To commemorate the recent 25th anniversary Current 93 performances in London, a super limited number of these commemorative 7"s were pressed up (only 300 copies!), featuring exclusive tracks from three of the bands that performed with C93, psych drone combo Rameses III, psychedelic folk legend Simon Finn, and most excitingly, legendary seventies acid folk outfit, the mighty Comus!!
The Comus track might be what gets folks most excited, and rightfully so, a recording of the group performing "Diana" on the Melloboat, in Sweden, in 2008, their first show together after nearly 40 years!!! We tried to watch clips on YouTube, but the crowd was so amped, and howling and clapping and singing along, you could barely hear the band. Thankfully this recording is pristine, and the band sound incredible, even more woozy and carnivalesque and maniacal than they did back in the day, the player practically perfect, the vocals incredible for the many decades that have passed, definitely makes us wish we had flown over.
Rameses III contributes a gorgeous thick swath of densely layered dronemusic, very minimal, softly pulsing, rife with swirling overtones, hypnotic and raga like, really super nice.
And finally, Simon Finn unfurls some dark brooding psychedelic folk, lovely and haunting male / female vocal harmonies, over warm soft melodic swells, the sound stripped down, the arrangement minimal, the structure skeletal, but the overall feel still darkly lush and lovely.
A pretty fantastic 3 way split, we can only imagine how great the shows must have been. A gorgeous sonic artifact too, sturdy full color cover, pressed on thick colored vinyl, and again limited to only 300 copies!
Not a new release, but we managed to get a few in stock for the moment, so we thought we'd list this. We got turned on to the Confusional Quartet (great name!) a while back because of a review our friend Tim Ellison wrote in his great 'zine Modern Rock
Andee and Allan just saw these guys play at CMJ in New York, on an amazing bill with Khanate, Psychic Paramount, Mouthus and Circle! It was an intense show and Coptic Light were an appropriate opener.
If you're into tricksy, mad-as-a-hatter yet quite arty instrumental post rock along the lines of Battles, Storm And Stress, Don Cab, and maybe Hella, you ought to hear this band. It's really no surprise that the Coptic Light trio in fact features the drummer formerly of Storm & Stress (admittedly not one of our favorite bands, we like Coptic Light a lot more), alongside ex- Bitch Magnet guitarist Jon Fine and bassist Jeff Winterberg (whose Rat A Tat Tat Birds indie rock photo book you might have seen). They specialize in complex, caffinated guitar/bass/drum entanglement, a very controlled chaos, all very precise and mathematical, with lots of tension being built up and rarely released. There's got to be a lot of internal counting going on in these musicians' heads, but the technical progness of it all is balanced by the textural zones the band makes room in their music to explore.
This debut cd consists of three songs, each respectively running to 14, 10 and 19 minutes or thereabouts. These songs (songs? should we call 'em that? maybe "tracks" or "pieces" would be better) are long enough that you kinda lose yourself in 'em, forgetting how they started and unconcerned about when or how they'll end, letting your ears be blissfully battered by the frenzies and Fripperies on offer, as the tracks veer from hectic bombast to quiet ambience, drifting off while threatening further percussive fury. It's a whole lotta clatter AND atmosphere. Definitely a good fit on No Quarter with the likes of Circle and Psychic Paramount.
Also we're pretty sure that "Eat It High School" is a great song title.
Ah, sadly this new disc from San Francisco's Crime In Choir is also their swansong. Please say it ain't so, guys. 'Cause what other band around here is going to provide our fix of dazzling, groovy instrumental prog inspired by cult foreign film soundtracks?? But at least we've got this final recording. It's with the same lineup (right?) that produced their previous album Trumpery Metier highlighted here two years ago, meaning this features Tim Soete, formerly of the Fucking Champs, doing percussive math on the drumkit, joined by plenty of vintage synth sizzle, glorious guitar wail, and jazzy sax. Crime In Choir's usual '70s prog derived bombast is in full effect here, with some nods and winks to the discotheques of the high-gloss, coke-dusted '80s. The 7 tracks here range from the cop show / suspense movie chase music funk of the disc's opener and title track to more melancholic, moody stuff like the mellow yet majestic "Pedal Nervous Sensation" and the cosmic synth pulsations of the album's lovely finale, "Fool's Guild" (which builds to something of a maniacal conclusion).
Both Goblin (definitely) and Italo-disco (probably) seem like possible reference points, and if you liked Zombi's "Sapphire" you might be on the same wavelength as Crime In Choir is here, not that this gets quite so electronic-dancey. Same goes if you like the likes of Maserati, Tangerine Dream, and the dancefloor filling live shows by CiC keyboardist Jesse's new unit Jonas Reinhardt.
Gift Givers comes packaged in a brightly colored "eco-wallet" recycled cardboard sleeve thing, and was released by the same label, Kill Shaman, who brought us Animism by Expo '70, and that recent Night Control disc, fyi.
Leaps and bounds from their already impressive self-titled debut from a couple of years ago, Crime In Choir's second full length reveals sharper chops both in composition and musicianship. They've adapted a much more prog aspect into their post rock instrumental sound with definite shades of Goblin. A sophomore success from this mathy, Moogy San Fran quartet, who now have replaced drummer Zach Hill of Hella with drummer Jay Pellici of Dilute and 31 Knots. Recommended!
You could call San Francisco's Crime In Choir a mathy, instrumental post-rock band, sure. But you could also call 'em a kick ass '70s progressive rock act (except that they're not actually from the '70s...). This is certainly prog rock, a la Van Der Graaf Generator, Yes, Goblin, PFM, Le Orme, Soft Machine, Magma, and other greats from the prog past. Definitely a delight for all the prog-fanciers among us here at AQ. We're pretty thrilled with this album, which we couldn't wait to hear after having just seen these guys live, performing in front of a projection of the 1973 Italian art film La Grande Bouffe, providing their own soundtrack to the gustatory grotesquery on screen. So perfect for Crime In Choir's cultivated brand of ripping, groovy bombast. They deliver on record too, this one (their third) being perhaps their best yet! The energetic pulsations of the crack rhythm section -- CiC's latest drummer extraordinaire* is now Tim Soete of The Fucking Champs, and on this album the bass is played by Seth Lorinczi, formerly of The Quails and long before that, the late great DC prog punkers Circus Lupus -- are matched by the mass of keyboards employed by Kenny Hopper and Jesse Reiner, along with the guitar of Jarrett Wrenn and Matt Waters' sax. Those synths are sometimes sinuous and sizzling, sometimes spacey and soaring, and ever present. And while we know the use of saxophone is a deal-breaker for some folks, Crime In Choir's tastefully restrained saxophonist eschews any smooth jazz cheesiness, either riffing brassily along with the keys and guitar, or supplying spiraling, screeching solos with gusto (when necessary, which is not that often). Definite points for non-sucky use of saxophone in other words! Furthermore, while their '70s prog lovin' sound is right on, so is the songwriting. They've managed to hit that sweet spot for instrumental bands, where these songs -could- have singing (they're melodious enough) but don't -need- a vocalist at all. They'll grab you regardless. File somewhere in between your Champs and Zombi albums, nearby to your collection of '70s progsters, and not far from your Citay cd (another excellent San Francisco band of prog revivalists with whom CiC have shared a member or two). Recommended!
*after having Hella's Zach Hill behind the kit on their first album, and 31 Knots' Jay Pellici on their second.
