Here's a nice digipack reissue of something that's reputed to be one of the best ever psych albums from south of the border, right up there with Los Dug Dugs (who'd be our personal pick). And oh yeah, it's from 1971! If you've got the "Love, Peace and Poetry: Mexican Psychedelic Music" comp then you've already heard some La Revolucion De Emiliano Zapata, though their track on that comes from their second album, Hoy, not this their debut.
First off, there's plenty of stinging acid rock guitar awesomeness here, big time FUZZ action. But there's also mellower, more melodic side to them as well. Basically they cover all the bases of badass rockin' and rollin' California sixties psych influenced garage freakdom here. And they sing in English, whereas on Hoy they switched, mainly, to Spanish, which was a radical move as the conservative Mexican government/society of the '70s apparently would tolerate a lot of things sung in English but not in Spanish. Considering that two of the song titles here are "Nasty Sex" and "Shit City" maybe that's understandable...
Hopefully Dynamic will be reissuing Hoy as well someday, it's also a good one!
Debut release from this Vivian Girls side project, and it most definitely sounds like it, gorgeous hazy Phil Spector-ish production, lush jangly guitars, simple stripped down drumming, and reverbed vocals, but La Sera does stand out in several ways, one is the addition of some strange (and lovely) synth melodies, which seem like they would clash with the overall throwback vibe, but somehow just make it sound more distinctive, and the other is the vocals, Katy Goodman aka La Sera sings here much more cleanly, her voice more ethereal and angelic, and the sounds definitely reflects that, conjuring up that nineties Slumberland vibe which meshes pretty perfectly with the Spector girl group sound. So nice!
Katy Goodman, aka La Sera, aka one third of dream pop trio Vivian Girls, returns with here second solo full length, and as we mentioned in our review of the first, the fuzzy, Spector-ish, jangly musical apple doesn't fall far from the VG tree, although Sees The Light definitely takes the sound of the La Sera debut, and hones it even further, sonically more polished and lush, but without losing any of it's raw urgency or DIY charm, but it's quite obvious Goodman is becoming a pop songsmith to be reckoned with, whether she's weaving hazy old timey reverb drenched pop balladry like on opener "Love That's Gone", or kicking out the rambunctious fuzz-pop jams like on "Please Be My Third Eye", wrapping woozy dreamy jangle, and ethereal angelic vox around an almost punkish pound, or offering up hook-heavy Pixies/Breeders style indie rock on the should-be-a-hit "I Can't Keep You In My Mind", with Goodman ditching the reverb, and revealing her surprisingly powerful voice, as well as whipping up the sort of chorus/main hook most other bands would kill for, and crafting a song that sounds so catchy and immediately familiar it's hard to believe it's not a cover.
From there on out, Goodman never lets up, song after song, hook after hook, pretty much every song on Sees The Light is a total mixtape dream pop gem, deftly mixing the soft and fuzzy, with the buzzy and jangly, and at times, even a little bit of the dark and heavy (just check out the dreamy almost doom-pop dirgery of "How Far We've Come Now"), into an irresistible sonic concoction!
After a fantastic single, the full length finally arrives from this Vivian Girls side project, and like the 7" (whose A side "Never Come Around" is present here too) this definitely sounds a lot like the Vivian Girls mothership, the sound is washed out, gauzy, softly reverby, that Phil Spector-ish production, the opening track is fantastic, ethereal and dreamy, guitars shimmering and jangling, lush vocal harmonies, all hazy and otherworldly, with crunchy guitars here and there, but for the most part, just gorgeously fuzzy soft focus drift, with some unexpected psychedelic guitar crunch and swirl near the end. Which is quickly followed by the single, all lush jangly guitars, simple stripped down drumming, and reverbed vocals, and even more of that Spector wall of sound, but as we mentioned in the review of the 7", La Sera takes the VG sound and adds some strange (and lovely) synth melodies, and the vocals of Katy Goodman aka La Sera are much more clean and pure, her voice more ethereal and angelic, which perfectly suits the sound, the overall feel like some mix of primitive K Records girl pop, nineties Slumberland shoegaze, and of course that classic sixties girl group song. There's nothing ramshackle or garage-y really about La Sera, instead it's much more polished, WAY more lush, hazy, shimmery, a lovely fuzzy, soft focus dreampop, that will no doubt appeal to fans of all the 'Girls (Vivian, Dum Dum and At Dawn) but also fans of the Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, and the sonically similar groups that came before like the Lilys, Velocity Girl, My Bloody Valentine, Heavenly, Pastels, etc.
