More crushing slo-mo heaviness from right here in SF... For a while it seemed like most of the bands we were hearing ooze out of the Bay Area tended toward the psychedelic (Wooden Shjips, Sleepy Sun, etc), or at the the other end of the spectrum, the abstract and avant, but SF has a rich history of extreme heaviness as most music obsessives are well aware, and recently, there seems to be yet another heaving, pummeling wave of misanthropic metallic crush burbling to the surface, Prizehog for one, a killer 3 piece, drums guitar and synth, who we dug so much we had play our South By Southwest showcase, and they did in fact lay waste. And now Flood, another band that seem to have a little Harvey Milk in 'em, which is NEVER a bad thing. A sludgey, doomy, lugubrious crawl, lots of space, chords sprawling and ringing out, the drums a sporadic pound, the song almost skeletal, until the band lock in and PULVERIZE.
The weird thing about Flood, is that even at their heaviest, they still sound a little dreamy, a little blissed out, the sound more woozy and washed out and warm than jagged and sharp, but somehow that doesn't at all take away from their power. What it does more than anything, is add a space rocky psychedelic element, sometimes subtle, other times more overt, but always seemingly present.
The vocals bellow, wreathed in clouds of reverb and delay, the songs groove, but slowly, dizzily, the band tight, but able to sound loose. There are long stretches of blissed out minimal shimmer, some cool, moody mathy breakdowns, even some abstract ambience with waves crashing, wind, bird call, but all woven into Flood's tripped out, doom-ed stoner space sludge. Killer stuff. For anyone who digs, Sleep, Om, Harvey Milk, Prizehog, Melvins, Wildildlife, Like A Kind Of Matador, Zoroaster, Electric Wizard and all those sorts of spaced out heavies.
First we've heard in a while from these local heavies. Their last record, Native, on MeteorCity, was a big hit with the aQ doomlords, and the new one, Oak, pretty much takes up right where the last one left off. Murky tarpit sprawls of crumbling distortion ooze through cloud of equaling feedback, punctuated by bursts of drum damage, and the occasional convergence, when all the instruments come together into one huge crash, only to splinter back into their constituent parts, and eventually, after this spaced out field of glacial heaviness, the group gains momentum, and suddenly, the sound is lurching and lumbering, a downtuned slo-mo groove, a little bit Sabbathy, a little bit stonery, but slowed even further down, and fucked up a bit too. For all this abstract heaviness, there's a surprising amount of melody happening as well. Opener "Perihelion" reminds us of probably our favorite Bongwater song, but cranked way up and doused in distortion, the bellowed vox giving it a sort of Harvey Milk vibe, which is no way a bad thing. And really if you dig Harvey Milk, and have yet to check out Flood, do yourself a favor, you won't be sorry.
The whole record is overflowing with killer riffs, subtle hooks, slow shifting texture, rumbling, crumbling distortion, and while the bulk of the record is super slow, the band occasionally rev up and deliver some serious punked out metallic crush, "Holy Astro Shaman Part II" drifts more toward Torche territory, kind of sludge pop fused to some more metallic heft, with some killer drumming, and again, so super hooky melodies. The record culminates in the majestic blown out doom sludge epic "Lake Nyos", that sounds a bit like the Melvins covering Neurosis, or maybe the other way around. heavy and heady, tripped out, melodic, moody and massive. Hopefully we don't have to wait another 5 years for the next record!
Includes a download code too.
Obviously a $45, EIGHT cd set, comprising a band's entire recorded output, is most likely not for the dabbler, or the casually curious. But if you're anything like us, and have been obsessed with the band Floor, the band that turned into Torche, who managed to turn their downtuned sludge into a sort of insanely hooky, ultra heavy sludge pop, and if like us you were tempted to buy the outrageously over the top 8 cd AND 8 lp TWO HUNDRED DOLLAR box set, then this is for YOU. No vinyl, although it's packaged in a gatefold lp sleeve, this is eight cds, including the band's two proper releases, their s/t record and their Dove record as well as every single, compilation track, demo, live track, unreleased rarity, more Floor than most folks could possible need. But there are definitely some of you, like us, who will for sure need this. Need a Floor refresher? Here's what we had to say about the band's swansong Dove, included here:
Those of you who were into the whole punk/grind/crust scene in the nineties probably remember Floor, a ubiquitous presence at shows and on split 7"s, always confounding the punk rockers with their downtuned sludge and un-punk songwriting and two-guitar, drums, NO bass lineup. Imagine Nirvana's Bleach, but bury all the Beatles popishness so ubiquitous in those songs under even more layers of sludge. It's like Cavity covering Nirvana. Or a less purposefully annoying Melvins. Lots of pounding dynamics, hovering guitar sustain, and squealing feedback. And although the proceedings are almost always pinned down by a crushing slab of sonic sludge, that doesn't keep Floor from getting all poppy, like on the downright catchy "Figure It Out" complete with melodic vocals and catchy as fuck chorus. But it's always back to the hypnotic repetitive dirge, culminating in the 20 minute sixth track "Dove" (members of Floor would go on to be in a band called Dove), a slow motion, chugging juggernaut of muffled riffing and caveman drumming. But that's not all, there's a final blow, a fifteen minute minimal metal workout. Two chords, endless sustain and a simple pounding rhythm. File that track in your drone metal section right next your SUNNO))) and Earth. For fans of the Melvins, Gore, Corrupted, Boris, Nirvana and all things slow and sludgy!
And here's what we had to say about their debut full length:
One of our all time favorite sludge/metal/grind bands, who until now, had only released tracks on compilations and seven inches, finally unleashes a full length, and instead of wallowing in their underground-basement-split-seven-inch past and rehashing their slow motion grind (in the style of Cavity and Eyehategod), they've added LOTS of clean vocals and a surprising amount of melody, ending up with a sound somewhere between your favorite pop punk emo band, the Melvins, late period Fudge Tunnel, and Nirvana, but way, way heavier. Seriously. They've turned into a honest to goodness pop band, but a downtuned, amps-on-11, super-distorted, kick-in-the-guts pop band. Great production too with super distorted low end that makes their huge bursts of guitar sound like the end of the world!
And those constitute just TWO of the EIGHT discs. Phew!
The packaging is really cool too. A thick gatefold sleeve, inside one of the pockets is a massive 12" x 12" full color booklet, with extensive liner notes, track listings, photos, as well as reproductions of all the record covers, and in the middle, in the gatefold, the 8 cds are housed in little slots, affixed to the jacket, with the disc artwork matching the background artwork. Super sweet, and most definitely recommended. But mostly to the more obsessive amongst you!
