More stoned, spaced out, rhythmic free-rock bliss out from AQ faves the No Neck Blues Band. This is a live set from a year or two back released only on lp. Mr. A Fan unfurls like a thick, warm blanket of fuzz, with subtle thumps and rattles, mumbled, incoherent vocalising, druggy guitars and underneath it all, a doggedly steady rhythm turning what would otherwise be a hippy-ish mess, into some primo modern krautrock. Think Reynols covering German Oak or Jandek jamming with the 'Dead or Yahowah playing the Amon Duul songbook or Hawkwind unplugged. Weird and wild and wooly and beautifully fucked up. And as always, so totally great! Sorry, we only have 3 copies still hanging around, so act fast!
It came as a bit of a surprise to realise that we've never listed the No Neck Blues Band before, especially considering how often we reference them in reviews, whenever we're trying to describe some sort of stumbling and stoned, improvised hippie tribal
Subtitled "An Urban Ceremonial", this super limited new release from AQ faves the No Neck Blues Band documents a live performance at the Greene Naftali Gallery in November of 2004. It's been a little while since we've heard from these guys, but thankfully they sound as good as ever, maybe a little more subdued and subtle, although that could just be the venue or even this particular performance. As always, the NNBB offer up a langorous, dreamily exotic tribal soundscape of crystalline shimmers, drifting ambient slivers of high end, muted tribal drumming, subtle velvet shadings of reverbed guitar, simple shuffling rhythms, chimes and bells, ghostly woodwinds, drifting psych guitar drone, occasional clang and clatter, music box-like melodies all swirled into a rambling soundscape of tribal ambience, krautrock creep and pagan folk ritual.
Packaged in an oversized carboard sleeve with a poster. And again EXTREMELY LIMITED!
The latest mysterious musical missive from these aQ faves, NYC's psychedelic improv free rock explorationists No Neck Blues Band, who remain one of the most reference groups on the aQ site, referenced whenever we need to describe some sort of tribal freeform psychedelia or jazzy abstract drift, or dirgey home-brewed free form minimalism, or pretty much any stop in between, these guys are the modern masters, and this record is another fantastic glimpse into their utterly unique soundworld. Recorded in 2009 in the Faust Studios in Germany, YTIU offers up two sidelong epics, the first starts out all psychedelic and raga-like, with spidery guitar melodies, rumbling low end, and occasiona synth squelches, dreamy and drifty for sure, gradually becoming more electronic and skittery, a little bit jazzy for sure too, slipping into some hushed near ambient shimmer before bursting into some abstract free noise atonality, laced with sawed strings, tinkling chimes, stuttery horn bleats and propulsive tribal krautrock drumming.
The flipside is the band at their most meditative and dreamily psychedelic, dedicated to Pink Floyd, it's a long drift of thick whirring organs, abstract melodic figures, slowly unfurling psych guitars, shuffly and jangly, a sound that perhaps envisions them, however briefly, as an underground avant Grateful Dead (or Pink Floyd perhaps), which is not at all a bad thing, druggy, dreamy, endless psychedelic jamming, that drift and hovers and shimmers and soars weightlessly heavenward.
LIMITED TO JUST 300 COPIES!! Sadly we have less than 10, and it's already sold out and out of print. So these are the last copies we'll ever get. The covers are each individually hand painted and hand stickered too!
A perky Portland quartet with guitars and female vocals that wiggle the tuning meter at times. Kinda early '90s Olympia, kinda like Velocity Girl or Excuse Seventeen.
We only have 6 of these, the debut demo from this Florida depressive black metal duo, who sound is a twisted, grim melding of screeching abject misery and blasting blackened buzz. After a brief intro of spidery acoustic guitar, and some jagged shards of distorted noise, the band launches into a frenzied fury of insectoid guitar buzz, galloping blasts, and over it all, so hysterically shrieked vokills, wrapped in TONS of reverb, which invariably leaks all over the rest of the proceedings giving the whole record a sort of hazy lo-fi vibe. While most depressive black metal seems to lean more toward the doom side of the spectrum, lots of the jams here are frenzied and fast, flitting from D-beat pound, to all out lightning speed black blast, the melodies minor key for sure, keeping the mood appropriately miserable, but all wrapped up in burst and blasts. There are a few tracks of loping doomic creep, some of the record's finest, and most emotionally charged moments, during which the vocals get even more anguished, the music sounding post rocky and proggy, but inevitably, they eventually slip right back into something more blasting and black.
CRAZY LIMITED, already out of print, and super cool packaging...
Yup, that is a nod to Model 500's classic "NO UFO's" - one of the few techno trax from the mid '80s that can legitimately qualify as being timeless. The project that has taken this name is authored by Vancouver's electronica wunderkind Konrad Jandavs, who's caught in not one, but two parallel timewarps - one fixated on the kraut / motorik oscillations of Harmonia, Neu!, and Conrad Schnitzler and the other on a lo-fi adaptation of the avant-electronica circa 1993 especially Autechre and Main. All of which are great sonic signposts on their own; but thrust together in a mottled collage, the results are kaleidoscopically discombobulating. The cheap drum machine marching beneath an expository synthdrone noodle akin to J.D. Emmanuel on "Evidence / Century Park" leads into the acid reflux of "Vertigo (K. Alexi)" seeking the same influences that spawned Aphex and Autechre. The hypno-riff from Jandavs' guitar on "00/00/2010" with scrabbled electronic drone and oscillation is structurally identical to what Robert Hampson was going for on his awesome Main album Hydra-Calm (now, there's an album in need of a reissue!). For all of its genre-hopping bricolage, Soft Coast is a very self-assured album and one that fits rather nicely amidst the retro-garde agenda promoted by John Elliott's Spectrum Spools imprint.
These NY heavies are friend of local noise rockers Kowloon Walled City, and you know what they say about the company you keep, so yeah, if you like your guitars thick and downtuned, your drums pummeling and punishing, and your music heavy, noisy, metallic and LOUD, then No Way will definitely hit the spot. Or more likely, they'll bash that spot in, until it's a bloody, bruised pulp. But this is not all knuckle dragging neander-noise pound and howl, these guys mix it up, most notably with the vocals, that actually sound a bit like Jello Biafra on the opening track, only a bit though, and way more gruff and growly, but it gives the sound a much different vibe, as do the dynamics, with the sound lurching and lumbering from heaving metallic churn, to hushed post rock drift, to stuttery, feedback drenched psych-noise crunch, and back again for more roiling heavy rocking dirgery. The second track gets a little mathy, some pigfuck crunch mixed with classic midwestern style noisiness, and the vocals getting even gruffer, and drifting into almost Killdozer territory, which is not a bad thing at all. "War Dance" is all math rock blooze, before exploding into something epic and massive, sounding a bit like Down, if THEY still sounded more like Corrosion Of Conformity. All swaggery and swoonsome, pocked with some bursts of explosive crunch. And finally, the sprawling 8+ minute closer, that lays down a bed of extremely thick, distorto bass, over which is laid another few layers of droned out guitars, clouds of cymbal sizzle, and in come the drums, sounding MASSIVE, the track unwinding as a gloriously drum heavy noise-blooze swagger, that is transformed into something downright metallic part way through, right down to the caustically bellowed vox, again sounding like a noise rockier Down, or even a way heavier, WAY meaner, WAY WAY more metal Alice In Chains, which again, is in fact a very very good thing indeed.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!
