The daughter of Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, recording an album written and produced by Beck. The sum of those parts makes for some pretty irresistible and seductive sounds. Of course it's not fair to identify Charlotte Gainsbourg just by her famous parents, as she has established herself as a multitalented force over the years, as a model, a singer and an actress. Her performances in films such as Michel Gondry's The Science Of Sleep, Todd Hayne's I'm Not There, and most recently the latest disturbing offering from Lars Von Trier, Antichrist, has definitely demonstrated the range and intensity that Gainsbourg is capable of bringing as an actress. We won't go too much into it, but if you haven't seen Antichrist, its one of the most intense and disturbing performances we've ever seen on the big screen. We mention all these acting roles because Gainsbourg's role in music in so many ways is as a vessel. Transporting someone else's vision and production and making it her own.
On her last album 5:55, she teamed up with Air who wrote and produced, the end result dreamy and blissed out sensuality. It somehow makes perfect sense that now Beck has taken the reins, as he no doubt been strongly influenced by Charlotte's lineage, as much of his music, stylistic breadth, and fashion choices over the years are undeniably heavily influenced by the legacy of Serge Gainsbourg.
While Beck's trademark sound can be heard quite prominently throughout the record, especially on the tracks on which his vocals dominate, it's the more languid and moody tracks that shine, where Gainsbourg really takes center stage and makes the record her own. There is something both dark and soothing about her aura and vocal delivery. With full and lush arrangements as a bed for her entrancing voice, Gainsbourg once again proves she is an enigmatic chanteuse who has carved out an identity that is all her own.
Charlotte Gainsbourg has repeatedly demonstrated her facility as a unique and striking artist on her own, and not just as the daughter of Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin. Her work as an actress has intensified over the years, with her starring in the last two films by Lars Von Trier, including one of the most harrowing performances we've seen on the big screen in Antichrist. She collaborated with Air on her debut 5:55 and then with Beck on IRM. Both albums showcased her sensual and languid voice, over very well orchestrated music composed by folks well aware of her musical legacy.
Stage Whisper offers eight brand new songs, a handful of them find her teamed up with Beck again, and she's sounding as great as ever, with songs that make you just want to sway and get lost in their breezy sound. We're reminded of Taken By Trees, Beth Gibbons, and there are definitely moments that hints at her upbringing that echo Francoise Hardy and her mother.
The second half of the disc consists of 10 live tracks from her first ever tour, which took place in 2010. A few of us saw her concert in San Francisco on that tour, and after finding out that this was her first time ever playing live and hitting the road we were amazed by how tight and punchy her live sound was. Most of the live tracks come from her two proper albums, as well as her cover of Bob Dylan's "Just Like A Woman", and a standout duet with Charlie Fink of Noah & The Whale on the song "Got To Let Go".
Fans of her first two albums are going to want this for the new tracks, and for those who have been curious but haven't dived into her musical world yet, this would be an awesome introduction.
Well it's about time!!!!!! After years of wallowing in the hazy convoluted mists of legend, hearsay, and hipster influence, only to be obtained through ultra expensive imports, rare bootlegs, or ripped vinyl blogs, this long unavailable but hugely influential work by Serge Gainsbourg finally sees its first domestic reissue almost forty years after its scandalous release.
You won't need a translator to understand the sublime perversity at the heart of this concept record, arguably Gainsbourg's most accomplished full studio album. Released in 1971, Histoire De Melody Nelson is a seven song suite about an underage English nymphet (the titular Melody Nelson) and the wealthy lecherous older Frenchman who, after nearly running over her in his Rolls Royce, takes her in, falls in love and eventually deflowers her. And of course, like most love stories, there is a tragic climax. While the story is largely lifted from Kubrick's cinematic version of Lolita, the concept was undertaken in actuality as a symphonic love letter to Jane Birken, the British actress and singer (she sings the part of Melody). Though, not underage when they began their affair, she was twenty years younger than Serge, and their relationship became controversial with the release of their 1969 duet "Je t'aime....mon non plus" (originally recorded with Brigitte Bardot) with its sounds of a simulated female orgasm.
But Melody Nelson is not only Gainsbourg's finest moment, its musical reputation would be nothing without the orchestral arrangements and progressive grooves of Jean-Claude Vannier (see our review of L'Enfant Assassin Des Mouches, to get some highly praised background). The underlying score is less obviously song-oriented and more atmospheric than previous Gainsbourg outings, yet deceptively simple. The opening and closing tracks each at nearly eight minutes mirror each other with a sinewy descending bass groove and classic drum breaks (sampled heavily by De La Soul, David Holmes and Dan The Automator), which set the stage for acid-y guitar fills, swooning strings and Serge's own seductive speak-singing. The closing track ("Cargo Culte") ups the transcendent quality of the climax by adding a mass choir and full orchestra to the swirling tower of sound. In between these two tracks are shorter but artfully arranged pieces of folk-groove, French chanson, acid rock, and cinematic sonic bliss that move the story forward. It's one of those records that slowly grabs you, lures you into its spell, and eventually hooks you, so you'll want to keep listening to it over and over.
Though it was a flop on its initial release - Gainsbourg was largely a singles artist before this point, and the leap from that to concept album, especially one of this perverse nature, was perhaps too wide for French audiences - Histoire De Melody Nelson has gained a significant cult following over the years, perhaps reaching its greatest influence in the nineties with bands like Portishead (Dummy), Pulp (This is Hardcore), Massive Attack (Protection), Radiohead (The Bends), Air (Moon Safari), Blonde Redhead (Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons) and Beck (Sea Change), nearly lifting the basic sonic template of this album wholesale.
This awesome, nicely packaged reissue comes with a beautiful booklet of drawings, essays and interviews, outlining not only the full extent of the making of this amazing work, but charting its larger cultural impact as well.
Reissue of the year!
Kinda sounds like Santana!
Plastic Crimewave's immense, amazing psychedelic music zine (almost also a comic book 'cause it's all hand lettered and drawn, and does indeed include some underground comix, as well as a feature on "psychedelic superheroes"), the one and only Galactic Zoo Dossier, returns with issue number six!! This time, you'll find interviews with quite an odd/interesting assortment of folks: Vanilla Fudge, Keith Rowe (ex-AMM), John Renbourn, and Pip Proud. Plus features and bits on psychsters old and new and heavy and obscure including Acid Mothers Temple, Debris, Stackwaddy, Rodriguez, Edgar Broughton, Uriah Heep, The Lemon Drops, Exuma, The Outsiders, etc.
And, beyond the 'zine, you get the second set of Crimewave illustrated "Damaged Guitar Gods" trading cards -- including John DuCann (Atomic Rooster), Michael Yonkers, Wally Gonzalez (Juan De La Cruz), Davy Graham, Dorothy & Helen Wiggins (The Shaggs), Erik Brann (Iron Butterfly), Erkin Koray, BoAnders Persson (Trad Gras Och Stenar) and dozens more. Pretty darn cool. Plus, that's not all: there's also a freakin' double cd compilation entitled Ascension Days When We Rise: Ultra-Rare Avant/Psych/Garage 1960's-1990. It features Acid Mothers Temple, The Heads, Six Organs Of Admittance, Miminokoto, The Hototogisu, Oneida, Michael Karoli, and a bunch more, some we've never heard of before but are eager to check out. This 'zine is just such a "turn on" regarding the underground sounds obsessed about within. Something about everything in the magazine being handwritten not only gives it more of an organic, '60s psych vibe but also utterly underscores how much of a labor of love this is, just how incredibly ENTHUSIASTIC Plastic Crimewave and Co. are about this stuff. Right on.
