Not sure what we were expecting... With a name like Panda Porn, and the fact that we got these from Heart & Crossbone, who usually supply us with super intense heavy noisy Israeli weirdness... But whatever we were expecting it sure wasn't this.
Five tracks, all very minimal and abstract, mostly glitch and buzz, and hiss and crackle. Much of it sounding like a needle in the run out groove of an lp, and you know how much we love that sound. A fuzzy chunk of muted glitchy static, beneath which strange streaks of low end throb and pulse, barely audible, deep resonant rumbles hum and whir peppered with rhythms crafted from cracks and pops, distant bell-like chimes, glistening high end tones and what sounds like strings glitched and chopped and skipping into stuttery rhythms, a collage of super damaged outsider turntablism. Lots of this sounds like a lo-fi Ryoji Ikeda, while the prettier bits remind us of Phillip Jeck. Really cool, but be warned, it's quite brief, less than 14 minutes, but we do find ourselves listening to it over and over, especially the last track, a jumbled stuttery minor key soundscape made from chopped up voices and hiccuping smears of strings.
The Rarities referred to in the title number 1 to 30. Rarities 1-5 are the five tracks of minimal glitch and buzz, while Rarities 6-30 are images, housed in a gorgeous, mini perfect-bound book. Stark textures, grayscale images, high contrast, simple yet super striking.
The cd is housed in a heavy book-sized cardstock sleeve, also included is a thick card with liner notes and images, the cd sleeve, the book and the card all housed in a printed slip cover, hand numbered on the back.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!
The history of music is littered with could have been's and should have been's, and of course what ever happened to's? We all have a favorite band, that for whatever reason never quite made it, or perhaps did make it, but never got nearly as popular as the hundreds and thousands of seemingly less talented bands that did. Unfortunately, it's never just about the music when it comes to critical and commercial success. But it is ONLY about the music when it comes to the joy of creating that music, and the pleasure of listening to it, and the fun of mixtape making, and DJing and all the various other ways we share the music we love. But sadly, that love does not always coincide with the ever important 'right time, right place', and of course, there's so much going on behind and beyond the music. Bands poised for greatness often implode, creative differences, arguments over money, tragic accidents, lack of support from a label, then there's the fickle winds of change, the ever shifting tastes of the public, and well as cultural shifts, be they MTV or grunge or radio or downloads. In some ways, we're lucky, that folks are constantly looking back, and rediscovering music that was overlooked the first time around, or simply giving people a chance to discover something that perhaps happened before they were born, or when they were too young to enjoy it. There's also the regional aspect, there was a time before the internet (did such a time even exist???), where a band could be hugely successful in their hometown, but literally unknown a town or state away.
Back in the eighties, THEE place to be a band, especially a metal band, was Los Angeles. The Sunset Strip. Motley Crue and Poison and glam and hair metal. Los Angeles was the epicenter, and spawned band after band, Guns And Roses, Faster Pussycat, L.A. Guns, Great White, and if you lived in Southern California, there were about a million other bands you could see and hear, all trying to make it big. And bands would come from all over the country, and the world, to Los Angeles, where they could find fame and fortune (oh, and girls and booze and drugs!). Which is precisely what a band of brothers from way up in Alaska did, moved to LA, made a handful of records, achieved moderate success, and then called it quits. That band was Pandemonium, and for us, they were THAT band, the one we were discussing in the first paragraph. A band that looked great, sounded amazing, wrote incredible songs, were ready, willing and able to go for it, who seemed poised for the big time, ready to sign to a major, play stadiums, tour the world, but for whatever reason, it just never really happened for them. And yet, they were always one of our favorite bands of the time. Their three album rank amongst our favorite eighties metal records, so much so, that when Andee and Allan, were planning on starting an eighties metal reissue label, with Pandemonium being one of the first releases (Rogue Male being the other!), Andee even got in touch with the band, and things were in the works, and it looked like it might actually happen, but then alas it did not. But at last, the band DID finally end up reissuing all three on hard rock reissue label Retrospect (who were responsible for that crazy hair metal festival Rocklahoma), and finally, these three records are available again, with new liner notes and even BONUS TRACKS, so after years of playing these records to death, and making tapes for everyone we know, and buying every copy we ever came across used to give to friends, we can now express out undying love for these records, so hooky and heavy, and like we said, some of the best eighties metal records you've probably never heard (or even heard of!).
Initially we wanted to make all three our Record(s) Of The Week, selling them as a bundle, since in our minds, they were sort of one epic collection of songs that we had been listening to all together for the last nearly 30 years, but then we figured we wanted folks who might not be that inclined to check out some obscure eighties hard rock, to give Pandemonium a chance, so we picked the first one, the one that made us lose our minds for these guys in the first place, the catchiest of the bunch, and while the band did get heavier, and less glammy, it's their first record that still might just rank as our favorite of the three, and really how could a record called Heavy Metal Soldiers NOT be our favorite??
Originally released in 1983, Heavy Metal Soldiers, their debut, and their first for Metal Blade, almost immediately catapulted them into the limelight, playing all the L.A. hotspots, with all the cool bands of the time, London, Ratt, Y&T, Bitch, Cirith Ungol, Steeler, Slayer, Warrior, White Sister, Leatherwolf, Great White, Wasp, in fact at one point, Metallica was opening for Pandemonium, which definitely spoke to their bright future. As did the songs, which were amazing! The band fusing the heaviness of '70s bands like Black Sabbath and Budgie with those hard rocking Sunset Strip bands with total pop hooks, a sound that immediately endeared them to the scene, the guys digging their heavy riffing, the girls digging the pop hooks. The title track with its haunting slow build intro, all shuffling snare and low slung bassline, and when it finally kicks in, the main riff is a killer, with a wicked galloping rhythm, and an awesome vocal melody, not to mention a drop dead chorus, which really pretty much describes all their songs, they really were like classic pop songs metal-ed up, heavied up, transformed into something super rocking, and while they looked super glam, their sound wasn't as fluffy and light weight as most of the other glam bands at the time (Poison, etc), and even with this first record, their desire to be heavy still managed to shine through, with the songs definitely striking a perfect balance, "Little Lady Lier" starts off with a woozy classical guitar intro, wreathed in hazy falsetto vox, before a quick build to a super chuggy riff, and more killer vocals, and another bad ass chorus. "The Prey" might be one of our favorites, total power pop in hard rock's clothing, the chorus an awesome slow build with a background vocal hook that will get stuck in your head like crazy. And then of course there's the sprawling apocalyptic epic "Radiation Day", about as doomy as these guys get, the song surprisingly dark, a super dynamic arrangement, and hooks to die for, definitely sounds like this must have been their big live set closer, epic and heavy and dark. And the thing is, even the poppiest jams, often explode into classic old school hard rock jams, with some amazing leads, shredding but also super melodic. And it's not just the guitars, the bass is super busy, and WAY melodic, often adding all sorts of texture and countermelody in the unlikeliest of places. And of course the vocals, super distinctive, powerful and melodic, with a keen sense of melody and arrangement, so much so that the verses are often as catchy as the choruses.
This reissue tacks on a handful of demos and alternate versions, as well as Pandemonium's track from the first Metal Massacre compilation. Also included are liner notes, tracing the history of the band by guitarist David Resch, loads of photos too. And sadly, vocalist Chris Resch passed away in 2007, even as the band was gearing up to maybe record new material. But what a legacy this record, and the other two are to him, his brothers, and the dream that almost was. And the records that were such a huge part of our lives, as a teenager, but also an adult.
Not sure what else to say, for 3 decades we've been listening to these guys, and we have yet to get tired of these songs, in fact the second the reissues showed up, we threw them on and have basically been listening to nothing else since. After all that, do we even have to say it? TOTALLY AND ABSOLUTELY RECOMMENDED! If you dig eighties metal and hard rock, or wonder what a NWOBHM band like Witchfinder General would sound like if they were from LA (via Alaska), this is a no brainer, but if that has never really been your thing, think about giving this record a try anyway, it's just poppy and catchy enough that you might be surprised. Check out the sound samples too, if you're anything like us, you might become equally obsessed.
