At long last, the archive of live documents of the infamous Downtown supergroup Naked City is being unleashed! Starting out in 1989, the hardcore/grind/jazz/soundtracks/noise/etc. inspired outfit led by John Zorn had yet to include harsh vocalisations in their compositions, future contributions from Brutal Truth's Kevin Sharpe and Boredoms' Yamatsuka Eye had not yet come to fruition. This first volume in Tzadik's Archival Series of Naked City recordings presents the group at their modest beginnings, featuring the lineup of Fred Frith, Wayne Horvitz, Joey Baron, Bill Frisell and Zorn himself. The setlist performed here represents some of the earliest, raw blueprints for what was to become the first (and last!) recording for Elektra's Nonesuch imprint, plus some originals and cover versions of compositions by Ennio Morricone, Johnny Mandel and John Patton that never made their way onto proper studio recordings! Beautifully designed, as expected of all Tzadik releases, with Weegee cover art (again) and many rarely seen photographs of the group in action onstage and off.
Quite the dreamdate here between two beloved Aquarius Records artists! Half of Naked Island is the one and only Brian Pyle - the Northern Californian denizen responsible for Ensemble Economique, Starving Weirdos, and RV Paintings; and the other half is the beguiling Felicia Atkinson - better known as Je Suis Le Petit Chevalier. The two have crafted freefloating abstractions that deftly walk the line between ephemeral songwriting and hallucinatory dronescaping in their respective projects; and this project maintains that aesthetic course with a few choice surprises thrown in the mix! The A-side features a narcoleptic Atkinson repeating whispered phrases in French amidst the coronas and nebulas of synth expansiveness before a muted techno thump begins to congeal all of the forms into a structured diffusion of propulsive rhythms cruising through their conjoined gaseousness. One could harken back to some of those early Pete Namlook recordings. We're knocking the cobwebs out of our brains to recall which one might be most fitting - perhaps From Within (with Richie Hawtin) or Fires Of Ork (with Biosphere). No matter. This is a great track that begs us to ask that these two continue this collaboration! The B-side girds on rhythm as well but is much more understated through the sampled breakbeat with washes of expansive synth, goth-y guitar drone, and oceanic drift slowly burying that rhythm under ripples of delay that may be the aggregate of Pyle's vocals. Very cool stuff. Also, we should note that the sleeve comes with a very cool lenticular artwork. Fucking trippy!
Latest blast of gloomy post punk from these Aussie rockers, the A side starts out with some heavily reverbed guitars, plenty of jangle, joined by female vox, low slung basslines, even some deep crooned male back up vocals, the song hypnotic and droney, repetitive and psychedelic, with some awesomely strange boy/girl harmonies, droned out and druggy, that give the song a bit of a spaced out vibe. The B side is heavy on the organ, a buzzing bit of gloom pop garage rock, the sound way more distorted and raw, some sweet boy/girl harmonies here too, less strange and more traditional than on the A side, again, all hazy and hypnotic, the sound super spaced out and repetitive, with a killer heavy and noisy psychedelic chaotic outro, all tangled guitars and wild loose drumming.
just thinking ... Adult., Pink Industry, Xmal Deutschland, German New Wave, Screamers on meth
Heaps Of Nothing marks the return of mysterious (to us, anyway) Aussie noise rockers Naked On The Vague. The band mines similar territory as groups like Blank Dogs and Times New Viking, making Siltbreeze an ideal home for them. The songs are dark and grimy, sounding like something recorded in an underground bunker, or maybe a meat locker, but below this maelstrom sit some pretty catchy pop songs. The band knows how to overload their speakers for maximum saturation, with the guitars cutting through like razorblades and the warm organ buzzing out nice little melodies. Above it all are some cool monotone female vocals and an ever present caveman drum thump. The band doesn't really stray from this formula, nor would we want them too, as the album seems to thrive on all the negative energy here, a bit like Joy Division and Catherine Wheel meeting in a fist fight while strung out on black tar heroin. Noisy, a tad gothy, and with a nice garagey sheen. Cool stuff.
Latest from these Aussie gloom rockers, and another killer collection of dark grimy noise pop gems. This ep is a soundtrack of sorts to a forthcoming film called Twelve Dark Noons, set in the Australian outback, purportedly a somewhat psychedelic tale chronicling a loss of sanity. The NOTV jams, though, continue on sonically from where their Heaps Of Nothing record on Siltbreeze left off, thick sinewy Joy Division basslines under clanging chiming guitars, deep bellowed monotone vox, cool angular melodies, heavy, intricate drumming, swirling synths... as we've mentioned before, definitely covering similar territory as Blank Dogs and Times New Viking, but some older comparisons seem more apt, Wipers, Scientists, Gun Club, Celibate Rifles, the Abecedarians, The Gordons, the Terminals, not to mention Bauhaus.
The songs brood and smolder, a little bit droney, mesmerizing and hypnotic, the first five jams are hooky catchy pop swaddled in buzz and fuzz and a dour washed out haze, but it's the final track that has us a bit obsessed, the only track that sounds remotely 'soundtracky', a sprawling slow motion dronescape, lazily unfurling guitars, layered low end, all slithery and shimmer, over which softly undulating sheets of high end drift and hover, gauzy feebacky swells, glacial riffage, wreathed in a smattering of effects, the whole thing darkly meditative, softly noise, and totally mesmerizing.
Another unlikely match up, one that sounds a lot less unlikely once you hear it. Wet Hair, formerly known as Raccoo-oo-oon, and Aussie gloomy noise rockers Naked On The Vague, both mixing it up a little for this split (released on Wet Hair's Night People label), expanding their sounds, and dipping toes into new sonic territory.
Wet Hair start their side out with some Tangerine Dream style synths, which drift dronily throughout all the tracks, before giving way to a loping bit of psychedelic drift, equal parts minimal psych rock and keyboard heavy krautrock. Layered synths, softly reverbed distorted vocals, spacey FX, all over a simple post rock-ish real drumming, mesmerizing and hypnotic and reminding us a bit of a more blissed out synth heavy Wooden Shjips. The other tracks follow a similar pattern, but gradually grow more abstract and chaotic, tangles of keyboard melodies, spidery guitars, wheezing chordal drifts, tripped out deep dramatic vocals, swirls and whirls and sixties style sci-fi electronics, everything warped and warbly and fantastically spaced out and bizarre.
