Thanks to AQ pal Matt for the low down on this slab of pre-Sleep heaviness, long out of print singles finally available again, collected on a single cd:
We used to see Asbestosdeath in the very early '90s around the Bay Area,�at the East Bay punk institution 924 Gilman and various punk rock parties. They released two singles, the latter on the Minneapolis label�of anarcho-punk stalwarts, Profane Existence. The band that evolved into Sleep -- who fans would like to think of as a�"doom" or "stoner" band today -- was actually more akin to the then crust-influenced Neurosis, Christ on Parade and various UK anarcho and�post-Discharge bands.
Slowed waaay down, of course. At the time, liking Asbestosdeath was a seriously guilty pleasure. Their worship�of Neurosis and Melvins was obvious. If you liked the sound of those bands -- and lots of people did -- this band was not all that surprising.�Highly enjoyable, but not groundbreaking.
Upon re-recording slower and more polished versions of these tracks for�Sleep's debut album "Volume 1," they officially entered the arena of the�world's slowest, heaviest bands... a field then dominated by the Melvins�and perhaps Drunks with Guns but soon to be populated by the likes of�Eyehategod, Grief, Buzzov-en and Earth, among many. Over time, they definitely got better. Their songs got more interesting. And they�added wizards. And doobies. And the rest is history.
Sonically, these tracks belong squarely alongside Neurosis' The Word As�Law and Melvins recordings up to Bullhead. They're gritty and more�aggressive than what you'd expect. But they still sound fresh, and the�arrangements have a sparse, atmospheric quality that typifies the�aesthetic of most of the bands on Southern Lord today.
Ascendente is a satellite operation of Chile's dark-prog collective Un Festin Sagital, whose wild-eyed occlusions of metal, art-rock, and punk-prog complexity had dazzled us on all their previous recordings. The debut recording by Ascendente seeks a comparatively simpler / more spacious aesthetic, one that sounds an awful lot like Comus and Slint melded into a single pandrogynous chimera. No easy feat to say the least, and yet the members of Ascendente pull it off with remarkable panache. The loud-quite dynamics of these post-Crimson / pseudo-Mogwai elliptical riffs and neck-throttled bass-guitar chords work throughout all of the Ascendente songs with the vocalist tumbling through narratives in Spanish with plenty of lycanthropic transformation from dramatic tenor into demonic growling and back again. As the tracks unfurl along the constant-flux / long-form explorations previously mapped out by Amon Duul II and German Oak, the gymnastics for the rhythm section are suitably impressive as they glide up to dizzying crescendos and march along at swaggering gaits. As with all other Black Horizon tapes, this is limited to 100 copies.
We were pretty surprised to discover that this new one sided 12" from Iowa doomlords Aseethe, whose Reverent Burden lp we raved about back in 2011, consisted of a single sidelong track based *entirely* on riffs from The Conjurer record by SF's own BARN OWL! Sounds pretty much custom made for aQ, a dirgey sludge/doom band covering/reinterpreting the music of a woozy twang flecked doom folk duo? And while we may have been expecting some crushing downtuned ultra-doom onslaught, Aseethe go the opposite route, offering up instead a reverent homage to Barn Owl, evoking a similarly haunting darkly psychedelic mood, with a smoldering glacial intro, all deep thrum and woozy shimmer, it's not really until a few minutes in that one of those riffs surfaces, and it definitely sounds like a Barn Owl riff, dusky and languid, a little twangy, drifting soporifically before the drums surface, a laid back lope, doomy, but not crushing, more a sort of slowcore dirge, with a spacious, cavernous production, streaked with feedback here and there, very much like a slightly doomier Barn Owl, with just a bit of extra buzz and rumble, and a thick blackened background drone that runs throughout, super haunting and hypnotic and very cool. Fans of Barn Owl will definitely dig, as will anyone into minimal, slow and low psychedelic heaviness.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES, one sided lp with a silkscreened B side, housed in super swank hand screened sleeves, each one hand numbered.
WARNING: It seems like a sort of noisy pressing, with a bit of crackle on the few copies we checked out, so if you're super persnickety, or a super audiophile, maybe steer clear, but if you're like us, and a little crackle only makes it sound better, than grab one quick before they're gone...
Somehow this is the fifth full length from these North Carolina psychedelic stoner heavies, but it's the first one we've heard, which is a bummer cuz Blood Drive is a doozy, a killer classic rock / hard rock / Southern rock / stoner rock hybrid, big groovy riffs, hooks galore, crushing drumming, soaring vocals, everything spacey and fuzzed out, psychedelic, and super melodic, the sort of stuff that should be HUGE, in a perfect world. To our ears this sounds a bit like a weird mix of Raging Slab and Kyuss, but with plenty of the laid back wasted psych of outfits like Dead Meadow and Psychic Ills, and as much as we love grim, damaged blackness, and avant minimal dronemusic, and all the other fucked up stuff we listen to, sometimes it's tough to beat straight up, super catchy, big riffing heavy rock, which this most certainly is. The sound slips effortlessly from woozy doomy groovy stoner rock, to mathed out proggy noise rock (check out "Castlestorm"), to dense swirling psychedelia ("Scrappy's Trip" sounds almost like Janes Addiction if they had happened in nineties Seattle, which we can guarantee is a VERY good thing), to swampy apocalyptic dirgery ("Blues For Bama" which starts out sounding like Woven Hand, before blossoming into something much more epic and metallic), to spacey druggy trippiness ("Earthwalk"), to epic almost arena rock sounding hook heavy crush ("Stargazin") that sounds like Torche crossed with old Queens Of The Stone Age, and once again has us wondering why these guys aren't a way bigger deal. And we're so grateful that we're finally almost finished with our reviews for this list, cuz after a couple spins through Blood Drive, we're counting the minutes 'til we're done so we can go for number three (and four, and five and...)!
