Covers records can definitely be a cop out. They're easy, and fun, and who doesn't want to just jam out to their favorite tunes. But some covers records do transcend, whether it's song choice, theme, or those particular versions and interpretation, the right covers, played the right way, can be as good if not better than a band's records proper. Which makes sense as you're typically covering songs that are, at least to you, if not everyone, 'classics.'
Which brings us to When I See The Sun Always Shines On TV, which is in fact, a collection of covers, many of which might seem like super obvious choices. Which is okay, it's as if Nadja wanted to acknowledge their influences loudly and proudly in the face of folks who accuse them of ripping off some of these very same bands. And at least half of these tracks are actually by bands that we've compared Nadja to in past reviews. So we were sort of psyched to see how instead of infusing their own music with the influences of other bands, they might approach it the other way around, taking these songs and bands they love, and filtering them through their own sound. Alongside those obvious choices though are some totally out of left field choices, that on the surface seem to make no sense, but in the context of this collection fit perfectly, and when heard all buzzy and blissy and Nadja'd up, sometimes sound better than the originals.
The album opens with My Bloody Valentine's "Only Shallow", and Nadja make it their own, which is no small feat considering how iconic that main riff is, but heck, in the past we'v talked about how everything sounds better slower, well imagine that jam, slowed way down, and beefed WAY up, so what was already THEE shoegaze anthem of all time, is transformed into a lurching, heaving, crumbling mass of glorious blurred and blown out soft focus heaviness. Then comes Codeine's "Pea", another obvious Nadja influence, we would have gone for "Cave In", some doom band needs to cover that one, but "Pea" suits them, they don't even rock it out that much, it's a bit heavier, but not much slower, and Aidan Baker's soft tentative croon is a dead ringer for Codeine's Stephen Immerwahr. The band also tackle the Swans, and the Cure, the latter's "Faith" stretched out to almost 13 minutes, and expansive glorious woozy gloomy sprawl.
But it's the unlikely choices that seal the deal. A-Ha? It's the track that gives this comp its title, and although we're not familiar with the original, the Nadja version is gorgeous, heavy and poppy and gloriously blown out.
Then there's the Slayer cover, "Dead Skin Mask" from Seasons In The Abyss, not as obvious a choice as "Raining Blood" or "Angel Of Death", but for Nadja a much more suitable choice, that main riff, sounds soooooo good, all sludgey and washed out, that main melody even more seasick and woozy sounding, the new version somehow even creepier than the original. However our favorite two tracks here are definitely the least likely, one you may have heard, one you most likely haven't.
First, Elliott Smith's "Needle In The Hay", which of course is a fantastic song, but in Nadja's capable hands, it becomes even more harrowing, much more minor key, the vocals worn and weary, the drums a trudging death march, all beneath a thick layer of droning buzz and keening keyboards, and then that main hook, so epic and mysterious and sorrowful. You can almost imagine this is what Smith was imagining when he wrote it. And as much as we love this whole disc, this is the one we keep returning to.
And then there's "Long Dark Twenties", which was previously releases as a super limited 7", and which just happens to be a cover of a song from the Kids In The Hall movie, and yeah, that makes no sense at all, but as far as we're concerned it's become a Nadja song, we actually reviewed that song in depth when we had the 7", so let's revisit that briefly:
Folks who managed to catch Nadja performing live at aQuarius not too long ago, were treated to quite possibly the heaviest, catchiest, grooviest Nadja track yet. An awesome hook filled seventies rock style ultra jam, wrapped in thick clouds of billowing distortion and anchored by the crunch and pound of programmed beats, Aidan Baker's vocals a whispered croon, Leah Buckareff's bass throbbing and rumbling, but the main riff, SHIT, unbelievable, even after our ears stopped ringing, we were all humming that riff for days...
Well the funny thing we learned later, was that there song was in fact a cover. And an incredibly unlikely cover at that. The only obvious link between the original and the band covering it? Canada. The song, some of you might remember, is in fact from the Kids In The Hall movie Brain Candy, and proves that Nadja can turn hooky pop into hooky sludge-y doom. The chorus is an absolute killer, and similar to how Torche transform pop into skullcrushing hook filled heaviness, Nadja take that pop and wrap it all up in some of their distinctive blissed out fuzz and we're talking HIT. Well, a hit if there were actually some sort of blissdoomdronesludgepop chart. Which there should be. And there sort of is, in our heads, but anyway...
So yeah, for folks who missed out on that single, or who just want to have it on cd instead of vinyl, well, it's worth the price of admission for just that jam. But thankfully, every song on here is a crushing doom drenched, pop infused, slow motion chunk of dreamy blissed out, ultra catchy heaviness. And even though it's not technically a proper Nadja record, it just may well be our favorite Nadja record yet.
Our pals at Conspiracy Records, a label/distro based in Belgium, who in the past have brought us records by Boris, Jesu, Shora and more, are this year celebrating their 10 year anniversary. A decade of amazing music. From a bedroom based punk label, to one of Europe's most important and influential labels and distros, all we can say is HURRAY! And HUZZAH! It's always so exciting, when a bunch of folks get together to spread the word about great music, great WEIRD music, and survive, even thrive. Such is the case with Conspiracy. And as if that weren't already enough, just knowing that some great people were selling some amazing music, those sweeties at Conspiracy have decided to share the love with us. And you.
To celebrate their 10th anniversary, they've decided to do a super limited subscription series, 12 records over 12 months, each limited to somewhere between 200-500 copies, ONLY available to series subscribers. EXCEPT, they've decided to let AQ have 20 copies of each, we're the only store with copies of these subscriber only lps, and for a brief moment, we can offer them to you, our loyal AQ customers. Needless to say we are thrilled, as the series lineup reads like a who's who of AQ faves, as well as including a handful of lesser knowns. All pressed on super thick vinyl, and packaged in killer hand screened original art sleeves. But be warned, we only got 20 of each, and we will run out fast and we will not be able to get more. When we do run out, there is a chance you can still get more (or even subscribe to the series) from Conspiracy direct, but what that means is act fast and prepare to leave empty handed.
We couldn't have asked for a more mighty meeting of the drones. Nadja, a long time AQ fave who traffic in SUNNO)))-like dirge, but manage to infuse their glacial soundscapes with surprising warmth as well as all sorts of unlikely glisten and shimmer. Teamed up with Fear Falls Burning, who recently gave us a super limited lp called The Amplifier Drone, which was, as the title suggests, a disc of amp drone and rumble, distorted guitar smeared into dark ambient whir. So what happens when the two team up? Hard to explain exactly. It's definitely, dark and dirgey and droney. But it's also soft focused and moody, dreamy and dense, with strange melodies and drifting percussive elements hovering below the downtuned trudge. In fact, this isn't sludgey so much as it is dark and slow and lovely. Ominous and melancholy, the music here is a lugubrious, abstract, thoughtful journey, guitars distort and crumble, drift and flutter, the drums are a constant pound, but not heavy, just a sort of rhythmic demarcation off in the distance, and through the foggy murk, one can hear all sorts of sonic subtleties. The coolest part is that the main riff is constantly being shuffled and jogged, a skipping loping loop like quality, a hiccup that gives the rhythm and vibe a strange tweak, almost like the doom sludge version of a DJ rewind, the affect is just further disorientation, like someone keeps walking by and bumping the turntable, but somehow perfectly in time with the music. So dark and creepy and perfect.
Original artwork on deluxe hand silkscreened sleeves. The LP's are pressed on super thick 180 gram vinyl and housed in thick plastic sleeves.
