After a full length and a split with fellow math/noise rockers Hawks, we still can't seem to get enough of Minneapolis rockers Buildings, who deliver another blast of bass heavy AmRep style pigfuck noise rock radness, sinewy distorto guitars wrapped around thick buzzing bass, shards of shrieking feedback, and some serious drum pound, not to mention a killer hook and some fierce riffage, the Buildings track here might only be 2:41, but odds are you'll find yourself listening to it over and over.
On the flipside, we're introduced to Made In Canada, who weirdly enough were actually made in France, and these guys do the whole brooding mathy noisy rock thing too, but there sound is more muted and restrained, reminding us a bit of Shellac, right down to the sung/spoken vox, and the dense tangle of bass buzz and dense drumming, but the bass here is way more thick and filthy, the sound a bit more blown out, but the band more than capable of whipping up some gnarled bass heavy riff rock that fans of all things mathy, noisy and heavy will no doubt dig big time. And they even manage to infuse some cool, delicate psychedelic parts into their mathy churn. Definitely wanna hear more from these guys...
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!!!!
Built to Spill, the Idaho-based rock outfit beloved by the AQ-staff, here release another perfect album of the guitar-driven heartbreaking melodies that're unmistakably Built-to-Spillian. I like this album more than their previous records (except for the
It goes without saying that within the indie rock circles this will sell a lot of copies, regardless of our praise of this record. But in feeling somewhat self-indulgent...
As you all know Perfect From Now On was their major label debut. With a substantially larger budget for recording costs, Built To Spill seemed not really to know what to do with the money, resolving their situation by articulating a Sisyphian amount of energy into their complex almost psychedelic epic. In this contradiction of expending so much energy to make as little noise as possible, bleak metaphors of solar malevolence and mutinous friends devolved the perfect pop songs on There's Nothing Wrong With Love into a rare album that works so much more as a whole than as a conglomerate of its parts.
Keep it Like a Secret finds Built to Spill far more comfortable within the studio. The lack of antagonism from the process of making the record has kept away the morose qualities of Perfect, yet Doug Martsch has crafted the album, again, as perfect unity. His predeliction for drawing metaphors to the sun continues, but in place of any malignancy, there is an ironic bent to the content... most notably seen in a pastiche of lyrical anthems from such dinosaur rockers as The Doors, The Rolling Stones, and other merchants of neo-romantic tripe.
In other words, this record is pretty fucking good.
Built To Spill's live album showcases pretty accurate performances of tracks from the last two major label albums as well as covers of Halo Benders, Love As Laughter, and Neil Young. It's a little scary how much Doug Martch can imitate Young's warbly voice and meandering guitar solos on the awesome and epic 20 minute "Cortez The Killer."
Unsurprisingly, major-label debut is nowhere near as good as previous album, There's Nothing Wrong with Love, but that's okay cos they're not TRYING to write pristine 3-minute pop gems anymore. Instead, BTS seems to be interested in out-epic-ing their 10" with Caustic Resin, and fans of that release will love this album. 3-sided vinyl in gatefold sleeve available through Up sometime in March.
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10 songs from their hard-to-find singles, etc. And one previously-unreleased cover of Daniel Johnston's "Some Things Last a Long Time" that is great.
Built To Spill manage to pack more memorable guitar licks and irresistible melodies into a single song than most bands manage in their whole career. There Is No Enemy, the latest from these long time aQ faves, is overflowing with that amazing and instantly recognizable Built To Spill sound: twangy, swirly, expansive and super rocking. Doug Marstch's voice is the perfect foil for his amazing indie rock guitar heroics, as it drifts, soars, howls and emotes. BTS are really a band who have not made a single bad record, they are in it for the long haul and they bring a presence to each of their records that manages to make each new outing unique and special. It's kind of awesome that they have never let their music be used in films (as far as we know), as it seems like it would be kind of like cheating for a filmmaker since Built To Spill's songs have such a filmic quality all on their their own. They tap into the human experience in such an honest and nuanced way, always blurring the lines of emotions and perspectives. their songs are never just happy, or sad, or angry, but instead, are a combination of all those things, sounds and songs rife with memories, disappointments, dreams, regrets and hope. It's crazy to think how so many of us have really grown up with Doug Marstch, discovering him in pre-BTS juggernaut Treepeople, and enjoying the genesis of Built To Spill together, when some of us were just teenagers, and later continuing to listen and get so much from the music of BTS all these years later. Martsch really is like the Neil Young of our generation, there is always a phrase, an epic guitar moment, a moving sentiment, a moment of true emotional intensity that sinks deep into your subconscious, in pretty much every Built To Spill song.
There Is No Enemy only gets better, more complex and impactful as the album goes on. Some of the best songs are towards the end of the album, unlike so many other bands who cram their one or two great songs right in the front, and pack the rest with filler, Built To Spill continue to make a career out of crafting one great song after another. We've found ourselves listening to this from beginning to end on headphones as we go through our daily lives, moving from one destination to another, because as always Built To Spill really is the perfect soundtrack to our lives. And once again they've made a totally great record!
REISSUED ON VINYL! For the first time we think since it originally came out in '94.
Chances are that you know and love this album. If not, you probably just don't know it yet. As far as '90s indie rock goes, this is literally, completely, and wholly essential. Make friends with this record. It sounds exactly like a day dreamer's high school experience should. Catchy songs, breezy reminiscences, and more hooks than you can shake a stick at! Never heard it, lent it to a friend, or sold it during financially thin times in college... now's the time. Carpe indie!
