With a name like that - golly, pretty much says it all, eh? - these three guys get right to business. Mark Kleiner, Pete Mills and Kurt Dahle (whom you might recognize from his able beat-keepin' and singin' in that lil' pop group the New Pornographers) are the trio in question. And we promptly get to see what these fellows look like as they're pictures prominently on the front cover. Absolutely no poncey artwork, no frills. And their music? Straight-shooting hook-laden power pop jam-packed with effervescent vocal harmonies, punchy guitar, sunny piano and oh yes, handclaps too! Whew, was that quite enough adjectives for you in one sentence??? If you need some reference points, they brought to mind the mid/late-'70s Squeeze, Elvis Costello or Todd Rundgren or the more recent likes of fellow Canadians Sloan and Flashing Lights, as well as The Stereo, and Silver Sun. Mr. Kleiner has doffed his formerly more glam trappings (except his zebra print pants) and sings all bright and boyish, delivering a falsetto with the ease of Sloan's Chris Murphy. Lyrics are amply sprinkled with power pop staple lalala's and oooh's. Definitely not ones to get mired in heavy meanings or complexities, the 'Power Trio's agenda is all about lettin' the good times roll. So it's no surprise that the only times they falter is when they slow things down to balladness, but that only happens a couple of times really. Includes a cover of Phil Seymour's "Baby It's You". A buoyant summertime delight.
Kleistwahr is the lesser known project of Gary Mundy, probably better known for his long running industrial/noise/psych project Ramleh, and probably even better known for his occasional membership in Skullflower. Kleistwahr began life with a couple early tape release, and has been active sporadically over the last few decades, this however, is in fact new music from Mundy, and is a sonic stunner, much like past missives, a massive sprawl of psychedelic power electronics and dense distorted industrial-drone atmospheres, blown out and harrowingly heavy, the first few seconds are misleading in a way, a warm hazy melodic swirl that had us thinking Mundy might be going soft, but fear not, soon that hushed shimmer is swallowed whole by a blizzard of gristled guitar, distorted samples, disembodied voices, grinding textures, a dizzying assemblage of noise drenched sound that like much of this stuff, to the casual listener, might just sound like noise. And let's not kid ourselves, noise it is, but Mundy is surprisingly deft at sculpting these sheets of furious guitarnoise into something strangely lovely. A roiling blackbuzz howl on the surface, but beneath, all manner of murky melodies, and fractured chordal drift, even the bellowed, echo drenched vocals contribute to transforming white/grey/pink/black noise into something more.
And it's not all speaker melting crush, this 39 minute songsuite, seven tracks fused into a single epic, moves through all sorts of sonic permutations, even returning to that opening shimmer, at about 11 minutes in, sounding like the Caretaker by way of Skullflower, a warm, undulating chordal thrum barraged by a cacophony of clatter and crunch. From there, the sound blossoms into prismatic flurries of crumbling distortion, before coalescing into a sort of burnished kosmische ur-drone, pulsing and pulsating, drifting atop a bed of gnarled buzzing blur, and pocked with strange rhythmic throbs, but again, it's all somehow prismatic and glistening and glimmering, even the final movement which finds everything slipping into keening sheets of high end and crooned distort-vox buried beneath, the sound is shimmery and mesmerizing, very reminiscent of the prettiest moments from Our Love Will Destroy The World, a bleary, smeared soft-noise that manages to be dense and completely crushing, while somehow washed out, ethereal and totally transcendent.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!! In cool Broken Flag style packaging.
Can't judge this by its cover, nosiree. All you get is fairly bland head shot of this Krystof Klenczon guy, with a pensive look to him, wearing a yellow shirt, his hair tousled, with sideburns. Nothing in the background, no guitar in hand. No clues about what this would sound like. Mellow, pop solo singer songwriter stuff maybe? NOPE.
Maybe that's why the folks that reissued this 1971 (there it is again!) album on cd felt the need to include a hyperbolic blurb -- sez here, right on the back cover: "Possibly the best Polish 70's rock album!! Psychedelic rock plenty of dirty fuzz guitar!!"
Well, we're not up enough on our Polish rock to be 100 percent sure about their first claim (nor can we say otherwise), but we do agree that this is chock full of dirty fuzz guitar, that's for sure. Pretty darn kick ass. The songs are all catchy and energetic, real rave ups with enough searing fuzz to impress freakin' Sir Lord Baltimore. You can hear influences from the Beatles, and maybe folk music (but no polkas!) and though it's not Middle Eastern psych rock, but rather Eastern Bloc psych rock, this should appeal to a lot of you into that brand of wild, groovy, exotic psych. And you gotta love the fuzz. So good. If you agree that "prog is not a four letter word" you'd probably like this. In fact, Klenczon was a member of the '60s beat band Czerwone Gitary, who appeared on the comp of that title that we reviewed a couple lists back. We described their track as fierce and fuzzy, so it's no surprise Klenczon solo amps it up even more at the dawn of the '70s.
Featuring Andy Moor (from The Ex), Kletka Red's international folk-punk sound incorporates the angularity of The Ex with Eastern European folk and the traditional Greek rembetika musical styles. Previous recordings had been on Zorn's Tzadik label.
Before there was Joanna Newsom, there was Carol Kleyn, a young hippie spirit with an ethereal songbird voice who wrote rapturous paeans to love and nature on her harp. So it makes sense then that Newsom's label, Drag City, would reissue this lovely private press recording from 1976. Studying at the University of Santa Barbara, Kleyn befriended Bobby Brown (the instrument builder who recorded the amazing old aQ fave The Enlightening Beam of Axonda) and she assisted him with his constructions and live performances. He gifted her the harp, and she began to learn to play and write her own songs, eventually opening for Gregg Allman. Instead of waiting to get a record deal, she decided to make a record on her own and released it on her own label. She recorded two other lps soon after, before devoting herself full time to her family.
