There's been so much hype about this Swedish metal outfit, before we had ever heard a note, we had heard ABOUT them, seen amazing pictures of the band playing live, the vocalist with a face painted like a skull, dressed in robes like some demonic priest, the album cover, a creepy seventies oil painting of that same vocalist, hovering demon like over an old haunted looking church, their satanic lyrics, their epic heaviness, so we were prepared for something seriously demonic and devastating, black metal or at least black-ISH metal we were assuming, so when we finally heard it, we were lured in by the sound of a church organ, so far so good, haunting and mysterious, and then the first song kicks in, thick buzzing metallic bass, pounding drums, okay, so not black metal, but heavy, fuzzed out, a little psychedelic, and then the vocals, woah, sounding a lit like Voivod weirdly enough, soaring majestically over chugging churning, and them suddenly, so POPPY, the song shifting gears, slipping into something way more melodic, replete with oooh's and aaaah's and some strange liturgical sounding crooning, some cool seventies style organs too, so it may not be what we were expecting but we were loving it, so then the next song started, and wow, even less metal, more like classic rock, seventies psych, a surprise, but fuck it, still pretty damn killer, the guitars still plenty heavy, and then the chorus, holy shit, a dead ringer for Blue Oyster Cult, total hooky pop, and it was then that we realized we were totally hooked.
C'mon, chugging satanic metal meets dark psychedelic rock meets Blue Oyster Cult? How rad is that?! The Answer is VERY. The vocals occasionally sound a bit like King Diamond, the band slipping into some Mercyful Fate-isms here and there, but a way poppier, more psychedelic, less overtly metal version, the leads are awesome. And it's pretty cool to hear actual singing and real melodies and a sort of classic psych rock formula with these explicitly Satanic lyrics.
"Death Knell" gets a little doomy, and features the refrain "Six Six Six" amongst other evil ramblings, but the song is far from fierce and heavy, instead it's trippy and broody and mysterious and haunting, the vocals wreathed in reverb and draped over muted guitars, fuzzy organs, with some cool dynamic stop/starts, as well as some tolling bells and a few definite Sabbathisms. We were sort of hoping "Prime Mover" was a Zodiac Mindwarp cover, but instead it's a pretty stellar original, droned our layered high end guitars wrap around a chugging churning riff, the bassline buzzy and ominous, again, a super dynamic arrangement, maybe one of the heaviest jams on the record, a little mathy, the guitars thick and fierce, and then the vocals come in, and the sound shifts to something more melodic and moody, drifty and creepy and psychedelic.
So yeah, don't be misled by the hype, or the satanic imagery, this isn't black metal, or really strictly metal, but if the idea of some awesomely Satanic psychedelic seventies styled heaviness, a sort of more metallic and WAY more evil and over the top classic rock, sounds like your sort of thing (and why wouldn't it?), then you'll probably love this as much as we do.
Killer packaging too, the aforementioned cover art, a sweet slipcover, and of course lyrics, so you can sing along and perform your own little musical black masses at home.
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.
Japan's Ghost bless us with not one, but two new albums of their psychedelic "heavy chamber folk" sounds! Of the two, "Snuff Box..." rocks a bit more, even indulging in a Rolling Stones cover. The beautifully silvery-packaged Tune In... is their album of protest songs. Folkier and longer than "Snuff Box..." and featuring a Pearls Before Swine cover. Lovely, haunting, melodic.
Japan's Ghost bless us with not one, but two new albums of their psychedelic "heavy chamber folk" sounds! Of the two, "Snuff Box..." rocks a bit more, even indulging in a Rolling Stones cover. The beautifully silvery-packaged Tune In... is their album of protest songs. Folkier and longer than "Snuff Box..." and featuring a Pearls Before Swine cover. Lovely, haunting, melodic.
It's hard not to love these guys, their sound less and less metal with every passing day, sounding like some alternate universe Blue Oyster Cult, more hard pop, or psychedelic rock than metal, which is evidenced even more here, on this EP, collecting all of the group's cover versions. Most fans already have their Abba cover, as it was a bonus track on the US version of their most recent record, which was ironically the most metal song on that record! But unless you got the Japanese import of the first record, you probably don't have their Depeche Mode cover, a KILLER version of "Waiting For The Night". But even if you DO have those, this is the only place you'll get to hear their cover of Roky Erickson's "If You Have Ghosts" and maybe most surprisingly, Army Of Lovers' "Crucified", both of which could be Ghost originals. And to finish things off there's a pretty great live version of "Secular Haze" recorded live in NYC...
NOW ON LP!! Pressed on red vinyl, includes a download code too...
Like most of you, we kinda flipped for the 2010 debut record from mysterious Swedish hard rockers / retro metallers Ghost. And some of our pals / customers went absolutely apeshit about 'em - going to every show, buying every possible permutation of the record, picture disc, import cd, along with shirts, hats, whatever. And while we were perhaps not as over the top nuts for Ghost as that, we definitely loved that record, a lot, and played it like crazy. The sound being a strange hybrid of Mercyful Fate like metal, and Blue Oyster Cult like classic heavy rock. The band fronted by a ghoulish Pope-like figure, wearing corpsepaint, and wearing papal robes, often carrying some sort of staff, while the rest of the group were a mystery, their identities hidden by robes and masks. A silly gimmick maybe, but it definitely kept everyone talking about these guys, trying to figure out who they were, which famous metal guys from other Swedish bands were actually involved. And plus, let's admit it, watching some super theatrical performance with costumes and characters, is way more satisfying than a bunch of dorky long haired dudes in jeans rocking out.
