Chapter One: The Sandworm Cometh is one of two new My Morning Jacket collections of previously unreleased early tracks and rarities. We think we should forewarn you, with just one in-store play under its belt, this cd has already triggered some very hot and cold responses... and it's all hinging on how folks feel about MMJ's cover versions. It's apparent from these recordings (many of them recorded on a four-track) that even early on the MMJ sound was characterized by a drenching of abandoned ballroom/cathedral-esque reverb applied to Jim James' unstable, yelp-moaned vocals and the band's warm rootsy twang. That's all fine 'n' dandy, but this compilation is filled with many off-the-cuff covers of songs such as "White Rabbit" and "Rocket Man". Their renditions sorta seem like a more unkempt and countrified Flaming Lips that left some eyebrows raised and others furrowed around here. While we certainly wouldn't question the band's love for the songs, we wonder if their versions actually do the ol' Elton and the 'Airplane a disservice. Unfortunately the line's pretty blurred these days between a band playing a 'different-genred' song out of sincere joy and love of that song and a band simply covering it to be clever/ironic/weird. It sorta seems like MMJ tend to lean towards the latter. Okay, now that I'm done railing against their covers, allow me to say that if you can sidestep those, uh, boobytraps (that is, unless you don't wanna!), you might discover the best moments on this cd are the ones in which the band lightens up on the reverb a bit and lets their own achingly lovely songs shine through (check out "Weeks Go By Like Days" and "When Will They Come").
My Morning Jacket's covers cavalcade continues on Chapter Two: Learning, the second of their two new collections of old rarities and previously unreleased tracks. And once again, if you can make your way through their '80s kick, you'll be rewarded with their own wonderful originals.
This time they take a whack at Berlin's "Take My Breath Away". It's sorta like if the Flaming Lips got really drunk and got the not-so-bright idea to churn out a soggy, atonal rendition of the theme from Top Gun. Then they plug away at the Pet Shop Boys' "West End Girls" followed by "Dream A Lil' Dream". Uh oh. On those songs, Jim James' droopy lilting voice is endearing for a little while, then it gradually verges on grating. Oddly, at some point late in the proceedings his voice shifts from sounding a lot like Wayne Coyne to sounding a lot like Will Oldham and the music follows suit. Once again, this release drew rather extreme feedback from those present while this was played in the store. Some folks groaned, some chuckled uncomfortably and some simply fell silent. Let's put it this way, if AQ was the Gong Show, we suspect the cover songs would've been gonged repeatedly already... and we think Jamie Farr, Arte Johnson and Jaye P. Morgan would probably agree. Much like on Chapter One, this compilation's high points are the band's own songs such as the thirteenth track "I Will Be There When You Die". Omigod, sooo fragile and heartbreakingly beautiful and well worth wading through MMJ's '80s selections to get to!
Here's a reissue of My Morning Jacket's Chocolate And Ice 6-song cdep! When it was originally released back in 2002, we had this to say...
Of the half dozen tracks, the standout is the unexpected 24-minute "Cobra". Although the rest of the songs do still retain My Morning Jacket's wonderful, shadowy, lonesome twang, this track is a refreshing change allowing the band to diverge from their usual path. With much less of a rootsy rock feel, it leans more heavily on a smoky blues guitar sound. From an almost funky groove, it dissolves into a lovely drone and returns to the more familiar somber country-folkish mood. Mainman Jim James subtly shifts his vocal delivery too, veering from his usual Neil Young-ish nasality to an almost Damo Suzuki (of Can) drowsy murmurred uttering. Quite effective. An added note, the items in the title made for a very cool textured cover image... although we'd bet someone was bummed that they spilled all that choco-syrup.
Is it just us, or have the smouldering coals been rather aggressively stoked in My Morning Jacket's ol' iron potbelly stove? From the get-go, their third full length It Still Moves pushs forth with much gusto. Still deeply enmeshed with the darkest yearnings and driven by an unyielding torment, Jim James and co's newest effort (and their first for RCA) draws together all the shining elements of Neil Young's folk-rock eccentricities, Uncle Tupelo's hybrid pop and country, and Tim Buckley's soaring impassioned vocals. It seems they've relinquished most of the slow, haunted atmospherics of past releases in favor of boot stompin' exorcisms of whiskey toting demons. And although we quite liked the former, gotta say, we just might prefer this new fiery My Morning Jacket. At any rate, this is a mighty good example of ass-kicking, fully fleshed out country rock.
Wow! Assuming that the My Morning Jacket production crew didn't do much doctoring up on the original live recordings (hey, it's not an uncommon procedure!), their rootsy pop rock orchestrations come across splendidly well from the stage, and likewise the ecstatic response from the audience. Regardless of possible post-recording tweaks and embellishments, this is an excellent sounding live concept album. It's a super pleasurable MMJ listening experience that, yes, does almost make you feel like you were there in person. Gaze at the back cover photo of the band performing on stage in a lush foresty setting, and you'll wish you really were.
Jim James' vocals are captivatingly on his trademark emotional brink, and the rest of the band deliver the delicious harmonies. The awesome rhythm section of Two-Tone Tommy and Patrick Hallahan keep many a toe tapping and head bobbing in the crowd. James and Carl Broemel's raw and full electric guitars raise the hairs on the back of your neck, while Bo Koster's keyboards and Broemel's saxophone meld it all together. Dare we say Okonokos surpasses any of the band's previous studio albums in both its breadth and vitality? Indeed we do! It finds the band making themselves right at home at the crossroads of Uncle Tupelo, Coldplay and Flaming Lips -- extending a welcoming hand to their broadest audience to date -- and that seems to be a fine place to be. Recommended!
On their latest, already very warmly received full length Z, My Morning Jacket have fallen even closer in line with the David Fridmann produced grand pop theatrics of groups such as Flaming Lips, Sparklehorse and Mercury Rev. Their sound has become more sumptuous and far less distinctly 'rock' or 'country' than on their past releases, almost as though they'd set a soft focus lens on the proceedings. Still very shadowy and deeply melancholic though. Although John Leckie and MMJ's mainman Jim James have done a fine job mixing and producing these ten songs, it's hard not to try imagining what they'd sound like with Fridmann in the producer's seat. Beautiful!
Four songs from My Morning Jacket and an almost ten minute long track by Songs: Ohia. The former includes a kinda dorky, messing-with-the-speed-control track called "The Year In Review" as well as a couple of numbers that fans of Sparklehorse might take a shine to - most notably the beautiful weeper "Come Closer". And as for Songs: Ohia's lengthy "Translation", it's completely on par with their recent efforts... that is, a brittle, lonely dolefulness that mainman Jason Molina has refined over his prolific career.
Not new, but we've been fans of this record for years and had never reviewed it, in part 'cause in recent years stuff on the Second Battle label has been notoriously difficult to stock consistently. But one of our suppliers just managed to score a batch of these so we saw our opportunity to write it up for those of you as yet uninitiated into the krautrock awesomeness of My Solid Ground. How awesome is that? Well, the very first track is called "Dirty Yellow Mist" and is over 13 minutes long, featuring a relentlessly repeating distorted guitar riff ceremonially intoning over and over and over as wordless female vocals, droning organ and tribal percussion build up around it. If you're like, "cool!" then this record is for you, it's as good as that sounds. This 1971 (aha, 1971! says Allan) album exemplifies druggy, downer spaced-out psych, being very reminiscent of Pink Floyd circa Meddle (another awesome album that we really should properly review some day!) and Amon Duul II -- along with other krautrockers like Siloah, Necronomicon, Agitation Free and early Guru Guru. And the Floyd feel isn't just 'cause of the cartoon pigs that adorn the cover art either. But there's also a side to the band that's more along the lines of garagey hard rock, with several Kinks-riffed attacks to shake your shack. As primitive heaviness goes, this is a classic. Hazy and weighty and often ominous (check out the mumbling vocals on "The Executioner"). Includes seven bonus tracks (the original 24 minute version of "Flash" not least among them), and comes packaged in a swank digipack.
