So here it is. Or at least part of it. This is what Courtney Love and the remaining members of Nirvana have been fighting about. THE SONG. The last completed Nirvana song 'You Know You're Right'. The song probably most of you have already downloaded off the internet. Or recorded off of MTV. So was it worth it? Well, for those of you who haven't heard it, it -is- a pretty great song. The familiar Nirvana formula: brooding verses, explosive choruses. But it still sounds great. The rest of the record is a pretty solid greatest hits. Hardly essential for the Nirvana fan, but necessary I guess if you want THAT SONG. Supposedly there will be a multiple cd box set in the next couple of years and I would imagine THAT SONG would also be included there, but you never know.
Yay! It's pretty cool that Norway's Smalltown Supersound has put this out, a disc collecting two previously released (in Japan only) eps by this Japanese all-girl avant-rock unit. We'd found out about this band a while back, and had wanted to stock their stuff, but sometimes importing cds from Japan is a daunting task. So our procrastination paid off, as now we have this handy disc, easily available. (It's also pretty cool that the Heartworm Press label has also just issued this on vinyl!) So what's the deal with this band? A mostly instrumental guitar/bass/drums trio who are psychedelically skronky, generating massive walls of distortion underpinned by propulsive no-waveisms. They're not a Japanese "noise" band like Merzbow or Hijokaidan, but certainly get plenty noisy. We could compare 'em at times to the likes of Afrirampo, Lightning Bolt, Melt Banana, Deerhoof, (early) Blonde Redhead... actually Nisennenmodai makes the reviewer's task a bit easier by naming several of the tracks of the Neji ep (2004) which begins this disc after some of their musical heroes, which to a degree they emulate: "Pop Group", "This Heat", "Sonic Youth". The "This Heat" track definitely has the nervous tension and percussive percolations we love about that band, whereas "Pop Group" is ultra-angular and extra-noisy...
The Tori ep (2005) that occupies the second half of this collection continues those themes - in fact, they do one of Neji's songs again, the densely rhythmic "Ikkkyokume", probably a signature track for the band as it so well represents their trance-inducing intensity, love of volume and minimalist song structure. Tori's first track "Kyuukohan" is tightly wound, repetitive number full of crashing cymbals, chiming guitar, and bass throb... building, building, building relentlessly to a massive climax. The next song, "Kyaaaaaa", incorporates yelping vocal shrieks and even more noisy feedback guitar. And so it goes, getting ever noisier, more throbbingly repetitive, a distorted, enthralling onslaught of explosive splatter/scatter rock indeed! We'd love to see 'em live someday, apparently there's crazy costumes and stuff, but that seems hardly necessary given the sheer energy of their music.
The limited double LP version is a handsome gatefold, on white vinyl. It's already sold out at the label, apparently we got their very last copies... act fast!
Nite Jewel made her way into our hearts in a big way last year with her awesome full length and various 12"s of late night, laid back seductive soft dance jams. Since then her fan base has expanded deservedly, and as we write this she and her new band are on tour opening up for Panda Bear.
Am I Real gives us six brand new tracks of blissed out hazy synth pop that finds her songs gaining a newfound warmth and intimacy and proving that she is far from some clubkid come-down fad. In fact this is not for dancefloors but much more for bedrooms and sun soaked daytrips when you just want to get lost in a soft breeze and sway gently back and forth in a half conscious state of mind. Like this perfect intersection of 4AD dreaminess and the soft drift of Sara Records, but infused with a much more synth and smoke machine vibe. She continues to have a golden touch as we love everything she's done so far and this just continues her hot streak!
Oh yeah! It doesn't get more sultry, more sizzling, or more charming then Nite Jewel. Ever since we heard her 12" on Italians Do It Better we've been entranced by this Los Angelas based artist's take on slowed down, slow burning, bedroom dancefloor jams, which sound like some kind of amazing mix of space disco and '80s soul and funk, with a healthy serving of valium in thrown in the mix. Good Evening contains those two great tracks from the Italians Do It Better 12", and thankfully, all the other songs here are just as satisfying as those tracks that reeled us in the first time around. There is something really unique about Nite Jewel's sound, drawing on '80s and '90s soul but infusing those sound with such a nice shoegaze and atmospheric feel, these wonderfully homecrafted tracks really do feel like that kind of D.I.Y. late night dance-in-the-clouds soundtrack we always longed for. While there has definitely been a renaissance in recent years of groups influenced by cosmic disco, Nite Jewel manages to stand out, conjuring and channeling sounds from the hazy and dreamy side of things like Elizabeth Fraser (Cocteau Twins) to dance floor divas like Debby Deb. Who knew someone would ever find a way to bring the spirit of 4AD and mix it with RnB and have it sound so damn fine. We could see Nite Jewel appealing to anyone, from fans of Grouper to Goldfrapp, there's so much to love on this record. Feel the slow burn!
New Mexican Summer 12", from our favorite lady of late night dance floor slow burners. Nite Jewel continues to write really infectious songs that seep into your body and soul, making your body move in such loose and languid ways. We love both the new tracks on this 12" but we may even be blasting the B side more as the Dam Funk club dub of "It Goes Through Your Head" has summer jam of the year written all over it! Samps also does a great remix of "Natural Causes", and it's cool to go back and forth and hear the more organic sounding versions on the A side and then step under that hypnotic disco ball on the B side. Limited to 1000 copies, each hand numbered.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Two brand new tracks on this super limited 7" from Los Angeles late night dance floor queen, Nite Jewel. With a full band behind her, these are the most full sounding and fleshed out Nite Jewel songs yet. The A side, "She's Always Watching You" pushes the synths more into the background, as bass, cello, and clarinet rise to the surface displaying a much wider spectrum of sound than on past releases. The B side, "Sister" has been the one getting the most love around here. A slow burner that is by far the most emotionally impacting track we've heard from Nite Jewel.
The sound here may not be as washed out or weird as when we fell in love with her on Good Evening, but she's definitely proving to be an artists with staying power. We noticed that on the back cover she thanks Prefab Sprout, which totally makes sense now. It seems that she's shifted her listening/influences from dark space disco, to more grounded salt-of-the-earth emotive songwriting. Fans of Saint Etienne, Blondie, Brenda Ray, Bachelorette, JJ, and Ivy should for sure check this out.
