There seems to be a pattern these days with new bands, specifically the bands who exist in the cd-r underground. The scene is so small and the various labels and groups so closely linked, that it doesn't take much for a new group to blow up, a single well received cd-r on one label, often results in short order in releases on some or all of the various other cd-r labels of note. Sometimes it's frustrating, discovering a band, and then a month or two later discovering that they now have 5, or 10 or even 20 releases. But on the other hand, if it's a band you dig, why the hell not, we would never be ones to balk at more records by a band we love.
Anyway, such was the case with a band called Natural Snow Buildings, who released an insanely limited cd-r, in ridiculously fancy packaging. Practically no one got one, but those who did, raved like crazy, and thus, there are a whole mess of NSB releases about to drop (one elsewhere on this list actually). Not long after that release, half of that duo released his first record under the name Twinsistermoon, and pretty much the same thing happened. Insanely limited, only a few people got it, and word spread, and now TSM are also poised to release a handful of new records. Thankfully, Digitalis stepped in and snapped up that Twinsistermoon recording, and decided to reissue it, so more than a handful of people could hear it, and voila, here it is! Still probably too limited (only 500 copies), but at least briefly, we all have a chance to hear the gorgeous sounds of Twinsistermoon.
Mehdi Amaziane is one half of Natural Snow Buildings, and records on his own as Twinsistermoon. This disc was originally released as a limited run of 36 copies, which says something that it could still create such a stir. But it all makes sense when you finally hear it. This will be like manna from heaven for the dream-drone free noise cd-r set, the perfect mix of abstract folky songsmithery, and abstract raga like buzz, intense minimal tribalism, and shimmering soft focus strum. Even from the first track, imagine the cosmic Ur-drone of a group like Sunroof! intertwined with the fluttery forest folk of a group like Avarus, but then introduce soaring impossible high male vocals, often mistaken for a female, all woven into a buzzing brilliant sprawl. Peppered with bits of percussion, tinkling chimes, backwards guitars, almost Renn Faire like folk, those soaring vocals, hand drums, huge washes of vocal harmonies. Totally epic and expansive, cinematic and grand. And that's just the first track!
The record drifts dreamily from soft folky shimmer, to thick raga rituals. The vocal based songs are uncanny, Amaziane's voice is so high and clear, like Vashti Bunyan crossed with Cat power, the vocals rich and lustrous, emotional and intense, draped over fragments of strummed guitar, and muted percussion. Breathless and intimate, one moment, lush and epic the next, Amaziane could easily have made a record with just an acoustic guitar and his voice, instead, he chose to incorporate a much wider palette, creating gorgeous sweeping soundscapes, washed out drones, thick walls of crumbling distorted sound, steel string buzz would into long stretches of reverberation and shimmer, often erupting into dense tangles of buzz and pound, some tracks sound like a more lo-fi Loop, a sort of rambling forest-ified space rock, others are near static, channeling Sunroof! again as well as folks like Phill Niblock, but as much as we love dronemusic, and abstract buzzing ambience, it's Amaziane's voice that makes this disc so compelling. Anyone can whip up a good drone-y skree, although Twinsistermoon do it much better than most, keeping it musical rather than drone for drone's sake, but very few have a voice like that, and if they do, even fewer know how to use it. In Twinsistermoon, Amaziane transcends the idea of singer/songwriter, creating a gorgeously expansive and organic soundworld, equal parts free folk, abstract noise, minimal drone and hushed intimate songsmithery.
Packaged in a full color, matte finished 6 panel cardstock jacket, with super striking Aztec influence artwork by Amaziane. And again, LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!
Soon to be out of print, soon to be only available on eBay, the latest slab of blissed out psychedelic dreamfolk from Twinsistermoon aka Mehdi Amaziane aka one half of underground darlings Natural Snow Buildings, and you know what that means, grab these while you can, cuz pretty much everything NSB releases turns to gold, but not before selling out in a heartbeat. Which, as we've gone on at length about in the past, is a huge shame, as the music they create is positively enchanting. Together as NSB and separately as Twinsistermoon and Isengrind. This here record was originally released as an lp limited to 105 COPIES!! WTF? Thankfully, this cd reissue is limited to 1000, so this will hopefully be around for a while.
The music of Twinsistermoon, while definitely its own entity, is closely linked sonically to the Natural Snow Buildings mothership, from thick washed out drones, to delicate sun dappled folk, to haunting collaged soundscapes, Amaziane is an old hand at conjuring up sweeping cinematic vistas of sound, her voice angelic, her guitar playing lovely, her arrangements ethereal and otherworldly, all the various elements blurred and woven into slow burning and divine dreamscapes. The Hollow Mountain is heavy on the folk, with more than half the songs consisting of super stripped down, just voice and guitar numbers, delicate, crystalline, often wreathed in some sort of subtle sonic glow, or backed by some swirling textural ambience, but just as often stark and spare and simple. The other few tracks here are warm woozy meditative drones, with wheezing organs locked into cyclical melodic loops, various field recordings, and thick corrosive muted hiss and sitar like buzz.
