You might've caught sight of this new SF quartet opening for AQ faves Spoon at the Fillmore recently. One dozen delightful tunes that take turns lulling you sweetly and perking you back up again. A couple of songs particularly bring to mind the intelligent pop of bands like Thingy, American Analog Set, Death Cab For Cutie or Pinback. And well, if you have any inclination of how we feel about those bands, then you know this bodes very very well for our appreciation of these new popsters.
Fantastic lilting vocal harmonies, crafty hooks, and little embellishments like delicate chimes or birdy chirps to pretty things up even more. But heck, don't just take our word for it, see for yourself! Check out the album's third song, the gentle pop confection "Be Kind + Remind". Aaah, so lovely, and such a great debut!
Permalight is the fourth full length from this fine Bay Area band. Rogue Wave don't whip out an album a year, but take their time (usually about 2-3 years) crafting their absolutely wonderful heartfelt gems. Always well worth the wait! With each one the band maintains a remarkable consistency, and yet also continues to grow and evolve. This time we noticed a few more electronic elements blipping and bleeping dreamily around their buoyantly wistful pop/rock core of guitar, keyboards, bass and drums. Also, it could just be our ears, but lead singer Zach Rogue's vocal phrasing and intonation seem a bit different than we remember. We can't quite put our finger on just what it is yet (maybe a shortening of vowel enunciation?), but what we can say though is if you swoon over the lovely pop sensitivities of bands such as Death Cab For Cutie, Postal Service or Nada Surf, or perhaps reaching further back Simon And Garfunkel, you just gotta give Rogue Wave a spin. Really good!
We look to Medical Records for all sorts of fantastic electronic music reissues, and find ourselves digging pretty much everything they dig up. So much so that a bunch of Medical releases have ended up aQ Records Of the Week. But recently, Medical has been dabbling in contemporary recordings, their first was a record from darkwave/synthwave outfit Illustration Sonore that we reviewed recently. And while contemporary releases from reissue labels hasn't always worked out so well, so far, Medical's foray into the present, has been a big success, and this, the debut from Texas duo Roladex, keeps that streak going.
The label describes Roladex as sounding like Kraftwerk covering Magnetic Fields, which is really not that far off, the songs minimal and melancholy, the music bleepy bloopy, analog kraut-synth, boy / girl vocals, but we also hear Human League and other outfits from that era. Ultimately though, that label description is pretty spot on, the music fantastically robotic and krautrocky, and with the deep dramatic vocals, it's hard not to hear a little Stephen Merritt. But then there are tracks like the John Carpenter-gone-electro of "Empty Streets", or the groovy electro disco-kraut of "Nuke It Out", with its electronic squiggles, laser blast bleeps, and cascading synths, that definitely give this it's own distinct sound. The crazy thing is, that sound is so perfectly and accurately crafted, we never would have assumed this was contemporary, in every way, it sounds like some lost electro-pop / new wave rarity from back in the day, which is probably why we're digging it so much, and what makes it such a perfect fit with the rest of Medical's reissue roster!
Pressed on 180 gram transparent electric blue vinyl, housed in a heavy full color sleeve, includes a poster/insert as well.
The return of Roladex one of the few contemporary artists on the kick ass new wave / synth wave reissue label Medical Records, and like their first full length, Anthems For The Microage, which we raved about back on list #445, their track here, "Glass Statuette" is another dark synthy gem, sort of Giorgio Moroder meets the Human League, pulsating synth arpeggios, romantic (but still a little icy) boy/girl vocals, robotic cold wave Kraftwerkisms surrounded by minimal programmed pulsations, and blooping, bleeping melodies, and like that full length, sounding as much like an actual reissue as anything on Medical.
The flipside is the first we've heard from [[Pressures]], and it's a good match for Roladex, a bit more melancholy and minor key, the vibe dreamily wistful, the sound propulsive and motorik, all pulsing synths, and lockstep rhythms, the hazy vocodered vocals, angelic and ethereal, give the track it's human/romantic/melancholy vibe, balancing the retro/futuristic machine music beneath...
Like all Medical releases, housed in a nice full color sleeve, and for this one, pressed onto heavy, transparent yellow vinyl. And yeah, also VERY LIMITED!
Past records from Roll The Dice found the Swedish duo channeling the spirit of John Carpenter, crafting lush, sinister synthscapes, that much like the rest of the current crop of Carpenterians, played like some lost soundtrack, and while this new one displays much of that sound still, they've fleshed out their sound big time, the most notable shift being the addition of actual strings, turning their already lush sound into something downright majestic.
Brooding pianos drift amidst clouds of crackle, deep reverby shimmers, ominous minor key melodies, little bits of glitch, the strings gradually building to a harrowing, haunting coda, and that's just the opener, that sounds exactly like it could be the music beneath the credits from some seventies Italian giallo, right down to the simulated record crackle.