Uh oh. It's from Finland, and it's limited, and it's nobody you've heard of before. Thus Aquarius is almost contractually obligated to champion this 7", because all of those things ring true about No Xivic. This is also another fine release from Drone Records run by Stefan Knappe of Troum. On this single, No Xivic explore primeval, oceanic dronemusik, mysterious vocalizations broadcast as omni-directional sirensongs out from a sea of reverberation and tidal fluctuations. Very cold and very bleak, much like the later work of Lustmord. Limited to 300 copies, with this first edition pressed on clear vinyl. ONLY A HANDFUL OF THESE IN STOCK!
We've got two new tapes on this week's list from the Merzbild label, the newly expanded offshoot of Merz Tapes. There's the latest from Swedish death drone dealer Trepaneringsritualen, and then this one, the years in the works Yksityisyys from Finnish dronescaper/sound sculptor No Xivic, who we had only heard before on a Drone Records single, but who here is give the space to flesh out his vision, a glorious, sprawling vision that includes field recordings, sampled machinery, mysterious voices, drones and textures, buried melodies. The tape starts off almost tranquil, with birdsong, and little else, evoking a summer day, but soon, black sonic clouds gather, a brooding dense thrum, that threatens to swallow the other sounds whole, atonal chords blurred into slow shifting swells, the sounds pocked with crackle and crunch, the vibe growing ever more ominous, the sound billowing outward, soon blotting out the sun, leaving everything in shadow. Chanted voices, droning organs, a grim swirl of dark sonic shimmer, which eventually settles into something even more bleak, a minimal foghorn like rumble, beneath the sound of rainfall, or perhaps traffic on rain slicked streets, foot steps, the vibe urban and industrial, that heavin wall of low end rumble surfacing again and again, threatening to crash down violently, but instead, fading out, leaving just footsteps, that seem to be walking into darkness, the surrounding sounds again, growing more and more threatening, and the field recordings, less recognizable as human, hissings and buzzings, all blurring into something truly torturous, but yet rife with some sort of melodic melancholy, lurking most often just below the surface. The whole tape is a series of sonic set pieces, musical renderings of lost places, the sort no human should dare tread, a place that one can not find, but a place that finds you, and lures you to your doom, and by playing this tape, the listener seems to be slowly sinking into whatever black horrors lurk on the other side.
Ultra minimal packaging, just a purple tape, with silver printing, housed in a clear plastic case, no art, no J-card. And like the other Merzbild tape, EXTREMELY LIMITED.
Neil Gust (the non-Elliott Smith half of the still under-appreciated Heatmiser) returns to prove that Elliott Smith wasn't the only thing that made Heatmiser so great. Beautiful, understated pop songs, catchy, and moving... Certainly for fans of Elliott Smith / Heatmiser (duh), Quasi, etc... Highly recommended!
Neil Gust and co. return with their second full length. While their debut No Memory from 2000 was an impressive collection of lovely, emotive, pop songs that got the thumbs up around AQ, this album falls a little short of that mark. Not a bad album by any means, but pales in comparison to its predecessor. It's alternately more rocked-up and more twangy, and a bit less infectious. Full of crunchy guitars and those classic college radio, sensitive male vocals. Check out their song "Traveling" and see if you agree... Bob Mould crossed with Elliott Smith? Yeah, I know it's easy to compare Gust with his former Heatmiser bandmate, but the similarities do exist. Heck, that group boasted a triad of amazingly talented songwriters (Quasi's Sam Coomes being the third point in the triumvirate). So it is a bit surprising and equally disappointing that this sophomore release for No.2 is less than stellar.
After years of desperately tracking down bootlegs, of ordering low quality cd-r's on eBay, of watching grainy YouTube clips and lamenting the ridiculous dearth of proper recordings, we're so happy that Bear Family has finally stepped up to give this country shoulda-been-superstar his due. But before we get into it, and before all you country haters skip to the next review, give the samples below a listen, specifically "Psycho", which gives this collection its title, easily one of the best country songs EVER. Certainly the most twisted and misanthropic. The story of the song's singer, singing to his mama, about how he killed his ex, her new beau, the dog, their son, the little girl next door (with a wrench by the way!), the song culminating in the realization that the singer was singing the whole time to his dead mother, who we can only assume he also killed. WTF?? But beyond being creepy and a little bit demented, it's also a gorgeous song, the guitar playing understated and perfect, the vocals heartfelt and dramatic, the song laced with all manner of little sonic filigree, it's hard for us to envision a more perfect country song. Sure there were plenty of murder ballads before, but this one takes the cake. But then there's the follow up, "Dolores", which finds the singer crooning to his wife, suggesting that she stay in the house, because there's a killer wandering the streets murdering women, and apparently Dolores is just the sort of woman he preys on, and again, at the end of the song, the singer is called to identify the body, not realizing that he killed his wife, and ending with him chastising his deceased wife, if only she had stayed inside. Crazy stuff, even now, but back in the day, this stuff was even more shocking. And while the majority of Eddie Noack's music wasn't nearly so demented, those two songs, "Psycho" especially, ended up being the songs he was mostly remembered for.
Which is a shame too, cuz he could have / should have been a country superstar, he wrote hits for Hank Snow (whose Omni reissue we reviewed a while back), all sorts of big country names recorded his songs, Lefty Frizell, Bob Wills, Ernest Tubb, his songs are AMAZING, and heck, he didn't even actually write "Psycho", but his is most definitely THEE definitive version, sadly, like many of the country greats, Noack's story is a sad one, and one that is explored in great detail in the liner notes (like all Bear Family reissues, the booklet is massive, like reading a mini book!), besides the usual hard luck story of general bad luck, constantly being at the wrong place at the wrong time, and success so close he could taste it, constantly just outside his grasp, there was of course problems with alcohol, which eventually led to him drinking himself to death, not to mention that BOTH his fourth wife and his mother committed suicide by shooting themselves in the heart. Wow, heavy stuff. And yet, he persevered, working in the song-poem industry (can you imagine having had Eddie Noack turn your poem into a song?!?!), eventually recording tons of tracks for a succession of tiny labels, and amongst those in the know, becoming a country / honky tonk icon. There is another Bear Family collection released recently, that focuses on his early tracks (which we can order for you if you like, it's a triple cd so it's kinda extra pricey), but this is the one that collects our favorite songs, the ones he recorded for K-Ark and Allstar in the mid to late sixties, and which of course include both "Psycho" and "Dolores". Yet as much as we love those songs, and those two tracks are ABSOLUTELY worth the price of admission alone, there's so much other great stuff here. Folks who collect Omni reissues, this easily could have been one of the best Omni reissues, in fact, we meant to email Omni, and try to get them to do a Noack compilation, cuz again, this is some of the best country music EVER. Besides "Psycho" and "Dolores", there's "Invisible Stripes" which is a fantastic song, but was the B-side to "Psycho" and thus got a little overshadowed. There's "Barbara Joy" which is another gem, and another track with morbid lyrics, sung, we can only assume from a man on death row, accused of rape, asking his mistress to admit that she was a willing participant in their tryst, to save him from death. Wow. But on the surface, it's pure classic country. And so it goes, the Johnny Cash like "Cotton Mill", the mournful ballad "The End Of The Line", plus lots of drinking songs of course, "Sleeping Like A Baby (With A Bottle In My Mouth)", "Beer Drinkin' Blues", not to mention some early tracks that feature Noack's song poem work, and even the songs the liner notes admit to not being so good, are in fact pretty great. But really, come for the "Psycho", the "Dolores", the "Barbara Joy", and stay for the rest. We were SO excited that there was finally a proper Eddie Noack collection, and we've been listening to nothing but. And even if country's not your thing, know that over the years, "Psycho" has been covered by all sorts of folks, including Elvis Costello and the Cramps! Noack's songs (and his cover of "Psycho" especially) almost transcending genre, classic twisted songsmithery, that has made some of these songs obsessions of ours for years!
