Israeli band Churchill's, reviewed a few lists back, aren't the only vintage '60s act from the Middle East to get a reissue recently. We also just got this, from the somewhat more obscure Sea-Ders (aka The Cedars) of Beirut, Lebanon, who sound a bit like a Middle Eastern Monkees or something! There's 8 tracks here, apparently everything they ever recorded, all from singles circa 1966-'68. It's jangling and energetic, exotic East-meets-West psych pop beat action, a la lot of the Turkish stuff of the era we like so much, complete with ripping bouzouki, saz, and/or oud alongside electric guitar, and in fact a couple of their popular songs here were covered by Turkish artists, comped on that Turkish Delights collection we used to have. Any fan of Middle Eastern psych (or psych with Middle Eastern motifs) a la 3 Hur-el or The Devil's Anvil, should enjoy this.
Liner notes provided by both Mike Stax, editor of Ugly Things magazine (which featured an interview with one of the former Sea-ders in issue #26), and also Lenny Helsing of Shingdig! magazine as well.
If your dream musical date would be with Postal Service and Pernice Brothers, well, the sweet sounds of Seabear come pretty darn close. Shufflin', soft and breezy pop tunes with shy boy lead vocals and angelic girly backing ones. Sure to please devotees of the Morr Music label, and anyone else whose ears need a snuggle!
SooYoung Park pens some of the most gorgeous quiet/loud songs of heartache and heartbreak. And this the third album from Chicago's Seam is no exception. Soaring, droning guitars blanket you as Mr. Park takes aim at your heart.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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Wherein the Chicago indie rock stalwarts cover two of the most unlikely songs: "Heroes" and "Sukiyaki" (Taste of Honey, remember?)
Chicago's kings of indie rock have been doing this so long they can only further refine the genre. Slow buildups and melodic layers, murmured vocals, very pleasant.
This is the first full length from Sean Tillman, who you may remember from his sort of popular old band Calvin Crime. His solo stuff as Sean Na Na is a complete about face from Calvin Crime's arty punkiness. This is coy, clever Built To Spillian pop. He was on that split cd with Mary Lou Lord a few months back, and blew her away (granted no mean feat). Imagine a younger, more playful, whinier Built to Spill (the Dug Martsch comparisons are unavoidable, high reedy voiced, lonely, whiney boy rock (�Elisabeth)). Really cool.
Now available on vinyl!
Berkeley based guitarist, Sean Smith, doesn't shake off the Fahey discipleship of his debut too easily on this sophomore effort, no matter how hard he tries. Yet still he brings a darker and more spontaneous impulse to his playing, allowing roughly exposed and muted fret tones to surface, showing he is not all about polish and that 's a welcome departure. More improvised than composed, Smith's cerebral guitar weaving is less bucolic sunshine this time around, taking us on a night time sojourn through a folkish nether world of threaded string picking and somber harmonic tonalities.
Record number two from this Seattle bliss out twee pop combo, and much like their debut, it's another killer collection of fuzzy guitars, simple stripped down drumming, shoegazey ethereal vox, and some seriously catchy songs. As we mentioned in our review of Go With Me, anyone into Dum Dum Girls, Best Coast, Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, or really any of the girl groups on Slumberland, Seapony will definitely hit the spot. Wistful, dreamily melancholy dream pop, but this time around, the band have roughed up the production a little, adding some grit and gristle, the guitars a little bit warbly and subtly woozy, the result makes for something just a bit more psychedelic. Just check out the opening track "Outside", which on the surface is pure jangly bliss, but listen close, and you'll hear distorted crumbling distortion, and the vocals somehow soft focus and hushed, but still in-the-red. "Tell Me So" is more smoothed out, but even there, the vocals are weirdly recorded, the drums seem to ping pong from speaker to speaker, all wound up in lush billows of warm strum and shimmery melody. The rest of the record unfolds similarly, the songs slipping easily from sixties girl group shuffle, to groovy garage rock pound, to dreamy shoegaze pop, to nineties retro indie rock, but all within the context of the group's dreamy soft focus dream pop sound.
Debut from this Seattle trio, and damn if this maybe doesn't sound like it should have come out on Slumberland. In fact, it almost sounds like it could have come out on Slumberland way back in the day. Or maybe Spinart. A dreamy collection of jangly, stripped down classic twee pop, that most definitely references Black Tambourine, Tiger Trap, The Softies, Velocity Girl, Aislers Set, and the rest, and sounds right at home amongst the new wave of sonically similar popkids: Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, Best Coast, Brave Irene, Dum Dum Girls, Gold-Bears, Kids On A Crime Spree, Girls Names, Summer Cats and all the rest. Hazy reverby female vocals, sweet major key melodies, a little bit surfy, the rhythms simple and softly propulsive, total sixties girl group worship via K-records twee-pop, opener "Dreaming" is pretty irresistible, a perfect chunk of summery feel good dream pop, the rest of the record not far behind, washed out and hazy, shimmery and jangly, the vocals hushed and angelic, the guitars warm and crystalline, all wound up into some seriously soft focus, reverb soaked, summer sun, dream pop bliss.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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Fans of psychedelic sixties rock n' roll might be a little concerned about what they're getting when a peek at the album cover shows that two of the band members are men wearing clerical collars. Priests who rock? And these are no long-haired Jesus Freaks, either. The four men and one woman in this band look pretty straight. But, have no fear, their music is plenty far-out. This self-released 1968 album is the sole recorded legacy of The Search Party, a Christian folk-psych combo masterminded by the Reverend Nicholas Freund of Mount Saint Paul College in Waukesha, Wisconsin, but recorded at the San Francisco Theological Seminary's Montgomery Chapel (hence the title). They were definitely hip to the sixties West Coast vibe, with female vocals that remind us a bit of both Grace Slick and Linda Perhacs. Much of this is quite ethereal and haunting, full of organ drone-tones and dreamy, downer atmosphere. The album's centerpiece, the nine-minute "So Many Things Have Got Me Down" could be a lost acid-krautrock jam. The New Creation, the other lost 60s Christian rock reissue we reviewed here recently, have nothing on this! While The Search Party are at their best on the slower, moodier numbers, the more uptempo songs, though, go to some amazing extremes with over-the-top vocals and searing fuzz guitar (as in "You And I" which stands in stark contrast to the gentle, sombre sounds of much of the rest of the album). This Korean-import cd reissue comes packaged in one of those minature gatefold LP style sleeves, with lyrics and liner notes, which include the statement that "this album...is a demonstration of these five people's concern for you." Now how often do bands today say things like that? Bless' em.
