We're in love with Pete Astor's (ex-Weater Prophets and Loft) new project the Wisdom of Harry, and it seems that the fine folks at Matador have fallen as well. This is a collection of all the various singles and eps they've released over the past few years, on such luminous labels as Lissy's, All City, and Wurlitzer Jukebox. Brit-flavored odd-pop that doesn't feel the need for vocals all the f**king time and has just as much of a cinematic, soundtracky feel as it does the heart-touching sensitivity of a proper Smog or Sparklehorse song. Highly recommended; one of Windy's favorite records.
Whoa, as the first track begins on this new Wisdom Of Harry full length, we're hit with the thought that somewhere along the line Wisdom Of Harry got some even more raucous funkiness in their formerly sweet, sensitive folk-tronic sounds. They've certainly gone through their fair share of stylistic shifts in the time between their albums, the lovely 1999 collection called Stars Of Super 8 (an AQ fave) and the somewhat jarring House of Binary released in 2000 (not an AQ fave) and this their third full length. But hang on a sec, it seems mainman Pete Astor and co. have fused elements of their past two divergent releases into something new, both intimate, earthy and groovy, revealing a greater depth to Wisdom Of Harry. Lo-fi programmed beats, raw acoustic percussion, folksy acoustic guitars, slinky electric guitars, and shifty electronic textural layers along with Astor's smoky return to the sensitive guy vocals all fall into place with seeming ease. The much more confident and cohesive Torch Division definitely brings to mind shades of Beta Band, Badly Drawn Boy and The The.
The local label Out of Round has been laboring quietly in the background, not calling a lot of attention to itself yet turning out record after record that are consistently of similar mood -- due to the fact that they all play on each others recordings. The homegrown label's "sound", then, is one of a grimy circus atmosphere, like Fellini's La Strada if it was set in some dusty corner of an urban American metropolis. There are lots of slowed down polkas and depressed waltz time-signatures, dour vocals, sad accoridans, and dolefully plucked guitars. Great mood music for the Tom Waits fan in all of us who feels like Waits is just too hip for his own good these days.
Check out www.outofroundrecords.com -- we carry all of their releases. For a limited time only, get an out of Round Records label sampler free with purchase of this disc.
Back on list 126, I (Allan) wrote about my belated discovery of the greatness that is Wishbone Ash's self-titled 1970 debut. Well, now it's about time to follow that up with a rave review of another Wishbone Ash record, this being the newly remastered and expanded edition of their third album, 1972's "Argus". Giving this a few listens, I've come to the conclusion that while their first album is certainly somewhat more of a "heavy rock" outing (think Cream meets Thin Lizzy), "Argus" is equally great, and is actually destined to be one of my ALL TIME favorite albums! Seriously, I'm becoming kinda obsessed with listening to this, with its absolutely gorgeous, gentle melodies and its extended instrumental workouts. Some internet investigation reveals that I'm not alone -- this record is in fact considered by many fans to be Wishbone Ash's absolute masterpiece. They just got everything right on this release, from the evocative cover photo of an ancient sentry to the achingly beautiful, stirring music. I can't get enough of the three-part vocal harmonies, the dual guitar leads, or the melancholic power of the riffs. Favorite tracks include the beautiful British folk of "Leaf And Stream", the anthemic "Warrior", and the shoulda-been-a-pop-hit "Sometime World". The whole album has a timeless vibe. Maybe you could call their style "rural progressive" rock? It's melodic, mystical and complex in ways that make it sound simple.
In addition to being remastered, this new 30th anniversary edition includes three bonus tracks: the entire "Live From Memphis" promo-only EP. These live-on-the-radio versions of "Phoenix" (from their debut) and "Jail Bait" and "The Pilgrim" (from their second album, "Pilgrimage") add another half-hour to the disc, being even more jammed-out and epic than the original studio cuts! So even if you already have the old cd of "Argus", you should consider replacing it with this disc, these bonus tracks are worth it! The loud-soft dynamics and interlocking instrumental loveliness of the live "Pilgrim" are positively 'post-rock', but better of course.
Truly 'classic' rock that needs to be rediscovered. My advice for this week: pick up that new Champs album, and order a copy of this as well. You'll be set for a while then!
This is one of those classic rock '70s bands that I (Allan) had always heard of (their claim to fame was pioneering the twin guitar harmony thing, inspiring Thin Lizzy and later Iron Maiden) but had never heard... Nobody was like, "Dude! Wishbone Ash! You
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
The European label Who Can You Trust? brings us two new tapes in their series of limited live cassette-only releases by some of our favorite heavy/psych bands, that began with the instantly-out-of-print White Hills live at WFMU tape last year. One from San Francisco's very own Dzjenghis Khan, and one by Massachusetts heavy lords Witch featuring Dinosaur Jr.'s J Mascis on drums.
The cassette from Witch was recorded live at Holland's celebrated Roadburn Festival, in 2008 - and in our experience, bands tend to be at their best at Roadburn! Their set features nine songs over two sides, songs drawn from both of Witch's albums, five from their especially stoner/Sabbathy styled self-titled debut and four from their somewhat more punked out sophomore effort Paralyzed. So a bunch of our Witch favorites are on here, including "Rip Van Winkle", "Seer", and the crucial "Changing", which Allan here considers to be the best heavy hypnotic doom stoner song of the century so far. In fact, he'd probably be happy with a tape that just repeated them playing it over and over and over, it's so good, not that Witch's other songs aren't killer too. But that one, wow, it's got a riff to rival "Satori Part II" by the Flower Travellin' Band, man. Anyway, the only people who are gonna be fast enough on the trigger to nab one of these tapes are already Witch fans, and already know all that...
Being live, of course the sound on this tape is somewhat raw, compared to the studio recordings, but it's good, better than a bootleg for sure. Witch sound particularly Melvins-y here!
Purple cassette, with sexy witch cover art on the J-card by the band's bassist, Dave Sweetapple. Super limited (200 copies only!), and we only have a few...
Been waiting for this one. Shadoks (or Normal, or Q.D.K. Media, or whatever they're called) reissued Witch's awesome Lazy Bones!! album a while back, then did this one on (crazy expensive limited) vinyl, now here at last is the much more reasonably priced cd, yay! Along with a reissue of Tirogo's Float, also reviewed this list, both of which should make all fans of '70s African garage psych action super extra ultra happy...
Witch's Introduction was, as the title suggests, this Zambian band's debut, originally released in 1973, and it's such a damn delight, living up to the high hopes we had for it. "Zam Rock" at its best - not that we've ever heard any Zam Rock we didn't like, so far the reissues have been uniformly rad! As with Witch's later Lazy Bones!!, the fuzzed out wah wah'd guitars run rampant, the rhythms are infectious, the organ playing unrestrained, the English language lyrics charming (song titles include "Feeling High", "Like A Chicken" and "See Your Mama"... how could this record NOT be good?). Need we go on? If Lazy Bones!! rocked your world, this should be enough of an introduction to Introduction! While '75's Lazy Bones!! is a bit heavier, any fan will dig this too.
The cd booklet includes vintage photos, plus liner notes by Now-Again / Stones Throw's Egon, who was instrumental in making these legit Witch reissues happen. From those liner notes, we learn that the name Witch was actually an acronym, standing for We Intend To Cause Havoc! How cool is that?