Listening to this reissue of that old aQ fond favorite Built To Spill's debut album from back in '93 just gives us the warm fuzzies. Aaaah, Martsch's unmistakable awesome vocals and guitar playing... it's nothing but the goodest of indie rock times while this record spins! How'd they keep everything so loose and casual, but nail us with such irresistible hooks?! This band raised the bar for all indie rockers who followed. This rocked then, and still rocks now! Where as Nothing Wrong With Love was jam packed with super concise, practically perfect pop songs, UAW sort of sprawls, the songs are looooooong, with extended instrumental passages and some seriously freaked out jams. Definitely reminiscent of Martsch's former band the Treepeople, with its warbly intertwined Neil Young meets J Mascis guitars. But even with all the jamming and freaking out, the perfect pop center of each song is never lost, obscured maybe, but they always swing back to the hook, and it's Built To Spill so you know those hooks can kill! Maybe our second (or third) favorite BTS record, but probably the weirdest and most rocking. WAY recommended.
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Forget anything you have maybe heard or read about this record. If it doesn't say how great, how supercharged, or how monumental it is, then whoever wrote it or said it doesn't know what the hell they're talking about! 5 years in the making and Doug Martsch and crew are back and better then ever. Starting with an 8-minute plus fist in the air opus that makes your heart start racing and your whole body bolt wide awake. While so many of their indie rock contemporaries have either broken up, burnt out, or become static recorders of nostalgic nothingness, Built to Spill prove that you can get older and better and wiser. Listening to this record over and over and over as I (Irwin) have, I've realized how wise Doug Marstch actually is about life and living. This is someone as in touch with his present moment as he was when he was 21. That's something that seems to be so lacking in most rock music. It's not rare for people to be really insightful and interesting and living in the moment when they are 22 and just coming of age but all so often as they get older they seem so out of touch and disconnected with what growing and learning and changing is all about. Martsch seems to have embraced all of that so well and this record is like the masterpiece of that maturity. Not the kind of "maturity" we talk about when people start making softer, safer records. This is the real kind of maturity. A group growing into themselves so perfectly. Guitars twisting and twirling and ringing so true. Melodies that build and bloom and take such nice form. While so many of the bands they helped influence (Modest Mouse, Death Cab For Cutie, etc.) have gone on to reach greater commercial success, you get the feeling that they could care less. It doesn't seem too far fetched to start thinking about Martsch as his generation's Neil Young. Timeless, iconoclastic, always stretching and exploring, even at the risk of failure. Martsch is someone who with their words and guitar makes you feel like you are being given the kind of jangly indie rock hug that you never want to end. Highly recommended!
Mostly Doug Martsch with fellow Idahoans Caustic Resin, whose music aquarius-listmember Cory calls "meaty stoner music." Beautiful but heavier than previous Built To Spill, but you can't go wrong with songtitles like "When Not Being Stupid is Not Enough."
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Wherein Built to Spill cover a Heavenly song ("By The Way"), and the ex-Heavenly people now known as Marine Research do a Built to Spill cover ("Sick & Wrong").
We first discovered this band on our favorite radio show, Radiolab (like a way nerdier, science focused, Negativland produced This American Life), Buke and Gass being a boy/girl duo who made a sort of chaotic ramshackle folk flecked noise pop on homemade instruments, pretty sure Buke was shorthand for a baritone ukulele and Gass is a weird guitar bass hybrid, but regardless, these two make a seriously big noise, crunchy jagged riffage, over simple percussion, usually just a bass drum boom, or a tambourine jangle, a sort of two man (woman) version of a one man band, each handling their stringed instruments, while pounding out the rhythm with their feet, then there's the homemade speakers and amplifiers, it all makes for a curious sight, and an even curiouser sound, a sort of wild and loose folky swampy blues / indie rock hybrid, the vocals powerful, the instruments surprisingly lush, the rhythms simple and hypnotic, the melodies all over the place, some weird Thinking Fellers / PJ Harvey / Sixteen Horsepower / Decemberists hybrid, a bit of a backwoods steampunk vibe too, but all filtered through a killer indie pop sense that makes every song here a dark unforgettable gem.
Besides being so damn cool to look at, these see through cassettes are embedded with some of the most entrancing and drift worthy music ever, courtesy of Bulbs!
Made for an art show at 381 Projects in Toronto with visual artist Tracy Maurice, Bulbs tapped into a much more dreamlike and effervescent sound then we've heard from them previously. Using drums, oscillator, Arp, guitar and a one string talker (!), the duo of Bulbs create some serious magical alchemy akin to early '70s Klaus Schulze and the inter-dimensional music of Iasos, if those sounds were floating underwater alongside exotic sea creatures and mystical aquatic plants. We've liked everything we've heard from Bulbs up to this point, including William Sabiston's great and sadly out of print Jyrk release as Ball Lightning and his contributions to recordings by Axolotl. But this just might be our favorite Bulbs recording yet. We get the feeling that Sabiston and the other half of Bulbs, Jon Almaraz, had lots of fantastical thoughts in their heads while recording Infirmary Of Dream, as this really taps into some magical landscapes, making us imagine what this duo could create if they were tapped to produce soundtracks for surreal nature films on some sort of alternate Discovery Channel. Imagine if Seefeel were stripped to its most minimal and merged with the most dreamy aspects of Popul Vuh. Only 50 of these were made and we only have a handful so you know what that means....