PS. Vinyl version includes a bonus track NOT on the cd!
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Two albums on one disc, this reissue features the talents of krautrock legends Manuel Gottsching, Klaus Schulze, Rosi Mueller, Dieter Dierks and others. Cosmic stuff, the title of the first (twenty-minute) track says it all: "Freak 'n' Roll".
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Following last week's Join In/Starring Rosi, another Ash Ra Tempel 2-on-1 reissue, more cosmic krautrock exploring light and darkness, space and time (with the help of acid guru Timothy Leary on Seven Up).
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Cool early '80s seems more like '70s American prog act with a few heavy tracks.
Verve singer solo.
Medicine Fuck Dream is the debut recording for the Texan ex-patriot Greg Ashley, who now calls Oakland his home. With the current roster of multi-faceted psychedelia spread throughout Northern California (i.e. Jewelled Antler, Six Organs Of Admittance, Kelly Stoltz, etc.), the East Bay seems well suited to Ashley's druggist songwriting. Yup, the whole album seems to be cast in a fog of pot smoke; but, Ashley's craft is in pulling together a great range of influences from the haze and turning it into his own. Big Star stands strong in his pantheon, as does the Opal / Mazzy Star sound of dreamy troubaour folk. A couple of the tracks reflect Syd Barrett's flair for the stumblingly comical, but always cast under the doped-to-oblivion spell of Spacemen 3. Ashley's fluttering whisper of a voice may not be the finest in the world, but his eccentric production with massive Joe Meek reverb bathing some of his tracks and fizzling tape hiss on the others, more than makes up for what he lacks on that front. A great debut!
Greg Ashley has a sound and knack for songwriting that's wise way beyond his years. His records with his excellent band The Gris Gris and his debut solo outing a few years back prove his ability to write songs that are both smart and trippy, rocking and subdued. He's been compared to Roky Erickson, who casts a mighty long shadow, yet one of Ashley's greatest strengths is how he always makes it sound so easy. There is an effortless and natural grace to the way Ashley's songs are delivered that never feels forced or calculated, but instead sounds like they've been locked in some deep vault for decades just waiting for someone to discover. Painted Garden reveals a more acoustic and seductive side to Ashley's songwriting, demonstrating that there are other ways to achieve psychedelic states without relying exclusively on freakouts and feedback. Painted Garden is filled with elegant songs that should definitely appeal to fans of Vetiver and Yo La Tengo. Ashley is by no means a one trick pony though, his willingness to explore different sides of his songwriting persona is something we can't help but love. "Sailing With Bobby" has such a wonderful and dizzying melody, it immediately made us think of Sonic Youth's "Little Trouble Girl". We think it's safe to say that no matter what the current trend in the indie music scene might be (freak folk, psych rock, indie pop, etc.) Ashley will continue to make music his own way, transcending all the hype and thriving for a long time to come!
We're beginning to consider Greg Ashley to be one of the most underrated musical minds of the past decade. Whether with his band The Gris Gris or on his own great solo recordings, Ashley has demonstrated so much versatility and creativity in conjuring up the most sublime psychedelic sounds. Requiem Mass And Other Experiments is an instrumental outing that finds Ashley crafting a powerful work that evokes the dramatic and kaleidoscopic side of Ennio Morricone, the winding prog odysseys of Bo Hansson and the more cinematic moments of Pink Floyd, like on More and Obscured By Clouds. But Ashley has a distinct and instantly recognizable guitar sound and knows his way around swirling melodies, so that the sound becomes totally his own. And even beyond his own instrumental prowess, Ashley is able to set all of those other elements in such a warm and intimate sound. It's no surprise that so many Bay Area bands are turning to him to record their records, because he really does understand the beauty of analog warmth and is uniquely able to capture a timeless quality in overall sound. While it's a sprawling, pastoral and haunting ride, what makes Requiem Mass And Other Experiments such a satisfying listen is the way in which Ashley also understands restraint and constantly displays such exquisite taste. Its paced so well and ends before you want it to, which in our book is always a good thing, because then you want to go on the ride again and again instead of burning out on an overstretched vision. So good!
While this is not new, we felt since we just listed Manuel Gottsching's essential early eighties proto-acid release E2-E4, we should revisit another essential release from the post-Ash Ra Tempel period that we never listed before. 1976's New Age of Earth was the inaugural release from Ashra, the next phase of Ash Ra Tempel which basically was Manuel Gottsching re-focusing his musical efforts from a group ambition to a solo experience, marked by more streamlined compositions involving more synthesizers and sequencers but not losing his signature cosmic guitar leads altogether. Letting go of the acid psych commune jams of Ash Ra Tempel's previous efforts, New Age of Earth enjoys a more meditative kosmiche sensibility with extended warm electronic sojourns with minimalist compositional tendencies. The opener "Sunrain" is a deliriously percolating track that sounds as if Steve Reich created a proto-Balearic slow disco jam for sunrise dancefloors in Ibiza. "Ocean of Tenderness" is a softly lilting and shifting piece marked by gentle waves of sound and floating guitar figures, while "Deep Distance" is a more contemplative and cinematic rumination on landscapes of sound. Which leads to the final piece "Nightdust", which at 21 minutes is the longest track, a gorgeously majestic build-up of cosmic sensations. Whirring pulsar synth effects over a serene new age foundation like the feel of illuminating stars over some alien planetary ocean, culminating in a searing sky-high guitar lead that propels us into the nebulous ether of oceanic space. In fact the whole album has this epic 'sci-fi beach' feel, reminiscent of that mysterious final scene from The Quiet Earth, where the last man on earth is on the beach and sees the giant planet Saturn looming in the distance. A classic cosmic krautrock release from Virgin Record's most exciting and exploratory period, New Age of Earth is essential for all fans of kraut-y space-rock and psychedelic cosmic bliss.
