Before Skullflower became a blissed out free drone, psychedelic raga outfit which would eventually morph into the ultra dreamy Sunroof!, they were trolling much darker, much harsher waters. When IIIrd Gatekeeper first came out way back in 1992, it fell right in alongside its sonic brethren, Swans, Godflesh, Pitchshifter, Terminal Cheesecake, Ramleh and all of those industrial dirge rockers. Originally released on Justin Broadrick's hEADdIRT label, IIIrd Gatekeeper is definitely one of Skullflower's finest moments (and quite possibly both Andee and Allan's favorite SF record EVER), a slow murky trudge through a blinding squall of psychedelic guitar freakout, dense swirls of which lurk behind a lurching slow motion bass dirge and pounding near industrial drumming. Each track picks a riff and pounds it into the ground, repeating and repeating until you can't help but be drawn in, while white hot streaks of guitar skree and low end rumble spin around the relentless plodding. SO much heavier and scarier than almost any other record. A bit like a heavy metal Whitehouse, or a more psychedelic Swans. A muddy, filthy, drug drenched metal club to the side of the head. So fucking awesome.
THIS WAS A WAREHOUSE FIND. THIS RECORD IS SOOOO OUT OF PRINT, BUT ONE OF OUR DISTRIBUTORS FOUND A BOX SO WE TOOK AS MANY AS THEY HAD. ONCE THESE ARE GONE IT'S BACK TO eBAY WITH YOU...
Skullflower's Exquisite Fucking Boredom, released last year on Andee's tUMULt label, welcomed back the seemingly retired Skullflower from a SEVEN YEAR hiatus. Skullflower mainman Matthew Bower was anything but MIA, keeping quite busy with his more blissed out Sunroof! project, as well as his equally blissed out but slightly noisier Hototogisu project. So after seven years, what was it that reanimated the slumbering corpse of Skullflower and sent the reawakened behemoth on a new path of sonic destruction. Well, it most definitely had something to do with THE RIFF. Exquisite Fucking Boredom was a throbbing pulsing ROCK record, a fucked up one for sure, but rock nonetheless. It was that relentless riffing eventually imploding on itself that convinced us that Skullflower was indeed back, to do unspeakable things with THE RIFF and offer up their own seriously skewed take on SPACE RAWK. So it seems now, with a new Skullflower record only a year later, we can rest assured that last year's return was for good.
All that talk of riffs, and a last record wholly centered around a single riff, and what does Bower do? Opens the new record with a dense splattery swirl of freaked out high end skree and throbbing drone, sounding not all that unlike his old group Total. There may be riffs in there somewhere, but you'd be hard pressed to find 'em. Sounds almost like he threw all of Hawkwind in the bathtub and then tossed in a plugged in hair dryer and recorded the results. Super freaked out spaced out free noise insanity! Fear not though, track two is where the riff returns, and once again we have to think Hawkwind, or maybe Circle, or even Can, that propulsive throbbing rhythm, that endless riffing, even some almost-leads, totally hypnotic and endlessly mesmerizing, a rock band rocking out until the end of the world as the earth opens up and the sky darkens with ash, although in this instance Bower takes that apocalyptic rock business and douses it in jagged sheets of white noise and huge slabs of acid fried feedback, swirling swells of amp buzz and chaotic guitar freakout, turning a rock song into a perilous journey through a sonic shitstorm. Makes sense that Crucial Blast has adorned this with a black metal styled Skullflower logo! And so it goes for the rest of the record. A musical tug of war, riffing is subsumed by squalls of white noise, massive waves of throbbing dissonance part allowing a riff to push its way through briefly, only to be eventually swallowed up again, eventually to resurface and push relentlessly forward into a looming musical darkness only toe be obliterated again into a beautiful cloud of swirling whirling noise. Not sure if this is the best rock record we've heard all year, or the best noise record. But it's damn sure one of 'em. Heck, it just might well be both!
First vinyl in ages from the mighty Skullflower, and much like the triple cd box reviewed elsewhere on this list, the new SF sound finds Skullflower mastermind mixing the two distinct sides of his sound, the looped hypnotic riffy side, and the free abstract noise side, and the results are pretty fantastic, forging a new sort of noise drenched, proto metal abstract free drone psychedelia, and of course incorporating all kinds of other sounds, like black metal buzz, and minimal industrial percussion. The lp is the perfect addendum to that massive triple album box, serving almost like a 4th disc in the set, covering similar ground, but with its own particular twist.
Side one opens with that distinctive abstract-krautrock, metallic-psychedelic riff that only Skullfower seems to be able to pull off, looped and repetitive, but slowly shifting, almost imperceptibly, over a swirling morass of distorted buzz and feedback drenched howl, noisy and heavy but strangely meditative. The follow up shifts gears and offers up a buzzing wall of sound with soaring high end melodic streaks over the top, and what sounds like vocals buried WAY down in the mix. Hot on the heels of that one comes an awesomely droning psych rock dirge, this time with drums, and an incredibly catchy and surprisingly melodic main riff, woozy and druggy, but sounding like some classic eighties metal riff, just Skullflower-ed. And so it goes, the tracks shifting from chiming ritualistic dronemusic to buzzing abstract ambience to noisy almost-industrial plod and back again. And we're digging it big time. These two most recent releases might just be our favorite Skullflower records since Exquisite Fucking Boredom on tUMULt!
One of two new releases on the Utech label these week, the other from mysterious dronelords Owwl, and this one from Sky Burial, aka Mike Page, who once fronted power electronics / harsh noise outfit Fire In The Head, but since that 'group's demise, his focus has been on the much more cosmic post industrial black ambience, one that owes much to the kosmische drift of groups like Tangerine Dream Popul Vuh, but filters that kraut-psych sound through something much grimier and abjectly industrial. The results are pretty fantastic, sprawling slowburn blackened space-drift epics that creep and slither, drift and hover, oozing in ominous chordal clouds over glistening barely there melodies, and lush layered thrum, sounding almost orchestral at times, grimly majestic, the noise element still present, but muted and blurred into woozy washes of ashen grey and obsidian black. Long stretches of whirring ambience peppered with industrial clatter, and the crunch and creak of mysterious machinery, there's definitely a Wolf Eyes vibe here too, not to mention some SAXOPHONE, which was a bit unexpected, coming right at the end of the 40+ first movement, but that's not just any sax, its played by the godfather of psychedelic spaciness Nik Turner of Hawkwind, that last stretch wreathing Turner's sax in swirling tendrils of spaced out glimmer, and thick swells of chordal hum.
