Wacked-out French-not-French pop? Avant-dub? Post-punk for the anarchically happy? All of those are applicable and more for the bizarro-world citizens of Family Fodder. This was less of a band, and more of a ridiculously loose collective that spun around principal songwriter Alig Pearce and chanteuse Dominique Levillain, with a genealogical tree that is confoundingly complex. We CAN say that both Charles Bullen and Charles Hayward (of This Heat) passed through the quickly revolving door of Family Fodder with the Flying Lizards' David Cunningham also offering his disjointed madness; but there were probably dozens of different players who dotted each record. Those two projects - This Heat and the Flying Lizards - could be referenced for sure as a shorthand equation of what Family Fodder was up to; but there was also plenty of situationist stabs at jubilantly rendered black humor and boisterous sarcasm that rippled through the tumbling weirdo-punk joy of Family Fodder's music. Sparks meets Stereolab might be another non-entirely-off-the-mark description.
Monkey Banana Kitchen was the band's first full album (following a string of singles including several head-scratching / loving homages about Debbie Harry's rumored hermaphrodism - yeah, how about that for a topic of a poptune?!). The album's jittery punk-dub songwriting has its roots in the British classics of Public Image Limited and the Clash, although the anthemic pop-hook has been tossed out the window in favor of a glossalaic patter of semi-coherent lyrics. The triumphantly kaleidoscopic "Savoir Faire" operates in the same art-pop lineage of Stereolab, with Family Fodder being freakishly unfettered in their exuberance where Stereolab would play it ultra cool behind their Moogs and Gauloise cigarettes. Then, there are the deep-dub tracks of "Organ Grinder" and "Bass Adds Bass" which could have easily get confused for anything by The Slits or New Age Steppers. Sprinkled throughout the album are a series of short slapstick pieces of spring-loaded vaudevillian tunes and elliptical dada / slapstick lyrics: "Darling, reason's in the monkeyhouse with a banana in the kitchen." The compact disc is fleshed out with the tracks from the Schizophrenia Party EP plus a couple of singles (sadly none about Debbie Harry). The highlight of these tracks (for some of us) is the ridiculously over-the-top "Dinosaur Sex" - a totally stupid / brilliant rock-opera / punk-dub number that parodies Broadway musicals in an engorged number about, ah, fucking like a dinosaur!!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Members of This Heat and the Flying Lizards collaborate with a french chanteuse and legendary songwriter Alig Pierce to fashion a parallel universe of perfect pop with avant squiggles sneaking around in the mix...definite Blondie vs. Stereolab vibe going on. (description by DREW D of MATMOS)
Wacked-out French-not-French pop? Avant-dub? Post-punk for the anarchically happy? All of those are applicable and more for the bizarro-world citizens of Family Fodder. This was less of a band, and more of a ridiculously loose collective that spun around principal songwriter Alig Pearce and chanteuse Dominique Levillain, with a genealogical tree that is confoundingly complex. We CAN say that both Charles Bullen and Charles Hayward (of This Heat) passed through the quickly revolving door of Family Fodder with the Flying Lizards' David Cunningham also offering his disjointed madness; but there were probably dozens of different players who dotted each record. Those two projects - This Heat and the Flying Lizards - could be referenced for sure as a shorthand equation of what Family Fodder was up to; but there was also plenty of situationist stabs at jubilantly rendered black humor and boisterous sarcasm that rippled through the tumbling weirdo-punk joy of Family Fodder's music. Sparks meets Stereolab might be another non-entirely-off-the-mark description.
This lp contains all the tracks from the Schizophrenia Party EP plus a couple of singles (sadly none about Debbie Harry). The highlight to these tracks (for some of us) is the ridiculously over-the-top "Dinosaur Sex" - a totally stupid / brilliant rock-opera / punk-dub number that parodies Broadway musicals in an engorged number about, ah, fucking like a dinosaur!!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Warehouse find! Dug up just three copies of this sprawling psychedelic epic, formerly a tour only cd-r from these tripped our psych rocking Danes, it was expanded with 30 minutes of extra material, and pressed on two slabs of vinyl, a 4 sided psychedelic free for all, murky, swirly, lysergic. blurred and druggy and wildly amorphous, heaving slabs of smoldering sound oozing into clouds of tinkling percussion, the sound ritualistic and primitive, loose and free, chanted wordless vocals, deep low end thrum, smears of feedback, squalls of soft cacophony, occasional dreamy bits of ethereal drift, the whole thing woozy and washed out and gloriously abstract and spaced out, hits of Avarus and Sylvester Anfang abound, but these guys take those sounds and melt them down into something much more gooey and viscous and potent. Rad stuff for sure. Packaged in a super deluxe full color gatefold sleeve. LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!
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.
This fifth entry (it says here sixth but we think they skipped one) in the so-far-totally-great Jewelled Antler Library series of cute lil' 3" cd-r eps is something a bit different, yet familar too to Jewelled Antler aficionados. It features the Blithe Sons (Glenn Donaldson and Loren Chasse, both also of Thuja and much else besides) joined by Eleanor Harwood on vocals. This trio's music is totally inspired by '70s art rock ensemble Slapp Happy, it's actually an intentional tribute of sorts. Eleanor is the heart of this, and we must say that for an untrained vocalist in an improvised setting, she's very impressive! Singing lyrics taken from a book of Kenneth Patchen poetry that was near to hand, "The Famous Boating Party", she totally inhabits the Dagmar Krause role, her vocals all wonderfully warbly and birdlike and lovely. She reminds us of Bjork at times too, no bad thing! Backing her up/leading her on, Glenn strums melodically on his 6 & 12 string guitars and adds comforting keyboard coloration, while Loren's "percussion & noises" both provide a steady beat and contribute the usual detailed, natural Jewelled Antler ambiance. It's very hazy and folky and fairytale like, a summer's afternoon encapsulated in a magical music box. Maybe not to everyone's taste (Slapp Happy certainly isn't either) but for some this will be a highlight in the Library series.
