We reviewed the vinyl version of this a few lists back, now the cd version is available, and as the title indicates, the cd gathers up all the songs from the lp, and then some, their entire recorded discography! Very cool.
13th Chime were an obscure band for sure, having issued only 3 singles in the early '80s before calling it quits. Their history was not a charmed one for sure, as the band known as 13th Chime came out of another punk band known as The Anticx, whose bass player died during a Dead Kennedy's gig in 1980. The remaining members of The Anticx kept playing as 13th Chime, having found another bassist who helped push the band in a new direction. Perhaps because of the death of their friend, 13th Chime found themselves darkening their sound and embracing the Goth redux of punk at the time. The Damned's Black Album, the first Bauhaus record, Crispy Ambulance, the first Christian Death record, and X-Mal Deutschland would have been the contemporaries of 13th Chime's singles, with their gloomy take on punk whilst all the while maintaining driving, propulsive rhythms throughout. The guitars offered detuned buzzsaw attacks with little in the way of melody, as that was pretty much the role of the bassist (Terry Taylor) whose high-neck basslines lead almost all of the songs (a la Peter Hook of Joy Division and New Order). Mick Hand's vocals are somewhat nasal in delivery, but certainly not without their Howard Devoto charm. There's plenty of Bat Cave theatrics (including some guitar cabinets made out of coffins), clearly dating this material to the early '80s; but even so, 13th Chime were better than most of the bands that seemed to emerge from that scene without these amazing songs to show for it. And all of the tracks these guys ever recorded are featured here on this fine collection from Sacred Bones.
13th Chime were an obscure band for sure, having issued only 3 singles in the early '80s before calling it quits. Their history was not a charmed one for sure, as the band known as 13th Chime came out of another punk band known as The Anticx, whose bass player died during a Dead Kennedy's gig in 1980. The remaining members of The Anticx kept playing as 13th Chime, having found another bassist who helped push the band in a new direction. Perhaps because of the death of their friend, 13th Chime found themselves darkening their sound and embracing the Goth redux of punk at the time. The Damned's Black Album, the first Bauhaus record, Crispy Ambulance, the first Christian Death record, and X-Mal Deutschland would have been the contemporaries of 13th Chime's singles, with their gloomy take on punk whilst all the while maintaining driving, propulsive rhythms throughout. The guitars offered detuned buzzsaw attacks with little in the way of melody, as that was pretty much the role of the bassist (Terry Taylor) whose high-neck basslines lead almost all of the songs (a la Peter Hook of Joy Division and New Order). Mick Hand's vocals are somewhat nasal in delivery, but certainly not without their Howard Devoto charm. There's plenty of Bat Cave theatrics (including some guitar cabinets made out of coffins), clearly dating this material to the early '80s; but even so, 13th Chime were better than most of the bands that seemed to emerge from that scene without those three amazing singles to show for it. And all of the tracks from those singles are featured here on this fine collection from Sacred Bones.
Classic!
What with the Heavenly Vs Satan re-issue, the five Messthetics 70s/80s UK compilations and this 14 Iced Bears collection, it seems to be high time for a UK bubblegum punk/pop resurgence. So how 'bout hopping aboard this bouncy Brit buggy. "In The Beginning"
There's more to UK space/psych rock Trensmat than, well, space rock and psych rock. Sure their catalog reads like a primer on modern psychedelia - The Telescopes, Gnod, White Hills, Carlton Melton, Mugstar, Circle, Heavy Winged, that triple 7" Hawkwind tribute - but there have been plenty of outliers as well, the kosmische synth sprawl of Cloudland Canyon, the noisebliss of Our Love Will Destroy The World, the hypno-kraut grooves of Cave, and we could go on. But recently, the label seems to have been revealing another side, a more... electronic side. There was the twisted electronic weirdness of Tlaotlon, as well as the unexpected electronic turn on Gnod ultra minimal Presents... Dwellings & Druss, and now this, the first we've heard from The 15 Dead Minutes, who apparently have been a band for a decade plus, and who according to the label are infamous for some seriously intense live shows, but we're not talking rock shows obviously, we're talking sweaty underground danceclubs, strobelights and swirling smoke, this is some dense, rhythmic, druggy, post electro industrial throb, the band unfurling long sprawls of mesmerizing loops, and pulsing, pulsating rhythms, 303's, 909's, the sound raw and rough, dark and sinister, groovy and danceable sure, but all cast with a weird shadowy sonic underbelly, that infused the jams here with a definitely density and intensity.