The UK's Ashtray Navigations (aka Phil Todd) has been spitting out cd after cd after tape after tape after cd-r after cd-r for years now. Close to twenty would be our guess. If not more even. Which is pretty dang impressive. So here we are twenty years down the line and Todd is still kicking up the sort of glorious din that shames most of the other free noise outifts out there. Billowing clouds of thick chordal bliss, washes of high end feedback and layer after layer of sonic skree, all shifting and swirling and drifting with subtle acustic guitars in the background as well as whining reeds unfurling melancholy Eastern melodies. The closest comparison would have to be Sunroof! or Vibracathedral Orchestra, who just so happen to occupy the same sonic scene as Todd and his Ashtray Navigations. From pixilated clouds of abstract tinkle and glimmer to dense supernovas of roiling sonic fury, The Love That Whirrs is totally essential listening (like all things Sunroof!, VCO, Pelt, Skullflower, Jazzfinger, etc.) for all you freeambientdronedrifters out there!
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Michigan's Universal Indians (who you may remember from their handsome split lp with Gravitar) and Scotland's Ashtray Navigations (known for their tapes) combine on this split cd, both bands being purveyors of murky psych/noise guitar improv splurge. Pretty cool, the packaging is crap though...
Ah, the many tentacles of Gordon Ashworth. Once, this Portlander recorded as Concern delivering an updated version of American holy minimalism through Riley, Maclise, and Conrad in fine style. He also had his wall-noise moniker Oscillating Innards, and plenty of black/grind/scuzz-fuck/noise projects to extend his aesthetic range (e.g. Knelt Rote, Deep Jew, etc.); but it was always the work of Concern that tickled our fancy. While he shelved Concern as a project back in 2010, this solo album released under his given name seems to be carrying on that aesthetic thread. Languid drones blur between field recordings from his one-time job as a taxi driver and subtle melodies sketched out via banjo and piano for the first couple of tracks, lend a less digital but equally favorable comparison to Tim Hecker's fizzing post-ambience. On "Suite For Broken Sex," Ashworth really hits his stride through the billowing minimalism for a hypnotic piano, churning through notes akin to Lubomyr Melnyk's less frenetic compositions, all brightly rasping with overtones and swirling raga-drones from the interlocking arpeggiation. The wistful banjo fingerpicking of "To Be The Man I Want To Be" and "Desperate & Indebted" takes on a Tim Hecker / Christian Fennesz jaggedliness adhering to the hillbilly minimalism of Henry Flynt, plucking away at a tearjerkingly maudlin series of melodies over the course of side two. Gorgeous stuff for sure! Limited to 300 copies on clear vinyl with a download.
Could the time be any more right for an album of intimate, individual psychedelic folk music from three decades ago to be reissued? This is almost more 'now' than it was then, really! Ed Askew's Ask The Unicorn was originally released on LP by the legendary, eccentric free-jazz and folk label ESP-Disk back in 1969. Now at last it's on cd (twice, in fact, more on that in a sec). We think anyone into, say, Devendra Banhart will enjoy this. In fact, we wonder what Mr. Askew thinks of the music of Mr. Banhart (if he's ever heard him). We'd imagine he'd think... "Not bad, but I did that 30 years ago!!"
One artsy guy with a weird imagination and a nasally-but-nice, gentle, emotive voice and a guitar, singing and playing from the heart, his tripped out lyrics turning tight circles with their rhyme schemes, Askew comes across a bit like a druggier, rawer, more obscure and stream-of-conciousness Bob Dylan or something.
Note: weirdly enough, two different editions of this have just been released on cd. The one we've got doesn't actually say Ask The Unicorn on it (except as a song title) but is indeed that album, with three bonus tracks and a sticker proclaiming this to be the "Artist's Edition". Not sure what's going on there, as we also received word that Askew, while happy this was in stores, didn't actually know it was coming out! The extra tracks apparently come from a cd-r version he'd been circulating to friends or something. Anyway, this version seems to be the better deal, and we're only mentioning all this so as to preempt any confusion about what exactly this is.
The bonus tracks are quite worthwhile, with two ("The Accordion Man" and "Green Song") dating from back in the day and one ("A Soldier's Song") from 2005! Yeah, the new track sticks out, both his voice and the production being quite different, and Askew even seems to be deliberately making it seem up to date with references to computer mice and monitors -- and there's even a drum machine part that starts up halfway through the song! But actually it's a nice tune and comes last on the disc so its inclusion isn't too jarring. Indeed, it helps bring this great music into the present, where it belongs.
In a matter of weeks, The De Stijl label has knocked us out twice in a row, with reissues of two psychedelic folk albums from the misty past that we'd otherwise never have known about. Both surprises by already-AQ-fave artists, as well! We just listed De Stijl's cd reish of the long-lost 1974 Michael Yonkers album Grimwood, and now here's a previously unreleased, long-rumoured 1970 recording entitled Little Eyes from NYC acid folk troubadour Ed Askew, whose 1969 ESP-Disk album Ask The Unicorn we'd all agree is a highlight on that multifarious and mindblowing outsider jazz/improv/folk/protest rock label. If you liked that one, you'll definitely like this!
