These showed up on Friday last week and we were so excited we made a whole "in-between" list out of 'em! If you didn't happen to see that, well, we got more in this week and here's that 'first impressions' review again (yeah, we sold out so fast last weekend that none of us here have even gotten a chance to pick one up yet!):
Hey, it's like Christmas in March! The new Buddha Machines are here! We wanted to let you all know, since it's been three long years since the last one - and ten years, believe it or not, since the FM3's original Buddha Machine appeared. Hence, the release of Buddha Machine 5 marks "a decade of drone." If you're not familiar with the Buddha Machine, well... we're very surprised. We've sold SO many of Buddha Machine I, II, III and IV.
But in case you haven't seen one yet, it's basically a small, handheld device - a "battery powered sound box" or, as some would have it, "pocket sound system" - that plays a discrete set of loops of ambient music. Kind of a Zen alternative to the iPod, in a way. Ever since the FM3 created their first iteration of the Buddha Machine, they've been extremely popular, with artists remixing the loops, museum shows, copy-cat sound boxes, and whatnot. Brian Eno was a famous early adopter. You could take a look at our earlier Buddha Machine reviews if you wanna get more info on what they're all about.
So, fans have been hankering for a new Buddha Machine, we were hoping it would be here for Xmas last year (they're the best stocking stuffers for music/sound geeks), but better late than never. We'll let you know the basics about it now - but really you know you want one (or more) already, right?
Buddha Machine 5 contains nine blissful, beautiful new loops by the Beijing-based experimental duo FM3 (Christiaan Virant & Zhang Jian), featuring, among other things, "deep, orchestral drones, a Steinway grand piano, and the ambient washes of a vintage monosynth". It's got the usual volume and pitch controls, and a line out so you could plug it into a stereo or whatever, although of course it's self contained with it's own little speaker. In a departure from the many neon hues of the Buddha Machine 4, there are two colors available for the Buddha Machine 5, a Black one and a White one (this one), each with "a special five-layer silicon coating", providing "a warm and fuzzy handfeel", which sounds kind of kinky. We'll be trying it out tonight.
And oh yeah, requires two AA batteries (not included).
That's right Buddha Machine II!!! As in a whole new machine. New design. New features. And all new sounds. Most aQ customers are probably quite familiar with the Buddha Machine by now, most of you probably own one, or more, and a bunch of you probably bought one or more as gifts for your music nerd friends or significant others. We freaked out over the Buddha Machine just like everyone else when we discovered it. Rumor was that the Sun City Girls' Alan Bishop bought 24, and Brian Eno bought 8! Just here at aQ we've sold HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS!!!
For those of you who missed out, the Buddha Machine is a little handheld soundbox, with a tiny speaker, a volume control and a line out so you can plug it into your stereo. Inside is a chip, which stores nine dreamy, drone-y, drifty, meditative loops, which can be switched using a little toggle on the side. It was designed by the group FM3, aka Christian Virant and Zhang Jian, who recorded nine loops specifically for the tiny handheld soundboxes. These boxes are ubiquitous in China ands all over Asia, where they are used in worship, with the boxes featuring recordings of chants and prayers. FM3 took that concept and expanded it, offering musical loops, to be used in meditation or relaxation, or perhaps even prayer, if one was so inclined. The boxes are very simple, the sound lo-fi, but as an object, especially a sound producing object, it was, and is fantastic, and totally mesmerizing. The original Buddha Machine is still available, and comes in multiple colors: purple, white, black, blue, red, yellow, but mover over old Buddha Machine....
There's a new Buddha Machine and it's a doozy, improving on various elements of the original, adding an awesome new control, and most importantly featuring nine new loops. So even if you have one of the old ones, you're probably gonna want one of these too. The sounds this time around, are much less meditative, a bit more active, ranging from deep swells laced with feedback and strange processed electronics, to pulsing minimal melodies, to what sounds like a distorted music box / piano duet, to a stripped down strummed metallic dirge wreathed in buzz, to single sustained notes draped over random bits of room sound, to dubbed out thumb piano, a few with an almost post rock vibe, albeit way more stripped down and spare, and some of the loops are really long, sounding much more like song fragments that loops, and even more than the first Buddha Machine, the new sounds definitely lend themselves to playing multiple boxes at once, creating your own Buddha Machine symphony. The big change besides the sounds, is the addition of a pitch control, which allows you to dramatically change the pitch of any or all of the loops, for us, everything sounds better slow, but you can speed it all up, or you can continuously adjust the pitch while the loops are playing, adding all manner of warble and pitch shift, creating your own woozy dizzy loops.
Definitely the perfect stocking stuffer for the music freak in your life, and totally worth getting, even if you have the old Buddha Machine. The new machine comes in three colors, brown, burgundy, or grey, and all of them come in a nice printed cardstock boxes. No batteries included this time, though, you'll have to provide your own (2xAA).
That's right Buddha Machine II!!! As in a whole new machine. New design. New features. And all new sounds. Most aQ customers are probably quite familiar with the Buddha Machine by now, most of you probably own one, or more, and a bunch of you probably bought one or more as gifts for your music nerd friends or significant others. We freaked out over the Buddha Machine just like everyone else when we discovered it. Rumor was that the Sun City Girls' Alan Bishop bought 24, and Brian Eno bought 8! Just here at aQ we've sold HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS!!!
For those of you who missed out, the Buddha Machine is a little handheld soundbox, with a tiny speaker, a volume control and a line out so you can plug it into your stereo. Inside is a chip, which stores nine dreamy, drone-y, drifty, meditative loops, which can be switched using a little toggle on the side. It was designed by the group FM3, aka Christian Virant and Zhang Jian, who recorded nine loops specifically for the tiny handheld soundboxes. These boxes are ubiquitous in China ands all over Asia, where they are used in worship, with the boxes featuring recordings of chants and prayers. FM3 took that concept and expanded it, offering musical loops, to be used in meditation or relaxation, or perhaps even prayer, if one was so inclined. The boxes are very simple, the sound lo-fi, but as an object, especially a sound producing object, it was, and is fantastic, and totally mesmerizing. The original Buddha Machine is still available, and comes in multiple colors: purple, white, black, blue, red, yellow, but mover over old Buddha Machine....
There's a new Buddha Machine and it's a doozy, improving on various elements of the original, adding an awesome new control, and most importantly featuring nine new loops. So even if you have one of the old ones, you're probably gonna want one of these too. The sounds this time around, are much less meditative, a bit more active, ranging from deep swells laced with feedback and strange processed electronics, to pulsing minimal melodies, to what sounds like a distorted music box / piano duet, to a stripped down strummed metallic dirge wreathed in buzz, to single sustained notes draped over random bits of room sound, to dubbed out thumb piano, a few with an almost post rock vibe, albeit way more stripped down and spare, and some of the loops are really long, sounding much more like song fragments that loops, and even more than the first Buddha Machine, the new sounds definitely lend themselves to playing multiple boxes at once, creating your own Buddha Machine symphony. The big change besides the sounds, is the addition of a pitch control, which allows you to dramatically change the pitch of any or all of the loops, for us, everything sounds better slow, but you can speed it all up, or you can continuously adjust the pitch while the loops are playing, adding all manner of warble and pitch shift, creating your own woozy dizzy loops.