Four tracks, each one essentially a single blast of rhythmic crunch, or dizzying electro skitter, or spaced out abstract stutter. The opener "The Runaway" is thick and caustic, corrosive and crunchy, the sounds distorted and blown out, the vibe soundtracky as much as dancey; the follow up "Children Of The 303" gets way spacier and more minimal, the beats crackly and crunchy, but more spare and skeletal, a muted bass throb, the whole thing laced with some old school acid squelch. The flipside starts out with another bumping electro blowout, the sounds WAY more aggressive than most dance music, making this the sort of fierce industrial electro-crush, that even space heads and psychlords can get into. Cuz it most definitely is psychedelic, weird wavery minor key rhythms, dubbed out beats, woozy textures, loads of FX, all tangled up into some seriously fierce writhing sprawls of alien dancefloor mesmer, culminating in the droned out minimal murk of closer "Internal Dialogue", which more than any of the tracks here reminds us of recent dark abstract electronica from folks like Silent Servant and Prurient.
The lp includes a download, that gets you the four album tracks proper, but also two bonus tracks, both of which are heady bass heavy slabs of noise drenched psychedelic electro. Already sold out at the label, these are the last copies we'll likely be able to get...
Split cd between L.A.s legendary sludgesters 16 and the completely maniacal Today Is The Day. 16 (who you can check out at the Sight Sounds Liberties festival Jan 31 if you live in SF) have been around forever, and their sound hasn't changed a whole lot,
The undead never tire and we never tire of them.
It seems 16 Bitch Pile Up don't either. This is their new zombie themed album. Sarah Bernat, Sarah Cathers and Shannon Walter's particular brand of gratings, dronings and groanings do indeed resemble the sounds one would imagine a crusty zombie would make as s/he dragged half-shorn limbs across a deserted junkyard -- snagging flaps of decomposed flesh on random rusted detritus. A horrorsome gnarl of unwashed murky experimental noise.
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Long overdue reissue of the impossible to find early releases from Swiss extremist free jazz / outrock outfit 16-17! Because of using saxophone, 16-17 were always tagged as some kind of 'jazz' group, but if this was jazz, it was a kind of jazz no one had EVER imagined at the time, extreme and difficult listening for sure, like Borbetomagus filtered through the Swans or like a snake charmer high on PCP jamming with Prong's rhythm section. Or even a free jazz Whitehouse! 16-17 were a shrieking banshee, a pummeling behemoth, massive, ear shredding, primitive horn blasting freakout predating Zorn's extreme jazz (Painkiller et. al.) by at least seven years. This trio (saxophonist Alex Buess, drummer Knut Remond and guitarist Markus Kneubuhler) wove tight, tense grooves of pounding drums, pulsing thick ropy low end guitar throb, and atop it ,all Buess' wildly squealing, squirming, snarling sax. 16-17 sound was so intense and far out, and so much modern music can be heard in these tracks, Flying Luttenbachers, Laddio Bolocko, Aufgehoben No Process, Painkiller, a few years later and maybe Buess would be celebrating HIS 50th birthday with star studded NYC performances and multiple cd releases, but as it is, these guys remained a footnote, lurking on the periphery, making common cause with Kevin Martin's God and Alboth and the even the Digital Hardcore label, their legacy indisputable, modern music's debt unrepayable, so thanks to Savage Land we can all now genuflect before the Gods of ultra extreme hardcore free jazz post punk whatthefuck, hear where it all started, feel the same thrill folks must have felt stumbling into some dingy New York dive when 16-17 came over and toured with the Swans, and being fucking flattened by these guys.
