Yes, we've said it before, but since Mountain Goats have settled into their new home on the 4AD label, it seems they've certainly made the most of the access to greater recording resources. Everything sounds so crisp without sacrificing any of the Goats' trademark raw immediacy. This 3-song ep is no exception, three fine gems that are somewhat more barebones than the songs on their latest full length (Tallahassee - their debut on 4AD), but are unmistakably from the empassioned songwriting pen of Mr. John Darnielle. It stirs us to say, "more, please!" And y'know what? There has indeed been a new album completed and ready for release in the new year. Hurrah!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Long awaited singles and rarities comp that includes material originally heard on: Yam, the King of Crops tape, Chile de Arbol 7", Philyra 7", Why You All So Thief? split 7", and the following compilations: Our Salvation is in Hand, The Long Secret, and Abridged Perversion.
Simply stated, if you're looking for an essential Mountain Goats album, 1995's Sweden is one of the first that you should check out! Back in those days John Darnielle was a staunch lo-fi artist (unlike his more recent, considerably more grandly productions for 4AD), but that didn't prevent his fantastic, heartbaring songwriting from shining through!
Same ol' dependable John Darnielle making some of the most witty yet heartfelt singer songwriter material to tickle our fancy here at AQ. While he has forged a completely unique style all his own that is consistently evident here, this album is also a slight departure of sorts. It's on respected British label 4AD which means Vaughan Oliver (that M Oliver has designed one of his album covers sends Darnielle into paroxysms of ecstasy). Being on 4AD also afforded John the opportunity to go to England to record the album with Tony Doogan, who has worked with Belle & Sebastian. Thus the album has a more produced feel, but that's not bad. It's simply a long way from Darnielle's singing into a boombox days. There are unusual, for Mountain Goats, touches such as shimmering cymbals and (what sound like) occasional doubletracked vocals. I wasn't disappointed, however, and neither will you be. Very nice.
Wonderful new album from John Darnielle who is otherwise known as The Mountain Goats. John's made several albums, all of which are wonderful, and this may be one of his strongest yet. If you've never heard him before, know that he's a singer songwriter with a iconoclastic style imitated by some but exceeded by none: urgent acoustic guitar strumming coupled with hook-filled melodies and a stark literary way of phrasing his singular lyrics. (GREAT lyrics like "Death came calling today / Heard the gentle grace of his cadences / Couldn't say no") Gentle-hearted yet pointedly intense. Note: the limited vinyl version comes in a custom-printed paper bag as an extra, outer sleeve. Very, very nice.
A long time ago we discovered this little label based out of Upland, California, and became a bit obsessed by all the cool weird bands whose records they released. Via Shrimper we discovered Amps For Christ, Refrigerator, Bugskull, Simon Joyner, Wckr Spgt, Nothing Painted Blue, Diskothi-Q and tons more. But most notably, was a group called The Mountain Goats, which was in fact not a group, just a guy and his acoustic guitar, which sounded pretty unremarkable, until we heard John Darnielle, and his strangely idiosyncratic songsmithery, urgently, almost violently strummed guitar and a high keening voice belting out smart, funny, sad, heartbreaking, hyperliterate lyrics, sometimes almost shouting, the result was pretty fantastic, and the Mountain Goats became one of our favorite Shrimper 'bands'. Back then we never would have imagined that the Mountain Goats would become a real band, record in a real studio, tour for thousands of people, play on the Colbert Report, and be HUGE, back then it was just a guy and his guitar, and it was the age of tape trading and zines, and it sounded like Darnielle's music was being played just for us, and his strange tales of love and loss and traveling TO places (a series of songs which continues today), they spoke to something in all of us, and it seemed remarkable that this nerdy guy with a guitar and a boombox, was responsible for such amazing, moving, emotionally complicated music, that now twenty years on still sounds so good.
Recent converts to the Mountain Goats might be shocked and how raw and primitive these recordings are, recorded live in many cases, songs followed by a smattering of applause, in lots of recordings you can hear a TV in the other room, or the whir of the recording, female background vocals pop up here and there, as do shitty Casio beats, but really, it's all about the voice, and the songs, which are incredible.
This double disc gathers up two of the earliest MG tapes, The Hound Chronicles from 1992, and Hot Garden Stomp from 1993, we presume they've been remastered, but really, it hardly matters, the tape hiss, and weird glitches, and all the other random sonic detritus are as much a part of the sound as the music is. For some us, this is an awesome nostalgic sonic time capsule, for others it will be a discovery, maybe even a revelation, but it's definitely cool to hear where it all began, and an argument could be made, that these are the most pure Mountain Goats recordings there are. Includes new liner notes from John Darnielle as well as some reproduced ephemera from the time.
