Also on vinyl!
The thing about being a modern-day "psych" or "prog" rock band, is that you have 40+ years of rock n' roll (and other) musical history to draw upon, you don't need to just pretend it's 1969 or 1971 or 1978 all over again (though that can be cool too). French band Turzi are definitely open to mixing things up in interesting ways, with no regard to whether it sounds "authentic" or not for the duration, their kitchen sink psych aesthetic pushing many and various buttons for us here in ways that maybe no single other band manages to do! At one moment bringing us blissed-out Frippertronics, at another heavy stoner riffage, sometimes in combination. If we didn't know they were a band, we'd think they were an excellent psych-digging DJ! We thought the mantric synth-rock of their debut, entitled A, was pretty Awesome and now here's their second album, B, and it's even Better (with more of what we liked about A, and nice surprises too). It follows the same track-titling convention of A, where on that album all the songs started with the letter A, here they all start with the letter B, and now for some reason they're all place names as well. Also as with A, much of B is instrumental, but when there are vocals, they've got some famous friends helping out.
We said they mix a lot of different elements into their music - for example, to pick a sequence of songs in near the middle of the disc, "Bombay" begins like a Bomb Squad cut, with a sample from a civil rights era speech, that's mashed up into a hard charging, distorted metallic gallop with urgent organ chords, over which they then crank a killer 'exotic' Eastern sounding riff like something by the Flower Travellin Band, or from the most intense Turkish psych single ever, Turzi really kicking out the jams on this one! But that soon mellows out into the next track, "Bethlehem", a hushed mystic ceremonial trudge akin to The Stooges' most John Cale inspired moment, "We Will Fall" or something by Acid Mothers Temple. But then the next thing you know, next up is "Baltimore", a techno-delic ravey raver, kinda '70s glam too, which we were already gonna say reminded us of Primal Scream, before we realized yes indeed it features guest vocalist Bobby Gillespie, of Primal Scream. Elsewhere, a lot of the songs pulsate immensely with kosmische synth delights, 'cause Turzi are French of course making us think of their countrymen Heldon (and also Air), but also naturally Harmonia and other '70s electronic krautrock brigades...
Wow. Whatever this is, psych or prog or whatever, looking forwards futuristically or backwards retrowise, or sideways even, Turzi has succeeded in synthesizing (with synthesizers!) a whole lot of what we like about both similiar -and- dissimilar artists such as Heldon and Zombi and Diagonal and Astra and AMT and Maserati and Etienne Jaumet and Witch and Circle and Oneohtrix Point Never and Itavayla and GR & The Full Blown Expansion... the icing on the cake is the nearly 10-minute finale "Bamako", all dreamy and droney, made all the more Beautiful by another guest vocalist - Brigitte Fontaine! Sweet.
What were the guys in Pelican doing before they started crafting epic metallic post-rock soundscapes, touring with Opeth and posing topless in metal mags? Well most of them were kicking up a furious din in the awesomely named Tusk.
It's a bit strange to hear Pelican, with their brooding, dark post rock grooves, their droney and pummeling, arty and intellectual "smart man's metal", and then hear Tusk, the gnarled roots of Pelican's mighty metal oak (as Tusk was home to 3 future members of Pelican). Tusk is much more 'punk', a way more immediate metallic grind gut punch, like being pelted with burning hot shrapnel or being deafened by having hot wax and roofing nails stuffed into your ears. Sounds painful, but it's the good sort of painful. You can definitely hear glimmers of Pelican, but this is much more for the kids! A super explosive blast of metallic grindcore, a little chaotic, a lot grindy, dense and complex and fast and furious. The riffs might be metal, but they're sped up and splattered wildly while the vocalist howls and screeches over the musical melee. This reissue also includes a cd-rom portion watchable on your computer, featuring a whole live on the radio set, and an interview. The live set sounds awesome, but is filmed really strangely. Makes it almost surreal, with nothing but EXTREME closeups of the Tusk guys' faces, heads, eyes, sideburns, stubble, pores even, sort of NYPD Blue style, with a bit of blurriness and then a quick zoom and then a little wobble. Sort of suits the chaotic nature of the music. The star of the live set has to be the Quasi poster in the background, featuring Sam and Janet covered in sharpie corpsepaint, front and center in almost every shot! Then there's the interview portion, which starts off with a serious dose of full on male nudity, but quickly turns into a semi-serious discussion of metal and prog (these guys are experts), E.L.P, the godlike Carl Palmer (who Tusk claim was playing blast beats WAY back in the E.L.P. days), Atomic Rooster, and all sort of other cool, funny, esoteric stuff. Super fun and funny, loud and heavy, and awesomely spastic! And we're not just talking about the music!
Amazing design and illustration from Hydra Head mainman Aaron Turner, who also did the super cool cd-rom DVD-style menu.
No, not a Fleetwood Mac cover band. Far from it. Instead, as you might expect from a side project deriving from Chicago's Pelican -- which is what this is -- Tusk are on the side of HEAVY. Deranged too. Only five songs, in 22 minutes. But there's a LOT of insanity crammed into that timespan, man. Tusk (great name, just say it, Tusk) are a mood-swinging, crazy-talking metallic morass, veering moment to moment from twittering-bird atmospheres to the machinegunnery of doom. There are fans of Pelican who might find this too messy and abrasive (like, it's got vocals!) but that can be good too. File w/ the likes of Melvins, Today Is The Day, Old Man Gloom, and Gore...
A three track EP of adventurous breakcore electro with plenty of acid squiggliness thrown in the mix for good measure has a lot in common with Richard D. James' Analord series he did under the AFX moniker. Lo and behold, the author of The Tuss seems to have been identified as Richard D. James (despite plenty of internet driven counterintelligence by the publicists at Rephlex, serving only to hype these recordings all the more.) But regardless of who is behind this, it's quite solid complement to the Rushup Edge album from The Tuss.