Includes the first two albums, Self Titled (1986) and When All Else Fails (1989) as well as the ULTRA rare Hardkore & Buffbunker cassette (1984). Two discs wrapped in a cardboard slipcover. Transferred from the best available sources, digitally remastered by Weasel Walter (Flying Luttenbachers) and this is the very first time ANY of this music has been available on cd!
WARNING: You -should- play this loud. But still, be careful! Make sure any of your easily-aggravated housemates aren't asleep. Move breakable objects out of the way. Take your heart medication. All reasonable precautions before subjecting yourself to the might of 16-17's newly reissued Gyatso.
The music of Switzerland's 16-17 has been called industrial free jazz. And it's certainly got the swarming, squealing saxophones of the most freaked out free jazz we've heard. But with its industrial/metallic elements, the BRUTAL trance-inducing grind of martial drumming and guitar chuggery, maybe "free" jazz isn't the word. How 'bout "totalitarian jazz"? When we previously highlighted the two-cd Early Recordings collection of 16-17's '80s output, we described the band as the "Gods of ultra extreme hardcore free jazz post punk whatthefuck". Ok, that's about right.
Well, Gyatso, originally released in 1994 on Kevin Martin's long gone Pathological imprint (home to Martin's projects like Techno Animal, God, and Ice, as well as crucial discs by Oxbow, Peter & Caspar Brotzmann, Terminal Cheesecake, Zeni Geva, etc.) was even more insane than the stuff on Early Recordings, being to us the pinnacle of 16-17's recorded existence. The thing is, this album takes their earlier excesses into a whole new realm, finally getting their music the heavy duty production treatment it deserved. It's about the heaviest "jazz" ever! Basically, imagine Godflesh teamed up with Peter Brotzmann and this is about what you'd get. The aggressive, constantly-escalating tension of machine-gunning opener "Attack-Impulse" pretty much wipes the floor with all other contenders, going beyond the likes of Zorn's Painkiller or fellow Swiss maniacs Alboth! It simply kills. Having done so, for the rest of the disc 16-17 make sure you stay good and dead with an expansive onslaught of repetitive, rigid rhythms and psychedelic skree-scapes, with brassy bass drone and high-end sax skronk swimming in an ominous electronic miasma. A couple extra-noisy remixes are included at the end to wrap things up in the most extreme manner possible. (These appeared on the original version too.)
The trio responsible for making this masterwork consisted of Alex Buess (screaming saxophones and bass clarinet), Markus Kneubuhler (guitar, electronics and tapes), and the relentless Knut Remond on drums. Also, this disc features a couple very special guests: on utterly sick, thuddering bass, there's Ben "G.C." Green of (indeed) Godflesh fame. And providing electronic samples, Pathological head honcho Kevin Martin.
This essential reissue has been digitally remastered by Weasel Walter (Flying Luttenbachers), and comes with a thick booklet of extensive new liner notes based on interviews with Buess and Martin, discussing the history of the band. We were fascinated to learn that Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine was such a big fan of 16-17 that back in 1995, he actually invited Alex Buess to work with him on the (still unrealized) follow up to Loveless! Who would have guessed? Apparently Alex spent a month in the studio with MBV, without much to show for it unfortunately... though we'd be still interested to hear what they were up to..
But, it surely couldn't be anything like this, there's nothing better as far as "ultra extreme hardcore free jazz industrial" or whatever is concerned!!
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Swiss jazzcore group lead by saxophonist Alex Buess, with production assistance from Techno-Animal's Kevin Martin, contribute four tracks to the Digital Hardcore label. Strangely, not as brutal as some of their past work (like the amazing Gyatso cd) but still brilliant, similiar in some ways to DHR's Shizuo. Recommended.
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A couple of copies of this 1989 lp found their way out of the hidden corners of one of our distributors' warehouses... 16-17, who recently released an ep on Digital Hardcore, are a Swiss outfit led by horn player Alex Buess, who unleash a seemingly never-ending avalanche of sax squeals and skronks on top of bleating electronics and high-octane drum machine arrhythmia. Intense! (and, you're not likely to see this again!)
