[ aquarius records — Experimental ]

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Showing results 5101 through 5150 of 9280.

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. The latest in this high profile series of split 12"s. Merzbow is at his most melodic, coming up with an almost hummable bit of white noise. The AMM side is all rhythm, primarily beautifully meandering chimes and bells.

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. Split disc between two noise giants from Japan via Kid 606's Tigerbeat6 imprint. Masami Akita furthers his explorations in the digital domain, appropriating the tranquil somniloquisms of Olivier Messiaen's "Mode De Valeurs Et D'intensite Pour Piano" and transmutating it into the unique extremity that is Merzbow. The Kouhei tracks are slightly more rhythmic, though somewhat static, DHR-style beat destruction. You might recall his work from the "Upside Down" release on Mille Plateaux to which Merzbow as well as Masonna contributed.

RealAudio clip: Nakesendow
RealAudio clip: Garden Of Earthly Delights (Center)

When is a Noise Record (tm) not a noise record. Well, 'V' is definitely not going to answer that question, because this is unequivocally, without a doubt, a noise record. Most of this sounds like vintage Merzbow. Shards of white noise and digital skree, sheets of feeding back effects processors, a mighty wall of head crushing sound. Good stuff, but nothing we haven't heard a thousand times before. Good thing Pan Sonic were on hand to mix things up a little. But only a little. No real rhythms or beats to be found, but Pan Sonic's rhythmic tendencies do come to the surface about 2/3 of the way through this hour long performance with pulses of white hot static and crunchy digital throbs, but ultimately they quickly dissipate and fade back into the thick wash of this Noise Record (tm).

MPEG stream: V

Merzbow may be prolific to the point of no return by now, and so you may scoff at yet another release (that makes what, 10 so far this year?) but don't pass this one up. All of us around here have been mildly obsessed with Swedish ambient / noise / drone technician Nordvargr, from his days in the dark-ambient-in black-metal's-clothing outfit MZ412 to his later militaristic folk ensembles Toroidh and Folkstorm. Strangely these two noiseniks make the perfect combination, Japanoise meets Scandanavian power electronics and the result is a crushing slab of low end doom drone dirge. Merzbow created the source material for Nordvargr to process in his inimitably grim fashion. Three lengthy tracks. The first is a spine tinglingly creepy and gut churningly, ominously oppresive rumbling glitchy throb, crumbling slabs of low end over sinister whir and brittle crackling skeletal beats like the scary parts of Tron, or the part in some demonic anime snuff film when you first discover the true face of evil. Track two turns crushing ambient sludge into HUGE crunchy stuttering beats, not just block rocking beats, but beats that flatten entire neighborhoods like Autechre or Aphex twin jamming with Sunn 0))), spare and skittery, wandering through a precarious landscape of hissing blasts of Japanoise and keening squalls of high end iridescence. The final track is clicky, glitchy, haunting almost-IDM filtered through the noxious fumes of demon's breath and dipped in boiling pitch. ominous and frighteningly lovely. One of the best noise / sludge / drone / slow-motion-dance-music-for-demons record of the year!

MPEG stream: Tardyon Storm

The long awaited second installment in the who-knows-how-many-parts Patikel series, which features a collaboration between AQ fave Swedish dark ambient, militant folk, black metal noise technician Nordvargr (Toroidh, MZ412, Folkstorm, Goatvargr, HH9, etc...) and Japanese noise legend Masami Akita aka Merzbow. Strange bedfellows maybe, but the results here, as on the first installment, are pretty mind-blowing. Akita generated the sounds, Nordvargr took those sounds and twisted them into completely new forms, the result some strange noise/drone/rhythm hybrid that is WAY more listenable than it has any right to be. The opener sets the tone, a twenty minute crumbling distorted noisescape, like bits of old Merzbow records all chopped up and assembled again Frankenstein's monster fashion, that veers from full on near-metallic crunch, to strange skittery almost IDM, but even at it's calmest, the track is still rife with strange sounds and damaged FX, bursts of harsh noise surfacing here and there amidst an alien landscape of stutters and shuffles, of creaks and squeaks, almost like a black metal Mouse On Mars if one could even imagine such a thing. The second track sounds heavier on the Nordvargr than the Merzbow, a rumbling shimmering low end, that creeps and drifts before splintering briefly into another rhythmic glitchscape, just as quickly transforming into a buzzing snarling fuzzed out drone, thick and corrosive, subtly rhythmic, but intense and crackling with energy. Deep cavernous tones swell in the background, while above the blurry buzz, strange crunchy electronic pulses mark out a simple static rhythm. The third track is Part 2 to the opener's Part 1, and takes the openers skitter to a much meaner, much harsher place, a swirling high end cloud of hissing static and keening sine waves, over a relentlessly pulsing backdrop, that changes pitch, and tempo, stuttering and hiccuping, creating a gorgeously confusional rhythmscape, eventually breaking into a near-groove, a loping downtempo slither, but still wrapped in all manner of electronic detritus and squalls of fuzz and crackle and whir. The closer winds things down with more of a whisper than a scream, the glitchy rhythms are still present, but they are ultra minimal, skeletal, almost like shortwave interference, beneath a tidal swirl of murk and blur, a dark ambient buzz that stretches lazily into long expanses of slow shifting sounds. Over the course of the track, little bits of melody surface here and there, the rhythms get more agitated before drifting back beneath the surface, and mysterious voices surface amidst sparkling sonic glimmers and moaning ambient rumble, a dreamy dark ambient coda to an intense slab of droning skittering buzz and crunch, shimmer and swirl. Partikel II is IDM for the demon set, a blackened noise drenched skitter, an abstract metallic free-electronica, and a definite droney dancefloor filler, that is if you want your dancefloor filled with shuffling zombies, growling beasts and unspeakable denizens of the underworld... And who doesn't?!

MPEG stream: Reakt 1
MPEG stream: Luxon

Very excited to come across a new sweet release from aQ fave and experimental guitarist extraordinaire William Fowler Collins! But don't expect the usual soundscaped guitar ambience from WFC this time! Mesa Ritual finds Collins teeming up with another Albuquerque desert dweller, Raven Chacon, for some heavy buzzing, face melting harshness. Cascading swarms of sizzling drones meet distant plumes of rising smoke in the wavering desert heat, as the red sands of the southwest swallow you into ecstatic doom. The label describes the instrumentation as "two large piles of highly magnetic instruments standing too close to each other, yet walking toward you". Huge geologic low end creeps up from the center of the earth as oscillators pulse and hover in mid air. A single track spanning over twenty minutes, the piece ranges from soaring walls of noise and destruction to a subdued eye of the storm, a calm moment of melodic reflection just after the 8 minute mark, that reminds us of a distant William Basinski loop drenched in a fuzzed out haze. But the serenity doesn't last long before the electric bleakness is once again unleashed and only subsides in the final minutes as the micro-epic dwindles like a campfire flame. Totally massive, harsh and somehow beautiful, Voltaic Processions is perfect for fans of the harsher synth stuff happening like Grasslung or Blue Sabbath Black Cheer. Needless to say this one is highly recommended by us, but beware, Voltaic Processions comes limited in an edition of 100!

