Finally we've managed to get our hands on some of these cd-r's by Andee's new favorite band, Sunburned Hand Of The Man (you may remember me gushing at length about their recent 'Headress' lp a few lists back), and these cd-r's, if anything, are even better than the lp! Sunburned Hand take the tribal clatter of the No Neck Blues Band (with whom they share members) and add all sort of other elements: seventies folk, droning krautrock, creepy ambient soundscapes, free jazz, stumbling free rock thud, and some actual ROCK! And come up with a totally otherworldy sound. Space-y, folky, dark and drone-y, dreamy and ethereal, driving and relentless, creepy and scary, morose and melancholy, all in the space of a single record. Bizarre instrumentation and a way with sound make SHotM heirs to the modern ESP/krautrock/psych/freerock throne!
The humorously titled Piff's Clicks, also recorded in 1998, is the second in SBHotM's proposed 50 cd-r series, and this one is a lot less dreamy than the Mind Of A Brother cd-r. The sound here starts off way more primitive and active, a sort of outsider-psych-folk, with simple shaker rhythms and spastically plucked, heavily reverbed guitars, with wild shouts and what sounds like the calls of dolphins. Reminiscent of Reynols at their most rocking or Jandek as far as the guitar sound. The record sort of blisses out as it progresses, with wailing horns and distant blues melodies, chiming harmonics and space-y soundscapes, clattery percussion, muted wah wah guitars and dark ambient drones. Think: a hillbilly Tangerine Dream, or a space rock band playing twentieth century classical, or musique concrete played by the Godz or the Fugs. This stuff is so good. Can't wait for the next 48!!
We've all been waiting for this one for a while. After tons of cd-r's and limited lps comes the first official, actual cd release from the poster boys of New Weird America (ugh), Sunburned Hand Of The Man. Right off the bat, we had to wonder, with at least a dozen cd-r's, and 3 or 4 full length lps and supposedly dozens more unreleased recordings, why for their debut cd would they release just 40 minutes of music, mostly recorded live on the radio? Weird. Happy to report though that this stuff is pretty darn good. A lot more aggressive and fucked up sounding than past efforts. A throbbing miasma of squelchy synth, noodly bass, wild clapping, clattery percussion and processed unintelligable vocals that pretty much take over the whole show, getting more and more strident and more and more gutteral veering into decidedly cookie monster territory at times. And it sort of works. The vocals seemed to be SHOTM's weak link in the past, but this new growling aggressive proselytizing turns this stuff into some sort of super aggro, backwoods pagan nightmare. Think Tom Waits meets Capt Beefheart with a tracheaotomy! Flutes, echo guitar, simple propusive drumming, delay pedals set to stun and reverb off the charts, skronky horns, as well as all sorts of droning industrial hums and grinding noise add to the chaos. Maybe not what we were expecting or even hoping for, bu cool nonetheless.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Super limited cd-r and DVD-r live document of the gloriously stumbling and shambolic Sunburned Hand Of The Man. We only got a few of these from the band when they were here on tour...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Must be a sweet life. Modern day traveling minstrels, just wandering around, finding that perfect patch of grass or that ideal abandoned warehouse, unfurling the carpets, setting up the lamps, opening up the chest of sound makers, and various instruments, plugging in (or not) and just going at it. Wildly evoking higher powers with spastic spurts of chaotic caterwauling and primitive rhythmic splatter. Recording it...and then ending up on the cover of The Wire. But there IS something about this troupe, something special, a chemistry that refutes the whole anyone-can-do-that criticism you often hear directed at SHOTM and fellow free-folk outsiders the No Neck Blues Band. It may be improvised, and very hit or miss, and the sound is clumsy and sloppy and noisy and haphazard, but it's also glorious and free, innocent, yet dark and sinister. AND hit or miss! That's a lot of what makes this stuff so cool, its immediacy, its urgency. And the fact that it sounds like it could collapse at any time. And sometimes does. All of that said, this is Sunburned Hand at their very best. Creepy crawly, rhythmic and throbbing, the chaos kept in check, vocals limited to heavily processed ghoulish moans, resulting in some seriously dark, intensely ominous pagan soundscapes. A real cd (!) that comes in a hand assembled digipak. And of course it's SUPER LIMITED!!!!!!!!!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Finally reissued on cd! Another missive from this massive (seven or eight or who knows how many members) free rock/folk ensemble from Massachussetts who recently graced the cover of the Wire, representing "weird America". Which as far as we can tell is this current crop of hippy folk revivalists channelling the spirit of sixties' ESP and seventies British folk through their appropriately eclectic record collections. By now you know, we here at AQ can't get enough of the Sunburned Hand, and neither can anyone else, judging from the scarcity of their cdrs and LPs. But finally the cd reissues have started to surface! Trickle Down Theory... is about the free-est bit of scattered improv we've heard from SHOTM, and it's also maybe the most chaotic. A sort of murky, stumbling, shambling rhythm, with chantlike vocals and the occasional casio sputter. Tinkling chimes, rattling clatter and squealing sax all make brief appearances, and towards the middle of side two, things get slightly more propulsive (but only slightly) with a warbly, seasick Eastern raga that devolves into an outer space, free jazz battle of the bands, noisy and damaged and almost spiritual. With FLUTES! This is some prime, otherworldly, drugged out, folky and fucked up, primordial ooze.
There are prolific bands, and then there are PROLIFIC bands. Take Acid Mothers Temple. Not a month, or even a week goes by sometimes without a new record by those Japanese psych rock freaks. Then there's Guided By Voices' Bob Pollard who has supposedly written over 3000 songs. Or what about Wolf Eyes with their insanely extensive back catalog of cd-r's? None of em can touch Sunburned Hand Of The Man. Every time they swing through town not only are they pushing a handful of lps or proper cd releases, they also always seem to have boxes and suitcases and pockets full of all new super limited cd-r's. This time was no different: An lp (listed last time), a cd-r (listed elsewhere on this list), a handful of super limited tour only cd-r's that sold out before we could even list them (there are benefits to visiting the store in person!) and now this epic two years in the works double lp. Entitled Wedlock, the music on these 2lps was compiled from a weeks worth of recording in 2003, on the way to, and in, Alaska, where the band were playing at a friend's wedding. Recorded live to two video cameras and then cobbled together using two cd decks and a mixer, this is definitely SHOTM at their most jubilant. And maybe most funky! C'mon, it was a wedding after all! The record starts off with haunting maudlin piano beneath damaged snippets of conversation, before it's cut off abruptly by rambunctious bluegrass steel guitar, recorded in a lo-fi haze and surrounded by random conversations, whooping sirens in the distance, and all manner of animal calls and ambient sounds. That's before the whole thing twists itself into a full on white boy groove, drunken reverbed vocals over a wildly sloppy shuffle, reckless and whooping and drunk and delirious. The rest of side two and three don't deviate too much from that sound. Imagine Funkadelic playing German Oak and you'll get an idea of the sort of Kraut-flecked folk funk we're talking about. A confusing swirl of tripped out effects, manic percussion, tweaked vocals, wah guitar and a throbbing simple rhythm beneath it all. At some points it sounds almost like a much more tribal, much more groovy Eagles, but with WAY more beer and WAY better drugs. Pulsing and throbbing through the murk of an all night party, liquid guitar lines slither endlessly around slippery slow burning rhythms. There's a brief spurt of spastic blown out free form pagan tribalism at the end of side three that hints at what is to come on side four, a side long, classic SHOTM-sounding blast of drug addled drum circle freak out, all hands on some sort of drum or cymbal or noisemaker, whipping up a wild squall of rhythmic chaos. Wow. The whole thing comes packaged in a thick gatefold sleeve, with a full color insert, featuring photos from the wedding and the Alaska trip and a reproduction of the original invitation.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Super limited brand new release (May 2006!) cd-r from our favorite free folk hippy collective, more wonderfully druggy and spacey shambolic psychfolk and tripped out tribalism. In a cool striped cover with skulls on it! We only got a few of these from the band when they were here on tour...
More scattered, primal free folk pagan minimalism from this Massachussets ensemble who have quickly humbled the mighty No Neck Blues Band in terms of hipster mystique but also in terms of recorded output. It seems like everytime a Sunburned Hand gets up to take a piss, it's documented on tape, and then released as a cd-r or limited lp. But as with the weekly Acid Mothers releases, the quality remains high enough that all you connoisseurs of "weird America" and all things free folk tribalism, at least for now, still have to pick up every last artifact. This lp is the latest document of SHOTM's not so expanding sonic universe. Krautrock hippy jams, wah guitars, chaotic ramshackle percussion, wild whoops and shouts, all occasionally slipping into some seriously propulsive grooves, but just as quickly falling apart, into space-is-the-place jazz skronk and Crash Worship / Wicker Man stumbling tribal rhythmic workouts.
One of six new tapes from the always awesome Holodeck label out of Austin, Texas features a new release by Texas psych-heavies, Sungod. We raved about them awhile back for their debut release, Crash Galactic, now sadly out of print. On Contakt, these cosmic explorers are setting foot on a new and strange alien landscape, starting with a More-era Pink Floyd desert soundtrack vibe before breaking out with full kraut-inflected heaviness of lysergic guitar washes and pummeling poly-rhythmic momentum. A heady mix of gaseous electronics and acid guitar shred is nicely tempered by Blade Runner-like ambient passages of forlorn piano and slow burn synth-scapes. The final track, "Third Reichel" brings in layered acoustic guitar treatments in sequenced repetitions that evolves into full deep space rock take off. Limited!
We've been meaning to review something from these Texan psychedelic space-kraut heavies for ages now, this one is as good a place to start as any, their latest, a super limited cd-r that finds Sungod traveling the astral plane, and offering up a pretty fair (and extremely varied) sampling of what these guys are capable of, their sound all over the map, but all held together by an underlying kosmische drift, the opener, is a hushed brooding slow build, that wreaths subtle low end shimmer, in clouds of swirling space-aged blips and bloops, total planetarium show trip out, until part way through, when the drums come in, transforming the sound into something much more dense and driving, but still plenty abstract. The second track is a lush expanse of harmonium like drones, pulsing beneath swirling FX and acoustic guitar Appalachia, haunting and meditative, before slipping into the next track, a swirling retro synth groove that would sit petty perfectly alongside the current crop of retro futuristic synth wranglers. Krautrocky and cosmic!