Yowza! At last, after 3 years, it's here, another huge, totally hand-lettered, profusely comix-illustrated, utterly enthused fanzine for all you psych rock and acid folk freeks!! You can see right away why it takes so long between issues. This ish, editor Plastic Crimewave and a host of like minded contributors bring us the dope on every cool thing they can think of... the Lollipop Shoppe, The Daily Flash, White Witch, The Moody Blues, John Berberian, John DuCann (RIP), Curtis Knight, Status Quo, Kak, and tons more. There's stuff on "Psychedelic Canada", on Texas acid punk (Red Crayola, The Golden Dawn...), country funk, and lotsa prog too (East Of Eden, Egg...).
And along with PCW & the GZD crew's ravings on such subjects, there's also interviews, including chats with Arthur Brown, Rodriguez, Black Widow, Mark Fry, and the Poppy Family, wow. In non-musical (but equally psychedelic) coverage, they examine a lot of freaky '60s comic book artwork too, from Mad Magazine to Marvel...
It all adds up to 112 action-packed pages that will keep you entertained for a long time. Plus, this comes with the usual thick sheaf of way-cool TRADING CARDS (Damaged Guitar Gods set #5, Astral Folk Goddesses set #3!), AND a free cd sampler of "unearthed expansive sounds 1968 - present", many unreleased garage rock obscurities, 23 tracks total, including a live jam from Japan's Mainliner!
A previously unreleased live performance, December 1990. We also have their other albums, now individually re-issued, for those who didn't want to go for the whole box-set.
Thirteen years after the band's demise, patient Galaxie 500 fans receive a treasure trove of visual delights. This double dvd set features their four music videos, a television appearance, and live pro and fan footage from seven of their shows (Cambridge MA, Boston MA, Hollywood, Atlanta GA, London UK, and two here in San Francisco). The live clips were all hand-picked by the bandmembers, and we should note that there is repeat performances of some songs, but there's also a couple of unreleased numbers too. It's all topped off with a booklet packed with plentiful photos and a band interview with Yo La Tengo's James McNew.
We can't believe it's been 20 years since this trio (and their trio of albums) so gracefully touched our lives during the band's way too brief lifespan. Boy, does it make us feel old! But we can't complain too much as it's so awesome to see these three crucial records available on vinyl once again! For those who may not know, Galaxie 500 was made up of core members Damon Krukowski (drums), Naomi Yang (bass, vocals) and Dean Wareham (guitar, vocals), who are probably more well known now for the bands that formed in Galaxie 500's wake: Damon and Naomi, Luna, and Dean and Britta.
Hailing from the mid-eighties Boston college rock scene (all three attended Harvard), Galaxie 500 were very different from The Pixies and Throwing Muses, who were the more prominent Boston bands at the time, favoring slower-paced reverbed drenched songs, big in sound but played with a minimalist economy. Influenced by later period Velvet Underground, The Modern Lovers, Young Marble Giants and early New Order (all of whom they covered), Galaxie 500's signature dream pop sound (courtesy of producer Kramer, Bongwater frontman and head of the great Shimmy-Disc label) paved the way for both the shoegaze and slowcore scenes of the early nineties. In fact Kramer went on to produce Low's debut in 1994. After three great records for Rough Trade, Galaxie 500 parted ways less than amicably, with guitarist/vocalist Wareham unexpectedly quitting to form his own band Luna, leaving the rhythm section of Damon and Naomi to fend for themselves. While both parties went on to more successful ventures, none of them have quite replaced Galaxie 500's unparalleled pop majesty in our hearts.
On Fire was the band's 1989 follow-up to Today, and is widely considered their best album (though we love them all, and really find it hard to favor one in particular over the others). It's definitely their most varied yet most assured album. The songs have more blissed-out dynamics, without losing their understated verve. The instrumentation is augmented on a few songs by more acoustic guitar underlayers and moments of organ and even guest cameo Ralph Carney's tenor sax on "Decomposing Trees". But a noticeable standout is Naomi Yang singing on "Another Day", a soft gauzy highlight on an already stellar album. If there were any longstanding regrets about this band among fans, the big one would be we wished she got to sing more. The cover song this time goes to George Harrison's "Isn't It A Pity", a sentiment that extends way past Harrison's original intent and hovers over this band like a ghost.
Once more with feeling! All three of Galaxie 500's classic studio albums have been affordably reissued each with a bonus disc of one of their previously released post-breakup rarities collections: Uncollected, The Peel Sessions and the live Copenhagen cd. Here's what we recently said about them:
We can't believe it's been 20 years since this trio (and their trio of albums) so gracefully touched our lives during the band's way too brief lifespan. Boy, does it make us feel old! But we can't complain too much as it's so awesome to see these three crucial records available once again! For those who may not know, Galaxie 500 was made up of core members, Damon Krukowski (drums), Naomi Yang (bass, vocals) and Dean Wareham (guitar, vocals), who are probably more well known now for the bands that formed in Galaxie 500's wake: Damon and Naomi, Luna, and Dean and Britta. Hailing from the mid-eighties Boston college rock scene (all three attended Harvard), Galaxie 500 were very different from The Pixies and Throwing Muses, who were the more prominent Boston bands at the time, favoring slower-paced reverbed drenched songs, big in sound but played with a minimalist economy. Influenced by later period Velvet Underground, The Modern Lovers, Young Marble Giants and early New Order (all of whom they covered), Galaxie 500's signature dream pop sound (courtesy of producer, Kramer, Bongwater frontman and head of the great Shimmy-Disc label) paved the way for both the shoegaze and slowcore scenes of the early nineties. In fact Kramer went on to produce Low's debut in 1994. After three great records for Rough Trade, Galaxie 500 parted ways less than amicably, with guitarist/vocalist Wareham unexpectedly leaving to form his own band Luna, leaving the rhythm section of Damon and Naomi to fend for themselves. While both parties went on to more successful musical ventures, none of them, at least for us, have quite replaced Galaxie 500's unparalleled pop majesty in our hearts.
On Fire was the band's 1989 follow-up to Today, and is widely considered their best album (though we love them all, and really find it hard to favor one in particular over the others). It's definitely their most varied yet most assured album. The songs have more blissed-out dynamics, without losing their understated verve. The instrumentation is augmented on a few songs by more acoustic guitar underlayers and moments of organ and even guest cameo Ralph Carney's tenor sax on "Decomposing Trees". But a noticeable standout is Naomi Yang singing on "Another Day", a soft gauzy highlight on an already stellar album. If there were any longstanding regrets about this band among fans, the big one would be we wished she got to sing more. The cover song this time goes to George Harrison's "Isn't It A Pity", a sentiment that extends way past Harrison's original intent and hovers over this band like a ghost. The cd version includes all the tracks from the Blue Thunder EP, including the stellar New Order/Joy Division cover, "Ceremony".
