Along with composing the scores for some of Werner Herzog's greatest films, Florian Fricke was as much a musical pioneer as were his contemporaries Faust, Neu and Cluster. Unlike his contemporaries, Fricke's music is informed as much by music from arounds the world as it was rock and classical composition (in which he was schooled). Sitars, pan flutes and assorted ethnic percussion have as much a place in any given Popol Vuh album as moog synths, guitars, bass and drums. One only need look at his choice of a band name, taken from the title of a sacred Mayan text, to see where Fricke's affinities lay.
Popol Vuh's 1975 soundtrack to Herzog's Aguirre The Wrath Of God is a prime example of Fricke's multi-faceted musical aesthetic. At times the score is suitably bleak for the film's content. Most notably the main theme "Aguirre", which weaves in and out through the disc, is about as lonesome sounding as a tune -- which almost completely lacks melody -- can get. Around a slowly pulsing, sustained two notes played on guitar is a grainy mixed chorus. This is the music that's played during the long shot of people snaking their way down a mountain side and later on with the camera fixed on a turgid brown river. In striking contrast to this bleak theme are several pretty & mellow hippy guitar jams, a la Grateful Dead meets Mike Oldfield. As a bonus for this remastered edition SPV has included another mix of the theme "Aguirre" with additional throbbing ethnic percussion by Fricke and Co.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Along with composing the scores for some of Werner Herzog's greatest films, Florian Fricke was as much a musical pioneer as were his contemporaries Faust, Neu and Cluster. Unlike his contemporaries, Fricke's music is informed as much by music from arounds the world as it was rock and classical composition (in which he was schooled). Sitars, pan flutes and assorted ethnic percussion have as much a place in any given Popol Vuh album as moog synths, guitars, bass and drums. One only need look at his choice of a band name, taken from the title of a sacred Mayan text, to see where Fricke's affinities lay.
Certainly Popol Vuh's most popular recording and certainly one of the greatest film scores by any measure, Nosferatu is a brilliant soundtrack. Bringing together elements from plainsong and renaissance music, with Indian sitar and tabla, piano, synth drones, mellow psychedelic rock jams, and folky acoustic guitar. As well, much of the music is suitably lonely and dark enough to accompany the movements of a 500 year old vampire. Like his theme for Aguirre, the opening tune here -- Bruder des Schattens -- features a pulsing two note drone, here sung by a male chorus that sounds distinctly Eastern European, that steadily builds to include wind instruments before inexplicably fading into a pleasant guitar tune. The killer though, has to be the recurring theme "Mantra", a beautiful and haunting piece that references the Dies Irae played on sitar and electric guitar, with progressing versions on the disc adding chorus. Spooky. Highly recommended.
The Poppy Family have long been a favorite around here, as a cult '60s folk-pop group with psych-ish leanings, and it's good to finally see a top-notch collection of singles and album tracks at an affordable price. Fronted by husband and wife Terry and Susan Jacks and hailing from Canada, their signature sound was notably marked by the use of tablas and sitars that gave their songs a groovy but restless and searching edge, relevant to the flower-powered countercultural shifts at the time in the late sixties and early seventies. Like Shocking Blue, Bobbie Gentry mixed with Coven, or The Carrie Nations (the doomed fictional band in Russ Meyer's Beyond The Valley of The Dolls), The Poppy Family played a slightly druggy folk-pop filtered through the lens of a southern gothic sensibility. Songs like "Where Evil Grows", "Shadows On My Wall", "There's No Blood in Bone", and their biggest single, "Which Way You Goin', Billy? were laden with references to death, suicidal heartbreak and the supernatural.
They only recorded two albums, but sudden band line-up changes, and hectic touring issues forced the couple to go their separate ways. Terry Jacks subsequently scored the biggest hit of his career with "Seasons In The Sun", while Susan continued down her own career path in a more country crossover vein. A Good Thing Lost is an apt title for a band that for a moment could have had it all. These songs still sound so great!
Recommended for fans of any of the groups mentioned above, crate-digger psych breaks and incredible sixties studio production!!!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Justice plays machines & wants you to know he did not succumb to overdubs. The music's introverted, sly. Thick 'n' gooey.
Woah. Somebody somewhere just had a fantasy come true, and it's got nothing to do with the bondage photos that often adorn Merbow releases. It's Japanese noise master Masami "Merzbow" Akita jamming with American stoner rock outfit Porn, who feature none other than the mighty Dale Crover of the Melvins on drums. Also Tim Moss on guitar, and heaviness engineering guru Billy Anderson on bass! Add in the Seldon Hunt art/design and this promises to be quite heavy, or noisy, or both. Definitely both, though it sounds much more like a Merzbow record than anything else. Shrieking electronic skree all over the place, with some plodding boombastic drums and heavy guitar riffs struggling through the dense muzzzzzz. Kinda what you might expect!
There are a dozen Roman numeral numbered tracks, each one individualized with Merzbow's noise dynamically varied and vibrating, from crinkum-crankum glitch to high pitched whine to howling, whooshing zapping. Porn's contributions (occasionally) add more structure and momentum. Distorted (natch) vocals surface at one point, the drumming speeds up.... or at other times, despite Porn's presence, the Merzbovian brutal harsh noise simply takes over entirely.
There's certainly precedent for Merbow to mix it up with "rock" music. His Hard Lovin' Man album some years back featured samples of Deep Purple, ferinstance - and of course let's not forget about his couple collaborations with Boris!! Maybe, like those, Porn + Merzbow will be a "gateway drug" for some stoner/doom fans to get into the total noise thing (note however that Merzbow here is far more extreme than his relatively subtle performance on Rock Dream with Boris).
Also, as (in principle) Merzbow fans, but ones often overwhelmed by his prolific output, we're quite partial to his collaborative efforts, giving high marks to recent discs he did with Keiji Haino and Richard Pinhas, juxtapositions like this one which somehow enhance the effect of Merbow's noise aesthetic.