Hell, whoops, ach eee double hockey sticks yeah! Or should we just say hallelujah!? This obscure Xtian '60s psych fave has just been officially reissued with loving care and TONS of extra, associated material. Here's what we said about The Search Party when we first encountered a reissue of it (a Korean import, at the time) some years ago:
Fans of psychedelic sixties rock n' roll might be a little concerned about what they're getting when a peek at the album cover shows that two of the band members are men wearing clerical collars. Priests who rock? And these are no long-haired Jesus Freaks, either. The four men and one woman in this band look pretty straight. But, have no fear, their music is plenty far-out. This self-released 1968 album is the sole recorded legacy of The Search Party, a Christian folk-psych combo masterminded by the Reverend Nicholas Freund of Mount Saint Paul College in Waukesha, Wisconsin, but recorded at the San Francisco Theological Seminary's Montgomery Chapel (hence the title). They were definitely hip to the sixties West Coast vibe, with female vocals that remind us a bit of both Grace Slick and Linda Perhacs. Much of this is quite ethereal and haunting, full of organ drone-tones and dreamy, downer atmosphere. The album's centerpiece, the nine-minute "So Many Things Have Got Me Down" could be a lost acid-krautrock jam. While The Search Party are at their best on the slower, moodier numbers, the more uptempo songs, though, go to some amazing extremes with over-the-top vocals and searing fuzz guitar - as in "You And I" which stands in stark contrast to the gentle, somber sounds of much of the rest of the record, whose original liner notes include the statement that "this album...is a demonstration of these five people's concern for you." Now how often do bands today say things like that? Bless' em. The New Creation and the Concrete Rubber Band - a couple other lost '60s Christian rock reissues we reviewed here previously - have nothing on this!
And not only do you get that wonderful album here, but Lion Productions have tacked on a whole extra disc. Turns out, prior to the formation of The Search Party, Nick Freund and The Search Party's guitarist/vocalist Peter Apps already had made music together in the St. Pius X Seminary Choir. As you can guess from the name, this group was rather more overtly religious, less secular sounding, 'though it was during this period that Freund attended a show at the Fillmore (featuring Cream, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Janis Joplin!) and got turned on to the hipper sounds of the SF ballroom scene. The St. Pius X Seminary Choir released three albums: Sing Out With Joy To The Lord, Sing To The Lord A New Song, and Each One Heard In His Own Language About The Marvels Of God, the third of which appears in its entirety on this set's second cd, with selections from the other two spread across the balance of both discs as bonus tracks. While the St. Pius X Seminary Choir was different in style, being mostly more 'square', churchy choral music with some rock/pop influences, and definitely not in the same league as The Search Party, it's still cool to hear music from 'em, particularly the stuff on the Each One Heard In His Own Language album, which starts off with a quite freaky, possibly Stockhausen-influenced electronic noise / sound collage composition (!) and also includes what appears to be a version of "Twist And Shout" rewritten as part of "Mass For The Secular City"...
Furthermore, this is packaged with a thick cd booklet full of liner notes (including reminiscences from both Freund and Apps), press clippings, photos, lyrics, etc., etc.
Let's say it again, hallelujah!
Seawhores appears to be the work of a cast of thousands -- well there's like ten people credited as "writers and contributors" anyway. We're not sure who or what is at the core of this project, but we can tell you that Brian Chippendale (of Lightning Bolt) and Dale Crover (of the Melvins) both appear, amongst others, including ex-members of the Cows, on this album. And Seawhores definitely do display an affinity with the sort of noise-rock of those bands, particularily the mix of heaviosity and musical fuckery normally (abnormally?) practiced by the Melvins, and their former AmRep brethren as well. It's mostly instrumental with the notable exception of the (ironic we're pretty sure) hard rock radio friendly vocals that make/break the track "College Walls". They've gotta be ironic as we do sense a definite wiseassitude about this band, again in keeping with their Melvins meets Wolf Eyes noisedrone attack, a demented mix that incorporates rhythmic drum machine damage, gobs of distortion, soundtracky ambience, and more... For instance, the track "Sweaty Men, Attack" destroys the memory of its mock-country opening with pummelling industrial rock spazzcore. Elsewhere, you'll be treated to the extended eleven minute hissing howling horror soundscape of "Village Curse". All six tracks on this mysterious cd are intriguing. Very recommended to fans of Melvins, Mike Patton, Lightning Bolt, and suchlike gonzo avant-rock entertainment!!
Hurrah! This is the first solo album from the very talented Josh McKay of Macha. Have to say though that if you were expecting for this to sound all Macha-y, try again. You certainly won't be disappointed though. The rich craftsmanship that he's applied to his
As if you hadn't realized it by now, we're sort of crazy Sebadoh fanboys (and girls), we made the last two multiple disc reissues of classic Sebadoh records aQuarius Records Of The Week, and now that we're reviewing this one, we're not exactly sure why we didn't make this one a ROTW too, probably because Sebadoh reissue number three might have seemed a bit much, but fuck it, consider this an UNofficial record of the week, cuz while those other Sebadoh records are great, this one is too, in fact, in some ways it ranks as one of our favorites for several reasons. One, it's one of the heaviest and most rocking of the bunch, some new blood (at the time) seems to have reinvigorated the band. Two, Jason Lowenstein, who on the previous record Bubble & Scrape had finally stepped up and started writing songs that rivaled main man Lou Barlow's tunes, really hit his stride here, some of the best songs on Bakesale are his, and lots of tracks it's tough to tell if the song is Lou's or Jason's, and what might be THEE best Sebadoh song ever, is here, and yep, is penned by Jason. And finally, Bakesale is the last truly great, and classic sounding Sebadoh record, sure Harmacy and The Sebadoh are great, they're just not GREAT. This record is damn near perfect, just the right balance between classic Sebadoh sad boy angst, and seriously rocking crunch.
First, let's talk about that bold claim about THEE best Sebadoh song, maybe that's a bit too bold, let's say one of , if not OUR FAVORITE. The oddly titled "Shit Soup", with its instantly memorable opening bass line, it's almost noise rock riffing, and it's super staccato arrangement, not to mention some killer lyrics, the song seesawing between hooky heavy pop, and weirdly distorted crunch, woozy folky drift and back again, just listen to the sound samples, if you're not blown away, well, hell, we're not sure there's any hope. But even if you don't love "Shit Soup" as much as us, Bakesale is seriously hit heavy, opener "License To Confuse" with it's fuzzy bass, angular guitar part, and droney shuffling chorus, a sub two minute killer, then there's "Careful" another Jason jam, with an awesome melodic bassline that seems to drive the whole song, a song that's tense and dramatic, moving and moody and totally rocking. There's "Magnet's Coil" which is classic Sebadoh, a little supercharged, but at its core, a bittersweet pop song wreathed in crunch and buzz, with some of Barlow's best lyrics and melodies. And let's not forget "Skull", another classic Barlow jam, strummy and jangly, heartfelt and sweetly melancholy, and some super sweet and subtle hooks. Howabout "Rebound"? Yep another CLASSIC, hooky, and fuzzy, with some awesome distorted riffage and more of Lowenstein's fuzzy bass, and a bridge as catchy as most bands' choruses, and then a chorus as catchy as 2 or 3 of most bands' choruses combined. "Drama Mine" is another heavy Jason tune, that balances hooks with crunch, further demonstrating that Bakesale was about as perfect a partnership as could be imagined between Barlow and Lowenstein. And those are just the highlights, highlights among other highlights. Hyperbole, we think not, one of the essential indie rock records of the nineties without a doubt.