Naked On The Vague don't necessarily veer too far from their minimal gloom/drone noisepop, but the sound drifts a bit more toward the psychedelic drift of the Wet Hair tracks, a sort of Velvets vibe for sure, blurry muted guitars, simple programmed beats, bleating trumpet like melodies, swaths of hazy keyboards, boy girl vocal harmonies buried in the murk and the mire, a minimal psychedelic krautdrone drift, super reverbed, the electronics and various background sounds growing more and more frenzied, more atonal, before eventually mutating into a brooding electronic laced doomfolk flecked bit of slowly decaying psychedelic dronemusic.
Pressed on clear vinyl, housed with a nice thick printed insert, silkscreened, purple on yellow, all housed in a thick PVC sleeve, and of course, quite limited...
Soundtrack to Cornel Wilde's 1966 film. Shot on location in Africa (Rhodesia, South Africa, Bechuanaland & Mozambique) -- often hundreds of miles from the nearest village -- with a cast composed almost entirely of non-professional actors (most had never acted before in their lives), a minimal budget and a whole lot of blood, sweat & tears (literally), The Naked Prey brought method acting to new levels. The music chosen to be the score for the film is every bit as authentic as the shooting locations, for it is all composed and played by the N'guni clans amongst whom the crew worked and filmed. While Wilde of course selected the tracks from what the N'guni played for him during the filming, the music is just as they performed it. The entire score is merely recordings of drums, chants, strange animal imitations, and the natural ambience of the bush, ie: field recordings. Thank god this preceeded the medling interference of the world beat puveyors Peter Gabriel et. al. And actually, the score in and of itself was a bit of cutting edge concept. As is pointed out in the liner notes, this was released the same year as Nonesuch began their Explorer series and long before any kind of major world music industry. Another fine release from Latitude.
Glasgow trio who waver between traditional folk structures and experimental drone using a wide range of exotic instruments including harmoniuum, and singing bowl, as well as field recordings of water and birds. Lovely!
We just got a few new titles in from Japan's Doubtmusic label, which specializes in the outer margins of "jazz" and other avant garde sounds. This one is perhaps of particular interest to underground Japanese music freeks as it's a duo that features none other than guitarist Yamamoto Seiichi, of Boredoms, Omoide Hatoba, and Rovo fame, among many projects. His partner in crime is percussionist Yoshigaki Yasuhiro (from Ground Zero, Altered States, Rovo, ONJO, and others). These guys are old pros when it comes to making an awesome, interesting racket.
As you'd expect, it's a disc of somewhat splattery skronk - but quite listenable by skronk standards! There's a certain sort of catchy, chaotic logic to this duo's jittery, jumbled improvs, all performed live, the ten tracks here selected from several Nambajazz shows for this hour-long disc. Some subtle and moody, others utter stompers. Frantic this can be, but also foot-tappin'. Those looking for tangled, heavy-duty Takayanagi style blowouts need look no further than track 3 to get their ears peeled back. Amped-up guitar mayhem and octopoidal bashing in full effect! Elsewhere, the duo's music, led by Yamamoto's innovative and invigorating guitar playing (and "misc."), takes lots of other surprising twists and turns... ferinstance, track 9, "Ten-Kwaurou" ("An Air Corridor"), works in a bit more melody, even snatches of some classical pieces, in the midst of a satisfyingly shambolic, mathrock workout. Definitely one for any fan of Yamamoto's out-guitar stylings, as well as Zornophiles, Improvised Music From Japan subscribers, Boredoms nerds, etc... you know who you are....!
We've long been proponents of the idea, that any sound man can make, using technology and engineering and electronics, nature can make too. And it will be just as mysterious and interesting. Made even more so, that those sounds occur, well, naturally. And in most cases, especially in electronic music, many of the sounds we discover and create using synthesizers, mimic sounds already produced in nature.
Countless field recordings have proven this, and this latest disc - a recording of the ice on a lake in France, slowly melting - does so once again!
By now, regular readers of the list, have been exposed to plenty of unique field recordings, drag races, life support machines, frogs, applause, monkeys, cowbells, barking dogs, rutting deer and of course the sound of water and ice. Ice and water seem to be particularly interesting sonically, as they always seem to be in motion, whether at the microscopic level melting and cracking, or on a more physical level, the sound of rushing rivers, pouring rain.
The sounds here, like many of the other field recordings we are so fond of, sound NOTHING like what you would imagine ice would sound like. Apparently, the layer of ice on the lake, acts like the head of a drum, transmitting the various cracks and crackles and vibrations across the expansive sheet of ice, producing strange tones, some very electronic sounding, all of them mysterious.
This record was woven together the sounds of the ice covered lake on a single day. Hours of recordings edited into one hour, but no other work has been done on these sounds, this is the actual sound of the ice. It begins with the sound of birds, the ice producing tiny little streaks of sound, that do sound like synthesizers, strange space-y FX, suspended in an expanse of murky murmur. The intensity and the frequency of those space-y streaks increases as the day warms up and the ice begins to fracture and melt, the barrage of bleeps and bloops begin to sound like a Star Wars laser battle, and sound like it couldn't possibly be the sound of ice. Eventually, the laser like streaks get deeper, and more resonant, as if someone was adding reverb or delay, until it's just a cloud of fuzzy bleeps and warbly tweets, underpinned by the actual staticky crackle of the ice cracking.
It's hard to explain much better than that, try listening to the sound samples, you will be amazed. It truly is a rare glimpse of some impossible and mysterious soundworld. A peek into how nature works, or at the very least, a chance to overhear the magic of nature, the sounds the exist in the wild, even if most of the time we're unable to hear them. Magical.
We had never heard, or even heard of Jack Name, a mysterious avant/outsider psychedelic popsmith from LA, who could apparently sometimes be spotted on stage at White Fence shows making crazy noise on an old beat up laptop, but really all we knew about this guy was what we heard via John Dwyer of Thee Oh Sees, who describes the music of Name thusly: "Light Show lifts off over an alien plane - immediate, skimming the surface of the landscape where the story unfurls. Whiffs of young Brian Eno, Gary Numan, Chrome, ELO, Bruce Haack, even Richard O'Brien and Stefan Wul stain the sleeves of this story. A powerful and inspiring message to all who will give ear to it." High praise from a man who knows his warped weirdo pop. And we'd have to say, Dwyer sorta nailed it. Total Joe Meek kitchen sink garage glam psych pop genius, opener "My Own Electric Ladyland", sounds like an impossibly lo-fi Olivia Tremor Control, all swirling and majestic, murky and blearily power poppy, while "Do The Shadow" sounds a little like the Dickies doing The Rocky Horror Picture Show! "Born To Lose" wraps thick buzzy guitars and echoey vox over a muted krautrocky rhythm, smoldering and moody, a little bit swaggery, droned out and darkly psychedelic, which leads right into "Sound Was The Castle" a primo chunk of home brewed baroque pop, chiming and ethereal, with some woozily processed vox. We could go on, and we usually do, every track here, a fantastically hooky WTF twisted pop gem, some tracks sounding like James Ferraro doing his best Oh Sees impression, others like they could have been plucked right off some Yellow Pills power pop collection, some possibly genuine lost art-pop artifacts, others are more psych folk, all strummy and fluttery, some even add horns, bleating and moaning, woven into swoonsome almost funereal ballads, and some sound like the second coming of UK avant pop geniuses the Cardiacs. Needless to say, weirdo pop nerds, this is your new favorite record!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
It's probably no surprise that we were intrigued when we first heard about this disc, after all the press release claims that it "researches the dark associations of post-black metal". And they go on to recommend it to fans of Burzum's masterpiece Filosofem! However, it must be the ambient aspects of Filosofem they're referencing, as you'll find no true frosty guitar buzz here, instead this is a purely digital, all-electronic album released by the UK's ever reliable, experimental Touch label, home to the likes of Fennesz, Philip Jeck, B.J. Nilsen, Chris Watson, and others. Intriguing, eh?