The identity of The Tuss has become a matter of net-born mystery and conspiracy, yet the fingerprints of Richard D. James (aka Aphex Twin) are smeared all over the cross referenced Myspace accounts of possibily fictionalized characters. James has always had a knack for media sleights of hand in half-heartedly disguising his work. Certainly the entire hullabaloo behind The Tuss makes the album all the more interesting; and what you'll find is exactly what you would expect from the mastermind of Aphex Twin and all of those other projects that may or may not be authored by Richard D. James. There's the archetypal breakbeat skitter which developed out of James' involvement with post-rave hardcore techno and tumbled into drum 'n' bass snare crashes; there's plenty of acid squiggles and vocoder squelchiness to provide a electro edginess; and then there's the unmistakable idiosyncratic constructs of perpetual melody streams and hyper complex drum programming that always seem perfectly at ease with their speed and delivery. The Tuss is probably not the most innovative offering from James (hence, the hidden identity we'd imagine, if it is indeed a James production), but there's something quite refreshing to hear just how good these musical signatures and templates still sound today.
Tussle is an appropriate name for a group that has had as many line-up changes as it has records. With the addition of Tomo Yasuda (The Boy Explodes, Hey Willpower, Coconut) on bass stepping in for the departing Alexis Georgopoulos (Arp, The Alps), who in turned filled in on bass duties for the previously departing Andy Cabic (Vetiver), it looks like we're finally seeing a group beginning to gel. While their overall sound philosophy remains intact from album to album (highly percussive bass-driven disco rock), Cream Cuts shows the keyboard and synth tracks taking more of a lead role than on previous albums where before they mainly served as atmosphere. While still very bass and rhythm heavy, it has less of the post-punk disco references of Liquid Liquid and ESG and more of a trippier cosmic vibe of cinematic flourishes, spacier textures and idiosyncratic nuances that are a welcome development to this much loved local outfit. One small beef we must call out though is the tedious inclusion of what sounds like the band setting up in the middle of the record. Save it for the live shows, guys!
Tussle's disco dub track "Disco D'oro" gets a couple more remixes on this 12", a round two of sorts for this single. The first one was great. The original track and then two remixes by Ben Cook and DJ Spun. But now, ok, I think I'm gonna need a redbull over here. Side A is a deep-dish techno disco beat blanket by Berlin's MUNK, while Ben Cook's Side B parties in the art-rock dance-dub circuit. Friends and fans of Tussle's other work, as well as DFA and LCD Soundsytem, will have something to keep on in the zone of their all-out discotrash dance attack with DD2. Will there be a 3?, 4?, 7?! This party may never die.
Local boys Tussle strike again with Don't Stop, an ep that brings us two new tracks along with the dub version of "Eye Contact" (found on the cd of this only) from their previous, debut 12" of that title, and remixes of said two new tracks, one by Mr. Drew Daniel of Matmos/Soft Pink Truth. You can hear here why folks are making such a fuss over Tussle -- their instrumental post-punk-funk jamming is so then it's now, so out it's in. Referencing krautrock, '80s NYC new wave disco, and Jamaican dub, amongst other hella retro, hella cool soundz, they just kick ass and make you wanna invite 'em to play your next freak party. Hopefully there's a full-length on the horizon, cuz these eps always leave us wanting more.
Local, retro-aggro-post-punk-funk ensemble Tussle have been wowing audiences here in SF for a couple of years now, their music a catchy instrumental brew that recalls such early '80s sonic compatriots Liquid Liquid, A Certain Ratio, ESG, and modern practitioners such as Outhud, !!!, etc. Led by clattery organic percussion -- handclaps, skittery cymbals, assorted metallic stuff over a stripped down traditional kit -- and a cheerful rubbery bass, the sound is augmented with occasional guitar and effects embellishments. It's a hip, ramshackle groove that if executed more precisely would be too cold -- thankfully this is organic, warm, lowkey and non-attitudinally approachable, know what I mean? Dubbed out remix on the b-side, which hints at further sonic explorations to come -- their full length set for this winter contains krautrocky workouts and more out sounds.
GORGEOUS cover art by local artist Chris Johanson, honestly one of the nicest pieces I've seen by him.
For six bucks, this is a great little nugget of Tussle! Moreso a sweet morsel for the discodubby DJ, this 12" is a good start for those still caught unawares by the perma-lockgroove styles from this San Francisco fourpiece; nom: Tussle. Actually, if you're gonna buy one thing, it best be the Kling Klang (their full-length debut that came out late last year). Still, Here It Comes! + Lockgrooves! has the tiltle track, a punky electro-noise workout that totally kills and two alternate versions, one a DSP / Banghra freakout, and the other a super laid back Neu-ish groove.
At loooooong looooooooooong last!!!! The debut album from this San Francisco 4-piece! They've taunted you with ep, singles, splits, short coastal-US or European tours and finally a solid album's worth of grooviedubbydance beats. Think Liquid Liquid, ESG meets found (now seemingly archaic) electronic machinery. Two drummers, one technically traditional, the second a junkyard kit trash-beat man machine, elegantly powerhouse percussion. A snaking bass-line guides you all around and straight on up through catchy electronic samples all the while creating a perfect balance of sonic kineticism. Kling Klang is just Krauty enough in its pairing down of essential sounds and repetitive percussive treatments to ensure it as a classic recording. Despite many songs recorded by two different engineers and a few recorded in their basement practice space, the production is as smooth as can be -- in fact, it sounds fucking great!!! Long Live Tussle!!
