"On his debut solo album, Arco Flute Foundation's Mike Tamburo builds his unique sound around the acoustic guitar as he picks and strums his way through several lengthy but always nicely varying instrumental cuts. Weaving through sparse, warm pastoral passages and pulsing swells of delay effects are numerous other sounds, some electronic, some acoustic, some non-musical, as if Tamburo just picked up whatever was laying around at the time to see if it would make a noise."
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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We really wanted to hate these guys. Another one of those bands who were nearly buried in blog hype and Pitchfork superlatives. But after about a million people came in looking for this record, we decided to give in, and we have to say, we're pretty glad we did. Hovering somewhere between classic psychedelic Beatles-esque pop (due in no small part to the vocalist's uncannily John Lennon like vox), and tripped out, studio-as-instrument experimental Flaming Lips style bombast, Lonerism is a pretty sweet slab of weirdo, electronic flecked avant pop, and one that we can easily see ourselves having discovered via some random cd-r sent to the shop. But as always, we're forced to re-learn the lesson, that just cuz it's popular, doesn't mean it sucks (although that IS what it means a lot of the time). It's easy to see why these guys blew up the way they did, they're the perfect mix of the Flaming Lips, Animal Collective and Phoenix, but grounded by some serious pop chops, some classic hooks that sound lifted straight out of some lost Beatles / Kinks / Queen B-side, and if that doesn't sound like a sweet combination, it should, cuz it IS. Opener "Be Above It" takes a looped sample of the title being spoken in a hushed whisper, adds a loping bombastic drum beats, swirls of sci-fi synths, everything doused in effects, so you're ready for some cosmic trip out, but then those Lennon-like vocals come in, and the song suddenly coalesces into a proper pop song, albeit an alien strain of strange mad scientist pop. And the cool thing is, it never gives into traditional song structure, instead, it's weirdly abstract and tranced out and mesmerizingly loop-y. The second track reins in the group's experimental proclivities, just a bit, bursting forth as a glimmering blast of prismatic fuzz pop, all swirling synths, and wild octopoidal drumming, very psychedelic, again heavy on the effects, and like the opening track, it plays like an intro transformed into a song, the Beatles vibe huge, as it is throughout, inevitable with that voice, but then out of nowhere, in swoop some seriously crunchy, crumblingly distorted guitars, the vibe suddenly Tropicalia via Elephant 6! Even at its pure poppiest, the sound seems to always (d)evolve into some warped FX heavy freakout, before inevitably making its way back again, which makes for a seriously lysergic listen.
And so it goes, the whole record, a pretty fantastic collection of fragmented avant experimental psych pop, that manages in equal measure to satisfy our classic pop music sweet tooth, while pushing all of our what the fuck outsider damaged freak pop buttons, which is a rare thing indeed. Even rarer that a fractured and fucked up sound like that would find such a wide audience, but we're thrilled when it does.
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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From the always amazing Equation Records, who in the past have brought us incredible records from groups like Fear Falls Burning, Bass Communion, Nadja, Landing, organum, R.Y.N., Troum, Ultrabunny, Apse and more, comes this comprehensive collection of everything ever record by late Eighties UK new wavers Taming The Outback.
Never heard of these guys? Nor had we, but listening to this now, it's a little surprising they didn't make a bigger splash, the label describes them sounding like Killing Joke and Echo & The Bunnymen, which is not that far off.
The sound is dark and jangly, the guitars reverbed and chiming, the bass thick and gloomy, and the vocals, a super anguished dramatic delivery that's a dead ringer for Ian McCulloch, and a perfect match for the group's angular downer pop. We also hear plenty of old U2, back before they became stadium rock whores, that sort of brooding urgency they once trafficked in, and that seems to be the thing with TTO, their sound is dark, and a little bit sinister, a gloomy vibe that makes their sound that much more compelling, especially now, with so many bands looking back to that era to cop their sound, but ultimately unable to conjure up the same sort of passion and pathos. And while this isn't some earth shaking lost treasure discovery, it is pretty damn great, and for anyone into Eighties post punk, or who digs the current crop of retro Eighties rockers, but would rather hear the real thing, then this will definitely hit the spot. And where on first listen we were thinking this was just okay, repeated and frequent listening has found this to be a definite grower, and definitely revealed Taming The Outback as something special indeed.
The normal cd version comes in a gorgeous oversized Stoughton mini lp sleeve style gatefold jacket, with a big booklet, jammed with liner notes, pictures, interviews, articles and more. LIMITED TO 385 COPIES. The super deluxe version includes the same fancy cd version, but also an original copy of the band's only 7", a miniature reproduction of the Alive & Kicking fanzine, a sticker, a two sided mini poster, 4 badges and a special card insert designed by Organum's David Jackman, all housed in a super swank embossed box. LIMITED TO 75 COPIES!!
Drowsy Americana-laced Indie rock from Jesse Poe and his revolving set of collaborators, this time including Isobell Campbell on cello and backing vocals. Less improvised, and more song-oriented than on previous efforts, Poe's voice recalls early Badly Drawn Boy or even Leonard Cohen at times. Soft but dusty, this set is best served with whiskey and a little heartache.
Wow, we've gotten in three releases this week that starkly contrast with the sunny warm weather we've been having. Seemingly residing in the chilled shadows of dense forests and ancient stone chambers are the latest albums from Tanakh, Rothko and XXL (the collaboration between Xiu Xiu and Larsen). Dark, expansive beauties, all of them!
Go on, defy the sun or tuck these away for a suitably overcast autumn or winter eve.
Now based in Florence, Italy, former Virginians Tanakh are a musical collective whose somber folk rock in many ways draws easy comparisons to Montreal's Godspeed You Black Emperor family, Angels Of Light and Larsen. This is their sister album to last year's Ardent Fevers. Actually Saunders Hollow was recorded prior to that release, and is distinguished by the introspective yearning vocals of Michele Poulos. Those vocals make this album even more of a counterpart to Ardent Fevers as that disc featured mainman Jesse Poe's deep, weary tones. The final instrumental number "Illusions Of Separation" is well worth the price of admission alone.
Fans of all of the abovementioned will surely find a kindred spirit in Tanakh.
Tanakh are a new quintet (led by Jesse Poe from Richmond, VA) that just may pique the interest of those who've enjoyed the recent works of Michael Gira / Angels Of Light, Godspeed You Black Emperor and Larsen. Creating mysterious and expansive music with a
It's always nice when something we had NO knowledge or expectations about, never heard of before, with a odd name to boot, that we were simply sent a promo of in the mail, and eventually gave a blind listen to, turns out to be so much up our alley and in fact, in this case, totally Record Of The Week worthy! Ok, maybe this is not for absolutely everyone, but those of us into heavy-duty, hypnotically repetitive, distortion 'n' drone damaged jamming, then this obscure outfit on an obscure Danish label has indeed produced a Record Of The dang Week. Tandaapushi is an improvisatory, instrumental power trio of keyboards, bass and drums, formed in Brussels not long ago, and this is their debut album. Tokyo-based Leo Dupleix, who has a Master's degree in piano jazz from the Royal Conservatory in Brussels, would appear to be the band leader. He plays the keyboards and electronics - synth, electric piano, mixing board, etc. Meanwhile the two members of the rhythm section are active and accomplished in the Belgian free jazz scene. So yeah their music here is "mostly improvised" - but not, like, JAZZ, not unless your idea of jazz is the Dead C and Supersilent jamming together, having switched up instruments perhaps. Or you gotta imagine The Necks as produced by Pumice, something like that. Perhaps Circle or Cave running wild in the INA-GRM studio? It's a dense, energetic, experimental, extremely rhythmic mix of avant noise rock, experimental electronics, musique concrete, and free jazz improv. Weird and warped but definitely on point with what they're doing, which is hard to describe, but must require a certain level of musicianship (noisicianship?), tight communication, and a special shared aesthetic, sound-wise, devoted to making trance-inducing grooves with noisy, droney, unidentifiable textures.
