Here's El Cuy, the other cool Peruvian "stoner rock" band we promised to review a few weeks back when we listed the Cosmos Kaos Destruccion disc by their countymen and labelmates La Ira De Dios. Like them, power trio El Cuy kick out some seriously FUZZED rock action! They've a bit less Hawkwindy though, more garage rawk, straight up punkish without all the extra psychedelic FX but lots of gritty guitar. Imagine a less poppy, much heavier version of the Hives. Or the Lyres. It's high energy garagey rock, too frenzied really to be your usual stoner rock. Heavy, freaky, catchy - heck downright melodic when they want, as on the surfy "El Vertigo". But usually it's all about badass riff wrangling as these ten songs speed by in a little over 35 minutes total. Muy excellente!
The booklet with this cd includes the lyrics in Spanish plus English translations.
We couldn't be more stoked that Egyptian legend Hamza El Din's first two records have finally been made available to us on cd. His music has had such a lasting impact on such a wide range of artists. You can hear hints of his exquisite playing in the work of everyone from Sandy Bull (who he lived with for a bit while in the states) and John Fahey, to The Grateful Dead (who toured Egypt thanks to his help), to Ali Farka Toure, Tinariwen, James Blackshaw, Debashish Bhattacharya, etc. The way he used his oud to make such resonating and soulful sounds transcends language, culture or geography. Even with his soulful vocals, it doesn't matter if you don't understand the words because it's the rich emotional tone of his voice that taps into something greater then letters, words or language.
Al Oud was his second album, released in 1965, billed as a record of instrumental and vocal music from Nubia. What haunting yet majestic and soul piercing sounds. No doubt about it, El Din belongs in that special class of transcendent musicians like Alice Coltrane, Ali Farka Toure, Ravi Shankar, and Ali Akbar Khan. Totally essential!
Oops. Here's a straggler from the Africa portion of the Explorer series that we never got around to listing. Oh well, better late than never. A popular lute throughout Northern Africa and the Middle East, the oud has 6 six strings, all of which but for the lowest in pitch are paired up (like in a twelve string guitar). Hamza El Din hails originally from Nubia (which is absorbed within Egypt near the Sudan) and on this album he claims to fuse elements of both Sudan and Egypt into his distinct Nubian style. A couple of interesting facts I never knew about El Din: he not only played with the Grateful Dead live occasionally, he organized their tour of Egypt (Yikes! But don't let that dissuade you non-deadheads out there.) He also roomed at guitarist Sandy Bull's place for a spell (hence the source of the influence on Bull's piece "Blend".) Escalay was originally released by Nonesuch in 1971, but unlike many other artists featured in the Explorer series, it wasn't Hamza El Din's first commercial release (In fact, it was his third release and was apparently recorded after he had emigrated to the United States.) But this was the album that everyone, including Mickey Hart, initially went nuts over and the album that everyone still hails as his greatest -- Kronos Quartet commissioned El Din to arrange the title track for their 1992 release Pieces Of Africa. The first two tracks are mesmerizing -- 21 and 12 minute respectively -- pieces for oud and voice (both El Din's) and the third is a 5 minute piece for tar (frame drum) and voice. Hamza El Din's oud playing is so damn seductive, it seems to warp one's perception of time. The first time I put this disc on to listen to and write, I found myself just sitting paralized through the first two tracks before the crisp snapping of the tar awoke me from my reverie. His playing is so effortless as to understate his virtuosity, it's no wonder that it's so easy to become completely absorbed in his compositions. Listening closely, you can hear El Din manipulating the timbre of his instrument on a macro level: coaxing out texture from the warm buzz of the strings. Buying this CD, your only disappointment will be in its brevity of just under 40 minutes.
We couldn't be more stoked that Egyptian legend Hamza El Din's first two records have finally been made available to us on cd. His music has had such a lasting impact on such a wide range of artists. You can hear hints of his exquisite playing in the work of everyone from Sandy Bull (who he lived with for a bit while in the states) and John Fahey, to The Grateful Dead (who toured Egypt thanks to his help), to Ali Farka Toure, Tinariwen, James Blackshaw, Debashish Bhattacharya, etc. The way he used his oud to make such resonating and soulful sounds transcends language, culture or geography. Even with his soulful vocals, it doesn't matter if you don't understand the words because it's the rich emotional tone of his voice that taps into something greater then letters, words or language.
Music Of Nubia was El Din's debut album, released in 1964, this really was one of the first records from Africa to breakthrough and find a wider audience in the western world, and for great reason! What haunting yet majestic and soul piercing sounds! No doubt about it, El Din belongs in that special class of transcendent musicians like Alice Coltrane, Ali Farka Toure, Ravi Shankar, and Ali Akbar Khan. Totally essential!
Ever since Pole decided to abandon the druggy Chain Reaction minimalism that we love so much, we've been continually searching for some new dub technician to fill that Pole shaped hole in our hearts, and with Reverberate Slowly from the mysterious El Fog, it seems like we've finally found it. Nothing here is brand new, instead it's variations on a sound we love, the abstract minimal space dub: click, pop, hiss, all harnessed into a skeletal skitter. Bathed in record crackle, these rhythms drift over ghostly moonlit expanses of near nothingness, the only color supplied by brief flourishes of vibraphone, or shimmery acoustic guitar, there is a definite Portishead vibe as well, with the washed out blur of the ambience, and the dusty old record quality of the sound. But even those little flourishes sometimes get chopped and clipped, rendering them just another rhythmic element. But rhythm is what it's all about, mood and rhythm, and the mood IS the rhythm. Shuffling, shimmering, pulsing like a heartbeat...
