The first we heard from Greek one man ambient black metal horde was on a split with Swedish psychedelic black metallers Underjordiska, then offering a washed out black ambient counterpoint to Underjordiska's furious spaced out black buzz, so when we finally got this cd in, a digital reissue of a long out of print cassette, we were expecting another disc of washed out ambient blackness, and while there is a bit of that present, Spectral Lore knocked our blocks off with this collection of totally intense, outsider avant black metal buzz.
After a two minute intro of delicate acoustic guitar, SL explode into a 24 minute epic, all stumbling crunch and grind in the beginning, before slipping seamlessly into soaring majestic epic buzzing black metal. The drums and vocals mostly buried beneath the frenzied riffage, weirdly minor key, haunting and space-y but thrashing and black and grim, until the sound shifts, getting muddy and murky, a loping midtempo pound that quickly shifts again, and stretches out into some woozy psychedelic folkiness, all warm buzzing guitars and crystalline melody, soaring strings, totally tranquil and dreamlike, before exploding in another frenzy of tangled and gnarled blackness, and so it goes, slipping back and forth, until finally the guitars coalesce into some classic metal sounding melody, then a weirdly Viking sounding blow out, before fading out completely, leaving a long stretch of hushed gauzey ambience. Heck that track alone would be worth $13, there's more packed into that 24 minutes than most bands manage in records twice that long, but there's so much more.
The rest of the record is a balance between woozy melodic drift, and warped black heaviness, often the line between the two heavily blurred. Black buzz grows more and more indistinct until it sounds more like Nadja, a sort of shoegazey black drift, guitars unfurl, chords unfolding slowly one at a time, moody synthesizer strings drift over hushed minimal swirls of soft focus sound, guitars rumble and bombinate, building to soaring lysergic ur-drones, long stretches of muddy murk give way to crystalline sonic whispers, black metal roils and churns and explodes in streaks of near white noise, the sound and production constantly shifting, blistering and in-the-red one second, mumbled and washed out the next, the sound as much a part of the music as the music itself.
Far out and epic, psychedelic and spaced out, ambient and black, and so goddamn good...
"Illbient" aQ-fave producer Spectre brings us (literally, he brought these in himself, on a visit to SF) another album of dark, bass-heavy, mostly instrumental hip hop, smoke-hazed & paranoid; this latest one, his ninth, being a vinyl-only release on his own label WordSound. The True & Living begins positively yet ominously, with "inspirational" spoken word samples taken from the movies Waking Life and The Matrix, eventually joined by echoing maniacal laughter that segues into track two, the aptly titled "Impending Doom", which is a dizzying collage of end-is-nigh soundbites, of all varieties (some scarily plausible, others not as much) over loops of strident strings and horns, layered with beats and scratches. That sets the mood for the whole record, an apocalyptic, suspenseful hip hop soundscape. For example, the track "Destroyer", which is built around someone (a concerned citizen-scientist? demented doomsayer?) explaining one "nightmare scenario" in particular. One quote from that panicked fella sums it up, and made us chuckle: "We're about to have a solar system come though the middle of OUR solar system; this can't be good." Of course, we won't we laughing if/when that guy is proven right. Again, this inconvenient information is suitably set to music sourced from the climax of some old sci-fi thriller or something.
All that apocalyptic shit sets the stage for the title track, on which Wu Tang's Killah Priest drops science in grandiose, mystical fashion. We're primed to believe his hype after all that we've been through on the record already. The album's other rapper cameo comes on the track "Triumph", featuring the unique flow of frequent Spectre associate, and another aQ fave, Sensational. So those are a few of the highlights, but we're digging the whole damned doomed and dubbed-out thing. Oh, and regardless of whether the world is ending soon or not, this record IS limited - to just 250 copies!
Now here's a tape label that knows how to do it right. Each tape, even though they're limited to only 100 copies, comes with super deluxe full color artwork, printed labels on the tape, each hand numbered, AND each tape is a different color to match the artwork. Nice!
Release number two from Abandon Ship comes from Spectre Folk, aka Pete Nolan of the Magik Markers, GHQ, Wooden Wand & The Vanishing Voice, Shackamaxon and loads more, in the form of the strangely (stupidly?) named Papa Smurf Smiles Down On Us From Heaven, a surprisingly straight ahead psychfolk jam that is actually pretty kick ass. Aggressively strummed acoustic guitars, wailing leads, all sort of lo-fi, but still pretty heavy and rocking, with mumbled chant-like vocals, this sounds nothing like SF, then we check out the tape case and realize it's a Don Cherry cover from some Italian TV show!! Fuck yeah!! And a pretty bad ass one too (even though we didn't recognize it). A sprawling, lazy, laid back, dreamy and mellow, folky psych jam. Awesome.
The flip side begins with "I Hate This Shit" which seems to be live from the No Fun Fest, and sounds like it, a corrosive squall of guitar grrrrr and amp buzz and squealing feedback that goes on forever. Massive and epic and brutal and noisy but somehow a little bit trancey and pretty listenable. It took a few minutes, but once we sunk in, it was kind of blissy. The final track is a Byrds cover, shimmery and strummy, stripped down and really pretty.
Limited to 100 copies! Each tape hand numbered, already OUT OF PRINT at the label so once these are gone, that's it!
We'd long been a fan of Aaron Spectre, a DJ who specialized in heavy ragga jungle, and in particular, mixing in all sorts of metal and grind into his jungle DJ sets. A bunch of his 12"s featured killer mashups, like a wicked junglized Bad Brains tune among others. The 12"s all disappeared before we managed to get our hands on any of them, but a while back we did manage to get the cd by his 'band' Drumcorps, a mind blowing, speaker shredding blow out of metal guitars, grindcore blasts, and insane hyper kinetic drill and bass. Pretty much the ultimate AQ record...
We have been listening to that disc NON-STOP since we first got it in, so we were super psyched to get a bunch of these, a collection of less, 'abrasive' work from the man responsible for one of the most gloriously abrasive dance-metal releases in forever. And from the first track, it's not hard to tell this is a whole 'nother beast entirely. "Dulcimer" seems to in fact be the sounds of a dulcimer, spread out amidst wide open expanses of space and reverb, allowed to drift and shimmer, while in the background, soft swells swirl delicately, it would be easy to think this was some modern nu-folk combo blissing out in a druggy haze...
The whole record is not quite so tranquil, the follow up "Half Silver" is a loping midtempo skitter, with the tonal color provided by bits of crackle and hum and whispery bursts of static, and beneath it all, a gentle lilting minor key melody. Somewhere right between Autechre and Pole, a dubbed out slow moving glitchy groove...