The disc is divided into four tracks, Parts 1-4. Part One hooked us immediately, with its eight minutes of thick throbbing feedback skree and droning hum and waver, a grimy, rhythmically-krauty plod. Part Two is a bit of a quirky interlude of electronic beep-boop, distortion and cryptic clatter, brief at just 2:45. Part Three gets back to the droned out intensity of part one, pounding and pulsing for over well over 15 minutes, the rhythms giving way to pure grinding drone-whoosh by the very end. That segues right into Part Four, which brings back the beat, a quietly crunchy rhythm laced with feedback, steadily squelching along for another eleven minutes which bring in all sorts of chitterings and other strange sounds of indeterminate origin. Percussive punctuation pushes through the decaying electronic haze, and we could zone out to this FOREVER. When it all wraps up you're wondering what the heck it was you were listening to, but ready to dive back in at the beginning again.
Tangerine Dream's second album from 1971. While it is a bit spacier and more synth-based than predecessor "Electronic Meditation", it's structurally much the same as the first, with lots of moody dark improv drones weaving and building into mad psychedelic rock jams. Mostly the change apparent here is that various synths and organs move to the fore while guitars, flute and drums hang out in the back, only dominating the sound in the loudest, rocking passages. This domestic reissue includes a bonus track, "Ultima Thule Part 1", an epic rocking single the group released in 1971. This one's also remastered, w/ slipcase, & liner notes from noted krauthead Julian Cope.
Armed with a Radio Shack's worth of new electronic toys, including the then new Mellotron, Tangerine Dream begins to sound a weensy bit closer to their eventual state of synthesizedness. But I stress the word "weensy" here, as Atem (1973) finds Tangerine Dream still well ensconced in the same psychedelic free-rock realm as their previous three albums (Electronic Meditation, Alpha Centauri, and Zeit). Bizzare vocal effects aside, a smattering of guitar and percussion are all that remain of the acoustic age of Tangerine Dream -- flute having been replaced by Edgar Froese's Mellotron replication of them. Along with Froese's new beast, the group's new artillery included a couple EMS VCS3 Synthesizers for Baumann and Franke. The resulting sound is even more atmospheric and whispy than ever. The title track, a twenty minute meandering opus, is perhaps the most similar to their earlier sound, with its pounding drums steadily increasing in volume and speed during the first part of the piece. But even there the percussion is no match for the enslaught of multiple organs and synthesizers with their ever building chords which drown out the drums before settling into a dark, ethereal soundscape. "Fauni-Gena" is almost like Tangerine Dream's take on Pink Floyd's "Several Species Of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together In A Cave And Grooving With A Pict", but heavier on the synths. The last track -- "Wahn" -- is probably the greatest anomaly in Tangerine Dream's ouvre, in which the trio practice their extended vocal techniques, laden with echo and accompanied by frenzied percussion and synths. This domestic reissue, like the others, comes remastered, with a slip case and liner-notes (though this time not by Julilan Cope, but by one Paul Russell.)
For those who still associate Tangerine Dream with sequencer dependent proto-nu-age music, here are a few domestic reissues of their crucial early albums which should dispel any further mistaken assumptions. Originally released in 1970, Tangerine Dream's first album "Electronic Meditation" is a totally way-out-there psychedelic tour de force featuring mainstay Edgar Froese, plus Klaus Schulze and Conrad Schnitzler -- kind of a krautrock supergroup though they didn't know it at the time! From improvised dark drones of amplified cello, electric guitar, flute, organ and drums to blasts of freak out noise to psychedelic fuzzed-out freak-out rock jams. Electronic Meditation is equal parts Algarnas Tradgrad and early Kraftwerk. Remastered, w/ slipcase, & liner notes from krauthead Julian Cope. Definitely a krautrock classic.
Fewer things could bring more delight for us kraut and space prog heads than a 2cd anthology of Tangerine Dream rarities compiled by Edgar Froese, and for such an affordable price! Froese, the one mainstay of the band through 13 different lineups (the band including in their ranks at one time both Conrad Schnitzler and Klaus Schulze), has provided a compelling overview of the musical evolution of the band from their psychedelic roots to their later period as electronic film score stalwarts and everywhere in between.
The double disc set begins way back before TD, with their 1967 pre-incarnation 7" single as The Ones, a band more rooted in the sixties psychedelic rock of Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead than the spacey sounds they embraced later on. But the real highlight of this set is the inclusion of TD's rare first 7" single from 1971, "Ultima Thule", an epic two part space rock excursion that begins in stratospheric Hawkwind territory in part one, but in part two takes a Magma like instrumental prog trajectory, that prefigures the minimal electronic direction the band would take through records like Electronic Meditation, Zeit and Alpha Centauri. The rest of disc one explores these sci-fi themed gaseous realms of gorgeous brooding ambience.
Disc two covers the bands' later, mostly early eighties output, which saw the band more as composers of action film music with a definte increase in rhythms and sequencers, but still with a spacey electronic edge. While John Carpenter may get all the credit as progenitor of all the latter day eighties arpeggiated synth worshippers like Jonas Reinhardt, Majeure, James Ferraro, and Umberto, Tangerine Dream was equally influential in this regard. A lot of the later period Tangerine Dream output can be sometimes cheesy, but the careful curation of this compilation shows there were also plenty of gems as well. This may prove to rethink the general attitude that TD had completely lost the plot, when they started turning to film score commissions, and rhythmic dance music in the eighties and nineties.
With one or two exceptions, most of this music here, as far as we can tell, has not been released on any of their major records, but there is little information to tell if these tracks ever saw proper release at all. So this is a very worthy exploration for the newly curious as well as for seasoned fans. Highly Recommended!!!!
Tangerine Dream's third album, originally released as a double LP in 1972. Zeit is probably the most subdued album of Tangerine Dream's early career. Apparently Edgar Froese canned bandmate Steve Schroyder after the release of Alpha Centauri, citing one too many "freak outs" which apparently rubbed the mellow Froese's fur the wrong direction (according to the liner notes here, Schroyder ended up joining the much more freak out friendly Ash Ra Temple upon his departure from Tangerine Dream.) Not surprisingly, Zeit is a much MELLOWER album than the band's previous two releases -- and even mellower than their fourth album, Atem. The album begins with the slowly morphing droning of a cello quartet, augmented by Froese on moog. It's probably the single most non-God Speed You Black Emperor recording that we get people asking "Is this God Speed You Black Emperor?" when we play it. It just goes to show how, almost thirty years after its initial release, Zeit still sounds fresh as the day it was recorded. Even the bubbling moog synth centered "Origin Of Supernatural Probabilities" has none of the cheesy proto-nuage trappings of Tangerine Dream's later works. Heavy on atmosphere and almost devoid of melody, the four album side songs that make up Zeit are some of the darkest -- and arguably, best -- material recorded by Tangerine Dream. And, like all the others in thise reissue series, this one comes remastered with a handsome slip cover and liner notes (which mostly consist of a blow by blow account of the album's contents that you can read along to as you listen and either agree, disagree, or agree to disagree with the author over their accuracy) by Paul Russell.