Those of you who were into the whole punk/grind/crust scene in the nineties probably remember Floor, a ubiquitous presence at shows and on split 7"s, always confounding the punk rockers with their downtuned sludge and un-punk songwriting and two-guitar, drums, NO bass lineup. Dove was recorded in 1994 but for some reason remained unreleased until now. Imagine Nirvana's Bleach, but bury all the Beatles popishness under even more layers of sludge. It's like Cavity covering Nirvana. Or a less purposefully annoying Melvins. Lots of pounding dynamics, hovering guitar sustain, and squealing feedback. And although the proceedings are almost always pinned down by a crushing slab of sonic sludge, that doesn't keep Floor from getting all poppy once in a while, like on the downright catchy track 4, "Figure It Out" complete with melodic vocals and catchy as fuck chorus. But it's always back to the hypnotic repetitive dirge, culminating in the 20 minute sixth track "Dove" (members of Floor would go on to be in a band called Dove), a slow motion, chugging juggernaut of muffled riffing and caveman drumming. The cd version comes with a bonus track, a fifteen minute minimal metal workout. Two chords, endless sustain and a simple pounding rhythm. File that track in your drone metal section right next your Sunn 0))) and Earth. For fans of the Melvins, Gore, Corrupted, Boris, Nirvana and all things slow and sludgy!
It's been ten years since the last full length from these sludge pop legends, but mainman Steve Brooks has most definitely been keeping that sludge pop legacy alive with his new band Torche, and really if you dig Torche, you're gonna dig Floor too, as they're both cut from the same sonic cloth, insanely downtuned riffage, crushing drum pounds, and soaring super melodic vocals. Killer pop hooks swaddled in doom/sludge churn, and it's a potent combination. The fact that Brooks has been writing Torche songs (haha, get it?) for so long, does mean, that while this is a whole different band, the jams here still essentially play out like new Torche songs (haha, again), and we're not complaining, it's a sound we can't get enough of, epic, crushing catchiness, impossibly hooky metallic crunch, the band slipping easily from tarpit dirge, to more hard rocking heaviness, check out the opening one-two punch of the title track and "Rocinante", the former, a gloriously skull caving slab of doom-pop creep, like Queen crossed with the Melvins at 16rpm, the latter, a furious blast of headbangable pop metal riffery, the melodies crazy catchy, but buried beneath some serious badass riffage. But then hold on to your fucking hats for "Trick Scene", which begs the question, how the fuck do these guys tune their guitars so low, and why does it sound so goddamn good?! Brooks popsmithery has never sounded better, OR heavier, there's always been a whiff of Nirvana's Bleach to Floor (and Torche), which is in no way a bad thing, and it's like Bleach, only louder and heavier and slower and sludgier, which is of course most definitely a good thing! Amidst all this chug and churn, there does lurk a few sonic surprises, some new waviness on one track, some pure pop dreaminess on another, but ultimately, this is just absolute sludge pop bliss, and maybe the best thing we've heard from Brooks with ANY of his projects. Which is saying a while heck of a lot...
Before there was Torche, there was Floor. And if you love the super hooky, impossibly heavy sludge pop of Torche, then you'd do well to investigate Floor, who were like a slightly sludgier, slightly less poppy Torche. We recently reviewed the (now sadly sold out) massive 8 cd complete Floor collection, but this might be a bit easier to digest. And hell, if you DID buy that Floor box, you're probably gonna want this too, cuz nothing here was included in that set!! And if you don't own Floor's Dove record, find it. NOW. Some of the heaviest hookiest shit EVER. Floor never made it big, and were way more unsung than they deserved, and of course, Steve Brooks went on to form Torche, but with the love and hype surrounding Torche, it was inevitable that folks would finally discover Floor, which culminated in that 8 cd set, and a couple live reunion shows last year, one of which is what's contained on the first disc in this double disc set, a massive two hour live set, split into three separate sections, each featuring a different drummer, and the songs that drummer played on. It's a pretty epic and crushing collection, blown out, downtuned, EPIC, heavy as hell and hooks galore, total blissed out sludge pop radness, and all three versions of the band DESTROY. Also included on the first disc is a short documentary/interview with the band and all three drummers, including tons of super rare old live footage and lots of photographs.
As if that weren't enough, the second disc is a data disc containing, high quality audio files of both reunion shows (not just the one from the first disc), the complete and unedited film of Floor, everything that was cut, restored to a massive 2+ hours, and a whole bunch of super rare live videos, spanning the band's entire existence, from 1993 all the way to their final shows in 2002.
LIMITED TO 700 COPIES. Housed in a super elaborate origami like silkscreened package, similar to the Harvey Milk Anthem release, a printed insert with both discs affixed to it, housed in a six panel jacket, all metallic ink on heavy textured cardstock. Nice!
One of our all time favorite sludge/metal/grind bands, who until now, had only released tracks on compilations and seven inches. Must be at least 7 or 8 years now that Floor have been contributing their downtuned dementia to the underground scene and they have managed to remain pretty unknown. Hopefully this full length will change that. And it really should, cause their sound has definitely changed with the times. Instead of wallowing in their underground-basement-split-seven-inch past and rehashing their slow motion grind (in the style of Cavity and Eyehategod), they've added LOTS of clean vocals and a surprising amount of melody, ending up with a sound somewhere between your favorite pop punk emo band, the Melvins, late period Fudge Tunnel, and Nirvana, but way, way heavier. Seriously. They've turned into a honest to goodness pop band, but a downtuned, amps-on-11, super-distorted, kick-in-the-guts pop band. Great production too with super distorted low end that makes their huge bursts of guitar sound like the end of the world! Way recommended.
The long awaited return of the mighty Floor! What's it been? 5 years? 6 years? Either way it's been too long! These masters of sludge kick out the jams, slow motion style, ala Eyehategod or Grief, with huge pregnant pauses, crushed flat by downtuned riffs and buliding momentum until these bursts of sludge coalescee into a crushing dirge. A great song, maybe one of their best, but boy it's a little brief. Hope there's more where that came from. The B side is by a band called Dove, who we had never heard of before, but they do the sludgy metallic punk thing too, musically in the same ballpark but the vocals tend to get a little grating. Worth it just for the Floor track!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
"Free guitar lessons for animals! Free guitar lessons for animals! Hello, little tiger! Do you want to learn to play the guitar? Just scratch the strings. This is a chord. Now start a band!" If only it were that simple!
