Now all serious connoisseurs of depression, death, doom and utter grimness have reason to celebrate. No, we're certainly not talking about G.W. Bush's second-term inauguration! It's music we're going on about, and for fans of that brand of heavy, doomful drone that we know so many of you AQ-customers are, this IS good news: the re-release of the debut album from not-so-dynamic doom duo SUNNO)))! Yes! So log off of eBay, save your ninety bucks (that's what Southern Lord says the original cd was going for) and thank 'em for at last reissuing this disc, previously out on Hydrahead subsidary HH Noise Industries back in 2000. Now this classic comes packaged in a jewel case, instead of a spray painted hefty bag sleeve. And yes, there's a BONUS TRACK. Sixteen minutes and forty seconds of bonus track entitled "Grimm & Bear It"...those jokers. That brings this album to over 72 minutes in length, perfect for enjoying your own mini-coma in its ambient embrace. Of all the SUNNO))) cds since, this remains perhaps the closest to the original template of worshipping Earth II to a T.
For some "historical" perspective (and for any who are puzzled, to explain that last comment), let's revist our original review of this disc, upon its first release:
"Whoa, an Earth tribute band! Y'know, Earth, the slower than slow, heavier than heavy Sub Pop combo from a few years back, the band that took the Melvins molasses drone riffing over the edge. They're not around anymore (and weren't that great toward the end anyway) but this project (featuring members of Burning Witch/Goatsnake/Engine Kid) revisits Earth's genius genesis (back when Kurt Cobain used to play with 'em), for some long long tracks of primordial dirge. One track is even named after Earth leader Dylan Carlson. And of course the band name Sunn is derived from the amps of choice for both outfits, appropriately so 'cause it's the amps more than the guitars that you hear here. They're not covering Earth tunes, but are essentially following the same formula towards drone metal godhead. Essential for all devotees of the ultra-heavy!"
Rumbing distortion. Doom. Drone. The vibrations have begun, another SUNNO))) disc is upon us!
As you probably know, the shorthand description for this band is that they're the SUNN that orbits Earth (the band). But actually this release from Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson's heavier-than-thou SUNNO))) proves that (as we knew all along) they exert their own gravity in the universe of dark heavy drone musicks. Previous efforts like "Flight Of The Behemoth" have been faves round here, and they also made a fan out of pagan psych-rock maven / monolith expert Julian Cope, who appears here on the 25 minute opening track "My Wall" reading an epic poem! It's a bit like Current 93 but of course waaaay heavier. SUNNO))) has some other heavy friends involved with this recording too, among them the mighty Joe Preston (Thrones, ex-Melvins, ex-Earth!) who brings in some of the fucked up programmed drumming that makes his Thrones project so special. Meanwhile, Jessamine/Fontanelle's Rex Ritter not only plays on the disc, but took care of the recording and mixing too. And the doom-folk direction that Cope's presence suggests is furthered by vocal contributions from Nordic ice witch doom vocalist Runhild Gammelsaeter (whom some will know from her band with Greg Anderson, Thor's Hammer). The final, spacey track with her and Preston dueting is a dronefolk dream. Holy Wotan! Space rockers, drone fiends, pagans, and doom heads alike all should worship this dark SUNN... And we're told the recording session apparently yielded enough material for more than one album, thus there should be a White2 to look forward to someday!
MPEG Download: "The Gates Of Ballard" [/audio/sunngates.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "The Gates Of Ballard" [/audio/sunngates.m3u]
Besides Boris, SUNNO))) are the undisputed masters of the limited, the repackaged, the-must-buy-for-a-single-track, the must-have-every-color-vinyl, a crazy cult of completism. Almost every release by both bands, has seemingly been offered in multiple limited releases, slightly altered versions for Japan and the US, ridiculously limited runs, and impossible to get tour only editions. We put up with it, cuz, well, both bands rule, and continually kick our asses. And it's kinda fun chasing down weird hard to find releases and super limited editions. To a point.
We're happy to report, that unless you are one of the very lucky ones, saw the band on tour, or spent a fortune on eBay, then these three Japanese reissues are absolutely worth rebuying, as each one includes a bonus disc (or discs) that most folks probably never got their hands on. In fact, we were never able to get any of them for the store. So we'd wager lots of you will be super psyched to pick these up, even if you already have the Southern Lord version. Especially since buying the original versions on eBay would probably cost as much as these multiple disc Daymare versions, and they look amazing, re-designed packaging by Stephen O'Malley, printed inner sleeves, cool miniature lp style gatefold jackets, obi's, really really nice. LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES too, so these will probably not be around for long...
White One is bundled with the very rare LXNDXN Subcamden Underworld Hallo'ween 2003 (The Libations Of Samhain), a cd originally released on Arthur Magazine's Bastet label, which features a single 50 minute live track, recorded on Halloween 2003 in London, a massive roiling downtuned dronescape, plenty of slow motion riffing and bowel loosening rumble, as well as a pretty funny interview which took place on Resonance FM and features Edwin Pouncey (aka Savage Pencil) interviewing what sounds like a VERY stoned, and slightly goofy Anderson and O'Malley. Even though the live track is a killer, it's worth it for the interview alone!
And just in case you need the scoop on White One, here's our review from when we first listed it:
Rumbing distortion. Doom. Drone. The vibrations have begun, another SUNNO))) disc is upon us!
As you probably know, the shorthand description for this band is that they're the SUNN that orbits Earth (the band). But actually this release from Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson's heavier-than-thou SUNNO))) proves that (as we knew all along) they exert their own gravity in the universe of dark heavy drone musicks. Previous efforts like "Flight Of The Behemoth" have been faves round here, and they also made a fan out of pagan psych-rock maven / monolith expert Julian Cope, who appears here on the 25 minute opening track "My Wall" reading an epic poem! It's a bit like Current 93 but of course waaaay heavier. SUNNO))) has some other heavy friends involved with this recording too, among them the mighty Joe Preston (Thrones, ex-Melvins, ex-Earth!) who brings in some of the fucked up programmed drumming that makes his Thrones project so special. Meanwhile, Jessamine/Fontanelle's Rex Ritter not only plays on the disc, but took care of the recording and mixing too. And the doom-folk direction that Cope's presence suggests is furthered by vocal contributions from Nordic ice witch doom vocalist Runhild Gammelsaeter (whom some will know from her band with Greg Anderson, Thorr's Hammer). The final, spacey track with her and Preston dueting is a dronefolk dream. Holy Wotan! Space rockers, drone fiends, pagans, and doom heads alike all should worship this dark SUNN... And we're told the recording session apparently yielded enough material for more than one album, thus was born White2 which would follow not soon after!
And the vibrations continue...like the ice age envisioned in that recent movie The Day After Tomorrow, White2 by Earth-worshippers SUNNO))) has finally arrived to obliterate all life foolish enough to have futilely flourished in the interim since the release of their previous album White1 last year. It's doom time, folks. For the unprepared among you, we should explain that the Earth just mentioned is of course the band not the planet, with Earth (and SUNNO)))) being the lowest of the low, sub-Melvins, drone-out, heavy-riff-ruling outfits around. Earth came first, but over their last few albums SUNNO))) really have moved beyond the Earth tribute phase, and certainly crossed over from the metal realm into the indie-rock and avant-experimental spheres as well, with an Arthur magazine sponsored tour and write-ups in The Wire to prove it. Maybe they're now the hipster "metal" band of choice but we won't hold that against them -- they're freaking good! (Believe it or not, we hear that some folks in Poland have formed a band in tribute to SUNNO))), known as MOOND)))! If they release anything we can get, we'll let you know.)