This is definite headphone music, so much is going on, on a microscopic level, various bits of hiss and fuzz, muted rhythms -beneath- the rhythms, melodies that are barely there shadows, guitars looped into melodies that smear into fuzzy soft focus textures, while the beat beneath is as unobtrusive as it is subtly relentless, beneath it all are huge bass swells, that lurk silently, before throbbing briefly and retreating once again, letting the rhythms trip trebly across the sound field, before they surface again to rattle your chest, like some distant passing train, or thunder rolling over the hills.
Reverberate Slowly is late night chill out bliss out drift off fade away sonic nirvana. It's about 1:00 am as this review is winding down, time to flip off the lights, shut down the computer, roll into bed, and drift off and let El Fog envelop us and carry us off...
We were given a heads up about El Guincho months ago by a customer who was in the store while we were playing Panda Bear. He asked us if we knew El Guincho, when we said no, he told how we had to hear it and it would blow us away and how he was like the Spanish version of Panda Bear. So now several months later El Guincho is finally seeing his record released in North America on XL, and we have to say once again, that sometimes our customers are often way more hip and in the know then we are, because this is proving to be a total store favorite! There is a huge Panda Bear influence at play but with a much more full on party sensation. And a distinct lo-fi Manu Chao vibe as well. This isn't headphone music, this is a record meant to come blasting out of speakers. We hear such a wide range of influences, especially the surging sonic sensations heard in Congotronics, all riled up for full pleasure.
If Panda Bear ever got to be captain of a party cruise we're pretty sure this is what it would sound like to be on that ship. Sign us up!
Summer in San Francisco is a funny thing. It doesn't really happen, most of July and even August is chilly, grey, and windy. We know we have no room to really complain about the weather here, but it can get you down. Luckily we do usually get this small blast of Indian Summer that hits late in September and we all run to the park, the beach, a lake, anywhere to soak it all up as much as we can, as we know it will be gone before we know it. So in these times of packing in as much summer as we can in just a handful of days we really need and relish when an end of the summer jam shows up just in time to blast as we play in the sunshine.
El Guincho has given us the perfect bright, bouncy and colorful soundtrack that's beyond perfect for tapping into the carefree vibe of running through waves and playing in sand, the fleeting summer state of mind that is already on its way out. Picking up perfectly where his 2008 debut left off, and even upping he quality of songcraft and irresistibility. While El Guincho is from Spain, his music really sounds like someone so in touch with so many great sounds being made across the globe. It's a universal kind of super smart and catchy dance minded pop, filled with so many cascading melodies, catchy rhythms and such impeccable taste.
One of those perfect records that seamlessly mixes synths, samples, and live instruments along with warm and welcoming vocals to create songs that are made for letting down your guard and soaking up some much needed joy and sunshine. So damn good!
This could be a risky proposition: a live band interpreting instrumental versions of songs by one of the most iconic hip-hop groups ever, The Wu-Tang Clan. But the risk pays off, because this band is not only super tight, but they approach the material with an economy of touch, keeping the arrangements minimal and the grooves mean but still highly cinematic. Led by Brooklyn organist and drummer, Leon Michels (who also co-runs, the Truth and Soul label), the El Michels Affair really know how to tap into the sounds of hip-hop source material, the rare groove of '60s and '70s soul, jazz and deep funk, without it being pastiche. Their 2005 debut, Sounding Out The City, proved this was the soul-jazz group to watch, having previously released a single on the Daptone label. It was Raekwon, from The Wu-Tang Clan that tapped El Michels Affair to instrumentally rework Wu-Tang beats for a series of 12"s called The Shaolin Series which led to this full record. Peppered with samples from martial arts movies, the group even venture into some of the Wu-Tang offshoots, including an amazing version of Ol' Dirty Bastard's "Shimmy Shimmy Ya" with a chorus sung by kids. Also be sure to lookout for the hidden 37th track! This kills!
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El Michels Affair and Budos Band should have some crazy battle of the amazing modern soul/funk bands sometime, because both groops are such heavy hot groovers in their own takes on instrumental soul/funk. Last time we heard from El Michels Affair they were interpreting the work of Wu Tang Clan in a way that was strong and soulful and not at all some sort of gimmick. They have returned, doing the same to the amazing music of Isaac Hayes, paying tribute to him by interpreting his songs (both his hits and more obscure tracks) in such a rich and free flowing way. They don't try to mimmick the originals, instead they really do inject a new vibe and energy into them, and they help remind us all that Isaac Hayes was much more than just Shaft, or a cartoon character on South Park, but in fact one of the most brilliant musical minds of our time. This sizzles and burns with such delight! Some parts remind us of the slinky grooves on that Xero soundtrack by Rockford Kabine.
Want some honey with your tea? Want a little bitter with the oh so sweet? El Perro Del Mar follows up her debut with a record of songs that glow in that open space somewhere between sadness and hope. With a sound and voice as breezy as a lazy afternoon drive, when you just have to get away so you can figure some things out, El Perro Del Mar has made a record that we'll be listening to on long drives as well as long nights inside our bedrooms for years to come. From The Valley To The Stars comes across like a collection of heart melting pop-hymnals that fall somewhere between Beach House, The Concretes, Camera Obscura and Spiritualized. We love the sparse quality of so many of the songs on this record and even when she is backed by the Gothenberg Symphony Orchestra and Symphonic Choir it always feels so tasteful and never overdone. This Swedish chanteuse is makes perfect moody pop that has her sitting comfortably at the same sonic table as Francoise Hardy, Isobell Campbell and Victoria Bergsman.
So elegant, tasteful and tasty!
We've been smitten with El Perro Del Mar ever since her enchanting debut a few years ago, and with each release it feels like we fall in love all over again. Last year's outing, From The Valley To The Stars, was one of the most underrated releases of the year in our opinion, with its completely elegant and bittersweet pop crafted and delivered with such subtle and satisfying results.
