Part two of Mojo's celebration of the 30th anniversary of Pink Floyd's The Wall, with an interview about the movie version with director Sir Alan Parker and animator Gerald Scarfe, and (glued to the cover in a jewel case) a second disc of re-recordings, track-by-track, of The Wall by a bunch of cool folks including Diagonal, Peter Broderick, Crippled Black Phoenix, The Soundcarriers, and others.
Also this ish: A 15 page section about Mojo's Top 50 albums etc. of 2009 (#1 album = Animal Collective), cover star Dave Grohl, Tom Petty, Sting, SUNNO))), Brian May, news, reviews, charts, and plenty more. Always lots to read in any issue of Mojo!
Special 200th issue of this always enlightening and interesting (and 154 pages thick) UK music mag. Guest-edited by cover star Tom Waits! Inside, they bring out the big guns: Johnny Cash, White Stripes, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, U2, Radiohead, Bob Dylan, Harry Belafonte, Nirvana, Arctic Monkeys, and more!! Lots more. Including the usual free cd stuck to the cover, compiled and sequenced by Mr. Waits.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
On the cover: AC/DC! Inside, Dylan, Pavement, a farewell to Malcolm McLaren, Lee 'Scratch' Perry, Screaming Lord Sutch, and of course tons of other reviews and articles. Also includes a cover mounted cd featuring 'a compendium of the devil's best tunes' from Nick Cave, James Brown, Roky Erickson, Gun Club, John Martyn and more...
A new issue of Mojo is always a time to rejoice, especially when we're about finished with the list, so we can dedicate some serious time to one of the best reads in magazine land. On the cover Nick Cave, as well as a jewel cased cd featuring some of Mr/ Cave's favorite records and biggest influences, inside: Johnny Marr, Ry Cooder, Jane Birkin, Dave Clarke Five, Springsteen, Thin Lizzy, Deerhoof, Buddy Holly, Soft Machine, Neil Young, Taj Mahal, R.E.M., as well as tons of reviews and all sort of other good stuff!
Syd Barrett is the cover star, this issue featuring "the inside story of Madcap Laughs" with input from David Gilmour, Robert Wyatt and others. Also this ish: Captain Beefheart, Dr. Feelgood, Charlotte Gainsbourg, the reader's poll 2009, and more. Including, believe it or not, an interview with Sly Stone, who has a new album coming out! As always, LOTS to keep most music junkies busy reading here. Plus there's a free cd on the cover, a "recreation" of Madcap Laughs, covered track-by-track by a diverse selection of artist including Hush Arbours, Skygreen Leopards, Hawkwind, J Mascis, REM, Jennifer Gentle, Hope Sandoval, Robyn Hitchcock, and more!
A brand new issue of one of our favorite rock mags, the almighty Mojo. On the cover this month, John And Yoko, featuring tons of unseen photos, a lost interview and more! Also Antony And The Johnsons, Pearl Jam, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Jackson C. Frank, and a killer article on Mott The Hoople. Comes with a cd (complete with sleeve and jewel case) featuring some "seriously street tough '70s British rock'n'roll bovver" with bands like Mott, Slade, Roy Wood, The Sensational Alex Harvey band, Be-Bop Deluxe, T. Rex, Motorhead and more...
And as we've mentioned before, the cool thing about Mojo is no matter how uninterested you think you are in a particular performer or musician, undoubtedly, you'll end up reading every bit of every issue, even those pieces about bands you might not even like. Hail Mojo!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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On the cover: Janis Joplin. Inside: Paul Weller, MGMT, Arthur Russell, Steve Albini, Little Feat, and loads more, 32 pages of reviews, and a cover mounted cd of 'heavy soul' from Funkadelic, Aaron Neville, Black Merda, Curtis Mayfield, Betty Davis and more...
Man, this issue of Mojo is just screaming, buy me, buy me! A bright red cover featuring the Kraftwerk, complete with bonus cd compilation of Kraftwerk inspired/related music from OMD, Tangerine Dream, LCD Soundsystem, Ultravox, M83, Jean Michel Jarre, Hot Chip, Four Tet, Komputer, The Orb, Kraftwerk themselves, and others! Inside, there's an exclusive 13 page interview with the robotic German geniuses. Plus: AC/DC! Big Star! Yoko Ono! A secret history of grunge! And plenty more. Always a great read.
The Beatles on the cover, this issue featuring an exclusive interview with Sir Paul discussing the remasters, and Rock Band... There's also a free cd stuck to the cover (in a jewel case like they do!) featuring cover versions of songs from Abbey Road done by the likes of Cornershop, Robyn Hitchcock, Jeffrey Lewis, Gomez, and some less familiar names as well. But it's not all Beatles this ish, we're pleased to see a piece on Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells! Also: Bunny Wailer, Prefab Sprout, The Who, The Cribs (now w/ Johnny Marr), and more... the usual pages and pages of well informed reviews, plus news, photos, etc. etc. to keep your music obsessed brain busy for a while.