Miss Pussycat (of Mr. Quintron fame) is renowned for her giddy puppetshows. This recording features of a number of the musicals she's written for her puppets. Imagine the Teletubbies on a lot more acid than they already are!
Three instruments/instrumentalists undertake this blending of a band that is Flossin. Zach Hill (Hella) on drums, Miguel Depedro (aka Kid 606) on laptop and SF guitarist/multi-media explorer Christopher Willits join forces to create a noisy, free-form album, Lead Singer. The result is a dense sonic wash of varying forms, through which percussive patterns emerge and fall away. The album's live and alive sounding. Not so much a formal excercise in pattern and composition, Lead Singer is much more akin to an improv gig set up in their practice space recorded for all to enjoy.
This is an awesome slab of seventies fuzz guitar rock and roll. Lots of crunchy riffs, but also wailing lead guitar, and sort of jazzy Santana-ish breakdowns. Think Blue Cheer, Toad, Bang or Buffalo. If those names mean anything to you you're gonna need this. Greatest Hits starts out with the truly monstrous track, "It Swallowed The Sun", which begins like a Black Sabbath track, huge peals of thunder, ominous minor key fingerpicked guitars between crashing distorted chords. The rest of the record is not nearly so heavy, with lots of acoustic-y Led Zeppelin 3 moments amidst all the fuzzy wailing. But pretty fucking great. Plus, one of the best cover photos ever, with the band wearing togas, mic stands in trash cans, playing amidst clouds of smoke. So awesome!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Flower Man is the work of Chris Bush from the Kentucky based electron revivalist ensemble Caboladies. While we've failed to hear any of his work from that outfit, the constant comparisons to Emeralds and Oneohtrix Point Never was more than enough to pique our interest. As Flower Man, Bush doesn't stray too far from what we would assume Caboladies to sound like, squiggling and squirming around his analogue synths and some pretty murky tape production that triangulates his sound somewhere between Grouper, a really druggy Bruce Haack, and a happy-go-lucky Omit. With its clunky Ikue Mori-styled drum-kit leaden dance around the rhythm, the opening track laces itself around two harmonized '80s / sci-fi melodies that fragment into squelchy percolations and lazer beam vibrations. The next batch of tracks could easily originate in any number of BBC Radiophonic projects with playful yet somewhat detached bleepity-blooping interwoven with some of those spooky synth sounds that Richard D. James mustered on his really early Aphex Twin tracks from Selected Ambient Works Vol. 1. Bush slows everything down to a turgid crawl of introspection through a lonesome, moping piece of bedroom electronics on the suitably titled track "Swirling" coming across as Delia Derbyshire on Quaaludes; and then makes a quick turnabout with some spasmodic electroid flashes which dissipate into nothingness as if sucked in various directions into outer space.
It makes perfect sense that Daniel Lopatin (aka Oneohtrix Point Never) would release this on his newly launched CD-R imprint Upstairs. Limited to 75 copies, and already sold out at the label!
One of two new releases from the always kick ass Awesome Vistas label, run by artist, musician and aQ pal Chris Johanson.
Flower Of Flesh And Blood is the new project from Sean Kennerly, a write and musician based in New York, who was a SF scene regular back in the nineties (he fronted the late great Ponyride, remember them?), and who later went on to play guitar in pop punk combo Samiam. Flower Of Flesh And Blood finds Kennerly teaming up with Johanson and Hisham Baroocha (Black Dice, Soft Circle, etc.) for a record of dark brooding indie rock, that wouldn't be out of place next to recent Record Of The Weekers True Widow. The same sort of head nodding grooves, drawled vocals, slow builds and big hooks, the guitars fuzzy and warm, the sound definitely reminiscent of classic nineties indie rock / slowcore.
Flower Of Flesh And Blood are dark and languid, mellow and stoned, druggy and dreary, laid back and almost twangy here and there, rocking for sure but not loud or heavy. Hooks galore, but they're subtle, and lurk beneath the surface, letting the guitars buzz and chime, the bass unfurl thick and distorted tendrils of low end, the drums pound away, powerful but restrained, the songs minor key and melancholy, definitely poppy, but a more muted pop, dour and contemplative, occasionally locking into droney almost looped sounding parts, totally hypnotic and spacey. Really nice.
Packaged in a gorgeous silkscreened sleeve, with a xeroxed insert and a cd of the record to boot!
The cd version has again gone out of print, but now we've got it once more on vinyl, a reissue of this all time AQ fave...if you've been wanting it on wax, here's another chance! Our usual review follows:
A while back we listed this, just 'cause we happened to order a few in and some of the staff here who were previously unexposed to the wonders of the Flower Travellin Band, notably Byram, became obsessed with it (and them). It was a Japan-only import and we felt that while many might already know this album backwards and forwards, it had most certainly slipped through the cracks for too many others out there. So we listed it and got an overwhelming response. Now it's a constant seller here at AQ. And still to this day, almost any time you come into the store, you might well hear the Flower Travellin' Band blaring.
This is an album (and a band) that are not celebrated nearly enough -- possibly out of misguided notions of their being another bad psych knock-off among the many crowding the record racks in the early seventies. But Japan's Flower Travellin' Band were no mere cheesy imitators of occidental rock 'n roll, they were in actual fact a full-fledged, pioneering tour de force of psychedelic progressive hard rock, equalling the krautrock heavies of the era. FTB can be compared favorably to Amon Duul's better efforts with their experimental meandering (think Yeti), and the best trancey spaceouts from Can. Yet there's never a sense that FTB lose track of their compositions no matter how far out they take a track. Perhaps because even more than these experimental Krautrockers, FTB's heavy (fucking ominously heavy) sound points to a major Sabbath, Purple, and Crimson influence. Released in 1971, Satori is the band's second and arguably best album. From the first screech/howl at the beginning of track one -- "Satori Part I" (the tracks on the album are all "Satori", parts I-V) -- from vocalist Joe, who inhabits a zone somewhere between Can's Damo Suzuki and Deep Purple's Ian Gillan, the album gets straight down to business. Joe's scream is followed by a foreboding bass, guitar and drum dirge that's straight up collision between Cream and Black Sabbath in which no one survives. It's got so much more teeth than either, it's not even funny, predating punk by a good many years. "Satori Part II" however is quintessential FTB Over a pounding tribal drumbeat, alternating between a buzzing sitar-esque guitar drone and a melody line that curls ripples and lilts like a plume of burning incense smoke, guitarist Hideki Ishima lays out one of the creepiest, coolest guitar leads ever. If that ain't enough, vocalist Joe's singing is like that of Axl Rose being channelled by the Sun City Girls! Even if the rest of the album were total shit -- which it ain't -- the cost of this cd would still be well worth it for this song alone! "Part III" -- an instrumental -- picks up where II leaves off but slows the tempo down to a deathly pace, which makes it even heavier. This is the Sabbath influence on FTB writ large. Replete with an improv freakout before returning to the original riff and building into a frenzied crescendo. Needless to say, if you weren't bobbing your head at the beginning of the song, you will be by its end. "Part IV" could be considered FTB's "blues" number, with Joe picking up the harmonica instead of singing. But instead of churning out the expected twelve bar formula, FTB truncate the form and construct a minimalist jam around a short riff instead. "Part V" shows yet another facet of FTB's seemingly infinite potential with Hideki (?) playing some kick ass, spooky koto-like guitar overdubbed on top of some heavy psych. Damn! They could have done ten fucking albums around this schtick alone and probably never lost our interest... sigh... Absolutely, fucking recommended!!!!