The band push way past their faux soundtrack roots, building epic bombastic creeps, like "Assembly", a stately march, more of a trudge actually, the chords ringing out, beneath big booming percussive thuds, a sinister slow build, that eventually blossoms into something almost Swans like, albeit heavy on the strings and piano, but still, it's fierce and intense, a near orchestral sonic death march, with a Godspeed style slow build energy, the songs here not so much songs, as pieces, single parts that develop over time, that expand and sprawl, often to devastating effect, the strings stunning, the mood darkly heart wrenching, some tracks the strings get all Bernard Hermann Psycho-stabs, sometimes accompanied by the plunk of prepared piano, those tracks drifting into full on 20th century / musique concrete territory, but other drifting along dreamily, sounding like the prettiest, most minimal Tim Hecker track, all hazy and washed out, and delicately crystalline, while still others sound almost like trip hop, channeling groups like Portishead or Massive Attack, that sound even more effective with the strings, that add so much pathos and emotion. Fantastic stuff, haunting and lovely, alternately brooding and bombastic, cinematic and soundtrack, but also dabbling in straight up sound design, fans of Tim Hecker, and Fennesz, and Godspeed, and Belong, and Stars Of The Lid, not to mention all the modern retro-synth wranglers, the Goblin and Carpenter worshippers, this is the next step in the evolution of that sound, and is really pretty goddamn stunning.
What can we say that the title doesn't already tell you. Yes, this is Pole (aka Stefan Betke) remixing three tracks from Roll The Dice's last record, In Dust. Pushing the Swedish duo's carefully crafted kosmiche epics into ghost in the alien dub machine techtonics. From the darkly pretty and mysterious "Calling Dub Workers" to the heavy intense dub of "Echo Hands" and finally the Middle Eastern skittering excursion of "The Skull is Built Into The Version", this is a match made in heaven!
Rollerball scares up all sorts of psychologically charged demons within their cabaret theatrics, not unlike the atmospheres that saturate the works of Barry Adamson and to a lesser extent Tom Waits and Nick Cave (due to the fact that Rollerball's vocal duets / croons are engaging, but not as engrossingly powerful as either Waits or Cave, but the accompaniments remain similar). The slow patter of brushed drums, a minor chord on a piano, and melody lines from clarinet, accordion, and trumpet fix a darkened mood upon their jazz-decay creakiness. Occasionally, Rollerball dissolves the structures into epic free-jazz spaciousness that recalls their Portland comrades Jackie-O Motherfucker. "Long Walk For Ice Cream" collects the "Sam Donaldson" 7" single and the "Zapatos" 10" previously released through Cochon as well as four new tracks.
Medical Records branches out from their cold wave / new wave / synth wave bread and butter to delve into nineties indie rock, with this vinyl reissue of 1993's Shoulder Voices, the debut lp from Irish avant pop shoegazers Rollerskate Skinny, fronted by Jimi Shields, little brother of My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields. While there are hints of MBV in Rollerskate Skinny's sound, Shoulder Voices actually falls closer to that of Mercury Rev, the same mix of orchestral pop bombast and twisted songsmithery, but in Rollerskate Skinny's case, with a bit more fuzz and crunch, and some super distinctive vocals, that frequently swoop into a soaring falsetto, over a sound lush and proggy, distorted and psychedelic, a dizzying psych pop concoction of dreamy indie pop jangle exploding into heavy guitar shoegaze freakouts, with long loping stretches of woozy psychedelic meander, as well as dreamy ethereal ambience.
Some seriously tripped out nineties style indie prog, psych pop genius, that is definitely recommended for fans of other outfits from the era like the Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev, Laika, My Bloody Valentine, Moonshake, etc.
Super swank packaging, heavy full color jackets, with a full color printed insert featuring an interview with Jimi Shields, as well as a Rollerskate Skinny retrospective written by Sean Kirkpatrick.
Pressed on heavy 180 gram red vinyl.
A previously unreleased extended version of deep cut dance classic from 1983's Undercover lp.
This is neither The Arthur Baker extended dance remix or the dub version from the original single, but this 10+ minute version has only been available from the 2cd bootleg anthology "Jamming With Stu". This is just Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts with a session guitarist getting funky in a studio with Jagger riffing off the top of his head about Texas Chainsaw Massacre. A Paradise Garage classic!
Yep, reissued on vinyl!! Makes us happy in a way.
As much as we'd prefer not to, we're sure some of you would appreciate if we started this review with one of those AQ alerts. Goes something like: BORIS ALERT!!!! BORIS ALERT!!!! NEW ON INOXIA!!!! BORIS RELATED NEW RELEASE!!!! Okay, so now all you Boris obsessive can skip right to the buy button and move on, you're probably gonna want this, cuz A. it's on Inoxia, and B. it's produced by Atsuo from Boris! Oh, and let's not forget C. IT'S LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!!
For the rest of you, who need more than a loose Boris connection, this is in fact a pretty awesome slab of drifting droning acid psych. No huge pounding sludge, or blown out fuzz rock, most of the tracks on Pinhole meander aimlessly, wandering from fluttery folks, to ambient drift, and back again, with the occasional squall of distorted buzz.
