Easily the BEST album whose tracks contain of a lot of seeming nonsense baby babble and backwards tape manipulations (that was originally improvised for Italian radio) we've ever heard. Even if you already think you'd like babbling vocals and tape FX, this is even better than you think. Why? well it helps that it was done by Robert Wyatt, who is a bit of a genius, you know. Of course, if you're a Wyatt fan, you already know you want this 'cause it's basically an UNRELEASED ROBERT WYATT ALBUM FROM 1981.
Now, the title is Radio Experiment as it definitely was an experiment, a successful one, fortunately. Wyatt was invited to come to Rome and spend a week at this radio station's studio, recording his spontaneous creative process during that time frame, whatever might transpire.
The radio people picked the right artist to participate in this project, as Wyatt fully embraced the concept, working in a "blank frenzy", willing to let the end results remain secondary to documenting the work in progress of music making, though as it turned out, the finished music is pretty cool. And strange.
There's seven completed compositions presented on this disc, along with a final 10 minute track that was assembled and edited by the radio program's staff from recordings made surreptitiously during Wyatt's initial "rehearsals" in the studio. He's a one-man band here, playing piano and keys and drums and Jew's harp and other "objects". And singing, overdubbing his voice, which is all over the place, from playfully chopped up burble to weird whisper to high pitched whine to mumbled chatter to, well, actual singing that's quite fragile and pretty. There's plenty of wordless ba ba ba la la la, and other more coherent parts where you can understand the lyrics, in some cases read from political/historical texts. Multitracked and layered, all these pieces have a dreamy, hazy, hallucinatory aspect, somewhat abstract but pleasant, moody and melodic too. Being to a degree improvised, some jazz seeps in from Wyatt's Soft Machine days, and one track in fact is an interpretation, of sorts, of Charlie Parker's "Billie's Bounce".
Overall, a week well spent! Wyatt fans of course should enjoy this, and it also sounds to us like something perhaps This Heat related, and there's lots of current underground, cd-r scene activity featuring fractured pop and rhythmic lo-fi psychedelia and the textural use of the human voice that unknowingly harks back to these archival recordings from 28 years ago, long hidden away but thankfully now issued on cd and vinyl. The way this combines both beautiful pop-iness with really weird methods and sounds seems like something fans of, say, Panda Bear would be totally into. Very recommended!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
The commie genius ex-Soft Machine drummer's first post-paralysis record, circa '74, an all time melancholic prog pop art rock classic and probably our fave Wyatt album ever.
Whetting our appetites for the brand new Wyatt album Cuckooland (due out next week), comes this fab collection --curated by Robt. himself-- of material mainly drawn from BBC radio archives circa 1972 and 1974, at the beginning of his solo career, post-Soft Machine and Matching Mole. But the British eccentric's charisma and radical worldview is just as compelling today as back in the '70s, as the two cuts recorded in 2002-2003 with former Soft Machine bandmate Hugh Hopper prove. Also there's a wonderful 2003 demo version of a song that may be appearing on Cuckooland, called "The Verb". If it is any indication, Cuckooland will be a great album -- in fact, we'd like to hear demos of the whole thing, 'cause the home-demo production almost seems like a significant compositional element, the tape hiss drone something that would be intentional in a modern experimental/electronica context. The majority of this disc is the older stuff, though, and there's a diverse batch on offer, everything from the mostly instrumental soundtrack to the short experimental film from whence this disc's title is taken (which is also included as a Quicktime video!) to a live version of his unlikely hit Monkees cover "I'm A Believer" to a take on one of Matching Mole's best, "God Song". Then there's novelties like the Monty Python-esque "We've Got An Arts Council Grant" silliness, and Wyatt's affecting version of Danny Kaye's "Little Child". Don't play those for any dour Wyatt-doubters among your friends -- instead make sure they hear the gritty, lofi "Solar Flares..." which could be something from a New Zealand artist on the Celebrate Psi Phenomena or Psuedoarcana labels, when it's actually a 1974 recording by the ex-drummer of a pioneering jazz fusion band! Definitely an essential collection for fans, who will be delighted by the music as well as the copious notes and photos in the booklet. For those new to Wyatt, it's a good sampler, showcasing his trademark untrained vocals and his quirky songwriting craft. Nice!
This double cd set celebrates the work of UK music legend Robert Wyatt (who started his career in Soft Machine and went on to have quite a cult following with his solo career). He hasn't performed for over twenty years, but with his consent and guidance a group of musicians who have collaborated with him in the past (including musical director/trombonist Annie Whitehead, vocalist Julie Tippetts and guitarist Phil Mazanera) got together to perform his songs live in London and Nottingham in 1999. Features music from his solo albums, up to and including his most recent, "Shleep". Interesting and kinda weird to hear these songs without Wyatt's unique vocals, definitely something for fans to check out.
Time to don your white robes, brush out your white beards, and slip on your headbands. Yahowa has returned! Well, no, not Father Yod, who perished in a hang gliding accident 33 years ago, but the psychedelic rock band of mortals who survive him: the legendary Yahowa 13! Now the core tribal trio of Djinn Aquarian (guitar), Octavius Aquarian (drums), and Sunflower Aquarian (bass). And they definitely have kept the faith, white robes and headbands and all, biding their time up on Mount Shasta or at Rainbow Gatherings or maybe out in astral space, until the stars were right and the time had come for the music of the Yahowa 13 to again surge forth spreading the word of Yod. Who would have thunk it possible? That they'd be back, and so damn good too?
We wouldn't have believed it, either, but we saw 'em with our own eyes, when they hung out at Aquarius one afternoon not too long ago for a book signing, and then played a fantastic show (well, except for when Sky Saxon joined them on stage, but that's another story...) at the Cafe du Nord that same night. Wow. (There's a live LP document of that show, actually, entitled Feather Of Wisdom, that we haven't ever listed but do still have a few copies of in stock, act quick if you want one!).
Yep, Sonic Portation, their first studio album in over 30 years, is good. Better even than several of the original Yahowa discs in the totemic God And Hair box set! Seriously. The track record of bands from the distant past "getting the band back together" and doing something worthwhile is often dismal, with some pleasant exceptions (like Trad Gras Och Stenar, of whom this reminds us!). So that this is so good is a sweet blessing. A blessing consisting of hypnotically throbbing, head nodding, guitar-heavy psych rock in service to the power of Yod, his presence still felt. It begins with the longest of the six jams on the disc, "E Ah Oh Shin", pushing 12 minutes. The other songs are shorter, though we'd be happy if they'd gone on longer... the completely enthralling, choppily rhythmic chant of "Yod Hey Vau Hey", which we recall as a highlight of their live show, is here only a mere, uh, 4:20. Of course the whole album flows together in a spiritual and improvisatory trance-state anyway. The sorta Circle-ish rhythm section gets into a groove around which Djinn's guitar does various far out things. From shimmering blissfulness (he plays with a feather, sometimes) to heavy washes of distortion, Djinn's sound hints at everything from surf music to oldies garage rock n' roll to the Sun City Girls. The group's music is mostly instrumental, with some weird vocals chanting or growling in the background once in a while. But the instrumental interplay is key. The Higher Key.
We started off this review with the assumption that this would be for folks already hip to the whole Ya Ho Wa thing (as so many AQ customers are). But even if you -weren't- already a knowledgeable fan of this group's cult (in more than one way) output from the '70s, when they existed as the musical arm of The Source, an LA religious commune led by the charismatic, bearded guru known as Father Yod, we'd recommend this. Heck if this wasn't Yahowa 13, but some kids named Crystal Master Antjler or something, we'd still be all over it. As would Arthur magazine, and all the hippy hipsters of today. Make it a limited edition cd-r release, with handmade covers, and tell us it's some spaced out new band from of freaks from Finland or Japan, and we'd be convinced. Seriously (again). We always have said the original Ya Ho Wa stuff was the closest West Coast American psych came to the best krautrock, and again this is krautrock like Acid Mothers Temple is krautrock. Three decades later, their love and dedication shines through. Whatever you think of religious cultish hippyish stuff, it's kinda heartening that these guys are still so into it! And we're into it too. What a fantastic reunion. Most mystically recommended!!!
PS for those who want to learn more about Ya Ho Wa, we still have copies of the aforementioned book, The Source.... look up our review elsewhere on this site.
A weird musical mix here from this brutal metalcore / post rock / uh, jazz fusion? band from Chicago. We were prepared for it, though, having previously liked and reviewed their debut album Way Of The Dead a couple years ago. In that review we said that only weirder metal band on the Century Media roster was Japanse black metal bizarros Sigh (both bands have moved on to new labels since then). Perhaps unsurprisingly, the saxophone player (yes, saxophone player) from Yakuza guested on the most recent Sigh album. And now Yakuza are back with a new full-length, just as heavy and arty as before. They remind us a bit of Iceburn (the vocals, the jazz influence) but heavier, more in the direction of Neurosis and Isis. Massive sonics throughout, with unexpected styles and instrumentation mixed in. The songs here blenderize tech grind mayhem, hardcore screaming, Alice In Chains style clean vocals, chamber music, and smooth jazz chops, and don't make as much a mess of it as you might expect... No, this works for us. If you're into the likes of Fantomas or Kayo Dot we'd imagine this might work for you too. Avant-cellist Fred Lonberg-holm shows up as a guest, as does one of the Mastodon dudes. That maybe tells you something right there.