Damn. This is quite a find. Tank Of Danzig was a band that few people remember from back in the day, and even fewer must have actually heard them; but this German art-punk quartet wandered into Conny Plank's studio sometime in 1982 and emerged with a pretty incredible album that they released through the equally obscure Idiot Records. It doesn't seem that anybody in the band did anything noteworthy either before or after, making this album something of a mystery. We did discover that Tank Of Danzig had a split release with Biting Tongues - another impressively obscure art-punk project, although BT's Graham Massey did go on to considerable notoriety with 808 State - but that was all to be gleaned of the history of Tank Of Danzig. The frontman was a character with the single name of Schengel, and who had a commanding rasp to his barked English lyrics, often running the gauntlet of punk dialectics about totalitarianism, capitalism, nuclear war, and the pending revolution that should take place in the face of all of existential threats. His jittery, chicken scratch guitars snap in step with the punk-disco-funk rhythm section which could have given A Certain Ratio a run for their money on a good day. Schengel shared the front of the stage (so to speak) with another man with one name Kohl, who very well could have been Germany's answer to James Chance, with his blurting, squawking sax solos that thankfully are fully aware that punk economy would never tolerate a perpetual wank. Not Trendy was the band's only album, and this cd reissue lumps this album with the band's first two singles. Fans of The Ex, James Chance & The Contortionists, Abwarts, and Swell Maps would be well served to check this out!
We really didn't know what to expect from this Brooklyn duo, whose pedigree not only includes goofy dance pop combo Professor Murder, but also legendary post/math rock outfits Don Caballero and Storm & Stress, we might have been expecting the impossible, some strange mix of the two, but instead, Mixed Emotions ends up being a super fun, fuzzy, bouncy, hooky, and yeah danceable, pop record, lots of squelchy synths, programmed drums, groovy rhythms, soaring intertwined vocals, chiming guitars, fuzzy riffs, handclaps, it's hard to know who to compared these guys too, it seems like folks who dig groups like Animal Collective, and who aren't averse to the more electronic/dance pop side of things would love these guys, but also people into stuff like Phoenix and Miike Snow. And the band definitely are a proper rock band, with songs like "Green Grass" melding their more electronic side with a super hooky fuzz pop indie jangle that's pretty dang irresistible. Opener "Brothers" is all brooding stripped down electro pop, but it "All Of Me", the single, that really demonstrates just how good these guys are, and why it wouldn't be that weird to hear these guys on commercial pop radio, it's the kind of super hooky, synth heavy, big chorus. pop gem, that makes people want to get up and move, even grumpy wall flowers like us.
And so it goes for the rest of the record, electro pop meets groovy fuzzy indie jangle, majestic almost orchestral electronic epics meet woozy tropical dreampop, synthy strings meet crooned percussion heavy new wave pop, all those various strains of electronic pop and classic indie songsmithery melting into one gloriously dreamy whole.
Dreamy Scandinavian soundscapers Tape, who oddly enough to our knowledge have never released anything on cassette, are back with a new, and as always, quite lovely release on digipak cd and vinyl (with download), adorned with a mysterious cover collage that kind of reminds us of a Jewelled Antler release - the music has some similarities too. Tape specialize in quasi-ambient, quite melodic, all-instrumental compositions, softly gorgeous. Casino is the sixth album (not counting collaborations with Tenniscoats and others) from this electroacoustic trio, which consists of the brothers Johan and Andreas Berthling, along with Tomas Hallonsten.
On the seven tracks here, these fellows conjure delicate, almost stately dances of sadly blissful, slow moving melodies and more abstract shadings. Among the many instrumental colors woven in, there's pensive piano, with moody washes of synth in the background; gentle guitar, and subtle electronic FX embellishment, all of it creating a rather low key, yet compelling mix for the properly attuned listener.
While Tape obviously have a permanent home on Hapna, we can't help but think this album would have been perfect for the deluxe Time Released Sound treatment, it's right up their alley too.
Some folks try really hard to create pretty sounds, but there are those special folks who just naturally have some preternatural ability to create majestic beauty without it ever sounding forced or contrived. The Swedish trio Tape are shining examples of just such a group, able to make lush and textured sounds that are as engaging as they are pleasing. After a couple recent reissues of older Tape recordings, we were really excited to find what their new record would sound like. And with the opener "Beams" we were greeted with what might be a contender for our favorite song of the year! A song that invites you in with warm swirling analog synths and takes you on such a dreamy ride that it feels like being on a tranquil slide up in the clouds as it takes delicious soft turns and dips through the sky. Luckily the rest of the record follows and flows with equal beauty and such a delicate touch. Tape really put to shame just about everyone else who try their hand at dreamy instrumental post-rock. Their songs aren't as simple as just being moody or melancholic instead they truly create their own world, one that glows with a cascading and illuminating vision. Highly recommended!
For some reason the first album from this Swedish trio didn't excite us nearly this much -- we didn't even get around to reviewing it -- but this one is simply great, gorgeous. Theirs is a melodic yet abstract soundworld, very Jewelled Antler in approach, and very delicate. Field recordings + instruments in a calming, semi-improvised setting of simple song-sketches. Acoustic guitar, harmonium, trumpet, electronics, tapes... Hushed, droned, very pretty but not precious. A most pleasant half-hour indeed! From the Hapna label, who previously brought us Tape member Johan Berthling's marvelous drone collaboration with Oren Ambarchi, My Days Are Darker Than Your Nights. (Hapna is also the home to AQ-faves Sagor & Swing as well).
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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We knew after their breathtaking collaboration with Bill Wells last year that Tape were really reaching a zenith in their career. With a back catalog rich with so many beautiful records, it's so nice to see them continue to reveal subtle shifts in their sound and sonic scope. Revelations flows with such melancholic grace. Instrumental songs that are filled with rich tones and warm melody, taking you to some perfect place, evoking that feeling of staring out the window on a long drive, late at night when there is nothing left to say to the person in the seat beside you.
Other bands that have tried to create a sound like this end up falling so short, coming off as nothing more then post rock band with more moody intentions, but lacking the means or depth to make something really substantial. Tape exist on a totally different level, absolute masters of their craft. Nothing ever feels forced or contrived in their songs. There is an integrity in their compositions that allows you to sway back and forth and get lost in swirls of musical memory and long lost images of other times and places... An utterly gorgeous record.
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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Vinyl only release of an ultra dreamy collaboration between Swedish daydream instrumentalists Tape and the seemingly always collaborating Bill Wells, who has worked with a long list of bands we love including, The Pastels, Isobel Campbell, Maher Shalal Hash Baz, and loads more. The meeting of worlds between Tape and Wells is so perfect. Tape have long mastered the ability to create such lush and varied sounds yet maintain a lovely level of understatement. Wells does such a nice job of keeping his piano, Fender Rhodes and melodica as restrained as possible, perfectly blending with the gorgeous dreamlike accompaniment. The four songs on Fugue unravel with such sparse yet evocative and moving energy. Tapping into such longing feelings of melancholy and memory. Like some of our favorite classic Eno/Budd collaborations this is beyond perfect for those chilly mornings or rainy nights when all you want to do is stay inside and drift away into some sonic warmth. So nice!
In the last month or so we've been bombarded with folks walking in the store with one question at the tip of their tounges: "Do you have Tapes 'N Tapes?" Unfortunately the buzz has meant it was kinda tough to get copies of this in stock. The excitement and buzz around this band rivals past years' anticipation for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Broken Social Scene. Due to some big exposure on Myspace and a performance at the 2006 SXSW that got everyone talking. We're not averse to turning frowns upside down so now we finally have this in stock and those of you who've been craving this can get your fix. What you'll be fixing on is some off kilter catchy guitar rock with vocals that got us thinking lots about Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes. Think: the all out rocking moments of Bright Eyes, deep admiration for The Pixies and Modest Mouse and you can get a rough idea of what Tapes 'N Tapes is all about. Maybe not the most original new band to hit the scene but for sure they can get your head bouncing and your foot tapping. Ain't nothing wrong with that.