White2 was recorded at the same sessions as White1, which saw the core SUNNO))) duo of guitarists Stephen O'Malley (Khanate, Burning Witch, Lotus Eaters) and Greg Anderson (Goatsnake, Engine Kid) augmented by guests including Rex Ritter (Jessamine) and Joe Preston (Thrones, Melvins, Earth itself) both of whom appear on this disc. White1 also featured a recital by none other than head Head Julian Cope. He's not present on White2, but in his place they've installed someone perhaps even more pagan: vocalist Attila Cishar, the Hungarian black metal icon best known for fronting Norway's infamous Mayhem on their classic De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas album!
This disc ("optimized for blackened sub-bass systems" just so you know) clocks in at 63 minutes, divided amongst three long tracks, the first of which, "Hell-O)))-Ween", starts things off as you'd expect: it's a sonic glacier, prime Earth-styled SUNNO))) drone-grind. But track two, "bassAliens" moves into weirder, more abstract territory, a haunting, cave-dwelling improv whose electric noises could be the awakening of some cosmic Cthulhoid monster. Then the last and longest track "Decay2 (Nihil's Maw)" ups this album's quota of terror and beauty both. A spacey, droney, dark dreamscream from the throat of Attila... White2 is metal maybe, experimental yes, and quite a scary success. The farther-out stuff on this disc could be and has been rightly been compared to the music of Keiji Haino, cloaked in the same blackness. From riffage to ritual, recommended.
Besides Boris, SUNNO))) are the undisputed masters of the limited, the repackaged, the-must-buy-for-a-single-track, the must-have-every-color-vinyl, a crazy cult of completism. Almost every release by both bands, has seemingly been offered in multiple limited releases, slightly altered versions for Japan and the US, ridiculously limited runs, and impossible to get tour only editions. We put up with it, cuz, well, both bands rule, and continually kick our asses. And it's kinda fun chasing down weird hard to find releases and super limited editions. To a point.
We're happy to report, that unless you are one of the very lucky ones, saw the band on tour, or spent a fortune on eBay, then these three Japanese reissues are absolutely worth rebuying, as each one includes a bonus disc (or discs) that most folks probably never got their hands on. In fact, we were never able to get any of them for the store. So we'd wager lots of you will be super psyched to pick these up, even if you already have the Southern Lord version. Especially since buying the original versions on eBay would probably cost as much as these multiple disc Daymare versions, and they look amazing, re-designed packaging by Stephen O'Malley, printed inner sleeves, cool miniature lp style gatefold jackets, obi's, really really nice. LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES too, so these will probably not be around for long...
The bonus discs on White Two seem to be the ones everyone is after. A criminally limited double cd (one 3", one 5") originally released on Scott Slimm's aRCHIVE label, we tried to order 100 copies, but it sold out so fast we never saw a single copy. So now here's your chance, a double disc of live SUNNO))), recorded live in Brooklyn in 2004, featuring SUNNO)))as a trio, O'Malley, Anderson, and Rex Ritter from Jessamine. ANd again more of what you love. Slow and heavy and strangely beautiful...
And just in case you need the scoop on White Two, here's our review from when we first listed it:
And the vibrations continue...like the ice age envisioned in that recent movie The Day After Tomorrow, White2 by Earth-worshippers SUNNO))) has finally arrived to obliterate all life foolish enough to have futilely flourished in the interim since the release of their previous album White1 last year. It's doom time, folks. For the unprepared among you, we should explain that the Earth just mentioned is of course the band not the planet, with Earth (and SUNNO)))) being the lowest of the low, sub-Melvins, drone-out, heavy-riff-ruling outfits around. Earth came first, but over their last few albums SUNNO))) really have moved beyond the Earth tribute phase, and certainly crossed over from the metal realm into the indie-rock and avant-experimental spheres as well, with an Arthur magazine sponsored tour and write-ups in The Wire to prove it. Maybe they're now the hipster "metal" band of choice but we won't hold that against them -- they're freaking good! (Believe it or not, we hear that some folks in Poland have formed a band in tribute to SUNNO))), known as MOOND)))! If they release anything we can get, we'll let you know.)
White2 was recorded at the same sessions as White1, which saw the core SUNNO))) duo of guitarists Stephen O'Malley (Khanate, Burning Witch, Lotus Eaters) and Greg Anderson (Goatsnake, Engine Kid) augmented by guests including Rex Ritter (Jessamine) and Joe Preston (Thrones, Melvins, Earth itself) both of whom appear on this disc. White1 also featured a recital by none other than head Head Julian Cope. He's not present on White2, but in his place they've installed someone perhaps even more pagan: vocalist Attila Cishar, the Hungarian black metal icon best known for fronting Norway's infamous Mayhem on their classic De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas album!
This disc ("optimized for blackened sub-bass systems" just so you know) clocks in at 63 minutes, divided amongst three long tracks, the first of which, "Hell-O)))-Ween", starts things off as you'd expect: it's a sonic glacier, prime Earth-styled SUNNO))) drone-grind. But track two, "bassAliens" moves into weirder, more abstract territory, a haunting, cave-dwelling improv whose electric noises could be the awakening of some cosmic Cthulhoid monster. Then the last and longest track "Decay2 (Nihil's Maw)" ups this album's quota of terror and beauty both. A spacey, droney, dark dreamscream from the throat of Attila... White2 is metal maybe, experimental yes, and quite a scary success. The farther-out stuff on this disc could be and has been rightly been compared to the music of Keiji Haino, cloaked in the same blackness. From riffage to ritual, recommended.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Whoa, an Earth tribute band! Y'know, Earth, the slower than slow, heavier than heavy Sub Pop combo from a few years back, the band that took the Melvins molasses drone riffing over the edge. They're not around anymore (and weren't that great toward the end anyway) but this project (featuring members of Burning Witch/Goatsnake/Engine Kid) revisits Earth's genius genesis (back when Kurt Cobain used to play with 'em), for some long long tracks of primordial dirge. One track is even named after Earth leader Dylan Carlson. And of course the band name Sunn is derived from the amps of choice for both outfits, appropriately so 'cause it's the amps more than the guitars that you hear here. They're not covering Earth tunes, but are essentially following the same formula towards drone metal godhead. Essential for all devotees of the ultra-heavy! Each disc, with a handsome paper sleeve cover, comes sealed in its own spray painted hefty bag!
It was inevitable really. The Japanese masters of Orange Amp-powered drone-sludge and the robed priests of low end doom. How could it not happen? In fact, if you remember the 2005 April Fool's AQ list, we actually jokingly predicted this epochal event! Although in our version it also included Earth, each band playing one note of the world's heaviest E chord.
The real question was never IF it would happen, it was when. And how. Especially how. C'mon, how on earth can you fit that many amps in a recording studio. They must have used an airplane hanger, either that or they filled a high school gymnasium with Sunn and Orange stacks and microphones, and actually played in an entirely different room.
Regardless, it happened, and it sounds as good as you might imagine. Both bands completely compliment each other. SUNNO))), whose slow motion riffing borders on pure ambience, is given a serious propulsive shove, with more structured riffing and the addition of DRUMS!!! Boris get dragged back into the gloriously glacial tarpit of their older records, discarding their current garage rock rrrooooaaar for that classic slow motion doom trudge. However you look at it, it's basically the best record either band has put out. It's like an EVEN heavier SUNNO))), with bigger riffs and pulverizing doom rock drums, and of course wailing psychedelic leads. For Boris, they've taken their blown out grooves and dipped them in tar, added a million more pounds of guitar firepower and made the best Boris record since Flood.
But it's not all pulverizing doom riffage. There's plenty of dark droning ambience too. Huge stretches of swirling guitar rumble, dreamy swaths of wispy steel string shimmer. murky and haunting, processed vocals and minor key melodies swimming in a black sea of echoey ambient guitars and sizzling cymbal shimmer. The strangest track is probably "The Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep)", sort of the Boris / SUNNO))) version of a torch song, with FX smeared piano, strange buried rhythms, and hushed vocals, like a doom metal Mazzy Star.
