Wyrd Visions as the name for a psychedelic new weird wherever folk act? Hmm, a bit overt, perhaps, like naming your metal band Brutal Riffage or something. Too much on the telling side of the showing/telling divide taught in all beginning creative writing classes. How 'bout having a wyrd vision, putting it into words, and then using THAT for the name of your band? But, then again, it did pique our interest, and we wanted to know more... Wyrd Visions appear to be Swedish (perhaps now based in Toronto, Canada?) and have some affinity to the Nordic black metal scene despite sounding (almost) nothing like a black metal band. Instead, this is simple, sparse, funeral-paced, ominous doom-folk... the genre inhabited by such singular entities as Wolfmanger, Silvester Anfang, and Greg Weeks. Songs, especially the opening track "Sigill", are loooong, repetitive, hypnotic and haunting. Voices (both male and female) are gentle and hushed, cloaked in droning atmosphere on such cuts as "Bog Lord" and "Ceremony". The instrumentation is for the most part simple, wooden, acoustic. We mentioned black metal, in part due to the presence of "Freezing Moon", originally by seminal Norwegian black metallers Mayhem (another "overt" name we suppose). Wyrd Visions' version is soooo slow and spare and cruel and, actually, lovely. Maybe more affecting than the original which appeared on Mayhem's De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas album back in 1994. The rest of WV's album falls into the same mode for sure. And with the final track "Air-Conditioning" they break out the fuzzed electric guitar, bringing things more and more into an abstracted, molasses-drowned black metal riffing realm for reals.
RECORD STORE DAY 2015!!
Kewl! For Record Store Day 2015, the Superior Viaduct label has returned to their West Coast underground roots and reissued a quartet of crucial California punk/indie singles, early outings from The Dils, The X, Flipper, and The Residents! These would set you back a pretty penny if you tried to buy original copies nowadays.
Finally, alphabetically, in this series, is the debut single from LA greats X, originally released on Dangerhouse in 1978. The title cut is definitely the most melodic, serious "songwriter-y" track to be heard in this whole RSD2015 SV 7" series, while the flipside, "We're Desperate", is rather more edgy and punked out. Note, these are different versions of these tracks than later appeared on the band's Wild Gift album. "Adult Books" definitely was an indication that Excene Cervenka, John Doe, and the rest of X were destined for great things.
Limited edition, colored (translucent yellow) vinyl, last copies, already sold out even at the label.
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This is the acoustic set recorded last year at SF's Noe Valley Ministry. [/cat/rockpop482.html]
The third collection of X Ray Pop tracks in as many years finds this duo of frenetic eighties French synth-poppers in their later era (1984-1989) with catchy songs pulled from lps and cassettes that while still as zany and edgy as the music on the earlier collections, also shows both more polish and dreaminess with more complex instrumentation and arrangements. Their first two collections showcased both their demos in minimal synth-wave form and their full-length releases with a hyper-punkier edge. This collection reminds us even more of French pop groups like Les Rita Mitsouko and Stereo Total with a richer poppier sheen that's effervescent and bubbly but still very weird. Includes bonus material of early demos of their classic songs like "Alcool" and "L'Eurasienne" sung by male member Doc Pilot. This is fast-becoming our favorite of the three collections!
A few weeks back we listed an amazing French synth-pop rarity on the Dark Entries label called The Dream Machine by duo X Ray Pop, a compilation of early singles and demos that was equal parts Les Rita Mitsouko, Mo-dettes and Stereo Total. Now Finders Keepers follows that up with a reissue of the band's first full length, Pirate!, from 1985. Pirate! was originally released on cassette in a small edition of 100 copies, so it went down the rabbithole of obscurities pretty quickly. So it's awesome that it's getting reissued! We did notice that 5 of the tracks on both releases were the same, but then a glance at the subtitle on this release, The Dark Side Of The X, clued us into the fact that while the songs are the same, they are VERY different versions. The Dream Machine demos were more stripped down and gave a lighter touch to the French pop created by vocalist Zouka Dzaza and instrumentalist Doc Pilot. On Pirate! however, the songs have more overdriven synthesizers creating a much darker Suicide-ish feel heightened by the rapid-fire drum machines. Still catchy and cool, but closer to the cold wave of Deux and Gina X on this go round than the way they were to Pizzacato 5 and Stereolab was on the last one.
A few weeks back we listed an amazing French synth-pop rarity on the Dark Entries label called The Dream Machine by duo X Ray Pop, a compilation of early singles and demos that was equal parts Les Rita Mitsouko, Mo-dettes and Stereo Total. Now Finders Keepers follows that up with a reissue of the band's first full length, Pirate!, from 1985. Pirate! was originally released on cassette in a small edition of 100 copies, so it went down the rabbithole of obscurities pretty quickly. So it's awesome that it's getting reissued! We did notice that 5 of the tracks on both releases were the same, but then a glance at the subtitle on this release, The Dark Side Of The X, clued us into the fact that while the songs are the same, they are VERY different versions. The Dream Machine demos were more stripped down and gave a lighter touch to the French pop created by vocalist Zouka Dzaza and instrumentalist Doc Pilot. On Pirate! however, the songs have more overdriven synthesizers creating a much darker Suicide-ish feel heightened by the rapid-fire drum machines. Still catchy and cool, but closer to the cold wave of Deux and Gina X on this go round than the way they were to Pizzacato 5 and Stereolab was on the last one.