Definitely the perfect stocking stuffer for the music freak in your life, and totally worth getting, even if you have the old Buddha Machine. The new machine comes in three colors, brown, burgundy, or grey, and all of them come in a nice printed cardstock boxes. No batteries included this time, though, you'll have to provide your own (2xAA).
That's right Buddha Machine II!!! As in a whole new machine. New design. New features. And all new sounds. Most aQ customers are probably quite familiar with the Buddha Machine by now, most of you probably own one, or more, and a bunch of you probably bought one or more as gifts for your music nerd friends or significant others. We freaked out over the Buddha Machine just like everyone else when we discovered it. Rumor was that the Sun City Girls' Alan Bishop bought 24, and Brian Eno bought 8! Just here at aQ we've sold HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS!!!
For those of you who missed out, the Buddha Machine is a little handheld soundbox, with a tiny speaker, a volume control and a line out so you can plug it into your stereo. Inside is a chip, which stores nine dreamy, drone-y, drifty, meditative loops, which can be switched using a little toggle on the side. It was designed by the group FM3, aka Christian Virant and Zhang Jian, who recorded nine loops specifically for the tiny handheld soundboxes. These boxes are ubiquitous in China ands all over Asia, where they are used in worship, with the boxes featuring recordings of chants and prayers. FM3 took that concept and expanded it, offering musical loops, to be used in meditation or relaxation, or perhaps even prayer, if one was so inclined. The boxes are very simple, the sound lo-fi, but as an object, especially a sound producing object, it was, and is fantastic, and totally mesmerizing. The original Buddha Machine is still available, and comes in multiple colors: purple, white, black, blue, red, yellow, but mover over old Buddha Machine....
There's a new Buddha Machine and it's a doozy, improving on various elements of the original, adding an awesome new control, and most importantly featuring nine new loops. So even if you have one of the old ones, you're probably gonna want one of these too. The sounds this time around, are much less meditative, a bit more active, ranging from deep swells laced with feedback and strange processed electronics, to pulsing minimal melodies, to what sounds like a distorted music box / piano duet, to a stripped down strummed metallic dirge wreathed in buzz, to single sustained notes draped over random bits of room sound, to dubbed out thumb piano, a few with an almost post rock vibe, albeit way more stripped down and spare, and some of the loops are really long, sounding much more like song fragments that loops, and even more than the first Buddha Machine, the new sounds definitely lend themselves to playing multiple boxes at once, creating your own Buddha Machine symphony. The big change besides the sounds, is the addition of a pitch control, which allows you to dramatically change the pitch of any or all of the loops, for us, everything sounds better slow, but you can speed it all up, or you can continuously adjust the pitch while the loops are playing, adding all manner of warble and pitch shift, creating your own woozy dizzy loops.
Definitely the perfect stocking stuffer for the music freak in your life, and totally worth getting, even if you have the old Buddha Machine. The new machine comes in three colors, brown, burgundy, or grey, and all of them come in a nice printed cardstock boxes. No batteries included this time, though, you'll have to provide your own (2xAA).
By now most folks have probably heard of the Buddha Machine. A little device, about the size of a deck of cards, with a speaker, and a switch, a volume control, and inside, recordings of various ambient loops recorded by the group FM3. Since 2005, when the first Buddha Machine came out, we've sold hundreds and hundreds. In fact we're guessing most people reading this right now already owns at least one. The group must have sold tens of thousands. Which makes perfect sense, it's absolutely the perfect music geek gift, a strange little sonic object, that you can just listen to, or like lots of folks have done, use the sounds inside to make your own music, layering multiple Buddha Machines, jamming along, the options are endless. There have been two generations of Buddha Machines, the second introducing more loops and pitch control. Well, now, just in the nick of time, a week before Christmas, your music nerd stocking stuffer quandaries have been solved! A brand new Buddha Machine. Generation 3, now called Chan Fang ("Zen Room"), and with new sounds AND a new look.
First up, the new sounds, 4 extended loops, no more drones and tones, but instead, unadorned classical loops, all the loops performed on the Qin, a seven string Chinese zither, the sounds rich and deep and sonorous, lots of overtones and subtle sonic shadings, timeless and classic, yet mysterious as well, beautiful and haunting. In fact, it almost sounds like some sort of minimal avant guitar piece, Loren Mazzacane Connors, David Daniell, Roy Montgomery, Steven R. Smith, super spare, the melodies, lazy and measured, spidery tendrils of sound that seem to fade into the ether, notes drifting, and then fading, soft little melodic flurries, dreamily dark and contemplative, equal parts tradition Eastern and experimental Western, quite soothing and hypnotic. And, as with the Buddha Machine II, it features a pitch-shift wheel, so you can make those loops sound stranger if you want.
And of course there's a new look, all of the Buddha Machines are now see-thru, so you can see all the electronics and speakers and little doodads inside, while you're blissing out to the tranquil sounds. They come in 5 different colors, all of 'em see-thru, tinted black, red, green, blue, or clear. The box also comes housed in a printed/textured see-thru slipcase, with the credits on the back, and cool super subtle filigree over the whole thing. This close to the holidays, it might be good when ordering, to let us know if you have an alternate color, cuz we're bound to run out, and if we are able to restock, it won't be until a day or two before Christmas, which will definitely be too late for mailorder customers, and might be too late for locals too.
Needless to say, like all the Buddha Machines that came before, this little thing is amazing, looking, and sounding, and odds are you'll find it hard to keep from buying more than one, and buying one for everyone you know!!!
By now most folks have probably heard of the Buddha Machine. A little device, about the size of a deck of cards, with a speaker, and a switch, a volume control, and inside, recordings of various ambient loops recorded by the group FM3. Since 2005, when the first Buddha Machine came out, we've sold hundreds and hundreds. In fact we're guessing most people reading this right now already owns at least one. The group must have sold tens of thousands. Which makes perfect sense, it's absolutely the perfect music geek gift, a strange little sonic object, that you can just listen to, or like lots of folks have done, use the sounds inside to make your own music, layering multiple Buddha Machines, jamming along, the options are endless. There have been two generations of Buddha Machines, the second introducing more loops and pitch control. Well, now, just in the nick of time, a week before Christmas, your music nerd stocking stuffer quandaries have been solved! A brand new Buddha Machine. Generation 3, now called Chan Fang ("Zen Room"), and with new sounds AND a new look.
First up, the new sounds, 4 extended loops, no more drones and tones, but instead, unadorned classical loops, all the loops performed on the Qin, a seven string Chinese zither, the sounds rich and deep and sonorous, lots of overtones and subtle sonic shadings, timeless and classic, yet mysterious as well, beautiful and haunting. In fact, it almost sounds like some sort of minimal avant guitar piece, Loren Mazzacane Connors, David Daniell, Roy Montgomery, Steven R. Smith, super spare, the melodies, lazy and measured, spidery tendrils of sound that seem to fade into the ether, notes drifting, and then fading, soft little melodic flurries, dreamily dark and contemplative, equal parts tradition Eastern and experimental Western, quite soothing and hypnotic. And, as with the Buddha Machine II, it features a pitch-shift wheel, so you can make those loops sound stranger if you want.