The closer "Bloodswamp" is 14 minutes of churning downtuned guitars and shimmering Sunroof! like ambience. No riffs really, or if they are there, they're stretched into thick streaks of black fuzz. A furiously epic coda to a fucking amazing record.
The first 5000 copies come with a bonus disc titled SatanOscillateMyMetallicSonatas (a nod to Soundgarden, there?) that features a single 28 minute track called "Her Lips Were Wet With Venom" guest starring Dylan Carlson from Earth! Before we go any further... are you thinking what we're thinking... April Fools? SUNNO))) and Boris And Earth!!! And I bet you at least some of the bonus track is in E!! Boy, did we call it. And actually Atsuo from Boris confided in a friend of AQ that indeed, part of the reason they got Dylan to guest was because of that April Fool's review! How cool is that?!?
Anyway, the bonus track is a monstrous wall of churning guitars, with occasional howled almost death metal vocals buried way down in the mix, and languorous Earth Hex-like twang guitar draped lazily above a churning blackhole ambience. So good.
Besides Dylan Carlson of Earth, there are lots of other guest performers including Jesse Sykes, Joe Preston from Thrones (also ex-Melvins, ex-Earth), Kim Thayil from Soundgarden (aha) and Rex Ritter from Jessamine.
Packaged beautifully in a mini cd style gatefold, with AMAZING cover art, black on black with weird muted color and text printed in glossy varnish and metallic gold, both bands be-robed and standing in a cornfield, a full color booklet attached to the inside, a metallic sticker on the front, each copy individually numbered.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Okay, it's that time again, you know, when we tell you about a new, slightly different version of a Boris record you already have. And then you decide just how much of a Boris (and in this case, SUNNO))) as well) freak you really are.
This is the Japanese version of the recent collaborative effort between Japanese sludgelords Boris and their American counterparts, glacial doom merchants SUNNO))). Arguably the best release from either band in years, it's alternately achingly lovely, and crushingly brutal. But what's the deal with the Japanese version, and do you need it? Well, if you're as Boris obsessed as most of us are, the answer is yes. First off, it's got amazing new artwork. A gold and black slipcover with shimmering spot varnish text over a subtly altered booklet, on nice paper and with a fold-out Japanese insert. But it's the five minute bonus track that may have most of you shelling out another $20. A five minute alternate version of the track "The Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep)". Already the record's strangest and most haunting track, female vocals hover over slow shifting slabs of glistening sound. Like doom metal gone slowcore. But on the alternate extra track, the "Black Sheep" version, the doomy moody slowcore is transformed into a string quartet, all warm soaring strings over swirling shimmers, drifting sun dappled melodies over swoonsome melodies and long drawn out chords. Quite pretty, and very much a strange addition. But is it worth buying all over again. Well, it is missing the bonus disc that came with the first pressing of the American version, but if you missed out on that completely, this is obviously essential. If you have that one already, well, it just might be worth it to have both. Up to you.
Here's what we had to say about the original disc:
It was inevitable really. The Japanese masters of Orange Amp-powered drone-sludge and the robed priests of low end doom. How could it not happen? In fact, if you remember the 2005 April Fool's AQ list, we actually jokingly predicted this epochal event! Although in our version it also included Earth, each band playing one note of the world's heaviest E chord.
The real question was never IF it would happen, it was when. And how. Especially how. C'mon, how on earth can you fit that many amps in a recording studio. They must have used an airplane hanger, either that or they filled a high school gymnasium with Sunn and Orange stacks and microphones, and actually played in an entirely different room.
Regardless, it happened, and it sounds as good as you might imagine. Both bands completely compliment each other. SUNNO))), whose slow motion riffing borders on pure ambience, is given a serious propulsive shove, with more structured riffing and the addition of DRUMS!!! Boris get dragged back into the gloriously glacial tarpit of their older records, discarding their current garage rock rrrooooaaar for that classic slow motion doom trudge. However you look at it, it's basically the best record either band has put out. It's like an EVEN heavier SUNNO))), with bigger riffs and pulverizing doom rock drums, and of course wailing psychedelic leads. For Boris, they've taken their blown out grooves and dipped them in tar, added a million more pounds of guitar firepower and made the best Boris record since Flood.
But it's not all pulverizing doom riffage. There's plenty of dark droning ambience too. Huge stretches of swirling guitar rumble, dreamy swaths of wispy steel string shimmer. murky and haunting, processed vocals and minor key melodies swimming in a black sea of echoey ambient guitars and sizzling cymbal shimmer. The strangest track is probably "The Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep)", sort of the Boris / SUNNO))) version of a torch song, with FX smeared piano, strange buried rhythms, and hushed vocals, like a doom metal Mazzy Star.
The closer "Bloodswamp" is 14 minutes of churning downtuned guitars and shimmering Sunroof! like ambience. No riffs really, or if they are there, they're stretched into thick streaks of black fuzz. A furiously epic coda to a fucking amazing record.
Killer collaboration, another one of those team ups you might not have ever necessarily imagined happening, and even if you did, you probably didn't think it would sound this good. The core SUNNO))) duo do their thing, thick roiling riffage, warm and lush, surprisingly propulsive, and weirdly catchy, Steve Moore from Earth contributes some gorgeous gauzy organ drones and Joe Preston handles the vocals, deep growl, part intoned, part almost crooned, and of course Mika Vainio of Pan Sonic, offering up little flurries of industrial hiss, and bits of subtle glitch, taking voices and sounds and lopping them back on themselves, Vainio's contribution subtle, but practically perfect. Easily one of the coolest SUNNO))) tracks ever, maybe better than anything on the recent Monoliths And Dimensions.
The flipside features a live jam from Suicide mainman Alan Vega, recorded last year, live and lo-fi, lots of glitch and skitter, a sort of fractured electronica, Vega's vocals super effected, looped and chopped, dense and stuttery and seriously tripped out.
And the closing track on the B side is a stripped down, very Angels Of Light sounding acoustic number from Stephen Burroughs, former frontman for industrial icons Head Of David, his first recording in a decade, his voice rough and raw and simple, the guitar playing fantastic, the song dark and mysterious and haunting.
LIMITED TO 3000 COPIES, half on white vinyl, half on clear, we have the clear, housed in plain white hand stamped covers, but open the cover up (you might have to tear it open) and inside is some gorgeous original artwork.
ALSO ON VINYL!!!!
This one's been in the can for a while now, apparently recorded live some years back, a pretty monumental meeting of the musical minds, Norwegian post black metal experimentalists Ulver, and our very own masters of the dronedoomdirge, SUNNO))). Perhaps this collaboration speaks well of both groups, as it's nearly impossible to peg which outfit's sound came out on top. In fact, it seems like both SUNNO))) and Ulver created something entirely new for the occasion, touching on sounds from the past, but mostly conjuring up some truly collaborative musical magic in the moment.
Three long songs, the opener, a slow symphonic build, all shimmering, pulsating guitars, dark sonic swirls, and most surprising horns! But they sound perfect, and the result is something haunting and stately, the guitars gradually build momentum, and soon, it's a cloud of tangled guitar buzz and horn bleat, a cosmic black jazz maybe? Regardless, it's nearly nine minutes before the drums come in, and when they do, the song doesn't explode into something more metallic, instead, it somehow blossoms into something even more majestic and epic, the horns soaring alongside the buzzing guitars, it's almost like some sort of metallic court music, you can almost imagine, some mysterious leader, being led in on a litter, carried by hulking hooded figures...
