Kadet Kuhne is a San Francisco based media-artist, who often pulls the worlds of experimental video and avant-garde electronics closer together through her seamless audio-visual explorations of digitized fragments and mulched sonic detritus. Matter Of Mind is her first full album in nearly 8 years, although she certainly had plenty of performances, screenings, installations, and collaborations during that time. That said, this album does follow neatly with the previous record Thin Air in its ghostly abstraction of softened glitches, polished surfaces, and rounded tones not to far from the orbits of Jan Jelinek or Oval, with melodic fragments emerging sporadically through the time-stretched filigree and pixelated gaseousness. On "Ruminant," Kadet brings to the foreground the unprocessed sounds of a clarinet (courtesy of Giselle Eastman) amidst the digital smoke and mirror sound design of refracted noir, sounding like an updated version of the Vangelis soundtrack for Blade Runner. Her track "Encoded" responds to a process that Lucky Dragons used on John Coltrane's A Love Supreme to turn it into a visual score; here, she transformed the Coltrane classic into binary data and reassembled the audio signal output into a thoroughly abstracted corollary. Obviously, some of the original has been reintroduced with a subtle groove from a deconstructed bassline and a skittering rhythmic sample emerges amidst the digitally scrubbed and mulched-to-graynoise data. Her most refined work to date!
Listening to this new release from SF solo IDM/electronicist Kadet is an almost multi-sensory experience. A plethora of wonderfully itchy glitches, thick tenuous throbs and metallic percussive gasps probe your ears. Some sounds actually made my teeth buzz as if I'd chomped down on some aluminum foil - an impressive feat unto itself. The latter tracks gradually sink into a much
With a bicycle wheel, a reel-to-reel tape machine, and a few bits of electronics, Jim Kaiser has been a stalwart in the Bay Area improv / experimental community, having worked in French Radio (with Bruce Anderson of MX80), NF Orchest, and Thomas Carnacki's ensemble. But one of his more prolific collaborations has been with Angela Hsu, who's a classically trained violinist who pushes her instrument with tone-bending effects and improvisational techniques. For all of their performances over many years, we're pretty sure that this is their first released recording. Despite the date-as-title alluding to this being a live recording, this is actually a studio production, albeit one that was recorded straight to tape, or more likely to hard drive. During this session, Hsu's violin offers up descending plinks that cascade in a delay ridden tumble, sounding like crumbled bits from some undisclosed orchestral score. Beneath this, there is a grey dinscape constructed from Kaiser's bowed bike wheel and a muddled hiss from the tape machine. It could be a field recording of some sort, playing through the corroded heads of that reel-to-reel, but it's so obfuscated as to be a thick cloud of Philip Jeck dust warbling with varispeed jolts alongside scattered noises and caterwauling screeches, ripping in an agitated field of delay patterns. Limited to something like 25 copies. Don't expect these around for long!
The Last Theft is a 1987 short film by the Czech stop-motion animator Jiri Barta, whose sensibility is not far from that of Jan Svankmejer. East Bay improvisers Jim Kaiser and Angela Hsu took up the challenge of working with this baroquely dark fairy tale of a short, using their signature instrumentation for reel-to-reel tape, bicycle wheel, violin, and a few choice effects pedals. Where their collaborations are typically clustered around squiggles and screeches from bowing the bike wheel and scraping against the violin, this 'alternate soundtrack' is considerably moodier and spun around the a warbling industrial-strength drone axis. Long-form bellows and primeval discordant textures weave a growling, ominous atmospheres rich with opium smoke laced with asbestos dust, altogether sounding not all that far from the classic works by Organum or Taj Mahal Travellers. It should also be noted that Spoonbender 1.1.1. scored a very different piece to a condensed version of the film!
Kaiser and Smith join together to pay tribute to Miles Davis' electric '73-'75 period, joined by The Rova Sax Quartet, Nels Cline, Elliot Sharp, John Medeski, Lukas Ligeti, Oluyemi Thomas and many others...
A bicycle wheel, a bow, a couple of radios, and a few open reel tape decks - that's all East Bay avant-noise artist Jim Kaiser brought with him during a tour of Eastern Europe in 2013, and even the bicycle wheels he managed to borrow in Prague and Berlin. Yet, his practice through these reductive tools dials in the juxtaposition of those various objects to craft one of the more unique aesthetics from the Bay Area's vibrant communities of sub-underground musicians. Informed by the instrumentation of industrial texture and acoustic noise a la David Jackman / Organum as well as the cassette murk of the Joseph Hammer liaisons within the Los Angeles Free Music Society, Kaiser's work explores a psychic sewer system of lost transmissions echoing through the damp, concrete architecture. Dank drones of bowed metals leak through super-fucking wet reverb units, with field recordings of wind-swept noise and garbled conversation that sound as if they were being echoed through a network of drainage pipes obfuscating everything except for the murmuring patter of a female human voice. At the conclusion of this 20 minute piece, Kaiser bloodies his knuckles on a somewhat restrained smashjob of fist-to-glass-to-contact-microphone. It's restrained in comparison to the chaotic torrents of Einsturzende Neubauten or Justice Yeldham. Still, Kaiser's cracked glass ramps up to a suitable abrasive conclusion after which the power is suitably cut. Exit stage left. Limited to just 35 copies.