MPEG stream: Voltaic Processions

One truism gleaned from any given Cormac McCarthy novel is that the desert is a good place to dump a body. The lore about the desert outside of Las Vegas makes the claim for shallow graves dotting the landscape as the handiwork of mobsters and psychos. There's probably some truth to that; but at the same time, the land also holds a sacred beauty to many of the citizens who live in such environments and respect that land not only for the desert beauty bloom but also the simple fact that the desert can kill you and swallow you up without much of trace left behind. William Fowler Collins and Raven Chacon make their homes in New Mexico; and they draw heavily on the atmospheres, ghosts, and general vibes of the desert for their Mesa Ritual collaboration. Collins is a character who we've championed over the years for his hauntingly morose drone-works; and Chacon - a member of the Dine' nation - has performed in various guises over the years, including the brutalist black noise project Kilt. Every track minus one, produced for Aaron Turner's Sige Records, is a numbered "Procession", alluding to an animistic, ritualized vision quest for Mesa Ritual, with their accompanying soundtrack building from crunched low-end drones and rumbled tones that are conjoined to rhythms of amplified heart beats and drum-skins. While these low-frequency structures are similar to those of Thomas Koner, there's an oppressive tension which underlies the work of Mesa Ritual, highlighted through the albums finale that roars to a conclusion with a thunderous blast of infernal distortion. This is a very dark record, even in comparison to the shadowy productions that Collins has offered forth previously; and it's a very effective one at that! Limited to 230 copies or thereabouts.

MPEG stream: Procession II
MPEG stream: Procession VII
MPEG stream: Procession VIII

The Root Strata label hasn't been as active as they used to be, what with main founder Jefre Cantu-Ledesma living in Europe and then moving back to San Francisco temporarily and now heading to New York to stay awhile... Hopefully they'll get back to a more regular release schedule real soon. But until then, we got this to deep primitive drone record to tide us over and it's a stunner. Messages is the New York duo of Taketo Shimada & Tres Warren. We never carried their previous recordings, but are now kicking ourselves for not tuning in sooner. Even though Mirage is the third full-length release, this was recorded in 2008 before their first two albums and has remained unreleased until now. Four long-form excursions with a lyrical pastoral focus using an array of acoustic and electric drone instruments reminding us of like minded wayfarers Taj Mahal Travellers, Deep Listening Band, Date Palms and Portraits. Limited to 500 copies.

The label calls the music of Messiah Complex "death noise" and who are we to argue? This Scottish one man merchant of deathlike noise offers up two discs, nearly two hours of minimal blackened dronemusic. Multiple songs or pieces or movements, melded into two huge suites. The first disc is downright lovely, beginning as a breathy shimmery metallic ebb and flow, a gentle pulse, layered drones, fuzzy and indistinct, throb softly in a sea of hiss and barely audible rumble. At one point the track downshifts from the hissy blur into some serious cavernous low end rumble, deeeeeeeeep and darkly ominous, it eventually builds to a wall of crumbling distortion, but quickly subsides and returns to a whirring shimmer. The second disc takes up right where the first disc left off, albeit a bit more ominously, and with some added noise, some industrial clatter, some reverbed metallic grind, the slow low rumble builds and builds and builds eventually erupting into an awesomely caustic freakout, that almost sounds like THE heaviest part of a Neurosis song, where the vocals are howling the guitars are roaring, that single second stretched into a long blurred blast. It eventually peters out, but in its place surfaces some sort of post industrial metallic Whitehouse sound, huge corrosive shards of jagged sound, walls of feedback, shrieking, moaning tones, a harsh vocal howling over the top. Finally giving way to a roiling backdrop of distorted downtuned crumble, over which guitars drone and whit and buzz and throb, a murky dense stretch of washed out softnoise. Fans of stuff like SUNNO))) and other minimal heaviness might dig this, especially if they're looking for something a bit more harsh and intense, without losing any of its hypnotic droniness. Packaged in a cool oversized screenprinted cardstock booklet, inside a printed black and white booklet packed with garish shots of bones and skulls in various states of damaged or deformity.

MPEG stream: Incomplete Trephination (excerpt)

These modern day krautrockers (they are from Stuttgart, Germany) offer up a new 12", the first in a series of "palindrome" recordings, all about mirror-symmetry, very conceptual. The palindromic aspect extends to the date on which it was recorded, 21.02.2012 (February 2nd, 2012, using the European style of numerical date notation). Also, at 45 rpm, the playing time is 12:21. And of course, the title is a palindrome too. So, what's Sus sound like? Well, it's a very soothing lovely abstract drone, we'll let them (or their label) explain their methodology: "The single sidelong track consists of one note on the vibraphone struck by a soft mallet. The same note is then bowed continuously on violin and the sound is processed with an envelope shaper, a narrow-band filter (tube-based) to accentuate some overtones, and some basic tape manipulation techniques like cutting/looping, speed/pitch alterations and change of playback direction. All rhythmic and harmonic processes result from the shifting of vibrato frequencies in the stereo panoramic field. No digital technology was used. The piece is designed to be played at any speed (mainly 33 and 45, but also anything from 16 rpm to 78 rpm). Side 1 plays from the standard outer grooves inward. Side 2 is Side 1 played backwards and plays from the inner groove outward..." Like we said, very conceptual! But also a nice drone indeed. And fun to mess with if you've got a variety of speeds on your turntable. A good use of the vinyl format.

MPEG stream: Sus (45rpm Side A excerpt)

Long before psych folk became the flavor of the month in the indie scene there was the Tower Recordings. A group responsible for some of our favorite drugged out psych-pop EVER, with such nice swirling textures, delivered with such a gorgeous touch. The members of Tower Recordings have forged pretty of remarkable solo careers of their own. Folks like P.G. Six, Samara Lubelski, Matt Valentine, etc. Metal Mountains is a brand new project that reunites Tower Recordings members Samara Lubelski, Pat Gubler (P.G. Six) and Helen Rush. There is a real magic between them as this is one of the most beautiful and mournful sounding albums we have heard in ages. Delicate composition stripped away of any fat, yet stretched out so nice with haunting instrumentation and a minimalist approach to creating a songs that make you sway so softly as you float away from all that surrounds you. It's restrained and understated without being uptight. A soft tension blankets the warm, moody recordings and we are left with a stunning and sublime set of songs.