Released on the same label that put out the Starfuckers compilation Ordine '91-'96, one of our Records Of The Week this week, this collection of eps from Italian/British shoegaze dreampop duo My Violent Ego couldn't be more far removed from the gnarled experimental noise rock of the Starfuckers. MVE instead traffic in heavily processed, washed out effects drenched shimmer, dreamy abstract pop drift, and hushed ethereal pop ambience. 4AD loosed from its more traditional song like structures, the sounds allowed to float freely, blurred clouds of tangled melody, hushed angelic voices, looped melodic mesmer stretched into dreamy droned out drifts of ephemeral dreampop, many of the tracks here mere fragments, but even in fragmented form, so breathlessly lovely.
We knew the name My Violent Ego was familiar, but we couldn't quite remember why, but then it came to us, they were one of the bands who accused black metallers Velvet Cacoon of plagiarism! Remember those rumors of an unreleased VC demo that supposedly consisted of mostly borrowed/stolen music made by other people? The Velvet Cacoon folks copped to it too, admitting to being a total fraud, but knowing VC, it's hard to tell whether they're ever being genuine or always taking the piss, but finally hearing MVE it's easy to hear why Velvet Cacoon might be tempted, slather on a little black buzz, and this stuff would make the most divine and dreamily druggy black metal bliss, the sounds already warm and fuzzy, woozy and washed out, even a bit witch housey, the arrangements looped and circular, slipping from fully realized jangle pop drift, to blurred and smeared impressionistic shoegaze ambience, often melding the two, into some of the dreamiest dreampop we've heard.
There's definitely an old school Eighties vibe, but the band infuse their jangly drift with enough experimentalism that many of these tracks sound more like something you might hear on Touch or Kompakt than 4AD, taking single riffs, or simple loops, and treating them, dousing them in effects, and stretching them out into hushed expanses of mesmeric shimmer. So so nice. And so so totally recommended.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
With the new Myrmyr album we'll be briefer than we would like to be because it's incredibly good, but super limited. We have 10 copies and only 250 have been made, so we're not sure we can get more, so act fast! The stunning vinyl debut of these two former Mills College music grads, Marielle Jakobsons (Date Palms, Darwinsbitch) and Agnes Szelag, was recorded during a snowstorm on Shasta Mountain. We were smitten with their first release, The Amber Sea, and here on Fire Star, they have honed down their focus of post-classical orchestrations into a more finely textured array of nuance and mood. It's hard to tell who is doing what. It sometimes sounds like there are a dozen players performing, or it could be a lavish manipulation of tape loops and electronics, but the effect is quite beautiful. Starting out with plucked strings and bell tones that eventually melt feverishly into intense drones that smolder and swell revealing hidden passages of lush orchestrations that slip seamlessly in and out of the aural field. Four tracks of gorgeous mesmerizing beauty. Don't Hesitate!
Not our favorite Current 93 related release ever, despite the presence of James Blackshaw here along with C93's David Tibet.
The latest from UK psych rock label Cardinal Fuzz, and the first we've heard from UK psych garage kosmonauts The Myrrors, who like many of their labelmates, deliver long, smoldering sprawls of hazy, distorted drift, and slow burn motorik space rock! All four of the tracks here are built from a simple bass and drums groove, some extremely slow, some with a little swagger, over which guitars swoop and soar, the sound occasionally so blown out and in the red (like on "Escape Attempt") that you can hear the it peak and crunch, only adding to the heady / heavy vibe, a little bit Spacemen 3 for sure, but via Hawkwind, no real proper 'songs' to speak of, just extreme, and extremely stoney-y jammage of the highest order. The first track may only clock in at 7 minutes, but it feels like it could have been 70, same with the 11+ minute follow up, slowly unwinding, epic wasted zoner psych that seems to billow ever outward, like some slow motion time lapse film of a sonic mushroom cloud, slowly and gradually enveloping everything in its path, we the listeners letting ourselves get sucked under. "Ascension" adds some organ, a whirring droned out shimmer, beneath clouds of cymbal sizzle and deconstructed riffage, when the sound coalesces into song, it's a drone-y dirge, a hazy, murky, moody plod, pulsing amidst streaks and shards of fuzz guitar and crumbling distortion, the organ giving it a sort of liturgical vibe, at least until the final track, an epic nearly 15 minute slow groove, that sounds a bit like Can crossed with the Velvet Underground, but then revved up, and doused in distortion. An endless psych sprawl, that is all low slung and a little bit murky and moody, and the sort of thing that we've taken to calling BVNKVRFVNK. Bunkurfunk. Bunker funk. Which obviously means WAY recommended!
As with all Cardinal Fuzz stuff, SUPER LIMITED, and while we likely can get more when we run out, they come from overseas, so it might take a couple weeks to restock...
Pleasurehorse is one Shawn Greenlee, rhythmic power electronics maestro with one previous disc on Vermiform as well as the excellent "Dropdead: Reconstructed" 12" on Load, currently on bass duties in the newly reformed Six Finger Satellite. Think Merzbow with beats. Mystery Brinkman aka Mr. Brinkman (duh) used to be in Providence duo Forcefield (remember their split 7" with
Spaced out heavy stoner psych bliss on unto infinity from this brand new Danish outfit, making their debut with this here astral trip of an lp. Mythic Sunship is a fine name for 'em, yeah, up up and away, the cosmos beckoning, the Hawkwind blowing, a steady building riff-upon-riff march into psychedelic oblivion/nirvana. Cymbals shimmer, drums pound, FX swirl, amps sing and howl. For fans of that Electric Moon disc we listed recently, also Earthless, Acid Mothers Temple, Mammatus, Dead Meadow, other vaguely hippy spiritual extended duration practitioners of throb-a-delic, Randy Holden-beholden marathon mesmerization. 3 long tracks, all full of the FUZZ and freakery that a band called Mythic Sunship ought to deliver from on high - and does! Mellowed out at times (towards the end of the 14+ minute "Year Of The Serpent", for instance) or dark and intense (much of side two's entire epic 21:40 "Leviathan"). Interesting also, for what it's worth, we're told that some of the members are somehow affiliated with Copenhagen's noise-techno Posh Isolation label.
Compact disc version also forthcoming, btw.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Corpse-painted industrial Scandinavians. Title kinda sums it up.
The latest weirdo outsider electronic offering from the Pre-Cert Home Entertainment label, run by Demdike Stare and Andy Votel, comes from the mysterious N. Racker, supposedly a pseudonym for someone too famous to actually name, but who can tell with Pre-Cert's predilection for misinformation. Regardless, this is a good one, maybe our favorite Pre-Cert jam yet, ostensibly based on "an imagined alternative history of a sinister, pre-industrial pestilence among the ovine population and the people who work in wool processing, ending in complete devastation and dereliction" and sounding like a cross between "SUNNO))), The Haxan Cloak and Morricone/Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza", we can't speak to the subject matter, but the sonic description is really not that far off.