The Bear Family packaging is fantastic, housed in a full color digipak, with a huge booklet affixed to the inside, tons of rare photos, interviews, lyrics, and creepy new artwork by artist Reinhard Kleist, on the cover, and inside, illustrating both "Psycho" and "Dolores". So totally and utterly recommended. Reissue of the year hands down!!!
Oh, and if you're a vinyl only type, well, this just on cd, but we do also have a tiny, tiny handful of the Eddie Noack 7" single that Bear Family put out along with this, featuring "Psycho" on the A side and "Dolores" on the flip, just FYI.
We mentioned in the past that EM records just might be our favorite new record label. They also have pretty much clinched the title of MOST CONFUSINGLY ECLECTIC RECORD LABEL EVER. Their catalog is massive, but even just looking at only the discs we've reviewed so far, your head will spin and your ears will spew smoke just like those old cartoons. Let's see, so far we've got freaked out sixties free jazz, musical saws, space age exotica, cut up tape birdsong symphonies, bizarre seventies psychedelic krautrock (from the USA), lost Australian dub, experimental tape music and of course MORE AND MORE SAWS. What the heck is it with the musical saw? EM Records (and Japanese music fans in general) seem to have an inordinate love of the singing saw.
It's easy to see why though. A high keening lonesome wail that imbues whatever music it's accompanying with a ghostly, old timey, dreamlike, melancholy vibe. This record from the bizarrely named Noahlewis' Mahlon Taits is not some recently discovered, unearthed 78 rpm record from the thirties or forties, some dusty old scratched up slab of wax, stashed in the bottom of an old trunk in the basement of some house in the country for the last 8 decades. Although it does definitely sound like it. Nope. Noahlewis' Mahlon Taits are a modern ensemble, channeling musical ghosts and sonic spirits through an eclectic array of old time instruments, weaving, dreamlike, otherworldly soundscapes of old time jazz and slow smoldering ballads, warm and warbly, just like listening to some scratchy old 78, but performed live.
Brings to mind the band on some doomed ocean liner, the bar band at that mysterious bar at the end of the world. People are sitting in corners, heads held low in dark booths, couples slow dancing, a row of regulars slouched over the bar. Very cinematic and atmospheric. Flutes and violas, guitar, accordion, piano, cello, shuffling jazz drums, banjo and ukulele, and of course musical saw. The fiddles creak and keen, pianos tinkle, the cellos and violas weave soft fluttering backgrounds, melodies are dimly lit and drift wraithlike through the smoky jazzscapes, there are even a few moments of blurping jug music, but above it all is the singing saw. Its haunting theremin-like siren song soaring one moment, whispering and shimmering the next. So totally lovely. Six Pieces For Dancing immediately transports you to another time, another world, it's like stepping into some old tattered photograph, straightening your ascot and top hat, handing the doorman your cane and overcoat, grabbing a drink and heading out to the dancefloor, just as the band in the corner starts up again. So cool!
Up until now, we'd managed to hear very little from electronic soundscaper / audio experimentalist Lee Noble, but we definitely liked everything we heard, but this will be the first LN release to make it on the aQ list, which in some ways is perfect, as it's not a split, but instead a collaboration with aQ faves Ensemble Economique, aka Brian Pyle, from another aQ fave The Starving Weirdos. It's a perfect collaboration, in that it's impossible to tell exactly who is contributing what, and while the lush, organic, near cinematic sounds here do display shades of EE, Motion Forever expands on those sounds with Noble and Pyle crafting swoonsome swirls of Caretaker-esque shimmer, and Jeck like turntable ministrations, everything woozy and warbly, a nocturnal drift that gives way to some creepy skeletal lo-fi pop, laced with plaintive vox and detuned strum, all atop a layer of electronic buzz. A mysterious strain of slowcore that gradually disappears in a cloud of warm thrum, draped in tinkling chime like melodies, before returning to the Jeck / Caretaker like skeletal balladry of the opening few minutes.
The flipside introduces muted rhythms, beneath softly swirling synths, and over distant soft focus drones, all laid back and dreamily druggy. Strange samples surface throughout, the sound shifting into something much more dirgey and almost new wave sounding, haunting and otherworldly, with processed vox and distorted piano pound, a ghostly, spectral electronic dirgepop finale that is as good as anything we've heard from either participants!
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!!
The latest project from SUNNO)))'s Stephen O'Malley comes in the form of this explosive psychedelic drum/guitar duo, recorded live in 2010, and while we hadn't heard of Noble before this, we had definitely HEARD him, as he's a member of Aethenor, along with O'Malley, and is a UK improviser of some repute, as well as apparently having played on no fewer than NINE(!) releases on the Bo Weavil label.
St Francis Duo definitely serves as a fantastic (re)introduction to Noble, at least to Noble as mainman, right out of the gate, we're barraged with an onslaught of tribal toms, and thick clouds of cymbal sizzle, a sound that even sans O'Malley, sounds like it would be HUGE and dense and powerful. But O'Malley just adds to the chaos, ditching the slow and low droneguitar of SUNNO))) in favor of some full on Keiji Haino-esque psych-noise fury, the first couple minutes a veritable avalanche of guitar buzz octopoidal drum sputter, before settling into something much more restrained and rhythmic, Noble still impossibly busy, laying a framework of jazzy skitter which O'Malley unfurls warm swells of dark twang and muted thrum, the rest of the track more a showcase for Noble, with O'Malley painting a blackened blurred backdrop for a relentless fury of cascading rhythms and fragmented grooves, furious fills and a track long drum solo. But somehow it all manages to be super mesmerizing.
The other three tracks (each a sidelong epic) tend toward a similar sound, blissed out and brooding, with Noble doing most of the heavy lifting, whether it's hypnotic grooves, or abstract jazzy stutter, or dizzying blowouts of wild drum damage, O'Malley though the perfect foil, his guitar rumbling ominously one second, grinding and shredding wildly the next, spitting out jagged shards of atonal melody before slipping into some almost straight ahead riffage, before splintering and devolving into another tangled woozy melodic meltdown.
