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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It turns out that Phil "Anton Crowley" Anselmo of Pantera's primitive black metal project Viking Crown wasn't just a one-off thing, because now in addition to the "Unorthodox Steps of Ritual" cdep of material recorded in '94 that was finally released last year, comes this, Viking Crown's newly recorded debut full-length. You may remember us raving about how incredibly fucked up and amazing the ep was. Well, this album is a bit more produced, a bit less fucked up, but still an admirable effort of evil musical intent. With Killjoy (from one of Phil's other, other bands, Necrophagia) on vocals, this is also more of a real 'band' effort, not just a lone, drunk Darkthrone maniac with a home studio. The raw, blasting black metal tracks segue into spooky drone-scapes, giving dimension to Phil's true black metal art...definitely superior to anything Pantera has released in recent years.
Heavy bluesy kraut '70s stuff... very underground, but don't let anyone tell you they sound like Black Sabbath.
Awesome old DC band.
Riding high on the success of a string of releases, Kurt Vile seems poised to break into the spotlight with his Matador debut, Childish Prodigy. It's hard to imagine that not happening, because this stuff is just so great, recalling at various times everyone from Neil Young to the Stooges to shoegazing giants like My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive. At the end of the day, however, you could say this sounds like, well, Kurt Vile! The guy masterfully breathes life into sounds others have done and overdone by emphasizing what you love about this kind of thing and avoiding the pitfalls of getting lumped into a specific genre. It's pretty rootsy stuff, but everything is strong enough to avoid being pigeonholed, and while certain elements could be categorized as "retro" or "lo-fi", we would prefer to call it "classic" or "timeless". Kurt Vile is clearly someone who understands the importance of production; instead of half assing things on a cassette 8-track, these songs are not only well written, but recorded with a great attention to detail, making them awesome for late night headphone listening. The sounds are hazy and swirling with the perfect amount of grit, and really Childish Prodigy sounds like it could have been recorded any time within the last 30 years or so. But guess what? It's 2009, and Kurt Vile has ARRIVED.
The album begins with a re-recorded version of "Hunchback", lifting elements from the song "Freeway" off Constant Hitmaker, with some slight chord changes. The song flows with a nice lazy groove, like the Stooges after a couple bongloads, adding some distorted vocals to compliment the perfectly dirty analog sound. Kurt's folkier side is demonstrated on the following track, "Dead Alive", with fingerpicked electric guitar and some badass vocals up in the forefront as a fuzzy analog hiss rides steady in the background. "Overnight Religion" is a nice surprise, with an incessant drum machine beat carrying the song forward for over 7 minutes as the instruments lock in perfectly. "Monkey" is a melodic, slow burning rocker that successfully merges upbeat psych pop with a sound that incorporates elements from folk and shoegaze. And yeah, the guitars sound killer. The album flows really well, and certain melodic themes appear and reappear in different songs, helping to tie everything together perfectly.
It's been a great year for Kurt Vile, and one can only imagine that things will get even better for him now. We can't wait to see where this guy heads next!
We've been meaning to list this one for a while now, not sure if it had to do with the glut of purposefully lo-fi garage rock that's making the rounds these days, but it just sort of slipped under the radar. Too bad for us, because once we got around to actually listening to Constant Hitmaker, it became quite clear that not only is Kurt Vile NOT about half-assed garage rock, but he is in fact a very skilled and sincere songwriter whose talents will hopefully outlive the frenzied hype surrounding the genre he seems to have been lumped into.
Perhaps the best thing about this album is how effortless but totally genuine it all feels. Sure, "lo-fi" is an appropriate descriptor for the music within, but this should not be equated with "sounds like shit". On the contrary, Kurt has taken his decidedly non-professional recording situation and produced a set of songs that are lush, shimmering, and densely layered. At the heart of it all is a classy style of songwriting that appears, to us anyway, to have more to do with rootsy mid-'80s bands like the Embarrassment or even the Replacements, than it does with the Nuggets boxset or snotty '70s punk. With a primitive drum machine providing most of the rhythm, these songs come across as delightfully off kilter and less straightforward than they really are (this is not meant as a slight, by the way), and will probably be one of the reasons Kurt's records will not be filed in the Americana bin. There is also plenty of murky ambience and spaced out synths to add a slightly exotic touch, but never at the expense of the songs themselves. An air of experimentation permeates Constant Hitmaker, but only out of a love for pure sound, not as some stale academic bullshit. Kurt's vocals are delivered in a cool, slow drawl with a Dylan-esque cadence, and he's also a pretty damn fine guitarist, as evidenced on "Slow Talkers". Elsewhere on the record, slightly pastoral acoustic guitars and layered vocals create a nice ethereal mood, while other songs follow a more bouncing groove. The lyrics are cool and often quite endearing, like on "Classic Rock In Spring", where Kurt talks about ditching class to listen to Bob Seger and take acid. How can you argue with that? And if everything else on the album has not convinced you of this guy's natural talent, then the beautiful acoustic reprise of "Freeway" certainly should do the trick. Even the skeptics had to admit that it's pretty fucking great, perfectly exhibiting Kurt's natural melodic sense and the excellent transitions within his songs. It just can't be denied, this guy is good.
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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Repressing of this sought after KV platter, originally released in 2009, and still limited we imagine. 12 tracks, some of 'em taken from an earlier tour-only cd-r, others exclusive to this lp. Fans of this rockin' psychfolk phenom want this, if they don't have it already...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
SHIT YEAH. Kurt Vile returns with this 3 song teaser to his upcoming full length on indie rock powerhouse Matador, and if the scores of KV records we've been digging these last few months weren't confirmation enough, this 7" proves it: Kurt Vile is no fucking fluke, but the real deal. An honest, heartfelt songwriter and a damn fine guitarist who will no doubt be setting the world on fire with his catchy, melodic tunes and cool slow drawl vocals. "He's Alright" is a cool acoustic number, sort of Neil Young-ish with a nice upbeat acoustic guitar and some spacey electrics. It's simple and straightforward, but the production is lush and 100% bullshit free. The B-side kicks off with the brief "Farfisas In Falltime," utilizing the legendary titular organ to create a droney, buzzing looplike interlude before finishing up with "Take Your Time," another acoustic number showing off Kurt's fingerpicking proficiency and delightfully mushmouthed vocals.
