The label may be Bay Area Thrash, but not only is this label from the UK, not the Bay Area, but this is most certainly not thrash. Instead, it's a heaping mound of black and crusty doom sludge!!! Vat Of Fat offer up two length slabs of groovy sludgy stoner doom, huge lumbering riffs, barely audible gutteral vox, all crusty and crushing. Think Eyehategod, Electric Wizard and the like. But it's slow and sludgy enough to hit the spot for the more extreme doom fanatics out there (Khanate, Moss, Bunkur, etc...) but this is definitely more riffy. Big old downtuned riffs, almost stoner rock at points, but too caked in their own grit and filth and slow and pummeling to be anything but a gloriously punishing dose of planet crushing deathdoomdronedirgesludge!
As The Tide Consumes, are a much less sludgy proposition, but no less heavy, just a bit more chaotic and a bit less tail dragging. Fuzzy crusty riffs, howling screeched vocals and wild streaks of squealing feedback. Way more agitated and crusty sounding than the stonery doom of VoF, although that said, this is still plenty downtuned and churningly sludge soaked. Almost like someone tried to teach Esoteric to play black metal, or tried to get Eyehategod to somehow sound more like Neurosis. A grinding groovy seriously swampy and sludge-y metallic pummel.
LP only and as with lots of stuff like this, VERY LIMITED.
Death & Unity With God was originally one of those tiny edition tape boxsets that Hospital Productions released at some point in 2014. Yes, those six cassettes will be reprised at some point onto a 3cd anthology through Modern Love; but for now, we have this 2lp set which sports 12 of the 20 songs. Missing are a handful of the slug-paced techno torpor tracks from Vatican Shadow; and while the vinyl set is pretty outstanding, the complete package will be found on the triple cd set!
Vatican Shadow is, of course, Dominick Fernow - the man also behind Prurient and the Hospital Productions empire. Over the past three or four years, Fernow has shifted his focus almost entirely to toward Vatican Shadow, using a loose critique of religious indoctrination as the conceptual framework for his spare rhythmic exercises in crunchy Middle Eastern electro dervishes. The precursor this work is obviously Muslimgauze; and the work on Death & Unity With God continues along this same trajectory, linking the distinctly American cult of personality catastrophes (Jim Jones, David Koresh, Timothy McVeigh) with the ideological endgames of Al Qaeda and the Islamic State. The political rhetoric to this work quickly wane in the seductive power of Fernow's rhythms, and that may be the point. But more likely this disconnect recalls a common critique of Fernow's work as being thoroughly surface oriented with a armor-plated facades of masculinity, intellectualism, etc. covering up something that's hollow, missing, or lacking. This however is all thrown out the window when it comes to how good a producer Fernow can be, with Death & Unity With God being one of his most subtly dramatic piece of modern day electronica. Bleak electrical chorales and dread-inducing rumblings haunt these 12 tracks that are girded upon slowly unfurling spare rhythms whose breakbeats slink with an desert-dry Arabic groove alternating with nocturnally muted techno, laced with arid dub echo, gothy whipcrack snares, and motorik noise hypnosis. There's only 300 copies of this pressing; and these will not last long.
Death & Unity With God was originally one of those tiny edition tape boxsets that Hospital Productions released at some point in 2014. Yes, those six cassettes sprawled across 20 tracks, of which only 12 were pressed onto the double vinyl edition that came and went earlier in 2015. But now, as promised, Modern Love delivers a complete package in the form of this triple cd set!
Vatican Shadow is, of course, Dominick Fernow - the man also behind Prurient and the Hospital Productions empire. Over the past three or four years, Fernow has shifted his focus almost entirely to toward Vatican Shadow, using a loose critique of religious indoctrination as the conceptual framework for his spare rhythmic exercises in crunchy Middle Eastern electro dervishes. The precursor of this work is obviously Muslimgauze; and the work on Death & Unity With God continues along this same trajectory, linking the distinctly American cult of personality catastrophes (Jim Jones, David Koresh, Timothy McVeigh) with the ideological endgames of Al Qaeda and the Islamic State. The political rhetoric of this work quickly wanes in the seductive power of Fernow's rhythms, and that may be the point. But more likely this disconnect recalls a common critique of Fernow's work as being thoroughly surface oriented with a armor-plated facades of masculinity, intellectualism, etc. covering up something that's hollow, missing, or lacking. This however is all thrown out the window when it comes to how good a producer Fernow can be, with Death & Unity With God being one of his most subtly dramatic pieces of modern day electronica. Bleak electrical chorales and dread-inducing rumblings haunt these 20 tracks that are girded upon slowly unfurling spare rhythms whose breakbeats slink with an desert-dry Arabic groove alternating with nocturnally muted techno, laced with arid dub echo, gothy whipcrack snares, and motorik noise hypnosis. The near 26-minute "Al Qaeda (Branch Davidian)" is one such track that never made its way onto wax and is a creeping exploration of slug-paced techno torpor which sounds like an exhumed Muslimgauze track intended for 45rpm played a 33. The depressive-electronics of "McVeigh Figures" pocked with gunshot echo and better-than-witch-house shadowiness make for some of most evocative and downright haunting that Fernow has ever created.
So fucking good, this one is!
This super limited, extremely pricey triple lp gathers up the three most recent cassette only releases from primitive gothic industrial outfit Vatican Shadow, aka Dominick Fernow, he of Prurient, Cold Cave, Christian Cosmos, Hospital Productions among other similar dark sonic pursuits. Like other recent Vatican Shadow releases we've reviewed (Ornamented Walls, Kneel Before Religious Icons), these three cassettes: Jordanian Descent, Ghosts Of Chechnya and Atta's Apartment Slated For Demolition, all travel similar sonic terrain, a claustrophobic, war-on-terror obsessed sprawl of minimal, skeletal electronica, that falls somewhere between the Eastern tinged rhythmscapes of Muslimgauze, and the more bleak beat driven projects in the God / Godflesh axis (Techno Animal, Curse Of The Golden Vampire) as well as those amazing electronic comps from way back when (Isolationism, Electric Ladyland), but imagine all of that framed through a more gothic eighties sensibility.
The first half of the Jordanian Descent tape is a sidelong tranced out, dubby, loping stretch of minimal skitter, underpinned by an ominous droned out thrum, the surrounding sonic shifts, the beat locked tight for the duration. The second half also fills up a whole side, and cranks the sound up a bit, and adds a healthy dose of murk as well, looped percussion, churning away beneath moaning low end, and some super distorted beat heavy crunch. eventually ditching much of the low end and buzz for something more lurching and stuttery.
The second lp, which contains the Ghosts Of Chechnya tape, is much more eighties, right out of the gate, glimmering synths drift atop a loping electro beat, eventually some buzz and drone enter the mix, adding a sinister slant that remains throughout the rest of the record. The overall sound though is way more gothic gloom pop, albeit more spare and skeletal, but add some deep dramatic vox and this could be on Captured Tracks. Instead, Fernow, adds a bunch of other sonic weirdness to the tracks, a dizzying mix of murky minimalism and occasional noisy industrial crunch.
Finally, record number three, Atta's Apartment Slated For Demolition, sort of splits the difference, beginning dark, minimal, skittery, haunting and ominous, the vibe a bit more techno, but a mutant strain of techno that's away more creepy and cinematic than dance-y. But then moving into something more gothic and eighties, culminating in a woozy sprawl of dark electro pop that sounds almost like some instrumental Chris Isaak B side reinterpreted by Holy Other.
LIMITED TO 911 COPIES!! Housed in a swank gatefold sleeve.
