Lately it seems that between Captured Tracks and Sacred Bones, there's some sort of label competition to see who can release the most stuff. It's definitely a close race, with both constantly churning out record after record, the weird thing is, it's pretty much all great. This latest one from SF's own Fresh & Onlys though, just might be the best yet. It's definitely the best F&O record so far, the songs, the vibe, the sound, the production. Everything that was hinted at on past records seems fully realized here. It's short, a 6 song 12" at 45 rpm, but it's plenty.
As always, the songs are ace, catchy and hooky, the guitars jangle and crunch, the vocals wrapped in reverb, the drumming propulsive, the bass fuzzy, but it's a lot darker and more minor key that past F&O records, it's also the lushest and loudest recording, which all contribute to making this the perfect F&O to end up on Captured Tracks.
While still jangly and poppy, it's also a little gloomy, a lot new wave, with buzzy Joy Divison bass, squalls of wild psychedelic guitar, plenty of ooooh's and aaaah's, tribal drumming, angular riffing, a perfect mix of sixties jangle, and cold/new wave gloom. The production is lush, but also weird, and tripped out, ethereal and gauzy, and this time around the sound reminds us not just of other likeminded contemporaries, but also of darker groups, like the Wipers, Abecedarians, Kommunity FK, that sort of thing, albeit filtered through the F&O's perfect pop jangle. It's heady and hypnotic, kick ass and catchy, but also haunting and moody and a bit murky. That and the fact that these might be the best songs Tim Cohen and company have written so far, make this a definite contender for year end best ofs, even though it's only April. WAY recommended.
Not actually for sale 'til Tuesday (10/12), but if you want one then we can hold it for ya...
Yet another fantastic new record from these SF garage poppers, they really crank em out, but hell, every record is jammed with fuzzy jangly crazy catchy perfect pop, so we're sure as heck not complaining. Especially with the band's recent trajectory, their sound getting darker and more melancholy, without losing any of its inherent fuzziness or hookiness. Like on their last record, Play August In My Mind, Play It Strange continues to nudge their core sound, a sort of classic sixties tinged garage/powerpop, all ooooh's and aaaah's and simple rhythms and lush organs and sweet harmonies and big guitars, into territories much more murky and not so nearly sunshiney, adding lots of melancholy minor key mystery, plenty of twang, brooding moodiness, reminding us of classic gloom rockers like the Wipers and Kommunity FK, but also of groups like the Leaving Trains or the Hoodoo Gurus, the result a fantastically moody dark retro jangle garage pop shot through with bits of more classic pop sounds, a la the Zombies, but on first listen this totally sounds like it could have come from LA circa 1985, like these guys could have been playing the Scream club with Tex & The Horseheads, Jesus And Mary Chain and the Abecedarians, plenty of post punk jangle mixed in with that sixties shimmer, the vocals deeper and more dramatic this time around, some of the songs sounding like old school sixties pop ballads, while others still brim with plenty of hazy reverb, crunchy guitar, woozy organ, tribal drumming and big hooks.
What more do you need to know? A new Fresh & Onlys 7", which means two more slabs of perfect pop. Not as fucked up and lo-fi as most of their contemporaries, the Fresh & Onlys traffic more in a total classic pop, Beach Boys, Kinks, Raspberries, Shoes, Cheap Trick, Beatles, sure it's rough around the edges, there are some woozy effects, the sound is wee bit lo-fi, but you'd be hard pressed to find any underground combos making pop as pure and catchy as these guys.
The title track is a soaring chunk or nearly perfect power pop, with a chorus to die for, amazing harmonies, and a lush yet lo-fi sound. The flipside is a little bit more shuffly, with acoustic guitars, skittery percussion, a much less obvious hook, but one that definitely sounds like something sixties and British. Awesome. Another band who seem to be bringing back the heyday of the 7", not merely a dumping ground for leftovers, but instead a showcase for a band's best and most immediately appealing songs...
Yet another new record from SF's own Fresh & Onlys, and another fantastic batch of moody, melancholy jangle pop, and while it's hard to know what else to say about these guys, what with them seeming to release a new record practically every month, the minute we get an earful of the latest record, all we wanna do is forget all that and get lost in the new set of songs, mainman Tim Cohen's reservoir of classic pop songs still seemingly bottomless. And with every record, we find ourselves proclaiming some song their best yet, or a new favorite, and hare to say it but we're about to do it again. The title track here is practically perfect, Cohen's deep reverby croon, laid atop a low slung post punk bassline, wrapped in chiming guitars, the production lush and polished, but still quirky, with huge swaths of sound dropping out to let a little guitar lick float all on its own, before the band launch right back in, bit and bombastic. Catchy and hook, broody and darkly dreamy.
The rest of the ep is just as good, the songs ranging from twangy organ driving strum (sounding a bit like Calexico actually), to hazy, melodic sixties dream pop shuffle, and from moody lilting garage-y jangle pop, to moody, murky, dark doleful dirge, the last song "Poison WIne" definitely one of our new F&O favorites, bombastic, lush and buzzy, the refrain a haunting descending minor key melody, the bass thick and fuzzy, the guitars crunchy, the vox weary and washed out, one of their darkest yet, and yeah, we know, but still, maybe one of their best. As always, recommended!
On vinyl only via this 12" ep, some fine new material from these local indie pop faves, following in the footsteps of last year's Long Slow Dance full-length. Once again, well-written, upbeat catchiness, mostly sunshiney, very sixties smooth, classic-sounding stuff. Gotta hand it to the F&O gents, they're good at this! So for your melodic indie rock needs, it's easy to predict that Soothsayer's six songs will fit the bill.
Handnumbered edition of 500 by the way.
What else can we say about these local garage pop masters that we haven't already? Every record just gets better and better, and with a release rate that's starting to get Guided By Voices prolific, the quality of songs has not suffered one bit. And not only do the songs sound great, but the records do too, this one recorded in a proper studio and produced by Phil Manley of Trans Am.
The new sound suits the new songs too, hardly garage pop anymore really, just classic kick ass popsmithery, super hooky, the vocals way up front in the mix, all the instruments lush and layered, a classic power pop made modern, with gorgeous vocals from Tarnation's Paula Frazer. Somehow leaves us still wanting more more more!!