Before we launch into what's gonna be relatively long-winded review, let's just state up front that this has the best album cover EVER: the band themselves cruising down a rural highway on choppers wearing nothing but their birthday suits!! And this version sees the orginal gatefold recreated for the cd-era, mini-LP sleeve style. But if that's not enough to get you to buy this, read on...
Not long ago we gave a big thumbs up to the album "Satori", the masterpiece from Japanese '70s psych rockers the Flower Travellin' Band (note: we're still waiting to get more of those in stock, they're backordered at our distributor!). Now, however, we've got a brand new reissue of the Flower Travellin' Band's debut album, "Anywhere". It certainly doesn't scale the heights of "Satori" but it'll help you to understand how they got there. Along with a great take on "House Of The Rising Sun" (a nod to Frijid Pink?), this album also explicitly demonstrates, via covers, these Japanese freaks' radical recognition of the genius of two of their Western contemporaries, Black Sabbath and King Crimson. Like many other great artists, with humble beginnings Japan's Flower Travellin' Band cut their teeth on the material of their mentors. Though "Anywhere" -- released in 1970 -- is primarily a covers album, it's also quite a testament to both the band's veracity in their reproductions and their creativity in realigning the building blocks of rock & roll. Their cover of Black Sabbath's self-titled track was actually recorded in the same year as the original and their version of King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man" only a year after its release. And they aren't merely content to play only the "Schizoid Man" opening riff, like so many other bands that have attempted to cover it, but take on the entire piece in all its schizophrenic freaked out glory, getting waaay into the improv element of the mid-section. The same is true for "Black Sabbath" and you have to appreciate singer Joe's take on the unique Ozzy voice. The most interesting track on the record though has to be their attempt at straight-up blues rock -- while their "Louisiana Blues" starts and finishes almost pedestrianly enough on the "Minglewood Blues" riff by Gus Cannon (of Cannon's Jug Stompers) that was popularized in the rock scene by the likes of The Grateful Dead and Captain Beefheart, the interior of the song is a complete departure of sorts. Not only devoid of the original progression, it's not even "bluesy" at all. Here in the extended jam that makes up the meat of this musical sandwich, the Flower Travellin' Band's Eastern roots surface a bit. It's a precursor to the sound of their later albums "Satori" and "Made In Japan" (another great one which we'll be reviewing in the future if we can ever get any stock of it in quantity).
Flower Travellin' Band mania has gripped Byram and Allan and others of us here at AQ. After the success of our review of the reissues of their masterpiece Satori and their debut Anywhere, we feel we ought to keep going through the catalog of this stellar '70s Japanese heavy psych rock outfit. Those who couldn't get enough of FTB's Satori will be pleased to know that their follow-up, third release Made In Japan is nearly every bit as good. Singer Joe's voice still rings in the creepy falsetto style like Alan Bishop of the Sun City Girls singing balls out heavy metal vocals. As with their previous album, "Made In Japan" continued to fuse the heavy rock of early (contemporary, to them) Sabbath with Eastern melodies. I guess they decided after their perfect rendition of "Black Sabbath" on their first record, that such was their calling. Then again, "Heaven And Hell", the penultimate track here, is as pure a channeling of Jimi Hendrix as anything. The mellow closing track "That's All", with its koto glissandi, parallels "Part V" on Satori and like that track, it's perhaps the most overtly Eastern in tone. But it's Joe's vocal line that really kicks ass. At the end of the chorus he adds a little cadenza to his howl, extending the vocal line just beyond where one's intuitively expecting a cadence. It works so fucking well, makes me stop whatever I'm doing to listen, that I wonder why more song writers don't pull that shit more often.
NOW REISSUED ON VINYL!! Slipcased, gatefold, 180 gram vinyl.
Originally released in 1973, Make Up was the final album (not counting their recent, and unfortunately disappointing, reunion disc) from these '70s Japanese heavy psych rock gods, a gatefold double LP packaged extravagantly in a stitched, brown faux-leather case! (Which this reissue replicates in cardboard slipcase facsimile form!) Despite the fancy packaging, this artifact didn't make Julian Cope's Japrocksampler Top 50, in fact he rather pans it, calling it "useless" and a "disastrous hotchpotch" (it was assembled from recordings from an ill-fated live concert as well as studio demos). However, it must be said that we don't always agree with Mr. Cope. While it may be that Make Up isn't FTB's most essential album, we think any fan will dig it. If it's perhaps a document of the Flower Travellin' Band succumbing to typical '70s dinosaur rock band excess, a la Led Zeppelin (double album, extended soloing, and a '50s rock n' roll cover), that's not necessarily a bad thing! While you need Satori first, your FTB collection will be lacking without this.
Lp one contains six songs, some studio, some live, including the rockin' title track, all of which provide singer Joe Yamanaka (FTB's not-so-secret weapon) with plenty of opportunity to wow us with his distinctive wail. FTB's more mellow, pop side is definitely on display here, with the gentle epic "Look At My Window", the bluesy, balladic "Shadows Of Lost Days", and the sad "Broken Strings" all probably prompting lighter-raising among concert goers. Heavier fare there is too, the aforementioned "Make Up", plus the ornate chug of "Slowly But Surely", and ominous opener "All The Days". We name checked Led Zep, but it's Deep Purple that FTB more likely resemble on this disc, what with the keyboards of guest Nobuhiko Shinohara.