Debut full length from this boy/girl duo, who traffic in a twisted strain of avant electro pop, dark and moody, gleefully profane, and woozily hypnotic. It's a dizzying concoction, equal parts the murky slo-mo soul of groups like Vessel, oOoOO, the low slung downtempo of Portishead, and the eighties new wave pop of Berlin maybe. Trust unfurls like skeletal minimal electro pop, all primitive drum machine and glimmering synths, but this is far from straight up electro pop, it's twisted and experimental, with a drugged out witch-house feel, and yet somehow remaining glistening and futuristic and super polished. We also get a Blade Runner / Blue Velvet vibe, especially in the vox, the female vocals detached, sung-spoken, icy and witchy but so creepily sexy, just check out "Midnight Lucy" which might be our favorite of the bunch, with a cosmic bleeping, blooping melody, surrounded by clouds of birdsong, the boy, for some reason, clearing his throat occasionally, while the girl gets all ice queen, and delivers some of the record's best/most ridiculous lyrics. There's some sort of rapping too, but the chorus is a killer, it's the sort of track that you could imagine spinning in a scene from some weird art film, a dance floor filled with dead eyed club zombies, shuffling slowly in clouds of dry ice, it's mesmerizing and hypnotic, a slow motion anthem, that twists and turns continually, with some falsetto crooning woven in, the song gradually fading out in yet another cloud of birds. The bird theme resurfaces on "Crow", a sort of subtle banger with a beat crafted from the caw of a crow. And while it's really the girl's show, the boy's vocals are pretty great too, and all over the map, a hushed whisper most of the time, but sometimes slipping into some proper crooning (check out "Almost Leaving"), and when he raps, he somehow sounds a little bit like a less ridiculous Hawd Gangstuh Rappuhs MC's Wid Gatz!
The sound is in constant flux, whether it's the crumbling ambience of "Jets", with its stuttery, syrupy groove, or the echo drenched dubbiness of "Drawl", that dubbiness wrapped in thick rumbling synths, or the barebones dreaminess of "Leaving", or the hazy hip-hoppiness of "OIXU", which features some nasty vox, which when slathered in vocoder remind us a little of a more wasted Uffie, or the string laden "Son", which also features some super weird FX heavy pitch shifted vocals. The tracks the boy sings reminds us of Tricky a lot of the time, the same sort of mumbling minimal beatscapery, super moody and murky, but here a bit more fractured and fucked up.
We weren't entirely sure what to make of this on the first few listens, the girl's vox are definitely a bit of an acquired taste, but honestly, it didn't take us long at all to acquire it, and now we're kind of obsessed, and find ourselves wanting to listen to little else.
Not to be confused with another current young, numerically named band The 1990s who hail from Scotland, Chicago, IL's The 1900s actually sound more Scottish than those Glaswegians! Last year the half dozen songs on the band's Plume Delivery debut release had us delighted us with its lovely pop dreaminess, and we're happy to report that Cold And Kind picks right up where that ep left off. This full length of a dozen unabashed ice cream-y toothsome sweetheart tunes are still very much for fans of Scottish cozy popsters Belle & Sebastian, but we bet it'll also tickle the ears of fans of Stars, The Concretes, Kings Of Convenience, Peter Bjorn And John. Kind? Yessiree! Cold? No way! The 1900s will give you nothing but the warmest of fuzzy feelings!
Wonderful breezy pop very much in the vein of Belle And Sebastian that also reveals a moodier side. Dare we say that this 6-song ep by Chicago sextet The 1900s almost makes for a better B&S follow-up to Dear Catastrophe Waitress than The Life Pursuit! Yes, we do. Much like those Scots' last few lush albums, The 1900s' Plume Delivery comes fully decked out with organs, harpsichord, violin, keyboards, horns. Of course, that alone wouldn't mean much if the bountiful instrumental palette wasn't put to good use, but it certainly is. The 1900s incorporate it all seamlessly into such lovely melodies and glorious arrangements. But the super dreaminess comes from the vocal department, Caroline Donovan and Jeanine O'Toole's voices alternately remind us of Isobel Campbell and Laetitia Sadier, while mainman Edward Anderson's voice can easily be compared to Belle And Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch. If you dig the sounds of the abovementioned bands as well as The Delgados, Call And Response, Young & Sexy and Mates Of State, you might also take a shine to The 1900s. A super delight from start to finish!