Originally released as an ultra limited cassette in 2001, Vatican Shadow is the alter ego of Dominick Fernow, the man who runs the Hospital Productions label, performs and records as Prurient and who is a sometime member of Cold Cave, but who in Vatican Shadow, traffics in a warped lo-fi new wave, the sort of thing you'd expect to hear in the back room of some weird goth club in the eighties, or on a dubbed tape you found in the backseat of your goth friend's car. The sounds is a swirl of shitty Burzumic synths, and looped programmed soft beats, all in a haze of low fidelity tape hiss and atmospheric murk, it's washed out and dreamy, druggy and woozily hypnotic, opener "Chopper Crash Marines' Names Released" (the first of many titles that point to a distinctive and very specific theme), is the sort of warped crumbling primitive new wave loopage that we could listen to forever, and the song really does lock into a loop and just churns away, wrapping the above sounds around a low slung Joy Division-y bass line, and then trancing out completely. A fantastic chunk of hypno-wave mesmer, that pretty much sets the template for the rest of the record. Each track a warbly looped melody driven by a crunchy, crumbly drum loop, while all around those sounds, Fernow wraps various streaks of hum and thrum, hiss and whir, brief bits of melody here and there soft melodic swells once in a while, but it's always subtle, the songs more about that hypnotic looped drone-wave at their core. But within that strictly defined sound, Fernow does manage to transform his looped hypno-wave into various permutations, whether it's crunchy and caustic and industrial, or Depeche Mode like new wave pop, or ominous droned out crunch, or lumbering spectral witch house drag, or tripped out almost Muslimgauze shuffles, of blown out super distorted new wave shoegaze pop, each track and every permutation retains Vatican Shadow's raison d'etre, which seems to be creating these insulated hypnotic retro rhythmic wave-scapes, and in doing so, inspiring a drugged out musical trance. Totally mesmerizing.
Ornamented Walls is the latest blast of primitive gothic electro industrial from Dominick Fernow, Hospital Records head honcho, and the man behind Prurient, Christian Cosmos, as well as sometime member of Cold Cave. And while this is the third or fourth VS record we've reviewed, this one differs in a big way, namely its creation. The A side is a vinyl reissue of a super limited tape (17 copies, sold at the first VS live show), which demonstrated Fernow's cassette deck technique, as in using tape decks and a mixer the way a DJ does a turntable and mixer, a primitive collage of blown out beats, of distorted melodies, of caustic noise, and all manner of raw buzzing texture, somehow deftly woven into a churning electro industrial crunch that kills. The three tracks on side A are live rehearsals for the above mentioned gig, and are raw, and powerful, intense and surprisingly nuanced, flitting from chaotic caustic crush, to stripped down droned out beatscape, to churning industrial pound, the sounds hissy and crackly, lots of tape noise, and murky whirring soft noise shimmer, not to mention mysterious voices, bits of other songs, primitive samples, stuttering beats and throbbing in-the-red basslines.
The flipside features a handful of tracks whipped up post show, using the same multi tape deck set up, and offers up still more of the same, thick insectoid buzz, dirgey distorted beats, creepy droned out melodies, swirling gristly textures, dark sinister atmospheres, and some gorgeously crumbling blurred bliss out noise, sounding a bit like Muslimgauze by way of Tim Hecker. In fact the B side tends toward the minimal and abstract, a more mellow balance to the A side's bombast, but it's great stuff, skeletal and spare, haunting and sinister, much more moody and atmospheric, gorgeous stuff, which definitely had us hoping there was more of this tucked way in the vaults somewhere.
Yet another killer collection of murky, Middle East obsessed gothic industrial slo-mo techno from Dom Fernow, who in addition to recording as Vatican Shadow, also does time in new wave combo Cold Cave, runs the Hospital label, and also has about a million other projects, including Prurient, Christian Cosmos, Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement and loads more.
As Vatican Shadow, Fernow weaves a murky, moody landscape of slow, skittering beats, zombie like lumbering grooves, primitive lo-fi synth melodies, whirring drones, everything washed out and grey, each track nearly a static loop, a core rhythm, and an abstract melodic component, locked into a tranced out mesmer, while all around, strange sounds drift in and fade out, soft washes of atmospheric shimmer, reverbed synth squelch, lots of echo and reverb, giving much of the sound a dubby vibe. Muslimgauze is definitely an apt comparison in places, as are outfits like Techno Animal, although Fernow's approach is much more reductionist, his soundworld more about the minutiae of the sounds, the mood, the texture, the vibe, a track like "Muscle Hijacker Tribal Affiliation", is super simple on the surface, a looped synth, a clattery bit of percussion, a crawling techno pulse, and what sounds like some processed heavy breathing, but somehow Fernow deftly transforms those constituent parts into something much more harrowing and haunting, making the over the top song titles sound like plausible descriptions of what exactly Fernow is trying to evoke with these minimal masterpieces. Some tracks do crank up the tempo, but even then, the skittery rhythmic jitter is often wrapped in heaving swells of crumbling blacknoise, or distant swaths of ominous chordal rumble, so instead of propulsion, those jacked rhythms, simply add more texture, the gristled skitter bleeding into the black sonic shadows surrounding them, and when the beat does fragment and explode as it often does, not only does it inspire a sort of music malevolence, and emotional dread, it also again harkens back to Fernow's gothic roots, sounding like the sounds could be emanating from some dank gothic bunker in the East Village, circa early eighties, from a mysterious dark room way in the back of the club. The same is true when electric guitars enter the mix, the weird metallic riffery often sounds a bit like a way more minimal Ministry, stripped down to its very essence, and once locked into the inevitable looped out trance, gradually transforms into something much more mysterious and mesmeric.
Latest release from Vatican Shadow, aka Dom Fernow, aka Prurient, as well as being the man behind the Hospital record label and store (R.I.P) and a member of cold wavers Cold Cave. VS his Fernow's retro electro goth project, and this 12" is the first release on Bed Of Nails (Fernow's new post-Hospital label), and is presented in the style of an old school eighties 12" single, the A side features two versions of the title track, the first total old school electro goth groove, equal parts early industrial, dark wave, and goth dance pop, the second version gets significantly darker, more droney and driving, stripped down a bit but wreathed in a haze of crumbling noise and brittle buzz.
The B side begins all swirly synth and ominous chordal swells, before the beat finally surfaces, another gothic electro groove that wouldn't have been at all out of place on some cobweb draped dancefloor at the monthly goth night at your local nightclub, sandwiched between Sisters Of Mercy and Fields Of The Nephillim, while the final track ditches the beat completely and offers up a trippy gloomy sprawl of gothic synthscapery. Cool stuff for sure, especially if you were a high school goth, or still have a soft spot for that sort of thing!
LIMITED TO 700 COPIES!!
When You Are Crawling is an ep addendum to the recent Remember Your Black Day full length from Vatican Shadow, aka Hospital Productions and Prurient mastermind Dom Fernow. Vatican Shadow's Middle Eastern gothic industrial techno gets a slight reworking here, with two tracks from Remember revisited, first the title track, which gets smoothed out a bit, its churning rhythm laced with looped breathing, and backed by minor key melodies, spare and skeletal, even more so here, the beats building throughout, until the final few minutes is transformed into something much more aggro and electro, all the while, the background sounds remain hushed and abstract. The other reworked track is "Not The Son Of A Desert Storm But the Child Of Chechnya", which is all girded industrial churn, and deep chanted monk like vocals, the sounds grimy and gristly, and once again, the beats seeming to transform over the length of the track, getting dirtier and murkier, the surrounding sounds this time following suit, a mesmerizingly propulsive industrial electro groove.
"Atta's Apartment Slated For Demolition (Bouthayna Engineering)" appropriates its title from an older Vatican Shadow release, and unfurls a heady bit of minimalist skitter, draped over soft focus chordal swells, and shimmering distant drones, much more laid back than the other two tracks, and the longest at nearly 15 minutes, the sound shifts constantly, getting murkier and housier part way through, before once again splintering into something much more caustic and corrosive near the track's end, and again, it's just the beats being mutated, as the background sounds remain washed out and melancholic. Finally, "Al Qaeda" is another dark groove, Muslimgauze by way of Techno Animal maybe, a moody, murky sprawl, that in this case, grows MORE murky, shedding most of the surrounding sounds leaving just a stuttery beat, surrounded by sonic echoes and abstract shadows.
There was a time when great poppy garage gems were being blasted out of just about every practice space here in San Francisco. It seems like those days are now gone, but luckily The Vaticans have filled that void with some totally fun-filled girl-group inspired garage-pop that hits its mark dead on. Like a more scrappy, stripped down take on early B-52's, the non-electro elements of Stereo Total or the no-frills garage stomp of The Headcoatees. Bubblegum garage-pop done oh so right!