Lately some of our favorite San Francisco musical minds have also added record label mogul to their resumes. John Dwyer launched Castle Face records to start putting out Oh Sees records and of course he released that Ty Segall full length which we are so in love with. Also newly a record label head is Kelly Stoltz (responsible for recording the latest Oh Sees album, as well as crafting some of the finest pop songs your ears are likely to hear). Chuffed is the name of his new label and The Fresh & Onlys kick things off with a debut 7" that's sure to please garage rock fans and lo-fi pop enthusiasts. Many folks might have seen the band play live without even knowing it, as they were picked to be the backing band for the legendary performance in town recently by Rodriguez in support of the reissue of his amazing album Cold Fact. Loyal AQ list readers will also be familiar with Tim from the other bands he also plays in: 3 Leafs, Black Fiction and others. Makes perfect sense that they are about to tour with Thee Oh Sees and that their full length will be on Dwyer's label, as these four songs are chock full of fuzzy hooky and raw garage pop spirit.
BACK IN PRINT!!!
Most folks will probably be grabbing this for the F+O's tracks, but we're pretty blown away by Dan Melchior, and his awesomely super distorted garage pop, like Elvis Costello, all jammed up and slathered in crumbling hiss and grit, the vocals delivered in a thick English accent, the drums blown out, effcts all over the place, everything buried beneath a patina of blurred buzz, but the songs themselves, total classic power pop, Costello, Nick Lowe, that sort of thing, opener "Daylight Robbery" is a definite contender for pop jam of the year, with a main hook / melody that will stick with you like crazy. And yeah, we know he's been making record for years, but somehow this is one of the first times we've heard him. We're definitely gonna do some digging into Melchior's back catalog. You probabaly will too after hearing this...
The Fresh & Onlys hold their own just fine thank you, with frantically strummed acoustic guitars, skiffly drums, reverbed vox, and two of their best songs yet, both channeling a sound similar to Melchior's, but with a bit more of an American nineties indie rock vibe, lo-fi, but weirdly lush, killer choruses, the sound warm and washed out, some cool sixties girl group back up vocals, the second track definitely getting all Spector-ish and reminding us quite a bit of Thee Oh Sees. Good stuff. And probably limited too...
We listed a different reissue of this great rare acid-folk album about a year ago... well guess what, now it's been retitled "Hatched" and reissued -again-, this time with seven bonus tracks instead of just two. And it looks better too. The bonus tracks include two non-album cuts from the band's lone single (which were on the previous edition) and five more live tracks from a newly-unearthed 1971 radio session! So, if you already have this on cd you can determine if you need this new version or not, but if you don't already have it, this is the one to get, obviously! Here's what we had to say about it before:
For those of you into acid folk from the early '70, we have another terrific find with FRESH MAGGOTS. This teenage British duo's only record, not surprisingly deemed a failure upon its release with such an unappealling name (though of course we think it's cool), came out in 1971. Which, as you may know, some here say could be one of the BEST years for this -or any- genre. Influenced by the likes of Deep Purple, Zeppelin, and Pentangle, Fresh Maggots really don't sound as rock as the above outfits (partly due to lacking drums) but bring more to mind Forest, Tractor, or Tyrannosaurus Rex. There's lots of acoustic guitar folkiness here blended with fuzzed out fits of electric guitar. And there's a little tin whistle playing and triangle chiming going on, too! Melodic, pastoral, hearty, and highly recommended. This reissue, which the Fresh Maggots themselves had a hand in, includes extensive liner notes, and two [no, make that seven, now!] bonus tracks.
For those of you into acid folk from the early 70's, we have another terrific find with FRESH MAGGOTS. This teenage British duo's only record, not surprisingly deemed a failure upon its release with such an unappealling name (though of course we think it's cool), came out in 1971. Which, as you may know, some here say could be one of the BEST years for this -or any- genre. Influenced by the likes of Deep Purple, Zeppelin, and Pentangle, Fresh Maggots really don't sound as rock as the above outfits (partly due to lacking drums) but bring more to mind Forest, Tractor, or Tyrannosaurus Rex. There's lots of acoustic guitar folkiness here blended with fuzzed out fits of electric guitar. And there's a little tin whistle playing and triangle chiming going on, too! Melodic, pastoral, hearty, and highly recommended. This reissue, which the Fresh Maggots themselves had a hand in, includes extensive liner notes, and two bonus tracks.
We call a lot of things "psychedelic" these days... Comets On Fire, Boris, Silvester Anfang, Circle, Joanna Newsom, Residual Echoes, Acid Mothers Temple, Raccoo-oo-oon, Grey Daturas, Dark Fog, Devy B... all sorts of stuff. Psych this, psychedelic that. Loose use of the term for sure, though it gets the idea across, y'all know what we mean (right?). But once in a while it's worth remembering that "psychedelia" originally, once had a more specific, commercial, sometimes exploitative meaning in the pop culture, in re: a certain time and place. You bet your sweet bippy, that back in 1967, "psychedelic" was something like this album (now reissued on cd): Friar Tuck & His Psychedelic Guitar, featuring a cover photo of a bearded guy in a brown robe, with a Beatles haircut under his hood, crouched on a chair in front of a "trippy" colorful abstract painting. A product of the sunny LA pop scene, Friar Tuck was a gimmicky project mixing sumptuous orchestration with stinging guitar blurt, the distortion on composer/producer (and noted LA session cat, also a member of the Ceyleib People) Mike Deasy's axe being the closest thing here to the state of "psych" as currently understood. (Others from the backup band were also known as Goldenrod, an instro-grunt combo responsible for one fairly ahead of its time "heavy" album.) '60s buffs should also note that this album's lovely vocal harmonies were all arranged by none other than Curt "Millenium" Boettcher.
Side one had covers, sorta novelty songs including a version of frat-rock classic "Louie Louie" (here, "Louis Louis"), and Tommy Roe's goofy "Sweet Pea", both with vocals delivered in a laidback drawl, which weirdly enough kinda reminds us of the Black Monk Time Monks... hey what's with the '60s and monks anyway? But then on side two, it's all Deasy originals, equally orchestrated but a lot trippier and spaced-out, a flowers-and-beads rave-up in a style long gone. The whole thing exudes vintage charm, right down to the deep thoughts of the beat poetry included in the liner notes. This cd reish also includes four bonus tracks from singles by another Deasy band in a similar style, The Flower Pot.
Hey all you Explosions In The Sky fans!! Listing this 'cause it's in danger of being overlooked... Here's an album worthy of being simply an EITS release, not just a soundtrack for a movie (the packaging of which fails to offer them obvious credit even though it's their work). Just know that this is a little more filmic than their regular releases, and appropriately so. Very lovely indeed!