So anticipation was high for record number two. The band were rumored to have been given $750,000 to record. They flew to the US, and got a high profile producer, and the results are here, and well, the response has been divisive to say the least. Now re-christened Ghost B.C. due to to some legal difficulties, the new record finds the band almost completely ditching the metal, their sound even more firmly entrenched on the seventies hard rock side of their sound. Some of us were thrilled, as we dug that side of the band WAY more, while others, not so much. In fact one of the above mentioned superfans, hated the two songs he heard so much, he didn't even buy the record, and had no plans to do so. While that seems a bit dramatic, considering, minus the less metal, the sound is ultimately not that far removed from the first record, and in fact, the songs are way better, and way catchier, and the production, while to some ears sounded too slick and polished, ultimately sounds perfect for the songs, and with every listen, we become more and more obsessed. In fact two aQ staffers were really, really keen on making this a Record Of The Week. Certainly those two aQ-ers have listened to virtually nothing else since this came in. But there was some dissent, so we'll leave it up to you. The samples below say more than we ever could, but we'll try anyway.
While the first record was definitely a metal record, the most you could say about Infestissumam is that it's hard rock, but really it's almost more like hard pop. The songs are crazy catchy, the guitars are distorted, and a little bit buzzy, but the production is such that they don't sound heavy exactly, and the organs from the first record are all over the place here, giving some songs a very carnivalesque, circusy feel, and others a weirdly Partridge Family vibe. The songs so hook heavy, with huge choruses, and equally catchy bridges, the solos are simple, the sort that mirror the main melody, and stick in your head like the vocals, the vibe is actually kind of mellow, slightly ominous, a little bit sinister, but only a little bit. It's bouncy, almost power poppy, epic and lush and super detailed, headphone listening reveals so much sonic detail, that at times it's not hard to believe this record could have cost almost a million dollars. When we were all arguing about whether to make this a Record Of The Week, one aQ-er sent this text to another aQ-er: "Ghost is Satanic bubble gum. Total genius. I've listened to it like fifty times already!" And the aQ-er writing this review wouldn't deign to argue. Cuz it is like Satanic bubblegum. Catchy and bombastic and almost orchestral in places, pure pop in others, hard rock in others, but so far removed from the metal that popped up throughout the first record, it seems insane to call them a metal band at this point. But whatever you call them, and however you feel about their sonic progression from their debut to this new one, have a listen to those sound samples, and see if you can resist. We're guessing you won't be able to. And why fight it?? A glorious slab of Satanic bubblegum hard pop genius!
Like most of you, we kinda flipped for the 2010 debut record from mysterious Swedish hard rockers / retro metallers Ghost. And some of our pals / customers went absolutely apeshit about 'em - going to every show, buying every possible permutation of the record, picture disc, import cd, along with shirts, hats, whatever. And while we were perhaps not as over the top nuts for Ghost as that, we definitely loved that record, a lot, and played it like crazy. The sound being a strange hybrid of Mercyful Fate like metal, and Blue Oyster Cult like classic heavy rock. The band fronted by a ghoulish Pope-like figure, wearing corpsepaint, and wearing papal robes, often carrying some sort of staff, while the rest of the group were a mystery, their identities hidden by robes and masks. A silly gimmick maybe, but it definitely kept everyone talking about these guys, trying to figure out who they were, which famous metal guys from other Swedish bands were actually involved. And plus, let's admit it, watching some super theatrical performance with costumes and characters, is way more satisfying than a bunch of dorky long haired dudes in jeans rocking out.
So anticipation was high for record number two. The band were rumored to have been given $750,000 to record. They flew to the US, and got a high profile producer, and the results are here, and well, the response has been divisive to say the least. Now re-christened Ghost B.C. due to to some legal difficulties, the new record finds the band almost completely ditching the metal, their sound even more firmly entrenched on the seventies hard rock side of their sound. Some of us were thrilled, as we dug that side of the band WAY more, while others, not so much. In fact one of the above mentioned superfans, hated the two songs he heard so much, he didn't even buy the record, and had no plans to do so. While that seems a bit dramatic, considering, minus the less metal, the sound is ultimately not that far removed from the first record, and in fact, the songs are way better, and way catchier, and the production, while to some ears sounded too slick and polished, ultimately sounds perfect for the songs, and with every listen, we become more and more obsessed. In fact two aQ staffers were really, really keen on making this a Record Of The Week. Certainly those two aQ-ers have listened to virtually nothing else since this came in. But there was some dissent, so we'll leave it up to you. The samples below say more than we ever could, but we'll try anyway.