Dear Mr. John Darnielle, thank you for this album of heartcrushing beauty! The Sunset Tree has perhaps one of his most frank and deeply personal narrative threads to date, focusing on the trauma of the childhood abuse he suffered at the hand of his stepfather (who passed away last year and to whom this album is dedicated). Nearly all lyrical metaphors and disguises stripped away, this is Darnielle at his most direct yet no less poetic. On the stunning, achingly precise ninth song "Hast Thou Considered The Tetrapod" he sings about his fears of waking the patriarch "sleeping off [his] demons" and hiding out in his bedroom, seeking some temporary escape to "rise above [his] station" by way of his imagination. Although the arrangements on this 13-song album are some of his most pared down of his 4AD releases, there is an increasing prominence of strings (courtesy of cellist Erik Friedlander) underlying the core vocals, piano and guitar which add looming shadows to the already stormy proceedings. As is the case with most every Mountain Goats album, when the final notes fade at the album's close ("Pale Green Things") you're left with a heavy ache in your chest, and as you muster a deep sigh, you reach over and press 'play' once more. Not an easy listen, but definitely an immensely moving and empowering one. Very recommended!
Please note: Darnielle recorded this cd version of The Sunset Tree album at Prairie Sun Studios in Cotati, CA, and he also recorded an 11-song vinyl version called Come Come To The Sunset Tree at his home in North Carolina. There are some differences in song selection and running order, and of course, in the production scale as well. The bare bones intimacy of the latter brings back fond memories of his early recordings. If you're a serious Mountain Goats fan, you'll no doubt need both versions!
Another beautiful, deeply moving album from longtime AQ faves Mountain Goats! Sounds like it was a pretty intense recording session -- Mr. John Darnielle along with Franklin Bruno (piano and organ), Peter Hughes (bass), Nora Danielson (violins), Christopher McGuire (drums) holed up in the studio for just ten days! -- resulting in sixteen completed songs, thirteen of which make up We Shall All Be Healed. Whew! By the way, has anyone else noticed that Mr. Darnielle's singing voice is sounding more and more like that of Daniel Bejar (of Destroyer and New Pornographers)? It used to seem the other way around, but perhaps it's simply the works of two kindred spirits drawing closer (although we've heard that Mr. Bejar has taken Destroyer in a radically different direction with his forthcoming album). There's certainly an affinity between the two fellows' songwriting -- poetic, earnest, and at once both starkly observative and richly imaginative. There's so many fine moments on this album, many of which glow even brighter with the pianowork of his Extra Glenns' partner in crime Mr. Bruno. Check out "Home Again Garden Grove" and "The Young Thousands". Seems like Mountain Goats have found a well-suited middle ground between his beloved bare bones early recordings and those that make up their more recent higher-fi 4AD releases. Wonderful! Produced by John Vanderslice (who also has a dandy new album out now!). Very recommended!
Aloha Mountain Goats fans! Some of your oldest and dearest faves have finally been reissued on cd and lp!
Perhaps most notable is the re-release of 1994's Zopilote Machine. It holds particular historical significance in that it marked John Darnielle's first step into the realm of the LP. Yep, up until Zopilote Machine his Mountain Goats music was only available on cassette and 7" singles. Generous and prolific soul that he is, he took full advantage of the 'long' in long-player, packing it with a whopping nineteen of his trademark homespun, storytellin' songs. These intimate lo-fi bedroom-style recordings stand in stark contrast to his recent studio works -- super casual, somewhat muffled and murky with just him singing his heart out and furious strumming his acoustic guitar -- but regardless of how high or low tech he goes, Darnielle never fails to hit your heart's bullseye. Wonderfully genuine and genuinely wonderful.
Managed to get a handful more of these from the Mountain Goats, good chance these will be the last copies we see, so act fast!!!
Another super limited vinyl only Mountain Goats record, this one a collaboration concept record with SF power popper John Vanderslice. The Mountain Goats (aka John Darnielle) and Vanderslice toured together earlier this year, and took the opportunity to make a record together, but not just any record, a CONCEPT record. And not just any concept record, no, this one tells the story of organ harvesting colonies on the moon, and the employees of said colonies, who spend their non work time living in luxurious seclusion throughout America. Wow.
The record itself isn't like a typical rock opera, it's loosely related to the concept, so it plays just fine simply as a gorgeous pop record, and a gorgeous pop record it is. Lush and well produced, with lots of instruments, guitars and organs and cellos and harmonicas and even handclaps (we know, not actually an instrument)! Darnielle and Vanderslice trade off songs, each writes and sings his own, but both contribute to all of them. Plus the record was produced by Chris Stamey, of pop legends the dB's, he also plays on a bunch of the songs.
Darnielle's instantly recognizable, slightly nasal croon plays nicely with Vanderslice's more traditional power pop vocals, lots of lovely harmonies, woven into the gorgeous instrumentation, plenty of hooks, catchy melodies, moody and melancholy mostly, but with moments of joyous exuberance, fans of both the Mountain Goats and Vanderslice should dig this a lot. We definitely do.
This is super limited, and not a lot of places are selling it. We got a bunch direct from the band, and these are most likely all we'll be able to get. Pressed on good old heavy black wax, and housed in thick full color sleeves. While they last, VERY recommended.
Another awesome, and limited self released lp from Mountain Goats HQ, another collaboration in fact. We listed Moon Colony Bloodbath a while back (and again elsewhere on this list, got a few more copies in!), which found the MGs' John Darnielle teaming up with pop songsmith John Vanderslice, Black Pear Tree pairs Darnielle with folk rocker Kaki King, who we have to admit we had heard very little from before this, but based on her contributions here, we definitely need to hear more.