Arctic Monkeys on the cover of this month's Mojo, while inside:Sky Saxon, Beastie Boys Comus, Billy Childish, an interview with David Sylvian, White Denim, Queen photgrapher Peter Hince, J.J. Cale, Michael Jackson, The Housemartins plus reviews galore, as well as a cover mounted cd featuring a killer collection of "essential mindblowing summer grooves", from Tinariwen, Tony Allan, Ali Farka Toure, Konono No.1 and more...
It's not just more metal magazines that we have started stocking. At long last, we're also now regularly gonna be carrying the mighty MOJO magazine. Another British publication (why are so many of our favorite music mags from England? The Wire, Terrorizer, Classic Rock...). Mojo, as you may know, covers the pop/rock scene from the past to the present, usually delving into rock history (the '60s, '70s, '80s...) while also covering all the latest, hippest indie rock sensations. For the music lover/AQ customer who's not just only into floorcore cd-rs and black metal cassettes and drone vinyl, it's gonna have plenty of stuff you'll want to read about, in fascinating depth.
This October issue: Queen on the cover (they have a new album, with Paul Rodgers replacing the late Freddie Mercury, though we're a little nervous to hear it). Inside: Dave Gilmour, The Last Shadow Puppets, The Fugs, Bon Iver, and more. Reviews, news, all that good stuff. 154 big colorful pages of it. Plus, there's a cover-mounted cd (in a jewel case!) featuring exclusive cover versions of songs from the Beatles' White Album.
Definite contender for best cover art ever. Super striking orange on brown paper space demon, wielding a huge broad sword amidst jagged mountain peaks, but abstract enough so that it takes a minute to figure out what it is. The band name is pretty awesome too, Moknok, scrawled in a sort of drippy angular metal font on the back, and the record is called Slugstorm. Open it up, and the band members are wearing sweaters and gas masks, and there's a scrawled drawing of a cat skull. So we were definitely expecting some sort of demonic sludge or black drone, but this is nothing of the sort. These guys are from Copenhagen, and weave�violin, drums, organ and guitar into loping mathy jangle and moody mournful slowcore. Everything off kilter, damaged and demented, warped and weird, like an even more tweaked Deerhoof...
Most of the record is a sort of cracked pop, stumbling and confusional, but weirdly hooky and catchy, but here and there the band explore other sonic territory, buzzy droning stretches of minor key strum, like a more drugged and art damaged Dirty Three, haunting hippy folk that wanders and meanders, Stooges-y garage stomp, but all of it is slightly and gorgeously, a little bit off.�
It all sounds as if it was some transmission from another dimension, but in the crossing over, Moknok's pop music got all bent up and twisted, and we love it.�
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES. Pretty sure we won't be able to get more when we run out...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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Molasses brings forth their fourth full length of somber, beautiful music. We'd like to call this dusky Americana, but Molasses are Canadian... hmmm, 'Canadiana' just doesn't quite fit. And yes, Molasses is a branch of the expansive Montreal music collective tree which includes Godspeed You Black Emperor, Do Make Say Think and Fly Pan Am. Molasses mainman Scott Chernoff is joined by a sizable supporting cast of fifteen musicians including Sam Shalabi (Shalabi Effect, Osama), Thierry Amar, Mike Moya, Chris Brokaw (Codeine, Come) and Thalia Zedek (Come). With such a list of impressive contributors, there's still a remarkable sense of both space and restraint on Trouble At Jinx Hotel. With spartan instrumentation accompanying Chernoff's vocals, at times his delivery brings to mind a more obtuse Elliott Smith or Iron & Wine. A particular album highlight is the sixth song. "Coda" begins in hushed mellowness and is gently disrupted by squalls of feedback. This song effectively exemplified the album's keen balance of haunting atmosphere and earthy emotion. Gorgeous!
The description of sparse is the only connection between Molasses and Godspeed You Black Emperor, in spite of both bands sharing members. Slow-motion alt.country meanderings sort of like Songs:Ohia and Mazzy Star playing Tom Waits songs.
The Moldy Peaches are the latest purveyors of indie slapped-together slop rock brimming with the irony of "talented" musicians playing badly (lack of rhythm, juvenile poetry about cartoons and indie boys in tight pants, stupid guitar solos, and just barely
UK label Rage of Achilles again dredges the depths of America's metal underground and comes up with a winner. Alabama's Molehill are slow and dirty and dirgy and ultra heavy. Oh, and did I say slow? Screamy slow-motion southern dirge-rock with plenty of
Not sure how many of you remember Richard Davies, but on his own and as one half of the duo Cardinal with Eric Matthews, he made some of the most totally brilliant, lush and orchestral pop records of the late nineties (even touring at one point with the Flaming Lips as his back up band!). Even those of you, like us, who totally loved all that stuff, may not remember Davies' first band the Moles. Originally from Australia, Davies quit law school in the late eighties to play music. The Moles moved to America but broke up in 1993 remaining relatively unknown. Their two albums remain masterpieces of shimmery, jangly indie pop. This collection includes cuts from their classic Untune The Sky record as well as several singles. The sound is sweet and spacious, dreamy and melancholy. Warbly organs, jangly rickenbacker guitars, sunny, reverbed harmonies, Davies' strange Robynn Hitchcock-sh vocals, all sorts of psychedelic production, and of course perfect, perfect pop songs. Fans of Belle And Sebastian, and similarly bittersweet pop should definitely check this out. Includes a bonus disc of rare and unreleased songs.