On Fire is paired with The Peel Sessions and the band were as dreamy as ever when they stopped by John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show for these sessions back in 1989 and 1990. These eight tracks were compiled from those two visits - the first four were recorded 10/30/90 and the second were from 09/24/89. Included are a few tasty covers of tunes by Young Marble Giants ("Final Day"), Buffy Sainte-Marie ("Moonshot"), The Sex Pistols (Submission), and another version of Jonathan Richman ("Don't Let Our Youth Go To Waste") as well as four tracks from the On Fire album.
Whoa, this really takes us back! Seminal dream pop band Galaxie 500 were as dreamy as ever when they stopped by John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show for these sessions back in 1989 and 1990. These eight tracks were compiled from those two visits -- the first four were recorded 10/30/90 and the second were from 09/24/89. Included are a few tasty covers of tunes by Young Marble Giants ("Final Days"), Buffy Sainte-Marie ("Moonshot") and Jonathan Richman("Don't Let Our Youth Go To Waste").
A selection of twelve of Galaxie 500's finest recordings, gathered from their four albums and the Galaxie 500 box set... & the CD-rom track is the video of "Blue Thunder".
We can't believe it's been 20 years since this trio (and their trio of albums) so gracefully touched our lives during the band's way too brief lifespan. Boy, does it make us feel old! But we can't complain too much as it's so awesome to see these three crucial records available on vinyl once again! For those who may not know, Galaxie 500 was made up of core members Damon Krukowski (drums), Naomi Yang (bass, vocals) and Dean Wareham (guitar, vocals), who are probably more well known now for the bands that formed in Galaxie 500's wake: Damon and Naomi, Luna, and Dean and Britta.
Hailing from the mid-eighties Boston college rock scene (all three attended Harvard), Galaxie 500 were very different from The Pixies and Throwing Muses, who were the more prominent Boston bands at the time, favoring slower-paced reverbed drenched songs, big in sound but played with a minimalist economy. Influenced by later period Velvet Underground, The Modern Lovers, Young Marble Giants and early New Order (all of whom they covered), Galaxie 500's signature dream pop sound (courtesy of producer Kramer, Bongwater frontman and head of the great Shimmy-Disc label) paved the way for both the shoegaze and slowcore scenes of the early nineties. In fact Kramer went on to produce Low's debut in 1994. After three great records for Rough Trade, Galaxie 500 parted ways less than amicably, with guitarist/vocalist Wareham unexpectedly quitting to form his own band Luna, leaving the rhythm section of Damon and Naomi to fend for themselves. While both parties went on to more successful ventures, none of them have quite replaced Galaxie 500's unparalleled pop majesty in our hearts.
This Is Our Music from 1990 wasn't planned as a final album, as the band seemed to be striving for larger recognition with their most accomplished and widely-received record. The opener "Fourth of July" (which was also the single) leaps out with a charge more than any of their other opening songs. Yet most of the rest of the songs are sublimely slow beautiful bummers, with more noticeable shoegazey shimmer. Of course, the centerpiece, yet again is another gorgeous cover. This time it's Yoko Ono's "Listen, The Snow Is Falling". Sung by Yang, the band expands upon a simple original with a stretched out epic instrumental climax. The final track, "King of Spain, Part Two", a kind of follow-up to the b-side of their first single, brings the band around full circle, as the song seems to drift off into the sunset. You couldn't plan a more perfect note for a band like Galaxie 500 to end on.
Once more with feeling! All three of Galaxie 500's classic studio albums have been affordably reissued each with a bonus disc of one of their previously released post-breakup rarities collections: Uncollected, The Peel Sessions and the live Copenhagen cd. Here's what we recently said about them:
We can't believe it's been 20 years since this trio (and their trio of albums) so gracefully touched our lives during the band's way too brief lifespan. Boy, does it make us feel old! But we can't complain too much as it's so awesome to see these three crucial records available once again! For those who may not know, Galaxie 500 was made up of core members, Damon Krukowski (drums), Naomi Yang (bass, vocals) and Dean Wareham (guitar, vocals), who are probably more well known now for the bands that formed in Galaxie 500's wake: Damon and Naomi, Luna, and Dean and Britta. Hailing from the mid-eighties Boston college rock scene (all three attended Harvard), Galaxie 500 were very different from The Pixies and Throwing Muses, who were the more prominent Boston bands at the time, favoring slower-paced reverbed drenched songs, big in sound but played with a minimalist economy. Influenced by later period Velvet Underground, The Modern Lovers, Young Marble Giants and early New Order (all of whom they covered), Galaxie 500's signature dream pop sound (courtesy of producer, Kramer, Bongwater frontman and head of the great Shimmy-Disc label) paved the way for both the shoegaze and slowcore scenes of the early nineties. In fact Kramer went on to produce Low's debut in 1994. After three great records for Rough Trade, Galaxie 500 parted ways less than amicably, with guitarist/vocalist Wareham unexpectedly leaving to form his own band Luna, leaving the rhythm section of Damon and Naomi to fend for themselves. While both parties went on to more successful musical ventures, none of them, at least for us, have quite replaced Galaxie 500's unparalleled pop majesty in our hearts.
This Is Our Music from 1990 wasn't planned as a final album, as the band seemed to be striving for larger recognition with their most accomplished and widely-received record. The opener "Fourth of July" (which was also the single) leaps out with a charge more than any of their other opening songs. Yet most of the rest of the songs are sublimely slow beautiful bummers, with more noticeable shoegazey shimmer. Of course, the centerpiece, yet again is another gorgeous cover. This time it's Yoko Ono's "Listen, The Snow Is Falling". Sung by Yang, the band expands upon a simple original with a stretched out epic instrumental climax. The final track, "King of Spain, Part Two", a kind of reprised follow-up to the B-side of their first single, brings the band around full circle, as the song seems to drift off into the sunset. You couldn't plan a more perfect note for a band like Galaxie 500 to end on. The cd features the Fourth of July single and B-side, VU's "Here She Comes Now", as bonus tracks.
Paired with This Is Our Music is the live Copenhagen disc from a performance in December 1990 recorded by the Danish National Radio. I, (Scott) saw them on this tour (their biggest but sadly their last) in support of the Cocteau Twins, and needless to say, they slayed! The proof is right here!
We can't believe it's been 20 years since this trio (and their trio of albums) so gracefully touched our lives during the band's way too brief lifespan. Boy, does it make us feel old! But we can't complain too much as it's so awesome to see these three crucial records available on vinyl once again! For those who may not know, Galaxie 500 was made up of core members Damon Krukowski (drums), Naomi Yang (bass, vocals) and Dean Wareham (guitar, vocals), who are probably more well known now for the bands that formed in Galaxie 500's wake: Damon and Naomi, Luna, and Dean and Britta.
Hailing from the mid-eighties Boston college rock scene (all three attended Harvard), Galaxie 500 were very different from The Pixies and Throwing Muses, who were the more prominent Boston bands at the time, favoring slower-paced reverbed drenched songs, big in sound but played with a minimalist economy. Influenced by later period Velvet Underground, The Modern Lovers, Young Marble Giants and early New Order (all of whom they covered), Galaxie 500's signature dream pop sound (courtesy of producer Kramer, Bongwater frontman and head of the great Shimmy-Disc label) paved the way for both the shoegaze and slowcore scenes of the early nineties. In fact Kramer went on to produce Low's debut in 1994. After three great records for Rough Trade, Galaxie 500 parted ways less than amicably, with guitarist/vocalist Wareham unexpectedly quitting to form his own band Luna, leaving the rhythm section of Damon and Naomi to fend for themselves. While both parties went on to more successful ventures, none of them have quite replaced Galaxie 500's unparalleled pop majesty in our hearts.
