THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
What is it with Moon Duo (and Wooden Shjips) and holidays? Between the two bands, it seems like they've done a special release for most holidays there are. We're holding out for the Groundhog Day single or the Columbus Day cassette. Anyway, while we usually write these sprawling gushing epics about Moon Duo records, we're guessing this one probably doesn't need all that much. It is indeed a special holiday release, in this case, Halloween, even though we didn't receive our copies until well after . It's limited to 1000 copies, AND it's already sold out and out of print at the label, which means these copies we have are the last ones we'll ever be able to get, and while we got a BUNCH, we're guessing they'll still disappear pretty dang quick, especially considering the fact that this might just be our favorite Moon Duo record yet.
The record opens with the sound of footsteps, and a creaking door, scaaary, then the drums come in, the guitars follow, and the song unfolds in druggy organ driven dronerock style, definitely heavy on the Spacemen 3, the guitars dripping with flanger and warm distortion, the vocals laid back and weary, and wreathed in echo, the melody and hook, maybe the catchiest yet, and then the vocals drop out, and that's it for singing, the whole rest of the record is all instrumental. But that opener continues on, the guitars piled up, layer after layer, all tangled up in warm psychedelic swirls, while the rhythm pounds away, and the organ whirs underneath. "Causing A Rainbow" is short and poppy, the guitar muted but distorted and super crunchy, the organ laying down a hazy high end drone underneath, fuzzy and sunshiney, but it's the 10+ minute "Sickener" that might be our favorite, starting out super poppy, softly chugging guitars over billowy organ chords, and chiming soft focus melodies, total krautrock style rhythmic blissout, droney and hypnotic, super minimal and mesmerizing, it's not until about 4 minutes in that anything changes, when a thick, blown out buzz drenched guitar swoops in, and proceeds to grind away over that motorik groove underneath, adding a blurred fuzz guitar gauze over the whole track, that guitar getting wilder and wilder, noisier and more chaotic, eventually erupting into full on chaotic psych shred, the drum machine / organ groove never wavering, even at ten minutes that track is WAY too short. Best MD jam EVER. Finally the record finishes off with the two and a half minute coda "Circle Of Evocation Pt. 2", which is nothing but the processed sound of what seems to be running water, or the sounds of engines or both, blurred into a hazy whir, a strange finish, to a strange, but pretty goddamn great records. And again, this is LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES, each one numbered, these are the last copies there are, so once we run out, it's gone for good.
FINALLY AVAILABLE ON CD! Here's what we said when we reviewed the now out of print vinyl 12" version:
All right! Moon Duo returns with another hazed out transmission from some lost dimension (otherwise known as San Francisco), this one courtesy of the always cool Sacred Bones label. The duo (obviously) features Ripley Johnson from local heroes Wooden Shjips, and their sound is not too far removed from Ripley's main band, maybe a little more ethereal and not quite as overtly "rocking", but definitely following a similar path of hypnotic, fuzzy repetition that we can't get enough of.
Moon Duo are capable of creating powerful songs from very little and they obviously understand the power of simplicity. Each of the four songs on this ep utilize the same hypnotic drum machine groove, altered to various pitches and speeds to accommodate each individual song. The result is like a mechanical heartbeat, throbbing relentlessly with krauty precision, and almost serving as some sort of chain to link each of the songs together. The record begins with "Killing Time", which sounds a bit like a Joy Division part looped forever as the soft, distorted vocals lurk beneath melodic guitars and fuzzy background static. With its buzzing organ and controlled feedback, "Speed" rocks a bit like Suicide augmented by shrieking guitar pulses and, uh, harmonica? Maybe. The cool thing here is how sounds blend together in a cyclone of warm, pulsating analog goodness. At times you are unaware of what you're hearing, and even though it gets noisy and overblown, the results are always catchy and super melodic.
Side 2 begins with "Dead West", which has a cool underwater feel. The song fucks with your perception of time and place, as it could have been recorded 40 years ago or 40 years from now. Sonically, it is a bit reminiscent of fellow California space travelers Sun Araw with its percussive guitar strumming and shimmering psychedelic feel, as a little keyboard melody stands at the center of things while the rest of the sounds oscillate all over the place. "Ripples" gives off a Spacemen 3 vibe as the drumbeat is slowed significantly. The guitars have a nice bit of twang to them, and the sounds once again appear to get caught in some sort of musical whirlpool as they merge together before a cool fadeout.
Picking up where the last ep left off, Killing Time finds Moon Duo descending even deeper into a state of super rhythmic, dreamy psychedelia. Just the way we like it.
When those of us here at aQuarius use the pronoun 'we', we're pretty sure you are all aware this usage is that of the 'royal we' - a singular voice taking on a plurality as a sake of anonymity. So when we say that we went to the Converse store in downtown San Francisco to grab yet another pair of Chuck Taylors, it should be obvious that not all of us were not trying on a single pair of shoes. But when we (in this case, the singular we), were in that store, we were flabbergasted and amazed to be hearing the druggy motorik sounds of Wooden Shjips wafting through the shop as the druggy, dreamy slacker sound seems designed to amplify the themed hipness to further the idea that Chuck Taylors have always been the cool shoes to rock out in. Ripley, the mystery man fronting Wooden Shjips and Moon Duo, seems like a Chuck Taylor dude to us; and we gotta wonder if he were sporting a pair on his feet while rocking out with Moon Duo in Ravenna. This live album is a fantastically recorded document from one of the shows from their 2013 tour, during which Ripley and Sanae Yamada brought on John Jeffery as the drummer to flesh out their sound on stage. His Silver Apples meets Can motorik, psychedelic grooves work perfectly with the fuzzed out organ and trance-rock guitar riffs from the Moon Duo duo proper. Really? There's just 250 copies on blue and white vinyl? Get it while you can...
