Damn, girl, what took you so long? Strangelands is Camilla Hannan's first full album in close to a decade, with a smattering of compilation tracks dotting the way back to her debut album More Songs About Factories which was released in 2005. It has to be said that the Etsy-craftsy-cutesy cover of a felt collage of a cuddly human couple with teddy-bear heads is about as far removed from what Hannan has constructed on Strangelands as can be. No twee-pop balladeering about lunchroom crushes and pigeon toed growth spurts to be found here; this is a bleak and artfully composed album of environmental toxicity and greasily machined rumble. Think Organum. Think Francisco Lopez. Think BJ Nilsen. Hannan plays up the psychogeographical references of her native Australia being situated at the end of the world (both navigationally and eschatologically) with plenty of citations of outback desolation marked with wild-eyed slashes of Road Warrior violence. Hannan's work begins with field recordings, so filled with vivid cinematic details that she easily builds allusions of the aftermath from a nuclear holocaust through her recordings of abandoned warehouses populated by swarming flies, rank sewer pipes that resonate the thrum of some leviathan breathing apparatus churning 20 miles below the surface of the sea, creaking harbors on the verge of rusting into the sea, and uninhabited islands that are uninhabited for being so uninhabitable. Dingy, grimy, and fucking bloody knuckled, let's go to Australia!
Pro-duplicated cd-r in a nice die-cut sleeve with the aforementioned felt collage imagery.
A long overdue reissue of this lost jazz classic, originally self released in 1974. Hannibal Peterson isn't much of a household name, even among jazzheads, which is a bit odd considering he's played with Roland Kirk, Elvin Jones, Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders and loads more. And it's a shame because this record is something else! Beautiful and bizarre. Traditional sounding at times, but quite experimental at others. A lush and tripped out orchestral free jazz with swelling strings, wild and clattery tribal percussion, some killer drumming, all joyful and jubilant, until about halfway through, when the orchestra fades out leaving just the sounds of bombs dropping, wild repetitive piano and a mournful female vocalist wailing operatically, eventually the vocals fade leaving a dense instrumental bed of buzzing sitar, tinkling chimes, fluttering flute, completely tranquil and dreamlike. The nearly twenty minute "Aftermath" though is the sonic centerpiece of the record, the first half a skittering post bop free jazz workout, almost funky in parts, the second half, an elegiac dirge of throbbing bass, moaning cello, wailing trumpet and a sizzling percussive crescendo, with gorgeous plaintive vocal coda.
Oh, how we were hoping this record would actually sound like worms crawling around inside a piano. Besides being a super evocative image, it also would have been the easiest review EVER. "Hannu's Worms In My Piano actually sounds like worms inside a piano..." or whatever. And to be honest, there are a few moments, where maybe it doesn't quite sound like regular worms, but possibly some sort of effervescent alien glowworms slithering up and down gently vibrating strings, like beads of water on one of those weird water lamps your grandma had...
Speaking of your grandma, a lot of this is soft and shimmery, spacey and so relaxed and laid back, not entirely unlike� a more hip Lawrence Welk were he still alive and signed to Type or Carpark. This is most definitely easy listening. So so so so easy... Everything warm and soft, shimmering and glimmering and sparkling like stars in the night sky. Delicate melodies drifting from mysterious music boxes,�little prismatic bubbles floating above some space aged ballroom, a tiny toy orchestra playing dreamy lullabies, a last dance on a moonlit dancefloor perched on the edge of a glistening galaxy, the world's slowest and dreamiest post rock band spinning dark drifting soft focus epics, that drift and dissipate like wisps of smoke.�
So dark and delicate and utterly lovely.
Terence Hannum is one of the founding members of Locrian, an aQ beloved black ambient project from Chicago; and Hannum's solo work doesn't stray all that far from ominous dronescaping of Locrian, but one could say that Spectral Life is a bit more abstract in nature. "Invocation Of Deities" is a lumbering horror-score with slashed cymbals and washed out drones giving way to a persistent duotone, sub-bass synth-pulse that lends itself to the Wolf Eyes / Factrix / SPK axis of grim industrialisms. The sparkling tone constellations that Hannum constructs as a counterpoint to that brooding synth pulse eventually get sucked into the gravitational pull of Hannum's hefty thrum. "Total Dissolution" has a scabrous beginning with a mechanical noise-junk miasma that grinds in parallel to Organum's acoustic obliteration. A majestic, sci-fi ambience interjects itself into this grizzled tumble, gradually blossoming into a gorgeously unfurled swarm of buzzed guitars and chanted vocals extended and stretched into luminous, ceremonial drones and all blurred into a shoegaze smear of billowing, cinematic psychedelia. Certainly fans of Locrian will find plenty to meditate blankly and blackly on, but this album enjoys similarities with Tim Hecker, Machinefabriek, and Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. Limited to 400 copies on the Belgian art-imprint label Shelter Press.
The label that brought us that amazing, massive (and now out of print) Improvised Music From Japan 10-cd wooden boxed set, as well as the zine of the same name, isn't resting there. This solo effort from veteran free jazz drummer Shoji Hano is but one of their latest releases. Shoji Hano has played with the likes of Abe Kaoru, Peter Brotzmann, Toshinori Kondo, Keiji Haino, Derek Bailey, High Rise, Gary Smith, Hugh Hopper, and others -- a resume touching on the extremes of jazz and psychedelic rock. Here he gets pretty extreme all by himself, doing every drummer's dream, a 56 minute drum solo! Actually it's broken into two tracks, of 22 and 34 minutes apiece. He shakes, he rattles, he rolls. It's not exactly Moby Dick, but it's closer than you might think. The sheer scope, the length, of these tracks allow you to almost forget it's just drums you're hearing, it just becomes a sound pattern, constantly varied, energetic yet very controlled. It's like Hano is performing some personal percussive ritual. Cool...but you gotta like drums!!
British electric improv guitarist Smith (Mass, etc.), and Japanese psych rock bassist Nanjo (High Rise, Mainliner, Musica Transonic, etc.), team up with Japanese free jazz percussionist Shoji Hano (who's worked with Peter Brotzmann, Keiji Haino, & many others). Quite a barrage of beauty and terror results. Yeah, somewhere between jazz and psychedelic rock this is, for fans of both Mass and Musica Transonic for sure.
A whole mess of new 7"s from Captured Tracks, and all of them awesome. This one, the weirdly named Hanoi Janes, is a German one man band, who kick out some of the most excellent reverb drenched jangle pop we've ever heard. Some awesome sixties girl group sounding vox over pounding surf rock drums, chiming bell like melodies, all washed out and reverby and psychedelic, plenty of 'ooooohs' and a super catchy main hook.
The flip side is a bit more driving, the same sort of reverby, echoey feel, but a super rocking garage-y groove, still lots of 'oooohs', but some deeper more obviously male vox, perfectly complimenting the crunchy fuzz guitars and wild garage rock drumming. Really great stuff. One of our new favorites for sure, we've already played this to death and are dying for the full length.
Five new short sweet blasts of fuzzy, warbly lo-fi dream pop from this German one man band, whose last few releases we went pretty crazy for around here. And like those, this too is all sunshiney retro jangle garage pop, but even more stripped down and sun dappled, rife with reverbed harmonies soft focus psychedelic fuzz, as well as some surprising calypso like grooves that sound almost like a more garage rockin' Ducktails. The rest is all organ driven indie pop crunch laced with playful xylophone melodies, squiggly lo-fi casios, acoustic guitar strum, loads of reverb, echo and some total classic power pop vox. Loose and playful, a bit ramshackle, another perfect collection of summer sunshine pop, that sounds way more California than Germany!
We dug the recent Hanoi Janes 7" on Captured Tracks, two killer tracks of hooky jangly distorto garage pop, reverby and psychedelic, catchy as all get out and so crunchy and fuzzy. We've played that single about a million times since we got it and have been DYING for more. And we're happy to report that the full length is just as kick ass as the single, every track a warped chunk of jangly fuzz pop that could very well end up stuck in your head for ages. The songs on the full length seem a bit more, well, quirky for lack of a better word, the arrangements more herky jerky, the vocals more sing songy, the hooks weirder and thus somehow hookier, not obvious at all, wrapped around, weird stop / start bridges, bouncy warbly keyboards, twisted warped effects, the new wave vibe cranked way up which totally suits the sound. Listening to this, you'd never guess it was a one man band from Germany, the sound so fun and sunny, we were picturing a bunch of shaggy haired, West Coast slackers, which should give you more of an idea of what's going on here. Definitely a perfect fit for Captured Tracks, but on the sunshinier side of their roster, more Beets than Blank Dogs, more Gary War than Silk Flowers. And fans of Nice Face and Night Control, past aQ Records Of The Week, will probably dig this too, as it's similarly fragmented quirky and catchy noise pop, and is quickly becoming one of our new favorites.
