Originally released on queer-punk label Mr. Lady Records, Electrelane's debut album Rock It To The Moon gets a reissuing courtesy of their current label Too Pure, and at a slightly nicer price too! Here's what we said about it the first time around, and it seems we were presciently right about it:
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, Moonshake, and bits of Stereolab).
Slowly but surely Electrelane has developed a decent sized following over the last several years. Thanks in part to the good taste of folks like The Ex and Broadcast taking them out on tour as well as their own musical progression which has seen them develop from their instrumental roots into their now more dynamic full sound. This collection pieces together singles, b-sides and live tracks from their early days right on up to recordings from last year. Their love of the building repetition of krautrock, the naivete of The Shaggs and the complexity of Stereolab has made them one of the more compelling bands in recent years. What's so nice about Electrelane is that they have this ability to please the ears of those who can trace their roots as well the ears of those who don't have an extensive relationship with things like krautrock and Farfisa organs. Their populist approach becomes more evident on some of their covers like Bruce Springsteen's "I'm On Fire". But we have to say we like when their originals more. And this collection's chock full of gems for all kinds of ears to appreciate.
Been sensing a little buzz lately about this band from the U.K. You might've spotted these four women recently when they toured the U.S. with fellow Brits Broadcast. Having seen their performance here in S.F. and now, having heard this their second full length, we'd say they're much stronger on record. Live, they came across rather stiff and unprepared. On The Power Out, they reveal intriguing and adventurous ideas a-plenty -- mostly rooted in brooding propulsive rock laced with organ, piano and even a saxophone on one of the later songs. On occasion however, they lack the chops to truly lock it all together. The unpolished, loose quality of both the recordings and the performances may be appealing to some, but overall it makes for an uneven album. When they do hit the mark though Electrelane can really shine. For an example of this you need look (or listen) no further than the album's third song. A bit of a black sheep among the rest of the more straightforward guitar-driven songs it's a film soundtrack-y choral number called "The Valleys". Glorious! We'd wish for more of a similar ilk, but only one other (the eighth song "This Deed") comes close. One reason for this is the presence of additional vocals that accompany those of lead singer/multi-instrumentalist Verity Susman. They really flesh out the two songs, making them more expansive, more enveloping and a stark contrast to the rest. Actually the prominent and varied vocal presence on The Power Out is a marked change from its predecessor, the mostly instrumental, more krautrock influenced Rock It To The Moon. So, with this increased focus on the vocals what's the in-store response been like? Well, it's run both hot and cold ranging from those who dug Susman's voice quite a bit to those who thought it was grating and a bit sour. She definitely tackles a number of different vocal deliveries that range from gutsy grrrl hollerin' to a low Chrissie Hynde-ish throatiness to droll Pastels-ish sing-song not to mention some odd non-verbal bird-call sounds (check out "On Parade"). Definitely seems to be a matter of taste.
First issue of a new local San Francisco based zine that covers the underground music scenes of various locales around the country and beyond. Features articles and interviews with Sun Araw, Wet Hair, Thurston Moore, Henry Rollins, Emeralds and Nomen Dubium, with columns and scene reports from Cleveland and Iowa. Photocopied with hand-drawn borders and artwork on old school folded newsprint. Rad!
The Pretty Things, in a money making ploy used the alias Electric Banana. They recorded soundtrack pieces for the DeWolfe Music Library, who would store them away for whenever that hip swinging London sound was called for in a film. They appeared in some late '60s/early '70s soft porn titles and horror flicks like Michael Armstrong's The Haunted House Of Horror. These 15 tracks were recorded when The Pretty Things were at their best so the songs are totally great groovy british psychedelia.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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This is the second full length from Electric Birds (Mike Martinez -- head honcho of Deluxe, formerly of Cars Get Crushed). Panorama is full of rich tones, layered with organic found sounds and bubbly beats. Fans of Nobukazu Takemura and Matmos should definitely check this out.
Third record from Mike Martinez and his Electric Birds. The earthy, organic textures formerly prominent on past EB releases collide with a newfound love of dub and the cold microhouse rhythms of Berlin. Not too distant from the arctic dub stylings of
With credits as providing additional production, Matmos' influence on the sound of the one-man project, Electric Birds, may be much greater than simply supplying a sampled whoopy-cushion every once in a while. Mike Martinez - the brainchild behind the album - has concocted an exceptional debut album of organic electronica liberally spiked with halcyon and bliss-pop, complete with guitars drenched in Slowdive reverb, algorithmic digital sputterings, awkwardly happy-go-lucky breaks, and a whimsical sensibility.
One of two new Sacred Bones releases on this week's list, and the first we've heard from the Electric Bunnies, although a quick check of the internet perhaps suggests that we're a bit out of the loop on this one. But no matter, we're digging these two new jams BIG time, starting off with a squall of feedback and some pounding psychedelic drum damage, the song blossoms into something much more moody and epic, with brooding deep vocals, and plenty of buzz. What sounded like a jam that could have exploded into some serious noise rock, instead sprawls into some fuzzy post punk cold wave crunch, gloomy and gothy, but wrapped in thick sheets of feedback, and swirling cloud of whir and skree, the rhythm motorik and relentless and hypnotic.
The flip side offers up a whole different side of the band, with falsetto vox, Beach Boys harmonies, tumbling tribal drumming, a total "Don't you, forget about me..." eighties teen flick soundtrack vibe, but filtered through the current cracked sonics of the new wave of lo-fi warped garage pop. Awesome stuff, definitely has us hankering for more.
LA stoner/fuzz specialists EasyRider (or RidingEasy, seems they changed the name of the label, what did they get sued by Peter Fonda or something?) have been KILLING it lately, not just doing cassette versions of some awesome shit (Saint Vitus, Fuzz, Witchcraft, Windhand, etc.) but signing up some rad new bands too for vinyl & cd release - we recently reviewed great albums Salem's Pot and Sons Of Huns, this list we've got two more, by Monolord and Electric Citizen.