We'll just spare the long-winded build up and get straight to the point: Moon Duo is the new side project from Ripley, guitarist for San Francisco's psychedelic heroes Wooden Shjips, and it kicks plenty of ass. This lengthy two song ep rocks in a similar, albeit slightly more stripped down way, and like the Shjips, Moon Duo is all about super hypnotic, highly rhythmic repetition with plenty of awesome fuzz guitars and simple but powerful drumming. And like all vinyl only offerings from Ripley's main gig, this is also coming to you in highly limited numbers, so act now or suffer later.
The first track, "Love On The Sea," previously appeared in edited form on a recent Yeti magazine compilation. But really, why would anyone want something coming from a Wooden Shjips dude to be slimmed down to fit on a cd with other groups? Thankfully, the version here uses an entire side to help you get even further lost in its endless melodic grooves. The song comes off as the perfect mix of krauty propulsion with fuzzed out, druggy American garage rock from the '60s, and the lo-fi recording works really well to get you nice and disoriented. Murky vocals, swirling organs and bright guitar accents give you the impression of what it would be like to relax in a room full of strobe lights going full blast, and after a while you can't tell whether the drums are a thumping backbeat or a straightforward groove. Whatever the case, it's sounding damn good to our ears.
On side 2 we have "E-Z Street Ext," which actually sounds a bit like an instrumental minor key version of the song "Down By The Sea" from the Shjips' recent Dos record. There's a nice dose of wild fuzz guitar action, but here the organ takes center stage with its awesome underwater sound. The drums are a steady pound, and as the guitar begins to decay into crumpling waves of distortion, things seem to speed up and build in intensity before arriving at a prolonged cymbal loop which itself appropriately ends in a locked groove.
Again, this is super limited, and if you couldn't already tell, it is absolutely required listening for those who can't get enough Wooden Shjips.
Moon Duo return with their second proper full length, and if you needed any further proof of their masterful grasp of fuzzed out hypnotic grooves, well, look no further. It's almost as if Moon Duo set out to link every one of their records together as one gigantic pulsating trip into your mind, and Mazes takes you further in. Mazes. Hmm. Like the magic eye cover for their Catch As Catch Can single, the eyeball warping artwork seems to be a perfect visual accompaniment to the awesome brain-melting confusion of the music itself.
Kicking off with "Seer", the duo conjure the hazy underwater sound they've utilized before with a rhythm that walks the line between spaced out acid rock and minimal electro grooves with some of the clearest Moon Duo vocals to date. "Mazes" offers a slight departure from the usual murk, sounding poppy and jangly in the vein of other San Francisco popsmiths like the Fresh And Onlys or the Mantles. It rides out with a sort of pre-1965 surf rock feel that makes this a perfect jam for your next sun baked road trip. "Scars" shifts the mood into darker terrain like some fractured Suicide / Doors hybrid. The heavy vibrato keeps things percolating while the organ occasionally shifts into a spooky little interlude recalling Kraftwerk's "The Model". The song also strangely makes us think of Steppenwolf's "Born To Be Wild", an association which is taken to the next logical step with the aggressive "Fallout". The album concludes with "Goners", a midtempo jam that makes it feel like you are walking into the perfect fadeout to an album which will remain playing in your head nonstop for quite some time. Moon Duo have never let us down, and it doesn't seem that'll change anytime soon...
Remixes from an aQ-beloved list of names including SONIC BOOM, PSYCHIC ILLS, CAVE, PURLING HISS, and GARY WAR. Plus the unknown to us Eagle Boston covering the song "Mazes". That's some heady company for sure! This begins with Moon Duo spiritual forefather Sonic Boom's take on "Scars", which is given some ambient distance with the handclaps brought to the center while the song carries on below the surface. YESSSSSSSSSSSSS. Psychic Ills' remix of "Seer" is given a rad sitar melody over the skeletal rearrangement while the simple shaker percussion helps further the feeling of listening to this in some opium den in the middle of the desert. aQ favorites Cave are up next with the "Organ Desert Mix" for "Run Around" which aptly lives up to its title by injecting blasts of lazer guided synth squall and holding a heavy 4-on-the-floor beat while also retaining its strange bluesy feel. Of course, before too long things take off into space and, shit, it sounds GOOD. Purling Hiss tackles "In The Sun", which immediately announces itself as the standout on this sucker, opening with abstracted noise and the stand alone vocals, before launching itself sleazily into the troposphere with a merciless drum pound and insane wah abuse. FUCK YEAH! "When You Cut" finds Gary War running the duo through some pitch shifted weirdness hanging murkily under a crisp drumbeat, providing the weirdest reinterpretation here, like a bad acid trip in a good way. Sonic Boom returns to the controls for "Fallout", transmitting the song from some far off region in space. Not sure who this Eagle Boston thing is, but their hypercharged female sung cover of "Mazes" finds the band perfectly at home on the aQ shelf alongside groups like Mugstar, Bardo Pond, Lumerians, and all the rest. In fact, with a slight amount of hesitation, we might add that more than one aQ staffer thought the remix record was just as good as the album itself... So recommended!
The hypnotically throbbing sound of Moon Duo might seem deceptively simple (but effective!) and yeah, we kinda knew we would know what to expect on this, Moon Duo's third full-length studio album, which boasts a cool cover painting that looks like it belongs on some '70s psychology textbook. The checklist: steady, mesmerizing rhythms (this time, involving a live drummer in lieu of their previous drum machine, making the Duo now in fact a trio), lots of tripped out guitar (from the Wooden Shijps saijlor in the band, Ripley Johnson, a past master of psychedelic guitar soloing), dueting angelic/stoned male and female vocals, and glorious droning keyboards, all bringing back memories of the likes of Neu!, Suicide, and the Spacemen 3.