I have to say as the resident hip hop head around these parts, I have been less than impressed with MF Doom in any of his incarnations since his Zev Love X days in the godlike KMD. I know to most of you this will seem like some serious blasphemy, but KMD was a tough act to follow, and all the post-KMD records had elements of genius definitely, but still just sort of missed the mark. MF Doom, MF Grimm, King Geedorah all sounded great, but just didn't connect the way they could have. Happy to report that MF Doom's Viktor Vaughn connects in a big way. Deep and dark, and dense. Funky and funny. Hard and brutal and venomous. Creepy minor key loops over simple funky beats, smoothed out soulful hip hop joints, loping funked up crunch, weirdly glitchy skitter, and VV's wickedly biting flow, smooth and nimble, clever and raw.
Joint number two from the venomous villain Viktor Vaughn, aka MF Doom, King Geedorah, and way back when, Zev Love X from the legendary KMD. Of all the different incarantions, his Viktor Vaughn persona is easily the most effective, both lyrically AND musically. A dark and delirious ride through some weird sepia toned musical Metropolis, a sonic comic book land where Viktor Vaughn rules with an iron mic, from his island hideout, where he spits rhymes packed with head scratching non-sequiters and ultra clever turns of phrase delivered in a slurry, super relaxed drawl over some of the most weirdly original hip hop scapes ever. Damaged ambience woven from stuttery samples of
old movie clips, shimmering strings, blues guitar licks, skipping records, fuzzy synths, dramatically soaring string sections, distant drones, hiccupping horns, head nodding loops, all over stuttering, almost un-funky, glitched out beats. At its root, this is a classic hip hop record, but VV (or one of his evil musical henchmen) is obviously into all sorts of avant abstract music, as every element of this record is slightly skewed and beautifully damaged, whether it be through super experimental production, unlikely beats more minimal techno than old skool hip hop, or dizzyingly plunderphonic soundscapes. Kool Keith guests on one track too!
Wierd Records have brought us some amazing records over the last few years, from Led Er Est, Martial Canterel, Xeno & Oaklander, Staccato Du Mal and others, but this one might just be the coolest, and the weirdest (wierdest?) of the bunch. From the above mentioned bands, it's obvious that Wierd traffics in darkwave / coldwave / newwave music primarily, and this debut from Canadian outfit Vaura, definitely does fit in there, somewhere, sort of...
But unlike those bands, Vaura is HEAVY, the sound dense and epic, and times intense and downright crushing, while at others, droned out and dour. At their gloomiest, we're reminded of French retrowavers Soror Dolorosa, the sound a sort of death rock, beholden to groups like Joy Division and the Cure, but there's no denying the metal element, hinting at the likes of both Liturgy and Katatonia, which makes more sense when you know Vaura's pedigree. A group you might not expect to include members of Dysrhythmia, Kayo Dot, Secret Chiefs 3, and maybe most surprising of all Gorguts, who are responsible for what might be one of aQ's favorite death metal records of all time, Obscura. So the real question is maybe what is a death metal guy doing in a band like this, and how the heck did these weirdos and metalheads end up with a dark, gloomy, heavy record on Wierd? And really the answer is who cares. We're just happy to have this strange slab of moody heaviness, and it's quickly become the only thing we want to listen to.
The sound is a bit confusional, but only when you're trying to describe it, cuz on paper, it seems like a mess, like a weird whatthefuck that would never work, but in action, it's awesome. Hooky and heavy, brooding and moody and metallic, thick guitars, chiming and shimmering one second, churning and chugging the next, sinewy basslines, the vocals deep and dramatic, subtly processed, the songs proggy and intricate, some incredible drumming, the songs super melodic, even poppy in places, but occasionally peppered with bursts of gloom infused black metal, complete with blast beats, and deep ominous vox, atonal chords, often splintering into a grinding almost death metal, but more muddy and gothic and less distinctly metal, everything wreathed in cool textured psychedelic guitars, dense squalls of dark sonic energy, layered chordal thrum and swirls of FX and streaks of feedback. And while the sound seems to always return to a sort of dark, and heavy, gloom rock, it's what the group do to and with that sound that makes this so transcendent.
And while the record definitely works as an album, the individual songs and sound are super varied, from the washed out black metal flecked gloominess of "Obsidian Damascene Sun", with its furious double kick drumming, and swirling psychedelic guitar filigree, to the churning bombastic almost doom-ed heaviness of "Uncreated Light (Transfiguration)", to the strangely ritualistic sounding "The Column's Vein", all rumbling low end, and chanted monklike vox, to the acoustic gloom-folk of the title track, a gorgeously moving softly psychedelic steel string ballad, the record culminating in our favorite track, "The Zahir" which begins as a barely there rumbling drone, underpinning steel string guitar strum, some softly crooned vox and chiming harmonics, which disappear in a squall of massive distorted riffage and swirling feedback, the whole song transformed into a whirling propulsive sprawl of melodic drone-psych, a brooding slow build that becomes a heavy gloom pop, driving and intense, in comes some metal vokills and some tangled super catchy guitar melodies, all over tribal drumming, and thick buzzing guitars, the sound gradually falling apart, and transforming into a woozy detuned dirge, only to explode into a crushingly heavy, gloriously blown out Godspeed style epic outro, wild streaks of psych guitar, pounding chaotic drumming, clouds of swirling effects, definitely the sort of thing that should have been stretched out for another 20 minutes or so, but instead, collapses in a field of glitch and static, buzz and crumble. So fucking awesome. A practically perfect slab of heavy gloominess / gloomy heaviness. And a new aQ favorite for sure.
Emerging once more from the shadowy subterranean recesses of bleary Brooklyn, aQ's favorite misery merchants Vaura have returned with their second dose of heavy glistening gloom rock (and their first for avant-metal tastemakers Profound Lore). By definition a side project of sorts, Vaura features members of Dysrhythmia, Kayo Dot, Gorguts and Secret Chiefs 3... and sound exactly nothing like you would expect a band with that pedigree to sound. There's a myriad of influences here - all brought together with an admirable cohesion. Black metal, '80s goth, post rock, psychedelia... The elements are all there, but The Missing is at its core an atmospheric rock record. Although you wouldn't believe that from the first 30 seconds of the album. The introductory title track opens with a gorgeous wall of sound black metal tremolo grind, a pummeling frantic drum blast and a minimal spacey guitar lead, immediately bringing to mind the recent crop of euphoric black metal bands like Alcest or Deafheaven. But only half a minute later the track crumbles into a bittersweet mid paced dirge of plodding toms, shuffling militaristic snares and deep brooding vocals - much more akin to Ian McCulloch or Andrew Eldritch than any spike gauntleted shrieker. There's also a distinct similarity to mid period Katatonia in the numbed, almost frail vocal approach. Much of The Missing in fact seems to recall a very specific time in recent metal history - a period in the late '90s when extreme metal bands, usually on the doomier end of the spectrum, started experimenting with more traditional rock & roll elements. The uptempo mournful melodic rock of "Incomplete Burning", with its strummed acoustic guitar mingled with distant distorted leads and reverb washed vocals, is pure Judgement-era Anathema - invoking the same sense of wistful psychedelic melancholy. Elsewhere on songs like "Pleasure Blind" and "Putting Flesh to Bone" the slinking basslines creeping under warm ethereal strings bring to mind Beyond Dawn's subtly surreal Electric Sulking Machine. "The Things We Hide", with its dissonant plucked Eastern melodies and sinister echoed vocals, even recalls the more atmospheric moments of British avant-death weirdos Akercocke, as does the pummeling blasting, warped clean guitar and droning synths of "Passage to Vice". It's not all so wonderfully obscure though. There's plenty of Joy Division in those distinctive post-punk basslines and that disjointed repetitive drumming, and the aforementioned Sisters of Mercy are clearly a big influence. "Braced for Collapse" even brings to mind some of Sunny Day Real Estate's more downtempo moments. And could this record have come at a more perfect time? It's that time of the year... The days are getting darker, the winds are getting more bitter, and our playlists are getting even gloomier to match. If the atmospheric goth tinged heaviness of Pinkish Black - or maybe even In Solitude's latest - are your idea of a perfectly dismal night in, then you couldn't do much better than lighting those ceremonial candles, laying out your finest black velvet, and spending some quality alone time with The Missing.
As a rule, we're usually not so keen on live albums (from rock bands, that is -- jazz is another matter). Who needs to hear a bunch of crowd noise and clapping? Live albums are notorious for time-wasting drum solos, cliched stage banter, poor sound, bad mixes, and unwanted cover versions ("Hound Dog", y'know, that sort of thing). Plus half the time they're faked. Of course, that doesn't mean some aren't classics: Kick Out The Jams, Lights Out, Live At Last, Tokyo Tapes, Band Of Gypsies...