MPEG stream: Structures In The Sun
MPEG stream: The Golden Trees That Shade Us
MPEG stream: Prisms

This duo (one half New Zealand, one half L.A.) played here last night, with AQ faves Expo '70 (we missed it, writing reviews you know, bad timing, list week, argh) but from what folks tell us, they surprised everyone by totally dominating, and entrancing everyone with their humid guitar ambience and shimmering metallic dronescapes. And hearing this cd it's not difficult to hear why.� Metal Rouge is the duo of Andrew Scott (who you might remember as half of the duo Nest, with Nigel Wright) and Helga Fassonaki, who manage to work some pretty serious musical magic together. Plenty of bands do the drone thing, sometimes it's a static hum, other times it's a wall of guitar left to buzz and rumble, but it takes a special something to harness those sounds and sculpt them into something more, to coax emotion from them, to create tension, to turn sounds into actual songs. And Metal Rouge manage that task just fine. Much like Expo '70, Metal Rouge owe as much to old school krautrock ambience as they do the modern makers of abstract noise. Their guitars and various sonic implements, unfurling slow pulses, motorik throbs, deep swells, a lush low end that seems to let all the other sounds gradually sink into it, melodies drift sleepily, the notes wavering and slowly shimmering, everything bathed in the reverbed glow of some hot late night, lit blue by the moon, the stars glistening like streaks of feedback beneath the roiling ambience. These are actual songs, like some old dusty 78 dipped in tar and played back as slow as it will go, pop music rendered glacial and effulgent. Bits of twang and strum floating lazily by on a slow moving black tide, an�incandescent raga like buzz always glimmering in the background, Metal Rouge is like some heavily sedated version of Popol Vuh or Tangerine Dream, their lush, sultry shimmer washing over you and transporting you to some mysterious otherworld. Absolute bliss.� Packaged in a super swank box, with printed insert under the cd, a fold out booklet, a black and white paste on cover (all of them different) and sealed in a thick plastic sleeve affixed with a strip of tape hand stamped with the name of the band. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. Each one hand numbered.

MPEG stream: Calling Winter, Apologizing To The Earth
MPEG stream: Dying Palms: New American Century

There's something strangely addictive about the skull crushing, mind numbing effects of harsh, droning nooooise. And while avant-noisemakers Skullflower and Hototogisu are perfect examples of some folks who do it best, Metal Rouge is quickly establishing themselves as likely contenders for the noise/drone throne. This is Ephemeroptera vol. 4, part of a five cd-r series being released on Seymour records. Limited to only 50 copies, we managed to snag a few, and we're glad we did. Seems like the duo is heading into more damaged, blown out territory, abandoning their quieter improv-y ways for blistering, electric melt-downs and cosmic sizzle. Complete with a cool drawing of a whirligig beetle on the cover, this cd-r will be gone in the blink of an eye, so act fast.

MPEG stream: Madly Whirling Breathing School
MPEG stream: Seeing Below

Metal Rouge is an unlikely combo, as the two members live half way round the world from each other making music that does not lend itself to digital filesharing. Andrew Scott is the New Zealand citizen in the group, having worked with Nigel Wright in the past as Nest; and the Californian of Metal Rouge is Helga Fassonaki, who seems to be the globetrotter of the two with huge amount of exhibitions and performances on both sides of the Pacific. Andrew and Helga declare their intentions as being "concerned primarily with pure thoughtless formless now and its expression through sound" or rather, they improvise toward the drone supreme with plenty of detours along the way. Andrew's tools are the pedal steel and guitar pedals; and Helga's instrument of choice is a Persian dulcimer jacked up through plenty of FX pedals as well. After a handful of tapes and cd-rs, Three For Malachi Ritscher appears to be their first proper cd, with kudos going to ever impressive curatorial hands at Root Strata. From a strictly aesthetic / geographic axis, Metal Rouge is the perfect sum of its parts, situating all of the free-noise / freak-folk aspects that we love about both LA's Not Not Fun scene and NZ's PseudoArcana label. So, through the psychedelic damage of their pedal steel and dulcimer duets, Metal Rouge weaves a post-krautrock / Dream Syndicate atmosphere of thumbing drones built out of arcing layers of spectral tones and spidery pluckings. Tones glisten and vibrate with that unsettled narcotic feel of Pocahaunted's disembodied vocals and drug-drone mantras, but these are WAY better. The two also have clearly been listening to Matthew Bower as there's a few cut-the-power conclusions to the soaring heights of their drone stupor, leaving us hanging in a dizzying limbo at the moment of silence. Very nicely done. LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!!!!

MPEG stream: Anger, Awaken
MPEG stream: Love, Awaken
MPEG stream: Sorrow, Awaken

From the latest handful of releases on Ann Arbor's Hanson Records comes this Chicago trio of art twaddlers and tape manipulators, Metalux. Having been around for a few years without a record, and hearing much about their live shows, my hopes of a band over their self indulgent "experimental" beginnings - formulating a more refined and original creature- were cut short on my first

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. What a mouthful! Metgumbnerbone was an obscure post-industrial / drone-improv project that centered around the collaboration between Richard & Philip Rupenus (better known as The New Blockaders, and often Organum partners), John Mylotte, and Sean Breadin (who with Richard Rupenus formed the oblique ritual project Masstishaddhu). From what little information is available about the group, Metgumbnerbone only had a couple releases back in the mid '80s with "Ligeliahorn" being the only recording to get beyond the short run productions of cassette culture with a vinyl release on the now defunct A Mission records. As with all of the Metgumbnerbone recordings, "Ligeliahorn" was recorded entirely in the subterranean (and potentially hazardous) confines of an abandoned factory in Newcastle, England. The collective used the ductwork of the factory and whatever else was laying around as readymade percussive and wind instruments, creating sustained rythmic clatter and acoustic dronescrapes which fluctated into recognizable cyclical patterns and out towards sparse pipe fights. Metgumbnerbone's junkyard sound was always much colder, more sedate, and more funereal than the massive apocalyptic pummel of Einsturzende Neubauten or San Francisco's Scot Jenerik, despite their similarity in instrumentation. This cd-r redux of "Ligeliahorn" was remastered from an original demo cassette of the album, as Breadin and Myotte had lost the masters for the vinyl. In reconstructing the album, Breadin and Myotte had done away with the post-production tape speed tricks which were occasionally employed on the original LP. Somewhere down the line, Breadin will be publishing a retrospective of all of the Metgumbnerbone recordings. For me (Jim), Metgumbnerbone has been a ensemble whose recordings have become fetish objects from the most obtuse regions of Industrial Culture (like those really stupid Vagina Dentata Organ records, which I've obsessively collected). While I am pleased as punch that these recordings are available, my critical objectivity about them is admittedly lacking... I obviously recommened it, but would encourage you to check out the sound samples first.

RealAudio clip: Track 1
RealAudio clip: Track 3

Never reviewed anything by these guys (this guy?) which is a shame, cuz the folks here into dark, industrial heaviness and black drone crunch are way into Methadrone, and also unfortunately, we only have TWO of these, they've been tucked away for years now, but figured a couple folks out there might just love to get their hands on this, especially considering that listening to this now, it bears a striking resemblance to everyone's fave post industrial shoegazers, JESU! Same sort of lumbering crush, but wreathed in hazy washed of buzzing crumbling melody, plenty of downtuned thrum, and keening feedback, but all woven into a thick undulating blissed out dirge. Blackened and beautiful, distorted and dark, this is some gorgeously heavy stuff. Includes a killer Swans cover, and two videos. Comes packaged in a slim dvd style case, with full color cover. Way out of print, got two copies and that is IT.