The first track bleeds right into the second, another sprawl of layered guitar buzz, and moody ambient murk, laced with thick bass thrum, and soaring melodic swells, the mostly guitar driven buzzscape, growing ever more tense and intense, almost like some minimal Godspeed jam being spun at the wrong speed, ominous and sinister, and hauntingly beautiful, all culminating in the 14+ minute closer, that really does sound like dark jazz, the opening few minutes sounds like a super sinister Martin Denny, vibes draped over twang flecked Earth-worthy guitarscapery, woozy, and Morricone-esque, very filmic, those sounds gradually giving way to a dark symphonic drift, laced with some twisted cosmic synthery, the final movement, more like some spaced out avant prog, the vocals coming in a it of a surprise for sure, transforming the sound into some sort of dark prog balladry, the sound aching, minor key and melancholic, with distinctly (gypsy) folk vibe, the last few minutes, a gorgeous sprawl of dark drone psych folk, ominous and darkly dreamy.
Super striking understated red and metallic gold cover art courtesy of SUNNO)))'s Stephen O'Malley as well...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
In an attempt to record an album that will induce coronaries in record collectors worldwide, the current monsters of sludge: Sunn 0))), Earth and Japan's mighty Boris, got together and recorded a single track, 11 minutes long, one chord, an E to be exact, with each band handling one of the notes in the chord. Sunn 0))) deftly tackle the G, as if it were a blackened, dying sunn. Earth spews forth the B, with as much vitriol as they can muster. And of course Boris offer up a soul crushing E to complete what is quite possibly the heaviest chord ever recorded. EVER! Unfortunately this is super limited, in fact we didn't get any copies at all. We're currently bidding on the only copy in existence on Ebay right now. The Buy It Now was $25,000, so the fact that the bidding is now at $18,301 and the reserve has still not been met is not very encouraging. But c'mon, three bands, three notes, one chord, eleven minutes, one copy. You just can't put a price on that!
And while we all want to own the first edition of this already out of print triple threat sludge match cd, rumours on several message boards suggest there will be a repress, another single copy, but this will be the timeshare version. For a small fee, you will be able to own, listen to, and gaze adoringly at the cd for a brief period of time each year (determined by the number of buyers, limited to 365, so at the very least you can own the disc one day a year), before a courier shows up to deliver it to the next owner. We'll of course keep you posted.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Don't get too excited. By the time you read this, it will be long long long gone....
First released way back in 2001, SUNNO)))'s 00Void was later re-released on Japanese label Daymare, which included a bonus disc, on which Nurse With Wound remixed and re-envisioned the record, and transformed it into something haunting and surprisingly lovely. That bonus disc was recently reissued on vinyl (with some slight alterations, apparently), and now Southern Lord has re-released 00Void along with, while limited supplies last, that Japanese bonus disc. So if you have the Daymare version, you don't need this, but if you missed out on this before, grab one before they're gone.
First our review of 00Void:
00Void is in fact, SUNNO)))'s first proper album, the preceding Grimmrobe Demos, being just that, demos, but sonically, it picks up right where Grimmrobe left off, huge undulating slow motion riffscapes, epic, majestic, glacial, ominous and black hole heavy. Although it hardly seems necessary at this point, for those who have managed to somehow avoid SUNNO)))'s sonic influence, SUNNO))) began life as the world's first, best, only, (and last?) EARTH tribute band, emulating and bowing before the glacial "power ambient drone" metal of Earth, creating a little cult of the dronedoomdirge faithful, long before the hipster set caught on, but this record, as much as Grimmrobe before it made a case for SUNNO))) as their own entity, sure they owed every aspect of their sound to the band they were birthed to honor (still do really), but they managed to subtly imbue that same sound with their own influences and experience, creating something even more slow and low if that were even possible, setting yet another standard for heaviness.
So on 00Void, SUNNO))) indulge in pure unfettered doom, loosed from any sort of rhythmic constrictions, unmoored from traditional song structures, letting riffs and tones and pure vibrations emanate from their wall of speakers, like some monstrous black tuning fork, almost more a physical sensation than an aural one, but those movements of blackdrone infused with a musicality that blossoms slowly the deeper you allow yourself to sink. Suffocating, pummeling, crushing, oozing, but also soothing and beautiful. Maybe one of our favorite SUNNO))) records for sure. And if the pure grim heaviness of the three originals wasn't enough, 00Void also includes a cover (or, an interpretation, anyway) of a Melvins tune! Another band who were dabbling in slow motion heaviness long before it was cool...
And here's our review of the bonus disc, Nurse With Wound's take on 00Void:
A fantastic disc of haunting drones and abstract soundscaping, constructed using the glacial doom of SUNNO))) as the building blocks, which is surprising considering how shimmery and serene much of this is.
The opening track is one long slow billow of sound, gentle clouds of muted metallic reverberations, deep resonant chiming tones, soft smeared bass notes, all blurred into a creeping drift, that is more Chalk or Coleclough than SUNNO))). The second track is evenmore abstract, isolating, or adding voices, peppering the dreamy drone with strange metallic clang, moaning horn like bleats, sprays of hiss and buzz, all over a warbly wandering bassline, the vocals driving the song at points, a nasally croon entangled in the tracks gauzy gurgle, the bass getting thicker and thicker, coated in grit and grime and hiss, the vocals effected and almost demonic, breaking glass, weird industrial clatter, and lots and lots of hisssssssss.
The final track, another gorgeously minimal drone, the sound of SUNNO))) smeared and blurred and muted into a hushed thrum, soft subtle layers shifting and blending, warm and rich and textured but simple and spare, near the end, voices and radio static surface, but still barely audible, another whispered layer beneath a sea of tranquil hushed whir. Pretty dang cool, even if it's fairly far removed from the sound of the original, but then again, that's sort of the mark of a good remix as far as we're concerned.
As with most things Southern Lord, extremely limited, each one numbered, and most likely not available for long.
Those grimrobed ambient metal overlords O'Malley & Anderson (here with guests including Oren Ambarchi and vokillist Attila Csihar) add a new opus to their extensive discography of doom/drone masterwerks! The three part Kannon, which may have germinated from the track "Cannon" found on their live Domkirke double lp from 2008, is art to play loud. All deep drones, deep voices, doubtless deep thoughts (check out the liner notes by critical theorist Aliza Shvartz). And here are OUR notes: Abyssic atmospheres of vast grinding drones. Layered, liturgic cavernous ritual. Gorgeously sculpted feedback flowmotion. Along with moments that remind us of the wide open Western spaces twang of more recent Earth (or Barn Owl) as well.
The ominous revving of a juggernaut engine. Shifting tectonic plates. Glacial drone-riffs as death-knell backing for the sinister intonations of ritualistic incantations in a foreign tongue... That's SUNNO))) we're talking about, all right!
Imagine a sealed white room, an otherwise-empty space with the cowled-in-black SUNNO))) set up on black risers, their massive backline of amplification and instruments also duplicated as full-scale frozen white sculptures manufactured of cast resin and salt by NYC artist Banks Violette. Entombed within, the band plays alone to no audience, the massive resonation of their sub-sonic prayers self-referentially worshipful, a cosmos unto itself. This LP contains music written as the soundtrack to such a performance, which took place at a gallery in London, England in June of 2005. These actual recordings, though, were studio-recorded in 2006 and feature the core SUNNO))) duo of Greg Anderson and Stephen O'Malley joined by guests Atsuo (of Boris), Joe Preston (of Thrones), and Hungarian black metal icon Attila Csihar (of Mayhem). There's two side-long tracks: "Belulrol Pusztit" is a creepily quiet, hushed ceremony, Attila's whispering reptilian rasp met with rattlings and rumblings, hinting at the waves of distortion and feedback to be unleashed on the louder, heavier Skullflowering of "Orakulum"... DOOM!!
This limited (black) vinyl version of Oracle is probably the only format we're gonna get, though there IS (or was...) a compact disc edition, a double cd in fact, containing everything on this LP plus an extra disc's worth of live material called "Helio)))sophist", but it was only available for sale at SUNNO)))'s recent shows. If, and it's a big IF, they have any copies left over after their tour then we're told we may get a few, but considering that copies of that 2cd are already selling for hefty sums on eBay (fie on limited editions!!) we won't necessarily count on getting any... So probably best to grab one of these while you can...