While the first record was definitely a metal record, the most you could say about Infestissumam is that it's hard rock, but really it's almost more like hard pop. The songs are crazy catchy, the guitars are distorted, and a little bit buzzy, but the production is such that they don't sound heavy exactly, and the organs from the first record are all over the place here, giving some songs a very carnivalesque, circusy feel, and others a weirdly Partridge Family vibe. The songs so hook heavy, with huge choruses, and equally catchy bridges, the solos are simple, the sort that mirror the main melody, and stick in your head like the vocals, the vibe is actually kind of mellow, slightly ominous, a little bit sinister, but only a little bit. It's bouncy, almost power poppy, epic and lush and super detailed, headphone listening reveals so much sonic detail, that at times it's not hard to believe this record could have cost almost a million dollars. When we were all arguing about whether to make this a Record Of The Week, one aQ-er sent this text to another aQ-er: "Ghost is Satanic bubble gum. Total genius. I've listened to it like fifty times already!" And the aQ-er writing this review wouldn't deign to argue. Cuz it is like Satanic bubblegum. Catchy and bombastic and almost orchestral in places, pure pop in others, hard rock in others, but so far removed from the metal that popped up throughout the first record, it seems insane to call them a metal band at this point. But whatever you call them, and however you feel about their sonic progression from their debut to this new one, have a listen to those sound samples, and see if you can resist. We're guessing you won't be able to. And why fight it??
While they last, we have the deluxe version, which tacks on to bonus tracks, one of which is a hazy, strummy, psychedelic sixties sounding ballad, the other their kick ass cover of ABBA's "I'm A Marionette", which weirdly enough sounds more metal than ANYthing on the record proper, which should tell you all you need to know about this glorious slab of Satanic bubblegum hard pop genius!
FYI, vinyl should be showing up here soon too, next week we're told...
From the Leaf Trail Label, run by the Bonecloud / Changeling folks, comes this brand new disc from the very strangely named French duo Ghost Brames Of The Cerf. Clues to the sound of Ghost Brames can be found in the fact that A. it's on Leaf Trail and that B. one half of the duo also does time in like minded sonic countrymen The Reggaee.
So yeah, we're talking, looooong tracks of super abstract drones, and disembodied free folk weirdness, and Ghost Brames give it their own spin, haunting similar sonic landscapes as Avarus and other Finnish folkies, as well as the abstract drift of their Leaf Trail label bosses.
Four tracks, all 10 minutes plus, the first, super minimal, distant melodies drifting in and out of earshot, in the foreground a hushed looped machine-like rhythm and a wheezing organ, but all of the various parts are whispered, the tape hiss nearly loud enough to overtake the music. Lovely but so so subtle and so abstract it could almost fade into nothingness at any moment. The second track is also minimal, but much more present, a tangle of keening high end, not sure if they're horns or strings or synths, but they glimmer and shimmer, like streaks of feedback, while below, detuned guitars strum and a non-rhythm is plonked out on wood blocks and cardboard boxes. That track segues directly into the third, where the drifting upper register smears are quickly overtaken by a wash of staticky thrum, smeared and blurred but fuzzy and dense, beneath it a strange sing song vocal surfaces, the track eventually building to an almost operatic climax.
The final track, takes the operatic frenzy of track three, and slathers it with buzzing guitar and fuzzed out loops, the vocals transformed into jagged melodic fragments beneath the almost doom like stasis of distorted guitar whir. Quite cool.
Packaged in oversized full color sleeves, with color printed inserts.
Wow, is that a mouthful. The band is called Ghosts Brames Of The Cerf's Magickal and the record's called For Every Hang Thy Dreamy Spell, Round Mountain Star And Heather Bell. WTF? Nothing there could possibly prepare you for he dreamy drift contained within. GBOTCM is another project of French outfit the Reggaee, who have teamed up with some like minded musical alchemists for a late night ritual of simple guitar strum and strange disembodied percussion. Minor key buzz and twang, stretched out over a murky low end throb, with bits of fluttery flute, a bit of dark and drifting campfire forestfolk, ominous and melancholy, laid back and shadow lit. Eventually, this flickering folks is joined by soft swells of subterranean drone and brief burbles of spacey FX, adding to the dreamy drift but never disrupting the tranquil ambience.
LIMITED TO 49 COPIES!!!
FINALLY, this long out of print, all time unanimous AQ favorite gets re-pressed and is available once again!
The Conet Project from beyond the grave!?! Perhaps that's a good way of describing this baffling, terrifying, occasionally laughable, but always compelling album. It's been out of print for a very long time, and we're pleased to see The Ghost Orchid haunting our shelves once again!
To recap, The Ghost Orchid documents instances of something called "Electronic Voice Phenomenon," the paranormal appearance of strange voices (which at times sing and speak in multiple languages) on magnetic tape when there shouldn't be any voices there at all... Respected parapsychologists have postulated that these voices are those of dead people (i.e. ghosts) or possibly of extraterrestrial origin! Unlike The Conet Project, which cross referenced the audio tracks with written information, The Ghost Orchid presents these recordings with the audio commentary of one of several researchers (Nadia Fowler, Raymond Cass, and Lief Elggren -- the Swedish performance/audio artist and a part time collaborator with the Hafler Trio), explaining the findings. These recordings are the findings of a number of parapsychologists including Dr. Konstantine Raudive, Friedrich Jurgenson, and Raymond Cass.