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Here's a new album from Iceland's Pornopop. By now the Icelandic sound is unmistakable, isn't it? And this band definitely resonates in such fragile, frosty, fanciful fashion. A lullaby brethren of Mum and Sigur Ros for certain (the cover art even resembles that of the former), but their more explosive moments as on the track "Death Tape" also bring to mind the more unpredictable, unconventional Einar Bendiktsson of The Sugarcubes. Apart from such exceptional outbursts, this is poignant and wistful with a seeming wide-eyed innocence and timid yearning. Sweet, yes, but not to the point of syrupy. Definitely also for fans of the gentle and mild-mannered Jose Gonzalez, Sondre Lerche and Jens Lekman.
Psst, this is another of the uncommonly sumptuous array of releases from the young music label Dynamophone. As we mentioned earlier in the review of labelmates Balustrade Ensemble, they've only been around since mid-2006, but already have a bountiful catalog with many more on the way. Particularly if you've been recently enjoying the aquatic drone releases on the Mystery Sea label, you might wish to check out the seemingly likeminded, but more melodically inclined Dynamophone artists. An absolute treasure trove of shimmering and dewy listening delights. Delve in immediately (also see: Balustrade Ensemble, Disinterested, Po, Halou, A Lily, Curium, and R/R Coseboom)!
Latest solo outing from former aQ-er Jon Porras, one half of dronefolk desert doom duo Barn Owl, and the man behind Elm. This is only Porras' second record under his own name, and shares space on this week's list with the new tape from Painted Caves, the latest solo project from his Barn Owl partner Evan Caminiti. And like Painted Caves, Porras on his own doesn't stray too far from the dusky sonic soundworld the two have conjured up on past Barn Owl records, the basics are definitely the same, washed out and woozy, twang flecked and atmospheric, evoking burnt orange sunsets over wide open expanses of barren scrub, of slow moving stars in a pitch black sky, a little bit Earth, a little bit Ennio Morricone, an abstract alien Appalachia wedded to slowburn psychedelia. But Black Mesa, instead of reinventing a sound, that really doesn't need to be reinvented, simply pulls it apart, Porras strapping on his guitar, newly acquired synth under his arm, and moves deeper into this lost blackened landscape, slowly sinking deeper and deeper, a swirl of echoing chords left in his wake, or alternately, slowly drifting heavenward, held aloft on lush billowing clouds of chordal swirl and smoldering psychedelic drift.
The drone element, as always is paramount, these tracks like soft focus, slo-mo country ragas, if anything Porras' mastery of the form becoming more complete, able to fuse delicate crystalline shimmer, to heaving blackened churn, even adding simple skeletal rhythms, and heavily effected vocals, the sound on Black Mesa at once more melodic, but also strangely more malevolent, but very subtly so. Some lost soundtrack, a cinematic score to an endless wander through burnt black wastelands, Porras' sounds illuminating only so much, leaving much of the world cloaked in shadow, but as that light flickers, various bits of this lost world are gradually revealed, in some cases only to be lost again to the ether, but in others, revealing to the listener a new path, a less trodden course that leads even further into the unknown. With nothing but these haunting otherworldly sounds to guide us.
Another gorgeous, dark sonic gem. Fans of Barn Owl, Elm, Earth, Six Organs, and other purveyors of smoldering psych and black drone drift, will feel right at home here...
Orilla Oscura is the latest solo record from Jon Porras, former aQ-er, and one half of dronedoom duo Barn Owl. It's Porras' second release this year (along with Black Mesa), but this one takes Porras's signature sound, all smoldering twang flecked drift, and haunting droned out mesmer, and applies it to something much more high concept, and the results are pretty fantastic.
Using old tapes as the basis of Orilla Obscura, Porras slowed down and manipulated the source tapes, adding effects and various textures, and then approached the compositions as if the guitar was a tool with which to explore these ghostly sounds, the haunting mysteries revealed by these old tapes, do in fact make the perfect background for Porras' haunting sonic ruminations, so much so that in many places it's difficult to tell what's guitar and what's tape, the various sounds bleeding into one another, long passages of somnambulant drift, give way to some soaring, almost shredding (at least the barn Owl / Porras version of shredding) distorted guitar blissout, lush distorted layers of guitar aimed heavenward, quickly drifting back to earth and settling into another sprawl of slo-mo soft psych drift. The tapes seem to provide texture as much as anything, adding plenty of hiss and hum, giving the sound a rough around the edges feel, and a mysterious warmth. Divine and dreamy, and beautifully ghostly.
To be fair, the sounds here are not hugely removed from Porras' other solo work, or as Elm, or even his work with Barn Owl, but it is a stunningly subtle progression, as he continues to push the boundaries of his own explorative guitar ambience, continuing to delve deeper into the dark and dusty corners of abstract psychedelia, and with each record further refining the sonic essence of shadow and light, rendered here in lush, sweeping epics of spectral guitardrone and heaving swells of warm chordal shimmer. So nice.
Housed in a super heavy full color gatefold jacket. Includes a download coupon as well!
Lampreys And Gigolos is the debut album from this SF storytelling songsmith, and quite an impressive introduction it is! The songs that Chris Porro crafts run the gamut from earthy heartfelt folk ("Secret Story") to straight-up catchy pop ("Pop Star") -- often akin to the broad scope of Robert Pollard of Guided By Voices. His warm, lilting voice is sometimes reminiscent of Ken Stringfellow and Jonathan Auer of The Posies and other times of Chris Isaak. Along the way, Porro embellishes his path with interesting lil' noise details and lush string and organ treasures here 'n' there. Nice!
If the exuberant outpouring of song from the likes of Arcade Fire, Bright Eyes, Hidden Cameras, and Wolf Parade get you all giddy and weak in the knees, then we might have a new fave for you! But particularly like the former two, Port O'Brien can get serious too and take a more solemn tone. On the more hushed songs (which are also some of the album's best) such as "Stuck On A Boat", "Don't Take My Advice" and "Will You Be There?" the lights are dimmed and the instrumentation stripped down to a skeletal folksy assembly of Van Pierszalowski's brittle, emotive young voice and guitar, and Cambrian Goodwin's comforting pluck of the banjo. Glowing warmly throughout the proceedings, almost as if at a distance, are some understated violin and cello backing. The album's title says it all. When everything else fails you (whether you be the player or the listener), music is where you will always find solace, stimulation, escape. And Port O'Brien does so in each of these achingly bittersweet songs.