The record opens with a thick wash of blurred guitar, dense and swirling, groaning waves of distortion flecked with streaks of feedback, while beneath lurks a playful little melody, gently swaying peacefully beneath the sonic turbulence. Then suddenly, the record shifts gears, and we're floating weightless through some sun dappled glade, lilting detuned guitars unfurl gentle melodies all wistful and abstract, WAY off in the background some tape hiss and crumbling distortion. It's very spare and lo-fi, wreathed in sparkling solar flares and soft focus reverb, sort of like a druggy mix of Jandek, Loren Connors and the Durutti Column. Elsewhere reverbed guitars sway suspended in clouds subtle delay, nursery rhyme melodies and hummed / mumbled vocals draped over a shimmery crystalline latticework of delicate drifts of sound, super simple and unobtrusive percussion as well as barely audible field recordings. Now and again, the band launches into some super aggressive strumming, kicking up dense clouds of high end skree and blown out free noise fuzz, but even at their noisiest, Rollo are never far away from settling back down into another long stretch of soft psychfolk shimmer. Good stuff for sure. Not necessarily sonically something Boris fans will automatically love, although some of this did remind us of Boris at their dreamiest and most abstract, but fans of Japanese stuff like L, Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Masaki Batoh, Eddie Marcon and the like will be in heaven.
Pop music definitely seems more and more like a lost art every day. For every hundred bands that can whip up a chaotic noise rock racket, or every thousand bands who tune down and unfurl walls of crumbling low end sludge, there are maybe only one or two bands, who are creating true, timeless, amazing pop music. Rife with amazing production, incredible songwriting, lush harmonies, clever lyrics, mind blowing hooks, maybe even horns and strings, and out of those bands, maybe only a fraction are doing something truly original. Aping the Beach Boys or the Zombies or the Beatles can only take you so far. And to be totally honest, way too many bands claim the Beach Boys or the Zombies as an inspiration, most taking just the surface stuff, which was only part of the musical magic involved.
So thus we have the strangely named Rollo Treadway, from Brooklyn, although on first listen we would have sworn they were from sixties London, or perhaps sixties Los Angeles. This disc showed up out of the blue in the mail one day, and on first listen we were already proclaiming this pop record of the year. How could we not, this is everything we love. Retro pop so good, that if you didn't know better, you might assume this was the real thing. And heck, it IS the real thing, just 40 years later. The strangest thing about this band is the fact that the drummer is Blake Fleming, formerly of the Mars Volta, and before that, the godlike Laddio Bolocko! But don't be expecting any of that sort of stuff, this is pure pop. Lush, string laden, harmony drenched pop. Mellotrons, warm organs, jangly guitars, and some of the most gorgeous breathy vocals harmonies we've heard in ages. The other amazing thing about this disc, is that it's a concept record of sorts, the first song, "Kidnapped" is sung by the male half of a couple of siblings who have been kidnapped, it's strangely moving, and super creepy. Later in the record, a track begins with the sound of a typewriter, and the song reveals itself as a letter from the kidnapper to the kids' family. The high concept never derails the songs though, and the songs are damn near perfect.
The opener, is quite possible THE pop song of the year. Quite reminiscent of Belle And Sebastian's "Step Into My Office, Baby" from their Dear Catastrophe Waitress (a record even the B&S hating Andee LOVES), beginning with twangy Western guitar, some cool percussion, maracas, shakers, a woozy guitar melody, all beneath a super effected stuttering main riff, then a circusy bridge, with gorgeous falsetto vocals, soaring strings, even some horns, a very Zombies like string break, there's even a flute solo. It manages to be dreamy and ethereal, but also surprisingly rocking. We've probably listened to this song a hundred times since we first got this in. Thankfully, the rest of the record is just as gorgeous, borrowing heavily from the above mentioned influences, but wrapping those influences in their own distinct song writing, some incredible intricate guitars, super varied drumming and percussion, horns and strings everywhere, whirring organs, but the focal point is definitely the vocals, lush and whispery and soft, the harmonies rich and layered and seemingly effortless.
"Dear Mr. Doe" continues the kidnapping plotline, the typewriter leading into a jaunty organ riff, and a simple propulsive rhythm, wandering bassline, and the vocals, multi tracked, each one complimenting the other, vibes, more organs, a shimmery sixties groove, almost dreamlike, while the lyrics instruct the parents not to call the police and where to leave the money if they ever hope to see the kids alive again.
It's really hard to explain what exactly is so magical about this record, other than the sound is amazing, and the songs are fantastic. Just listen to the sound samples, if "Kidnapped" doesn't immediately send you into paroxysms of pop bliss, then you need to march right down to your local Pop Music headquarters and turn in your membership. Pop kids of any stripe will dig this like crazy. If you love the Zombies, Beach Boys, Badfinger, Beatles, Kinks, or more modern pop revivalists like Jellyfish, the Three O'Clock, the Wondermints, Silver Sun, Redd Kross, Belle And Sebastian you will definitely love getting lost in the Rollo Treadway's lush baroque pop wonderland.