The Moles are definitely not a household name, at least in most normal households, which is definitely a shame. Not sure how many folks remember the band Cardinal, they only released one proper full length, back in the nineties, but to this day, it remains quite possibly one of the most perfect orchestral pop records ever released. But before Cardinal, there was the Moles.
Untune The Sky is the debut from New Zealand poppers The Moles, the band that Richard Davies called home, long before Cardinal, and while not nearly as lush or orchestral, it's a classic slice of primo late 80's/early 90's Flying Nun style experimental pop. Droning and hypnotic, with lots of jagged unfinished edges, weird almost industrial noise, Brit pop jangle and an almost Morrissey vocal drawl. But for as experimental as the Moles were, all of that experimentalism was wrapped around some incredibly catchy pop, hooks galore, not always proudly on display, sometimes nearly totally obfuscated, but just as often, set up right in front, and allowed to shine, an approach to pop that to this day still seems distinctly New Zealand.
Fans of the Tall Dwarfs, the Bats, the Clean, the 3Ds, the Chills, Straightjacket Fits, the Verlaines, could have easily missed out on the Moles, they were sort of underground even among the already underground, plus they were definitely a bit weirder, but now's the time to right that wrong, this stuff is timeless, sounding as good as ever, some incredible pop songs can be found within Untune The Sky, and half the fun is digging for them.
Originally released for this year's Record Store Day, Flashbacks And Dream Sequences collects (almost) everything recorded by these aQ beloved Aussie experimental jangle poppers. The Moles were never a household name, at least in most normal households, which is totally a shame, cuz their perfectly crafted bittersweet jangle pop sounds as good now as it did decades ago. Like lots of folks, we discovered the Moles a bit circuitously. Not sure how many folks remember the band Cardinal, they only released one proper full length, back in the nineties (you can find the review elsewhere on the aQ site), but to this day, it remains quite possibly one of the most perfect orchestral pop records ever released. And before there was Cardinal, there was the Moles.
The Moles is the band that Richard Davies of Cardinal, called home before that band was born, and while not quite as lush or orchestral as Cardinal, the sound is a classic slice of primo late '80s & early '90s New Zealand / Flying Nun style style experimental pop. Droning and hypnotic, with lots of jagged unfinished edges, weird almost industrial noise bits, plenty of Brit pop jangle, the sounds swirling and sweet and spacious, dreamy and melancholy, warbly organs, lush Rickenbacker guitars, sunny, reverbed harmonies, Davies' strange crooned vocals, sometimes Robyn Hitchcock-ish, other times closer to a Morrissey like drawl, everything swaddled in a hazy psychedelic production. But for as experimental as the Moles were, all of that experimentalism was wrapped around some incredibly catchy pop, hooks galore, not always proudly on display, sometimes nearly totally obfuscated, but just as often, set up right in front, and allowed to shine, an approach to pop that to this day still seems distinctly from that era / region. Yet seems impossibly prescient of what was to come.
Fans of NZ outfits like Tall Dwarfs, the Bats, the Clean, the 3Ds, the Chills, Straightjacket Fits, the Verlaines, could have easily missed out on the Moles, they were actually from Australia after all, and were sort of underground even among the already underground, plus they were definitely a bit weirder, but now's the time to right that wrong, this stuff is timeless, sounding as good as ever, these two discs are overflowing with some incredible pop songs, and half the fun is digging through all the psychedelic strangeness to find them.
This double disc set collects the group's albums proper, Untune The Sky and Instinct, as well as a treasure trove of singles, B-sides and unreleased rarities!
Between this new album from Lambchop and those from Jason Molina and M. Ward, whoa, this is quite the week for country rock excellence!
Mr. Molina doesn't want you to be caught empty-handed... without his music! He's released his latest album as a cd/lp combo (same music on both vinyl and cd packaged together in an lp sleeve. The music is absolutely solid Molina fare of his more hushed and stripped down variety rather than his bootstomp tavern rock. Let Me Go, Let Me Go, Let Me Go is composed of nine timeless stark arrangements of just his voice, some piano and guitar. Really, the only unfortunate thing about this release might be the choice of cover photo -- a sort of Alfred E. Neuman 'what me worry?' shot of Molina and his guitar.
Pssst, want more Molina? A Magnolia Electric Co. album is comin' REAL soon.
Finally, goshdarnit! We alluded to this record in our review of Songs: Ohia's album Magnolia Electric Co. last February, and then we waited and waited... and now almost a year later here it is, the actual companion release to said album.
