Shards of sharp, echo-effected guitar build repetitively throughout the four songs found on "Fever", the darkly shimmering half-hour-long debut cd ep by an enigmatic Polish duo that call themselves Rope (and now live in Chicago, we believe). Przemyslaw Drazek's beautiful but unsettling skin-crawl guitar chime is underpinned by the pulsing bass guitar and deep, whispered vocals of Robert Iwank. The 6 and 12 string guitarwork on here sometimes reaches shrill peaks of intensity that recall the violins in Bernard Hermann's "Psycho" score. You know, the shower scene. Stabbing, stabbing! Yet the duo's drumless soundscapes are also overall quiet and lovely. Recorded in Warsaw and previously released on cassette via a Polish label, "Fever" is creepy, almost gothic (in a Swans sense) post-rock from the former Eastern bloc. The only comparisons we can make are hopelessly obscure and probably misleading: say, imagine Ulan Bator or Larsen with a restrained Keiji Haino on guitar. Hmm? Mysterious & moody, at any rate.
Second full-length album by this dark and difficult avant-rock band, originally from Poland though now based in Chicago. This album consists of quietly creepy, whispery post-rock, abstract jazz-flecked soundscapes riven by anguished, loud outbursts of emotive vocals and guitar skree. Imagine Smolken of Dead Raven Choir (another Polish expat) fronting Oxbow... Or a moodier, malevolent US Maple with Keiji Haino sitting in. And on four of the tracks here, this sounds even more akin to Oxbow, because Oxbow's vocalist Eugene Robinson takes a guest turn at the mic. Intense!
Rope's "It's No Fun To Compute" is his second album for Alec Empire's oddball label Geist. This Berlin outfit specializes in layered electronica wackiness not unlike Blechtum from Blechdom. Digitally disfigured funk grooves, swanky French pop, stolen conversations via scanner, loopy downtempo breakbeats, tinny production techniques, and an excess of wildly shifting effects make up the majority of the knob twiddling excitement. A vast improvement over his previous record which was way too heavy on the Tortoise/post rock.
Expatriate Polish post-rock act Rope are all about generating an atmosphere, and it's a creepy one, though quite arty. We liked their debut ep Fever, and this full-length delivers more of the same, and more besides as they've added more instrumentation (drums, piano, saxophone) to the bass and guitar previously employed. Furthermore, as if to evoke the widow of the title, there's some wordless soprano female fake 20th-century classical vox to compliment the throat-constricted whispery vocals of bassist Robert Iwanik, who sounds not unlike a sinister version of US Maple's Al Johnson. We're also reminded of Alan Dubin's Khanate croakings. Indeed, though far from black metal, this has some of that sort of vibe. It's spooky stuff, as if the music is lurking in the dark, bursting in brittle sheets to threaten the listener, even as the lulls soothe one into a trance. Washes of cymbals and jagged guitar offer no mercy, and even when the volume gets intense, the menace seems more mental than physical. Some may find this sort of thing, the female vocals in particular, too gothically-academically pretentious, but for others it will quite effectively set a mood and hold your musical interest as well. Spaciously recorded with a large, empty live reverby room sound by Steve Albini in Chicago, where Rope currently reside.
Rorschach, for those of you that don't know, were THE hardcore band of the early nineties. Seminal, influential and completely amazing. Furious and pummelling, political and totally kick ass. The singer went on to start super hip, post hardcore indie label
A new cd-r from yet another mysterious New Zealand noise drone outift, the only thing we know for sure is that one of the Invaders was also at one time one of the Double Leopards! And it sounds like it. Two twenty something minute tracks of murky lowend explorations, wide expanses of barely there thrum, distorted fuzz, simple random percussive clomps, amp buzz, random guitar twang and pluck, occasional mournful melodies, simple strumming, and lots of random sonic clutter, voices and footsteps, shuffling and flitting about. Sounds a bit like the Dead C setting up, or Birchville Cat Motel breaking down. Drifting and meandering, haunting and intimate, creepy and weirdly pretty.
SUPER LIMITED AS ALWAYS!! NOT SURE WE'LL BE ABLE TO GET MORE WHEN THESE ARE GONE!
This new vinyl (+cd) release from the consistently winning experimental label Utech comes from an artist we weren't previously familiar with, by the name of Frank Rosaly. We think he's based in Chicago, but aren't even sure about that. And it's a little hard to describe his music, as documented here, but we'll try, 'cause as soon as we heard this record, we could tell it was right up our alley. There's two long tracks here, about 15 minutes per side, apparently created/composed using a highly conceptual process, yet the results are much more than of academic interest, they're quite compelling and original, we think any adventurous listener will agree. Utech somewhat drily describes the genesis of Centering And Displacement thusly: "A body of improvised source material was collected, segmented and organized by a simple chance operation. These segments were then orchestrated into a sound program and arranged by order of the strict composed form. At times, the score also regulated post-recorded effects to manipulate the original material. As the material was edited, it was divided into six separate channels (three stereo tracks). Each pair of channels was transferred to a cd and each was played on three cd players simultaneously, creating a simple six-channel sound installation� the dense six-channel score was revised and reduced to two channels (one stereo track), which is now the final, preferred version."
Ok, but what does it sound like? How about a gamelan (or a recording of one) that's been all crumpled up, then unfolded and stretched out? Or, less fancifully, like a one-man electro-acoustic improv session on drums, percussion, and electronics (which IS what this is), subjected to the operations described above, in such a way as to strike a balance between abrasive, abstract textures and more hypnotic, if unusual and damaged, quasi-rhythmic soundscapes. Like we said, right up our alley!
It begins, on side one, with a low thunderous rumbling, like a magnified burst of record crackle. And such startling, ominous blown-out barrages of distortion continue intermittently throughout this first track, sounding like the breath of an expiring monster, sighing heavily amidst tinkling percussive jumble and crash, with pauses for silence� these tumbling spasms then steady and flow into what sound like masses of clattering chimes, a soundscape above which a recurring three-note motif (on synth? vibraphone?) is heard. That, in fact, reminded us of the incredible soundtrack to the 1971 movie Klute, sinister and suspenseful. There's electronics that sound like bird-twitter here too, and it's all very atmospheric, far from a mere experimental compositional exercise.
The second side/track continues with that atmospheric vibe, being a twilight soundscape of distant airplane engine drones, with more up-front textural scraping and bell ringing tones, that eventually coalesces into a softly thrumming humming pulse, over which a very gentle clitter-clatter of percussion drifts. Quite lovely and mesmeric, it is. The clank and rattle builds towards the end, as does the pulsation, becoming more insistent and dramatic, but still relatively mild as such things could be imagined, before a sudden whistling finale.