Vinyl version of (a portion of) this Record Of The Week from back in July!!! Originally released on cassette by Heavy Chains Records And Tapes, then put out as an expanded cd with two other Crypt Vapor eps included. Now the original Erotik Maniac ep is available again, on vinyl, via the Death Shadow label, though we're surprised it wasn't Death Waltz who picked it up! Here's some of what we said before about the Tombe Della Citta cd which included these seven Erotik Maniac tracks, including one of our faves, the creepy "Subway Crawler":
Terror from Tasmania!! (Or perhaps from Italy, depending on what you wish to believe). The mysterious Crypt Vapor is the latest and one of the greatest, we think, in the realm of the New Wave Of Horror Soundtrack Sounding Stuff or whatever we ought to call it (there's gotta be a better name for this phenomenon, but we can't think of one right now). You know, underground musicians making Goblin and John Carpenter inspired, instrumental "imaginary soundtracks" that sound like they come from obscure '80s witchcult slasher flicks and badly-dubbed sci-fi suspense films. We're thinking of such VHS-loving artists as Umberto, The Night Terrors, Nightsatan, Zombi, Zombie Zombie, and of course John Carpenter himself, whose Lost Themes album on Sacred Bones we also made a Record Of The Week recently. If you loved that, you'll love this, though rather than an actual band recording, Crypt Vapor are very much a DIY, lo-fi deal, probably just one guy alone in a bedroom, basement (or crypt) with a 4-track and some secondhand electronic gear. Almost comes across like sinister "skwee" music at times.
These exceedingly spooky synth ditties are full of creepy drones and thudding heartbeat bass lines, urgent reverbed-out rhythms and eerie atmosphere. Plus a dose of almost-psychedelic synth soloing let loose here and there. Very effective, all of it, really pretty much exactly what we want from this sort of thing. Reminds us of what felt when we heard the very first Umberto cd-r, just YEAH, this perfectly captures that '80s synth-laden, hypnotically groovy, sinister soundtrack vibe. Crypt Vapor's style is simple and to the point, doing nothing unnecessary or unwanted. The synths are so raw and fuzzed out; the melodies eerie and earwormy. Ideal for listening to on a night drive through the wrong side of town, or waiting for the train on a desolate subway platform. If you dare.
Each moment of music on here, even the most danceable, sounds like it could be the last thing you'll ever hear - as your life is suddenly ended by the thrust of a knife in the back, or a blade across the throat. STAB! SNIP! Or, fade any track out, and it's a slow death, strangulation by black-gloved hands, or suffocation in the vacuum of space as the airlock is emptied...
BACK IN STOCK! A restock on this Record Of The Week from back in July finally just arrived via the slow boat from Tasmania. Here's the review again if you missed it:
Terror from Tasmania!! (Or perhaps from Italy, depending on what you wish to believe). The mysterious Crypt Vapor is the latest and one of the greatest, we think, in the realm of the New Wave Of Horror Soundtrack Sounding Stuff or whatever we ought to call it (there's gotta be a better name for this phenomenon, but we can't think of one right now). You know, underground musicians making Goblin and John Carpenter inspired, instrumental "imaginary soundtracks" that sound like they come from obscure '80s witchcult slasher flicks and badly-dubbed sci-fi suspense films. We're thinking of such VHS-loving artists as Umberto, The Night Terrors, Nightsatan, Zombi, Zombie Zombie, and of course John Carpenter himself, whose Lost Themes album on Sacred Bones we also made a Record Of The Week recently. If you loved that, you'll love this, though rather than an actual band recording, Crypt Vapor are very much a DIY, lo-fi deal, probably just one guy alone in a bedroom, basement (or crypt) with a 4-track and some secondhand electronic gear. Almost comes across like sinister "skwee" music at times.
A portion of this compact disc was originally released as cassette tape put out not long ago by the same outfit that now brings us this cd version, the cult Tasmanian metal label Heavy Chains Records And Tapes run by the front man for aQ-fave eccentric doomsters The Wizar'd (although, this is NOT metal, more like electronic music). In addition to including that prior (and already out of print on tape) Erotik Maniac ep, this disc features the brand new six-track Tombe Della Citta ep, and an additional three tracks from an earlier tape called Panic Night, for 17 tracks in all of Crypt Vapor's exceedingly spooky synth ditties, full of creepy drones and thudding heartbeat bass lines; urgent reverbed-out rhythms and eerie atmosphere. Plus a dose of almost-psychedelic synth soloing let loose here and there. Very effective, all of it, really pretty much exactly what we want from this sort of thing. Reminds us of what felt when we heard the very first Umberto cd-r, just YEAH, this perfectly captures that '80s synth-laden, hypnotically groovy, sinister soundtrack vibe. Crypt Vapor's style is simple and to the point, doing nothing unnecessary or unwanted. The synths are so raw and fuzzed out; the melodies eerie and earwormy. Ideal for listening to on a night drive through the wrong side of town, or waiting for the train on a desolate subway platform. If you dare.
Each moment of music on here, even the most danceable, sounds like it could be the last thing you'll ever hear - as your life is suddenly ended by the thrust of a knife in the back, or a blade across the throat. STAB! SNIP! Or, fade any track out, and it's a slow death, strangulation by black-gloved hands, or suffocation in the vacuum of space as the airlock is emptied... Anybody making a retro giallo horror movie or low-budget sci-fi thriller ought to sign up Crypt Vapor for the soundtrack, and seriously, some specialty label like Death Waltz or One Way Static should get on this, stat, and put out a fancy vinyl version for all the horror soundtrack obsessed LP collectors!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
The more countryish, second album from this early '70s Danish prog-psych outfit. Definitely without any of the Zeppish proto-metal moments of the first album, but nice and pastoral. Includes six bonus tracks.
Reissued on vinyl, nice! (And expensive, it's an import, but worth it, really, it's a heavy seventies progressive cult classic!)
Here's what we said when we first freaked out about this upon the occasion of a cd reissue some years ago:
Three things to note about this album:
1) Good lord, the cover! Have you ever seen a psychedelic cartoon vision of a magic garden inhabited by a freaky gnome like that before?
2) If you ask Mikael Akerfeldt of Swedish death metal / progressive rock geniuses Opeth about what his all-time favorite rare prog rock records are, along with First Utterance by Comus he'll name this one, the 1971 debut from Denmark's Culpeper's Orchard. And, now having heard it thanks to Mikael's endorsement, Allan here would too!
3) You'll probably dig this if you like the idea of blending rustic country-folk, twee hippy psych pop, and some heavy hard rock guitar riffery into one unique acid-prog experience that comes across like a mixture of Jethro Tull, Kaleidoscope UK, Yes, the Incredible String Band, and Zeppelin or Sabbath. A great freeking record.
Hey, here's a new and improved version of an obscure AQ '70s psych-prog favorite...
A few things to note about this album:
1) Good lord, the cover! Have you ever seen a psychedelic cartoon vision of a magic garden inhabited by a freaky gnome like that before?
2) If you ask Mikael Akerfeldt of Swedish death metal / progressive rock geniuses Opeth about what his all-time favorite rare prog rock records are, along with First Utterance by Comus he'll name this one, the 1971 debut from Denmark's Culpeper's Orchard. And, now having heard it thanks to Mikael's endorsement, Allan would too!