Easily the most brutally personal and gorgeously melancholy record yet from Jason Molina, aka Songs: Ohia. And that's saying a lot, since everything we've heard from him so far has been intense, intensely sad, musically compelling and completely brilliant. This Pyramid Electric Co. is all minimal and spacious, spare and haunting. Guitars shimmer and drift lazily through darkened rooms and ghostly winter evenings, single notes ring out only to settle back to earth after hovering in the dark cool air for what feels like forever. The piano is heard from the street outside the loneliest bar, in a town where nobody lives anymore. Chords and melodies escaping through a crack in the window like tendrils of smoke from recently extinguised cigarettes. Molina's voice still sounds a bit like Will Oldham, but the more time you spend with him, and his songs, and the more you actually let yourself get lost in his music, the more he sounds like no one else in the world. A high lonesome, aching heartbroken croon, that can turn into an anguished wail in a split second, but return to a hushed lover's whisper before you know it. This is the perfect music for two in the morning, home alone, drunk and lonely, snow outside, too sad to sleep, to tired not too, afraid of dreaming about her, wishing the morning would never come, but praying you can make it through the night. So fucking good. It's ostensibly LP only, BUT the LP comes with a cd version as well for you poor turntable-less bastards!
Juana Molina hails from Argentina where she was once a sitcom television star until she gave it up to pursue music. And we're so happy she did 'cause over the last few years she's made some really beautiful records. With a remarkable seductive voice and sparse interesting instrumentation beneath, she creates a sultry and inciting mood that totally wraps you up in its womblike warmth. With a voice that has the same melting beauty as sonic seductresses like Astrud Gilberto, what's so great about Molina is that while her voice is breathtaking, there is so much more to her music. Evoking much emotion but never hitting the listener over the head with overly maudlin sentiments or romantic drivel. Subtly experimenting with delicate sounds and electronics yet keeping songs strong and in tact. Creating a sound that is both very modern and totally timeless. It would be so easy for someone with a voice as beautiful as Molina's to just push her vocals way out in front of the mix and make polished straightforward pop records, but luckily she chooses to create interesting and textured songs using her voice as another element, no more important that some swoonsome guitar or shuffling rhythm. Another fantastic album. Highly recommended!
It would be so easy and profitable for Juana Molina to simply streamline her sound, to make things nice and easy and to compete with the likes of Feist and Beth Orton for permanent cafe stereo time, but lucky for us, she keeps pushing and challenging herself, creating original and challenging music while still managing to weave a sensual and seductive spell with her sounds.
Her voice is the main instrument, and it's her voice that carries Un Dia, with its seamless mix of organic instrumentation and subtle electronics. It's hard to believe that someone this creative and musically talented was once a bigtime sitcom TV star in Argentina. Makes so much sense how committed she seems to her musical vision as she already enjoyed a kind of mindless popular culture celebrity so she doesn't need to pander to commercial blandness with her music. It's not to say that this is difficult or unpleasant music because its not, quite the contrary but similar to folks like Bjork and Brigitte Fontaine decades earlier, Molina belongs to a strong brigade of visionary women who know how to blend experimentation with melody and pop sensibilities for music that is both rewarding and pleasurable. This might be her finest moment yet!
Finally reissued and available once again, thanks to the fine folks at Slumberland, this time on colored vinyl [whoops, almost all gone already, being repressed though], and CASSETTE!!
Fans of local pop geniuses the Ovens, which are a whole lot of you, but should really be ALL of you, rejoice, and enjoy another incredible blast of noise pop songsmithery courtesy of Ovens mainman Tony Molina, whose solo sound is essentially, and really EXACTLY like the Ovens, fuzzed out pop, metallic chugging, soaring harmonized guitars, a dreamy croon, and ridiculous self deprecating lyrics, INCREDIBLE hooks, and the sort of poppiness that will get lodged in your head forEVER. SO yeah, anyone who bought and loved the Ovens cd Andee released on his tUMULt label, well, you're gonna want, nay, NEED this. As always, Molina's songs (and by extension, the Ovens' as well) are equal parts Weezer, Thin Lizzy, the Beatles, Guided By Voices, Dinosaur Jr, Teenage Fanclub, and pretty much every other fuzzy jangly pop band you ever loved, but all that boiled down and rendered into ultra brief, fragmented blasts of micro pop brevity, and we're talking boiled down as in thirteen songs in twelve minutes! One of those records you'll no doubt play over and over and over.
There are tracks like opener "Nowhere To Go", which sounds like it could have been plucked right off the Ovens cd proper, so much crammed into so little time, soaring harmonized guitars, the occasional metallic chug, the fuzzy main riff, the laid back vox, the melodies impossible to resist, and like many Ovens songs, blink and you'll miss it. None of that verse chorus verse shit, if you're lucky, you'll get verse chorus. Sometimes just verse! Like on tracks like "Sick As Riff", where you don't even get a riff, more like a dreamy little acoustic guitar interlude. Check out "Change My Ways", which should most definitely have J Mascis looking over his shoulder, the Dinosaur Jr vibe HUGE, right down to the guitar tone. And like we've said before, if Tony wasn't so brilliantly ADD, and could make a song longer than 90 seconds, he and the Ovens could/would/should be HUGE. But we're not complaining, it's part of their charm, the barrage of crazy hooks, perfect melodies, definitely pushing a lot of the same buttons Guided By Voices do.