And while we're NOT suggesting that this particular recording by this late-'70s Greek hard rock outfit is as good as any of those, it is still pretty good for a live album from a band we've never even heard of before! And, it's also the only way you're gonna get to hear 'em since the Vavoura Band never made a studio album back then. And if you're into heavy '70s hard rock proto-metal action, you probably DO want to hear 'em. Heavy, bluesy, a little proggy, with some some ethnic folk influences, these guys (who were apparently famous for trashing their equipment a la The Who) manage to remind us of both Hawkwind and Black Sabbath at various points on this record. They also remind us of a really freaky longhaired '70s bar band in full guitar-splooge mode -- 'cause that's what they are, basically. Pretty cool. 12 tracks, 11 live, 1 studio, recorded mostly circa '77-'79 with one track from '81. English vocals for the most part.
Not sure how we managed it, but this is the first we've heard from noise rock heavies Vaz, which is kind of weird for a couple reasons, one, this is their 3rd or 4th record so far at least, and those past records were on some seriously kick ass labels, and two, Vaz is in fact two members of the late great AmRep outfit Hammerhead, who we LOVED. But better late than never, and this is indeed a serious chunk of blown out super hooky and heavy noise rock, pop at its core for sure, but wrapped in some thick, crumbling ultra distorted riffage, not to mention some tripped out psychedelic guitar action, anchored by the drums, a wild chaotic pound, and the vocals, surprisingly melodic, which positions Vaz more alongside other poppier heavy rock combos like Torche, but Vaz definitely twists up their sound, atonal and off kilter, jagged and frenzied and frantic, sleeping easily from twisted crunch to soaring hookiness and back, with a definite brooding downer pop vibe running through some of the songs too. And some ridiculous hooks tucked amidst all that crunch and pound. We gave this a quick listen when it first came in, and thought it sounded pretty good, but when we finally sat down to really dig in, it quickly became a new fave, sounding suddenly like some impossible hybrid of Nomeansno, The Melvins and Torche, with a hint of the Wipers� and we've been listening to it like crazy ever since, which pretty much says it all.
Killer stuff, and definitely recommended for fans of heavy pop and poppy heaviness.
Packaged in swank silkscreened jackets, includes a free download as well.
We were lucky enough to have Vaz play our most recent South By Southwest showcase, and while we were already fans, of their previous band too, late great AmRep heavies Hammerhead, seeing Vaz live knocked our fucking socks off. Furious and heavy, mathy and dense, and impossibly tight. One of the best drummers we've seen the songs roiling, furious math/noise rock blowouts that totally decimated. This is a super limited reissue of their long out of print debut full length, and fins the band just emerging from AmRep mode, the sound super rhythmic, pummelingly hypnotic, but rife with crazy melodies, hooky as hell, which seems impossible when you're listening to these crushing noise rock blowouts, but these guys come from a time when melody and heavy rock crush were not enemies, it was all in how you got the two tangled up, and even a decade ago, Vaz had already mastered a unique strain of heavy/hooky/rhythmic/mathy noise rock that still sounds incredible.
Opener "Blocked By Satellites" melds a woozy groove to some skittery drumming, droned out guitar, and some seriously crushing riffage, a churning unfuckwithable noise rock gem, that is the perfect example of what made/makes these guys so good, a soaring crazy catchy chorus, the grinding verses and main riff still infused with a subtle bit of melody. But if that track is Vaz at their noise rock heaviest, follow up "Meld W/U-90" is a pop song by comparison, sounding like a precursor to the sludge pop of Torche, emotive vocals draped over wild almost tribal drumming, and layer after layer of buzzing guitar, it does slip into more chugging heaviness, but even then, that main melody will stay stuck in your head for AGES. Oh and yeah, there's some rad mathy freakout, but it leads right back into that crazy poppy verse. And so it goes, every track heavy and hooky in equal measure, weird arrangements, twisted almost-avant guitaring in places, a sound that definitely dates it to a specific time (actually, this originally came out in 2001, but it sounds gloriously mid nineties!), but one that pushes all our, and we're guessing your, heavy / noise / math rock buttons.
LIMITED TO JUST 100 COPIES, each cover hand silkscreened, and each a different color.
The latest from these noise rockers find them delving even further into melody and poppiness, but fear not, their AmRep roots are still showing (two members of Vaz used to play in the late great Hammerhead!), and while much of the sound on recent records is still on display, churning riffage, wild, mathed out drumming, thick buzzing bass, super rhythmic and hypnotic, even in our reviews of their other records, we mention sludge poppers Torche, and describe their sound as being both hooky and heavy, and at least for the first few songs on Visiting Hours, hooky seems to be winning, and we're digging it! It actually sounds a bit like a noisier, mathier Husker Du, with plenty of downtuned chug, and the aforementioned wild drumming, but the vox are way more up front, and weirdly, it kind of reminds us of a noise rock My Dad Is Dead, the same sort of wistful melancholia, especially and specifically in the vocals, and while the sound occasionally erupts into something more noisy and AmRep-y, it always seems to slip back into something more poppy and melodic. That said, as the record progresses, it gets more dense and chaotic and heavy, and by the last song on the first side, it's (d)evolved into blown out math rock radness, until the vocals come in, which deftly pushes it back into poppier realms, without losing any of the heft. The B side follows a similar pattern, but culminates in a churning, gloomy, extended moody dirge, that sounds like Vaz-style death rock and it KILLS. Here's hoping that signals a new sonic shift toward some more tripped out noisy, gothy death rock from these guys in the near future!!!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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Ved Buens Ende is the extremely weird Scandinavian Black Metal band that has more in common sonically with Slint than Bathory. This disc (packaged in a beautiful black box) features demo and rare tracks from prior to their "Written In Waters" masterpiece. Avant garde melancholy post-Black Metal? Recommended.
Praise Odin! At long last, a reissue of the sole full-length Ved Buens Ende album, originally released in 1995 on the now defunct cult label Misanthropy. A black metal super session of sorts, this band featured past, present, and future members of Satyricon, Dodheimsgard, Aura Noir, Cadaver Inc. and Arcturus. But Ved Buens Ende ('At The End of the Rainbow' in English) hardly sounded like ANY of those black metal stalwarts -- as avant garde as any of them ever got, Ved Buens Ende went way beyond. Yes it was heavy and dark and the vocals had a unique Viking/monk chant strangeness that isn't typical of black metal but would make even less sense coming from another genre of music... but rather than black metal, Ved Buens Ende could just as easily be categorized as a post-rock or math-rock band. A really amazing math-rock band, with Don Caballero's "2" being the closest comparison! But totally sad and metallic and strange and forlorn and beautiful. Utter weird progressive instrumental genius. And the vocals, once you get used to them (and they do add to the bizarre vibe already created by the unsettling, atmospheric music) are used to deliver some mysterious, poetic lyrics as well. Overall, this is not like anything else!
It's too bad they never released another record (except for a disc of demos) but it's also unlikely that they could have surpassed this masterpiece anyway. Over the past eight years, this record has really proven itself to be a lasting classic, growing in stature, foreshadowing (but still exceeding) much of the 'post-black metal' innovations to come -- such as the most out-there psychedelic parts of recent Enslaved albums, for instance, or Opeth's epic dynamism. It's been out of print for a long time, and hopefully now will reach a whole new audience with this remixed, remastered re-release, which features brand new cover art/graphic design that's not bad at all, kind of a fancier, Ralph Steadman ink-splatter take on the original artwork. As one of our favorite so-called black metal albums EVER, this gets the highest recommendation, though the vocal style may be a test that hopefully you will pass.