Lo two is where this set gets really indulgent, starting off as it does with a 25 minute live version of "Hiroshima" (only 5:13 in its original version on their previous album, Made In Japan, padded out here to fill the entire album side, with a lengthy drum solo, of which we heartily approve). Heck, "Hiroshima" could go on for hours and hours as far as we're concerned, since it's chock full of the type of slightly sinister, blown-out riffage that today's stoner rockers try their hardest to recreate. In fact, thinking about it, this sounds a hell of a lot like AQ faves Los Natas! That's followed on the flip by another live track, a somewhat incongruous cover of "Blue Suede Shoes", with FTB producer (and former Group Sounds star) Yuya Uchida on vocals. This seems to the sort of thing that turned Cope off from this album, but we've seen footage of early Black Sabbath covering this tune too, so we'll let it slide. And in any event, that roots maneuver is followed by a rendition of FTB's own classic "Satori Pt. 2", ten tribally-rhythmic minutes of sinuous psych with Joe at his piercing best, a hard rock rock n' roll showman as shaman if there ever was one. And the drifting, semi-acoustic, spaced out "After The Concert" that winds things up wordlessly and beautifully can't be the cause of any of Cope's complaints.
In any case, all you proto-metalheads and acid psych loving Japanophiles can decide for yourself, thanks to this new reissue.
This is one of those albums that's neither new, nor even a recent reissue, but that we here at Aquarius decided, heck, let's list, it deserves it! (While this disc already appears on our website, it was never actually *listed* in any of our newsletters.) So while many might already know this album backwards and forwards, it has most certainly slipped through the cracks for too many others out there. Being a Japan-only import can't help. Allan wisely reordered some copies recently (when a customer special ordered it for themselves on-line) and Byram, unwittingly playing it in the store, found himself getting progressively more obsessed with the album (and the band)! It wasn't long before Jim and Marcy were also finding themselves hooked. Now almost any day you come into the store, you'll hear the Flower Travellin' Band blaring.
This is an album (and a band) that are not celebrated nearly enough -- possibly out of misguided notions of their being another bad psych knock-off among the many crowding the record racks in the early seventies. But Japan's Flower Travellin' Band were no mere cheesy imitators of occidental rock 'n roll, they were in actual fact a full-fledged, pioneering tour de force of psychedelic progressive hard rock, equalling the krautrock heavies of the era. FTB can be compared favorably to Amon Duul's better efforts with their experimental meandering (think Yeti), and the best trancey spaceouts from Can. Yet there's never a sense that FTB lose track of their compositions no matter how far out they take a track. Perhaps because even more than these experimental Krautrockers, FTB's heavy (fucking ominously heavy) sound points to a major Sabbath, Purple, and Crimson influence. Released in 1971, Satori is the band's second and arguably best album (all but the first album Anywhere have now been reissued by Warner Japan). From the first screech/howl at the beginning of track one -- "Satori Part I" (the tracks on the album are all "Satori", parts I-V) -- from vocalist Joe, who inhabits a zone somewhere between Can's Damo Suzuki and Deep Purple's Ian Gillan, the album gets straight down to business. Joe's scream is followed by a foreboding bass, guitar and drum dirge that's straight up collision between Cream and Black Sabbath in which no one survives. It's got so much more teeth than either, it's not even funny, predating punk by a good many years. "Satori Part II" however is quintessential FTB Over a pounding tribal drumbeat, alternating between a buzzing sitar-esque guitar drone and a melody line that curls ripples and lilts like a plume of burning incense smoke, guitarist Hideki Ishima lays out one of the creepiest, coolest guitar leads ever. If that ain't enough, vocalist Joe's singing is like that of Axl Rose being channelled by the Sun City Girls! Even if the rest of the album were total shit -- which it ain't -- the cost of this cd would still be well worth it for this song alone! "Part III" -- an instrumental -- picks up where II leaves off but slows the tempo down to a deathly pace, which makes it even heavier. This is the Sabbath influence on FTB writ large. Replete with an improv freakout before returning to the original riff and building into a frenzied crescendo. Needless to say, if you weren't bobbing your head at the beginning of the song, you will be by its end. "Part IV" could be considered FTB's "blues" number, with Joe picking up the harmonica instead of singing. But instead of churning out the expected twelve bar formula, FTB truncate the form and construct a minimalist jam around a short riff instead. "Part V" shows yet another facet of FTB's seemingly infinite potential with Hideki (?) playing some kick ass, spooky koto-like guitar overdubbed on top of some heavy psych. Damn! They could have done ten fucking albums around this schtick alone and probably never lost our interest... sigh... but this (and the other two that are also available, look for reviews in future) will have to suffice for now. Absolutely, fucking recommended!!!!
MPEG Download: "Satori Part II" [/audio/flowersatori2.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Satori Part II" [/audio/flowersatori2.m3u]
We were all ready to hate this, not cuz we don't dig the players, we love Michael Flower (Vibracathedral, Sunroof!) and Chris Corsano is a ruling drummer, it's just that for some reason we thought this was gonna be some of that new fangled indie free jazz, which always leaves us a bit cold. Not sure why, maybe it was the 'duo' thing. But then it's on VHF, home to much of our favorite dronemusic and outrock, and the instrumentation definitely looked like anything but free jazz: Japan banjo, tanpura, organ, melodica, cello and drums. So we figured, okay, what the heck, let's give it a try, and BAM, this totally knocked out socks off and our teeth in, at once exactly what we had hoped for, but something we never would have imagined, some impossible hybrid of frenetic chaotic drumming, and strange super distorted looped melodic mantras, like some impossible sonic hybrid of Mick Barr and Dan Higgs, or Orthrelm covering Zomes, tripped out and psychedelic, wild as fuck, but weirdly hypnotic and totally mesmerizing.
The opener is a mad blowout of wild melodies super distorted and all tangled up, like some strange sped up bagpipe, wound around Corsano's non stop drum workout, the banjo here ends up sounding like the guitars on Amps For Christ records, unfurling intense abstract runs of notes and fragmented melodies, sometimes locking into little trills, other times getting all wavery and woozy, the drums somehow remaining totally free but staying locked in with Flower's wild psych freakouts. It's so inherently chaotic and raw and primal and by all rights should be difficult to listen, but after a few minutes, we find ourselves totally lost, and we never want it to end.
The follow up is more of a percussive free jam, reminding us of groups like Avarus and Anaksimandros and No Neck and Sunburned Hand, very free, but with the metallic shimmer spreading out over the warm low end whirs and the abstract gamelan like melodies. "The Drifter's Miracles" is the most obviously VHF of the batch, a long languorous slow burning ur-drone, all bowed stings and wheezing organ, very raga like, overtones shifting and beating against one another, bits or percussion clink and clank beneath the gloriously heaving sea of rich lustrous tones, this definitely could be a whole record, as it is, it's easily the most 'listenable' of the bunch.