Of course, if we hadn't read that press release, we might never have related this to anything black metal at all, but we'd still like it. It's a very pleasant and varied dronological document, suggestive of field recordings, even though all these sounds are abstract ones, mostly realized inside a computer. There's passages that seem like buzzing insect swarms ("Process Philosophy"), or lashings of wind and rain ("Space-Time Continuum"), or Tibetan temple bells ("Semantic Shift"), or the gentle swaying of leaves and branches in a breeze ("Sun Wind Darkness Eye"). That particular track goes on to generate a mysterious low, soft hum, eventually accompanied by a beating electronic pulse, like much of the minimal techno we enjoy...
It's all quite evocative and lovely, although now that we think about it, some of these sounds could also be, like, cold winds blowing across frozen fjords, or sinister rumblings heard inside a subterranean crypt... And who knows, perhaps Nana April Jun (aka Christofer Lamgren), who hails from Sweden, wears corpsepaint whilst working with his digital tools. Probably not, though, since the majority of the text we read pertaining to this release was on the academic side of things. And although discussions of subjects like "the ontology of noise" and other psuedointellectual concepts can be a mite pretentious, regardless of that, all the whooshing, hissing, droning here is very good listening indeed.
In Nanang Tatang, main members of Ida, Daniel Littleton and Elizabeth Mitchell take their dreamy, soothing sound into the electronic realm. Although Muki starts off with a drifting ambience of the most delicate twinkling chimes and whirring digital vapors, as things progress the acoustic and electronic elements entwine effortlessly with Ida's familiar hushed female and male vocals taking center stage. Twelve songs crafted from a palette of feathery guitar strums, soft repetitive piano lines, warming organ, viola and harmonium drones, and occasional subtle programmed beats make for an altogether intimate, wistful affair. Check out "Oldest News" with its Elvis-Costello-on-a-super-drowsy-downer vocals as well as the dreamily meandering "The Fullness Of Time". Simply lovely. Certainly for fans of Ida, but also those of Julie Doiron, Mum and Low.
Like the title says, this cd collects not only some of the late works of avant garde 20th century composer Conlon Nancarrow circa 1990-3 but also a variety of previously unpublished pieces from the '30s and '40s. There's music written for piano, tape, prepared player piano, string quartet, and more. Plus, there's a rare half hour interview with the man himself concluding the disc.
"This set brings together all five volumes of Nancarrow's prize-winning player piano recordings in one deluxe, slipcase package. With their dazzling acrobatic complexities, well beyond the technique of any human, Nancarrow's works are both amazingly beautiful and strangely unsettling. Wergo's recordings were made in 1988 at Conlon Nancarrow's Mexico City studio, using the composer's own custom-altered Ampico reproducing piano. The 140-page booklet includes numerous unpublished photographs, an essay by producer Charles Amirkhanian and a probing musical analysis by James Tenney." - Wergo liner notes. Originally this collection was issued in separate editions with Vol. 1 + 2 together, Vol. 3 + 4 togather, and Vol. 5 separate, but all sets have subsequently been deleted by Wergo. This set with the book is the only way now to get these awesome mind numbing recordings.
In addition to the great Toho Sara album Hourouurin we reviewed here last time, there's been another new Nanjo Asahito (also of High Rise, Mainliner, Musica Transonic...) and Kawabata Makoto (also of Acid Mothers Temple, Mainliner, Musica Transonic...) project recently released on the French Fractal label -- something called Contemporary Kagura-Metaphysics from Nanjo's Group Musica. What's that? Well the notes on the cd's back cover say the following, in part: "Group Musica is an ensemble that pursues the free use of every type of Western and Eastern musical instrument, is propelled by the vibrations of very subtle rhythms, and that has internalized the methodology of minimalism. The concept behind this album is transform Kagura, an ancient form of Japanese music and dance that was performed for the gods, and is to convert the ideas of 'Secret teachings' and ancient Chinese methods of divination (the I-Ching) into a metaphysics of musical vibrations. The concept of Kagura allows Group Musica to create a unique work that is an experimental symphonic composition, which nonetheless has many rich improvisatory elements. In this unique work, the symbolic/philosophical nature of ancient esotericism is incorporated as improvisation, while the I-Ching is related to avant-garde symphonics. These are then fused into a total concept."
OK, got that? We're also told the many musicians involved must remain anonymous for Group Musica is a "total entity". Not sure how that squares with Nanjo's name being emblazoned on the cover, but after all he's the conductor (with help from Kawabata in the structuring and arranging of the music). And what does all this sound like? Well, how 'bout fake 20th century classical improv? With four long tracks of abstract interplay of horns and percussive clatter and woodwinds and so forth, this is kind of like the endless tuning session of a somewhat drunken orchestra... the Taj Mahal Travellers and the Thai Elephants teaming up at the symphony? Sometimes dramatic, often droning, very loose!
Record number two from these Northwest post punks, whose first record was a huge favorite with some of the aQ-ers around here, but sadly we seemed to catch on way too late to give the record its proper due on the list. Much like that debut, Television Man is a gloriously murky, dirgey, muddy, twisted gem, a lo-fi, urgent, tension filled garage punk blowout that's minimal, but super rocking, noisy, but super catchy, the kind of record that sounds like it was recorded on a busted 4-track on old melted tapes from the dashboard of your car, but somehow was transformed into some mutant strain of fuzzed out noise pop, given a damaged sort-of high fidelity makeover, and thus given some heft and some dark frantic energy, fused to the group's druggy dirgery, which is maybe why, somehow, all that sonic grime and filth is barely able to disguise the pure pop wonder that lurks beneath.