MPEG Download: "I Sang For The Swans" [/audio/vedbuensendeIsang.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "I Sang For The Swans" [/audio/vedbuensendeIsang.m3u]
Huh, what's this? Vee Dee? It's got black and white, 'fucked up and photocopied' looking graphics, let's put it on...wow, some unknown punk rock outfit from decades past? The first song "Flashes Of Her" could be something by Radio Birdman, or maybe even a song off of that Simply Saucer album... Now, this other track is reminding me of the Misfits. Good stuff. What's the story? Is this something outta the pages of Black To Comm fanzine? A band from one of those Bloodstains comps? Nope, these boys are from the here and now -- Chicago to be precise -- and they sure know how to make a retro-sounding (and looking) punk record that kicks ass. They obviously must have cool record collections. But of course that by itself doesn't mean when you get up on stage you're gonna kick the jams out in a manner worthy of your heroes. However, Vee Dee rise to the occasion: they are worthy. They've got the hooks and the history books, so to speak. As you listen to this, you'll hear echoes of classic '70s and '80s punk, everything from the Buzzcocks to Crime to Black Flag. Cleveland's various underground '70s heroes are doubtless another of Vee Dee's inspirations. Lyrically, they're brave enough to sing lines like "The son of Altamont / was dancing with sister Watts" and do songs about the "TV Police" and being a "Blood Zombie" and make it work. Some of the lyrics read like your stoner 11 year old brother wrote 'em but that's rock and roll poetry ain't it? Give me a catchy song called "Kaleidoscope Death Ray" any day! Allan's new rock fave, went straight into his iPod top 20...
Yay, more primo scuzz n' swagger from Chicago punkers Vee Dee (not to be confused with another band we've listed called Veee Deee), rockin' at us from even deeper down the dark Midwestern hole of nihilism and negativity they inhabit, a place littered with cigarette butts, empty beer cans, and dogeared collectible copies of '70s punk rock fanzines. We'd been wondering when we'd hear from 'em again. Their 2004 debut Furthur was a surprise hit here at AQ, proving to be as catchy as the band's namesake. This new double vinyl gatefold lp (which comes packaged with a handy compact disc containing all the music too) maybe due to its expanse is not quite as immediately catchy, taking a few more spins before the singalong aspects start to sink in, but they do, as Vee Dee churn out 4 sides, 13 songs, of raucous psychedelic punk, heavy on the glorious guitar distortion. Perhaps imagine a cross between Pissed Jeans and Plastic Crimewave? The Heads and Mudhoney are possible references too, with Black Flag and Misfits and the Electric Eels being necessary ones, along with various and sundry obscure bands who left bloodstains across the Midwest back in the '70s... Oh and their song "Into The Void" isn't a Sabbath cover, instead it comes closer to sounding like the Stooges, obviously another big influence.
Public Health Mental System has got something of a cosmic / drug vibe, due to song titles like "Glimpses Of Another World", "Cleveland, Outerspace" and "Teens O.D." we guess, plus of course all the fuzzed out soundz. Pharoahs and pyramids are also mentioned. But there's no color, the cover art and the music too is all still in brilliant black and white, a la space and night. Inner space being the place they're really headed, on a bad trip, yet Vee Dee's psych-ological bringdown music still rocks with gleeful abandon, 'cause, fuck it.
Holy shit, is this long overdue, another incredible publication from the mighty Bazillion Points publishing house, this one, a long in the works compilation of the complete collection of the legendary Touch & Go punk zine, not the label, WAY before the label, there was this zine, an incredible collection of incendiary, funny as fuck, snotty and irreverent punk rockness. The work of Dave Stimson and Tesco Vee of the mighty Meatmen, Touch & Go set out to chronicle all of the happenings in the punk rock world, positive AND negative, never hesitating to call bullshit on any band or any record, but just as likely to heap crazy praise on sounds or folks so deserving.
Most of us were too young to be reading T&G back in the day, during the zine's 4 year lifespan, 1979-1983, it was several years before we discovered punk rock, and over the years, we probably only ever saw one or two of the 22 published issues, and always wanted more. So for most of us, this our first chance to experience Touch & Go in its entirety.
Classic old school layout, xeroxed in black and white, and hand assembled, covering all things punk rock all over the Midwest as well as in LA and New York and San Francisco and Boston and any other place kids were making a racket. Inside you'll find pretty much all the bands that mattered (and STILL matter): Black Flag, Minor Threat, Negative Approach, Die Kreuzen, Poison Idea, The Necros, Crucifix, Iron Cross, Discharge, The Misfits, the Avengers, Battalion Of Saints, JFA, SSD, 7 Seconds, the Effigies, Bad Religion, the Minutemen, the Fix, Scream, Faith and more more more. The book also adds essays by Byron Coley (Forced Exposure), Henry Owings (Chunklet), Peter Davis (Your Flesh), Ian MacKaye (Minor Threat / Fugazi / Dischord), Steve Miller (The Fix), John Brannon (Negative Approach), Corey Rusk (Necros / Touch & Go Records), Tesco Vee (The Meatmen), Keith Morris (Black Flag / Circle Jerks) and Henry Rollins (Black Flag / S.O.A.)!
As with all Bazillion Points publications, the book looks incredible, color cover printed inside and out, oversized soft cover, glossy, embossed, with printed fold over flyleafs, and classic flyers covering the end papers, while inside, every single issue, and every single page, close to 600 of 'em actually, of arguably the most important punk rock zine EVER.
So totally recommended. No self respecting music nerd / punk rocker / zine freak should be without one of these...
Record number three from these American noisemakers living in Japan, who apparently have decided that while they're there, they should make the heaviest, loudest, ass kickingest RAWK possible, and hell, doesn't really seem like it could get more heavy, loud or kick ass. Or mean, it is called Listen To This 1000x Then Kill Yourself after all, and there's a note inside crediting there artwork to Stephen O'Malley, even though there's virtually no art at all, we can only assume they're taking the piss. But it's all about the sound inside, and contrary to all the above, it's actually surprisingly melodic, as well as murky, a little lo-fi, definitely super rocking. The first track is a pretty freaked out slab of cyclical hypno-noiserock, a bit like a less spazzed out Lightning Bolt, but from there on out, while still heavy and a bit noisy, it's much more melodic, the second track is all big booming guitars, chords ringing out, blurred and buzzy and droney, the drums abstract and splattery, the track after that is downright dreamy, a sort of Japanese psych take on the Necks, hypnotic, loping and washed out and dreamy, yet still distorted and in the red, just not KILL YOURSELF in the red, more like eyes closed letting the blissed out heaviness wash over you.
It might be the recording, but this new Veee Deee, for all its implied misanthropy is really listenable, heavy, and hectic, manic and a little metal sure, but really warm and psychedelic, even the last track, which is more unhinged and angular and chaotic, with wild free drumming and tangled guitar skree, it too is weirdly melodic and surprisingly not fucked up. The louder you play it, the more the heaviness and freakiness reveals itself, maybe that's true of all records, but even with headphones this is a seriously dense and heavy chunk of noisy psychedelic post rock radness. If you have the other two, definitely grab one of these while you can, but even if you missed out, this is definitely worth picking up for the heavy rhythmic psych inclined out there.
Comes in cool handmade packaging, and includes free link to what's basically another full-length: To All the Girls I've Loved Before - Which One of You Gave Me the Clap?, a hi-fi antithesis to Listen To This 1000x Then Kill Yourself.
Not to be confused with the double e'd Midwestern punk rockers Vee Dee, this is the triple e'd Veee Deee and are American expats living in Japan. Well, at least one of em. AQ customer and long time pal Clay, most well known around here for sending us scathing (and hilarious) anti Keiji Haino hate mail, doing his very best to get Allan all riled up, much to the snicker delight of Andee (another misguided Haino hater).
Anyway, this is all sort of funny, as the sound of Veee Deee is not all that far removed from Haino's white noise psychedelic squall. Whoever is handling the ax duties here, could probably meet Haino on the sonic field of battle and hold his or her own. Dense flurries of rapid fire runs, weird moaning chords, bits of reverbed soft strum, all wound around some fierce and furious drumming.
While there are some Haino-ish elements, this falls way closer to modern freaked out spazz rock a la Strom And Stress, Coptic Light, Hella, Lightning Bolt, especially on the first track, with the band locking into hyper complex convoluted grooves, occasionally slowing things down for some tripped out drift, other times erupting into full on distorted crumbling NOISE. Someone must be manning the recording deck, as there is plenty of fucked up glitch and production weirdness. The second track (of three) is much more rock, with a seriously angular riff, wailed emo vocals, the drums still a chaotic clatter, sounding a little bit like Drive Like Jehu, slowing down for some minimal groove a la Stinking Lizaveta.