Love has Made Me Stronger divides its compositions between harp and electric piano. Her tone is bright and the songs exude a sunny yet eccentric warm energy. Similar to the beautiful Collie Ryan and Connie Converse reissues we listed a while back, Carol Kleyn's debut is a much-needed positive ray of sunshine in these dark days.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
"Pre-sampler plunderphonics" from this German duo, first released on LP in '85 by Ata-Tak and now reissued on cd as a Japanese import. Kurt "Pyrolator" Dahlke played in the amazing Der Plan band of new-wave electro weirdness. This is fun stuff in a similar vein, and you won't believe the '80s Buck Rogers recording studio equipment depicted on the inside. With bonus tracks.
They used to be available separately (and maybe still are, as fancy expensive Japanese imports). But if you want one, you probably want 'em all: the first three (and only, until recently, with the advent of the Vulcano and Admira cds reviewed on list #294) lps of pioneering proto-Industrial krautrock from the trio of Moebius, Roedelius, and Conrad Schnitzler. The first two of whom went on to form Cluster with a C, whose career is one of the most significant in all of krautrock -and- electronic music (and whom we were proud to recently host a performance by at our store!). Meanwhile Schnitzler also made quite a name for himself as a solo electronic experimentalist too.
Together with producer Conny Plank, the trio recorded two proper studio albums, 1970's Klopfzeichen and 1971's Zwei-Osterei. Both of 'em dark and dismal soundscapes, improvised and abstract, with some sort of strange religious sermon (in German) over top of the first side of each.... apparently they cut a deal with some church or cult to pay for these records' release, and in return had to include the creepy God-talk! Which, since we don't understand much German, doesn't bother us too much. Eruption, a live recording from '71, has a similar vibe, but without the spoken word (and it's plenty spooky anyway). All of these were originally issued in incredibly small quantities (200-300 lps) and we doubt at the time that Kluster ever imagined this music would be in print, and revered, nearly 40 years later!
Packaged in a fat 3-disc jewel box, with cd booklet giving much more info than we've supplied here.
Attention krautrock fans! Important Records has just unearthed two rare Kluster recordings, Vulcano and Admira. Of course we're Cluster krazy here at the moment (they just played in the store!!), but the first thing that must be mentioned is that not only is this Kluster-with-a-K material, it's Kluster AFTER Moebius and Roedelius left the band (to form Cluster-with-a-C). We actually didn't know that Kluster had continued without Cluster, as it were! But apparently they did, with original third Kluster colleague Conrad Schniztler in charge, working alongside sometime Kluster accomplices Klaus Freudigmann, Wolfgang Seidel, and "friends". It's Freudigmann (who, like Schnitzler, apparently also had something to do with Tangerine Dream at some point) who found these old tapes, each one now at last released on cd in deluxe packaging (embossed gatefold sleeve similar to that of the original Kluster album Klopfzeichen), limited to 1000 copies. Although we're still surprised that these guys performed/recorded as Kluster (and it's confusing, since we know the same lineup also made music under the name Eruption), regardless of who's on it, what's important is how it sounds, so...
Admira consists of twelve untitled tracks recorded in 1971, presumably in a studio, and left unreleased until now. Hmm, though we do like the fancy embossed packaging, we'd gladly trade that for some liner notes giving just a bit more information! But like we just said, what's important the music, and that's pretty cool. Definitely very Schnitzler-y, if you've heard very many of his recordings over the years, with lots of spacious synth-zap and droning abstraction. This is electronics infested krautrock on the outer fringes of freedom, ranging from meditative peacefulness to harsh noise (sometimes even over the course of one track). Admira's an experimental and eclectic set all right... ferinstance, track four is a proggy swirl of off-kilter keyboard coloration and chaotic percussion, track seven is a surreal soundscape of string sawing and outsider vocal warble. All in all, along with Vulcano, this is an excellent, if mysterious addition to the tiny Kluster (and much larger Schnitzler) discography, and a freaky footnote to the krautrock canon as a whole. Gives one hope that even now, somewhere in Germany, maybe there's more 37-year old tapes like these, under some bed or at the bottom of some closet, waiting to be dug up, worthy of release!
For those interested in the Kluster-with-a-K discs proper, those with Moebius and Roedelius, note we also have a new 3cd reissue on Water, comprising the albums Klopfzeichen, Zwei-Osterei, and Eruption, we'll try to give it a write-up next time.
- MPEG stream: 1
- MPEG stream: 4
- MPEG stream: 6
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Long-awaited reissue of the third and last "Kluster with a K" album from 1971, when the "Cluster with C" duo of Moebius and Roedelius was a trio with Conrad Schnitzler, making pioneering, prehistoric ambient/industrial/ electronica. And, unlike the first two Kluster records, there's no German spoken religious narrative included (and it's plenty spooky without it).
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Pre-Cluster pioneering proto-industrial Krautrock electronics reissued.