And that's not counting the massive 44 minute 'bonus track', which essentially amounts to an entire extra Twinsistermoon record tacked on to the end of this one. Beginning with another darkly delicate bit of folky drift, the 'track' moves from there to clattery Avarus style free folk jangle, to garbled distorted lo-fi soundscape, to thick blown out sun dappled Sunroof! like ur-drone, to gorgeous soft skeletal Appalachia, to whirring soft focus slowcore, to barely-there hushed ambience. So goddamn lovely. Let's hope this one stays in print longer than the last few releases. 1000 COPIES. Remastered. And as always, super swank packaging, a printed full color sleeve, with a bunch of new artwork as well as the original lp art, housed in an oversized full color jacket / booklet...
The Snowbringer Cult was a double cd originally released way back in 2008 on the Students of Decay label, and was the first proper cd release from French bedroom drone-psych-folk epic from Natural Snow Buildings, the boy/girl duo of Mehdi Amaziane and Solange Gularte, that double cd included a NSB full length, as well as an album from each of their solo projects, those being Isengrind and Twinsistermoon. That double cd is finally available again, but has also been reissued on vinyl for the first time, with each of the three parts being released separately as its own record.
Natural Snow Buildings have been a band since WAY back in 1999, toiling quietly WAY underground, and over the course of the last decade plus, have only really released a handful of records, and in the first 6 or 7 years, they only managed 4 cd-r's and two tapes, the total number of copies of all 6 of those releases hovering at about 250. That's insane! At the time we couldn't help wonder how a band with such a small catalog, that has reached so few ears, could generate so much fanboy freakout?! But that's precisely what happened. And thankfully, and perhaps surprisingly, in the case of NSB, and the two solo offshoots, the hype does not seem unwarranted. The freaking out more than merited. The music of Amaziane and Gularte is definitely something special, much more than the usual generic fx laden droned out abstract cd-r floor-core that seems to be constantly flooding the scene, this duo write actual songs, and create gorgeous soundscapes, they mix raga-like psyche with fluttery folk, deep drones with pristine pop, weaving it all together into something spectacular.
Mehdi begins the Twinsistermoon record with a sound that perfectly compliments Solange's Isengrind record (and makes it obvious why the two work so well together in NSB), long drawn out glimmering high end tones, draped over a dark minor key folky strum, and simple percussion, while Mehdi's feminine sounding falsetto soars over the top, all infused with some sort of freaky folky Wickerman vibe. Gorgeous and haunting. That track is followed up by a short chunk of perfect dreamfolk, simple folky strum, and Mehdi's crystal clear vocals, ringing out, pure and impossibly high, if you didn't know better you might think this was some rare track by some lost seventies female folkie.
And so it goes, tracks weaving back and forth, from warm washed out blissy dreamy dronescapes, to simple stripped down folk, often the two sounds drifting into each other, cross pollinating, the folk songs short and seemingly serving to separate the longer sprawling expanses of drone and shimmer, the two sounds dramatically different, but somehow complimenting one another perfectly.
The latest criminally limited release from this Natural Snow Buildings offshoot, the work of one half of the NSB duo, Mehdi Amaziane, he of the impossibly high and surprisingly feminine voice, which is in full effect here, soaring and lovely, sounding like some lost seventies folk songstress, while the music underneath definitely touches on classic folk and Appalachia, but quickly moves beyond, culminating in the 25 minute folkdrone epic that takes up all of side two, but more on that in a second.
The first half is a collection of shorter songs, beginning with a smoldering prismatic buzz, a layered raga like drone, slow building and subtly epic, which gives way to something much more stripped down, tinkling folk melodies and Amaziane's sweetly crooned vocals. The sound so dreamy and sun dappled and washed out. The record switches gears and suddenly our ears are treated to thick swaths of soft noise drift, swirling voices, a little bit noisy, but it gradually grows more and more orchestral and melodic, before settling down into some tranquil new age shimmer, eventually slipping into delicate Appalachian dreamfolk, crystalline guitar figures, and that voice again, so dreamy and divine.
Then the flipside, and the aforementioned epic 25 minute sidelong dreamdrone, a constantly shifting dronescape rife with swirls of warm whirring buzz, shimmery streaks of fuzzed out melody, soft focus chordal smears, layers and overtones, woozy and softly psychedelic, flecked with fragments of steel string guitar, disembodied voices, a gloriously dense and ultra lovely ur-drone that sounds like a folkier, prettier, more delicate Birchville Cat Motel, droney and dreamy and divine.
Pressed on incredibly heavy vinyl, in a tip on style sleeve so thick, it's almost impossible to get the vinyl out, LIMITED TO 979 COPIES this time around, we got a whole bunch, but 979 is still apparently not nearly enough as once our copies go, this record will most likely be sold out at the label...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
After the abrasive drum & bass album 'The Sharpest Tool in the Box', Jon Tye (aka Twisted Science) completely shifts course for this whimsical electronica-concrete album. Sorta like u-ziq meets Jim O'Rourke.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Harsh jagged ultra distorted electronic music ranging from furious drum and bass to half-time sputtering noise... This is one of our unanimous favorite new releases.