3) You'll probably dig this if you like the idea of blending rustic country-folk, twee hippy psych pop, and some heavy hard rock guitar riffery into one unique acid-prog experience that comes across like a mixture of Jethro Tull, Kaleidoscope UK, Yes, the Incredible String Band, and Zeppelin or Sabbath. A great freeking record.
4) Now it's got three bonus tracks, including a pretty killer 9+ minute live performance of a non-album song called "Classified Ads".
First album by British femme-fronted classical psych-prog rockers Curved Air. Sublime!
Elsewhere on this week's list you'll find the brand new album Spirit Animal, by AQ faves Zombi, the horror soundtrack obsessed synth/math rock duo from Pittsburgh. So it's kind of perfect to list this too, a reissued, mostly instrumental, extremely electronic prog rock album from 1980 by Australia's Cybotron, a band who were basically the Zombi of their day, Down Under. Seriously, if the Zombi dudes are reading this, you're just the folks to whom we'd recommend this - you gotta hear it! Same goes for Zombi fans.
This Cybotron, who are not to be confused with the seminal Detroit electro act of the very same name, were a massively synth-crazed space rock act, making music full of sweeping sci-fi synth sounds, propulsive beats, vibratory pulsations, and krautrocky electronic atmospheres, eventually venturing into a proto New Wave synthpop zone too. Band leader Steve Maxwell Von Braund had spent some time in Europe in the early '70s, checking out the freak rock scene, going to see bands like Pink Floyd, Hawkwind, Can and Amon Duul II, whilst buying crucial krautrock records as they came out, getting into stuff by Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel among others. Once back in Australia he soon formed Cybotron, which started off as an experimental electronics duo, but built up into a more prog rock oriented, symphonic sounding enterprise, reaching its peak on Implosion, their third and final album as a band. We'd love to hear their earlier ones, and also Von Braund's pre-Cybotron all-electronic solo record Monster Planet (which must be pretty cool if we can judge it by the cover reproduced in this cd's booklet).
The album under discussion, Implosion, definitely displays loads of influence from the '70s German kosmische krautrock artists that Von Braund and Co. enjoyed. The title track in particular, with its melodic, happy synth motifs frolicking amidst plodding, ominous rhythms and darker, dronier electronics, is VERY Cluster / Harmonia sounding. With more than a hint of John Carpenter too as it progresses, as does much of the rest of this album. Elsewhere it's easy to draw comparisons to the likes of Tangerine Dream and Novalis, as well as to contemporaneous French bands such as Heldon and Lard Free. "Black Devil's Triangle", at about 10 minutes long, is the album's most epic and mesmerizing space voyage, kind of like something by Klaus Schulze but with an added exotic, Eastern flavor to it, via squiggly synth melodies that at moments actually remind us of the music from the video game Rastan that we have here in the store. So good.
FYI, as a warning to the unyieldingly sax-adverse, there's some saxophone on the track "Encounter", which gives it more of a jazzy, '70s cop show groove. The sax returns again on "We'll Be Around", appearing along with handclaps and the rare instance of some vocoder processed chanting vocals. It's an oddly, enjoyably poppy finale to the Implosion album proper. They even released those two songs as a 7" single, which didn't exactly make the charts.
Things get perhaps a bit quirkier later in the disc, as we get into a slew of bonus tracks that's mostly material from a never-completed, more commercial follow-up to Implosion, tracks that are a bit more novelty-esque, like a New Wave take on Perry & Kingsley. We're also reminded of Art Of Noise - in fact, Cybotron do a cover of Henry Mancini's "Peter Gunn" (also known to the video arcade generation as the theme to "Spy Hunter" game) which was also covered by the Art Of Noise later in the '80s if we recall correctly. Fun stuff if not exactly "kosmiche". However, the last bonus track is probably the HEAVIEST thing on here, a beefed-up "guitar version" of the already killer opening track "Eureka". Obscure krautrock reference that this track vaguely reminds us of: My Solid Ground.
As with most Aztec releases, this is a fairly swanky digpack with extensive liner notes, the cd booklet also fully illustrated with vintage photos and full-color graphics.
It's not really all that much fun writing a review of this new Danava album. What's fun is listening to it, turned up loud... and maybe getting buzzed on a substance of choice whilst doing so. Whoo-hoo! Granted, that's the case with lots of albums, classics like say Deep Purple In Rock or Alice Cooper's Love It To Death. The kind that require, nay inspire, such behavior. Those, though, weren't just released, but this was, so all the more an occasion for drunken loud listening. They don't make 'em like this all that often anymore, so kudos to Kemado for bringing us the real deal (ironic, isn't it). Though its exactly what we've come to expect from Portland psych-prog-stoner rockers Danava, and are happy to hear once again.
Since the time we checked in with these boys, they've undergone some lineup changes. They now rock to the beat of a different drummer, for one thing. And the guy who only played synths is gone now... but in his stead, way better yet, they've added a 2nd guitarist for extra twin axe attackin', so that's a win. The bassist and the singin' lead guitarist are the same, and that's what really matters in this band, those dudes. They slay.
Needless (at this point) to say, this new album is a killer, replete from the very get-go with rollicking, riff-rockin' badassery. These new Danava jams are seriously being kicked, way out. And they're, y'know, real songs too, with real vocals and everythin', like it's back in 1973 or so and they've got something to prove, those twin guitars givin' with the glorious harmonies (think Thin Lizzy, on the song "I Am The Skull" here especially). They sound like old time Pentagram too, but galloping like they wuz in the Preakness. The Preakness of freakness. Danava are doin' it, here. They're gonna out rock, out prog, out psych, out retro-proto-metal all comers. Speedy and sinuous, no doubt a bit of stress on all the wrists and necks involved in the making of this music. And there's still the usual embellishments of spacey synthy FX sprinkled about, even with that one guy gone. It's all almost a bit overwhelming, which is why it's nice that the very last track, the instrumental "Dying Into The Light" winds things up on a calming, eerily pretty note. Whew...
And, it should be noted that they further pay tribute to their '70s forebears by covering a song, "The Last Goodbye", by obscure UK blooze bashers Slowbone, not that you'd think it wasn't one of their own.
So, yep, getting ripped and listening to these guys rip (rollercoaster style, like they do) is of course way better than writing or reading this review. The response should be obvious. We, or well at least one of us anyway, is gonna kick back and crank this right now. You, should buy a copy and do the same as soon as you can.
By the way, all that drink/drug stuff is meant metaphorically, for all we know the guys in Danava, and their intended listening audience, are super straight edge, not stoners, let alone beer drinkers and hell raisers - though we doubt it.
Here's a nice reissue of this English fuzz-filled psych rarity from '72, considered by collectors to be a bit of a holy grail, since they only made 50 copies of the original! And while THAT may have a lot to do with why this is blurbed as "one of THEE greatest guitar-heavy psych records in the world" by the Machu Picchu label, it's definitely a contender for one of the RAREST pretty great ones. So thank Machu Picchu for making it available again, this time officially licensed from the band, something most previous versions probably weren't.
You may have heard their track "Maypole" way back when, on the British installment of the Love, Peace & Poetry series. We likened 'em to Blue Cheer-ish acid rock in our review of that comp, but Cream would have been a better comparison. And actually that track's rather gentle compared to some of the truly fuzzed out onslaughts on here, fuzzy though it is. And by the way, remember the Wicked Lady reissues we recently reviewed? Well axeman Martin Weaver from Wicked Lady joined up with the Dark right before this was recorded, so that's his fuzz you're hearing, which should give you some indication of what this sounds like. A more sophisticated, proggier Wicked Lady perhaps, a Wicked Lady with more in the way of "songs" rather than freakout jams, though this gets bluesy/jammy at times too.