Nite Jewel's album Good Evening is shaping up to be one of our favorites of the year, so we were super excited for these new bedroom jams on her second 12", released on the always great Italians Do It Better label. Taking her hazy lo-fi spaced out slow jam sound to even greater heights of smoky delight. "Want You Back" might just surpass "What Did He Say" as her most infectious song yet! Still somehow infusing a shoegazey and dazed vibe into her coming down from the dance floor grooves. The B-side "All Out Of Order" finds her using a vocoder for maximum slow burn effect, and it's pretty rad that she also included a version of the song in Spanish. As much as we've been playing this we also can't take our eyes off the 12"s cover with its saturated colors and faded image that reminds us of the classic look of 12"s by groups like the Cocteau Twins and My Bloody Valentine. All the way around, an awesome release!
Japan's Niwa used to be known as Choukoku No Niwa, and you might know that name from a split release entitled More Echoes, Touching Air Landscape they shared with AQ-faves Boris a while back. We'd been wondering ever since what had happened to the mysterious Choukoku No Niwa, whose psychedelic tribal Amon Duulish thwump made their half of that split every bit as good as that of Boris. What we know know, is that they shortened their name and recently released this new album, a 69 minute spaced-out trance-bliss trip of ocean-deep, fx-laden psych rock with gently pulsing rhythms, some drifting female vocals, and much dubby droning. Real nice, stoned groove, a little bit slick perhaps but certainly well-produced. And don't get the wrong idea from the Boris connection -- this is ain't a bit heavy, not at all. Plenty of bass, yes, definitely super mellow -- that's even a song title here: "Mellow", a reggaefied number halfway through the disc. Other song titles like "Warm Rain", "Sunset Swell" and "Moon Flower" should to give you an idea of the laid-back, hippyish vibe that this floats along upon. It's kinda like Hanadensha meets Circle or Salvatore, or zoned out Boredoms on the beach...
It's no secret that we loved the full-length from LA's so-so-good punk noiseniks No Age, released on Fat Cat. But, it was just a collection of 7"s releases and we've been fiending for an actual album ever since! After all the hype -- albeit well-deserved -- and exposure, can they live up to our expectations? Well, this 7" is STILL not an album, but it is a taste of what should be in store. Side one is a brand spanking new track, full of all the same warmth and fun of Weirdo Rippers, but with a back porch style, knee slapping sing-a-long drive to it that makes us want to call our friends, meet up at the park, and run around like 14 year olds. Side two offers three songs. Kinda. It's three cover songs. What are they trying to do to us? No Age, you're a bunch of teases. Just put out a real record! We know you've got more songs! Ah, well, the covers include tracks by Nate Denver's Neck, The Urinals, and The Nerves. If you're a fan of fun, pick one up, and join us in vigil awaiting their Sub Pop album Nouns coming out soon (May 6th!). It better not be a covers record, but, anyway, this 7" is totally recommended.
Lots of bands these days have a really cool sound, tapping into other eras of music ('80s, punk, etc.), and are just very likable, but not many of them have a core and soul that you can really latch on to. No Age stand so far above the crowd in that respect as the music they create just bubbles over with so much pure conviction. From their beginnings they were a band who helped remind us that punk energy and spirit could still be channeled in really fresh and invigorating ways. And like all the truly great punk bands who matter, they make music that makes you sweat, yet gives you goosebumps at the same time. There is just something so fucking honest and immediate about their presence that you can't really put your finger on but you just feel with total trust and devotion.
Everything In Between, continues their streak of seriously on fire top notch releases. While it's only their second true album, the mark they have already made in the music scene is kind of incredible. They really are one of the last bands who have come up in the organic way that we think still really suits bands in the long run. They weren't just an overnight blog hype band who never played live and were already huge. But instead they really helped foster a true sense of (non-virtual) community in Los Angles, playing as many all-ages shows as possible and packing up the van and rocking tiny clubs and basements from coast to coast so many times. That work ethic and commitment really has deeply affected the music they make. They aren't about being super cool or the most lo-fi or weird band around, but instead you just know they are pouring every once of themselves into making music that they love and believe in so much. This album is kind of making us fall in love with them all over again. It's got the same kind of fast and addictive adrenaline rush as their past releases, but there is also more crunchy guitar and a really heartfelt and honest lyrical delivery that is making this one of those records that feels like someone got in your head and wrote songs that are anthems for both the greatest joys and deepest agonies of your life. So fucking great!
The always-on-fire LA duo are back with a new album on the horizon, and to get us all excited for it, we've got both a 2-song new 7" and a 3-song new 12" featuring the single "Glitter" which will be on the new album as well as some non-album tracks. (The B-sides on the 7" and 12" are different btw!)
These new songs find No Age continuing to evolve yet holding on to the core of their sound. Compared to their past releases these are mid-paced tracks but they're still infused with No Age's punk spirited energy and cool noisy and nuanced guitar. We're hearing some echoes of Mission Of Burma, The Feelies, and Rites Of Spring.... Can't wait for the full length but these slabs of wax will tide us over until then!
No Age have always lovingly worn their influences (and their hearts) right there on their sleeves for all to see, and of those influences, we can't think of a band who has shaped No Age's sound more than Husker Du, so it was perfect that at a recent appearance here in San Francisco No Age were joined by Bob Mould during their encore to perform "New Day Rising"!
No Age's love of Husker Du continues to shine as this new 12" finds them balancing their washed out and more atmospheric tendencies along side all out HD-like burners, especially the record's standout closer "You're A Target". No Age are one of the few super hyped bands that truly deserve their success and popularity, breathing new life into a punk aesthetic and infusing their noisy chaotic rock with more atmospheric shoegaze-y elements. It's not surprising how many bands have formed in just the last couple of years who have been clearly influenced by No Age.
As always the packaging and art are totally great, and while this won't be coming out on cd, the record does come with a digital download.