Obscure French synth-pop duo of Doc Pilot and Zouka Dzaza, aka X Ray Pop, are rescued from the lost cassette / 7" single graveyard of the mid-eighties and finally have their early recorded output see the light of day, via Dark Entries, and what a treat! Like Nini Raviolette or Deux, this is our favorite kind of French minimal wave, with seductively blase female vocals and eccentric upbeat songs. Made with a economic setup of synths and drum machines, the songs are nevertheless super catchy and hook-laden, like a stripped down Les Rita Mitsouko or as an early reviewer from the mini-zine included with this lp compares them to a French Mo-dettes. Very cool! The first side consists of their early 7" singles released between 1984 and 1986 and begins perhaps with our favorite track, opener "La Machine A Rever". The B side is the 1984 demos originally released on cassette. Here they even do a stripped down version of Serge Gainsbourg and Bridgette Bardot's "Contakt". While it may not trump the original, it still beats the Wooden Shjips version. But seriously, fans of the cooler French minimal wave or even Stereolab, Stereo Total, or Pizzicato 5 will dig this thoroughly!
Astralwerks is betting a considerable amount of money that the 'bootleg' phenomenon that raged during the summer of 2002 hasn't completely died out, as they have obviously invested a considerable amount of money for Richard X to license all of the samples that land on his debut album "Richard X Presents His X-Factor Vol. 1." The bootleg or 'mash-up' aesthetic was a seemingly simple one, as an artist would take the a capella track of some overplayed pop song and layer it on top of the instrumental track of an equally overplayed pop song. Done well, it's a wonderfully subversive play between appropriated texts. Done badly, it's clumsy ironic drivel. Given the overwhelming number of those bootlegs that were dreadful, this is an artform which demands much more panache than your average artschool ironist can muster. Hiding behind this enigmatic moniker as well as the semi-legit project the Sugarbabes, Richard X proved he was the best of the bootleggers, with his deadly perfect mash-up of "Being Boiled" by Human League and "No Scrubs" by TLC which gave the appearance that absolutely nothing was done to either track in order for the two melodies to come together.
With the crackdown from the RIAA on those evil pirates who download illegal music from the net (insert sarcastic facial gesture and eyerolling here), there is absolutely no way Richard X could get away with the schtick that got him his credibility. As a result "Richard X Presents His X-Factor Vol. 1" is something of a compromise record; however, it is a deranged pop masterpiece that is simultaneously a piss-take, a send-up, and a perfect homage to terminal fashion victims, electroclash trainspotters, and ravenous consumers of the mainstream entertainment industry. The album opens with a reprise of the "Being Boiled" mash-up; however, this time Richard commissioned the R&B group Liberty X for a rendition of the Chaka Khan classic "Ain't Nobody," and highlights include a very clever version of Burt Bacharach's "Walk On By" with Flying Lizards' vocalist Deborah Evans-Strickland offering the same deadpan vocal delivery she gave to the Lizards' new wave classic cover of "Money." Some of the references are a bit more obscure, delving into diva house territory with a pretty straight remake of Thelma Houston's "You Used To Hold Me So Tight." The one major dud on the album is the cornball crap track from electroclash dork Tiga, who breathily recites 'you better let me love you' at best sounding like a overly cologned playboy with only one sleazy pick up line, at worst like a date rapist. Overlook this one track, and you'll find that Richard X has done very well with the limitations set before him. It's certainly not the free world you might think it is.
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Woohoo! X-Ray Spex's punk rock classic Germ Free Adolescents album was first released on cd by Virgin Records. Then a couple of years ago Castle Music grabbed a hold of the baton and ran with it, releasing a (now out-of-print) double cd set called The Anthology which included the whole album along with the "Oh Bondage! Up Yours!" single and a heap of Spex rare odds'n'ends. Now sorta straddling the two previous releases, Germ Free resurfaces once more on a single disc, but mind you it's 'expanded'! Although it does include a bunch of extra stuff, it's not quite as definitive as The Anthology, but it does come pretty close. The eleven bonus tracks include their "Oh Bondage! Up Yours!" single along with seven tracks from their Peel Sessions (March 6, 1978 and November 13, 1978). Anyways, here's a summary of what former AQ owner Windy said about the 2cd version: In the last years of the '70s, X-Ray Spex, fronted by singer / songwriter Poly Styrene, were one of the most visible and artistically successful punk originals. Led by Poly Styrene who had charisma with a capital C, the British band's songs were super intense, noisy and ragged -- while simultaneously catchy, ridiculously melodic and hook-filled. Powerful, hundred-miles-an-hour drumming, wailing skronk saxophone, Poly's sandpaper yowl of a voice -- it all adds up. X-Ray Spex obviously influenced Sleater-Kinney (especially in the vocals -- if you're a SK fan you simply have to get this), as well as pretty much any grrl punk group you can think of, and, heck, a lot of male-led bands too. And along with the Raincoats and LiliPut, X-Ray Spex is THE foundation of the female vision of Punk.