While Dark aren't as, uh, dark as their name suggests, having a light side too, no heavy psych/fuzz fan will be disappointed, they're right in there with the likes of Wicked Lady, T2, May Blitz, Human Beast, NSU, Clear Blue Sky, Arzachel, and other heavy fuzzy but still sorta poppy UK psych outfits of the era, and that's good company.
This reissue has been remastered and restored by His Name Is Alive guy Warren Defever, and features a band history written by the Dark's Steve Giles. Also included are lyrics and rare photos. The packaging is a digipack for the cd, or a tip-on gatefold jacket for the vinyl.
Odd and obscure '80s heavy metal alert!! If that got your attention, you may remember that not too long ago we reviewed a disc by a band called Black Hole, '80s Italian metallers who were all spaced-out and psychedelic, like some strange mix of Jacula and Voivod. In that review, we made mention of one of their contemporaries, a band by the name of Dark Quarterer, whose debut album from 1985 is to be found on this slipcased cd reissue. We were pretty stoked to find a supplier for these and grabbed a bunch 'cause we figure anything that both Allan and Andee and Andee's fiancee Heather all instantly fell in love with, is something that at least a select few AQ customers are gonna dig too. Why did A, A and H all fall for DQ? Well Dark Quarterer just push all our eccentric, ancient metal buttons. To us, the low-budget, fidelity-impared production is part of their charm (what are those drums made of? cardboard?), the English-almost-as-a-second-language vocal stylings as well (without looking at the lyric sheet you'll have some trouble puzzling out what he's singing about -- his pronunciation is, let's say, creative). And the name "Dark Quarterer" curiously great too. But what's most important (and the reason why they indeed do have a cult following to this day) is that they wrote some awesomely epic and undeniably catchy metal songs. While Black Hole's favorite band must have been Black Sabbath, we're pretty sure Dark Quarterer were inspired by the grandiose he-man metal of Manowar. But it's Manowar-worship laced with the influence of Goblin and Yes and other proggy weirdness, as befits a band from the prog-crazy land of Italy. Andee even detects some hints of our beloved Comus in the title track, though we should stress that Dark Quarterer are very, very metal. Bizarre and poverty-stricken, yep, but metal through and through, with heaps of heroic vocals and majestic riffage to put some starch in your shorts (or loin cloth?). Not terribly unlike another eccentric '80s metal fave 'round here, Manilla Road.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Ah, scenes, waves, movements, trends, genres, we all know rock critics love 'em. We gotta admit we do too, if only 'cause it makes writing our reviews a bit easier sometimes, when you can stick something in a category. To wit, take this thing happening now with all these "female fronted, occult-oriented, rock/metal" bands, one of the most popular examples of such, being Dutch outfit The Devil's Blood. While some of these bands are super sludgey and doomed-out (Wooden Stake, The Wounded Kings) and others hark back to the '70s proto-metal psych scene (Blood Ceremony, Jex Thoth), and still others are straight up NWOBHM steel (Christian Mistress), this one, The Devil's Blood, while displaying elements of all the styles just mentioned, is by far the most "classic rock", with almost a '60s vibe, reminding us especially of Heart! Huh, well that's cool 'cause we heart Heart.
One of our friends theorizes that as modern metal has gotten more and more extreme, it's reached a point where, with bands like The Devil's Blood and Ghost, it's gotta go full circle back to completely classic, melodic roots. That's the new extreme! That's his theory, anyway.
And scenes and theories aside, we are digging this new Devil's Blood for sure. Eleven new tracks of their swirling, retro rockin', sweetly Satanic sounds, laced with great guitarwork and graced by THAT VOICE, which will be the deciding factor for most listeners, the soaring singing of "F. The Mouth Of Satan" (yep that's what she calls herself!) being an un-ignorable element, the crucial crux of this band, and either you'll fall under her spell or you won't. If you do, the rest of their witchy wall o' sound will fall in line, the dramatic organ, the urgent rhythms, the powerful production, the catchy choruses...
Heck, but chances are you already have found yourself smitten, as we sold plenty of this album's predecessor The Time Of No Time Evermore, and before that, their debut ep Come, Reap. If you liked those, you'll like this, as The Thousandfold Epicentre builds on their strengths, maybe generating more of a mystic mood than the last one. Their talents are especially on display during this album's tour-de-force finale, the 15 minute ritual of "Feverdance". There the band's balance of melody and menace tips to way outside of pop territory by virtue of sheer eerie epicness alone.
Another friend of ours, who runs a local label that puts out a lot of vinyl reissues (mostly '80s era new wave / electronic / coldwave stuff), was in the store the other day when we were playing this new album by The Devil's Blood. He thought it sounded like a band from the sixties, the vocals anyway, reminding him of acts like The United States Of America, Ultimate Spinach, and probably Jefferson Airplane, stuff like that. And he was quite taken with it, funny 'cause he's a guy who would normally not have been checking out a band with the evil/metal look and name The Devil's Blood has! They're not only for metalheads, that's all we're saying. Even though The Devil's Blood is happily (la-la-la!) serving Satan all the while.
Three years or so on from their debut, here at last is more bombastic mostly instrumental prog from this hotshot young British outfit, in the grand tradition of great ye olde bands from their land of the seventies like Yes, King Crimson, Van Der Graaf, Genesis and even Comus (who weren't all instrumental of course, but sure excelled in that dep't as do Diagonal). A complex blend of powerful grooves and lovely moody bits, Diagonal deliver the prog rock goods for any fan of this style.
Diagonal, come to think of it, is a good name for a prog band - going off in their own direction, not aligned with either the X or the Y axis y'know, but still operating with straight-line precision. Well zig zagging a bit actually, when you think about it. But with precision, that's for sure. Lotsa moving parts (organ, heavy bass lines, horn-laced freakouts, etc.) but everything locking together TIGHT. Heck they should go play in Japan with one of Tatsuya Yoshida's bands like Koenjihyakkei, they'd for sure go down a storm (as they say in England when something goes over well).
Aside from some wordless ahh-ahh-ahh vocals on track 2, "These Yellow Sands", it's not until track 4 of 5, "Hulks", that we really notice Diagonal busting out any singing here, and it's melodic and gentle, again quite in the tradition of Yes and the like, with female backing vox. "Hulks" features some stirring sax as well, as it builds over the course of ten-plus-minutes into quite the majestic opus, and could have remained instrumental without really any lessening of impact, though the vocals are nice.
While, like so many fellow Rise Abovers, such as Astra, Diagonal are rather deliberately retro-minded and thus more circumscribed in approach than, say, Circle (who have a much more WTF? attitude to prog and everything else), nonetheless Diagonal's The Second Mechanism is an impressive exercise in prog-music-making that's quite exciting and vital.
The other day we happened to have a used copy of a 1972 Nektar album called A Tab In the Ocean playing on the store stereo. (Nektar being a prog rocking band of Brits who had transplanted themselves into the krautrock scene of Germany in the '70s.) There was a customer in the shop who was digging it, who then said something to the effect of, "too bad they don't make music like this anymore". Of course, we were happy to inform him otherwise, that he needn't lament, and as proof we immediately directed him to this record by Diagonal that we had just installed on our New Arrivals shelf.