The comparatively brief (16 minutes) second movement is a much more minimal affair, at least initially, with a sea of insectoid buzz, draped over roiling low end rumbles, both of which are soon joined by a soft cacophony of strange pulses and buzzes, as well as a dreamy wash of ethereal shimmer, soon a skeletal rhythm surfaces, before disappearing in a cloud of cosmic sci-fi FX, only to emerge a super distorted churn, the track shifting constantly, most notably when it blisses out into a hissy swirling ambience, peppered with strange processed vox, before finally finishing off in a haze of industrial rumble and psychedelic space synth drift. Sounding almost like a more industrial, more blackened Expo 70, which is not a bad thing at all.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!! And like all Utech releases, gorgeously packaged, the cd in a black inner sleeve, along with a fold out full color poster, all housed in a super striking, black and white patterned oversized outer sleeve.
Sky Larkin's The Golden Spike had to be one of our favorite pop records of the last few years, crunchy propulsive noise pop of the highest order, cool complex stop start arrangements, killer choruses, incredible vocals (like PJ Harvey crossed with Bjork, sort of), mathy and occasionally dissonant, loud and rambunctious, not really super weird or twisted, just super innovative and inventive and original with hooks galore, totally rocking, and packed with a clutch of all time pop classics ("Beeline", "Fossil, I").
Record number two from this trio is turning out to be just as good, a bit darker, a bit more subdued, not nearly as wild and wooly, but the songs might end up being even better. They're the sort of songs that take a few listens, but only a few, and then you're smitten, already we find ourselves returning to record opener "Still Windmills" again and again, a gorgeously intricate and super catchy chunk of minimal pop, with a cool stripped down verse, and a soaring sing along chorus, not to mention some incredible riffing, and some great drumming, and the vocals sound better than ever.
The title track is a slow burning builder, with some weird mathy arrangements that somehow do nothing to take way from the song's catchiness. "Tiny Heist" is equal parts twee pop, and fuzzy distorted noise pop, a delicate balance that perfectly suits the song, "Guitars And Antarctica" sounds like classic nineties girl pop, big guitars, moody vocals, gorgeous melodies, while "Smarts" is a cool lo-fi pop experiment, all guitar harmonics, buried drum thump, and some of the sweetest vocals on the record. "Landlocked" sounds like it could have been a B side from The Golden Spike, fuzzy guitar and wild loose distorted crunch, "Spooktacular" does too in fact, and actually, the more we listen to Kaleide, the less far removed it actually sounds from The Golden Spike, just maybe a better balance between brooding melodic introspection and crashing punked out noisy poppiness, which is most definitely a good thing.
Super smart classic pop, that's definitely a contender for pop record of the year, and WAY recommended like The Golden Spike, for fans of K Records, Kill Rock Stars, Helium, Slant 6, Jale, Quixotic as well as Grass Widow, the Sandwitches, Brilliant Colors, Yellow Fever, Wet Dog and the like...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
This would be HANDS DOWN pop record of the year, if only it came out this year, but hey, odds are most of you are only probably hearing this for the first time now, and heck, we've been trying to get this for ages, and we're thinking it may have just gotten a domestic release this year, but we've been dying to list this since one of us got an import copy from overseas last year and immediately flipped out. And all you'll need is a few tracks to see why.
Maybe try "Beeline", which has to be the pop jam of this year, and last year, and maybe several years before, hooks galore, big crunchy guitars, big pounding drums, awesome Bjork / PJ Harvey-ish female vocals, a hook to die for, the song complex with multiple parts, super dynamic, with a total soaring thick almost psychedelic sounding second half finish, this is so much more than just simple pop music. It was recorded with the same guy who did recent records by Pavement, Sleater Kinney, Death Cab For Cutie, Los Campesinos! Which should definitely give you an idea of the sound, swirl in some K Records, some Nova Scotian power pop (Sloan, Eric's Trip, etc) and some PJ Harvey musical muscle, and plenty of punk rock jangle and crunch, with guitars slipping from howl to chime and back again, often wrapped up with the bass and drums into huge sounding instrumental squalls, but never losing touch with the pop heart that drives these songs.
All the songs on The Golden Spike are fantastic, take "Fossil, I", that opens the record with soaring harmonies and dissonant riffing, before slipping into something more simple and catchy, but the track proceeds to flit back and forth, from super melodic and almost twee to wild and mathy and super rocking. And so it goes from there on out, pretty much every song is a noise pop gem, each one prime mixtape material for sure. The magical thing about this record is that it's not weird or fucked up or anything, it's just a practically perfect pop record with verses and choruses and all the usual pop song stuff, but it's the execution, and the songs themselves, the melodies, the hooks, the way the songs are constructed, the sound of the guitar, the vocals, oh the vocals, and just consistently super unique and interesting arrangements, that make the songs as exciting as they are immediately unforgettable. Just listen to the sound samples and we're pretty sure you'll be hooked. Anyone into the new wave of female fronted pop groups a la Sandwitches, Grass Widow, Brilliant Colors, Yellow Fever, as well as the bands who were making similar sounds back in the day Quixotic, Helium, Slant 6 and the like, will definitely have found a new favorite...
Sky Pilots' self-titled debut release is packed with angstful male vocals, chunky guitars, and slabs of bass. This Bay Area trio's sound is very infused with the heavy raw Chicago Albini-isms, but with some Brooklyn hip styliness too. Cool stuff.