While there is something wholly terrifying about these recordings, there is an absurd question about these ghostly voices that we have to ask: Why are the majority of these recordings in Latvian? At any rate, The Ghost Orchid manages to be both spooky and silly, and is definitely a fascinating listen from a pure sound perspective regardless of how disturbing and/or amusing you might find the alleged sound source itself. For non sequitur pop culture reference, the sample "You are sleeping, you do not want to believe" which concludes The Smith's "The Rubber Ring" hails from an old recording made by Raudive and can be found in its entirety here. Brilliant!
Not only referencing a rare strain of flower, but also an AQ favorite collection of ghost voices, otherwise known as the Electronic Voice Phenomenon, the Ghost Orchids stand in direct contrast to the confrontational screamo-spazzcore of most of their San Francisco contemporaries, with their cold, detracted aesthetic of new wave electronics and goth theatricality. "The King Is Dead" is the Ghost Orchid's debut full length, having recorded the album at I Am Spoonbender's Seismic Seance studios. Much of the avant-pop plasticity which coats the Spoonbender aesthetic carries over into The Ghost Orchids' sound, although the Ghost Orchids have dropped all of the Factory label references of their "Architecture" EP in favor of the detached electro stares of contemporaries like Adult. but keeping truer to the '80s darkwave electronics of Clock DVA or Cassandra Complex with spartan, repetitive programming and hard EBM rhythms. Black eyeliner required.
MPEG Download: "A New Bloodtype" [/audio/ghostorchidsanewblood.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "A New Bloodtype" [/audio/ghostorchidsanewblood.m3u]
Anyone remotely familiar with aQ knows we've long had a soft spot for earthy, psych-tinged music that weaves its way along beautiful shadowy paths through the dewy glimmers and murky sludge. Well, here's something new that fits the bill and has been pleasing many an ear around here! We actually put a call out to these Portland, OR folks back in October to send some of their music down the coast. A few months have passed and here we are finally with cds in hand, and we think it was worth the wait! Heck, in the short time we've had Like This Forever in stock, in-store play has already been stirring up many many queries with at least one purchased each time it's spun.
Stormy waves of electric guitar distortion and reedy woodwinds crash upon one another, then melt into clear smooth bell chimes. Horns and piano also enter the fray that ebbs and flows around mainman Eric Crespo's emotive vocals that have been compared to those of Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes. As you listen you get a sense that Crespo and co. may have been raised on a balanced diet of Pink Floyd and Fleetwood Mac as well as Pavement and Slint. Yes, all the most nutritious and tastiest food groups! Recommended.
If you've seen the movie, this soundtrack will provide you with an accurate musical instant replay. Almost like a scene by scene summary even. If you haven't, well then, it's a great eccentric and eclectic mishmash of tunes. Sort of running like a mixtape you'd make for a dear friend. Many songs ring with a fond familiarity -- notably the first track by Mohammed Rafi as it was included on the "Doob Doob A Rama: Filmsongs From Bollywood" compilation that's been a fave here at AQ. Other ol' tyme stuff includes Lionel Belasco, Vince Giordano And The Nighthawks, and Skip James.
There's definitely a division in the clan, Wu-Tang that is. There's the upper tier, Method Man, Old Dirty Bastard, RZA, GZA, the ones whose solo records are as good, if not better than the proper Wu-Tang records, the ones who are too busy producing, filming
Featuring WuTang luminaries Raekwon and Cappadonna.
Fomer Sugarcubes singer Einar Bendiktsson does a Mark E. Smith over very wrong hip-hop techno electro. It's Sprocketsy, Eurotrashy and, hopefully, tongue in cheek. If that, then kinda funny!
Another gorgeous and mysterious sonic document from these until recently WAY under the radar sound sculptors from Portland. And yes, this is another way too limited cd-r, but rest assured it's another absolute abstract freedrone gem.
One 33 minute track, a ghostly dreamlike shuffle through a fuzzy indistinct world of softly surging swells, smeared guitar ambience, shimmering high end short wave interference, distant almost-melodies, sonar like blips and bleeps, and thick washes of rumbling chordal swirl, all deftly woven into a fuzzed out, slow shifting dreamdrone. So good.
Includes a full color poster/insert
Limited to 100 copies.
This is the second disc we've had from these North Western sonic explorationists, the first was an appropriately ghostlike dronescape and while this new one is similar, it is also a lot more active and varied, and quite a bit weirder. Where the first one was dreamy and drifty, easy to get lost in, music to float away to, Why Not Be Utterly Changed Into Fire is much more dense, with a nonstop series of sonic events manifesting themselves in subtle ways, each sound and each layer and each element is quickly absorbed into the whole, adding to the richness of sound, but not completely losing their unique sonic footprint. The sound is still soothing and mesmerizing, but definitely begs to be listened to closely, to be explored and enjoyed actively. Drone is still the order of the day, but these drones are not so simple, there are layers and layers of disparate sound, that have been deftly assembled into this half hour sonic swirl. A fuzzy staticky pulse is underpinned by warm monochromatic tones, a very simple melody almost rendered unmelodic by its arrangement, the different tones beat against each other and create strange overtones, which become yet another layer. The static builds and builds until the original drone, the original melodies are barely visible beneath a sea of fuzzy prickly staticky hiss. The rest of the record plays out as a constant battle between the soft shimmering drone and the thick billowing clouds of static, the result is quite beautiful, a noisy yet melodic soundscape, a drone swallowed whole by the sounds around it, a dense and detailed rare glimpse into the secret life of sound.
