Like Clubroot, Eleven Tigers is another artist pushing the boundaries of the dubstep sound. And as much as we love the stripped down dubstep big beat heaviness that's all stuttery thump and big bass warble, we're also pretty into these new dubstep variants that concern themselves with atmosphere, texture, mood and vibe, as much, if not more than beats, taking those beats, and setting them in some verdant otherworld of sound, lush and expansive, or submerging them in some swirling murky subterranean sonic sea, infusing the core dubstep sound with bits of techno, house, even soul, to create, in this case, a single linked set of songs, each one flowing into the next, slipping seamlessly from washed out hazy shimmer, to sweetly soulful dubpop, to bass heavy dubstep crunch, to playful almost ska flecked electronic skitter, to warped woozy downtempo drift, to Portishead-y trip hop and back again.
The record begins super atmospheric, with psychedelic streaks of sound, fragments of melody, all floating in a softly swirling haze, the beat a buried pulse, warm lush swells, when the beat does finally surface, it manages to be fierce, but still subdued and subtle, eventually the beat slips back under the surface again, leaving a whirling bit of muted murk, which slips directly into a short stretch of cool twisted processed sound, clipped and looped guitars, twisted into atmospheric smears, glitchy and hypnotic, like some Jeckian loop, which leads into the first proper song, a woozy bit of folk flecked electronica, the vocals wistful and sweet, balanced by some serious bass buzz, a little distant guitar strum, vocal harmonies looped over a tangle of skeletal rhythm and buzzing synth, so nice.
From there on out, the record is a continues flow of constantly evolving dubstep, dipping into the above mentioned sounds, but twisting each on up over the course of the track, darkly aggressive one minute, tranquil and dreamy the next, the beats varied and expressive, the surrounding sounds lush and layered and in constant motion, a long slow build that finally settles back down near the record's end, into some divinely dark and stripped down dubbed out electronic bliss.
Another new favorite electronic record, to add to the stack recent discoveries from Clubroot, Gold Panda, Actress, Glitterbug, Pantha Du Prince, Walls, Vex'd T++, Klimek...
The ninth record from this all-star ensemble (weird to think that EDD is going on 17 years now, but the band members side projects are so much more high profile: Freakwater, Tortoise, Brokeback, and Tara Key's band), 'Stalled Parade', is more of their dreamy, droney, funky, twangy, hypnotic rock. Nice.
It never fails to amaze just how incredibly strong Chicago, Illinois' musical roots are, and that they feed a sturdy community trunk from which have flourished countless awesome branches that themselves have become deeply interwoven. This band is a perfect example. Metaphors aside, throughout the '80s and '90s, Eleventh Dream Day was a consistently amazing outfit, and this new album proves that they still are. A little history lesson for ya... commencing in 1983 their original lineup included Janet Beveridge Bean (also of Freakwater), Doug McCombs (also of Tortoise, Brokeback, The For Carnation and Pullman). Baird Figi and Rick Rizzo. Over the years, a fella named John McEntire (also of Tortoise, duh!) stepped in from time to time to help produce and play stuff. Their current roster is graced by the talented former Coctail multi-instrumentalist Mark Greenberg. The sound of these pop rockers has always been comfortably nestled right in with the likes of fellow college pop veterans the Go-Betweens and Throwing Muses. They've surely shared a lot of fans. And with this, their return after six years of silence, they've picked right up where they left off. Perhaps with even more vigor and urgency than before. Catchy, smart, solid and executed with ease. Welcome back old friends!
Note: not to be mistaken with the album Ones and Zeroes by Canadian youngsters Immaculate Machine. Hmmm, does everyone have binary code on the brain?
The newest release from probably the least well known of the Elephant 6 bands (Elephant 6, for the uninitiated, is a loose collective of experimental 60s-ish psychedelic bands including Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control, Apples in Stereo and more). Not as intense and soul baring as NMH, and not as 'out there' as OTC, Elf Power play a raggedy catchy amalgam of the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the Kinks all filtered through that lo-fi/4 track/ homespun Elephant 6 aesthetic.
On Back To The Web, Elf Power's frontman Andrew Rieger's voice struck us as really familiar, and then we realized that it reminded us of Al "Year Of The Cat" Stewart. Is that a good or bad thing in your books? For us, we don't have a problem sayin' it's not bad at all. The album's pretty darn good from beginning to end, but stand-out songs are "The Spider And The Fly" and "Peel Back The Moon, Beware!" Both are entrancingly psychedelic and a bit folky at times, but also check out "All The World Is Waiting" which combines late night slinky electric guitar with the more characteristically Elf Power plucky folk guitar. It's a very groovy, very glammy tune. The album as a whole is infused with a '70s rock vibe, especially the final third which definitely reveals the potent influence of bands from that decade such as T-Rex and Led Zeppelin. While we do on occasion yearn for the toothsome dreamy psych pop of the Elf Power days gone by, we do quite dig the new direction the band's been taking on their last couple albums.
Elf Power have quitely dwelled under the shadow of Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control, and Apples In Stereo of the Elephant 6 collective, consistently releasing some fantastic, if quirky indie jangle with lots of thoughtfully constructed lo-fi fuzz (a la Sparklehorse, Mercury Rev, Flaming Lips) running through lots of references to the Beatles and the Kinks. "Creatures" is the least adventurous and most accessible album for this Athens, Georgia outfit, pushing closer towards the bubblegum pop of the Apples and further away from their earlier Neutral Milk-ish ramshackle pop as on "Dream In Sound" and "Winter Is Coming."