An ep, but each song here is surprisingly lush and expansive, long long gone are the days of lo-fi boombox recordings, the opening track alone is one of the most beautifully produced songs we've heard from Darnielle, who plays piano, while King vocalizes in a childlike croon, the sound so hushed and the production so intimate you can hear the pedals of the piano being depressed, while all around strange electronics and effects swirl and skitter, but in a way that doesn't at all take away from the song, but instead merely adds texture and mystery.
The rest of the record is a bit More Mountain Goats sounding, Darnielle handling the lion's share of the vocals, but here and there the two harmonize, and King's voice is a nice match for Darnielle's, and then there's some of the guitar playing, King's we presume (since she IS credited with 'greater guitars', where as Darnielle is credited with 'lesser guitars'), dense tangles of minor key rapid fire fingerpicking that smoothly slips into languid drift, or more MG-like heavy strum. And Darnielle demonstrates over and over his always evolving and improving vocals, even slipping into a gorgeous falsetto on one track. And of course the songs are gorgeous, dark, and moody, and subtly catchy, the lyrics simple and intimate, a really lovely record.
We got a whole bunch of these direct from Darnielle, he's heading out on tour, so when we run out of these, it may take a while for us to get more (if we even CAN get more), so as always, best to grab one while you can. Pressed on thick vinyl, and housed in a simple, pretty, printed sleeve.
We meant to list this awhile back, but at the time it seemed we had so many Espers related projects on the list, between Meg Baird's solo record, the Fern Knight record, the last Bonnie Prince Billy ep, and the Valerie Project, that listing the debut release on Espers' new record label, Language of Stone, then might have been unfair to the band Mountain Home. Comprised of Joshua Blatchley and Kristin Sherer, the music of Mountain Home fits into the same narcotic acid folk niche of current bands like Espers, Bright Black Morning Light, and Marissa Nadler, yet leaning on the traditional British folk side of things. They even cover "Nottamun Town". Not the biggest surprise coming from the Espers' camp, but a nice release all the same.
For some reason, the name Mountain Man had us imagining some sort of big guy bearded heaviness, a la Tad, big crushing riffs, pounding drums, bellowed vox, but this Mountain Man is actually three ladies, and the sound, is anything but burly and heavy, instead it's lovely and heartfelt, a gorgeous dreamlike Appalachia, a sunshiney country folk. The instrumentation is super minimal, usually just acoustic guitar, cuz it's all about the vocals, which are incredible, lush and lustrous, and emotional, the harmonies incredible, powerful and devotional, evoking classic old time country, Sacred Harp music, the Carter Family, the recordings of Alan Lomax, if it wasn't for the incredible and crystalline production, these songs could be from anywhere, and anytime, the sound most definitely timeless, less a basement show in 2010, and more a rickety porch in rural Alabama in 1950. But somehow equally both.
Totally stunning, and not at all what we were expecting from the kick ass Underwater Peoples label, who in the past have brought us records by Ducktails, Julian Lynch, Real Estate and others...
Pressed on swirled marbled turquoise/blue vinyl!
Sigh. This is such the ideal album for drifting along in a rowboat on an ultra calm lake or floating along in a giant hot air balloon across a cloudless blue sky. Even if you don't find yourself in either of those scenarios, German combo Mountaineer may help you find your own sweet and peaceful place.
Their third album When The Air Is Bright is a little folksy, a little bossanova-y. So very nice! Frontman Henning Wandhoff's vocals are low, mellow and smooth. and they're complimented beautifully by Anna Bertermann's backing vocals. The central instrumentation of gently picked and strummed acoustic and electric guitars and understated percussion is occasionally embellished by delicate horn, organ, harmonica and xylophone. This fits perfectly on the Type label alongside rostermates Ryan Teague, Khonnor, Julian Neto and Helios. It'll also fit perfectly in your music library alongside pastel hued day dreamers Jose Gonzalez, Kings Of Convenience and Juana Molina.
Latest from this aQ beloved duo, made up of Brendon Anderegg and Koen Holtkamp, aka Mountains, and once again, they've crafted a supremely dreamlike songsuite, that finds them conjuring up billowing clouds of blurred synth drifts and soft focus drones, weaving all of their disparate sound sources, electronics, synths, cellos, organs and more into something that sounds surprisingly organic, a glimmering, glistening kosmische new age drift. All of Mountains' records are sort of ethereal and blissed out, but this one might be the most pastoral and meditative of the bunch. Mixing a sort of modern minimalism, with classic ragas and drones, Centralia finds the group crafting a sonic analogue to Stars Of The Lid in a way, with Mountains being the light to Stars' darkness. If we were to create a diurnal soundtrack, Mountains would handle sunrise, and would paint the sky and the landscape in warm, glowing colors, until dusk, where they would hand it off to Stars Of The Lid, who would fill the night sky with streaks of black and glimmering fields of starlight, before dawn rolled around again, and Mountains once again took over.