Today was Galaxie 500's 1988 debut, and it's a slow burning paean to the more unstable sides of love and patient resolve. The elliptical rhythm section smolders and intensifies without ever fully "rocking out" while the warm guitar work strums over the top occasionally veering into understated solos. But Wareham's forlorn low-key vocals with clever but enigmatically simple songwriting is what ties the songs together. The centerpiece of the album however is their cover of Jonathan Richman's "Don't Let Our Youth Go To Waste". The original version being a short, a capella, almost spoken poem, in Galaxie 500's hands, it becomes a simmering epic as they bookend the singing with forceful driving instrumental passages, sounding like something the early Velvets would have come up with. The final song, "Tugboat" was also their first single, and nicely sets up of what this band is all about: lonely and introspective but decisive, leading and in full control.
Once more with feeling! All three of Galaxie 500's classic studio albums have been affordably reissued each with a bonus disc of one of their previously released post-breakup rarity collections: Uncollected, The Peel Sessions and the live Copenhagen cd. Here's what we recently said about them:
We can't believe it's been 20 years since this trio (and their trio of albums) so gracefully touched our lives during the band's way too brief lifespan. Boy, does it make us feel old! But we can't complain too much as it's so awesome to see these three crucial records available once again! For those who may not know, Galaxie 500 was made up of core members Damon Krukowski (drums), Naomi Yang (bass, vocals) and Dean Wareham (guitar, vocals), who are probably more well known now for the bands that formed in Galaxie 500's wake: Damon and Naomi, Luna, and Dean and Britta.
Hailing from the mid-eighties Boston college rock scene (all three attended Harvard), Galaxie 500 were very different from The Pixies and Throwing Muses, who were the more prominent Boston bands at the time, favoring slower-paced reverbed drenched songs, big in sound but played with a minimalist economy. Influenced by later period Velvet Underground, The Modern Lovers, Young Marble Giants and early New Order (all of whom they covered), Galaxie 500's signature dream pop sound (courtesy of producer Kramer, Bongwater frontman and head of the great Shimmy-Disc label) paved the way for both the shoegaze and slowcore scenes of the early nineties. In fact Kramer went on to produce Low's debut in 1994. After three great records for Rough Trade, Galaxie 500 parted ways less than amicably, with guitarist/vocalist Wareham unexpectedly quitting to form his own band Luna, leaving the rhythm section of Damon and Naomi to fend for themselves. While both parties went on to more successful ventures, none of them have quite replaced Galaxie 500's unparalleled pop majesty in our hearts.
Today was Galaxie 500's 1988 debut, and it's a slow burning paean to the more unstable sides of love and patient resolve. The elliptical rhythm section smolders and intensifies without ever fully "rocking out" while the warm guitar work strums over the top occasionally veering into understated solos. But Wareham's forlorn low-key vocals with clever but enigmatically simple songwriting is what ties the songs together. The centerpiece of the album is their cover of Jonathan Richman's "Don't Let Our Youth Go To Waste". The original version being a short, a capella, almost spoken poem, in Galaxie 500's hands, it becomes a simmering epic as they bookend the singing with forceful driving instrumental passages, sounding like something the early Velvets would have come up with. The final song, "King of Spain" was also their first single, and nicely sets up of what this band is all about: lonely and introspective but decisive, leading and in full control.
Today is paired up with with what almost could be considered a lost record, Uncollected: Rarities and Outtakes 1987-1990. Originally compiled for the G500 box set and then released individually, it's a 14-song rarities collection that includes their loving covers of songs by Jonathan Richman (an alternate version of "Don't Let Our Youth Go To Waste"), Young Marble Giants ("Final Day"), The Rutles ("Cheese and Onions") and The Beatles ("Rain"), as well as nine originals not on any other album. Uncollected serves as a great overview for newcomers to the enduring, wonderful, shimmering dream pop songs of these short-lived, long-disbanded, indie rock deities.
It sure is a great season for fans of Galaxie 500! Hot on the heels of the fine double-dvd retrospective "Don't Let Our Youth Go To Waste: 1987-1991" comes the individual cd release of Uncollected (originally compiled for the G500 box set). It's a 14-song rarities collection that includes their loving covers of songs by Jonathan Richman, Young Marble Giants, The Rutles and The Beatles as well as the added attraction of their "Blue Thunder" video. Uncollected serves as a great overview for newcomers to the enduring, wonderful, shimmering dream pop songs of these short-lived, long-disbanded, indie rock deities.
Totally mind blowing collaboration between three masters of drone / raga / free / folk / noise. New Zealander Alastair Galbraith is a long time AQ fave as is the UK's Richard Youngs. Alex Neilson while not an instantly recognizable name in his own right, has played on oodles of amazing records (including some by Matt Valentine, Taurpis Tula) and you may recognize his name due to the fact that he and Mr. Youngs were the back up band for Jandek at his first ever live performance! None of that has very much to do with this, two sides of incredibly dreamy modern folk raga. Lighter than air swirls of falsetto vocals drift and shimmer, harmonies slowly shifting, all over a long slow drawn out ur-drone, constructed from buzzing steel strings, bits of percussion, warbling synthesizers, spaced out effects, electronic buzz and glitch, strummed guitars get stretched into fuzzy blurs, melodies float by in the distance, chimes tinkle and sparkle, almost the whole disc is made up of languorous, lazy stretches of dreamlike sound, EXCEPT for the opening and closing tracks on side 2, when some wild drumming is introduced, and the FX levels get pushed all the way into the red, and what was once tranquil bliss, is transformed into a snarling, chaotic super tripped out space rock.
Packaged in beautiful simple full color offset printed and debossed sleeves, with deluxe debossed inserts, LIMITED TO 900 COPIES, each insert has the record's number debossed along with of the liner notes, pressed on 180 gram virgin vinyl!
Originally released on cd by the now we believe defunct Emperor Jones label in the year 2000, this, the fourth solo album from New Zealander Alastair Galbraith (A Handful Of Dust, The Rip, Plagal Grind), is a stunner. Rarely has music this experimental been so ACCESSIBLE. But that's genius at work, folks, right here. "Recorded onto TEAC-4 track in a shed at Taieri Mouth between 1998 and 2000", Cry mixes pastoral folk drones with muted electric guitar outbursts, ominous organ rumblings, and Alastair's sung poetry. It's super pretty and quiet and haunting and we highly recommend it. Even if you've never heard this veteran of the Kiwi music scene's records before, this is a fine, fine place to start. A favorite ever since we first reviewed the compact disc version way back on list #99! So glad UK import label MIE has granted this new life, and for the first time on vinyl - which is limited to 500 copies, and comes with a download code.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Limited to 200 numbered copies, this is two new instrumentals from New Zealand's respected experimentalist.