LIMITED TO 150 COPIES!!
This mysterious three piece ensemble from Portland couldn't have chosen a more appropriate monicker for their deep listening inner space explorations. Everything about this single 40 minute track is ghostlike, from the drifting shimmer of the opening few minutes, where guitars hover and haunting keening faraway sounds drift past like stormclouds, to the stretch about halfway through, of warm white noise over muted melodies and hauntingly harmonious drones, to the final few minutes of muted murky creeping broken music box like lilt, all twisted and warped, slowed down and slithery. A dark fog blurring all the edges and laying down a fuzzy drift. So darkly lovely.
Limited to 100 copies, each copy hand numbered and all the covers are hand painted, each slightly different!
How awesome is the name Yarn Lazer?! If it wasn't already the name of this killer cd-r label, it would definitely be the name of my band, or my restaurant, or maybe my first born!! This is a super limited split between Portland drone ensemble Ghosting, a band AQ folks just can't seem to get enough of, and Irish stoned drone ensemble Bonecloud (also a possible name for the first born btw!).
Ghosting pretty much sound like their name. Their sound is a drone based wander through a ghost town, or better yet, a ghost world, the sound of floating wraithlike through a moonlit landscape, dreamlike and indistinct. Lovely but slightly ominous. Completely mesmerizing.
Bonecloud offer up their own sonic ghostworld, beginning as a shimmery high end drone, before slowly devolving into a murky subterranean crawl, muted voices, buzzing strings, thick whirs and pulsing white noise, all wrapped in a druggy fug and left to drift through along some Stygian stream, a dense murky fog, wrapping your head in muted fuzz and filling your ears with a warm thick sonic syrup. A bit like a modern day, lo-fi, cd-r Taj Mahal Travellers!
LIMITED TO 150 COPIES!!! Packaged in screen
printed and spray painted sleeves with a photocopied insert.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Two AQ faves together for the first time: Portland Oregon's Ghosting and L.A.'s Robedoor.
Been a little while since we've heard from Ghosting and it's mighty fine to have them back. Their half of the split begins with warm whirring drones beneath buzzing and scraping steel strings, intense and dramatic, and maybe a bit more aggressive than their usual sound. The track grows in intensity, the drones becoming thicker and thicker, eventually becoming an almost Sunroof! style roar, swallowing up any of the drifting melodies completely.
Robedoor, a recent discovery, and a new favorite for sure, counter with what might be their -prettiest- track yet. Very serene, warm swells in the distance, strange submerged rhythms, silver streaks of muted feedback, moaned melodies way down in the mix, the whole thing crawling and slithering darkly through buzzy blurry murky cloud of sound.
Gorgeous packaging, hand screened, one side artfully torn, limited to 325 copies, each sleeve hand numbered, pressed on black streaked white vinyl. Nice!
Ye gods, how do they do it? Another great release, in of course both regular and deeeeeeeeeeluxe versions, from Time Released Sound, a local label specializing in obscure experimental/ambient loveliness from around the world, and also specializing in the most over the top, one-of-a-kind, labor intensive, hand made packaging for the deluxe releases we've ever seen (and the standard digipacks look nice too). Mr. Colin Herrick, take bow. He's the crazy guy who spends all his free time making these things, it's his label.
So, what's this one like? As usual with TRS stuff, this artist Ghostwriter (aka Mark Brend) and his accomplice here, Michael Paine, we weren't previously familiar with, but we believe they're British, and bit like another TRS disc last year, the one by The Inventors Of Aircraft, thematically, this concerns itself with England's faded past. Impressionistic, hushed atmospheres, melancholic and beautiful, inspired by sepia-toned mid-century memories of seaside holidays and gloomy country houses. Hence the vintage 1930's wallpaper worked into the deluxe edition packaging (each one different!!). Ghostwriter's "folktronic" approach finds melodic acoustic guitar and piano motifs
interwoven with field recording hum and other evocative samples. It's quite nice - again as usual with TRS stuff!
And then there's the packaging. What do you get for your 75 bucks if you spring for the deluxe art object option? Well, protected by two sheets of cardboard, you get a handworked 7" square translucent envelope containing a "uniquely hand distressed and antiqued hardcover booklet", with the cd inside in a "typewriter addressed, stamped and soiled envelope" (not too soiled, though!). Meanwhile, the aforementioned booklet's pages are collaged with that wallpaper and other images, AND comes with a small, round hand-stamped and colored jigsaw puzzle depicting a pastoral scene! Again each one different. Pretty special, and perfectly aligned with the mood of the music.
The deluxe edition is limited to just 80 copies, the digipack to 150.
Ye gods, how do they do it? Another great release, in of course both regular and deeeeeeeeeeluxe versions, from Time Released Sound, a local label specializing in obscure experimental/ambient loveliness from around the world, and also specializing in the most over the top, one-of-a-kind, labor intensive, hand made packaging for the deluxe releases we've ever seen (and the standard digipacks look nice too). Mr. Colin Herrick, take bow. He's the crazy guy who spends all his free time making these things, it's his label.