Wander again through the mystic meadows with these two lazy troubadours of the rustic psych folk revival. Glenn Donaldson and Donovan Quinn and friends are back with another installment (11 songs, 35 minutes) of the SGL's always sunshiney and melodious mellowness. The haze hasn't lifted, these boys are still sitting crosslegged and deep in the dandelions, drifting astrally across their own inner California state of mind, a cosmos of '60s dosed song-half-writing... by that we just mean that this and other SGL artifacts could all be One, though this IS way more song-based than other Jewelled Antler related projects. They gently strum and strum and mumble and sing of Sally Orchid and the Egyptian Circus and Silvery Branches, and love, always love, and this is certainly lovely... Imagine (imagination is what the SKG's and their lyrically cryptic concepts certainly stoke) the delivery of a Dylan afflicted with the Olivia Tremors, engaged in pastoral nature worship, on a California trip.
We should also note the bumper-sticker ready song title here: "Jesus Was Californian". WWJD? Eat organic avocados!
The Skygreen Leopards is perhaps the only project from the hydra-headed Jewelled Antler collective to still exist in this day and age. Way back in the heady days of home-burnt cd-rs, we championed all things Jewelled Antler, whose rotating cast of characters took up more band names and projects than you could shake a stick at. Most of Jewelled Antler harbored a loosely structured psychedelia of freak-folk droning and method-acting sonic pharmacology, with the Skygreen Leopards being the most song-based, with summery jangle-pop duets between Jewelled Antler ringleader Glenn Donaldson (also known as Xavier Cross of Teenage Panzerkorps and Horrid Red) and Donovan Quinn. Each of the songs on Family Crimes lopes along at a jaunty pace for the duo's Byrds-ian 12-string strumming and wide-eyed wonder in effortlessly creating this wistful pop gem of mundane juvenalia and just slightly bittersweet tales of love and love lost...
Yeah, we know this came out a coupla months ago, but we think it makes a perfect late summer into autumn kind of listen. Y'know, one that's best listened to amid the soft rustle of freshly falling leaves and the cooler evening breezes. The Skygreen Leopards' latest album Gorgeous Johnny is filled with a baker's dozen willowy psych-tinged folk pop numbers. Their pretty, slightly woozy melodies drift in and out of the shadows, making for an ever so comfortingly drowsy listen. Adding a bit more sweetness to the hazy warm concoction is the presence of The Papercuts' Jason Quever on bass, drums and piano. The band continues to follow surefootedly in the distinctly west coast countrified pop Americana tradition of The Byrds, Moby Grape, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Grateful Dead. Definitely recommended if you dig contemporaries like Devendra Banhart, Fleet Foxes and Vetiver too.
The Jewelled Antler circle of influence continues to grow as various bands and groups and indviduals of the Jewelled Antler ilk leave the JA nest and find themselves releasing records for different labels. The Skygreen Leopards, who occupy the poppier side of the JA spectrum, and who recently released a record on Soft Abuse, now find themselves on Jagjaguwar, with a brand new cd coming next month. But in the meantime, Jagjaguwar has released this super limited vinyl-only 12" to tide us all over. And like past Skygreen Leopards releases, it is indeed a gem. Sparkling avant folk collides with subtly psychedelic sort-of-pop, reverbed banjo and delicately strummed acoustic guitars, gorgeous breathy vocals, field recordings and all sorts of sonic filligree. Darkly delerious, sparkling and shimmery, and perfectly beautiful. VERY LIMITED so don't delay!
Here's another six songs of glistening folk-psych wonderment from what's probably the indie-rock poppiest of Jewelled Antler aligned combos currently going, The Skygreen Leopards. The 'Leps core duo of JA bigwig Glenn Donaldson (Thuja, Ivytree, Blithe Sons, Franciscan Hobbies, Buried Civilizations, etc. etc.) and Donovan Quinn (Verdure) here turn in perhaps the most electric Skygreen set yet, with much jangling, buzzing guitar, sweet sweet vocals from both boys, solidly rickety drums and just plain fine, sorta '60s psych sounding songwriting, dosed with hazy, lazy melodies and mythic imagery.
Nature has its fresh breezes and warm sunshine, the Jewelled Antler collective has the Skygreen Leopards. Lovely, so lovely.
Of the very many, very special tines of the Jewelled Antler, it's the Skygreen Leopards perhaps who are best known for airy-fairy folk songcraft. The pastoral folk duo of Donovan Quinn (Verdure, Horticultural Compass) and Glenn Donaldson (Thuja, Ivytree, Blithe Sons, Buried Civilizations, Franciscan Hobbies, Horticultural Compass, etc. etc.), with the occasional help of their "Skyband", have now brought us their third or so album proper (for which the LP-only and now-out-of-print Child God In The Garden Of Idols reviewed last list was but a hazy prelude). Listen in to these boys strumming and singing and lazing about in a sunny Sunday sound-world, grooving with the birds in the trees and the flowers in the fields, into which they've introduced flute and organ and, above all, their voices. Voices that are a little bit Richard Youngs, a little bit Ariel Pink... breathy and high and delicate. As suggested by the artwork -- one of Glenn's lovely nature-fantasia collages -- this is the words and music of fragile fluttering butterflies thinking deep thoughts, mystical thoughts...not that the quasi-religious themes of the lyrics are all that easy to decipher within the raw Jewelled Antler production aesthetic.