Recommended Twisted Sister.
Q: What album contains the best heavy metal song ever written about a snow leopard? A: This one!!
Virginia's TTD has been around for a long time, in the "true metal" underground, with releases going as far back as 1996 (a split 7" with cult doomsters Cold Mourning in fact) but this is the first album of theirs that's really blown us away. Maybe it's their new, improved vocalist. Maybe it's the injection of seemingly arena-ready '80s metal POPPINESS that he's brought with him, y'know, catchy choruses, even amidst all of TTD's usual OTT speedy shred action. Or maybe it's the inspired cheesiness of the cover art (featuring that aforementioned snow leopard) and the "Snow Leopard" song itself. You gotta love a song with lines like "I'm a snow leopard, I live a wild and crazy life" and "I'm calling all cats to sink some claws in some backs", not to mention the soaring chorus that goes "Snow leopard run! Run snow leopard run!"
With this unabashedly bold, bright and energetic album, TTD catapults into the top of the "New Wave Of Old School Heavy Metal" pack, next to the likes of Cauldron and Enforcer, where maybe they belonged all along. Pick it up and revel in the power and the glory. The vocals, an in-your-face falsetto. The guitars holding hints of classic Thin Lizzy, and of course Iron Maiden. Total singalong power metal, gallant and galloping. We're lovin' it.
This Virginia band plays real heavy metal, '80s Iron Maiden style, like few others in the world today (Skullview, Metallucifer, Wolf, Sacred Steel, and their touring pals The Lord Weird Slough Feg are a few of 'em). Sure, "power metal" is all the rage in Europe, but this is just more underground and cult and non-commerical than bands like Hammerfall and Primal Fear.
Much better produced than their Miskatonic debut, this second TTD album soars with bald burly frontman Tony Taylor's Bruce Dickinson / Geoff Tate style vox, rips with the ace twin guitar attack of Scott Waldrop and Dave Boyd, and pounds with the rhythm section of Jim Murad (bass) and Marc Stauffer (drums). While TTD's songs are still a bit generic (titles like "Sign of the Storm" and "Battle Cry" tend to indicate as much), what do you really want from five guys in black leather and bullet belts? Some silly headbanging tuneage, and that's what you get. They're still young, maybe they'll develop more personality in the future. For now, they uphold the flame of metal more proudly than most (although we could do with more memorable riffs and less balladry). Besides, their cheesy fantasy cover art can't be beat (a painting of the band in medieval armor, hanging out with a big ol' dragon).
We love how in the last several years the walls between the punk rockers and DJ culture have come crashing down. So many of us grew up on punk rock but have grown to love the sounds of DJ'd dance floor delights. JD Twitch exemplifies this evolution so perfectly. He is someone with a deep love of punk rock, and whose roots are definitely in punk, but who has gone on to create some of the most smart and satisfying dance floor jams with his project Optimo.
With 10 Inches Of Fear, he revisits the raw punk sounds that were so influential in his musical development. This 10" features re-edits of Flux Of Pink Indians, Honey Bane, Zounds, and The Mob. Smartly he does very little to the tracks and lets their raw and urgent sounds rise to the surface. As a spectacular bonus the 10 inch comes with a cd comp packed with some of his favorite punk tracks of all time, in their original form. It truly is like being given the ultimate punk mix by a friend in 1986 or tuning in to the best college punk rock radio show ever. Classic songs by the Butthole Surfers, Sun City Girls (back when they were more of a bratty punk band), Big Black, Husker Du, Savage Republic, Crass, The Screamers, The Pop Group, etc. This has been making many of us so nostalgic for our early punk filled years that no matter how many different kinds of music in which we now revel, punk will always be such a strong part of our musical spirit. For those about to punk out we salute you!
We were only able to get a small handful of these so act fast, once they are gone that may be all she wrote.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
The eighth in the series of tour support singles from MP3 conglomerate Insound is from Two Dollar Guitar. Tim Foljahn's country fried indie-isms are paired with Gram Parson's orchestrations for a beautiful ep. Highlight of this record: a gospel choir reciting Tim's crude request, "Please, don't shit on me" on the final track.
"Pulse, motion, friction, drone; the quasi-erotic/sexual rhythms of locomotive travel. Trains are consummately musical machines, particularly in our age, where the boundary between 'noise' and 'music' is, at best, totally fluid. Like J.M.W. Turner's Rain, Steam, and Speed, wherein the painter attempts to grasp the vivid drama of technological encroachment on natural phenomena, Two Dollar Guitar's Train Songs likewise amplifies the fragile, intimate relations between the hyperational mnemonics of studio tape recordings and the raw flux of real-time aural physics." - from the ultra academic liner notes provided by Lionel M. Wise, PhD. UNC at Chapel Hill.
We just thought it was neat that there would be an alt.country version of Hoenniger's Pacific 231.