The final track mixes the disparate sound of the first two, a definite post rock post punk groove, but here muted and muddy, buried in a sludgy mix, emerging from a cloud of glistening atonal guitar splatter, and throbbing bass, tinkling chime like ambience and what sounds like croaking frogs, and finishing off in a flurry of buzzed out distorted skree. Cool stuff. Can't wait to hear more...
- MPEG stream: One
- MPEG stream: Two
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Hip hop remix.
As much as we dug the most recent record from Prurient, a seriously caustic slab of NOISE (and we're VERY picky about our noise) we're beginning to think Prurient mainman Dominick Fernow's true calling is playing in an actual band. It doesn't really matter what kind, as long as it's noisy and distorted and heavy and fucking LOUD. We've been freaking out about Fernow's black metal duo Ash Pool, a buzzing black beast as blown out as any noise combo, but here we have another of Fernow's bands, this one more rock than black metal, at least as far as we can tell. Actually for all we know the Vegas Martyrs could be black metal too, it's sort of hard to tell under all that noise and static and buzz and hiss.
There's lots of melody peeking out through the chaos which leads us to believe that somewhere in there lurks a rock band.
Like Ash Pool, Bone Awl, and Ancestors, it's all about the recording and the sound around the songs, which here means a swirling dense cloud of harsh buzz and whir, crumbling and grinding and hissing. But underneath are looped hypnotic melodies, howled vocals, pounding drums, all but completely obscured by that layer of blown out noise. It's almost like some rock band recorded by Merzbow and then mixed by Tim Hecker if that makes any sense. Or imagine the My Bloody Valentine model applied to noise rock instead of indie rock, less dreamy and blissy and more harsh and chaotic. Heavy, brutal, cacophonous, grating, in the red, overblown, ear splitting and dissonant, but at the same time, weirdly and impossibly pretty.
Packaged in a thick black and white sleeve, and pressed on super thick clear green vinyl. Limited to 750 copies, only 250 on green!
Finally available, only on cassette, the second, and final, unreleased record from East Coast black metal merchants Vegas Martyrs, featuring Dominick Fernow, he of Ash Pool, Cold Cave, Prurient and Hospital Productions.
We dug the first VM record a lot, a twisted chunk of buzz drenched heaviness that to our ears straddled the line between noise rock and black metal. Raw and pulverizing, but still weirdly melodic and subtly poppy, and while record number two seems, at least on the surface, to be a bit more grim and harsh, those elements still loom large. The opener sets the stage with some serious hateful lo-fi blackness, definitely for fans of Bone Awl, Ash Pool, Ancestors and the like, it's the next track that reveals the group's soft white underbelly, with a long sprawling bit of looped melody, wreathed in electronic crackle and laced with minimal bits of percussion, a stretch of brooding hypnorock that could have been some weird Circle outtake, that is until the song explodes in a flurry of heaving riffage, crashing drums and bellowed vokills, but that looped melody still drives the song, giving it an AmRep noise rock vibe, albeit a few shades blacker.
And so it goes, the whole record a blurred dizzying barrage of tangled melodies, of mathy rhythms, of looped riffage, of fragmented shards of pop music buried under a continuous avalanche of crumbling electronics and feedback, wreathed in reverb and echo, tense and intense, all wound into tight yet, sprawling blasts of pop flecked avant math/noise/black metal weirdness. Awesome.
Techno/electronica remixes of your Vegetable Orchestra favorites, from the likes of Ricardo Villalobos, Luciano, Oliver Hacke, Basteroid, Sian, and others.
THE BEST ALBUM OF THE YEAR of music made entirely with vegetables. Well, almost entirely. This extremely healthy twelve person ensemble's raison d'etre is indeed the use of instruments constructed from vegetables... they've designed carrot flutes, celery bongos, and something called the cucumberophone! We've been fans for a long time, but some of you might not be familiar with the Vegetable Orchestra, it's been a while since their last proper album (this is their third, or fourth if you count a remix disc). Years and years ago, back in 2003 when they were more formally known as the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra ('cause that's where they're from), we made one of their early albums a Record Of The Week. That's long out of print now, so we're pretty excited that the Vegetable Orchestra has at last sprouted a new disc. Even Andee here at AQ, who is infamous for NOT liking vegetables, loves the Vegetable Orchestra (finally, a decent use for vegetables, he thinks... yeah he'll listen to vegetables, just doesn't like to eat 'em).
The VO has definitely kept perfecting their techniques and exploring new possibilities of vegetable-based sounds, this album displays a lot of variety (and not garden variety, even though it belongs in a garden). There's the tracks that sound like minimal electronica... also poppier ones, and darker, ambient soundscapery... also some thumping techno beets, er, beats, and onionoisy outbursts. In the past they've done some covers, Kraftwerk among 'em, but these 12 tracks are all homegrown tunes. Rhythmic and textural, not only is the MUSIC enjoyable, but there's the added enjoyment of the intriguing way it puts your imagination to work, trying to conceive of what possible manipulation of what possible vegetables could possibly result in these sounds??? It's amazing, there are tracks here that manage to remind us of everything from Pan Sonic to Konono No.1 to Matmos to the big salad we had for lunch yesterday. And listening to these organic, "crunchy" sounds, some of the time it would be easy to think this really belongs in our field recordings section. The rhythmic pitter patter of rattling legumes, or the snapping, rustling of celery stalks (we're guessing?) can sound like rain, or surf... other veggies mimic the sound of our faves, frogs! And the blowing of horns carved from root vegetables (again, we're making assumptions) can sound like larger mammals, or fog horns.
Some of the tracks are calm, others rambunctious, all interesting. It's groovy, and experimental. Track ten, a short one entitled "Krautrock", gets positively NOISY, loud, distorted, industrial, as if the latter-day Faust took over the vegetable instruments.
Look, going full circle here, it wouldn't matter WHAT their instruments were made of, vegetable animal or mineral, if the resulting sounds and songs weren't good. These are. Creative, curious, even kinda catchy. The nutritional benefits are just a bonus.
Now that they've got this new disc out, we really hope they come play here in the States. Would love to see 'em live. They could do a tour of farmer's markets!
Comes in a nice digipak with poster. Recommended!!! (As part of a balanced diet... c'mon, Andee!)
Not so sure how to peg the title of this album, which is actually three horizontal lines that some have transcribed on the internet as a squiggly version of a Greek epsilon. Oh, what funny characters can be found in the nether regions of the various fonts of the world! Typographical challenges aside, this album marks the debut album for the Swiss gothgaze outfit Veil Of Light. All of the gloomy references to Joy Division, Lycia, Death In June, and Swans are present for Veil Of Light in these skeletal songs of militant march and funereal mood. The album's languid melodies are crafted almost entirely through reverb drenched synths which cling to the persistent snap of a drum machine that is pushed way forward in the mix. Vocals, guitars, and bass are all intermittently dropped within these songs though these instruments are blurred not so much by effect but in how soft these are in comparison to the drum machine's danse macabre. For all of the '80s goth ghosts haunting these songs, Veil Of Light's slippery sheen of black clad digitalia and somber electronics slip between the current crop of electro-mopists (e.g. Tropic Of Cancer, Lust For Youth, and most everything on Posh Isolation) and the whole witch house thing whose sparkle peaked a couple years back. It looks that this is already sold out at the source, we should note.
The first proper full-length by San Francisco gothsters Veil Veil Vanish is one hell of a pop record. Drawing from '80s darkwave and '90s post-rock, "Change in the Neon Light" will easily find airplay in both dark, smoky dance clubs and dark, smoky bedrooms covered in Smiths posters. Although comparisons to The Cure are inevitable, they are not determinative. Sometimes Keven Tecon's voice resembles Robert Smith's in tone, but where Smith relied (more and more) on a facade of whiny drama, Tecon's drama seems angrier and truer. The music, too, is definitely harsher than anything The Cure ever did, and as much influenced by shoegaze and glam as anything else.
The album's eponymous opener glides along a cloud of synthesizer and bass guitar, sounding fuller and fuller as the song progresses. "Anthem For A Doomed Youth" adds a little crunch and grit, the heavily distorted bass contrasting nicely with the acoustic (or at least clean-sounding) guitar in the chorus. The fourth song "Modern Lust" might be the catchiest song on the record, the bouncy synth keeping the track moving and shaking, the lyrics kind of scary and breathy. "This is Violet" has some excellent rhythms and guitar work, loud and fast and heavy, and is easily the best song on the record. The production on the album (done by Atom of Yeah Yeah Yeah's fame) feels large but not overdone, the individual tones complimenting each other perfectly, leaving space and filling in holes when necessary. This is a well put together and well written record that comes highly recommended!