In fact, the sound of Mountains on Centralia is almost like dawn expanded to fill the whole day, and the whole record, a timelapse recording of this music unfurling and blossoming prismatically into a wide open stretch of softly undulating layers, of muted buzzing shimmers, laced with all manner of slow shifting textures and singing strings. A few of the tracks find the duo adding acoustic guitar to the mix, the vibe more psych folky, but still wreathed in swaths of gauze-y thrum. But it's the long tracks here, that truly let us get lost, epic expanses of hazy, blurred ambience, pixelated fuzz spread into a thin patina, all of the sounds glowing from within, on "Propeller", that sound is briefly infused with a dark tension, a sonic shadow that adds some dark and dreamy pathos, before fading into yet another glorious stretch of glistening, glimmering sun dappled shimmer.
Earlier this year, Mountains released Choral, an album that is for sure to be on many of our yearend favorite lists. It found the duo truly coming into their own to create a multilayered shoegaze tinged dreamdrift masterpiece. This new lp finds the group in its best long form state of mind with one epic sprawl of daydream bliss-out spread across both sides of this 12". While Mountains have always had their head in the clouds, Etching finds them floating even further out, conjuring up a gorgeous hazy drift of shimmering and crystallized sounds that makes us want to float heavenward right beside them. While we were really impressed with Mountains' ability to craft 'proper' songs on Choral, it's also nice to see them let one of their songs, blossom and expand and unfurl into a long droning and atmospheric bed of sound, that finds them exploring the same sort of territory as folks like William Basinski and Philip Jeck. The mixture of field recordings and their own music is so seamless, creating a soundscape that seems lost in a faded memory. So lovely.
The record comes with a digital download as well in case you don't want to have to get up and flip sides, perhaps interrupting the perfect soundtrack to a late afternoon daydream.
This 4 track ep is unfortunately out of print, just a few weeks after getting released into the world. While this will undoubtedly cause consternation for many, the few who will be fortunate enough to grab this record will have a treasure in their hands. Mountains are the NYC duo of Brendon Anderegg and Koen Holtkamp, both of whom have a couple of solo recordings with Holtkamp's Field Studies album on Type being the most recent. The A side tracks most clearly reflect where Holtkamp took his solo work, with shimmering acoustic guitars spiralling in tricked out electronics that buzz, sing, chime, and fizzle into a minimalist patter of hallowed drone set against their elliptical finger picking. Very nice. But the B side pieces are where Mountains really shine. These two tracks had originally appeared on some micro-edition 3" cd-r thing that probably even disappeared even faster than this 12" will. Here, their guitars slowburn with the constant roar of post-shoegazing luminescence, set languid with a melachonic air. Belong would be a close reference, but there's a lot more sun-flecked shimmer than you get from Belong's narcotic wash. It's beautiful stuff, no matter how you look at it. Limited to 500, but these are the last copies we'll ever get...
It took us a while to give this a listen as we didn't want the beauty of its pastoral green cover to let us down. Luckily when we finally gave this a listen we realized the sounds contained inside were just as rich and pretty. There is something so delicate and perfectly paced about this record. It unfolds at its own confident pace and when it ends you just kind of want to do it all over again. A duo from the east coast, Mountains so successfully merge acoustic instrumentation, electronics and field recordings to create a layered sound that is not only just totally beautiful but also feels as if there is something under it all that keeps you really interested and attached to every unfolding moment. With a tenderness that rivals Colleen and an aesthetic that reminds us of the shimmering beautiful side of Fennesz, "Sewn" is a record that totally rises above the pack of pastoral electronic tinged records we've seen come out in recent years (which is important, as the trend recently has to been drizzle a little electronic squiggle over generic pop or folk, suddenly transforming it into something AVANT!). To make this album Mountains traveled away from city life into upstate New York and recorded in remote areas of Connecticut, and in their travels they totally captured that feeling of water running through creeks, rain dropping on grass, and what it feels like to be away from it all, soaking up your surrounding and maybe even getting a few moments of total clarity. So nice!
First ever legit vinyl reissue of the only record, circa 1973, from this fairly obscure '70s British rock band, best known 'cause their lead guitar player was none other than Ray Russell, the cult free jazz/fusion/psych rock guitarist who did session work as well as a few albums of his own, his fans include Alan Licht and Jim O'Rourke, who put out a double cd Russell anthology on his own Mokai label a while back. In Mouse, Russell definitely goes more rock than jazz, in fact venturing pretty heavy territory at one point. The record is really all over the place, with stuff we love about '70s rock - from groovy, glammy honky tonk to poppy Beatles-y soft rock balladry to full on proto-doom riffery.
The festivities begin with a jolly good time of a song called "Going Out Tonight", a glam rockin' number with campy lyrics, that nicely transitions into an extended, spaced-out psych section which features Russell coaxing some strange sounds from his guitar, fading out eventually, making way for "You Don't Know", a quite pretty & melancholic pop ditty with wistful vocals. Following that, "Electric Lady" finds Mouse cranking up their amps for more of a riff rocker, but one that still has a pop sensibility to it. Next, "All The Fallen Teen Angels" is a cover, and good one, of a song by Medicine Head. Then the side closes out with the mostly instrumental and suprisingly doom-ridden "Asher Besher", the song's lengthy intro of heavy guitar chords and plodding drums being shockingly Sabbathy, what vocals there are closer to croaking crow-cries, before an urgent, burbling bass line kicks in and the track takes off into gnarled psychedelic guitar soloing - followed by a brief acoustic coda. Nice one, that, especially for proto-metal obsessives.