The latest from this dazzling Swedish chanteuse finds her in absolute top form with swirling pop melodies, haunting and sultry vocal delivery and songs that are so immaculately crafted yet still flow with such perfect ease. With every EPDM (not to be confused with EPMD!) record, she manages to create a sound that is very much her own while mixing it up enough so that every record really has its own identity. On Love Is Not Pop we are hearing the first hints of a Kate Bush influence on her songs as some of the tracks here, especially "L Is For Love" sound like they could be the perfect B-side to a track on Hounds Of Love. With a few of us here in aQ land way beyond obsessed with the sounds of Kate Bush it's been making us love El Perro Del Mar all the more! She continues to make records that are beautiful and darkly melodic and moody yet don't pander to the lowest common denominator. It would be all to easy for EPDM to keep her songs so simple and straight forward to cash in on the coffee house crowd, but there is a deeper integrity and range of emotions conveyed in El Perro Del Mar's songs which is what makes her one of our favorite songstresses of today. Highly recommended!
The Swedish pop gems keep coming and we are super glad to finally welcome to AQ the debut cd of Sarah Assbring or as she is known musically, El Perro Del Mar (The Sea Dog). We had the import of this a while ago and have been waiting patiently for this domestic version. Imagine the aural equivalent of a vintage Margaret Keane painting... y'know, those saucer-eyed, forlorn ragamuffins who sort of resemble Hope Sandoval. Quite girlish and just a little bit tweaked, she combines Brill Building pop with the voice of a kittenish Kate Bush or Jane Birken. The songs here are sweet confections of love's seemingly cruel humor, heavily influenced by the doo-wop arrangements of Bacharach and Phil Spector. Catchy and occasionally melancholy, El Perro Del Mar's debut is one of the best sensitive pop records of last year.
Early '70s film soundtrack by a Peruvian hippie commune. Nice.
Big ups to Daptone for pulling together this smoking collection of tracks from 45's by one of the most underrated masters of souk/funk out of Benin in the 1960s and '70s. We first heard El Rego (Theophile Do Rego) on the awesome Analog Africa compilation, Legends Of Benin, in one of his many incarnations as El Rego Et Ses Commandos, and we totally dug that track so much, that we were stoked to realize he had a golden vault of tracks hidden away, all from this magical era.
El Rego has a similar sound, energy and spirit to folks like Fela Kuti, James Brown, and Archie Bell, while also having the ability to slow things down and allow the rich grooves to drive the meditative focused vocals into a blues like trance. It makes sense that Rego was not only a performer, producer, and engineer, but also owned nightclubs, as his sense of timing and the importance of creating a mood and making bodies move is undeniable in these stellar tracks.
The vinyl edition comes with a bonus 7" of one of his most sought after funk tracks, while the cd comes in deluxe packaging including a booklet filled with photos, artwork from the original 45's and El Rego's story of his life and music.
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Seventies Latin American prog-rock action, courtesy of Buenos Aires' El Reloj. This album is from '76 (with two singles tracks from '75 as a bonus) and showcases their powerful and complex "symphonic hard rock" sound. Argentina's answer to Deep Purple, apparently, with Hammond organ and wailing vocals. On the whole this band is a lot more freaky and twisted than Purple, with plenty of extended instrumental passages. Pretty great! "Without music life would be mistake." --part of a quote from Nietzsche found in the El Reloj booklet.
REPRESSED! (And also, FYI, the Real Gone label has also just issued vinyl versions of the soundtracks to two other Jodorowsky films, including the sought-after Holy Mountain - we have 'em in stock, but didn't have time to review yet!)
The great Chilean experimental filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky directed, starred in and composed the music for one of THEE flat out strangest cinematic experiences ever made. El Topo from 1970 was Jodorowsky's bloody surreal take on the Western genre and was the film that began the phenomenon of the Midnight Movie. Funded by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, this film is like a Sergio Leone film on a serious dose of brown acid. Visually stunning and brutally violent, El Topo shares the avant garde qualities of all of Jodorowsky's early films: the soul-baring psyche of experimental theater, the role-playing excess of costumes, props and pageantry, the ritualistic entanglements of violence and beauty as catalysts of transformation, and most importantly the notion of existence as a journey through all kinds of personal and mystical revelations both sacred and profane. The soundtrack is comprised of 18 tracks composed by Jodorowsky and John Barham inspired by both the soundtrack work of Ennio Morricone and Nino Rota. Full of flutes and droning horns, accordions and organs and twisted Mariachi styles. The music is as visceral as buzzing flies around the rotting corpse of an evil marauder. Highly Recommended!
180 grams, gatefold, remastered from original tapes, with 4 page booklet including stills from the movie.
El-B is one of the pioneers and inspiring forces that helped usher in the sound of dubstep as we know it. Pushing the UK garage scene in new and exciting directions, incorporating elements of house, drum & bass and dancehall creating a pulsating sound that would become the core of modern dubstep. While folks like Burial, Pinch and Kode9 would take bits and pieces of this foundation and give it a much more sinister and brooding vibe, you can still tell that it was probably one of those rare white label 12"s by El-B that helped trigger many of the ideas that would find their way in today's leading dubstep records. A few months ago we raved (pun intended!) about the Zomby record Where Were You In '92 with its amazing combination of various elements from house and rave culture with dubstep's dark driving allure. There's no denying that these El-B tracks had to be a gigantic source of inspiration for Zomby as so much of what he was doing almost a decade ago can be found in the grooves of that record. If you're like us you probably don't have tons of those rare white label 12"s so it's rad to be able to get a great collection of El-B's jams on one single disc along with a really informative 14-page booklet that breaks things down so well.
The vinyl version doesn't have all the songs from the cd, but for vinyl addicts it's definitely cool, with one track stretched out on each side of the double 12".