Tussle have always been the musical version of the party you wish existed and would go on forever and ever. The one where everyone is having fun and has great taste in tunes. Sadly for some reason that sort of party is a real rarity. Most parties are filled with people screaming and -trying- to have a good time but not really doing anything fun or interesting. And the rooms filled with folks with "good taste" can get pretty dang stuffy, weighed down and boring.
Rare is the party packed with people who want to go wild, but want to do it to the best tunes imaginable, who realize how amazing and important it is to move your body and have a good time. Luckily for our ears Tussle are that rare band, whose music is the perfect soundtrack to THAT kind of party. Great taste and fun spirit wrapped in one. With Telescope Mind they have once again come up with the perfect formula. The one where Can is jamming with Liquid Liquid and ESG is in the living room unfurling with beats your body can't deny. Crafted with much care, Tussle have truly created an album that works from beginning to end. A perfect balance of experimentation and percussion fueled ecstasy. Since the recording of this album the band has gone through some major lineup changes, with co-founding member Alexis Georgopoulos leaving the band and super talented SF scene fixture Tomo joining the group. We're excited to hear what Alexis cooks up in the future as his writing and aesthetic were a huge part of this record and Tussle's sound in general, as well as where the new lineup of Tussle will travel. Until then we'll just follow the instructions in the liner notes and enjoy Telescope Mind at MAXIMUM VOLUME because this is an album that will be moving our bodies and pleasing our ears for a long time to come!
It's been about a year since Tussle's great sophomore release, Telescope Mind, and now they've put together an ep of remixes from that disc, calling on the capable hands of folks like Optimo, Dennis Young (Liquid Liquid), Kango & Torkill and their friends Hot Chip (who they hit the road with for a jaunt across the east coast last summer). We are still really anxious to hear what the new incarnation of Tussle will end up sounding like (as there has been some major line up shifts since the original recording of the songs getting the remix treatment here). But until then this will sit nicely next to the other forward thinking kraut-meets-dance-floor offerings in this current chapter of Tussle ever evolving sound.
The second in a series of limited 7"s (the other two are from Tarentel and A Sunny Day In Glasgow) features local SF rhythm jammers, Tussle. The A-side track, "Animal Cop" begins as a lackadaisical dance rhythm with some fuzzy bass before breaking down into percussive clatter and switching gears into what sounds like a seventies cop theme, albeit one buried in fuzzy reverb. While the B-side, "Room 191", is a heavy slow dub with distorted synth crashes put through a wobbly syrupy filter that almost sounds like a Screw backing track.
Our only complaint is that it's too short! We could have easily listened to 5 minutes of that!
Release number three from local label Voltaire Records, and it's another good one. After the debut from Publicist (aka Sebastian Thomson from Trans Am) and the Affairs Online compilation, which included the debut of Lovelock (aka Steve Moore of Zombi), comes this killer split, featuring Publicist once again, this time teamed up with aQ faves Tussle, with each band offering up one original, and then remixing a song by the other.
Tussle start things off with a groovy chunk of bouncy bass driven electro, wreathed in strings, and underpinned by what sounds like blurred pianos, it's a dizzying mix of dancefloor slink, and low slung electro-pop, the production lush and softly psychedelic, the rhythms a bit dubbed out, definitely digging the new sound, and we're excited to hear more. They also take on Publicist's "Hand To Mouth" from the Voltaire 12" and make it their own, pulsing synths, garbled processed vox, even bigger beats, some robotic funk swirled in, what sounds almost like some talk box, seriously propulsive and groovy.
Publicist offers up some minimal synthscapery, a stuttery rhythmic bit of clipped synth pulse, over a krautdisco groove, and some thick funky basslines, everything softly distorted and seriously buzzy, the song blossoming into a sort of sci-fi Moroder-ish disco funk groove, with some swirly psychedelic synths and some kick ass robo-vox. And then Tussle's track gets Publicized into something a bit darker and groovier, thick dubbed out bass pulses, wild percussion, all over a churning low end groove and lush swells of cosmic synth, not to mention some weird breathy vocalizations, the whole thing sounding like the music from the credit sequence in some eighties sci-fi fantasy epic. Awesome!
First we've heard from this oddly monikered duo, just bass and drums, who traffic in a sort of sludge/doom dirgery, the bass super distorted and blown out, sounding in places more like a guitar than a bass, but unfurling thick slabs of buzzing low end, while the drums deliver a plodding caveman accompaniment. The vocals might be the strangest of all, a sort of sung/spoken demonic growl, which give Tuurd a much more abstract experimental vibe. It really does sound like a Neanderthal version of OM. The groove is dark and stonery, thick and sludgey, but when it slows down, and gets a little mathy and dynamic, stripped down while the vocals gurgle malevolently, it's transformed into something else entirely. Which is also what happens on the second track, at least in the first half, the band ditching the sludge for some dense mathy noise prog, the bass and drums in a wild tussle, which finally gives way to a more slithery downtuned groove.
It's hard to really nail these guys down, the label mentions all sorts of other duos, from Lightning Bolt to the Ruins, as well as other bands that occupy a similar sonic space, Sleep, Abruptum, Killdozer, Slug (someone needs to reissue all the Slug records!), Black Sabbath and a bunch of others. But to our ears, Tuurd sound like slowed down power violence, like Man Is The Bastard covered by Corrupted, or some rare Slap A Ham 7" spinning at 5 or 6 rpm, but that's only one side of the Tuurd, the band totally capable of whipping out some seriously dense downtuned progginess, the combination of the two is what makes this stuff so good. Murky and muddy, dirgey and doomy, crusty and filthy, heavy as fuck obviously, proggy and mathy and not without a sense of humor (check out "Eating Ice Cream With Satan"). Definitely recommended for fans of any and all of the above mentioned bands, and anyone who like their music sloooooow and loooooow.