This band, Electric Citizen, from Ohio, are yet another entry in the current upsurge (we won't say glut) of female-fronted, '70s styled retro-rockers - Jex Thoth, Blood Ceremony, Purson, Mount Salem, The Oath, Jess and The Ancient Ones, etc., etc. - and they already rank up amongst our faves. Heavy, rollicking riffage, check. Psychedelic vibes, check. High, wailing vocals (she's got pipes), check. And, in Electric Citizen's case, lots of heavy Hammond organ too, a la Deep Purple, but also conjuring the shades such lesser known '70s precursors as Bloodrock and The Power Of Zeus. Indeed, many of the songs here almost sound like they could have belonged on that Darkscorch Canticles comp of obscure '70s proto-metal we made Record Of The Week not long ago!
Among their contemporaries, with the organ, Electric Citizen could be compared especially to Blood Ceremony, but EC tend to put the pedal to the metal a bit more, rippin' and rockin, not wandering in the witchy woods of prog and folk quite so much.
So, we're digging this big time, the only thing we can really gripe about is that the band name is kinda whatever - really, there's already a lot of Electric Something bands, right, so if you're gonna do it too, you need to pick a decent Something. Electric Prunes, Electric Eels, Electric Wizard, Electric Frankenstein, those are some good ones. Electric Citizen, though, what's that about?
Electric Company is one Brad Laner, whom you may recognize as he is formerly of L.A. dreampopsters Medicine. Riding on the coattails of his acclaimed 'Slow Food' lp on Mike Paradinas' Planet µ label as well as last year's wonderful 'Exitos' cd on
Brad Laner (of Medicine) returns with another solo electronic effort, ambient computer collage art.
Brad Laner's Electric Company gets the remix treatment from many of his wonderfully talented friends: Kid 606, U-Ziq, Blectum From Blechdom, Pimmon, Phthalocyanine, Tom Recchion (y'know, from the LAFMS!), Leafcutter John, Frank Bretschneider, Geoff White,
Despite all the crackling digital fuzz, this is basically a pretty digestible pop record. "It's Hard to be a Baby" is a bit smoother than the usual mind melting laptop glitch fest. Witness the nouveau-bossa acoustic guitar flourishes here and there, mix that with pretty, melodic minor key synth strings and reeds and some non-threatening mid-tempo beats, and you're halfway to the atmosphere of a trendy boutique. There's plenty of interesting moments, though, as attention is focused on process through obvious, pause-ridden loops, and distorted piano and catchy melodies are plastered with distortion. It's all topped off with the sense of playfulness that infuses the Tigerbeat roster. Kinda like downtempo lounge for robot programmers or glitch-core for aspiring international supermodels.
Brad Laner (of Medicine) turns his incendiary drone guitar towards electronica with nods to Aphex Twin and Mouse on Mars (or so all the label one sheets claim).
A split release between SF's boyish emo-popsters The Get-Go and Japan's considerably more fired up'n'crazed, crunchy guitar-slingin' Electric Eel Shock (not to be confused with Electric Eels). This is where the melodic meets the manic, the catchy meets the chaotic, the... you get the picture. I personally leaned more towards the Electric Eel Shock camp, but you might lean differently. The tracks are split evenly between the two bands -- five apiece -- for a total head-to-head match.
Totally something we should have expected that reissue specialists Superior Viaduct would get to sooner or later, 'cause it's very much up their, uh, viaduct, and yep here it is - a retrospective compilation from seminal raw weirdo almost-avant-garde punks the Electric Eels! Proto-punks, really, as the band started in '72, and broke up in '76, with all their releases being posthumous ones.
We'll now repurpose a bunch of what we wrote about the band when a previous, now out of print anthology came out some years ago... The Electric Eels were the undisputed bad boy kings of Ohio punk, spitting out snarled three minute blasts of noisy, clumsy, snotty '70s punk rock, sounding like a retarded Black Flag, which is a *good* thing. Super distorted and super whiny, these Cleveland fuck-ups made fellow Ohioans Pere Ubu and the Dead Boys look and sound like choir boys. Magnets for trouble, the Eels attracted cops and fist fights and rowdy crowds like shit attracts flies, resulting in inter-band squabbles, drunken half sets, and mucho club destruction. The thing was, even though these guys could barely play, they wrote amazingly catchy songs and what they lacked in skill they made up for with attitude. Songs like "You're Full Of Shit" are relentless, hook filled pop gems, dipped in shit and sprinkled with garbage, that still somehow came out smelling like roses. The Electric Eels are what all punk rock should sound like - catchy, heavy, loud, funny and most importantly not pretentious. Completely essential, fucked up, PUNK ROCK.
This vinyl-only Superior Viaduct collection, 13 tracks in all, contains such Eels essentials as "Agitated", "Cyclotron", "Sewercide", and "Jaguar Ride", and features liner notes by punk rock scholar Jon Savage.
FYI, Superior Viaduct have also just reissued the Electric Eels' killer 2nd single, "Spin Age Blasters/Bunnies", available separately, we've got those too (the tracks from their first single are on this Die Electric Eels comp, btw).
The Electric Eels were the undisputed bad boy kings of Ohio punk spitting out snarled three minute blasts of noisy, clumsy, snotty seventies punk rock sounding like a retarded Black Flag, which is a *good* thing. Super distorted and super whiny, these Cleveland fuck-ups made fellow Ohioans Pere Ubu and the Dead Boys look and sound like choir boys. Magnets for trouble, the Eels attracted
So, now that we've established that you should probably buy this, which format to get? Well, the LP has six tracks different from or missing from the cd, and also sports extra liner notes and a different cover. At first we weren't sure how essential this was since there was another Eels collection released not too long ago, but eleven of the tracks on the cd are previously unreleased, and there are a few more unreleased/alternate versions on the double LP!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
An old record, but new to us! As mentioned in Windy's Bay Guardian column, and from the label that brought us the Conet Project!