As established on Ask The Unicorn, Ed Askew's music here is intimate and eccentric, gentle and rambling. Just one sorta high, nasally voiced guy and his guitar (and harmonica too), singing his own timeless, twisted, lonely songs of love and loss, roughly hewn and bleeding with emotion. As we've said before, he's like a weirder, rawer Bobby Z. (and a thirty years ago and then some precursor to Devy B. for sure). We're talking about Bob Dylan and Devendra Banhart there, for those of you (like Andee) not hip to those diminutives.
In addition to the ten songs ("transferred from acetate, with flaws intact") recorded for Askew's never ('til now) released follow-up to his ESP debut, De Stijl has also included six more tracks, taken from live radio performances done by Askew circa 1970-'71, which fit right in, as the Little Eyes studio sessions were done more or less live anyway, mostly single takes, no edits or overdubs, with flaws intact as well... flaws? not to our minds... In a digipak, with a couple vintage b&w pics of the bearded, bushy haired Askew, and liner notes by Byron Coley.
New Yorkers Asobi Seksu brings the bright carefree pop of the late '80s (think: The Primitives, Lush, Velocity Girl) together with the moody UK shoegazers of the early '90s (a la My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Swervedriver or perhaps the more recent atmospheric modern rock of Magyar Posse). However, what sets their second album Citrus apart is its high gloss J-pop production style. Each song showering the listener with a Puffy Amiyumi level of shiny shiny, sugary pearliness. Singer Yuki Chikudate's high flittery delivery recalls that of Cocteau Twins' Elizabeth Fraser... and if you don't know Japanese then the lyrics may prove just as cryptic as Fraser's. Countering the sweetness of Yuki's vocals are her bandmate James Hanna's variety of electric guitars. He builds up billowing spirals of highly effected washes which he punctuates with sharper edged, punchy melodic segments. All the while Chikudate's voice ties giant bows of satiny sorbet ribbons around the proceedings. Yes, Citrus is filled with many seemingly incongruous elements, but the band whips them all together into a delectable effervescent confection. Yum!
Asobi Seksu pick right up from where they left off with their bright 2006 album Citrus! That means Hush is filled with gloriously shimmering dew drop pop very much inspired by female-fronted bands from the late '80s and early '90s. Perhaps a bit more focused and straightforward than its predecessor, the album is sleekly styled with a sparkling swirly pastel hued effervescence that compliments Yuki Chikudate's flittering vocals. Once again they conjure warm memories of both Cocteau Twins and Velocity Girl. 'Tis very welcome during these grey grey days! So nice!
This questionably monickered combo and their brilliantly titled cd come courtesy of loyal AQ customer Garrett Splain and it's a doozy. Fucked up and off kilter post-free-avant-rock with the some cool production techniques, the occasional bizarrely programmed drum machine and what sounds like vibes or a xylophone supplying far-away melodies. The recording is a bit lo-fi, but it only adds a nice kind of gritty ambience to the proceedings. Adventurous fans of Laddio Bollocko, Trans Am, Don Caballero and the like might really dig this.
When the Ohio-based Ass Ponys' first album Mr Superlove came out 11 years ago, I was really into it; their plainspoken vocals along with the epic indie rock melodies just broke my heart in a good way. It's eleven years later now and their sound hasn't changed much, but there's more stuff out there that sounds like this, so much so that their take on the homefried sound isn't
Chuck Cleaver and his rag tag band ride again... well, sorta! A heap o' early Ass Ponys tunes have gotten a remasterin' and a reissuin'! Yupsiree, two dozen of 'em -- many have been totally out of print for ages including a bunch from two of their early albums Mr. Superlove and Grim, but some of the others were never released in the first place! On much of the first disc of The Okra Years, the Ohio band sound like a quirky cross between a few of their contemporaries, namely the ruminations of REM, the haunting reverb-drench of Galaxie 500 and the sweet jangle pop melodies of Unrest... or perhaps more simply stated a slightly countrified (country-fried?) Velvet Underground. They even do a rendition of "All Tomorrow's Parties". On the second disc, they lean more heavily into the warbly lonesome cowboy in the tavern style of twang. We dug 'em then, and we dig 'em now. If you favor indie rockers who on occasion will take to driving rusty ol' tractors, but you've yet to make the acquaintance of Ass Ponys, you'd better get a move on... your ride is here!
It's hard not to love a band called Assemble Head In Sunburst Sound, especially when they sound like some long lost seriously blown out bluesfuzzspacerock behemoth transported through some fluctuating rift in time, sucked straight out of the Fillmore West circa 1967, and transported to the right here and right now. But if every science fiction story EVER has taught us one thing, it's that rifts in time are tricky, and are more often than not unpredictable, so it seems that somehow on the way here, Assemble Head's rock DNA got all mixed up with the tangled genetic codes of other hippy jamming space time explorers like Monster Magnet, Blue Oyster Cult, the Outlaws, Neil Young and about a million others.
The result is a divine, occasionally laid back, more often than not super charged Californian drug fueled psych rock jam, that takes its various influences and shuffles em all up from song to song, managing to sound close enough to the originals to feel all warm and fuzzy and familiar, but just twisted and tweaked enough to sound like it could have only come from Assemble Head's kick ass world of Sunburst Sound....