After the brilliant yet thematically different "Train Songs" album and the experimental country of his La Lengua Asesina side project, Tim Foljahn's Two Dollar Guitar returns to the indie-country sounds of his first couple of albums. While comparisons to Cat Power or Will Oldham's Bonnie Prince Billy moniker are still valid, Two Dollar Guitar seems to shedding some of the alcohol-laden depression and writing some corkin' country stomps. Features Sonic Youth's Steve Shelley on drums (as always) as well as guests on a song or two including Nels Cline and Carla Bozulich (Geraldine Fibbers) and Tim Prodhomme (Fuck). And, in the unusual/unexpected covers department, we get the Styx song "Killroy Was Here"!
Longtime aQ fave Amon Tobin, whose records are brilliant dark tangles of dense electronica, dizzying, driving beats, swirling atmospheres, unrecognizable samples recontextualized into wholly new shapes and sounds, and often, especially on his early records, a distinctly Brazilian vibe, returns with a new album, under a new moniker, and in this new incarnation as Two Fingers, Tobin seems to have moved away from the brooding Ben Frost-like cinematic menace of his last record Isam, in favor of something much more mainstream, and much more dubsteppy. In fact, a lot of the tracks here wouldn't sound that out of place in a DJ set alongside jams by Deadmau5, Blackburner or Skrillex. But while this is definitely made for the dancefloor, it's well removed from all the knuckle dragging bro-step out there, it's still Tobin after all, working some delirious dancefloor alchemy with BIG beats, that are ribcage rattling crunches one minute, intricate technoid skitters the next, everything wreathed in heaping helpings of dubstep style low end bass wobble/warble, electro synth squelch, dense gouts of buzz and thick sheets of undulating rumble, clouds of psychedelic FX and spaced out sci-fi bleeps and bloops. Lots going on for sure, a whole different effect in headphones as through the sound system at a club, but Tobin's knack for crafting impossibly catchy grooves, and mutating them into some warped alien electro/techno hybrid, is fully intact. And for every blast of grinding beat heavy crunch, there's another sprawl of loping electronic grooviness, usually those two oozing into one twisted new whole.
And while they last, we have the deluxe version of the cd, which includes a second disc, on which the sound slips even further into the commercial/pop realm, with vocals, even rapping, the resulting jams will definitely have you wondering why this shit is not all over the radio.
A couple years ago this fine album by Two Gallants' was released on cd, and was quite warmly received around these parts. Well, we're pleased to report that it's finally made its way onto vinyl!
Here's what we said about the cd version back in 2004:
Lately we've been getting quite a number of customers comin' in asking for these fellas. Two Gallants weave a solid nine rootsy rock songs with beleaguered male vocals right up front and center. Actually the vocals have an emotive gruffness sorta like a cross between Vic Chesnutt and Cat Stevens (or like what Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst might sound like in twenty years). Tempo and mood-wise The Two Gallants sure keep you on yer toes, easily go from smoky slowly winding somber odes straight into feisty harmonica and whisky-fueled rollickers and back again. Guitars get a hearty workout from the gentle plucking and feverish strumming. Nice.
Now on double LP too, and with a few extra goodies -- two bonus songs and a code for a downloadable mp3!
Here's what we said about the cd version: San Francisco's Two Gallants second album has found a well-suited, comfy home on Nebraskan cool kids' label Saddle Creek! Funnily enough when we reviewed the band's last album The Throes, we compared their vocals to a more aged Conor Oberst (of of the label's breadwinnin' band Bright Eyes). Those similarities are still quite prominent, and fans of B.E. might also find themselves warmin' up all toasty to the sounds of What The Toll Tells. Mind you it's not all slow, hushed and brittle, weep in your pint, this is ragged, rugged country rock. Then again, actually Oberst has also been known to roughen and rile his music up on occasion hasn't he? Simply, we reckon they're all in good company. Perhaps this will open the door for some dandy collaborations?
San Francisco's Two Gallants second album has found a well-suited, comfy home on Nebraskan cool kids' label Saddle Creek! Funnily enough when we reviewed the band's last album The Throes, we compared their vocals to a more aged Conor Oberst (of of the label's breadwinnin' band Bright Eyes). Those similarities are still quite prominent, and fans of B.E. might also find themselves warmin' up all toasty to the sounds of What The Toll Tells. Mind you it's not all slow, hushed and brittle, weep in your pint, this is ragged, rugged country rock. Then again, actually Oberst has also been known to roughen and rile his music up on occasion hasn't he? Simply, we reckon they're all in good company. Perhaps this will open the door for some dandy collaborations?
This SF band craft sturdy country rock with dusty roads 'n' harmonica friendly withered male vocals, and they've packed their third full length with it! Clearly Two Gallants' music is deeply influenced by the blues, the sort whose roots run deeeep in the southern swamps. Here's nine well scuffed, weathered and leathered songs that fit well alongside the strainin' with emotion Americana stylings of labelmates Bright Eyes and Eric Bachmann as well as My Morning Jacket or Waco Brothers. Real good!