The rest of the record is pretty much all over the map sonically, but still hovering within the genre confines that might perhaps be classified as IDM, held together by the thread that is Spectre's deft programming, clever arranging, and knack for slipping in dreamy catchy hooks amidst all the stuttering beats and chopped loops. From soft-grinding ambient trip hop, to a super stripped down, 8bit sounding jungle workout, to a gorgeously languid acoustic guitar and glitched beat drift that would be right at home on Morr music, too warm thick washes of rumbling ambience and crunchy muted beats, to sun dappled dreamy soft focus glitchpop (with sweet sweet soft boy vocals)...
Not necessarily for you Drumcorps fanatics, although man can't live on grindcorejunglemetal alone, but definitely for folks who love them some Boards Of Canada, Autechre, Chris Clark, Aphex Twin, Funkstorung and the like...
The last time we heard from Mike Haley, it was in the guise of Wether on Monorail Trespassing, offering up a headsplitting noise cassette of powerdrone synths and sawtooth aggression. Here, recording under the moniker Spectrum Tickets for Hooker Vision, Haley dials those electronics into a glimmering pop ambient type of ethereal drift that certainly does muster favorable parallels to Hooker Visionary Rachel Evans' solo project Motion Sickness Of Time Travel. The stabbing John Carpenter arpeggiations are central to his science fiction electronica built out of swooshing fundamental drones with Radiophonic / Oneohtrix melodic flourishes, peppered with burbling electronics and strange fuzzing static. There's just enough paranoid android in Haley's electronics to keep things interesting, making this tape recommended for anybody whose enchanted by the like of Rene Hell, Oneohtrix Point Never, and much of the oddities found on NNA Tapes. As with all Hooker Vision titles, this one is super limited.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
After the incredible "Welcome to Execrate" cd by this maverick electronica duo, Speedranch & Janksi Noise manifest themselves in a live recording, presenting a full volume Merzbow-esque noise assault that disintegrates into piercing horror house collages of slasher screams, laughing clowns, and creepy proclamations from mad scientists.
As if we needed any more proof that Finland is and was a weird and wonderful place, producing some of the most far out sounds we've ever heard. It's no secret we have a thing for Finnish music, but c'mon, every record we hear, like this one for example, a reissue of one recorded in 1970(!!!) just proves over and over that Finland were always way ahead of the underground rock curve. Or behind it. Either way, the Finns have been blowing minds for 40 years now. (Remember that Psychedelic Phinland comp? There was a Sperm track on that...)
Sperm was the project of a fella named Pekka Airakinsen, and consisted of him creating gorgeously abstract and haunting dronescapes and twentieth century style classical sprawls, constructed from looped guitars, feedback, primitive samples, and various found sounds and invented techniques, the results are fantastic. Dark shimmering fields of suspended tones, of tripped out psychedelic delay, of deep undulating low tones, thick, buzzing rumbles, jazzy horns, chaotic squalls of skronk and skree, No Neck style rhythmic workouts, tons of space, very dark and moody and mysterious. Minus the first half of side two, which features lots of horns and fractured jazz-isms (titled coincidentally "Jazz Jazz"), the rest of the record plays out like something that could have come out on a cd-r this year, seriously genius free noise abstract dronescaping that pretty much puts the current crop of noisemakers to SHAME.
An exact reproduction of the original, with thick paste on, silkscreened sleeves, LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!! Unfortunately already out of print. We only have 5 or 6, most likely the last copies we'll see.
Yet another new-to-us sonic mystery from local tape label Black Horizons, this from the oddly monikered Spettro Family, who we know next to nothing about, but whose sound is definitely hitting the spot, a hauntingly ritualistic soundtrack like ambience, that brings to mind classic eighties thrillers, the Carpenter influence is huge, minimal drum machine, swirling analog synths, ominous ambience, clattery tribal percussion, disembodied melodies, swirling primitive FX, plodding and sinister, Goblin is obviously another huge influence, it's nearly impossible to not imagine some grainy VHS trailer while listening to this stuff. Cheesy horns that surface here and there only add to the retro sonic veracity. Chillingly perfect melodies pop up again and again, the sort of musical mantras that get lodged in your head and seem like they MUST have come from some classic horror movie. Way recommended for fans of Umberto, Zombi and all the rest�
Gorgeously packaged, red tapes, gold labels, black on black J-card, all housed in a red case. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!
After listening to this disc, all we can say is Marissa Nadler and Joanna Newsom better watch their backs. If there is any justice in the world, the throngs of bearded and bead encrusted modern free folk freaks and forest maidens that make up the new weird underground will bow down before Jane Herships, the woman who is Spider. A softly strummed dreamy acoustic world of drifting shimmering loveliness. If Devendra Banhart is homecoming king at this year's forestfolk ball, well then Spider would absolutely have to be everyone's choice for queen. The Way To Bitter Lake is a blissful blend of Iron & Wine, Vashti Bunyan, Will Oldham, Cat Power, Edith Frost. Hushed vocals over lilting old timey folk, gorgeous and timeless melodies, spare arrangements, but so deftly arranged as to be more powerful than almost any of her contemporaries. There is definitely a serious Iron & Wine vibe going on, Herships sounds like Sam Beam's long lost twin sister. Even her turns of phrase and choice of melodies. The mind boggles at the possibility of those two making a record together. If either of them are reading this, for god's sake let's make it happen!!
Regardless, this is an absolute gem. Pastoral, and haunting, soft and shimmery, suffused with warm summer sunlight, a rambling record if there ever was one. Cool afternoon, bare feet, tall grass, clouds drifting lazily by, soft breezes, the smell of earth and leaves, wandering through a fuzzy folk dream. Absolutely gorgeous.
We've only got a couple of these; so we won't take too long in expounding upon the virtues of the Seattle heavy free-jazz ensemble The Spider Trio. Two of the members of the trio (Jeffrey Taylor and Dave Abramson) are current members of the ever entertaining / ever perplexing / ever compelling Climax Goldwn Twins, with the final member being saxophonist / painter Wally Shoup. Taylor quips that he may be the sole practitioner of a thing called "avant-garde free hillbilly guitar playing;" and yeah, his pseudo-Appalachian boogie deftly counterpoints Shoup's bleat and skronk while Abramson propels the ensemble with oblique fills and angular explosions of dynamic rhythm. Limited to 50 copies, each graced with a hand painted water color by Mr. Shoup.
Every few years, we get a few offerings from Jeffrey Taylor's vangarde contortionism of freeform guitar wizardry outside of the esoteric contortionism of the Climax Golden Twins. And here, we have his dynamic The Spider Trio, which finds Taylor working alongside notable Seattle free jazz / improv saxophonist Wally Shoup and journeyman percussionist Dave Abramson, who has played with Master Musicians Of Bukkake, Grails, and the aforementioned CGT. These sessions typically highlight Shoup's blurting tumble, bright trills, and moments of volatile, almost-Brotzmann like muscularity on the sax, but the interplay with Taylor's avant-hillbilly / swaggering-boogie riffs make for the best moments on this live recording from the Woodland Theater, a suitably disheveled Seattle venue. It comes together with a Actuel / ESP vibe that would have made Volcanic Tongue quake, if they were still around to quake. Pro-duplicated cd-r in an edition of 100 copies for what that's worth.