The return of long time fave Alastair Galbraith, and when we say long time, we mean like 20 YEARS long time! Back in the nineties, when aQuarius was in its old, tiny, under the stairs previous Noe Valley location, we were one of the few places in the US to get weird music from New Zealand. Labels like Flying Nun, Xpressway, groups like the Dead C, the 3Ds, Tall Dwarfs, This Kind Of Punishment, Bailter Space, Wreck Small Speakers On Expensive Stereos, The Chills, Pin Group, etc... and of course Galbraith, solo, and in his 'band' Handful Of Dust with Bruce Russell of the Dead C and Peter Stapleton. When we helped set up the Terrastock West festival back in 1998, Galbraith performed an incredible set, but is probably more remembered for buying an inflatable dinghy, and going rowing in the San Francisco Bay!
It's only been a few years since Galbraith's last solo album, the gorgeous Orb, which was his first in years, but we're pleased he seems to be on a more consistent release schedule, cuz as much as we love his various collaborations over the last few years (especially his Long Wires In Dark Museums series with Matt De Gennaro), it's his solo records that really hit the spot for us. Dark and mysterious, intimate and abstract, playful and bizarre, moody and melodic, flitting from perfect pop to what the fuck experimentation and back again. And on Mass it's no different. Another ultra varied collection of fracture home brewed pop experimentation, that for all it's mysterious digressions and clashing styles, somehow flows perfectly as a sprawling and gloriously confusional and cohesive album.
Backwards guitars swoop and flutter, beneath wheezing organs, mumbled vocals drift on smoldering streaks of muted feedback, abstract percussion, plucked folky melodies, field recordings and fractured effects all intersect in some weird sort of lo-fi Morricone soundtrack styled minimalism, Galbraith's beautiful croon slips dreamily around reversed steel string guitars, multitracked into lovely harmonies, thick swaths of buzz pulse and throb almost like a 4-tracked SUNNO))), pump organs groan beneath sweet sing songy vocals, before the vocals flip backwards and are draped over skeletal acoustic guitars, the layered voices creating impossibly pretty backwards harmonies, simple percussion, detuned bass buzz, tinkling lullaby like melodies, stumbling Dead C like noise rock, bleating horns, soundtracky drifts, thick undulating guitardrones, symphonies of high pitched chimes, tolling bells, constantly shifting production, most of the songs barely cracking a minute, only 7 breaking 2 minutes, little perfectly imperfect abstract pop fragments, that assembled manage to sound not at all fragmented. We're of course reminded of Finnish groups like Kemialliset, and Avarus, and Anaksimandros, a similarly ramshackle DIY vibe, but Galbraith takes that vibe, infuses it with a distinctly pop element, creating these gorgeous little sonic gems, that manage to be both pretty and poppy, mysterious and minimal at the same time. Totally beguiling and utterly irresistible.
Includes a download card as well!
Mr. Galbraith spent two years recording these buzzing lo-fi songs onto a four-track reel-to-reel. Haunting. Those of you who loved his set at Terrastock will enjoy this cd, it sounds the closest of all his albums to what he did at that wonderful show.
Oh Alastair, how we have missed you. Although there have been a handful of reissues, a collaboration here and there, and those incredible long wires discs, there's something magical about the strange world Galbraith is able to conjure up give a whole record to work with. A dizzying blend of folky freaky lo-fi experimental pop, handmade instruments, ambience and noise, all held together by some ineffable magic that very few possess, but some, like Galbraith have mastered and seem to unfurl effortlessly.
Orb is the first proper solo record in years and also marks the re-activation of Galbraiths Xpressway label, now called Nextbestway. And once again, we're transported to some mysterious glade, where a strange man is hunched over a small arsenal of sound making devices, and like some sort of mad scientist is assembling an endless series of perfect little sonic gems.
The opening track is so immediately warm and recognizable, with it's warped warbly organ, and Galbraith's haunting multi tracked vocals, reminding us once again, that long before Neutral Milk Hotel, Galbraith was shaping similarly powerful little spiritual pop songs, and "Here Not There" is no different. Less than two minutes, but in that brief span, he's able to lull and soothe, trip out and transport. The second track is even shorter, less than a minute, but it's a killer chunk of billowy krautrock drift that finishes in a flurry of digital skipping.
Galbraith has a sort of Guided By Voices thing going, giving us tantalizing glimpses of incredible hooks, cool moody riffs, fluttering bits of sweet folk, but then nips them in the bud, songs that could very well stretch on for hours, slip away after minutes, sometimes seconds, creating these brief magical flourishes that have us returning over and over to sample briefly, always wanting more.
Like all Galbraith discs, the sounds are disparate, but interconnected, clattery feedback drenched Dead C style noise rock, with crumbling distortion and fuzzy sheets of synth, murky detuned folk ramblings, keening scarping strings, high end skree and metallic reverberations, utterly heartbreaking perfect pop, stretches of field recordings overlaid with soft shimmery drones, wheezing organs and delicate plucked strings, thick swaths of dense guitar buzz and super distorted vocals, black metal via NZ noise rock, meandering abstract Appalachia draped over soft swells of mumble and drift, warm warbly guitar and every possible combination in between.
So lovely, so magical and so totally mysterious. Galbraith is truly a bard from beyond, a songsmith who transcends genre, perhaps even time and space. And we're so glad to have him back.
Some of the finest new material we've heard in a long while from this solo Kiwi musician, who composes beautiful songs from fragments of melody, treated voice, and guitar etc.
AQ favorite, New Zealand experimentalist Alastair Galbraith has redesigned Syd Barrett style folk/psychedelia for acoustic guitar, violin, and his voice... with lots of backwards masking, tape loops, and hints of his other project A Handful of Dust. Outstanding bedroom recordings.
One of our favorite iconoclastic New Zealanders accompanies his idol Pipp Proud, an older Aussie who writes quiet, heartfelt songs.
Ok, hopefully all of you into dooooooooooooooooom have heeded our recommendations in the past ("best band EVER" we may have said, in a moment of infatuation) and are already well acquainted with this cult Japanese band who exude a magnificently miserable mixture of slow, atmospheric doominess and crusty black metal thrashing, inspired by the likes of Celtic Frost/Hellhammer (natch), Amebix, and Corrupted. This is their 2nd full-length studio album, following 2004's Gloomy Lights debut and last year's The Dawn Of Gallhammer demos n' live cd+dvd collection. That's the one where we busted out the Simpsons Comic Book Guy impersonation in our review, but it's this album that really seals the deal, when it comes to Gallhammer's position in the pantheon of most depressive doom bands ever, anyway. They're up there, no doubt about it, as is proved by this collection of ten tracks, each one of 'em often (but not always) a slow-motion trudge through the depths of emotional bleakness in the form of monotonously massive low-end guitar riffage, wretched cookie monster screams, and simple, gloomy melodies. Several of the song titles are quite indicative of their sound: "Long Scary Dream", "SLOG", "Ripper In The Gloom"... Many of these varied tracks feature a dynamic combination of knock-you-over-with-a-feather soft n' sad prettiness setting you up for some smash-you-with-a-hammer heaviness, or even manage both at the same time. It's the former element, this band's almost post-rock instrumental mesmeric moodiness, for which we think Gallhammer should be best noted. Not that it has any of post-rock's usual complexity, this is raw and primal and ritualistic, perfectly encapsulated by the way the stark, repetitive slowcore acoustic guitar part at the start of "Ripper In The Gloom" suddenly, shockingly gives way to a full-on punk rock assault.