Two Lone Swordsmen chase their recent Double Gone Chapel album with this six song ep (containing remixes and instrumental versions of three TLS tracks -- "Showbizz Shotguns", "Feast" and "Sex Beat"). Continuing in much the same stark dark vein, each track follows simple basslines, minimal repetitive synth melodies and uncomplicated programmed beats. The male vocals that appear on a few of the tracks are delivered in an electro-friendly cold monotone speak-sing. If you dug the change in direction that they took on their last full length (i.e, away from their mellow electronica past and towards an edgier, more 'rock' sound), then you just might dig this ep which sorta bridges their two musical personalities.
The follow-up to "Tiny Reminders" from Andrew Weatherall (formerly of Sabres of Paradise) and Keith Tenniswood comes in the shape of a remix collection. They asked a few of their friends to have a go at some tracks from their last album. It begins (and ends) in a promising, dreamy dance beat-less manner courtesy of C-Pij but then quickly reverts into the less than thrilling,
What do the following artists have in common? Calexico, Starsailor, Lalipuna, St. Etienne, Luke Slater, Primal Scream, Howie B, Stereo MCs, Force Legato, Texas, Six By Seven, Alter Ego and Slam -- hmmm, any guesses? Well folks, they've all had their music remixed by Two Lone Swordsmen. Please note: Most tracks bear little resemblance to the original songs. If you're a fan of any/all of the abovementioned artists in search of more of the same, you'll probably want to continue your quest. If you dig late '90s IDM with skillful digital dismemberment of melody and Cuisinart-style fragmentation of beats, this might be for you. By the way, this compilation serves to warm up the decks in preparation for TLS' forthcoming full length due out in June.
This is lovely, melodic, burbling electronica from the famed Andrew Weatherall (Sabres of Paradise etc). Mellow and groovy, it's similar in concept to KLF's pastoral Chill Out, but underwater!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Second full-length from Andrew Weatherall's latest incarnation. Dark, brooding, burbly, epic, yet overtly relatively subtle (lots going on but you have to listen closely) experimental electronica...
For eight years IDM duo Two Lone Swordsmen have made pleasing electronic music, nothing to knock your socks off nor put your knickers in a knot, just well executed, predominantly downtempo tracks. Now they've ventured into some unchartered territory... at least for them. The Double Gone Chapel can easily be tagged their "rock album". What it actually resembles is a diluted version of analog synth slingers Add (N) To X who themselves became dilutions of their past more engaging selves years back. Vague jamming -- a la get a farty synthesizer sound, come up with a simple riff and repeat until 'groovy'. 'Cheers' to them for trying new things, but 'Boo' for feeling compelled to release it before getting their rock chops up to snuff. Cmon Warp, some quality control! There's so many other bands who do this much better. Offering a bright light amid all the dullness is the second to last song "Taste Of Our Flames". With its woozy male / female vocals and heavy fuzzed bass tones, this smokily intoxicating, somber number could've been a great album closer... but it isn't. Instead, they tagged on a redundant post-rockish instrumental. Adding one more confusing glitch in the TLS system this time around.
This new split 7" features a pair of well matched young bands from around these parts -- the Bay Area's Dame Satan and Two Sheds from Sacramento. They're druggy, dusky hued country folks who slink about in the shadows. Their all too brief two songs harken a woodsy winter chill. Can't wait for more! The record is pressed on the palest seafoam green vinyl and is packaged in a beautiful screen printed sleeve.
A super limited (only 100 copies!) dvd-r from film maker Paul Clipson with music by Tarentel's Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. The film is a beautifully abstract and paranoid impression of Southern California, filmed on grainy Super8, with lots of dizzyingly hypnotic footage of telephone wires, helicopters, cityscapes, gorgeously blurred out traffic lights and tail lights and street lights. There's late afternoon silhouettes, fuzzy smears of neon, rain drops on glass, cranes and docks, abstract streaks of passing cars and slick roadways, hillsides covered in windmills, the sun reflected on the sea, highways and green hills. So lovely. And haunting. As are the accompanying sounds created by Cantu-Ladesma, an ominous, buzzing, vocal drone, affected to the point that it still sounds organic, but not like a voice, more like streaks of sound, greys and blacks and browns, all smeared into blurred soundscapes of purr and whir and thrum, that perfectly compliment the shaky camera work, the grainy film stock, and the gorgeously and ominously mundane subject matter.
