Two Point Discrimination features an all too short twenty four minutes of new piano compositions from Goldmund aka Keith Keniff aka Helios! There's eleven tracks in all, quite fleeting in length with only one clocking in over three minutes.
Their one word titles together form a single sentence -- "Leading then from light to shadow they will see as one". You might say that the latter is Kenniff's more Brian Eno-esque ambient side, whereas Goldmund is his Philip Glass-ian persona. Austere and beautiful as always!
Sculptor Andy Goldworthy approaches a natural location in search of its flow or energy. He then seeks to directly respond, build upon or otherwise reflect upon that energy through a piece of sculpture, using only materials found in that natural space. His artwork transcends observation of entropy and chaos in nature as his pieces take shape from the land, are impermanent and meant to be absorbed or responded to in turn by nature, thus creating a natural flow of discourse between himself and the land. Goldsworthy notes that often "it is the very element that [he's] used in a piece that could cause it's own destruction." In taking very little or no prior study of the commissioned location prior to his arrival in the environment, Goldsworthy claims, "Movement, change, light, growth and decay are the lifeblood of nature, the energies that I try to tap through my work. I need the shock of touch, the resistance of place, materials and weather, the earth as my source. Nature is in a state of change and that change is the key to understanding. Transience in my work reflects what I find in nature." This acclaimed documentary film by German film maker Thomas Riedelsheimer captures him at his home in Penpont, Scotland, and in the field (literally) making his sculptures in France, Nova Scotia and New York. It does a fine job of visually explaning the artist's process of creating his site-specific commissioned pieces and consequently, nature's reaction to them. Use of Goldsworthy's own explanation is slightly incumbering though does not ruin the film. Music by maverick composer/improviser Fred Frith -- whose Rivers And Tides soundtrack cd we already made a Record Of The Week back in 2003 -- marries itself to the meditative qualities of both Goldworthy's art and nature itself to create a truly wonderful film experience overall. A nice bonus on this DVD is extra footage presented in seven short films. Highly recommended!
German Oak isn't the only recent reissue from the murky zone of long-lost krautrock to get us frothing lately. There's also this welcome reissue of the Golem album, via excellent archival imprint Lion Productions (and their UK associates Acme Records). This one has a mysterious backstory indeed. We'll briefly try to give you the basics here, though there's lots more info in the liner notes that come with this release... During the mid '90s there was a resurgence of interest in krautrock, when all kinds of long lost kraut classics were being reissued on cd (many via the grey area Germanofon label), and Julian Cope came out with his infamous Krautrocksampler book. Virgin UK got into the act with a series of compilations called Unknown Deutschland. They featured tracks by some totally unknown bands, The Nazgul, Golem, Temple, Galactic Explorers, and others, supposedly originally released as limited edition lps (100 copies? 25?!) by an art gallery associated label called Pyramid, circa '72-'74, amazing archival stuff indeed. But were they fakes? Perhaps '90s recordings, cashing in on the krautrock boom? Some thought so, on account of how nobody had ever seen or heard of these records before. Definitely it seemed likely that all were the work of the same bunch of musicians, recording under different names. Eventually a label called Psi-Fi came out with reissues (?) of some of the individual albums, which hardly settled the question. This, one, by Golem, even deepened the mystery, as someone named "Genius P. Orridge" was credited as producer... Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV fans will find that rather curious. Who knows, maybe a coincidence.
The controversy has never been definitively settled. But the general consensus is that these recordings do date from Germany in the '70s, maybe more like the late '70s. In any case it's the music that matters, and yeah by that measure there's no doubting that Golem is prime krautrock indeed, sure sounds like it to us! Freeform, all-instrumental, organ and synth heavy space rock for fans of Gila, Guru Guru, Ash Ra Tempel, etc. Five long tracks (including a 14 minute 3 part suite) of superbly spaced out jamming, loose and lysergic, with an edgy, throbbing pulse throughout, and blasts of fuzzed out guitar. Title track "Orion Awakes" starts the trip off right, dark and heavy, "Stellar Launch" also builds up from nervous atmospheres and propulsive motorik rhythms to sheer ecstatic chaos, "Godhead Dance" wah's it up a la Hendrix, "Jupiter & Beyond" (the suite) is suitably far out and freaky, and the repetitive riff rock finale of "The Returning" is a catchy fuzz buzz, almost pop, yet ultra distorted, that reminds us a heck of a lot of AQ garage psych faves The Heads!! Spacemen 3, too. Also could almost be something from one of J. Cope's Braindonor discs too. Super cool.
Like we said, packaged with copious liner notes, this edition far superior to the long out of print one on Psi-Fi, though that did have nice silver metallic cover that this doesn't replicate. Here's hoping that Lion next reissues The Nazgul one, it's good too, how could it not be with a lineup consisting of Frodo, Gandalf, and Pippin?