As the Kallikak Family's debut album opens mournful drones seep forth slowly. The track is titled "Organ Tuning / Surgery", and indeed that is what it sounds like. The tones lull themselves in and out of different ranges. Eventually the somber atmosphere is gently stirred by the surfacing of shimmery aquatic vibrations and vocal samples in the title track. These in turn give way to peals from distant chapel bells. Although the album's title is seemingly a date in the not so distant future, the sounds contained within evoke a sense of fleeting memories from the past. Airy and contemplative and yes, recommended.
Karpov is a wonderful new Bay Area combo whose specialty is enchanted gypsy minstrel music. Their melodies roam and reel beautifully in earthy, jewel tones. If you swoon to the sounds of Beirut and A Hawk And A Hacksaw, this might be your ears' next delight!
Awesome new group from the Bay Area who channel international psych of years past to create some totally engaging and undeniably fun sounds. We're lucky to have so many amazing bands and musicians in San Francisco and we're even luckier that many of them are customers of ours. So it's always cool to see what lots of our favorite music makers in town are listening to and checking out when they swing by the store. And not that we've been spying but every time Max Balaoin (one of the master minds of Khi Darag) has come into the store over the last couple years it was hard not to notice how fast he'd make a beeline to the '70s Turkish Psychedelia section, as well as always seemingly after left of center sounds from across the globe circa late '60s and '70s.
With a band that features folks from groups like Rube Wadell, Rupa & The April Fishes, Charming Hostess, Lord Loves A Working Man and even the SF Mime Troupe, these extremely talented musicians have taken those international psych sounds from years past and brought in their own elements of surf rock, klezmer, and soundtracks to create music that is pretty impossible not to move to.
Much like Dengue Fever they use their influences from the past with total respect and love and it comes out in the sounds that they create. They also have a bit of a suspenseful undertone to their aesthetic which makes us think this is exactly the kind of band Mike Patton or John Zorn would want playing at their wedding with a dancefloor of weirdos having the time of their life. So fun!
By the time this list is sent out, it will be useless to qualify "GQ on the EQ" as the latest album for the Kid, since he'll probably peddle his wares to another label and have another record out in a week or two. At this rate he's looking to surpass the excessively prolific output of Muslimgauze and Merzbow combined in less than a decade. But before the Kid 606 box set of 606 cds comes out in the year 2012, we give you "GQ on the EQ" -- a compendium of the vinyl only releases that the Kid made for 555 records over the past three years. At times quite lovely with crystalline shards of skipped and timestretched hard disc edits, at other fast and loose drill 'n' bass work.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
It's hard to keep up with the Kid, but here's his (for the moment) latest release. And it's certainly different from the distorted drill & bass workouts found on his recent "Down With The Scene" opus. Instead, "PS I Love You" has found a very comfortable home on the abstract electronica label Mille Plateaux, with its blend of almost chill out swirling cybernetic ambience and glitch driven rhythms. Just beautiful!
Is it any coincidence that Resilience -- quite possibly the most unobnoxious, non-in your face Kid606 release ever -- is dedicated to his mother? And is it just us or does it also seems like this album took him way longer than any of his previous ones. Unrushed loving care? More sincere contemplation? Not sure, but we can tell you that he's toned things down so much that the tracks have reached the point of being downright subdued by his standards. The Kid goes dooooowntempo? A very different and unexpected approach but not entirely alienating, dare we say, at times it verges on pretty. His trademark ominous splatters of distorted glitch are all but absent. Makes us think that maybe this release should have been titled Repose rather than Resilience. Whereas on past releases such as Down With The Scene he was all about sonic agitation, here he begins the album somberly with "Done With The Scene". Deep, slow sliding synth lines, delicate tinkly melodies and ghostly voices peek out here and there.
I know we seem to be kind of hard on Kid606. We are. He's the artist du jour. He's on practically every electronica compilation that came out in the last two years, everyone wants to put his records out, everyone wants to remix him (or be remixed by him),
No great departures from Mr. 606 here, so if you know him and love him particularly his more disjointed, hyper side... what are you waiting for? The Illness contains a heap of his trademark digital spasms and frantic noise spurts. Just might leave you feeling all caffeinated and a little bit itchy. The cd version includes: The 12" mix of the title track, the pleasantly named "Ecstacy Motherfucker" as well as the 'bonus' tracks "Maybe", "Evasion" and "Circumvent". The 12" version includes: The Illness 12" Mix (duh!), an extended dance mix of the same, along with the pleasantly titled track "Ecstacy Motherfucker".
Veering sharply from his recent full length The Action Packed Mentallist Brings You the Fucking Jams, the Kid shows his sensitive side again, invoking the word "love" as he did on his similarly mellow, pretty PS I Love You record. Seven pieces in 20 minutes on a li'l 3" cd, this is LOVE-ly. The bulk of the music here is slow- to midtempo lulling electronica, stark and simple, reminding me a lot of early German experiments in electronica -- Cluster, Harmonia, all that post-Neu stuff that concerned itself with purity and beauty. There are delicate arpeggiations of clean, rounded notes, sad chord progressions, and warmly skipping records. Only one track makes use of the spinning-the-radio-on-the-dial-as-fast-as-you-can method of appropriation... and here it is used for its texture, not its abruptness. One electro-tinged piece, all stuttery and jerky, sounding more like Mouse on Mars than anything else. But the rest of the tracks here are pleasantly gentle and wistfully sweet. A very charming record. Recommended.