The sound shifts dramatically after that, a sort of slow slithery acoustic blues, all slippery slide, laced with piano, and peppered with empty tin can percussion, which gives way to a heady slab of pulsating spaced out synthscapery, all droney, and Necks-like with skittery free jazz drumming, and delicate piano, under clouds of swirling synths, and from there on out, all bets are off, the band slipping easily from super distorted fuzzy kraut flecked garagerock groove, to super abstract collaged ambience, to blown out blissed out freeform noise, to heavy Hawkwind style spacerock freakout, to hazy, druggy musique concrete, to heavy cosmic synthdrone mesmer.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. Packaged in a dvd style case, with a full color printed insert.
Yet another collection of haunting and gorgeous dronemusic from Antony Milton, who in addition recording as Sunken with Stefan Neville, plays in the Stumps, Mrtyu, The Nether Dawn and about a million others, PLUS he runs the PseudoArcana label, and we think he might even have a real job as well. Not sure how he does it, we're just glad he does.
So as we mentioned above, Sunken is Milton and his pal Neville who also records as Pumice. In Sunken, the two mainly play organs, reed and Hammond, but the two also make sounds with intercoms, tapes, delay pedals, guitars and of course vocals. But the organs are what Sunken is all about, and the sound is awesomely fuzzy, simultaneously lo-fi and lush. The opening track is 30 minutes long and throughout organs whir and wheeze, the sounds they produce so rich and textured, so fuzzy and buzzy and imperfect, the tones crumbling and shifting, the chords wavering and warbly, long drawn out melodies, that sound sort of drunken or seasick, thick tangled layers of sounds, heaving and whirring and churning out long Niblockian drones, but not nearly as static. It almost sounds like obscure NZ outfit Wreck Small Speakers On Expensive Stereos covering the Dead C. A sort of droned out free rock, rendered in quavering organ tones and hissy fuzzy warble. Here and there, the tracks splinter apart briefly offering up some skittering electronic glitchery, some analog stutter and skip, before slipping right back into that woozy mesmer.
The second track is a bit more abrasive, what sounds like guitar is strummed into a field of blurred high end buzz and shimmer, but within, tones materialize, bits of percussive whatsits thump and creak, all manner of sonic detritus drifts by, always surrounded by a cloud of organ and guitar whir. And boy does this track remind us of Wreck Small Speakers, which in case we didn't make it obvious already is most definitely a good thing.
The record finishes off with a little lullaby outro, some sweet swoonsome organ, over the top some distorted minor key guitar, the perfect warm and warbly finish...
This eponymous cassette from Sunken Cathedral is a reverential swath of transcendent West Coast minimalism. The principle architect is Oakland's Ryan Jobes who has recently matriculated from the hallowed halls of Mills College. Whether or not there is an intentional aesthetic from those graduates of Mills, a number of recent students have employed the overtone rich strategies of long-stringed instruments and alternate tunings upon sustained / extended techniques in composition. The recent wunderkids outta Mills would include Marielle Jakobson, Ashley Bellouin, Zachary Watkins, and Ben Bracken; and Jobes' compositions via his Sunken Cathedral project are another example of this trend. Much of Jobes' other work slants heavily toward the doomdronemantra side of things with a smattering of cassettes of blackened heaviosity released through his own Vestige Recordings; but for Sunken Cathedral, he's eschewed pretty much all of the darkness in favor a radiant lilting exploration of elongated shimmer and tone-float. He's employed the talents of Evelyn Davis on pipe organ and Kimberley Sutton on amplified cello & electronics, with his own miasma generated through guitar, piano, violin, harmonium, harpsichord, and electronics. The graceful swells and excursions from Sunken Cathedral speak of the Terry Riley colorings and chromatics, whose psychedelic expressionism is muted through Pauline Oliveros deep listening strategies. Beautifully done. Nicely printed offset artwork on opalescent paper in an edition of just 100 copies.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Out of the blue, this slab of heaviness is now available on vinyl! A real swank package with new artwork courtesy of the UK's Dirter. Here's our review of the original cd release from 2001:
The world's first, best, only, (and last?) EARTH tribute band oozes forth with their second album. Some might question if there was more to be accomplished in their emulation of the glacial "power ambient drone" metal practiced by Earth, but this album should quell any skeptics -- it's slower and lower and sets yet another standard for heaviness. Thus, probably an essential addition to the collections of AQ's extreme doom fanatic patrons! And this time the boys in Sunn go beyond their obvious Earth worship to acknowledge another influence: one of the four lengthy tracks found here is a cover (or, an interpretation, anyway) of a Melvins tune! Recommended.
The final installment in Daymare's comprehensive SUNNO))) reissue campaign, and probably the most eagerly anticipated, not just because 00 Void is one of their best, but because the extra bonus disc features the original record reimagined and recontextualized by dadaist sound sculptors Nurse With Wound.
00Void is in fact, SUNNO)))'s first proper album, the preceding Grimmrobe Demos, being just that, demos, but sonically, it picks up right where Grimmrobe left off, huge undulating slow motion riffscapes, epic, majestic, glacial, ominous and black hole heavy. Although it hardly seems necessary at this point, for those who have managed to somehow avoid SUNNO)))'s sonic influence, SUNNO))) began life as the world's first, best, only, (and last?) EARTH tribute band, emulating and bowing before the glacial "power ambient drone" metal of Earth, creating a little cult of the dronedoomdirge faithful, long before the hipster set caught on, but this record, as much as Grimmrobe before it made a case for SUNNO))) as their own entity, sure they owed every aspect of their sound to the band they were birthed to honor (still do really), but they managed to subtly imbue that same sound with their own influences and experience, creating something even more slow and low if that were even possible, setting yet another standard for heaviness.
So on 00Void, SUNNO))) indulge in pure unfettered doom, loosed from any sort of rhythmic constrictions, unmoored from traditional song structures, letting riffs and tones and pure vibrations emanate from their wall of speakers, like some monstrous black tuning fork, almost more a physical sensation than an aural one, but those movements of blackdrone infused with a musicality that blossoms slowly the deeper you allow yourself to sink. Suffocating, pummeling, crushing, oozing, but also soothing and beautiful. Maybe one of our favorite SUNNO))) records for sure. And if the pure grim heaviness of the three originals wasn't enough, 00Void also includes a cover (or, an interpretation, anyway) of a Melvins tune! Another band who were dabbling in slow motion heaviness long before it was cool...
This deluxe Japanese reissue is gorgeously packaged as always, swank matte finished textured paper gatefold, printed inner sleeves, insert with liner notes (all in Japanese), but most importantly of all, a whole extra disc, a complete reworking of 00Void by Nurse With Wound. Most folks probably never even made it this far in the review anyway, the mention of NWW remixing SUNNO))) in the first paragraph probably had most people scrambling for the add to cart button, but for folks who stuck it out, it's well worth rebuying 00Void again for the extra disc, as it's a fantastic disc of haunting drones and abstract soundscaping, constructed using the glacial doom of SUNNO))) as the building blocks, which is surprising considering how shimmery and serene much of this is.
The opening track is one long slow billow of sound, gentle clouds of muted metallic reverberations, deep resonant chiming tones, soft smeared bass notes, all blurred into a creeping drift, that is more Chalk or Coleclough than SUNNO))). The second track is evenmore abstract, isolating, or adding voices, peppering the dreamy drone with strange metallic clang, moaning horn like bleats, sprays of hiss and buzz, all over a warbly wandering bassline, the vocals driving the song at points, a nasally croon entangled in the tracks gauzy gurgle, the bass getting thicker and thicker, coated in grit and grime and hiss, the vocals effected and almost demonic, breaking glass, weird industrial clatter, and lots and lots of hisssssssss.
The final track, another gorgeously minimal drone, the sound of SUNNO))) smeared and blurred and muted into a hushed thrum, soft subtle layers shifting and blending, warm and rich and textured but simple and spare, near the end, voices and radio static surface, but still barely audible, another whispered layer beneath a sea of tranquil hushed whir. Pretty dang cool, even if it's fairly far removed from the sound of the original, but then again, that's sort of the mark of a good remix as far as we're concerned.
Be warned, we got a bunch but they'll probably go quick, so when we run out, be prepared to wait for us to get more from Japan.
ATTENTION: the limited edition 2cd version of this is totally gone, this is the single disc version!
As you may have noticed, the aQ speakers have been quite clogged of late with the black sonic tar of glacial doom and slow motion sludge, molten flows of downtuned guitars, rumbling bowel churning drones, impossibly slow and primordially plodding drumming, all tangled up in huge squirming, blackened riffs, like mammoths struggling to loose themselves from pits of black tar. We've also been quite obsessed with the more virulent strains of buzzing, bizarre black metal. Leviathan, Xasthur, Benighted Leams, Blackdeath, Deathspell Omega, Furze, Lurker Of Chalice and the like. But just imagine for a moment, if that river of sludge we love so much ran right through the darkened Nordic forest, or if you took all that buzz and fuzz and held it under a thick layer of black pitch, while it struggled desperately for breath, or if you took the bombinating blur of Burzum and slowed it waaaaay doooooooown, or better yet, what if Dylan Carlson of Earth grew up listening to Darkthrone and Mayhem instead of Hendrix and the Mentors. Well you'd probably get something like Black One. To be honest, what forms the basis of Black One is really not all that different than other SUNNO))) records. It's still a series of 16 rpm metal riffs, morphed beautifully into plodding hypnotic smears of metallic ambience. The blackness here comes from several sources: the art and the imagery for one, a very metal looking cover drawing, olde English fonts, O'Malley and Anderson have adopted properly metal monickers for the instruments used: axe subs, icy inverted crosswinds upon four string zamboni, grail, glacial winds, calls from beyond the grave! Then there is the presence of two current BM legends, Malefic from Xasthur and Wrest from Leviathan. That said, there are moments, where SUNNO)))'s immediately recognizable sludge does twist itself into more black metal shapes, and it's those moments that Black One truly taps into a direct line to the fiery abyss. Imagine listening to Immortal through some sort of time warp, where Blizzard Beasts is stretched into a single icy contrail spread out over 666 years, a hazy black cloud swallowing everything in its path. Add some truly frosty and fucked up vocals and ghostly guitars from Wrest and Malefic, all manner of gorgeous sonic filigree from Australian experimental guitarist Oren Ambarchi and noise guru John Weise, some text by Seldon Hunt, and that oh so familiar Sunn-y O'Malleyïartwork, lyrics via Dead (from Mayhem), Malefic, Wrest and Abbath (of Immortal) and you might just be looking at a truly and utterly black one indeed.