We're definitely reminded of former Record Of The Weekers Weed, who similarly took crazy catchy nineties style indie rock, wreathing it in loads of noise and feedback, and blown out psychedelic squalls, but Naomi Punk are something else all together, on the surface sounding like they're cut from the same musical cloth as outfits like Iceage and Holograms and all the rest, and they definitely sort of are, fans of either of those groups, or like minded outfits like Cold Showers, His Electro Blue Voice, Rank / Xerox, War, etc. will be immediately smitten, but the songs here take that post punk template and pull it to pieces. The groop is as happy crafting some catchy pound and crunch, as they are adding some unlikely 'oooooh's to a wildly angular anti-groove, or chopping a song up into an impossibly mesmerizing super dynamic, psychedelic dirge, one that somehow retains an impossible amount of poppiness. It's that innate poppiness that can't help but shine through, not to mention a weirdly experimental streak that goes beyond just the murky production, and minimal arrangements, with some of the tracks locking into strange almost looped sounding grooves, stuttery stop start workouts that somehow manage to be just as catchy, or weird little ditties like "Plastic World No. 6", which sheds all that murk, and instead pairs a jaunty little synth melody to a simple fuzzy strum, along with some buried eighties electronic percussion, whipping up a super cool sound that we wish was more than just an interstitial jam, but those weird little parts/songs work really well alongside jams like "Eleven Inches" which on the surface unwind as super tranced out, repetitive dirges, but gradually reveal themselves as still more deft hookiness, especially when it slows down, and gets sort of moody for a minute, only to lurch right back into it. "Eon Of Pain" is another track that sounds simpler than it is, but manages to take a little and do a whole lot with it, winding it all up into some fantastically tense post punk minimalism, that for all it's seemingly lacking in the first half, is more than made up for by the bombastic noise pop second half.
We could easily break down the rest of the record, track by track, but needless to say, every jam here is a gem, one of those rare records where we have trouble picking a favorite song, and if we really had to, it would likely be a different one every single time...
Another essential grind metal classic available on vinyl for the first time in years. Exact reproduction of the original sleeve and on colored wax! Just like the Carcass vinyl reissue last list, if you don't already know who they are, you probably don't need this, but 'Scum' is definitely Napalm Death's finest moment. Short sharp bursts of ripping, pounding super political sort-of-lo-fi crusty metallic grind. A classic! And for those of you turntable-less fools out there, it is of course still available on cd!
One of the cool things about having MTV (or MTV2/VH1 since MTV doesn't actually play videos anymore) is getting to see videos for all the crazy new hip hop I used to hear on the radio when I spent more time driving around (and when I actually had a car). Nappy
First off, this is going to be a good review. Maybe even a great review. But first we have to talk about something. I was in New Jersey a while back, in a little rock club, out in the middle of nowhere, and there was a flyer on the wall looking for a lead
One guy from '70s Japanese psych legends Les Rallizes Denudes (not leader Mizutani Takashi, but one of the other guys, Hiroshi Nar) takes it to the stage again, backed by an Acid Mothers Temple side-project, the boogie crew known as Nishinihon, who as the back cover states are quite adept at creating the "illusion of old-fashioned hard rock". And with Hiroshi Nar's help they do, if your notion of old-fashioned hard rock is all about screaming guitars and psychedelic effects excess. Recorded live in Japan at a club called Mushroom on December 15th 2001, this supposedly limited cd release features four songs (or splurges of rock action), three of them written by Hiroshi Nar, one by bassist/vocalist Tsuyama Atsushi. Anyone into the most blown-out Acid Mothers Temple stuff ought to investigate! AMT/Nishinihon guitarist Kawabata Makoto does his best to keep up with Rallizes dude Nar, doubtless thrilled to be jamming with someone from that so-influential though obscure outfit.
If you have even a tiny inkling of who or what Nardwuar The Human Serviette is, you know this is a big fucking deal! For years and years, the contents of his monumental interview archive vaults have only been accessible in bits and pieces on his home-compiled VHS tapes, on his weekly college radio show in Vancouver and on brief Much Music appearances in Canada, but now finally you can take a heaping double platter home with you!!! Are you prepared? For five and a half hours worth? Well, if you're unsure as to whether you have the endurance for it, we strongly recommend that you brace/pace yourself, and don't be dissuaded. Stock up on snacks, take the phone off the hook, you'll be okay. Hell, you don't have to watch it all in one sitting, but once you get started it might be hard to stop.
Many less observant, less hardy folks might dismiss the tartan capped, high-pitched Nardwuar The Human Serviette as simply a hyperactive irritant with a microphone -- lumping him in with seemingly similar in-your-face tightly-wound personalities such as fellow Canuck Tom Green, but first (and second) impressions can be deceiving. While we have to admit many of his disarming, oft-infuriating, absurd tactics do closely resemble those of more self-aggrandizing gonzo interviewers, there's definitely something else going on with this infamous irrepressible staunch Canadian. Let's take for example his unbelievably obsessive researching skills. For each and every potential interview subject, he consistently bloodhounds out the obscurest, mundanest, yet oddly fascinating facts that effectively stop the interviewee in his/her tracks. Y'know, those little skeletons in the closet that they themselves don't even remember, and that via Nardwuar have come back to haunt them much to their glee or chagrin.
In the early days, he started out by primarily digging into the nooks and crannies of the indie music scene doing interviews for his radio show. As his own notoriety grew so did his scope, broadening to encompass the whole show biz industry. Along the way he's also delved deeper and deeper into other media related areas and points of interest (politics, self-help, tele-evangelism to name a few).
The list of people to whom he's somehow gained access is in itself nothing short of mind-blowing (over 60 interviews are featured on this dvd set and that's a mere drop in this Serviette's bucket) -- Mikhail Gorbachev, Dan Quayle, Gene Simmons, Pam Grier, Marilyn Manson, Destiny's Child, Gwar, Kelly Osborne, Slayer, Ian MacKaye, Vanilla Ice, Franz Ferdinand, Wesley Willis, David Cross, Busta Rhymes, Michael Moore, Cradle Of Filth, Blur, Henry Rollins, Thor, Ernest Angley.... And that's not even counting his multiple interview encounters with Snoop Dogg, Courtney Love and Jello Biafra over the past decade.