We're all geeks here at Aquarius. There is no way around it. Japanese this, Finnish that, some grim black metal album recorded in a garbage can in the Norwegian woods, whatever. But we still really love getting a great pop/punk/shoegaze album. And if you can stomach the idea of saying that for once, "the hype" isn't completely unfounded, then No Age might just be your band. Now, as we plod through Spring, looking toward Summer, nothing is more important than a good warm weather soundtrack! Enter Nouns, No Age's first full-length release brought to us by Sub Pop. Well, Fat Cat compiled the duo's first handful of 7"s in a full-length format, entitled Weirdo Rippers, but this is their first complete album proper. As you may know or guess, Weirdo was a bit patchy, which worked in its favor, really. The start stop action propelled it more than might be expected. So, for this release one could only be curious: What the hell will a No Age record sound like, and what kind of flow will it have? The width and breadth of their sound remains just as large - one part sloppy '90s punk and one part My Bloody Valentine - but there is a greater sense of cohesion. The qualities and characteristics of the recording itself are more consistent too. Also, there is a noticeable increase in the number of guitar layers as well, which means some more complex melodies. There's even a guitar "solo" at one point. Do it. Now's the time. Put on the new No Age record, go in your closet, grab your Chuck Taylors, grab a Mountain Dew - or some other highly caffeinated beverage - and have a pre-Summer Summertime party. Recommended.
Remember why you fell in love with punk rock? The fearless spirit, the ethos, the sweat, the youthful energy, the conviction, the elation. Remember why you eventually got bored with punk rock? The predictability, the empty slogans, the forced posturing, the generic delivery. Well lucky for many of us past punkers, No Age are doing an amazing job of reminding us of a time when it felt like punk rock could save lives.
No Age (not to be confused with the nineties musical movement) are a duo from Los Angeles who have gained a cult-following for their totally engaging and sweat filled live shows. Wild performances on their home turf, at the tiny LA club The Smell, are legendary. They've also put out a handful of kick ass, but now impossible to find 7"s. But lucky for those of us who missed the boat on those 45's, Fat Cat has put them all together on this here cd. Now we know why people have been freaking out over this band.
Imagine a youthful exuberance that feels so pure and sincere by guys who love Black Flag and Fugazi as much as they do My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive. In fact there's a lot about No Age that makes us think of prime-era Husker Du, all kinds of great lo-fi feedback and shoegaze moments infused with some serious punk rock spirit. Unpredictable and so immediate, for once the hype is totally right!
Four more short sharp blasts of grinding, cyclical, mesmerizing, crusty, repetitive blown out, in the red hypnorock heaviness from No Balls, a minimally maximalist offshoot of the mighty Brainbombs, taking single parts, and locking them and looping them into (im)proper songs, pounding away relentlessly, total caveman headbanger post punk sludge rock, and some of the raddest shit we've ever heard. Obviously if you love the Brainbombs, you're probably gonna dig this too. The same gnarled filthy riffage, the same sort of Neanderthal drum pound, but No Balls are definitely their own demented beast, howled vocals buried in the mix, occasional damaged psychedelic guitar leads, the sound thick and dense and powerful, heavy and punk as fuck, but also weirdly metallic, and super trancelike, most songs a single riff, pounded out over and over, while all around it guitar lines tangle, the low end throbs and pulses, vocals yelp, this record is more songy than the rest of the Brainbombs catalog, but only just barely. Like old school Finnish punk rock, super charged and stripped down, furious and fierce and frantic, but dirgey and doomy and sludgey at the same time, a tangled superfuzz blowout, tightly wound, and unravelling before your ears, glorious ramshackle, totally loose and swaggery and druggy, but tight in that way only bands on the verge of total collapse are capable of. It's way too short, these are the kinds of songs that could go on forever, stretch any of these jams into double digits and you'd have some seriously transcendental ur-dirge drone bliss crust wave nirvana, but if you're like us, you'll find yourself playing this over and over and over and over anyway...
LIMITED TO 306 COPIES. In hand screened sleeves, each one hand numbered. We got a bunch, but most likely these are the last copies we'll ever get...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
FINALLY! It's here, the first full length from NO BALLS. The new project from TWO of the Brainbombs, and it's just like the 7" (which is sadly now out of print): a noisier, more metal, more stripped down, more mesmerizingly hypnotic, even more fucked up and fractured and RAW, nearly instrumental Brainbombs which means this is fucking AMAZING!!!
If you love the Brainbombs, and how could you NOT, then you'll love this. Looped, motorik rhythms pound away relentlessly, through thick clouds of crumbling distortion, the recording super fucked up and in the red, with a super freaked out spatial thing going on, some of the drums seem to be blasting away right up front, while other drums sound off to the side, while the distorted guitars seem to seep into EVERYTHING, the result is head nodding (banging?) and totally dizzying. It's like these guys took unreleased Brainbombs jams and stripped them down to their bare essentials, then dipped them in a boiling cauldron of blown out distortion, hurling them into the void, picking out just a single riff from each track, and looping it, over and over and over, pounding away at that same riff FOREVER, total maximalist minimalism, like some impossible hybrid of Brainbombs, Gore, Black Flag and Lubricated Goat, hypnotic and mesmerizing, filthy and raw, metal AND punk, post everything noise rock, this shit is so fucked up and fierce.
Angular slashing riffage, buried super distorted vocals, but only here and there, some of that old dented BB trumpet bleat pops up every once in a while too, but those elements are practically swallowed whole by the churning black mass of sound that is No Balls, a gloriously sludgey and psychedelic kraut punk doom, mantra like, but also totally rocking, and simultaneously the best and the worst thing that's ever happened to your stereo. And your ears.
Totally ruling, utter sonic destruction, total musical bliss, filthy and fantastically and utterly recommended. Some of us are thinking... RECORD OF THE YEAR. Oh yeah...
The bad news is these are limited to only 300 copies, and once the batch we have is gone, we probably won't be able to get more. Super simple packaging, black on brown jackets, with that bunny image from the 7", plain white inner sleeve, pressed on nice thick vinyl... grab one before they're gone...
Okay, c'mon, the band is called No Balls, it's one of the guys from the mother fucking Brainbombs, and he's doing some sort of damaged lo-fi super distorted, doomy, looped, hypnotic, lo-fi metallic krautpunk. What more do you need to know?!
All of the basic BB elements are present, except maybe the trumpet, or the vocals. Which means two blasts of all instrumental hypnofuzz dirgery. The A side is all downtuned and fuzzed out and Sabbathy and way doomy, with a killer main riff, the whole thing simple and stripped down and plodding, but with some awesome (and awesomely freaked out) strangled stumbling angular guitar counterpoint, some serious Black Flagged, Greg Ginn-ed six string super distorto gnarl. Noisy and chaotic and fragmented, while that main riff just goes gloriously on and on and on and on...
The B side offers up another locked and looped riff, this time lumbering along beneath a super distorted wall of crumbling sound, the rhythm motorik and sort of abstract, while over the top ANOTHER guitar, dense and downtuned unfurls a buzz drenched slow motion minor key melody, while very much like the A side, that original riff pounds away unwaveringly.