All right, more '70s "ZamRock"! Last list, in our highlight review of 45,000 Volts by the awesome Ngozi Family, we mentioned that there was another crucial reissue from Zambia on the way that we were looking forward to - that's this, Witch! (Not to be confused with the present-day Witch that's got J. Mascis on drums, they're cool too, but couldn't ever be as cool as this.) The Witch's 1975 album Lazy Bones!! (the two exclamation marks are part of the title) is BADASS. It's got tons of rhythmic umph, and makin'-more-with-less third world charm. Again it's the western garage psych template with African extras.
Some tracks are heavy duty crunchers, such as the curiously named "Tooth Factory" (which sounds like Japan's Speed, Glue, and Shinki, we think), some more spaced and mellow, like "Strange Dream", and still others are loose limbed groovy jams, like the title track. And, you'd better believe there's plenty of fuzz throughout, you'll get your daily dose and then some. Wah wah guitars roam wild, The Witch managing to be wonderfully melodic, funky, and downright distorted across these ten tracks, providing everything we desire from the electric ZamRock phenomenon (similar too, to bands from Nigeria like Blo and Ofege). With English being the official language of Zambia, that's what the vocals are in, sorta nasal and accented and lovely in a gritty way. Kinda hard to know what else to say except, recommended!
There was a Shadoks vinyl reissue of this a while back, but it was prohibitively expensive (close to fifty bucks retail!) so we're really glad they got around to doing this much more affordable compact disc version, licensed from the sole surviving band member and featuring a booklet full of interesting liner notes (by Egon from Now-Again / Stones Throw) and vintage photos.
Witch's self-titled debut from 2006 was one of our absolute favorite "stoner/doom" metal releases of that year (or any year sez Allan!). An unlikely "supergroup" combo consisting in part of members of folk-pysch collective Feathers, with famed alt-rock guitar god J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. on drums (not guitar!), Witch exceeded all expectations with their slow and Sabbathy, heavier than thou, utterly righteous psychedelic doom mastery. OMG, oh my Iommi, the riffs!!
Perhaps aware that they couldn't really outdo (or outdoom?) themselves riff-wise, the debut being such a tough act to follow in that department, the Witchy ones have smartly decided to accentuate some other aspects of their sound on their sophomore slab. So while the first Witch had held hints of SST styled '80s punkishness, our first impression of Paralyzed is that it's definitely much more punked out than its illustrious predecessor. Perhaps Mascis, who used to keep time in hardcore/grind band Deep Wound way back when, wanted more of a workout on the drums. It's quite chaotically energetic and uptempo aggro a lot of the time, along with indulging in their usual lugubrious headbanging trancification. A little less Vitus, a little more Flag (is the song "Gone" a nod to Ginn's other band?). And maybe more Frost, less Sabbath.
Not that they don't bring the riffs, it's just that they don't quite match the 10 on a scale of 1-10 magnitude of those from the likes of "Changing" or "Rip Van Winkle" from the self titled album (how could they?). However, the speedier (in parts) Paralyzed does certainly boast a bonanza of snakey lead guitar action, liberally dosed in tripped out psychedelic FX. We gotta hand it to singer/lead axeman Kyle Thomas, he shows no signs of nervousness taking tangled solos with none other than (let's not forget) J. Mascis bashing away behind him. Nor is he shy on the mic, his vocals sometimes reminding us of the sneer/snarl of Blaine from The Accused... with, still, a bit of the Ozz. Other observations: sometimes we think we hear the cries of garagey pop jangle buried alive on some of these tracks, and at times we might (might) describe Witch as sounding like a way more badass Dead Meadow. Also the more lumbering tracks here ('cause they do slow it down) remind us of some early Melvins or Steel Pole Bathtub. It's a pretty rad, reverby mix altogether, an cool collision of heavy psychotic shambling psych and corroded crossover punk/metal. We're digging it. Comes in a black digipack adorned with the apocalyptic, druggy, melty-looking artwork of bros Luke and Kyle Thomas, which makes it even cooler.
Glory be, talk about a reissue! So, we were pretty excited a couple years ago when Germany's Shadoks (or Normal, or Q.D.K. Media, or whatever they're called) did legit reissues of two amazing albums of '70s African garage psych action by Zambia's Witch (not to be confused with the present-day Witch that's got J. Mascis on drums, they're cool too, but couldn't ever be as cool as this), their 1973 debut Introduction, and 1975's Lazy Bones!! (yes, the two exclamation points are part of that record's title). But now, the Now-Again label has put those two albums together with a ton more stuff, everything ever recorded by this '70s "ZamRock" group, in one super deluxe package consisting of four cds, or six lps!! (The vinyl version being naturally more expensive, but just be glad you didn't buy the two limited lp editions Shadoks put out, which woulda cost more). Again, it's all officially licensed from the sole surviving band member.
So, the first Shadoks cd reish we listed was Lazy Bones!!, which got an all-caps BADASS citation from us. Here's our review: It's got tons of rhythmic umph, and makin'-more-with-less third world charm. Again, it's the western garage psych template with African extras. Some tracks are heavy duty crunchers, such as the curiously named "Tooth Factory" (which sounds like Japan's Speed, Glue, and Shinki, we think), some more spaced and mellow, like "Strange Dream", and still others are loose limbed groovy jams, like the title track. And, you'd better believe there's plenty of fuzz throughout, you'll get your daily dose and then some. Wah wah guitars roam wild, The Witch managing to be wonderfully melodic, funky, and downright distorted across these ten tracks, providing everything we desire from the electric ZamRock phenomenon (similar too, to bands from Nigeria like Blo and Ofege). With English being the official language of Zambia, that's what the vocals are in, sorta nasal and accented and lovely in a gritty way. Kinda hard to know what else to say except, recommended!
Then, not long after, when Introduction was also reissued, we said it to be such a damn delight, living up to the high hopes we had for it. "Zam Rock" at its best - not that we've ever heard any Zam Rock we didn't like, so far the reissues have been uniformly rad! As with Lazy Bones!!, the fuzzed out wah wah'd guitars run rampant, the rhythms are infectious, the organ playing unrestrained, the English language lyrics charming (song titles include "Feeling High", "Like A Chicken" and "See Your Mama"... how could this record NOT be good?). Need we go on? If Lazy Bones!! rocked your world, this should be enough of an introduction to Introduction! While '75's Lazy Bones!! is a bit heavier, any fan will dig this too.
Ok, that's those two. But there's more, that's why you'll want this set, even if you've got those. Now-Again has added two discs (or 8 more lp sides) of material, to cover Witch's complete works from 1972-77. Not just those two albums we've already had, but FIVE albums: Introduction, In The Past, Lazy Bones!!, Lukombo Vibes, and Including Janet. Plus a whole bunch of rare 7" tracks too! All restored/remastered from the original master tapes.
And while we thought maybe their later material, would get more "disco" or something, well, no, for the most part The Witch stayed heavy... and groovy too of course. On 1976's Lukombo Vibes, for instance, tracks like "Devil's Flight" and "Blood Donor" live up to anything on Lazy Bones!!. There's more traditional Zambian folk influence perhaps, more Zam going on in their Rock. In any case, it's for stuff any Witch fan will be happy to hear.
And all this is beautifully packaged with a giant booklet of rare vintage photos and informative text, including an interview with bandleader "Jagari" Chanda, expanding upon the liner notes that Egon from Now-Again / Stones Throw had done for the previous Shadoks releases, which he'd been instrumental in making happen in the first place.