Been meaning to list this one for a while now, a collaboration between aQ beloved dronedirgedoom duo Nadja, and local black drone / synth noise outfit Galena, and like the best collaborations, it's difficult to tell who's responsible for what, but really it hardly matters, Konstruktion is gorgeously noisy, distinctly blackened sprawl of loosely structured noise, after a brief interlude the album immediately explodes into a wild squall of swirling black buzz, what sounds like the intro to some super fierce, epic black metal track, but instead of exploding into frenzied riffing and furious blastbeats, the riffs and guitarnoise seem to just swirl in on themselves, a dizzying tangled of buzzing metal, of heaving chordal thrum, there does seem to be drumming, but it sounds like a barrage of malfunctioning drum machine splutter, also blurred into the overall psychedelic swirl. It's not all dense and driving, the second half blossoms into a sort of sundappled synthscape, all woozy and shimmery, which bleeds right into the dirgey buzzy "Tears", a billowing blur of buzz and rumble, shot through with streaks of keening high end skree, a track that dissipates before it can fulfill it's heavy promise. Which leads to a songsuite of smeared streaks, and noise drenched swirls, roiling caustic churn, and hushed murky thrum, slo-mo drone-buzz drift, and washed out psychedelic drift, spidery ambience and woozy minimal shimmer, culminating in a dense black cloud of muted mesmeric murk. And that's just side one.
Flip the record over and get lost in the 22+ minute sidelong sprawl of "High Sea & Turbulence / Coda 2", a gorgeous, dreamlike haze-scape, total zoner bliss out, crumbling static swirled slow motion swells of distant chordal thrum, a smoldering slow build, shot through with keening shards of high end melody, which eventually transforms into some seriously tripped out slo-mo industrial metalgaze churn, all pulsing motorik drumming, hazy washed out riffage, dense psychedelic swirls, some seriously tranced out super hypnotic synth soaked kraut-dirge radness, like Nadja playing Faust, wrapped in some gauzy shoegaze atmospherics. Killer!!
Number five of five (!) on this week's list from uber prolific doomster Aidan Baker and his doombliss duo Nadja. Thankfully each release has something new to offer, so even if you have a whole shelf in your house dedicated to your Baker/Nadja collection, all four of these are definitely worth making a little extra space for.
This one especially, since if you're a fan of things dark and shimmery, dreamy and drone-y, then you're bound to be enthralled by the Netherworld tracks here, which help balance the loooong Nadja track at the end. Plus the two collaborate on a song as well, so there's lots of doomdreamdrift to be had.
The first three tracks are all Netherworld, and they do in fact sound like some strange Netherworld, all soft swells and muted chimes, gentle drifts of warm whir and distant shimmer, long slow tones, deep lush chordal smears, all very serene and sprawling, minimal, yet somehow epic and cinematic, sweeping soundscapes that evoke, wide open expanses of ice and snow, rolling hills, emptiness, an endless horizon. Soothing and meditative, a disembodied abstract new age, quite lovely for sure. And definitely reminiscent sonically of Thomas Koner, Lull, Biosphere and the like.
The Nadja track that closes the cd is a 19 minute crusher, but as heavy as it is, and as doomy, it manages to be more effulgent and incandescent, the guitars grinding and shooting off rainbow colored sparks, thick radiant swells of sound, that seem to stand still yet manage to convey inexorable forward momentum, in fact this track finds Nadja giving Sunroof! a run for their money. This is a seriously transcendent ur-drone, keening high end, sine waves, crumbling distortion, soaring, whirring, static buzz and fuzz and skree, all over a whirling undercurrent of throb and pulse. Truly one of the most intense and unique tracks we've heard from Nadja.
But before we get to this explosive coda, the two outfits team up for a transitional piece, which manages to perfectly meld the two aesthetics, and acts as a bridge between the serene contemplative drift of Netherworld, and the luminous roar of Nadja. A whirring slow building dronescape, deep resonant rumbles and soaring string like melodies, the layers of sound, thickening, gradually becoming more corrosive, more active, more volatile, until the sound is a roiling organic mass, a heaving sea of tangled tones, woven into a single whirling orb of sonic fire, threatening to engulf everything around it, which perfectly and almost seamlessly leads into Nadja's closing salvo.
Packaged in an oversized, 6 panel gatefold cardstock jacket, glossy and full color, the cd in its own plastic sleeve.
Ever wonder what it would sound like if Yoko Ono joined doomdrone duo Nadja? No? Well, we're guessing it would sound a little like this collaboration between Canadian doomgaze two piece Nadja and Italian chaotic weirdo avant punk duo OvO. The overall sound here seems to fall more toward the Nadja end of the sonic spectrum, but OvO definitely add their own twisted vibe, the result something dark, and creepy, and abstract, and occasionally very heavy and very fucked up and awesome. Separated into four movements and based on some strange concept about killing a wasp in a cup of coffee, the record begins with some loping heavy slowcore, big drums, lush clean guitar chords, and all sorts of swirling weirdness, detuned melodies, harmonics, strange FX, long stretches of ambience, buried guttural vocals, streaks of feedback, it's not until nearly the end when OvO vocalist Stefania lets loose, with her childlike Ono-ish trill, operatic and creepy as hell, sometimes slipping into a monstrous gurgle, but just as often wailing like a banshee, while the music churns underneath. Can't help but be reminded of Bloody Panda too, the same sort of weird vocal / heaviness hybrid.
The second and third movements are shorter, and continue on in the same vein as the opener, with loping post rock rhythms, swirling blackened ambience, haunting chiming melodies, thick guitar thrum, more FX, Stefania's vocals never quite getting to the maniacal shriek stage, instead, slipping from hushed whisper, to almost black metal rasp, to cookie monster gurgle, the vibe almost Goblin-ish, heavy and dark, but cinematic and really creepy, the third movement the heaviest so far, a lurching doom, trudging grimly beneath wild drumming, and even wilder vocals, until finally, the 13 minute denouement, the final movement, which begins like some horror movie soundtrack, all fragmented melancholy melody, and deep heaving low end, droney and so ominous, gradually building to a strange industrial style drone-plod, which eventually explodes into something primal and tribal, pounding drums, those trilled super dramatic vox, an intense cathartic climax, which eases back into that ominous drift, this time with the vocals in full effect, the result, dark, bizarre, intense and fantastically out there!
This long in the works split matches up doombliss duo Nadja (this is one of FIVE new Nadja releases on this week's list! Yowza!) with ambient soundscapers 5/5/2000 (featuring aQ pal Nathan, from Creation Is Crucifixion, M. Kourie, Human Quena Orchestra, and Travis Ryan from Cattle Decapitation) and it proves to be a pretty potent and appropriate pairing.
Nadja start things off, and waste no time, no slow builds, no pretty simmering, it's straight into a big ol' lurching doom, the drums big and reverbed, the guitar offered up in swells, and allowed to drift off, leaving just the drums to pound away between bursts of crumbling distortion. Very industrial sounding, dark ambient, the drums locked into a loop, a distant keening high end hovering just above the rumbling whir, there is a build up, but the duo begin the build already in the thick of it. The guitars grow more and more fuzzed out, the sound becomes thicker and more distorted, the background becomes more chaotic, riffs seem to coalesce out of those abstract swells, strange harmonics drift into the picture, the recording sounds decayed and damaged, as if it was some unearthed archival slab of ancient doom bliss, until the last 4 or 5 minutes, when yet more buzz and distortion enter the fray, and while the drums remain constant, they seem to sink deeper and deeper beneath the blossoming swirl of blown out noise and warm dense fuzz, all the while the sound threatening to crumble or collapse, gloriously fractured post industrial doom bliss crawl for sure.