It also seems possible that Gallhammer, along with their interest in underground '80s doom-crust, also shares some of the Velvet Underground fixation displayed by their contemporaries from the Japanese psych-rock scene, like LSD-march and Doodles. Heck, track one, the nearly eight minute "At The Onset Of The Age Of Despair" seems to have echoes of VU's "Venus In Furs"... If one of Gallhammer's songs wound up on a PSF Tokyo Flashback comp someday we'd be surprised, yes, but only a little. Though it sure wouldn't be a track like "Killed By The Queen" or "Blind My Eyes", two of the punked out, filthy metal blitzes on here, the latter of which throws in some uncharacteristic Melt-Banana style yelping, dogwhistle vocals along with the usual guttural grunting and growling.
Hey, we made it all the way to the end of this review without mentioning Gallhammer's major non-musical selling point... we said they're a "cult" band above, but were tempted to say "cute", as this trio just happen to all be attractive young Japanese ladies, their looks further enhanced by the tasteful application of gothy corpsepaint makeup. No this fact doesn't make Gallhammer's music sound any better (or worse) but it's, um, interesting. Happily, though, Peaceville isn't using Gallhammer's sex appeal to sell this album, there's not even any pictures of the band at all included in the classy-lookin' white-and-silver digipack. Recommended nonetheless!
While writing a recent review about his favorite group King Crimson (!), Vincent Gallo allowed himself the indulgence of a viperous tangential rant against Harmony Korine: "When a mini-dwarf rich kid from Nashville like Harmony Korine flies first class and moves to New York City's Soho in his 'plush safe' apartment, running around town quoting Godard with lines like, 'Fuck the bourgeois', it's insincere, it's calculated, it's unoriginal, and it's the worst thing in the world, 'trendy'. He already knows that he and his boring girlfriend Connecticut Chloe Sevigny are going to be on the cover of 'The Face'. He knows he'll get his run at The Angelica and be hip in Japan. But no one will ever make an important film because they saw 'Gummo' or 'Donkey Boy'." (http://www.vincentgallo.com/writing/KingCrimson.html) The irony of such a statement is that many of Gallo's critics have uttered very similar attacks against him. In a lot of ways, Gallo brings it upon himself with the public display of a blunt persona that is crass, misogynistic, and brutally ugly. Yet amidst these horrible aspects of humanity, Gallo's facade cracks with wondrous displays of romantic dreams that sing the praises of 'pretty girls,' Genet-like love stories borne out of abjection, and the ephemeral magic of his musical constructions. How much of this dichotomy falls under the category of artistic calculation and how much of it is a hyper-dramatization of Gallo's polarization of human characteristics -- both positive and negative.
Of course, Vincent Gallo doesn't give a fuck what you or I may think about his art, as he's already convinced that's he a genius. I (Jim) enjoyed the grim artistry of "Buffalo 66" but was initially skeptical of his music, as a passing fancy for dilettante who somehow managed to convince Warp Records to sign him. Yet, in setting my pre-conceptions aside and actually listening to his previously published "When" (a bit of a sleeper hit among several of us here at Aquarius) and now "Recordings Of Music For Film," Vincent Gallo is a musician whose talent is not easy to dismiss as a cultural fluke. Like "When," his film scores to "Buffalo 66," "The Way It Is," "Downtown 81" and "If You Feel Froggy, Jump" are delicate, bittersweet wisps of song fragments, with ghostly guitar strumming that recalls late '80s Jandek, Gallo's Chet Baker-like voice, passing flourishes from a clarinet or a melodica, and very little else. What is most impressive is the consistency between all of these recordings despite the 15 years between "Buffalo 66" and "The Way It Is," whose scores make up the majority of this album. Regardless, it ends up being beautiful, no matter what opinion you may hold about Vincent Gallo.
While it's probably true that the reason this album got released on hip UK electronica label Warp is that Vincent "Buffalo 66" Gallo is a famous guy, that doesn't mean it's a bad album. Some folks here at Aquarius wanted to assume that, but repeated
- RealAudio clip: When
- RealAudio clip: Was
You might not know the name John Gallow. How 'bout John Gallo? Doesn't ring a bell? BLIZARO, then? Hopefully you do recognize that name. We've previously listed a bunch of Blizaro, making their cd City Of The Living Nightmare a Record Of The Week a few years ago. Blizaro's a BIG fave of ours. And multi-instrumentalist John Gallo(w), also of trad doomsters Orodruin and blackened thrashers Crucifist, is the talented/demented mind behind Blizaro! Now he offers up this solo disc, using a slight variation on his own name. Of course, we wondered immediately just what the difference would be between Blizaro and John Gallow solo; the answer is, while Blizaro plays some strains of '70s sounding psychedelic doom, as heard through the kaleidoscopic lens of proggy, electronic cult Italian horror cinema soundtracks (i.e., "Sabbath meets Goblin"), John Gallow is a bit more deliberately doom metal, sluggish and chuggish, not *quite* so bizarre as Blizaro. Definitely Gallow takes a lot of inspiration from the weird works of Italian psych/doom mastermind Paul Chain - these tracks are imbued with the maestro's preferred occult violet hues, as the disc's title indicates. And apparently a lot of it is improvised, also in the manner of Paul Chain. But additionally we're hearing A LOT of the epic doom metal of classic Candlemass - and it's not just us, Gallo says as much in his liner notes, citing Candlemass as an influence alongside "all the purple-tinged doom metal from Italy", meaning Paul Chain, Black Hole, and other obscurities.
On a few of the tracks here, Gallow even does an amazing job of emulating the haunted wail of classic Candlemass frontman Messiah Marcolin with his own melodic, mournful cries, and that can't be easy. We're impressed. Elsewhere, he sounds more like Paul Chain, or channels his inner Ozzy. His guitar playing is also, as always, impressive, often going OFF into a tripped out psychedelic blues zone, his multitracked leads conjuring multiple Iommi's jamming together. Yet this is can be a very lonely, late night, solitary sounding disc, the moodiness of the material perhaps in part due to the one-man-band factor; furthermore, the title Violet Dreams also refers to the fact that many of the songs here have lyrics drawn from the surreal contents of strange dreams and nightmares that Gallow has actually had; we suspect that if he talked in his sleep he could give Dion McGregor a run for his money. Then there's all the evocative, vintage-sounding synthesizer and droning organ that ornaments this disc as well, sometimes taking center stage, as on the somber synth interlude "Ancient Tears", quietly creepy, its atmospheric keyboard melodies straight out of an Italian horror soundtrack for sure.
This journey into John Gallow's Violet Dreams is over an hour long, an almost claustrophobic concoction of heavy doom riffery and more abstract ambience, Gallow's song structures taking some strange turns; 'tis a dense slab of what we'll call depressive progressive doom metal, indeed.
