Another cryptically groovy release from the mysterious Clutchy Hopkins. This time a long distance tape exchange collaboration between Hopkins and multi-instrumentalist and troubadour Shawn Lee. We're not sure what Lee's input is here, because this sounds just like the other Clutchy releases, with funky cinematic organ and drum breaks augmented by jazz guitars and flutes. Reminds us of Money Marks early releases as well as his work with the Beastie Boys, who funny enough are among the latest folks rumored to be the actual Clutchy Hopkins. Hmmmmmm......
Another new, EXTREMELY limited missive from soundscaper / noisemaker Thaniel Ion Lee, who here, over the course of 34 minutes, unfurls a gorgeous glimmering expanse of minimal drift, a smoldering landscape of slow shifting layers, of muted feedback, and hushed thrum. A softly swirling sprawl of deep resonant tones, and washed out chordal shimmer. The vibe is ethereal and dreamlike, almost Caretaker-ish at times, but way more minimal and abstract, lush tones and overtones drift through fields of disembodied shimmer, that at times sound like an orchestra string section, locked into a weird time loop, while at others, like smears of indistinct melodies bleeding over from another dimension, hearing only glimpses of the whole, the fragments all woven into a strangely otherworldly drone, rife with all manner of subtle sonic colorations, hushed and haunting and so lovely.
LIMITED TO ONLY 25 COPIES!!! Each one hand numbered and with a unique hand painted cover.
The name Thaniel Ion Lee might not be immediately familiar to most folks, but avid readers of the aQ New Arrivals list might know him as the man behind blackdrone / ambient blacknoize outfit Black Escutcheon, whose cd-r we reviewed (and sold out of in a flash) and who shared a split tape with aQ faves weirdo outsider black metal one man band Cloak Of Displacement.
This latest missive, an outrageously limited (25 copies) and extravagantly hand made cd-r box collects a handful of material recorded over the last 3 years, and never released until now. And it seems that on these tracks, the blackness and noise are dialed back, leaving some lush layered dronemusic that will definitely appeal to the aQ dronelords (and droneladies), with its smoldering layered shimmers and buzzing SUNNO))) like glacial dirges, laced with bits of lazily strummed acoustic guitar, sweet soft swells of melody, swirling clouds of abstract effects, the sound slipping deftly from slowcore drift, to churning lowend heaviness, and from hazy spectral blur, to hushed almost shoegazey creep, often in the same song.
Folks who dug the blacker and noiser aspects of the two Blood Escutcheons, might still find much to dig here, it is still dark and droney and hauntingly atmospheric, but folks into dreamy dronemusic will be in heaven, although the last track, the nearly 16 minute "And You Will Know Him By His Deeds" does get grim and grisly and sonically sinister before blossoming into something much more glistening and celestial sounding.
LIMITED TO 25 COPIES!! Each one housed in a white cardboard reel to reel box, with a xeroxed insert and a white paper doily, each box hand numbered and titled, wrapped in twine.
MeteorCity have been KILLING lately, so many amazing releases, Freedom Hawk, Village Of Dead Roads, Egypt, Ararat, Flood, WhiteBuzz (reviewed elsewhere on this week's list) and now these guys, the weirdly named Leeches Of Lore, who just might be the weirdest Southern style stoner rock band EVER. And in fact, they're only barely stoner rock, hey're definitely heavy, and definitely rock. More metal in fact, but their sound is all over the place, especially Southern / classic rock. The record opens with a thrashing pounding metallic jam with full on old school Metallica style riffing, super high Ozzy-ish vocals, seriously fierce. As is the next track, although it gets a little bit stonery, with some bad ass stop start riffing, like a hyped up super charged Deep Purple or Thin Lizzy or something, but then all of sudden the band busts out with a stange acoustic interlude, all steel string guitar, and soulful twang flecked croon, only to slowly mutate into some sort of Southern rock, evntually building back to the original riffing that started the song.
And that seems to be where the band are coming from, they have a distinctly Western sounding almost country thing going on, and then a full on super heavy classic stoner rock side, and they're not at all shy abut flitting back and forth, or cramming the two sounds together. "Cenozoic Death Waltz" is almost entirely an old timey country waltz, but then the metal guitars come in, and it turns into something else, a sort of classic hard rock, and then those high vocals come in, and the band is full on heavy metal parking lot, crusing down the highway, drinking beer, heavy metal RAWK.
The mellower twangier parts can sound like Lynrd Skynrd, the Eagles, the Outlaws, but the band always end up transforming that sound into something way heavier and more metallic.
The title track is like their "Freebird" or "Green Grass And High Tides Forever", with its slow country build, chugging riffs giving way to a seriously dense bit of psychedelic heaviness, a little mathy, and a lot proggy, so good.
The whole record is basically a bad ass Southern rock, stoner metal hybrid, with plenty of little oddball bits mixed in, like the last two songs, the croony almost acapella "Western Skies" and the minute plus closer "Why, Toe-Bot?", a short sharp blast of metallic madness that sounds quite a bit like Nitro, and yeah, THAT Nitro.
Another killer from MeteorCity...
As producers, musicians, critics, and listeners alike seem to hail the traditional pantheon of landmark influences, like Can, Kraftwerk, Throbbing Gristle, Fad Gadget, et al, there are still plenty of fantastic, sidelined artists who just continually fall through the cracks. Such is the case with Thomas Leer. Sadly, outside of collectors circles, he is practically unknown, even though he kept company with some of the biggest names in 20th century pop and avant garde music. After releasing the seminal bedroom techno-pop-industrial classic "Private Plane" 7" on his own label -- Oblique -- he collaborated with Robert Rental on The Bridge, an LP on Throbbing Gristle's Industrial imprint. In fact, those recordings inspired Chris Carter -- of TG and Chris and Cosey fame -- and a pre-Whitehouse William Bennett to pick up a Wasp synth. Not yet acquainted with Robert Rental? If you can get your hands on it, check out Live at the West Runton Pavilion, his collaborative effort with Daniel Miller of The Normal, and the founder of Mute Records. A fantastic document, it mirrors Thomas Leer's work as it subverts the traditional punk/rock paradigm, utilizing newly emerging technology to create music completely outside of the guitar/drums/bass framework. Some might say that it's at least implicitly as punk as anything else. That said, let's talk a bit about this particular release. Firstly, it does indeed have both "Private Plane" and "International." Okay. But there is plenty to glean from the rest of his lesser-known catalogue. Picture a synth-happy David Bowie and Konk collaboration, with a restrained sense of composition. Picture a soulful robotic version of Marc Almond making 4-track recordings for himself. Not under-produced, but understated and playful. Shriekback caught in an algorithm. Picture Cybotron and Inner City chugging Robitussin and trying their damnedest to picture what acid house might sound like if it were made in 1983. This collection amounts to exactly what it sounds like on paper: a great collection of work from an incredibly influential and diverse artist. Uninitiated? Check it out! Already a fan? You know you want to grab it! Totally recommended.
Stereolab named a song after them, Belle & Sebastian and the Magnetic Fields have made careers of taking their influence from them, and we hope the Left Banke finally get the widespread love and attention they so deserve all these decades later. Born out of the orchestral pop strands of The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby", The Left Banke were the teenage pioneers of the Baroque Rock sound, marrying minor key melody with chamber pop arrangements of harpsichords, string sections and woodwinds. Though the sound ultimately took off more in Britain, The Left Banke were the sole innovators stateside giving them an edge as their two biggest (and sadly only) hits, "Walk Away Renee" and "Pretty Ballerina", propelled them towards a short-lived wider recognition. Sundazed has done a great service reissuing both of the bands records to show that they were much much more than just a two-hit band.