The continued series of Suicide related 10"s from Blast First Petite offers three tracks here with Gavin Friday & Dave Ball, Thomas Brinkmann, and Alan Vega himself. The A-side is a thorough '80s throwback with former Virgin Prune frontman Gavin Friday paired with Soft Cell technician Dave Ball covering the classic Suicide tune "Ghostrider". A deft and faithful interpretation found here. Brinkmann's cover / remix of Suicide's "Diamonds, Furcoats, Champagne" had originally appeared on a 12" from 2006, engineered out of a one-note bassline topping a mid-tempo techno groove and sparkling washes of synths scattered from above. The arrangements share the Suicide spirit of cocaine-driven glitz set against an undercurrent of teeth-clinching paranoia, all of which are driven home with Vega's vocals. The Alan Vega track was also previously released from his 1999 album entitled 2007.
Fridge have been an all time aQ fave for more than a decade now, every record a joy to behold, their sound constantly evolving, but still so unique and all their own. But as much as we love pretty much everything we've heard, for some of us, the old stuff will always hold a special place in our hearts. The record Eph remains one of our favorites, an endlessly classic collection of post rocky electronica, but before Eph, the band released a clutch of killer singles and eps, which were even more raw and innovative and home brewed than Eph. This disc collects all those tracks, a glorious assemblage of infectious jams, of wild experiments, of dark brooding grooves, from fuzzy brooding wah wah flecked post rock jangle, to Funky Tortoise-y grooviness, from crunchy super distorted math rock rife with odd samples, to smoldering Stereolab-like modern krautrock, from abstract folky shimmer, to warbly lo-fi electro, from almost-jungle to blissed out late night smoke-y jazziness, it's all warm and smooth and raw and groovy and spacey and super catchy, and be sure to check your iTunes, the last handful of strange sonic fragments spell out the band name phonetically. Cool!
So beautiful!!! The London-based trio Fridge has finally wrested back the rights to their masterpiece Eph from the evil major label and have re-released it themselves in the UK, and for the first time in the US, on Temporary Residence. Windy's hands down
The reissue also contains a second bonus disc that brings back to life the out-of-print "Kinoshita Terasaka" single and the "Of" EP, plus two previously unreleased remixes by Matt Herbert (Dr Rockit) and Viennese electronicist Patrick Pulsinger.
You *must* hear this record. I don't usually use Andee's favorite final word in my reviews, but I have to here. ESSENTIAL.
A lot can happen in 6 years. That's how long it's been since the trio of Kieren Hebden, Adem Ihan and Sam Jeffers last released a record together. Since then 2/3 of the band have gone on to great success with their individual projects, Hebden with Four Tet and Ihan with Adem. As the '90s were coming to a close Fridge emerged as one of the shining examples of a band who totally knew how to bring all sorts of elements from various exciting musical movements (electronica, post-rock, hip-hop, etc.) into a totally cohesive, engaging and epic package. Six years later and they return sounding like no time has passed at all. The Sun sounds like Fridge stepped right out of the time machine, so for those who were hoping to hear that classic Fridge sound once again you will be very happy! While some of us hoped that maybe there would be lots of new twists and turns, there is no denying that they do what they do so damn well. This is like post-rock 101, so get your notebooks and pens out cause school is in session.
PREORDER! PREORDER! PREORDER! PREORDER!
We're super excited to be one of the few stores to be selling preorders for this lp series from Matthew Friedberger of the Fiery Furnaces, who, starting in January of 2011, will be releasing an lp every two months, each one focusing on and created from a single instrument, the first (from which the sound sample below is taken) will focus on the piano. There will be six lps in the series, but subscribers will also get, along with the last album in the series, two bonus full-length albums featuring Matt and special guests. Subscribers will also get an old-style tip-on LP box with a hand mounted photo in which to house their lps. SUPER limited to just 700 copies worldwide. And, Solos not be available digitally, or on compact disc in it's complete form. Some of the lps might be available individually, but heck, $40 for 8 lps and a super fancy box, tough to beat. So Fiery Furnaces fans, line up here, and grab one of these before they're gone.
You'll be charged for the whole series, and will be notified as each lp is released and arrives at aQ. You'll still have to pay shipping for each individual lp, that's not included in the $40, but of course if you're a regular mailorder customer, we can just toss it in your current order. Otherwise we'll ship them out as they arrive...
Mr. Fiery Furnace goes it alone for this double (!) album. That's right, he's thrown his hat into the ring of prolificacy, joining the irrepressible songsmith likes of Robert Pollard, John Darnielle and Ryan Adams? The Winter Woman / Holy Ghost Language School combo is an undeniably immense and admirable undertaking, but apologies Brother Friedberger! On our first couple of listens to this album, we just couldn't help but feel like we were listening to a Fiery Furnaces album and hence we totally missed your sister's singing. That magical (and yes fiery) Friedberger spark initially seems somewhat muted (like it's running on half power... which it sort of is). That's a bit of a hurdle to overcome, but the elder Friedberger seems to have knowingly come prepared for it, bringing new elements into his palette of styles and sounds to distinguish his solo efforts from his band endeavors in more ways than just his sister's voice.
Through these two albums Friedberger reveals two distinct personas -- one as the yarn-spinning eccentric pop singer/songwriter (with whom we're already well acquainted by way of the 'Furnaces) and the other as a more adventurous less conventional artist. Winter Women showcases the former with some utterly addictive hook-laden treats (hmmm, imagine if Pavement's Slanted & Enchanted were born under a circus bigtop!), while Holy Ghost brings out Friedberger's inner curious carny juggler. He indulges his whim which beckons him through a wildly varied array of styles with brief stops in bluesy swamplands, murder mystery incidental music, antique puppet theater, incorporating a lot of Beatles-isms throughout. Indeed, the latter does serve as his musical catch-all, but with all of its winding tales and sonic twists'n'turns he doesn't let things get all willy-nilly. No, 'tho he tackles both the big and small, the elaborate and the simple, he maintains a consistent level of composition from start to finish.
Each album stands solidly on its own merits, and we wonder if the reason why he chose to release these two albums together was to ensure the audience's awareness of his multifacetedness. They leave no question, his uniquely tweaked songcraft talents are many.
Life (this album) is another fantastic(al) blast of dizzyingly prismatic, distorto-pop cotton candy psychedelia, a swirling sonic funhouse of sound, that like Friel's previous disc, Total Folklore (a Record Of The Week, btw), sounds like it should be on your shelf somewhere between Black Moth Super Rainbow, early Flaming Lips, Our Love Will Destroy The World, Sunroof!, and Zomes (that is, if you have the weirdest method of arranging your records). Playful and dayglo, distorted and noisy, glitchy and billowy, in a way, it sort of sounds like a SUPER poppy, 8-bit version of Lightning Bolt, some of the tracks sounding like music for the most drugged out, psychedelic video game ever, others getting downright noisy, but in that dreamy, deliriously blissed out noise way, the sounds totally in-the-red, but that saturation just making the various rhythms and melodies all bleed into one another and sounding like the musical version of a room full of preschoolers fighting with fingerprint and silly string. Totally over the top, and fantastically ebullient, it's pretty much impossible not to love Friel's maddening magical musical wonderland.