The third installment of Shotgun Wedding, Violent Turd's strictly limited soundclash series. A speedy mash-up of a million hiphop songs along a brutal beat assault. Each of the three tracks has its own flavor with Cex's a bit gentler. It has moments of softness, subtlety and electronic contemplation spanning the length of the piece. And then bam! 606's "Gizm Collission" is a smashup of recycled techno trash and pieces of familiar hip-hop that hits you in the brain. I can almost hear a whistle. Whoah.
Volume 5 in Tigerbeat6's "$" series. Kid 606 throws down another hip-hop slammer. Posterboys make a bunch of noise. Limited.
The NY-based hiphop trio Dalek contributed rhymes to that excellent Techno Animal track "Dead Man's Curse", so it makes sense that Techno Anim's Kevin Martin and Justin Broadrick introduced Dalek to our own local darling Kid606. Thus, this excellent collaboration. As I've enthused in other reviews, Dalek's epic, incantatory vocal stylings are pushed right up against apocalyptic, doom-laden instrumentation: high pitched squealing feedback that sounds like air raid sirens, abandoned machine bleeps, paranoid dub-heavy beats, crashing cymbals and other live drumming, shimmering guitar. They are an apt match with Kid 606 and his bad boy I'll-mess-with-anything-and-make-it-kick-yr-ass style.
So, as if the original "Ruin It" track that appears here isn't great enough -- all glitchy fuzzed out broken buried melody courtesy Kid606 -- then Dalek ups and makes it even more intense and dramatic and spooky. Really good, some of the best material from either artists I've heard yet. In addition to the two title tracks here, there's even a slow sort of My Bloody Valentine-ish slice of melancholia here, laden with murk and record static. That piece appears only on the cd ep, as does the closer track "satans hard drive" which Dalek constructed spontaneously from one of the Kid's busted hard disks. Yeah, it's noisy!
Took a while for these to materialize from the man and his peeps, but better late than never we s'pose! Bay Area lone mouthpiece Kid Beyond takes his moniker seriously taking the art of beatboxing beyond the hip hop common place. And though he definitely isn't a youngster (when we saw him perfom live a while ago he resembled a life size Barney Rubble!), he keeps energies and spirits youthfully high and welcoming as he loops and layers his oral utterances and sputterances into a catchy grooviness. Who'd think a beatboxer would cover Portishead? Seems like an unlikely choice, but KB does it style and it totally works!
The Sleep Genius label who has brought us great releases by Chasms, Bad News, Tied To The Branches and Concrete Island is back and not only with a new cassette, but a cassingle!!!!!! Yes that's right, a cassette in a gorgeously blood red shrink-wrapped paper stock sleeve!
King Woman is the first solo project of Kristina Esfandiari, the front woman of San Francisco local band Whirr, who we're not familiar with, but wondering now if we should be after hearing this. Backed by members of Tied to the Branches and Chasms, Esfandiari's deep resonant voice hovers over the minimal hazy treatments in these two slow shoegaze murder ballads. She reminds us of Hope Sandoval or Marissa Nadler but with a richer timbre to her vocal that is quite stunning. The backing music all hovering slow motion creep, quietly lifting these songs up to the beckoning gallows. Pretty fucking great!
Kristinia Esfandiari formerly of SF shoegazers Whirr, delivers a dark brooding gem of introspective heaviness, a mini-songsuite that unfurls lugubriously, and blossoms into a haunting sprawl of crushing, slo-mo metallic, torchsong miserablism. Imagine some twisted fusion of PJ harvey and SUNNO))). Churning washes of crumbling distortion and tarpit riffage drift grimly through billowing clouds of dense layered thrum, roiling blackened backdrops for Esfandiari's throaty, bewitching vox. The sonic heft matched by the lyrical themes of family and religion, and the suffering borne of both.
A darkly delicate downer pop dirgery, flecked with keening, melancholic melodies crafted into smoldering sonic arcs, and all wound up into blurred hazy drifts, morose, moody, mournful and melancholy. With the sound very reminiscent of Whirr, but like that groups blissed out metalgaze slowed way down, stretched out into languorous, undulating fields of dreamy, dour, doom-drift shimmer. "Candescent Soul" begins a whispered drumless creep, before transforming into a heart wrenching slow motion sonic pummel, a heart crushing deathmarch dirge reminiscent of some lost Katatonia B-side via nineties slowcore.
"Burn" follows a similar sonic template, blurred riffs spread out into a hazy landscape of swoonsome buzz and throb, driven by a simple caveman pound, before exploding into some seriously dense introspective crush, spidery tendrils of strange distorted electronics tangled up beneath Esfandiari's increasingly passionate and dramatic vocals. A shoegaze doom that bleeds into closer "King Of Swords", a loping distorted ballad that builds into a brooding slow build bombastic, swirling and psychedelic, almost like a female fronted, shoegaze Afghan Whigs, tortured, heart-on-sleeve indie pop recast as something darkly metallic, that somehow remains woozy, washed out, wasted, and dreamily despondent.