Moaning scraped strings underpin abstract percussion and mournfully melodic shimmer, which bleeds into some seriously creepy lullaby like melodies, that immediately remind us of the theme from Resident Evil, creepy and cinematic, more moaning strings, totally ominous horror movie music, with some awesome bursts of thick distorted buzz, that almost becomes krautrocky at one point. The A side ends with some droned out drift, all buzz and static and squelch.
The flipside introduces some more creeped out orchestral shimmer, lots of low end and some Morricone-ish melodies, grinding cello buzz and lumbering bass thrum, which splinters into some super abstract musique concrete, sapced out and spare, a dark sprawl of abstract ambience that slowly sinks into some woozy warped underwater burble, laced with tinkling chains, and gauzey swirls of sinister shimmer.
LIMITED TO 700 COPIES.
This is the first we've heard from Scottish soundscaper Nackt Insecten, even though there have apparently been loads of limited cd-r's and tapes that came before, a fantastic melange of minimal repetition a la Steve Reich and Terry Riley, and more modern spaced out psychedelic minimalism like Sunroof! and Astral Social Club, Our Love Will Destroy The World and Axolotl.
Pulsing drones, lush layered overtones, thick synth swells, a sort of ur-drone raga, the rhythms crunchy and distorted, a blistery haze of humid sound that dissipates into angelic drifts. Kosmische folk rife with tinkling chimes, shimmering melodies, all very mesmerizing and meditative and new agey. Spidery acoustic guitars intertwine with slow shifting slabs of low end throb, soaring ad blissed out and richly effulgent. Chugging synths churn and roil, wreathed in clouds of distorted prismatic buzz, a hypnotic minimalism that culminates in the synthy sci fi soundtracky final jam, thick buzzy tendrils of electric guitars wind themselves around pulsing eighties synths and a soft cacophony of percussion, a heady, lysergic melding of Sunroof! and Majeure, Astral Social Club and Zombi, taking the Carpenterish soundtrack sound so popular these days and grafting it to a more minimal cosmic otherworldliness. Killer stuff.
We have to admit, with all the super limited vinyl, weird 7"s, rare reissues, and all the other cool stuff that was being specially released to celebrate Record Store Day, we were (not so) secretly most excited about a new record from long time faves and two time aQ Record Of The Week honorees Nada Surf. A new record from these guys is always a thrill, and a full length is long overdue, but this is not the new Nada Surf, instead, it's a total Record Store Day release, with the band covering a bunch of their favorite songs, some we dig, some surprises, and some we'd never heard of.
Probably the most amazing thing about this collection, is if you weren't familiar with the songs being covered, it wouldn't be a stretch to assume they were Nada Surf originals, these guys take the originals and OWN then, totally make them their own. Even songs you've heard a million times, like Depeche Mode's "Enjoy The Silence", get enough of a Nada Surf makeover to sound like an original, but fans will still dig hearing their old song reimagined.
Their Bill Fox cover ("Electrocution"), is total sunshiney harmony Byrds worship, and again, sounds like it could be from an old Nada Surf record. They do a Go-Betweens song, that again is a perfect match, it makes sense that they would pick these songs, it's almost the perfect sonic representation of the influences that created Nada Surf. One of the big surprises is the Arthur Russell (!) cover, a gorgeous hushed bit of lap steel laced minimal twang pop, WAY too short at just over a minute.
The rest of the record finds the band tackling The Dwight Twilley Band, Kate Bush, Spoon, The Moody Blues (!), recent aQ faves Soft Pack, Coralie Clement (another obscure choice), and then they finish with two total random covers by bands we had never heard of, Mecromina, their version a lush string laden slab of jangle pop, and the Silly Pillows, never heard the original, but the cover is a carnivalesque bit of piano driven pomp, to finish things off.
Totally fantastic, we've listened to this record about 100 times, and while it's definitely tiding us over, it also has us dying for a proper new Nada Surf record!!
Not sure what it is about this record, but I (Andee) haven't been able to stop listening to it for weeks now. Some of you may remember Nada Surf from their big MTV hit 'Popular'. Not sure how a band goes from heavy rotation on MTV to being on indie label Barsuk, but whatever the reason, I sure can't complain, when the result is a record as catchy and dark and personal as this. And great! Did I say great?! This has to be one of my favorite pop records of recent memory. And the interesting thing is that it really is a POP record, not power pop, or noise pop, or any thing so specialised. If anything, it's most reminiscent of college rock circa 15 years ago. Which could be bad but in this case is most certainly not. Jangly and rocking, dark and melancholy, with really cool funny lyrics that at times are so banal and seemingly random, that they manage to carry the back breaking weight of their heartbreak and misery without the usual sap and schmaltz of most 'rock' lyrics. This record isn't weird or ground breaking or super challenging, just really really good. And ultimately, it comes down to the MUSIC, and how often you want/need to listen to it, and as I find myself throwing this on almost every day, I think that says it all.
It's always the records we love the most, and listen to the most, that are the hardest to describe. Hmmm. As we were writing that, we realized it sounded familiar and what do you know? That's almost exactly how we started our review of the last Nada Surf record. We've joked before, that instead of rambling on and and on and gushing like we often do, we should just write what we usually tell people in the store: "Just buy it. It's AWESOME!!!" But because some folks now do base their idea of a record's importance on the length of the review, we'll go ahead and try to explain exactly why Lucky is so awesome and why you should absolutely buy it, and most importantly why it's almost for sure our:
POP RECORD OF THE YEAR. Sure it's only February. But it was a done deal two songs in. And sure, we're hoping some record will be able to knock Lucky out of its top spot, but it seems very very unlikely.
And while even after probably 100 listens, Lucky doesn't seem quite as genius as it's predecessor The Weight Is A Gift, it gets a little closer every listen.
For those who somehow missed out on the whole Nada Surf phenomenon, they had a HUGE hit back in the nineties, "Popular", you'd know it if you heard it. And it got played enough to become one of THOSE songs you never wanted to hear again. But as with most one hit wonders, they ended up dropped and broke, another victim of the unforgiving major label machinery. They sort of just disappeared after that, almost completely, until years later they resurfaced with a brand new record, on a cool little indie label, and an almost entirely new sound. Lush and introspective, but super rocking at the same time, gorgeous vocal harmonies, amazing melodies, incredible hooks, and really funny, bittersweet lyrics. The next one was even better, another record of the week in fact. The Weight Is A Gift instantly became one of our favorite records of not just that year, but ever. Played to death, every song practically perfect. Heavy, dark, pretty, poppy, and so so so catchy.
A week or so ago, totally unexpected, Lucky showed up in the mail, and from the first song, we knew we'd end up loving this one too. But like almost all of our favorite pop records, it wasn't immediate. It took some listens for the songs to blossom, for the hooks to sink in, for the subtleties to reveal themselves. But as they did, and continue to do, the record just became that much deeper, the sound that much more complex. Instantly catchy throwaway pop has a very limited lifespan, but complicated, grown up pop music, deftly composed and executed, infused with soul and passion, humor and emotion, well, those are the kind of songs that stick. And this record is chock full of those sorts of songs. "Whose Authority" could have come straight off The Weight Is A Gift, with its incredible hook and chorus, then there's the churning minor key groove of "Weightless", dark and heavy, but shot through with pop sunlight, the sweet jangle of "I Like What You Say" with yet another impossibly catchy chorus, "The Fox" is the darkest and brooding of the bunch, but it too manages to remain catchy and pretty. It's hard to pick out songs, since like most great albums, it is an album, the songs working together as much as they work on their own. Fucking brilliant. Again. As much as we love all that crazy weird shit, sometimes nothing does it for us like perfect perfect pop.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
We might as well just start out with the obvious. Pop record of the year. Hands down. We knew it would be. And yeah, even in January, it's pretty much already been decided. In fact the minute we found out there was a new Nada Surf record on the horizon, we began to count the days, and wonder if it would be one of those slow growers, or if we'd be immediately obsessed (it was the latter, btw). And really, one of the only reasons it's not Record Of The Week, is because it just so happened to come out when we already had an embarrassment of ROTW's picked, but rest assured, for some of us, this is most definitely Record Of The Week, and most likely record of the year too.