Too is the bands lesser known and last release from 1968 and while the band lost main songwriter and keyboardist Michael Brown for most of it (he returned to record the single, "Desiree" which baffingly didn't chart!), there is plenty to recommend it. Slightly more upbeat than the first album, the vocal harmonies (including the presence of Steven Talarico aka Aerosmith's Steven Tyler on backing vocals!) push the feel toward sunshine pop, sounding much closer to the Beach Boys than before. Yet the melancholy of Brown's contributions plus the beautiful but quirkily titled "Dark is The Bark" give the overall mood a complex prettiness. Lush orchestrations and studio wizardry (lots of backwards effects and psychish phasing) make this album just as gorgeous as the first, and we're glad its lost status is finally seeing some well-deserved light. Recommended!
Stereolab named a song after them, Belle & Sebastian and the Magnetic Fields have made careers of taking their influence from them, and we hope the Left Banke finally get the widespread love and attention they so deserve all these decades later. Born out of the orchestral pop strands of The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby", The Left Banke were the teenage pioneers of the Baroque Rock sound, marrying minor key melody with chamber pop arrangements of harpsichords, string sections and woodwinds. Though the sound ultimately took off more in Britain, The Left Banke were the sole innovators stateside giving them an edge as their two biggest (and sadly only) hits, "Walk Away Renee" and "Pretty Ballerina", propelled them towards a short-lived wider recognition. Sundazed has done a great service reissuing both of the bands records to show that they were much much more than just a two-hit band.
And that may be hard to gather from a debut record named after those two biggest hits, but Walk Away Renee / Pretty Ballerina from 1967 is one of the finest sixties pop albums ever! Fronted by vocalist Steve Martin-Caro and keyboardist/songwriter Michael Brown, The Left Banke were the more melancholy and introspective counterpoint to the Beach Boys sunny outgoing harmonies. We bring up the Beach Boys because both bands had further similarities. Both bands employed session musicians and both had managers who were also fathers of the main bandmembers that were subsequently fired when they started getting more successful. Further rifts occured right away when Brown, taking cues from Brian Wilson, didn't feel he had to to tour with the band, complicating band dynamics to the point of him leaving the band after this record, only to return to record one last single ("Desiree" featured on Too) that sadly didn't chart.
But band complications aside, this record is on par with the Zombies' Odessey & Oracle and Something Else by the Kinks. Seriously. Songs like "She May Call You Up Tonight", "Let Go Of You Girl", and "Barterers and Their Wives" show that their antiquated look and arrangements were far from a gimmick, but a means to get into some deeply complex and heartfelt songwriting. These records sound better than ever. Essential!
We carried a cd-r version of Temporal Exclusion a short time ago, but the Paradigms label has scooped it up for a proper cd release, albeit a limited pressing of 750. In the interim, mainman Kris Berry fleshed out the 4-track ep into a 7-track full length. It now comes in cardboard sleeve within one of the series' now familiar printed envelopes.
Berry is joined by Ronald Aveling (voices and samples), percussionists Ches Smith, Stephen Flinn and Mike Hoffman, Faraz Minooei on Santour, and Monica Aiken on cello. Their strings, percussion, vocals and collaged samples weave together and apart in this an industrial edged dismemberment which inhabits a dank, gloom filled theatrical setting. It's a work haunted by intercepted television or radio broadcasts and other mysterious transmissions encountering pregnant pause piano strikes, the chanting of monks, deep choral intonations and other anguished distorted voices which often offer more texture than words. Enshrouded and somber.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Featuring members of the Peechees.
Legend were an awesome, if obscure NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, pronounced n'wobim) band that never got a major label deal (in the liner notes, mention is made of the band watching helplessly as mediocre London bands got signed while bands like themselves from other parts of Britain are ignored -- well, maybe they should have moved to London!! ever think of that, guys?). But, their lack of success really was a bit unfair, as a listen to this double cd, containing their entire output -- two LPs, a 4 song ep, and a demo, spanning the years '81 through '83 -- shows them to be a damn fine heavy metal act indeed! Heavy, catchy stuff with much frantic axe action and folky, somewhat Ozzy-ish vox. That, plus doomy, politically themed lyrics, various songwriting eccentricities (occasional acoustic guitars, folk melodies, lengthy instrumental riff-outs, some prog-pop moves on their second LP), and a charmingly lo-fi production make 'em come across kinda like Angel Witch meets Manilla Road. In other words, pretty cool and very cult. Twenty years on, they've lived up to their name! And interestingly, in this day and age of black metal 'evilness', it's interesting to remember that metal is not necessarily PRO-war and violence (even if it's *about* war and violence). Indeed, along with bands like Megadeth, Nuclear Assault and Anthrax, Legend spoke out against the dangerous arms race and superpower militarism of the Cold War era. Now with today's worries about WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction), Legend demonstrate continued relevance. Heck, they even do a catchy little number entitled "Anthrax Attack".
Legend. They picked a good band name - an obscure legend, but legend nonetheless, in the annals of early, epic prog/metal. We first heard of 'em years ago when local true metal eccentrics The Lord Weird Slough Feg covered one of the songs from this record, a track called "The Wizard's Vengeance" - you can find Slough Feg's version, always a live fave, on their second album, Twilight Of The Idols (recently reissued in a 3cd 'box set' by Metal Blade). And the rollicking "The Wizard's Vengeance" is indeed one of the highlights here, it's a real ripper, both energetic and dramatic, but Slough Feg could have easily picked other tracks from this lp that they also could have made their own. That's because From The Fjords, this Connecticut band's only ever release, an ultra-rare private pressing from 1979, is a pioneering early example of progressive epic metal, similar in many ways to the sound that Manilla Road was developing around the same time - and thus also a forerunner to what Slough Feg sometimes sounds like too.
Legend maybe shouldn't even be considered a 'real' metal band, more like a hard rocking prog outfit, often quite majestic and moody, compositionally complex & indulgent. The vocals are perhaps one of Legend's most idiosyncratic elements, being super clean and clear, with some vibrato, capable of conveying intensity and emotion, but also kind of laidback and spacey at the same time, the lyrics mostly mystical, their sincere nerdy/hippie vibe definitely not very metal. On the other hand, like we said, Legend can rock pretty hard, having, most importantly, lotsa great riffs! So that tips 'em a bit more over into metal territory. And the singer does let out a scream once in a while. Their songs' titles and subject matter are also often very metal: "The Destroyer", "Against The Gods", "From The Fjords" (about Viking raiders, naturally). Musically, though, while they may have been listening to the heavy metal of the day, they also must have been big into prog and fusion too - Return To Forever as well as Rush, no doubt. Legend were a power trio and all three members possessed plenty of instrumental chops - the guitar, bass and drums each showing off whenever they can, with complex flourishes. You won't be surprised (and hopefully will be pleased) to find an elaborate drum solo breakdown in the midst of "The Iron Horse", ferinstance (the lengthiest of the two all-instrumental cuts on here).
Lest Legend seem too serious (and only inadvertently silly, with some of their non-ironic mythological/fantasy lyrics), there's deliberate comic relief with "R.A.R.Z.", a tongue-in-cheek track about how they're ready to sell out and become rock stars if they could only get a break. Good thing it's obvious from that song that they knew that wasn't ever gonna happen, and lucky for us too since they were clearly so much better at making a decidedly noncommercial, bizarrely weird and wonderful DIY prog/metal hybrid destined only for well-deserved cult status, that gives the sense of coming from an ancient time, as if we were centuries removed from 1979.
This long-awaited vinyl reissue, which includes a lyric sheet insert, is a European import, limited to just 400 copies worldwide; we got all the copies we're likely to ever get. Someday, perhaps, there will also be a cd reissue of this collector's item on the Vintage/Rockadrome label, but they've been promising it for a while, so we'll see. In the meantime, vinyl types into mystic-proto-epic-prog-metal better grab this now. This would have been a great one for the in-between list we did last week of "heavy ripping freaky prog" stuff!!
RIP guitarist/vocalist Kevin Nugent (died 1983).
Everett True happened to get a rather sweet journalism assignment for NME and Melody Maker in 1989 to write about the up and coming record label Sub Pop and their cozy collection of albums from Nirvana, Screaming Trees, Dwarves, Soundgarden, etc. He stuck around Seattle during the early '90s and became what some have called "rock-crit godfather of grunge," after hobnobbing with the 'stars' of Sub Pop. Occasionally, True was known to break out into song, opening for a number of these groups as The Legend and landing a 7" on Sub Pop. Nearly a decade later, True who now resides in his native England returns as The Legend with an album on 3 Acre Floor run by the Jewelled Antler eccentric Jason Honea.