Besides Boris, SUNNO))) are the undisputed masters of the limited, the repackaged, the-must-buy-for-a-single-track, the must-have-every-color-vinyl, a crazy cult of completism. Almost every release by both bands, has seemingly been offered in multiple limited releases, slightly altered versions for Japan and the US, ridiculously limited runs, and impossible to get tour only editions. We put up with it, cuz, well, both bands rule, and continually kick our asses. And it's kinda fun chasing down weird hard to find releases and super limited editions. To a point.
We're happy to report, that unless you are one of the very lucky ones, saw the band on tour, or spent a fortune on eBay, then these three Japanese reissues are absolutely worth rebuying, as each one includes a bonus disc (or discs) that most folks probably never got their hands on. In fact, we were never able to get any of them for the store. So we'd wager lots of you will be super psyched to pick these up, even if you already have the Southern Lord version. Especially since buying the original versions on eBay would probably cost as much as these multiple disc Daymare versions, and they look amazing, re-designed packaging by Stephen O'Malley, printed inner sleeves, cool miniature lp style gatefold jackets, Japanese liner notes, obi's, really really nice. LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES too, so these will probably not be around for long...
Black one includes La Mort Noir dans Esch/Alzette, a super limited (1000 copies) tour only cd, gone in a flash, within the first few dates of the tour, so even folks who made it out probably never even saw it. We never managed to get ANY copies at all, and it's been a super expensive eBay item ever since. The thing about La Mort Noir dans Esch/Alzette, is it might be even better than Black One proper! Recorded live in Luxembourg, the core duo of O'Malley and Anderson is augmented by Malefic of Xasthur on vocals, Dylan Carlson from Earth, the guy from Beaver on synths and Steve Moore on trombone (who also plays horns for Earth), and the set is monstrous, a dark and oppressive black dronescape, guitars are thick and glacial, the horns add another layer of buzz and throb as do the synths, Malefic shrieks and howls atop the din, it's pretty heavy and intense. And it sounds good enough that it we find ourselves digging it more than the album, and it sounds like it could very well have just been a second disc of a Black One double cd. Which, well, it is now!
And just in case you need the scoop on Black One, here's our review from when we first listed it:
As you may have noticed, the�aQ speakers have been quite clogged of late with the black sonic tar of glacial doom and slow motion sludge, molten flows of downtuned guitars, rumbling bowel churning drones, impossibly slow and primordially plodding drumming, all tangled up in huge squirming, blackened riffs, like mammoths struggling to loose themselves from pits of black tar. We've also been quite obsessed with the more virulent strains of buzzing, bizarre black metal. Leviathan, Xasthur, Benighted Leams, Blackdeath, Deathspell Omega, Furze, Lurker Of Chalice and the like. But just imagine for a moment, if that river of sludge we love so much ran right through the darkened Nordic forest, or if you took all that buzz and fuzz and held it under a thick layer of black pitch, while it struggled desperately for breath, or if you took the bombinating blur of Burzum and slowed it waaaaay doooooooown, or better yet, what if Dylan Carlson of Earth grew up listening to Darkthrone and Mayhem instead of Hendrix and the Mentors. Well you'd probably get something like Black One. To be honest, what forms the basis of Black One is really not all that different than other SUNNO))) records. It's still a series of 16 rpm metal riffs, morphed beautifully into plodding hypnotic smears of metallic ambience. The blackness here comes from several sources: the art and the imagery for one, a very metal looking cover drawing, olde English fonts, O'Malley and Anderson have adopted properly metal monickers for the instruments used: axe subs, icy inverted crosswinds upon four string zamboni, grail, glacial winds, calls from beyond the grave! Then there is the presence of two current BM legends, Malefic from Xasthur and Wrest from Leviathan. That said, there are moments, where SUNNO)))'s immediately recognizable sludge does twist itself into more black metal shapes, and it's those moments that Black One truly taps into a direct line to the fiery abyss. Imagine listening to Immortal through some sort of time warp, where Blizzard Beasts is stretched into a single icy contrail spread out over 666 years, a hazy black cloud swallowing everything in its path. Add some truly frosty and fucked up vocals and ghostly guitars from Wrest and Malefic, all manner of gorgeous sonic filigree from Australian experimental guitarist Oren Ambarchi and noise guru John Weise, some text by Seldon Hunt, and that oh so familiar Sunn-y O'Malley�artwork, lyrics via Dead (from Mayhem), Malefic, Wrest and Abbath (of Immortal) and you might just be looking at a truly and utterly black one indeed.
Recorded live, in an ancient cathedral in Bergen, Norway, Domkirke is pretty impressive slab of avant heaviness, and continues to display SUNNO))), the duo of Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson (and usually any number of auxiliary members), moving further and further away from their Earth worshipping roots. Having become a bona fide ART band, you're now more likely to catch SUNNO))) in a gallery, or a cathedral, than on a metal bill, which is fine, as their sound is the rare beast that does manage to bridge that gap, and most appealingly, manages to alienate and piss off folks on both sides of the divide.
So for this performance, the band chose to create a piece that reflected the history of the cathedral, creating something much more ritualistic sonically, vocal based, incorporating chants, Gregorian hymns of the Middle Ages, evoking the despair of a time of plague and death, a truly medieval sound, woven into SUNNO))'s more modern minimal glacial dronemusic. The two most noticeable additions to the SUNNO))) sound for this performance are Attila's powerful operatic vocals, and the gorgeous buzz of the cathedral's massive pipe organ. And the opening track is just that, ditching the guitars entirely, letting the organ unfurl massive minor key whirs and shimmering rich harmonies, while Attila moans and croons, sometimes adding another layer of low rumbles, other times, wailing dramatically. The organ so rich and lustrous and majestic and powerful. Reminds you that no matter how many amps you have and how much distortion you use, some things are inherently heavier than guitars. But that doesn't keep the Sunn boys from trying, as the second track returns to more familiar territory, offering up a glacial slow motion flow of crumbling super distorted guitars, more melodic than usual, churning over a back drop of shimmering organ drones, and again Attila's vocals slipping from hissed whisper, to rich mellifluous chant. Add to that a bit of electronic filigree from noisemaker Lasse Marhaug, and you've got a pretty ominous and intense slab of medieval murk. The guitars do unwind into surprisingly melodic figures now and again, but always return find their way back to that main, heaving tarpit riff.
The third side (movement), begins as more of the same, although this time the track sprawls into some almost free noise, the vocals demonic and intense, the guitars spilling out of the amps in noxious black clouds, squalls of electronics, sheets of feedback, sounds almost like SUNNO))) free jazz, unhinged and frenzied, but still bleak and black and heavy. The final movement might be the heaviest of the bunch, those oh so familiar slow motion riffs, wash over that swirling sea of whirring organ, a massive organic, almost fluid sound, alive with energy, black, yet glowing from within, building to a suffocatingly intense climax, the guitars crumbling and blown out, the organ at fever pitch, the vocals another layer of buzz and howl, the whole thing threatening to bring down the ancient stone walls, before dropping out completely, leaving Attila's rumbling low end growl, and then finally leaving just the organ, to play out mournfully and mysteriously.
Pretty fantastic. It almost makes us wish SUNNO))) would just get a pipe organ in the band, permanently. Might make touring a bit tough, but heck, it might just be worth it!
Incredible packaging, one of the thickest gatefold sleeves we've ever seen, adorned with gorgeous abstract oil paintings on the outside, and photos of the performance on the inside, full color printed sleeves, with more performance photos, pressed on black vinyl, limited to 5000 copies, never to be released as a cd or a digital download.
Rumbing distortion. Doom. Drone. The vibrations have begun, another SUNNO))) disc is upon us!
As you probably know, the shorthand description for this band is that they're the SUNN that orbits Earth (the band). But actually this release from Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson's heavier-than-thou SUNNO))) proves that (as we knew all along) they exert their own gravity in the universe of dark heavy drone musicks. Previous efforts like "Flight Of The Behemoth" have been faves round here, and they also made a fan out of pagan psych-rock maven / monolith expert Julian Cope, who appears here on the 25 minute opening track "My Wall" reading an epic poem! It's a bit like Current 93 but of course waaaay heavier. SUNNO))) has some other heavy friends involved with this recording too, among them the mighty Joe Preston (Thrones, ex-Melvins, ex-Earth!) who brings in some of the fucked up programmed drumming that makes his Thrones project so special. Meanwhile, Jessamine/Fontanelle's Rex Ritter not only plays on the disc, but took care of the recording and mixing too. And the doom-folk direction that Cope's presence suggests is furthered by vocal contributions from Nordic ice witch doom vocalist Runhild Gammelsaeter (whom some will know from her band with Greg Anderson, Thor's Hammer). The final, spacey track with her and Preston dueting is a dronefolk dream. Holy Wotan! Space rockers, drone fiends, pagans, and doom heads alike all should worship this dark SUNN... And we're told the recording session apparently yielded enough material for more than one album, thus there should be a White2 to look forward to someday!
