It's been a while since we last heard from this fine gent! We actually used to see Mr. Singer on a daily basis when he'd keep us not only musically satiated with his (sadly now defunct) indie label Tell-All Records, but also deliciously caffeinated across the street (fyi, he's a maestro at mocha making!). He moved eastward to Brooklyn a few years ago, and the last release from him was his second album, 2006's Our Secret Lies Beneath The Creek. Well, about a year or so ago we caught wind that he had a new album in the works, and it was destined to be released on the Australian indie label Hidden Shoal no less, home to a couple of other faves of ours, SF's Wes Willenbring and Germany's Sankt Otten. We were positively giddy about this good news. Needless to say, we've been eagerly awaiting its arrival, and we are happy to report that it certainly doesn't disappoint.
Carrying on from and expanding upon his richly poetic sophomore beauty, Dislocatia features gorgeous piano and string performances, and full choral arrangements. Indeed, this is quite the elaborate vocal affair, once again he counterbalances his own downy dreamy vocals with feathery soaring female ones courtesy of Wendy Allan of Boxharp. While it certainly makes for a distinct element and a defining characteristic to his music, we'll be honest, we occasionally found the high operatics to be somewhat distracting as we were sinking into each song, but please don't let that dissuade you from checking it out though because this truly is lovely. Might be exactly your cup of tea! It's an elegant coming together of contemporary classical chamber music and folk pop, both flowing and nimble, which will easily charm fans of artists such as Elliott Smith, Sufjan Stevens or The Dodos who might be seeking something perhaps a little more challenging. Really, if Singer were to be creating music in just one of the two styles, we'd be plenty impressed and delighted, but his effortless integration of the two seals the deal! Particular standout tracks include the gorgeous wistful "The Brief Encounter" and "Bellingham, WA And The Four Green Doors Beyond" as well as the comparatively fervent "Morton Feldman Holding Notes For Eternity" which definitely gives a witty nod to 20th century avant garde composers, but also brings to mind the tongue-in-cheek eccentric camp of no holds barred pop extravaganza-ists such as Sparks. Recommended.
The Empty Heart Of The Chameleon is the debut from Liam Singer. His soft, faint vocals have already drawn comparisons by a few AQ customers to Elliott Smith, but his solo piano and theremin that take turns accompanying his voice create altogether different lonely moods and solitary atmospheres. As well, on occasion, Singer's voice is contrasted with more classically trained sounding female vocals that climb to dramatic, operatic heights. Everything is ultra hushed and delicate, brittle around the edges, in danger of vanishing or being crushed under the emotions they bear. Much like autumn leaves that fall slowly one by one, this music is spartan and contemplative, allowing an achingly sensitive vocal phrase or simple note sequence to linger in the air. Starkly beautiful.
Charles Kin's (Pinetop Seven/Boxhead Ensemble) instrumental project, featuring Ken Vandermark as well as members of Wilco, Handsome Family, Vandermark 5, Isotope 217 and the Chicago Underground. The sound is gorgeously lush and cinematic, falling somewhere between the Pinetop Seven, Calexico and the Coctails with lots of lonely strum, deserty twang, jazzy skiffle, melancholy melodies, thrumming upright bass, chiming vibes, muted late night horns and a mysteriously noir ambience. Really nice.
Italian abstract analog glitch-rockers Starfuckers have been a long-time AQ fave. There's just nobody else quite like 'em. As their music has become ever more fractured and dissonant and dissolved in time, so too with the band itself it seemed...at least, we hadn't heard anything from the Starfuckers camp for ages.
But then we heard they'd changed their name to Sinistri, the title of the Starfuckers first cd in 1994. And now the Swedish label Hapna, whom we always look to for interesting music, have, much to our excitement, released Free Pulse, the debut Sinistri album (but also kind of the sixth-or-so Starfuckers release). On Free Pulse, Sinistri are a quartet, consisting of long-time core Starfuckers members Manuele Giannini (guitar, amps, echoplex, wah, speaker, computer), Alessandro Bocci (computer, sampler, mixer, synth, turntables) and Roberto Bertacchini (drums), plus newcomer Dino Bramanti (real-time processing/live mixing, sampling, MaxMSP code).
And it seems that these fellows are up to their old tricks here, proving their motto that "music is a pollution of time". If you've heard the Starfuckers last album Infinitive Sessions from 2002, you'll have an idea of what to expect here -- they're still in their newfound "funk" bag. (Song titles indictate this is intentional, from to "Pre-verb Fried Funk" to "Black Vamp #1"). Not that this sounds very funky, far from it, though you can kinda hear it in their chicken-scratch guitar "licks". And if the song titles are clues to their sound, then try these: "Deep Squeak" and "Red Angular Feelin'".
Sinistri play what they call "nonmetric music", but that doesn't begin to describe it. It's mostly-instrumental "rock" music, broken down into the merest tics and pulsations of sound, brief drum hits and stabs of guitar littering Sinistri's quiet soundscape, stark and sparse, interspersed with shortwave-sounding static. Noises that most bands use ProTools to *remove* are the building blocks of the Sinistri sound...there's nothing else here. What vocals there are never rise above a whisper (a sinister one that that), melody is almost nowhere to be found, and rhythmically this is impossible to pin down. Forget "post-rock", this is post-post-rock at least. Maybe we could compare 'em to Radian, or US Maple, maybe...taken to a further extreme. Microscopic sounds being played freely. Different from most musics, and to at least some of us here, endlessly enjoyable.
If this is the first time you've ever heard Starfuckers / Sinistri, you may be bewildered. Give it a chance...you'll either not get it (that's fine)...or you might love it. Like this disc's pen-and-ink cover art drawings, Sinistri are intentionally cryptic. "Getting it" is thus optional, but pretty cool if you do, we think.
We've been huge fans of the Italian avant free glitch prog abstract whatthefuck outfit the Starfuckers forever, so when the band quietly morphed into Sinistri (the title of one of their best records) we were most definitely intrigued. Their debut record on Hapna reviewed here about a year ago, found the ex-Starfuckers getting even more out there, even more damaged, and unfortunately for us being faced with reviewing the record, even harder to describe. This new cd-r features the band expanded to a sextet, jamming wild and free last summer. Wild might be a bit strong as Sinistri traffic more in musical whispers than shouts, but it couldn't get more free. The instrumentation goes a long way to explaining Sinistri's sound: guitar, amp, wah left channel, amp right channel, drumkit, real time basses, pulses, MaxMSPcode, mixer, synth cd-j, contact mic, effects and am/fm tuner. Lots of parts, but assembled quite economically. The final product is a completely abstract assemblage of guitar skronk, percussive skitter, instrumental scrape and slither, short bursts of white noise, drones and ambient fuzz, very textural and very spacious. Imagine a free jazz record as a huge complex pile of buliding blocks. Then knock it over, dump all the blocks in a big pile and remove about 50 percent of the pieces and then try to reassemble them into the exact same complex structure. You end up with a similarly expansive and ambitious structure, but one with huge gaps and spaces, turning what might have been a dense slab of free jazz, or free rock, or free funk, into a splattery scuttling minimal beast. Occasionally the guitar get almost heavy unfurling some convoluted psych riffage, and the bass does dabble in funkiness, but it's a bizarre alien funk that bears little or no relation to any earthbound funk.