We often wonder...can those Jewelled Antler guys do no wrong? Naw, so far, it seems not. Once you're hooked, you're hooked, and we can't help but sing the praises of pretty much all the releases to emanate from this inspired Bay Area "collective" of nature-loving, often-improvising, uber-prolific music-lovers, whether they be cd-r releases on their own Jewelled Antler imprint or one of the many spun-off to other like-minded labels. Like this one, on Soft Abuse. It's the second album from Skygreen Leopards, the duo of Glenn Donaldson (Thuja, Mirza, The Birdtree, etc.) and Donovan Quinn (Verdure), and they sort of align with the other Jewelled Antler "pop/vocal" duos Blithe Sons (also with Donaldson) and Child Readers. But unlike those two, the Skygreen Leopards' songs are actually composed and rehearsed, less products of the moment than good ol' songcraft. Not that they went into any fancy studio to make this or anything, indeed the field recording that opens this disc situates the duo out in a pasture somewhere, seemingly serenading a bovine audience with their achingly lovely, loosely structured psych-folk-pop music. Gentle, whispy vocals sing songs with mythical lyrics, full of both melanchoic sadness and hope. Such song titles as "All Our Plagues Were Rainbows" and "Let Me Grow In Your Meadow" are good indications of what their music evokes. With a vast array of instrumentation (in common with most Jewelled Antler projects) including 6 & 12 string guitars, dulcimer, portable turntable, 5 string banjo, bouzouki, Hammond, chord organ, tamborines, mandolin, penny whistle, and echoplex, Glenn and Donovan conjure some quite beautiful nap-time music, sleepy and serene. Their songs should, obviously, be of great appeal to the whole Ptolemaic Terrascope/Broken Face crowd, with echoes of Elephant 6 (a little Olivia Tremor Control I'm hearing), early Tyrannosaurus Rex, Richard Youngs' folkier stuff. Resplendent in one of Glenn's crude but colourful collages, populated as always by mysterious bird-headed figures, One Thousand Bird Ceremony is an album that captures the la la las of fluffy clouds passing overhead, as the Skygreen Leopards say "Hello To All Your Rain" (track 7).
Wow! The Skygreen Leopards are yet another brilliant facet of psychedelic oddities to shine forth from San Francisco's loose Jewelled Antler collective, featuring the incredibily prolific Glenn Donaldson (Thuja, Blithe Sons, Knit Separates, ex-Mirza,
As with all of the Jewelled Antler manifestations, there's a strong pull by the British psychedelic era, but here far more entranced by druggy, carefree pop songs than the mythologically charged folk scene. The Skygreen Leopards maintain the same wistful, melancholic reminiscence as many of the psychedelic revivalists from the past decade (embraced by such labels as Elephant 6, Creation, and early Spin Art), but have developed a wonderfully playful sense of songwriting. Behind rich guitar leads that have been bathed in colorful, echoplex reverb, Donaldson and Quinn march through acoustic guitar jangles contrasted with breathy vocals floating freely in the distance, sort of sounding like early Pink Floyd or Tyrannosaurus Rex. Like those VHF releases we recently listed, Jewelled Antler is one of those CD-R outlets that is certainly worth checking out, with exceptional music on the inside and nicely conceived artwork on the outside.
**SALE***SALE***SALE**
Another one we somehow neglected to list - back in 2007 when we got 'em in, from the same label that brought us cool stuff by Rabbits, Acre, and Purple Rhinestone Eagle.
This is a split release of crusty blackened thrashing metal, Portland's Order Of The Gash all instrumental (but with gnarly songtitles), the amazingly monikered Slam Dunk (With Authority!) doing their thing with gnarly vocals too.
Pressed on translucent "periwinkle" colored vinyl. LIMITED TO 300 numbered copies, and who knows, these might be the last ones anywhere.
Fell in love with this band over 20 years ago!! Slant 6 were an all-girl indie-punk trio from DC, who made two albums for Dischord back in the early nineties. Soda Pop*Rip Off was their first, and arguably best (though Inzombia was good too, hopefully Dischord will soon be reissuing it as well). You might have noticed we mentioned Slant 6 in one of our Record Of The Week reviews last list, Rips by Ex Hex. Ex Hex being the new band of Mary Timony of Helium/Wild Flag - who long ago, before Helium, was in a band called Autoclave with Christina Billotte. Christina then went on to front Slant 6, and later, Quix*o*tic (with her sister Mira, later of White Magic), as well as the Casual Dots. We detected a hint of Slant 6 in Ex Hex's garagey pop, for sure, and as it turns out Ex Hex has even covered Slant 6's "What Kind Of Monster Are You?", so it's such good timing that this album, originally released in 1994, has just been reissued on (red) vinyl - which now also includes a download.
It's an obvious choice for Record Of The Week, when a great old fave like this happens to get the vinyl reissue treatment (or even, sometimes, if we just find a cache of original copies, like that Treepeople we made a Record Of The Week recently). After all, there's got to be lots of you out there who missed out the first time, right? So we're super happy to have this to write about this week, and fall in love with all over again. And if you liked the Ex Hex, you gotta hear this, Slant 6 still an inspiration all these years later, an exemplar of youthful, girls-that-rock energy and girls-that-take-no-shit attitude. Super catchy, super cool, more fun than Sleater-Kinney (who came along a little later), less didactic than some of their Riot Grrrl contemporaries such as Bikini Kill, just a killer band fervently kicking out the pop-punky, new wavy blasts, and often having something serious to say while they do it.
All 16 tracks here are great, some dark and angry, some moody and melodic; usually pretty tightly wound, topped off with Christina's excellent, distinctive vocals and slashing guitar. The trio also included Myra Power on bass and backing vox, and Marge Marshall on drums. We note that Marshall sports a Boredoms sticker on her kit in the back cover photo - and also plays trumpet, a la Yoshimi, on one odd instrumental jazz-march song here. Part DC hardcore, part surfy garage, part art-femme-punk, so very rollicking and choppy and hooky and right on.
We remember being so excited seeing them live back in day, and this spinning this record still gives us a thrill. Check it out!
Note: lp lacks the 3 tracks from the "What Kind Of Monster..." 7" included on the cd edition, but the mp3 download does have 'em.
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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Man oh man this is one of my favorite albums of all time! Acnalbasac Noom. Produced by powerhouse krautrock / Faust producer Uwe Nettelbeck in 1973, this is actually a rerecorded version of an earlier Slapp Happy album Casablanca Moon. And it's better. Dagmar Krause's singular birdlike voice (which you will either love or hate) cavorts above the clang-a-clang metallic strum of Peter Blegvad's guitar. Give it a listen, their style is completely unique.