The Yellow Swans return from tour, which means a massive coming home party in the form of a new release orgy from their Jyrk label. Five new releases, definitely making up for lost time. Spider Webs is the duo of Tom Carter (from Charalambides and Sandy Ewen (from Weird Weeds), both on guitar, annd both coaxing an impossible array of sounds from their axes. Partial melodies dissolve into feedback, sheets of twisted guitar squeal, morph into delicate sonic filligree, all manner of croaks and shimmer and shrieks and groans, twist and turn, drift and reverberate. Very psychedelic, very abstract, and suprisingly abrasive and even heavy at points. Imagine the Japanese psychrock of Haino / Fushitsuhsa / White Heaven / etc. but with the bones pulled out leaving just a twitching psychedelic free for all. And although there are brief blinding bursts of psychedelic freakout, the majority of Away Away is more a wandering wondering dual guitar exploration of inner and outer space.
Hand screened cardboard sleeve, photcopied insert. Limited to 200 copies!
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Spiderwebs is Tom Carter (of Charalambides) and Sandy Ewen (of Weird Weeds) both on guitar, and kicking up a druggy psychedelic skree, maybe the heaviest freakout on either of these guitar slingers' resumes up to this point. Huge staticky squalls of grumbly guitar, wrapped in gauzy sheets of feedback. Like someone grated up a huge chunk of vintage Hawkwind and a weighty slab of classic Sunroof! and then sprinkled it liberally all over New Weird America. Equal parts noisy and lovely. A blissed out blown out psych guitar drone duel to the death.
LIMITED TO 200 COPIES AND ALREADY OUT OF PRINT, SO THESE ARE THE LAST 15 OR SO COPIES EVER!!!
A gorgeous slab of blissfolk improv from these free folk underground dreamweavers. Three separate tracks from 3 likeminded ensembles. First up, Spiderwebs (Tom Carter (of Charalambides) and Sandy Ewen (of Weird Weeds)), offer up a glistening ambience, spacious and hushed with chiming harmonics and slowly unfurling melodies, soft and shimmery, spaced out slow drifting soundscapes of keening guitar swells and crystalline abstraction, haunting drones floating and fluttering, melodies whirling like tiny dustdevils, so lovely. Next up is Mike Tambouro And Matthew McDowell who spin a dense web of strange electronic sound and warm whirring guitar, swells and swirls of moaning bells soft slow drones, a deep pool of sonic shimmer beneath lonely back porch strum and twang. A drone drenched, mysterious Appalachia. Finally, Keenan Lawler lets lengthy buzzing guitar lines sprawl loosely across super spare soundfield, each note, each chord, sliding and bombinating, raga like buzz and loping abstract country twang, loose and skeletal, haunting and otherworldly. Another amazing installment in the Music Fellowship's Triptych series!
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Perhaps the most historically relevant in the series, Laurie Speigel's piece for the Lanthanides 12" series was commissioned in 1975 by Carl Sagan to be included on the golden disc included on the Voyager II spacecraft (which is now beyond the orbit of Pluto moving into deeper space). Harmonices Mundi is Spiegel's relalization of the "harmony of the spheres", a celestial harmony of the planets' relationships envisioned by the ancient Greeks, and updated in 1619 by Johannes Kepler after discovering the true paths of the planets around the sun were in fact elliptical. The technology to convert these relationships into sound, however, would not exist until the computer bcame a viable instrument for making sound and music. Spiegel's instrumental interpretation is grand and sweeping. A repetitive and hypnotic cycle of siren like tones, sweeping majestically across a static sonic palette, overlapping and moving outward, seemingly to the ends of the universe, like ripples in a galaxy-wide pond. Fans of modern high end drone/skree (Sunroof!, Birchville Cat Motel, etc.) will glimpse will recognise this as a definite sonic precursor. On clear gold vinyl (like that legendary golden disc), with Voyager II's galaxial trajectory and Spiegel's Harmonices Mundi score silkscreened in black ink.
A wonderful collection of works composed between 1970 and 1983 from this obscure, criminally overlooked American composer and electronic music pioneer. Instrumentation involves analog electronics (both manual and computer-controlled), electronic tape,
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It seems in the past couple of years, electronic music pioneer Laurie Spiegel has gone from an obscure cult-figure to a championed celebrity right before our eyes. Thanks in part to a key sound design role in this past summer's blockbuster movie, The Hunger Games, but also to this incredible, and indeed expanded reissue of her 1980 debut release, The Expanding Universe, complete with an extra disc of bonus material from the period and extensive liner notes by Spiegel herself. Following key archival releases from fellow female electronic innovators Daphne Oram, Maggie Payne and Suzanne Ciani, we're finally seeing Spiegel getting her due for her stellar accomplishments as both captivating composer and inventor.
While The Expanding Universe was released in 1980, it was made up of musical experiments Spiegel made throughout the seventies in her off time as a research scientist at Bell Telephone Laboratories where she developed unique modes of combining interactive and algorithmic computer logic to the compositional process. Originally released on folk label, Philo, Spiegel's organic compositions had more in common with folk music than one would initially suspect. A trained banjo, lute and mandolin player, Spiegel's first released recording, "Appalachian Grove I" was included on the groundbreaking compilation of female electronic composers, New Music for Electronic and Recorded Media, where she applied the idea of an open tuned string instrument to her electronically created composition. The entire Appalachian Grove suite is included here and is an unlikely mix of John Fahey and Philip Glass, where banjo-like tonal arpeggiations become a rhythmically organic and pulsating layered stream of undulating sounds. With each piece Spiegel seems to strive to explore the boundaries of the compositional process with a determined zen like focus on how sounds interact and overlap. But this is not an academically minded process of willful bleeps and bloops. This is instead a carefully realized beautifully layered intuitive sonic constructions that rewards deeply concentrated listening. Easily some of the best and most effective second generation electronic music we've ever heard, which gives this reissue our highest recommendation!
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!!
Bill Wood of the godlike 1/3 Octave Band teams up with his pal Ben Spiers for five massive tracks of floating free-form drone. Rumbling murmurs, fuzzy expanses of pink noise, delicate melodies stretched a mile wide, single notes dropped into the tranquil whir like tossing pebbles into a pond, creaking neo-classical minimalism, dabbed with reverb heavy skronks, like Albert Ayler playing at the bottom of a well filled with Sunroof! records. So good. For fans of Sunroof!, Basinski, Coleclough and the like.
We missed out completely on the Ananta cd-r that Spiracle first released through the Mystery Sea label a few years back. It was limited to 100 copies and quickly disappeared, much to our chagrin. Fortunately, Helen Scarsdale in her sage wisdom has just reissued that static drone opus with a second disc that reworks the original material while keeping the same intent.