MPEG Download: "The Gates Of Ballard" [/audio/sunngates.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "The Gates Of Ballard" [/audio/sunngates.m3u]
Besides Boris, SUNNO))) are the undisputed masters of the limited, the repackaged, the-must-buy-for-a-single-track, the must-have-every-color-vinyl, a crazy cult of completism. Almost every release by both bands, has seemingly been offered in multiple limited releases, slightly altered versions for Japan and the US, ridiculously limited runs, and impossible to get tour only editions. We put up with it, cuz, well, both bands rule, and continually kick our asses. And it's kinda fun chasing down weird hard to find releases and super limited editions. To a point.
We're happy to report, that unless you are one of the very lucky ones, saw the band on tour, or spent a fortune on eBay, then these three Japanese reissues are absolutely worth rebuying, as each one includes a bonus disc (or discs) that most folks probably never got their hands on. In fact, we were never able to get any of them for the store. So we'd wager lots of you will be super psyched to pick these up, even if you already have the Southern Lord version. Especially since buying the original versions on eBay would probably cost as much as these multiple disc Daymare versions, and they look amazing, re-designed packaging by Stephen O'Malley, printed inner sleeves, cool miniature lp style gatefold jackets, obi's, really really nice. LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES too, so these will probably not be around for long...
White One is bundled with the very rare LXNDXN Subcamden Underworld Hallo'ween 2003 (The Libations Of Samhain), a cd originally released on Arthur Magazine's Bastet label, which features a single 50 minute live track, recorded on Halloween 2003 in London, a massive roiling downtuned dronescape, plenty of slow motion riffing and bowel loosening rumble, as well as a pretty funny interview which took place on Resonance FM and features Edwin Pouncey (aka Savage Pencil) interviewing what sounds like a VERY stoned, and slightly goofy Anderson and O'Malley. Even though the live track is a killer, it's worth it for the interview alone!
And just in case you need the scoop on White One, here's our review from when we first listed it:
Rumbing distortion. Doom. Drone. The vibrations have begun, another SUNNO))) disc is upon us!
As you probably know, the shorthand description for this band is that they're the SUNN that orbits Earth (the band). But actually this release from Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson's heavier-than-thou SUNNO))) proves that (as we knew all along) they exert their own gravity in the universe of dark heavy drone musicks. Previous efforts like "Flight Of The Behemoth" have been faves round here, and they also made a fan out of pagan psych-rock maven / monolith expert Julian Cope, who appears here on the 25 minute opening track "My Wall" reading an epic poem! It's a bit like Current 93 but of course waaaay heavier. SUNNO))) has some other heavy friends involved with this recording too, among them the mighty Joe Preston (Thrones, ex-Melvins, ex-Earth!) who brings in some of the fucked up programmed drumming that makes his Thrones project so special. Meanwhile, Jessamine/Fontanelle's Rex Ritter not only plays on the disc, but took care of the recording and mixing too. And the doom-folk direction that Cope's presence suggests is furthered by vocal contributions from Nordic ice witch doom vocalist Runhild Gammelsaeter (whom some will know from her band with Greg Anderson, Thorr's Hammer). The final, spacey track with her and Preston dueting is a dronefolk dream. Holy Wotan! Space rockers, drone fiends, pagans, and doom heads alike all should worship this dark SUNN... And we're told the recording session apparently yielded enough material for more than one album, thus was born White2 which would follow not soon after!
And the vibrations continue...like the ice age envisioned in that recent movie The Day After Tomorrow, White2 by Earth-worshippers SUNNO))) has finally arrived to obliterate all life foolish enough to have futilely flourished in the interim since the release of their previous album White1 last year. It's doom time, folks. For the unprepared among you, we should explain that the Earth just mentioned is of course the band not the planet, with Earth (and SUNNO)))) being the lowest of the low, sub-Melvins, drone-out, heavy-riff-ruling outfits around. Earth came first, but over their last few albums SUNNO))) really have moved beyond the Earth tribute phase, and certainly crossed over from the metal realm into the indie-rock and avant-experimental spheres as well, with an Arthur magazine sponsored tour and write-ups in The Wire to prove it. Maybe they're now the hipster "metal" band of choice but we won't hold that against them -- they're freaking good! (Believe it or not, we hear that some folks in Poland have formed a band in tribute to SUNNO))), known as MOOND)))! If they release anything we can get, we'll let you know.)
White2 was recorded at the same sessions as White1, which saw the core SUNNO))) duo of guitarists Stephen O'Malley (Khanate, Burning Witch, Lotus Eaters) and Greg Anderson (Goatsnake, Engine Kid) augmented by guests including Rex Ritter (Jessamine) and Joe Preston (Thrones, Melvins, Earth itself) both of whom appear on this disc. White1 also featured a recital by none other than head Head Julian Cope. He's not present on White2, but in his place they've installed someone perhaps even more pagan: vocalist Attila Cishar, the Hungarian black metal icon best known for fronting Norway's infamous Mayhem on their classic De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas album!
This disc ("optimized for blackened sub-bass systems" just so you know) clocks in at 63 minutes, divided amongst three long tracks, the first of which, "Hell-O)))-Ween", starts things off as you'd expect: it's a sonic glacier, prime Earth-styled SUNNO))) drone-grind. But track two, "bassAliens" moves into weirder, more abstract territory, a haunting, cave-dwelling improv whose electric noises could be the awakening of some cosmic Cthulhoid monster. Then the last and longest track "Decay2 (Nihil's Maw)" ups this album's quota of terror and beauty both. A spacey, droney, dark dreamscream from the throat of Attila... White2 is metal maybe, experimental yes, and quite a scary success. The farther-out stuff on this disc could be and has been rightly been compared to the music of Keiji Haino, cloaked in the same blackness. From riffage to ritual, recommended.
Besides Boris, SUNNO))) are the undisputed masters of the limited, the repackaged, the-must-buy-for-a-single-track, the must-have-every-color-vinyl, a crazy cult of completism. Almost every release by both bands, has seemingly been offered in multiple limited releases, slightly altered versions for Japan and the US, ridiculously limited runs, and impossible to get tour only editions. We put up with it, cuz, well, both bands rule, and continually kick our asses. And it's kinda fun chasing down weird hard to find releases and super limited editions. To a point.
We're happy to report, that unless you are one of the very lucky ones, saw the band on tour, or spent a fortune on eBay, then these three Japanese reissues are absolutely worth rebuying, as each one includes a bonus disc (or discs) that most folks probably never got their hands on. In fact, we were never able to get any of them for the store. So we'd wager lots of you will be super psyched to pick these up, even if you already have the Southern Lord version. Especially since buying the original versions on eBay would probably cost as much as these multiple disc Daymare versions, and they look amazing, re-designed packaging by Stephen O'Malley, printed inner sleeves, cool miniature lp style gatefold jackets, obi's, really really nice. LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES too, so these will probably not be around for long...
The bonus discs on White Two seem to be the ones everyone is after. A criminally limited double cd (one 3", one 5") originally released on Scott Slimm's aRCHIVE label, we tried to order 100 copies, but it sold out so fast we never saw a single copy. So now here's your chance, a double disc of live SUNNO))), recorded live in Brooklyn in 2004, featuring SUNNO)))as a trio, O'Malley, Anderson, and Rex Ritter from Jessamine. ANd again more of what you love. Slow and heavy and strangely beautiful...
And just in case you need the scoop on White Two, here's our review from when we first listed it:
And the vibrations continue...like the ice age envisioned in that recent movie The Day After Tomorrow, White2 by Earth-worshippers SUNNO))) has finally arrived to obliterate all life foolish enough to have futilely flourished in the interim since the release of their previous album White1 last year. It's doom time, folks. For the unprepared among you, we should explain that the Earth just mentioned is of course the band not the planet, with Earth (and SUNNO)))) being the lowest of the low, sub-Melvins, drone-out, heavy-riff-ruling outfits around. Earth came first, but over their last few albums SUNNO))) really have moved beyond the Earth tribute phase, and certainly crossed over from the metal realm into the indie-rock and avant-experimental spheres as well, with an Arthur magazine sponsored tour and write-ups in The Wire to prove it. Maybe they're now the hipster "metal" band of choice but we won't hold that against them -- they're freaking good! (Believe it or not, we hear that some folks in Poland have formed a band in tribute to SUNNO))), known as MOOND)))! If they release anything we can get, we'll let you know.)
White2 was recorded at the same sessions as White1, which saw the core SUNNO))) duo of guitarists Stephen O'Malley (Khanate, Burning Witch, Lotus Eaters) and Greg Anderson (Goatsnake, Engine Kid) augmented by guests including Rex Ritter (Jessamine) and Joe Preston (Thrones, Melvins, Earth itself) both of whom appear on this disc. White1 also featured a recital by none other than head Head Julian Cope. He's not present on White2, but in his place they've installed someone perhaps even more pagan: vocalist Attila Cishar, the Hungarian black metal icon best known for fronting Norway's infamous Mayhem on their classic De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas album!
This disc ("optimized for blackened sub-bass systems" just so you know) clocks in at 63 minutes, divided amongst three long tracks, the first of which, "Hell-O)))-Ween", starts things off as you'd expect: it's a sonic glacier, prime Earth-styled SUNNO))) drone-grind. But track two, "bassAliens" moves into weirder, more abstract territory, a haunting, cave-dwelling improv whose electric noises could be the awakening of some cosmic Cthulhoid monster. Then the last and longest track "Decay2 (Nihil's Maw)" ups this album's quota of terror and beauty both. A spacey, droney, dark dreamscream from the throat of Attila... White2 is metal maybe, experimental yes, and quite a scary success. The farther-out stuff on this disc could be and has been rightly been compared to the music of Keiji Haino, cloaked in the same blackness. From riffage to ritual, recommended.
