Ooooh. The Story is a good one. Imagine if Elliott Smith was fey and British and made hippie music (that's what Pam calls this, and it's a pretty good description). The Story is the handiwork of the father-son duo of Martin and Tom Welham, Tale Spin being the full-length follow up to their side of the split LP they did last year with Santa Cruz psychfolk outfit Whysp. We know Whysp were excited to appear on the same piece of vinyl as these guys, since Welham the elder (Martin) was once an important member of legendary UK psychfolk band Forest, whose two all-too-obscure albums from the early '70s are both firm favorites among us here at Aquarius as well! We LOVE that band. And are very happy to report that Martin and his son Tom have kept the tradition alive and well. The Story's music is full of the same leafy forest glade melody and melancholy that made Martin's old band so amazing. Being a duo, this is more acoustic and less rock than Forest sometimes got, but is otherwise definitely reminiscent in terms of songwriting quality and style. For those of you who haven't heard Forest, we could offer comparisons as well to the Olivia Tremor Control, Yes, and the Hollies... sort of... think of those bands at their most gentle and acoustic and twee. A magical combination of sweet strum, mellow vocal harmonies, and poetic lyrics (one of our favorite lines, from "Winterborn" -- "It takes a lifetime, but in the end / You come to know what the fates intend"). Total hum along music. Recommended!!
The Dawn Is Crowded is an international split LP between West Coasters Whysp and The Story who hail from the U.K. and count as members Martin Welham of '60s psych-folk band Forest and his son Tom! Not unlike waking at the daybreak and stumbling across an earthy psych-folk gathering deep within some distant enchanted forest. On The Story's side, everything is leafy green, glistening with dew and pixie dust with slightly twee male vocals. On the flip side, Whysp invite a few more players into the fold for a more varied and up-tempo group performance. Nice!
Best band name ever? Definitely a contender. Never really thought that the Buzzcocks' Pete Shelley had anything like this in him, but this album is pretty damn good regardless! Almost living up to the ridiculous moniker! Strange Men In Sheds With Spanners was Shelley's oddball synth-wave project that began even before the Buzzcocks broke up in 1981. Back then, he took up the habit of inviting any number of unmentioned 'guests' over to his studio to jam with anything and everything in the studio; and these Strange Men In Sheds With Spanners recordings came from the many tapes that he had made by these means from 1980-1984. Who those 'guests' in Shelley's studio might have been is anybody's guess. Our guess though? Maybe Eric Random, maybe Francis Cookson, maybe Sally Timms from The Mekons. Regardless, the resultant recordings are an electronic-heavy art-punk with plenty of weirdo synth meanderings, Keith Levene sounding guitar splinterings, dub-inflected basslines, and scatterbrained effects. None of the punk-pop hooks from the Buzzcocks are found here, even when guitars, bass, and drums enter the picture; it's pretty much all about the studio as instrument with lots of effects swarming about the drum machine rhythms and bare-bones post-punk grooves. One could think of The Storm Bugs, Crawling Chaos, The Psyclones, or Jeff & Jane Hudson. Vinyl-only, and sorry, there's no download card with this LP.
The Strangulated Beatoffs are a weird weird band. But then what did you expect from a band called the Strangulated Beatoffs? Or from a band that features members of infamous noise punks Drunks With Guns?
This demented duo sometimes use samplers and loops to make fucked up hypnotic grooves and seriously demented electronic weirdness, but as is evidenced by Greatest Hits, they're also puerile purveyors of sick sludgey noise rock and filthy drunkrock dirges. Greatest Hits is mostly a collection of seven inches, the earliest recordings of the Beatoffs circa 1988-1992 or so and thus are maybe the closest sonically to the late great Drunks With Guns. Some tracks like "Porky The Pig And Bess" and "Heeby Jeeby/Practicing To Be A Doctor" are heavy dirgey space rock drug jams that sound like they could have been yanked from a Butthole Surfers set, while others, like "Lick My Butthole" musically sound like Dutch post metallers Gore, but with the addition of some goofy fucked up lyrics, and some damaged shards of buzz and crunch.
"It's A Vile, Vile, Vile, Vile World" is a super lengthy collage of looped eighties Carpenter-ish soundtracks, that sounds like it could be James Ferraro, but it's from at least a decade before Ferraro delved into lysergic pop music, so the Beatoffs are unsung musical pioneers! Fuck yeah! There's a Troggs cover too, but you'd never know it, a murky field recording that sounds like it was captured in the bar around the corner from the show, there's a dorky acoustic ditty, some strange carnivalesque child molesting weirdness, some Mentors like punk rock, but the finest moments are when the band do their best Butthole Surfers, crafting longform drone dirge drug rock, all swirling spacey effects, gnarled looped guitars, and mesmerizingly motorik beats...
If you're not sold by now, maybe this will sway you: Strangulated Beatoffs are one of Andee's all time favorite bands. EVER. So much so that he contacted them about reissuing all of their records, maybe even a box set, but all they wanted to release on tUMULt was their record of Genesis covers! (And then he never heard from them again.) How rad is that???