Sinistri are definitely a difficult listen, truly perplexing, baffling and confusional, but their peculiar sound manages to be as mysterious and beautiful as it is abstruse.
Packaged in gorgeous hand assembled card stock covers with pasted on black and grey obi. Limited to 200 copies, each one hand stamped. We only got about 30 or so, and we're pretty sure once these are gone we won't be able to get more.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Swiss trio's fourth album delves into Sigur Ros melencholic atmospheres with synthetic repetitions of The Field.
From the dirty dirty dirty pun for a band name to the pornographic artwork on the vinyl (or the junkie grime on the CD), the Los Angeles instrumental glam-rock band Sinnerjizm is downright trashy; and that's the way they want it to be. A couple of the guys in Sinnerjizm also hail from the showboating '70s anthem rockers Jet Fuel, who've definitely got enough chops to venture into instrumental territory. Sinnerjizm sites Jesus Christ Super Star, Black Sabbath, Morricone, and the Butthole Surfers as their inspiration in making Inject Them With Rabies; and yeah, that's a pretty solid summation of their musical references. Obviously attuned to the folly of many an instrumental pop ensemble, Sinnerjizm is quick to make unexpected detours with some wah-wah porno funk here, a schmaltzy fun-in-the-sun groove there, and plenty of media samples which were rumored to be culled by Don Bolles of Germs / 45 Grave fame; but the band is best when transforming the 3 minute pop song into a kaleidoscopic marvel of sweet Hammond organ leads, immediately catchy Alice Cooper meets Link Wray riffs, and sweaty backbeats. Nicely done, boys.
Not much to go on here other than a title scrawled in shaky pen as the artwork for this tour-only mixtape from Siobhan - the grimy techno-savant from Detroit. His studio work on Chondritic and Opal Tapes have mined the motor-city futurism that brought forth so many great producers of techno from that city; but he's also got ample chops with low-rent guttural noise. There's probably some cuts that from his other tapes on Nostivelo that are making their way onto this weird mix that features a chopped and screwed version of "Mystere Dans Le Brouillard" by Liaisons Dangereuse followed by some equally murky Houston sizzurp laden production. These are just two of the few things we could recognize in this post-Cabs, post-Aphex, post-witchhouse, post-everything confabulation of dark rhythms and smoldering noise. Very limited stock with an unlikely possibility of us getting any more copies.
Get out your crystals and light a candle... folkstress Mariee Sioux has a new release, this time on Brooklyn label Whale Watch Records. Like the more haunted folk artist Marissa Nadler, Sioux probably isn't any stranger to ghosts - though hers are the Yoni-power kind that embody the spirits of our ancestral mothers and give us strength in the face of adversity. Case in point would be the album's second track, "Ghosts in My Heart". The other seven songs on the album feature the same stirring and dreamy qualities as on her last release, 2007's Faces in the Rocks, that garnered her comparisons to the pantheon of British psych folk artists, including Vashti Bunyan. It's clear Sioux is trying to connect to something spiritual within nature - with lyrics picked up in the woods and along the streams of her Nevada City, California hometown, in the Sierra Nevada foothills, from where Joanna Newsom and Alela Diane also hail. "You taught the stones to talk," she sings in her feather-light voice on "Old Magic." There is just the right amount of arrangement to accompany Sioux's finger-picking, with gentle flourishes of piano, lap steel, cello, and flute. Also worth noting, her father, of Polish and Hungarian heritage, Gary Sobonya, plays mandolin on the recording. Nevada City is the new Laurel Canyon!
A self-explanatory collection that recounts the twenty year history of Steve Severin, Budgie and the ice queen herself, Siouxsie Sioux. All of the favorites are here, spanning from the incisive post-punk of tracks like "Arabian Knights" and "Happy House" to the glamorous Euro-club favorites like "Kiss Them For Me" (which I never realized was based on the breakbeat from Schooly D's "Saturday Night") and "Peek-A-Boo." Disc two will be of added interest to Siouxsie's collectors, as that disc featured a number of the hard-to-find extended mixes and remixes of their singles.
Although the centerpiece of this new Siouxsie & The Banshees dvd is the composite live concert footage from two nights at the Royal Albert Hall back in 1983, arguably the best parts are in the extras. The band's self-produced 'tv show' with performances by The Banshees, The Creatures and The Glove is a delight -- particularly the individual Banshee's distinct segments in which Siouxsie, Budgie, Steve Severin and Robert Smith each recite a spoken word piece in his/her chosen setting -- and the Old Grey Whistle Test tv footage which show the band in top form doing "Melt!" and "Painted Bird". Oh and the main concert footage is pretty great too. A definite fan pleaser!
Yay Sippy Cups! What started out as a few local rockers doing Syd Barrett and Who covers for kids a few years back has evolved into a full-blown kids entertainment juggernaut complete with sold-out choreographed live shows (involving a juggler!) and a whole new album of original songs. Electric Storyland is for parents who want to wean their kids off Barney-type treacle and nudge them into something weirder -- but not too weird. The album's songs are catchy and fun and have playful hints of psychedelia -- from '60s-sounding pop songs with suggestive/innocent titles ("Little Puffer" and "Magic Toast") to songs that reference Yoshimi-era Flaming Lips ("I Am a Robot)". Buy it for your sister's kids -- chances are this is the only album you, your sister and her kids might find some common ground on!
In the annals of the "early heavy", the Sir Lord Baltimore (from Brooklyn) is up there with the likes of Dust, Bang, and yes Blue Cheer. Too bad their two albums have been pretty much out of print for ages, the last official cd reissue, a two-fer, was back in the early '90s. But, proto-metal fans rejoice, 'cause now both SLB records are back in action, individually, on vinyl! 1970's Kingdom Come and the self-titled 1971 sequel, both of 'em essential slabs of heavy hard rockin' from this seminal band in heavy metal history.