Musically, The Legend has very little in common with the Northwest sound that he wrote about in the early '90s, rather choosing the instantly urgent jangle of the Go-Betweens, the Terminals, and the general C86 sound of British indie-pop (albeit far grittier). The liner-notes written by True get the gist of the music: "After about 10 attempts we found it best not to change any rhythm or melody too rapidly, and I stumbled across a new approach to making up words. Up to that point, I'd be trying to pull random lines from old soul songs from my memory, and shout them out over the scratchy guitar."
The Legendary Pink Dots venture further into 70s Germanic trance / space rock (Neu!, Gunter Schickert) with hypno-motorik bass thudding and repetitive rhythms becoming the prime elements for the LPD songwriting ---this mainly due to the increased presence and influence of the astoundingly talented Ryan Moore (aka Twilight Circus Dub Sound System). The album flows with wonderful transitions from rich drones to Niels Van Hoornblower's complex sax arrangements. In spite of the title "A Perfect Mystery", Edward Ka-Spel's lyrics here are less cryptic (and perhaps a little pedestrian) on a couple of tracks. However, as most LPD records are full of indiscretions (notably bad Fellini-esque carnival tunes), this is a minor infraction to an otherwise great record by an ever-evolving group of musicians. LPD's crushed velvet and black nail polish romanticism is retained in a baroque sheen that coats the album, but they have long ventured forth from their goth beginnings. And if their recent SF performance ---a beautifully enveloping evening that enthralled all present at the sold-out Slim's--- is any indication this album is destined to reach perhaps LPD's widest audience yet, and deservingly so.
The initial listen to each unheard Legendary Pink Dots album is a frustrating experience as one waits for that one utterly crappy piece of carnivalesque junk to ruin an otherwise decent album of gothic psychedelia. Fortunately for Nemesis Online, that one song is missing... Making this quite an enjoyable LPD record of unnerving lullabies and noirish beats not too disimilar to Portishead.
It's been over a quarter of a century now that the Legendary Pink Dots have been unleashing their dark and brooding psychedelic spaced out sounds and they've somehow managed to maintain a seriously strong cult following despite being ignored by much of the underground music establishment (they've pretty much always been ignored by Wire magazine ferinstance). While we can't say we've stayed up to date with all of their recent output, Plutonium Blonde grabbed our attention in a BIG way from our very first listen and we've since been spending lots of time with its languid and melancholic sounds. Such a perfect blissed out Sunday night record to put on when you have nowhere to go and all you want to do is melt into the couch and daydream. Edward Ka-Spel sounds as iconic as ever and this really does sound like the Dots at their best, creating moody and dramatic songs that remind us of later period Coil covering mid-'70s Pink Floyd. Really nice!
The Legendary Pink Dots is an unusual crypto-pop collective whose expressive sonic adventures blur the well-demarcated subcultures of '60s psychedelia and '80s doom 'n' gloom. Stained Glass Soma Fountain, a collection of LPD rarities from the early '80s. Primitive keyboards and drum machines playfully march through baroque fusions of New Wave and psychedelia, hinting perhaps at the underappreciated pop of Brian Eno.
EM strikes again! Another out of left field release from our favorite weirdo reissue label. This time it's a career retrospective of the one and only Legendary Stardust Cowboy. More heard of than actually heard, this super deluxe collection gathers up all the essential bits and pieces from the Ledge's tumultuous career, from his first single, "Paralyzed" recorded in 1968 by a then unknown T-Bone Burnett (who also played drums) all the way up to tracks from his 1984 album Rock-It To Stardum.
But who is the Legendary Stardust Cowboy, and why does anyone care? Well, it's been a long time since we heard this stuff, and boy does it sound even more totally wacked than we remember. It's like stripped down country rhythm and blues with a maniacal madman screaming and howling, in a totally unintelligible much mouthed howl over the top. Anyone familiar with Brak from Space Ghost Coast To Coast or with Homer, the crazy guy who plays guitar on various corners of Valencia Street might have an inkling of what's going on here. Or imagine AQ fave Jon Wayne (the band not the man) recording a record after full frontal lobotomies. Completely mental, ultra damaged, outsider country rock. Hard to believe the reaction the 'Ledge must have gotten when he appeared on Laugh In in 1968, these days we're exposed to so much insane music and so many weird records, but back then, this must have been the freakiest goddamn thing America had ever seen or heard.
For some songs, the Ledge cranks it down, and delivers his demented narrative in a sung-spoken drawl, like a more damaged twangy Lou Reed, but even those tracks are peppered with stumbling spastic drums, fake bird calls, random bits of talking, studio sounds, detuned guitars, weird bursts of way-up-in-the-mix sci-fi synths and all manner of bleating trumpets.
THE definitive slab of outsider country music. Like some impossibly demented mix of Chet Atkins, Reynols, Daniel Johnston, Brak, Jon Wayne, Joe Meek, Buddy Holly, Wild Man Fischer and Hasil Adkins.
And as with all EM releases gorgeously and extravagantly packaged, in an oversized Japanese style jewel case, a huge booklet packed with liner notes (most in Japanese), photos and lyrics and of course a Japanese style obi. The entire thing beautifully printed with gold ink on white. Leaves us saying "wow" for a bunch of different reasons!
Andrew Lagowski is a man of many hats, from his earliest post-punk work as Nagamatzu (reissued by Dark Entries) to brilliantly paranoid sci-fi concrete compositions as S.E.T.I. (the best of which came out on Ash International) and the muscular electronica under his own name from the early '90s that bridged the practices of Autechre and Clock DVA. Lagowski is not the first to use the name Legion, and there's no doubt somebody else will pick up the moniker somewhere along the way; but for this project, he propagates a dark ambient agenda similar to the one he helped Lustmord craft on the seminal Heresy record, through long-form electronic tones and undulations scattered with psychologically charged samples and bursts of white noise. Originally released in 1992 on the German imprint Hyperium, False Dawn was a grim parallel to much of the ambient techno offerings that were spawned from the post-rave culture, with a handful of other likeminded artists delving into the deep cosmology of an industrially minded ambience. The album's central tracks - "Colossus" and "The Plasma Pool" - are aptly named with a liquid gravity that ripples through echoing, abysmal drones, bookending a shorter rhythmic track akin to the sequenced techno that he produced under his own name.
This reissue of False Dawn is full of bonus material, much of it unreleased. There are two versions of "Tunnelvision" which was recorded about the same time, with one of the versions being released on a super limited 7" single, and the longer version making its first appearance on this collection. Both sport much of the same deep sound design with stretched / blurred / echoed liturgical chants that weave in and out of the shadowy electronics and buzzing static. "Komarov" loops a slow feedback pulse with synthetic orchestrations and snatched shortwave radio conversations, leaning a bit more towards the S.E.T.I. recordings. And Lagowski revists a handful of the original cassettes for two of the tracks which were produced in 2008 and 2012 respectively, with both keeping true to the deep dark extended gasping of Legion's earlier sounds. The collection ends with three remixes from other artists that feel tacked on, but certainly don't diminish the power from Lagowski's aesthetic.