Inspired (we're merely guessing) equally by '60s/'70s out-there free improv (stuff on FMP, BYG) and also Industrial music's infamous "pipe-fighting" techniques, Rosaly's music has moments that may remind you of No Neck Blues Band, of Will Over Matter, of Supersilent, of Pierre-Yves Mace, of Aufgehoben, and other disparate and unusual and sometimes counter-intuitive but fascinating music-and-noise-makers. This is really pretty great. And, LIMITED TO 300 COPIES. Note, the lp comes packaged with a compact disc version of the album as well, which is always a nice touch (much preferable to a mere download card, we think).
The Sun Dogs is the debut full length from this this Northwestern outfit, who weave Eastern tinged slow burn psych and brooding post metal smolder and fluttery sun dappled hippie folk into something dreamily druggy and pretty goddamn great. The opener is a slow burn drift of buzzing drones, dusky acoustic guitar shimmer, distant swirling synths, fluttering flute, all laced with some country-ish twang, and some super distinctive vox, a woozy seventies style psych folk that definitely pushes all our buttons. At this point we were still expecting the whole record to be sort of fuzzy and folky, but then the second track, "Native Dreams", unleashes some big drums, and some seriously thick fuzzed out guitars, not to mention more flutes, synths, and some sinewy low slung bass. Organs whirr psychedelically in the background, while over the top, Eastern snake charmer melodies shimmer and slither, the vocals high and keening, reminding us of Janes Addiction actually, which much of The Sun Dogs does, the heavier tracks here all have a sort of Janes Addiction vibe, albeit a bit folkier, with the flutes, and plenty of swirly sitar like buzz. Mix in some Psychic Ills, Dead Meadow or Black Mountain, and we're talking some heavy stoner psych folk bliss out for sure.
The slower/mellower tracks have a definite hippie folk feel, and hints of more modern retro beardo folk a la Fleet Foxes, but even then, the vocalists keening plaintive croon, and the sort of swaggery swing, sets Rose Windows apart from their bearded brethren. And it's that classic rock swagger, a little Zeppelin, a little Terry Reid (the vocals for sure) wedded to the more strummy, fluttery folkiness, that make Rose Windows a strange sonic hybrid. Check out "This Shroud", an organ driver slow psych groove, all tangled spidery leads over warm organ thrum, and steel string shimmer, those Perry Farrell like vocals, the Eastern melodies, the distorted buzz, the fuzzy riff, the big booming drums, and finally the flutes swooping in, for a seriously fierce hard rocking psychedelic heavy riffing finale that sounds like a heavier, more classic rocking Bardo Pond, which is not a bad thing at all.
A strange record for sure, but one we find ourselves listening to constantly, a definite new aQ fave for sure.
FYI it's on vinyl too but Sup Pop has to repress (soon) 'cause they were all warped!
On this week's list we've got the sophomore efforts from two Sub Pop artists we like a lot, and along with Metz's II, we're digging the second album from these spaced out psychedelic hard rocking freak folks, whose sound has only gotten better the second time around. The opening track is so good it was tough to dig any deeper, the sound starting out like more recent Earth outings, sort of windswept and desert-y, all hazy, languorous twang and moody minor key shimmer, which is transformed when the vocals come in, into what sounds a bit like a more distorted, hard rocking Fleet Foxes, and then the song shifts again, blossoming into this harmonies psychedelic folk, all tangled little guitar figured, sweet harmonies, and lovely female vocals, the vibe is equal parts classic Southern rock, freak folk and bearded psych, and if that doesn't sound good to you for some reason, trust us, it does.
And like on the first record, the band don't shy away from heaviness, launching into a weird seventies sounding groover, complete with Frampton style voice box, but when Rabia Shaheen Qazi steps up to the mic, her vocals turn the track into some cool swaggery hippy hard rock, sort of witchy, reminding us of groups like Ruby The Hatchet, Blood Ceremony, and Royal Thunder, but with way more of a classic rock vibe. Which is pretty much how the rest of the record unwinds, equal parts hippy folk, seventies psych, witchy hard rock, that definitely out-retros their debut, but it's a sound they seem to have grown into, and one that suits them even more, a fuzzy hard rocking blooze, that's still plenty psychedelic, occasionally doomy, but pretty goddamn great throughout.
As if we weren't totally blown away by their first release, Aja Rose and Gabriel Saloman (who is one half of the late Yellow Swans) have once again conjured up some of the most shimmery and gorgeous lo-fi ambience around. Two sides of live collaborations recorded last year in Portland, distant voices and guitar passages ring out, the faint sound of haunted bell towers ringing miles away, glowing horizons warm with evening's fading light. Really captivating stuff here, mysterious clanging and ominous reverbed hush, a band of ghost gypsies passing through the darkened woods. So good. Too bad it was LIMITED TO 50 COPIES. Of which we have about 8 left. Gorgeous handmade packaging you sort of have to see to believe. Each one hand numbered.
Apparently this will be reissued on vinyl later this year, we'll relist it then and give it a bit more love and more of an extensive description, for now, quickest on the draw gets the prize...
If you're like us, then anything even tangentially related to psychedelia, shoegaze, or post-rock is worth investigating. Well, Ms. Rose and Mr. Saloman (1/2 of the Yellow Swans) recently came through our doors to drop off a small batch -- really small, at 5 copies -- of their self-titled and self-released collaboration. Of course, as soon as they left, we put it on and totally geeked-out and got them to come back and bring us more. Recorded straight to tape and mastered to warm, lo-fi analog perfection, the disc is a wonderful synergy of the two members talents -- drone, melody and improvisation. But be forewarned, this is not NEARLY as noisy as either's other work. It's almost odd how melodic it is, really. Those that have heard the last few Yellow Swans records might not be too shocked though, since there has been an increasing number of melodic parts and much more structured arrangements. Is this getting too convoluted? Need some more specific reference points for the cd at hand? Think of something like Cloaks meets Ash Ra Tempel, a free and freaky compositional structure that gels more as a whole rather than than any one segment. The way melodies overlap and intertwine, changing each other's time and swirling all about reminds us of some tripped-out shoegaze band trying to go psych-drone. Really, really beautiful and blissed-out, and definitely recommended. LIMITED TO 50 and we've got 20, so you know what that means.
While some of us here really love early Biff Rose records, we realize he's a very acquired taste. His jokey piano-bar delivery, quirky early musical theater-style arrangements, and Kermit the Frog-like voice (he also kind of sounds like Wayne Coyne from Flaming Lips) usually don't warm up to most people's ears right away. He definitely comes out of the same school of pop eccentrics as Mose Allison, Loudon Wainwright III, Randy Newman, The Neon Philharmonic, and Van Dyke Parks. But the thing is, when you have him on shuffle on your iPod, he'll always be that burst of warm surprise that makes you scramble for your iPod to figure out what the heck is playing. The ever-reliable The Omni Recording Corporation label has reissued this 1970 eponymous release. Not psych-folk as the label implies (or as we tend to think of it it), but the mood is much darker and somber than on any of Rose's previous records. Full of lush Van Dyke Parks-style orchestral arrangements and songs about heartbreak (he recorded this during a messy divorce), it contains our most favorite Biff Rose song, "The Captain", a haunting ode to epic loss with swirling strings and far off sleigh bells. This could easily be a touchstone for Joanna Newsom's Ys, as the mood and arrangements are similar, evoking an antique and quaint musical soundworld to touch on larger human themes of sadness and self-renewal.