Attention krautrock fans! Important Records has just unearthed two rare Kluster recordings, Vulcano and Admira. Of course we're Cluster krazy here at the moment (they just played in the store!!), but the first thing that must be mentioned is that not only is this Kluster-with-a-K material, it's Kluster AFTER Moebius and Roedelius left the band (to form Cluster-with-a-C). We actually didn't know that Kluster had continued without Cluster, as it were! But apparently they did, with original third Kluster colleague Conrad Schniztler in charge, working alongside sometime Kluster accomplices Klaus Freudigmann, Wolfgang Seidel, and "friends". It's Freudigmann (who, like Schnitzler, apparently also had something to do with Tangerine Dream at some point) who found these old tapes, each one now at last released on cd in deluxe packaging (embossed gatefold sleeve similar to that of the original Kluster album Klopfzeichen), limited to 1000 copies. Although we're still surprised that these guys performed/recorded as Kluster (and it's confusing, since we know the same lineup also made music under the name Eruption), regardless of who's on it, what's important is how it sounds, so...
Vulcano is a live show from Wuppertal in 1971. It's certainly a spooky hour of semi-ambient, proto-industrial music, presumably improvised, with electronics drifting and droning and quietly surging throughout these 23 mysterious, untitled tracks. There's some rattling percussion at times, what could be flute or maybe is just feedback, and distorted, echoing voices occasionally, too. Yeah, it's spooky. And historically interesting - there was a lot of freaky music being made back in 1971, but was there anything else quite like this? But most importantly, even if this was a cd-r by some obscure "floorcore" band that just came out, we'd still be enjoying it...
- MPEG stream: 9
- MPEG stream: 14
- MPEG stream: 19
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Pre-Cluster pioneering proto-industrial Krautrock electronics reissued.
Knell comes from the same mold that has shaped the work of Jasper TX and Machinefabriek. While it remains to be seen if Knell will take the course of cd-r infinitude as both of the aforementioned artists have, it's clear from this debut recording that Knell (aka Johannes Buff) has the chops to pull off that expressive blur between art-drone soundsmear and elliptical patterns of darkened songwriting broken and stretched into lengthy constructs. Piano and harmonizing echoes set a shadowy stage at the onset of Last Ten Meters which Buff flushes out with unsettling squishes of sound as if aquatic creatures were unduly having their contents squeezed out of their pores. Eventually, a singular detuned guitar strum begins a melancholy dirge which steadily doubles and interweaves into a minor-key crescendo that all together falls somewhere between Larsen's post-rock hypnosis and the molten, subharmonic doom of Corrupted. After one of these smoldering peaks of downer rock riffs burns out in distant washes of distortion, the pools of metallic drone begin to coalesce once again and a fragmented song emerges once again. Yeah, Knell really does conjure the grim yet beautiful atmospheres as found in the best work of Jasper TX and Machinefabriek; hopefully, Buff will continue on with the Knell recordings in same exemplary fashion as his aesthetic contemporaries.
First record we've reviewed from these Portland crushers (who count a member of aQ faves L'Acephale among their ranks), whose sound has changed dramatically over the last 4 years and 3 full lengths, having started life as something much more noisy and chaotic, initially some sort of twisted power electronic / grindcore combo, their sound blackened considerably, their music growing more and more dense and darkly metallic, arriving here, at Tresspass, where they have essentially made the transition to full on black metal band, but what makes these guys so good, and this record so compelling, is that it's informed by that transformation, for all the black buzz, and gnarled riffing, there are gouts of grinding fury, or weird stretches of processed vocals sounding like a symphony of gurgles. In some ways they're like a more punk rock Deathspell Omega, they have a similarly dense sound, and a similar knack for creating lush blackened crush from multiple layers of droned out guitars, tangled riffage, and impossibly chaotic drumming.
Even at their blackest, their punk roots show through, whether it's a barrage of squealing pick slides, or some serious punked out D-beat pound, the guttural vocals more death metal, but again, it just adds another cool element to their already wildly hybridized sound. Relentless and furious, the production MASSIVE, the sound epic and crushingly brutal, downtuned and HEAVY, the tracks occasionally splintering into droned out doom, or blurry stretches of rumble and thrum, or crumbling industrial blurscapes, but just as often exploding into wild gouts of metalpunk chaos, before slipping right back into another blast of grinding blackbuzz churn.
Super swank gatefold sleeves, with printed cardstock insert.
This Swedish duo had all the cool kiddies' panties in a delirious knot at their recent totally sold-out show here in SF. Hot stuff! So needless to say, it's a more than perfect time for this reissue!
Last time we carried this cd, we had this brief summation: If you dig Miss Kittin or Adult., well here's The Knife! Electro-punky tunes with punchy female vocals seemingly very inspired by Debbie Harry / Blondie.
That having been said, we'll elaborate a bit: If you happened to start your love affair with The Knife with their Silent Shout album, it'll surely continue to burn hotter than the sun with Deep Cuts. This brother and sister team combine the detached chill of electro and techno with the engaging catchiness of pop with a childlike musicbox wonder. Ultra tweaked and strange. Includes a dvd!
The hip kids have been all a-buzz about this album for weeks already, and it's no wonder. Silent Shout is the bestest electro-party record around right now. Super super fun from Sweden that treads the shadowy perimeter of goth industrial (think: WaxTrax Records circa early '90s My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult). The brother and sister duo Olof and Karin Dreijer have really come into their own on this one. We've heard some comparisons to Ladytron, and we can certainly hear some similarities in the softer synth pop tracks, but The Knife are looser, edgier, more gregarious, more... strange! So if you dig Ladytron, but you maybe want something that struts with more attitude and ambition, give The Knife a go! Silent Shout is packed with a variety of juicy jaunty beats, sputtery'n'swooopy synth lines and the vocals... ah, the vocals! In particular, Sister Karin's are a bit like Bjork in their cooing expressiveness but a lot more tweaked, petulant and sauced up. Brother Olof provides a complementary smooth deep croon and downright weird guy delivery. Right around the time your feet get tired from all the dancin' (or other involuntary body movements), The Knife deftly insert a little down time in the form of the sweet lilt of "Na Na Na" and the beautiful euro-cabaret stylings of "Marble House". Then they pick it up again for the delightfully bizarre stomp of "One Hit". Recommended!