Can't imagine a team up that would have lo-fi underground noise poppers more in a tizzy than this, Roman Soldiers, which is actually Blank Dogs AND Gary War together for the first time, crafting some of the most warped and warbly and ultra tweaked new wave downer pop ever, even by both groups already warped and warbly standards.
This plays at 45, but fair warning, it sounded pretty rad at 33, even more miserable and murky, but that's the advanced version, only for those of you who think you can handle it.
Two tracks, both a sort of creepy sci-fi electro new wave top 40, a definite Butthole Surfers vibe, mostly due to the vocals, which are SUPER heavily effected, muddy and reverby, the guitars are jagged and angular and jangly, of course there's plenty of synths all over the place, rumbling and buzzing, the whole record gloriously washed out and woozy. The flipside is total Gary Numan worship, thick slithery synths, cool laid back distorted vocals, a killer main hook, just some practically perfect doomy gloomy electro pop, again infused with that alternate universe FM radio wooooze. Here's hoping these guys stick it out together long enough to whip up a full length!
Here's a reissue of this Bay Area band's sophomore release from 1982. Romeo Void were perhaps most known for their underground hit "Never Say Never" (aka "I might like you better if we slept together" song). That propulsive number which was characterized by some jagged sax, some time signature twists and vocalist Debora Iyall's distinct edgy delivery is indeed on this album along with eight others, many of which bear a striking resemblance to that one song. Also included on this 2006 pressing are four bonus tracks (one of which is a 12" version of "Never Say Never"). Cool.
You just may have heard me (cup) raging about the punky pop magic that was The Rondelles last album entitled "The Fox". Really, it was one of my top picks from 1999. Well, when the time came to press play on this their newest sock hop offering, I was positively giddy. Granted this is a bit of a mishmash collection containing six new songs, two K Records singles and a Teenbeat Records
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
With this release, The Rondelles hold the honor of being number XCIX (#99) in the International Pop Underground Singles Series. Hooray! Quite simply, this Albuquerque band continues to kick some super power-punk-pop ass --- albeit here in only two very brief bursts. Just a little single to keep us happy 'til the follow-up to the fabulous "Fox" album appears. More Rondelles, please!
Bubblegum rock'n'roll action from Albuquerque! Peppy, high-spirited tunes for your next rollerskate party. This cd has not left Cup's stereo since it came out. Yes, it's that good from start to finish. Snappy songs, super hooks. Confident vocals at once youthfully exuberant, world weary, and wise beyond their years. An ultra-great trio sure to glue a smile on your face. Hey, Donnas fans in need of a more pop fix...this is definitely for you!
OK, here's an Aquarius-approved 'high concept' album, all right: Estonian medieval music group Rondellus performing covers of Ozzy-era BLACK SABBATH songs translated into Latin!!! Now *this* sounds like a Black Mass! Backed by lute, harmonium, psaltery,
One of the best, and most original, 'tribute' records ever. Now they should go on tour with Apocalyptica (the Finnish cello quartet that does Metallica covers)!
Vivian Girls, Dum Dum Girls, Best Coast, Girls At Dawn, and on and on. So many of our favorite lo-fi garage pop bands of the last few years share one common bond, a deep love and appreciation for Phil Spector's production and the girl groups that he helped bring to life. When it comes to his production and THAT sound he perfected, it just doesn't get more classic than with The Ronettes. The 'Wall of Sound', the drenched reverb, the hypnotic warmth, the catchy melodies, the heartache and yearning.
Makes it extra heartbreaking and bittersweet to revisit these songs knowing all we do now about the troubling relationship that Phil Spector and Ronnie Spector had and of course the ongoing black cloud that haunts Spector's life. But no one can ever take away the amazing and revolutionary sounds he helped create with The Ronettes. These recordings really did help shape the landscape of so much of the best pop music that would follow over the next quarter century. From The Beach Boys to The Ramones, all of the greats have been influenced by the sounds of The Ronettes.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Slumberland are killing it lately. Band after band, release after release, it's beginning to feel like they've got the market cornered on fuzzy garage rock and buzzy jangle pop. And this new single from roommates only drives it home. Roommates is in fact Ben Cook from Fucked Up, and his partner in the Fucked Up side project Marvelous Darlings, Mark Fosco, and the two have cooked up some gorgeously hooky fuzzed out garagey power pop that totally kills. Big distorted guitars, pounding reverbed drums, the sound hazy and dreamy and shoegazey, with washed out vox and big big hooks. The two tracks on the A side came out as a crazy limited tape back in the day, and apparently were never intended to be heard outside of a few friends. Lucky for us, cuz these are fast becoming new favorites around here. The B sides dials back some of the buzz and fuzz and channels some totally classic old school power pop, with fantastic vocals, harmonies and hooks galore. It's weird to think of this as a tossed off side project, cuz most bands would kill for these songs. Here's hoping there's more where these came from...