There are a few moments, where the two lock tight and approach something akin to a Necks like mesmer, and other times where they sound like a facemelting noiserock band, or some classic freeform Japanese psych combo, but in-between, the two seem to build epic psychedelic improv constructs, only so they can tear them down again, reveling in both parts of the process, and managing to make both the ascent and descent, equally compelling.
For fans of heavy free psych, chaotic drum heavy free jazz and abstract improvised noiserock.
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If you've dug the songs of Hunx & His Punx, chances are you are a Nobunny fan even if you didn't know it, as he's the masked man responsible for writing most of the music for Hunx over the last few years. Besides giving musical inspiration to his friend Hunx, Nobunny has been a busy dirty garage pop peddler of his own. His raw and feisty live shows have become legendary, and with First Blood he's crafted his most immediate and catchy offering yet, with his trademark mixture of Cramps like grit, Ramones like bounce and Hasil Adkins outlaw garage prowess. We hope he's playing on Halloween as it would be so fun to all dress up like drunken bunnies and hop up and down to these songs in wasted and haunted delight.
Newest ep from this Greek black metal band. Limited and numbered to 600 copies and in a cool faux leather digipak. Epic and majestic black metal ala Emperor with a touch of Burzum-y primitveness. Buzzing mosquito guitars that gradually get heavier and
Debut record from this Greek black metal band of buzzing symphonic Empreror style black metal. Not quite as polished as their new ep, but there's something to be said for that. Blazing primitive metal, with huge epic keyboard parts, spacey droned out
If our review of Noctum's 2010 debut The Seance boiled down to saying this Swedish band's '70s-sounding Sabbath/Pentagram worship was definitely highly recommended to all Witchcraft fans ('cause it sounded a heck of a lot like aQ faves Witchcraft), then this time around, with their new album Final Sacrifice, we must recommend 'em to all fans of their new labelmates, In Solitude. 'Cause Noctum have added a BIG dose of Mercyful Fate to their sonic equation - which means, rather than Witchcraft, they now remind us more of In Solitude, or even Ghost. A lot of it has to do with the vocals, with their newfound wailing King Diamond-ish affectations (including the high falsetto, and horror story lyrics), which don't sound nearly as much like Magnus from Witchcraft as they used to. Instead, yeah, he sounds something like the guys from Ghost and In Solitude. There's also a Mercyful Fate riff or two hinted at in these songs for sure.
We don't want to accuse 'em of following trends, but have to admit it looks a little suspicious. In Solitude and Ghost, both displaying big Mercyful Fate influences, are of course two of Sweden's currently hippest/hottest hard rock exports right now, right? But it could just be a coincidence. And in any case, what does it matter? Nobody was accusing Noctum of being all that original in the first place. What's important, is, will you dig the tunes? And you will, if you like this sort of retro riffy occult metal action, a la In Solitude of course. Plus, Noctum DO still have plenty of the '70s/Sabbath/Witchcraft thing going on too, in fact, one song is progged out enough to feature flute, and it ends up being a pretty cool combo, Black Sabbath meets Mercyful Fate (or Witchcraft meets In Solitude), nothing wrong with that!! Also if you found the latest In Solitude to be "not metal enough" for you, this won't have that problem, they don't (yet) do the goth-rock thing. But they do mix in some possible other inspirations - there's a rollicking-ness to some of this that makes us think they've been listening to Southern/boogie rock like the Allman Brothers, Ram Jam or Pat Travers (!), and heck, any band that can make us reference both King Diamond and Ram Jam, we approve!
Woah. Witchcraft fans, listen up!! There's gotta be something supernatural in the water over there in Sweden, 'cause they've somehow conjured up ANOTHER band that channels the swinging riffage and occultic vibe of early '70s Sabbath (and Pentagram) so perfectly, a la Witchcraft. We had thought that Burning Saviours (RIP) were Witchcraft's closest doppelgangers, but these young guys do a damn good job of it too. Other bands in this vein include Graveyard, Horisont, Troubled Horse (well they're mostly all Witchcraft members, that one), and Dead Man... now add Noctum to that list and put 'em at the top! Not what we were expecting, with its cover art and logo, this looks a bit more like black metal, but these Swedes are definitely practicing an earlier form of witchcraft for this seance of theirs... Quite a nice surprise, if something that sounds so familiar can be called a surprise.
Probably if the singer didn't have that particular Swedish-accented lilt to his voice (all songs but one, "Den Onda Trollpackan", are sung in English), and did more of an overt Ozzy, we'd be calling 'em Sabbath clones (first 3 albums!) rather than Witchcraft ones, but the combination of Pentagram/Sabbath stylings and the emotive, melodic, sincere-sounding vocals definitely spell Witchcraft. (Though "Lucifer's Way" also reminds us of a song by heavy progressive krautrockers Dies Irae!).
We thought of trying to review this without playing up the Witchcraft-iness of it, but really, if you like Witchcraft (and who doesn't?) you'll find this a pleasure - and if you aren't yet into Witchcraft, you should probably start with one of their own albums anyway. Though this would do in a pinch! Sabbath fans, too, queue up. Noctum possess a very Iommi-ish guitar tone for sure. Goes great with their undeniably catchy, and heavy, riffs. Throw in crashing cymbals, bellbottomed lope, and urgent-sounding songwriting infused with portents of doom, and you've got something that's more authentically 1971 proto-metal than most things from 1971!
LIMITED to 500 numbered copies.
We've listed Noctum's The Seance previously, when it came out domestically on the Stormspell label, in 2010. Subsequently, the band put out a vinyl-only 12" ep on the High Roller label called The Fiddler, with two new songs and a Pentagram cover.
Unfortunately, we never were able to pick up any of those eps, but now the Swedish psych/prog label Transubstans has put out an import edition of The Seance that includes 2 of the 3 tracks from The Fiddler as a bonus! (They left off the Pentagram song.) So, if you missed this before, here's a bigger better version, and if you're a big fan, now's your chance to upgrade to this expanded edition...
What we said about the original limited edition Stormspell pressing:
Woah. Witchcraft fans, listen up!! There's gotta be something supernatural in the water over there in Sweden, 'cause they've somehow conjured up ANOTHER band that channels the swinging riffage and occultic vibe of early '70s Sabbath (and Pentagram) so perfectly, a la Witchcraft. We had thought that Burning Saviours (RIP) were Witchcraft's closest doppelgangers, but these young guys do a damn good job of it too. Other bands in this vein include Graveyard, Horisont, Troubled Horse (well they're mostly all Witchcraft members, that one), and Dead Man... now add Noctum to that list and put 'em at the top! Not what we were expecting, with its cover art and logo, this looks a bit more like black metal, but these Swedes are definitely practicing an earlier form of witchcraft for this seance of theirs... Quite a nice surprise, if something that sounds so familiar can be called a surprise.