And of course there's a new look, all of the Buddha Machines are now see-thru, so you can see all the electronics and speakers and little doodads inside, while you're blissing out to the tranquil sounds. They come in 5 different colors, all of 'em see-thru, tinted black, red, green, blue, or clear. The box also comes housed in a printed/textured see-thru slipcase, with the credits on the back, and cool super subtle filigree over the whole thing. This close to the holidays, it might be good when ordering, to let us know if you have an alternate color, cuz we're bound to run out, and if we are able to restock, it won't be until a day or two before Christmas, which will definitely be too late for mailorder customers, and might be too late for locals too.
Needless to say, like all the Buddha Machines that came before, this little thing is amazing, looking, and sounding, and odds are you'll find it hard to keep from buying more than one, and buying one for everyone you know!!!
By now most folks have probably heard of the Buddha Machine. A little device, about the size of a deck of cards, with a speaker, and a switch, a volume control, and inside, recordings of various ambient loops recorded by the group FM3. Since 2005, when the first Buddha Machine came out, we've sold hundreds and hundreds. In fact we're guessing most people reading this right now already owns at least one. The group must have sold tens of thousands. Which makes perfect sense, it's absolutely the perfect music geek gift, a strange little sonic object, that you can just listen to, or like lots of folks have done, use the sounds inside to make your own music, layering multiple Buddha Machines, jamming along, the options are endless. There have been two generations of Buddha Machines, the second introducing more loops and pitch control. Well, now, just in the nick of time, a week before Christmas, your music nerd stocking stuffer quandaries have been solved! A brand new Buddha Machine. Generation 3, now called Chan Fang ("Zen Room"), and with new sounds AND a new look.
First up, the new sounds, 4 extended loops, no more drones and tones, but instead, unadorned classical loops, all the loops performed on the Qin, a seven string Chinese zither, the sounds rich and deep and sonorous, lots of overtones and subtle sonic shadings, timeless and classic, yet mysterious as well, beautiful and haunting. In fact, it almost sounds like some sort of minimal avant guitar piece, Loren Mazzacane Connors, David Daniell, Roy Montgomery, Steven R. Smith, super spare, the melodies, lazy and measured, spidery tendrils of sound that seem to fade into the ether, notes drifting, and then fading, soft little melodic flurries, dreamily dark and contemplative, equal parts tradition Eastern and experimental Western, quite soothing and hypnotic. And, as with the Buddha Machine II, it features a pitch-shift wheel, so you can make those loops sound stranger if you want.
And of course there's a new look, all of the Buddha Machines are now see-thru, so you can see all the electronics and speakers and little doodads inside, while you're blissing out to the tranquil sounds. They come in 5 different colors, all of 'em see-thru, tinted black, red, green, blue, or clear. The box also comes housed in a printed/textured see-thru slipcase, with the credits on the back, and cool super subtle filigree over the whole thing. This close to the holidays, it might be good when ordering, to let us know if you have an alternate color, cuz we're bound to run out, and if we are able to restock, it won't be until a day or two before Christmas, which will definitely be too late for mailorder customers, and might be too late for locals too.
Needless to say, like all the Buddha Machines that came before, this little thing is amazing, looking, and sounding, and odds are you'll find it hard to keep from buying more than one, and buying one for everyone you know!!!
By now most folks have probably heard of the Buddha Machine. A little device, about the size of a deck of cards, with a speaker, and a switch, a volume control, and inside, recordings of various ambient loops recorded by the group FM3. Since 2005, when the first Buddha Machine came out, we've sold hundreds and hundreds. In fact we're guessing most people reading this right now already owns at least one. The group must have sold tens of thousands. Which makes perfect sense, it's absolutely the perfect music geek gift, a strange little sonic object, that you can just listen to, or like lots of folks have done, use the sounds inside to make your own music, layering multiple Buddha Machines, jamming along, the options are endless. There have been two generations of Buddha Machines, the second introducing more loops and pitch control. Well, now, just in the nick of time, a week before Christmas, your music nerd stocking stuffer quandaries have been solved! A brand new Buddha Machine. Generation 3, now called Chan Fang ("Zen Room"), and with new sounds AND a new look.
First up, the new sounds, 4 extended loops, no more drones and tones, but instead, unadorned classical loops, all the loops performed on the Qin, a seven string Chinese zither, the sounds rich and deep and sonorous, lots of overtones and subtle sonic shadings, timeless and classic, yet mysterious as well, beautiful and haunting. In fact, it almost sounds like some sort of minimal avant guitar piece, Loren Mazzacane Connors, David Daniell, Roy Montgomery, Steven R. Smith, super spare, the melodies, lazy and measured, spidery tendrils of sound that seem to fade into the ether, notes drifting, and then fading, soft little melodic flurries, dreamily dark and contemplative, equal parts tradition Eastern and experimental Western, quite soothing and hypnotic. And, as with the Buddha Machine II, it features a pitch-shift wheel, so you can make those loops sound stranger if you want.
And of course there's a new look, all of the Buddha Machines are now see-thru, so you can see all the electronics and speakers and little doodads inside, while you're blissing out to the tranquil sounds. They come in 5 different colors, all of 'em see-thru, tinted black, red, green, blue, or clear. The box also comes housed in a printed/textured see-thru slipcase, with the credits on the back, and cool super subtle filigree over the whole thing. This close to the holidays, it might be good when ordering, to let us know if you have an alternate color, cuz we're bound to run out, and if we are able to restock, it won't be until a day or two before Christmas, which will definitely be too late for mailorder customers, and might be too late for locals too.
Needless to say, like all the Buddha Machines that came before, this little thing is amazing, looking, and sounding, and odds are you'll find it hard to keep from buying more than one, and buying one for everyone you know!!!
By now most folks have probably heard of the Buddha Machine. A little device, about the size of a deck of cards, with a speaker, and a switch, a volume control, and inside, recordings of various ambient loops recorded by the group FM3. Since 2005, when the first Buddha Machine came out, we've sold hundreds and hundreds. In fact we're guessing most people reading this right now already owns at least one. The group must have sold tens of thousands. Which makes perfect sense, it's absolutely the perfect music geek gift, a strange little sonic object, that you can just listen to, or like lots of folks have done, use the sounds inside to make your own music, layering multiple Buddha Machines, jamming along, the options are endless. There have been two generations of Buddha Machines, the second introducing more loops and pitch control. Well, now, just in the nick of time, a week before Christmas, your music nerd stocking stuffer quandaries have been solved! A brand new Buddha Machine. Generation 3, now called Chan Fang ("Zen Room"), and with new sounds AND a new look.
First up, the new sounds, 4 extended loops, no more drones and tones, but instead, unadorned classical loops, all the loops performed on the Qin, a seven string Chinese zither, the sounds rich and deep and sonorous, lots of overtones and subtle sonic shadings, timeless and classic, yet mysterious as well, beautiful and haunting. In fact, it almost sounds like some sort of minimal avant guitar piece, Loren Mazzacane Connors, David Daniell, Roy Montgomery, Steven R. Smith, super spare, the melodies, lazy and measured, spidery tendrils of sound that seem to fade into the ether, notes drifting, and then fading, soft little melodic flurries, dreamily dark and contemplative, equal parts tradition Eastern and experimental Western, quite soothing and hypnotic. And, as with the Buddha Machine II, it features a pitch-shift wheel, so you can make those loops sound stranger if you want.