LIMITED TO ONLY 100 COPIES. WE ONLY GOT 20 COPIES SO ONCE THESE ARE GONE, THEY ARE GONE FOREVER.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Dive may be the latest release from the man known as Tycho, aka Scott Hansen, but it's the first thing of his most of us here have heard, and we have to say we're pretty swept away by Hansen's sonic vision, a musical accompaniment to some sort of abstract futuristic utopia, rendered in shades of glistening, sun dappled shimmer, abstract IDM skitter, and warm, lush, organic atmospheres. The sound is definitely shoegazey, and a little bit house-y, flecked with glimmers of new age ambience, wreathed in wisps of celestial ethereal drift, and smears of late night chill out electronica, all filtered through what to our ears sounds like a decidedly indie rock filter, with the occasional acoustic guitar and wistful melancholy melody woven deftly into glistening expanses of crystalline electronica, or minimal dreampop space-prog, all floating lazily beneath swells of swooshing synths and wreathed in woozy moodiness, and all driven by skeletal shuffles and warm liquid pulses, those pulses occasionally coalescing into a sort of eighties retro Knight Rider style groove, and briefly positioning Tycho's sounds alongside folks like Zombi and Umberto, but not only are the sounds here more prismatic and dreamy, they're also decidedly more rhythmic, and more IDM style electronic, definitely a retro-futuristic sort of dancefloor vibe, but only if you can imagine said dancefloor in the middle of a sun dappled meadow, beneath a blue sky and surrounded by rolling hills as far as the eye can see. It seems like those two elements wouldn't really work, but they kind of do, creating something minimal and groovy, but also tranquil and meditative, a sort of new age / soft focus electronic kosmische indie pop, that would be the perfect soundtrack to the romantic montage in some low budget experimental underground art film (or heck, these days, even some big budget car commercial)!
When a friend made the mistake of loaning me the original lp version of this record, I fell immediately in love with it and refused to give it back. Luckily for him, and all of us, its turn has come in the line of ESP reissues.
This was the first recording as group leader from Tyler, who spent time playing baritone with Cecil Taylor and appears on Albert Ayler's "Bells" and the monumental "Spirits Rejoice." Bassist Henry Grimes and cellist Joel Friedman also played with Ayler, while drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson and Charles Moffet, who contributes orchestra vibes, both spent time drumming with Ornette Coleman.
Beginning with almost delicate interspersings of dual bass/ cello arco, prominent vibes, and Tyler's vibrato-heavy alto skittering, by the second track the quintet is in full frenzy mode (at times very reminiscent, understandably, of Ayler's detourned marches). All the players are awesome, from the hyper speed-bop to gentle and textural playing of Jackson, to the welcome brightness of Moffet's vibes -- but the real key to my love of this album is Joel Friedman's fantastic cello playing. Working frantically, Friedman stretches the full range of his instrument's notes and multiple textures in full throated, layered harmonic, truly intense fashion, and provides an extremely interesting focal point while never overwhelming Tyler's soloing. While not attaining the pummeling highs of the canon of free jazz classics, this is still a great session of some very talented and under-appreciated musicians. Compelling listening.
Reissue of the second Charles Tyler recording for the seminal ESP Disk label in 1967 in which the former Ayler collaborator introduced a formative backing band consisting of solely a cellist and two bassists. "Eastern Man Alone", presents itself as a low end version of a string quartet backing a confidently mellow Tyler on alto. Really Nice.
You'd have to have been living under a rock, to not have heard all the hype about Tyler the Creator, Earl Sweatshirt and the rest of the Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All crew, a collective of teenage rappers, producers, skaters and visual artists, who have in a matter of months gotten the whole underground all in a tizzy, the blogs gushing over every single thing these guys have done. And as always, our first impulse was to dismiss the whole thing as just another overhyped bit of internet bullshit. But all it took was hearing a couple songs, seeing the twisted videos, and seeing their killer live performance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, to convince us that for once, the hype was well deserved.
Their sound definitely recalls the horrorcore sound of the nineties, especially the Gravediggaz, and while the band publicly deny the comparison, it's hard NOT to hear the connection, the vibe and production is super spare, creepy and intense, Tyler and his crew definitely strip it WAY down though, often JUST the beat, the rhymes, and a minimal amount of creeped out ambience. "Yonkers", the first single is the perfect example, with its super stripped down beat, weird industrial loop, and low slung bassline, over which Tyler spits some seriously fucked up and off kilter rhymes, and if you've seen the super stylized video, where he eats a live beetle and then hangs himself, it's pretty bad ass. "Sandwitches" is another good one, with it's horror movie like synth melody, draped over a swaggery, lumbering beat, a definite witch house vibe, but here all chopped up and stuttery, woozy, druggy and seriously demented. On a few tracks, Tyler dips into some warped woozy R&B, his flow transforming the sound into something that sounds more like Ariel Pink than R. Kelly, his vox pitched WAY down, multiple voices all tangled up, engaging in strange surreal conversations, but before too long, the sound slips right back into another sprawl of fractured warbly hip hop, oozing blackened off kilter grooves, the loops twisted and unraveling, the pitch constantly shifting, the perfect fucked up and fractured backdrop for Tyler's baffling and brilliant flow.