Simply put, this is one of the best albums Punk ever produced (and one of Windy's all-time favorites). If you haven't already, you owe it to yourself to hear this record. YOU WILL LOVE IT.
Again?!?! Whoa, in the last five years we've had triple deja vu where X-Ray Spex cds are concerned -- specifically these British punk pioneers' Germ Free Adolescents album which was originally released (on vinyl and cassette, we assume!) in 1978 by Blue Plate / Caroline.
Back in 2001 we carried the GFA cd which was released by Virgin Records. Then in 2002 a double cd titled The Anthology was released by Castle Music. It included the GFA album as well as a whole extra disc packed with rarities. In 2005, Castle Music couldn't leave well enough alone and shook things up again, issuing Germ Free Adolescents - Expanded which fit the GFA album and some extras onto a single cd. Now only a year later we get Let's Submerge: The Anthology, a slipcovered two disc set containing a total of fifty-two tracks (the GFA album, John Peel Sessions, live recordings, early demos, and more).
Anyway, one more time with feeling! Here's what former AQ owner Windy said about the previous 2cd version (it totally still hold true for this release!): In the last years of the '70s, X-Ray Spex, fronted by singer / songwriter Poly Styrene, were one of the most visible and artistically successful punk originals. Led by Poly Styrene who had charisma with a capital C, the British band's songs were super intense, noisy and ragged -- while simultaneously catchy, ridiculously melodic and hook-filled. Powerful, hundred-miles-an-hour drumming, wailing skronk saxophone, Poly's sandpaper yowl of a voice -- it all adds up. X-Ray Spex obviously influenced Sleater-Kinney (especially in the vocals -- if you're a SK fan you simply have to get this), as well as pretty much any grrl punk group you can think of, and, heck, a lot of male-led bands too. And along with the Raincoats and LiliPut, X-Ray Spex is THE foundation of the female vision of Punk.
Simply put, this is one of the best albums Punk ever produced (and one of Windy's all-time favorites). If you haven't already, you owe it to yourself to hear this record. YOU WILL LOVE IT.
In the last years of the seventies, X-Ray Spex, fronted by singer / songwriter Poly Styrene, were one of the most visible and artistically successful punk originals. Led by Poly Styrene who had charisma with a capital C, the British band's songs were super
Simply put, this is one of the best albums Punk ever produced (and one of Windy's all-time favorites). If you haven't already, you owe it to yourself to hear this record. YOU WILL LOVE IT.
That said, this here reissue just might turn out to be the definitive anthology of X-Ray Spex's career. There's the entirety of their Germ Free Adolescents album, and the "Oh Bondage! Up Yours!" single. And even if you have Germ Free Adolescents already, here are some plum reasons to get this double disc set: an additional ten tracks of rough mixes, instrumental versions, a song never before released, a fantastically energetic recording of their second live gig ever (1977 at the Roxy) where Poly's voice is so shot by the end of the concert that it's totally cracking (in a good way) all over "Oh Bondage! Up Yours!", and last but not least, three (quite good) songs from their 1995 reunion. Also lyrics, photos and some hard-to-read liner notes. I'm taking this home right now and seriously so should you.
Long in the works, this last ever Throbbing Gristle project, which was to be a fully realized cover album of the legendary Nico record from 1970, has had more than its fair share of controversy and drama within the confines of the remaining members of the group (Chris Carter, Cosey Fanni Tutti, and Peter 'Sleazy' Christopherson). Not only by the death of key member and project leader Christopherson, but also the decision of Chris and Cosey to continue the project on their own as a tribute to "Sleazy" sparking a widely publicized twitter feud with former Throbbing Gristle member Genesis P-Orridge. Already the name X-TG was christened due to P-Orridge's unwillingness to continue to tour with the reenergized Throbbing Gristle in late 2010, and the remaining members continued on, under the new moniker, with a desire to mold new sounds in the studio. The Desertshore album was in fact instigated several years before, back in 2006 for an art installation, but the results were unsatisfactory and thus re-recorded two years later. With Sleazy's death occurring before the project was finished, it became a tribute with vocals given to an array of familiar guests. What seemed at first like a dream project, has since been altered so far away from its original intentions, that while on one hand it's great to see a long involved project finally realized, we can't help but wonder what could have been.
The problem being that with so many guest vocals, it's impossible to be immersed into a singular sound world that the original Desertshore demands, as the changes among vocalists create an unwanted distraction. The sound that X-TG created for themselves is beautifully exquisite, and on some tracks, especially the Antony led, "Janitor of Lunacy", the total effect is mesmerizing. But between the bravado of Marc Almond, the tepidness of Sasha Gray, and the wildly fluctuating moods of other guests including Blixa Bargeld and Argentine cinema provocateur, Gaspar Noe, it's difficult to feel satisfied overall. The biggest question for us is why didn't Cosey just sing the whole thing? Her vocal contributions are among the best of the lot and might have led to the project having some much needed continuity. Perhaps perfect closure was too much of an unattainable goal in the post-TG world for us to expect.