And for those of you who think you might as well in fact want all three (which should really be ALL of you), look elsewhere on this week's list for a special three-fer bargain, and you'll find sound samples from the other 2 records as well.
We're making Pandemonium's Heavy Metal Soldiers our Record Of The Week, but as we mention in the review (reprinted below), we originally wanted to list all three of their just-reissued records together as a bundle, cuz they all rule, so for folks who dig that sort of thing, or are just willing to take the plunge, this right here is a specially priced 3 cd bundle, containing all three of Pandemonium's albums, Heavy Metal Soldiers, Hole In The Sky and The Kill, just add this to your cart and you'll get all three. And you won't be sorry. Worth it for the rad cover paintings alone!
A while back we made eighties Alaskan heavy metal band Pandemonium's 1983 debut album Heavy Metal Soldiers our Record Of The Week, and as we mentioned then, all three of their records were great, and we were essentially making ALL THREE albums ROTW. And most people did what we would have done, and bought all three, cuz they are really incredible, standing head and shoulders above what was going on at the time musically. But since we didn't technically review/list the other two, we figured we oughta just in case. For the folks who might have missed our review of Heavy Metal Soldiers, or who didn't buy all three thinking we'd review the other two eventually, well, here you go. First the lowdown on Pandemonium:
The history of music is littered with could have been's and should have been's, and of course what ever happened to's? We all have a favorite band, that for whatever reason never quite made it, or perhaps did make it, but never got nearly as popular as the hundreds and thousands of seemingly less talented bands that did. Unfortunately, it's never just about the music when it comes to critical and commercial success. But it is ONLY about the music when it comes to the joy of creating that music, and the pleasure of listening to it, and the fun of mixtape making, and DJing and all the various other ways we share the music we love. But sadly, that love does not always coincide with the ever important 'right time, right place', and of course, there's so much going on behind and beyond the music. Bands poised for greatness often implode, creative differences, arguments over money, tragic accidents, lack of support from a label, then there's the fickle winds of change, the ever shifting tastes of the public, and well as cultural shifts, be they MTV or grunge or radio or downloads. In some ways, we're lucky, that folks are constantly looking back, and rediscovering music that was overlooked the first time around, or simply giving people a chance to discover something that perhaps happened before they were born, or when they were too young to enjoy it. There's also the regional aspect, there was a time before the internet (did such a time even exist???), where a band could be hugely successful in their hometown, but literally unknown a town or state away.
Back in the eighties, THEE place to be a band, especially a metal band, was Los Angeles. The Sunset Strip. Motley Crue and Poison and glam and hair metal. Los Angeles was the epicenter, and spawned band after band, Guns And Roses, Faster Pussycat, L.A. Guns, Great White, and if you lived in Southern California, there were about a million other bands you could see and hear, all trying to make it big. And bands would come from all over the country, and the world, to Los Angeles, where they could find fame and fortune (oh, and girls and booze and drugs!). Which is precisely what a band of brothers from way up in Alaska did, moved to LA, made a handful of records, achieved moderate success, and then called it quits. That band was Pandemonium, and for us, they were THAT band, the one we were discussing in the first paragraph. A band that looked great, sounded amazing, wrote incredible songs, were ready, willing and able to go for it, who seemed poised for the big time, ready to sign to a major, play stadiums, tour the world, but for whatever reason, it just never really happened for them. And yet, they were always one of our favorite bands of the time. Their three album rank amongst our favorite eighties metal records, so much so, that when Andee and Allan, were planning on starting an eighties metal reissue label, with Pandemonium being one of the first releases (Rogue Male being the other!), Andee even got in touch with the band, and things were in the works, and it looked like it might actually happen, but then alas it did not. But at last, the band DID finally end up reissuing all three on hard rock reissue label Retrospect (who were responsible for that crazy hair metal festival Rocklahoma), and finally, these three records are available again, with new liner notes and even BONUS TRACKS, so after years of playing these records to death, and making tapes for everyone we know, and buying every copy we ever came across used to give to friends, we can now express out undying love for these records, so hooky and heavy, and like we said, some of the best eighties metal records you've probably never heard (or even heard of!).
Initially we wanted to make all three our Record(s) Of The Week, selling them as a bundle, since in our minds, they were sort of one epic collection of songs that we had been listening to all together for the last nearly 30 years, but then we figured we wanted folks who might not be that inclined to check out some obscure eighties hard rock, to give Pandemonium a chance, so we picked the first one, the one that made us lose our minds for these guys in the first place, maybe the catchiest of the bunch, but as the band progressed, they moved away from hair metal and that Sunset strip sound, getting darker and heavier, and who could argue with that?!
Hole In The Sky was record number two, originally released in 1985, and pretty much picked up right where Heavy Metal Soldiers left off, and while sonically, the shift wasn't super dramatic, it's easy to hear that something had changed, within the first few minutes of opening track "Eye Of The Storm", the vibe is way more sinister, the riffing distinctively darker, even the drumming, the sound seeming to straddle the more poppy metal of their debut, and the more progressive strains of speed metal, the guitar solos too much more fierce and intense, and while lyrically, even on the first record, the band didn't shy away from heavy topics, things definitely got more serious on Hole In The Sky (named for the Black Sabbath song, another indicator of what these guys were maybe shooting for). But that all said, they still didn't shy away from anthemic choruses, and big hooks, it was just that the vibe was different, "Look Of Death" on the surface, sounds like a fist raising head banging sing along, but mix in the wild solos, the cool minor key melodies, and it transformed the song into something else entirely. Then there are tracks like "Imprisoned By Snow", which definitely found Pandemonium channeling Sabbath, lumbering, almost doomy, epic and heavy, all of which is balanced by their killer cover of Trooper's "Boys In The Bright White Sportscar", but even that chunk of metallic poppiness sounds a little bit sinister here.
The perfect progression from Heavy Metal Soldiers, and the perfect bridge between the more poppy sound of that record, and their final, and perhaps hardest and heaviest, 1988's The Kill.
This reissue tacks on a couple of bonus tracks from their 1982 demo, which definitely hints at the bands heavier roots, even in the beginning, with a sound before the first record that was a bit darker and more brooding, but no less hooky. Also included are liner notes, tracing the history of the band by guitarist David Resch, loads of photos too. And sadly, vocalist Chris Resch passed away in 2007, even as the band was gearing up to maybe record new material. But what a legacy all three records are to him, his brothers, and the dream that almost was. And the records that were such a huge part of our lives, as a teenager, but also an adult.
Not sure what else to say, for 3 decades we've been listening to these guys, and we have yet to get tired of these songs, in fact the second the reissues showed up, we threw them on and have basically been listening to nothing else since. After all that, do we even have to say it? TOTALLY AND ABSOLUTELY RECOMMENDED! If you dig eighties metal and hard rock, or wonder what a NWOBHM band like Witchfinder General would sound like if they were from LA (via Alaska), this is a no brainer, but if that has never really been your thing, think about giving these records a try anyway, it's just poppy and catchy enough that you might be surprised. Check out the sound samples too, if you're anything like us, you might become equally obsessed.
A while back we made eighties Alaskan heavy metal band Pandemonium's 1983 debut album Heavy Metal Soldiers, our Record Of The Week, and as we mentioned then, all three of their records were great, and we were essentially making ALL THREE albums ROTW. And most people did what we would have done, and bought all three, cuz they are really incredible, standing head and shoulders above what was going on at the time musically. But since we didn't technically review/list the other two, we figured we oughta just in case. For the folks who might have missed our review of Heavy Metal Soldiers, or who didn't buy all three thinking we'd review the other two eventually, well, here you go. First the lowdown on Pandemonium:
The history of music is littered with could have been's and should have been's, and of course what ever happened to's? We all have a favorite band, that for whatever reason never quite made it, or perhaps did make it, but never got nearly as popular as the hundreds and thousands of seemingly less talented bands that did. Unfortunately, it's never just about the music when it comes to critical and commercial success. But it is ONLY about the music when it comes to the joy of creating that music, and the pleasure of listening to it, and the fun of mixtape making, and DJing and all the various other ways we share the music we love. But sadly, that love does not always coincide with the ever important 'right time, right place', and of course, there's so much going on behind and beyond the music. Bands poised for greatness often implode, creative differences, arguments over money, tragic accidents, lack of support from a label, then there's the fickle winds of change, the ever shifting tastes of the public, and well as cultural shifts, be they MTV or grunge or radio or downloads. In some ways, we're lucky, that folks are constantly looking back, and rediscovering music that was overlooked the first time around, or simply giving people a chance to discover something that perhaps happened before they were born, or when they were too young to enjoy it. There's also the regional aspect, there was a time before the internet (did such a time even exist???), where a band could be hugely successful in their hometown, but literally unknown a town or state away.