Earnest raw and rocking sounds from two Brooklyn kids. But fear not, this isn't just posturing hipster flavor of the day lo-fi garage bandwagoning. While there is a very lo-fi feel to these garage pop burners, we hear more of that classic fuzzy indie pop sound we'll always be in love with a la early Guided By Voices, Rocketship, Unrest, Sentridoh, Grifters, etc. Songs that sound so stripped down and primitive yet are filled with such a great sense of melody and jammed with total hooks that would hit you hard over the head had they been mega produced but instead seep into your veins just right as they are buried in the overall fuzzed out mix. We're also reminded of some of our favorite early K Records bands as there is a sincerity oozing from these bedroom recordings that has us totally smitten. A very impressive debut!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
A vinyl-only release from this new San Francisco "avant-indie-rock" band (with handmade, each-one-different covers). The Knit Separates, featuring members of Mirza/Thuja (including L. Chasse of id battery as well), create Romantically charged indie-pop melodies with hazy Phil Spectoral reverb soaking through the four-tracked material. But before you think this may lead to the mod revivalism of Belle & Sebastian or The Aislers Set, be aware that The Knit Separates perform their songs with an ambiguous indeterminancy, as if Chasse's percussion and Glenn Donaldson's post-Galaxie-500 guitar strum were enchanted by the poetic meanderings of vocalist Jason Honea. In keeping with our tradition of puzzling L. Chasse with our obscure references in comparision to his work, Jim suggests that this reminds him a lot of long-gone Michigan indie popsters Veronica Lake.
A split LP between San Francisco's Knit Separates and Orange Cake Mix, both of whom exemplify the art of holing up in a bedroom and quickly banging out evocative, yet quirky 4-track psychedelic folk. The Knit Separates -- comprised of Jason Honea, Glenn
The second album from this dorky (in a good way) electro-rock band. They play poppy, nerdy space-wave with emo undertones complete with alternating earnest boy vocals and vocoded robot voices over clunky early '80s synth lines. It's not unlike a lo-fi,
Claiming Knodel as the geekier little brother of Trans Am wouldn't be far from the mark. Aside from being college chums and occasional tour mates, they also share an affinity for the casio keyboard - the electronerd / post-rock weapon of choice. Both owe quite a debt to Kraftwerk, but Knodel adds a distinct brand of silly theatricality mixing in more Devo and Depeche Mode than ZZ Top and Grand Funk Railroad. This *does* include the tracks from the short 11 minute cd-r that had been floating around for the past few years. Fun stuff.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Old college chums and occasional tour mates of Trans Am, Knodel too, are part of the 'new wave' of post rock. Both have a similar affinity for the casio, lo-fi-indie-post-rock's weapon of choice. But while both owe quite a debt to Kraftwerk, Knodel mix in Devo and Depeche Mode instead of ZZ top and Grand Funk. Pretty cool, even if it is only 11 minutes long. Limited to 100.
This is an amazing collection of of material that just missed being included on older Chris Knox albums, stuff from the time spanning "Croaker", "Seizure", "Duck", and "Songs of You and Me". Breathtakingly simple and urgent pop gems recorded with the minimal instrumentation for acoustic guitar, omnichord, and Chris' voice... Too bad he called these tracks "too preachy", "too jazzy", "too cigarette-lighter-sway" to fit on the aforementioned albums.
The legendary Chris Knox returns with a new solo effort. Though it's been a while since we've heard from the AQ-beloved New Zealander, he's obviously spent the time carefully writing real honest to gosh Songs, as this record, while not as great as his "Seizure" album, comes quite close, and the first song "It's Love" ranks with one of Knox's best songs ever. If you've been hungering for the manic carefree energy and chiming guitar that Knox's outfit Tall Dwarfs typified, give this record a try.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
With another fit-inducing, vibrating-color cover, here's Tall Dwarfs member's latest solo album, full of lurching synth beats and intenseley personal lyrics.
Second release from these ol' rock vets Jerry Teel (Chrome Cranks), Kid Congo Powers (Congo Norvell, Cramps, Nick Cave), Bob Bert (Pussy Galore, Sonic Youth) and company doing what they love best - playing the blues. Sliding from slow 'n' smoky to rambunctious
We've long been huge fans of Swiss Teutonic terrorists Knut. Their blend of super precise metallic pound and blown out epic majesty was like a perfect, seemingly impossible blend of Neurosis, the Young Gods and the Swans. Coming up with a distinctly mathy post rock /sludge metal hybrid LONG before the current crop of similarly minded rockers. However, -their- hybrid was a bit more mechanical, almost industrial at times, a furious machinelike pound, relentless and so gloriously heavy. Which lends itself surprisingly well to the dreaded remix record.