This is some seriously fuzzy, muddy ass kicking ROCK. There's some sort of pedigree here (Brother JT and some other randomness) but it hardly prepares you for the rock and roll attack. This is basically all instrumental, 'classic' rock, but with some Fushitsusha style freakouts and some downright friendly melodies, swathed in feedback and tape hiss and all run through that lo-fi/low-brow Siltbreeze filter. Think Comets On Fire, Zen Guerilla, Musica Transonic, Van Halen, the MC5 all stripped down and fuzzed out, with nods to post rock, space rock, free rock and just a tiny hint of that Siltbreeze/noise-rock sheen. But mostly just ROCK!
MPEG Download: "Webbed Toes" [/audio/1929webbedtoes.mp3]
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Not to be confused with another similarly numerically named band The 1900's who call Chicago home... 1990's are from Glasgow. They rose from the ashes of Scottish indie pop band The Yummy Fur. This is their debut album!
Judah Bauer takes a break from his role as axe slinger with Jon Spencer to once again indulge his 20 Miles desire to channel the gaunt ghosts of the Stones. Not a great departure from his work in the Blues Explosion, this is just kinda average blues rock that can't decide whether to fire things up or bring it dooown, and as a result falls flat at both. The songs on Keep It Coming just sound like those of a lackluster bar band coming up short in distinct personality, genuine grit, and hard-livin' attitude... some of the key ingredients for prime rockin' blues tunes.
The second release from this San Francisco pop group unveils a looser, much more confident presence with an added dash of pop bombast. Brings to mind a hybrid of REM and - as with their previous release - the Throwing Muses with its well-executed, slightly twisted melodies, slinky guitars, and varied tempos... not to mention the very Stipe-esque male and Hersh-ish female vocals.
20 Minute Loop have made absolute leaps and bounds since their sophomore release back in 2001... heck, that album, Decline of Day, was already pretty damn good! For one thing they've polished their boy / girl vocals to an utter golden honeyed glow and lushed up the whole 20ML picture. Just check out the second song "Cora May"! A terrific pop tune! Indeed, this album does much to define their own sound from those who've influenced the band which in the past were much more apparent -- namely Throwing Muses and Breeders. Really, Yawn + House = Explosion should garner the band total 'college radio darling' status! Yay!
If you were to combine the energy and raw emotion of P.J. Harvey or Ani Difranco, the pacing and melodic swoops of the Throwing Muses, and the boy/girl vocals of the late P.E.E., you just might find 20 Minute Loop in your ears. If this sounds pleasing, you should definitely check out the debut album from this Bay Area group.
Here we have, well let's call it a "couple project", combining the talents of Ben Chasny (Six Organs Of Admittance) and Elisa Ambrogio (Magic Markers). What's that gonna sound like, you may wonder? Well it's a lot more on the gentle folky Six Organs side of things, that is, not at all noisy like MM can be. Acoustic guitars all the way. So, kinda like a mellow Six Organs, but with female vocals. A lot's gonna depend on how you feel about Ambrogio's singing. Her voice is perfectly fine, and intimately recorded, with a weariness to her delivery, and a bit of girlish affectation, not necessarily like what we remember from Magik Markers, though they did get more tuneful on 2007's Boss at least. And her singing is the prime focus here, with the pleasant guitars more of an accompaniment.
Let's just say this is very "coffee house" sounding. Nice music and all, if perhaps not the most interesting or out-there Six Organs related thing we've ever heard. But give the sound samples a listen, maybe you'll be in the mood for the languid strum and sweet singing here, if you're a Six Organs fan or otherwise.
The seminal experimental funk outfit 23 Skidoo has finally re-released their mid-'80s single "Coup." Not long ago the Chemical Brothers sampled the funky rhythm on "Coup", but avoided giving 23 Skidoo any money by re-programming the rhythm digitally, which
23 Skidoo's music lies somewhere between the sonic experimentation found in the primitive electronics of early Industrial Culture (especially Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle, and early Current 93) and the spartan New York funk of Liquid Liquid and ESG. 23 Skidoo themselves said it best when they defined their sound as "Urban Gamelan" (using this term to title one of their albums).