The debut, with the spooky trippy "ghost ship" painting on the cover, alone justifies SLB's cult status. Very few bands in 1970 were this heavy (though, it must be said, Black Sabbath were on an other level entirely). Aside from the primly pretty, baroque ballad "Lake Isle Of Innersfree", this whole record is pretty much a frenzied fuzz blaster par excellance. And when we say fuzz, we mean FUZZ! Just check out the title track, a majestic six and half minutes mixing tripped out lyrics with savage bursts of ultra distorted guitar. There's definitely a sixties vibe to the proceedings; you can imagine bikers totally digging it. And it's as energetic as the proto-punk coming out of Detroit at the time, too.
The follow-up album is a little fancier, more diverse, and dramatic, the band expanded from a trio to a quartet, with extra instrumentation (acoustic guitar, organ). There's a 10+ minute prog epic called "Man From Manhattan" (which still gets heavy!), but also ragin' rockers like "Woman Tamer". And you get to hear SLB kicking out the jams in concert on the live track "Where Are We Going".
What's not to love about this band? They're a Sir, they're a Lord, they even have a singing drummer! So if you haven't yet been flattened by SLB's fuzz, time to add these to your collection, especially if said collection already includes the likes of High Tide, Tiger B. Smith, Highway Robbery, Leaf Hound, Toad, etc.
In the annals of the "early heavy", the Sir Lord Baltimore (from Brooklyn) is up there with the likes of Dust, Bang, and yes Blue Cheer. Too bad their two albums have been pretty much out of print for ages, the last official cd reissue, a two-fer, was back in the early '90s. But, proto-metal fans rejoice, 'cause now both SLB records are back in action, individually, on vinyl! 1970's Kingdom Come and the self-titled 1971 sequel, both of 'em essential slabs of heavy hard rockin' from this seminal band in heavy metal history.
The debut, with the spooky trippy "ghost ship" painting on the cover, alone justifies SLB's cult status. Very few bands in 1970 were this heavy (though, it must be said, Black Sabbath were on an other level entirely). Aside from the primly pretty, baroque ballad "Lake Isle Of Innersfree", this whole record is pretty much a frenzied fuzz blaster par excellance. And when we say fuzz, we mean FUZZ! Just check out the title track, a majestic six and half minutes mixing tripped out lyrics with savage bursts of ultra distorted guitar. There's definitely a sixties vibe to the proceedings; you can imagine bikers totally digging it. And it's as energetic as the proto-punk coming out of Detroit at the time, too.
The follow-up album is a little fancier, more diverse, and dramatic, the band expanded from a trio to a quartet, with extra instrumentation (acoustic guitar, organ). There's a 10+ minute prog epic called "Man From Manhattan" (which still gets heavy!), but also ragin' rockers like "Woman Tamer". And you get to hear SLB kicking out the jams in concert on the live track "Where Are We Going".
What's not to love about this band? They're a Sir, they're a Lord, they even have a singing drummer! So if you haven't yet been flattened by SLB's fuzz, time to add these to your collection, especially if said collection already includes the likes of High Tide, Tiger B. Smith, Highway Robbery, Leaf Hound, Toad, etc.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Sun City Girl Rick Bishop's debut solo release on John Fahey's wonderful Revenant label. Pretty tunes (about knighthood apparently) that sound very "old world," like quaint italian restaurant music played on guitar instead of mandolin.
Sissy Spacek are the face-melting noisecore duo of John Wiese and Charlie Mumma, who've recruited various guests to shred their vocals in the live context, including Sara Taylor of Youth Code and Aaron Hemphill of The Liars. The job entails staccato screaming at the top of one's lungs whilst rampaging through the audience as Wiese and Mumma create an insanely explosive, hyper-reductive form of punk and grindcore. These are not so much songs as unrestrained nuclear detonations of exhilarating fury that lasts maybe 30 seconds at the most, stopping abruptly and moving onto the next violation of music through bass, drums, voice, and a hell of a lot of feedback. If you've never seen Sissy Spacek, you fucking should. If not, this cd comes damn close. Gate collects two previous releases, an eponymous ep and one aptly titled "Incomprehensible Dehumanization" along with a deliciously shitty live recording as a bonus track.
John Wiese (Bastard Noise) and his pal Cory Ronnau deliver what is probably the world's first plunderphonic grindcore record. Although in this case all of the plundering is self inflicted and self directed as the two record their own two piece (guitar and
Can you handle some noize? The French trio Sister Iodine have apparently been around in the underground for some years now. Jim here recalls that their early stuff was more akin to no-wave, angular rock music (and was quite curious about them having a disc out on Mego). The rest of us here hadn't heard 'em before... but really dig this, which is definitely much more in the noiserock vein of, say, Wolf Eyes, than DNA-ish no-wave. Yep, noiserock a la Wolf Eyes, Shit & Shine, Cadaver In Drag, Hair Police, heck even Hijokaidan. Total distortion overload, the very first track coming off like an exploding minefield of noise, shit blowing up all around. But at the same time, it's not JUST noise, there's enough rhythmic structure to qualify this as rock music, made with guitar, drums, Korg PS3010 synth, and little regard for common standards of musical practice, like, say, melody, or even, really, riffs. Instead these 12 "songs" are all about interesting varieties of throb and rumble, flangey FX and feedback. Further keeping us entranced are the ponderously heavy drum hits, making things almost Khanate-like in parts, run through some sort of monster Merzbowian filter, as on the slumping slomping sizzling trudge of "Terminal Pain".
It's all instrumental (or at least, we can't HEAR any human vocals amidst everything else) but the song titles perhaps give some sense of Sister Iodine's mood: "Lava Junkie", "Black Trauma Delice", "Napalmee", "You Burned", etc. are all in keeping with their general sonic demeanor. Yeah, kind of a negative vibe, yet paradoxically gleeful as the cathartic impact of noisemaking with such abandon takes effect as well. This is the type of noise rock action we find most satisfying, and it even works at low volumes, as gritty textural drone, but turn it up (if you dare) to be fully cleansed in the controlled crinkum-crankum chaos of their howling rocket launching saucer landing skree!
This album was originally released a while ago on vinyl (limited and long gone presumably), and is now reissued on cd with 2 bonus tracks by Editions Mego, in nice, slightly oversized folder packaging like they like to do. Limited to 500 copies, and quite recommended.
Strong songwriting dominates this debut release from the local rock group Six Eye Columbia. In addition to guitar and vocals, bandleader / all-around nice guy Josh Pollock also wields the banjo, xylophone, piano, and assorted toys. An array of guests offer pedal steel, cello, sax, trumpet etc. The effects-laden vocal delivery is similar to Guided By Voices' Robert Pollard -- tinny, staticky as if thru a bullhorn. Doleful male harmonies bring to mind Mark Eitzel's solo work, as does the simmering tension and midtempo pace throughout. Forlorn and depressing in a good way.