There are a few people who always seem to be in the right place at the right time, in spite of themselves. Judging from the liner-notes to this anthology of his early works, Egyptian composer Halim El-Dabh led one of those lives. His first public
"Crossing Into The Electric Magnetic" is a documentation of the work that El-Dabh composed during his stay at the Center, and certainly has the grizzled electronic crackle and pointilist composition techniques indicative of coming from that institution. Occasionally, El-Dabh incorporates poems sung in the Arabic tradition along with the musique concrete and electronics. Really Cool.
More twisted collaged schizophrenic cabaret French pop folk weirdness from mysterious troubadour Laurent Gerard aka El-G! Where El-G's last record was a dizzying shimmery Gainsbourg meets Animal Collective song suite, that slipped from delicate hushed French pop, to more abstract free rock weirdness to epic dense dronemusic, Capitaine Present 5 is something way more out there.
On the surface, it almost sounds like one of those Sublime Frequencies collections, that just features snippets collected from the radio, short snippets, mysterious disembodied voices, a glorious barrage of constantly shifting sounds and textures, but as the record progresses, it becomes easier and easier to become lost in El-G's sound, tolling bells, thrummed bass, maniacal spoken word, bursts of noise, and tangled fractured melody, wheezing organ, delicate acoustic guitar strum, the vocals dramatic and passionate, the single song (?) that takes up the record's one playable side, shifting constantly from total chaos, to fluttery folk, to dreamy avant pop, to mysterious foreign radio play, to Residents-like art rock, to warm orchestral shimmer, to sultry smoldering torch song, to total what the fuck mashup and every possible permutation in between.
It's definitely chaotic, and a bit out there, a total head phone trip for sure, but the chaos is infused with plenty of jangle, subtle hooks, some pretty vocals, and irresistible melodies, even some cinematic strings, which makes Capitaine Present 5 a fantastic, and fantastically confounding listen.
We didn't know a whole lot about El-G, aka French pop weirdo Laurent Gerard, other than he was supposed to be sort of like a twisted modern day Serge Gainsbourg, and hearing this now, that's really not that far off the mark, he even has a female foil to further cement the Gainsbourg comparison. Mix in some Animal Collective weirdness, some Kemialliset foresty folk, and you'd be getting close.
French ballady folk is definitely the core of Gerard's sound, but the tracks here vary wildly, compiled as they are from a handful of super limited previous releases. But a quick sampling reveals laid back French pop, breezy and dreamy, brushed snares, subtle electronics drifting over finger picked guitars, fractured blues drenched in wheezing organ and random percussion, peppered with deep bassy throbs and grunted garbled vocals, Abstract fractured folk, soft female vocals over shimmery organs, rubbery basslines and howled male background vox, the final track of the A side builds from a folky whisper to a soaring layered drone, all buzzing tones and warbly organ, strangled guitar leads and lurching low end melodies. The rest of the record hovers close-ish to French folk and pop, but tweaks them just enough to keep it interesting, at one point converting the main riff from the Smiths' "How Soon Is Now" into a backdrop for some ethereal crooning. Cool stuff. Definitely recommended for fans of any of the above mentioned bands, as well as the softer side of freak folk and the weirder side of French pop.
You know how crazy we are for all things Def Jux. Cannibal Ox, RJD2, Aesop Rock and of course El-P. This is a super limited compilation (never to repressed once it is gone) collecting a whole mess of instrumentals, b-sides, remixes and unreleased tracks. All the El-P / Def Jux shit you love is present, throbbing, head-nodding beats, random samples and bizarre loops, funky bass and fuzzed out synths, crackling record static and stuttering shuffling drumming all melded into blissed out druggy hip hop weirdness. So fucking good! Highlights include the hip hop / free jazz hybrid of "Intrigue In The House Of India" featuring Matthew Shipp from Thirsty Ear's Blue Series, the stone cold classic "The Day After Yesterday", and...well, hell it's all good!! Once again. SUPER LIMITED. Once these are gone, they're gone for good!
The instrumental version of El-P's solo debut sounds exactly like you think it would -- good! Layered, experimental, unrpedictable and super interesting in its own right without the vocals, eminently spinnable for DJs, aspiring rappers, or instrumental hip hop lovers. If you're buying the cd version, the second disc contains 3 remixes, including excellent one by Def Jux rising star RJD2, and for your computer there the "Deep Space 9mm" video, a live set, and lyrics.
The instrumental version of El-P's solo debut sounds exactly like you think it would -- good! Layered, experimental, unrpedictable and super interesting in its own right without the vocals, eminently spinnable for DJs, aspiring rappers, or instrumental hip hop lovers. If you're buying the cd version, the second disc contains 3 remixes, including excellent one by Def Jux rising star RJD2, and for your computer there the "Deep Space 9mm" video, a live set, and lyrics.
What to say about this one? Heads have been waitng for the new El-P like is was the second coming. Or the first coming, which I suppose it technically is. You may know El-P from his stint fronting underground hip hop phenoms Company Flow, or for his Definitive Jux label that has been releasing wickedly damaged hip hop from Cannibal Ox, Aesop Rock, Mr. Lif, RJD2 and others. He also spent the last little while producing former Rage Against The Machine frontman Zack De La Rocha's solo record. So this here is El-P's first proper solo record and it's a doozy. Windy and Allan were both surprised (slash dismayed) to find out Mr. Def Jux was white [thanks to his appearance in this month's Wire, taking part (not so successfully we might add) in the Invisible Jukebox], but sonically it always seemed sort of obvious, this record, and his production in general has way more in common with Anticon, Them, and cLOUDEAD than Eric B and Rakim, EPMD, Public Enemy or whatever, and before that he (with Company Flow) sounded like nothing we had ever heard . El-P eschews traditional hip hop beats and comfortable funk for a patchwork of stumbling clutter, loping hiccupping beats, and a thick wash of soulful background vocals and buzzing guitars, murky turntable grit and primitive scratching. And over the whole thing is El-P's shouted, almost sung staccato flow, sounding not at all unlike 3rd Bass's MC Serch (NOT a dis, check out 3rd Bass's 'The Cactus Album'!) But the sound is (and has always been) El-P's bread and butter, and he doesn't disappoint, beat heavy soundscapes, cluttered and mayhemic, but in a good way, super dynamic, with big bursts of beat/guitar and big wide open spaces with mad flow skittering wildly through the wasteland. Fetaures the ususal suspects: Aesop Rock, Ill Bill (Non Phixion), Vast Aire (Cannibal Ox), Mr. Lif, Rob Sonic, Steven Segal (not that one) and more.