Back in 2007, Stephen O'Malley approached Nurse With Wound about reworking SUNNO)))'s 00Void, urging that Steven Stapleton push the sound of SUNNO))) towards the classic NWW sound of Soliloquy For Lilith. The resulting 'remix' found its way onto the Daymare 2cd version of that same record and stands as a fantastic disc of haunting drones and abstract soundscaping, constructed using the glacial doom of SUNNO))) as the building blocks, which is surprising considering how shimmery and serene much of this is. While we had a handful of that Japanese release it's hardly surprisingly that it went out print rather quickly. Fortunately, O'Malley found another outlet for these recordings through his Ideologic Organ imprint of Editions Mego. Side A here features "Dysnystaxis" - one long slow billow of sound, gentle clouds of muted metallic reverberations, deep resonant chiming tones, soft smeared bass notes, all blurred into a creeping drift, that is more Chalk or Coleclough than SUNNO))). Side C's "Ash On The Trees" is even more abstract, isolating vocals which had been previously obscured from the original recordings, peppering the dreamy drone with strange metallic clang, moaning horn like bleats, sprays of hiss and buzz, all over a warbly wandering bassline; the bass getting thicker and thicker, coated in grit and grime and hiss, breaking glass, weird industrial clatter, and lots and lots of hisssssssss. Pete Stahl (Scream, Wool, Goatsnake) was responsible for those vocals which occasionally drive the piece at points as a nasally croon entangled in the track's gauzy gurgle then dipping into an effected, almost demonic howl. Side two of both lps split the 25 minute track "Ra At Dawn" into two parts, with additional material thrown in for good measure. Expect more of that gorgeously minimal drone, the sound of SUNNO))) smeared and blurred and muted into a hushed thrum, soft subtle layers shifting and blending, warm and rich and textured but simple and spare, near the end, voices and radio static surface, but still barely audible, another whispered layer beneath a sea of tranquil hushed whir. Pretty dang cool, even if it's fairly far removed from the sound of the original; but then again, that's sort of the mark of a good remix as far as we're concerned.
It's a strange musical time lately, with pretty much every cool band we loved in the eighties and nineties reforming, many of them recording brand new albums, lots of them performing classic albums in their entirety, and while we're usually not all that psyched on the reunion thing, we have to say, we were pretty thrilled to get to see Slint, and some of us are going to see the Get Up Kids next week, and who could possibly complain about seeing the Butthole Surfers or Killdozer or Jesus Lizard? Sure, they were better back in the day, the energy is different, back then they were young and hungry and had something to prove, now they're moms and dads with jobs and many are probably doing it for the money, considering they're probably gonna make more reuniting for a few months now than they ever did in years of recording and touring.
Plus there's a whole new generation of music fanatics, who missed out on arguably some of the best music ever, many of whom love bands who wouldn't even exist if it weren't for all those bands that came before.
One reunion that folks have been clamoring for since mere moments after breaking up, is for emo legends Sunny Day Real Estate, and while it only took a decade, it looks like the band will in fact finally reunite, and tour, and yeah, we'll probably all be there, freaking out when they play the hits, and speaking of the hits, maybe more exciting than the reunion, is the deluxe reissue of SDRE's first two albums, Diary, and LP2, both absolute classics, redefining the template for modern day indie rock / emo, and like Slint, SDRE were most definitely a band that launched a million other bands. Odds are most folks have these discs already, but if for some reason you don't holy shit are you in for a treat. Heavy, mathy, emotional, catchy, totally rocking, and just absolutely incredible.
Diary, originally released back in 1994, is another one of those records that is so front loaded, you could be forgiven for owning this record and nor making it to the end. Even now, we have to fight the urge to play the first few tracks over and over and over. But fight on, cuz the second half is just as kick ass.
"Seven" and "In Circles" are probably SDRE's best known songs and for good reason, two of THEE most perfect indie rock jams ever. The guitars lines are tangled melodic, the riffs crunchy, the drums complex and pounding, the arrangements complex, with plenty of starts and stops, little bursts of manic chug, streaks of chiming shimmer, the vocals so anguished and passionate, high and reedy, but still a little rough and ragged, keening and on the verge of breaking, slipping from whisper to howl and back again, really, if you've never heard these guys, just listen to the sound samples, and if you're not immediately smitten / obsessed, then heck, we're not sure what else to do for you.
"In Circles" is the prettier half of the opening one-two punch, with that immediately recognizable looped guitar intro, before slipping into some shimmery stripped down almost slowcore, but with a fantastically soaring, epic, majestic, hands in the air, heartbreak chorus, which ranks up there as one of those all time goosebumps, hair on the back of your neck, tearjerker, air guitar, indie rock musical moments, and a testament to its power is that it has that affect EVERY time, and still does 15 years later.
So after listening to those two songs 20 or 30 times, force yourself to continue on, you won't be disappointed. "Song About An Angel" is another slow brooding drift, that has one of the coolest stop start staccato bridges ever, as catchy as any other song's chorus. "47" had it been pushed forward a little in the playing order, might have been part of that irresistible replay opening salvo, with an incredible main melody, and verses that somehow manage to be even catchier than the catchy chorus. And don't let all this poppiness and catchiness ward off you heavy music folks, all that pop is tangled up and intertwined with some serious heaviness, plenty of heft and crunch, some incredible guitar playing, wild mathy, almost metallic drumming, and again, all wound up into highly unconventional song structures.
We could go on and on and on, the rest of the record is just as awesome, there are a handful of brooding slow burners, but even those are peppered with some seriously emo blowouts, not a bad one in the bunch, it's not hard to see why we all freaked out about this band when this record first appeared, and none of its power or emotion or energy has been blunted by the passing of time. Not in the least.
The reissue features two bonus tracks, from the awesome and long gone Thief, Steal Me A Peach 7", which predated Diary by about a year, and if anything is even heavier and more dense, the perfect sort of bonus track, melding seamlessly with the album proper (and one thing we notice listening to the 7"s tracks is how much SDRE sometimes sounded like a WAY heavier, way more rocking Decemberists!). New fancy gatefold digipak packaging, with that iconic Fisher Price Little People parody artwork, featuring those conical people shaped toys, set in depressing environments, like in a kitchen with the toast burning, amidst a not so happy family, a couple sleeping far apart in their bed, in surgery, at the scene of a car accident, etc. Also includes all new liner notes and interviews with the various band members.
One complaint about the cd packaging though, the digipak comes in a slipcover, which is always cool, but the slipcover has the record title, band name, and some random text about bonus tracks and the producer, stuff that should obviously have been on a sticker but is printed over that super cool artwork, and unfortunately, you can't toss the slipcover, cuz it's the ONLY place where the track listing is printed, thankfully, the lp version does not make the same mistake...
It's a good thing that Jeremy Enigk's Sunny Day Real Estate got back together or else we would be without this lovely album. The desolate emo epics build and collapse much like the more recent pop masterpieces from Built to Spill. Highly recommended.
It's a strange musical time lately, with pretty much every cool band we loved in the eighties and nineties reforming, many of them recording brand new albums, lots of them performing classic albums in their entirety, and while we're usually not all that psyched on the reunion thing, we have to say, we were pretty thrilled to get to see Slint, and some of us are going to see the Get Up Kids next week, and who could possibly complain about seeing the Butthole Surfers or Killdozer or Jesus Lizard? Sure, they were better back in the day, the energy is different, back then they were young and hungry and had something to prove, now they're moms and dads with jobs and many are probably doing it for the money, considering they're probably gonna make more reuniting for a few months now than they ever did in years of recording and touring.