Most people are probably super excited to extol the virtues of their favorite band, or that record they've been anxiously awaiting, and we are too obviously, but for us it comes with the added pressure of 'what the hell do we say about this', especially when it's a band whose records we've gushed about extensively in the past, two of those records past Records Of The Week in fact, we've said it before, but this is one of those records where we just want the whole review to be "Just buy it! it's so great! We love it and can't stop listening to it! We've been driving the not-so-pop-obsessed around here CRAZY with repeated listens, sometimes just setting the cd player on repeat!" And heck, for some of you that will be enough, if you dug the last few Nada Surf records, which loads of you did, you'll love this one too. We want to say it's the best one yet, but we say that every time. We can say, it's maybe the most rocking one yet. With a lot few slower songs, and some of their heaviest tunes, but without sacrificing any of the lush hookiness or irresistible jangle. We'd say just listen to the samples, cuz we really can't imagine anyone being able to resist, but on the off chance that you do need more...
Nada Surf have moved well beyond potential one hit wonder status, after the ubiquitous MTV airplay of a certain song called "Popular" back in the nineties (YouTube it), and ever since, they've continued to hone a sound rooted in classic power pop and nineties indie rock, a sound that quickly became all their own, lush and melodic and jangly, with Matthew Caws' super distinctive vox, and a melodic flair and impeccable songwriting that eventually became just as distinctive, their lyrics clever and smart, literate and carefully constructed, harmonies lush and lovely, songs that rock as much as they drift and shimmer, every record packed with potential hits, not a bit of filler, and this new one is no different. Opener "Clear Eye, Clouded Mind" starts things off with a bang, thick crunchy guitars, big pounding drums, and some impossibly catchy melodies, and like many of their tracks, the verse and bridge are just as catchy as the chorus, if not more so. "Waiting For Something" is another killer, all chiming and sunshiney, crunchy and fuzzy, big guitars, and even bigger vocals, all woven into a super dynamic arrangement that manages to be both intricate and hooky as hell. "When I Was Young" starts off all folky and balladic, just steel string guitar and gorgeous vox, eventually blossoming into a big crunchy jangly second half, "Jules And Jim" is another great one, the band taking unlikely melodies and complex arrangements and impossibly transforming them into pure perfect pop. We could go song by song, cuz every song here KILLS, everyone with a chorus most other bands would kill for, and most likely a verse that other bands would make into a chorus, but odds are we'd just end up repeating ourselves. But we can say, which we've mentioned before, is that as much as we obsess over grim black metal and noisy chaotic heaviness and weird dronemusic and all that sort of far out freaky stuff, we find ourselves always coming back to this, and NOT just because it's poppy and catchy, but because it's poppy and catchy in a way that so much other 'catchy pop' is NOT. Sure these guys are a pop band, but what they do with that pop is utterly magical.
It's at this point that we DO say, just listen to the sound samples, this is the sort of visceral emotional music that will connect right away, and if you're anything like us, once you hear it, you won't want to stop hearing it, and you'll want to hear more and more!
While they last, the first handful of copies will come bundled with a bonus disc of studio recorded acoustic versions of some of the tracks from the new record!
You would think that the more you listen to a record, the easier it would be to write about, but for us sometimes the exact opposite seems to be true. The more a record seeps into your consciousness, the more it takes on all these ineffable qualities that are incredibly hard to describe in words. It's a rare record that can do that, but when it happens, it's all about feeling and emotion, the way the record affects you, makes you think, makes you feel, even if it just makes you want to jump around and sing along at the top of your lungs. Or drive with the stereo blasting, in a goosebumpy fume thinking sad thoughts. Or walk around in the fog and mist, just wandering aimlessly. Or just rock out and forget everything. And it's the record that can make you feel all of those things and then some that's even more rare. This is most definitely one of those records.
Being the sort of store we are, we get super obsessed with ultra weird records and bizarre niche genres, all of which we love to bits, be it drones or found sounds or sludge or power pop or black metal or whatever. But sometimes it takes a good ol' rock record to kick your ass and push all those buttons that without realizing it, have remained relatively un-pushed for years. 2003's Let Go, Nada Surf's first record since they were chewed up and spit out by the major label / MTV machine in the late nineties (after a huge hit in 1995) was a breath of fresh air at the time, a gorgeous indie rock record, full of impossibly catchy hooks, wry, bittersweet lyrics, perfect jangle guitar, just some of the best fucking songs we'd heard in ages. Songs that so far surpassed their former incarnation as a major label MTV rock band it was a little hard to believe it was the same band. A record so good in fact, that lots of metalheads and punk rockers we know even LOVED it. And around these parts it was one of the most listened to records of the last few years.
So we were super psyched when we heard there was a new Nada Surf on the horizon. On first listen though, it sounded just a bit too happy. But why wouldn't it, they had reinvented themselves, and were on a super hip indie label, and folks (the right folks this time) loved their band. Made sense that perhaps it would be a little less cynical and jaded, especially after the cathartic bile and vitriol of Let Go. But the more we listened, the more we realized, it was just as bitter and dark if not more so, just more self assured, better produced, songs that were even catchier, but in that way that classic songs are catchy, they take time to grow, and as they do, they become ultra personal, every song, and every favorite part having some direct correlation to your life, or some special meaning for everyone who listens. Each melody makes you want to sing along, or just close your eyes and think along in your head. We still thought the first record was better, until we went back and listened, and realized, that while the old record was still great, this new record took everything they were shooting for with the that one, and hit perfect bullseyes with every track on The Weight Is A Gift. Not a weak song anywhere, not a bit of filler. In fact some songs have so many killer parts, and so many hooks, any other band would more than likely turn every song here into two, or even three. All the parts are the stuff of classic indie rock, jangly guitars, sometimes roaring into a distorted big chorus fury, sometimes fading into a moody near ambient strum, simple basslines, drumming with fills as catchy as any of the songs' hooks (think Nirvana), gorgeous vocal harmonies, and really intense and clever and heartfelt lyrics, and most importantly, some of the catchiest songs ever. From dreamy, dreary slow building ballads, to full on rocking barnburners, to straight ahead sounding nineties style college rock, to more modern indie pop, Nada Surf while sounding totally unique, should definitely fit comfortably in your collections and in your ears, right alongside the Wrens, Yo La Tengo, Neutral Milk Hotel, Sparklehorse, Interpol, Olivia Tremor Control, New Pornographers, Flaming Lips, Pavement, Now It's Overhead, and all the other modern indie 'classics'. But for us, there's something about Nada Surf that makes them stand out, even among such an elite indie crowd. Again, it's that impossible to describe something, so personal and intimate, even at their most rocking, that just hits us right in the heart. And the soul. The true test for us though as always, is how often you find yourself listening to something. Sure we've been loving all sorts of doom and drone and black metal, but we always find ourselves throwing this back on, again and again, all the time, every day. And loving it more and more every time.