Imagine Ariel Pink, if he was a she, and crafted twisted warped lo-fi late night seventies FM radio, drug party, sci fi sexy soul music, and you'll begin to get an idea of what to expect from LA Vampires, teamed up here with fellow lo-fi beatscaper lo-fi groove architect Matrix Metals (of Outer Limits Recordings).
The two have created a haunting neon lit late night landscape of Casio keyboards primitive beats, warped warbly melodies, fractured synths, fuzzy bass, new wavey soundtrack swirl, loads of FX, the whole thing sounds like some warped disco 12" being played on one of those battery powered turntables and broadcast through a transistor radio, but then the whole thing plugged into some retro futuristic sound system, that somehow transforms the whole thing into some sort of twisted Goblin / Carpenter future disco, all of which is simply a backing track for Miss LA Vampires to croon over, her vocals, smokey and monotone, a sort of reverbed icy croon, more spoken than sung much of the time, you can almost imagine her as some sort of painted up cyber chanteuse, perched on a light up pyramid, wreathed in dry ice smoke, while all around her, gorgeous sparkly ladies and buff cybernetic boys shuffle rhythmically to here haunting coked up midnight jamzzzz. Dig it!
So interesting to see what new directions people take when faced with similar turning points. Out of the ashes of Pocahaunted, Bethany Cosentino embraced her love of pop and girl group garage glory, forming Best Coast. On the other hand, her former bandmate Amanda Brown went the other way, riffing off the layers of fractured/damaged sounds that Pocahaunted were creating into something more dubbed out and beat orientated. What's so cool is they both created such great music while taking utterly different paths.
LA Vampires seem to thrive on collaboration. Her record with Zola Jesus last year was a narcotic dubbed out slow burner and she also collaborated with Matrix Metals and shared a slice of vinyl with Psychic Reality. Ital is the new left-field dance project by former San Francisco resident Daniel McCormick (Mi Ami, Sex Worker). We were super excited when we heard McCormick was working on a new project focusing on weirdo electronic dance tracks. We knew he had such a great ear for the underworld of damaged dance sounds and damn does this collaboration between him and LA Vampires kill! Dubbed out, tripped out, swirling with infectious yet hazy melody and sensual rhythm. It's a 12" that merges the steaminess and sexiness of Throbbing Gristle's "Hot On The Heels Of Love" with the Chromatics "I Want Your Love." We've been playing this nonstop!
Rumor has it that Nika Danilova will be moving to Los Angeles upon completing her studies in Madison, WI. Perhaps a precursor to things to come for Zola Jesus when she does land in SoCal is this 12" with Nika laying swoonsome goth vocals upon slow-motion codeine-dub tracks provided by Amanda Brown (here in the guise of LA Vampires, but perhaps better known as half of Pocahaunted.) Much like the last few Pocahaunted records with their ghetto-tech downer dub, casting an evil eye on any sunshine vibes, Brown's production comes across like a lo-fi, home-built Scorn with basslines that sulk and stalk from the nastiest of noir alleyways and beats that could be lifted straight from a Chopped & Screwed remix. It's well suited to what Zola Jesus has delivered on her earlier constructions of equally lo-tech industrialisms; and her voice as always is frigid, strong, and operatic. Many of the songs clock in at less than 3 minutes, which is pretty much just right for these looping skeletal tracks. The seven track ep ends with an incredible cover of Dawn Penn's "No No No" taking the already zombified rocksteady ballad to a narcotic, love-sick zenith (or nadir, depending on how you look at it) of woozy, chemically zonked dirge-n-dub.
"Automatic Radio" is collection of three performances from LA sound artist Brandon LaBelle, which (as always) includes complete notes on the work at hand. The first piece is a series of closely mic-ed human utterances mimicking animal speech, with the intention of locating the tension inherent in "speaking as a body (sensuality)" and "speaking as an individual (social behavior)."