The first in a series of reissues from '80s power pop legends Game Theory, fronted by singer/songwriter Scott Miller, who passed away unexpectedly last year (2013), and, as is on glorious display here, was some kind of pop visionary mad scientist. We had sort of forgotten how great (and how weird), the group's 1982 debut Blaze Of Glory really was. From the strange arrangements, the weird mix, the production and the songs themselves, it's a dizzying masterwork, impossibly catchy, and super experimental, starting from the very first few seconds, with a spoken intro, cut off mid sentence, and disappearing in a cloud of tinkling bells and weird stuttering static, distant drones, it's almost as if it was an intro for an entirely different kind of record, but then in come some dreamy acoustic guitars, hazy, whispery vocals, and then POW, the song explodes into a frenetic, almost new wave power pop, with thick buzzing bass, pulsing synths, then some big drums and the chorus swoops in, and it's all over. Even after all these years, we were immediately smitten all over again. Emotional, introspective, but still rocking and a little swaggery, and that's just the first song. There's literally not a dud here, the record flows perfectly, some tracks slithery and groovy, others frantic, caffeinated new wave, and still others, fuzzy, jangly and dreamy. It's easy to hear all the pop bands that would follow in Game Theory's wake, power and otherwise, that owe much of their sounds to these guys, who were so far ahead of their time. Plenty psychedelic, a little bit proggy in places, angular guitars wound up in shimmery dream pop jangle, the drums too, chaotic and intricate, and weirdly mixed, giving the tracks still more of an oddball pop vibe. Just check out the sound samples, if you're at all a pop person, and you've yet to discover the joy of this genius pop groop, be prepared to have your mind blown for sure.
And as if the record proper wasn't enough, there are 15 bonus tracks, including some hilarious "Scott Miller Testing Laboratories" interludes, where you can hear the band members, along with aQ pal Dan Vallor (who might be best know to aQ-ers as the man behind avant experimental noise outfit Clarinette, but who was Game Theory's tour manager and sound engineer for much of the eighties, and who had a hand in assembling the reissue, as well as penning some of the liner notes) defacing the record in various ways, scratching it with a compass needle, lighting the record on fire, stabbing it with a knife, smashing it against a desk, but in between, are some amazing songs, some live, some demos, and the best of the bunch might be the tracks from Miller's pre- Game Theory outfit Alternate Learning.
Fantastically packaged with lots of rare photos and extensive liner notes, we're already looking forward to the next reissue in the series!
We heard about this single back at the On Land festival, where Daniel Lopatin awed the packed house with his polygon planes of synth as Oneohtrix Point Never. Lopatin brought a handful of the Games single, which was being rumored to be his hip-hop excursion. Well, now that we've gotten a hold of this; it's not quite hip-hop, and not even the abstracted witch-house / chillwave variant of screwed hip-hop from the likes of Salem and oOoOO. Lopatin and his Games partner Joel Ford apply loops of muffled robot-speak vocals, dopey-eyed slow-jam rhythms, and Lopatin's trademarked '80s computer as utopian object iconography. The Ariel Pink-ish false starts through the sampled guitar jangle, and the Max Headroom skipped disc jitter make this unmistakably Lopatin (especially from those hard to find KGB Man tapes) and strangely believable as a wintery mixtape staple for beleaguered COBOL programmers and the robots who love them.
The duo known as Games presented themselves as chillwave mutants on the Everything Is Working 7" which came and went a couple months back, but this long EP / short LP (depending on how you wanna look at these six tracks) proves that Games is an entity existing between a number of dichotomies: Now vs. Then, East vs. West, ironically uncool (thus making it cool) vs. unfashionably gauche, etc. It shouldn't be a surprise then that half of Games is the sci-fi trickster Daniel Lopatin, who's better known as Oneohtrix Point Never. There's plenty of the Lopatin infatuation with polygon melodies, allusions to Russian technocracy, and dreamtime slippages into the forgotten futures of the past; but Lopatin's partner, Joel Ford, brings a mash-up aesthetic of Italo-Disco sensuality, mid-'80s Fairlight sampling mimesis, and plenty of trashy Euro-pop tropes. Unlike Lopatin's Oneohtrix project which seeks to capture a sound which never existed in the '80s but is an extract of a bleary selective memory from all of the data that's been left behind, Games is far more concise in what it's referencing - the mid-'80s synthpop / tropes of bands like Animotion and Ministry. No, we don't mean the "Jesus Built My Hot-Rod" era of Ministry, but the period that Mr. Jourgensen seems to want to forget: the swooning romanticism of With Sympathy and the cross-pollinated electronica album Twitch. The track "Strawberry Sky" is a Top 10 single that should have been released in 1986, with a magnificently catchy vocal chorus delivered by Laurel Chartow atop faux-flute synth pads, darkly washed electronic arpeggiations, thumped drum machines, and a coked-up production sensibility. The auto-tuned vocal utterances that drive "Shadows In Bloom" compliment an acid flashback of an arrangement seemingly lifted from one of Bel Biv Devoe's skittered grooves. Couple that with all of the new wave synths, and it's a downright awesome track! The Gatekeeper Remix of "Strawberry Sky" steps up the Ministry / Twitch references with more of a cybernetic flare to the punchy EBM rhythms and American Anglophilia. Recommended.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Unreleased archival stuff from New Jersey '60s psych outfit Gandalf...unfortunately while their actual album (also reissued on Sundazed) is a classic, this disc doesn't hold a candle... don't bother.
Tolkien fans, be warned -- this sixties psych pop group from New Jersey was only hastily dubbed "Gandalf" mere weeks before their debut was recorded in 1967. As Mike "Ugly Things" Stax' liner notes say (with perhaps some unnecessary scorn for the inhabitants of Middle Earth): "The group's name is actually a misnomer; although full of magic, the Gandalf record is thankfully free of wizards and hobbits." Previous to their Gandalf incarnation, the band was called the Rahgoos, named, believe it or not, after the Ragu brand of spaghetti sauce! (The liner notes again: "What was needed was a new, more 'with it' name." So they chose Ragu? What?) Whatever the name, though, the band's lone LP, now reissued by Sundazed, is pretty darn great, with gentle, melancholy singing, hypnotic piano and Hammond B3, and plenty of psychedelic tape echo courtesy of a piece of equipment (the Binson Echorec) that the band had acquired soon before the recording sessions and used to great effect, ahem.
Gandalf is especially known (to those in the know, that is, who speak of them in hushed whispers we'd imagine) for their amazing, dark, psychedelic version of the old standard "Golden Earrings" with which they open the disc. Along with that cover, they also interpret several songs by Tim Hardin as well as Eden Ahbez's famed "Nature Boy". But they had a fine songwriter in the band as well, Peter Sando, and his "Can You Travel In The Dark Alone" equals the spooky effect they achieved with "Golden Earrings", while Sando's album-closing "I Watch The Moon" rocks out a bit more with some tasty fuzz guitar -- which you'll also hear in their "Nature Boy", for one!
As long lost, forgotten '60s psych gems go, this is the real deal, not baseless hype based merely on how much some ponytailed psych collector was willing to pay for an original vinyl copy. Sundazed gets our thanks once again!
Stereolab and High Llamas fans know well the atmosphere sculpting talents of Tim Gane and Sean O'Hagen. So it is no surprise that together they make wonderfully enveloping mood music for film. Gane and O'Hagen have composed a swoonsome beauty of a soundtrack to the film La Vie D'Artiste. Lots of fleeting glimpses and glimmers of their main bands' best features -- smooth jazzy horns, retro electronic escapades, cascading vibes and woodwinds, lite kraut-y loopiness, et al -- performed with a lovely panache. Sure to please followers of both bands.