MPEG Download: "White Butterfly" [/audio/famousboatwhitebutter.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "White Butterfly" [/audio/famousboatwhitebutter.m3u]
Beijing Hardcore!!! Or, at least, that's the title of one of the six tracks on this 7", from China. Others include "Chaos Now!" and "Garbage".
Just can't get enough, can you? Us neither. For those of you in need of even more from the New Pornographers' stable of popsters. Keyboard and guitar player Todd Fancey once again steps out on his own. Well kinda, he's enlisted some of his Vancouver pals to join in the singin' and playin' (his NP bandmate drummer Kurt Dahle, The Organ's Debora Cohen and The Gay's Sara Lapsley to name just three). Following up on his juicy self-titled debut from last summer, he's offered up another summertime treat. Four glorious, sunshiney tunes bursting with '70s AM radio style smooth pop sensibilities -- sorta like a cross between the Raspberries and Free Design. You almost expect him to launch into Andrew Gold's "Lonely Boy" or Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street".
Hey everyone, here's the feel-good album of the month! Like the bright plump orange that graces the front cover of this cd, Fancey is the sonic equivalent of a juicy beam of sunshine. And it's not all that surprising considering he's 1/5 of the mighty New Pornographers! The album takes off with the insanely uplifting tune "Carry Me". Like a smoooth blend of Free Design and westcoast '70s mellow rock with more than a few nods to the Zombies and the Byrds (Cup also heard shades of the Seekers' "Georgy Girl" in a few songs). Launching into falsetto at the blink of an eye, Fancey's vocal delivery is reminiscent of Sloan's Chris Murphy, fellow New Pornographer Carl Newman and Chicago's Pete Cetera. However, it's the female backing vocal harmonies that truly buoys the proceedings, sweetening each song to true confection status! The male/female singing also brings to mind the recent swoonsome album by another Vancouver combo, Young & Sexy. Todd has enlisted all of his Vancouver friends: Kurt and Blaine of the NPs, Monica from Tennessee Twin, Corinne, Maija and Sara of The Gay to name just a few. FYI: For those unfamiliar, Mr. Fancey hopped aboard the New Pornographers party bus when Dan Bejar (Destroyer) left and went a-travellin', and has proven to be a highly valued member in his own right.
Super intense, wild Gypsy wedding music from this 12-piece Romanian band. Lots of crazy dancing potential here.
From a little village called Ciocarlia, located in Eastern Romania, near the Moldavian border, comes this eleven-man brass and woodwind band of gypsies. Combining elements of traditional Romanian, Turkish and Gypsy music as well as Klezmer, this former
Fans of Fanfare Ciocarlia pay heed. Fanfare Savale are an eleven piece gypsy brass band (ten horns, one drummer) from the Eastern Romanian village of Zece Prajini. Like Fanfare Ciocarlia, Savale often play at impossibly fast (upwards of 200 bpm) tempos and, being a group that makes its living through weddings and festivals, can play for extended durations. Infectious and reckless, it's hard not to start jumping up and down to Fanfare Savale's festive brass hard core. Put this on and open up the wine at your next party and you can bet someone's going to get hurt by the time the night's through.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
A couple lists back we reviewed the most recent full length from Northwestern black metal one man band Eldrig, whose sound was, and continues to be essentially a super epic, ultra majestic power metallized take on black metal. And it's a sound we can't seem to get enough of. But Eldrig is in fact the solo project one one half of this band right here Fanisk, whose third full length just arrived, their first in TEN years. And very much like 2003's Noontide, full length number three continues to meld grim black buzz, to soaring melodic symphonic heaviness, incorporating all manner of folkiness and psychedelia, some passages downright experimental, but somehow sonically in keeping with the whole, just check out the strange orchestral cinematic breakdown in "Departure Rose Garden", and the way the strange energy of that interlude bleeds right into the black buzz of the song proper. While not quite as melodic or overtly 'power metal' sounding as Eldrig, it's easy to draw comparisons between the two groups, as many parts here could easily have ended up on an Eldrig record.
But Fanisk is definitely its own beast, and is obviously a collaboration, but listening to the first track here, it's dizzying how dense and lush and elaborate the music here is, and it becomes plain to see why it took ten years to complete these three tracks. From furious frantic blasting blackness, to soaring black buzz majesty, to dense tangled mathy progginess, some parts downright poppy, others as grim as it gets, often falling somewhere gloriously right in between. The are cool ambient parts that almost sound new agey, pizzicato stings that remind us of that song "sail away sail away sail away', but in this context sound more dramatic than cheesy, and others that pair clean emotional vocals with soaring slow build Godspeed like post rock arrangements for a sound even MORE epic. There are cool stretches of Tangerine Dream like synth swirl, and others that seem to be just the sound of surf or wind, or at least a sort of blurred static simulating such. The arrangements don't balk at going from lightning fast blast, to churning doomy plod, to midtempo post rock like lope and back again, and somehow, there's some overarching logic that ties it all together into what is a seriously epic sonic undertaking.
While some of this may be too melodic for the troo grim hordes, we'd be hard pressed to think of any metalhead who wouldn't be totally blown away by Fanisk's atmospheric black metal epics, and we had sort of forgotten how fucking incredible these guys were. In a review online we saw someone mention that this should give My Bloody Valentine's mbv record a run for its money as comeback of the year, and we'd definitely have to agree!
Some seriously sassy summer party jams go bananas in a smothering of cotton-candy & Miami-bass. A bit of a turn away from the electro-clash scene, FP get more all about hiphop on See You Next Tuesday, their follow-up to the Camel-Toe brining debut. This is a super fun album. Are you ready for it? For fans of M.I.A., Peaches, Missy Elliot and crazed boardwalkian beach parties.