Clearly people love him, hate him and love to hate him, but when he suffered a brain hemmorhage a few years back, it was nothing but an outpouring of love and admiration that came his way from all walks of life. While hospitalized he received an avalanche of gifts and well-wishes (including a painting by and from David Lee Roth!), and even had to have his own bedside payphone to take all the calls that came flooding in. But now fortunately he is back on his feet wreaking havoc with this, his most comprehensive crowning glory to date. Granted it's not for everyone, but those who rise to the challenge will be duly rewarded with a thorough schooling of headscratching useful and useless facts, figures and trivia, will be thoroughly entertained along the way, and will find themselves responding with a resounding "Doot Doo!"
Also included: lots of sights and sounds of Nardwuar's bands (The Evaporators and Thee Goblins), an eye-straining 16 page boooklet, and yes of course, audio commentary!
Time to give your eyes, ears and funny bone a workout! To prepare yourself we suggest you drop and give us twenty! Heh heh... here's the prequel to Nardwuar The Human Serviette's 2006 double dvd interview extravaganza Doot Doola Doot Doo... Doot Doo! (please see our review of that release if you need a Nardwuar tutorial). What d'ya know, it's another double dvd interview extravaganza! How does he do it?! The superhuman Canadian Nardwuar packs every nook and cranny of these dvds with wild'n'woolly entertainment. Totalling a whopping five and a half hours in running time, Welcome To My Castle! contains his two cable TV specials that he produced back in the '90s, and a plethora of interviews with such varied celebrities as Bob "Gilligan" Denver, The Monkees' Mickey Dolenz, Tommy Chong, Ron Jeremy, Timothy Leary, Cynthia Plaster Caster, Jello Biafra, Flea, Courtney Love, Sonic Youth, Nirvana, Anthony Robbins, Tom Vu, former U.S. President Gerald Ford, former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau, and many many more! Some are total gutbusters, some are jawdroppers, some are a bit tense, and some are sublime.
Plus you also get a bunch of new vids by his band Thee Evaporators (be sure to check out their latest full length Gassy Jack And Other Tales which we've also reviewed on this here list!). Pssst, the dvds' menus and chapter titles were all hand-lettered by our own Cup!
If you've been following the escapades of guerilla interviewer, garage rawk maestro, indie radio / TV personality and proud Canadian Nardwuar The Human Serviette, you already know that he mystifyingly gets himself into the most coveted and cursed of situations. And while in the heat of many moments he's had plenty of things seized and/or destroyed -- videotapes (Quiet Riot, Sebastian Bach, Tom Green), records (Sonic Youth), touque (Sebastian Bach) -- he's also been on the receiving end of some truly amazing stuff (a piece of art by and from David Lee Roth to name just one!). And for this calendar, he's gained an all access pass to the photo archives of legendary punk rock photographer Bev Davies. She was once hailed by Stiff Little Fingers as "The best photo taker in the whole world". Yup, the great championer of all things Canadian and old school punk (as well as innumerable other subjects of course) follows up his crowning achievement -- the stupendous Nardwuar The Human Serviette 'Doot Doola Doot Doot' double dvd -- with this cool document of the pre-'82 punk scene as shot through the shutter of Ms Davies. The 40 pages contain so much more than a 13-month calendar! There's an ongoing interview/commentary from Nardwuar and Davies with loads of hilarious 'back in the day' stories, extra photos, stickers... oh yeah, and the photos!! The Subhumans, Motorhead, Avengers, Black Flag, Adam and the Ants, D.O.A., Johnny Thunders, The Clash, Pointed Sticks, The Go-Gos, Dead Kennedys, Gang of Four, Ramones and Duff McKagen (eons before GNR and Velvet Revolver, back in his Fastbacks days)!
Over the past couple of years we've listed, and recommended, a half-dozen or so titles from German one-man-black-metal-band mainstay Kanwulf aka Nargaroth, including his most recent effort, Prosatanica Shooting Angels, just this last December. But we've never had enough stock of this most essential Nargaroth title to stock -and list- until now! No Colours has repressed this, Kanwulf's seminal third No Colours release from 2001, and we've got 'em. And you should get one too. If you're into the real raw necro black metal that is! And if you've got any Nargaroth, you need this too, and if you don't have any, this is the one to start with!
Subtitled "A Dedication Monument", this seems to be an album of black metal *about* black metal. The song titles indicate as much, from the title track to such cuts as "The Day Burzum Killed Mayhem" and "Possessed By Black Fucking Metal". Hard to resist, eh? And it's very clear the black metal he worships is the cult necro stuff, not "nowadays" black metal as he puts it. None of that gothy commerical keyboard black metal here -- not to say WE don't like that stuff too. But we do understand how undergroundier efforts like this MEAN more. Y'know? Somehow a guy obsessed with Burzum and Mayhem and the length of the spikes on his leather arm-brace sometimes (like in the case of Nargaroth) just makes THE most intense, weird, blackest of black metal. It's that sound we can't ever get enough of. Endlessly droning riffs, lengthy and hypnotic arrangements, buzzing Burzumic melodies stumbling galloping rhythms and of course Kanwulf's demonic demon screech. A spiky, scratchy grim black cloak of cult black fuzz.
Nagaroth IS Kanwulf, but on Black Metal Ist Krieg he's aided by guest musicians from Maniac Butcher and BM legends Moonblood.
This one is definitely for the true fans only. The grim, the troo, the obsessive. A double dvd collection designed to give the listener / viewer a glimpse into the soul and spirit of Kanwulf, the man who IS Nargaroth. Through the music of Nargaroth obviously, but also, plenty of more personal stuff, some introspective writing, and lots of Vietnam, but more on that in a second.
The first disc, is the live stuff, all shot pretty lo-fi, handheld camcorders, either from the crowd or the side of the stage, the sound super blown out and buzzy, the vocals so high in the mix they nearly swallow up the rest of the music. But the band are tight, the crowds wild, head banging, thrashing, horns held high, recorded live in Belgium, Austria, Portugal and Italy. Having listened to Nargaroth for so long, not only is it weird to see them/him performing live, but also weird to see them playing in what appears to be a school gymnasium, or a small rock club. The music of Nargaroth is so epic and sweeping and majestic, we always envisioned flaming chariots, and dark snowy forests, storm clouds and black skies, so it takes a minute to adjust to the idea that they are in fact an actual band. And even the shit sound quality doesn't detract from the fierce performances.