Chris Knox has already conquered the pop world with his wonderful albums as a solo artist and with Tall Dwarfs. So where's his head nowadays? Deep inside his G4, apparently, and this from a man who I seem to remember once expressed luddite-like glee to me at his not having email yet. Gotta love 'im, sweet Mr Knox. Anyway, armed with ProTools, a grant and lots of time, Knox has made an experimental musique concrete album that's as enjoyable in its (relative to other highbrow concretists) lo-fi humbleness as it is interesting in its methods of construction. On one piece, for example, inspired by experimental pianist Conlon Nancarrow he arranged the 88 piano key notes into visual patterns pleasing to the eye, and only then listened to see if they sounded good. (They do.) Other tracks feature fellow sound artist John Hudak's recordings of insects sped up into whirring mechanisms, stadium field recordings mixed with plastic rakes into tinkling swirls, ancient unearthed '70s tape manipuations re-mucked about with, etc. A fine album, both sonically and in its unintimidating, "friend"-ly approachability. Read about its making yourself here; witty Chris Knox always says it best himself: http://flyingnun.co.nz/viewartist.cfm?artistID=473
MPEG Download: "First Easy Piece" [/audio/friendfirst.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "First Easy Piece" [/audio/friendfirst.m3u]
Some of you may have already experienced the live fury of Friends Forever without even realising it. Touring in their beat up old van, and with no actual shows booked, Friends Forever would pull up in front of venues, where other shows were happening, and perform IN THEIR VAN, with smoke and strobe lights and fireworks spillling out into the street, while the band members thrashed away inside, usually driving away as the cops pulled up to find out what the hell was going on. There was even a documentary made about them! So how does a band whose whole schtick is their unconventional live shows hold up on record? Not all that bad actually. Their sound definitely fits comfortably in with the current crop of retro, electro, new wavers, although their sound is way more lo-fi, and much more spazzy. Think a less manic Lightning Bolt, or Liquorball trying to sound electro. And while that is the core of their sound, Friends Forever veer all over the place, from retarded and noisy synth pop with painfully (and purposefully, I'm sure) inane lyrics, to pounding rumbling mid-tempo Lightning Bolt style spazz rock, to relentlessly propulsive fuzzed out jams, to weird almost-metal with xylophones, to Wolf Eyes-ish industrial freenoise freakouts to Tusk style marching band dirges, with warbly horns and stumbling militaristic rhythms. Freaked out and fucked up and almost as good as sitting on the curb outside a club and being barraged by smoke and lights and chaotic rock mayhem. Almost.
So you're standing outside a show, smoking a cigarette and waiting for the Boredoms or whoever to play. A white van drives up; the doors fling open and out comes an assault of pyrotechnics, flashing lights, and obliterating noise rock! Guys wrapped in lightbulbs pound on drums and guitars INSIDE the van. Then it's over, right before the cops show up, and you're wondering, "What the fuck was that?" That, kind readers, was Friends Forever. Whether in an anticipated or surprise encounter, outside a club or in a parking garage, they play from their own moblie venue, and totally DESTROY with their aggressive spectacle. There's even a documentary about them, apparently now playing on an independent film channel near you. And their next record is coming out on Load. Of course, the question with them and many other post-hardcore freak punk type bands who put on amazing live shows is "how exactly does that incredible energy and performative aspect translate to a record?" Well, the answer for this here Friends Forever record is, umm, pretty decently, though not superlatively. The record allows them to go beyond the high-speed angular pummelling that makes the live shows work. Although it does contain some of said pummelling rock, there are also slower tempos and mellower textures, including some soothing wave sounds a la Black Dice's "Beaches & Canyons," although "Tidal Wave City" never reaches the accomplished and sublime complexity of that record. Still, this is nice, and while Friends Forever truly cannot be appreciated in full without witnessing them live, this is an interesting insight into a different side of them. After all, there's no way they're gonna fit that piano in the van.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Very filmic instrumentals, most resembling a slowed down Pell Mell, or surf music on thorazine. Includes a lazy, lazy, oh-damn-it's-just-too-hot-out version of Gershwin's "Summertime" featuring almost out of place over-driven arena rock guitar.
The folks at Aero Recordings have kindly reissued domestically this live disc which was originally released in Europe on Glitterhouse back in 2001. Three of these songs also appeared on the band's On The Shore doubledisc album in early 2003. In the live setting (or at least on this particular performance), Friends Of Dean Martinez are much more fiery and immediate than on their studio recordings (which are considerably more sprawling, drifting and contemplative). To be frank, there are occasions on Live At Club 2 where the trio simply rock! If you dig the dynamic twang of bands such as The Sadies or Calexico (Joey Burns and John Convertino were in an early incarnation of FODM and they wrote and co-wrote a few of the songs included here), do yourself a favor and check out Friends Of Dean Martinez (and vice versa for that matter). This is a great live document of a 2001 performance in Munich, Germany and features a terrific selection of songs that span the band's career up to that point.
Friends of Dean Martinez want you to just chill out... and gaze at this Lost Horizon. Instead of heading in the direction of a bar this eve, how about doin' a bit of lounging outside as the sun creeps down and as the band unwinds a steady strand of slow slinking bluesiness. FODM are well-skilled at creating sumptuous atmospheres, and this one's really gorgeous and mellow (with the exception of the seventh track "Hidden Out Of Sight" which is the album's most active and gritty). Some of it is very much along the lines of John Fahey's contemplative guitar abstractions on his Red Cross album, while other numbers bring to mind the glinting, droning warmth of Sweden's Bjorn Olsson. Actually this makes us feel like we're in a futuristic (like with Swedish neo-retro design) senior citizens' home. Not like in that it makes me feel old, just in that it makes me feel CHILL like in a "Visit Beautiful Florida" commercial for a Florida that is wayyyyy cooler than the real Florida is. We like it...though we like the live album a bit better....if we ever have an underwater or outerspace nightclub we're most definitely booking these guys.
