The vastly different music groups Dengue Fever and Radar Brothers share the bass playing excellence of Senon Williams. He must be a very busy man -- both have awesome new albums out now! Don't want to belabor the point too much, but the contrast is remarkable between the international technicolor frenzy of Dengue Fever and the Pink Floydian space-rock of Radar Brothers. One gets your heart pumpin' and brings a flush to your cheeks. The other offers unwinding, soothing dreaminess (a possible point of comparison: an earthier Flaming Lips!). Both stir the listener to open channels and let go! Despite the implied audience and artist stage enclosure of title, the Radar Brothers' fourth full length is for roaming open spaces and star-gazing while keeping an introspective mood. No walls in sight. Simply beautiful.
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Mellow LA-based slowcore trio Radar Bros make some of the most emotional music we've ever heard. With super-plaintive, Pink Floyd-y vocals, creamy thick guitars, and hook-filled melodies, some of Radar Bros songs are so beautiful you literally have to stop what you're doing just so you can listen to them -- yeah, they're that good! Fans of Low, Half Film, Red House Painters, and Palace will LOVE this record.
Wow, out of nowhere (okay, there was a 10" a coupla years ago but we missed out) comes this FANTASTIC trio from Los Angeles whose quiet, mournful sound and plaintive vocals remind us of Neil Young & the delicate side of Pink Floyd. For fans of Low, Scud Mountain Boys, Radiohead, and Rex. Definitely a winner; we highly recommend you hear them.
While they are most certainly still very Pink Floyd-esque in their interstellar expansiveness, the beloved Radar Brothers' fifth album has what might be their most straightforward pop songs to date... and we're digging 'em! The mood is downright upbeat and breezy at times, but it totally works with the band's warm enveloping sound which also suited their earlier slow creeping melancholia just as well. The Illustrated Garden is a wistful instead of solemn listen, and a wonderful follow-up to their last full length, Auditorium. Songs such as "Rainbow", "Radio" and "Horses Warriors" are perfect for cruising down the West Coast on a warm spring or summer day with the top down. As always, recommended!
We actually had the debut tape from these Chicago fuzz pop garage rockers, released on the seemingly now defunct Plus Tapes label, but for some reason never managed to get it reviewed, which is a bummer, cuz this new 7" is definitely hitting the spot. You can now add another band to the roster of garage pop combos we dig, who like some of their sonic brethren and sistren, are channeling classic sixties girl group pop, even the vocals here, make, but high enough and reverby enough to have us thinking 'girl group' all along, the music is lush and melodic, fuzzy guitars and driving drums, chiming melodies, underpinned by swirling synths, the first track getting downright distorted and crunchy near the end. While the B sides is a short blast of fuzzy almost punky pound, with whirring organs, buried vox, and a super sweet chorus that must go over gangbusters live. Serious sing along potential for sure. Definitely excited to hear more!
First full length from these Chicago fuzzpop garage rockers, and it definitely fulfills the promise of the cassette and 7" that came before, the sound a glorious mix of brooding, organ driven drugrock, paisley underground power pop and Mikal Cronin / Ty Segall style garage pop jangle, with the sound shifting constantly between murky and droney and washed out, to glistening and dreamily majestic, fuzzy, crunchy and hooky, to pounding and propulsive, hints of new wave find their way into much of the record, reminding us of another recent aQ fave the Mind Spiders, but there's still plenty of that reverby jangle pop Phil Spector wall-of-sound haze that defined those earlier releases, and a definite tendency towards tranced out psychedelic memser that positions much of the record alongside the sound of fellow psych-rockers like Moon Duo, Wooden Shjips, the Spyrals and the like. Which of course also means there's some obvious Spacemen 3 worship going on (just check out the woozy dreamy druggy drift of "Disconnection") as well as nods to the Velvets ("Prairie Puppies"), and of course the current crop of similarly minded locals (Thee Oh Sees, etc.), but even with all those sonic comparisons, Radar Eyes definitely make the sound their own, thick low slung basslines, wild gouts of psych guitar tangle, churning rhythmic crunch, shimmering fuzzed out jangle, dreamy vox, big hooks, and be sure and stick around for the record closer, "Side Of The Road", where the band go full on cold/new/dark wave, all pulsing synths and buzzing basslines, programmed rhythms and deep crooned vocals, ominous and haunting and darkly sinister, sounding suddenly like something you might expect to hear on Sacred Bones or Captured Tracks...
Radboud Mens manufactures Brinkmann/Goem style post-techno monotracktion with a simple drum beat hammering an inistent rhythm, no bassline, just modulations of the chirps, tweeks, whistles, and of course clicks.