MPEG stream: Emotionless

Could be that it's a bit of an embarrassed, ironic tongue-in-cheek joke to name your solo banjo album Deliverance, but this disc by Minnesota string picker Paul Metzger seems serious enough. And is definitely far, far away from anything resembling "Dueling Banjos"! Inbred backwoods hicks won't relate to the stately and intricate raga-like sounds regally flowing from the nexus of Metzger's deft fingers and 21 banjo strings. This sounds much more East Indian than Appalachian. Stark, gentle, precise, compelling. At times you'll swear there's two players, or multitracking, but it's all Metzger, live and unaccompanied. These three long pieces (one of 'em, the title track, over a half hour) are relaxed, delicate, and entrancing... Avant garde acoustics for late night listenin', which nestles nicely next to discs in the "Wooden Guitar" series also released by the Locust label.

MPEG stream: Orans
MPEG stream: Bright Red Stone

Apogee marks the first collaboration betweeen the veteran avant-garde improvisers Musica Elettronica Viva (Alvin Curran, Frederic Rzewski, and Richard Teitelbaum) and AMM (Keith Rowe, Eddie Prevost, and John Tilbury). Their collavorative set was recorded during one live session in April, 2004; and as one might imagine from their previous outings, these six men locate the immediacy of sound with various degrees of drama, inactivity, noise, and silence. There's squiggles from Keith Rowe's radio interferring with his guitar pick-ups, wooden thumps from the piano strings being tapped by hand, monopulse bleeps from digital clocks, the glistening drones from bowed cymbals, indeterminant metallic scrapings, and synthesized electronic bursts of scrambled noise. The studied clusters of notes from piano, horns, and strings that dot the Apogee sessions provide the trappings that these six are performing in a particular academic tradition of improvisation, and are the only the things that hamstring their monumentally post-modernist expressionism. Along with the three lengthy improvisations between all six improvisers, AMM and MEV both offer extended 30 minute recordings from live performances to round out this double disc set.

MPEG stream: Apogee Part 1
MPEG stream: AMM - 01.05.04
MPEG stream: MEV - 01.05.04

First proper full length in almost two years from Isis' Mike Gallagher, and his project MGR, aka Mustard Gas and Roses. Much like his debut Nova Lux, and the two more recent releases, a split and a collaboration, Gallagher continues to explore a darkened universe of slowly sprawling, slow building post rock ambience, blending skeletal guitars, deep string like swells, distant drones, and all manner of whirs and shimmers into gorgeous expanses of minor key melancholia. It 's probably not surprising to discover that MGR actually sounds a bit like Isis with all the metal removed, which is in no way a bad thing. As a band Isis are as deft at weaving gorgeous loping postrockscapes as they are kicking out the metallic jams, so it's nice to hear similar sounding parts allowed to blossom in a wide open expanse, the distortion and heaviness are kept to a minimum, used sparingly as opposed to an integral part of the sound. There is a definite dark vibe, haunting and ominous, which might be the only thing keeping this from being pure instrumental cinematic postrock that would be right at home on Temporary Residence instead of on Neurot or Conspiracy. But that darkness is also what makes the sound of MGR so vibrant. Like it COULD explode at any moment. And it almost does here and there, a thick wash of distorted chordal buzz, a sheet of keening high end feedback, some dense swaths of reverb and rumbly distortion, a killer chunk of stuttering clipped metallic chords, but again, these are just elements of a much bigger sonic picture, an expansive, epic, sprawling soundscape, minimal and minor key, mellow, but not without menace, a huge powerful music that manages to sound personal and intimate at the same time. See the review of the new Jimmy Cake elsewhere on this list, MGR's Wavering is like its evil twin, lurking in the shadows, brooding, droning, drifting, and shimmering ominously.

MPEG stream: Allusions
MPEG stream: It Darkens His Door

This long in the works split finally sees the light of day. Two aQ faves together on one super limited lp. MGR, the solo project of Mike Gallagher from the mighty Isis, and Xela, the project of John Twells, who also runs the kick ass Type label. We've yet to get around to reviewing the new MGR full length, but this track is definitely whetting our appetite. Simple finger picked guitar over, shimmering streaks of sound, layers of glimmering gossamer whir, loping and laid back, eventually some BIG guitar comes in, huge crashing chords, allowed to ring out and slowly fade away, the notes pulsing and beating against each other, building to an epic coda, all majestic and intense, like a stripped down Isis, the original guitar slipping into the ether, the huge chords crashing further and further apart, eventually stopping all together, leaving murky blurs of guitar cacophony, smoothed into dense swells, still intense and almost heavy, but more blurred and washed out, the notes and chords and harmonics swirling in a roiling sonic sea. The Xela track begins with a squall of feedback and squiggly distorted electronics, harsh and jagged, eventually drums surface, the electronics are reigned in a bit, angelic voices drift in, everything bathed in some ethereal shimmer, the drums stumble and skitter, cymbals crash and sizzle, the electronics flit and flutter like clouds of lightning bugs, the sound gradually grows heavier and more dense, a low end gathering beneath the surface, the sound is almost like some free noise Arvo Part, haunting and choral, but those electronics continue to squelch and glitch, the drums skittering chaotically, the vocals wreathed in effects that turn them into shadowy blurs, the track becoming blurrier by the minute, more tranquil, the vocals smeared into glistening chords, the whole track like the soundtrack to staring into a dying sun. Really amazing, and unlike anything we've heard from Xela before. SUPER LIMITED! ONLY 350 COPIES!!! All hand screened with some seriously creepy cover art. We only got 30 copies, and will not be able to get more!

For some reason we never got around to reviewing the MGR full length on Neurot. Not sure why exactly. This may sound a little bit stupid, but I think it was because we thought MGR was the abbreviation for 'manager' and thus not a very cool name for a band. But when we finally did listen to that record a few weeks back we were totally knocked for a loop. And we felt bad, and dumb, and thus we are doing our very best to make things right by not only reviewing that very full length (elsewhere on this list) but also this super limited cd-r tour only collaboration. What we did discover is that MGR stands for Mustard Gas And Roses, a much cooler name for sure, or maybe it stands for Mike Gallagher something-beginning-with-R, since MGR is in fact the work of Mike Gallagher from metallic post rockers Isis, either way, MGR is some gloriously beautiful and droney stuff. We're not exactly sure who SirDSS (aka David Scott Stone) is, but with his arsenal of effects, synths and bowed metals, adds a definite metallic (as in metallic, not as in heavy metal) sheen to MGR's more organic dronescapes. Long slowly unfurling whorls of abstract steel string tangle, huge slow burning electric guitar shimmers, drifting amidst glistening sonic cobwebs, silver streaks of minimal feedback, while in the distance some sort of industrial apparition grinds and clangs, creaks and keens, beneath an outerspace world of dreamlike ambient guitarscapes, radiant sine waves and thick luminous layers of crumbling melody. So nice.