This little record comes pressed on handsome marbled blue vinyl, and has us jonesin' for the day - not too far off now - that Kurt unleashes Childish Prodigy upon the world. We can't wait!
Brand new three song single from psychfolk troubadour Kurt Vile, this one a teaser for his upcoming full length, which finds Vile in full on American singer/songwriter mode, channeling Springsteen and Big Star, lots of acoustic guitars, softly reverbed crooned vocals, plenty of jangle, simple spare drumming, a definite sort of seventies/eighties classic rock / power pop vibe, the opener especially has that Big Star feel, heartfelt and just a little bit melancholy, peppered with lush bursts of swirling melody, but for the most part a sweet slab of stripped down, sunshiney old school FM radio pop. The A side finishes off with a little bit of acoustic balladry, softly brooding and darkly dreamy.
The B side lands somewhere in between, offering up big jangly guitars like the A side, but set amidst strange almost eighties sounding drums, drawled vox, and woozy minor key melodies. The track is laced with gorgeous moody tendrils of Beatlesesque guitar filigree, and that pop sweetness is offset by some subtle dark droney elements, and an overall mood of melancholy mystery. Nice stuff as always. Definitely has us looking forward to the full length...
Kurt Vile can seemingly do no wrong. The momentum of the last few years has only strengthened the Kurt Vile-ness displayed on Smoke Ring For My Halo, full length #2 for Matador after the not-so-surprising success of his asskicking Childish Prodigy album. Kurt's increased stature was enough to bring in hotshot producer John Agnello, who ups the fidelity a bit while retaining the DIY approach and style that brought Kurt to everybody's attention in the first place. Yep, the results are pretty stellar, further solidifying this dude's standing in the rank of current American songwriters. He somehow manages to sound both contemporary AND classic. The guy is for real, and this is by far the best thing he has released... so far, anyway.
Smoke Ring For My Halo is the kind of album that gets better with each listen. It's production is laid back but totally pro, and the cast of supporting musicians includes Meg Baird from Espers, Mike Polizze of Purling Hiss / Birds Of Maya fame, and of course, KV's band the Violators. The camaraderie of this Philly crew totally shines through, and boy does it sound fucking GOOD. A skillful use of noise and other bits of experimentation are worked effortlessly into these impeccably crafted songs, the result of someone who can turn any simple melody into a bad ass classic.
The album begins perfectly with "Baby's Arms", a beautiful heartfelt number with a nice dose of melancholy that immediately announces its author's total confidence in his abilities. Next up is "Jesus Fever", riding out with an easy rocking groove that should explain why Matador snapped KV up. You can see how Kurt just oozes out music when you read the lyrics to songs like "On Tour", which one would imagine are a direct reflection of what it means to be Kurt Vile. Many - wait, scratch that - ALL of these songs are presented as hazy and coolly detached from reality, like "Society Is My Friend" with its lonely western vibe carried forward with shimmering 12 string guitar and spacey mellotron, and the solo fingerpicked number "Peeping Tomboy". The record closes with "Ghost Town", which is dramatic in a Midwestern sunset kind of way. YEAH! In a music world filled with more imitators than originators, Kurt Vile occupies a unique place and his identity is unmistakable. That is why he, and this record, completely rule.
Kurt Vile's most recent full length has been reissued as a deluxe double version, the second disc a brand new ep (also available on its own as a vinyl 12") featuring tracks recorded during the same sessions, including a Bruce Springsteen cover! Read more about the ep at the end of the review, but first let's reiterate what we've said before about the record proper...
Kurt Vile can seemingly do no wrong. The momentum of the last few years has only strengthened the Kurt Vile-ness displayed on Smoke Ring For My Halo, full length #2 for Matador after the not-so-surprising success of his asskicking Childish Prodigy album. Kurt's increased stature was enough to bring in hotshot producer John Agnello, who ups the fidelity a bit while retaining the DIY approach and style that brought Kurt to everybody's attention in the first place. Yep, the results are pretty stellar, further solidifying this dude's standing in the rank of current American songwriters. He somehow manages to sound both contemporary AND classic. The guy is for real, and this is by far the best thing he has released... so far, anyway.
Smoke Ring For My Halo is the kind of album that gets better with each listen. It's production is laid back but totally pro, and the cast of supporting musicians includes Meg Baird from Espers, Mike Polizze of Purling Hiss / Birds Of Maya fame, and of course, KV's band the Violators. The camaraderie of this Philly crew totally shines through, and boy does it sound fucking GOOD. A skillful use of noise and other bits of experimentation are worked effortlessly into these impeccably crafted songs, the result of someone who can turn any simple melody into a bad ass classic.
The album begins perfectly with "Baby's Arms", a beautiful heartfelt number with a nice dose of melancholy that immediately announces its author's total confidence in his abilities. Next up is "Jesus Fever", riding out with an easy rocking groove that should explain why Matador snapped KV up. You can see how Kurt just oozes out music when you read the lyrics to songs like "On Tour", which one would imagine are a direct reflection of what it means to be Kurt Vile. Many - wait, scratch that - ALL of these songs are presented as hazy and coolly detached from reality, like "Society Is My Friend" with its lonely western vibe carried forward with shimmering 12 string guitar and spacey mellotron, and the solo fingerpicked number "Peeping Tomboy". The record closes with "Ghost Town", which is dramatic in a Midwestern sunset kind of way. YEAH! In a music world filled with more imitators than originators, Kurt Vile occupies a unique place and his identity is unmistakable. That is why he, and this record, completely rule.