When it comes to specific musical instruments it's definitely tough for us to be won over by the alto sax. It's an instrument that all too often employed by those who have no business using it (think Kenny G, bad '80s pop rock, etc.) It's questionable use has made it so that even in respected jazz we almost cringe at its use unless its by one of the very few sax masters. So we knew immediately that this record by Carnatic player Prasant Radhakrishnan was something very special when it began with the sounds of alto sax. Part of it was the fact that the sax was being played in a way we had never really heard the instrument used before. Radhakrishnan's ability to bring together the disciplines of Classical South Indian music with Jazz is something he does grace and style. Equally influenced by John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins as much as D.K. Jayaraman and his guru Kadri Gopalnath, Radhakrishnan essentially uses the Sax to play ragas while his group adds violin and traditional Carnatic percussion to round out the sound. Now living right here in San Francisco, Radhakrishnan has found a perfect place to share his transcendent sounds with lots of open minds and ears.
We REALLY like Viennese instrumental glitch-groove trio Radian. This, Chimeric, is their first album in four whole years. And it's awesome. So it deserves a glowing review from us. We're having trouble writing it, though. The problem is, we made the mistake of going back and looking at what we wrote about their previous albums, and feel like we already said it best about 'em then, can't really top lines like these: "Y'know how in subatomic reality, seemingly solid objects aren't solid at all, but filled with empty space interspersed with electrons and protons and such? Radian's music is kind of like that, atomized, spacious, abuzz with crackling energy", and "There's a jazz/improv element as well, but rather than rock/jazz fusion this is more like fission, breaking down elements of both musics, and releasing volts of energy in the process."
See? Good stuff, eh? And those sentiments apply here as well. Though, it's not like this is just the same as Radian's earlier work. No, their computer-processed live improv post rock electro-acoustic sound (whew!) has definitely developed, Radian themselves considering Chimeric to be more "Free", though what they mean by that we have to guess, perhaps it's why this Radian record does seem rather more noisy, raw, chaotic, rocking, & heavy than ever before, though.
Which is much to our liking, as it brings 'em even closer to sounding like some bands to which we've compared 'em in the past, a "sliced-up Circle" and, especially, a "sci fi This Heat", that uniquely rhythmic British experimental prog-rock unit from the '70s, who are really one of our "touchstone" bands here at AQ that we're always referencing in reviews, always hoping to hear something new that reminds us of 'em (we're the same way about the likes of Comus, Goblin, Earth, Magma, Black Sabbath, and Circle too). Thus, one reason we dig this Radian album so much (and Radian's other efforts too) is 'cause we can hear a lot of This Heat goin' on here. This Heat gone electronically futuristic in some mad scientist's laboratory, that is... The fractured structures, jumbled rhythms, distorted guitar stabs, and rumbling textures found here are totally hitting the spot. We mentioned it's been 4 years since their last album, and it's about time. We NEED more music like this, thanks Radian!
Y'know how in subatomic reality, seemingly solid objects aren't solid at all, but filled with empty space interspersed with electrons and protons and such? Radian's music is kind of like that, atomized, spacious, abuzz with crackling energy. We loved the last Radian album, Rec.Extern, and are mighty pleased with this new one, another dose of glitch-happy instrumental post-rock from the Vienna-based trio of Martin Brandlmayr (drums, vibraphone, electronics, computer), Stefan Nemeth (synthesizers, guitar, computer) and John Norman (bass). Yeah that's two computers, and no they're not checking their email, they're integrating their live playing with computer processing and programming droning, rhythmic soundscapes of urgent beats and simmering atmospheres... Imagine the likes of Circle, Salvatore, This Heat, and Village Of Savoonga...all sucked into a computer (kinda like Tron) to do virtual battle... There's a jazz/improv element as well, but rather than rock/jazz fusion this is more like fission, breaking down elements of both musics, and releasing volts of energy in the process. Exciting, beautiful, creative, futuristic.
Buzz whir click crackle throb. Skittery drums, lovely drone. It's Glitch, but it's Rock. Post rock, anyway. It's the new disc from Radian, the computer-aided instrumental post rock trio from Vienna. Radian have previously released two cds -- a full-length and an ep -- on the Mego and/or Rhiz labels over the past few years. Now they show up with a new full-length on Chicago label Thrill Jockey, enlisting Tortoise's John McEntire on recording/mixing duties. Drummer Martin Brandlmayr lays down the fractured beats, bassist John Norman fills out the pulse, and synthesizer coloration is provided by Stefan Nemeth. And together they use computers to process their real-time playing. Hard disc edits, electronic effects, layered textures, done with a great sense of timing and placement. At times "Rec.Extern" is propulsive and rhythm-driven like a sci-fi This Heat or sliced-up Circle, at others it's atmospheric, the background radiation of a haunted laboratory, with the sounds of burbling beakers and hissing Bunsen burners quietly rising and fading. Sudden silences, sudden sounds. We like it when today's electronic artistes step out from behind their laptops to play real instruments, and Radian falls in line with the likes of Markus Schmickler's Pluramon project and Dean Roberts' "Plays The Grand Cinema" disc on Ritornell as electro-acoustic computers-meet-rock successes. We're also put in mind of the abstract sounds n' silences of Supersilent or Starfuckers (the latter who can be much more 'out' and abrasive than Radian), and recent Dead C. We certainly liked Radian's other releases, but "Rec.Extern" seems to be even better, there's just more to it. Recommended.