We haven't heard from Goliath Bird Eater in a while, a guitar and drums duo from LA featuring one Mr. Bobb Bruno as the axe wielding half. We were warned (or was it promised?) by Caligulan label head honcho Anthony, that this GBE was gonna be the heaviest yet, and just a few minutes in, and we're convinced. Whereas the last GBE was sort of mathy and freaked out, we compared it to a stripped down Dazzling Killmen, this new one is all slow burning heaviness, heaving churning guitars, sounds like an ocean of guitars, all tuned as low as they go, and unfurling massive swells of crumbling rumbling glacial heaviness. Eventually, the heaviness recedes, leaving something much more abstract and spacey, all processed guitars, swirling effects, very droney and krautrocky, fans of Expo 70 will probably flip, but best not be averse to heaviness, as they band slip right back into that churning roiling crush that started things off, before finally slipping into a slow simmering low end drift to finish off the first side. There doesn't seem to be any drums on side A so as he's credited with organ too, we can only assume that some of that heaviness could be attributed to some serious organ abuse.
The flipside starts off with another metallic riff, this one a bit more propulsive, and wreathed in shimmering organs, somehow melding some grinding slow motion metal with spaced out krautrock drift, pretty bad ass for sure. This side two doesn't offer up much in the way of drumming, other than what sounds like the click of a hi-hat keeping time, but it hardly detracts from the oozing sprawling heaviness, in fact if anything, the lack of drums lets the sound spill over in all directions, the main riff becoming more and more muddy and blown out, the organs and synths taking on more of the sound, until yes, the drums finally drop, and the song is transformed into some gorgeously in-the-red krautdrone space rock groove that definitely rivals anything you've heard from the various sonic space explorers reviewed elsewhere on the site. The music gets downright majestic, the drums locked in and motorik, the sort of jam that could, and as far as we're concerned SHOULD, go on forever. FUCKING AWESOME.
Killer packaging too, silkscreened and painted photo paper sleeve, with printed metallic gold cardstock insert.
Yet another guitar / drum duo! And man are these guys heavy as fuck! What do you expect with a name like Goliath Bird Eater? Usually when a band decides to go bassless, it seems like a really bad idea, and we always tend to think "dude, you guys would be SO much heavier with a bass player", but in the case of GBE, we're not sure what the heck they would do with a bass player. Every conceivable inch of space is stuffed with super pounding blown out drumming or crushing downtuned metallic guitars, or during those brief moments where there are neither, dense tangled squalls of feedback freakout. There are definite nods to the Champs, and to Hella, even though this is ostensibly a 'metal' record, it's definitely got a serious post rock vibe, especially the drumming. It almost sounds like a more minimal version of the Dazzling Killmen. Which is not a bad thing at all. Hard to believe GBE mainman Bobb Bruno once did time in indie rock outfit Polar Goldie Cats cuz man can he wield an axe like nobody's business. Be sure and stick around for the final 30 minute track, a dreamy, slow burning krautrocky bliss out, all droning keyboard and simple shuffling drums, that waits until the last three minutes to break out into some super aggro metallic bombast. Cool exploding veined octopus lady cover art too!
Oh those unmistakable bad girl vocals of Ms Holly Golightly! A bit brash, a bit raunchy, slightly nasal, slightly slurred, slightly snarky, you've just gotta love it! She's taken care of business both as a member of the trashy garage rawk combo Thee Headcoatees (the female counterpart to Billy Childish's wry, raw and gritty Thee Headcoats) and as a solo artist. Here's her latest full length filled with a bit slower than usual, creepin' tunes that bring to mind old Rolling Stones and Wanda Jackson. Y'know, she's probably the kinda gal your mom might not be too happy to hear you've been hangin' around with, but we won't tell. Bad influence? Pshaw! Just show her the album cover. Looks innocent enough, don't it?
Beautiful songs from this sassy lady who spent four years as a member of the Billy Childish extended family, namely the Headcoatees. Released on local label Smartguy and the packaging is great. (The cover of the 7" has a stick figure girl jumping off a bridge and it's captioned "in private, and often in public, women are bad losers when rejected in love...") Instrumentation includes violin and banjo, which perfectly back her sexy, gritty vocals. Two really great songs that may or may not be new (I feel like I've heard different recordings of these before so if you have some Holly Golightly records be wary). I do believe however that they are new -recordings- of these songs. And if you don't already own any of her records this is a good, inexpensive place to start.
We've stocked this right-on collection before (it came out in 2001), but somehow we missed reviewin' it, so... Prominent female member of Billy Childish's garage-rawkin' entourage (most notably head hostess of Thee Headcoatees), Ms Holly Golightly kicks ass. Perhaps the best (non-live) way to hear a garage rock tune is on the vinyl 7" format, but what d'ya do when your a big ol' Holly fan and your turntable's on the blink? Aaah, you hope that a kind record label in London will re-release two dozen of 'em on one cd. Well chappy, you're in luck 'cause the Damaged Goods label has done just that! Included in the rambunctious bunch are covers of Lee Hazlewood's "Sand", Ike Turner's "Your Love Is Mine" and Pavement's "Box Elder".