Kudos to Now-Again for giving the Witch discography this deluxe treatment, we're thankful indeed.
We've all been loving the soft lilting new weird free hippy folk of the Feathers, who for us were a recent discovery. And we've always been big fans of J Mascis, the distorted psychedelic indie fuzz of Dinosaur Jr, but even in his stints with sludgy punk rock outift Deep Wound and behind the kit for weirdo metallers Upside Down Cross. But never in our wildest dreams did we imagine the twain would meet. But what do you know? It's either a seriously small world, or there is some not so secret bond joining the disparate music arcs of these long haired fellows. Witch is not necessarily what you might imagine a meeting of Dinosaur Jr. and the Feathers would sound like, although the frilly jackets and bell bottoms and long hair should give you a clue. This is total seventies proto metal meets sludgy groovy stoner rock. Big BIG riffs, groovy and sun baked, blown out and HEAVY. Seriously. We hear Sabbath, Saint Vitus, Pentagram, Trouble, even some Kyuss and more modern stoner/doom outfits, like Witchcraft and Dead Meadow. The vocals are drenched in reverb and are sort of soaring and whining, some definite Ozzy influence there, also at times verging on a reedy Marc Bolan/Comus folky warble. And the guitar sound, OOF! You'd be forgiven for thinking that was Mascis on lead guitar, but he's manning the drum kit here, no the guitars are fuzzy seventies metallic groove, with a guitar sound definitely reminiscent of Sub Pop drone guitar gods Rein Sanction, like Hendrix filtered through Iommi, laced with LSD, dipped in goat's blood, set in the sun to bake and of course slathered in warm distorted fuzz. But with a band like this it's all about the riffs. Everyone knows Sabbath took all the best riffs, that's why so many heavy bands have based entire careers on stealing 'em, but Witch prove that there are still some killer riffs left out there. Heavy and fuzzy enough to bear a passing resemblance to the Sabs, but weird and wooly and unique enough that they can unabashedly claim them as their own. This is definitely another one of those bands like Elope or the Want, that if you didn't know better, and were forced to guess, you could be forgive for thinking Witch were straight out of the seventies (though with maybe 'cause of J, a whif of '80s SST hardcore punk somewhere in there too). Sonically, production wise, the whole package. And while the whole record is heavy and sludgy and groovy, it's worth the price of admission alone for track 5, "Rip Van Winkle" with a riff that is one of THOSE riffs. The whole track is a stone cold classic, from THAT riff, to the crazy blown out psychedelic leads, to the bombastic drumming, the weird arrangement, the wailing vocals, it's hugely heavy, head noddingly hypnotic, head bangingly massive, but groovy and catchy, minor key melodies beneath thick waves of warm guitar fuzz, totally emotional and amazing, it's like the best Sabbath song that never was. Then there's the track right before it, "Changing", that ALSO has one of THOSE riffs, and sounds like some sort of incredible, exotic Saint Vitus/Flower Travellin' Band hybrid. Wow. And all the other songs are pretty amazing too.
We just wish that they could have come up with a name a little more original than Witch. If they were indeed dead set on some sort of Witch name, you can't go wrong adding some appropriately evil or mysterious second word to your band name, I mean, c'mon, we would have gladly taken Featherwitch or even better DINOSAUR WITCH!
A couple years after he started the Dead Kennedys, Jello Biafra recorded a project called the Witch Trials, with a distinctly proto-industrial bent, primitive drum machines and of course Biafra's spoken vocal front and center, as political, satirical, and theatrical as ever. Recorded in a friend's apartment in London, the record found Biafra taking aim at the Los Angeles police years before NWA and Ice-T would, and in so many ways we're reminded how Biafra's fiercely political voice and ability to inhabit characters in his songs was really a precursor to much of the voices that would emerge in hip-hop in years to follow.
Witch Trials also demonstrates that while many others who were identified in the punk movement subscribed to narrow views of what punk could sound and look like, Biafra never had time for that. Instead he found many outlets to express his dystopian rage. The first two tracks of this ep are almost like full on performance art pieces with Biafra's immediately recognizable vocals speaking/singing over primitive drum machines and crumbling instrumentation that at times even echoed the sound of Public Image Ltd. The strength of the record really shines through on the last two songs which are the most musical of the bunch, especially the record's closer "Meat Beat", which we would guess was the song that inspired Meat Beat Manifesto, and is truly a classic fucked up almost dancefloor ready song that would sound right at home on records by synth outsiders of today like John Maus. Fans of Biafra and fucked up industrial sounding soundtracks to Orwellian nightmares must have this!
Yay, at long last (five years!) the return of our/your/everyone's favorite Swedish retro-proto-metallers, Witchcraft! With this, their fourth album, they've moved on from their previous label Rise Above to a new home on bigger label Nuclear Blast. They've also altered their lineup quite a bit, though of course mainman Magnus Pelander remains at the mic (though he's not playing guitar anymore, for some reason, concentrating solely on vocals). Going through changes� without changing -too- much, as far as us listeners are concerned, thankfully. Even with a new drummer and two new guitarists, this still sounds of a piece with the Witchcraft of olde, certainly in part due to the distinctive, emotive, melodic vocal stylings of Pelander. We just love his voice, and he puts on a great performance here. He's got flair, the whole band does.
Musically, Legend is maybe a bit more modern and slickly produced than previous Witchcraft outings, and certainly they didn't get rawer or heavier, no. The direction they took was onwards and upwards. But the influence of such vintage greats as Black Sabbath and Pentagram hasn't exactly waned, though nowadays we'd be more likely to describe Witchcraft as being their own psychedelic, doomy, melodic, proggy, heavy rock thing. Good meaningful music, well played, with lots of both light and shade - lumbering riffs, lovely vox, great guitarwork� Now, someone here thought that this new Witchcraft showed signs of being "success rock", whatever that means, and someone else here (Andee) thought some of it sounded a bit like Queens Of The Stone Age (meant, he assured us, as a compliment!), and yeah sure this is perhaps geared to appeal to a bigger audience than the record collecting '70s downer rock nerds that Witchcraft themselves once were (and heck, still are - after all, the likes of "Dystopia" here sounding like something off of one of Sabbath's final few Ozzy-era albums like Never Say Die). But, whatever. At the risk of sounding snobby, very few bands who get big are really all that great, but Pelander and Witchcraft definitely deserve all their success, so we won't hold it against 'em. Longtime Witchcraft fans, you have nothing to worry about, listen to "It's Not Because Of You" ferinstance and tell us that it doesn't sound like it coulda been on The Alchemist or Firewood. Once again, we're happily enscorcelled by this Witchcraft - and hope it won't be another five years between albums, again!
Domestic vinyl version coming out later in October, fyi.
Oh man. The third album from the Swedish prog/psych/doom wizards Witchcraft is finally here. We can barely contain ourselves. They say third time's the charm, and of course with Witchcraft it can't help but being so, since the first two times were charmed as well. This band's debut destroyed us with its incredibly authentic retro Pentagram/Sabbath stylings, with lashings of flute and folkiness too. Their second album, Firewood, captivated us with an equally early '70s heavy progressive vibe. Now The Alchemist succeeds at giving us what we want from Witchcraft -and- pushing further into the realm of melodic, folky proggy rock that stands on its own far beyond being a mere tribute to its '70s ancestors.