MPEG stream: At Odds
MPEG stream: Following Electro Acoustic Theory

We haven't heard from MHFS for years now, not since their now long out of print cd-r on Celebrate Psi Phenomenon. That release found these NZ noise makers kicking up a serious freerock fuss, with wild spacey synthesizer, crashing chaotic freakout and a bunch of whirring and bleeping and screeching. That very same record though finished up with a stretch of strummy soft shimmer, and that's pretty much where this 3" finds them again. Taking up right where they left off. They incidentally is in fact a he, one Mark Sadgrove, who is quite a fixture in the NZ music underground. In MHFS, Sadgrove utilizes homemade electronics, found sounds, field recordings, his own software, as well as the more traditional voice and guitar to create, subtle soundscapes, from very very minimal happenings a la Francisco Lopez, where we found ourselves reaching for the volume knob just to get a fleeting glimpse of the fuzzy details and barely these smears of soft sound, to rough crackly drones, waves of crumbling guitar distortion and buried in the haze mumbly vocals, all very sleepily sun drenched and beautifully blown out.

MPEG stream: Driving To Rawene 1
MPEG stream: Driving To Rawene 2

Another batch of super limited and beautifully packaged cd-r's from Campbell Kneale's (Birchville Cat Motel) Celebrate Psi Phenomenon label. The finest in underground free noise / drone, culled mostly from New Zealand but all around the world as well. For those of you new to the CpsiP label, imagine classic Siltbreeze (Dead C, etc.) mixed with Jewelled Antler (Thuja, Blithe Sons etc.), dark and deep listening that sometimes verges on all out noise, but more often than not remains subtle experiments in avant drone and abstract sound. And when we say limited we mean LIMITED. Thes babies come in pressings of 30-80, out of which we get a whopping 10 copies!! MHFS are a new group of Kiwi noisemakers, and make a lot of noise they do. Outer space bleeping and blooping, stuttery rhythmic clatter, bursts of splattery gunfire like clangs and crashes, super distorted synth fuzz dirges, melodies packed in dense swaths of murky grit. About halfway through the record, it's as if everybody got tired of twisting knobs and banging on things, and decide to lay back, lay down, and let the sounds unfurl on their own. The clouds of chaotic skree dissipate, and reveal gentle, simply strummed guitars, shimmery otherworldy ambience, sweet melodic chimes, and delicate wisps of dreamy drone.

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We haven't heard from these guys in a while, not since their Perils disc on Mimicry from a few years back. And now they're back, as part of the ever expanding Latitudes series. Featuring members of long time AQ faves Guapo, Miasma are equally as progtastic as Guapo, but where Guapo channel the hard and heavy side of classic prog, Miasma, are more dramatic, with a gipsy folk flair, an Eastern European vibe, jaunty, and playful, cinematic and a bit over the top. Like the soundtrack to some Edward Gorey cartoon come to life. Dark and dangerous, but wild and weirdly wonderful at the same time. The opening track here begins with a moody gipsy folk hoedown, stings and horns, woven in an intricate dance, before the drums kick in and the song is transformed into epic and intense krautrocky prog. Warm wheezing keyboards, angular riffing, wild octopoidal drumming, intricate arrangements, super dramatic keyboards and strings A bit of a Goblin vibe, the song builds and builds and builds, a frenzied musical pagan ritual, it's hard not to imagine the band in all black, flowing robes and witches hats, performing in front of some huge stone circle on the top of a massive hill. The second track is a creeping dark ambient sprawl, lurching "Boris The Spider" bassline over whispering winds, clouds of cymbal sizzle, deep cavernous rumbles, haunting organs, mysterious effects that drift from speaker to speaker� The final track begins like a simple piano and violin chamber music piece, with a definite Eastern European flair, before about halfway through, when the drums and bass kick in, and we're back in the prog, the drums complex and intricate, the bass, lumbering and minor key, the piano more and more frenzied as if trying to keep up with the drums, finally all the parts coalescing into a massive moody riff, bordering on classic doom territory, before everything drops out once again leaving just the piano and strings, until the drums come back in, then finally the bass and the guitar, the climax, intense and dramatic, epic and majestic! Comes packaged in a super intricate hand screened die cut fold over sleeve with a full color insert. The cover has a sticker affixed to the front and each copy is hand stamped and numbered. Limited to 1000 copies worldwide, 500 of which made it to the United States, we got about 25 copies...

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Polish chamber music trio. Their minimal Avro Part-inspired threnodies are played on double bass, cello, and accordion. The group's name means The City Didn't Sleep. On Obuh, the same label that brought us the Magic Carpathians.

In the anti-tradition of whitebread Bay Area thrash metal, the violent morass of New York no wave, and a familiarity with Ralph Records / THE RESIDENTS insanity, Microwaves draws from a palette that is somehow as wide as it seems limited. Spiked skronk-infested guitars spit tonality-impaired riffs like so much chaff from a surgically calibrated tree shredder, while a propulsive fretless bass assault is jammed through all manner of alien effects, often rendering it as more a bowel-rumbling presence than an actual instrument. The percussive cyborg clatter and MICROWAVE's paranoid dual vocal attack serve to further blast MICROWAVES' dystopian thrash into the outer void.

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First we've heard from this witchy Northwestern psychedelic kosmische prog-synth outfit, even though they've been at it since way back in 2008, but this sort of synth heavy, hypnorock trippiness is definitely ripe for some love, cuz sonically, this definitely seems to fall in line with the current crazy of synthy retro-futurism, but Midday Veil definitely add their own twist, sound like an impossible mix of local psychedelic space rockers Lumerians, future synth wranglers Majeure, weirdo heavy psych Swedes Goat, legendary synth prog combo Goblin and witchy occultic metallers The Devil's Blood. The core of the sound is swirling synths, and motorik rhythms, simple grooves wreathed in cascades of tangled keyboard melodies, and spidery guitar melodies, with vocalist Emily Pothast's witchy, soulful croon definitely defining their sound, giving it an almost funky vibe at times (hence the Goat comparison), the title track sounds like some lost Kraftwerk jam reimagined as something darker and dirgier, while the mainly instrumental "Choreia" is total John Carpenter style cinematic broodiness, woven into a much more propulsive hypnorock framework, reminding us a bit of Finnish faves Circle. "Remember Child" is all celestial / cosmic synthscapery, a smoldering slow build, before the vocals drift in and transform it into some sort of gothic sonic ritual. "Without And Within" is all buzzy raga dirge, heavy on the Eastern style melodies and sitar like buzz, the vocals heavily processed and draped over the woozy blackened exotica. "Sun Stone" is a brief bit of experimental psychedelic synth drone, before the 11+ minute closer, a total hypno rock psych-prog epic, the vocals getting super dramatic, the vibe completely over the top and majestic, getting downright shreddy and bombastic near the end. Gorgeous packaging too, with stunning cover art by Robert Beatty.