Besides having one of the best band names ever, Strangulated Beatoffs have to be one of our favorite modern purveyors of what-the-fuck sonic weirdness, a group whose sound is impossible to pin down, sometimes a Drunks With Guns like dirgey scumrock sludge, other times, a twisted outsider electronica, groovy and loopy one minute, noisy and punishing the next. Although, not sure where this record would fall on that spectrum. To Begin with, as the title might have given away, The White Album is in fact, the Beatoffs' version of that classic Beatles record, here reimagined as something altogether more lo-fi and noisy, but by Beatoffs standards, not necessarily all that weird. "I Am The Walrus" starts things off, and sounds pretty much like a noisy psychedelic rock band doing a pretty straight ahead version, lo-fi and wreathed in guitar noise, but then things begin to devolve with "Norwegian Wood", the vocals a WAY up in the mix, atonal drawl, over simply strummed guitars, the song peppered with belches and studio chatter, and a whistle solo (!). Damaged and a little bit twisted for sure, but still strangely respectful to the original. Which is, quite surprisingly, how much of this plays out. "Ticket To Ride" is a pretty decent cover, all grungy guitars, and plaintive vocals, buried drums, distorted and blown out and psychedelic, then "Rocky Raccoon" is a warbly sprawl of darkly psychedelic croon and strum, echo drenched, and woozy. The rest of the record plays out similarly, the Beatoffs delivering a fuzzed out, droney, psychedelic take on this classic record, sounding like some warped, wasted bar band, inadvertently transforming the Beatles original into something that sounds more like Liquorball. And if you're wondering where all the other songs are, well, check out "Dear Prudence", which crams fragments of ALL the rest of the White Album, into a single song!
This recording from 1989 has been reissued on vinyl now by Skin Graft, as well as on pro-printed cd-r (yes cd-r not actual cd, not sure why).
We've been waiting for this reissue for 16 years. In fact, we briefly entertained the idea of trying to release it ourselves. It's a record we have been obsessed with since it came out in 1994, a super limited self released lp, a record we taped for everyone we knew, played for everyone we knew, the kind of record that inspired that sort of undying dedication, a totally unsung, indie pop gem from the early nineties, that attained a degree of infamy with a handful of weirdo music obsessives, but remained well removed from the spotlight it so richly deserved. Spin magazine even declared it one of the "Ten Best Records You've Never Heard", which probably sadly still applies, 15+ years later, but maybe not for long. Not if we have anything to say about it.
Those of you who are in your thirties or forties, no doubt remember the era that spawned the Strapping Fieldhands, think Trumans Water, Thinking Fellers, Sun City Girls, Pavement, the Grifters, Guided By Voices... The Strapping Fieldhands would go on to make a bunch more records, but Discus is where it all started, and is STILL the group's masterwork, a chaotic and confusional jumble of nineties indie noise rock and British Invasion pop, and as the liner notes point out, there's also a definite pre-British Invasion skiffle feel to many of the songs, skiffle being the sound that inspired the sound of the Beatles and the Kinks and all the other British bands of the era. The record itself is a hodge podge, a stumbling, glorious ramshackle jumble, slipping from gorgeous perfect pop, to angular free noise drift, to dirgey balladry, to rollicking rocking, to super experimental sound collage, most of those elements and sounds blending and mixing, into a sound, and a collection of songs, that sounded like nothing else then, and nothing since. Folks into Elephant 6 might be surprised to discover there was a band doing something similar, and arguably better already, and everyone who digs the new wave of noise rock / garage pop, a la Sic Alps, Oh Sees, it would be hard to imagine that those guys hadn't heard and dug heavily the Fieldhands.
The opening of "Boo Hoo Hoo" still gives us chills, the jaunty whistle, the woozy jangle, the faux British vocals, the immediately irresistible hook, the chorus with it's cloying melody and random cowbell, still one of the greatest pop songs ever. In fact, the opening three tracks, are another one of those timeless classic opening sonic salvos that remains pretty much untouchable. "Boo Hoo Hoo" is followed by "Sad Lament Of The American Indian", which begins all dirgey and druggy, totally reminiscent of Thinking Fellers / Sun City Girls and Polvo too, the chords warped and off kilter, the drums stumbly and chaotic, before slipping right back into another incredible pop jam, wrapped in streaks of feedback, hooky and jangly, and so catchy, but still so warped and just slightly twisted. "When You Came" rounds out the opening trio, with its dramatic slow build, and heartfelt sort-of-chorus, at which point the record begins its decent into (even more) madness, skipping gleefully from perfect pop to whatthefuck and back again. "Coffin Cello" is all splattery percussion, detuned twang, twisted vocals, moaning and groaning, if anything it sounds a bit like Cromagnon, total caveman psychedelia, which leads right into "Battle Down The Quarter Mile", a total classic pop gem, with strange looped basslines, descending crystalline guitar melodies, distorted vocals, and another KILLER chorus, which again slips back into an organ drenched, ultra lo-fi, droned out bit of weirdo outrock, before returning to poppier climes, "Mysterious Girl" is another impossibly perfect and hooky chunk of jangle pop, this time laced with cello, and other strings, which leads directly into "Luminous Bodies", a weirdo track that starts out almost punk rock, muted and murky, before blossoming into a meandery bit of poppy dirge, laced with synths and crunchy guitars, and those amazing, sort of British vocals, and so it goes. Push and pull, back and forth, tease you with a bit of sonic confection, only to bludgeon you with a flurry of chaotic crunch, and then nurse you back with still more pop prettiness, sometimes the demarcation between the Fieldhands' two distinct sides, not so distinct at all, which is precisely what makes them, and this record in particular so magical.
Imagine the Sun City Girls, but if instead of being obsessed with Southeast Asian music, they were obsessed with the Kinks and the Bee Gees, Discus would have been their Torch Of The Mystics. Guided By Voices' Bee Thousand, another pop classic from the same era, is considered by many to be essential listening a classic of the era, while Discus often slips through the cracks, which is odd when you consider that both groups, and both records, are essentially products of the same sonic obsessions, but Bee Thousand, for all its quirkiness and brevity of song, still goes down a whole lot easier than Discus, which is perhaps one of the main reasons Discus remained an acquired taste, but as we all know, the easiest listening is not necessarily the most satisfying, so if you like a little grit and grime with your jangle, some whatthefuck with your timeless hooks, some noise with your pop, then this will undoubtedly be your new favorite record. And all the kids who have been digging the new wave of home brewed retro lo-fi garage pop, are gonna be in for a shock when they realize their favorite bands are basically doing what the Fieldhands were doing 15 years ago, and if anything Discus is WAY weirder, WAY poppier, and WAY BETTER!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Fantastic compilation of their out of print early singles.