Vile's latest ep of gorgeous downer folk / classic rock psychedelia, So Outta Reach, is included as the bonus disc here, and as mentioned above, features a handful of tracks recorded during the same sessions that produced Smoke Ring For My Halo, so it should come as no surprise that these tracks sound exactly how you might expect, as if that record were just six songs longer (which in this cd version it essentially is), and listening to these tracks now, all of them pretty great, it's hard to figure out just why they didn't make the cut at the time. Opener "The Creature" is so good, we might like it more than anything on the record proper, all dark fingerpicked guitar over shimmery drones, simpler shakers and pounded kick drum rhythm, Vile's vocals laid back and weary, the song dark and melancholy and so catchy, the bridge especially, a gorgeous tangle of fuzzy folk, which leads right back into the droned out psychedelic folk drift. The rest of the record follows suit, mixing Vile's underground leaning with a sound much more mainstream, big guitars, classic rock arrangements, in some ways this reminds us a little of a fuzzier more psychedelic take on the latest Arcade Fire, which makes sense as both Arcade Fire and Vile have an unabashed love of Bruce Springsteen, which Vile indulges here with his own version of Springsteen's "Downbound Train", which is pretty true to the original, just a bit more fuzz guitar, and Vile's distinctive slacker vox, and of course the wild psychedelic freakout at the finish, but if you can imagine Springsteen via Vile, you'll get a pretty good idea of what's going on here, and odds are if you dug Smoke Ring, you're gonna want this too. Even if it means buying Smoke Ring all over again...
This latest ep from downer folk / classic rock troubadour Kurt Vile, features a handful of tracks recorded during the same sessions that produced Vile's most recent full length Smoke Ring For My Halo, so it should come as no surprise that these tracks sound exactly how you might expect, as if that record were just six songs longer (which in the cd version it essentially is, since it was included on a new version of Smoke Ring), and listening to these tracks now, all of them pretty great, it's hard to figure out just why they didn't make the cut at the time. Opener "The Creature" is so good, we might like it more than anything on the record proper, all dark fingerpicked guitar over shimmery drones, simpler shakers and pounded kick drum rhythm, Vile's vocals laid back and weary, the song dark and melancholy and so catchy, the bridge especially, a gorgeous tangle of fuzzy folk, which leads right back into the droned out psychedelic folk drift. The rest of the record follows suit, mixing Vile's underground leaning with a sound much more mainstream, big guitars, classic rock arrangements, in some ways this reminds us a little of a fuzzier more psychedelic take on the latest Arcade Fire, which makes sense as both Arcade Fire and Vile have an unabashed love of Bruce Springsteen, which Vile indulges here with his own version of Springsteen's "Downbound Train", which is pretty true to the original, just a bit more fuzz guitar, and Vile's distinctive slacker vox, and of course the wild psychedelic freakout at the finish, but if you can imagine Springsteen via Vile, you'll get a pretty good idea of what's going on here, and odds are if you dug Smoke Ring, you're gonna want this too.
So Outta Reach is available on its own as a 12" single, but if you want the cd version, you'll have to buy the new double disc version of Smoke Ring, which includes the ep as the second disc.
NOTE for mailorder customers, if you're considering ordering this: Unfortunately this week's shipment from Matador/4AD/XL arrived today with one corner of every single piece of vinyl in the box slightly bent, argh. So, don't order this now if you're super anal about such things. We'll get replacements next week. Folks buying this in person in the shop, of course, can see for themselves if they mind the bent corner or not. Sorry!
Latest from this singer / songwriter psych folk troubadour, a seven song ep, originally released as a free download, now available as a super limited 12", and perfectly showcases Vile's sonic breadth, beginning with some stripped down folkiness, rife with Beach Boys melodies, but delivered in a lazy drawl, the whole thing underpinned by some muted synth squiggles and electronic drones. Super catchy, but also raw and rough and intimate. Which sort of describes Vile no matter what sound he's conjuring up. And on it goes from there.
Like on past records, Square Shells blends subtle psychedelia with bedroom folk and jangly indie pop, adding some druggy ambience, swirling spaced out effects, simple minimal drum machines, the result is a little shoegazey, a little twangy, with plenty of buzz and shimmer, and long stretches of instrumental ambient dronescapery, songs like "Losing Momentum (For Jim Jarmusch)" unfurl gorgeous swells of blissed out slowcore, reminding us of Roy Montgomery, or an even more minimal Spacemen 3, or maybe a soporific non propulsive Wooden Shjips, the sounds blurred and smeared into gauzy dreamscapes, all beneath a glimmering crystalline latticework of spidery guitar. "The Finder" is similarly spaced out and prismatic, a muted buzzscape, darkly psychedelic, and sweetly contemplative, hypnotic and mesmerizing, steel string buzz nestled amidst warm organ wheeze. While in between these chunks of gorgeous abstract minimalism Vile offers up some more traditional songcraft, mostly just acoustic guitar and voice, sometimes crooning over reverb drenched Appalachia, other times delivering almost traditional folk songs, finishing off with "Hey, Now I'm Movin", a Dylan-y jam, with stream of consciousness lyrics, simple strumming, even harmonica, and lots of 'yeah yeah yeah's, but Vile sends that 'classic' folk drifting through a hazy cloud of soft focus ambience, giving the whole track a druggy otherworldly feel, the perfect finish to this intimate, dreamlike ep...