Basic Channel. Jyrk. Free jazz. Put those things together and you've got an idea of what's in store with Light Ships, the band's first release on Pete Swanson's new label Freedom to Spend. Fellow noiseniks out there will definitely remember Swanson's old label Jyrk, but whereas that label seemed to revolve mostly around his Yellow Swans related releases, this seems more of a label proper. Getting back to the record at hand, Bulbs is a two man collaboration between former Axolotl member William Sabiston (some of you might have been lucky enough to get a copy of his super limited release under the name Ball Lightning) and John Almaraz, who left San Francisco earlier this year to embark on some backpacking across the globe. We checked out what a few people had to say about the record, and the one thing that keeps coming up is techno, techno, techno. Well, to be fair, there is a propulsive element to this record, which may be the only truly linear thing present. And yes, sometimes it is an electronic kick drum. Still, it seems that the greatest influences here are free jazz and African polyrhythms and syncopation. Those who checked out any of the recent Monopoly Child Star Searchers albums, then you're maybe understanding what we're talking about, though Light Ships features significantly higher production quality. Still, if this record is any indication as to what's in store for Freedom to Spend, then we're confident that we will be recommending a healthy dose of their bands and/or projects.
Andee thinks this sounds like Cat Stevens...but that doesn't mean it's not lovely! Benumle Oynar Misin is a rare album from the early '70s by Turkish singer/songwriter Bulent Ortacgil, now available on cd. Recorded circa '73-'74, this is certainly a bit different from the other "Turkish Delights" we've been bringing you lately (Mogollar, Erkin Koray, 3 Hur-el, etc.) as you'll find no fuzzed-out guitars dueling with ouds and ikligs here. No, Bulent is all about mellow, melodic, placid, folk-rock with some bright and shiny horns livening up the proceedings on occasion. It's all sung in Turkish, but the songs should hold up even without any understanding of the lyrics. So nice. It has such a sensitive vibe that it may even appeal to fans of Belle & Sebastian.
An archival live release from multi-instrumentalist Sandy Bull is a welcome occurrence any day. After the great 1969 live recording release Still Valentine's Day on the Water label from a few years back where Bull opened for John Fahey, we knew his live sets held a charged electric power that wasn't always evident on his studio records.
This set is from 1976 recorded at the Berkeley Community Theater where he opened for Leo Kottke. Like the 1969 date, Bull uses a tape machine to accompany himself for the bass parts, but also adds a Rhythm Ace drum machine (!) which gives the song a soft organic momentum. The Rhythm Ace, an early Japanese manufactured commercial drum machine has a soft percussive sound similar to most console organs of the time, and has been sought out for its natural sense of tempo and warm unobtrusive rhythms. He even demos the various settings to much delight. He opens with one of his oud improvisations, but the songs on this set have a more twangy Americana blues vibe. "Driftin", inspired by the Drifters, has a countrified slide guitar feel, while "Alligator Wrestler" is more swampy, the accompanied rhythm set through beautifully analog phasing and wah effects. He does sing on one song called "Love Is Forever", which has a wonderful charm even though he isn't that great of a singer. But it's the quality of the sound that makes this set so nice. Like the 1969 recording, he's a virtual one man band and how he sets up the pieces, the beautiful energy of his playing, the friendly banter and that warm tube amp sound makes this a satisfying morning or late evening listen.
Our proto-metal pick of the week! Bullet were an early '70s UK power trio led by guitarist/vocalist John DuCann, previously a member of The Attack, Andromeda, and Atomic Rooster. A while back, when we reviewed a reissue of Atomic Rooster's classic Death Walks Behind You, we talked about DuCann, calling his post 'Rooster band Hard Stuff "one of proto-metal's best kept secrets", and guess what? The existence of these recordings by Hard Stuff precursor Bullet were an even bigger secret...
After being booted from Atomic Rooster (despite having written several of that band's biggest hits), DuCann formed this new group, Bullet (briefly before that called Daemon), with a fellow former 'Rooster, drummer Paul Hammond, along with bass player John Gustafson (ex-Quatermass), who could sing and write as well. The idea, it seems, was to play music even harder and darker than Atomic Rooster did... and the results were some high energy, riffy, rippin' stuff indeed, with song titles like "Sinister Minister" and "Hell: Demonic Possession". Distorted, fuzzed out jams for sure, but with a pop side to 'em too. They soon changed their name (for legal reasons) to Hard Stuff, and produced two excellent albums full of heavy-duty "hairy funk", Bulletproof (1972) and Bolex Dementia ('73), before a near-fatal car accident on the German autobahn involving 2/3rds of the band ended their career prematurely.
But it turns out that while they were still called Bullet, back in 1970-'71, they'd privately demoed this rough disc-ful of music, now properly released for the first time (sort of, see below) after resting for decades in DuCann's vaults. Since, currently, there don't appear to be any reissues of the Hard Stuff albums available to us, this is the next best thing. Now, if you already have yourself some Hard Stuff, you might not need this...but you'll probably want it. Many of the best songs did wind up being re-recorded by HS for their debut, but there's also lots of other cool jammy tracks on here where you get to hear DuCann really go off on his guitar, plus it's certainly rad to hear the raw early versions of catchy Hard Stuff staples like "No Witch At All". There's 17 tracks total (well, 15 really, as two of 'em, "Door Opens" and "Door Closes" are both but brief sound FX), that remind us of other proto-metal faves like Dust, James Gang ("Taken Alive" in particular), Stray, Leaf Hound, and Granicus...