AQ pal Josh Pollock, musical man about town and accomplished stage actor (having performed in a play based on the life of Rodd Keith, where the audience turned in poems at the beginning of the performance, and Pollack then wrote songs to go with the poems live on stage, a la Keith's legendary song poems) returns with his second release from Six Eye Columbia, his rock outfit, mostly Pollock's doing but with some occasional helping hands. Very Guided By Voices-ish pop, melodic and melancholy with some lengthy prog flourishes (he does after all play with David Aellen in the new Gong) and even the occasional Coldplay-esque lilting vocals. A bit more mainstream and polished than the last 6EC, with a lot more production polish and studio as instrument tinkering.
2009 has been quite a year for noise rock legends Six Finger Satellite. First, long lost recordings from 2001 surfaced as the album Half Control. Now, a few months later, the recently reformed band has returned with its first new studio record, and goddamn it's good to have them back. Sad to say though, but the general response (EXCLUDING this one, of course) seems to be overwhelmingly lukewarm, and even all out negative in some cases. Even around here, the first thing people mention is how this doesn't sound like the Six Finger Satellite of old. Perhaps there is some truth to that claim (though why should it necessarily matter?), but repeated listens really dispel it. It's just that current 6FS is a little less focused on experimental noisiness and more into full on rocking, something they've always done well. It's funny how A Good Year For Hardness is pretty damn bluesy. Maybe some folks just don't dig it, but the big 6FS fans around these parts are definitely pleased. After all, it's not like this shit sounds like typical white boy blues rock that you hear at the county fair. Far from it. This is coked out mutant blues being beamed in from outer space. Mean, depraved blues made by guys who are old enough to step into this territory without embarrassment or any desire to be seen as cool in the eyes of today's indie rockers, who they probably don't even acknowledge. This band has always been ridiculously tight, and the new lineup is no exception. The songs exude a grooving, almost classic rock vibe with warm bass, cool backbeats, and muscular riffage. But then there is singer J. Ryan's trademark vocals, all pissed off and pretty scary, every once in a while punctuated by crazy distorted James Brown-styled screams. And yes, the synths are there, they are just used a bit more sparingly, but to awesome effect. Rarely is the band "quirky" here, but every once in a while, the synths just make everything really weird and almost funny if they weren't within such disturbing songs. A lot of the songs venture into dark, brooding psychedelic territory, almost like some jagged post-punk Doors (some may disagree with this, but whatever). This is probably best demonstrated on closing number "Rise," driven by a warm bass throb and a steady beat with occasional bursts of heavily vibratoed guitar chords. Throughout it, the creepy synths pop up here and there as the barely controlled intensity of non-sceaming J. Ryan scares you just a little more. Awesome.
So far this sonuvabitch is available as an lp only, but the turntable deprived can rejoice over the inclusion of a free download card.
In the '90s, there were two bands on the Sub Pop roster that, to anyone looking for their grunge or indie fix, made absolutely zero sense. One of those bands was the mighty Earth, who in the past few years have thankfully been reevaluated and recognized as the pioneers they were and are. Then there was Six Finger Satellite, spoken of with godlike reverence by their small but rabid fanbase, but still unjustly neglected by the majority of the human population. The big question here: WHY?!?! Six Finger Satellite was one of the great nihilistic rock bands of the '90s, the strange and unholy union of the Stooges, the Birthday Party, and Kraftwerk that turned into something else entirely. Their sound was hateful, tense, and disturbingly druggy, but most of all, they fucking ROCKED. While the synthesizer at this point in indie history seemed relegated to making cute little bleeping noises, 6FS wielded their Moogs like weapons of mass chaos, releasing 4 ESSENTIAL full lengths and a slew of equally awesome eps and singles before vanishing. Their provocative themes included a sinister but smartass referencing of, shall we say, "recent" German history, primates, and a Kraftwerkian synthesis of man and machine tailored to better suit a bunch of guys from Rhode Island. Their history is long, confusing, and even tragic (original bassist Kurt Niemand died of a drug overdose), eventually culminating in the departure of guitarist John Maclean - along with the band's synth arsenal - and his transformation into electro-dance act the Juan Maclean. Though they apparently soldiered on after their final full length, Law Of Ruins, that was pretty much it for Six Finger Satellite...
UNTIL NOW!!!
While the band has reconvened on a few occasions and are currently active, Half Control actually dates back to 2001. Surprisingly, the band's unstoppable drummer Rick Pelletier switched to bass for the reformed 6FS (and now he's playing guitar!), while the rhythm section was reconstituted from members of fellow Rhode Island noise rockers Landed. The resultant sound emphasizes the group's more pissed off, punkish edge - try to imagine the four-headed bastard offspring of Black Flag and the Jesus Lizard beating the shit out of itself - while downplaying their more meditative (relatively speaking for this band, of course) electro-kraut influences. For this reason, the initial reaction of many aQ staffers was that Half Control doesn't really sound like the Six Finger Satellite we all knew - remember that part about John Maclean and the band's collection of vintage synthesizers? Closer inspection, however, reveals otherwise, at least to the nerds in possession of the band's entire discography. While synths were and continue to remain integral to the 6FS sound, many people tend to overlook how guitar-centric they always were. Slashing and densely hypnotic riffing, throbbing basslines, and ridiculously tight drumming were just as important as their quirky but ominous synthlines. Singer/Moogist J. Ryan's feral vocals are as mean-spirited and distorted as they always were and the band still throbs and pulsates like a merciless machine that refuses to shut down. 6FS's sound was frantic but controlled, often verging on complete chaos, yet they managed to keep things together in a way only they could. With that in mind, it's clear to see that things are really just as great as they always were. The reality is that little has changed, it's just pretty mindblowing to think that we are hearing new sounds from a band that sadly *seemed* to drop off the map.
It should go without saying for anyone familiar with this fantastic band, that Load Records (who released their obscure but awe inspiring Clone Theory ep waaaaay back), is a much better home for them. It's not coincidental that much of that label's lineup and a great deal of the current noise rock scene is heavily indebted to 6FS, and while some of today's indie rockers may have unknowingly tapped into what these guys were about in the form of other bands, Six Finger Satellite has yet to be surpassed in ferocity, dark humor, and overall rockingness. Longtime fans should find plenty of reasons to rejoice, while newbies will freak out and have to accept mp3 versions of their out of print Sub Pop albums. To the rest of the world: WAKE THE FUCK UP. Six Finger Satellite is immortal, and even if this is their final statement (we sure hope not), it's more than we could have ever hoped for.