Super striking cover art, the album titled drawn in dirt on the front, the band name smeared in mud (please let it be mud!) on the back. Pressed on brown vinyl (of course) and includes a digital download.
Brand new super limited 7" from this awesomely monikered drum and bass duo, and like their previous lp, I Wish My Wife Was This Dirty, these two jams deliver some seriously stripped down, doom / sludge / noise rock minimalism. The bass super distorted and almost guitar-like in its riffery, the drums suitably caveman like, the sound churning, and lumbering, super dynamic with plenty of mathiness, but ultimately, it's some serious Neanderthal heaviness, like OM with a frontal lobotomy, or a more abstract / avant version of Aussie heavies Dead. Needless to say, if you like it slow and low, heavy and hypnotic, this is the sort of minimal hypnorock heaviness that should push all your buttons. Especially spinning at 33, at which point it turns into pure, rib cage rattling slo-mo sludge!!
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!! Pressed on random different colored vinyl, the packaging super deluxe, a cool origami style Stumptown Arigato cardstock silkscreened sleeve, with two silkscreened color prints, and of course a digital download as well.
This new band on Fonal with all the double-u's in their name is of course Finnish, and in fact is something of a super-duo: Fonal boss Sami Sanpakkila (Es) and recent Wire magazine cover star Jan Anderzen (Tomutonttu, Kemialliset Ystavat) are the two collaborators here (at last!). The name they've chosen is apparently a play on the humorous Finnish phrase "tuusan nuuskana", which means something like "total shambles" in English. Ok, well, but while the abstract, intermittent, fractured soundz & rhythms heard here could lend themselves to that description, Sami & Jan are actually exercising a fair amount of control, and the tracks here, while not your usual sort of "songs" are most definitely music, not noise. Instrumental, full of sweet sweet drones and distortion, shining shimmer... we think most fans of both Es and Tomutonttu and other Finnish/Fonal acts on the more abstract edges of soundmaking will appreciate this quite a bit!!
The five long tracks find this project getting out of the usual "Finnish forest folk" thing we associate with Kemialliset and instead seem much more sci-fi and electronic, synth zips and zaps transmitted from a mad scientist's laboratory. Some of the sounds remind us of sferics, that spooky VLF radio noise phenomenon of the Earth's magnetosphere we used to sell whole cds of (Stephen P. McGreevy's Electric Engima and Auroral Chorus II, wish they were still in print). Somehow those sorts of sounds - however produced - are woven into a detailed, textured sound world that's at once both pleasant (really) and intriguing. Finnish forest science lab fans won't be surprised.
And, the usual obi-strip with which Fonal packages their cds is cleverly been utilized here to enhance the cover art with a simple form of animation. Designed by Shogun Kunitoki's Jari Suominen, it's a clear acetate strip printed with narrow stripes, that interacts with the cover art to create a pretty cool optical illusion of motion (a flickering, spinning pinwheel) when you slide the obi across the cover. Neat! (We haven't opened the lp, but assume it must also contain a similar insert.)
The first two eps by San Francisco's avant post-punk mutants Tuxedomoon get the reissue treatment by local (excellent!) reissue label Superior Viaduct. Both eps came out in 1979 before the band's Ralph records debut, Half-Mute in 1980. Formed by Steve Brown and Blaine L. Reininger who met in a City College electronic music class, they formed Tuxedomoon with the plan to be a band that sounded like no one else, and indeed they largely succeeded. Using a polymoog synthesizer, electric violin, guitar and saxophone, the duo enlisted a rotating line-up of musicians, filmakers and performance artists including Peter Principle on bass and Winston Tong on vocals, to make a weird hybrid of mutant jazz, goth-industrial atmospherics and noirish caberet styles with a live show that was both bizarre and highly theatrical. "No Tears" was their first hit and it remains today a classic Batcave goth-punk floor-filler, even if it may be somewhat of an anomaly in the band's overall sound, which leaned more towards an artier Throbbing Gristle than say Specimen or Alien Sex Fiend. They even do a subdued downbeat cover of "Nite and Day" by Cole Porter.
Their theater and avant-jazz leanings endeared them more to Europe than the states and they moved to New York and then Belgium shortly after their debut album was released. But these two eps are Tuxedomoon at their most experimental and exploratory and weird, fleshing out the dark corners of their sound with what Simon Reynolds called "an aura of jaded elegance". For fans of the SF underground, like The Residents, Sleepers, Noh Mercy, and Factrix. Both records come highly recommended!
The first two eps by San Francisco's avant post-punk mutants Tuxedomoon get the reissue treatment by local (excellent!) reissue label Superior Viaduct. Both eps came out in 1979 before the band's Ralph records debut, Half-Mute in 1980. Formed by Steve Brown and Blaine L. Reininger who met in a City College electronic music class, they formed Tuxedomoon with the plan to be a band that sounded like no one else, and indeed they largely succeeded. Using a polymoog synthesizer, electric violin, guitar and saxophone, the duo enlisted a rotating line-up of musicians, filmakers and performance artists including Peter Principle on bass and Winston Tong on vocals, to make a weird hybrid of mutant jazz, goth-industrial atmospherics and noirish caberet styles with a live show that was both bizarre and highly theatrical. "No Tears" was their first hit and it remains today a classic Batcave goth-punk floor-filler, even if it may be somewhat of an anomaly in the band's overall sound, which leaned more towards an artier Throbbing Gristle than say Specimen or Alien Sex Fiend. They even do a subdued downbeat cover of "Nite and Day" by Cole Porter.
Their theater and avant-jazz leanings endeared them more to Europe than the states and they moved to New York and then Belgium shortly after their debut album was released. But these two eps are Tuxedomoon at their most experimental and exploratory and weird, fleshing out the dark corners of their sound with what Simon Reynolds called "an aura of jaded elegance". For fans of the SF underground, like The Residents, Sleepers, Noh Mercy, and Factrix. Both records come highly recommended!