Plus there's a whole new generation of music fanatics, who missed out on arguably some of the best music ever, many of whom love bands who wouldn't even exist if it weren't for all those bands that came before.
One reunion that folks have been clamoring for since mere moments after breaking up, is for emo legends Sunny Day Real Estate, and while it only took a decade, it looks like the band will in fact finally reunite, and tour, and yeah, we'll probably all be there, freaking out when they play the hits, and speaking of the hits, maybe more exciting than the reunion, is the deluxe reissue of SDRE's first two albums, Diary, and LP2, both absolute classics, redefining the template for modern day indie rock / emo, and like Slint, SDRE were most definitely a band that launched a million other bands. Odds are most folks have these discs already, but if for some reason you don't holy shit are you in for a treat. Heavy, mathy, emotional, catchy, totally rocking, and just absolutely incredible.
Sunny Day Real Estate's second record, self titled, often referred to as 'the pink album' due to its simple all pink cover, as well as being known now as LP2, was released in 1995, mere months before the band broke up (for the first time), and it's easy to hear in the music, the sound is much less immediately catchy than Diary, a bit darker, a grower for sure, all the sonic elements are still present, the same spidery chiming guitars, dense complex arrangements, soaring chug heavy choruses, Jeremy Enigk's plaintive emotional wail, and hooks, they're there all right, but they sink in slowly, over repeated listens. Over the years, LP2 has become just as powerful as Diary, in some ways even more so, with its overall sound more wrought with tension and emotion, the songs more minor key and somehow more sad sounding. And thus even, maybe a bit more emo.
There are some 'hits' here too. "Theo B" is frantic, with a cool lurching tempo, weirdly angular guitars, and some seriously intense vocals. "Red Elephant", is a slow burning post rocker, with a soaring chorus, rife with chiming guitars and dense drum pound, but with a weary, worn vibe, like much of the record, a strange undercurrent of impending doom. Definitely darker than Diary, but instead of that being a weakness, it's most definitely the record's strength. "Waffle" might be our favorite track here, a meandering low end slither, all woozy bass and Slint-y guitars, a sing songy tempo, a gorgeous main melody, and some truly beautiful voice-about-to-crack vocals. Then there's "8", which sounds like it could have been plucked right off of Diary, and like the single bonus tracks on Diary, reminds us again how much SDRE sometimes sound like a super heavy emo Decemberists. The strange thing about LP2, is that it's really back heavy, with some of the best SDRE songs EVER, tucked way near the end of the record, which makes sense in a way if you consider LP2 to be a sort of continuation of Diary...
The thing is, as long as we've had these records, they seemed more like 2 halves of the same record, a sprawling concept record, one side lighter, one darker, perfectly complimenting each other, both on their own practically perfect, but combined, pretty much one of the greatest song suites in second wave emo for sure, but maybe even in indie rock history all together.
After this record, frontman Jeremy Enigk would discover Jesus and go on to record some awesome solo records, 1/2 the band would go on to play in the Foo Fighters, and the band would get back together 4 or 5 years later, and record two more SDRE records, both pretty great, but nothing really compared to the magic of this one, and Diary.
LP2 features two bonus tracks, each single B-sides, and both again, pretty kick ass, and both surprisingly dark and heavy and EPIC.
All new deluxe packaging, gatefold digipak, printed inner sleeve, and a massive booklet with all new liner notes, and an interview with the band members.
For a band whose successes on their albums has been made through the emotional strain of each of their songs, this live album is remarkably tame. Its quite surprising that Sunny Day Real Estate live, choose not to take the emo approach of draining one's soul into the every song (especially on the vocals, reaching for notes unreachable), rather, the band merely performs the songs from their albums... devoid of the emotive content.
Brand new album from Jeremy Enigk and company. Though shedding their Sub Pop skin for the more modest Time Bomb, the production on this album is quite similar to the last Sunny Day record and although I adored that record, I have yet to warm up to this one. And yes, Jeremy has gone completely falsetto. It was bound to happen. It seems as though Enigk is steadily separating himself from the emo of his earlier days. If "Diary" represented quintiscential, undiluted emo, and "How It Feels Like To Be Something" was an almost top forty radio friendly version of emo, then maybe consider this adult contemporary emo, since all us emo kids are pushing 30.
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.
This is a super limited tour only release commemmorating the first Sunroof!/Vibracathedral Orchestra US jaunt. Not sure how many we can get so act fast. Sunroof starts things off, without their usual cloak of dreamy shimmer, instead wielding armour of crunching, super distorted stutter, before almost slipping into more familiarly dreamy Sunroof! territory, but just as quickly splintering into brittle shards and pulsing fragments, taking us back into serious Skullflower territory. Chopped and damaged grooves occasionally surface only to be dragged back down into the mire. Eventually the crunch gets smoothed down and spread out into a gossamer blanket of warble and whir, sun dappled but still slightly sinister. Vibracathedral Orchestra bear the shimmery mantle on this split, trawling the territory we're used to Sunroof! traipsing through, bells and chimes are smeared into a pleasant skree, lazy percussion is scattered haphazardly across sunbaked krautrock, and tribal rhythms and reverbed guitars are woven into warm expanses of barely tethered space rock, primal and pagan, pulsing and perfect.
In my book, Matthew Bower can do no wrong. In fact, Bower and his whole noisy orbit are untouchable: Total, Skullflower, Ax, Ascension, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Derv, Jazzfinger, and of course Sunroof! Sunroof! (exclamation point mandatory) continue
Number 323 (or thereabouts) in Matthew Bower's 1432 point plan for mind expansion via comsic ur-drone and shambolic shimmer. Following close on the heels of the recent Skullflower, Cloudz shares much of that release's Krautrockish rhythmic pulse, but keeps it suitably mired in that sweet, sweet Sunroof! haze. Tinkling piano with a thick patina of reverb throbs beneath a luxuriously sonic sparkle, tweaky electronic twitter, guitarish grooviness, some downright sun dappled Stereolabed sonic sweetness and even moments of British psych-folkiness, although appropriately chopped and fuzzed, are all spread into dreamy abstract smears. And throughout it all the cloudz of the title wrap each song, no matter how sleepy or lazy or chaotic or crunchy in swaddling sonic syrup. So good.
This Sunroof! record originally came out when we were just getting acquainted with Matthew Bower's (Skullflower, Total, Hototogisu, etc) new found free floating transcendental skree, his most static Skullflower or Total compositions stretched out even more, into blissful, ur-drones of shimmering chimes and intertwined reeds and feeding back guitars. Well, by now we obviously love Sunroof! and can't get enough. So for those of you who missed this when it first came out, now's your chance. Here's what we said about it the first time around:
Suposedly the name Sunroof comes from an issue of the comic Hate in which one of the character's describes his band as being influenced by early Sunroof!. Regardless, Sunroof! is what Ornette Coleman would sound like if he were to make an 'ambient' record, shimmering extended drones for Egyptian reeds, guitar feedback, and cymbals crashing far in the distance. Beautiful.