Latest in Thirsty Ear's Blue series, discs where jazz players are matched up with non-jazz performers (electronic, hip hop, etc.) for some cross genre explorations. The results have been mosly great, with past participants including the Antipop Consortium and Spring Heel Jack. This long awaited volume matches up the usual jazz suspects: Matthew Shipp, William Parker, Daniel Carter, Guillermo Brown, and Steve Swell with Definitive Jux head honcho El-P. Thankfully El-P shows an amazing amount of restraint here, and instead of dropping beats everywhere, and scratching and rapping all over the place, he lets the band just go. And in fact, the band goes in all sorts of new directions, some seriously dark and gritty, like on the opening track turning their avant bop into a creepy crawly cinematic jazzscape of pounding piano, wailing horns and slamming propulsive drumming. Sounds like the darkest scariest sample Shadow never dug out of a musty old crate. And things continue on in that vein, dark and boppish soundscapes, and it's not really until the end of track five where El-P makes his presence known, subtley, with a shuffling hip hop beat over muted trumpet and simple piano chords. For the second half of the record, El-P adds more and more beats, nothing bombastic or booming, just simple and groovy, totally complimenting the groups jazzy explorations. Track seven features some raspy jazz vocals over a creeping, minor key dirge, that is so intensely dark and moving. Once again, DJ Shadow would kill to come up with a track like this. So while there are beats and occasional hip-hop-isms, this is basically at heart a jazz record, albeit a dark and funky and creepy one. Maybe the best in the series so far!
EL-P's highly anticipated I'll Sleep When You're Dead may be one of the best produced hip-hop records thus far in the new millennium. Produced by EL-P himself, the record could stand alone on it's carefully arranged beats and backgrounds and samples but offers so much more, with killer rhymes that are equal parts political, dark and personal, and seriously humorous. EL-P spits lyrics that toe the line of a fucked up paranoid world in such a way that by the end of the record you too may find it hard not to imagine a bleak droidian future. The album features a slew of interesting guests including Trent Reznor, Aesop Rock, and in case you were wondering how Cat Power's Chan Marshall would fare hip-hoppified, the final track may leave you with yet another wonder -- did she miss her calling? Or, it may be just another testament to the El-P's deft production and incredible vision, you decide. Trust us, I'll Sleep When You're Dead is a must even the most casual of hip-hop headz.
Nice and different outing by El-P. Almost sounds like Ratatat going way more hip-hop.
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Another clutch of lo-fi rockabilly R&B grime jams from Dirty Beaches, a handful of tracks recorded at the same time as Badlands, his recent full length, here presented as one half of a split with previously-unknown-to-us Ela Orleans. The Dirty Beaches tracks, do in fact sound like they could have been included on Badlands, although according to Mr. DB himself they just didn't fit the flow of the album, but they work pretty well here, the opener being about the most rocking track we've heard from DB, still swirly and washed out, the vocals a snarly reverby Elvis-y croon, but more propulsive, the rest of the record more moody and murky and slithery, with woozy spidery melodies, the vibe hazy and druggy, like Badlands, a sort of experimental avant take on classic fifties rock and RnB, until the final track, which like the opener is another odd sonic duck, a cool shuffling, skittery psychedelic groove, that sounds downright krautrocky!
Not sure if Ela Orleans is a person or a group, but he/they are a pretty good match for Dirty Beaches, beginning with a brooding bit of echo drenched piano, the sound quickly shifts into a more swirly reverby exotica, a distinctly Ducktails vibe, a sort of dreamy easy listening, but a bit darker and more FX drenched, the vocals dreamy and passionate, feeling a little Animal Collective here and there. As the record progresses, the sound grows wilder and more psychedelic, the sound collaged and blurry and a bit dizzyingly tripped out, while somehow remaining surprisingly catchy.
Both sides of the split sound like lost documents of groups out of time, as if each set of songs was some skewed glance back at an alternate sonic past, the sounds here both modern and timeless. Cool stuff for sure.
Like other releases on Night People, striking one panel, two colored silkscreened jacket/insert, which along with the record is housed in a plastic outer sleeve.
If you can't wait for a new Rufus Wainwright or Antony & The Johnsons album or are simply a big fan of lush elegant pop music, you might want to welcome Elanors's new one in a warm embrace. While this Chicago band's second full length Movements is not quite on the grand scale of Rufus or Antony's epic productions, the Elanors' eight finely crafted arrangements of piano, guitar, bass, synthesizer, drums and velvety vocals caress and charm in their own sumptuous ways. Darkly captivating.
Despite being called Elder, the guys in this stoner/doom trio look pretty young! Nevertheless, this is their 2nd full length for the quite reliable Meteorcity label. We actually never listed Elder's first, self-titled album, from back in 2008, that one somehow slipped by, for whatever reason, but hope to make up for that by highlighting this new one, which we do dig big time, particularly 'cause of how it possesses a blissful lightness within its considerable heaviness.
And it's worth pointing out that, like a lot of things we list, it's by choice, we didn't have to list it y'know, there's lots of other things we could have listed instead, but it's something we liked enough to go to the trouble of ordering in and writing up to share with you 'cause we think you'd really like it too - well in this case, especially if you're into the stoner/doom sounds like we are.