Dig this killer blast of blackened slo-mo industrial death metal, from these Italians by way of Japan. We were pretty much sold already, they're called Legion Of Andromeda, they have song titles like "Cosmo Hammer", "Overlord Of Thunder" and "Fist Of The Galaxy", and the cover's a grim black on black band logo, a giant axehammer, and goddamn if the music doesn't live up to all the nonmusical promise. Four tracks of minimal, reductionist blackdeath brutality, almost like a black death version of Dutch instrumetallers Gore, each track mostly a single riff, hell, at times it sounds like a single chord, chugging hypnotically, driven by a programmed robotic rhythm, occasionally shifting into a sort-of-chorus, but really it's just a noisier version of THAT ONE riff. All the while, some seriously throat shredding demon grunt, grindcore style belched vokills, gurgle and growl over the top. Total knuckle dragging blackened bliss out of the highest order. Opener "Cosmo Hammer" is definitely the dirgiest of the bunch, just total slo-mo headbanging chug and churn that could (and should, and sort of DOES) go on forever. "Overlord Of Thunder", stretches out a bit, but just a bit, with a kick ass main riff, that's sort of like a stoner rock riff but way more blackened, the distortion crumbling and blown out, and while it seems like it's setting things up for some proper black buzz and blast, it's NOT, instead, LoA just lock it down, loop that riff, and unfurl a tranced out sprawl of motorik riffage, that in different hands could probably be a Pharaoh Overlord song, but here, becomes some sort of blackdeath musical mantra, modern minimalism by way of hair spinning, amp worshipping neanderthals and we LOVE it. And so it goes, the other two tracks delivering still more of that monstrously monotonous riffing, head caving, soul shearing, one-riff, drone-dirge heaviness that is totally mesmerizing, absolute hypno-death, industrial, black buzz trance out genius.
And yeah, it's a REAL cd, and it's only five bux, and it totally fucking RULES.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Of all the 'electronica' labels out there, we're beginning to think Planet Mu might be our favorite, certain the most relevant. For a while Warp were unbeatable, Aphex Twin, Boards Of Canada, Squarepusher, Plaid, Autechre, and while that stuff still rules, Warp definitely seems like old guard, whereas Planet Mu has been moving forward, pushing boundaries, even the old school artists on Planet Mu seem to be similarly progressive. So compare the Planet Mu roster to the above Warp one: Venetian Snares, Shitmat, Distance, Vex'd, Pinch, Boxcutter, Neil Landstrumm, Eero Johannes, Milanese, Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble... Planet Mu is always on the cusp of whatever new sound surfaces, the home to most of the kick ass dubstep released in the US, but still supporting it's older artists, who in turn support the label by changing and transforming and progressing. All that said, we still were totally blindsided by Legion Of Two.
With a record title like Riffs, we were already prepared for something different, and a record called Riffs on Planet Mu definitely had us intrigued, but still we would have never expected this. Imagine Neurosis doing dubstep, or some ambient doom band dabbling in electronica, or a heavier, more modern and avant Tortoise, thick sheets of distorted buzz, plenty of bleeps and bloops, that awesome hoovery dubstep bass buzz, but with REAL drums, big drums, pounding and punishing and massive, just take the opening one two punch. The first track, a sort of intro, is a swirling cloud of hiss and whir, streaks of feedback, layer upon layer of gauzy distorted thrum, peppered with bursts of big booming drums, until the song finally kicks in, and it's like Black Boned Angel or something, but a bit stripped down, and instead of downtuned riffage, it's a sea of undulating synths, and rumbling low end, and shards of melody and feedback swirling all around the pounding lumbering doomic crush. We almost wish that track was the whole of the record, but then we would have missed out on the second track, which is where we got the dubstep Neurosis thing, that's not quite accurate, but for an 'electronic' record it definitely doesn't get heavier than this, a loping drum part, over deep throbbing low end, laced with little space-y squelches, and some woodpecker clicks, as well as intense bursts of in-the-red bass fuzz, and finally some techno synths laced over the top, the sound getting thicker and thicker and heavier and heavier, eventually building to a full on glitched out effects drenched psychedelic electronic freakout, the rhythm never faltering, finishing off with a fierce almost metallic dirge. Holy shit. How did these guys end up on Planet Mu, and how the hell did they come up with this bizarre sonic hybrid?
The whole record is sort of a series of rhythmic workouts, from crushing metallic dubstep, to blissed out post rock, to mathy techno jams, to deep listening laid back grooves, but all anchored by the incredible drumming, and the sound of real drums, which is probably what makes this stuff sound so fresh and organic, live drums and electronics end up creating something dense and blown out, heavy and 'live' sounding.
"Palace (Dub)" isn't so much dub, as a tangled bit of complex looped drumming, beneath a repetitive synth line and some buzzing bass squelches, and diaphanous sheets of high end shimmer in the background, tense and dramatic and cinematic, almost like a more twisted avant mathy electronic Goblin or Zombi. "Legion Of Two", is a loping almost eighties sounding groove, with some of the buzziest heaviest synth sounds ever, and plenty of tweaked effects, and soaring faux strings, and tinkling late night glimmer. Much of the second half of the record is more laid back, soporific, almost jazzy, hence the Tortoise comparison, looped and hypnotic, the drums and bass locked into totally mesmerizing jams, while all around keyboards chime and ring out, the melodies haunting and minor key, occasionally slipping into jagged bursts of stuttery noise drenched stop start riff heavy math rock, before slipping back into the groove. The lengthy "Handling Noise" finds the band doing so just fine, crafting a long slow burning creepfest, all otherworldly swells, strange electronic sounds, creepy ambience, jazzy drum skitter, all wreathed in static and crackle and hiss, exploding in the last few minutes in a full on Nadja style shoegaze, noise rock psychdrone blow out. "It Really Does Take Time" is the most electronic of the bunch, a bit house-y, with dubbed out effects, weird loops of children's voices, haunting and trippy, but this track too finally exploding in a frenzy of tribal rhythms and wild psychedelic synths.
The record finishes off with the 10+ minute "Cast Out Your Demons", which is like a dubby space rock jam, big loping drums, sizzling space-y synths, whirling effects, but within all the blissedout stargazing mesmer, subtle bits of dubby guitar, the drums really driving the track, to a gorgeous hazy drone drenched outro, definitely reminds us of White Hills or one of those modern psych combos, but infused with some weirdly abstract space dub.
Really cool stuff, and even with the preceding lengthy review, hard to describe, or at least hard to do justice to. This record has been on repeat play since the day it showed up, in the store, at home, on the headphones, at once groovy and dark, hazy and heavy, druggy and psychedelic, electronic and metallic, a gorgeous confusional chunk of psych-dub space doom free jazz noise rock. Or something. Whatever you call it, most definitely one of our new favorites...
Skam Records 001. Lego Feet. In the realm of electronica, this is a recording that few have heard, yet many have dug through crates seeking (and never finding). Back in 1991, Sean Booth and Rob Brown, the duo later to be known as Autechre, released the Lego Feet 12" on their own Skam Records imprint, predating their first Autechre single "Cavity Job" released later that same year. In celebration of the twentieth anniversary of that ridiculously rare single, Booth & Brown have revisited the single, extending what was about 25 minutes of music into four massive suites clocking in at a full 70 minutes, which appear to be conveniently broken into possible side-long passages suitable for vinyl. Where the extra material came from is not really clear, perhaps these are the longer tracks that became so many of the extracted snippets that made their way onto the single, perhaps they are unreleased trax from back in the day. What's very clear is that this is definitely of the era, as a new form of electronica morphing through the nascent rave-culture in England at the time with a keen eye on acid house in Chicago, cybernetic techno on the Detroit / Berlin axis, and the hip hop beats from both American coasts.
For the decade of the '90s, rhythms were crucial to Autechre's sound, becoming all the more slithering, contorted, and algorithmically complex before the two ultimately jettisoned a fundamental rhythm for their more cerebral work in the next decade. Booth & Brown's breakbeats (as they were almost always breakbeats) were always some of the most interesting of the IDM producers, fragmenting alongside weird machine-dreamt ambient melodies and shape-shifting polydactyl sequencing. On Lego Feet, the two laid the rhythmic foundation for much of what would come; and fuck, they were onto something really incredible.