Two brand new songs from one of our favorite bands EVER. Regular readers of the aQ list no doubt remember back in 2010, when we made the Strapping Fieldhands' Discus, our Record Of The Week. Go check it out, we gushed like crazy, cuz, well, that record rules, and even decades later few bands could come close to matching the twisted pop brilliance of Discus. And while the band made some killer records afterwards, we hadn't heard a peep since the early 2000's. But here we are, after a decade of near silence, treated to two new perfectly imperfect slabs of the Fieldhands' warped popsmithery, and holy shit do these guys still sound as good as ever. The A side, "Impossible To Say", is all warbly sixties style jangle, complete with woozy horns, all fuzzy and psychedelic, like classic Kinks but seriously tweaked and not a little bit druggy. The vocals that weird faux British accent that pretty much defined Discus, the song catchy and warped and fantastic! The flipside is also pretty Kinks-y but more of a ballad, but Fieldhands style, a heartfelt ditty about a bearded lady, who of course ends up "Sitting On Her Whiskers". So great. Here's hoping there's a new full length on the horizon...
LIMITED TO 350 COPIES!!!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Vinyl-only full length including the really good newish song that they played at their only (to-date) San Francisco show: "Ben Franklin Airbath."
This SF band seems to have something of an identity crisis. It's sounds like they just can't seem to find one of their own. With each album, they sound like another band... who already exist. Last time it was Pavement (and a great version of Pavement it was too), and prior to that it was the Go-Betweens (and they managed that nicely as well). Actually on Love & Distortion they've reverted back to the latter again but perhaps with more soft Brit shoegazerness, Blur boyish peppiness and some Sonic Youth atonalisms too. Sounds like it could have been recorded in 85, or 89 or 92. While they do what they do quite well, it's just not all that original and sounds like a junior version of all of the bands mentioned above.
MPEG Download: "The Simple Things Are Taking Over" [/audio/stratford4simple.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "The Simple Things Are Taking Over" [/audio/stratford4simple.m3u]
One of the hardest working bands in San Francisco demonstrate on this second release their own brand of atmospheric, dreamy pop. Combining pretty boy/girl vocal harmonies. Reminiscent of Mazzy Star, Opal, and the Go Betweens.
Here it is, the first release by The Stratford 4 on their new label home Jet Set Records. It follows their two well-received self-released cds (one of which was the totally great "This Could Be Heaven" from last year). I've got a good feeling about this
We just found a small cache of this presumably out of print record at one of our suppliers, a 2001 reissue of the 1976 debut solo album from the late Egyptian-born singer Demetrio Stratos, famous as the frontman for the Italian "International Popular Group" Area. That avant-prog ensemble was rather more experimental than most, bringing in jazz improv, electroacoustic composition, and more - including what we have previously referred to as "dramatic and bizarre vocal experiments". Despite our love for Italian prog, we've never had an opportunity to review much by Area, but they were one of the best. Just ask Tatsuya Yoshida, he'll tell you that next to Magma from France, Area were probably one of his biggest inspirations for his band Ruins.
This solo album from their singer doesn't really sound like Area, though. Or rather, it appropriately focuses only on one specific aspect of Area, taken to an extreme - Stratos' vocals. We won't say "singing" though, not exactly. This is an album of CRAZED acoustic voice-only sounds, along the lines of later efforts by Phil Minton, Jaap Blonk, Makigami Koichi, and Mike Patton. Heck, we're pretty sure Mike Patton must own a copy of this record, it's basically the blueprint for his debut solo album on Tzadik, 1996's Adult Themes For Voice. We like this better though (sorry Mike).
On Metrodora, Stratos, who considered himself a "vocal researcher", presents the results of his research into what he can do manipulating his voice acoustically. Dramatic and bizarre indeed, as well as interesting and amusing. Gurgling groaning hissing hooting croaking shrieking. Overdubbing and multitracking (as well as extended techniques) allow him to do call and response with himself, to create dense droning hums and carry on nonsensical conversations in multiple voices (on the rhythmic, repetitive title track sounding like Tatsuya Yoshida's a cappella Zubi Zuva group). At times it's like a zooful of primates gone wild, at others much more 'musical', Stratos eventually doing some wailing, undulating singing in more typical Area-style on "Mirologhi (Lamento d'Epiro)" parts one and two, where he also manages to create what sound like synthesizer and percussive sounds in the background. Definitely a classic in the field, and, once you're into it, remarkably listenable.
Now we've got a nice Japanese cd reissue of this (previously, but no longer, available on the somewhat shady Radioactive label). It's more expensive but better. Our review of it before ran something like this:
Some fairly heavy (maaaan) stoner psych blues rawk action here from 1971. Yep, seventy-one. We won't try to tell you that the lone album from Japan's Strawberry Path was one of the best rock releases of '71, 'cause of course there were so many great albums out that year. But if you're a fan of heavy rock of the era, especially the weirder stuff from overseas, you should check 'em out. There's plenty of wailing guitar and jammin' organ on here, but also some mellow moves too so it's maybe more '60s than '70s sounding, and VERY Jimi Hendrix influenced. And we'd guess they were also into such Western acts as Steppenwolf, early Deep Purple, Grand Funk and possibly Black Sabbath. In the realm of early '70s Japanese hard psych they're on par with Speed, Glue & Shinki and Foodbrain, but not quite as as solid as the best Flower Travellin' Band or Blues Creation. These guys (a duo of Shigeru "Jimmy" Narumo on guitars and keys, and Hiro Tsunoda on drums and vocals, helped out by various guests) went on to form the even heavier Flied Egg, who released an LP on Vertigo, a track from which is heard on Andy Votel's Vertigo Mixed disc in fact. This is totally in that Vertigo vein, with classical flourishes of flute and strings, hard-rockin' boogie blues riffage, wild vocals, kickin' drum breaks, acoustic interludes... it's an acid-prog mix that isn't always in the proto-metal direction we might want but we'll take what we can get. Plus you've gotta love the song titles, which are either really cool and weird like "Maximum Speed Of Muji Bird (45 Seconds Of Schizophrenic Sabbath)" or totally indicative of what you'd expect like "I Gotta See My Gypsy Woman" and "Mary Jane On My Mind". Woah, yeah.