This reissue includes a whole mess of extra material (a bonus disc in the cd version, the vinyl inlcudes the bonus material, along with the album proper, as a download), which includes all the various b-sides and extra tracks from various 7"s and cdeps as well as a handful of Jason's demos. And here's where Barlow and company indulged their audio fuckery that figured so prominently on past records, opening with "MOR Backlash", a noisy collage of classic rock and garbled radio transmissions, but in true Sebadoh fashion it leads right into an achingly heartfelt 4 track acoustic version of "Not A Friend", and that's pretty much how the bonus disc plays out, balancing noisy experiments with alternate versions, acoustic home recorded demos, not to mention some unpolished gems, and one of our favorite Sebadoh B-sides, the awesomely titled brooder "Punching Myself In The Face Repeatedly, Publicly".
Includes a massive booklet, with new liner notes from both Jason and Lou, as well as expanded artwork, photos, collages, and some cool early drafts of the iconic over art, featuring a photo of 1 year old naked Lou reaching into the toilet.
Sebadoh's fourth "studio" album, Bubble and Scrape, is oddly overlooked, perhaps because of its explicitly transitional status.�Fans of the band's earlier output tend to gravitate toward the endearingly scattershot scrappiness and excess of III or the lo-fi confessionals of the first two records, while fans of the Bob Fay-era can turn to Bakesale to hear the band at their most polished, streamlined and direct with Lou Barlow's pop songwriting at its most masterful.� Bubble and Scrape falls somewhere in between the two, and what makes it so remarkable is that when you listen to it you can hear all the disparate strains of the band perfectly complementing and foiling each other at every turn.�On this record, moreso than perhaps any other in the band's catalog, Sebadoh really sounds like an actual band on every song rather than a strange vehicle for three songwriters whose styles are so different that it's hard to imagine what interest they actually had in playing with each other.� Honestly, can you think of another band that would follow up "Two Years Two Days" with "Telecosmic Alchemy?"�Can you even think of another band who would make a record with both those songs on it?� We can't either, and that's part of what makes Sebadoh so special to us and Bubble and Scrape such an important part of their catalog.
Barlow's contributions to this record are some of his best work - tuneful, heart-wrenching, sappy, confessional and catchy as all get-go - but the ragged feel that Jason Lowenstein and Eric Gaffney bring to the performances keep them from becoming too saccharine or mechanical (arguably, the downfall of Sebadoh's later output).� Similarly, Gaffney's acid-damaged freak-outs perpetually throw a wrench in the works - just as you're being lulled into thinking that this band is all about sensitive indie croon, out comes "Elixir is Zog."�Bubble And Scrape is also the record where perpetual "third guy in the band," Jason Lowenstein really began to shine as a more than capable songwriter; in fact, "Sixteen," "Happily Divided," and "Sister" are far and away some of the strongest songs on the album.�Rather than coming off as wishy-washy in their unwillingness to as fully commit to a particular and identifiable style as his bandmates, Lowenstein's refusal to be as plaintively emotional as Barlow or as blatantly fucked up as Gaffney allows him to pick and choose elements of both and write some fantastic songs as a result.
While the bonus tracks are a nice edition to this "deluxe" repackaging of the original, the core album still shines as a rough gem from an era where polish was still regarded as something of which to be wary.�Bob Weston's 'production' is as ramshackle as the band itself and complements the record perfectly - all the elements are audible in all their flawed, contradictory glory; thankfully, the remastering retains the spiky imperfections of the original mix.�Domino and Sub Pop have filled out the reissue with 16 additional cuts, most of which are demos of album songs.�"Reject" stands out as a solid b-side, and the home recorded version of "Soul and Fire" is perhaps the most interesting of the demos for the glimpse it gives into the evolution of the song.
We here at aQ love this band, and listening to this reissue over the past few weeks has reminded us just how much we also love this record.�We have no idea why we let it slip into the cracks as the years following its release went by, but we guarantee that it won't happen again!�If you were a fan back in '93, this is as good a time as any to remind yourself why; if you're new to Sebadoh, this record displays everything that made this band so amazing; if you're the rare bird who's kept this record close to his or her heart for all these years, this reissue gives you a healthy dose of demos to keep your interest piqued.�Capricorn rising!� We're going to ride with the Flood tonight!
At this point, it's probably easier to think of the bands you used to love, who have NOT reformed, cuz this really seems like the age of reunions, not that we're complaining... Some of our favorite bands, alive and kicking, touring and making records again! What's not to love? And while everyone was freaking out about the resurrection of Dinosaur Jr, we couldn't help but think, even back when Beyond came out, Dinosaur's first record in a decade at the time, how amazing it would be if Lou Barlow reformed Sebadoh. We never stopped being a little kooky about that band, as much as we loved Dinosaur, Sebadoh always occupied a super special place in our hearts, in fact both reissues of The Freed Man and III we made Records Of The Week here, and heck, we probably should have done the same for Bakesale, so when Sebadoh actually started playing shows, we were giddy, and when this new record was announced, holy crap!
So here it is, the first new record in 14 years, since 1999's The Sebadoh, and we're pleased to report, it really does sort of sound like it could have come out immediately after The Sebadoh, the sound is warm and familiar, jangly and fuzzy, dark and broody at times, goofy and irreverent at others, but Barlow still has a knack for crafting dark, emotional jangle pop, and his partner in crime Jason Lowenstein (aka Jake) continues, we can only assume, to add his own twisted sonic perspective to the proceedings. And like on past records, there are moments of willful sonic spikiness, and some sweetly schmaltzy sad boy loner folk wistfulness, and this time some countryish twang here and there, but most of Defend Yourself, is just crazy catchy, classic sounding indie rock jangle pop that manages to channel the spirit and sound of the nineties, into something that doesn't sound nearly as nostalgic as it could have...
Both the cd and the lp have a swank diecut slipcover-ed packaging (though we are out of the cds at the moment, grrr).
Lots of claims could be made for best indie rock record ever. Pavement's Slanted And Enchanted is an obvious choice. But there are tons of other contenders, records by Dinosaur Jr., Galaxie 500, Seam, Archers Of Loaf, the Pixies, the Breeders, Unrest, Slint, Yo La Tengo, Superchunk...