And of course there's a new look, all of the Buddha Machines are now see-thru, so you can see all the electronics and speakers and little doodads inside, while you're blissing out to the tranquil sounds. They come in 5 different colors, all of 'em see-thru, tinted black, red, green, blue, or clear. The box also comes housed in a printed/textured see-thru slipcase, with the credits on the back, and cool super subtle filigree over the whole thing. This close to the holidays, it might be good when ordering, to let us know if you have an alternate color, cuz we're bound to run out, and if we are able to restock, it won't be until a day or two before Christmas, which will definitely be too late for mailorder customers, and might be too late for locals too.
Needless to say, like all the Buddha Machines that came before, this little thing is amazing, looking, and sounding, and odds are you'll find it hard to keep from buying more than one, and buying one for everyone you know!!! ----* ----* Selected New Arrivals : ----*
It's possible that many of you may not know of FM3, but have been in love with one of thier pieces of work as Beijing's FM3 was responsible for the heavily applauded Buddha Machine, a self-contained device that played nine-loops of jubilant and meditative drones. The Buddha Machine is not the only thing that FM3 has been up to, as its members Christiaan Virant and Zhang Jian have also been producing a similarly sublime form of abstract electronica. In 2004, FM3 took their Buddha Box loops and a couple of computers filled with samples distilled from traditional Chinese instruments on a six month tour of Europe and North America. During that tour, they recorded this session for VPRO Radio in the Netherlands which in turn has just been released on Staaplaat's Mort Aux Vaches series. The crystalline loops from their Buddha Machines make themselves known almost immediately with FM3 working these sounds into Feldman like clusters of tones and drones fluttering against passages of calm inactivity. This is a lovely record, proving that FM3 are not only exceptional conceptual art-fabricators but pretty darn good composers too!
Another fantastic Miasmah release, this one from FNS, aka Fredrik Ness Sandoval, who besides playing in a whole bunch of Norwegian bands we've never heard of, has collaborated with members of Acid Mothers Temple, 1/3 Octave Band, the Cranes, Zeni Geva, and Marble Sheep, but here on his solo debut, Sandoval crafts a gorgeous expanse of minimal psychedelic folk, that reminds us both of local dronefolk duo Barn Owl, but also space kraut astral travelers Expo 70.
Imagine folk music transformed into druggy drifty dreamy space ragas, and you'll be getting close, acoustic guitars unfurl gorgeous trancelike stretches of almost Appalachia like strum, while all around, effects swirl, other guitars are layered and woven into the original guitar, creating fantastical stretches of psychedelic drift, of abstract dronekraut minimalism, all infused with a subtle pathos, even the sunshiniest of the tracks here, brood with a somber undercurrent. The record opener sets the stage perfectly, an acoustic guitars strums a melancholy chord progression, while another guitar churns and chugs, a rhythmic counterpoint to the woozy drift of the acoustic, this undulating space raga is laced with tinkling chimes, swooping backwards effects, all wreathed in a sort of otherworldly shimmer, and allowed to loop and repeat and mesmerize, growing subtly more intense and loud, but never fully letting loose, instead, eventually shedding all the extra guitars and strange production, leaving just the warm strummed acoustic, and little streaks of backwards swoop. We say it a lot, but Sandoval could have stretched that out to 40 or 50 minutes and we'd STILL be raving about it. And that applies to all the tracks here.
"Sappelur" is a smoldering blackened dirge, roiling clouds of processed buzz, muted feedback, lots of layered tones and lush chordal blur, a lovely blown out psychedelic haze that just throbs and pulses and drifts, right into "Wooden Leg", which returns to the folk of the album opener, but unlike that track, the progression here is much more subtle, it's nearly 2 or 3 minutes before a strange drone begins to surface, along with gorgeous angelic female vocals, soon male vocals join in as well, not singing so much as sort of crooning along, the result is a darker, more menacing take on classic seventies British acid folk.
"I Think She's Asleep" is more abstract, a gorgeous shimmery dreamscape, all layered tones, and pulled apart melodies, haunting and otherwordly, hushed and lovely, very reminiscent of folks like Machinefabriek and Jasper TX. "Dream" is surprisingly less dreamy, sounding instead like some strange sonic ritual, spidery guitars wrapped around twisted damaged electronics, while the vocals transform the sound into something almost liturgical, lots of reverb and echo, as if it were being performed in some massive black cathedral, the effects swirling and swooping, and pushing the sound into the realms of spacekrautdrone for sure.
Finally, the record closes with the epic 12 minute "Flaggermusvingers Vift I Dimmet", which again begins as a slowly unfurling lush sprawl of melancholy Appalachia, all minor key and mournful, while just below the surface, some thick blackened buzzing is birthed, and as the track progresses, it grows more and more caustic, roiling and churning, eventually nearly swallowing the Appalachia whole, transforming the sound into some washed out doomgaze, all woozy and swirly, the low end swells laced with tangled psychedelic melodies, before dropping out completely, leaving just a soft focus cloud of distant reverbed shimmer, a distant cosmic vibration, that seems to gradually fade, like the stars disappearing behind the clouds.
Dark and dreamy and druggy and so so gorgeous... For fans of Expo 70, Svarte Greiner, Barn Owl, Jacaszek, Nadja, Jasper TX, Machinefabriek, Fear Falls Burning and other purveyors of doomfolk, krautdrone, spacefolk and all sorts of abstract minimal guitarscapery...
This is the first issue of FO A RM, a magazine dedicated to "resonances among diverse mediums," essentially meaning sound art and its conceptual neighbors. The first issue presents writings on the subject of 'utility' from a range of approaches, from anthropology, experimental poetry, sound theory, and cultural reportage as well as several cross-genre works. FO A RM no. 1 includes new writing by sound-artist and researcher Giancarlo Toniutti, essays by composer Matthew Marble, works by noisician GX Jupitter-Larsen and sound-artist Seth Nehil. In addition, an original ode by prolific master Robert Kelly, instructional poems by mARK oWEns, and investigational works by Alicia Cohen, Holley Blackwell and Ashley Edwards, among others.
This magazine is chock full of fairly unreadable pseudo-intellectual music journalism, BUT is well worth the price of admission for the interview with Phill Niblock and a disc with an exclusive Niblock track!
With the third album from Bristol's Foehn, Fat Cat introduces their Splinter series and make another reason to delay releasing those cool split singles. Foehn's aesthetic has solidified into sound-noir, if you will, where dark passages of everyday ambience twist into 28 short cuts of ploddingly slow instrumental filmic jazz riffs. Not far from Barry Adamson in scope though far less narrative.