The Tapes were the collaborative project by Italian brothers Giancarlo and Roberto Drago, who operated on the fringes of the vast network of cassette culture in the '80s; their work was recently unearthed through Not Waving's Ecstatic imprint via a double LP overview of their extensive catalog. Here, we have a reissue of one of the original cassettes from The Tapes - the Glasaugen album from 1988. Like plenty of malcontents in the US and Britain taking humbrage against Reagan and Thatcher, the Drago brothers found themselves mired in the stagnant socio-economic and cultural landscape in Italty, taking out their frustrations through a dystopian, minimal wave engineering through monosynths, primitive sequencers, and flanged drum machines. These proto-techno strategies and slinky electonic tracks harbor an angular, disjointed production that parallels the dark hypnosis of Borghesia or even Colin Potter's forays into sequenced experimental pop, coupled with more than a fair share of plaintive electronic lullabies predating the Ghost Box / Broadcast axis of instrumental sci-fi pop melancholia. Limited to 60 copies.
First things first: yes, this album IS every bit as cool as the cover looks, the cover being a photo of a pink skull! There's no relation to Glenn Donaldson's Pink Skulls cd-r label, of course, these guys thought of it first, way back in 1971!
So yeah, here's another vintage '71 gem for all of you into hard progressive bluesy psych rockin' action. Last list we had Japan's Strawberry Path, this time around, from the fertile underground of Franco's Spain, we've got the power trio Tapiman, which features the burning electric guitar heroics of one Max Sunyer, later of Spanish jazz rock outfit Iceberg. He'll definitely make hard rock guitar fans happy, though -- Tapiman is riffy, heavy rock, full of psychedelic poppiness.
The main riff of storming opener "Wrong World" is sorta "Sunshine Of Your Love" mixed with "Lord Of This World", and the track is full of energetic, impressive guitar soloing and wild vocals. Some subsequent songs are more gentle and moody, though you're never far from some wailin', cranked-up amplifier worship on this disc. It's a groover, and a grower, too, from a classy band who knew what the heck they were doing. For all of you who dig the obscure '70s sounds of stuff like Blues Creation, Buffalo, Eduardo Bort, and other things along those lines we've recommended before...
Newly remastered for this reissue, with four bonus tracks and detailed liner notes in both English and Spanish.
While the name Jorma Tapio may not be familiar to you, the name Terje Isungset sure as heck should. He's the man responsible for the Igloo record, a past record of the week, recorded entirely on instruments made from ice. We've been selling that like CRAZY, when all of a sudden we got an email from Jussi (Circle, Pharaoh Overlord, etc.) letting us know that his label Ektro was releasing a brand new record by Isungset, teamed up with some guy names Tapio. We were of course intrigued, but had no idea what to expect. And had we actually expected something, we probably never would have guessed how weird and wonderful this record would be. No ice instruments sad to say, but armed with flutes, bells, voices, kantele, percussion, Jew's harp and lots and lots of drums, these two whip up a super wild and wooly, ultra dense blast of what we can only describe as tribal forest folk free jazz. Or something like that.
Free jazz is probably the closest comparison, the first few tracks are dense psychedelic percussive freak outs, lots of splattery spastic free jazz drumming all over the place, deep bowed bass, steel string zings, and super creepy strangled and howled vocalizations. Everything sounds very primal and tribal, thick swaths of rhythmic throb underpinned by shimmering washes of cymbal sizzle and warbly mumbled melodies. Isungset proves to be a pretty bad ass drummer, whipping up some seriously wild squalls of spastic skitter, and octopoidal crash and bang. The vocals grunt and chant, sort of yodel, and hoot and holler, very festive and just a little nuts sounding. When the drums recede a bit, the band sort of wonders through some ancient forest, fluttering flutes, simple subtle percussion, distant drones. A bit reminiscent of Avarus or Anaksimandros for sure. The 20+ minute centerpiece, the track "Selainin Tuli / Sacred Fire" lets the duo spread way out, and lay out an expansive tribal soundscape, like the earlier 'free jazz' tracks but stripped way down. Hints of No Neck Blues Band and Sunburned Hand definitely surface now and then, the track eventually building to a howling shrieking psych drone freakout before settling back to almost complete silence. then a gentle lilting smudge of soft flutes and abstract clatter. That smeared clatter sort of drifts into the next two songs, disembodied scrapes and creaks, random bits of percussion, thick washes of low end thrum, quite dark an lovely.
The final track is a flittering flutescape, a spare landscape of woodwinds and distant shimmer, which is soon joined by a buzzing Jew's harp, and the harp and flutes get all tangled up into a strangely propulsive groove, some sort of skeletal prog laced with primal psych rock primitivism and festive Renn Faire revelry, like stumbling into some clearing in the woods and finding some strange open air market, with a very strange duo performing before a crowd of rapt onlookers. Weird, but pretty darn cool as well. Finnish music obsessives need this no matter what. Lovers of that modern free folk new weird America thing might just find that this pushes all their buttons, and REALLY REALLY open minded jazz heads might also want to give this a try.
Highly recommended!
For those of us who came of musical age in the nineties, especially lots of you avid aQ list readers, odds are you were way into noise rock, labels like Amphetamine Reptile, Touch And Go, Homestead, and bands like Jesus Lizard, Chokebore, Unsane, Vertigo, Lubricated Goat, the God Bullies, godheadSilo, Hammerhead, Jawbox, Killdozer, Arcwelder, Janitor Joe, King Snake Roost, we could go on and on, but if that either looks like your record collection back in the day, or reads like a current iTunes playlist, odds are you're also probably familiar with Tar. Tar were a band from Chicago, who existed from about 1988 until 1995, and not only made some amazing records, but also released some of the most kick ass singles of that era. And for some reason, never hit it big like some of those other groups. Like another favorite of ours, Arcwelder, Tar toured like madmen, made record after record, and while attaining a pretty decent cult following, remained pretty solidly underground.
So in swoops Henry at Chunklet, to wake folks the fuck up to what they may have, and most likely DID, miss back in the day. And like it says in the liner notes, and as mentioned above, as great as Tar albums were, their best songs seemed to end up on singles, which makes this singles collection arguably the best Tar record there is, which is saying something for sure.
The sound will no doubt be familiar to fans of all the above mentioned bands and labels, the feeding back, wildly distorted guitars, the tight muscly drumming, the yowled vox, indie rock infused with some serious punkiness and noisiness, thick jagged riffs wrapped in sinewy basslines, some tracks crazy catchy, like a pop song in noise rock's clothing, others obtuse and aggressive and fierce and fucked up. Lots of mathy tension, post rock sprawl, these guys were so goddamn good, and listening to this chronologically, it's crazy how they transformed from a feral noise rock beast, into seriously killer songwriters. Just listen to the clips below. We made sample of our favorites, but even those were tough to pick, cuz pretty much every song here KILLS. And that AC/DC cover is a doozy!
The packaging is of course over the top, colored vinyl, with a huge 12"x12" booklet with tons of liner notes, lots of famous folks you know reminiscing on how great Tar were, notes on each track, and each single, lots of rare photos, a ticket stub and more. Also includes a download code for the record proper AND for a bonus collection of rare live tracks. Absolutely and totally essential!!!