Back in the eighties, THEE place to be a band, especially a metal band, was Los Angeles. The Sunset Strip. Motley Crue and Poison and glam and hair metal. Los Angeles was the epicenter, and spawned band after band, Guns And Roses, Faster Pussycat, L.A. Guns, Great White, and if you lived in Southern California, there were about a million other bands you could see and hear, all trying to make it big. And bands would come from all over the country, and the world, to Los Angeles, where they could find fame and fortune (oh, and girls and booze and drugs!). Which is precisely what a band of brothers from way up in Alaska did, moved to LA, made a handful of records, achieved moderate success, and then called it quits. That band was Pandemonium, and for us, they were THAT band, the one we were discussing in the first paragraph. A band that looked great, sounded amazing, wrote incredible songs, were ready, willing and able to go for it, who seemed poised for the big time, ready to sign to a major, play stadiums, tour the world, but for whatever reason, it just never really happened for them. And yet, they were always one of our favorite bands of the time. Their three album rank amongst our favorite eighties metal records, so much so, that when Andee and Allan, were planning on starting an eighties metal reissue label, with Pandemonium being one of the first releases (Rogue Male being the other!), Andee even got in touch with the band, and things were in the works, and it looked like it might actually happen, but then alas it did not. But at last, the band DID finally end up reissuing all three on hard rock reissue label Retrospect (who were responsible for that crazy hair metal festival Rocklahoma), and finally, these three records are available again, with new liner notes and even BONUS TRACKS, so after years of playing these records to death, and making tapes for everyone we know, and buying every copy we ever came across used to give to friends, we can now express out undying love for these records, so hooky and heavy, and like we said, some of the best eighties metal records you've probably never heard (or even heard of!).
Initially we wanted to make all three our Record(s) Of The Week, selling them as a bundle, since in our minds, they were sort of one epic collection of songs that we had been listening to all together for the last nearly 30 years, but then we figured we wanted folks who might not be that inclined to check out some obscure eighties hard rock, to give Pandemonium a chance, so we picked the first one, the one that made us lose our minds for these guys in the first place, maybe the catchiest of the bunch, but as the band progressed, they moved away from hair metal and that Sunset strip sound, getting darker and heavier, and who could argue with that?!
The Kill was was the group's final album, originally released in 1988, and most definitely finds the band at their most aggressive, and the opening track, "Your Evil Ways" might just be a contender for favorite Pandemonium song EVER, which considering the competition, is definitely saying something. The perfect mix of incredible hooks, and seriously kick ass riffage, the vocals so powerful and the harmonies perfect, the drumming thunderous, and the guitar solos, how David Resch did not become a total guitar hero is utterly beyond us. We've probably listened to this sound hundreds of times, and even now, it's hard to stop and get into the rest of the record, but once you do, it never lets up. "Cold Night" is dark and dirgey, with another to-die-for chorus, "Last Star" also gets seriously dirgey, with some thick crunchy riffage, and still more amazing solos. The whole record, it's tough not to go track by track, but needless to say, this is the one to get if your tastes run more toward the truly hard and heavy. The band also tackle a couple of killer covers, Golden Earring's "Radar Love", which gets heavied up quite a bit, and Sabbath's "Snowblind", which sound soooooo good, and definitely gives an idea of where record number four might have taken them.
This reissue tacks on a a bonus tracks from their 1982 demo, the song "Pandemonium", which is another killer, and definitely has us wondering why it didn't make it onto the first record, a super dynamic start stop groove that has some of the craziest kick ass drumming, and another one of the band's hook filled surprisingly poppy choruses, not to mention, still more kick ass lead guitar.
Also included are liner notes, tracing the history of the band by guitarist David Resch, loads of photos too. And sadly, vocalist Chris Resch passed away in 2007, even as the band was gearing up to maybe record new material. But what a legacy all three records are to him, his brothers, and the dream that almost was. And the records that were such a huge part of our lives, as a teenager, but also an adult.
Not sure what else to say, for 3 decades we've been listening to these guys, and we have yet to get tired of these songs, in fact the second the reissues showed up, we threw them on and have basically been listening to nothing else since. After all that, do we even have to say it? TOTALLY AND ABSOLUTELY RECOMMENDED! If you dig eighties metal and hard rock, or wonder what a NWOBHM band like Witchfinder General would sound like if they were from LA (via Alaska), this is a no brainer, but if that has never really been your thing, think about giving these records a try anyway, it's just poppy and catchy enough that you might be surprised. Check out the sound samples too, if you're anything like us, you might become equally obsessed.
The return of thee only one man black metal band in the world!!! But wait you say, what abut Xasthur, and Striborg, and Leviathan, and... And you go on and on naming all the SUPPOSED one man black metal bands, but then we point out, that those bands are indeed populated by a single member, but they record like a band, one instrument at a time, the drums, then while listening to the drums, the guitar, and then the bass, finally the vocals, and they don't play live, because THEY CAN'T. That's what makes Pandiscordian Necrogenesis aka Lord Ephemeral Domignostika (also known as Mastery, the man behind the SF black metal monster of the same name, who have a double cd coming out any day now on tUMULt, and who was also the vocalist and bass player for Horn Of Dagoth), the only truly TROO one man black metal band, cuz he DOES play live, ALL the instruments at once, playing drums with his feet, riffing wildly with his hands, and of course spitting out some hellish vokills, and if that wasn't enough, it's all improvised, these tangled twisted, gnarled black metal blowouts are made up on the spot. Pretty incredible. Granted, some of the magic is lost on a recording, we're thinking a dvd or a VHS tape might be more appropriate, to watch this corpsepainted figure, hunched over his strange drum contraption, a snare with a kick drum pedal, and a bass drum with a DOUBLE kick drum pedal (he only just upgraded to double kick), while his hands flutter wildly over his axe, his contorted face spewing blackened vitriol into the mic.
But hell, even minus the visuals, Cerebral Quasaric Lacerations is some seriously raw and grim blasting blackness, the guitars grinding and superdistorted, the riffing frenzied and frantic, the drumming fast and fucked up, laced with flurries of double kick, the vocals croaked and shrieked, the songs dense twisted serpentine arrangements, this shit is definitely primitive, seriously lo-fi, and way KVLT, and the crazy thing is, even though this stuff is mostly improvised, there's some incredible riffing, some super catchy blackness, some impossibly tight vocal/guitar/drum interplay, the songs slipping from old school classic thrashing blackness, to twisted Black Flag flecked BM gnarl, and back again, spitting out classic sounding black metal off the cuff, the sort of shit most black metallers couldn't come up with after months in a proper practice space.
Gloriously buzzy and black, twisted and demented and about as true and grim as it gets, like the first, long out of print cd-r, another fucked up chunk of bafflingly brilliant outsider blackness.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. Each one hand numbered and screen printed, the cover a weird snake sword brain intestine thing on a smeared blood red backdrop that actually IS BLOOD. The whole cover is in fact soaked / painted in actual blood! It looks amazing, every one is different, and they all smell a bit odd, not dramatically so, but enough to know this is in fact REAL BLOOD. Doesn't get much more grim than that. We got nearly a quarter of the pressing, but if the last record was anything to go by, these won't be around for long...
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One man black metal bands are a dime a dozen these days. Heck we review one or two every list, and that's only a fraction of the one man bedroom grimnity going on in the world at any one time. Anyone with a 4 track, a black heart, and a rudimentary grasp of riffs and programming a busted up old drum machine, through the magic of the internet, can become a mysterious kvlt BM figure overnight. That said, there are plenty of one man black metal bands who transcend, some of our favorites in fact, Leviathan, Draugar, Xasthur, I Shalt Become, Striborg, Nekrasov, AmocomA, Moloch, Paysage D'Hiver we could go on and on. But the thing is, none of those 'groups' are truly one man bands. They are one man, and they are technically bands, but none are proper one man bands, you know, like the old timey sort of one man band, bass drum on the back, harmonica on a rack around the neck, tiny cymbals on the knees, squeezebox in front, ONE MAN BAND.