"Music On A Short Thin Wire" is another conceptual excercise from LA experimentalist Brandon LaBelle, who seems to have recently run into the problem of favoring intent over content. On this album, LaBelle has amplified the first eight releases on the
In the extended essay that accompanies his second album for Selektion, Brandon LaBelle offers a semantic argument about his work being located at the border between private and public, the real and the cultural modes of production, field recordings and
"Writing Aloud" is the second massive publication from experimental musician Brandon LaBelle's Errant Bodies Press, and is a collection of writings about the semiotic slippages between sound and language. His introduction states: "in speaking about
The latest from LA sound artists Labelle (of id battery) and Steve Roden (aka in.betweeen.noise), sees them collaborating with the care and intellect that they are both known for in their work. "'The Opening Of The Field' presents a series of live studio improvisations that move quietly through the intimate surfaces of objects to the fragmented landscapes of field recordings. In this movement, from textured scrapings to electronic manipulations, the distinctness of objects and the processes of recordings clouds over to create a highly detailed sonic flow. The spaces of sounds and their origin are transposed onto an imaginary space where listening leads to many openings." -- from the liner notes. Need we say more? No? Good.
Upon a single listen, this second record sounds noisier, more dark and less new age than Labradford's debut.
The fifth studio album from Labradford finds the band incorporating instrumentations of dulcimer, string section, and tape loops alongside their atmospherics for guitar, bass, and piano. Labradford may have beaten Andee (in his first solo project after A Minor Forest, Pee, and Tic War) to the punch with a blatant appropriation of George Winston / Shadowfax / Windham Hill onto a record for Kranky.
Beautiful, none the less.
Brand new album of laid back, minimal, Bernardo Bertolucci-esque instrumentals from Labradford, including a slightly disturbing number that sounds a little too much like the Modern English's "Melt With You". There's really nothing new or different here from them on this one except that there's absolutely no singing on this album, not even mumbling buried in the mix -- which is a good thing. The bad part is that this album, though priced as a full length, clocks in a little short of one at 38 minutes.
Their fourth record is way melodic, very nice.
This longtime aQ fave now remastered and reissued on vinyl, with all new artwork, here's what we hads to say about Prazision when it was reissued on cd back in 2007...
The one frustrating thing about the list, and the aQ website in general, that sometimes drives us crazy, is that it only really began in earnest in the mid nineties, thus there are SO many records that we love, and that we reference all the time, that we just always assume MUST be on the list, but aren't, so we try to review those records anyway once in a while, if they're still available, but even better is when one of those discs gets reissued, giving us the opportunity to shower it with the praise we would have back in the day. Which brings us to the gorgeous debut from Labradford (which was also the very first release on Kranky!).
Originally released in 1993, the sound of Prazision LP was so prescient, the current crop of cd-r noisemakers have nothing on these guys, in fact, almost anything you hear now on some super limited cd-r, you could hear on Prazision LP more than a decade earlier. A gorgeous blend of shimmering ambience, fractured folk, minimal pop, sculpted noise and experimental soundscapes that seems to be constantly in flux, a fluid, organic collection of sounds and songs, a murky melancholy mood music rendered in soft strummed shimmer and haunting abstract ambience.
The opening track is the perfect send off, as we depart on our journey, dark billowy drones, keening distant high end streaks, a strange almost mechanical non-rhythm hovering in the foreground, beneath it all deep dark sonic swells, a muted mysterious melody, everything seemingly drifting weightless in a hazy expanse of underwater sunlight. But before we can settle in and float weightlessly into the ether, the second track introduces an actual song, simple strummed steel string guitar, melancholy Jandekian sadboy vocals, over a haunting multilayered drone. The next track is more pop, but even more druggy and unhinged, vocals buried in a murky muddy swirl of effected guitars and sprawling minor key melodies, reminding us of an even less propulsive Spacemen 3 or a way druggier Galaxie 500, no beats, just the voice and the various smeared sounds floating heavenward. In fact the whole record has that vibe, sort of wasted, bleary eyed, druggy, dreamy, drifting, on the verge of simply fading away, or floating into the sun to be consumed and turned to ash.
The rest of the record is balanced pretty evenly between Velvets style lo-fi downer pop, lazy and languorous and laid waaaay back, guitars glistening and glimmering, and thick mesmerizing slabs of slow shifting glacial whir, often a breathtaking combination of the two. Absolutely gorgeous and so forward thinking. One of our favorite records ever, a dark and doleful experimental abstract ambient pop masterpiece.
For the vinyl reissue, one of the tracks from Labradford's first 7" is included, and is just more of that haunting mysterious beauty. Totally recommended.