It was inevitable really. The Japanese masters of Orange Amp-powered drone-sludge and the robed priests of low end doom. How could it not happen? In fact, if you remember the 2005 April Fool's AQ list, we actually jokingly predicted this epochal event! Although in our version it also included Earth, each band playing one note of the world's heaviest E chord.
The real question was never IF it would happen, it was when. And how. Especially how. C'mon, how on earth can you fit that many amps in a recording studio. They must have used an airplane hanger, either that or they filled a high school gymnasium with Sunn and Orange stacks and microphones, and actually played in an entirely different room.
Regardless, it happened, and it sounds as good as you might imagine. Both bands completely compliment each other. SUNNO))), whose slow motion riffing borders on pure ambience, is given a serious propulsive shove, with more structured riffing and the addition of DRUMS!!! Boris get dragged back into the gloriously glacial tarpit of their older records, discarding their current garage rock rrrooooaaar for that classic slow motion doom trudge. However you look at it, it's basically the best record either band has put out. It's like an EVEN heavier SUNNO))), with bigger riffs and pulverizing doom rock drums, and of course wailing psychedelic leads. For Boris, they've taken their blown out grooves and dipped them in tar, added a million more pounds of guitar firepower and made the best Boris record since Flood.
But it's not all pulverizing doom riffage. There's plenty of dark droning ambience too. Huge stretches of swirling guitar rumble, dreamy swaths of wispy steel string shimmer. murky and haunting, processed vocals and minor key melodies swimming in a black sea of echoey ambient guitars and sizzling cymbal shimmer. The strangest track is probably "The Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep)", sort of the Boris / SUNNO))) version of a torch song, with FX smeared piano, strange buried rhythms, and hushed vocals, like a doom metal Mazzy Star.
The closer "Bloodswamp" is 14 minutes of churning downtuned guitars and shimmering Sunroof! like ambience. No riffs really, or if they are there, they're stretched into thick streaks of black fuzz. A furiously epic coda to a fucking amazing record.
The first 5000 copies come with a bonus disc titled SatanOscillateMyMetallicSonatas (a nod to Soundgarden, there?) that features a single 28 minute track called "Her Lips Were Wet With Venom" guest starring Dylan Carlson from Earth! Before we go any further... are you thinking what we're thinking... April Fools? SUNNO))) and Boris And Earth!!! And I bet you at least some of the bonus track is in E!! Boy, did we call it. And actually Atsuo from Boris confided in a friend of AQ that indeed, part of the reason they got Dylan to guest was because of that April Fool's review! How cool is that?!?
Anyway, the bonus track is a monstrous wall of churning guitars, with occasional howled almost death metal vocals buried way down in the mix, and languorous Earth Hex-like twang guitar draped lazily above a churning blackhole ambience. So good.
Besides Dylan Carlson of Earth, there are lots of other guest performers including Jesse Sykes, Joe Preston from Thrones (also ex-Melvins, ex-Earth), Kim Thayil from Soundgarden (aha) and Rex Ritter from Jessamine.
Packaged beautifully in a mini cd style gatefold, with AMAZING cover art, black on black with weird muted color and text printed in glossy varnish and metallic gold, both bands be-robed and standing in a cornfield, a full color booklet attached to the inside, a metallic sticker on the front, each copy individually numbered.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Okay, it's that time again, you know, when we tell you about a new, slightly different version of a Boris record you already have. And then you decide just how much of a Boris (and in this case, SUNNO))) as well) freak you really are.
This is the Japanese version of the recent collaborative effort between Japanese sludgelords Boris and their American counterparts, glacial doom merchants SUNNO))). Arguably the best release from either band in years, it's alternately achingly lovely, and crushingly brutal. But what's the deal with the Japanese version, and do you need it? Well, if you're as Boris obsessed as most of us are, the answer is yes. First off, it's got amazing new artwork. A gold and black slipcover with shimmering spot varnish text over a subtly altered booklet, on nice paper and with a fold-out Japanese insert. But it's the five minute bonus track that may have most of you shelling out another $20. A five minute alternate version of the track "The Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep)". Already the record's strangest and most haunting track, female vocals hover over slow shifting slabs of glistening sound. Like doom metal gone slowcore. But on the alternate extra track, the "Black Sheep" version, the doomy moody slowcore is transformed into a string quartet, all warm soaring strings over swirling shimmers, drifting sun dappled melodies over swoonsome melodies and long drawn out chords. Quite pretty, and very much a strange addition. But is it worth buying all over again. Well, it is missing the bonus disc that came with the first pressing of the American version, but if you missed out on that completely, this is obviously essential. If you have that one already, well, it just might be worth it to have both. Up to you.
Here's what we had to say about the original disc:
It was inevitable really. The Japanese masters of Orange Amp-powered drone-sludge and the robed priests of low end doom. How could it not happen? In fact, if you remember the 2005 April Fool's AQ list, we actually jokingly predicted this epochal event! Although in our version it also included Earth, each band playing one note of the world's heaviest E chord.
The real question was never IF it would happen, it was when. And how. Especially how. C'mon, how on earth can you fit that many amps in a recording studio. They must have used an airplane hanger, either that or they filled a high school gymnasium with Sunn and Orange stacks and microphones, and actually played in an entirely different room.
Regardless, it happened, and it sounds as good as you might imagine. Both bands completely compliment each other. SUNNO))), whose slow motion riffing borders on pure ambience, is given a serious propulsive shove, with more structured riffing and the addition of DRUMS!!! Boris get dragged back into the gloriously glacial tarpit of their older records, discarding their current garage rock rrrooooaaar for that classic slow motion doom trudge. However you look at it, it's basically the best record either band has put out. It's like an EVEN heavier SUNNO))), with bigger riffs and pulverizing doom rock drums, and of course wailing psychedelic leads. For Boris, they've taken their blown out grooves and dipped them in tar, added a million more pounds of guitar firepower and made the best Boris record since Flood.
But it's not all pulverizing doom riffage. There's plenty of dark droning ambience too. Huge stretches of swirling guitar rumble, dreamy swaths of wispy steel string shimmer. murky and haunting, processed vocals and minor key melodies swimming in a black sea of echoey ambient guitars and sizzling cymbal shimmer. The strangest track is probably "The Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep)", sort of the Boris / SUNNO))) version of a torch song, with FX smeared piano, strange buried rhythms, and hushed vocals, like a doom metal Mazzy Star.
The closer "Bloodswamp" is 14 minutes of churning downtuned guitars and shimmering Sunroof! like ambience. No riffs really, or if they are there, they're stretched into thick streaks of black fuzz. A furiously epic coda to a fucking amazing record.
Killer collaboration, another one of those team ups you might not have ever necessarily imagined happening, and even if you did, you probably didn't think it would sound this good. The core SUNNO))) duo do their thing, thick roiling riffage, warm and lush, surprisingly propulsive, and weirdly catchy, Steve Moore from Earth contributes some gorgeous gauzy organ drones and Joe Preston handles the vocals, deep growl, part intoned, part almost crooned, and of course Mika Vainio of Pan Sonic, offering up little flurries of industrial hiss, and bits of subtle glitch, taking voices and sounds and lopping them back on themselves, Vainio's contribution subtle, but practically perfect. Easily one of the coolest SUNNO))) tracks ever, maybe better than anything on the recent Monoliths And Dimensions.
The flipside features a live jam from Suicide mainman Alan Vega, recorded last year, live and lo-fi, lots of glitch and skitter, a sort of fractured electronica, Vega's vocals super effected, looped and chopped, dense and stuttery and seriously tripped out.
And the closing track on the B side is a stripped down, very Angels Of Light sounding acoustic number from Stephen Burroughs, former frontman for industrial icons Head Of David, his first recording in a decade, his voice rough and raw and simple, the guitar playing fantastic, the song dark and mysterious and haunting.
LIMITED TO 3000 COPIES, half on white vinyl, half on clear, we have the clear, housed in plain white hand stamped covers, but open the cover up (you might have to tear it open) and inside is some gorgeous original artwork.
ALSO ON VINYL!!!!
This one's been in the can for a while now, apparently recorded live some years back, a pretty monumental meeting of the musical minds, Norwegian post black metal experimentalists Ulver, and our very own masters of the dronedoomdirge, SUNNO))). Perhaps this collaboration speaks well of both groups, as it's nearly impossible to peg which outfit's sound came out on top. In fact, it seems like both SUNNO))) and Ulver created something entirely new for the occasion, touching on sounds from the past, but mostly conjuring up some truly collaborative musical magic in the moment.
Three long songs, the opener, a slow symphonic build, all shimmering, pulsating guitars, dark sonic swirls, and most surprising horns! But they sound perfect, and the result is something haunting and stately, the guitars gradually build momentum, and soon, it's a cloud of tangled guitar buzz and horn bleat, a cosmic black jazz maybe? Regardless, it's nearly nine minutes before the drums come in, and when they do, the song doesn't explode into something more metallic, instead, it somehow blossoms into something even more majestic and epic, the horns soaring alongside the buzzing guitars, it's almost like some sort of metallic court music, you can almost imagine, some mysterious leader, being led in on a litter, carried by hulking hooded figures...
The first track bleeds right into the second, another sprawl of layered guitar buzz, and moody ambient murk, laced with thick bass thrum, and soaring melodic swells, the mostly guitar driven buzzscape, growing ever more tense and intense, almost like some minimal Godspeed jam being spun at the wrong speed, ominous and sinister, and hauntingly beautiful, all culminating in the 14+ minute closer, that really does sound like dark jazz, the opening few minutes sounds like a super sinister Martin Denny, vibes draped over twang flecked Earth-worthy guitarscapery, woozy, and Morricone-esque, very filmic, those sounds gradually giving way to a dark symphonic drift, laced with some twisted cosmic synthery, the final movement, more like some spaced out avant prog, the vocals coming in a it of a surprise for sure, transforming the sound into some sort of dark prog balladry, the sound aching, minor key and melancholic, with distinctly (gypsy) folk vibe, the last few minutes, a gorgeous sprawl of dark drone psych folk, ominous and darkly dreamy.