Rhode Island's not so favorite sons perfect their blend of Stooges sludge rock and moog powered space-out-kraut grooves. Internal debates have drawn blood over whether this is the best Six Finger Satellite record... regardless of the outcome, this is a great record and shouldn't be missed! Also comes in very attractive packaging (the vinyl is clear in a clear cover).
Did not see this one coming... but GODDAMN are we happy about it. Originally released by the band themselves in 1994 as, you guessed it, a companion cassette to the band's mighty Machine Cuisine 10", this little bastard has been out of print for years, attaining somewhat of a mythic status and fetching some pretty hefty prices the one or two times it ever ended up on eBay. Now, with 6FS operating once again, they saw it fit to reissue this cassette for the hungry masses in 2010, complete with a digital download card tucked inside.
A polarizing band if there ever was one, Six Finger Satellite was one of the few groups in the '90s to utilize synthesizers to their full potential, which they integrated into a traditional rock band setup for some heavy, hateful, and totally rocking results. While the Machine Cuisine ep itself found 6FS sans guitars, sounding a bit like a smart ass Kraftwerk meeting up with Chrome, the cassette rocks furiously, with the band's trademark demented vocals, machine like drumming and some razor sharp riffage. It's unfortunate that these guys never gained more than a cult following, but not really that surprising either. Listening to this stuff now, it's clear that they were not only completely out of step with much of the "indie rock" scene of the '90s, but also WAY ahead of their time. This may be a bold statement, but we imagine time will vindicate Six Finger Satellite and eventually find them mentioned along with all the other great, nihilistic drug bands like the Stooges and the Birthday Party. Highest recommendation imaginable, and we would imagine quite limited.
For fans of Chrome and Kraftwerk.
If you still think of Ben Chasny's Six Organs Of Admittance as being primarily a folky, Fahey/Basho/Takoma style acoustic enterprise, then please note the blurb on the sticker on this new album's cover, where it says in time-honored rock n' roll tradition: "Play This Record Loudly". And you should, 'cause while it's not like Six Organs haven't rocked before (they have) but Chasny sure is getting his ya-yas out here, big time. As we said when we recently reviewed the non-album single, Parsons' Blues, that immediately preceded this full-length, this stuff sounds like "Six Organs Of Comets On Fire", and the lineup here backs up that assertion. That lineup features Ethan Miller, Ben Flashman, Utrillo Kushner, and Noel Von Harmonson, all from Comets, of whom Chasny himself has also been a member. Plus producer Tim Green contributes some guitar, too. Thus (?) it's the loud psychedelic freakout side of things (a la Comets) that dominates, on a majority of the cuts here, at least.
The album opens with an energetic, kickass quasi-instrumental (there's some voices but no words) called "Waswasa", and then on track two, "Close To The Sky", it really sounds like Chasny & Co. have slapped on their sunglasses-at-night and are channelling total Tokyo Flashback action, a la LSD-March, Up-Tight, High Rise, and goddamn godfathers Les Rallizes. Headnodding psych-noodling, all right! That's followed by the ritual ceremony of "They Called You Near", and for a while we're back to acid folk, not acid rock, territory. Track four, "Solar Ascent", is even mellower and lovelier, but the next one, "One Thousand Birds" rocks out quite a bit more, bringing back that psych skronk guitar over a steady rhythmic pulsebeat. And so it goes, this album both dreamy and driving, providing songs that focus on Ben's gentle hushed voice and melodies, along with distortodelic romps full of amped-up, Rallizes-esque throb that also ought to appeal to fans of Wooden Shjips and Crazy Horse.
If you liked what Chasny has conjured on other recent sets like Asleep On The Floodplain and Luminous Night, this is equally expansive and ambitious - but with a bit more Comets-y sonic violence n' volume overall.
The compact disc version comes packaged in a nice cardboard miniature lp jacket, and we like how the "cd booklet" in fact consists of a folded up dot matrix printout (or rather, what looks like one).
And lo, after several changes of the seasons, once again the musical mystic comes down from the mountain to play for the people his olden instrument of wood and wires. Meandering through meadows, pausing to serenade both man and beast, rock and flower with hushed blessings and blissful hummings. It's record number, what, 12 or 13 from Ben Chasny aka Six Organs Of Admittance. And the dust still chimes. This is the even brighter dawn after the luminous night.
Chasny is one of our very favorite practitioners of psych folk descended from the fringes of the Takoma tradition, American primitive meets Eastern acid, a la Basho and Bishop - Sir Richard being one of Chasny's compadres in Rangda, the fierce improv yang to this album's (mostly) gentle folky yin.
As befits its title, Asleep On The Floodplain is indeed a dreamy one, tickling with sweet tangles of strings (such as the acoustic guitar solo "Poppies"), shimmering with lovely drones (the harmonium laden "Brilliant Blue Sea Between Us"). With some tracks, like the album's intense side two epic "S/word And Leviathan" (over twelve minutes long) bringing all that together and more. It's esoteric, poetic in both inspiration and realization (there's post-graduate work to be done delving into the lyrical/conceptual side of these songs, instrumentals excluded, or not). Without such analysis, we know it's at least interesting, and more importantly emotive and evocative, whether Chasny is gently singing, or just caressing the strings. As always with Six Organs, we can surely say by now, recommended!!
Ben Chasny: hot guy. Bedroom eyes and a bottle of beer. What's up with the cover?? Well, apparently Ben's sick of people thinking he's some sort of sexless mystical elf, so he chose to pose for pictures on a rumpled bed complete with prone girlfriend (or groupie?). But even without the usual murky, evocative artwork of ghostly treelines this new, fourth album from Ben's Six Organs of Admittance is again a lovely piece of psych-folk-pop. Hippie jams updated for the kids today, taking cues from both Bolan and Basho. Gently drifting or discretely chugging, the majority of this record is devoted to mellow song-craft of exqusite beauty. So when the heavy psych guitar blow-out of the last track "Only The Sun Knows" (featuring Ethan Miller of Comets On Fire, who also plays the sitar elsewhere on the album) kicks in, your only warning will be this review! Recommended, from start to finish a really nice record.