If you're curious about Biff Rose, or like any of the aforementioned people above, this or Children of Light are the best ones to start with. So bittersweet!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Frankie Rose's Interstellar record, from last year, was an immediate hit around here, pretty much every song was practically perfect, whether it was hushed torch song balladry, or fuzzed out M83 style bombast, or fuzzy sixties girl group garage pop jangle, we played that record to death. So expectations were pretty high for this new one, and on the first few listens, nothing grabbed us quite as immediately as lots of tracks from that last record, but then, as it often does, a funny thing happened, and suddenly, Herein Wild sort of blossomed into something equally special, different certainly, but pretty fantastic nonetheless, repeated listens revealing another collection of shimmery, reverby jangle pop gems. This time around, with a much more glossy production, and a sound that definitely edges closer to eighties style new wave, but it definitely suits her. The days of the more rough and raw garage rocking as drummer for the Vivian Girls, the Dum Dum Girls and Crystal Stilts are long gone, and in its place something much more measured and mature, dark and moody, but rife with classic popisms, and lots of sonic references to the eighties, Rose having grown into quite the songstress, with Herein Wild displaying a serious knack for warm, languid, new wave pop, laced with swirling synths, soaring strings, lilting melodies, and of course Rose's ethereal vox. Not to mention some seriously grandiose, and quite lovely arrangements. It might be a grower, but all it took really was a few listens for this to end up on pretty heavy rotation!
Our review of the most recent single from Ms. Frankie Rose, one time drummer for Vivian Girls, the Dum Dum Girls and Crystal Stilts, works pretty well as a thumbnail description for this just released full length as well: "fuzzy and dreamy and a little bit girl group sounding, but way more polished and produced, a lot more eighties, plenty of jangle, and a distinctly new wave vibe for sure, but it definitely suits her, hooky and and catchy like crazy", which all still applies, and the song from the 7" is here too, but that description really only scratches the surface of a record that is equal parts 4AD shimmer, fuzzed out synth heavy M83 style bombast, and buzzy girl group pop. Just take the title track, which starts out all glimmery and shimmery and dreamy, ethereal vox over soft focus smears of synthy swirl and tinkling chimes, and then POW, the drums kick in, an avalanche of thick buzzing synths, the song exploding in a shower of fuzz and crunch and layered vocals, only to slip right back into a more subdued, dream poppy verse, before getting surprisingly proggy, slow building to another killer chorus. It might be the coolest, weirdest track on the record, and will no doubt demand lots of replay action, but there's lots more on offer here, sure much of the record hews close to the bands in Rose's past, but amidst all that fuzzy pop and jangly girl group garage rock, is soaring synth, drum machine driven new wave, reverb drenched fuzzed out ethereal ballads, dark moody gloom pop grooves, skittery cold wave, and plenty in between, with somehow everything working perfectly as an album, not just a collection of songs, and all of those songs so lush and lovely, and crazy catchy, warm and dreamy, Rose's voice fantastic, we're loving this a LOT, and we're guessing this is the record where the rest of the world finally catches on...
Fans of modern reverb girl group garage rock no doubt no the name Frankie Rose, having drummed for the Vivian Girls, the Dum Dum Girls AND Crystal Stilts. We dug her debut solo record from a while back, which was exactly what you might have expected with that pedigree, but here on this new single we get a taste of Rose's new sound and it's actually pretty different. Still fuzzy and dreamy and a little bit girl group sounding, but it's way more polished and produced, a lot more eighties, plenty of jangle, and a distinctly new wave vibe for sure, but it definitely suits her, and the song is a gem, hooky and and catchy like crazy. Definitely has us excited to hear the new full length. The flipside is a remix, and recasts the song as an eighties dancefloor groover, with a soaring lush and layered M83 sounding chorus, which somehow suits the song almost as well as the regular arrangement!
Frankie Rose has been behind the drum kit for three of our favorite bands of the last few years, Vivian Girls, Dum Dum Girls, and Crystal Stilts. But now she is poised to show that she can lead, sing and create such warm and woozy songs with her very own band, as this is one of the most satisfying pop records of the year! Her past band experiences for sure help shape the sound of what she is doing here, yet these songs are crafted with such care and an intimacy that allows the tracks to be both dreamy, haunting, and catchy. This is the kind of record that stands so strongly on repeated listens as it's not just a cute bubblegum play at girl group glory, but instead it uses the warmth and reverb of that golden era to create songs that leave a mark and make you want to come back for more again and again. This record has hit at a much more emotional spot than many of the similar minded records that have come out in the last few years. Her group helps makes the record come to life with such nice three part harmonies and a cohesiveness that is not slick so much, but instead feels so wonderfully natural in its golden warmth. In a year of great pop records, this one is finding its way to the top of the list!
Compact disc version ON SALE until October 8th, for 11.98, $2 off the normal price!!! (Sorry, no discount for the vinyl.)
It seems like every Jack Rose record we get, when it comes time to review it, we begin by saying something like "well, not sure what to say about Jack Rose that we haven't already said", and you know, that's still pretty much true, of the current crop of modern solo guitarists, neo Appalachian revisionists, whatever the hell you want to call them, few can match Jack Rose, every record is a masterpiece, equal parts classic old school solo guitar, modern interpretations of classic Appalachia, and usually a bit of drone (you can take the guitarist out of Pelt�), and the Black Dirt Sessions is no different. More of the same, the same being dark and doleful, lovely and lyrical solo guitar, incredible slide playing, intricate finger picking, delicate strumming, gorgeous minor key melodies. As always though, there are a few surprises, the main one here is the second loooooong track on side one, "Cross The North Fork", in which Rose channels all of our favorite seventies British folk, we hear lots of Comus (you can almost imagine the flutes and bongos), plenty of Incredible String Band, sprawling, and epic, dark and so intense. Worth it for just that track alone. One of the tracks is super honky tonky and features a bit of barrelhouse piano, while still managing to sound minor key and a bit melancholy, the rest of the record plays out perfectly, more of that subtly slippery slide, dense tangles of intricate picking, long stretches of spare minimal chordal drift, it's all just so fantastic and lovely. Another absolutely essential record from one of the modern masters.
Beautifully packaged in outrageously thick sleeves, and pressed on ultra heavy vinyl.
A new Jack Rose disc is always cause for celebration around here. Along with James Blackshaw, Ilyas Ahmed, Richard Bishop and a few others, Rose is one of the new modern masters of the steel string guitar, helping to reinvent and redefine neo-Appalachia or modern folk or whatever you want to call it. But this disc is even more exciting, because not only is it a brand new album (recorded last year), it also includes as a bonus disc, the long out of print s/t album originally released on aRCHIVE, now available only in this set.