The first cut sports a number of classic breakbeats that would have fit in with the Gescom singles (Gescom being another Autechre side-project focusing more on dismembered hip-hop beats and breaks), with plenty of great percolating electronic blorp, tone-glide ambience, and melody throughout. Track two opens with a frenzied acid-techno number with wildly squiggling sequences jitteringly starting and stopping along a hi-hat riddled 808 techno 4/4 rhythm, but this slides into a breakbeat track with the metallic snares that became a signature for Autechre on their groundbreaking debut Incunabula. Elements of track three take their cues from Juan Atkins' classic Model 500 project with whip-crack snares amidst darkly churning electronics and caustic breakbeats. Track four glides through the acid trax with some sublime melodies upon the ride-cymbal emulating drum machinations. So, damn good.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
The deal here is you've got two musicians from Cologne, Germany who met while playing in Keith Rowe's M.I.M.E.O. group, collaborating on a analog/digital synth and computer -based disc that takes Lehn's improv experience and melds it with Schmickler's expertise in electronic studio post-production (Schmickler being responsible for the excellent studio-based neo-krautrock Pluramon project, remember). "Bart" features dynamic abstract electronics, lots of zaps, squeaks and growls, like listening to a roomful of dysfunctional robots "talk" to themselves, with rapid interruptions of silence and distortion.
Solo record number two from aQ pal Jussi Lehtisalo, frontman of Finnish hypnorockers Circle, Ektro / Full Contact label head honcho, and member of too many outfits to count, a few of which would include Ektroverde, Ratto Ja Lehtisalo, Doktor Kettu, Pharaoh Overlord, Rakhim, Grumbling Fur, Krypt Axeripper, Motorspandex, Split Cranium, Steel Mammoth...
Sadly, we haven't yet managed to get Jussi's first solo lp, by all accounts a surprisingly beautiful and subdued album, but we did manage to get a bunch of these, the tape version at least (there's a vinyl version as well, which we hope to have soon too), which is also beautiful, but about as far from subdued as you can get. Both side long tracks are dense and layered, and constantly shifting. In some ways taking all the disparate sounds of Jussi's other bands, and somehow mashing them all together, into something surprisingly cohesive.
The A side, "Caterpillars", starts off sounding like some sort of abstract deserty ambient experimental doom, with churning guitars, spurts of metallic crunch, clattery bicycle spoke like percussion, woozy Morricone-esque twang and spidery minor key melodies, peppered with occasional twisted little synth trills, all beneath some monstrous growled vokills, before the song transforms into something more woozy and jazzy, a little late night bluesy, with crooned distorted vox, and thick low end rib cage rattling thrum, only to then launch into some seriously twisted buzz drenched rock pound, which initially sounds like it might explode into full on black metal, but instead, the pounding and buzzing is joined by more twisted xylophone like synth melodies, booming sub bass throbs and cool blasts of rad classic metal style harmonized leads, before once again slipping back into a spacey sort of moody, woozy slowcore, driven by frenetic high hat cymbal stutter, and trippy dubbed out snare drums, still more crooned vox, the sound dreamy and washed out, laced with strange swoonsome faux horns and glistening spaced out FX before finally returning to that strange xylophone driven metallic stomp.
The flipside is equally schizophrenic, "Here March The Cranes" begins all grinding gnarled guitars in a cloud of cymbal sizzle, which is then joined by some Circle like hypnorock bass, the guitars coalescing into little soaring squalls of majestic fast picking, multiple guitars interwoven, those guitars growing more intense, unfurling wild psychedelic leads, everything getting noisier and noisier, until finally switching gears and mellowing out, into a twisted post rock sprawl, all ethereal guitar shimmer, wild jazzy drummy, and spaced out bass blurts. Soon those growled vox come back in, and the sound turns into some strange sinister epic prog rock, swirling synthy strings, a slow build, more and more intense and tense, before splintering into a stretch of cool droned out noise rock churn, that sound gradually growing more and more spacey and serene, dreamy melodies, more of those faux horns, all manner of strange percussion and swirling FX, as the noise recedes, the sound becomes a hazy, lilting bit of psychedelic dreamdrone raga like drift. Fantastic! Easily one of the coolest weirdest things we've heard from Jussi, which is saying a lot considering his whole career has basically been nothing BUT a series of cool weird releases!! WAY recommended. And limited, limited TO JUST 100 COPIES!!! The cassette comes sealed in a stickered little bag, inside a cool cd sized box, artwork affixed to the inside and outside, and sealed shut with another sticker.
Last year we raved about a cassette (and then vinyl lp) called Interludes For Prepared Beast, the second solo release from Jussi Lehtisalo, the bassist/mastermind behind our favorite Finns, those mighty hypnorockers Circle (and many more 'NWOFHM' bands besides). Those of you who prefer compact discs over vinyl, let alone tapes, might have felt a twinge of turntable envy then, since you were missing out on an amazing album (our review concluded with: "Easily one of the coolest weirdest things we've heard from Jussi", and that's saying a lot). Thankfully, Jussi, who loves cds as much as we do, has just released Interludes For Prepared Beast on cd via his Ektro imprint - and even better, the disc also includes Jussi's first solo album, from 2010, entitled Rotta, which is also (of course) quite fantastic, and was a limited vinyl release we never even got any copies of the first time around. So even more to be thankful for, and another reason to pick this up.
We'll try to be brief about Rotta, 'cause we already wrote a lot about Interludes, as you will see. Simply put, it's gorgeous. Unlike maybe what you might expect from the man responsible for so much bombastic, heavy, progged out rock, Rotta definitely represents Jussi's softer side. Intimate and twilit, Rotta is a spacious sonic tapestry of gentle drones, cyclic guitar motifs, softly pulsating bass, and ambient field recordings interwoven with hushed, echo effected vocalizations (the words all in Finnish, we assume, so we don't know what he's on about, but it sounds deep regardless) and lovely layers of shortwave static n' hiss. The opening track "Veljeni" features some occasional harmonica twang, bringing to mind the cinematic, open spaces atmosphere of the likes of Earth circa Hex. Elsewhere, on "Aikoja Sitten", the vibe gets darker, the track lashed with stormy, sinister synthesizer sounds, before dreamily concluding with monkish vocal intonations over a bed of wavering bell-like tones and other mysterious, entrancing sound-swoosh. Fans of Circle's 'soundtrackier' side, mellowed-out albums like Miljard and Tower, will be in heaven. The "circular" sound of Circle is most certainly very present within these compositions; minimalist, mesmeric repetition being Jussi's forte of course.
So that's the first four tracks here, the Rotta portion of this disc, all indeed surprisingly beautiful and subdued, music to totally lose yourself in. Then there's the last two, over a quarter-hour each, representing side A and B of Interludes For Prepared Beast. They also beautiful in their way, but about as far from subdued as you can get. Much heavier, more "gritty" and intense. Both tracks are dense and layered, and constantly shifting. In some ways taking all the disparate sounds of Jussi's other bands (among them Circle, Ektroverde, Ratto Ja Lehtisalo, Doktor Kettu, Pharaoh Overlord, Rakhim, Krypt Axeripper, Split Cranium, Steel Mammoth, and others), and somehow mashing them all together, into something surprisingly cohesive.
The A side (track 5 here), "Caterpillars", starts off sounding like some sort of abstract deserty ambient experimental doom, with churning guitars, spurts of metallic crunch, clattery bicycle spoke like percussion, woozy Morricone-esque twang and spidery minor key melodies, peppered with occasional twisted little synth trills, all beneath some monstrous growled vokills, before the song transforms into something more woozy and jazzy, a little late night bluesy, with crooned distorted vox, and thick low end rib cage rattling thrum, only to then launch into some seriously twisted buzz drenched rock pound, which initially sounds like it might explode into full on black metal, but instead, the pounding and buzzing is joined by more twisted xylophone like synth melodies, booming sub bass throbs and cool blasts of rad classic metal style harmonized leads, before once again slipping back into a spacey sort of moody, woozy slowcore, driven by frenetic high hat cymbal stutter, and trippy dubbed out snare drums, still more crooned vox, the sound dreamy and washed out, laced with strange swoonsome faux horns and glistening spaced out FX before finally returning to that strange xylophone driven metallic stomp.