The excellent split LP that Six Organs Of Admittance recently did with Charlambides really whet our appetite for this disc, the third full-length album from Ben Chasny (Six Organs, on record at least, is pretty much just him). Actually, we've been eager for
Eureka, California based young'un Ben Chasny was the hands down big hit at this year's Terrastock IV festival of peace, love and psychedelic drugs, held in Seattle (where, by the way, we were excited to visit the Experience Music Project museum -- $20, and worth every penny!). At the festival, Ben's airy yet dark psychedelia was augmented with the talents of other bandmates specially put together for the occasion, but on "Dust & Chimes", his first album just now reissued on cd for the first time, he's working mostly alone. Concocting lush laments from acoustic guitar, chimes, and subtle distortion effects, Six Organs of Admittance bespeak a love for psych-folk not of the fey British variety, but more akin to the ethereal otherworldliness of Japan's Ghost. Fahey fans will also find much to appreciate. Every sound is carefully placed and joyfully played -- and this attention to detail came across live in spades, where the youthful energy of this band reminded me of the Olivia Tremor Control, giving it their all. On record, this energy is rather more dark and mysterious than any Olivias comparison would suggest. Very nice.
Two sides of instrumental transcendence from AQ faves Six Organs Of Admittance. Recorded late at night, on a four track, these songs exude late nights, twinkling stars, crackling fires, rustling woods, broken hearts and burnished spirit. Side one is a series of soft and sweetly finger picked nylon string guitar pieces with the occasional haunting ethereal vocal and suhimmering, tinkling bells. Side two is a side long steel string rumination, mellow and melancholy, minor key and meditative. Psychedelic folk stripped to it's essence. So gorgeous. THICK 180 gram vinyl, in a gorgeous letter pressed sleeve, with a letter pressed insert and numbered (limted to 500).
Uh, woah, WTF?! Ben Chasny, you rule! His Six Organs Of Admittance manifestation goes of the deep end here, big time, with a blown-out noise rock album borne of a truly esoteric methodology, a system (The Hexadic System) of chance operation and combinatorial choice, using a normal deck of playing cards, that presents the user with possible notes to play, the duration of those notes, and in some instances "intensity factors" regarding the performance of those notes. (In fact, Drag City will be releasing a specially illustrated Six Organs deck of cards specially configured to be used with this system, as well as for playing poker or whatever.)
It's a kind of compositional indeterminacy strategy a la John Cage & the I Ching, but specifically inspired by the works of Gaston Bachelard - also Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa and Ramon Llull. We don't pretend to more than vaguely understand it, but we know Ben would be happy to discuss the Hexadic System in detail with any interested parties - also he provides much more info about it on his blog at sixorgans.com, delve on in! But first, you wanna delve into this album, which means cranking it up and standing back, 'cuz it's a doozy. Apparently, Chasny used the system to write 30 songs, the nine most 'rock' of which he selected for this record, as realized by Chasny alongside a band consisting of equally open minded experimentalists Noel Von Harmonson (Comets On Fire) on drums, Rob Fisk (Common Eider, King Eider) on bass and Charlie Saufley (Assemble Head In Sunburst Sound) on bass. By 'rock' Ben means loud heavy and distorted; this is mostly super noisy and improv-like, some crazy shit that reminds us of the likes of Rudolph Grey's Blue Humans and Keiji Haino/Fushitsusha, which we're sure are big sonic inspirations here, as significant as the writings of Bachelard et. al. The group Chasny's in with Sir Richard Bishop, Rangda, would be another good reference point.
There ARE a few delicate, dark, spacious numbers on the record too, including opener "The Ram", lovely interludes interspersed amidst the amped-up overdrive. Presumably the "intensity factors" of the cards drawn for those pieces were lower than on the rest of the album, making for some moodiness to go with the mayhem.
So, the conceptual aspect of how these pieces were composed is intellectually interesting (this album needs footnotes and a bibliography), but academics aside, a more visceral response is guaranteed as well, it's powerful, confusional SOUND that can't be denied. Avant out-rock awesomeness from a guy who, while also an excellent acoustic fingerpicker in the Takoma tradition, certainly has his weirdass heavy-duty psych rock side, as (once again) displayed here.
Guitarist Ben Chasny and his deck of cards are back with another "Hexadic" release from Six Organs, Chasny utilizing the esoteric, chance-based compositional system he has devised, that previously resulted in an awesome heavy-duty noise-psych ensemble outing earlier this year. This time 'round, the cards he dealt have him playing in a solo, acoustic mode, crafting nine tracks of drifty, spacious drone folk, full of steel string resonance, soft voiced singing, and stark, dark, lonely atmosphere. Real nice, with hush and hum and strum and some Jandekian tanglings, for fans of Richard Youngs, Bill Orcutt, and of course the man himself, Ben Chasny - who graced us with a great instore just this week! (For some reason, vinyl and tape only, no cd version for Hexadic II, sad face.)
An abundance of Six Organs this week! Ben Chasny not only has this great new album out, but there's also a vinyl-only split 12" with Azul (aka his old pal L) on the Japanese psych label PSF we're reviewing too. The full-length record at hand, Luminous Night, is indeed a stunner, and more or less what we've come to expect from the reliable Mr. Chasny.
It opens with the orchestrated, slightly precious folk-prog of "Actaeon's Fall (Against The Hounds)", an all-instrumental intro to this delicate and dusty album, a track that's sad yet hopeful, with a Morricone-esque arrangement. The next song "Anesthesia" brings in Ben's hushed but strong singing, and that's how it goes here, folkish balladry (like ferinstance on "The Ballad Of Charley Harper", though there's plenty of drone n' distortion layered o'er that one, and elsewhere) interwoven with moody instrumentals, all of it with a Western Gothic meets Eastern Psych vibe. Next up, "Bar-Nasha" leans towards the Eastern side of the equation, a tapestry of fingerpicking, flute, and hand percussion, but Ben's vocals have all the melancholic solemnity of apocalyptic alt-country act Woven Hand, in fact, his deeper voiced singing here, as on this track, reminds us weirdly enough of someone from another Xtian band, vocalist Eric Wagner from classic doom metallers Trouble. (Who can be psychedelic sometimes, but not like this!).
Regarding the instrumentals, the longest track here, "The River Of Heaven", is a ritualistic ceremony like Japan's Ghost getting mopey, and "Cover Your Wounds With The Sky" is a lovely dense drone piece, sounding a lot like something from Steven R. Smith's latest record, Cities (yet to be reviewed by us, but really good, by the way).
We've mentioned almost all the tracks here, and rest assured that the others are quite nice too, making for a haunting Six Organs Of Admittance album that should satisfy his fans old and new. We figure most of you fall into the former camp, but anyone yet to experience this artist should give Luminous Night a listen and likely you'll become one of the latter.
Another gorgeous and limited 12" from Six Organs Of Admittance. The material on this 12" was originally released in 1999 as a limited lathe cut 12", only thirty copies were made and each was personally sent to it's owner. Finally reissued, Nightly Trembling is possibly the best seventies psych folk record not actually made in the seventies. Big praise, but wait until you hear this! The Wicker Man, Comus, Incredible String Band, all filtered through Ben Chasney's Six Organs. Acoustic guitar, Chasney's creepy growl, throbbing shimmering pagan ambience, angelic and haunting choir-like vocals all set in extended raga-like song structures. So good. On HEAVY 180 gram vinyl. In a letter pressed sleeve with insert and numbered (limited to 500).
