Jonathan Kane was a founding member and drummer of the Swans, as well as a collaborator with La Monte Young and Rhys Chatham. This his new solo record is sort of similar to the idea of Young's Forever Bad Blues Band, an intense and focused foot tappin' blissed out blues sizzler. Repetitious guitar riffs and pulsating percussion that draws you in and leaves you in a frenzy. You can practically hear the sweat dripping off of Kane's body. But don't be expecting any Swans pummel or Teutonic crush, this is pretty much basic blues rock through and through, but of course played with an intense and fierce focus. Includes a Glen Branca cover, "Guitar Trio". And as always, there's totally beautiful packaging from the folks at Table Of The Elements.
Picking up where his last record left off, Swans founding member Jonathan Kane returns with two more foot stomping blues sizzling instrumentals which use a pedigreed technique of building repetition that makes these tracks sound somewhere between excellent bar rock/blues with a hint of his more intense past and works with Rhys Chatham. Much like recent instrumental outings by Tom Verlaine (not that this sounds like that at all) it's actually sometimes nice to hear someone who seems to have aged gracefully and is playing what they want, with nothing to prove, and with a new found ease and confidence that seems appropriate with their moment in time.
You know avant-violinist Eyvind Kang from his several discs for John Zorn's Tzadik label, and/or his work with the likes of Ikue Mori, Bill Frisell, Dying Ground, Joe McPhee, Secret Chiefs 3, and the Sun City Girls, right? Indeed, you probably recall that Kang's extended violin improvisation was a highlight of the SCG's "300,003 Crossdressers From Beyond The Rig Veda", one of their best albums. Well here's more of Kang's violin, backed by a group called the 'Neti-Neti Band' who may or may not be those selfsame Sun City Girls. Four tracks, over an hour of quiet, beautifully droning, melodic violin-based instrumental soundscapes. A bit King Crimson-ish, we'd say. Quite nice. Track three, "Highlands", gets a bit noisier than what came before, but is still quite pretty. Sure does sound like the Sun City Girls, in a trance-y mode.
Hopefully you already picked up the awesome collection of rare tracks by Turkish psych guitarist Erkin Koray that Sublime Frequencies recently released. If that put you in the mood for more vintage psych pop rock from Turkey, we've also just received this import disc of stuff by one of Koray's contemporaries, the late Cem Karaca, former member of Mogollar. His is a name that's certainly up there in the Anatolian rock pantheon, along with Erkin Koray, Baris Manco and Edip Akbayram.
Originally released in 1972, it compiled songs circa '69-'71, recorded for 45rpm singles by Karaca with his bands Kardaslar ("The Brothers") and Apaslar ("The Apaches"). The general tone of these tracks is towards the romantically, dramatically bombastic and orchestrated, with strings and horns and vocals that are almost operatic. He's like the Turkish Tom Jones at times... but there's some satisfying stabs of fuzz as well, and of course those irresistible Anatolian folk rhythms and melodies. While this disc isn't quite so killer as that Koray one, it's still pretty cool.
Cd booklet includes liner notes, photos, all that good stuff.
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"I've lost my calculator" or so we believe a line of the lyrics went to the second track of this two song, 26 minute ep. An intentional wink of humor? It's rather hard to say with this oft self-serious breed of apres-rock bands. It appears Karate have
Sophomore album from these popular, poppy, emotional guys.
The In The Fishtank Series coordinated by the Dutch label Konkurrent has reached its twelveth installment, and we're a bit puzzled by it. With very few exceptions, the Fishtank releases have been on-the-fly collaborations (and some damn fine ones at that!), but here... Karate goes it alone. WHY? Did no one want to play with the Karate kids?
Sounds like the Karate kids have been listening to lots of '70s AOR soft rock and R&B. The first song seems deeply inspired by Santana's song "Spooky" -- indeed, the first few songs do seem to be Karate's 'Meditations on Santana' or something to that effect. It's all smooth and mellow, easy listening guitars, but with sensitive, spoken-sung boyish vocals over top. From there they revert back to their former more familiar long-standing post-rock selves for a couple of songs with plenty of loud/quiet Slint-isms, and then sort of vacillate back and forth noncommitally between their old and new selves for the remainder of the album. It's all well executed, but somewhat confusing to say the least. An added treat: Chris Brokaw (Codeine, Come) pops in mid-album to contribute some guitars licks to one song "Cacaphony".