Each member of The Electric Family (which was the collective of all the electronica artists for the very odd Irdial records... Anthony Manning, Beautyon, Spy vs. Spy, Mrs. Mimi Magick, Ray Tracing, Gas Man, Spacemole, 2007) was given a Nintendo Super Famicon with the instruction to write a song only using the music sequencer and the sound pre-sets from Mariopaint. Clumsy yet entirely brilliant melodies with quirky horns famous from Simm City, whimisical digitized bells, and wholly un-hip beats. Somehow it makes complete sense that Akin Fernandez (Irdial's proprietor) would three years later release the Conet Project!
Why doncha sing along with us to the following (as sung to the tune of Doobie Brothers' "Jesus Is Just Alright")?
Daniel is everywhere this year!
Daniel is everywhere, uh huh!
Daniel is everywhere, oh yeah!
Daniel is everywherrrrrrrrrrrrrre!
Now, don't you run away hollerin' "WTF!" if you haven't a clue what we're talking about. You should know that there's not only a big ol' documentary film on the man, but also a big ol' exhibit of his art that's making its way around the U.S and Europe. To boot, there is new music! Whoo hoo! The Electric Ghosts are indeed Daniel Johnston and his buddy (and bandmate in Hyperjinx Tricycle) Jack Medicine. This is a remarkably polished and produced album (and not just by Johnston standards and expectations). It actually sounds like a long-lost Young Fresh Fellows record. Nonetheless, listen a little closer and those Daniel-isms peek through. Y'know, his unmistakable combo of bare-hearted love-sick sentiments and untethered dream/nightmare storytellin'. So good! As has become the custom over the years, you just wanna hug each and every tune including their cover of Bowie's "Scary Monsters"! Produced by Kramer (of Bongwater and Shimmy Disc fame).
This is the first we're hearing from Electric Jellyfish, although mainman Michael Beach is responsible for a killer tape we reviewed a while back. We tried to catch EJ at South By Southwest, they played WFMU's showcase, sadly, we were at the aQ show across town, but word was they killed it. Which is not hard to imagine listening to this two track teaser, clanging crashing guitars, pounding tribal drumming, howled feral vox, thick sinewy basslines, swaggery and slithery, punky and low slung, very reminiscent of some of our favorite Aussie bands like Lubricated Goat, Kingsnakeroost, the Scientists, etc. A similar sort of swampy junkyard blooz, a little loose, a bit druggy, with the bass on the second track driving a sort of Birthday Party-ish dirge. Good stuff for sure. Super short, only two songs, six minutes, but will definitely leave you hankering for more.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES! Already sold out and out of print, so these are the very last copies.
Wow, when John Zorn turns 50 he really makes a big deal about it. Umpteen concerts and commorative compact disc releases. Oh well, you're only 50 once (if you're lucky enough to make it that far). And I guess Zorn doesn't want anyone to think he's gonna be slowing down with age. So here's another one of Zorn's birthday presents to us. Seven tracks performed live at NYC's Tonic by Electric Masada -- an electric (natch) octet edition of Zorn's famed 'Jewish jazz' outfit, fully amped up with Marc Ribot's guitar, Ikue Mori's laptop electronics, Trevor Dunn's bass, Jamie Saft's keyboards, both Joey Baron and Kenny Wollesen's drums *and* Cyro Baptista's percussion. Plus of course the birthday boy himself on sax. Sounds like they'd be capable of making a lot of noise? Damn right. The obi suggests this possesses the energy of Zorn's Naked City and the mayhem of one of his Cobra projects, unleashed on the Masada songbook...and the obi could be right. Although this has its moments of delicate beauty, it's the hard rock shocks this delievers that might make it a must buy for old Zorn fans who'd like to hear a (50 year) old Zorn & co. kick some ass...
We are living in a post-Postal Service world. In the last several years we've been flooded with groups turning down their guitars and turning up their electronics, syrupy melodies, sensitive sentiments and catchy choruses. Unfortunately very few of these groups reach the bar set by the folks they are looking up to like the aftermentioned Postal Service, The Notwist and many of their Morr label-mates or on the non-electronic side of things, Pinback and Death Cab For Cutie. Unfortunately Electric President don't bring a whole lot new to the table and while they would sound fine in the background of a new episode of The O.C. we can't say this is going to win any awards for originality or songwriting talent. It's not bad it's just sorta pleasant. Definitely for those who like their electronic pop to be ultra feather-soft, pretty and with male vocals that bring to mind Stuart Little or the little frog Robin on Sesame Street... which come to think of it probably includes quite a few folks.
It's funny that this record came out under the Electric Prunes moniker as the '60s psych band best known for their great hit "I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night" aren't really anywhere to be found on this record. Instead this is the brainchild and work of legendary arranger & producer David Axelrod -- much like their better known Mass In F Minor, this being its Judiac follow-up. Clocking in at around 25 minutes, and utilizing some of the best Los Angeles players of the late '60s Release Of An Oath is a brilliant concoction of rich grooves, prog moments, acid rock and classical tropes. It's no surprise that to this day Axelrod's work is sampled left and right because his sense of melody and his kick ass breaks are so damn perfect!
Our pal Dave put this KILLER record out and we think he describes it the best:
"In the winter of 1967, a psychedelic-garage-punk band from Woodland Hills, California, arrived in Europe for what would be their first and last tour of the continent. On the strength of their hit single 'I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night,' the band was welcomed with open arms by European rock fans as well as British rock royalty - they smoked out with Hendrix, partied with Brian Jones and Keith Moon, and hung out in the studio with the Beatles - but were also subjected to harassment and ridicule over the fact that their homeland was at war in Vietnam. Yep, good times, good times... Twenty days and six countries later it was all over. Luckily, on the last stop of the tour someone pushed the record button and this artifact is the result.
"Stockholm '67 finds the Electric Prunes at the height of the powers. Some ninnies have griped that the 'Prunes were nothing more than a psychedelic one-hit wonder, and a studio project at best. This performance burns the criticism to the ground. Over-amplified and fuzzed to the max, the 'Prunes here are explosive, noisy and wild. This recording proves that the Electric Prunes deserve to be ranked alongside the very best bands of their era."