Probably if the singer didn't have that particular Swedish-accented lilt to his voice (all songs but one, "Den Onda Trollpackan", are sung in English), and did more of an overt Ozzy, we'd be calling 'em Sabbath clones (first 3 albums!) rather than Witchcraft ones, but the combination of Pentagram/Sabbath stylings and the emotive, melodic, sincere-sounding vocals definitely spell Witchcraft. (Though "Lucifer's Way" also reminds us of a song by heavy progressive krautrockers Dies Irae!).
We thought of trying to review this without playing up the Witchcraft-iness of it, but really, if you like Witchcraft (and who doesn't?) you'll find this a pleasure - and if you aren't yet into Witchcraft, you should probably start with one of their own albums anyway. Though this would do in a pinch! Sabbath fans, too, queue up. Noctum possess a very Iommi-ish guitar tone for sure. Goes great with their undeniably catchy, and heavy, riffs. Throw in crashing cymbals, bellbottomed lope, and urgent-sounding songwriting infused with portents of doom, and you've got something that's more authentically 1971 proto-metal than most things from 1971!
...So, pretty awesome, and now even better, with bonus tracks "The Fiddler" and "The Serpent Bride" both pretty groovy, bringing the cowbell and sounding like Led Zep was as much an influence as Sabbath.
One of two records on this week's list from a man called Avenger, who is probably most familiar to longtime readers of the aQ list as the mastermind behind stumbling surf-guitar flecked outsider black metal weirdos Varghkoghargasmal, whose 'wooden metal' is a twisted mash up of surf guitars, woozy warbly organs, black metal atmosphere and motorik almost krautrock rhythms, and whose only proper full length, Drowned In Lakes, was released on our own Andee's tUMULt label.
But Avenger is an old school black metal thrasher at heart, as is evidenced by these two other projects, the creepy blackened doom of Black Priest Of Satan, reviewed elsewhere on this week's list, and this, a collection of early demos from Nocturnal, Avengers's old school thrash outfit that is pretty much everything a thrashing maniac could ask for, buzzing brittle riffs, galloping riffs, harsh demonic vokills, with the occasional falsetto scream, the songs impossibly catchy, the riffs killer, frantic and frenetic, raw and loose and sloppy and chaotic, all of which only adds to the feel and the vibe and the mood. Not hard to imagine that this is some killer cassette from the mid eighties. Shades of Destruction, Bathory, Nifelheim, Abigail and the like.
The Thrash With The Devil ep from 2002 which starts things off is the more polished of the two, the band sounding heavy and thrashy and a little bit modern, still classic thrash for sure, and easily putting to shame the majority of thrash revivalists out there. Both with song AND sound, but it's the Rites Of The Black Mass demo from 2001 that is the gem, here, super raw and twisted, the drums weirdly produced and buried in the mix, the guitars brittle and jagged, the vocals a strange raspy bellow, also down in the mix, and blurred into what sounds more like a series of droned out demonic exhalations, the riffs super tranced out, the sound murky and muddy and seriously grim and evil, so good!Essential underground black thrash, classic sounding enough for the true metal obsessives, but just warped enough for the rest of us.
Oh yeah, best part of the liner notes: "The guitar solo part in 'Welcome To Your Death' should be viewed as an expression of total fear and despair of a victim which looks into the merciless face of its killer!"
You would be right to be skeptical of Nocturnal Emissions, as the long standing project has released a handful of duds amidst a catalogue of mediocre records. HOWEVER, the one exception is Drowning In A Sea Of Bliss, which is not only the best Nocturnal Emissions record, but also one of the most brutal, abrasive pieces of industrial electronics ever, alongside the best that SPK and TG produced back in the day and certainly providing a template for the caustic electro-shock treatments of Wolf Eyes, Prurient, UW Owl, and the like.
Drowning In A Sea Of Bliss originally came out on lp in 1983 through Nocturnal Emissions' own Sterile Records and was later reissued by Touch, first on cassette and then on cd in the early '90s. At the time, Nocturnal Emissions was the British duo of Nigel Ayers and Caroline K, the former of whom has helmed the project since the late '80s on his own veering into soft-focus ambient and questionable electronica. Nocturnal Emissions was always much better when Ayers had his foil in Caroline K, although the division of labor was always a bit murky. This album had been envisioned as a vinyl release. with two distinct sides - one being a series of audio collages of overblown noise, distorted media cut-ups, tape loops, and primitive electronics, and the second girded to a series of minimal-wave rhythms with plenty of noise bursts and dead-eyed tonalities. For better or for worse, the two cd reissues of the album have not broken up the album into individual tracks (which are listed in the liner notes), but instead present each side of the lp as a single continuous track. We had hoped that Klanggalerie would remedy this, but alas, the problem remains. That said, this minor quibble doesn't detract from the brutal power of this album, with the first half being what Cabaret Voltaire should have done with all of their Burroughs' inspired cut-ups. Here, maniacal loops of analog distortion and piercing screams corrode into sharply rendered bursts of noise and plenty of deconstructed samples from military commercials and news clippings. The second half is no less blackened, but is far more clinical with the primitive electronic rhythms actually getting sort of groovy from time to time, even as shards of searing noise burst forth. Think early Coil or Fad Gadget. Fucking incredible is what this is.
If there's one Nocturnal Emissions record you should get, this is the one.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Nocturnal Emissions has been active since the late 70s and has gone through dozens of aesthetic changes, under the watchful ear of ringleader Nigel Ayers. "Energy Exchange" was originally released in 1991 on Ayers' label Earthly Delights to document a handful of their live recordings. At this time in Nocturnal Emissions' history, the band was engaged in a blissful yet esoteric ambience heavily influenced by the seminal ambient recordings from Brian Eno. On a few of these tracks, members of the anonymous collective :Zoviet France: make appearances. The cd version features three bonus tracks which didn't appear on the out of print vinyl.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
New Zealanders Peter and Graeme Jefferies (Cake Kitchen, 2 Foot Flame, etc etc etc) circa 1981-83.
Managed to dig up two copies of this fantastically strange record, a concept record about Doctor Mabuse, the main character from Norbert Jacques' infamous novel, here rendered in sound, as a sprawling bit of cinematic ambience, equal parts post industrial drift, avant soundcollage, psychedelic samplescape and freeform radio play. Warm drones, mysterious martial percussion, lots of sampled German voices, rumbling distorted low end, bursts of blown out Merzbowian crunch, ominous cavernous thrum, layered loops and blurred samples, like the score to some mysterious lost German art film. So mysterious and creepy and weirdly beautiful.
We have just TWO copies of this. The cd is packaged in a full color gatefold sleeve, which is then housed in a full color 7" style jacket, includes various inserts AND a bonus cd-r with two extra tracks. Cool!
Ever wonder what sort of depraved and demented home movies might be the result of a prurient glimpse into the private life of Darkthrone's Nocturno Culto? Well, wonder no more. But be prepared to be disappointed, at least if all you're looking for is lots of metal and blood and mayhem. The opening scene pretty much sets the tone, a light hearted bit of ice fishing, with NC and Grutle from Enslaved, as they lay on the ice and dangle tiny little poles over a hole cut in the ice, not wearing spikes or leather, but instead the best Northface has to offer. Nocturno Culto even kisses the first fish he catches.
