Ahhh Grouper. The work of one woman named Liz, Grouper manage to push all of our musical buttons. Hazy and crackly, staticky and droney, blurry and smeary, drifty and so dreamy. All of our favorite parts of records by Phillip Jeck, Tim Hecker, William Basinski and other dreamdrone minded folks, all boiled down into their essence, abstract obfuscated sonic drift, sounds smeared into wide open stretches of shimmer and drone. This s/t cd-r preceeds the Way Their Crept cd we made Record of the Week last year, and while sonically similar, differs in a couple ways. One, the recording is much more lo-fi, which in other cases might be unfortunate, but in the case of Grouper, just adds a whole 'nother layer of grit and grime and murk. In addition to being more lo-fi, some of the tracks here are way heavier than anything else we've heard from her. Some tracks are REALLY heavy, channeling all of Grouper's fuzzy drones and murky soundscapes into huge rumbling wall of dronedirge guitar, the sort of din that would fit sungly right there alongside your SUNNO))), Earth and Corrupted. But those brutal squalls are in the minority, and even then, the heaviness quickly gives way to a beautifully tranquil aftermath, a hazy fuzzed out barely there drift.
SUPER LIMITED. We have about 20 copies, and we're pretty sure once these are gone we won't be able to get more.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Super limited split single from aQ beloved Grouper, and the new-to-us City Center.
Grouper continues in her slow drift away from the lo-fi murk of early recordings into something distinctly more folky, with softly strummed acoustic guitars, and a gorgeous swirl of voices, overlapping harmonies, ethereal and almost choral sounding, the result, while still psychedelic and lo-fi, just might be the best sounding, and strangely enough, poppiest, track we've heard yet from Grouper!
City Center fares just as well, offering up a hazy lo-fi murk-pop gem that leaves us definitely wanting more. Beach Boys style harmonies doused in effects and buried in buzz and girt, laced over woozy guitars and a mechanical looped rhythm, delay and reverb everywhere and all over everything, warped and underwater sounding, with some incredible hooks barely audible through the hazy fug wrapped around the whole track. Think John Maus, Ariel Pink, Kurt Vile, that same sort of otherworldly seventies radio station vibe, but even more psychedelic and pretty.
AWESOME!
Repressed and back in stock! Here's our review from when we first listed the vinyl back in 2009:
As we mentioned in the original review of the long out of print cassette version, Inca Ore and Grouper are two of the few females currently kicking ass in the seriously dude oriented noise rock scene (Leslie Keffer and Valet are a couple others), and they approach their 'noise' with a distinctly different aesthetic, instead of walls of sound or sheets of distorted skree, the two focus on the sound of the human voice, their vocals cloaked in reverb and delay and echo, layering their blurred croons over swirling seas of smeared shimmery sound and delicate spidery guitars, wheezing organs and warm whirring buzz. Thankfully, together, the sound remains much the same, but blossoms a bit, two different, but complimentary voices, each with a knack for soft focus minor key melodies, each contributing their own particular style of washed out fractured folk, and the results are divine, fans of either band won't be disappointed, hushed and dreamlike soundscapes, dark, delicate cinematic ambience, gauzy and wispy, mysterious and haunting murky and muddy, a vast expanse of distant shimmery drones washing over abstract lo-fi song fragments and chunks of fragmented folks drifting in the abyss.
Originally released as a super limited cassette, which went out of print almost immediately. Then reissued as an almost as limited lp, which also disappeared in no time. So finally, this long sought after, constantly unavailable slab of gorgeous gauzy, folky dream drift, is available as an actual cd. Probably pretty limited too, but for now, we should have enough to last us a little while.
You probably already know just from the two artists if you need this or not. New work from two of the few women kicking ass in the mostly male 'noise rock' scene. Both huge AQ faves, both who utilize voice and effects, in addition to the usual string-ed instruments to weave dreamlike soundscapes and delicate cinematic ambience.
Both are in full effect here, each outfit offering up gauzy beauty and mysterious haunting murk, distant shimmery drones and abstract lo-fi song fragments. Gorgeous as always.
So this past spring Grouper and Pumice graced New Zealand with a small tour, and we were lucky enough to track down a few of the highly limited splits they brought along. Grouper's side is a hazy, dream-like offering of her Way Their Crept type drugged out drone-pop. And Pumice's side is not unlike the material on the recent Quo album. Both previously unreleased tracks for these bedroom pop heavyweights, limited to 500 copies, don't even think about missing out on this one!
Growing have been on quite the hot streak as of late with each of their recent releases hitting the spot and pleasing our ears BIG TIME, with their soaring, mesmerizing, cosmic psychedelia. They keep the streak alive with All The Way, which finds the Brooklyn duo at their stuttering, looped, repetitive and hypnotic best. Almost sounding like a more focused and chilled out version of Black Dice, All The Way finds Growing continuing to explore outer dimensions of sound with a krauty disposition and space on their side. We really like how they've come to understand duration as their songs and records last long enough to spellbind with their propulsive sounds yet never overstay their welcome ending almost before you would like, so you're always ready to jump inside their orbit again. Very nice!
It must be hard to find a sound, especially one that is based in drone and drift, and continue to constantly push the limits of that sound without drifting too far away from the elements which define your essence. Growing have managed to do just that, moving gracefully from drone drenched space rock to minimal rumble and whir, to wherever it is they are now, some musical netherworld, equal parts subtle shifting shimmer, grinding distorted dirge, and sparkling barely there ambience. No higher compliment can be paid than "how the hell do we describe these amazing sounds?!" And really, it seems that any cursory description could not possibly do justice to the amazing sonic world Growing have created.