Nine overwrought, self-serious, and longwinded (only one is shorter than 4 minutes, four exceed 7 minutes), jazzy postrock numbers (including one bonus cd-only track). This is just as bad as if not worse than their disapointing Cancel/Sing EP released earlier this year. Santana and the Grateful Dead these guys are definitely not, although they often sound like that's what they're aspiring to be. Good musicians does not equal good music. Snooze. Sorry, Karate fans...
E-m-o. EMO. Emo. Good though. Our favorite: the song whose only lyric is "COS I SAID SO... COS I SAID SO... COS I SAID SO... WHYYYYYY?"
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Kahimi's ultra-sweet baby doll vocals twit and twitter around a Gainesbourg/Bacharach-sque melodious stew. Much like a super amped up Pizzicato Five. Lots of Momus here (words, music, production, etc), but Add 'N' to (X), Stereo-Total, and Buffalo Daughter also put in their two bits worth. Soaring pop on a grand scale. Warning: may induce sugar shock.
Super saccharinely sweet female vocals from this woman who has been called a female Cornelius. He guests on this record, as does Momus.
Before there was irony-metal (C-Average, Godheadsilo, etc...), well not really before, but definitely pre-short-pants-white-belt-devil-sign-in-the-air-in-mock-love-of-satan-and-heavy-metal, there was Karp. Three fucked-up,
Three Oly boys makin' quite an awesome racket. Heavy-duty teen riff firepower. Lick a battery, salt those wounds... all in the name of Karp.
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Newest, loudest, nastiest?
This cd contains the Rye debut 7", the Karp/Rye split 12" and an entire live radio performance by Karp.
Karpov is a wonderful new Bay Area combo whose specialty is enchanted gypsy minstrel music. Their melodies roam and reel beautifully in earthy, jewel tones. If you swoon to the sounds of Beirut and A Hawk And A Hacksaw, this might be your ears' next delight!
Yes, Kasabian are yet another major label retro-styled buzz band, but what's different with these Brits from the recent flurry is that the sources from which they're copping their sound are much more recent. Rather than drawing from the '70s and '80s, think early '90s Happy Mondays and Pop Will Eat Itself or Primal Scream's awesome rave-rock song "Swastika Eyes" (yeesh, that was from 2000!). However although Kasabian's music in many ways resembles that of those bands, theirs doesn't necessarily further nor better the originals. Plus their referencing of Neu and DJ Shadow does not help matters. Sure, there's plenty of Brit band high-falutin' bombast, but where's the adrenaline rush? Dare we peoclaim that the abovementioned "Swastika Eyes" lays this whole album to waste. Not to mention, their grammar is atrocious! "Trying not to make no sound"?! Uh, that is, unless they truly meant to say that they're trying not to be silent. Who knows? Anyways, if you liked the sound back then and are looking for a new party album of a similar ilk, you *might* wanna check out this glossy, remodelled -- but not necessarily upgraded -- version. Otherwise, you'll prolly be inclined to steer clear.