"The Beginning Of The End" sounds like a field recording of some ritualistic musical performance, the sound muted and lo-fi, a sort of crazed dance, the drums a wild tribal patter, sometimes splatter, Flower again offering up dense tangles and billowing squiggles, there is definitely a free jazz element, but the duo manage to take the loose free drumming, and the manic looped sounding melodies and create a sort of abstract ultra free ur-drone, it's quite magical actually, the parts are so frenetic and tense and relentless, that it seems impossible that combining them would create something soothing and spiritual, but that's precisely what it does.
The closer, the nearly 18 minute "The Main Ingredient" is like a more jubilant, ebullient version of the record opener, the drums muter and minimal, still skittery and feral, but Flower's banjo weaving magical crystalline shapes in the air, melodies, notes, tones, harmonies, overtones, all shimmering and hovering and looping and stuttering and glistening, total Amps For Christ / Higgs / Orthrelm sun baked lysergic spiritual ur-drone free jazz out rock blowout. So completely heavy, and epic, and dreamlike, and tripped out, and intense and so so beautiful.
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.
"On the 8th day the Lord created the voice and gave it to Gary Floyd", or so says the obi prominently displayed on this cd. But for some weird reason the obi doesn't mention that Gary was the singer for the punk group The Dicks, although it does namedrop his other much-loved-and-now-defunct group Sister Double Happiness. Gary's voice is in full display here as this record features mostly folksy country and blues material. Local folks will be happy to know it is available.
Oh man, do we love this band. Totally furious over the top necro blackness from this grim Dutch horde. This record is from way back in 2003, but we figured if some of us somehow missed it, some of you probably did too. Which is a shame cuz this stuff totally slays.
Besides having an amazing band name, a wicked logo, a killer album cover, and some of the coolest corpse paint we've seen in ages, these guys also sound completely amazing! So dense and black and heavy and grim and necro. A completely overwhelming onslaught of utter blackness, complimented by a vocalist that sounds like he has a mouthful of bloody nails and dead babies. Imagine a sky black with clouds, the earth splitting open as the devil unleashes his own plagues upon the world, but the plagues he sends are a rain of spiked gauntlets, a flood of corpsepaint, a swarm of corrosive blast beats, an attack of acidic buzzing riffs, blasting Burzumic buzz, throat shredding growls and a brutal black sound that will shroud the world in darkness and drag every one kicking and screaming down into the pits of hell.
This sounds a little like that. Raw, fast and so brutal. Imagine being strapped to some sort of medieval torture device and being pelted with thousands of Darkthrones, eventually ending up buried beneath layer after layer of corrosive, crusty, buzzing black grimness. Awesome.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
The Israeli band The Flourescents delve into retrogarde indie theatricality with a bombastic vocal delivery like Peter Murphy, with multiple attack fuzz guitars playing a Make Up style glam-rock revival.
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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The new Old! Avant/ambient/ex-grindcore guitarist James Plotkin returns with the perfect, hypnotic, techno-pop experiment! (That's techno in the sense of "done with machines".) Vocalist Ruth Collins adds her quite good spoken word poetry (a la Lori Carson in the Golden Palominos), and production is handled by Mick Harris of Scorn fame. Highly recommended.
Flux Information Sciences is a NYC band that arrived nearly two decades too late sounding not unlike Cop Shoot Cop or Michael Gira's first band Circus Mort -- dark, angular, sorta heavy art-rock with a 'clowns are scary' bent. They feature members of Gunga Din, and nostalgiacally found their way onto Gira's Young God Records.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
CR-24 in case you're keeping track of your Chain Reaction library. The origins of the Chain Reaction sound are found embedded within the walls of Hardwax Records in Berlin, yet none of the current roster from Chain Reaction hails from Germany. Still, the legacy of Porter Ricks and Monolake can still be heard in the 'heroin house' with bleak granular synth washes, dubbed out EQ action, and post-Detroit techno pulses. Very nice.
Here we have a brand new record from Konstantinos Soublis, better known as Fluxion. The former Basic Channel / Chain Reaction mainstay is known for his crisp sound design and stunning attention to detail, and here he does not disappoint! Traces presents a dark and lush soundworld, where a myriad of texture and color, rhythm and drone meld into something wholly enveloping and hypnotic. When we hear this slab of dub-wise techno we cannot help but picture some brilliantly lit alien all-nighter, where enlightened beings helplessly gyrate in a state of trance-like ecstasy to the careening percussion and keenly developed melodic textures which unfold as the album progresses. The fourth track, "Eruption" has this hazed out, extraterrestrial disco-tech vibe for sure! Classic Chain Reaction delayed out chord sounds are melded with a groovy bass line and some handclaps and 909 rim-clacks, making for a dance floor cut that engages the mind and the ass in equal measure! Every sound within Fluxion's palette seems to be perfectly placed and of utmost necessity, restrained yet totally psychedelic (albeit in the glacial, slow-burn type of way), with enough haunting synth pads and far-out riddims to keep the ear fully engaged throughout. This is absolutely perfect late night vision quest blissout muzik! Dreamy and dark, and hauntingly hallucinogenic! Track two, "No Man Is And Island" features a wonderful unreleased vocal version from the late, great Dennis Brown. Beautiful! Recommended!!!
We've been accused of being house music haters. And there's some truth to that. But is one certain obtuse branch of the house music family tree that had us the second we laid ears on it. A while back, the Chain Reaction label introduced a super stripped down, minimal house music, that was quickly dubbed "heroin house", for it's murky druggy laid back feel. It was like hearing house music through a drug induced haze. Or hearing the sound of throbbing four on the floor dance music seeping through the floor of your apartment from the late night dance club below. A super minimal throb. just a pulse really, a completely hypnotic, barely there rhythm, that just shifts and shimmers and works its way into your head, into your chest, into your soul. Hard to imagine people dancing to this music. It's a little like chillout music, but way more rigid and rhythmic. It sounds a little like the music that was created for those 3 o4 people still on their feet, after a night of serious imbibing, who are unwilling to stop dancing, but can't muster anything more than a druggy shuffle, or a barely visible shimmy. Playing on and on and on until the final one drops. For those of us who don't dabble in either drugs OR dancing, this music fulfills a function much like drone music, in fact, it is a sort of drone music, the beats and throbs and pulses are like a segmented drone, a completely hypnotic static sound that carries us into oblivion.