Packaged with a cool die-cut cityscape sleeve with lyrics, and while supplies last a bonus disc including two unreleased tracks, a demo version of the opening track, and a Francoise Hardy cover!
As we've mentioned in past reviews, it gets harder and harder to know what to say about Nadja and Aidan Baker records. Not just because there are so many of them, but because they all mine similar sonic territory, and heck, they all sound fantastic. This latest limited lp release is no different.
Baker, half of the duo that is Nadja (but you knew that), also has a strange habit of re-recording old songs, which drives completists and obsessive fans up the wall. Such is the case with Belles Betes, 4 solo Aidan Baker tracks, here reimagined and performed by Nadja, which basically means tracks that tended toward the minimal and drifty, get some crunch and buzz, pretty shimmer transformed into blessed out crush. And like we mentioned above, these tracks are fantastic, different enough from the originals that they're well worth owning. Probably most of you know what to expect from Nadja at this point, but just in case, the sound here is dripping with thick crumbling distortion, washed out weary vocals, muted machinelike percussion, a pounding Godfleshian post industrial metallic shoegaze, falling somewhere between M83 and Jesu, warm, thick, lustrous, epic, but somehow simultaneously melancholy and mournful.
The standout track might be "Green And Cold", the title track from a Baker disc we sold tons of, here the song becomes a bit of marginally new wave-y slowcore, spare and spacious, moody and haunting, and maybe the creepiest and mysteriously lovely Nadja jam yet.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES. Pressed on 180 gram vinyl, packaged in a super thick book bound lp sleeve.
We never thought we'd say this, but it's been a while since we've heard from Nadja! Two whole years in fact. There is a collaborative lp we're been meaning to review, but this is the first proper new full length since 2010's Autopergamene, and even if we were inclined to dismissively think "oh, another Nadja record", we throw it on, and are immediately reminded why we remain sort of Nadja obsessed.
Another collection of super distorted, darkly blissed out metalgaze perfection, this time the guitars sound even MORE distorted, crumbling and blurring into washed out smears of chordal gristle, and if that wasn't enough to get you excited about a new Nadja, howabout the fact that in place of the usual drum machine, is none other than Jesus Lizard drummer Mac McNeilly, who adds some human heft to the equation, making Nadja sound more like a real band, a fantastically blown out dirge metal slowcore band, the opener, a lurching super dynamic slab of dream doom bliss out, with hushed vocals, pounding drums, and the aforementioned gorgeous guitar crumble, even at 11 minutes it's still not nearly long enough.
The second track almost sounds like a Jesus Lizard song, a little bit Slinty too, with its spidery minor key guitar part, you can imagine it recast as a burst of bombastic noise rock, but here, it becomes the framework for a cool, constantly shifting metallic blowout, which features some gorgeously hushed moments, but also Nadja at their most propulsive and rocking. The second half gets mathy, and again super dynamic, and it has us wishing Nadja had hooked up with McNeilly long before now. The title track is epic slow burn Neur-Isis style heaviness, a sound that Nadja borrowed, and opted to reimagine and make their own instead of returning, and they continue to do it better than almost anyone else. Soaring and majestic and crumblingly heavy! Which leads into the closer, a 14 minute sprawl of tribal drumming, smoldering drones, blown out psychedelic noise, buried vox, all smeared into a shoegazey shimmer, which fades out midsong, leaving the second half spare and spaced out, a slowcore creep, with big drums driving swirling guitars, delicate melodies, and barely there vocals. So good. And well worth the wait.
Crashing waves of balls of yarn. That's one attempt to explain this band's sound... Along with bringing in the usual Earth, SUNNO))), and Boris comparisons. The Toronto based duo of Aidan Baker (guitars, vocals, flute, piano, drum machines) and Leah Buckareff (bass and vocals) are an "atmospheric doom" band whose slow moving, heavy and heavily distorted music definitely shares something with the likes of early Earth, but although they've done a split 3" with UK doom nasties Moss (among several previous underground releases) you can't really define them as being a "metal" band at all. Their gauzy, droney, doom-spelled-backwards music has a warm, melodic underpinning, somewhere within the billowing clouds of distortion that form the three long tracks found here. I guess it's something like the churchy, "funereal" doom of Finland's Skepticism, really, but even more calm, echoed and ambient. Melancholic but very pleasant, with both growled vocals and gentle singing hovering just beneath the surface, this music somehow suggests rays of pure white light shining down from on high to illuminate their low-end murk... and during the final third of the last track "Breakpoint" the heaviness drops away altogether for a quietly sung coda that could be from the most mellow and poetic of indie-pop albums. Nadja's music is definitely more abstract and altered than, say, Ocean (another sludge-dirge outfit reviewed elsewhere this list), and is so much more beautiful than the monochrome darkness dwelt in by many other doom bands. If you can imagine an ultra-distorted hybrid of Growing, Codeine and, uh, Ras Algethi you'd maybe come close to the sound of Nadja... Recommended!!
Covers records can definitely be a cop out. They're easy, and fun, and who doesn't want to just jam out to their favorite tunes. But some covers records do transcend, whether it's song choice, theme, or those particular versions and interpretation, the right covers, played the right way, can be as good if not better than a band's records proper. Which makes sense as you're typically covering songs that are, at least to you, if not everyone, 'classics.'
Which brings us to When I See The Sun Always Shines On TV, which is in fact, a collection of covers, many of which might seem like super obvious choices. Which is okay, it's as if Nadja wanted to acknowledge their influences loudly and proudly in the face of folks who accuse them of ripping off some of these very same bands. And at least half of these tracks are actually by bands that we've compared Nadja to in past reviews. So we were sort of psyched to see how instead of infusing their own music with the influences of other bands, they might approach it the other way around, taking these songs and bands they love, and filtering them through their own sound. Alongside those obvious choices though are some totally out of left field choices, that on the surface seem to make no sense, but in the context of this collection fit perfectly, and when heard all buzzy and blissy and Nadja'd up, sometimes sound better than the originals.
The album opens with My Bloody Valentine's "Only Shallow", and Nadja make it their own, which is no small feat considering how iconic that main riff is, but heck, in the past we'v talked about how everything sounds better slower, well imagine that jam, slowed way down, and beefed WAY up, so what was already THEE shoegaze anthem of all time, is transformed into a lurching, heaving, crumbling mass of glorious blurred and blown out soft focus heaviness. Then comes Codeine's "Pea", another obvious Nadja influence, we would have gone for "Cave In", some doom band needs to cover that one, but "Pea" suits them, they don't even rock it out that much, it's a bit heavier, but not much slower, and Aidan Baker's soft tentative croon is a dead ringer for Codeine's Stephen Immerwahr. The band also tackle the Swans, and the Cure, the latter's "Faith" stretched out to almost 13 minutes, and expansive glorious woozy gloomy sprawl.
But it's the unlikely choices that seal the deal. A-Ha? It's the track that gives this comp its title, and although we're not familiar with the original, the Nadja version is gorgeous, heavy and poppy and gloriously blown out.
Then there's the Slayer cover, "Dead Skin Mask" from Seasons In The Abyss, not as obvious a choice as "Raining Blood" or "Angel Of Death", but for Nadja a much more suitable choice, that main riff, sounds soooooo good, all sludgey and washed out, that main melody even more seasick and woozy sounding, the new version somehow even creepier than the original. However our favorite two tracks here are definitely the least likely, one you may have heard, one you most likely haven't.