In case their moniker and the album title didn't clue you in, this new Bay Area band has a dark, dark heart. We'd venture a guess that these young gents and gal were raised on a wonderfully wan diet of '80s British rock (think: early Cure, Siouxsie, Echo And The Bunnymen). With such sallow complexions that you only get from sulking in angst filled gloomy shadows, fevers and chills are inevitable. Veil Veil Vanish's hot flushes come in big guitar rushes that also bring to mind Swervedriver, Bailterspace, My Bloody Valentine and Killing Joke. Those dynamic injections give their music more depth, fuses the various influences together and helps the band dodge the cloaked clutches of the '80s goth and post-punk revival camps.
Ooooh, if it's pretty smart girl pop you want, it's pretty smart girl pop you shall receive, and Laura Veirs is the gal for you!
After the reissue of her early countrified concept album Triumphs & Travails Of Orphan Mae, Saltbreakers takes her back to the more straight-up college radio pop sound. Rosy cheeked and lushly produced. We've said it before, but it does bear repeating that an easy comparison is to imagine a female fronted Death Cab For Cutie or Pinback. All three offer the most soothing aural salves for rattled nerves and ice cream-y charms to satiate any sweet tooth. Fans of Tegan And Sara, Mirah or Rilo Kiley also would do well to take note!
Following up her very well-received fifth album Year Of Meteors (released in 2005), indie songstress Laura Veirs shifts gears with a reissue of her second full length Triumphs & Travails Of Orphan Mae, originally recorded and self-released back in 2000.
It's a collection of charming story songs populated with country folk. Veirs immerses herself in the character of the slower paced rural landscape, adopting a bit of a twang in her singing and picked guitar and banjo. Nonetheless, her voice possesses a honey-pie pop kinship with those of the Ditty Bops gals who in turn recall the fine harmonies of early female trio the Andrews Sisters. Lazy day dreaminess pervades the album as it does her later recordings, but this album proves that Veirs can be plucky too both in sound and in spirit.
Alright, this is a confusing one, but we figured that Velvet Cacoon obsessives, and we know there are lots out there (ourselves included), would definitely be into this. A reissue of the very first Velvet Cacoon record, which was already reissued on Full Moon Productions, with a bonus disc, featuring 70 minutes of extra material, all ambient. BUT, they left two tracks off the record proper. Not sure why, but there you go. So Khrysanthoney has reissued Dextronaut, sans the 'superfluous' ambient bonus disc, but with the original record restored to its proper 10 song length. In addition to that, the new version of Dextronaut is UNmastered, so while it sounds quite similar, it's definitely a bit more raw and brittle, which actually suits VC quite a bit. So yeah, if you missed this the first time around, you NEED this, and if you already have it, and LOVE it, and need those extra tracks, well, hell, $9 for 9 minutes of extra music, not a bad deal really, and the extra songs are pretty kick ass, "Starlit Seas Of Angel Blood" has some of the sickest vokills ever, over frantic buzz and wild drumming, loads of reverb and all sorts of bizarre sounds (most of them vocal we think), while "When The Purest Flesh Is Alive", is super distorted and heavy on the effects, sounding like the bands blasting through a field of glitchy electronics, the sound weirdly melodic, and those vocals, still sick and inhuman and alien, everything dripping with buzz and fuzz. Still no idea why they left them off, but here's your chance to get the 'complete' Dextronaut. But be quick, it's limited to just 150 COPIES!!! Here's what we said about the Full Moon version, which all still pretty much applies, just everything is a tad more brittle and buzzy, and there are those two extra tracks (much of this is background on VC, since it was their first record and everything)...
Very few bands have as convoluted and controversial a back story as Portland's black metal weirdos Velvet Cacoon. First the name, Velvet Cacoon. Spelled C A C O O N. According to the band "The name originated back in 1996 when we formed the band. Velvet is one of many names applied to the chemical dextromethorphan, and CACOON are the initials of a catacomb just outside Portland city limits where we usually go to write music." It also happens to be the seed from some tropical vine. But let's continue. There was also the band's political alignment, supposedly they were some sort of super reclusive, "eco-fascist" collective. Okay, sure. Then there's the sound. And it's the sound that really matters. And oh what a sound, an impossibly lush orchestra of black buzz, thick and mesmerizing and blurry, the fuzziest buzz we had ever heard. But how does a band achieve that sort of impossibly glorious buzz? Well, by inventing and playing an instrument called a "dieselharp", a sort of diesel fuel powered pick up driven fuzz-drone-guitar thing. So okay, how could we not love them, the sound was black buzz nirvana, and they were some weird eco forest freaks. Supposedly. _A little time passes, and it comes to light that it was all a scam, not the music obviously, but everything else, the politics, the dieselharp, all designed to fuck with the black metal community. The band is revealed to be one guy and his girlfriend. He's got short hair, they listen to Nina Simone and drink tea, and black metalheads are pissed. We of course think it's hilarious, and while we were duped as well, so what, it's a great joke, and fuck, the music still totally destroys. At one point if you went to the VC website, all you got was a link to an Air MP3?!? And still the only photos are of a woman in candlelight (presumably the girlfriend). And there were various reports that some of the songs were stolen from another artist who was uncredited and not compensated. Phew! It's the sort of story that would ALWAYS be on the cover of the black metal version of US magazine!! If there was such a thing (oh why oh why is there not?!?!).
The record begins with a dreamy bit of pastoral ambience, before bursting into some ultra fast, blown out black buzz drenched black metal. Melancholy and moody, but swathed in super thick swirls of BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ. If anything, the stuff on Dextronaut sounds a bit more traditional than either of the other two releases, but a more traditional VC is still leagues weirder than most other BM outfits. Most of the tracks are blurry smeary buzzscapes, the melodies and drums and vocals, smothered under gloriously suffocating layers of, yep, still even more BUZZ!!! The best track, and also the weirdest, is the loping midtempo "Perched On A Neverending Peak". A blast of Burzum-worthy buzz, the guitars dense squalls of blown out fuzz, and all of this buzz and fuzz wrapped around an impossibly sad melody, but with a series of strange drop outs, where all the fuzz abates, only briefly, giving us a brief glimpse behind the veil of buzz, before it's quickly swallowed up again by the black wall of fuzz. How many times can we use 'buzz' and 'fuzz' in a single review. LOTS!
This went out of print way too fast, not long after we listed it and has finally been re-pressed. Here's what we had to say about it last time:
We were sold on this band before we even heard 'em (thanks AQ pal Drucifer for the recommendation). First off, they're called Velvet Cacoon. That's right C A C O O N. WTF? Not sure if it's just a typo that was never corrected, to maybe save face, or if it means something entirely different that we couldn't possibly understand... Second, they're a super reclusive eco-fascist (huh?) black metal horde from Oregon. Yep, OREGON. And finally they invented, designed and built an instrument they call a dieselharp, a sort of diesel fuel powered pick up driven fuzz-drone-guitar thing. Wow. So before we even threw this on, we were already pretty into it. And thankfully, the music is every bit as cool and weird and grim and haunting as we could've hoped. Massive slabs of blackened fuzz, and we mean FUZZ. Imagine the buzziest fuzziest Burzum riff, smeared and stretched into a mesmerizing black metal blur. The droning dieselharp is the key, turning what could otherwise be some straight up grim black metal, into a blown out, buzzing black drone. The drums and vocals are barely even there, satisfied to lurk under an oppressive cloak of suffocating heaviness and the seemingly endless, relentlessly hypnotic crush. Fans of the buzzy drone-y end of the black metal spectrum will be blown away. And drone freaks will luxuriate in the absolutely gorgeous final twenty minute track, a slow building lowercase shimmer, worthy of Chalk, Coleclough, Hafler Trio and the like.