So awesome. Bummer that it's so limited, only 187 copies, we got almost a quarter of those, but they're already flying. Simple orange and blue hand numbered silkscreened covers, on thick orange vinyl with hand stamped labels.
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
2007 release by this weird band, now defunct. Sludgey noise RAWK plus jass plus... well folks have compared this to everything from Queens Of The Stone Age to Neil Diamond. Somehow we neglected to review these before. Whoops. 180 gram vinyl plus cd version included too.
No sooner do the No Doctors show up in our fair city, that they begin to pelt us with sludgy slabs of glorious noise rock. What better way to make yourself at home in your new city and let the natives know you come in peace. T-Bone is two sides of classic rock meets noise rock meets jazz? Side A is a buzzing sludge-y groove beneath wild seventies RAWK guitar, and strange skronking horns, sounds a bit like an art rock / sludge rock Boston! Which is in fact a good thing!
Side B is some sort of post-rock-free-bop continuation of side one, sounding a bit like Jesus Lizard with a sax player and a classic rock fetish. Throbbing low end, simple propulsive drumming, and a relentlessly squawking sax. But then in comes the TALK BOX (!) which of course immediately brings back to mind good ol' seventies rock. Frampton's Comes Alive played by the Dazzling Killmen with James Chance? Weird, sure, but pretty fucking cool.
Very appetizing (or UN-appetizing, depending on your orientation) raw meat cover art!
What?! Aquarius picked a No Doubt release as a Record Of The Week? And it's a best-of type thing? What gives?
We're sure that's what a lot of you out there are thinking. Others, maybe, already are aware of what most 14-year old girls know -- No Doubt actually are pretty great. Some songs of theirs anyway. Heck, even some of my 34 year old friends into psych-folk and minimal electronic improv and black metal or whatnot will admit that No Doubt have some good songs. Which of course you'll find here, this being a singles collection after all! But it's the non-believers to whom this review is dedicated, those of you know don't know Gwen Stefani from ____________ [insert name of tennis pro or microorganism or something], and/or think that a 'best of' No Doubt is a concept not unlike a serious book devoted to the wit and wisdom of George W. Bush. So that's why we're recommending this brand new greatest hits type disc for you all. See, we're not trying to make you buy an actual No Doubt album, with all the filler that such top 40 products usually contain -- I don't have one of those either. But, after being around for like 17 years, they've got enough great singles to make one hell of an album, and this is it right here. You get the goodies from their last elpee Rock Steady (the irresistable "Hey Baby" produced by reggae legends Sly And Robbie, featuring the amazing Bounty Killer toasting over the break! and the just as catchy "Hella Good" produced by Nellee Hooper), plus of course their anthem "Just A Girl" from their star-making 1995 album Tragic Kingdom, Andee's favorite No Doubt song "Spiderwebs" with it's loping almost ballady verse and bouncing rollicking double time chorus, and their latest hit "It's My Life" (a Talk Talk cover! but re-done with fuzzed out bassbin rattling low end synth lines that make the song sound even better). And more, 15 tracks in all, many of them #1 hits. And for good reason. These songs fucking rule. If you can get past the aversion we all have to MTV fodder and Entertainment Weekly gossip and focus on just the music, No Doubt are pretty kick ass. So, even if you never thought you'd own a No Doubt album, or even an album by *any* band with a ska-punk background, just stop pretending and admit you like 'em and get this. You'll feel better (we did). And yes, there's the total teen heartache emotional button-pushing and an abundance of sleek candy apple pouts, but beneath the high gloss finish they've retained plenty of personality and a will of their own to make some damn infectious, well-crafted, smartly detailed pop songs. At the root of it all though, one of the best things about them is that they still burst with youthful exuberance, and this is more than evident in each of these singles. So c'mon, stop being snotty, you know you were secretly psyched when "Hey Baby" would come on in the supermarket, And if you were alone in the car, you know you cranked up "Hella Good" and sang along until the dude in the next car caught you. Oh. You didn't? Well you should! We do!
These days noise pop bands are a dime a dozen. And we could count the number of shoegaze bands popping up on one hand, if that hand had about thousands fingers, and to be fair, it's a sound we love, and so in many cases, we can be less than discerning, we just love hearing those thick coruscating guitars, the soaring melodies, the lush walls of sound, spaced out and dreamy and fuzzy and buzzy and blissy. So what is it exactly that makes a band stand out from the pack? Songs, sure, you can't be a pop band of any stripe without songs. But it's more than that. Something ineffable. Songs sure, and the sound, of course, but just as importantly there are a handful of intangibles that all have to fall into place perfectly. Or at least perfectly IMperfectly. And more often than not, it's not something that can be created consciously. All a band can really do, is to follow their hearts, create the sound they hear in their heads, and try their best to realize that sound, to render that sound in all the glorious shades and colors and textures it needs to become more than just music, to transcend and become something magical, something special.
And that happens more than one might think, or expect, enough monkeys with typewriters as the saying goes, or in this case enough punk rock kids with guitars and a 4 track. Most recently it was the amazing record by Bay Area outfit Weekend, whose record captured everything we love about this sound, and now there's this, the debut full length from female fronted shoegaze noisepoppers No Joy, which moniker be damned, is about the most gloriously joyful record we've heard in ages.
In some ways, No Joy's Ghost Blonde is the perfect compliment to that Weekend record, a distinctly feminine variation of the same formula, the overall sound is more dreampoppy and hazy, the vocals ethereal and ephemeral and is the perfect counterpoint to the bands thick wall of sound, infusing clean guitar jangle, a distinctly nineties indie rock vibe, all wound into a pretty perfect chunk of pure pop JOY.
If you're anything like us, it should only take about the first 60 seconds of album opener "Mediumship" thick crunchy jangle guitar wrapped in a field of wild tangled feedback, the vocals drifty and pretty, and then when the song kicks in, we're totally transported, crunchy, fuzzy, hooky, heavy, shoegazey-y, plenty of ooooh's and aaaaah's, the sort of song you never want to end, and that you'll find yourself playing over and over and over. Which pretty much applies to every track here.
There are definitely some broodier moments, and some abstract psychedelic ambient drift, even some slightly atonal Sonic Youth inspired guitar tangle, but those elements are smoothly woven into the group's hazy, softly noisy, girl groupish, crunchy, jangly shoegazey dream pop bliss.