On Color Wheel, the drift and rumble and shimmer of the past few releases is still present, but stretched out even further, in even stranger directions, some, on first listen sound almost 'wrong', like the almost cheesy panpipe sounds of "Cumulusless", but within seconds some internal logic reveals those sounds to be sort of kind of perfect, in their own skewed way, and then they begin to blur and become a gorgeously murky melodic drift. Other songs are stretched even more dramatically, songs and parts are peppered with strange production techniques and unusually distorted glitches, jagged edits and completely unlikely sequencing. The opening track "Fancy Period" begins as a cool ambient whir, high end melodies swirling and drfiting ever skyward, before the drone sort of buckles, and those high end meldoies become distinct peals, each fluttering weightless above a shuffling fuzzy stuttering rhythm, almost like a skipping Sunroof! cd. Track two, "Friendly Confines", is actually the most 'unfriendly' of the bunch, the core of the track a huge swath of downtuned distorted sludge guitar, tinkling melodies buried in the murk and mire, a shifting wall of rooooaaaarrr, like a slow motion mudslide, before the melodies are freed, the dirge drifts off and all that is left is a series of very Fripp / Eno guitar figures, repetetive and sweetly hypnotic. The record's closing track "Green Pasture" mines similar territory, a blissy barely there drone, peppered with stacatto bursts of blown out vacuum cleaner metal guitar, a super dynamic seesaw, between burbling dreaminess and massive SUNNO)))-like dirge. Quite possibley the coolest Growing track yet...
Two brief experimental soundscapes from these AQ faves. No space rock or krautrock or any kind of rock actually here, this is mostly ambient drift, and strange sonic experimentalism, and the end result manages to sound quite strange and quite strangely pretty.
The A side resembles an ambient noise version of The Smith's "How Soon Is Now?" with a stuttering churning reverbed guitar riff, looped into a hypnotic rhythm, slowly transforming into a machinelike landscape, while over the top tumble playful fluttery FX drenched melodies and streaks and swooshes of feedback and metallic hum. The flipside is a series of haunting little sonic events, muted rhythmic thumps, gurgling underwater melodies, little high end squiggles, all very textural and murky, like some tiny alien machine crawling its way slowly up through the depths...
Low level drones drenched in feedback and synth tones from the Olympia, WA duo known as Growing. Like a lo-fi Popol Vuh or midrange Earth, but with a dreamier edge via ambiguous vocalizations.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Growing may be a rock band, but they're the sort of rock band that seems to just set the music in motion, letting in blossom and build, only intervening when necessary, allowing bass and guitar and vocals to interact organically, creating dense soundscapes, equal parts shimmery space rock, reverb drenched slow core, and dark rumbling drone. Three lengthy tracks, almost thirty minutes of space-y drone-y bliss. The first track is made up of warm snarls of distorted guitar, woven into huge expanses of thick ambient swirl, beneath majestic swaths of keening melody and subtle shuffling rattlesnake percussion. A strangely otherworldly tribal space drone, almost folky at times, with the melodies sounding like some alien bagpipe, but always lush and dense and druggy. Track two, "Freedom Towards Death" is the shortest and most song-like, with dreamy deadpan vocals buried beneath a chaotic smear of multi-tracked guitars and layer after layer of throbbing sludge and space-y swoosh. Sounds a bit like a good old fashioned pop song dipped in some Hawkwind and sprinkled with some Sunroof! The final track is a massive fifteen minute epic of slow growing, pulsing guitars, so incredibly thick and dense it sort of resonates right through your ears, through your whole body and into your soul. The kind of song we wish would go on forever. Like floating in the clouds, or drifting underwater, or sinking slowly through a million mile thick slab of billowy guitars. The track ends (sadly) amazingly with the sound becoming more and more blown out and distorted, until the guitar starts to fall apart, becoming cracked and crumbly until it sort of sputters out in a brief flicker of static and crackle. WOW.
Brooklyn-based ambient-drone duo Growing never fails to please the devoted. It could also easily be said that the duo has failed to truly diverge from their original starting point. Although, part of the charm of this sort of music is indulging in a process of creation that celebrates the difference and repetition within a given theme or concept; expanding or investigating a specific idea over a length of time. Thus, if you like Growing, you'll love this EP. All of the usual landmarks are here: a Nadja on opium meets some sort of Windy & Carl and Labradford hybrid, heavy filter manipulations, masked, aquatic tremolo and chorus leads, and full-on auto-pan attacks that completely embrace stereo dynamics. We've read that -- specifically within the ambient-drone scene -- Growing has been particularly reluctant to utilize computers, preferring to employ pedals and more organic looping techniques. Still, a quick listen to this release unearths enough digital-sounding distortion to make the listener wonder whether or not these two dronesters have finally caved in or not. Fans of long, drawn-out melodic landscapes or psychedelic explorations won't want to miss out on this one. Definitely recommended.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
We unfortunately only -just- found out about this record and were of course informed upon ordering it there were only a handful of copies left. Arghh. Well, we managed to get the last 25 copies, so be aware, that obviously, these will not last long!
A super limited live cd (NOT a cd-r as we previously believed) from AQ faves Growing, whose mix of glacial Earth like heaviness and delicate foresty drones we just can't get enough of. Recorded live in 2004 and mastered by James Plotkin (Khanate, Phantomsmasher, etc.), this live disc is almost eighty minutes of alternating drift and pummel, sludgy slow motion dirges that crystallize into sparkling sonic fields of glisten and glimmer. Even when they're heavy, Growing manage to be delicate and ethereal. The first track is a massive twenty minute swirl of translucent shimmers and warm guitar glow. Fragile and hovering weightless in front of your speakers.
While Growing continually return to that near-ambient tranquility, the record is a series of meandering excursions into MASSIVE slow motion, melted-riff soundscapes, notes and chords unfurl impossibly slowly, as if someone had doubled the gravity and the sound waves were actually visible, drizzling lazily to the floor like molasses or honey, rich golden globs of thick distorted throb. Like Earth and Skullflower meshed into one buzzing blurry soundfield, all muted melody and crunchy riffage, a pulsing swirl of feedback and guitarral grrrr! The sound is phenomenal. Rich and lustrous and LOUD. You wouldn't be able to tell this was a live recording at all if it weren't for the smattering of applause between songs. Which also begs the question, what the hell is wrong with the world when a sound this amazing, and a set this gorgeous and crushingly heavy is being performed before what sounds to be about 20 people? Seriously, when the sound abruptly ends, you expect an overwhelming roar, thousands of voices and clapping hands and stomping feet, the only possible and proper reaction to the sounds that came before...
Packaged in a beautiful six panel folder, a kaleidoscope of leaves on a stark white background on the outside, a blur of overlapping semi-opaque spheres on the inside. Two different designs, both similar but slightly different.