The opener is a seriously drug addled blast of FX drenched Stooges-y stomp, the vocals soaring, the guitars grinding out slithery riffs, the drums a relentless pound, all wrapped up in a dense cloud of bleary eyed pot smoke shimmer. Some serious Monster Magnet worship for sure, right down to the Dave Wyndorf-esque vocals. We're not complaining, the world can always use more of that satanic drug rock for sure... The next track though takes everything in a whole different direction, spinning a fuzzy web of indie jangle and grunge-y groove, sounding like some weird mix of Screaming Trees and Dinosaur Jr. But later still, the band changes direction again, and stretches out into extended groovy, organ laced Southern Rock jams, the guitars a slow drawl, everything still hazy and buzzy, but less kinetic and more stoned. But then a song later, and the band are strapped back in and headed for the heart of the sun, with huge fuzzy arcs of white hot guitar and dense swirls of blurry FX and killer acid fried riffing.�
Just have a quick gander at the tripped out psychedelic cover art, huge mountain faces, swirling stormclouds, erupting volcanos, futuristic cities, floating heads shooting lazers from their eyes, a metallic moon half buried on a sandy beach, a wall of human faces, a pirate ship in a fiery sky, it definitely gives the listener a good idea of what to expect, what sort of�gloriously wild and wooly, spaced out, tangled up dirgey fuzzy sprawl lurks inside.�
The return of these aQ beloved local psychedelic spacelords (and lady), whose sound has always bucked the prevailing modern psych/space convention of sound over song, rooting their sound in proper songs, catchy hooky SONGS, beholden to classic sixties jams and seventies classic rock, hints of Neil Young, the Allman Brothers, the Outlaws, collide with more modern/heavy influences like Monster Magnet and contemporaries like Wooden Shjips and Earthless (whose Isaiah Mitchell guests here), obviously, if you dig stuff like Carlton Melton and White Hills and Sleepy Sun and Moon Duo and The Heads and the Spyrals, odds are you probably already dig these guys too. But if not, they definitely come at their sound from a drastically different direction. On past records we compared them to Monster Magnet and Dinosaur Jr., and mentioned their penchant for Southern style rocking, but if anything, on Manzanita, Assemble seem to have shifted dramatically, fully embracing that Southern rock side, and combining it with a serious seventies classic rock vibe, and conjured up a killer set of songs that sound like they came from right back in the day. Albeit with a more modern production. Otherwise, this could be the band you saw opening for the Allman Brothers at the Fillmore, the same sort of extended jams, the band locked into heady grooves, the bass thick and fuzzy, the drums tight and propulsive, the guitars running the show, from the crunchy riffs to the extended heart-of-the-sun solos, all accompanied by whirring organs, fluttering flutes, laced with plenty of twang, the vocals laid back and croony, the songs subtly catchy, slow burning and smoldering, sometimes shuffling dreamily, other times pounding away in a psych rock frenzy, usually a mix of the two. And this time around the vocals definitely seem to be a focal point, maybe as much as the guitars, with most of the songs displaying some gorgeous lead vocals and even more incredible harmonies, the result a fantastic slab of retro spaced out psychedelic Southern rock that might just be our favorite Assemble record yet.
San Francisco's mellow Lords and Lady of awesomely hazy, drugged out psychedelia return with their third album, a heavily atmospheric work which manages at once to sound both spacey and pastoral. The band knows when to lay low and lock into a hypnotic, blissed out groove, with a heavy debt to non-suck Pink Floyd (think Meddle) and even the Byrds' more cosmic moments. These only make their more aggressive and rocking excursions that much more powerful. It's a cool affair, drenched with organ, warm bass grooves, Theremins, and impressive guitar work. They also leave plenty of space for fuzzy, feedback drenched freakouts, all the while remaining fully in control and never losing themselves in jam band land. Throughout it all, the swirling atmospherics on the album act like an additional band member, covering these eight songs like a thick cloak of fog. The dual male/female vocals help to separate the group from the multitude of other bluesy psych bands, sending things into significantly dreamy realms. It's very California, mannnnnnnn, and sure to find fans in anyone digging fellow SF heads like Wooden Shjips, Sleepy Sun, and Lumerians.
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Local psych merchants vinyl-only debut. For Comets fans!
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A split 10" hardcore head-to-head battle between the late great DC grind freaks Jenny Piccolo and Asterisk*, a new (to us) band of hardcore killers. Of the two, Asterisk* kicks a bit more ass, especially on the final roaring track "Exodus". Asterisk* rage... hard. They've titled their side "Dogma III: The Mythology of Heavenly Poultry" as inspired by C.J. Hjelm's book "Manniskan och Anglavariden". And on their side, Jenny Piccolo give a nod to Will Oldham and the awesome Swedish band Female Anchor of Sade.
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Totally fun, dizzyingly silly Japanese band takes zany electronic hiphop rock to a new level, coming across like a combination of Afrika Bambaataa and The Chipmunks.
'Bout time these guys were back with a follow-up to 2009's great The Weirding. And damn, if San Diego prog rockers Astra don't just blast off from the get-go here, 8-minute instrumental opener "Cocoon" being a galloping space rock hoedown indeed. Hold on to your hats. Then they head right into the album's longest piece, the quarter hour title track. Vintage keyboards are set to stun, Astra channelling some Yes "Heart Of The Sunrise" action here, the epic composition veering from the head noddingly heavy to gently sung and and acoustic-y and back again, or all at the same time, and that's just within the first few minutes.