Recently we've reviewed the two excellent Flied Egg albums, reissued on cd by Universal Japan, as is this -- if you dug those, Strawberry Path is also up your alley (Path?).
Some fairly heavy (maaaan) stoner psych blues rawk action here from 1971. Yep, seventy-one. We won't try to tell you that the lone album from Japan's Strawberry Path was one of the best rock releases of '71, 'cause of course there were so many great albums out that year. But if you're a fan of heavy rock of the era, especially the weirder stuff from overseas, you should check 'em out. There's plenty of wailing guitar and jammin' organ on here, but also some mellow moves too so it's maybe more '60s than '70s sounding, and VERY Jimi Hendrix influenced. And we'd guess they were also into such Western acts as Steppenwolf, early Deep Purple, Grand Funk and possibly Black Sabbath. In the realm of early '70s Japanese hard psych they're on par with Speed, Glue & Shinki and Foodbrain, but not quite as as solid as the best Flower Travellin' Band or Blues Creation. These guys (a duo of Shigeru "Jimmy" Narumo on guitars and keys, and Hiro Tsunoda on drums and vocals, helped out by various guests) went on to form the even heavier Flied Egg, who released an LP on Vertigo, a track from which is heard on Andy Votel's Vertigo Mixed disc in fact.
This is totally in that Vertigo vein, with classical flourishes of flute and strings, hard-rockin' boogie blues riffage, wild vocals, kickin' drum breaks, acoustic interludes... it's an acid-prog mix that isn't always in the proto-metal direction we might want but we'll take what we can get. Plus you've gotta love the song titles, which are either really cool and weird like "Maximum Speed Of Muji Bird (45 Seconds Of Schizophrenic Sabbath)" or totally indicative of what you'd expect like "I Gotta See My Gypsy Woman" and "Mary Jane On My Mind". Woah, yeah.
The return of prodigal sons Strawberry Smog, a band of bay area artists and musical friends (featuring former members of Pale Hoarse and Touched By A Janitor) some of whom have been roaming around the East coast since we last heard from the band when they dropped off their limited tape and cd combo debut before skipping town a year ago. Now they got a super packed cd of two full length albums released together of infectious sun-dappled jangle rock and psych-tinged folk. The sound is less laid-back, and more ambitiously arranged and recorded. They still wear the sixties / seventies west coast folk-rock banner very proudly, sounding somewhere between Kaleidoscope (US) and West Coast Experimental Art Band with just a tinge of Britishness in the studio experimentation. The momentum is upbeat, but varied enough that songs maneuver from poppy rock jams to psych folk to deep roots and trad tropes quite effortlessly. Recommended for fans of Woods, The Fresh and Onlys, Cool Ghouls and any of the bands mentioned above!
The latest musical project from longtime San Francisco artist and musician Kyle Ranson (previously of Pale Hoarse and the artist behind the human faced dog drawing on Thee Oh Sees Putrifiers II album), Strawberry Smog is a lo-fi indie pop group in the vein of Woods and the Fresh & Only's with an eye on sixties west coast pop-psych structures through a home grown folk-busking lens. Sort of like Olivia Tremor Control mining Incredible Submarine Band influences instead of The Beatles, the songs are catchy, well-written and infectious invoking a druggy California sunshine vibe without a whole lot of unnecessary gimmicks. The tape comes with a cd of the same material. Can't wait to hear more!
EXTREMELY LIMITED!!!!!
Here's yet another one of those bands that we'd vaguely heard of (or perhaps not) but never really encountered actual records by, and now that we have we can't figure out why they weren't a bigger deal! I think I first became aware of 'em via the thanks/influences list on a Pentagram album. Kinda always assumed they were your basic British blues rock but on the evidence of this, their 1970 debut they were something a little different than the Cream/Zep sort of thing I'd imagined. They're rather more like a '60s psych-pop singles band, of the garagey/Nuggetsy variety, with the fuzz factor and sheer guitar heaviness cranked way up toward proto-metallic levels. More psych than prog, more pop than blues. Kinda punk too. Very kick ass and energetic, catchy and rockin', venturing from the paisley-painted pop melodicism of "Around The World In Eighty Days" to the slamming punkish "Only What You Make It" to a number of extended fuzz guitar workouts... but first and foremost it's good old-fashioned hard rock. Think Thin Lizzy. Or Dust, or Budgie. Or even early, early Rush (one song here always puts Byram in mind of "Working Man"). But as mentioned it's got a poppy '60s garage vibe unlike a lot of those acts... And there's enough proggier, psychier elements loaded in here to pique the interest of a wider audience than just the hard rock lovers among us. The guitar parts especially are full of odd harmonies and melodic richness that bring to mind Amon Duul II, if Amon Duul II could have managed to fit their open ended song structures into a tighter blues rock straight jacket. What makes Stray's music work so well is their attention to structure: keeping their compositions on a tight leash and avoiding the esoteric meanderings that can be a pitfall to many prog rockers. This and their sense of dynamics, knowing just how and when to throw the switch and rip the seat of your pants, is what must have made them a seriously kick ass live band (and apparently they were super popular as such in and around their London, England turf, but unfortunately never managed to cash in on the hard rock success like some of their contempories). They recorded numerous albums, of which this first one is likely their best (though their second LP Suicide is a good one too, and we're just not that familiar with the rest of their '70s output), but their biggest claim to fame might be that Iron Maiden covered one of their songs on a b-side ("All In Your Mind", the very first track on this disc). Stray's version was way better btw.