5/5/2000 reply with what might be their heaviest recording to date. A nearly 17 minute low end sprawl, groaning, coruscating distortion, rumbling and roiling, while beneath some sort of shimmery soundscape plays out. Delicate and dreamy, abstract melodies drifting and swirling, fuzzy and gauzy and blurred into soft focus streaks, until right near the end, when the soft tranquility is overtaken by a dense swell of layered guitar, grinding and buzzing, a blissed out, blown out blackened drone.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES. Each lp comes with a cd featuring the same music, as well as a printed cardstock insert.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
It used to be a list wouldn't pass with something new from Aidan Baker or his doomdrone duo Nadja, we were beginning to worry since it had been a little while now, but as if to make up for it, we now present you with this sprawling double dvd featuring SIX HOURS of music from both Nadja and Baker solo, recorded live in 2003 and 2007, accompanied by experimental visuals by more than FIFTEEN filmmakers. All housed in a gorgeous book like digpak sleeve, and accompanied by an extensive set of liner notes, with details of the performances, and the various films and filmmakers.
This is most likely not for the uninitiated, for those of you new to Baker and Nadja, who are looking to dip your toes, 6 hours of live video might not be ideal, and there are no shortage of choices, have a look elsewhere on the aQ site, so many fantastic releases from both Nadja and Baker solo, but for fans, most of whom tend toward the obsessive, this double dvd set is a mindblower. The sounds of course are incredible, the Nadja disc slips from hushed dense drone music to barely there shimmer to full bore doomic shoegaze crush, the Baker disc is much more minimal and shimmery, dark drifting dronemusic, that occasionally erupts into something noisier, but spends more of it's time hovering and glimmering, the visuals designed to match, gauzy indistinct shapes and colors, cool black and white images of undersea life, blurred landscapes and softly psychedelic collages, while the Nadja films are more varied, weird shots of colored fire, tripped out psychedelic lights, grainy super 8 footage of mysterious signs and streets, blurred black and white, super saturated lysergic shapes, occasionally intercut with footage of the band on stage hunkered over their instruments in front of the films.
The label describes this disc as "the ultimate video aquarium for the acid-minded", and that's not far off, throw this up on your big screen TV, strap on some headphones, and TRIP OUT, or just toss this in your dvd player, sans TV, and you've got a brand new 6 hour album of blissed out drone-y psychedelic shoegaze heaviness. Can't argue with that.
Region free!
You think by now, that after a million or so releases, we'd be sick of Nadja, and could nor possibly need/want another record to add to our already overflowing Nadja collection, but somehow, we just never get sick of it, and love pretty much everything we hear, and still get excited when we hear about a new record, and every one seems to sound better than the last, what's not to love? Heavy, spacey, doomy, droney, shoegazey...
This latest sonic missive is another gem, a sidelong epic of hazy, druggy, rhythmic, almost krautrocky minimal post rock doom drift, but the thing is, it never gets loud, or heavy, whereas most Nadja jams eventually explode into a roiling crushing blissed out wall of heaviness, this one refrains, instead, loping, and drifting, and shimmering, and pulsing hypnotically, while all around the main riff and the simple motorik rhythm, backwards sounds swoop and swirl, guitar drones are layered and blurred, the bass sticks close to the drum machine, a solid anchor for the various other sounds to hover and float, the whole thing an endlessly mesmerizing chunk of softly shoegazey krautdrone slowcore. So good.
Nadja get teamed up here with someone called Armchair Migraine Journey, who counter Nadja's sidelong epic with one of their own, a field of glimmering, chiming, shimmering guitars, melodies and chords and notes swirl and shift and merge and tangle, all over a bed of low end hum, peppered with occasional echo drenched, deep and dramatic vocals, giving the sound a bit of a cold wave / gothic vibe, but only briefly, as the vocals drift off, and the tangle of guitars take over again. The side finishes off with a coda of minimal metallic buzz and haunting music box melodies. Pretty great stuff, and a good match for the Nadja track, which definitely ranks among their best.
And the packaging, WOW. A super fancy, super heavy black sleeve, printed in metallic silver, with a printed insert and pressed on thick thick vinyl. LIMITED TO 200 COPIES, each one hand numbered.
This record was pretty much custom made for most of you. A three way split of extreme heavy bliss out dream doom, featuring the WAY too prolific Nadja, who continue to get a pass, because we STILL can't get enough of -that- sound, the not nearly prolific enough Atavist, and a new name to add to the list of bands to obsess over, Satori, a duo featuring the head honcho of the always awesome Cold Spring label who made this disc happen.
Not sure if there was a reason for this three way split, a tour or something, or maybe it's just cuz the three bands fit pretty nicely together, whatever the reason for this happening, we're glad it did.
Starting with Nadja, who again offer up a gorgeously gauzy sprawl of Jesu meets M83, all super distorted crumbling melodies, lurching buried in the mix drum machine, weary ethereal vocals, melancholy minor key melodies, wrapped into an awesome chunk of doomed metallic slowcore, lots of dynamics and texture, a loooooong slow build a la Godspeed, with an epic and triumphant climax. So good. One of the best Nadja track yet maybe.
Atavist do their own sort of doom thing, this time a skeletal mathy post rock, clean guitars spread out over spare drumming, very Slint-ish, all spidery and delicate, until a minute or so in, when the hammer falls, shrieked blackened vox, super distorted crumbling guitars, pounding percussion, a strange flurry of off kilter jagged mathiness, before it's back to the moody Slinty sprawl. Eventually, the track becomes blown out and so in-the-red all the instruments seem to melt together, until the band unfurl a blackened post metal jam that might sound more at home on a Deathspell Omega record, culminating in a gorgeous almost symphonic sounding high end coda.
Finally, Satori, who have a lot to prove in such esteemed company, take an entirely different tack, with processed garbled vocals, over distant whirring drones, a creepy hellish machinelike soundscape of post industrial hiss and grind, deep rumbling swells, thick hissing walls of muted buzz, buried melodies, disembodied voices and buried melodies, all very grim and apocalyptic, think MZ412, Lustmord or Wolf Eyes, some seriously haunting and harrowing black ambience.
Packaged in a multi paneled black and white jacked and housed in a plastic sleeve. LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES.
A match made in dreamdrone heaven, one that has now spawned a second collaboration, between two of the most prolific in their field. Swapping files back and forth to create a devastatingly potent sonic brew, Nadja and Black Boned Angel have delivered two crushing epics, heavy and blackened, a sonic representation of their combined might.
Unlike the surprisingly poppiness of their first match up, this is a much grimmer beast. Starting with an almost Xasthur-esque opening, rife with slightly sour funereal guitars, a creeping wave of distortion slowly moves in like a persistent rainstorm. After about 6 minutes, the drums kick in like the beginning of a forced march towards a very bleak end. Soon a cloak of industrial strength feedback takes over everything else with occasional pounds of a drum popping up here and there. The results are somewhat like Skullflower's recent work with pulverizing feedback and a harsh grinding feel. Eventually, the blankets of distortion subside and the song ends with a low rumbling sound and a sustained burst of high pitched skree. The second number here opens with a low hum that constantly turns on itself before a sloooooooooooow dirgey beat comes in, taking the on its strange circular path. Some heavy subsonic riffs enter the picture at the 13 minute mark, merging with the rest of the fuzzed out drones, and the song becomes so heavy that it seems like at any moment it might collapse on itself due to the sheer density of it all. Still, a discernible melody cuts through to bring the piece to its SUNNO)))-styled conclusion, 26 minutes later. Whew.
Perfect listening for anyone looking to get lost in the epic sonic sludge of these two masters.