When you think Chewy, do you think about taffy, or gum, or calamari? Or do those nerd genes kick in and send you in a completely different direction envisioning a seven foot tall hairy beast called Chewbacca? Well, if you live in SF, when you think Chewy, you more than likely think metal, and maybe country, oh and punk rock, and glam rock, or at the very least you think of the kick ass drumming of Mr. Chewy Marzolo. Most of you would know Chewy as the drummer for the mighty Hammers Of Misfortune, SF's killer black / true / opera metal kings! But Chewy has been tearing up a storm here in SF for well over a decade (most of the time with Hammers Of Misfortune head honcho John Cobbett right there by his side). Recently, Chewy celebrated his birthday by playing a show, where almost ALL of his bands played, in a row! Phew. To commemorate the occasion, there was this little two disc 'best of Chewy' set, covering all of his musical exploits over the last 15 years. From the majestic metal opera that is Hammers Of Misfortune, to the thrashy metal of Bay Area legends Osgood Slaughter, to the bizarre, epic sci-fi metal of Thunderchimp, to the sleazy glam rock of Pantz Noyzee, to the wild bluegrass of The Big Meat Combo, to the desert-y twang of King City. Tons of never before released stuff, most of it really amazing. Whether you know Chewy or not, these two discs are jam packed with some amazing music, from metal to country, silly to serious, and everywhere in between.
Along with the "irrational happiness" in this album's title there are also flashes of madness and brilliance throughout the proceedings. Bringing together free roaming avant jazz with elements of tiki exotica, psychedelia, post rock and so much more, the new Bay Area combo known as Kipple craft a loose, open musical weave that's often quite reminiscent of awesome fellow SF artists such as pop collagists Milk Cult and the uncategorizable keyboardist Graham Connah. Keeps you on your toes, and keeps those toes a-tapping thanks to a creative and tight rhythm section. Moodily captivating. Recommended.
Our favorite new hip hop record for sure. The minute we first heard this, we knew we had to get a bunch for the store. We finally did, but then realized we were at a loss for words (who, us?), so we hit up the guy who turned us on to the record in the first place, AQ pal / gay gangsta Matt Wobensmith, who had this to say about Kirb And Chris:
Take your favorite '80s new wave and pop hits, chop them up, lace them with party rhymes and what do you have? "Niggaz and White Girlz," maybe one of the most brilliant hip hop albums in years. Concept album? 80s revival? Party record? Political statement? Shameless excuse to get laid? Oddly, all of the above.
Inspired by the San Francisco club scene -- where Kirb and Chris do most of their "new wave thuggin'" -- reworking '80s megahits comes effortlessly, as they give new life to the Cure's "Close To Me" ("Closer"), the Smiths' "This Night Has Opened My Eyes" ("Doorstep, Girl"), and not one, but TWO Gary Numan joints, "Cars" and "Down in the Park." Round it out with Simple Minds, Talking Heads, the Human League, the Police, the B52's and others, and you've got quite a rich library to sample from. But does it work?
Absolutely.
As crate diggers constantly scrape the bins for new source material, it only makes sense that synth-driven new wave could be the next wave. Highly enjoyable, and we didn't even mention how hilarious this album's between-song skits are.
This album should totally be huge!
Kicking up her heels and cooing up a storm, Kitten On The Keys is one-ma'am band Suzanne Ramsey.
And (It's Not A) Pretty Princess Day is a delightful album full of quirky, charming old tyme piano numbers. She sings and plays with plenty of spritely wit and sass. Each song is steeped with saucy vaudevillian and pouty burlesque excess. Ramsey performs both her own originals as well as a plethora of covers, even tackling Sex Pistols and The Cure with a giggle and a wink. Actually (if she hasn't already!) she'd be a great human performer at the Musee Mechanique!
Friend OR... compiles the incidental music Alexander Kort composed and performed for a three act play titled FOE which was presented by the University of California - Berkeley's department of theater, dance and performance studies. Kort, who also performs with Bay Area groups such as Subtle and Themselves, loosely entwines multiple glacial string movements with the sounds of waves, sputtering rainfall and other mysterious effects and sources. The somber moan and creak of Kort's compositions on this cd bring to mind an antiquated ocean liner listing sleepily on a calm eve. Actually come to think of it this makes for a more spartan companion to Nurse With Wound's very nautical Salt Marie Celeste album. Hauntingly beautiful.
Mother of Pearl is the debut from this North Carolina born, Bay Area based solo electric cellist. Slow, viscous and deeply brooding. The strings' dark tones and textures accumulate and build in cloudlike formations - like a thick rolling fog or a billowing thunderhead. You may have also heard Mr. Kort's work with such varied artists as Sole or Jill Tracy.
For those who remember the escapades of Jewelled Antler, the various tunnels and concrete bunkers of Battery Townsley provided a musty ambience of crumbled mortar and mold spores to any number of that collective's psychedelic ragas. But the Battery's intended use was to house a couple of huge artillery cannons dug into the top of one of the higher peaks just to the north of San Francisco's famed Golden Gate Bridge, all in preparation for a Japanese invasion during World War 2. As this never came to pass, the vast network of bunkers throughout the Marin Headlands landed in the domain of the National Park Service, who had done a major renovation job on Battery Townsley, by resealing the massive steel doors and cleaning out decades worth of detritus - both manmade and natural. Those Jewelled Antler excursions had occurred well before the National Park Service's renovation, and the bulk of Battery Townsley remains under the watchful eye of the staff, who open it up weekly for docent led tours.