Though this is not new, we have not listed any of her work before and I, Sadie, thought it important to bring her to your attention, starting with this, her first lovely release. Holly Golightly joined the Billy Childish auxiliary group Thee
Smoking new ep from one of our favorite strong and saucy songstresses Holy Golightly along with The Brokeoffs, her backup band who joined forces with her a couple years ago, and are proving to have the same kind of spicy demeanor as her former co-conspirator Billy Childish. Deliciously twangy, sassy and packing a serious wallop, Devil Do is reminding us all over again why we fell so hard for Miss Golightly all those years ago. Each of the four tracks here are totally great but the real stand out and wonderful oddball of the bunch is the dark and brooding closer "Whoopie Ti Yi Yo" which almost sounds like what might happen if Golightly lent her voice to a record by Earth! We are keeping are fingers crossed for more songs in this direction, but truly whatever Holly does it's always damn fine!
Oh Holly, you get us every time! With her timeless voice and snarly attitude, Golightly is one of the fiercest singers and songwriters of our time! With her new band The Brokeoffs we get to hear her take a break from her usual garage juke joint gems and explore the moonshine drenched world of Appalachia. From sparse country ballads to haunting blues, this record shows that no matter what musical direction Golightly takes on, the results are always fantastic. Musically, it's almost like a stripped down version of those haunting Tom Waits soundscapes, with an ever so wonderfully warped country twang and then of course the icing on the cake is Golightly's spot on vocals and delivery which make the songs so immediate and engaging. So nice!
Miss Golightly continues on along the dusty country road she set off on her last album, 2007's You Can't Buy A Gun When You're Crying. No signs of the garage anywhere, but fear not she nails the country roots just as well and with as much grit and guts as she does the garage rawk. Her unmistakable he-done-me-wrong voice is perfect for the genre. A perfect balance of girlish sass and world weary womanly know-how, she can really belt out the blues, and The Brokeoffs are right there with her! Also for fans of The Sadies when they've got Ms Neko in tow (or vice versa)!
You know the notion of the wise old hermit sitting on a mountaintop? You'd expect to find an Eastern guru like that up on some Himalayan peak, but of course leave it to a bunch of Swiss and German hippies in the '70s to relocate that mountaintop guru concept to the Alps, and why not? These krautrockers, organized as one of Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser's "Cosmic Couriers" projects, found the perfect frontman, enlisting Swiss writer/folklorist Sergius Golowin (an expert on both Alpine myths and magic mushrooms, not to mention a friend of fugitive acid maven Timothy Leary) to provide mystic recitations over the Eastern-inspired druggy kraut bliss a-sprawl on this 1973 LSD dipped/tripped/hipped "supersession" happening. Said spaced out sounds generated, via flute Mellotron bongos electronics piano tablas organ glockenspiel & guitars, by a cast of musicians including folkies Witthuser & Westrupp, members of hard progsters Wallenstein, and last but not least, he of much kosmiche cred, Klaus Schulze! Actually, Golowin's echoey German-language spoken vox, while adding to the esoteric atmosphere, really take a back seat to the trancey music found on these three long tracks, the longest and most dramatic of which is the third, "Die Hoch-Keit", at almost 20 minutes taking up all of the original vinyl's second side. It begins like an eerie interlude from a particularly psychedelic Spaghetti Western soundtrack, full of abstract percussive sputter, cascading piano, and whispered vocals, its rhythms eventually coalescing into minimalist, Reich/Reichel style pulsations, having a looping, Moolah-like aspect. It and the other two equally freaky pieces on here make for mind expanding, maybe not exactly relaxing music, having a nervous energy that might have something to do with the general drug vibe... yet some portions of this album are quite angelic. While kraut fiends will want this 'cause it was one of the first of Kaiser's post-OHR Cosmic Couriers label albums, released after Ash Ra Tempel's Seven Up and before Walter Wegmuller's Tarot, even the less obsessed might find this an interesting Astral-Alpine excursion!
It's been reissued before, on Spalax, but this new edition boasts much more in the way of liner notes in the thick cd booklet, including some fairly recent interviews with the late Sergius Golowin himself, who passed away in 2006, a true hippie guru 'til the end.
Awesome collection of videos from director Michel Gondry. You may not know the name, but you definitely know his work, the White Stripes Lego video being probably the most talked about. But you'll also immediately recognise the 6 videos he's done for Bjork, the two other White Stripes videos, as well as videos for Kylie Minogue, Chemical Brothers, Foo Fighters, Daft Punk, Cibo Matto, the Rolling Stones, Massive Attack and more. The DVD also includes a 75 minute film about Gondry, tons of shorts, live concert footage, and a huge 52 page book full of stories, interviews, drawings and photos.