It's hard to believe that this is the 9th album from Elf Power. Seems like just yesterday that this Athens, GA band were the new kids on the Elephant Six block. They really haven't released a dud either over the years and like lots of bands who remain consistent over a long period of time it becomes easy to take what they do for granted. In A Cave might be their most fresh and immediate record since their 2000 album, Winter Is Coming, which has definitely become an all-time AQ favorite.
They've really excelled and created their own unique take on psych-pop that's so well constructed and pleasing on the ears. Swirling melodies, experiments with tape and subtle electronics all used to great success, and above all such great songwriting that continues to set Elf Power above the pack, far beyond the rest of those outfits desperate to tap into that paisley psychedelic pop sound but lacking the great songs and killer hooks. Like early R.E.M. paying homage to The Kinks and The Zombies, In A Cave is proving to be one of the better pop records of the year.
An all covers collection by these Georgia-based Elephant 6'ers released on Jeff Mangum's label. 16 songs in all (six of which were previously released on their tour only limited edition "Come On" ep) including Tall Dwarfs' "Nothings Going to Happen", Billy Childish's "You Make Me Die", Bad Brains' "Pay To Cum", The Misfits' "Hybrid Moments" (with altered lyrics), Sonic Youth, Jesus & Mary Chain, Frogs, Buzzcocks, etc. The broad choice of covers all done in Elf Power's indierock style actually serves to highlight the excellent *songwriting* evident in each track, and this is a very pleasant listen. Earnest, fun, crowd-pleasing tributes to their favorite bands or neutered, lackluster indie pop versions? We're on the fence. We enjoyed this a lot, but does that mean it's great? Hmm. You decide.
"Vainly Clutching At Phantom Limbs" is a reissue of a super limited edition lp, with the "Winterhawk" ep tacked on for good measure. When this was recorded in 1994, Elf Power's sound had not yet developed into the tropes of Elephant 6 avant-psych-pop, instead they dabbled in gritty lo-fi straight-forwardness of the kind that made all of those early Sebadoh / Sentridoh singles sound so brilliant in their crappiness. That said, the best track on this album is a cover of "Drug Store" by, yes, the Dwarves!
Many of the Elephant 6 crafty retro pop experimental collective members have been resurfacing as of late. Not only have AQ faves the Olivia Tremor Control's albums been reissued, but many of the bands in the E6's second tier are stepping forward with new albums too! As soon as you press 'play' on Walking With The Beggar Boys, Elf Power are bursting from your speakers with their particular tasty blend of jubilant retro folk pop. Much less psychedelic than previous releases, instead it's very "Up With People" and filled with lyrics of wide-eyed innocence like "God is cool". It's not all sunshine and daffodils though, there are somber moments on this album. They just take a little time to materialize (how 'bout the sixth song "The Cracks"?). As per most E6 projects, this album features members (and ex-members) of other E6 bands, namely Laura Carter of Neutral Milk Hotel and Eric Harris of OTC. An additional highlight is the unmistakable voice of Vic Chesnutt! Yup, he sings on the title track.
Second album from the Athens-based pop group that was the last minute surprise act at Terrastock West.
With every Elf Power release the band grows in leaps and bounds, gleefully becoming more psychedelic and less sweetly pop. This is a good thing! Developing their own, original spin on the tried and true Elephant 6 sound (the underground pop collective typified by Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control, and Apples in Stereo) has resulted in "Winter is Coming", which is filled with delightfully ambitious psychedelic rock with a few nods here and there to their toothy pop roots. Very well executed and stunningly melodic. Highly recommended!
We've mentioned it before, but we love it when people we know make amazing records, and we're then available to share them with all of you. Such is the case with this, the oddly monikered Elfmilk, the project of aQ customer/pal Eddie, who hails from Mexico, and who is solely responsible for the gorgeous sounds to be found on Extragalactic Distance, a collection of abstract ambience, deep drones, and experimental rhythmic minimalism.
Beginning with the brief minute long intro "Spiral", a smoldering bit of crumbling distorted piano, and shimmering overtone rich drift, Elfmilk reveals itself as something more raw and immediate than much of the ambient/drone/electronic music we hear. It's super well crafted, and lush and lovely, but it's still raw, and rough around the edges, which makes the sounds more warm, the vibe more human and organic, instead of sounds, these feel like songs, long tones shimmer and undulate, melodies seem to slowly evaporate into a haze of high end whir, scattered throughout are fragmented rhythms, dubby and abstract, disembodied pulses and ghostly beats, a sort of electrokrautrock that seems to be gradually coming apart, like some old space station left in orbit, the various pieces drifting off into the ether, some into the heart of the sun, some into the cold black void, here liquid squelches demarcate loose swirling melodic tangles, and thick swells of feedback wreathed buzz, acoustic guitars let loose spare notes, that flutter like leaves falling from trees, or mysterious detritus floating through space.