Super striking understated red and metallic gold cover art courtesy of SUNNO)))'s Stephen O'Malley as well...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
In an attempt to record an album that will induce coronaries in record collectors worldwide, the current monsters of sludge: Sunn 0))), Earth and Japan's mighty Boris, got together and recorded a single track, 11 minutes long, one chord, an E to be exact, with each band handling one of the notes in the chord. Sunn 0))) deftly tackle the G, as if it were a blackened, dying sunn. Earth spews forth the B, with as much vitriol as they can muster. And of course Boris offer up a soul crushing E to complete what is quite possibly the heaviest chord ever recorded. EVER! Unfortunately this is super limited, in fact we didn't get any copies at all. We're currently bidding on the only copy in existence on Ebay right now. The Buy It Now was $25,000, so the fact that the bidding is now at $18,301 and the reserve has still not been met is not very encouraging. But c'mon, three bands, three notes, one chord, eleven minutes, one copy. You just can't put a price on that!
And while we all want to own the first edition of this already out of print triple threat sludge match cd, rumours on several message boards suggest there will be a repress, another single copy, but this will be the timeshare version. For a small fee, you will be able to own, listen to, and gaze adoringly at the cd for a brief period of time each year (determined by the number of buyers, limited to 365, so at the very least you can own the disc one day a year), before a courier shows up to deliver it to the next owner. We'll of course keep you posted.
First released way back in 2001, SUNNO)))'s 00Void was later re-released on Japanese label Daymare, which included a bonus disc, on which Nurse With Wound remixed and re-envisioned the record, and transformed it into something haunting and surprisingly lovely. That bonus disc was recently reissued on vinyl (with some slight alterations, apparently), and now Southern Lord has re-released 00Void along with, while limited supplies last, that Japanese bonus disc. So if you have the Daymare version, you don't need this, but if you missed out on this before, grab one before they're gone.
First our review of 00Void:
00Void is in fact, SUNNO)))'s first proper album, the preceding Grimmrobe Demos, being just that, demos, but sonically, it picks up right where Grimmrobe left off, huge undulating slow motion riffscapes, epic, majestic, glacial, ominous and black hole heavy. Although it hardly seems necessary at this point, for those who have managed to somehow avoid SUNNO)))'s sonic influence, SUNNO))) began life as the world's first, best, only, (and last?) EARTH tribute band, emulating and bowing before the glacial "power ambient drone" metal of Earth, creating a little cult of the dronedoomdirge faithful, long before the hipster set caught on, but this record, as much as Grimmrobe before it made a case for SUNNO))) as their own entity, sure they owed every aspect of their sound to the band they were birthed to honor (still do really), but they managed to subtly imbue that same sound with their own influences and experience, creating something even more slow and low if that were even possible, setting yet another standard for heaviness.
So on 00Void, SUNNO))) indulge in pure unfettered doom, loosed from any sort of rhythmic constrictions, unmoored from traditional song structures, letting riffs and tones and pure vibrations emanate from their wall of speakers, like some monstrous black tuning fork, almost more a physical sensation than an aural one, but those movements of blackdrone infused with a musicality that blossoms slowly the deeper you allow yourself to sink. Suffocating, pummeling, crushing, oozing, but also soothing and beautiful. Maybe one of our favorite SUNNO))) records for sure. And if the pure grim heaviness of the three originals wasn't enough, 00Void also includes a cover (or, an interpretation, anyway) of a Melvins tune! Another band who were dabbling in slow motion heaviness long before it was cool...
And here's our review of the bonus disc, Nurse With Wound's take on 00Void:
A fantastic disc of haunting drones and abstract soundscaping, constructed using the glacial doom of SUNNO))) as the building blocks, which is surprising considering how shimmery and serene much of this is.
The opening track is one long slow billow of sound, gentle clouds of muted metallic reverberations, deep resonant chiming tones, soft smeared bass notes, all blurred into a creeping drift, that is more Chalk or Coleclough than SUNNO))). The second track is evenmore abstract, isolating, or adding voices, peppering the dreamy drone with strange metallic clang, moaning horn like bleats, sprays of hiss and buzz, all over a warbly wandering bassline, the vocals driving the song at points, a nasally croon entangled in the tracks gauzy gurgle, the bass getting thicker and thicker, coated in grit and grime and hiss, the vocals effected and almost demonic, breaking glass, weird industrial clatter, and lots and lots of hisssssssss.
The final track, another gorgeously minimal drone, the sound of SUNNO))) smeared and blurred and muted into a hushed thrum, soft subtle layers shifting and blending, warm and rich and textured but simple and spare, near the end, voices and radio static surface, but still barely audible, another whispered layer beneath a sea of tranquil hushed whir. Pretty dang cool, even if it's fairly far removed from the sound of the original, but then again, that's sort of the mark of a good remix as far as we're concerned.
As with most things Southern Lord, extremely limited, each one numbered, and most likely not available for long.
Back in 2007, Stephen O'Malley approached Nurse With Wound about reworking SUNNO)))'s 00Void, urging that Steven Stapleton push the sound of SUNNO))) towards the classic NWW sound of Soliloquy For Lilith. The resulting 'remix' found its way onto the Daymare 2cd version of that same record and stands as a fantastic disc of haunting drones and abstract soundscaping, constructed using the glacial doom of SUNNO))) as the building blocks, which is surprising considering how shimmery and serene much of this is. While we had a handful of that Japanese release it's hardly surprisingly that it went out print rather quickly. Fortunately, O'Malley found another outlet for these recordings through his Ideologic Organ imprint of Editions Mego. Side A here features "Dysnystaxis" - one long slow billow of sound, gentle clouds of muted metallic reverberations, deep resonant chiming tones, soft smeared bass notes, all blurred into a creeping drift, that is more Chalk or Coleclough than SUNNO))). Side C's "Ash On The Trees" is even more abstract, isolating vocals which had been previously obscured from the original recordings, peppering the dreamy drone with strange metallic clang, moaning horn like bleats, sprays of hiss and buzz, all over a warbly wandering bassline; the bass getting thicker and thicker, coated in grit and grime and hiss, breaking glass, weird industrial clatter, and lots and lots of hisssssssss. Pete Stahl (Scream, Wool, Goatsnake) was responsible for those vocals which occasionally drive the piece at points as a nasally croon entangled in the track's gauzy gurgle then dipping into an effected, almost demonic howl. Side two of both lps split the 25 minute track "Ra At Dawn" into two parts, with additional material thrown in for good measure. Expect more of that gorgeously minimal drone, the sound of SUNNO))) smeared and blurred and muted into a hushed thrum, soft subtle layers shifting and blending, warm and rich and textured but simple and spare, near the end, voices and radio static surface, but still barely audible, another whispered layer beneath a sea of tranquil hushed whir. Pretty dang cool, even if it's fairly far removed from the sound of the original; but then again, that's sort of the mark of a good remix as far as we're concerned.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
This is a super limited tour only release commemmorating the first Sunroof!/Vibracathedral Orchestra US jaunt. Not sure how many we can get so act fast. Sunroof starts things off, without their usual cloak of dreamy shimmer, instead wielding armour of crunching, super distorted stutter, before almost slipping into more familiarly dreamy Sunroof! territory, but just as quickly splintering into brittle shards and pulsing fragments, taking us back into serious Skullflower territory. Chopped and damaged grooves occasionally surface only to be dragged back down into the mire. Eventually the crunch gets smoothed down and spread out into a gossamer blanket of warble and whir, sun dappled but still slightly sinister. Vibracathedral Orchestra bear the shimmery mantle on this split, trawling the territory we're used to Sunroof! traipsing through, bells and chimes are smeared into a pleasant skree, lazy percussion is scattered haphazardly across sunbaked krautrock, and tribal rhythms and reverbed guitars are woven into warm expanses of barely tethered space rock, primal and pagan, pulsing and perfect.
In my book, Matthew Bower can do no wrong. In fact, Bower and his whole noisy orbit are untouchable: Total, Skullflower, Ax, Ascension, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Derv, Jazzfinger, and of course Sunroof! Sunroof! (exclamation point mandatory) continue
Number 323 (or thereabouts) in Matthew Bower's 1432 point plan for mind expansion via comsic ur-drone and shambolic shimmer. Following close on the heels of the recent Skullflower, Cloudz shares much of that release's Krautrockish rhythmic pulse, but keeps it suitably mired in that sweet, sweet Sunroof! haze. Tinkling piano with a thick patina of reverb throbs beneath a luxuriously sonic sparkle, tweaky electronic twitter, guitarish grooviness, some downright sun dappled Stereolabed sonic sweetness and even moments of British psych-folkiness, although appropriately chopped and fuzzed, are all spread into dreamy abstract smears. And throughout it all the cloudz of the title wrap each song, no matter how sleepy or lazy or chaotic or crunchy in swaddling sonic syrup. So good.
This Sunroof! record originally came out when we were just getting acquainted with Matthew Bower's (Skullflower, Total, Hototogisu, etc) new found free floating transcendental skree, his most static Skullflower or Total compositions stretched out even more, into blissful, ur-drones of shimmering chimes and intertwined reeds and feeding back guitars. Well, by now we obviously love Sunroof! and can't get enough. So for those of you who missed this when it first came out, now's your chance. Here's what we said about it the first time around:
Suposedly the name Sunroof comes from an issue of the comic Hate in which one of the character's describes his band as being influenced by early Sunroof!. Regardless, Sunroof! is what Ornette Coleman would sound like if he were to make an 'ambient' record, shimmering extended drones for Egyptian reeds, guitar feedback, and cymbals crashing far in the distance. Beautiful.