Tar Pet is the solo project of Miss Taralie Dawn, who you might know as a member of the Spires That In The Sunset Rise, and Tar Pet does indeed sound quite a bit like her group proper. Old timey piano, recorded all scratchy in a wash of reverb like some dusty old 78, mournful flutes and damaged atonal guitar, creaking scraping steel strings, buzzing frets, and all sorts of hiss and static. A fuzzy blissful ambient dream world of fractured folk and bedroom recorded psychfolk nursery rhymes, with Dawn's creepy, almost spoken vocals, occasionally building to a Diamanda Galas like wail, but more often groaned and whispered, barely a croak. Truly haunting and intense. LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!
We loved the last tape from this French psych pop act, and so did all of you considering how quickly we sold out. A stunning collection of baroque pop equal parts Stereolab and Ennio Morricone, and we're happy to report that this new one offers up more of the same, expansive, cinematic, brooding and moody cosmopolitan pop music, that sounds like it was plucked from some Euro arthouse flick. Skittery drumming beneath ominous pianos, swirling synths, buzzing steel string guitar, a little bit of twang, a little bit psychedelic, so good! In fact the whole tape this time around is way more cinematic, even divided into songs, and what seem to be interludes, short little sonic vignettes, some creepy and ominous, others jazzy and jaunty, but all sounding again, like they're straight from some sixties French soundtrack. The songs themselves are essentially extensions of those interludes, less 'songs' proper, and more fantastic bits of mood music, organ everywhere, and the bass too, holding it all together, while the guitar adds color, as do some swoonsome strings, even what sounds like theremin, all wound up into a sort of retro-futuristic pop exotica, imagine John Carpenter via Stereolab, or Morricone covers by the New Lines or Still Corners, the big difference this time around really is just how dark much of this is. Sure, there are tracks like "L'Enquete", with dreamy female vocals (in French of course), over swirling synth melodies, very Stereolab sounding for sure, or "Vague A L'Ame", which drapes hummed melodies over vibes and intricate fingerpicked guitars, there's even one song that gets super fuzzed out, a sweet slab of dreamy electro shoegaze fuzz-pop for sure, but most of the record is more brooding and soundtracky, perfectly balancing the more ebullient sunshinier numbers, the whole thing, even the poppier tracks, an imaginary soundtrack to a film we're now suddenly dying to see!
LIMITED TO 150 COPIES!!!
From the same deep dark part of Colorado (umm... Denver!) that brought us the dark swampy dirge folk of the mighty Sixteen Horsepower, comes the mysterious and lovely Tarantella. Featuring an unlikely pedigree (Slim Cessna's Auto Club, Blood Axis) Tarantella, are equal parts Calexico's desert mariachi twang, 16HP's creepy Biblical swampfolk with a bit of bolero, a touch of tango and just a pinch of that Decemberists-y Victrorian shuffle. A dark and swoonsome swirl of mournful strings, shuffling rhythms, warm washed out guitars, plenty of twang and the torch song vocals of Kal Cahoone, who you might recognize from her contributions to the gorgeous Short Stories record, from 16HP side project Lilium, her vocals a raw mix of PJ Harvey swagger and Cat Power moody mumble. Here, her vocals are the focal point, rich and warm and dripping with emotion, occasionally singing in Spanish, a deep sultry croon, wrapping you in its deliriously dangerous embrace. Definitely for fans of Calexico, Howe Gelb, Friends Of Dean Martinez, 16 Horsepower, M. Ward, Cat Power, PJ Harvey and all that smolders and twangs.
Not sure what it was exactly, but something kept us from checking these guys out before now. Ultimately it might have been the band's penchant for dressing up in period costumes for their record covers. Who knows. Whatever it was, we're sure kicking ourselves now, this record is a killer. And it sounds nothing like we would have imagined from the name and the album cover and the label. Yeah, we know, book, cover, book cover. We're sorry. We were wrong. We love this record. Penance? All we can do now is try to convince you all how great it is. And it is. Some impossible hybrid of classical chamber music, post rock and sludge metal. Sort of. Or if you can imagine the Rachels, or maybe Godspeed You Black Emperor in their practice space, and every few minutes when someone opens the door, the sound of Corrupted, who practice right across the hall and leave their door open all the time, comes rushing in. Big riffs battle keening strings, huge pummeling waves of downtuned guitar, segue into near pastoral stretches of moody meandering post rock, or occasional bits of moody psychedelic folks, with lilting vocals and gentle guitars, or long passages of classical guitar, or gorgeously abstract ambient interludes constructed from subtle vocals and Eastern tinged drones but they eventually always return to the RIFF, exploding in a frenzy of guitar versus string section, like a heavy metal Dirty 3 or Apocalyptica jamming with Boris, or... heck we don't know, it's just so perfectly schizophrenic, veering wildly from heaviness to melancholy moodiness and back again over and over and over. Epic and dreamy and heavy and darn near perfect. We love discovering new music, sort of why we do this, but there's definitely a special satisfaction and secret joy in realizing a band you thought sucked actually completely kills! Being wrong never felt so right!
Tarentel's 2004 album We Move Through Weather found the San Francisco's sonic journeymen balancing their penchant for moody atmospheres and a new found spirit of improvisation, which hurtled them somewhere near Jackie-O Motherfucker meets This Heat territory. In constructing that record, Tarentel had to sift through hours and hours of recordings in order to pare down to a mere 72 minutes. Well, they could have done a Supersilent or Necks and released a massive 3 or 4 cd set of material; but instead they chose to wait and release two EPs (which both clock in well above 30 minutes each) of material that was not included on the We Move Through Weather album.
The companion to Paper White, Big Black Square is a 43 minute sprawling epic recorded at the very end of the We Move Through Weather sessions. Opening with a lengthy passage of humid drones from amplifier buzz, aqueous flutterings, organ tones, and somnambulant field recordings, Big Black Square lumbers into action after some 20 minutes as drummer Jim Redd slowly transforms an indifferent textural clatter across his drum kit into a complex elliptical groove. Multi-instrumentalists Jefre Cantu-Ledesma and Danny Grodinski flesh out the skeletal rhythms with a spindly duel between their two guitars crumpled through tons of effects both high and low tech, making for a beautiful, dark, and evocative EP.
Handy cd format for some heretofore vinyl-only outta sight outta print Tarentel cuts. While we still favor Tarentel's first proper full length From Bone To Satellite as their peak moment, this is still pretty, epic instrumental work, lots of arpeggiated chords, softly shimmering cymbals and sad sack melodies. Very very slow; sometimes a heady climax finishes off a piece, and sometimes we're left hanging midair, holding our breath, waiting for redemption... ahem.
Five tracks, one from the Temporary Residence lathe cut 10", two from Resonant's "Looking for Things Searching for Things" 12", and two tracks from Static Caravan's "Two Sides of Myself" 7".
While strictly limited to the subscribers of the "Purposeful Availment" series, we have managed to get hold of a handful of this 6 song EP from the San Francisco ensemble Tarentel, which finds the group pushing even further away from the epic post / space rock that defined their "From Bone To Satellite" album. These days, Tarentel is far more content to build their barren, desert-like atmospheres out of those interwtining Slint-ish / Morricone guitar quotations, without ever having to crank up the volume. While their earlier incarnations of the quiet / LOUD dynamism mounted some furiously beautiful live shows, Tarentel's recent balancing act has been located between the traditional rock instrumentation of bass, guitars, and drums (although the drums haven't been of much use as of recent) and the Max/MSP digital tricks promoted by Fennesz, Stephan Mathieu, and Ekkehard Ehlers. "Fear Of Bridges" switches off with the spartan guitar interplay on one track and the laptop re-interpretations of Tarentel sounds into gossamer droning pieces spinning with digitally pointilistic details. If it's any indication where Tarentel is heading, guitarist Jefre Cantu has a couple of solo projects of his laptop work coming out soon and there's a Tarentel release on the electronica boutique label Bottrop-Boy also in the pipeline.