On this 12", the a-side "Coup" actually falls a little flat in relation to their preceding work, as the angular slap bass lines and punchy rhythmic stabs are far too obvious for 23 Skidoo's bizarre production. However, "The Gospel Comes To New Guinea" finds the group at their finest with a simple dark bass line driving through complex percussion and a haunted trumpet floating in the distance. This puts contemporary postrock/electronica darlings like Fridge and Four Tet to shame! DJs, please pick this up.
You may be familiar with hyperbole like "this is one of my favorite records" popping up throughout the our reviews and you may wonder if that declaration really means anything. Obviously, there are many of us who write this list with lots of opinions as to
While electronica darlings like Andrew Weatherall, The Chemical Brothers, and Gilles Peterson all proclaim "Coup" as the pinnacle of 23 Skidoo's catalogue, I boldly mutter "Hogwash! 'Seven Songs' is easily 23 Skidoo's best work!" 23 Skidoo recorded this album during a three day period in 1981 with production by "Tony, Terry, and David" (aka Genesis P-Orridge, Peter Christopherson, and Ken Thomas). With those three behind the mixing board, 23 Skidoo obviously enjoys a similiar spirit of sonic experimentation as invoked by the founders of Industrial Culture. Yet, 23 Skidoo also employs the death-disco of PiL, A Certain Ratio, and Gang of Four, often played on homemade junkyard instruments built to replicate Indonesian gamelan. This bizarre hybridization of styles has few if any parallels, but 23 Skidoo's eclecticism and experimentation are never so alien as to not also be funky, melodic, and infectiously catchy.
Just as Windy places Os Mutantes near the top of her musical pantheon, Andee proudly proclaims his infatuation with Hanoi Rocks, and Allan drools over all things Magma, I say that if you're at all like me, you won't be disappointed by 23 Skidoo's "Seven Songs"!
Dating back to 1983, The Culling Is Coming was originally released on the L.A.Y.L.A.H. label, which also released some of the strongest work from Current 93, Coil, Laibach, and The Hafler Trio. This 23 Skidoo album stands as a notable detour from their martial rhythms fused with agitated, post-punk funk which found them lumped in with the likes of The Pop Group, Cabaret Voltaire, and Hula. One of those albums clearly based on the vinyl medium, The Culling Is Coming was split between two 23 minute sides featuring sprawling abstractions that were alternately meditative and aggressive. The first of which featured 23 Skidoo members / brothers Alex & Johnny Turnbull performing on the gamelan at the Dartington Music College, and then taking the results back into the studio to be put into a more coherent composition. While they cite the instrumentation as being Balinese, the first passage of this piece is clearly Javanese in nature with interlocking bells, kendangs, and gongs repeating a simple decending melody whilst the rhythmic structure varies in speed. Given the instrumentation, Balinese references do become evident later on; but at the same time also speak of Harry Partch's handmade percussive compositions. Over 23 minutes, this track gradually devolves into a dreamy collage of quietly resonating gongs. The second piece is a live recording at the WOMAD festival in 1982, which found Current 93's David Tibet making a guest appearance on the Tibetan trumpet. Defying the crowd who were expecting the disfigured funk found on Seven Songs, 23 Skidoo improvised around multiple tape loops, metallic percussion, and slabs of dissonant noise. The Culling Is Coming did enjoy a CD release over a decade ago, but LTM's re-issue features an equally long and confrontational track which was taken from the backing tapes that 23 Skidoo used during their 1982 tour with Cabaret Voltaire. Not for the faint of heart.
23 Skidoo's agenda throughout the early to mid '80s took a number of drastic turns, which are clearly manifest in "The Gospel Comes To New Guinea," a collection of rarities, compilation tracks, and singles dating back to that time period. The band presented throughout that time as a musical aggregate of rough-hewn disco, punk aggression, ghostly dub schizophonia, and a unique ethnomusicology of Afro-funk and Javanese gamelan. Their musical productions were tempered not only by a leftist radicalism against the '80s Tory politics, but also by a desire to destabilize the orientalist traditions of Victorian England which liberally appropriated from any number of former British colonies. As World Music entered the general consciousness as a smiley-happy repackaging of indigenous populations as noble savages making romantic music, 23 Skidoo plunged much deeper and darker into the realms of the sublime with their death disco grooves thickened by eerie backing tapes, dynamic percussion, and spidery guitars.