Brooding, languid and very filmic. Like a meeting of Godspeed You Black Emperor, Ennio Morricone and Calexico at the end of a deserted dirt road somewhere in Arizona. Particularly, fans of the latter might also take a considerable shine to these Friends and it's no surprise 'cause John Convertino and Joey Burns were a part of an early incarnation of F.O.D.M. When they split to form their wonderful combo, remaining member Bill Elm continued on. The music on this double cd, the follow-up to their A Place In The Sun album from 2000, is much less lounge / surf inflected than previous recordings. Steel guitar slink over and through the shadowy rhythm section while mellotron and organ do their part to envelop the expansive proceedings. The first disc compiles songs from their albums Wichita Lineman and Live At Club 2 (a 2001 performance they did in Germany). Imagine a soundtrack to an old western directed by David Lynch... sound good? This is!
Gorgeous! The follow-up to last year's On the Shore double cd, Random Harvest just may contain Bill Elm and co.'s most electrified work to date. Prominent electric guitars add much prickle and bristle to tracks such as "Ripcord" and "Dusk". Yet, the album is also graced by some of the band's most serenely beautiful moments transporting them even further from their former much more loungey surf sounds. Perhaps an oversimplified reference point for this album would be 'Calexico meets Godspeed You Black Emperor', but it truly fits and sets FODM is potent company. Haunting, atmospheric and beautiful. Recommended.
Dude! It's about time we had some Frijid Pink here at the store! Just do a keyword search on our website for "Frijid Pink" and you'll find a small handful of references we've make to this somewhat unsung late '60s Detroit R&B infused hard rock combo, in the context of talking about some other psychedelic, "proto-metal" and stoner rock discs, among them AQ faves Flower Travellin' Band ('cause both bands did covers of "House Of The Rising Sun" -- in Frijid Pink's case it was their biggest, and pretty much only, hit.)
At last a nice new reish has come along, of FP's self-titled 1970 debut, where you'll find "House Of The Rising Sun" along with a bunch of other great, boogying bluesy garage psych tunes, played by a band partial to the fuzz and possessed of a lead singer with powerful rawk pipes, Kelly Green The "Sunshine Of Your Love" styled fuzz monster "Crying Shame" is one standout (heard also on the Cherrystones Rocks comp a while back). "Tell Me Why" is another extreme fuzz attack. Frijid Pink has a gentle side too, there's some (charmingly dated?) hippy mellowness on here for sure. And when they're heavy, be aware it's more of the '60s variety than the '70s (more Vanilla Fudge than Black Sabbath!) but the aforementioned fuzz levels are up there with Sir Lord Baltimore and we'd certainly say that Frijid Pink deserve to be mentioned alongside them and also likes of the James Gang, Cactus, Iron Butterfly, and other proto-proto-metal contenders! And for sure they shouldn't be forgotten when considering the legacy of '60s Michigan rockers like the SRC, Amboy Dukes, and the MC5.
This Akarma reissue comes in an extremely pink digipack, and includes two bonus tracks.
Frijid Pink, yeah!
Early last year Mr. Frillici dropped off a disc for us to check out. We asked him to bring in a batch. We haven't seen or heard from him since then... until now. Here is the result of what apparently has been six years spent crafting, fine-tuning and fleshing out each song. The first couple of songs twinkle and sway gently along the dreamy lines of Dean Wareham and his band Luna. It'd be darn dandy if the whole album simply continued along that path, but suddenly at the third song he shifts dramatically taking us into some Beck-ish horn-laden funkiness. Then we noticed that there are nineteen songs on this album (!), and we anticipated that Frillici might have much more in store for us... and we were right! He fit in some mellow downtempo shufflin', a rockin' guitar noodly rave up to boot, an interstellar Flaming Lips-esque jaunt, some very very Brian Wilson-y grand pop, and some quirky King Missile style storytelling about a fella who ate his own finger (and that's only at the halfway point). An impressive debut filled with a startling array of pop adventures.
What more could be said about these two Fripp & Eno records than we've already written in countless Expo '70, Growing and Aidan Baker reviews? That's because these records are pretty much ground zero for all of the dark dreamy drifty processed guitar / tape / synth drone that we can't ever seem to get enough of. Perhaps there are other earlier influential touchstones such as Tony Conrad and La Monte Young, perhaps Stockhausen and Terry Riley as well, but none seemed to have come so totally out of nowhere from two relatively mainstream players as these two records. Manuel Gottsching, Taj Mahal Travellers, and Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music all came a little later.
After every other Eno solo album and collaboration (from Cluster to David Byrne) has been reissued, we are lucky enough to finally see both of these classic releases newly 24-bit remastered by Fripp himself reissued on his DGM imprint. These have never sounded better! No Pussyfooting even contains an extra disc featuring both tracks in reverse and a 40 minute bonus track of "The Heavenly Music Corporation" recorded at half speed that we know all our customers into glacial doomy drone will want, nay, need to own! Even if you own this record already, you may just need to buy it again for the stellar extra material!
It's easy to take for granted nowadays the influence of Brian Eno as the "godfather of ambient music", but in 1973 before he had even released his first solo record, Here Come The Warm Jets, Robert Fripp and Brian Eno were mainly known for their previous roles in King Crimson and Roxy Music respectively. Then this mysterious record parenthetically titled (No Pussyfooting) appears with its cryptic cover, a sort of ultra-modernized take on a hermetic alchemical engraving depicting the two artists (Eno at his most androgynous) looking in opposite directions, sitting in a small mirrored room with no doors reading tarot cards on a mirrored table with what sort of looks like a line of coke (?), next to a mirrored guitar in a mirrored case in the corner, a translucent mannequin and an antique silver radiator behind them under glass shelves filled with old books. The back cover showing the same scene with both artists and tarot cards missing. With its two side-long awesomely titled tracks "The Heavenly Music Corporation" and "Swastika Girls", what kind of music would this be? Rock? Prog? Glam? No one probably would realize until they purchased it and brought it home, that it would be this organically cerebral deep listening experience of the highest order. It's kind of a downer that we have such easy access to information nowadays, because when this came out, it was a true mystery object, which added to its esoteric appeal. But it still is to an extent, as numerous listens over the years still never fail to captivate, or confound how exactly the sounds are being made. Apparently,utilizing a system later dubbed, Frippertronics, two reel to reel tape decks were used to allow audio elements to be added onto a continuing tape loop building up dense layers of sound that would slowly decay as it turned around the decks' playback head. On "The Heavenly Music Corporation" layers of deep synth drones are layered in phased washes with Fripp's unique bowed guitar sound ringing ascending solo lines on top that sometimes loop and sometimes don't. Eno wrings out what sounds like synth lines in counterpoint to Fripp's part in similar tones so that at times it gets harder to tell who is making what sound as the piece intensifies. "Swastika Girls" starts with high pitched cascades of processed piano like tones with scraping synth squelches looping in counterpoint, before low rising bass notes and Riley-ish piano repetitions appear. Then Fripp's searing guitar crash-lands into the mix almost disrupting the whole process, but somehow it all works. Much more distorted and dissonant than "The Heavenly Music Corporation", it doesn't take the process for granted that everything will sound harmonious but remains still somehow cohesive, though far from easy listening.