I went on at great length last list about the late great Hanoi Rocks. So you know how much I love this band. Trashy, punky glam pop from Finland via the UK. An unholy mix of the NY Dolls, the Rolling Stones, Elvis Costello, and the Clash. They effortlessly
I never got to see Hanoi Rocks live, but playing live was their thing and on stage they were explosive and totally inspiring. This is their only proper live album (which is taken from the video of the same name) and features roughed up versions of all their hits as well as extended versions of 'Taxi Driver', 'Under My Wheels' (an Alice Cooper cover!) and 'Train Kept-A-Rollin'. Like all their other records, ESSENTIAL.
I'm beginning to feel like the guy at AQ that tries to convince you it's okay to like those bands that for some reason you are embarassed to like. But if that is my position, then so be it. We had a Hanoi Rocks greatest hits collection a while back, but
Hanoi Rocks, while inadvertently helping to spawn an entire generation of MTV glam rock, managed to create an amazing and varied body of work, from trashy garage stomps to perfect little pop songs. And even with a lot of high profile attention (their drummer was killed by Motley Crue's Vince Neil in a drunk driving accident, a hit with their cover of CCR's 'Up Around The Bend, having their entire catalog reissued on Guns and Roses' label at the height of G&R's popularity) they somehow managed to stay just enough underground to miss the superstardom they so deserved. Their sound was a mix of Stooges style garage rock, good old Beatle-esque pop, and a weird reggae/dub influence most obvious in their rhythm guitar parts and dubby drum lines (like the Clash, who supplied Hanoi Rocks with their replacement bass player when Sam Yaffa moved to America to play in Jetboy). But the bottom line is always the songs, and the songs are catchy as fuck. Trust me, Hanoi Rocks are so good -- don't be swayed by their tenuous connection to the eighties hair bands (even though singer Mike Monroe was way hotter than any of his glam rock contemporaries). And mark my words, I will have Allan singing their praises in no time, even if it kills me, or him.
This is Hanoi Rocks' third and maybe best record and things get decidedly weirder, with the bizarre (and aptly titled) intro 'Strange Boys Play Weird Openings', the rollicking and insane 'Mental Beat', the stumbling chaos of 'Tooting Bec Wreck', the ultra catchy Stooges-like 'Back To Mystery City' and just a non stop barrage of fucking great songs: 'Malibu Beach Nightmare', 'Until I Get You', 'Lick Summer Love', 'Sailing Down The Tears' and more.
I'm beginning to feel like the guy at AQ that tries to convince you it's okay to like those bands that for some reason you are embarassed to like. But if that is my position, then so be it. We had a Hanoi Rocks greatest hits collection a while back, but
Hanoi Rocks, while inadvertently helping to spawn an entire generation of MTV glam rock, managed to create an amazing and varied body of work, from trashy garage stomps to perfect little pop songs. And even with a lot of high profile attention (their drummer was killed by Motley Crue's Vince Neil in a drunk driving accident, a hit with their cover of CCR's 'Up Around The Bend, having their entire catalog reissued on Guns and Roses' label at the height of G&R's popularity) they somehow managed to stay just enough underground to miss the superstardom they so deserved. Their sound was a mix of Stooges style garage rock, good old Beatle-esque pop, and a weird reggae/dub influence most obvious in their rhythm guitar parts and dubby drum lines (like the Clash, who supplied Hanoi Rocks with their replacement bass player when Sam Yaffa moved to America to play in Jetboy). But the bottom line is always the songs, and the songs are catchy as fuck. Trust me, Hanoi Rocks are so good, don't be swayed by their tenuous connection to the eighties hair bands (even though singer Mike Monroe was way hotter than any of his glam rock contemporaries). And mark my words, I will have Allan singing their praises in no time, even if it kills me, or him. These reissues are remastered, have tons of photos and really great and extensive liner notes.
'Bangkok Shocks' was Hanoi Rocks debut and starts off with possibly two of their best songs, 'Tragedy', all chunky guitars and falsetto backup vocals, and 'Village Girl', probably my favorite Hanoi Rocks songs. A perfect pop song, ultra catchy chorus, unforgettable riff, and a weird dubby rhythm.
"File under Sleaze/Junk." If you buy this you will make a very sad man very very happy. This purports to be a collection of "The Best of" Hanoi Rocks--but it's only 2 cds? How's that possible...?
Now that Allan is finished (for now) being a sarcastic bastard, i will once again defend one of my all time favorite bands.
Hanoi Rocks, while inadvertently helping to spawn an entire generation of MTV glam rock, managed to create an amazing and varied body of work, from trashy garage stomps to perfect little pop songs. And even with a lot of high profile attention (their drummer was killed by Motley Crue's Vince Neil in a drunk driving accident, a hit with their cover of CCR's 'Up Around The Bend, having their entire catalog reissued on Guns and Roses' label at the height of G&R's popularity) they somehow managed to stay just enough underground to miss the superstardom they so deserved. Their sound was a mix of Stooges style garage rock, good old Beatle-esque pop, and a weird reggae/dub influence most obvious in their rhythm guitar parts and dubby drum lines (like the Clash, who supplied Hanoi Rocks with their replacement bass player when Sam Yaffa moved to America to play in Jetboy). But the bottom line is always the songs, and the songs here are catchy as fuck, from the mournful piano driven 'Dead by Christmas', to the rollicking 'Problem Child', to the impossibly catchy 'Village Girl'. Trust me, this is so good, don't be swayed by their tenuous connection to the eighties hair bands. Although singer Mike Monroe was way hotter than any of his contemporaries. And mark my words, I will have Allan singing their praises in no time, even if it kills me, or him.
'Lean On Me' is a singles /rarities collection that was originally released in 1992 (shortly after the death of Razzle, and after an aborted attempt at Hanoi Rocks mk. 2 with the Clash's Terry Chimes failing to fill Razzle's shoes).
This one's mostly for the Hanoi completists, seeing as half the tracks are previously released. But it's awfully exciting to finally hear 7 unearthed, unreleased rarities, some of them outtakes from their last record and major label debut. 'Two Steps From The Move'. And as with all outtakes collections, some of the tracks should have maybe remained unreleased, but most of them are pretty great, and all of them are a welcome addition to the Hanoi Rocks canon, some of the most vibrant and under appreciated rock and roll of the last 25 years.
'Oriental Beat' is Hanoi Rocks' second record and the line up still featured their original drummer Gyp Casino (who would be replaced by Razzle a year later, and Razzle would of course be killed in an automobile accident with Vince Neil which would
I'm beginning to feel like the guy at AQ that tries to convince you it's okay to like those bands that for some reason you are embarassed to like. But if that is my position, then so be it. We had a Hanoi Rocks greatest hits collection a while back, but
Hanoi Rocks, while inadvertently helping to spawn an entire generation of MTV glam rock, managed to create an amazing and varied body of work, from trashy garage stomps to perfect little pop songs. And even with a lot of high profile attention (their drummer was killed by Motley Crue's Vince Neil in a drunk driving accident, a hit with their cover of CCR's 'Up Around The Bend, having their entire catalog reissued on Guns and Roses' label at the height of G&R's popularity) they somehow managed to stay just enough underground to miss the superstardom they so deserved. Their sound was a mix of Stooges style garage rock, good old Beatle-esque pop, and a weird reggae/dub influence most obvious in their rhythm guitar parts and dubby drum lines (like the Clash, who supplied Hanoi Rocks with their replacement bass player when Sam Yaffa moved to America to play in Jetboy). But the bottom line is always the songs, and the songs are catchy as fuck. Trust me, Hanoi Rocks are so good, don't be swayed by their tenuous connection to the eighties hair bands (even though singer Mike Monroe was way hotter than any of his glam rock contemporaries). And mark my words, I will have Allan singing their praises in no time, even if it kills me, or him.
'Self Destruction Blues' was a compilation of unreleased material released to give the band time to rehearse/write with new drummer Razzle. But even as an odds and ends collection, this is an amazingly tight collection. Features possibly their most famous song (and everyone's favorite live tune) 'Taxi Driver' as well as another unbeatable batch of trashy, catchy songs, including the hauntingly beautiful and mildly creepy 'Dead By Xmas' which seemd to hint at Razzle's premature death.
I definitely had mixed emotions about the return of Hanoi Rocks, one of my favorite bands EVER. These sort of resurrections rarely end up being positive, with bands WAY behind their prime trying desparately to reclaim the fame and glory and postition in rock's hierarchy that was once theirs. It's not so rough with a band like Hanoi Rocks though, who never really received the acclaim they deserved. But then of course there's the fear that the world will catch on and LOVE the new record with no understanding of how great they once were. -sigh- Anyway, enough with my music nerdisms, I'm just glad there's a new Hanoi Rocks record, and while it's of course not as good as classic Hanoi Rocks, it's pretty darn kick ass, and way heavier than they ever sounded. The Stones and the New York Dolls and the Clash filtered through Guns And Roses and T-Rex, all bluesy guitars, harmonica solos, Mike Monroe's instantly recognizable vocals, sax solos (!), and some decently catchy songs. The most amazing part is how much they haven't changed in 2o years, which in this case is a good thing! But if you're new to Hanoi Rocks, start with Back To Mystery City or Oriental Beat or any of their original releases!