But that doesn't make it any less enjoyable, and actually Shadow Of The Sun, while keeping to the successful Moon Duo formula, offers a range of pleasurable variants, some tracks like "Wilding" highlighting the meandering hippie guitar element, others like "Zero" honing in on a post punk, cold wave vibe - which gets even more intense on the urgent, uptempo "Animal" (that's the album-closer on the cd edition, and the song on the 7" single that comes with the vinyl version). And earlier in the set, "Free The Skull" brings out Moon Duo's modish '60s organ groove for go-go dancers side, kind of, amidst the hypno-jamming. Plus there's great melodies to be found on here, all over the place. So chalk another one up for Moon Duo, long may they vibrate!
Note: LP is limited edition red vinyl while they last, and comes with that "Animal" 7", and a digital download. The cd includes "Animal" too, and doesn't need a download.
Just in! 2nd pressing, now on red instead of green vinyl! If you've still got the holiday spirit, and haven't grabbed one yet, now's your chance before they're gone again...
Along with the recently reissued 12" of holiday faves by Wooden Shjips, WS mainman Ripley Johnson gets similarly festive with his WS offshoot spacekraut combo Moon Duo, which finds Johnson and his partner Sanae Yamada tackling one Christmas classic, and another obscure winter themed cover.
Up first is "Silver Bells, which we had heard described as "Silver Bells meets Silver Machine", but barring the swirls of reverb and the echo-ey vox, the band play it pretty straight, offering up one of the poppiest bounciest jams we've heard from these two. The perfect hazy blur of wasted Christmas cheer for sure.
The flipside finds the band tackling a fairly obscure Rolling Stones track, titled appropriately enough, "Winter", from the Stones' Goats Head Soup record, no one here remembers what the original sounds like exactly (the label describes it accurately as a 'deep cut'), but in the Moon Duo's hands it just becomes another gorgeously washed out smear of spidery glistening guitars, whirling gauzy keyboards, and tripped out reverbed vocal mumbles, all drifting in a wastedly warbly haze, that reminds us way more of the Velvets than the Stones.
A little spacey, a little krautrocky, a little dream poppy, a little Christmasy, but as always, droning and druggy and divine...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
One of the four brand new Bardo Pond related releases on Important, Moon Phantoms is the mystically monickered dream team of Bardo Pond, Alasehir, and Japanese guitar noise masters Suishou No Fune! And if you're not totally sold yet, take it from us, this is two killer sides of dreary, drugged-out, improvised avant-rock for deep listeners only! Quiet guitar wanderings, distant bells and percussion, Suishou No Fune's signature vocal bursts, all slowly evolving into slow driven instrumentals with pounding drums and epic atmospheric noise guitar. Reminds us a lot of Hash Jar Tempo with a dark, sinister twist. According to Pirako Kurenai of Suishou No Fune, the band name came from a recent tour with Alasehir in which both bands discovered a peaceful likeness with the moon amidst the stresses of being on the road. Which makes sense because the album totally possesses this dark and ominous, but peaceful quality, like being at the beach at night or in a forest cabin in the dead of winter. Beautifully and masterfully improvised, this is all killer and no filler, each note lifted into the air and left to fall back to the ground with perfect placement. Beautifully epic and musically rich, limited to an edition of 500, don't miss out on this nocturnal gem!
We made the debut lp from Moon Pool & Dead Band our Record Of The Week a while back, a sort of techno offshoot of industrial noise outfit Wolf Eyes, although as we made clear in our review of that record, there wasn't a real techno element, instead the sound was more of a synth heavy psychedelic trip out, a sound that definitely made the fact that the record was on space/psych rock label Agitated, make a little bit more sense. Druggy, synthy, krautrocky, kosmische, needless to say we were super excited for this follow up 12", and like the lp, we were immediately thrown for a bit of a loop. This one isn't really techno either, not exactly, it's more, well, sort of disco, a bizarre strain of alien funk space disco really. Sounds weird and it is, especially considering it's Wolf Eyes guys, but the move to Not Not Fun definitely makes more sense.
The side long "Human Fly", starts things off with a weirdo alien dancefloor groove, all low fidelity squelch and primitive drum machine, churning rhythms under thick low end buzz and rumble, and some weird house-y stutter, it's an extended mesmerizing minimal spacedisco groove that plays like an old school extended disco 12", albeit one that's a bit more muddy and murky and lo-fi and woozily warped.
The B side opens with "The Jagged Orbit", which is heavy on the eighties disco, but again, a sort of warped psychedelic variant, the vibe murky and totally soundtracky, laced with glitchy FX, lots of hum and buzz and squelch, minimal and motorik and seriously mesmerizing. Which leads right into "Cyber Rebels", a final does of alien funk, a looped and loping groove equal parts vintage dancefloor disco and warped woozy electro. Not at all what we were expecting, but cool nonetheless. Folks who loved the first Moon Pool might be in for a bit of a surprise!