But what about Sebadoh? Originally Lou Barlow's bedroom side project while he was playing bass in Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh went from soft 4-track sad boy ruminations to full on rambunctious indie rock without losing Barlow's tender hearted, mopey moodiness. This record, III, is where they really clicked. To be totally honest, the first two are our absolute favorites (c'mon, somebody reissue The Freed Weed!!!) but until those are available again, we'll just have to cast our lot with III. Not entirely fair to compare them though. The first two Sebadoh records were just Lou, in his bedroom, singing and strumming, a ramshackle collection of sweet sad songs and freaked out tape experiments, where as by the time of III, Sebadoh was a real rock band, with not just two other band members, but two other songwriters, Eric Gaffney and Jason Lowenstein. Giving Sebadoh a distinctly schizophrenic sound, veering from introspective to noisy and annoying depending on whose song it was. Years before Conor Oberst ascended to the weepy, slouchy indie throne, Sebadoh's Lou Barlow was already the king of the lo-fi tearjerker. He ruled the roost of unabashed romantics in his rumpled threadbare cardigan, spectacles and tousled mop of hair. However, as III proved beyond a doubt, Sebadoh wasn't confined to lovey-dovey bedroom balladry, nope they could tear shit up a-plenty providing both cathartic heartbaring sadsack sweetness and blistering noise rawk for indie kids near and far.
The copious liner notes are a bit confusing though. As far as we were concerned, Sebadoh WAS Lou Barlow, who was later joined by Eric and Jason. But the liner notes, especially Gaffney's, paint a quite different picture. Gaffney goes on and on about how it was basically his band and his songs. But a quick listen to the record (and a look at each member's subsequent sonic track record) reveals the truth, that Lou was still the quiet mastermind. Eric has some killer tracks for sure, and Jason's songs are wild and chaotic (this was before he would grow into a songwriter to rival Lou on later Sebadoh discs) but almost without exception the perfect pop gems here are penned by Lou. Just check out the opener "The Freed Pig", hard to imagine a more perfect indie rock song. Jangly and catchy, a little ramshackle, a teensy bit melancholy, but exuberant and hopeful. With a killer crunchy chorus.
III is peppered with sweet soft acoustic numbers that sound like they were plucked from old Sebadoh cassettes. Each one sad and lovely, perfect mix tape material way back in 1991 (Yeesh, has it really been fifteen years?!), the prototype for EVERY home recorded bedroom record since. Jason contributes some Minutemen sounding instrumental jams ("Sickles & Hammers"), some slow motion druggy stoner jams ("Smoke A Bowl"), a killer twangy acoustic hoedown ("Black Haired Girl") and most of the really esoteric tunes. Eric offers up some lilting minor key jangle ("Violet Execution"), some super fuzzed out jangly tribal psych rock ("Limb By Limb") and the super lengthy bizarre drugged out psych jam "As The World Dies The Eyes Of God Grow Bigger". Between all of these musical flights of fancy, Lou gives us perfect pop song after perfect pop song, whether it's in the form of a whispered mumbly song fragment, or a glorious rocked out jangly jam. Somehow these disparate elements mesh perfectly into a totally rollicking chaotic indie rock masterpiece. A reissue of III on its own would definitely merit record of the week status, but there's a whole extra disc of singles and outtakes that make this absolutely essential.
First up on the extras disc is "Gimme Indie Rock" a tongue in cheek slam on their more popular indie contemporaries, which inadvertently became a hit and somehow sounded like, but better than, all the bands it was poking fun at (check out the very Dinosaur-like leads!) Speaks volumes that a tossed off fuck around track can be this good. Next up is quite possibly the best Sebadoh song ever "Ride The Darker Wave" a loping groove, with a totally catchy guitar part and an instantly unforgettable melody. Heavy and sludgy but perfectly poppy. The rest of the disc is jam packed with outtakes and alternate versions, a whole bunch of Gaffney tracks, as good as anything on the record proper, as well as a few other Lou gems. Also, tacked on at the very end is "Showtape '91" a 12 minute experimental tape piece, the band used to play at shows before they came on stage. It features the band reading various reviews (positive and negative), repeating the various mispronunciations of the band name, all amidst a cacophonous soundscape of tape manipulation and guitar grind. Very annoying but very very funny.
As befits a classic record like III, the packaging and reissue extras are amazing. Besides the wealth of extra and unreleased tracks, there are extensive liner notes from all three band members, tons of photos, and the whole thing is housed in a snazzy slipcase with the band name and album title embossed in metallic gold ink. We feel like we're 21 again!!!
As much as we all love Sebadoh, most of their records predate the aQuarius list, so other than the recent reissue of III, and this one right here, we have never been able to truly sing the praises of one�of our favorite indie rock bands of all time. They were one of the few bands who took indie rock and did whatever the fuck they wanted to with it.�Bakesale, Bubble And Scrape, Smash Your Head On The Punk Rock, Sebadoh Vs. Helmet, all over the map, but all distinctly Sebadoh. Much of it had to do with the genius popsmithery of Lou Barlow, ground zero for lonely sadboy bedroom folk. A one man lo-fi revolution. But much of it had to do with his choice in collaborators. Specifically, Eric Gaffney, Lou's perfect foil, personally, musically, in every way. Where Lou was introverted and shy, Eric was outspoken and spastic. Where Lou penned soft whispery ballads, Gaffney's songs were disjointed angular folk, or blasts of off kilter acoustic weirdness, together, the two forged the perfect balance between romantic longing and snotty punk rock rebellion. Never was this more evident than on their very first record, The Freed Man.�
Back in the nineties, there was a disc called the Freed Weed (you might remember in our review of III, we pleaded for someone to re-release it) which was the cd version of a record called Weed Forestin', a record written and recorded entirely by Lou, jam packed with classic pop, including a handful of tracks that would be reworked later and turned into classic electric Sebadoh numbers. Well, to fill out the cd, they tacked on a handful of tracks from The Freed Man...
The Freed Weed was our introduction to what would become the whole bedroom folk movement. We didn't know what the hell it was, other than it was like nothing we had ever heard, sad and intense, funny and fucked up, super personal and�intimate, with bursts of total what the fuck weirdness scattered throughout and some of the prettiest songs we had ever heard. And we were not looking� for soft folky sadness, we wanted heaviness and noisiness, but these songs were just too good to not fall in love with...�We played the shit�out of the Weed Forestin' side, the prettier Lou songs.
but later, when we had played it to death, we dug deeper into the more difficult songs from the Freed Man, and discovered a whole new world of deliriously damaged fractured folk...