So yeah, needless to say, these 12 minutes the probably gonna be our favorite 12 minutes of pop music this year, so grab one of these before they're gone, and leave a little space at the top of your 2013 year end lists, cuz even only two months in, and we're pretty sure, unless there's a new Ovens record that somehow pops up, this one's gonna be tough to beat.
Fans of local pop geniuses the Ovens, which are a whole lot of you, but should really be ALL of you, rejoice, and enjoy another incredible blast of noise pop songsmithery courtesy of Ovens mainman Tony Molina, whose solo sound is essentially, and really EXACTLY like the Ovens, fuzzed out pop, metallic chugging, soaring harmonized guitars, a dreamy croon, and ridiculous self deprecating lyrics, INCREDIBLE hooks, and the sort of poppiness that will get lodged in your head forEVER. SO yeah, anyone who bought and loved the Ovens cd Andee released on his tUMULt label, well, you're gonna want, nay, NEED this. As always, Molina's songs (and by extension, the Ovens' as well) are equal parts Weezer, Thin Lizzy, the Beatles, Guided By Voices, Dinosaur Jr, Teenage Fanclub, and pretty much every other fuzzy jangly pop band you ever loved, but all that boiled down and rendered into ultra brief, fragmented blasts of micro pop brevity, and we're talking boiled down as in thirteen songs in twelve minutes! One of those records you'll no doubt play over and over and over.
There are tracks like opener "Nowhere To Go", which sounds like it could have been plucked right off the Ovens cd proper, so much crammed into so little time, soaring harmonized guitars, the occasional metallic chug, the fuzzy main riff, the laid back vox, the melodies impossible to resist, and like many Ovens songs, blink and you'll miss it. None of that verse chorus verse shit, if you're lucky, you'll get verse chorus. Sometimes just verse! Like on tracks like "Sick As Riff", where you don't even get a riff, more like a dreamy little acoustic guitar interlude. Check out "Change My Ways", which should most definitely have J Mascis looking over his shoulder, the Dinosaur Jr vibe HUGE, right down to the guitar tone. And like we've said before, if Tony wasn't so brilliantly ADD, and could make a song longer than 90 seconds, he and the Ovens could/would/should be HUGE. But we're not complaining, it's part of their charm, the barrage of crazy hooks, perfect melodies, definitely pushing a lot of the same buttons Guided By Voices do.
So yeah, needless to say, these 12 minutes the probably gonna be our favorite 12 minutes of pop music this year, so grab one of these before they're gone, and leave a little space at the top of your 2013 year end lists, cuz even only two months in, and we're pretty sure, unless there's a new Ovens record that somehow pops up, this one's gonna be tough to beat.
Probably the most well known of the groups contributing to this most recent collection of limited 7" singles from Germany's Drone Records. Gorgeously packaged, matte black ink on gloss black sleeves, pressed on black vinyl, black on grey cardstock insert, the first edition and thus limited to ONLY 300 COPIES!
Two short tracks, the first an ominous ambience of deep rumbles and hushed atmosphere, haunting minor key melodies stretched into blurred streaks of sound, after drifting through a little cloud of percussion at the beginning, only to emerge into a bleak expanse of slowly unfurling low end and soft black shimmer. The flipside picks up right where the A side ends, growing less and less ominous, becoming more and more dreamy and blissed out, the ominous black clouds slowly parting to reveal a sprawling expanse of steel grey winter sky. So nice!
Latest disc of sonic exploration from this Swedish dronescaping ensemble. With such a darkly minimal sound, it's amazing that, at least for this recording. Moljebka Pvlse included ten members! Credited, with among other things, sounds (yep, just 'sounds'), no-input mixing board, synthesizers, melodica, field recording, cymbals, guitar, voices, flute, electric piano, text, didgeridoo, mbira and supercollider(!), this expansive ensemble takes all of that and manages to distill it into the darkest and simplest of sounds. A nearly seventy minute single piece, slowly sprawling out from a stretch of barely there shimmer into gradually more and more active low end minimalism. Long drawn out tones, mysterious bits of glitch and click, haunting voices, moaning and mumbling, chanting and intoning, bits of creaking and tiny swirls of FX, deep swells of synth and barely discernible rhythms, everything constantly shifting and gradually changing shapes, some parts almost coalescing into fragmented bits of actual pop (albeit stripped down and smeared), while others are mostly melody free, remaining stretched out and abstract. Quite sinister and lovely, dark and subtly intense, not all that far removed from the sounds of Troum and Thomas Koner and other practitioners of the drone and drift. Which as avid AQ customers should realize, is indeed a very good thing.�
Unfortunately we've somehow missed out on Moljebka Pvlse until now, although this Swedish dronescaping project has produced some exceptional work for Cold Meat Industies and Eibon. Tamon is a bit of a detour for Moljebka Pvlse which has typically offered somnolent, hypnotic sounds on par with Troum and Thomas Koner. Here, Moljebka Pvlse quite literally shatters the lulling atmospheres with two monstrous slabs of digitized noise surrounded by extended passages of eerie electric hummings. The juxtaposition of the calmer pools of sound and the infernal noise is purposefully jarring, as they simply butt up against each other. As good as Moljebka Pvlse has been at creating the sublime drone, he's equally proficient in noisemaking, on par with Merzbow's recent headcleansing output. Well worth checking this one out!