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It's tough to argue with this pairing, Canadian doomdrone driftduo Nadja, and German dronescapers Troum! While each group definitely has their own distinctive sonic trajectory, there is definitely a lot of overlap, and you'll hear the two groups explore and expand these commonalities live in the studio, with three extended tracks of smoldering slow motion dronemusic that as one might imagine touches on barely there hushed ambience, lumbering glacial downtuned crush, and dreamy drifting shimmer.
The first track is a slow building subterranean creep, creaking, and groaning, the sounds muted and muddied, laced with bits of brilliant melody, and underpinned by constantly shifting layers of low end, but soon those buried melodies become the focal point, drifting to the fore, creating a haunting ghostlike expanse, ominous and cinematic, building to a somewhat harrowing climax before fading back to a dolorous drift.
The second track comes out swinging, big distorted drums, weirdly processed and dubbed out, stuttery and lumbering, the sounds around the rhythm growing ever more intense until they're matching the doomic plod with their heaving swells of blurred riffage, intense and epic, the muted heaviness augmented by mysterious minor key melodies swelling and swooping, the while track in constant flux, as if the drum machine was misfiring, and the band were following right along. Finally, the record finishes with a 25+ minute dronescape, that floats spectrally from warm blackened whirs, to tripped out psychedelic swirl, to hushed almost choral sounding shimmer, to majestic Godspeed like epic...
Packaged in a super beautiful gorgeously designed 8 panel matte finish digipak.
Not only do the Grey Daturas kick up a serious noiserock ruckus, they also run their own cd-r label, the mysteriously titled Diagnosis... Don't! There are three new releases, and we managed to get a handful of each.
This is a super limited tour only cd-r from the sweet voiced folk chanteuse Marissa Nadler and features not only a handful of live tracks featuring Nadler accompanied by organ, but also features unreleased 4 track recordings, as well as outtakes from her two brilliant full lengths, Ballads Of Living And Dying and The Saga Of Mayflower May.
All the tracks here are gorgeous (of course), especially the live tracks, soft tangled steel string guitar and Nadler's dreamy vocals, all hovering above a thick soft wash of droning organ. The four track recordings are lovely too, extra lo-fi but thus super intimate, tape hiss and recording crackle making Nadler's already timeless music sound even more from some lost and mysterious past.
Super limited, already out of print, we got a bunch but they won't last. Packaged in cool handmade sleeves, a little hole in the textured paper cover through which another layer of colored paper is visible. Includes a photocopied insert as well.
Now reissued again on vinyl, this former AQ Record Of The Week from back in 2004. This time, instead of Eclipse, it's on Kemado's vinyl-only imprint Mexican Summer (which is named after a Nadler song?), and they've added a bonus 7" of unreleased songs. It's limited to 1000 copies. Here's what we said about it before:
This is a dark and languorous trip through a sonic world of bleak skies, neverending sorrow, lost love, death and dying and all sorts of somber miserablism. The music itself is lush and rich, a warm rainy soundscape of muted finger picked guitars, augmented by occasional banjo, eukele, and autoharp, all lashed together into a modern melding of classic Appalachia, psych folk and classic songcraft.
But it's Nadler's voice that is the most mesmerizing part of Ballads Of The Dying, rich, velvety and throaty, completely captivating, and surprisingly reminiscent of Neko Case, but instead of the country wildcat Case, here's she's a rainsoaked and bedraggled innocent, seemingly beaten down but emanating an inner strength, a hidden power, that comes through in her powerful voice.
This is one of those records that seems pleasant enough on first listen, but as you dig deeper, the songs and stories unfold and you quickly find your self living and loving and crying and dying right along with Nadler and the characters she has populated her musical world with.
For her first record for Sacred Bones, Marissa Nadler has put together a pretty heavy hitting band, one that features folks like Steve Moore of Zombi, and Eyvind Kang, but really, Nadler doesn't need anyone but her own bad self, her gorgeous, haunting vocals, and delicate guitar playing are practically perfect. Just check out opener "Drive (Fade Into)", the first two minutes of which are just Nadler singing and playing guitars, spare and sparse, ethereal and so lovely, lush, lustrous harmonies, the Mazzy Star vibe which was always present, is huge here, in the phrasing, the timbre of Nadler's voice, occasionally layered into gorgeous multi-tracked harmonies, and while we would have been happy with a solo acoustic record, the band deftly, and quite subtle, add perfect sonic colorations, soft streaks of feedback, shimmery swells of pedal steel, the final stretch all twang flecked and dusky.
From there on out, Nadler and her band deliver one gorgeous song after another, some funereal and somber, dark, dolorous torch songs, others dark slowcore dirges, others darkly dreamy psychedelic country. A few favorites include "1923", laced with Kang's lilting strings, the track peppered with bits of effects dusted guitar swirl, all driven by some gorgeously languid, muted percussion, gloomy downer pop bliss via classic old time songsmithery, or "Dead City Emily", with Nadler's vocals soaring over a tangle of steel string buzz, everything wreathed in echo and reverb, with some surprising bits of piano and synth, the song blossoming into something impossibly expansive and lush, or the haunting dark country of "Desire", which sounds like it could have been performed by Mark Lanegan or David Eugene Edwards from Woven Hand, but at the same time, it couldn't have been anyone but Nadler.
We've loved pretty much everything we've heard, and have raved about almost all of her records, but July definitely takes Nadler's sound, her voice, her songs, to the next level, and positions her as one of this generations most stunning songwriters. Certainly fans of Chelsea Wolfe and Zola Jesus will no doubt love Nadler, if they don't already, but Nadler's sound is much more pure, more classic, some of the songs here do of course have moments of gothiness, and gloominess, but it definitely transcends any micro genre classification, and manages to arrive at something truly timeless, and will definitely be vying for top spots on lots of folks best of 2014 year end lists, even though it's only February.
Fantastic!
The fourth record from Boston's most enchanting female songstress has left us breathless and almost at a loss for words! Ms Nadler really hits the nail on the head with this effortless marriage of hauntingly rich vocal cascades and captivating song writing. Quite the magnificent album, Little Hells features Nadler joined by a full band whose rhythmic weight anchors each song as her reverb-shrouded vocals drift into the dawning sky. If you've a penchant for lonely country charm with a gothic twist, and melancholic hymns possessed by a familiar nostalgia, this is soooo for you! Conjures visions of Victorian churches on golden plains at midnight, flickering shadows in hallways of rickety old barns. As far as production goes, we've never heard Nadler sound so dense and layered with such an array of instrumentation embracing the core slide guitar, bass and drums. And yet for all the gothic folk elements at the heart of this record, Little Hells is perhaps Nadler's poppiest release to date. Stunning!
It feels like it's been awhile since we were graced with a proper new full length from Miss Nadler, and it's certainly welcome. Her haunting gothic folktales seem to get better and more fully realized with each release. Here, she is backed by a fuller sound courtesy of Philadelphia's Espers in full medieval chamber-folk mode making great use of reverberating Tibetan bells, harp and mandolin. But nothing overshadows her sophisticated fingerpicking and voice, which like an antiquated sparrow harkening from a time only experienced in past remembrances transports the listener through lovely gossamer shades of grey. The CD version includes a Leonard Cohen cover, a free sticker and a link to download 4 more unreleased tracks.