For all the things that are truly great about working in a record store, on of the only real bummers is that sometimes it's kinda hard to be surprised by new music, in most cases, we know when a record is coming long before it's out, and often we get to hear albums before they're released, so some of the musical excitement we grew up with is gone, and we sometimes really miss that thrill of making a special trip to the record store only to discover some record you didn't even know about. So when it does happen, we freak out big time. Similarly, being the music nerd obsessives we are (and most of you are too), we're constantly on the hunt for new sounds, and for new favorites, and the one thing we DO still experience, is stumbling upon a record, and being blown away by the crazy cover art, or the weird name, or both, only to find that the music inside more than lives up to that unspoken promise, which is precisely what happened with the oddly monickered Yamantaka // Sonic Titan (and yeah, that double back slash is part of the name), not a split between two bands, but a duo, who the label describe as being a "pan-Asian cultural collective" based in Canada, whose two person lineup is expanded to eight members for this record, and whose eclectic lineup includes a traditional Mohawk singer, and the sound, WOW, not just a pleasant surprise, but a total revelation. The label describe YT // ST as being "for fans of Boredoms, Flower Travellin' Band, Taj Mahal Travellers, Deep Purple, J-Pop and Chinese Opera", and whenever you read such an over the top impossibly rad comparison, you sort of feel obligated to call hyperbole/bullshit, but the weird thing, as impossible as it seems, we might have come up with something similar, although we would add something about math rock / post rock / noise rock, and would definitely include Blonde Redhead, the vocals are occasionally a dead ringer for Kazu Makino, albeit much more washed out and druggy, and there's definitely some of the hyper Magmoid prog of Hundred Sights Of Koenji / Koenjihyakkei going on, but not so hyper, a little more toned down and stretched out into woozy rhythmic mesmer. As with all great records, this stuff is actually really difficult to describe, although odds are by now, some of you are already flipping out over the above comparisons.
The record opens with a brief bit of ritualistic ambience, the sound of rainfall and distant thunder, reverbed vocal harmonies, like the chanting of some astral female monks, all swirly and druggy and ethereal, which leads directly into "Queens", which unfurls in a haze of strange looped voices and whirring Deep Purple like organs, the vocals come in, and the sound is transformed into a sort of psychedelic indie rock, the melodies though reminiscent o seventies British acid folk, the rainfall present throughout, haunting and liturgical, epic and mysterious, and then the drums kick in, super distorted, in-the-red, the guitars coalesce into some serious riffage, splintering off into psychedelic swirls, the sound blown out, but dreamily so, until the blown out indie rock haze devolves into some seriously heavy, churning mathy pound and crunch, the vox processed into dizzying loops, blurred into the organs and the swirling psychedelia. So good. Imagine a way heavier, mathier, tripped out psychedelic Blonde Redhead and you might be close. But it only gets better/weirder from there.
After a brief bit of ethereal haze, that sounds like a grittier spaced out lo-fi take on Kate Bush / Cocteau twins, those British folk melodies here rendered in thick corrosive streaks of warm woozy guitar buzz, underpinned by powerful drumming, the sound coalescing into a brooding ballad, heavy and dark and broodingly beautiful.
But then comes "Reverse Crystal // Murder Of A Spider", which feels like the record's centerpiece, beginning with a grinding, crumbling bit of blurred orchestral swell, wreathed in clouds of decayed FX and fractured muted rhythms, the song explodes in a twisted mathy progged out frenzy, like the Ruins meets Nomeansno, only to immediately blossom into a super distorted heavy post rock lope, and then the soaring crystalline vocals come in, and the song is transformed into a bass heavy math prog groove than manages to be impossibly catchy at the same time, with what sound like wordless vocals unfurling a gorgeous and irresistible melody over some serious organ drive prog that sounds almost carnivalesque at times. After a brief tangle of abstract noise and processed tape, the song shifts into its second movement, a muted, rhythmic, almost krautrocky groove, that sounds like This Heat by way of Tortoise, and as the song progresses, the drums distort, the sound gets darker and heavier, the vocals surface adding a swirling spectral layer to the churning rhythmic low end below, before gradually getting more and more abstract and then finally fading out. YT // ST manage in one song what most bands can barely pull off on a whole record.
"Hoshi Neko" starts off sounding almost like some alien Christmas carol, a music box melody over a hushed tinny rhythm, all blurred with FX, and then in come the big distorted drums, and the band locks into a dark sinister groove, that almost sounds like a heavy creepy Stereolab, the vocals here are dramatic, transforming the song into what sounds like some classic sixties girl group songs reimagined as some sort of rhythmic post rock churn. "A Star Over Pureland" is the other long song on the record, and in some ways is competing with "Reverse Crystal // Murder Of A Spider" for sonic centerpiece privileges, and definitely makes a good case, although it's less fully formed songwise, instead it's a killer mathprog workout, the drumming particular, intricate and intense, while the guitars grind and crunch and howl, occasionally splintering into full on psychedelic squalls, there's definitely some sort of White Heaven / Fushitsusha classic Japanese psych going on here, but filtered through groups like Aluk Todolo and the Psychic Paramount, the track constantly morphing, locking into a very Ruins-y groove about midway through replete with strange effected vocal barks, wild Yoko Ono like warbly wails, and some thick buzzing bass, only to return to that strangely hypnotic lurching and stuttering groove and riding it out until the end.
Finally, the record closes with the awesomely and evocatively titled "Crystal Fortress Over The Sea Of Trees", which opens ominously like some sort of John Carpenter cinematic creepfest, but instead launches into some serious mathy post rock, only to have that Carpenter-y synth return, to help the song transition into something more swirling and surreal, but it only briefly, as the drums crash right back down, and the song returns to that opening post-math-psych-prog groove, the sound noisy, with all manner of guitar shards and fragmented melodies and bits of keyboard and strange voices swirling all around it, the song building to a strangely choral sounding drum and vocal coda, before devolving into burst of bass buzz and drum pound before clipping out abruptly, leaving a long stretch of near silence, a barely there distant blur of tinny vocals and ghostlike shimmer.
Definite contender for record of the year, it's available on both cd and lp, the vinyl limited to 500 copies...
Holy shit!!! This has to be our krautrock (re)discovery of the year. Definitely contender for krautrock reissue of the year!! We have been listening to this NONSTOP since it came in. We had heard OF Yatha Sidhra, a German group whose only record, A Meditation Mass, was released in 1974, but until now we had never actually heard it. Apparently the record was massive flop which is utterly shocking hearing this now. Everything we could want in a krautrock record, loooong tracks, simple tribal percussion, flute all over the place, simple effected guitar, crooned almost chantlike vocals, squalls of totally heavy super distorted freaked out psychedelia, wild drumming, tons of effects, as well as long stretches of tranquil drift and fluttery folky shimmer.
The opening movement of the Mass begins with all manner of rumbles and drones, before it slips into a lilting laid back groove, all soft guitar curlicues, spare percussion, warm languid bass, and flittering flute, the track drifts lazily, occasionally erupting into ultra brief psychedelic blowouts, the flute howling, a cacophony of frenzied drumming, only to settle right back into the mellow drift. The second movement is a little more active, the drums more propulsive, piano draped over deep dubby bass, and the flute fired up and swooping wildly, jazzy but still pretty krautrocky.
The third movement is probably our favorite, clocking in at 12 minutes, the song starts out by returning to the opening groove, loping bass, fluttery flute, spare guitar, the drums a bit more aggressive, some angular guitar solos, all wrapped up in tripped out FX, eventually the song shifts into a more upbeat shuffle, the drums getting wilder and more chaotic, the guitar going nuts, spitting out psych leads all over the place, until the band locks into a serious blowout, the guitar white hot, the drums freaking out, the bass swooping back and forth, everything doused in so many effects the whole track seems to crumple and crumble under the weight, flanger and phaser and echo have everything totally tripped out and druggy, the drums and flute engage in a wild battle, a free jazz krautrock psychedelic frenzy, before finally simmering down, and slipping into a super soft lazy lope, the flute floating over a deep bass and minimal drum workout, finishing off with another drum vs. flute freakout, everything again dripping with echo and delay, as of the whole band was slipping deeper and deeper, moving further and further away.
The final movement, revisits the opening, the band slip smoothly back into that original groove, the guitars way more effected, the drums a bit more tribal, the flute still drifting above it all, the whole band locked into a totally dreamy, blissed out krautdrone drift, with the instruments dropping out one by one, eventually leaving just the guitar, wreathed in effects to shimmer and finally fade out.
So freaking amazing. Boggles the mind that these guys, and this record aren't spoken of in hushed reverence and worshipped along with Can and Faust and all the other krautrock legends. Hopefully that will change with this reissue, and even if it doesn't, at least we know how mysterious and magical A Meditation Mass really is...
Packaged in a super spare digipak, with a big book of liner notes (in English and German) and a bunch of photos.