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Ahh, yes, it's time for another release from the Time Released Sound label (every couple of weeks, it would seem, is the timing of their releases). As usual, it's from an artist we've never heard of before; as usual, both the music and the packaging are utterly gorgeous. Especially, with regards to the packaging, when it comes to the limited "deluxe" edition - most things on TRS have both regular and deluxe versions, as followers of the aQ list know, and the deluxe is REALLY deluxe, essentially a one of a kind, original work of art - in this case, quite literally so, as each of the deluxe ones features a unique 8" x 10" mounted collage (in surreal Max Ernst style, made from Victorian era prints, images of birds and architecture, etc.) suitable for framing, though already set in a fold-out, stand up sleeve. The deluxe discs with their collages are also packaged inside a hand assembled envelope made from antique wallpaper. It's pretty fancy & fantastic. However, the regular digipack editions look quite nice too, and are of course considerably cheaper... As for the music, well, Middlemarch are a quasi-ambient duo, consisting of Dimitris Avramidis on piano and Ross Baker on electronics. The piano provides the main, melodic content, while the electronics create an additionally atmospheric bed of shimmering hum and glitch, for the gentle piano notes to hover above, sometimes below. Soft focus, melodic piano motifs glide slowly, surely (or sometimes, spill like a babbling brook) over transparent, calming drones. It's very "organic" sounding, reflective of nature (indeed, some natural field recordings of bird calls and such are woven into the mix on at least one of the tracks, we hear distant church bells too). It could be good music we're sure for soothing a baby to sleep, but has enough rougher textures to keep our adult selves interested, too. If you've liked most other TRS releases, you'll like this too! Also would fit in with stuff on the Miasmah label, but without their usual darkness (though sometimes it does get dim). Dreamy. Standard edition limited to 150 copies, the deluxe limited to only 85!

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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. Another batch of super limited and beautifully packaged cd-r's from Campbell Kneale's (Birchville Cat Motel) Celebrate Psi Phenomenon label. The finest in underground free noise / drone, culled mostly from New Zealand but all around the world as well. For those of you new to the CpsiP label, imagine classic Siltbreeze (Dead C, etc.) mixed with Jewelled Antler (Thuja, Blithe Sons etc.), dark and deep listening that sometimes verges on all out noise, but more often than not remains subtle experiments in avant drone and abstract sound. And when we say limited we mean LIMITED. Thes babies come in pressings of 30-80, out of which we get a whopping 10 copies!! Midwich is the audio project of a certain Rob Hayler, who some of you might know from the very cool cd-r label Fencing Flatworm that he runs, which just happens to chronicle much of the same free noise as Celebrate Psi Phenomenon and a few other likeminded labels. Here we get a heady dollop of Hayler's effervescent, intoxicating ambience, all sweet and dreamy and not dark at all. Rich and thick and soothing. Like a smoother Sunroof! with all the rough edges polished into a gleaming shimmer. Swirling clouds of dense melody and soothing major key drone all coalesce into a sweet, summery bolt of happy drone (if there is such a thing).

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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. From the liner notes: "Ten and a half years ago, a few men in Oulu (Finland) were bothered by a thought: what would it be like to assemble a maximal number of men into a regular formation and dress them in dark suits, black rubber ties (made of used inner tubes), white shirts, and make them furiously shout some patriotic texts sacred to Finns. The men didn't have any further starting point: neither musical frustrations, a political programme, an aesthetic trend, nor opinions concerning postmodenism in arctic areas. But already the first choir rehersal proved that a shouting men's choir would have expressive power in all these senses." Allow me to reiterate, 80 Finnish men in black suits and rubber ties barking rhythmic reinterpretations of patriotic Finnish songs (they also shout the 'Star Spangled Banner'!!!). One of AQ's favorite documents of the absurd.

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. Quite simply one of the most fucked things that has passed through the doors of AQ! A choir of 40 men who do not sing, rather they shout various Finnish anthems, children's ditties, and patriotic songs. As you can accertain, these renditions are completely devoid of melody but have an outstanding sensibility when it comes to re-interpreting the rhythmic elements of the original songs. The CD features all of the tracks from their Finnish major label single of variations on the national anthems from Finland, Norway, Sweden, Russia, U.S.A., and Germany (which is down right awesome). Gratefully both formats clock in well under 15 minutes, any more would be sadistic.

Christof Migone is not kidding around with that title. Migone is a French-Canadian (with the accent definitely on the French side of that equation) conceptual sound artist, who has based this album on recordings of (or inspirations from) the canon which fires daily at noon in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Migone punctuates his incredibly quiet reflections on this explosive sound with extended silences. Migone has at least enough sense to offer a track listing which indicates the silence tracks with the demarcation [0] and warning when an untreated recording of the canon blast (it's track 18)... so you can simply program out all of the unnecessary silent parts and have a concise collection of muffled shock-waves.

Analog synths galore! This Washington DC duo mix electronics and violin to make some kraut-friendly (Conrad Schnitzler comes to mind) electro drones, with moments of melody and beats...very nice!

RealAudio clip: Sonerone
RealAudio clip: Sawg Warz

Another cd-r release from Heart and Crossbone, the label that brought us records from Israeli blackened spazz rock duo Barbara and one man thrash-grind band Cadaver Eyes (reviewed elsewhere on this list). This Mildew cd-r is a bit high concept. The idea is that you download a script and the piece will play at random pre-determined starting points, making the songs a bit different every time. Or something like that. Cool, huh? Musically this is a lot different that anything we've yet heard from Heart and Crossbone. All electronic, spastic programmed drums, squelching synths, occasional sampled metal guitars, jagged pounding industrial rhythms, moaning minor key melodies, brief spurts of drill and bass, some full on metal riffing sliced and diced, martial percussion, some blissed out dubbiness. Really cool. Definitely for fans of Aphex Twin, stuff on Planet Mu, or any of the more out there electronic stuff on the Jester label.

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Elsewhere on this week's list you'll find the first release from the Monopoly Child Star Searchers, a Skaters side project that we have been digging like crazy, it's also the first release on a new cd-r label run by Spencer from The Skaters called Pacific City Sound Visions, mostly to release his Monopoly Child Star Searchers cd-r's, seeing as 4 of the first 5 releases are in fact his own records, but the 5th is by some mysterious entity called Miles Devens, which we later discovered was in fact another moniker for the fellow behind aQ faves Ignatz, which made perfect sense when we threw this one. And thus, this is essentially a new Ignataz record, two tracks of alien Appalachia and haunting ambient buzz. Two tracks, each over twenty minutes long, but each, split into movements, separate songs woven together. The opener begins with haunting glimmering high end shimmer, soft sweet melodies, a sea of sparkle and upper register effulgence, strings buzzing, the track shifts into a sing songy little lullaby, all hushed vocals and tiny melodic curlicues, which are soon overtaken by some deep raga like buzz, a shimmering metallic whir laced with murmured melodies, a woozy warbly sprawl, which shifts again, and becomes a muted campfire hoedown, more hushed vocals, little flurries of acoustic twang, eventually giving way to a super distorted, lo-fi ballad, with mumbled vocals, angular guitar, and lots of gauzy reverb and delay. The second track begins super spare, a lonely acoustic guitar, lots of room reverb, a slow hushed drift, dreamy and haunting. The second part is all frenzied guitar squiggle, like sped up Applachia, some drawled effected vocals, which gives way to a murky cloudy dreamy dronefolk drift, soft stately melodies, in a dense field of effects, vocals wrapped in reverb and allowed to float and flutter, the low end rolling off until the sound is like some alien shortwave broadcast, all twang and strum, but all treble, fading into a gorgeously murky swampy slow motion electronic drone outro.