How can so much amazing rock come from such a small country?! It never ceases to amaze us! I of course am talking about Finland. Home of Circle, Keukhot, Aavikko, Ajattara, Haikara, Finntroll, Mieskuoro Huutajaat, Pan Sonic, Shape Of Despair, etc. This time
We began our review of Katatonia's last full length, Night Is The New Day, with these words: "Nobody does heartbreaking heaviness like Sweden's Katatonia", and really, we couldn't think of any better way to start this review, of their brand new full length, Dead End Kings, which takes up EXACTLY where Night left off, sweeping epic minor key bombast fused to brooding metallic balladry, bordering on the symphonic at times, their metal past only present in the muscular riffing and the occasional bursts of chugging guitar, otherwise these guys continue to craft a super distinctive, and distinctly NOT metal sound that manages to be instantly recognizable, even to folks who may have given up on them long ago, which at this point is probably a good chunk of their original fans. Cuz at one point, these guys were in fact a metal band, their iconic Discouraged Ones record signaling their shift toward something more melodic and to our ears still the perfect hybrid of metal crush and dramatic brood, like the Cure or Red House Painters gone metal. And over the years, they've continued to hone and perfect that sound, and now it just seems so effortless, every song catchy and dark, heavy and haunting, moody and melancholy, soaring and majestic, and just so goddamn good. We know plenty of folks who don't dig this at all, and to a certain degree we can understand why, we hear people make comparisons to Alice In Chains (who we love btw), Three Doors Down, even Creed or Nickelback, and sonically, there are definitely similarities, but Katatonia are so much more, their metal past, even now relegated to a subtle influence here and there, most definitely informs their sound, and they take that brooding stadium rock, and infuse it with some serious pathos, and the heavy parts are still HEAVY, the melodies so mournful and gorgeously miserable, this time around there are even strings, which only make the sound that much more epic and cinematic. As we've mentioned in past reviews, we LOVE these guys, and with every record they just get better and better. Some of us here have been listening to this nonstop since it came in...
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Brilliant melancholy not-even-really-metal-anymore music from this boundary-pushing Swedish outfit. Originally inspired by British melodic doom-death act Paradise Lost, Katatonia on Discouraged Ones is equally influenced by the likes of The Cure, Pink Floyd and the Red House Painters!
After making the recent domestic release of their "Tonight's Decision" opus our "record of the week" on the last AQ-L, we are now very happy to present this BRAND NEW import-only (as yet...) album from these Swedish gods of melancholy. Genius heavy downer pop
Nobody does heartbreaking heaviness like Sweden's Katatonia. Nobody. Every record is just the perfect blend of dour gloom pop, and crushing massive metal crush, and Night Is The New Day is no different. It's tempting to say this is the best Katatonia yet, but we really can't because they're ALL great, all practically perfect. If you have all the other ones you're obviously gonna need this one too, odds are you've been dying for it since you first found out a new one was coming. For the rest of you, if you've somehow gone this long without ever hearing Katatonia, it's definitely time to fix that.
This is Katatonia's 8th full length in a little over 15 years, originally these guys were something way more metal, but even back then, they sounded more Cure than My Dying Bride, the gloom and miserablism already seeping into their music. But once the focus shifted, their sound was perfect, and has remain virtually unchanged ever since. Dark brooding metal ballads, we've described them in the past as a doom metal Cure, or a metallized Depeche Mode, but they've become so much more. The covered a Jeff Buckley on a past record, and suddenly it wasn't that difficult to imagine what might have happened had Buckley played with a metal backup band.
Katatonia manage the impossible, balancing delicate, hushed classic rock balladry, with epic modern doom, the guitars massive, the drums pounding, the vocals lush, lots of harmonies, no screeching, it's more like Alice In Chains in the vocal department, but it suits their chugging doom ballads. This is one of those bands who are really difficult to describe, their sound definitely borrows from all over the place, but manages to be totally original, it seems like it would be too wussy for most metalheads, yet, rare is the metalhead who doesn't LOVE Katatonia, and we MEAN LOOOOOVE. Must be tied in to that weird phenomenon of most metalheads digging the Cure and Depeche Mode, and in that case, Katatonia makes way more sense, cuz while they do sound a lot like those two bands, they are also HEAVY, when they want to be. Not sure what else to say, check the sound samples, if "Forsaker" doesn't convince you, then another couple hundred words probably won't either. Deep, dark, melodic, doomy, heavy and heartfelt, and just so goddamn good.
Some of us around here have been waiting for this record for months, maybe even years actually, and we were NOT disappointed, a record of the year contender for sure.