In a few places, the sounds go haywire, explosive bursts of almost jungle like rhythms, or exploding firecrackers woven into frantic beats, but even then the sounds surrounding these blasts are warm and whirling and sweetly soothing, while elsewhere, the sounds slip into dubby Portishead like low slung downtempo grooves, culminating in the 14+ minute epic "Obsidian", a constantly shifting soundscape that plays out like a soundtrack to some mysterious art film, swirling electronics, lush textures, fractured effects, pulsing synths, the sound seeming to shift ever minute or two, finishing off with a stretch of grinding downtuned lo-fi dirgery, which leads directly into the closing number, a fantastically blissed out sprawl of super distorted melodies, all hazy and spacey and dreamlike, but wrapped in crunchy buzz and hissy static, which eventually slips away, leaving lush lustrous sonic swells, lovely hushed computer vox and what sounds like field recording, all woven into a softly undulating bit of dreamlike drift.
Fantastic stuff. Highly recommended.
Record number two from aQ pal and longtime mailorder customer Eddie Harari, aka Elfmilk. The first Elfmilk Extragalactic Distance was a strange mix of decaying atmospheres, distorted dirgery and electronic flecked kraut-psych, all of which are present here, but the sound is more brooding and moody, the opener downright jazzy, adding horns to a swagger twang, and a distorted recording that swaddles everything in gristly crumble. And that jazziness seems to bleed into much of the rest of the record, distant horns drifting over dizzying collaged loops and mysterious sonic squelches, lumbering downtempo grooves again recorded super hot, and transformed into slo-mo, in-the-red minimalism. Elsewhere female vocals soar, sounding like some lost sixties psych jam, or some alien exotic unfurls like the score to some alternate reality James Bond movie, and in this version the funky, groovy theme is pelted by burst of static and shards of white noise crunch, while the drums sound like they were recorded in a different time zone.
The last 'movement' fully embraces Elfmilk's jazzier direction, getting all washed out and smoldery, at one point sounding like a band playing after last call in some shadowy dive bar, at another blossoming into a slow building, languorously lush post rock/out-jazz trip out, and on the final track, getting a bit Portishead-y, the song in constant flux as the speed seems to change constantly, turning the buzzing synths into a woozy melody, that undulates beneath a wasted rhythmic skitter, and more of those melancholic horns.
Killer stuff for sure, and way recommended for fans of dark jazz, and moody, instrumental mystery. Which we're assuming is a whole lot of you...
One of two new Tapeworm cassettes on this week's list, the other being the truly strange Autodigest recording of 40 years of bootleg recordings, and then there's this, the latest from Swedish artist Leif Elggren, who has consistently delighted and baffled us with recordings that ranged from totally confusional high concept ultra minimalism, to gorgeous dark dronemuic, to full on NOISE, not to mention lots of writings and art projects, the most infamous being the creation of the 'imaginary' country, he dubbed the Kingdoms Of Elgaland-Vargaland (KREV), a country which just so happens to have Elggren as its king!
All Animals Are Saints is a collection of live recordings, the first of which is called "The Life Of The Plants" which features Elggren discussing experiments that found scientists placing electrodes and various recording devices on plants to record their electrical fields, resulting in, a series of strange glitched out minimal soundscapes, which pepper Elggren's talk. A staticky sound field of muted grinding rumbles, stuttery clicks and scrapes, fluttery bits of low end, a distinct drone component, lots of hiss and shimmer, and subtly swooping effects and glitches. As Elggren's story about the experiments continue, the scientists introduce stress into the plants' lives resulting in sounds that are much more abrasive, more rhythmic, a dense cloud of skittery streaks of high end and crackling sheets of skree. Hard to say if we're meant to believe the veracity of Elggren's storytelling, there are plenty of sound artists who have explored the electrical output of plants, or if it's just another high concept art piece, either way it's quite entertaining, and the sounds are definitely fantastic.
The piece on the B-side is called "Swedenborg's Organ", and again begins as a talk, about a man called Swedenborg, from the 1700's, a musician, a writer, Elggren 'plays' a recording of someone playing Swedenborg's organ, the sound of creaking floorboards, squeaks and moans, thumps and rumbles, precedes a truly haunting, seriously fucked up stretch of slowly unfurling, totally abstract, sort-of-organ music, it's hard to describe, notes moan and wheeze, partial melodies crumble in slow motion, a stumbling, lurching, slow motion, minor key lament, very reminiscent of the recordings of Gurdjieff, but with the addition of those never ending creaks and groans, it's very much like a busted organ being played on a rickety old pirate ship, and sounds very much like something Nurse With Wound could have conjured up!
Like all Tapeworm stuff, extremely limited, this one TO JUST 250 COPIES!!!
In playing with ideas of royality and rewriting the fundamental laws of creation with his ongoing series of conceptualizations, sound installations, actions, and photographs, Swedish artist Leif Elggren posits epistemological inquiries about how the utterances of power (essentially just a signifier) are communicated and valued. Such inquiries come in the form of absurd hypothetical situations which Elggren realizes with an aesthetic language that alternates between that of a royal edict and that of the village idiot. Elggren's most notable experiment has been the ongoing fictional country he founded with C.M. von Hausswolff called The Kingdoms of Elgaland / Vargaland, which operates in between country borders, in digital space, in dreams, etc. "Extraction" is a bit more of a convoluted proposition for Elggren, and is one that cannot be taken at face value. Elggren states that "this basic sound material was recorded in my biological mother's uterus with my not yet developed teeth used as a fundamental and simple recording device a few days before my birth. This sound material was kept recorded and hidden until recently inside one of my wisdom teeth, but has now been brought to daylight and exposure... For best results: load this CD in your CD player, confirm that sound is coming out through the speakers, and then just leave the room. When you come back everything will be totally changed."