Huh, now this is a pretty cool, totally unexpected collaboration! Austria's Radian, longtime aQ faves who specialize in their own unique strain of instrumental, improvised, computer-processed post rock, have teamed up here with Tuscon-based indie singer-songwriter Howe Gelb of Giant Sand fame (both artists are Thrill Jockey alumni, that's probably the connection). So you get the desert-country-folk-Americana stylings of Gelb, set amidst the abstract, electronic, glitch-and-distortion infused, fractured soundscapery of Radian. Aesthetically & methodologically, this record is definitely Radian's; yet Gelb's acoustic guitar, piano, and especially voice are crucial components, spiced and edited into Radian's atmospheric, oddly rhythmic sonic constructs. It works really, really well, Gelb adding a very human, ghost-in-the-machine element to the proceedings, with his melodies, hushed spoken commentary and non-sequitur storytelling. Always intriguing, often moodily beautiful, with a sometimes-sinister undercurrent, this reminds us a bit of mysterious UK post rockers Reigns at times, also a bit of Bill Callahan's recent dub album, in a way. Highly recommended!!
Though we sold out pretty quick, some of you aQ-loyalists might remember a super killer cd-r we got awhile back from local guy Matt Erickson, otherwise known as Radiant Husk. Aside from also playing in the free-psych noise duo Sudden Oak, which is equally as awesome (although most of their releases are now out of print), Erickson has been busy conjuring a fantastic offering of ritual saxophone sorcery. In relatively the same vein as Terry Riley's alto sax work in the seventies, Beyond An Endless Swale explores the more damaged, far reaching capabilities of the sax. And despite any reservation you might have about the sax, take it from us, there ain't nothing smooth or soft about Radiant Husk. Beyond An Endless Swale will lure you to the twisted outlands of grey shorelines where distant foghorns coax you into hypnosis, improvised melodies hover above richly layered drones and singing overtones, reverbed sax riffs lull into the dreamy horizon. An endless journey exploring all kind of sonic territory, at times Erickson pushes his sax on the verge of fiery collapse, piling dense layers of blistering noise and feedback, bird-like squeaks and wails, only to let it all melt away into the soft-droning sky. All housed in hand made tape inserts assembled in a very limited quantity, this cassette is a gem and should really not be missed!
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Holy shit, 30 seconds into this mysteriously packaged cd-r from SF's own M. Erickson and we're totally sucked into his hypnotic world of saxophone, synths and other various droning devices. Long tones enveloping and luring us through the darkened doors of a stone temple, beams of light pouring from an ominous orb that hangs above its dreary entrance. Mystical, entrancing and all-the-while darkly sinister. Dreary loops that move in a rhythmic march while trembling vocals ring out from the bowels of an empty cave. If Terry Riley ever spent a year alone in the deep dark woods of Norway, the final product might sound similar to this. Forested alchemic nightmare-ish minimalism, perfect for fans of Bonecloud, Ghosting or even Expo 70. But be forewarned, you WILL be left wanting more, as this limited cd-r from Bezoar barely even lasts thirty minutes. Short, sweet and to the point, highly recommended and a must have for all those who bow at the gates of the mystic minimalism temple.
This band is in sort of a tough postion. But they brought it on themselves. As with lots of genre-hopping bands, Radiation 4 hop nimbly and deftly between two specific genres, but it just so happens that the two genres in this case, are like cats and dogs. Radiation is heavy. And I mean HEAVY. Able to spew grim shrieking black metal, and pummelling chaotic metalcore like it was second nature. And it is second nature actually, because they also indulge their Faith No More / Mr. Bungle / Mushroomhead, goofy, crooning, proggy nu-metal side quite a bit. Now we all loved Faith No More back in the day, but that goofy over-eclecticism tends to grate a bit. That said, Radiation 4, do both amazingly well, and those facets fit better than you might think. And it helps that this record is so goddamn heavy at points. But it you're unable to handle any Slipknot or Bungle chocolate in your black metal / metalcore peanut butter, you better pass. Otherwise, give it a chance -- Andee ended up loving it.