Unlike the other declarations of finality, disc two in this double disc set is in fact The Final Report for the remnants of Throbbing Gristle. The sketches of The Final Report were mapped out during studio sessions from 2009 through 2010 up until Sleazy's death, with Chris and Cosey completing the album themselves. In many ways, it's a considerable improvement upon the Third Mind Movements by Throbbing Gristle from 2009, with flickering, mirage-like electronic tones and deconstructed samples sliding in and out of focus around the orbit of the lumbering rhythms. While the technology and the ability to use it has improved, the band continue to build from primitive pulses and scaffolding that are plastered with uneasy sounds, subliminal vocalizations, and mutant electronica -- all very much in keeping with the Industrial agenda of 1978, but with current technology. "E.H.S." sounds very much like what Throbbing Gristle revamped today would sound like, with unsettled vocalizations lurking at the perimeter of perception and Cosey's atonal guitar bursting through the cybernetic, lurching rhythm in chunky blocks of bent sound. "What He Said" is a noirish piece of futurist electronica with a heart-beat pulse gradually building in intensity with elongated coronet tones and skittered echoings of caustic noise bouncing throughout. The Final Report is pretty much a unified album, which is a strange thing to say about a Throbbing Gristle record, which in the past were known to be distinctly disjointed and multi-faceted. Here, the vision is consistent with a morose soot covering both man and machine alike. Let's hope the next Chris & Cosey record picks up where this one leaves off!
Mobile, Alabama's teen superstars are back with their second proper full length recorded in Chicago by Steve Albini. These five, fine young lads have been known to wreak havoc and make the young girls cry in their brilliant live shows: fireworks, costumes and wonderfully choreographed moves (complete with accompanying speedo-clad male dancer/cheerleader) to accompany a frantic, art-damaged garage rock stomp. Gop Ist Minee crams twelve untitled tracks in twenty blurringly scathing minutes, combining the raw energy of their live show with fucked electronic tweaking. Sci-fi b-movie r'n'r madness for your next no wave smackdown pajama party. If Arab On Radar or Six Finger Satellite tickle your funnybone, you might like this. Or you might not... Vinyl supposedly forthcoming.
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Mobile, Alabama, quintet of teenagers. The youngest is 15! Do you think he had to ask his mom if he could go on tour this summer? Donning plastic face masks and marching band pants, XBXRX literally spazz out all over the audience at their live shows, kissing, dancing, hugging, screaming and generally, like, breaking down that wall between audience and performer, duh. It's loud'n'nasty'n'fun garage punk with some synthy chords thrown in, it's snotty and weird and it's all over in a minute and a half. Excellent.
XBXRX's latest album Wars comes armed with plenty of spit'n'spurt spazz rock. It's sorta the aural equivalent of a teenager's highschool binder -- all filled with rumpled doodles, math exercises, and those three-ring looseleaf holders that you inevitably get your finger clamped in when you snap it shut. Less bratty than we remember them being, but still quite full of good natured bite and youthful pissiness.
Another posthumous release from spastic Alabama dance maniacs/ kissing bandits XBXRX. The freaky harcore love is spread over 7 songs in 9 minutes, including an epic 3 minute track where XBXRX delve into (slightly) mellower, more melodic territory. Recorded by Ian Mackaye.
Sadly enough, the spaz-bot combo known as XBXRX is no longer with us, but before their demise they did this collaboration with Miss Pussycat and Quintron, New Orleans' reigning art royalty - creators of the Drum Buddy, amazing, twisted puppet shows, and
We're not going to go into too much detail with this as it is limited to 612 copies worldwide of which we managed to get 10 or 15! Not sure we'll be able to get more. So act fast. A match made in heaven. Assuming heaven is packed with broken amps, detuned guitars, beat to shit drum kits, cheap beer, and all manner of freaked out smashstomp noise rock! And lots of us are praying to Jeebus it is!!! In one corner we've got SF's total destruction unit, Total Shutdown, guitar, bass, keyboards, drums, harmonica and double sax!! In the opposing corner we've got the East Bay's (that means Oakland) new wave angular swat team XBXRX. Two 5" vinyls, one red, one blue, each vying for the noise rock crown, we're leaning towards a good ol' fashioned tie, the kind that after the post battle hug, once the opponents turn their back they each lurch back into action wielding flaming drumsticks and spiked axes (that means guitars). Dig in if you dare!