Let's first talk about this new record. No huge changes, we're happy to announce, just more of Rose's gorgeous steel string beauty, gossamer sheets of buzzing shimmer, droning ragas, traditional bluegrass, slippery slide, melancholy melodies, jaunty pick and strum, the mood occasionally dark and ominous, sometimes playful and festive, and other times dreamy and serene, it's as much about the sound as the songs. To see Rose play live is pretty mindblowing, his mastery of the guitar is truly humbling, his playing incredibly physical, but so fluid and seemingly effortless. And the sounds that emerge from that chunk of wood and steel are consistently breathtaking. Which is true even on record, those sounds well removed from the actual recording, but retaining much of the physical act of the performance, the energy and the emotion, the sound vibrant and LIVE. This new disc is no different. Sonically, well in line with the rest of Rose's recorded works, but like every new Rose record that comes along, it manages to subtly expand and progress, sonically and compositionally, while continuing to sound classic and timeless.
Fans will obviously need Dr. Ragtime, but for folks who have yet to discover the magic of Jack Rose this is a perfect place to start, and odds are those same folks will very likely find themselves wanting and perhaps even needing more!
As we mentioned above, this double disc set also includes the long out of print self titled Jack Rose aRCHIVE release. Here's what we had to say about that disc when we first reviewed it way back when:
By now, Mr. Jack Rose should need no introduction. Numerous releases on Eclipse, VHF, Tequila Sunrise, tons of amazing shows (including a killer instore right here at AQ) every performance totally spellbinding, with a repertoire that runs the gamut from classic bluegrass to drone drenched ragas to neo-Appalachia and probably to some styles of playing he just made up. In fact Rose was seemingly the first to not just ape the music and style of John Fahey, instead choosing to create his own sound and style, due in no small part we'd guess, to his continuing membership in drone-raga ensemble Pelt, and that raga vibe most certainly informs all of his playing, which just might explain why we find Rose so much more interesting than many of his contemporaries.
This disc collects a handful of studio recordings recorded over the last year, featuring Rose exploring the slide guitar, and as always, it's positively divine. From twangy countrified bluegrass breakdowns, to dense tangles of elaborate finger picking, his slide so slipper and fluid, totally emotional and moving, every song so complex and technical, but at the same time so goddamn simple and beautiful. The highlight would have to be the 12+ minute "Spirits In The House", with its amazing harmonics over a warm backdrop of buzzing low end overtones. The main melody so completely captivating, shimmery and wavery, sounding very Eastern and very much like a sitar, the perfect blend of wistful bluegrass melancholia and buzzing Eastern style raga. So gorgeous. And as with pretty much every Rose record, absolutely essential.
(There is an import jewel case version, but this is the domestic, super limited (only 1000 copies) version with much more deluxe packaging, an oversized booklet style sleeve, a Japanese style obi, and more...)
Now available on vinyl. Super deluxe, and of course, super limited!!
A new Jack Rose record is always cause for celebration around here. Along with James Blackshaw, Ilyas Ahmed, Richard Bishop and a few others, Rose is one of the new modern masters of the steel string guitar, helping to reinvent and redefine neo-Appalachia or modern folk or whatever you want to call it.
No huge changes, we're happy to announce, just more of Rose's gorgeous steel string beauty, gossamer sheets of buzzing shimmer, droning ragas, traditional bluegrass, slippery slide, melancholy melodies, jaunty pick and strum, the mood occasionally dark and ominous, sometimes playful and festive, and other times dreamy and serene, it's as much about the sound as the songs. To see Rose play live is pretty mindblowing, his mastery of the guitar is truly humbling, his playing incredibly physical, but so fluid and seemingly effortless. And the sounds that emerge from that chunk of wood and steel are consistently breathtaking. Which is true even on record, those sounds well removed from the actual recording, but retaining much of the physical act of the performance, the energy and the emotion, the sound vibrant and LIVE. This new record is no different. Sonically, well in line with the rest of Rose's recorded works, but like every new Rose record that comes along, it manages to subtly expand and progress, sonically and compositionally, while continuing to sound classic and timeless.
Fans will obviously need Dr. Ragtime, but for folks who have yet to discover the magic of Jack Rose this is a perfect place to start, and odds are those same folks will very likely find themselves wanting and perhaps even needing more!
Gorgeous packaging, clear shiny ink on gold matte sleeves, with printed pink and white Japanese style obi.
Not sure what there is to say about Mr. Jack Rose that we haven't already. Most faithful readers of the aQ list are no doubt well versed in Rose's music, but for those who aren't, Rose is a practitioner of his own unique brand of modern Appalachia, a master of the steel string, whether finger picking or playing with a slide, Rose can coax amazing sounds from a guitar, and all by his lonesome create lush steel string guitarscapes, that range from haunting and mysterious to folky and familiar.
This super limited lp gathers up 3 long live tracks, all quite different. The first is a track from Kensington Blues, a big favorite around here, recorded live in Chicago, and is of course amazing. Swirling clouds of notes, tangled melodies, shimmering drones, almost like Lubomyr Melnyk on the guitar, incredibly fast finger picking, the notes whirling and piling up into blurred chords, all woven into a rich layered expanse of droning folk. So fantastic. The second track was recorded live by longtime aQ customer, Berry Kamer, for the VPRO radio show in Amsterdam, and demonstrates Rose's more traditional side, much more classic folk and Appalachian sounding, folky and wistful, dreamy and gorgeous and fluttery, but still plenty dense and deep, with more incredible fingerpicking, but much more subtle, the result some classic Fahey style pick and strum.
The whole of side two is taken up but a single looooong high end drone exploration, that harkens back to Rose's days in his old group Pelt. Previously released on the now WAY out of print vinyl only compilation By The Fruits..., this track finds Rose getting all Sunroof! with a gorgeous wavery field of high end drones, and metallic shimmer, buzzing pulsing layers, overtones and buried melodies, glistening and glimmering, all upper register tones blurred and smeared into effulgent streaks, moaning and scraping and singing, the various tones allowed to burn bright and blend into the surrounding tones, a serious chunk of divine ur-drone for sure.
Folks who have been going crazy for James Blackshaw, Ilyas Ahmed, Matt Baldwin and the like, will definitely dig this. Rose fans, well, you know you need this already. The drone track will definitely hit the spot for Sunroof! fans and anyone into otherworldly and transcendent drone music.
INCREDIBLY THICK VINYL, super heavy black and white sleeve, limited to less than 1000 copies, we have a bunch, but as always, they will probably disappear quick...