The flipside (aka track 6) is equally schizophrenic. "Here March The Cranes" begins all grinding gnarled guitars in a cloud of cymbal sizzle, which is then joined by some Circle like hypnorock bass, the guitars coalescing into little soaring squalls of majestic fast picking, multiple guitars interwoven, those guitars growing more intense, unfurling wild psychedelic leads, everything getting noisier and noisier, until finally switching gears and mellowing out, into a twisted post rock sprawl, all ethereal guitar shimmer, wild jazzy drummy, and spaced out bass blurts. Soon those growled vox come back in, and the sound turns into some strange sinister epic prog rock, swirling synthy strings, a slow build, more and more intense and tense, before splintering into a stretch of cool droned out noise rock churn, that sound gradually growing more and more spacey and serene, dreamy melodies, more of those faux horns, all manner of strange percussion and swirling FX, as the noise recedes, the sound becomes a hazy, lilting bit of psychedelic dreamdrone raga like drift. Fantastic! Easily one of the coolest weirdest things we've heard from Jussi, which is saying a lot considering his whole career has basically been nothing BUT a series of cool weird releases!!
All told, 78 minutes and 48 seconds of amazing music that probably one no single person but Jussi could possibly have come up with. Hopefully this disc won't remain Jussi's 'complete solo works' for long, we'd love a volume two someday. WAY recommended.
The Finnish sport of wife-carrying involves a man with a strong constitution carrying a fine young woman (who, while not neccessarily his wife, must be from his village) along an obstacle course through the woods, swamps, and fields against his fellow competitors. An odd spectacle to say the least, but it may shed some light onto the family reunion activities of the Lehtisalo family. Jussi Lehtisalo has made quite a name for himself as the mastermind of Circle and Ektroverde, and has asked his parents to join him on this peculiar album. The simple hypnosis found on both Circle and Ektroverde are certainly present, albeit in primitive drum machines and infuriatingly off-kilter percussive riffs. Ethereal sounds meander through the rhythms do little to give away their more sinister attributes as coming from dental equipment. A very bleak and very intriguing album.
One of several new tapes this week, from UK tape label The Tapeworm, this one a dizzying chunk of plunderphonia from the previously unknown to us Hanno Leichtmann, who took the last 30 or so tapes remaining from his once huge tape collection, and extracted super short snippets, reorganizing them into a dreamy bit of collaged psychedelia. Like an analog Oval, Leichtmann weaves softly undulating landscapes of softly stuttering rhythms and prismatic smears of fragmented melody, the recontextualized sounds transformed into wholly new 'songs', similar to the way repeating a single word turns that word into nonsense sound, but here that nonsense sound is deftly assembled into perfect little sonic gems. Unfinished Portrait Of Youth Today hypnotically unfurls warbly textures and woozy layers, the whole tape fantastically dreamy and playful, sun dappled and softly psychedelic.
For RVNG's third installment in their archival series (the other two being the great Harald Grosskomp and Sensation's Fix collections), the focus is on lesser known American ambient visionary, Kerry Leimer (or, K. Leimer, the abbreviated initial a nod to Kafka's Joseph K from The Trial). Hailing from Seattle, where he began his Palace of Light imprint in the late seventies (one of the first experimental labels in the region), Leimer had an almost savant-like obsession with generative music largely spurred on not only by the influences of Dada and Surrealism but also the works of Cluster, Eno, Terry Riley and Robert Fripp of which he saw a musical corollary, in that the tape loop became its own instant but fatalist structure. Realizing the potential to compose his own music with little background or training, Leimer used second-hand tape machines, a mini-moog and other cheap instruments and developed a vast archive of recordings. He took cues from the DIY cassette culture of the burgeoning new wave and punk scenes of Seattle and began carefully packaging and releasing his own records as well as cultivating a scene of experimental artists and releasing their works as well.
Instead of reissuing Leimer's Palace of Light recordings, RVNG digs deeper into his archives to highlight unreleased works from as early as 1975 to reveal a wide range of styles and forms: billowy, delicate and glacial as well as pensive, rhythmic and nervous, but all of an elegant unified voice. It never seems like Leimer is trying on hats, but rather investigating the possibilities of sound given limited parameters. This is an amazing release that is sure to bring Leimer's work out of the shadows. Highest Recommendation!
This is the first we've heard from Minneapolis sci-fi garage combo Leisure Birds, whose second lp comes courtesy of the Moon Glyph label, newly relocated to the Bay Area, and the sound Of Leisure Birds sounds custom made for us (and you we're guessing), blissed out psychedelic kosmische synthscapery mixed with trancey minimal spaced out garage rock drift, sort of Spacemen 3 doing something a bit more kraut-agey. Just have a listen to the opening track, all electronic shimmer, and slow brooding synth swell, which is soon joined by buzzing sitar like guitars, and a muted rhythmic drum pulse, the vocals come in and they're all lazy and hazy and washed out, it's like Moon Duo on tranquilizers, woozy and druggy and so divine, and then out of nowhere, about 5+ minutes in, the song bursts into something WAY more propulsive, driving bassline, pounding drums, distorted guitars, never quite exploding into full on rocking out, but seriously driving and psychedelic. The rest of the record follows suit, bloopy synths and swirling electronics drift in clouds, wrapped around motorik beats, and slithery basslines, locked into hypno-rock trance outs, peppered with lush swirls of majestic chordal shimmer, but more often drifting along soporifically, druggy and drowsy, late night space rock minimalism for gradual come downs, or all night trip outs. There are moments that get pretty rocking, but even then, the sound stays pretty washed out and gauzey, and more often than note seems to gradually transform into another gorgeous stretch of blissed out space rock drift. Most definitely for fans of Moon Duo, Spyrals, Spacemen 3, Radar Eyes, Date Palms, and all things psychedelic, spacey and kosmische...
Includes a bonus 7" with a two song epilogue to the record, and also includes a download code (only for the album proper, not the 7"). Super striking futuristic cover art too.
Latest from these sci-fi garage-kraut weirdos, and it's another heady collection of zoned out, synth heavy psychedelia, and woozy electronic kraut-pop, pop being the key here, as this might be the most poppy thing we've heard from these guys yet. Not on the first track, that one might have you convinced that you're in for something more sort of John Carpenter-ish, or maybe Trans Am-y, percolating synths, drift over tribal percussion, and layered drones, then vocodered vocals swoop in, drifting atop swirling streaks of hush end shimmer, getting briefly all krauty and kosmische, before building to a super heavy synth psych blow out. But then in comes track two, which uses essentially the same elements, but the results fall much closer to Animal Collective or Gauntlet Hair, electronic pop wreathed in synth swirl and anchored by motorik krautrock-like grooviness, but with soaring vocals, and hooks galore, the band managing to embrace a warped outsider poppiness, without losing any of their kraut-psych weirdness, which is a feat for sure. Over the course of the record, the band go full on prog ("Seven Spirals"), creepy and soundtrack ("Tetrahedron"), murky downer pop ("reT 120813") and bombastic pop-syke ("Geodesic Lines"), but all held together by the super distinctive vocals and this new found poppiness, and it totally suits them. Be sure to stick around for the nearly 15 minute closer, a track that reminds us of aQ faves and former ROTW-ers Jaill, albeit a way more droned out, repetitive kraut-drone version, all instrumental, a pop song stretched way out, and embellished with all manner of cosmic synthiness, not to mention a long stretch of hazy, droney dreaminess, before returning, and finishing off with a fierce burst of heavy kraut psych crunch. Killer!
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!! Housed in a swank gatefold jacket.
Everyone's favorite Swede-heart returns as heart-achingly honest as ever with Night Falls Over Kortedala, his third full-length album. In 2005 we reported obvious comparisons to Mark Kozelek, Morrissey, Erlend Oye, and Stephin Merritt after listening to Lekman's Oh You're So Silent Jens album, comparisons which can be easily called upon when describing Night Falls as well.