Radical Cemetery is actually a pretty awesome name for a band, and while we have no idea who these guys are, or where they come from, we're pretty into their tripped out zoner doom murk. Squlechy synth blurt, and rumbling, crumbling buzz, over minimal drum creep, and disembodied free-rock moan, all coalesce into some sort of abstract freeform doom-drone jazziness that besides the above description, is pretty tough to put into words, especially when the track explodes into something like the Dead C crossed with Daniel Higgs by way of No Neck Blues Band, which really, sounds like pretty good rock math to us. But which doesn't quite describe the rest of the record. The second track conjures up a sort of swirling kosmische shimmer, but laced with grinding clunks, and heaving thunks, a dark tranquility on the verge of collapse. And the track after that is all free jazz drum skitter, wedded to feedback shards and weird laser beam squiggles. The track after that is all lilting dayglo noise drenched slow-pop creep, a bit like a lobotomized Black Moth Super Rainbow dosed with horse tranquilizers, and then after than, we're back to another murky organ driven slither. The record reveals itself as some warped lo-fi, outsider drone-noise / free-rock chimera, slipping easily from minimal mumbly mesmer (reminding us at times of aQ faves Net Shaker) and drugged out brain damaged, sci-fi slowburn psych jams. But some surprises lurk amidst all of that. Like the churning guitar heavy dope-dirge of "Nice RVINS", the John Carpenter by way of Wolf Eyes, ominous synth dirge "From Musk To Defrog", and the woozy swirling cosmic underwater-orchestra mesmer of closer "Concrete Dunks / Heat Distortion". Cool.
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Off the top of my head, I can think of the Monks, Glenn Branca, and Eliane Radigue as some of the musicians who've admitted that their unwitting discovering of feedback profoundly altered their ways of thinking about music. Similar to Eddie Shaw's epiphany about feedback in his biography about the Monks, Radigue's revelation about feedback might warrant religious proportions, given that her meditative compositions led her to become a disciple of Buddhism. It was in the mid-60s, when Radigue was a protege of musique concrete legend Pierre Henry, that Radigue first stumbled across electronic feedback in the studios of INA-GRM. Unfortunately, Henry (with his unwavering insistance on the Modernist superiority of musique concrete) did not share Radigue's enthusiasm and Radigue parted ways to build her own studio that centered around the technologies of the Moog and the Arp synthesizers.
Composed in 1972 and 1973 respectively (though these recordings were made several years later), "Geelriandre" and "Arthesis" represent some of the earliest work of Radigue's maturation as a minimalist. While neither of these pieces appear to use feedback, Radigue's subtle shifting drones within these pieces mirrors the fluttering complexity that a feedback loop (when carefully controlled) can achieve. "Geerlriandre" for prepared piano and Arp synthesizer ripples with a melancholia through a beautiful chorus of tightly oscillating electric drones occasionally punctuated by the sustained yet muffled resonance of the piano. "Arthesis," using the Moog, is a more ominous affair, whirling back and forth between low end frequencies amidst a glacial progression of bleak ambience.
This album isn't only good for historical documentation, but also is an exceptional precursor to the dronological pursuits of current artists like Jonathan Coleclough, Thomas Koner, and Andrew Chalk. Highly recommended.
A much needed reissue of two magnificent pieces of Holy Minimalism from Eliane Radigue! Much of Radigue's classic work from the late '60s and into the '80s had never been presented outside the context of live playback, due to the simple fact that vinyl couldn't handle more than 25 minutes to a side without serious loss of fidelity. So with the advent of cds, the vast archives of her reel-to-reel tapes of very-long form compositions and stasis-oriented dronemuzik began to see the light of day well after the work had been completed and shelved. Radigue had studied composition in the INA-GRM studios in the mid-'60s and was one of many artists who became enamored with the potential of feedback as a tool within composition. The long sinewy drones of a controlled feedback loop became a signature of her earliest works, with synthesizers gradually enveloping those sounds with their greater control and tonal palette.
Composed in 1972 and 1973 respectively (though these recordings were made several years later), "Geelriandre" and "Arthesis" represent some of the earliest work demonstrating Radigue's maturation as a minimalist. "Geerlriandre" - for prepared piano and Arp synthesizer, ripples with a melancholia through a beautiful chorus of tightly oscillating electric drones occasionally punctuated by the sustained yet muffled resonance of the piano, anticipating what Brian Eno would present many years later on Thursday Afternoon albeit with none of the romanticized impressionism. "Arthesis," using the Moog, is a more ominous affair, whirling back and forth between low end frequencies amidst a glacial progression of bleak ambience. This album isn't only good for historical documentation, but also is an exceptional precursor to the drone-tastic pursuits of current artists like Thomas Koner and Andrew Chalk.
Originally released about ten years ago on Giuseppe Ielasi's Fringes, and Ielasi wisely reclaimed these recordings for his new imprint Senufo. If you didn't get it the first time, you should certainly pick this one up now!
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Accompanying a sustained minimalist drone from an Arp, Eliane Radigue incorporated segments of the Tibetan singing from Lama Kunga Rinpoche and English vocals from Robert Ashley. This is one of her many pieces in the large scale cycle of works based on the life of Tibetan master, Milarepa.