Reissued, remastered, bonus track'd...one of the best Yes albums ever, and yes that IS indeed a compliment. Yes destroy all math-rock/fusion/prog contenders with this monster album.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Instrumental Texas prog-psych outfit, dark bombastic stuff indeed, with heavy keyboard sounds and busy drums. If you picked up the Tarantula Hawk album (record of the week not long ago), this is kinda similar (they recently toured together in fact) but more overtly '70s-style proggy and Magma-oid, less grindy and metallic. Four long tracks, simultaneously hectic and spooky (sometimes just spooky). Cool.
After four long years, and sadly the premature passing of keyboard player Doug Ferguson (RIP), Texas prog-psych juggernaut YETI is back. Their year 2000 album Things to Come... was a dark debut of bombastic instrumental space-rock. This new effort now at last carries on from that record in spirited fashion, the band maybe now even darker and doomier since visited by death. Heavy, gloomy, and apocalyptic, the four long tracks here rumble mightily, signalling to all that when Yeti names an album Volume Obliteration Transcendence they're not kidding around! They still pay homage to their '70s influences (Magma, Universe Zero and so forth), but with more vocals this time, from anguished growls to bizarre choral arrangements, all bathed in distortion. Lumbering riffs and drums recall old Swans, while their spacey phased synths offer a touch of Goblin. Plodding yet hectic. Spacey yet dense. It's a bit like Magma meets Neurosis. And it's a lot like AQ-faves Tarantula Hawk, former tour- and label- mates to Yeti. (The two bands certainly share a lot of qualities -- and fans.) This is an intense, abyssic record utterly recommended for those into heaviness AND proginess. Has there been a darker, dirgier album with mellotron on it than this one?
Ok, we've got one here for anyone into the sludgy, stoner sounds of the likes of Electric Wizard and Sleep!! Yob is perhaps your new favorite band. From Portland, Oregon, these psychedelic doom lords take their chosen genre's obligatory Black Sabbath worship to the extent of incorporating the swingin' jazzy/jammy aspects of the Sabbath sound that most doomsters tend to disregard. Nor do they skimp on the the meaner, rigidly metallic side of the Sabs, or on the mountains of the moon sized riffage doom fans require. Yob is slow motion, sweat leaf'd sludge to the max. Most notably, while their vocalist does dip into a demonic growl at times, mainly he soars like an insane, heavily effected hybrid of Ozzy and Geddy Lee. The result is a remarkably unique sound for a band that unquestionably wears their influences on their collective sleeve. The closest comparision would be to a spaced-out combination of Sleep and Dead Meadow. The three long tracks (18, 7, and 23 minutes) showcase a stoned style that even fuses funk with full-on dirge doom. There's a couple other fine doom metal releases on this weeks' list (Solitude Aeturnus, Well Of Souls). But while those bands' style is to build big castles, these guys tunnel through the earth, out the other side, and into outer space. Recommended.
Another literal warehouse find, from the same place where we found the (now all gone) Leningrad Blues Machine cds listed last time, and it's another one for you Japanophiles, being a compilation released in 1994 of tracks by various and sundry bands that Ruins mastermind drummer/vocalist Tatsuya Yoshida had played in, up 'til then. Since Yoshida was (& still is!) such a crucial part of the Japanese psych/prog/noise underground, the list of bands is kinda nuts. Here's the entire lineup: Ruins, YBO2, Dissecting Table, High Rise, ZOA, Torture Garden (John Zorn's Japanese version of Naked City, also featuring Eye Yamatsuka), Gerogerigegege, Vasilisk, Malinconia, Phaidia, Aburadako, Tairikuotoko vs. Sanmyakuonna, Koenjihyakkei, Zeni Geva, and one more we couldn't figure out the English name of, plus two solo tracks by Yoshida in one-man-band mode (including the very first track, home-recorded by Yoshida way back in '83). Wow. So as well as being a Yoshida collection, it's also pretty good sampler of the Japanese underground circa '83-'93.
Obviously, in many cases, these weren't all HIS projects, the way Ruins are. Yoshida's just such an amazing drummer, that lots of bands wanted him to play with them - even the infamous masturbating Gerogerigegege! Yoshida's mock-operatic vocal stylings also come into play upon occasion (and he plays bass in one band, instead of drums). Although as you might expect, technical prog stuff is a big element of this, the range of styles is surprising, and hard to define, it includes avant-punk, gothic cabaret music, screaming hardcore skronk, industrial noise, garage doom-psych, chaotic RIO funk, and alt-alt-alt-J-pop... We're pretty sure almost all the tracks are exclusive to this comp, almost all of 'em recorded live, not taken from albums. In many cases, they may be the only recorded documentation of Yoshida playing with a particular unit. The songs we did recognize (whether live or the actual studio versions) are all from pretty rare discs anyways. And of course this out of print cd itself is rare too. We checked online, and there's places selling used copies for around $50!! So, Ruins/Yoshida/Japanese music nerds, you'd best act fast! We only found a few... And yes, we'll keep digging at that warehouse and see what else interestin' we might get lucky and discover.
Drummer Tatsuya Yoshida from Japanese prog-crazies the Ruins teams up with Polish pianist Piotr Zabrodzki for these sixteen tracks of advanced "jazz" insanity, recently recorded in Warsaw. We'd never heard of Zabrodzki before, but he more than holds his own with the notoriously hyperkinetic Yoshida, playing distorted bass as well as piano (at the same time? sounds like it -- must be overdubbed, though you never know with a Yoshida project, as he's able to play, like, a half dozen instruments and sing all at the same time, so maybe his friends can too!). The duo's presumably improvised music wildly ranges along an extremely spastically noisy to almost classically jazzy continuum. They attain appropriately Ruins-y levels of Magmoid prog-ness (the throbbing bass pulsations! the octopoidal percussion frenzies!) punctuated with some gargling vocals from Yoshida. The ivories are tickled unto death by Zabrodzki, who plays with "Great Balls Of Fire" ferocity, fractured into the avantgarde abstraction of a Cecil Taylor. It's all very chaotic and complex, manic yet melodic. And meaningful? Maybe, we're puzzled by the African imagery found in the cd packaging, how does that fit with the quasi-scientific sounding song titles ("Permanent Beta Power", "Tri-Command Connector", "Oxymoron 9", "Micronode Examination", "Quick-Core", etc.), or the Poland/Japan connection also celebrated in the cd graphics with the flags of both countries? Who knows, but anyway Ruins/Yoshida fans should dig this, it's another in a long line of interesting, intense duets in which the drummer has taken part. Satoko Fuji is probably jealous.
This curious double LP (now double cd) release was the fifth album from Zamla Mammaz Manna (formerly having been known as Samla Mammas Manna). Fronted by multi-instrumentalist Lars Hollmer, they are probably most known for their work as the backing band on half of Fred Frith's "Gravity" album. The two discs that make up this album reside on opposite ends of the group's musical spectrum. The strangest thing is the fact that they've always been packaged together as a set, not just as a strange reissue whim of the record label. "Schlagerns Mystik" (The Mystery of Popular Music), recorded in 1977, is an extremely off-kilter pop record; a hodge podge of Swedish folk & prog rock fused in a most unlikely & successful way. Filled with double-speed vocal over dubs, the record almost sounds like a children's record gone wrong thanks to drugs, or a far, far less self-conscious Frank Zappa. The closing track, which originally took up the entire b-side of the LP, is an uber-cheesy anthem which would make a great theme song to some early eighties TV show. Listening to this back to back with Frith's "Gravity" sheds a little light into Fred's inspiration on his seminal prog-pop record. The other disc, "For Aldre Nybegynnare" (For Older Beginners), consists of live improvisations recorded by the group between 1976 and 1977. Ranging between brooding, dark and droney atmospherics to call-and-response skronk, though at times plowing into light proggy excursions. Glad to have this back in stock again.
Massive Minneapolis instru-metal discovered (for us) by our friends in Hammers Of Misfortune a few years back in 2004. We instantly became fans upon hearing their first album. As did many of you. They followed that with an equally powerful second album in 2006. Now, another 2 years later, they're up to album number three, and we're proud to have such a burgeoning Zebulon Pike section in our metal bin!
If you haven't heard ZP before, just imagine a mathy yet melodic, all-instrumental, and even more epick version of doomsters The Sword... Or, as we have said before, a mix of old Pelican and The Fucking Champs, with immense twin guitar harmonies and stonery heaviness. There's always been a "post-rock" side to 'em along with the metal, the post-rock coming on strongest on this third effort, with the the 2nd part of their loud-soft dynamics dialing up the atmospheric prettiness over significant stretches of these extended, and otherwise utterly heavy compositions.
They're named after American 1800's explorer Zebulon Pike, but to our ears Zebulon sounds like some sort of science fictional, metallic element found on the extreme edge of the periodic table. As in, "the asteriod is composed almost entirely of solid zebulon." Or, "this chunk of zebulon possesses strange radioactive properties!" So connoting something both heavy and, um, technically advanced. But the being named after the pioneer who lent his name also to Pike's Peak makes sense too, in that ZP's music is not unlike a craggy mountain range, full of peaks and valleys, tall granite spires and bottomless chasms. This is mountainous metal. Their riffs are of avalanche proportions, their long songs (three on this disc, the shortest a mere 10:55, the longest 16:25) move with the inexorable power of giant glaciers, having slow but majestic momentum, though they pick up speed now and then for a sudden rockslide or volcanic eruption. The vast heavens above and beyond those peaks are also visited by ZP, especially on track two, "Star-Ocean", dusted with spacey, Zombi-esque synths in an cosmic interlude at about the 10 minute mark.