They traffic in extended bouts of churning, blown-out heaviness, sludgey and psychedelic, with lumbering riffs, wailing guitars, hypnotic rhythms, and some nice, almost folky melodies (the 12 minute title track has some bits in it that remind us of early Wishbone Ash!). Theirs is not exactly a groundbreaking style, but boy do they bring it all together and do it right. And even though they're from Massachusetts, they've got the desert-y vibe down (these kids obviously having consumed much Kyuss), heavied up further to swing with the likes of Electric Wizard, Yob, Sleep, UFOmammut, and Boris (note the similar Roger Dean inspired logo). The vocals here are mostly an echoed afterthought, with the urgent instrumental unfurling of that desert-y doom being their main mode of mesmerization.
While the whole disc delivers those goods, they perhaps save the best for last, "Knot", another epic at 11:56 (well, all their songs are pretty darn long), which somehow seems to channel the essence of some of Elders' elders - ye olde '70s proto-metallers that is - into its bulldozing rifferama.
Are those purple icicles on the cover? We're not sure exactly, but it looks cool and psychedelic and eldritch� perfect for this latest, vinyl-only release from these stoner sludge heavies. We loved their MeteorCity cd from two years ago, Dead Roots Stirring, a disc of desert-y doom that was both crushingly heavy and mesmerically melodic. Now on it's second pressing, this newer two-tracker (one song to a side, 22 minutes total) follows on from that album with yet more lumbering riffage and fuzzed out psych glory. The track on the second side, "Release", in particular is a thing of epic, grungy beauty. Like we said, second pressing, no doubt just as limited as the first was.
Newest project from Punk Planet editor and all around nice guy Joel Schalit. While I completely wrote off his former project, The Christal Methodists (and for good reason, boring Christian bashing, Negativland-ish political punk/techno whatever) this is
Second of two new releases from this Portland black metal horde, the first, Kali, reviewed a few weeks back, was a glorious chunk of epic and majestic, nearly symphonic buzz, three looooong track separated by gorgeous little ambient drone interludes. We still have a few of those left, but in the meantime we just got release number two, and while structured differently, if anything, it's even more massive and grandiose, triumphant and fucking EPIC.
As we mentioned in the review of the other disc, there does seem to be some questionable politics lurking below the surface. Nothing obvious, not in the song titles, the lyrics or the artwork, like most black metal it seems to be more concerned with nature and misery, war and death, but folks who are sensitive to the problematic politics that underscore a lot of black metal, might do well to read the other Eldrig review. But if you can look past that stuff, and as we mentioned it's not really that difficult here, as the band seem more concerned with crafting soaring blackened buzzscapes, and the cryptic lyrics (if you could make them out at all) are cries of war and wails of anguish.
But the music, holy shit. The sound of Eldrig manages to be buzzing and grim and brutal, but at the same time, the riffing is totally majestic, almost chiming, the melodies soaring skyward, the drums a furious thrashing framework, the vocals a barely audible howl, all woven into what sounds like a black metal Explosions In The Sky or a Satanic Godspeed. Spiraling riffage that just builds and builds, the melodies so intense and emotional, everything peppered with swaths of swirling keyboards, but unlike the other Eldrig, here the riffs sound almost like classic eighties metal, little bursts of NWOBHM tangled into much blacker shapes. But the sound is somehow impossible poppy, like if you stripped all the snarling guitars and the demonic rasps, the blasting beats, you'd be left with some sort of simple catchy lullaby, or some perfect pop song, but here it's buzzed and blackened into some impossible black metal hybrid. So fast and furious and black, but so goddamn catchy and moody and melodic, culminating in the near power metal sounding outro to the final track "Death To The Unwilling", with classical sounding keyboard runs, chiming keyboards, and super poppy riffage, all whipped into a glorious frenzy, before it fades out with a strange skipping cd sound, and then returns with a programmed drum fill, only to explode into an even more over the top power/back metal frenzy with epic keyboards, those majestic riffs, all wrapped in wild squiggly leads, only to eventually fade out into some churning, mournful, abstract riffage.
Super limited! We may have gotten all we can get of these, so when we run out, prepare to either be disappointed, or to wait a while for us to track down more.
One of two new releases from this Portland based one man black metal project. And it's a doozy. Been playing this nonstop since we first got it. But as with a lot of black metal records, some questionable right wing politics come into play, so fair warning to those put off by those things. On Kali, that influence is subtle, especially considering the fact that the record is totally instrumental. The song titles give nothing away either, but there's a quote on the inside of the cd booklet, "Creation and destruction are one, in the eyes who can see beauty." Which also doesn't seem any more oblique and grim than text found on other black metal records. But the quote is attributed to Savitri Devi, a French writer who wrote much of trying to synthesize Hinduism and Nazism, believing Hitler was an avatar for the Hindu god Vishnu, among other problematic and bizarre beliefs. Woah. She does seem pretty fascinating, what little we've read about her, at least in a seriously fucked up way, but she was definitely a total loony, and because of her strange beliefs has become a bit of a favorite amongst neo-Nazi's, hence the quote and hence the warning.
But if you can overlook the politics, as subtle as they may be here, this record is intense and beautiful and completely epic. Three loooooooong tracks, blazing buzzing, majestic, almost orchestral black buzz, furious and frenetic, relentless and weirdly gorgeous, separated by brief droning ambient interludes, moaning cellos, deep cavernous rumbles, epic minor key swells, soaring majestic synths, crumbling distortion, a dark industrial ambience with haunting music box melodies drifting over stretches of mournful murk.
But it's the three long tracks, which make up the bulk of this disc, that really make this such essential blackness. And even referring to this as blackness is not entirely accurate, as those tracks soar, the chugging guitars and tangled melodies, the furious drumming and the super emotional melodies all whirled into an epic slab of blissed out metallic beauty. In fact, the first long track, "The Great Destroyer", sounds to us what that Alcest record would have sounded like if it was actually metal. Shoegaze-y and dreamy and blissy, but still fierce and heavy, multiple guitar lines unfurling melodic tangles that stretch heavenward, all sustained and super dramatic, the drums a non stop barrage, perfectly complimenting the dense whirl of dreamy high end buzz.