It's best to approach this as just a WAY weirder Knut record instead of some super star studded remix affair, because when you get right down to it, nothing here is SO WEIRD that it couldn't have found a home on a proper Knut record. 'Cuz those guys do have a pretty deft hand at crafting a weirdly chaotic off kilter metallic crush. But what it does do, is add some strange sonic variation that there sound does sometimes lack. Dalek, JK Broadrick, Mick Harris, Spectre, Francisco Lopez, Oren Ambarchi, KK Null, Asmus Tietchens, Dither and more. A list like that should already have most of you heavy/weird rock heads leaping for the buy button, and be assured you wouldn't regret it. Most of the 'versions' here, play with the rhythms and the texture more than the actual song structure. This is still a collection of massive sludgy pummel, relentlessly propulsive, like some huge metallic steamroller. Just with each remixer tweaking his track and creating a slightly twisted, more personalized take on the original, the way a remix is supposed to. It almost sounds less like a remix record and more like a glimpse into each of the remixer's heads, as if this is how they actually HEAR this music. Translated into sound so WE can hear what these guys hear in their heads. The Dither mix has the guitars piling up into an impossibly dense wall of metallic noise, Spectre takes the guitars and layers them into some super druggy dub, Broadrick's mix gives that track a very Jesu makeover, adding more space, pushing the guitars down in the mix, and letting the vocals float on top in a thick cloud or reverb. Elsewhere Mick Harris takes -just- the rhythm and turns his track into a dark and ominous techno skitter, while Ambarchi messes with the original mix of his track, changing speeds and pitch, fucking with the tape, some parts are thick corrosive white hot sheets of guitar throb, others are cut and paste drum and vocal splatter, and others are barely there drifting drones, Null turns his track into a murky crawl, before letting it explode into a blown out Merzbowian metallic dirge, not sure what Francisco Lopez does with his track, other than make it sound a little bit off kilter and make the guitars sound a little... well, weird. The other tracks run the gamut from muted electronic shuffle, to thick metal raga buzz, to tribal psychedelic freakout, to blissed out ambient drone.
So as much as we hate 'remix' records, Alter is definitely one of the best we've heard, due in no small part to how totally kick ass the original songs are, but when taken not as a remix record so much as a weird experimental metal record by some really mysterious, fucked up electronic metal band, it's pretty much untouchable.
It's been a while since we've heard from Swiss heavies Knut, who we've always loved, their sound a head caving hybrid of mathy crush and epic post metal majesty, they were exploring Neurosis / Isis slow burn big blowout metallic post rock territory long before it became the flavor du jour. But the real appeal was that they could craft these expansive dirgescapes and then explode into noise rock freakouts, or super complex mathy grooves, and if anything, on Wonder, it sounds like Knut have moved way further into mathy noise rock territory, which we're actually pretty psyched about, heck, the world has enough long songs that build slowly into epic metallic heaviness, and yeah, okay, maybe the world has enough gnarled grinding math metal juggernauts, but we think not.
And Knut are indeed masters, putting most other heavies to shame, really in the space of a single song. "Leet" explodes in a frenzy of churning riffage and pounding chaotic drumming, bellowed vox, a deft chugging stuttering lurching start stop convoluted mathy workout, but infused with little bits of melody, some super cool, weirdly obtuse breakdowns, a relentless math metal freeforall that practically out-Don-Caballero-s Don Cab themselves.
There are a few tracks, where the bands reel in their insane time signatures and frenzied riffing, letting their sound ooze and sprawl, droning and buzzing, where they unfurl epic brooding heaviness, much like the above mentioned post metal, but even those moments are peppered with little mathy bursts, little gnarled and convoluted twists, there are a few interludes too, more sort of droned out guitar ambience, before they finish off with the 8+ minute "Wonder/Daily Grind", the first half of which is a gorgeously lysergic dronescape of layered slow motion chords and thick psychedelic guitar smolder, it does eventually lurch into some lumbering chug and pound, but just as quickly it slips back into some minimal ambient buzz and drone.
Some seriously awesome heaviness.
Koban's droning post-punk buzzsaw builds upon the solid foundation of black-clad grit and grime that Red Lorry Yellow Lorry produced in the mid to late '80s. The drum machined rhythms attack with a nervous teeth-chattering tension as bassist / vocalist Brittany West snarls in a guttural French alternating with a similarly caterwauling English, diving into the harrowing vocal tenor that Malaria proffered in the early '80s, while the arrangements double up the tempos of gloom-goth basslines, electronics, and razor-sharp guitars. Abject Obsessions follows the very well-received Vide album that we had briefly back in 2014, furthering the band's signature sound captured on that album. On the tracks where the bass and guitar are replaced by synths as on "Lesser," Koban easily glides into an icy, minimal wave groove reminiscent of Xeno & Oaklander.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
This fuzzed out darkness from the hitherto unknown Vancouver gloom-goth duo Koban comes to us via the Belgian imprint Weyrd Son, who also released the record from San Franciscan outfit All Your Sisters operating in the same circles of black-leather clad goth-punkiness.
In Koban, Brittany West and Samuel Buss alternate in the delivery of the blank stare monotone incantations that in turn slip between English and French. West, in particular, can turn the guttural syllables from her French delivery into something far more snarling than the lyrical dejection alludes to. All of this dourness is suitably applied to Buss' chorus/flange guitar riffs that come from the Daniel Ash / Christian Death songbook along with the gloomy basslines courtesy of West and the Dr. Avalanche set-up of electronics and drum machines. Yup, another excellent recapitulation of those doom-punk merchants of the past. Think Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, X-Mal Deutschland, and the Sisters Of Mercy. Limited to just 300 copies.
We get so much stuff to listen to. Literally hundreds of cds and lps and tapes every month. We do our best to listen to everything. And many all time AQ faves and big sellers came from the piles and piles of stuff folks send in. But every once in a while, we come across something that's been sitting forever, for ages, we finally listen to it and are blown the fuck away! In cases such as those we do our best to get in touch with the band or label and order a bunch for the store. Often they don't even remember sending them, but are psyched that we're finally ordering some. As much as we're psyched to be listing it, and probably kicking ourselves for waiting so long to discover it.