The second disc is where it gets weird and personal, but in doing so, makes this so much more interesting than your run of the mill music dvd. The first section is called "Dead Shoots", one subsection is marked "Private" and is a slide show of band photos, live shots, images of hills, and seas and trees and skies, plenty of candid "dudes at rock clubs" shots, LOADS of photos of Kanwulf, hanging out with other metalheads, lurking in the forest, or sitting on a station wagon in front of his parent's house, intercut with images of Kanwulf when he was in the army, or sporting Vietnam style camo, all set to some neo-classical soundtrack. But then, Kanwulf is obsessed with the Vietnam War, the last record was called Semper Fi after all, and the next section of the dvd, called "'Nam" is nothing but images from the Vietnam War set to the music of Jefferson Airplane and classical music. Weird! But pretty interesting.
The next section is called "Live Shoots" and is all clips from the various live shows on he first disc, a slideshow set to Nargaroth songs, not sure what these are for, since the other disc has all the same images LIVE, but still some cool shots.
Next up is a section called "Digital Thoughts", personal writings and thoughts from Kanwulf, on making the dvd, and on his development as a person and an artist, very cool and personal, and not at all hung up on the usual grimmer than though stuff.
The there's LOTS more Vietnam. First a section called "Swamp Thing", A sort of homemade Vietnam documentary featuring some amazing shots of the war, images of helicopters and soldiers, jungles smothered in smoke, this time set to the Doors' "The End", Hendrix and other sixties rock, with voiceover from Kanwulf (we presume) telling the story of Vietnam, and its affect on him.
In the same section, another menu leads us to another section, this one called "Vietnam", where Kanwulf writes extensively on Vietnam, his feelings on the war, and how the war influenced his thinking, feeling and music making, as well as his plans to visit Vietnam to try and understand and experience what went on.
There's also a documentary called "No Mexican Tequila Massacre", which is a short film about an aborted Mexican tour, lots of rehearsing, hanging out and drinking, smoking, some jamming, but lots of nothing going on, the guys in the practice space, changing strings, waiting for the show(s) to be confirmed, which they never are. Plus you get to see Kanwulf in Birkenstocks�
The final section is called "A Way" and is a surprisingly personal missive about Kanwulf's development as a person from when he started Nargaroth, moving away from hate and emptiness to become more of a real person with real feeling and emotions, scene politics be damned, not at all what you might expect from a black metal legend, but pretty refreshing and heartfelt.
The first disc will definitely appeal to true black metalheads, some awesome rare live footage, appropriately lo-fi and grim, thrashing and black, but the second disc turns this into something way weirder, and way more intimate, as Kanwulf constantly states on the dvd, this is not the sort of thing that endears him to 'the scene', sharing and feeling and honesty are not typically selling points for black metal, but then, this is far from a typical black metal dvd.
Packaged in a full color cover, with a complete discography (including shirts even!) on the flip side visible through the clear dvd case, full color booklet, with notes, and photos, and strangely the second disc seems to be a dvd-r, while the first disc is a proper factory produced dvd. All region.
We haven't been able to list much Nargaroth, unfortunately, mostly because we've been unable to get enough in stock. But as far as elite black metal goes, Nargaroth stands tall in a dubious pantheon that also includes AQ faves Graveland. Hateful German TRUE black metal, Nargaroth have been spewing anti-Christian vitriol for years now, culminating in their legendary Black Metal Ist Krieg album from 2001. So here we have Kanwulf's (the man who is Nargaroth) latest missive, and it's as bleak and miserably misanthropic as ever. Four epic tracks of brittle frosty guitars, plodding midtempos, struggling simplistic drumming, occasional fuzzed out blast beats, throat shredding howls and truly cold cold atmospheric ambience. It's all about the DRONE and the DIRGE. Ten plus minutes of the same riff, sawing away and lulling you into a trancelike state, letting the minor key melodies drift from beneath the sheets of icy guitars and and settle on your lifeless body, entranced by the endless riffage. Seriously, this is like a black metal Gore (Dutch hypno metallers who specialised in repetition). So endless and hypnotic and totally transcendent. And like most black metal we champion, just to keep you confused, there are lots of ambient forest sounds, birds, dripping water, rain, and of course didgeridoos(!). Plus inexplicably, the photo of Kanwulf on the inside of the digipak has lyrics from the Moody Blues' "Knights In White Satin" printed over it!
By now, you should know what you're getting into with every new Nargaroth record. A blast of hateful, misanthropic, buzzing lo-fi black metal madness, grim and sorrowful, a Burzumic hatescape of midtempo pummel and stumbling blast beats with creepy ambient interludes of rumbling drone and gutteral vocalisations (and even a Blue Velvet sample). If that sounds like your particular blackened cup of tea then by all means, you're gonna love this. But as they say, the devil is in the details, and with Nargaroth the details are always completely baffling and brilliant. Beginning with the "band" photo in the booklet. Above the picture in huge letters: "No Dark Throne Fan!" and below it the words: "Poser picture of Kanwulf inside a barn". And the photo does indeed show Kanwulf (who is Nargaroth) wielding a rifle and posing in front of huge bales of hay! Then there's the song titles: "Love Is Always Over With Ejaculation", "Be Dead Or Satanic", "Satan Industries", "Thinking Below The Ocean". And of course there's a dedication section, divided into "Thoughts about Death Cocks" and "Thoughts About Black Spikes", both of which hail a handful of bands, specifying of course the OLD versions or DEMO versions of most of them. And finally there's a paragraph detailing an infamous shootout that Kanwulf sampled gunfire from, and his final quote pretty much says it all: "Most of melodies and riffs were created during the recording itself, by making mistakes or by playing something just to fill up some empty spaces between two different melodies. I didn't spent much time for the creation. That's the way so called "satanic art" should created! The "Satan" within us acts! He does not try!"
Talk about cult black metal! Nargaroth's Rasluka Part II (not sure what happened to Part I...) pretty much defines it. This four song, 25 minute ep is the latest blast of hate-filled mayhem from infamous German black metal maniac Kanwulf and his hordes.
Like all true black metal, this begins with a creepy intro track, featuring someone playing a recorder along to a bunch of morosely-quacking ducks, which then gives way to Naragoth's equally morose but much louder buzzing guitar/drum pound and vocal rasping, a la Burzum, Mayhem, Darkthrone. Nice n' evil like it should be. But despite the almost symphonic, ambient cascades of distortion in which their music is bathed, as well as Kanwulf & Co.'s questionable ideology, this is still at heart simply rock n' roll -- which goes some way to explaining why track four is preceded by sound samples discussing the drunken death of AC/DC's original singer Bon Scott!