A two song teaser for the upcoming Six Organs album features a strangely familiar lineup, a quick glance at the names on the back of the sleeve has us convinced this is in fact a Six Organs Of Comets On Fire 7", and it sounds like it too, this five man band kick out two instrumental psych jams, the A side is distorted and dirgey and blown out, seriously psychedelic, but weirdly minimal too, with a haunting apocalyptic folk undercurrent, the vibe tranced out and cyclical, a sort of churning hypnorock workout that is a gloriously mesmerizing chunk of psychedelic heaviness.
As is the B side, a bit more spaced out, abstract and drifty, but the guitars are still gnarled and buzzy, the drums loose and free, the sound a freeform psych drift blowout that explodes in the second half with some seriously killer guitar shred. Wowee. Can't wait for the full length!
Here at aQ we get the pleasure of watching bands grow and change over the years. Sure, some bands head off the deep end never to be heard from again, but others mature and grow into something even beyond what we could've ever imagined. Ben Chasny is the perfect example of the latter. After releasing well over a dozen albums, we've watched Chasny evolve into one of the most prominent music makers of our time. Don't get us wrong, there are plenty of other super talented and super awesome downer psych folk yogis, BUT none even come close to matching the mind bending artistry that Chasny has perfected.
We cant even tell you how many people have come into the shop only to proclaim, "What?! A new Six Organs record!?! I'll take it!" And this isn't even exactly a new record, although this material is new to most of us, as Drag City has reissued a bunch of older, more obscure and hard to find Six Organs tracks.
While "Punish the Chasm with Wings" is the only completely unheard track on RTZ, the rest of these songs are taken from various cd splits, limited pressed cdrs, compilations and a 12" split with Charlambidies, highly anticipated early work straight from the dusty vaults of Mr. Chasny. Named after a button on his beloved four-track recorder, RTZ is an acronym for Return to Zero, a highly appropriate title for an album that revisits the early beginnings of his prolific career.
In some ways, RTZ is more of the same gorgeous woodsy, somber guitar work from Chasny, but what makes RTZ one of our favorite Six Organs records is the sheer epicness of every track. Beautifully composed with close attention to detail, the majority of the songs span well over the ten minute mark, most almost reaching 20 minutes! Every track carries the weight of an entire album, each taking the listener on a different path through the overgrown reaches of some forested wonderland. Hypnotic guitar pluckings hovering over vocal mantras that shapeshift into quiet soundscapes, rhythmic tambourine and flute passages sway with the hanging branches as plumes of smoke rise magnificently into the air. Chasny's guitar playing is completely spot on, sincere and dimly lit, we can just picture him with eyes closed, hunched over in the corner of some candlelit run-down cabin, channeling the words and songs of spirits lost in the woods. Complete with a cool lookin' black metal-esque Six Organs logo on the cover, RTZ is a must have, especially for fans of anything Six Organs (or anything remotely similar for that matter)!!
AQ-fave underground psych-folk troubadour Ben Chasny hits the "big time" with this Drag City debut. Ok, Drag City's not a major label but it's a popular indie. If this was the '70s, he'd have been flown out to a rented mansion in LA by the label, where he'd have spent months recording in drug-fuelled debauchery. It being just boring old now, we're sure that didn't happen. Despite that, Ben still steps up and delivers with this new Six Organs opus of his. Not that he's ever disappointed, but this could be one of his best. And it is in fact his first ever actual studio-recorded release. The Basho/Fahey guitar pickin', the pagan folk, the cosmic mystic vibes... all shining through. And with School Of The Flower he reveals his obsession with the music of one Gary Higgins, an obscure '70s singer-songwriter who did a now much-talked-of-in-certain-circles LP entitled Red Hash. Until someone tracks him down (according to the liner notes, Drag City is trying), the closest you'll probably get to hearing it is the cover of his "Thicker Than A Smokey" that appears here!
FYI: the music on track five ("Home") is basically the bass line for Rod Stewart's "Ooh La La" played on acoustic guitar!
The first two tracks on Shelter From The Ash pretty much illustrate the two complementary sides to Mr. Six Organs Ben Chasny's usual modus operandi. The first cut, "Alone With The Alone", is droning and dense, building into tripped out, fairly fierce electric guitar solo, while the second, "Strangled Road", is a much mellower, subdued folk-ish number, with hushed vocals and lonely guitar strum... Together, you've got a recipe for the morose, bleak beauty that this album cooks up, with songs sung about war, loss and survival amidst yearning instrumentals, including one dedicated to the Sun City Girls.
Shelter From The Ash is record number ten (at least!) from Six Organs of Admittance and it's another winner, much like its predecessors in having a basis in Chasny's facility with Faheyesque steel-string fingerpicking while heading off into the wilder reaches of heavy psych, and almost country-rockish moodiness. He's helped out here by members of Comets On Fire and Magick Markers, though it's the rough hewn, intimate hum and buzz of just Ben and his guitar that works the most magic for us.
What once was an one-sided, etched vinyl 12" ep (released in 1999 on BaDaBing) has been transformated into a one-sided (as they all are) cd reissued by Strange Attractors Audio House. And although Six Organs fans who missed the original vinyl would be greatful enough to get The Manifestation on cd with no extras, the Six Organs' Ben Chasny has been kind enough to provide TWICE as much music on this cd reissue, via a track entitled "The Six Stations" which features none other than Current 93's David Tibet intoning lyrics on a good portion of the piece. And whatever you think of the mystical mumjo jumbo this music is couched in, it's more of that excellent Six Organs acid-folk acoustic guitar for which Mr. Chasny is rightly lauded. Some record crackle is added to the mix, and while it doesn't really succeed in making this sound like an authentic scratchy old 78 it's still nice. Kinda like Jeck meets Fahey...meets C93. Meanwhile the original Manifestation could be a twilit pagan hippy jam from ages past.
It's such a nice day out and we'd really rather just sit in the sun and listen to this disc than review it, so why don't we just say: another great Six Organs album! and leave it at that, ok? Not ok? You want more from us than that? Well it IS another great album from this Ben Chasny fellow, whom for us is definitely tops among all the current crop of psychedelic guitar-pickin' folkies. Whether he's lending his weary voice to some lovely acoustic pop balladry, or blissing out on the fretboard in Fahey/Basho rustic raga mode, or harking to the spaghetti western soundtrack sound of Bjorn Olsson, or channeling krautrock spirits for a heavy duty distorted electric guitar jam, Chasny -- with a little help from his friends -- shines on this album. Maybe his best yet! Gorgeous, moody, yes indeed.