Definite contender for pop record of the year, and a record which will no doubt send lots of folks scrambling to redo their prematurely finished year end lists! Rightfully so!
We flipped for Ghost Blonde, the last full length from these shoegaze noisepoppers, the opening track of that record one of those rare jams that we found ourselves listening to multiple times a day. And while nothing on this new ep manages to be quite as catchy, pretty much every track here comes close, especially the opener "Junior", which has us thinking No Joy must have some sort of formula for creating the perfect album opener, cuz we've listened to this one 20 times already, and we've only had the record for a few days. And it's not that far removed from Ghost Blonde, crunchy fuzzy guitars, pounding drums, thick swirls of FX drenched riffage, gorgeous hazy female vocals, weird processed sounds and a thick layered production, it's only a little over two minutes but it's dense and dynamic and is pretty goddamn great.
Negaverse does seem to find the band experimenting a bit, it's not all jangly fuzzy noise pop or blissed out shoegaze, the band take weird almost programmed sounding lo-fi rhythms, wrap them in strange stuttering effects, and somehow craft all that into a gauzy bit of psychedelic pop, or they just pound away punkily, and spit out a fierce bit of fuzz drenched jangle, or they unfurl a super drugged out dirge that sounds like Jesus And Mary Chain at 16rpm, driven by drum machines and dense clouds of psychedelic guitar swirl, or they take a psych pop dirge, crank up the tempo, and dial all their effects up to 10 and let a motorik programmed beat drive a swirling heavily panned psych pop freakout, and somehow, they make all of that sound like perfect noise pop bliss.
LIMITED TO 750 COPIES! Each one hand numbered. Comes with a digital download too.
Brand new ep from these aQ beloved noise pop shoegazers, and we have to say, we were thrown for a loop at first, as the first 90 seconds of opener "Last Boss" was stripped down and minimal, low slung bass throb, clipped drum skitter, ethereal vox, a new sound, but one we were sort of digging, but then at about a minute in, there's a weird stutter step and in swoop the guitars, and suddenly we're back in No Joy's blown out, distorted drenched dreaminess, those angelic vocals soaring over the top, practically perfect. "Starchild Is Dead" offers up more of the same, slowing things down to something a bit more dirgey, the guitars even more distorted, crumbling through the speakers, and buried beneath that crumble, soaring arcs of melancholic melody, and after a weird drum break, the vocals drift in, the song immediately transformed into some heavy, heavy shoegaze, that could, and should go on forever. Closer "Second Spine" is another stripped down sprawl of minimal jangle pop, this time, the shoegaze is more implied, the wall of guitars never arrives, instead, the rhythms skitter, the guitars shimmer and drift, and multiple vocals are woven into utterly dreamlike harmonies. We love this band so much, and three songs is definitely not enough, especially, when all told, they add up to about 11 minutes, but it's a pretty fantastic 11 minutes, that will have to hold us over until the impending full length, that we can only hope is coming soon...
LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES!! Each one hand numbered, includes a download code too!
Finally, a new record from one of our favorite modern noise pop shoegaze outfits, No Joy, whose first two releases were both HUGE aQ faves, and it looks like this new one won't be any different. We'd like to say No Joy just keep getting better, but they were already pretty goddamn great in the first place, so we'll just say, this new one is just as good as both Ghost Blonde and Negaverse. All of the elements are still in place, huge blown out distorted fuzz guitars, swirling FX heavy atmospheres, dreamy ethereal angelic voices, we basically knew from song one here that there was no reason to resist, but then we wouldn't have wanted to anyway, the simply titled "E" is a monster, churning, soaring, epic and majestic, noisy and distorted and heavy, but somehow simultaneously dreamy and melodic and washed out and woozy, psychedelic and shimmery, we almost wish the track was 40 minutes long and the whole record was just that track. Eventually, the song gets swallowed up in a squall of distorto guitar that is so divine, even the outro noise jam we don't want to end.
But like the other records, No Joy strike a good balance between swirling tripped out shoegaze heaviness, and shimmery jangle pop, although we're happy to report that this time around, they seem to be leaning toward the heavy shoegaze psych side of their sound, with even the prettiest songs here rife with blasts of thick guitar chug, and clouds of lysergic psychedelic swirl. All that and hooks too, the songs' catchy cores wrapped in a protective layer of guitarnoise and gloriously crumbling distortion. Imagine the prettiest, jangliest girl pop you can, and just dip the whole thing in an ocean of buzz, and then roll it in fields of hum and thrum, and then supercharge it and send it careening into the heart of the sun, and that's essentially No Joy.
The new record is definitely more varied than past outings, with moments of gloom pop murk, some drum machine driven electro-pop, some swirly dubbiness, and all manner of variations on minimal twee pop and jangly shimmer, but all of those are woven together by the thick patina of buzz and swirl that seems to surround the whole record, and while nothing quite reaches the ferocity of the opener, there's plenty of noisiness lurking throughout this fantastic collection of fuzz pop bliss!!
Vinyl version includes a digital download!
Two song blast from this rad new duo who tap into some shredding, grungy, post-punk shoegaze glory. There's a really cool late '80s Sonic Youth vibe to these songs too, recalling some of the awesome sprawling and rocking moments of SY records like Sister, Evol and Daydream Nation. We really like how these two songs if pushed one way or another could either be full on shoegaze or total post-punk rockers, but instead they are able to unite those worlds so beautifully. Claiming that a band is like a cross between My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth feels like both hyperbole and unfair to the band to ever live up to those epic influences, and to be honest there have been hundreds of bands who have tried and failed. But these two songs sound so damn refreshing and exude an element of cool that you just can't fake. We can't wait to hear more! And like most/all things on Mexican Summer this is limited so grab one now or see you on eBay later...