If you've been itchin' for something house-y for your warm summer nights, look no further than this, the third album from Tomoyuki Tanaka aka Fantastic Plastic Machine. Reaching back to the 70s for some soul and house moves embellished with some Brazillian accents and flute flourishes. A comment on the music straight from the horse's mouth, "Comparing my music to a girl, I used to
We listed three new tapes from aQ beloved tape label The Tapeworm on the last list, of a batch of four new releases. This one, #4, got left behind by the post man and only just now showed up. Which was a bummer at the time, cuz it might just be our favorite of the bunch, and the reason why can be summed up in one word: EVP! Okay, maybe three words: Electronic Voice Phenomena, which is the sound of the spirit world communicating through radio static, or lost transmissions, little snippet of voices, often just a word here or there, seemingly reaching across from the other side.
This particular set of recordings comes to us from Michael Esposito, an experimental artist and EVP researcher, who over the course of his life has collected thousands of EVP recordings and who has appeared on various television programs and in a number of films and documentaries. According to the label, Fantom Auditory Operations is "an attempt is to take EVP research a step further, developing a body of work researchers and scientists may use in the future to unlock the mysteries of our own mortality", but to these ears, it actually sound more like EVP set to music, strange bits of dark ambience, fields of hiss and whir, tolling bells, rumbles and whirs and various layers and textures, as well as field recordings, wild animal calls, crackling fires, all set amidst a series of fractured melodies and undulating drones.
Apparently the recordings here were captured in a Kentucky cemetery, where in the 1800s a woman and daughter were convicted of witchcraft and burned alive. The daughter was buried in this cemetery, while the mother at another location. There is also apparently spectral figure that has been sighted, perhaps trying to get to the girl (or her spirit), but who is kept at bay by the crucifix decorated fence surrounding her grave.
It almost doesn't matter if you believe any of that or not, cuz ultimately it's all about the sounds, and the sounds here are truly captivating, ominous and otherworldly, woven into a soundscape that's tense and haunting and super cinematic, with snippets of classical music, looped bells, the tape speed constantly fluctuating, everything warped and woozy, the only constant, the crackling sound of the fire, that presumably haunts the girl and her mother to this day.
So cool. And if you love the Ghost Orchid, a long time unanimous aQ fave, you're gonna want this too!
Mike Patton's musical terror squad returns. Or should we say medical terror squad, judging by the graphics: photos taken from Max Aguilera-Hellweg's "The Sacred Heart" book of surgery pictures, images both clinically compelling and quite gory (the likes of "Irrigating Wound Before Closing" and "Organ Donation For Cornea Transplant" are not for the squeamish!). Drs. Patton, Lombardo, Osbourne and Dunn here perform an operation both physical and psychological, as befits those cd graphics. It's dark, grim chamber music for rock instruments and electronics. Some of this is almost-ambient, delicate and beautiful. Other parts are bombastic and spastic as you'd expect. Slayer drummer Lombardo exercises much restraint, but gets to roil and toil at times. Patton of course displays a range of vocals, including some truly sweet singing in fact. This hour-plus composition (expansive yet claustrophically, it's but one long track) almost seems like a DJ set constructed from the darkest, artiest LPs in Patton's collection. Indeed, Fantomas' list of acknowledgements gives some clues as to what this sounds like: Bohren & Der Club of Gore, Matmos, Nitsch, Messiaen, Komeda, stethoscopic heart recordings... We're also definitely reminded of Jonathan Bepler's scores for Matthew Barney's Cremaster films -- there's even a passage with buzzing insect sounds not unlike Lombardo's cut on the Cremaster 2 soundtrack.
Now on vinyl (and not cheap... but it is a schmancy double picture disc)!
Mike Patton's musical terror squad returns. Or should we say medical terror squad, judging by the graphics: photos taken from Max Aguilera-Hellweg's "The Sacred Heart" book of surgery pictures, images both clinically compelling and quite gory (the likes of "Irrigating Wound Before Closing" and "Organ Donation For Cornea Transplant" are not for the squeamish!). Drs. Patton, Lombardo, Osbourne and Dunn here perform an operation both physical and psychological, as befits those cd graphics. It's dark, grim chamber music for rock instruments and electronics. Some of this is almost-ambient, delicate and beautiful. Other parts are bombastic and spastic as you'd expect. Slayer drummer Lombardo exercises much restraint, but gets to roil and toil at times. Patton of course displays a range of vocals, including some truly sweet singing in fact. This hour-plus composition (expansive yet claustrophically, it's but one long track) almost seems like a DJ set constructed from the darkest, artiest LPs in Patton's collection. Indeed, Fantomas' list of acknowledgements gives some clues as to what this sounds like: Bohren & Der Club of Gore, Matmos, Nitsch, Messiaen, Komeda, stethoscopic heart recordings... We're also definitely reminded of Jonathan Bepler's scores for Matthew Barney's Cremaster films -- there's even a passage with buzzing insect sounds not unlike Lombardo's cut on the Cremaster 2 soundtrack.
Animated, yes. Suspended, no -- except for the listener's disbelief, perhaps. Sheer carnivalesque carnage here, folks, just like you expect from these guys. After the relatively calm, droned-out ambience of their epic Delerium Cordia album from last year, for this release Fantomas now take us back to the Naked City/Melt-Banana inspired short sharp shock style they delivered on their self-titled debut in '99. There's 30 (!!!) tracks here, each one a violently freaked out, spastic collision of metal, electronics, cartoon music and avant-garde composition that likey adds another unexpected sonic ingredient to the mix. Utterly dizzying and complex, executed by pros. Seriously, you couldn't think of four guys more well-suited to the task: Mike Patton, Dave Lombardo, Buzz Osbourne and Trevor Dunn (past and present members of such notable noise-makers as Mr. Bungle, Melvins, Slayer, and Faith No More, as we're sure you're aware). I mean, they could have added John Zorn or Eye Yamataka or Brian Chippendale to the line-up but it would hardly be necessary, these four already have this stuff DOWN. And the brief Osbourne/Patton vocal duet in track ten is a special thrill. We're at a loss to provide much more in the way of description, it's something you just need to experience for yourself, if you're up for it. Definitely if you're into the genre of music that is ALL genres rolled into one, the Attention Defecit Disorder frenzies of Suspended Animation will provide utmost entertainment. And for the moment, we have the version of this that, for some reason we don't know but won't question, comes in limited-edition packaging incorporating a spiral-bound April 2004 calendar designed and illustrated by hip Japanese artist Yoshitmo Nara. Pretty cool! Too bad April is just about over. But it's not like you were gonna use it as a dayplanner anyway, just admire it for the art.