Oh god my eyes, my eyes! Don't look at the cover (the head of Gong's Daevid Allen on a naked pregnant woman's body in stereo) or back cover (Acid Mothers Temple's Kawabata Makoto sitting on the toilet), just listen: it's the sound of '70s trippy hippy psych vets Gong getting it on with Japan's Acid Mothers Temple. Yep, white-haired pixie Daevid Allen and his current-day cohorts (that's our pal Josh Pollock playing guitar!) meet up with AMT's Kawabata and Cotton Casino for a rollercoaster musical love-in, the tracks incorporating everything from heavy riffing to George W. Bush samples to ravey dance grooves. It's goofy and freaky, with rapping/chanting vocals that will either charm you with their psychedelic nonsense lyrics or drive you utterly mad. I guess it had to happen. If you ever thought that AMT was too serious, or not indulgent enough, or should sound more like the Talking Heads, then this is for you!! Long time Gong fans should note that Gilli Smyth shows up on one track.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
We intitally got quite a lot of this high concept Record Store Day item (and we knew we'd want to list it if we could), but now down to about, like, just 3 of these babies, so act fast. Briefly, then, the idea here is British instrumental stoner-sludge rifflords Gonga (whose latest full-length, Concresence, we highlighted quite recently and sold a whole bunch of) teamed up with singer Beth Gibbons of Portishead fame (they're both from Bristol), doing a cover of "Black Sabbath" by Black Sabbath. Hence, "Black Sabbeth". Geddit?
The cover painting is a take-off on the cover to Black Sabbath's debut lp, the font for the logo is the same, it's a nice homage. Not much more to say, other than Gibbons acquits herself well - based on this, she could have a future as a witchy occult-doom metal frontwoman, for sure. And of course Gonga nail the music.
The A-side is "Black Sabbeth", while on the B-side you get a track, "Calumet Altar", taken from the Concresence lp.
Here's the third album from this all-instrumental Bristol UK heavy psych trio. It's been a while (like 5 years) since we last heard from 'em, they used to be on Invada, now they record for their own ToneHenge label... and they still bring the long haired Sabbathy jamming sans vocals in spades. Gonga are a chugging instrumental stoner-doom riff machine, with a mega-fuzzed guitar tone we can't help but love. They sound kinda like a cross between Earthless and UFOmammut, a little bit Gore-y too, all endless lumbering grooves, psychedelic leads, and spaced out FX. In other words, pretty killer. Metaphorically put this in your pipe and smoke it, you'll see what we mean.
Best line from Gonga's otherwise druggily arcane/philosophical press release about this album: "Their favourite colour is black or green or something probably."
FYI, vinyl version comes with poster and download and is limited to 400 copies.
One of our favorite tracks from Flying Lotus's excellent Los Angeles record was the penultimate track "Testament" that featured a singer we imagined was discovered in some remote smoky opium den in Morocco. The voice felt ancient, a weezing whispering mixture of Jimmy Scott and Billie Holiday that we thought could have been a sample from an old dusty recording. Well, it turns out that voice is one Sumach Ecks (aka Gonjasufi), a San Diego based yoga instructor and one-time rapper and DJ who in a chance meeting with The Gaslamp Killer and Flying Lotus in Las Vegas, struck up a bond with the two producers and they started working together. A Sufi And A Killer is an amazing debut, a perfect fit between the dark off-kilter beats of Flying Lotus, Burial and King Midas Sound. But it also surprisingly displays a lot of vocal and musical range, moving into some rockier moments, tripping out on short interludes or sometimes delving down strange, mysterious but always interesting sonic tangents. Supposedly it took much longer to mix than it did to record, showing a dedication to detail that is truly rewarding to listen to. Highly recommended!
Now available on vinyl!
One of our favorite tracks from Flying Lotus's excellent Los Angeles record was the penultimate track "Testament" that featured a singer we imagined was discovered in some remote smoky opium den in Morocco. The voice felt ancient, a weezing whispering mixture of Jimmy Scott and Billie Holiday that we thought could have been a sample from an old dusty recording. Well, it turns out that voice is one Sumach Ecks (aka Gonjasufi), a San Diego based yoga instructor and one-time rapper and DJ who in a chance meeting with The Gaslamp Killer and Flying Lotus in Las Vegas, struck up a bond with the two producers and they started working together. A Sufi And A Killer is an amazing debut, a perfect fit between the dark off-kilter beats of Flying Lotus, Burial and King Midas Sound. But it also surprisingly displays a lot of vocal and musical range, moving into some rockier moments, tripping out on short interludes or sometimes delving down strange, mysterious but always interesting sonic tangents. Supposedly it took much longer to mix than it did to record, showing a dedication to detail that is truly rewarding to listen to. Highly recommended!
Mu.Zz.Le is a 10 song mini-album that acts as a sort of a temporary fix until the next Gonjasufi full length. While these are songs that easily could have been left-over from the A Killer and A Sufi sessions (an album we loved!), the flow here has a more tight-knit focus than the kitchen sink approach of the first album. Blurry spectral keyboards and pitched-shifted vocals, not to mention the odd typographical layout of the title, display a witch-house production influence, but the sounds are scuffed and blunted with enough of the stoned grime of his debut that it feels like a natural progression. The tone rides heavily on the melancholy with echoing vocals far-off in the mix and slow doomy beats, but with everything sounding at arm's distance, it may take awhile for the emotional and melodic heft of the songs to really sink in. But it's definitely worth the wait.