Latest in the ongoing exploration of the ur-drone, from�Matthew Bower's (Skullflower, Total, Hototogisu, etc.) softer side. But it's all relative, and while much of Sunroof!'s output is delicate and pretty, or gossamer and transcendental, this might be the hardest, heaviest, most intense release to date. The parts are the same, lengthy streaks of soaring feedback, effulgent bursts of glimmering heart of the sun guitar glow, huge billowing sheets of cymbal sizzle,� all woven into super lush expanse of blossoming sound, the parts all just feel more intense, like they're burning up, constantly on the edge of bursting into flames and crumbling into ash, the opening track even has drums, a pounding caveman plod, that gives the track a sort of doom metal / free jazz / bliss out vibe if you can imagine such a thing. The opener and the third track, are part of a larger nearly 40 minute piece, with the second half swinging wildly from explosive skree, to warm muted drift, everything wreathed in thick swaths of grinding feedback and thick prickly fuzz.�
The�brief second track is the most caustic of the bunch, there are melodies in there, but you have to slither through a dense wall of sonic brambles to get to them, a roiling white hot Merzbowian blow out, draped over a hidden layer of soft shimmering beauty, crumbling beneath the weight of the massive pummel above.�
The final track, the awesomely titled "Stairways And Terraces Descending One Beyond Another In A Stupefying State Of Exhaustion" is another corrosive landscape of amp shredding sound, an orchestra of guitar torture wrangled into subtly beautiful shapes, so subtle in fact that most folks won't stick around long enough to discover them, but as with most 'noise' music, and we're beginning to think this is more of a noise record than a drone record, one is rewarded for diving in head first, none of this dipping a toe in, or listening to a few minutes, you have to be fully submerged to appreciate the dense world of sound that while strangely beautiful, is constantly holding you under, as you struggle and gasp for breath.�
This is Sunroof!'s Metal Machine Music, sure to be misunderstood, and maligned, but for most of us, this is simply a gloriously terrifying blast of beautiful noise...
We'd been holding off on listing this for what seems like forever. There seemed to be some strange mastering / duplicating defect. But after emailing with both the label and the band, we learned that that's just how the disc ended up sounding and while some slight imperfections exist, they were unable to be fixed and both the label and the band decided that they didn't really affect the record. The problem in question is a weird digital glitch between each song, it could be a little bit distracting if you were attempting to listen to this disc all the way through and drift off, cuz this is indeed the dreamiest driftiest Sunroof! we've heard. But fuck it, the music is so good, and this definitely ranks as one of our favorite SR! records, and since this is the only way you're gonna get it (it's actually been sold out and out of print for a while now), we suggest you just bask in the loooooong tracks and ignore the occasional glitch. Which you can definitely do, these tracks are lengthy and languorous, gorgeous tumbling swirls of sound, that open up and allow you to sink deep down into their billowy soft shimmery depths. Melody after melody all piled atop one another, buzzing guitars over burbling melodic fragments, the whole thing whipped into a gloriously light, sunbaked, psychedelic confection. So so so so good!
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Originally released as a super limited tour cd-r back in 2003, Rock Power is supposedly Sunroof!'s tribute to Crazy Horse, and you can actually hear it on the opening tracks on each side, both are sprawling mega rock jams, albeit filtered through the blown out Sunroof! space-bliss noise-raga filter, but even then the drums are locked down, a pulsing almost motorik rock rhythm, while Sunroof! mainman Matthew Bower goes apeshit on the axe over it all, pealing squalls of noise guitar, that occasionally coalesce into almost-riffs, but more often then not, blossom into prismatic clouds of droned out, crumblingly distorted psychedelia. Bower is joined by Mick Flower, from Vibracathedral Orchestra, and the two make a seriously rocking racket on those two tracks, but fear not, the rest of the jams here are much more spaced out, and in keeping with what you might expect from Sunroof! and a dude from VCO, pulsating electronics, kosmische shimmer, clouds of swirling skree, cool sitar like buzz, and spaced out noise-ragas, psychedelic power electronics filtered through a Spacemen 3 like throb, the sound dirgey, crumbling, trance-y and blissed out, the perfect balance for the heady hypnotic 'Rock Power' of those other two tracks. Killer stuff, and obviously recommended for fans of all of Bower's projects (Skullflower, Total, Hototogisu, etc.) as well as Vibracatherdal Orchestra and other purveyors of droned out psychedelic sonic drift!
Packaged in swank full color jacket, and LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!
Everyone is all excited about the discovery of lost sixties documents of drone, and rightfully so, with new archival releases from Tony Conrad and John Cale. But historical significance aside, the sound is not all that satisfying for the modern drone connoisseur: whiny, reedy wavering squeals. Hopefully musical archivists in 2030 will discover lost recordings of Sunroof! and
Probably the only modern master of the organic drone (you know, played by an actual person, or a band, no laptops, no 'processing'), utilising mostly guitars, but also occasionaly reeds and other more exotic instruments, Bower has been droning since we were tots, in Skullflower, Total, and now Sunroof! Sunroof! being by far the most accessible. Bower is some how able to harness high end skree, that would normally be harsh and grating, into shimmering washes of crystalline drones. This latest lp is by far the most fully realised and breathtakingly beautiful piece of drone-music that we've heard. One side is an epic 20 minute wash of oscillating harmonics, guitars ringing and feeding back, gently tinkling chimes. Ghostly and totally captivating. Intensely powerful but somehow totally soothing and serene. The other side is a darker, more monochromatic wash of guitar hum and ground buzz, fluctuating and shifting, creating a subtle soundscape of blurred and static-y midrange.
Absolutely incredible.
For a while now, Matthew Bower's Sunroof! has been drifting further into a dreamy blissed out drone world, warm and rich and thick, hypnotic and otherworldly, which makes perfect sense as he has Skullflower to indulge his RAWK side, and the Hototogisu where he teams up with the Double Leopards Marcia Bassett for some good ol' NOIZE. So it was a bit of a pleasant surprise to throw on this new double disc and get knocked the fuck out by sheets of high end skree and walls of keening feedback. Not that we don't love the Sunroof! bliss, we do. And fear not, there's plenty of that here as well, but Silver Bear Mist definitely finds Bower returning to his old noisier outift Total for some sonic inspiration. In fact there's even some Skullflower-worthy riffing here as well. The sound is still definitely Sunroof!, but it sounds like Bower has decided to lump his many moods into one massive double disc of drone / bliss / noise / psych / freakout and we're loving it. Disc one starts with aforementioned knockout blast of processed feedback and squealing spaced out synths, before amping up into some full-on feeding back wall of guitar pummel. The rest of the record is a confusional trip through druggy effect-drenched psych-rock guitar workouts, to clangy clattery free noise, to ear shredding high end drone assembled from layers and layers of processed feedback and chordal whir. The disc finishes off with a 2o minute slow shifting single note drone. A pulsing streak of high end guitar stretched out across the whole twenty minutes, while various drones and overtones and other guitars slink and creep around the original tone, in a weirdly hypnotic tangled drone ballet.
Disc two is all over the map as well, opening with a psych rock jam that's so tinny and overblown it sounds like you're listening to Amon Duul 2 leaking out of the headphones of the guy behind you one the bus. The disc sort of mellows a bit after that into some more Sunroof!-ish territory although with those everpresent streaks of white hot guitar and lightning strike feedback. San Francisco's Skaters join the fray toward the end of disc 2, and it's the final three tracks that really seal the deal. First a noisy, angular guitar workout, with wailing abstract vocals battling sheets of feedback, then it's fourteen minutes of muted warbly four track folk wrapped in haze and a fuzzy ambience that makes it sound like an old dusty crackly 78, and finally, "Trampled Dawns" ends the proceedings with a totally majestic and epic workout, full of grand melodies and chiming bells, all wrapped in an ultrathick layer of grit and fuzz, sounding almost like a noiserock version of that song that always plays at the end of every teen movie when the boy finally gets the girl. As always, so amazing.
We recently managed to get some limited cd-r recordings from AQ faves Sunroof! straight from the source, Matthew Bower's Rural Electrification Program label. Sunroof! is the latest project of Mr. Bower, who formerly fronted the legendary Skullflower and the
Monstrous double cd-r document of AQ faves Sunroof! live 1997-2001, featuring members of the Vibracathedral Orchestra and Jazzfinger. 2+ hours of gorgeous extended drones: endless, epic and hypnotic, deep and dark, lush and thick, whirring, tinkling,
Back in stock! Limited cd-r document to commemorate Sunroof!'s recent first foray to American soil! More of everything you already love about Matthew Bower's Sunroof! Snatches of rock and roll are crushed and smeared into a swirling sonic cloud of scattershot percussion and thick distorted throb, guitars are scraped and scratched eliciting random melodies over a sweetly gauzy melodious backdrop, glitchy electronic percussion underpins huge rolling swells of throbbing fuzz, and guitars squirm and slither all over the place amking this a pretty noisy record for Sunroof!, with definite nods to Bower's other heavier projects Skullflower and Total. Packaged in a cool hand made, cardboard sleeve. And of course limited.