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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.

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Found a VERY small stash of these original 1993 vinyl pressings at one of our suppliers. At original 1993 vinyl prices too! (Yes, remember when vinyl was cheaper than cds?). This release was the debut from Milk Cult, a beats-and-sound-collage side project of Dale "C.C. Nova" Flattum from San Francisco's late great grungy noiserock heavies Steel Pole Bath Tub, and it predates our "list" by a couple years, so we've never reviewed it, though much later on we did make Milk Cult's fourth and final album a Record Of The Week (2000's Project M-13, now long out of print unfortunately). Love God opens with the title track, well worth the price of admission alone, 10+ minutes of chugging distorted Slayer riffage meets turntablist whip-whip-whap in a sampledelic maelstrom. All kinds of other insanity enters into the pounding mix, from flamenco dance music (?) to police sirens. It's apparently the soundtrack to a short film by Frank Grow which we've never seen but we figure it must be pretty freaky. From then on, the warped vibe of underground '90s plunderphonic noiserock industrial soundtrack mayhem continues, in a surrealistic style where, like, moments of sepia-toned old tyme record crackle loopage that could be from a Leyland Kirby disc, will be rudely juxtaposed with sudden onslaughts of -actual- Slayer samples, or even blasts of machingun fire. It's definitely very '90s, in a good way, think Pain Teens, early Scorn, Sucking Chest Wound, experimental Melvins, Cosmonauts Hail Satan, WordSound label dubby "illbience", and of course Steel Pole Bath Tub themselves - they always used samples, weird voice-overs and whatnot, and if you're familar with them, what you'll hear here will remind you of that aspect of their sound, but given center stage. Chaotic and/or creepy for sure, but "groovy" too in a way. Needless to say, these are the last copies we're gonna see, and when they're gone, they're gone. (Honestly, we only found 4 of these, so apologies in advance if they're all been snagged by the time you read this.)

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Another Record Store Day exclusive, and one of the few we had enough (maybe) copies of after the big day, to list and review, for all our beloved aQ-ers who live far and wide. And it's a good one. Matching up Jenks Miller, he of big time aQ faves Horseback, and James Toth, of Wooden Wand, and once again, as with recent Horseback joints, Miller continues to confound, pushing his sound in whole new directions, moving ever further from the blackdrone creep of those early HB records. After a brief bit of psychedelic blooze drift, Miller launches into some organ driven, super distorted twang flecked post rock, all grizzled melodies, motorik rhythms, swirling FX, still pretty bluesy, but a sort of minor key psych blues, which is even more surprising when the vocals come in, a softly distorted croon, transforming the sound into something like a more metallic, more psychedelic Sparklehorse maybe? Not a bad thing at all. The final track from Miller name checks Roy Montgomery in the title, and sonically is essentially an homage, a sky full of layered, pulsing guitars, looped into slow shifting shimmers, and smeared chordal swirls, before disappearing into a cloud of dreamy distortion, and adding some subtle propulsion, the second half a gorgeous, fuzzy, druggy, droned out psychedelic drift. So good! Toth's side is much more stripped down, acoustic guitars wedded to wheezing harmoniums, and strange clattery percussion off in the background, a woozy campfire drone-folk that's quite lovely. And while the vibe is abstract and spacey, the vocals bring it back down to earth, transforming it into more of a dark Appalachian psych folk, but the minute the vocals fade out, the song seems to soar skyward once again. The other two tracks are shorter, and less abstract/experimental, the first, more psych folk, the second like some lost Laurel Canyon classic folk-rock B-side, right down to the female back up vox. SUPER LIMITED, as in these are likely the very last copies we'll see, so you know the drill. Also includes a download code, and comes housed in a handsome full color, matte finish gatefold jacket.

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It's a sad story, but it continues to happen, someone sends us an amazing record, one what will no doubt blow our minds, one that we won't be able to help but want to share with all of you, one that begs to be reviewed and hyped to high heaven, but then that single amazing record, somehow slips through the cracks, ends up in a box, in a closet, on the floor, in a pile, and sadly, sometimes disappears forever, but thankfully, like it this case, miraculously makes its way back from the great beyond. We were going through piles of cd-r's, from boxes that had been piling up, and we came across this mysterious disc, adorned with a strange bearded mystic, painted with a third eye, a triangle superimposed over his face, that photo affixed to a cool looking digipak, surrounded by a mandala of some sort, lots of pyramid imagery, a Japanese style obi, and some strings with bells attached. We threw it on, and BLAM, totally mesmerizing tripped out raga like trance, the opening track alone, the 17 minute title track we ended up playing over and over. Andee loved it so much he played it on his radio show, after which he seemingly randomly emailed a friend of his, to ask if he knew anything about said record. To which that friend responded "I SENT YOU THAT RECORD. TWO YEARS AGO!!!" After enduring a bit of well deserved mockery, it was time to get down to business, and track some of these down for the store, and for YOU. Johnny Miller was a new name to us, but he played in a Chicago psych-kraut combo called Sadhu Sadhu, who we have yet to review on the list, but from whose ranks recent aQ Record Of The Weekers the Great Society Mind Destroyers were born. Miller though doesn't traffic in the same sort of blown out psychedelic heaviness as TGSMD, no all that shamanistic imagery was our first clue, but Miller is more about serious blissed out raga-drone, looped cyclical mesmer, heady ur-drone shimmer, and abstract free folk drift. The aforementioned title track is one of the greatest things we've ever heard, laying down a thick, slowly undulating sheet of high end shimmer, sounding like a dreamier more soft focus Sunroof!, underneath which, Miller lays down a mesmerizing latticework of melodies and rhythms, playful and looped, circular and cyclical, it adds a subtle bit of propulsion, to the otherwise seemingly weightless drift, he also adds soft swoops of backwards guitar, it's really utterly divine, and we say it a lot, but this is the sort of song that should probably go on forever, and we like to think does, somewhere. But the cool thing about Miller's record is precisely that it does NOT just do that, instead, it's surprisingly varied, layering tinkling thumb piano melodies over wheezing harmoniums, wreathing simple steel string strum in clouds of simpler percussion and softly swirling tape hiss, unfurling spare, dreamlike Appalachian folk, bare and unadorned, simple and beautifully hushed, and unleashing some churning heavily distorted riffage beneath a glimmering sky of hypnotic looped electronics and buzzing synths, sounding like a fantastic hybrid of Zomes and Amps For Christ. The other epic here, a gorgeous 12 minute sprawl, does return to the sound of the opener, but adds some gorgeous crooned chantlike vocals, the result like some ancient spiritual ritual revved up and modernized, a buzz drenched blissed out mountain top raga. LIMITED TO JUST 50 COPIES!! Each one in a hand numbered cardstock digipak, hand painted, silkscreened and stamped, with a Japanese style obi, a folded full color origami like insert, and a little string with bells hanging from the spine!