Remix albums are tricky affairs. Often times there are only one or two truly notable tracks, or there are too many disparate remixers that cramp the flow of the listening experience from beginning to end. While this reworking of Gonjasufi's amazing debut, A Sufi and A Killer, doesn't trump the original (really, what remix album has ever done that?), this is surprisingly one of the best remix albums we have heard in a long while. Why that is, is rather curious because it's not that there is just one or two really drop-dead standout tracks, or they're trying to make it more friendly for the dance floor. Rather it's because all the remixes work together in an interesting way that make the overall flow a really nice listen. It offers a ghostly alternate universe to the sound-world Flying Lotus, Mainframe and Gaslamp Killer brought to Gonjasufi's debut.
Beginning with Mark Pritchard's (Harmonia 313, Afrika Hi-tech) spookier take on "Ancestors", Bibio's low-key groove on "Candylane" and Dam Mantle's dub-hop reworking of "Ageing", the unusual choice of Broadcast & The Focus Group to remix "DedND" with a chopped up collage of middle eastern strings harps, flutes and sampled vocal snippets adds to the otherworldly proceedings by removing it from the original almost entirely. Jeremiah Jae and Shlomo add a smeary dreamy dubstep twist to "Kobwebz" and "Change" , while Bear in Heaven, have the most minimal electro rework with "Love Of Reign". Another unusual choice of Oneohtrix Point Never to remix the Tom Waits-ish "She's Gone" results in a chopped and screwed rework pitching Gonjasufi's vocals up and down over a syrupy layer of noise. The last remix by Dem Hunger Bowel Blood of "SuzieQ" is the darkest and strangest taking the punkish quality of the original and smearing it slowly across a bleak queasy landscape. The restraint from upping the tempos too much from the originals was a smart choice, as the sound of Gonjasufi works best on the more stoned, slowed and ambient level. There's just enough variety not to get too stuck in a similar sound, while at the same time complimenting each other really well. We wish more remix records were this consistent!
A few years ago electro wizard/producer Gonzales surprised us all with the release of an immaculate and beautiful solo piano recording. For some weird reason the record seemed to come and go in the blink of an eye, but thankfully the Sunnyside label has saved the day and made this gorgeous record available once again. Best known for his production work with the likes of Peaches, Feist and various artists on the Kitty-Yo label as well as his own forays into electro-pop and hip-hop, Gonzales shows that you just never know what somebody has up their sleeves. Playing piano since he was a young child, Solo Piano is the work of an obviously gifted musician but also someone with a keen sense of rich melody and elegant execution. Conjuring up the spirit of Erik Satie and George Gershwin, Solo Piano is that perfect mix of skill and simplicity. Short tracks, breezy and tranquil and beautiful. Oh so nice!
God, this sucks ass. Only if you really liked him at the recent Peaches live show will you probably want this. With names like Patric Catani (EC8OR), Bomb 20 and even Peaches given production credits (and even a L'Trimm sample!), you'd hope for a decent record, but the godawful lyrics are just so damn bad.
If you loved Veneer, than we imagine you will be just as smitten with In Our Nature, as Gonzalez delivers another disc full of well-crafted yet subdued pop melancholy. Features a striking cover of Massive Attack's "Teardrop", otherwise known as the theme from TV show House.
Woah, it's like the day before the day before Christmas, so if we're ever gonna list this we'd better do it now, eh?! Although, this specially-priced, hour-long disc from ex-Comets On Fire/Gargantula/Exploding Crustaceans member Chris Gonzalez, despite its rather over the top Xmas theme, could be enjoyed at other times of the year as well. We suppose. It's funny ha-ha and also funny weird too. Probably playing it in July would make it more of the latter. Basically, Chris, seemingly intoxicated with the Yuletide spirit, has decided to have his way with a bunch of traditional holiday songs (including "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer", "Winter Wonderland", "Silent Night" and "Little Drummer Boy"... indeed all but one of of the twelve tracks are traditional Christmas tunes, see if you can guess which one isn't). However, several are barely recognizable when he's through with 'em! He tackles each song differently, but you've gonna hear a lot of chaotic, distorted, deranged lo-fi lounge and hard rock stylings, recorded on a four-track, with various "guests"... some of it in front of a (fake) live audience, complete with heckling. It's all about as ridiculous as can be. Christmas comedy doesn't get much more silly and surreal -- or noisy. The hip-hopped version of "Jingle Bells" that morphs into a Slayer song might be the low point...and the high point too. Or maybe that would be the "all star celebrity jam" version of "Simple Having A Wonderful Christmastime" that allegedly features Lars Ulrich, Eddie Vedder, Jah Rule, and Donald Duck, among others! Will Santa think Chris has been naughty or nice with this lil' cd? Well it's hard to judge. He's probably just asking "why?" But for a mere six bucks this might be a fine last-minute novelty stocking-stuffer for the wacky music fan on your list.