So, what's this one like? As usual with TRS stuff, this artist Ghostwriter (aka Mark Brend) and his accomplice here, Michael Paine, we weren't previously familiar with, but we believe they're British, and bit like another TRS disc last year, the one by The Inventors Of Aircraft, thematically, this concerns itself with England's faded past. Impressionistic, hushed atmospheres, melancholic and beautiful, inspired by sepia-toned mid-century memories of seaside holidays and gloomy country houses. Hence the vintage 1930's wallpaper worked into the deluxe edition packaging (each one different!!). Ghostwriter's "folktronic" approach finds melodic acoustic guitar and piano motifs
interwoven with field recording hum and other evocative samples. It's quite nice - again as usual with TRS stuff!
And then there's the packaging. What do you get for your 75 bucks if you spring for the deluxe art object option? Well, protected by two sheets of cardboard, you get a handworked 7" square translucent envelope containing a "uniquely hand distressed and antiqued hardcover booklet", with the cd inside in a "typewriter addressed, stamped and soiled envelope" (not too soiled, though!). Meanwhile, the aforementioned booklet's pages are collaged with that wallpaper and other images, AND comes with a small, round hand-stamped and colored jigsaw puzzle depicting a pastoral scene! Again each one different. Pretty special, and perfectly aligned with the mood of the music.
The deluxe edition is limited to just 80 copies, the digipack to 150.
For Record Store Day 2014 - maybe still a couple left!
Another 'metallic' masterpiece from the Battlecruiser label, the side label of Campbell Kneale's Celebrate Psi Phenomenon label, specializing in all things metal or sort of metal. However the metal found on Battlecrusier releases is not the metal of Maiden or Priest, nor is it the metal of Carcass or Napalm, instead, this is the metal that occurs when drone obsessed minimalist noisemakers take a stab at invoking the beast: everything from from ultra-repetitive riffing, to blissed out expanses of slow motion dooooooom, to smeary stabs of grind, to pounding industrial metal pummel.
The couldn't-be-more-aptly-named Ghoul hit us which just might be the creepiest BC release yet. A haunting plodding doomscape constructed from slowed down Krautrock and Skinny Puppy scraps, with rumbling bass thuds and a skeletal rhythm cobbled together from chopped and clipped vocals, malfunctioning synths, and a distant swirl of Earth-en guitars. Imagine an electro Skepticism, or Red Lorry Yellow Lorry jamming with Sunn 0))). Weird and weirdly hypnotic. Not heavy per se, but quite dark and evil and grim and spare and spooky. As with all things Celebrate Psi Phenomenon, this is VERY VERY LIMITED!!!
Latest from this underground super group. Featuring folks from the Magik Markers, Hototogisu and Double Leopards among others. This is probably the most laid back and mellow thing we've heard from these folks. The whole first side is a spare and spacious stretch of raga like drone and disembodied Appalachia. Guitars buzz way off in the distance, drifting amidst clouds of folky flutter, wheezing harmonicas, an almost Morricone Western vibe, desert-y and desolate, but mysteriously lush and lovely. The sounds grow in intensity here and there, getting more raucous and abrasive, the guitars scraped and metallic, all bathed in thick swells of whirring shimmer, but always seeming to settle back down into another dreamy drift.
The flip side is split into two movements, the first is a longform slab of chaotic free folk skree, the instruments all blurred and smeared into a constantly evolving and shifting swirl of sound, dense and layered and lovely, the second half a rumbling wall of thick guitar ambience, a whirling buzz that manages to be epic and majestic, while remaining minimal and mysterious.
All recorded live apparently, but also comes with a bonus 3" cd-r, of the band live in Seattle, in its own little full color minisleeve.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!
GHQ is a name new to us, but apparently this free drone raga outfit has been lurking on the firnges of the new weird underground for a while now. GHQ just so happens to feature Marcia Bassett (Double leopards, Hototogisu, etc.) and Pete Nolan (Magik Markers, Vanishing Voice) so it's a little surprising this is their first proper release, but it's a good one. This is druggy, dreamy, shoegazey bliss folk, vocals are fuzzy and indistinct, guitar strum is strident and loop-like, even the proper songs devolve into raga like mesmerism, simple percussion, tamborine, shaker, does nothing but shuffle drowsily alongside the subtle pulse beneath the thick swaths of psych guitar and shimmery drone. Steel strings vibrate and the waves drift echolike across vast expanses of hovering tones and slow shifting overtones, warm and languid, a total dream drone drift. The sound on Cosmology Of Eye is completely unlike Bassett's full on free noise assaults as Hototogisu with Matthew Bower, and equally unlike Nolan's avant rock spazz splatter in the Magik Markers, instead it sounds like these two just turned off all the lights, smoked until the room was dense with drifting clouds of smoke, turned on their amps, laid down their guitars, spread their wings and just drifted heavenward. Surprisingly lilting and lovely.
Packaged with loving care, as are all things on Time Lag, in a cool two color screened black fold over letterpress sleeve, with an insert photo taken by Charalambides' Tom Carter.