We've said it before but it bears repeating, whenever we hear metal bands cover their teenage influences, especially Depeche Mode or the Cure (why do all metal bands LOVE those two bands?), we always secretly wish there would be a band who just actually sounded like that. Not a metal band being ironic or retro, but a heavy heavy band who made incredibly dark and depressing emotional music. Ultra personal and epically miserable. Thus we are massive fans of Katatonia.
Imagine a doom metal Cure, or a metallized Depeche Mode. Katatonia may have started life as a serious doom/death metal band, channeling Paradise Lost, with thick downtuned grinding buzzing guitars, and harsh black metal vocals, but with the release of their classic Discouraged Ones record, they switched to clean vocals and the sound of the band followed suit. A massive, gloomy and dreamy doompop. Exactly what we had been wishing for. Catchy as heck, heavy as hell, but totally morose and melancholy. Since then the band has continued to polish and hone their epic commercial doom, with each record finding them moving closer and closer to MTV rock, but without losing their edge, managing to stay creepy and heavy. But shit, their songs are so good and so catchy, and intense and emotional, it was only a matter of time before these guys blew up. It hasn't happened yet, but listening to The Great Cold Distance, it can't be long now. Lots of moody expanses of bass and drum groove, sprinkled with minor key guitar jangle, bookended by massive chugging metallic choruses, hooks everywhere, gorgeous crooned vocals, dark depressing lyrics, really moody and evocative and so so heavy. There is no reason these guys shouldn't be up there with Tool and the Deftones. They definitely travel the same sonic path, although Katatonia definitely display more of a true doom heritage. But c'mon, all that moody heavy rock that the oh-so-depressed generation Z lap up like Prozac, how have they not discovered Katatonia? If we were 15 again, and hated school and just broke up with our girlfriend, and were always fighting with our parents, we can guarantee you we'd be dressed all in black, wandering around our neighborhood late at night, after everyone was asleep, with The Great Cold Distance blasting in our headphones. And pretty much every track on here would sure as hell make it on all the mix tapes we ever made. But since we're not, we'll just have to make do, luxuriating in these lush depressive epics, wallowing in each glorious wash of miserable metallic doom pop!
Very recommended!!
Swedish doom metal / doom pop band Katatonia are established by now as big AQ faves. Their signature sound -- morose metallic heaviness that's utterly melodic and catchy, like some unholy marriage of The Cure and Opeth, or Tool and My Dying Bride -- is in full force on this, the follow-up to their last three brilliant albums ("Last Fair Deal Gone Down", its Aquarius Record Of The Week predecessor "Tonight's Decision", and stateside breakthrough "Discouraged Ones"). Fans of those albums won't be disappointed with "Viva Emptiness", indeed, this may be a case of sticking a little too close to the formula, but heck that's how they're perfecting it. We're not complaining. And we can say that perhaps this rocks a bit more, and faster, overall than some of those others, though the harder metallic assault still leaves plenty of room for quieter piano dirge ballads... Definitely sheer ear candy for those of us who like suicidal heaviness that's also totally radio-ready. Not that we can imagine actually hearing this on the radio, but you know what we mean. If you haven't gotten addicted to Katatonia yet, go ahead and check this one out. And if you have, then you're gonna have to get it!
MPEG Download: "Ghost Of The Sun" [/audio/katatoniaghostof.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Ghost Of The Sun" [/audio/katatoniaghostof.m3u]
There is something so nice & refreshing about this slab of D.I.Y. vinyl. Makes us wanna listen to each side and then jump on our bikes and take a long ride to the park and play with our friends till the sun goes down. Sterling Says are a SF band who bring pop hooks and catchy melodies to their fuzzy and rocking pop-punk (not the Warped tour kind...the other better kind!) that falls somewhere between Big Drill Car and Cheap Trick.
Katie The Pest come from Long Beach, CA and their song instantly transported us to that great bygone era of twee that's not afraid to pack some punch into its delicious indie-pop. Their track "Spit it Out" had us thinking of Tiger Trap and early Aislers Set and that's most definitely a good thing.