We weren't entirely sure what to expect from a band called Moon Pool & Dead Band, we were even less sure when we saw the super bizarre cover, a striking painting of a family, standing in some sort of sewer, looking out at a post-apocalyptic wasteland, the mother holding what appears to be a dead child, the father consoling her with one hand, clutching a bat in the other, the sky choked with factory smog. What we do know, is we weren't expecting THIS. It's definitely space rock and definitely psychedelic, which puts it at least marginally in Agitated's wheelhouse, there are no guitars, at all, and the sound seems to be entirely synthesizers, and the occasional drums, but we're not disappointed at all! It's definitely not like anything we've heard before, which made even more sense when we discovered that Moon Pool & Dead Band is in fact a 'techno' offshoot of Wolf Eyes, although we're not hearing much actual techno here, instead, it's a sprawling sea of synths swirling and buzzing, occasionally coalescing around minimal motorik beats (hence the techno?), the background rife with glitches and squelches, the band locking onto long stretches of super druggy, synthy drift, getting loopy here and there and sounding a bit like a space rock High Wolf, there are a few moments of goofy almost Perrey and Kingsley style bloop and bleep, the opener on the B side woozy and playful, and a bit of a strange standout moment, but on both sides there's plenty of blurred ambient shimmer, and pulsing mesmerizing psych-synth drift, sort of the perfect mix between psychedelic space rock, and that new wave of Carpenter / Goblin influenced cinematic synthscapery. Recommended to both camps, but probably more so to folks with a foot in each!
LIMITED TO 700 COPIES!!
Imagine some twisted blown out psychedelic hybrid of Vibracathedral Orchestra and Fushitsusha, and you'd probably come up with something very much like this latest lp from a Scottish power trio called Moon Unit. Five sprawling space/psych jams, that slip from dark and droney to explosive and in-the-red and everywhere in between.
The record begins with some washed out shimmery free form krautfolk drift, psychedelic and kosmische, like Vibracathedral or Avarus or Sylvester Anfang, gauzy clouds of softly tangled melody drift and swirl over spare percussion, fuzzy tendrils of guitar woven into lush landscapes of blurred beauty, but it's a smoldering slow build to something much more intense and aggressive, subtly explosive crescendos surface throughout, guitars growing ever more frenzied and distorted, the drums slip from skitter to pound, long keening tones are laid over choppy seas of rhythmic churn, until finally, the band unleash full on space psych blowouts, crumbling and explosive and fierce and fiery and so intense.
The sound is not so easily classified though, this is not just a psychedelic Godspeed, the sound veers wildly from face melting almost metallic fury, to full on Japanese style white heavenly noise, to distorted krautrock grooves, the drums chaotic on second, locked tight the next, everything wreathed in some sort of incandescent shimmer, that somehow makes the heaviest noisiest bits beautiful, and makes the beautiful bits mysterious and otherworldly.
The record closes with a murky effects heavy free psych workout, disembodied melodies collide with rhythmic shards, swirling swooping effects and crumbling riffage, glimmery and shimmery but still damaged and dark and distorted and totally intense. So good.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!
Is 'Moon' the new 'Wolf' or 'Skull'?, could be, as lately some of our favorite records have been coming from bands like Moon Duo, Moon Unit and The Soft Moon. Now we get to add Moonbell to the awesome list of psych driven moon moniker bands that we've been digging. We'd been having a lot of folks asking us about this band before we heard them, seems folks around town knew that this was a great new San Francisco band to take notice of. With a sound equally influenced by shoegaze and drugged out rock, Moonbell sound exists in some really awesome place right between Spacemen 3 and early Ride, Swervedriver, and Chapterhouse. Lilting vocals, soaring and dazed guitars all in a smoky vapor of entrancement. Such a great debut!
We sorta flipped for these local shoegazers when we first heard their Figurine ep a while back, and had been anxiously waiting for a full length ever since, and now that it's here, we're happy to report that it more than fulfills the promise of those first four songs, the hazy drug rock of that debut even more lush and lustrous this time around, the production cranked way up, the guitars thick and layered and lustrous, the vocals reverbed and echo drenched, Moonbell's 4AD shimmer wreathed in a gauzey otherworldly blur, still obviously beholden to nineties shoegazers like Ride, Swervedriver, Medicine and of course the godfathers of slow-mo drug rock Spacemen 3, but taking the sound and adding their own twist, the ethereal female vocals and the buzzing guitars a heady mix, and when wedded to a lumbering skeletal beat, the sound becomes a blissed out psychedelic slowcore dreampop, while on other tracks, the group up the tempo and crank the FX and send pinwheels of smeared melody and chiming guitars into the ether.
Our favorites definitely tend to be the slower jams, the group locked into mesmerizing hypnorock grooves, pulsing and pulsating through billowing clouds of wild guitar tangle beneath thick crumbling chordal swells, minor key and melancholic, the sounds swirling drowsily in epic expanses of glimmering sonic bliss, culminating in the chiming shimmerpop of closer "White Light", which infuses the group's sound with long streaks of thick layerd buzz and shards of crumbling distortion, all underpinned by a soft almost lullaby like melody. Gorgeous stuff.
Includes a download coupon (and there may also be a cd version we'll be able to get too).
We couldn't be more excited that this has become available once again. We were blown away by this collection when it was first released a few years back but it became impossible to restock, until now! We finally have enough to share our love of the lesser known yet equally dazzling music Moondog made in the later years of his life. We recently listed the reissues of his early LP's from the '50s, and how remarkable that this man could have crafted such amazing creative music back then and continue to do so all the way up to his passing, four decades later!!!
The German Years documents the last two decades of Moondog's amazing and eccentric life when he was living in Germany, taken in by a family who supported him so he could devote all his time to creating music. An incredible collection of songs composed for pipe organ, string quartet, voice, chamber ensemble, piano, saxophone and more. Completely other worldly and what we would want a holy church devoted to the purity and sanctity of music to sound like.
The second disc is a recording of his last ever live performance recorded in France in 1999, just five months before he would pass away. Centered mostly on his piano pieces, the show is majestic and totally moving. The cds are packaged in a gorgeous hard cardboard package and includes a 44 page booklet of notes, photos, lyrics, interviews, essays, etc. Essential for Moondog fans, and when we really think about it if you just have a deep love of music chances are you either already love Moondog or you have yet to hear his music and once you do you will for sure be blown away!