Latest in the new movement of punk rock bands turning into pop rock bands (ala the Get Up Kids, Into Another, Sensefield, Dashboard Confessional, everything on Vagrant). And don't get me wrong, I'm all for it. It's just funny how the kids now have their Get Up Kids patches nestled comfortably next to their Earth Crisis and Doom patches. Whatever. No Motiv have all the right
Vinyl only soundtrack to the forthcoming No Neck Blues Band dvd, featuring we can only guess judging from the album cover, naked dudes and weird bits of machinery. But really, nothing about these guys should surprise us anymore. They've been following their own idiosyncratic trajectory from day one, and unlike most bands, they seem to grow further and further out with every new record. At 6am is another gloriously clattery, abstract rhythmic workout, tribal, primitive, feral, but spiritual and otherworldly. It's of course all about the drums, percussion, thumps,and pounds, and rattles and crunch, and clang and bang, but woven into long dark undulating dreamscapes, ominous and haunting and mysterious, lots of dark magic going on, creaking moaning guitars, bits of squeak and creak, streaks of feedback, disembodied voices. In fact, on listening to this, were more inclined to think the picture on the sleeve isn't from the movie, but is just a regular old No Neck performance. That's exactly how this sounds, like naked writhing bodies lit by flickering firelight, masked drummers, a strange symphony of shadow and light.
Elsewhere, long form low drones are introduces, fragmented chords, muted muffled voices, all smoothed out and blurred into stretches of dark ambient free folk shimmer, but always with a distinctly dangerous vibe, heavier on the shadow than the light, squalls of free jazz like percussive clatter lead into moaning choruses, Henry Flynt like fiddle freakouts. One of the tracks begins like a No Neck / Avarus forest drum jam, but slowly evolves into something almost space rocky, lots of effects, warbly guitar melodies, delay, drifting bits of tinkle and chime, fragments of African drumming that drift in and then fade out again, and then finally, the last track is a strangely lo-fi soundscape of brittle tones and abstract percussion, long shimmery high end drones, and muted old timey sounding ambience, until the band lock into a gorgeous outro, that sounds a bit like a gamelan, but all distorted and jazzy and atonal. Awesome as always! Definitely harkening back to the NNCK sound of old, in fact this stuff IS old, from the archives, ferinstance two of these tracks were recorded (but not used) for the soundtrack to 1997's Gummo, and Lord knows they would have been perfect, dark and creepy and abstract and twisted and gorgeous.
Another new lp from this avant rock free-psych collective, hot on the heels of their already out of print YTIU, which we reviewed a couple lists back. This is a continuation of sorts, culled from the same sessions, and while not quite as limited, definitely limited enough that once we run out we won't be able to get more. So won't go into too much detail about this one, needless to say, folks who bought YTIU are definitely gonna want this one too, and anyone who missed out on the first one still has a chance to nab one of these. Two sidelong tracks, the first one playing out more like a multipart songsuite, the sound swinging wildly, beginning with wheezing organs and buzzing guitars, loose, super abstract drumming, dirgey and atonal, flecked with sci-fi FX, tripped out and weirdly dubby, blossoming into a sort of looped mesmer, drifting through fields of glitch and static, the sound shifts and becomes a droned out Eastern style raga, buzzy and trance-y, before shifting once again, stripped way down, just gnarled melodies, and skeletal rhythms, mostly hi-hats over a dense smoldering cinematic drone, laced with murky percussion and a thick woozy low end.
The flipside feels more like a single track, starting out super spare, again very abstract, in the distance moaning strings, reverbed percussion, psychedelic guitar buzz, unfurling snake charmer melodies, about halfway through the sound seems to grow more detuned and deconstructed, beginning a slow build, the an explosive last few minutes, a surprisingly heavy space-psych freakout, that quickly becomes glitched out, as if the tape player was malfunctioning, that sort of Faxed Head, old worn tape, busted tape deck sort of weirdness, the sounds seeming to ooze and melt and gradually grind to a halt. Cool!
Super limited, these are the last copies we'll be able to get, the covers are hand painted with paste on artwork. The covers are all bent, due partially to them being handpainted we think, and thus, a few of the records are VERY slightly warped, it's barely noticeable, and doesn't effect playback at all as far as we can tell (then again, it's NNCK, so it always -sounds- warped), but these are the only copies we'll ever get, so if you're super anal, or the record collector nerd type, you might wanna pass...
The label goes on and on about how this latest No Neck Blues Band record is a watershed moment, a defining release in their oeuvre, a new sound, a clarity of vision never heard before on past releases, but we have to say we simply don't agree. At this point NNCK are in a privileged position, one they most assuredly earned, a position of power for sure. They just do what they do, theirs a sound that borrows from many sources, but that is distilled into something utterly unique, so yeah, they do what they do, but they do it better than ANYONE else. Period. Maybe that's what the label was actually trying to say before they got bogged down in artspeak. Regardless, this is another fantastic NNCK missive, one that sprawls across lots of genres and sounds, but manages to stay together by force of will and the innate talent of the players who have been honing their craft in this setting, with these players for nearly 15 years. And it shows.
The record begins like the rock band equivalent of an orchestra tuning up, guitars twang and detune, percussion clanks and thumps, everything drifts aimlessly, but as the track progresses, the various pieces seem to slowly flow together, a female voices surfaces, and croons over the settling chaos beneath, eventually leaving the chaos to sort itself out, a bit like a more serene forest folk combo, accordions wheeze (or is that a harmonica), guitars shimmer and squiggle, the drummer offers up washes of cymbals and eventually a slow simple stripped down groove, and without even realizing it, the whole mood and sound has shifted, and we're in some twangy meandering moody krautrock slowjam, that builds gradually to a seriously psychedelic crescendo, before the next track explodes with a flurry of skronky horns and maniacal vocalizing (a la Yoko), and woozy slide guitar, that track eventually builds to a strange sort of jazz metal blowout, pounding drums, growled demonic vocals, the slide still slithering all over and those Yoko like vocals still going crazy, definitely the toughest track on the disc. But maybe the most interesting.
The rest of the disc slips seamlessly from slow burning outrock sprawl, to propulsive space rock groove, to super minimal scrape and thunk, to wah wah guitar drenched soft pop balladry, to glimmering abstract free jazz freakout, to super tripped out psych rock weirdness, to gorgeous swirling soft focus dronemusic, but the thing is, within those various sounds, NNCK, twist everything all up, adding all kinds of sonic detritus, haunting noises, mysterious rumbles, ghostly voices, droning buzz, swirling ambience, adding extra layers, uncomfortable harmonies, taking perfectly pretty melodies and pulling them apart, in lesser hands, the whole structure would crumble, but NNCK possess only greater hands, perfect to hold it all together, and shape and stretch and form those sounds into something distinctly and utterly No Neck.