But in some cases, it's been so long, that maybe the piece of paper or the note that came with the records has disappeared or gotten lost, and then we end up digging around on the internet trying to track them down so we can get them for you all to check out. Lucky for us, the guys in Kobayashi took it upon themselves to send us a whole stack of their 7"s (not recommended generally by the way), however that was months and months ago and it was only a few days ago that we finally checked it out, and whattayaknow, it's pretty goddamn great. So if you're in the band, drop us a line! If you're not, by all means pick up one of these killer chunks of obtuse metallic grind.
The sound is tough to describe, it's definitely grindcore, classic sounding for sure, but with lots of slow dirgey bits, chunks of doom, weird angular riffing, spastic rhythms, jagged guitars, dual shrieking vocals, short and sharp, but not always fast and furious, sometimes just gnarled and chunky, but laced with bursts of furious buzz, chunks of churning low end, lurching tempos, and occasional blast beats. There's a bit of powerviolence, a bit of grind, some crustiness for sure, and a whole lot of metal, all tangled up into a pretty serious slab of grinding atonal, freaked out brutality. The packaging is amazing too. It's a picture disc, housed in a thick red vinyl sleeve, one side is the song titles over little black blocks, the other side a man's head, but pull the disc out, and the blocks turn into letters, the lyrics to the songs, and the man's head removed from the sleeve suddenly reveals the skeleton beneath the skin. A sort of 3-D style red and blue disappearing ink thing. Plus the band members have names like Tommyknocker and Ziggy Starfuck, and are credited with instruments like sticks of fatality, screams of brainstrain, frantic rhythms and immortal throat. What's not to love? Pretty cool stuff.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
While we know Japanese drummer extraordinaire Tatsuya Yoshida best from his infamous prog-core duo Ruins, it would seem that he's putting most of his copious energy into a different band these days, Koenjihyakkei. Actually Koenjihyakkei have been around for a long time (their first album came out in 1994) but we've always thought of 'em as sort of a Ruins side project, one of many, not Yoshida's main thing. However, now they're up to album number four (2005's Angherr Shisspa) and have just released *another* live DVD (their third! however, the previous two are out of print now) on Yoshida's Magaibutsu label. So they've been busy lately. Meanwhile, it sadly seems like Ruins is on, at the very least, a major hiatus, with nothing heard from that duo since 2002's Tzomborgha.
Of course, Ruins fans are probably also Koenjihyakkei fans. Naturally, since the latter band takes the Ruins' obsession with all things Magma to another level, in part by including keyboards, guitar, operatic female vocals, and woodwinds... it's all very over the top and insane (like Ruins) but, with, like six or eight virtuosos not just two. And it's less "punk" than Ruins sometimes seem, with more prog polish.
Fans (or prospective fans) should be interested in this live dvd, documenting a show at Starpine's Cafe in Tokyo, on May 31st 2007 (hence the title). Besides Yoshida, the lineup includes Yamamoto Kyoko on vocals, Ishibashi Eiko (heard with Yoshida on their recent duo disc Slip Beneath The Distant Tree) on keyboards and flute, Sakamoto Kengo on bass, Komori Keiko on soprano sax and clarinet, and none other than Hoppy Kamiyama on keyboards and vocals. Plus, guests Tsuboy Akihisa on violin and Imahori Tsuneo (from Tipographica, and also the Imahori-Yoshida duo) on guitar. All of 'em of course pretty much slay on their respective instruments and vocal duties. As is made abundantly clear on this disc's first six cuts, which find these musicians improvising in various small groupings. It starts off already in a pretty darn full-on mode, with a herky-jerky Yoshida and equally physical Komori Keiko in a wild duet. Crazy stuff. The second half of the program switches to proper Koenjihyakkei compositions, and (in case you didn't know) we're talking some complex prog bizness here, the utmost in "Zeuhl" stylings, beginning with the title track from Angherr Shisspa. They do two more from that album, and two off of Nivraym, and then for their grand finale, the band do a lively version of "Sunna Zarioki" from the very first Koenjihyakkei album. It's played with a great deal of relish, and the Komori Keiko's rah-rah stage moves are quite cute. Hearing these songs on record is one thing, SEEING and hearing them rip through them live is even more impressive.
There's only one camera, which occasionally zooms in for a (medium) close-up of the action but mainly stays with a full-stage view, getting everybody in. 12 tracks, 100 minutes, all region NTSC.
As with previous Koenjihyakkei (aka Hundred Sights Of Koenji) and Ruins releases, this boasts a bunch of tough to say, impossible to understand titles/lyrics... apparently they're all written in a made up language that's part of band leader Tatsuya Yoshida's characteristic Magma worship ('cause the French proggers he and we love so much did the same thing). So we don't know if "Angherr Shisspa" really means anything or not. But one guess would be "Utterly Crazed". Or how 'bout "Complex Mania"? Or "Mind Boggling"? Something like that would be descriptive of this, the fourth album from the Ruins drummer's amazing Koenjihyakkei ensemble.
There's been some line-up changes this time around. Yoshida remains on drums naturally, and longtime bassist Sakamoto Kengo still holds down the bottom end. But there's a new person on keyboards and an additional new singer as well. And the guitar is totally gone now, replaced with a reed player, who adds a bit of chaotic free jazziness to the mix, though of course Koenjihyakkei's playing and arrangements remain totally tight and technical.