Get out your candles, incense, tarot cards and fog machine, it's time for a brand new hypnotizing, psychedelic outing from Gang Gang Dance. So rad how this group continues to evolve and expand their sound, yet keep their original kaleidoscopic vision intact. Eye Contact picks up where Saint Dymphna left off, infusing a blast of downtown late night culture into a mind altering blend of sounds and styles. With some members of White Magic contributing this time out (Tim Koh, Doug Shaw), this recording really finds GGD melding all of their influences and varied sounds to full capacity. Sometimes dancey, sometimes with a warped '80s vibe, sometimes crafting a spell that haunts and seduces at the same time. And all of the time creating a world that Malcolm McLaren would have been drooling all over. It's become annoying to talk about music in terms of being postmodern, but GGD really are one of the best examples of a group who have excelled in bringing so many forms of music and influences altogether and not only deconstructing them but also honoring and celebrating them. This is the sound of NOW!
Awesome new 12" from GGD.
We ended up digging the last GGD, even though it took us a little while to get into. And we're guessing this new one might also take us a little while. Not because it's a bad record, it's just.. weird. But weird in a way we don't always find appealing right off the bat. The first record set up the sound: a chaotic almost dancey mix of hypnotic drum circle clatter, off kilter This Heat-ish rhythmic propulsion, scattered snatches of jazzy piano, almost circusy melodies, burping low end and all sorts of other sounds. The sound on this record is quite similar, if not a bit more refined. And definitely a bit busier. Like they had this band, and then had all their friends over, and had each friend add the one thing they really loved, whether it was those weird new age pan pipe flutes, or brittle music boxes, or Copshootcop junkyard percussion or any one of a million things that makes this record such a scattered, albeit joyous mess. But the maker or breaker here is the vocals. Very childlike and heavily affected, a bit like the vocalist from Deerhoof mixed with Laurie Anderson or Diamanda Galas, swooping and wailing and mumbling and back to wailing, all in the space of a single track. Very haunting and strange, but a definite acquired taste. This record is at its best when it sort of blisses out and becomes an expansive abstract sound field, all glittering and spacious. Because the music here definitely hits all the right buttons, woozy and drone-y, skittery and playful, sometimes ominous and aggressive, sometimes joyful and resplendent in all its post-funk splendor, but then the vocals kick in and you're either sold or you're not. Listen to the sound samples and you make the call.
Man, that last record we got from Gang Gang Dance was great! Hopefully some of you had a chance to see them live this summer for a mesmerizing, other-worldly performance. On Hillulah, they bring us several great live recordings from 2003 and early 2004 cut together to create a 33 minute-long audio document of noisy soundscapes that delve into the more raucous feel of the band from that time. It seems that since then, they've nicely lifted off into some sort of ethereal otherness.
As a bonus, Hillulah's "enhancement" contains 30 minutes of video footage! With this nice little document, Gang Gang Dance continues to impress.
We can't think of a better match for the Latitudes series than Gang Gang Dance. As the New York genre blurring group has been one of the most consistently creative and risk taking bands to emerge in the last decade. We've been so excited with their evolution over the years and this new 15 minute track finds them expanding on ideas of multi culture/multi genre jamming in a way that feels like an awesome updated version of what Brian Eno & David Byrne were doing on My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts, or what some rad amalgamation of Arto Lindsey, Cabaret Voltaire, Black Dice and Malcolm Mclaren might sound like.
The track starts out with a hypnotizing mix of psychedelic electronics swirling, pulsating and keeping us in a sparkling trance. It then breaks into a grime influenced breakdown as urgent and powerful as it is colorful and danceable. Damn they pack a lot into these 15 minutes, what a fucking epic song!
Over the years Gang Gang Dance have proven to be one of the more adventurous and interesting bands to emerge from the NYC/Brooklyn scene. Since their last full length they've been busy cultivating their sound, DJing and being active members of the late-night-night-club scene. Rawwar is a three song ep which finds them continuing to grow and explore. The first song is a pretty perfect blast of fused sonics that somehow manages to sound like Siouxsie meeting M.I.A. at a super warped late night rave. The second track is a swirling instrumental that offers up a slightly more beautiful sound than what we got on God's Money and the 11+ minute closer is just how you wished trip hop sounded now, had it continued to evolve. Their journey continues to excite us and this will keep us pretty satisfied until they unleash their next full length offering.
After their last great record, God's Money, we've been increasingly excited to see where Gang Gang Dance might head next. One of the few bands who managed to transcend all the hype of the Brooklyn/NYC city scene of the last few years and who have proven to be purveyors of continually interesting, challenging and rewarding sounds. Retina Riddim isn't the proper follow up to God's Money but instead a multimedia project which includes a dvd that GGD member Brian DeGraw created matching psychedelic images to a great blending of the bands past records & live recordings. The cd is one twenty-four minute track which incorporates everything from violins, to air horns, and even distorted beats, all melded together to create a wonderful cacophony of sound. Very cool!
Over the course of several years Gang Gang Dance have made the evolution from totally whacked out and hard to describe collage of sound weirdness to slowly injecting more structure and carving out actual songs while still keeping an aura of mystique and playful experimentation in their sound.
Saint Dymphna pushes their evolution with even more structure and a kind of hypercolor sheen providing a psychedelic soundtrack that sounds a bit like Kate Bush performing at an all night psychedelic rave. Its evident that for the first time in fully realized form the band is really embracing the last word of its moniker, making music for the kind of late night dance parties we'd love to frequent. Maybe it's some of the band members' strong involvement in late night culture as DJ's and partiers over the last few years that has helped shape this exciting shift in their sound. You can tell they've been listening to lots of the most interesting dance music around as there are healthy hints of Bangra that pop in and out of the songs on Saint Dymphna as well as a more nuanced take on what lots of the Italians Do It Better camp (Chromatics, Glass Candy) have been up to lately. But what made us originally fall in love with Gang Gang Dance is still present, their true sense of adventure and a fearless ability to merge influences that usually seem so disparate, into a seamless whole. Not many other bands could have a record with a song that sounds so much like the mostly swirly moments of My Bloody Valentine ("Vacuum") followed by a song with Tinchy Stryder on the mic for a track that would be at home on M.I.A's latest. That is the true beauty of Gang Gang Dance, they really understand how to blend and merge color and sound to create something that can takes on its own life. We've just begun to immerse ourselves in this record and so far we are loving the ride, and we have a feeling that this one will be on nonstop play in the weeks and months to come!
Boy this is a weird one. A sloppy but strangely compelling mess of random spastic percussion, strangely jazzy piano, ambient affected guitar spinning wildly into oblivion, and creepy falsetto voices howling, whooping and sometime spitting out sing-songy sort-of nursery rhymes. But what does it sound like, all of those disparate elements jammed together into one band. Howsabout the No Neck Blues Bands jamming with the Teletubbies in a haunted house? Or maybe Diamanda Galas as a young girl, invoking musical demons with the help of Sunburned Hand of The Man? Or even a battle of the band between Deerhoof, Dave Brubeck and Acid Mothers Temple all jamming simultaneously. While this is definitely werid and wooly and wild, Gang Gang Dance are at their best toward the end of each of these lengthy tracks when things sort of bliss out and become a warbling, woozy tinkling outer space ambience.