Brand new record from SF weirdos Hans Grusel's Krankenkabinet, who according to most reliable sources include members of SF underground rock institution Caroliner Rainbow. Which makes sense when you see them live. Caroliner would perform amidst wild hand made cardboard and foam landscapes, whereas Hans Grusel perform with huge wooden houses on their heads, like a suburban Residents.
This latest disc is a brain melting chunk of avant what-the-fuck dada-esque soundscaping, pulsing underwater rhythms, lots of kitcheny clatter (sounding at times like a pots and pans This Heat), dolphin sounds processed into creeped out soundscapes, bits of shouting and wheezing music boxes, tapespeed warble and confusional stretches of atonal sonic collage. Just a synapse frying blast of gurgle and grind and hiss and drone and crunch and creak, like someone dosed Nurse With Wound and let Stapleton and company wander in some abandoned music shop armed with hammers, microcassette recorders and huge wooden houses to wear on their heads. Weird and wonderfully damaged.
It's not so much like staring into a funhouse mirror, it's more like bashing your head against it over and over and over until it shatters and you can finally see and hear exactly what strange things exist on the other side.
Pressed on thick clear vinyl and housed in a HUGE 6 panel fold out poster sleeve, one side adorned with angry anthropomorphic houses, the inside, those same houses rendered in full color, given bodies, and allowed to roam and misbehave in an eyepopping, bad trip, small town landscape!
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!
There are very few bands who truly baffle. Who confuse and confound, both musically and conceptually. Sure, plenty of bands are weird, or strange, or hard to describe, some might even be described as fucked up or damaged, but very very few truly baffle.
Hans Grusel's Krankenkabinet is most definitely one of those bafflingly confusional elite. Supposedly featuring members of another baffling SF troupe, Caroliner Rainbow, Hans Grusel, and his Krankenkabinet create a bizarre cacophony of sound, theatrical, dramatic, noisy for sure, but weirdly melodic and playful and more than anything, confounding.
How to explain the peculiar world Herr Grusel inhabits? Hmmmm, abstract, obtuse, experimental, avant? All of those things for sure. The music of HGK is more sound than song, each 'piece' a slowly unfolding exploration of space, both inner and outer, rendered in synthesizers and effects, strange percussive thumps and grinding low end drones, all spread out across an expanse of scrapes and squeaks, and occasional squalls of buzz and glitch. Landscapes of twisted sound, tweaked and transformed, slipping from bloops and bleeps to abrasive crunch, what sounds like tables becomes fingers skittering across a fretboard, voices are processed and smeared into jagged streaks, bits of synth and electronics are chopped and looped into loping rhythms, faux horns unfurl minor key melodies, long stretches of minimal shimmer give way to a burbling concoction of malfunctioning keyboards and abstract clatter and thump, whirring alien machinery, the high end skitter of electronic crickets, warped tapes crumbling into warbly whirring flutters, bits of trumpet fanfare surface, and then get sucked under, bits of field recordings all tangled up with blurred buzz and thick sheets of reverberating low end.
This might be a collection of sorts, a few of the tracks are a soundtrack to Alice In Wonderland, which must add a whole 'nother harrowing aspect to the film, but even so, the whole thing plays like a proper album, all the tracks sort of melting into one another, like one massive sprawling musical bad trip.
More bizarre, musical macrame from the peculiar German gent known as Hansel Urnst Grusel! Happy As Pitch could easily be retitled When Wind-Up Toys Go 'Wrong'. While there's probably not any actual toys involved in Hans Grusel's Krankenkabinet, the assortment of drunken plinkety plonks, itchy clickety clacks, disgruntled grindings and dizzying whooshes sure bring them to mind. Played out on such instruments as a Resonator Neuronium and a Steim Crackelbox as well as more conventional horns, strings 'n' woodwinds and a battalion of analog synthesizers, The Krankenkabinet's compositions are mostly kookily tweaked roamings, punctuated by an occasional more menacing moment. Guest players include Liz Allbee on trumpet and Graham Connah on Moog Source Solo.
Probably better known for his famous pop-star progeny (that's Beck Hansen to you), Al Hansen is one of the grandaddys of the Fluxus movement. This is a collage of 1986 recordings by the "New York City Audio/Visual Group." Figures like Gerard Malanga, Angus MacLise, Valerie Solanas, Warhol are called out and memorialized with absurb little cut-up poems.
The late '60s Swedish power duo of Bosse Hansson (Hammond organ) & Janne Karlsson (drums), though having slipped into relative obscurity, were once a legend -- and rightfully so. Not only did Jimi Hendrix seek them out when on tour in Europe, jamming with them and watching them play, but even covered one of their songs -- "Tax Free". Legend has it that Bosse Hansson, trained as a
There's so many reasons to love this record. Here's two: (1) it's about the Lord of the Rings! and (2) it's a beautiful, timeless album of psychedelic instrumental music worth listening to even if you don't know Gandalf from Frodo. So lovely. It's a big fave of most of us here at AQ. (Oh, a third reason would be that it was the first release on Sweden's Silence label, and sold quite well, helping them bring the world such essential psych as International Harvester and Algarnas Tradgard later on!)
Previously we've stocked the One Way label version of this, but now, no doubt thanks to the success of the LOTR movie, there's a newly remastered edition on Virgin that's got not only nicer packaging but also a previously unreleased bonus track! No information is given about that over eight minute long bonus track, but it's called "Early Sketches From Middle Earth" and sounds like a demo of themes later used on the album proper. This is what we wrote about the disc before:
Many of you already know and love Bjorn Olsson's atmospheric "Instrumentalmusik" cd which Omplatten released a couple years ago. What you may not know -- we didn't -- is that Olsson's album was essentially an homage to the work of fellow Swede, '70s prog/jazz/psych keyboardist Bo Hansson, and specifically his fantastic 1970 album "Sagan Om Ringen" or "The Lord of the Rings" (itself an homage to Tolkien's trilogy). Bo Hansson, together with a group of three other musicians -- percussion, saxophone & flute -- make the music. Bo plays organ along with guitar, bass and moog. The tracks, all instrumental, are lovely atmospheric numbers, reminiscent of early Pink Floyd, or similar kosmiche krautrock of the era. The album doesn't necessarily make you think of hobbits and orcs, there's no overt "fantasy/medieval" themes or anything (it's not like German pomp metal band Blind Guardian's version of the Silmarillion!). But it does capture the otherworldly, pastoral feel of Tolkien's work. Indeed, it would be appropriate to call this album magical...whether you're a Tolkien fan or not you should check it out! Recommended.
It's just too bad that Peter Jackson didn't use any of this music in his otherwise amazing LOTR film adaption! Now if only they'd reissue Hansson's "Watership Down" album as well...
Concept albums usually end up too overblown for their own good, or at least those that brand themselves as concept albums. All those secret messages and subtle hints at depth usually come down to nothing more than pretension and bong-ripping late-nights in the studio. Happiness, Gerard Patawaran's one man band, stages its self-titled LP as a marriage proposal to his girlfriend, with the ensuing songs passing through quite a few relationship-stages, most of which many of us have been through. The hesitancy of a crush to the passion of (what must be) true love; the pleasure of fucking in every room of the house to the Joy Division refrain of "love will tear us apart again."
There are no song titles on the jacket or the insert, so what we'll refer to as the "first song" sounds like a cross between The Psychedelic Furs and an elecrified Mountain Goats. The second song has a definite Magnetic Fields flavor and not just because of the "love" theme. With simple instrumentation, Gerard's melodic crooning creates an atmosphere that is larger than the simple drumbeat and jangly guitar. Sometimes there's little fuck-ups that endear the listener rather than seeming like fuck-ups, reminding us that no one is perfect and that even true love has the occasional hiccup. The whole album clocks in at around 22 minutes or so, weaving its way through the Psychedelic-Magnetic-Goats themes effectively.
There's something really sweet about this record that's hard to describe. The songs are short and diversely written, both happy and sad at the same time. It's a little late for Valentine's Day, but this is a perfect record for telling that certain special someone "I love you".
We had no idea what to expect from this record. It's on Sub Pop, the band's called Happy Birthday, the cover art is a sort of super DIY, bent musical note motif, like some weird eighties power pop demo, the back of the record is all scrawled pen and ink binder art, but what the heck, so we threw it on, and BLAAOW! Holy crap, total lo-fi nineties style power pop bliss out. Jangly guitar, lo-fi production, warbly boy vox and angelic female crooning, hooks galore, reminding us a lot of Nova Scotia pop, think Eric's Trip, Sloan, Super Friendz, Thrush Hermit, Hardship Post, the same sort of earnest, slightly melancholic, ramshackle pop that we never get tired of, and hardly anyone makes anymore (thank goodness for The Memories Attack!).