No, the sound is not the sound of his mother's uterus; it appears more like the unfolding of a complex series of overlapping electrical fields, whose disturbances, flanges, and gradual fluctuations coalesce into a potentially dangerous sea of electricity. "Extraction" remains a very stoic construction of a very pure sound, but will it change everything in Aquarius records if I were to leave this on and step outside the shop for an hour? What would change? To what degree would things change? How? I would say that those questions become the crux of Elggren's oeuvre, with all of the obtuse soundsculptures and royal trinkets built from tin cans being merely the residues of thought.
These two Swedish conceptual / sound artists are quite amused by their actions which have warranted 58 minutes of their laughter, which runs through a litany of guffaws, giggles, evil cackles, hoots, and hollers. In the end it's certainly absurd in scope and strangely enjoyable in a delirious kind of way. As baffling as it may seem, Mr. Elggren decided to release this conceptual fuck-you as one of his Firework Editions. Strangely enough, I believe we only have one of these in stock at the moment...
It's a great to see that Ash International re-issued the "Ung" album from the Swedish conceptual art trio of Leif Elggren (co-founder of the Kingdom of Elgaland-Vargaland with CM von Hausswolff), Per Jonsson, and Kent Tankred. Originally "Ung" was released on vinyl by the oddball label Radium 226.5 -- which released scuzz rock from Union Carbide Productions and the Black Snakes, as well as expressive drone work from Phauss and Zbigniew Karkowski (sounds like Andee's tUMULt Laboratories, eh?). Featuring amplified ovens which oozed with spilt porridge, 27 girls dressed in white, and sledge hammers, "Ung" is an evocative acoustic drone record brigding the more conceptual tone float of Stockhausen's "Microphonie" and the visceral metallic screech of Organum. Very good.
Swedish conceptualists Leif Elggren and Thomas Liljenberg have published "Experiments With Dreams," a book which collects a number of outlandish letters to politicians, film stars, and business leaders, positing absurdist questions and claiming that the
"Two Thin Eating One Fat" appears to be a much more personal documentation of Elggren's and Liljenberg's dream communication, as they have recorded themselves quietly mumbling meandering narratives which are marked by strange political rhetoric and the repeated phrase "let me in." Thick metallic drones, distant pounding drums, and rhythmic exercises with a piezo buzzer accompany and at times interrupt the ongoing spoken murmur. While all of these recordings found on "Two Thin Eating One Fat" were originally produced for various collaborative installations and performances, there is remarkable consistency to this collection which articulates the absurdist intellect behind this artistic pairing.
More unblack metal, this time from way off in Poland, probably most notable, metalwise at least, for the mighty Graveland, but this, the 2004 release from Elgibbor, now remastered, remixed and re-released, has very little to do with Graveland, sonically, religiously, or politically.�
The sound of Elgibbor like much of the stuff on E.E.E., the home to most of the crucial white metal being produced and released these days, is utterly bizarre, all over the map, with a wide range of sounds and songs and even production qualities. The opener is super fast, completely distorted and ultra blown out, the drums and guitars and vocals, become one thick layer of buzz, so fast and distorted it almost sounds like some sort of noise record, but close listening does reveal some furious blasting and some intense buzzing riffage, the weirdest part is the keyboard, which hovers and lurks underneath the buzz, almost as if it had nothing to do with the songs themselves, a bit of random ambience, deep keyboard swells that ebb and flow hauntingly in the background, beneath a thick sheet of blacknoise. But then there's the second track, all clean reverbed guitars, distant chug, simple way-up-in-the-mix drumming, and super emotive actual singing. Like some strange deconstructed metallic pop. Song number three confuses things even more, with some midtempo Burzumic buzz, but with some strange glitched out rhythms, and some ultra distorted garbled vocals, it almost sounds like some sort of unearthed DHR demo. It goes on and on like that, some swirly ambient swirl, muted black metal blurred into soft focus fuzzed out dreaminess, some super strange techno-black metal, with rhythms that sound like boiling liquid, while all around it guitars churn and vocals howl, and probably our favorite song "Awesome God", that sounds like a choir singing hymns with black buzz wrapped all around it, the results are less evil than they are totally bizarre, it's like a Merzbow remix of Wold covering Incredible String Band. Worth it for that track alone, but the rest of the record is just as far out and fucked. Once again, the unblack bands are upping the ante on truly damaged demented and inspired musical 'blackness'.
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.
Killer white metal and melodic doom metal from Poland & Brazil.
The solo album from the Atari Teenage Riot vamp / diva Hanin Elias is a collection of the tracks which she had recorded outside of her ATR career. Electro-thud beats, analogue squiggliness, overblown vocal barks & screams, and a slick neo-goth behavior situates Hanin between the jet black electronica punk of ATR and Add (N) to X. Not surprisingly, Alec Empire supplies additional production on half the tracks.