We'd been hearing about these guys for a while now, and from all sorts of folks, metalheads, popkids, all pretty adamant about how we had to check them out, we didn't realize it was one of the guys from Double Dagger, but as much as we dig DD, we were hardly prepared for THIS. A seriously kick ass blast of hooky heaviness, equal parts AmRep pig fuck noise rock, tangled old school math rock crush and vintage grunge, just check out the opener "Bait Car" (even sounds like a Tad song title), super distorted guitars, pounding drums, a breakdown verse that's all buzzing bass, drum crush, squealing feedback, yowled vox, and then holy shit a seriously Nirvana worthy chorus, and then a killer mathy breakdown, and then another Nirvana style part that's even more catchy. Holy shit, we had to listen to that first track 3 or 4 times before we could go on to the rest of the record, and to be honest we had a similar reaction to almost every song here, hooky and heavy, sludgey, grungy, poppy, the Nirvana vibe looms large, but filtered through old school Midwest heaviness and modern Torche style metallic pop, everything here totally hits the spot, the guitar sound is massive, crunchy and crumbly, the songs swing and bounce, groove and grind, every single one has a hook most pop bands would kill for, but it's set amidst some serious downtuned riffery and muscly metallic heft, think Helmet and Hum, Polvo and Drive Like Jehu, lots of nineties influence for sure, but all woven seamlessly together into what might be simultaneously our new favorite pop record, and new favorite heavy record, all at the same time. Obviously CRAZY recommended!
Second blast of gloriously grungy noise rock from these recent aQ faves who seem to have taken the blatant Nirvana obsession of their Ideal Cities and tempered it a bit, the new ep way more polished and poppy. All of which was hinted at on that first one for sure, but here, the moments of noisy crunch and fuzzed out pound are more in service to some seriously kick ass songwriting and big BIG hooks. We're tempted to even say 'radio ready', cuz goddamn if this stuff wouldn't sound right at home alongside the usual modern rock suspects. That said, Roomrunner are still plenty scrappy, and the influence of classic grunge is all over their sound, but they've managed to finally make those influences less obvious, crafting a sound that ultimately sounds like Roomrunner, and not the bands they grew up on. Opener "Ms. DNA" takes up right from where Idea Cities left off, a pounding grunge groover, but quickly the sound blossoms into something way more melodic, with spidery guitar melodies, wound around equally spidery melodies, giving it a sort of psychedelic vibe, before the chorus swoops in, all anthemic with vocal harmonies galore, before lunging right back more grungy crunch. And the rest of the record plays out similarly, most of the songs starting with a very Nirvana-esque sonic seed, often transformed into some very familiar sounding grunt riffing, but then in EVERY case, the song becomes something else entirely, jangly, catchy, poppy, the vibe is still super nineties, and given no context at all, you'd likely think this was from back in the day, but somehow it sounds simultaneously nostalgic and fresh and exciting at the same time. A rare feat for sure. And while it's still noisy and weird enough for underground weirdos, it definitely sets these guys up for some mainstream love, which is not a bad thing at all.
Includes a download too!
The Roots of Orchis are a five piece post-rock ensemble from San Diego who can't decide which is better, Physics or Tortoise. Hey! Pick Physics and stay away from the bad jazz-fusion basslines.
Shards of sharp, echo-effected guitar build repetitively throughout the four songs found on "Fever", the darkly shimmering half-hour-long debut cd ep by an enigmatic Polish duo that call themselves Rope (and now live in Chicago, we believe). Przemyslaw Drazek's beautiful but unsettling skin-crawl guitar chime is underpinned by the pulsing bass guitar and deep, whispered vocals of Robert Iwank. The 6 and 12 string guitarwork on here sometimes reaches shrill peaks of intensity that recall the violins in Bernard Hermann's "Psycho" score. You know, the shower scene. Stabbing, stabbing! Yet the duo's drumless soundscapes are also overall quiet and lovely. Recorded in Warsaw and previously released on cassette via a Polish label, "Fever" is creepy, almost gothic (in a Swans sense) post-rock from the former Eastern bloc. The only comparisons we can make are hopelessly obscure and probably misleading: say, imagine Ulan Bator or Larsen with a restrained Keiji Haino on guitar. Hmm? Mysterious & moody, at any rate.
Second full-length album by this dark and difficult avant-rock band, originally from Poland though now based in Chicago. This album consists of quietly creepy, whispery post-rock, abstract jazz-flecked soundscapes riven by anguished, loud outbursts of emotive vocals and guitar skree. Imagine Smolken of Dead Raven Choir (another Polish expat) fronting Oxbow... Or a moodier, malevolent US Maple with Keiji Haino sitting in. And on four of the tracks here, this sounds even more akin to Oxbow, because Oxbow's vocalist Eugene Robinson takes a guest turn at the mic. Intense!