We were quite lucky to have Jack Rose perform an instore last year, and it was amazing to see these steel string ragas performed live. We were all mesmerized by his unique take on Fahey-esque neo-Appalachia. It's unbelievable how in the right hands just a guitar can conjure up such a massive sound and so much emotion and Mr. Rose is definitely one of the finest examples currently practicin'. If you're familiar with the music of John Fahey you have a good idea of Rose's basic sound (he even covers Fahey's "Sunflower River Blues" here), but his years spent in the free drone group Pelt has definitely informed not only his guitar playing, but also his song writing. Some of the tracks on Kensington Blues are straight up stompers, sounding like they have to be standards, foot tapping hand clapping classic backwoods frontporch folk/blues. But others are dark and brooding, with intricate finger picking, producing all manner of buzzing overtones, and subtle harmonic coloring. Those are the tracks where Rose shines the most, when he digs deep, and explores the darker side of this music, and lets the notes stretch and buzz, sliding and scraping, letting notes drift and hover and eventually blur into shimmery drones and hypnotic stretches of cycle and repetition.
Every new Jack Rose record is a cause for celebration around here, a master of post Fahey modern Appalachia, and an incredible player, fingerpicking, slide, the last time he played here it was magical to watch this big, un assuming guy, effortlessly create this massive and intricate sound. This latest Rose record though is bittersweet, it's of course fantastic, lush, and melodic, intricate and lovely, but it will forever be saddled with the added emotional weight of being Rose's last ever recording, as he sadly passed away in December of last year. Luck In The Valley, then is not just a record, but a gorgeous tribute to his life, his music, an elegy is sound, beautiful and timeless.
And it is beautiful and timeless, opener "Blues For Percy Danforth" is incredible, an intricately fingerpicked melancholy lament, accompanied by jaw harp and harmonica, the playing by Rose is some of the most fluid we've heard, a swirl of sweet melodies, warm resonant buzz, perfectly arranged into a sound classic and old timey, but still modern and original. This record is more of a group / full band effort, unlike many of Rose's other mostly solo discs, featuring lots of guests on tampura, banjo, tack piano, fiddle, harmonica and more. The tracks range in sound from bluegrass hoedown to brooding minor key folk to classic Appalachia, many of the songs have a raga like vibe (no doubt due to his time spent playing with drone rockers Pelt), others are rife with woozy weary slide guitar, which gives the proceedings an ominous haunting vibe, and those are our favorite tracks, the darker, more melancholy and introspective numbers, that make up about half the record, a good balance for the jauntier jams, which include a few covers / reinterpretations of classics from Blind Blake and W.C. Handy.
Fans of Rose will absolutely want this, it's as good if not better than his other records, fans of guitar music and Appalachia and classic bluegrass would also do well do give Rose a try, but really, this is just a gorgeous disc of amazing guitar music, beautiful songs, and one more chance to get lost in the magical sounds of a man who has hopefully moved on to someplace much more magical.
The cd comes in a cool 4 panel mini-LP style jacket.
The lp version comes in an old-style tip-on jacket with a hand-pasted letterpressed cover, with a free mp3 download coupon and is limited to only 1500 copies...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
BACK IN PRINT! Hard to know what to write about this record. It's just so personal and lovely, dark and mysterious, and darn near perfect. Appalachian guitar stretched into droning, dense ragas, steel strings that go from delicate melody to prickly nests of intertangled notes and buzzing overtones. Always completely hypnotic even at its most fierce, and always intense and compelling, even at its most ethereal. Rose (also a member of drone rockers Pelt) has definitely become one of our favorite guitarists and record after record he never fails to blow us away.
Digital compendium of Jack Rose's (of Pelt fame) two most recent lps on Eclipse. Gorgeously fingerpicked Appalachia in the Tokuma tradition, the spirit of Fahey, Kottke, and Basho flow richly through this man. From spare six string guitar work to dense 12 string / slide guitar epics to drawn out hypntoic ragas. So so beautiful. Features extensive liner notes and guest performances from Mike Gangloff from Pelt and Glenn Jones of Cul De Sac.
A super duper limited 7" from one of our favorite new proponents of the post Fahey neo Appalachian sound. BUT, on this here 7" slab, Rose comes at us from a whole different angle. And we're digging it. This single finds Rose at his most dense and atonal. Each track is an angular tangle of buzzing steel strings, a swirl of non-melodies, dark and droney and super abstract. Sometimes the playing gets wilder and wilder and it almost sounds like some sort of steel string battle to the death, buzzing lengths of steel whipping wildly back and forth, a cloud of dense reverberations swallowing the fighters whole. Really haunting and a little bit difficult, but also strangely beautiful.
Pressed on extra thick vinyl, housed in swank heavy duty sleeves. LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, each single hand numbered.
By now, Mr, Jack Rose should need no introduction. Numerous releases on Eclipse, VHF, Tequila Sunrise, tons of amazing shows (including a killer instore right here at AQ) every performance totally spellbinding, with a repertoire that runs the gamut from classic bluegrass to drone drenched ragas to neo-Appalachia and probably to some styles of playing he just made up. In fact Rose was seemingly the first to not just ape the music and style of John Fahey, instead choosing to create his own sound and style, due in no small part we'd guess, to his continuing membership in drone-raga ensemble Pelt, and that raga vibe most certainly informs all of his playing, which just might explain why we find Rose so much more interesting than many of his contemporaries.
This disc collects a handful of studio recordings recorded over the last year, featuring Rose exploring the slide guitar, and as always, it's positively divine. From twangy countrified bluegrass breakdowns, to dense tangles of elaborate finger picking, his slide so slipper and fluid, totally emotional and moving, every song so complex and technical, but at the same time so goddamn simple and beautiful. The highlight would have to be the 12+ minute "Spirits In The House", with its amazing harmonics over a warm backdrop of buzzing low end overtones. The main melody so completely captivating, shimmery and wavery, sounding very Eastern and very much like a sitar, the perfect blend of wistful bluegrass melancholia and buzzing Eastern style raga. So gorgeous. And as with pretty much every Rose record, absolutely essential.
Limited to 1000 copies. Packaged in a gorgeous diecut letter press sleeve with an old photo inserted into the cover. So nice!
Sometime labelmates Jack Rose and the Black Twig Pickers finally team up for a record together. Unlike most Rose records, which while delicate and dark and beautiful, are also showcases for one of the most incredible guitar virtuosos playing these days, this collaboration is way more of a team effort. There are definitely moments where you can hear Rose doing his thing, but for the most part, he's part of the band here, and the rest of the Twig Pickers are pretty serious players themselves.
Guitar, banjo, fiddle, bass drum, harmonica, vocals and bones (!), the tracks here veer from wild campfire old school blue grass hoedowns to more darkly contemplative folk explorations, and pretty much every stop in between. Tone of intricate fingerpicking, the stringed instruments getting tangled up in flurries of rapid fire notes, the vocals wild and loose, in fact the whole recording is pretty loose, like they just got together and jammed, which who knows, could be just how this happened.