Boots Riley of The Coup and Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine.
We reviewed a single from this Chinese outfit on the last list, our first taste of their take on American nineties indie rock, and like lots of the stuff we've been hearing from China lately, these guys do it so well, sounding almost like a band from back in the day. And on this full length, everything we dug about the single is in full effect, the only real difference, are the vocals, which were more mumbly and sorta sad boy sounding on the single, here are pretty much belted out, but over the same sort of noise poppy fuzzy guitar indie rock crunch, with lots of wild leads, and like that single, the band split their time between rollicking Pixies / Dinosaur Jr. / Sonic Youth style rocking out, and more broody, loping post rock style slowcore. The best moments are tracks like "Bi Li Hou Mian", with its dueling boy/girl vox, chiming super distorted guitars, and crunchy fuzzed out riffage, or the super tripped out psychedelic noise pop of "Guo Cuo", which finds the band getting all Mogwai, and sprawling out into epic slow builds before spending the last half of the song in a wild, free from freakout, that's all swirling electronics, burbling synths, FX laden guitars, wild octopoidal drumming, but in between are plenty of gems, that push all our classic indie rock buttons, noisy and fuzzy, to jangly and drifty, to hushed and moody. Cool stuff for sure...
As we've mentioned on past lists, we've been digging so much amazing Chinese underground music, thanks to aQ pal Ricky, who seems to come in every week with more goodies to check out, this latest is yet more kick ass Chinese indie rock, this time a two track single from a band called Streets Kill Strange Animals, who sound like they've been studying their classic nineties American college/indie rock, and boy has it paid off, the A side is a killer blast of crunchy, fuzzy out Dinosaur Jr / Pixies style jangly noise pop, driven by big drums and laced with distorted sad boy vox, with a second half that erupts into some seriously rad noise guitar freakouts and wild synth tangles, the sound getting more and more shoegazey and noise poppy as the side progresses. The flipside is a bit more subdued, more of a broody indie rock dirge, spidery guitar melodies, buried vox, chiming melodies, simple skittery rhythms, with occasional blasts of grinding blown out guitar buzz, sheets of swirling feedback, but all wrapped around a slow moody groove that's super motorik and hypnotic. Great stuff!
The second and final record from this legendary Finnish folk icon, who died at age 26 not soon after this record was released. Where his first album, Magneettimiehen Kuolema, was recorded with Finnish prog rockers, Tsavallan Presidentti, this psych folk gem from 1972 is much more stripped down and intimate, dark and mysterious, a combination of shuffly folk and haunting psychedelia, Streng's delicate croon, underpinned by simple percussion, acoustic guitars, pointillist piano, and fluttery flute.
Some of the numbers are fairly upbeat and jubilant, festive for sure, but the magic lies in the darkside, the hushed whispery drifts that found Streng infusing some serious jazzy cosmic drift into his more minimal folkiness. Streng was a huge influence on the modern Finnish troubadours (Es, Kemialliset, Ystavat, Kiila, etc...) and it's easy to hear why on Kesamaa...
On my visit to Finland a few years back, I (Andee) was lucky enough to have Jussi from Circle as a host and guide. Which meant our three priorities were: recording/jamming, eating Finnish pizza (the BEST pizza IN THE WORLD), and of course record shopping (when Jussi was visiting HERE recently, he insisted on record shopping every single day!!). The record shopping was a blast, as it always is in a new city, especially in a new country, but it wasn't all just browsing, there were a bunch of Finnish records I was dying to get my hands on, and would probably never be able to find outside of Finland. But there were also a bunch of bands that I had never heard, but that Jussi insisted I NEEDED to hear, bands that informed his music, and most of the underground Finnish music we were into. One was a band called Mano Mano, a killer classic Finnish rock band, another was Motelli Skronkle, a totally twisted sort-of-pop/folk band (whose records will hopefully be reissued soon on Jussi's Ektro label), and the other was Pekka Streng, in fact Jussi insisted I buy ANYTHING on Love Records, a legendary underground Finnish label, but especially Pekka Streng. We did eventually manage to track it down, and it was just as good as promised, but somehow even weirder and more idiosyncratic, especially for a record that came out in 1970.
Love Records seems to have been reactivated recently, having released those Arctic Hysteria compilations, as well as the super rad Psychedelic Phinland collection, and now, Streng's only two releases, from the early seventies, both released in the years before he died tragically at 26.
Magneettimiehen Kuolema was his debut, and finds him with famous Finnish prog rockers Tasavallan Presidenttii as his back up band. But don't be expecting full on prog, no this is way more folky, tinged with psychedelic rock, and yeah, a little prog. While the sounds on Magneettimiehen Kuolema are not that overly strange, you have to remember this was 1970, and much of the sounds here were WAY ahead of their time. At its core, this is a dreamy folk rock record, a bit of twang, fluttery flutes, acoustic guitar, some spidery psych guitar, a little whistling and of course Streng's soft dreamy vocals. Think Nick Drake or Pugh Rogefeldt or Joakim Skogsberg, but then mix in field recordings, lush piano, dramatic crooning, skittery Indian sounding percussion, buzzy sitar like guitar drones, some wild psychedelia, strange glitchy electronics and analog synths and some seriously strange arrangements, but ultimately, all wrapped around Streng's simple heartfelt folky pop. So good. And it's easy to see how influenced ALL your various Finnish faves were and are by Streng... Es, Circle, Avarus, Kemialliset Ystavat, Anaksimadros, Kiila, Islaja...
Reissued with three bonus tracks, and new liner notes, which are unfortunately (for us at least) all in Finnish.