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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First album in decades from this English trio, featuring all three original members -- Peter Blegvad, Dagmar Krause, and Anthony Moore.
First time on cd for this Slapp Happy album, recorded in 1972 by Uwe Nettelbeck (Faust producer), and featuring the talents of Peter Blegvad and Anthony Moore on jangly, chiming artrock guitar, and Dagmar Krause's warbly birdlike vocals. What a voice. While "Sort Of" is not as consistent as their "Acnalbasac Noom" album (which is where you should start first if you've never heard Slapp Happy), it's got some certifiably perfect gems, including the original and far superior version of "Blue Flower," which Mazzy Star later rudely covered without giving credit, worth the price of the disc alone.
From the ashes of the VSS, come the Slaves. As expected, good, dark, new-wave-y, Birthday Party-ish stuff embellished with quite impressive keyboard flourishes. Some of this was previously released as a 12" on Loveletter Recordings. (note: as of early 2001, known as Pleasure Forever)
Record number two from this now defunct, vocal/synth psychedelic shoegaze duo, recorded back in 2009, and released not long after their Debacle cd-r, Ocean On Ocean. And like that record, on Grey Angel the Slaves again masterfully conjure up some sort of cosmic otherworld, a sound so expansive and epic, its hard to believe they're just a duo, layers of smoldering synths, swirling clouds of blurred effects, and the vocals, ethereal an angelic, like a deconstructed Slowdive, or My Bloody Valentine, slowed way down, and smeared into alien torch songs, the music roiling and full of motion, the lush raga like tones draped over a swirl of fractured melodies and vocal fragments, a darkly dour, melancholic rhythmless drift, all buzz and fuzz and rumble and whir, bleeding into one organic sonic swoon. On the tracks that hew closer to traditional songcraft, the melodies coalesce into something that almost sounds like some lost eighties synthwave creep, but the Slaves add wild squalls of psychedelic guitars, and reverb drenched vocal acrobatics, all of those disparate elements again woven into something impossibly lovely and dreamily mesmerizing.
A collection of melted pop songs, of deconstructed shoegaze, which occasionally, like on the cold wave poppy "Visions", definitely sounds like it could be some unearthed eighties synth pop gem, but of course spinning at the wrong speed, and not to mention the weirdly processed male vox, almost robotic, a weirdly (im)perfect foil for the gorgeous powerful soaring female vox. But of course, it doesn't take long for the band to slip back into something more abstract and tripped out, looping snipped vox over thick synth swells, all again as a backdrop to those gorgeous vocals.
"Ancestors" almost sounds like witch house, with all the rhythms stripped away, and the sounds super saturated, sonically coloring way outside the lines, haunting and dreamily ominous, the track growing more and more noisy and chaotic as it goes, culminating in the sweetly brooding slo-mo shoegaze dreamwave of the closer "Angel", which sounds like the sort of thing you'd expect to hear from Sleep Over or Still Corners, a totally gorgeous hazy, hushed dreamsynth ballad, that sounds a little bit like Zola Jesus on 4AD...
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!
We love bands whose music-making formula appears, on the surface, simple and intuitive, yet the sounds they create are huge, engulfing and seemingly complex. Using two synthesizers and echoing vocals, The Slaves inhabit a sound that is as lush and dense as it is mysterious and minimal. Their debut album, Ocean on Ocean, is the perfect showcase of a group that can conjure up bountiful sounds within a restrained approach. Honestly, we can't get enough of Ocean on Ocean, something about those enormous, dreamy, engulfing songscapes just leaves us wanting more. Their oozing brew of minimal pop melts and blurs with the melodic thickness of MBV's Loveless or early Slowdive, but surrenders to a contemplative mode that falls somewhere between Gregorian hymn and pagan ritual. The duo spin a radiant web of sustained vocals and heavy synth, each chord drawn out and smeared into a neon haze while indecipherable lyrics suggest longing, loss and submission to oblivion.�
"Seventeen" unfolds with a slow arching chord progression that grows and dissipates like a coastal tide. Female vocals creep into the oceanic haze while fluttering noise and cosmic wash hover in obscurity. And though the rhythm-less wash may appear to be aimless improv, a close listen reveals a defined structure beneath the veil of long tones and heavy atmospherics. And yes, The Slaves are heavy. And it's not a 'down-tuned guitars through a wall of amps' kind of heavy. It's more evident in the slow movement of the songs, and the visceral effects felt by each musical gesture. The duo have perfectly crafted a searing offering of 'soft doom', so gorgeous and mesmerizing we've had Ocean on Ocean on repeat for the past week. "Shadows" is another noteworthy track. We love the push and pull of heavy synth and whispery vocals, whirls of female voice echo into the night then dissipate into huge swells of HEAVY distorted synth. Crumbling low end amid ethereal dream chants, what else could we ask for?? One of our favorite records in recent memory and highly recommended!�
Last year, when we listed the Paradigms cd of Grey Angel by The Slaves, we lamented that the band had already ceased to exist. They had only produced two full albums (the aforementioned Grey Angel and the currently out of print Ocean On Ocean, which will get reissued on 2lp in early fall 2012) and a mini-cassette, all of which were thoroughly brilliant amalgams of ethereal shoegaze and doom-tinged heaviness, akin to Lovesliescrushing genetically re-engineered to sound like Barn Owl. Fortunately, the declaration of the defunct-ness of The Slaves was indeed premature, as the Portland duo of Barbara Kinzle and Birch Cooper have returned and released this epic lp Spirits Of The Sun for Digitalis! The hiatus (which, seemed to be the result of the, um, romantic disentanglement betwixt the two) didn't change The Slaves' sound all that much, with elegantly fuzzed out synth melodies girding the liturgical, somber heaviness suspended upon the slow-motion crawl of the songs. Both Kinzle and Cooper intertwine wordless vocals around the fundamental tunes, which emote with the best of sound poems from Grouper but also align with plainsong chants from forgotten cathedrals. On top of all of this, they thoroughly smother everything in a beautifully luminescent blur of dream-pop / shoegazed noise. The album's opener "III" explodes with a dense accretion of guitar noise that pops in stark relief against the languid vocal chorales. "River" and "The Field" melt together with "III" to form the first side of the album with its oceanic heaviness of synth and guitar dronescaping. "Born Into Light" is a side long majestic epic that blossoms with much more blistering guitar noise searing through the melodic synth backbone, all of which deflates back to a nocturne of vocal incantations. Totally beautiful and totally recommended!