Next up, "Quake Meat" takes both the rocking out/spacing out to each extreme, while "Drift" is more laid back and aptly named... And so it goes, Astra proving themselves again to be one of the best modern prog bands at doing what sure sounds like ye olde '70s prog, but doing it with just enough heaviosity to fit in on the Metal Blade label. Just check inside the (quite nicely graphically designed) cd booklet to see how authentically '70s these guys look - all the requisite long hair, double necked guitars and other gear... one of the polygon-framed photo montages even features an Old English Sheepdog.
You gotta love prog to get into this, but if you do, this band's chopsy synth laden grooving will take you very happily to your special prog place/space!
Slipcased jewel case packaging, as usual with Metal Blade's Rise Above licensed releases.
A while ago we found a cd-r by this mysterious heavy space rock band (they hail from San Diego as it turns out) and thought it was pretty cool. Probably should have tracked 'em down for the store, but never did, sorry. Thankfully however, Astra have popped up again, this time with a proper cd release on the English metal/doom/psych label Rise Above!�(Issued domestically now by Metal Blade.)
Astra is for anyone into the sounds of prog rock yesteryear (i.e. a lot of AQ customers, and us!) especially of the more Floydian, spaced out variety loaded with Mellotron, Moog, Arp, and other tasty synthesizer wooshery. Some flute also makes an appearance which we always like. The eight epic tracks here very obviously hark back to bands like King Crimson and Yes (note the Roger Dean alike cover).
Astra's melodic vocals also sound quite authentically seventies, mellow and moody and sad, which feeds into the doomy feel you might expect from a Rise Above release, this is at least slightly doomy, in a very old school way, with the keyboards getting Uriah Heepish at times. And like we said, they're obviously fans of the band who arguably wrote the first ever metal and/or doom track, King Crimson, whose "21st Century Schizoid Man" predates even Black Sabbath. Speaking of metal, and keyboards, we might recommend this to those into the most recent, most proggy output of local avant metal fave Hammers Of Misfortune. And also to fans of other "young prog" acts we've listed, like England's Diagonal and Sweden's Gosta Berlings Saga. Everything old is new again, maybe it's not that "progressive" anymore in the truest sense of the word, but it's still a sound we like to hear, and bands like Astra and the others mentioned manage to keep the '70s prog spirit alive without seeming too cheesy or pretentiously ponytailed about it. It helps of course that it's on the heavy side, though not to the extent of our favorite San Diego heavy space prog act, Tarantula Hawk (whatever happened to them????).
One of two new releases from the Frequency Thirteen label, home of TRUE SHEFFIELD BLACK PSYCHEDELIA, as in aQ faves like Black Vomit, Ice Bound Majesty, Skulltrol, Dukkha, Rape Rack and others. Elsewhere on this week's list you'll find the new record from Torture Gnosis, a tripped out disc of celestial lo-fi psychedelic synthscapery and blackened cosmic dronemusic, but this here, the debut from Astral Womb, is exactly the opposite, although from the band name we were maybe expecting something 'astral', but instead these guys kick out some serious noiserock grindprog jams, churning downtuned heaviness, wild octopoidal drumming, buzzing guitar crunch, the songs wildly intricate, the band slipping from churning chug to furious grind to mathy metallic pound to lumbering dirgey doom to dense stop/start dynamics. Like some twisted lo-fi hybrid of the Fucking Champs, the Ruins and Loincloth, with some Lightning Bolt thrown in for good measure. It's like math rock, noise rock, grindcore and maybe a little death metal all tangled up into a lurching chunk of wildly rocking avant heaviness. The recording super lo-fi, giving the sound a seriously raw vibe, and be sure and stick around for the last track, an sprawling 8+ minute math heavy progged out epic, that pretty much pushes all of our heavy rock buttons, furious and frenzied, mathy and heavy, loads of stop/starts, even some weird clean guitar jangle, but for the most part, lurching and lumbering, pounding and blasting, the sort of jam that's a total set ender and leaves the crowd a sweaty bloodied exhausted mess. So killer.
LIMITED TO 50 COPIES!!
ATTENTION FINNISH MUSIC FREEKS. Record number two from this far out Finnish big band gypsy jazz ensemble. Our apologies to folks who were after the last record, Questral Places, which went out of print before we had a chance to get more in stock, but we've been bugging AQ pal Pentti, founder of the legendary Deep Turtle and head honcho of the Zerga label, to get us some copies of this newer release, 21st Century Drifting Episode. So we waited and waited, heard nothing for ages, and then one day, a big ol' box of these landed on our doorstep, and we're happy to report it's just as amazing as the other disc.
As we mentioned before, fans of Aavikko would do well to check these guys out, as they have a similar exotic flair, but instead of spy movies and Casios, they take their influence from gypsy folk music, big band jazz, and African music. In fact, if we had to describe this in a sentence, we might say Astro Can Caravan sound like a Finnish version of Ethiopiques 4, which is high praise indeed!
Sultry grooves, funky rhythms, lots and lots of horns, but also drums and synths, drums and percussion and spacey effects. The sound is a mysterious exotica, definitely reminiscent of the Ethiopian Grooves we love so much, but there's enough weird noodly synth and buzzing angular new wave elements to make this appeal to fans of Aavikko and other weird jazz groove whatthefuck. The band pepper their African style grooves with bursts of chaotic free jazz, slabs of buzzing synth abuse, but those moments are few and far between, instead, the band deftly cobble together their own unique sound, funky, and soulful, groovy and spiritual, wild and far out. Some tracks are rollicking and fiery, irresistible and the sort of thing that would send a dancefloor into an absolute frenzy. While others are dark and moody, slithery and slow burning.