Much of avant composer Eliane Radigue's work dating back to 1967 has yet to be heard, as she would construct her long form minimalism through feedback (for the earliest compositions) and synthesizers (particularly the Arp and occasionally Moog and Buchla) to be played back on a reel of tape with durations often lasting longer than an hour. After an installation or a performance, she would box up the results and work on something new. It wasn't until the advent of cds that technology allowed for her work to made commercially available, as she was unwilling to allow these pieces to be sliced into 20 minute excerpts for vinyl playback.
In 1974, she presented 4 nights of her work in New York - three nights at Phill Niblock's loft (where the man is STILL hosting shows!) and one at the Kitchen. A handwritten invitation to these gigs is included in the liner notes, mentioning various pieces that are now appearing on cd releases some 30 years later. Transamorem - Transmortem was one of these pieces, now part of the reissue series spearheaded by Manu Holterbach and reissued by Important. This 67 minute monolith undulates slowly through a series of "waves in tune" (as she calls them) from her Arp. The strategy is very simple, but the choices Radigue makes are perfect. Her tones are primal and earthen, grounded in plenty of low-end that gives the impression that whatever notion of the eternal she is seeking to describe, it's located physically in the here and now. This is a beautiful piece of minimalism, certainly ranking with her chilling Trilogy Of Death and Adnos.
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Back in 1970, Eliane Radigue ran off ten copies of her final composition for feedback on magnetic tape, each of which included a small handwritten note. She intended for the piece to be played back at any speed and at any duration and either backwards or forwards. Given the smooth polish to her sustained drones that could easily blur into infinity, such instructions to her audience of ten seems quite reasonable, even if the tiny edition of 10 is far from a reasonable amount. Fortunately, the French sound artist Manu Holterbach (whose minimalist work is awe-inspiring in its own right) has been sifting through Radigue's archives and came across this incredibly rare document which Radigue originally released for the Lara Vincy Gallery in Paris as part of a group sound exhibition. For the cd repackaging of this lone composition, Holterbach curated a double disc of various mixes of the original recordings. The first disc being the straight versions of the composition, played back at the four standard speeds of a reel-to-reel tape deck; and the second disc being backwards versions, also played back at those four speeds. The longest version is a little over 13 minutes long, with the shortest being a bit under 3 minutes; and all four mixes exhibit variations in tonal colors and slight oscillating modulations not heard on previous mixes. The first mix is the longest, slowest, and thus deepest plunge into the Radigue drone, which balances an asymmetrical undulation of low end against a static vibration which sits a couple octaves higher than the super-low rumble and pushes a little farther into the distance. As the track develops, Radigue seems to be gradually increasing the tension of these pieces, as if tension were just a knob she were effortlessly twisting, but in fact she's deftly controlling all of the parameters of her feedback loop to cause such effects. The second piece clocks in under a brisk 9 minutes with that irregular hovering sounds more pronounced. The next two pieces are a bit over four and two minutes respectively, each brightening vibrations to a sharp resolution on the finale. Both discs exhibit essentially the same sounds, which might be accentuated if you were to play both discs at the exact same time. A peculiar excerpt, yes, but a wonderful record for sure from one of the finest authors of 20th Century minimalism.
Back in 1970, Eliane Radigue ran off ten copies of her final composition for feedback on magnetic tape, each of which included a small handwritten note. She intended for the piece to be played back at any speed and at any duration and either backwards or forwards. Given the smooth polish to her sustained drones that could easily blur into infinity, such instructions to her audience of ten seems quite reasonable, even if the tiny edition of 10 is far from a reasonable amount. Fortunately, the French sound artist Manu Holterbach (whose minimalist work is awe-inspiring in its own right) has been sifting through Radigue's archives and came across this incredibly rare document which Radigue originally released for the Lara Vincy Gallery in Paris as part of a group sound exhibition. For the cd repackaging of this lone composition, Holterbach curated a double disc of various mixes of the original recordings. The first disc being the straight versions of the composition, played back at the four standard speeds of a reel-to-reel tape deck; and the second disc being backwards versions, also played back at those four speeds. The longest version is a little over 13 minutes long, with the shortest being a bit under 3 minutes; and all four mixes exhibit variations in tonal colors and slight oscillating modulations not heard on previous mixes. The first mix is the longest, slowest, and thus deepest plunge into the Radigue drone, which balances an asymmetrical undulation of low end against a static vibration which sits a couple octaves higher than the super-low rumble and pushes a little farther into the distance. As the track develops, Radigue seems to be gradually increasing the tension of these pieces, as if tension were just a knob she were effortlessly twisting, but in fact she's deftly controlling all of the parameters of her feedback loop to cause such effects. The second piece clocks in under a brisk 9 minutes with that irregular hovering sounds more pronounced. The next two pieces are a bit over four and two minutes respectively, each brightening vibrations to a sharp resolution on the finale. Both discs exhibit essentially the same sounds, which might be accentuated if you were to play both discs at the exact same time. A peculiar excerpt, yes, but a wonderful record for sure from one of the finest authors of 20th Century minimalism.