Following up their self-titled debut ep from last year, Electric Turn To Me deliver not a full length, but a second ep. Rising up from the ashes of AQ faves Laddio Bolocko, ETTM is the new band led by LB's Blake Fleming (drums) and Marcus Degrazia (organs, keyboards, saxophone, flute). Their mysterious German vocalist known only as Silke once again lends her tormented dramatic vocal stylings to each of the five red wine drenched songs. Last time around her singing received a rather icy AQ reception -- it does seem to be an acquired taste -- but on these newer songs she's honed her handwringing theatrics somewhat so that her vocals rather than being a distraction are more integrated in the band's scalding darkwave-postpunk sound. Both she and fourth member James Wilk provide the snaking guitars that flesh out the proceedings. Clouds Move So Fast is an unsettling, propulsive meeting at the fork in the road where the paths lead off to sinister carnival and intoxicating cabaret.
Folks expecting Laddio Bolocko Mach 2 may find themselves quite confused (and disappointed) by this new group headed up by ex-Laddio guys Blake and Marcus. Things start off with what sounds like a high-speed dub version of a vintage Laddio riff, proggy and motorik. With swirling warbly organs, tight controlled rhythms and a definite electro/new wave vibe. But then there's the vocals, and the vocals (as often is the case) is what will make or break this band for you. German chanteuse Silke (who also plays guitar) adds a really strange vibe to the proceedings. The obvious comparison is Siouxsie Sioux, but her delivery is much more overwrought and cabaret. Almost campy. Definitely unique and interesting, but for me it sort of takes away from the music, which is too bad since Laddio Bollocko were responsible for some of the greatest post rock/post punk EVER.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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NWOBHM single reissued, Kemado following their hearts on this one. Nice.
What is it about this new Electric Wizard record? Don't get us wrong, we are longtime worshippers at the altar of the 'Wiz, but for some reason, this new one, has everyone around here freaking out, even the more non-metal folks, ESPECIALLY the non-metal folks. People who normally don't spend much time listening to witchy druggy demon conjuring sonic rituals, like those practiced by EW, suddenly can't get enough and play it EVERY day. We've tried to get to the bottom of it, cuz Black Masses doesn't seem that far removed from any of the other EW's, but it must be. Cuz it's cast some serious bongsmoke spell (smell?) over pretty much everyone here, which if anything is a good argument for the power of this slab of post Sabbathy psychedelic spaced out drugdoom heaviness.
Everything we love about Electric Wizard is in full effect here: the epic slabs of downtuned doomy crunch, the swirled clouds of lysergic effects, the crushing riffage, the thick pulsing bass, and of course EW high priest Just Oborn's wailing vox, all wound into druggy doomy trancelike jams, the vocals repeated mantralike, the guitars churning and roiling, totally hypnotic and mesmerizing, spaced out and impossibly catchy.
One difference this time around is the production. It's way less obviously heavy, less downtuned and sludgey, the low end is dialed way back, the sound much more raw and trebly and high end, which maybe makes it sound less metal and more psychedelic and garagey, although it definitely sounds like plenty of both to us. But perhaps that's the mysterious component that suddenly has everyone in its thrall.
The record is rife with the (un)usual sonic filigree, swirling winds, loads of effects, long drawn out dirgey drones, bizarre samples, voices, laughter, loops, film clips, all laced within long drawn out psychedelic space jams, the sort of freakouts that would sound just as at home on a Monster Magnet or Hawkwind record, but they always eventually find their way back to whatever satanic drug doom groove they had been exploring before they drifted off.
Heavy and doomy and druggy and psychedelic and seriously tripped out and apparently not just for metalheads anymore. A unanimous aQ fave for sure...
Housed in a fancy embossed slipcover! (Vinyl version sadly has not yet materialized here, we're hoping someday but dunno what's up...)
Originally released as a double cd, teamed up with 1995's self titled debut, Electric Wizard's Come My Fanatics, originally released in 1997, gets its own digipak release, re-issued with expanded artwork, new liner notes, tons of photos, and most importantly two bonus tracks, "Demon Lung" and "Return To The Son Of Nothingness"!!! Here's what we had to say when this first came out (it's the same review for both self titled and Come My Fanatics, since they were paired together the first time we heard them and they still sound like parts one and two of the same record, which is a most definitely a good thing!) :
With a sickly sweet haze baked around half formed thoughts of science fictions and demonic mythologies, Electric Wizard's stoner metal has just enough intellect to roll out the gargantuan post-Sabbath riffs and burnt-out grooves. Dude. This shit is absolutely essential listening for the next time you decide to fire up that bong. (Or not, seeing as how Andee and Allan definitely seem to enjoy this quite a bit and neither have ever "fired up" a "bong" in their lives, "dude". Well, okay, Allan did smoke a joint once but he didn't "inhale"...very much at all.) Especially suitable for all fans of Sleep's immense Jerusalem opus and those AQ-record-of-the-week-winning Esoteric double cds!! Electric Wizard are in fact notorious rivals of Esoteric, as they compete for England's throne of ultimate heaviness. Anyone who's heard Electric Wizard's Supercoven ep (Andee's favorite EW joint for sure!) will know what they're in for: the ultimate bellbottoms doom trip, a Lovecraftian space sludge psych jam that'll do your head in right.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
With a sickly sweet haze baked around half formed thoughts of science fictions and demonic mythologies, Electric Wizard's stoner metal has just enough intellect to roll out the gargantuan post-Sabbath riffs and burnt-out grooves. Dude. More proof that the crappy 10" Electric Wizard made for Man's Ruin was just a sad anomaly, this double cd compiling their first two records is a neccesity for the next time you decide to fire up that bong. (Or not, seeing as how Andee and Allan definitely seem to enjoy this quite a bit and neither have ever "fired up" a "bong" in their lives, "dude". Well, okay, Allan did smoke a joint once but he didn't "inhale"...very much at all.) Especially suitable for all fans of Sleep's immense Jerusalem opus and those recent AQ-record-of-the-week-winning Esoteric double cds!! Electric Wizard are in fact notorious rivals of Esoteric, as they compete for England's throne of ultimate heaviness. Anyone who's heard Electric Wizard's more recent Supercoven ep will know what they're in for: the ultimate bellbottoms doom trip, a Lovecraftian space sludge psych jam that'll do your head in right.