That said, their very first single "Ethics" (which is the finale to this compilation) shows the vast distances they travelled in order to get to their masterpiece, the "Seven Songs" album. It's a pleasant late '70s punk tune, obviously influenced by Buzzcocks, Fast Records productions, and "Boys Don't Cry" era Cure. But in less than a year, 23 Skidoo had ventured though skittering, dub influenced punked-disco found on the "Last Days" single to get to the ominous track "The Gospel Comes To New Guinea," built on a undulating menace from a relentless bassline that simply alternates between two notes, alongside haunting trumpet bleatings and a taut percussive groove worthy of comparisons to Fela Kuti or Tony Allen. The "Tearing Up The Plans" EP from 1982 is also included in its entirety, paralleling the sound on "The Gospel" with even greater emphasis on anxiety and dis-ease.
1984 proved to be a big turning point for 23 Skidoo as they released the "Coup" single, a track that found them firmly engaging a friendly funk that mirrored the '80s productions of Adrian Sherwood. It's funky, it's dumb, it was their biggest hit. After this, 23 Skidoo faltered pretty severely into a well polished drum machine 'n' sample sound that doesn't even come close to the brilliance of their earlier work. Fortunately, this compilation only has a couple of these mid-'80s disasters, and has enough fantastic tracks to warrant the price of admission, even if you have to skip a couple of the duds in the middle.
Originally released on LP back in 1984 on Illuminated Records, and only seeing a few seconds of shelf life as a cd re-issue in the early '90s, "Urban Gamelan" is the aptly named third album from 23 Skidoo, back again on cd! This British trio developed one of
"Urban Gamelan" finds 23 Skidoo addressing two distinct aesthetics, the first being their post-apocalyptic funk (which had been previously mapped out on their first album "Seven Songs") and the second emphatically pronouncing their faux-gamelan sound. The album in fact begins with a remix / reworking of their hit single "Coup," which has had the infamy of getting ripped off by the Chemical Brothers. Driven by counterpoints of bass and distant bursts of haunted trumpets, the first half of the album recalls some of Pop Group's dub fuckery, with an inclination for a more natural funk. 23 Skidoo then drops all of the electric instruments for an exhibition of their complete gamelan repetoire. If you ever thought that Einsturzende Neubauten or Test Dept. needed to get their groove on, then you definitely need to check out 23 Skidoo. The 23 Skidoo reissues may be some of the most important to come out this year. It will be well worth your while to check these out!!!
An amazing kind of soft-psychedelic breeze must be blowing over whatever strange and mysterious land Numero Group call home as their two most recent recent deep vault discoveries have both sizzled in a soft psychedelic glow of vibrant color. Last time we heard from this always amazing reissue/rediscovery label it was the late 60's psych-pop delights offered by Pisces. This time out it's the early '70s soft psychedelic soul of 24 Carat Black. Conceived, produced and orchestrated by the amazingly talented Dale Warren whose delicate touch can be heard on various records released on Motown and Stax including choice cuts from Isaac Hayes, The Staple Singers, Eddie Floyd and Albert King. As seductive and rich in his orchestration and production as fellow soul magic makers like Charles Stepney and Norman Whitfield, Warren also had a kind of vivid imagination and singular vision much like aQ fave David Axelrod. He took a little known Cincinnati group called The Ditalians under his wing and had them change their name to 24 Carat Black and released their 1973 album Ghetto: Misfortune's Wealth on Stax. A record that has become big time fodder for rare groove lovers and was sampled by hip-hop artists like Digable Planets and Young Disciples.