Deb from Foehn had worked from time to time with Third Eye Foundation, providing some extra murk to the gritty drum & bass dirges, but has since moved on to release work on her own. "Silent Light" is her second full album, collecting 21 fragments of theatrical murkiness. As a whole the album is devoid of any structural coherency, but maintains a noirish similarity to Andrea Parker or Barry Adamson. It's the aural equivalent of being trapped in a maze of darkened alleys wandering past nearly broken boom boxes emiting squelches and fragments of Adamson or Parker,
Releasing his music under such names as Foetus, Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel, Foetus Interruptus,
Foetus Under Glass and perhaps the best one, You've Got Foetus On Your Breath, J. G. Thirlwell has proven himself to be one hell of a monstrous musical dynamo. Over a quarter century, with little or no fanfare, he's consistently and methodically laid his contemporaries to waste. This is his latest full length, titled Love. The visual simplicity of this, another of his trademark four-letter word album titles, stands in complete contrast to the unbelievably complex, wildly imaginative compositions contained within, however as is usually the case the chosen word (Nail, Blow, Gash, Flow, Hole to name a few others) can be interpreted and defined in oh so many many ways. Love is no exception. Often lazily compared to the likes of Skinny Puppy or Nine Inch Nails, let it be known, Foetus is another beast entirely. Thirlwell nails the soundtracks for your most terrifying, twisted dreams and beautiful, perverse nightmares effortlessly in the form of thunderously bombastic orchestrations. Epic.
Includes a dvd with early live footage, three videos one of which was directed by Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O, and some trailers for Adult Swim's Venture Bros TV show for which Thirlwell composed the theme song.
Finally reissued on cd! Nail is Foetus' fourth album which was originally released in 1985. Whoa, that's twenty two years ago! So damn criminally underrated and unjustly lumped in with the less stellar, more single-minded 'industrial' artists on the Wax Trax label, the time is right to set the record straight...
Like an orchestral clash of Birthday Party, Swans and Einsturzende Neubauten set in a tawdry cabaret deep in the seediest underbelly of the darkest noir flick imaginable? Close, but better! A one-man symphony, wrecking crew, and/or runaway train, Foetus' music is truly fierce, mean, nihilistic and... absolutely brilliant, black humored and beautiful! Some might say that he works in similarly multi-genre meltdowns, enormous scopes and sprawling ranges as Mr. Bungle or Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, and they'd certainly be correct, but Foetus was doing it all by his lonesome years before those groups. Furthermore, he was an influential wizard behind the scenes too, co-producing early Coil albums, and collaborating with other (in)famous aural beacons Nurse With Wound, Sonic Youth, Marc Almond, The The, Nick Cave, and Lydia Lunch to name just a few. (Re)visit this wonder... a seething, scathing, festering and perversely enticing musical menace. Highly recommended.
Note: Yes, this is a bit of a pricey import, but we haven't heard any word about a domestic reissue.
Whoa Fog, we almost mistook your latest full length for a Beck album! Mind you, not any that Mr. Hansen's released to date, but sorta like one that he might make in an alternate universe. And with regards to the album's title, we wanna let you know that we haven't really registered much of a freakout here. If there were any, they must've been deeply internalized. No, this is slouchy, boyish, shufflin' about. They've always had indie rock leanings, but 10th Avenue Freakout pushes the farthest in that direction to date. Still very eclectic though, and much more cohesive than their previous release, the meandering Hummer EP.
A nice 12" from Fog, the one man band from Minneapolis that sits expertly astride the line separating "rock" from "electronica". Gorgeous strummed guitar gives Check Fraud its texture, while numerous sonic interruptions, vocal snippets, and bloopy bleeps enhance it. Kid Koala provides a stunning remix of the piece, slowing it down and making the melody even more pretty and sweet. Very nice. Good for DJs. I'm going to spin this for sure.
True to all the projects we've heard from Andrew Broder, aka The Fog, there's a laid back, almost meandery approach to the pacing of his albums. You never know where they're going to go but you sorta trust 'em, as on his selftitled first record (IMO still his best), which switched between manic samples, hip hop beats, hazy turntable scratching, and impassioned indie rock. This album is similar only waaay turned down, and inward, and slow. No explosions, but definitely some gentle swells amidst the quiet glitchiness. In fact, whispers, bird calls, wintry piano are all that make up some of the songs. It's good, just not your typically beats-oriented Ninjatune album at all. Get this and listen from the standpoint of expecting a bedroom indierock album -- and in this way it shines.
MPEG Download: "No Boys Allowed" [/audio/fognoboys.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "No Boys Allowed" [/audio/fognoboys.m3u]
This seven-song EP is the follow-up to Fog's 2003 album Ether Teeth. Fog (aka Andrew Broder) has constructed (or should we say deconstructed?) an eclectic affair of strange melodic and textural bits'n'pieces, acoustic and electronic fragments and laidback, intimate vocal musings. Stream of consciousness or disorganized jumble? You be the judge.
Way back in the beginning of 2001, we came across the selftitled debut from Fog, a one man band out of Minneapolis, and Windy took a real liking to it, thinkin' it one of the best-executed examples of rock-meets-scratching (and we all know how often that combo
In early 2001 Windy got really into the original release of the Fog record, which I guess we and a few stores in Minneapolis carried, and that's it. Well, the fine and talented folk at Ninjatune signed Fog, and here's a re-release of the album, plus three
Fog is a one-man project out of Minneapolis that takes you on a journey through said guy's twisted brain. As evidenced by the preponderance of mournful, epic guitarwork on the record, Andrew Broder's background is certainly with guitar-based rock music, but hey it's the new millenium now and samplers have changed everything. Thus the record begins with a spoken piece by hip hop emcee MF Doom, followed by a lengthy tornado of manic samples and swirling percussion. The tension's got you half expecting the breakbeats to kick in at that point (yeah, that's how much this record's first few minutes sound like a DJ Shadow or other Mo'Wax record), but instead you get Beck-like stuttering beats and languid, albeit heavily processed, vocals. In fact this reminds us a lot of Beck (who in fact came in a few weeks ago with Dan the Automator and they both bought the Fog 12"). A bevy of swiped genres battle one another throughout the record, turntablist scratching overtakes doom-laden moans, Broder indulges his inner DJ's penchant for using sampled vocal snippets to carry on an album-length narrative, and it all finally culminates in a nine minute impassioned aching guitarsong at the end that reminds us of Joel Phelps or Rex. Eclectic indeed! In a good way. It's not perfect, but we still recommend it.
BTW, this The Fog is no relation to J. Mascis' similarly named band.
Every time this gets played in the store, we rush up to the front to see what the heck they're listening to. And every time we're convinced it's some classic bit of math rock heaviness. Rodan? June Of 44? Lynx? And every time we're wrong. Fog In The Shell are from Italy and this record is brand new, but man, how it reminds us of the glory days of math rock and post rock, Shellac, Tortoise, Slint, Don Caballero, Breadwinner, Hoover, A Minor Forest, Bitch Magnet, Crain, you know what we're talking about. Thick crunchy guitars, long sprawling serpentine arrangements, epic stretches of brooding loping minimalism, bursts of anguished howled instrumental catharsis, tangled angular melodies, hushed sung spoken vocals buried in the mix, pounding mathy drumming, just check out the first track, "They", beginning with some quite minor key guitars, and thick blasts of crushing metallic heaviness, stop start, staccato, before lurching into some pounding keyboard laden post rock (we're hearing some Tarantula Hawk for sure), before mellowing way out, and letting the drums drift into the background, the bass pulsing darkly, the guitar offering up soft focus chords, the vocals hushed and moody, so awesome! It eventually builds to a cool chugging mathy riff, eventually taking off in a sort of Trans Am krautrock / space rock jam. Man, it's worth it for the first track alone. Definitely the best post/math rock jam we've heard since back in the day.