Now available for a limited time on WHITE VINYL (limited to 1000 copies worldwide!), in a deluxe gatefold sleeve with the bonus track "Mind Transferral" which was not on the cd. Here's what we had to say about Dopethrone way back in 2000:
These British lads have the distinction of being, as far as we know, the first (and perhaps last!) *metal* band ever reviewed in the hallowed pages of that popular cutting-edge new music magazine The Wire. But if that makes you expect that the album in question, "Dopethrone" is some sort of pretentious electronica-leaning, intellectual-metallic curiosity worthy of much beard-stroking, you'd better think again! Take a look at the album title, dude! Electric Wizard play super-heavy sludge metal, taking the appellation "stoner rock" very seriously indeed. Satan's even seen smoking a bong on the album cover. Doomy sub-Sabbath riffs, toked-up vocals, spacey fx -- this is primal stuff. This band seems to just keep getting better and better (meaning, they don't change much!). The lyrics celebrate their interests in pulp fantasy fiction (HP Lovecraft and RE Howard both get referenced) and of course the Sweet Leaf: "Dopethrone in this land of sorcery/Dopethrone vision through T.H.C./Dopethrone feedback will free/Dopethrone three wizards crowned with weed." No, not brilliant literature, (and the music's not avant-garde composition for that matter, not intentionally anyway) but "Dopethrone" is still thoroughly enjoyable even by those of us (Andee and Allan for example) who aren't potsmokers (in fact, Andee and Allan are definitely the biggest fans of this record and other "stoner rock" at Aquarius anyways -- I wonder what that means?!). No, you just have to like the sheer heaviness and killer-hippie aura ("Legalize Drugs and Murder" is their slogan, and they're at least half serious)... But if we *were* ever to decide to take up pot-smoking as a casual hobby, we have promised several friends (& Electric Wizard fans) that this album will definitely be the soundtrack to our first "experience". We're tempted...
AQ-faves Electric Wizard return with the eagerly anticipated "Let Us Prey". After their totally wrecked, wretched performance here in San Francisco last year (which we still enjoyed, but as comedy), this excellent, totally competent new album can only beg the
Doom metal doesn't have to be stoner rock, and stoner rock isn't always (or even often) doom metal, but the combination is natural -- and for that nobody beats the Wiz. Electric Wizard's spacey, metallic drug-punk (a mixture of Sabbath, Hawkwind, and the Melvins) features lost, buried, hopeless vocals singing dirgey hymns to the God-Bong amidst bowel-rumbling, super-heavy, super-sludgey guitar and bass psychedelia. What's not to like?
This is the kind of album that lends itself to a track-by-track rundown (why? 'cause there's only six songs):
The disc starts with a classically slow n' massive Wizard song entitled "A Chosen Few", designed to bludgeon the listener into stuporific submission from riff one.
"We, The Undead" changes tactics, being fast and kinda punky (in an Eyehategod/Black Flag way), with a riff that's *very* Saint Vitus.
"Master Of Alchemy" is another slow crusher a la the first track, with a truly EVIL sounding main riff. This song is a relentless juggernaut that eventually morphs (it's a two-part suite nearly ten minutes long) into a mellower, but still quite EVIL, psychedelic drone jam.
"The Outsider" is, if possible, even lower, slower, and more drugged-out sounding, building into a wah wah propelled epic before its nine minutes are out.
Then, out of nowhere, the beautiful, melancholy "Night Of The Shape" (great title) kicks in -- noir-sh piano figures over busy, shuffling drumbeats that sound almost drum n' bass inspired. This could be on a Radiohead record, yet somehow it's totally doomy.
After that lovey interlude, the Wizard get back to their usual business on the epic album closer "Priestess Of Mars". More sludge, more wah, more pot smoke.
And then, three quarters of an hour after you put it on, "Let Us Prey" is over and you'll need another fix!
When we first heard Electric Wizard way back when, we were completely and totally blown away, but we were so filled with glorious doom and gloom, and druggy spaced out stoner rock, that it never occurred to us that anything might have come before. When in fact in one form or another, Electric Wizard had been developing their sound since 1989! This disc collects the two pre-Electric Wizard lps released a while back (and now out of print) as well as super rare recordings from the band that was the original seed for what would eventually become Electric Wizard.
Starting way back in 1989, there was a group of young metalheads fronted by future EW mainman Jus Oborn, who were totally obsessed with Carcass, Bolt Thrower and the like, and thus were appropriately named Lord Of Putrefaction. And their sound suited the name perfectly, a murky grind thrash doom, grunted death metal style vocals, psychedelic freakout guitar over pounding drums and sludgy riffing. Slow and heavy with bursts of not quite blasts and wild squalls of chaotic noise, but all rooted in dense, druggy, doomy sludge. They only ever released a split lp with Mortal Remains, and this here is it. Remastered and heavy as ever. Fans of Winter, diSEMBOWELMENT, Mordor and all that early Earache stuff will be so into this!
Not soon after the end of Lord Of Putrefaction, three of the four lords reconvened as Thy Grief Eternal, who recorded 2 lengthy tracks for a 12" in 1991 which was never actually released. By '91, Jus Oborn and his merry band of metalheads continued to get slower and heavier, hinting at what would come, but still sounding like they'd be right at home on Earache, alongside Carcass, Napalm Death, Godflesh and the like. Pounding industrial sludge doom, with grunted gutteral cookie monster vocals, pounding relentless drumming and BIG RIFFS, very sludgy and crusty, much more akin to the ultra slow, monochromatic dirge of funeral doom, as they had yet to discover the groove that would play such a crucial part in their later sound.