To cry out "holy shit!" would probably be far too boorish and loud when speaking of this album, so instead we'll whisper an impassioned "my goodness!" Yes, this is another wonderful, deeply moving work from Ms Nadler! For those of you adored her last album Ballads Of The Dying even a fraction as much as we did (it was an AQ Record Of The Week back in December), you'll surely welcome this new one. As with its predecessor, The Saga Of Mayflower May is imbued with a sedate earthy beauty rooted in classic Appalachian folk songcraft. It's hard to believe this is a current release. It's strikingly so very out of step with the times in its earnest, clear tone seemingly untouched by modern hustle'n'bustle. In turn, Nadler's vocals bear a striking resemblance to those of Hope Sandoval, Neko Case and Vashti Bunyan. And much like those women, you can imagine her singing these songs aloud whether there's an audience present or not. The music flows from her -- singing just as much to and for herself. Although there is a palpable sorrowful weight to each of the songs, her performance still seems liltingly effortless like autumnal leaves drifting down from an elderly oak tree. From start to finish, this Saga is hauntingly gorgeous. The closing song "Horses And Their Kin" just might leave you in tears. Keep in mind, this is not the record to be playing while you're multi-taskin' and distracted. No, please do yourself and this album a well-deserved favor and set aside some quiet time (oh, at least about 35 minutes or so), and enjoy. Need we say more? Recommended!
The Sister, Marissa Nadler's second self-released lp, is a vehicle for her amazing voice. The instrumentation and melodies are kept quite minimal, at least on the surface. Sometimes on songs like "Christine", once the chorus has time to build, the song crescendoes into soft layers of swirling synths and swelling cymbal washes. These always take second chair to Nadler's effortless vocal melodies, the fingerpicked guitar her primary companion throughout the record. The Sister has a subdued quality to it, never rising too high or sinking too low, and although these are beautiful songs executed with skill, there's not a stand-out number that especially stands apart from the rest. Her last, self-titled record had the synth-driven "Wedding" and the poppy Mazzy Star-esque "The Sun Always Reminds Me of You" which made that really good record great. The Sister is a record that longtime fans of Marissa Nadler's magic will enjoy, but newcomers might find Little Hells or her previous self-titled record more memorable. Still, this is an excellent record for sleepy Sunday mornings and dreamy summer nights.
Marissa Nadler's latest (and Kickstarter funded, on her own label) self-titled collection of dreamy folk-pop might be her best yet. Her voice is light and clear, carrying the listener through the narratives and characters she creates. Fingerpicked acoustic guitar provides the ubiquitous background around which pedal steel, vibes, a few synths and washy percussion float. Her vocals seems almost effortless in their breathy melancholic beauty. As on Little Hells, Nadler utilizes a full band for much of the record, though a lot of what the band does is minimal, allowing the layered vocals to drive the songs. When the band does really kick in, however, it's fucking magical, as on "Baby I Will Leave You In the Morning" and "Puppet Master". Nadler, who has been previously much compared to Cat Power and Mazzy Star, deserves the compliments those comparisons bring, but should not be seen as derivative or secondary to those artists. Yes, there's a healthy dose of Americana (the pedal steel, the banjo) and yes the vocals are drenched in reveb (though not to disguise any lack of talent), but there's no mistaking that Marissa Nadler's got IT, whatever that singular quality is that marks truly exceptional performers. A je ne sais quoi that trancends comparison.
After the wonderful opener "In Your Lair, Bear" which hints at the fullness of the instrumentation to come later in the record, Nadler gives us the minimal "Alabaster Queen". The hard-edged coldness created by the stately vocal narrative contrasts nicely with the slow-strummed warmth of the acoustic guitar and bell-like Rhodes piano. "The Sun Always Reminds Me of You" might be the song that sounds the most like Mazzy Star in one of their less drug-hazed moments. "Mr. John Lee Revisited" takes a step back and feels more akin to Nadler's earlier work. "Wedding" stands out in that it features no guitar at all, just synths, percussion and vocals that build and build and build. "Little King" serves as a nice comedown after "Wedding"'s drama, a return to fingerpicked guitar minimalism alongside a banjo that glides in and out of the vocal melody.
These are songs that make you stop and listen, whatever else is going on in your life. Songs where you can just close your eyes and drift away to wherever the music takes you. Highly recommended.
This dynamic twenty-first century klezmer ensemble incorporates jazz improv, guitar-hero mannerisms and heavy-ass textual references into the rich klezmer tradition. It's kinda Frankenstein, but successful nevertheless. These are live performances from
(from the obi:)
"Weaving fiery improvisation into complex arrangements in a style reminiscent of Mingus at his best, Boston-based Naftule's Dream [their name a tribute to klezmer pioneer Naftule Brandwein] has created instrumental music of passion and intensity. From adventurous originals to surprising re-interpretations of traditional Jewish classics, this provocative Jazz/Klezmer hybrid is so good you could PLOTZ."
Follow-up to their wonderful klezmer jazz debut The Golden Dreydl, produced by Laswell and including additional elements of rock and improv...
Something of a musical chameleon, Andrew Lagowski has popped up in a bunch unlikely places since the mid-'80s. He worked with Brian Lustmord on a couple of his seminal records (including the dark ambient classic Heresy and the brutalist industrial project Terror Against Terror), and shortly thereafter produced some thumping techno singles for the Warp-lookalike label GPR, only to produce an incredible series of paranoiac electro-acoustic work on Touch under his moniker SETI in the late '90s. Nagamatzu represents Lagowski's earliest recordings, dating back to 1986, and these sound nothing like anything that he's done since. This was his minimal wave / post-punk project, working with bassist Stephen Jarvis. Drum machines, claustrophobic electronics, horror-movie / newsreel samples, and a few droning licks on the guitar all work through these instrumental pieces, with most every track driven by Jarvis' low-slung melodies that come directly out of the Peter Hook and Simon Gallup schools of goth-inflected basslines. Not surprising, "Sacred Islands Of The Mad" comes across as an incredible collection of what could have been lost Joy Division or Cure demos minus the vocals. Every track is met with dour moods and melodies grafted onto comparatively uptempo rhythm tracks. There was an mp3 rip of the cassette posted by Mutantsounds a couple years back, and the remastering job that George Horn did on the recordings is a huge improvement on those pretty crappy sounding files. Yup, Dark Entries has delivered another kick-ass album from the farthest regions of '80s dark/minimal/cold wave.
Nagamatzu was the duo of Steven Jarvis and Andrew Lagowski, the latter going on to collaborate with Lustmord on a few projects, to pen some rather muscular techno tracks in the early '90s under his own name, and engineer the exceptional sci-fi bleakness of his S.E.T.I. and Legion records. A couple years back, Dark Entries re-mastered and reissued the second Nagamatzu cassette; and here, they've given the same treatment to the first, originally self-released in 1983. Nagamatzu's skeletal post-punk developed through bass, electronics, and the occasional voice, all inspired by a mutual appreciation of Clock DVA, Joy Division, Throbbing Gristle, and OMD. Yes, that's a very good place for anybody to start. The liner notes sport a handful of reviews from back in the day, pointing out the comparisons of Nagamatzu to The Cocteau Twins. In 1983, this comparison would have been quite apt as the Twins contemporary album Garlands was a bleak affair, pushing the bass and mechanical rhythms to the foreground with none of the ethereal dream-pop that became their signature. But back to the matter at hand, Nagamatzu's electronics for skittering arpeggiations, clockwork drum programming, and string-pad sustained synths were countered by the foregrounded basslines from Jarvis, whose haircut was not the only thing he borrowed from Simon Gallup. Where the latter Nagamatzu work filled in the blanks with cut-up collages of radio broadcasts and slasher film screams, Shatter Days is darkly hollowed out. The original tape was just 5 tracks, and Dark Entries has fleshed it out into a full album with songs from compilations and unreleased tracks from the same period, all of which hold up very well under historical scrutiny. Another gem from Dark Entries.