Many of the bunkers throughout the Headlands have attracted sound artists from across the globe, given the massive sustained reverb and interesting acoustics of the various bunkers. But nearly all of these recorded sessions needed to be held surreptitiously, given that the Park Service doesn't want to have to rescue somebody with a microphone who plummeted into a cistern in the heart of a mountain. But in 2010, the curators of the Soundwave Festival approached the Park Service about setting up a concert in Battery Townsley, and were pleasantly surprised that the Park Service was very keen on such a presentation. There, of course, were some challenges to overcome - the most daunting of which was the lack of electricity. But the Festival gathered a pretty kick-ass assemblage of artists making amazing sounds without having to plug into the grid, including Danny Paul Grody, Hora Flora, Jacob Felix Heule, Jim Haynes, and Gregg Kowalsky. Of course, Kowalsky went into the thick reverberant space with his arsenal of tape decks, which he's employed for his ever-changing Tape Chants performances.
On this super limited recording, Kowalsky presents a live recording of his performance in the bunker and a studio reinterpretation using the same material. The source tapes have the radiant glow of a church organ, beaming with luminous hues as the slippery tones bend in and out of dissonant ripples and downright heavy drones. While the studio recording is gorgeous, it's all the more impressive to hear this material as broadcast within a bunker thick reverberation, as the tones begin to growl and the tape deck speakers' crackle being pushed to their limits, giving the whole collage of swirl and drone a heaviness never heard in any of Kowalsky's previous recordings. It's more of a Surface Of The Earth recording of corroded amplifiers and slumped guitars, but it's all tape decks. Totally fucking great!
Unfortunately, this LP is limited to 250 copies of which we got the very last batch from the label.
Super limited release from this long time aQ fave, continuing on in his recent Tape Chants direction, where, tired of working digitally, decided to work with tapes and old tape players, the results of which were displayed on the Tape Chants disc on Kranky reviewed back in May. These particular Tape Chants were recorded live, and were pressed up as a cd-r (in super swank screenprinted sleeves BTW) for his current US tour.
Like the cd proper, Kowalsky works magic with his tapes, on the first lengthy track, creating a symphony of bells and chimes and gongs, letting the overtones drift and overlap and bleed into one another until they begin to crumble and buzz, and on the second track, where similar sounding bells are set amidst a field of deep grinding rumbles and softly buzzing low end, the bell like tones bobbing as if on some soft black sea. Softly percussive, almost nautical sounding, whirring and hypnotic, meditative and ethereal.
Gorgeous stuff. Obviously grab one of these while you can, before we run out, and if you get the chance, don't hesitate to see him live conjure these sonic mysteries in the flesh!
Latest release from this Bay Area composer, electronic musician and dronologist Gregg Kowalsky. A one sided lp documenting part of his Master's Thesis, which entailed taking one of his electronic compositions, scoring it for a live ensemble and then conducting the performance.
Kowalsky enlisted the Contemporary Performance Ensemble, directed by Fred Frith, who also contributed violin. Recorded in 2005 at Mills college, the result was sublime. A gorgeous organic piece that references Feldman and Part and Melnyk as much as Kowalsky's previous works.
The strings are low and buzz and throb dramatically, the piano is minor key and delicate, fluttering in brief little flurries, streaks of high end run through the swirling moodiness, over the top voices soar in choral fragments, washes of cymbals sizzle, horns moan, all manner of instruments are smeared into a heaving organic whole, shakuhachi, vibraphone, flute, a sonic cloud constantly expanding, intensifying chordal whir, like some moody rock band with the bones pulled out, leaving just a gloriously amorphous sound shape, slithering and drifting, creeping and billowing, building and building, some sort of classic chorale stretched out into a shimmering dreamlike blur. On the surface, it's a dark drift, but beneath the surface, sounds are roiling and churning, a sonic sea of tension and emotion, subtly psychedelic, a gorgeous, organic, orchestral drone.
Packaged in a thick cardstock sleeve, with a Xeroxed yellow paste on cover.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!!
Full length number two from these SF heavies, and while they haven't sacrificed any of their Teutonic crush, or noise rock heft, they do display a surprisingly melodic side on Container Ships, a soft white sonic underbelly that was hinted at on their recent split 7" with Thou, on which they covered a Low track, and it feels like much of the sensibilities that not only drove that choice, but determined what they did with it as well, are all over Container Ships. And while nothing here is quite as darkly delicate, the band do definitely dial back the heaviness, letting the sounds linger, letting clean guitars spread out and set the mood, and when the hammer does fall, the sound this time around is much more crisp and lush, even when the guitars are downtuned, churning and chugging, they ring out, the sounds reverberant and rich. The debt to the Unsane and Helmet no longer so obvious, at least not all the time. On the opener, which might be the prettiest song here, the band offer up their own sort of slowcore minimal math rock / noise rock sprawl, subtly nuanced, and super melodic, another big change on display here is frontman Scott Evans' vocals, which have transformed from a gruff bark, to a serious croon, still rough around the edges, but way more emotive and the perfect match for the band's ever developing sound.