Much like Stephen Merritt, the thing that we like most about Lekman is his ability to tell a really really good story through song. Artists like Lekman make you feel as if you're there, in the moment being described, because no words are held back to fit into the music, yet the music doesn't suffer as a result. On Night Falls the music teeters between glittery pop mantras (begging yet another comparison: Belle and Sebastian) and down-tempo love ballads lushly arranged with strings, horns, and enough flute to at least make you think of the Love Boat theme song and similar TV themes. It seems as if the music is written into the lyrics, a scene painted so vividly that you have to wonder if most other artists write their lyrics into the music and thus aren't always able to say what they want or even mean. We hope you'll be as pleased with Night Falls Over Koredala as we are.
Whether intentional or not, Jens Lekman is one heckuva celebrity impersonator. On his new album, the Swedish gent does uncanny impressions of Mark Kozelek, Morrissey, Erlend Oye, and Stephin Merritt among others. Take for instance the remarkably Magnetic Fields-y tune "Black Cab". We should note that where the similarities lie is not just in his varied vocal deliverys, but in the way he also rearranges his instrumentation for each tune -- thoroughly recreating the other artists' sounds, be they Mancini-esque swirling strings'n'harps, warm strummy guitars with gently sparkling chimes or a little tickling of the ivories. A couple of other songs struck us a strangely familiar, and then we realised what they reminded us of... Peter Paul & Mary's "Puff The Magic Dragon"! He's not shy about borrowing either. Take for example the song "Pocketful Of Money". He wisely knew better than to attempt Calvin Johnson's baritone and instead duets with a sample of Johnson singing "I'll come running with a heart on fire" from the Beat Happening tune "Gravedigger's Blues". Whoa, sorta weird. We even suspect he even nabbed a melodic phrase from The Carpenters' song "Yesterday Once More" for his harp embellished seventh song "Rocky Dennis' Farewell Song" which is followed by the oh so Joe Jackson meets Morrissey number "Rocky Dennis In Heaven". Aaah, if you can somehow turn a blind eye to the "hey, this sounds like ____!" distraction, and you like the folks Lekman sounds like, you'll surely find much to enjoy on Oh, You're So Silent Jens. All irkiness aside, we still think this is a very pretty album well suited to accompany a string of spring sunrises.
With the blink of an eye Lemonade have left San Francisco and relocated to New York, but before they moved away they injected the SF scene with a great shot of left-field dance floor vision, playing at and DJ'ing some of the most sweaty and fun filled parties around town. Musically they pump out hyper-color splashes imbedded in a sound that brings to mind Public Image Ltd, Gang Gang Dance, The Rapture, !!!, Gang of Four, and Tussle. We're sad we don't have the privilege of getting to see them play as often as we used to, but now we finally have their record to blast as loud as we like.
A lot of how you feel about a record is determined by when you first heard it, or at least when you listened to it most. Some records remind us of college, others about a specific relationship, a breakup, but it's amazing how music can embody a memory so completely. And how the same music can mean so many different things for so many different people.
A lot of folks our age, probably first heard The Lemonheads' It's A Shame About Ray when they were in their early twenties, maybe just out of college, or like some of us, just sort of wandering aimlessly instead of college. And while we're not sure if it's just the above mentioned musical memory, or if these songs actually embody that sort of shiftless rootless confusional youth. Regardless, it's a pretty fantastic record, that sounds as good, and as timeless as it did 15 years ago. The pop minded around here might rank Ray as one of the best pop records EVER. And listening to this again, we still would.
It's the sort of record that is so part of our musical lives, it's hard to review, like Slint's Spiderland, when we find out someone doesn't actually own it, we freak out and insist that whoever it is BUY IT IMMEDIATELY. So for folks reading this, who dig pop music, and who don't own this, for fuck's sake, buy it now. It's so catchy and rocking and sad and emo and pretty and hooky and perfect.
"Rockin' Stroll" is one of the all time best record openers, super kick ass and catchy, the vocals a lazy drawl over super propulsive riffing, "Rudderless" is all minor key and dissonant melody, but with a main hook to die for, and a killer chorus, "My Drug Buddy" has to be one of the best drug songs ever, sad and sweet and heartbreaking, "Alison's Starting To Happen" another rocker that subtly and sweetly reminds us of the Lemonheads' punk rock past, we could go on song by song, every one perfect in their own way. It's been a while since we've listened to this record all the way through, but immediately we were singing along, every word, drumming, air guitaring, Ray is just so fun, and so simple, but one of those records that never gets old, and we never get tired of listening to it.
It would be well worth buying even if this wasn't the super deluxe version, but since it is, even Lemonheads fans who already own it will have to think hard about buying it again, might be worth it. The record includes the original bonus track, their cover of "Mrs. Robinson", the acoustic B-side "Shaky Ground", and the whole record in demo form, really awesome acoustic sketches of each song, that manage to sound just as cool, and way more intimate than the actual recorded versions. The dvd includes ALL the music videos, as well as some live acoustic performances, all wrapped up in a fancy fold out digipak housed in a plastic slipcase, but that's all just the icing, the record's 12 songs are well worth the price of admission all on their own.
Absolutely and without a doubt, one of the best pop records of the last twenty years. Buy it. You won't be sorry.
Our musical hearts can't help but be warmed by a new Lemonheads record. Sure the last few were pretty meh, And for the last decade Lemonheads frontman Evan Dando has been more well known for drug problems and celebrity dalliances that the punk rock and later indie rock that made the Lemonheads so awesome. And hell, even the last few records, while not even approaching the greatness that was Shame About Ray or Lick or Creator, still had a few killer tracks.
Varshons is the long rumored Lemonheads cover record, and if one can overlook the two unlikely celebrity guest spots, which would be Kate Moss and Liv Tyler, then probably the biggest surprise here is the song selection. Probably most well known to most folks for their cover of Simon And Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson", the Lemonheads always had kick ass and often unlikely covers in their repertoire, Suzanne Vega's "My Name Is Luka", Kiss's "Plaster Caster", Charles Manson's "Home Is Where You're Happy", the Misfits' "Skulls", New Kids On The Block's "Step By Step", the Stone Poney's "Different Drum", Gram Parsons' "Brass Buttons", and this new all covers record continues Dando's eclectic choice of covers, including tracks by GG Allin, Townes Van Zandt, Sam Gopal (Lemmy's pre-Hawkwind outfit), legendary garage rockers Green Fuz, Wire, UK psych rockers July, punk rock legends Fuckemos, Leonard Cohen, and even pop songwriter for hire and former 4 Non Blonde Linda Perry among others. The story is that Dando and Gibby from the Butthole Surfers (who produced the record) became pals and Gibby started making Dando mixtapes like crazy, from which most of these tracks were culled, which helps explain the unlikely inclusion of Texas punk rockers Fuckemos. But how cool is that, we sure wouldn't mind a monthly mixtape from the man responsible for Hairway To Steven and Locust Abortion Technician!
For the most part, none of these tracks is super radical sounding, beyond the fact that the more rocking originals sound a bit stripped down, and the fact that you might not have ever expected to hear the Lemonheads covering GG Allin of Fuckemos, Dando deftly transforms each song, no matter how UN-Lemonheads, into a song that sounds like it could have actually been a Dando original.
Dando's voice is much deeper these days, a bit more raw, so the country-ish tunes here sound great, Gram Parson's "I Just Can't Take It Anymore", Townes Van Zandt's classic "Waiting Around To Die", even GG Allin's expletive laced "Layin' Up With Linda" becomes a David Allan Coe-worthy twangy outlaw country hoedown. The Sam Gopal cover is laced with buzzing sitars and skittery tablas, the July jam is all wah guitars and shuffling percussion, tripped out and psychedelic. Wire's "Fragile" sounds awesome all stripped down and acoustic. The Green Fuz track is slithery and slow burning, with warm guitar buzz and muted rhythms, swirling effects and a druggy swirl of backwards guitars. The Leonard Cohen cover, "Hey That's No Way To Say Goodbye" is appropriately dark and moody and torch songy, Liv Tyler offering up some breathy hushed vocals that sound great next to Dando's. But then there's the record's one weak spot, a cover of Arling & Cameron's "Dirty Robot", that either sounds like a favor, or a ploy to get in Kate Moss' panties, she being the one contributing the sung/spoken cold Euro new wave vocals over some crunchy guitars, weird vocoders, and some seriously dated nineties sounding electro. We'll just skip that one and hope it worked.