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The third album of real serious, advanced black metal from these serious, advanced Germans. Their previous effort incorporated an experimental electronica element, but this one seems to discard that idea (perhaps as being too trendy and gimmicky -- heck
Long-time followers of the Japanese naive-psych-pop duo known as Nagisa Ni Te may find the contents of this disc oh so slightly familiar, as these four (long) tracks are all re-recordings of Nagisa Ni Te classics taken from previous albums, redone for this collection: "True World", "Anxiety", "Me, On The Beach", and "True Sun". Dream Sounds is of course an apt title, as Nagisa Ni Te's music is certainly dreamlike. A perfect introduction if you haven't yet made their acquaintance (this is their sixth album, some of which have never been released over here, so it'll help catch you up), and a definite treat for fans as well. It's not just a "best of" (that would have to be waaay more than just four songs long!) and these tracks definitely differ from the originals, some of them extended quite a bit. Mellow psych-pop beauty, slow and languid, with delicate vocals and warmly fuzzed guitar solos, so good.
Disappointed with that crappy new Neil Young album? Try this instead! This is the fourth record (and first domestic release!) from the Osaka psychedelic folk duo of Shinji Shibayama and Masako Takeda. Scotland's Geographic label recently issued a great 'best of' Nagisa Ni Te compilation called "Songs For A Simple Moment" that we've sold quite a few of (reviewed on list 127) so maybe you do already know 'em. The material on "Feel" is newer than anything on that comp, though. This album, with its crisp production quality, intensifies the fragility of Takeda's voice and the overall outsider artist naivetÈ of Nagisa Ni Te. Though it's not a major part of their sound here, you should be aware that this features brief moments of extended electric guitar wank, as with most Japanese artists in the psych vein. Of course, that's one of the things we LIKE about Nagisa Ni Te (and you'll find lots more of that Neil Young-ish guitar stuff on the compilation). But "Feel" generally refrains from cranking up the volume like that.
Beautiful and minimalist atmospherics add depth and a visual element to their lyrically melancholic lullabies of hazy reminiscence and love lost. The beautiful photographs (taken by both Shibayama and Takeda) which accompany "Feel" evoke the spirit of spring and feelings of renewal. The music itself however, also reminds us of its bitter breeze and what has passed. Shinji and Masako are joined on several of "Feel"'s tracks by guests including Seiichi Yamamoto (of Boredoms/Omoide Hatoba/Rovo) and Tim Barnes (Tower Recordings).
Jagjaguar scores major points with us by reissuing here in the USA yet another of the albums by wonderful Japanese outsider-folk-psych duo Nagisa Ni Te. They've previously brought us the band's more recent album "Feel", and now they delve into the past to make 1995's "On The Love Beach" available at a non-import price. Lovely, folky, sunny-yet-melancholic psychedelic pop rock. If you like Ghost, or Neil Young, or Nagisa Ni Te's pals Maher Shalal Hash Baz -- or even the mellower stuff by Acid Mothers Temple -- this band ought to please you greatly. Their songs are works of fragile beauty, with innocent-sounding Japanese vocals, acoustic strumming, and lilting melodies. There's some fuzz bass here, some tuba there, and some shimmering guitar feedback when needed. The liner notes include English translations of Nagisa Ni Te's cryptic love-song lyrics.
If you're not already hip to Nagisa Ni Te, there's also a "best of/rarities" comp out on the Geographic label you should be aware of, called "Songs For A Simple Moment". You can read our review of that disc for more background on the band, and that collection would be a good starting point, although both Jagjaguar reissues are equally fine introductions to the band -- all are certainly recommended!
"Songs For A Simple Moment" is an introduction to the musical world of Shinji Shibayama. Since 1992 Nagisa Ni Te has released four records of honest, fragile psychedelic folk. With ties to Maher Shalal Hash Baz, whose members have at one time or another
With a revolving host of guest musicians, the core of Nagisa Ni Te centers on Shibayama and his partner Masako Takeda. Drummer Ikuro Takahashi, most recently of Fushitsusha, had once been a major part of the lineup, but has recently, mysteriously retired from music altogether. But that's another story...
In the Japanese psych underground, there is a strange coexistence of feedback/noise and earnest, heartfelt acoustic folk. Nagisa Ni Te embrace both aspects and combine the two at times. Think a more naive version of Tim Buckley or Neil Young. And if you're at all familiar with the brittle psychedelia of Shizuka, or the primitive guitar feedback freakout of the obscure '70s psych gods Les Rallizes Dénudés, you will definitely want to venture forth. From the fragility and innocence of "Star" and "They" to the shattering, feedback drenched Rallizesesque live rendition of the twenty minute epic "The True Sun", this comes highly recommended as an introduction, and is a great companion to the growing output of Nagisa Ni Te! (Even if you're already a fan and have their Japanese import cds, you'll probably want this for the rare/unreleased/live tracks included.)
Another lovely outing (their fifth album, if we've counted correctly) by one of our favorite bands from the Japanese indie-psych underground. While the duo of Shinji Shibayama and Masako Takeda have had their moments of Neil Young/Les Rallizes Denudes style slash-and-burn guitar storm in the past, with this album (and their previous disc Feel) they've been concentrating more on the quiet, mellow, melodic side of psychedelia... This is some ever so wistful, slow-moving, "heartfelt folk music" that features the sweet, sad voices of both Shinji and Masako singing their fragile tunes over a backing of strum and shimmer. Various guests augment the core Nagisa Ni Te duo, with sundry instruments employed, including electric and acoustic guitars, bass, mandolin, organ, electric piano, glockenspiel, mellotron, percussion, and such oddities as "backwards cymbal", "uncertain piano" and "electric desert guitar" (that's what it says the liner notes, which also provide English language translations for the band's Japanese lyrics). We said sad voices above, but really much of this expresses hope -- Nagisa Ni Te are a springtime band with memories of winter. So very pretty, lazy Sunday afternoon listening for fans of the softer Pastels, Belle & Sebastian, Ghost, and Maher Shalal Hash Baz sort of thing...
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We've always been big fans of the warm and shimmery sounds of this great Japanese psych-pop outfit but somehow their new album is making us fall in love with them all over again and it's proving to be quite possibly their best outing yet! We love how the band are able to evoke those hard to describe lingering moments on lazy Sunday afternoons, or the feeling of walking along the pier as the sun slightly reflects against the slow moving waves and all your other thoughts just fade away. Tapping into the great tradition of Japanese psych-folk/pop that folks like Melting Glass Box and Happy End first explored in the '70s, and even reminding us at times of that great Milton Nascimento record Clube Da Esquina that we gushed about last list. As always we hear the influence of the dreamy passages of Neil Young records, especially On The Beach, which we've been listening to immediately after this record pretty much every single Sunday since Yosuga came out. Highly recommended!
The central element of Ian Nagoski's stately minimalist epic Effortless Battle is the 'wild wave' -- an instrument built by Nagoski's sometime collaborator Daniel Conrad. A system of tone generators that activates the resonant frequencies of an array of metal plates, the 'wild wave' is not as cacophonous as one might think. Rather Nagoski coaxes a pretty amazing set of timbral drones that slowly progress over the two extended pieces on Effortless Battle, music that comprised the soundtrack to a video by Catherine Pancake. Initially, these vibrating metal plates rumble ominously, resembling a electrical motor ceaselessly puttering in the distance; but Nagoski pushes the subtle overtones to steadily make their presence known and eventually replace the lower frequencies with glistening patterns of ever-shifting vibrato. In a lot of ways, Nagoski's use of the 'wild wave' creates an controllable activity that mimics the resonances found in the field recordings of Toshiya Tsunoda, which are often of giant metal plates vibrating from environmental sources.