So as far as we know, there has never been an ACTUAL one man black metal band. UNTIL NOW. Pandiscordian Necrogeneis is the project of Lord Ephemeral Domignostika, also known as Mastery, the man behind the SF black metal monster of the same name (who have a double cd coming out soon on tUMULt) and who is also the vocalist and bass player for Horn Of Dagoth.
But in Pandiscordian Necrogenesis, Lord plays all the instruments himself, AT THE SAME TIME. Right foot plays the kick drum, left foot plays the snare, while he sings and plays guitar simultaneously. As if that weren't enough, all the songs and sounds here are totally improvised on the spot. WTF?? This shit is insane, and ridiculous, and incredible. Imagine a spike laden corpsepainted dude, sitting in the forest on an old rotted log, his feet pounding away on a kick drum and a weirdly rigged snare, his hands a blur on the guitar as he howls and shrieks into a microphone dangling from the branches above. Well, that's at least how we imagine it. But seriously, this shit is amazing. Frenzied and furious, the drums, a relentless D-beat pound, a sort of almost blast beat, the vocals sometimes a hellish croak, other times a demonic shriek, the guitar though, the riffs are incredible, tangled and gnarled, slipping from garbled chug, to insectoid buzz, sometimes soaring and majestic, other times murky and atonal, the songs shifting from stumbling blast to Burzumic plod, pretty hard to believe that one guy is playing all the instruments at once, AND that he's making up this shit off the top of his head. Most actual black metal bands recording one track at a time, couldn't come up with something this heavy and buzzy and grim and black.
Essential listening for the true black metal hordes, a brief, but gloriously blasting slab of outsider blackness, indeed performed by the only ACTUAL one man black metal horde in the world...
LIMITED TO 88 COPIES. Each one hand numbered with a printed insert, with liner notes / lyrics / packaged in dvd cases, the cover a cool tangled snake on a smeared blood red backdrop that actually IS BLOOD. The whole cover is in fact soaked / painted in actual blood! The effect is pretty cool an creepy, every one different, all with a strangely coppery scent, that will most likely drive your pets insane if you leave it out.
We got about half the pressing, but these will be gone before you know it...
While Esquivel, Les Baxter and Arthur Lyman are usually the first names that come to mind when people talk about classic exotica, for our money the leader of the pack should for sure be Korla Pandit. Filled with charisma and a quirky disposition he used his Hammond B-3 organ to create sounds that evoke the sounds of a haunted carnival in a mysterious section of India via a b-movie made on a back lot of a studio in Hollywood. Pandit is best known for his TV show which aired in the 1950's on KTLA and through syndication throughout lots of the country.
You got to check out Youtube clips of it right away, it's simple and stunning black & white filmstock zooming in on the beautiful face of Pandit as he wailed away on his organ, sometimes even playing two of them simultaneously. Adorned in a turban, a voice-over would introduce him and his 'Universal language of music.' While it was often believed that he was born in New Delhi the truth was he was actually born in Missouri and was truly one of the first iconic musicians to create such an elaborate alter ego. We love how Pandit's music was not just throwaway novelty fare. There is true mystique, suspense and playful uneasiness in the sounds he created. It makes so much sense that shortly before Pandit died Tim Burton made sure to get him on the silver screen for a cameo role in Ed Wood. It also makes so much sense that after his run on the KTLA show he was replaced by Liberace. While Liberace may have gained more fame and fortune, Pandit is the one who taps into the imagination and hearts of those of us who love strange and enchanting sounds.
Paul Panhuysen is the Belgian sound-sculptor who has worked extensively with the Fluxus inspired Maciunas Ensemble. In his previous works, he has transformed everyday sounds (notably clocks, birds, and here dot matrix printers) through 'rock' effects and results in nearing the drone supreme alongside Andrew Chalk and Jonathan Coleclough. In spite of the snobbish attitude that Panhuysen gives to 'rock' and 'heavy metal' pedals, Panhuysen has masterfully crafted dreamy repetitions of dot matrix printer clatter. If you loved [The User]'s "Symphony For Dot Matrix Printers #1," this is certainly one to check out!
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Rhodium 45 from the Table of the Elements. Paul Panhuysen is a sound-sculptor who has worked in the Fluxus / concept group The Maciunas Ensemble in producing some rather aesthetically stunning hybrids of trance-rock drones from conceptual frameworks that could easily give sterile results. His solo installations ('with' the Galvanos - semi-automated devices which have been programmed to subtly alter the elements of the installation) have generated dreamy golden colored drones from effects laden dot-matrix printers, Lucier-esque long stringed instruments, birds, and clocks. While this work could clearly fit along side the dronological investigations of Andrew Chalk or Arcane Device, Panhuysen maintains a decidedly academic view of these sounds with an underlying guilt over the 'rock' aspect to these sounds (mostly due to his use of electric guitars and 'rock' effects pedals). Hey, dude... rock is good. Your sound is good. What's the fucking problem? And better yet, what really is the fucking difference?
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Japanese guitar, bass and drums trio featuring our favorite drummer ever -- Yoshida (of Ruins fame) and it's just what we'd expect: short, fast songs with plenty of on-a-dime changes and ROCK.
Man, why hasn't anybody made this record until now?! Boomin' MTV style big beat hip hop with Bollywood samples and vocal breaks! This is so good. A few artists have dabbled with Indian samples in the past, but none have pulled off this not-so-unlikely hybrid as perectly as Panjabi MC. Take the crazy, exotic over-the-top-ness of Indian movie soundtracks, tablas and sitars, wild vocalising, awesome male and female vocal interplay, and the everything-and-the-kitchen-sink aproach of the Bollywood soundtrack (funk and jazz and heavy metal and lounge and country and soul...) with a huge, speaker rattling production, some rough and funky hip hop, and maybe even get Jay-Z to rap on a track... and you've got a definite winner. The record is split evenly between bumping, barnstorming dance tracks and brooding, hypnotic, slow-burners. Really cool.
Originally released on cd a while back, this latest sprawling blackened missive from our favorite anarcho vegan pagan one man black metal band, Kentucky's Panopticon, is now available on vinyl, and combines the material from two splits, one with Idaho naturalist black metallers When Bitter Spring Sleeps, the other with Canadian / Cascadian horde Skagos. The tracks from the Skagos split, which we had reviewed before, display everything we love about Panopticon, crusty weirdo mathy abstruse black metal, a buzzing blasting pounding onslaught of Pagan fury, rife with samples and all manner of strange sonic filigree. Beginning with a strange sampled folk song, simple percussion, lots of cheers and group vocals, very Teutonic, the sound finally explodes in a gnarled frenzy of furious blasting blackness, dense and brutal and weirdly melodic, an epic jam shifting from mathy churning stutter to frantic lightspeed buzz to loping post rock meander, and finally to shimmery shoegazey ambience. The next track shifts to a gauzy rhythmic dronescape, washed out and hypnotic, the drums sound programmed, stuttery and shuffly, while melodies unfurl and blur, the whole thing hazy and dreamlike, until the guitars come in, instantly transforming into some churning Neurosis like heaviness, breaking down at one point, to just super fuzzed out bass, drums, and weirdly tortured and effected vokills, before finishing off in a blaze of total blackened sonic chaos, which somehow manages to still sound melodic and melancholy.
And holy shit, the final track from that split is a monster, right out of the gate, an impossibly insanely complex squall of looped buzzing riffage and frenzied drumming, so heavy and dense and intense, over the course of the track, shifting to hushed soft focus drone laced with tinkling chiming melodies, to spacious post rock drift, wreathed in echo-ey shoegaze guitars and maniacal shrieked vocals and anchored by still more incredible drumming, grinding to a halt, leaving a just a strange sample of deep chanted singing, and a mysterious German conversation, angelic choirs, and the sounds of birds and streams in the background.