Guitarist/singer Magnus Pelander and his band Witchcraft have pretty much proved that the old adage "they don't make 'em like they used to" isn't always true. Witchcraft sure as hell does. That it's 2007 not 1972 isn't evident from anything on here, though it sounds as fresh as a daisy at the same time. These guys are so old school analog you halfway expect that their cd would be made out of black plastic and have visible grooves in it. We certainly could imagine some DJ's looking for breaks wanting this on vinyl real bad, you could do some badass hiphop mix with parts of "Remembered" ferinstance. Bet Andy Votel digs this band. Totally sounds like they could have gotten a deal with his favorite progressive record label back in the day (that'd be the famed Vertigo) had Witchcraft really existed in the '70s... certainly the inclusion of the sax solo (yes, a sax solo!) at the end of "Remembered" helps make it sound like something from an old Vertigo LP! Elsewhere Witchcraft get super sweet and gentle, or break out the heavy riffs Sabbath style (like you'd expect -- Sabbath originally being a Vertigo band y'know) in a blend we can't help but love.
Magnus' emotive, melodic vocals are so crucial here, one of this record's shining strengths. He still sounds a bit like a Swedish-accented Ozzy, yet with a graceful finesse, belting it out expressively or crooning with lilting loveliness. His vocals are matched by the absolutely powerful and gorgeous guitarwork throughout the disc. This album sweeps us off our feet immediately with the instant-classic opener "Walk Between The Lines", which is followed by a re-recorded version of the A-side of last year's 7" single, "If Crimson Was Your Colour", an urgent, witchy rocker embellished with some tasty Moog licks. Then there's the loping "Leva", which though Magnus sings it in Swedish, still goes straight to our soul. The Sabbath factor is ratcheted up on "Hey Doctor", a lumbering doom-riffed downer lamentation/accusation. The next track, "Samaritan Burden" combines the heavy riffs with a mellower mood and more acoustic-y moments, masterfully structured. It's followed by the aforementioned "Remembered", definitely an album-standout that's so '70s in so many ways that pretty much only Witchcraft could have done it in this day and age. And then, speaking of standouts, comes the nearly 15 minute long title track, "The Alchemist"! We'll omit description other than to say it's of course an epic mindblower, closing the album with magnificent, mesmeric, proggier than thou flourish.
Definitely a Top 10 Best of 2007 album. We'd have made it Record Of The Week, but what we've got here is the somewhat pricier Japanese import edition (the domestic version is due out towards the end of the month), with a Japan-only bonus track added on at the end, "Sweet Honey Pie", a lovely, acoustic little number. Not sure when/if we'll get more, so we were wary about giving it pole position. But with or without bonus track, it's an AMAZING new effort from this fantastic band, highly recommended. Seriously, we'd have been happy taking all day to write this review, just 'cause we love listening to this album so much.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Oh man. The third album from the Swedish prog/psych/doom wizards Witchcraft is finally here. We can barely contain ourselves. They say third time's the charm, and of course with Witchcraft it can't help but being so, since the first two times were charmed as well. This band's debut destroyed us with its incredibly authentic retro Pentagram/Sabbath stylings, with lashings of flute and folkiness too. Their second album, Firewood, captivated us with an equally early '70s heavy progressive vibe. Now The Alchemist succeeds at giving us what we want from Witchcraft -and- pushing further into the realm of melodic, folky proggy rock that stands on its own far beyond being a mere tribute to its '70s ancestors.
Guitarist/singer Magnus Pelander and his band Witchcraft have pretty much proved that the old adage "they don't make 'em like they used to" isn't always true. Witchcraft sure as hell does. That it's 2007 not 1972 isn't evident from anything on here, though it sounds as fresh as a daisy at the same time. These guys are so old school analog you halfway expect that their cd would be made out of black plastic and have visible grooves in it. We certainly could imagine some DJ's looking for breaks wanting this on vinyl real bad, you could do some badass hiphop mix with parts of "Remembered" ferinstance. Bet Andy Votel digs this band. Totally sounds like they could have gotten a deal with his favorite progressive record label back in the day (that'd be the famed Vertigo) had Witchcraft really existed in the '70s... certainly the inclusion of the sax solo (yes, a sax solo!) at the end of "Remembered" helps make it sound like something from an old Vertigo LP! Elsewhere Witchcraft get super sweet and gentle, or break out the heavy riffs Sabbath style (like you'd expect -- Sabbath originally being a Vertigo band y'know) in a blend we can't help but love.
Magnus' emotive, melodic vocals are so crucial here, one of this record's shining strengths. He still sounds a bit like a Swedish-accented Ozzy, yet with a graceful finesse, belting it out expressively or crooning with lilting loveliness. His vocals are matched by the absolutely powerful and gorgeous guitarwork throughout the disc. This album sweeps us off our feet immediately with the instant-classic opener "Walk Between The Lines", which is followed by a re-recorded version of the A-side of last year's 7" single, "If Crimson Was Your Colour", an urgent, witchy rocker embellished with some tasty Moog licks. Then there's the loping "Leva", which though Magnus sings it in Swedish, still goes straight to our soul. The Sabbath factor is ratcheted up on "Hey Doctor", a lumbering doom-riffed downer lamentation/accusation. The next track, "Samaritan Burden" combines the heavy riffs with a mellower mood and more acoustic-y moments, masterfully structured. It's followed by the aforementioned "Remembered", definitely an album-standout that's so '70s in so many ways that pretty much only Witchcraft could have done it in this day and age. And then, speaking of standouts, comes the nearly 15 minute long title track, "The Alchemist"! We'll omit description other than to say it's of course an epic mindblower, closing the album with magnificent, mesmeric, proggier than thou flourish.
Definitely a Top 10 Best of 2007 album. We'd have made it Record Of The Week, but what we've got here is the somewhat pricier Japanese import edition (the domestic version is due out towards the end of the month), with a Japan-only bonus track added on at the end, "Sweet Honey Pie", a lovely, acoustic little number. Not sure when/if we'll get more, so we were wary about giving it pole position. But with or without bonus track, it's an AMAZING new effort from this fantastic band, highly recommended. Seriously, we'd have been happy taking all day to write this review, just 'cause we love listening to this album so much.
PERHAPS THEE BEST '70s-INSPIRED DOOM ALBUM EVER. Can't put it any plainer. This is sooo authentically old sounding, and sooo good. Sweden's Witchcraft have delved into the past through seemingly mystical means and come up with a masterpiece that sounds like it was recorded by some genius yet unknown downer-rock contemporary of Black Sabbath or Pentagram back in 1972. In a blindfold test, anyone into '70s heavy rock would be fooled for sure. Doomy retro-proto-metal full of heart-wrenching atmosphere, killer riffs, and melodic hooks galore. The mastermind behind Witchcraft, guitarist/vocalist Magnus Pellander, is obviously HUGELY into heavy '70s psych/prog rock. Doubtless he's got an extensive record collection with well-worn albums by Sabbath and a host of more obscure bands like Dust, Captain Beyond, November, Toad, Jerusalem, etc... But unlike so many other record collectors, instead of spending his time making want lists and grading LPs, Magnus *listened* to 'em, then went into the studio and wrote songs as good or BETTER than pretty much anything on those collector's platters. Literally, inspired stuff. As modern-day but '70s sounding records go, maybe only that Elope record we reviewed recently could compare in convincing us it was recorded thirty years ago -- imagine that album with heavier, fuzzier guitars and more melancholic vibrations. (Another one would be The Want album Southern Lord released a few years ago).