American rock troubadour Kurt Vile continues his slow march back in time, as if he wants to actually be playing classic rock, instead of being a modern indie rocker just channeling that classic rock. His sound has always displayed hints of the old classics that came before, the magic being in how masterfully he made them his own, and essentially erased the border, real or imagined between modern indie rock and classic radio rock. Cuz really, if you removed all the non musical signifiers from Kurt Vile, the cool indie label, the punk rock pedigree, the cool underground rock royalty who guest on his records, the various high profile tour mates, the blog hype, the look, the shaggy longhair rock and roller, what you'd be left with, would be JUST the music, and really, it's absolutely the kind of music you could play for your Dad, not to say this is necessarily Dad-rock, but it IS sort of some modern mutant strain of classic rock. Not beholden to punk, or post punk, or new wave or metal, but to classic songsmithery. And it's all on display, the songwriting obviously, but the production too, the arrangements, the sonic palette as a whole. And sure, there are plenty of unlikely, and very UN classic rock moments, but somehow, Vile weaves them into something that DOES really sound classic. Check out the weird skittery programmed sounding beats at the beginning of "Was All Talk", at first it sounds like it's turn into some weird Ariel Pink outsider pop thing, but instead, that skitter is deftly woven into warm guitar strum, swirling synths, and Vile's laid back vox. Speaking of which, it's hard not to hear a little Dinosaur Jr in Vile's music, which makes sense, as Dinosaur's Mascis was an unabashed lover of classic rock, and was often compared to Neil Young himself. But if you can imagine Dinosaur minus all the incendiery guitar heroics, it might not be all that far removed from Kurt Vile.
The nine+ minute opener definitely sets the stage, pastoral and laid back, strummy and summery and breezy, reminded us a bit of the Woods at first, only to late learn that the guy from the Woods guests on this here record. As do folks from Beachwood Sparks, Warpaint, Royal Trux, and others, all of whom to be under Vile's thrall, aiding him in crafting this gorgeous slab of jangle and strum, the sound warm and comfortable, and just a tiny bit raw around the edges. That said, this is most definitely his least 'underground' and 'indie' sounding record. If labels and the radio and MTV still worked the way they used to or in some cases even existed, this is the sort of record that would be bandied about as Vile's 'breakthrough', and who knows, maybe it still will be. And it should be, cuz it's gorgeous. The songs are CRAZY catchy, it's a total top-down, cruising down the coast on a summer afternoon kind of record. The songs already sound timeless. There's no doubt Vile is a songwriter of formidable talent, one who just follows his own muse, and it just so happens that that muse is some strange hybrid of Tom Petty, Neil Young, Jackson Brown, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Van Morrison, which to most underground music punks might sound horrifying, but the proof is right here in Wakin On A Pretty Daze, which might just be our favorite Vile record yet. Classic indeed!
The cd comes in a full color four panel digipak, with a full color printed inner sleeve, and a booklet with lyrics, but while they last, we have the ULTRA limited, already out of print, super deluxe blue vinyl version, which features the same cover as the cd (and regular lp), with Vile standing in front of a big wall, covered in graffiti, but on the deluxe vinyl version, there is no graffiti, instead, it comes with a special sheet of stickers, with which you can use to apply the graffiti yourself, however you want! How cool is that?
Ever wake up from a late night out on the town with that hazy, fucked up feeling in the head? Of course you have, so imagine that feeling translated into a an album of super damaged, super woozy garage filth. Kurt Vile and his boys the Violators bring us the Hunchback EP, an unholy combination of mid '70s Stones and a more gritty Spacemen 3. And even though the first couple tracks don't veer to far from the new wave of lo-fi garage rock, as the album plays through it dips into more cosmic and spacey realms of dreamy guitar. Makes us think of nighttime alleyways, smokey barroom depression, a drugged-out fried-out bad trip kinda vibe, all nicely put together with catchy riffs and tough guy in a leather jacket at-all-times kind of vocals. Dingy parking lot car show rock n' roll, with a fitting black and white photo of Vile on the cover in some empty lot in Philly (looking quite damaged himself). It's a perfect match for any fan of Thee Oh Sees, Wavves, or Wooden Shjips. Oh and make sure you play this sucker loud, definitely something you'd hear blasting from the rager next door. Recommended.
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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To coincide with their recent summer tour, these two aQ faves offer up this awesome little split single, which really hardly needs a description, as at this point, both bands can seemingly pretty much do no wrong. That said, the first Woods song might be the best thing they've done, total classic sixties pop, which reminds us of the Kinks, and the Bee Gees, but a little bit quirkier and more psychedelic obviously, but it's just so warm and sunshiney and hooky, and the vocals sound better than they ever have, and the harmonies, so divine, cool weird drumming, catchy, but not traditionally so. One of those tracks we find ourselves listening to over and over and over. The second track is more of a trifle, a brief bit of bedroom folk, that sounds skeletal at first, but in its 1:40 manages to get weirdly lush and a little bit tripped out.
Kurt Vile kicks his side off with a brief 39 second opener, jaunty and a little bit silly, before getting into it proper, with some dark brooding moody folk, the first track hushed and intimate, just voice and guitar, some classic sounding folk, while the second track gets a little shoegazey, draping the acoustic guitar with some crumbling washed out haze and warbly organ, the perfect slab cloudy day dreamy folk drift. Awesome.
Probably crazy limited, we have a bunch, but not entirely sure we can get more when we sell out, so if you want one, don't dawdle.
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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Brutal. Beautiful. Brut-iful? it's album number two from Erie, PA's heaviest hitters Village Of Dead Roads (who are one of the "Neur-Isis" crowd's best kept secrets). We dug their debut from a few years back quite a bit, and now on this sophomore release they've unleashed another advanced lesson in sludgecore sonics. Although actually this album is a bit less "experimental" than their first one, dropping the ambient sampling stuff and maybe getting a bit MORE metal, including some rather melodic metallic guitar soloing. There's lots of cool parts, every song with something interesting/artistic to offer musically. Every song also utterly destroying you with its heaviness and aggression, via punishing drums, churning riffs, and throat-shreddingly screamed vokills. Yet, they also manage to incorporate moments of melancholic moodiness inbetwixt the crushing parts, without wimping out or being too post-rock predictable. What we're trying to say, is it doesn't get boring, the way some albums in this genre do (though it may not always fit your mood, for instance if you're, like, happy, and want to remain so).