Another fine collection of DIY electronic pop from another minimal wave band we're getting introduced to by Dark Entries! The history of Stress began in 1981 as a musical collaboration between the editors of two fanzines -- Adventures In Reality and Damn Latin - both of which covered the darker aspects of post-punk and new wave, with interviews and features on Bauhaus, SPK, Attrition, etc. Stress kept their songs girded to the taut electronics of sequencers and drum machines with vocal melodies that expand beyond the typical monotone delivery, falling not too far from Soft Cell's earlier tapes and Attrition's less baroque leanings. They released a couple of tapes by 1982, with contributions to numerous compilations to follow, leading up to their proper album The Big Wheel in 1984, which sported the witchy chart-topping single "Elisabeth Selwyn." The band split by 1985, with a few reunion gigs popping over the next couple of decades. Conspiracy Theory compiles tracks from those two early cassettes, remastered expertly as with all of the Dark Entries recordings. Comes with a fanzine, adopting a classic punk / new wave aesthetic with all sorts of appropriated texts about Stress and a cheeky spread on all of the gear that the band used. Nice.
Some strange, unsettling rumblings from across the bay, here. Oakland noise rock brutalists Stress Ape (originally from Chicago, and counting one of the dudes from aQ favorites Cave among their ranks) pound out a nihilistic, two-sided Neanderthal jam on Time Hard, beating the fuck out of their instruments until you are wrapped up in a suffocating blanket of downtuned, harmonically rich sludge that could go on forever if we had our way. There is a somewhat industrial feel to the record, it's easy to imagine blasting this out of your crumbling, asbestos filled apartment just before the final shitstorm hits and everything burns. The distorted vocals scream out hateful musings in a manner that will surely appeal to fans of Six Finger Satellite and the Load Records roster, and the band itself lurches forward like the Stooges at their most smacked out getting stuck in a tarpit. It's heavy and doomy, no doubt, but certainly not metal... just mean, depraved rock that locks in a groove and stays there for the whole trip. The huge, overblown chunk of noise goes on and on, soon becoming unexpectedly hypnotic, and side 2's version of Time Hard carries the record to its spaced out conclusion, like some mutant dub record being remixed in a tornado. Things continue to pulsate under the oscillations sweeping all over, creating an impenetrable wall of heaviness that will probably have you putting this bastard on for a round two. This band slays, they truly understand the still potent potential of a 7" record, and we're stoked for whatever madness they cook up next.
If we take the album's title literally we'd say that Stricken City knows effervescently perky folks as well as despairing and dour ones. Perhaps a few more of the latter. While we have nothing against their more decidedly downcast numbers, we think the band should be spending more time with the former because they really shine brightest when they leap wholeheartedly into a buoyant rollicking pop romp. They most certainly do so on tunes such as "Small Things", "Five Metres Apart", "P.S." and the album's groovy second to last song "Pull The House Down" which reminded us a bit of Les Rita Mitsouko. Just try to prevent your head from bouncin' and your toe from tappin' along to these tunes. Trust us, it's pretty darn difficult! Lead singer Rebekah Raa's varied vocal delivery also draws easy comparisons to the gasping urgent swoop of Sugarcubes era Bjork as well as the girlish coo of The Sundays' Harriet Wheeler. Sweet and a bit coy, but not cloying. Stricken City's overall sound is imbued with a warm fuzzy affection for late '80s and early '90s indie pop a la Sugarcubes, Sundays, Bow Wow Wow, Velocity Girl, and Tsunami, but it just as cozily slips in nicely alongside current female forces such as Tegan And Sara and Metric. A terrific debut!
We first discovered these Austrian noise rock weirdos via a clip on YouTube of the band covering Klaus Nomi, and nailing it, right down to the crazy operatic vocals. And while those operatic vocals don't show up here, the band is as weird, and gleefully noisy as can be. In fact, the first thing we thought when we heard these guys, was that it must be one of Jussi from Circle's bands. It has the same sort of purity, not necessarily TRYING to be weird, but somehow ending up impossibly strange, and sounding literally like nothing else. They'd likely be right at home on the now defunct Bad Vugum label too. Shit, come to think of it, if we didn't know better we would have assumed these guys were Finnish. They're not, but they are fucked up, and amazing.
The sound is rhythmic and angular, the sound slipping easily from jagged lope, to lushly layered majesty, the vocals an almost cartoonish croon, some tracks sounding like some lost Queen track, but filtered through some broken alien technology, others like the Striggles could be some strange seventies new/no wave band, like a more fucked up Devo. Some of the track are funky too, but not regular funky, more sort of damaged funky, with sounds dissolving into tangled buzzes and glitches, wah guitars churning away behind fields of squeak and skree, sometimes the sound blossoming into some weird percussion heavy freakout. Occasionally, the sound is like UK pop geniuses the Cardiacs crossed with vintage Funkadelic, if that makes any sense. And it doesn't. But that's why it's so good.
The Striggles are one of those bands that are impossible to describe without going into specific detail on every song, cuz they seem to have no regard for style or genre, woozy Prince like falsetto over smoldering slow burn funk, becomes a druggy Ween like pop, before building into a super distorted almost doomy dirge, and that's just ONE song. There's home brewed bedroom electro, full on metallic crush, shuffling jazziness, weird sped up vocals, some skronk here and there, a bit of forest folk, hushed and fluttery, some Bill Orcutt like guitar deconstructions that sound almost like a skeletal Slint, some pulsing piano driven minimal techno, some confusing lo-fi campfire jamming, with slowed down vox, and finally, some epic space rock, that sounds like something on Rocket Records or Agitated, spacced out hypno-kraut jammage that looks to Hawkwind before one final burst of matched out jazz-prog-noise.
Holy fuck. We love this band. Andee loved them so much that he ordered every single thing he could track down (we have a few of those other releases, all totally recommended, just ask!). Odds are if you dig damaged, sonic weirdness, love labels like Ektro and Bad Vugum, enjoy dizzying experimentation, and deft mastery of all pop and metal and noise and jazz, and an unlikely way with hooks and somgsmithery, not to mention texture and arrangements, and obviously if you love other oddities on the Rock Is Hell label, then this is most likely your cup of HEAVILY spiked sonic tea!