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CD finally back in stock! The debut album from San Francisco's Tarentel is a majestic affair as multiple guitars churn through slow epic songs that build slow yet catchy melodies out of a deep space sonic miasma. Follow this with super-nova explosions of radioluminescent guitar / bass / drum crash that does very well to replicate the q...u...i...e...t L!!!O!!!U!!!D!!! dynamism of the likes of Mogwai via Morricone, or Godspeed You Black Emperor without the warm strings. Sure, Tarentel may in fact be wearing their influences proudly on their sleeves. But, unlike so many 'post-rock' bands who think you have to badly rip-off Tortoise to be artful, Tarentel's admission of their their influences is anything but detrimental. A solid, quite excellent album.
We listed the individual vinyl installments of Tarentel's Ghetto Beats On The Surface Of The Sun a while back (all now out of print so don't order!), each one a mind blowing blast of druggy, psychedelic free form rhythmic bliss out, and each one could well have been an AQ record of the week. But good thing we held off, cuz here we are a year or so later, and all four slabs of wax have been digitized and compiled as a massive double cd set, and needless to say, four -possible- records of the week, all piled on top of one another, can only mean one thing! Well, yeah, obviously, this absolutely had to be a record of the week. Quite possibly (and very probably) the best music we've heard from these guys, which is saying a lot considering how much we dig most everything Tarentel does...
When we first heard the title of Tarentel's 2cd (formerly FOUR lp) set, Ghetto Beats On The Surface Of The Sun, we were pretty sure they were being ironic, or facetious, or something, and there would be no beats, ghetto or otherwise, to be found anywhere, just their usual gorgeously slow shifting epic postrock soundscapes. But actually, Ghetto Beats IS all about the beats, not sure if they're 'ghetto' or not, but they sure are dense and funky and weirdly rhythmic, from blissed out shuffling skitter to super propulsive krautrocky pound, these discs are definitely a whole new side of Tarentel. A much more raw and ragged, caustic and groove based beast. It almost sounds like Tarentel covering This Heat, or a krautrock No Neck Blues Band, or maybe even Tussle via This Heat with a bit of 23 Skidoo thrown in for good measure.
While the framework of most of these songs is some dense web of percussive clatter or some sort-of-funky drum jam, these gorgeously hypnotic skeletal rhythms are surrounded on all sides by thick swaths of crumbling ambience, disembodied guitar loops and rumbling bass, thick swells of warm whir and all sorts of other random dreamlike shimmer. Often building into seriously caustic squalls, big churning white hot sonic swirls, each wrapped around beats that seem on the edge of falling apart, or splintering into rhythmic fragments. Maybe that's the ghetto angle, the beats are super lo-fi, blown out, strangely recorded, so they sound sort of alien, with lots of strange FX and stuttering stumbling variations. So fucking awesome.
We originally reviewed Ghetto Beats one lp at a time, and while they do work perfectly as one epic cohesive chunk of sound, they still sort of play out like the separate movements they started out as...
The first movement (lp #1) is six tracks, a little over a half an hour, a dense assemblage of abstract rhythms and brooding, swirling psychedelia, heavy on the This Heat worship, beats stretched out over huge expanses of industrial whir and jagged angular guitars, very loping and hypnotic, brooding and drone-y, mysterious tribal rituals stretched out into epic spaced out, abstract rhythmic jams.
Part two (lp #2) is 4 tracks, 40 minutes, two epic jams, both 16+ minutes, separated by two shorter tracks. The opener starts with an endlessly hypnotic, near metal drum jam, over which guitars and sound makers creak and keen, a crystalline web of high end sonics over a swirling tribal rhythm. It could seemingly go on forever, and it sort of does, but near the end it dissipates into a dark spacious soundscape of distant clatter and thick rumbling buzz. After a one minute rhythmic experiment, all freaked out psych rock effects and super distorted drum sputter, the second lengthy jam kicks in, and it's definitely the most mellow and blissed out track so far, some muted free jazz skitter, over a slow burning expanse of chiming guitars and smears of abstract melody all stretched into a near static glacial groove. So nice. As if that weren't enough, the last 5 minutes is some of that fuzzy crumbling blurry ambience we can never seem to get enough of. Soft focus and indistinct, shimmering guitars wrapped in thick crumbling guitars and a glistening sonic glow, like Tim Hecker, Fennesz, and that sort of thing, a gorgeous late night coda of dreamy drone-y bliss.
For part three (originally the third lp), the group start out by moving even further out into space (rock) on the ten minute "Stellar Envelope", blown out crumbling sheets of distorted psych guitar and dizzying FX wrapped around propulsive tribal beats, feedback everywhere, it almost sounds like Hawkwind with all the structure sucked out, leaving a huge swirling mass of psychedelic tribal ambience, while managing to still rock somehow. The rest of volume three area gorgeously obfuscated drift through a sonic landscape at once rough and lo-fi and blissfully lush, strange industrial clatter and clang is muted and smeared into mumbly ambience, guitars are looped into hypnotic stretches of throbbing drone, bits of dreamlike melody, simple spacious piano, are wreathed in fuzz and warped into gorgeous slabs of pop ambient fuzz, the whole thing is surprisingly tranquil and shimmery, especially after that opening salvo, and the dense rhythmic intensity of the first two movements, but within the context of Tarentel's seriously epic Ghetto Beat symphony, it couldn't sound more perfect.
The final movement (the 4th and last lp in the series) offers up Ghetto Beats' heaviest moment in the form of "Somebody Fucks With Everybody", a sidelong doom dirge blow out, referencing everyone from SUNNO))) to Growing to Nadja, a thick glacial swirl of downtuned guitars, wreathed in effulgent streaks of damaged outerspace FX and psychrock solar flares, all underpinned by Neurosis style tribal rhythms, constantly sounding as if any second the song will kick into the heaviest riff of all time, but instead, it stretches on and on, building and building, some sort of cosmic lo-fi krautrock ambience, massive and heavy, but strangely dreamy and blissful.
The rest of Ghetto Beats pretty much eschews the titular beats entirely, instead offering up several brief ambient drifts, the far away foresty folk hovering above slow moving slabs of glacial low end of "Where Time Forgot", the ultra brief scrape and shuffle of "Isalais Delay", the murky disembodied post rock of "You Do This. I'll Do That", a strange landscape of fuzzy melodies and indistinct song fragments, all woven into some sort of soft focus fever dream, and finally, "Lake Light", a two minute outro, the glorious final flurry of sound in this epic sonic travelogue spread out over 2cds, a gorgeously hopeful, sparkling glistening drift of shimmery harmonics, and misty minor key flutter...
Like we mentioned before, we've loved everything Tarentel has done in the past, but this is by far our favorite, and how could it not be after drifting dreamily through two plus glorious hours of Ghetto Beats, immersing ourselves in a dreamy, druggy, murky world of drifting space drones and propulsive beats, of fuzzed out shimmer and barely there ambience... So amazing!
Packaged in a super striking, full color, eight panel fold out sleeve, limited to 3000 copies, each with a numbered metallic sticker affixed to the front.