Heartily recommended to fans of other bands from that Neur-Isis axis! And anything from Eyehategod to Samothrace, Cavity to Cult Of Luna, Black Cobra to Snowblood... Not sure why they haven't become better known, they're as good or better than most, though this might be their final release anyway, not sure, apparently the Village's population is down to just the guitarist/vocalist and the drummer now, both of whom are also in a new (two-piece) band called Cotton Candy, a name which you won't be surprised to learn does NOT describe their sound at all...
There's plenty of bands playing heavy, downtuned, post-rock, post-Isis metalcore sludge these days. But there aren't too many that can make you feel as bad and sad and downright scared as Erie PA's Village Of Dead Roads (great name!) can. They've perfected a totally doomy and diseased brand of pissed off pummel, powered by leadweight guitars and hard-hitting drums, graced with moments of fragile beauty, as they do the quiet-loud thing with surety and aplomb. Whatever primal demons being exorcised (or maybe just exercised) by the band on this debut full-length seem not to interfere with their control of this carefully-crafted, crushing music. The quiet parts are infested with disturbing samples and weird effects, mood dialed all the way negative. When the guitars get cranked, and the band churns out the loping, rumbling riff-scapes, strewn with wretched, bloody-heart-torn-from-chest vocalizations and stonery leads, that mood dial simply snaps off, unable to go that low...
VoDR nod to the melancholic majesty of Souls At Zero era Neurosis and the catchy industrial dirge of prime early Godflesh, but also make us think of the likes of Conifer, Mouth Of The Architect, and maybe a mix of Karp and Katatonia! The more melodic side of VoDR even reminds us a bit of the late, great Engine Kid (one of Greg Anderson's pre-SUNNO))) bands), especially when the clean singing comes in during epic album closer "Cold New World". All those who hunger for both doomy bludgeon and post-rock finesse should pay a visit to this Village Of Dead Roads, a twilight ghost-town being bulldozered and buried on Dwelling In Doubt.
Yay, it's a live recording from one of AQ's fave bands, the Bavarian post-rock combo known as Village of Savoonga! It seems, sadly, that they've broken up (too busy with Notwist, Lali Puna, Tied and Tickled Trio, and all their other projects, perhaps?) so this disc might well be their final release. Probably the last, or only other, chance anyone reading this (outside of Germany) got to hear VoS live was at the Aquarius Records 30th Anniversary party at the Bottom of the Hill here in San Francisco three years ago. Remember? We flew the Savoogan Villagers over here to play with Circle, Milk Cult, and Outhud. Kinda crazy, but *that's* how much we like this band! So, how's this live disc stack up to our memories (and their other albums)? Recorded at one of their final shows, at the annual Hausmusik Festival in September 2001, it sounds great, the band plays great, it's sheer post-rock mastery a la Slint. And it also sounds like maybe VoS had been revisiting... nay, scrutinizing their old This Heat records even more than usual. Their percussive rhythmic attack and live looping sound displayed here have that nervous energy we love. While drawing material from their albums Score, Philip Schatz, and their self-titled debut, this live show yet demonstrates an especially powerful, sinewy side to VoS, an intensity we recall from their performance at the AQ-party. Noisy, hypnotic, gritty. Talk about going out with a bang!
Dark and lovely, abrasive tapes with interludes on piano and cello. Delicious, an AQ favorite. The Village is a modern German post-rock combo, part of the burgeoning Hausmusik scene, here making soundtrack-worthy music that certainly stands by itself.
Murky drama played out on guitars, tapes, electronics, and samplers, with a heavy dose of clanky percussion to remind you of their roots, Germany's Village of Savoonga possesses an enviably original sound that owes much to their krautrock forefathers, not the ultra-structured Kraftwerk, but the loose sound experiments of Faust. Spacerock fans will find so much to like, too, but expect more than just easy ambient layers, this record climbs mountains and fords streams. Totally excellent. This is their third album, and the record we've been recommending people buy if the new Tortoise just doesn't do it for ya...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
This is the CD reissue of the first Village Of Savoonga album (which was previously available only on vinyl through Hausmusik / Kollaps) and also features 5 extra tracks from hard-to-find singles and compilations. For those of you familiar with the brilliantly dark neo-krautrock on "Philip Schatz" and "Score," this early work from 1991-1994 may appear a little naive (with big ideas that haven't yet manifested into the grand statements of their later work.) These tracks have a Throbbing Gristle / Einsturzende Neubauten industrial flavor (grinding samples and banging metal percussion) topping off a Pavement-like jangliness. Yet for every track that plods with a heavyhandedness, there is a track that shines with a lot of great sonic ideas and fractured almost Faust-ian song snippets. This is a mixed bag, but there's enough good stuff on here to merit more than a few listens.
A very nice split release from Hooker Vision, who are introducing us to these two outfits from Asheville, North Carolina. Villages (aka Ross Gentry) actually had a release on Hooker Vision a couple years back and has a more recent LP on Bathetic. We can report that the 25 minute offering from Villages on this tape is pretty killer stuff. After a desolate piano interlude, the tape swells with a fuzzy, shimmering treated guitar drone akin to those wondrous blurred noises from Tim Hecker and Christian Fennesz, gradually giving way to a somber interlude for plucked banjo and maudlin Appalachian fiddles. These moments locate the production as harkening from the south even with all of those digital pixel smears and melodic abstractions.
Divine Circles, we know even less about, but the opening melodies plucked on a violin are joined by complementary slow guitar riffs that do recall some of the more introspective moments of Godspeed You Black Emperor or even some of Aidan Baker's hypnotic dronework, before either party were to rip into a full-frontal, pathos laden crescendo. Here, Divine Circles keeps their sounds intimate and calm, slowly building the track in the round, with the violinist taking up the bow later on with gorgeous swells of arboreal melodies along with those slow dirgy guitars and some haunted female vocalizations. Definitely looking forward to more from both of these outfits. 50 minute in total for this cassette; and again with all those Hooker Vision tapes, this one is super limited to 100 copies.