And so goes the rest of the record, exploring all facets of post rock, from crunching Neurosisy heaviness, to skittery, almost jazzy Tortoise style krautrockiness, to soaring slow building Godpseed sort of epic-ness, it gets downright poppy at times, the vocals melodic and emotional, hints of Stereolab here and there, Blonde Redhead too, but for us, it's when the songs get heavy and the guitars crunch and grind and chug, and the drums get all chaotic and the band lock into dizzying blown out math rock workouts, these guys destroy. Funny too, we had been hankering for a post/math rock resurgence, and to these ears it sounds like Fog In The Shell might be the first band capable of making it happen.
Released on the always kick ass Paradigms label, and like all their releases, limited to 500 copies!
Folks hankering for their seventies psychedelic biker doom fix need look no further than these Texas downer rock scuzzlords, who it seems took all the time and effort they DIDN'T put in to the cover art of this lp, and instead devoted it to maximizing the amount of FUZZ found on here. Fogg traffic in the same sort of drug fueled, garage-bound heaviness as outfits like Satan's Satyrs and Uncle Acid. The guitars appropriately fuzzy, the wailing Ozzyish vocals a perfect compliment, but unlike the punked out heaviness of the Satyrs, or the bell bottomed doominess of Uncle Acid, Fogg somehow sound more wasted and washed out, the sound less heavy, a bit brittle and tinny, extremely lo-fi, but it suits their mesmerizing heavy hippy psych punk swagger.
Opener "Time Ride" sets the scene, right down to the lurching stop start bridge, and some scuzzy guitar shred would around the murky main riff, that's as Sabbathy as can be, but decontextualized into something a bit more ramshackle and loose. And while seventies biker rock might be the core of their sound, they also get pretty sixties, "Rainbow" finds the guitar and bass playing strange harmonies, over a wildly groovy shuffle, laced with still more shred, lysergic and laid back, but on the verge of exploding into full on headbanging at any moment.
And yet for all that, when need be, these guys can conjure up the ghost of doom past, just check out the massive lumbering "Fried Cheer", which does actually sound like some especially acid fried take on Blue Cheer, the song lurching from swagger lumber to furious punky pound and back again. The more we listen to these guys, the more we hear outfits like Earthless and Hot Lunch, that sort of skate shred, woven into Fogg's Sabbathy swing.
They also stretch out (way out) on a handful of tracks, locking into almost krautrock-like stretches of hypnomesmer, as well as meandering space rock/jam rock, the song unfurling into waves of heady/heavy mesmer, tripped out and sinister, and downright sludgy, like on the appropriately titled "Sludgemother", that sounds like a downer Uncle Acid, a glorious slab of wasted skater doom, or witchy downtuned zoner psych, whatever you call it, it's heavy and tranced out and freaky as fuck (oh and there's a DRUM SOLO). Oh yeah, and of course stick around for the closer, another awesomely titled jam, "Womb To The Tomb", that sounds like a more poppy, way more brain damaged Electric Wizard, dirgey and droney and totally messed up and mesmeric, and just about the best thing we've heard in ages. This is a record that no doubt will be right at home right wedged between that played to death lp of Blood Lust, and that scratched up vinyl version of Die Screaming, or next to your copy of the Darkscorch Canticles compilation.
Vinyl-only, and sorry, no download.
We got a big ol' batch of tapes from the Land Of Decay label, run by none other than Andre Foisy, one half (or maybe now it's one third) of aQ beloved doomdronedirge outfit Locrian, the tapes include new jams from ITHI, Number None, Wraiths (all reviewed elsewhere on this week's list) and this, the latest solo release from the man himself. And while we were all prepared to say something about how this doesn't veer very far from the sound of Locrian, all it took was about ten seconds to realize it really does. Sure it's still droney and broody and dark and mysterious, but instead of the bleak minimalism and heaving low end thrum of Locrian, Foisy has conjured up two gorgeously heady slabs of folky looped string raga, mandolins and violins unfurl woozy layered loops, constantly shifting, hazy and fuzzy, definitely sounding like snippets of some lost Comus song blurred into a roiling bit of dense folk swirl, while the whole thing is wreathed in a thick churning fog of guitar buzz and rumble, a blackened halo of feedback and thrum, gorgeous stuff for sure.
The second track offers up another variation, a mesmerizing skeletal guitar loop, which is soon joined by droned out violins, sounding a bit like Tony Conrad, all underpinned by deep rumbling guitar swells, streaks of controlled feedback, the sound growing more and more dense, and dreamily blown out, clouds of FX drift in, some tabla like rhythms, the song exploding in slo-mo into a sort of Skullflower/Sunroof! style bliss out, but with a strange sense of raga folk at its core.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!
With this sophomore album it's nothing but onwards and upwards for this great SF band! These fellows sure do have a knack for the hooks 'n' harmonies. As opposed to their strong 2002 debut, the scales lean even more generously on the buoyant pop rather than twangin' Americana this time out. Perhaps they're following a similar path as that of Jeff Tweedy and co., as Don't Let Your Baby Down is reminiscent of Wilco's country tinged pop (as well as that of their pop cohorts The Minus 5 or in Andee's opinion, the Old 97s), whereas their first album Just Now Finding Out more closely resembled Wilco's predecessor Uncle Tupelo's pop-tinged country. Yes, it's a subtle shift of gears, but a notable and good one at that. The rollicking third song "Dusted" also brings to mind the frantic guitars and slouchy vocals of the Strokes. Wisely keeping the energy high and keeping their soaring multi-part vocals and full, warm guitar blend of crunchy electric and strummy acoustic intact, Fojimoto have offered up a much more consistent and catchy album. A perfect sunny day driving disc. Recommended!
What a pleasant surprise! The Bay Area's certainly rich in the pop department lately. Take for example the splendid new albums from Mr. John Vanderslice and this new group called Fojimoto. Their blend of country rock and sunny pop immediately brings to mind Uncle Tupelo, Weakerthans and even the Eagles. Indeed, there are some songs on Just Now Finding Out that are fantastic pure pop beauties. All jangling and jubilant, they're just slightly encumbered by the few slower numbers that aren't quite as engaging and break the firm hold of Fojimoto's infectious pop hooks which I quite fancy. Nice!
We've yet to get our hands on any releases by the black ambient band Hunok to list and review, but ever since we heard them on a split with AQ faves, Hungarian black metal outfit Marblebog, we have been on a quest! And while this is not in fact Hunok, it is a band featuring folks from Hunok, and the sound is a similarly creepy and haunting ambient weirdness. Foldalatti Ulatulat are from Hungary and have a very distinct and unique take on ambient music. Beginning with some strange disembodied vocals and radio static, the band soon settles into some seriously scary soundtrack music, sounding a bit like an extra creepy, slowed down Peter And The Wolf at times, playful a little, but very ominous, tons of space, low end drones and rumbles, beneath dark swells and strange minor key melodies, mysterious pulses and thick waves of crumbling whir. Very cinematic, like the part in the horror movie when you first enter the abandoned house, and you're slowly creeping up the stairs, the shadows flickering making you think someone is watching... It's all very intense and dramatic and pretty fucking great. Now we just have to track down some Hunok for the store...