When we first heard the title of this new Tarentel FOUR LP series, Ghetto Beats On The Surface Of The Sun, we were pretty sure they were being ironic, or facetious, or something, and there would be no beats, ghetto or otherwise, to be found anywhere, just their usual gorgeously slow shifting epic postrock soundscapes. But actually, these lps ARE all about the beats, not sure if they're 'ghetto' or not, but they sure are dense and funky and weirdly rhythmic, from blissed out shuffling skitter to super propulsive krautrocky pound, these discs are definitely a whole new side of Tarentel. A much more raw and ragged, caustic and groove based beast. It almost sounds like Tarentel covering This Heat, or a krautrock No Neck Blues Band, or maybe even Tussle via This Heat with a bit of 23 Skidoo thrown in for good measure.
While the framework of each song is some dense web of percussive clatter or some sort-of-funky drum jam, these gorgeously hypnotic skeletal rhythms are surrounded on all sides by thick swaths of crumbling ambience, disembodied guitar loops and rumbling bass, thick swells of warm whir and all sorts of other random dreamlike shimmer. Often building into seriously caustic squalls, big churning white hot sonic swirls, each wrapped around beats that seem on the edge of falling apart, or splintering into rhythmic fragments. Maybe that's the ghetto angle, the beats are super lo-fi, blown out, strangely recorded, so they sound sort of alien, with lots of strange FX and stuttering stumbling variations. So fucking awesome.
Volume 1 is six tracks, a little over a half an hour, a dense assemblage of abstract rhythms and brooding, swirling psychedelia, heavy on the This Heat worship, beats stretched out over huge expanses of industrial whir and jagged angular guitars, very loping and hypnotic, brooding and drone-y, mysterious tribal rituals stretched out into epic spaced out, abstract rhythmic jams.
As much as we dig pretty much everything Tarentel does, Ghetto Beats is by far the best stuff we've ever heard from these guys. So fantastic!
When we first heard the title of this new Tarentel FOUR LP series, Ghetto Beats On The Surface Of The Sun, we were pretty sure they were being ironic, or facetious, or something, and there would be no beats, ghetto or otherwise, to be found anywhere, just their usual gorgeously slow shifting epic postrock soundscapes. But actually, these lps ARE all about the beats, not sure if they're 'ghetto' or not, but they sure are dense and funky and weirdly rhythmic, from blissed out shuffling skitter to super propulsive krautrock pound, these discs are definitely a whole new side of Tarentel. A much more raw and ragged, caustic and groove based beast. It almost sounds like Tarentel covering This Heat, or a krautrock No Neck Blues Band, or maybe even Tussle via This Heat with a bit of 23 Skidoo thrown in for good measure.
While the framework of each song is some dense web of percussive clatter or some sort-of-funky drum jam, these gorgeously hypnotic skeletal rhythms are surrounded on all sides by thick swaths of crumbling ambience, disembodied guitar loops and rumbling bass, thick swells of warm whir and all sorts of other random dreamlike shimmer. Often building into seriously caustic squalls, big churning white hot sonic swirls, each wrapped around beats that seem on the edge of falling apart, or splintering into rhythmic fragments. Maybe that's the ghetto angle, the beats are super lo-fi, blown out, strangely recorded, so they sound sort of alien, with lots of strange FX and stuttering stumbling variations. So fucking awesome.
Volume 2 is 4 tracks, 40 minutes, two epic jams, both 16+ minutes, separated by two shorter tracks. The opener starts with an endlessly hypnotic, near metal drum jam, over which guitars and sound makers creak and keen, a crystalline web of high end sonics over a swirling tribal rhythm. It could seemingly go on forever, and it sort of does, but near the end it dissipates into a dark spacious soundscape of distant clatter and thick rumbling buzz. After a one minute rhythmic experiment, all freaked out psych rock effects and super distorted drum sputter, the second lengthy jam kicks in, and it's definitely the most mellow and blissed out track on the first two volumes, some muted free jazz skitter, over a slow burning expanse of chiming guitars and smears of abstract melody all stretched into a near static glacial groove. So nice. As if that weren't enough, the last 5 minutes is some of that fuzzy crumbling blurry ambience we can never seem to get enough of. Soft focus and indistinct, shimmering guitars wrapped in thick crumbling guitars and a glistening sonic glow, like Tim Hecker, Fennesz, and that sort of thing, a gorgeous late night coda of dreamy drone-y bliss.
As much as we dig pretty much everything Tarentel does, Ghetto Beats is by far the best stuff we've ever heard from these guys. So fantastic!
When we first heard the title of this new Tarentel FOUR LP series, Ghetto Beats On The Surface Of The Sun, the first two of which we raved about a little while back (both of which we still have in stock, although there are only a handful of copies left!) we were pretty sure they were being ironic, or facetious, or something, and there would be no beats, ghetto or otherwise, to be found anywhere, just their usual gorgeously slow shifting epic postrock soundscapes. But actually, these lps ARE all about the beats, not sure if they're 'ghetto' or not, but they sure are dense and funky and weirdly rhythmic, from blissed out shuffling skitter to super propulsive krautrock pound, these discs are definitely a whole new side of Tarentel. A much more raw and ragged, caustic and groove based beast. It almost sounds like Tarentel covering This Heat, or a krautrock No Neck Blues Band, or maybe even Tussle via This Heat with a bit of 23 Skidoo thrown in for good measure.
While the framework of most of these songs is some dense web of percussive clatter or some sort-of-funky drum jam, these gorgeously hypnotic skeletal rhythms are surrounded on all sides by thick swaths of crumbling ambience, disembodied guitar loops and rumbling bass, thick swells of warm whir and all sorts of other random dreamlike shimmer. Often building into seriously caustic squalls, big churning white hot sonic swirls, each wrapped around beats that seem on the edge of falling apart, or splintering into rhythmic fragments. Maybe that's the ghetto angle, the beats are super lo-fi, blown out, strangely recorded, so they sound sort of alien, with lots of strange FX and stuttering stumbling variations. So fucking awesome.
On volume three, the group start out by moving even further out into space (rock) on the ten minute "Stellar Envelope", blown out crumbling sheets of distorted psych guitar and dizzying FX wrapped around propulsive tribal beats, feedback everywhere, it almost sounds like Hawkwind with all the structure sucked out, leaving a huge swirling mass of psychedelic tribal ambience, while managing to still rock somehow. The rest of volume three area gorgeously obfuscated drift through a sonic landscape at once rough and lo-fi and blissfully lush, strange industrial clatter and clang is muted and smeared into mumbly ambience, guitars are looped into hypnotic stretches of throbbing drone, bits of dreamlike melody, simple spacious piano, are wreathed in fuzz and warped into gorgeous slabs of pop ambient fuzz, the whole thing is surprisingly tranquil and shimmery, especially after that opening salvo, and the dense rhythmic intensity of the first two volumes, but within the context of Tarentel's epic 4 part Ghetto Beat symphony, it couldn't sound more perfect.
As much as we love pretty much everything Tarentel does, volume three of Ghetto Beats only further convinces us that this is by far the best stuff we've ever heard from these guys. So fantastic!
When we first heard the title of this new Tarentel FOUR LP series, Ghetto Beats On The Surface Of The Sun, the first two of which we raved about a little while back (both of which we still have in stock, although there are only a handful of copies left!) we were pretty sure they were being ironic, or facetious, or something, and there would be no beats, ghetto or otherwise, to be found anywhere, just their usual gorgeously slow shifting epic postrock soundscapes. But actually, these lps ARE all about the beats, not sure if they're 'ghetto' or not, but they sure are dense and funky and weirdly rhythmic, from blissed out shuffling skitter to super propulsive krautrock pound, these discs are definitely a whole new side of Tarentel. A much more raw and ragged, caustic and groove based beast. It almost sounds like Tarentel covering This Heat, or a krautrock No Neck Blues Band, or maybe even Tussle via This Heat with a bit of 23 Skidoo thrown in for good measure.