The one frustrating thing about the list, and the AQ website in general, that sometimes drives us crazy, is that it only really began in earnest in the mid nineties, thus there are SO many records that we love, and that we reference all the time, that we just always assume MUST be on the list, but aren't, so we try to review those records anyway once in a while, if they're still available, but even better is when one of those discs gets reissued, giving us the opportunity to shower it with the praise we would have back in the day. Which brings us to the gorgeous debut from Labradford (which was also the very first release on Kranky!).
Originally released in 1993, the sound of Prazision LP was so prescient, the current crop of cd-r noisemakers have nothing on these guys, in fact, almost anything you hear now on some super limited cd-r, you could hear on Prazision LP more than a decade earlier. A gorgeous blend of shimmering ambience, fractured folk, minimal pop, sculpted noise and experimental soundscapes that seems to be constantly in flux, a fluid, organic collection of sounds and songs, a murky melancholy mood music rendered in soft strummed shimmer and haunting abstract ambience.
The opening track is the perfect send off, as we depart on our journey, dark billowy drones, keening distant high end streaks, a strange almost mechanical non-rhythm hovering in the foreground, beneath it all deep dark sonic swells, a muted mysterious melody, everything seemingly drifting weightless in a hazy expanse of underwater sunlight. But before we can settle in and float weightlessly into the ether, the second track introduces an actual song, simple strummed steel string guitar, melancholy Jandekian sadboy vocals, over a haunting multilayered drone. The next track is more pop, but even more druggy and unhinged, vocals buried in a murky muddy swirl of effected guitars and sprawling minor key melodies, reminding us of an even less propulsive Spacemen 3 or a way druggier Galaxie 500, no beats, just the voice and the various smeared sounds floating heavenward. In fact the whole record has that vibe, sort of wasted, bleary eyed, druggy, dreamy, drifting, on the verge of simply fading away, or floating into the sun to be consumed and turned to ash.
The rest of the record is balanced pretty evenly between Velvets style lo-fi downer pop, lazy and languorous and laid waaaay back, guitars glistening and glimmering, and thick mesmerizing slabs of slow shifting glacial whir, often a breathtaking combination of the two. Absolutely gorgeous and so forward thinking. One of our favorite records ever, a dark and doleful experimental abstract ambient pop masterpiece.
For the reissue, both tracks from Labradford's first 7" are included, and both tracks are just more of that haunting mysterious beauty. Totally recommended.
Their third full length.
This reissue of a long out of print super limited (100 copies) edition, comes from two relative unknowns, Paul LaBrecque and Valerie Webb, but Trees, Chants And Hollers, recorded a few years back, finds the duo deftly navigating similar sonic terrain as the rest of the new free folk movement and the oft referenced new weird America. But unlike the clattery primitive ritualism of groups like No Neck Blues Band and Avarus, or the straight up Fahey worship of folks like Jack Rose and James Blackshaw, LaBrecque and Webb incorporate bits of both, dense fingerpicked neo Appalachia, and drifting fluttering free folk, into much more expansive soundscapes. Banjo and steel string guitars, flutes and ethereal vocals. Some tracks are almost traditional sounding, Appalachian hoedowns slowed down into dark contemplative moodiness, while others are super abstract, the guitar becomes a noisemaker, letting strange scrapes and sounds drift into the ether, huge swirls of smeared shimmer, melancholy melodies, deft complex picking, rendered totally indistinct. And just as quickly the duo will reel it back in, and offer up a near liturgical meditation, simple banjo and intertwined male female vocals, everything bathed in glistening reverb. So beautiful. Fans of Blackshaw, Rose, Ahmed, Bishop, Schmidt, DeGennaro, Valentine as well as groups like the Tower Recordings, P.G. Six and the like should definitely pick this up.
Yet even more silly (but awesome) Dungeons & Dragons / Lord of The Rings metal. This is like the almighty Children of Bodom (blazing fast, duelling lead guitars AND duelling keyboards) but swap the harsh death metal vocals for high melodic New Wave of British Heavy Metal style vocals. Maybe a bit cheesy but still pretty fantastic.