Previously a dvd-only periodical, now with its fourth issue, TV Eye DVD Magazine comes with a print component as well. So it's an 82 page magazine + a 1.5 hour dvd, all for just $12.98, and better yet, it's got everyone's favorite berobed dronesters SUNNO))) on the cover (and in the magazine, and on the dvd) along with a bunch of other bands that we know a lot of AQ customers care about: Isis, the Melvins, High On Fire, Comets On Fire, Void, Joe "Thrones" Preston, Phantom Family Halo, and lots more. Mostly on the heavy side, yep. There's even an "in the studio" photo-essay on Mastodon. But you'll also find stuff about the Touch & Go 20th anniversary, a Louisville scene report, and (of course) record and dvd reviews, and even a fuzz pedal profile. And that's just the print portion. On the DVD: again SUNNO))), High On Fire, the Melvins, Isis, and Comets On Fire, plus Radio Birdman, The Bronx, Murder City Devils, and more. Mostly a mix of both live footage and interviews. So if the metallier side of the indie/psych/drone deal is your thing, a little bit of punk rock too, and you can read and have a dvd player, then TV Eye is looking for you!
Dear Science is album number three for TV On The Radio, and it's already been hailed far and wide as a triumph of art-rock adventurousness striving for pop perfection. That said, we're finding this album more hedging toward a Bloc Party meets Radiohead with Peter Gabriel singing (yes, frontman Tunde Adebimpe still sounds a hell of a lot like mid '80s Peter Gabriel). There's plenty of soulful horns, post-Velvets jangle-drone guitars, and whimsically rickety electronics amidst these atypical tunes. This isn't a bad thing at all, but we have to say that Dear Science lacks the epochal hits that defined TV On The Radio. There's nothing like "Staring at the Sun" or "Wolf Like Me," seeking more a slowburn arc of an album instead of the urgency dotting their first two records.
Excellent! TV On The Radio's sophomore release (and debut full length!) is a passionate, captivating, artful work, with languid bass grooves and simmering guitars. Atmospheric tensions take shape, gradually build, deepen and close in. The album's second song "Staring At The Sun" is quite something to behold -- a brooding stunner. The vocalist reminds us of Peter Gabriel so much sometimes that it is unnerving. But in a good way. Kind of like classic Genesis filtered through the depressive brood of modern slowcore mope rock. But with lots of studio sheen and ambient fuckery. Dark and delirious, dreamy and moody and oh so good!
Here's a double scoop of music from these Brooklyn art-rock brooders. A smooth progression from Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes, the title track and "The Wrong Way" (the lead-off track from their album) offer an increased sense of urgency and gravity with groovingly insistent jitterbug-y rhythmic waves and multi-layered vocals ranging from a low, throaty spoken-sung delivery to an untethered falsetto Peter Gabriel-esque yelp. TVOTR's music is challenging, deeply infectious atmospheric rock that levels all of its contemporaries'. Totally great!
Oooh, buzz, buzz, buzz! Here's an album that barely needs announcement! People have been chatting up a storm about it for months. Didn't hurt that the ridiculously anticipated Return To Cookie Mountain came out overseas well in advance of the domestic release. That said, unlike most other grossly hyped to excess bands, TV On The Radio is fully deserving of both the hipster hysteria and the critical acclaim lauded upon them. Those who've waited patiently will be rewarded not only with this exceptional album, but also with a handful of bonus tracks ("Things You Can Do", "Snakes And Martyrs" and "Hours (El-P Remix)")!
On this NY band's sophomore full length, some key aspects pick right up where Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes left off, while there are also some marked differences and new developments. There's certainly no shortage of heady mood, steamy atmosphere and dark tension, but Return To Cookie Mountain is far more lively and kinetic and less brooding than the fellows' debut. Take the peppery fifth song for instance with its infectious rhythm that recalls Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk" and sultry sinewy guitars. "Wolf Like Me" is a standout TVOTR single if we ever heard one (it was actually the lead-off track on a pre-release album sequence). Another highlight is the deeeep saxophone-laced ninth track "Blues From Down Here". Soulful goodness! Overall, there's more layers of (yes, still very Peter Gabriel-esque) expressively throaty and fasletto vocals, more melodic elements, more energy, more depth, more MORE -- making for a most compelling and immersive listen! Adding the almost extraneous cherry on top are guests who include David Bowie, Blonde Redhead's Kazu Makino and Katrina Ford of Celebration.
Windy's other new favorite record this week is this EP from TV On The Radio, who online searches reveal as being the new band from onetime AQ-regular Kip -- one of the nicest guys around, plus you could see his afro coming from way down Valencia, like at 19th. Seems he's been keeping himself plenty busy since departing SF for the east coast (you can also find him starring in Jon Moritsugu's latest film Scum Rock). Simply put, TV on the Radio sound like an indie version of Peter Gabriel. At least that's what Andee thinks (as do all the intrigued folks who're coming up to the counter to ask which Gabriel album we're playing). However, not being super familiar with Gabriel beyond that Sledgehammer song, I'd have to liken the Brooklyn band's sound to the early pop albums from Brian Eno -- think Taking Tiger Mountain and you have some idea of the brilliance of this dark pop, intelligent arrangements, impassioned treated vocals, insidious clackety percussion. It's a fantastic combination that I'm having trouble describing. A very satisfying listen from a band that sounds so directed and mature. Guests on the record include Brian Chase of Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Four songs, plus a hidden fifth track -- an a capella rendering of the Pixies' "Mr. Grieves" complete with oohs, aahs and sunshine harmonies.