With black metal's focus on Nordic pride, Satanism, anti-Christianity and EVIL, it's easy to forget how ultra personal and intense the music making process can be. A way to purge the soul, keep depression at bay, satisfy the need to create, and in the case of Nargaroth's Rasluka eps, to mourn the loss of a friend. This is Rasluka part one, not to be confused with part two which came out first, but both have been lyrically and spiritually based on Kanwulf's (the sole member of Nargaroth) experience of losing a close friend and going through the emotions of that loss, the grief and the anger and the regret. The story inside the booklet is truly heart wrenching, and the music is appropriately buzzing and snarling, a thorny sonic miasma of violent emotions laid out in sound, the usual black metal elements are present, the droning simple riffs, the relentlessly pounding drums, the demonic vocals, but coupled with the story behind the songs, they music seems imbued with just that much more intensity and brutality and hopelessness. The fact that the first two tracks are based on Chopin's "Funeral March" seems a bit hokey at first, but that too-familar melody is soon obliterated by a massive overblown black metal onslaught, that pounds away relentlessy, abating only occasionally to allow haunting heavily reverbed piano to shimmer sadly and then fade into the distance before it's quickly subsumed again by a churning, roiling wave of fierce blackness. So good.
Originally recorded back in 2001, and intended to be a musical 'fuck off' and 'farewell' to the black metal scene, which as far as Nargaroth mainman Kanwulf was concerned had turned into something sad, sorry and distasteful, finally sees the light of day after 6 years of laying dormant. Not sure what changed after the recording of Semper Fidelis ("always faithful"), but Kanwulf continued to record, letting this vitriolic slab of scene directed hate sit hidden and covered in dust, to fester and remain nothing but a musical myth.�
The original version of this disc was limited to 99 copies, and to receive one, you had to write a letter to Kanwulf, explaining to him some personal secrets or weaknesses, sharing some dark part of your soul. In exchange, not only did you receive the record, but also various personal and intimate belongings from Kanwulf's home and private collection. Needless to say, no one here or anyone we know, managed to�be one of the lucky 99, thankfully, Kanwulf decided to release the record anyway, allowing the rest of the scene enjoy his blackened scorn and brutal contempt.�
Good thing too, cuz this stuff is amazing. Ultra raw, super fierce. The sound is pretty lo-fi, the guitars a corrosive buzz so thick that the riffs are sometimes smeared into near drones, the drums are buried underneath it all, more of a throb than a beat, and the vocals are probably as harsh as they've ever been, a raspy howl, acidic and bitter, a hellish hoarse caterwaul. The songs too are raw and simple, pounding monochromatic blasts of blackness, laced with sorrowful melodies, but for the most part straight ahead and generally midtempo, no furious blasts, no plodding doom, just a relentless black crush, primitive, raw and very very kvlt indeed. But as with much music like this, the key is close listening, the various riffs and melodies, changing shape and revealing hidden darknesses not necessarily obvious at first glance, the relentless mesmeric riffing, only a few steps removed from the ultimate soundform, the drone. These tracks are epic and majestic in their stripped down simplicity, hypnotic and repetitive and so gloriously trance inducing.�
The liner notes give some hints as to the background of this record, and the strange mindset of Kanwulf, a missive directed at fans and enemies, a description of the recording, and the amp used (set afire when left on the stove, hurled from the window, beaten with the guitar), and most strangely, the dedications, to Klaus Kinski, the German Federal Armed Forces and the US Marine Corps in Iraq. Semper Fi indeed.�
From the label devoted to attractive unusual packaging, limited edition runs, and way-underground psych/drone artists, comes a solo electric guitar album from Japan's Munehiro Narita, best known as the axe-meister from heavy-duty Tokyo psych legends High Rise. Forty endless exploratory minutes of freaked out freeform feedback and distortion sculpting, recorded at two live dates in 2005 and 2006 but sounding decades older, really, like a wailing '60s psych rock guitar hero going totally over the top -- basically y'know what this sounds like? Jimi Hendrix doing his infamous take on the Star Spangled Banner. That sort of thing. Which of course is cool. LIMITED TO 600 COPIES!
Fans of the heavy duty Japanese psych guitar action might have noticed the lack of releases from Tokyo's High Rise in recent years -- the last thing we got was a "best of" that came out three years ago. But that doesn't mean that the High Rise guys have all gone into retirement, even if the band itself is on hiatus. Bassist Nanjo keeps busy, as he always has, with various Acid Mothers Temple-associated outfits, and guitarist Munehiro Narita also continues to threaten the public's eardrums in the free jazz inspired duo Kyoaku No Intention with drummer Shoij Hano. And now, Narita gives the fans what they really want with his debut solo album! That's right, over an hour of guitar and nothing but from the wah-master himself (plus, on two of the the four tracks here he's joined by another likeminded guitarist, Ueno Takashi of Aihiyo and Maher Shalal Hash Baz). Stepping back from some (but not all) of the "speed freak" wildness and utter in-the-red distortion of his soloing in High Rise for extended, slowed-down explorations of deeply felt, carefully crafted abstract improv psych guitar sound, Narita demonstrates his guitar's capacity for freedom and expression and originality, and sonically echoes this cd's lovely and precise black (mostly black) and white design. Impressive.
High Rise axeman Munehiro Narita (known as King of Japanese Speed Freak Guitarist Heavy Motor Cycle Free Sound according to his website!) here teams up with Japanese free jazz drummer (and sometime Mainliner skinbeater, also fresh off another PSF-released
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
FINALLY, BACK IN STOCK!!!
There's something about Bellingham Washington. Not sure what it is. But bands from there seem to always be really really strange sounding. But strange in this completely undefinable way. It's like they have the same influences as the rest of us, listen to the same music, but when it comes time to get down and rock, what comes out is totally twisted and unique. There's the Reeks And Wrecks, whose twisted take on indie rock comes out sounding more like a New Orleans funeral march, and now the Narrows, who seem to be rooted in early nineties math rock / slowcore a la Codeine, Seam and stuff like that, but somehow the sound they produce is a chugging, metallic, emotionally supercharged blast of minimal minor key moodiness. Hard to explain just why this stuff resonates so intensely but it does. Could be that the band used to be faster, but a horrific tour accident/injury and months of songwriting on pain killers morphed them into this chugging super dynamic behemoth, or again, it could just be Bellingham. Seriously, this band is so good they actually got Andee to leave the house and go to a show! Ask anybody who knows Andee, that's a major accomplishment.
Alligator is a reissue of the Narrows' first two releases, Days Are Numbered from 2000, and Six Ten from 2001. Seven tracks, the shortest clocking in at a fairly substantial 7 minutes, the longest a massive 17 minutes. All the songs are total epics, with moody stretched out verses, mumbled vocals, loping rhythms, and fuzzed out melancholy melodies -- and then crushing pummeling pounding choruses, massive distorted slabs of heartbreaking intensity with wailed anguished vocals. This is the kind of stuff you wish you had back in your good old mixtape days to let that girl/guy know just how completely fucked up and miserable they made you feel. So fucking great.