After being out of print and unavailable for far too long (a coupla years anyway), the kind folks at VHF have repressed this, at last. Here's what we had to say about this great record back when it came out in 2001, originally:
"The entirely too prolific Kawabata Makoto (who fronts Acid Mothers Temple) joins AQ fave Richard Youngs for a surprisingly tranquil, and beautifuly melancholic record of swirling haze and delicate melodies, employing acoustic guitar, autoharp, organ, and voice. Rather than have titles, on the back cover this disc's songs are differentiated by colored bars of varying length.
Medium length blue bar: distorted autoharp over a fuzzy drone of muted melodies, with beautiful plaintive vocals soaring over the rich sonic miasma.
Longer orange bar: gentle finger picked guitar over far away wind chimes and dreamy soundscapes.
Green bar shorter than the blue one: manipulated vocals time stretched and twisted into alien melodies over a warm buzzing hum and acoustic guitar.
Short red bar and really short purple bar: two tracks of gorgeous melodies on acoustic guitar with simple droning organ chords and fluttering high end organ noodling.
Really beautiful and totally mesmerising. Some of the best work by both Makoto and Youngs, who have curbed their penchant for all out noise and given us a glimpse into their sensitive sides."
Of course, since we wrote the above review (which first appeared on list 124), the ever-prolific Kawabata has explored some other equally "sensitive" realms, but this is still one of the best from amongst his mellower stuff. And Youngs (who often allows that glimpse) has also increased his profile to some degree, bringing us such AQ-faves as May, Airs Of The Ear (especially), and River Through Howling Sky. So we imagine there's got to be a bunch of you out there who have only discovered either Youngs or Kawabata relatively recently, or otherwise somehow missed this before and thereby (not to use to strong a word, but...) NEED it now.
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Recorded in 1970, these sessions represent a sort of "prequel" to what would eventually become AQ fave Japanese psych act Flower Travellin' Band. Having cut one record as Yuya Uchida and the Flowers, this line up brought in Joe, the inimitable vocalist whose trademark sound did much to make the band stand out from the pack and organist/pianist Kuni Kawachi from another sixties band The Happenings Four. While Kawachi never made the cut, for whatever reason, for the final group that would later record FTB debut Anywhere, his Hammond organ grumblings add a nice touch to the tracks here. In addition to Kawachi's organ, singer Joe plays his harmonica more than he did on later recordings, giving these recordings a bluesier sound. While we're not going to fool you into thinking this is anything near as great as Satori or even Made In Japan, it's got some great heavy psychedelic jams that are certainly as great as anything they did for their first album. And for those who were turned off by Anywhere due to its consisting entirely of covers, it will be comforting to know that the tracks here are all originals. If anything, they are a lot closer to what ended up on Satori, albeit a great deal more primordial and lacking the taughtness of their later works.
Newly reissued, now as a 2-on-1 with another, later album, we've previously listed a cd of Kirikyogen, organist/pianist Kuni Kawachi's 1970 recording with hard rockin' Japanese psych geniuses Flower Travellin' Band (which barely preceded those AQ faves debut on their own, Anywhere, also 1970). Kawachi came from sixties Group Sounds band The Happenings Four, and made a great decision in teaming up with the nascent FTB (who had started off as Yuya Uchida and the Flowers, another GS act) for Kirikyogen, especially since Flowers/FTB had recently recruited Joe Yamanaka, the inimitable vocalist whose trademark wail did much to make Flower Travellin' Band band stand out from the pack later on. With Joe on the mic, and guitarist Hideki Ishima coming into his own, Kirikyogen is very much Flower Travellin' Band, the prequel! Meanwhile, Kawachi's Hammond organ grumblings add a nice touch to the tracks here, which he also wrote, for the most part. In addition to Kawachi's organ, singer Joe plays his harmonica more than he did on later recordings, giving these recordings a bluesier sound. While we're not going to tell you this is anything near as great as FTB's Satori or even Made In Japan, it's got some great heavy psychedelic jams (like the title track, and "Works Composed Mainly By Human") that are certainly as good as anything they did for their first album. If anything, they are a lot closer to what ended up on Satori, albeit a great deal more primordial and lacking the taughtness of their later works. It should also be noted that Kirikyogen is about 1/2 heavy Hendrix-y grooves, 1/2 more acoustic-y (but lovely), not as heavy melodic material.