And so it goes, a meandering journey through the life of Nocturno Culto, sure there's plenty of metal, the score is all Darkthrone tracks (a few Aura Noir tunes here and there) and droning ambience composed by NC for the film, but it's interspersed with plenty of light hearted fun, slow sweeping images of the vast and untamed beauty of Norway, and all sorts of other random bits and pieces. Darkthrone fans will NEED this obviously, not just for the amazing rehearsal footage, with Fenriz complaining about the price of cymbals (hasn't bought a new one in 13 years) and the duo setting up in a little rec room style basement complete with flowered drapes and Iron Maiden poster, their primitive lo-fi buzz interspersed with amazing shots of them wandering through snowy forests, but for a private glimpse into a world and country that are wreathed in mystery and that most metal folks only experience filtered through black buzz or smeared corpsepaint. As fun as it is to get lost in the drama and showmanship, it's equally interesting to experience what life as a musician in Norway must be like, and how living amidst forests and fjords, snow and sky, informs the music we've come to love so much.
Besides the rehearsal footage, some of the highlights include: gorgeous footage of waterfalls and autumn forests, overlaid with ghostly images of the band, all to the strains of Darkthrone's buzzing grimness, complete with subtitles so you can finally understand the words, some hanging out with an old man who used to be a circus performer and his constantly barking dog, Aura Noir signing their recording contract, on a table in front of a wall full of nailed up antlers, followed by a very quiet repast of smoking and drinking... and playing Chinese checkers, a trip to Japan for Peter Beste's black metal photo show opening, featuring Nocturno Culto and Aaron from Iran playing a Kodo drummer video game, and crusty heartthrobs Gallhammer!!! We're even more crushed out if that were even possible. Some killer live footage as well as photo sessions, the Aura Noir record release party, backstage boredom, onstage mayhem, in a tiny club complete with those grade school acoustical tiles not more than a foot or two overhead, some footage of the downtime in the studio during the recording of Sardonic Wrath, a record label meeting, that takes place on a hillside around a campfire... and then a graveyard, and loads more. It's very abstract, a bit arty, but eminently watchable. Sometimes dark and bleak, other times sort of goofy and laid back, usually we tend to reach for the remote and skip around, but this The Misanthrope had us watching the whole thing end to end. And made us want to listen to nothing but Darkthrone!
Extras on the first disc include a gallery of stills (or not-so-stills, as the pictures tend to shift and shimmer with the aid of some strange video effect), set to some dizzying Darkthrone tuneage, some amazing old old old footage of Darkthrone, 2 killer tracks from way back, the band looking like they're all of 12 years old (which they probably are), as well as the 'video' for "Too Old Too Cold" which almost plays like a mini version of the movie, graveyards, forests, and plenty of headbanging...
Also included is a bonus second disc, a cd featuring all new music composed by NC specifically for the film, lots of rumbling crumbling dark ambience, all the haunting mood music from the movie. Spacey and abstract, creepy and shimmering, droney and dark, some of it pulsing and ethereal like some lost Tangerine Dream track, a few tracks super abstract guitarscapes, one track, a totally demented metal jam, with ultra processed guitars, tangled leads and goofy distorted vocals, but most of it is some seriously bleak and strangely lovely ambient minimalism....
Packaged in an oversized dvd style cd superjewel case with a big booklet of liner notes and photos, including one in which Darkthrone and Aura Noir are posed in the woods, snarling and brandishing what appear to be magazines and fireplace tools. Awesome.
All region, NTSC.
Reissued Florida death metal classic. Back in '90 when this first came out, Nocturnus were pioneers in the use of keyboards in metal. Nowadays everybody uses keys (that's the basis of the whole black metal thing ain't it? Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir,
Another fun outing of scrappy Jonathan Richman inspired stripped down garage pop from these local boys.
Man we wanted to rave on and on about Nodzzz's amazing single "I Don't Wanna Smoke (Marijuana)" possibly the catchiest song of 2008 but sadly the 7" went out of print before we could ever get our hands on it. But luckily these San Francisco garage popsters have this great new 12" out to fulfill our Nodzzz fix. Refreshingly energetic and punk in spirit, Nodzzz craft super catchy rudimentary garage pop that's equal parts sassy and bratty. With hints of Jonathan Richman's bravado and charisma along with shots of inspiration from the smarter side of garage rock as well as obscure new wave bands who we imagine the band collects tons of rare vinyl from. We're excited to see what the future holds for Nodzzz.
Ex-Empyrium guy doing proggy metal.
We've seen some pretty elaborate and unique packaging come through the store over the years, but this delicate and exquisitely hand made affair by local songstress Leyna Noel is really in a league of its own. She hand made each sleeve which comes in antique linen that she sewed individually and stitched shut, inside the lyrics and liner notes are printed on ledger paper from 1945. So much love and work went into making these lovely looking cd's that we almost didn't want to have to cut one open to listen to it. But luckily this is one of those great cases where the labor and visual aesthetic perfectly captures the warm and intimate songs contained inside.
From The Mouth of The Jar opens with the richest sounding Hammond organ and then Leyna takes the mic and matches that wave of warmth with her strong and gorgeous voice. With rich instrumentation throughout provided by Leyna and a cast of her comrades including members of Viking Moses, this is music that really is a step above most of the recent singer songwriter/folk sounds, never forgetting that it takes spirit and passion to make a song soar, and Leyna's songs ooze with so much genuine soul. Her delivery and arrangements conjure images of kindred spirits like Joanna Newsom, Edith Frost, Mira Billote (White Magic) and Cat Power. A record that really is like someone sharing with you an honest and thoughtful part of themselves, a feeling for you to cherish as you walk by their side, your spirit warmed by the true comfort they exude. The amount of time and work it took to construct these is baffling and needless to say there is a very small run of them so grab one while you can!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Wow! We haven't heard from Noggin in forever. This guitar and violin duo have been kicking up a storm for years now. More than a decade! The last time we had a record from these guys it was before there was even an AQ list! But we loved 'em. They even played an instore at the old store on 24th Street. And they weren't your average free noise duo, even back in the day. Eric O. on guitar, scrabbling and scraping and creating some glorious chaos, and Michael G. who was probably already in his late fifties or early sixties when Noggin played at AQ on violin, so now... in 2006... WOW. The definitive elder statesman of North Western Noise for sure!! you might also remember Michael from his stint playing violin in the killer aggro-post-punk rock combo Behead The Prophet No Lord Shall Live.
So what's the modern day Noggin all about? Pretty much exactly what they were all about 10 years ago. An angular scrapescape, a tangled web of Derek Bailey, Hans Reichel, Lee Ranaldo and Keith Rowe, like a table full of household objects and broken steel strings and fried amps, but all stuffed into a single guitar. A throbbing, angular, rasping. clanging swirl of drone and clatter, with the processed violin, slithering and squealing, keening and braying, and sometimes even scraping right alongside the guitar. A glorious burst of unfettered instrumental deconstruction, playful and wild, dark and deliriously damaged. Cool stuff.