The second long track, "The Intoxication", begins all slow and meandering, a crumbling distorted guitar picking out a minor key melody, before the song launches into a furious melancholy blast, the guitars continuing to soar and wail, with brief bits of midtempo drift separating the blissy blasts. The final long track, "The Dance Of Creation", is more of the same, but with two awesome interludes, the first, a gnarled breakdown with grinding high end guitars, and convoluted melodies over seasick riffing, the other a haunting expanse of synthesized strings, wavering and whirring before being swallowed up by the drums and guitar crashing back in. Very weird and strangely beautiful, epic grim not-so-blackness. The disc ends with a two minute stretch of ghostly buzz and reverb drenched swells of hiss and whir, creepy and abstract...
And again, while we of course find all that aforementioned political / racial stuff reprehensible, it's hard not to love a record this fucked up and gorgeous.
The packaging is pretty amazing too. Super thick textured paper, the images all washed out like some old parchment, the cd itself, red on the playing side, matching the artwork on the cd face. Cool.
The return of Portland one man black metal horde Eldrig. We have been totally obsessed with the two previous records, Kali and Everlasting War Divinity, both sounding like an impossible mix of Godspeed and Darkspace, furious and relentless and blackened, sweeping, epic and emotional, looong tracks, rife with droning buzz guitars, furious drumming, surprising melodies, all wrapped around some super abstract and far out mythologies, but here, those same strange obsessions are tangled up with a totally new, and seriously demented and unlikely sound.
As we mentioned in previous Eldrig reviews, like much black metal, there seems to be in Eldrig, some somewhat unpleasant political leanings, flirtations with Aryanism, Nietzschism, that sort of thing, which is only represented in the lyrics and the artwork as the music is all (or almost all) instrumental. But the more we hear, and the more we dig into the strange liner notes, the less this seems like some sort of NSBM, and the more it appears to be an all consuming and twisted obsession with all manner of problematic and crackpot theologies, far out mythologies, arcane symbolism, Eldrig revel in exploring the hidden meanings of symbols, both classic and traditional, forbidden and shocking, the music, in some strange way expressing the power and energy behind and within these symbols, the words wrapped around those symbols, and the people who lived and died over ideas and beliefs and yes, symbols. The booklet is gorgeous this time, thick marbled matte black pages, with text and symbols in super reflective ink, each song represented by a symbol, and some notes on the symbol and the music from Eldrig himself, there's a pentagram (of course), the cosmic egg, the AUM, the black sun, and of course the sunwheel (aka the swastika). The text accompanying the sunwheel speaks merely of the 'golden sun' and its abstract symbolic significance. But fair warning, folks sensitive to this stuff should steer clear, it's subtle but it's definitely there (for instance, Eldrig are still obsessed with Savitri Devi, a crackpot who was all about combining Nazism and Hinduism), although the interest does seem more abstract and intellectual than political or social.
But all of that hardly prepares you for the sonic shift Eldrig have undergone since the last album. Where was once, massive stretches of near static buzz and blast, sweeping epic blackened heaviness, there is now, what can only be described as, well, power metal. Black power metal (not BLACK POWER metal, if only!), Symphonic and super melodic and seriously over the top. It's barely even black metal anymore, lots of guitar leads, and squiggly melodies, and lush keyboards, there are vocals this time around, and they are blackened throat shredding vokills, the drumming is insane, the guitar is buzzy and insectoid, but the arrangements are ridiculous, totally epic and major key, the melodies sound sped up, keyboards everywhere. It's like Hammerfall with a black metal makeover. Some of the tracks do dip into doomy black grimness, the guitars thick and grinding, the vocals raspy and hateful, ploddingly along, but without fail, in will swoop some totally nuts guitar freakout, or an avalanche of majestic keyboards, sometimes the tracks slip into full on melodic hard rock, bordering on power ballad, there are even stretches of pretty clean guitar laid over burbling brooks and chirping birds, but those tracks always seem to return to some sort of furious power metal buzz. It sounds ridiculous, and it is, sort of, but it's also completely unhinged and fucked up and GENIUS. Not sure what he was thinking, but with Mysterion, Eldrig has crafted some totally outsider black metal, and be sure, this will definitely not appeal to the the troo and the grim, instead this is for fans of the fucked, the damaged, the so bizarre it blows your mind. And Mysterion most definitely blows our mind. Fucked up blackened power metal record of the year? As if there could possibly be any other contenders...
The return of this Northwestern one man black metal horde brings us yet another collection of soaring, majestic, symphonic transcendental blackness, that like on past records reminds us almost more of old school power metal than typical grim black metal buzz, the record divided into three lengthy epics, those proper tracks separated by three interludes (structured much like their 2007 debut Kali) and each of those proper tracks a sprawling, instrumental metal majesty that few other bands can touch. Sonically a bit reminiscent of Krallice, but way more melodic, in fact, those Mick Barr solo guitar records, where he's basically doing these epic arrangements of black metal shred, if that stuff was transformed into proper black metal, it might just sound like Eldrig. But melody is huge in Eldrig's world, hence the power metal comparisons, and listening to this new one, we're even hearing other stuff, more post rock and post metal, the melodic component even more pronounced than before, and beyond the usual soaring epic metal, there are moments, like at the end of opening "Urd", where the sounds is somehow pushed even further, blossoming into something impossibly lush, almost choral sounding, layer upon layer, multiple melodies, woven into something emotional and passionate, that in some weird way almost sounds like a blackened Arvo Part. Symphonic and cinematic and so goddamn good.