Also to be noted, as alluded to above, this cd reissue also includes Kawachi's 1972 follow-up Love Suki Daikirai, which is appears as the first 14 tracks here for some reason rather than being presented in chronological fashion. Love Suki Daikirai doesn't feature any FTB folks (and is thus automatically less rockin'), but does have Kimio Mizutani on guitars, whose solo album A Path Through Haze was also recently reissued by Bamboo and reviewed by us (and which happened to feature, yes, Kuni Kawachi on keyboards!). Much more gentle and meandering than its predecessor, this later album certainly has its beautiful and/or freaky moments, but Kirikyogen, #25 in Julian Copes "Japrocksampler" Top 50, is still the primary reason to pick this up.
Back in 2001 we reviewed two simultaneously-released albums by a really strange death metal / prog rock / new age collison of a band called Maudlin Of The Well. Perhaps you remember them, they were pretty great and weird, and hard to figure out. Now, two years later, Maudlin Of The Well are back in the guise of Kayo Dot. Not sure why they changed their name, it must have had something to do with signing to John Zorn's Tzadik label. Yes, they're on Tzadik -- their avant-garde dreams come true! John Zorn is their buddy now! But it's clearly the same band. And if anything, better and more bizarre than before. Imagine an epic combination of Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Radiohead's OK Computer, Neurosis or Tarantula Hawk, and Faith No More circa Angel Dust (Kayo Dot's singer definitely has some sort of crush on Mike Patton)!! The heavy parts are HEAVY, the pop stuff nicely poppy, the dreamy stuff way dreamy and delicate. Music to float along with, or dive down deep into. The dense heavy sections approach Boris or Pelican levels, with screams buried beneath the din...then it'll break down into a piano interlude or Frippish guitar solo. The most avant black metal acts also would appear to be part of Kayo Dot's listening diet. An unusual Tzadik release to be sure -- even with the chamber strings and jazz horns and prog moves and psychedelically noisy parts, this has a core of both pop and metal that ironically makes this one of the *most* experimental releases on the label! Recommended.
Hot on the heels of the excellent "solo" album from Kayo Dot frontman Toby Driver we reviewed last list, comes this new opus from Kayo Dot proper. They've moved from Tzadik to metalcore label Robotic Empire, but Dowsing Anemone With Copper Tongue is no less avant-garde than previous KD output, that's for sure (you ought to be able to tell that just by the title, eh?). A confusing, crushing blend of Godspeed, Neurosis, John Zorn, Amber Asylum, Oxbow... Kayo Dot's apparent points of reference make for a mysterious listen. It's chamber-prog rock, it's metal, it's melodic and mysterious, with cryptic lyrics softly intoned amidst the creepy, ambient beauty, marred (not really) by violent outbursts of claustophobic heaviness, when and if the track builds to such a climax... Or marred by jazzy saxophone solos, there's that too. You can tell why John Zorn likes 'em! Actually, sax only surfaces significantly on "Aura On An Asylum Wall" which also has some of the album's most brutal blasting passages to make up for all that jazziness. There's also rumbling percussion and droning strings and sensitive singing and long stretches of ominous, dark, weighty quietude -- track lengths reach up to 18 minutes and are often more soundscapey than anything "song-structured". It's about as experimental as you can get and still appear on a nominally "metal" label.
We've long been fans art metallers Kayo Dot (who were born from another band we loved, metallic chamber prog weirdos Maudlin Of The Well) and they just keep getting better and better, weirder and weirder. And who better to get matched up with for a split lp, that outsider art sludge combo Bloody Panda? Who, much like Bathtub Shitter, we liked before we even heard em cuz how can you not with a name like that?! And thankfully their sound more than lived up to the high expectations we had because of the name.
Anyway, these two groups are pretty well matched, different enough to keep things interesting, but similar enough to ensure that most folks who dig one, will most likely dig the other.