Again, Rock Is Hell go all out, thick black vinyl, heavy full color jackets, a download code, and maybe coolest of all, this includes a little figure/figurine that comes its own box, of the strange bodiless, lion faced, arm-legged beastie on the cover!!!
You can't help but bow to the Soft Commands of Mr. Ken Stringfellow (of the beloved AQ fave Seattle pop band Posies). This new album is so much more introspective and much less exuberant than his past Posie and solo works. Soft Commands incorporates some very obvious Beach Boys-isms (such as the high chorus of high male backing vocals) as well as some uncharacteristic Tony Bennett-esque 'belting' out of some of the vocals which were somewhat startling the first time around (check out "When U Find Someone"). But the more we listen to this, the more it hits our pop soft spot, left decidedly vacant with the demise of the Posies who while capable of rocking with the best of them, had a seriously deft hand with the moody introspective pop. Soft Commands is centered around Stringfellow's lush piano driven pop ballads and his gorgeous vocals, which obviously remind us of the Posies (and made us decide that Stringfellow was indeed our favorite voice in the Posies). Stringfellow gets help from his musical pals Bill Rieflin (drums) and vocalist Sarah Shannon (Velocity Girl) in recording what has turned out to be his best record since the good ol' Posies days!
Ex-Posies (R.I.P.) guy gets a lot weirder with this odd new solo record, but also remains true to the pop that the Posies did so well.
Oakland's own Strip Mall Seizures spew forth a thrashing, pounding, and super noisy record on excellent San Francisco imprint, True Panther Sounds. No English is a cacophonous, damaged and ultimately danceable record for the people that like their keyboards turned WAY UP! Hella good.
Feels like the boys are going through the motions big time on this one.....
Much like you, we're never really concerned with what's being hyped or billed "the next big thing" or ridiculous things like the "savior of rock n roll" but we also don't write something off just because it's been churned through the hype machine...in the end if the music is good that's all that matters. The Strokes are a good rock band...nothing less nothing more. AQ'rs have often been pretty split on the band and it's easy to see why people can get upset and frustrated when a band gets so much attention and press when others often more unique and interesting do not. While the last two records pretty much stuck to a similar sound and strategy this one does find them branching out... a bit. The opening moments of the record immediately bring to mind a Ric Ocasek/Cars sensation, "Ask Me Anything" even shows them getting a little imaginative in the studio, but ultimately The Strokes are good at being a fun listen. Their lyrics will never be confused for being profound and their songs never mistaken for wholly original, but when it comes to making catchy rock songs that get stuck in your head they do the trick very well.
Still can't figure out what all the fuss and hype is about. If you haven't heard, The Strokes are the new big thing out of New York City (um, I guess this is how the hype machine operates, whoops). Famed UK label Rough Trade managed to get this on the charts in England, selling a gazillion copies of their single. The full-length comes out domestically in September, but here's a
First came the drooling adulatory reviews from music writers, then the inevitable backlash from the few freethinking music critics who were all "what's the big deal?" I'm not quite sure where we are right now in the chronology of The Strokes hype timeline. But who cares -- we all just wanna know what it sounds like, right?
The Strokes play decent, even pretty likable, indie-sounding rock with scratchy-radio-style vocals put thru a distortion pedal (a la Jon Spencer), jangly guitar similar to old REM or the Soft Boys, and a general tone that ranges from the bouncy desperation of "Lust for Life"-era Iggy Pop and the Pixies, to the perfectly-crafted pop of, say, Spoon or the Pastels. Rock critics with something to prove are falling all over themselves claiming that the Strokes sound like the Velvet Underground, but for me that only comes thru in the drummer's defiantly simple rhythms and the singer's nasal delivery, which would be commendably like Lou Reed's except for this annoying end-of-lyric breath-y thing he does far too often, like Christina Aguilera (speaking of which! see Aguilera Strokes remix here: http://www.morewebspace.fsnet.co.uk/remix.mp3, [thanks, Mark]).
So, the AQ verdict on the Strokes is *eh*, it's pretty okay, a lot of folks will find it pleasantly accessible and fun. Hey, we'd still recommend the last Spoon record over the Strokes, but you could do a lot worse. Note: we are currently stocking the import version of this album, thinking that for a couple bucks more than the domestic price you might prefer having the original cover and the song "NYC Cops" which was removed from the US version.
How do you spell 'lame'? I'll tell ya... This is The Strokes third outrageously priced cd single, yep, that's right just one song - the current HOT single which actually is a pretty catchy romp, but unfortunately has already been sooo overplayed everywhere
The Strokes, love 'em or hate 'em, that seems to be the choice. They've created some divisions here at Aquarius, that's for sure. The Strokes likers here will tell you that hey, Room On Fire is a lot like The Strokes mega debut album Is This It, that is, great. Or at least, a decent pop rock record with a totally acceptable retro flair and some killer singles. But others here disagree, so we'll let them have their say:
If you're seeking a challenging listen, you won't be finding it in the new Strokes album... but then again, who really thought they would anyways?! Fans are gonna scoop this up regardless of what is said about it, but whether or not the music on this album will win them many new fans is open to question. Very basic chord progressions are played out in very simple strumming patterns by the two guitarists while Julian Casablanca sings along in his shrug'n'slouch of a voice. The first single "12:51" feature an example of the most inane singing style... the I-am-going-to-sing-exactly-the-same-melody-as-the-guitar-and-keyboards-over-and-over-and-over kind. They've proven themselves to be a band who often sound bored, but aren't necessarily boring, however Room On Fire still comes off seeming uninspired and lackluster.