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A whole bunch of new releases this week on local label the Flenser, the weirdest of the bunch might just be this one, mostly since it's way different than anything else The Flenser has released so far. Unlike the mostly metal Flenser catalog, there's very little that's overly metal about this release from guitarist Nick Millevoi, other than plenty of buzz and distortion. Instead, we're reminded of a more droned out abstract take on the sort of minimal psychedelic guitarscapery of another aQ fave, Blackwolfgoat. The guitar tone here is thick and crunchy, buzzy and plenty distorted, Millevoi taking riffs and looping and layering, the opener here starting out as something blown out and raga-like, before the playing grows more frenzied, and does take on a bit of a metallic vibe, but it's like Reich or Riley composing with metallic riffs, growing more and more frantic, before melting into a roiling morass of long tones and endlessly sustaining chords. "Slowly Dark" is all overtones and sustain, a bit like SUNNO))) crossed with Derek Bailey, that sort of obtuse fretboard scrabbling, set amidst long rumbling tones and deep reverberent thrum. The two part "Super-Lith" gets even more abstract, ditching much of the heavy drone, leaving notes to drift, keening high end shards, and woozy chordal shimmer, which grows more and more intense in the second part, reminding us of an even more abstract Mick Barr, the guitar emitting gouts of grinding high end laced with bits of scrap and skronk. The tape closes with the 14+ minute "Endless Unfolding Hallways", which might be the 'prettiest' of the bunch, mixing some dreamy lilting melody, into wild squalls of swirling psychedelic high end, and heaving near heaviness, along with long stretches of softly pulsing drones, all peppered with fragmented melody and softly atonal chords. Cool stuff. Probably pretty limited too!!

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We reviewed a tape from Nick Millevoi a while back, released on local label The Flenser, and at the time, it was maybe the weirdest thing on the label, precisely because it was so little like anything else they'd put out, solo electric guitar, spaced out, super abstract dronescapes, looped and raga-like, a bit like a metal Terry Riley or Steve Reich, which obviously pushed lots of our buttons. So here we are a couple years later, and we've got more new music from Millevoi, a split with some improv jazz group called Onibaba, but first up, Millevoi unfurls a gorgeously languid sprawl of distorted guitars, delivered in waves, slow subtle swells, with long extended decay, the sounds crumbling and pulsing, over the opening track's 21 minutes, growing more and more noisy, swaths of feedback winding their noisy tendrils around the increasingly frantic riffage, which by now has transformed into thick squalls of buzz, a dense psychedelic noise, that manages to be textural and listenable, but also a bit caustic and chaotic. Millevoi's other two tracks get way further out, the first all wild squiggles, and woozy detuned strings, atonal and abstract, loose and noisy, and dizzying, the second taking the first and adding some Haino-esque freak outs over the top, dense tangles of high end squiggle and grinding, avant psych shred, blurred into a swirling dervish of psychedelic noise! The Onibaba tracks, while ostensibly 'jazz', are similarly abstract and freeform, the first, a slow, smoldering expanse of buried rhythms, and moody murk, of distant clatter and industrial whir, all wreathed in soft focus clouds of keening feedback, the vibe loose and noisy and ethereal, sounding a bit like a more placid, tranquil Wolf Eyes actually, the sound growing more urgent and rhythmic, until the murk clears, leaving a sky full of chiming high end shimmer, and clouds of bowed metallic thrum. The second track is even more minimal, a hushed, lowercase dronescape, all groaning, moaning, barely there rumbles, pocked with bits of glitch and squelch, a sort of minimal industrial dub, but smeared into indistinct blurs, hazy, and heady, hushed and hypnotic. Housed in an oversized purple and white, printed gatefold sleeve. LIMITED TO 250 COPIES.

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When we first heard about Millie & Andrea, the duo of Miles Whittaker aka Miles, whose brilliant Faint Hearted record we raved about here a while back, and Andy Stott, whose gorgeous, ultra minimal techno we've been raving abut forever, we were expecting this collaboration to be some fusion of the two - skeletal, abstract, ambient, hauntological, ultra minimal. For the first few seconds, our guess was pretty much right on, the first track beginning with a field of reverb heavy clattery rhythm, deep bass pulses, but with something lurking just below the surface, as if the sound could take off in any direction. The sound grew more dense, more secondary rhythms surfaced, the results super hypnotic almost trancey, but still plenty spaced out and abstract... So, we were settling in for an extended occultic electro bliss out, when track two kicked in and BAM, suddenly, we're transported directly from our insular listening space, to some nineties dancefloor, the duo laying down some skittery, swirly, crunchy, clattery techno, with super distorted synth sweeps, and stuttery hiccuping beats, the vibe hovering right between old school ravery, and something more modern and freaky, some heavy IDM influences too, as well as jungle, drum and bass, garage, but the production changes everything, fantastically blown out and in the red, which gives every sound a weird psychedelic feel, like some weird sonic halo, transforming what could have been straight up dance music into something noisy and trippy and fucking awesome! The next few songs offer up variations on this way back electronic time trip, with "Temper Tantrum" getting straight up jungle, pretty sure that's a mutated 'Amen' break, but again Whittaker and Stott fuck it up big time, adding all sorts of rhythmic filigree, and part way through, some swoonsome synth swirl. "Spectral Source" is another fantastic throwback, with a stuttery vocal snippet peppered amidst synth squelch, hand claps, gristly bass buzz, and a murky pulse, all transformed by the gloriously cheesy late night chill out synths, which like much of the record, finds its niche in this weird push and pull between avant electronic experimentation, and pure, sweat soaked dancefloor groove from back in the day. "Corrosive" begins all robotic electro draped over a background of blooping bleeping melodies and gurgling low end before exploding into full on No U-Turn style tech-step, a killer blast of distorted noisy jungle that no one makes anymore, but we still LOVE. The title track two, a churning bass heavy slab of classic jungle/drum & bass, albeit plenty fucked up, and of course midway through, they fuck it up even more, pulling it apart, and cranking up the bass, thick buzzing, undulating rumbles and whirs. Nearing the end of the record, things seem to start drifting closer to the sounds we were expecting from Whittaker and Stott, albeit fused to the jungliness that came before. "Back Down" is all murky swirling melodies, hazy vocal harmonies blurred into black smears, churning, grinding bass, skittery rhythms, all wreathed in a dense sonic murk, sounding almost industrial, industrial via Huperdub maybe, and finally, the closer, wraps things up with a gorgeous bit of haunting ambience, swirling Basinski like loops beneath weird bits of rhythmic clatter, gristly tape hiss, static and glitch, all washed out, hazy, druggy, dreamy and divine.

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