Delia Gonzalez and Gavin Russom's alchemic synthesizer excursions invoking 70's Klaus Schulze/Manuel Gottsching/Tangerine Dream's long-form synth-prog efforts get the remix treatment on this single. What you get is an alternate take and 3 remixes of the song "Relevee" from their self-titled full length on DFA. The remixers are DFA (of course), Baby Ford ('80s acid-house, anyone?) and the minimalist house of Carl Craig, whose latest remixes, this and his remix of Rhythm and Sound's "Poor People Must Work" is actually making us enjoy house music. Which, as you well know, is quite a feat around here.
Somehow missed this when it came out last year. But with Delia & Gavin being recent Arthur Magazine cover stars we figured we should get on the ball. Some of us remember hearing a 12" of theirs on DFA that stood out as it was really like nothing else on the label. These weren't sounds interested in making you dance and shaking your ass, instead they were about creating a trance, a hypnotizing, tranquil and space-bound dreamlike state. The album takes the same approach and even widens and propels its effect. With 5 long songs that will no doubt make you think of the best of Tangerine Dream. So entrancing and mesmerizing. The Days of Mars sort of sounds like trying to travel to outer space in an old helicopter that rises ever so slowly with its rotors going around and around, an analog starship travelling through some druggy digital universe. Taking cues from lots of the best of 70's electronic minded ambient recordings, like the collaborations between Eno & Cluster, as well as the most spaced out moments of pre-Wall Pink Floyd, this is a record that totally nails its sound so well. Something so mesmerizing, empty, and creepy about its presence. There have been times near closing hour where there will be just one person in the store and this will be on and there's just the weirdest tension that begins to permeate the store. Like a film loop of a acid drenched washed out kodachrome shot image that you can't stop staring at. This is the sound of hours after the rave, days of being awake, nights of being in a complete daze. A late night early morning eyes wide shut dreamstate blissout for sure! We are hooked!
If the cruddy weather we've seen recently in San Francisco decides to come back, we have the perfect rainy day indie-folk record to make us feel ok with it. Minimal arrangements of pensive Spanish-inflected guitar accompany Gonzalez' sedate yet strong voice that falls somewhere between Nick Drake and a male version of Juan Molina, without the electronic accompaniments. Before we heard this, we wrongly assumed this was a folk-tronica record in the vein of Molina or Beck but thankfully Veneer avoids such trappings (Swedish electronic duo The Knife do provide the only beats -- barely audible heart-beats). With an economy and restraint, unheard of in many contemporary singer-songwriters, Gonzalez wisely lets his sophisticated finger-picking express the melancholic heft of the songs. Beautiful.
With most any album from Buena Vista Social Club pianist Ruben Gonzalez, you can be assured of highly uplifting Cuban music, this one is no exception. Simply gorgeous.
So wonderful! Ry Cooder says Ruben Gonzalez is "the greatest piano soloist I have ever heard in my life. A Cuban cross between Thelonious Monk and Felix the Cat." The liner notes read: "This is the debut album by one of Cuba's national treasures. Made over fifty years after his first classic recordings with the great Arsenio Rodriguez, it was recorded 'live' with no overdubs in two days at Egrem Studios in Havana."
Wally Gonzalez, guitarist from the Phillippines' proto stoner rock combo the Juan De La Cruz band, stepped out in the late '70s with these two newly cd-ified solo records, 1977's Tunog Pinoy and 1978's On The Road. They're not that heavy but do feature lotsa wailing Wally guitar action -- and wild/cheesy keyboard synth sizzlin' too. Wally fronts 'em both on guitar and vocals and although each was recorded with a different backing band, the two discs are pretty similar. Slow-burning mellow psych pop ballads are mixed with strutting boogie numbers. What titles there are in English are along the lines of "Rock & Roll Mama", "Wally's Blues", "Rockin' Roller" and, uh, "Screw". Neither album is as raw and gritty as the best of Juan De La Cruz, but this is still good fun hard rock and folky balladry, Filipino style, with a polyester '70s sheen that will either kitschly add to your enjoyment or perhaps ruin it totally.
Wally Gonzalez, guitarist from the Phillippines' proto stoner rock combo the Juan De La Cruz band, stepped out in the late '70s with these two newly cd-ified solo records, 1977's Tunog Pinoy and 1978's On The Road. They're not that heavy but do feature lotsa wailing Wally guitar action -- and wild/cheesy keyboard synth sizzlin' too. Wally fronts 'em both on guitar and vocals and although each was recorded with a different backing band, the two discs are pretty similar. Slow-burning mellow psych pop ballads are mixed with strutting boogie numbers. What titles there are in English are along the lines of "Rock & Roll Mama", "Wally's Blues", "Rockin' Roller" and, uh, "Screw". Neither album is as raw and gritty as the best of Juan De La Cruz, but this is still good fun hard rock and folky balladry, Filipino style, with a polyester '70s sheen that will either kitschly add to your enjoyment or perhaps ruin it totally.