First, Elliott Smith's "Needle In The Hay", which of course is a fantastic song, but in Nadja's capable hands, it becomes even more harrowing, much more minor key, the vocals worn and weary, the drums a trudging death march, all beneath a thick layer of droning buzz and keening keyboards, and then that main hook, so epic and mysterious and sorrowful. You can almost imagine this is what Smith was imagining when he wrote it. And as much as we love this whole disc, this is the one we keep returning to.
And then there's "Long Dark Twenties", which was previously releases as a super limited 7", and which just happens to be a cover of a song from the Kids In The Hall movie, and yeah, that makes no sense at all, but as far as we're concerned it's become a Nadja song, we actually reviewed that song in depth when we had the 7", so let's revisit that briefly:
Folks who managed to catch Nadja performing live at aQuarius not too long ago, were treated to quite possibly the heaviest, catchiest, grooviest Nadja track yet. An awesome hook filled seventies rock style ultra jam, wrapped in thick clouds of billowing distortion and anchored by the crunch and pound of programmed beats, Aidan Baker's vocals a whispered croon, Leah Buckareff's bass throbbing and rumbling, but the main riff, SHIT, unbelievable, even after our ears stopped ringing, we were all humming that riff for days...
Well the funny thing we learned later, was that there song was in fact a cover. And an incredibly unlikely cover at that. The only obvious link between the original and the band covering it? Canada. The song, some of you might remember, is in fact from the Kids In The Hall movie Brain Candy, and proves that Nadja can turn hooky pop into hooky sludge-y doom. The chorus is an absolute killer, and similar to how Torche transform pop into skullcrushing hook filled heaviness, Nadja take that pop and wrap it all up in some of their distinctive blissed out fuzz and we're talking HIT. Well, a hit if there were actually some sort of blissdoomdronesludgepop chart. Which there should be. And there sort of is, in our heads, but anyway...
So yeah, for folks who missed out on that single, or who just want to have it on cd instead of vinyl, well, it's worth the price of admission for just that jam. But thankfully, every song on here is a crushing doom drenched, pop infused, slow motion chunk of dreamy blissed out, ultra catchy heaviness. And even though it's not technically a proper Nadja record, it just may well be our favorite Nadja record yet.
Been meaning to list this one for a while now, a collaboration between aQ beloved dronedirgedoom duo Nadja, and local black drone / synth noise outfit Galena, and like the best collaborations, it's difficult to tell who's responsible for what, but really it hardly matters, Konstruktion is gorgeously noisy, distinctly blackened sprawl of loosely structured noise, after a brief interlude the album immediately explodes into a wild squall of swirling black buzz, what sounds like the intro to some super fierce, epic black metal track, but instead of exploding into frenzied riffing and furious blastbeats, the riffs and guitarnoise seem to just swirl in on themselves, a dizzying tangled of buzzing metal, of heaving chordal thrum, there does seem to be drumming, but it sounds like a barrage of malfunctioning drum machine splutter, also blurred into the overall psychedelic swirl. It's not all dense and driving, the second half blossoms into a sort of sundappled synthscape, all woozy and shimmery, which bleeds right into the dirgey buzzy "Tears", a billowing blur of buzz and rumble, shot through with streaks of keening high end skree, a track that dissipates before it can fulfill it's heavy promise. Which leads to a songsuite of smeared streaks, and noise drenched swirls, roiling caustic churn, and hushed murky thrum, slo-mo drone-buzz drift, and washed out psychedelic drift, spidery ambience and woozy minimal shimmer, culminating in a dense black cloud of muted mesmeric murk. And that's just side one.
Flip the record over and get lost in the 22+ minute sidelong sprawl of "High Sea & Turbulence / Coda 2", a gorgeous, dreamlike haze-scape, total zoner bliss out, crumbling static swirled slow motion swells of distant chordal thrum, a smoldering slow build, shot through with keening shards of high end melody, which eventually transforms into some seriously tripped out slo-mo industrial metalgaze churn, all pulsing motorik drumming, hazy washed out riffage, dense psychedelic swirls, some seriously tranced out super hypnotic synth soaked kraut-dirge radness, like Nadja playing Faust, wrapped in some gauzy shoegaze atmospherics. Killer!!
Now reissued again on vinyl, this former AQ Record Of The Week from back in 2004. This time, instead of Eclipse, it's on Kemado's vinyl-only imprint Mexican Summer (which is named after a Nadler song?), and they've added a bonus 7" of unreleased songs. It's limited to 1000 copies. Here's what we said about it before:
This is a dark and languorous trip through a sonic world of bleak skies, neverending sorrow, lost love, death and dying and all sorts of somber miserablism. The music itself is lush and rich, a warm rainy soundscape of muted finger picked guitars, augmented by occasional banjo, eukele, and autoharp, all lashed together into a modern melding of classic Appalachia, psych folk and classic songcraft.
But it's Nadler's voice that is the most mesmerizing part of Ballads Of The Dying, rich, velvety and throaty, completely captivating, and surprisingly reminiscent of Neko Case, but instead of the country wildcat Case, here's she's a rainsoaked and bedraggled innocent, seemingly beaten down but emanating an inner strength, a hidden power, that comes through in her powerful voice.
This is one of those records that seems pleasant enough on first listen, but as you dig deeper, the songs and stories unfold and you quickly find your self living and loving and crying and dying right along with Nadler and the characters she has populated her musical world with.
For her first record for Sacred Bones, Marissa Nadler has put together a pretty heavy hitting band, one that features folks like Steve Moore of Zombi, and Eyvind Kang, but really, Nadler doesn't need anyone but her own bad self, her gorgeous, haunting vocals, and delicate guitar playing are practically perfect. Just check out opener "Drive (Fade Into)", the first two minutes of which are just Nadler singing and playing guitars, spare and sparse, ethereal and so lovely, lush, lustrous harmonies, the Mazzy Star vibe which was always present, is huge here, in the phrasing, the timbre of Nadler's voice, occasionally layered into gorgeous multi-tracked harmonies, and while we would have been happy with a solo acoustic record, the band deftly, and quite subtle, add perfect sonic colorations, soft streaks of feedback, shimmery swells of pedal steel, the final stretch all twang flecked and dusky.
From there on out, Nadler and her band deliver one gorgeous song after another, some funereal and somber, dark, dolorous torch songs, others dark slowcore dirges, others darkly dreamy psychedelic country. A few favorites include "1923", laced with Kang's lilting strings, the track peppered with bits of effects dusted guitar swirl, all driven by some gorgeously languid, muted percussion, gloomy downer pop bliss via classic old time songsmithery, or "Dead City Emily", with Nadler's vocals soaring over a tangle of steel string buzz, everything wreathed in echo and reverb, with some surprising bits of piano and synth, the song blossoming into something impossibly expansive and lush, or the haunting dark country of "Desire", which sounds like it could have been performed by Mark Lanegan or David Eugene Edwards from Woven Hand, but at the same time, it couldn't have been anyone but Nadler.
We've loved pretty much everything we've heard, and have raved about almost all of her records, but July definitely takes Nadler's sound, her voice, her songs, to the next level, and positions her as one of this generations most stunning songwriters. Certainly fans of Chelsea Wolfe and Zola Jesus will no doubt love Nadler, if they don't already, but Nadler's sound is much more pure, more classic, some of the songs here do of course have moments of gothiness, and gloominess, but it definitely transcends any micro genre classification, and manages to arrive at something truly timeless, and will definitely be vying for top spots on lots of folks best of 2014 year end lists, even though it's only February.
Fantastic!