New York's Radio 4 receive a heap of remixification on Electrify - transforming the funky, already danceable tunes of this clean cut, mod-ish post-punk band into gothy industrial-dance stomps and more straightforward techno rave-ups. Just like the Astralwerks remix album of The Faint's songs drew much puzzlement from these parts, so does this. Granted the remixers here seem much more aware and respectful of band and their original songs... heck, there's even a remix by The Faint! Includes five versions of "Dance To The Underground" (by The Faint, Playgroup, and hotshit producers DFA), one for "Start A Fire" by Justin Robertson, one for "Struggle" by Adrian Sherwood and Mark Stewart, as well as a video for "D.T.T.U." Although the DFA mix in particular sure is a tasty snakecharmer, as a whole, can't say this is essential. We'd definitely recommend checking out Radio 4's Gotham album first, if you haven't already. Now *that's* plenty exuberant and danceworthy!
On Enemies Like This, the Radio 4 boys continue their remarkable hybrid reincarnation of The Clash and Gang Of Four for the hip NYC party set. After the somewhat disappointing last album Stealing Of A Nation back in 2004, they get a little closer to the punchy sound of their 2002 DFA produced album Gotham -- that was a match made in dance-punk heaven. This album was appropriately and deftly produced by Jagz Kooner (who's that?! the producer for sleek dance-rockers Kasabian and Primal Scream), the guitars are full and sinewy, the vocals are sneeringly present with lots of hooky lines, the drums smart like the snap of a tight elastic waistband and the bass maintains a deep dub-inflected grooviness. No, not original, but very catchy and well done.
If you're expecting the total retro pop catchiness of Radio 4's debut album "The New Song And Dance", you might be a bit disappointed with "Gotham" (as we initially were). That's not to say this is a disappointing album. It's just that after the first
Pssst, we've discovered the recipe for the new Radio 4 album, and we'll share it with you: Combine 2 cups of The Rapture with 2.5 cups of The Faint. Mix well. Allow to rise for approximately 15 minutes. Add a generous dollop of Oasis, and a smidge of INXS. Aaah, all kidding aside, it does seem to be the pattern for Radio 4 that on each album they end up sounding very much like one of their musical forefathers/heroes (in the past it's been The Clash, Gang Of Four and early Elvis Costello). Heck, their band name is taken from a Public Image Limited song title! Granted they've done this very well, kicking out some really addictive punchy tunes. Their last full length Gotham and its predecessor The New Song And Dance (both on the Gern Blansten label) were filled with sharp songwriting and non-stop good times. Needless to say we were looking forward to this new offering. So, it's somewhat disconcerting that this Brooklyn band now sounds like an edgeless, house-y rehash of a more recent dance punk rehash (i.e, their contemporaries the aforementioned Faint and Rapture). What happened?! Well, for one thing there's the noticeable absence of the hot-shit DFA production crew which could account for some of the changes. All in all, it's alright if you don't listen too hard and just get swept up in the slick dance beat and groovy bassline. The album's thumpin' lead-off track "Party Crashers" has undoubtedly already infested hipster dancefloors across the nation (actually the bonus disc includes a bunch of remixes of this song as well as "Absolute Affirmation", some videos and a making-of-the-album documentary film in QuickTime format). However on closer scrutiny, Stealing Of A Nation sticks to the shallow end and doesn't really inspire repeat listens which is disappointing considering the efforts they seem to have taken to give this album some depth and political gravity. We'd definitely recommend (re)visiting the DFA produced Gotham instead.
It would be sooo easy to simply say "for fans of Elvis Costello...", but let's say more than that. Well done power pop with a lil' bit of emo thrown in the mix. Yes, lots of Costello-esque melodies and vocal inflections as well as some songs that sound like the perkier poppier moments of Joe Jackson. Seriously, when this release was played in the store, a customer even mistook it for some old lost Costello tapes. Really. Good though.
Hailing from Vancouver, BC, are these synth-pop youngsters. An almost eery rendering of the late '80s synth-wave sound (when these boys were mere tots). Think "Hanging Garden"-period Cure or Echo and the Bunnymen around the time of "The Cutter". Dark, mournful and moody.