With all five band members credited with vocals, it almost sounds like this could some sort of operatic stage performance, everyone taking the part of a character in some (again, impossible to understand) story. Very dramatic and action-packed though! If you're in the mood for some excessive prog indulgence, just ask for "Angherr Shisspa".
At last!!! We knew we could count on the Skin Graft label. They've finally reissued the amazing, long-out-of-print debut album by Koenjihyakkei (aka Hundred Sights Of Koenji), a crucial "side project" of Japanese spazz-prog faves Ruins. Originally released by the Japanese God Mountain label back in 1994, this is one that any fan of Ruins, or heavy crazed Zeuhl-style prog rock action, MUST HEAR, NOW.
If you're familiar with the Magma-obssessed Tokyo bass and drums duo Ruins, imagine them becoming EVEN MORE Magma-obsessed and adding female vocalist/keyboardist and a guitar player (actually, adding a bass player, as the Ruins bass player nimbly switched to guitar for this). This uber-Ruins quartet then wrote a bunch of insane, gorgeous prog rock tunes (or, in one case, adapted a traditional Bulgarian one, on the track "Yagonahh", surely one of the most incredible reeling hoedowns ever recorded) and play them to dazzling perfection. The French '70s prog band we keep mentioning (Magma) are insane, but not quite this heavy or hyper. If you like Ruins and/or Magma and/or weird prog music, you want to get this if you haven't already. It's probably the best of Koenjikhyakkei's albums, which are all pretty cool... indeed if you've been following our updates and scanning our website, you probably have read our ravings about this band's other releases. And as good as they are, this is the one, that started it all. Sooooo bombastic, so energetic, so exotically catchy. You've likely never heard anything as majestically grandiose and yet as full of stop on a dime frenzies as opener "Ioss", ferinstance. And the whole album is full of that sort of thing. It makes us gleeful just to think about it. Definitely in the top two or three of of all Tatsuya Yoshida related non-Ruins releases sez our resident Japanophile, Allan (don't ask him what the others are though, he'll spend all day agonizing over it).
One kinda curious note to make about this reissue, though: mastermind Yoshida not only remixed it for this reish, but he apparently also RE-RECORDED all his drum tracks! We're pretty sure only he could tell the difference. We really wonder what inaudible-to-others flaws he felt he needed to correct! This new disc seems to be about 12 seconds longer than the original, too, but we couldn't tell ya where/why.
Live concert videos (or dvds) tend to be for fans of the band in question only, though we imagine that if you weren't familiar with operatic Japanese prog monsters Koenjihyakkei and happened to watch this dvd you'd possibly become curious enough to seek out their studio recordings (or not, as this band's brand of hyperactive bombast isn't going to be everyone's cup of extra-caffinated tea). If you're already a fan of Ruins and/or Koenjihyakkei, though, you know what you're getting into here and probably can't wait to watch this. Ruins mastermind Tatsuya Yoshida's heavily Magma influenced (well, he's -always- Magma influenced, but this is to the extreme) combo Koenjiyhyakkei is in fine form here on this dvd, documenting a show they performed at the Tokyo nightclub Doors in August of 2005. There's flashing colored lights and all, but they don't them to be dazzling! Two sets plus an encore, 16 songs/chapters including a medley, shot with two cameras, for a good look at this very tight and energetic band.
Er, is it a sexist comment to mention that we marvel at how Yoshida's managed to get so many cute girls on board to perform his crazy music?? There's a female vocalist, female keyboard player (she sings too), and a female clarinetist/saxophonist (instead of the guitar that this band used to have). Then you've got Yoshida running the show from the drumkit (also singing), and also holding down the bottom end, one of Yoshida's obligatory dexterous rhythm section partners on 5-string electric bass. It's the lineup from their last album Angherr Shisspa, from which a lot of these songs are drawn.
We've been waiting for this for a while (since 1996!) -- at long last, the third album from Japan's Koenjihyakkei (in English, Hundred Sights of Koenji), the massively Magma-minded side project of the almost-as-Magmoid bass and drums duo Ruins. Ruins leader
It's about time! The Skin Graft label does all fans of crazed prog and (to be specific) Japanese band the Ruins a big favor by reissuing this long out of print album by Ruins side-project Koenjihyakkei. Not only is it available again, but it's at a domestic, cheaper price! Yay!
Originally released on Hoppy Kamiyama's God Mountain label in 1996, Viva Koenji!! (also known as II) was the second album from drummer Tatsuya Yoshida's Koenjihakkei unit (aka Hundred Sights Of Koenji, Koenji being the district of Tokyo wherein Yoshida lives). Yoshida, if Allan hasn't yet already indoctrinated you on this truth, is Japan's answer to Christian Vander (French drummer/musical mastermind behind the '70s prog band Magma). Yoshida's well-known main band Ruins is a drum and bass duo heavily influenced by Vander's band, but those influences become even more apparent with this project. Keyboards, operatic male and female vocals, guitar, bass, and drums expand the Ruins palette into a realm of almost symphonic "death progressive" madness. Crazed instrumental prowess, mindboggling changes, utterly heavy and amazing. Pretty much essential to all fans of Ruins or Magma, surpassing both both in some select ways! Those who've only heard this band's later albums, Nivraym and Angherr Shisspa, will be bowled over by how much more HEAVY and intense this disc is even than those (and those records aren't exactly mellow or wimpy!). Seriously.
So if you missed this before, give thanks to Skin Graft! Let's hope that they'll also be adding the first, also now impossible to find, Hundred Sights Of Koenji album to their catalog someday soon too...
RECORD STORE DAY 2015!!