These guys are from Brighton, and might as well also be from the '70s, though in fact this album is their brand new, debut album, and the members of this seven-piece band are all 20-something years old. But if we played this for you and told you it was some "hairy funk" released on the Vertigo label circa '73 you just might be fooled. Diagonal display plenty of virtuosity on their various instruments, in the service of complex, programmatic song structures. There's some nice, melodic singing heard here and there, but much more in the way of long, instrumental passages, at turns moody and dramatic. Spaced out synths and jazzy organ jamming and fluttering flute (yes!) all figure into the mix, though with two guitarists and a crack rhythm section, Diagonal don't neglect to rock out upon occasion, sometimes in a fairly heavy (and precise) fashion. And as complicated as their material gets, these are indeed *songs*, not merely technical exercises for showing off their considerable chops.
They're obviously influenced by the likes of King Crimson, Gentle Giant, Genesis, Yes, Van Der Graaf Generator, and many much more obscure acts of the era (Gracious, anyone? Gnidrolog?)... but just as surely they're not unaware of today's mathrock scene (cf. Battles) though these guys do seem consciously retro, looking the part in long hair, beards, and vintage shop clothing (actually, that's not such an unusual style for kids these days, is it?).
Right on, there's been more cool modern-day prog showing up at Aquarius these past couple weeks than you can shake a Chapman Stick at! Crime In Choir, last list, and now Diagonal, well that's two anyway. (And neither use the Stick, don't get the wrong idea, as sometimes that's taking the prog thing just a little too far.)
Available on cd or as an import gatefold LP.
From the same studio that produced the amazing prog rock blowout that was the Cannabis India record from last list, comes this amazing flute led free jazz freakout from the Dieter Bihlmaier Selection, and as you probably know full well by now, we're suckers for the flute, especially when it's in the context of some fierce prog or far out jazz, as is the case here, a stripped down trio of just flute, bass and drums, recorded in 1973, this finds the band lean and mean, and so fierce, yet melodic and moody, groovy and jazzy and dreamy, slipping from fluttery drift to full on frenzy, Bihlmaier is an incredible player, expressive and all over the place, pure tones give way to stuttery breathy bursts, wild melodic runs, all tangled up with the bad ass rhythm section who lay down some seriously krautrocky jazz rhythms, locked in tight, mesmerizing and hypnotic, letting the flute do its thing over the top, but occasionally rising up and meeting the flute head on, the instruments doing a dense and dangerous dance, swirling, whirling and wild. The drums and bass get their time in the spotlight, but it's definitely all about the flute, and how the three mesh, even when they're all going full bore, which is much of the time. Hard to get your head around how three guys can be playing so wildly and so free, and yet the sounds can all fit together so perfectly. Heavy and heady and definitely far out, one of our new favorite jazz discoveries. Dying to find out what other amazing stuff SWR has tucked away in their vaults...
Killer archival reissue from local label SmartGuy, a lost 1983 demo from ultra obscure Aussie new wave post punks Division Four, a vinyl reissue of their only tape, and actually we wouldn't have been surprised had this come out on another local label, Superior Viaduct - fans of that label's reissues would do well to check this out, some seriously swaggery synth driven punk, with a heavy new wave influence, spidery angular guitars wrapped around buzzing synths that seem to drive their sound, with some seriously snarky/saucy lyrics, delivered in a very Johnny Rotten style snarl/yowl, all anchored by some low slung Joy Division-y bass. The other 5 songs are just as killer. "Kamikarzi" pairs woozy flanged guitars with sing songy vocals and frenetic drumming, all laced with swooping synths, while "Blank Prostitutes" is all crumbling distorted guitars, more woozy synths and some thick sinewy bass. "I Was Walking" is downright poppy, which gives way to "Azzaria" which is fierce, and driven by some helicopter like synth flutter, and with a weird tranced out chorus. And closer "Sewer Song" gets almost industrial, thick bass blurts, wild squalls of noisy synth, more swaggery vox and harsh lyrical subject matter, dirge-y and darkly new wave-y. Killer stuff. Sad they only ever managed six songs, but thanks to SmartGuy for giving us the chance to even hear 'em...
Math rock / post rock / noise rock nerds, celebrate! Henry Owings and Chunklet once again deliver a sonic holy grail that we didn't even know existed. Most recently it was a killer collection from late great unsung Chicago noise rock minimalists Tar, and now comes a whole unreleased record from nineties math rock legends Don Caballero!! And holy shit is it a doozy, recorded in 1991 at Carnegie Mellon as a three piece, the sound is super raw, ultra fierce, crazy heavy, and mathy as fuck, a furious frenzy of wild octopoidal drumming, chugging distorted guitars, fuzzed out low slung bass, the songs already twisted and tangled, and weirdly catchy, the sort of head nodding matched out heaviness few bands then or now could match, and the recording only makes it sound that much better, blown out and in the red, fierce and in your face, relentlessly rocking. A bunch (but not all) of the tracks would show up in different forms later, on early singles and their debut full-length For Respect, but they almost sound even better here, more raw and intense for sure. Fans of this group, this era and this sound, grab one of these before they're gone, cuz odds are these are the only ones we'll be able to get.
Housed in a full color gatefold sleeve, includes a download of the whole record, as well as the band's second ever live show as a bonus (and that's even more raw and blown out!!)...
Now reissued on vinyl! An old, old fave here at aQ, this album originally from 1973, that wowed us when we first heard it 'cause, as you may know, we're also long time fans of the band Olivia Tremor Control, and we were struck by the similarities. You could totally mistake this for an OTC record... a *great* OTC record! But it was recorded over three decades ago by a fellow from Delaware named Bill Holt, who, nearing 30 years of age in the early '70s, dropped out of his corporate job working for a Fortune 500 company to reinvent himself as a singer-songwriter, despite having little in the way of prior musical experience! Holt invested in an early Moog Sonic Six synthesizer and set up a recording studio in his basement, where he created this lost classic, an outstanding if bizarre psychedelic album with Spartanly bleak arrangements for acoustic guitar and hauntingly Donovanesque vocal melodies, injected with trippy sonic squiggles and snippets from newscasts to paint a disillusioned picture of the failure of '60s ideologies. Mesmerisingly beautiful... and definitely dreamy. Never was a name so well-chosen!
Like the Olivias, Bill Holt is obviously a huge fan of the Beatles. That's pretty clear. Sgt. Peppers definitely. And, he must really have liked the White Album's notorious "Revolution Number 9"!! With two side-long songs called (hmm) "Program Ten" and "Program Eleven", the Dreamies album is a similar venture into psych-pop meets musique concrete territory, an elaborate tapestry of samples - and this is from long before anyone called them samples, and before there was such a thing as samplers and sequencers, which means Holt used the old fashioned, labor intensive tape n' razor blade splicing method, working at home on his beloved TEAC Model 3340 reel-to-reel four-track recorder. Densely woven into his otherwise highly laid back and melodic mix, you'll hear clocks ticking, chattering machine guns in Vietnam combat, JFK speeches, crickets, frogs, NASA transmissions, and ominous but unidentifiable minimalist pulses of electronic/industrial white noise. Or even samples of the Beatles themselves! (Bits of "All You Need Is Love" and others are buried in Holt's sonic collage.) It's both unsettling and soothing at the same time, like surfing through shortwave transmissions from the late '60s psyche. And along with all the sound bites/effects, he also weaves together what must have originally been several different, distinct, enchanting songs he'd written for his voice and acoustic guitar. It's one man and his melodies alone amidst the chaos of the times. Unfortunately, the Dreamies album didn't end up leading to a career in music for Bill Holt, so sadly he was forced to return to the straight moneymaking world of 9-to-5 work. But his venture into the realm of hippy psychedelic rock music concrete lives on - now, again, on (remastered) vinyl!