If you dig any of the following: Coltrane, Sun Ra, Miles Davis, Fela Kuti, Taraf De Haidouks, Keukhot, Ethiopiques, Okros Ensemble, Aavikko, this band will completely kick your ass, or at least get it out of your seat and shaking.
Features a who's who of the Finnish Underground, including Pentti from Deep Turtle on guitar and mandolin. Produced, strangely enough, by Jussi Saivo of mysterious drone alchemists Tiermes. Packaged in a super striking digipak, and be forewarned, we did get a whole bunch of these, but once we run out it might take a little while to get more.
Okay, heads up Finnish music obsessives, especially you Aavikko freaks! Let us introduce you to this massive freaked out weirdo jazz ensemble Astro Can Caravan, which just so happens to feature members of Cosmo Jones Beat Machine and aQ faves Aavikko. And it sounds like it to!
Featuring more than a dozen players (sometimes as many as 18) this ensemble whips up a dizzying and eclectic world of funky jazzy, psychedelic weirdness. Wild guitars, fuzzed out organs, plenty of horns. Spacey future funk wrapped in outer space FX, Ethiopiques style jazz funk, big band jazz gone haywire, long stretches of free jazz freak out, groovy African jazz. You can definitely hear bits of Coltrane, Miles Davis, Fela Kuti and Sun Ra and of course some Aavikko style space jazz funk freakiness.
Wild and fun, weird and far out. But plenty groovy and jazzy and funky. Perfect dance party music for sure. If you love the Ethiopiques but always wished it was just a little bit more psychedelic and freaked out, well then friends, Astro Can Caravan may be just what you've been hankering for...
Between his two projects Loveliescrushing and Astrobrite, Scott Cortez has been dissecting My Bloody Valentine's epic swansong album "Loveless," and presenting two equally valid extrapolations upon that album. With Loveliescrushing, Cortez and Melissa Arpin-Henry have explored the fragile dreaminess of the MBV sound, while Astrobrite takes on the more explosive noise pop of that album with huge, blissed-out layers of controlled guitar distortion bent into lilting melodies and burying those archetypal Brit-pop constructions found in My Bloody Valentine, Teenage Filmstars, and Ride. While Loveliescrushing offered greater distance between themselves and My Bloody Valentine, Astrobrite's "8 Candy" is a deadringer for "Loveless," right down to the andrgynous vocals (provided all by Cortez). This is one of best of the "Loveless" mimics: as a result, it's nothing new. But, considering what he's paying homage to, Cortez's Astrobrite is pretty great.
Astrobrite is the candy-colored, shoegaze-pop project fronted by Scott Cortez, who's better known for his snowblinded guitar driftscapes in Lovesliescrushing. At one time, Astrobrite was a trio, but Cortez soon adopted the name for his own use; this album appears to be one of the Cortez-only incarnations of Astrobrite, originally released on cd by Clair Records in 2001. For both Lovesliescrushing and Astrobrite, Cortez' guitarwork follows all the great shoegaze guitar impressionists - My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Swervedriver, Ride, etc. - although both projects are the opposite sides of the same coin. Those Lovesliescrushing albums shed pretty much all of the song-structure from the classic shoegazing sound to amass endless waves of softly crushed smears of distortion and oceanic, narcotizing drones. Like Belong and Christian Fennesz, Lovesliescrushing seemed to be pondering what Kevin Shields might have done as an encore for Loveless, but within Astrobrite, Cortez indulges in pure mimesis of shoegaze bliss-pop at its finest. These blown out four-track recordings could easily be some lost set of MBV recordings circa 1989, complete with androgynous whispered vocal harmonies and whammy-bar tone bending. Given the recent retread of washed out noise-pop by way of Pains Of Being Pure At Heart and Beach Fossils, a revisitation into the sugarsmacked sound of Astrobrite makes a hell of a lot of sense. Bright translucent red vinyl and a download coupon complete the package. Nice!
It's funny how suddenly every one has a doom drone dirge project happening. The popularity of Sunn 0))) and Earth and Corrupted and Boris not only has record collectors scrambling for their wallets, but seems to have other musicians scrambling as well, buying bigger amps, more distortion boxes, trying to tune lower and play slower, all of this evidenced by the sudden glut of bands whose influences don't extend much beyond Earth and Sunn 0))). We're not complaining mind you 'cuz you know we can't get enough of that sludgy downtuned dirge! And, you can't give Asva too much grief as bass player Stuart Dahlquist (brother of Silkworm's Michael Dahlquist) was there in the early days, having played in doom dirge metal outfit Burning Witch, and Asva actually feels like a logical extension of his old band. Dahlquist is joined in Asva by guitarist John Schuller and ex-Mr. Bungle guitarist / current Web Of Mimicry head honcho Trey Spruance, as well as an organist (!) and a female vocalist (!). It's these last two elements, as well as a flair for incorporating melody into a sound usuallylight on the melodic end of things, that makes Asva a much more interesting prospect. Of the four extended tracks here, it's the first and the last that hue closest to the Sunn 0))) / Earth template. Huge slabs of ultra distorted guitars, working their way through slow motion riffs, a ponderous plodding metallic crush. On the final track, vocalist Jessika Kenney belts out a one woman chorale, adding a strangely angelic vibe to the proceedings, minor key, but soaring over the slow motion Sabbath beneath, beautiful and haunting in a way few bands like this have managed. The two tracks in between are much more abstract and spare, not in the least but heavy, but still creepy and droney. Track two is all minimal whir and shimmer, slowly shifting and subtly moving through a minimal almost melody. Track three again features Kenney's voalisations, this time though, it's ALL about the vocals, the musical bed is a hushed doomy organ driven drone, endlessly sustaining with occasional super reverbed bass and sizzling barely-there percussion, while Kenney wails and trills, swooping through strange alien melodies, her multi tracked vocals harmonizing with themselves, creating a very bizarre, but thrillingly creepy soundworld. Fans of the genre (sludgedoomdirgedeathdrone) probably already know about this record and know they need it, but folks who have yet to get into this stuff, might find Asva just melodic enough and weird enough to merit further investigation.