San Francisco's The Mallard called it quits recently; they being something of a weirdo outlier of drone-rock + fuzz-pop on the beloved Castle Face label. That said, they were long one of our personal favorites on Castle Face, given their charmingly stoned take on The Pin Group or Bailter Space, or hell even Stereolab for that matter. Thankfully, this was not the end of the creative spirit for those who left the band. The Mallard's frontwoman Greer McGettrick has re-christened herself Eline Cout, delivering her first set of recordings in a micro-edition slab of vinyl on Pretty Penny Records. While there are hints of The Mallard's lo-fi dreamy droniness are found throughout the Eline Cout tracks, this is starkly mechanical album of analog synth crunch, noise-pulse rhythms, and murky industrial strategies circa 1982. McGettrick quips on the back of the record that this is "to be listened to loudly in one room, while working on a monotonous task in another." Thirteen untitled tracks of quasi-instrumental tracks for chiming monotone guitars, bass-throb, primitive synths, and drums with strange / strangled tape-splice interjections of stolen voices, found sounds, and other utterances that may be confused as lyrics. While there is a certain adherence to structure, McGettrick is stripping away all of the melody from what she brought to The Mallard, engaged in a similar punk deconstructionist adventure that Graham Lewis and Bruce Gilbert began in their Dome recordings. Match that with the squalid noise-junk dourness of Maria Zerfall (seriously, look her up!) and the tumbled-rock percussion of Mars, and there's something close to Eline Cout.
Super limited pressing of 100 copies with each album sporting a unique woodcut print of a 10x10 inch square grid, with one square taken away during each pass through the printing press, amounting to different grid configuration cover art for each piece of vinyl. And, each record includes the wooden square removed for the printing of that particular cover, in a little baggie. We've only got a handful of these! A very cool record all around!
Everyone went nuts for Bifrost, the latest release from Norwegian black metallers Elite that we reviewed a few lists back, so while we're waiting to get retocked on that we figured we oughta list the ep that came out right before Bifrost. Elite have definitely earned their highly problematic monicker as they are indeed musically elite, the new wave of TRUE Norwegian black metal. Following in the black festering footprints of their BM forefathers, Mayhem, Gorgoroth, Darkthrone, Ulver and the like, Elite buzz and blast brilliantly and blackly. Each of these four tracks is a dizzying black swirl, thrashing and chaotic, wild spiked blurs, epic melodic riffing wrapped in thick dark swirls of harsh ambience, the drums a relentless pound and blast, vocals harsh and hateful, and is the case with the best black metal, strange haunting and hook filled melodies lurk just beneath the black buzzing surface. So good. Elite indeed.
It takes a lot of balls to call your black metal band ELITE. It would lead everyone to believe, that your black metal horde is indeed significantly more elite than all others. In fact, it pretty much means that your band is the most elite. So elite in fact, that you are just simply, ELITE. That's like naming your band 'cult' or even 'grim', oh wait a second, there is a band called Grimm, with two 'm's though, which must make them way MORE grim than all the other grim black metallers out there. Anyway, Elite are in fact a truly elite black metal outfit hailing from the forests of Norway, and they sound like it. This is the new wave of TRUE (and of course ELITE) Norwegian black metal. And it rules. Fierce and fast and pounding and buzzing. Think just the most epic elements of Taake, Burzum, Gorgoroth, etc. woven into a pitch black tapestry of spikes and blood and upside down crosses. Growled guttural vocals, huge thick buzzing guitars, and some of the most epic sounding riffs EVER. Fast and fuzzy, but totally triumphant, melancholic, repeated riffs become totally hypnotic and mesmerizing and weirdly moving, sort of cinematic even, listen to the first track and it will all make sense. Pummeling and grim as fuck, but so totally hook filled. The half time parts sound almost like some sort of blackened Nirvana, or at least Khold channelling Nirvana, either way it's catchy as hell and totally magical sounding. One of our new favorite black metal records for sure.
Amazing record cover too, a foggy winter forest, with some sort of hairy fanged beast lurking and ready to pounce.
While they last we have the super limited digipak version, limited to 500 copies, each one hand numbered, once those are gone you'll just get the regular jewelcase version.
The crude cover painting is sorta psychedelic, and though this album dates from 1982, the breathless obi text claims this to be the work of an "unknown brilliant all original outsider loner singer songwriter who completely sounds trapped in 1972 not '82!!", so we kinda had to check it out, being big Bobb Trimble fans after all, who also fits that description. But, we were also a bit wary, 'cause while it's true that the reissue label Riverman, based in South Korea, HAS put out some pretty cool stuff - including the George-Edwards Group and Ted Lucas discs we've reviewed recently - they also have reissued a lot of things that, uh, we don't quite "get". They seem to have a thing for American '70s singer-songwriter soft rock, maybe it's more "exotic" for them than it is for us, but a lot of their catalog seems to consist of justly-forgotten thrift store mediocrities that we have a hard time understanding why collectors (in Korea or elsewhere) care about. But yeah, once in a while they nail it. So we're always curious about their reissues, hoping they'll come up with a really amazing, acid folk obscurity or something like that. Plus they sure look good in their mini-lp style sleeves, with beguiling blurbs on their obis - that, again, they rarely really live up to. However, guess what? Peter Elizalde's oddly titled Winter Playground Mystery, kinda actually does! There is certainly something "outsidery" about it, that's for sure. Your mileage may vary, indeed ours already has, some of us here are totally digging on this (enjoying it a bit ironically, maybe, but for reals too), others like Andee gave it the gong...