On the opening track of their debut album When The Rain Comes, Oaklanders Port O'Brien struck us as being quite vocally reminiscent of the frailty of This Heat (particularly their vocals in "Fall Of Saigon" from their self-titled album). From there though mainman Van Pierzalowski keeps things much more in a straightforward rough-hewn folkiness mode that in turn brings to mind early Bright Eyes. Some rousing whistlin' and hollerin' embellish the tune "Split" which is followed by the ultra hushed delicate number "Dance With Our Ashes". Nice.
Joining the likes of AQ fave M-bands Mogwai, M83, and Magyar Posse (and they've also even been compared to a few S-artists Ulrich Schnauss, Stafraenn Hakon and Sigur Ros), This Italian group ever so gallantly and gracefully toss their finely crafted musical hat into the ever-expanding global atmospheric postrock arena. Port-Royal's sprawling 78-minute long Flares is a soft, hazy blissed-out dream of an album filled with shimmery ambient washes of glacial guitars peppered with occasional wisps of electronics and samples. Each and every time we've played this in the store, it draws many enthused queries. Really really calming and really really pretty. Positively sigh-inducing.
You just never know what to expect from Mac MacCaughan's Portastatic project. He's taken it through playful numbers based around keyboards, samples and programmed beats, some respectful '60s Tropicalia inspired excursions and film soundtracks. Yet, he quite often brings it all back to sweet, breezy guitar-driven pop that evokes the glow of a summer evening sunset and draws Portastatic closer to Superchunk territory. Autumn Was A Lark is the newest release, and although this appears to be a five song EP, it actually boasts fourteen songs total. That's right folks, you get eight bonus live on the radio acoustic performances). The band tackles covers of songs by Bruce Springsteen ("Bobby Jean" and "Growin' Up"), Ronnie Lane ("One For The Road") and Badfinger ("Baby Blue") with great aplomb, and offers up an alternate version of "In The Lines" (the original appears on their last album) as well as a punchy new song called "Autumn Got Dark". If you enjoyed Summer Of The Shark, scoop this goodie up too. It's sure to please!
Oh Mac McCaughan, we will always have the softest spot for you and the remarkable pop gems you never run out of. From the heyday of Superchunk, to the fine label you run, to the way you helped put Chapel Hill on the musical map, to the way you always come through with that perfect song that we will undoubtedly have stuck in our heads for months to come. Be Still Please is a pretty great representation of the current state of Mac's song writing. From the all out catchy rock of "Sour Shores" and "I'm In Love With Arthur Dove" (contender for song of the year!), to the multi instrumentation and more somber grown up sentiments of "Black Buttons" and "Song For A Clock." Last week when Mac's buddy Ira Kaplan from Yo La Tengo did a guest DJ spot at KUSF all his selections came from older records from the 50's 60's and 70's, while his last selection was the sole contemporary track and it was the closer from this album, proving that what makes Mac such a great songwriter is exactly how and why he has created such an impressive catalog of timeless pop gems.
Mac McCaughan reins in his Portastatic project even closer to his main band Superchunk's sound. It seems he just can't keep the power pop out of the mix, and y'know what? We don't mind one bit 'cause despite his being adept at many other musical styles, he's a master of energetic pop. While some other veteran popsters' recent releases have elicited groans of "ho hum more of the same?" That's definitely not the case with Bright Ideas. Somehow at his hands, it's always fresh'n'new, and never seems tired or reheated. On past Portastatic releases he's dabbled with Tropicalia, jazz and electronics, and he does occasionally toss things up a bit on this album. Check out the breezy sixth song "Truckstop Cassettes". The super-duper Bright Ideas highlight though is the song that follows it, "The Soft Rewind". It's McCaughan in absolute top form, and seems tailor-made for your friends' mixtapes... let alone your own repeat listens. Great stuff!
Born of his compulsive love for Tropicalia, that distinctly Brazilian take on '60s psychedelia that Aquarius also loves, Mac of Superchunk has recorded 5 of his most favorite pieces made famous by Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Gal Costa, and Os Mutantes. Although we feared the worst, actually it's not bad at all. Very pleasant. And another thing we like to see -- there are very detailed credits so that Tropicalia newcomers may seek out the original versions. Plus it's a hoot to hear the voice of Superchunk singing in Portugese!
Mac MacCaughan of Superchunk and Merge Records composed a bright little soundtrack for what is probably a bright little indie film. Portastatic has always been his bedroom side project and while at times that has resulted in wonderfully inventive stuff played out on synths and samplers, this time any originality has been subsumed under the need for innocuous background music that helps the film along. Nice but non-essential.
Diehard Portastatic fans might experience a few glimmers of recognition when they hear this score that the band did for For Who Loves The Sun, an indie film by Matt Bissonnette (this is the second time they've worked with Bissonnette, previously they did the soundtrack for his 2002 film Looking For Leonard). For the most part though if no one told you the name of the artist you probably couldn't tell. There aren't any big tell-tale signs such as vocals to give it away. What you would know though is that this is one fine piece of soundtrack work. The twenty two lush instrumentals (ranging from 32 seconds to just under three minutes long) feature an elegant blend of fluttery oboe, trillsome flute, warm piano and strings. Breezily pleasant and unobtrusive incidental music. Sure sounds like Mac MacCaughan has been studying his collection of Henry Mancini and George Gershwin film scores!
Mac McCaughan is really one of indie rock's true heroes. First there was his band Superchunk that helped define indie rock and helped put Chapel Hill on the map in the '90s. Then there's the label he runs, Merge, who have put out incredibly influential records by everyone from Magnetic Fields to Neutral Milk Hotel to the Arcade Fire. And then there's his so-called side band Portastatic who actually have been more active and prolific then Superchunk have in recent years. In many ways Portastatic served as his outlet for sketches and stripped down songs that maybe weren't meant for Superchunk yet still had his trademark vocal and guitar sound. This two disc set compiles a slew of singles, b-sides, demos and covers. We have to say while it's sort of an uneven collection there are some total gems on here, especially the covers, hearing Mac do The Undertones "Teenage Kicks" and Hot Chip's "And I Was A Boy From School" makes it all worth it. And despite a few tracks that cold have been left in the vaults, there are some total classic sounding Portastatic jams making this a must have for all bigtime Mac fans.