We hadn't heard the tracks from the split with When Bitter Spring Sleeps, but it's more of the same twisted folk flecked super melodic and mathy blackness, mysterious samples, woozy, intricate post rocky mathiness, swirling foresty ambience, the sound hazy and washed out, the first track super melodic and dreamy, the drums busy beneath clouds of tangled melodies, before suddenly shifting into a blast of murky blown out black buzz, which seasaws back and forth between melodic post rock and double kick driven black buzz, often the two bleeding into one another, the songs also occasionally drifting into folky strum, soaring classic metal harmony, and haunting piano laced ambience. The next track is way more grim and buzzy, but even at its grimmest, Panopticon still surprise, grinding to a halt midsong and unfurling soaring streaks of metal guitar harmonies, totally majestic and moving, before slipping into something a bit mysterious and mathy, before finishing off in a final burst of black fury. And the last track eschews black metal entirely, instead offering a bit of gauzy melodic drift, minimal drumming, warm fuzzy guitars, lilting melancholy melodies, more strange samples and mysterious voices, a very epic, Godspeed like slow build finish to an already pretty epic collection of twisted melodic blackness.
The tracks have been remastered, the records gorgeously packaged in a thick full color gatefold sleeve, pressed on heavy vinyl, a double lp mastered at 45rpm, and LIMITED TO 250 COPIES!!
We get a lot of weird black metal here, that is after all some of our favorite stuff, but this may just be the first disc we've gotten from an anarcho vegan pagan black metal band! We've gotten a few cd-r's from this Kentucky based one man black metal band over the last little while but have been waiting patiently for a proper full length, that we could get enough of to list, and this, Collapse, is it.
And it was well worth the wait, a crushing, expansive, super varied chunk of crusty outsider black metal. Rife with news samples, killer mathy and not typically black metal drumming, spidery guitars wrapped around the usual buzz drenched riffage, the sound not just grim and buzzy, but epic and majestic and melodic. The first song is nearly 16 minutes long, and shifts through more parts and moods than most black metal full lengths. The opening 5 minutes is all intro, or seems it, a lilting minor key drift in the beginning, a pounding blackened buzz later, all underpinning depressive newscasts, before the song really explodes, literally almost, as the blasting and buzzing and pounding is interspersed with recordings of gunshots and explosions, perfectly tangled up with the music so it's difficult to tell what's drumming, and what are reports from tanks and guns, pretty effective, and noisy and chaotic, the song shifts gears a few more times, from doomy plod, to furious blast, to stripped down bluegrass, pretty sure that's a banjo, maybe even some slide guitar, but weirdly haunting and twangy, and somehow it doesn't sound out of place at all.
The second track is another 15 minute epic, which begins as many metal tracks do with the sound or thunder and rainfall, before more acoustic guitar joins in, still more slide, very twangy as well, then the drums come in, and some chimes or bells, a strange combination, loping and folky and darkly mysterious, it's not until nearly halfway in before the track explodes in another frenzy of black buzz, croaked vox, frenzied riffage, blasting drums, building to a super noisy coda, before an outro made up entirely of insect buzz.
After another 10 minute blowout, equal parts menacing majestic pagan blackness and abstract drifting folkiness, comes the strangely melodic final track, all hand drums, bongos maybe, almost jaunty guitar melodies, hushed whispered vocals, minimal, but strangely distorted drums, all wound around a stomping murky insistent doomfolk outro.
Needless to say, way recommend, an exciting new variant of the ever evolving sound of black metal, one we definitely never expected, but are digging big time.
How does a black metal band from Kentucky start off a recorded tribute to his own state, a record inspired by the gorgeous Kentucky woods, with a percentage of the proceeds from the sale of the record going to help preserve said woods? Well with a Southern style bluegrass hoedown obviously, which is precisely how the latest from one man black metal band Panopticon begins, three minutes of backporch banjo picking and furious fiddlin', loping upright bass, but fear not, Panopticon hasn't suddenly abandoned the buzzing blackness, in fact, the second track "Bodies Under The Falls", explodes into a furious blast of howling hellish fury, blasting drums, buzzing riffs, shrieked vokills, but Panopticon have never been an ordinary black metal band, so that whole opening salvo is accompanied by what sounds like a tin whistle, giving it a weird folky flavor, and then of course the songs' furious buzz, blossoms into some serious classic metal replete with wild shreds and killer guitar harmonics. And whattayaknow? About halfway through, that opening bluegrass jam resurfaces, the black buzz fades out, leaving this lilting folkiness, which instead of disappearing completely, is sort of absorbed into the song proper so when the heaviness comes back in, it drags that bluegrassy melody with it, making for a cool final stretch that sounds like a country flecked black metallized Godspeed, soaring and epic, strings alongside guitar buzz, all wrapped in that strange little tin whistle melody. So weird, and so goddamn great!
And that bluegrass/black metal hybrid seems to extend throughout the whole record. The next track is a straight up ol timey bluegrass jam called "Come All Ye Coal Miners", and as much as we're digging this, we can imagine some metalheads being quite confused! That song too is laced with samples of folks talking about miners, and the land around the mines being disposable.
"Black Soot And Red Blood" is another cool black and blue hybrid, starting off with soaring guitar buzz, dueling clean/harsh vox, pounding drums, before fading out and leaving just acoustic guitar, over which plays an interview with a coal mining talking about the trials and tribulations of mining, that whole stretched with strange distorted echo drenched drum crashes, and then finally, the song explodes into another soaring black metal epick, fading out into the cries of an angry mob. Intense stuff for sure.
And so goes the rest of the record, the shorter songs, bluegrass ditties, the final black metal epic, furious and frenzied, but with a long stretch midsong, minor key and melancholic, a woozy shimmery bed for more stirring samples, the final two tracks eschewing the blackness all together, at least sonically, focusing instead on the black lungs of mine workers, and the black expanses of ruined landscapes, the first a cool psychedelic drone, the last, a gorgeous minor key bluegrass lament, called of course, "Kentucky".
Full length number three from Kentucky one man black metal horde Panopticon, aka Austin Lunn, hot on the heels of his split with Wheels Within Wheels, which displayed a much different side of Panopticon's sound, one that was all hazy and washed out and super melodic, a sound we imagine was tailored to WWW, the two bands sounding eerily similar on that split, and while some of that washed out loveliness remains, the sound on Social Disservices is more of a return to the sound of his past full lengths, long tracks, epic and progged out, tons of parts, grim buzzing blackness woven into psychedelic drifts, loping stretches of post rock splintering into black buzz chaos, and Panopticon is definitely a band with a message, we've joked in past reviews that he was the first (and only) anarcho / vegan / pagan black metal band, but judging from the album title, and the samples, which consist of crying babies, sobbing children, etc, the message here is definitely a critique of children's treatment by the system, and in the extensive liner notes, much is written about Lunn's first hand experiences with kids slipping through the cracks while working at a shelter. Pretty intense stuff, and that intensity is definitely reflected in the music, tense and emotional, dramatic and epic, the four songs woven into a distinct narrative, "Resident", "Client", "Subject" and "Patient", each song a constantly shifting narrative in sound, slipping effortlessly from frenzied black blast, to droned out drift, the drumming as insane and chaotic as ever, the melodies mournful and melancholic, the sound thick and lush and layered, with what sounds like strings swooping in occasionally, adding extra gravitas to the proceedings. "Client" might be our favorite of the bunch, after an extended sample of crying children, eventually underpinned by some ominous distorted drones, the song explodes into some super intense, and darkly melodic black buzz, shot through with all sorts of extra guitar lines, keening and melancholic, the whole vibe, so emotional, and darkly miserable, it's rare that a black metal track can evoke such emotion, but the whole song just exudes a sort of sorrowful vibe, that infuses the song with such power, and the various guitar lines and leads, are super catchy, unfurling even more sonic melancholia. The song eventually twists and shifts, more guitars layered and interwoven, the structure growing more jagged, more complex and intricate, finally fragmenting into some serious chug and churn, before the soaring dramatic final movement. Awesome stuff. And we're only two songs in.