And if you thought that somehow side one had covered all the bases, not quite. Side two starts off with another excellent pop rocker, "We Can Make It", but that's followed by the spooked-out "East Of The Sun", a droning string-laden psych track that mostly sounds like 20th century avant-garde classical music! And then they start in with fuzzy proto-metal riffery again, with "Its Happening To Me And You", with wailing acid rock guitars and lyrics like these: "Waiting for the candy man / wondering who I really am / do you really need to care / if you're here or if you're there / why why why / why don't you try / gotta get high / it's happening to me and you / changes that you're going through / doing what you wanna do / moving like a movie queen / drifting through a purple dream". Druggy, eh? And so it goes, Mouse mixing lovely orchestrated pop with drug addled hippy trippiness and lashings of distorted guitar.
This record is the kind of thing that we'd imagine John Peel would have played a lot, but even if so, probably nobody else did and thus it was Mouse's only release. Still, a bit of a gem nice to have reissued, not just for fans of Ray Russell but also proto-metallers Steel Mill (whose ex-bass player was a member of Mouse), and early '70s UK prog, glam, and pop rock in general.
Remastered, 180 gram vinyl, gatefold sleeve, includes liner note insert, etc.
Laetitia and Mary from Stereolab join these German pop-electronica guys for 2 songs. There are 4 pieces total on this domestic release, 2 more than on the Too Pure import.
We've been digging these guys for a while now, one of those bands who take the downtuned metallic crunch of bands like Neurosis, and add all sorts of post and math rock to the mix, a combination that when done right, we pretty much can't get enough of. And the thing is, these guys do it about as good as anyone. This latest disc, a short-ish 4 song ep, just drives that point home. The opening title track has got it all, sick downtuned riffs, bellowed vocals, spidery basslines, incredible super buys drumming, a lurching lumbering weirdly melodic behemoth, with some awesome soaring breakdowns, with what sounds like organ buzzing away beneath it all. One immediately noticeable thing is the shift toward something much poppier. The mix of crushing heaviness and killer hooks and melodies, definitely reminds us of Torche, but unlike the overt poppiness of that band, these guys bury that pop under an avalanche of metal prog and math metal, that turns the pop into something else completely.
These tracks are all over the place, the second track starts out all folky, clean steel string guitar, crooned clean vocals, which gives away to some devastatingly heavy chug and howl, and the track constantly shifts, from soaring epic majesty, to tangled ultra prog stop start stutter, with chiming guitars, and more super complex drumming. "Restore" is about as doomy as they get, somehow channeling both Godspeed and Candlemass into a sort of post metal epic, still rife with pop and progisms, but super moody and mournful and HEAVY.
The whole record culminates in the final track, a cover, and an odd one at that, Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes", which could have been a disaster, a tongue in cheek cock up spoiling a pretty perfect record. But instead, they OWN in, slowing it waaaay down, turning it into a super melodic doomy dirge, that almost sounds more like the Deftones, or Lifelover, or one of those bands unafraid to meld heartfelt pop with heaving heaviness, and it's good, so good that it has us digging a song we definitely could have gone forever without hearing again. It helps that the chorus is transformed into a churning blown out crush, and that the whole song is streaked with screaming howling high end guitar. Awesome.
Mouth Of The Architect are another one of those bands that of which we just can't seem to get enough. The perfect blend of bludgeoning dirge metal and moody hypnotic postrock. Think Isis, Neurosis, Conifer, Tides, Pelican, that sort of thing. But Mouth Of The Architect manage to make their sludge metal / post rock sonics stand out from the pack by remaining much more melodic than heavy, and more epic than aggressive, with weirdly catchy riffs, simple blissed out rhythms, hooks that are hidden everywhere, and most noticably slippery sliding melodic leads, intertwining into mournful and languid tangles. The vocals are only occasional, and they're of the howled and anguished variety, but they somehow fit perfectly atop the churning melodic mood metal beneath. Four tracks, three topping ten minutes, of slow burning, slow building metallic beauty. Cinematic epics constructed from downtuned guitars, swirling effects, minor key melodies, intricate hard hitting drumming, and simple hypnotic post rock grooves, sometimes sounding almost like a dirge metal Godspeed You Black Emperor. So great!