More MC5 worship from this hard-rockin retro combo named after Can's two singers, even though this is totally Detroit not Deutschland. Good fun, if derivative.
No, this band has nothing to do with the seminal German band Can nor with their two vocalists Malcolm Mooney and Damo Suzuki. Expecting a little krautrock? Think again. Think NYC rock'n'roll, baby. That's right. "People Get Ready" is a dozen sweaty badass numbers. With plenty of soul and bluesy firepower. Where else but on Estrus Records? Recorded by Tim Kerr.
We were first turned on to the Moonhearts when their vocalist/bassist Mikal Cronin teamed up with Ty Segall for a smoking collaboration on a 7" that sadly went out of print before we could even get it in the store. We remember when it came out, Ty Segall telling us how we had to look out for the band Mikal was in with this kid named Charlie, called Charlie & The Moonhearts, and that we just HAD to hear 'em. The band soon dropped the Charlie from their moniker and became The Moonhearts, and then we started to hear some of their songs on various compilations and 7"s and finally saw them live and were totally blown away. The debut full length is one of the most fuzzed out, on-fire slabs of wax to come out this year. For sure similar in sound and spirit to lots of Ty Segall's earliest recordings, an awesome combination of garage rock grit stripped of any fat and overflowing with full on punk conviction.
Start to finish this record absolutely kills, from all out blazing in the red rippers to some more stripped down raw psychedelic garage pop. "Deathstar Pt.2" might just be one of our favorite songs of the year, making us think of The Misfits doused with even more distortion and raw spirit. Just when we thought we might be burning out on fucked up and fried garage rock, Moonhearts come so correct on this LP, showing us that they are one of the best around at this sound and so deserve to be heard by anyone and everyone who digs that sound...
We found a handful of titles, maybe only 5 or 6 of each, from Aussie label Diagnosis� Don't! We've had these for ages, and odds are these are long gone as they were pretty limited to begin with, but for a few of you, here's your chance to grab one (or all) of these super limited 3" cd-r's.
Moonmilk are another Australian combo, who specialize in lo-fi experimental ambience, utilizing keyboards, loops, effects, guitars, microphones, tapes, melodica and other noise making devices, this duo whip up some seriously dense blur, a warm whirring landscape of wheezing melodies, throbbing low end, swirling hiss, gorgeous languorous layered drones, random percussion, lo-fi but lush, minimal but expansive, definitely some dreamdrone goodness for the freedrone cd-r set. Two tracks, 12 minutes. Definitely like to hear more from these two....
Packaged in thick cardstock mini 3" sleeves, with a printed (band name, label info, liner notes) Japanese style obi. And again, we only have a VERY FEW of these....
Moonrises are the latest in a long line of psychedelic revivalists, many of whom we revere here at aQ, whether it's White Hills, or Carlton Melton, The Heads or Wooden Shjips, but these guys (and gal) have a leg up on lots of their psychedelic brethren in that they're led by none other than Plastic Crimewave, who oughta have a PhD in psychedelia at this point, and here, he puts that knowledge to work, crafting a gorgeous, intense, druggy and heavy modern psych rock that manages to channel jammed out space rock, with witchy occultic seventies acid folk, organ heavy prog and tranced out krautrock into some seriously heavy musical mayhem.
The opening one-two punch of the first two tracks definitely sets the stage, buzzing synths, dramatic female vocals, minimal drumming, soft swirls of guitar shimmer, woozy organ melodies, the vibe very witchy and demonic, keyboardist Libby Ramer's vocals a force of nature, slipping from whispery croon, to deep ominous drone to banshee like wail, the first track starting off all minimal and moody, but gradually building to a fierce psych rock blow out, the organ and guitar all tangled up in thick gouts of wah wah whirl, the drums wild and chaotic, the whole thing droned out and trancey, a fierce opener for sure, but it only get more fierce from there.
The second track, "Lorelei's Grasp" begins as a rumbling drone, which is soon joined by more of the creepy organ, some crumbling guitar noise, bursts of drum splatter, a free form space noise drift, that coalesces into some dense dark progginess, the organ letting loose a super intense minor key melody, the drums following with along, Ramer's vocals going crazy, a maniacal trill, a woman possessed, the whole thing so tense and intense, and unlike any of the so called space/psych rock we've been hearing. This could totally be some lost rare psych artifact, not just the sound, but the spirit, and the energy, the song settles down, and drones out, but soon, erupts into a final squall that sounds almost triumphant. Wow.
And so it goes, Moonrises effortlessly channeling the lost psychedelic seventies, the sonic spirits revealed through distorted organ buzz, and wild tangles psych guitar, deep chant like vocals, and skittering motorik rhythms, druggy clouds of hazy soft noise shimmer, but it's not all straight retro revival. The band are capable of seriously fucking shit up, check out "Eyelid Chamber", which sounds less like old psych folk, and more like some modern freakout avant noise rock, dizzying drumming, wrapped in thick organ drones, and peppered with swirling shards of jagged guitar crunch, before finally coalescing into a song proper, but even then it sounds like something more more modern, dirgey and grungey and heavy. Elsewhere they get into some tripped out rhythmic experimentalism, droney and woozy and looped, other descriptions we've seen mention This Heat and the Dead C, and yeah, there's a little of that going on, but to our ears, it's simply an extension of their tranced out psych, which already contains elements of both. Incredible stuff! Fans of all the current crop of psych/space revivalists, this is for YOU. And fans of the old stuff, who only dig the REAL thing, this could be the band that flips your lid and changes your mind.