Latest in the ongoing exploration of the ur-drone, from�Matthew Bower's (Skullflower, Total, Hototogisu, etc.) softer side. But it's all relative, and while much of Sunroof!'s output is delicate and pretty, or gossamer and transcendental, this might be the hardest, heaviest, most intense release to date. The parts are the same, lengthy streaks of soaring feedback, effulgent bursts of glimmering heart of the sun guitar glow, huge billowing sheets of cymbal sizzle,� all woven into super lush expanse of blossoming sound, the parts all just feel more intense, like they're burning up, constantly on the edge of bursting into flames and crumbling into ash, the opening track even has drums, a pounding caveman plod, that gives the track a sort of doom metal / free jazz / bliss out vibe if you can imagine such a thing. The opener and the third track, are part of a larger nearly 40 minute piece, with the second half swinging wildly from explosive skree, to warm muted drift, everything wreathed in thick swaths of grinding feedback and thick prickly fuzz.�
The�brief second track is the most caustic of the bunch, there are melodies in there, but you have to slither through a dense wall of sonic brambles to get to them, a roiling white hot Merzbowian blow out, draped over a hidden layer of soft shimmering beauty, crumbling beneath the weight of the massive pummel above.�
The final track, the awesomely titled "Stairways And Terraces Descending One Beyond Another In A Stupefying State Of Exhaustion" is another corrosive landscape of amp shredding sound, an orchestra of guitar torture wrangled into subtly beautiful shapes, so subtle in fact that most folks won't stick around long enough to discover them, but as with most 'noise' music, and we're beginning to think this is more of a noise record than a drone record, one is rewarded for diving in head first, none of this dipping a toe in, or listening to a few minutes, you have to be fully submerged to appreciate the dense world of sound that while strangely beautiful, is constantly holding you under, as you struggle and gasp for breath.�
This is Sunroof!'s Metal Machine Music, sure to be misunderstood, and maligned, but for most of us, this is simply a gloriously terrifying blast of beautiful noise...
We'd been holding off on listing this for what seems like forever. There seemed to be some strange mastering / duplicating defect. But after emailing with both the label and the band, we learned that that's just how the disc ended up sounding and while some slight imperfections exist, they were unable to be fixed and both the label and the band decided that they didn't really affect the record. The problem in question is a weird digital glitch between each song, it could be a little bit distracting if you were attempting to listen to this disc all the way through and drift off, cuz this is indeed the dreamiest driftiest Sunroof! we've heard. But fuck it, the music is so good, and this definitely ranks as one of our favorite SR! records, and since this is the only way you're gonna get it (it's actually been sold out and out of print for a while now), we suggest you just bask in the loooooong tracks and ignore the occasional glitch. Which you can definitely do, these tracks are lengthy and languorous, gorgeous tumbling swirls of sound, that open up and allow you to sink deep down into their billowy soft shimmery depths. Melody after melody all piled atop one another, buzzing guitars over burbling melodic fragments, the whole thing whipped into a gloriously light, sunbaked, psychedelic confection. So so so so good!
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Originally released as a super limited tour cd-r back in 2003, Rock Power is supposedly Sunroof!'s tribute to Crazy Horse, and you can actually hear it on the opening tracks on each side, both are sprawling mega rock jams, albeit filtered through the blown out Sunroof! space-bliss noise-raga filter, but even then the drums are locked down, a pulsing almost motorik rock rhythm, while Sunroof! mainman Matthew Bower goes apeshit on the axe over it all, pealing squalls of noise guitar, that occasionally coalesce into almost-riffs, but more often then not, blossom into prismatic clouds of droned out, crumblingly distorted psychedelia. Bower is joined by Mick Flower, from Vibracathedral Orchestra, and the two make a seriously rocking racket on those two tracks, but fear not, the rest of the jams here are much more spaced out, and in keeping with what you might expect from Sunroof! and a dude from VCO, pulsating electronics, kosmische shimmer, clouds of swirling skree, cool sitar like buzz, and spaced out noise-ragas, psychedelic power electronics filtered through a Spacemen 3 like throb, the sound dirgey, crumbling, trance-y and blissed out, the perfect balance for the heady hypnotic 'Rock Power' of those other two tracks. Killer stuff, and obviously recommended for fans of all of Bower's projects (Skullflower, Total, Hototogisu, etc.) as well as Vibracatherdal Orchestra and other purveyors of droned out psychedelic sonic drift!
Packaged in swank full color jacket, and LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!
Everyone is all excited about the discovery of lost sixties documents of drone, and rightfully so, with new archival releases from Tony Conrad and John Cale. But historical significance aside, the sound is not all that satisfying for the modern drone connoisseur: whiny, reedy wavering squeals. Hopefully musical archivists in 2030 will discover lost recordings of Sunroof! and
Probably the only modern master of the organic drone (you know, played by an actual person, or a band, no laptops, no 'processing'), utilising mostly guitars, but also occasionaly reeds and other more exotic instruments, Bower has been droning since we were tots, in Skullflower, Total, and now Sunroof! Sunroof! being by far the most accessible. Bower is some how able to harness high end skree, that would normally be harsh and grating, into shimmering washes of crystalline drones. This latest lp is by far the most fully realised and breathtakingly beautiful piece of drone-music that we've heard. One side is an epic 20 minute wash of oscillating harmonics, guitars ringing and feeding back, gently tinkling chimes. Ghostly and totally captivating. Intensely powerful but somehow totally soothing and serene. The other side is a darker, more monochromatic wash of guitar hum and ground buzz, fluctuating and shifting, creating a subtle soundscape of blurred and static-y midrange.
Absolutely incredible.
For a while now, Matthew Bower's Sunroof! has been drifting further into a dreamy blissed out drone world, warm and rich and thick, hypnotic and otherworldly, which makes perfect sense as he has Skullflower to indulge his RAWK side, and the Hototogisu where he teams up with the Double Leopards Marcia Bassett for some good ol' NOIZE. So it was a bit of a pleasant surprise to throw on this new double disc and get knocked the fuck out by sheets of high end skree and walls of keening feedback. Not that we don't love the Sunroof! bliss, we do. And fear not, there's plenty of that here as well, but Silver Bear Mist definitely finds Bower returning to his old noisier outift Total for some sonic inspiration. In fact there's even some Skullflower-worthy riffing here as well. The sound is still definitely Sunroof!, but it sounds like Bower has decided to lump his many moods into one massive double disc of drone / bliss / noise / psych / freakout and we're loving it. Disc one starts with aforementioned knockout blast of processed feedback and squealing spaced out synths, before amping up into some full-on feeding back wall of guitar pummel. The rest of the record is a confusional trip through druggy effect-drenched psych-rock guitar workouts, to clangy clattery free noise, to ear shredding high end drone assembled from layers and layers of processed feedback and chordal whir. The disc finishes off with a 2o minute slow shifting single note drone. A pulsing streak of high end guitar stretched out across the whole twenty minutes, while various drones and overtones and other guitars slink and creep around the original tone, in a weirdly hypnotic tangled drone ballet.
Disc two is all over the map as well, opening with a psych rock jam that's so tinny and overblown it sounds like you're listening to Amon Duul 2 leaking out of the headphones of the guy behind you one the bus. The disc sort of mellows a bit after that into some more Sunroof!-ish territory although with those everpresent streaks of white hot guitar and lightning strike feedback. San Francisco's Skaters join the fray toward the end of disc 2, and it's the final three tracks that really seal the deal. First a noisy, angular guitar workout, with wailing abstract vocals battling sheets of feedback, then it's fourteen minutes of muted warbly four track folk wrapped in haze and a fuzzy ambience that makes it sound like an old dusty crackly 78, and finally, "Trampled Dawns" ends the proceedings with a totally majestic and epic workout, full of grand melodies and chiming bells, all wrapped in an ultrathick layer of grit and fuzz, sounding almost like a noiserock version of that song that always plays at the end of every teen movie when the boy finally gets the girl. As always, so amazing.
We recently managed to get some limited cd-r recordings from AQ faves Sunroof! straight from the source, Matthew Bower's Rural Electrification Program label. Sunroof! is the latest project of Mr. Bower, who formerly fronted the legendary Skullflower and the
Monstrous double cd-r document of AQ faves Sunroof! live 1997-2001, featuring members of the Vibracathedral Orchestra and Jazzfinger. 2+ hours of gorgeous extended drones: endless, epic and hypnotic, deep and dark, lush and thick, whirring, tinkling,
Back in stock! Limited cd-r document to commemorate Sunroof!'s recent first foray to American soil! More of everything you already love about Matthew Bower's Sunroof! Snatches of rock and roll are crushed and smeared into a swirling sonic cloud of scattershot percussion and thick distorted throb, guitars are scraped and scratched eliciting random melodies over a sweetly gauzy melodious backdrop, glitchy electronic percussion underpins huge rolling swells of throbbing fuzz, and guitars squirm and slither all over the place amking this a pretty noisy record for Sunroof!, with definite nods to Bower's other heavier projects Skullflower and Total. Packaged in a cool hand made, cardboard sleeve. And of course limited.
We got a handful of these limited cd-rs from Karl Bauer aka Axolotl and we're not sure we can get more so don't hesitate!!
Recorded in 2000 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, in Bauer's apartment which was around the corner from the actual Sunset Park School of Music and directly above the apartment of Michael Gira of Swans, these recordings feature members of Axolotl, Mouthus, Black Dice, and Nick Bohn who passed away a few years ago and this disc is dedicated to him.
Nine tracks of noisy electric skree featuring a microphone once inserted inside GG Allin, pots, pans, pot, tons of effect petals, mushrooms, pills, and youthful vigor that represents a crucial early chapter in the musical development of most involved. Fans of any of the above bands, Skaters, early Animal Collective, Starving Weirdos, and Burning Star Core should definitely check this out.
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This is way more 'punk rock' that anything on Celebrate Psi Phenomenon. The first two tracks are furious, sloppy blasts of distorted sludge. There -are- songs under there, but they have been torn to bits and spit out bloody and disfigured. The third track gets a little trancey and rhythmic but the sound is still chaotic and blown WAY out. The final track is sort of Stooges / Brainbombs meets the Dead C, with shouted vocals, burnt out guitars and white-noise percussion. Pummelling, damaged, fucked up noise rock. Seriously UNEASY listening.