Expatriate Polish post-rock act Rope are all about generating an atmosphere, and it's a creepy one, though quite arty. We liked their debut ep Fever, and this full-length delivers more of the same, and more besides as they've added more instrumentation (drums, piano, saxophone) to the bass and guitar previously employed. Furthermore, as if to evoke the widow of the title, there's some wordless soprano female fake 20th-century classical vox to compliment the throat-constricted whispery vocals of bassist Robert Iwanik, who sounds not unlike a sinister version of US Maple's Al Johnson. We're also reminded of Alan Dubin's Khanate croakings. Indeed, though far from black metal, this has some of that sort of vibe. It's spooky stuff, as if the music is lurking in the dark, bursting in brittle sheets to threaten the listener, even as the lulls soothe one into a trance. Washes of cymbals and jagged guitar offer no mercy, and even when the volume gets intense, the menace seems more mental than physical. Some may find this sort of thing, the female vocals in particular, too gothically-academically pretentious, but for others it will quite effectively set a mood and hold your musical interest as well. Spaciously recorded with a large, empty live reverby room sound by Steve Albini in Chicago, where Rope currently reside.
Rorschach, for those of you that don't know, were THE hardcore band of the early nineties. Seminal, influential and completely amazing. Furious and pummelling, political and totally kick ass. The singer went on to start super hip, post hardcore indie label
A new cd-r from yet another mysterious New Zealand noise drone outift, the only thing we know for sure is that one of the Invaders was also at one time one of the Double Leopards! And it sounds like it. Two twenty something minute tracks of murky lowend explorations, wide expanses of barely there thrum, distorted fuzz, simple random percussive clomps, amp buzz, random guitar twang and pluck, occasional mournful melodies, simple strumming, and lots of random sonic clutter, voices and footsteps, shuffling and flitting about. Sounds a bit like the Dead C setting up, or Birchville Cat Motel breaking down. Drifting and meandering, haunting and intimate, creepy and weirdly pretty.
SUPER LIMITED AS ALWAYS!! NOT SURE WE'LL BE ABLE TO GET MORE WHEN THESE ARE GONE!
The Sun Dogs is the debut full length from this this Northwestern outfit, who weave Eastern tinged slow burn psych and brooding post metal smolder and fluttery sun dappled hippie folk into something dreamily druggy and pretty goddamn great. The opener is a slow burn drift of buzzing drones, dusky acoustic guitar shimmer, distant swirling synths, fluttering flute, all laced with some country-ish twang, and some super distinctive vox, a woozy seventies style psych folk that definitely pushes all our buttons. At this point we were still expecting the whole record to be sort of fuzzy and folky, but then the second track, "Native Dreams", unleashes some big drums, and some seriously thick fuzzed out guitars, not to mention more flutes, synths, and some sinewy low slung bass. Organs whirr psychedelically in the background, while over the top, Eastern snake charmer melodies shimmer and slither, the vocals high and keening, reminding us of Janes Addiction actually, which much of The Sun Dogs does, the heavier tracks here all have a sort of Janes Addiction vibe, albeit a bit folkier, with the flutes, and plenty of swirly sitar like buzz. Mix in some Psychic Ills, Dead Meadow or Black Mountain, and we're talking some heavy stoner psych folk bliss out for sure.
The slower/mellower tracks have a definite hippie folk feel, and hints of more modern retro beardo folk a la Fleet Foxes, but even then, the vocalists keening plaintive croon, and the sort of swaggery swing, sets Rose Windows apart from their bearded brethren. And it's that classic rock swagger, a little Zeppelin, a little Terry Reid (the vocals for sure) wedded to the more strummy, fluttery folkiness, that make Rose Windows a strange sonic hybrid. Check out "This Shroud", an organ driver slow psych groove, all tangled spidery leads over warm organ thrum, and steel string shimmer, those Perry Farrell like vocals, the Eastern melodies, the distorted buzz, the fuzzy riff, the big booming drums, and finally the flutes swooping in, for a seriously fierce hard rocking psychedelic heavy riffing finale that sounds like a heavier, more classic rocking Bardo Pond, which is not a bad thing at all.
A strange record for sure, but one we find ourselves listening to constantly, a definite new aQ fave for sure.
FYI it's on vinyl too but Sup Pop has to repress (soon) 'cause they were all warped!
On this week's list we've got the sophomore efforts from two Sub Pop artists we like a lot, and along with Metz's II, we're digging the second album from these spaced out psychedelic hard rocking freak folks, whose sound has only gotten better the second time around. The opening track is so good it was tough to dig any deeper, the sound starting out like more recent Earth outings, sort of windswept and desert-y, all hazy, languorous twang and moody minor key shimmer, which is transformed when the vocals come in, into what sounds a bit like a more distorted, hard rocking Fleet Foxes, and then the song shifts again, blossoming into this harmonies psychedelic folk, all tangled little guitar figured, sweet harmonies, and lovely female vocals, the vibe is equal parts classic Southern rock, freak folk and bearded psych, and if that doesn't sound good to you for some reason, trust us, it does.