Bay Area supergroup comprised of Mike Patton (Mr Bungle, Faith No More), Dave Lombardo (Slayer), Buzz Osbourne (Melvins), and Trevor Dunn (Mr Bungle, various avant jazz outfits). On this, their second album, they pay tribute to the film scores they've long
While the band manages to leave some of the flavor of each original piece intact, their objective seems to have been to sort of Bungle-ize each track (you know, lots of Patton screaming, overwhelming drama and sinister atmospheres), although a nod should definitely go to Lombardo, who uses lots of flavorful percussison -- woodblocks, chimes, bells, clicks, clocks and clacks -- that enhances the "period" tone of several of the pieces. It's a fine record (heck, it's the only worthy Morricone cover I've ever heard), just be aware that in order to get *into* this record, it's more important that you're into the signature Patton/Bungle manic sound than being familiar with the films or the soundtracks themselves.
The debut album from both Mike Patton's new band and new label. Vocalist and big time Zorn-o-phile Patton (of Mr. Bungle/Faith No More fame) has assembled a "supergroup" of sorts, featuring ex-Slayer drum god Dave Lombardo, Bungle's Trevor Dunn on bass and Melvins guitarist Buzz Osbourne. Together they make quite a racket in a nowave improv skree kinda mode. Is this a tribute to Japan's spastictastic Melt-Banana or a blatant rip-off? You decide... Actually, that's a little harsh. But lots of "regular" folks are going to hear this 'cause of the names involved and not realise the obvious inspiration, and credit should go where credit is due...
This most definitely has to be the shortest cd we've ever reviewed. And also the smallest. A tiny little two inches by two inches, square shaped cd, clocking in at a whopping two minutes and forty three seconds. Pretty ideal actually for this particular two band, two song match up. Mike Patton and his Fantomas group give us a 44 second Melt-Banana-ish, burst of cartoonish, buzzy, chaotic, short attention span cinematic grind, a brief flurry of staccato downtuned guitar chug and blasts of bizarre vocalization. Melt-Banana go all out timewise with almost two whole minutes of that squeaky, grind pop madness that is so immediately and recognizably Melt Banana. A confusional swirl of MB's usual mind melting ultra complex brutality, with a more than usual bit of melody and harmony intertwined with MB's impossibly dense and serpentine song structures, all chirped indecipherable vocals and rapid fire punk splatter. Short but sweet! Comes in a cool little cardboard sleeve with a tiny full color card affixed to each side.
SUPER LIMITED!! We got a handful of these, not entirely sure we can get more, so once these are gone there's a god chance we'll never be able to get more.
S e r g e y [S] is a tireless Russian dronemuzik composer who records under the monikers Exit In Grey and Five Elements Music (amongst many others), and whose back catalog resembles that of Aidan Baker in terms of scale and quality. A while ago, you could randomly grab any given Aidan Baker disc and rest assured that he'd deliver an impeccable album of billowing ambience rippling with emotional impressionism and melodic subtlety. The same can be said for pretty much anything that Sergey [S] touches, with the bulk of his releases short-run albums self-produced in his motherland, with only a few albums seeing European release. We listed a couple of things that Sergey put out through Mystery Sea, that Belgian proprietor of night-ocean drones, both of which were very impressive; and everything we've managed to scrounge up has been amazing.
Dust Storm - a collaborative project with the enigmatic Fanum (who seems to be the work of another Russian character named Ascet) - does not sway our esteemed opinion of Sergey [S]. The three tracks brilliantly embrace the analogy of dense sound amorphousness with the harsh/soft, soothing/terrifying duality from a looming sand storm. The suspended tones from Sergey and Ascet spiral slowly into sad, fugue-like melodies that are cloaked in the slow-motion miasma as if melding the cold, deep-sea waters and the boiling methane spewing thermal vents. The shortwave radio textures of the album's finale bring more of the psychological disruption found on early John Duncan works, but much of Dust Storm recalls the best of Troum / Maeror Tri. Not sure how limited this album is, but stuff from Russia arrives at a snail's pace, so if we run out, it might take us a while to restock...
From the same label that brought us discs by James Blackshaw, the Floating World, Robert Horton, Lamp Of The Universe and Rameses III comes this limited cd-r from Far Black Furlong. Recorded live, outdoors, in the barley fields on the Welsh / English border, Haidd is a half hour of moon lit free folk drones. The sound of pale moonlight washing over the landscape like a soft grey coat of paint. A squirming shuffling, scritchy scratchy crosshatched backdrop, over which slow foghorn like drones drift and hover, horns wheeze out long mournful melodies that float just above the whirling background ambience. Like floating on the ink black sea, slowly drifting, little swells lifting you up and letting you back down, gently and so barely rhythmically. It's the sea, or the forest, or the desert, the sound of space and sky and dark nighttime colors that go on forever and ever.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!! Already sold out at the label. We got about 30 copies. Once those are gone, we won't be able to get more.
Far Black Furlong is a Welsh ensemble of mystical folk minstrels, whose work straddles the realms of apocalyptic British folk (i.e. Current 93, Comus, the Wicker Man soundtrack, etc.) and the nocturnal, loosely sewn psychedelia of Fursaxa and the Blithe Sons. Their sound would be expected as Far Black Furlong's Richard Moult has previously collaborated with David Tibet and with their preceding album of narcotic folk tunes landing on the exceptional Barl Fire cd-r imprint. With this album, they've received the nod from Colin Potter, who has released this through his exceptional ICR label alongside the likes of Nurse With Wound, Ora, Monos, Jonathan Coleclough, etc. Here, oboes, flutes, ducilmers, and drifting guitar picking spiral around field recordings of twittering finches and the ominous crash of the ocean. Much of the melodic ambience through instrumental arrangements are the product of Far Black Furlong performing in the Welsh forests and barley fields during the long summer nights. Beautiful, shimmering, atmospheric, and maudlin.