It's a mystery to us why this band isn't better known. Why they're still putting out their records themselves on their own label, why they haven't gotten the sort of attention awarded bands like Baroness and Pelican and Mastodon and Om and Hammers... Why aren't they signed to Southern Lord or Hydra Head? Where's the limited picture disc vinyl and diehard boxsets and stuff? What about tours? But they're too good to stay our little secret forever! Anyone into metallic post-rock and/or stonery sludge ought to enjoy exposure to that Zebulon radiation we mentioned...
Zex isn't the only exciting release in the 'Z' section this week! We've also got the new album from longtime aQ faves, Zebulon Pike, instrumental post-metallers extraordinare from St. Paul, Minnesota. Zebulon Pike seem to be one of those bands that we love and think should be bigger than they are, but never seem to hear about except via our own reviews (another example: Combat Astronomy). It's been four years since this quartet's previous opus, Space Is The Corpse Of Time. That one we made a Record Of The Week (so they SHOULD have gotten huge, right?!?) and even in that review we were apologizing for having pretty much exhausted all our superlatives in our previous hyperbolic raves about the band's other albums. So once again we have to fall back on the old standby - if you are a Zebulon Pike fan, you already KNOW you want this; if you aren't, well what part of super heavy epic progressive spacey post rock instrumental metal do you not like??? These guys are the masters!
This new disc features four new, and also of course quite long, tracks. Well, actually the last one, billed as an epilogue, is actually short, a mere two and a half minute ripper, but the others make up for it length-wise, especially the penultimate one, "A Fragile Portal", 18+ minutes long, which is also a ripper (in parts), and furthermore gets extra-fancy with the addition of two saxophones and a contrabass, sparingly deployed - but that arty chamber rock element doesn't stop it from being ultra-lumberingly-heavy, don't you worry, and neither does the eerie lullaby music box chiming part about six minutes in.
As always, anybody with any ZP experience knows to expect perfectly executed, exquisitely crafted, compositions combining minimalist repetition, sheer thundering riffage, complex shifting song structures, super tight instrumental interplay, exciting dynamics, and massive amounts of majestic feeling. Once again, Zebulon Pike compare favorably with a bunch of other big aQ faves... "The White Leopardess" sounds like Stinking Lizaveta on steroids; while opener "Nostalgia (For The Unreal)" immediately reminds us of The Fucking Champs when ZP's dual guitar harmonies arrive, but soon it's like The Champs playing atonal 20th Century classical. Mammatus, Pelican, Pharoah Overlord, Yob, Broughton's Rules and a bunch of others could be namechecked too, though really at this point ZP should be a band we could namecheck alone.
Grab this, strap your instru-metal heaviosity crash helmet on, crank it up, and get ready do some heavy duty loop-de-loops!
MPEG Stream: "The White Leopardess" [/audio/zebulonpikethewhite.m3u]
MPEG Stream: "A Fragile Portal" [/audio/zebulonpikeafragile.m3u] ----* ----* Also Relatively New In Stock, But Not Yet Reviewed : ----* A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS "Transfixiation" (Dead Oceans) cd/lp 13.98/17.98
ABDU ALI "Best Of Abdu Ali" (Deathbomb Arc) cassette 6.98
ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE AND THE MELTING PARAISO U.F.O. "High On Heaven: Live In New Haven" (Safety Meeting) 3lp 38.00
AKATHARSIA "s/t" (Econo Jam) lp 19.98
AKATOMBO "Sometime, Never" (Hand-Held) cd 14.98
ALASTOR / TUNDRA "The Forbidden Fruit Of Purity" (Slava Satan / Total Human Collapse Movement) cd 14.98
AMBARCHI, OREN "Live Knots" (Pan) cd 17.98
ANTWON "Heavy Hearted In The Function" (Ormolycka) cassette 5.98
ART BLAKEY & THE JAZZ MESSENGERS "Mosaic" (Blue Note) lp 21.00
ASS "Live In New Jersey" (self-released) cassette 6.98
ATKINSON, FELICIA "A Readymade Ceremony" (Shelter Press) lp 23.00
AXIS: SOVA "Early Surf" (God?) lp 17.98
BAR STOOL WALKER (BRUCE ANDERSON) "Oh Hey Broadway" (no label) cd 7.98
BARROW WIGHT "Unfinished Tales" (Heavy Chains) cassette 4.98
BELLE & SEBASTIAN "Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance" (Matador) cd/2lp 14.98/31.00
BIRTH CONTROL "Operation" (Zyx) lp 21.00
BLACK SPIRITUALS "Live At Disjecta: High Vibration Resonance Vol. 1" (Tapeworm) cassette 8.98
BLACKSHAW, JAMES "Apologia" (Bladud Flies!) lp 23.00
BLACKWOLFGOAT "Drone Maintenance" (Small Stone) cd 13.98
BLAKULLA "s/t" (Mellotron) lp 29.00
BLANCO, MYKKI "Gay Dog Food" (Ormolycka) cassette 5.98
BOOTLEGS "s/t" (Minotauro) cd 17.98
BOOTLEGS "W.C. Monster" (Minotauro) cd 17.98
BROADCAST "Haha Sound" (Warp) lp 27.00
BROADCAST "Tender Buttons" (Warp) lp 25.00
BROADCAST & THE FOCUS GROUP "Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio Age" (Warp) lp 25.00
BROTHERS OF THE SONIC CLOTH "s/t" (Neurot Recordings) cd 14.98
BROTZMANN, PETER / JIM O'ROURKE / KEIJI HAINO "Two City Blues" (Trost) lp 24.00
BROWNOUT "Brownout Presents: Brown Sabbath" (Ubiquity) cd 15.98
BUTLER, WILL "Policy" (Merge) lp 17.98
CARAGNANO, ANNA / DONATO DOZZY "Sintetizzatrice" (Spectrum Spools) lp 22.00
CARIBOU VIBRATION ENSEMBLE "CVE Live 2011" (self-released) lp 36.00
CARTER, DEAN "Call Of The Wild" (Big Beat) lp 23.00
CHAIN, PAUL "Live Tape 2" (Minotauro) cassette 9.98
CHAIN, PAUL "Live Tape 3" (Minotauro) cassette 9.98
CHAIN, PAUL "Unreleased Vol. 2" (Minotauro) cd 17.98
CHAIN, PAUL "Whited Sepulchres" (Minotauro) cd 17.98
CHAIN, PAUL VIOLET THEATRE "Opera 4th" (Minotauro) cd 17.98
CHERRY, DON "Complete Communion" (Blue Note) lp 21.00
CLENT, DJ "Last Bus To Lake Park" (Duck N' Cover) 2lp 24.00
CLOAK "Succumb" (Transylvanian Tapes) cassette 4.98
CODE III "Planet Of Man" (Wah Wah Records) lp 35.00
COLE LODGE "RNB" (Death Records) cassette 4.98
COLLINS, LYN "Think (About It)" (Get On Down) lp+7" 35.00
CONSUMER ELECTRONICS "Repetition Reinforcement" (Diagonal) 12" 17.98
COSMIC DEALER "Crystallization" (Pseudonym) 2lp 38.00
CRAVING ANGEL "Dark Horse" (Minotauro) cd 17.98
CRYPT VAPOR "Erotik Maniac" (Heavy Chains) cassette 4.98
DAMON & NAOMI "Fortune" (20/20/20) lp 15.98
DECEMBERISTS, THE "What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World" (Capitol Records) cd/2lp 14.98/26.00
DECERF, JEAN-PIERRE "Space Oddities 1975-1979" (Born Bad) lp 21.00
DEFYANCE "Amaranthine" (Minotauro) cd 17.98
DEFYANCE "Time Lost" (Minotauro) cd 17.98
DEFYANCE "Voices Within" (Minotauro) cd 17.98
DENGUE FEVER "The Deepest Lake" (Tuk Tuk) cd/lp 15.98/15.98
DESTRUCTION UNIT "Live In San Francisco" (Castle Face) cd/lp 13.98/15.98
DEVIL CHILDE "s/t" (Minotauro) cd 17.98
DINOSAUR JR "Bug: Live At The 9:30 Club" (Outer Battery) lp 21.00
DISSOLVE "s/t" (Painter Man) 12"/cassette 11.98/4.98
DRAKE, NICK "Family Tree" (Sunbeam) 2lp 34.00
DUAL ACTION "Back In" (Bed Of Nails) 12" 17.98
DURTHANG "Passage Beyond The Cold Vales Of Desolation" (War Against Yourself) cd 14.98
EARTH JERKS "File #06" (Computer Tapes) cd-r 4.98