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You know we like repetition here at Aquarius. We like repetition. We like it. Repetition. Whether it's the motorik pulses of Neu! and Circle, or the minimalist throb of Steve Reich and The Necks, or the crackling loops of Philip Jeck and Thomas Brinkmann, or the headnodding riffs of Om and Les Rallizes Denudes, or the blurring buzz of Wigrid and Wold... we like it! Keep it goin' and we'll keep listening. Well of course one of the many musical forms that makes good use of repetition is dance music, and although sometimes we give the impression that techno and house music "isn't our thing" that's definitely not true about all techno music. Not when it's really, really about the mesmeric repetition, and in an interesting way, like the clicks and cuts of Ryoji Ikeda or the "heroin house" of Fluxion. Or the whole Kompakt catalog of pop ambient drone and beats.
Or this new disc by critical darling Ricardo Villalobos! Which is probably getting a lot of attention because of the sheer length of the tracks on it -- there's two of 'em, clocking in at more than a half-an-hour each! The title cut, "Fizheuer Zieheuer" is truly hypnotic, based on endless, slightly altered iterations of the same happy little horn riff (sampled from a Balkan brass band?), expertly joined to echoing four-on-the-floor techno beats, slowly morphing and shifting over time -- 37 minutes! Deceptively simple, but brilliantly crafted. And yes, totally, totally mesmerizing. Allan turned on the "visualizer" function on his iTunes while playing this and we all got totally tranced-out watching the flashing lights...
This album is maybe really sort of an extreme maxi-single, as the 35 and a half minute second track "Fizbeast" is a stripped-down (minus the horns) recap of the first track -- yay, more repetition! But you might also just hit play on track one again, 'cause you're gonna want to hear that infectious Balkan horn part again and again and again. Recommended, recommended, recommended...
FYI this cd is intentionally packaged by Playhouse without a tray card in the jewel case. Either 'cause it's sort-of a single, or 'cause they feel that electronic music is so modern it doesn't need a back cover, we don't know. Just mentioning this fact so that if you mailorder it, you won't think there's something wrong with your copy...
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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THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Ok, this one should be easy. Ricardo Villalobos is the minimal techno whizz from Chile (based now in Berlin) who made one of our very favorite techno albums ever, last year's very-extended-play "ep" Fizheuer Zieheuer, which has to be of the most hypnotically repetitive electronica artifacts we know of. His more recent Fabric 36 set was also a crowd pleaser here at AQ.
Meanwhile, the French band Magma is of course pretty much our number one '70s progressive rock obsession. It's practically a spiritual thing we've got about them. And like Villalobos, they're no strangers to hypnotic rhythmic pulsations, in their own proggy purview.
So, as soon as we found out that Villalobos had released a white label 12" based around sampled music by Magma, we wanted to hear it. We NEEDED to hear it. And when we did, we were quite pleased. Villalobos merges with Magma almost seamlessly, taking and looping a snippet of the Magma album Baba Yaga La Sorciere (the one featuring a version of Magma's classic Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh sung by a children's choir, we should note, which makes this even more awesome... and that's why it's called Enfants), then adding a techno beat to it. The minimalist melodic piano and the kids' Kobaian chant and the high-hat ticking go together elegantly, enchantingly, endlessly... it's about 17 minutes long! Simple, but effective. And very much a tribute to Magma, Villalobos giving credit where credit is due, just having some fanboy fun as a producer here, making his (and our) kind of techno/Magma hybrid. There's another 10 minutes on the flip, Villalobos focussing on percussion elements rather than the "chant", which we imagine that DJs could do some interesting things with.
We've been wanting to list this 12" for a while, and finally got enough copies in stock to do so thanks to Villalobos doing a second pressing (it's on his own label). Recommended!
Up until now, London super-club Fabric has exclusively been releasing mix CDs from various electronic artists. Chilean-born, Berlin-based minimal techno darling Ricardo Villalobos is changing that by using Fabric 36 as a venue for an entire LP worth of new material. Anyone who has followed his work from somewhere around the acclaimed Alcachofa full-length through last year's brilliant Fizheuer Zieheuer has no doubt recognized an ever-increasing level of abstraction. Well, this release is no different. In fact, the album almost completely abandons traditional song structure in favor of an approach that takes slivers of audial minutiae and effects and processes them into a crescendo of balearic beats and breakdowns. The pieces develop slowly and organically with tightly wound percussive elements layered masterfully upon one another. And, if nothing else, this disc shows the further evolution of an artist destined to be remembered as one of the more cerebral -- yet engaging -- artists in his genre. Definitely recommended for fans of minimal techno or to a lesser extent Latin rhythm!
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We're still obsessing over Villalobos and Loderbauer's recent double disc of super electronic minimalism, all sourced from various ECM recordings (a recent Record Of The Week), we play it constantly like crazy, we weren't sure what to expect from this new 12", but it features two new tracks from the duo, this time incorporating the music of an African group called Tshetsha Boys, and for the first few minutes, we really didn't hear anything, just some super cool, sleek, ultra minimal and skeletal techno, pulsing and hypnotic, but as the track progressed, little melodies seemed to surface, snippets of voices, bits of percussion, looped, and truncated, and blurred a bit, a little effects, a bit dubbed out, but the song began to sound subtly African, the melodies lilting and slowly adding warmth to the otherwise cool electronic shuffle.
The flipside is a whole different story, BIG beats, very housey, at first we weren't hearing any of the Tshetsha Boys, until we realized the main melody was in fact the borrowed element, Villalobos and Loderbauer deftly weaving that looped cyclical element into that pulsing pounding big beat.
Cool stuff.