So here we have the Freed Man in its entirety. With tons of extra songs, alternate versions, all culled from the original recordings... and it's just as amazing, as far out, as sweetly sorrowful as we remember.�
The�Freed Man was the 'first' actual Sebadoh release, originally released in 1989, and in the early days, sold for 99 cents in local record stores. It was split pretty evenly between Lou's soft bedroom folk, and Eric's damaged whatthefuck lo-fi freakouts� and raggedy strum and croon, with tons of random shit mixed in, radio soundbites, old records, primitive tape recorder experiments, all sorts of weird found sounds scattered throughout.
The sound now is quite familiar, every kid with an old beat up guitar and a 4 track has taken a stab at the whole lone bedroom troubadour thing, but at the time, this was seriously mindblowing,�murky hiss drenched acoustic guitar, gorgeously melancholy, with Lou's sadboy vocals, and lilting melodies, heartfelt, yet slightly tweaked lyrics, bursts of staticky chaos, cool weird tape loops... and the thing is, even after a million imitators, this STILL sounds special and fresh, and yeah, mind blowing. So much so that it's hard to pick out particular songs, the whole thing is so perfectly realized, it's almost like some insane lo-fi, bedroom folk DJ mix, the songs all flow into each other, stumbling over one another, woven together with random sound effects or manipulated tapes... Single songs don't get stuck in your head as much as whole suites, chunks of distinctly different songs that are so inexorably linked, they almost sound like multi part mini epics.
Some of our favorite tracks though:�the all time classic emo indie boy anthem "Soulmate", with the legendary line "I'll probably have to have sex with a lot of girls before my soulmate reveals herself to me..." and a chorus to die for,�Gaffney doing his best Barlow�on "Level Anything", still sad and folky, but with way more buzz and off kilter melody, the�super distorted hiss drenched beauty that is Barlow's "Close Enough", Lou's�"True Hardcore"� with the spoken intro "this is a complete rip off of every other song i've ever done" which launches into a song that is anything but hardcore, instead a gorgeous slab of lush heavily strummed sadboy folk with a KILLER hook / chorus,�"Wrists" another gorgeous off kilter folk dirge from Eric, minor key and rife with lush guitars and killer melodies,�"Bolder" which hints at the pop genius that Barlow would blossom into, it's easy to imagine this track fully electrified and super rocking on some later Sebadoh record,�"Jealous Evil", yet another classic Barlow track, moody and miserable, with brooding guitars, and subtle but moving melodies, and some gorgeous vocal melodies,�same with "Pig" slow burning and melancholy,�"Punch In The Nose",�and an old track with Lou's sister accompanying him on trumpet, and the record finishes�off with a Doc Watson cover that ends up sounding like the Frogs which is a very good thing. It's a mess and a jumble, but it's just so goddamn immediate and personal, weird and wonderful.�Eric's songs sound like Lou's only doused in acid and pot and slightly -more- out of tune�but they are the perfect balance for Lou's earnestness...
The Freed Man is in no way perfect, there are plenty of tracks that are noisy or fucked up and here and there plain embarrassing, but those only add to the record's charm, and tend to never last more than a minute. There's the super noisy cover of "Yellow Submarine" and the�super embarrassing "Lou Rap" complete with goofy childhood recordings, both of which we used to skip, but now, are too much a part of the whole to not enjoy as part of the bigger Sebadoh picture.�
There are of course tons of extras, some awesome rarities, redone tracks from the Freed Weed, unreleased songs, tracks from the amazing and long out of print Magic Ribbons 7" boxset and a handful of splits and singles, includes liner notes by both Eric and Lou, each offering their own take on the early years of the band,�with lots of artwork from the original cassette and the Freed Weed cd.
Like the recent reissue of Sebadoh III, The Freed Man is gorgeously packaged, with a huge booklet, tons of art, all housed in a swank slipcase, with the original cover reproduced, but with all the text in metallic silver...
Dark Entries made their debut as a label several months ago with the awesome reissue of the Eleven Pond LP and with that single release we knew we were witnessing the birth of a an awesome reissue label, one with its heart set on finding obscure synth-pop and darkwave and and shining the spotlight on records that never got the love, attention or distribution they deserved the first time around.
Second Decay were a German electronic-pop group who formed in the late 1980's dedicated to the sound of analog synthisizers, the album's back cover proudly remarks 'This album was produced without MIDI. It is dedicated to our beloved synthesizers.' And there is no doubt these guys had deep love for the sounds of synthesizers as they used them to craft very infectious, dark new wave with full on pop chops. While there have been tons of reissues and attention paid to the amazing music that was made in Germany in the 70's it's really cool to see someone digging up some of the gold in a post-Kraftwerk Germany as Second Decay have a sound that brings Neue Deutsche Welle to mind (e.g. Grauzone, Liaisons Dangereuses, etc.) and the more dark tinged blasts of electro-pop that folks like Depeche Mode and The Human League were making on their early records, or even early 80's Cabaret Voilatire, and of course you can tell they were WAY influenced by the mighty Kraftwerk. We also hear a cool similarity to the recently reissued Patrick Cowley & Jorge Socarras record Catholic, which kind of makes perfect sense as the man behind Dark Entries was instrumental in saving and preserving the cache of Cowley tapes from which that record was culled.
With new bands like Cold Cave and Xeno & Oaklander grabbing our attention lately with their awesome updated version of that classic vintage synthwave sound, it's pretty rad and perfect timing to hear a lost classic from folks who were making that sound almost twenty years ago. Limited to just 500 copies all screen printed and with an amazing remastered sound thanks to the work of the legendary George Horn at Fantasy Studios. This will make you want to wear all black and dance all night. Minimal wave/gothpop at its best!
Dark Entries has done the post-punk lovin' world a huge favor in reissuing this dark wave gem from 1981. Second Layer was a side project of Adrian Borland and Graham Bailey of British post-punk group The Sound, that focused on a more detatched mechanized aesthetic driven by guitars synths and drum machines. Not too far from their main band's initial bleak anger at an increasingly militarized and dehumanized society, Second Layer seemed to be a better outlet for their darker (and starker) themes. World Of Rubber was their only full length, originally released on Cherry Red records, but this reissue is bolstered by the inclusion of their first two eps, State Of Emergency and Flesh As Property from 1979 and 1980, as well as demos from a self-titled compilation released in 1987, making this reissue a complete anthology of the project's output, and a revelation for listeners more familiar with The Sound. Essential!!!
Everything we've heard from Secret Abuse, aka one man noise making machine Jeffrey Witscher, has been pretty harsh, heavy, noisy, brutal. A certain element of washed out drone, but for the most part, some serious speaker destroying chaos.