Superbugger is a new duo made up of Antony Milton (Mrtyu, the Stumps, Nether Dawn, Sunken, ) and James Kirk (Sandoz Lab Technicians, Gate), both of whom have a long history in the NZ underground, and who in Superbugger, pay homage to the NZ bands that came before, most specifically the Dead C, Superbugger's sound a similarly blown out, in-the-red, crumbling pop flecked noise rock, as well as some sonic worship for the Japanese bands that pretty much invented psych-noise heaviness, Les Rallizes Denudes, Mainliner, White Heaven and the like. Sans headphones, listening to Superbugger, might be akin to the vacuum or the dishwasher, a constant barrage of grey noise, of staticky buzz and blurred thrum, but strap on some headphones, or crank those speakers, and let this corrosive psych-noise blowout wash over you. Wild squalls of psychedelic shred, caustic sheets of feedback, listen heard and you'll hear drumming, and vocals, melodies, there are definitely pop songs at the heart of some of these jams, while others take that pop element and tear it apart, spreading it out beneath a sky full of black noise and amp melting buzz. We hear plenty of Skullflower too, this definitely sounds like it could be some lost Broken Flag cassette reissued, which is high praise indeed, and while both of these guys have dabbled in psychedelic heaviness, Superbugger seems to be the culmination of these guys' quest for pure psych-noise nirvana, which is almost achievable just by listening.
Fans of any of the above mentioned bands, or anyone who loves cramming their ears full of blown out psych and noise rock crush, preferably both, will definitely find much to love about Supperbugger..
Hey folks, here's one of the few releases on Japan's rather eccentric (and excellent) EM Records label that's NOT a reissue or archival collection, but new music by a new band! Weird. (Of course.) The oddly-named Supernatural Hot Rug And Not Used is one for those into free-rock improv noisiness, being a duo on electric guitar and "sort-of" electric bass. No effects. No "songs". Lots of quiet noisiness (but it's not "noise"). This Osaka-based outfit consists of Bunsho Nisikawa (guitar) and expatriate Canadian Tim Olive (bass), whom some might remember from a band called Nimrod, also Twerdocleb and Soap-Jo Henshi. Somehow, in a Osaka studio, they're able to conjure up stuff that sounds more like a creaky, glitchy field recording than two guys playing instruments. Together they weave a weird n' wild collision/collusion of sounds, some subtle, some not so... The more dronily mysterious, stretchy-scratchy, almost-rhythmic moments bring to mind the prepared turntable works of Pierre Bastien and Strotter Inst, or a more relaxed Voice Crack. Or even Coelacanth. This also sounds like something you might expect to hear on the Erstwhile label, from the likes of Keith Rowe or Toshimaru Nakamura. A pretty cool find for those who consider themselves connoisseurs of such interesting, abstract sounds! By the way, the band name is an example of the absurd "Japlish" prevalent on T-shirts in Japan...
This Norwegian "death-jazz" trio make their debut on three cds, super-creative electronics/jazz improv, unlike much else. A big fave around here.
Considering that Norwegian "death jazz" unit Supersilent began their recording career with a triple cd release entitled Supersilent 1-3, it's not so odd that they'd overwhelm their fans, these several years later, with the near-simultaneous release of both installments 10 and 11 in the Supersilent discography. As it happens, 10 features their newest recordings, while 11 consists of somewhat older material, tracks left over from the sprawling sessions that produced Supersilent 8 back in 2005. That's apparently why Supersilent 11 has been done as a vinyl-only release, while Supersilent 10 is on cd (and, eventually, but not yet, also lp).
Now, for those of you who already have a good proportion of Supersilent's 1 through 9, need we really say much about 10 and 11? Each numbered Supersilent release thus far has been brilliant, right? Yet each somewhat different, in representing Supersilent's unique style of electronic / acoustic improv, which can range from glacially paced, spacious ambient drift to fractured rhythmic glitch, from mellow melodic bliss to distorted noisy chaos.
In the case of 10, it's tilted toward the hauntingly atmospheric, following on from the minimalistic approach of Supersilent 9 (wherein the group, without their former drummer, all played Hammond organ). These twelve (also simply numbered, as usual) tracks make evocative use of Arve Henriksen's limpid, moody trumpet solos, Stale Storlokken's sparse, somber Steinway grand piano, and the quietly droning, slightly gritty "audio virus" of electronics expert and producer Helge "Deathprod" Sten, who also plays electric guitar (whilst the other two in the trio contribute on electronics as well). Intriguing, gorgeous, suspenseful soundscapes are the result, replete with fragile melody and distant drone, and Supersilent 10 thus rates a 10 with us. So if you're just encountering Supersilent now, this would be a fine starting point, and then working backwards from 10 wouldn't be a bad idea.
Fans of course, at least the turntable enabled, will want 11, too. Apparently the studio sessions for Supersilent 8 resulted in a lot more music being made than they could fit on one cd, and after editing, there was enough good stuff left over that they felt they should eventually also release (in fact, they almost just made 8 into a triple cd), and indeed they were right. That 8th Supersilent we recall as being possibly their most "rock" effort, and also a quite varied one, and 11 could certainly be considered utterly worthy "bonus tracks" to that effort, and in addition it's a lovely limited edition fetish object, 180 gram vinyl, lots of room for the artwork (hahaha, that's a joke, since as with all Supersilent releases, the Kim Hiorthoy cover design is a solid color with white Helvetica text... looks great though!).
Considering that Norwegian "death jazz" unit Supersilent began their recording career with a triple cd release entitled Supersilent 1-3, it's not so odd that they'd overwhelm their fans, these several years later, with the near-simultaneous release of both installments 10 and 11 in the Supersilent discography. As it happens, 10 features their newest recordings, while 11 consists of somewhat older material, tracks left over from the sprawling sessions that produced Supersilent 8 back in 2005. That's apparently why Supersilent 11 has been done as a vinyl-only release, while Supersilent 10 is on cd (and, eventually, but not yet, also lp).
Now, for those of you who already have a good proportion of Supersilent's 1 through 9, need we really say much about 10 and 11? Each numbered Supersilent release thus far has been brilliant, right? Yet each somewhat different, in representing Supersilent's unique style of electronic / acoustic improv, which can range from glacially paced, spacious ambient drift to fractured rhythmic glitch, from mellow melodic bliss to distorted noisy chaos.
In the case of 10, it's tilted toward the hauntingly atmospheric, following on from the minimalistic approach of Supersilent 9 (wherein the group, without their former drummer, all played Hammond organ). These twelve (also simply numbered, as usual) tracks make evocative use of Arve Henriksen's limpid, moody trumpet solos, Stale Storlokken's sparse, somber Steinway grand piano, and the quietly droning, slightly gritty "audio virus" of electronics expert and producer Helge "Deathprod" Sten, who also plays electric guitar (whilst the other two in the trio contribute on electronics as well). Intriguing, gorgeous, suspenseful soundscapes are the result, replete with fragile melody and distant drone, and Supersilent 10 thus rates a 10 with us. So if you're just encountering Supersilent now, this would be a fine starting point, and then working backwards from 10 wouldn't be a bad idea.
Fans of course, at least the turntable enabled, will want 11, too. Apparently the studio sessions for Supersilent 8 resulted in a lot more music being made than they could fit on one cd, and after editing, there was enough good stuff left over that they felt they should eventually also release (in fact, they almost just made 8 into a triple cd), and indeed they were right. That 8th Supersilent we recall as being possibly their most "rock" effort, and also a quite varied one, and 11 could certainly be considered utterly worthy "bonus tracks" to that effort, and in addition it's a lovely limited edition fetish object, 180 gram vinyl, lots of room for the artwork (hahaha, that's a joke, since as with all Supersilent releases, the Kim Hiorthoy cover design is a solid color with white Helvetica text... looks great though!).
Longtime ultimate aQ faves Supersilent, the Norwegian quote-unquote death jazz unit featuring trumpeter Arve Henriksen, electronic 'audio virus' producer Helge "Deathprod" Sten, and keyboardist Stale Storlokken, had not released an album since 2010, when both Supersilent 10 and 11 came out, until this new one, titled in their standard chronological fashion, Supersilent 12, of course. (And along with this release, Supersilent 11 has now also simultaneously been made available on cd for the first time, see the nearby review for that.)
So, it's been four years, and worth the wait - Supersilent 12 is a veritable doozy. And a perfect release for this Halloween-y time of the year, as it's both spooky and powerful, reminiscent of a 20th (21st!) Century avant-classical, electroacoustic piece, very soundtracky/soundscapey, Supersilent this time around sounding much more like Xenakis or Ligeti, than the Miles Davis meets Autechre mashup they sometimes have achieved. It's droning, dynamic, totally cold-void-conjuring stuff! Lots of unidentifiable abstract tones and drones, from shimmering, keening high end to tinkling, mysterious melody to deeper lower end ominousness, certainly not in any way jazzy or hyper rhythmic, more about texture and emotion. You do hear in some passages the trademark breathy melancholia of Henriksen's lyrical trumpet, as it appears backgrounded by ever-so-slightly-glitchy electronics, strident drones, and doleful, Varese-like percussion, though.
It's serious, it's kind of scary, it's often quite beautiful. Definitely an impressive return statement from these guys, proving that they maintain the ambition to explore new territory and conquer it as well. Not that Deathprod, at least, hasn't ventured into the cold void before...
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A little bit more jazzy & readily "listenable" than their amazing, overwhelming triple-cd debut, this sophomore release by the mysterious Nowegian group Supersilent continues to explore the limits of hyper-rhythmic free jazz, mixed with elements of ambient, musique concrete, noise and instrumental rock. If somewhat undefinable improv-ish bands like Starfuckers, Skullflower, Nels Cline Trio, etc. interest you, here's another one to add to that august roster. Parts of this sound like a live band (out)doing the most intense studio work of an Autechre or Squarepusher! Excellent album from an as-yet underappreciated band (although a recent feature in The Wire magazine signals a possible change in that status).