Another gorgeous missive from GHQ, an outfit featuring Marcia from Hototogisu and Double Leopards and Pete from the Magik Markers and Wooden Wand, who combine drone-y noise with raga-like buzz, and never more perfectly than on Crystal Healing. Beginning with some swooshing backwards ambience, muted guitar and what sounds like harmonica, very dreamy and pretty, the record quickly settles into a haunting disembodied Appalachia, clouds of insect buzz and distant chantlike vocals woven into a lush backdrop for simple mournful steel string guitar, very dark, very wistful, gets a bit aggro toward the end but without losing any of it's drama or emotion. Imagine Jack Rose's Mr. Hyde and you'll get an idea. The rest of the record wanders from similarly dark acoustic dronefolk to wide open expanses of raga like drift, the former even introduces some actual vocals, an almost atonal stoned country drawl hovering over seasick fiddle and lazy strum, while the latter goes from dense swirls of guitar crumble and siren like melodies (sounding quite a bit like Vibracathedral or Sunroof!), to Jandekian sprawl, with distorted vocals, caveman percussion, detuned guitars all wrapped in plenty of grind and rumble and buzz, to the record's epic final track, a lengthy blissed out new age-y drift, a swirl of weightless melodies and long drawn out buzz.
LIMITED TO 855 COPIES! Pressed on ultra thick vinyl, and housed in a super heavy gatefold sleeve (hand numbered). While they last, the first 212 copies come with a bonus cd, 2 tracks, about 13 minutes, featuring more atonal Appalachia, raga-buzz, drifty drone and haunting vocals. The perfect coda to the record's expansive rambling drift. Once those are gone, they are GONE, and you'll receive the normal lp version.
We have to admit, we're not the biggest Magik Markers fans. But get MM's Pete Nolan in a room with Marcia Bassett (Double Leopards, Hototogisu) and the results are divine. A gloriously expansive free-drone raga, a swirling wall of buzz and squeal and keening high end guitars and roaring amps, thick washes of buzzing strings and wild streaks of upper register skree. Huge drifts of abstract sound, that manage to move and drive, within their almost static clouds of drone and shimmer lurk dreamy melodies, strange sonic whorls, and super simple percussion. Ultra divine drug drenched raga drone bliss out of the highest order. Not sure what else to say. This is like the best parts of Sunroof!, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Jazzfinger, Sunburned Hand Of The Man, boiled down to its utter essence, packed into pipes made out of monkey skulls and smoked. A potent blend of mysterious musicks, hidden in a cave at the top of some perilous peak, reachable by only the bravest of souls. Once in the cave, follow the light, and observe as the cave opens up into a star filled sky, a small spot where one can watch the light of the universe shift and shimmer. This is that sound. Essential.
Another mind expanding slab of raga like Ur-drone from Marcia Double Leopards and Pete Majik Markers and company. GHQ again channel the spirt of Henry Flynt and Angus Maclise, harnessing a slippery melodic buzz into a warm soundscape of sonic solar flares and a vast symphony of warm whir and creaking groaning magnificence. Like some shadowy cloaked figure standing at a podium like mound of dirt in the middle of a field, conducting nature: crickets and frogs and all of mother nature's noisemakers into a slow moving swirl of sound. And that's just the first track. The rest of the disc explores hippy krautrocky jams with muted buzzy steel string guitars, hand drums, drifting ethereal vocals, moody melancholy melodies, sitar-like buzz all cloaked in a gauzy timeless haze, like some long lost ESP freak folk classic.
Released on Hototogisu's Heavy Blossom label. As always, SUPER LIMITED. Packaged in a cool mini hard plastic DVD case with very crusty metal looking black and white artwork.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Another new list, another fantastic new discovery from local boutique label Time Released Sound. This week, it comes by way of yet another hitherto unknown to us artist (we should really get TRS to do some A&R for aQ!) named Francesco Giannico, an Italian sound artist who conceived of this single 40 minute track as an installation, recording the entire route of one of the subway lines in Rome, using those recordings as the basis for this gorgeously serene sonic sprawl. While many of the recordings are left intact, field recordings in the background, others are transformed and re-contextualized, becoming as much a part of the surrounding sound, as the synths and guitars, the pianos and the violins, the piece structured in such a way that it almost sounds like each trip, from one station to the next, is in fact, the musical component, that music fading out and letting us hear the sound of the announcements, of the commuters shuffling from train to train, all the ambient sounds of each station, familiar to most everybody, before gradually disappearing, as the train leaves the station, transporting the listener once again into slow moving clouds of hazy, gauzy sound - at times, low slung, spidery fields of post rock guitar minimalism, at others dense droney, synthscapes, at others, melancholy string shimmer, and at others still, dreamlike fields of almost psychedelic sounding glimmer. In each iteration, the vibe is mesmerizing and hypnotic, the various pieces woven into a slow shifting whole, with some of those field recorded sounds becoming pulsing rhythms, or mysterious melodies, the whole thing a songsuite of sorts, a sonic travelogue, that instead of sounding like a ride on an Italian subway, sounds like something more ethereal and abstract, a journey into the ether, into the other, into the beyond. Fantastic!