Of course, sitting in the sun listening to this might not be the idea. The Sun Awakens this is called, but it's more likely that the music on here will generate grey clouds to blot out the sun, casting shadows from some other time and place of pagan worship. Particularly when you get to the droning darkness of the mysterious, moaning, album-closing "River Of Transfiguration", an extended 24 minute ceremony of a song featuring the bass playing of Al Cisneros of Om and Sleep fame. Oh yeah. Recommended.
Several years ago, while listening to excellent Bay Area college radio station KFJC, a particular track of hypnotic, droning psych caught my ear -- buzzing, repetitive acoustic guitar and organ and a mysterious voice intoning "prayer for the su-unnnn..." over and over, all building into a loose, dirgey trance. Gorgeous. Further listening revealed the mysterious voice as belonging to Ben Chasny, aka Six Organs of Admittance. Soon thereafter, my ever thoughtful roommates returned from a John Fahey show, at which Six Organs had been the opener, bearing an LP on which I was excited to find the track I loved. A bit of time passed, and lamentably, so did John Fahey; Six Organs has gone on to make two great albums as well as lending a considerable hand to Comets On Fire on their awesome "Field Recordings from the Sun." This here is a long-awaited cd reissue of that first Six Organs LP, with the addition of 2 tracks from a limited 8" lathe-cut disc. While Chasny seems to be getting better and better, as evidenced by his best and most recent record "Dark Noontide," the darkly psychedelic 4-track ramblings on this disc find his signature sound fully in place-- an immediately recognizable way of attacking an acoustic guitar into a state of humming, reverbrating submission, that resonant baritone, and detours into percussive experimentation, all ritualistic and, I'll say it again, thoroughly hypnotic. So Nice.
MPEG Download: "Sum of All Heaven" [/audio/sixorganssumofallheaven.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Sum of All Heaven" [/audio/sixorganssumofallheaven.m3u]
One of two new records this list from long time aQ fave Ben Chasny, aka Six Organs Of Admittance. This one is super limited, maybe the first vinyl release we've gotten on godhead Japanese label PSF, and features one super dense abstract sidelong jam from Six Organs on one side, and a whole batch of groovy shimmery soft psych folk grooves on the B-side from a Japanese group called Azul. For those of you, who like us, had never hear of Azul, it's the new project of Hiroyuki Usui, who long time aQ list readers might remember as one half of the August Born, an earlier collaboration with Chasny, as well as being the man behind legendary folk psych outfit L, whose Holy Letters album was a past aQ Record Of The Week!
So here they are, Chasny and Usui, together again, each doing their own thing on their own side of this lp. Chasny's jam is a weird one. A sprawling slow burning drone, all crunchy and warm and gristly, over which muted guitar scrabble scrapes and skitters, melodies surface here and there, but they're minimal and murky, the whole sound is distant and abstract, a droney almost-raga, shot through with little tangles of fragmented Appalachia, eventually growing into something much more epic and cinematic, with what sounds like strings, Eastern sounding melodies, before a heavy psych coda, chunky super distorted riffs, weary, haunting double tracked vocals, all over a sea of swirls and squiggles, finally giving way to a weird warped riffy outro. Really cool.
The Azul side is WAY more laid back. Groovy, woozy, super sixties sounding, psychedelic, but soft and hazy and a little stoned sounding, hits of that classic Summer Of Love sound, a little Santana, lots of hand drums, warm tinkling vibes, soulful vocals, lazy late afternoon vocals, breezy and a little blissy, a few of the tracks inject a little jazziness, some skronky horns, fluttery flutes, shimmering gongs, but for the most part, it's all steel string guitars, draped over sun dappled arrangements and wreathed in fuzzy clouds of soft focus psych.
Gorgeous packaging. Blue and yellow psychedelic drawings on the sleeve, bizarre characters and warped shapes, lots of texture and detail, wrapped in a printed vellum Japanese style obi. And as you might have guessed. EXTREMELY LIMITED.
The second in this limited edition vinyl series dedicated to the works of cosmic krautrockers Popul Vuh offers the hypno-drone psychedelia both of Northern California's wonderful Six Organs Of Admittance and the stalwart Texan ensemble Charlamabides. Again,
Charalambides -- now whittled down to the duo of Tom and Christina Carter -- create a similarly swirling sound, but from the mournful chords of intertwining guitar and bass reverberations. Both pieces are some of the best work from either of these two artists. As we say, limited, and we only have a few. We also still have just a few of the equally excellent first volume in the "Songs From The Entopic Garden" series, the Drona Parva / Ultrasound split LP (reviewed on list #128).
Music for airports, music for sleeping, music for film...it's about time someone made music for reading! For his brand new novel Empty The Sun, writer Joseph Mattson called upon the talents of Ben Chasney (Six Organs Of Admittance) to create a musical accompaniment to his novel. What a fantastic idea, especially consideringChasney has shown over the years an ability to create mood and atmosphere with a subtlety and undeniable authenticity that rings with such undeniable truth.
Centered around Chasney's mesmerizing guitar playing as well as wonderful accompaniment by Steve Ruecker on pedal steel, rattlers and bowls, Empty The Sun really is the sound we would want playing as we lose ourselves in a good book. Similar in mood and disposition to the great soundtrack to Mister Lonely that J. Spaceman & Sun City Girls created last year, this is one of those records that flows with a pastoral bliss that could, and we find ourselves wishing WOULD, go on forever and ever. Mostly instrumental, there are a few tracks with really nice subdued vocals including some of the most warm and intoxicating vocals we've heard from Elisa Ambrogio (Magik Markers).
The music of Six Organs Of Admittance really does speak to the soul, so evocative and creative and original, yet still warm and familiar, a rare beast that is as much a fan favorite as an artist's artist, so it's no surprise that Mattson was compelled to bring Six Organs into his world of words, just as film makers like Cam Archer have turned to Six Organs for music in his films, and just about every painter or visual artist we know has copies of Six Organs records in their studio. The sounds Chasney creates seem to be the perfect accompaniment for creation and exploration. And what also makes Chasney's music so amazing is the way it evokes a feeling of comfort, and a gloriously soporific dazem even while you're just sitting on a bus watching your surroundings blur by...
We haven't had a chance to dive into the actual book yet but with a quick skim we're anxious to ring in the new year laying on the couch with Six Organs playing as we dive into what looks to be a compelling novel.
Gorgeously packaged as well, both the cd and lp, each with a slightly different sized novel, to fit the format...