And once again, VERY VERY LIMITED!!
- MPEG stream: 2
- MPEG stream: 3
- MPEG stream: 6
Most people know Growing as the drone duo of Joe Denardo and Kevin Doria. Well, welcome to 2010, where Growing are now a trio (again, for the first time in a long while) and where the drone seems to have taken a backseat to the band's more electronic persuasions. The new member comes in the form of Sadie Laska, whose vocals and sampling add some nice feminine energy to what was once primarily a dudefest (if two guys qualifies as a "dudefest"). We're sure there are some people wondering what happened, but we're too busy enjoying this new approach, because let's face it, two guys with guitars, E-bows, and a plethora of pedals is all well and good, but you can only go so far with that before wising up to the fact that there is much more to life. What makes Pumps! so great is not only the fact that Growing have switched things up, but how they went about doing it and how, at the end of the day, it still makes total sense that this is Growing. This is a much needed evolutionary step for sure, and the band sounds revitalized. Not only that, but without going too overboard or kissing ass to any trends, the new Growing does fit in quite well with many of today's electronic warriors like recent tourmates Fuck Buttons, Black Dice, and even Animal Collective if you downplayed some of their more hippie-ish tendencies. Growing's new home with the notorious Vice label will also assuredly lead to... well, some crazy shit we would imagine.
The album opens with "Short Circuit", and even though many of you have probably heard of the changes, your first reaction may still be, "Is this Growing?" It is, but with heavy beats and electronic squelches which soon become very melodic. Laska's voice comes in and seems to oscillate from speaker to speaker, creating it's own rhythmic flow that goes perfectly with the mutant dub production style. The sound here is hard to define but undeniably rad and definitely worthy of the title "Short Circuit". Elsewhere, you get some nice '80s video game inspired stuff, like on "Massive Dropout", with it's hi-hat beat guiding you to a portal opening into some weird dimension with laid back, easy grooves. We are tempted to use words like "sunny" and "summery", but those don't seem to indicate the weirdness of it all. On "Highlight" we picked up what seems to be a pretty heavy Kraftwerk influence, in fact some of us were even reminded of the song "Hall Of Mirrors", but maybe we're just crazy. Either way, awesome stuff that is super catchy and really good for headphone listening. Perhaps poking fun at themselves, or even their fans (lightheartedly, of course), "Drone Burger" does utilize a nice drone reminiscent of Spacemen 3's "Repeater" with little keyboard stabs punctuating the atmosphere. Closing number "Mind Eraser" makes good use of a thumping beat and electronic static. The overall feeling of paranoia is heightened by a voice proclaiming, "I love drugs" as other indecipherable voices shoot all over the place before the words "I love you" creepily take the song to it's fadeout conclusion.
Awesome stuff, and definitely a positive step forward for these guys and gal. It's great to see a band manage to surprise while also confirming the identity they already established, making it clear that Growing will remain Growing as long the musicians involved are willing to take risks and keep... growing (sorry, heh).
Yay! The debut album from this Olympia trio may be one of the Kranky label's best in a long while. It's almost completely instrumental and melds gorgeous post-rock with ambient electronics and thick, satisfying drones. In the space of an hour, four lengthy tracks develop. Serene arpeggiated guitar notes give way to shimmering cymbals. Silence unfolds into emotive ambient atmospherics, which devolve into simply strummed acoustic guitar. Warbly electronics ebb and flow over the natural buzz and hum of insects on a warm summer night. Notes are held forever until they fade naturally, reminding us of Earth or SunnO))) only without the overt metal/doom element, just the heavy, weighty sombreness... and with Growing this gravity always evolves to an epic hope-imbued sort of flight toward a blissful horizon. The dynamics are carefully controlled yet effortless, and not at all "hard" to listen to. (In fact, one of the pieces uses the chord progression from "Norwegian Wood", odd choice but a welcome bit of familiarity amidst the drone.) A gorgeous, calming record. Highly recommended for fans of Windy & Carl, Earth, The Necks, Jonathan Coleclough, Sunroof, and even Boris. But even if you don't know those artists from Adam, you should give the soundclips a listen because the operative word here is "accessible" -- whether or not the genres Growing touches on are your cup of tea, they do it so well that this record may open your ears to stuff you've previously written off as too difficult. This is soooo pretty. Windy loves this. So does Allan.
Kranky's heaviest, Growing, return with their second album of sheer instrumental drone-bliss. This new Growing floats out on the same calm ocean as the debut, containing another four lengthy tracks of post-rock ambience that range from shimmery and gorgeous minimalist throb to dense buzzing drones that would make Burzum proud. Now a two-piece of guitars and bass (and we're pretty sure some cymbals are heard here too) revelling in electricity and feedback with delicate sensitivity, Growing's The Soul Of The Rainbow And the Harmony Of Light reminds us tremendously of Fripp and Eno's 1973 classic No Pussyfooting. But heavier -- it's like Fripp and Eno meet Earth. Or Tony Conrad playing with a stripped-down Kinski. Something part metal, part new age, wholly neither. Recommended!