So we were super thrilled to hear that this band was putting out a full-length. And apparently other folks were too, 'cuz we've already sold a bunch of these in the store before even reviewing it! Kinda weird, since their only previous release, a 7" single paying tribute to two of Witchcraft main man Magnus Pelander's big heroes, Roky Erickson of the 13th Floor Elevators and Pentagram's Bobby Liebling, was a hard to find, import-only release (both tracks from which are included here, along with an obscure Pentagram cover making Witchcraft's love of Liebling even more obvious). On the strength of that single, though (and the few singles and compilation tracks recorded by Magnus's previous band, Norrsken), our anticipation for Witchcraft's debut album ran high. Well, as you've already gathered, we're even more thrilled to say that it more than lives up to our expectations! We have a handful of copies of the import vinyl as well, which includes a bonus track (another Pentagram cover).
Don't be fooled by the pretty purple cake on the cover. This is some whisky-swillin', psych-y, space-y slow-to-mid-tempo blues with ragged vocals. Sort of Husker Du-esque.
Witchy Poo is the on again off again project featuring Slim Moon and Steve Fisk along with an ever expanding cast of Olympia, Washington, musicians and friends. While this record must have been a lot of fun to MAKE, upon first LISTEN it sounds more like a snickering in-joke, with silly synth interludes between the covers of Melvins, Paul Simon, the Cars, Mel Brooks(?).
This much hyped super group finds the original rhythm section of aQ beloved doomlords Electric Wizard (who also played together in Ramesses) teaming up with metal legend and Rise Above Records head honcho Lee Dorrian (Cathedral, Napalm Death) for some seriously crushing, classic doom heaviness. But somehow, With The Dead doesn't sound as much like Electric Wizard or Cathedral as it does like the Melvins or Torche! The guitar is fuzzed to within an inch of its life, and the vibe is groovy, distorto sludge-pop as much as it is metal, in fact, opener "Crown Of Burning Stars" really could be a cover of either the Melvins or Torche (or maybe Floor). And while this is definitely a metal record, that sludge-poppiness seems to run throughout the whole record, along with some classic doomisms, and some near Hawkwindy heavy psych blowouts. But really, doom metal or sludge pop, or both, it fucking rules!
Issued on cd for the first time since its original 1974 release, soul singer Bill Withers' final record for the Sussex label, +'Justments finally sees the light of day. It's a record that bears the weight of the world on its shoulders, recorded at a time when both his personal and professional relationships were falling apart. Fatigued from touring and fighting against label pressures to become more of a high-production showman, Withers created a more introspective and often melancholic soul folk record closer in spirit to Terry Callier than to Marvin Gaye. It's both been lauded as one of the major lost soul records of the seventies and dismissed as a critical disappointment, as it didn't have any of the winning singles previous releases had such as "Ain't No Sunshine", "Lean On Me" or "Use Me". And it pretty much sounded the death knell for the Sussex label that folded shortly after its release, which probably meant it didn't get as much promotion as his other releases did. It's a shame too, because as a whole, it's a really great record. Even though it's proven just to be as polarizing here in the store with some of us loving it and some of us hating it, though those of us who do love it are arguably bigger fans of soul, disco, and R&B than those who don't. Granted, it is a record that focuses on softer and bittersweet soul qualities rather than funk and groove, but it never ever gets treacley. So this may not be the heavy-hitter soul crossover record you are looking for, but for those who like to venture into classic soul's more obscure corners, this one yields plenty of rewards. A great rainy day record!
Say revery shoddy, Blizzard Trifle fizz rack!!! Err... Sorry, what we meant to say is: Hey everybody, Wizard Rifle is back!!! Excuse us, it's just a very disorienting experience listening to this band, and things like logic and language tend to lose all meaning. But of course, anyone familiar with these Portland-spawned nutjobs first record Speak Loudly Say Nothing (which we rightly raved about when it came out) knows the sweaty shaky delirium that comes with Wizard Rifle's gonzo progged out noise rockin' math metal, and this record certainly shows the band in no danger of relenting in their sonic/psychological assault. In fact if anything, Here In The Deadlights might find them in an even more venomous, aggressive and ultimately metal mode. And possibly even a little more, dare we say... serious?? Sure, there are still song titles like "Buzzsaw Babes" and "Paul the Sky Tyrant", but there's also a consistent rumble of dissonant dread running across this record's five tracks, as well a genuinely frightening and twisted fury that brings to mind the aggro-avant-heaviness of early Mastodon and Today Is The Day (whose new album we've reviewed elsewhere on this list!). Across the album's relatively brief running time there are also hints of Sabbathian stoned out dirges, apocalyptic Neurosisian tribalisms, High On Fire-ish ale-soaked riffery, and Botch-esque teched out hardcore wizardry. But it's a blink and you'll miss it affair, as the songs seem to speed by in a whiplash blur of incomprehensible time signatures, while at the same time the band's use of repetition can induce a sort of hypnotic fever-trance, like being pumped full of morphine while someone shakes you by the shoulders and screams in your face for half an hour straight. Like we said... a disorienting experience! But one you'll want to experience again as soon as this record's over...
Vinyl version upcoming soon, btw.
This is another one of those cases, where we were sort of obsessed before we even heard a note of music. They're called Wizard Rifle, which is simultaneously the raddest and stupidest band name ever, they claim to play 'scrap metal', they have songs with titles like "Tears Won't Soften Steel" and "Leathery Gentlemen", they even have a song named for legendary fantasy artist Frank Frazetta, and then there's the band photo, which has one guy dressed like and old timey dandy in a rocking chair holding a rifle, while the other guy is wearing zebra print spandex, is wearing hand made wings, is painted all over and is brandishing a scythe, that band photo could have gone either way actually, but when combined with all the other stuff, we had a feeling...
And holy shit, sometimes you CAN judge a book by its cover, and these Portland scrap metallers totally destroy, taking their cues from groups like Karp, that sort of relentlessly pounding metallic churn, and Lightning Bolt, that sort of frenzied hyper prog bombast, in fact, in some ways, that's the perfect equation to describe these guys, Karp plus Lightning Bolt. BUT, and this is critical, they take those two sounds, and totally make them their own, they're definitely as frantic and mathed out as Lightning Bolt, and maniacally metallic as Karp, but they've created something even more poppy and proggy, and totally wild and fucking over the top fun. One of those rare bands that sound like they just might be one of the funnest bands to see EVER. We'd happily base that on the first track along, the 6+ minute hyper-pop-prog-metal workout that is "Tears Won't Soften Steel", which begins with a little flurry of hazy guitar, which is then joined by some furious drum pound, all wreathed ins swirling bleeps and bloops, the guitar offering up shards of angular riffage, soaring and squiggly, before finally launching into some seriously Karp-ed out krunch, but here wedded to some crooned Torche-like pop song vox, a weird combination that kills, the Karp-ness at times is uncanny, but then the band will explode into crazy mathiness, or some weird sing along start-stops, or some doomy metallic chug and churn, and then some awesome harmonized guitars that make this sound like the heaviest pop record of all time, the sort of part that sends you diving for the rewind button the second it finishes, thankfully, the band hammer away at that part, soaring and melodic and so catchy, before the final super rocking sing along finish.