Utterly amazing packaging. A massive fold out, technicolor acid drenched cartoon freakout, all creatures and shapes and clouds and elves all on cool fuzzy paper, the inside is similar just with all the color sucked out, with little sleeves for each of the 5" vinyls. COOL!!! ----* ----* Compilations : ----*
Unheard recordings of proto-punk madness, primordial industrial ooze, and untrained no wave expressionism! Yes, those dates in the title speak to the timeframe for Xeerox, a shortlived conglomeration of anarchists, anti-musicians, and electronic dilettantes who had some pretty solid connections (if not overlap) with the seminal Spanish industrial outfit Esplendor Geometrico. One of the principle members of Xeerox was a feverishly enthusiastic fellow named Krishna Goineau, who fled Barcelona for Germany where he went on to found Liaisons Dangereuses with Beate Bartel (Malaria!) and Chris Haas (DAF). From the onset, Xeerox hoisted the ideological flag of punk but rejected much of the aesthetics of punk's rock revisionism. Their initial sound was an atonal fug of Sister Ray-isms glommed onto motorik drum-kit pulses with distantly megaphone barked vocals, presumably by Goineau. The grimy distortion which dominates the first side of untitled tracks speaks not only of the shitty cassettes that they recorded onto but also a glowing appreciation of Crass later blossoming into a full-throttle one-note minimalism prescient of the work that was just getting started by Rhys Chatham and Glenn Branca. Assuming the tracks are chronological, the second half of the record finds Xeerox really coming into their own with the monomaniacal march of metal bashed rhythms, insistent electronic blorps, weirdo tape-reverse effects, maddeningly repetitive guitar plucks that put us in the best kind of trance, and some torturous amplifier noise that would make Matthew Bower howl with respect. A pretty bloody awesome find; and a pretty bloody limited pressing of just 300 copies that comes with a nicely produced booklet of suitably xeroxed band photos and instructive history from Xeerox's Javier Hernandez.
Situated somewhere near Cold Cave, Zola Jesus, and Blank Dogs, Xeno & Oaklander offer another fantastic distillation of dark-eyed synth-pop from a previous decade. A duo comprised of Liz Wendelbo and Sean McBride, Xeno & Oaklander eschew digital technologies in favor of analogue synthesizers, sequencers, and drum machines, applying these instruments to the ghostly rhythmic electronics of minimal wave bands such as Absolute Body Control or Snowy Red. Less obtuse references would be early Human League, Xymox, and Depeche Mode; but no matter where you want to pin the influences, X&O are looking back to the European stylings of romantic electronica that dates somewhere between 1982 and 1986. Like Cold Cave, Xeno & Oaklander have made an appearance at the No Fun Festival in 2009, probably being one of the acts that some of the stalwart noiseniks must have hated because of their comparatively pretty songs.
There is something golden and polished to the mechanoid sequences and electrical rhythms on Sentinelle, which stands as the 'proper' debut album for Xeno & Oaklander after a cd-r micro-edition and some choice tracks on Wierd's [sic] first two collections of analogue electronic music. Throughout the album, sad electronic melodies are tightly bound around repetitive phrases and spry post-disco drum programming, with the vocals alternating between both McBride and Wendelbo (the latter singing in English and French). The album has the feel that it could be a stand in as a soundtrack to the silent film Metropolis, with its accompanying aesthetics of art-deco modernism tinged with noir shadows and gleaming bursts of reflected light. Despite the obvious allusions to the past, Xeno & Oaklander seem to have wedged themselves between all of their influences and mustered something that they can claim as their own. Very well done!
Album number three for the Brooklyn retro-garde duo Xeno & Oaklander (aka Liz Wendelbo and Sean McBride), who are the flagship outfit for Wierd Records in their recapitulation of a particular strain of cold synthwave circa 1981. Wendelbo and McBride have collected a mighty impressive collection of synths, sequencers, and drum machines of that era, and they've stuck to their 'no computers' ethos in creating their retro sound. Given the limitations in instrumentation and aesthetics, the Xeno & Oaklander albums do trend toward similarity, veering towards a brighter, new wave / Italo-disco vibe here on Sets & Lights and slightly away from the industrial-tinged notions found on their 2009 breakout album Sentinelle. Wendelbo and McBride alternate on vocals, with Wendelbo taking up her breathy waif-like elegance and McBride adopting British affectations in his delivery. The title track and "Years Before" glide upon percolating, almost Moroder-esque sequencing with disco-inspired basslines and suitably propulsive rhythm tracks bracing everything inside the synth-pop shell that Xeno & Oaklander have so carefully refined. The icy sensuality of the instrumental track "Italy" slows the pace down to something more akin to Johnny Jewel's heartbeat instead of their typically urgent tempos; and it actually suits Xeno & Oaklander quite well, allowing all of the synth blorp to glow just a little bit more. A fine record, even as it doesn't quite venture into new territories.
Xeno & Oaklander were born in the wrong decade and on the wrong continent, but that hasn't stopped them from constructing brilliantly haunted minimal-wave tracks which lead directly back to Belgium (or France, or Germany, or England, or anywhere else in Europe for that matter) circa 1982 through all sorts of analog synths, drum machines, and sequencers. Vinyl of course is the right medium for a band that seeks the vintage pleasures of forgotten futures; but Vigils was originally just a cd-r self-released back in 2006. It quickly became a staple at the Wierd Records parties in New York, and some of the tracks here had appeared in slightly different forms on the two Wierd Records compilations from about that same time. Since then, Xeno & Oaklander have seen their stock rise thanks to a number of retrogarde forces at work, including the reissue campaigns from Minimal Wave and Dark Entries, as well as the huge success of fellow dark-synth technicians Cold Cave. While their 2009 album Sentinelle was received with considerable critical acclaim, Vigils is a much better album altogether. Arpeggiating synth lines and skeletal drum machines form the basic structures of all of the Xeno & Oaklander songs, whose uptempo rhythms belie the aching melancholy formed out of the intertwining melodies and detached vocals from both Liz Wendelbo and Sean McBride. In all of these echo-plexed pulse-tone synths, stark atmospheres, and romantic pop detachment, Xeno & Oaklander unabashedly channel the spirits of Chris & Cosey, Ruth, and Depeche Mode, with the European desire furthered by lyrics in French and German as well as English.