Packaged in a mini 3" jewel case and as with all Jyrk stuff super limited, in this case...
LIMITED TO 150 COPIES!!!!
Our pal Weasel Walter (of tUMULt recording artists Hatewave, also the Flying Luttenbachers, as well as a million other noisy projects) recently wrote about this Noh Mercy reissue on his ugEXPLODE blog (weaselwalter.blogspot.com). We knew we couldn't really do a better job reviewing it, so we just asked Weasel if we could use his write up, and he was nice enough to say yes. So, take it away, Weasel:
Archival releases springing forth headily from bygone eras somehow make me infinitely more excited than anything being released from the present morass of overkill we currently endure. At the risk of sounding like a moldy fig, there are many elements missing from much of today's music in terms of what I want to hear. Punk came during the Seventies and said "Everyone can do it!" Unfortunately, everyone did it and now one has to dig even harder and longer to find contemporary jewels in this all-encompassing, instantly accessible, post-categorized modern mess.
Noh Mercy were a female duo based in San Francisco during the late Seventies. Their music is powerfully minimal, most often stripped-down to the barest elements of voice and drums, sometimes peppered with raw keyboards or guitar. Anyone familiar with this obscure group probably knew them from a pair of iconoclastic tracks appearing on the murky, elusive Earcom 3 double seven inch compilation on UK post-punk imprint Fast Product Records. The brazenly succinct assault entitled "Caucasian Guilt" from that record featured a panache and solidity which set it apart from the more atavistic musical standard of their New York No Wave counterparts; vocalist Esmerelda's vitriol showed impressive subtlety and range matching the kinetic, precise drum tattoos of co-conspirator Tony Hotel. This was a band as truly talented as they were weird.
The 2012 archival Noh Mercy release on Superior Viaduct begins with "Caucasian Guilt" and includes the other Earcom comp track ("Revolutionary Spy"), eight never-before-heard tracks from the same July 1979 session as well as four stunning live cuts from an August 1979 concert. The studio tracks were recorded in a basement, but they are appealingly transparent and unadorned, revealing the naked focus of the duo's performances. These ten tracks are based on raw invention, not production. Modern bands should take heed of this: ideas before technology. This is why the old shit sounds so good, folks.
After four tracks of the expected drum/vocal duets (including an amusing deconstruction of the Lennon/McCartney chestnut "Girl"), the throbbing "Lines" arrives as a refreshing contrast with Esmerelda essaying coldly over outbursts of percussive slide guitar racket and sour synthesizer. The following "Bloodhound Blues" is built on a foundation of jazzy tom-tom drum figures and squishy, phased keyboard chords. It is formally traditional in many ways, allowing the passionate vocals to run rampant. Unlike many New Wave poseurs of the time, Esmerelda could really belt out a tune with serious confidence. The melodramatic vocals are impossible to miss and her performances here are intense and colorful. "Cross The Line" and "The Meek Shall Inherit The Mess" continue in the fuller sounding, keyboard drenched mode, while "The Meek . . ." incorporates odd rhythmic meters and tempo changes that reveal musical ambition pushing beyond the other tracks in the "studio" set.
Anyone buying the vinyl version will miss out hard by not getting the four killer live tracks included only on the cd version. The other day I heard a clerk at a record store tell somebody wryly that "vinyl is back." Really? What I see is mindless clones paying 30 bucks for lame back-catalog bullshit that used to be in the dollar bin for decades before this dubious "revival" began. I can't believe how much money people are paying for this shit because they've been told "vinyl is back." Whatever. Congratulations, record industry. You have found a new wave of materialistic lemmings to wallet-rape. I guess, you know, records are, uh, "bigger" or whatever, so, go for it. All I know is I get to savor the frigidly perfect cd audio with the bonus tracks in my lonely little dungeon, sans all the pops and clicks and "warmth" some of you will inflict on yourselves in the dubious name of analog purity.
"Furious" kicks off the quartet of live tracks in a deranged, stop-start construction of barely-contained lyrical outrage and keyboard noise. The oddly idealistic anti-bouncer screed "Storm The Stage" ("...And those dudes with the flashlights/Yelling 'Stay in your seat'/Knock 'em out of your way/Kick 'em with your feet/'Cuz you'll be on that stage!") bubbles along amusingly without drums, Hotel manning an aquatically phased guitar in addition to vocals and keyboards. "Wicked Sister" and "Ode To Frances Farmer" operate vaguely within the same repetitive/motorik realm as beloved period LA synth-punks The Screamers, but once again Esmerelda's impressive pipes outclass the competition on the former while the vividly catchy dissonance of the latter instrumental is compositionally distinctive on its own terms.
Noh Mercy hit the skids and went their separate ways by 1980 without releasing a proper album. This great release expands the group's reputation quite ably with careful audio mastering/restoration of the old master tapes and a beautiful layout featuring great photos, liner notes and lyrics. Anyone interested in the top tier of so-called "post-punk" bands needs to run to this release post-haste.
We'd just about given up Caspar Brotzmann for dead, fearing we'd never hear his distinctive, heavier-than-thou, Teutonic guitar skronk on a new recording ever again. 1999's Mute Massaker was the last we'd heard from him, for years and years. But then we learned that he blew apart the Green Room at Roadburn 2011, with a reactivated incarnation of his group Massaker. Wish we'd been there! Rumors of other recent shows surfaced as well. So hopes were up that something more would be forthcoming from Caspar & Co., presumably a new Massaker album. Instead, it turns out he's now formed a brand new band, called Nohome - but once again it's a power trio, with another precision rhythm section backing up the axe-wielding Brotzmann's amplifier worship. Massaker again, essentially, in all but name.
For some of you, who were fans of Caspar Brotzmann back in the '90s, when he was THEE heavy "out" guitar god, like an avant-garde Jimi Hendrix (or better, yet Uli Jon Roth!), his band easily as heavy as the Melvins, well, you have been waiting for this album since 1999! And for those just being introduced to Brotzmann now, Nohome does it really well, and ought to make you into a rabid fan looking for his out of print early works - that is, if you enjoy apocalyptic feedback-sculpting guitar riffage that sounds like a jet engine in a wind tunnel (but captivatingly so, for those in the mood!). Keiji Haino fans, have you met Caspar?
For Nohome, Caspar has enlisted two musicians from Switzerland, drummer Michael Wertmuller and bassist Marino Pliakas, who happen to also play in a group called Full Blast with a famous hard blowing European free jazz titan - guess who? That'd be Caspar's dad, saxophonist Peter Brotzmann. Those Swiss sidemen are no slouches - Wertmuller (ex-Alboth!) in particular stands out, his drumming especially insane & impressive - and ol' Caspar hasn't lost a step either. He even still looks more or less the same as we remember, the handsome devil.
While Full Blast is "jazz" and Nohome is closer to "rock", both are improvisational, and it'd be hard to determine which was the most "extreme"; but where papa Brotzmann indeed blasts on his sax, his son wails more like an early warning siren, heralding sonic armaggedon.