Radio Berlin's new full length is a much tighter and more propulsive effort than their promising debut album "Sibling", but still retains the swirling, sirening synth and guitar sounds and lamenting, angstful vocals popularized in the early '80s by British
We've been lucky, with the resurgence of vinyl, there's been lots of "essentials" reissued on lp lately, and this is one of 'em!! As we've noted before (we're cribbing a bit from our own review of their 'best of' cd on Sub Pop), Radio Birdman were the mid-'70s Australian re-incarnation of the MC5 and The Stooges, lead by Detroit-transplant Deniz Tek (guitarist, songwriter, and later a fighter pilot and doctor!), and damn were they good. Being half a world away and several years removed from Detroit ground zero, Birdman's homage to their proto-punk Grande Ballroom heroes was no rip-off, their penchant for surf-guitar licks being but one point of departure. Other influences include VU, BOC, and Alice Cooper. Legends in Australia, they're more like an obscure rock footnote over here, but once you're into 'em, you'll be really into 'em!
This 1977 album was their first full-length, and a total classic (whichever edition you get, there were actually two with slightly different tracklists, this is the '78 overseas one). It includes their cover version of The 13th Floor Elevators' "You're Gonna Miss Me" along with Birdman classics like "Aloha Steve & Danno", "Murder City Nights", "Do The Pop", "New Race", and "Man With The Golden Helmet". Apparently the 4 Men With Beards who put this out like a little rock action now and then, not just beard-stroking jazz, folk and kraut...
Thank you, Sub Pop! It's about time these classic Radio Birdman tracks got a decent Stateside reissue -- this their first in over 20 years! One can always quibble with "best ofs" but this really IS pretty much the essentials: at 22 tracks, 70 minutes, it's
Comeback reunion album from this seminal '70s Australian punk outfit. Not bad, definitely better than The Weirdness!
LP number two from Sam Goldberg, aka Radio People, who traffics in the same sort of spaced out psychedelic synthscapes as other aQ faves like Mist, Emeralds, Le Revelateur, Bitchin Bajas, Gatekeeper, Stellar Om Source and the rest, weaving expansive landscapes of lush chordal swells, and shimmery melodic drift, wreathed in a gauzy thrum that gives the sound a distinctly retro feel, as if this really could be some long lost krautdrone artifact unearthed and reissued. Besides the cosmic synthscapery, the sound also borrows from seventies Italo soundtracks, and krautrocky new age ambience, the sort of thing modern groups like the Alps and Expo 70 have also explored.
Radio People does what he does very well, whether it's weaving warm swirls of synth ambience, kicking out the John Carpenter like jams or conjuring up gorgeous melancholy soundscapes that sound like they were plucked from old lost 45, or crafting creepy faux cold wave soundtracks,but what he does that no one else does, is SING. We really weren't expecting it, but on the last track, when the vocals came in, it really changed everything, warm and softly crooned, subtly processed and wreathed in effects, they add a wistful pop element to the proceedings that definitely makes this something special. The vocals adding a bit of emotion and pathos that can sometimes seem missing with all this retro electronic synth stuff. A pretty great record all around, and fans of the above mentioned bands will most likely flip for this, but that last track left us hankering for more tracks with singing. Here's hoping for a future record of creepy krauty synth pop from Radio People. But until then, this'll do just fine.
LIMITED TO 750 COPIES! Each one hand numbered. Includes a download coupon.
"Literature and Rock & Roll" is this spiffy digest's tagline. A good looking 179 pages, with all the production quality of a McSweeney's or Believer. Poetry, fiction, art, essays, interviews, criticism, this is indeed very "lit" but also music-culture oriented, with a crazy impressive lineup of contributors, including Greil Marcus, Rick Moody, Carrie Brownstein, Daniel Handler, Lucinda Williams, Patrick and Tobias Wolff, and Ian MacKaye.
It being that time of year, this could be a great stocking-stuffer for the more bookish music nerds on your list.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Yet another installment of Table Of The Elements massive Lanthinides anniversary series of single sided silkscreened 12"s, this time, from the duo of Barbara Ess and Peggy Awesh, known collectively as Radio / Guitar. I remember hearing a record of theirs a while back, but I certainly don't remember it being as good as this! The first half is a dreamy and otherworldly murkscape of muted guitar, simply strummed with a creepy out of tune Jandek-ian warble, buried beneath a swirling fog of radio static, modulated shortwave, an all manner of transmitter interference, fuzz, hiss and beeps. Occasionally the whole thing locks into an absolutely mesmerising Philip Jeck style loop, all fuzzy and grey. The second half begins as a much noisier affair: radio broadcast snippets and a thick wash of grainy sonic detritus, throbbing and reverberating, while barely-there melodies swell underneath desperately trying to break the surface. This chaos solidifies into a rhythmic pulse, droning and beating, but eventually settling into a rough repeating loop of scratchy radiofuzz, stuttering glitches and melancholy melodies materialising from the ether. Swirling white cloud like formations silkscreened on clear vinyl. Nice!