The fourth record from Boston's most enchanting female songstress has left us breathless and almost at a loss for words! Ms Nadler really hits the nail on the head with this effortless marriage of hauntingly rich vocal cascades and captivating song writing. Quite the magnificent album, Little Hells features Nadler joined by a full band whose rhythmic weight anchors each song as her reverb-shrouded vocals drift into the dawning sky. If you've a penchant for lonely country charm with a gothic twist, and melancholic hymns possessed by a familiar nostalgia, this is soooo for you! Conjures visions of Victorian churches on golden plains at midnight, flickering shadows in hallways of rickety old barns. As far as production goes, we've never heard Nadler sound so dense and layered with such an array of instrumentation embracing the core slide guitar, bass and drums. And yet for all the gothic folk elements at the heart of this record, Little Hells is perhaps Nadler's poppiest release to date. Stunning!
It feels like it's been awhile since we were graced with a proper new full length from Miss Nadler, and it's certainly welcome. Her haunting gothic folktales seem to get better and more fully realized with each release. Here, she is backed by a fuller sound courtesy of Philadelphia's Espers in full medieval chamber-folk mode making great use of reverberating Tibetan bells, harp and mandolin. But nothing overshadows her sophisticated fingerpicking and voice, which like an antiquated sparrow harkening from a time only experienced in past remembrances transports the listener through lovely gossamer shades of grey. The CD version includes a Leonard Cohen cover, a free sticker and a link to download 4 more unreleased tracks.
To cry out "holy shit!" would probably be far too boorish and loud when speaking of this album, so instead we'll whisper an impassioned "my goodness!" Yes, this is another wonderful, deeply moving work from Ms Nadler! For those of you adored her last album Ballads Of The Dying even a fraction as much as we did (it was an AQ Record Of The Week back in December), you'll surely welcome this new one. As with its predecessor, The Saga Of Mayflower May is imbued with a sedate earthy beauty rooted in classic Appalachian folk songcraft. It's hard to believe this is a current release. It's strikingly so very out of step with the times in its earnest, clear tone seemingly untouched by modern hustle'n'bustle. In turn, Nadler's vocals bear a striking resemblance to those of Hope Sandoval, Neko Case and Vashti Bunyan. And much like those women, you can imagine her singing these songs aloud whether there's an audience present or not. The music flows from her -- singing just as much to and for herself. Although there is a palpable sorrowful weight to each of the songs, her performance still seems liltingly effortless like autumnal leaves drifting down from an elderly oak tree. From start to finish, this Saga is hauntingly gorgeous. The closing song "Horses And Their Kin" just might leave you in tears. Keep in mind, this is not the record to be playing while you're multi-taskin' and distracted. No, please do yourself and this album a well-deserved favor and set aside some quiet time (oh, at least about 35 minutes or so), and enjoy. Need we say more? Recommended!
The Sister, Marissa Nadler's second self-released lp, is a vehicle for her amazing voice. The instrumentation and melodies are kept quite minimal, at least on the surface. Sometimes on songs like "Christine", once the chorus has time to build, the song crescendoes into soft layers of swirling synths and swelling cymbal washes. These always take second chair to Nadler's effortless vocal melodies, the fingerpicked guitar her primary companion throughout the record. The Sister has a subdued quality to it, never rising too high or sinking too low, and although these are beautiful songs executed with skill, there's not a stand-out number that especially stands apart from the rest. Her last, self-titled record had the synth-driven "Wedding" and the poppy Mazzy Star-esque "The Sun Always Reminds Me of You" which made that really good record great. The Sister is a record that longtime fans of Marissa Nadler's magic will enjoy, but newcomers might find Little Hells or her previous self-titled record more memorable. Still, this is an excellent record for sleepy Sunday mornings and dreamy summer nights.
Marissa Nadler's latest (and Kickstarter funded, on her own label) self-titled collection of dreamy folk-pop might be her best yet. Her voice is light and clear, carrying the listener through the narratives and characters she creates. Fingerpicked acoustic guitar provides the ubiquitous background around which pedal steel, vibes, a few synths and washy percussion float. Her vocals seems almost effortless in their breathy melancholic beauty. As on Little Hells, Nadler utilizes a full band for much of the record, though a lot of what the band does is minimal, allowing the layered vocals to drive the songs. When the band does really kick in, however, it's fucking magical, as on "Baby I Will Leave You In the Morning" and "Puppet Master". Nadler, who has been previously much compared to Cat Power and Mazzy Star, deserves the compliments those comparisons bring, but should not be seen as derivative or secondary to those artists. Yes, there's a healthy dose of Americana (the pedal steel, the banjo) and yes the vocals are drenched in reveb (though not to disguise any lack of talent), but there's no mistaking that Marissa Nadler's got IT, whatever that singular quality is that marks truly exceptional performers. A je ne sais quoi that trancends comparison.
After the wonderful opener "In Your Lair, Bear" which hints at the fullness of the instrumentation to come later in the record, Nadler gives us the minimal "Alabaster Queen". The hard-edged coldness created by the stately vocal narrative contrasts nicely with the slow-strummed warmth of the acoustic guitar and bell-like Rhodes piano. "The Sun Always Reminds Me of You" might be the song that sounds the most like Mazzy Star in one of their less drug-hazed moments. "Mr. John Lee Revisited" takes a step back and feels more akin to Nadler's earlier work. "Wedding" stands out in that it features no guitar at all, just synths, percussion and vocals that build and build and build. "Little King" serves as a nice comedown after "Wedding"'s drama, a return to fingerpicked guitar minimalism alongside a banjo that glides in and out of the vocal melody.
These are songs that make you stop and listen, whatever else is going on in your life. Songs where you can just close your eyes and drift away to wherever the music takes you. Highly recommended.
Something of a musical chameleon, Andrew Lagowski has popped up in a bunch unlikely places since the mid-'80s. He worked with Brian Lustmord on a couple of his seminal records (including the dark ambient classic Heresy and the brutalist industrial project Terror Against Terror), and shortly thereafter produced some thumping techno singles for the Warp-lookalike label GPR, only to produce an incredible series of paranoiac electro-acoustic work on Touch under his moniker SETI in the late '90s. Nagamatzu represents Lagowski's earliest recordings, dating back to 1986, and these sound nothing like anything that he's done since. This was his minimal wave / post-punk project, working with bassist Stephen Jarvis. Drum machines, claustrophobic electronics, horror-movie / newsreel samples, and a few droning licks on the guitar all work through these instrumental pieces, with most every track driven by Jarvis' low-slung melodies that come directly out of the Peter Hook and Simon Gallup schools of goth-inflected basslines. Not surprising, "Sacred Islands Of The Mad" comes across as an incredible collection of what could have been lost Joy Division or Cure demos minus the vocals. Every track is met with dour moods and melodies grafted onto comparatively uptempo rhythm tracks. There was an mp3 rip of the cassette posted by Mutantsounds a couple years back, and the remastering job that George Horn did on the recordings is a huge improvement on those pretty crappy sounding files. Yup, Dark Entries has delivered another kick-ass album from the farthest regions of '80s dark/minimal/cold wave.