William Tyler has spent the last decade plus as a touring guitar player for both Nashville indie country combo Lambchop, and indie rockers the Silver Jews, but here on Impossible Truth he strikes out on his own, and comes up with something that harkens back to a different age, several different ages in fact, the obvious reference is the guitar soli / early Appalachia of folks like John Fahey, Leo Kottke and Robbie Basho, but imagine that sound filtered through something more Laurel Canyon-y, for a sort of seventies psychedelia, the sound evoking wide open expanses, big sky country, the soundtrack to a meandering drive in a big old car, top down, on single lane roads winding through rolling green hills, no destination, endless possibilities. Opener "Country Of Illusion" adds a bit of raga to the mix, giving the sound an exotic droney vibe, with a little bit of an Eastern tinge, but soon, a subtly rhythmic pulse, some slippery slide, a little bit of twang, and it's a whole different world, we're hearing Morricone, Pell Mell, James Blackshaw, all woven into a heady bit of sun dappled psychedelic folk, that is pretty divine. Steve Reich and Terry Riley may also be influences.
The mood darkens a bit on the "Geography Of Nowhere", the tones wreathed in reverb and delay, the sound looped and layered, minor key and melancholy, but then like the first track, the sound opens up, the mood shifts, as of the clouds parted revealing nothing but blue skies. The record tends toward dense melodic tangles and mesmerizingly repetitive arrangements, with the tone and timbre constantly changing between songs, some lush and warm, rich and lustrous, others more crystalline and high end, more shimmer and glimmer, all culminating in the closer, which might be the weirdest track of all, it starts out a sort of loping Western style Americana, looped melodic figures drifting over swoonsome slide and lush chordal swells, but then in creep what sound like horns, and maybe fiddles? The melodies get more playful, the slide more slippery, the sounds soar and swoop, the horns moaning and bleating, before finally exploding into a full on heavy psych drum heavy noise drenched freakout, the drums driving and motorik, beneath a cloud of roiling psych guitar tangle, that eventually fades out, into a shimmery sprawl of pulsing, echo drenched abstract guitar drift.
And everyone who buys a copy of Impossible Truth, cd OR vinyl, will be entered into a raffle to win a VERY RARE test pressing of the record!!
William Tyler has spent the last decade plus as a touring guitar player for both Nashville indie country combo Lambchop, and indie rockers the Silver Jews, but here on Impossible Truth he strikes out on his own, and comes up with something that harkens back to a different age, several different ages in fact, the obvious reference is the guitar soli / early Appalachia of folks like John Fahey, Leo Kottke and Robbie Basho, but imagine that sound filtered through something more Laurel Canyon-y, for a sort of seventies psychedelia, the sound evoking wide open expanses, big sky country, the soundtrack to a meandering drive in a big old car, top down, on single lane roads winding through rolling green hills, no destination, endless possibilities. Opener "Country Of Illusion" adds a bit of raga to the mix, giving the sound an exotic droney vibe, with a little bit of an Eastern tinge, but soon, a subtly rhythmic pulse, some slippery slide, a little bit of twang, and it's a whole different world, we're hearing Morricone, Pell Mell, James Blackshaw, all woven into a heady bit of sun dappled psychedelic folk, that is pretty divine. Steve Reich and Terry Riley may also be influences.
The mood darkens a bit on the "Geography Of Nowhere", the tones wreathed in reverb and delay, the sound looped and layered, minor key and melancholy, but then like the first track, the sound opens up, the mood shifts, as of the clouds parted revealing nothing but blue skies. The record tends toward dense melodic tangles and mesmerizingly repetitive arrangements, with the tone and timbre constantly changing between songs, some lush and warm, rich and lustrous, others more crystalline and high end, more shimmer and glimmer, all culminating in the closer, which might be the weirdest track of all, it starts out a sort of loping Western style Americana, looped melodic figures drifting over swoonsome slide and lush chordal swells, but then in creep what sound like horns, and maybe fiddles? The melodies get more playful, the slide more slippery, the sounds soar and swoop, the horns moaning and bleating, before finally exploding into a full on heavy psych drum heavy noise drenched freakout, the drums driving and motorik, beneath a cloud of roiling psych guitar tangle, that eventually fades out, into a shimmery sprawl of pulsing, echo drenched abstract guitar drift.
And everyone who buys a copy of Impossible Truth, cd OR vinyl, will be entered into a raffle to win a VERY RARE test pressing of the record!!
A few lists back we were singing the black praises of the grim, necro, frosty, raw black metal of Transylvanian trio Tymah. Not only do they masterfully blend the raw buzz of outfits like Darkthrone, Mayhem and Ulver into their own bleak fuzzy blackened sound world, but they are the rare black metal beast, a female fronted BM horde, she a demonic hellion whose banshee shriek and hellish riffing are the driving force behind these brutal black warriors. Funeral Fog is Tymah's demo cd, limited to 666 copies, which finds the band's sound even more murky and raw, and it almost sounds even better than their record proper. Opening with a Mayhem cover (title track "Funeral Fog") that hews pretty dang close to the original, Tymah, continue to spiral gloriously Southward, a relentlessly buzzing blast, thick swaths of corrosive riffing and thrash attack drumming, with insanely howled vocals, sounding quite a bit like Weakling at times. It's that perfect buzzing blackness we can NEVER EVER seem to get enough of. The bonus track ups the production a bit, shrugs off a bit of the murk, and in the process gets even buzzier and harsher. So good.