We loved 2010's Evoking The Multiverse debut from this Philly one man band so much, raving about that record's space out buzz drenched blackness, and epic, cosmic majesty, and we were beginning to think that might be all we'd hear from Labyrinthine, when out of the blue, this new one showed up. We're happy to report, it's just as good as the first, but pretty different sonically, where as that first one spent much of its time in ambient mode, sprawling fields of celestial shimmer and woozy, doom drift, this record gets right to it, with an opening track that's definitely blackish, but much more doomy, with some classic metal riffing, in fact, minus the raspy vokills, this borders on seriously true doom, and it sounds killer, even on the second track, the 'band' return to something much more properly blackened, but only just, the sound still infused with plenty of doominess, after a dense double kick opening, the sound slips back into a languorous lope, the fast picked guitar trills, and vocal rasps adding all the blackness to an otherwise mournful, melancholic doom. And so it goes for the first half of the record, the band unfurling, gorgeously melodic, and lushly produced blackened doom that doesn't really truly explode into black fury until track 5, which is truly black metal, furious and frenzied, soaring and majestic, the cool part being that many of the melodies and much of the guitar tone from the doomed first half remain, making even this frantic blackness feel depressive and a little bit doomy, which then leads directly back into, yep, more gorgeously plodding doominess, with tangled harmonized guitar melodies and woozy, almost psychedelic riffage. There's at least one more burst of furious blackness over the next few tracks, but really, most of the rest of the record is spent in full on mournful, majestic doom mode. And while maybe in the beginning, we were missing the Labyrinthine of old, this new record, once we acclimated to the new sound, and vibe, is still pretty fucking great...
First full length from this East Coast one man black metal band, who trafficks in some awesomely epic spaced out buzz drenched cosmic atmospheric symphonic blackness, a sound that falls somewhere between Velvet Cacoon, Wolves In The Throne Room, and Paysage D'Hiver. Six looooong buzzscapes, that drift from midtempo lope, to blurred black blast, the programmed drums skeletal and buried in the mix, a murky throb in a swirling sea of dizzying layered woozy riffage, washed out and psychedelic, the guitar parts spidery and minor key, the sound super atmospheric and depressive, haunting and otherworldly.
Much of Evoking The Multiverse is spent drifting through the sonic aether, the black metal barely black at all, instead, the sound seems to manifest itself as a streaked field of kosmische shimmer, lush layers of warm whirring buzz and smeared soft focus dreambuzz, "The Planetary Dream Of Infinity" most notably, seems to eschew the traditional tropes of black metal entirely (minus the vocals) offering up slow smoldering streaks of prismatic doomic drift, unfurling long burnished tones, sprawling chordal streaks, the entire track, bathed in some sort of soft celestial light, so melodic, and drifty and soft focus, if it weren't for the vocals, it could almost be some sort of blissed out blackened psychedelia, and much of the record exists in this black metal limbo, slipping just as easily into the heaven of warm otherworldly melodicism, as the hell of grim blasting black buzz, but more often then not, situating itself somewhere right in between, the heavy fast black metal parts rife with strange psychedelic filigree and subtle melodic shadings, and the pretty parts occasionally swallowed up by harrowing bursts of pounding frantic heaviness.
Recorded live in Buenos Aires in 1966, 'The Forest And The Zoo' is one of the first records Steve Lacy made after permanently relocating to Italy. Lacy who was considered the first 'modern' musician to specialise in the soprano sax, played with Cecil
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
WOW. And do we mean WOW!! Fifteen classic free jazz records from the late sixties / early seventies, long out of print, finally getting the ULTRA deluxe reissue treatment. Incredibly limited, these will probably be out of print before you know it.
Comes in a gorgeous diecut fullcover three panel sleeve, with new artwork, as well as a huge booklet with the original album sleeve notes, new liner notes in french and english as well as a bunch of cool photos. So nice!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
We've been championing Laddio Bollocko since we first heard their mighty 'Strange Warmings' album (which we finally managed to get back in, review later in the list) and inexplicably they have managed to elude the superstardom we predicted for them. But with their hyper-distorted-This-Heat-fronted-by-Albert-Ayler sound, they were definitely an acquired taste. It's been a couple years, and it's two releases later, and Laddio is kind of a different beast. This cd compiles the 'In Real Time' ep and the 'As If By Remote' sort-of-full-length, and shows an amazing amount of growth. They've all but completely abandoned the bludgeoning, pounding shrieking bombast, and instead stretch out, and explore rhythms and textures, creating lengthy krautrock jams, and hypnotic drones. And their noisey, in your face, live recording has been replaced by what sounds like a serious exploration of the studio as instrument, with at least half the record full of innovative production and gorgeous textures. Also, the sax, which on 'Strange Warmings', was more textural and not immediately identifiable as a saxophone, is more of a presence here, giving it more of a sort-of-jazz feel on several tracks.