But fear not, get an earful of the second track, "50's Dad", which is all loping, chugging noise rock crush, Evan's vocals higher than on past record, which definitely changes the vibe throughout, and makes even the heaviest tracks here, less of a knuckledragging vibe, and more of an emo edge, which again totally suits them, especially when the band lock into a weird loping groove, and Evans sings himself ragged, his voice rough and raw and impassioned. Not to mention the burst of tangled psychedelic guitar leads that are wrapped around the middle of the track.
The guys have been busting their asses for years now, and we always sort of wondered why they weren't huge, but goddamn if this record doesn't change all that nothing will.
The whole record is a sort of push and pull between the muscled mathy noise rock of the early records, and this desire to make beautiful music, even if it's dark, mean, ugly, hard and heavy beautiful music, which this most certainly is, and it's that balance that makes this record, and these guys so good. The title track here is a dirgey doomy drag, the chords ringing out, the vocals carrying all the melodic weight, and transforming a dirgey chugfest into something epic and intense, the song revealing a grasp and mastery of dynamics that was most definitely underutilized on past records, but gets a serious workout here.
"Cornerstone" is about as poppy as these guys get, and again, they not only mange to pull it off, they also make it this hook heavy noise-pop fit seamlessly into the way heavier rest of the record, not to mention demonstrating another element the band have in their arsenal but obviously choose to employ very judiciously. The record finishes off with the 9 minute epic "You Don't Have Cancer", which again reveals their slowcore proclivities, and demonstrates their ability to subsume that sound into their own, the resulting hybrid another sprawling, gut wrenchingly emotional, crushingly heavy, surprisingly melodic epic, that would, and does, put most other heavy bands to shame.
More and more every day we miss that brief period in the nineties when rock music was heavy, and noisy, and LOUD. Not necessarily metal, although to some ears it probably sounded like metal. It was more about BIG riffs, lumbering tempos, huge pounding drums, throat shredding vox. Think: Unsane, Halo Of Flies, Today Is The Day, Tad, Killdozer, Tar, Helmet, Lubricated Goat, Karp, Unwound, we could go on and on, but you understand what we're talking about.
There are very few modern bands who can channel the same sort of sonic energy without being retro, and typically, the heavier they are, the more they get lumped in with some metal subsect. But goddamn if there doesn't seem to be a bit of a modern noise rock scene brewing, bands popping up here and there, pushing all those noise rock buttons, and totally hitting the spot.
Which brings us to local boys Kowloon Walled City, whose recent Turk Street ep knocked us on our asses with it's noise rock / doom sludge hybrid. Weirdly enough, with this here debut full length, Gambling On The Richter Scale, the band somehow sound WAY heavier, but at the same time way less metal. Tapping into the rich noise rock history, and creating a disc that's both intense and punishing, melodic and heavy, and yeah, still a bit metallic here and there..
Opener "Annandale" is a churning hook filled noise rock jam, with big guitars, some killer melodies, harsh vox, wild dense drumming, some awesomely soaring high guitar parts, as well as the occasional burst of super melodic almost indie rock, before lurching back into the chug and crush. The sound definitely veers closer to a band like Torche or Floor than Neurosis or Eyehategod.
The second track though totally reminds us of the Unsane, with its roiling distorted bass, looped churning riffage, and weirdly mathy arrangement, some cool dynamics and some stop / starts that definitely had us in math rock heaven. But even here, the band inject some clean guitars, and some downright pretty melody before getting all aggro again.
It's a pretty relentless record, but thankfully KWC mix it up, changing up tempos, letting the drums breath here and there, giving riffs space to ring out and decay once in a while, stretching out into spaced out slowmo ambient drifts, pulling tracks apart into almost groovy sounding doomy dirges, slipping in plenty of subtle pop, heavy hooks galore. The title track is a monster, beginning with some clean guitar strum, minor key and tense, before lurching into a fierce chugging plod, with some Maideny guitar harmonies, plenty of palm muted guitar throb, an impossibly heavy downtuned chorus, and subtle melody mixed in throughout.
The record finishes off with the 6+ minute "More Like The Shit Factory", a sprawling slowjam, the guitars droning out in long streaks, peppered with bursts of downtuned crunch, the drums never really kicking in, the guitars all intertwined and layered, beating against each other, a cloud of swirling overtones, while the vocals howl, the drums sporadically pound, eventually everything dropping out entirely, leaving just a blown out psychedelic dual guitar drone, which crumbles and gradually fades out over the last minute, although. we'd have been perfectly happy had they let those guitars drone endlessly and fill up the rest of the record. Next time maybe.
So yeah, if you're in the market for some heavy, catchy as fuck, NOISE ROCK, okay, maybe call it metal, then Gambling On The Richter Scale is IT, and by the sounds of this record, they probably destroy live. On that same label that that brought us Catalyst, another bad ass noise rock band well worth checking out.
Packaged in full color gloss varnished jackets, pressed on colored vinyl (either clear, or black/silver haze), comes with a cd version of the record (it's an actual cd not a cd-r) housed in a separate hand screened sleeve. LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!