Every song is a cracked bit of peppy, bouncy, effervescent pop, with some angular guitar, some practice space drumming, warbly basslines, everything super distorted and fuzzed out, slipping from rollicking rocking, to in-the-red on-the-verge-of-collapse chaos, to woozy meandering minimal new wave (one track sounds like Ultravox via the more modern lo fi warped garage rock of the moment), lots of the songs have a distinctly eighties vibe, the vocals are sweet and always about to crack, slipping into a falsetto at every possible opportunity, keyboards wheeze and warble, the melodies are playful and serpentine, the production is hazy and reverby, but the band are constantly slipping in weird bursts of distorted crunch, or stretches of hushed crystalline drift, but always stumbling back into their irresistible fuzz pop. Record opener "Girls FM" is a total hit, a chorus that kills, not to mention an equally catchy verse/bridge combo, super sweet harmonies, a main riff that manages to crunch and jangle at the same time, weird fuzz bass that drops in and out, as well as all sorts of subtly twisted recording weirdness, only adding to the fun fucked up vibe.
The weird thing is that Happy Birthday is the project of Kyle Thomas, whose previous groups we've raved about in the past, Feathers, Witch, and King Tuff, but never did we expect that he might be capable of this kind of kick ass ultra catchy pure pop bliss out. But we're so pleasantly surprised, and damn if Happy Birthday didn't just leap into the running for pop record of the year!!
The return of perhaps our favorite depressive black metal band, with what might be their best record yet. A sprawling double disc, fourteen songs, ninety minutes, the perfect balance of lilting melodic jangle and abject pounding buzz drenched blackness. The band consummate masters of balancing the two, but goddamn if this isn't simultaneously their prettiest and poppiest, AND heaviest and most brutal record so far. Just check out the album opener, "Happy Days", the perfect band theme song if we've ever heard one, starting out all muted jangled and stripped down rhythm, a second guitar offering up a gorgeous glistening melody, you'd be forgiven for thinking this was some new lo-fi bliss pop outfit, until the sound explodes into something much more fierce, but the magic of Happy Days, is that the melody and jangle of that opening bit is carried right over into the heavy part, the drums pounding, the guitars buzzing, and that glistening second guitar melody, a gorgeously distorted melancholy sort-of-lead that winds its way through the whole track. And that's exactly what makes this stuff so good, that no matter how harsh and heavy the sound is, it's infused with a haunted melancholia, and the buzz and pound is underpinned by wistful melodies, or a minor key refrain that gives the buzz some emotional resonance, this is after all depressive, dark, hopeless music, and Happy Days perfectly capture those feelings and transform them into sound.
Almost every track here is a strange fusion of grim raspy blackness, and super melodic melancholia, minus the raspy vokills, mush of this could pass for some sort of gloom pop, and even with the vocals, the production is such, that they're way less harsh than on past records, to the point that the vocals even seem to be marginally more melodic at times. To be fair, there are a few moments of fierce blackened fury, mostly sans melody, like on "No Solution", a blown out barnburner for sure, the guitars brittle and in-the-red and woozily warped, the vocals a hellish bellow, with some cool doomy chugging, but for the most part grim and harsh and harrowing, but even tracks that seem similar like "Forever Asleep (Dead)" will out of nowhere unleash some killer melody, and the whole song is transformed. So great. Fans will not be disappointed, and folks who have been a bit black metal phobic, this could very well be the sort of record that lures you over to the dark side...
The return of one of our favorite depressive black metal bands, a band we loved before we even heard them, almost entirely because of their bad ass band name, Happy Days. Yep, Happy Days. Black Metal. It does make sense, trust us. So these guys call the sunny state of Florida home, but you'd never know it from the very unhappy racket they stir up, stumbling practice space drums, dreary minor key riffage, vocals both harsh and howled, and mopey and moaned, and some truly unlikely sound samples. But these guys are WAY more than the sum of their parts, they manage to evoke so much with so little, their sound seems simple, and is to a degree, but they manage to take simple riffs, and weave mesmerizing soundscapes of moody miserablism, the repetition lending a definite gravitas to the already intense and emotional melodies and riffs, the vocals are of course anguished and tortured, but there are so many bands who do this sort of thing, that it really is something special and ineffable that makes these guys stand out so dramatically.
Whereas they sampled Fight Club (!) on the first record (and granted, we normally hate when bands use WAY too obvious samples, but there's something about the ones these guys choose and how they come across removed from the film, more on that in a second), and it was definitely funny hearing Brad Pitt on a black metal record, but also, his words recontextualized, sounded more sinister, and similarly here, Happy Days chose to sample Breakfast Club, again a weird choice, the bit where Judd Nelson is acting out a typically abusive holiday with his father, and another where the asshole principal is lecturing the students in detention, well first, what was more depressing that high school really, so in that way, it was a pretty good choice, but those two soliloquies, taken out of the context of the film, sound SO much more hateful and harsh, like scary and brutal and seriously sinister, it's really strange, and it does suit the music, and then the segue into the music, it's really dramatic, but forget about the samples, it's all about the music, and the music here is really fucked up and dark and powerful. The opening track is the same riffy lament, over and over and over for 4+ minutes, laced with a drifting minor key melody over the top, so totally mesmerizing and hypnotic, maybe our favorite part of Happy Days, when they forego proper BM tropes and just unfurl some sort of lo-fi slowcore looped dirge. The second track is another simple, gorgeously melancholic riff, this time supported by a simple plodding drum beat, the sound of thunder and pouring rain, and some super harsh bellowed vocals, but the arrangement, and the sound, makes it anything but harsh, more sort of washed out, soft edged, and miserable sounding. A lot of the songs sound a little like slowed down Katatonia songs as played by the guy in Varghkoghargasmal, a sort of epic doomy dreaminess, but all stumbly and off kilter, more about raw emotion and passion and the dark spirit than the actual execution or recording quality.
The 14+ minute title track is maybe our favorite, yet another impossibly catchy main riff, a descending melody, so depressive and mournful, the vocals a strange spoken diatribe on misery and loneliness and death, the drums again and simple plod, the guitars occasionally offering up strange little squeaks or squiggles, but for the most part locked into a never ending loop, until about halfway through, when everything shifts, leaving just some simple jangly Hypothermia-like clean guitar, over equally simple and stripped down drums, lilting and sad, before the distorted guitar kicks back in along with some harsh growled demonic vox, that just seems to up the intensity.
The final track is another brooding slow lumber through atonal misery and angular minor key miserablism, but here the vocals are unhinged and unleashed, the guitars seem slightly out of tune, the vocals following suit, slipping from screech to Muppet-y gurgle to wild whoop to raspy yowl, but still managing to evoke some sort of mysterious sorrow.
These guys are definitely far out, and their sound is an acquired taste, even for the depressive black metal inclined, and on some level, it's hard not to think maybe they're taking the piss, but it hardly matters, once you let this weirdly warped chunk of sonic misery wash over you, you sort of have to give in, it's at once soothing and enthralling, buzzy and bizarre, fractured and fucked, and is quickly becoming one of our new favorites. We might like it even more than the first Happy Days, which is saying a lot.
Definite recommended listening for the black hearted and frozen souled, released on one of our new favorite labels, Self Mutilation Services in Mexico, hopefully more depressive weirdness from them to come (and when we run out it might take a little while to get more as they're being shipped up from Mexico, so please be patient)...
The return of possibly our favorite depressive black metal band going these days, the awesomely (and ironically, obviously) monickered Happy Days, who seem to keep getting better and better, and weirder and weirder with every release, and with Happiness Stops Here... we can add poppier and poppier.
Their MO remains the same, but then why fix what ain't broke? Clean minor key guitars, simple drumming, those two elements wound into a loping post rock meander, before the buzzy blackness erupts and takes over, as well as the WAY up in the mix, harsh howled vokills. It's that weird dichotomy that makes Happy Days so compelling, the music is so pretty, so darkly melodic and weirdly poppy, and those vocals, a harsh sinister croak, constantly pulling and pushing against each other. On this record more than either of the others, the melodic component is front and center, remove the vocals, and we'd be talking some seriously dreamy buzz pop, or tweak it just a bit and we'd be in Lifelover territory, as it is, it's more like a revved up Hypothermia, or a slowed down, much more raw and ragged Katatonia, when the second clean guitar comes in, and offers a super emotional melodic counterpoint, it's some seriously intense stuff.
"My Brutus" features those dueling guitars, over some cool busy drumming, and some almost melodic vocals (still harsh and raspy), the guitars chiming, the vibe almost new wavey, the main riff looped endlessly, the whole track totally hypnotic. "Letting Go" might be our favorite though. The drums and guitar locked into a woozy downtuned lumbering groove, the vocals echo-y and reverbed, deep and near spoken, until again, a second guitar swoops in and offers up an arpeggiated minor key melody that wraps itself around that original riff, before the harsh vocals explode in a frenzy of tortured misery, until the drums bust out double time, and the guitars lock into a dizzying rapid fire harmony, which is easily the high point of the record, both emotionally and musically. Super intense and so goddamn catchy.