They've done the FEFB's 2nd album Nipponjin, and 3rd album Parallel World, not to mention the sole record from pre-FEFB incarnation Far Out, so it's about time Phoenix also reissued the 1975 debut from these Japanese '70s space rock masters, led by the lost-worlds-obsessed Fumio Miyashita. In the Julian Cope Japrocksampler pantheon, this one ranks 41 out of 50, not quite as high as some of those others, but still in the thick of it. This debut demonstrates that even before Klaus Schulze took them under his wing as producer, they were doing just fine at making quite "kosmische" psych-synth symphonies all on their own. If you have any of the other FEFB related stuff you know what to expect!
Moogs and Mellotrons galore, in a more krautrock-than-thou Japanese heavy hippy blissout, melodic and meditative and massive, with much ritualistic-sounding vocal drama. Pink Floyd and the Moody Blues were other major Western influences, but the FAR EAST Family Band never let you forget that's where they're from. Some of the tracks here were afterwards radically re-mixed/re-recorded for Nipponjin (originally a Germany-only release, produced by Schulze) but not all of 'em.
The compact disc version comes in one of those cardboard "wallet" style digipacks, this one is especially cool though due to the die cutting of the front and back covers, through which you can see the clouds-and-sunset photos on the cd booklet, a nice touch! The vinyl version has the die cut covers too, presumably replicating the design of the original lp.
The subtitle here, or perhaps it's their slogan, is "Join Our Mental Phase Sound". It's a good slogan, whatever it means, and if you wonder what "Mental Phase Sound" is, all you have to do is listen. Total Pink Floydian, Tangerine Dreamy synthesizer laden space travel from Japanese hippies with krautrock connections! The Far East Family Band, as their name definitely implies, was a '70s hippie Japanese psych/prog outfit, forerunners of the likes of Acid Mothers Temple. Once known as Far Out (they were!), they got even trippier in their Far East Family Band formation, which included future New Age artist Kitaro as a member. This album was their 2nd, originally released in 1975, and is a classic for sure (#14 in Julian Cope's Japrocksampler Top 50). It was produced by krautrock legend Klaus Schulze by the way, for extra kosmische cred!!
Nipponjin is an electronic/organic/rock ritual, a symphonic ceremonial music, effortlessly fusing the spacey synths of the German krautrock scene with authentic Eastern mysticism in a way that probably made the European hippies jealous. Some tracks are propulsive, full of electronically effected drum beats, others more mellow and meditative, with the whooshing of synths... there's ethnic instrumental twang, heavy bluesy electric guitar noodling, stately rhythms, majestic vocal choirs, and it's all quite melodic too, making for memorable music that's a prog classic album for the ages, from Japan or anywhere else in the universe. Heck the side-long title track that opens the album qualifies all by itself.
This is the first time we've seen a non-Japanese-import (and thus non-ultra-expensive) cd reissue of this, so get it while you can. It's limited to 1000 numbered copies, packaged in a cardboard "wallet" sleeve like Phoenix did for Flower Travellin Band's Satori and other reissues.
Our '70s Japanese psychedelia section just keeps getting bigger and better, in part thanks to the UK reissue label Phoenix, who brought us Brast Burn last list, also recently Karuna Khyal, Far Out, and another Far East Family Band album, Nipponjin. That one was their second, from 1975, and if you liked it you'll like this, Parallel World being its 1976 follow up, boasting one of the most perfect cover paintings ever, showing the band sitting in a wooden boat, in space, flying through the colorful cosmos. (The guy with the headphones and shades is so cool!)
Once again produced by kosmiche electronics master Klaus Schulze (with Gunter Schickert as recording assistant), this proved to be the band's final album, but it's a fantastic one, that deserves honorary krautrock classic status even though the band are Japanese. It's certainly a space rock classic at any rate, beginning with "Metempsychosis", a trippy intro full of spooky synth squiggle and snip-snip-snip drumming that accelerates into a blissed out shimmer, a combo that they take to extended extremes on the next track, the 16 minutes of "Entering/Times", full of buzz and gurgle, propulsive rhythmic scatter-clatter, and grandiose prog moves... it sounds somewhere betwixt Acid Mothers Temple and Zombi, really!
Vocals make an appearance on "Kokoro", a mostly gentle, lovely sort of dreamy ballad, but one that also features some searing, soaring electric guitar action to bow down and worship. And THEN there's the title track, a suite, 30 minutes long! It's a doozy, encompassing funky wah guitars, thick synth fuzz, electronic tinkering tingling tinkling, even some dubbiness... At times it's urgently rhythmic, but that can give way to calm, spaced out drone, it's got parts that remind us of Can, parts that could be Funkadelic circa their most lysergic effort Free Your Mind... And Your Ass Will Follow, and parts that sound like Augustus Pablo. If every druggy hippy jam sounded like this, we'd be living in a Parallel World indeed!
Obligatory Japrocksampler chart position citation: Julian Cope put this at number FOUR in his top 50. We don't always agree with his rankings, but it's definitely worthy of being up there. And it's in Phoenix's usual "wallet" (whatever) packaging, limited to 1000 numbered copies.
The wonderful flood of Japanese '70s psych rock reissues continues, something those folks who have yet to hear these previously hard-to-find gems (many "popularized" by megafan Julian Cope in his Japrocksampler book) can be quite glad of. The item under consideration here, a compact disc reissue of the final, 1977 release by hippie space travellers Far East Family Band, is another nifty one, though we'd probably recommend the other, earlier FEFB albums before this if you don't have those already. Fans looking to complete their collections, though, won't be disappointed - even though by this point keyboardist Kitaro had left the family / band (for eventual New Age stardom), on Tenkujin FEFB were still quite potent at making tripped out, synth-laden, New Age friendly psych. In other words still the kind of band where the same guy credited with operating a pile of synthesizers (Teisco 100F, Hillwood SY 1800, Combo, Basky, Rockyboard, Korg 700S, Mellotron, Yamaha, Solina String Ensemble) also plays the bamboo flute. And then there's all the guitars and other things as well that are part of their big wash of psychedelic sound.