While the backward tracks are equally amazing, they highlight a different kind of listening experience altogether. The seams show a bit more, the entrance and exit of new sounds more abrupt, but still strangely alien. Their inclusion here came from out of the listening experience of their first (and probably only) complete UK radio broadcast in 1973 courtesy of the late John Peel. Because the tapes were stored "tail out" but played as though they were stored "front out", the broadcast played the music in reverse. When Eno called in to say the music was being played backwards, he was met with a "that's what they all say" response.
But the real bonus of this deluxe package is the 40 minute "half-speed version" of "The Heavenly Music Corporation". When there were 16 2/3 rpm options on early record players, a lot of young guitarists would use the speed to slow down 33 1/3 rpm records to learn and practice their favorite guitar lines. Here it makes the drones so deep and heavy, Fripp's guitar lines more crushing, the layers creep and slither sounding like it could be one of the weird drone cd-r's we sell tons of. If it was in a black sleeve with skulls on it, and was called Skulled Space Outrosphere or Radiant Black Blood, and sealed with wax or wrapped in twine,�and was limited to 100 copies,�we'd sell a million of em (well, okay... 100!!). Sooooooooooooo Recommended and Essential!
What more could be said about these two Fripp & Eno records than we've already written in countless Expo '70, Growing and Aidan Baker reviews? That's because these records are pretty much ground zero for all of the dark dreamy drifty processed guitar / tape / synth drone that we can't ever seem to get enough of. Perhaps there are other earlier influential touchstones such as Tony Conrad, and La Monte Young, perhaps Stockhausen and Terry Riley as well, but none seemed to have come so totally out of nowhere from two relatively mainstream players as these two records. Manuel Gottsching, Taj Mahal Travellers, and Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music all came a little later.
After every other Eno solo album and collaboration (from Cluster to David Byrne) has been reissued, we are lucky enough to finally see both of these classic releases newly 24-bit remastered by Fripp himself and reissued on his DGM imprint. These have never sounded better! While this reissue doesn't feature any bonus material, we still think it's a must have for any fan of kosmiche experimental drone music. If you haven't owned this before, now is the time!!!!!
Judging from the cover and title of 1975's Evening Star, it would be easy to dismiss this as a generic new-age record by Shadowfax or Mark Isham. It does look a bit Windham Hill-ish. But while its more melodic and dreamy than No Pussyfooting, this is certainly not pure relaxation music. It's way more cerebral and at times quite unnerving. Teaming up with Fripp once again after releasing three brilliant solo pop albums (Here Come The Warm Jets, Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy, and Another Green World), Eno started concentrating on his ambient period culminating later that same year in what would be his first solo ambient record Discreet Music. Using the same dual tape machine system as on No Pussyfooting, the tracks here feel more composed and purposeful. Starting with "Wind on Water", layered washes of phased high toned analog synths and flittering guitar drones pulse like a breathing entity before the Cluster-like piano figures of the stunning title track, "Evening Star" emerge augmented by a ringing guitar arpeggio and one of the most gorgeous Fripp solos ever put to tape. This track is like an early predecessor to Eno's soundtrack work for the NASA film Apollo, almost a decade later. So beautiful! The next couple of tracks delve further into gentler territory, with "Wind on Wind" being an excerpted version of a piece later included on Discreet Music. But the nearly thirty minute final piece, "An Index of Metals" returns us to the dark intense drone of No Pussyfooting. Sounding more metallic and cosmic than anything on that record, "An Index of Metals" with its deep resonant pulsations and expansively spatial guitar work at times sounds like the melting magma of a dying star, or Edward Artemiev's coldly terrifying soundtrack work for Andrei Tartovsky's Solaris. Awe-inspiring yet very chilling! So Essential!
Not bad... but, not that great either.
We knew that our friend Loren Chasse was/is a major Fripp-fanatic (total closet prog-rocker, that Loren) so we asked him if he wanted to do a review of this recently reissued R. Fripp solo classic, and he did (thanks Loren!), here 'tis:
As uptight as Robert Fripp may seem these past ten years (with his cleric's collar and extensive moralizing about business practices in the music industry) let's not forget his history of eccentric and befuddling endeavors outside of King Crimson. Begin with Fripp's New Wave pose on this album cover, sporting skinny tie and pinstriped shirt (even his hair stylist gets a credit in the liner notes)! Certainly, Fripp was dressed for the scene as he set out to make this record in the New York City of '78-'79. Exposure is perhaps the definitive record of everything Fripp is capable of, showcasing his talent at adapting his trademark guitar sound to diverse musical personalities. The most unexpected of these guest personalities on Exposure may be Daryl Hall, who takes the mic on the sumptuous and laid back "North Star" (with a lilt much like Discipline-era King Crimson's "Matte Kudasai"). Hall is actually the primary songwriting force on Exposure, even when he's not singing. Then another prog-rocker's wish is granted with Peter Hammill singing on "Disengage" and Fripp letting out a bit more bombast than he had as a guest with Van Der Graaf Generator. Who else? Well there's Peter Gabriel doing his saccharine hit "Here Comes the Flood" -- made so much more dark and beautiful than Gabriel's own album version by Fripp's contributions. Speaking of Hall and Gabriel, Exposure is the official third part of a trilogy (says Fripp) comprised of Hall's solo record Sacred Songs and Gabriel's second record (is it the one with the rain-streaked car window?). Then there's Brian Eno (surprise, surprise) and Phil Collins (not so bad as long as he's sticking to drums), Nancy Roche (of The Roches) howling like Diamanda Galas on "Exposure" and taking the record into its sweetest moments with "Mary". For fans of Red-era King Crimson, "Breathless" will be a pleaser with its unrelenting riffs and off-kilter Mahavishnu-style drumming (brought compliments of Narada Michael Walden). "NY3" and "Haaden Two" give the record some dark and surreal twists with more Crimsonish instrumental workouts mixed with a theater of strange voices (the former being a fight between mother/father and daughter in an NYC apartment). Fripp's spiritual mentor J.G. Bennet (student of Gurdjieff) inserts a ghostly presence over some of Fripp's most beautiful ambient sounds. The trademarked Frippertronics appear at their most quintessential on "Water Music I and II" -- perhaps the record's most abstract, beautiful and least dated sounding music. Oh yeah, dear old Edith Fripp (the mother) can be heard on this as well!