It's a shame that this is merely a cd-r, as Black Book is the best Xeno Volcano album that has come through these doors, although his website indicates that a proper pressing might be in the works. While his origins lie in the San Francisco Bay Area, Xeno Volcano currently lives in Zurich, Switzerland where he has worked with Black Sun Productions (who in turn offer their sexual magick for Coil's stage show) and makes soundtracks for automobile accident prevention videos. Needless to say, Xeno Volcano's tastes find comfort in the transgressive behavior of post-industrial culture. Black Book is buried in dark overtones, as eerie drones flicker across the barren expanses of Xeno Volcano's electronic landscape, sounding not all that far off from Lustmord's classic dark ambient recording The Place Where The Black Stars Hang.
Xex was the experimental synthpop creation of three high-school misfits living in central New Jersey during the mid-'70s, having survived their teen years of suburban boredom with plenty of drugs and eye-opening excursions to New York. Liberated by the spirit of punk, this outfit - pseudonymously known as Waw Pierogi, Thumbalina Gugielmo, and Alex Zander (later joined by Jon-Boy Diode and David Anderson) - took up the task of infusing a smarty-pants cynicism to hyper-primitive arrangements on a small assortment of synths and drum machines. No guitars whatsoever, the sound of Xex is one of skewed melodicism and incessant repetition. This combined with a typically monotone vocal sensibility put Xex in the same synthpunk orbit as The Units and Crash Course In Science. It's a very American sound, to look back upon all of these records. In Europe, the new wave and synthpop was far more self-possessed, even amongst the DIY circles, but for a certain subset in the States, the nerds had become emboldened in punk to use science and math as a spasmodic, future-shock means for nihilist poetics and cathartic release - hence, Devo, Dark Day, Nervous Gender, the aforementioned Crash Course In Science, and Xex. With the exception of Primitive Calculators and Severed Heads in Australia, there's hardly a parallel anywhere else in the world to this synthpunk sound; and Xex were certainly exceptional at it.
Group Xex was the only record they released, although the band recorded a second album but never released it (unfortunately the tapes of that second album had deteriorated beyond repair). Self-released in 1980, the album was sold pretty much exclusively in Manhattan and North Jersey, with an edition of a 1000 copies disappearing quickly. The album did get a cd reish in 1995 after Tom Smith championed the record after discovering it in the vaults at WFMU. It's a very quizzical album of purposefully simple electronic tunes played upon whipcrack drum machines and minimally percolating synths matched by the alternatinge female and male vocals, which are always thin, reedy, and metallic. Thumbalina's girly vocals bounce through the motorik synthpop ditty "Fashion Hurts" whose singsonginess is immediately countered by the unwavering robotic monotone that Pierogi presents on the cybernetic "You Think", and the grim, paranoiac poetry on "SNGA" (which stands for Soviet Nerve Gas Attack).
Another great find from the always impressive Dark Entries label! Definitely for fans of Devo and the Units. Limited to 500 copies with a great looking new wave booklet with lyrics, a band history, and some amusing tidbits thrown in for good measure.
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SORRY.
Achtung Krautrock heads! Previously unreleased live recordings by this way-out-there, pioneering German band. Xhol Caravan, who started life playing R&B as Soul Caravan in the late sixties and then mutated into Xhol Caravan (and finally, just Xhol) as their
Xiao He, aka He Guoheng, is a legendary musician in the Chinese music scene. Not just a musician, he also works in movies, does scoring, performs plays, is an actor, he also runs his own record label that helps support innovative folk and ethnic musicians in China. Xiao He performs a style of music he calls 'free folk' which involves just him and an acoustic guitar, but unlike the usual strum and croon of most folkies, Guoheng's music is much more far out and abstract. Mostly improvised, the guitar playing is impressionistic and flits from blues to folk to totally freeform abstraction and pretty much every stop in between, his vocals are even more far out, a lush, hushed croon one second, a weird Muppet like mewl the next, sometimes his voice is a rumbling Tuvan style throat singing, and suddenly without warning, he'll swoop into a wild dramatic falsetto, and the will begin yodeling wildly, before slipping back into something more traditional. Wild and unpredictable, imagine Bill Orcutt if he was a vocalist and not a guitarist, mix in a little Dan Higgs, some serious cabaret, and somehow make it even more loose and abstract and free and unfettered by any sort of normal musical restrictions. It's super intense and strange, but also liberating and inspiring. Some folks will definitely find it quite difficult listening, but adventurous musical lovers will dig this outsider free folk weirdness, and will marvel that something so strange could be so popular in the mainstream.