The same 3 members who started out together in Lords Of Putrefaction decided on another name change to represent their continued musical growth and thus was born the simpler Eternal. While Thy Grief Eternal were a crusty bunch of metalheads spitting out blurry blasts of Earache style industrial sludge, a couple years later, with a new name, a new love of mind altering chemicals, and the discovery of the all important GROOVE, Eternal was born, and the sound on their never released EP was only a hop skip and a drunken stumble from the sound of Electric Wizard. The doom and sludge is tempered on the Eternal tracks with a huge heaping pile of Hawkwindish swirling psychedelia and that oft purloined Sabbathy groove that pretty much defined Electric Wizard and the stoner rock movement that followed. Four tracks (one's a Sabbath cover!) including a 16 minute epic that would later become an Electric Wizard track.
Fucking awesome! Comes in a spiffy digipak, with a booklet packed with liner notes, photos, as well as old flyers and demo cover artwork.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Reissued, remastered version of this psychedelic stoner doom metal classic, originally released in '98 on vinyl and cd in their native England by the Bad Acid label. Two bonus tracks have been added to the two from the original ep (one live, one demo). If you have any interest in the sludgy, the doomed, and, um, the super slow and heavy, check this out...
The Wiz returns!!! With another crushing sprawl of slo-mo psychedelic heaviness, that at first blush, sounds well removed from the impossibly catchy last record, Black Masses, which had even non metalheads around here freaking out. At the time, we couldn't really figure it out, what it was about that record that had such wide ranging appeal, but now digging into Time To Die, it's easy to spot the difference in a side by side comparison. Cuz this new record, at least at first, is WAY less poppy, more wasted and slow, the songs not just doomy, but death march drags, rife with tarpit riffage, and a vocal drawl that sounds like Ozzy nodding off on horse tranquilizers. Hell, we're not complaining, we love this sort of wasted, downer doom, and few do it better than Electric Wizard, And Time To Die is overflowing with drugged out ultra-doominess, with tracks like "I Am Nothing", seeming to forego melody entirely, a churning dirgey drag through musty old crypts, but even then somehow, the band will whip out some cool classic metal, harmonized leads, or long streaks of droned out feedback draped over roiling tribal-tom freakouts, and the song is somehow transformed into something transcendent. Still sort of zoned out and wasted, but the vibe is grimly majestic, and absolutely psychedelic.
There are moments throughout Time To Die here the band display a deft (yet subtle) mastery of melody (and hooks), which reveal themselves more and more with each listen, like on the title track, where things get decidedly WAY more melodic, harkening back to the catchiness of the last record, channeling classic Black Sabbath, but filtered through EW mainman Jus Oborn's warped obsession with exploitation flicks and B movie video nasties, bikers and bongs, some surprising catchiness lurking amidst clouds of sonic bongsmoke and swirls of downtuned psychedelic churn. And there's plenty more catchiness lurking elsewhere, it just means sonically sifting through piles of bones, and weed, but even so, after discovering the hidden melodies, our favorite moments on Time To Die might actually be the more abstract, culminating in the totally tripped out psychedelic sprawl of "Destroy Those Who Love God", which sort of sounds like Hawkwind and Monster Magnet slowed down and spaced out, all creepy haunted house organ, endlessly swirling swaths of droned out guitar buzz, wild and loose, almost free jazz drumming, wrapped around creepy samples, and news reports of Satanism and sacrifice, and while that track is JUST that, most of the other tracks, eventually devolve into something similar, jettisoning songcraft in favor of billowing black atmosphere, soundtracks to crumbling castles and rain swept moors, haunted graveyards and dark forests, totally tripped out ambience that seems to eventually, always find its way back to EW's more loping, dirgey, downer doom. All hail the Wizard!
Ok, someone needs to give these guys a medal. First off, there's a song here called "Satanic Rites Of Drugula". Drugula?? That's brilliant. Dave Wyndorf is kicking himself for not having thought of that first!
England's Electric Wizard, the reigning kings (and queen, with Liz Buckingham of 13 and Sourvein on guitar) of utter spaced-out heaviosity (think Black Sabbath + Hawkwind + Eyehategod) also deserve a medal 'cause they are still caning harder and making great albums worthy of their legacy (2000's Dopethrone is an all-time AQ fave of psychedelic sludge stoner genius). It's like they themselves have morphed into the ancient ones from whence all these drugged-out, doooooom metal vibes come.
On their sixth album Witchcult Today, which opens with the sluggish title track, they keep doin' what they do best. Guitarist/vocalist Jus Oborn's wasted wail drifts up from beneath the band's monolithic, mesmeric riffage, as they enact such "Black Magic Rituals & Perversions" as, well, that one, and the other seven tracks here. As blown out and sludgey as it gets (which is VERY) they have an uncanny knack for keeping it catchy and poppy too when they desire. Songs like "Torquemada 71" and the one about Drugula will get stuck in your head, only to slowly drip out like the viscous black tar they are... while "Dunwich" has got to be the grooviest -and- heaviest H.P. Lovecraft-inspired song of the year. As usual, the whole album is getting heavy airplay here in Aquarius, where we're ALL fans even those of us who don't smoke pot, do drugs, or usually listen to stoner metal... we've just been bitten by Drugula is all.
Originally released as a double cd, teamed up with 1997's Come My Fanatics, Electric Wizard's debut, originally released in 1995, gets its own digipak release, re-issued with expanded artwork, new liner notes, tons of photos, and most importantly two bonus tracks, "IIIimitable Nebulie" and Mourning Prayer Part 1" from the unreleased Doom Chapter Demo!!! Here's what we had to say when this first came out (it's the same review for both self titled and Come My Fanatics, since they were paired together the first time we heard them and they still sound like parts one and two of the same record, which is a most definitely a good thing!) :
With a sickly sweet haze baked around half formed thoughts of science fictions and demonic mythologies, Electric Wizard's stoner metal has just enough intellect to roll out the gargantuan post-Sabbath riffs and burnt-out grooves. Dude. This shit is absolutely essential listening for the next time you decide to fire up that bong. (Or not, seeing as how Andee and Allan definitely seem to enjoy this quite a bit and neither have ever "fired up" a "bong" in their lives, "dude". Well, okay, Allan did smoke a joint once but he didn't "inhale"...very much at all.) Especially suitable for all fans of Sleep's immense Jerusalem opus and those AQ-record-of-the-week-winning Esoteric double cds!! Electric Wizard are in fact notorious rivals of Esoteric, as they compete for England's throne of ultimate heaviness. Anyone who's heard Electric Wizard's Supercoven ep (Andee's favorite EW joint for sure!) will know what they're in for: the ultimate bellbottoms doom trip, a Lovecraftian space sludge psych jam that'll do your head in right.