Latest blast of black metal murk from this French duo, whose grim brand of depressive bedroom black metal has been getting lots of play around here, the sound muddy and muted and washed out, lo-fi for sure, but lush in its low fidelity, the long stretches of blasting buzz, seeming to melt into a more droned out buzz, the tempos constantly shifting, with a second guitar adding some woozy post rocky melodies, not to mention some tripped out synths that add a folky vibe, that sounds almost Native American at times, opener "Face Of Extinction" is the perfect example, it's all grim buzz, but the sounds are sort of soft focus, blurred a bit, instead of being fierce and frenzied, it sounds warped and droney and sort of druggily dreamy, there's some gnarled Deathspell style riffery going on, and its easy to hear that with a huge production, these guys could sound epic, but this murkier sound suits them, the lurching lumbering groove wreathed in strange atonal guitar melodies, and underpinned by bursts of double kick drumming, and then when that synth swoops in, it's weirdly dramatic and folky, and at last here almost Native American sounding.
The sound on the rest of the record is pretty varied, with lots of more traditional blackness, for sure, but also plenty of swooping backwards effects, warbly droned out guitarscapes, that sound like Fear Falls Burning or some other experimental guitarscaper, there are stretches of doomic plod, rife with twisted melodies and bursts of distorted crunch, plenty of loping post rockisms, some D-beat pound (coupled weirdly with monklike chanting), and plenty of noise drenched midtempo lo-fi blackness, culminating in the strange anguished abstract atmospheric blackdoom of the closer.
Another killer match-up between two different UN-black warriors, and yep, that means Christian black metal, a genre we've become pretty dang obsessed with. This one slipped through the cracks, we've had it for a while, bit for some reason never got around listing it until now.
Flaskavsae is one of our favorite of the UN-black hordes (another Flaskavsae split is reviewed elsewhere on this list, teamed with our other favorite, Light Shall Prevail), and these three tracks definite demonstrate why once again. Three murky blasts furious black buzz, the guitars blurred into heaving droney slabs, the programmed drums relentless and machinelike, with awesome off kilter fills, and the vocals a buried monstrous growl, the melodies are epic, the sound sweeping and majestic, there must be keyboards cuz guitars just don't swell like that, or maybe they do, the EEE folks can do fucked up things with sound, the production always as much a part of the sound as the sound itself.
This is the first we've heard from Nahum though, but their sound is a perfect compliment to Flaskavsae's, a furious relentless droned out buzz, the drums chaotic and frenzied, the cymbals awesomely loud in the mix, but it's the vocals that turn this into something fucked up and amazing, a howled falsetto screech, doused in reverb and delay, which results in the vocals careening all over the place, overlapping and getting all tangled up, very dubbed out, which makes the whole track sound sort of psychedelic. Nahum also offer up some gorgeous washed out keyboard-heavy breakdowns, all woozy and dreamy, and some super squiggly leads, all draped over the super distorted murky UN-blackened chaos below. Awesome stuff.
Black metal by its very nature is fairly isolationist, especially considering that one of the mains strains consists of one man bands holed up in their bedroom / attic / shed / shack / cave, shunning humanity, sunlight, any sort of personal interaction, filtering all of that negative hateful energy into their grim black buzz. Even proper black metal groups, with more than one member, are often quite tribal, kvlt-like you might even say, performing sonic rituals in some dimly lit rehearsal space, channeling all manner of dark energy and creating music both bleak and brutal, evil and cathartic. That sound, created by a group, is still intensely personal and to a certain degree is created more out of a need to create, than a need for adoration or success.
But what if you turned that whole dynamic completely around. Removed all aspects of kvlt-ishness, of individualism, what if you created a black metal horde open to anyone, anyone with an amp and a guitar, or even just a computer, could record tracks, and contribute to what would eventually be woven into the first open source black metal record.
And here it is, masterminded by the guys behind gloomy bliss metal duo Have A Nice Life, Nahvalr is indeed, as far as we know the very first "open source" black metal band. Parts and songs were solicited online, contributed via email, handed off in person, donated anonymously, and eventually the HANL guys took all the various tracks and deftly assembled them into this buzzing black behemoth. And there is in fact, plenty of buzz obviously, layer upon layer of crushing downtuned insectoid buzz, but also loads of creepy ambience, weird warbly doomy bits, super lo-fi blasts of near white noise, insane grinding drum machine stutter, haunting black ambience, deep ominous rumbles and softly glowing shimmers, weird chanted vocals, industrial scrape and pound, blown out blissed out blackened drifts of crumbling soft noise, it's all very schizophrenic, but it doesn't at all sound like a hodge podge, it sounds more like a truly expansive sprawling chunk of demented abstract black metal weirdness. Which is precisely what it is. It just so happens that there's way more than 4 or 5 guys "in the band."
Some songs are so steeped in buzz it sounds like records by Ildjarn, Velvet Cacoon and Wrath Of The Weak all being played simultaneously, other tracks are loosed from their black metal moorings and sound like Skullflower, thick sheets of sound, spaced out noise drenched ur-drones, others are gloomy and darkly melodic, simple guitarlines unfurling over streaks of feedback, howled anguished vocals, and shimmering black drones, while still others are furious dense blasts of raw, noisy black metal, in the red, speaker destroying missives from hell, swirling and roiling and churning maniacally, but often splintering into creepy doomic crawls or fucked up abstract Abruptum like blackened soundscapes.
The record begins with a sample of conspiracy theorist and radio talk show host Art Bell, talking about digging a hole to hell in Siberia, before launching into blown out super saturated black metal blast, but the source material is so varied, that even the parts that sound like black metal on the surface, have so much going on just below, twisted warbly melodies, keening wails, disembodied voices, textures and layers, so immersive and expansive, headphones are like X-ray goggles, revealing a whole other world hidden to the casual listener. The record then swerves from warped slow motion ambient doom, to soundscapes of high end skree and garbled guitarnoise, to grinding blacknoize fury, to downright gorgeous blissy drones and all the other various sonic stops mentioned above. Not at all typical black metal, instead, more of a weird sound experiment, based around black metal tropes, and created with a core of buzzing blackness, but allowed to sprawl WELL past the usual boundaries that define the genre, creating something extraordinary yet still distinctly black in the process.
Also found we had a couple of these, never listed. Another band doing the whole old school thrash metal revival thing, this time from Finland. The cleverly titled Apocalyspe. Now Or Never is their debut full-length. While they don't quite attain the rabid off-the-rails insanity of our particular Finnish thrash faves Pyrotoxic (RIP), they're still pretty entertaining if you're into the current wave of thrash nostalgia. Fast, frazzled, chugga-chugga-chugga bleaaaargh right out of the gate, and it doesn't let up. Wretched vokills lay down the thrash law over pummelling battery and razor sharp riffin' guitar grind. For fans of Slayer and the like.
A record this short should probably get an equally short review, just don't want to sell Nails short, cuz for what their record lacks in length, it makes up for in sheer crushing ferocity. 10 tracks in 14 minutes, a relentless onslaught of classic Earache Records style grind from these SoCal crushers, downtuned guitars blasting beats, guttural vocals, screeching feedback, gnarled tangly leads, the occasional bit of lumbering doom, a frantic whirlwind of powerviolent brutality, a nearly non-stop blast of face melting Napalm Death style classic old school grind. Heavy as hell and definitely recommended for folks who like it fast and furious and filthy as fuck.