But on this latest lp, The Immeasurable Gift, Witscher expands his palette, keeping much of the grit and brutality intact, but wrapping it around warm glowing orbs of glistening melodic shimmer, and long drawn out streaks of kaleidoscopic blur. Anyone into Tim Hecker and Nadja and Fennesz and all those other musical obfuscationists, will definitely dig this big time.
The A side is a three part epic, made up of warm swirling swells, pulsing beneath a gauzy layer of crunch and hiss and whir, everything noisy and melodic, the tracks constantly teetering between the two, the end result is a totally fantastical sun dappled soft focus noisescape, light on the noise, and heavy on the warm warped shimmer. Beneath the constantly churning layers of grit and grim and crumbling buzz, a soaring epic, throbs and glows, brooding, slow building, languorous and lustrous, visible only as streaks and fragments visible through the whirling sonic clouds all around it.
The flipside is a bit more caustic, the melodies buried WAY further down, the main element a stuttery, skittery looped crunch, like someone playing a helicopter rotor, a whirring, flickering low end that creates deep slow burning melodies and barely discernible rhythmic pulses. The sounds build to a full on rrrrooooaaar before settling back down, the noise element gradually blunted and muted, revealing tantalizing glimpses of what lurks beneath the surface, some gorgeous gauzy mysterious soundworld, intercepted radio broadcasts, lilting melodies, pop song fragments, all drifting in the shadows, but it's only moments before the noise erupts once more and swallows it whole. So good.
LIMITED TO 425 COPIES, housed in super fancy full color jackets, with a Xeroxed insert.
Of all the post-Mr. Bungle bands featuring its members, the instrumental Secret Chiefs 3 are carrying the torch for what I most enjoyed about Bungle -- their intense love for all kinds of music, and the irrepressible, joyful schizophrenia that results. Like
Secret Chiefs'd like to be as weird and esoteric as the SCGs, and try really hard in the purposefully obtuse liner notes, but let's face it, as great as the Secret Chiefs are, they don't possess the singular sound, feeling and mystery of the Sun City Girls -- instead they're successfully mixing up all those world music influences, Bungle, and the Boredoms.
The band is primarily Mr Bungle alumni Trey Spruance & drummer Danny Heifetz, and along with frequent Sonic Youth collaborator / percussionist William Winant, brilliant violinist Eyvind Kang (a frequent SCGs collaborator, hey) is all over this record. The instrumentation is as wide-ranging as to include dumbek, zils, contrabass, sax, electric sitar, organ, and something called a santur.
A quite satisfying, surprisingly consistent, well-executed album!
The Book Of Horizons is another sonic tome scribed by these occult chieftans, destined for the same library as outre literary works like the Principia Discordia and the sanity-blasting Necronomicon of the Mad Arab Abdul Alhazred. (This just goes in the audio section of said library.) To the uninitiated, we should explain that Secret Chiefs 3 is the arcane alter ego of Mr. Bungle's Trey Spruance and others from the same axis of absurdity. Almost all instrumental, imagine some sort of technically insane Middle Eastern surf music, a collision between the Sun City Girls and Fantomas, or a John Zorn-scored soundtrack to some desert epic. Italian horror film music, black metal, and even turntables all enter the mix. In the liner notes, Trey finds it necessary to state: "What you hear is music, not samples"! As always, impressive and inscrutable, even if the mood is occasionally broken by the more incongrous elements. Fans can spend their time listening to this, also attempting to decipher the meaning of the SC3's cryptic Kabbalistic computer graphics and song titles. A five star sequel to the band's previous opus Book M.
A few weeks back, we were lucky enough to see the mighty Goblin playing live in SF. And of course, they were incredible, goofy and personable, the music mesmerizing, often accompanied by clips from the classic Argento films their songs originally accompanied (Susperia, Profondo Rosso, etc.). But the biggest surprise of the night, for some of us at least, were opening act Secret Chiefs 3, who were mind blowing. Playing a set that seemed perfectly designed for a Goblin opening slot, they were a whirling sonic dervish of genre hopping intensity, kicking out a killer Morricone cover, not to mention, maybe the best version of John Carpenter's "Halloween" we'd ever heard (a version of which is included here!). In between, their originals were dense, and intense, furious and exotic, equal parts classic Klezmer, modern film music, old soundtracks and of course a little math metal. To be honest, were were always a little put off by the Secret Chiefs, due in no small part to their Mr. Bungle roots. And yeah, we know Mr. Bungle seem to inspire slavish devotion, even all these years later, they were often a bit too purposefully goofy, the Zappa vibe often overwhelming for some of us. And the Secret Chiefs stuff we'd heard was cool, and definitely didn't display the same sort of willful wackiness, but thanks to this recent performance, we're newly obsessed, just in time for a new record, which is fantastic, and for fans of past records, essentially offers up more of the same, sweeping, soundtracky epic-ness, brooding exotica, modern avant jazz, plenty of klezmer influences, and all manner of Eastern musics, too, not to mention some metallic crunch, and for a few folks, their trip may still be a bit too over the top, the record not so much like an album proper, but a Naked City style collection of band member musical obsessions. With one track straight up horn laden cinematic majesty, the next like some long lost Beach Boys studio outtake, the next sounding weirdly like Jellyfish, the next like the score to some seventies Italian art flick, the next like some synth laden slab of modern krautrock. There's even a cover of our favorite Jacques Brel track (most famously covered by Scott Walker)... And all of it incredible, with some of THEE best playing you'll ever hear. And for all our past reservations, we've come around, and have been spinning this constantly, as well as the old records, that sound as good as ever through fresh ears. WAY recommended.
And by the way, who was the Chiefs' drummer at the Goblin show? The whole band was fantastic, but the drummer in particular was mindblowing, long hair flailing, clad in the Secret Chiefs white monk's robe, arms an octopoidal blur, adding some serious, near metallic heft to the set, and delivering what has to be one of the best performances we've seen in AGES...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Mr. Bungle Fan Alert!! Here's a live recording of this brilliant Bungle side-project, released on guitarist Trey Spruance's new label (and only available via mailorder from their Web of Mimicry website, except that we, being fans of all things Bungle, have it too). Recorded at Slim's, San Francisco by Billy Anderson. Also of note: this features the violin of Eyvind Kang, and a song by Ananda Shankar. Packaged in a cardboard sleeve as part of Web of Mimicry's "nice price" effort I guess.
Finally a reissue of the Secret Chiefs (Mr Bungle side project sans Mike Patton) too-long-out-of-print first album! Like a screwy world music, surf band version of Naked City. Contains bonus tracks not on the original version.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
The Mr. Bungle guys, minus Mike Patton, are back with their second album as the Secret Chiefs 3. Guests include Eyvind Kang and Willie Winant. Weird stuff as you would expect, sorta like avant-garde surf music.