Koes Barat is a group led by Alan Bishop of the Sun City Girls and backed up by various members of the Master Musicians Of Bukkake, that was formed as a tribute to sixties Indonesian garage rockers Koes Bersaudera, a band Bishop dug enough to reissue two of their records on the Sublime Frequencies label he helps run. But there's a special joy in actually playing the music you love, a sort of immersion that goes well beyond just obsessively listening, and these guys are so obviously and so joyously exploring KB's catalog, and they have the sound nailed, channeling the music obviously, but more importantly the spirit, of KB. You don't need to be at all familiar with Koes Bersaudera to dig these tracks, in fact, it seems like it might be even more exciting, to hear Bishop and the Master Musicians kicking out these fuzzy garage jams, and the occasional moody ballad. It's not super faithful, but then it shouldn't be, for a super fan, those songs are already perfect, so here's that sound filtered through some of our favorite contemporary musicians, and it's a hoot. Wild and wooly, exuberant and spirited, and glorious garage rock blast.
This is a Record Store Day release, and while we have a handful of copies left over from RSD, odds are when we sell out we likely won't be able to get more.
Super swank packaging, metallic gold printing and very sixties looking layout and photos. Includes a download code too.
We had never heard of Kohwi before, but heck it's on Black Tent, who has put out records by YouTube electro weirdo Tonetta (his third insane volume of songs reviewed elsewhere on this week's list), a collection of Misfits covers by Slint's Dave Pajo, a killer noise rock split between Orphan and Dope Body, among other weird and wonderful releases, so we wanted to check it out. Plus, it's described as being "best experienced with the aid of head phones and soft drugs", and once we finally got a load of Kohwi, we can't say we could argue with that. A sort of home brewed witch house-y slo-mo soul electronic indie synth pop, a little bit gloomy, a little bit dreamy, the beats skeletal and skittery, the music jangly and shimmery, washed out and woozy, the vocals keening and heatfelt, a collection of strange electro pop ballads, heavy on the effects, and twisted melodies, seemingly pure pop at their core, but dipped in acid and melting before your very ears, everything blurred and smeary and prismatic and technicolor, glitch and stuttery, looped and fractured, with thick almost dubsteppy bass warbles wrapped around deep low end pulses, blasts of clipped white noise, time stretched hooks, all manner of kitchen sink, mad scientist, lo-fi DIY songsmithery, the occasional big bumping beat, the occasional stretch of hazy, rainy day piano, even some dizzying sampledelic blowouts, somehow all woven into a weirdly and just barely cohesive whole, but one that definitely sounds right at home on Black Tent, and should definitely hit the spot for folks who dig home brewed, loopy, druggy, psychedelic outsider electro pop weirdness.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES. Housed in a gorgeous, 3 color hand printed serigraph jacket, and accompanied by a cd (not a cd-r) version of the whole record.
Housed in a sleeve decorated with strange sci-fi airbrushed bondage artwork, this 1973 Brain-label krautrock album from the relatively obscure (but collectable) Kollektiv has now been reissued on cd.
First track "Rambo Zambo" starts off with some echo effected flute action in the style of early Kraftwerk classic "Ruck Zuck"... when the drums kick in it's a pretty propulsive funky flute fusion groover we've gotta say, the occasional stabs of harder guitar also doin' it for us. It's not gonna be everyone's cup of krautrock but those that like it will love it. Wild instrumental psychedelic jazzy jamming, yeah. Some songs are extended, rhythmic workouts up to 12, 20 minutes long. Others just brief wacked out interludes with vocal ravings, probably funny if you understand German. Kollektiv fits in with the likes of Exmagma, Xhol Caravan, Thirsty Moon, Kraan, and Wolfgang Dauner's Oimels album. Recommended for the krautrock connoisseur into the jazzier side of the genre, though the acid guitar soloing is definitely rock.
This nicely done reissue includes four bonus cuts, almost another half-hour of material recorded with different lineup... tracks like "Pap-Jack" and "Rozz-Pop" don't sound all that different from the album proper, though we're told there was more of an influence from King Crimson's Red album on this stuff... could be, the guitar is sometimes sorta Frippy, certainly searing and spacey, throughout the disc. In any event, worthy bonus material.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
After marvelling (if you're at all of our mindset) at the cover painting, which features some sort of dulcimer, an electric guitar, and an amplifier itself decorated with a painting of a dead tree and a sunset, the first thing that'll grab you about this 1977 Swedish folk-rock reissue is that it's so superbly recorded -- crystal clear, not too slick or over produced, just simply sterling, live-in-your-room sound that belies this album's misty '70s origin. Though ordinarily we find dusty, crackly, low-fi recordings of long-lost folkesque psychedelia to be preferably evocative and mysterious, this just sounds *amazing*. So, your ears will rejoice at how great Kong Lavring sounds...and then, the songs. So good. Kong Lavring made a terrific mix of traditional Norwegian folk music and electric rock instrumentation, with the choppy bite of "Liti Kjersti" being a particularily stellar example of such. With both male and female vocals -- Viking style male choirs chanting it up, and lovely sweet female vocals, capable of exquisite unaccompanied beauty. Though never particularily popular (they made only two albums, of which this is the first), Kong Lavring could be considered a Norwegian version of Fairport Convention, to make a loose comparison. Also recommended for fans of Turid, Kebnekajse, Arbete Och Fritid, and other Scandinavian folk/rock outfits -- perhaps even those of the black metal variety like Storm. The aforementioned cover art suggests a lot to those of us enamoured of the '70s hippy folk vibe, and this disc is indeed as good as the cover portends.