Droids is the '70s French space disco project of Fabrice Cuitade, former Barclay Records employee and founder of their Egg imprint - which released the likes of Vangelis, Conrad Schnitzler, and Heldon, among others. The back of this disc claims Droids to be "the Daft Punk of the 70's," but even a quick listen will prove that claim reductive. Neither will the typical Giorgio Moroder comparison suffice. So the story goes that Cuitade saw Star Wars for the first time, and then decided to make his own musical interpretation. As we first listened to the album, we heard something much more nuanced than some sort of filtered French House prototype. Maybe if you picture Battiato partying in the studio with Patrick Cowley then you're getting close. That's right. This is nothing short of some seriously progged-out space disco. But whereas many artists in that arena seem to be cold, calculated, and sterile, Star Peace is an album that manages to hold on to the funk that disco originated with. Cuitade even foreshadows the piano stab-driven funky house of Chicago's Traxx label, while hinting at the celestial impulses of Italian cosmic-groover Daniele Baldelli. Fans of disco, prog, new wave, house, or anything electronic, arpeggiated, or dancey will positively need this. Essential. (Note: includes a track you might have heard already on the now sadly out of print compilation So Young But So Cold that we love love loved...)
This oddly named (can't the ducks and the geese just get along?) band hails from mainland China, and play an idiosyncratic blend of indiepop and mathrock and more... They've been around since 2009, doing an ep, an lp, and now this 7", which is the first thing we've heard by them. We're probably the only store in the States to have it, 'cause our friend Daniel, who used to run the pirate radio station here in SF where aQ's Allan and Alison did their 'Klaus To The Edge' progrock show, moved to Shanghai and opened a vinyl record store there, Uptown, which is also a label. So, this is one of Uptown's initial releases, and DFG are worth checking out to get a taster of what's happening in the Shanghai scene. They certainly seem ambitious. They even played at SXSW this year, and are getting big in China too, winning some awards at the Shanghai Grammies!
Part Tortoise, part Talking Heads... we don't know. On the anthemic A side, "His Story", it almost sounds like U2 is an influence. Grandiose stuff. The B side is equally catchy, but a bit quirkier. Definitely some '80s alt pop to their sound. And you wouldn't necessarily guess they were Chinese.
Pressed on nice white vinyl.
Really cool, instrumental post-rock / metal with lots of super complex playing and weird jazzy-ish bits. Definitely check it out if you're into Don Cab, Bozart, The (Fucking) Champs, etc.
Not to be confused with Earth, WIND and Fire! Female fronted Dutch prog-psych circa 1970 here folks, and it's a cult classic. This was originally issued, and likewise reissued, several times with different cover art. The various covers we've seen all look nice, but this design, the spooky psychedelic postery tree roots one, is our favorite, so we're glad the Esoteric label elected to go with it for this nice, remastered reish. Cover aside, though, what we care about is the music, and this self-titled album, the band's debut, is a favorite, probably their best in our book. They got a lot proggier later on (nothing wrong with that!), more symphonic, but this album had a pop buzz to it that can't be denied, the songs here mostly on the shorter side. The groovy "Love Quiver" is the longest at a respectably proggy 7:35, but the others are in the 3-4 minute range of radio-friendly singles, which ALL these songs are catchy enough to have been. It's Earth and Fire's most (stonery) "rock" record too, with enough heavy fuzz riffing, acid guitar soloing, and dramatic majesty to interest some of you proto-metal types. The first track is called "Wild And Exciting" and that describes this record, exciting especially for fans of the Jefferson Airplane, Curved Air, Savage Rose, Shocking Blue... and we'd suggest that those into current bands Blood Ceremony and The Devil's Blood ought to check this out too! But, ignoring the female vocals aspect of this for a sec, we'd also liken 'em a bit to Captain Beyond (when they really get to riffin') and Iron Butterfly (there's some organ)... also, though, the Mamas And The Papas (the female vocals again, and classic '60s-ness) ... It's just one great song after another, moody -and- rockin', and that applies to the two bonus tracks here too, singles B-sides "Hazy Paradise" and "Mechanical Lover", the former of which you may recall was covered by Japanese psychsters Ghost on their Hypnotic Underworld album a few years back! Can we offer more of a recommendation than that?!
Of the many, many prog rock reissues out there, here's a recent one we HAD to list, the 1969 debut album from this UK band. Why? Well, track two "Isadora" reminds us a bit of the flute-laced pastoral pagan-folk ceremony of AQ faves Comus! Elsewhere this band unleash psychedelic freakouts amidst jazz-inflected grooves, wielding electric violin, distorted guitar, and "Sumerian saxophones" in a mixture of rocked out fiddle frenzies, tricky time signatures, folky vocal melodies, and moody Eastern atmospheres. It's a mystical-Mingus hybrid, as played by a rock band, their wide ranging non-rock inspirations also allowing for one track, "Communion", to be based on a Bartok string quartet.
We'd compare 'em to contemporaneous acts like early King Crimson, and violin heavies High Tide, though these guys seem a bit more, uh, playful than either of those groups. Despite (or because of) such songs as "In The Stable Of The Sphinx", East of Eden's Ancient Egypt schtick has got to be a little tongue in cheek - check out the band photos, they simply can't be serious in that King Tut drag they're wearing! Their music certainly sounds like it comes from Swinging Sixties London, rather than out of a dusty sarcophagus. It's groovy, baby. Ferinstance, the riffy "Centaur Woman" is like Cream with bluesy harp seguing into an eruption of full on free improv horns, and also boasts an extensive bass solo (hence the tagline for that one: "half-woman, half-beast, half bass-guitar"). If they had let themselves go much further out, maybe they'd have started sounding like Japan's Food Brain from around the same time. But instead East Of Eden stick with what might play in the pop scene of the day, being exotic but not overindulgently experimental.
This nice new reish includes three previously unreleased bonus tracks - two demo versions and a cover of "Eight Miles High"!
Ok, if you're a fan of the Japanese prog-core duo Ruins and their amazing drummer and musical mastermind Tatsuya Yoshida, you already know he's a big fan of '70s progressive rock. Of course. It's pretty obvious, even if you've never experienced the Ruins' infamous "Prog Rock Medley". Ruins wouldn't be Ruins without the influence of classic '70s bands like Magma, Area, and Henry Cow. Here, Yoshida -really- gets proggy, though, paying tribute to some of his inspirations in that genre (and, classical music too) with a both a batch of worthy originals and several exquisite cover versions as well.
At home in yet another duo situation, Tatsuya Yoshida (vocals, drums, programming, keys, acoustic guitar) teams up with Eiko Ishibashi (vocals, piano, keys, flute), to turn in 14 tracks of utter prog nirvana, stuff that's gorgeously melodic and mathematically mindboggling, both.