Minus that one track, we're pretty into all the versions here, or Varshons, we've missed Dando, his voice and that particular Lemonheads sound, let's hope these covers have gotten him all revved up to make a new proper Lemonheads full length. It's about time!
HOLY SHIT! A new Lemonheads record. We can not tell you how absolutely thrilling that is. Sure, their last record sucked. And Evan Dando's solo stuff was pretty mediocre. And maybe he is kind of a prick. But c'mon! So what?! It's A Shame About Ray was one of the world's most perfect slabs of heartbreaking indie jangle. I don't even really do drugs but "My Drug Buddy" had me absolutely wishing I had my own drug buddy. Could anything be more romantic? Go a little further back, Lovey, Lick, Hate Your Friends, the perfect collision of punk rock brattiness and pop song perfection. And they just kept getting better and better. I can't really think of another band that occupied so much space on pretty much every single mix tape I ever made. Even covering Suzanne Vega's "Luka" which could have and should have been a disaster, ended up sounding miles better than the original. Anyway, any pop kid worth anything is at their very heart, a huge Lemonheads obsessive. How could you not be?
So a brand new Lemonheads record is a seriously big deal. And as if we couldn't be more excited, the other 2/3 of the Lemonheads is basically the Descendents!!! Bill Stevenson and Karl Alvarez, FUCK YEAH.
So now we've pretty much got the dream band. So how does the new Lemonheads stack up? Well, we've only had this record for a few days, but since the second it's come in we've been listening to it nonstop, and it's growing on us like crazy. Dando's voice is a little deeper, a little more scratchy and weathered sounding, but it suits him, and the new material. The sound is just so instantly familiar it's like a big ol' indie rock hug.
Shit, we've been in indie rock heaven lately. Sebadoh III, Archers Of Loaf's Icky Mettle, and now a new Lemonheads. Almost makes us feel like we're in college again. Anyway, imagine It's A Shame About Ray, a little less laid back, a little more mature, but the same sort of mix of sweet jangly minor key laments and super rocking kick ass power pop. The hooks aren't as immediately obvious as they were on Ray, but the more we listen, the more we find ourselves getting bits and pieces lodged firmly in our heads. We're guessing that after spending a few more weeks with it, this might be one of our favorite pop records of the year.
One of two new releases from newly launched boutique label/press Black Tent, the other being the long circulating but never released until now Pajo disc of Misfits covers also reviewed this list, and this, the first solo release from Paz Lenchatin, who some of you might know as a member of Tool side project A Perfect Circle, and, more recently, and perhaps relevantly, of The Entrance Band.
We weren't sure what to expect, but it's actually quite lovely. Acoustic guitar, violin, ethereal vocals, a sort of folky chamber country, singing strings, all moody and cinematic, a little sun dappled and washed out, the arrangements spare and minor key, the guitars delicate and crystalline, sometimes almost bluegrass sounding, sometimes seriously old timey sounding, the vocals are what set it apart, when Lenchatin isn't doing her best Patsy Cline, her voice is a breathless angelic croon, that sounds like it would be more at home on a Grouper record than here, but it transforms these simple stripped down folk songs into something a bit more transcendent. So so lovely.
And the packaging, WOW. 130 gram vinyl, housed in a thick sleeve with a 2 color serigraph on French Paper, comes with a cd (not a cd-r) featuring all the music on the lp. LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES!
All right folks (specifically, psych lovers and/or Japanophiles)... here's a literal "warehouse find", copies of a long out of print cd that we ourselves discovered during a visit to one of our suppliers, recently! It was worth all the dust-induced sneezing to find, too. Fans of Japanese uber heavies Zeni Geva might know the name, as Leningrad Blues Machine was the heavy, shambolic psych outfit led by KK Null's guitar partner in ZG, Tabata Mitsuru (who was also an early member of the Boredoms as well). Bass player Hayashi Naoto also was in UFO or Die, FYI. This blown-out blues explosion of a debut was originally released via Null's Nux Org label in 1993, but the songs on this disc were actually recorded much earlier, as it consists of material from two shows at Egg Plant, Osaka in November of 1987 and February of '88, plus a couple tracks recorded to 8-track in Kyoto's Queer studio, 1987. There's nine tracks total, although the song "Russian Asshole" appears THREE TIMES in different renditions. That's brilliant, we think. Evidently it can be considered the Leningrad Blues Machine's "theme song". And it's a good 'un, a great example of the distortodelic, fuzz and feedback filled garage stomp at which they slay, in the tradition of near contemporaries The Heads, fellow countrymen High Rise, or spiritual forefathers Blue Cheer, whose classic cover of "Summertime Blues" is in fact sampled and looped as the intro to LBM's own "Bad Blossom" here! Speaking of ye olde influences, "Woodstock Monster" definitely channels some Stooges and MC5. But in 1988, stuff like that wasn't exactly off-handedly "retro" the same way we'd think about it today - it was just weird! LBM are also way more chaotic and noisy than a really retro band woulda been back then. You can also hear that they were on the same path as certain Seattle bands around the same time, or a few years later... this is Japanese proto-grunge, from a year or so before Mudhoney's earliest singles hit the racks. In LBM's case, it's grunge with grim grandeur, when you hear the melancholic majesty of tracks like "Roman Castevet" and other lugubrious epics here, which also bring to mind the more recent generation of downer "Tokyo Flashback" acts like Up-Tight, Miminokoto, and LSD-march.
Recommended to fans of The Heads, Mudhoney, Zeni Geva, people who think some Russians are assholes, etc. Grab it quick, we really only found a few, and then that's it, they're gone... though we do think that LGM themselves are possibly still active, sometimes, even now. And probably playing some of the same songs. For sure, "Russian Asshole"!
Finally reissued, and with bonus tracks galore! Yoko rules, y'all should know it. Beginners might want to start with Plastic Ono Band.
Surely you're familiar with the theory "free spirited parents = straight laced kids" (and vice versa)? Well, it sure doesn't apply to the offspring of Lennon and Ono, neither creatively nor socially speaking. Sean Lennon has struck a balance between making the scene with Hollywood starlets on his arm and building a solid body of work of his own. And even though his pedigree looms large and he's definitely drawn on a celebrity cast of supporting characters for this project, his music doesn't show even an inkling of a sense of entitlement. While his debut album was imbued with a wide eyed, first crush kind of openness, the far more ambitious Friendly Fire presents an older and wiser but no less earnest Sean Lennon. He's crafted not only a lovely full album of music, but also a companion film. The cd is comprised of nine unassuming, but very well crafted gentle pop songs plus a T-Rex cover that find themselves at the meeting point between The Raspberries, The Posies and Rufus Wainwright. Super mellow, sweet and charming. The cover art features a number of equally unflashy Neapolitan ice cream colored simple line drawings that do recall those of his father. As far as the accompanying dvd is concerned, we can't comment on the film yet 'cause we haven't had a chance to watch it, but we'll let you know that it stars Lennon, Bijou Phillips, Lindsay Lohan, Asia Argento, Jordana Brewster, Devon Aoki and Carrie Fisher.
Annie Lennox sure takes her own sweet time. It's been over a decade since the fabulous Eurythmics disbanded and eight years since the release of her second solo album Medusa. And for this, her long-awaited studio follow-up titled Bare, she delivers what we'd like to think of as her counterpart to Raymond Scott's Soothing Sounds For Baby series. Simply stated, it might be more appropriately named "Soothing Sounds for Grown-ups". Smartie-pants-ness aside, this is really, absolutely 'Adult Contemporary' -- a sleek, lushly produced, deeply personal album just as you'd expect from this fine chanteuse -- much like that of Peter Gabriel or Sting. Although she's definitely not assuming the countless guises that she once did in her Eurythmics days -- sharply suited androgynous redhead, vinyl-clad dominatrix, ultra-blonde '60s lounge singer --ïher vocal performances and personas are as potent as ever in whichever genre she chooses.
