with gutteral vocals, eerie atmospheres, slow-motion riffs and minor-key melodies. Lamentations of misery drawn out to (hopefully) cathartic extremes. It's been four years since Evoken unleashed their masterful Quietus album, and in that time they haven't gotten any happier, that's for sure. Antithesis of Light stops the clock with 71 endless minutes comprising seven sorrowful songs of massive mournful metal. It's perhaps the doomiest, deathliest lower-depths trudge we've heard since the last Runemagick disc.
Full length number five from these Jersey doomlords, who continue to trudge through blackened landscape of downtuned dirgery and funereal creep, everything wreathed in shadow, rendered in shades of black and grey, but the opening track on Atra Mors definitely reminds us why we dig these guys so much, opening with a sky full of swirling winds, which are soon joined by choral voices and spare tribal drumming, the guitars creep in, those choral voices blurring into a shimmery ethereal haze, the vibe almost shoegazey, the vocals join in, a thick reverbed bellow, the drums too, an echo drenched pound, the vibe still washed out and gauzy, it's not until nearly 5 minutes in, that the track slips into a weird lurching slo-mo chug, laced with haunting chiming melodies, swirling synths, the sound still weirdly drifty and atmospheric, until finally, the track explodes into something much more metal, reminding us of the death metal / doom metal hybrid of diSEMBOWELMENT, wedding relentless double kicks and wild qualls of guitar shred to thick tarpit creep and surprisingly mathy arrangements, all blurred into an epic slab of heaving progged out ultra doom, that KILLS.
And so it goes, the rest of the record engaging in similarly tripped out deep doom exploration, flitting from pounding almost death metal dirgery, to creepy cinematic piano driven chamber music, from swirly blackdoom psychedelia to FX heavy mathmetal churn, and from haunting twang flecked string laden shimmer to classic true doom crush.
Not sure why one of our distributors described Evoken as 'doom for morons', especially considering how much completely stupid metal they actually distribute. In fact, this record is really great, like super-slow motion death metal. Huge and dark, droning
Probably best known for their legendary mash up fusing the a cappella vocals from a Public Enemy song to a jam by Herb Alpert And The Tijuana Brass, this lawsuit baiting plunderphonic duo return with a new record of twisted samples, mutated mashups, and a sure fire way to fend off lawsuits (which will come in handy, since on this album they fuck up a Beatles track, quite brilliantly, more on that in a moment), but how exactly does the ECC expect to insulate themselves from the teams of entertainment lawyers who will no doubt be knocking down their doors? Simple. By legally and contractually forbidding you, the listener, to listen to their record. What? Yep, it's right there, TWICE in fact, an audio contract stating that by listening to the record, you have broken a binding legal contract, and thus the ECC are absolved of any wrongdoing. Pretty genius, especially considering by listening to the contract, you're already breaking said contract. Who knows it if would actually hold up in court, but pretty dang funny nonetheless, and since we already broke the contract by listening to the record, well, heck, we might as well tell you what it sounds like.
Our favorite might have to be "What Would You Think If I Sang Autotune", which uses the oft abused Autotune program for what it was originally deigned for, to subtly tweak vocals to change their pitch and 'autotune', them, but here, instead of shifting the vocals so they're IN tune, they take a Beatles song, and do nothing but nudge the vocals slightly out of tune, turning a classic into a cringeworthy exercise in terrible karaoke. Then there's "Stairway To Britney" which finds Ms. Spears groaning and crooning over Zeppelin's "Stairway To Heaven", and it's a surprisingly good fit.
Or maybe "California Dreamings" which seems to take about a million different cover versions of "California Dreaming" cuts em up into little parts and weaves them together into a schizophrenic ADD cover version. Or "Fock It" which melds Herbie Hancock's 'Rockit" and the surprisingly similar sounding "Axel F Theme" from Beverly Hills Cop. And so it goes, a dizzying head spinning mix of samples, and chopped up beats, voices, and sound snippets, each song a plunderphonic mash up of epic proportions, groovy, funky, twisted, stuttery, confusional, baffling and brilliant.
The cd version includes a second computer data disc, with high quality MP3 files of the record as well as album length commentary tracks, outtakes, remixable song versions and more!
Probably best known for their Public Enemy / Herb Alpert mash-up, years before the bootleg/remix craze, Evolution Control Comittee return with a brand new full length of cut and paste, steal and reappropriate madness on Negativland's Seeland label. Nothing totally groundbreaking, quite reminiscent of early Negativland / Tape-beatles but with way more of an emphasis on humor and goofiness, with the musical emphasis being on the hip hop / funk / R+B side of things. But it is fun and funky and really funny. The perfect mix-tape / party record. Childrens records over vintage funky soul breaks, a foul mouthed astronaut over luxurious Beach Boys harmonies, more chopped up Public Enemy and much more!! Everyone who dug the Bran Flakes record from a few lists back will totally love this!!
MPEG Download: "Star Spangled Bologna" [/audio/evolutionarycontrolstarspa.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Star Spangled Bologna" [/audio/evolutionarycontrolstarspa.m3u]
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
2 Public Enemy vocal tracks courtesy Chuck D from some of their 12"s, which often feature vocals without any accompaniment, laid right on top of 2 Herb Alpert instrumentals. Truly hilarious results; we wonder what Chuck thinks...
The strangely monickered Evolutionary Jass Band features two ex members of free noise abstract improvisors Jackie-O-Motherfucker, and while that pedigree definitely informs the sound of the EJB, their sound is much more aligned with traditional jazz, a mix of dark New Orleans funeral jazz and skittery post bop, but all sort of laid back and dreamy, dark and dolorous. Horns don't skronk so much as swoon and shimmer. Dark tones shift and slide, drifting thick and rich over dense tribal drumming, and simple slippery bass. There's even some sitar to add some droney buzz. The EJS are a pretty big ensemble, but it doesn't sound cluttery or crowded, each player contributes and deftly interacts with the rest of the group, but also knows when to let someone else step forward.
This will definitely hit the spot for modern jazz-heads, and might even appeal to the more traditionally inclined, but folks who dig the abstract clatter and free form drift of bands like JOMF, No Neck Blues Band, Sunburned Hand Of The Man and the like, might dig this too. It could be their gateway to a lifelong love of jazz, which is at least partially responsible for informing the new breed of improvised abstraction that is all the rage these days.
Great stuff.
Another stunning album from this formidable Cape Verdean vocalist! On her tenth album Cesaria Evora's voice, so timeless and effortless, will send wonderful shivers down your spine... at least it did ours! She's backed up by a stellar ensemble lead by Fernando Andrade who not only played piano and sang backup vocals, but also masterfully handled the orchestral direction and arrangements. Rogamar is the aural equivalent of the most passionate embrace. So welcoming and irresistible.