Fans of Ruins, Koenjihyakkei, Tairikuotoko vs. Sanmaykuonna, and other manifestations of Yoshida's prog-obsession will be drooling, from the sweet female vocals and quirky hectic changes of "Festival Of Teeth" to the amusing, impressive ADD-antics of the quite clever "Classic Medley" (all 1 minute, 21 seconds of it), from the dizzying "The Invention Of A Parachute" to the thickly synth-buzzed, heavy and haunting "Planet Of Reverberation" which ends the disc... Wow.
While that "Classic Medley" has a tongue-in-cheek, showoffish element we're sure, this duo also respectfully give props to a few of their influences with some other covers, including songs by This Heat ("Twilight Furniture"), Soft Machine ("As Long As He Lies Perfectly Still"), Genesis ("Time Table"), and Debussy ("Doctor Gradus Ad Pernassum")! You know what? Even if you've never ever heard Ruins before, we would still recommend this to the curious, who could just as easily as any old school prog diehard be thrilled by this elegant, intricate music. Especially since, with both the covers and originals, these two manage to strike a stellar balance between the technical, excitingly indulgent side of prog, and truly lovely, uh, songishness. So nice!
And now we're curious to hear more from Ms. Eiko...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Lazy hippie jazz jamming that noodles and percolates along. Ektroverde has always been the 'jazzy' cousin of AQ Finnish faves Circle, a side project consisting entirely or almost entirely of members of Circle, often operating in much the same mode of hypnotic repetition, but with definite jazzier leanings. Well, this new Ektroverde disc is jazzier, and funkier, than ever -- saxes, as well as synths, to the fore! You've gotta dig some jazz sax to get into this, which otherwise could be a spaced-out, effects-laden Acid Mothers Temple improv. There's also the question of the vocals, not formerly a significant element of Ektroverde's sound. The Can-like vocal mantras sometimes work, sometimes don't, while Mika Ratto's occasional cod-operatics can simply make this seem like a mellowed-out, jazzed-up version of recent Circle. At its best, like on the lengthy track three, this is darkly moody and mesmerizing, but at its worst it's indulgent and kinda cheesy. Maybe this is one of those "if it wasn't Circle (or close to) would I want one?" conundrums. I don't know the answer to that, but I did like it enough to buy one. And it does boast awesome photos of extreme Finnish weather phenomena, along with the URL for a Finnish storm-chasers website. Storm-chasing is maybe a good analogy for what Ektroverde are doing here, merely getting damp in a drizzle as the album opens, then eventually catching up to the big storm as the second half of the disc gets more stretched-out and heavy. Maybe there's a rainbow in it for you...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Seventies Latin American prog-rock action, courtesy of Buenos Aires' El Reloj. This album is from '76 (with two singles tracks from '75 as a bonus) and showcases their powerful and complex "symphonic hard rock" sound. Argentina's answer to Deep Purple, apparently, with Hammond organ and wailing vocals. On the whole this band is a lot more freaky and twisted than Purple, with plenty of extended instrumental passages. Pretty great! "Without music life would be mistake." --part of a quote from Nietzsche found in the El Reloj booklet.
All right! We've been waiting for this, at long last a new album of mathy mania from our favorite Manitoban instru-metal nerds, who rip it up like an unholy hybrid of The Fucking Champs and Gorguts.
So, we threw this on as soon as we got it in earlier this week, and as we were listening to it in the store, a dizzying display of complicated instrumental triple-guitar metal pyrotechnics, completely ridiculous stuff, Andee remarked to Matt that THIS must be what it sounds like inside Allan's head all the time. To which Allan says, "I wish!"... And Allan's wish is Electro Quarterstaff's command. All he (or anyone) has to do is strap on some headphones and hit "play", and your brain can start doing somersaults and backflips to the tricky tunes of these tech-metal masters!
Yes, it's a fun ride. Somehow the Electro Quarterstaff boys make their music crazy technical and also utterly rock out at the same time. In fact, on some of the tracks here, we declare EQ may have invented the hitherto unknown subgenre of "technical boogie"!!
The Willowtip label is of course known for uber-technical death grind, bands like Arsis, Capharnaum, Gorod, Necrophagist... serious, brutal stuff, though they do have their "humorous" side (remember, uh, Crotchduster?). Electro Quarterstaff certainly have a quizzical sense of humor, witness song titles like "Waltz Of The Swedish Meatballs" and "Unholy Gravy" (though others are less overtly absurd, to be sure). But that's not why we like 'em so much. Any band can come up with silly song titles, but NOT just any band can play like this, nosiree. Grin-inducing MUSICALLY 'cause it's so damn complex, yet catchy too. Reminds us a bit of An Albatross, but not so spastic and noisy, way more METAL, their hectic shred conversant with classical-sounding melody. In fact, first track "The Wolf Shall Inherit The Moon" is a disarmingly beautiful semi-acoustic piece, setting any unsuspecting listeners up for a shock when frantic next track "McNutty" erupts into their ear-space.
Once again, they've named this after a famous Canadian (Gretzky was their debut). And once again, this cd is graced with really awesome artwork. This 2nd album was worth the five year wait, but we hope EQ don't go back into lengthy hibernation right away... what would be really rad would be to see 'em play live, how 'bout a West Coast tour, guys? We'd be in the front row for that, along with any fans of Scale The Summit, Suzikiton, Pegataur, The Champs, Gorguts, etc.
Seems like no matter what, there's always some obscure gem left out there to be dug up and reissued, you've never heard it all. Here's the latest example, a reissue of a 1976 album with a promising title and equally alluring cover art. Electronic Mind Waves by Italy's mysterious Elektrikus (aka one Andrea Centazzo) is indeed pretty awesome, as a lone offering naturally touching on both the traditions of Italian prog and Germanic "kosmische" electronics, especially heavily influenced it would seem by the latter.
While over the years Centazzo has apparently made other albums, of improvised avant-garde jazz, collaborating with the likes of Steve Lacy, Evan Parker, Derek Bailey, and ROVA, under his one-off Elektrikus guise (as might be expected) he concentrated on synthesizer-based keyboard music, creating hypnotic (and sometimes haunting) electro-acoustic soundscapes of abstract droning synths and sequencer patterns, also employing tinkling bells, tape effects, and on one track, upright bass.
There's eight tracks here, 38 minutes of his shimmering, ringing, burbling sounds that wouldn't sound out of place on the score to some strange sci-fi flick. Fans of Tangerine Dream, Conrad Schnitzler and Klaus Schulze should definitely check this out... For an Italian comparison, maybe some Franco Battiato? It also reminds us of a variety of more current underground acts, at moments like Vibracathedra Orchestra, or Kemialliset Ystavat, or something on Spectrum Spools, perhaps!
Kinda disappointed that this turned out to be a cd-r, though. We thought it was a real cd at first, it's in a jewel case and totally pro-printed with color artwork and all. Not sure why they didn't make it a real cd (and it's NOT a bootleg, Ictus is Centazzo's own label, started in the '70s and reactivated recently). Oh well, still neat to have!
Rob Ellis spends a lot of time as PJ Harvey's full time producer and drummer. He's talented. But this solo album is another thing entirely. Not rock at all, it's pseudo-20th century new music for the synthesizer-inclined. So I listened to this at home like the title says, and have to say rather than being good home listening, it'd be better titled Music for Walking Around Staring at Bare Trees in the Winter. Stark synthesized piano/harpsichord, tinkling electronic chimes, typewriters, and programmed percussion all add up to a dreary minor key case of seasonal affective disorder suffered by Claude Debussy.