We find ourselves confused certainly by the sound, but it's also strangely addictive, and utterly wild and weird and fascinating. Totally inspired, ultra personal sonic expression like nothing you've likely ever heard before.
The second disc here is even weirder and cooler, more avant experimentation, this time Guoheng's vocals a bit more restrained, but accompanied by what sounds like lo-fi synth squelch, and short wave transmissions, strange FX and whirring industrial soundscapes, burbling electronics, with some of the tracks sounding like Bruce Haack mashed up with the Taj Mahal Travellers, meditative, noisy, textural, freaky and far out!
The packaging is incredible - a full color box, featuring a strange looking Xiao He on the front, wearing a hard hat, with a cat on his shoulder, the other side of the box covered with liner notes / stickers, inside, the cds are housed in super fancy printed diecut sleeves, there's also a big sticker of the cover image, as well as a huge fold out full color, multi panel insert!
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Gosh, somebody must have convinced wall-of-sound Japanese "noise-pop" duo Xinlisupreme that their last album "Tomorrow Never Comes" wasn't noisy enough. 'Cause though we'd not have thought it possible, it seems they've upped the mayhem quotient here, on this 7-track followup! Heavily distorted, uh, distortion, with pretty little melodies and beats buried beneath. An extreme electronic blend of My Bloody Valentine, Digital Hardcore, DJ Scud, Merzbow, and stuff like by these feedback-lovin' popsters. We think this is quite nice, though for some that word might seem strange in context of Xinlisupreme's up-front loudness and chaos. Recommended.
Xiu Xiu, one of the Bay Area's most original bands, is like a synth pop group that doesn't let the shiny happy face of the genre take over. They know the genre is merely a vehicle for expressing the fully intense and anguished emotions they've got bursting out of them. So instead of punchy casios and happy go lucky tunes, the foremost element is this hushed, trembling voice straining towards the epic wail. Yes, it's dramatic but the sincerity of emotion prevents it from becoming melodramatic. Out of the shards of anguish come experimentally structured songs that dart amongst jittery drum machines, wintry minor key piano, fuzzed out noise, clanging percussion. Building new, fresh songs out of raw emotion that might by a lesser band be inarticulate and messy, Xiu Xiu transcend the genre and any of their many influences, which clearly include Joy Division (Ian Curtis is namechecked on a songtitle here) and Talk Talk. Includes a stark, desperately sad cover of Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car."
If you're new to Xiu Xiu, check out their first two releases before this one, not that they're better, but they are simply a teensy bit more upbeat amongst the beautiful despair, and that makes 'em that much more accessible. This one is a downer, albeit in a gorgeous, shimmering beautiful way, like Talk Talk's "Laughingstock."
A brief but sweet 5 song ep from this often misunderstood, experimental, heartbreakingly sad, depressing, eclectic indierock band. As we previously opined: The lead singer's voice is this super intense, desperate, achingly sad, warbly moan (a la The Cure / Talk Talk / Ultravox), and we're used to hearing that kind of voice accompanied with Brit-style synthpop stuff (i.e. "Melt With You"). Yet with Xiu Xiu the backup to that incredible voice is trumpets and saxophones and clattery percussion (bells, gongs, perhaps even pots 'n pans), with a solid yet obviously lo-fi Casio beat keeping time, and a far away echoey tone placed sporadically throughout. Totally accessable pop with an arty creative craziness to it. Xiu Xiu also plays with song structure and tense silences. What a breath of fresh air to find an "indie rock" band who pretty much throw all the predictable stuff out the window, leaving only originality. If you can get past the singer's voice (I can, easily, but Allan and Byram are making fun of it), then you oughta give this a try. Sadie and Windy give this the thumbs up.
Jamie Stewart. Some people love him, and some people hate him and some people REEEAAAALLYY love him. Anyone who can inspire that much passion one way or the other has some kind of gift that most do not. Or is it a curse? Anyway, Dear God, I Hate Myself (a Jamie Stewart album title that seems overdue) is most definitely a Xiu Xiu album that will make longtime fans love him that much more and dismissers keep on dismissing. Parts of it harken back to the cacaphony and sweet angst of Knife Play or Fabulous Muscles. Other tracks lean more towards straight (no pun intended) dance music ("This Too Shall Pass Away") and even a little country ("Cumberland Gap"). Through it all, though, is the excellent drum machine programming mixed with all kinds of live percussion and whisper/screamed vocals that give Xiu Xiu their unique sound. The cd version comes with a download code for two bonus tracks.
Fabulous Muscles is the third full length from this Bay Area group whose music has proven to draw rather extreme hot/cold, love/hate responses. Well, for those who may have found Xiu Xiu's past releases to be a bit too overwrought and overflowing with abrasive dissonance, you just might want to check out Fabulous Muscles. Fans of the group will be reassured to find that although they've slightly tempered the wild vocal histrionics and jutting homemade instrument angles, they've not lost any of their inventiveness, impact and edge. Very deeply moving and considerably more accessible and appealing than both Knife Play and A Promise. Recommended.