The thing with Happy Days, was that in the beginning, their ineptness and half assedness was a huge part of their appeal, total on the verge of falling apart chaos, strange and obvious samples, lots of drum struggle, all of which -would- occasionally coalesce into some seriously dark depressive buzz, but would inevitably splinter into chaos once again. The band now are so much tighter, which generally would turn us off, we like our fucked up black metal as inept and as damaged as possible, but it suits these guys, they're still plenty loose and rough and raw, but locked into these darkly depressive pop grooves, these guys are in their element, and seemingly have no equal. Depressive black metal record of the year? Most definitely? Buzzing blackened gloom pop record of the year, maybe that too...
Once again, we were sold before we heard even a single note. A super suicidal, ultra depressive, doomy black metal bedroom band called� Happy Days. Yep, that's right. Happy Days. Funny because the music is anything but, but also because, for a band this grim, and this miserable, it seems strange to have a name that to some will no doubt evoke the Fonz and Potsie and Richie Cunningham.
But don't let the name throw you off, Happy Days are not a joke band, they are nothing if not serious. Serious about their utter abject musical misery, from the opening few seconds, a lugubrious loop of mournful reverbed piano, set amidst a deep shimmering sea of drones, and an emotional voice, intoning a tale of personal misery. Super dramatic and powerful, and so so so so miserable.
But that track only serves as an intro. "The Beginning�" starts with a simple guitar melody, which gives way to a spare melancholy strum, peppered with samples from Fight Club oddly enough, and although Brad Pitt is probably the last person you might expect to hear on a suicidal black metal record, removed from the context of the film, those spoken word passages are indeed bleak and perfectly suit the music. That voice intones: "Our Great Depression is our lives�" and then the guitar kicks in, recorded way too hot, the distortion crumbling, a furious fuzz, the drums also distorted, wound into a simple moody crawl, the vocals totally blown out and confusional, going from maniacal shriek, to caustic growl, to strange spoken word, in what seems to be both English and Norwegian, all over a gloriously loping minor key dirge.
The final three tracks, the bulk of the record, are all extended epics, ranging from 10 minutes to nearly 20. And all three offer up more gloriously dismal Burzumic buzz, the drums a doomy plod, the riffs, thick and crunchy, existing more as a nearly static white noise whirled blur, the sound and arrangement and production, woozy and seasick, the vocals over the top, sometimes so loud and hysterical they peg the meters and drown out the rest of the music, even the spoken word parts are super distorted and strangely blown out. The riffs, seems to speed up and slow down as well, almost like the tape speed is being subtly adjusted, which only adds to the haunting otherworldiness.
The sound is ultra raw, and definitely has that bedroom 4-track vibe, giving Happy Days a sound more personal and lo-fi than heavy, but the heaviness is still masterfully conveyed in the sound, the riffing, the super saturated production, the emotion. Miserable abject hateful, but weirdly melancholy and beautiful, a few subtle changes, and this could be a blissed out slow motion sadcore record, but as it is, it's anything but.
The final track is a cover of a song by Czech black metal band Trist, whose sound easily becomes Happy Days', the recording here even more damaged, the guitar so hot and in the red, that it seems to be crumbling to pieces, or the speakers seem to be overloading, making it sound almost electronic, a chopped and clipped distorted chunk of white hot buzz, laid over a framework of equally distorted drums, a lurching slow motion buzz drenched plod, the vocals at their most anguished and miserable. The sound so fractured, that over the course of the song's 10 minutes, it almost stops sounding like black metal, and more like some experimental blackened buzzscape.
Really nice packaging, extra thick cardstock booklet and tray card, spare images, all blacks and greys, it's a real cd too, NOT a cd-r, but still strangely limited to ONLY 300 COPIES!! So odds are once we run out these will be gone for good.
By now, most aQ metalheads know all about our undying love for oddly monickered Happy Days, and most likely feel the same. But for those who might be confused by a metal band called Happy Days, let's examine this, their latest, a split with Dutch outfit Eindig. The record is called The First Step Towards Suicide, there's a photo of an oven on the cover. The Happy Days tracks have names like "Clinging Onto A Chance Of Happiness" and A Bleak Future That Awaits Us" and "Too Sick To Speak", the booklet is full of blurred photos of people hunched over, seemingly in misery, so yeah, the name Happy Days is meant ironically, cuz these sounds are the soundtrack for the unhappiest days you can imagine.
Happy Days offer up a new batch of abject audial depression, beginning with a mournful jangly guitar accompanied by an appropriately dark and hopeless sample, before launching into some buzzing midtempo depressive black metal, melodic and melancholy, after a burst of furious buzz, the record settles into a loping melodic gloom and doom, gorgeously sorrowful guitar melodies draped over pounding drums, raspy vokills and churning riffage. More dark and atmospheric than blasting and buzzing, but there's still plenty of that lurking within these tracks. Some killer riffs, some awesome hooks, buried amidst all the miserable buzz. But every time the second guitar line comes in, with some totally heartbreaking melody, it's then that Happy Days reveals itself as more than just some grim black horde. This is the best sounding Happy Days record yet, the music exuding that same dark pathos, but perfectly suited to the duo's slightly more polished black melancholic buzz.
Dutch depressive metallers Eindig are a subtly different beast, their sound thicker and more full, a bit more poppy too, their opening track, strangely melodic and 'happy' sounding, a sunshiney melody strapped to some pounding beats and some howling vox, balanced we'd imagine by some seriously bleak lyrics (can't tell for sure, as they're not in English), but the song slips from super melodic jangle to more grim minor key miserablism. Which seems to be their M.O., their music a strange mix of melody and aggression, but with a sound that shifts dramatically, from that sunshiney opener, to a more anguished and dejected traditional depressive black metal, to a downright lovely bit of big drum / clean guitar post rocky drift, the vox WAY down in the mix, super spare and skeletal and really quite pretty, to the final 9 minute epic that is similarly melodic, no distorted guitars, just drums and clean jangle, this time though the vocals a ghastly and tortured presence, jarring over the comparatively lovely melodic drift underneath, and some super intense, yet still undistorted crescendos. Incredible stuff from both bands.
Another Radioactive reissued rarity, and possibly one of the best yet. Oooh, we've got a weird one here. Seriously. But very cool we think. Didn't know what to expect from the whimsical band name and front cover artwork, but it wouldn't have been *this* anyway! The first track, "3-D, Free" starts things off pretty freaky with spacey vocal effects and a lethargic reggae beat, with heartfelt lyrics, singing lines like "I saw police shooting rats". It's reprised later at the end of the album in an even more wigged out "electronic" version. This is definitely psychedelic rock music, but also very futuristic for its time (circa 1977-1978), hinting at new wave/punk. With track two, "Positive People", things get even more Devo. And it doesn't get any more normal as it goes. Capt. Beefheart also seems to be at this party... weird weird weird. But these folks have a knack for melody amist the madness.
The Happy Dragon-Band was the work of one Tommy "The Happy Dragon" Court, who had previously released a now almost as obscure album on Capitol in 1974 as Phantom's Divine Comedy. Never heard it but we're told it's very Doors-ish and mysterious. Loading up on the synths (some very John Carpenter synths) and electronic effects and employing the services of multiple musicans and vocalists besides himself, Tommy's idea of a comeback a few years later was this quite odd band/album/project. Huh? Well, this just might have been a bit ahead of its time... or something. Ultimately, though, it's very original and, to us now, pretty darn cool.
What other precedents can we cite, or comparisons can we make? Zappa? Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come? a seriously dosed Andrew Lloyd Webber? Early Alice Cooper? Late Comus? Xolar-X? The Dreamies? Perrey-Kingsley? A back-from-the-future Ariel Pink?? With sizzling electronics, spacey effects, madhouse vocal choruses, definite hooks, serious psychological/cosmic moods, constant pitchshifting in the vocal dept, and song titles like "Astro Phunk", "Inside The Pyramid" and "Disco American", maybe there are no easy comparisons... All ten tracks have their unique charms. A chaotic, confusing, eccentric and yet (im)possibly brilliant and quite enjoyable piece of work!
As much as we love the Japanese '70s rock band Happy End, we've never been able to list any of their releases before as they have always existed only as ridiculously priced imports. Luckily Erebus has reissued this one at a regular price and we're so excited that folks who have never gotten to hear Happy End before will finally get a chance to dig their enduring sounds.�
While most of the '70s Japanese sounds we rave about is typically more on the extreme psychedelic and noisy side of the sonic spectrum, Happy End were much more about a breezy, hazy and salt of the earth sound. Happy End were born from the ashes of Apryl Fool by�Takashi Matsumoto and Haruomi Hasano, who of course would go on to help form Yellow Magic Orchestra. While they were exploring sounds that folks like Neil Young (CSNY), were making at the same time the really cool thing about Happy End was that unlike most of the other Japanese rock bands of the late '60s/early '70s they didn't do any cover songs or sing in English for more widespread attention. You can hear just how organic their intentions were, as these are songs that totally have their own unique approach to wind in your hair, sun soaked psych-pop. We love their whole catalog so we hope other records get reissued, but for sure grab this one to start.