Pretty much every metalhead in SF went to see Carcass at the Grand Ballroom the other night (in fact, we were joking that a well placed incendiary device could have wiped out the entire scene in one fell swoop). And yeah, of course Carcass destroyed, but the very same night, all the way across town, a band called Kowloon Walled City were faced with the daunting task of laying waste to a room not exactly full of the few metalheads who for whatever reason were not at the Carcass show.
And listening to this, the debut release from this SF foursome, we'd be hard pressed to say that the folks at Carcass, ourselves included, didn't miss out on something serious. Thankfully, unlike Carcass, KWC are a going concern, so we'll get another chance, but until then, get a load of this five song ep, of fierce, furious, crushing heaviness. Think Unsane, old Helmet, the Melvins, Buzzov-en, Neurosis of course, this is some seriously heavy shit. The guitars massive and downtuned, a relentless sea of roiling chug and churn, the drums dense and pounding, the vocals a throat shredding howl. The AmRep vibe is all over these songs, the sound incredibly thick and corrosive, the rhythms alternatingly pounding and lurching, most often settling into a lumbering almost-groove, the melodies buried amidst the crunch and rumble, sometimes surfacing as the band slips into something more dynamic, letting the guitars moan and keen, the drums getting all spacious, sheets of Eyehategod style feedback, a weirdly doomy sort of abstract sludge, before slipping back into a furious grinding metallic crush. Pretty fucking excellent, and definitely has us looking forward to finally seeing what we missed that fateful night.
The vinyl is limited to 300 copies, and is pressed on cool swirled red and black vinyl. The cd-r is limited to 100 copies, packaged in super nice, silkscreened cardstock style sleeves with a printed insert, each one hand numbered.
Killer 3 way vinyl split of extreme heaviness, starting off with SF's own Kowloon Walled City, who by now really have to be one of the best and one of the most criminally under-hyped heavy bands in the city, super brutal and intense, their sound dense and crushing and epic, equal parts modern metal and old school AmRep style noise rock, a hybrid few can pull off as well as these guys, yet outside of a select few, it seems these guys have yet to be discovered by the world at large, but with every record, it seems like they can't remain a secret much longer.
And here they bring the noise (rock) big time, their first track a lurching stop/start mini-epic, the guitars corrosive and downtuned and THICK, driven by some seriously kick ass thumping drum damage, the vocals a frenzied (but still melodic) yowl, the arrangement strange and super dynamic, the whole thing hooky as hell, one of those tracks that had it come out in 1997 as a single it would probably be one of your most treasured 7"s. Their second track is totally different, reigning in that wanton bash and crush for something a bit more low slung and brooding, a weird sort of Neurosis / Killing Joke hybrid, super melodic, dark and moody, but with no shortage of extreme sonic crush.
We had never heard (or heard of) Ladder Devils before, but they're a pretty good match for KWC, they too have a sort of noise rock thing going on, their take a bit more punky and grungy, still hyper rhythmic and heavy as fuck, but way more loose, some awesomely howled vocals, thick syrupy low end, chugging guitars, hooky riffs, both tracks rule, even recorded evoking wild and sweaty live cub destroying chaos. Definitely psyched to hear more.
And finally Jersey metallic post rock sludgelords Fight Amp, who are only now making their first appearance on the aQ site, even though a few of us have been fans for a while. Fight Amp have a sound not all that far removed from folks like Baroness, Kylesa and the like, a sort of Southern sludge via slow brooding Neur-Isis style heaviness, and their two tracks here offer up a seriously heavy heaping helping of just that, churning and thick and epic, a little groovy, WAY downtuned, a little mathy and proggy too, giving it a sort of Voivod feel, albeit quite a bit more crusty and sludgey, but it's a pretty killer combo, and again, a pretty perfect match for both Ladder Devils and Kowloon Walled City...
Killer packaging too, a thick PVC style jacket, hand silkscreened, housing a printed folded sleeve, the back half of the sleeve cut away to reveal the clear vinyl and the printed images beneath it. LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!
What more do you need to know, than this is two of our favorite heavy bands, doing killer (and WAY unlikely) covers, on by Low, and one by Soundgarden? OK, how about the fact that this was a super limited installment of a subscription only series, really the only way to get your hands on one of these was to subscribe, unless, the guys in KWC offered us a little handful of their copies, the LAST copies in fact, so you should know what that means by now, grab one before they disappear.
KWC tackles Low's "July", and besides cranking up the guitars, and adding some downtuned crunch, stay pretty true to the original, and wisely got a guest vocalist, Lisa Papineau, who we had never heard of before, but who has sung for Air, M83, Farflung and others, but who is the perfect fit, here vocals emotional and powerful, darkly tinged, one of those rare, practically perfect covers, where the cover manages to be as good as the original, different enough to be interesting, but faithful enough to make not singing along impossible.
Thou take on Soundgarden's "4th Of July", and like KWC, stay sort of faithful to the original, and like with the KWC track, via the vocals. In place of Thou's usual throat shredding shrieks, the band unveil some seriously powerful crooning, a kick ass voice that definitely has us wondering what these guys would be capable of if they chose to go in that direction. But fear not, not only is the main riff an oozing, downtuned creep, but after that first verse, the more recognizable Thou vocals come in, but instead of replacing the clean vox, they team up, for a really bizarre duet, and some twisted not-quite harmonies, the song itself, unfurling as a lumbering, surprisingly still super melodic, dirge doom monster.