Growing were definitely an interesting band, right from the start, but back then they were trawling a lot of the same musical ground as loads of other bands, a blissed out blend of post rock, epic dramatic soundscapery and glitchy electronics, all blended into a seamless and dreamy whole. And even then, Growing definitely stood out, but it would be hard to have imagined them getting this strange sounding. And equally difficult to imagine them cultivating a sound this bizarre, while managing to make it just as dreamy and droney and gorgeous as ever.�
From the opening track, a simple repeated riff, a super processed effects soaked guitar part, repeated over and over, a strange subtle progression, backed up by a super simple bass drum pulse, and streaked with bits of backwards guitars and whirling shimmer, it's obvious that Growing are no longer content to just rock out and drift off, they are looking for weird sounds and figuring out how to make those weird sounds sound beautiful.�
The second track, 15 minutes plus, is thick with grinding low end guitars, chopped into staccato pulses, laced with almost techno sounding Nintendo melodies, and loads of hiss and ambient flutter. That's only the first few minutes, there are long stretches of fuzzy reverbed guitar, but even those parts are dotted with bursts of glitched electronic bbzzzzzt. Near the end, thick swaths of buzzing guitar pile up into gently swaying Teenage Filmstars-esque walls of sound. The next track, another long one, eschews all the effects, at� least the obvious ones, and instead lets an ocean of guitars swirl and shimmer, tangle and untangle, flip backwards and then forwards, a million melodies pulling apart and coming back together in different shapes, pretty, but definitely a lot to take in sonically.�
The last two tracks are brief, "Emseepee" is a churning pulsing damaged krautrock drone, with lots of electronic buzz, gnarled bits of synth and lots of damaged glitch, all over a relentless, almost new wave sounding Goblin bassline. Finally, the record winds down with "Lightfoot" a Tim Hecker-ish soundscape, of gently pulsing fuzz, indistinct melodies, fragments of songs allowed to drift on a constantly shifting sonic sea, before suddenly pulling apart into a dizzying squall of sound shards, hiccuping and stuttering and throbbing and eventually crumbling into what sounds like a skipping broken cd player. Woah.�
Not nearly as soothing as past efforts, but that no longer seems to be what they're going for. The sounds are alien and difficult, the arrangements confusing and convoluted, but Growing manage to reign these problematic sounds into shapes that are both fascinating and strangely soothing.�
Split ep between Olympia, WA trio Growing and former Get Hustle member Mark Evan Burden with each contributing a 16 minute track. Growing's track "Firmament" begins as a bubbling analog synth warble, progressing to ever more dark and ominous waters, but stripped of the guitar and bass parts that made their full length works remind us of Sunn 0))) or Earth. Burden's piece, "10724/02", is a striking contrast. His electronics accompanied piano improvisation ranges between the maniacal pounding minimalism of Charlemagne Palestine and the atmospheric soundscapes of Harold Budd (sans the nuage tendancies). Quite nice!
Have to admit, I (Cup) approached this album with more than a little apprehension. We heard that Mr. Grubbs was switching gears, and it appears that at least for this album, David Grubbs has hung up his experimental jacket and donned his pop cardigan! Well, the first few songs won me over with their sunny jangly guitars and wistful vocals. If you dig Archer Prewitt, Robyn Hitchcock and older Sea & Cake (as I do) you might be charmed by some of this album. Aaah, what do I mean by "some of this album"? Well, by the seventh song "You'll Never Tame Me" something goes awry. Sorta like Grubbs the beat poet. Yikes. Fortunately things do get back on track for the songs that follow, but late in the album, it seems Grubbs can't resist sneakin' back into his avant-rock pocket for the end of "Hurricane Season" bringing it to a close with wailing layers of horns or strings or... well, we're not quite sure what's making the din. Then it proceeds into the final track called "Coda (Breathing)", a haunting soundscape. Instead of it being "A Guess At The Riddle", this is a puzzling jumble.
Oh my, I can't tell you how good this record is! I really can't believe how inventive that David Grubbs guy is! Have you seen those little computers that are the size of a notebook? Did you know they call those computers "laptops!" Did you know that you
Sarcasm aside, Chunklet said it best: "The Bruce Hornsby of the avant-garde."
Whoops, when we first hit 'play' we almost mistook this new David Grubbs cd for Codeine. Ultra slooow, ultra stark and ultra emotive. By the third song however Grubbs' kicks it up a few notches into jangly emo pop territory (think: Versus or Weakerthans). Very wistful and contemplative. And by the sixth and final track "The Not So Distant", he's set us adrift on an almost twelve minute long minimal guitar drone and percussion soundscape. Yes, he's a man of many musical hats and he keeps a number of them (mostly those of earthy muted hues) in constant rotation on An Optimist Notes the Dusk.
Three solo instrumental recordings by Gastr del Sol's David Grubbs. Piano and guitar, beautiful.
Maybe David Grubbs thinks that if he can release enough solo albums record stores will be forced to give him his very own bin card, thus increasing his credibility, thereby generating album sales. It's sort of the indie rock version of Casablanca records when they took to manufacturing 500,000 copies of initial record pressings so they could say they were "gold". I guess it works sometimes. If you tell someone that an album is a best seller they just might buy it. Likewise, I suppose if Mr Grubbs can get an extensive enough back catalog he can drag his ass out of the Bastro / Gastr Del Sol bins and acquire some street cred as a solo artist. If O'Rourke can do it, why can't he? And he almost gets it. Almost. At first 'Rickets & Scurvy' sounds like an attempt at emulating the Red House Painters, but what's that? It sounds like David is grasping at straws to find a melody. Maybe he's doing his best at producing obtuse melodic passages in an effort to come off as the intellectual post 20th century songwriter. I can almost see him in a coffee shop with a soul patch and horn rimmed glasses playing to quietly nodding fans. No, he'll have to cut the pretentious crap from his act before we can move him out of our Gastr Del Sol section. Rickets and scurvy are things to be avoided, so eat lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, get outside as much as possible and avoid David Grubbs. Although, to be fair (us be fair to David Grubbs? it might be too late now) we should mention that fans of Gastr's "Camofleur" or "Upgrade" might want to give this a chance despite our criticism, and as well, Matmos-spotters should note the presence of those San Francisco electronica loons on several tracks here.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Out of the thicket, Gastr del Sol's Grubbs makes another beautiful record. Side one is much like Banana, Cabbage, Potato, Lettuce with vocals. Sort of a play acted out to music: in fact, it's an adaption of Stephen Crane's The Blue Hotel. Side two is a drone piece like a tame version of Jim O'Rourke influenced by Tony Conrad. Guests include Noel Akchote, Stephen Prina, and more. Purdy.
The Coxcomb was first released as a pretty 12" picture disc on the French Rectangle label (we have a copy or two left). It's a nice, simmering, seventeen minute adaptation of a short story by Stephen Crane, in musical form. Drag City has decided to release The Coxcomb stateside, and have backed it with a previously unreleased full-band version of the previously-solo Grubbs piece Onion Orange (called Avocado Orange in its new form). With guests Noel Akchote, John McEntire (Tortoise) etc.