ELFMILK "Relocation" (Independent Recordings) lp 13.98
ENGLISH, LAWRENCE "Viento" (Taiga) lp 26.00
EX-CULT "Cigarette Machine" (Castle Face) lp 15.98
FATHER JOHN MISTY "I Love You, Honeybear" (Sub Pop) cd 14.98
FATHER YOD & THE SPIRIT OF '76 "Kohoutek" (Drag City) lp 22.00
FEEDTIME "Flatiron" (Sub Pop) 7" 5.98
FF "Ffeeling" (300 Mics) lp/lp+blotter paper 17.98/24.00
FUNHOUSE "The Way Things Will Be" (Minotauro) cd 14.98
FURY, THE "Sex" (Minotauro) cd 17.98
GORGUTS "...And Then Comes Lividity Vol 1" (War On Music) lp 21.00
GORGUTS "...And Then Comes Lividity Vol 2" (War On Music) lp 23.00
GORGUTS "...And Then Comes Lividity Vol 3" (War On Music) lp+7" 28.00
GREEN, GRANT "Street Of Dreams" (Blue Note) lp 21.00
GRIM FUNERAL "Abdication Under Funeral Dirge" (Avantgarde Music) cd 14.98
GUNN, STEVE & THE BLACK TWIG PICKERS "Seasonal Hire" (Thrill Jockey) lp 19.98
GURU GURU "UFO" (Zyx) lp 21.00
HENRY BLACKER "Hungry Dogs Will Eat Dirty Puddings" (Riot Season) lp 16.98
HILL, ANDREW "Black Fire" (Blue Note) lp 21.00
HOLDERLIN "Holderlins Traum" (Zyx) lp 21.00
HORNWOOD FELL "s/t" (Avantgarde Music / Burma Music) cd 14.98
HOUND "Out Of Time" (SRA) lp 17.98
HUTCHERSON, BOBBY "Total Eclipse" (Blue Note) lp 21.00
IMPERIOUS RITUAL "Unholy Congregation Of Hypocritical Ambiguity" (Profound Lore) 2lp 34.00
IRON MAIDEN "Piece Of Mind" (Sanctuary) lp 25.00
IRON MAIDEN "Powerslave" (Sanctuary) lp 25.00
JANVS "Nigredo" (Avantgarde Music) cd 14.98
KALEVALA "People No Names" (Svart) lp 26.00
KEMO KEMOSS "Rejoice, No Survivors" (no label) cd 4.98
KID MILLIONS & JIM SAUTER "Fountain" (Family Vineyard) lp 15.98
KRITZLER, JIMI "Noise In My Head: Voices From The Ugly Australian Underground" (HoZac) book 49.99
LE STELLE DI MARIO SCHIFANO "s/t" (BDS) lp 17.98
LI XI "Meet Me Somewhere" (Sundowning) lp 18.98
LIVING EYES, THE "Living Large" (Agitated Records) lp 17.98
LOTUS THIEF "RERVM" (Svart) 2lp 34.00
LOW WORMWOOD "Lanzhou Lanzhou" (Maybe Mars) cd 12.98
M.D.C. "s/t" (Beer City) lp 15.98
MAGMA "Felicite Thosz" (Jazz Village) lp 22.00
MAIOVVI, ANTONI "Avrokosm" (Not Not Fun) lp 14.98
MENACE RUINE "Venus Armata" (Sige) 2lp 26.00
MINGUS, CHARLES "Mingus Plays Piano: Spontaneous Compositions And Improvisations" (Supeior Viaduct) lp 23.00
MINGUS, CHARLES "The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady" (Superior Viaduct) lp 23.00
MISANTROPUS "s/t (violet)" (self-released) lp 21.00
MONK, THELONIOUS "Genius Of Modern Music Volume 1" (Blue Note) lp 21.00
MONK, THELONIOUS "Genius Of Modern Music Volume 2" (Blue Note) lp 21.00
NAHAR "The Strange Inconvenience" (Avantgarde Music / Sad Sun Music) cd 14.98
NAME, JACK "Weird Moons" (Castle Face) cd/lp 13.98/15.98
NKVD "Hakmarrja" (Avantgarde Music) cd 14.98
NOCTURNAL POISONING "Doomgrass" (The End) cd 12.98
NUDITY "Astronomicon" (Iron Lung) lp 16.98
O'DWYER, AINE "Music For Church Cleaners Vol. 1 And II" (MIE) 2lp 30.00
OF MONTREAL "Aureate Gloom" (Polyvinyl) lp 17.98
OFDRYKKJA "A Life Worth Losing" (Avantgarde Music / War Against Yourself) cd 14.98
OGRE "Dawn Of The Proto-Man" (Minotauro) cd 17.98
OGRE "Seven Hells" (Minotauro) cd + dvd 17.98
OIL THIEF "Obsolencence & Monality" (Chondritic Sound) 2 x cassette 15.98
OLDER SUN "Bad Man b/w What You Need" (Valley King) 7" 9.98
ORB "Womb" (Heavy Chains) cassette 4.98
ORCUTT, BILL "Gerty Loves Pussy" (Palilalia) lp 16.98
PANDA BEAR "Meets The Grim Reaper" (Domino) cd 13.98
PEOPLE'S TEMPLE CHOIR "He's Able" (no label) cassette 6.98
PERFECT PUSSY "I Have Lost All Desire For Feeling" (Captured Tracks) 12" 16.98
PINES "The Field Journal" (Time Released Sound) 3" cd-r + booklet 30.00
POP GROUP, THE "Cabinet Of Curiosities" (Freaks R Us) lp 22.00
POP GROUP, THE "Citizen Zombie" (Freaks R Us) lp 31.00
POP, IGGY "American Caesar" (Plain Recordings) 2lp 31.00
POPULARE MECHANIK "Kollektion 03" (Bureau) cd/lp 19.98/27.00
PUBLIC ENEMY "Fear Of A Black Planet" (Def Jam) lp 34.00
PURE GROUND "Europa" (Chondritic Sound) cassette 8.98
PUSHUPS "Beast Jammz 2008" (Ormolycka) cassette 5.98
PYONGYANG HARDCORE RESISTANCE "II" (Ormolycka) cassette 5.98
PYRAMIDS "A Northern Meadow" (Profound Lore) cd 13.98
RILEY, TERRY & ROBERTO CACCIAPAGLIA ENSEMBLE "In C: Performed Live At Aterforum, July 9, 1988" (Mirumir) 2lp 37.00
RODMAN-MELCHIOR, LETHA "Shimmering Ghost" (Siltbreeze) lp 15.98
ROLLINS, SONNY "Newk's Time" (Blue Note) lp 21.00
SANNITI, ALESSIO "s/t" (self-released) lp 21.00
SANULLIM "The Psychedelic Years 1977-1979" (Dounia) lp 25.00
SETH "s/t" (Minotauro) 2cd 17.98
SHORTER, WAYNE "Adam's Apple" (Blue Note) lp 21.00
SIGNOR BEN EDICK THE MOOR "El Negro" (Deathbomb Arc) cd 8.98
SIGUR ROS "Agaetis Byrjun" (XL) 2lp 27.00
SILVERFISH "Fat Axl" (Southern) lp 16.98
SIVYJ YAR "From The Dead Villages' Darkness" (Avantgarde Music) cd 14.98
SLEAFORD MODS "Chubbed Up" (Ipecac) cd 15.98
SMILES "s/t" (Death Records) cassette 4.98
SONMI451 "The Limbic System [Deluxe]" (Time Released Sound) cd 50.00
SONMI451 "The Limbic System [Regular]" (Time Released Sound) cd 14.98
SONNY AND THE SUNSETS "Talent Night" (Polyvinyl) lp 15.98
SORDIDE "La France A Peur" (Avantgarde Music) cd 14.98
SPEAKING CANARIES, THEE "Platter Base Must Be Constructed Of Moon-Rock" (Chunklet) lp 16.98
SPECTRE "Ruff Kutz" (Pan) 2lp 30.00
STONE ANGEL "s/t" (Acme) lp 24.00
STONEY & THE JAGGED EDGE "Chasing Rainbows" (Big Beat) lp 23.00
SUMAC "The Deal" (Profound Lore) cd 13.98
SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES "Calculations Of The Ancient" (Minotauri) cd 17.98
SVARTRIT "I" (Avantgarde Music) cd 14.98
SVARTRIT "II" (Avantgarde Music) cd 14.98
SVARTRIT "III" (Avantgarde Music) cd 14.98
SWALLOWED "Lunarterial" (Dark Descent) cd 14.98
SWAMI JOHN REIS & THE BLIND SHAKE "Modern Surf Classics" (Swami) cd/lp 13.98/14.98
SWAY "s/t" cd 17.98
SWEET TORMENT "Hell / Ancient Pantheon" (Heavy Chains) cassette 4.98
SWERVEDRIVER "I Wasn't Born To Lose You" (Cobraside) cd 12.98
SYNT.TOFS "Radio Centraal 2008" (Ormolycka) cassette 5.98
TACTICS "The Re-Mastered Plan" (Minotauro) 2cd + dvd 32.00
TAYLOR, CECIL "Unit Structures" (Blue Note) lp 21.00
THE AVENGERS VI "Real Cool Hits" (Dionysus) lp 15.98
THEESATISFACTION "Earthee" (Sub Pop) lp 17.98
THOABATH "A String Detached" (self-released) cassette 3.98
TIARAS "s/t" (Mt. St. Mtn.) lp 15.98
TOMORROWILLBEWORSE "Down The Road Of Nothing" (Avantgarde Music / Bylec-Tum Productions) cd 14.98
TOO SHORT "Born To Mack" (Plain) lp 25.00
TORCHE "Restarter" (Relapse) cd/lp 14.98/23.00
TRAFFIC SOUND "A Bailar A Go Go" (Lion Productions / Repsychled) cd 15.98
TREPANERINGSRITUALEN "Veil The World" (Cold Spring) cd 15.98
TRITON WARRIOR "Satan's Train b/w Sealed In A Grave" (Supreme Echo) 7" 11.98
TRUE NEUTRAL CREW "#Monsanto" (Deathbomb Arc) cassette 6.98
TRUE NEUTRAL CREW "#Poppunk" (Deathbomb Arc) cassette 6.98
UNCLE SAM "Heaven Or Hollywood" (Minotauro) cd 17.98
UNION TRADE, THE "A Place Of Long Years" (Tricycle) cd/lp 9.98/19.98
V/A "Dance Mania: Ghetto Madness" (Strut) 2lp 29.00
V/A "Music of Tanzania" (Sublime Frequencies) 2lp 29.00
V/A "Nordic Metal: A Tribute To Euronymous" (Hammerheart) 2lp 26.00
V/A "Off The Beaten Tracks" (Grown Kids Radio) lp 19.98