Also, FYI: this special double disc remastered edition of Exposure features a "Third Edition" of the album on the second cd, plus several bonus tracks. Wow, that's a lot... maybe they shoulda retitled this Overexposure?
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
The Wexner Center For The Arts knew just what they were doing when they commissioned Bill Frisell to create a score to compliment the stark photography of Mike Disfarmer, who took riveting and honest portraits of people living in the rural South during the late '30s and early '40s. Frisell plays both electric and acoustic guitars, uses loops and music boxes to create sepia toned, twangy and haunting short instrumentals that really evoke such mystery, evoking rural landscapes and life drifting by, sometimes seeming to pass in an instant, other times interminable and endless. While Frisell isn't someone you might think of right away when it comes to aQ, his varied and large back catalog is rife with gems and aQ faves, and we're really happy to see that in recent years he's begun to lean again more towards a less shiny and more intriguing side of his musical palette. In fact, let's not forget he added some seriously warm and lush richness to the latest full length by Earth!
Backed by a badass trio, the arrangements of steel guitar, mandolin, violin and bass are exquisite, not only showing off the talent of all the players but acting as a testament to Frisell's ability to compose pieces that so perfectly speak to Disfarmer's striking photos. Imagine a less drone filled Steven R. Smith, or a more tight and focused Dirty Three, or even maybe a new Earth album, stripped of its residual doomic leanings.
The cd is a long one, pushing to pretty much the maximum length that can fit on one disc, which makes it perfect to put on for a long road trip through winding roads and desolate landscapes or for whenever you just want to get lost in a rustic glow.
A truly solo album from stellar guitarist Frisell (he plays electric & acoustic guitars as well as as banjo, loops and bass). The material here ranges from Frisell's own compositions to pieces by John McLaughlin, Hank Williams, and the Gershwins. Very pretty, liquid, and appropriately-lonely sounding stuff.
Accidental was originally commissioned in 1995 by Paul Selwyn Norton for his dance piece "Rogue Tool" which premiered the following year in Tel Aviv, Israel. On 'Accidental' Frith, a multi-instrumentalist if there ever was one, plays all instruments: guitar, violin, organ, an odd assortment of percussion, tapes, radio and voice. The music on 'Accidental' tends towards the dark and severe, with squeals of guitar feedback layered over ominous drones, percussive elements assembled from cut up vocals (either Fred's or taken from radio), but this shouldn't imply that the music on this album is non-melodic. On the contrary, at the music is at times even hauntingly beautiful while parts of 'Accidental' are even reminiscent of Frith's 1988 'Technology of Tears'.
Thankfully reissued once more, unthankfully with horrible new artwork and irritating top obi. Originally released in 1980 on Ralph Records, Gravity is Fred Frith's masterpiece of progressive-rock-infused pop, and in Windy and Byram's opinion this should be a staple of everyone's record collection. Yep, it's that great. And no matter how 'avant' our description makes it sound, this is one of the most listenable, most accessible avant prog pop things I've ever heard.
Gravity is a celebration of dance and dance musics from around the world. The range of influence spans the gamut, but Eastern European and Middle Eastern music seems to pervade Frith's inspiration primarily. Backed on one half of the album by Sweden's uber-prog folk heroes Zamla (formarly Samla) Mammas Manna and the other by the American improv-jazz-rock band The Muffins. Though all of the compositions are Frith's, each half of the album wears the corresponding musicians' influence like a badge. The Samla's playful, quirky and category-defying progressive, folk-influenced pop stylings are perhaps a slightly better match on the whole than The Muffins skronk (which shows up mostly as the segue material between tracks on the second half of the album.) Backed by Lars Hollmer and crew, "Spring Any Day Now" sounds like the theme song to an early eighties sit-com a la 'Three's Company' gone awry. Much of the album is seamlessly bridged together with nary a second of break betwixt songs, which suits an album inspired by dance that serves to inspire one to dance just fine.
We first discovered the oddly monikered Frkse (pronounced 'forks' we think?) via aQ pal Matt, one half of industrial doomdirgedrone duo Teeth Engraved With The Names Of The Dead, who was raving about this lp, and got some from the 'band' to pass on to aQ. It was suggested to us, that anyone who loved the weirdo power electronic abstract industrial weirdness of former Record Of The Week-ers Will Over Matter, would also dig Frkse, which was definitely enough for us, but barely prepared us for what Frkse was really all about. A one man band / mad scientist / audio alchemist, who takes loops and rhythms, weird murky samples, and all manner of noise, hiss and whir and hum, and deftly arranges them into strangely robotic grooves, android symphonies of rhythm and textures, sounding at times like some impossible hybrid of Pierre Bastien, Philip Jeck, Thomas Brinkmann, and Strotter Inst. There's the warped warble of experimental turntablism, the lush hazy washed out textures of that sort of blurred ambience, and the rhythms and grooves all sound very machinelike, as if Frkse simply built an army of machines to do his bidding, that bidding just so happening to be creating these stripped down minimal loopscapes and tripped out abstract constructs.
Each track here seems cobbled together from building block like sonic elements, a loping beat, a strange detuned strum, a disembodied melody, a whirring buzz, all strung together into an ingenious series arrangement that manages to be impossible catchy and mesmerizing, even at its most minimal.
Robotic loops churning through clouds of hiss and buzz, a woozy rhythmic drag, like some strange melted tape 33 rpm jams spinning at 16rpm, the sounds saturated and warm, lush in the way only 4 track tape hiss and old busted analog machinery can be, it's hard not to imagine Frkse's strange underground lair, dusty piles of corroded equipment, nothing grounded or properly shielded, arcs of electricity leaping between various hand built implements, the vast array of buzzes and strains of hiss, carefully cataloged to be used later, and to perhaps be mixed with other separate strains, creating whole new breeds of low fidelity noise. And for all its raw primitivism, each track tends to reveal gorgeous expanses of hissy, buzz drenched minimal mesmer, like a steam punk android Steve Reich, tracks peppered with sudden bursts of almost jungle like drumming, which upon closer examination reveals themselves to be simply endless rhythmic loops piled atop one another, in such a way, that they create glorious cascades of kinetic rhythms.