We don't list a whole lot of PUNK rock, and it's not cuz we don't love punk rock, everyone at aQ has iPods full of Crass, Flipper, Die Kreuzen, Misfits, Didjits, Amebix, Channel 3, Spazz, Sore Throat, Naked Raygun, Rudimentary Peni, Man Is The Bastard, Black Flag, well, you get the idea, but modern day punk just doesn't often do it for us. Every once in a while something kicks our ass and usually it comes out of nowhere. Such is the case with Norwegian aggro grind punks Slaxxmaal, this being their first ever vinyl release and it's a doozy. 7"s, 19 songs, many clocking in at 15, 10, even 2 seconds. Furious thrashing grinding chaos, vocals that shriek hysterically one second bellow monstrously the next, guitars more angular and obtuse than most punk rock riffing, and drums like an avalanche of percussion, all wound up TIGHT, into short sharp bursts of blinding deafening fury. Some tracks slow things down, like the opener, with it's almost sludgey groove, Greg Ginn-ish guitar freakouts and howled demonlike vocals, but the band typically explode back into super aggressive blasts of grindpunk destruction. Awesome.
Comes with a printed lyric sheet, all in Norwegian, tons of photos and a bad ass skull cover.
If you love Sleater-Kinney and think they can do no wrong, well, hurry on down and fight with the millions of like-minded souls who'll also be desperate to purchase a copy of this. If you're not already convinced, or are over them already, or always found their vocals grating, or for whatever reason aren't a fan...this won't change things I don't think.
Released just a skip ahead of the album from which it sprang (but appearing concurrently on this week's AQList!), this is the first single from Sleater-Kinney's latest hottie, The Woods. The vinyl version delivers two songs "Entertain" b/w "Everything" (which was recorded during The Woods sessions but was not included on the full length). The cd version includes the 'b-side' as well as a live recording of the album's lead-off track "The Fox". Ummm, we feel we should forewarn you though that the latter song features the Corin Tucker vocal performance that completely freaked all of us out when we first played The Woods. Seriously some of us were terrified (please see the album review if you don't believe us).
Our lips were sealed... Several months ago a former aQ employee and friend of the store told us a little secret. He knew that Sleater-Kinney were in San Francisco working on a brand new album. For some of us S-K fanatics this news brought squeals of disbelief & excitement but we promised to keep it like a secret. Fast forward a few months and the reissues of Sleater-Kinney's back catalog on vinyl hit along with a deluxe box set which included a 7" of a new song. The cat was finally out of the bag, as one of the most beloved bands of the '90s and '00s were making a big comeback.
As much as we love and hold the band near to our hearts, we had some fears and reservations. They seemed to go out and break up at such a perfect time and we always get worried about bands we love tainting such a perfect legacy. Our fears were instantly put aside when this new album came to light, as it's filled with everything we love about the band without being a rehash, repeat or a lesser version of what they did before. In fact it feels like one of the most alive and engaging albums of their career. While not quite as heavy as their erstwhile swansong The Woods (2005), it still taps into the huge sound they were exploring on that record while infusing it with the more punchy, poppy, and melodic elements of an older S-K fave, 1999's The Hot Rock.
There's an expression that comes up a lot, "more than the sum of their parts," and it couldn't be more fitting and true with regard to the three players in S-K. Since the band shut down shop they have all kept making records (The Corin Tucker Band, Wild Flag, etc.) but none of those endeavors was able to reach anywhere near the impact or power of what they do when they come together as Sleater-Kinney. While the band is often lazily referenced as merely coming from the riot grrl scene, S-K always had aspirations and a vision that looked at larger possibilities of any scene or movement. Over the course of their career they became a band that were truly monsters of rock in a way that we could fully get behind. Their live shows are legendary, and that high octane energy is present and pushed to the front on this new album. These are songs that make you wanna raise your fist, sing and scream along, and believe in the power of punk & rock n' roll. Like the heirs to everyone from The Who to Patti Smith to The Clash to Sonic Youth, Sleater Kinney show that when they are together the only thing they know how to do is make music that matters.
Note: available as cd, regular lp, or deluxe fancy lp with bonus extra 12" with 2 more songs (while they last)!
Yup, Corin Tucker's voice is still kicking up the wee hairs in my ears in a manner which I've never found particularly pleasurable. Others may feel quite the opposite. For sure, it's an unmistakable, much-imitated, love-it-or-hate-it kind of voice. Really, it's the one thing that's kept me from totally digging their records. I mean, the music rocks! And that said, One Beat is pretty darn stellar. There's definitely been a lot of artistic growth and maturing since All Hands On The Bad One. Although there's plenty that's pleasingly familiar - Janet Weiss' drumming's as solid as ever, Tucker and Carrie Brownstein have honed their guitar craft into something so dynamic and complex, likewise, the vocal interplay between the three women is fab - there's also lots of stretching out, trying new things, drawing from a wider range of influences and inspirations. One Beat has some hot numbers on it, "Combat Rock" and "02" to name just two. The only song that sticks out in a less than good way is the final one. "Sympathy" is a slide guitar number with Tucker affecting an excessive country blues warble. Almost sounds as if they were sippin' from the same bottle of Mississippi moonshine that seemed to have felled Mr. Calvin Johnson on his most recent album. Au secours! Regardless, this album gets the thumbs up, baby!