Folks looking for pure solo guitar Appalachia probably won't find what they're looking for, although elements surface throughout, but for folks into old timey blues, classic bluegrass, those Mississippi blues reissue lps, and the more rollicking tracks on past Rose records, this will totally hit the spot.
First let us say how sad we are about the passing of Jack Rose. Such a tragedy. An incredible musician taken from us way too young. We didn't know him that well, but we loved his records, solo and with the group Pelt. He once played in instore at aQuarius, and it was incredible, seeing him play live was totally mind blowing. He was fun, and funny, and friendly, and we are truly saddened. We offer our condolences to his family and friends.
This 7" is festive and rollicking, as if to celebrate Rose's life. Here Rose is teamed up with VHF bluegrass outfit The Black Twig Pickers for one traditional and one Rose original. The traditional is a wild bluegrass stomp, complete with whoops and hollers, the original is, as always, gorgeous, a minor key lament, a classic Rose rag, fleshed out here by the Twig Pickers, plenty of twang, soaring fiddle melodies, just total timeless classic Rose style bluegrass.
He will be missed. But his music, and memory will live on!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Violinist/samplerist Rose teams up with turntablist/guitarist Otomo in a parody of consumer culture, the "Japan/China Point of Sales Tour". Guests include Sato Michihiro, DJ Mao, DJ Car House (Otomo), Hoppy Kamiyama, etc.
The horror movie vinyl soundtrack reissue war continues! Death Waltz might have the market cornered, with an undeniably kick ass aesthetic, a bunch of killer obscurities, not to mention the bulk of the classic John Carpenter soundtracks, but Waxwork is definitely looking to give them a run for their money, especially now, with this reissue of Krzysztof (here Christopher) Komeda's seminal score for Roman Polanski's 1968 horror hit Rosemary's Baby. The soundtrack itself a stone cold classic, the main title theme immediately giving us chills with Mia Farrow singing a haunting nursery rhyme over ominous piano, buzzing organs, instantly recognizable and totally terrifying, and the rest of the soundtrack is pretty stellar too, some tracks swirling and symphonic, others droney and atonal, very 20th century sounding, the ritualistic chanting is present too of course, there are super dramatic choral arrangements, tense and intense, plenty of Bernard Hermann like atonality and intensity, moments of sweetly melodic jazziness, but just as many moments of bleak, sinister horror. A few moments of swirly psychedelia, the whole thing pretty darn fantastic all the way through, and has us wanting to rewatch the movie now, it's been way too long.
And Waxwork has pulled out all the stops too with the packaging, the lp pressed on 180 gram clear vinyl, the score remastered from the original master tapes, with killer all new artwork, and a 12" x 12" art print, all housed in a thick full color gatefold sleeve, extensive liner notes and rare photos on the inside, with super striking spot varnish printing on the outside, and yeah, probably CRAZY limited too...
EM Records strikes again! This time, the always-interesting Japanese (mostly) reissue label brings us a disc of pioneering experimental electronic music (a la the Barton Smith set highlighted last list) that's both obscure and unusual. What do we mean by that in this case? Well the album's title isn't any sort of metaphor. Composer/performer David Rosenboom is credited with playing "piano and brainwaves" on several of these pieces. Actually they ALL feature brainwaves, not always piano. Real live brainwaves, captured and processed electronically. It's a '70s sorta hippy/new age/sci-fi musical concept brought to fruition: bio-feedback as a tool for making electronic music! A cool idea that Rosenboom has made work -- if you're a drone-head it's great listening!! Long wavering drones, spacey-synthy-sounding, shimmery beautifully, calm and just a bit spooky. Serene, blissed-out zwooshing electronic gurgle. The piano playing is in minimalist, pulsing style, and one of the track adds drifting vocal samples, almost like thoughts reconstituted from the brainwaves themselves.
Three of the tracks here, pieces from 1971, '72, and '74, were originally released on vinyl by the Canadian label A.R.C. back in 1976. This 2006 compact disc edition adds an extra 17 minutes newly recorded just for this release. The one from '72 was recorded live at the International Carnival of Experimental Sound (ICES) in London, England, an event that must have been awesome from what little documentation we've seen or heard of it!
From the cd booklet, here's the composer's statement about what he's up to with his Brainwave Music: "Metaphors about the concurrency and succession of events in undefined spaces and the spread of energetic phenomena throughout resonant fields operate heavily in this music. Perhaps, they may lead us forward in developing of untapped sensibilities still residing deep within us. Perhaps, we will be able to conceive of an idea of resonance unbounded by our limited views of time and space and expand our appreciation of the universality of music even more."
Hmm. Something to think about. And as you're doing that, just imagine what sounds David Rosenboom could conjure if he had your brain hooked up to his bio-feedback machinery right now!
This comes in a special, extra-thick Japanese jewel case to fit the 42 page booklet we suppose. Unfortunately for us Americans, only a couple of pages of the booklet are in English, but there are plenty of cool photos, graphics, schematics, and musical scores to look at.
As with all the EM stuff we've stocked, totally recommended!
It's been a while since these two have gotten together for some noisemaking. Not since the very popular around here Vintermusik (now sold out, sorry). But since then, both have been plenty busy, releasing a clutch of limited cd-r's as well as at least a proper full length or two. Most recently, the beautifully dark Black Sleep from Dag Rosenqvist, aka Jasper TX.
So how much has changed since these two last teamed up? Thankfully not too much. The two work well together, which makes perfect sense considering they travel similar sonic paths on their own, so here the two sort of blend their sonic palletes, and the result, as has been the case in the past is not the sum of the parts, but more a minimal distillation of their two sounds. Not as lush as one might imagine, but also not as spare and academic.
A gorgeous hushed minimalism, that is just spike enough to remain interesting and to keep just on this side of pure ambience, adding grit and texture and a sense of subtly ominous foreboding.
Beginning with a soft, fuzzy drone, all smeared with tape hiss, the track gradually gathers low end, deep swells rising ever so gently from the abyss, while some sort of high end sine waves separate themselves from the sound, becoming prickly layers hovering far above the warm drift. The two halves, the low and the high, continue to transform independently, both gathering static and crackle as well, eventually, the low end sprawls into a glacial chordal whir, slowly spreading in slow motion, while the high end has become a sort of skittery sonar, offering up strange pulses and keening high end tones, those tones slowing down gradually, becoming less sharp, lower in fact, while the main melody also begins to fade, both eventually fading to nothing almost simultaneously. Quite nice. Fans of either will definitely dig. As will folks into abstract minimalism and all manner of drones and microsounds.
Gorgeously packaged in a super complex folded origami sleeve, black spirographs and white text on green metallic paper. Super striking. And of course, super limited...