While that record has enjoyed cult-status by a new generation, it was, sadly, a commercial flop, so the follow up record was never released. Luckily Numero Group has given this deeply satisfying record the day in the sun it so rightly deserves. This is a record filled not only with a soft psych-soul vibe but also such intense emotional weight and an overall feeling which should speak loudly to fans of What's Going On era Marvin Gaye, Rotary Connection and Ramp. We also get the feeling that if she hasn't already, Erykah Badu would find so much inspiration here, and these guys would for sure be kindred soul spirits. Truly a lost classic. Thank you once again Numero Group!
Everybody went nuts for that recently reviewed Unicorn cd-r and rightfully so. Easily one of the most beautiful ambient drone records in recent memory. So we figured we ought to pick up this split that was released recently as well. 2673 are a mysterious outfit, not just in name, but in sound as well. Their (or his?) three tracks are ultra simple explorations of sine waves and white noise. Two tracks of simple tones, barely audible, that subtly shift over the course of each piece. The other track is a caustic burst of jagged crumbling old fashioned NOISE. Harsh and brutal and speaker shreddingly loud. Unicorn are a little less tranquil here, but no less satisfying. Ultra minimal, expansive drones, constructed from fuzzed out melodies that sound like they could have been wrenched from an electric guitar, but are transformed into lovely muted swirls of distorted loveliness. The first and the last track are creepy and strangely harrowing, a threatening buzz beneath warm washes of distant keening high end, alien vocal melodies and rhythmic pulses of analogue fuzz. The three tracks between are barely there rumbles, thick drones stretched thin, a wispy sonic murmur, traces and barely visible outlines of songs faded and forgotten. So so nice.
Delicate post-rockisms falling much closer to the Louisville sound (especially For Carnation) than the Chicago fusion sound. Comes in a gorgeous letter-pressed sleeve.
The '80s and a good portion of the '90s were, for a lot of people, all about indie rock. And 28th Day were right there laying down some of the most bright and lively tracks of the mid '80s, alongside other pioneers like REM and the Replacements, Beat Happening and the Rain Parade. Comprised of the effervescent Barbara Manning on bass, Cole Marquis (Snowmen) on guitar, and present day DIW label / magazine impressario Mike Cloward, 28th Day hailed from Chico, CA and this album contains all of their recordings plus 4 previously unreleased live tracks and 3 previously unreleased demos. Fans of Barbara Manning will find this amped-up, electrified indie rock a welcome addition to the sweeter, purer material found on her later recordings. Furious guitar strumming, a hint of paisley underground psychedelia... some have compared their sound to the British folk rockers Trees.
MPEG Download: "Pages Turn" [/audio/28thpages.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Pages Turn" [/audio/28thpages.m3u]
2nd Gen is the work of Manchester's Wajid Yaseen, whose blistering shards of electro-shock hip-hop have graced a good number of Mille Plateaux's "Electric Ladyland" compilations alongside Alec Empire, Techno Animal, and Fever. "Irony Is" finds itself
The early nineties saw the big Krautrock revival, while more recently we've seen waves of interest in Swedish psychedelic folk reissues and Latin American garage rock of the sixties. But maybe now the next big old thing is '60s-'70s Middle Eastern psychedelic pop music. Really, soon we're gonna have to dedicate a bin here in the store for all the great (and popular) reissues that have been coming out lately, from the "Turkish Delights" and "Hava Narghile" compilations to albums by The Devil's Anvil and John Berberian's Rock East Ensemble, and most recently Erkin Koray's "Elektronik Turkuler".
Now, here's another one for that bin! It's apparently the second album from the three Hur-el brothers (Feridun, Onur, and Haldun), recorded between 1970 and 1975. A rare LP indeed, the original Diskotur pressing worth $1000+ today we're told. Dunno about that, but it's definitely worth eighteen bucks if you're into the undeniably kick-ass combination of traditional Turkish folk styles with the rock n' roll licks of the West. Middle Easternized rollicking pop rock with acid fuzz guitar and electric piano, plus Eastern ethnic percussion and stringed instruments, and emotive vocals in Turkish. Yup, 3 Hur-el play music that's been called "ethno-psychedelic" and "the heavy hashish sound"...real nice. One of the tracks here also appeared on the "Love Peace & Poetry: Asian Psychedelia" compilation. They also have a track on that "Hava Narghile" comp, but that was from an early single, not this album.