Italian metal/doom label Minotauro, home of Paul Chain, brings us the latest from this fairly new American prog-metal band, well worth checking out if you're a fan of, say, Hammers Of Misfortune. This is Sunrunner's third album and by far their most metal, almost power metal at points, but very proggy indeed, with lots of technically complex, spiraling herky-jerkiness to the quite epic proceedings - extra epic when it comes to the 21 minute long final cut! And they can get ploddingly doomy too, even as they blend in acoustic instrumentation (including violin and oud) on the likes of "Corax". There's a mellow side to 'em, part of their pensive prog rock heritage, that seeps in amidst the serious shred. The clean & "heroic" vocals also often have a melodic softness to 'em, so Sunrunner definitely set a mood, sounding very somber, very earnest, more like music schooled minstrels at times, than headbanging metal maniacs, despite the definite heaviness on offer.
Btw, the guitarist's dad was in the '70s band Seth that Minotauro just reissued (see our review also this list).
We got a handful of these limited cd-rs from Karl Bauer aka Axolotl and we're not sure we can get more so don't hesitate!!
Recorded in 2000 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, in Bauer's apartment which was around the corner from the actual Sunset Park School of Music and directly above the apartment of Michael Gira of Swans, these recordings feature members of Axolotl, Mouthus, Black Dice, and Nick Bohn who passed away a few years ago and this disc is dedicated to him.
Nine tracks of noisy electric skree featuring a microphone once inserted inside GG Allin, pots, pans, pot, tons of effect petals, mushrooms, pills, and youthful vigor that represents a crucial early chapter in the musical development of most involved. Fans of any of the above bands, Skaters, early Animal Collective, Starving Weirdos, and Burning Star Core should definitely check this out.
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Here's the new album from Arcade Fire's tag-a-long kid brother... errr, we mean Sunset Rubdown! The follow-up to 2006's Shut Up I Am Dreaming, Random Spirit Lover is bursting with invigoratingly rambunctious pop with *those* male vocals (a withery emotive yelp). If your dig the music of Arcade Fire, Wolf Parade and Destroyer, Sunset Rubdown will probably rub you the right way!
If the immediate recognition that many customers have voiced the first few times we've played this disc is any indication, this is a band that needs no introduction. This is Spencer Krug of Wolf Parade's other band. The music of Sunset Rubdown is a bit different from W.P. but the voice is apparently pretty unmistakable. Imagine if more characters from the circus tent were allowed into the W.P. recording sessions. Or envision a more tweaked and twee incarnation of Arcade Fire. Or what if Xiu Xiu or Frog Eyes decided to cover those bands' tunes... A musing listen. Fans of all of the above bands might want to lend an ear to Krug and co.
Fiery, caustic synth rock from the Czech Republic. European brethren of the San Diego / GSL scene (VSS et al). Fueled by a frenzied aggression. Previous releases have included a split 7" with At The Drive-In.
Sunshine Club's name may suggest upbeat, good cheer music, but no. This is something quite far from that. Forlorn weeping tunes. Slow yearning songs of wonder. This bay area trio makes quiet music graced with sad guitar and keyboards.
Now that sadly the Olivia Tremor Control are no more, the big question is: Just who could possibly try to fill the void they've left behind? Well, here may be the answer. The Sunshine Fix is the Bill Doss, Pete Erchick, John Fernandes, Eric Harris and a bunch of their musical friends. Sound familiar? Well, the music on this all-too short 5-song cd certainly does. Uh huh, it's the former members of Olivia Tremor Control sans the wonderful Will C. Hart (who these days is focusing his artistic ways on, among other things, painting). So there we have it. Waving the flag and carrying the torch for Elephant 6-style sugar pop with quirky psychedelic twists and weird sound detours. In fact, this record is weirder than most of the Olivias material, full of Captain Beefheart-esque looseness and cacophony. Recommended.
For those of you who dug the vibrant, psych-twisted sounds of The Sunshine Fix's EP last year, here's a full dose. Lead by pop craftsman Bill Doss (co-founder of the beloved, but defunct Olivia Tremor Control... and in case you're trying to keep the family
The Elephant Six Collective and their foremost retro experimental psych-pop team captains Olivia Tremor Control sprouted numerous solo and side projects. 'Prolific' was/is their middle name. Case in point, The Sunshine Fix is E6/OTC co-founder Bill Doss' post-OTC group, and this is their third full length. With Green Imagination, Doss and co. seem to have drawn the closest (of any E6 groups past or present) to that fab old OTC sound. Super bouyant and harmonious, however they've added some heft to the usually perky proceedings with some unexpected shades of gospel and glam. As always, they encorporate a wide array of common and quite uncommon instruments to flesh out and embellish their basic sweet Beatles/Beach Boys-inspired pop core.
This is way more 'punk rock' that anything on Celebrate Psi Phenomenon. The first two tracks are furious, sloppy blasts of distorted sludge. There -are- songs under there, but they have been torn to bits and spit out bloody and disfigured. The third track gets a little trancey and rhythmic but the sound is still chaotic and blown WAY out. The final track is sort of Stooges / Brainbombs meets the Dead C, with shouted vocals, burnt out guitars and white-noise percussion. Pummelling, damaged, fucked up noise rock. Seriously UNEASY listening.
How can you resist a dub record called Dial M For Murder, especially when the word 'Murder' is printed in red, and is dripping blood, the album cover a crude sketch of a knife wielding hand stabbing a telephone?? Well, obviously the answer is you can't! But then why would you even want to try? Sadly (or perhaps thankfully for some), the murder theme pretty much stops at the cover art / record title, the music though is pure classic dub, played by a band of reggae dub killers, Sly & Robbie, Tommy McCook, and a host of other legends, recorded at Channel One of course, between 1979-1980, full of woozy basslines, wheezing organs, and kick ass drumming, those drums frequently doused in effects and sent careening into the ether, same with the horns... classic reggae melodies disappear into clouds of echo and reverb, often leaving just the bass, and those drums, low slung, tranced out and grooving. The whole record is pretty tripped out, some serious dub experimentation going on. Maybe not as insanely dubbed out as, say the Bush Chemists, but still seriously dubby, not a song goes by with out the various instruments drifting off, looped and effected into blurred streaks of sound, easily some of the best dub we've heard. And thus WAY recommended.
In theory, the Suntanama could be a really interesting band as members of the No Neck Blues Band attempt to strike a Neil Young pose to produce some laid back yet grizzled '70s rock. But in practice, this is an album that Drag City could make a lot of money on if they marketed it to the legions of frat boy stoners who listen to Phish and the Dave Matthews Band. S U C K.
It was only a matter of time that the far-flung influences of Khun Narin Electric Phin Band and psychedelic Thai folk would work their way West, but the indelible sound of the electric phin, a Thai style lute, is a key ingredient on the Castle Face debut from LA noise/improv collective Sunwatchers. But to Sunwatchers' credit, Thai folk is but one of many ingredients in their pantheon of sound, and they bring so much more amped-up wattage to the proceedings. With instrumentation consisting of guitar, electric phin, standup bass, drums and saxophone, Sunwatchers unfurl a wailing wall of hypnotic drones and grooves that also channel The Third Ear Band as well as the sound of Tony Conrad and Faust. Intense, focused and ferocious!
FYI, we already sold out of the vinyl version, Castle Face should have pressed more! Back soon, hopefully.