Mac of Superchunk's latest solo foray finds him playing more and more with looped beats and playful keyboard doodlings.
There it is again, Mac MacCaughan's unmistakable sweet boyish voice! His new Portastatic album is filled with the loveliest, breeziest pop warmth. One dozen super pretty and lovingly crafted tunes with slip-slidin' guitars, violin accents and female vocals courtesy of Ms Janet Weiss (Quasi, Sleater-Kinney) on the album's opening song and highlight "Oh Come Down". Aaaah, delightful! And to top it all off, there's a petal pink watercolor painting on the cover by Mac, as well as a little flower painting in the cd insert by Yo La Tengo's Georgia Hubley. Hurrah!
MPEG Download: "Oh Come Down" [/audio/portastaticohcomedown.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Oh Come Down" [/audio/portastaticohcomedown.m3u]
Mac McCaughan must never have a moments rest! The blazing batons in his successful juggling act? To name just a few: running the fab indie label Merge Records, leading the supremo-pop outfit Superchunk as well as assorted side projects, and composing film
Portion Control were always an obscure proposition despite their longevity. This British trio started in the early '80s crafting a hyper minimal form of claustrophobic electronica that proved to be a huge influence on the work of Skinny Puppy and Depeche Mode; but their influence on these acts never trickled down to bring them greater acclaim over the duration of their career. During the '80s, they issued a handful inventively reductivist / muscular electronics girded by proto-techno rhythms and fleshed out through filtered and flanged electronics. The monotone barked vocals have been hyper compressed and shoved way in the back of the mix are pretty much the same technique that Nivek Ogre brought to Skinny Puppy a few years later. Portion Control were never intending on making poptunes of the shock-horror model or angsty youth model that those bands they influenced became so known for; instead, Portion Control's skeletal, hard rhythms thrusts immediately to the foreground with the metallic-flanged vocals, idiosyncratic / disjointed sequencing, and unidentifiable police scanner activity muffled at the background. When a melody comes along as on the strident "He Is Patriotic" or on the jittery death-dub of "Mass Disorder" or the proto-acid squelchiness of "Fiends", it can be quite a shocking juxtaposition given the calculated minimalism throughout the rest of this work. Imagine an even more stripped down DAF or Liaisons Dangereuses, with those Skinny Puppy vocals! The Portion Control back catalogue has gone through various reissue campaigns, including a ponderous 7lp boxset on Vinyl On Demand; and an even more comprehensive 5cd boxset, with I Staggered Mentally featured prominently on both sets. But here, we get another excellent reissue from Dark Entries, who give it a great remastering job, a booklet with tons of information, and a bonus track!
This song has been floating around for a couple years now, but it's so fucking cool to get it on wax along with an awesome remix as well. "Chase The Tear" may be the most uptempo and potentially dancefloor ready track we've ever heard from Portishead, without losing any of the sensuality and seduction that is always at the core of their songs.
The song was originally released as on online only benefit for Amnesty International (and proceeds from this 12" will be going to AI as well!)
It's one of the most exhilarating tracks the group has ever made, it's a total kraut-synth show stopper! The remix/cover version by Doldrums on the B side is fucking cool too.
NOTE for mailorder customers, if you're considering ordering this: Unfortunately this week's shipment from Matador/4AD/XL arrived today with one corner of every single piece of vinyl in the box slightly bent, argh. So, don't order this now if you're super anal about such things. We'll get replacements next week. Folks buying this in person in the shop, of course, can see for themselves if they mind the bent corner or not. Sorry!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
It seems a bit strange to spend very much time writing about the new Portishead. Since by now, odds are you're probably sick to death of hearing about it. Sure we all loved Portishead back in the day, they were one of those rare 'electronic' bands whose appeal knew no boundaries, metalheads, moms, indie kids, the sound of Portishead was dark and sexy and mysterious, sinister and ominous, dark and rife with crackle and buzz. Perfect drugged out late night bliss out music, their strange way of creating sound and composing music, recording their own samples on to vinyl and then spinning and scratching those samples to create new textures, made for a totally unique sound.
So what does a band do after taking almost a decade off? Do they return with a record that sounds just like the last one, which is probably what most folks want, or do they return radically altered? With a sound bold and brash, reinventing the sound they themselves invented in the first place.
On first listen, Third definitely sounds like the latter, but with repeated listening, the record slowly and subtly begins to slip toward the former. Which most definitely speaks to the magic of Portishead, and the new record, which at once embraces the old sound, while turning it into something new. More than past outings, Third is dirty, out of tune, atonal, noisy, chaotic, urgent, sure past records had all that crackle and buzz and fuzz, but those elements were carefully placed, and kept well within line. Third sounds much more, well, loose for lack of a better word, like actual musicians, feeling each other out, maybe even improvising. Less like a studio concoction and more like a real live band. And the sound suits them. And makes for a record at once warm and familiar, but also alien, sort of 'rocking' and rife with WTF? moments.
Take the opener, "Silence", which begins with some sort of radio broadcast, which gives way to a killer loping breakbeat, immediately the fastest tempo Portishead have ever explored, strings swoop in, the sound raw and urgent, almost like the chase scene from some spy movie, gorgeous distorted chiming guitar harmonics ring out, until finally the track slows down, and slithers sexily, the vocals a sexy sultry croon, but it's not long before the track kicks back into the haunting and tense, string laden cinematic jam that opened the track.
Then there's "Hunter", which begins like classic Portishead, all smokey and late night sounding, soft muted reverbed guitars, a lush gauzy production, the vocals ethereal and ghostly, but even here, a few seconds in, the song is interrupted by a super distorted crumbling guitar chord that halts things in their tracks, before fading out, and allowing the song to resume. The a few minutes later, a strange noodly synth freakoutsurfaces, again derailing the song's slow motion groove, but It just sounds perfect. It doesn't at all sound like random weirdness for random weirdness' sake. The first time is jarring, the second time, you find yourself waiting for those parts, even humming along as if they were as crucial to the song as the main melody or the vocals, and the thing is, they are.