The title track, with a driving, almost disco beat, and echoey, dubby FX, would fit in with a lot of late '70s kosmic krautrock, the Ashra, Michael Rother sort of stuff, heck it sound a bit like some bands today too, we're thinking Jonas Reinhardt and Maserati. Lots of burbling electronics and shimmering synth over propulsive percussion. FEFB's usual Pink Floydisms certainly come to the fore too, on the blissful, balladic likes of "Timeless Phase" and elsewhere... Make that blissful AND bombastic, the latter especially on the album-ending instrumental "Ascension".
Numbered, limited edition reissue in the usual Phoenix wallet sleeve.
Japanese '70s psych alert! Grab yer Japrocksampler and look this one up, you want it!! (It's number eleven on Julian Cope's list of his top 50 Japanese psych faves.)
Having reissued the Far East Family Band's Nipponjin, we were hoping that Phoenix would turn their attentions to that band's original incarnation. They made one album as Far Out, and rarely has a band name been better chosen. Their 1973 lp is a stone classic, from that iconic white glove hanging on a clothes line in front of a blue background album cover to the two side long tracks of tripped out, heavy psychedelic music within. Well, Phoenix have granted our wish, which is awesome 'cause we've always wanted to list/review this album but previous cd reissues have been expensive and hard to come by.
Track one/side one, "Too Many People", eases the listener into things gently, with an echoing heartbeat pulse, some ambient Moog drone, and sad and mellow vocals, accompanied by delicately grooving guitar/bass... by the halfway point (8 minutes or so in) the track has gotten a lot more menacing, with plodding, heavier beats, thicker bass, adorned with "Eastern" sounding guitar licks and distorted acidic soloing. Yeah! 'Tis something that Flower Travellin' Band fans will find to their liking for sure! Towards the end of the song, when the vocals come back in, it's built up into a rather majestically progtastic piece of work that, when it all too suddenly ends, will leave you, the listener, wondering where your epic Nipponese longhaired fantasyland went, what's with all this boring, non-cosmic, not-so-grandiose reality you've so rudely been reacquainted with?
To fix that, at least temporarily, put the headphones back on, and cue up track two/side two, "Nihonjin", another similarly massive trip that can only be described as "far out"... this cut was later reworked a couple years later for the Far East Family Band's Nipponjin opus, though the original here is rawer, less Klaus Schulzified and symphonic.
Like we said, Cope had this up at #11, but for us it might nudge right into the top 10...
Yet another blast of FX heavy, gloomy, psych rock stomp and swagger from these Philly bruisers, and this time around they sound even more droned out and depressive, that whole gloom pop thing they dabbled in on the last record now pretty much defines their sound, and it totally works, and has them sounding like a way heavier, way druggier, and way more dirgey and distorted Crystal Stilts, which is most definitely a good thing. Sounding a bit like classic Aussie post punk via more modern heavy psych rock, these guys kick things off with "Bow Your Head", all swirling squalls of wah guitar, and tribal drum pound, the vocals a snarling yowl, hooks galore, buried in the mire, some cool harmony vocals, but for the most part, low slung and swaggery, noisy, swampy psych blooze of the highest order. Some of the other tracks get a bit krautrocky, but even then, the sound remains gloomy and gothy, dour and darkly depressive and woozily psychedelic, like the wasted zoner krautdrift of "Mother Nature Fetish", or the hazy, druggy dirge of "Beyond Your Bones". There's also plenty of garage rock crunch, not to mention some seriously wasted gothic post punk miserablism, a sound that has us imagining this band playing the Scream club in LA alongside Kommunity FK or the Abecedarians back in the day, in fact maybe our favorite track here "Admit It" is one of those, the perfect mix of old school post punk, and swirly psychedelic goth rock. So great! Includes a download code too...
We had never heard of these guys before, but were definitely pretty taken with the name, the sort that sets the bar pretty high in terms of the music living up to the band name, but these weirdo Philly psych rockers pull it off. Opening up with a cool creepy intro, all gamelan like melodies, buzzing metallic percussion, creepy piano, twisted sci-fi FX and crumbling distortion, before launching into a cool stretch of depressive gloom pop, all low slung basslines, simple motorik drumming, and melodic guitar jangle, before launching into something a bit more blown out, a psychedelic squall that is grounded by an oh so sweet guitar melody which holds it all together, and keeps it firmly rooted in pop, the vocals come in, all laid back and woozy, very Sonic Youth-y, and in fact, the whole sound is very nineties indie rock, we hear some Bardo Pond, some Swirlies, a soft cacophony of jangle and crunch, even some Dinosaur Jr, in the crunchy leads, opener "Hate" is definitely our new noise pop / post punk jam, the sort of thing you could almost imagine Eric's Trip whipping up. For all the obscure comparisons the label throws out (Cramps, Bauhaus, Blue Oyster Cult), some of which we definitely here, the sound seems to hew much closer to classic indie rock and nineties shoegaze, a druggy dreamy psychedelic rocking combo of Sonic Youth, Eric's Trip, The Swirlies, Bardo Pond, Dinosaur Jr along with a heaping helping of early Siltbreeze. We're pretty psyched on these new SB releases (check out the Kitchen's Floor elsewhere on this week's list), both of them feel like they were transported straight here through some crazy timewarp from Siltbreeze circa 1995! Except if they were from '95 they'd be on cd, which would be nice.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, vinyl-only. Comes with a download coupon too.