While Malcolm Bly's ambient project Mollusk is conceptually grounded within the biology of ancient sea creatures, his "Accretions" album holds a lot of similarities to the deep space music found on Hearts of Space or just the backing ambience that would go along with a Carl Sagan narration about "the billions and billions of stars that span the night sky." Sure the case could be made
Finally, the first proper full length from Ukrainian one man black metal horde Moloch. As we mentioned in our review of the split tape from a while back (the only thing we'd been able to get in sufficient numbers to list), we have been totally obsessed with Moloch, doing whatever we could to get a hold of everything and anything he's recorded. Which is quite a feat as he's released about 40 records, many of them box sets, and making it even more of a feat is the fact that most were limited to between 10 and 40 copies. Argghhh. Andee has even been emailing with Moloch about possibly releasing something on tUMULt, all in the interest of making these gorgeously grim sounds available to more than a handful of connected diehards.
So in steps the fine folks at BlackMetal.Com, who have released Depression Of Surtr, a best of compilation, gathering up various tracks from a handful or releases, as well as a bunch of unreleased tracks (although since barely anyone has heard most of this stuff, they're essentially ALL unreleased). So what has got us all in a tizzy about this Moloch character? Hard to explain, but with most black metal, it's as much about vibe as it is sound, and these tracks, besides sounding amazing, are so weirdly haunting and mysterious, the guitars so saturated and blown out, the drums buried in the mix, more of a pulse than a beat, and the vocals, somewhere between Weakling and Silencer, howled and wailed and utterly anguished. So tortured and over the top, again simultaneously adding to the vibe and mood as well as the sound. But besides the vibe, which is about as harrowing and haunting and GRIM as can be, the sound is fucking epic, Burzum by way of Abruptum, mostly midtempo, even the blasts are only slightly faster, the guitars are super distorted and droney, the sort of trance-y buzz that has us immediately entranced.
There are also some long stretches of black ambience, of shimmery drift and rumbling dronemusic, which makes sense, as Moloch has also released 10 or 15 entire discs full of ambient music, but here they nicely balance the blown out grimnity of the more buzzy blown out tracks. There's even a couple covers at the end, one a Burzum cover, all pianos and synths, lilting and minor key, the other a Darkthrone cover, which is totally bizarre, swooning synths over an awesomely cheesy drum machine (which sounds remarkably similar to the one built into the boom box in the back room). Not sure what to even make of it, so strange, and a little bit silly, but once you get immersed in it, it does seem to sound a bit more haunting. But only a bit. But then that's what we were talking about, the vibe, and the mood, and Moloch creates such a strange unpredictable vibe, with his skewed perspective on black metal, which is what makes his sound, and his records so amazing. And which is exactly why we're so obsessed...
These two most recent release from Ukrainian one man black metal band had us seriously confused. We originally reviewed the OTHER one that wasn't out yet, thinking it was this one, then did properly review that one, and are now finally reviewing THIS one, a 4 song, 20 minute ep that was originally released as a super limited lp on Prison Tatt records. Not surprising we'd be confused, as we mentioned in out other review of the OTHER new Moloch tape, these two come on the heels of over ONE HUNDRED releases! And yet, every time we hear something new, we immediately remember why we've always dug Moloch so much, and Depressive Black Metal Plague is no different, a loping, dirgey, depressive black metal that is thick with crumbling buzz, primitive stumbling drumming, sung/spoken vocals, the first track a slo-mo creep, that lumbers along before the sound grows gradually more and more noisy and buzzy, building to an almost psychedelic blackened squall before the guitars and drums drift away, leaving just the bass to wind down to the end. Somehow the second track cranks up the distortion even more, thick swirls of blown out crumbling buzz, the vocals too, and anguished wail way up in the mix, those two elements almost entirely obscuring the haphazard drumming below, harsh and lo-fi, grim and melancholically black, that sound oozing into the next track, droned out and trancey, the biggest sonic shift coming in the final track, which sounds almost freeform by comparison, the guitars cranked and in-the-red, the drums total free jazz freakout mode, a dense dizzying blast of black buzz dirgery, before everything drops out, leaving the final few minutes to just stately synths, and mournful melodies.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!!
Illusionen Eines Verlorenen Lebens is the latest from ridiculously prolific Ukrainian one man black metal horde Moloch, one of THREE new full lengths in 2011, so far! Thankfully, everything we've heard from Moloch has been pretty incredible, and perhaps in this case also thankfully, of the SEVENTY ONE releases since 2004, we've only managed to get a tiny handful, so it's still exciting to get our hands on anything new from Moloch, whose sound is a dark, depressive mix of haunting dark ambience, and murky buzz drenched blackness, definitely the sort of thing that should appeal to fans of Xasthur, I Shalt Become, Burzum, Striborg, Nortt, Velvet Cacoon, which we would imagine is probably a whole bunch of you.