Here's the deal. While there's elements of psych and prog here, what this really is, is "yacht rock"! Outsider yacht rock, but yes, yacht rock. Even though it's from '82, the Berkeley-based Elizalde, an obviously talented multi-instrumentalist, was super into seventies soft rock and jazz fusion, and we figure exceedingly influenced by the likes of Todd Rundgren and Steely Dan. So, much of this is synth laden, sprightly '70s sounding AM radio pop, with, naturally, the occasional cheesy saxophone solo. And oh boy is it poppy, these songs sound like hits that never happened, y'know, totally like they should be familiar, and in fact soon will get stuck in your head... yet they're just a bit weird and warped at the same time. In part that's 'cause Elizalde has an ever so slightly strange singing voice, often oddly high and nasal, which might have to do with the fact that he grew up in Peru, perhaps that's a little trace of a Spanish accent we're hearing? Or more likely he was a big Al Jarreau fan. Besides that, this disc is also full of surprises. For instance, track 5, "Passion Play", an exuberantly uptempo, POP-PUNK song that we definitely weren't expecting, which would have opened the original lp's second side with a bang. Really cool though, especially with its slightly incongruous keyboard lines, like some sort of super happy new wave. The wild guitar soloing on this one is also pretty choice. Later on, the album's big finale, "Day Dreamer", is another stop-and-stare-at-your-stereo number. It's one of the catchiest cuts on the record, with high pitched Bee Gees style vocal harmonies, but Elizalde also cranks up the distortion on his guitar, and also indulges in some over the top synth soloing, turning the track into a burnin' jazz fusion freakout by the end of its rather proggy 7+ minutes! Wow.
Overall this album is an eccentric mix of goofy pop pleasures, synth shred, and moments of truly emotional beauty. We also wonder if the several songs with a lyrical focus on winter, are somehow part of an exercise in Beach Boys/Brian Wilson emulation, but just about the opposite season to summer?
Well, you'll either love this or hate it, if the AQ staff is anything to go by. Enough of us love it, though, to suggest you open your heart to it, those of us here who did are happier for it. If we're gonna listen to "yacht rock", this gets our boat afloat... Though Elizalde is no Bobb Trimble, this is still pretty cool, and catchy, and quirky, and equally kitschy.
In the early days of 1980, Severed Heads was a proper group, with principle engineer Tom Ellard accompanied at various times by Richard Fielding and Garry Bradbury. So when Ellard sporadically recorded his own solo work during this time period, he released it under his own name. By 1983 or so, Severed Heads was wholly under his control. That said, the Tom Ellard solo works do not fall far from the creative / aesthetic tree of Severed Heads - agitprop electronics, tape-loop errata, skewed post-punk detours, and the occasionally beautiful electro-pop melody tossed in for good measure. Eighties Cheesecake was a cassette of Ellard's that came right on the heels of a short-lived publishing venture called Dogfood Production System, which kicked out four lps from the eccentric community of bleak Aussie post-punk in 1981 but was unable to pay back the $5000 loan, thus forcing him to discontinue that venture. So, he (and Severed Heads) went back to dubbing cassettes through his cottage industry Terse Tapes. Jump forward some 30 years, and an older, more cynical Ellard discovered somebody selling the Eighties Cheesecake cassette online "for a stupid amount of money." His immediate reaction was to crank out an unlimited cdr edition of the cassette.
Part out of the desire to confuse / frustrate the populace, part out of necessity to trim down the amount of material to fit onto vinyl, Ellard's recapitulation of Eighties Cheesecake contains only some of the material from that aforementioned cassette, with ancillary tracks from another cassette entitled Snappy Carrion, and previously abandoned tracks that got surgically stitched back together. No matter how you slice it, the Dark Entries release of Eighties Cheesecake is a corker or an album. These are punchy, taut electro-tracks with scabs of culture jamming samples, cheeky attitudes, and hyperbolic anxiety. Some of the tracks found on this version were later included in the Vinyl On Demand boxset of early Severed Heads experiments; though what Dark Entries released is entirely of the industrial pop vernacular. It's notable that Ellard dots the album with the iconic TB303, the bass-sequencer that was a failure for Roland for its intended use but later became the signature instrument for acid house and Detroit techno. For all of the acclaim that was put on the instrument throughout the years, Ellard seeths that "it was the worst piece of shit" in the liner notes. Piss and vinegar aside, Eighties Cheesecake makes for an exquisite revisitation!
Legendary composer Duke Ellington gets the deluxe Monk Records treatment here, bringing together 17 songs recorded in 1927 and 1928, right as his success was really beginning to take off thanks to a lucrative contract with agent Irving Mills. Ellington was an incredibly prolific songwriter and served as the perfect example of a big band leader. He also helped bring his art to the attention of white Americans, leading to unprecedented fame and elevating jazz music to a level of respectability that could not be ignored within America or the rest of the world. This record captures Duke and his Orchestra performing a variety of mostly Ellington penned tunes, with a couple of other numbers as well. Listening to this stuff is exciting, as one really gets the sense of a distinctly American artist creating and drawing on a distinctly American style of art, while also demonstrating how important the contributions of African-Americans were in establishing this new identity. Another winner from Monk!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
The a capella version of Miss E's new single "Lick Shots" is so so so so good. That single track, certainly not the bad house remixes also included here, is the reason to buy this 12". Andee's going to try mixing this vocal track with, like, Circle underneath it. Adventurous DJs should really do something cool with this. And then burn a copy and send it to us.