We fell in love with this band before we even heard 'em! And the more we find out about this mysterious outfit the more we can't get enough! A while back an aQ customer suggested we check out this bizarre black metal band from Portland called Velvet Cacoon. Supposedly they were super reclusive eco-fascists who built their own instruments, their main home-built instrument was the diesel harp, a huge diesel powered guitar contraption that spit out impossibly fuzzy and Burzumic drones, and when we finally heard the record, we could totally tell! No guitar could sound that heavy and fuzzy! It was that fucking diesel harp! Holy shit. That record (which we still have in stock) was a dense drone-like slab of buzzing black metal like we had naver heard, heavy enough for metal heads but deep, dark and droney enough for folks into stuff like Troum and Lustmord to get into.
Well, a year or so later, another aQ customer pointed us toward a website where they had posted an interview with the band, and guess what? It was all a hoax. Well, not the music obviously, but they were not in fact eco-fascists, there was no diesel harp, they were just a couple dudes from Portland who loved black metal but were intent on pissing off the black metal community. In the interview the band went on to talk about how they had short hair, and listened to Nina Simone, and that one or both of them played music in a local wine bar. Pretty hilarious actually. And then if you went to the Velvet Cacoon website, there was a solitary link, to an Air mp3. Yep, the French electronic group Air. What the fuck? But c'mon, it just made us dig their band even more! They now have a much less mysterious website and Velvet Cacoon now apparently consists of just Josh "and his dreampop muse Angela, two souls mesmerized by chemicals and the after-hours". Woah.
So no more mysterious politics, no more homemade instruments, but the band are indeed working on a second album, but in the meantime, their first two demos have been packed up and released as a single cd. And WOW! It's just as amazing as the first one. The oldest demo, Music For Falling Bulidings, shows the band at the beginning, when they were super raw, super aggressive, total Burzum / Darkthrone worship, fierce and fuzzed out and furious, but even back then, they employed plenty of experimentalism, strange ambient interludes, studio fuckery, found sounds. The later demo, Red Steeples, finds the band much closer to where they would end up with Genevieve. A buzzing droney black metal mixed with suffocating dark ambience. Monstrous drones, rumbling minimalism, fuzzed out soundscapes, above, below, beneath and amidst thick swaths of ultra grim black metal. Considering how much we love Genevieve it's really saying something when we say that this whole disc is AS good as, if not even better, due in no small part to the fact that it's WAY more damaged and freaked out sounding, and you know how much we love that!
Two weeks ago when we made Velvet Cacoon's stellar Atropine one of our Records Of The Week, we mentioned the possibility of yet ANOTHER VC release in the not too distant future. Well here it is, way sooner than we had initially predicted.
While Atropine may have baffled some fans of this already baffling band with its total ambience and a complete absence of the blown out black metal they made their name on, it also managed to perfectly convey the drugged out isolation and dissociative bliss that has always been central to their music. Atropine is an intense piece of work, very rewarding when listened to with patience, BUT... we'd be lying if we said we didn't miss the metal. Thankfully, P aa opal poere pr.33 (good grief, what a title!) arrives right on the heels of Atropine, and more than anything, it seems to be the perfect companion piece to that previous album, delivering almost 40 minutes of murky, blissful as fuck METAL, heavy on the nautical themes that have commonly been part of Velvet Cacoon's M.O. Yet even as we write the word "METAL," we are faced with the already obvious realization that Velvet Cacoon pretty much defies any simple classification. Call it shoegaze, ambient, metal, hell, even pop... their sound is unique, and even though scores of imitators have popped up in recent years, the second we put this on we knew who we were listening to (unless they completely stole these recordings like some of their other albums supposedly...) While it does share some certain sonic similarities to the band's previous work, it would be lazy to write off P aa opal poere pr.33 as merely the successor to the band's now classic Genevieve, and here Velvet Cacoon seem to have arrived at the most realized encapsulation of their sound to date. So yes, it's REALLY fucking good. And thus also a Record Of The Week!
According to the notes, vocals here are handled by one Cain of a band called Snowfall. His style falls into a more traditional style of black metal shrieking, acting as the perfect foil to Velvet Cacoon's melodic fuzzed out dirges, but we are also fairly certain that VC mainman SGL (or "Josh" if you want to demystify things) is handling a lot of the vocal duties here. What the fuck? Whatever. The album opens with "2.", with the trademark Velvet Cacoon "dieselharp" guitar sound accompanied by a lumbering drum machine rhythm and a sound that gains momentum as it appears to bubble up from the bottom of the sea. "Claverie" is huge sounding with a nice lazy groove and a hazy narcotic feel, sort of like sleepwalking. As distant drones swirl about, the riff remains steady until changing at the 6 minute mark, with a guitar that is so sustained it almost sounds like a keyboard. The standout track here is "Marylux", with an awesome and unique riff that pretty much sounds like a psychedelic black metal sea shanty. At the same time, it gives off a sort of a '90s indie vibe. What doesn't make sense on paper, however, KILLS in reality. It's catchy, amazing, and dreamy in the sense that a band like, say, Windy and Carl is dreamy... but also "dreamy" in the way that being fucked out of your mind of psychotropic drugs is dreamy, so you really get the best of all kinds of different worlds with this song. With "Grevona", the melodies lie hidden below layers of murky guitar fuzz, everything is so hazy and distant sounding, like a slow moving ship going nowhere while the vocals float around helplessly. On "Oviamoire," a soothing riff wraps you up in its fuzzy majesty while the abject vocals croak below the surface. There is a certain spectral quality to it, all gauzy and whatnot, with krauty keyboard drones adding even more ambience to the affair. The last song on the album, "Sovarine" sways rhythmically back and forth with the vocals sounding like some sort of nefarious bottom dwelling ocean minion. Or something. While the guitars are all warm and fuzzy, the overall vibe here is of coldness and isolation. Not to belabor the point, but it's kind of like being lost at sea, though no one could have predicted it would sound this awesome. The album closes with a brief piece entitled "Flouvonne," with two voices, one male and the other female, speaking in French as the wind blows amid crackling sounds, a weird and somehow totally appropriate end to the journey.
In a music world where few mysteries truly exist, it's always nice to know that Velvet Cacoon will never be making things easy for us. Whether or not they are "true", some sort of pseudo-intellectual performance art, or maybe even a complete fucking joke, their music is never anything less than amazing. If you hated them before, it's unlikely that this album will change any of that. But for those of us who have patiently waited for the last five years wondering if P aa opal poere pr.33 would ever become a reality, you will find much to look forward to.
Here's this Bay Area band's lush follow-up to their warmly received debut, and it shows that they've certainly grown in leaps and bounds since then. Elysium's an impressively opulent affair comprised of seven lengthy grand pop orchestrations filled with richly dynamic strings, horns and piano. Very Burt Bacharach inspired and quite akin to Rufus Wainwright and the most recent album by Ken Stringfellow (ex-Posies). The longest track "Chimera Obscurant" is the cd's crowning jewel (or in other words, the album's highlight), a nearly thirteen minute long epic beauty. A remarkably bold and fully realized sophomore release.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Three cds in a little cardboard box, documenting the post-Cale Velvets live in 1969, as recorded by mega VU fan Robert Quine. Back then he was just a guy in the audience with a cassette recorder, this was long before he made his own NYC punk history with
New digitally remastered versions of the original 4 albums, 25 previously unavailable recordings (12 demos, 7 outtakes from the Loaded sessions, 6 live tracks).
More then almost any other band in rock history the Velvet Underground lent themselves to mystery, mystique, and endless trivia, hence the market for a dvd like this one. This documentary takes a look at the band's history starting from their early collaborations with Andy Warhol including the debut record with Nico. Moe Tucker (whose earnest recolections serve as the most interesting part of the movie) and Doug Yule (who replaced John Cale after White Light White Heat) are the two band members interviewed as well as numerous journalists, label folk, and other VU experts...
Deluxe version of the Velvet Underground's debut album. If you've never heard this record, for heavens sake don't wait a moment longer. If you already are familiar with the album, here are some possible reasons to buy this version: Two discs, second of which is entirety of album in *mono* format, plus 4 songs from the album in their 7" versions. Also includes 5 songs from Nico's debut album Chelsea Girl which features the VU as backup band. Btw, I don't think these Nico tracks are on the VU boxset Peel Slowly & See.
It must be said, though, that unless you're some sort of intense audiophile, or a VU completist, I'm not sure why you'd need the mono version of the album. Handsome packaging features transparent slipcase, glossy digipak, and yes, a peelable banana!