Hitoshi Kojo is man behind Spiracle, having wandered from his native Japan to Central Europe where he's been collaborating with the likes of Michael Northam, Maurizio Bianchi, John Grzinich, and Murmer. Much of his work deals with acoustic drone construction, with some of his records taking up the mantle of beautiful tactile noises like those generated by Organum, Jonathan Coleclough, and Andrew Chalk. Ananta, now presented as a double disc, is an album with a purpose; or at least it has a purpose for Kojo as he's one who has trouble falling asleep. So he composed this album as a narcotizing agent to lull him into a deep sleep. But this is also a man who is a night owl, so the time when he's usually falling asleep is when the sun is just beginning to rise. So for this composition, Kojo tuned his drones to match the ruby reds and golden yellows of daybreak. The Mystery Sea Version of Ananta is a linear construct of softened static with wisps of sustained tones spiralling in and out of the mix. The composition shimmers along this focused path with few variations, reflecting a rigor of process much like the champions of minimalism (e.g. Charlemagne Palestine, Roland Kayn, Yoshi Wada) but with a delicate approach found in the likes of Stars Of The Lid. The Strato Version found on the other disc smoothes out the static into a rich undulating surface of warm golden tones, that could easily be an ambient lullaby to accompany a daydream whilst napping at the beach. So, so beautiful!
The Helen Scarsdale reissue does increase the distribution of this disc, although not by much... there's only 300 of these beauties kicking around!
DR-100. The last 7" to be produced by Drone Records, and it's fitting that the Japanese drone-maestro Hitoshi Kojo (aka Spiracle) got the nod to author the finale to this very impressive series of singles. The gauzy, shimmering sounds that trickle off the clear vinyl were sourced from glass harps, resonant trumpets, sheet metal, and electronics that generate beautifully complex drones that interweave amongst themselves into dense, amorphous masses of sound. While Kojo has more recently been recording in the freaked-out / drone-out psychedelic outfit Juppala Kaapio, the Spiracle output tends to land on the post-industrial drone smears of early Andrew Chalk and Organum. Here, he's definitely at the top of his game. We've got ONLY THREE COPIES!
Spiracle's 20 minute composition Iris was actually released well over a year ago, but Clouds Of Static has been dormant ever since Mnortham abdicated his position as the artistic director for the label. It's a real shame, as there were some real gems which might have come out on the label, with recordings by Murmer and John Duncan and talks of reissuing the brilliant first cd-r from Of (aka Loren Chasse). Yet, none of that will probably come to pass; and it was quite possible that the remaining stock of what was released through Clouds Of Static may have languished in some Swiss castle (quite literally) for years. Fortunately, we were able to uncover a few copies of Iris by Spiracle (aka Hitoshi Kojo, whose collaboration with Maurizio Bianchi is reviewed elsewhere on this list). Taking cues from David Jackman's arsenal of growling harmonics from bowed metals, Ellen Fullman's long-stringed instruments, and Akio Suzuki's impeccable ear for tactile events, Hitoshi offers a dynamic drone composition of compacted layers of acoustic sound with slowly scraped strings amassing into a sustained drone made porous by tumbling fistfuls of sand poured out upon the floor and a weirdly compelling flanging bellow. We only got a dozen or so of these in; and we don't plan on storming any Swiss castle anytime soon, so these few copies are probably all that we'll be able to get!
By now, avid AQ list readers should know just how much we love the drone, and how much we love dark swirling stretched out ambient music. And just how much of our favorite drone music comes from the always impeccable VHF record label: Sunroof!, Total, Skullflower, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Flying Saucer Attack, Pelt and many more. And now you can add Spiral Joy Band to the list. A long running Pelt offshoot, this is the first official release from the SJB after having formed almost 5 years ago. The Spiral Joy Band focuses on just one element of Pelt's sound, bowed and struck metal, and makes that their sonic focal point, stretching the sound of reverberating metal into massive trance like drones. Singing bowls, gonga, sruti box, bells, flute, esraj, tanpuram, shenai, tongue drum, dumbek, shakers and electronics all contribute to the drone, or add subtle melodies and simple rhythms, each subtle layer and woven into a slow burning, dreamily hypnotic thrum. The final track adds some unlikely piano, that gives it a very laid back seventies hippy space psych prog vibe, with tinkling chimes, huge washes of gong and strange atonal melodies, all hovering above a distant rumbling Tony Conrad-like drone. Nice.
Another warehouse find, this one from the Spiral Joy Band, a sonically similar offshoot of raga drone combo Pelt, who here team up with a guy called John Fail for three extended tracks of some sort of imagined Asian hillbilly music, all long droning tones, scraped strings, tangled melodies, the Eastern vibe is definitely present, especially in the first track, which sounds like some sort of avant Koto battle, culminating in some seriously percussive crashing and banging and buzzing. Atonal and agitated, a swirling psychedelic chaos that gives way to the much more tranquil meditative almost 40 minute second track, which channels the spirit of Henry Flynt, sawed strings, long stretched out streaks of metallic buzz, laid atop one another, the overtones shifting constantly, creating dark tonal shifts and subtle barely there rhythms, like bluegrass slowed way down and pulled apart into some strange sort of Appalachian raga. The track does indeed grow more and more raga like, the sawed strings smoothed out into lush undulating swells, darkly dreamy and gorgeously buzzy.
The record closes off with another burst of buzzing strings, like a tuning orchestra wound into a fierce buzzing drone, infused with subtle bits of melody and hints of bluegrass, but those elements are buried beneath a swarm of fantastically thick and corrosive and (in)tense steel string buzz.
Wow. Definitely cool. And we only have 5 or 6 of these, so if you want one, better be quick.
We have just four (4) copies left of this recent limited edition Tapeworm label release, so here's their description: "Recorded on November 1, 2013 as part of Bergen Kirkeautunnale, Norway. Featuring BJNilsen and John Beaumont's "Black Death," a new project using voice (tenor) and electronics; Charles Matthews' repertoire includes performances of organ pieces by Arvo Part, Giacinto Scelsi and Johann Sebastian Bach; Marcus Davidson's "Ananta" is released for the first time, and Spire regulars The Eternal Chord and The Spire Ensemble also perform. Spire is an organ-based live project curated by Touch's Mike Harding and organist Charles Matthews, and is celebrating ten years of activity."
Anyone familiar with the Vinyl On Demand label is probably well aware of how utterly amazing their releases are, how well researched, gorgeously packaged, and of course how limited and difficult to track down. We managed to get three titles, all of them amazing, we only have one copy of each, and wanted to give some of our mailorder folks a shot and snagging one of these. So a brief description follows, and we only have a single copy so first come first served.
SPK, Industrial legends. This over the top, already out of print box set is a doozy. Compiling recordings that document the band's first 5 years, the box includes 6 lps, all housed in printed numbered sleeves, collecting several long gone tape only releases as well as a handful of live performance. Also included is a shirt, with the same image as the box, size XL, a 36 page booklet, all housed in a gorgeous hinged wooden box.