Fluxion's Vibrant Forms just might be our favorite of the Chain Reaction bunch, the most skeletal, the most monochrome, the most everything minimal, it's like techno music composed by Steve Reich. Slowly shifting subtleties and barely drifting overtones, over a framework of repetition. Loops that shift ever so slightly, creating the sensation of change, while keeping us suspended, drifting, in a state of dreamlike suspension. Maybe one of our favorite "techno" records ever. Fans of Gas and the more rhythmic end of the Pop Ambient spectrum NEED this. As might the more daring dronesters amongst you...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
At its best, techno is an effortless sound with the technician merely setting up parameters for drum machines, basslines, and melodic patterns that get subtle tweaks, filters, and modulations applied to them to keep everything from being static, locked grooves. Chain Reaction has been at the vanguarde of techno productions with a post-dub sound that modernizes the delayed tape hiss which eerily floated through Lee "Scratch" Perry's '70s production work. The process of creating the Chain Reaction sound was of course a digital one, giving a cold metallic patina to the ghostly patterns which hovered above a classic Detroit techno groove. The sound of Chain Reaction had been pioneered by artists like Monolake, Porter Ricks, and Vainquer -- all German artists who have since left the label for other pursuits. While not populated by Germans, Chain Reaction has still attracted artists whose agenda is to continue in the Chain Reaction sound. They may not be German, but they certainly sound it.
Fluxion's "Vibrant Forms II" stands out from the recent croppings of Chain Reaction with a set of grooves that could easily hail from Wolfgang Voigt's Kompakt series that has been coupled with the cold shimmer of the Chain Reaction sound. Like Gas' "Konigforst," I could listen to this all day and never get sick of it.
A far cry from Fluxion's previous heroin house sounding discs for Chain Reaction, "[spaces]" may have been created with the same software, but is an incredibly slow moving affair with crawling digital rhythms being stretched out over expansive fields of
Fierce girls from an after school program in New York bustin rhymes with the boys from Excepter adding weird beats.
Those Constellation kids up in Canada have a lot of ideas that don't have anything to do with the psychic desolation of Godspeed You Black Emperor. While some of these ideas are good ones, they run the risk of getting compared to Godspeed simply by association. Fly Pan Am is one of those Godspeed-related projects that really shouldn't be, or should keep their membership a mystery, so folks can enjoy this for what it is, with no disappointment. (I guess we're not helping out with that here, are we?). Anyway, "Sedatif En Frequences Et Sillons" is an enjoyable, lengthy three track ep of post rock / non-jazzy grooviness that sounds as if a band like Pell Mell or Tristeza were trying to mimic Public Image Limited's "Metal Box / Second Edition." Featuring remixes from their self-titled debut release.
Canada's Fly Pan Am shares the same label with AQ-and-everyone-else's-faves Godspeed You Black Emperor, and they also share a touring member of that band. Like a less majestic Godspeed, this is a very hypnotic array of looping post-indie guitar riffs, musique concrete fragments, and filmic grooves, all layered under a lite haze of static-y crackle. Lovely.
Beginning in a more than minimal, airy fashion, Le Fly Pan Am's new album swiftly breaks into a clamorous funky groove. Their cyclical bass and guitar lines gradually give way to hypnotic woodblocky tic-toc rhythms and circuit crunching fuckery which then
The title translates into English as "don't listen", but we'll be darned if we're going to let The Fly Pan Am tell us what to do with their newest album.
The second you press play on your cd player you'll notice something's different in FPA land (as is also reflected in their most vibrant and busy cover art to date) -- a departure of sorts from these French Canadians' well-trodden path of krautrock influenced jams. N'Ecoutez Pas is definitely on the more aggressive side of things with much seething raw rock energy, it pounds and gallops instead of grooves. When they appear, vocals come in the form of mutterings, textural whisperings and unhinged screaming (yes, screaming!). The calmer more familiar hypnotic, atmospheric moments as well as some nods to punchy retro pop ("Vos Reves Revers") do surface later in the album though. Mainman Roger Tellier-Craig (also guitarist for Godspeed You Black Emperor) has assembled another strong supporting cast for FPA's third full length excursion that includes AQ fave Tim Hecker. Pretty darn cool.
Remastered and reissued, this release collects pretty much all the essential material by this seminal post-Byrds California country rock band featuring Gram Parsons. Includes everything from their first three albums, "The Gilded Palace of Sin," "Burrito Deluxe," and "The Flying Burrito Brothers". In addition you get some later stuff and singles, and 2 songs from the live album "The Last of the Red Hot Burritos". Informative liner notes, photos (man, what outfits!), and credits round out the package.
The Flying Burrito Bros were formed in 1969 by Gram Parsons, dearly departed father of country rock whose legend is still growing ever larger as his influence continues to be felt. I could go on and on and on about what a genius Parsons was, but then this description would be pages long, and anyway Ben Fong-Torres already wrote a book about 'im (Hickory Wind: The Life and Times of Gram Parsons, highly recommended).
After leaving The Byrds, with whom he recorded just a single perfect album, Sweetheart of the Rodeo, Parsons formed the Burritos with ex-Byrd Chris Hillman and other compatriots. Though the Burritos have released many records since their inception, the only ones that Gram appears on are the first two, both of which appear here in their entirety (the "Train Song" single is also included here, making Sin City more complete than the other best-of comp, Farther Along). While the second Burritos album was in progress, Parsons starting hanging with Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, who let him record the stunning version of "Wild Horses" found here. He drifted away from the band (or was asked to leave). In 1971 and '72 he released the two flawless solo albums, GP and Grievous Angel, that sealed his reputation as legend. By 1973 he was dead.
The two Burrito Brothers albums, then, are essential to any Parsons fan's collection, as well as fans of country rock, and "No Depression"-style alt.country in general. The combination of catchy melodies, rollicking good humor, joyous twang, and solid rock backbone make these records essential listening. Get this now!
How can you resist a record with a sticker on the front proclaiming it to be "California doom folk"? Well, we sure as heck can't. And what if that sticker was pasted over a huge floating white-bearded head floating in the clouds like some spirit of Yahowha back from the dead to haunt our musical dreams. Well, you'd have us again. So we were pretty much sold before we got the disc to the player. But in all fairness, we should also mention that not only is Flying Canyon the project of one half of Golden Hotel, who we raved about on a past list, but that half also happens to be AQ regular Cayce Lindner, who you can see on the AQ customers page, and who haunts the hallowed halls of AQ on an almost daily basis.