The cd booklet contains extensive liner notes, in the form of an interview DuCann himself, getting in depth into the whole Bullet/Hard Stuff story. Though he doesn't have a lot to say about Daemon, who at one point had a singer named Al Shaw who perhaps appears here too. And FYI, this same material was once previously reissued on cd (a bootleg?) under the Daemon name by the Kissing Spell label.
An old favorite, that we just got a few (drilled, but cheap!) copies of in stock. B. Bumble & The Stingers were an early '60s combo composed of a bunch of talented studio veterans, who notched a few chart hits with their boogie woogie rock n' roll piano-led instrumentals, often versions of familiar classical and jazz themes. You know ELP's "Nutrocker"? Well The Stingers did it first, taking that Tchaikovsky chesnut to number 23 in '62. That's here, plus their "Bumble Boogie" (Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight Of The Bumble Bee"), Clarence "Pinetop" Smith's "Boogie Woogie", Duke Ellington's "Caravan", Beethoven's "Symphony No. 5" and others, often with a gimmick like the underwater-sounding "Nautilus" (with vocals, even) or the vaguely-Asiatic "Chicken Chow Mein". Sometimes frantic, sometimes slinky, certainly quaint but totally fun novelty stuff. Like we said, an old favorite.
How many Tortoise drummers does it take to make a totally great breakbeat album? Nah this isn't the set up to some dumb post-rock joke, the answer is three. Dan Bitney, John Herndon and John McEntire in fact. These three use their percussive chops to make a killer record that showcases some awesome breaks from all over the map: funk, African, Brazilian, Latin music and more. Makes perfect sense too that this would be on Stones Throw and not Thrill Jockey... as a bunch of these are the kinds of breaks most of the groups on the Stones Throw roster would be drooling over and sampling left and right if they found 'em on some obscure piece of wax. In fact, we're quite excited to see if there will be plans for some sort of remix record where different folks like Madlib, Peanut Butter Wolf, and Four Tet take these breaks and make 'em into actual tracks. While we wouldn't want to hear just any three drummers these 23 short tracks get right to the point and bump so delicious.
Oh yeah. '70s Turkish FUZZ rock in effect here, big time!! Knowing how much AQ customers LOVE the psychedelic Turkish tunes of decades past, this is a no-brainer. Buy it. Now. That is, if you like Edip Akbayram and Erkin Koray and all the others we've gone gaga over as the stack of such reissues gradually grows... These guys actually have membership links to all sorts of Istanbul rock stars, from Koray to Mogollar to Cem Karaca (whose early band Kardaslar we'd love to get a reissue of...). They were a pretty important band in the scene, on an underground level anyway.
The name Bunalim apparently means either Depression or Frustration in Turkish, fitting for a band hailing from a city, Istanbul, who defining mood is melancholy (according to Nobel Prize winning novelist Orhan Pamuk). You can hear both the energy of frustration and the sadness of depression in their music, which consists of blistering, Iron-Butterfly-heavy hard rockers mixed up with the style of traditional Anatolian folk dances and songs. Ballsy bombast and beautiful balladry both. And we're not kidding about Iron Butterfly -- one of the tracks here is a Turkish language cover of "Get Out Of My Life, Woman", a song (originally by Allen Toussaint, actually) that appeared on Iron Butterfly's first album, Heavy. Definitely it's the IB version that inspired Bunalim's rendition! Why so much "Bunalim" with these guys? Well it wasn't easy being a long-haired, underground rocker in that conservative society in those days! Plus even in the West there was much to make the youth feel worried and oppressed.
This disc collects their rare singles tracks (they never made an album) from 1970-'72, and captures them at their most raw and garagey, loud guitar rockin'. They definitely showcase a distinct, kick-ass Middle Eastern take on the acid rock sound of the day, and really what could sound better than that??
This cd reissue includes well-informed liner notes and lots of cool vintage photos in the cd booklet. Shadoks, keep 'em coming!
First heard on the seminal Killing Capitalism With Kindness compilation 7", this musical misanthrope from New Zealand unleashed his first proper album some 10 years later! Beautiful guitar plucks and muted trumpets amidst waves of buzz and hypnotic swirl, with occasional processed warbles of wisdom. Odd yet highly recommended by all the AQ-staff.
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(1) It has been called to our attention that every record released on Jeremy Steckler's Now Sound label has a cover painted by his father, Len, and always features a *naked lady*. (2) Bunny Brains are great not only because of The Music They Make but also because they heckled Sean Penn so much at a recent show he was forced to leave.
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You probably can't handle this. Hell, we can't really handle this, but somehow we still love the Bunny Brains to death. Massive 4 cd + 1 DVD collection of absolutely everything they've ever done, all or most of which until now has been vinyl only! So now here's your chance to hear the Bunny Brains all spiffy and digital. And believe you me, the Bunny Brains DO NOT clean up nicely. This is ultra damaged retard garage stomp with clumsy riffing, stumbling drumming, howled alley cat falsetto vocals and a recording that is 70 percent tape hiss! Third rate Stooges riffage battles confusional folk ineptitude that often erupts into weirdly inspired Ur-psych freak outs. And let's not forget their excessive use of parentheses in song titles! Yep. Imagine Happy Flowers meets Half Japanese meets Fushitsusha meets Faxed Head.