And while the opener might be our favorite, the rest of the record is fast catching up, "Frazetta" has the coolest heaviest opening, before locking into some swirling dizzying pop infused metallic mayhem, there are samples too, and the band seem to flit from part to part at the drop of a dime, so tight, so heavy, and yeah, so totally fun. From there on out, the band dip their toes into some brooding minimal shimmer, only to see it splinter into a slithery sludge pop groove, with some haunting harmonized vocals, while elsewhere they take frantic frenzied blasts of metal and pepper them with progged out breakdowns, and wrap them in surprisingly poppy vox, and finally, they finish things off with "Leathery Gentlemen" which in some ways sounds basically like a culmination of everything that came before, grinding metallic crush, blasting sludge pop bliss, soaring harmonized vox, wild dueling guitars, mathed out progginess, and a surprise bit of swirling psychedelic backwards guitar flecked drift, only to explode into a blastbeat driven stretch of soaring metal majesty, that might be the most furious part of the whole record, only to devolve in the last minute into a warped woozy, increasingly dizzying noise pop freakout.
Hidden City Of Taurmond is like an all out caffeine attack that only grows more furious as it all plays out. In it's first few minutes things start pretty sweet, simple, driving and propulsive, kind of like Apparat Organ Quartet's tougher older brothers bringing some extra melody with their keyboards and more spastic rhythm with their drums, always with a can of red bull ready and waiting. As the record unfolds the pace grows faster and the rhythms get bigger and badder and the drummer, wow the drummer just totally loses control in the best of ways. Which makes sense when you realize that the drummer is none other than Brian Gibson of Lightening Bolt fame. Teamed up with the fun keyboard sounds of Rich Porter, they make sounds equally influenced by prog rock, 70's soundtracks, 80's electro, video games and that crazy carnival down the block that your mother would never let you visit. Hidden City Of Taurmond is an adrenaline rush that you never want to end. Think Trans Am in full rock mode, after a case of pixie sticks and something to prove. We can't stop listening to this, there's just something so full on and wildly charged about these songs that make us get all bouncy and launches us into a wickedly fun frenzy.
With AQ fave Philip Jeck in the band!
If you've been paying attention to the Aquarius New Arrivals list (c'mon folks, it's summer now but the school of AQ is still in session, and you're gonna get quizzed on this list later) you'll have come across our recent review of a cd by a heavy, rhythmic British avant-rock outfit with the odd name of Hey Colossus. A great album for those into sludgy, repetitive riffing, maybe like the Melvins meet Circle but more aggro than that.
Hey Colossus already employ no less than three guitars to make their noise but on this vinyl-only EP they've teamed up with another UK band called Woe (a skronky, heavy duty improv jazz beast) to get really really loud and ugly/pretty on two tracks, one of 'em a cover of Miles Davis' "In A Silent Way" believe it or not!! With nine musicians -- including two drummers, two trumpeters, two bassists, keyboards and all those guitars -- this has got some serious avant-heft. "In A Silent Way" has never sounded so ominous and heavy, and the flip is full of militaristic rumble as well. Great stuff! Limited to just 200 copies, on nice thick vinyl, and we have but a handful.
Every city has / needs / should have a band that sounds just like Guided By Voices. Portland has Wolf Colonel. While their previous album offered up the sounds of bombastic power pop and loud guitar rawk whipped up together, this time around they're indeed mining the GBV pop nooks and crannies. Definitely a sparser and slower Wolf Colonel.
New from K Records. Music for summertime cruising with your highschool honey. A youthfully bombastic meltdown of power pop and hard rockin' guitar. A bit if Buffalo Tom, a bit of Big Star. 15 tunes in all make up one catchy good time. Rumour has it that live they are equal parts metal and standup comedy!?
For their latest collection of homebrewed electronic analogue filth, the boys in Wolf Eyes have decided to join the Hospital Productions roster, home of Prurient, Cold Cave, Ash Pool, Grey Wolves, Prurient, Kevin Drumm, Malkuth, and in some ways it's a perfect match. While all of that typically crusty and blown out Wolf Eyesian buzz and glitch and ruble and whir is all intact, Always Wrong actually displays a fairly significant shift, not just in sound, but in song writing. Unlike past efforts which tended toward the epic side long abstract noise jams, AW is practically a collection of songs, with vocals playing a much more significant part, sure they still offer up serious shards of skree and dense chunks of jagged buzz, but the manage as always to make their noise MORE than just noise, texture, timbre, mood, melody, and for the first time, SONGS.
The record opens with some electronic buzz and some muffled percussion, and right up front some snarled vox, spitting all kinds of venomous vitriol, over a strangely haunting glitchscape, before finally erupting into a clattery clangy Wolf Eyed Whitehouse jam. Tons of feedback, swooping electronic tones, clipped and stuttery chunks of buzz and squeal, all somehow woven into a lurching, stumbling malfunctioning industrial lumber. But it's the next track where things get really interesting, beginning with another high end squall, the streaks of skree get smoothed into haunting melodies, backing up a drawled gloomy almost Lou Reed sounding vocal, underneath it all a darkly gothic bassline, all murky and buzzy, some crunchy riffage popping up here and there, the whole thing a darkly swirling, but still crunchy and caustic, bit of coldwave, that should definitely please fans of the dark and morose, the brooding and black.
"Broke Order" sounds almost punk rock, crushing crumbling detuned crush, over grinding mechanical rhythms, dense clouds of blurred buzz, and yowled vokills, a lumbering lurching ultra heavy distortion drenched monstrosity, that again, manages to still be weirdly, if just barely, melodic.
The rest of the record drifts druggily between those different sounds, "Pretending Alive" is a slow crawl, of reverbed metallic percussion, jazzy horns, lots of layered amp buzz and tape hiss, spidery disembodied guitars, "We All Hate You", is another strangely post punk post industrial almost new wave sounding jam, more moody vox, heavily effected electronic beats, thick gritty textures, and woozy minor key melodies, finishing off with "Droll / Cut The Dog", starting our downright pretty, long form drones, deep resonant rumbles, tense minor key melodies, very creepy and cinematic, the buzz and glitch kept to a minimum, eventually shifting gears into another sort of industrial coldwave outro, all pounding minimal rhythm, sung spoken vocals, warm washes of washed out hiss, dense tangles of undulating drones, and as always, lots and lots of glorious blown out buzz.
Not sure exactly what this is, tough to keep track of all the cd-r's and limited lps and everything, but it does appear to be a brand new full length, although it's vinyl only for now. Apparently one single track, spread out over two sides, Black Wing Over The Sand continues to display Wolf Eyes' developing musicality, while managing to not lose a single bit of brutality, which is quite a feat. This is another dark slab of beautiful malevolence, equal parts corrosive rumble and shimmery drone, creepy dark ambience and intense industrial clatter. Side one, the first movement, begins with grinding guitars, blown out streaks of spacy effects, huge synth swells and jagged bits of percussion, occasionally overwhelmed by massive waves of low end buzz that somehow manage to swallow everything else up. Near the end of side one, the record winds down into what could only be described as some sort of Wolf Eyes dub, lots and lots of space, a lurching non-rhythm spread waaaaay out, crashing crumbling bursts scattered throughout. Really cool. Wouldn't mind hearing a whole record of that...
The second side returns to more familiar Wolf Eyes territory, upping the buzz and the industrial clatter. still creeping along, everything wrapped in a black cloak of fuzz and rumble, but much more aggressive, intense, thicker, with layer after layer of constantly shifting sound. Intense, but still managing to be surprisingly musical and listenable.