This album starts off trying to sound like Souled American, as Grubbs attempts to replicate their warbled instrumentation within the confines of his own overbearing intellectualism... Of course, he fails, and miserably. The album then continues as a funky version of the Red House Painters. I can only hope that such an image can hint at just how bad this album is, but that's really what it sounds like. The first of Grubbs' many problems is that he forgot that country and folk music (especially John Fahey's purposefully avantgarde bluegrass) is often the result of hard living and hard drinking. Irony has never been a valid reason to make a country or folk album, and it shouldn't start with this one.
Solo outing from half of Gastr Del Sol, recording Fahey-like ditties and avant acoustic noodlings with help from Tony Conrad and John McEntire.
Until the best albums Grubbs made get reissued (Bastro's Diablo Guapo and Sing the Troubled Beast), we'll settle for this uber-academic duet of phasing drones for harmonium and saxophone.
Newly reissued on deluxe vinyl (at a steep import price unfortunately), only one album can be called the first psychedelic OUT-country record, and if it's not Peter Grudzien's The Unicorn, we can think of no other album in the universe that would accurately fit that description (well, ok The Legendary Stardust Cowboy would come close, but that's a different animal entirely). For the emphasis on "out" here refers to all connotations of that term: far out, outsider and homosexual. Handling all the recording, arranging and playing of the instruments over a period of 14 years from 1960-1974 , The Unicorn is a strange and beautiful metaphysical concept record of love and salvation. Featuring a vast array of characters including hillbilly tricks, blue-eyed queens, monkey people and of course unicorns, Grudzien's off-kilter twang is augmented by slide guitar, banjo and otherworldly tape loops of ghostly choirs, backwards effects and warm reverb. An odd and lovely record!
Any band described as 'the Melvins playing King Crimson', well, how could you not want to hear that, assuming that were it true, you might have a new favorite band!! But, those sorts of descriptions are usually hyperbole, and while we love us some hyperbole, claims like that definitely bear some deeper digging.
That said, this stuff is pretty close to that Melvins meets KC claim, a sort of avant sludge, or prog-doom, or avant-prog-sludge. In addition to the Melvins and King Crimson, we're also thinking Harvey Milk, Dot [.], Moss, Swans, Black Shape Of Nexus, Blutch, Slomatics, and tUMULt's Like A Kind Of Matador, in fact, pretty sure that Gruel features the guitarist from LAKOM, and thus it has a similarly epic sludge prog feel. Four loooong songs, all clocking in at about 15 minutes, sprawling and epic and intricate, loads of parts, riffs, bombastic drumming, the sound slipping from classic sounding rock, to glacial sludge, to slo-mo ambient drift, to math metal churn, midtempo caveman pounds to frantic thrashing crush to super spare abstract ultra-mega-doom, to almost pretty shoegazey buzz to hushed barely there shimmer, the various parts laced with wild leads, mysterious percussion, children's voices, harsh hellish vox, bellowed yowls, weird field recordings, thick rib cage rattling low end, and a massive milk curdling guitar sound. So while it might not exactly be Melvins meets King Crimson, it's close enough, and most definitely plenty proggy and doomy and sludgey, and will no doubt hit the spot for fans of all the above mentioned bands, and all things slow and low, heavy and heady.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, packaged in a PVC sleeve, and wrapped in a full color sleeve that folds out into a big two sided full color poster!
- MPEG stream: I
- MPEG stream: II
Aaah, '60s garage rock will never die, shimmy-stomp revivalist bands will keep on resuscitating the sock hop each decade. Back in the '80s, Montreal, Quebec spawned some of the best trashy garage surf combos, and perhaps none more notable nor more cool than The Gruesomes. They sported some of the best uniform mushroomy, bowl-cut 'dos this side of the Ramones, and were graced with one of the best snotty voices around courtesy of frontman / personality Bobby Beaton. Well, you know what? They got back together a couple of years ago! Yup, fully fueled, engines revved and ready to roll with an album called Cave In! And now, perhaps to celebrate their return -- or just 'cause what with the current garage revival these guys deserve some props -- Sundazed has released a kick-ass retrospective compiling selections from Beaton and co's previous three obscure albums Tyrants Of Teen Trash, Gruesomania and Hey! plus an assortment of EPs, comp tracks and -- the staple of any self-respecting retro rock band -- some stellar cover versions, including a track originally performed by "The Way-Outs" in a Flintstones cartoon! Raw, fuzzed out electric guitars, a primal drum beat, a steady walking bassline, vocals snarled and shouted, and a heck of a lot of fun. Truly a garage rawk treasure.
We first heard about the awesomely named Grumbling Fur, via the fact that one of the members was none other than Jussi from Finnish hypnorockers Circle, and as with all of Jussi's many projects, we were excited to hear this one, especially since it also included Daniel O'Sullivan of Guapo (and more recently Ulver, Mothlite and Miasma & The Carousel of Headless Horses). Sadly, we so far have not been able to get copies of their debut full-length, so thus, no one here had actually yet heard Grumbling Fur.
Until now, 'cause this just showed up. This three song ep, the latest in the Latitudes series, finds the former quintet stripped down to just a duo, sans Jussi, it's just O'Sullivan and Alxeander Tucker, not sure if this more minimal lineup is permanent or just for the Latitudes sessions, and seeing as we have yet to hear the original lineup, we can't say how it compares, but we can say we dig it quite a bit.
At first blush it's a sort of folky baroque psychedelic pop, a mournful plink plonk bit of piano, over a layer of thick squelchy synth buzz and skeletal drumming, the vocals a dreamily dramatic croon, everything wreathed in streaks of squiggly effects, and some singing strings off in the background, hypnotic, and a little bit tranced out, with a distinctly drone-y element, a dark minimal bit of downer folk pop that also has a sort of Velvets vibe with its single part arrangement and druggy psychedelic mesmer, which gradually grows more manic near the end before disappearing in a cloud of swirling buzz and tripped out FX.
The second track follow suit, with the same general sound palette, but sounding more bombastic, a big lush almost orchestral pop sound, but rendered in greys and blacks, the skittery drumming, the minor key piano melodies, this time in a cloud of what sounds like manufactured field recordings, and the vocals all tangled up into a dizzying round, reminding us a bit of Cardinal in fact, but a much more minimal, druggy Cardinal to be sure.