The interludes this time around are pretty strange, all three a sort of gypsy folk, the main melody played on a jaw harp, there seem to be mandolins too, the sound of crackling fire surrounding the jaunty jam, in a weird way, it's upbeat vibe is not that far removed from the metal songs proper here, but at first blush it's pretty surprising.
The second proper song, "Verthandi", begins with epic arcs of howling high end guitar skree, filling the sky with a lush sprawl of slowburn melody, all over swirling synths, melancholic and minor key, slowly building, growing more and more dramatic, before finally bursting into a pounding blast, those guitar trills soaring and epic, while the drums pound away in a frenzy, the whole thing ratcheting up the tension, until finally, the song breaks into an old school metal gallop, but those guitars continue to soar in fast picked high end streaks, the sound occasionally bursting into impossibly frenzied freakouts, rife with emotional energy, the sort of vibe that is lacking from even the most intense traditional black metal, but here, Eldrig conjures up a dense cloud of raw sonic emotion, and sends it swirling into a wild buzz drenched squall, that is tense and intense and utterly epic.
Finally, the fifteen minute closer wastes no time, just lurches right into it, as if it was taking up right where "Verthandi" left off, all furious drum pound, soaring guitar trills, wild soaring melodies, but this time, there's a whole second layer of strange ethereal keyboards draped over the top, adding a sort of prismatic psychedelic feel to the proceedings, the soundtrack to storming Valhalla, or some sort of epic battle, this the ultimate cinematic blackness, evoking deep emotion, conjuring up images of wide open expanses, massive oceans, alien ice fields, crumbling planets. Eldrig should be scoring avant sci-fi flicks or bleak apocalyptic art films, rare is the black metal record that pushes past the rote black buzz and manages to move into a higher realm. But Eldrig's Urlagarne most definitely does...
Here's what Rilo Kiley's Blake Sennett is up to when he's not Rilo Kileying. Yup, The Elected is his other band, and this is his second album (the first was called Me First). Sun, Sun, Sun effortlessly keeps pace with the glorious tunes of R.K. You would think he could've come up with a more imaginative band name though, wouldn't ya? Ah well, there's a song on this album that's so darn "feelgood, last day of summer scene of a teen movie" that it just made us go, "Whoa!" If you wanna join us on our highschool nostalgia field trip give "Not Going Home" a spin for yourself. It even has one of those pauses in it that in the movie would signal the (re)appearance of the main character's dream girl. Y'know when the music kicks back in, eyes meet, a shy smile, maybe there's a sweet hug, etc. Aaaawwww! The rest of Sun, Sun, Sun is filled with soft, sensitive slightly retro-70s pop sounds that bring to mind the Pernice Brothers and Elliott Smith. Sennett's vocals at times also have that endearing quiver similar to that of Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne or Mercury Rev's Jonathan Donohue. There are a couple of eyebrow raising moments later on in the song "Biggest Star" where the combined vocal, sax and guitar performances get a little uncharacteristically overwrought and wanky noodly amid the album's generally mellow scheme of things, but those are relatively minimally irksome. Nice.
Psst, coincidentally Sennett's R.K. bandmate Jenny Lewis also just released a fine solo album!
On their latest album, Electrelane continue to wear their appreciation for Neu! on their eight sleeves (and they'd probably wear them on even more if they had more arms). This UK band is four ladies, but it's definitely leader of the pack Verity Susman's show. She handles the lions share of the instruments (piano, organ, harmonium, saxophone, guitar and voice) as well as writing the choir and brass arrangements. Her (their?) past untethered eccentricities have been reined in considerably on Axes to good effect. This is definitely a tighter, more focussed Electrelane. The freewheelin' abandon is still present but its much more concentrated -- striking a balance between their earlier rough, space-y instrumentals and their more recent straight-forward vocal pop song endeavors. For the heavier portion of this album's baker's dozen, they launch into driving Krautish jams, ramping up the tempo on each to a frenzied finish (in fact, they do it on almost every one of those tracks). So, it's not at all surprisingly that many songs on Axes still very closely resembles early Stereolab -- albeit minus the dreamy Laetitia-sung vocals but with the addition of Susman's oft-peculiar style of vocalizing and some very empassioned piano. The album's highlight by far is also its centerpiece. The sixth track "Gone Darker" is all lengthy, slow, atmospheric moodiness composed around the sound of a passing train. The engine's propulsive churn clearly inspired the album as a whole. As we've come to expect from Electrelane's releases, there's usually one song that sticks out as the album's black sheep, and while the 'train song' is sure in the running for that honor, it's the eighth free jazz-y improv track "Business Or Otherwise" that truly fits the bill. Recorded by Steve Albini, the whole record recorded in one take, live, as if they were playing a show. Cool.
Electrelane have always been about momentum. Their songs have an anthemic quality and a building tension to them that always leads to an intensely exhilarating experience. That momentum seems to be seriously peaking right about now. No Shouts, No Calls is the sound of a band totally coming into their own. We totally dug their past records but this is the one that really gets us, our love affair with Electrelane suddenly seems to be in full bloom. Electrelane revisit some of the same sonic qualities that made Stereolab so irresistible for a while, but with a more revved up engine under the hood, they're a band that's not afraid to go full throttle. This is one of those records that's pretty much a unanimous favorite here at AQ. Even Andee who claims to not dig this stuff (and is admittedly dancefloor-phobic) can't help but shake some of his seldom seen fine moves every time this is blasting from our speakers (Andee denies everything). Vocal melodies soar and swirl, organs are used to rocking perfection, and that aforementioned momentum which reels you in from the get go and will not let you go, dragging you in deeper and deeper as the album plays out. This is truly a record that the always over zealous UK press should be drooling over right now, cause we sure are!
A smouldering, spaced-out, farfisa organ-fueled sonic journey which suitably befits its title "Rock It To The Moon". Quite a bit like a more garage-y version of the heady, repetitive jams often found within the Too Pure roster (especially Th' Faith Healers,