That amazing. That stupid. That amazingly stupid. And yes, that stupidly amazing....
The DVD is really something else. A ramshackle mess of lo-fi guerilla widescale fuckery, live shows, bizarre shennanigans, backstage weirdness, lots of disturbing what-the-fuck moments, nudity, cable access and more. Surprisingly watchable. So much so that after I watched enough to review, my girlfriend made me leave it on, and she ended up watching it for about an hour. Which says something, since she is (thankfully) not a Bunny Brains kind of lady. Packaged in a cool multi panel fold out digipak with reproductions of all of their amazing album art.
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This is a special version only for stores who order direct from Matador -- the album comes in a pastel pink plastic slipcover -- the kind you used to play colorforms© with as a kid, remember? Plus some distrubing genitalia-caught-in-mousetrap photos.
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The Bunny Brains' "Sin Gulls" is a singles collection of their scum noise rock that has some solipsistic pretentions of being "art." Although the Bunny Brains probably would deny that. These sloppy garage songs heaped with sludge distortion and unapologetic tone-deaf vocals sound like Jim "V-3 / Vertical Slits" Sheppard writings song for a Pere Ubu tribute band. Just when you thought it was safe to look in the bargain bin...seriously, we miss these guys.
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Nearly 10 years after her long-awaited return to recording in 2005, Vashti Bunyan is back with what is reported to be her final recording. To be expected, It's a delicate uber-gentle and pastoral affair with highly personal songs about life and family. Her soft dulcet voice creating beautiful folk lullabies that are lovely and oh so sweet, marked by warm atmospherics and lilting waves of sound. A longtime influential figure of British folk, Bunyan's quietude may not initially bowl you over, and indeed Heartleap is nearly the antithesis of the weathered pain of the other newly revived folk legend on this list, Alice Gerrard. But Bunyan's music has a way of sticking with you subtly over time and its long relaxed gaze into an unfettered way of life and beauty can be delightfully spellbinding and magical.
Also this is perfect for hip parents looking for music to play around newborns and young children (ahem, Allan!).
This beloved 1970 folk album is back on its original format... VINYL LP! Plus this reissue comes with a bonus 7"! Hurrah!
Here's what we said about the cd version:
We're pretty damn excited that this album is now available again. Inspiration for this turn of events must certainly have something to do with Ms Bunyan turning up on Devendra Banhart's recordings recently. Without a doubt Vashti Bunyan has played a big influence on the young Banhart's song writing, and fans of Devendra should definitely take note. This record is so incredibly charming! Having been expelled from a London art school in 1964 for not narrowing her field of studies to either music or painting, Vashti Bunyan took to singing her songs on the streets of London. She eventually left the city, hitching up a cart and horse to journey across the countryside, heading for the remote Outer Hebrides islands. It wasn't long before fans tracked her down to record an album. The album was released in 1970 and disappeared in relative obscurity -- only later being sought out fanatically by record collectors. Featuring accompaniment by such notables as Robin Williamson (fiddle, mandolin, Irish Harp) of The Incredible String Band and Simon Nicol (banjo) of Fairport Convention, Robert Kirby (string and recorder arrangements) who played with Nick Drake, Vashti Bunyan's music is an exquisitely delicate folk music with melodies reminiscent of hornpipes and shanties. Her clear voice is so full of innocence, and she sings so earnestly about her horse and the countryside full of hayfields and waiting for love and the simple rewards, like nice tea, that await after a long day's journey. It's so beautiful, it makes me want to dress in peasant garb (like Vashti on the cover) and forget all about the 21st century.
We can only listen to so much music in our lifetimes. That's a sad fact, one we all have to come to terms with. Or not. But if you're like us, and if you're reading this, you probably are, then much of your life is spent trying to do just that. Listen to as much amazing music as possible. And at some point, like us, you realize that your biggest fear about dying, is that there will be so much music you won't get to hear, well then, that's when you up your game, and decide to make every moment count, and listen to music ALL THE TIME. But even then, there's only so much time in the day, and the night, and you have to eat, and work, and maybe watch TV, hang out with your significant other, and yeah, most of that stuff you can do WHILE you listen to music, but odds are some music is gonna slip by you, no matter how insanely obsessive you are. So now, take the music you already own and want to listen to, and add to that a constant influx of new music to check out, which is what happens here, and while we LOVE that, so much amazing new music and so many fantastic discoveries, it really can end up being too much. We get overwhelmed, and well, we miss out on some stuff, which is exactly what happened with World, by Aussie shoegaze noise rockers the Bunyip Moon. We were cleaning up, and organizing, and going through boxes and drawers, and discovered this cd, and threw it on, and were immediately blown the fuck away. Struck by all sorts of feelings, feeling bad for taking so long to give it a listen, feeling like we COULD have been listening to this already for ages, but mostly feeling like we had to get this reviewed so all you folks out there could add one more amazing record to the stack of music already waiting to be listened to. But here's where we suggest you bump the Bunyip Moon to the front of the queue, cuz holy shit is this great.