One of these Moore Brothers is a lad by the name of Thom. Y'know... of sweethearts Nedelle And Thom! Yup, and his brother is Greg. Their overall sound is heartfelt acoustic folk with definite shades of Beatles, Elliott Smith and Robyn Hitchcock, along with warm vocal harmonies reminiscent of Simon & Garfunkel. The brothers alternate songs on this album, seven a piece. Thom's are the odd numbered and Greg's are the even. Thom's are the more straightforward, sweetly romantic, folk pop songs, while Greg's are a little bit more unconventional and atmospheric. A great side by side pairing of songs in which this contrast is most clearly exemplified are "Color And Kind" and "Unexpected Gusts Of Wind". Can you guess who wrote which? So dreamy! Who wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of the abovementioned "Color And Kind"? Oops, did we give it away? If you loved Nedelle & Thom's Summerland, then you very well might feel the same for Now Is The Time For Love. Sigh!
The Bros. do "Fishes With Faces", VNC do "Harm Guitar".
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Before things such as 'indie-rock' or 'DIY' were phenomena of cool, R. Stevie Moore started hometaping his own pop songs over 30 years ago with a naive style that even Rolling Stone magazine recognized, by naming Moore's album 'Phonographie' to its list of the 50 most influential records of all time. With over 1000 (yes over one thousand!) songs, 14 albums, and 250 cassettes, it may be difficult to judge which R. Stevie Moore records would be worth owning. The Future Is Worse Than The Past is a best-of compilation of Moore's work which collects his quirky pop sensibility (which parallels such intentionally naive indie rockers as Calvin Johnson and Mark Robinson) onto a single CD. Did we mention that he has no car?
John Carpenter. Goblin. Eighties sci-fi soundtracks. If those words have you frothing at the mouth, then this is for you. Also consider the facts: 2 new songs by 1/2 of Zombi, synth wizard Steve Moore, pressed onto limited edition 10" vinyl by Brooklyn's Mexican Summer label. They made just 500 copies, we only got a dozen. 'Nuff said? Another chunk of gloriously grooving yet sinister instrumental electronic sci-fi spaceouts, that sound like they could have been lifted straight out of some late night, straight to video, lost Carpenter flick. It of course sounds quite a bit like Steve's band Zombi, and thus suggest the above mentioned soundtrack music, but could also (like some of Zombi's output too) find a spot in a stargazing "cosmic disco" DJ's set.
Soaring synths, pulsing rhythms, fuzzy synthesized bass, mournful minor key melodies, primitive programmed rhythms, dramatic and moody and mysterious, so totally evocative and dreamy, and a bit cheesy, but in a good way. Shades of Tangerine Dream, this is definitely at the crossroads of spacey sci fi synth music and new age drift, bloopy and bleepy, almost video game sounding at times, but more often like the mood music from Phantasm or Halloween, where the main character is driving along the dark roads, it's probably raining, and while it's not explicitly scary yet, darkness and danger lurk just up ahead.
Ethereal and washed out, minimal and even a bit cold wave, this is total cinematic sci-fi new age space prog dream synth bliss.
Gorgeous packaging, extra thick vinyl, LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, each one machine numbered...
Last list, we had Solar Maximum, the new one from Majeure, aka Zombi drummer A.E. Paterra. It was all kinds of cosmic synth new age disco-tinged bliss, naturally. And, as we mentioned then, there's also a new solo album from the OTHER half of the Zombi duo, Mr. Steve Moore. Here 'tis, Light Echoes, released on the venerable prog rock/new music label Cuneiform, which is kind of like when a modern '80s styled heavy metal band like In Solitude or Slough Feg gets signed to Metal Blade.
Moore is not to be outdone by Majeure, delivering the spacey, synthy, shimmering hypno-minimalism over six tracks, the last one ("Ancient Shorelines II") stretching out for nearly a half-hour...
Any fan of the more melodic and atmospheric side of Zombi (or Majeure), should find Moore's glowing and glimmering electronic pulsations here quite enjoyable.
This might be called Light Echoes, and it has its blissful moments for sure, but it's not all light and fluffy, not at all. "Aldebran Exchange" is super moody gloomy piece, leaning heavily on pitched-down drones. So, throughout, there's some shades of somber darkness to these echoes of light.
The short, one sentence review: it's the debut solo album from keyboard player from AQ fave Goblinesque math rock duo Zombi, and if you like Zombi, you'll probably really like this! More details, if necessary... Well, a little tizzy of controversy got started here at Aquarius when we scoped the sticker that Relapse stuck on the front of these cds. To quote, "The Henge is a huge, psychedelic, symphonic affair with Moore's patented cinematic brand of keyboard driven horror score virtuosity. For fans of Delia Gonzalez and Gavin Russom, Black Ice, Brian Eno, Ash Ra Tempel, Robert Fripp's 'Frippertronics', Heldon". No denying that this sounds quite a bit like all of that, it describes this pretty well. But we must take exception to the use of the word "patented"! Did Heldon, Goblin, John Carpenter et.al. all forget to contact the government, and then wily Steve Moore slipped in and got the patent!? Huh. Poor choice of words, "patented". But we know what they meant. It's the sound that Zombi is known for (being infuenced by) and they do it really well, and that's what this sounds like, basically Zombi without the drummer, if anything more '70s and cinematic sounding, also really sci-fi cosmic.
To his credit, Moore doesn't overtly pull out the ol' "imaginary soundtrack" concept, but he sure could have. In fact some of the more bombastic moments it seems like he's just waiting for Hollywood to come knockin', to score their next horror blockbuster. Elsewhere, at the very least this could be the most sinister soundtrack to a PBS documentary ever! Alternatively, we might describe this as New Age nightmare music. Moore's minimal-wave soundscapes, full of nervous rhythms, ominous drones, & electronic symphonics, are tense yet often deceptively pleasant. It's paranoid, menacing Muzak that hypnotizes like an unholy mix of A.R.& Machines and Dave Borden's Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Co., plus all the other names dropped in the blurb quoted above. A fine follow up to Surface To Air, even thought it's not technically a Zombi album!