Blaze Foley is one of country music's great unsung could have beens, his life marked by misery and misfortune, and a streak of bad luck a mile wide, that even a friendship with the late great Townes Van Zandt could counter. And while he's beloved now amongst in-the-know country fans, that appreciation came too late, Foley having died at age 40 while defending a neighbor in a drunken feud that escalated until guns were drawn. A dramatic end to a dramatic life for sure, one marred by drug addiction and homelessness, but against all odds, Foley managed to record some of the most beautiful music you'll ever hear, music that definitely sits comfortably alongside that of his friend Van Zandt, and hearing this stuff now, it's not surprising to learn that his songs have been covered by folks like Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, John Prine and Lyle Lovett, and it's easy to see why, this collection gathers up some impossibly beautiful and heartbreaking songs of woe, of love and loss, of hopelessness and of salvation.
Apparently, his one proper record was recorded and ready to go, when the producer of the record was arrested on drug charges, the master tapes confiscated by the FBI, the only existing copies of the record eventually bartered for beer and cab fare by a despondent Foley. The tracks here, the first time on vinyl for many (maybe all) of these songs, have been gathered from various cd reissues, many of the recordings live, most of them just Foley and a guitar, his playing fluid and lovely, his voice rough and warm, the music lush and melancholy, sometimes there's harmonica, or sweetly sorrowful strings, but regardless, it's about the songs, haunting, and personal, our favorite might have to be "Election Day", for the song as much as the sound, the recording lo-fi and murky, Foley's voice especially deep and sonorous, the guitar hushed and minor key, but intricate and melodic, but all the tracks here are amazing, and it's heartbreaking to know so few people have actually heard this stuff, and that someone so talented, was relegated to the fringes of country music history. Fans of Townes Van Zandt while dig this big time, as will anyone into dark, moody country. Wouldn't have been surprised to see this on Australian country reissue label Omni, so anyone who's been digging all the great stuff they've been releasing, for sure check this out too.
Two Dollar Guitar head honcho Tim Foljahn, lays down said guitar and dips his toes into the field recording/drone/improv pool, coming up with somewhat ho-hum results. Kind of a shame too, since as a HUGE Two Dollar Guitar fan, I was so excited for this, thinking we'd be treated to more depressive back porch twang, but instead, Foljahn takes ambient sounds and turns them into raw
Sticking to pretty much the same recipe, rhythm and meter that made Natural One such a groovin' tune, Lou Barlow and John Davis serve up 13 new soon-to-be-heard-on-a-hip-film-soundtrack cuts. Don't come 'round here expecting any major twists or turns in the F.I. sound. It's smoooth.
With this new Folk Implosion album, Lou Barlow has further blurred the sonic lines between his various projects. Really, there's very little distinguishing this from any of his solo or Sebadoh releases. Since 1999's One Part Lullaby, it's all become a big Barlow indie rock stew. The man cannot be stopped. In the case of Folk Implosion, the shift can surely be pinpointed to the date John Davis (the other half of F.I.) departed. Whereas their early songs were quite groovy and electronic driven, this is all guitars, murky and somewhat lo-fi. Indeed, as the title states this is "The New Folk Implosion", but unfortunately "new" doesn't necessarily mean fresh. Sadly, this just doesn't measure up to past F.I. nor does it really stand up to other Barlow work. As a result, this may only find its way into the collections of Barlow completists, and leave the rest of us feeling more inclined to revisit his/their earlier releases.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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This newest DVD release from Sublime Frequencies, shot by Hisham Mayet (the man behind the Morocco DVD on SF), focuses its lense on the Taureg people. Filmed in the oasis town of Ghadames in Western Libya (bordering both Tunesia and Algeria), Mayet's camera follows the performances of men, women and children alike in what appears be a local music festival of sorts. Like the previous DVD releases from Sublime Frequencies, this one has no narration or commentary; you, the viewer, guided by the excellent single camera shooting, are left to figure it out for yourself. In the accompanying booklet Mayet points out that the Taureg are unique amongst their neighbors in that not only are they nominally Muslim -- still incorporating their unique and ancient practices that predate the religion -- but are also a matriarchical society (indeed, many of the men appear to be wearing full veils). Running 60 minutes, this DVD is region free NTSC format.
Not sure what exactly required the name to change from Spectre Folk, to the Folk Spectre, but fear not fans of all things folky and droney, fuzzy and drifty, this is still indeed the work of Mr. Pete Nolan, of the Double Leopards, GHQ, Wooden Wand and we're sure a handful more. At first we were tempted to think the name change had to do with a slight shift in sonics, as the first few tracks are totally stripped down lo-fi folk. No noise or drone or buzz to be found. At all. Just skeletal guitar, plaintive vocals, wrapped around sad sad melodies, and allowed to drift in wide open expanses of record crackle and tape hiss. But then the closer on side A finds some squealing feedback entering the fray, and simple Velvets like drumming, distant chanting, the main riff sort of wobbly and warbly, a gorgeous laid back stoned and droned drug jam, that while slightly noisier than the tracks preceding it, still falls well within the groovy hippy bliss we've come to expect from Nolan and his folky Spectre-d outfit.
The B side offers up more of the same, but varied a bit, a few tracks of hushed folkiness, but then a long stretch of high end hissiness draped over the lilting guitar beneath, a track of Middle Eastern style melody, with a distinct raga-like vibe, and the record finishes off with a gorgeous muted muddy slo-mo drone-jam, that sounds a bit like a much more mellow Wooden Shjips played at 16rpm, and a little bit like a folkier Spacemen 3. As usual, killer stuff.
Packaged in hand screened black and white sleeves with photocopied inserts, covered in drawings, lyrics and liner notes.
We've been blessed recently with multiple releases from the mysterious Nordvargr, whose dense dark ambience we can never get enough of. Nordvargr was a core member of legendary black ambient outfit MZ412, and has recorded as Toroidh, Hydra Head 9,Henrik Nordvargr Bjorkk, Nordvargr and of course Folkstorm. It's been far too long since the last Folkstorm record, Folkstorm being the guise Nordvargr takes on to produce his unique brand of tense, isolationist, dark and droning industrial music. Thick swells of minor key chords, hypnotic repetitive tribal drumming, all sorts of found sounds and snippets of speeches, traditional songs and old radio broadcasts, huge jagged distorted pulses (sounding almost like Techno Animal or Curse Of The Golden Vampire at times), haunting disembodied female vocals, radio static and amp buzz and all manner of sonic grit and crackle, pounding subterranean rhythms, warm warbly drones, disturbing minor key ambience, creaking industrial clatter, intense nightmarish melodies, all bathed in a thick swirl of fuzzed out distortion and crumbling machinelike whir. Super ominous and dark, intense and strangely beautiful.