And great in that way that makes what it sounds like actually pretty tough to describe. The vibe is sorts of nineties, shoegaze-y for sure, but with a bit of a gloomy feel, deep dramatic vocals buried in the mix to the point of being nearly inaudible, everything buried beneath super distorted and blown out, crumbling and hiss drenched fuzz and buzz and thrum, total blissed out heart-of-the-sun noise-gaze dreaminess, and the drums, wow, the drums are super distorted too, bursts of wild tribal rhythms that almost sounds like swarms of bees, each song a churning jangle flecked squall of noise drenched indie rock / noise rock, at times we hear Crystal Stilts, at times Loop, at others Bailter Space, even a little Dinosaur Jr., lots of NZ Flying Nun, at least the weirder, heavier stuff, and of course all the Australian bands we love, Celibate Rifles, the Scientists, Lubricated Goat, etc, but here those influences are blurred into something fuzzy and washed out and gloriously and blissfully noisy, this IS one of those records, where we're tempted to just have a single sentence review that says "BUY THIS! It's so great, it's all we want to listen to, it's fuzzy and poppy and noisy and psychedelic, and it's one of the best things we've heard in ages, and we've been listening to it non-stop to make up for all the time it languished unlistened to." And we definitely traffic in hyperbole in our reviews, but believe us that nothing in this review is hyperbolic, this band, and this record is so goddamn good, their sound is exactly what we want to listen to, it's the sort of band we wish we played in, it's damn near perfect, warm and fuzzy, noisy and dreamy, the production is bizarre, but bizarrely perfect, it's druggy and psychedelic, and seriously heavy, twisted and experimental, laced with loops and bizarre effects, for every bit of distorto crunch, there's some super melodic jangle, more often then not, the two mashed together, there are long stretches of brooding moodiness, extended hypno-rock epics, short bursts of furious noise pop, and sprawling near-Godspeed slow builds, and even some gloomy almost new wave, and it all sounds so goddamn good. If these guys had popped up on Slumberland they'd be HUGE right now. They should be, and if all is right in the universe, WILL be, cuz really, this is easily some of the best jangle pop / noise rock / shoegaze we've ever heard.
The second full length from Burd Early (aka James Angelos from New York)! The follow-up to last year's Magnet Mountain continues very much along the same lines. And that's fine with us! If you're fond of earthy, brooding and deeply personal Americana, this might be for you. The MM album drew more than a few comparisons to Smog, Silver Jews, and Dieselhed. This time around however, fans of Dirty Three, Giant Sand or Black Heart Procession might also be lured into the Burd Early den with its slow, somber songs like the violin-laden "Here We Go Again". So pretty.
Burd Early strikes us as being very Silver Jews-esque. Perhaps a bit Smog, Dieselhed, and Leonard Cohen-ish too. The liner notes offer precious little information on the mysterious figure who goes by the name Burd Early, and further investigation (i.e. a
Burd Early's third full length offers up more of his dusky somber twang, seeming slightly scaled back in lushness from his last album (the excellent Leveller), but certainly no less fine. His voice brings to mind a cross between the deep, beleaguered tones of Howe Gelb and the sensitive ache of Lou Barlow. That said (and as we've mentioned in our past BE reviews), if you dig M. Ward, Dieselhed, Smog, Mark Kozelek and/or Silver Jews, Burd Early might be for you too! At any rate, you should certainly check out the third song "Blackdot" as well as the one that follows it called "Undoing The Day". They're definitely two of the album's highlights. The latter is a bittersweet duet with Rosario Garicia-Montero.
The euro-pop sounds of composer / solo crooner Monsieur Bertand Burgalat pleases many ears around the globe. Swirling strings, funky guitar and basslines, playful keyboards, horns, woodwinds, swooning male and female choruses -- it's charming in oh so many ways, elaborate and suave but not without levity and wit. If we have any complaints about Portrait-Robot, it would be that when on occasion Burgalat opts for programmed drum beats (versus live acoustic ones) such as on the song "Ripples" they're a bit... well, clunkily robotic and too upfront in the mix. When you take into consideration the album's title, you wonder if maybe be that was his intention, but it's oddly jarring when you take in the rest of the carefully crafted and composed smooth operatin' affair. The album features 19 lounge-ready songs, plus 2 bonus tracks and a video for "Spring Isn't Fair".
Paying homage to French lounge pop maestro Bertrand Burgalat are such jaunty hipsters as April March, Louis Philippe, Etienne Charry, Mick Harvey, and Nick Cave. This is a compilation very much for the swoonsome, euro-cocktail set. Fans of such labels as Burgalat's own Tricatel or Le Magistery (home to Momus and Kahimi Karie), and of artists such as Air (who also contribute a track here), Pizzicato Five, and Charles Wilp...what are you waiting for? Ultra-stylish and playful music to spin in your swingin' space age pad.
We've said it before, we love when our friends make amazing music. The sort of music that transcends the bonds of friendship, that requires none of the obligation that usually accompanies 'friend rock', the sort of music that had you just discovered it, unaware of its provenance, you wouldn't think twice about proclaiming its virtues, blasting it on your iPod nonstop, or if you're us, raving about it on the New Arrivals list.
Burial Tree is the realization of several years of intense work, and is the project of aQ pal Monte and his wife Lauren, along with a few other contributors, and is a mysterious, drone rock epic, a blissed out and darkly brooding record of haunting heaviness and abstract moodiness. A collection of subtly crafted cinematic soundscapes, equal parts Barn Owl psychedelic drift, Neurosis riff heavy crush, Three Mile Pilot post rock lope, and various stops in between.