If you really liked Dig Me Out but thought to yourself 'could Corin Tucker's voice get any more annoying?' Well then here comes The Hot Rock to answer with a resounding YES! The music is excellent, really driving and intense, if you can withstand her piercing banshee wail.
But if you are anything like our co-worker Marc, then it's ALL about the amazing 'voice' (and certainly not about the truly LAME album cover. That we can both agree on). Tucker's voice is not only a wholly original sound, she is developing it into a finely tuned instrument. SK is truly one of the best straight-out rock 'n' roll bands today.
First things first, this new Sleater-Kinney IS a good one...but the following review tends to dwell heavily on our various, mostly negative, reactions to the vocals. But we know that if you're already in the S-K fanclub, you'll probably have no problems with 'em, the taste has long since been acquired. So, that said:
Omigod, OMIGOD! You should've seen Andee's face the first time we played this new Sleater-Kinney album. He came tearing out of the back office hollering "Holy crap! What is this?!" Lemme tell you, he wasn't smiling, and neither are any of the rest of us, well, maybe Allan is. Okay as we've mentioned repeatedly in the past, Corin Tucker's vocals are a total love/hate kinda thing -- they really illicit strong reactions from all who hear it -- but her singing on this album takes it to a whole 'nother place, and we've gotta say it's not such a good one. It's waaay over the top blood-curdling emoting that rivals Kirstin Hersh's recent vocal perfomance in her rock band 50 Foot Wave. When does an empassioned delivery cross the line into downright caterwauling? Yikes. Allan called it "lemon-squeezing", as in Robert Plant / Led Zep (and actually, he seems to like the singing). Andee and Cup both say "????" That said, as usual when Carrie Brownstein sings along, things are far more palatable, but no less potent. On (in?) The Woods, Tucker, Brownstein and Janet Weiss continue to grow and explore new paths. For one thing, they've turned up the blues, making their already churning powerhouse rock songs stomp rather than punch. Just as he did on the latest Low album, producer David Fridmann does a fine job of capturing the band's raw energy while adding his own distinct touches. The guitars are absolutely thunderous yet still defined, and the overall picture is plenty loose, heavy and full of grit. Fortunately unlike their recent press photos in which they appear strangely stiff and uncomfortable, when the three are making music it's clear that they're totally at ease with themselves and each other. With confidence to spare, they're three very distinct musicians who fit together form a wholly united force -- pursuing their muse, challenging themselves as well as their fans. That said, we still think Brownstein and Weiss should've stepped in when Tucker was tracking her vocals and said, "Whoa Nellie!" Nonetheless pretty darn kickass!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
One song from Sleater K's new album, plus one track -collectors alert- not on the album ("Maracas").
New Zealand's Sleep is very very different from the Sabbath worshippin' stoner-doom band of the same name. This Sleep is a quartet of New Zealand free noise musicians, including stalwarts Kim Pieters and Peter Stapleton, as well as Nathan Thompson and Susan Ballard. As with other collaborations between Pieters and Stapleton (such as Rain, Flies Inside The Sun), Sleep's work is based on
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
By now you may be familiar with the saga of this record, which consists soley of one infamous 52-minute long Sabbathy stoner-doom SONG to end all such songs (originally titled "Dopesmoker"). The original label, London Records, dropped the band (which then broke up--I hear some of the guys are possibly now born-again Christians) and this release was shelved. Now, over a year later, it finally gets legit release (there'd been a semi-official bootleg in the meantime--this has different artwork). Suffice to say, that if you're at all interested in the possiblities of mind expansion through maximum riff-bludgeonment over time, and haven't scored this yet, do so!
Latest batch of blissy trippy dreaminess from Sleep Over, aka Stephanie from aQ faves Silver Pines, and it's a doozy, a lush, washed out chunk of soft focus psychedelic dream pop for sure. Lush swells of warm buzz wash over swoonsome melodies, eighties style beats are submerged in a sea of warped and woozy laid back ambience, the sound ethereal and shoegazey, very 4AD, a sort of slo-mo electro pop, rife with gorgeous hazy vocal harmonies, peppered with bits of electronics here and there, the whole thing drags dreamily, as if someone had a finger on the record while it played (and spin it at 33 instead of 45 and it sounds seriously witch house-y).
The B side begins with a burst of skittery programmed rhythms, over distant swells and disembodied vox, the vibe would almost be funky if it weren't so murky and spaced out. The sound is like some primitive remix, bloops and bleeps surface amidst the muted thrum, synths swell and recede, all wreathed in a pulsing downtempo murky driftscape, the vocals growing more and more abstract and minimal, a blurred field of swirls and whorls, a fantastically druggy bit of dreamy ambient driftpop.
Pressed on heavy pink/purple transparent vinyl, and housed in a super thick full color jacket, and yeah, most likely pretty dang limited...
Finally, we got enough of these to list, the darkly dreamy lp debut of Stefanie Franciotti's hazy and gauzy solo outfit, Sleep Over. A new light in the field of female-led synthesization, a la Laurel Halo and Maria Minerva, Sleep Over is a stunning mix of Grouper's washed out and oceanic distortion, Cocteau Twins-ish pop romanticism and uncanny gothic dream soundtrack. We've been fans of Franciotti since her days as singer in aQ faves, Silver Pines, but in Sleep Over she has found her true calling as an experimental sound composer, synthesizing voice and sound in chillingly bright sonic environments and ambient textures. Gorgeous!
You have to make sure when you're crafting comparisons you don't get too carried away. We're WAY into hyperbole, as by now you probably all realize, but sometimes hyperbole can backfire. We get so many records that get described as sounding like the Stooges crossed with Nirvana mixed with Black Sabbath and on and on, until you arrive as something that could not possibly be true. We weren't super familiar with the Sleepers, other than knowing they were a legendary psychedelic goth punk outfit from SF, which featured members Crime, Tuxedomoon and Toiling Midgets. But before we even heard this reissue, we read this quote from Joe Carducci in his book Rock And The Pop Narcotic, where he wrote: "The Sleepers were an awesome powerhouse live. They were an appropriate refinement of The Stooges, and what Joy Division might have developed into had they the balls." What? He had us until that last part. And we can see why Superior Viaduct would go with that quote, who wouldn't? "Like Joy Division with balls!" Sadly, as we all know, Joy Division most definitely had the balls, and while the Sleepers did aspire to the same great heights, they were definitely a whole different sort of beast. Their sound was more gloomy and gothy, more pop than punk for sure, gothic West Coast style, the sound that would later define places like the Scream Club, and would spawn bands like the Abecedarians and Kommunity FK, it's a sound we dig for sure, but a whole different thing.