As a follow-up to getting the NEW Asva we recently listed (on both formats), they've just now made their debut available on vinyl too... Here's what we said when this first came out on cd back in 2005:
It's funny how suddenly every one has a doom drone dirge project happening. The popularity of SUNNO)) and Earth and Corrupted and Boris not only has record collectors scrambling for their wallets, but seems to have other musicians scrambling as well, buying bigger amps, more distortion boxes, trying to tune lower and play slower, all of this evidenced by the sudden glut of bands whose influences don't extend much beyond Earth and SUNNO))). We're not complaining mind you 'cuz you know we can't get enough of that sludgy downtuned dirge! And, you can't give Asva too much grief as bass player Stuart Dahlquist (brother of Silkworm's Michael Dahlquist) was there in the early days, having played in doom dirge metal outfit Burning Witch, and Asva actually feels like a logical extension of his old band. Dahlquist is joined in Asva by guitarist John Schuller and ex-Mr. Bungle guitarist / current Web Of Mimicry head honcho Trey Spruance, as well as an organist (!) and a female vocalist (!). It's these last two elements, as well as a flair for incorporating melody into a sound usually light on the melodic end of things, that makes Asva a much more interesting prospect. Of the four extended tracks here, it's the first and the last that hue closest to the SUNNO))) / Earth template. Huge slabs of ultra distorted guitars, working their way through slow motion riffs, a ponderous plodding metallic crush. On the final track, vocalist Jessika Kenney belts out a one woman chorale, adding a strangely angelic vibe to the proceedings, minor key, but soaring over the slow motion Sabbath beneath, beautiful and haunting in a way few bands like this have managed. The two tracks in between are much more abstract and spare, not in the least but heavy, but still creepy and droney. Track two is all minimal whir and shimmer, slowly shifting and subtly moving through a minimal almost melody. Track three again features Kenney's vocalizations, this time though, it's ALL about the vocals, the musical bed is a hushed doomy organ driven drone, endlessly sustaining with occasional super reverbed bass and sizzling barely-there percussion, while Kenney wails and trills, swooping through strange alien melodies, her multi tracked vocals harmonizing with themselves, creating a very bizarre, but thrillingly creepy soundworld. Fans of the genre (sludgedoomdirgedeathdrone) probably already know about this record and know they need it, but folks who have yet to get into this stuff, might find Asva just melodic enough and weird enough to merit further investigation.
What You Don't Know Is Frontier is the second release from this heavy droning super group and it's insanely awesome. Densely layered glacial pools of buzzing heaviness, it's no surprise that Asva consists of members of Burning Witch, Goatsnake and SUNNO))) among others. An expansive pallet of guitars, percussion, organs, electronic wind instruments, and vocals, all plunge the listener into a battle between crumbling civilization and the redeeming light at the heart of the storm. Unlike many heavy drone bands who are easily weighed down by a lack of dimension within their music, Asva manages to swiftly guide the listener in and out of finely choreographed movements that unfold with precision musicianship. This is definitely not simply "another drone record" that should be overlooked or dismissed. The range of textures and attention to detail is key here. What You Don't Know is Frontier unfolds more like a soundtrack then a drone record, a refreshing attempt at broadening the genre into a more honest, accessible art form. Highly recommended for fans of anything HEAVY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
These emo punk heroes go big time with the release of "Relationship of Command" on Grand Royal, the Beastie Boys' label. Produced by Ross Robinson of Korn fame! (But don't let that dissuade you.) Sounds amazing, of course -- that's what Andee thinks cos he's already a big fan. For those new to At The Drive-In, these El Paso, Texas, kids are underground wunderkinds, having toured with Rage Against the Machine and honed their Texas-punk-via-DC-influenced sound. Fans of Fugazi and Nation of Ulysses will love this record. Totally aggro, definitely pop, so energizing it's amazing that the disc doesn't explode when you open the package.
Okay so now that a few years have passed and things have sorta flipped around -- i.e, kids are more likely checking out At The Drive In because they dig The Mars Volta (or Sparta for that matter) as opposed to vice versa (which was certainly the case shortly after ATDI disbanded in 2001) -- here's a comprehensive collection of the songs to get the kids up to speed on the ferocious firepower of Omar and Cedric's former emo-punk band.
There's loads of rare material to thrill their fans, both old and new! The cd features 18 tracks total compiled from a bunch of their early releases on the Offtime and Fearless labels, some split 7"s, their Grand Royal album Relationship Of Command such as "One Armed Scissor", as well as one previously unreleased song (a cover of The Smiths' "This Night Has Opened My Eyes"). This Station Is Non-Operational closes with another cover, this one is of Pink Floyd's "Take Up They Stethoscope and Walk".
The dvd includes videos for "Metronome Arthritis", "One Armed Scissor" and "Invalid Litter Dept.", an "Operations Manual" (aka an electronic presskit), their full discography, and some cd-rom extras.
The insert booklet lets the pictures do the talking, jam-packed with tour and live photos, and precious little in the way of liner notes.