The final track is an instrumental coda, all effects-drenched piano and shimmery synth swirls, the sunniest of the bunch, with just a slightly sinister streak, playful, melodic, and darkly dreamy.
Packaged as usual in that distinctive Latitudes packaging. the cd in a brown and white origami style sleeve, with a cool black embossed print on the front, and a full color insert inside with liner notes, the lp in a black and white sleeve, with the same insert. BOTH LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Okay, let's get it out of the way right up front. Yeah, we know, Gruntruck is a terrible name for a band, and yeah they do have a song called "Crucifunkin'" which is unfortunately, as the title might lead you to believe, a little bit funky. But be that as it may, these guys slayed, early nineties Seattle grunge, always underappreciated, but so heavy, and hooky, and groovy, channeling the same sort of sound as Skin Yard and Soundgarden, big downtuned riffage, wild scrabbly leads, and vocalist Ben McMillan's killer yowled vox. Need proof, just check out the sound sample for "Inside Yours", a track that we would definitely put near the top of our list of best grunge jams ever, with its woozy, druggy, slow build intro, and lurching lumbering, stop / start arrangement, slinky and sludgey, with some killer weirdly effected guitars, reminding us of Green River, the same sort of junkie blues grunge metal groove. And while that 's definitely our favorite jam here, there are plenty that are just as good.
Gruntruck played constantly with grunge legends like Screaming Trees, Alice In Chains (supposedly they opened for AiC more than any other band), not to mention touring with Pantera, and featured at least one of The Accused as a member, but for whatever reason, they sort of slipped through the cracks. Which makes no sense listening to this now. This double disc collection gathers up the group's two full lengths, 1990's Inside Yours and 1992's Push, with two bonus tracks. Inside Yours is the grungier of the two, definitely sounding like it could easily have ended up on Sub Pop, although it's maybe a tad more metal, with a sound that was definitely dangerously close to fellow grungers Skin Yard, while Push was a bit more commercial, probably reflecting all those shows with Alice In Chains, their sound definitely moving in that direction. Record label bullshit hastened the end of the original lineup, and while the band soldiered on, releasing another ep in 1996, and reuniting in 2000, it's these two records that should have made them as big as their grunge brethren. Super rocking, grunge-y hook filled heaviness that should most definitely hit the spot for fans of Skin Yard, Tad, Green River, Soundgarden, The Fluid, Afghan Whigs, Swallow, Love Battery, Nirvana, etc., who somehow missed out on these guys the first time around.
Packaged in a super fancy six panel double digipak, with two booklets, lyrics and liner notes.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
You know how much we like instrumental underground UK prog masters Guapo here, right? Andee even put out one of their albums (2001's Great Sage, Equal Of Heaven) on his label tUMULt. Subsequently they released the massive Five Suns opus on Cuneiform. And now, their new release Black Oni is unleashed by Mike Patton's Ipecac label. And they've been going from strength to strength.
Like Japan's Ruins, the Guapo trio take a lot of inspiration from '70s prog, in particular the "zeuhl" stylings of the amazing French band Magma. But where the Ruins generally concentrate the Magma sound into a hectic hyper-blast, Guapo tend to stretch things out, spreading their prog-frenzy across (in this case) a forty-three minute, five part epic composition, not unlike the five part, forty-six minute title suite of Five Suns... that's their specialty it seems. Crazed drumming and complex bass lines coexist with spaced-out keyboards (including '70s prog stalwart the Mellotron), making Black Oni a combination of energetic prog mayhem and droning electronic darkness. For fans of Yeti, Tarantula Hawk, Circle and even The Necks... and of course anyone already into Guapo will love this new one. Recommended!
- MPEG stream:
- MPEG stream:
Prog nutters? These guys are, definitely. And be prepared to go prog nuts yourself for this new release from AQ-faves Guapo. This British band is now on Neurosis' Neurot label, after releases for (among others) Mike Patton's Ipecac and our own Andee's tUMULt. We've been fans of 'em for a long time, obviously, and are in good company! This new one is everything we'd expect from Guapo: extended, mostly instrumental cinematic symphonics, dark and moody, played with the virtuosity and verve of their '70s prog rock ancestors. Heck, I (Allan) played a 15 minute track from this, "King Lindorm", on my prog / krautrock radio show last night, Klaus To The Edge (www.westaddradio.com/klaus), and it fit right in perfectly alongside the '70s likes of Cornucopia and Gnidrolog!! Droning strings. Eastern melodies. Bombastic battery. Elegant eeriness.
Yet at this point, Guapo have developed their own sound to a degree where you can't just tag them as a retro proposition. Creatively, they're bringing their old school prog rock inspirations into the 21st century, and have refined their approach to a point where they have as much in common with modern post rock soundscapers as they do with the eccentricities of hoary prog heroes Magma.
As always, the duo of Daniel O'Sullivan (Fender Rhodes, piano, bass, guitars, harmonium, modular synthesizers, autoharp, voice, electronics -- whew!) and David J. Smith (drumkit, percussion) are their own veritable prog rock orchestra, though they do have occasional help from guests, including vocalist Jarboe from the Swans on one song. That'd be "The Selenotrope", one of two tracks originally from Guapo's tour-only Twisted Stems cdep, both of which are included here, and which we previously described as sounding something like a horror movie soundtracks scored by The Necks. (To Guapo fans who happen to already have Twisted Stems, we say no worries, you'll still be getting well over 40 minutes of brand new music on Elixirs too.)
All this proggy goodness comes wrapped up in a snazzy black & white artwork, packaged in a jewelcase with cardstock slipcase.
>>Sorry to say we won't physically have these until Monday or Tuesday. But go ahead and order it now!<<
After a stunning release on our own Andee's tUMULt label a few years back, the UK's finest noise-skree-experimental rock duo, Guapo return as a trio (!) and with a brand new album that...[review pauses here while Andee wildly air drums along with Guapo's one man octopoidal percussionist Dave Smith, although I suppose it's not technically air drumming if Andee's in fact hitting Allan in lieu of actual drums, but we digress...]