This band is great! Bravo to Xiu Xiu for being original in an indie rock world where originality just doesn't seem very important anymore -- groups like Adult and the Faint are copying '80s electro, every other band has got a member who made a (boring)
And then there's the local group Xiu Xiu who've put out a record on Kill Rock Stars' sister imprint 5RC. The two girls and two guys in Xiu Xiu are so familiar with indie rock's cliches that they anticipate them... and then mess with the formula, thereby coming up with a far artier and more interesting sound (kinda like how Bjork and Radiohead do). Example: the lead singer's voice is this super intense, desperate, achingly sad, warbly moan (a la The Cure / Talk Talk / Ultravox), and we're used to hearing that kind of voice accompanied with Brit-style synthpop stuff (i.e. "Melt With You"). Yet with Xiu Xiu the backup to that incredible voice is trumpets and saxophones and clattery percussion (bells, gongs, perhaps even pots 'n pans), with a solid yet obviously lo-fi Casio beat keeping time, and velvety basslines which are where the melody often resides. The band are also admirably unpredictable in leaving guitar pretty much in the background (if it's present at all) and instead letting this crazy synth action function *just like a guitar solo* -- distorted, climactic, wailing. So cool!
Xiu Xiu is arty and chaotic, but with new wave '80s poppiness. This is a very weird record that is also accessible and really good.
On the new full-length from the Bay Area's Xiu Xiu, Jamie Stewart's warbly, throaty vocals inch-worm into your brain and ferment into soundscapes that are at turns grotesque and beautiful. Utilizes a variety of instruments -- including xylophones, glockenspiels, vibraphones, and acoustic guitars -- to create backdrops ranging from synth-pop to bad dream drone. La Foret makes us think of a child whispering a dirty secret and then stabbing his teddy bear. Self-consciously theatrical and unrelentingly unique. Music that makes you hold your head in your hands and question whether your pretty little world is really so pretty after all.
Swiftly following up their terrific collaborative release Ciautistico! with Larsen, Xiu Xiu offer their own Life And Live... yes, it's a live album which was recorded on their tour with Devendra Banhart. Mainman Jamie Stewart's vocal delivery once again swings madly from anguished banshee-like shrieking to unsettlingly hushed almost spoken word. Their distinctly dishevelled instrumentation of electric guitar, clatterous percussion and mysterious handmade instruments keeps pace with his tormented vocal meanderings and explosive outbursts. We do question their decision though to include the false start at the beginning of the fourth song in which Stewart starts singing only to stop and a spoken voice (his or someone else's) interrupts and totally breaks the band's character and spell. Odd, but then again when does this band ever follow the rules? The fifteen tracks includes two renditions each of "20,000 Deaths For Eidelyn Gonzales, 20,000 Deaths For Jamie Peterson" and "I Broke Up" as well as a cover of The Smiths' "Asleep".
This live Xiu Xiu recording opens quite strangely, with vocalist Jamie Stewart talking to the crowd about a comic that the band had been sent which commented on how chattery the audience was at their last show at that very same venue. A chorus of silly loud shhhh's ensue, then the band begins their first song. As the song's final notes fade out a dull cloud of audience chatter takes over. Yeesh. C'mon people, keep it down! What's it gonna take? Another comic book scolding? Nevertheless this is a terrific live document of the Bay Area group's unflinching craft of beauty in torment, dissonance and abrasion. Comparatively delicate melodic elements blossom up sporadically amid the metallic scrapes and homemade instrument clatter. Deeply moving and drenched in personal angst, much like Bright Eyes, but far spookier and unhinged.
Whoa, when Xiu Xiu's music gets all remixed and covered, it becomes something altogether new, lovely and unrecognizably 'Xiu Xiu'. This new double cd presents nine varied covers (Larsen, Oxbow, Sunset Rubdown, Marissa Nadler, Good For Cows, Kid 606, Why?, Her Space Holiday and Devendra Banhart) and nine remixes (Gold Chains, Warbucks, Cherry Point, Son, This Song Is A Mess But So Am I, Kid 606, Grouper and To Live And Shave In LA).
Shining standouts on the covers disc are Nadler's version of "Clowne Towne" and Banhart's take on "Support Our Troops". Meanwhile on the remix disc, Gold Chains busts out a rump-thumpin', female sung "Hello From Eau Claire", and Xiu Xiu traumatize, errrr, remix their own anguished, tortured version of New Order's "Ceremony".
Over the years we've perceived (and for a few of us been party to) something of a love/hate relationship with this band's music, and it has primarily been centered around the vocal department. Most folks find the music sans vocals to be quite enigmatically pleasing with its uniquely unconventional assembly of homemade instruments and such, but wince once Jamie Stewart opens his mouth to croon in his unmistakable, immensely distraught oft-cryptic delivery. No, it's not for everybody, but we should also add that those who do dig it, dig it lots... to pretty much the same degree that it causes other folks distress! That said, their latest album The Air Force is probably not going to cause many converts either way. So you'll just have to let your own ears be the judge.