This record was The Sleepers' only album, and definitely tends toward the woozy brooding side of the sound, even a track like "The Mind" that starts out all crunchy and fuzzy and punky, quickly morphs into something more poppy and psychedelic. Weirdly, we ended up digging the second half of the record more. After the brief industrial rhythmscape "Intro", "Forever" unfurls as a strident slab of post punk psych pop, all tribal drumming, swoonsome guitar textures, low slung basslines, and dramatic crooned vox. "Zenith" might be our favorite track here though, with it's swirl of guitar harmonics, the opening few minutes sounding like Durutti Column, all hypnotic psychedelic guitar swirls, which are soon joined by martial snare and swirling string like chords, before launching into a dark driving gloom punk groove. The rest of the record unwinds similarly, noisy, gloomy, gothy, dark and dramatic.
As with all Superior Viaduct reissues, fantastic heavy vinyl, the record sourced from the analog originals, nice thick covers, this one with a 12"x24" insert, old band flyer on one side (featuring Cabaret Voltaire and Young Marble Giants, which also gives a good idea of the Sleepers' sound), the other with liner notes from Joe Carducci.
A few lists back we reviewed the recent reissue of the only full length from gothic West Coast punks the Sleepers, on local reissue label Superior Viaduct. As a companion to that lp reissue comes this, the group's 1978 7" debut, reproduced right down to the original cover. And unlike the full length, the 7" finds the band sounding way more punk, sure the deep dramatic vox are present, but they had yet to evolve into what Joe Carducci hyperbolically described as "What Joy Division Might have developed into had they had the balls." It's a little gloomy, and a little gothic, and a little psychedelic, but mostly punk, and it's a heady mix, one that may foreshadow the tribal drum driven gloominess of the lp, but also displays a feral punk rock energy that was less present on the lp. Five killer tracks that we've been listening to like crazy!
Finally, a new record from this UK black-bliss / screamo / dreamo / blackgaze outfit, who take the post black metal of groups like Alcest and Amesouers to the next level, transforming buzzing, blasting blackness into bleary, beautiful blissed out heaviness, less black metal and more black tinged dream pop. The last Sleeping Peonies was so limited we sold out in a heartbeat, and even though we are the exclusive distributor for this new one, we're expecting the same thing to happen again, as it's limited to just 130 copies, of which we got less than half!!!
It's a short record, less than 20 minutes, but it's more than enough, six tracks of gorgeously, melancholic and blissfully blown out heaviness, by turns poppy and prismatic, somber and haunting, the only real black metal elements remaining, are some insectoid guitar buzz, and some anguished vokills, cuz otherwise, sonically, it's much more aligned with classic 4AD goth, nineties shoegaze, modern bliss pop, and the production reminds us to folks like TIm Hecker or Leyland Kirby, all gristly and washed out, woozy and warbly, home brewed and super distorted, the sounds melting and crumbling, all wound up in gorgeous heart wrenching melancholy melodies.
The opener, with the very emo title "A Timid Eyelash Flutter", sets the scene, with dark piano chords, wreathed in reverb and echo, slowly enveloped by huge billowy squalls of blacknoise, swirling soft focus static, the sound super psychedelic, and totally mesmerizing. "Dreamrrz" adds some raspy vokills to what would otherwise be straight up fuzzy new wave goth pop, and sans those vocals could be some Brooklyn band on Captured Tracks. "Cemetery Kisses" too is all Cure and Kate Bush, tangled up into something fuzzier and blacker, but only just, a slow build to an epic softly psychedelic coda, replete with dramatic deep vox and wild swaths of distorted guitar. The title track takes buzzing black metal guitar, and wreathed it in prismatic shimmer, and recasts it as something totally dreamlike and blissed out, with a soaring sonic climax, that would give Godspeed a run for their money, but the sound here is pushed way into the red, crumbling and blurring into gorgeous abstract smears, while buried beneath all this swirl and shimmer, drums pound and piano plinks, leading into the hypnotically cosmic "Snowbound In Hazel And Furs", which begins all hazy and poppy, before the sound darkens a bit, burying the poppiness beneath some wintry buzz, heavy, but softly, and woozily heavy, settling into something much more gloom-gaze goth-pop than metal, but it's that metal underpinning that gives this bliss pop teeth. Finally, the record winds down with a gorgeous ambient closer, all looped and layered, and wreathed in soft FX, man, would we kill for a whole record of that mesmerizing dreaminess!
Gorgeous stuff for sure. Maybe too blissy and poppy for some metalheads, but their loss, and popkids might find this the perfect gateway to darker sonic climes, and really, anyone into all strains of shoegaze-y dream pop, who doesn't mind a bit of black and buzz in their jangle and shimmer, this is pure black-pop perfection...
LIMITED TO 130 COPIES, housed in a purple parchment envelope, with a cardstock Japanese style obi, an 11" x 17" poster, an 8 page 5.5" x 8.5" booklet, album notes printed on gray parchment, the envelope hand decorated and adorned with faeries!
One thing's for sure, the band's name does not refer to the band members nor to those for whom this music may be suited. Perhaps the most kinetic (we might even guess caffeinated) bands to be released by this label in some time. Whereas we've come to warmly anticipate washy contemplative post-rock from this label (Kammerflimmer Kollektief, Eluvium, Sonna to name a few), Sleeping People caught us a bit by surprise. This half dozen songs contains enough math-iness to drain your calculator's batteries! Oof!!