Near the end lurks the single, "Machine Gun", with its very machine gun like rhythm, herky jerky, stuttery and not at all fluid, reminiscent of Art Of Noise, the vocals sweetly soaring over this jagged rhythmscape below, which only really varies part way through when the original machine gun drums are replaced by BIGGER, more distorted drums, and wrapped in strange moaning horns (or maybe synths), only to shift once again moments later becoming more electronic, the beats awash in strange FX and metallic buzz. It's so unlikely, that it makes perfect sense as the first single. If you can embrace that strange rhythm, that relentless and very un-Portishead like sound, then the rest of the record will make perfect sense, unfolding in front of you, revealing both the warm familiar sounds missed, and the new, bizarre sonic elements never even imagined
All over the record, the band confounds and confuses, gloriously, the brooding whispery "Small" shifts gears partway through and transforms into a fuzzy organ drenched krautjam, "Deep Water" is a straight up old timey folk song, the vocals and strings soaked in fuzzy ambience (and reminding us a bit of vocalist Gibbons' post Portishead project Rustin Man), "We Carry On" is a sort of atonal Stereolab style jam, relentless percussion, thick swaths of synth, very repetitive and hypnotic, "The Rip" is part whispery folky flutter, part synthy electro buzz, every track here offers some sort of surprise, whether it's the song itself, or some little sonic strangeness lurking within, but never is the song or the sound sacrificed, each track is perfect in its own beautifully twisted way, catchy but never obviously so, groovy, but often convoluted and fractured, it's a difficult record to explain for sure, which is perhaps why so much ink has been spilled, and while we may be sick of reading about it, we sure are finding it nearly impossible to imagine ever getting sick of listening to it, which is precisely why it's one of our Records Of The Week.
Deeeeeeep spiritually-charged drones from this supergroup of Bay Area heavy experimentalists. You are going to want to just hammer the "Add To Cart" button when we list all the members involved: folks from Barn Owl, Date Palms, Tarentel, En, Higuma and The Alps! The Root Strata All-Stars, basically, though this is on Important. Three tracks, the first, "D" is a side long affair, delving into the most harmonically aligned keys of the western scale utilizing both electric and acoustic instruments including violin, harmonium, tamboura, koto, sine wave oscillator, bass clarinet, tapes, shruti box and electric guitar in rich layered tones and frequencies. Side 2 begins with the all vocal meditation, "Sa" reminding us of David Hykes and The Harmonic Choir's cathedral amplified minimalist hymns before unleashing the deepest and heaviest track here, "Gong", which focuses on the shifting and shimmering metallic reverberations of the titular instrument. A beautifully honed study of harmony and frequency within a wonderfully attuned collective and collaborative spirit.
Housed in a hand screened heavy stock foldover jacket. LIMITED TO 500 copies, so act fast!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
With some of the most atrocious cover art ever (think: promotional giveaway at a kitchen cleaner convention with too many fonts and an unhealthy obsession with photoshop) and woeful lack of publicity we've seen in a while, the long awaited Posies box manages to shine and surprise. Four cds worth of outtakes and live tracks by most bands would be...um...unneccesary to say the least, but almost all the tracks in this box are great. From unreleased gems, to alternate versions, to different demos (ken's vs. jon's) of some of your favorite songs, it's amazing to trace the development of the Posies super polished super complex pop, as well as kind of shocking to hear how mature and almost 'finished' some of the early demos were. While, i'm sure only Posies completists will buy this, most fans of pop music (indie and otherwise) might discover a new favorite band.
We've been sitting on this one for a while, not sure why really 'cause we're some of the biggest Posies fans around! Well, co-Posie Jon Auer's solo album reminded us of just how much we love them, and gave a us a kick in the pants to show it. Apologies for our tardiness, fellas. Every Kind Of Light is a total return to stellar form for this Seattle pop duo. The combined forces of Auer and Ken Stringfellow are pretty damn hard to beat. Heart-melting vocal harmonies? You betcha. Sweetheart sentimental lyrics? Uh huh. Utterly infectious hooks? Hell yeah. So damn deliriously good! We could gush on, but why? Just get these songs into your ears, and hear for yourself. We command you... please.
Psst, there's an even newer album on the horizon slated for the end of June. Can't wait!
When the familiar wonderful chiming vocal harmonies of Ken Stringfellow and Jonathan Auer fell silent a few years back, the pop world fell a quite a few shades paler, but now the Posies are back! Their return comes as quite a surprise to many, but a very, very pleasing one nonetheless. I, Cup, am quite giddy about the whole matter. The first we heard of this rejoining of two brilliant pop forces was when the AQ phone rang a couple of months ago with an offering of a Posies in-store performance in August. Still, we were a bit unsure and puzzled. But now we're happy to know it is definitely true. On this cd, they approach their songs (newer and older) live at the Showbox in Seattle, seated and armed with acoustic guitars. And the oldies sound wonderful --- included among them one of my all-time favourites "I May Hate You Sometimes" from their first full-length. As this is a live recording all the expected crowd noise is intact (though not too intrusive on the music), but it is clear that the Posies are among old friends and fans with moments of singing along and loving cheers.
So very glad they're back! And while it's pretty obvious these boys like to rock out live (often at the expense of their glorious vocal harmonies), it is a welcome toning and paring down of the Posies sound that greets us on this EP. Showing the magic pop chemistry Jon and Ken conjure up when they just sit down with their guitars and play. Four new Posie gems and one David Crosby cover. Recorded in Barcelona and Seattle.
There's something a little strange about Posies records. And we noticed the same thing about Sloan records weirdly enough. Two of our all time favorite bands for sure. But as excited as we always are for a new record by either, inevitably, when it does finally show up, we're always a bit disappointed, sometimes more than a bit, convinced that maybe that's it, the band is past their prime, done for. And we'll keep the record, just cuz we like the older records so much. It's that same loyalty that compels us to keep listening, and then, without fail, something mysterious happens, and the record, in both cases, Sloan and Posies, begins to grow on us, begins to sound better and better, blossoming, and revealing itself as another great pop record, one that does in fact fit with all the other releases. And then invariably we find ourselves listening to those records incessantly, which we're beginning to think is the magic of both Sloan and the Posies, the difference between spitting out some immediately catchy pop pap, and crafting something deeper and more complex, that does require multiple listens and does eventually end up being catchier in the long run, and certainly becomes the sort of record that we never tire of, unlike some of those hook filled sweet pop jams that we listen to over and over but tire of quickly.