Now, here's one hell of a good collaboration! These are two incredible abstractionists of the song in their own right, both known for their protracted dronesmear pocked with eerie melodies and ghost-echo structures. Rosenqvist is the man behind the Jasper TX project with tons of incredible records of blackened murk, nocturnal ambience, and the tactile grit of antiquity, while Scott may be best known as the former drummer of Slowdive, although he's released a couple of stunning shoegaze instrumental records over the past couple of years. This album is ostensibly a soundtrack to a short film directed by Juriaan Booij. The film itself is just about 20 minutes long, but the soundtrack is nearly twice that in length. There seemed to have been a number of complications with production that caused innumerable delays for Booij, but this worked to the advantage of Rosenqvist (the original choice of Booij) as he was able to take his time with the concept that the filmmaker had presented to him and in turn consult his confidante Simon Scott about a possible collaboration. Without much of a deadline or even the indication that the film would be completed (in fact, it was and has screened at various film festivals around the globe), Rosenqvist and Scott composed an incredible album of luminous sound that glows through an endless bank of sonic fog.
A rasped buzz emerges from an oceanic current of tonal guitar swell as the intro to Conformists. A collage of cracked ether, electrical static, and crunched surface noises from what could be from old 78s amass into a small crescendo of noise that collapses just as gracefully as it emerges. Out of this, Scott and Rosenqvist follow up with gasping set of radiator drones which swirl around cavernous swells, all dark, metallic, and ominous. A more enveloping, less threatening drone develops next, with somber flickers of a melody buried somewhere in the mix only to succumb to another passage of prolonged shadow and desolation. It's all very haunting and very evocative.
The flipside takes up a beautiful set of twin guitar drones with subtle half-melodies barely flickering within their mutual undulations, gradually overtaken by a soft buzz of distant distortion and bass-heavy thrum, transitioning toward the glacial centerpiece of this side of the record, a track called "Monuments." Here, a slow electrical pulse repeats ad infinitum, almost like an old ringback tone on a telephone with nobody on the other end picking up, laden with glacial bursts oversaturated chiming guitar noise that flood the soundfield like high-beam headlights cutting through a wintery darkness. The album descends and fades away into another beautiful crushed velvet drone. Epic!
Who's this Josh Rosenthal? Well, he's a friend of ours, and a Grammy-nominated producer, and runs the fantastic new-and-reissue record label Tompkins Square, and just wrote a book. It's kind of a memoir of his life in music... and love of music, written with passion and humor. We just got it in when he did a reading here last weekend for Litcrawl, which was lots of fun, and while we haven't sat down to read the whole thing yet, hearing the selections he read aloud as well as flipping through it certainly makes us look forward to digging in.
From Josh's introduction: "In this book I write about some stuff I've done in and around music over the past 30 years; records that I found or found me; and records, people, and live music experiences that have forever changed the way I listen." He also says: "Maybe you think it's bad parenting that I watched my kids' lips turn blue while I read the back-cover liner notes to an Ike Quebec LP, but I beg to differ. I was demonstrating to my kids that I really cared about something. My passion was certainly way more important than where there next snack was coming from." So if that statement has you nodding in agreement rather than dialing Child Protective Services, then this is a book for you! You should also be able to tell just from the chapter titles. Here are of few of them, if you're like us they'll make you wanna read the book for sure: Alex Chilton. Charlie Louvin. Bill Fay. Smoke Dawson. Obscure Giants Of Acoustic Guitar...
Yep there is lots and lots of good stuff & stories Josh gets into this 248 page trade paperback, including a section with eleven reasons to start a label (including "if you enjoy having things go wrong" and "if you enjoy being ignored"), and a couple lists of crucial records in his collection. The book couldn't have a better 'love of music, records, and record stores' vibe. Oh, and the cover art is by one of Rosenthal's daughters, so evidently his kids appreciate their dad's passion just a little bit.
Christina Rosenvinge's new album is a sweet (but not sugary) confection filled with ladylike retro pop stylings. Overall very warm and breezy like Astrud Gilberto or more recently Call And Response, although she does briefly veer from this course on the seventh song "German Heart" which is much more heavy on the dramatics a la Kate Bush. An understated beauty.
Of the hundreds or thousands (or millions?) of metallic post rock bands in the world, there are a select few, who never fail to blow us away, whose records we will buy without a second thought, whose music has proven to be more than just heavy and intricate, whose sound is one we can never seem to get enough of, that perfect blend of crushing and intricate, moody and heavy. One of those bands is most definitely Philly's Rosetta. It's hard to know what to say about these guys that we haven't already, this is the fifth record of theirs we've reviewed, and we gushed like crazy about the first 4, and we're primed to gush about this one too, but then we realized we'd just be repeating ourselves, cuz like we said, what more can we say. These guys are masters of the metallic post rock / post metal / post metallic rock sound, equally adept at howling downtuned Neurosis style crush, as they are at mathy, jangly lopes, and the fact that those two elements are constantly bleeding into one another, well maybe that's what makes these guys so special. Even when they're in full on pound and pummel mode, the melodies and complex arrangements remain, it's not like they're switching from smart and intricate to loud and dumb, it's more like they're simple adjusting certain elements, often the band will slip into an intricate rhythmic workout, no guitars, but those howled vocals will continue on, a strange combination for sure, but it sounds brilliant, and it's that constant push and pull between those two definitely metallic post rock elements that are really the measure of this sort of band, and few do it better than these guys.
There's also the fact that these songs are not just exercises in loud/soft, quite/heavy, they're proper songs, tension and release, slow building, explosive emotional cathartic climaxes, long brooding moody 'verses', the guitars don't just jangle or roar, they shimmer and chime and ring out, the drums are incredible throughout, tight, powerful, restrained when they need to be, but explosive when they don't. The vocals while more often a rough bellow, can just as easily slip into some serious singing, high and melodic. Needless to say, this is a sound we love, and Rosetta are one of our favorite creators and practitioners of said sound. If you need more, check out the other reviews on the website, but better yet, just trust us, check out the sound samples below, and grab one of these. You won't regret it. Especially if your cd shelves already bow under the weight of records by Isis, Pelican, Tides, Angel Eyes, Neurosis, Conifer, Irepress, Souvenir's Young America, Transmission 0, Mouth Of The Architect, Balboa, The Other Side Of The Sky, Baroness, Snowblood, Anapparatus and the like...
The debut double disc from long time aQ metallic post rock faves Rosetta, was a massive dose of high concept heaviness. A disc of proper songs, all churning heaviness and doom drenched math rock blow outs, and a second disc, a companion of sorts, more ambient and abstract, it was unclear whether the two were meant to be played simultaneously, of if they merely complimented each other, two sides of Rosetta's sound. Not sure it mattered. Both discs were amazing, both sounded great on their own or played in tandem.