LIMITED TO 900 COPIES. Vinyl only, packaged in a cool black and white sleeve with some strange animal torture woodcut on one side and a mysterious mountain on the other. Full color printed inner sleeve too. Really nice...
Wolf Eyes really tend to divide folks right down the middle. Love 'em or can't stand 'em. And in typical Wolf Eyes fashion, they're going to do their very best to annoy the fuck out of everybody with their 'big break' Sub Pop debut. Quite possibly the harshest Wolf Eyes record, which is saying a lot, Burned Mind is a caustic mouthful of acid, spit right in your eyes (ears?). A head melting electronic throb, equal parts damaged malfunctioning synths, squealing feedback, ultra distorted howls, skittering skipping sort-of-rhythms. Wolf Eyes, more than almost any other band, definitely sound damaged and fucked and seriously messed up. But what keeps Burned Mind from being a boring old straight up noise record? Hard to say. But something definitely does. Some mysterious intangible something. Burned Mind is definitely harsh, bit in no way unlistenable. In fact it's strangely beautiful and subtly (VERY subtly) melodic. Equal parts Factrix, Merzbow, Throbbing Gristle, Whitehouse but all warped and twisted into the uniquely fucked sonic world of Wolf Eyes.
Michigan's masters of the gristled throb return with their second record this year. Maybe the only group still carrying the torch of eighties industrial (TG, Psychic TV, etc.) Wolf Eyes continue to spew forth a noxious brew of analogue electronics, squealing feedback, primitive drum machines and tortured, anguished howls. At first this seemed like their weakest record, but on repeated listens, this 3 track sort-of-e.p. reveals itself as maybe their best. Perhaps not as brutal and abrasive, but just as intense and much more -gasp- melodic. The first track burns slow and dark, like an Italian horror movie soundtrack done music concrete style. Chirping and whirring, like the sound of mechanical insects creep over a soundscape that is downright ambient. Eventually the inevitable onslaught begins, as Merzbowian white noise swells and Mothra-like sqwawks collide with machinery run amok, a wall of squeals and creaks and rumbles. The second and third track, are a little more 'classic' Wolf Eyes, you know, sort of like the bastard offspring of Whitehouse and Suicide. A simple pulse, throbs relentlessly as unintelligible, gutteral vocalisations battle for supremecy with high pitched squeals and feedingback amps. Track three is a bit more sedate, but just as ominous and rhythmically pulsing. Some sweet, sweet noise.
Super limited lp reissue of an even more limited (and seriously out of print) cd-r from Michigan's noise rock super heroes. Recorded right before core-member Aaron Dilloway left the fold, this is the 'Eyes at their most caustic, but also at their most ambient and spare. The sounds are harsh, and hissing and crumbling into jagged shards of white noise, but they are spread out over wide open fields of minimal hiss and rumbling drones.
Long stretches of grinding industrial grit, glitchy malfunctioning electronics, bits of random percussive clatter, growled and grunted vocalizations, processed horns, bleats and skronks buried amidst thick swirls of rroooaaarrr, that the band pulls apart into weird desiccated carcasses laying under a burning hot sun, rotting and slowly liquefying into black pools of thick fuzz and clouds of insectoid whir.
One side spins at 33, the other at 45, packaged in cool silk screened sleeves. LIMITED TO 600 COPIES!
Ann Arbor, Michigan. Home to heavy, powerful dirge rock and noise from the likes of Gravitar and Universal Indians and the power electronics sabotage of Nautical Almanac. Somewhere in between lies the homemade electronics power sludge of Wolf Eyes. Aaron Dilloway (Mr. Hanson Records) heads this behemoth, always unpredictable -- from beat driven floor shakers to tweaked out
Wolf Eyes, who in the past have recorded EVERY show and EVERY practice, most of which were then released as limited cd-r's, seem to be trying to replicate that working method on a larger scale, with releases raining down on us at an almost Acid Mothers Temple rate. But who's complaining?
Fuck Pete Larsen is a cd reissue of a super limited lp from a few months back, and just to keep collectors moaning, and completists whining, it's NOT the same as the lp. Pete Larsen is the guy who runs Bulb records, an early champion of Wolf Eyes, and we're not sure if the title here is a serious jab or a playful nudge, either way, it can't be too serious, as Wolf Eyes' usual cacophony gets toned down quite a bit here. We're not talking Windham Hill or anything. But it's definitely dronier and less caustic and at moments downright listenable! Less jagged and piercing, F.P.L. is more slowly bulldozing, like a massive sonic avalanche, lower register Merzbow covered by Throbbing Gristle and processed into a slowly shifting white hot glacier of malfuntioning electronics, sheets of feedback, strange percussive detritus, and all manner of throb and rumble. Definitely still noise, and most certainly noisy, but muted and subtle enough to maybe win over some dronesters (fans of Coleclough, Maeor Tri?) or even some doomsters (fans of Sunn, Earth, Khanate?).
A limited lp reissue of a long out of print cd-r released on Wolf Eyes' own American Tapes label, Fuck The Old Miami contains an entire live show on one side, a haunting and creepy and of course NOISY balst of throbs and rumbles, crackle and splatter, surprisingly restrained for these noiseniks, and a bit more 'listenable' than their recent Sub Pop record, and on the other side, a needle shredding series of hand cut grooves, cut on the bands own record lathe (and playable "at your own risk") cut right over a hand carved etching. Cool. Playable but very noisy and chaotic from all the random grooves. Not sure which side we like better!
Over the years, Wolf Eyes have morphed into a whole different beast. Without losing the very essence of what made them so vital and exciting. After countless releases (including hundred of tapes and cd-r's), their caustic corrosive confrontational side has been tempered by a knack for creating dark soundscapes, for crafting sinister cinematic tableaus, and for making serious, almost musical music.
We never thought it would happen. And it happened so gradually that we almost didn't notice. But a quick listen to opener "A Million Years" tells the whole story. A brooding doomy plod. Grinding industrial drones drift over a simple machine like thud, in the distance free jazz horns bleat and squeal, suspended in thick clouds of grimey glitch and hissing buzz. This could definitely be the soundtrack to some post apocalyptic horror movie. Huge howls spill out of cracked electronics, like pools of black blood. It's amazing, that Wolf Eyes could get MORE melodic and MORE musical, and somehow be even more fucking frightening.
And the rest of the record wanders bruised and bloody through similarly harsh and harrowing sonic landscapes. Veering from sounding like some sort of plodding doom metal behemoth to dreamy atmosphericists. A keening buzz becomes a raga like drone and then devolves into a thick caustic dirge, with growled blackened vocals, pummeling throb percussion and what sounds like a swarm of detuned guitars, all lurching evilly beneath a dense cloud of shimmery skree. Gurgling low end, sine waves and grinding electronic grit spread out over a wide expanse of creepy crawly ambience, a drifting droning underworld rife with weird horn like squalls and all manner of little sonic irregularities. Muttered vocalizations, are unfurled Whitehouse style over a corrosive bed of broken synth buzz and muted percussive thump. Huge swaths of grinding, howled metallic grate and howl drift and hover over ominous swirls of foghorn rumble and the growls and moans of some primeval wounded beast.