Not sure what else to say about these two guys that we haven't already. Together in the group Zombi, and on their own, they are the modern masters of the not so modern art of John Carpenter / Goblin style psychedelic space synth futuristic-retro faux soundtrackery, and here both get to share a record and do what they do best. Moore offers up 4 tracks of THAT sound, one we can't seem to get enough of, and apparently neither can most of you: swirling sci-fi synths, pulsing rhythms, tense and cinematic, the occasional stretch of swooshy new age shimmer, but heavy on the eighties soundtrack vibe, and rife with some darkly dirgey drama, a mini-song cycle that definitely works as a whole.
Which perfectly counters Majeure, who takes up the whole B side with a three part 20+ minute epic, ditching much of the synth-disco-kraut sound that so defined previous outings, or at least the disco part of the equation, instead building a hushed and ominous dronescape, super minimal, very soundtracky, the second movement finds the sound blossoming into something more Tangerine Dreamy, cosmic and psychedelic, before eventually, for the last few minutes, returning to a sort progged out kraut-disco coda to finish things off!
Killer psychedelic sand-hand cover art. Include a download coupon as well!
We were just raving recently about Thurston Moore's beautiful solo acoustic guitar meditations record released on VDSQ a little while back, and now he follows it up with an album some of his most intimate and inviting songs yet. Demolished Thoughts demonstrates a side of Moore's songwriting that is often blurred in the layers and velocity of his long running group Sonic Youth, but loosed from that noise and bombast, these songs are revealed as perhaps some of the dreamiest you will hear all year. If you are like us, and ever daydreamed about what an entire record filled with songs that sound like the first six minutes of "The Diamond Sea" would sound like, then this is one of those amazing moments when a wish gets granted, and exceeds that far fetched fantasy.
With Samra Lubelski adding violin, Moore playing his acoustic with sensual perfection, and songs sprinkled with harp by Mary Lattimore, its an album that perfectly captures the drifting and pastoral side of Moore's musical vision, which has also been a more subtle part of his signature sound. Beck was at the helm of the production for this record, and we have to say we think we might be liking him more these days in that role than on his own records (check out Charlotte Gainsbourg's IRM, for more proof). In fact there are some elements of Demolished Thoughts, that echo Beck's downer masterpiece "Sea Change." What's so remarkable about this album is that alongside its elegance, Moore maintains his voice and vision to the core. Highly recommended!
A man of so many moods and modes, Thurston Moore continues to create all sorts of music and sounds, as wide in scope as the insane record collection we know he has. Earlier this year Sonic Youth gave us a fantastic, and very much pop minded album with Rather Ripped, so we had a feeling that Thurston might be itching to unleash his more experimental side. Flipped Out Bride features two long droning guitar pieces that show Thurston practicing restraint briefly before unleashing some intense guitar brutality. Once again proving himself to be a direct descendent of NY guitar legends like Glen Branca, Rhys Chatham and LaMonte Young. There is a focus, subtly and sharp vision to this recording that sometimes seems to be lacking in Moore's other experimental outings. We really like him in this drone-like setting a lot more than when he try's to get his free-jazz skronk on. Nice!
For all the praise that's heaped on Thurston Moore whenever his name or his band Sonic Youth come up, it's sometimes easy to forget what an amazing and unique guitar player he really is. Sure he's in one of the coolest bands EVER, and he's proven to be an adventurous music maker in the avant-garde, and yeah he looks so rad when rocking out on stage, but beyond all that, is a truly spiritual connection to the guitar which he's been able to channel into creating some of the best music of the last quarter century.
We were excited to discover that this album was just Moore playing acoustic guitar, as we really love to hear him play sans pedals and crazy effects, 'cause he manages to still conjure up incredible sounds, creating such sensual and pleasing results from just 12 steel strings. Recorded in loving memory of Jack Rose, these 12-string meditations are some of the most soulful and chilling tracks that Moore has ever recorded. It's so cool that even while playing acoustic, you can hear so many of the trademark guitar sounds and styles that have found their way into Sonic Youth songs over the years. We know that he puts out lots of one off solo recordings or collaborations and it can be hard to keep up sometimes, but do not sleep on this one, it's one of the finest recordings of his mind blowing career.
Whoa! Thurston sure knows how to keep himself occupied and totally balanced, if not bipolar. After releasing two of his prettiest and acoustic based solo records, the song based Demolished, and the self explanatory Solo Acoustic Vol. 5 - 12 String Meditations For Jack Rose, he goes the exact opposite route and releases one of his most fucked up and noisy solo guitar records ever. Suicide Notes For Acoustic Guitar, is in fact a cd-r filled with relentless blasts of electric guitar way in the red and filled with an urgency that never takes a breath. In fact it's got the same kind of crazy intensity and bleeding guitar sounds that can be found on records from folks like Mainliner, High Rise, Keiji Haino, Wolf Eyes, Skullflower etc. But within all this psychedelic noise you can still totally hear his patented approach to guitar playing lurking there all the time right beneath the crushing pace and voltage that blasts out of these tracks from start to finish. Who else in their early '50s can thrash and destroy with this much energy and passion on one record, while getting so dreamy and beautiful on another. The man is a legend for a reason! And while we found the title confusing, we now realize its true meaning, that these are the sorts of sounds that would drive an acoustic guitar to end it all!