More lost '70s psychedelic pop... from Malaysia!! 1973's "Waiting Is" album by The Strollers is a blend of uptempo R&B inflected groovers and also melancholic, mellow pop-psych. "You're Gonna Make It" sounds like Blood Sweat & Tears, with a honkin' horn section... "Bus Ride" is more of an heavy organ jam... "Children" is one of the haunted ballads... "Do What You Gotta Do" is a smoking prog-funk breakdown... yep all sorts of sounds of the era are ably essayed here, though The Strollers amble in maybe a few years behind the times as you might expect from folks so far from the Western entertainment complex, so this is more '69 than '73 sounding, whatever that means to you. It's sung in English, and more commercial sounding than freaky, really. But certainly if you liked fellow Malaysian psych-popsters Truck's recent reissue you might want to check this out too.
Latest disc from these Italian gloom rockers, the long running solo project of Claudio from aQ black metal faves Frostmoon Eclipse, but unlike the black buzz of FME, Stroszek traffic in something more dramatic and epic, subtle and subdued, with a sound hewing closer to Katatonia, or late period My Dying Bride, big riffs, huge moody melodies, lush arrangements, hushed almost whispered vox.
Slow and brooding, the songs are gradual smoldering builds, often exploding into a churning crunchy chorus, only to slip right back into some dour bass driven doom pop.
Life Failures Made Music is actually a lot heavier in parts than past Stroszek releases, making the Katatonia comparison even more apt, if you can imagine the same sort of bombast, but stripped of its dramatic vocals, which makes these songs sound so much more intimate and personal, still well produced, and lush, but the strange barely there vocals make it seem somehow less commercial, less accessible. And the songs themselves are darkly gorgeous, repetitive and cyclical, with super catchy melodies, and some really nice guitar playing, and super solid drumming. Definitely not cult or grim or even all that heavy, but it certainly hits the spot if you're looking for something moody and morose and a bit metal.
David Stubbs has authored one hell of book in Future Days, on the history of Krautrock, asking the leading question: "How did Krautrock, so lightly regarded in its own day both at home and abroad, become one of the cornerstones for modern pop and rock music?" He quickly maps out the differentiation between the bloated myth-making of progressive rock, the Anglophilic tendencies of psychedelia, and the mottled spectrum that loosely is defined as Krautrock - a term that was actually despised by many of the Germans making said music back in the day (and was perhaps used ironically by Faust). John Weinzeirl of Amon Duul has some particularly harsh words for Julian Cope whose fanboy gushing in his cult-classic Krautrocksampler was instrumental in one of the many waves of Krautrock revivalism that has taken place over the years. Stubbs takes care to tread carefully in the identity politics, here, speaking to the cultural coalition of multiple forces, ideologies, and aesthetics that were at a temporal cross-section of what was seen as the past and what was seen as the future.
After a lengthy prologue digging into the post-war culture of conservative German pop music, and introductions to the various protagonists, Stubbs gets into the meat of the book with very engaging interviews with and ruminations on pretty much all of our favorites: Amon Duul, Can, Kraftwerk, Faust, Cluster / Harmonia, Ash Ra Tempel, Popul Vuh, and even Einsturzende Neubauten as the next logical step of the Krautrock ethos, through the turbulent '80s. He goes on to discuss the numerous bands influenced by Krautrock, beginning with Bowie's Berlin and moving on from there.
A totally great read!
Imagine if you could erase time and create a special Hacienda party on the beach that New Order ws playing, with special guests Robert Smith and Lindstrom, in an all night session under the stars as the waves crash on the beach under the glow of the starlit sky. Then you might get an idea of what this album by Swedish duo Studio is all about. Studio create a totally refreshing version of early '80s greatness that sets its focus on capturing a warm sensation akin to ending up at the beach after a night of dancing and some of those ecstatic drugs still in your system. The record is bookmarked by two long cosmic instrumental's filled with shimmering synths that sneak in some kraut and subtle afro-beat influences with total perfection. The songs with vocals really do sound like The Cure and New Order joining forces as they catch an endless groove under a spinning disco ball. While there is some similarities to what folks in the DFA camp have been doing there is a much more smooth and golden sensation to Studio's sound. West Coast also reminds us a lot of White Magic's Sorcerer album, one of our favorite electronic records of last year. Both demonstrate the perfect way of extracting the warmth from synthesized sounds to bring the dance party back to the waves and water. A record that grows deeper in our veins each time we listen, we have become hooked! Not sure why it took us so long to list this but better late than never...
In a dream, you've gotten yourself lost in an endless cavern... you've been curiously wandering in the darkness, down down into the earth, for a long long time. When you stop to rest, you realize that the silence that had surrounded you is different now. You think you can hear music... drifting from someplace deeper in the darkness. Drifting, droning, dark, dark, dark... that's this music, the reverberant, cavernous, quiet sounds of The Stumps. Sleepy and creepy at the same time. You move closer, and The Stumps get louder. Troglodytic thud and rumble begins to build. That's the beauty of this album, these tracks are part whale call mystery, part trashy crashy garage rock clangor. Ambient eeriness flows into plodding free rock chaos, with heavy distortion blanketing all. The twelve and a half minute untitled track number 5 (none have titles, as far as we can tell) is all about that drone-drift, whilst track 7, for instance, rouses itself to a spaced-out, slow-motion spasm of psychedelic guitar grind-gunk and percussive splatter-clatter.
The Stumps trio of drummer James Kirk (Sandoz Lab Technicians, Gate, With Throats As Fine As Needles), bassist Stephen Clover (Seht), and guitarist Antony Milton (Mrtyu, AM, Nether Dawn, etc.) is a New Zealand underground supergroup, by the way. No wonder they're so easily so shambolic, somnolent, and sinister sounding... Outside of their own cd-r littered island realm, we couldn't compare this to much else besides, maybe, Fushitsusha.
Welcome to the cavern, welcome to the dream.