Their sound these days is much more in the vein of This Heat and Circle. In fact, everyone who was blown away by the recent Circle releases should definitely check this out.
We've mentioned it before, but there are a handful of bands that seem to perfectly embody what aQ is all about. Bands and records that even though they shouldn't, have crazy crossover appeal. Weird black metal records that pop nerds obsess on, wild noisy hypno rock that inexplicably appeals to hip hop headz as much and indie rockers. It's not a set in stone list, it's nebulous, and it's different for everybody. Depending on the person, different bands mean different things, and pretty much everybody might have a different idea of the ultimate aQ band or record. The Conet Project is a definite contender. Finland's Circle are definitely in the running. And then there's Laddio Bolocko. Easily one of THEE greatest indie rock / noise rock / post rock / math rock bands ever. Pretty sure there are no aQuarians who don't worship at the altar of Laddio Bolocko.
And anyone who's heard these guys understands why. The group are masters of some ineffable musical alchemy, at once willfully difficult and extremely challenging, but also totally melodic, and mesmerizingly hypnotic. The krautrock vibe is huge, a motorik streak a mile wide runs through the works of LB, but they're also an explosive rock band, capable of total facemelt on par with most metal bands, they're also immersed in some wild, avant psychedelic free jazz, which also looms large in their canon. That might sound like it makes for a mess, but if it is, it's a glorious, unfuckwithable mess.
We've lavished much praise on Laddio Bolocko over the years (as well as on post-Laddio project The Psychic Paramount), and now it's time to do it again, with this stunning collection of rare live and unreleased recordings. And before you think this must be some sort of cash grab, releasing a bunch of shitty live tapes, consider that: A. This band is not nearly popular enough to merit any sort of cash grabbing (sadly), and B. just listen to this shit. The live stuff here blows most bands' best studio albums out of the water. The proof is in the 43 minute opening track pudding (appropriately titled "43 Minutes Of (Excerpt)"), a sprawling mega-jam that is constantly mutating, beginning as a gloriously blown out, and super melodic sort-of-space jam, gradually growing more gnarled and distorted, some of the tones reminiscent of Amps For Christ, before devolving into a droned out, buzz drenched slo-mo soft-noise dirge, that once again slowly builds to a wild psychedelic squall, that swirls and whirls and gradually settles into a slow burn fade. We used to compare LB to This Heat, and that's even more apropos here, with the band locking into dizzying rhythmic permutations, and slathering those various iterations in wild noise, or blurred chords, or crumbling distortion, or free jazz skronk and bleat. That This Heat influence becomes more marked as this collection progresses (just check out the clattery skeletal dub of "Afrostructure Pt. 1", or "As If By Remote", which imagines This Heat as a modern math rock band). Slintisms abound as well, with some moody meanders, and the live in Slovenia set sounds like some heavy rock band channeling the roots of spiritual jazz. What the fuck?! How did these guys do it? And why were they not huge? How did so much of the world miss out on these guys?! Laddio Bolocko is the rare group that has the potential to not just appeal only to weirdo music nerds (although if you are one of those, you very likely already LOVE this band!). The jazzy bits are not like some rock band simply aping jazz, they OWN jazz, and in doing so, create a new musical vocabulary for a classic musical form. The same is true for krautrock, math rock, noise rock, whatever the fuck kind of rock they want to take on, every song, every performance is a reinvention, every new movement a discovery. It's exciting and organic, tense and expansive, gnarled and abstract, alive and emotional, and just utterly and breathtakingly stunning.
Liner notes by Kid Millions. And both the double cd and limited triple lp formats (the latter of which is packaged in a deluxe box) come with a dvd disc, featuring more than two hours of live performance footage, that's really nicely done, looking less like typical live video than monochrome art film from decades earlier. Fans will be stoked.