Kayo Dot start things off with the side-log "Don't Touch Dead Animals", which begins with some creepy female spoken word before lurching into some woozy dark jazz, blissy and warbly underpinned by thick (yet subtle) metal guitars. The sound is slithery and late night, like a metal tinged Bohren or DJ Shadow. Eventually, this dark lounge groove builds into some serious metallic crunch, with wailing horns and anguished female vocals, and truly killer drumming. A glorious trainwreck, blown out free jazz groove all tangled up in some dirgey heaviness. Pretty great.
Bloody Panda counter with what starts out as just a simple caveman plod, with distant moaning metallic guitars, a weird sort of doomy ambience, but it pretty quickly amps up into a massive churning slab of doomy sludge. Guitars are huge and downtuned, poured over everything like viscous goop, the vocals are bizarre, some chanted and crooned, others garbled and alien sounding. There are brief bits of post rocky bliss, and some weird ambient spaciness, but for the most part, this is the sound of a huge Bloody Panda, trudging through tarpits and molten rock, leaving a swath or ruin behind it, crushing everything in its path.
Pressed on super swank grey and brown splattered vinyl, and housed in an eye popping full color gatefold sleeve.
Another awesome unearthed post punk gem, this one from a young Belgian combo of crusty anarcho DIY youths, heavily influenced by Crass, but sounding way more like the Slits or the Raincoats. Early eighties art punk / post punk / new wave, this gorgeous reissue collects their entire recorded output, including some seriously rare stuff, including their original demo tape, which was released in 1981 in a run of 30 copies.
The record begins with some crunchy jagged guitars, a simple drum plod, spoken female vocals and a woozy tangled bassline, before exploding into an awesomely lowslung post punk groove, all Joy Divisiony bass, clanging echo drenched guitars, swirls of effects, the vocals leaping from melodic croon, to feral yelp to strident sloganeering to sing songy and anthemic, the lyrics simple and heartfelt, punk and political, the songs laced with lullaby like keyboard melodies, the drums frenetic and propulsive, the sound gloomy, but simultaneously wild and celebratory, bits of strange electronic percussion here and there, mysterious synth blurts, raw and a little bit primitive and totally DIY, anyone who's been digging the recent spate of cold/new wave reissues, will for sure dig this too.
Killer packaging, a massive fold out poster sleeve, with photos and a vintage interview on one side, a huge blurry band photo on the other, with a little hand stamped envelope affixed to the inside containing a folded up lyric sheet.
This is Kebnekaise (formerly Kebnekajse)'s third album from 1975, kinda like "II" with the trad Swedish folk elements, and the unexpected afrojazz parts, but MORE SO. We can't help but think that the folk/classical sounding pieces on here aren't too
Swedish psychedelic hippy rock band's second album, from 1973, newly reissued on cd. While their first album was fun, zany hard rock taking off from the style of English and American acts of the day, with this release they matured, and got heavily into
Here's the first-time-ever cd reissue of this Swedish hard rock/psych band's 1971 debut album, a fun disc inspired perhaps by the likes of Cream and Hendrix and '60s beat groups. This was before Kebnekajse really got into the folk music of their homeland (or
We've always loved Keelhaul. How could we not? We love noise rock, and math rock, and KH are pretty much straddling the line between the two, spitting out dense, mathy bursts of grinding crunchy proggy metallic heaviness.
The cool thing about KH is that while they are super technical, and their songs are complex and convoluted and confusional, it never sounds wanky, these are just killer songs that happen to have a million parts crammed into each one, and the band aren't into singing, so they only do it once in a while, and they mostly just want to rock, it just so happens that their rocking involves strange time signatures and super tight instrumental workouts. In a lot of way, these guys sound a bit like a way more metal Polvo, which needless to say is awesome. The same sort of post rock vibe, sounds to these ears they the melodies sometimes get all Eastern and not typically rock sounding too.