LIMITED TO 800 COPIES. OUT OF PRINT. WE HAVE ONE SINGLE COPY! On your mark, get set, go...
G.E. Stinson and friends!
An exhausting, exhilarating compendium from '90s British noise-rock outfit Splintered, Turned Inside Out collects many of the singles, B-sides, demos and unreleased tracks on an expansive double disc anthology. Splintered was often lumped alongside Skullflower, Ramleh, Godflesh, JFK, Terminal Cheesecake, and other malcontent proponents of industrial-noise-crust damage due to similarities in the revolving door policies for each of those projects, the appetites for taking drugs to make music to take drugs to, and of course, the self-immolating noise-rock girded to massively pummeling drum assaults. Richo Johnson was the man at the center of Splintered, whose ideas on post-punk culture, trashy films, Ballard / Burroughs / Beat poets, and the like were drawn out via his Grim Humour fanzine through which he made a considerable amount of contacts in England, Europe, and beyond. A heavy, monolithic rhythm section was formative to Splintered's sound, upon which Johnson and company would lay scalding, black-hole riffs of unholy psychedelic guitar noise, controlled feedback bursts, tape collages of murmuring newsreel / talking heads discussing the horrors of a graphic crime right next to gardening tips, and Johnson's best impression of Gibby Haynes barking through a megaphone.
Even though Splintered was known for recording "singles," these were expansive, nine-minute long tracks pushing the boundary of what could physically fit on a seven inch. The compilation is set up chronologically, with disc one featuring two such gaping cuts that originally graced their single for Stefan Jaworzyn's Shock Records label. The second disc continues through this path of obstinant, noise-rock pummel akin to early Swans or Missing Foundation, highlighted on the awesome, apocalyptic hypno-rock track "Smokescreen "(which actually was one of Splintered's singles, though this version was a cassette comp track instead of the single version for some reason or another... they probably lost the master tapes, is our guess). But by the end of 1996 when Johnson called it quits for Splintered (and continued on under the different project name Theme), the guitars, noises, and vocals were acquiring a heavy doom-drone quality with the drums thudding at a slower, more meditative pace, almost prescient of what Nadja would be doing a decade or so later. Pretty fucking brutal we gotta say.
The second archival release from obscure sound-art resurrectionists Dead-Cert (a label connected to Finders Keepers and Demdike Stare). The first was Suzanne Ciani's terrifyingly clinical Voice of Packaged Souls. This time around it's a revival of a 1982 souvenir recording from a sculptural installation project with Swiss electronic jazz musician Bruno Spoerri and Material Design theorist and artist Betha Sarasin, as they utilize stainless steel sculptures for an array of acoustical sound investigations, how cool is that? You may remember Bruno Spoerri from the eccentric Finders Keepers collection, Gluckskugel, of off-the-wall musique concrete compositions, zany musical inventions and rejected TV themes, here he strikes a slightly more serious tone as he melds jazz organ and reeds with electronic drones and modular synthesis, as Sarasin employs tape manipulations and computerized sounds. But while we were expecting this to be cold "furniture music", there is also room for the playfully melodic, rhythmic and the sublime as well. Beginning with layered recorded voices that create a syncopated rhythm of which computer and organ sounds are built upon into a strange formalist jazz motif, each piece explores a strange new sonic territory. Later industrial oscillations are revved up into a keening pitch before imploding noisily. Some pieces have a library sound-relief quality that reminds us of Egisto Macchi's wondrous planetary explorations on I Futuribli. Other pieces remind us of Moondog's idiosyncratic rhythmic jazz extrapolations. A gem of a recording for any fan of unusual avant-garde sensibilities. Limited to 700 copies!
Edition 2 (studio version) of the Spoonbender 1.1.1 Stereo Telepathy Academy trilogy...
Simply put, this is a weird-as-hell, warped, late night, difficult-listening 'trip' for all you AQers looking for truly strange atmospheres... Okay, first things first; Spoonbender 1.1.1 is not a side-project of I Am Spoonbender. The duo of Dustin Donaldson and Cup consider Spoonbender 1.1.1 to be a self-contained project that ventures outside the 'populist avant-tronics' of I Am Spoonbender into the realms of sidereal soundtrack music, the transmission of ideas through subliminal means, manifestations of 'third mind' techniques, and the non-logic of chance operations. Not so different on paper, but put another way: there are no drums, singing, or 'songs' in the 1.1.1 project. The material for Stereo Telepathy Academy was debuted during a live performance in which Spoonbender 1.1.1 performed with (appropriately enough) Psychic TV; however, for the second edition of Stereo Telepathy Academy, Spoonbender 1.1.1 recomposed all of the material in the studio -- expanding and elaborating on their live performance, and making for a distinctly new and different listening experience that stand on its own with or without the visual accomaniment. That said, as in the first edition, Stereo Telepathy Academy features "text taken from one film, overlaid on images from another, and the audio score was written around a different, third film... the results appear to be intentional" for a sort of 'Wizard Of Oz/Dark Side Of The Moon' for telekinetics.
The J.G. Ballard-esque text was taken from David Cronenberg's 1969 student film 'Stereo', a faux-documentary detailing the work of a Dr. Luther Stringfellow, which concerns surgical procedures for the advancement of telepathic communication, while the visuals came from 'Crimes Of The Future' (another Cronenberg film, which transpires in an urban dystopia populated by pedophiles and oozing victims from a female-eliminating cosmetics related catastrophe). As creepy and sterile as the images were, we have to say that its Canadian-ness was positively charming, somehow. In their score, Spoonbender 1.1.1 lunges ominously forward with an otherworldly radiance of slow motion electronic pulses and melodies that retain an even darker hue than that of Klaus Schulze, Coil (e.g. Coilans / Time Machines), and Alan Splet, who are probably Spoonbender 1.1.1's closest sonic neighbors. Given the nature of their intense, masterfully detailed sea of electric sound, Spoonbender 1.1.1 hedged their bets that Cronenberg's pseudo-scientific spoken text would situate nicely against their audio. And indeed, this freakish document of prepared-chance context, atmosphere and appropriation works exceptionally well.
PLEASE NOTE: In keeping with the numerological-binding-of-3 theme, there will be 3 released versions of Stereo Telepathy Academy, all with different packaging. The first version arrived as a cd-r edition of 111 copies sporting a white glove as an allusion to 'Crimes Of The Future.' (only a few remaining in stock!!). This is the second edition, a proper disc that comes with letterpressed artwork in an edition of 333. The final edition will be in an edition of only 3 copies!