We've mentioned it before, but there are a handful of bands that seem to perfectly embody what aQ is all about. Bands and records that even though they shouldn't, have crazy crossover appeal. Weird black metal records that pop nerds obsess on, wild noisy hypno rock that inexplicably appeals to hip hop headz as much and indie rockers. It's not a set in stone list, it's nebulous, and it's different for everybody. Depending on the person, different bands mean different things, and pretty much everybody might have a different idea of the ultimate aQ band or record. The Conet Project is a definite contender. Finland's Circle are definitely in the running. And then there's Laddio Bolocko. Easily one of THEE greatest indie rock / noise rock / post rock / math rock bands ever. Pretty sure there are no aQuarians who don't worship at the altar of Laddio Bolocko.
And anyone who's heard these guys understands why. The group are masters of some ineffable musical alchemy, at once willfully difficult and extremely challenging, but also totally melodic, and mesmerizingly hypnotic. The krautrock vibe is huge, a motorik streak a mile wide runs through the works of LB, but they're also an explosive rock band, capable of total facemelt on par with most metal bands, they're also immersed in some wild, avant psychedelic free jazz, which also looms large in their canon. That might sound like it makes for a mess, but if it is, it's a glorious, unfuckwithable mess.
We've lavished much praise on Laddio Bolocko over the years (as well as on post-Laddio project The Psychic Paramount), and now it's time to do it again, with this stunning collection of rare live and unreleased recordings. And before you think this must be some sort of cash grab, releasing a bunch of shitty live tapes, consider that: A. This band is not nearly popular enough to merit any sort of cash grabbing (sadly), and B. just listen to this shit. The live stuff here blows most bands' best studio albums out of the water. The proof is in the 43 minute opening track pudding (appropriately titled "43 Minutes Of (Excerpt)"), a sprawling mega-jam that is constantly mutating, beginning as a gloriously blown out, and super melodic sort-of-space jam, gradually growing more gnarled and distorted, some of the tones reminiscent of Amps For Christ, before devolving into a droned out, buzz drenched slo-mo soft-noise dirge, that once again slowly builds to a wild psychedelic squall, that swirls and whirls and gradually settles into a slow burn fade. We used to compare LB to This Heat, and that's even more apropos here, with the band locking into dizzying rhythmic permutations, and slathering those various iterations in wild noise, or blurred chords, or crumbling distortion, or free jazz skronk and bleat. That This Heat influence becomes more marked as this collection progresses (just check out the clattery skeletal dub of "Afrostructure Pt. 1", or "As If By Remote", which imagines This Heat as a modern math rock band). Slintisms abound as well, with some moody meanders, and the live in Slovenia set sounds like some heavy rock band channeling the roots of spiritual jazz. What the fuck?! How did these guys do it? And why were they not huge? How did so much of the world miss out on these guys?! Laddio Bolocko is the rare group that has the potential to not just appeal only to weirdo music nerds (although if you are one of those, you very likely already LOVE this band!). The jazzy bits are not like some rock band simply aping jazz, they OWN jazz, and in doing so, create a new musical vocabulary for a classic musical form. The same is true for krautrock, math rock, noise rock, whatever the fuck kind of rock they want to take on, every song, every performance is a reinvention, every new movement a discovery. It's exciting and organic, tense and expansive, gnarled and abstract, alive and emotional, and just utterly and breathtakingly stunning.
Liner notes by Kid Millions. And both the double cd and limited triple lp formats (the latter of which is packaged in a deluxe box) come with a dvd disc, featuring more than two hours of live performance footage, that's really nicely done, looking less like typical live video than monochrome art film from decades earlier. Fans will be stoked.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
This record is one of the most amazing we have ever heard, and of course, it's been practically impossible to get back in stock. But now we have it, and you should buy it. It's pummelling and heavy and beautiful. Not sure how long we'll have this in stock.
An ex-Dazzling Killmen (Blake Fleming) takes his penchant for angular discordance a step further, forgoing the ferocious heaviosity of his former outfit, and instead, explores lengthy semi-improvisational psychedelic freakouts and repetetive hypno-krautrock instrumentals ala Circle. Post rock jamscapes littered with shrieking and droning Albert Ayler-ish sax, jabs of no wave guitar, an overwhelming over-saturated super-distorted production and absolutely crushing drumming. Totally essential.
Finally re-pressed and back in stock!!