Boy do we have a soft spot for Mr. Anus and Mr. Horribly Charred Infant. Otherwise known as the Happy Flowers. Most of you in your thirties (like most of us) grew up on classic college radio, loving everything on Merge, Homestead, Matador, Amphetamine Reptile, Touch And Go, Ajax, bands like Butthole Surfers, Scratch Acid, the Frogs, Bastro, Squirrel Bait, Killdozer and of course the HAPPY FLOWERS! for those of you who are either too young, or somehow missed out, the Happy Flowers were two guys who recorded totally improvised noise drenched records that explored the subtle nuances of being a kid, and all the pain that that entailed. The music was an ear blasting, exercise in chaotic noise, no riffs or melodies, just thick slabs of guitarnoise, feedback, and scabbling, scraping, squealing, while over the top, the duo screamed and shouted heartbreaking tales of toddler and teenage terror, "They Cleaned My Cut Out With A Wire Brush", "Mom And Dad Like The Baby More Than Me", "Charlie Got A Haircut", "More Mittens", "If This Gun Were Real (I Could Shoot You And Sleep In The Big Bed With Mommy)" and the legendary "Mom, I Gave The Cat Some Acid." Warped wailing brutality, an acquired taste for sure, but how could you not loved these guys. Totally giving the middle finger to the more 'typical' bands of the day, finding strange fans (James McNew of Yo La Tengo was a member at once point) and creating a truly infamous body of work. So, imagine how totally geeked we were to discover Mr Horribly Charred Infant was a mailorder customer of ours!!! We had a massive music nerd meltdown.
Anyway, back in 2004, Mr. Anus and Mr. HCI reunited for a 20th anniversary reuinion show, at the Tokyo Rose in Charlottesville, Virginia and before a small but appropriately worshipful crowd, they proceeded to totally and utterly destroy. Joined on stage by drummer Mike Malinin (from the Goo Goo Dolls, we kid you not!) the 2004 version of the Happy Flowers was a totally different beast (reflecting the later more refined hardcore side of the Flowers), songs that were just ear splitting smears of nasty noise, became pumelling hardcore jams, free noise freakouts got pinned down by the pounding drums and sheets of guitarnoise became actual riffs, and the band ripped through revamped versions of all their classics. They even revisit their unlikely version of Big Star's "Thirteen"! Who would of thought the Happy Flowers would ever try anything like that. But it works and totally kills. Well shot, the sound is great, the between song banter is a blast, makes me kick myself for missing it. Thankfully we managed to get a handful of these DVD-r's, released on Japanese label Lost Frog, and limited to only 100 copies, so act fast, or prepare to be very very disappointed. Insert and cover art by Mr. Anus.
Shhhhh... but rumour has it that our own Andee has been talking with Mr. Horribly Charred Infant about the possibility of some sort of Happy Flowers boxset, but that's all we're at liberty to say right now... ----* ----* In Stock, Not Yet Reviewed : ----* If you want to order one of these, just do a search on the item you want, and when the result comes up just click on the BUY button! 7 YEAR RABBIT CYCLE "Ache Horns" (Free Porcupine Society) cd 14.98 A SCANNER DARKLY "s/t" (Gilead Media) cd 10.98 A-TRAK "Oh No You Didn't" (Disque Primeur) cd 15.98 ABOMINABLE IRON SLOTH, THE "s/t" (Goodfellow) cd 15.98 ACID MOTHERS GONG "Live In Nagoya" (Vivo) cd 15.98 ADAMS, JOHN LUTHER "The Mathematics of Resonant Bodies" (Cantaloupe) cd 21.00 AGENTS DEL FUTURO "Mydrone" (Dielectric) cd-r 11.98 ALOG "Catch That Totem" (Melektronik) cd 16.98 ANIMALS & MEN "Revel In The Static" (Hyped To Death) cd 13.98 AREA C "Traffics + Discoveries" (Last Visible Dog) cd 11.98 ASTERIADI, POPI WITH LAKIS PAPPAS "Another Sunday Gone" (World Psychedelic Ltd.) cd 17.98 ATAVIST "s/t" (Invada) cd 15.98 JON AUER "Songs From The Year Of Our... " (Pattern 25) cd 13.98 BARR "Beyond Reinforced Jewel Case" (5 Rue Christine) cd 14.98 BATTIATO, FRANCO "Fetus" (Water) cd 15.98 BATTISTI, LUCIO "Amore E Non Amore" (Water) cd 14.98 BENGA "Newstop" (Beng) cd 16.98 BIRD SHOW "Lightning Show" (Kranky) cd 14.98 BLACK COBRA "Bestial" (At A Loss) cd 13.98 BLACKOUT "s/t" (World Psychedelic Ltd.) cd 17.98 BLACK OX ORKESTAR "Nisht Azoy" (Constellation) cd/lp 14.98/16.98 BOXCUTTER "Oneiric" (Planet Mu) cd 14.98 BRAZOES, OS "s/t" cd 21.00 BULLWACKIES ALL STARS "Dub Unlimited" (Wackies) cd 15.98 COLOSSAL YES "Acapulco Roughs" (Ba Da Bing) cd 13.98 CONGOS, THE & FRIENDS "Fisherman Style" (Blood And Fire) 2cd 17.98 COUNTRY TEASERS "The Empire Strikes Back" (In The Red) cd 13.98 COUP, THE "Pick A Bigger Weapon" (Epitaph) cd 13.98 COURT AND SPARK, THE "Hearts" (Absolutely Kosher) cd DAEDELUS "Denies The Day's Demise" (Mush) cd 13.98 DANIELSON "Ships" (Secretly Canadian) cd/lp 14.98 DATURAH "s/t" (Graveface) cd 10.98 DIM MAK "Knives Of Ice" (Willowtip) cd 14.98 EDISON WOODS "Nest Of Machines" (Habit Of Creation) cd 13.98 EHLERS, EKKEHARD "A Life Without Fear" (Staubgold) cd 15.98 EMBRUJO "s/t" (Amort) cd 17.98 EMERGENCY "Homage To Peace" (America) cd 17.98 ERSEN "Dunden Bugune" (Underground Masters) cd 21.00 EXCEPTER / LEB-LAZE "split" (Hoss) 12" 11.98 FATHER YOD AND THE SPIRIT OF '76 "Contraction" (Swordfish) cd 17.98 FLAT EARTH SOCIETY / THE LOST "Waleeco / Space Kids" (Arf! Arf!) cd 16.98 GAMELAN SON OF LION "Metal Notes" (Locust) cd 14.98 GIBSON, JON "Two Solo Pieces" (New Tone) cd 24.00 GIBSON, JON "Visitations I & II + Thirties" (New Tone) cd 24.00 GULTSKRA ARTIKLER "Pofigistka" (Lampse) cd 15.98 HANS GRUSEL'S KRANKENKABINET "Happy As Pitch" (C.i.p.) cd 11.98 HEADS, THE "Under The Stress Of A Headlong Dive" (Invada) cd 15.98 INSTANT AUTOMATONS "Another Wasted Sunday Afternoon" (Hyped2Death) cd 13.98 ISLANDS "Return To The Sea" (Equator) cd 14.98 JANDEK "What Else Does The Time Mean" (Corwood) cd 8.98 KAITO "Hundred Million Light Years" (Kompakt) cd 15.98 KALAS "s/t" (Tee Pee) cd 15.98 KALEVALA "People No Names/Boogie Jungle" (Walhalla) cd 21.00 KANE, JONATHAN "I Looked At The Sun" (Radium/Table Of Elements) cd 12.98 KAWABATA, MAKOTO "Inui 1" (VHF) cd 13.98 KUUPUU "Kulta Sulka" (self released) cd-r 8.98 LAZY FARMER "s/t" (Sunbeam Records) cd 16.98 LOPEZ, FRANCISCO "Absolute Noise Ensemble" (Blossoming Noise) 2cd 16.98 LYE, LEN "Composing Motion" (Atoll) cd 17.98 MAGIK MARKERS "Inverted Belgium" (Hospital) lp 16.98 MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ "Live 1984-85" (P.S.F.) cd 21.00 MAJOR STARS "Synoptikon" (Important) cd/lp 14.98/14.98 MATADORS, THE "s/t" (World Psychedelia Ltd.) cd 17.98 MGR "Nova Lux" (Neurot) cd 14.98 MIDNIGHT CIRCUS, THE "s/t" (Hyped2Death) cd 13.98 MONSTER MAGNET "25 Tab" (SPV) cd 14.98 MONSTER MAGNET "Spine Of God" (SPV) cd 13.98 MOONKYTE "Count Me Out" (Sunbeam Records) cd 16.98 MORD "Christendom Perished" (Southern Lord) cd 14.98 MOULTON, TOM "A Tom Moulton Mix" (Soul Jazz) cd 23.00 MY CAT IS AN ALIEN "Cosmic Light of the Third Millennium" (Important) cd 14.98 