But the fact that Cayce is a friend of ours isn't the reason we were so enamored of Golden Hotel, or the reason this slab of California doom folk has been kicking our asses. Nope. It's because Cayce has a way with a guitar and a killer knack for abstract free folk songsmithery. It helps too that in Flying Canyon he's teamed up with members of The Skygreen Leopards and Kelly Stoltz's band. Where Golden Hotel was dark and lugubrious, dreamy and droney, Flying Canyon is much more druggy and desert-y, twangy and sun baked, laid back and lysergic.
From the opening track, "In The Reflection", a dead ringer for Terry Reid's "Seed Of Memory", you're already wandering in a dreamlike daze, across some dusty windblown musical world, a wounded wasteland, that while inhospitable and rife with death and misery, is still strangely warm and safe, you find yourself clearing away some dust and rubble, dead leaves and brittle branches, laying back, eyes closed, the sun turning the inside of your eyelids a blood red, and letting the sun burn you away, bleaching your bones, as you become part of the landscape, your dust part of the swirling storm, the sound, a disembodied floating free folk, perfectly captured by the Flying Canyon.
The label website describes Flying Canyon as the Eagles on Robitussen, but it's a little closer to Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young on horse tranquilizers. A super lo-fi arid expanse of murky late afternoon haze and stoned fuzzy fug. The strainer on the snare drum rattles and drifts like the warning of a snake coiled up in the hot summer sun. The bass is thick like melted tar, a fuzzy fat rumble, warm warbly melodies wrapped around a soft focus folk drift, in the distance, fluttering flutes and warm swells of shimmering organ, like a musical mirage. All left all to hover in a lush field of room sound and drifting fuzz, above which float Lindner's ghostly vocals, an about-to-crack Neil Young warble, emotional and rich and honest, so much so that Lindner even manages to sing the words "rock and roll" in a song, without it sounding wrong. Instead, you can imagine that this is some sort of rock and roll. A rock and roll that was left in the sun too long, allowed to melt and change shape, a dusty, almost forgotten relic, that still retains some mysterious inner glow, a beauty that transcends the ravages of time. Go ahead. Sit back. Rest those weary bones, close those tired eyes. This is just about the perfect place for waitin' around to die...
While the Flying Lizards are best remembered for their new wave / post punk antics in the '70s -- avantgarde electronic novelty covers of pop tunes, most famously the dub influenced tinkering of their jaunty version of "Money (That's What I Want)" from '79, they had a more serious interest in dub and experimentation as well. "The Secret Dub Life..." is an example of such that should not go unnoticed, and here we have a reissue to check out. The somewhat murky story is that back in 1978, Flying Lizards main man David Cunningham was given the chance to remix some tracks laid down by Jah Lloyd and some unidentified Jamaican musicians. Confronted with a mono master only (and with no fancy studio or samplers at his disposal) he had to be rather inventive with the mixes, doing them in his free time so that this album was only fully completed and released in 1995! (Although, his original experience with these mixes informed much of his subsequent work through the eighties, we're told in his liner notes.) Real nice, authentic sounding low-tech ambient dub stuff, loaded with weird sound effects, and really not at all like the Flying Lizards "hits" you may have heard.
MPEG Download: "Preface" [/audio/flyinglizardspreface.mp3]
Newly reissued on vinyl, here's what we said about the cd:
While the Flying Lizards are best remembered for their new wave / post punk antics in the '70s - avantgarde electronic novelty covers of pop tunes, most famously the dub influenced tinkering of their jaunty version of "Money (That's What I Want)" from '79, they had a more serious interest in dub and experimentation as well. "The Secret Dub Life..." is an example of such that should not go unnoticed, and here we have a reissue to check out. The somewhat murky story is that back in 1978, Flying Lizards main man David Cunningham was given the chance to remix some tracks laid down by Jah Lloyd and some unidentified Jamaican musicians. Confronted with a mono master only (and with no fancy studio or samplers at his disposal) he had to be rather inventive with the mixes, doing them in his free time so that this album was only fully completed and released in 1995! (Although, his original experience with these mixes informed much of his subsequent work through the eighties, we're told in his liner notes.) Real nice, authentic sounding low-tech ambient dub stuff, loaded with weird sound effects, and really not at all like the Flying Lizards "hits" you may have heard.
Wow, we kind of forgot what a weird and wonderful record this is. We've always had a place for the Flying Lizards in our hearts, but their blaze post-punk dub covers of fifties and sixties songs always seemed to outshine their other interesting qualities. Led by avant-composer David Cunningham, with the help of David Toop, Vivien Goldman, Steve Beresford and the flat vocal delivery of Deborah Evans, The Flying Lizards got their break when Virgin released their first single in 1979, a purposely skewed and dispassionate version of Eddie Cohran's "Summertime Blues" and it became a minor hit. But it was their second single and more enduring cover of Barret Strong's "Money" with its clanging prepared piano and trap percussion that got them on the charts and signed for a full album deal. That song gets a little overplayed these days, but the long version has one of the best extended dub breakdowns of the period that just doesn't get played enough. But besides the two covers and the channeling of Dagmar Krause (Slapp Happy, Henry Cow, The Art Bears) in the goofy cover of Kurt Weil's "Der Song Von Mandelay" that opens the record, lies a much stranger record. Sure there is the punk disco of "Her Story", "TV" and the danceable experimentation of "Russia". But there also is the triptych of minimalist dub experiments in the tracks "Flood" "Trouble" and "Events During Flood" that take the record to a much darker place. Culminating with Vivien Goldman's hushed and strange "The Window", proving that although the band was a one hit wonder, they were no one trick pony. This reissue doesn't contain the bonus tracks of previous reissues, but does include the single edit of "Money". Here's hoping Microwerks will reissue their other two records, Fourth Wall and Top Ten as well! Great stuff!
We fell so hard for the latest Flying Lotus release, Los Angeles, that we knew we had to go back and give the proper attention to his debut. We'd heard bits and pieces of it before but never really got to spend any quality time with. Until now.
Proving that his latest great record was not just some fluke, 1983 offers up for display lots of the roots and promise that would blossom into the powerful cosmic instrumental hip-hop/electronica that made the latest Flying Lotus release one of our favorites of the year. This disc, from a few years back, barely pales in comparison. While not quite as explosive and engaging as FL's newest record, it's still a skillfully crafted and delightful to listen to chunk of crunchy yet smooth flowing beats and melodies with equal nods to downtempo, hiphop, and electronica. Definitely the kind of record that should appeal to anyone into Madlib, Boards Of Canada, Prefuse 73 or even prime era Morr Music outings. Glad we took a moment to look back, as this is proving to be a record that deserves a home here at AQ and we hope on your shelves as well!