So yeah, we were SO excited for a new Posies record, and experienced the exact same phenomenon described above. In the case of Blood/Candy though, there might be more to it, the fact that the first three tracks feature guests, none of which we'd heard of, but apparently each notable enough to merit mention in parenthesis after the song title. It's not that those songs were bad, they just didn't grab us, could it be that it was the Posies watered down by guest vocalists? Although to be fair, their vocal contributions are not all the noticeable. But if you skip those three tracks, and start the record on the third track, "So Caroline", suddenly, it works, and from there to the end, it's total classic Posies, it still took a few listens, but we can't stop now, from soft focus dreamy soft pop, to crunchy big guitar power pop, the songs split as always between the group's two distinctive vocalists/songwriters, Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer, hooks galore, lush arrangements, incredible harmonies, another great Posies record! And once you've played tracks three to eleven to death, then head back to those first three tracks, and guess what? Yep, they start to sound great too.
So yeah, Posies fans, you're obviously already gonna want this, and for newbies, while we might recommend Frosting On The Beater or Dear 23 or Amazing Disgrace first, this would not be a bad place to start either (although we'd still recommend starting with track three!). Classic power pop for sure, folks into Jellyfish, The Rollo Treadway, Sloan, Silver Sun, The Stereo and the like should already be WAY into the Posies, but if not, you should probably just get this, and the rest of their records too!
First things first, this Possessed has nothing to do with the '80s Bay Area metal band of the same name. No, this Possessed hails from even further back in time, the early '70s to be precise. And that leads us to say this: oh man, if we only had a time machine! Sure we'd go back and kill Hitler's parents and buy Google stock and all that... but our time machine day dream today is dominated by a flyer reproduced in the cd booklet to this release, advertising a month's worth of "progressive concerts" upcoming at a venue, somewhere in England, featuring performances by T2, Judus [sic] Priest, Israel's Jericho Jones, Thin Lizzy and this very band, Possessed. Good grief. We'd have been very very broke blokes back then, spending our last dime, I mean, farthing, on going out to such shows! What a time for hairy, heavy proto-metal awesomeness!
Thinking along those lines, Cathedral vocalist Lee Dorrian *has* built a time machine of sorts, though -- his label Rise Above now has an archival/reissue imprint called Rise Above Relics, dedicated to unearthing the heavy sounds of the past for them to be heard again today. This Possessed album (along with Luv Machine, also reviewed) is one of the first releases and we've gotta say they've dug up a gem, hitherto unknown to us.
Possessed, who you'd think might be some sort of occultic, Comusy folk band from the name and the Art Nouveau, Aubrey Beardsley style cover art, actually play a kinda proggy, kinda glammy hard rock that definitely bears some resemblance to aspects of Led Zeppelin. Just coincidence that Possessed's singer and guitarist, the India-born Vernon Pereira, had been in the original lineup of an outfit called The Band Of Joy, which also included Zeps-to-be Robert Plant and John Bonham? In any case, Possessed's most notable attributes would have to be the sinuous, crunchy riffing of guitarist Pereira, and also his Plant-like lead vocals. Furthermore, the band's spiralingly complex and bombastic songwriting ventures into the variety of "funk" displayed by Led Zeppelin on such songs as "Trampled Underfoot". Then there's the acoustic break of "Exploration Pt. II", also very Zeppish to be sure, though besides Zep, we'd compare this to Thin Lizzy and also to obscurities like Hard Stuff and even AQ faves Zolar X!
Despite being so worthy, Possessed never released an album, though they did record one in 1971 that, due to label disinterest, was shelved (until now, this is it). Sadly, three key band members, including Pereira, died in a motorway accident in 1976 ("Driver of Pop Group Death Van Dozed Off" reads the headline to one of the vintage newspaper clippings reproduced in the cd booklet), bringing a tragic end to the hopes and history of Possessed. The '70s rock star glory experienced by their chums in Led Zeppelin was never to be for this ill-fated band, though things could have, should have, turned out much differently, as at the time of the accident, they were on the verge at last of a major record deal. And they were supposedly slated to play shows in the USA with the Sex Pistols, bizarrely enough. Of course, that never happened.
So we're left with Exploration, while not the best unreleased album of the era ever (Jacula? Bedemon? Sproton Layer?), definitely a pretty darn cool one. It's a bit raw sounding, maybe a still a work in progress with some of the riffing rather similar in a couple of the songs, but it's definitely something that fans of both Led Zep and all the early '70s hard rock rarities we love should investigate! Nicely packaged with a fat, 20 page booklet full of notes and photos, slipcased to boot.
Indie darlings Dntel's Jimmy Tamborello and Benjamin Gibbard of Death Cab For Cutie join forces in The Postal Service. Apparently these collaborations did indeed take shape via tapes mailed back and forth between the two. Each track is subtle variation of the following: bashfully boyish vocals, chiming music box melodies and soft jangly guitars that play off one another over a simple thumping or clicking programmed beat. Gibbard sings oh so sweetly in his melted ice cream voice while Tamborello delivers the delightfully pretty electronics and bounding rhythms. Just what you might expect from a project starring these two fellows. Plus there's an added aural delight here and there in the form of lovely vocals by Jen Wood and Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis. It's easy to draw comparisons to Kings Of Convenience vocalist Erlend Oye's new solo album which also sets a gentle male voice -- more familiarly heard with soft guitars and drums - singing atop light electronic dancey tracks. However unlike Oye's Unrest on which music and voice sound somewhat detached from each other, Postal Service's Give Up has a wonderful chemistry that swirls everything together perfectly. Recommended!