V/A "Punk 45: Extermination Nights In The Sixth City" (Soul Jazz) 2lp 29.00
V/A "Spiritual Jazz 6: Vocals" (Jazzman) 2lp 28.00
V/A "Ultra High Frequencies: The Chicago Party" (Numero) 2lp 23.00
VANDROOGENBROECK, JOEL "Biomechanoid" (Aguirre) lp 28.00
VATICAN SHADOW "Death & Unity With God" (Modern Love) 2lp 26.00
VIET CONG "Viet Cong" (Jagjaguwar) cd 13.98
VOIVOD "Negatron + Phobos" (Hypnotic) 2lp 27.00
WAND "Golem" (In The Red) cd/lp 13.98/15.98
WEEPING RAT "Tar" (Handmade Birds) cd 10.98
WHIRR "Sway" (Graveface) cd/lp 14.98/16.98
WINTERFRONT "Northwinds" (Werewolf Promotion / Lower Silesian Stronghold) cd 14.98
XYZ "s/t" (Radical Elite) lp 16.98
ZERO DOWN "No Limit To Evil" (Minotauro) cd 12.98
All kinds of awesomeness here on this new Zebulon Pike album, their fourth, and the Minnesota instrumental math metal stoner doom post-rock space-rock (whew!) combo's first full-length in like three years. It's also their first ever to be released on (double lp gatefold) VINYL as well as compact disc. If you're already a big ZP fan like us, and we know lots of AQ customers are, then you're automatically super stoked at this news and we should just get outta the way and let you "add to cart" without further ado. But, we realize that (for some strange reason) not everybody in the whole world knows who ZP is or just why they're so great. So unfair (for them) and unfortunate (for all their potential fans), 'cause as we've said before, they should be HUGE... at least signed to Hydra Head (instead of their own label) and touring with bands like Baroness, hyped by all the cool magazines and blogs and whatnot. Not sure why that hasn't really happened yet, but if we have anything to say about it, someday it will.
Soooo... this album, being to our ears arguably their best yet, would be a great one to get into for the first time, for those who haven't yet been exposed to that special "Zebulon Pike radiation" we've referred to in the past. Not sure we can out-do any of our previous reviews in the hyperbole dep't., we've raved about 'em before for sure, and it will be hard for us to come up with anything better to say here, of course we'll pull out the old standby that they're kinda like Pelican meets The Fucking Champs, combining lumbering sub-bass heaviosity, surging melodicism, and stunning dual guitar harmonies - definitely a band playing music for music's sake ("Hats Off To Music" as the Champs would say, paraphrasing Led Zep's feelings about Roy Harper).
With spiralling leads and chugging riffage, ZP is definitely into metal, but also 20th century classical (Steve Reich?), and prog, that's more from whence their extended song structures arise - the five tracks here are mostly long, all the double digits except one. Crucial for an instrumental band, they not only come up with good riffs, but also concentrate on interesting, extreme sonic textures, getting into avant garde areas at times. Like, what's up with the crazy chorus of "wheee wheee wheee" sounds (somehow produced by the guitars, we assume) cacophonously closing track one, "Spectrum Threshold"? We don't know, but we like it. The drummer gets into the avant-action too, there's stretches of percussive soundscapes, dense drum storms and spacious skitter. You definitely don't miss there being a vocalist, this definitely keeps your attention, as long as the songs are, with twists and turns, first hypnotizing with crushing riff repetition, then plunging into a droning abstract celestial otherworld or a quiet jazzy pretty passage, like the tinkling music box midsection dropped into "Echoic Worlds" that sets you up for the heavy angular riffage set to surge forth immediately afterwards. And this album never bogs down, there's always a sense of strong, propulsive forward motion, even with the ambient detours.
Compared to earlier albums by these guys, we sense even more emphasis here on the '90s post rock part of the ZP equation. Lots of that loud/soft stuff a la Slint and Mogwai, but way more metal... some other bands that come to mind while listening to this, from moment to moment, include Don Caballero, Yob, Iceburn (circa Hephaestus, an underrated classic we'd love review someday, if it ever comes back into print!), Megaton Leviathan, forgotten AQ faves Fuehler, early Pharaoh Overlord, Isis, Boris, Conifer, Sardonis, and more... but they sound like ZP and only ZP at the end of the day.
One sign of a good album is that it immediately compels repeated plays from the sometimes jaded, overwhelmed listeners here at AQ, this one sure did and that's why we made it Record Of The Week. Space Is The Corpse Of Time is pushing our buttons for what we like in "this sort of thing" while also springing plenty of surprises.
So if you like your post rock to be heavy and sludgey, and you like your sludgey heavy rock to be instrumental, and you like your sludgey heavy instrumental post rock to be both super melodic and sonically adventurous, almost scientifically advanced, well heck then you sound like our sort of customer and we highly recommend this Zebulon Pike album to you! It's an epic feast of might and majesty and MUSIC.
FYI, if you get the vinyl, it comes with an mp3 download card. Obviously if you get the cd, you don't need that.
Another fantastic disc of gauzy, shimmery otherworldly dronemusic, from the seemingly infallible Type label. Long time aQ faves, Chicago's Zelienople moved to Type, after a handful of releases on PseudoArcana, Digitalis and Root Strata, and it was a pretty perfect match. Rameses III, Alps, Goldmund, Grouper, Xela, North Sea, Helios, Svarte Greiner, Black To Comm, it's not difficult to see that maybe this was where Zelienople belonged all along.
On Give It Up, the group deftly mix light and dark, weaving softly smoldering dreamscapes, all muted and hushed, with sun dappled dronefolk, all chiming soft focus guitars, and minimal percussion, hazy and gauzy and slightly blurred, vocals surfacing here and there throughout. A sort of ethereal slowcore, pop songs pulled apart and set in amber, this record a shadow produced by the muted sunlight shining through.
Some tracks are brooding and doomy, laced with ominous creaks and deep moaning low end tones, wheezing organs, and layered ambience, others are folky and reverbed, strummed guitars wreathed in a patina of muted thrum, spread out over some almost Neil Young sounding vox, but buried way down in the mix, still others are skeletal and barely there, voices drifting in the ether, over spare tendrils of melody, only to slowly shift, and get lost in a cloud of prismatic chordal hum.
Absolutely gorgeous, the perfect blend of minimal doom folk, hushed slowcore and abstract dronemusic.
The lp version comes with a bonus cd (NOT a cd-r, an actual pressed cd), featuring Zelienople's soundtrack for a film called Gone, stunningly beautiful, even more minimal than the record proper, the first half of the disc all gauzy drones, the second half, bleary eyed slow motion chamber music. Be careful removing the cd from the lp, it's attached by a little dollop of glue or something, but a quick pull will take some of the lp sleeve with it...