We've noticed that in lots of our reviews we make reference to the No Neck Blues Band. Assuming, of course, everyone would know exactly what we were talking about. But then we discovered that we had only really reviewed two of their previous records, one with only a single sentence! Certainly, it seems, not enough to warrant so many comparisons. What neglect for a band to whom we constantly refer! But this dearth of reviews is mostly due to the scarcity and limited nature of most of their releases. Currently, there is only one double cd available, a reissue of a release from a few years back as well as a sort-of-bootleg lp. And now this new vinyl package.
For us at AQ, the name No Neck Blues Band has become synonymous with the sort of stumbling/free/improv/space/psych/drum-circle/hippy/tribal free jams that we love so much (Avarus, Kemialliset Ystevat, Anaksimandros, Thuja, Sunburned Hand Of The Man, Jackie O Motherfucker, etc.). NNBB is a loose collective of hippies, shamans, musicians and hangers on that seem to be able to effortlessly conjure up wild, free and totally mesmerising jams reminiscent of the ESP Records roster, the thudding primitve, dirge-psych of German Oak, and the spaced out psychedelic krautrock of Amon Duul. In the past we described their sound as "loose & stumbling, trippy neo-kraut, free 'sort-of-jazz' improvised jams, drunken drones and hypnotic hums" and that sound hasn't changed too much. If anything it's gotten a little poppier, albeit in the loosest sense of the term, and a little more structured. But it's still some of the best transcendental, tribal, droning, rhythmic, hypnotic free sort-of-rock we've ever heard. NNBB have never been ones to skimp on packaging and this time around is no different: a thick slab of vinyl housed in a gorgeous, cloth bound lp sleeve (like an old hardcover book) with embossed text and pasted-on image on the cover. Also comes with a bonus 7" from a 'related' group called Mount Analog, although to my eras, the two songs on the 7" fit perfectly with the sounds on the lp. Also comes with two pages of NNBB rants. Curious and typically indecipherable.
A bit price-y for sure, but as with all NBBB releases, it's limited, will soon be out of print, and considering how little of their stuff is readily available, fans of all of the above mentioned bands as well as folks into all things tribal/hippy/pschedelic will be kicking themselves if they miss out.
Awesome archival release from one of the most referenced bands on this here aQ list. Whenever we need to describe something abstract and clattery, stumbly and mysterious, percussive and otherworldly, rhythmic and fractured and psychedelic, we'll often invoke this long standing New York based free form sonic institution. And this disc is a definite reminder of why we were so immediately taken with this band when we first heard them close to 15 years ago.
Languid Red Marchetti was recorded in 1994, close to the birth of the band, and features a stripped down quartet, and the sound is raw, feral, super abstract, very percussive and atmospheric, all clang and clatter and scrape, buzz and rumble and skree, a cacophonous exploration of time and space, what sounds like disparate bursts of crunch and creak, woven into an almost lyrical expanse of sound. Sometimes hushed and sinister, other times angular and primitive, the record ebbs and flows, drifts gorgeously between two extremes, spending most if its time right in between, a lush jagged world of rhythm and sound, noise and texture.
Any one into NNBB will definitely be all over this, especially if you miss the No Neck of old, performing in squats, with busted up old gear, wrapped in old blankets, wreathed in shadows, dimly lit spaces, magical mystery conjured from the ether, every performance some sort of alchemical ritual, some ancient rite, like something you might stumble on in the forest, an ages old musical communion with nature, or the spirits, or the darkside, an abstract avant improv filtered through some grimy, fractured junkyard punk rock, totally transcendent.
A bit pricey, but NNCK records are almost more art than sound, as much visual and tactile as sonic, Languid Red Marchetti is no different. limited to just over 300 copies, housed in a printed full color inner sleeve, a gorgeous full color spot varnished jacket, includes a thick paper insert with some truly dense liner notes.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Of all the bands we reference in other bands' reviews, the No Neck Blues Band has to be the most frequently mentioned. For a while there, this ever mutating collective had such a distinct sound, that whenever another band tried to do some sort of free, tribal, pagan, ritualistic, percussion based free jam, we couldn't help but compare them to the godfathers of the tribal drum circle Ur-drone space jam, the mighty No Neck.
Even today after countless releases, tons of tours and a whole bunch of worshippers at the altar of NNCK (Sunburned Hand, Avarus, etc...), No Neck still effortlessly outdo most of their contemporaries, a free noise, what-the-fuck folk, tribal improv juggernaut, able to spin delicate webs of soft sound as easily as a Crash Worship worthy drumjam free for all.
Nine For Victor is a live set recorded back in 2005, and wanders wantonly through all of the various sounds No Neck dabble in, deftly making them all flow seamlessly. Throbbing underwater bass, wheezing spaghetti western harmonica, electronic bleeps and bloops, fuzzed out synths, long stretches of Terry Riley like high end piano flutter, underpinned by barely there percussive shuffle and muted guitar strum, spaced out cinematic drones with keening high end melodies, weird creaking percussive clatter, angular jazz piano, dense clouds of shakers and drums, cricket like percussion, a clattery rattling near-drone, krautrocky slowjams with wild lead guitar and buzzing basslines, all tangled up and interwoven, overlapping, creating a ramshackle but surprisingly cohesive whole.
One of three new NNCK releases, this double cd released on the band's own Sound@One label, is another massive and gorgeous slab of primal psychedelic free folk tribalism. Unlike the relative tranquility and dreaminess of the two simultaneously released lps (reviewed elsewhere on this list), this double cd leans a bit more in the jagged / dissonant direction. Fear not though, there are still plenty of blissed out, stumbly folknoise soundscapes, cobbled together with scraped and bowed instruments, subtle percussion and soothing rumbles. But there also happens to be plenty of squealing feedback, rapturous moans and groans, pounding drums and bells, angular guitar melodies, speaker punishing primitive Krautrock thump, silverware drawer clatter, erratic drum circle madness, skronky horns and maniacal Melt Banana-like vocalising. Somehow NNCK manage to take both extremes and meld them into one super satisfying, surprisingly listenable whole.