We first heard this Philly garage psych combo via their debut lp on Siltbreeze, which was a killer, and Siltbreeze was definitely the perfect match, as is Hozac, the label that put out this brand new 7", the A side of which begins with a woozy, druggy sprawl of dirgey psychedelia, the feel very eighties Aussie, until the track explodes into a frenzy of guitar crunch and drum bombast, spaced out and heavy, a little bit Sonic Youthy for sure, a pounding garage psych freakout that we can't get enough of!
The B side starts out with some lo-fi noise pop garage punk swagger, crooned vox over an almost Gary Glitterish groove, a little glammy, with a killer main hook, before the final track an echo drenched super noisy garage rock pound, all sweat drenched, bloody nosed, fat lipped blow out. Awesome.
LIMITED TO 475 COPIES!!
Hipster dance jams from the Johnny Jewel hit factory.
More sultry late night space disco jams from Italians Do It Better. You might remember them forom their tracks on the After Dark comp.
It a bit weird we've never listed any records by LA space rockers Farflung. They've been plugging away for almost 12 years, and A Wound In Eternity is in fact record number 12. At least one or two of us here have some old FF records in our collection, regardless, it's finally time to right this very wrong.
Self proclaimed the heaviest and trippiest FF record yet, A Wound In Eternity is indeed both trippy and heavy, due possibly to the recent addition of various new members, their sound as always borrows heavily from Hawkwind, Monster Magnet, Kyuss, the usual heavies, but with their own distinct twist, and listening to this now, we're feeling a definite glam vibe, a bit of garagey-stomp, really catchy and hooky, but just the tone and the arrangement is sort of reminiscent of classic seventies glam, albeit super charged and a bit more drugged up and spaced out. Which is probably why we hear so much Monster Magnet in FF's sound, they have a similar over the top glamrock meets space metal crunch.
Chunky riffs, propulsive rhythms, dramatic vocals, all wound up into a set-the-controls-for-the-heart-of-the-sun stoner psych space rock blowout. The tracks often burn slow, sometimes pounding away, other times drifting lazily through space, but most of them culminate in huge drone-y psychedelic freakout outros, everything wrapped in swirls of FX, the guitars blossoming like supernovas, the drums growing more and more chaotic. A few tracks have a definite Circle vibe going on too, the group locked into super mesmerizing looped hypnorock grooves, but even then, the band eventually looses themselves from gravity, drifting into the stratosphere, only to burn out in a blaze of blinding, deafening distorted effects drenched buzz...
The lp version is ultra deluxe, and while they last, we have the super limited edition cd version, that comes in a fancy mini-lp style gatefold sleeve, and includes the same two bonus tracks that are on the lp.
The fellow from Karate has struck out on his own (yes, pun intended). Envision a two star hotel in the middle of nowhere with a cocktail lounge/restaurant whose vinyl banquettes are populated by senior citizens and families of four. There's no stage, no grand piano, just a gent named Geoff Farina sitting on a stool at a microphone with guitar in hand crooning gentle meandering ballads...
Leader of Karate releases a solo effort full of mournful musings and solo electric guitar.
Ah, yes it's summertime! Warm sunshine and trips to the beach! And what's more summery than surf music? Lo and behold, our favorite label for obscure and amazing reissues, Japan's EM Records, has a special new series of five, count 'em, five reissues devoted to lost "surf" music treasures. The first two, by Farm and Peter Martin & Finch, are out now, with the others to follow in short order. We're pretty sure all of 'em are awesome.
And if you're familiar with the eccentricity of this label, you'll know that this "EM Under Water" series isn't going to be about, y'know, "regular" surf music of the Jan & Dean or Ventures variety, nope. These first two releases are both soundtracks to rad '70s surfing movies, and are fully psychedelic, with tripped out grooves, synth experiments, and heavy rock jamming all part of the mix.
This one's really fantastic. The music for the legendary 1970 Australian surf documentary The Innermost Limits Of Pure Fun was done by a hippy band called Farm from Santa Barbara who themselves were part of the SoCal surf scene. Their lead guitarist, Denny Aaberg, even wrote a novel about his surfing days called Big Wednesday that was eventually made into movie starring Jan-Michael Vincent and Gary Busey! Other members later on played with such bands as the Surf Punks in the '80s and the Beach Boys in the '90s... and weirder still, The Captain from Captain and Tennille is on here somewhere too. But this is like none of that, needless to say. Farm's sound was more of a special surf/soundtrack/psych hybrid...
There's plenty of glorious mellow jazzy groovers on here, with organ that reminds us a bit of Bo Hansson's stuff, as well tracks like the heavy electric blues of "Zan Ho Zay" and the gorgeous folky acoustic guitar intricacy of "Innerspace". Mostly instrumental, but for two charming vocal cuts, "Crumple Car" and "The Eater", this is surf-psych at its peak for sure. A lot of the record was constructed around live jams, including the soundtrack's finale, the 13 minute improv "Coming Of The Dawn", a track Farm recorded in real-time response to a projection of the film's most awe-inspiring "inside the pipe" sequence. The filmmaker had rigged up a waterproof camera contraption that he was able to strap to his back and use to shoot while riding his board, one of the innovative techniques that made it a groundbreaking surf movie. This soundtrack had to help too!
This reish, done in the usual thorough EM style, is packaged in a nice gatefold sleeve with a thick, fully illustrated booklet in English and Japanese and other bits of ephemera tipped in, and includes a QuickTime video clip on the cd of an interview with the band. As well, both this and also the soundtrack to Drouyn include liner notes by Aussie surf music expert Stephen J. McPharland (author of Waltzing The Plank: The Illustrated Encyclopedia Of Australian Surf Music 1963-2003).