REISSUED ON CD AND ALSO ON VINYL FOR THE FIRST TIME! Thanks Relapse, you've been doin' some great reissue work lately, this is one of several old faves we're listing this week that you've brought back (see also Bedemon and Pan-Thy-Monium). We originally listed this on cd only, which was super limited, way back in 2005, since then we're sure there's been many more Zombi fans minted who would love to dig into this, especially now that it's on vinyl too. Here's our original review:
Before the Pittsburgh instrumental post-rock duo Zombi were into John Carpenter soundtracks, they were really REALLY into John Carpenter soundtracks! So this Zombi Anthology proves. Hopefully, you already know these guys from their debut cd on Relapse, Cosmos, that we reviewed (and recommended) as a highlight on one of our lists last year. We sold a ton of 'em, so when we made the reissue of John Carpenter's Escape From New York soundtrack our Record Of The Week a few weeks ago, we stressed that anyone into Zombi should own some Carpenter. Likewise, if you like John Carpenter soundtracks, you should definitely check out Zombi if you haven't already. On cue, here's both of Zombi's pre-Cosmos releases put together on one cd! First, there's the eight tracks of their 2002 self-titled disc, originally released by the band in a limited edition of 150 copies. It's mostly all electronic, with drum machine instead of live drums. Zombi admit the major Carpenter and Fabio Frizzi soundtrack influence on this one, and it's so obvious from the stark, quietly menacing droning synthwork and ticking drum machine percussion, oozing with horror film atmosFEAR. Their second release, the Twilight Sentinel EP (200 copies, released in 2003 for a tour with Daughters) developed their sound further towards actual loud "rock" music by adding live drums and bass guitar. On the four songs of that ep anthologized here, they continue to channel Carpenter and other scary soundtrack masters but get proggier and mathier and more rockin', coming closer to the space-metal, post-rock version of Goblin you hear on their Cosmos album. There is a hint of '80s cheesiness but that's the idea. Kitschy yet creepy. We love it. And beware of the hidden bonus track (a funky, fusiony synth sizzler *with vocals*, probably a cover of something we don't know) - which may or may not be on the new vinyl, we didn't check...
Now available on lp! Ultra thick vinyl, super heavy weight gatefold sleeve, and most importantly, AN EXCLUSIVE BONUS TRACK!!!! Limited to 1000 copies, so these probably won't be around for long. Here's our review of the cd from when we first reviewed it a few years back:
If there was ever a band more "AQ" than Zombi I'd be hard pressed to think of it. Take two guys, both obsessed with horror movies, particularly those by director Dario Argento, and even more specifically the Argento soundtracks by Italian prog outfit Goblin. Give these two guys a drumkit and a massive arsenal of synthesizers, and sign them to Relapse. And what do you get? Basically, a record we just can't stop listening to. And songs that are just BEGGING to accompany some gruesome footage of disemboweled corpses, dark stormy nights, windows covered in flies, and screaming barefoot girls in nighties running through graveyards in the pouring rain. Not that the music of Zombi is THAT scary, it's just so evocative, and SO reminiscent of Goblin, it's hard not to try to envision what kitschy eighties European horror movie these tracks might have come from. Sonically, the simplest description and the one that should have most of you rushing out to pick this up straight away, would be Goblin meets Tortoise. Yep, post rock horror movie soundtrack music swathed in ominous synthesizer buzz and electronic drone. Maybe a more accurate description though might be: long lost Goblin tracks performed by AQ faves Heldon, with all the requisite swooshing spaciness, haunting minor key melodies, propulsive krautrock rhythms and thick fuzzy synths. The synth soundtrack music of John Carpenter is also an obvious influence, but again, put to use in a post rock context. Whichever way, you NEED this!
Just like the subtitle says -- it's a limited edition tour ep from everyone's favorite horror-movie obsessed synths n' drums instrumental post-rock duo from George Romero's hometown of Pittsburgh, Zombi! There's three tracks on this disc, the title track taken from their upcoming album Surface To Air (out May 2nd) plus two non-album tracks exclusive to this ep, performed soley by the non-drumming half of Zombi, Steve Moore, and his array of synths, drum machines, etc. "Digitalis" makes us look forward to the full-length, while we found the two other tracks to be quite worthwhile reasons to pick this up on their own, being the big Zombi fans we are. There's the droning and ominous but sort of angelic "Sibera" which sets churchy synthvox against a slow, steady, martial drum beat. It's like Zombi's beloved John Carpenter teamed up with funereal doom band Skepticism. The mood then changes to something much more bright and dare we say dancey with the 9+ minute "Sapphire", an electro-tinged epic that brings back memories of Miami Vice and yet gets Gobliny enough to fit in with Zombi's other material.
While we have always loved Zombi's proggy and tense synth thrillers, we've secretly wished they would cut loose a bit, add some hi-hat fills and give us the dark and sexy slow euro-disco we always knew they were capable of. The actively atmospheric sounds of John Carpenter's Escape From New York and French disco pioneers, Cerrone were really baby steps apart from each other in the first place, so we weren't surprised (but we were elated!) when a Zombi track, "Sapphire" showed up on Swedish DJ Prins Thomas's awesome compilation, Cosmo Galactic Prism, that really honed in on that late seventies / early eighties coke-mirror sound. "Sapphire" had earlier appeared on Zombi's out of print, tour-only ep Digitalis. Well, we finally have the 12" single release of "Sapphire" in its entire extended nine+ minute glory, and it's killer!! The vibe is definitely inspired by Cerrone's Frankenstein fantasy, "Supernature", with its vaguely sinister build-up, but it expands in interesting ways taking us into trancey rhythmic shifts and changes that never let up the dirty space disco late-night groove. The b-side features a track, "Long Mirrored Corridor", that ups the dark druggy disco perversions of Black Devil Disco Club, while the Escort Remix of "Sapphire" distills the long version's twists and turns into a more digestible dancefloor friendly version. So good!!!
Only the second release on this new The Rapture-run label, and doubtless limited in edition.
Longtime aQ faves from George Romero's home town of Pittsburgh, PA, the synthed-out, soundtrack-obsessed instrumental post-rock duo of Steve Moore (bass & synth) & A.E. Paterra (drums) are back with their sixth album, and it sounds as fresh & frightening as their first. Muscular drumming and sinister synthesizers lock into dark, propulsive grooves with a John Carpenter/Goblin vibe, and we do mean grooves - as Zombi records go, this one seems to us particularly groovy, almost funky, in fact. Although, the big finale, "Siberia II", is decidedly un-funky (but awesome) - 14+ endless-seeming minutes of repetitive clank & pulsating fuzz mesmerization!
While we're quite taken by the groovy Italo-disco direction displayed on Zombi's new "Sapphire" 12" on The Rapture's Throne Of Blood label (reviewed nearby this list), that doesn't mean we don't also want to hear the Pittsburgh duo doing their good ol' ordinary Zombi schtick, which is what we get on the also brand new Spirit Animal. Heck we love Zombi, 'cause we love the same stuff that the guys in Zombi so obviously are into: Goblin, George Romero's Living Dead series, the works of John Carpenter (movies and soundtracks), spaced out '70s kosmische krautrock stuff... add in some more modern mathrock/postrock elements, and you've got Zombi, and you've got Spirit Animal.
As usual, an all-instrumental affair, one that could easily serve as the soundtrack for something suspenseful (have these guys hooked up with Hollywood yet? If only it was still 1985, they'd be making a second income, easy). The album starts off with the majestic melodies of title track "Spirit Animal", a proggy piece that reminds of ELO's "Fire On High". Could be a big hit if New Age radio would ever play a band called Zombi (IS there New Age radio?). The Tangerine Dreaminess of this sends us wonderful late '70s mellow kraut vibes. While not as spacey as, say Arp, or Alps, or Expo '70, we're sure they'd geek out about the same vintage analog synths. The thing with Zombi, though, compared to the likes of Arp (and Arp et.al.'s inspirations like Harmonia) is that that Zombi tend towards the tense, the tight. Less open. Not quite noodly but busier anyway with math rock chops. That's not so much in evidence on "Spirit Animal" but when track two kicks in, "Spirit Warrior", the repetitive urgent keyboard motif and relentless rhythms certainly provide some proof of that assertion. This piece reminds us of something we said in a review a long time ago about an avantgarde academic electronic act from the '70s, Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Co., that one of their minimalist compositions was a lot like a TV nightly news theme... this is too, but harder, more intense, one that seems to be saying: "You'd better tune into the news! The economy's fucked up! Don't change the channel!". A good example of Zombi's trademark hectic/hypnotic duality.
Spirit Animal navigates these waters - dark churning rapids and placid calms and the undertow of spiralling whirlpools - with prog precision and no lack of big melodic magnificence. All six tracks do the job of eating our brains, Zombi-style, and making us like it. Highlights to cite would be "Cosmic Powers", which starts off as another one of Zombi's John Carpenter style suspense steppers but eventually, before fading out, drops into a percussion-only otherworld, going down a drum tunnel of layered echoing beats, begging for a DJ 12" remix deal... Also we'll mention "Through Time", the disc's final statement, and its heaviest. Zombi don't let us off easy, the blissful stuff happening earlier in the album while this track is dense with distorted throbbing, percussion pounding amidst the wonderful waves of synth. Maybe this is where the Jesu/Isis comparisons on this disc's obi come from.
Yep, another good one for fans of Zombi (or Circle, or John Carpenter, or '70s krautronica, or...). And since we'd actually been hearing rumors that the band had split up, we're extra extra pleased to have all these new Zombi releases! (Including, besides the Throne Of Blood 12" and Spirit Animal, a few copies of another new 12", a split with Maserati that we weren't able to get enough of yet to list...)