Yet another freaky transmission from whatever otherworldly outpost these mysterious NY free jazz / drone rock / outsider avant hippy tribalists call home, and lordy, is it a gloriously moody creep! A series of slithering, warbling, shimmering, stumbling psychedelic jams deftly constructed from grinding electric guitars, pounding krautrock rhythms, haunting quavering organs, alien little pizzicato melodies, all swirling and swaying in a dense murky haze. However, unlike the delicate ambience and unstructured abstraction of past NNCK efforts, Qvaris is downright rocking, with at least half the tracks held together by shuffling, stomping, swinging drum beats. Those tracks are especially reminiscent of krautrock legends German Oak, with their strangely claustrophobic vibe and dense unfunky funk. The less structured bits scattered throughout are sparkly kaleidoscopic flares, free floating stretches of smeary ambience and glistening radiance. The combination of the two, surprisingly lush and lustrous. All of Qvaris sounds much more composed and less improvised than most NNCK material, which makes the whole record sound less 'New Weird America' and more like some weird psych rock / post rock band whose propulsive rocking manages to get sort of twisted and tangled, into a deliriously druggy moonlit tumble through the looking glass.
Judging from the cryptic liner notes, the album artwork, and the video on the NNCK website (http://www.theserth.com), the new record seems to somehow concern a certain sacred object, that appears (at least to our untrained eyes) to be a sequined eggplant, which in some strange way makes perfect sense when you're dealing with the cracked vision of the No Neck Blues Band. But don't let the addition of sparkling vegetables to the mix throw you off, this is some of the most gorgeously dreamy and drone-y and drugged out psychedelic free folk noise rock you'll ever hear!
More stoned, spaced out, rhythmic free-rock bliss out from AQ faves the No Neck Blues Band. This is a live set from a year or two back released only on lp. Mr. A Fan unfurls like a thick, warm blanket of fuzz, with subtle thumps and rattles, mumbled, incoherent vocalising, druggy guitars and underneath it all, a doggedly steady rhythm turning what would otherwise be a hippy-ish mess, into some primo modern krautrock. Think Reynols covering German Oak or Jandek jamming with the 'Dead or Yahowah playing the Amon Duul songbook or Hawkwind unplugged. Weird and wild and wooly and beautifully fucked up. And as always, so totally great! Sorry, we only have 3 copies still hanging around, so act fast!
It came as a bit of a surprise to realise that we've never listed the No Neck Blues Band before, especially considering how often we reference them in reviews, whenever we're trying to describe some sort of stumbling and stoned, improvised hippie tribal
A perky Portland quartet with guitars and female vocals that wiggle the tuning meter at times. Kinda early '90s Olympia, kinda like Velocity Girl or Excuse Seventeen.
These NY heavies are friend of local noise rockers Kowloon Walled City, and you know what they say about the company you keep, so yeah, if you like your guitars thick and downtuned, your drums pummeling and punishing, and your music heavy, noisy, metallic and LOUD, then No Way will definitely hit the spot. Or more likely, they'll bash that spot in, until it's a bloody, bruised pulp. But this is not all knuckle dragging neander-noise pound and howl, these guys mix it up, most notably with the vocals, that actually sound a bit like Jello Biafra on the opening track, only a bit though, and way more gruff and growly, but it gives the sound a much different vibe, as do the dynamics, with the sound lurching and lumbering from heaving metallic churn, to hushed post rock drift, to stuttery, feedback drenched psych-noise crunch, and back again for more roiling heavy rocking dirgery. The second track gets a little mathy, some pigfuck crunch mixed with classic midwestern style noisiness, and the vocals getting even gruffer, and drifting into almost Killdozer territory, which is not a bad thing at all. "War Dance" is all math rock blooze, before exploding into something epic and massive, sounding a bit like Down, if THEY still sounded more like Corrosion Of Conformity. All swaggery and swoonsome, pocked with some bursts of explosive crunch. And finally, the sprawling 8+ minute closer, that lays down a bed of extremely thick, distorto bass, over which is laid another few layers of droned out guitars, clouds of cymbal sizzle, and in come the drums, sounding MASSIVE, the track unwinding as a gloriously drum heavy noise-blooze swagger, that is transformed into something downright metallic part way through, right down to the caustically bellowed vox, again sounding like a noise rockier Down, or even a way heavier, WAY meaner, WAY WAY more metal Alice In Chains, which again, is in fact a very very good thing indeed.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!
Neil Gust (the non-Elliott Smith half of the still under-appreciated Heatmiser) returns to prove that Elliott Smith wasn't the only thing that made Heatmiser so great. Beautiful, understated pop songs, catchy, and moving... Certainly for fans of Elliott Smith / Heatmiser (duh), Quasi, etc... Highly recommended!
Neil Gust and co. return with their second full length. While their debut No Memory from 2000 was an impressive collection of lovely, emotive, pop songs that got the thumbs up around AQ, this album falls a little short of that mark. Not a bad album by any means, but pales in comparison to its predecessor. It's alternately more rocked-up and more twangy, and a bit less infectious. Full of crunchy guitars and those classic college radio, sensitive male vocals. Check out their song "Traveling" and see if you agree... Bob Mould crossed with Elliott Smith? Yeah, I know it's easy to compare Gust with his former Heatmiser bandmate, but the similarities do exist. Heck, that group boasted a triad of amazingly talented songwriters (Quasi's Sam Coomes being the third point in the triumvirate). So it is a bit surprising and equally disappointing that this sophomore release for No.2 is less than stellar.
Up until now, we'd managed to hear very little from electronic soundscaper / audio experimentalist Lee Noble, but we definitely liked everything we heard, but this will be the first LN release to make it on the aQ list, which in some ways is perfect, as it's not a split, but instead a collaboration with aQ faves Ensemble Economique, aka Brian Pyle, from another aQ fave The Starving Weirdos. It's a perfect collaboration, in that it's impossible to tell exactly who is contributing what, and while the lush, organic, near cinematic sounds here do display shades of EE, Motion Forever expands on those sounds with Noble and Pyle crafting swoonsome swirls of Caretaker-esque shimmer, and Jeck like turntable ministrations, everything woozy and warbly, a nocturnal drift that gives way to some creepy skeletal lo-fi pop, laced with plaintive vox and detuned strum, all atop a layer of electronic buzz. A mysterious strain of slowcore that gradually disappears in a cloud of warm thrum, draped in tinkling chime like melodies, before returning to the Jeck / Caretaker like skeletal balladry of the opening few minutes.
The flipside introduces muted rhythms, beneath softly swirling synths, and over distant soft focus drones, all laid back and dreamily druggy. Strange samples surface throughout, the sound shifting into something much more dirgey and almost new wave sounding, haunting and otherworldly, with processed vox and distorted piano pound, a ghostly, spectral electronic dirgepop finale that is as good as anything we've heard from either participants!
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!!