OBSESSED, THE "Lunar Womb" (Meteor City) cd 14.98 ORIENTAL SUNSHINE "Dedicated To The Bird We Love" (Sunbeam) cd 16.98 OS BRAZOES "s/t" (RGE) cd 17.98 OS MUTANTES "Jardim Eletrico (#4)" (Universal / Polydor Brazil) cd 19.98 OS MUTANTES "Mutantes E Seus Cometas No Pais Do Baurets (#5)" (Universal / Polydor Brazil) cd 19.98 OTOMO YOSHIHIDE / BILL LASWELL / YOSHIDA TATSUYA "Episome" (Tzadik) cd 16.98 OVO "Miastenia" (Load) cd/lp 14.98/11.98 PALMER, CLIVE "Banjoland" (Sunbeam Records) cd 16.98 PEEESSEYE (PSI) "Oo-Ee-Oo (Burnt Offering)" (Evolving Ear) cd-r 8.98 PEKLER, ANDREW "Four B-Movies - Aim Jukebox Series" (Aim) 7" 4.50 PELT "Skullfuck / Bestio Tergum" (VHF) cd 13.98 PENTAGRAM "Be Forewarned" (Peaceville) cd 14.98 PINK MOUNTAINTOPS "Axis Of Evol" (Jagjaguwar) cd 14.98 PLACE OF SKULLS "Black Is Never Far Away" (Exile On Mainstream) cd 14.98 PRINCE "3121" (Universal) cd 15.98 PUMICE "Yeahnahvienna" (Soft Abuse) cd 13.98 REIGNS "We Lowered A Microphone Into The Ground" (Jonson Family Records) cd 14.98 ROWE, KEITH / TOSHIMARU NAKAMURA "Between" (Erstwhile) 2cd 27.00 RUBINHO E MAURO ASSUMPCAO "Perfeitamente, Justamente Quando Cheguei" (Discos Mariposa) cd 17.98 SAKHI, HOMAYUN "Music Of Central Asia Vol. 3: The Art Of The Afghan Rubab" (Smithsonian Folkways) cd+dvd 21.00 SALA "Arhimo" (Last Visible Dog) cd 12.98 SATA, KOKANKO "s/t" (Honest Jon's Records) cd 16.98 SCHNITZLER, CONRAD "Blau" (Captain Trip) cd 25.00 SCHNITZLER, CONRAD "Gelb" (Captian Trip) cd 25.00 SCHNITZLER, CONRAD "Grun" (Captian Trip) cd 25.00 SCHNITZLER, CONRAD "Rot" (Captain Trip) cd 25.00 SCHNITZLER, CONRAD "Schwarz" (Captain Trip) cd 25.00 SCHNITZLER, CONRAD "Zug" (Qbico) lp 25.00 SEIKAZOKU "Live In Japan" (Vivo) cd 15.98 SERENA-MANEESH "s/t" (Honeymilk) cd 13.98 SHANKAR, ANANDA "A Life In Music" (Times Square) 2cd 16.98 SICKOAKES "Seawards" (Type Records) cd 15.98 SMITH, CHES "Congs For Brums" (Free Porcupine Society) cd 14.98 SMITH, TERRY "Fall Out" (Sunbeam Records) cd 16.98 SNOWBLOOD "The Human Tragedy" (SuperFi / Lawgiver) cd 13.98 SONIC YOUTH "Helen Lundeburg / Eyeliner" ( SYR) 7" 4.50 SPECTRE FOLK "s/t" (3 Lobed) cd 14.98 STAX, MIKE, ANDY NEILL & JOHN BAKER "Ugly Things Magazine Presents: Don't Bring Me Down... Under - The Pretty Things In New Zealand, 1965" (UT Publishing) book 18.95 STORM, THE "s/t" (Wah Wah) cd 21.00 STORY, THE "Tale Spin" (Sunbeam Records) cd 16.98 SUBTLE "Wishingbone" (Lex) 2cd 11.98 SUISHOU NO FUNE "Where The Spirits Are" (Holy Mountain) cd 13.98 SUN DIAL "Other Way Out / Other Way In" (Relapse) 2cd 14.98 SUN DIAL "Return Journey" (Relapse) cd 12.98 SWAGGER JACK "The Feral Blood Of..." (Last Visible Dog) cd 12.98 TELESCOPES, THE "Taste" (Rev-Ola) cd 17.98 TERRESTRIAL TONES "Dead Drunk" (Paw Tracks) cd 14.98 THRALLDOM "A Shaman Steering The Vessel Of Vastness" (Profound Lore) cd 13.98 TOYOZUMI, SABU & EXIAS-J "Son's Scapegoat" (Siwa) cd 14.98 TUSK "Get Ready" (He Who Corrupts Inc.) cd 14.98 V/A "Hijos Del Agobio Y Del Dolor" (Dro Atlantic) 2cd 37.00 V/A "Human Element - The World's First Human Beatbox Compilation" (108) cd 14.98 V/A "Lagos All Routes: Juju & Highlife, Apala & Fuji" (Honest Jon's) cd 16.98 V/A "Lagos Chop Up: Fuji & Afrobeat, Highlife & Juju" (Honest Jon's) cd 16.98 V/A "Never The Same: Leave-Taking From The British Folk Revival 1970-1977" (Honest Jons) cd 16.98 V/A "Panama!" (Sound Way) cd/2lp 16.98/21.00 VAN BOVEN "I.E.D." (Edgetone) cd 9.98 VOLCANO THE BEAR "Classic Erasmus Fusion" (Beta-Lactam Ring) 2cd 15.98 WARA "El Inca" (Revista) cd 17.98 WERREN, PHILLIP "Electronic Music" (Cast Exotic) 2cd 21.00 WHITMAN, KEITH FULLERTON "Recorded In Lisbon" (Kranky) cd 10.98 WITCHERY "Don't Fear The Reaper" (Century Media) cd 12.98 WORLD OF OZ, THE "s/t" (Repertoire) cd 24.00 WORMS OF SABNOCK "Dark Harmonies" (Firestorm) cd 14.98 _______________________________________________________________________ ABOUT MAILORDER
This is a MEAL! This punk ass band (and pals of ours) from the town of Watsonville, California are a bunch of snotty creeps with twisted visions of landlords on fire and yuppies being run through the wheat thresher! Their sound is part Public Image Limited (with dubbed out guitars, pounding percussion and general bad attitude) and part Big Black (angular, dark and more bad bad attitude). They hate rich people, they hate meansters, and they are annoying as fuck to see live. Happy Meal is fronted by twin brothers, known only as American Cream (guitar and vocals) and Harinjneesh Al Chone (bass and vocals). If you see them live, they will make fun of you!!! They also write amazing songs! The first track, after the rap station skit intro, is "Kathy". Has a catchier more riffradical song ever been written? You will have to buy this record to find out! The rest of the album is equally killer. Jagged but melodious guitar lines, throbbingly fucked up bass patterns and two little twerps screaming about making pipe bombs and selling weed to the cops. Watsonville's Most Wanted! Also, every cd is garnished with a hilarious comic street by bass-man Al Chone. Why? Happy Meal.
Most folks probably know of this Chicago trio by way of Steven Hess, who besides playing in Haptic, also plays in black metal / drone combo Locrian. And the sound of Haptic is occasionally not that far removed from the dronier side of Locrian. We reviewed Haptic's The Medium lp a while back, and were pretty taken by its dark minimalism, and rhythmic dronescapes. And while the sound on Scilens is definitely similar, the list of instruments takes up almost the whole inside of the J-card, and while it would take up way too much space here to list ALL the instruments used, a list of highlights might just prove enlightening: sparklers, strobe light, tuning forks, wine glass, wire brush, wooden clothespin, sand, sewing machine, electric fan, fabric, hurdy gurdy, leaf, marbles, metronome, paper, and then there's all manner of pianos and drums and effects and tape recorders and record players, found sounds, field recordings, harmonicas, guitars, basses, well you get the drift, that's a whole lot of stuff to make a record so hushed and minimal. The A side opens with a killer bit of dense drumming, but after that, the sound slips back down to a near whisper, distant drones, hushed minimal shimmer, all manner of random sounds, running water, scraped strings, chordal whir, sine wave like tones, rumbling SUNNO))) like buzz, hazy soft focus whirs, brief bursts of industrial clatter, lush lovely swirls and lots and lots of near silence. Not so much about music making, or song composition, instead, the three guys in Haptic are creating miniature soundworlds, imaginary installations, evoking all manner of images via deftly arranged objects, and the seemingly incidental sounds they produce, the fact that this is all surprisingly listenable speaks volumes about their skills as soundmakers. A gorgeous, abstract, challenging listen for sure. But one that fans of ultra minimalism, abstract dronemusic and lowercase sound will no doubt find quite satisfying.