For those of you who already know and like Zombi, the appearance of this, their second proper full-length album, is pretty much a no-brainer purchase-wise, we can assure you. You've already had a pleasant taster for it in the form of the Digitalis cdep released earlier this year. But if you've never checked out Zombi before, an introduction is in order (and this album will do nicely...but we'll also write something here). You might assume from their name, and presence on mostly metal label Relapse, that they're some sort of metal band, into zombie movies. Well the later part is true. They love their horror flicks -- they're from Pittsburgh, home of George Romero after all. But they're not really a metal band. More of a post-rock or math-rock outfit, Zombi is an all-instrumental duo on drums and synth (and bass), heavily influenced by Goblin, the legendary Italian prog band responsible for scoring all those Dario Argento films back in the '70s and '80s -- including the Italian cut of Romero's Dawn Of The Dead, aka Zombi. Other film soundtrackers from that era are also inspirations for Zombi the band as well, in particular John Carpenter. Then there's all the cosmic electronic space music of the '70s too, like that of Klaus Schulze. And Magma, the bass player has got to be into Magma. All that gets stirred into Zombi's witch's cauldron (oops, is that a mixed metaphor?) and the resulting potent concoction could serve as the soundtrack to the most schlocky, suspenseful, arty horror film of your imagination... It's an elixir that exudes subtle menace without, for the most part, being overtly "scary music", much like those Goblin soundtracks. Really it's kind of New Agey... New Agey with tension!! MASSIVE tension on Surface To Air's spookiest track, the album-closing 18 and a half minute "Night Rhythms", filled with ominous drones that eventually give way to powerful bass-heavy grooves... it's an epic tour-de-force of tension and release and very very cinematic. But all the tracks here pulsate mesmerizingly and moodily, with bright n' airy synth tones, dominating bass, and repetitive Circle-like hypno-rock rhythms. If that sounds good, check it out. And if you're already a fan, like we said, you'll be well pleased with Surface To Air!!
Before the Pittsburg instrumental post-rock duo Zombi were into John Carpenter soundtracks, they were really REALLY into John Carpenter soundtracks! So this Zombi Anthology proves. Hopefully, you already know these guys from their debut cd on Relapse, Cosmos, that we reviewed (and recommended) as a highlight on one of our lists last year. We sold a ton of 'em, so when we made the reissue of John Carpenter's Escape From New York soundtrack our Record Of The Week a few weeks ago, we stressed that anyone into Zombi should own some Carpenter. Likewise, if you like John Carpenter soundtracks, you should definitely check out Zombi if you haven't already. On cue, here's both of Zombi's pre-Cosmos releases put together on one cd! First, there's the eight tracks of their 2002 self-titled disc, originally released by the band in a limited edition of 150 copies. It's mostly all electronic, with drum machine instead of live drums. Zombi admit the major Carpenter and Fabio Frizzi soundtrack influence on this one, and it's so obvious from the stark, quietly meancing droning synthwork and ticking drum machine percussion, oozing with horror film atmosFEAR. Their second release, the Twilight Sentinel EP (200 copies, released in 2003 for a tour with Daughters) developed their sound further towards actual loud "rock" music by adding live drums and bass guitar. On the four songs of that ep anthologized here, they continue to channel Carpenter and other scary soundtrack masters but get proggier and mathier and more rockin', coming closer to the space-metal, post-rock version of Goblin you hear on their Cosmos album. There is a hint of '80s cheesiness but that's the idea. Kitschy yet creepy. We love it. And beware of the hidden bonus track (a funky, fusiony synth sizzler *with vocals*, probably a cover of something we don't know).
A while back we had a cd entitled The Zombi Anthology, that compiled the pre-Relapse debut demo releases from this rad instrumental post-rock duo from the zombie filmmaker George Romero's hometown of Pittsburgh. They're into horror film soundtracks, that's for sure -- director/composer John Carpenter being a big influence, especially so on their demos.
The Anthology cd is now sold out, out of print, but Wabana has stepped in with these vinyl reissues of Zombi's two demos, which are unfortunately on the pricey side 'cause Wabana stuff is made in England and the pound is clobbering the dollar right now. But they're limited and all (we've just got a dozen of each) and we figure Zombi fans will be fighting over them regardless.
This 21+ minute LP features the four songs from their Twilight Sentinel EP (originally released in 2003 in an edition of 200 copies for a tour with Daughters). It developed their sound further towards actual loud "rock" music by adding live drums and bass guitar. They continue to channel Carpenter and other scary soundtrack masters but get proggier and mathier and more rockin', coming closer to the space-metal, post-rock version of Goblin later heard on their debut album Cosmos. There is a hint of '80s cheesiness but that's the idea. Kitschy yet creepy. We love it.
A while back we had a cd entitled The Zombi Anthology, that compiled the pre-Relapse debut demo releases from this rad instrumental post-rock duo from the zombie filmmaker George Romero's hometown of Pittsburgh. They're into horror film soundtracks, that's for sure -- director/composer John Carpenter being a big influence, especially so on their demos.
The Anthology cd is now sold out, out of print, but Wabana has stepped in with these vinyl reissues of Zombi's two demos, which are unfortunately on the pricey side 'cause Wabana stuff is made in England and the pound is clobbering the dollar right now. But they're limited and all (we've just got a dozen of each) and we figure Zombi fans will be fighting over them regardless.
This 33+ minute, self-titled record features the nine tracks (one more than appeared on the Anthology cd) from their demo recorded in 2001, originally released by the band in a 150-copy cd-r edition. It's mostly all electronic, with drum machine instead of live drums. Zombi admit the major Carpenter and Fabio Frizzi soundtrack influence on this one, and it's so obvious from the stark, quietly menacing droning synthwork and ticking drum machine percussion, oozing with horror film atmosFEAR.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Four albums in, and Georgia's Zoroaster have established themselves as more than just a band of bearded Southern boys with bad attitudes getting sludgy, Eyehategod style. They certainly started out that way, and we liked 'em then too, but quickly a penchant for spacier, more psychedelic exploration sent them off in a variety of interesting directions, mostly all of 'em still quite HEAVY though. Synth-drone, slowcore, stoner riffery, that's all part of their trip... dunno if we'd even really call them doom (or dooooOOOOoom) any more. They're just way "poppier", and spacier, and also more experimental than you might expect. There's mantric dirges here totally worthy of Om at their finest, other parts where they freak out like Acid Mothers Temple... or rock out like the good ol' Southern boys we mentioned that they indeed are. But it's just as "Eastern". Tracks like "Odyssey" sound like Buddhist monks zoned out on Hawkwind, with someone from a Tokyo Flashback act on lead guitar, or maybe Stephen Wray Lobdell... Sometimes these songs are storming, sometimes they're slow and languid (well, a lot of the time), no matter what though, Matador is an heavy-lidded yet uplifting listen, with an oxymoronically "urgently relaxed", stoned vibe generally absorbed via throbbing waves of synthesizer, low end guitar, leaden battery, and sometimes even a bit of (heavily effected) vocal melody.
Zoroaster are the "sludge" band we'd recommend to White Hills and Wooden Shjips fans. Likewise if you like UFOmammut, US Christmas, Litmus, Los Natas, Boris and even a bit of Baroness too...
This new one was produced by Sanford Parker, heaviness studio guru de jour for good reason. Probably, uh, "420 friendly" but you don't need any help to get a high from this, just turn it on up!
Following their debut disc on the Mick Barr (Orthrelm/Octis) directed Vothoc imprint, here's an intriguing 2nd cd of hard to describe and doubtless hard to play music from this instrumental Brooklyn-based sextet, a double trio actually. Here's their formula: (tenor sax + electric guitar + drum kit) x 2. And yes, their music is suitably "mathy". It's not exactly jazz, not prog, not chamber music, but some sort of underground avantgarde amalgam of said genres. Imagine a blend of John Zorn (particularly with his Carl Stalling influenced stuff in mind) and a minimalist composer like Steve Reich, perhaps.
The disc opens with a synchronized swim through the watery rhythms of "Bump". It's chattering, breathing music that goes to extremes of repetition more than volume. There's two more tracks besides that one on here, totaling about 20 minutes overall, so I guess this qualifies as a just a "mini album" or ep. But playing this sort of precision madness is probably hard to keep up (or keep up with) for long, so the length makes sense.
Those crazies over at Troubleman have done gone and let Mick Barr (Orthrelm/Octis/ex-Crom Tech) 'curate' a series of releases under the Vothoc moniker, devoted to obscure prog-core weirdness from the NYC underground. The first Vothoc release is also the first release from Zs, a mostly-instrumental very very very prog band not unlike a chamber-rock version of Orthrelm, with a lineup of two drummers, two guitarists, and two saxophone players!
The first three tracks on here are total herkyjerky, typewritery, stop-start stuff, with that 'cartoon mouse tiptoeing around' kinda feel to it. All the more impressive considering how together six musicians have to be to do this. Math for math's sake. Can't call it math-rock, even, 'cause there's not a lot of rockin' going on. Guaranteed to drive certain people insane, whilst simultaneously provoking twisted delight in others (you know who you are). But, after three tracks of this maniacally hectic stuff -- culminating in the under-2-minute frenzy of "Olympics" -- they calm down quite a bit. Track four, "Mimesis", is a slow, spacious 15-minute epic of mournful jazz-drone. Real nice n' spooky. And then they follow that with an album-ending track that's even mellower and prettier and features some sorta Brian Eno-ish singing! When that's over, even if the first few tracks annoyed you, they will be long forgotten... But the proper audience for Zs is folks who are gonna like both the mathy and the mild.