Simply put, this is a weird-as-hell, warped, late night, difficult-listening 'trip' for all you AQers looking for truly strange atmospheres... Okay, first things first; Spoonbender 1.1.1 is not a side-project of I Am Spoonbender. The duo of Dustin Donaldson and Cup (of AQ!) consider Spoonbender 1.1.1 to be a self-contained project that ventures outside the 'populist avant-tronics' of I Am Spoonbender into the realms of sidereal soundtrack music, the transmission of ideas through subliminal means, manifestations of "third mind" techniques, and the non-logic of chance operations. Okay, not so different on paper, but put another way: there are no drums, singing, or 'songs' in the 1.1.1 project. The Stereo Telepathy Academy cd-r documents Spoonbender 1.1.1 live in SF while performing with (appropriately enough) Psychic TV.
The J.G. Ballard-esque text was taken from David Cronenberg's 1969 student film 'Stereo', a faux-documentary detailing the work of a Dr. Luther Stringfellow, which concerns surgical procedures for the advancement of telepathic communication, while the visuals came from 'Crimes Of The Future' (another Cronenberg film, which transpires in an urban dystopia populated by pedophiles and oozing victims from a female-eliminating cosmetics related catastrophe). As creepy and sterile as the images were, we have to say that its Canadian-ness was positively charming, somehow. Spoonbender 1.1.1 composed a musical accompaniment for these texts and images to a third film whose identity is both unknown and irrelevant. As Donaldson announces in the introduction to this performance / recording (a sort of 'Wizard Of Oz/Dark Side Of The Moon' for telekinetics), Stereo Telepathy Academy features "text taken from one film, overlaid on images from another, and the audio score was written around a different, third film... the results appear to be intentional". In this score, Spoonbender 1.1.1 lunges ominously forward with an otherworldly radiance of slow motion electronic pulses and melodies that retain an even darker hue than that of Klaus Schulze, Coil (e.g. Coilans / Time Machines), and Alan Splet, who are probably Spoonbender 1.1.1's closest sonic neighbors. Given the nature of their intense, masterfully detailed sea of electric sound, Spoonbender 1.1.1 hedged their bets that Cronenberg's pseudo-scientific spoken text would situate nicely against their audio. And indeed, this freakish document of prepared-chance context, atmosphere and appropriation works exceptionally well.
Special handmade packaging comes with a single white glove (as seen in the film) for your edification.
PLEASE NOTE: In keeping with the numerological-binding-of-3 theme, there will be 3 released versions of Stereo Telepathy Academy, all with different packaging (versions 2 and 3 will be non-cd-r, and on a proper label, with pressings of 333 and 3 copies respectively). Available here at AQ exclusively, this first version is limited to 111 cd-r copies only, so you know what to do!
Noise/jazz/improv/rock unit Sprawl has a lineup that includes saxophone legend Peter Brotzmann, bassist extraordinare William Parker and reedsman Alex Buess (of Swiss jazz-industrialists 16-17 as well as Ice and God). Since any of those names by themselves pretty much insures top quality, we had high expectations for this disc, and it's no disappointment. Also in the band, guitarist Stephan Wittiuer and drummer Michael Wertmuller (Alboth!, Caspar Brotzmann Massaker). Fans of those bands, Last Exit, etc., must take note. Looks like a 1997 release, but we've not come across it until now, due to it being a Austrian import.
No, it's not an album of dubs that Sprung Aus Den Wolken wrangled out of their Cassettencombinat studio; but these stripped down recordings represented the first officially released work from the seminal art-punk / industrial outfit, originally released back in 1981 on ZickZack as an eponymous album. That said, these were not the first recordings for Sprung Aus Den Wolken, as their Cassettencombinat studio / tape imprint had been recording a prodigious amount of material which actually warranted a 3lp boxset for Vinyl-On-Demand, much of it through the Sprung Aus Den Wolken moniker. Alexander Hacke and Kiddy Citny were the principal agents of Cassettencombinat in the day, and here on Dub & Die, Hacke was still in the band at the time, having not fully committed to the Einsturzende Neubauten cause. He proves once again to be an excellent foil to Kiddy Citny's punk poetics.
Compared to the sparkplug frenzy of the Faux Pas collection, Dub & Die is downright minimalist with lots of room spacing strangulated guitar and the loping basslines amidst the primitive electronics with Citny rambling as loose as ever but with considerable restraint. None of this is a bad thing, especially when the title track comes across like a German version of Young Marble Giants. There are other tracks tracks whose jittery funk mutations allude to a junkyard mish-mash of Gang Of Four and A Certain Ratio, and a few which do hold worthy comparisons to the early Neubauten spring-loaded Industrial numbers. Klanggalerie once again has unearthed a great record, which is limited in this cd reissue to 500 copies.
Sprung Aus Den Wolken came out of the Berlin underground in the early 80s, right alongside Einsturzernde Neubauten and Malaria, producing their own claustrophobic rhythm and noise out of junked electronics and instruments. Just as Neubauten built their own studio to serve their metal bashing purposes, Sprung Aus Den Wolken had their Cassettencombinat studio in which to tinker around with mutant grooves, sparkplug guitar scratchiness, and yelping vocals. Given the lo-fi material produced through Cassettencombinat, the studio was probably little more than a tangle of 1/4" cables, a 4-track, and whatever gear the various participants could cobble together. Yet out of these constraints, Sprung Aus Den Wolken had managed some truly inspired post-punk tunes, which sort of come across as a weird hybrid of Neubauten, The Ex, and Gang of Four. The Neubauten connection may be obvious as a very young kid named Alexander Hacke had found his way into the Sprung Aus Den Wolken camp at about the same time he began scraping infernal noises alongside Blixa Bargeld and crew. Where Neubauten was all about a bleak destruction of sound with darkly serious connotations, Sprung Aus Den Wolken were considerably more playful in their slop and sonic debris, often working in catchy grooves, basslines, and guitar bursts that tease with the notion of a pop hook into their danse macabre. Faux Pas was their first LP, recorded back in 1982, with some of this material appearing on the Vinyl On Demand boxset of Cassettencombinat material. But none of this has been on cd, until now. Klanggalerie has also included a couple of tracks from a few years later when Sprung Aus Den Wolken actually went into a proper studio (or maybe Cassettencombinat got a really fancy upgrade) for the "Pas Attendre," which earned the band a wider audience through its inclusion on the Wings Of Desire soundtrack.
A very impressive debut from the strangely wonderful Norwegian quartet known as Spunk. Unearthly rock and jazz structures and improvisations, simultaneously dark and childlike. Also check out the follow-up release 'Filtered Through Friends' which features remixes by Kim Hiorthoy, Phonophani, Martin Horntveth, Upper Rooms, Svalastog, (X, Y, Z), Andreas Meland, Jorgen Traeen, Sun Demon, Risto Holopainen, Lasse Marhaug, Andreas Mjos and Spunk's own Kristin Andersen.