This four song introductory ep offers barely a peep of Postal Service's effervescent crushworthy tunes. Ah, such a sweet peep it is! A perfect accessory to their full length that's out now too. Definitely see the full album review for all the PS nitty gritty, but in particular regards to this ep (a current Cup fave by the way), the title track is an instantly catchy gem that's sure to find its way onto friends' mixtapes everywhere. The second half is actually PS songs performed by two other bands - fellow Sub Poppers The Shins and Iron And Wine. The brief encounter ends with Iron And Wine's drowsy acoustic rendition of "Such Great Heights". And y'know what? This lil' cd is worth picking up for that track alone. Beautiful! Each version is strong on its own and great in contract to one another. Recommended!
Arguably the second best song on Jimmy Tamborello and Benjamin Gibbard's Postal Service Give Up album, "The District Sleeps Tonight" is featured on this new cdep along with an alternate, much more percolated'n'squidgy mix by DJ Downfall, as well as a much more languid yet still thumpin' John Tejada remix of the aforementioned album's *best* track "Such Great Heights" (at least according to Cup!), plus... this cd version includes a very mellow cover of the Flaming Lips' "Suddenly Everything Has Changed"!
Sub Pop continue their recent string of cd and 12" singles that's threatening to become sort of the unofficial descendent of their old Sub Pop Singles Club. Okay, maybe we're jumpin' the gun, but this is already the third one for Postal Service. The title track is once again drawn from their full length Give Up, and is accompanied by a suitably dreamy new song "Be Still My Heart" as well as two remixes (by Styrofoam and Matthew Dear). Oh such sweetness just in time for Valentine's Day!
For those that didn't want to pay $34 for the 2013 deluxe triple lp reissue of this 'indie electronica' fave, Sub Pop has also now done a regular, no frills vinyl reissue too! Here's some of what we said 'bout the last reissue, sans stuff about the extras (eps and rarities) included on the triple:
It's hard to believe it's now been more than a decade since the original release of this fantastic little slice of indie electronica, a collaboration between Dntel's Jimmy Tamborello (the electronics and production) and Benjamin Gibbard of Death Cab For Cutie (the bitter sweet indie jangle and that voice!) a project they called at the time The Postal Service (with a little bit of protest from the actual USPS!). Since then, their sound has served as a template for a million other bands, mining much of the same territory, sad boy, mix tape break up indie jangle pop, but all wound up in percolating beats, and warm lustrous electronic shimmer, not indie club music by any stretch, it still had that sort of homebrewed 4-track bedroom vibe that made (and makes) music like this so relatable, but it expanded the typical indie pop sonic palette, and resulted in a serious of glistening, dreamily propulsive, nearly anthemic electronic pop, that does indeed sound just as good now as it did when everyone was freaking out about it the first time around.
The Give Up record originally took shape via tapes mailed back and forth between Tamborello and Gibbard. Each track is subtle variation of the following: bashfully boyish vocals, chiming music box melodies and soft jangly guitars that play off one another over a simple thumping or clicking programmed beat. Gibbard sings oh so sweetly in his melted ice cream voice while Tamborello delivers the delightfully pretty electronics and bounding rhythms. Pretty much exactly what you might expect from a project starring these two fellows. Plus there's an added aural delight here and there in the form of occasional lovely vocals by Jen Wood and Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis. The Postal Service's Give Up has a wonderful chemistry that swirls everything together perfectly.
It's hard to believe it's now been more than a decade since the original release of this fantastic little slice of indie electronica, a collaboration between Dntel's Jimmy Tamborello (the electronics and production) and Benjamin Gibbard of Death Cab For Cutie (the bitter sweet indie jangle and that voice!) a project they called at the time The Postal Service (with a little bit of protest from the actual USPS!). Since then, their sound has served as a template for a million other bands, mining much of the same territory, sad boy, mix tape break up indie jangle pop, but all wound up in percolating beats, and warm lustrous electronic shimmer, not indie club music by any stretch, it still had that sort of homebrewed 4-track bedroom vibe that made (and makes) music like this so relatable, but it expanded the typical indie pop sonic palette, and resulted in a serious of glistening, dreamily propulsive, nearly anthemic electronic pop, that does indeed sound just as good now as it did when everyone was freaking out about it the first time around. This tenth anniversary collection, gathers up the Give Up album in its entirety, along with two of the eps from around the same time, as well as some unreleased gems and rarities, and houses it all it a big fancy package, that incorporates the various iconic album art as well as lyrics, liner notes etc. Here's our slightly updated/revised review of these records from the first time around.
The Give Up record originally took shape via tapes mailed back and forth between Tamborello and Gibbard. Each track is subtle variation of the following: bashfully boyish vocals, chiming music box melodies and soft jangly guitars that play off one another over a simple thumping or clicking programmed beat. Gibbard sings oh so sweetly in his melted ice cream voice while Tamborello delivers the delightfully pretty electronics and bounding rhythms. Pretty much exactly what you might expect from a project starring these two fellows. Plus there's an added aural delight here and there in the form of occasional lovely vocals by Jen Wood and Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis. The Postal Service's Give Up has a wonderful chemistry that swirls everything together perfectly.
The first single from that record, also included in this anniversary collection, is another gorgeous display of the Postal Service's effortlessly effervescent crushworthy tunes. And ah, such a sweet peep it is! A perfect accessory to the full length. The title track "Such Great Heights" is an instantly catchy gem that's sure to find its way onto friends' mixtapes everywhere (even still) and is most definitely the best song on Give Up. The rest of the ep is filled out actually by PS songs performed by two other bands - fellow Sub Poppers The Shins and Iron And Wine. The brief cover love ends with Iron And Wine's drowsy acoustic rendition of "Such Great Heights". And y'know what? It's definitely different, but in its own way just as good as the original. Beautiful! Each version is strong on its own and great in concert with one another.
Also included is the second ep, The District Sleeps Alone Tonight, the title track, arguably the SECOND best song on Tamborello and Gibbard's Give Up album, "The District Sleeps Tonight" is accompanied by an alternate, much more percolated'n'squidgy mix by DJ Downfall, as well as a much more languid yet still thumpin' John Tejada remix of the aforementioned album's *best* track, the previously mentioned "Such Great Heights", plus... there's also a very mellow cover of the Flaming Lips' "Suddenly Everything Has Changed"!