New release from one of our favorites of this new breed of sludgy metallic post rock, the strangely named Mouth Of The Architect. Their sound, unlike many of their sonic brethren leans much more toward the melodic as is evidenced here on the opening of "Sleepwalk Powder" a lilting, melancholy guitar line, hovering above warm swells of high end feedback, mournful and so so pretty. But don't be fooled, or lulled into thinking this is some sort of post rock dreampop record, oh no, moments later, the drums enter the fray, all tribal and chaotic, until finally the guitars drop. And drop HARD. Suddenly we're in churning, roiling sludge doom country, big riffs roll and rumble, vocals are howled and the whole band lurches like some rampaging behemoth. But beneath it all, remains the melody, the sweetness, the light. It's like Godspeed or Explosions In The Sky, being overtaken by Conifer or Minsk, a huge ugly growling monstrous sound barely concealing glistening harmonies and majestic melodies. A pretty killer combination. The second MOTA track follows a similar path, drawing out its post rock dreaminess nearly to the 10 minute mark before kicking out the jams, this time it's a lurching stumbling groove, minor key and massive.
Kenoma are up next, we'd heard of them but never actually heard them, but they do occupy a similar sonic space as their pals MOTA (and plus they indeed are, in the liner notes, there is an extremely heartfelt note about, the two bands being friends since childhood, and both having had a rough time lately, and how this release was very cathartic, bringing the two bands, these two sets of friends closer than ever before, pretty dang sweet actually). But again don't be distracted by the sweetness, where there is light there is most definitely also dark. Kenoma are more postrock than metal never really unfurling any sort of massive sludginess, rather stretching out in a heavy hypnotic groove, dense tangled guitar lines, killer propulsive drumming, minor key melodies and a big wall of thick rich headspinning sound. Reminiscent of the recently reviewed Shora record but with a bit of that post sludge vibe we can't get enough of. This almost sounds like a super charged Godspeed or a metal Tortoise. Epic and meandering, droney and hypnotic and so killer. Definitely a new band to keep our eyes on. And a perfect match for their pals in Mouth Of The Architect. Definitely recommended. Killer octopoidal artwork too!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
AS we mentioned elsewhere on this list, we were a bit put off by a rather blah live performance from these two Brooklyn based noise makers, but on record we're definitely digging them more and more. Two side-long epic noise jams, some transcendental long form psychsludge ur-drone of the highest order. Think Skullfower, Total, a definite Bower-ish wall of droning sound vibe, but with a thicker, grittier heaviness, that just sort of churns and roils like it's about to spill over and burn everyone alive. Not sure if guitars are the main musical implement but it sure does sound like guitar after guitar after guitar, thicker and heavier and noisier. Pretty dang great.
Hand screened covers. LIMITED TO 350 COPIES. Each copy is hand numbered as well and includes an insert.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
I had forgotten how beautiful this album was, often thinking that this paled under the spectrum of Movietone's narcoleptic masterpiece of listless Mediterranean moods in Day And Night -- their first album with its radioluminscent tremolo guitars dotting notes on top of a consummate post-VU strum. As fantastic as any of the Fursaxa records or any of Galaxie 500's songs.
Drowsey guitar and piano paired with languid vocals are the perfect soundtrackto end-of-summer garden lounging. This Bristol UK band's follow-up to their great "Day And Night" album is a much wispier affair, but certainly lovely.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Record of the week runner up! The second album from Movietone (which features Rachel from Flying Saucer Attack) conjures more cinematic references than musical ones...as it could stand in for a soundtrack to a Godard film that was bleached out by Mediterranean sun...a strange reference, but we have no other way of defining the languid acoustic guitars and washed out drones and lovely voice...an amazing record!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Rachel from Flying Saucer Attack. English import.
Like their fellow Bristolians Crescent, Movietone have polished up their sound for their most recent recordings, dropping all of the rough edges, murky atmospheres, and evocative juxtapositions which dominated their earlier recordings. Thus, The Sand And The Stars is a far cry from the band's origins, as bassist Rachel Brook grounded the radioluminescent guitar wash of Flying Saucer Attack during their earliest recordings. While Movietone never really ever sounded like Flying Saucer Attack, their underappreciated debut album and their masterpiece Day and Night enveloped themselves in overcast production and drizzled plenty of lethargy and melancholia over their post-Galaxie 500 strum, that at least reflected similiar ideas as Flying Saucer Attack. Instead of the huge guitar feedback of FSA, Brook and vocalist / guitarist Kate Wright were searching for a preciousness in their music. Since the aforementioned Day and Night album, Movietone has moved away from the empathic nature of the soundscapes and towards the storytelling potential of songsmithery. The Sand And The Stars was intended to be a "jazz record being played across the bay," and well, that's sort of accurate. The languid, marine themes of that image are definitely present in these somber orchestrations, that could have been found on a Nico album tumbling in slow motion with any given Mediterranean jazz combo. Yet, the implications of distance are misleading, as this album is immaculately produced and gives the impression of a sort-of jazz album being played quietly and intimately in your living room. Pleasant to say the least.
Another one from Akarma's back catalog of classic and obscure LPs reissued on cd, now in a jewel case at a cheaper price than before. This is a reissue of a 1968 recording by Houston, Texas' premiere psych-rock band The Moving Sidewalks, which featured none other than Billy Gibbons (guitar & vocal) who later grew his beard really long and earned his fame in ZZ Top. Along with the 13th Floor Elevators, these guys were one of the major bands that put Texas on the '60s garage psych map. On Flash, they rocked the house with groovy organ jammin', Gibbon's Hendrixy guitar, a dose of the blues and some trippy hippiness.