More of that Timbaland style 'unfunky funk' that we've all grown to love. Lots of huge beats, lots of strings, lots of swearing, and lots of guests (Lil' Kim, Eminem, Aaliyah, Redman, Outkast, and more).
After many years of being one of the holy grails of much sought after LPs in the "incredibly strange" variety, Dean Elliott's legendary Zounds! What Sounds is now finally available (legitimately) on cd as part of Basta's aptly titled "essential" series of
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
As Third Eye Foundation, Matt Elliott was one of the pillars of the Bristol post-rock sound, producing a volatile concoction of drum and bass breaks suffocating under the weight of space-rock dissonance and apocalyptic references. It's been reported that Elliott was disbanding Third Eye Foundation and stepping away from music for good. Thankfully, those reports have turned out to be false and he's begun what we can only hope will be a long and fruitful 'solo' career. On "The Mess We Made," Elliott turns the corner on the rhythmic aspect of his work, instead building outward from melancholic piano melodies that fall between drunken-sailor waltzes, the paranoiac isolationism of David Shire's soundtrack to "The Conversation," and the more deconstructed renderings of Radiohead's "Kid A" or "Amnesiac." Using these morosely fragile melodies as the foundation for his music, Elliott saturates his music with theatrical orchestrations of french horns, accordions, lilting Spanish guitar lines, and windswept ambience. He furthers the creepy melodrama on "The Mess We Made" with an unusual production technique that warbles some of the sounds into an antiquated vibrato as if transmitted through a haunted Victrola from the 1930s. The title track to the album stands out with a two minute interlude of drum & bass, as Elliott tosses in a caustic Amen workout into the baroque cobwebs that dominate the remainder of this album. A very welcome return for Mr. Elliott!
MPEG Download: "The Mess We Made" [/audio/mattelliottmesswemade.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "The Mess We Made" [/audio/mattelliottmesswemade.m3u]
These are some crappy two-step "remixes" of Missy Elliott's ever so popular "Get Ur Freak On". Apparently someone wants us to believe that they could shit a Timbaland beat on a 12" and people will buy it. These remixes have got nothing on the spartan "Bounce A Gal" (the Special Remix 7" of Lexxus plopped onto the GUFO rhythm), and the Capleton "Mi Food" single which uses the
For those of you who don't have MTV, avoid mainstream hip hop radio, and thus may not ever have heard Missy Elliott before, take our advice and get this record. It's pretty damn worthwhile. Missy is a big and curvaceous hip hop diva (unlike the rail thin waifs we've become accustomed to seeing) whose cool 'n husky vocal delivery is here augmented by the manly talents of Ludacris, Redman, Ginuwine, Busta Rhymes, Jay Z, and Method Man, plus the divas-in-training lady vocalists Eve, Da Brat, Jade, etc. Girlfriend wrote or co-wrote almost all the songs with Timbaland, uh huh. But the production chops are what shines here -- with Timbaland behind the board you know that there are choppy melodies and stutttering, rumbling bass along with the all-important lurching rhythms and Timbaland's signature beats that are left OUT of the track, forcing YOUR ears to fill them in -- brilliant!
Whoah, man. Missy keeps bringing us hiphop gems. And this just might be the shiniest yet. We dig this album so much more than her last one (which was good too). Joined by Slick Rick, M.I.A., Neptunes, Mary J. Blige and Grand Puba, ME blends several different production and hiphop styles into one completely amazing album. Wird and wonderful, fun and funky. The songs sound fresh and interesting, mostly because they don't seem overly mixed or fussed with.
Her big hit on this one, "Lose Control", features a Kraftwerk sample(!) and is thus pretty minimal and mesmerizing. Highly recommended.
Originally released in 1970, this album of influential folkster Ramblin' Jack Elliott features mostly covers of well known tunes such as: Me & Bobby McGee, Folsom Prison Blues, I'll Be Your Baby Tonight, Don't Let Your Deal Go Down, Lay Lady Lay, With God On
1968 release by Mr Elliott, now available on cd. Elliott performs If I Were A Carpenter, Tennessee Stud, Rock Island Line, and more.
Classy!!! That's the first word that comes to mind whenever we think of Alton Ellis and his sister Hortense. Without a doubt, two of the smoothest and most elegant voices to ever be captured on tape. Alton Ellis is not only one of the greatest singers in the history of Jamaican music, he just might be one of the best singers ever! One of THE original artists in the early years of Clement S. Dodd's Studio One, Ellis helped usher in an era of rocksteady and ska that would influence generations to come. But truth be told, Ellis was a classic soul singer. Making words melt in ears, taking sentiments of longing, love, and heartbreak and making them sound so sweet, smooth and irresistible. We've yet to hear a bad track from Ellis which pretty much says it all.
With such warm and dreamy Studio One rhythms surrounding the vocals, it just doesn't get any more soulful and seductive then this. Every single one of these 18 tracks is pure gold. And 8 of them are graced by Hortense's equally delightful vocal stylings. The perfect record to mend a broken heart. Music that will make you melt!