And yeah, it's Time Released Sound, so you can bet the packaging is over the top. And as always, there are two versions, the first, an ULTRA limited deluxe version, limited to just 75 copies, which includes hand silkscreened square prints of photos from the actual subway where these sounds were recorded, each print on a different sort of paper, music sheets, vellum, ancient ledgers, all housed in a vintage, hand stamped 7" sleeve, from sixty year old vinyl binder (!), then each one is tied with string, to which is attached a used ticket from the Rome metro, again, from which all these sounds were sourced. Also inside are random ephemera an scraps of paper found on various trains and platforms during the recording process. There's also a less limited, more affordable version, that comes housed in a swank, full color digipak, and is limited to 150 copies!
Another new list, another fantastic new discovery from local boutique label Time Released Sound. This week, it comes by way of yet another hitherto unknown to us artist (we should really get TRS to do some A&R for aQ!) named Francesco Giannico, an Italian sound artist who conceived of this single 40 minute track as an installation, recording the entire route of one of the subway lines in Rome, using those recordings as the basis for this gorgeously serene sonic sprawl. While many of the recordings are left intact, field recordings in the background, others are transformed and re-contextualized, becoming as much a part of the surrounding sound, as the synths and guitars, the pianos and the violins, the piece structured in such a way that it almost sounds like each trip, from one station to the next, is in fact, the musical component, that music fading out and letting us hear the sound of the announcements, of the commuters shuffling from train to train, all the ambient sounds of each station, familiar to most everybody, before gradually disappearing, as the train leaves the station, transporting the listener once again into slow moving clouds of hazy, gauzy sound - at times, low slung, spidery fields of post rock guitar minimalism, at others dense droney, synthscapes, at others, melancholy string shimmer, and at others still, dreamlike fields of almost psychedelic sounding glimmer. In each iteration, the vibe is mesmerizing and hypnotic, the various pieces woven into a slow shifting whole, with some of those field recorded sounds becoming pulsing rhythms, or mysterious melodies, the whole thing a songsuite of sorts, a sonic travelogue, that instead of sounding like a ride on an Italian subway, sounds like something more ethereal and abstract, a journey into the ether, into the other, into the beyond. Fantastic!
And yeah, it's Time Released Sound, so you can bet the packaging is over the top. And as always, there are two versions, the first, an ULTRA limited deluxe version, limited to just 75 copies, which includes hand silkscreened square prints of photos from the actual subway where these sounds were recorded, each print on a different sort of paper, music sheets, vellum, ancient ledgers, all housed in a vintage, hand stamped 7" sleeve, from sixty year old vinyl binder (!), then each one is tied with string, to which is attached a used ticket from the Rome metro, again, from which all these sounds were sourced. Also inside are random ephemera an scraps of paper found on various trains and platforms during the recording process. There's also a less limited, more affordable version, that comes housed in a swank, full color digipak, and is limited to 150 copies!
Another killer new issue of Giant Robot, the magazine of "Asian pop culture and beyond!" Always an amazing read, jam packed with killer stories and eye popping photos. And tons of far out shit you can't or wouldn't read about anywhere else. This month they've got: a sampling of Martin Giant Robot's Asian themed t-shirt collection, the Know1edge clothing line, a whole bunch of kick ass toys and jewelry and clothing, Cassandra Nguyen and her giant plush squids, book and comic book reviews, SoCal surfer Kio Inagaki and his Yellow Rat clothing line, poet Beau Sia, flammable household items as improvised weapons, Una Kim and her Keep line of sneakers, Linda Linda Linda: the saga of an all girl garage band, Mountain Mountain collectable toys, The Host director Joon-Ho Bong, the Nice Rainbow Film production studio, tennis pro Paradorn Srichaphan, the Suicide Bomb Button!, tons of record reviews, modern new wave noise rockers VHS or Beta, post Versus rock combo +/-, artist Long Nguyen, Journey From The Fall director Ham Tran, a Vietnam film diary, Installation artists Pattara Chanruechachai and Pratchaya Phinthong, anime reviews, Japanese TV reviews, comics and somehow even more!!!
Margaret Cho on the cover, a ramen taste test, a big interview with mainland Chinese film director Chen Kaige (who made Farewell My Concubine), ska/rocksteady/reggae legend Byron Lee (I never knew he was half Chinese!), Dave Pajo of Tortoise, Slint, and Papa M, Jeff Chinn and the Bruce Lee museum, street food in Vietnam, lactose intolerance in Asians, and so much more. Glossy, substantial.
Issue 18 of one of the most fun reads around. Ron Rege, the artist behind the "Boys" comic that old pal Michael Drivas sold me from his killer store in Minneapolis, captures the specialness of GR best in this letter to the editor: "The whole 'here's what we like' tone, combined with the fact that the focus is on Asian stuff, makes it accessible to everyone. You may be into video games, or comics, or punk or techno or... but chances you like, or are curious about, some Asian stuff. You guys plow right into what could be a whole serious mess of race issues head on... fearlessly, with a smile, without hardly ever mentioning it."
In this issue, 100% Japanese American 'Optic Nerve' comics artist Adrian Tomine, J Church guitarist/Lost Weekend video slinger/Valencia regular Lance Hahn, comics artist/AQ-fave J. Otto, Martin goes to Mexico, Chinese filmmkaer Zhang Yimou, Lois, Looper, Arling & Cameron, Kid Koala, Sara Tanaka from Rushmore, the Asian girl Power Ranger, and lots more. As always, highly recommended.