This reissue also contains five bonus tracks taken from singles that The Moving Sidewalks also released, including their classic "99th Floor" and a cover of The Beatles' "I Want To Hold Your Hand."
Here's a taste of these up and comers for you, sounding a lot like A Certain Ratio and Gang Of Four. I saw them in L.A. and everyone was loving it. They are dance-y and tight and the drummer hits really hard which helps with the danceability factor, but they are so obviously derivative of this certain sound that when you remove the dancefloor, it's hard to be impressed.
Is it just us or did you think the same thing?! Hmmm, the title of Moving Units' new album made us immediately think of the Kids In The Hall movie Brain Candy ("It's a PILL!... that gives WORMS!... to EX-GIRLFRIENDS!!"). Heh heh, anyhoo, these LA fellas continue to strut their stuff, and keep their sleek dance rock comin' with this their second full length. They're now on Metropolis Records (formerly on Palm Pictures), but they haven't jarred us with any other surprise changes, they're still very very indebted to the '80s. In fact, few bands have ever sounded quite so 'Duran Duran' circa Seven And The Ragged Tiger. Made us daydream of Simon LeBon singing atop the phat synth tracks of Daft Punk. Which is not necessarily a bad thing. Sure to be packing the hip kids' dancefloors across the nation.
A four song introduction to the Moving Units from Los Angeles in preparation for their forthcoming full length. It would be admirable of me if I could write this entire review without drawing comparison to the obvious. Every review I read about these guys says they sound exactly like this one band whose around right now who sounds exactly like this other band who is no longer. So I don't see the good I would do in repeating that. I'm so jaded, weird and bitter about the resurgence of the 80's new wave punk sound, soooo I am not going to even go there. I'll simply say that this sounds like a band that grew up listening to this certain kind of music with quirky funky bass lines, hectic high guitar melodies and staccato, stop-start, dancy drums. I must say though, it is completely successful post-punk dance music. Smooth and fun with alternately sullen / angstful boy vocals. I'm so over this recent trend in music, but they are doing it well. And I'm sure they'll go relatively far if only on nostalgia points alone.
Mr. Airplane Man are a Boston female duo playing Howling Wolf covers and songs with rad Bo Diddleyesqe back beats. Fucked up punk/ blues, reminiscent of the Gories, which coming from me (Sadie) is an enormous compliment. They formed in 1995, playing on the streets for rent using a battery powered amp and 5 gallon bucket for a drum. It's said that these two ladies' mutual love of Howlin' Wolf is what brought them together, his songs being where they got their band name and the name of this record. This is not fuzzed out chaotic garage like The Bad Times cd from the last list. It is old style Delta back woods blues but it's smooth in an amazing rockin' way. Recorded in Detroit by Jim Diamond (who is affiliated with other Detroit greats like the Dirtbombs and the White Stripes), and was mixed by Doug Easley and Greg "Oblivian" Cartwright. So recommended!
Certainly music doesn't get any more brilliant, epic, meticulous, and retarded than this. Really. Absolutely unbelievably genius musicianship, twisted imagination and craft. Always recommended!
A complex, chaotic and challenging record... so chock full of interesting sounds (bandoneon, old synths, hammond organ, "difficult" piano, double bass drum, etc) that I, at least, am kept fully entertained enough to listen closely the whole damn 72 minutes. An incredible tour de force! Featured guests include William Winant (Mills College teacher and famed percussionist) and Noe Valley's own Graham Connah on piano. Recommended.
One of a whole handful of Chinese indie rock and noise pop releases on this week's list, this is the first we've heard from Mr. Graceless, who like a lot of the other Chinese bands we've been digging lately, seem especially beholden to a certain era of American music, that we too are quite partial to, that would be the nineties, and the sort of college/indie rock we still love to this day. And sure, it could be cuz we sort of musically came of age in that era, but we don't seem to ever get tired of My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, Sebadoh, the Pixies, and the multitude of bands who carried that sonic torch ever since. So yeah, if you like that sort of stuff, or have been digging the recent Chinese releases we've been featuring on past lists (White+, Boyz & Girl, Car-Sick Cars, Dear Eloise, Duck Fight Goose, etc.), then Mr. Graceless will be right up your alley. And while they do obviously count all that nineties American stuff as a huge influence, they also seem to push that sound into more overtly poppy indie jangle realms, with lots of soaring chiming clean guitar and some seriously sweet vocals, positioning the sound of Mr. Graceless a bit closer to pop outfits like the Shins, Avi Buffalo, Spoon, Death Cab, Papercuts, etc. But imagine that sound with just a bit more crunch and fuzz. Super melodic, ultra poppy, crazy catchy, and way recommended for all you (indie/nineties) pop nerds...
a.k.a.. Brian of the Thinking Fellers.