And like on the first record, the band don't shy away from heaviness, launching into a weird seventies sounding groover, complete with Frampton style voice box, but when Rabia Shaheen Qazi steps up to the mic, her vocals turn the track into some cool swaggery hippy hard rock, sort of witchy, reminding us of groups like Ruby The Hatchet, Blood Ceremony, and Royal Thunder, but with way more of a classic rock vibe. Which is pretty much how the rest of the record unwinds, equal parts hippy folk, seventies psych, witchy hard rock, that definitely out-retros their debut, but it's a sound they seem to have grown into, and one that suits them even more, a fuzzy hard rocking blooze, that's still plenty psychedelic, occasionally doomy, but pretty goddamn great throughout.
As if we weren't totally blown away by their first release, Aja Rose and Gabriel Saloman (who is one half of the late Yellow Swans) have once again conjured up some of the most shimmery and gorgeous lo-fi ambience around. Two sides of live collaborations recorded last year in Portland, distant voices and guitar passages ring out, the faint sound of haunted bell towers ringing miles away, glowing horizons warm with evening's fading light. Really captivating stuff here, mysterious clanging and ominous reverbed hush, a band of ghost gypsies passing through the darkened woods. So good. Too bad it was LIMITED TO 50 COPIES. Of which we have about 8 left. Gorgeous handmade packaging you sort of have to see to believe. Each one hand numbered.
Apparently this will be reissued on vinyl later this year, we'll relist it then and give it a bit more love and more of an extensive description, for now, quickest on the draw gets the prize...
If you're like us, then anything even tangentially related to psychedelia, shoegaze, or post-rock is worth investigating. Well, Ms. Rose and Mr. Saloman (1/2 of the Yellow Swans) recently came through our doors to drop off a small batch -- really small, at 5 copies -- of their self-titled and self-released collaboration. Of course, as soon as they left, we put it on and totally geeked-out and got them to come back and bring us more. Recorded straight to tape and mastered to warm, lo-fi analog perfection, the disc is a wonderful synergy of the two members talents -- drone, melody and improvisation. But be forewarned, this is not NEARLY as noisy as either's other work. It's almost odd how melodic it is, really. Those that have heard the last few Yellow Swans records might not be too shocked though, since there has been an increasing number of melodic parts and much more structured arrangements. Is this getting too convoluted? Need some more specific reference points for the cd at hand? Think of something like Cloaks meets Ash Ra Tempel, a free and freaky compositional structure that gels more as a whole rather than than any one segment. The way melodies overlap and intertwine, changing each other's time and swirling all about reminds us of some tripped-out shoegaze band trying to go psych-drone. Really, really beautiful and blissed-out, and definitely recommended. LIMITED TO 50 and we've got 20, so you know what that means.
While some of us here really love early Biff Rose records, we realize he's a very acquired taste. His jokey piano-bar delivery, quirky early musical theater-style arrangements, and Kermit the Frog-like voice (he also kind of sounds like Wayne Coyne from Flaming Lips) usually don't warm up to most people's ears right away. He definitely comes out of the same school of pop eccentrics as Mose Allison, Loudon Wainwright III, Randy Newman, The Neon Philharmonic, and Van Dyke Parks. But the thing is, when you have him on shuffle on your iPod, he'll always be that burst of warm surprise that makes you scramble for your iPod to figure out what the heck is playing. The ever-reliable The Omni Recording Corporation label has reissued this 1970 eponymous release. Not psych-folk as the label implies (or as we tend to think of it it), but the mood is much darker and somber than on any of Rose's previous records. Full of lush Van Dyke Parks-style orchestral arrangements and songs about heartbreak (he recorded this during a messy divorce), it contains our most favorite Biff Rose song, "The Captain", a haunting ode to epic loss with swirling strings and far off sleigh bells. This could easily be a touchstone for Joanna Newsom's Ys, as the mood and arrangements are similar, evoking an antique and quaint musical soundworld to touch on larger human themes of sadness and self-renewal.
If you're curious about Biff Rose, or like any of the aforementioned people above, this or Children of Light are the best ones to start with. So bittersweet!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Frankie Rose's Interstellar record, from last year, was an immediate hit around here, pretty much every song was practically perfect, whether it was hushed torch song balladry, or fuzzed out M83 style bombast, or fuzzy sixties girl group garage pop jangle, we played that record to death. So expectations were pretty high for this new one, and on the first few listens, nothing grabbed us quite as immediately as lots of tracks from that last record, but then, as it often does, a funny thing happened, and suddenly, Herein Wild sort of blossomed into something equally special, different certainly, but pretty fantastic nonetheless, repeated listens revealing another collection of shimmery, reverby jangle pop gems. This time around, with a much more glossy production, and a sound that definitely edges closer to eighties style new wave, but it definitely suits her. The days of the more rough and raw garage rocking as drummer for the Vivian Girls, the Dum Dum Girls and Crystal Stilts are long gone, and in its place something much more measured and mature, dark and moody, but rife with classic popisms, and lots of sonic references to the eighties, Rose having grown into quite the songstress, with Herein Wild displaying a serious knack for warm, languid, new wave pop, laced with swirling synths, soaring strings, lilting melodies, and of course Rose's ethereal vox. Not to mention some seriously grandiose, and quite lovely arrangements. It might be a grower, but all it took really was a few listens for this to end up on pretty heavy rotation!