Odds are most folks who would be into this record, won't even make it this far in the review, they'll just grab one. For doomlords and ladies, this really needs no description other than the names of the two bands, Finland's dead and deceased Reverend Bizarre, whose post mortum release schedule rivals Tupac's, and UK masters of downtuned sub-Sabbathian stoner sludge, Electric Wizard. Each band offers up a sidelong track of crushing doom drenched heaviness, each coming from their own distinct direction.
The sound of Electric Wizard is something special, in some ways so derivative, so sonically similar to about a million other bands, but the second it comes on, it could be no one else. A testament to their doom mastery for sure, and this is primo doom, a slowly unravelling main riff, lurching and lumbering, melodic vocals settled way down in the mix, languorous stoned leads over the top, thick swirls of psychedelic organ, and endless spaced out drug drenched jams, Hawkwind meets Monster Magnet meets Sabbath, but slowed way down and dirtied up, culminating in a nearly drumless melting riff outro, the guitars slowing down, the riff crumbling, squalls of psychrock leads, thick whirring organs, the song eventually grinding to a halt after droning on and on and on. Awesome.
Reverend Bizarre counter with their own extended slab of plodding doom genius, spaced out riff, pounding drums, vocals slipping from guttural howl to ominous whisper, but this is RB, so it's bound to get bizarre, and it does, with a chanted midsong ritual, soaring clean almost operatic vocals invoking demons over a woozy melodic lope, before slipping into an almost krautrock like groove, before lo and behold, the song flips and the second half of the track is BACKWARDS!!! Hypnotic and creepy, the sounds whooping and shimmering, the vocals a demonic gurgle over the top, very tripped out and dizzying, a weirdly blackly psychedelic outro from these twisted doomic Finns. Who we would say we miss like crazy since they broke up, but they haven't really stopped releasing records quite yet...
Pressed on what appears to be black vinyl with bits of glitter in it, with a garish seventies horror exploitation cover, a saucy lady cutting up another saucy lady on some black altar, candelabras and skulls, long velvet gloves and capes, knee high leather boots and way too much makeup, but fear not sensitive ones, the exposed crotch (right beneath the grinning skull) is covered by a little pentagram, and the sliced nipple by a little black circle. Phew!!
If you've seen Electric Wizard perform live ever, you probably had the same experience we did: they were WASTED. Living up to their "we came harder" motto, the Wiz had some substance abuse problems on tour for sure. The last time they played here in San Francisco, their drummer both ruined the show (by not being able to play the songs) and also stole the show (by not being able to stop playing, in between songs or even when the rest of the band left the stage at the end of their shambolic set -- he just continued on drumming -- with members of the opening bands backing *him* up! he even dragged the mic stand behind his kit and started "singing"! How rock and roll is that!?). Apparently guitarist/vocalist/band leader Jus Oborn got fed up and fired his drummer and bassist (or maybe they quit?). At any rate, those two have a new band, Ramesses, whose split with Negative Reaction suggests that Oborn was indeed the one in Electric Wizard with the talent... Now Oborn is back with a new Electric Wizard line-up (and maybe a subtle new name, as the cd cover says The Electric Wizard, and I'm not sure if they used the definitive article before...and elsewhere in the cd booklet they are credited as Electric Wizard II). Now backed by drummer Justin Greaves (ex-Iron Monkey), second guitarist Liz Buckingham (of Sourvein, ex-13), Oborn's new Electric Wizard is sort of a doom/sludge supergroup! So you know that they're just as heavy as they ever were, if not even heavier. There's grimmer grind on here than ever before, and also some amazingly melodic material as well such as the almost-pop by Wizard standards "Another Perfect Day". For the most part, We Live harks back to past Wizard classics like Come My Fanatics and Dopethrone and stands proud beside them. It's utter psychedelic doom, that brand of droning feedback dirge metal that begs to be played LOUD. For long stretches, this is kinda like a hybrid of Hawkwind and the Melvins (Jus sings a bit like the Melvins' Buzz Osbourne on the title track, which we must note also opens with a sample from AQ-fave British zombie biker flick Psychomania!), so fans of the likes of UFOmammut and Boris will be mighty pleased, ultimately so with the mantric devastation of the 15 minute album-closer "Saturn's Children", driving you the listener right into the earth... Slightly more sober they themselves may now be, but this new Wizard remains a very potent sonic drug.
Musik Die Schwer Zu Twerk was initially described to us as a solo record from Steven Drozd of the Flaming Lips, which we were EXTREMELY excited about, cuz as followers of the Flaming Lips and longtime fans, even though frontman Wayne Coyne is himself some sort of twisted genius, we all know/knew it was Drozd that was the group's secret weapon, a musical polymath who could play pretty much anything, and live is always constantly flitting from drums to keyboards to guitar and back again. We even saw one amazing show where Drozd filmed himself playing drums in his living room. Just in shorts and a T-shirt, and even with a couple breaks to get up and get a drink, readjust the drums, etc. and then somehow, the band played to that projection perfectly in sync, even with the weird stops and asides, and it was fun and funny and sort of mind-blowing.