The four ladies of the Norwegian group Spunk know about the possibilities of playful improvisation done right. Since their formation in 1999 they have been experimenting with the combination of the instruments they are well trained on like cello, trumpet, french horn ands mixing those with toys, electronics, percussion and the distinct voice as instrument that Maje Ratke provides. This album finds them in top form. Going from manic outbursts to dreamlike elegance at the drop of a hat. While so much of what bills itself as "free jazz" is actually so far away from actually being free or original, Spunk tap into the right kind of improvisational spirit. You could imagine playing this after early Matmos, Don Cherry's "Mu" and then Bjork's most experimental instrumentation. For seekers of adventurous spirit, once again Spunk have got your fix.
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Remixes of the strangely wonderful Norwegian quartet, whose impressive debut "Det Eneste Jeg Vet Er At Det Ikke Er En Stovsuger" fused modern classical composition (member Maja Ratkje is a renowned young composer in her native Norway) with their unearthly
One sided - one track stunner from Sir Jenkinson, fresh off the tail feathers of "Go Plastic". Like his previous pop hit "My Red Hot Car", this is sooo good, it doesn't even have a name - and it's the only track on here! Vocoded raps and fucked up catchy rhythms in the bent Squarepusher fashion.
"So. I walked into the record store Aquarius Records in the Mission of San Francisco, this store was manned that day by the mastermind of tUMULt Records, Andee Connors, and I head straight for the water cooler in the Blue Room, where I get involved in a conversation with one of his co-workers. I can't concentrate much on the chat, however, since some quite messed up and wondrous music is flowing out of the Aquarius speakers. I can't quite place the music, and I know that as soon as I approach the counter, I am in for some serious oneupmanship if I can't figure out what I am hearing. It sounded pretty great. Damaged, fractured sounds, not unlike the glorius flow of tonal and atonal that the con-e-sewer [sic] might enjoy on 'Meet The Residents', Nurse With Wound's 'Chance Meeting on a Dissection Table...' Deep Freeze Mice, or even the Homosexuals' more atmospheric stuff. I am just about to place the material as coming from the UK in the late 70's. Some sort of wonderful Rough Trade / Recommended / Fuck Off Records release that I missed out on, and I catch myself and think that what I am hearing has to be American: faint glimmers of Appalachian hillbilly flow through the din... I give up, 'Hey, Andee, what are you listening to?'
'Do you like it?'
'Yeah, it sounds like prime homemade mid-70s slop.'
'It's that fucker Harmony Korine (overrated indie film-maker/scenester) and his pals.'
'Wow. Are you going to put it out?'
'Nope, Omplatten already did.'
'Too bad.'
'Yeah, this *is* great, but I've got that Iran record coming out soon that blows this one away.'"
-- directly misquoted from the Omplatten press release.
Kidding aside, SSAB Songs is indeed a stumbling, drunken musical homage to all things Ralph, Nurse With Wound, Vertical Slit, made by Gummo auteur Korine. Really great if you can get past the inherent schmooze / scenester / clique-you-could-never-be-a-part-of vibe.
Ruleth is the debut full length from Austin (via LA) goth-gloom synthwrangler Jose Cota and comes courtesy of the always impressive Holodeck label, who in the past have brought us all manner of electronic and abstract weirdness from outfits like Silent Land Time Machine, Good Stuff House, Smokey Emery, Survive and Thousand Foot Whale Claw. Ssleeperhold's sound is definitely a good fit, falling more toward the witch house / grave rave side of the Holodeck spectrum, a sprawling, claustrophobic world of alien synth-wave and eighties style electro-goth synth pop. The opener is dark, and clattery, distorted and darkly heavy, reminding us quite a bit of Soft Moon, all churning gristling synth squiggle, and brittle rhythmic skitter, wreathed in layers of noise and crumbling effects, but then the follow up track, transforms the sound into something much more akin to eighties MTV, pulsing bass buzz, glimmering synth shimmer, poppy and dreamily washed out, and the whole record seems to be a fantastically tense push and pull between the two sides of Cota's musical personality, minimal dystopian dissonance, a sort of sci-fi cyborg dark synth dirgery, and more blissed out (but still weirdly eerie) electro pop. The two part "Timeghosts" deftly balances the two, draping some lilting melodies over a churning field of pulsing industrial buzz, an chopped up vox, the first part a tranced out minimal loopscape, the second a super tripped out score to some alternate universe planetarium show, atonal and fractured, a twisted bit of avant synthscapery, that leads us right into the darkly dreamy brooder "Ashes", which again pairs a percolating melody, to some weird hissy noise, and wraps it in clouds of grinding hiss and static, the glimmering warmth of main melody just barely keeping the ominous noisiness at bay.
"F.I.S.T." is a fierce blast of Soft Moon style electro-goth synth buzz moodiness, the rhythms distorted and crunchy, draped over thick swells of buzzing bass, and peppered with FX drenched percussive splatter, less a song, than a chunk of tranced out sonic mesmer, eighties industrial by way of modern retro gloom punk. The record finishes with another two parter, "Dreamwaves", the first half all melancholy synth buzz and stuttery rhythmic skitter, loping and woozily washed out, distorted but sort of blissed out, the vibe super cinematic, evoking long brightly lit hallways, running endlessly through abandoned space stations, the galaxy sprawling endlessly outside the windows, a sort of spaced out witch house, that culminates in a more melodic, moody synth pop outro, sounding a bit like the soundtrack to the above mentioned lost in space, trapped in an abandoned space station art house flick, playing on as the credits crawl, wistful, and minor key, a little bit haunting, and darkly lovely.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!!
The always-intriguing European experimental label Grob presents a disc of low-key guitar improvisation from a group consisting of four names well-known in international abstract avant improv circles: Martin Siewert, Burkhard Stangl, Werner Dafeldecker, and Taku Sugimoto (we *love* Taku Sugimoto). Three of 'em on guitar, one on bass, to be accurate. A pluck here, a drone there, mellow tones and quiet crackle. Liquid, minimal, gentle, careful. Patient music, giving respect to silence. No FMP-ish skree here -- at its loudest a swell of buzzing builds that's more soothing than threatening. Recorded live, perhaps processed and perfected in post-production.
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Out of nowhere comes this grimy slab of murky, sci-fi, synth kraut, cold wave, psych dub weirdness, that sounds a bit like former aQ ROTW-ers Fabulous Diamonds gone cold wave, or a way more blissed out and krautrocky Soft Moon, it's like some mutant strain of futuristic Euro disco, heavily dubbed, and then reimagined as the soundtrack for some dystopian post apocalyptic future age. A woozy, blurred landscape of pulsating squelches, arpeggiated melodies, lo-fi rhythms, lush space age synth swells, and hazy, washed out vox, dripping in echo and reverb and delay, gauzy and ethereal and almost dreampoppy one second, super dubbed out and near psychedelic the next.
The songs here less verse-chorus-verse, that a single looped melody over a near static groove, locked into endless cylical sprawls, super tranced out and utterly mesmerizing.