Yeah! Here's another rad reissue of early '70s proto-metal. Of special interest to us, Elonkorjuu are Finnish, in fact hailing from the same town, Pori, that later gave us AQ faves Circle!
Their ultra-collectable 1972 album Harvest Time is a heavy progressive gem, full of ripping guitar and wild organ... wailing English-language vocals, melodic moody parts, many mathy changes, and galloping riffage are also all elements of the sometimes complex Elonkorjuu equation. Although fairly heavy for the time, they also have a generally "happy" sound, one that's often hectic too, these guys obviously reveling in their music making prowess. Their fervor is infectious, this is great stuff for anyone who loves other early '70s prog-psych acts of this ilk like Trettioariga Kriget, Wishbone Ash, Cargo, Culpeper's Orchard, Murphy Blend, Steamhammer, Wind, Irish Coffee, Osage Tribe, Odmenn, Blues Addicts, Stonewall, Toad, Road, etc.
While they only recorded one more album in the late '70s, the talent and exuberance displayed on Harvest Time earned 'em (and Finland) a spot in early, obscure hard rock history, for sure. Forever underground, they even title a song here "Praise To Our Basement", wherein these young long haired hippies first had first begun jamming back in '69...
We reviewed an amazing album on the Dead-Cert label (the boutique subsidiary label of Finders Keepers and Demdike Stare) a while back by musical couple Kat Epple and Bob Stohl called Sanctu Spiritus, a proto-new age document of early recordings utilizing synthesizers and flute with tape-loops to be used in planetariums and space documentaries. That release is now sadly out of print, but that was just the beginning. Between 1978 and 1982, the couple would later form the group Emerald Web, a mixture of space and fantasy music with proggy new age leanings and release 5 recordings (1 lp and 4 cassettes) on their own imprint label Stargate from which the tracks here are compiled by the fine freaks at Finders Keepers/B-Music.
Hailing from Florida, the duo recorded their music at night utilizing the studio they used for their day jobs as synth-programmers, music consultants for computer technology labs and TV and film soundtrack work. Named after a laser show formation and combining elements of dungeons and dragons fantasy and cosmic ambience, the group released their vinyl debut, Dragon Wings And Wizard Tales in 1979, a heady post-prog synth epic of tripped out soundscapes and ethereal female vocals that was recently featured on the Record Store Day compilation Monster Skies. The subsequent tape releases were less proggy and more spacey, filled with field recordings, dueling flutes, and ambient electronics that have more of a minimal composition focus than your typical new age music does. The couple would go on to record music for Carl Sagan's Cosmos series and hopefully that will get released soon as well. So great!
There is an import lp version of this, but it's been very hard for us to track down, so for now we only have the cd.
For some mistaken reason, we thought this was gonna be really noisy. Maybe 'cause it's on Hanson (home to such earhole excruciators as Wolf Eyes, Metalux, Smegma, and Hair Police just to name a few of the noisniks on the label). But we were wrong wrong wrong. Instead, this is totally calm and lovely electronic space music in the 'kosmiche' vein of '70s and '80s Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream and Ashra and the like. It won't harsh your mellow at all, quite the opposite! This is bliss-out droney stuff produced by a Midwestern trio using the equation: analog synthesizers x 2 + (electric guitar + effects). Something like that. Earlier in their career (this is the cd debut after lots of limited cassette and cd-r action) they used to use only TV sets as sound sources! Glad they gave that up, as Solar Bridge wouldn't be nearly so soothing if there were, like, breaks for commercials. You'd have to Tivo it.
Seriously, though, this is a droning delight. There's just two tracks here, but they are 'side-long' ones. The 12:34 "Magic" and the 14:14 "The Quaking Mess". It's almost New Age-y (as so much indie, experimental music is turning out to be, when you think about it) but not too too New Age-y. Though nicely mesmeric, it also has a quietly creepy edge to it, and a real grinding, full physicality at higher volumes. Emeralds create waves and layers of subtle, gently pulsating electronic gurble, but not in an overly wispy way. For instance, feedback whispers and glimmers through the cracks in the drone at the start of "The Quaking Mess", which then builds into more of a dense, fuzzy drone-sheen. The kind that radiates light, and that you want to wrap around yourself and your ears like a blanket. Definitely one of our faves from Hanson thus far, noisy or not!
We always seem to go on and on about loads of rare prog. We love that stuff. Lost Italian prog, rare South American prog psych. But let's not give short shrift to American and British progressive groups, especially the more popular mainstream acts. No prog lover worth his salt would dare deny the brilliance of Yes, or Jethro Tull or E.L.P. Especially E.L.P. In fact if you asked Andee who his favorite band was, not just prog band, but band period, he just might answer E.L.P. Why? Because they are the ultimate prog band. Excessive in everything they did, instruments, outfits, song choices, song lengths, solos, EVERYTHING. Plus all three members of E.L.P. were unbelievable players. When rock kids were worshipping at the altar of Neil Peart, some of us were bowing before the godlike drumming of Carl Palmer. This double DVD is jam packed with so much classic E.L.P. footage it's unbelievable. There's a bit of pre-E.L.P. stuff: the video for "Fire" by the Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, which features a masked Carl Palmer on drums, King Crimson live in Hyde Park in 1969, the Nice on German TV show Beat Club in 1968, all amazing. Even just the DVD menu footage features lots of classic E.L.P. images, the band in their silk kimonos getting on stage in Japan, the infamous semi trailers, each printed with one band member's name on top, billboards, fireworks and pyrotechnics. Then there's just loads and loads of amazing live footage from Europe, the UK, Japan, including their debut performance at the Isle Of Wright festival with Carl Palmer disrobing during his drum solo and Keith Emerson playing his keyboard from the wrong side, pounding it, jumping over it, then launching cannons from either side of the stage. Holy fuck! They definitely don't make bands like that any more. There's lots of videos too, from European TV, including an amazing Carl Palmer drum solo filmed live on a TV show called Aquarius, where he plays chimes, timpanis, four bass drums and even rings a bell with his mouth! Disc two features E.L.P.'s whole California Jam set as well. Bonus footage includes an unseen rehearsal film from 1973, interviews with Bob Moog about his relationship with E.L.P., analysis of the album covers, videos and more. But even without the extras, heck, even without disc two, there is just so many amazing sights and sounds and performances here. This stuff is so absurd and so brilliant, and the songs are so classic, and the playing is so goddamn good, it just makes me feel like an old man for lamenting the state of modern music. Anyone out there who wants to start an E.L.P. for the new millennium get in touch with Andee via the store!
This is going to be short and sweet. At the risk of some of you losing faith in my (Andee's) reviews, Emerson Lake and Palmer are the greatest rock band ever.
Period.
Everything you like about every one of your favorite bands, ELP do better. Heavy, bombastic instrumental virtuosity, gorgeous mellow pop chops, everything. A greatest hits record can't really do justice to a band who almost never wrote a bad song (at least until 1977), and if you were actually interested, you'd be better served buying one of their actual albums. Or all of them. But for the timid or the not so daring, this is not a bad place to start.
Thirteen tracks by of the most successful, most reviled, act in prog-rock history!