Hard to resist a record with a bloody teddy bear on the cover, its fuzzy arm torn off and laying in a pool of blood, bone and sinew and gristle exposed. The record simply titled Dismember. Even harder to resist when you realize it's actually a country band, covering songs by Swedish death metallers Dismember, and far from being a joke, it sounds amazing, grim and dark, twangy and catchy, the twang and shuffle offset by horns, which add a strange funeral vibe to the proceedings.�
Some of the song titles sound like they could very well actually be country songs, "I Saw Them Die", "In Death's Cold Embrace", "Dreaming In Red",�but others maybe not so much so: "Where Ironcrosses Grow", "Let The Napalm Rain"... The record begins with a brief whispery intro,�hushed female vocals, crooning all intimate right in your ear, before the band launches into a rollicking campfire stomp, all minor key twang, shuffling percussion, warbly Hammond organ,�insistently strummed steel string guitar, and a world weary�whiskey soaked drawl, culminating in a�soaring epic chorus with the repeated line "I tasted blood, now I want more". Sounds like it could be the Old '97's or Sixteen Horsepower. Even a little Decemberists. Elsewhere the band dip into truckstop honky tonk, old time folk, gorgeous languorous swampy blues, epic over the top super dramatic Godspeed bombast (that inexplicably gives way to a super strange electro country tinged new wave jam), Southern rock and shuffling rockabilly...
Our favorite track has to be the darkly doomy and twangy "In Death's Cold Embrace", with its loping rhythmic slither, it's mournful funereal horns, some seriously Woven Hand like vocals, a killer warbly trombone solo, the whole thing just steeped in gothic grandeur, even the lyrics, what little bits you can catch, add to the track's gorgeous creepiness.
It almost doesn't matter that these are covers, fans of Slim Cessna, Sixteen Horsepower and that sort of muddy woodsy gothic swamp blues will definitely dig, but it's sort of thrilling to realize these are bastardized death metal songs, and to realize that melodically, thematically and especially lyrically, country blues is not all that far removed from death metal...
This is the debut release for Bay Area troubadour Goh Nakamura. He draws from the no frills, sensitive singer/songwriter inkwell... ultra heartfelt and barebones, much like that of Elliott Smith's early albums. The ache is palpable in each of the eleven songs on Daylight Savings. Impressive.
This Japanese electronic music experimentalist's new solo disc (last AQ-L we reviewed his recent collaboration with Sachiko M) on the always-interesting and handsomely packaged Zero Gravity label. No-Input Mixing Board's title accurately describes Nakamura's
Along with part-time collaborator Sachiko M, Toshimaru Nakamura positions his work in the Japanese movement known as "onkyo" which translates as "the reverberation of sound." Nakamura emphasizes the texture of sound through the manipulation of a restricted
More glitch follies from Japanese electronic composer Toshimaru Nakamura and his now-famous No-Input Mixing Board! Utilizing "internal feedback" from looping the input and output of a mixing board through itself. More active that the near-silence of many other "onkyo" efforts from Nakamura and his contemporaries, each of the nine tracks here are full of abstract throbbing buzzing sounds. Some tumble along, approximating minimalist Chain Reaction style "techno" "beats". Others drone and hiss without any rhythmic structure at all. With these fluttering bleeps and crinkly soundscapes, Nakamura has crafted another compelling, sometimes even pretty, album for those interested in the strange, defective-sounding sounds of "empty" electronic equipment.
MPEG Download: "nimb#37" [/audio/nakamuranimb37.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "nimb#37" [/audio/nakamuranimb37.m3u]
The second release by this duo after a disc on Meme, presents true "sinecore" sounds for fans of barely-there abstract electronics. We're told that these Japanese artists are part of a new experimental electronica subgenre called "onkyo", which
We had never heard of Japanese-American percussionist Nakatani before, but from what little we've learned since this record showed up, it seems like he's a seriously formidable drummer / percussionist, and while this record does seem to be a bit removed from his usual sound, it does also seem to chronicle his voracious appetite for both collaboration and experimentation. The Nakatani Gong Orchestra is not so much an orchestra, as it is in fact Nakatani driving around to different cities, his van crammed with gongs and bows and mallets and various other homemade implements, upon arriving in each city, he gets together with 5 or 6 new players, gives a brief workshop, and a little bit of practice, before this impromptu 'orchestra' then performs, most of these performances being recorded - a handful of those presented here.
As you might imagine, the sound of a gong orchestra is dark and rumbling, shimmery and resonant, the gongs bowed and scraped more than struck, the result lush billows of sound, long streaks of bowed metal woven into softly undulating shimmers, rife with constantly shifting overtones, dark metallic swirls, a deep resonant thrum, darkly prismatic, so much going on just below the surface, softly roiling, a whorl of blacks and greys, streaked with shards of high end skree, and shot through with slivers of deep dark ambience and soft cacophonies of blurred haze, the whole of side one is a dark drift, warm and whirling, mesmerizingly mellow. As is much of the B side, although there's a stretch where the gongs build to a serious crescendo, sounding almost symphonic, before once again settling into another slow sprawl of reverberant mesmer.
Gorgeous meditative stuff for sure. Fans of Organum, Phill Niblock and other masters of the drone and the overtone, will find themselves in buzzing metallic low end heaven. As if there was any other kind!
LIMITED TO 800 COPIES!! Housed in super fancy, heavy Stoughton style tip-on jackets, with subtly metallic printing, each one hand numbered!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Stars John Zorn, Bill Frisell, Wayne Horvitz, Fred Frith, Joey Baron & Yamantaka Eye. For their re-issue, Zorn has packaged these two albums in a black box, presenting all of the original, controversial artwork in the liner notes. Zorn gives a bit of history behind the graphics for Naked City releases. The albums, one fast and furious, the other slow and brutal, are without equal. They demonstate the most aggressive sides of these incredible musicians.
Holy crap! That's pretty much the first thing we thought when we saw this gorgeously designed box set. And it seems pretty appropriate considering 'holy crap' is what we inevitably think everytime we hear these guys play. For those of you who are new to Naked City, imagine five middle aged guys, short hair, some bald or balding, wearing dockers, and button down shirts, sitting in chairs, reading sheet music, and playing some of the most extreme, fucked up and chaotic genre splicing jazz / noise / twentieth century / metal / cabaret / whatever you've ever heard. Mix in the Zorn factor, band leader John Zorn, perpetually clad in some metal t-shirt and yellow and black camoflauge pants, and the Eye factor, occasional guest vocalist Yamatsuka Eye of the Boredoms, then also figure in a ridiculous obsession with metal, Japanese bondage, and crime scene photography and you've got Naked City. One of the only bands who can skip from country to grindcore to bebop to twentieth century classical to western swing and back and make it seem like they aren't even trying. And more importantly, make it sound like those disparate sounds belong together. Supposedly, Naked City played two weeks straight, every night, for two hours, and never played the same song twice. These guys are insane. So now we come to this here new box, which collects all of the Naked City records, remastered of course, as well as a new track recorded specifically for this box, a 'vocal' version of the Naked City classic "Grand Guignol" featuring Mike Patton. The box includes the all time classic self titled record, Absinthe, Radio, Heretic, and Grand Guignol as well as a massive book. The box and the book are gorgeously designed, like the Tzadik label aesthetic, only taken to the extreme. A thick white box, housing 5 digipaks and a hardcover book, very twenties looking, with flowing decorative script, all in metallic foil of course, the cds are redesigned in a way that incorporates the new look, but still includes ALL of the images and liner notes from the original releases, while the book is full color, black and white, some pages printed on gauzy vellum, all the album artwork, band photos, sketches, musical notation, drawings, testemonials, the whole thing so -designed- it's almost impossible to read sometimes (remember Raygun magazine?), but that sort of just fits with Naked City and their aesthetic obfuscation and confusional musical misdirection. What an amazing fucking band! And with all the records collected in one place, it's hard to imagine any other band collecting such a flawless and timeless body of work. And even though most Naked City fans already have all these records, Allan and Andee (massive fans) can tell you that you're probably gonna want this anyway! And if you've never heard Naked City, well, why not go all out and right that very tragic wrong. You won't be sorry!