While the framework of most of the tracks is some dense web of percussive clatter or some sort-of-funky drum jam, these gorgeously hypnotic skeletal rhythms are surrounded on all sides by thick swaths of crumbling ambience, disembodied guitar loops and rumbling bass, thick swells of warm whir and all sorts of other random dreamlike shimmer. Often building into seriously caustic squalls, big churning white hot sonic swirls, each wrapped around beats that seem on the edge of falling apart, or splintering into rhythmic fragments. Maybe that's the ghetto angle, the beats are super lo-fi, blown out, strangely recorded, so they sound sort of alien, with lots of strange FX and stuttering stumbling variations. So fucking awesome.
The final volume in the series, offers up Ghetto Beats' heaviest moment in the form of "Somebody Fucks With Everybody", a sidelong doom dirge blow out, referencing everyone from SUNNO))) to Growing to Nadja, a thick glacial swirl of downtuned guitars, wreathed in effulgent streaks of damaged outerspace FX and psychrock solar flares, all underpinned by Neurosis style tribal rhythms, constantly sounding as if any second the song will kick into the heaviest riff of all time, but instead, it stretches on and on, building and building, some sort of cosmic lo-fi krautrock ambience, massive and heavy, but strangely dreamy and blissful.
The second side pretty much eschews the titular beats entirely, instead offering up several brief ambient drifts, the far away foresty folk hovering above slow moving slabs of glacial low end of "Where Time Forgot", the ultra brief scrape and shuffle of "Isalais Delay", the murky disembodied post rock of "You Do This. I'll Do That", a strange landscape of fuzzy melodies and indistinct song fragments, all woven into some sort of soft focus fever dream, and finally, "Lake Light", a two minute outro, the glorious final flurry of sound in this epic sonic travelogue spread out over 4 lps, a gorgeously hopeful, sparkling glistening drift of shimmery harmonics, and misty minor key flutter. So lovely.
We've loved everything Tarentel has done in the past, but this is by far our favorite, and how could it not be after drifting dreamily through all 8 sides of Ghetto Beats, immersing ourselves in a gloriously murky world of drifting space drones and propulsive beats, of fuzzed out shimmer and barely there ambience... So amazing!
Tarentel have been on a madly prolific run, both as a group and individually -- particularly AQ pal Jef Cantu whom you can also hear in The Alps and as J.C. Ledesma. Following up the companion EPs Paper White and Big Black Square from earlier this year is another beautiful release from those dear fellows, and it's on the Acuarela label from Madrid, Spain. Barely there shifting layers of haze and shimmer punctuated by spartan plucked strings and strums. Ultra delicate and airy.
ULTRA LIMITED, HAND SILKSCREENED lp from local post-drone-rock outift Tarentel. We've had the sonic good fortune of listening to Tarentel develop over the years from a Tortoise like post-rock ensemble to a truly risk taking experimental group, who wield a deft hand with catchy melodies and clever, complex song writing, but never shy away from taking big chances, experimenting with sound and sounds, leaning lately much more toward the abstract soundscape end of the spectrum, which of course we can't get enough of. From the opening track, a downright dreamy expanse of gentle piano, warm whooshing woodwinds and delicate acoustic guitars to the much darker and abrasive second track, a super distorted rumbling dronescape, swirling and churning around a shuffling jazzy rhythm and some creaking machine like melodies. The remaining seven tracks are a mix of the two, stretched out, blissed out smears of twinkling synths, and fluttery minimal percussion, all occasionally disrupted by big fuzzy spurts of distorted rumble and sunspot like flashes of digital glitchery. So gorgeous. And again, VERY LIMITED. Beautiful hand screened sleeves, strictly limited to 500 copies, not sure how many we'll be able to get!
It's been over a year since we've heard from Tarentel. Not since their Ghetto Beats release in 2007. Since then the various members have been doing their own things, recording solo records, playing in other bands, running labels, and while this is not an actual new record it will go a long way to tiding us over until the next proper Tarentel release.
Live Edits, as the title suggests, are various recordings from their 2005 European tour, short excerpts and edits from looooong live performances. The first thing you notice, in one of the Switzerland shows, which was hinted at on Ghetto Beats, is how much more rhythmic they can get live, the drums seem to be THE driving force. Offering up dense flurries of tribal rhythms, pounding out mysterious rituals, while the rest of the band contribute sounds and textures in the background, high pitched sine waves, sheets of feedback, processed guitar scrabble, whirring drones, very abstract and tripped out. But at another show in a different Swiss city, the drums are ditched completely, or if they are present, they are processed into another layer of buzzing drone, to pile atop the already intense wall of sound being conjured up, lots of rumble and hiss, a deep mysterious pulse buried beneath, which eventually builds to something much more blissy and melodic, guitars ringing out, chiming, woven into an ethereal shimmer.
Back at the first Swiss show, the group create a mysterious soundscape of creaking machinery, haunting loops, and heavily effected guitars, left to drift through a super abstract dubby drift.
In Italy, Tarentel offer up yet more minimalism, guitars scrape and groan, creating a rough smear of textured hum, over a distant soft focus shimmer, before letting the guitars growl and buzz, building to a thick throbbing swirl.
The above were just the longer tracks, those are actually separated by brief snippets of various performances, from awesomely chaotic glitched out synthscapery, to deep FX drenched dark ambience, to creepy expanses of low end sprawl and whirring blackened rumbles, all of the tracks, are deftly placed to create the flow of a proper record, the various performances, and the varied sounds, smeared and blurred into one stretched out abstract freeform whole.
Packaged in a cool 2 color silkscreened cardstock sleeve, and LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!
Local ambient drone rockers Tarentel have kept a pretty low profile as of late. Jefre Cantu has focused on his solo recordings as well as running the amazing Root Strata label, while the other members have had their fingers in all sorts of Bay Area exploits. But it seems like maybe Tarentel is starting to gain momentum again, a recent tour with Pelican, a flurry of upcoming releases as well as this here live cd (a cd, NOT a cd-r, although still limited to 500 copies). Recorded last year, this 40 minute set displays some new facets of Tarentel's sound. The opening track is a dense collage of aggressively strummed acoustic guitar amidst swirls of feedback, guitar grit and what sounds like chantlike vocals. A thick cloud of tribal skree that sounds like it could be some lost NNCK track or a Sunburned Hand jam. The next track, the disc's 15 minute long centerpiece, is a murky drift of abstract percussion, haunting horns, muted melodies all in a cloud of room sound and natural reverb. Pretty and space-y and dreamily delicate. The last two tracks, each about nine minutes, find Tarentel dabbling again in New Weird America, albeit offering their own slant. Random percussion, shakers and bells, moaning horns and bits of clatter and clank, cloudy ambience, a muted scrape and scrabble, adding a drone like background texture, peals of feedback drift through a whirring sheet of amp hum and staticky FX, whistles send squiggly little melodies fluttering into the ether, the whole thing a deliriously laidback jam, free and unmoored, a deliriously druggy drift. So nice.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!! Packaged in beautiful brown and metallic silver hand screened cardstock sleeves, with a photocopied insert.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Two extra long songs of majestic instrumental post rock from local favorites Tarentel, who have been getting well-deserved attention from all over the world. This single is limited to 500 copies and comes from Resonant, house label of the Chunky Records shop in the West Midlands of the UK. Tarentel specialize in long emotional tracks composed of delicately strung together sections, each one a miniaturized soundscape of its own. Deep. Buy now or cry later! Orange vinyl if you're quick, black vinyl otherwise.