What happens when the dooooom takes hold of experimental jazzzz? Good For Cows' latest mooooozzzzzic. Heh Heh. On Audumla drummer Ches Smith (Secret Chiefs 3, Xiu Xiu, John Zorn among others) and bassist Devin Hoff (formerly of Xiu Xiu) churn and rumble their way through nine instrumental jams. We can't say for sure if these sounds are beneficial for cattle, and we doubt we'll be hearing this cd played out in a pasture anytime soon to find out. The bass is a deep sludge-y boiled ooze, the drums are all rhythmic angularities. Electronics and effects provide additional atmospheric texture and unexpected shocks of lightning and sheets of rain in this aural thunderstorm. Some passages definitely brings to mind horror movie soundtracks from the '70s. Ultra ominous and heavy.
It seems San Francisco's Good for You aren't aiming to break any new ground with this debut album, but y'know often it's nice to tread a very familiar, well-trodden path. This hails from the catchy emo-land that'll never go out of style. All salute the early strains of Superchunk, Doug Martsch's pre-Built To Spill band the much more tense and angstful Treepeople, and the boy/girl
Loping pop with plaintive vocals that alternately brought to mind Robert Smith (The Cure), Jarvis Cocker (Pulp) and Stephin Merritt (Magnetic Fields). Sort of like a low-key indie Coldplay. And please know that to me this is by no means a bad thing! A
Endless Bummer is such a good name for a record. Usually we're not all that into puns as titles (or band names), but Endless Bummer manages to be a pun, while sort of flipping the spirit of the original inside out. We always wanted to call a record Endless Bummer, but we've now been beat to the punch TWICE. At least. Once in the nineties by Further, whose Endless Bummer was an effervescent chunk of in the red post-Pavement slacker Beach Boys worship, and now this record right here, by the mysteriously named Good Stuff House, whose own particular Endless Bummer is much darker and more sedate, a sprawling drift of minimal shimmer and fluttery folk enveloped by dense clouds of natural reverb and billows of soft buzz.
We didn't know too much about Good Stuff House, we had another cd-r that we dug quite a bit, but which went out of print before we could get enough to review, but now we know just why we liked GSH so much, it's the two guys from dronedrift duo Zelienople, and none other than long time aQ fave, guitarist Scott Tuma, he of the legendary Souled American as well as a clutch of amazing solo records (including a recent record of the week). Pretty much hard to go wrong. And Endless Bummer is further proof of just how far from wrong these guys can get....
Apparently Endless Bummer was recorded in unorthodox spaces, warehouses, churches, basements, and it's not just the band performing live, but much like Taj Mahal Travellers 30 years earlier, who would record various performances, then broadcast them into the space, playing along live, often more than once, every step adding more and more murk and buzz and reverb and echo, the sound getting less and less distinct, until it became the sound of drifting along some murky body of water, through a sonic fog so thick it clings to the surface of the water, every note sounding like it had travelled up from the bottom of the sea, or echoing off of the distant shore. Tuma offers up bits of his gorgeous distinctive guitar, and while they do manage to hover briefly, they seem to absorb the sounds around them, soft spidery tendrils transformed into thick swells, the trio introducing bits of voice, various other sounds, all rendered almost immediately unrecognizable, becoming more another part of this sprawling organic whole, cymbal sizzle becomes shimmering clouds, drifting over the drifting murkscape below.
The sound is simultaneously muddy, murky and lo-fi, yet warm, glistening, and subtly melodic, everything is muted, the softened edges barely hiding the glowing sonic glimmers within. Gorgeous.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES. Packaged in super subtle silver ink on pale blue fold over origami style sleeve.
Originally released as a super limited cd-r on Time-Lag in 2006, this is the long awaited vinyl resurrection of Good Stuff House's untitled debut. As you may know, Good Stuff House is (or was) the trio of Scott Tuma of Souled American and Mike Weis and Matt Christensen of experimental drift-drone duo Zelienople. We reviewed a while back a cd-r on Root Strata with the evocative title of Endless Bummer, and that was seemingly the last we heard from this mysterious crew. But since we never got a chance to review their first release, we're glad to bring it to you now, courtesy of the fine folks at the Indian Queen and Holodeck labels.
Rooted in the same sorrowful dust/dusk as Endless Bummer, Untitled feels freshly fertile, a spidery mist in a resonant boggy forest. The sound of splintery banjo, hand drums, church chimes and sleigh bells feels like a slow train ride of creeping death, but far removed from present time, instead in a sepia toned past where mournful violin and bowed strings march funereally into the woods for ceremonial burial, the body becoming one with the earth in the beautifully removed timbre of decaying drones, and skeletal Appalachia. Piercing through the murk, a host of voices far away bleakly sing with squalled guitar slides and cavernous ambiance, the sound bloating intensely or becoming deathly sparse in carefully wrought filigrees of graceful dreamy drift. Gorgeous and limited to 300 copies!
Download card included.