And the long-awaited reissue of the second cd by members of Mr Bungle (no Mike Patton here, sorry.) Sort of a screwy world music, surf band version of Naked City. Contains bonus tracks not on the original version.
Monumental. Majestic. Mystical. No, we aren't just launching hyperbole with reckless abandon. Those words really are the norm when describing this elusive, amorphous group. Secret Chiefs 3 are an entity whose works may be 'read' on many levels. The music may be enjoyed by those who adhere to the traditional pop/rock band book of rules... well, to some degree at least. Some may find it downright bizarre and impervious. Daunting, overwhelming even, each album is simply more than can possibly be comprehended in a couple of listens. Such is the case with their latest album Path Of Most Resistance. They refer to it as "an overview of the clandestine movements of this enigmatic group from the USA." In layman's terms it's a compilation of recordings from their four studio releases (Eyes Of Flesh, Eyes Of Flame, Second Grand Constitution And Bylaws, Book M, and Book Of Horizons) which also includes bonus tracks and videos. The eclectic elements of haunting exotica, fiery metal, frantic spaghetti westerns and other far-reaching international inspirations may ring engagingly familiar to the average listener, but master of ceremonies Trey Spruance's musical alchemy is detailed with the most intricately encrypted inscriptions that resonate with deeper, more timeless invocations. if you are an individual so inclined to delve beyond the shimmering surface in pursuit of secret teachings and esoteric knowledge you'll discover SC3 unfolds to reveal many hidden passages and levels of understanding. Interpret it how you will, we're sure each individual will draw radically differing perspectives -- a genuine case of 'what you bring to it will determine what you draw from it'. As with each SC3 album that's come before, the scope of Path Of Most Resistance is vast -- at once both easy and uneasy listening. Spruance is unquestionably one of today's great composers. His compositions are stunningly elaborate and performed with absolute mastery and conviction by his many illustrious collaborators (William Winant, Eyvind Kang, Jesse Quattro, Ches Smith, Tim Smolens, former Mr. Bungle-ists Bar McKinnon, Trevor Dunn and Danny Heifitz among others).
The bonus tracks (covers of "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus", "Good Vibrations" and "Heroes And Villains") are strange to say the least. They come across as cracked'n'wonky, less than tight renditions in comparison to the precision, densely packed, composed madness that precedes them. Leaves you wondering if they are simply a chuckle or yet another clue to the SC3 puzzle... or both. Epic.
Let's state right from the outset that Trey Spruance's musical entity known as Secret Chiefs 3 is simply impossible to nail down and describe. Words really do not do SC3 justice, especially in the case of their latest work -- sprawling in scope, intricate in detail and majestically presented -- but we will make a valiant attempt here. Indeed, adjectives such as magical, mysterious and mind-blowing do apply, however they barely scratch the surface. We'd say 'spectacular' but the folks at Tzadik already beat us to the punch by using it on the cd's obi blurb. On Xaphan they've joined forces with their comrade John Zorn, performing eleven passages from his epic work, Masada Book Two. The eleven players embrace, attack, caress and devour the compositions with an otherworldly zeal. They come together as a single inimitable force, at once seeming absolutely unhinged and utterly in control. The threads of the SC3 aural tapestries are always densely knotted and woven with ace musicianship and from a myriad of disparate styles and inspirations delving into spy thriller soundtracks, exotica, metal, surf, esoteric knowledge and so much more. So it is on Xaphan, and the formidable outcomes may seem impervious to some and electrifyingly listenable to others. Breathtaking.
This is the first release on Casual Acid Tea, a new label run by Matthew Clark, the drummer for Premonition 13 (Wino from St Vitus and the Obsessed's new band), and this strangely titled record finds Clark teaming up with Colin Langenus of USAisamonster, which already seems like a strange combination, but when you realize that this group was created to cover tracks from those great Secret Museum Of Mankind compilations of historic early ethnographic field recordings, it somehow seems even stranger.
But once you get an earful, it stops sounding so strange after all. In the tradition of groups like the Sun City Girls, this Secret Museum Of Kind Men tackles two tracks, one from Greece and one from Japan, and channels the spirit of the original, while imbuing it with all the modern musical history that informs their playing, and the results are pretty fantastic.
The A side is a version of "Kaike Ena Sholio" by A. Kostis, and is a gorgeous, slithery slab of buzzing minor key gypsy folk, the spidery guitars matched perfectly by wordless female vox, the drums driving and propulsive, those guitars splintering into slashes of psychedelic skree, and near the end, dense clouds of tangled freakout, the track droney and heavy and hypnotic, and it ends way too soon after just over three minutes. Not hard to imagine it sprawling into a heady expanse of droned out psychedelic raga.
The B side is a reinterpretation of "Ise-No-Umi" by the Imperial Household Orchestra, and is much more restrained than the A side, crooned vocals over fast picked raga like guitar buzz, a simple skeletal rhythm, and then about a minute in, the songs blossoms into something a bit more epic, the drums more driving, the guitars soaring, the vocals soaring alongside, slowly building to a final squall of dirgey pound and psychedelic swirl.
So awesome. Way recommended for fans of Sun City Girls, Siamese Temple Ball, Neung Phak, Dengue Fever, Sublime Frequencies and of course all the Secret Museum Of Mankind collections.
This is the second in the Secret Museum Of Kind Men series, in which a modern band reinterprets songs from those classic Secret Museum Of Mankind compilations of early ethnographic field recordings. Released on a label run by the drummer of Premonition 13 (Wino from St. Vitus and the Obsessed's new band!), it's hard to tell if this second single is by a whole different band, it's credited to an outfit called Ramble Tamble, and does have a bit of a different vibe, but for all we know, it's the same guys just trying something different. Either way, if you loved the first one, you're gonna dig this too, and if you missed out on that one, don't blow it again, cuz this stuff is incredible. Fans of Six Organs and the Sun City Girls' Torch Of the Mystics record, this is right up your alley.
The A side is a woozy prog workout, all slithery synths and soaring strings and shuffling percussion, equal parts gypsy folk, weird synth prog and tripped out heavy psych. Exotic and mesmerizing, it's a hypnotic heady sonic sprawl culminating in a final wild freakout of tangled melodies and warped progged out bluegrass breakdown. The B side is super groove and almost Klezmer sounding, with FX drenched piano, sawed Devil-Went-Down-To-Georgia fiddles and clouds of swirling shimmer, the bluegrass vibe is still pretty present, in fact, it sounds a bit like bluegrass traditionalist Black Twig Pickers after they dosed on a particularly virulent strain of L.S.D.
Like the first volume, WAY recommended. Comes in a super swank, silkscreened metallic blue inked sleeve, with a photocopied insert.