Rare that we dig both sides of a split this much, but both these tracks totally KILL. And again, super limited, we have about 15 copies, these are the last ones we'll be able to get. Not sure you can even still sign up for the subscription series, so probably better to get one now, before you're kicking yourself later. Insanely gorgeous cover art / design as well!
As if the three AC/DC covers on Kozelek's recent "Rock 'n Roll Singer" album weren't enough, this new cd is composed solely of AC/DC songs -- ten of them. The emotional depth that Kozelek imparts to these very serene, meditative versions is remarkable and fun. Does contain the three songs from his previous album, but I believe these are new substantively different takes. Wonderful! Those waiting for the new Red House Painters album (which is finally going to see the light of day this spring) should wait no longer -- this is prime sadcore from one of its inventors.
Limited to 5000 copies and mainly available only thru web and direct distribution channels, we're pleased to be carrying this live album from Red House Painters' Mark Kozelek. It's got three of the AC/DC covers we love so much, delivered somber-Kozelek-style of
Kraddy's shadowy, sinewy, jagged electronic sounds bring to mind the deeply textured tracks of many late-'90s IDM artists. It's odd, we've not seen many releases of this ilk in some time... many of the artists who were part of the IDM flurry a few years ago (with the exception of the aforementioned Plaid) have fallen silent as of late. That said, one of the notable differences between 'then' and 'now' is Kraddy's surprisingly basic programmed beats, as opposed to the considerably more complex ones of earlier artists. If you've a been seeking a lengthy late night listenin' album filled with prickly shards jutting out of thick droning swells, you're ready to roll!
Legendary San Francisco ensemble tackles grand sounds from around the globe.
Double cd with previously-released selections from Henryck Gorecki (that's pronounced ~goretsky~, folks) to Arvo Part to Astor Piazzolla to Tigran Tahmizyan. Disc #2 features 4 songs never released before: pieces by Jimi Hendrix, Scott Johnson, Michael Daugherty, and Raymond Scott.
Local stalwart Victor Krummenacher delivers another wellcrafted collection of singer songwriter material. With the assistance of musicians such as Dave Alvin, Carla Bozulich (Geraldine Fibbers), Alison Faith Levy, and David Immergluck and Jonathan Segel of Krummenahcer's old band Camper Van Beethoven, Krummenacher writes instantly catchy poignant songs, with the high points being the duets with female vocalists. Check out the title track "Bittersweet" and see if you aren't immediately drawn in. This is high quality music from a talent so steady and mature that he doesn't make any mistakes. Nice.
We listed the documentary about the notorious late '80s Valencia Street rock bar, The Chatterbox, a few lists back. Now we have copies of the official book written by vintage Aquarius Records employee, Alfie Kulzick!
SF music scene vets will no doubt fondly recall the days of the Chameleon Lounge bar which was located on Valencia Street a few blocks away from aQ. It was a beer-soaked and black velvet painting festooned underground rock haven through most of the '90s. These days that spot is now occupied by a considerably less gritty and tattered bar called Amnesia. However, you'll score super duper old school cred points if you can remember the venue that predated the Chameleon... The Chatterbox!... even more so if you have some first hand memories of your own! And if you do happen to have some of your own then you're probably in this book, aren't you?
Most of us here at aQ were either still underage back then and/or hadn't made our way to the Bay Area yet. So unfortunately we weren't privy to the club's glory years circa 1986-1990, but we all can now catch a time machine-esque sneak peek via this book. It's packed with plenty of live rawk photos, punk fliers and vivid anecdotes with the likes of Hewhocannotbenamed, Boom (of Boom & The Legion Of Doom), Buck Naked, Ginger Coyote, Blag Dahlia, Gary X Indiana, SF Dogs, Sister Double Happiness, among many many others. Plus amazing photos and stories of touring bands such as the Dwarves, The Mentors, and Nirvana. We spotted friends like Chewy and John from Hammers Of Misfortune in there too (back then, in the band Osgood Slaughter). It makes for a wildly colorful patchwork of recollections (er, though the pics themselves are all black and white)! And it gives equal love to the music acts, the staff and the patrons, conveying the beloved neighborhood bar's strong sense of community, and offering a vivid raw glimpse of the late '80s SF music scene.
The book's layout and content really captures the feel of a well-worn zine from back in the day. Y'know, cut'n'pasted together with love and very rough around the edges, almost like it was assembled in the wee hours at the Kinko's on Market Street (back when it was open 24 hours).
Fuck Yeah!
One guy and his acoustic guitar, conjuring up the spirits of Kottke, Basho, and Fahey. Gentle, mellow, folk-classical guitar explorations, pretty and somewhat melancholy. Kunin's playing, while adept and intricate, is not as out there as what fellow
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Attention fans of that '60s experimental psychedelic freakout The Fifty Foot Hose: members of the '90s reunion group have resurfaced with this new entity simply named Kwisp. Walter Funk and Reid Johnston craft sonic DaDa-esque squirreliness composed of squelch-effected vocalizations, a jumble of found sounds and dialogue samples, wheezy horn spasms, analog burblings and masses of custom made instruments. With guests Daevid Allen, Fifty Foot Hose founder Cork Marcheschi, and Mandible Chatter's Grant Miller.