Packaged in a gorgeous red, white and black digipak. And while they last we have the EXTREMELY LIMITED special edition (limited to 300 hand numbered copies) that includes a bonus 3" cd containing two unreleased tracks! Once those are gone, you'll receive the standard single disc version.
Folkstrom is the solo project from MZ.412's Mr. Nordvargr, although it could be some lost leftfield recording from odd black metallers Abruptum or Vondur. It's a weird hyrbid of death industrial / power electronic brutality and Norwegian black metal misanthropy (though it only hints at that sound). Recorded live at Nar Mattaru, "Hurtmusic" is a punishing record loaded with landmine samples, electro-shock blasts of energy, and warbled megaphone shouts. The highlight of the album is a loose reinterpretation of the song "No Place" by notorious Swedish misanthropes the Brainbombs, complete with a slow grinding guitar chug perverted from the classic Stooges sound.
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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Sixties Big Beat Classics with Sitar. "Paint It Black",
"Hey Joe", "Time Won't Let Me". They're all here. Hip!
Once again, these two Chilean psych bands, Follakazoid and The Holydrug Couple, each sharing a member with the other, release their records at the same time, giving us a glimpse of two sides of a similar sonic personality. Elsewhere on the list you'll find the latest from The Holydrug Couple, but here, we revisit the psychedelic modern space-kraut sprawl of Follakzoid, whose sound is equal parts classic psych/space rock, and more modern garage psych mesmer. The opening track here definitely had us thinking of Wooden Shjips, the looped and loping low slung bassline, the sonic swirls and laconic vocals, everything drenched in echo and reverb, a hazy, druggy, droned out psychedelic space dirge laced with weird little synth squiggles, and dense clouds of crumbling distortion. Like a darker, more rocking Spacemen 3, which is most definitely not a bad thing. A lot of the rest of the record drifts way more into old school jam band territory, think Hawkwind, Santana, Pink Floyd, just hazy, washed out stretches of hypnotic, rhythmic mesmer, the core sound a bass and drum groove, very propulsive and motorik, the krautrock vibe is huge, then all around that groove, synths, and guitars, and voices, swirl and swoop and drift. It's heady hypnotic stuff, in fact, some tracks, like "99" sound a lot like Circle at time, that same sort of kick ass hypnorock churn, but Follakzoid definitely make that sound their druggy, laid back, tripped out own. And be sure and stick around for 15 minute closer "Pulsar", which is the sort of heart-of-the-sun psych groove bliss out we could listen to forever.
- MPEG stream: 9
- MPEG stream: Rivers
- MPEG stream: 99
The most recent release from these Chilean psychedelic space/kraut rockers gets a couple tracks remixed by some likeminded outfits you might have heard of. Stoned psych rockers Psychic Ills get all Spacemen 3 with their version of "9", not deviating too much from the original, but stripping away a lot of the effects and psychedelic noise, the result much more murky and moody, laced with lots of cool subtle backwards effects, both guitars and rhythms, droned out and trancey and super hypnotic. Be warned, you might already have this remix since it was included on the Todo Muere Vol. 3 special Sacred Bones Record Store Day Release.
Exclusive to this, though, Moon Duo tackle "Trees" - the original was pretty heavy, a spaced out stoner rock groove, but Moon Duo slow things down too, stripping away the excess, leaving just a woozy bass and drum groove, and then wrapping it in spidery tendrils of buzzing guitar melodies, the vocals even more laid back, all drifting atop a sprawl of droning thrum and distant swirling synths. Both reworkings here seem to cast the more rocking originals as zoned out late night versions, total droney, druggy, dreamily dirgey, hypno-rock space-kraut chill out!
Sacred Bones brings us another captivating transmission from Chilean trippers Follakzoid, their third album (duh), this one consisting of 4 lengthy tracks of hazy, minimalist, mesmerizing grooves. This is the sound of super spacing out, over and over and over, in the dankest of South American garages.
Opener "Electric" sets the stage, if you dig it, you'll dig Follakzoid, it's typically repetitive and echoing, blissed out but with a hint of menace, ending in a curious episode of distortion/glitch fuckery. That distortion is ramped up on track 2, "Earth", which gets a bit heavier and is also more insistently melodic, adding some effects-laden vocals as well, reverberating with cosmic/karmic meaning and mystery. The thump-throb of the third track, "Piure", with bells and gongs, takes on even more of an ancient, ceremonial air, and once again cycles forth slowly, the sound coming in waves, subtly building up the volume and drone. Need we even mention the last track, "Feuerzeug"? You can guess, even more hypnotic krautdronedrug action there, Follakzoid leaving the listener well and truly hooked, and lost in space (inner or outer, same dif).
Gently motorik, laced with shoegaze guitar squall and strange synthesizer noise, naturally this reminds us of some Circle output, and even more so of Salvatore, these tracks suffused with a twilight darkness, nicotine stained and narcotic. Other reference points of course would be Wooden Shjips, Moon Duo, Psychic Ills, Carlton Melton, and also some of the 'krautier' electronic/techno artists around. By the way, we noticed Atom(tm) in credits to this, dunno if he's always been adding his "analog and digital synthesis" to the Follakzoid sound or not?
One of two new modern Chilean psychedelic outfits on this week's list, both on Sacred Bones, and both sharing a member, unlike the spaced out psychedelic of The Holydrug Couple, Follakzoid traffic in a sound much more krautrocky, two ten minute side long jams, totally mesmerizing blissed out, cyclical, circular hypnorock, the drums and guitars locked into a super tranced out groove, while all around, strange vocals and voices swirl and swoop, effects shimmer and glimmer and other guitars jangle and chime, the sound changes subtly, stripped down and skeletal one minute, crunchy and distorted the next, but that hypnotic core riff remains locked tight, the sort of thing that should have fans of Circle and Lumerians and Cave and White Hills and 3 Leafs and Mugstar all freaked out.
The flipside starts out much more minimally, a sprawl of effects drenched warble, warped melodies draped over a lumbering beat, less a rhythm and more a pulse, all washed out and muted and muddy and bleary and blurry, before launching into another stretch of super hypnotic krautrock chug and churn, but this time, the sound is way more minimal, the main riff sounding more like the throb of a helicopters spinning blades, whump whump whump, wreathed in softly swirling synths, laced with chanted vocals, all wound into a super tight chunk of super muted sci-fi krautrock psychedelic space rock, that RULES.
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Great breezy indie pop sounds from this new San Francisco band. Foma explore a few different directions, from more spacious and dreamy sounds to a more straight ahead and catchy onslaught. Fans of folks like Arcade Fire, Grandaddy and Terror Twilight era Pavement will find lots to love on this debut. A few of the tracks here have caused customers to come up and ask what Death Cab For Cutie record we were listening to, as the vocals can definitely get into that super sweet Ben Gibbard territory. A very nice debut.
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 ultra-electronic parasitic duo Fon regurgitates the technological mutilations of wired arrangements of broken televisions, microwaves, metal detectors, etc. within piercing electronic architectural rhythmic packages. Released in conjunction with the Viennese conceptual electronics thinktank Mego, mutant electronics and digital glitch worship abound.