Single number three is here as well, which in addition to the album track, includes two dreamy mixes from Styrofoam and Matthew Dear. And in addition to all that this new version tacks on a bunch of unreleased and rare tracks as well, including more collaborations with vocalist Jenny Lewis, their awesome Phil Collins cover, which was originally released on the soundtrack to the movie Wicker Park, there's also a John Lennon cover, originally from an Amnesty International benefit compilation, a Nobody remix, originally an iTunes only exclusive, and finally a live on the radio track from 2003.
And as mentioned above, the cd is gorgeous packaged in an oversized booklike package, 8 full color panels, multiple pockets, two booklets, tons of rare photos and more!! The vinyl too, in a similarly over the top multi paneled / pocketed jacket, and while they last we have the Loser Edition (i.e. colored vinyl!)
Cd reissue of the 1975 second album from obscure French prog-fusion act Potemkine, a "Zeuhl" band in the mold of Magma. Not as heavy or dark as we were hoping for, but still it's cool, complex stuff. Includes tracks some from their debut lp and single as
If you love the warm female vocals of Call And Response or in fact those of '70s singers Helen Reddy or Maureen McGovern (remember the theme from "Poseidon Adventure"?), then hop to it! The SF duo known as Potion embrace many genres but most often find their way back to a smooth, lounge-y sound. A low and lilting, calming debut.
The debut album by The Potomac Accord from St Louis, MO bears more than a striking resemblance to Godspeed You Black Emperor's "F#A#oo" - heck, the cover is an absolute deadringer with the exact same slant of the horizon in the grey blurry cover photo,
Been dying to review this slab of bleak brutal blackened doom drenched power violence for a while now. We were first exposed to these guys when they shared a split lp with the equally downtuned and devastating Burmese. Very few bands are up to the task of sharing a record with the mighty Burmese, but these Macedonian (not Russian as we mistakenly thought) slow motion grindcrushers definitely held their own, enough that we were super psyched to discover there was indeed a full length.
Channels takes up right where those split tracks left off. Heaving, massive, lurching, doomy, crusty crush, but this isn't ultra doom, or even classic power violence, Potop fall right in between, the tempos are slow to midtempo, the guitars crunch and buzz, but just as often ring out, there's tons of space, long stretches dotted with spaced out chords, left hanging, slowly decaying, wrapped in Eyehategod-like sheets of feedback. The vocals are tortured and anguished, a feral yowl, way down in the mix and doused in reverb, those two elements, all tangled up and sprawling, create these epic drifting slabs of angular buzz and monstrous pound, weirdly melodic, and dramatic, sometimes mathy, other times seemingly structureless, but the best moments are when the band lock into a woozy groove, crushing and punishing and massive and so weirdly catchy.
The record finishes off with a 40 second blast of twisted pummeling ultraviolence, a blurred blowout of howling grinding pounding fury. And then it's over. And if you're like us, you go right back to the beginning and listen to the whole thing again...
SF synth punks Pow! are back with a new full length on Castle Face and the sound is even more amped up yet darker than their debut. The songs are even more driving and garage-y, the vocals snottier and more lyrically pointed and the analog synths more retro-futuristically colder, and swirling, but with enough glitter on their grime to add a brilliant shine to the production without taking away any of their raw power. Yet, this is much more nihilistic than druggy this time around as to be expected from a band who with each release seem to be checking the pulse of our ever changing San Francisco for signs of life. When their debut, the cheekily titled Hi Tech Boom, came out it was announced at the same time Castle Face head John Dwyer of The Oh Sees would be leaving San Francisco for LA seemingly for good, and Pow's music seemed to reflect a mocking attitude to the influx of tech-money elitism into The Mission's once booming open DIY spirit. Not much since has changed here culture-wise except for an increasingly dire feeling that it's going to get worse before it gets better, so the songs on Fight Fire bathe in an air of cold fury unravelling into distorted hypnotic grooves and icy industrial-ish soundscapes. Fans of Total Control, The Mallard, Mind Spiders and People's Temple will find lots to love here!
Hi-Tech Boom is the debut from SF synth punks Pow!, and it's a doozy. Fuzzy, poppy, synth, new wave-y, not that far removed from a lot of the Castle Face stable, but with some retro-futuristic synthiness that positions it somewhere between classic Gary Numan, vintage Suicide and newer outfits like the Mind Spiders. The synths slither and buzz, even the poppiest jangliest numbers are underpinned by thick buzzing layers of synth, and peppered with wild squalls of glitched out synthy psychedelia, but for the most part, the tracks are minimal, stripped down and tranced out, the vibe sort of druggy and laid back, the vocals snotty and snarly, but laid back and sorta wasted, and while some tracks get kinda rocking, the record seems to tend toward sorta midtempo groovers and swaggery stomps, often bordering on zoner dirgery, everything doused in echo and reverb, some total freaked out electro-garage weirdness ("Sugi Walks"), some eighties post punk wrapped in distorto sci-fi synths ("Switchboard Scientist"), and hooky synth flecked garage pop ("66") in equal measure. Castle Face obsessives will no doubt flip for this stuff, and we're suckers for synthed out garage punk anyway, especially when it's all sorta druggy and hypnotic, and thus, this comes highly recommended!!
Latest from these SF synth punks, and the opening track finds the band drifting into more straight up garage rock / pop territory, the synths are still present, but don't define the sound as much as add a gorgeous buzz to the proceedings, and give things a bit of a new wave vibe, otherwise, the jam is crunchy and fuzzy and poppy, makes sense that their most recent full length was on John Dwyer from Thee Oh Sees' Castle Face label. And maybe not so weirdly, the title track here almost sounds like a more rocking version of a song from Dwyer's recent synth side project Damaged Bug. But when the synths do pop up, like on "The Punisher" and the rest of the single, they dominate, and add a twisted outsidery weirdness to the proceedings, wild and psychedelic and new wave-y and catchy like crazy. "Fight Fire" is a progged out chunk of synth swaddled Oh Sees worship, right down to the vocalist's echo drenched vocal 'whoo's, and finally, "Hangin' Out (At Home)" is a noisy, synthy blast of glorious noise pop / garage punk radness, that's reminding us just why we dig these guys so much!