We've long been fans of minimal techno maven Ricardo Villalobos, his records spare and skeletal, rhythmic and repetitive, the sort of electronic music we find utterly mesmerizing and totally irresistible. In addition to that, Villalobos does not shy away from strange sonic experiments, and is thus no stranger to odd samples, considering he made a whole record out of sounds borrowed from French prog legends Magma, so this new record really shouldn't have been that much of a surprise, nor should we have been surprised by just HOW great it turned out, but it was, and we were, which should speak to just how incredible this strange sonic experiment truly is. Villalobos teamed up with Max Loderbauer and created this sprawling double disc which is essentially a minimal techno mash up of modern classical and European jazz, with all the sounds culled from various releases on the legendary ECM label, which include, most excitingly for us, Arvo Part, but also loads of ECM stalwarts like Bennie Maupin, Paul Giger, John Abercrombie, Christian Wallumrod, Alexander Knaifel, Miroslav Vitous, Louis Sclavis, Wolfert Brederode, Enrico Rava, Stefano Bollani and Paul Motian. Never heard of any/most of those, it hardly matters, as the duo of Villalobos and Loderbauer stretch out the sounds of the originals into spare rhythmic minimalism, looping and layering, adding subtle bits of rumble and crunch, deep pulses and abstract shimmer, fields of glitch and muted crunch, but to our ears, it sounds like very little was added to the mix, and much of the magic came from deftly manipulating the originals. The techno element is really negligible here, the sound is much more abstract avant jazz, or hushed minimal drift, in fact, the sound is so unique it's quite difficult to really describe simply. The sound actually reminds us quite a bit of Aussie free jazz minimalists The Necks, the same sort of subtle shifting sonic palette and the gradual evolution of sound. Opener "Reblop" is a hushed super spare bit of solo piano, wreathed in clouds of occasional cymbal shimmer, and some melodic harp, the notes on the piano wreathed in reverb, the cymbal shimmer strangely distorted, the wide open spaces peppered with soft synthy streaks and bloopy squelches, which often mirror the melody, it's really strangely pretty, but also subtly alien. "Recat" is about as close as things here get to techno, which is not that close, but the original brushed snare rhythm is looped into a clipped minimal electronic flecked skitter, that rhythm delicately processed and gradually transformed while all around it pianos and strings unfurl melodies that become gnarled and softly distorted into new shapes, the result a sort of warped lo-fi kraut-jazz. "Resvete" is super spare and spaced out, cymbal shimmer and angelic female vocals, Villalobos and Loderbauer's contributions so subtle, that barring a few glitchy bits, it's difficult to tell how different this version is than the original, quite we're guessing, but it's so deftly transformed, that it's not hard to imagine this as just some strange slab of experimental European jazz. And the tracks that sample Arvo Part, manage to make magical music even moreso, taking Part's lush liturgical drift and making it even more washed out and ethereal, mysterious and dreamlike.
One of our favorite tracks is "Reannounce", which is very tribal, almost African sounding, hypnotic rhythms, and processed chant like vocals, underpinned by some throat singing like buzz, and some wild almost free sounding percussion, "Recurrence" too with its lazy drumming, and slo-mo late night smokey slowed down jazz feel, the whir of the trumpet buzz turned into a muted drone, the sound almost like the music is melting. "Rebird" finds the duo building what sounds like an imagined field recording, underscored by delicate, slightly warped piano, and a barely there rhythm, while "Retikhiy" sounds like some sort of alien world music, or some reimagined forest folk transformed into looped electronic minimalism. We could really go track by track, every song here is mysterious and magical, the rare sort of record that transcends it's genre, it's hard imagine anyone into adventurous music not loving this. It's jazz, it's classical, it's electronic, it's plunderphonics, but it's also none of those, the sound truly more than its constituent parts. The extensive liner notes go into great detail about the creation of this collection of songs, explaining that the duo did not have access to the original tracks, so had to use the records themselves, and thus chose tracks where rhythms and instruments were isolated in the composition, in addition, gaps and pauses and record noise, as well as the natural room sound were also sound sources, with much of this improvised live, with the intention of "combining the functionality of reduced electronic structures with the living textures of ECM productions", with the most important thing being "to harmonize these two worlds, without them aspiring to mutually deactivate each other, to keep both - the organic and the electronic - in balance." So great, definite contender for record of the year, jazz, electronic, classical or otherwise!
The cover makes this look like a black metal thingie. The band name references Blue Cheer. But they're on Load and from Rhode Island and are in fact members of Olneyville Sound System and Landed, and when you actually listen to it you'll learn they're really some kind of screamo grindcore outfit, willing to stoop to juvenile fart jokes while simultanously being pretty clever with some of their musical decision-making. Yes, pounding repetition and feedback can be clever. Really raw, heavy, ugly, fierce. Clocks in at only 24 minutes, a good length for this sort of thing.
It's a good week for rock n' roll. Uh huh, look out, Baltimore (or as they prefer, "Baltamont") psychpunk badasses Vincent Black Shadow (the REAL Vincent Black Shadow) are back! If you heard their AQ (and Julian Cope) recommended debut, you know exactly what to expect. If you're new to the VBS, well, think wretched rawk action and psychotic reaction. Simply put, this is trashy Stooges worship at its uber-distorto, heavy-ass best!!! Just take a listen... that vocalist is a streetwalking cheetah with a heart fulla napalm, am I right?! Goddamn right I am. He's backed up by reckless riffing, the guitar strangulation plenty raw and primal. You're not gonna need to be told that this is obviously meant to be played loud. It's a throbbing testament to bouncing off the walls and breaking shit (and maybe rolling in broken glass and peanut butter). Ah, life's simple pleasures. File with such outwardly bound jams-kickers as The Heads, Cope's Brain Donor band, and Boris (circa Pink). But with more of an ugly attitude. Like maybe the Pissed Jeans wrestling with Plastic Crimewave.