So when we heard about Drozd's new band Electric Wurms, we were pretty psyched, and we still are, but it seems that the Wurms is in fact, essentially just another Flaming Lips record in all but name, Coyne's on board, as are a bunch of other folks, Coyne and Drozd and crew wrote the record, so while it might not have been the fucked up mind bending Drozd solo record some of us were hoping for, it is still pretty great, and essentially plays like a slightly weirder, proggier Lips record proper, which is most definitely not a bad thing. Tracks sprawl and drift, there are swaths of woozy vocodered vox over drifts of synthy shimmer, muted murky motorik rhythms, occasional squall of wild psychedelic freakout, a little bit of electronica woven throughout, with buried housey beats here and there, passages of jazzy skitter, bit bombastic drum pound, all wreathed in clouds of druggy atmosphere, heady and hypnotic, much of the record sort of blissed out, laid back and a little stoned sounding, but with the occasional moment of gloriously prismatic kosmiche, or wild tribal jamming that sounds a bit like aQ faves Goat, and some sound just like dreamy, soft focus, dreamily psychedelic Flaming Lips balladry. It's all pretty great, and Lips fans will dig it a bunch, easily as much as the last Lips record proper, but it does have us wondering just what it is that makes this an Electric Wurms record and not just a Flaming Lips record. But really, it hardly matters...
It should be stated that Sacramento's Electro Group has nothing in common with electro the genre - so look elsewhere for Miami jeep bass-bin rattlin' beats. Instead, this Electro Group hails from Sacramento and picks up where such contemporary US noise-pop / shoegazing bands as The Lilys and The Aisler's Set left off with their lovable reclamation of the early '90s Creation sound. While each track off of "A New Pacifica" -- their debut album -- is drenched in a thick early My Bloody Valentine distortion, it is primarily the rolling basslines which provide nearly all of the melodies for the Electro Group, thus keeping them sounding much heavier than your average shoegazing trio. Released on the Omnibus label, who was repsonsible for that fantastic Mates of State album, and, like that record, this isn't something you should pass up.
All right! We've been waiting for this, at long last a new album of mathy mania from our favorite Manitoban instru-metal nerds, who rip it up like an unholy hybrid of The Fucking Champs and Gorguts.
So, we threw this on as soon as we got it in earlier this week, and as we were listening to it in the store, a dizzying display of complicated instrumental triple-guitar metal pyrotechnics, completely ridiculous stuff, Andee remarked to Matt that THIS must be what it sounds like inside Allan's head all the time. To which Allan says, "I wish!"... And Allan's wish is Electro Quarterstaff's command. All he (or anyone) has to do is strap on some headphones and hit "play", and your brain can start doing somersaults and backflips to the tricky tunes of these tech-metal masters!
Yes, it's a fun ride. Somehow the Electro Quarterstaff boys make their music crazy technical and also utterly rock out at the same time. In fact, on some of the tracks here, we declare EQ may have invented the hitherto unknown subgenre of "technical boogie"!!
The Willowtip label is of course known for uber-technical death grind, bands like Arsis, Capharnaum, Gorod, Necrophagist... serious, brutal stuff, though they do have their "humorous" side (remember, uh, Crotchduster?). Electro Quarterstaff certainly have a quizzical sense of humor, witness song titles like "Waltz Of The Swedish Meatballs" and "Unholy Gravy" (though others are less overtly absurd, to be sure). But that's not why we like 'em so much. Any band can come up with silly song titles, but NOT just any band can play like this, nosiree. Grin-inducing MUSICALLY 'cause it's so damn complex, yet catchy too. Reminds us a bit of An Albatross, but not so spastic and noisy, way more METAL, their hectic shred conversant with classical-sounding melody. In fact, first track "The Wolf Shall Inherit The Moon" is a disarmingly beautiful semi-acoustic piece, setting any unsuspecting listeners up for a shock when frantic next track "McNutty" erupts into their ear-space.
Once again, they've named this after a famous Canadian (Gretzky was their debut). And once again, this cd is graced with really awesome artwork. This 2nd album was worth the five year wait, but we hope EQ don't go back into lengthy hibernation right away... what would be really rad would be to see 'em play live, how 'bout a West Coast tour, guys? We'd be in the front row for that, along with any fans of Scale The Summit, Suzikiton, Pegataur, The Champs, Gorguts, etc.
Winnipeg, Manitoba has certainly spawned some notable music artists -- Bachman Turner Overdrive, the Weakerthans, Neil Young, and uh, Burton Cummings. Now firing up their own prairie block heater are Canadian metallers Electro Quarterstaff. Yes, let's repeat that... all hail, sheer instrumental heavy metal wizardry from Winnipeg, Canada: Electro Quarterstaff! That band name alone would pique our interest here at AQ. But actually we've been waiting for this release for AGES, as one of the EQ boys is an AQ fan and was cool enough to send us down some of their cd-r demos a while back, thinking we just might like his band's brand of mega-mathy, tech-metal madness. And he was right!! So, now suitably signed to the Willowtip label, here's the thus (to us) long-awaited Electro Quarterstaff debut! And it's a doozy. These blasting, bombastic songs practically turn themselves inside out with all the insane drumming, dual guitar shredding, and chunky chops crammed into 'em. Hectic heaviness overload!! We're happily dizzy after just a couple tracks. And the Zakk Wylde fans here appreciate all the pinch harmonics one of the guitarists flings like picks...
No surprise their thanks list includes members of Gorguts, Voivod, and Breadwinner! Basically, if you'd like The Fucking Champs to sound even more like Carcass, on crack, this is for you. Or, it's like a haywire super computer programmed to defeat Zebulon Pike at their own game. Damn. Some cuts, like, "Charmony" slow down a bit for some classic, majestic rifferama, giving more reason to make Champs comparisons... Oh yeah and like the Champs they've got that half-ironic, smart-ass post rock song titling thing down, getting the biggest groan from us with "Something's Awry In The Hetfield Of Dreams" (an eleven-minute epic by the way). Thank God they're an instrumental band! They're a bit more straight-forward with other titles like "Neckwrecker" (so true!) and "Twisted Squid" (sounds like it, if anything does). They've also got some really sweet artwork adorning this disc, not your usual metal stuff (though there's skulls) but way cool. Not sure what more to say to recommend this to the right folks, we just don't want any fans of the Champs, ZP, Girth, Loincloth, Hematovore, Suzukitron, etc. to miss this!