The Chicago lap-top trio TV Pow has always been a hit or miss operation, situating themselves closest (when at their best) to their one time Icelandic collaborators Stilluppsteypa as a recombination of microwave / glitch work and the erratic, shifting
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Welcome to the happy-go-lucky side of Fonal records!! A shiny pop-rock gem of a band from Turku, Finland, TV-Resistori play electronic toy pop with wide-eyed wit and unadulterated exuberance. Could be likened to a younger and rougher Stereolab, a Finnish Stereo Total, or a happier Cyann & Ben. Also for fans of '90s Shibuya-Kei bands, snowsuited indie pop, and wonderfully silly synths. Intiaanidisko is warm and scratchy as a brand new scarf. Charmingly dorky. Enthusiastically recommended.
The shiny happy side of Finland's Fonal roster. If we didn't know better we would probably believe it if someone said that they were from Japan or France because they kick out that totally bubbly, playful and addictive flavor of pop that totally brings to mind the best moments of Cibo Matto, Pizzicato Five, Stereo Total (yeah we know they are from Germany but you get what we're saying), Buffalo Daughter, etc. This time out we also hear some nice fuzzy USA influence with some Beach Boys moments and an overall feel that reminds us a lot of Mates Of State. What's so great about TV-Resistori is how they keep their sound so warm, punchy and catchy without resorting to all out quirkiness or kitsch. Too many bands trying to pull of this style suffer at the hand of over the top and glossy production that in the end kind of erases all the charm that might be within the songs. TV-Resistori do it right and keep their sound rich and dense with an analog warmth and a tender touch on the control boards which so nicely compliments their songs, and makes for one of the better pop albums of the year.
Latest from this LA sludge pop duo finds the guys sounding a bit more polished and spacey than before. The opener "Weird Oasis" reminds us a bit of the Meat Puppets, or even an alt rock Allman Brothers, which is not a bad thing at all. In fact, they always had a bit of that vibe to their sound, but fear not, it's soon right back into the usual Tweak Bird churning riffage and drawled vox, all groovy and psychedelic, but still a bit twangy and spacey. Plus, as always, there's an element of Weezer / Jeff The Brotherhood power poppiness to TB's sound as well, super simple hooky, heavy pop, a little bit stonery rock, but liberally doused in crumbling distortion, and warm, blurry guitar fuzz, the arrangements slipping into a little progginess here and there as well, but at its core, Any Ol' Way definitely has the feel of a classic rock record, or at least the sort of record that might be considered classic rock in 30 or 40 years, but for now, this is just a seriously satisfying slab of primo, hook heavy, psychedelic fuzz pop, that we can't seem to stop listening to...
Latest from weirdo psychedelic sludge pop duo Tweak Bird, whose self titled debut was a HUGE hit around here, and at the time, we compared them to Torche, since they definitely specialized in a similarly hook heavy poppy sludge, and really very little has changed this time around. The record opens with a maddeningly looped vocal, over pulsing synths, collaged melodic fragments and weird voices, panned heavily swooping from speaker to speaker, before the band finally launch into a song proper, which displays much of the stuff we loved about the other record, but here displaying much more of a poppy vibe, still heavy, but not nearly as sludgey, the vocals slipping into near Geddy Lee territory, but the song, CRAZY catchy, a little proggy too, a pretty much perfect blast of short sharp proggy psych pop heaviness that reminds us how much we missed these guys. The follow up is more of the same, buzzing guitars, keening vocals, pounding drums, hooks galore, totally anthemic, the kind of jams that you'll find stuck in your head for days, and we're imagining would whip a pit into a serious prog pop frenzy, assuming there are prog-pop-pits, and if there aren't there sure as shit should be.
The record is short, seven songs, sixteen minutes, but odds are you'll find yourself playing this over and over and over. A new favorite for sure. Heavy pop nerds pay heed!
The first thing you notice about the new record from psychsludgepop duo Tweak Bird, if you're us at last, and you're seriously obsessed with seventies Japanese psychedelia, is that the cover art is obviously an homage to Flower Travellin' Band's Anywhere record, the two members of Tweak Bird, shirtless, on a motorcycle, tooling down the highway with open fields in the background. Musically, though, these guys have way more in common with Torche or Floor than FTB, their sound a spaced out psychedelic proggy fuzzy buzzy stoner pop, thick baritone guitar riffs, big pounding drums, crazy catchy hooks, and some seriously dreamy vox, not quite falsetto, but soaring and clear, there are lush harmonies, and surprising melodies, and of course some 'ooooh ooooh's here and there, all draped over some seriously thick sludgey riffs, the band slipping from chuggy fuzzy pop, to pounding howling almost metallic crunch, there's sax too, and flute, and some synths, the more we listen the more proggy it sounds, Daniel Higgs like vocalizing wrapped around jazzy sax, all draped over shimmery keyboards and motorik drumming, only to blossom into something that sounds a little like Magma or the Ruins, albeit a stoner pop indie rock version, but it's killer. Elsewhere, flute flutters over some buzzy riff heavy groove, and those floaty ethereal surprisingly high boy vox, a sort of tripped out stoner metal prog fuzz folk pop, or something. And those doses of weirdness are balanced out by the blasts of full on buzzing metallic distorto pop, and heavy downtuned chug, the riffs slipping from jangly and minimal to super distorted and blown out, the band somehow creating an impossibly catchy sound with some seriously disparate elements. So goddamn good. We'd be seriously surprised if the rest of the world didn't finally catchy on, and like Torche, make these guys the underground stoner pop indie sludge super stars they should so obviously be. AWESOME!