We originally assumed that this disc was a companion to the newly released Wake/Lift (reviewed elsewhere on this list), but on closer examination, and after repeated listens, it seems to be something entirely different. The liner notes explain that this disc is made up of EVERY sample the band collected or manipulated over the course of the last 7 years or so, with the final declaration "I Am Starting Over". It's hard to tell if these sounds were indeed actually used on the records proper, or if this disc is merely a clearing house for cool left over and unused sounds, but it hardly matters, as these 4 extended sound collages function just fine on their own, as their own record, and it's the sort of sound that most cd-r noise bands would kill for. Dense and dark, evocative and atmospheric, crumbling and chaotic, dreamy and droney, layered and rife with fuzzy buzzy texture. Rhythms surface from strange looped sounds, melodies buried beneath constantly shifting walls of sound, massive chunks of super distorted heaviness, streaks of glitch and hiss, wild dubbed out drumming, mysterious voices and samples, an expansive organic whole, the four tracks functioning as one epic, seamlessly woven together, slipping one track to the next, the track markers seemingly arbitrary, as it all sort of bleeds into one massive textured slow motion abstract doomdrone. So divine. If this was a limited cd-r released on some super cool underground microlabel, limited to 100 copies, people would lose their living shit. So don't let the fact that it's a real cd released on a real label keep you from checking it out. Fans of stuff like Acre, Tunnels, Expo '70, Birchville, Axolotl, Black Boned Angel and other purveyors of buzz and murk and drone, should absolutely check this out.
It always amazes us, when everyone starts digging a certain kind of music, that there can suddenly be millions of bands that just start coming out of the woodwork, who play -that- sort of music, really well. It's perplexing. It's too far fetched to think that there are a multitude of bands, great players, super creative, just waiting in the wings for someone to decree what the NOW SOUND is, at which point these bands immediately leap into action crafting exactly the sort of music people suddenly want to hear. We may be cranky old jaded music nerds, but even we're not that cynical. We'd like to think the process is much more organic, an outgrowth of the massive interconnnectedness of the underground, the sharing of ideas, the discovering of new sounds via the music of ones peers. How else to explain the seemingly endless torrent of math rock / post rock /sludge metal hybrids we've been seeing lately. We're not complaining, we love it! And so far, for the most part, for a scene based on similar influences and execution, the results have been quite varied and really fucking awesome. A quick off the top of our heads list reads like a who's who of AQ favorites: Tides, Minsk, Isis, The Ocean, Indian, Warhammer 48K, Akimbo, Baroness, Pelican, Cult Of Luna, Conifer, Mouth Of The Architect and we could go on and on. So what's a band got to do now to really stand out in a pretty overcrowded field? The answer lies right here, this mind blowing double disc debut from this Philadelphia crew.
The Galilean Satellites is some sort of concept record (no lyrics, only the cryptic line: "These songs are about a space man") and sprawls grandly over two discs, taking all the elements we love about the above mentioned bands, and pushes each of those elements to their very limit. Imagine a collision between Explosions In The Sky and Coalesce, and you'll understand just the framework, a starting point, from there, Rosetta build and build, stretching skyward, fingers brushing the heavens, their sound so massive and expansive it's hard to even begin to describe The Galilean Satellites. If you like any of the above mentioned bands, if you like that sound, then this is the next logical step.
Heavy parts are heavier, the ambient parts are more dense and fully fleshed out, lasting minutes instead of seconds, as critical to the mood and the journey as any riff or hook, not just a by rote method of building dynamics. The sound is HUGE, hypnotic and loping, slow melancholic grooves that give way to planet crushing heaviness, each track drenched in swirls of electronic whir and thick swaths of ambient color. Riffs are not just distorted and loud, they grind and churn, tuned low, sludgy and punishing, slithering and squirming, like they're alive and intend to do you harm. The vocals are throaty and howled, dripping with anguish, very reminscent of Coalesce's Sean Ingram. But it's the color and subtleties that really make these discs totally unique. Sheets of clear ringing guitars (almost Edge like) will soar majestically over a prickly framework of ultra skittery jazz drumming (the drummer is incredible) before slipping into glacial sludge. If Isis are the masters of thinking man's metal, then Rosetta are their precocious little brothers, determinedly striving to outdo their more famous siblings, and in many ways succeeding. This is the sort of music, much like drone music, that benefits from being allowed to stretch out, two minutes is fine, but twelve minutes is better, allowing for the song to grow and change and stretch and morph organically. Disc one is definitely the core, a dense raging avant post metal juggernaut, whereas disc two is more contemplative, more abstract and ambient, but no less heavy. The guitars are still present, but here they have crumbled into rough washes of buzz and whir, clear ringing melodies drifting above like black smoke from burning cities, the whole disc a dense melancholic drift, a series of soul stirringly creepy soundscapes, at the same time impossibly lovely and moving. Some sort of post metal abstract ambience that acts as the perfect emotional foil to the first disc's furious pummel. Utterly and absolutely essential.
Beautifully packaged with gorgeous metallic cover art by Aaron Turner of Isis/Hydra Head.
Metal. Post rock. Metallic post rock. Post metal. It matters not what you call it, there are so so so many bands who play it. We haven't seen a movement of similar sounding bands since Slint launched a million imitators. That said, there are plenty of bands who do it well. And it's a sound we love. Isis, Pelican, Tides, Conifer, Mouth Of The Architect, we could go on and on. They all play some sort of hybrid of post/math rock and metal, each giving it their own spin, some spinning it more than others. At some point it's really a matter of degrees, what separates one group from another can be some ineffable something, the way they arrange their songs, the instrumentation, even just the vibe. And as much as we love the above mentioned bands, we can help but feel like one of the bands who have most captured that sound and made it their own, is Rosetta.
They simultaneously embody all the things we love about THAT sound, while pushing the envelope, their songs sprawling and expansive, even their releases, often split up over two separately released discs, their songs are loooooong, their sound is heavier more furious, the pretty parts are more complex, again it's something that's hard to pin down. Their records are just so totally overwhelming, the perfect hybrid of epic majestic beauty and utterly crushing heaviness. Brutal and pounding, furious and frenzied, at their heaviest, they almost sound like Converge or Coalesce playing post rock, heaving massive chunks of sound, tangled guitar lines, insane hammer of Thor drumming, and vocals as guttural and animalistic as they get. All wrapped up into songs that manage to be dizzyingly complex, ridiculously epic, but still weirdly catchy and groovy.
Wake/Lift is no different, in fact, if anything, it's everything we already loved about Rosetta, but more. Heavier and prettier, more convoluted, more varied, and intense, more epic, more dense, it's definitely the best thing they've done, and maybe about as far as this sound can be pushed. The guitars jangle and ring out as often as they are downtuned and grinding, often whipped up into crazily hooky soaring harmonies, before collapsing back into a churning sonic black hole. Long stretches of loping maathy meander wrap around dense rhythmic tangles and sludgey doomic roars, riffs chug and crunch, sometimes give way to whispered tranquility, other times becoming more and more intense until the band threatens to collapse under the sheer heaviness of their ever expanding sonic sprawl.
Absolutely essential. Required listening for fans of all things post, rock, and metal, in whatever combination you prefer.