It's been ages since we've heard from Bellingham Washington's Narrows, whose last two (and only two) records, Alligator and The Skull At Life Size, were huge AQ favorites. Our Narrows obsession was solidified by a mindblowing show at the Hemlock where the band laid waste to all post rock past and present in a matter of 30 or 40 minutes, managing to rock so hard, even with the frontman / guitar player seated the whole time. A mix of lurching loping metallic bombast and lilting whispery post rock moodiness, not like the current crop of metallic post rockers though, no the Narrows were something much more unique... all the best parts of nineties mathrock, June Of 44, Slint, Rodan, but filtered through that weird Bellingham outsider vibe (also responsible for Reeks And The Wrecks) and lovingly wrapped in some serious skull crushing riffage. And of course songs. Killer songs. Moody and mournful, personal and emotional, and catchy as all get out.
We had sort of given up on the Narrows, we knew there was a record in the works, but they sort of seemed to drop off the musical map completely, until all of our fears were assuaged by the sudden appearance of this here brand new full length, that is somehow even better than their first two discs, heavier, prettier, weirder....
Beginning with the nine minute near perfect post rock epic "The Sasquatch", a sequence of big groaning downtuned riffage, huge pounding drums all wrapped around a strange insistent loping groove, with wailed super emo vocals, like a prettier Melvins almost, or a resurrected Engine Kid, some Unwound, a little bit of Sub Pop, a little Amrep. These super dynamic nine minutes might as well go on for 90 minutes as far as we're concerned.
The second track, the even longer "Last Of The Norsemen", is all slithery slowcore, with crooned sadboy vocals, spidery guitar melodies, shuffled drums, until the crashing chorus, a gorgeous minor key stop start lurch, along the same lines as Codeine's "Cave In", with burbling underwater bass added to the mix, and a convoluted mathy arrangement, before drifting back into the moody lope of the first few minutes, peppered with strange slippery guitar chords and unexpected dynamics, somehow totally off kilter and alien sounding, but super catchy and melodic and surprisingly pretty!
"Quellish" is up next with its serpentine distorted crunch and crashing blown out drumming, letting up here and there for some muted shuffle and croon, before the bombast is brought in again, a super emotional musical seesaw, that manages to subvert the tired loud-soft-loud-soft thing and turn it into something new and exciting sounding.
As if the deal wasn't already sealed for best post-math-whatever-rock / slowcore record ever already, they finish it off with the heartwrenching "Over and Out", a sort of damaged Pinback on horse tranquilizers mathy groove, with big booming Albini-ish drums, over blooping underwater bass, and slithery minor key distorted guitar melodies, and a super subtle hook to die for. The song has a wicked, super dramatic coda with crumbling distorted riffing, and super emotional leads, yeah LEADS, what self respecting post rock band can whip out the leads and bring you to your knees without sounding the least bit cheesy? Can't think of very many (or any really)... but The Narrows pull it off effortlessly. There's an "Over and Out" part two, but it's more sort of a coda, that now burned into your ears/heart/soul melody is pulled apart, wrapped in some twangy Morricone-ish guitar, some tinkling music box like keyboards, and allowed to unfurl lazily into the distance, becoming more and more abstract and indistinct, culminating in seven minutes of silence... Needless to say one of our favorite new records, pushing all our buttons, old math rock, new post rock, metal, pop, heavy, pretty, strange... Absolutely and utterly recommended (as is seeing these guys live if you get the chance)!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
There's something about Bellingham Washington. Not sure what it is. But bands from there seem to always be really really strange sounding. But strange in this completely undefinable way. It's like they have the same influences as the rest of us, listen to the same music, but when it comes time to get down and rock, what comes out is totally twisted and unique. There's the Reeks And Wrecks, whose twisted take on indie rock comes out sounding more like a New Orleans funeral march, and now the Narrows, who seem to be rooted in early nineties math rock / slowcore a la Codeine, Seam and stuff like that, but somehow the sound they produce is a chugging, metallic, emotionally supercharged blast of minimal minor key moodiness. Hard to explain just why this stuff resonates so intensely but it does. Could be that the band used to be faster, but a horrific tour accident/injury and months of songwriting on pain killers morphed them into this chugging super dynamic behemoth, or again, it could just be Bellingham. Seriously, this band is so good they actually got Andee to leave the house and go to a show! Ask anybody who knows Andee, that's a major accomplishment.
The Skull At Life Size is a massive thirty minute epic that live, is often stretched out even further to fill up the Narrows' entire set. A churning slow motion dirge, spare and hypnotic, dark and miserable. The bass and guitar float eerily through a haze of minor key overtones and above a sparse skeletal framework of simple drumming. Occasionally, the intensity builds into a massive wave of furious chaos, all crashing cymbals, roaring distorted guitar, and keening heartfelt wails belting out a ridiculously catchy (and unlikely) hook, before the whole thing dissipates and settles back down into its original lugubrious crawl. So completely amazing. The Narrows are one of those groups who can do so much with so little. Guitar, bass and drums, one or two parts, and the results are sublime. It's all about shadings and subtleties. A perfect economy of composition and performance. Minimal and perfect.
Of all the tapes in this most recent batch of doozies from weirdo tape label Ormolycka, this one, from the oddly monikered Narwhalz (Of Sound), is notable for two reasons, one, it's not actually new. But we sorts skipped over it the first time around. Which brings us to two, which is, it's actually fucking AWESOME. The reason we skipped over it before, is we kinda had it pegged as jokey friend rock, the name, the song titles, the hot pink goofy cover, but holy shit, what an awesome surprise. In some weird ways, it reminds us of that awesome Fever hip hop record on DHR, super distorted, blown out, noise drenched 8 bit, hip hop weirdness, the beats crunchy and super distorted, the vocals a buried mumble one second, a distorted megaphone yowl the next, all set to the strains of woozy video game squiggles, thick blurry bass buzz, total happy hardcore style techno beats wrapped around dubbed out noise-hop, everything doused in hiss and buzz, wild swooping effects, stuttering and skipping and swirling and lurching and lumbering, total dancefloor destroying, speaker shredding sonic chaos that KILLS. This is the sort of shit we'd want to blast in our tricked out boomin' system ride (especially the one that instead of a trunk full of woofers, features a hundred tweeters, total glass shattering, eardrum melting high end skree). Fucking rad. Ormolycka strikes again. And we stand corrected and bow before the mighty Narwhalz (Of Sound)!!