What would happen if you took the songwriting talents of Townes Van Sandt and Terry Allen, fed them a bag of dried hallucinagenic mushrooms, brought in the recording talents of Bjorn Olsson with his recycled cassettes mastered onto a dying tape deck and ran the whole thing through the Jewelled Antler's nature recordings filter? Charlie Tweddle's Fantastic Greatest Hits, that's what. Recorded in 1971 in San Rafael, California, with a backup band of either friends who shared his vision or hired guns, Charlie released the album himself in 1974 under the name of Eilrahc Elddewt in a pressing of 500 copies. Needless to say the record was a flop and -- due to the inclusion of extended periods of silence between tracks -- many were returned as defective. It didn't help that there were no track names and that all of side b was a field recording of frogs and crickets. Charlie Tweddle was quite possibly way ahead of his time. All of his songs are mixed with field recordings and random sounds and most of them have a tendancy to end abruptly. In one song, folky acoustic guitar ballads are mixed in with squawking seagulls, ocean sounds and overdubbed spoken word. The second track, an off-kilter mariachi imitation with acoustic guitar and vocals uses an am radio accompaniment (supplying the mariachi band). This reissue includes the original album in its entirety (recorded directly from an existing copy of the LP) plus six never before released tracks. A definite must for fans of the Jewelled Antler releases, Jandek, or outsider country artists in general.
Jeff Tweedy of Wilco and Uncle Tupelo wrote and performed this soundtrack to an Ethan Hawke-directed film about the Chelsea Hotel in NYC. It's mostly echoey, moody soundtrack fare, peppered with twangy numbers performed with some of the members of Wilco and/or
Fear not, Mr. Jeff Tweedy's not lost at sea. Despite this dvd's title, the live performance footage showcases the Wilco frontman goin' it alone absolutely present and accounted for and fully in his element... if somewhat mildly cantankerous at times. Filmed earlier this year on his West Coast solo acoustic tour which stopped in Seattle, Portland, Eugene, Arcata and SF, he performs beloved songs from all of his bands (Wilco, Loose Fur and Uncle Tupelo) as well as an unreleased tune called "The Thanks I Get". Really good! Very bare bones, intimate and direct. So we say, "Sunken? No! Treasure? Yes!"
All it took was one viewing of the video for Tweet's first single to make us NEED to own this. Not only is the loop for 'Oops' probably the greatest Timbaland rhythm track ever, the song itself is racy and saucy (chorus: "Ooops, there goes my shirt, up over
Whoo-hoo! Epic awesome proggy proto-metal krautrock alert!! Germany's oddly named Twenty Sixty Six And Then concocted these heavy, organ-overloaded tracks back in 1972, jamming hard and crazy in that they-don't-make-'em-like-they-used-to mode we love, bringing to mind such much better known bands as Iron Butterfly, early ELP (or The Nice), Deep Purple Mk1, Jethro Tull and Uriah Heep, plus fellow krauts like Out Of Focus, Necronomicon, Murphy Blend, Hairy Chapter and Birth Control. It's groovy and dramatic, sometimes jazzy, often complex, definitely getting pretty wild and rippin', with kinda hoarse, bluesy vocals in English, lots of Iommi-worthy guitar soloing, a dose of Mellotron, and FLUTE!!! What's not to like? Psychedelic "hairy funk" heaviness, with both soft melodies and a harder edge, like on the mathy attack of the 9+ minute "Autumn", that reminds us also of some of our fave '70s Italian prog, too, like I Teoremi.
We should note, for accuracy's sake, that we're pretty sure this cd reissue contains the same tracks as the (out of print) one done by the Second Battle label back in 1994, called Reflections!, featuring in fact alternate, extended versions of all but one of the songs from the band's Reflections On The Future lp originally released in 1972, plus 4 bonus tracks from the same era. Which is just fine by us, if confusingly not precisely how this reissue presents itself.
Always thought this was one of the best over-the-top (yet melodic) heavies in the prog-kraut canon, nice to have it available on cd again... Connoisseurs of obscure, unfettered krautROCK will find this essential.
Melbourne's Twerps find themselves in very good company at the home of Superchunk, with Range Anxiety being their second album and their first on Merge. Their homespun, jangling songs are the long-lost younger brothers to those penned by The Bats, Yo La Tengo, The Go-Betweens, and whatever your favorite understatedly catchy indie-rock band circa 1992 might have been. Twerps frontman Marty Frawley presents a shaggy demeanor of aw-shucks sincerity topped off with the charms of an entertaining doe-eyed drunk. He shares the vocal duties with Julia McFarlane, who deftly harmonizes with Frawley; but when she takes the center stage she's got all of the summer sunshine clarity of Amelia Fletcher of Heavenly. The band's bittersweet melodies embrace the deceptively simple songs of wistful, delightful, and deliciously nostalgic indie-pop, spinning tales of love and loss. What else is there?
Now with Thurston.
Whoa. Just when we warmed ourselves to the idea that this would NEVER happen... it happened. The return of Twilight, described out of necessity as a "black metal supergroup", a bad description for something so awesome, but more or less to the point. The core lineup of Blake Judd (Nachtmystium), N. Imperial (Krieg), and Wrest (Leviathan/Lurker of Chalice) soldiered on without past contributors Hildolf (Draugar) and Malefic (Xasthur), and made themselves even more super with the additions, on this recording at least, of Sanford Parker (Minsk/Buried At Sea), Aaron Turner (Isis, etc.), Robert Lowe (Lichens, 90 Day Men, and now OM apparently), and Stavros Giannopoulos, who is new to us but whose presence is at the very least justified by the his awesome name. And yes, we realized how many bands we had to list in parentheses, but if anything, that should accommodate you to the awesome pedigree on display here, letting you know that there is no way in hell it could be anything except completely awesome.