One of our favorite pastimes here at aQ is stumbling across those uncovered gems that may have otherwise remained hidden in internet obscurity. Vancouver, Canada's Secret Pyramid is the perfect example of one of these hidden gems, a humbly packaged cd-r that turned out to blow our freakin' minds. Apparently this guy is one half of Solars, another killer Vancouver psychedelic drone outfit whose tapes have sold-out of here like hotcakes. Picture those same smeared melodies washed away in fuzz, growing drones giving way to sedated vocal murmurs, strummed acoustic guitar embellished with cosmic layers of shimmering delay, all meticulously composed into something that resembles Flying Saucer Attack collaborating with Andrew Chalk.�
"Ghosts of the Sun / Oceans" opens with swirling washes of gently strummed acoustic guitar, layers of howling feedback and cosmic buzz weave themselves in and out of muffled vocal reflections, soft whispers in the dead of night that give way to deep buzzing dark ambiance. Creepy drones hover above the cavern floors like grey mist, distant feedback swells echoing like flutes or distant birds, all building up to a gorgeous fuzz drenched climax that unfolds like a warm jet stream arching across a dim coastal horizon. "Milk & Honey" begins with a deep, dooooomy wash that builds into an entrancing buzz, creepy and hushed FSA style vocals lurch in again, this time reminding us of a contemplative, more droney Suicide. Finally "Permanence" calmly lifts off with a beautifully whirling sound wall, something similar to the cryptic tones of Kevin Drumm's Imperial Horizon, but Secret Pyramid come off as less industrial, and offers up something more mystical, serene and ephemeral. Needless to say, we were really impressed by this debut release and can not recommend it more. "Ghosts" is criminally limited to an edition of 50, so act fast if you'd like to get your hands on one of these hand-assembled cd-r gems!�
Secret Synthi are a trio of lo-fi synth'n'guitar pop gals from San Francisco named after an ultra rare, ultra cool synthesizer from the '70s - the Synthi AKS which came contained in its own briefcase-like carrying case. You might recognize its brethren's distinct sounds from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop or the band Yes (who purchased one of the Synthi prototypes back in the day). Anyways gear talk aside, this trio's music is super light and playful. Honey pie girl gang vocals with ample amounts of sass. Kicky, primitive rhythms. A party of keyboards, organs, electric guitar, effects pedals and vintage synths (accompanying the Synthi are a Moog Prodigy, a Sequential Circuits Multi-Trak, the amazing stylophone and of course the ever-present Roland Juno-60). Actually, I was just thinkin' that a picture perfect live extravaganza would be them along with Le Tigre, fellow SF duo the Capricorns and boyish counterparts Postal Service. An engaging album with a lot of fun song titles too... "Alright Mitten Fight"!
MPEG Download: "Kitty Fang" [/audio/secretsyntikitty.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Kitty Fang" [/audio/secretsyntikitty.m3u]
We've dug Germany's Secrets Of The Moon for ages now, but somehow haven't ever reviewed any of their records. Privilegium will right that wrong, and will hopefully have everybody going back and digging up all their other records, cuz these guys slay. Even more now that they've added dreamboat female bass player LSK from Antaeus, oh and the drummer also plays in Antaeus, so you can bet there's a pretty serious French BM vibe going on here, which can only be a good thing. Majestic, sometimes almost elegant in the delivery, but of course, grim and evil at the same time. And like Antaeus, and much of the French scene, Secrets Of The Moon give off an almost industrial vibe at times. The drums are super heavy with a militaristic feeling, the guitars squiggle and screech out all kinds of sour, evil sounding riffs, and the vocals are a steady tortured rasp. Structurally, things are complex and at times a bit proggy, a blackened tangled web of metallic grandeur. There's all kinds of windy atmosphere also, and the interesting choice of cover art - an, um, black apple - gives Privilegium a cool negated religious feeling. What's not to love?
Beautiful packaging on this one, with the aforementioned apple presented on a super glossy digipack with a giant matte bite munched out. Tasty.
Of all of the Factory Records gloom merchants, Section 25 has never really garnered much critical success, yet they won over enough allies (notably Joy Division's Ian Curtis and Bernard Sumner) that they were able to last as a self-sustaining project well into the late-80s when they called it quits. Formed in Blackpool by brothers Larry and Vincent Cassidy in 1979, Section 25 was marked by skeletal instrumentation with various emotive patinas that began as post-punk grimness and steadily lightened to a glowing prototype of acid-house (complete with 303 percolations!). "Always Now" -- the group's debut recording released on Factory in 1981 -- falls under the latter camp of lead-colored, death-disco grooves propelled by a spry, if monochromatic rhythm section and jagged swatches of guitar drone. While many of the Factory bands (Crispy Ambulance, Names, Tunnelvision, The Wake, etc.) had been slagged as Joy Division clones, Section 25 admitted their allegiance to Public Image Limited's zenith, "Metal Box" (aka "Second Edition"), even though much of the material from their first EPs were recorded months before Lydon and crew went into the studio. The differences between PiL and SXXV (a nifty shorthand mentioned in their biography by James Nice) are of course noticeable; with Lydon still striving for Situationist revolt through great art and the Cassidy brothers attempting to emote the bleakness of Northern England by hollowing sound as a illusory shadow of music. In essence, Section 25's "Always Now" was an isolationist model for living. It was effective in its bleakness and brilliant in its poetry.
While the Soul Jazz compilation "In The Beginning, There Was Rhythm" offered a solid introduction into the groove-oriented punk of the late '70s / early '80s, its flaws were in its omissions. Fortunately, LTM has kept "Always Now" in print on CD (with tons of extra singles including the Ian Curtis-produced 'Girls Don't Count'), so history may in fact be kind to a band that deserved much better.
To mention the terms "new wave" and "80s electro" these days will undoubtedly prompt images of Fisherspooner, Adult., The Faint, I Am Spoonbender and other bands with a flashy sense of style, undercurrents of anxiety, and an effectively punishing use of roboto-rhythms. Yet, these bands have fixated upon a specific strain of retro-garde historicism, which has the unintended result of disregarding other variations of what "new wave" and "80s electro" meant back in the day. Contrary to the impression that the electronic aftermath of punk was always abrasive, intense, and angular, there were dozens of bands which softened their once bleak image (perhaps due to commercial pressure or shifting artistic temperament). One such band was Section 25, whose preceeding albums "Always Now" and "The Key of Dreams" had been spartan productions of death disco born out of urban blight. "From The Hip" -- the band's third album -- was a considerable departure towards more commercial waters with fluffy if slightly moody synth driven pop matched by proto-twee male / female vocals. It may have been the band's biggest commercial success but clearly wasn't as adventurous as their earlier records. Rather this is more on par the idea of "new wave" and "80s electro" that would draw comparisons to Human League, Thompson Twins, Bronski Beat, and Erasure.