And if you've yet to discover Moloch, this is as good a place to start as any. Beginning with a mournful ambient drift, all swoonsome strings, haunting piano and softly layered chordal thrum, very cinematic and quite beautiful, which leads directly into the first half of "Ein Dusterer Winter Kommt", the swirling synths carrying over from the last track, here drifting over big drums, with strange spoken vox, and a slowly intensifying black buzz, the song never truly exploding, instead, pounding along hypnotically, with the vocals becoming more and anguished. It's the second part of the song where the buzz is let loose, the song still a meandering creep, but wreathed in some seriously thick crumbling superdistorted buzz, which is the MO for the next few tracks, the songs lumbering and lurching, through clouds of corrosive buzz and strange vocals, on "Weg Von Dieser Welt Voller Traurigkeit", the riffing grows distinctly blacker, frantic picking, soaring majestic melodies, but still wrapped around Moloch's depressive doomy plod, with some of the most hysterical vocals on the record so far.
Two brief ambient interludes, all synths and strings and whirring shimmering droney drift, lead into the 22 minute closer "Abgrund Meines Wesens", which one might expect to be a crushing buzz drenched finale, but instead is something much more subtle, a sprawling synthscape in multiple movements, like some lost soundtrack for some old art film, lush chordal swells beneath streaks of muted melody, deep sonorous thrum and hushed washed out shimmer, there is a stretch, where the ambience is augmented by a thick layer of buzz, but beyond adding some heft, it doesn't blacken the sound so much as make it more intense. The sort of soundscapery that can easily whisk you off to some other world, some alternate universe. Gorgeous stuff. Definitely heavier on the atmospheric drift than on black buzz, but overall, a pretty fantastic slab of ambient blackness...
A few lists back, we mistakenly reviewed THIS Moloch tape, instead of the one we actually had in stock (Depressive Black Metal Plague), even though this one had not officially been released. We'll review THAT one next time, but for now, Verwustung is in fact finally out! If you were one of the few folks who ordered the other one, based on the wrong review, but still dug it, you're probably gonna want this one too. For everyone else, here's the RIGHT review for this, the latest from this Ukrainian one man black metal / black ambient project, and while we knew he had tons of releases, it's still hard to believe this is in fact his TWELVTH full length, out of almost NINETY (!!!) releases since 2004 (!!!!). Number twelve, Verwustung, is one of the harshest and heaviest things we've heard from Moloch, grim and brutal, anguished and minor key, the sound raw and fierce, the guitars buzzsaw black, pounding drumming, and some seriously intense vokills, equal parts guttural demonic growl and hysterical shriek, the vibe still darkly depressive, but unlike past records, that depressiveness is on display here mostly in mood and vibe, with the music itself furious and frenzied, relentless and intense, with the sound only occasionally slipping into doomy miserablism, and here and there, exploding into full on noise drenched chaos, that sounds surprisingly psychedelic. But really, Verwustung is just, raw, pure, true, grim Ukrainian black metal, the very essence of cult one man BM, the sound infused mysterious black energy, which is reflected in the opening and closing tracks as well, displaying the other side of Moloch's sound, both haunting, droning, moody and minimal sprawls of black ambient drift...
LIMITED TO 50 COPIES!!! Probably the last we'll ever see...
Not to be confused with the Russian black metal Moloch, this Moloch is something much grimier and grittier and doomier, treading a path closer to Eyehategod, and of course the current crop of ultra doomlords like Moss, Bunkur, Monarch, and of course Noothgrush and Corrupted. In fact, if it sounds like we just described your collection, you might as well stop right now and grab one of these, cuz if sloooooow, ultra heavy, doomic crush is your thing, then Moloch will definitely hit the spot.
Four songs, 25 minutes, this UK foursome offer up some pretty fearsome heaviness, slipping easily from plodding lumbering slow motion, to swinging stonery groove and back again, the guitars thick and viscous, the drums pounding and pummeling, the vocals a wild shriek. The more we listen to this we're also hearing plenty of Grief and Bongzilla, the riffs like 16rpm Sabbath, the band's crawl druggy and dissonant, but laced with some super swinging NOLA-esque grooviness, and some surprisingly Pantera-ish vox, which makes some of this sound like Down, but only if Down were WAY crustier and filthier and DIY and lo-fi. Which is most definitely not a bad thing. Heartily recommended for you drugged out, stoner rock, ultra doom, slow and low misfits, some seriously crushing black hole brutality, with just enough swing to keep it interesting.
Released on the same label that did that kick ass Ghast / Yoga split!
Doesn't get much heavier than this. Louisiana sludgelords Thou matched up with UK ultradoom heavies Moloch (not to be confused with the Ukrainian black metallers Moloch).