The 9+ minute "Subject" is a whole other sonic story, a lurching distortion drenched doom, that quickly transforms into all clean guitar and echoey vox, before transforming again into some blackened post rock, super melodic, almost indie rock sounding if it weren't for the distorted guitars, sick vokills and black buzz, but otherwise, totally melodic and hooky and POPPY, the weird thing is it totally suits him, reminding us of an even poppier Lifelover. And finally, the 20 minute closer "Patient", which sounds appropriately dreary and depressive, a lumbering mid-tempo trudge, all melancholy melodies and sorrowful ambience, but at 20 minutes, you know there's gonna be parts like crazy, and Lunn does not disappoint, flitting from post rock, to dirgey blackened doom, to spaced out shimmer, to churning black blasts, to string laden melancholia, to epic soaring majesty, and finally to hushed psychedelic skitter, ending with two minutes of just the sound of night, crickets, wind, hard to say if it's meant to be a happy ending or not, but it's definitely a cool way to end a darkly powerful and sonically ambitious epic like Social Disservices.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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This is probably the weirdest band on Howling Bull. Chaotic, off kilter hardcore, mixed with sloppy funk and all out Boredoms-ish weirdness.
We're actually surprised it's taken this long for Jello and Pansy Division to join forces, as they both have been some of the loudest, proudest and most subversive voices in rock n roll's underground for the last several decades. While of course Jello Biafra of Dead Kennedys fame and head honcho of Alternative Tentacles has been around forever it made us feel a bit old to find out this release is in celebration of Pansy Division's 20th year of being a band. "Average Men" is the track with Biafra on vocals and it's a perfect match as the lyrics have the same kind of sarcastic and smart ass bite as so many of his classics. The song takes aim at those average dudes sitting at the counter of a bar or restaurant whose lives revolve around the junk food they eat, the bad beer they drink and the high class Hooters restaurant they salivate over. The 'b' side is without Jello and it finds Pansy Division covering an early track by their friends and former touring mates Green Day. Here's hoping Jello & Pansy Division crank out some more subversive pop together and continue to agitate those who need it for several more decades to come!
Pantaleimon is the work of Andria Degens, who may be best known as the wife of David Tibet from Current 93; and she, like many of Tibet's friends and partners, has contributed on occasion to the Current 93 cause. It goes without saying that the Pantaleimon project shares plenty of Current 93's inspirations from British folk music; but where Tibet uses those musical archetypes as a medium for mystical revelation, Degens' approach is far more impressionistic and delicate. Given song titles such as "Crystalline Rain," "Ascension of the Sun," and the title track of this 20 minute EP, the splendor of nature springs from her elliptical guitar instrumentals that draw favorable comparisons to the likes of Marissa Nadler and Steven R. Smith.
We loved Pantalimon's ep Cloudburst from last year but somehow we managed to miss the full length that followed Mercy Oceans. We will for sure make sure to try to track that down but for now on Heart of the Sun, we get to hear many of those songs retouched, reworked, remixed. The sparse, delicate hazy folk of Pantaleimon remixed? Don't worry there are no cheesy beats, awkward turntables or sloppy hands on any of these songs. In fact the first time we listened we had no idea that any of these songs were in fact remixes. Maybe it's because we hadn't heard any of these songs in their first incarnation. But wow, we were drawn in immediately. Andria Degens is making such beautiful and haunting music as Pantalimon that we almost hesitate to mention that she's married to David Tibet of Current 93, as her own music more then stands on its own. But if folks who haven't heard her before and are C93 fans check this out then the more ears that hear Pantaleimon the better!
While the sound is similar to the music of folks like Fursaxa, Grouper and Christina Carter, there is much more immediacy, focus and a connection to folk history in the songs of Pantaleimon. While less hazy then some of her peers there is a seemingly sonic mist hanging over her songs which stops you in your tracks. There is also a rustic quality in these stripped down songs that makes us think of Bridget St. John and Hala Strana recording a record together. Plenty of folks help out by adding sounds and ambience but all do so with much subtly and respect. Who knew Andrew W.K. could be so subtle, his tasteful keyboards are heard on the record's opener, and the list of other contributors/remixers reads like a who's who of the musical underground (Colin Potter, Andrew Lilies, Stephen O'Malley, Fovea Hex, Lilium, etc). Heart Of The Sun is becoming the record we listen to both early in the morning and then late at night as we surrender to sleep. So beautiful!
No time like the present to catch up with the past. We missed the boat on Mercy Oceans when it first came out last year but last list you might remember that we couldn't stop gushing about the latest Pantaleimon record, Heart Of The Sun, which was actually comprised of reworked and retouched version of songs from this disc right here. We're happy to report that the songs in their original incarnation are just as stunning, stark and beautiful as the altered versions we fell in love with on Heart Of The Sun. Andri Degens has really made a place for herself far above and beyond so many of the modern folk herd. What makes Degens so special is the way she allows her songs to breathe and the great attention paid to creating such a rich and textured ambiance, which runs throughout the record. There are some really nice and tasteful guest spots by Baby Dee and Isobel Campbell and we can never get enough of Andri's stunning and breathtaking dulcimer. Her voice and delivery continues to remind us of two of our favorite artists, Bridget St John and Sibylle Baier and the songs on Mercy Oceans resonate with such dignity and beauty.
Despite the incredibly dumb cover (white guy in boxer shorts dancing in a fire, holding a 40) this is a pretty decent new Pantera disc, harking back to the classic "Vulgar Display Of Power" at times, tho with a few "nu-metal" moments. Points for an album title worthy of the mighty Manowar!
We first heard Pantha Du Prince last year on his excellent 12" The Splendour, and we knew we had most definitely discovered a new important force in the word of electronica. With the release of his full length debut, he seals the deal, demonstrating for sure, with every song, that he's absolutely one of the most interesting, nuanced and unique modern electronic musicians today.
Bringing such warmth and emotion to his meticulously crafted songs, we're reminded a bit of early Four Tet and the first Mum record. Delicate, and brimming with layers of warm shimmer. There are a couple tracks which feature guests, including Panda Bear on vocals for one track, but to be honest we don't think Pantha Du Prince really needs vocals at all, as his songs are already so expansive, so complete, immaculately constructed, and so so evocative, allowing the listener to process the sounds in a wide range of ways. The vocal tracks are definitely nice, and do add a bit of a pop element, but its the rest of the album that really strikes such a strong chord with us. We're always so impressed when someone is able to bring such rich nuance and mood to purely instrumental music (electronic or otherwise) and Pantha Du Prince does it so well. It's also appealing that there's really not a quick electronic sub-genre to put him in, it's not dubstep, space disco, techno, etc. In some ways it reminds us a bit of that special moment in the late '90s when folks like Four Tet, Mum, Opiate, B. Fleishmann first surfaced, adding that emotional warmth to an electronic world which had been so cold for so long. We've been listening to this on constant repeat and the more we listen the deeper we get into loving what Pantha Du Prince is all about. Definite contender for electronic record of the year!
The second of two long overdue reissues from this outsider avant pop techno technician, whose Black Noise record had us all in a tizzy, and any hope of that tizzy letting up went right out the window with the reissue of This Bliss, the -other- old title recently reissued, and now here we are with Diamond Daze, the second out of print PdP jam resurrected in the wake of Black Noise blowing up big time.
And like This Bliss, Diamond Daze doesn't deviate too far from what we loved about Black Noise, in fact all three records form this smooth, flowing continuum of blissed out minimal techno skitter, bleary late night pop ambient chill out, moody synthscapes, and throbbing, pulsing drone dance grooves. The weird thing is, if you threw some vocals on these tracks, you'd have a huge pop hit, Phoenix, Caribou, that sort of thing, but instead PdP takes these songs and strips them down, leaves them skeletal and abstract. Synths buzz ominously, beats skitter and shuffle, samples are looped and twisted, and stretched into streaks of washed out his, or lysergic shimmer, the result is not so much dance music or techno, but instead some sort of hypnotic trancelike electronica, a sound more conducive to blissing out, drifting off, than shaking it on the dancefloor.
That said, unlike the others, Diamond Daze features some seriously fuzzed out synth bass, that gives much of DD a way more fierce vibe, and while some of the beats do bang and boom, much of the record is more of a whisper than a howl, the darker more minimal tracks sounding like Kompakt meets Chain Reaction.