While their last full length Great Sage, Equal Of Heaven was a frenetic Ruins-esque, bass and drums (and sometimes sax) workout, Five Suns takes the obvious instrumental prowess and prog potential present on the first record, and turns Guapo into the only modern prog combo that could possibly threaten Christian Vander's Magma throne. Hyperbole? Hardly. The centerpiece of Five Suns is the five part, 46 minute title track. So gorgeously grand, so compositionally daunting, so fucking good, words fail us. The addition of a full time keyboardist, as well as the introduction of guitars, has helped Guapo's skeletal prog jams flower into expansive instrumental epics. The record begins with a huge swell, a swirling squall of wild drumming and thick instrumental chaos, that glitches out as if the stereo is malfunctioning, before setting you down gently, ready to embark on a daunting but inspiring musical journey. Droning ambience and repetitive hypnotic rhythms give way to ultra complex, ultra precise riffery. Melodies are subtle but infectious, slowling unfolding over the course of ten, sometimes twenty minutes. Minor key thrum underpins careening hyper complex arrangements, tense and intense, hypnotic and just breathtaking in its scope. The Ruins is still a definite reference, but all sort of other influences inform Guapo's unique take on prog, the cyclical hypno-rock of Circle (and beyond that the rhythmic propulsive psych/drone of classic Krautrock), the blissed out skree of Skullflower and Sunroof! as well as post rock, free folk, metal and all sorts of other disparate sounds. All woven smoothly and uniquely into a cohesive whole. A fifty minute track, even in the best hands, can veer into overindulgence and pointless jammery, but every second of Five Suns is perfectly placed, and perfectly played -- but without losing its organic, free feel. The two extra tracks are separated from the vast "Five Suns" by a minute long track of silence to clear your aural palate, and prepare you for two shorter bursts of rhythmic, hypnotic, droning modern prog. Originally the Five Suns album was going to be just that, the 46 minute title track, and we were a little disappointed to learn that extra 'short' tracks were being added to make the record more, ahem, radio friendly. But now listening to it as a whole, it seems like it couldn't have been any other way. The two final tracks let us slowly unwind from the dizzying sonic journey that came before. This record is fucking massive. If there was any sort of justice in the world, Guapo would be spoken of in the hushed tones reserved for bands like Magma or King Crimson. As far as we're concerned, starting right now, they will be.
Wow! UK noise-skree-experimental rock duo Guapo really take their prog-rock obessions to the limit on this new album, a joint release between France's Pandemonium label (home to AQ-faves Hint as well) and our own Andee's tUMULt label. Guapo have always
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
An amazing melange of noise, improv, electronics, prog, opera, samples, and turntables. A series of off kilter plunderphonic style noise operettas. Much less 'rock' and more weirdness than their other releases.
If you asked us (do it!) to recommend you a good modern day "prog rock" band, Guapo would be at the top of the list, which would be obvious if you've seen our many, many reviews of the fantastically proggy output of this long running British unit, who have released albums on such labels as Cuneiform, Ipecac, tUMULt, Neurot, and now Cuneiform again. Their all-instrumental excursions into the epic outer reaches of compositional complexity and dark moodiness certainly owe something to the '70s prog greats but don't really come off as "retro" the way, like, Astra does (though that's fine with us too). Also their inspirations aren't just the more popular groups like Yes and King Crimson, they're probably more informed by the likes of Magma and Univers Zero.
With History Of The Visitation, Guapo's first album since 2008, the band's current lineup - featuring founding member and drummer extraordinare David Smith, along with three other gents, some of whom have also played in Cardiacs and Chrome Hoof, on guitar, bass, and keyboards, PLUS bunch of guests on violin, oboe, bassoon, French horn and other fancy instruments - continue to indulge in the epic, cinematic, somewhat sinister sounds that we love 'em for. Case in point, the album's opening track, a five-part suite called "The Pilman Radiant", at over 26 minutes commandeering a good half of the disc, an entire vinyl side in fact, which does the long slow build up from sedate & somber, sorta 20th century classical hiss/drone atmospherics, to a lumbering melodiousness, to full-on jazzed-up soloing, getting pretty darn convoluted before it's over, making for a powerful prog statement all right. Whew. Could almost be a Stinking Lizaveta song, stretched to, like, ten times ordinary length, with keyboards and effective soundtracky bits added in. The remaining two tracks here (side two of the vinyl) make similar, but somewhat more concise statements. "Complex #7" is relatively brief and ambient at under 5 minutes, and then there's the over 11 minute "Tremors From The Future", the later being a repetitive, rhythmically complex hypno-prog jam with plenty of muscle.
As mentioned, Cuneiform has released this on both cd and vinyl. Both formats come with a bonus dvd, featuring live footage of Guapo on stage at two festivals - NEARfest 2006 in Pennsylvania and RIO 2007 in France, when Daniel O'Sullivan (of Aethenor, Miasma & The Carousel Of Headless Horses, Grumbling Fur, Ulver, etc.) was still in the band. That artists like Magma and Keith Emerson also appeared at those shows should tell you something.
The gatefold vinyl version is limited to 300 copies and includes a digital download.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
A sort of backhanded tribute to french avant-prog collective Magma, this 7" finds Guapo headed in a more experimental direction; lots of sampling and turntables and noise mixed with their usual heaviosity. Cool hand made covers.
We'll still never be able to understand why the whole world isn't gaga for Guapo. Without a doubt one of the best, weirdest, and most inventive modern prog outfits there is. Everyone who digs Magma should definitely have some cd shelf space set aside for Guapo. Record after record of dense, tangled, catchy spacey, far out post rock prog brilliance. A record on Andee's tUMULt label, a release on Mike Patton's Ipecac label, tours with Circle and various other underground bigwigs. What's it gonna take? Well at least we know AQ customers are hip to Guapo's unique musical world, and with that in mind we managed to get a bunch of these super limited tour EPs, from Aurora Borealis, the same folks who put out the Grails 12", the Moss cd, the Fungal Hex double picture disc, the Crebain picture disc and the Moss / Wolfmangler split cd. And this Guapo cd ep somehow manages to fit just perfectly. Or imperfectly. Especially considering how weird this ep is, even by Guapo's already weird standards. Gone is pretty much any trace of musical bombast, which is what pretty much defines prog. Instead, this two part epic is a gorgeously slow and moody crawl, a slithering jazzy shimmer, with shuffling drum skitter and melancholy piano, slippery underwater bass that's murky and smoky and dreamily ominous. The second track picks up where the first one left off, gradually adding more elements, a distant wah guitar, some strange metallic percussion, creepy zither like melodies, the whole thing growing ever so slightly busier musically and getting creepier by the second, with the bass building into the driving force, a thick propulsive throb under a swirl of haunted house like jazz shuffle. Sounds a bit like what we might imagine a horror movie soundtrack by the Necks might sound like. Cool!