Nagamatzu was the duo of Steven Jarvis and Andrew Lagowski, the latter going on to collaborate with Lustmord on a few projects, to pen some rather muscular techno tracks in the early '90s under his own name, and engineer the exceptional sci-fi bleakness of his S.E.T.I. and Legion records. A couple years back, Dark Entries re-mastered and reissued the second Nagamatzu cassette; and here, they've given the same treatment to the first, originally self-released in 1983. Nagamatzu's skeletal post-punk developed through bass, electronics, and the occasional voice, all inspired by a mutual appreciation of Clock DVA, Joy Division, Throbbing Gristle, and OMD. Yes, that's a very good place for anybody to start. The liner notes sport a handful of reviews from back in the day, pointing out the comparisons of Nagamatzu to The Cocteau Twins. In 1983, this comparison would have been quite apt as the Twins contemporary album Garlands was a bleak affair, pushing the bass and mechanical rhythms to the foreground with none of the ethereal dream-pop that became their signature. But back to the matter at hand, Nagamatzu's electronics for skittering arpeggiations, clockwork drum programming, and string-pad sustained synths were countered by the foregrounded basslines from Jarvis, whose haircut was not the only thing he borrowed from Simon Gallup. Where the latter Nagamatzu work filled in the blanks with cut-up collages of radio broadcasts and slasher film screams, Shatter Days is darkly hollowed out. The original tape was just 5 tracks, and Dark Entries has fleshed it out into a full album with songs from compilations and unreleased tracks from the same period, all of which hold up very well under historical scrutiny. Another gem from Dark Entries.
This is the debut release for Bay Area troubadour Goh Nakamura. He draws from the no frills, sensitive singer/songwriter inkwell... ultra heartfelt and barebones, much like that of Elliott Smith's early albums. The ache is palpable in each of the eleven songs on Daylight Savings. Impressive.
At long last, the archive of live documents of the infamous Downtown supergroup Naked City is being unleashed! Starting out in 1989, the hardcore/grind/jazz/soundtracks/noise/etc. inspired outfit led by John Zorn had yet to include harsh vocalisations in their compositions, future contributions from Brutal Truth's Kevin Sharpe and Boredoms' Yamatsuka Eye had not yet come to fruition. This first volume in Tzadik's Archival Series of Naked City recordings presents the group at their modest beginnings, featuring the lineup of Fred Frith, Wayne Horvitz, Joey Baron, Bill Frisell and Zorn himself. The setlist performed here represents some of the earliest, raw blueprints for what was to become the first (and last!) recording for Elektra's Nonesuch imprint, plus some originals and cover versions of compositions by Ennio Morricone, Johnny Mandel and John Patton that never made their way onto proper studio recordings! Beautifully designed, as expected of all Tzadik releases, with Weegee cover art (again) and many rarely seen photographs of the group in action onstage and off.
Quite the dreamdate here between two beloved Aquarius Records artists! Half of Naked Island is the one and only Brian Pyle - the Northern Californian denizen responsible for Ensemble Economique, Starving Weirdos, and RV Paintings; and the other half is the beguiling Felicia Atkinson - better known as Je Suis Le Petit Chevalier. The two have crafted freefloating abstractions that deftly walk the line between ephemeral songwriting and hallucinatory dronescaping in their respective projects; and this project maintains that aesthetic course with a few choice surprises thrown in the mix! The A-side features a narcoleptic Atkinson repeating whispered phrases in French amidst the coronas and nebulas of synth expansiveness before a muted techno thump begins to congeal all of the forms into a structured diffusion of propulsive rhythms cruising through their conjoined gaseousness. One could harken back to some of those early Pete Namlook recordings. We're knocking the cobwebs out of our brains to recall which one might be most fitting - perhaps From Within (with Richie Hawtin) or Fires Of Ork (with Biosphere). No matter. This is a great track that begs us to ask that these two continue this collaboration! The B-side girds on rhythm as well but is much more understated through the sampled breakbeat with washes of expansive synth, goth-y guitar drone, and oceanic drift slowly burying that rhythm under ripples of delay that may be the aggregate of Pyle's vocals. Very cool stuff. Also, we should note that the sleeve comes with a very cool lenticular artwork. Fucking trippy!
The day-glo anarcho/dub-punk of Rubella Ballet and the convoluted anti-funk of Eight Eyed Spy might be a few of the choice throw-back references you'll find in Naked Lights. This Oakland quintet has produced one of those fantastic wildcard albums that we love, pushing against all expectations of what a Castle Face album should sound like. Twin guitars squiggle and splutter in a dizzying chatter whilst the deft rhythm section belongs to a lineage of complicated grooviness that traces back to Can and This Heat and up to Laddio Bolocko. Vocalist Aurora Crispin maintains a slurred yelp that drags her syllables in an uncanny resemblance to Mark E. Smith. Collectively, the band seems to adopt a number of different strategies in penning their songs - complicated time-signatures, jigsaw puzzle angles and contours, and repetitive grooves that shouldn't work but do. Even when the tracks snap against verse and chorus, these components are fractured and detoured in deft art-punk fashion. Recommended!
Latest blast of gloomy post punk from these Aussie rockers, the A side starts out with some heavily reverbed guitars, plenty of jangle, joined by female vox, low slung basslines, even some deep crooned male back up vocals, the song hypnotic and droney, repetitive and psychedelic, with some awesomely strange boy/girl harmonies, droned out and druggy, that give the song a bit of a spaced out vibe. The B side is heavy on the organ, a buzzing bit of gloom pop garage rock, the sound way more distorted and raw, some sweet boy/girl harmonies here too, less strange and more traditional than on the A side, again, all hazy and hypnotic, the sound super spaced out and repetitive, with a killer heavy and noisy psychedelic chaotic outro, all tangled guitars and wild loose drumming.
just thinking ... Adult., Pink Industry, Xmal Deutschland, German New Wave, Screamers on meth
Heaps Of Nothing marks the return of mysterious (to us, anyway) Aussie noise rockers Naked On The Vague. The band mines similar territory as groups like Blank Dogs and Times New Viking, making Siltbreeze an ideal home for them. The songs are dark and grimy, sounding like something recorded in an underground bunker, or maybe a meat locker, but below this maelstrom sit some pretty catchy pop songs. The band knows how to overload their speakers for maximum saturation, with the guitars cutting through like razorblades and the warm organ buzzing out nice little melodies. Above it all are some cool monotone female vocals and an ever present caveman drum thump. The band doesn't really stray from this formula, nor would we want them too, as the album seems to thrive on all the negative energy here, a bit like Joy Division and Catherine Wheel meeting in a fist fight while strung out on black tar heroin. Noisy, a tad gothy, and with a nice garagey sheen. Cool stuff.
Latest from these Aussie gloom rockers, and another killer collection of dark grimy noise pop gems. This ep is a soundtrack of sorts to a forthcoming film called Twelve Dark Noons, set in the Australian outback, purportedly a somewhat psychedelic tale chronicling a loss of sanity. The NOTV jams, though, continue on sonically from where their Heaps Of Nothing record on Siltbreeze left off, thick sinewy Joy Division basslines under clanging chiming guitars, deep bellowed monotone vox, cool angular melodies, heavy, intricate drumming, swirling synths... as we've mentioned before, definitely covering similar territory as Blank Dogs and Times New Viking, but some older comparisons seem more apt, Wipers, Scientists, Gun Club, Celibate Rifles, the Abecedarians, The Gordons, the Terminals, not to mention Bauhaus.
The songs brood and smolder, a little bit droney, mesmerizing and hypnotic, the first five jams are hooky catchy pop swaddled in buzz and fuzz and a dour washed out haze, but it's the final track that has us a bit obsessed, the only track that sounds remotely 'soundtracky', a sprawling slow motion dronescape, lazily unfurling guitars, layered low end, all slithery and shimmer, over which softly undulating sheets of high end drift and hover, gauzy feebacky swells, glacial riffage, wreathed in a smattering of effects, the whole thing darkly meditative, softly noise, and totally mesmerizing.