Unflaggingly familiar is The Best Day, the first solo record by Thurston Moore since the dissolution of Sonic Youth, if we and everyone else are not to consider Chelsea Light Moving a solo project of Moore's with a couple of likeminded avant-rock noiseniks. There's plenty of bad blood that Moore may need to overcome thanks to the refuse that spilled forth from the dissolution of his marriage with Kim Gordon; but it seems that via both Chelsea Light Moving and The Best Day, Moore is doing his a damn good job of overcoming all of that crap by making a couple of damn good records. It's been long known that the slipstream noise-pop jams that Moore wrote for Sonic Youth, with their Mack truck riffs balanced with avant-geek noodliness and craftsman-like ease, made for the strongest tunes in Sonic Youth's dense catalog. Even more so than the first solo 'pop' album for Moore, the languid Psychic Hearts from 1995, The Best Day recalls everything that we love about Sonic Youth. Those long-form post-pop passages of chiming guitars, his pleading vocal delivery that still has a youthful demeanor despite his elder statesman status, hypnotic unboringness of charmed motorik jangle, unconventional tunes providing occasionally strident overtones that are quelled with a beautifully turned chord change, and pretty much everything else you might love about a Sonic Youth song, well except for the obvious absence of Gordon and Lee Ranaldo. Moore did recruit the much under appreciated timekeeper Steve Shelley for drum duty and Deb Googe of My Bloody Valentine on bass. A jubilant record for sure, and one that is more than worthy of your attention!
On his first song based solo outing since 1995's Psychic Hearts, Thurston shows us that he's not afraid of the acoustic guitar or even super pretty melodies. With a great supporting cast at his side including J. Mascis, Samara Lubelski, Gown, Christina Carter, Leslie Keifer and his SY comrade Steve Shelley, Moore has made a superb rock record that shows off his great songwriting skills and his surprisingly dreamy touch. While Moore is usually thought of in regards to electricity and his fondness for noise, it's always been his sprawling guitar playing and ability to make rock songs that swoon with such dignity and grace that we think makes him so special. It should come as no surprise then that Trees Outside The Academy has a sound and feeling that is pretty reminiscent of recent Sonic Youth outings like Rather Ripped and Murray Street, but stripped down to their core with lush violin accompaniment on many of the tracks, and Moore's instantly recognizable guitar playing and vocals. Thurston continues shine, proving once again that he is never going to fade away, not with so many great songs still hidden up his sleeves!
Now on lp, and not just a regular old lp, a super cool picture disc!
On his first song based solo outing since 1995's Psychic Hearts, Thurston shows us that he's not afraid of the acoustic guitar or even super pretty melodies. With a great supporting cast at his side including J. Mascis, Samara Lubelski, Gown, Christina Carter, Leslie Keifer and his SY comrade Steve Shelley, Moore has made a superb rock record that shows off his great songwriting skills and his surprisingly dreamy touch. While Moore is usually thought of in regards to electricity and his fondness for noise, it's always been his sprawling guitar playing and ability to make rock songs that swoon with such dignity and grace that we think makes him so special. It should come as no surprise then that Trees Outside The Academy has a sound and feeling that is pretty reminiscent of recent Sonic Youth outings like Rather Ripped and Murray Street, but stripped down to their core with lush violin accompaniment on many of the tracks, and Moore's instantly recognizable guitar playing and vocals. Thurston continues shine, proving once again that he is never going to fade away, not with so many great songs still hidden up his sleeves!
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All we can say is we hope none of you were duped into buying the super limited lp version of this here record, at the very unfriendly cost of $100!!! What the fuck?!? Okay, sure it had an original piece of artwork, but that's a bit ridiculous, ESPECIALLY considering they are all coming out on cd. Anyway, this is the first in My Cat Is An Alien's series of limited lp / now cd collaborations with other band they dig and respect. Volume one sees the Italian psychspacefolk duo teaming up with Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore. Moore's track is, to be quite honest, super annoying. It may have morphed into something appropriately dreamy or soothing, but we didn't make it that far, the first half is an endlessly ear piercing plinking on the high keys of a piano. Brutal. The MCIAA track is much more appealing, a shimmery, blooping bleeping journey through outer space, instruments are rendered indistinct in crafting a soundscape of swooshes and whirs, dark and moody and expansive. Quite beautiful. Worth it for the MCIAA track alone. Perhaps the Moore track does merit further investigation, but it will have to be for one with ears made of stronger stuff.
While his outings this year have shown the gentler side of Thurston Moore's music making, those who love his noisy leanings need not fear. On this split with Talk Normal, the Sonic Youth guitarist shows he still loves to go as raw and in the red as possible. With three short blasts of guitar driven noise that hark back to his no-wave roots. So it makes sense that on the flipside are Talk Normal, who are very much influenced by that same early '80s damaged New York scene that Moore was a part of. Their song is a slow paced drugged out and dusty slab of fucked up glory. Nice to know Moore and his offspring still know how to keep things weird.
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Guitar/percussion/more percussion trio.
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First non-kiwi release from Bruce Russell's label. Surgal drums for the Rudolph Grey's Blue Humans. You know what Moore does. From the press sheet: "Recorded live in early 1995 at the Cooler in NYC, this audience recording is one of those rare examples of an audio verite document that's actually worth having even if you weren't there at the time... The soul of the listener is transported to another planet." (Oh for crying out loud.)
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Two new discs, one studio (Pillow Wand) and one live, both recorded on the same day, of these two guitarists making beautiful music together. Thurston you all know from his day job in Sonic Youth, Nels is the new lead guitarist for the Geraldine Fibbers and has had his own jazz/rock Trio for some time now.
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Here's yet another Robert Pollard project! Personally we've lost count, but we're sure all of you die-hard GBV and Pollard fans haven't. And you'll be pleased to find that regardless of his chosen moniker, Pollard continues to follow his often rambunctious, occasionally whimsical indie pop muse. Six songs.