We all agree here at AQ that this is a really amazing disc. We also all agree that it's tough to describe! Which is maybe why we didn't manage to review it right when it first appeared a few months back. But now we'll try, since we like it so much and want you know about it. Simply put (which is impossible), Farmacia from Argentina straddle the line between minimal dance music and rhythmic noise. Crucial Sky In The Land Of Premonitions At Lorenzo's Weekend (there, doesn't that title tell you all you need to know? no? uh, yeah, you're right) is the work of a trio who are making their OWN original music first and foremost, not something we hear everyday. There's an experimental, home-brewed, kit-bashed approach here that possesses some of the charming weirdness of Argentine AQ faves Reynols without sounding like them... much more user-friendly, these guys! It's a sort of playful industrial/electro music, part Throbbing Gristle, part Aphex Twin, part Mouse On Mars, part Ratatat. One track even reminds us of Itavayla, or Trans Am. There's bopping abstract noises, wordless vocals, distortion and drone and disco-friendly beats. Surprisingly beautiful, beautifully surprising. The three members are credited with the use of plenty of analog synths, samplers, computers... an array of ethnic flutes... eggs, noises, and "atmospheric crucial voices"... y'know, the usual stuff. And the results are, as we said, tough to describe. But we figure it's got a wide appeal, to fans of Kraftwerk and Cluster back in the '70s... to fans of Lindstrom yesterday. Totally recommended.
In theory, this DVD produced by Austrian electronic experimentalists Farmer's Manual consists of "every locatable live recording and more dating from 1995 until 2003." The press release goes on to describe that these performances were "about algorithms and their artifacts. Clicks and textural discontinuities were rampant. The demeanor of the performers was stoic: that of accountants working a spreadsheet program rather than artists expressing themselves. Despite the apparent detachment of the performers, the musical pace was extremely rapid, both in terms of events per second and the speed of textural change." Despite the claim of a total running time of whopping 03:21:38:03 (d:h:m:s), all that could be extracted from computers-as-DVD-players we rely on here at Aquarius was 17 minutes of footage of 3 guys aimlessly breaking through a cheaply constructed wall. But maybe it's just as well we didn't find three whole days of that! Caveat emptor.
We can always count on local reissue label Companion Records to foster the kind of rare hidden musical gem that perhaps won't appeal to everyone, but will get a select group of enthusiasts very excited over the discovery of someone's sincerely unique, but often-times misguided musical vision. Companion's specialty has always been private press vanity records, such as the Louie Louie, Charlie Tweddle, Marc Mundy and New Creation records, and for their first foray into vinyl releases have given us two quite amazing but very different musical visionaries: the latent mope-psych of Stan Hubbs (reviewed elsewhere on this list) and the spirited orchestral lounge stylings of Michael Farneti.
Hailing from South Florida and recorded in 1976, Michael Farneti's Good Morning Kisses is a brilliant head-scratcher. Indeed, it seems Farneti is channeling Van Dyke Parks, The Neon Philharmonic, Harvey Sid Fisher and Scott Walker in his wide-eyed enthusiastic and sometimes melancholic songs about Movie Stars, ESP, New York Muggers and Georgia Peaches. Without a hint of irony, Farneti exudes a wonderfully naive charm with strange (and perhaps unintentionally humorous) lyrics and sometimes goofy songs (an example: "Shower, shower, shower until you smell like a flower" on the title track). While we admit we maybe use Ariel Pink's name as a comparison too much in our reviews, it does seem apropos here, because if Ariel Pink played piano in a Reno airport lounge in the seventies, it might sound a lot like Good Morning Kisses. It definitely has the falsetto harmonies, Theremin flourishes, and washed out orchestral yacht rock arrangements that can be heard on Doldrums. Though some songs may make you cringe ("Rock Candy Roll"), there are plenty of golden moments and for fans of unique musical visionaries like the ones we mentioned above, Good Morning Kisses has a lot to offer. Limited to 500 copies. Sweet!
Woah. This is a weird one.�A home-recorded psychedelic one-man-band "rock opera" from 1972, originally a rare privately pressed LP, now reissued on cd. Super freaky and moody and fuzzed out, with a messed-up "my woman done me wrong" vibe to it all. One JW Farquhar of Philadelphia sang and played all the instruments, though there are some other, presumably non-existent musicians credited on the sleeve... get a load of his supposed band, some of the best fake names ever: "Riffery Lowknut" on fender bass, "Slash Mullethead" on percussion, and "Callust Likfinker" on lead guitar! Steel Mammoth wishes they'd thought of those.
In the liner notes JW says that many of these songs "were written as an outcry against the materialistic nature of the woman during that time period". Maybe a little bit misogynistic? Well, apparently JW had just recently gone through a difficult divorce after having been married for 10 years, and was pretty down on women in general. Regardless of the merits of his bitter outlook, the bummed-out emotions expressed are certainly real. And feed into some genuinely twisted, trippy music.
The first two tracks, "The Formal Female" and "The Want Machine", are both multi-part suites, 11-12 minutes each. Groovy, laid back, lonely stuff, rife with FX and heavy doses of fuzz guitar (at one point, JW does to the traditional wedding march what Hendrix did to the "Star Spangled Banner"). "The Want Machine", with its funky guitar and guttural dialogue, almost sounds like the freakin' Jimmy Castor Bunch circa It's Just Begun, jivin' and acid-dosed (here, downer-dosed).
On "My Bundle Of Joy", JW's sad, melodic vocals are accompanied by what sounds like a primitive drum machine ticking away. It's really weird and lovely. Not sure what it reminds us of, maybe Vincent Gallo? Also, there's a good deal of woozy harmonica, or what could be Augustus Pablo style reggae melodica, all throughout the album. "Where Have You Been" and "Mansions" are equally odd and entrancing. Spacey, echoey, outsider rad dudeness! JW Farquhar is part George Brigman, part Dreamies, part Bobb Trimble, part Perry Leopold... like we said, a weird one. Not every Shadoks reissue is amazing, but sometimes when they find an obscure gem, like this, they really hit it out of the park, we're telling you. And as break-up records go, this one's unique.
Nothing special about our Northern California city of Sebastopol compelled Jay Farrar to name his new album as such, he just liked the sound of it. With an array of new (for a geetar traditionalist like Farrar) instrumentation like Roland keyboards, tambura,
P.S. Gillian Welch and Kelly Joe Phelps guest.