Goodiepal is an extremely shy young man from Denmark who plays gleefully bent music that teeters on the fringes of experimental electronica (ala Mego) and Scandinavian flavored folk music. A collector of unusually tweaked and jagged sounds, Goodiepal maintains a day job independently contracting sound work from companies like Nokia, Chupa Chups, Hitachi, Carlsberg, Matrix, blah blah blah... Anyway, the music itself disguises a dissonant, troublemaking problem child with wide-eyed innocence as captivating as it is irritating. To confuse even further, he records under aliases like Chupa Chups and Mainpal Inv. and collaborates with the Italian Gamers In Exile and those V/VM pranksters. From dreamy, otherworldly arrangements involving acoustic guitars, resonating chimes, car horns, toy recorders and other wind instruments to a brilliantly conceived acapella track performed through a vocoder, Goodiepal brings back a Jean Jacques Perry or Electric Company (the old TV program, mind you) feel to inspire a new, inventive, and playful electronic music. After I first put this on, I looked again inside the cardboard package to see if there was a toy prize! On Dat Politics' own label Skipp!
Scott Goodwin is probably not a name most of you know off the top of your head. But as the man behind minimal drone combo Bonus, we were pretty excited to hear what he had been up to lately, especially since the Bonus discs we'd carried in the past were some of our favorite minimal drone music,
Impeccable Surface is definitely less rumbly and buzzy and low end than Bonus, but no less drone-y or hypnotic, this 32 minute disc begins with a pulse like high end tone, some strange klaxon, bleating out a machine like throb, while beneath and all around it, thick textured electronic tones ebb and flow, swallowing the pulse entirely, then fading to a distant whisper, the sound incredibly lush and full, the sounds slipping back and forth from ear to ear, heavily panned, the sound very spatial and expansive. A few minutes in and another, louder layer of tones join the fray, and seem to swoop wildly over the proceedings, but begin to blend with the various other sounds, and suddenly it's almost like one of those paintings you stare at a different shapes emerge. The tones blend and then beat against each other, the sounds stuttering, buzzing, transforming into smooth long harmonies, and then back again, a glorious sonic tangle, that seems to spin and change shape, change colors, change appearance right before our ears. A dog whistle tone soon joins in and the whole thing gets that much more intense, until finally, at about the halfway mark, the piece becomes much more minimal, a single tone undulating, wavering, joined by another tone, way off in the distance, the distant ultra high tone eventually eclipsing the lower tone, until it sounds like Ryoji Ikeda or Francisco Lopez. The main tone lurches back in, and suddenly the tones are winding in and out of each other's space, drawing all sorts of minimal melodies and not quite rhythms until the track shuts down, leaving just that impossible dog whistle tone, and then silence.
Some seriously incredible minimal drone music for sure. The usual suspects will definitely need this. And of course, be warned, SUPER LIMITED, when we run out, we may not be able to get more.
First proper cd (not cd-r) release from Scott Goodwin, whose day job is in the group Bonus, but who spends his spare time, making even MORE drone music. Unlike the thick and rumbling, almost doomlike drone of Bonus, on his own, Goodwin tends toward the minimal, more Niblock than SUNNO))), less distortion, more timbre and tone. Goodwin's most recent cd-r Impeccable Surface demonstrated a dramatic shift in that direction, but with Off Light, Goodwin full realizes his vision, crafting too extended drones from pure tones, sine waves, the result is a subtle dronescape of shimmering overtones, and of sound in flux. Niblock is definitely the closest reference, as Goodwin seems to approach his drones in a similar fashion, lining up the layers, the tones, and then shifting them microscopically to create various rhythms and colors. For what seems fairly static, the sounds are incredibly active. Changing shape, their textures constantly shifting, the overtones creating rhythms, those rhythms interacting with the tones and creating counter rhythms and more overtones. With headphones it's easy to get sucked in, it almost makes the listener dizzy, the way the sound seem to move and breathe, but take a step back, and the sound seems more static and manageable, but ever beckoning, with its own impossible gravity. The two tracks, one low, one high, both offer up glimpses into sound, both entrance and enthrall, each soothing in its own way, but far too complex to be ambient music. The sound is academic as well as primal (what's more primal than the drone?), ethereal and ineffable, yet measured and composed, the sounds here are complex enough that they can be appreciated on either level, as a world of sound to explore, and attempt to understand and unravel, or as pure sound, simple and subtly lovely. Or better yet, a mix of the two.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!!!
Oh Googoosh! We were pretty thrilled when this came in as we've been anticipating a collection of her recordings ever since many of us first heard her mind blowing track "Talagh" on that great Pomegranates compilation of Persian pop, psych, and funk from the '60s and '70s. Luckily, Iranian singer Googoosh was no one hit wonder, as this collection shows that pretty much every song she made during this era (1970-'75) is totally awe-inspiring. Like the perfect cross between the explosive psychedelia of Selda and the introspective folk of Pari Zangeneh. Her voice reels you in and the music's alluring and dynamic swirling melodies leave you in the throes of serious sonic pleasure.
Much like Turkey's Selda, Googoosh's music had such a brave and fiery political stance to it as well. Sadly much of her music was banned by the Iranian government by the end of the 1970s, and many of her records were literally burned and destroyed. Luckily, from what copies did remain, Andy Votel worked his Finders Keepers magic and has compiled an amazing collection of one of the greatest voices to come out of Iran (and anywhere else for that matter)!