This is some scary scary shit indeed. But at the same time, it's hauntingly beautiful, a glimpse into some hellish underworld, each listen revealing more details, more black shadows, more mysterious melodies lurking around and beneath each prickly squall of creeping bleat, all sorts of minor scale sonic events and subtle dreamlike drones buried within every pulsing wave of subterranean throb and buzzing ambient grind.
If Hollywood had any sense, or any balls, Wolf Eyes would be scoring every fright flick from here on out. But the truth is, we've never actually seen a movie scary enough to warrant music this goddamn scary!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Super limited 10" from these legendary Michigan noisemongers. Side one is surprisingly tranquil, a grugling, expansive head trip, all space and reverb, not unlike some sixties electronic music experiment, heavily effected sound fragments reverberate across a dark and cold sonic void, creepy and beautiful. Side two starts off with a track of sort-of-beats scrapped together from malfunctioning electronics and bathed in all sort of splattery buzz, while the second track is clattery, clangy noise-y mayhem, with random percussion, squalls of electronic spzzt and backwards cymbals. Numbered and again, VERY LIMITED.
Might as well start out by saying this is most definitely the prettiest Wolf Eyes record we've ever heard. And certainly the most listenable, but of course, both of those descriptors are pretty subjective, especially when applied to a group like Wolf Eyes, who are as capable of conjuring up sheets of face melting noise as they are blissed out industrial shimmer. But for No Answer-Lower Floors, it sounds like they've tried something entirely different. The vibe is droney, and darkly psychedelic, the noise elements are muted, or sculpted into melodies, the opener sounds like Wolf Eyes via Can, a sort of kraut-noise, a simpler rhythm, wreathed in strange bits of buzz and thrum, the occasional streak of high end skree, the vocals laid back and laconic, almost spoken, a sort of woozy croon, the vibe is a mellower Dead C, or a super abstract lo-fi This Heat, weirdly hypnotic and trancey, minimal and murky, it's almost a sort of chill out version of Wolf Eyes, and we dig it a lot.
There are some brief song fragments, interludes maybe, that find the group digging into their slightly noisier bag of tricks, one is a sort of pounding muted pop song, laced with wild malfunctioning FX and electronic squiggles, but retains the vibe of the opener. One is a weird collaged of fragmented voices and weird swirling clouds of high end bleeps, all chopped and layered, but then there's "Chattering Lead" which is even more mellow and trance-y than the opener, whirling organ shimmer, over a muted pulse, a skittery electro rhythm, all manner of chitter and bleep swirling in the background, more of those druggy disembodied vox, it's a gorgeously soporific sprawl of minimal creep-pop dirge, reminding us of our favorite Gate tracks, that same sort of sad boy indie rock slowed way down and blurred into a hazy drift. "Confession Of The Informer" is another minimal drifter, this one a bit more creepy and cinematic, lots of space, and ominous rumbles, strange minor key melodies, and soundtracky ambience, there's a pulse, a spaced out rhythm, over which a strange swirl of voices and sounds drift and shift, dark and minimal and moody, hushed and haunting.
Finally, the record finishes with another stretch of rhythmic post industrial dirgery, this one flecked with bursts of what sounds like buzzsaw electronics, beneath which, another minimal rhythm unfurls, a dark somnambulant lope, looped and cyclical, a sort of power electronics hypno-drift, and while that relentless blast of electronics is mildly harsh, somehow, it ends up being more soothing and mesmerizing, the whole thing like some caveman This Heat. Definitely our new favorite Wolf Eyes record, and very likely the sort of record that could convince unsuspecting innocents to finally decide they like 'noise music'...
The Michigan noisejunk / scumart / ghettopunk antirockers Wolf Eyes have amassed an impressive arsenal of gear salvaged from planned obsolescence or from becoming landfill fodder; thus, their preferred medium (the cassette) is quite fitting. Fortunately, they have enough sense to realize that their music runs the risk of never being heard if they stuck to the cassette format, and have re-issued a couple of their albums as CDs and / or LPs. "Slicer" follows "Dread" as the second Wolf Eyes cassette to be reincarnated as a CD, and is just as punishing, gritty, and lo-tech as its predecessor. While vaguely associated with the aggro-rock of contemporaries like Lightning Bolt, Total Shutdown, Black Dice and the latest John Dwyer project, Wolf Eyes have much more in common with the electrocution tactics of the Industrial pioneers Throbbing Gristle, SPK, and Lille Roger (the precursor to the Swedish death industrial project Brighter Death Now). No one will ever accuse Wolf Eyes of being funky, as their drum machine programming usually amounts to a deliberate pulse from an 8-bit thud acquiring the monotonous dis-ease of unknown panzer division systematically destroying the Eastern European countryside. Squiggles of equally primitive and equally agitated 8-bit noise from cheap synthesizers and abused samplers spiral throughout these skeletal rhythms. This isn't music that wants to be pleasant, harmonious, or enjoyable. Rather "Slicer" is a grim vision of what would happen if art-students scripted the apocalypse. Scary indeed!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Limited, three track mini lp from recent Sub Pop signees and masters of midwestern electronic sludge Wolf Eyes. Not to be confused with their recent "Stabbed In The Face" split with fellow noiseniks Panicsville, these three tracks display the many sides of the boys in Wolf Eyes, all of them nasty and gritty. Side A is an extended slithering electronic knife in the back, with grinding electronic fuzz and pulsing murky beats, and growling vocals. Like a no-fi, no budget Nine Inch Nails. Creepy and dark and really fucking scary. The first track on side B is a beautifully eerie ambient soundscape of electronic misfires and found sound snippets. Amps buzz and crickets chirp. Nice. Track two is a throbbing blast of hypno crush, that culminates in a mesmerising locked groove that was so cool, we let it play for about 15 minutes even after we realised it wasn't going to stop.
This isn't so new, but we finally have some in stock. The first full length from Ann Arbor's doom electronic duo of Aaron Dilloway and Nathan Young, aka Wolf Eyes. Imagine a lo-fi Suicide focused on tweaked out homemade electronic destruction. Or a less punk
I can see the kids ' mouths watering. If this were a show, Wolf Eyes and Black Dice, the tight pants, too-small thrift store t-shirts, white belts and bowl haircuts would be lined up around the block. And for good reason. Black Dice and Wolf Eyes are two of only a tiny handful of bands making some seriously challenging, damaged, and beautiful noise. This collaboration is maybe a bit more tranquil that you'd expect, but its listenability shouldn't deter you. The sound is a lot like Black Dice's recent Beaches And Canyons album, all rhythmic hypnos and soundscape shimmer, but with Wolf Eyes supplying a gritty electronic, rubble strewn back drop for the proceedings. Side one is droning skree over tinkling bells, swelling until it becomes a blast of full on malfunctioning Merzbow machine mayhem. Side two gets downright dreamy, a groovy sidelong Krautrock epic, so smooth and serene you'd never guess it was either of these bands. A seriously great record.
Another Wolf Eyes collab finally available on cd!
Portland's clattery, free improvised noise unit meets Ann Arbor's caustic power electronic doom-synth trio, for an unprecedented meeting of the..uh..minds. Smega seem to come out on top, with the overall sound falling squarely in their clinking, crashing, hippie music concrete by way of No Neck Blues band free folk clatter and Negativland-ish plunderphonic found sound collage. The strong sonic personalities in Wolf Eyes seem to have no problem playing the supporting role here, underscoring the ramshackle freeness of Smegma, with their buzzing homemades synths, and grinding electric guitar grit.
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