We have been championing this band since the very first time we heard their mighty 'Strange Warmings' debut years ago but continually faced the problem of all three of their releases being practically impossible to get. And my (Andee's) only possible complaint about this comprehensive career retrospective collection is that I WANTED TO PUT IT OUT ON tUMULt!!!! Arrrrgghhh. But kudos to AQ pal Mike who runs the mighty No Quarter label, for his amazing taste (Earth, Pharoah Overlord and now LB!) and ability to unearth/rerelease these out of print gems.
Laddio Bolocko were absolutely one of the most amazing bands we have ever heard, taking the bloated corpse of 'post rock' and filling it with squirming, ultra complex, super dynamic kraut rock and out rock and...uhhhh trout (mask replica) rock? Or whatever. Imagine a modern day This Heat, but with bigger amps, more lo-fi production, free-jazz scud missle saxophone, unlikely melodies, relentless rhythms, ear-ringing dynamics and a sound unlike anything you've ever heard. Sounds good huh? Well, it is. In fact. as far as I'm concerned LB were probably one of the most important and most original rock bands of the last 20 years. High praise indeed, but once you hear this stuff you'll be hard pressed to argue.
The Life & Times Of collects all three Laddio Bollocko releases, their devastating debut Strange Warmings Of and the two follow up eps, In Real Time and As If By Remote. Also included is a video playable on your computer (which, along with the nice digipak packaging, may even tempt those lucky enough to already have Laddio's hard to find releases).
Disc one is Strange Warmings Of, a pummelling and heavy drone rock masterpiece, in which an ex-Dazzling Killmen (Blake Fleming) takes his penchant for angular discordance a step further, forgoing the ferocious heaviosity of his former outfit, and instead, explores lengthy semi-improvisational psychedelic freakouts and repetetive hypno-krautrock instrumentals a la AQ faves Circle. Post rock jamscapes littered with shrieking and droning Albert Ayler-ish sax, jabs of no wave guitar, an overwhelming over-saturated super-distorted production and absolutely crushing drumming. Anyone into Circle or This Heat or Acid Mothers Temple or Faust or any or any of that, will be completely blown away.
Disc two contains the two later eps find Laddio Bolocko in a new space with a new sound. Showing an amazing amount of growth, LB have all but completely abandoned the bludgeoning, pounding shrieking bombast, and instead stretch out, and explore rhythms and textures, creating lengthy krautrock jams, and hypnotic drones. And their noisey, in your face, live recording has been replaced by what sounds like a serious exploration of the studio as instrument, with at least half the record full of innovative production and gorgeous textures. Also, the sax, which on Strange Warmings, was more textural and not immediately identifiable as a saxophone, is more of a presence here, giving it more of a sort-of-jazz feel on several tracks. This later, less ROOOOOOOAAAAARRRR sort of sound puts them even more comfortably in the sonic realm occupied by Faust, This Heat and Circle.
If we didn't know better, we'd have guessed these garage punks were from right here in SF, or maybe LA, as their sound is definitely not one we equate with Provo, Utah!! And while they currently do in fact call Utah home, word is they're heading westward, and so don't be surprised if they end up on John Dwyer's Castle Face Records, cuz they'd be a perfect fit. Their sound is a mix of blown out, distorto garage-psych pound (opener "OK, Punch It"), and kinetic garage pop swagger ("Brain On A Hanger"). They have a sort of unhinged Cramps vibe too, almost like a mutant strain of rockabilly, supercharged and given a glam-garage / art punk makeover, with reverbed acid-Elvis vox, and spidery, jangle-buzz riffage. We're also reminded of nineties punk heroes the Didjits. And maybe the best part of The Ladells' sound is that for every blast of sixties style psychedelic garage rock freakout or wooly, noisy, punk rock stomp, there's some near Sabbathy heaviness (check out the seventies prog to metal sounding title track!) that destroys. None of this would be worth a shit without actual songs, but these guys (and gal) have songs for days, hooks galore, killer melodies everywhere, so even the noisiest blast of punked out garage somehow still manages to sink its melodic hooks into you, and never lets go.
light green T shirt with dark green logo.
Ladies' fitted light green T shirt with dark green logo.
Ladies' fitted light green T shirt with dark green logo.
Ladies' fitted light green T shirt with dark green logo.
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Ladies' fitted navy T shirt with aqua logo.
Ladies' fitted navy T shirt with aqua logo.
Ladies' fitted navy T shirt with aqua logo.
Ladies' fitted red T shirt with white logo.