Monument To Time End is not only great, but full of unexpected turns throughout. Unlike its self-titled predecessor, which was pretty much as black as black metal can get (opening song "Woe Is The Contagion" being one of the most terrifying things EVER), there is a surprising amount of diversity here. For example, would you have ever expected this horde to whip out an emo-ish breakdown with disco beats? Probably not, and the good news is that it doesn't suck at all, it just confounds in the best way imaginable and makes you love this band even more. And while the other album was created by swapping tapes through the mail with the fidelity being pretty much what you would expect from such, Monument is a work of well thought out, amazingly produced ART. This no doubt has much to do with Parker's presence and the use of his Volume Studios, not to mention the amount of time that has passed since the first album. Best of all, none of these upgrades in any way represent a more subdued or cuddly Twilight; on the contrary, this shit sounds even more dangerous, unstoppable, and out to kill. But enough rambling, let's talk songs here.
Doomy opener "The Cryptic Ascension" sounds a bit like a more evil Pelican, and Turner's signature is in full effect for the aforementioned emo-ish breakdown replete with disco beats. Imperial's vocals, however, definitely help bring things to another darkened realm. And while we really don't need to say this, we will: FUCK is Wrest an amazing drummer, and his bell heavy work on the ride cymbal helps carry this song to its amazing fadeout before everything is overtaken by Parker's spaced out synth buzz. The word "epic" is thrown around all the time in metal these days, to the point where it seems to have lost its meaning, but here Twilight completely own the term. Really no other word will do; this shit is EPIC. "Fall Behind Eternity" is up next, sounding a lot like Leviathan's creepy ambient moments with more spacey synth until the brutality kicks in with a dizzying blast. On "8,000 Years", things manage to be both soaring and pummeling, and the combined talents of these guys gives birth to some of the most adventurous and impressive metal we have heard in, well, forever. "The Catastrophe Exhibition" opens up with some ominous acoustic strumming and weird ambience with effected martial drums before venturing into unknown terrain where the band sounds a bit like an evil Don Cab being broadcast out of a portal to Hell. The album closes with "Negative Signal Omega", another awesome surprise that begins as a crumbling drone experiment and ends with a choraled vocal chant that is stunningly beautiful. Did you ever think we would use words like "stunningly beautiful" to describe this band when they first came out? Neither did we.
We say a lot of things about all the metal coming in these doors, but Twilight have set the bar pretty high with this album. Monument To Time End will without question end up on many year end best ofs, and with good reason. The greatest success here is the fact that everybody's dirty, blackened fingerprints are all over this project, but the end result is something totally of its own creation. Not many guys could pull this kind of thing off without seeming at least a little bit self-indulgent. Twilight have surprised us all by putting out one of the best metal records in recent memory. Until we fully understand what the fuck happened in Chicago, where the album was recorded, we're just going to be blasting it nonstop. While words may fail to convey just how amazing this is, we give it our highest seal of approval and have no doubt you too will agree...
What do you get when you mix Wrest from Leviathan, Malefic from Xasthur, Hildolf from Draugar, Imperial from Krieg and Azentrius from Nachtmystium? Odds are by the end of that sentence, most of you black metal fans don't even care, you just want it whatever it is! Well, what IT is, is a long in the works collaboration dubbed Twilight, featuring the above mentioned black metal masters, all conspiring to produce the sickest, grimmest black metal ever. And Twilight certainly is both grim and sick, but the sound manages to be much more, veering dramatically from the various contributors' usual sound and sounds. The first track is a massive and thick, buzzy and blurry tarpit of swirling BM, that is so unbelievably dense at times that the vocals and guitars and drums almost merge into a single massive blackened drone, before random parts shift ever so slightly and are allowed to drift to the forefront before slipping back into the murky blackness. Layer after layer of downtuned riffing, insane blast beats and hellishly surreal super processed howling vocals (sounding almost like all five of them are singing simultaneously). Quite possibly one of the most frightening black metal tracks EVER. We were totally thrown for a loop though with track two, which starts off with a bizarre jaunty black metal jig, accompanied by grunted troll-like vocals, before splintering into more familiar buzz and drone territory. After that it's exactly what you would expect from a BM dream team like this, lots of midtempo Burzumic throb and buzzy BM drone, plenty of growled, howled, gurgled and shrieked vocals, completely amazing riffs, veering from echoing spacious doom to razor sharp blackthrash to weirdly melodic almost jangle, catchy melodies that reveal themselves slowly with each listen, and of course there's Wrest's amazing and super creative drumming holding it all together. The sticker on the front pretty much says it all: "As an entity, they have delivered a mammoth, blackened metallic statement. Bleak, cold, darkness within and beyond the void."
Don't let the cheesey bargin bin Miami Bass cover art deceive you, this is not a Twilight Circus album to pass up. Dub From The Secret Vaults is a collection of unreleased recordings by Ryan Moore / Twilight Circus bestowed upon Roir for release in part, it would appear, as a way of saying thanks to their having turned him on to such great new music in his youth. This anthology of unheard gems spans Moore's entire Twilight Circus career, with some tracks spanning back 20 years (originally recorded on cassette!) It's actually kind of ironic that whoever chose to do the album's layout would choose such an antithetical collage of images -- CAD renderings of speaker drivers, digital waveform images and strings of ones and zeros -- to visually represent the work of Twilight Circus contained herein. If there's anything that makes Moore stand out from the crowd of modern day dub purveyors its his decidedly traditional and analog approach to making his music. The core of what is contained on Dub From The Vaults is all that we know and love about Twilight Circus: genuinely executed 70's era dub saturated in reverb and anchored in heavy, heavy bass and drums. As a bonus, we're treated to some of the seedlings of dub concepts from a young Ryan Moore (as good, if not better than the wild dub of his fellow young punks!) along with some of new directions for the Twilight Circus Dub Sound System. Highly recommended!