Another winner, a gorgeous fantastic, dark and haunting and mysterious collection of electronic mood music, and yet another nail in the coffin of any sort of techno hating we had hoped to ever engage in....
Latest single from this master of lush fuzzy minimal abstract techno, who along with Actress, Glitterbug, Walls, and a handful of other recent electronic alchemists, has had us flipping out over modern electronica again.
This 4 song 12" features the track "Lay In A Shimmer" from PdP's most recent Black Noise record, a hazy bit of skitter and chime, laced with handclaps and low end rumble, it almost sounds Christmasy, with its chiming melodies, but it's anchored by some sitar like buzz and dubsteppy bass warble, not to mention a production that sounds like it's nestled in a bed of Oval Diskont94's.
That track gets a gorgeous reworking, which on the surface doesn't sound all that different, but somehow the new version is more lush, the beats more propulsive, there's more swirling buzz in the background, streaks of glitch and hazy whirs drift beneath the skeletal beats and woozy basslines, the first half is a bit more blissy, and dreamy, while the second half is more dense and layered and a bit darker, really quite fantastic.
The two tracks in between sound like they could have come straight off Black Noise, "Sonnesturm" is a thick sprawl of gristly glitchy low end drift, big bassy rumbles underpinning long shimmery tones and tinkling windchime like melodies, before gradually blossoming into some Kompakt worthy, pulsing and loop-ed, minimal almost shoegazey housemusic, while "Ursonate 3" also begins in a cloud of glitch and static, before setting into a gorgeously washed out, muted and minimal late night bit of low slung post-house throb and skitter, chill out bliss.
After flipping out over PdP's Black Noise record, a gorgeous collection of lush minimal avant techno, that owed as much to minimal pop music, and avant garde soundscapery as it did to Kompakt or Chain Reaction, we became obsessed with tracking down the two earlier albums, Diamond Daze and This Bliss, but unfortunately, both were out of print, and available only for way too much on eBay.
Then whattaya know, a couple months later and both get reissued, and both are just as fantastic as Black Noise.
The template is the same, spares, spare, skeletal, minimal throb and pulse, click and skitter, house music, techno, the template is classic electronic music, but those tropes get all twisted up and remargined as something lush and otherworldly, sexy and organic, This Bliss couldn't be a more appropriate title for this record, as it is truly blissful. Not so much geared toward the dancefloor, this is like after hours chillout music, but imbued with light and warmth and energy and emotion, propulsive, but also washed out, hazy and shimmery, the sounds are prismatic and crystalline, makes sense that this would get reissued via Kompakt, as it's a pretty perfect fit, but unlike some of the Kompakt stuff, that can tend toward the clubby, the sounds on This Bliss remain rooted in sounds more minimal, and more abstract and avant, besides the muted beats, the swooshing ambience, PdP incorporates soaring strings, epic and cinematic, tracks are given the impression of motion, the soundtrack to speeding along some highway in the middle of the night, notes ring out, chiming bell like loops are layered and allowed to drift into the ether.
On the surface, the sound is definitely minimal techno, but it's so well crafted, it ends up revealing itself as so much more on repeated deeper listens. This is the sort of electronic music that could reasonable convert the skeptical, lure in the non believers with it's lustrous nuanced sounds, and gorgeously moody mystery.
TOTALLY RECOMMENDED. We think it's as good as Black Noise, likewise with Diamond Daze, which we'll review soon, and like This Bliss is destined to join the other two records on non stop heavy rotation around these parts...
Leave it to Pantha Du Prince to breathe new life into the often tired world of remix records. It was last year that we became huge fans of his, thanks to the amazing Black Noise album, which was a unanimous AQ favorite and got us to dig into his back catalog and find so much more to fall in love with.
While remix records can often sound thrown together and all filler no killer, Pantha Du Prince keeps up his commitment to excellence and for HIS remix record recruited talented folks with a wide ranging sonic scope, folks like Moritz Von Oswald, Four Tet, Animal Collective, Walls, and Die Vogel. It becomes immediately clear that all these artists really understand and respect PdP's aesthetic and they do such a great job of subtly accenting it and giving these tracks a new sonic coat of paint. Another problem with other remix records is that they usually don't have their own cohesive flow. But these versions work so nicely with each other and most definitely create their own late night seductive sizzle.
FYI, the cd has 11 tracks, and but the vinyl just 5, hence the differing titles (apparently some of the versions left off the vinyl, appeared on other 12"s...).
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Leave it to Pantha Du Prince to breathe new life into the often tired world of remix records. It was last year that we became huge fans of his, thanks to the amazing Black Noise album, which was a unanimous AQ favorite and got us to dig into his back catalog and find so much more to fall in love with.
While remix records can often sound thrown together and all filler no killer, Pantha Du Prince keeps up his commitment to excellence and for HIS remix record recruited talented folks with a wide ranging sonic scope, folks like Moritz Von Oswald, Four Tet, Animal Collective, Walls, and Die Vogel. It becomes immediately clear that all these artists really understand and respect PdP's aesthetic and they do such a great job of subtly accenting it and giving these tracks a new sonic coat of paint. Another problem with other remix records is that they usually don't have their own cohesive flow. But these versions work so nicely with each other and most definitely create their own late night seductive sizzle.
FYI, the cd has 11 tracks, and but the vinyl just 5, hence the differing titles (apparently some of the versions left off the vinyl, appeared on other 12"s...).
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Pantha Du Prince was a revelation to us when we first hear his music, another instance of techno for folks who don't like techno, but with PdP, the sound was less beholden to techno music, and more a sort of techno infused avant dream pop, a concoction of electronics, warm melodies, bells and chimes and dreamlike melodies, which reminded us more of groups like Fourtet or Mum, that same sort of sun dappled soft focus dreaminess. And apparently, actual bells were indeed a part of PdP's sound, so much so, that recently, he began to perform and compose with the somewhat tongue-in-cheek named Bell Laboratories, a group of performers who play bells, cymbals, xylophones, marimbas and tubular bells, a sound PdP became so obsessed with he even had a massive carillon shipped to him.
So this new record is the result of this collaboration with the Bell Laboratory, and is essentially a symphony of metal, a sea of chimes and peals, in the opening track, delivered straight and seemingly unaffected, playing out like some obscure composition by Reich or Riley, but then as the record progresses, PdP works his magic, and begins to weave those tolling bells, the cascades of metallic melodies, into dreamily propulsive rhythmscapes, "Particle", only slightly removed from the opener, the processing subtle, but definitely groovy, the overtones drifting forever, adding all sorts of tonal color to the proceedings, it's like a music box orchestra, until about there minutes in, when the first sign of a bassline surfaces, as does a more obvious rhythmic pulse, a house music four-on-the-floor, that hovers amidst a field of bowed metals, of keening drones, the bell tones becoming more and more clipped until, they're almost unrecognizable, except for the hazy field of metallic shimmer that wreathes the dark housey groove.
"Photon" brings the bells back in, chiming over another woozy house music sprawl, the sound warm and rich, and again, the overtones drifting into lush, luxurious clouds of dreamlike sound, swirling lazily around the murky beat and slow shifting textures beneath. The record finishes off with another short bit of music box like mesmer, this one a dreamlike stretch of chimes, soft focus metal on metal, that is utterly divine and dreamy, but before we get to that, there's the nearly 18 minute "Spectral Split", which starts out hushed and delicate, spaced out and minimal, before gradually building to a sort of warm swirling, softly psychedelic kosmische, and then finally blossoming into a groovy stretch of warm, swirling, dreamlike house music, once again driven by xylophone melodies, and clouds of metallic shimmer, tolling bells, and warm rich reverberations, all above a blissed out trancelike groove.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Weird rock alert! Young and a little wet behind the ears, on their debut album this Portland, OR band Panther seem to be channelling the cryptic, kaleidoscopic eccentricities of Mr. Bungle. High on creative and imaginative spirit, albeit somewhat less proficient and seamless than that sadly defunct SF juggernaut. Freaky and a bit cracked is their execution of proggy, loopy organ and electronic noodlings and mainman Charlie Salas-Humana's rollercoaster vocalizing that alternately brings to mind Mike Patton and TV On The Radio.