Gorgeous new album of sprawling abstract ambience from this mysterious trio, featuring one member of Pan American and also Necks drummer Tony Buck, and it's on Flingco which in the past has brought us lps by outsider black metal horde Wrnlrd and buzz heavy dronesters Cristal (plus the guy who runs Flingco used to run Kranky!). Phew, pretty bad ass and we haven't even gotten to the music yet!
And the music here is truly strange, delicate, spacious, spare, minimal, but lush and expansive, The Necks is not a bad jumping off point, there is a sort of cyclical feel to the dronemusic here, Bucks drumming is similarly restrained and abstract, offering up a steady stream of snare skitter, or softly billowing clouds of cymbal shimmer, using percussion to create more layers of drone, while the rest of the band coax warm, soft focus swells from their instruments, the players creating a moody ebb and flow, chiming notes and bits of melody drift along the slow moving sonic currents, the whole side unfurling in gorgeous hazy slow motion.
The flip side is even more dark and minimal, again, the focus is on deep bell like tones, the subtle interactions of the notes, the incidental melodies, a warm bleary eyed murk, that grows deeper and deeper, until it's more felt than heard, which is when the percussion becomes the focal point again, a muted cacophony of thumps, a flurry of chimes, the click and clatter of wood on wood, eventually fading out, leaving just a smear of ultra low drift. So nice.
And while they last, we have the SUPER LIMITED version, only 100 copies made, that come with a dvd-r, featuring a live video mix recorded at the Empty Bottle in Chicago in 2007, a cool video that accompanied the band, sourced from manipulated found footage with a live analog VHS loop mix.
Oh yeah, each lp comes with a download card, so you can get a digital version for your computer!
Purported to sound like Timbaland, Har Mar Superstar instead seems like the bastard son of Jamiroquai. His claim to fame is that he is the brother of Sean Na Na and might have an album on Kill Rock Stars in the near future.
If your thing is rock music (or pop, or rap, or country, or whatever) and you're inclined to make music, well that's probably the genre of music you're going to be making, right? So if someone's super into "world music", and can't get enough Javanese gamelan or Morroccan trance or Indian raga or Tuvan throat singing... well then that someone would probably come up with their own music in that vein, and that might sound a lot like Harappian Night Recordings! Imagine the murky improvs of Thuja or Kemiallisat Ystavat going full tilt into anything goes "ethnological forgery" territory, an experimental exercise in dronological DIY exotica.
The Bo'Weavil label is known for both reissued old time folk and modern day folky sounds from around the globe, every thing from Anne Briggs to Zadik Zecharia. This fits right in, the music of Harappian Night Recordings aka the UK's Dr. Syed Kamran Ali being a one-man synthesis of sounds both East and West, mostly East... with a collection of ethnic instruments from around the globe and an equally broad range of musical-cultural influences, HNR generates mysterious, lively soundscapes both rhythmic and droning. There's sixteen tracks here in this disc's approximately 42 minutes, some brief atmospheric interludes, others more fully-developed songs that could be dances and ceremonies of ancient origin. While you might think this was the work of a DJ with a collection of dusty international 78s to sample, apparently this only SOUNDS like a mix of authentic field recordings, instead all of it was composed and performed by HNR's Dr. Ali! (We say apparently 'cause we still suspect that some of this must be sampled.)
He rattles drums and twitters flutes and strums ouds and pumps harmoniums... and occasionally chants and sings as well - the track "The Widow Chang, Lady Pirate" boasting maniacal vocals that wouldn't be out of place on a Sun City Girls album, and in fact we're sure that much of this disc will appeal to SCGs fans, the whole thing coming across as it does like a mashup of music culled from the Sublime Frequencies library! In a similar spirit as the SCGs, this is done with a slightly hallucinatory, gonzo intensity (the Bo'Weavil press release likens HNR's music to "a Cuban guerilla force stepping on Eisenhower's throat, emptying their glorious bladders on his face" among other things). And certainly the warp and warble and distortion inherent in the lo-fi production adds to that sometimes dark atmosphere, though HNR's music is melodic too, often quite catchy, bouncing along ecstatically. Along with the SCG's, we'd recommend this to fans of Siamese Temple Ball (another, possibly, faux-ethnic recording) and the cross-cultural mythmaking of Hungarian composer Laszlo Hortobagyi. But while Hortobagyi invented his own, unknown fake culture, the folk music of which he purported to "document", the HNR's hybrid sounds don't pretend to be from anywhere in particular, making overt if cryptic allusions to many traditions from the far corners of the real world... A quick trip over to Wikipedia clued us in to the meaning of this disc's title, also the name of one of its songs, it comes from a fairly bizarre bit of Indonesian mythology - Hainwele the "Coconut Girl" being a mythical being who had the ability to, ahem, excrete valuables, such items as golden earrings, coral, porcelain dishes, and, indeed, "glorious gongs"! No doubt the other track titles are referencing equally interesting folklore... but even without doing further internet research, your imagination will have much to work with from the sounds and music here alone. Fantastic, in the several senses of the word. But if you would like some visual input, a cinematic analog to the sort of field recording collage that these Harappian Night Recordings resemble, check out the YouTube video for HNR's track "Headless Mule" found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AzLV7zDMtM
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Another gloriously noxious dose of grim, raw blackness form LA trio Harassor, the group's newest proper full length. Like their recent split lp with Glass Coffin, and another recent split with Author & Punisher, this recent barrage of new material is some of the best stuff we've heard from these guys. And even removed from their dramatic live shows, the music here is pretty compelling, fusing the sort of raw Venomish black metal churn with something more tranced out and droney, not to mention a fair bit of melody in the mix, that makes some of this stuff surprisingly catchy. But it's all relative, and the catchiness here is subtle when compared to the groups grim black din, frenzied, furious riffing, and lose limbed rapid fire drumming, no bass, but really, you generally can't here the bass in black metal anyway, and it's not really missed here. And the vocals are a killer mix of guttural demonic grunts and hysterical shrieks, all wound up into furious, hellish heaviness, the sort of blurred blackness that's almost more trancelike than metallic, that is when not devolving into more punk metal pound, which the band do often and well, but even then, they'll lock into a looped sounding riff/blast that often into a totally mesmerizing blackblastdrone, before eventually devolving right back into that blackened punkiness. And like that split with Glass Coffin, some tracks are crazy catchy, sounding almost post rocky / shoegazey (check out "Winter's Triumph", which sounds like some sort of blackened post punk), hinting at the kind of band these guys could so easily be, but that element only adds to the groups twisted blackness, which in turn is only further enhanced by their blood soaked ritualistic live performances, which you should check out if you ever get the chance...
Includes a download code too.
Latest from these LA black metal mashers, not a proper new record, but instead a collection of tracks culled from various live practice space recording sessions with Bobb Bruno, he of Best Coast, Polar Goldie Cats, Submissions, etc. Murky and muddy and appropriately lo-fi, recorded on a 4 track, but still sounding pretty fierce and heavy as fuck, these jams find Harassor in fine form, their blackened punkish pound flitting easily from furious blackened thrash to churning chugging crush, laced with glass gargling shrieks and caveman drum pound. The sound is pretty epic and huge considering the set up here is just one guitar, drums and vox, the band make the most of it, spewing thick black gouts of black buzz, and roiling doomic crush, blasting beats driving these jams, and like the best black metal, the sound often blurring into tranced out black mesmer.
The lp version is LIMITED TO 300 COPIES and comes housed in a super swank hand silkscreened cover. Inside is a fold out poster, one side featuring the band, with Bruno, and a very black metal cat; the other side offers up tons of liner notes, the coolest part being extensive track by track notes, with each member weighing in on each track, its writing, recording, genesis, whatever, which makes for pretty fun reading. Plus all the lp sleeves are decorated with real human Harassor blood! The tape version IS LIMITED TO 200 COPIES!! And comes sans blood, and liner notes/poster.
Latest from these LA black metal mashers, not a proper new record, but instead a collection of tracks culled from various live practice space recording sessions with Bobb Bruno, he of Best Coast, Polar Goldie Cats, Submissions, etc. Murky and muddy and appropriately lo-fi, recorded on a 4 track, but still sounding pretty fierce and heavy as fuck, these jams find Harassor in fine form, their blackened punkish pound flitting easily from furious blackened thrash to churning chugging crush, laced with glass gargling shrieks and caveman drum pound. The sound is pretty epic and huge considering the set up here is just one guitar, drums and vox, the band make the most of it, spewing thick black gouts of black buzz, and roiling doomic crush, blasting beats driving these jams, and like the best black metal, the sound often blurring into tranced out black mesmer.
The lp version is LIMITED TO 300 COPIES and comes housed in a super swank hand silkscreened cover. Inside is a fold out poster, one side featuring the band, with Bruno, and a very black metal cat; the other side offers up tons of liner notes, the coolest part being extensive track by track notes, with each member weighing in on each track, its writing, recording, genesis, whatever, which makes for pretty fun reading. Plus all the lp sleeves are decorated with real human Harassor blood! The tape version IS LIMITED TO 200 COPIES!! And comes sans blood, and liner notes/poster.