The record begins with a haunting solo cello rendition of Hank Williams' "Ramblin' Man', transformed into an achingly mournful lament, the perfect lead in to "Secret Arts", a sprawling stretch of minimal black ambience, a lush, layered expanse of layered low end, and softly pulsing synth swells, laced with bits of melody, and warn swirls of sonic sunlight, a slow shifting scene setter for the sounds to come. "The Mysterious Stranger" is a dark twang flecked bit of Earth-y post rock, the guitars spidery and minor key, the drums busy and intricate, the strings soaring and swirling, all over a bed of subtle synth shimmer, eventually big riffs swoop in, and things get a bit metallic, with some killer stop/start dynamics, rife with synth squiggles and spaced out FX. A driving, hypnotic, subtly proggy, spaced out dirge rock, that shifts from dense distorted crunch to minimal lope and back again. And it's during those loping minimal bits that the sound reminds us of vintage Three Mile Pilot, the thick bass suspended over deep swirling space, paranoid and hauntingly ominous.
"The Bringer Of Light" mirrors the melodies from the song before it, making it feel like a sort of second movement, it's reverby contemplative drift sounding like some nineties slowcore combo via desert rockers Scenic, very evocative, barren landscapes, wide open skies, shadows moving slowly across the ground, here too, the strings do the heavy melodic lifting, while the drums and guitar weave a skeletal framework, sounding like something that wouldn't have been out of place on Thrill Jockey back in the day. The track builds to a swirling psychedelic climax, all pounding drums and swirling synths, before fading into another bit of smoldering dronemusic, a spacey effects heavy stretch of whirring Moogs and looped FX, blurred into gauzy bits of fragmented melody, and thick, softly undulating layers of washed out blackness.
"Conjuring Demons" is another post rocker that takes the spare bass heavy, spidery melodies of 3MP and weds them to some more arid spacious desert rock, another haunting excursion into abstract instrumental meander, the stings here adding color and texture, the main guitar riff memorable enough to stay lodged in your head, the drums eventually dropping off, leaving just the strings over a barely there bit of deep rumbling shimmer. The record finally winds down with the gorgeous title track, the cello played so lyrically, the melodies melancholy and mournful, wrapped around muted chiming melodies, and a strange distant insectoid buzz, a dark, emotional threnody, the sound of the sun disappearing beneath the horizon, the moon vanishing behind the clouds, the fire dying to embers in the hearth, the stars fading into the blackness of space. So nice.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. Each one hand numbered. And each one with a printed cover, and a screen printed insert, printed by a real live WIZARD!
Rituals is the second full-length from these aQ pals, local atmospheric psychedelic heavies Burial Tree, whose last album, Outer Dark, was a big hit around here, and thankfully, Rituals takes up right where Outer Dark left off, in fact if anything, it's a more fully realized disc, a killer concoction equal parts blackened atmospheric ambience, Neurosis like metallic heft, and psychedelic space rock heaviness! It opens with a sprawling expanse of sinister drones, and string laden low end smolder, building to an almost Nitsch like cacophony, shot through with subtle FX, the perfect lead in to "Black Magick Trance", which might be our favorite BT track yet, a driving thunderous psych jam, that's mathy, and proggy and seriously spaced out, and has the group more aligned with outfits like White Hills or the Heads, the same sort of endless shoegazing heart-of-the-sun Hawkwind style zoner jams, the band locked tight into a serious groove, over which the guitars writhe wildly, the song switching gears constantly, a churning math metal workout one second, a killer super dynamic, mathy stuttery start/stop, that leads into a dirgey breakdown, the whole thing laced with strings, and all sorts of swirling effects, the perfect final jam / closing number (which it was when BT played their first ever show recently).
The other three tracks here, while not nearly as bombastic, still offer up everything we've come to dig about these guys, a loping twang flecked Morricone-ish post rock, rife with swoonsome strings, and finished off with a super rocking near metallic outro, a warm washed out atmospheric organ driven dirge that blossoms into a classic almost doom metal heaviness, wreathed in shredding guitars and driven by some serious drum pound and some almost ELO like cello chug, and finally, a gorgeous, malevolent blackdrone combo, cavernous and caustic, a slow shift from soft shimmer to grim buzz, from drifting mesmer to grinding abject blackness. Awesome.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES, each one hand numbered. Nice packaging too with multiple color cardstock inserts.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
SUPER LIMITED single sided 12" of massive, hyperviolent, downtuned stoner doom sludge. Corrosive and sinister, slow and unbelievably brutal. We raved about the cd a few lists back, and this 12" does not disappoint. Cover art and etching on the non-playable side by Stephen O'Malley (Sunn 0))), Khanate, etc.). One original, and a blistering cover of Eyehategod's "White Nigger" with Brutal Truth's Kevin Sharp guesting on vocals.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Allan's D&D sensibilities were most pleased with the name and title of this new Jewelled Antler cd-r! Tunnels To Other Chambers is the debut of a new project from the JA camp, featuring the duo of Kerry McLaughlin (Franciscan Hobbies) and the ubiquitous Glenn Donaldson (FH, Thuja, Skygreen Leopards, The Ivytree, Teenage Panzerkorps, etc.). Guesting on a few tracks you'll also find Rob Reger (Thuja) and Christine Boepple (Skygreen Leopards Skyband). These guys do indeed have a knack for titles to match their evocative folk-psych-improv music. No review is really needed if we cite such track names as "Gallery Of Ancient Birds", "Ghosts In The Tunnel", "Moss Banjo" or "Vacation Route For Emperors". I mean, sounds good already, right? And it does for sure sound good if you're attuned to the sort of spacious, abstract sound-delving these folks do so well. It's wonderfully fragile, sleepy, and melodic. Droning harmonium, bowed strings...electronic detritus...plucked acoustic guitar...simple, ritual percussion...tinkling bells...and occasional frail whispery vocals. It's like listening in to some mellow krautrock being played on an Applachian back porch, or to monkish ceremonies from the lost Plateau of Leng, or perhaps a somnolent subterranean hobbit-hole jamboree. In other words, so nice!! Definitely get this is you like Jewelled Anter stuff like The Birdtree and Hala Strana. Also we could reference Espers, Amon Duul, Tower Recordings, Harvester, Algarnas Tradgrad, Siloah...