By now, like us, you're probably pretty obsessed with Thou, of the multitudes of practitioners of the incredibly slow and low, Thou probably come closest to capturing the spirit of the bands who got us into that sort of heaviness in the first place, Eyehategod, Bongzilla, Weedeater, Noothgrush, disEMBOWELMENT, Winter, Sleep, 16, Buzzoven, the Melvins, but they do it so well and they do it in a way that few others can, and that's by infusing some serious pop into their sound. Fear not, it's not obvious, not at all, and most folks might not hear it, but it's there, and it transforms their sludge entirely.
The first track is the perfect example, sludgy and sour, everything wrapped in a warm distortion blanket. Great vokillz as always. The drums pounding away mercilessly, the guitars sounding like they're in slow motion, churning and chugging, the tone insanely corrosive and blown out, but then there are these intense chiming melodies, that change the vibe completely, some weird hybrid of the Melvins, Nirvana and Eyehategod, slipping from NOLA style Southern sludgey groove, to full on ultradoom plod, to what sounds almost like death metal slowed down to a crawl, to what sounds like their cover of Nirvana's "Sifting", which finally answers our prayers, whenever a killer band does a cover of another band, and it's amazing, and we can't help but wish there was just a band that sounded LIKE THAT, not just when they were covering songs by other bands, well, here you go!! The second track offers up more heavy bliss, opening with a riff like Sleep's "Jerusalem" before the rest of the band kicks in and things get all tense and dark before breaking out into some melodic serpentine riffery. So grim and doomy and sludgy but you can still hear all the definition of the song, before it eventually builds into an ultra depressive lament. Fuck yeah.
Moloch counter with some of their own filthy crusty sludge. Opening with a glacial squall of barely moving but steady black buzz riffage. Hardcore vocals and Neanderthal drum pound and knuckle dragging amp buzz that rides out with seemingly infinite sustain, evolving into an abject midtempo sonic beatdown. The second track introduces some groove, but Moloch's idea of groove is way less groovy and way more menacing, the lurching lumbering crush laced with hateful throat shredding howls, and some super harmonic riffage.
Super nice woodcut style packaging with a heavy printed inner sleeve and nice thick jacket, pressed on cloudy clear vinyl, LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES.
The prolific, inventive, and cheekily clever Momus is at it again. The last time we heard from him was 1999's Stars Forever on which he performed songs of "patronage pop" (thirty patrons paid one thousand dollars each for the privilege of having a song
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
... in which the fine dandy Scot known as Momus remakes his dazzling downer album Tender Pervert. The result a new perhaps odder beauty that can be admired all on its own.
Yet another step in Momus' quest to be the Jeff Koons of indie rock. This post modern putz somehow convinced 30 suckers that it would be worth $1000 to have a crappy electro-pop song with inane lyrics written in their honor. There is some history behind it, like he got sued for ripping off somebody else's song, or something equally as lame. The patrons of this collection include a few stores (Other Music, Reckless Records), a few indie establishments (Team Clermont, Minty Fresh), the aforementioned Jeff Koons, and a bunch of dilletantes we've never heard of. That said, Cup, a Momus fan since the days of 'Tender Pervert' must raise her hand in defense of Momus. Although she too balks at the lofty price tag, she admires Momus' musical diversity, and thinks the idea's pretty darn clever and funny. By the way, the $30,000 went towards his legal bills 'cause he got sued by Wendy Carlos. Oh yeah, and there's also a 'bonus'...eight Momus karaoke parody contest winners' tracks.
Over the last couple years San Francisco's Mon Cousin Belge have earned quite the reputation for their raucous, theatrical and dazzling live performances. And in a city that's got such a great history for campy, subversive and wonderfully queer art and music it's actually kind of sad to say that it's becoming more rare to find a really good charged and dazzling homo-rock band around these parts lately. Luckily Mon Cousin Belge have been filling that void quite nicely. With a sound equally influenced by glam-rock, torch songs and the sparkling seedy side of high octane pop, Quelle Horreur is an action packed flamboyant and proud album that fits perfectly in any record collection containing the soundtrack to Hedwig & The Angry Inch, Ziggy Stardust era Bowie, Sparks, B-52's and Nina Hagen. With song titles like "Tweaker Bitch", "Sodomy" and "Pigdog" and the trashy chops to back it all up, someone really needs to get this in the hands of John Cameron Mitchell and John Waters as this could be their new favorite band!
Previously a side project collaboration between Pram's Rosie Cuckston and Stereolab's Laetitia Sadier, Monade has blossomed into a full band fronted by the dulcet-toned Ms Sadier, and well... they reeeeeeally sound like her other band! Her legions of fans probably knew that this release was on its way eons ago, and therefore don't need us to tell them that it's finally arrived. For those less rabid, we'll let you know that this is the group's follow-up to their 2003 debut Socialisme ou Barbarie (The Bedroom Recordings), and as can be expected, it's a much more fleshed out and polished affair. Back-to-back listening of this and the recent reissue of Stereolab's 1992 debut Switched On makes for a dreamy, sunny afternoon double scoop! Sure to please Stereolab and Sadier lovers everywhere.