Nine tracks, a little over a half hour. On the short side maybe, but that still means the cops are gonna show up to tell you to turn it down (and stop stomping around, jumping off the furniture, disturbing the neighbors, etc.) long before the record's over. Which means...fuck the neighbors, fuck the cops... you're going to jail.
Just got a handful of these limited, lathe-cut (by Peter King in NZ, natch) seven inches directly from the now defunct Baltimore band Vincent Black Shadow, an outfit whose two full-length records we've previously raved about for bringing the Iggy-influenced, ugly ragin' raw rawk action with such authentic energy and attitude. Too bad they broke up, sadly before completing their third album which was to be called Baltamont. Some of the VBS boys are in a new band, called UNNH, and others in one called Murder, so we'll look out for those. In the meantime, we've got this final farewell 7" slab of VBS's psychotic party pleasing punk... Hear 'em kick out the jams in their usual Stooge-ly style on the A-side, "Nazi Gold". And then on the flip, you get their frantic interpretation of Queen's catchy speedster "Sheer Heart Attack", from News Of The World. With VBS singer's snotty sneering snarl, and their relentless rhythm section's careening drive, here it sounds almost like something by the Sex Pistols - more "God Save The Queen" than Queen! Well, the Sex Pistols meet The Sweet... which might have been what Queen was going for too, on the original, it came out in '77 after all.
LIMITED EDITION, clear vinyl, last copies.
Here's a vinyl only release, limited to 500 handscreened numbered copies natch, of this the debut platter from Baltimore psych-punk heavies Vincent Black Shadow. Piquing our interest, Blue Cheer and Boris are name-checked by the label, but what you'll really hear (and the press materials also mention this) is a heckuva lotta Iggy influence. The raw Iggster vocals and the grungy grooves hit that Stoogey sweet spot for sure. Julian Cope needs to hear this... the label would be wise to send him a promo. Definitely up the (grimey, dark, piss-coated) alley of anyone into Cope's Brain Donor band... or Thee Hypnotics (remember them?) or, of course, The Stooges themselves. Which reminds me, we've still gotta list those new deluxe Stooges reissues with the bonus discs... anyway, if swaggering drug-addled rawk with cowbell and blown out bass and wah guitar does it for you, that's what VBS does here pretty darn well. And it's true that describes some Blue Cheer and Boris too...
We'd like to hear more. Bet they might be a decent, drunken live proposition as well. And tho it's LP only, we'd encourage a cd release someday. For now though you gotta grab the LP before it's gone.
What could be better than guy sporting serious razorburn for a cover photo? Not much else.
Vindva Mei's debut has warranted not only such a great cover but a release on Stilluppsteypa's label Fire Inc. This Icelandic duo's sound is not too far from the skeletal bleeps of the Raster and 12K labels but is even weird enough to be on Phthalo if given the chance. The IDM rhythms of Warp and Skam have been distilled to the simplest of gossamer melodies and terse electronic rhythms. Slow motion time-streched drones, backwards shortwave radio voices, and odd distorted flanges emerge from the post-techno proceedings.
With hip hop and dance DJ culture having totally spread to the mainstream, labels like the amazing Strut have been steadily putting out records that illuminate the roots of this culture, records like Disco Not Disco (which explored the shared NY roots of
We can't tell you if these Aussies are the next big thing or not, but they're definitely the next potentially big thing. And before overexposure and hype and all that end up making you hate 'em, you should at least give 'em a chance. Sure, they're being positioned as The Strokes Part II (and while they do have a song or two that remind us The Strokes, as well as the 'look', they're just as much on the Hives or White Stripes tip), and we know everyone's got an opinion about The Strokes. But whether you approve of those NYC'ers or not is irrelevant here, 'cause what The Vines really sound like (to these ears) is a cross between Nirvana or Mudhoney and Redd Kross. And, hey, that's not a bad thing. No complaints here. And besides, if the commerical plastic pop music you've got to endure on the radio, at the 7-11, the barber shop, the juice bar, at the mall, wherever, is totally fun, catchy, garagey rock with actual songs and guitar jangle and fuzz, that's a lot better than boy bands or Britney Spears or nu-metal ain't it?! More power to 'em. And hey -- the singer's accent is for once authentic. (Note: it's at a "nice price" for now, but we'll be you anything that the list price will get jacked up to $18.98 in a few months when and if they do become a bonafide big thing).
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Yet another warehouse find, dug up just a few of these, pretty sure these will be the last copies we can get�
We had never paid much attention to Swiss (via Germany, or is it German via Switzerland) one man ambient black metal outfit Vinterriket. Partially because he had SO many releases, we count close to SIXTY since 2000, and the ones we did hear, were more sort of swooshy ambience, and did little to distinguish them from the throngs of black ambient groups out there. Somehow we ended up with a handful of these, and we finally gave it a listen and it's actually pretty great. There's still plenty of ambience, but it's woven into long stretches of wintery black buzz (Vinterriket is after all Swedish and Norwegian for 'the winter realm'), and heck he did share a split with aQ beloved Paysage D'Hiver!!
Fans of washed out black ambience, or maybe more accurately ambient black metal will dig this for sure. It's been growing on us too, making us think we should maybe check out some of those 59 other releases. Cuz really, who doesn't love blustery, wintery black metal buzz, although here the buzz is almost entirely overtaken by the synths, which definitely makes for a strange listen, sounding more symphonic really than anything, but when the synths are dialed back, you can finally hear the guitar although it's like a low level hum, the vocals are buried in the mix as well, almost like someone playing along to some black metal turned way down on their boombox, while blasting their synths through a cranked amp. The sound does get buzzy and black in places, but it does seem like overall Vinterriket is more about the ambience than the black buzz, and while the first few tracks do offer plenty of buzz and blast with the swoosh and swirl, the last half of the record is all ambient, even a Burzum cover, all rendered in shimmery synths, and wintery blackened ambience. Good stuff though for sure. And recommended for fans of synth heavy blackness, blackened ambiences, and black wintery grimness...