As a proud rocksteady collector, I'm a little embarrassed to say I never gave Hortense Ellis much time until we got this nice collection in recently. Hortense was the sister of the much-more-famous Alton Ellis, and she dueted with him on many tracks, as
Recorded circa 1979, this debut record from Noel Ellis (son of reggae legend Alton Ellis), has finally been reissued by the Light In The Attic label as part of their "Jamaica To Toronto" series, launched with the excellent comp of the same name. Vocalist Noel Ellis's hard to find album (originally released in '83) is really fantastic, six tracks of dubby, soulful, spacey reggae grooves, recorded at Summer studios outside of Toronto, a little bit of the West Indies in the Great White North, a place frequented by such local and visiting reggae luminaries as Johnnie Osbourne and Jackie Mittoo (both featured here). One of this album's tracks, originally released as a single in '79, is a killer version of "Rocking Universally", a song later to be covered by the Clash as "Armageddon Time". All in all, another treasure trove of rare reggae essential dug up and dusted off by Light In The Attic. Righteous.
In a digipack, with 16-page cd booklet full of in-depth liner notes and vintage color photos.
Rob Ellis spends a lot of time as PJ Harvey's full time producer and drummer. He's talented. But this solo album is another thing entirely. Not rock at all, it's pseudo-20th century new music for the synthesizer-inclined. So I listened to this at home like the title says, and have to say rather than being good home listening, it'd be better titled Music for Walking Around Staring at Bare Trees in the Winter. Stark synthesized piano/harpsichord, tinkling electronic chimes, typewriters, and programmed percussion all add up to a dreary minor key case of seasonal affective disorder suffered by Claude Debussy.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Seems foolish to write that much about this even though it's AWESOME. It's limited to only 90 copies, it's already out of print, so all you need to know is it's Jon from Barn Owl solo, guitars, Fender Rhodes, harmonica, trumpet, harmonium and flute, all woven into a beautifully creepy expanse of slow burning twang flecked drone. Not all that far removed from more modern Earth, but much murkier and way more ominous.
Elm manages to be sweetly sinister, darkly brooding, and HEAVY without being heavy. It's all about the drone, and Elm manage to explore all sorts of dronemusick here, from soaring high end ragas, to glistening glimmering sun dappled shimmer, to crumbling downtuned buzz to spare spidery drift. This stuff is awesome. And beautiful. Seems like such a shame to make it so limited. So for now, at least a handful of you will get lucky enough to snag one of these. If you want to be one of those lucky ones, best act fast....
Gorgeous packaging, cool skeleton forest drawing, the cd and sleeve, in a silver paper outer pouch, each one hand stamped with Elm written beneath the stamp in cursive. So nice!
Brand new disc of narcotic psychedelic somnambulant guitar drift from Elm, aka Jon Porras, one half of similarly sonically inclined duo Barn Owl, and also one of your faithful aQuarians. Whereas past missives from Elm were brooding and minimal, they crept and crawled and oozed and sprawled, Nemcatacoa immediately sounds more epic, more song based instead of sound based, channeling both the slow burn guitar drone of groups like SUNNO))) and Vulture Club and Fear Falls Burning, as well as the epic post rock build of groups like Godspeed. The sound is much closer to live Barn Owl, humid and hazy and HEAVY, distortion wreathing all of the melodies, there's even some drums, buried way down in the mix, offering up a skeletal framework for Porras' blackened guitarscapes.
It's not all heavy and dense though, some of the tracks are breathlessly lovely, spacious and spare, the notes drifting weightlessly, strung together by hazy contrails of reverb and soft focus feedback, hushed and reverent and meditative. But often those quiet moments splinter into heaving swells of crumbling distortion, or arcing streaks of burnished black melody. The sound is humid and heady, a constantly shifting dronescape, that goes from barely there folk flutter to blurred buzz drenched haze and back again. So awesome. Definitely has us excited for the forthcoming Barn Owl lp as well...
As always, SUPER LIMITED, packaged in a cool arigato style screen printed cardstock sleeve, with wolves and trees and an animal skull, all printed in metallic silver ink. Nice!
Second solo record from our very own Jon Porras, half of dronefolk duo Barn Owl, after his first disc on Digitalis, Bxogonoas, sold out in a matter of days. This one is crazy limited too, so if you want one, better be quick.
Woven Into Light is more of the glorious same, a druggy, bleary eyed hybrid of slow shimmery free folk and deep minimal dronemusick, taking later period Earth somewhere much dreamier and darker. Muted twang and deep smoldering shimmer, all stretched out in diaphanous sheets across heavy clouded moonlit skies. Spidery tendrils of skeletal guitar spread out like branches on leafless trees, but rather than sounding wintry, Porras wreathes his guitars in soft billows of warm whir, gauzy and lightly blurred, where other bands might turn these downtuned tones into something doomy, Porras lets them drift wraithlike, the sound windswept and barren, the sound of flickering lights above the never ending expanse of desert.
Occasionally, the guitars wind into thick sinewy streaks of coruscating buzz, spitting sparks but still wreathed in a halo or reverb and delay, soft whispery strum transformed into squalls of muted psychguitar and slow shifting almost symphonic buzz. The sound touches on some familiar territory, Sunroof!, Fear Falls Burning, Earth, Nadja, Birchville Cat Motel, and the like, there's some hints of Morricone, Scenic, but Elm most definitely occupies it's own magical mysterious sonic space.
LIMITED TO 250 COPIES. and if past releases are any indication, these will sell out quick, and there's a good chance this might be the last copies we ever see...