Stacian hails from Milwaukee, but could just as well be have been transmitting these sounds via tachyon beams from some mysterious planet, in an alternate universe, and from a wholly other timeline, it definitely fits sonically alongside outfits like the above mentioned Fabulous Diamonds, and it has a distinctly Carpenter / Goblin vibe, not to mention that whole modern retro Brooklyn cold wave thing, but Stacian adds a heaping dose of murky minimalism, with some of the tracks ditching the vocals completely, and oozing into a sort of zoned out space-kraut dirgey, while other tracks blossom into impossibly catchy near poppiness. Songs like "Almos Telos Tenoste", almost sound like something Joe Meek might have whipped up his mad scientist kitchen/recording studio/laboratory, while tracks like "Formida" anchor near weightless synth simmer, to a lurching robo-kraut rhythm, while vocals swirl and spin over the top, Stacian's throaty croon dubbed to high heaven and sent careening into the ether.
And the whole record in fact splits the difference between the two, pulsing, pounding, percolating, motorik and mesmerizing, a sort of warped electro synth-pop run through a bank of malfunctioning electronics, and played back by a cyborg backing band. It's not hard to imagine Stacian, dressed in a strange metallic gown, hovering above an elevated dais, in front of the cosmos, spinning darkly behind her in the distance, while all around her, shadowy machine-like shapes churn and grind, gears spinning, lights blinking, a primitive futuristic symphony, unfurling wasted zoner kraut-pop gems and loosing them into space, left to glimmer and glisten in a sky full of dying stars.
The cd version tacks on FIVE bonus tracks, which while retaining the same sort of cosmic kraut-murk energy, are way more lo-fi, and much more propulsive, the sound brittle and tinny, the synths buzzing over skittery robotic grooves, a brief songsuite of melancholic kraut-synth space pop, that while sonically not as lush and fully realized as the record proper, might just contain the catchiest jams of all, check out the closer "Micro-Trauma", which will get lodged in your mechanical brain after one listen, and gloriously gum up the works. WAY recommended.
New split from former aQ Record Of The Weeker Stacian, who delivers two tripped out kosmische synth workouts that sound like alien Kraftwerk, pulsing and tranced out, the tons in constant flux, locked into stiff robotic grooves, but then occasionally growing all slippery and squiggly, and then the vocals come in, weird processed, FX heavy bellows, drifting above the field of bleeps and bloops below, but somehow transforming the blessed out sci-fi synthiness into some weird fractured future pop, dizzying and drone and druggy and divine. The second track on the Stacian side slips into something a bit more lo-fi and new wave-y, all primitive drum machines, and sing songy synth melodies, but all the sounds distorted and crunchy, a little crumbly, the vibe melancholy and minor key, a little wistful, some sad robot, drifting through space, alone for eternity, and then again, the vocals, now pitched down to a Scott Walker like croon, make this some sort of interstellar torch song, epic and majestic, a sprawling slab of downer space pop that sounds like it could easily not just be from another galaxy, but also another time, like some lost eighties artifact that could have been a reissue on Medical or Dark Entries!
Gel Set, who we've previously heard on a split with Windbreaker, delves into something sonically similar, weaving a minimal cold wave electro pop from squelchy synths, minimal programmed drums, what sounds almost like tablas, and some haunting processed vocals, again that sound pitched down into some spooky spectral croon. The background synths get more and more active, soon all tangled up into intricate melodies, wound around a roiling dark pop murk. The second track gets a bit more electro/new wave, sounding like it might have been transported from some alternate universe eighties MTV, but something went wrong in the process, rendering the resulting sound more woozy and warped, slowed down, and a bit sonically smeary, a hazy, gauzy, drowsy and druggy electro space pop that is definitely a good fit with Stacian. The coolest/weirdest track might be the close, which is super stripped down and percussive, moody and murky, rhythmic and -almost- funky, almost like some alien electro / hip-hop, but slowed down, and pulled apart, and stretched way out, the vocals here too a deep moan buried in the mix, it's all about the beat, and the rhythms, and it ends way too soon, would have happily listened to a whole record of this sort of warbly, alien electro-kraut space-hop!
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES. Each one hand numbered. Housed in cool metallic silver on matte black sleeves.
The first salvo of electronic vinyl madness from AQ pal Drucifer's new label comes in the form of four 12"s, beautifully packaged in distinctive orange sleeves (dance 12" style) and on nice thick vinyl, and sonically running the gamut from stuttery glitched out electronica to shimmery drones to speaker shredding digital rhythms to dreamy beatscapes.
On probably our favorite of these first four Dielectric releases, Karen Stackpole employs an elaborate arsenal of percussion instruments: lots of gongs as well as cymbals, tibetan bowls, Thai tuned gongs, wind-up toys, music boxes, metal rods, dried bean pods and more. These are all played, rubbed, pounded, bowed, and struck to create a dense but spacious ambient soundscape of thunderous low end, rumbling ripples that wash lugubriously outward, as high-end shimmers and squeaks nestle alongside clatter and tinkle and splashes of percussive splatter. Gorgeous and thick, noisy and hypnotic, drony and transcendental, somewhere between 20th century classical, the stumbing free-rhythm workouts of No Neck Blues Band or Sunburned Hand Of The Man, and the dreamy upper register Ur-drone of Sunroof! or Vibracathedral Orchestra. So nice!
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Of all the amazing records we've reviewed on the Dielectric label, our favorite might just have to be the Karen Stackpole 12", an incredible collection of bowed gongs, huge billowing clouds of deep sonorous metallic shimmer, a specialty of this East Bay based percussionist. So we were super excited about this full length, nearly 45 minutes of the heaviest metal imaginable, as in hundreds and hundreds of pounds, a whole room full, all recorded and gently and subtly reworked by Die Elektrischen, aka Drew Webster, Dielectric Records mainman.
The core sounds here are incredible, the sound of a huge sheet of metal being struck or bowed, the unbelievable overtones, most drone obsessives could listen to struck gongs all day and night, and Webster seems to know this, doing the bare minimum to enhance and augment.
In most cases, it's hard to tell anything has been done to the original recordings at all, usually the additions are super subtle, layering two tracks on top of one another, changing the stereo panning, while in other instances, the sounds are most definitely altered, with reverb, or delay, distortion, but done deftly, a delicate balance for sure.
Bell like chimes drift into deep rumbling metallic drones, strange melodies surface within the overtones, crystalline shimmer laid over lush dense low end buzz, some of the tracks, the layered metal buzz gets so dense and intense it almost sounds like Troum or Nadja or something, the final track introduces a gorgeous minimal rhythm, very tabla like, accompanied by gongs and cymbals, a super intense abstract groove, but for the most part, the sounds on Machine Shop are dark and minimal, mysterious and haunting, tranquil and hypnotic, woven into softly undulating dronescapes, or just left to shimmer on their own.