The four long instrumental pieces here were recorded live in concert in Berlin, last summer. The moody drone of Caspar's howling guitar is matched by the agitated seismic rumble of the rhythm section - making it almost superflous that also guesting on two of the tracks is Caspar's pal, F.M. Einheit, from industrialists Einsturzende Neubauten (he of course plays "steel" - you can see him pictured on the back cover with a giant metal spring). The cataclysmic just gets cataclysmic-ier!
Let's hope it's not another 14 years before we get another record out of Caspar Brotzmann, though this one will be ringing in our ears for quite a while in any case!!
Is a fresh wave cresting of bands heavily inspired by Brian Wilson and The Beatles and maybe some E.L.O. too (who themselves were obviously very influenced likewise)? Yup, sure seems so. Picking up the psych-tinged pop baton from the likes of Olivia Tremor Control, Flaming Lips and Apples In Stereo is one particular young Mancunian named Jim Noir. As yummy as this Tower Of Love is -- utterly dreamy and creamy with sparkly bits -- it's hard to ignore the fact that many guitar licks, vocal harmonies and melodic passages are outright pickpocketed from the abovementioned bands. But you know what? Who cares? Noir manages to take the borrowed bits and whip them into something if not new, at least really catchy and fun to listen to. There is also a weird murky production element at play, that when listening to this at home, had us occasionally feeling like we were hearing music seeping through the floor from the apartment downstairs. Which gives Noir's pop goodness a distinctly droney (and to us quite pleasing) aftertaste.
For fans of all of the above as well as Kings Of Convenience and The Shins too.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Teenager Ben Lee from Australia.
One of four new releases from Germany's Drone records. This one from the new to us group Noise Dreams Machina. And their name does not lie, especially the Noise part, as this is definitely some noisy business, especially for the more often droney and dreamy Drone records. Right out of the gate a growling super distorted wall of crumbling feedback and blown out electronics, churning and roiling and throbbing until it finally gives way to something slightly more subdued and muted, but still managing to be subtly noisy and intense. The track transforms into a constantly shifting swirl of sonic chaos, often so in the red it seems to seize up, clog the speaker, before lurching back into skipping stuttery noise. Right near the end of the A side it gets all rhythmic like a symphony of skipping digital clicks.
The flipside is much more serene, deep and shimmery, barring a brief squall of glitched out digital damage right up front. The track drifts abstractly from whispery hiss to muted thrum to washed out buzz and back again, never getting as fierce or as fucked up as the A side, but somehow managing to imbue its dark drone with plenty of noisy menace.
Packaged in a thick, black and white sleeve, pressed on clear vinyl, with a grey cardstock insert, and a first edition LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!
First we've heard from the appropriately named Noise Nomad, a mysterious horde who traffic in primitive electronics and avant noise rock. Like an even more Neanderthal Man Is The Bastard but without the basses, or like some�sort of damaged tribal Silver Apples, but way more lo-fi and fucked up.
Wild squalls of Lost In Space electronics and FX, stumbling pounding unhinged chaotic drumming, creating some sort of crumbling framework for the pulsing alien high end skree happening in the foreground. Within this stumbling static soundscape of caveman thud and abstract electronics, lurk lots of other little sonic mysteries, that flit and flutter just below the surface, but it's all about the dueling drums and FX that will either melt your brain or send you drifting off into some gloriously damaged trancelike state.�
Super limited of course, and packaged in cool two color silk screened covers.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Dedicated fans of Japan's Boredoms will guess that with a name like "Noise Ramones" this disc must in fact be a Boredoms side-project...and indeed it's the work of "Eye-Ramone" and "P-P-Ramone" (aka Eye and Yoshimi). And anybody will guess that with a name like "Noise Ramones" this is...noise! A la Eye's Hanatarash project in fact, but not as physical. High-pitched chattering electronics.
When the Siltbreeze label isn't digging up archival rarities from the golden age of New Zealand underground rock, they're still delivering plenty of modern day murk, including this dark and dingy gem from Johnny Noise, a member of Mexican garage dirge weirdos Los Llamarada (who we've somehow never reviewed on the aQ list before). His solo joint The Day Is Coming is a glorious sprawl of creeping sonic ooze, fuzzy primitive guitar gristle, motorik, robotic rhythms, a sort of slowed down psych rock, melting before your very ears into something sludgey and druggy, while Johnny's wasted croon drifts above in a cloud of hazy reverb and crumbling FX, sounding a bit like Suicide or Chrome by way of some sweaty, poorly ventilated dive bar, total DIY what-the-fuck drug-dirge, garage-punk, alien-psych weirdness of the highest order. Lots of the tracks unwind like freaky alternate universe karaoke blooze, others are dense tangles of experimental avant garage wooziness, and still others sound like homemade mad scientist caveman psych, bedroom-brewed, drug fueled, lo-fi, droned out and dementedly damaged. Fucked up and confusionally fantastic. WAY recommended for fans of weirdo outsider avant psychedelia, and twisted, experimental garage rock damage.
Includes a download code as well!
The amazing Drone Records label, run by Stefan Knappe of Maeror Tri / Troum, has been quietly releasing super limited, hand made slabs of gorgeous drone music for years now. Mostly 7", always vinyl (although there will soon be a 2cd collection of early out of print singles on Andee's tUMULt label), each disc an ultra personal exploration of the drone, sometimes soft and dreamlike, sometimes harsh and noisy, but always beautiful. Recently, Drone has launched a new series, 10"s this time, with a very complicated premise: "A concept that embraces the prospect of infinite possibilities for artists to create music about the intangible such as: the unnameable, the unspeakable, the unthinkable, the unidentifiable, etc. Various aspects related to "The Unknown". Sound artists and artwork designers were invited to work on the theme of the "grey matter" / the "dark continent" surrounding us & within us. Transforming this paradoxical idea into acoustic and visual objectifications." Phew. Pretty heady stuff. But these first three installments are up to the task, creating dark and disturbing and truly though provoking dronemusic. We can hardly weight for the rest of the series.
Third in this first batch of releases (along with Asia Nova and Daniel Menche) is the mysterious Belgian troop Noise-Makers Fifes. using homebuilt instruments and utilizing choreographed performances, NMF unleash, soft billowing clouds of glistening high end, minimal percussion, bird songs and outdoor ambience. Incorporating live recordings, the first side sounds like some mad sonic alchemist, performing all manner of mysterious and minimal sound rituals at the heart of the dark forest. Like a slightly more industrial Jewelled Antler. The B side is based on a series of field recordings of insects in Kenya and the result is a wide swath of ultra ambience, the sort of quiet music that truly requires deep listening. Occasionally sounds collide, and some bizarre reaction takes place causing the tranquility to buckle, a jagged upheaval os stuttering lurching glitchery, before drifting off again into near nothingness.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES. Pressed on cloudy clear swirled vinyl.
It's a little difficult to consider Noisegate a metal band. Although their live persona, which features lots of slow motion headbanging while they hold down various keys on their samplers, clearly gives reason to peg them as metallers, a careful