At times it's like a home brewed, post industrial minimal techno, at others, it's a thick caustic almost shoegazey blacknoise blur, and still others a noise drenched abstract electronica. The sound constantly shifting, a burst of gristled crumbling industrial churn will transform into a stretch of mournful almost Slint like minimalism, gradually expanding into a loping post rock drift, all skitter and stutter, unwinding hypnotically like a super stripped down lo-fi This Heat, everything caked in a dusty patina of chordal hum, a glorious maddeningly mesmerizing collection of robo-rhythms and psych-kraut dirgery, of hazy soft focus loop-grooves and tranced out motorik mesmer. And yeah, fans of Will Over Matter will flip, fans of M Ax Noi Mach too, but even more so, folks into haunting low fidelity experimental loopscapery: Jeck, Strotter, Caretaker, Bastien, Tim Hecker, Belong and the like.
SUPER LIMITED!!! Housed in hand silk screeened / hand stamped covers with a photocopied insert.
Back in stock -- but get 'em before they're gone (it's a one-time-pressing apparently)... Fans of Vancouver's great Frog Eyes take note of this limited edition, 25 minute *acoustic* release. Yup, Frog Eyes unplugged. Frontman Carey Mercer here declares "I am the writer!" and gives us his acoustic take on songs from Frog Eyes' previously released albums The Bloody Hand and The Golden River� as well as songs from their forthcoming The Folded Palm. The versions Mercer plays here probably represent how these songs first burst from his imagination....they are crude and ecstatic, communicating the essence of Mercer's surrealism. Obviously, with Frog Eyes we are in the presence of a great song force that demands the ear surrender its old habits and start again, not without a few choice associations (like Bowie and Beefheart) to make the experience more comfortable. The arrangements on Ego Scriptor� are no less ambitious and bombastic than their electric manifestations although we do miss the heavenly noise and atmospheres the full band so masterfully musters around Mercer's singing and guitar playing. A virtue of Mercer's music is that, much like the songs of Tomakawa Kazuki and Mikami Kan, we hear in them something larger than music, an action like spirit crashing through clouds to earth. [Another review from the pen of AQ-pal Loren Chasse, who loves Frog Eyes perhaps even more than Allan and Cup do, which is, a lot.]
What follows is a much appreciated guest review by the discerning Loren Chasse, a long time Frog Eyes fan, who herein explains why this band is so compelling, to certain special ears anyway. (Allan, who would have written a review expressing similar sentiments, gives the thumbs up as well, Paul's Tomb is indeed a triumph!)
Amidst all the bands these days which are busy resuscitating bygone genres (psych-folk, soft rock, new wave, krautrock, disco, '80s metal... and so on), there is Frog Eyes. Sure, everything derives from other things, shares a sound, borrows a riff... but there is a difference between trying to sound like vs. just sounding like. What does Frog Eyes try to sound like? Beats me. So what does Frog Eyes just happen to sound like? My first reaction to their music was confusion and maybe slight embarrassment. With things truly alternative or experimental there can be an experience of not quite feeling safe, not being sure of what to listen for. Frog Eyes delivers songs with complicated lyrical and musical structures. Their music is over the top, mostly - packed with monstrosity but also with subtlety and dynamic prowess. Blistering jags of guitar and fractured drumming often clear away on this record to blissful jams with sparse grooves (perhaps what some might identify more conventionally as 'psychedelic rock' even though the truly psychedelic parts are the ones in which my ears seemed turned on end and ripped a new hole, so to speak!) There are ingenious pop hooks on this record, but often there are long and arduous paths leading to them. This music is challenging. It requires its audience's full attention, like reading. This is a band much about the vocals and it's likely that folks will have a strong love/hate reaction (think of other artists such as Dylan, Bryan Ferry, Bjork, Jamie Stewart, Robbie Basho). Carey Mercer's vocals are overflowing with affectation... trills, croons and gasps moving ecstatically across the vocal spectrum. All the tropes of the rock n' roll singer are in his bag. His lyrics are surreal narratives... poetic, syntactically complex, confounding in their humor and darkness. His last solo effort, Skin of Evil, recorded under the name Blackout Beach, presented a suite of songs based on a character named Donna. Well, Donna's back for this latest Frog Eyes record (along with "Cassandra" and "Paul"). Does this mean anything to my listening or enjoyment of the record? Well, I must say, that it intrigues and captures my imagination the way my favorite prog rock albums from the '70s did - somewhere at the heart of this there's a 'concept'. In Mercer's case, it's literary and it's clear he does care about the words as they are always published with the notes to his records. Paul's Tomb certainly evokes something, but the 'what' is unclear and maybe best that way. The album art features photographic tableaux evocative of a specific point in history - maybe turn of the century exploration and the amassing of museum collections? (I admit a little disappointment in not finding one of Mercer's strange paintings adorning the cover of this record as they have in the past.)
The sounds on this record are raw and powerful. The guitar playing and the singing are clearly emanating from the same source... spasmodic and ecstatic phrasings (often gusty and menacing, at times sounding like Neil Young circa "Like a Hurricane" or Arc), delivered with plenty of rock conviction. Back to the prog rock analogy for a moment, there does seem to be a good deal of 'math' in these compositions, but the layers of noise and clouds of tone on top of the songs obscure the structures. I don't get the feeling the band is counting as much as they are feeling. A good thing!
Think of it this way... when I want to listen to Arthur Russell, I may mix things up a little and put on Caribou or Hot Chip. When craving Joy Division there are always bands like Interpol, Blank Dogs or Blessure Grave. Heard my favorite Incredible String Band too many times this month? Well then, maybe one of the many "freak folks" will deliver. Popul Vuh has stopped releasing records but somehow their catalogue seems to be growing thanks to a host of talented emulators. And when seeking a deep dark drone at bedtime, the choices are endless. However, the point is, when I want to hear Frog Eyes, there is only ONE place to go... And among Frog Eyes albums, this one is one of the best yet.
There are certain key words that persistently spring up whenever the Canadian indie band Frog Eyes is mentioned or heard -- distraught, angstful, melodramatic, cathartic, cryptic. With album number four Tears Of The Valedictorian from Casey Mercer and co., those words continue to fit like a glove.
To be frank, many folks around here have found Frog Eyes' music to be somewhat impenetrable and/or unapproachable, but there are also some others who'll encourage a second listen or more. Sure Mercer's vocal delivery can be an immediate turn-on or turn-off for most people, but once the initial shock settles down you just may discover Frog Eyes' other affecting facets softening the affected blow of the vocals. Over the course of his four albums, Mercer's compositions have grown increasingly lushly crafted and his incisive lyrics more poetic. Yet the Frog Eyes overall impression still effectively strike a nerve with its raw open-wound quality.