A few weeks back, we got an unsolicited email from someone called Mr. Peter Hayden. Not being someone we had ever heard of, we might have just deleted it, if it weren't for the subject line, which read: "Finnish music trying to impress you." Hmmm. Still skeptical, we opened the email, only to discover that Mr. Peter Hayden was not in fact a person, but a five piece psychedelic combo from Finland, who had recently got some serious love on Julian Cope's Head Heritage website. The email also ended with the line: "I know every word I write here is a waste of our time until You take an hour off and dive deep in to the worlds the album will take You." We were pretty much sold. After all, Finland. Check. Psychedelic. Check. Cope. Check.
And once we threw it one, we were not disappointed, in fact, we were wondering, being the weirdo Finnish music obsessives we are, and being super obsessed with all strains of psychedelic space rock heaviness, how the hell we had missed out on these guys? Well, better late than never, and really all it took was about a minute and we knew this probably had to be a Record Of The Week. Heavy, atmospheric, druggy, dynamic, psychedelic, pounding drums, soaring guitars, streaks of feedback, wailing melodies, long stretches of swirling spaciness between bursts of chugging heaviness, and that's only a couple minutes in, total trip out heavy head music for sure. A single seventy minute jam, that builds and builds and builds, from that first blast of psychedelic heaviness, chugging, and churning, the sound gradually grows less and less spares, more propulsive, more metallic, by about six minutes in, the song has transformed into a roiling sprawl of psychedelic doom, but sort of freeform, and a little bit jazzy, the guitars riffing, but also splintering into wild squalls of tangled melodies, and unfurling lush swirling textures, the sort of rare sonic beast that immediately entrances, first time we listened to this, we listened to the whole thing all the way through, totally mesmerized, and in a druggy, hypno-rock trance. And speaking of hypno-rock, just wait a few more minutes and the band locks into a seriously cyclical groove, seemingly channeling vintage Circle, but augmenting the minimal riffage of Circle with clouds of psychguitar shimmer, and what sounds like a phalanx of buzzing humming synths (maybe just more guitars), wild dense tangles of thick corrosive guitar buzz, chordal swells, all wrapped around a main riff that just chugs along all hypnotic and motorik.
The sound shifts constantly, without ever losing momentum, slipping at one point into a sort of doomy dirge, only to blossom into what might be the poppiest part of the record, all major key melody and soaring majesty, and then seconds later, to dial everything back, and unfurl a brooding stretch of ultra minimal meander, all super spare drumming, guitar buzzing like sitars off in the distance, the sound laced with fragmented riffs, strange FX, bits of squiggly melody, and all manner of slow shifting textures, woozy and washed out and dreamily druggy, all of this dreaminess eventually interrupted by some seriously metallic heft, a crushing drum heavy distorted riff churn, but still surrounded by a swirl of psychedelic shimmer, that somehow keeps it from being just heavy, and makes it both heavy, and blissfully psychedelic.
The heaviness seems to ooze and expand, the various guitars switching from riffing to spiraling soaring melodies, a lurching lumbering groove that as far as we're concerned continue to the end of the record, but Mr. Peter Hayden have other things in mind, slipping into some soaring near Godspeed like post rock epic-ness, not to mention a weirdly mathy almost metallic breakdown, and throughout, more stretches of hushed minimal drift, softly psychedelic, drowsily dreamy, a continual push/pull between blown out psych and space rock crush, and blissed out mesmer and shimmery lysergic ambience, but like any great record of its stripe, Born A Trip ends with a serious blast of psychedelic heaviness, sounding like Neurosis almost, epic and crushing, blown out and metallic, a heavy psych coda that eventually fades into a final stretch of droned out slo-mo minimalism. Wow. So great.
obviously so very recommended for fans of Carlton Melton, White Hills, 3 Leafs, Gnod, Sylvester Anfang, and other interstellar psychedelic space rock explorers, as well as all of you who dig motorik Circle style hypnorock, Finnish freakiness, and just trippy spacey heaviness in general. Definitely a Record Of The Week, but a serious contender for Record Of The YEAR as well...
A while back we made the most recent record from these Finnish spaced out psych-kraut drone-rockers our Record Of The Week, a single song, spread out over a whole record, rife with pretty much everything we love, crumbling distortion, swirling FX, motorik rhythms, lush swirling textures, heavy, heady, hypnotic, the kind of sound that should never end, even one record length song is not enough, total kosmische hypno-rock heaviness that we, and most of you, can't seem to get enough of. Sadly it seems like that record is no longer available, and word is, the band is working on a new record, a new SONG actually, that will fill up TWO whole cds, but until then, we got this new 7" to tide us over, and as is there want, it's just one song, about 13 minutes long, and another epic psychedelic space rock sprawl, one that sort of ups the sonic ante, taking the sound of that last full length, and pushing it even further out, a dark distorted field of slo-mo riffing, shimmering billows of blurred FX, and then the sound explodes into some seriously heavy, spaced out dirgery, echo drenched vox, simple Teutonic drum pound, everything hazy and prismatic, the sound shot through with swirls of synth buzz and spidery guitar melodies, gloriously epic and majestic, fans of Godspeed style bombast will flip for sure. Totally tranced out, transcendent, psychedelic, space-drone, hypno-rock bliss. Not sure how limited these are, but guessing they won't be around for too long...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