The disc also includes a video for "Transylvanian Dreams", gorgeous shots of forests and fires and fjords, the corpse painted band members superimposed, either in the studio, carrying torches and swords, or just a murky mysterious visage, shrieking harshly over the glorious background buzz.
LIMITED TO 666 COPIES. Each disc hand numbered!
The return of Transylvanian black metal horde Tymah, who besides delivering a blackened howl equal parts Mayhem, Ulver and Darkthrone, also have the distinction of being one of the only black metal bands fronted by a woman.
Their last two records were furious blasts of buzzing Norwegian style blackness, and this one is no different. Many of the songs begin or end with slow, woozy, midtempo stretches of Burzumic buzz, but the bulk of the record is blasting old school blackness. Troo and grim. The drums a relentless blastbeat, beneath lightning fast riffs, and frontwoman Dim's hellish howl. The riffing isn't just fast and frantic, it's also epic and majestic, weaving triumphant melodies, and unleashing some killer hooks. Rare is the riff that sticks in your head like a pop song, but a handful of these songs have been lodged in our black skulls since we first got this in. Even one of the mailorder folks was just humming along to "In Devenit Satana" as these words were being written.
The sound is thick and intense, the guitars writhing and whirring and whipped up into an absolute blackthrash frenzy, the production full and HEAVY, none of that tinny lo-fi brittle buzz, this is the sort of blackness that crushes and pulverizes. Managing to sound true to the old masters, but to infuse their sound with energy and originality, much of it due to the axe mastery and throat shredding wail of the lady Dim. Folks are so impressed by that woman who sings for Arch Enemy, and rightfully so. She is pretty bad ass, but all she does is sing. Imagine her squaring off against Dim, bespiked and corpsepainted, axe in hand, atop a mountain of black amps, behind a wall of black fury, forest by her side. No contest.
Yet another fantastic grim black missive from quite possible our favorite band from Transylvania.
Ahhhhh, grim, necro, frosty, raw black metal. It's an acquired taste, but once you've tasted that black blood, there's no turning back. Whether it's Darkthrone's Transylvanian Hunger, Ulver's Nattens Madrigal, or any one of the legion of lesser known black hordes, it's a sound that soothes like only raw fuzzy, buzzy, Burzumic guitardrones and blurry battle blasts can. Hungarian black metal horde Tymah's take on this bleak, harsh and blackened buzz doesn't veer far from their influences, this is as grim and as true and as black as you could hope for, the majority of Transylvanian Dreams a dizzying blur, a near dronelike wash of low end rumble and insect swarm guitars, while beneath, a relentless lightning fast blast, and above, pure tortured yowls and demonic shrieks, which is where Tymah do truly distinguish themselves, as vocalist / guitarist Dim is a woman, a rarity for sure in black metal (and metal in general), not that you necessarily could tell from her harsh and harrowing, truly anguished sounding screech (very reminiscent of Weakling at times), but still there's something truly inspiring about a corpsepainted, be-spiked, axe slinging, sword swinging she-demon lurking wraithlike in that same black forest, holding her own and then some with the black metal boys club. And if for some reason those sorts of things don't do it for you, just close your eyes and forget we said anything, and you'll soon be basking in (unisex) black metal bliss.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY. [/cat/metal145.html]
A Star Of Beards (NOT to be confused with the album A Beard Of Stars) is a new compilation of unreleased tracks, live recordings and demos from mystical psych folk legends Tyrannosaurus Rex. Like most completist collections, the sound quality is not the greatest, but Tyrannosaurus Rex (before Marc Bolan discovered the electric guitar) was always a lo-fi beast, so fidelity may not matter to super fans. Not necessarily essential, but folks curious to hear the origins of freak folk, get in line right here!
...But Now They're Content to Wear Stars (the full title). For fans of Devendra Banhart! The 1968 debut from the otherworldly hippie folk-psych duo of Marc Bolan and Steve "Peregrine" Took. Long before Bolan turned Tyrannosaurus Rex into T. Rex and went all glam and teeny-bopper on us, he made this wonderful warbly Middle Earth music.
Before Marc Bolan headed for glam rock gold with T. Rex he made (in my opinion) his best records as Tyrannosaurus Rex. With an amazing backwards folk flare, Bolan sang of sages, dragons and wizards. The stripped down recording style and experimental elements have made the Tyrannosaurus Rex recordings still ahead of their time. This is an album that takes you far away from reality while still having a total connection to nature. With the recent onslaught of the "free folk" movement their is no doubt that so many roads lead back to Tyrannosaurus Rex. Especially for Devendra Banhart, who when you hear this record you can't help but say oh my god Devendra sounds sooo much like Marc Bolan in this era - from voice to guitar styling and lyrical imagery. This expanded version includes an extra disc of alternate takes, the 45 version of "one inch rock", etc. Prophets, Seers & Sages... stands with Unicorn as not only my favorite Marc Bolan recordings but as one of my favorite albums of all time!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