Past records reminded us of groups like Neurosis or Coalesce, even Mastodon or Coalesce, but now with this, their first record in 6 years, we're hearing way more of a noise rock vibe, AmRep, Helmet, Tar, that sort of thing, but unlike those bands, this is way more complicated and heady, maybe like if the Champs teamed up with Lightning Bolt, went back in time and released a record on AmRep in 1992, but even that doesn't do this justice, there's a weird power metal vibe too, soaring melodies and catchy not-quite-choruses balancing the twisting serpentine compositions and the lurching pound and downtuned chug. However you slice it, these guys STILL RULE.
The ever-reliable Hydrahead label does it again -- though we already knew Keelhaul were good. Their other two albums of especially complex, heavy metalcore got high marks 'round these parts, and we know they absolutely kick ass live. Now they confront us with Subject To Change Without Notice. That's the title, but the only thing that's changed is that they're maybe even better. Or maybe they're referring to their modus operandi of tricky riffing and quiet/loud dynamics. Largely instrumental, super heavy, very very tight -- this is metal done right. For fans of Converge, Coalesce, Neurosis, Helmet, Mastodon...and The Gooch (one of their typically silly song titles).
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
First release from these Brooklyn psychedelic looped pop alchemists, featuring former aQ-er Frank, who is featured in all his badassness, along with the rest of the Keepaway crew, on the back cover, a goofy shot featuring much posturing, some gold medallions, and what appears to be some silver shiny panties on one of the pantsless band members, but don't be distracted by the visual silliness, cuz there's some seriously heady, sonic trippiness inside.
You might do an audio doubletake on first listen, within the first few seconds of "Yellow Wings" you'll immediately notice these guys bear an uncanny resemblance to fellow Brooklyn avant poppers Animal Collective, which is undeniable so we might as well just throw that out right here, these guys sound a lot like Animal Collective, but we love Animal Collective so we're already digging 'the sound', before we even begin to get into what it is that makes Keepaway their own (sort of) unique beast. The aforementioned "Yellow Wings" is probably the most Animal Collective-y track here, with its chiming guitars, chopped and looped samples, programmed percussion mixed with live drumming, the woozy vocals, which also remind us of Modest Mouse, but Keepaway add their own little twist with some gloomy almost new wavey eighties style riffs, just below the surface, it's a great pop jam for sure, and AC fans will eat this up, as will fans of other groups in the new wave of new wave, like The Drums, Surfer Blood and the like.
The rest of the record gets a little more spaced out, and only a little less Animal Collective-y, "Family Of The Son" begins all minimal and skittery, but once the warm guitars and wavery vocals come in, joined by some martial snares, and a hazy swath of warm shimmer, we're back in that sort of washed out hypno tribal psych groove otherworld Animal Collective, if not invented, at least REinvented. "I think About You All The Time" wraps woozy synths around skeletal rhythms, and some super sweet melodic vocals and handclaps, a retro electro love song that gets more trippy and druggy as it goes.
The last two tracks are just as fuzzy and sunshine-y and psychedelic and shimmery, stirring in some lush Beach Boys style harmonies, some spidery post rock guitars, a little old school indie jangle, some electronic glitch, thick fuzzy synths and of course loads of reverb and delay and other effects. Cool cool cool.
We're beginning come to terms with the fact that Ms. Keffer is pretty much our new noise rock crush (although hard to remember who our old one was... Matthew Bower?), not only is she foxy, she kicks up a seriously corrosive din that puts most of the other noisemakers, men AND women, to shame. This three track 12" is some seriously old school corrosive and caustic noise, fitting perfectly alongside groups like Robedoor (who she shared a split with recently), the Yellow Swans, and similarly minded noisemakers, but only at their fiercest and most brutal, cuz this 12" is fierce AND brutal. Seriously lo-fi, dense clouds of processed guitars, damaged FX, misfiring synths, who knows what all is in there, a pulverizing wall of damaged FX drenched sound that eventually attains a sort of Total / Sunroof! droned out bliss, albeit much harsher. ANd as with only the deftest of noisemakers, Keffer manages to make this blast of brutality downright listenable, but probably only to those with ears of steel (or collections packed with Masonna, Merzbow, Hijokaidan and the like...)!