This is something we first encountered, and reviewed, back in 2001, when it was released as a (now out of print) spraypainted cd, credited simply to "Joshua", released by the label Feather One's Nest. Now so many years and years later, it has been reissued on vinyl, in an limited edition of 500. Yep, they don't have to go all the way back to the '70s to find obscure psych-folk wonders to reissue on wax!! Here's what we said about it the first time 'round:
Somewhere between the stumbling free-folk of the No Neck Blues Band, the dark strummed dreaminess of the Tower Recordings, the lush guitarscapes of Scott Tuma, and the sparse twang of Red Red Meat & Califone, falls Joshua Burkett. Laid back and dreamy and super relaxed (the liner notes say it was recorded when he wasn't swimming, or sleeping, or walking his dog), Joshua plays simple, repetitive guitar figures that loop and drone, seeming to go on forever (and you find yourself often wishing they would), with subtle horns and partially obscured melodies. Fuzzy and hazy and shimmering soundscapes of finger picked guitar and mumbled vocals, usually buried deep in the mix. The sound is druggy and hypnotic, tranced out and serene, slowly weaving between gorgeously simple instrumental parts, dark dissonance and purposeful tunelessness (a la Jandek). Features guests including Ben "Six Organs Of Admittance" Chasny, PG Six and somebody else from the Tower Recordings!
Smashed drum kits, blown bass amps, band and audience, drums and guitars, mic cords and stands, tables and chairs, all in a bloody, sweaty, writhing pit in the middle of the club. The return of the four headed hydra, Burmese, San Francisco's grind/noise/sludge behemoth. Cutting a swath of mayhemic brutality and entropic dissonance through the stale SF scene, Burmese make their table-tossing, audience-baiting, tantrum-throwing peers look like charm school graduates. Punk rock Gallants to Burmese's skull crushing, soul poisoning, ear shredding Goofus.
Now with an extra drummer and a renewed, dangerously unhealthy obsession with Whitehouse, Burmese have slowed things down a bit. Gone are the hyperspeed blast beats and in their place are midtempo dirges, stumbling drunkenly through nihilistic, grinding sludge, spewing bile and ultraviolence. Pounding militaristic beats demarcate vast expanses of throbbing feedback, guttural growls, tarpit washes of bowel loosening low-end and 16 rpm grindcore. Things do speed up occasionally into blurry bursts of static and skree, but even then, they eventually devolve back into some sort of primordial and glacial caveman stomp, all murky thud and swampy roar, thick and suffocating and massively heavy. This is some seriously scary shit. Grinding and pounding. Punishing and pummelling. Relentless and brutal.
MPEG Stream: "Ladykiller" [/audio/burmeseladykiller.m3u]
Finally! A new Burmese record. We've said it before, but it definitely bears repeating. Burmese might just be the best band in San Francisco, and one that not nearly enough folks have heard, or heck even heard OF. And Colony Collapse Disorder might just be their heaviest, tightest, grindiest, most expansive, and weirdly enough catchiest record yet. It's also the first to feature the new lineup, which still includes the two Mikes on bass and vocals, and one of the original Marks on drums, but now adds Weasel Walter and a guy called Tissue to the mix, and HOLEE SHIT. This is pummeling heaviness, grinding chaos, dense crushing metallic brutality, free form noise rock chaos. Hard to know what to call it really, all we know is it rules.
The sound seems to be less Whitehouse and more Crossed Out these days. The long stretches of high end drone and shrieking feedback have now seemingly been all tangled up with blasts of wild octopoidal (literally this time, not literally as in octopus, but literally as in 8 limbed!) drum damage, super distorted bass riffage, layer after layer of grit and grime and crust and filth and buzz, definitely harkening back to their first two tUMULt records, but just WAY, MORE.
Epic abstract sludge grind, blown out blasts of lightning fast crush, lurching stop start arrangements, insane throat shredding vocals that go from shriek to growl to gurgle even stopping briefly at weird croon. Burmese are just the thing for folks into stuff like Discordance Axis, Drop Dead, Melt Banana, the Locust and that sort of sound, who are up for something way more harsh and heavy and fucked up frightening. Baffling and brilliant and noisy and heavy as fuck. WAY recommended as always.
And as always, incredible packaging, released on Rock Is Hell, this is a beautiful full color picture disc, bees and flowers and honeycomb, housed in a spare printed thick sleeve, with a small envelope containing two very mysterious and obtuse inserts. And of course LIMITED TO ONLY 300 COPIES!!!!