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
The UK's purveyors of rock/improv spazzy heaviness known as Guapo (a guitar/drums duo) team up with some like minded friends, including the famed Japanese progfreaks Ruins, for some crazed jamming/spontaneous composition. Half the record features drummer Tatsuya Yoshida and bassist Hisashi Sasaki of Ruins, while the second half incorporates the double bass of John Edwards and the alto saxophone of Caroline Kraabel (ex-Honkies), who we hear has now joined Guapo full-time. The results are, as expected, on the noisy side. While "Death Seed" doesn't equal any Guapo or Ruins record proper, it's certainly a worthy investment for fans of these bands or similar noisecore sounds. Italian import.
This is a strange one, definitely not for everybody, but for those of you into freaked out, noisy, goofy, silly and stupid, whatthefuck weirdness, then Guaranteed Katch might hit the spot. Knowing that this stuff was recorded in Ohio with the guy from Sockeye, legendary fucked up lo-fi punk noise weirdos (who have a connection to aQ faves Breathilizor) should tell you enough about these "experimental noise rock" / "jazz core" to know whether to venture in, or run away screaming. Even we're not sure which to recommend. But that in itself, at least around here is its own sort of twisted recommendation.
Stumbling, noisy, chaotic, puerile, punky, jazzy, like the brain damaged little brother of Mr. Bungle, these guys mix and match, sludge and samba, noise and jazz, punk and pop, but this is not the Naked City sort of genre splicing, no, this is more a sort of ADD, kitchen sink, too much weed and a 4-track, channel surfing, ritalin overdosed, neighbor terrorizing, basement lo-fi noise punk jazzbo misfit metal, who-knows-what sort of dizzying DIY damage.
Not sure what else to say, be forewarned: only for the brave, or the ballsy, or the dim witted, preferably all three! And as with all Equation records, this one is packaged pretty sweetly, pressed on thick brown vinyl, with tons of inserts, a fancy full color jacket, bonus tracks not on the original cd releases, and LIMITED TO ONLY 333 COPIES, each one hand numbered.
The first record from this strange outfit was a single sprawling, psychedelic raga, all spaced out and trance-y, and driven, as unlikely as it may seem, by the wild metallic drumming of Greg Fox, formerly of transcendental black metallers Liturgy. We described that record as sounding like Liturgy meets Sunroof!, a furious raga-blast, all droned out and ritualistic, it's a record that didn't seem like it should work, but maybe because of that, became a unanimous store fave (and Record Of The Week).
So we were pretty excited to hear this new one, and it does not disappoint, although it does definitely confound. We were expecting maybe raga-blast part two, but instead, the record opens with a twisted sprawl of faux world music, Fox's drumming here a tangled, and relentless skitter, all hand drums and tablas, and other percussion, all tangled up with some super busy melodic bass, some spidery guitars, and processed female vocals, go from ritualistic chant, to chopped up stuttery garble, the whole track very No Neck Blues Band-ish, albeit a bit more Eastern influenced. A little Boredoms too. But it only gets weirder from there on out. Two brief blasts of metallic drone, the first all weird vocal samples buried beneath buzzing guitars and pounding drums, a swirling psychedelic freakout that gives way to the second, a weird Dada-ist cut up of clipped vocals, peppered by cool syncopated exotic percussion, bummer it's only a minute long, would have loved to have that stretch out forever! That gives way to a heady droney sprawl of crumbling distortion, chanted vox, all blurred into heaving swells, a little bit spacey, and doomy, but all of this seems to be leading up to the 20+ minute title track, sampled spoken word which quickly disappears in a cloud of impossibly dense and octopoidal drumming, everything wreathed in a cloud of bleeping and blooping electronics, and drifting on a bed of sitar like buzz, gradually settling into a dense mathed out raga-rock groove, the drums relentlessly churning away, the sound building to a blasting almost black metal frenzy, before fading back into that tribal, rhythmic groove, only to gradually transform into some strange strain of psychedelic krautrock, motorik and mesmerizing, and again building slowly to the super intense finale, which sounds like multiple Boredoms playing at once, noisy and swirling, and dizzying, and wildly chaotic, electronics, and guitar buzz, and Fox's impossibly wild drumming, all whipped into a tranced out squall, which locks into a skipping digital stutter, before finally sputtering to a halt. Exhausting, inspiring, and truly, sonically transcendental!
Deranged Swedish garage prog from the early seventies. Like a punkier version of Trad Gras Och Stenar, but much looser and less focused on repetitive mantra jams. T-Doja chronicles both of their rare lps Uti Var Hage from 1970 and Gudibrallan II from 1971. Far out!
Hildur Gudnadottir has such a way with the cello, able to create such utterly moving music that is filled with nuance and texture but that is also so deeply emotional. Hailing from Iceland, Gudnadottir's resume includes collaborations and partnerships with the likes of Pan Sonic, Mum, Sigur Ros, Angel, BJ Nilsen, etc. It's so nice to get to hear her take center stage, carefully crafting a sound that is about as moody and beautiful as music really gets. Perfect for those eternal gray days we are faced with so often in San Francisco, this is a record we put on when we just want to get lost in the fog and haze. There is very nice and subtle processing throughout the album as well, and here and there Gudnadottir tries her hand at the zither with stunning results. Johann Johansson adds organ on a few tracks as well, and fans of HIS best work as well as music by folks like Sylvain Chauveau, Philip Glass, Michael Cashmore, Joan Jeanrenaud and Colleen should for sure check this out. Truly elegant and intensely resonant. And thus highly recommended!