The highly anticipated companion album to "Kid A", "Amnesiac" should not disappoint those who picked up last year's release. Many are sure to write this one off as "more of the same" and to be sure, the production quality, as well as the electronica laden
On "Amnesiac" as on "Kid A," Radiohead finds inspiration in electronica, especially the hard-disk crunch of Lesser or Kid 606, and the slippages of melody and rhythm that occur in minimalist techno where there is no bridge, chorus, verse structure, only modulations and transformations of a sequence of leitmotifs. When applying electronica to their pop sensibility, Radiohead do not lace a pre-existing pop song with a slinky house groove; rather they write a pop song as if it were electronica. Thom Yorke's vocals meander through each of the tracks as if some piece of granular synthesis found on Chain Reaction. Which isn't to say that Radiohead are simply jumping on the electronica bandwagon. With "Amnesiac" Radiohead use the studio and its limitless resources to do much more; like emulating an early jazz vocalist like Billy Holiday in "You And Whose Army?", or including a seemingly incongruous New Orleans-esque drunken horn section at the end of the album for "Life In Glass Houses." As always, totally breathtaking.
We are often jealous of how much cool stuff there is in Japan, they even got a Radiohead record a few years ago that wasn't available here in the states...until now. Com Lag is a collection of b-sides, remixes (by Christian Vogel and Four Tet!) and live tracks recorded around the time of Hail To The Thief. While we all wait with giddy anticipation for the next Radiohead album (hurry up guys it's been 4 years!!!) this has been giving us a nice Radiohead fix. It's easy to forget that when it comes right down to it, these guys are just a totally great band who also just so happen to be quite popular and famous. A must have for all Radiohead fans!
What needs to be said about the new Radiohead? One of the few bands that manages to captivate the avant garde as well as having massive pop/MTV appeal. Most of you already want this anyway. Or already have it. And you should. Because it's great.
Seems like now that Radiohead have gone through all the different 'rock' stages, typical angst filled rock band, experimental critical darlings, electronic/rock avantgarde hybrid whatever, they're now ready to settle down and make music simply because they love making music. And write songs. Songs that can be played by a rock band and that don't need a million dollars and a bank of computers to sound the way they're supposed to. Allan thinks it sounds like a mix of the "new" electric Radiohead and the old rock Radiohead which pretty much sums it up. I think it's pretty much unanimous around here. A great new record from one of our favorite bands, with enough experimental bits to keep it interesting, but enough good songwriting to even lure back some of you folks who jumped ship in search of less challenging fare after The Bends.
Now for Byram's two cents on a related subject:
You know by the time this record came out I'd pretty much gotten sick of it by listening to the supposed "rough mixes" that had been floating around the web these past several months. And while I was thoroughly familiar with the album by its official release date, sucker that I am, I picked it up anyway and will continue to listen to it at home. It's a testament to the fact that it's not filesharing that's destroying the music industry (remember home taping?) but shitty record labels putting out crappy new albums (Madonna, Creed et al) and expecting us all to pay top dollar to boot. And if file sharing is indeed hampering sales, then once you factor in that loss, then I bet you Hail To The Thief's total for its first week would have most certainly topped Metallica's phenomenal totals.
Special wallet/poster version. Dunno if it's really any better than the jewel case one, but it says "Special Edition" right on it, and it's VERY LIMITED. In fact, we might not have any by Saturday night! (So if you order this one and they're gone, we'll just send you the regular unless you specify not to.)
What needs to be said about the new Radiohead? One of the few bands that manages to captivate the avant garde as well as having massive pop/MTV appeal. Most of you already want this anyway. Or already have it. And you should. Because it's great.
Seems like now that Radiohead have gone through all the different 'rock' stages, typical angst filled rock band, experimental critical darlings, electronic/rock avantgarde hybrid whatever, they're now ready to settle down and make music simply because they love making music. And write songs. Songs that can be played by a rock band and that don't need a million dollars and a bank of computers to sound the way they're supposed to. Allan thinks it sounds like a mix of the "new" electric Radiohead and the old rock Radiohead which pretty much sums it up. I think it's pretty much unanimous around here. A great new record from one of our favorite bands, with enough experimental bits to keep it interesting, but enough good songwriting to even lure back some of you folks who jumped ship in search of less challenging fare after The Bends.
Now for Byram's two cents on a related subject:
You know by the time this record came out I'd pretty much gotten sick of it by listening to the supposed "rough mixes" that had been floating around the web these past several months. And while I was thoroughly familiar with the album by its official release date, sucker that I am, I picked it up anyway and will continue to listen to it at home. It's a testament to the fact that it's not filesharing that's destroying the music industry (remember home taping?) but shitty record labels putting out crappy new albums (Madonna, Creed et al) and expecting us all to pay top dollar to boot. And if file sharing is indeed hampering sales, then once you factor in that loss, then I bet you Hail To The Thief's total for its first week would have most certainly topped Metallica's phenomenal totals.