New York City's Panthers feature a couple of faces that you just might find familiar - namely Kip from The Red Scare and Justin from Turing Machine. Red-hot, charging rock assault that reminded me of any one of the numerous seminal post-punk outfits lead by
Odd, the folks at the Soft Abuse call this "modern pop music", but to us it sound totally like late '80s/early '90s breezy indie pop. Ah, everything old is new again! Heck, the album title sums it up well. Alison Statton was the singer for aQ fave seminal post-punk-popsters Young Marble Giants. She's the gal with the sweetly unassuming, unadorned not always pitch-perfect voice. Other appropriate touchstones include Galaxie 500, Orange Juice, Belle And Sebastian circa Tigermilk or Aislers Set (or the softer Wyatt Cusick side of Trackstar). Despite their whimsical exclamation of a band name, their music doesn't make any sudden moves or dial up the volume knob. Nope, this is yummy strummy jangle pep.
4 tracks of sci-fi chill-funk weirdness in the same vein as his latest full length, Seven Seals.
It's apparent from Seven Seals that James Pants is one artist that does not want be pigeonholed. We already got a glimpse into his all-but-the-kitchen-sink approach towards cosmic funk on his Stones Throw debut, Welcome. But on Seven Seals, he takes us to a whole other universe, one where Vangelis gets high with Bauhaus and George Clinton while listening to Hawkwind. Seriously! And the weird thing is that it shouldn't work but it does! Pants is definitely exploring the gothier sides of new wave here with deep dour vocals but with an eye towards a dark retro-futurism and cosmic pop turbulence in the synth and rhythm treatments. Imagine Dam-Funk, Cold Cave and Neon Indian mashed together and broadcast out to a desolate planet where the atmosphere is really heavy and everything is silver, streamlined and egg-shaped and on the verge of being blown apart by cosmic forces. This is their soundtrack.
Here at AQ have always been big supporters of most anything Stones Throw puts out. We get off on the dense, sample driven rhythms and beats from the likes of the late great J Dilla, Madlib, his brother in crime Oh No, MF Doom and the rest of the gang. They're untouchable. There's always bound to be pristine production and everything always fits in its right place, reviving forgotten gems and bringing them back to life with new meaning, new avenues of sound experimentation. They are truly in a league of their own! But one thing's for certain, they have been known to go a bit leftfield at times, straying from the vein of deep, hard hitting breaks and indie hip hop tunes, as they're mainly known for, with releases from artists like the more vintage punk driven Baron Zen, spacey funk pioneer Gary Wilson, Madlib's brokenbeat soul alias DJ Rels, and now... their latest attempt, Mr. James Pants.
Straight out of Spokane Washington, James' Stones Throw stint began as a position as a trusty intern at the office headquarters in Los Angeles, until he was finally taken in by his dream DJ, none other than label founder Peanut Butter Wolf as "the next big thing", with a long awaited offer to release an album. He's a goofy lookin' dude that seems fun to hang out with, which could easily relate to the music he produces. Actually, a friend of AQ grew up with him and he supposedly has a shitload of analog equipment in one room, and the majority of the time takes a non directional approach, simply "jamming out" improv style and once the arrangements are all melded together they blossom into an addictive psychedelic haze.
That's pretty much the gist of Welcome, it's a James Pants one man band, jam session. Full of layers upon layers of percussion, at one point it can be mistaken for various remakes of funky Fraggle Rock theme songs, the next it's drumless atmospheres of milky synthesis, and warm tones backed with random drops of spastic and muffled vocal samples, like unexpected crowd roars and yelps. He even sings/wails a bit throughout numerous songs which at times sounds like drunken howling, surprisingly fused into blissful, whispered singing and creepy vocoded melodies. Cosmic indeed, each tune is saturated with unexpected change ups and transitions. The instrumentation is a melting pot of space-y and druggy vibes, wah synths, harps, dubbed out wood blocks, and the occasional off beat guitar riffs. Picture an enhanced drum circle on Mars with guest appearances from Bootsy Collins and Tangerine Dream, far fetched, yes but listen and see for yourself. Stones Throw described it best, comparing it to '80s Soul, Electro Boogie, Early Rap, New Wave, and Post-Punk Disco, definitely one to check out!
James Pants last record, Seven Seals was a favorite for some of us here and while we thought he was going to venture into some far-off new territory with this follow-up full length, we were pleasantly surprised, though a bit perplexed, that he didn't. The songs still ride the gloomy new wave funk of Seven Seals, but it comes across as something you'd hear from the Captured Tracks label more than a Stones Throw release. The feel is less cosmically thematic and instead concentrates on truly well-crafted songs and catchy pop hooks among the murky lo-fi synth filtration. He has mentioned in interviews that he was inspired by Twin Peaks and '50s diner sounds, and there is definitely a creepy retro edge to even the most poppy songs, with elements of dubby ambiance and occasionally ethereal vocals provided by Lucrecia Dalt. But the more we listen to this, the more we're liking it even more than the last record. Its haunting pop-funk transmissions take time to weave their spell, but once transfixed, it's hard to pull away!
The fourth cd single installment in Papa M's audio tour diary series means three more fine songs from Mr. David Pajo. As he notes on the back cover, the songs in this series were "written at different times in various cities and recorded wherever". Carrying on the Pajo tradition of earthy excellence, these songs ramp up from spartan and quietly introspective to all-out guitar jam. One second shy of fourteen minutes long.
Ahoy, fans of M, Aerial M, Papa M and David Pajo! A compilation has just arrived amassing a dozen of his assorted vinyl and cd singles (including his forlorn cover of the Misfits' "Last Caress") as well as a pair of previously unreleased songs! The liner notes are a song-by-song commentary penned by the man himself. Note: If you've been collecting his most recent numerically titled cd single series, fret not, those songs are not included here. Hole of Burning Alms is limited to Pajo's musical journeys from 1995 to 2000. Consistently wistful and lovely!
You know those super pretty, melodic parts of the Gastr del Sol records, but they only last for a coupla minutes? This record sounds like a whole album of that stuff -- so wonderful! Papa M is the newest moniker (following Aerial M, plain ole M, and oh yeah he was also in Slint and is in Tortoise) of Dave Pajo. This is very pretty music: plaintive, pastoral, neo folksy guitarwork along with modern touches of programmed percussive elements. Extremely pleasant; highly recommended; one of Windy's favorite records.
First in a series of cd singles from Dave Pajo, who you know not only as Papa M but as founding member of Slint, collaborator with Will Oldham, and member of Billy Corgan's new group Zwan. All three songs were recorded on the fly on the road, and are lovely and pretty and not at all throwaway. The first features wistful harmonica and hushed vocals that remind me of Nick Drake. The second track has this aching violin that approaches Dirty-Three-style proportions in terms of poignancy and tension. And the third is a Reverend Gary Davis cover, I mean really what more could you want?
A twangy banjo and a melancholy slide guitar dominate these six songs from Dave Pajo's Papa M. He also sings on every one of the tracks, a not-so-pleasant departure from his oft-instrumental work as Papa M, Aerial M, and just plain M. As lulling and pretty as Papa M's recent, stellar "Live from a Shark Cage" album, but not nearly as compellingly melodic. In the absence of liner notes to refer to, I am guessing that at least two of the songs are covers (both by Jerry Jeff Walker and/or David Allen Coe, whose songs Will Oldham has also covered). Indeed, fans of Oldham will best understand the quiet intensity of this EP. However, if you've never heard Papa M before, our advice is to start with "Live from a Shark Cage."
The tireless Dave Pajo is sure on a roll with his audio tour diary series! Seems like it was only yesterday that we were digging into the fifth volume (his delightful collaboration with Christina Rosenvinge). Now we have Six, and it continues along in a similar fashion -- male/female sung (on two of the three songs) glistening guitar pop. This time the female vocals come courtesy of Ms Dianne Williams. Sure to please Papa M fans everywhere!
Two new songs on this li'l single from Louisvillian Dave Pajo. It's called Songs of Mac, but who is Mac? It's totally not clear, although one of the songs is by a Mac Finley, about whom I find no info whatsoever, even on Google... Dave, clue us in already!