Our review of the most recent single from Ms. Frankie Rose, one time drummer for Vivian Girls, the Dum Dum Girls and Crystal Stilts, works pretty well as a thumbnail description for this just released full length as well: "fuzzy and dreamy and a little bit girl group sounding, but way more polished and produced, a lot more eighties, plenty of jangle, and a distinctly new wave vibe for sure, but it definitely suits her, hooky and and catchy like crazy", which all still applies, and the song from the 7" is here too, but that description really only scratches the surface of a record that is equal parts 4AD shimmer, fuzzed out synth heavy M83 style bombast, and buzzy girl group pop. Just take the title track, which starts out all glimmery and shimmery and dreamy, ethereal vox over soft focus smears of synthy swirl and tinkling chimes, and then POW, the drums kick in, an avalanche of thick buzzing synths, the song exploding in a shower of fuzz and crunch and layered vocals, only to slip right back into a more subdued, dream poppy verse, before getting surprisingly proggy, slow building to another killer chorus. It might be the coolest, weirdest track on the record, and will no doubt demand lots of replay action, but there's lots more on offer here, sure much of the record hews close to the bands in Rose's past, but amidst all that fuzzy pop and jangly girl group garage rock, is soaring synth, drum machine driven new wave, reverb drenched fuzzed out ethereal ballads, dark moody gloom pop grooves, skittery cold wave, and plenty in between, with somehow everything working perfectly as an album, not just a collection of songs, and all of those songs so lush and lovely, and crazy catchy, warm and dreamy, Rose's voice fantastic, we're loving this a LOT, and we're guessing this is the record where the rest of the world finally catches on...
Fans of modern reverb girl group garage rock no doubt no the name Frankie Rose, having drummed for the Vivian Girls, the Dum Dum Girls AND Crystal Stilts. We dug her debut solo record from a while back, which was exactly what you might have expected with that pedigree, but here on this new single we get a taste of Rose's new sound and it's actually pretty different. Still fuzzy and dreamy and a little bit girl group sounding, but it's way more polished and produced, a lot more eighties, plenty of jangle, and a distinctly new wave vibe for sure, but it definitely suits her, and the song is a gem, hooky and and catchy like crazy. Definitely has us excited to hear the new full length. The flipside is a remix, and recasts the song as an eighties dancefloor groover, with a soaring lush and layered M83 sounding chorus, which somehow suits the song almost as well as the regular arrangement!
Frankie Rose has been behind the drum kit for three of our favorite bands of the last few years, Vivian Girls, Dum Dum Girls, and Crystal Stilts. But now she is poised to show that she can lead, sing and create such warm and woozy songs with her very own band, as this is one of the most satisfying pop records of the year! Her past band experiences for sure help shape the sound of what she is doing here, yet these songs are crafted with such care and an intimacy that allows the tracks to be both dreamy, haunting, and catchy. This is the kind of record that stands so strongly on repeated listens as it's not just a cute bubblegum play at girl group glory, but instead it uses the warmth and reverb of that golden era to create songs that leave a mark and make you want to come back for more again and again. This record has hit at a much more emotional spot than many of the similar minded records that have come out in the last few years. Her group helps makes the record come to life with such nice three part harmonies and a cohesiveness that is not slick so much, but instead feels so wonderfully natural in its golden warmth. In a year of great pop records, this one is finding its way to the top of the list!
Compact disc version ON SALE until October 8th, for 11.98, $2 off the normal price!!! (Sorry, no discount for the vinyl.)
Now available on vinyl. Super deluxe, and of course, super limited!!
A new Jack Rose record is always cause for celebration around here. Along with James Blackshaw, Ilyas Ahmed, Richard Bishop and a few others, Rose is one of the new modern masters of the steel string guitar, helping to reinvent and redefine neo-Appalachia or modern folk or whatever you want to call it.
No huge changes, we're happy to announce, just more of Rose's gorgeous steel string beauty, gossamer sheets of buzzing shimmer, droning ragas, traditional bluegrass, slippery slide, melancholy melodies, jaunty pick and strum, the mood occasionally dark and ominous, sometimes playful and festive, and other times dreamy and serene, it's as much about the sound as the songs. To see Rose play live is pretty mindblowing, his mastery of the guitar is truly humbling, his playing incredibly physical, but so fluid and seemingly effortless. And the sounds that emerge from that chunk of wood and steel are consistently breathtaking. Which is true even on record, those sounds well removed from the actual recording, but retaining much of the physical act of the performance, the energy and the emotion, the sound vibrant and LIVE. This new record is no different. Sonically, well in line with the rest of Rose's recorded works, but like every new Rose record that comes along, it manages to subtly expand and progress, sonically and compositionally, while continuing to sound classic and timeless.
Fans will obviously need Dr. Ragtime, but for folks who have yet to discover the magic of Jack Rose this is a perfect place to start, and odds are those same folks will very likely find themselves wanting and perhaps even needing more!
Gorgeous packaging, clear shiny ink on gold matte sleeves, with printed pink and white Japanese style obi.
